A new era is set to dawn for the Toronto Star and its publisher.

Just a day before the deal was supposed to close, an Ontario court has approved the takeover of Torstar by entrepreneurs Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivett.

The $60-million bid, submitted through Bitove and Rivetts company NordStar Capital, got the thumbs-up from Superior Court Justice Cory Gilmore following a brief fairness hearing last Thursday.

I find that the arrangement is fair and reasonable and should be approved by this court, said Gilmore in her decision released via email late Monday night.

Gilmore rejected arguments from competing bidder Canadian Modern Media Holdings that Torstars board had stopped negotiating with CMMH after receiving its first bid, which was subsequently topped by NordStars final offer of 74 cents per share.

After receipt of the initial bid from CMMH, Torstar urged CMMH to increase the cash component of its offer to above $0.72 per share. It chose not to do so. CMMH cannot now blame Torstar for its business decision not to increase the cash component of its offer at that critical point, Gilmore said.

CMMH now claims the process was not fair or transparent while having had every opportunity to present its best bid at a time when it would have had to have been considered.

Gilmore also said the fact 98.7 per cent of shareholders approved of the deal was important. The business judgment of security holders in determining their own interests is to be given great weight, she said.

The NordStar team said the deal is now expected to close on Wednesday or Thursday of this week, given the timing of Gilmores decision.

In a brief interview, Bitove said he and Rivett were gratified by the ruling.

Paul and I are extremely excited to get going with the Star team and to continue the digital transformation, and honouring Joseph Atkinsons principles and his progressive legacy, said Bitove.

In an email, CMMH team member Neil Selfe said his group is not giving up.

CMMH continues to believe that the proposed transaction as contemplated by the plan at $0.74 per share, is neither fair nor reasonable. As such, CMMH expects to immediately commence an appeal of todays decision and will seek a stay of Justice Gilmores decision, preventing the closing of the plan, pending the determination of the appeal, Selfe said.

Gilmores decision follows a lively one-hour hearing last Thursday where submissions were presented by NordStar, Torstar, CMMH, and a disgruntled minority shareholder.

During the hearing, Torstar lawyer Ryan Morris criticized Selfe and minority shareholder Patrick Collins, former publisher of the Torstar-owned Hamilton Spectator.

The objectors here are a bitter, failed bidder and a disgruntled former employee, Morris said, arguing that Gilmore should dismiss objections to the deal.

Last Tuesday, 98.7 per cent of Torstar shareholders voted in favour of the 74-cent-per-share bid from NordStar. According to a Torstar press release, 99.7 per cent of the votes by Class A shareholders were in favour of the deal, along with 98.1 per cent of Class B shareholders. Even among shareholders who hadnt signed lock-ups, support was strong, with 81.9 per cent voting in favour.

The day before the shareholders vote, the competing bid from CMMH was raised to 80 cents per share. CMMH had originally offered 72 cents per share, just over two weeks ago. On July 11, Torstar announced that Bitove and Rivett had raised their own 63-cent-per-share offer to 74 cents, and that the five-family voting trust which had controlled Torstars Class A shares, as well as Fairfax Financial, which had held 40 per cent of Torstars Class B shares, had signed hard lock-ups, guaranteeing their support for the NordStar bid.

CMMHs bid included technology executive brothers Matthew and Tyler Proud, as well as Selfe, a finance industry veteran.

According to court documents, Matthew Proud left his official role with CMMH during the bidding process because of the impending IPO of Dye and Durham, a legal software company where hes the CEO.

Bitove and Rivett have publicly vowed to maintain the Stars progressive values, including the Atkinson Principles, named for long-time Star publisher Joseph Atkinson.

They also dismissed suggestions from a member of the CMMH bid team that they were planning to sell the Star to Postmedia. Former Ontario finance minister Greg Sorbara  part of the CMMH team  has predicted that would be the case. Other observers have pointed to the fact NordStars bid is being financed by Canso Investment Counsel. Canso is Postmedias largest debt holder.

Let us be absolutely clear: The financing arrangements for the NordStar bid are not, in anyway whatsoever, connected directly or indirectly with any other media company, a NordStar spokesperson said in late May, after Cansos involvement became public.

While the source of CMMHs funding hasnt been named in any public documents, several sources have confirmed to the Star that the bid was funded by Albertas Canadian Western Bank.
City health officials are considering restricting gathering sizes, revising sports requirements, requiring masks in public spaces and even closing bars after a three-day surge of 165 new coronavirus cases in Lancaster County.

The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department is exploring what tightening of restrictions might be necessary to prevent a significant outbreak, said Scott Holmes, manager of the health department's Environmental Public Health Division.

"All options are on the table," Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird said during a news conference Tuesday.

The local health department reported 44 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, pushing the county's total to 2,226.

But what is concerning is the recent spike in cases and positivity rates for tests at close to 7% for a third straight week. The weekly positivity rate was at 3.1% at the end of June.

The overall positivity rate since testing began in Lancaster County is 6.6%.

Local health officials again warned of the spread of COVID-19 among younger age groups, including those who fraternize in large group settings, go to bars and don't wear face coverings.

Those in the 20-to-29 age group make up about 18.5% of Lancaster County's population but represent 57% of new cases in the last two weeks, Holmes said.

"We have many young adults who have returned to normal behavior," he said. "Unfortunately, we are not in normal times."

Local bar owners will receive letters restating social distancing guidelines in the coming week, and those who do not follow the ordinances can be shut down, officials said.

The current guidelines are part of Phase 3 of Gov. Pete Ricketts' reopening plan in Nebraska. Under those rules, bars and restaurants are allowed to operate at full capacity, but patrons are required to be seated and groups are limited to eight people.

Phase 3 rules allow indoor gatherings at 50% of capacity and 75% for outdoor gatherings. There are also stipulations for fitness centers, salons, barber shops and reception venues.

The recent spike in coronavirus cases is also a threat to students returning to schools in the fall, Gaylor Baird said.

Last week, even before the most recent spike in cases, city officials raised the risk of spread of COVID-19 in Lancaster County to high.

"We don't want Lincoln to become the next Miami or Houston or Phoenix," Gaylor Baird said.

As COVID-19 cases rise in Lincoln, Bryan Health officials said they are starting to see more people seeking tests and more people winding up in the hospital.

Bryan Medical Center CEO John Woodrich said Tuesday that the hospital system had nine hospitalized COVID-19 patients, eight of whom are from Lancaster County. That was up from only five, three of whom were from Lancaster County, on Monday.

Only one is on a ventilator, Woodrich said, and that person is the only one in intensive care.

Woodrich said Bryan is seeing more testing demand, although he said it has not maxed out its available testing slots at its drive-thru site, and people still generally can get an appointment the same day.

He added that Bryan also has seen the wait time for results come back down to an average of three to four days after it rose to a week or more.

"There are spaces available if (people) feel they need to get tested," he said.

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services reported an increase of 318 cases statewide Tuesday, the highest one-day growth since late May, bringing the state's total to 21,717, in addition to 286 deaths, two less than were reported Monday. The state also reports 16,205 recoveries.

Photos: Lincoln under the pandemic
As Congress wrangles with its stimulus bill, more troubling Covid-19 data and factoids come in, such as a sharp rise in child hospitalizations in Florida. And more and more, they reveal a widening class divide. Even though the Wall Street Journal published a story last week where employers whined that they were getting less productivity out of now far-flung workers (erm, and why should having them work at home say up to 30 miles from office be less efficient than outsourcing to India?), it does not appear that many major employers will be arm-twisting workers to come back to the office any time soon. In other words, protecting yourself from disease via employer-sponsored hunkering at home is increasingly a luxury of symbol manipulators and knowledge workers. The rest are largely not fully employed or are taking health risks to earn a living.

The latest major sighting is Googles announcement that it wont be asking employees to come back to its campuses prior to July 2021. The Wall Street Journal attributes this decision in large measure to uncertainty about schooling:

Google will keep its employees home until at least next July, making the search-engine giant the first major U.S. corporation to formalize such an extended timetable in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. [CEO] Mr. [Sundar] Pichai was swayed in part by sympathy for employees with families to plan for uncertain school years that may involve at-home instruction, depending on geography. It also frees staff to sign full-year leases elsewhere if they choose to move.

The comment about leases underscores a second issue: when Covid risk finally wanes, most employers will go back to the old normal. Execs feel more powerful and efficient when they manage by walking around and have in person meetings. And most people are extroverted and prefer being around people. But as we have said, that rollback looks to be a very long time coming. And business travel, will probably never revert to the old normal.

Needless to say, now that Google has thrown down a marker, other large companies have more license to follow suit.

Keeping highly paid workers at home, even in cities like New York City where Covid-19 risk has been tamed and mask-wearing discipline is high, does not bode well for the survival of restaurants and central-city small businesses. Again from the Journal:

In New York, fewer than one-tenth of Manhattan office workers are back to the workplace, a full month after the city gave businesses the green light to reoccupy buildings vacated in March. People are being rightfully careful, said William Rudin, chief executive of Rudin Management Co. and head of one of New Yorks most prominent real-estate families. In New York City, only 8% of the employees who work in downtown office buildings managed by office colossus CBRE Group Inc. have returned from sheltering in place from the pandemic. The figure, as of last week, was based on unique card-swipes at security turnstiles. CBRE manages 20 million square feet of space in Manhattan.

The Journal wrote a bit more than a month ago about corporate reopening plans. The 8% seems on par with the tone of a report roughly a month ago. Aside from traders, no one seemed eager to return, and many employers appeared at most to be allowing, rather than requiring, employees to turn up at the office.

The number of former commuters and the resulting dependence on public transportation is a major impediment for Manhattan. Most people Ive spoken to are reluctant to take the Metro North or the Path, yet Manhattan doesnt begin to have enough road or parking capacity to allow former train riders to drive in. Any city with a dense central business district is likely to have a less-acute version of this problem.

Needless to say, office blocks turned ghost towns are bad for commuter-business survival and very bad for tax revenues: sales taxes, income taxes, and yes, real estate taxes, since those big corporate tenants are withholding rental payments to force renegotiation of leases, and big commercial landlords in turn are quick to press for lower appraised values when their rent rolls take a hit. So if you think a municipal revenue crisis is underway, you aint seen nuthin yet.

Another slow moving train wreck is residential rent delinquencies:

This mind-blowing graph shows how much the USA is a failed state, and how capitalism has utterly cannibalized society. In many US states, nearly one-half of renter households are on the verge of being evicted because they can't pay rent. This is the terminal stage of capitalism pic.twitter.com/BJJBKZlduG  Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) July 28, 2020

Mind you, this is the sorry state of affairs with the PPP to keep small businesses from collapsing, and with the $600 a week unemployment supplement and the $1200 per adult payment to prop up incomes and spending. The second supplement package is still in play, but it is certain to be less generous to households, which means the rental delinquency picture will only get worse.

Some landlords will presumably accept lower rents, likely first on an interim basis (they will be anchored on their historical rent levels and in denial that the Covid-depressed market will persist for quite a while). But some are either out of money or will be in the next few months. What happens when we have a big uptick in homelessness? Even if eviction moratoriums are extended, expect them to be challenged, both formally, as an illegal taking and informally, by some landlords harassing tenants.

Nevertheless, this result does seem to show that political pressures are producing an outcome not inconsistent with the one Richard Murphy recommended: of having property owners take losses in order to preserve businesses and residents. Or to put it more simply, if rents cant be paid, they wont be paid.
Garmin's four-day service meltdown was caused by ransomware GPS device and services provider Garmin on Monday confirmed that the worldwide outage that took down the vast majority of its offerings for five days was caused by a ransomware attack. "Garmin Ltd. was the victim of a cyber attack that encrypted some of our systems on July 23, 2020," the company wrote in a Monday morning post.

Special thanks to readers who sent info on this one . . . Because we have the dumbest of watches, the story didn't resonate but this round-up offers a nice overview for those interested about the extent of the digital drama for a company with a great many local workers . . . Read more:
A 53-year-old Indian-origin man, who is suffering from delusional disorder, has pleaded guilty of killing his wife as he suspected her of having an extramarital affair, a media report said on Tuesday.

Krishnan Raju, a self-employed bus driver ferrying factory workers and tourists, married his wife Waithena Vaithena Samy when she was 17 and was "very possessive of her" throughout the relationship of 28 years, Channel News Asia reported. However, with time he started suspecting her of having an extramarital affair and often confronted her over the issue.

In November, 2016 Krishnan stabbed his wife at their house and fled to his brother's place in Johor Bahru in Peninsula Malaysia, the report said. Later it was the couple's daughter Melissa, who was out at her cousin's place for dinner, returned home and discovered her mother's naked body lying in a pool of blood.

Krishnan returned to Singapore the next day and surrendered himself to the police. During the medical examination, a psychiatrist with the Institute of Mental Health, examined Krishnan and found that he suffered from delusional disorder.

While Krishnan's wife had been allegedly having an affair, authorities found that Krishnan did not have any concrete evidence to conclude that his wife was unfaithful, the report said. The investigating authorities also found that Krishnan was in a state of acute alcohol intoxication at the time of the offence, an opinion that differs from the defence psychiatrist'.

As the case had become complex over the matter if Krishnan was under the influence of alcohol while committing the murder or not, authorities convened a Newton's hearing before reaching a decision on the sentencing. A Newton hearing or inquiry is where the two sides offer such conflicting evidence that a judge sitting alone (that is, without a jury) tries to ascertain which party is telling the truth.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Han Ming Kuang and Li Yihong asked for 12 years' jail, noting that Krishnan does not have previous convictions and that he was suffering from a mental disorder. Defence lawyer Kalidass Murugaiyan asked for not more than eight years' jail, pointing out that Krishnan's mental illness had a direct causal link to his offence.

He said the dominant sentencing principles should be rehabilitation and prevention, adding that Krishnan had agreed to go for treatment.
Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has announced the establishment of the Restaurants Business Group, a new organisation that will support the restaurant sector in Dubai by unifying voices of member companies.

The business group, operating as a non-profit body under the umbrella of Dubai Chamber, will serve common interests and tackle sector challenges through cooperation with relevant authorities in the emirate.

Joined by a wide variety of restaurant businesses in Dubai, the group provides a platform for member companies to share knowledge and make policy recommendations, with the aim of improving ease of doing business in sector.

During a recent virtual meeting, Mubarak Bin Fahad, Owner - The Tashas Group, was appointed as Chairman of the Restaurants Business Group. Founding Executive Committee members were selected, while the business group outlined its objectives and plans for 2020.

For his part, Hamad Buamim, President & CEO of Dubai Chamber, said the establishment of the business group comes at the right time as the business community deals with the impact of Covid-19. As restaurants re-open under new guidelines, the group will play an essential role in addressing common issues and helping industry players navigate new challenges and adjust to the new normal, he explained.

Buamim noted that the business group advances Dubai Chambers efforts to get business back on track and help companies prepare for the post-Covid recovery. He stressed the crucial role that business groups and councils play in driving sustainable growth and enhancing economic competitiveness, adding that Dubai Chamber is working closely with the Restaurant Business Group and other sector-focused business groups to support the development of business in Dubai, promote constructive dialogue and foster public-private sector cooperation.

Mubarak Bin Fahd, Chairman of the Dubai Restaurants Business Group, noted that in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, industry players are coming together to address common challenges, embracing innovation and creating new delivery platforms.

The Dubai Restaurants Business Group will help this cause, bringing the private and public sectors closer together to create a sustainable and even more positive future for the F&B industry in the city. Dubai is the leading food destination in the world, and I am proud to be part of this exciting phase in its development. Together we will not only get the industry back on track, but forge a new and exciting future, said Bin Fahd. - TradeArabia News Service
How Lashkar operatives planned on burning down the Secunderabad-Darbhanga Express

Why NIA arrested former Congress MLAs daughter-in-law in an Islamic State case

NIA charges 6 Jaish-e-Mohammad operatives in Nagrota infiltration case

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 28: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a chargesheet against 6 Jaish-e-Mohammad operatives in connection with the Nagrota infiltration transportation module case.

On January 31, a truck carrying Pakistani terrorists was stopped or checking at Nagrota.

The driver Sameer Ahmad Dar and his two associates, Asif Ahmad Malik and Sartaj Mantoo escaped. The heavily armed terrorists inside the truck opened fire, injuring one security personnel.

NIA arrests senior naxalite from Jharkhand

Following this, the police launched a search operation and this led to the killing of the three terrorists. A month later the NIA took over the probe and arrested three persons involved in this operation.

Investigation revealed that apart from their unsuccessful attempt in January 2020, this module had received a group of three Pakistani terrorists in December 2019 after they infiltrated into India from the International Border in Samba sector and ferried them to South Kashmir.

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

This module was in touch with Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad handlers and launch-pad commanders who used to send the location of freshly infiltrated terrorists and also share the code-words for receiving them to driver Sameer Ahmad Dar on secure messaging apps.

The three arrested terrorists were Over-Ground Workers (OGW's) of JeM and provided safe shelter, logistics and communication back-up for the infiltration and transit of the Pakistani terrorists. These OGW's also purchased 'phirans' for the infiltrated terrorists to make them look like Kashmiris and to help them hide their weapons.

PLFI extortion: NIA arrests key accused in Jharkhand

The arms and ammunition consisting of 2 AK-47 rifles, 1 AK-56, 2 AK-74's 1 M4 Carbine, 2 Glock pistols, 3 Chinese pistols, 35 grenades, 12 kg high-grade explosive, 3 Satellite phones, 6 wireless devices, 6 remote controls, 9 detonators and batteries brought by the Pakistani terrorists have been seized.
- The plane was carrying Senate majority leader Samuel Poghisio and other representatives

- Tanzania Foreign Affairs Minister Plamagamba said the team was forced to return mid-air due to bad weather

- Other guests who were expected at the funeral service included Zimbabwe Vice-President Kembo Mohadi who also delayed due to bad weather

A plane that was carrying President Uhuru's Kenyatta's representatives who were going for ex-president Benjamin Mkapa's farewell was forced to return to Nairobi over bad weather.

According to Tanzania Foreign Affairs Minister Palamagamba Kabudi, the team was returned mid-air at Monduli in Tanzania on Tuesday, July 28.

READ ALSO: My hubby remarried while I nursed wounds in hospital after accident that killed 21- Embu woman narrates

Tanzania Foreign Affairs Minister Palamagamba Kabudi when he addressed Kenyans at Bomas of Kenya during launch of the BBI. Photo: Citizen TV

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Kenyan newspapers review for July 28: Uhuru to meet Jubilee senators ahead of revenue vote

Speaking during Mkapa's farewell ceremony at Uhuru Stadium, Palamagamba said the plane had returned and was expected to land safely in Nairobi.

"We were expected to have with us the special envoy representing President Uhuru Kenyatta, Senator Samuel Losuron Poghisio, majority leader of the Kenyan Senate, but we have received information that his plane was forced to turn mid-air in Monduli," said the minister.

He said other guests who were expected to attend the ceremony included Zimbabwe Vice-President Kembo Mohadi who also delayed to reach Dar es Salaam due to bad weather.

The Kenyan envoy was led by Senate majority leader Samuel Poghisio. Photo: Daily Nation

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: GSU officers disperse Nairobi MCAs who stormed Speaker Elachi's office to eject her

However, there were speculations on social media that Uhuru's delegation may have been returned due to growing animosity between the two East African countries.

This was linked to the latest sentiments that were made by President Uhuru who asked Kenyans to stop comparing themselves with their neighbours when it comes to the containment of COVID-19.

Mkapa who died on Thursday, July 23, at age 81 had ruled Tanzania from 1995 to 2005 and is expected to be intered on Wednesday, July 29, at his home in Lupaso village of Masasi district in the Mtwara region.

His body had been lying at the stadium since Sunday for public viewing and will be transferred to Lupaso on Tuesday evening.

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
Tirupati, July 28 : A 32-year-old Russian woman, who was stranded in this temple town and separated from her mother, who is stuck in Uttar Pradesh, has started receiving help from various sources.

Help started pouring in for Ester on Tuesday after a Telugu television channel highlighted her pathetic story.

Ester, along with her 70-year-old mother Olivia, had landed in India on February 6 with a plan to visit all ISKCON temples across the country. They eventually wanted to settle down in India by offering physiotherapy services to people.

However, the Covid-19 induced lockdown left them stranded in the country with no job and a little money in hand. After relaxation of lockdown norms, the duo reached Tirupati from West Bengal on June 17.

They wanted to visit the Tirumala temple but could not do so due to the decision of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) not to allow foreigners to have 'darshan' in view of Covid-19 pandemic.

Olivia last month asked her daughter to stay back in Tirupati and left for Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh. Since more Russians visit Vrindavan, she was hoping to get some help but she did not get any assistance to the Covid situation and got stuck there.

Separated from mother and with no money in hand, Ester was facing severe hardships in Tirupati. She was not even able to communicate her problems to others because of language problem. A guest house owner provided her with shelter. She broke down while narrating the hardships she and mother faced over the last four months. "This is the first time I am taking help from anybody. We wanted to make a living by providing physiotherapy services but have landed in this situation," said Ester.

Meanwhile, help is pouring in for Ester with public representatives and philanthropists coming forward to donate money.

Andhra Pradesh officials were gathering details about Ester and mother to help them. Tirupati MLA B. Karunakar Reddy sent Rs 10,000 to Ester and promised all help to unite her with her mother and later send them back to their country.

On the direction of Vice President Venkaiah Naidu's daughter Deepa Venkat, state BJP General Secretary Bhanu Prakash Reddy met Ester and assured her of all support. He said the Russians want to stay back in India.

A travel firm assured air tickets to Ester and her mother to return to their country while an infrastructure company provided an assistance of Rs 25,000.

Actor Sonu Sood, who has been helping many people in distress, sought details of the Russian when someone through a tweet drew his attention to the problems faced by Ester.




Video by Lee Min-young, Kim Kang-min



Renault Samsung Motors has been suffering faltering sales throughout this year due to the coronavirus outbreak.



And to revive sales, this time Renault Samsung Motors has rolled out a real head-turner.



Four years ago, the automaker released its first SM6 sedan model also known as the Talisman. And this year, Renault has produced a new, more sophisticated SM6 with a high-tech makeover.



The Korea Times went to test drive this new model on a racetrack at the Inje Speedium and on a winding course in the mountain roads of Gangwon Province.




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Billionaire businessman, Captain Hosa Okunbo has, for the umpteenth time, distanced himself from any business dealings with former minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke.

Captain Okunbo was reacting to allegations doing the rounds in the media about his purported business dealings with the former minister, especially in respect of the controversial offshore processing agreements (OPAs) popularly known as oil swap involving the former minister and her cronies.

Captain Okunbo is the chairman of Ocean Marine Solution (OMS), an offshore asset protection company, rendering services to major oil companies in Nigeria, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The former minister had been under investigations since the outset of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2015 as the US Department of Justice listed her and two other businessmen, Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore, as persons of interest in a civil complaint filed at a District Court in Houston, Texas.

The civil complaint detailed how the duo laundered millions of dollars on her behalf which were used in buying property in the U.S. and the UK in return for oil contracts.

There were reports that more names involved in the multi-billion dollar deal would be revealed as investigations continued.

However, some online media outfits had been concocting names of prominent Nigerians purportedly involved in the deal including that of Capt. Hosa Okunbo.

Despite his several rebuttals, his name still keeps coming up in a case he said he had no hand in.

But refuting the allegations, Captain Okunbo said, All the co-travellers of Diezani are either in exile or in court with her. I have never written a statement in the EFCC or any anti-corruption agency to date.

If, indeed, I was with Dieziani, will I still be doing business in the NNPC where I am a champion for service delivery?

He traced the root of the misinformation to a report published by an online news medium in 2015, to which he said he similarly issued a strongly-worded rebuttal.

I had believed that the media would end such malicious reports but sheer laziness and unprofessionalism on the side of some bloggers have sustained the misrepresentation of the contract that formed the basis for the first publication, he stated.

According to him, the falsehood was being assisted with the ubiquity and freedom of social media and that it had become increasingly clear that maintaining silence further would be misconstrued for consent.

Capt. Okunbo averred that neither any of his business entities nor himself had ever been engaged in any deal requiring lifting the tiniest drop of oil, crude or refined. I am not a trader; I have never submitted nor participated in any Oil Swap deal, neither do I own a company trading in any petroleum products.

He further stated: In my over four decades in business, spanning engineering and technology, energy, integrated service in the petroleum sector, maritime, security, agriculture and others, integrity has been my guiding principle and a core value with which I have been able to earn trust and confidence of companies and corporations of global repute.

I have never stood before any administrative, judicial or legislative panels to answer any questions related to any shady deal.

I have conducted my businesses with utmost openness, honesty and integrity. I am not oblivious of the fact that not a few people look up to me as a role model; the least I can do is to exhibit exemplary leadership quality to this group of young Nigerians, many of whom interact with me on a regular basis.

He challenged anyone, whether in the NNPC, the media or anywhere else, to come forward with any evidence that could puncture his assertions.

I implore cowards and mischief makers who are quick to broadcast unverified Whatsapp messages and the Nigerian media to be thorough, fair and objective in their journalisticresponsibility, he stated.

Captain Okunbo is a globally-certified Ambassador of Peace who has been decorated home and abroad as a Citizen of Humanity.

Through his businesses, which have added immeasurable value to the Nigerian economy and philanthropy, Capt Okunbo makes history every hour and industriously adds page after page, volume after volume, as if nature were holding up a monument to his exploits.

One of the few blessed men who started from the scratch, kept their nose to the grindstone and turned seemingly insignificant ideas into behemoth industries, Capt Okunbo is a man that would be sent to Mars and still treat it as a stepping stone to Saturn  the quality of constant invention and self-improvement that has earned him worldwide acclaim and prosperity.

He exudes the lustre of the proverbial leading light, thus distinguishing his persona amid a range of middling men.

He radiates compassion, ardour and acclaim that no lifes odd could tame.

Having hacked his path to affluence in honest, industrious strides, he spreads out like a bastion of human aspiration even as his exploits become objects of the world affection.

Everywhere he navigates, he exudes a spirit of humaneness and generosity that even the worlds finest and most daring philanthropists live in awe of.

He was, in 2019, bestowed with the prestigious Order of Lafayette award at the United Nations day for Global Peace.

The Order of Lafayette is a patriotic, hereditary, nonpartisan, and fraternal organisation established in New York City in 1958 by Colonel Hamilton Fish III (1888-1991), a former Congressman from New York and decorated veteran of the First World War.

Captain Okunbo was especially honoured for his distinguished role in encouraging, engendering and entrenching peace and harmony in Africa and the world at large.

He was presented with his award by His Excellency, Robert Blum, chairman of the Order of Lafayette Awards.

Present at the auspicious and exclusive awards presentation were diplomats and political and economic leaders from all over the world who had all come to celebrate with one of their own.
Dieppe, New Brunswick--(Newsfile Corp. - July 28, 2020) - Colibri Resource Corporation (TSXV: CBI) ("Colibri" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has received notice from its partner, Silver Spruce Resources (TSX-V:SSE) that Phase 1 ground exploration program on the El Mezquite Gold Project will commence during the first week of August 2020. Silver Spruce recently signed a binding Option Agreement with Colibri to acquire 50% interest in its wholly owned Mexican subsidiary, Yaque Minerales S.A de C.V. ("Yaque"), which holds the El Mezquite Gold project ("the Property"), a precious metal project located 10 km northwest of the town of Tepoca, and 170 km southeast of the capital city of Hermosillo, eastern Sonora, Mexico.

The Property is very well situated in terms of logistics for exploration and is located only twelve kilometres northeast of the Nicho deposit currently under mine development by Minera Alamos. The 180-hectare Property is easily accessible from Highway #16 via a southerly-trending unpaved road which traverses through the centre of the known gold mineralization. High voltage power lines are positioned along Highway #16.

Exploration in the surrounding area is highly active with adjacent and nearby properties held by Evrim, Newmont, Garibaldi, Kootenay Silver and Penoles. Other nearby large operating mines include Alamos Gold's Los Mulatos gold mine and Agnico Eagle's La India gold mine located 50 and 58 km to the northeast, respectively, Agnico's Pinos Altos Mine, 100 km southeast and Argonaut's La Colorada Mine, 100 km west.

Phase 1 Exploration Program

Silver Spruce has arranged a four-person team with two senior geologists and two samplers, with all necessary logistical support, to undertake a detailed ground exploration program which was recommended in part by the independent 43-101 report on the property, The program will include geological mapping of the entire property and rock sampling for precious metal assays and determination of alteration type and intensity and using the Terraspec hyperspectral tool for the definition of the silicate, carbonate and hydrous oxide minerals. The mapping also will document structural observations which will be correlated with known structural and geophysical trends in the compiled data set. Data compilation, interpretation, and modelling will include analysis of geologic structures and lineaments from the February 2020 ortho-mosaic photography and acquisition and evaluation of ASTER imaging maps for spatial alteration and rock type distribution, The surface exploration program and data compilation will provide the basis for planning the first exploration drill campaign on the property.

Story continues

The Phase 1 work program will include a QA/QC program with standards, blanks, and duplicates to accompany the in-house programs at the selected commercial assay laboratory. All aspects of the exploration program will be conducted with strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols for personal safety. Concurrently with execution of the Phase 1 field program, Silver Spruce will initiate scheduling for the requisite environmental permitting for drill access and pad building.

Geology and Exploration

Exploration work carried out between 2010 and 2019 consisted primarily of rock chip sampling and surface prospecting of numerous altered exposures and historical artisanal workings with 2011 geophysical surveys conducted on the eastern portion of the Property. To date, there has been no detailed geological mapping or drilling on the project.

The El Mezquite Project is located within the west-central portion of the Sierra Madre Occidental Volcanic Complex within the prominent northwest-trending "Sonora Gold Belt" of northern Mexico and parallel to the well-known, precious metals-rich Mojave-Sonora Megashear.

The mineralization in the region commonly consists of disseminated gold hosted in strongly argillized and moderately silicified andesite rocks, typical to the Sierra Madre geological model of the principal deposits. The gold and silver mineralization appears to be related to a silicified feldspar porphyry, which outcrops along the southern bank in the bottom of the largest arroyo. Rhyolite breccias and multi-phase breccia veins are also noted.

Two surface rock chip sampling campaigns were completed during 2010 and 2014, totaling 321 samples. An additional 12 independent verification samples were collected in October 2015. Another 25 surface samples were collected in 2019 by Colibri Resources. A second Property visit for the independent 43-101 report (October 2019) verified that no other significant exploration activities have been conducted in the area since 2015. Past prospecting and rock sampling focused principally on the central target area with limited sampling on the remainder of the El Mezquite property as shown in Figure 1.

Assay results from 362 rock chip samples indicate that 22 of the samples report values of gold >0.5 g/t, averaging 1.35 g/t Au and 54.4 g/t Ag. These samples are distributed along an area that extends for 600 metres in a north-south direction and 300 metres E-W. The highest values of gold and silver reported are 3.41 g/t Au and 198 g/t Ag. The most recent surface sampling campaign in 2019 confirmed the anomalous values, with precious metal values ranging up to 1.63 g/t Au and 155 g/t Ag.

El Mezquite hosts historical artisanal mining in highly altered and oxidized andesites, rhyolitic breccias and veins, that are coincident with IP chargeability anomalies, and discrete geochemical and structural trends containing broad areas of elevated precious metal values to 3.41 g/t Au and 198 g/t Ag.





Figure 1. - Rock Samples at El Mezquite

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4269/60635_b4d68bb4342baa69_001full.jpg

About Colibri Resource Corporation:

Colibri is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company listed on the TSX-V (CBI) focused on acquiring and exploring properties in Mexico. The Company currently has five active exploration properties at various stages of exploration. Three of these projects Pilar, El Mezquite, and Pitaya are currently subject to joint venture or earn agreements to arms length parties.

For more information about all Company projects please visit: www.colibriresource.com.

We seek safe harbour.

For further information: Ronald J. Goguen, President, Chairperson and Director, Tel:(506) 383-4274, rongoguen@colibriresource.com

The TSX Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/60635
EAST HAVEN  Families will be encouraged and welcome to walk or drive their children to and from school rather than use the buses under the new school reopening plan the East Haven school administration recently completed.

Providing transportation to schools is part of a legal mandate, however, which requires all students to have access to education and school.

The plan follows state mandates and provides three different options depending on how things play out between now and the start of school.

It offers a scenario giving students the option to return to school in person, a hybrid scenario with students physically in school two days a week and doing at-home learning the other three days, and a scenario continuing 100 percent distance learning.

The district will be prepared to pivot depending on the states COVID-19 situation at the time, officials said. The Board of Education is expected to vote on the plan, but it already has been presented to the state.

EHPS will be prepared to reopen schools for in-school learning for all students every day in August under Model 1 below, Superintendent of Schools Erica Forti wrote in submitting the plan.

However, we will also be prepared to adjust and respond to the varying health needs of our community and staff by transitioning into hybrid or full distance learning as suggested in Model 2 and Model 3 below based on the spread of the virus and input from local and state health officials, Forti said.

Please remember every family has the right to choose online if they feel that is best option for their personal circumstances, Board of Education Chairwoman Michele DeLucia said over the weekend in a Facebook post.

However, at this time, Connecticut state law requires that access to public school class be offered to students for 180 days and 900 hours, unless the district avails itself of the recent Connecticut State Board of Education waiver for three additional planning and training days, to hold school for a total of 177 days, DeLucia said.

Any plan submitted to the Connecticut State Department of Education on July 24, 2020 that does not include a full reopening option as one of the three models, where all public school students have the opportunity to access school in-person 5 days a week, will not be in compliance with current state law regarding the number of school days, or the expectations of State leadership, DeLucia wrote.

Keep in mind it is possible this can change as early as next week, she said. We are experiencing an unprecedented time in education and appreciate your understanding and patience. We are trying to get information out as we receive guidance from the state.

In presenting the plan, Forti said, Since closing our doors in March, we have all worked together to navigate the uncertainty and challenges posed by an unprecedented global health crisis. Together, weve managed to continue educating our children, providing daily healthy meals, and adjusting to new ways of communicating, while reinventing the teaching and learning process.

Over the past several weeks, East Haven Public Schools has been collecting and analyzing feedback from parents, staff, and community members in an effort to form a plan to ensure, to the extent possible, that students and staff would feel safe returning to school, and parents would feel reassured about their childrens safety and health in their return to school.

Its a plan grounded in the principles of compassionate classrooms and healthy school communities, with an emphasis on safety and health, clear communication, and strong relationships, Forti wrote.

We recognize this is a uniquely stressful time for all of you, she said. It is our hope that this plan answers some of your concerns and we can now begin to shape the specifics of the plan into each of our school settings. We will continue to provide you with regular updates as we move closer to the start of the school year.

The three potential plans (per the district) are:

Minimal Spread: Model 1 - In School Learning: This model is the current expectation of the state Department of Education should there be minimal or no increase in the spread of the virus by late August. This model includes bringing back all students and staff to schools every day with required health and safety protocols in place. The district will have remote learning plans in place to support families who do not physically send students back to school under this model.

Moderate Spread: Model 2  Hybrid Learning: This model may be implemented should the district experiences a moderate increase in the spread of the virus. In this model, daily in school student attendance would be reduced to 50 percent. Students would attend school on an alternating schedule with virtual learning taking place on the days they are not in school. This model will require additional health and safety protocols to be put in place. Special consideration may be given to students with disabilities and English Language Learners to have access to in-person instruction.

High Spread: Model 3  Full Distance Learning: This model will be implemented if the district experiences a widespread increase in the transmission levels of COVID-19. In this model schools will be closed and all learning will occur from home using the districts outlined virtual learning model. This model may include a staff only reporting structure if the health guidelines allows it.

mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.com
On Thursday, the NASA Perseverance Rover is set to bring back a meteorite from Mars back to the Red Planet. The robot will carry the Martian meteorite which has for so long been kept at the NHM or Natural History Museum in the UK. The meteorite is being brought back because its properties are intended to be used as the calibration target for benchmarking rover instruments. This will enable scientists to have greater confidence in the discoveries that the robot could make.





The Origins of the Rock

NHM Earth Sciences Collections head and Perseverance science team member Caroline Smith says that the rock formed roughly 450 million years in the past. It was blasted out of Mars from a comet or asteroid impact around 600,000 to 700,000 years in the past. Then, it made its way to our planet probably 1,000 years in the past. Now, it's being brought back to its home.

The meteorite was discovered in 1999 in a desert in Oman. It was named SaU 008, which is short for Sayh al Uhaymir 008 and is an igneous basalt rock that is similar to those found at Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway. It contains abundant amounts of minerals like feldspar, pyroxene, and olivine minerals. Its well-known chemistry and composition, plus its textures, make it very useful for the Perseverance rover.

READ: Surprising New Evidence Shows Venus Has Active Volcanoes





The Meteorite's Role in Perseverance's Mission

SaU 008 will be used by the rover as a calibration target. It is housed in front of Perseverance together with nine other kinds of materials. It will be occasionally scanned by Sherloc or the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals instruments. This tool contains two laser spectroscopes and two imagers designed to investigate the geological characteristics of Perseverance's landing site, Jezero, which is a crater 40 kilometers wide.

According to satellite images, the crater could have been a lake, which scientists think could be among the best places on the Red Planet that may harbor find evidence of microbial life in the past.

READ ALSO: NASA Issues Two Updated Guidelines to Prevent Contamination of the Moon and Mars by Humans

Perseverance's Mission

It is especially important if the Perseverance rover comes across anything that might hint of the occurrence of life on Mars in the past. It is one of this mission's grand quests.

The Sherloc will analyze the soil and rocks and look for signs of ancient life. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Luther Beegle, who is the Sherloc principal investigator, says that the best they can do is identify a potential biological signature, although they can never really be 100% sure, which is the reason that returning Perseverance is very important.

Perseverance will pack rock samples in small tubes which will be left on Mars' surface, to be retrieved and returned to Earth by future missions. Smith says the material may be brought back after 10 to 15 years.

She is part of an international panel that decides how to handle the alien rocks. She says they will have a good plan by next year regarding the building and processes they will have for studying them. The researchers will more likely confirm Martian life if they will be able to use more tools than are carried by Perseverance.

READ NEXT: The United Arab Emirates Launches First Mars Mission
The dispute settlement body of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on July 29 will consider the requests of Chinese Taipei and Japan for setting up panels in a case against customs duties imposed on ICT products by India.

According to a communication of the WTO, both Chinese Taipei and Japan have filed separate requests for establishment of a dispute panel against India's customs duties on imports of certain information and communications technology (ICT) products.

India earlier had blocked the first requests of these two countries for setting up a dispute settlement panel at the WTO. According to the trade dispute norms of the WTO, if these countries would come with their requests for a second time, the panel will be set up in the case.

In May last year, both the countries filed a case against India in the WTO over the import duties imposed on certain electronic goods, including telephones for cellular networks; machines for reception, conversion and transmission or regeneration of voice, images or other data; and parts of telephone sets.

They have alleged that imposition of import duties on these products by India infringes WTO norms as India has committed zero per cent bound tariffs on these products. India has strongly opposed these allegations. While bound tariffs or duties refer to the ceiling over which a WTO member country cannot impose import duty, the applied tariff is the duty which is currently in place.

India has stated that these ICT products are part of WTO's Information Technology Products (ITA-2) agreement, and New Delhi is not part of this pact. India is a part of ITA-1, signed in 1997, in which it did not contain any obligation to eliminate customs duties on these products.

According to the minutes of the meeting of the dispute settlement body, which was held in February and March, India had stated that it was fully committed to its ITA-1 commitment and had been abiding by it over the years.

India wished to reiterate that it had not intended to commit, and would not commit, to any obligations beyond the scope of India's ITA-1 commitment and it has maintained that the products arising out of technological progression could not be covered by ITA-1, the minutes had said.

A WTO member country can file a dispute if it perceives that another country's trade policies or actions are violating global trade norms and impacting their local industry.

According to the global trade rules, seeking consultation is the first step of the dispute settlement process. If the bilateral consultations do not result in a satisfactory solution, the complainant can request the WTO to set up a dispute panel to pass a ruling on the matter.

In this case, as consultations have not yielded positive results, Japan and Chinese Taipei had approached the WTO to set up the panel. Even after establishment of a panel, it would take about 1-1.5 years to come with the ruling.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the passing of the ruling may take more time. Even if the panel would rule against India, New Delhi can challenge that in the WTO's appellate body, which is not functional since December last year.
The spotlight has been on our prime minister and his ties to WE Charity, but its becoming increasingly clear that problems with the Canada Student Service Grant go beyond any potential breach of government ethics.

Indeed, the CSSG completely fails  and even insults  the students it is meant to be helping.

The program was first introduced in April as a way to staff charities responding to COVID-19, while also giving students a financial boost. Students would volunteer with the charities in exchange for about $10 an hour compensation, $4 less than Ontarios minimum wage.

The CSSG was not laid out until June 25 and, under the limitations of the program, students are only able to count the hours theyve completed while placed with a charity.

According to the CBC, no students have started their placements as of July 23.

Students have been volunteering since the grant was first announced in April, and under the process the government has laid out, those hours wont even count. Now, the CSSG will probably run from August to October, when most students have already returned to classes and dont have time to take on additional work.

In short, the CSSG is not the summer-job replacement it was introduced as, and even though it doesnt work for most students, the government is still desperately trying to push it out in an effort to save face.

For the most part, this money will probably not be going to the students who need it most. Most of the low-income students I know jumped to take minimum-wage frontline jobs in grocery stores as they became understaffed. Ultimately, this money will be going to students who had the luxury of staying home during the worst of the pandemic and can afford to make less than minimum wage.

But none of this gets to the real heart of the matter: the simple fact that volunteer work, by its very nature, should be unpaid. Its an insult to students and the work theyre doing to act as though theyll only help their communities if they are paid  most students volunteering right now are doing so because they care.

I have volunteered for a student-run non-profit since my exams ended in mid-April, sewing masks. The students I work with have so much dedication and faith that they are making a small difference in a big problem. Money has no place in that.

If the government determined students need more financial support, which many do, they should up the Canada Emergency Student Benefit from $1,250 to better reflect a living wage, and if they need more workers to help out with the crisis, they should pay them minimum wage.

Every little bit helps, and its great that students have a variety of financial supports available to them, from the CESB to additional bursaries and scholarships provided by their universities. However, the CSSG is nothing more than a performative farce of providing aid for students.

Hope Mahood is the co-ordinating editor of news and opinions for the Western Gazette.
Left-leaning, liberal-media are placing much focus and emphasis on the coronavirus regarding two particular statesFlorida and Texas.

Here are the facts, according to the CDC website:

In the last seven days (data taken from 07/23/20), Florida has reported 77,044 new cases, and Texas has reported 69,253 new cases of COVID-19.

On the surface, this seems newsworthy. It sounds like these two states are in dire straits, but the devil is in the details.

It is reported by the CDC that Florida and Texas actually have a lower concentration of the virus when compared to many other states. That is, though there are many reported cases, there are fewer virus-cases per 100,000 people in Florida and Texas. The CDC numbers report that Florida has 1,760.2 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people. There are actually four states with a higher concentration of COVID-19 cases than Florida. As for Texas, it has 1,225.1 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people. There are 19 states/D.C. with a higher concentration of COVID-19 cases than Texas!

To understand what this lower concentration means, consider Texas. If there was a group 100,000 people in Texas, 1,225.1 of them are infected with COVID-19. Compare this to a state with a higher concentration of infection, than Texas such as Louisiana. Louisianas rate of COVID19 concentration is reported by the CDC to be 2181.3 per 100,000 people, almost twice as high as Texas. It is obvious that the COVID19 virus spreads when those infected are near others who are not infected, hence the need for social distancing. Based on the numbers, if the concentrations of the virus are lower in Texas than in other states, such as Louisiana, then there is less opportunity for infected individuals to be around uninfected individuals. Put simply, the virus is more prevalent in many others states that it is in Texas and Florida.

This lower prevalence may be being reflected in the number of deaths occurring in Florida and Texas. Again, referring to CDC numbers, there are seven states/D.C. with total deaths higher than Florida, and there are nine states with total death rates higher than Texas. Therefore, when compared to 16 others states and D.C., Florida and Texas are not as bad off as the left-media presents them as being. Left-media seems eager to disregard the lower concentrations of COVID=19, and the lower death rates, that emerge in Florida and Texas when compared to 16 other states. This is relevant to the 2020 presidential election.

To win the presidency in the United States a candidate needs 270 electoral votes. Florida has 29 electoral votes and Texas has 38. Obviously, thats a total of 67, or 12.5% of the electoral vote coming from just those two states. Add to this the fact that California has 55 electoral votes, and this makes California, Texas, and Florida the three states with the greatest number of electoral votes. Those three states have a combined total of 122 electoral votes, or almost 1/2 (45.2%) of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

As reported by the website 270 to Win, California has given its 55 electoral votes to the Democrat presidential candidate in the last seven presidential elections. This same website credits California as a reliably Democratic State citing the influx of the Latino population. If the last seven presidential elections are an indicator of what California will do in 2020, then it would stand to reason that in the 2020 presidential election California will again cast its electoral votes for the democratic candidate. That would mean 55 electoral votes going to a Democrat and gained from only one state. No other state has that many electoral votes to castnot even close.

Florida and Texas combined have more than 55 electoral votes. Moreover, the 270 to Win website reports that in the last 7 presidential elections, Florida cast its 29 electoral votes for democratic presidential candidates 3 times, and for the republican presidential candidates 4 times. It seems very likely that in 2020 Florida could go either wayeither democrat or republican. Texas seems to present an even greater threat to democrats. In the last seven presidential elections, Texas has cast its 38 electoral votes for the Republican presidential candidate each time7 out of 7. This means that with California being predicted as a sure thing for democrats, Florida and Texas are key states that could decide the election.

Left-leaning media knows that Florida and Texas need to be won by Democrats if Democrats hope to gain control of the country, and this same media is scared. They are working diligently for the Democratic Party. One only needs to watch left-leaning, liberal media (e.g., CNN) to realize that the left works hard to discredit President Trump. Some individuals, such as Mark Levin, have made strong cases supporting the idea that left-media not only works to sabotage the republicans and support the democrats, but also that such actions by the left-media are calculated and deliberate.

CNN reported in an online article dated July 7, 2020, Cases are skyrocketing in Florida, Texas and ArizonaSkyrocketing! Another CNN online article dated July 7, 2020 stated, 56 Florida Hospital ICUs have Hit Capacity. On July 13, 2020 CNNs online article stated, Florida has More COVID-19 than Most Countries in the World. Wow! If I hadnt been reading and watching the other side of the story coming from right-media, and doing my research with the CDC, I might begin to believe that President Trump was losing control, letting the U.S. suffer, and we are all doomed!

We dont see left-leaning, liberal media outlets publishing articles with headlines reading, TexasLower Concentration of COVID-19 Infections than 19 other States or Seven States/Territories with higher COVID19 Death Rates than Florida. Headlines like these might indicate that Trump is handling the COVID=19 Crisis adequately. CNN and their Mr./Ms. Potato Head Common-tators (pun intended), reporters, editors, and writers are not working to educate the U.S. population with neutral, unbiased information about Florida and Texas, the two key states in the 2020 presidential election. However, they are working to campaign for the left, for the Democrats. They are working to push a non-Trump, non-Republican, pro-panic agenda, and they are doing it to sabotage President Trump and the Republican Party. They are terrified of the prospect of 4 more years of Trump, and they are doing their damndest to create headlines and articles to suggest that our president is failing the country, and therefore needs to be replaced with left-thinking democrats and their left-thinking socialist ideologies.

John R. Anderson is a Licensed Mental Heath Counselor.

Image credit: Josh Hallett, via Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0
Colm O'Donnell, of the INHFA chairman at a previous protest in Castlebar, Co Mayo. Photo: Michael McLaughlin

Calls by the Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) for the removal of livestock from commonages on the Nephin Mountains and Owenduff areas of north Mayo have sparked a furious row between environmentalists and farmers.

The environmental body said overgrazing of protected lands had been identified as a major problem in these areas and had contributed to a collapse in golden plover numbers.

"Emergency measures are now required after decades of 'conservation' failure. Grazing livestock must be removed from these peatlands and active restoration measures initiated," the IWT stated.

Citing a recent National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) study of Nephin and Owenduff, IWT claimed that 97pc of the vegetation in some areas was assessed as damaged by grazing, while the golden plover numbers had fallen by 37.5pc in 13 years.

However, the Irish Natura And Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) rejected any suggestion that farmers were to blame for the difficulties highlighted by the study.

Peatlands

INHFA president, Colm O'Donnell, pointed out that sheep numbers on these hills and peatlands have been significantly reduced over the last 20 years as a result of destocking.

Mr O'Donnell claimed that any deterioration in the quality of protected habitats was due to the NPWS's failure to put management plans in place for these sites.

"If the IWT and other environmentalists need to blame someone for the regression outlined by the NPWS then they should focus their ire on the NPWS because it is the NPWS who didn't, and still haven't, put any management plans in place for these sites," Mr O'Donnell said.

"It was the role of the NPWS to work with farmers and provide them with advice based on scientific fact.

"It was also the duty of the NPWS as a state body to ensure farmers were not at a financial loss as they worked through the burden of their restrictions.

"They did none of this and still get a free pass while the IWT and others dump on farmers - is it any wonder we are at boiling point," the INHFA leader stated.
July 28 : Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan starrer Laal Singh Chaddha, which was been shot in Punjab before lockdown, was stalled due to coronavirus pandemic. A major part of the film was scheduled to be shot in Ladakh also. Now even after the lockdown has been relaxed and shooting has been allowed with proper precautions, the perfectionist Aamir Khan was waiting for normalcy to return in Ladakh after the Galwan Valley tension between the Indian and Chinese troops.

If recent reports are to be believed, Aamir has realised that its no point waiting endlessly to shoot in Ladakh. So the actor, who is also the producer of the film, and his director Advait Chandan are now planning to complete the remaining part of the shooting in Georgia and Turkey, reports suggest.

Earlier, the film was slated to be released on Christmas 2020, but now the new release date has not yet been announced as it is obvious that the film might be postponed. It is also reported that about 35 percent of the shooting has been left for the film.

Laal Singh Chaddha is the Hindi remake of the 1994 Best Picture Oscar-winner film Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. The film also features Mona Singh. Filming had started in October 2019 with the muhurat shot given by Aamir Khans mother Zeenat Hussain in Chandigarh.
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CPS Energy is embarking on two major green energy initiatives  one to increase the amount of energy generated by solar power and other sources and the second to allow large companies to buy power from clean energy sources.

On Monday, the city-owned utilitys board of trustees set an Aug. 31 deadline for companies first step toward submitting plans to bolster CPS Energys solar power and battery storage capabilities.

Overall, the initiative is expected to add up to 900 megawatts of solar power, potentially doubling the utilitys solar power generating capacity. Battery storage  to store solar power for use when the sun is not shining  would add another 50 megawatts of power. A third component adds 500 megawatts of energy from new energy technology and would be used when solar or wind power wasnt available.

CPS Energy currently has more than 5,000 megawatts of generating capacity.

The utilitys request for information, asks energy companies to submit formal bids on how much they would charge the utility to provide the alternative power.

CPS Energy expects to solicit formal bids by early 2021.

Chief Operating Officer Cris Eugster said more alternative power will help the utility meet the goals of San Antonios climate action and adaption plan, which calls for reducing the emission of greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050.

He said there was another key reason for adding generation capacity  to keep the lights on in San Antonio.

The real need is to replace aging power plants, he said.

The second initiative that trustees approved, known as a green tariff, would allow large commercial power users, such as an H-E-B or a USAA, to purchase all their power from an alternative power provider, such as energy companies that provide solar or wind power.

CPS Energy would act as the middleman in securing long-term contracts on behalf of commercial customers.

The utility would not charge an exit fee to the commercial users, but would still assess charges for the cost of CPS Energy power that goes to other customers from its gas-fired, coal and nuclear plants as well as alternative energy sources.

Several large commercial customers have expressed interest in buying alternative power as their sole power source, said Chad Hoopingarner, the utilitys senior director of strategic pricing. He would not name the companies.

Hoopingarner said in an interview that it is unclear how the pricing would work for the companies.

It may go up, it may go down, he said of their energy costs.

Companies decision to solely use green power, he said, would be based on their philosophies of environmental stewardship, not necessarily the bottom line.

The city council must OK the green tariff.

Many other utilities in the U.S. already allow large commercial users to obtain power exclusively from solar or wind power providers.

Hoopingarner said it was a strategic decision not to offer the program sooner, but he would not go into detail.

Mondays votes by the board were a victory for environmentalists.

CPS Energy modified its plan for more clean energy earlier this year. The change came after environmentalists rallied against the utilitys call to combine additional solar capability with more gas generation to account for times when solar wasnt feasible.

Instead, CPS Energy agreed to look for other alternative energy sources.

Our CPS Energy team looks forward to joining forces with global energy innovators who are interested in partnering with us on our flexible path into the future, President and CEO Paula Gold-Williams said in a statement. We invite innovative energy and technology providers to participate in this RFI and to provide their ideas on how to transform our generation sources to power our future.

However, if CPS Energy officials do not find other alternative power sources at what they consider affordable rates, they have not ruled out reviving the gas generation plan in combination with the new solar capabilities.

CPS Energy is the largest city-owned utility in the U.S., serving 860,000 electric customers and 358,000 gas customers.

Greg Harman, a San Antonio-based Sierra Club organizer, said it will be exciting to see what sort of clean power proposals CPS Energy will eventually field.

Harman, however, was critical of CPS Energys pace in developing its alternative power plans, noting that the utility wont issue its request for proposals until next year.

CPS Energy pledged last year to nearly halve its climate pollution by 2030  and zero it out entirely by 2050, as part of the citys climate plan, he said. Yet we still havent seen a plan to retire our last remaining coal plant, our citys and our regions greatest climate offender. Clearly, urgent isnt in the utilitys vocabulary.

Randy Diamond covers aviation, energy, tourism and the travel industry. He also writes the weekly column, The Wary Traveler. To read more from Randy, become a subscriber. randy.diamond@express-news.net
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This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-12-22, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy Florida is awarding $655,000 in grants to 19 workforce development and education programs as the region tackles economic disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic.

The grants support education and training programs that address the most pressing skills gaps in communities served by Duke Energy Florida, as well as programs to cultivate the energy sector's future workforce.

"At Duke Energy, we believe philanthropic giving is important to help our cities, our towns and our communities not only survive the current COVID-19 pandemic, but also grow and thrive," said Catherine Stempien, state president Duke Energy Florida. "During these unprecedented times, attracting, training and educating a diverse workforce for the future with skills employers need, can help our communities emerge from this pandemic stronger and more resilient."

In recent years, Duke Energy has given millions of dollars to bolster organizations that are preparing to meet the industry's transformation and evolving customer expectations. One of those organizations is Lake-Sumter State College, which received $120,000 this year to continue support for the college's Increasing Access to Energy Technology Programs and Careers.

"We are incredibly grateful to Duke Energy for their generous and ongoing support of our energy programs," said Stan Sidor, president of Lake-Sumter State College. "Our strong partnership allows us to offer an industry-leading education for our students who can seamlessly transition into high-wage jobs in the energy industry. We believe our program is second to none in providing an expansive and in-depth curriculum for line workers and relay technicians."

Also, St. Petersburg College is a 2020 recipient of a $100,000 award to support the launch of the Diversity in Energy Initiative in partnership with Duke Energy Florida. The program will target and recruit historically underserved lower-income, minority and female populations for careers in the energy field and connect them to related educational pathways.

"We are proud to be able to exercise our relationships to bring awareness and access across our communities, especially in underserved areas," said Matthew Lio-Trao, St. Petersburg College's vice president of Academic Affairs. "This career nationally averages an annual salary of over $77,000, and it is in demand locally and regionally. We expect to have many successful graduates of the program."

Grant Recipients, Programs and Awards

Tampa Bay area:

St. Petersburg College Foundation  Diversity in Energy Initiative, ($100,000) .

Foundation  Diversity in Energy Initiative, . University of South Florida Foundation  Advancing STEM Skills and Environmental Education Across Generations ($75,000) .

Foundation  Advancing STEM Skills and Environmental Education Across Generations . Pasco-Hernando State College Foundation  Elevating Engineering Achievement and Career Attainment ($42,000) .

. South Florida State College Hardee Campus  Powerline System Simulators: Expanding the Learning Experience ($14,150) .

. AmSkills Apprenticeship Foundation  Innovation and Manufacturing Academy ($22,500) .

. Citrus County Education Foundation  Foundation for Success projects ($11,000) .

. United Way of Citrus County  Powering the Workforce ($9,000) .

Greater Orlando area:

Lake-Sumter State College Foundation  Increasing Access to Energy Technology Programs and Careers ($120,000) .

. University of Central Florida Foundation  College of Engineering and Computer Science program support ($75,000) .

Foundation  College of Engineering and Computer Science program support . Valencia College Foundation  Duke Energy Scholarships program ($50,000) .

. Hispanic Heritage Scholarship Fund of Metro Orlando  Scholarships and student programing ($20,000) .

. The Education Foundation of Osceola County  Career Pipelines ($20,000) .

 Career Pipelines . Foundation for Seminole State College of Florida  Workforce Jumpstart ($10,000) .

of  Workforce Jumpstart . Foundation for Seminole County Public Schools  Grants for Great Ideas and STEM learning ($5,000) .

Public Schools  Grants for Great Ideas and STEM learning . Futures Inc.  ENVIRO STEM ($5,000) .

. United Against Poverty  Success Training Employment Program ($5,000) .

Greater Tallahassee area:

Boys & Girls Club of North Central Florida  Synergy ($25,850) .

Statewide:

Consortium of Florida Education Foundation  Increasing the Impact of Florida's Local Education Foundations on Classroom Investments ($27,500) .

Local Education Foundations on Classroom Investments . Florida Chapter of American Association of Blacks in Energy  Ninth Annual Youth Energy Academy, Second Annual Energy Academy and scholarships ($18,000) .

Duke Energy Foundation

The Duke Energy Foundation provides philanthropic support to meet the needs of communities where Duke Energy customers live and work. The foundation contributes more than $30 million annually in charitable gifts and is funded by Duke Energy shareholder dollars. More information about the foundation and its Powerful Communities program can be found at duke-energy.com/foundation.

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, 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. The Electric Utilities and Infrastructure unit's regulated utilities serve approximately 7.7 million retail electric customers in six states  North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. The Gas Utilities and Infrastructure unit distributes natural gas to more than 1.6 million customers in five states  North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The Duke Energy Renewables unit operates wind and solar generation facilities across the U.S., as well as energy storage and microgrid projects.

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.

Contact: Allison Barker

Mobile: 304.558.9104| 24-Hour: 800.559.3853

SOURCE Duke Energy

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A Belfast woman convicted of cruelty to her baby son when he sustained a head injury has avoided prison.

The 27-year-old defendant was given 12 months probation for her part in a domestic incident which led to the infant striking a door frame.

She is not being named to protect the boy's identity.

Proceedings centred on an alleged row between the woman and an ex-partner at a house in north Belfast in May last year.

Her lawyers claimed that at one point the man had lifted the child, who was only a few months old at the time.

As the woman tried to take her son back his head struck against a door frame, according to the defence.

He sustained bruising but no long-term injuries.

The mother was prosecuted for child cruelty over actions said to have caused unnecessary suffering.

She contested the charge by alleging that she was being assaulted at the time.

A judge at Belfast Magistrates' Court accepted the woman never intended to injure her son.

But he convicted her on the basis of wilful neglect by acting recklessly.

At a sentencing hearing on Tuesday, the woman appeared remotely from the offices of her solicitor Hamill Clawson.

Defence barrister Mark Farrell accepted: "It's a very tragic case."

He said his client has already "paid a heavy price" through the child being removed from her care.

"The bigger battle will be for her and her son to be reunited in a proper mother-son relationship going forward," Mr Farrell submitted.

District Judge George Conner was told the woman still has contact with the little boy three times a week.

Under sentencing guidelines a custodial term could have been imposed for the offence.

But with no intent involved in the ill-treatment, Mr Conner instead imposed a 12-month probation order.

He directed that the defendant must participate in any alcohol or drug treatment programme required.

The judge warned her: "If you break these terms you will be brought back before court and re-sentenced for these matters."
Melbourne's lord mayor has come under fire from her deputy for convening an unofficial "captains of industry" group to guide the city's pandemic recovery and including the family member of two financial donors to her previous campaign for Town Hall.

The pair's relationship has been strained recently, with Cr Arron Wood still considering a run against lord mayor Sally Capp. He is, however, yet to announce whether he intends to make a tilt for the lord mayoral position at the October election.

Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp. Credit:Simon Schluter

Earlier this month Cr Capp established an unofficial advisory group of business leaders, the Bringing Melbourne Back Better Advisory Board, which meets weekly. Her office says the positions are voluntary and unpaid.

Its members include Lindsay Fox, whose family donated $20,000 in two separate payments to Cr Capp's campaign in 2018, leading business figure Elizabeth Proust, Arts Centre chief executive Claire Spencer and National Gallery of Victoria director Tony Ellwood.
New Delhi: In a new development in Sushant Singh Rajput's death case, it has been learnt that the actor's father KK Singh has lodged an FIR against his actress girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty. Sushant's kin suspect that Rhea and her family cheated the actor and exploited him financially. Moreover, they also believe that Rhea had completely cut-off Sushant from his family.

The FIR was lodged in Patna's Rajiv Nagar police station under IPC Sections 341, 342, 380, 406, 420 and 306.

A four-member police team has been constituted to probe the case. The team flew to Mumbai to carry out an investigation along with the Mumbai Police.

The Mumbai Police is already investigating Sushant's death case. As of now, 39 people have been interrogated, including his family members, Rhea, close friends, work associates and Bollywood celebs such as filmmakers Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Mahesh Bhatt and Dharma Productions' CEO Apoorva Mehta.

Rhea has received severe backlash after Sushant's death by suicide on June 14. A week after his demise, a complaint was filed against her in a court in Bihar for abetting the actor's suicide, news agency PTI reported.

The complaint was lodged by a fan of Sushant. He also accused Rhea of "financially and mentally exploiting the actor whom she dumped after her career was secure and her purpose was served."

Meanwhile, the Mumbai Police is probing Rhea's monetary expenditures. According to sources, in 2019, Rhea went to Europe for an advertisement shoot. However, barring the ticket price, all other expenses were reportedly borne by Sushant. Besides, in the last 11 months, Rhea had spent lots of money on herself from Sushant's account.

Sushant's fans and a few Bollywood celebrities such as Shekhar Suman, Kangana Ranaut and Roopa Ganguly are pressing for a CBI probe into his death to ensure a fair inquiry into the case. Rhea too wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah urging a CBI probe.
The Line of Control came under attack once again. (PTI)

Jammu: The Pakistan army resorted to heavy firing and mortar shelling in forward areas along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, prompting Indian troops to retaliate effectively, officials said on Tuesday.

The ceasefire was violated by Pakistan for the eighth consecutive day on Tuesday, officials said, adding that there have been more than 20 incidents of ceasefire violation by Pakistan troops in the last more than a week.

"At about 1000 (10 am) hours today (Tuesday), Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and intense shelling with mortars along LoC in Degwar and Qasba sectors of district Poonch," a defence spokesperson said.

The Indian Army is retaliating befittingly, he added.

Pakistan troops had shelled forward areas of Mankote and Mendhar sectors of Poonch district and resorted to firing along the International Border (IB) in Hirangar sector of Kathua district on Monday resulting in injuries to an animal and damage to a house, they said.

Pakistani troops had shelled areas along the LoC in Rajouri and Poonch districts on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday last week as well as on Monday in Balakote, Subderbani, Nowshera, Qasba, Kirni, Mendhar, Mankote, Degwar, Krishnagati and Hiranagar sector of Kathua district.
I was horrified when water starting coming through my ceiling, so I rang the British Gas emergency number to report a burst pipe. But what happened next left me in floods of tears.

I chased them several times and someone arrived seven hours later. He said he could not fix it then but would come back after the Bank Holiday.

This was at Easter. He suggested putting a bucket under it. I did not sleep that night and came down at 6am to a terrible mess.

Crying shame: British Gas's plumber said he could not fix the burst pipe then and suggested putting a bucket under it

I then rang a local plumber in tears. He came within ten minutes and repaired the leak within an hour and charged 80.

So having paid British Gas insurance for emergency repairs I had to pay someone else to fix my burst pipe.

To add insult to injury I have just received a call  two weeks after the burst pipe  to say someone will come to fix it. J. S. Poole, Dorset.

Tony replies: British Gas says the contracted plumber was at your house for about an hour and a quarter and located the leak under a vanity unit in your bathroom.

I am told he made the floor safe before leaving.

It seems the contractor kept no records of any attempts to reschedule the appointment.

Further delays were due to engineers being furloughed and 'processes missed'.

So, as far as they knew you could be wading around and facing an inflated water bill.

British Gas has spoken to you to discover the full extent of the work you had to pay for.

Your overall costs were 350, which British Gas will reimburse. A spokesman apologises for the inconvenience and for you having to arrange your own plumber.

DWP chasing for money I've paid

In July 2017, my mother was admitted to hospital where she remained until October before moving into a care home.

I had power of attorney so contacted the Department for Work and Pensions to find out how much she needed to pay back from her Attendance Allowance [which helps to pay for carers].

They asked for 498.60. I sent a cheque on November 13 which was cleared on November 29. In 2019 I received a couple of letters saying the amount was still outstanding and threatening debt management.

I checked with the bank and wrote back asking DWP to check their records as the money had been paid.

My mother died on the May 2, 2019 and I received another letter from DWP.

I handed the paperwork to the people dealing with her will, contacted the bank to get a copy of the cheque and passed this over as well.

The estate has only just been settled and I've discovered the executors paid the bill again to complete the estate. P. W., Norwich.

Tony replies: How frustrating to have done everything correctly only for the executors to create another job. Equally frustrating was that the DWP was chasing a bill you had already paid.

DWP admits it made an error and has refunded the 498.60 to you. It has also apologised for the inconvenience and stress this caused.

It says that if any customer wishes to make an enquiry about an Attendance Allowance claim, they can phone 0800 731 0122 or write to Attendance Allowance, Mail Handling Site A, Wolverhampton WV98 2AH.

The DWP chased a daughter for money owed for her mother although it had already been paid

Is Halifax right not to cover TV damage on insurance?

My daughter went through an insurance comparison website and Halifax came up as the best choice.

In January, her three-year-old threw his toy car which broke the screen on her TV.

Halifax declined her claim on the basis that she had two previous claims made within three years saying they don't give insurance on that basis.

She explained that she had entered both claims into the comparison site.

This went back and forth with Halifax. The comparison site says Halifax is to blame. My daughter is 37 weeks pregnant with no insurance because a decline on her record makes it far too expensive. P.M., by email.

Tony replies: While I have some sympathy with your daughter's situation the facts are these.

The information provided to Halifax was that your daughter made one claim for 1,500 on December 13, 2017 and a second on January 3, 2018.

The second claim was put at zero but in fact there had been a payout.

The policy documents showing this information that Halifax sent to your daughter were clear.

Halifax is adamant that it would not have accepted your daughter as a customer if it had known that two claims had been paid out.

Your daughter paid monthly and one payment of 26.80 has been refunded.

Her option now is to go to the Financial Ombudsman.

Having seen the evidence, I do not rate her chances of challenging Halifax highly.

Your letter serves as reminder that we must all check policy documents sent by insurers to be sure they are correct.

STRAIGHT TO THE POINT I am 80 and pay for a package deal with Virgin Media which includes broadband, a landline and a wide range of TV channels. When the BBC scraps free TV licences for over-70s, will I have to pay for one of those as well? D.T., email Tony replies: If you watch or record live television on any channel, either through your TV or website, then you must have a licence. You also need one to watch shows on BBC iPlayer. From August, you will only be entitled to a free TV licence if you claim pension credit. I asked NS&I to settle my late mother's premium bonds and Isa account six weeks ago but have still not received the money. A. B., Pedmore, West Midlands. Tony replies: NS&I says it received your claim on April 1 and replied on May 15, asking you to send a Grant of Probate, which it has not yet received. It says it can only make the payment once you have sent this. My flight was cancelled and I had to fork out 1,784 for another to Mumbai at short notice on top of the 858 I had already paid. I think Expedia should pay me compensation for the stress caused. D. O., by email Tony replies: Expedia refunded the cost of the original ticket as it was unable to find you an alternative direct flight. It has suggested contacting the airline you had booked with originally to see if it will consider any out of pocket expenses. On March 13, I tried to withdraw 200 at my local Sainsbury's ATM. But while I was putting my card away, the cash was sucked back into the machine. I reported it to my bank, Barclays, but the money has still not been returned. B. S., Conwy. Tony replies: Barclays told you that if the money did not appear in your account after 24 hours it would investigate, which can take 12 working days. It did this and the money has now been repaid. Barclays has also given you 50 for the inconvenience.

We love hearing from our loyal readers, so ask that during this challenging time you write to us by email where possible, as we will not pick up letters sent to our postal address as regularly as usual. You can write to: asktony@ dailymail.co.uk or, if you prefer, Ask Tony, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT  please include your daytime phone number, postal address and a separate note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Tony Hazell. We regret we cannot reply to individual letters. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.
"Take Care" features illustrations by best-selling author and illustrator Brian Russo and is inspired by Limeade Institute research on the business impact of care. In the book, Louise (you can call her Lou), discovers that a simple rule she learned in school is not being followed at her mom's workplace and she wonders why. After a series of all-to-common office conflicts, and a little ice cream, she and her mother hatch a plan to apply the values of one classroom to the world of work.

"As parents, we painstakingly teach our children the importance of caring for themselves and others, but so often forget to apply this simple practice to our professional lives," said Dr. Hamill. "This book was created to spark a dialogue about the concept of care and how it gets lost as we grow into professionals, managers and corporate leaders. Our goal is to inspire employers to examine their corporate cultures and look for opportunities to inject care into the everyday  in a climate when employees need it most."

In a 2020 study, Limeade found that only 31% of employees feel authentically cared for at work, and one in three have left a job because of it. Conversely, employees who feel cared for are twice as likely to be engaged, four times less likely to suffer from stress and burnout and nine times more likely to stay with their employer.

"As today's employees work in isolation, among risks to their health and fearing job and financial security, finding ways to showcase care is more urgent than ever before," said Cramer. "Making employees feel valued, heard and invested in can do more than just make employees happy  it can boost the bottom line and make work better, starting today."

"Take Care" is available today at a variety of online bookstores. Proceeds from the sale of "Take Care" will be donated to Food Lifeline , solving hunger today in Western Washington.

Meet the authors:

About Dr. Laura Hamill

Dr. Laura Hamill is passionate about how care can make work better for employers and employers. Laura leads the Limeade People Team, nurturing the company's culture while developing new strategies for Limeade and its customers. Laura is also the founder and Chief Science Officer of the Limeade Institute, which conducts research, establishes market points of view and keeps track of the latest trends. A sought-after speaker and thought leader, Laura has spoken at major conferences and been featured in Fast Company, Business Insider, INC and other top HR publications.

Laura earned her Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from Old Dominion University and a B.S. in psychology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She currently lives in Woodinville, Washington, with her husband, two children and golden retriever.

About Jolene Cramer:

Jolene is a mom of two and Senior Director of Marketing at Limeade. She is fulfilling her passion of literature to share new ways to spread the idea of care to kids and their parents. Jolene currently lives in Mercer Island, Washington with her husband and daughters.

About Limeade

Limeade is an employee experience software company that helps build great places to work. The Limeade platform unifies employee well-being, engagement and inclusion solutions with industry-leading communications capabilities. Recognized for its own award-winning culture, Limeade helps every employee know their company cares. To learn more, visit www.limeade.com.

SOURCE Limeade

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Ukraine and the European Union will discuss political and legal aspects of updating the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement this autumn.

Ukraine's Deputy Minister for Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, Ukraine's Trade Representative Taras Kachka said this during a dialogue with Ukrainian businessmen regarding the updating of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"This autumn we will have an active dialogue with the EU on what political goals we set, what their legal framework can be and what we can achieve," Kachka said.

He noted that over the past five years, relations with the EU have improved in virtually every area, as our businesses have understood how to work with the EU.

As reported, on March 21, 2014, during an extraordinary Ukraine-EU summit, the political part of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement was signed. The economic part of the agreement was signed at the highest level on June 27, 2014.

On September 6, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada and the European Parliament simultaneously ratified this document. On January 1, 2016, the EU and Ukraine started applying the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA). On September 1, 2017, the Agreement entered into force in full.

ish
Sometimes its tempting to think of every technological advancement as the brave first step on new shores, a fresh chance to shape the future rationally. In reality, every new tool enters the same old world with its same unresolved issues.

In a moment where society is collectively reckoning with just how deep the roots of racism reach, a new paper from researchers at DeepMind  the AI lab and sister company to Google  and the University of Oxford presents a vision to decolonize artificial intelligence. The aim is to keep societys ugly prejudices from being reproduced and amplified by todays powerful machine learning systems.

The paper, published this month in the journal Philosophy & Technology, has at heart the idea that you have to understand historical context to understand why technology can be biased.

Everyone's talking about racial bias and technology, gender bias and technology, and wanting to mitigate these risks, but how can you if you don't understand a lot of these systems of oppression are grounded in very long histories of colonialism? Marie-Therese Png, a co-author, PhD candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute and former technology advisor to the UN, told Engadget. The papers other authors were DeepMind senior research scientists Shakir Mohamed and William Isaac.

How can you contextualize, say, the disproportionate impact of predictive policing on African Americans without understanding the history of slavery and how each policy has built on, essentially, a differential value of life that came from colonialism? Png said.

Almost every country in the world was at some point controlled by European nations. Decoloniality is about understanding these historic exploitative dynamics, and how their residual values are still alive in contemporary society  and then escaping them.

As an example, the paper points to algorithmic discrimination in law enforcement disproportionately affecting people of color in the US, which recently has been under the spotlight. It also connects ghost workers, who perform the low-paid data annotation work that fuels tech companies as a kind of labor extraction from developing to developed countries which mimics colonial dynamics.

Similarly, the authors see beta testing of potentially harmful technologies in non-Western countries  Cambridge Analytica tried its tools on Nigerian elections before the U.S.  as redolent of the medical experiments by the British empire on its colonial subjects or the American governments infamous Tuskegee syphilis study in which African-American men with the disease were told to come for treatment and instead were observed until they died.

As Png says, one of colonialitys core principles is that some lives are worth more than others. The fundamental issue for AI  which can literally quantify the value of humans  was put by co-author Mohamed in a blog post two years ago: How do we make global AI truly global? In other words: How can AI serve both the haves and have-nots equally in a world which does not?

The paper ultimately spells out guidance for a critical technical practice in the AI community  essentially for technologists to evaluate the underlying cultural assumptions in their products and how it will affect society with ethical foresight.

The tactics the paper lists to do this span algorithmic fairness techniques to hiring practices to AI policymaking. It speaks of technologists learning from oppressed communities  giving examples of grassroots organizations like Data for Black Lives  to reverse the colonial mentality of technological benevolence and paternalism.

Implicitly, the authors are calling for a shift away from a longstanding tech culture of supposed neutrality: the idea that the computer scientist just makes tools and is not responsible for their use. The paper was being written before the filmed death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police, but the event  and a subsequent national reckoning with race  has brought into focus the question of what role tech should play in social inequity. Major AI institutions like OpenAI and the conference NeurIPS have made public statements supporting Black Lives Matter, which at least ostensibly signals a willingness to change.

This discourse has now been legitimized and you can now talk about race in these spaces without people completely dismissing you, or you putting your whole career on the line or your whole authority as a technologist, said Png.

My hope is that this renewal of interest and reception to understanding how to advance racial equity both within the industry and in broader society will be sustained for the long run, said co-author Isaac.

"You can now talk about race in these spaces without people completely dismissing you, or you putting your whole career on the line or your whole authority as a technologist."

What this paper provides is a roadmap, a conceptual way out of the sometimes-shallow discussions around race among technologists. Its the connective tissue from todays advanced machine learning to centuries of global history.

But Png says that decoloniality is not a purely intellectual exercise. To decolonize would mean actively dismantling the technology that furthers the inequality of marginalized communities. We're trying to argue a proper ceding of power, she said.

AI supercharges the idea that those who cant remember the past are condemned to repeat it: if AI doesnt remember the past, it will reify, amplify, and normalize inequalities. Artificial intelligence provides the veneer of objectivity  you cannot debate with an algorithm and often you cannot understand how its reached a decision about you. The further AI pervades our lives, the harder it becomes to undo its harms.

That's why this moment is really important to put into words and identify what these systems are, said Png. And they are systems of coloniality, they are systems of white supremacy, they are systems of racial capitalism, which are based and were born from a colonial project.

This research also raises the question of what new types of AI could be developed that are decolonial. Isaac pointed to organizations working towards similar visions, like Deep Learning Indaba or Mechanism Design for Social Good. But this area has little precedent. Would decolonial AI mean embedding a non-Western philosophy of fairness in a decision-making algorithm? Where do we categorize projects that involve writing code in Arabic and other languages?

On these points, Png is unsure. The pressing issue right now, she said, is the process of decolonizing the world were already living in. What AI would look like when truly divested of any colonial baggage  when the mission isnt merely to fight back, but to build a legitimately fresh and fair start  is still speculative. The same could be said about society at large.
Following the detection of its first omicron case Saturday in Haidian district of Beijing, the Chinese capital locked down certain communities and office buildings just weeks before the Winter Olympics and the Lunar New Year holiday. The city opened 30 emergency testing points in Haidian on Monday as it rushes to contain the spread

Jan 19, 2022 05:37 PM
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 14:39 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669eb6ae 1 National covid-19-task-force,doni-monardo,pandemic,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,pembelajaran-tatap-muka,online-learning,school-reopening Free

National COVID-19 task force head Doni Monardo said on Monday that the government would allow the reopening of schools outside green zones, areas with the lowest risk of COVID-19 transmission.

Doni explained that in the near future the Education and Culture Ministry would announced which areas would be permitted to reopen their schools.

"The Education and Culture Ministry has set up measures [for the reopening] and maybe in the near future the ministry's officials will announce which areas outside the green zones are allowed to reopen schools," Doni said in a press conference on Monday as reported by kompas.com.

Since July, the Education and Culture Ministry has allowed phased reopening of schools located in green zones.

Read also: Schools could become new clusters of COVID-19 transmission: Indonesian Red Cross

The national COVID-19 task force has mapped the risk status of all regions in the country affected by the COVID-19 pandemic based on 15 indicators from the World Health Organization. The indicators, which comprise the number of new cases, suspects and fatalities, among other things, determine whether each region falls into the green, yellow, orange or red category.

Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim said the number of students in those areas was roughly equivalent to 6 percent of all students in the country, meaning that the remaining 94 percent had to continue their education through online learning

Doni said the duration of face-to-face learning at schools would be limited as well as the number of students attending the classes to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

"Although online learning is very effective to curb the spread of COVID-19 transmission, there are a lot of students in rural areas who are struggling to learn from home due to poor internet access," Doni said.

Read also: Life without internet: Bornean students learn by radio during pandemic

Doni expressed his appreciation for several regional administrations that had provided lessons through radio to accommodate students who don't have internet access.

"Several regional administrations have provided teachers with two-way radios [walkie-talkies] to teach their students. We appreciate their creativity and various measures they've taken so that students can continue their education despite all the limitations," he said. (nal)
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The Chief Judge of Lagos State, Kazeem Alogba, on Tuesday sworn in five presidents and 16 members to the bench of the states Customary Court to ensure speedy dispensation of justice.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the ceremony took place at the premises of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja.

Addressing the new Customary Court presidents and members, the chief judge advised them to deal with cases that would come before them, especially family disputes, with patience and fear of God.

Mr Alogba urged them to avoid conflict of interest while carrying out their duties, noting that there had been complaints of customary courts presidents and members taking wives or husbands of litigants before them.

He said: When you are dealing with family matters, inheritance matters; you must exercise patience and the fear of God. These are the areas where we usually have complaints.

We used to get complaints about members and presidents taking over litigants wives, but I have implicit trust in you.

You are all looking very handsome but please let that handsomeness tell in your work, not in other peoples wives.

As for the ladies, we used to hear of ladies taking litigants husbands too. And it is a fact.

My fear about you too is not less than that I have about the male presidents, with all these your gorgeous hats and shiny dresses; but I pray that that beauty will be exhibited more in the judgments that you write.

While urging the new arbiters to exercise their powers justly and in the fear of God, Mr Alogba said a misdirected application of the exercise of their powers in any family matter, could mean a dislocation of an entire generation.

In her address, the Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Judicial Service Commission, Bukola Salami, urged the new customary court presidents and members to always carry themselves with dignity.

Mrs Salami said they were subject to the Commissions disciplinary action in events of proven allegations of misconduct.

Responding on behalf of her colleagues, Kehinde Obisakin, said the newly sworn in officers will not fail God and will not fail you (the Chief Judge).

(NAN)
Rajasthan Board RBSE 10th result 2020 date and time, BSER Ajmer Class 10th Result 2020 @ rajresults.nic.in, rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in: The results of the Rajasthan Board for Class 10 has been declared today, June 28 at 4 pm. The results have been published on the official RBSE website rajresults.nic.in, rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in. Rajashan's Education Minister has also verified the time and date.

Rajasthan Board RBSE 10th result 2020, BSER Ajmer Class 10th Result 2020 @ rajresults.nic.in, rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in: The Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education has declared RBSE Rajasthan Board 10th Result 2020 today, 28 June at 4pm. The BSER Ajmer Class 10th Result 2020 out on the official website of RBSE rajresults.nic.in, rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in.

The Education Minister of RBSE Mr SK Govind Singh Dostara had confirmed the timings and date through his twitter handle. Students are asked to be a little patient with the RBSE Rajasthan Board 10th Result 2020 since the website can get stuck due to excess traffic.

More than 11 lakh students appeared for the examinations. The exams took place in the month of March but the remaining were postponed to June 27-30 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

  28  2020   4        10     @rajeduofficial  Govind Singh Dotasra (@GovindDotasra) July 27, 2020

How to check RBSE Rajasthan Board 10th Result 2020:

Step 1: Open the link rajresults.nic.in

Step 2: Click on RBSE results class 10th 2020

Step 3: Enter your roll number and other credentials

Step 4: Download the marksheet showing on the screen for future reference

Alternative Website to check RBSE Rajasthan Board 10th Results 2020:

It has been seen since many years that the official website gets glitched or stuck after the declaration of a RBSE Rajasthan Board 10th Result 2020 due to heavy traffic all at once. It is recommended that students use the following websites to view their scoresheet: rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in

RBSE Rajasthan Board 10th Result 2020 How to check BSER Ajmer Class 10th Result 2020 vis SMS:



Step 1: Type RJ10 <space> Roll number on text message

Step 2: Send the above message to 5676750/56263

Step 3: Take a screenshot for future reference

Students can apply for revaluation or re-checking of marks if they are not satisfied with the results. The details for the same will be announced shortly after the declaration of the RBSE Rajasthan Board 10th Result 2020.

A minimum of 33% marks is required to pass the RBSE examination for class 12. The results are usually announced in the month of May or June but was delayed as checking papers was not possible due to lockdown.

The pass percentage improved from last year, at 80.63 per cent. In 2019, the pass percentage of the students were 79.86 and girls (80.35%) had a better result than boys (79.45%). Last years topper was Hitesh Kumar Sharma who secured 99.33%

The RBSE class 12 results have already been declared. The pass percentage of Arts students was at 90.70%, the science stream has 91% pass percentage and it was 94.49% for the commerce stream.

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The writ petition was moved by Congress party's student wing, National Student Union of India (NSUI) on Monday challenging the state-level common entrance exam held for admissions to engineering and medical courses.

The Karnataka High Court has asked the state examination authority to revisit its decision to hold the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (K-CET) scheduled to be held by the end of this month, due to the coronavirus situation in the state. The state has been asked to submit its reply in court latest by tomorrow.

The court, while hearing a writ petition against holding the exams, said, "We direct the State to reconsider the question of holding the CET considering the aforesaid aspect. State must place its decision on record tomorrow at 2.30 pm," according to LiveLaw.

The court will continue the hearing tomorrow (Wednesday) at 2.30 pm.

The writ petition was moved by Congress party's student wing, National Student Union of India (NSUI) on Monday challenging the state-level common entrance exam held for admissions to engineering and medical courses.

The exam is scheduled to be conducted on 30 and 31 July, with as many as 1,94,356 students set to appearing in it this year.

"Conducting the exams during these testing times will create widespread panic and put the lives of students, teachers, parents and staff at risk," the PIL stated, according to The News Minute.

Eric Stephen, NSUI in-charge of Karnataka and also the petitioner in case, told the news website,"A similar examination happened in Kerala and there were students and parents who were found to be positive for coronavirus. NEET exams were postponed to September. If a national examination was deferred, what is stopping the state government from deferring the exams?".

The petitioners also stated in the court that conducting the exams in the current situation will put students and their families at a risk. NSUI counsel advocate Abdulla Manan Khan said that the exam authorities can only ensure that the health guidelines are being implemented at exam centres, but nobody can control the risk and exposure students undertake to reach the exam centre.

The court, however, frowned upon the petitioner for delay in raising its objection to the matter.

The high court, according to Live Law, asked the petitioner that when the notification for the exam was issued in May, then why did they wait till the eleventh hour to object to the schedule or to reach out to the courts.

The court also asked the government how did it expect students living in containment zones to adhere to the local authorities SOPs of not leaving their homes, and also appear for exam at the same time?

"How will students from containment zones appear for the exams. There are over 6,000 containment zones in city of Bengaluru. Please tell us that," Bar&Bench quoted the bench as saying.

The advocate general of Karnataka responded saying that the candidates living in containment zones will be made to sit in separate rooms. But the bench overruled the argument with another question that how did the state expect those students to reach the exam centres in the first place, when they aren't allowed to step out of the containment zone.

The court then observed that the petitioner's plea is not maintainable because it did not approach the authorities in time, but also held that the state must reconsider its decision urgently because there is a possibility that some students may have to miss the exam.

"It is true that petitioners have approached the court very late. But considering the drastic rise in covid-19 cases, the State Government has to immediately reconsider its decision of conducting KCET exam. There is a possibility of students missing out on the exam," the court held.

The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), while announcing the exam dates ,had said that it has taken several steps to streamline all the processes for KCET 2020. It extended the deadline of application process and has increased the number of exam centres so that social distancing can be maintained, reported NDTV.

The authorities have tried to keep only a limited number of candidates at a particular exam centre to adhere to the lockdown and social distancing guidelines.
(Natural News) Although India has long focused its nuclear defense strategy on Pakistan, they have recently been focusing extra attention on China. Recent analysis carried out by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists shows that India has positioned new Agni missiles in a way that suggests their main target is China.

The analysis was carried out by the director of the Nuclear Information Project for the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), Hans M. Kristensen, and a research associate for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, Matt Korda.

According to the authors, Beijing is now within the range of Indian missiles. The nuclear buildup appears to be part of an effort to fight against the growing aggressive development of Chinas defensive forces and comes not long after a recent Galwan River Valley ambush that marked the deadliest military conflict seen between the two countries in more than 45 years.

On June 15, Chinese and Indian border regiments were involved in hand-to-hand combat that left 28 Indian soldiers dead. The Indian Army described the incident as an ambush carried out by Chinese forces. Although Beijing has not officially acknowledged any casualties from the incident, military sources in India have estimated that around 40 soldiers in Chinas Peoples Liberation Army were killed.

The fighting was believed to have started after Indian troops dismantled a Chinese tent that the PLA had agreed to vacate but then reneged on their promise. A senior Indian government official said that Chinese troops from the Peoples Liberation Army were armed with iron rods and batons wrapped in barbed wire. One officer reported that unarmed men who fled to the hills were hunted down and killed.

The hand-to-hand combat was described as savage. More than 110 Indian soldiers are being treated for serious injuries, and the death toll is expected to rise. Neither side was armed in keeping with decades of tradition in the Galwan River Valley meant to prevent escalation between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.

It was the most intense fighting seen between China and India since skirmishes in 1967 that left 340 PLA soldiers and 88 Indian soldiers dead. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that his country would defend every stone, every inch of its territory.

India may be changing its nuclear strategy

While China and India have sometimes fought about their disputed border over the years  it was even the cause of a war in 1962  the threat of potential nuclear retaliation has largely kept the disagreement from escalating beyond periodic border skirmishes in recent years. However, the new analysis indicates that India is starting to put extra precautions in place against China.

Its believed that India has produced enough plutonium for at least 150 nuclear warheads. The country is also said to be building new plutonium production facilities as they continue to modernize their nuclear arsenal. At least three new weapons systems are currently under development, including land- and sea-based delivery systems and nuclear-capable aircraft. The systems will be ready for combat in the near future.

According to the report, Chinas military superiority  both conventionally and in a nuclear sense  has prompted India to launch a significant expansion of its capabilities that may also impact the way India approaches its use of nuclear weapons against Pakistan.

The study cites one scholar as saying: We may be witnessing what I call a decoupling of Indian nuclear strategy between China and Pakistan. The force requirements India needs in order to credibly threaten assured retaliation against China may allow it to pursue more aggressive strategies  such as escalation dominance or a splendid first strike  against Pakistan.

Any type of nuclear exchange in this part of the world could have a serious impact on the rest of the planet, even if it doesnt kill all of us directly. The spread of the smoke and radiation could rise high above the earth and spread across the globe, reducing surface temperatures for years and causing massive crop failures. Experts have estimated that a large-scale nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan could kill as many as 2 billion people due to starvation; an exchange between India and China could be just as devastating.

Sources for this article include:

Brietbart.com

WIONews.com

News.Yahoo.com
Newcomers to Illinois weed industry remain in limbo, with some hemorrhaging money, and it could be another two months before they find out whether theyll be allowed to open a marijuana business.

The state is almost three months late awarding dispensary licenses, and a month late awarding licenses to grow, process and transport marijuana. Meanwhile, the consulting firm the state hired for about $6.7 million isnt done with the process of scoring applications, an Illinois official said.

KPMG entered into an almost $4.2 million, no-bid contract with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to score applications for 75 dispensary licenses.

The firm also entered into a no-bid contract with the states agriculture department, worth $2.5 million, to score applications for more than 80 craft grow, infuser and transporter licenses.

The coronavirus pandemic threw the process into disarray, delaying the awarding of all four license types. Both the state and KPMG faced setbacks, said Toi Hutchinson, senior adviser to the governor on cannabis control.

There was not a business that wasnt impacted. There was not a governmental process that wasnt impacted, she said.

It could be September before the dispensary licenses are awarded, but no date has been set for when any license type will be awarded, Hutchinson said.

Delays in the licensing process have occurred in other states too. But applicants say the delays in Illinois could undermine one of the chief goals of the states recreational marijuana law: achieving social equity by diversifying the largely white industry and repairing some of the harm caused by the war on drugs.

Each day the state waits to award the licenses throws some applicants deeper into financial trouble, particularly those who are paying to hold real estate or who are have employees.

Chris Visco, whose company applied for 10 dispensary licenses, plus craft grow, transport and infuser licenses, said she is about $120,000 over budget. The CEO and co-owner of The Yard Illinois said shes had to spend money on attorneys fees and payroll.

Visco is based in Pennsylvania, but The Yard meets social equity requirements by employing 11 full-time workers that meet the social equity qualifications.

To qualify as a social equity applicant, a person must either have a marijuana-related arrest on their record, live in an area disproportionately affected by the war on drugs, or employ at least 10 full-time workers that meet the social equity qualifications.

In response to the pandemic, the state told applicants earlier this year that they could furlough employees while their applications were processed, and maintain their social equity status -- as long as they could prove those people were back on the payroll if they won a license.

Instead of furloughing her employees, Visco has paid them to help out in the community, including working at food banks.

Theyre nervous, she said. If I find out tomorrow I am not awarded any licenses, theyre afraid of what happens to them.

The dispensary licenses were set to be awarded May 1. More than 700 applicants are seeking more than 4,000 licenses. The volume of applications was greater than expected, and the contract with KPMG had to be amended.

The 40 craft grow, 40 infuser and undetermined number of transporter licenses should have been awarded July 1, but the state delayed the application deadline.

The state has not received results from KPMG for either set of applications, Hutchinson said. KPMG spokesman Jim McGann declined to comment.

Scoring the applications isnt the only issue. There are no rules in place for breaking ties between applicants. An emergency rule establishing such a procedure expired in June, and because the pandemic shortened the June legislative session, a permanent rule was not adopted.

The first of two 45-day comment periods on the proposed rules is underway, Hutchinson said. The state could potentially award some licenses to applicants who did not tie before those rules are established, but that is not certain.

Hutchinson said she knows the delays are causing problems, particularly among applicants who might not have robust financial resources.

Without an end to the delays in sight, applicant Tom Wheeler Jr. said he feels deflated, and the stress is mounting.

The marijuana company formed by Wheeler and his partners, GRI Holdings, has maintained a payroll of about 10 people. Without work to do, GRI is paying employees to research the industry and learn more about packaging, infusing and other processes the company might undertake if awarded licenses. It paid a $50,000 nonrefundable deposit to hold a property in South Elgin for a craft grow facility. Extending that hold past July 31 will cost $10,000 per month, Wheeler said.

The delays are eating into a limited budget Wheeler had hoped to spend partially on getting the business up and running, and hes not sure how much longer his self-funded company can hold on.

Im coming in behind these guys that cornered the market, he said. Now Ive gotta fight for this  and Im spending extra money, so I dont know if I can do it.

Applicants in other states have also faced delays in the application process.

In New Jersey, a court order paused the licensing process for new medical marijuana businesses last year. In Maryland, new licenses meant to diversify the industry were put on hold after applicants filed lawsuits alleging the process was biased.

Black cannabis entrepreneurs have said they faced delays in the licensing process in Massachusetts, too. One woman told the Boston Globe she waited more than 600 days for word on her application.

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Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray has warned his cousin and chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray to rein in electricity companies which are sending exorbitant bills to citizens or else his party will be compelled to intervene in the issue.

Raj Thackeray has asked the CM to intervene urgently in the matter and waive off the unreasonable hike in the bills as neither MNS nor the citizens will tolerate the injustice.

Raj said that the bills issued by various power companies such as BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport) and Mahavitaran (Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited) as well as private entities have shocked the consumers, who are facing the brunt of the Covid-19 outbreak.

This tantamounts to looting of citizens. Due to the lockdown, commercial places were closed and yet the bills issued for them are exorbitant. As it is this lockdown has drained the economy and many businesses have shut down. Salaries are either not given or there are huge pay cuts. People have lost their jobs, and in such an atmosphere of turbulence, where there is no ray of hope in sight, these unreasonable bills are a further attack on the vulnerable citizens, said Raj Thackeray in his letter to his cousin.

The letter is seen as the warning as despite its depleted strength, the MNS still holds relevance in some urban pockets. Raj Thackeray is also seen to be raking in the issue to garner the support of citizens who are infuriated owing to the exorbitant bills.

The state should issue an order regarding this issue to Mahavitaran and BEST and other government undertakings. Also, private electric companies need to be firmly directed to stop this unjustified conduct, otherwise we will be compelled to deal with them, he warned in the letter.

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New Delhi, July 28 : A head constable with Delhi Police committed suicide by shooting himself. He was rushed to the hospital but was declared brought dead.

Sanjay, 34, was posted in Saket police station in south Delhi shot himself with a service pistol.

"He was a resident of Alwar and in the preliminary enquiry it has come to knowledge that he was in depression due to long illness of his elder brother," said a senior police officer.

Earlier, a Delhi Police constable on July 16 had committed suicide by hanging in Burari area of the capital. 25-year-old Parikshit Dhaka hanged himself from a ceiling fan.
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Global digital payment and technology firm Mastercard has committed Rs 250 crore ($33 million) to help reboot Indian SMBs and enable business recovery from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, industry body CAIT said on Tuesday.

These new initiatives build on Mastercard's multi-year partnership with the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) to grow digital payments awareness and support merchant on-boarding for digital commerce will help to large extent the Indian traders to overcome from the set back due to COVID-19, the industry body said.

"Through this joint initiative of CAIT & Mastercard, the financial assistance will be provided to traders across country," the traders," CAIT said.

Mastercard in partnership with CAIT will roll out multiple initiatives to drive inclusive growth by enabling small merchants and Kirana stores with access to credit for their businesses, knowledge and tools.

It will also empower women entrepreneurs by increasing their business acumen, help small businesses by growing digital payments awareness and providing low-cost acceptance and solutions in both online and offline business, CAIT said.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

It will leverage its network, knowledge, technology and partnerships to help these enterprises sustain and grow their businesses, Porush Singh, Division President, South Asia, Mastercard, said. Global analyses indicate that SMEs can see their revenues increase by up to one-third with such technology adoption, Singh added.

Praveen Khandelwal, National Secretary General of CAIT said, During the extended nationwide lockdown, more than 90 percent of SMEs were closed for business. To adjust to the changing scenario, small brick-and-mortar shop owners are rushing to take their companies online.

To help these enterprises resume operations, we are pleased to partner with Mastercard in their efforts to support merchants with quick and easy ways to move their businesses online, facilitate much-needed access to credit, and address shifts in consumer buying behaviour towards digital contactless payments over cash."

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
Amy Hart made the most of relaxed lockdown restrictions on Monday by making a hasty trip to a London dentist.

With Brits desperate for a dental visit after three months behind closed doors, the former Love Island star was front of the queue as she paid a visit to celebrity dentist Dr. Richard Marques.

Amy, 28, was in high spirits as she made her way to the appointment in an ab-baring blue crop top and matching bottoms.

Here she comes: Amy Hart made the most of relaxed lockdown restrictions on Monday by making a hasty trip to a London dentist

The former flight attendant added to her look with a pair of white running shoes, while a smart Louis Vuitton handbag gave the look a distinctive flourish.

Adhering to current safety guidelines, Amy wore a protective mask as she underwent her consultation with Dr. Marques.

She was attending her final appointment as she prepares for a complete dental transformation, a procedure delayed by the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Looking good: Amy, 28, was in high spirits as she made her way to the appointment in a blue crop top and matching bottoms

Precaution: Adhering to current safety guidelines, Amy wore a protective mask as she underwent her consultation with Dr. Richard Marques

Amy was stepping out after detailing how she overcome her 'insecurities' following a trip to Dubai in 2019.

Taking to Instagram, the Love Island star reflected on 'wasting time on deciding whether her hips looked too big' as she encouraged her social media followers to 'stop worrying and enjoy life' amid the UK's coronavirus lockdown.

Sharing a selfie of herself in a green bikini, she wrote: 'Is anyone else using this time to think back on all the time theyve wasted in the past?

Getting ready: She was attending her final appointment as she prepares for a complete dental transformation, a procedure delayed by the ongoing coronavirus crisis

'I took this picture in the bathroom in Dubai to send to the holiday group chat. Id gone to change bikinis for paddle boarding and spent a good 15 mins deciding whether or not my hips looked too big.

'sent this to the girls to get their opinion on wether or not I was safe to venture out or if I should go back to the room and get something else.

'Now when I scroll through our Dubai pictures all I think of is how much fun we had and how I wish we could go again, not the insecurities I felt that day. So what Im saying is...enjoy your life, drink the wine and try to stop worrying.' [sic]

Priorities: With Brits desperate for a dental visit after three months behind closed doors, the former Love Island star was front of the queue
(UPDATE: Saginaw finds no violation of police policies or procedures in use of stun gun, arrest of demonstrator)

SAGINAW, MI - At its Monday, July 27, meeting, members of Saginaw City Council discussed the arrest and use of a stun gun on an activist that took place Sunday, July 26.

Earlier Monday, some council members watched a protest in support of Cornelius Phelps, whose arrest by Saginaw Police Department officers outside the Fraternal Order of Police building on Niagara Street was viewed widely in a video posted on Facebook. The video show officers used a stun gun on Phelps during the arrest after he did not follow their order to put his hands behind his back.

Many callers in the public online council meeting Monday condemned what they said was abuse of power, excessive force and unnecessary escalation on the part of police.

The man was on his hands and knees, pleading for help and making no attempt to attack any of the officers or be violent in any way, and a Taser was held to his back in an attempt to make him comply with a command that was given no pretense or justification, said resident Amy Spadafore. This Comply now, ask questions later mentality is the very definition of abuse of power, and that is what I saw in that video last night.

Council member Annie Boensch, like some other council members, said she knows Phelps well. She said shed like to see body camera footage of the incident made public.

We definitely need to be transparent and make sure that were holding people accountable, and we need to do so in a timely fashion, Boensch said. I also want to know how many times an officer is allowed to Taser an individual. I want to know if its appropriate to Taser someone whos already on the ground.

Council member Jamie Forbes said she was angered by the footage and concerned about the lack of deescalation. She has conflicting feelings about the phrase defund the police, she said, but agrees with many of the underlying ideas, which involve relying less on police for issues that can be handled by different professionals and reallocating funding accordingly.

People call 911 for all kinds of reasons, violence, mental health issues, domestic disagreements, abuse, loud noises, fireworks, traffic violations, drug issues, Forbes said. We expect so much from our officers. But I think its also reasonable that we take a step back and think about all the different ways that we as a society can solve these problems and analyze our current way of solving them... I think we can do better, I think that we must do better.

Council member Reggie Williams, who is also the Buena Vista Township police chief, said he expected to see a press release from the department before the meeting which could have answered many of the publics questions. He said he hopes to see something Tuesday.

He also thanked County Sheriff William Federspiel, Michigan State Police and Saginaw Police officers who did not participate in what he called the blue flu, referring to a wave of Saginaw officers calling in sick shortly after an officer was fired for alleged excessive force. In a statement, Saginaws patrol officers union said it did not coordinate a staff shortage.

We are grateful to those officers for sticking to their oath and doing their job during that time, Williams said. As far as the video is concerned... it is disturbing. I know this young man, and I know him to be someone you can talk to. This is a prime example of where deescalation techniques would come into play, when you have a citizen or civilian whom you can have dialogue with to bring the situation down from a 10 to a two.

Council member John Milne expressed frustration with the temporary police staffing shortage, including the loss of the K9 unit during that time.

Police union representatives claim to have support of businesses and citizens, Milne said. The businesses and citizens made their support known last March when they voted to extend the public safety millage for five years. For this, they expected the 20 patrol officers this funds to be at work and protecting the city. They reiterated this support in comments reported in public media after the shortage.

Mayor Floyd Kloc said the department will investigate the incident. If it is determined that officers violated the departments use of force or deescalation policies, Chief Robert N. Ruth will take action, Kloc said. He said he knows Phelps and called him a good man, but said its possible both he and police made mistakes in this situation.

Please understand, we dont have all the facts to make our determinations, Kloc said.

City Manager Tim Morales said hes been discussing the incident with Ruth since Sunday evening. He said the public should see a statement very soon. Ruth did not speak at Mondays City Council meeting and has not answered media requests for comment.

Read more:

Protesters in Saginaw focus on police unions after demonstrator is stun gunned and arrested

Saginaw Police Department back to full staff after recent officer shortage

Saginaw police officer fired for excessive force against woman, 57, hed arrested
Scenes of violence: A bloodied demonstrator is arrested by federal police at the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse yesterday in Oregon. Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

Protests in several major cities across the US turned violent as weeks of civil unrest and clashes between activists and authorities boiled over.

Police and racial justice protesters clashed in another tumultuous night that saw scores arrested after demonstrators took to the streets and police in some cities dispersed crowds with tear gas and pepper spray.

In Austin, Texas, a man was shot and killed in the midst of a downtown rally. In Richmond, Virginia, a truck was set ablaze outside police headquarters. Outside of Denver, Colorado, a vehicle sped through a crowd of people marching down a highway, when a shot was fired injuring a protester, police said.

The focal point of the protests continued to be in the Pacific North-west, where a week of clashes between activists and federal agents in Portland, Oregon, pumped new energy into a movement that began in the wake of George Floyd's death in police custody in Minneapolis, on May 25.

In Portland, the authorities declared a riot after protesters breached a fence surrounding the city's federal courthouse building. The "violent conduct of people downtown" created a "grave rise of public alarm," the Portland police wrote on Twitter.

Federal agents and local police demanded that protesters leave the area and used tear gas to try to disperse them. But the activists stood their ground. Several people were arrested.

A Marriott hotel in downtown Portland was shut down, and guests were asked to leave after hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside because it was believed that federal agents were staying there.

The crowd waved signs with messages such as "No more brutality!" as they stood on the riverside parkway outside the hotel and chanted: "Kick them out, Marriott!"

In Seattle, police declared a riot on Saturday afternoon and used pepper spray and flash grenades in an attempt to disperse a crowd of roughly 2,000 people in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood, marching in the city's largest Black Lives Matter protest in more than a month.

Nightly protests since Mr Floyd's killing had dwindled in recent weeks in Seattle.

But they were reinvigorated in the wake of federal action in the Portland protests and after Democratic Washington governor Jay Inslee tweeted that President Donald Trump had sent federal law enforcement agents to the city.

Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan, a Democrat, also said the president 'continues to exacerbate the situation on the ground, endanger communities, and jeopardise the work of local officials'. Portland's Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler, who was tear-gassed last week as he joined protesters, has described the agents an "occupying force."

But on Sunday, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, defended the presence of federal agents there, saying they're protecting a courthouse targeted by protesters.

"It has not only been vandalised, but they're trying to burn it down," he said on ABC's 'This Week'. "We can't have this in American cities. You've got people there and fencing there, but they're throwing Molotov cocktails, and doing all kinds of rioting."

In Aurora, Colorado, protesters marched on Interstate 225 in protest at the death of Elijah McClain, who died after being put in a chokehold last summer. A vehicle sped through the crowd, sending protesters running for safety.

"A protester decided to fire off a weapon, striking at least one other protester" police said on Twitter. That person was in stable condition yesterday.

On Austin's Congress Avenue, normally a site for music venues and bars, police were monitoring a crowd of protesters on Saturday night when senior officer Katrina Ratcliff said shots were fired, killing a man. The suspect was detained, she said, "and is cooperating with officers."

"Someone dying while protesting is horrible," Mayor Steve Adler of Austin said in a statement. "Our city is shaken and, like so many in our community, I'm heartbroken and stunned."
The Washington Post is providing this news free to all readers as a public service.

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Bengaluru, July 29 : Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda on Tuesday threatened to launch a statewide agitation if the BJP government did not withdraw the amendments to the Karnataka Land Reforms Act forthwith.

"As the amendments are anti-farmer and in favour of the real estate, we will launch an agitation across the state along with farmer and the rural people if they are not withdrawn," Deve Gowda told reporters here.

The amendments to the 1961 Act, made through an ordinance earlier this month, enable even non-farmers to purchase and own farmlands across the state for farming and agri-related activity.

"The BJP government has also amended the APMC Act, allowing private players to buy foodgrains, vegetables and fruits from farmers to their cost advantage," said Deve Gowda, a newly-elected Rajya Sabha member from the state.

As a farmer and son of the soil, he said the recent changes in the labour laws were also against workers and serve the interests of industrialists and factory owners.

"I have already written three letters to Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa urging him to withdraw the amendments to the Land Reforms Act and the APMC Act, failing which I will take to streets along with hundreds of farmers and rural people," he warned.

The May 14 amendment to the Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act, through an ordinance, is to lift restrictions on sale of farm produce and allow farmers to directly sell their crop in APMC yards or in private markets where they get the best price.

"By allowing anyone to buy and own farmlands, the pro-capitalist and pro-industry BJP government is helping land sharks to rob the livelihood of thousands of farmers and hit foodgrain production in the state," Deve Gowda claimed.

Defending the amendments, Yediyurappa said the amended Land Reforms Act permitted citizens who are not farmers to buy farmlands in the state to grow food crops but not use the land for other activities.

An official said that the amendments repealed sections 79 A, B and C from the 1961 Act, paving way for bonafide citizens to invest in agriculture lands and take to farming as a hobby, passion or additional occupation, which is rewarding.

The amended Act will also enable the state to attract investments in the farm sector and boost food production, as the sector's contribution to the gross domestic state product (GDSP) has been less than by the manufacturing and services sectors over the last 2 decades, the official said.

On the new APMC Act, the Chief Minister said the amendments would double the farmers' income as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The amendment will not dilute powers or work of APMCs, as all marketing activities will be monitored by the state APMC director, he clarified.

"The new law will stop exploitation of farmers by market forces, middlemen and commission agents and prevent them from selling their produce in distress when prices fall. They can sell their produce to those who pay them the highest price," Yediyurappa contended.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 20:34:22|Editor: huaxia

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Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak (C) arrives at the court in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 28, 2020. Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was found guilty of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering on Tuesday in a case related to SRC International, a former unit of state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). The verdict is the first in several corruption trials against Najib. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was found guilty of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering on Tuesday in a case related to SRC International, a former unit of state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

The verdict is the first in several corruption trials against Najib.

The case involves 42 million ringgits (9.9 million U.S. dollars) deposited into Najib's personal bank account from SRC International, in which Najib faced seven charges including criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of power.

In the reading out of the ruling, Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali ruled that the defence failed to raise reasonable doubt against the prosecution's case, hence he found Najib guilty of all seven charges.

The judge later sentenced Najib to 12 years of jail and 210 million ringgit (49.4 million U.S. dollars) fine for abuse of power; 10 years of jail for each of the three criminal breach of trust; and 10 years of jail for each of the three money laundering. All jail sentences to run concurrently.

Najib will be sentenced to additional 5 years of jail if he fails to pay the fine, said the judge.

But the judge granted an application by the defence on a stay of execution on both jail sentence and the fine pending Najib's appeal, while asking him to pay additional bail and to present himself to police twice a month.

Najib, 67, has pleaded not guilty to the charges and said ahead of the verdict that he would appeal if convicted.

The former prime minister was first prosecuted in July 2018. Last year, Najib entered defence after Judge ruled prosecution has established cases on all seven charges against him.

Najib has been slapped with dozens of charges for corruption, money laundering, power abuse and criminal breach of trust after his ruling coalition lost power during the national polls in May 2018.
In yet another case of kidnapping, extortion and murder in Uttar Pradesh, the state police on Tuesday recovered the body of a man 12 days after he was kidnapped from Kanpur.

The man, identified as Brajesh Pal, went missing from July 16 night from Dharam Kanta area. On July 17, his family received a call from Pal's number and the kidnappers demanded a ransom of Rs 20 lakh. His family members were given a time limit of five days.

The police found the body in a well in the Deorahat Police Station area. Pal worked as a manager in Dharam Kanta. The incident took place in the Chaura area in Bhognipur Kotwali region.
Busan International Finance Center / Courtesy of Busan Metropolitan Government



By Park Jae-hyuk



Busan is apparently suffering a setback in its grand scheme of being the next premier financial hub in Asia by attracting multinational banks, asset management companies and venture capital firms leaving Hong Kong.



Although the nation's second-largest city has declared it will carry out a series of aggressive marketing campaigns to attract global financial firms, the control tower for the plan is still facing multiple challenges, according to sources.



They said the Busan International Financial Promotion Agency launched in July to direct the city's financial hub vision could not form the organization as planned, because institutions that had funded its establishment refused to dispatch workers.



As a result, the agency has three employees at this moment  not including the president. It is looking for additional financial experts in order to increase the number of its workers to 12 by the end of this year and gradually increase the number of staff to 20.



In collaboration with the agency, the Busan Metropolitan Government initially planned to hold a web conference this month to introduce the city to financial firms in Hong Kong. But the event was postponed to August, according to the city government.



Busan also wants to conduct an on-site investor roadshow in Hong Kong and visit companies there, when Hong Kong's travel restrictions are lifted. However, most of Busan's projects regarding its financial hub vision will be unavailable until next year, according to sources, due to the agency's workforce shortage.



A Busan-based civic group has expressed concerns about the agency's President Kim Jong-hwa, a former Bank of Korea deputy governor and the former president of the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute.



"His appointment was decided by a committee comprised of officials from institutions that paid for the agency's establishment, excluding any outside experts," the Busan Citizen Network for Saving the Economy said in a statement. "The agency's incumbent board also consists of the heads of those institutions."



A top executive of one of the nation's leading private equity firms told The Korea Times that an expert from the private sector should have led the city's efforts to become the financial hub, instead of the incumbent president who built most of his career at the central bank.



"I am skeptical whether Busan will be able to achieve its goal or not," he said.



Data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service showed 64 foreign financial firms have entered the Korean market since the government designated Busan as a financial center here. But none of them opened their offices in Busan, while 62 opened in Seoul and two in Gyeonggi Province.



According to commercial think tank Z/Yen's global financial centers index measuring the competitiveness of financial centers, Seoul and Busan ranked 33rd and 51st in March, respectively, among 108 cities worldwide.



Against this backdrop, financial industry officials have predicted Singapore to replace Hong Kong as Asia's premier financial hub, pointing out that Korea still has too many regulatory obstacles to make it attractive.


The Halifax-class frigate HMCS Fredericton returns to Halifax on July 28, 2020 after completing a six-month deployment in the Mediterranean Sea. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)

HMCS Fredericton Returns After Six Month Mission Marked by Tragic Helicopter Crash

HALIFAXNearly three months after a helicopter crash claimed the lives of six crew members, HMCS Fredericton returned to its home port of Halifax Tuesday.

After a six-month deployment, the Royal Canadian Navy frigate sailed into port accompanied by Nova Scotias fabled schooner Bluenose II and the navys training sailing vessel HMCS Oriole.

A navy band played military music and a line of Air Force personnel stood dockside holding cardboard letters spelling out: Welcome Home!

But in remarks to the crew and gathered dignitaries, the vessels commanding officer, Cmdr. Blair Brown, referred to the tragedy that coloured the mission.

When we departed in January, none of us knew the challenges that we would be facing overseas on Operation Reassurance, Brown said.

The mission was rocked when the frigates CH148 Cyclone helicopterknown as Stalker 22crashed into the Ionian Sea off the coast of Greece on April 29 while returning from a NATO training mission. That crash caused the worst single-day loss of life for the Canadian Armed Forces since six soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan on July 4, 2007.

The loss of our shipmates in the crash of Stalker had a profound impact on all of us, Brown said, as family members of two crash victims, Sub-Lt. Abbigail Cowbrough and Sub-Lt. Matthew Pyke, looked on clutching bouquets of flowers.

Capt. Brenden Ian MacDonald, Capt. Kevin Hagen, Capt. Maxime Miron-Morin and Master Cpl. Matthew Cousins were also killed in the April crash.

The loss of this outstanding group of sailors and aviators was felt by every single one of us on board every day and has left a space in our hearts that will remain there for all of our days, Brown said.

The ship was docked in Italy for two weeks following the fatal incident and resumed its mission in the Mediterranean Sea in mid-May.

Brown said the decision to continue the mission may have been hard for some to understand, but it was an important part of Canadas commitment to its allies.

Our role in Operation Reassurance was vital, and our ships company displayed tremendous resilience, a positive attitude and commitment to that mission, he said.

He then thanked the Canadian public for its support following the tragedy, saying it was vital in helping the crew complete its task.

We received so many care packages, cards from across our nation that they covered the bulkheads the wallsin the ship, Brown said.

A Royal Canadian Air Force flight safety investigation into the circumstances of the crash is ongoing. The investigation is focused on aircraft systems and human factors as possible causes of the crash.

Brown addressed his crew before they were allowed to leave the ship.

Despite immense challenges, both physical and mental, your resilience and commitment was steadfast, and you got it done, he said. Enjoy your reunion with your families.

Earlier, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Gen. Jonathan Vance, chief of the defence staff, had boarded the frigate before it reached land and sailed into port with the crew. The ship was officially welcomed by Nova Scotia Lt.-Gov. Arthur LeBlanc.

The Halifax-class frigate arrived amid COVID-19 measures, which drastically changed normal return protocols. Everyone on the dock was wearing a mask, and the sailors were transported by bus to reunite with family at a separate part of the base.

Brown said that prior to docking, the ships company had been in isolation for 14 days and showed no signs of COVID-19 infection.

By Keith Doucette
PITTSBURGH, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- "I thought there should be a way to warn a commercial trailer driver if the liftgate is left in a lowered position before driving," said an inventor, from Palos Heights, Ill., "so I invented the LIFTGATE POSITION WARNING ALERT."

The patent-pending invention provides an effective monitoring and warning system for commercial trailers with liftgates. In doing so, it ensures that the liftgate is fully raised and locked before the trailer is in motion or while driving. As a result, according to the inventor, it will help to prevent liftgate damage and it will enhance safety. The invention features a simple design that is specifically designed for commercial trailers with commercial liftgates. Additionally, once installed on the trailer, this system will operate with any tractor on the market.

The inventor described the invention design. "My design will help to prevent liftgate damage caused by driver error."

The original design was submitted to the Chicago sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 19-CCP-1589, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.

SOURCE InventHelp

Related Links

http://www.inventhelp.com


By PTI

LAHORE: Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, currently in London for treatment, on Tuesday informed a court here that he is unable to return to the country as his doctors have told him not to go out due to fear of contracting coronavirus.

The 70-year-old three-time premier is currently in London for treatment after he was diagnosed with an immune system disorder.

He left for the UK in November last year after the Lahore High Court granted him four-week permission to go abroad for treatment.

In his latest medical report, which he submitted to the Lahore High Court (LHC) through his counsel Amjad Pervaiz, doctors have recommended him to avoid going outside due to the coronavirus.

Sharif said he has low platelets counts, diabetes, heart, kidney and blood pressure related problems.

"His heart is not getting an adequate supply of blood," the report says and adds that he may contract COVID-19 if he goes outside or return which may prove fatal for his life.

Sharif submitted his medical report to the LHC in connection with its permission to go abroad for his treatment.

His daughter Maryam Nawaz had said her father was a high-risk patient therefore his cardiac catheterisation/coronary intervention had been postponed owing to COVID-19.

Earlier this month, a Pakistani anti-corruption court gave Sharif a final chance to appear before it on August 17 in a graft case, failing which he may be declared a proclaimed offender.

ALSO READ | Pakistan court gives last chance to Nawaz Sharif to appear in corruption case

In the Toshakhana case, the accountability court issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Sharif.

Sharif is accused of taking cars from Toshakhana by paying 15 per cent of the price of these vehicles.

Sharif left for London in November after the Lahore High Court granted him four-week permission to go abroad for treatment.

He had submitted an undertaking to the court to return to Pakistan citing his record of facing the law and justice within four weeks or as soon as he is declared healthy and fit to travel by doctors.

He was also given bail in the Al-Azizia Mills corruption case in which he was serving a seven-year sentence in Kot Lakhpat Jail and in a money laundering case to facilitate his travel abroad.

Sharif has been diagnosed with complicated coronary artery/ischemic heart disease.

Last month, the country's anti-graft body filed a corruption case against Sharif, Jang/Geo media group owner Mir Shakilur Rahman and two others in a land case in Lahore's accountability court.

According to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Sharif in 1986, when he was the Punjab chief minister, allotted 54 kanal land in Lahore to Mir Shakilur Rehman in violation of rules.

Rahman has been on judicial remand after his arrest by the NAB on March 12.

Since Sharif did not respond to any of the NAB's summons and questions, his arrest warrants had already been issued and the bureau announced to have moved the accountability court to declare him a proclaimed offender.
China has called for an expansion of CPEC, and the Belt and Road Initiative, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nepal. Amid deteriorating relations with India, the meeting marks an unprecedented shift in Chinese foreign policy in the region, being the first Chinese call for multilateral cooperation in South Asia without India.

China, on monday, called for a four way cooperation amongst China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nepal

Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, said on Monday, that Afghanistan, Nepal and Pakistan should work together to extend China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), to Afghanistan. Over video conference, he spoke of four-party cooperation to overcome the Covid-19 crisis and work on other projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The video conference, supposedly organized to discuss the Coronavirus pandemic, comes at a time when India-China relations are worsening day by day. It was joined by Pakistans foreign and economic ministers, Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Khushro Bakhtiar, Nepals foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali and Afghanistans acting foreign minister Hanif Atmar.

Yi called for cooperation to, actively promote the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the trans-Himalayan three-dimensional interconnectivity network, support the extension of [CPEC] to Afghanistan, and further release the regional interconnection dividend.

Also Read: China collecting DNA samples to develop tool for genetic surveillance: Report

Also Read: UK-India to collaborate in anti-microbial resistance research worth 8 million pounds

He released another statement on Monday, calling for the four nations to give, full play to geographic advantages, strengthen exchanges and connections between the four countries and Central Asian countries, and maintain regional peace and stability.

While it is unprecedented for China to call for such inter-nation cooperation in the area without involving India, the move fits the current thrust of Chinese foreign policy.

Citing the example of iron brother ties between Islamabad and Beijing, Yi called for Nepal and Afghanistan to cooperate with them in order to counter the pandemic.

Yi also indicated that Beijing would look at a more permanent cooperation mechanism with the South Asian trifecta, rather than a temporary pandemic relief partnership.

The meeting was an attempt to legitimize Beijings narrative of a more involved presence in a war-stricken Afghanistans. Nepal used it to signal its increasingly close ties with China, amid a hostile shift in Indian relations.

Wang called on the four nations to work together to make arrangements for epidemic prevention, economic revitalization and personnel exchanges. Under the rubric of anti-epidemic cooperation, the nations should open fast channels and green channels for personnel and logistics as soon as possible, as well, according to Yang. They should also strengthen joint prevention and control in border areas, and frame jointly recognised standard operating procedures for epidemic notification, prevention, management and control, while firmly promoting the BRI, and the resumption of key collaborative projects. He also called upon them to maintain stability in supply lines and engineer new growth in the digital sector.

Also Read: First U.S Presidential debate to be held on September 29

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Russia pretends it allegedly has nothing to do with the Donbas conflict, seeking to secure international sanctions lift, Reznikov stresses.

Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksiy Reznikov has noted that the statement by Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov who said Russia could not guarantee compliance with the latest truce in Donbas points to the Kremlin's unwillingness to fulfill the agreements reached on a full and comprehensive ceasefire.

Speaking at an online discussion on security and political challenges of the Minsk peace process and the Normandy format on Tuesday, he was asked to comment on Peskov's statement, an UNIAN correspondent reports.

"There are people who negotiate in the Trilateral Contact Group and there are those who draft official statements or comment on them. And even if the signature is the same, authors still vary. I would like to draw the attention of the respected audience that the statements of the gentleman you are referring to aren't addressed primarily to Ukraine. They are primarily addressed to the Russian audiences, internally," Reznikov said.

Read alsoUkraine's FM calls on EU to stick to sanctions policies toward Russia

Deputy PM added that these statements by Peskov also target the EU and other nations. "They are trying to convince them that sanctions should be lifted off of them because they are allegedly not participants in this military international armed conflict. Therefore, this man says they cannot be responsible for observing ceasefire and for this truce. I'd like to clarify, they can't and they don't want to do this precisely in order not to reveal that they are really directly involved in this hybrid war," Reznikov said.

Also, Reznikov said, all military armed formations in the areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions beyond the control of Ukrainian government are part of Russia's first and second army corps, and it's Russian officers who are in command.

As UNIAN reported earlier, participants in the Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine, Russia, OSCE) on the peace settlement in Donbas on July 22 agreed on a complete and comprehensive ceasefire on the contact line from 00:01 on Monday, July 27.

Read alsoUkraine's NSDC warns Russian army drills in Crimea may turn into "active phase of hostilities"

The new ceasefire regime began to operate in Donbas at 00:01 Kyiv time on July 27.

Vladimir Putin's Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said the Kremlin cannot guarantee ceasefire implementation.

"I don't think we can talk about any guarantees on the part of Russia in this case since Russia is not a party to the conflict in the south-east of Ukraine," Peskov told reporters.

At the same time, Peskov said the Kremlin would not comment on the documents issued by the Office of the President of Ukraine where hostilities in Donbas are referred to as an international conflict rather than what Moscow claims is an internal one, while denying any involvement. "How can we comment on the internal documents by the Office of the President of Ukraine. Definitions are the same, contained in documents that have been jointly endorsed or signed. I urge to proceed from formulations envisaged in the Minsk package of measures," Peskov said.
The coronavirus transmission rate in Connecticut has risen slightly above one, meaning that COVID-19 may have started to spread again in the state, albeit slowly, even as new case numbers remain low.

If that is greater than one, the number of cases is going to grow, Virginia Pitzer, an associate professor of the epidemiology of microbial disease at the Yale School of Public Health, explained about the transmission rate. If thats less than one, the number of cases is going to decline. There's some evidence that suggests that Connecticut cases are maybe growing a little bit right now.

The transmission rate is a calculated number designed to show how many people will be infected by each person with the illness, on average.

Three independent tracking sites all show the transmission rate in Connecticut, sometimes denoted as Rt, above the threshold. COVID ActNow, which partners with Georgetown and Stanford universities, indicates a transmission rate of 1.18.

Rt.live, built in part by Instagram founder Kevin Systrom, shows a transmission rate slightly lower, 1.03 in Connecticut, the 29th highest in the nation.

Covidestim, the transmission rate tracking tool built by Yale University researchers, Pitzer among them, shows a transmission rate of 1.12, the fourth highest in the United States.

Gov. Ned Lamonts office contends the increase is the result of a statistical calculation, as one testing lab reported nearly two months of results on Friday  with 440 new cases.

To punctuate that point, the administration released the its regular Monday report showing 207 positive COVID-19 cases since Saturday, out of 31,960 tests  a rate of 0.6 percent, among the nations lowest.

Weve now had a one percent or so positivity rate over the last month, so theres for now a fair amount of consistency there, Lamont said. Obviously the ability to maintain a low infection rate is key to everything we want to try and do a month from now when it comes to schools, et cetera.

The state had an additional five fatalities, bringing the total dead in the pandemic to 4,418. There was a net reduction of 12 hospitalizations, with the statewide total down to 59.

Experts treat the transmission rate  a calculation based on a complex algorithm  with caution, as its derived, rather than counted, like deaths or hospitalizations.

While it can be a leading indicator, and can be a useful indicator of whether or not we have become complacent in maintaining social distancing measures, as Pitzer said, a small rise does not mean the coronavirus is beginning to bloom again.

While an Rt slightly above one may indicate the transmission is starting to increase again, it is not really all that different from having an Rt of 0.99, Pizer said. Also, if you are starting from a relatively low number of infections, it does not mean that we are going to see another big wave of cases tomorrow.

On Friday, when the state released the updated coronavirus case counts, Lamont Spokesman Max Reiss sad, the release included a large set of data provided by an out-of-state lab on tests that were conducted on Connecticut residents between May 23 and July 20 and not reported to the state of Connecticut until today. This data set provided by the out-of-state lab includes approximately 12,000 tests, 440 of which were positive.

The numbers reported for the one day are skewing the transmission figure, Reiss said. Taken as one day, its an increase, but over the period the states numbers continue to be very low.

Pitzer, however, said Yale tracking tool, at least, takes those fluctuations into account, estimating transmission rates based on the inferred number of new infections, which corrects for the inherent delays and biases in the reporting process and the natural history of the disease.

In fact, Pitzer said she and her colleagues estimate that Connecticuts transmission rate has been slightly above one for over a month, although there is a lot of uncertainty in these estimates.

Pitzer said the Rt estimate jumps a little bit at the end (which may reflect Friday's data), but has been pretty consistent in estimating that Rt has been at or slightly above one since mid-June.

The method we are using does not really allow for big jumps in Rt (or reported infections), which should help to smooth over data dumps such as that, she said.

Lamont, for his part, continued to drive home the point about distancing. He praised out-of-state travelers who have filled out about 5,000 online forms, allowing the state to track them in case of an outbreak of the virus. Those from 31 states with high rates of infection, including Florida, where most visitors come from, are required to self-quarantine for 14 days upon entering the state.

That just tells us that fortunately people are voluntarily taking this quarantine very seriously, for which were most-appreciative, Lamont said.

Lamont said there have been 1,800 inquiries on the issue to state officials through the state Department of Public Health and the 211.

The governor said that parties of young people in Fairfield County have resulted in spreading COVID-19 in that part of the state, including a shared vaping pen.

We have to be very careful because that is where the flare-ups have come before, Lamont said.

Staff Writer Ken Dixon contributed to this story
Seizing Opportunities and Understanding Risks



In todays industrial and knowledge-based society, technology is a key factor in almost all areas of life. Technology offers protection and enables mobility and communication, but it also creates risks. Science and technology have to react to fundamental societal challenges. Use of renewable energy sources or social and ecological globalization will hardly be managed without scientific reflection or technical innovation. At the KIT Humans and Technology Center, more than 400 scientists study the interactions of humans and technology, on the one hand, and science and technology, on the other. They address aspects of the relationship between humans and technology that are relevant to society from social, ethical, cultural, political, economic, legal, and psychological perspectives. In this way, the KIT Humans and Technology Center contributes to understanding, initiating, and evaluating socially required and technically challenging transformation processes.
Princess Beatrice's new four-year-old stepson is seen for the first time at his father's wedding in a new photograph that has emerged online.

Christopher, known of Wolfie, whose mother is Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi's ex-partner Dara Huang, served as page boy and best man to his father at the intimate 20-person service at the Royal Chapel of All Saints, in Windsor.

Smartly dressed in a shirt and trousers, Wolfie is seen leaving the church behind Edo, 36, and beaming Beatrice, 31, although his face is not visible.

The snap, taken by photographer Benjamin Wheeler, was shared on Instagram this week by wedding florist Rob Van Helden Floral Design but later removed.

Princess Beatrice's new four-year-old stepson is seen for the first time at his father's wedding in a new photograph that has emerged online. Wolfie's arm can be glimpsed behind Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi's leg in this image that was shared by the couple's official florist

The post received almost 1,800 likes, including one from the groom himself, who also shared a prayer hand and heart emoji to communicate his appreciation. It has since been removed

The company shared the caption: 'What a week....!!! Thank you SO, SO MUCH for all your most kind messages....

'SO grateful for the honour and privilege to have been part of the wedding of Her Royal Highness, Princess Beatrice of York and Mr. Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. Wishing them a life filled with love and happiness [sic].'

The post has received almost 1,800 likes, including one from the groom himself, who also shared a prayer hand and heart emoji to communicate his appreciation.

Four official photographs were released by the Royal Family the day after the surprise secret nuptials and a fifth has been shared on Instagram by proud husband Edo.

This is the first to offer a glimpse of Wolfie, who was given an important role at the ceremony and was one of just 20 people who attended the July 17 service.

It is similar to one of the photographs released previously but shows the newlyweds from a different angle. Beatrice wears the 1953 Norman Hartnell dress borrowed from the Queen and the Queen Mary tiara the monarch wore on her own wedding day.

Property developer Edo fell for the Princess after meeting her at the wedding of her sister Princess Eugenie to Jack Brooksbank in October 2018.

At the time he was living with his fiancee Dara Huang, 38, Wolfie's glamorous architect mother.

Christopher, known of Wolfie, whose mother is Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi's ex-partner Dara Huang, served as page boy and best man to his father at the intimate 20-person service at the Royal Chapel of All Saints, in Windsor. Pictured, the couple

Ms Huang remains very much involved in Edo and Beatrice's life and the three are now firm friends. 'She and Beatrice get along well,' a friend has previously said. 'Beatrice is very kind and sweet to Wolfie.'

Beatrice and Edo are thought to be enjoying a modest honeymoon in France.

The couple were spotted by an eagle-eyed tourist as they drove a small car absolutely packed to the roof with stuff in the south of France.

It was such a surprise to see them, the tourist told the Mail On Sunday. Edo was behind the wheel and they looked just like any other couple enjoying the beautiful drive.

Low key: Princess Beatrice and her new husband Edoardo Edo Mapelli Mozzi, pictured together on their wedding wedding day on July 17, have been spotted by an eagle-eyed tourist driving together in the south of France on their honeymoon

A source said Beatrice and Edo, 36, had planned to skip a traditional honeymoon, but decided at the last minute to take a trip across the Channel.

The wedding was arranged in a couple of weeks, and with lockdown their choice of honeymoon destinations was severely curtailed.

They werent going to bother but at the last minute they decided to pack up the car and head out. Theyre a very down-to-earth couple.

It is understood that they are planning a trip to Lamu Island, off Kenya, where Edos family own a home and where he took Beatrice in the early days of their romance.
Housing sales dropped 79 per cent in eight major cities in April-June as demand for new residences saw a huge downturn amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Real estate brokerage firm PropTiger said in its report Real Insight: Q2 2020 that sales dipped to 19,038 units.

Sale of residential properties had dipped 52 per cent across the eight cities in January-June period. The cities included Delhi-NCR (including Noida, Greater Noida, Gurugram, Ghaziabad and Faridabad), MMR (including Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane), Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune.

Hyderabad saw the sharpest decline of 86 per cent to 1,099 units in April-June as against 8,122 units in the same period the previous year. Ahmedabad also saw 83 per cent decline to 1,181 units in the same period, compared to 6,784 units in the year-ago period.

NCR saw 81 per cent decline in sales to 1,886 units in April-June as against 9,759 units in the previous year.

Sales in Kolkata, Pune, Bengaluru and Chennai fell 75 per cent, 74 per cent, 73 per cent and 70 per cent in the April-June period. Kolkata sold 1,317 units as against 5,268 units the year before, while Pune sold 4,908 units against last year's 18,581 units. Bengaluru saw a dip from 10,251 units last year to 2,776 units in April-June, while Chennai said a fall to 1,312 units from 4,364 units.

"The current pandemic is an unprecedented Black Swan event that is expected to contract growth in the global economy, including that of India. As anticipated, demand was adversely impacted due to economic uncertainty combined with growing unemployment," Mani Rangarajan, Group COO of Housing.com, Makaan.com and PropTiger, as mentioned in a report in Business Standard.

Also read: Loan moratorium may continue for select sectors post August; check out details

Also read: Embassy Group proposed to merge 62 sq ft realty projects with Indiabulls Real Estate
ZAMBOANGA CITY  Eight villages in the southern Philippine province of Sulu are now free from the influence of the pro-ISIS group Abu Sayyaf...
(Newser)  The orca who carried the body of her dead calf for 17 days over 1,000 miles may get another shot at motherhood. Tahlequah was found to be pregnant during a recent study of the body condition of critically endangered southern resident orcas off the Northwest coast. John Durban of Southall Environmental Associates and Holly Fearnbach of nonprofit SR3 found pregnancies amid the J, K, and L pods through drone images, reports the Seattle Times. Tahlequah's middle was noticeably larger than in an image from September, per People. It's not exactly clear when Tahlequah, of the J pod, might give birth, but the gestation period for orcas is 15 to 18 months. Sadly, up to 69% of all detectable pregnancies in the southern resident population are ultimately unsuccessful, according to a 2017 study.

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It found 33% of pregnancies "failed relatively late in gestation or immediately post-partum" due to stress from hunger. The population of 72 whales is suffering from low numbers of Chinook salmon in their traditional hunting grounds, now frequented by fishermen and noisy vessels which disrupt the whales' hunting practices. Tahlequah's 2018 calf was the first born to the population in three years but it lived only 30 minutes. There have since been two more births, one each in J and L pods, and both calves are still living. However, several juveniles in the group look thin, including Tahlequah's living offspring, J-47. "We are concerned if she has a calf, will she be able to look after herself and the calf and J-47, too?" Durban says, per the Times. Fearnbach describes the whales as "critically stressed." (Read more orca stories.)
Shut for more than four months following the coronavirus outbreak, the Delhi Metro, the lifeline of the National Capital Region, has lost Rs 1,000 crore in revenue, sources have told Moneycontrol.

The DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) earns Rs 10 crore every day. The total revenue loss so far has been over Rs 1,000 crore ever since the lockdown, sources said.

The country went into lockdown on March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus that has known to have infected more than 14.8 lakh people. At least 33,425 people have died while there has been a spike in new cases in recent weeks.

The DMRC, which has 300 trains running on eight lines that make 5,000 trips a day carrying around 1.8 million passengers, hasnt earned a penny in the past four months.

Its income through other sources such as commercial and retail leases has also dried up during the pandemic.

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

DMRCs tenants businesses, including retail and commercial properties, too, have been affected badly. They have written to us asking us to defer rental payments. We are looking at government guidelines on this," Anuj Dayal, Executive Director, Corporate Communications, DMRC, told Moneycontrol.

The government has been easing restrictions since late May and opening up the economy in a staggered manner.

Unlock 3.0, or Phase 3 of relaxing restrictions, begins August 1 but it is not clear if the Metro will be allowed to resume operations though Delhi has seen a drop in coronavirus infections.

The decision to reopen the network lies with the government, said Dayal. As and when they decide, we are on standby. We should be in a position to open the metro within two to three days as soon as the government takes the decision, he said.

Protocols are in place for social distancing and sanitisation procedures, he said.

In its Unlock 3.0 roadmap, the industry body Ficci has suggested that the government reopens multiplexes, cinemas and metro rail, and allows international flights, among others while adhering to safety precautions.

Trains should not stop at stations that fall in containment zones and security personnel should ensure adherence to safety guidelines, it said.

Metro services may start with less than 50 percent capacity initially that can be increased gradually, along with contactless ticketing as far as possible.

In Mumbai, suburban train services resumed from June 15 but only for workers providing essential services.

Infrastructure experts said it would be difficult to maintain social distancing in the metro. Though metro networks had reopened in several countries, there were few takers for public transport.

Most global metro systems have reopened with 60 to 100 percent of running capacity but passenger patronage has been a dismal 20 to 25 percent. The reason is that people are still wary of using public transport, said Ajay Sharma, Managing Director, Valuation Services at Colliers International India.

What about the losses?

It will be some time before services can resume and DMRC will have to come up with a plan to recover losses.

Any metro project has two sources of revenue  farebox, which accounts for almost 80 to 90 percent that includes ticketing, passes, sales and non-fare box revenue, which accounts for 10 to 20 percent. It is recovered through commercial and retail leases on DMRC land.

Though trains have not been running there are fixed costs-- maintaining the network and salaries, said Sharma.

Operational losses cannot be made up of non-fare revenue. Also, metro systems cannot recover losses completely.

They can at best offset a certain percentage of the loss by increasing ridership, enhancing frequency and speed up construction work on new corridors, Sharma said.

Some of the other options recover losses is through the Value Capture Finance mechanism, wherein additional taxes can be levied on properties located around new lines and through Transit-Oriented Development, wherein additional floor space index can be provided for land parcels close to the station.

But both these methods are for the long term and new lines. In the short term, the metro could shore up revenue by improving density, increasing the frequency of trains and higher ridership, he added.

On July 26, the Delhi Metro cast its first pier on the under-construction Janakpuri West-RK Ashram Marg corridor. The 28.92km-long corridor is an extension of the Magenta Line and will have 22 stations.

It has also been reported that DMRC may not be able to pay this years instalment of the Rs 35,198-crore soft loan it has taken from Japan International Cooperation Agency for construction.

Reports in a section of media have said that DMRC has requested the Centre to bail it out by deferring the payment to next year.
Several fuel tankers have caught fire at a truck park near the western Iranian city of Kermanshah, sparking panic among local residents.

Governor Fazlollah Ranjbar was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying that the fire broke out on July 28 during repair work to a heavy vehicle before spreading to seven others.

The governor, however, denied there was an explosion.

"We did not have any explosions anywhere in the city today and the black smoke that citizens see in the sky of Kermanshah metropolis was related to the fire in this truck park," Ranjbar said.

The blaze was contained by firefighters and rescue efforts were still ongoing, he added.

Five people including four firefighters were injured, an emergency services spokesperson told French news agency AFP.

The tankers did not belong to the Oil Ministry but to a private company, according to local authorities.

The incident is the latest in a string of unexplained explosions and fires at military and civilian sites across Iran in recent weeks.

Two explosions hit Tehran late last month, one near a military site and the other in a health center, the latter killing 19 people.

Fires or blasts also rocked a shipyard in southern Iran and the Natanz nuclear complex in central Iran this month.

Officials said the Natanz fire was an accident, before adding they would not reveal the cause for "security reasons."

Based on reporting by AFP and dpa
While the world may be in the middle of a historic pandemic, that still isnt enough to stifle Canadian actor and filmmaker Jay Baruchels excitement as his most recent film, Random Acts of Violence, is finally being released to the general public after about 10 years of work.

Its been Christmas Eve for a decade, Baruchel told Yahoo Canada. With every year added into the development, it just made the coming out more sweet.

The horror flick will have its Toronto premiere at The 5 Drive-In in Oakville, Ont. on Jul. 29, after making its debut at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas last year. Although this movie may not be getting the theatrical release one may expect, Baruchel maintains that safety during this health crisis should be the priority and hes happy to have people see the film in their homes.

If theres a safe way for people to see it in a theatre then thats awesome but I dont need that, Baruchel said. I dont subscribe to the romance of the movie theatre,...when I say that I mean, I look back over my 38 years of watching movies, the vast, vast, vast majority were at home.

I also knew going in that this was not Harry Potter or a Marvel movie, so this was always going to be a small thing and chances are it was going to find its audience in peoples houses.

Jay Baruchel on set of his new film "Random Acts of Violence." (Elevation Pictures)

Were not the same guys that we were when we wrote the very first treatment

Fans of Baruchels previous work, like his acting in Tropical Thunder and Million Dollar Baby, lending his voice to the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, his directorial debut in the the second Goon film, or even hosting the classic Canada television show Popular Mechanics for Kids, may not know that he is a massive horror and action cinema fan, calling it his raison d'etre.

I made horror movies with my friends all throughout high school, including the guy that I wrote this movie with, Jesse [Chabot], Baruchel said. We were huge Fangoria heads and big Fantasia nerds, wed cue up at Fantasia like a mother f---er every single year.

Story continues

Based on the comic by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, Random Acts of Violence follows Slasherman comic book creator Todd (Jesse Williams), his wife Kathy (Jordana Brewster), assistant Aurora (Niamh Wilson) and best friend, Hard Calibre Comics owner Ezra (Baruchel), on a road trip from Toronto to New York City for comic con.

Todd is struggling to figure out an ending to his series, while Kathy is in the process of working on a book documenting the stories of the victims of the serial killer who inspired the Slasherman saga. On the journey, the group discovers that someone is using the comics as inspiration for a series of killings.

Baruchel and Chabots passion and care for the film comes through in Random Acts of Violence, which sets itself apart for some of the more slapdash horror flicks in more recent years. Each of the main characters have been developed with their own story to tell.

There seems to be a feeling of a lot of slasher cinema that youre kind of...at a certain point rooting for all the kills to just...get them over with, and you dont see yourself in any of these characters or even really enjoy hanging out with them, Baruchel said.

As the deaths continue to occur on their road trip, many involving women and families, Todd has to grapple with the mental and emotional impact of such real-life violence being drawn from his work.

The kind of dialectic thats contained in the film is definitely a product of our script not getting made into a movie, Baruchel said. The debates in our film, and the kind of commentary and questions posed, are debates and questions and commentaries that we have made ourselves about our film.

Random Acts of Violence showcases a striking use of greens, reds and yellows to effectively set the scene for the eerie truths revealed throughout the story, and the gruesome murders.

It felt close to what it used to be to just make movies for fun

In terms of his approach to directing the film, Baruchel said he wanted the set of Random Acts of Violence to feel the way he felt with legendary directors Clint Eastwood and David Cronenberg, stress-free places to work. He also pulled directing inspiration from Ben Stiller who welcomed feedback and new ideas from the actors in Tropic Thunder.

Tropic Thunder would have been every bit as funny as it is, had we shot just exactly the way it was written, because that script was strong as hell, but he also knew that he has Jack Black and Robert Downey, and they might have some ideas that didnt occur to him that might make the movie better, he said.

I felt a degree of freedom on that set that I didnt really necessarily have the right to feel because who the f--- was I compared to them and yet, I always felt that if I had an interesting...piece to come up with that would add something to the scene, I always felt free to do it.

Since beginning his career at the age of 12, Baruchel has discovered the common thread between the sets he like working on the most.

I realized, why I like those sets so much, is it felt close to what it used to be to just make movies for fun on the weekends with my friends in high school and thats kind of the vibe I want, he said.

I see no reason why we cant kind of step in

Baruchel is also known for his commitment to making Canadians films, both shot and set in the country, including Random Acts of Violence. But while COVID-19 persists he is taking the lead from Canadas health experts on how to move forward in the film industry.

With leaders like B.C. Premier John Horgan saying major American studios are looking at Hollywood north to shoot their films, as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the U.S., Baruchel agreed that this could be a good opportunity for Canadas film industry, but only if its safe.

If it is legitimately doable and safe and feasible then why the f--- not and it could be a really good thing for the art form and the industry up here, he said. If they seem to think it is and it seems to work then yeah, I see no reason why we cant kind of step in.

Random Acts of Violence will be available in theatres and on-demand platforms in Canada on Jul. 31. The film will be on U.S. streaming service Shudder on Aug. 20.
Workers at a major meat plant in Melbournes west have returned to work after earlier refusing to start a shift over concerns about a large number of coronavirus cases linked with the plant.

About 45 workers had met at JBS in Brooklyn before 5am on Tuesday and resolved not to start work but after talks with management and some changes to work practices they agreed to return later in the day.

The JBS site has been linked to a major COVID-19 cluster Credit:Joe Armao

The JBS site has been linked to a major outbreak of COVID-19, a cluster of 76 cases.

It is one of a number of outbreaks in the Victorian meat industry, including 99 cases at Somerville Retail Services in Tottenham, 89 cases at Bertocchi Smallgoods in Thomastown and 50 cases linked to the Australian Lamb Company in Colac.
Mr Kwame Dadzawa, the Presiding Member (PM) of South Dayi District Assembly in the Volta Region, has commended the Electoral Commission (EC) for the peaceful conduct of the registration exercise in the District.



The PM, who is also the First Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the District, said the District had not recorded any incident of disruption of the process since the exercise began and attributed the outcome to the professionalism of the EC.



He also extolled the EC for making available the necessary COVID-19 preventive materials, Veronica buckets, liquid soap, tissue papers and hand sanitizers at all the centres, to enable people to observe the safety protocols to avoid the spread of the disease.



Mr Dadzawa, who was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, after a tour of some centres in the District, also commended the security personnel at the various centres for discharging their duties effectively and maintaining peace and order.



He, however, observed that some registrants were not adhering to the protocols of wearing masks at some centres, and entreated them to abide by the health safety protocols in order not to make themselves and the registration officials candidates of the novel coronavirus.



Mr Dadzawa also implored parents not to allow their underage children to register as it was a crime punishable by law.



He urged the Assembly members to intensify education on the health safety protocols in their various electoral areas to help curb the spread of the pandemic and mitigate its impact on the society.



Mr Dadzawa said the fight against the novel coronavirus required a collective effort and called on the citizenry to offer the needed support to the government in its quest to stem the spread of the virus.



He also lauded the health personnel in the District and those at the various registration centres for effective delivery of their core mandate and called on the residents in the District to support them in the fight against COVID-19.

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.

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Evangelical university blocks lecture by pro-life activist Star Parker

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An evangelical university in Minnesota has blocked a conservative student group from hosting a lecture by African-American pro-life activist Star Parker because of her radically held beliefs.

The University of Northwestern  St. Paul informed its chapter of Young Americas Foundation, a conservative student group, last month that it could not hold an open event featuring the 62-year-old conservative activist.

Parker is the founder of the 800-pastor network Center for Urban Renewal and Education and has long argued that the conservative agenda of traditional values, limited government and free markets are the greatest benefit to low-income Americans, especially African-Americans, in inner cities.

She has also long spoken about the negative impact that abortion and Planned Parenthood has had on the African-American community. Since 2017, Parker has served as part of the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative to share ideas on how to best fix our nations most distressed zip codes. She is also an appointee to the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Commission.

YAFs chapter at the University of Northwestern had been working for months to host a prominent conservative to address their peers, according to a news release published March 5. But those plans were struck down by university officials.

I accepted UNW YAFs gracious invitation to defend life and traditional Christian principles, Parker said in a statement. Abortion has devastated the black community and is the moral crisis of our time. Christian universities are precisely where this urgent discussion should be happening.

On Feb. 20, school administrators informed UNW YAF Chair Hayley Tschetter that the group would not be allowed to host Parker and listed a number of concerns.

The administrations email said that the first concern was over the fact that the group was planning an open event.

[I]t would be different if you were having a speaker just come speak to your club, the letter explained. Speakers open to all UNW students would have more strictness and then like I said we dont typically do truly open events.

The letter continued by explaining that there are other concerns about Parker.

Our staff has been very adamant about bringing speakers to campus who educate and expand worldviews, but we really dont bring speakers who radically hold beliefs that UNW as a whole would not agree with, the email reads. In the past UNW has stayed away from sensationalized speakers. I foresee us continuing to do this. After reviewing some of Stars material online we didnt feel she was a good fit for our community.

The school recommended that YAF plan its future speaking events far in advance so that appropriate speakers can be discussed with administrators.

The schools YAF chapter requested a meeting with the university's President Alan Cureton in hopes of getting a reversal of the decision. That meeting came on Feb. 27. According to YAF, Cureton was found to be as resistant as the rest of the administrators.

Cureton reportedly told the student leaders of the group that he didnt want to be divisive and that its better to provide a balanced view from different outlooks. One example would be a panel discussion.

Tschetter asked Cureton what opposing viewpoint the school would want to have elevated.

He didnt really have an answer, Tschetter explained.

Cureton told the student activists that they would be better off scheduling a meeting with the schools vice president of student life Nina Barnes. As of Tuesday, Barnes has not responded to the groups meeting request.

I was excited to embark on this new adventure and thrilled that Star Parker agreed to come and speak to my campus, Tschetter said in a statement. After doing a little reading on several YAF speakers, I thought she could address some relevant topics to our campus. However, many are too fearful of controversy to allow her lecture to take place. Issues already divide campuses, Christians, and people nationwide  speaking about them will not cause a divide, it will bring the underlying issues to light and provide an opportunity for them to be discussed openly and civilly.

YAF spokesperson Spencer Brown, who took courses through UNW as a high school student, argued that the decision to prevent Parker from speaking is a shocking departure from a school I once considered attending.

UNW has chosen to abandon their core principles as a Christian university  set above and apart  in favor of avoiding any potential discomfort brought about by an insightful lecture from one of Americas leading conservative women on critical issues UNWs students will soon [face] with in the world, Brown stressed.

The Christian Post reached out to UNW for comment and received an emailed response on Friday from April Moreton, vice president for Institutional Advancement.

"University of Northwestern did not ban Ms. Parker from speaking on campus," Moreton said. "Ms. Parker has spoken on our campus twice before to share her testimony. The student club responsible for inviting her, Young Americas Foundation, did not follow policies and procedures that are put in place for student club events. Therefore, because proper approval was not obtained, the student club was told they could not host the event.

"In addition, university administration had significant concerns regarding Ms. Parkers contract which contained certain requirements the university could not accommodate.

"Furthermore, our statement on social media in response to information circulating sought to protect the students involved and Ms. Parker, but the lack of details caused more confusion," Moreton added. "For this, we sincerely apologize. Due to these misunderstandings, our stance on certain issues was not accurately represented. Northwestern is unwavering in our biblical foundation, therefore, we are passionately against abortion and take a pro-life stance."
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Losses on winter barley will top 250/ac in some parts of the southeast, cereal growers conceded this week.

As low as 1.8t/ac has been recorded in areas severely affected by the poor weather during sowing last autumn, and later by the drought.

Straw yields have also collapsed, with farmers baling five 4x4 bales to the acre in fields that would normally give 10-12 bales.

"There is a lot of worry out there," one Carlow-based grower admitted. "This is the second time in three years that we have been hit with drought. Winter barley growers will struggle to break even on owned land this harvest."

Average yields across much of the tillage heartlands of Carlow, south Kildare and west Wicklow are coming in around 2.7-2.8t/ac.

This is back 1.5-1.8t/ac on normal yields, and is leaving growers exposed financially as the break-even point for winter barley is generally around 2.9t/ac to 3t/ac.

Cereal growers on rented land are facing losses of up to 250/ac where crops failed to yield after being badly hit by poor establishment due to the wet autumn, or by drought - or a combination of both, in some cases.

"There are a lot of lads just wishing the harvest was over," another Carlow-based grower admitted.

Although crops in Cork are reported to have harvested very well, winter barley yields nationally are back by around 1t/ac. Drummonds agronomist Brian Reilly said the vast majority of crops in north Kildare and south Meath ranged from 2t/ac to slightly over 3t/ac, with exceptional fields yielding up to 4t/ac.

In south Wexford, growers are reporting yield averages of 3.25-3.75t/ac. Meanwhile, in the midlands, plenty of crops are being harvested at under 3t/ac.

Yields in south Tipperary were variable and ranged from 3.6t/ac back to 2.5t/ac. However, as has been the case nationally, quality is reported to be excellent, with crops coming in at 66-68kph and moistures of 16-18pc.

Stronger straw prices could help offset some of the yield losses. However, the volume of straw for sale is well back, with farmers reporting a 40-60pc drop in yield.

While farmers are asking up to 20/bale for 4x4 bales, it is reported that straw is being sold out of the field for 16-18/bale across much of the southeast. The best of the trade for straw is in mixed farming areas. Up to 35 for 6x4x3 bales has been paid for straw in north Tipperary.

With most of the winter barley crop likely to be wrapped up this week, the focus will shift to winter wheat and oilseed rape. Both crops are said to be looking good at this point.

Reacting to the current difficulties in the cereal sector, IFA grain chairman, Mark Browne, called on the Government and trade to support Irish growers.

Mr Browne said it was unacceptable that imported maize was continuing to put downward pressure on Irish barley prices, which are holding at around 145-146/t.

"Quality-assured Irish grain must not continue to be dictated by the price of third-country feedstuffs, which do not conform to the regulatory and environmental standards demanded by the EU Commission and the Irish Government," Mr Browne said.
Perhaps fitting for an industry thats so in flux, reader complaints about cruise refunds and credits have felt especially bizarre. One woman was told by a cruise line customer service representative that in order to get a refund, she would need to stop posting complaints about the company on Twitter. (She didnt; thats how I found her.) Another was asked to prepay for a cruise a full 33 months in advance  highly unusual for a system that runs on deposits and final payments. (One cruise-editor friend, upon hearing these anecdotes, deemed them a good alarm for the industry about how customer service reps are trained.)
Ukraine Accuses Separatists Of Breaching New Truce

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service July 27, 2020

KYIV -- Ukraine's military says Russia-backed separatists have breached a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine shortly after it went into effect -- a claim rejected by the separatists.

The cease-fire, which entered into force on July 27, had been agreed to last week by negotiators from Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

However, separatists violated the new truce near the town of Uzhivka, south of their stronghold city of Donetsk, and around Novomykhaylivka, southwest of Donetsk, according to Ukraine's military.

It said no casualties were reported despite shelling with small arms, grenade launchers, and heavy machine guns.

Ukraine's military insisted that it was continuing to observe the cease-fire.

Separatists in Donetsk rejected Kyiv's accusation, saying they were strictly following their commitments in the truce.

There have been more than 20 cease-fire attempts since the conflict in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk erupted in 2014.

In Kyiv, several hundred people gathered on the evening of July 27 for a protest rally against the new cease-fire.

"We will not disarm our army and turn our soldiers into helpless targets. Our army protects us every day. Therefore, our duty is to support our army," the organizers said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the truce as "a significant step toward strengthening mutual trust and defusing tensions" and called on the parties to "fully adhere to their obligations and agreements."

Hours before the truce took effect, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, discussed the conflict in a phone call and expressed support for the cease-fire.

Zelenskiy's office said that if upheld, the truce would "pave the way for implementing other clauses" of the Minsk accords aimed at putting an end to the fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk.

The Ukrainian president told Putin in the call that further steps were needed to free Ukrainian citizens being held in eastern Ukraine, Crimea, and Russia, it said.

The Kremlin said Putin told Zelenskiy that Ukraine's decision to hold regional elections in 2020 contradicted the Minsk peace deals.

Zelenskiy was elected last year on promises to end the conflict.

Germany and France have mediated between Ukraine and Russia since a peace agreement was signed in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, in 2015, but efforts at implementation have faltered.

The leaders of the four countries met at a summit in Paris in December 2019 to revive the peace process, leading to Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists in the east of Ukraine conducting a series of prisoner exchanges.

Lingering issues remain over a timeline for local elections, control over borders in the separatist-controlled regions, the withdrawal of Russian military units and equipment, and disarmament of separatist groups.

Moscow denies it has troops in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine's relationship with Russia has been tense ever since protests in Kyiv led to the overthrow of pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.

Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula shortly thereafter and backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, sparking a war that has resulted in some 13,200 deaths.

With reporting by AFP, dpa, UNIAN, Reuters, Interfax, and TASS

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/eastern-ukraine-ceasefire -conflict-russia-/30748183.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.

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Technavio has been monitoring the automotive halogen headlights market and it is poised to grow by USD 2 billion during 2019-2023. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005628/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Automotive Halogen Headlights Market 2019-2023 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report of 2020-2024 on COVID-19 Impact

The market is highly concentrated, and the degree of concentration will decelerate during the forecast period. HELLA, KOITO MANUFACTURING, Magneti Marelli, OSRAM, Valeo, and Varroc Group are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

The adoption of entry-level vehicles has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Automotive Halogen Headlights Market 2019-2023: Segmentation

Automotive Halogen Headlights Market is segmented as below:

Application Passenger Cars Commercial Vehicles

Geographic Landscape The Middle East and Africa APAC Europe North America South America



To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download latest free sample report of 2020-2024: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR30774

Automotive Halogen Headlights Market 2019-2023: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our automotive halogen headlights market report covers the following areas:

Automotive Halogen Headlights Market size

Automotive Halogen Headlights Market trends

Automotive Halogen Headlights Market analysis

This study identifies the development of halogen headlamps with improved visibility as one of the prime reasons driving the automotive halogen headlights market growth during the next few years.

Automotive Halogen Headlights Market 2019-2023: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the automotive halogen headlights market, including some of the vendors such as HELLA, KOITO MANUFACTURING, Magneti Marelli, OSRAM, Valeo, and Varroc Group. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the automotive halogen headlights market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Automotive Halogen Headlights Market 2019-2023: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2019-2023

Detailed information on factors that will assist automotive halogen headlights market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the automotive halogen headlights market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the automotive halogen headlights market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of automotive halogen headlights market vendors

Table Of Contents:

PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT

2.1 Preface

2.2 Preface

2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE

Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

Market segmentation analysis

PART 04: MARKET SIZING

Market definition

Market sizing 2018

Market size and forecast 2018-2023

PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY APPLICATION

Market segmentation by application

Comparison by application

Passenger cars Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Commercial vehicles Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Market opportunity by application

PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

APAC Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Europe Market size and forecast 2018-2023

North America Market size and forecast 2018-2023

South America Market size and forecast 2018-2023

The Middle East and Africa Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Key leading countries

Market opportunity

PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 11: MARKET TRENDS

Development of halogen headlights with improved visibility

Growing use of dual-beam bulbs in automotive headlights

The growing popularity of double barrel headlights

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

HELLA

KOITO MANUFACTURING

Magneti Marelli

OSRAM

Valeo

Varroc Group

PART 14: APPENDIX

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO

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In this Feb. 15 satellite photo provided on July 27 by Maxar Technologies, a mockup aircraft carrier built by Iran is seen at Bandar Abbas, Iran, before being put to sea. Read more

TEHRAN, Iran  Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched missiles Tuesday targeting a mock aircraft carrier in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a drill that included such a barrage of fire the U.S. military temporarily put two regional bases in the Mideast on alert amid tensions between the two countries.

The drill  and the American response to it  underlined the lingering threat of military conflict between Iran and the U.S. after a series of escalating incidents last year led to an American drone strike killing a top Iranian general in Baghdad. Tehran responded to that strike by firing ballistic missiles that wounded dozens of American forces in Iraq.

While the coronavirus pandemic has engulfed both Iran and the U.S. for months, there has been a growing confrontation as America argues to extend a yearslong U.N. weapons embargo on Tehran that is due to expire in October. A recent incident over Syria involving an American jet fighter approaching an Iranian passenger plane also has renewed tensions.

Iranian commandos fast-roped down from a helicopter onto the replica in the footage aired Tuesday from the exercise called Great Prophet 14. Anti-aircraft guns opened fire on a target drone near the port city of Bandar Abbas.

State television footage also showed a variety of missiles being fired from fast boats, trucks, mobile launchers and a helicopter, some targeting the fake carrier. A commander said the Guard, a force answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, planned to fire long-range ballistic missiles as well during the drill that will continue Wednesday.

Ballistic missile fire detected from the drill resulted in American troops being put on alert at Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and Al-Udeid Air Base, the forward headquarters of the U.S. military's Central Command in Qatar, the military said. Troops sought cover during that time.

The incident lasted for a matter of minutes and an all clear was declared after the threat ... had passed, said U.S. Army Maj. Beth Riordan, a Central Command spokeswoman.

Both bases are hundreds of kilometers (miles) away from where Iran put the replica aircraft carrier.

Al-Dhafra also is temporarily home to five French-built Rafale fighter jets on their way to India for that country's air force.

Other footage from the exercise aired by state television showed fast boats encircling the mock-up, kicking up white waves in their wake. While Irans naval forces are dwarfed by the U.S. Navy, its commanders practice so-called swarm tactics aimed at overwhelming the U.S. carriers that pass through the strait on their way in and out of the Persian Gulf.

It wasn't immediately clear if all the footage was from Tuesday, as one overhead surveillance image that appeared to be shot by a drone bore Monday's date. The exercise had been expected as satellite photos released Monday showed the fake carrier being moved into place by a tugboat.

A black-and-white satellite photo taken Tuesday by Colorado-based firm Maxar Technologies showed damage to the replica's bow and several of its fake jet fighters.

Our policies to protect the vital interests of the dear nation of Iran are defensive, in the sense that we will not invade any country from the beginning, but we are completely aggressive in tactics and operations, Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of the Guard, was quoted as saying. What was shown today at this exercise at the level of aerospace and naval forces was all offensive.

State TV footage also showed Guard scuba forces underwater, followed by a cutaway to a blast hole just above the waterline on the replica carrier.

That appeared to be a not-so-subtle reminder of U.S. accusations last year that Iran planted limpet mines on passing oil tankers near the strait, which exploded on the vessels in the same area. Iran has repeatedly denied the actions, though footage captured by the American military showed Guard members remove an unexploded mine from one vessel.

The replica used in the drill resembles the Nimitz-class carriers that the U.S. Navy routinely sails into the Persian Gulf from the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the waterway through which 20% of all oil traded in the world passes. The USS Nimitz, the namesake of the class, just entered Mideast waters late last week from the Indian Ocean, likely to replace the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Arabian Sea.

It remains unclear when or if the Nimitz will pass through the Strait of Hormuz or not during its time in the Mideast. The USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed last year as tensions initially spiked, spent months in the Arabian Sea before heading through the strait. The Eisenhower came through the strait early last week.

To Iran, which shares the strait with Oman, the American naval presence is akin to Iranian forces sailing into the Gulf of Mexico near the coast of Florida. But the U.S. Navy stresses the strait is an international waterway crucial to global shipping and energy supplies. Even as America now relies less on Mideast oil, a major disruption in the region could see prices rapidly rise.

Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navys Bahrain-based 5th Fleet that patrols the Mideast, said officials were aware of an Iranian exercise she described as attempting to intimidate and coerce.

While we are always watchful of this type of irresponsible and reckless behavior by Iran in the vicinity of busy international waterways, this exercise has not disrupted coalition operations in the area nor had any impacts to the free flow of commerce in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters, Rebarich said.
Two policemen have been accused of pointing a gun at an Aboriginal driver and spraying 'White Lives Matter' on a grave.

The Australian Federal Police officers from Queensland and New South Wales are accused of running amok while on secondment in the Northern Territory during the coronavirus pandemic.

About 100 officers were sent to the NT to guard border security checkpoints at Alice Springs and Darwin airports to keep residents safe from COVID-19.

In one incident, an AFP officer pulled an Aboriginal motorist over after he allegedly rammed into a marked police car in Alice Springs, The Courier-Mail reported.

A second officer is being investigated for allegedly stealing memorabilia from the now closed Rabbit Flat Roadhouse on the Tanami Track in the territory's mid-west (pictured: Tanami Road)

The policeman then allegedly pointed his gun at the driver.

A second officer is being investigated for allegedly stealing memorabilia from the now-closed Rabbit Flat Roadhouse on the Tanami Track in the territory's mid-west.

Sources told the publication a group of unidentified individuals were wreaking havoc at the roadhouse, setting fire to an abandoned car and shooting at signs.

It was claimed the policeman took items from the famous roadhouse, known for being the most isolated pub in the world, to protect them from being destroyed.

It was claimed the policeman took items from the famous roadhouse (pictured), known for being the most isolated pub in the world, to protect them from being destroyed

It was also alleged that the same officer built a grave as a joke and sprayed 'White Lives Matter' on it.

He then allegedly took photos and sent them to a friend.

It is understood that the officer fiercely denied the allegations.

The Northern Territory has a large population of indigenous Australians.

A Northern Territory police spokeswoman confirmed local officers investigated the alleged roadhouse theft.

'Detectives from Alice Springs investigated an allegation of a theft from the Rabbit Flat Roadhouse, however the owner of the abandoned premises did not wish to make a formal complaint and our investigation was discontinued,' she told the publication.

A Northern Territory police spokeswoman confirmed local officers investigated the alleged roadhouse theft. Pictured: Alice Springs Police Station

She added that no reports had been received regarding a burning car or shooting traffic signs, but police are aware of the grave prank allegations.

An AFP spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia the actions of the two officers are being investigated.

'AFP Professional Standards is investigating allegations about their actions while on deployment,' she said.

'As these matters are currently ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment further.'

The spokeswoman also confirmed the two officers have been transferred back to their home states.
Ambulance

Spencer Platt/AP

E-scooter startup Revel will cease operations in New York City until further notice, the company announced Tuesday.

Revel scooters were involved in two fatal crashes in the city in the past month alone, leading to increased scrutiny of the company.

A 32-year-old man died after crashing a Revel into a light pole in Queens this week. Days earlier, a 26-year-old woman riding a Revel was killed in a crash in Brooklyn. Two other men were hospitalized after a crash this month.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Scooter-sharing startup Revel will cease operations in New York City "until further notice," the company said Tuesday.

The announcement comes after two fatal collisions involving Revel scooters in the past month, which have drawn increased scrutiny of the startup. Revel said it will review its safety measures in collaboration with city officials while its service is shut down in the city.

Nina Kapoor, a 26-year-old CBS reporter, died earlier this month in a Revel crash in Brooklyn. Kapoor was the passenger on a revel moped that crashed after the moped's driver suddenly swerved, New York Daily News reported. It was the first known Revel-related death in the city.

Ten days later, a 32-year-old Queens man was killed after slamming a Revel moped into a light pole, according to law enforcement. The same week, two men were hospitalized after crashing a Revel moped in Upper Manhattan, and one was left in critical condition.

Revel first rolled out short-term moped rentals in New York City in March. Since then, it's come under increasing scrutiny over safety concerns  at least four lawsuits have been filed against the company in the city, CBS News reported. Officials at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx told CNN that there's been an uptick in Revel-related injuries since the service was rolled out.

Story continues

New York City was one of the first cities where Revel scooters were piloted  the company has over 1,400 rental mopeds in New York and Washington, D.C. The startup raised $27.6 million in capital as of October, touting its plans to expand to more cities, according to TechCrunch.

When reached for comment, a Revel spokesperson reiterated the company's tweeted statement but declined to comment further.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Posted on: July 28, 2020 6:52 PM

We apologise that, because of operational issues, we were unable to publish a News Summary last week (21 July).

Anglican Communion Secretary General speaks out in support of Diocese of Egypt

The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, has spoken out to rebut claims by a protestant group in Egypt over the status of the Episcopal / Anglican Province of Alexandria.

The Protestant Churches in Egypt (PCE) group  whose name is sometimes translated as the Evangelical Church Association  has tried to claim ownership of the Episcopal / Anglican Diocese of Egypt for a number of years. It has sought to take ownership of Anglican Church buildings and insists on the right to approve appointments  including that of the recently elected coadjutor Bishop of Egypt, Dr Samy Fawzy Shehata. The PCE argue that the Episcopal / Anglican Diocese of Egypt should subject themselves to the spiritual, financial and administrative supervision of the PCE.

The former Episcopal / Anglican Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa is now the Episcopal / Anglican Province of Alexandria  the 41st member of the Anglican Communion. It has four dioceses: Egypt, North Africa, the Horn of Africa and Gambella.

Contrary to statement made . . . by the PCE, the Episcopal / Anglican Province of Alexandria is an Anglican Church and an integral part of the Anglican Communion. And it always has been an Anglican Church and an integral part of the Anglican Communion.

The Anglican presence in Egypt began in 1819 with clergy sent by the Church Missionary Society who worked in partnership with the Coptic Orthodox Church. The first Anglican Church building  St Marks Church in Alexandria  was consecrated in 1839. And what was to become the Episcopal / Anglican Cathedral in Cairo began as a small parish church in 1876.

In those early days the Anglican Church in Egypt was under the direct leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Over the decades, the Anglican Church in Egypt has grown in size and status. It was transferred from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem; before becoming part of what was then the new Episcopal / Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East in 1976.

Earlier this year the Anglican Church in Egypt  along with the other nine countries in north Africa and the Horn of Africa which it serves  left the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East to become its own self-governing Province  the 41st Province of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Reiterating the fact that the Episcopal / Anglican Diocese of Egypt is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon added: the Episcopal/ Anglican Diocese of Egypt is part of the Episcopal / Anglican Province of Alexandria which is a Province of the worldwide Anglican Communion and can't be under any other denomination.

Archbishop of Canterbury launches Anglican Communion Covid-19 appeal

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has today launched a Together in Unity appeal to support churches and communities around the world during the Covid-19 crisis. The bishops of the Communion had been expected to be gathered at the University of Kent in Canterbury this week for the decennial Lambeth Conference; but this has been postponed until 2022 because of the global travel restrictions imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19.

In a video message to the bishops of the Communion, Archbishop Justin said that the whole world had been affected by the impact of Covid-19, with some communities and dioceses being harder hit than others.

The Coronavirus pandemic has hurt families, communities and nations across the world in so many ways, he said. In our Communion, there is not one province, diocese or parish that is untouched by the pandemic. The Body of Christ is hurting. We know that some parts of the body are more hurt than others. And they need our help.

The Archbishop of Canterburys Together in Unity appeal is being administered by the Anglican Communion Fund (ACF), a UK registered charity that supports the Archbishop of Canterburys international ministry and provides grants for provinces and dioceses of the Anglican Communion.

The ACF has already allocated more than 180,000 GBP to support churches in areas of need across the Communion as part of a special Covid-specific grant cycle; and is now seeking to raise an additional 250,000.

Amongst the recipients to have benefited from disbursements already are more than 200 pastors and lay readers in the South Sudanese Diocese of Maridi, who were provided food relief. Church leaders in the diocese have been trained in virus prevention; and five pastors have been given bicycles and hand microphones to carry virus prevention messages into remote areas

And in Bangladesh, hundreds of vulnerable families have received support to enable them to buy food and daily necessities in the midst of job losses and economic pressures from the lockdown.

Referencing Psalm 133 and the biblical theme of the Lambeth Conference, 1 Peter, Archbishop Justin told the bishops that Peter refers to us as living stones, built up as a spiritual house. We are the household of faith. The household of God. In Psalm 133, David declares how good and pleasant it is for us to dwell together in unity.

In this time of global crisis, we need to care for the weaker, and the more vulnerable members of the household. The pain and suffering of my own sister and brother must become my own pain and suffering. I must do what I can to help. By bringing our help across the world, we will fulfil our personal responsibility that God has given us through his call to the church.

More information about the Together In Unity appeal can be found on the Archbishop of Canterburys website: archbishopofcanterbury.org/appeal.

Anglican provinces and agencies around the world issue Covid-19 emergency appeals

Many Anglican Churches and agencies have launched emergency appeals to help poorer hit areas of their own provinces  and harder hit parts of the world  respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In New Zealand, Anglican Missions have launched an appeal called Our Global Response. In Aotearoa, many Anglicans have not lost their income, and some have even saved money during this period, the Bishop of Wellington, Justin Duckworth, said. I encourage you to get together in families, house churches and parishes and think creatively about how you can give into these places with great need. Every one of us can support these initiatives in prayer, and if you can give financially, I encourage you to give generously.

In Australia, two separate appeals have been launched by the Anglican Board of Mission and Anglican Overseas Aid.

Explaining its Global Emergency Response appeal, the Anglican Board of Mission (ABM) said: during these uncertain times, and as we seek to understand and as we feel the impact of Covid-19 ourselves here in Australia, ABM continues to be in contact with our overseas partners to assess and respond to this crisis. Partners are working hard on information campaigns including the distribution of handwashing and hygiene kits to prevent Covid-19s spread. We anticipate the loss of livelihoods and lack of basic services in many of the communities where we work.

Anglican Overseas Aid have called their appeal Communities Overcoming Covid-19. Times are very hard all around the world, and probably will be for months to come, they said. And for those of you who are grieving, suffering financially or have been having difficulty coping with restrictions, our prayers are with you.

Together, whether in our own lives here in Australia, or in places like Kenya and Mozambique, we can help communities overcoming Covid-19 and provide healing and hope.

In Canada, the Primates World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) has allocated $200,000 CAD (approximately 116,000 GBP) to provide Covid-19 relief in Burundi and Canada  as well as to support the global ACT-Alliance appeal. The work of our global partners to respond to this pandemic is critical right now, Will Postma, Executive Director of PWRDF, said. They are helping the most vulnerable in areas where even the basics of soap, running water and two metres of physical distancing can be a luxury.

In the UK, the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partner in the Gospel) has launched a Focus on the Future appeal. We dont yet know what the full impact of Coronavirus will be globally: on health, on livelihoods, on food security and on peoples life choices, they said. The marginalised and those living in extreme poverty will be hardest hit.

Another UK-based Anglican mission Agency, the Church Mission Society (CMS) has also launched a Covid-19 appeal under its Mission Unscripted initiative. As the big picture of the pandemic changes week by week, country by country, our priority remains the same: making sure that our people in mission have the support that they need so they can keep bringing the hope of Jesus, they said. For some, this means continuing to provide them with mission advice, risk management expertise and loving care so they can stay where they are and continue serving their communities. For others, it has meant bringing them home to the UK unexpectedly.

The all-island Church of Irelands Bishops Appeal  which serves as the Provinces World Aid and Development Programme  has released 50,000 Euro (approximately 45,000 GBP) to support five partner mission and development agencies  Christian Aid, Tearfund Ireland, CMS Ireland, USPG, and Motivation  as they work among the worlds most vulnerable people.

The emergency responses include distributing essential supplies such as food, soap, medicine and information to people whose markets have shut down and who have no access to supplies, people who live in informal settlements and in refugee camps, and people who are living with a disability, the Church of Ireland said.

In Kenya, Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit has launched a province-wide emergency appeal to support the work of the provinces development arm, Anglican Development Services Kenya.

As the world continues to adjust to the accompanying realities of the Covid-19 global pandemic, we continue to pray for Gods sustenance and protection over all peoples of the world, they said. Such times offer an opportunity for countries to unite and address a common course. While it remains uncertain about when vaccines and defined treatment for the disease will be developed, we remain optimistic about the healthcare models being offered  and have helped many people recover.

As a Church, we will walk with Kenyans in addressing these disruptions, partnering with state agencies and other stakeholders. We continue to celebrate our health workers who are on the front line, working tirelessly to ensure that we flatten the curve.

In the US, staff from Episcopal Relief & Development, part of the US-based Episcopal Church, are in contact with partners in 44 countries to provide technical expertise and financial assistance in response to the pandemic.

It has launched a Pandemic Response Fund, with the support of individual donors and a generous grant from New Yorks Trinity Church Wall Street. ER&D is providing technical expertise and tools to assist as partners adjust programming with necessary physical distancing and enhanced sanitation protocols in order to keep program staff, volunteers and beneficiaries safe, the agency said. Episcopal Relief & Development is also providing emergency assistance such as food, medical supplies, personal protective equipment (PPE) and sanitation kits.

Archbishop of Canterbury speaks out on Hagia Sophia

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and four other Presidents of the ecumenical Churches Together in England (CTE) group have spoken out against the decision by Turkey to turn the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul into a mosque. Built in AD 537 as the Cathedral of the Patriarch of Constantinople, it was the largest Christian Church in the Byzantine Empire. In 1453, after the Ottoman conquest, it was turned into a mosque.

The newly formed secular government of what had become the Republic of Turkey turned the building into a Museum. It was recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Earlier this month, the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, took part in the first Friday Prayers at the site to mark its transition back to a Mosque, a move that had been condemned by bodies including UNESCO and the World Council of Churches.

In a statement issued shortly before President Erdogans presence at the prayer service, five CTE Presidents, including Archbishop Justin, described the move as lamentable and painful for many people of faith the world over.

In a joint statement the CTE Presidents expressed their sadness at the move, saying: for a long period of time Hagia Sophia has been a unique centre symbolising a co-existence of people of faith. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, as a place where the rich history of Istanbul is told visually, can be a living example of religious tolerance and respect.

The decision to alter the status quo in this way is a powerful, symbolic change that is lamentable and painful for many people of faith the world over.

In addition to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the other CTE Presidents making the statement are Cardinal Vincent Nichols from the Roman Catholic Church; Dr Hugh Osgood, Moderator of the Free Churches; Archbishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church; and Pastor Agu Irukwu, head of Redeemed Christian Church of God in the UK.

The Church of Englands Bishop in Europe, Dr Robert Innes, whose diocese includes Turkey, issued his own statement, in which he said: I endorse wholeheartedly the sentiments of lament expressed by the Presidents of Churches Together in England. As Anglicans, we have likewise expressed our feelings of deep regret shared by Christian brothers and sisters worldwide.

Hagia Sophia has wide-reaching significance for Christians and Muslims, and a great benefit of its museum status since 1934 has been to help build a common understanding of our shared history in this unique city.

We have shared the sadness of this loss and the distress of many partners with the UK Ambassador to Turkey, and a desire that reassurances are sought regarding future access to Hagia Sophia as a World Heritage site, recognised by UNESCO.

The Diocese in Europe represents the presence of Anglican communities across over 40 countries, including Turkey. It is our fervent hope and prayer that opportunities to foster and strengthen dialogue, to build trust and mutual understanding among faiths in all communities where we are represented, will continue to have room to flourish.

The new status of the Hagia Spohia was discussed by the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches durings its meeting last week. Members representing different church families and regions joined in prayer and sorrow with millions of Christians around the world marking this sad day in history of Christianity and of inter-religious relations, the WCCs Interim General Secretary, Dr Ioan Sauca, said. We offer our solidarity and accompaniment particularly to all churches and Christians of the Orthodox family, for whom Hagia Sophia holds a very special significance, as well as to all Turkish citizens who do not feel represented in this action by their government.

We continue to pray that the Turkish authorities will be moved to reconsider this decision, and to undo this deeply regressive measure.

Church of Pakistan in solidarity visit to Sikh community in Peshawar

A delegation from the united Church of Pakistans Diocese of Peshawar visited the Gurdwara in Dabgari to express condolences over the death of 22 Sikhs in a train accident earlier this month. The dead had visited a Sikh pilgrimage site  the Shrine of Nankana Sahib  in Sheikhupura, and were returning to Peshawar when one of their bussed was hit by a train ona level crossing. 20 people died at the scene and a further two died later in hospital. Seven of the dead were women.

The Priest in charge of Saint Johns Cathedral in Peshawar, Joseph John, led the delegation, which included the Vice President of Clergy, Shazad Murad, to express the Churchs condolences and pray for the families of the dead.

The Diocese of Peshawar has strong ties with other religious communities in the Province, the dioceses Frontier News reported. They always stand by each other in times of crisis.

The Sikh Community highly appreciated the solidarity and friendship, Frontier News said.

Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia Synod confirms triple primacy

The General Synod (Te Hinota Whanui) of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia has reaffirmed its commitment to a three-tikanga primacy, comprising the senior bishops of the Maori, Pakeha and Polynesian tikanga (cultural strands).

The decision, which was made on Saturday (25 July) at a virtual Synod meeting on the Zoom video conference platform, reaffirms that the primates of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia will continue to be the senior bishop of Tikanga Maori, Tkanga Pakeha and Tikanga Polynesia, up till General Synod Te Hinota Whanui 2026.

Currently the senior bishops of each tikanga are: Te Pihopa o Aotearoa for Tikanga Maori, the Senior Bishop of the New Zealand Dioceses for Tikanga Pakeha and the Diocesan Bishop of Polynesia for Tikanga Polynesia.

After the Synod made that decision, the Tikanga Pakeha Conference reappointed Archbishop Philip Richardson to a further primatial term as Senior Bishop of the New Zealand Diocese for three years leading up to 30 June 2023.

The other current members of the three-tikanga primacy are Archbishop Don Tamihere (Te Pihopa o Aotearoa) and Archbishop Fereimi Cama (Bishop of Polynesia).
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.

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But while the charges against ComEd will likely sink into the background after the arraignment, the case is far from over. In announcing the case on July 17, U.S. Attorney John Lausch said the investigation is vibrant, and it will continue.
The association fears that further significant job losses may lie ahead, with almost one in three pubs in the Dublin yet to open.

Pubs serving food were permitted to reopen on June 29th, while the remaining pubs are set to reopen on August 10th.

Pubs not serving food had originally been set to resume business on July 20th, but this was pushed back after Taoiseach Micheal Martin decided to delay moving on to phase four of the easing of lockdown restrictions.

Licensed Vintners Association CEO Donall O'Keeffe says it's vital the Government allows all pubs to reopen.

"This will get worse unless we can open all the pubs in Dublin and across the country on August 10th. It's really important for the future of these businesses and their staff that they are allowed reopen safely."
New Delhi, July 28 : The Delhi High Court has expressed displeasure at the rapid decline in the number of RT-PCR tests in the national capital, saying that almost 50 per cent of such tests are not being conducted by the Delhi Government.

A division bench of the High Court presided by Justices Hima Kohli and Subromonium Prasad expressed disappointment after noting that while the Delhi government has the capacity to conduct 11,000 RT-PCR tests, only 6,000 of such tests are being done.

"Almost 50 per cent capacity of the RT-PCR tests are not being conducted in Delhi. The focus seems to be mainly on testing through RAT whereas RT-PCR is the gold standard test," the bench noted.

The orders were passed while the court was hearing a petition filed by advocate Rakesh Malhotra who had sought rapid Covid-19 testing and declaration of results in 48 hours.

Malhotra through his petition had said that the Delhi government is not taking expeditious steps to furnish reports after conducting tests for Covid-19 on suspected people, within a reasonable time frame of 48 hours or even earlier and as a result of the said delay, the contact tracing is also getting delayed and the infection is multiplying rapidly in Delhi.

In its status report, the National Centre of Disease Control (NCDC) informed the court that the Sero surveillance has revealed that the highest prevalence of the virus has been found in Central (22.87), Shahdara (27.61) and North East (27.7) districts of the national capital.

The Sero surveillance report has also revealed that on an average across the national capital, the prevalence of antibodies is 22.86 per cent. "The study also indicates that a large number of infected persons remain asymptomatic," the document filed by the NCDC said.

Sujeet Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), who was present in the hearing submitted that the Sero prevalence studies indicate that higher the density of population in a district, larger the number of Covid cases.

Singh recommended increasing the testing through the RT-PCR mode for the public rather than the RAT.

"However, for those who are to be admitted or propose to undergo surgical/non-surgical procedures in hospitals, the order of testing should be RAT followed by RT-PCR with the idea that the RAT results are faster and therefore, the follow-up treatment can be expedited," Singh said.

The ICMR informed the bench that it will soon issue fresh advisory in this regard while the Delhi government and NCDC too informed the court that a meeting would soon take place to decide the further course of action in this regard.

The matter will now be heard on August 4.
WASHINGTON - Joe Biden traveled to Washington on Monday to pay his respects to the late congressman John Lewis, a high-profile tribute to a civil rights icon at a time when a renewed wave of racial justice protests is echoing those led by Lewis almost 60 years ago.

The visit came the same day President Donald Trump said he would not go to the Capitol to pay tribute to Lewis, and it briefly brought Biden face-to-face with at least one of his potential running mates, Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and his wife, Jill Biden, visited Lewis's casket lying in state at the U.S. Capitol. For the Bidens, the trip marked a rare public appearance outside their home state of Delaware during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Bidens entered the Capitol Rotunda just before 5:30 p.m. and were escorted to the casket by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. They talked with Pelosi for almost 10 minutes, their first in-person meeting since Biden became the presumptive nominee and the pandemic upended political life.

The Bidens, both wearing black masks, placed their right hands on Lewis's casket, then Biden made the sign of the cross and the two walked down the hall to Pelosi's office. The former vice president did not join a meeting underway in the office between Democratic leaders and Trump administration officials on the latest coronavirus relief effort.

Biden's visit marked a contrast with Trump, who said Monday that he did not intend to visit the Capitol to commemorate Lewis. "I won't be going," Trump told reporters.

That contrast in some ways reflects the candidates' differing attitudes toward the current racial justice protests. Lewis, a youthful leader of the 1960s civil rights movement who organized marches and endured beatings, has been cited by today's activists as a forerunner and inspiration.

Biden has voiced support for the current protesters while steering clear of some of their demands, such as defunding police. Trump, however, has criticized them, depicting many as bent on violence and destruction.

Biden's travel came amid a busy period for his campaign, which on Sunday urged supporters to gear up for the last 100-day stretch of the election. The Democrat has said he hopes to choose a running mate by early August.

After leaving Pelosi's office, Biden encountered a group of Democrats paying their respects to Lewis - including Bass, one of the lawmakers under consideration to be his running mate. Biden and Bass chatted amiably for a few minutes as other dignitaries looked on. Biden was asked about Bass and joked that he asked her to be his running mate and she said no. Later, Bass walked out with Biden and Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., a national co-chair of the Biden campaign.

On top of choosing a running mate, Biden is also ramping up his efforts to win support in key states.

Biden's campaign on Monday launched a $14.5 million advertising investment in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to a memo issued by his campaign and obtained by The Washington Post. Trump won all six states in 2016, and they have been focal points of the Biden campaign's commercials.

With two newly released ads, Biden is seeking to capitalize on eroding support for Trump among older voters. A minute-long TV spot features a woman talking about how her grandmother died after battling covid-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. The woman said elderly people like her grandmother have not been priorities for the Trump administration.

As the coronavirus has become a dominant topic of debate in the race, the pandemic is limiting the candidates' abilities to hold traditional events. Biden's visit to the Capitol came after the District of Columbia tightened restrictions.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, recently imposed new regulations for travel to and from "high-risk areas," which includes Delaware. A spokeswoman for the mayor suggested the regulations did not apply to Biden.

"Government activity is essential, and the Capitol of the United States is exempt from the Mayor's Order," Bowser press secretary Susana Castillo said in a statement.

Biden's trip also put him near some of the other women he has been vetting as potential running mates. Several attended a ceremony paying tribute to Lewis in the Capitol hours before his arrival.

Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., along with Bass and Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla. - all of whom have received consideration by the Biden campaign to join the ticket - attended the ceremony.

No former lawmakers were permitted to attend the socially distant service, so Biden, a former senator, was not on hand. After the ceremony, the casket remained in the Rotunda, allowing Biden and other VIPs to visit.
SAINT PAUL, Minn., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Violence Project has released an updated and expanded version of its comprehensive database of mass shooters.

The Violence Project Mass Shooter Database already included over 170 mass shooters who killed 4 or more people in a public setting since 1966 coded on 100 pieces of life history information. This update adds 50 new items for journalists, researchers, students, and policymakers to interact with. The goal of this project is to provide data to ground our public policy conversations and to develop data-driven prevention strategies.

The Violence Project Mass Shooter Database was funded by the National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, and developed by professors Jillian Peterson and James Densley in collaboration with a team of students at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The entire database is downloadable for free at www.theviolenceproject.org .

Version 2.0 of the database is being released to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, which claimed 32 lives over a 24-hour period. The database now includes names and information for all 1,215 people killed in a mass shooting since 1966the youngest was 18 months, the oldest was 98. It also includes a new firearms database of all 377 guns used in mass shootings since 1966, individually coded by when and how they were obtained. Although two-thirds were legally obtained, 30% of guns used in mass shootings came into the shooter's possession within the month prior to being used.

The new database also includes extended information on "leakage" (communication to a third party of an intent to do harm). Most shooters who leaked their plans did so in person to their wives, coworkers, and friends, the data show. School shooters were most likely to leak their plans ahead of time and did so in every case but one.

There have been far fewer opportunities for mass shootings to occur this year with public spaces closed and people in lockdown, with only one new case in 2020the Milwaukee Molson Coors shooting in February. However, the coronavirus pandemic has roiled the economy and exacerbated social isolation and domestic strifeall risk factors for mass shootings. Lead investigator Dr. Jillian Peterson observes, "There are a lot of unmet needs right now. How we transition people back to school and work is crucial if we are to avoid more tragedy."

Over 80% of mass shooters were in a noticeable crisis prior to their shooting. The new database breaks down that crisis into its component parts, like increased agitation, isolation, mood swings, and paranoia. The role of psychosis in mass shootings is also better accounted for. Psychosis directly motivated a mass shooting in 11% of cases, but 70% of the time, psychosis played no role at all. In 19% of mass shootings, psychosis played some role, but the shooter had other motives.

Other new items include a history of domestic violence (33% of perpetrators), a measure of firearm proficiency (higher proficiency was correlated with more deaths), violent video game playing, hate group association, childhood socioeconomic status, past school performance, community involvement, and information on siblings (mass shooters were most likely to be youngest children).

SOURCE Hamline University; The Violence Project

Related Links

hamline.edu


Bachelor in Paradise 'queen' Keira Maguire is royally displeased with the unfavourable coverage of her time in Fiji.

After her showdown with a tearful Alisha Aitken-Radburn aired on Sunday night, Keira has been lashing out on Instagram and fiercely denying any suggestion she was acting like a bully.

The 33-year-old has become so defensive on the social media platform that she has been commenting on gossip articles and direct messaging fan accounts.

Scroll down for video

Queen of Paradise... or just petty? Bachelor veteran Keira Maguire showed her true colours this week by lashing out at an Instagram fan account and leaving salty comments on a gossip site

Keira clashed with Alisha, 27, during a fiery Bula Banquet fight that left several of their co-stars shocked and disappointed.

The two women had previously clashed on Instagram over Stories and comments Keira had posted criticising Alisha while on the 2019 season.

Those issues were again raised at Sunday's dinner party, and although Alisha was in tears, Keira dug in her heels and accused Alisha's friends of ganging up on her.

Feud: After her showdown with a tearful Alisha Aitken-Radburn aired on Sunday, Keira has been lashing out on Instagram and fiercely denying any suggestion she was acting like a bully

Thin-skinned much? The 33-year-old has become so defensive on the social media platform that she has been commenting on gossip articles and direct messaging meme accounts

Keira addressed the feud in an interview with Nova 96.9's Fitzy & Wippa on Monday, claiming she had 'walked into a trap' and was not responsible for the drama.

Gossip website Pedestrian later published her comments with a sarcastic headline insinuating that they didn't quite believe her.

Keira took aim at the article, commenting on Instagram: 'It's actually laughable that you think that the whole situation wasn't positioned and calculated to get a reaction out of me.

It's on! Gossip website Pedestrian published Keira's comments explaining her dinner party blow-up with Alisha, alongside a sarcastic headline insinuating they didn't quite believe her

Karen wants to speak to the manager! Keira took aim at the article, commenting on Instagram: 'It's actually laughable that you think that the whole situation wasn't positioned and calculated to get a reaction out of me.' Her comments were later deleted from the thread

'Actually it wasn't straight after that's just what you saw. Any ways I'm not saying the way I reacted was OK. I'm saying it was positioned to be my reaction.'

The reality TV star's comments were later deleted from the thread.

At about the same time, Keira also direct messaged the popular meme account BachieFunny, which had shared a post explaining her feud with Alisha.

She messaged the page's administrator: 'You're pathetic, get a life.'

'You're pathetic, get a life': At about the same time, Keira also direct messaged the popular meme account BachieFunny, which had shared a post explaining her feud with Alisha

Keira was given a rose by Alex McKay on Monday's episode of Bachelor in Paradise, which resulted in her rival Jessica Brody being sent home.

There are now 16 stars left looking for love at the Mango Bay Resort.

Bachelor in Paradise continues Tuesday at 7:30pm on Channel 10
Depression in mothers during and after pregnancy increased the odds of depression in offspring during adolescence and adulthood by 70%, according to a new study by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

The systematic review was recently published in JAMA Network Open. It is the first study to examine the effects of maternal depression on children age 12 and older.

The authors note that 10-20% of mothers experience perinatal depression, which refers to the time during pregnancy (antenatal) or within the first year after birth (postnatal). Perinatal depression has been associated with reduced growth rates, malnutrition, and an increased risk of childhood health problems and obesity.

"There are a lot of studies that look at how perinatal depression affects a child's growth or emotional well-being, but we wanted to look at how it affects offspring later in life," said Vaishali Tirumalaraju, MBBS, a resident with the Louis A. Faillace, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth and one of the study's first authors.

Researchers examined all published studies on the topic, zeroing in on six major cohorts following long-term symptoms in more than 15,000 children age 12 or older.

"We found that the offspring of mothers who had perinatal depression, especially antenatal depression, had a greater chance of having depression when they grow up," said Sudhakar Selvaraj, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of psychiatry with McGovern Medical School, the director of the Depression Research Program, and the study's senior author. "This is important because it shows perinatal depression not only negatively affects the mother, but also has a lasting negative impact on the child."

This research comes during a time of increased stress and strain on mental health, as the COVID-19 pandemic poses challenges for new and expecting mothers.

"Pregnancies during these times are particularly stressful given the social situation and physical distancing guidelines in place. There are a lot of moms without support who have to isolate, and many are handling extra stressors with limited resources," Tirumalaraju said.

"Stress can cause changes in eating habits, less desire to exercise, and overall less healthy behaviors that can lead to depression," said Selvaraj, a psychiatrist with UT Physicians, the clinical practice of McGovern Medical School. "Due to stigma, depression is hard to track because often mothers don't want to report that they are sad or having trouble mentally. Our study shows the potential long-term impact of depression in offspring and therefore the need for proper screening so that moms who could benefit from counseling and/or medication can be provided the resources they need."

Selvaraj is part of the UTHealth Women's Mental Health Program, which provides access to specialists in psychology and psychiatry in certain UT Physicians Women's Centers, simplifying the process for women to seek help for perinatal depression and other mental health conditions.

Study authors say more research into the factors involved in depression risk transmission and assessments of how to reduce this risk could help develop future strategies to mitigate depressive disorders in pregnancy.

###

From the Faillace Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences with McGovern Medical School, Robert Suchting, PhD, assistant professor, was a joint first author and Deepa Anand, MD, a resident, was a co-author. Laura Goetzl, MD, MPH, and Jerrie Refuerzo, MD, with the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and Charles E. Green, PhD, from the Department of Pediatrics were also co-authors.

Media inquiries: 713-500-3030
A man allegedly raped a 23-year-old woman inside a park near Red Fort on Saturday night and kidnapped her two-year-old daughter, who was later found. The police said the woman and the man are homeless and live in different city parks and shelter homes.

The woman told the police that the man had hit her head with a stone when she tried to resist the assault and also kidnapped her daughter. The police said they were passing by the park on Saturday night when they heard the womans screams. The 30-year-old alleged rapist, also homeless, was arrested on Monday.

The police said that on Saturday night, the team reached the spot and took the woman to the hospital.

The woman had alleged at the hospital that the man had kidnapped her two-year-old daughter after assaulting her.

She said the man injured her by hitting her with a stone when she resisted the attempt and kidnapped. Based on her statement and following a detailed medical examination, a case of rape and assault and kidnapping was registered under the Indian Penal Code, an officer said, wishing not to be named.

However, the womans daughter was found the same night close to the area where the woman lives. Some locals found her and brought her home. The man has been booked for kidnapping as well but we are probing if he tried to kidnap the girl, added the officer, who requested anonymity.

The officer said the Red Fort is part of the high-security zone of the capital and preparations for Independence Day on August 15 have already started. Every day, the area is checked by security personnel, including paramilitary forces. This is how the woman and the man were spotted by them and she was rescued, he added.

Deputy commissioner of police (north) Monika Bhardwaj said a police team was deployed to search for the suspect who fled the spot.

Our teams checked CCTV camera footage and spoke to other vagabonds living in that area and identified the man. He was arrested on Monday, Bhardwaj said.

The DCP said the man has no previous criminal involvement.

Five days ago, last Friday, an eight-year-old girl sleeping next to her grandmother outside their home in North Delhi was kidnapped and raped. The police managed to arrest the suspect two days later on Sunday using the survivors description. He was identified as a street vendor.
KANAZAWA, Japan, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Researchers at Kanazawa University report in ACS Nano a high-speed atomic-force microscopy study of the formation of protein fibrils (amyloids) associated with pathologies in collaborated research with Showa University. Mixing different variants of a single protein and changing the acidity of its environment is shown to result in significant variations in amyloid structure and elongation rates.

In the human body, proteins sometimes occur in fibrillar aggregates called amyloids. Although certain amyloids are known to have a biological function, amyloid formation is often associated with pathologies, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Understanding how exactly amyloid fibrils form is crucial for gaining insights into the development of such diseases and for advancing with treatment approaches. Now, Takahiro Watanabe-Nakayama from Kanazawa University, Kenjiro Ono from Showa University, and colleagues have investigated the formation process of particular amyloid fibrils using a technique enabling visualization of growth over time. The scientists specifically looked at the effect of cross-seeding ('mixing') different proteins forming aggregates, and found variations in elongation rates and the structures of the fibrils.

The researchers studied alpha-synuclein, a protein abundant in the human brain. They looked at what happened when letting wild-type alpha-synuclein molecules  the natural, most abundant variant  form aggregates, and also how aggregation is different when introducing (cross-seeding) mutant variants associated with Parkinson's disease. In addition, the scientists examined the influence of the pH level of the microenvironment in which fibril growth takes place.

By means of high-speed atomic-force microscopy (HS-AFM), Watanabe-Nakayama, Kenjiro Ono, and colleagues could record fibril aggregation at nanometer resolution and high video rate for various cases. First, the scientists looked at the growth of single variant types (self-seeding). They found that mutants produced more aggregates, or that they aggregated faster at neutral pH than the wild-type variants. Another observation was that elongation was faster at lower pH (5.8, i.e. acidic) than at higher pH (7.4, i.e. basic).

For cross-seeding, different scenarios can occur. Fibril growth can be accelerated or slowed down, or even stopped. The morphology of the original seed can be preserved, but it also happens that the structure of the resulting fibril is different  typical structural forms are 'straight' or 'spiral'. The researchers checked that fibril structure and dynamics as observed with HS-AFM correspond to the processes in solution by means of fluorescence experiments; similar conclusions were obtained.

The findings of Watanabe-Nakayama, Kenjiro Ono, and colleagues are relevant for better understanding amyloid-related diseases. Quoting the researchers: "Cross-seeding combined with variations in elongation rates has the effect of increasing the structural diversity of the resulting assemblies. This diversity may be reflected in distinct neurotoxic effects for various [protein] assemblies."

Background

Amyloids

Amyloids are fibrillar aggregates of protein molecules. Although some amyloids are known to have a biological function (for example the release of hormones), they are associated with diseases collectively called amyloidoses. These include neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Many different proteins can form amyloids; Takahiro Watanabe-Nakayama from Kanazawa University and colleagues studied fibril formation of alpha-synuclein molecules by means of high-speed atomic force microscopy.

Atomic force microscopy

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is an imaging technique in which the image is formed by scanning a surface with a very small tip. Horizontal scanning motion of the tip is controlled via piezoelectric elements, while vertical motion is converted into a height profile, resulting in a height distribution of the sample's surface. As the technique does not involve lenses, its resolution is not restricted by the so-called diffraction limit. In a high-speed setup (HS-AFM), the method can be used to produce movies of a sample's structural evolution in real time. Watanabe-Nakayama and colleagues have successfully used HS-AFM to study the formation and structural dynamics of amyloids obtained by self- and cross-seeding alpha-synuclein protein variants.

Reference

Takahiro Watanabe-Nakayama*, Maika Nawa, Hiroki Konno, Noriyuki Kodera, Toshio Ando,

David B. Teplow, and Kenjiro Ono*. Self- and Cross-Seeding on alpha-Synuclein Fibril Growth Kinetics and Structure Observed by High-Speed Atomic Force Microscopy, ACS Nano Published online 17 July 2020.

* Correspinding authors

Takahiro Watanabe-Nakayama, PhD: [email protected]

Kenjiro Ono, MD, PhD: [email protected]

DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c03074

URL: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c03074

About Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI)

https://nanolsi.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/en/

Nano Life Science Institute (NanoLSI), Kanazawa University is a research center established in 2017 as part of the World Premier International Research Center Initiative of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The objective of this initiative is to form world-tier research centers. NanoLSI combines the foremost knowledge of bio-scanning probe microscopy to establish 'nano-endoscopic techniques' to directly image, analyze, and manipulate biomolecules for insights into mechanisms governing life phenomena such as diseases.

About Institute for Frontier Science Initiative (InFiniti)

https://infiniti.adm.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/en/

Institute for Frontier Science Initiative (InFiniti) was established in April 2015 for the purpose of creating innovative research results and opening new fields of scientific inquiry. The Institute enhances the academic advantages of Kanazawa University, promotes interdisciplinary research, and accelerates international circulation of talented researchers. It also cultivates young researchers' interdisciplinarity, comprehensiveness, and internationality on the basis of its research results.

About Kanazawa University

http://www.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/e/

As the leading comprehensive university on the Sea of Japan coast, Kanazawa University has contributed greatly to higher education and academic research in Japan since it was founded in 1949. The University has three colleges and 17 schools offering courses in subjects that include medicine, computer engineering, and humanities.

The University is located on the coast of the Sea of Japan in Kanazawa  a city rich in history and culture. The city of Kanazawa has a highly respected intellectual profile since the time of the fiefdom (1598-1867). Kanazawa University is divided into two main campuses: Kakuma and Takaramachi for its approximately 10,200 students including 600 from overseas.

About WPI nanoLSI Kanazawa University

Hiroe Yoneda

Vice Director of Public Affairs

WPI Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI)

Kanazawa University

Kakuma-machi, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +81-(76)-234-4550

SOURCE Kanazawa University
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 28, 2020) - Palladium One Mining Inc. (TSXV: PDM) (FSE: 7N11) (OTC Pink: NKORF) (the "Company" or "Palladium One") is pleased to report the second batch of drilling results from the Phase 1 winter 2020 drill program at the Lantinen Koillismaa ("LK") PGE-Cu-Ni Project, located in north-central Finland.

Highlights:

41.6m grading 2.16 g/t palladium equivalent ("Pd_Eq")* , in hole LK20-007 Total platinum-group elements ("PGE") (Pd + Pt + Au), 1.18 g/t Individually by metal, 0.83 g/t Pd; 0.28 g/t Pt; 0.07 g/t Au; 0.16% Cu and 0.17% Ni Including 7.8m grading 3.26 g/t Pd_Eq Total PGE of 2.18g/t , Individually by metal, 1.53 g/t Pd; 0.53 g/t Pt; 0.13 g/t Au; 0.21% Cu and 0.17% Ni

36.8m grading 1.97 g/t Pd_Eq, from 33m down hole, in hole LK20-005 Total PGE, 1.13 g/t Individually by metal, 0.74 g/t Pd; 0.31 g/t Pt; 0.08 g/t Au; 0.16% Cu and 0.13% Ni Including 8.2m grading 3.40 g/t Pd_Eq Total PGE, 2.00 g/t , Individually by metal, 1.38 g/t Pd; 0.52 g/t Pt; 0.11 g/t Au; 0.29% Cu and 0.21% Ni

Reported widths are "drilled widths" true widths are estimated to be approximately 90% of drilled width

President and CEO, Derrick Weyrauch commented, "Hole 7 has confirmed a previously unrecognized higher-grade shoot within the Kaukua Open Pit Deposit, this shoot remain open at depth and further drilling could significantly expand the current resource."

Hole LK20-007 targeted the down plunge of a previously unrecognized, southwest trending, higher-grade shoot within the Kaukua deposit (Figure 1 and 2). The results of this hole indicate that this higher-grade shoot remains open to the southwest for expansion. Hole LK20-007 is on the lower edge of the 2019 block model and the expansion of this higher-grade shoot will add ounces to a future resource update. Holes LK20-001 through LK20-005 targeted a previously untested up dip portion of the Kaukua deposit (Figure 1) with the goal of upgrading current inferred resources to indicated and outlining near surface mineralization which could form part of a future bulk sample. The Kaukua deposit hosts 635,600 Pd_Eq ounces of Indicated Resources grading 1.80 g/t palladium equivalent, and 525,800 palladium equivalent ounces of Inferred Resources grading 1.50 g/t Pd_Eq (see press release September 9, 2019).

Story continues

Table 1. Phase 1 Drill Results

Zone Hole From (m) To (m) Width (m) Pd_Eq g/t* PGE g/t

(Pd+Pt+Au) Pd g/t

Pt g/t

Au g/t

Cu

% Ni

% Kaukua LK20-001 33.4

66.0

32.6 2.86 1.82 1.22 0.46 0.14 0.23 0.16

Inc. 45.0 61.0 16.0 3.64 2.43 1.67 0.59 0.18 0.27 0.18

Inc. 48.6 49.9 1.3 5.70 3.96 2.78 0.93 0.25 0.41 0.25 Kaukua LK20-002 38.4 71.0 32.7 2.00 1.06 0.70 0.29 0.07 0.15 0.16

Inc. 43.0 53.1 10.1 3.08 1.65 1.07 0.47 0.11 0.26 0.24

Inc. 45.8 47.3 1.5 5.23 2.85 1.82 0.82 0.21 0.49 0.37 Kaukua LK20-003 37.0 75.0 38.0 1.49 0.77 0.52 0.19 0.06 0.10 0.13

Inc. 37.0 57.3 20.3 2.03 1.13 0.77 0.28 0.09 0.14 0.16

Inc. 48.0 49.2 1.2 4.07 2.53 1.75 0.60 0.19 0.29 0.25 Kaukua LK20-004 40.3 68.5 28.2 2.04 1.11 0.73 0.29 0.09 0.19 0.14

Inc. 40.3 53.4 13.1 2.73 1.58 1.05 0.41 0.12 0.24 0.17

Inc. 52.1 53.4 1.4 4.43 2.69 1.83 0.71 0.15 0.38 0.26 Kaukua LK20-005 32.8 69.5 36.8 1.95 1.13 0.74 0.31 0.08 0.16 0.13

Inc. 32.8 41.0 8.3 3.40 2.00 1.38 0.52 0.11 0.29 0.21

Inc. 36.2 37.7 1.5 4.83 2.87 2.01 0.70 0.16 0.39 0.31 Kaukua South

LK20-006 Results Pending















Kaukua LK20-007 200.1

241.7

41.6

2.16

1.18 0.83 0.28 0.07 0.16 0.17

Inc. 205.9 213.8 7.8 3.26 2.18 1.53 0.53 0.13 0.21 0.17

Inc. 207.4 208.9 1.5 4.47 2.70 1.72 0.61 0.38 0.42 0.24

*Palladium Equivalent "Pd_Eq" is calculated using metal prices (in USD) of $1,100/oz for palladium, $950/oz for platinum, $1,300/oz for gold, $6,614/t for copper and $15,432/t for nickel as used in the Company's 2019, 43-101 mineral resource estimate on the Kaukua Deposit (see press release September 9, 2019).

** Reported widths are "drilled widths" true widths are estimated to be approximately 90% of drilled width.

*** Italicised values are previously released (see press release July 22, 2020).

The Company suspended the Phase 1 exploration program in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic and has announced plans to restart drilling in August. (see news release July 14, 2020).

QA/QC

The Phase I drilling program was carried out under the supervision of Neil Pettigrew, M.Sc., P. Geo., Vice President of Exploration and a director of the Company.

Drill core samples were split using a rock saw by Company staff, with half retained in the core box and stored indoors in a secure facility, in Taivalkoski, Finland. The drill core samples were transported by courier from the Company's core handling facility in Taivalkoski, Finland, to ALS Global ("ALS") laboratory in Outokumpu, Finland. ALS, is an accredited lab and are ISO compliant (ISO 9001:2008, ISO/IEC 17025:2005). PGE analysis was performed using a 30 grams fire assay with an ICP-MS or ICP-AES finish. Multi-element analyses, including copper and nickel were analysed by four acid digestion using 0.25 grams with an ICP-AES finish.

Certified standards, blanks and crushed duplicates are placed in the sample stream at a rate of one QA/QC sample per 10 core samples. Results are analyzed for acceptance at the time of import. All standards associated with the results in this press release were determined to be acceptable within the defined limits of the standard used

Figure 1. Greater Kaukua Area showing IP chargeability anomalies and Phase 1 drill hole locations.



To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6502/60572_bb38eaff24b07a6b_001full.jpg

Figure 2. Cross section of the Kaukua Open Pit deposit. Showing hole LK20-007 and historic holes and the combined palladium block model, and optimized pit from the 2019, 43-101 resource estimate.



To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6502/60572_bb38eaff24b07a6b_002full.jpg

Qualified Person

The technical information in this release has been reviewed and verified by Neil Pettigrew, M.Sc., P. Geo., Vice President of Exploration and a director of the Company and the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Palladium One

Palladium One Mining Inc. is a palladium dominant, PGE, nickel, copper exploration and development company. Its assets consist of the Lantinen Koillismaa ("LK") and Kostonjarvi ("KS") PGE-Cu-Ni projects, located in north-central Finland and the Tyko Ni-Cu-PGE and Disraeli PGE-Ni-Cu properties in Ontario, Canada. All projects are 100% owned and are of a district scale. LK is an advanced project targeting disseminated sulphide along 38 kilometers of favorable basal contact. The KS project is targeting massive sulphide within a 20,000-hectare land package covering a regional scale gravity and magnetic geophysical anomaly. Tyko is a 13,000-hectare project targeting disseminated and massive sulphide in a highly metamorphosed Archean terrain. Disraeli is a 3,100-hectare project targeting PGE-rich disseminated and massive sulphide in a highly productive Proterozoic mid-continent rift.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Derrick Weyrauch"

President & CEO, Director

For further information contact:

Derrick Weyrauch, President & CEO

Email: info@palladiumoneinc.com



Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release is not an offer or a solicitation of an offer of securities for sale in the United States of America. The common shares of Palladium One Mining Inc. have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration.

Information set forth in this press release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address a company's expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks associated with project development; the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mining and mineral processing; fluctuations in palladium and other commodity prices; title matters; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the absence of dividends; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume; and tax consequences to Canadian and U.S. Shareholders. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/60572
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 07/27/2020



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

star Tarek El Moussa is engaged to Selling Sunset star Heather Rae Young.Tarek, 38, proposed marriage to his girlfriend of one year, Heather, 32, on Saturday at Catalina Island in California, People reported Prior to announcing his engagement news, Tarek detailed how he and Heather planned to celebrate their one-year anniversary of dating late last week."Our anniversary weekend has been amazing so far, and we're just getting started! We started off our 1-year celebration with a candle-lit dinner on the boat, and the most incredible private chef," Tarek captioned a series of photos on Instagram, including the pair eating and drinking from their four-course menu, plus dessert.Tarek and Heather boarded Tarek's boat named "Bad Decisions," which he purchased following his split from co-star Christina El Moussa , and the couple sipped on custom cocktails called "Honey Bunny," "Miss Dimples" and "We'll Always Have Paris.""I got so many comments and DM's about how great the food looked! Trust me, I wish you all could've tried it, it was soo delicious! I cant wait for the rest of the weekend out on the boat with @heatherraeyoung!"The couple's trip began on Wednesday, which was the actual day of their anniversary, and then on Sunday, Tarek posted a photo of himself in a black tuxedo, popping the question to Heather, who was beaming in a black sequin dress."She said yes! #FlippingHerLastName," Tarek wrote alongside the photo.And Heather -- who called her celebration with Tarek "the best surprise weekend of my life" -- posted the same picture on her Instagram account and captioned it, "The Future Mrs. Tarek El Moussa!!!!"Tarek told People that Catalina Island is a "special place" for the couple and they "love to be on the boat together," so he thought a romantic boatride would be the perfect way to kick off their anniversary getaway.Tarek reportedly got down on one knee while standing underneath two palm trees that had a 5,000-stem flower arrangement cascading down.The flowers were shades of red and pink, Heather's two favorite colors, and featured the blonde realtor's favorite flowers -- roses, peonies, dahlias, ranunculus, butterfly lisianthus and hydrangeas.But first, Heather walked down a beach path that was lined with flower petals and candles, People reported.Tarek said he secretly drove to Running Springs, CA, first to ask Heather's father for permission to pop the question and selected an eight carat, colorless, emerald-cut diamond to put on his future bride's finger."The diamond is perfect all the way around, just like Heather," Tarek gushed. "I also picked this ring because 8 is a lucky number."Following the proposal, Tarek and Heather enjoyed a private dinner in a beach cabana, which Tarek reportedly decorated with more blooms and a custom hot pink-and-red neon sign that read "The Future Mrs. El Moussa."Heather gifted Tarek a scrapbook documenting their first year together for their anniversary.Tarek and Heather reportedly first met in Newport Beach, CA, on the Fourth of July in 2019 through mutual friends, and they moved in together less than one week after their first date.Tarek and Heather reportedly split their time between Tarek's "bachelor dad pad" in Orange County and Heather's home in West Hollywood.The couple was photographed together in late July 2019 and then went Instagram official in early August of that year.Heather also revealed at the time she had already met Tarek's kids and called herself their "bonus mom," according to People.Tarek shares two children -- daughter Taylor, 9, and son Brayden, 4 -- with his ex-wife Christina.Tarek and Christina were married for seven years before quietly breaking up in May 2016. The former couple didn't publicly announced their split until December of that year.Tarek filed for divorce in January 2017, and the paperwork was finalized one year later.In April 2020, Tarek reportedly sold his place in Orange County to begin renting a property with Heather in Newport Beach. The couple plan to live in the beach house for about a year until they find their "dream home" together.Tarek and Christina continue to film their HGTV home renovation show, , together while Christina stars on her solo project, Christina on the Coast, and Tarek stars on Flipping 101.Christina has also moved on from her split with Tarek. She began dating British television host Ant Anstead, who has also has two children from a previous marriage, in October 2017 and the couple got married in December 2018 in Newport Beach, CA."I'll be honest and say I never thought I would meet someone special in my life after the last three years," Tarek said in August 2019 after dating Heather for about a month, according to People."Then out of the blue [Heather] walked into my life. In life you can't predict the future! I couldn't predict divorce! I couldn't predict two cancers! I couldn't predict my back injury! You just never know what tomorrow brings. I just want to let the world know I met someone special that makes me want to be a better man."
Three members of the same family were kidnapped in a horrific attack on a farm in South Africa then driven out into the wilds in their own cars to be be brutally slaughtered.

Daniel Brand, 82, his wife Hybrecht, 73, and their daughter Elizabeth, 53, went missing from their rural home near Hartswater in the Northern Province on Sunday night.

Elizabeth, known by her nickname Elzabie, had been visiting for Sunday lunch - but her body was found on Tuesday morning by a drone operator.

The bodies of her parents were found at around 5pm Tuesday. 'They've just found my parents. They're gone,' a heartbroken son-in-law Wikus Taljaard told News24.

The family had received no further information but four suspects have now been arrested.

Daniel Brand, 82, his wife Hybrecht, 73, and their daughter Elizabeth (left), 53, went missing from their rural home near Hartswater in the Northern Province on Sunday night

One of the two cars stolen from the Brand smallholding in Hartswater, South Africa. It was later recovered by the police

'The initial three suspects that were arrested were a 42-year-old woman and two males, aged 18 and 19 years. Police have just arrested a fourth suspect, aged 20,' police spokesperson Vishnu Naidoo said on Tuesday.

Worried relatives drove out to the smallholding at noon on Monday after they failed to get in contact with the family.

They found the home empty. It had been ransacked and there were blood stains inside.

Daniel's Nissan Micra and Elizabeth's silver Mazda were also missing from their drive.

It is not known how Elizabeth was killed but a member of the police search and rescue team said finding her body was 'extremely distressing' due to her condition.

She was found near Takaneng Village in Taung, a 30-minute drive from the house, and is believed to have been driven there by the kidnappers in her own car. One of the missing cars was found nearby.

Hybrecht (pictured) went to The Grove School in Milton Keynes but moved to South Africa after she finished her education, according to her Facebook page

A woman, aged 42, was arrested on Monday night after she was found driving the stolen silver Mazda along with two men aged 18 and 19.

A fourth man, aged 20, was arrested shortly afterwards by police.

It is understood two of the gang pointed out the rough area where they had dumped Elizabeth and told police her mother and father were left hanging dead from a tree nearby.

A source close to the investigation revealed the family were 'brutally murdered'. The culprits took their two cars, a few cell phones 'and a bit of jewellery and cash'.

Earlier on Tuesday, before the elderly couple's bodies were found, the source added: 'From the statements we have taken, it is clear the mother and father and the daughter were all three kidnapped and later brutally murdered.

'We have found the daughter but the area where it would appear the mother and father were left is remote and we are still looking for their bodies with a team of searchers.

Murdered Danie and Breggie Brand, who were abducted along with their daughter from their smallholiding in Hartswater, South Africa

'You can only image the terror these poor people went through in their last hours and there was no need to kill them. They could have just robbed them if that was what the motive was.'

Father-of-three Daniel, known as Danie, and his wife Hybrecht, who was known as Breggie, ran a water production scheme. They supplied the water to the local area.

Hybrecht went to The Grove School in Milton Keynes but moved to South Africa after she finished her education, according to her Facebook page.

A spokesman for Afriforum, a pressure group highlighting the murders of those on farms and smallholdings, called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to 'wake up' to the killings.

Marius Muller said: 'The fears of relatives that all three had come to harm was reported to the local police station on Sunday but it appears that absolutely nothing was done about it.

'It was only when those worried relatives travelled down on Monday themselves that they found effectively a crime scene with the house ransacked and the blood stains inside.

National police spokesman Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo confirmed three men and a woman were arrested after the stolen vehicle was stopped. They are now being questioned. Pictured, Hartswater Police Station

'Who knows if the police acted immediately on Sunday then lives could have been saved? Those who run this country have to wake up to what is happening and protect farmers.'

After the relatives raised the alarm on Monday Daniel's Nissan Micra was found close to Taung and Elizabeth's Mazda was spotted driving on false plates at Pudimoe, 30 miles further along the N18 from the family's home.

National police spokesman Brigadier Naidoo confirmed three men and a woman were arrested after the stolen vehicle was stopped. They are now being questioned.

He said earlier on Tuesday: 'It would seem that the motive for what happened here was robbery.

'I cannot comment on the cause of death at this moment on the person we have found.'

Afriforum's Mr Muller said a drone pilot found Elizabeth after an hour of scouring the area where she was thought to have been dumped.

He said: 'One suspect said the bodies of the others were left hanging from a tree out in the bush.'

South Africa is one of the crime hots spots of the world with 58 murders every day adding up to over 21,000 each year  though farm murders amount to much less with about 75 a year.

But statistics show it is four times more dangerous to live on a farm in South Africa than anywhere else and most of the farm attacks are particularly horrific.

Incidents of torture on farmers including pouring boiling water down ears, using power tools on their victims, burning them with hot irons, rape and the slitting of throats.
tech2 News Staff

Two teenagers from Surat in Gujarat have spotted an Earth-bound asteroid in photographs snapped by a key astronomical telescope in Hawaii.

The 14-year-old students Vaidehi Vekariya and Radhika Lakhani discovered the asteroid during a two-month science programme called the All India Asteroid Search Campaign 2020. The asteroid is currently on its orbit, close to Mars, and is expected to cross Earth's path in roughly a million years' time, according to a Facebook post by SPACE India, the private space education institute where the girls received their astronomy training.

The Asteroid Search training program they were part of was conducted by SPACE India in partnership with a NASA-affiliated citizen scientist group called the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC). The Director of the IASC, J Patrick Miller, confirmed the discovery as per an email to the teens, Reuters reported.
Vang A Chinh, head of the Sin Suoi Ho Village, enters the forest every day to check a forest area that he was allocated to look after in 2012 by the forest management board in Sin Suoi Ho Commune, Lai Chau Province.

Sin Suoi Ho villagers cut grass and other vegetation to avoid forest fires.  VNA/VNS Photo Quy Trung

The 45-year-old man from the Mong ethnic minority group works as an administrator to protect the local forest.

His village was allocated more than 600ha of forest to look after in 2012 under the forest environmental services policy.

The job brings him and other households who take part in the forest protection programme an average of VND5 million (US$215) per year.

Sin Suoi Ho Village, around 30km from Lai Chau City, is home to about 135 households of Mong ethnic people.

In the first years of being allocated to protect forests, only 87 households participated in the programme. But now more than 100 households are involved, Chinh said.

"Forest is gold so protecting the forest is very important. People understand that only forests can retain water to serve daily life and irrigation, so local residents signed commitments to participate in forest protection and development," Chinh told Viet Nam News.

Forty-one of the country's 63 provinces have established a forest-protection and development fund to look after nearly 6 million hectares of trees, according to report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The policy was first introduced in Vietnam in 2008, requiring hydro-power plants, water-supply companies and environmental tourism firms using the forests to pay fees for services to provincial forest-protection and development funds.

During 2009-18, VND1.5 trillion was collected from forest environment services policy in Lai Chau.

Of this, more than 60 per cent was used to pay local residents for forest protection, said Ngo Trong Lich, Director of Lai Chau Forest Protection and Development Fund.

The policy also helped improve living conditions, create jobs for local people, reduce poverty and eliminate social evils, Chinh said.

About 20 years ago, many men and some women in the village were addicted to opium.

They were often drunk and could not work after drinking, so they lived in poverty and their children were uneducated, Chinh said.

I used to be illiterate and I had to work hard to change this life, he said.

He went to other villages to learn how to do business and joined social organisations to access advanced knowledge.

From drug addiction to tourism village

In 2000, he and a number of young people in the village launched a campaign to help locals stop using drugs and alcohol.

"It was a long process with hundreds of meetings and talks with each household. Addicts gradually realised that they were a burden for their family and the community," Chinh said.

"They also found that they could not wipe out hunger and poverty if they did not give up drugs. So they were committed to detoxification.

Fourteen years later, no one in the village was addicted.

In 2012, the payment policy for forest environmental services was implemented in Lai Chau, creating jobs for hundreds of local people.

Chinh and some people in the village had to hold many meetings and advise people to save the money they earned from forest protection to build roads and houses.

They committed to implement a 'five-no' policy: no drugs, no tobacco, no alcohol, no gambling and no littering.

They also started a travel business.

The village, located 1,500m above sea level, has a temperate and fresh climate year-round with many beautiful spots and historical relics as well as traditional wooden houses of Mong people.

Gradually, more and more tourists have chosen the village for their holidays.

Sin Suoi Ho Village, a famous destination, welcomes nearly 100,000 domestic and foreigners visitors each year. VNA/VNS Photo Viet Hoang

Realising the potential of economic development from tourism, Chinh mobilised people in the village to use the money earned from forest environmental payment service to develop homestay services.

From being a poor village with men falling into addiction, the village has become a destination, welcoming nearly 100,000 domestic and foreigners visitors each year.

The lives of the people here are getting better thanks to the policy and the forest was also managed better than before, said Chinh.

Forest better managed

Nam Nhun District is home to 11 ethnic groups in Lai Chau, of which the Mong ethnicity make up the biggest proportion. Since the policy of payment for forest environmental services was introduced in 2011, the task of forest protection and development in the locality has become much easier.

Nguyen Quang Hai, vice chairman of Nam Nhun District People's Committee, said the potential for local development was mainly found in forest land. They plan to plant an additional 113,000ha, accounting for more than 90 per cent of the natural area.

"We know the task of developing forestry land is very important and forest protection is related to water security to ensure enough water to generate electricity as well as water for daily use.

"Therefore, the district must protect watershed forests, borders and food security for people," Hai told Tin Tuc (News) online newspaper.

The district has a total 75,543ha of forests with a coverage ratio of more than 54.4 per cent.

Previously, rangers faced many difficulties in forest protection, he said, adding that deforestation and forest fires occurred often.

In early 2011, the payment policy for forest protection services took effect.

In 2019 alone, Nam Nhun District paid people nearly VND71 billion, an average of VND13 million for each household.

Some households can earn VND60 million a year from forest protection.

The payment policy for forest environmental services has been implemented across Lai Chau Province in 2012.

About 990 teams have been set up to protect forest in most villages and communes across the province.

Forest fires and violations of forest protection regulations tend to decrease.

Located next to Lai Chau is Son La Province - one of the first provinces to pilot this payment policy in 2008.

Over the past 10 years, the province has spent more than VND1.16 trillion (US$50.2 million) for forest protection and development.

Son La has a total of 637,000ha of forest. The payment policy has helped generate stable jobs and income for local residents while encouraging them to look after the forest, according to Soi Ngoc Dung, director of Son La Forest Protection and Development Fund.

The scheme has increased financial incentives for forest protection by creating links with the beneficiaries of such services - hydro-power facilities, water supply companies, and eco-tourism operators.

The province has allocated forests for groups of households for better management, which created conditions for local residents to discuss the forest situation and mechanism-related issues.

As a forest owner, I am the first person who is responsible for any damage to the forest in the locality. In recent years, thanks to the policy, the awareness of the Mong people on forest protection is improved. The benefits of the people have been attached to the forest protection," said Quang Van Hac, chairman of Sam Kha Commune, Sop Cop District, and the owner of more than 6,000ha of forest.

The policy has also attracted a large number of labourers among the local people, especially in remote areas.

Every year, more than 43,000 forest owners (accounting for more than 40 per cent of the total forest owners in the country) benefit from forest environmental services and other benefits from forests. VNS

Forest fires a burning problem during dry season in Vietnam As many as 160 forest fires were reported across Vietnam in the last six months, destroying about 756ha of forest, according to the Vietnam Fire and Rescue Police Department under the Public Security Ministry.
Former Imo East senator, Sam Anyanwu, has reacted to the list of lawmakers who allegedly got contracts from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

He said he was shocked to hear his name mentioned as one of the beneficiaries of the contracts.

The list was released by the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, on Sunday.

He listed Mr Anyanwu against 19 projects.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Peter Nwabaoshi, was also listed against 53 projects.

Some of the projects include emergency repairs of Asue Street, Owa Phase 2; ldumuogbe Road via Ojemaye; Otolokpo College Road, Otolokpo; and the Police lshu Ani Ukwu Road, Issele Uku.

Mr Akpabio also mentioned two other senators. He said Matthew Urhoghide got six projects while James Manager got six contracts.

The former Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on the NDDC, Nicholas Mutu, was also named by the minister as receiving 74 contracts  the highest among the listed lawmakers.

Some of the projects are emergency roads in Delta, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Rivers states.

A few others were simply identified as Ondo and Edo reps.

This was in response to the threat issued by the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, to sue the minister for alleged defamation of character.

Mr Akpabio at a hearing with the House panel alleged that the majority of the contracts in the NDDC are given out to members of the National Assembly and was challenged by Mr Gbajabiamila, to name the lawmakers involved in the scandal within 48 hours.

The minister earlier retracted his claim, saying his reference was not to current lawmakers of the ninth assembly.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, Mr Anyanwu said as a member of the committee in the eight Senate, he nominated projects for his constituency but none was awarded to him.

First I was shocked to hear my name. Very shocked that the honourable minister of Niger Delta could mention my name that I was awarded contracts. I was a member of the committee on NDDC. The current minister of Niger Delta affairs was also a member and was the minority leader of the Senate.

As a member of the committee on NDDC, I attracted projects to my constituency, no contract was ever awarded to me, the beneficiaries of these contracts are my people that I represent, Imo East, who are members of the Niger Delta and I challenge the honourable minister and NDDC to go through their records if there was any contract awarded to me or any dime traceable to me.

So it is disheartening. As politicians, you have political enemies who would act on these to work against you and that is why I feel very very hurt on this issue and I felt I had to clear the air and so you hear my side of the story.

The former lawmaker also said he got complaints from contractors handling some of the projects in his constituency saying the NDDC has not paid a dime.

I have it on good authority that NDDC does not pay mobilisation for contracts. Im using this medium to call on NDDC to go to my constituency and complete the projects they have started, he said.

Mr Anyanwu also wondered why only three senators were mentioned when the committee had 18 members.

Having made several futile attempts to contact the minister and confront him personally, he said his lawyers are going to write Mr Akpabio to retract his name or provide proof after which the next legal step would be taken.

This controversy comes days after the Senate resolved to investigate allegations of corruption levelled by the NDDC against some lawmakers.

The Senate gave its committee on ethics, privileges and public petitions four weeks to probe the allegations made by the management of the NDDC and Mr Akpabio.

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Both the House and the Senate have been investigating alleged misappropriation of funds and financial recklessness in the commission.
KFAR CHOUBA, Lebanon - Lebanons prime minister Tuesday accused Israel of provoking a dangerous escalation along the border in an attempt to modify the mandate of a U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, cautioning against a slide toward the worse in coming days.

Hassan Diabs comments came a day after the Israeli military said it thwarted an infiltration attempt by Hezbollah militants  setting off one of the heaviest exchanges of fire along the volatile Israel-Lebanon frontier since a 2006 war between the two enemies.

Hezbollah denied its fighters had engaged in any attack along the border, but the Israeli military said it was sure the Iranian-backed militant group had carried out the operation, and Israeli forces in the area remained on heightened alert.

In a clear sign the Israeli military did not consider the episode to be over, the army said Tuesday that the northern frontier would be reinforced with advanced fire capabilities, intelligence collection systems and special units.

The announcement comes a few days after the military announced it was beefing up the northern border with infantry troops amid tensions with Hezbollah.

Israel had been bracing for an attack since an Israeli airstrike in neighbouring Syria killed a Hezbollah fighter last week. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to retaliate against any Israeli attack that kills one of its fighters. In a statement issued Monday night, the group said the exchanges of fire were unrelated to Hezbollahs retaliation, which was still coming.

Mondays mysterious incident occurred in an area known as Chebaa Farms, an area captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War and claimed by Lebanon.

The area was quiet Tuesday, with villagers largely going about their daily business.

The mayor of Kfar Chouba, Nasser al-Qadiri, where most of the shelling took place, said the Israeli attacks triggered fires that caused huge losses in the fields and cattle of the villagers.

Peacekeepers from the U.N. mission known as UNIFIL could be seen at border outposts Monday. The mission is up for renewal when its mandate expires Aug. 31. Israel and the U.S. are pressing for major changes in the way it operates on the ground to combat what they say is the spread of illegal arms to Hezbollah-dominated southern Lebanon.

The force has been deployed in southern Lebanon since an Israeli invasion in 1978.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday met with the countrys military chief and other senior military officials for a security assessment at the armys Northern Command headquarters near the Lebanese border.

Netanyahu accused Iran and its proxy Hezbollah of destabilizing the region and said Hezbollahs leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is serving this Iranian interest at Lebanons expense.

We will continue to take action to thwart Irans military entrenchment in our region, he said. We will do whatever is necessary to defend ourselves and I suggest that Hezbollah consider this simple fact. Israel is ready for any scenario.

___

Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed reporting.
House Majority Leader: Democrats Flexible on $600 Unemployment Benefits

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that Democrats are not insisting on renewing the $600-per-week unemployment benefits but said the Republican proposal on Monday doesnt go far enough.

Its not $600 or bust, he told CNN. Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi said the other day, which I thought was a great line: We dont have red lines, we have values. And were going into these negotiations with values.'

The GOP measure includes a $200 weekly federal boost, which is a third of the additional payment included in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which passed with bipartisan support in March.

Hoyer said Democrats are opposed to the $200 per week figure.

He added in the interview: To say that $600 or nothing, no, thats not where we are. Were prepared to discuss this. But were also not prepared, however, to let down the American people, to let down the states, the cities, the local governments who hire people, who are meeting this pandemics crisis, including health personnel.

Democrats, in their HEROES Act that was passed in May, proposed extending the measure until January 2021.

A $400 cut immediately is going to make it very, very difficult for American families to meet their rent, to pay for food, to pay their living expenses, Hoyer said. It is insufficient. It will let down the American people, and it will damage the economy.

Hoyer, however, conceded that the $600 weekly unemployment benefit could be a disincentive for people to return to work in the midst of the pandemic.

I think thats an argument that is  has some validity to it. And we ought to deal with that. And there is a way to deal with that, but not this way, not cold turkey, Hoyer said.

But cutting it to $200 is problematic, he added.

Customers wear protective masks as they order food outside a restaurant in New York City, on July 21, 2020. (Jeenah Moon/Getty Images)

There is a way to deal with that. But not this way, not cold turkey. Not: Here you have it, now you dont, the majority leader said. The American people were relying on that.

The expanded federal benefits are slated to end at the end of July.

The reason we had $600 was its simplicity, Pelosi (D-Calif.) told CBS Newss Face the Nation on Sunday. The payments, however, provided some laid-off workers with higher incomes then they had received when they were working, leading some Republicans and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to say they would abandon the program.

Democrats also want to see additional funds send to city and state governments, while Republicans have included no new funds to states. Both parties appear to have no problems sending $1,200 stimulus payments to Americans.

Of the unemployment benefit proposal, Senate Republicans said they are merely introducing the plan as a starting point for negotiations with Democrats.
A Black Lives Matter rally in Sydney's CBD was shut down before it even started, with police arresting and fining several protesters, including one of the organisers.

While the protest was scheduled to start at midday in The Domain, by noon protesters had left the area after being encouraged to disperse and issued with move-on orders.

Paddy Gibson is detained by NSW Police at the Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney. Credit:Nick Moir

Almost 1500 people had indicated on Facebook they would attend the rally, but only about 40 turned up.

Six were arrested, five of whom were issued with a $1000 penalty infringement notice for breaching public health orders.
At 6:45 a.m. Monday, a volunteer in Savannah, Ga., received a shot in the arm and became the first participant in a massive human experiment that will test the effectiveness of an experimental coronavirus vaccine candidate. The vaccine is being developed by the biotechnology company Moderna in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health.

The vaccination marks a much-anticipated milestone: the official launch of the first in a series of large U.S. clinical trials that will each test experimental vaccines in 30,000 participants, half receiving the medicine and half receiving a placebo. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer also announced that it was initiating a 30,000-person vaccine trial, at 120 sites globally.

"We are participating today in the launching of a truly historic event in the history of vaccinology," Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a news conference. He noted that the United States has never moved faster to develop a vaccine, from basic science to a large Phase 3 trial designed to test safety and effectiveness.

Fauci predicted that researchers probably would be able to tell whether the Moderna vaccine was effective by November or December, though he explained that it was a "distinct possibility" that an answer could come sooner. Pfizer officials have said the company expects to be able to seek regulatory authorization or approval by October.

Company and government officials repeatedly underscored that while the vaccine effort is moving at record-breaking speed, safety is not being sacrificed.

"There is no compromise at all, with regard to safety, nor of scientific integrity," Fauci said.

Both vaccines require two doses, spaced several weeks apart. Then researchers will have to wait to see whether people get infected or sick from the novel coronavirus. What they hope to witness is a clear benefit: fewer infections in people who received the vaccine, or less severe episodes of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. There are many unknowns about how long it could take to see a clear signal of success or failure - including how fast the trials will recruit participants and how long it takes for enough people to become infected to observe whether there is an effect.

Statisticians have been crunching the numbers to predict how many infections would need to occur in the study population to gauge the vaccine's effectiveness. To show that the Moderna vaccine is 60% effective, Fauci said, there would need to be about 150 infections among the 30,000 participants.

The trials are also the biggest test yet of a promising technology that has never been approved for use outside medical research. Either vaccine could become the first in a new class of medicines. The vaccines deliver a snip of genetic material that carries the blueprint for the spiky protein that dots the surface of the coronavirus. After a person is vaccinated, their cells will follow the genetic instructions to build the proteins, and their immune systems, confronted with the spike protein, learn how to recognize and mount a defense to the virus without ever being infected.

"I believe it is a historic day: the first Phase 3 covid-19 vaccine being run in the U.S.," Moderna chief executive Stephane Bancel said. "It's a historic day for science, as well. This is the first Phase 3 of a messenger RNA medicine in the world."

Mark Mulligan, director of the New York University Langone Health's vaccine center, said eight people will be vaccinated in the late-stage Pfizer trial Tuesday, after promising results in early stage human tests.

"Now it becomes important to continue to assess them in larger numbers of people, and to ask the final question: Does it provide the protection?" Mulligan said.

Matt Slovick, 61, volunteered to be part of that history and showed up to receive a shot Monday afternoon at Meridian Clinical Research in Rockville, Md. Before the pandemic, Slovick, who works for an insurance company, did much of his work face-to-face, with on-site visits to clients and presentations to groups of people. Now, he works remotely and has seen small businesses shut down. His oldest daughter was furloughed from her hospitality job because of the pandemic, and his younger daughter was on the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, the Navy aircraft carrier that was home to a major outbreak in March.

"Thank goodness, my daughter's results came back negative," Slovick said. "As an American, I was doing what I was supposed to do - staying at home, wearing a mask. I thought: Maybe I can help the whole populace of the country to get this thing going" when he heard about the vaccine trial.

Meridian Clinical Research is one of nearly 87 sites recruiting participants across the country for the Moderna trial - and was scheduled to vaccinate the first dozen people on Monday. Shishir Khetan, a physician leading the effort to recruit 300 to 400 people there, said that the first day of any trial is typically slower, but that conducting a trial in a global pandemic is even more complicated. Researchers cannot conduct information sessions about the trial with groups, as they might under normal circumstances, or let people stay in a communal waiting room after their vaccination.

Khetan said the biggest misconception he hears about the vaccine trial is the worry that the vaccine could infect people. But the vaccine does not pose an infection risk; it's just a fragment of genetic material that codes for a piece of the virus. He also encounters people who mistakenly believe that the trial participants will be infected with the virus.

"That's absolutely not true. Nobody is given the virus," Khetan said. "You're encouraged to follow CDC guidelines of wearing a mask and social distancing."

At least three other large trials facilitated by Operation Warp Speed, the federal effort to speed vaccine development, are expected to follow. Those include an experimental vaccine being developed jointly by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, one from Johnson & Johnson, and another candidate from the biotechnology company Novavax.

Interest in the trials is surging in the pandemic, but researchers said it would be essential for volunteers to include those who are most at risk of severe consequences of covid-19, including black, Hispanic, Native American and older people.

"This is going to be a big American opportunity for people to come onboard as our partners, to take part in what is a historic effort to bring to an end what has been the worst pandemic our world has seen in over 100 years," National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins said.

Moderna is planning to produce 500 million vaccine doses a year, with the possibility of making 1 billion doses annually in 2021. Over the weekend, the U.S. government committed $472 million to support the large trial, doubling the federal investment in Moderna's vaccine candidate.

President Donald Trump visited Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies in North Carolina on Monday, a contract development and manufacturing organization that is working to ramp up production of the vaccine candidate being developed by Novavax. The Department of Health and Human Services also announced that it was improving the nation's ability to manufacture vaccine by reserving capacity through December 2021 at Texas A&M University's Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing.

Several other vaccine developers have begun large trials designed to test effectiveness, including two candidates from Chinese companies and one being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca that is being tested in Brazil and South Africa and will soon start U.S. trials.
On July 27, NASA said that its Mars 2020 rover Perseverance has a 'go for launch and was set for lift-off this week to seek the ancient microbial life on the red planet. "The launch readiness review is complete, and we are indeed going for launch," administrator Jim Bridenstine said at a news conference at the agencys Kennedy Space Center. The launch will take place at 7:50 am (1150 GMT) on July 30 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Stations Space Launch Complex 41 onboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket, according to an official communication released by NASA on its website.

I just couldnt be happier to be here today and have this amazing mission on top of a rocket and ready to go. From this launch readiness review, all the issues are addressed and we are in fact ready now; were just counting down and really celebrating with the teamAssociate administrator at NASAs Science Mission Directorate, Thomas Zurbuchen said.

In another release, NASA invited the public to watch the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Launch and participate in virtual activities and events ahead of the mission. It urged the space lovers to catch the Live coverage and countdown commentary on NASA Television and the agencys website, as well as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, Daily Motion, and Theta.TV at 7 am on the day of the launch. NASA also asked the members of the public to register for stay up-to-date on mission information and other mission highlights. As per the release, the US Air Force 45th Weather Squadron predicted that there were favourable weather conditions, up to 80 percent, for the historic mission to stay on track. Bridenstine assured, saying, We are in extraordinary times right now with the coronavirus pandemic, and yet we have, in fact, persevered. He added, we have protected this mission because it is so important.

We are three days away from the launch of @NASAs next Mars rover and weather is 80% go for launch. The @ulalaunch rocket carrying @NASAPersevere is targeting liftoff at 7:50 a.m. ET on July 30.



You can watch live launch coverage beginning at 7 a.m. ET: https://t.co/AuL4mQfsyu pic.twitter.com/qzcBJXr1Yw  NASA's Kennedy Space Center (@NASAKennedy) July 27, 2020

Read: Scientists Head To Explore Mysterious 425-feet Deep 'blue Hole' Near Florida

Read: NASA Eyes nuclear Power Plants That'll Generate Energy on The Moon And Mars

Rover lands on February 18, 2021

Loaded with at least seven different scientific instruments, Perseverance is expected to reach Mars on February 18, 2021, to carry out the astrobiology mission designed under NASAs Mars Exploration Program. However, the official forecasts have put weather challenges that could hinder the mission at 20 per cent citing heavy clouds as a primary concern that could prevent the spacecraft from taking off. NASA said in the release, there will be a window of two hours for the rover to take off into space, which ends at 9.50 am local eastern time. Perseverance will collect samples from the Red Planet that could be returned to Earth on a future mission. These samples would provide unprecedented information about the Martian climate and weather, according to NASA.

Were doing transformative science; really for the first time, were looking for signs of life on another planetMatt Wallace, deputy project manager, NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Read: Scientists Rediscover Lost Planet 'NGTS-11b' After 2 Long Years: Reports

Read: Hurricane Hanna: NASA Astronaut Captures The Storm From Space

(All Images Credit: NASA)
Decades of conservation efforts have brought the Kemps ridley sea turtles back from the brink of extinction.

It now looks like their future may be in peril once again.

The National Park Service is proposing massive cuts in conservation officers. Its a change that could have a devastating impact on the Kemps ridley sea turtle population, which has adopted the Padre Island National Seashore as one of its spawning grounds.

Getting the sea turtles to extend their nesting into Texas has been a decades-long effort on the part of scientists, conservationists and lawmakers. In the late 70s it became evident that without intervention, we would soon only find these turtles in zoos and aquariums. Poaching had reduced the population from an estimated 40,000 ridley nests in 1947 to about 1,000.

Conservationists transferred thousands of turtle eggs next to the Texas coastline with the idea the hatchlings would return to their birthplace to spawn. It worked. Although the Kemps ridley is still considered endangered, turtles have been coming back by the hundreds each year to lay their eggs.

Over the decades, the federal government has increased the turtle conservation programs funding and researchers have secured millions of dollars to support their work. That funding is now in jeopardy. In a recently released report, agency officials questioned the need for continued funding of the conservation efforts at previous levels given the programs success.

Whether this level of intensive wildlife management is still necessary is a legitimate scientific question now that Kemps numbers have increased from the low identified in the 1970s that prompted intervention, the report says.

So, to be clear, because the program has been successful, the federal government wants to cut funding for it. Thats nonsensical and backward.

Agency officials propose decreasing the number of beach patrols to find and protect turtle nests. Defunding that part of the program would have devastating consequences. Eggs would be vulnerable to predator attack from fire ants and coyotes, rising tides and the vehicular traffic allowed on Texas beaches.

Since the report was issued, Padre Island National Seashore Superintendent Eric Brunnemann has ordered the programs budget slashed by 30 percent and canceled two federal research grants totaling $300,000, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Im really shocked, said Christopher Marshall, director of the Gulf Center for Sea Turtle Research at Texas A&M University at Galveston told the newspaper.

If the agencys recommendations are put in place, therell be less scientific study and therell be less known about sea turtles in general, he said. I do think the gains we have achieved in the last decade will be undermined.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has filed a legal complaint with the National Park Service on behalf of one of the parks employees, Donna Shaver, chief of the Sea Turtle Science and Recovery Program. The complaint seeks to have the report rescinded on the grounds that its recommendations violate the Endangered Species Act.

We urge the National Park Service to reconsider the budget cuts. The conservation work along the Gulf Coast is far from over.

This decision would undermine more than 40 years of work to increase the Kemps ridley turtle population.
A strict lockdown imposed by the government March 16 drained an economy whose growth in the decade after the end of armed conflict had reduced poverty. The economy was down 32.75% in May from the same month in 2019, though that was an improvement on the 40.5% drop in April as Peru slowly reopens the economy, according to INEI, the state statistics agency.
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A furious childminder yesterday slammed the decision to include the Canary Islands in the Spanish quarantine rules, saying it cost her a week's wages  as well as almost half her family holiday.

Vicki Hedley, 45, had spent a relaxing nine days in sunny Gran Canaria with daughters Megan, 20, and Katie, 15, forgetting about the stresses of months under lockdown.

All that was turned upside down by Saturday's news: the islands were included in the Government's rules enforcing two weeks of quarantine when travellers return to Britain. Yet the islands have a much lower infection rate than mainland Spain, currently fewer than ten per 100,000 people.

'I just went into instant panic,' MIss Hedley said.

'I have my own business, I'm the sole income for the family, I couldn't afford to take an extra two weeks and refund everyone.'

She was unable to get a return flight until the next night, so the trio are now in quarantine for two weeks.

'This means that I can do my first week of quarantine when I was booked off anyway and only have to inconvenience my families for a further week,' Miss Hedley said.

The single mother, who lives in Cramlington, Northumberland, has lost around 800 in total, from missing out on the rest of their holiday plus a week's income after refunding her clients.

Vicki Hedley (left) on holiday in Gran Canaria with daughters Katie (right) and Megan (centre). The single mother, who lives in Cramlington, Northumberland, has lost around 800 in total, from missing out on the rest of their holiday plus a week's income after refunding her clients

Boris Johnson pictured on a visit to Nottingham on Tuesday where he expressed fears over a second Covid-19 onslaught

'It'll have a big impact because that's money I could have had in the bank,' she said. 'But the biggest impact is the emotional impact on my children, having to stay at home for two weeks.'

Miss Hedley added: 'I feel so annoyed because there wasn't even a rise in cases in Gran Canaria.'

It comes as Boris Johnson dealt another major blow to the foreign holiday season last night by warning of a second wave of coronavirus across Europe.

He suggested new controls on travel to Spain may have to be extended to other nations amid signs of a virus resurgence.

Portugal is already on the 'red list' while France, Belgium and Croatia are seeing cases rise.

Yesterday the head of Germany's disease control agency admitted he was 'very worried' over a rapid rise in cases. Meanwhile, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon advised against booking any sort of foreign holiday  and said she would take a break at home.

The developments appeared to send a message that millions of Britons can forget any idea of travelling abroad this summer.

The UK's second biggest package holiday firm, Jet2, last night criticised the Government's handling of the crisis and accused ministers of sowing confusion with 'contradictory' messaging.'

In a gloomy statement yesterday, the Prime Minister said: 'Let's be absolutely clear about what's happening in Europe  amongst some of our European friends. I'm afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic.

'I'm afraid if we do see signs of a second wave in other countries it is really our job, our duty, to act swiftly and decisively to stop travellers coming back from those countries seeding the disease here in the UK.' He added: 'We will take action throughout the summer where it is necessary.'

Meanwhile, Miss Sturgeon said: 'Right now, I would be very, very cautious about booking foreign travel that is not essential. I want to be really blunt and really clear. I wouldn't be booking a foreign holiday right now.'

She suggested no country could be considered safe because the situation can change very rapidly.

The warnings threaten disaster for the travel industry which is facing mass failures and thousands of job losses. Jet2, which has been forced to cancel holidays and flights to Spain, the Balearic islands and the Canaries, said: 'We understand that this is a fast-moving situation. However, the information we are receiving is contradictory and often comes with little or no notice. We want to provide customers, who work hard and save hard for their well-deserved holidays, with timely information and we need this from the Government.'

Nigel Hunt, 54, was at Manchester Airport today travelling with his family to their villa in Fuerteventura. Also pictured are his wife, Helen (far right) and his children Gracie (left) and Mason

Erica Thompson, a carer from Wigan, Greater Manchester, was flying to Fuerteventura to visit her parents. Dan Guzlinski (right) said it would have cost 1,000 to change his destination

The imposition of travel restrictions includes advice against all but essential journeys. When Britons do visit a red list country they are required to quarantine at home for 14 days.

Germany's disease control chief Lothar Wieler, from the Robert Koch Institute, yesterday told of his growing concerns.

He said: 'We don't know yet if this is the beginning of a second wave but, of course, it could be. It would begin with rising figures. The new developments make me very worried. The rise has to do with the fact that we have become negligent.' He urged Germans not to flout social distancing rules.

How Chris Whitty killed Spanish holidays: Chief Medical Officer 'DEMANDED ministers put Spain back on quarantine list Ministers decided to reimpose quarantine travel restrictions on Spain after it emerged 10 Britons had returned from the country with coronavirus and Professor Chris Whitty said 'doing nothing isn't an option'. The Government's Covid-O committee met on Saturday afternoon after Health Secretary Matt Hancock raised concerns about a spike in Spanish infections on Friday. The group of six senior ministers, which includes Michael Gove, Grant Shapps and Priti Patel, were apparently told by Prof Whitty, the chief medical officer, that the situation in Spain had deteriorated in the last 48 hours. Ministers were told there had been an increase in infection in 15 of Spain's 19 regions but the 'clincher' was the fact that 10 Britons had recently tested positive after coming back from the country. Advertisement

Over the last seven days, Germany has registered an average of 557 new cases a day  up from around 350 in early June.

Mr Wieler said Germans bringing the virus back from their summer holidays was one reason for the surge in cases, but he also pointed to outbreaks happening at workplaces and open-air parties.

Belgium has toughened its rules after a 'worrying' surge saw cases rising by more than 70 per cent.

The developments came as the UK was locked in an ugly diplomatic row with Spain over the new travel controls.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez called the UK decision an 'error' and 'unjust' and vowed talks designed to win a U-turn.

However, Mr Johnson yesterday insisted there is a real threat to tourists following a surge in infections in Spain. He stressed: 'What we have to do is take swift and decisive action where we think that the risks are starting to bubble up again.'

It is understood ministers took action after Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty said ten Britons who tested positive for coronavirus after July 1 had visited Spain in the 14 days before.

Britain's decision is a hammer blow to Spain's tourist economy while triggering the cancellation of up to 1.8million trips.

While thousands of Britons cut short their long-awaited Spanish holidays so they didn't have to take two weeks off work on their return, a small number were still heading out to the sunshine.

Among them were businessman Nigel Hunt, 54, who flew from Manchester with his family, to their villa in Fuerteventura.

Mr Hunt, who runs a furniture business and is from the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, said: 'We toyed long and hard with the idea of going and decided we would be safer over there than here.

'We live close to Blackburn and Hyndburn where cases are spiking, so we feel safer in Fuerteventura.'

Mr Hunt and his wife booked the Ryanair flights last year with their children Mason, 20, and Gracie, 12.

'We have our own place there so feel relatively safe,' added Mr Hunt, who is also able to work from home. 'We were supposed to go out in Easter and we still haven't got our money back from that yet.'

His wife Helen said: 'If things don't change, I'll be coming home a week early so I can use part of my holiday as the quarantine period.'

The most up to date figures show the number of new cases is rocketing upwards in Spain. It announced 6,361 new cases over the weekend, up from 4,581 the previous weekend. France announced 2,551 new coronavirus cases on Monday

Boris Johnson decided to reintroduce a quarantine on Spain move after it emerged 10 Britons had returned from the country with coronavirus.

Chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty declared the number 'statistically significant' and said that 'doing nothing isn't an option'.

However, many tourists leaving for Spain for Manchester Airport today were determined not to call off their travel plans.

Oldham becomes the latest town to face tighter coronavirus restrictions after a 240% surge in cases Oldham today became the latest place to introduce tighter coronavirus restrictions after a 240 per cent surge in cases in the past week. Official NHS statistics show 119 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in the Greater Manchester town in the week up to July 25. This equates to a rate of 50.5 cases per 100,000 people  the third highest rate in the country, behind only Blackburn with Darwen and Leicester. Council bosses have now urged all of the borough's 235,000 residents to not let any visitors into their home for at least two weeks. They are keen 'to prevent a strict local lockdown being put in place' like that seen in Leicester, which has yet to be freed from the draconian restrictions. It puts Oldham at odds with the rest of England, after lockdown rules were relaxed earlier this month to let people to stay overnight with loved ones. Advertisement

Steelworker Dan Guzlinski, 36, from Southport, Merseyside, was going to Tenerife with his family.

'If we don't go we lose our money because the holiday hasn't been cancelled. We tried to change the destination but it would have cost an extra 1,000.

'We are going for two weeks and the way everything is at the moment, I think we will be safer over there.'

Erica Thompson, a carer from Wigan, Greater Manchester, was flying to Fuerteventura to visit her parents.

She said: 'I think the Spanish Government has got a better handle on it than our own.

'Everyone has to wear masks and the Army is out on the streets to enforce social distancing measures. They are doing it properly.

'Our government has made a bit of a mess of it from the start. I still don't think they have got a proper grip on things.'

Mrs Thompson, who is visiting her parents for four days, added: 'People are taking it seriously out there and sticking to the rules.

'In the UK, people were having parties, family coming round to their houses and generally not following the rules.

'I'm not sure whether I will have to self-isolate when I get home because a friend told me I was on the exemption list but I will have to see. I will have to see what work says.'

Kieran Alexander, 30, from Manchester, is flying to Tenerife for a two-week break with his friend Alex Jackson.

He said: 'We are meeting friends who are already over there.

'We managed to get insurance, which was a little more expensive, to cover us so we decided to go. We just want to get on the plane now and get over there.'

Mr Jackson, 37, added: 'We did try to get our money back but we're unable to. We have been trying to contact On The Beach for two weeks but no one has got back to us, which is a disgrace.

'We have been completely ignored by them.

'Ryanair is still flying so we would have ended up losing 1,200 in total.

'I'll have to quarantine when I get back but that's OK because I'll be able to work from home.'

Meanwhile, tourists returning from Spain today reacted angrily at news they would have to quarantine.

Peter Rowen, 72, a retired engineer from Manchester, had been on holiday to Alicante with his friend, John Manning, 69.

'I think everything the government has done regarding this pandemic has been an absolute shambles.

'To let people go away and then come back and have to quarantine for 14 days is out of order.

'We are both single and live alone, so we are now going to have to rely on our families to go shopping for us while in quarantine.'

Chris Miskell, 64, from Crewe, had returned from Alicante with his wife, Anne.

The retired managing director said: 'I think it's Public Health England putting the pressure on trying to make up for the bad decisions made in the past.

'It just seems a knee-jerk reaction and one that hasn't been thought out very well.

'I'm angry that I have to quarantine but at least I'm in a position where it won't affect me as much as others, although it is still an inconvenience.'

Britain's decision to drop Spain from its safe travel list has sparked a diplomatic war between Madrid and London.

The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the UK's blanket ban on all non-essential travel to Spain is an 'error' and is 'unjust'.

But Mr Johnson insisted this morning the UK Government must act quickly to respond to what it believes are threats to the domestic fight against coronavirus.

He said: 'What we have to do is take swift and decisive action where we think that the risks are starting to bubble up again.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has claimed that tourists are safer in his country than the UK. These are the worst coronavirus hotspots in each country and the number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 people

Spanish PM says quarantine is 'unjust' and claims tourists will be SAFER in his country Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez Spain's Prime Minister has blasted quarantine restrictions as 'unjust' and said tourists will be safer in his country than the UK as ministers prepare to slash quarantine from 14 to 10 days to salvage getaways for millions of families. Pedro Sanchez last night criticised the government's sudden decision to force Britons returning from Spain to stay at home for two weeks and called on the government to reconsider its decision. Tourists braced to enter quarantine are worried the fortnight self-isolating could cost them paid work and there are fears the newly-imposed rules could kill off the summer holiday season. Speaking moments after the Foreign Office hardened its stance and advised against non-essential travel to the whole of Spain, including the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands, Mr Sanchez told Spanish TV station Telecinco on Monday night: 'I think the UK's decision is an incorrect one. 'Spain is made up of a number of regions that have a cumulative rate of contagion that is lower than the European average as well as the UK average.' Advertisement

'Let's be absolutely clear about what's happening in Europe, amongst some of our European friends, I'm afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic.'

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson insisted it is up to individuals to decide whether to travel abroad this summer amid mounting uncertainty.

He said: 'These are decisions for families, for individuals, about where they want to go.'

He added: 'It's vital that when people are coming back from abroad, if they are coming back from a place where I'm afraid there is another outbreak, they must go into quarantine.

'That's why we have taken the action that we have and we will continue, throughout the summer, to take such action where it is necessary.'

The Spanish Government today insisted that Spain remains a safe and 'secure' destination for tourists as Germany imposed travel restrictions on its European neighbour.

Berlin has linked foreign holidays to a 'concerning' rise in cases in Germany and it has now advised its citizens to avoid the regions of Catalonia, Aragon and Navarre - but not the southern coast or the Spanish islands.

The Government announced on Saturday that it was tightening rules on travel to Spain because of rising case numbers.

But ministers faced accusations of presiding over chaos after initially banning travel to the Spanish mainland but travel was still allowed to the Canary and Balearic islands.

However, everyone returning to Britain from anywhere in Spain was still told they have to quarantine for 14 days.

The Foreign Office then moved last night to toughen the travel advice relating to the Spanish islands to bring them into line with the rules applying to the mainland.

Britons make up over a fifth of foreign visitors to Spain, which relies heavily on tourism, and Madrid has said the UK government gave it no warning that the quarantine move was coming last weekend.

Mr Sanchez told Spanish TV station Telecinco on Monday night: 'I think the UK's decision is an incorrect one.

'Spain is made up of a number of regions that have a cumulative rate of contagion that is lower than the European average as well as the UK average.

'The Spanish tourist industry has acted very responsibly over the past few months and has transferred a message of security with regards to the health emergency we are experiencing.

'It's true that on a global level the coronavirus pandemic continues to show a very worrying development and at European level as well, but in Spain the spread of the virus is not occurring in a uniform way.'

Mr Sanchez said the Spanish government is pushing for the UK to reverse its decision as he claimed that 'in epidemiological terms, it would be safer to be' in certain parts of Spain on holiday than in the UK.

'We are going to carry on talking because we are friends and we have many commercial and economic links as well as geopolitical links,' he said.

A spokeswoman for the Spanish government insisted today that the country is still a safe place for tourists to visit.

The spokeswoman said: 'We are a secure destination that has made preparations and strengthened itself to deal with the virus and any outbreaks.'

She added: 'All the figures demonstrate the situation is good in most of the country, where the regional authorities have only registered a low incidence of the illness.'

Meanwhile, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned quarantine restrictions could be reimposed at short notice and said she would opt to take a holiday at home.

She said: 'Right now, be very, very cautious about booking foreign travel that is not essential because you don't know that when you're in a country they may change their regulations and so you might find yourself restricted in that country and when you go to come home you might find that the quarantine rules have changed here.

'I wouldn't, if you were asking me, be booking a foreign holiday right now because of these reasons. I would be choosing, if I had the time to go on holiday, to spend it here in Scotland.'

Boris Johnson, pictured during a visit to Beeston near Nottingham today, has warned there are 'signs of second wave' of coronavirus in Europe

Diplomatic ties were strained after local government minister Simon Clarke said the UK disagreed with Mr Sanchez's assessment that travel to Spain should be allowed to continue.

British Airways faces 'immediate' strike threat as Unite warns of job cuts walk out British Airways today faced an 'immediate' strike threat from union bosses over job cuts amid fears over further travel chaos to families trying to plan a holiday abroad. Unite leader Len McCluskey claimed BA chief executive Alex Cruz had 'published a timetable to fire and rehire thousands of your workforce on August 7'. Mr McCluskey also told how MPs and newspapers alike have condemned the actions of the Spanish boss, adding: 'Perhaps you don't understand that the British sense of fair play runs deep in the psyche of the British people.' BA has so far used state furlough schemes, accessed 300million of UK Government loans and retired its fleet of 747 jumbo jets earlier than planned. Advertisement

Mr Clarke told the BBC: 'We respectfully disagree with the Spanish government's position on this.

'We obviously continue to work closely with them and we wish them every success in managing this outbreak, but we've seen a very sharp increase in cases in Spain.

'A 75 per cent increase in cases reported between the middle of last week and the end of last week. That's why we took the action that we have.

'Clearly, you do have to make decisions on a country-wide basis.

'There is going to be internal transfer within Spain and it's important that we do our utmost to protect the public.'

Ministers decided on Saturday to reimpose quarantine restrictions on Spain after it emerged 10 Britons had returned from the country with coronavirus and Professor Chris Whitty said 'doing nothing isn't an option'.

The Government's Covid-O committee met at the weekend after Health Secretary Matt Hancock raised concerns about a spike in Spanish infections on Friday.

The group of six senior ministers, which includes Michael Gove, Grant Shapps and Priti Patel, were apparently told by Prof Whitty, the chief medical officer, that the situation in Spain had deteriorated in the last 48 hours.

Ministers were told there had been an increase in infection in 15 of Spain's 19 regions but the 'clincher' was the fact that 10 Britons had recently tested positive after coming back from the country.

Prof Whitty described the number as 'statistically significant' as ministers took the controversial decision to reimpose quarantine on Spanish travellers at less than five hours notice.

The account of the meeting came as Mr Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said he will return early from his holiday in Spain tomorrow amid growing fears that holidays in France and Germany could also be axed because of rising infection rates.

There is also mounting speculation that travel to Belgium could soon be impacted after the country put the brakes on its coronavirus lockdown exit strategy.

An aerial view of Figueretas beach in Ibiza today, where there were tiny crowds during what is usually one of the busiest times of the year

The UK Government has now banned all non-essential travel to mainland Spain and the Spanish islands. Pictured is a quiet beach today in the resort of Portinatx in Ibiza

In other developments in Britain's coronavirus crisis today, officials posted 12 more Covid-19 deaths in the preliminary toll as separate figures revealed the number of people dying each week has dropped to another low.

Department of Health chiefs have yet to confirm the final daily figure, which is often much higher because it takes into account lab-confirmed fatalities in all settings.

The early count  which only includes a fraction of the Covid-19 deaths in England  is calculated by adding up updates declared by each of the home nations.

NHS England today posted 12 deaths in hospitals across the country. No fatalities were recorded in any setting in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland again.

It came as the Supreme Court judge Lord Jonathan Sumption called on Britain to learn to live alongside Covid-19 because 'there have been far worse diseases'.

Meanwhile, Downing Street was urged to toughen up its 'back to work' message after a string of top firms said they would not be encouraging staff back to offices for months.

The lack of staff commuting into their offices has left city centres deserted and ravaged high street businesses, which rely on a steady stream of commuters and visitors coming through their doors.

Selfridges today told staff it plans to cut 450 jobs  around 14 per cent of its total headcount  in the latest UK jobs carnage with the tally of layoffs now above 66,000 since the coronavirus crisis began.

There were plenty of empty beach chairs on the Costa Del Sol today, which would usually be at the height of the holiday season

What staycations are left for Brits whose foreign holidays have been ruined? Disappointed holidaymakers are left with a choice of campsites for 150 a night or 200 for three-star hotels as prices rocket by 50%

Mark Duell for MailOnline

Britain's cottages, hotels and holiday sites are seeing a rush in bookings as people give up on travelling abroad amid quarantine fears and opt for a staycation instead.

Families are booking up dates for UK holidays in 2021 despite the cost of some stays going up by 50 per cent as operators try to recoup some of their lockdown losses.

Those hoping for a last-minute stay in a holiday hotspot this weekend will find campsites for 150 a night or 200 a night for three-star hotels as demand soars.

One four-star hotel on the beach in Newquay, Cornwall, comes in at nearly 350 a night, while a one-bedroom cottage in the Cotswolds will set you back 280 a night.

Demand will also be boosted by rising temperatures over the next few days, with Friday expected to be the hottest day of the year so far with 91F (33C) highs.

Slots at campsites, B&Bs and cottages across Britain are also running out because holidays postponed during the lockdown are now being rebooked for next year.

A family room at the three-star Best Western Livermead Cliff Hotel in Devon costs 440 for two nights this weekend as demand surges for hotels and cottages amid the staycations boom

What can I do if I've booked a holiday to Spain? Can I get a refund on my flights? Airlines are refusing to cancel flights to Spain  despite the Government advising against all but essential travel. The move puts hundreds of thousands of British families in limbo and at risk of losing thousands of pounds. It also puts the airline industry at odds with the UK Government by ignoring a public safety edict. The Government issued the travel warning after the emergence of a second wave of coronavirus in parts of Spain. Customers would normally expect travel firms to cancel the flights and offer refunds. But all the major carriers, which have suffered massive losses following the collapse of air travel, have snubbed the Government and continue to offer the flights. This means families will potentially lose their holidays and their money. People could ignore the Government and take their flights. But they would have to quarantine for 14 days when they get back and their travel insurance may be void. Alternatively, they could cancel their trip without any guarantee of a refund. Can I switch my flight date or change destination? British Airways and easyJet have suggested they will offer vouchers for future flights, rather than a refund, for those who cancel. Ryanair has refused to offer anything. It even suggested people who changed their flights could incur charges of up to 95 per person. What if I have booked a package holiday? If you booked a package holiday which cannot go ahead as planned, you are entitled to a refund and it should be returned within 14 days. However, a number of airlines have not cancelled flights and some tour operators are also doing the same - this means you might not get a refund without a fight. Companies will be expected to cancel package holidays to Spain and its islands and offer refunds. An estimated 1.8m bookings will be affected. Tui has suspended all holidays to Spain up to and including August 9. It said customers travelling 'will be able to cancel or amend holidays and will be able to receive a full refund or the option to rebook their holiday with a booking incentive and our customer service team will proactively email these customers'. Jet2 and Tui have cancelled trips up to certain dates in August. Kuoni, even though it is not cancelling trips, is offering refunds or rebookings at a later date. Will I be able to cancel a direct hotel booking? If you have booked directly with a hotel it is unlikely that they will let you cancel without abiding by their cancellation charges. You could try appealing to their goodwill and there is certainly no harm in asking. They may for instance let you move to a later date. If you have booked through a third-party website like Booking.com, Expedia or Lastminute, you may find that the cancellation terms are more generous, depending on what sort of reservation you made. If it is not offering either option, contact your travel insurer to see if you can claim on your policy instead. Will my insurance cover it? Only Nationwide's FlexPlus travel insurance, which comes with its 13-a-month current account, covers trips cancelled because Foreign Office advice changed after a booking was made - while it also covers a trip being cut short because of a local lockdown. Other policies from the likes of Trailfinders, Nationwide, Axa, All Clear, Coverwise and Insure For will cover coronavirus-related cancellations, but not because of a change in government travel restrictions. The Civil Aviation Authority said there was nothing it could do to ensure those with a flight-only booking got a refund. It suggested they claim money back from a travel insurance policy, but most insurers have clauses that reject any claims linked to coronavirus. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has said it is 'likely' that travel insurance will remain in place for holidaymakers already in Spain until they return home. However, those attempting to travel to countries against FCO advice would invalidate their travel insurance. The ABI said people who booked a trip or took out travel insurance after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic may not be covered for travel disruption or cancellation. In either circumstance, travellers should check with their insurer. What if my trip isn't cancelled but I want to cancel it? If your trip isn't cancelled, contact your travel provider in the first instance to see if they are offering refunds, or again, a change of date. If they are not, you may have to swallow the cost of cancelling your holiday and then fighting to get a refund through your insurance, credit card provider through Section 75 or a chargeback, offered by some banks. While most tour providers still haven't shown their hand, it is thought likely most will cancel holidays given the Government advice. What should I do if I am already in Spain? People currently on holiday in Spain have been encouraged to follow the local rules, return home as normal and check the FCO's travel advice pages on gov.uk for further information. The FCO is not advising those already travelling in Spain to leave. Abta - the UK's travel trade association - has advised customers in the country to continue their holidays and return as normal. What if I am going on holiday elsewhere? The FCO continues to advise against non-essential international travel except to the countries and territories on its exemption list. But local government minister Simon Clarke said the reality is that holidaymakers travelling abroad during the coronavirus outbreak will have to accept there is a 'degree of uncertainty'. He said people going on holiday should understand that they may be asked to self-isolate on their return and the Government must reserve the right to keep the British public safe. Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said anyone making travel arrangements needs to recognise the restrictions that may be placed upon them by the Government on their return to the UK. What will happen when I get back from Spain? If you're returning to the UK from Spain you will need to provide your journey and contact details and self-isolate for 14 days. This may drop to 10 days soon. You may be fined up to 100 if you refuse to provide your contact details or more if you break this rule more than once. You may also be fined up to 1,000 if you refuse to self-isolate, or you could face further action. Will my employer pay me if I have to quarantine? This will depend on your employer and their rules. If, for example, you can still work from home, there should - in theory - be no problem with you quarantining. However, you are not automatically entitled to statutory sick pay from your employer if you have to quarantine after coming back off holiday, according to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. Some employers will offer sick pay  either statutory or a higher level, depending on their policy. It could be that if your employer is unable to offer you sick pay, you could take annual leave to avoid missing out on any payment, although this may not be possible if you do not have enough left to take. However, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said no worker following quarantine guidance should be penalised by employers, including by being put on to sick pay. Advertisement

Charles Millward, the owner of Staycation Holidays, told The Times: 'People should be worried about finding availability next year.

'A lot of dates are already taken because they will have been moved from this year - one of our properties only has three weekends free next year from March until September.

'In general our properties will increase in price next year by 20 per cent to recoup the cost owners lost during the lockdown.

'One property we're booking for next year has gone up by 50 per cent. I think that will happen more and more as owners have lost thousands of pounds and need it back.'

Up to 14million Britons are expected to go on a UK holiday before children go back to school in September, giving the country's economy a 3.7billion boost.

Havens said bookings at its 36 parks are up 96 per cent year-on-year, while demand for caravan sites is up 140 per cent in Devon and bookings are surging at Butlins.

UK holiday agent Hoseasons said it has employed extra telesales staff to cope with extra demand with bookings made for the next year up by a third on normal levels.

Its cottage break bookings are up 223 per cent over the last month compared to the same period in 2019, while call volumes are at more than ten times the normal level.

Writer and broadcaster Sally Jones, who lives in Warwick, told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'I do think it's totally bonkers to encourage people to go abroad at the moment when we don't know which countries are going to be shut down, where we're going to have quarantine coming back from, say, Croatia or France.

'There's wonderful, wonderful places in England. I think most people don't really know their own country that well.'

She added: 'Why not go and explore places like, say, Scotland or the beaches of Northumberland?

'There are these incredible places in England  most of us have never been there.'

British campsites have also seen a boom in bookings as people give up on foreign trips.

The website Pitchup.com, which sends 800,000 people a year to 2,000 UK campsites, said bookings on Sunday were double last year's high for a single day.

It took some 6,100 bookings, representing around 18,000 people, which was up by 20 per cent on the previous Sunday. Founder of the booking platform, Dan Yates, said there is a clear switch to staycations.

He said: 'For many who were just starting to consider booking a trip abroad this is probably the nail in the coffin, with the change in regulations fundamentally damaging consumer confidence to travel overseas.

'The tightened financial climate means British holidaymakers are unlikely to take the risk of not being able to work when they return which has likely been the catalyst for this weekend's surge in UK bookings.'

The website also offers bookings to campsites across Europe. Mr Yates said: 'The tourism and hospitality sector has been decimated by Covid and our Spanish site owners are in uproar.

'They believe a more localised approach which focuses on quarantine in the specific regions which have been affected by the Covid peaks would have been a more appropriate and effective response by the UK government.

'This is, however, good news for domestic campsites and caravan parks as thousands will substitute a UK holiday for their usual one abroad.'

Mr Yates said: 'The ever changing guidance is likely to cause mass confusion and concern amongst Brits, with many likely to elect to play it safe and staying closer to home this year.'

Airbnb has said that on bookings made on the weekend of June 27/28, more than 70 per cent were staycations.

A spokesman said: 'Staycations are great for Brits who want to explore beyond their own four walls again, but also for the hospitality industry and Airbnb hosts who depend on the income from listing on our platform.

'We've seen a significant spike in demand as travel becomes a reality again, with our trending destinations showing people are keen to explore the many interesting towns and rural areas the nation has to offer, providing a welcome boost to local businesses.'

Speaking about going abroad, Guy Anker from MoneySavingExpert told The Times: 'People who booked a holiday or took out insurance after mid-March are not going to be covered by a local lockdown or the decision to change travel advice.

'My advice would be, do not spend any money at the moment that you can't afford to lose, or where flexibility is not written into your airline ticket or hotel booking.'

Meanwhile Boris Johnson has indicated that quarantine restrictions could be imposed on further European countries if a 'second wave' of coronavirus hits the continent.

The Prime Minister already faces a diplomatic row with Spain after warning against all but essential travel to the country - and its resort islands - and insisting that travellers arriving in the UK from there spend a fortnight in quarantine due to an increase in cases.

But he defended the move and insisted the Government would not hesitate to act if flare-ups of coronavirus occurred in other destinations.

'I'm afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic,' the Prime Minister warned.

With holidaymakers already facing uncertainty over trips abroad this summer, Mr Johnson indicated further action could be considered by the Government.

'It's vital that when people are coming back from abroad, if they are coming back from a place where I'm afraid there is another outbreak, they must go into quarantine,' he said.

'That's why we have taken the action that we have and we will continue, throughout the summer, to take such action where it is necessary.'

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described the restrictions on travel to the country as an 'error'.

He pointed out that the upsurge in coronavirus cases is focused in two regions, Catalonia and Aragon, adding: 'In most of Spain, the incidence is very much inferior to even the numbers registered in the United Kingdom.'

Madrid had been urging the UK to exclude the Canaries and Balearics - which include popular tourist resorts on Ibiza, Majorca and Menorca - from its quarantine requirements.

But instead, official travel advice was tightened to bring the islands in line with the Spanish mainland.

The move has dealt a further blow to the travel industry, which was already reeling after the lockdown.

Mr Johnson said it was up to individuals to decide whether they wanted to take the risk of travelling in the present circumstances.

'These are decisions for families, for individuals, about where they want to go,' he said.

The decision to impose quarantine restrictions was made after England's chief medical officer Chris Whitty reportedly told ministers that 10 Britons who tested positive for coronavirus after July 1 had reported visiting Spain in the 14 days before their test.

Mr Johnson said: 'I'm afraid if we do see signs of a second wave in other countries, it is really our job, our duty, to act swiftly and decisively to stop ... travellers coming back from those places seeding the disease here in the UK.'

Britons make up over a fifth of foreign visitors to Spain, which relies heavily on tourism, and Madrid has said the UK Government gave it no warning that the quarantine move was coming over the weekend.

Travel firm Tui UK cancelled all holidays to the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands after the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) updated travel advice.

Tui's decision runs from Tuesday July 28 up to and including Friday July 31.

Holidays to Spain's mainland were already cancelled from Sunday July 26 up to and including Sunday August 9.

The company said: 'The UK Government must work closely with the travel industry as this level of uncertainty and confusion is damaging for business and disappointing for those looking forward to a well-deserved break.'

Jet2 has suspended flights and holidays to Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza up to and including August 9, after the Government changed its advice on travel to the Balearic and Canary Islands.

The company had already suspended flights and holidays to mainland Spain until August 16, and yesterday evening advised customers due to travel to the Balearic and Canary Islands today not to go to the airport.

'Where customers are affected by any programme changes, we have been repeatedly recognised for how we have been looking after customers, offering the option to rebook with no admin fee, a Refund Credit Note or a full cash refund, and we will be contacting customers to discuss these options,' Jet2 said.

'We will also be contacting customers who are currently in these destinations to advise them of their options regarding flying back to the UK, so we urge customers not to contact us.

For customers who are due to travel to these destinations after the dates given above, we will provide an additional update once we receive more information from the Government.

'What we need now is clarity and consistency from the Government. We understand that this is a fast-moving situation, however the information we are receiving is contradictory and often comes with little or no notice.

'We want to provide customers, who work hard and save hard for their well-deserved holidays, with timely information and we need this from the Government. We would like to sincerely thank our customers for their understanding and patience.'

Labour said the Government must abandon its one-size-fits-all approach and introduce sectoral support for struggling businesses to ensure that public health measures such as the change in quarantine rules for people returning from Spain do not lead to mass job losses.

Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said: 'The Government's handling of this issue has been nothing short of chaotic.'

Acting Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: 'The Prime Minister is right... to warn that some countries face the possibility of a second wave of coronavirus.

'However, it is extremely worrying that he has not acknowledged or acted upon the risk of a second wave here in the UK.

'Yesterday, I met with families who had lost loved ones due to Covid-19. Many just want the Prime Minister to start an independent inquiry immediately, so that the Government does not make the same mistakes that cost so many lives earlier this year.'

A stay this weekend at another campsite in Chiddingly, East Sussex, will cost you 332 - as the demand for staycations continues to increase
When the Motor Vehicle Commission reopened, throngs of people showed up, swarming local agencies as they waited on hours-long lines. Some drivers were turned away before it was their turn to get service.

With tens of thousands of New Jerseyans still waiting for their unemployment claims to be approved  some waiting since March when they lost their jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic  that scene could play out again if unemployment offices reopen.

For now, the offices will remain closed, the Labor Department said earlier this month.

But some legislators and workers say the time to open is now.

Relying on service over the phone or through the website is clearly not enough, Senate Democrats said.

We believe the Labor Department should move to resume in-person meetings to help those who have had trouble claiming their benefits and receiving their money, said Richard McGrath, the Democrats spokesman.

Both parties seem to agree.

Without any financial support for months, (workers) are getting increasingly frustrated and desperate, said Sen. Steven Oroho (R-Sussex). They deserve an opportunity to sit down with a real person at a state unemployment office who will take the time to understand their case and help them resolve their claim.

Assemblyman Hal Wirths (R-Sussex), who served as commissioner of the Department of Labor from 2010 to 2016, said there is a need for face -to- face help.

We have an obligation as a government to be open, Wirths said.

Lawmakers say their offices have been bombarded with requests for help from desperate people who have been waiting for months.

Supermarkets have been open. Home Depot has been open. Lowes has been open, said Sen. Michael Testa (R-Cape May), who has been calling for offices to reopen. There is a safe way to open Labor.

Labor Department spokeswoman Angela Delli-Santi said the agencys actions and initiatives are regularly discussed and deliberated at length before being implemented. It also takes into account the actions of other states and of course, health concerns from the pandemic, when it makes decisions.

The choice to keep offices closed was not made lightly, she said.

We have concluded that the best way to meet our customers needs, while maintaining the health and safety of our customers and staff, is to offer job-seeker services (such as skills assessments, resume building, and job search assistance) online and over the phone, and to keep our unemployment assistance operation centralized and virtual, Delli-Santi said in an email.

But it makes sense that workers want a place to go, to see someone who can fix their unemployment claims.

With the MVC reopening debacle fresh in mind and the coronavirus still a threat, how can unemployment offices open safely?

REOPENING OPTIONS

Testa said workers should be able to make appointments, or even be assigned a lottery number, to make sure everyone can be properly distanced.

This is something Labor should have been working on for the past four months, he said. They should be asking, When we open our doors, are we going to be inundated? Are we going to be flooded?

You fail to plan, you plan to fail. Thats what we saw at MVC, Testa said.

Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, along with Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, sent a July 8 letter to Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo, offering a site for Labor Department employees to set up a satellite office in Bergen County.

The site should be large enough to social distance the NJDOL personnel, accommodate claimants by appointment, who would have their temperatures taken, be masked and have their issues resolved in a one stop appointment, the letter read. We would be happy to help locate a venue for this endeavor.

The legislators suggested it as a pilot program.

It was turned down out of hand, Weinberg said. They said it takes too much time.

The Labor Department said it would be inefficient to scatter its resources to select field locations for in-person services because only a fraction of the offices offered unemployment assistance prior to the pandemic.

Pulling resources from a centralized location to serve one or two legislative districts would not be fair to the majority of our claimants, Delli-Santi said. Having agents work in person would slow statewide operations and lead to a significantly smaller number of claimants being served overall.

We cannot prioritize claimants from one legislative district over another, or one region over another. Every New Jersey claimant is our priority, she said.

If Labor did decide to open offices, Weinberg said, it should be with plastic barriers separating people. To avoid crowds, people could make appointments or be given specific times to come based on last names or birth years.

Make it clear nobody would be seen if they didnt have an appointment, she said.

Wirths and Oroho agreed that an appointment system would be key, with Oroho noting that those who have been waiting the longest should be prioritized.

In terms of allowing workers to make appointments, it doesnt just have to be first come, first served, said Nalin Johri, a professor and acting director of Seton Hall Universitys Master of Healthcare Administration Program.

He suggests the Labor Department use last names  AH on Monday, IM on Tuesday, NR on Wednesday and SZ on Thursday  and then keep Fridays and Saturdays for any emergency application processing. Another option would be to assign days of the week based on the last four digits of a workers Social Security number, just as those digits are used to assign certification times.

Anne Hewitt, a Seton Hall professor and acting chair of the Department of Interprofessional Health Sciences and Health Administration, said a reopening could mimic health care techniques during times of high demand.

What happens when you visit an emergency department? You are triaged according to health risk, Hewitt said. Simply substitute that idea to segmentation by unemployment problem or need: No check, lost check, missing checks. Establish a priority system.

The Labor Department said it is mindful of the struggle many unemployed and underemployed workers are facing trying to make ends meet, pay their bills and keep food on the table. We are working night and day on their behalf.

It said noted the agency has paid out an average benefit of nearly $10,000 to 1.2 million New Jerseyans during the pandemic.

New Jersey was the national leader in the percentage of unemployed workers who received benefits last year, and we intend to repeat that this year, Delli-Santi said.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com.
Two foreigners, a Myanmar sailor in Vietnam and a South Korean technician in Lao, tested positives. Laotian authorities are not worried, but have boosted checks. In Vietnam, after four cases were reported, the authorities have locked down the coastal city of Da Nang and started the mass evacuation of tourists.

Hanoi (AsiaNews/Agencies)  After more than three months with no new cases, top anti-coronavirus countries Vietnam and Laos have recently reported new infections. Two of the seven new cases involve foreigners.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently praised Laos for its exemplary handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic, noting that the government took the right steps to stop the outbreak.

However, a 32-year-old South Korean who works at the Nam Ngiep 1 dam project, Bolikhamxay province, tested positive on 23 July. He was part of a team with four other South Korean experts who were under mandatory 14-day quarantine in the same hotel.

Phouthone Muangpak, Laotian Deputy Health Minister, said that he had tested negative before entering the country. He tested negative and had a health certification paper. In Vientiane, we checked him again to make sure. It must have been that the virus had not yet matured enough to show up in his snot and saliva. That is why it wasnt detected, the minister explained.

After he was placed under quarantine on Sunday, the South Korean technician remained in his hotel room with food and water brought to him by hotel staff. His temperature was taken every morning and evening, as required by the quarantine protocol.

After he tested positive, he was moved to Vientianes Friendship Hospital, where he is in an isolated room and is monitored by medical staff.

Although this is first case reported in three months, Laotian authorities are not particularly worried.

Like Laos, neighbouring Vietnam has the pandemic under control. So far it has not reported any death and has not had any case for 99 straight days. The last case reported in the country in fact dates back to April.

However, a Myanmar sailor who arrived from Japan on 23 June was placed under quarantine on 6 July. After he was found to be positive last week, he was moved to the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi where he is undergoing treatment.

Similarly, after four new local cases were reported in Da Nang, Vietnamese authorities locked down the coastal city and ordered the evacuation of about 80,000 people, mainly Vietnamese on vacation, from the well-known tourist resort.

Evacuation operations are expected to take at least four days. The government has arranged about 100 flights a day from Da Nang to 11 other cities.

A 58-year-old man who has never left the city is thought to be the source of the mini-outbreak. It is believed that he had contacts with neighbours and that he recently attended a wedding.

Vietnam has so far reported just over 400 novel coronavirus cases, 273 of which involving people arriving from abroad.
Advocates like Mr. Hetfield know what the program can offer people who have endured the trauma of war. Marwa Al Ibrahim, a refugee from Iraq, now works as the integration program supervisor at Refugee Services of Texas in Fort Worth.

Ms. Al Ibrahim worked as a translator for a French news agency in Baghdad. Her family was targeted in a car bombing that nearly killed her father. After the attack, the family applied for refugee status in 2008. In 2014, they were finally resettled in Fort Worth. Resettlement gave them a chance to be safe at last.

An entire ecosystem works together to support refugees like Ms. Al Ibrahim. Resettlement agencies partner with faith communities, volunteer networks, hospitals and employers in cities all over the country, to provide them with basic needs like housing, medical care and job skills. They help with immigration and legal services, cultural orientation, and trauma-informed mental health care. It is the unlikeliest thing  a bureaucratic program laced with good will and hope.

Yet the Trump administration has used every tool in its arsenal to slow or stop resettlement: bureaucratic, rhetorical, political and financial. In other areas where it has tried to limit immigration  like ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program  the administration met at least some opposition and limitations.

But when it comes to resettlement, it has been extraordinarily successful, bringing the program to the edge of collapse.

The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that nearly 80 million people were displaced globally in 2019. Of course, its not only up to the United States to resettle refugees  in 2018, 25 countries worked with the U.N. refugee agency to receive placements.

Of the growing number of displaced people, over 1 million are eligible for refugee resettlement in 2021. But the Trump administration slashed the admissions ceiling in fiscal year 2020 to only 18,000; as of July 7, according to Church World Service, only 7,544 refugees had actually been admitted.
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In the middle of summer, theres nothing better than taking off for a relaxing vacation. But since were grounded this season, its the perfect time to rekindle our love of the classic American road trip. The wide-open road, the wind in your hair, and nothing but the horizon before you. Whether you choose to head out to a beachside bungalow or a wooded campground, there are a few fashionable pieces that you must-have for your summer road trip.

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Dont Forget the Little Things

Whats the fun of having the top down if youre not enjoying the wind and the sun? Make sure youre prepared this summer with all the right accessories. Sunnies, a scarf, a beach baggrab what youll need for your destination. For ladies, this year its all about retro shades, oversized frames and a bright white colorway. Chunky headbands and scarves add some fun to your outfit (and help rein in your windswept hair!). Men can opt for more futuristic shades and pair their outfit with elevated backpacks or cross-body bags.

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Pack It Up In the Best Luggage

Having the right luggage is always in style. And when youre taking a road trip theres no worries about overweight suitcases, chunky rolling carts or losing your luggagewith ample trunk space, you can pack all your favorite warm-weather pieces with you. For men, sleek leather duffle bags are always in style, and the utilitarian functionality of a nylon bag can be tossed around a bit if youre a more adventurous vacationer. Ladies, carryall bags are having a moment. If you cant fit everything you need for a weekend away into your overnightershoes, laptop, camera, toiletries and clothesyou need a new, multifunctional bag that can do it all.

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Summers On-Trend Ready-To-Wear

We dont have to tell youin summer, style is all about the destination. In Southern California, expect light fabrics and airy layers, while coastal Maine will call for a light sweater or two. To stay on trend this summer no matter where your destination, make this seasons trends work for you. Women should opt for oversized sleeves and mini dresses. If you need a cool-weather layer, leather jackets are in. Men can try some of the latest summer trends in Cuban-collared shirts, relaxed suiting and high-waisted trousers. And linen will never go out of style.

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Put Your Best Foot Forward

Sure, its easy to toss a couple of pairs of flip flops into your trunk, but for true summer style (and not just a necessity to get you from car to surf), choose more elevated pieces. Sandals in menswear are cool again, but loafers will always be a summer classic. Ladies, rejoice! Low heels are in for summer! Low wedges, chunky clogs, even easy-to-wear loafers are back on this summers sartorial menu.

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Lounging In Swimwear

Lakeside, beachside, poolsideafter months of being indoors, even lounging in the sun calls for the perfect eye-catching swimwear. And since this summer requires us to enjoy the weather right where we are (or a leisurely drive away), why not make the most of it? Womens swimwear is trending towards a little more fun this season with tons of details like ruffles or texture, like the shiny, shimmery fabric of Lurex. And men, sure you could opt for some solid shorts, but stripes, florals and geometric prints are getting a funky and fresh reboot this season.
An elderly Detroit nursing home patient who was badly beaten by his 20-year-old roommate at the facility in a horrific attack filmed on video has died, his family says.

Norman Bledsoe, 75, was a resident at the Westwood Nursing Center when on May 15 he was attacked by his roommate, 20-year-old Jaden T. Hayden of Ypsilanti.

Hayden allegedly filmed the attack on his cellphone and posted it on social media. The egregious attack made national headlines and was condemned by President Donald Trump.

Bledsoes nephew Kevin confirmed his death Monday morning. He said its unclear if Bledsoe's death is related to the May attack.

In the attack Bledsoe suffered four broken fingers, broken ribs, and a broken jaw.

Detroit nursing home patient Norman Bledsoe, 75, (above) died on Monday two months after he was attacked by his roommate 20-year-old Jaden T. Hayden of Ypsilanti on May 15

In the attack Hayden (above) faces two counts of assault with intent to do great bodily harm, theft, and two counts of credit card theft in connection with the alleged beating

Since the harrowing beatdown Bledsoe had been depressed and not eating properly, his nephew said.

'His eating habits went downhill after (the alleged assault), and he lost quite a bit of weight,' Kevin Bledsoe said to The Detroit News.

In the attack Hayden faces two counts of assault with intent to do great bodily harm, theft, and two counts of credit card theft in connection with the alleged beating.

Hes awaiting a July 30 hearing to determine if hes mentally competent to stand trial, assistant Wayne County prosecutor Maria Miller said on Monday.

Police also investigated other videos Hayden posted on his YouTube channel that appear to show him assaulting other people.

In one video Hayden claimed African Americans are the 'chosen people', female celebrities are really men and the novel coronavirus is Gods punishment for gays and lesbians. His last videos were uploaded in May.

Hayden was charged with beating his 75-year-old roommate in an assault that authorities say the younger man recorded on his cellphone and posted on social media. Hes awaiting a July 30 hearing to determine if hes mentally competent to stand trial, assistant Wayne County prosecutor Maria Miller said on Monday

In the disturbing video Hayden filmed himself punching his victim Bledsoe then turned the camera to show the injuries he inflicted, including blood streaming down the victim's face

In the second video uploaded to social media Hayden appeared to repeatedly punch another elderly victim

Kevin Bledsoe said due to the coronavirus pandemic visitors were kept away from the nursing home until last week.

'We finally were able to see him last week. He wasnt doing very good. I guess there just wasnt anything else they could do for him,' he said.

The victim's family plans to go forward with a lawsuit against the nursing home and are being represented by attorney Geoffrey Fieger, according to WXYZ.

Following the May attack Midwest Legals Partner, the firm representing the nursing home, released a statement saying Westwood is cooperating with police and the companys top priority is the safety of its residents.

'Can this be for real?' Trump asked on Thursday in his tweet reacting to the shocking videos.

The attack took place at the Westwood Rehabilitation Nursing Center in Detroit's northwest side

On May 21 the disturbing attack reached the president who tweeted: 'Is this even possible to believe? Can this be for real? Where is the nursing home, how is the victim doing?'

When the attack caught national attention a man who identified himself as Haydens father said his son had several health issues at home, has autism, and was hearing voices.

'That hurts to see that. What he did is wrong and (I offer) my apologies to the victims family,' he said to Fox2Detroit at the time.

'I just dont want people to think that hes this vicious individual. Hes got mental issues,' his father said.

His father said in May that theres was a pending case in Washtenaw County against Hayden, where he was accused of assaulting a staffer at another group home.
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Catholic student ousted from FSU student gov't over criticisms of BLM org. appeals removal

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A Catholic student who was removed from his student government position at Florida State University for scrutinizing the views of the Black Lives Matter organization is now appealing the student senate's decision to oust him.

Last month, Jack Denton, who was president of the FSU senate and a member of the FSU class of 2021, was in a private group text message chat with the FSU Catholic Student Union when he criticized, from a Catholic perspective, the beliefs of BLM and other groups like Reclaim the Block and the ACLU, arguing that their positions were not in keeping with the Church's teachings. His comments were later made public when a fellow student posted screenshots of his comments on social media.

While an initial motion to bring up a no-confidence vote in the student senate failed on June 3, two days later, under duress, the student senate summarily voted to remove him from his office.



The Alliance Defending Freedom is representing Denton and sent a letter to university administrators Wednesday appealing the student government's decision.

The letter notes that the FSU junior appealed his removal to the student supreme court in mid-June but that the senate refused to confirm a temporary chief justice before its regular session concluded, which then prevented Dentons complaint from being adjudicated in timely fashion.

According to the letter, student senators also vetted a potential nominee for chief justice by asking the nominee how she would rule on hot-button cases centering on LGBT issues such as Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, and Bostock v. Clayton County, which was decided in June in favor of LGBT-identified employees. The Bostock ruling held that legal definition of sex discrimination in the workplace extends to both sexual orientation and transgender status.

The senators vetting the nominee also reportedly expressed concern and frustration over her limited knowledge of the LGBTQ+ community, in light of the "sensitive case on the docket, referring to Bostock.

ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, said in a statement on Wednesday that No student should fear retaliation for peacefully sharing his personal convictions.

Public universities should be fostering real diversity of thought, not discriminating against individuals based on their religious convictions or political beliefs. Under the guise of creating a safe space, FSU students banded together to cancel Jacks First Amendment freedoms and silence Jack because of his religion, in violation of the schools SGA Ethics Code and the Student Body Constitution," he continued.

"A university that promotes true diversity allows students to wrestle with differing viewpoints, instead of smashing dissent. The SGA student senate has failed to respect Jacks freedoms; thats why were asking school administrators to step in and correct this constitutional violation.

Since the student senate refused to fill the court vacancy in time to hear Denton's case, ADF attorneys are requesting that the FSU Vice President for Student Affairs schedule a hearing to consider Dentons appeal by July 29.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

By Elnur Baghishov  Trend:

It is planned to allocate 290 trillion rials (about $6.9 billion) for purchase of wheat from farmers in Iran in the current Iranian year (began March 20, 2020), deputy director of Government Trading Corporation (GTC) of Iran Qodrat Heidari said, Trend reports citing the corporation official website.

Heidari noted that of these funds, 121 trillion rials (about $2.88 billion) will be provided via the Iranian budget, 110 trillion rials (about $2.61 billion) via bank loans, and the rest via the Government Trading Corporation's financial resources and product sales.

He added that maximum of 11 million tons of wheat is planned to be purchased from farmers in Iran in the current Iranian year.

The deputy director emphasized that 6.8 million tons of wheat has been purchased from farmers since the beginning of the season (April 4) to date (July 28).

"This is an increase of 9 percent compared to the same period of last Iranian year," he said.

Heidari stressed that so far, 134 trillion rials ($3.19 billion) has been paid to farmers.

The price of ordinary wheat to be purchased from farmers in the current planting year is set at 25,000 rials (about 59 cents), and of durum wheat - at 26,000 rials (about 61 cents) per kilogram in the current Iranian year (began March 20, 2020). The price of rapeseed is set at 46,600 rials (about $1.1) per kilogram.

A number of products, including wheat, tea, rice and other products are purchased from farmers by a state company under a guarantee in Iran.
A security guard looks at his smartphone as water is released from China's Three Gorges Dam on July 19 to relieve pressure from flooding. (Getty Images)

The white-haired farmer ran barefoot to his fields at 2 a.m. so he could harvest his crops before the floods came. He was one of tens of thousands of villagers whose homes and fields were about to be engulfed as a dam gushed open to release rising waters.

We have to think big-picture, think of the greater good, said the farmer identified as Qiao in a recent local news video from Anhui province. Isnt it like this every year?

Qiao spoke as many rural residents of the Yangtze River floodplains do, accustomed to swelling waters whenever big rains hit. But this year is the worst in decades, with 433 rivers surging above flood control levels since June, 33 of them setting records.

The floods have so far affected more than 54 million people, including 3.7 million displaced and 158 people dead or missing. The surging waters have destroyed 41,000 houses and damaged 368,000 more, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management. Death tolls and battered homes are fewer than in previous years, but displacement and economic loss are far higher.

China's dams  its primary guard against floods  are coming into question as they face increasing strain. Last week, the government blasted open a dam in Anhui. On the same day, more than 16,000 people were trapped in Guzhen town in the same province as the waters surged 10 feet high and broke through levees.

Fears are intensifying over the gargantuan Three Gorges Dam, where the reservoir has risen 50 feet above the warning level, to its highest point since the dam was completed in 2006.

Rescue volunteers from Ningbo bring villagers back to retrieve items from their flooded homes on July 14. (Liu Bowen / For The Times)

Water flows out from sluiceways at the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei province on July 17. (Wang Gang / Xinhua )

China has more than 98,000 dams, according to the Ministry of Water Resources, more than any other nation. Many were built in the 1950s and 60s and suffer from poor maintenance.

These flood control engineering projects are not a panacea, said Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs. With torrential rains, he added, the amount of water concentrated in each reservoir poses a risk of serious damage, even in small dams.

Story continues

The heavy storms over the Yangtze River basin are the result of a western Pacific subtropical high, a pressure system that every summer carries warm air from south to north. The system is abnormally strong this year, said Liu Junyan, climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace East Asia, but it is unclear whether it is caused by climate change.

The flooding, however, is directly linked to man-made problems. Chinas overreliance on dams, excessive construction in low-lying areas, land reclamation in wetlands and lakes, and cities built with poor drainage systems have all exacerbated flood damage.

Those chased from their homes also speak of mismanaged flood systems, lack of government accountability and unequal treatment of the rural poor, who bear most of the flood burden.

Ma Dacong, a waste collector, sits among flooded gear to be disposed of at a tea factory in Shexian, Anhui province. (Liu Bowen / For The Times)

Boxes of soaked tea unfit for sale await disposal at the factory in Shexian. (Liu Bowen / For The Times)

In Shexian, a county that suffered its worst flooding in decades this month when an upstream dam overflowed in the middle of the night, residents said they had been given no warning.

None of this can be reused. Its all trash, said Ma Dacong, a waste collector who was removing wooden crates, damaged machinery and soggy mountains of boxed tea at Weiwei Chaye, one of many tea factories whose entire stock had been soaked and spoiled in a matter of minutes.

Ma calculated more than $143,000 in damage to his machines and pickup trucks. But his was just a small business, he said. The factories, which were paying him a few thousand dollars each to clean up, had lost much more. Their workers swept out brownish-yellow water from the floors; the smell of rot lingered in the air.

Days after the flooding, members of the Shao family continue cleanup efforts at their home appliances shop in Shexian, Anhui province. (Liu Bowen / For The Times)

Workers at the home appliances shop try to clean and salvage parts to sell at a discount. (Liu Bowen / For The Times)

The water came so fast. We could never have imagined it, said Shao, 49, the co-owner of a home appliance shop in Shexian who did not give his full name. His relatives and store employees sat on its front steps, rinsing kitchen and bathroom appliance parts that they hoped to still sell.

As a small family firm, the shop had struggled to survive the first half of the year, when coronavirus lockdowns cut into business. Its warehouses were full, with business restarting only a month or so ago as the outbreak waned.

They had been sleeping when the waters roiled around 5 a.m. that day, rushing over riverbanks to swallow sidewalks and streets.

By 5:30 a.m., the water was at peoples shins. By 6 a.m., it was approaching their waists. By 7:30 a.m., it was 6 feet high, and factory workers, shop owners, and high schoolers whod woken early for their college entrance exams were climbing onto second floors and rooftops to escape.

If the government just gave us half a days warning, I could have saved $14,000 to $28,000 in damage, Shao said. Hed lost at least $43,000, he said, and had received no government relief, a maddening, if typical, setback in this region.

An employee washes out mud from the floor of a flooded supermarket in Shexian, Anhui province. (Liu Bowen / For The Times)

Yin Jianfeng, outside the supermarket he manages in Shexian, says a new checkout system and extra stock were destroyed in the flooding. (Liu Bowen / For The Times)

Much of the worst damage in this years floods, said Ma, has come from broken dams or dikes, or from intentional release of reservoir waters without sufficient warning or protection of people downstream. Yet dams have been a point of pride for the Communist Party.

The Three Gorges Dam in particular has been touted by the Chinese government as a symbol of national prestige, despite controversies over the mass displacement, environmental destruction, pollution, landslides and earthquake risks it has caused.

The choice of where to let waters out and whom to flood highlights inequalities. China tends to prioritize protection of cities  more populous and economically important regions, Ma said  at the cost of villagers, mostly farmers or migrant workers. Those who get flooded should not be living so close to the rivers, but many of them "dont have a choice, he added.

Chinas hukou system ties every citizens access to healthcare, education and other social services to their place of origin. Villagers who move to cities for work cannot truly settle in urban areas and tend to send money back to their hometown. Flooding villages and small towns costs less overall than flooding a city, but it means that those with less cushion for survival are hit hardest.

A villager pumps water from a well in Xixinan village, Anhui province. Urbanization and industrial pollution have severely affected groundwater in China  80% of it is unsafe for consumption, and without better methods of rainwater absorption, the levels are dropping every year. (Liu Bowen / For The Times)

A farmer in Xixinan village steps into a stream encased in concrete. China's approach to its water system focuses on speeding water through artificial walls, says Peking University professor Yu Kongjian. (Liu Bowen / For the Times)

Some environmentalists and engineers say China should revamp its entire flood control approach.

All our urban planning and design has this single-minded concept: to speed up the water and flush it out. But we need to do the opposite, said Yu Kongjian, Peking University professor and founder of a landscape architecture firm called Turenscape.

Yu studied design at Harvard and returned to China a year before catastrophic flooding along the Yangtze River killed more than 4,000 people in 1998. He spent the next 20 years urging Chinese officials to adopt an eco-centric approach to urbanization.

Chinas cities should be like sponges, not toilets, he said. Water should be slowed down and retained, not flushed away. The way to do that, Yu said, is by restoring riverbanks, wetlands and lakes, complete with their living sponges of soil and vegetation that can absorb and keep water locally.

I am not against dams and hydrological structures, but I am opposed to over-reliance on human flood control, these gray infrastructures that destroy the green and natural system, Yu said. Just like a person, if you stay alive only by relying on a ventilator and injections, you are fragile. What will happen when the machines break? The human will face the risk of death. Cities are the same.

Building dams and binding rivers with concrete are methods China learned from the West. But many ecologists there have also begun advocating for fewer dams and giving space back to nature.

Man cannot win against nature, Yu said. Everything man-made is destined to break one day. The ruins of Rome tell us that.

That was once a radical idea, especially in post-1949 China, which has a tragic history of trying to bend nature to its will. Tens of millions starved to death in China's Great Famine of 1958-61 after Mao Zedong commanded people to meet unrealistic crop quotas through unscientific planting methods copied from the Soviet Union.

The Soviets also designed China's Banqiao Dam in Henan province, which was heralded as an "iron dam" able to withstand a once-in-2,000-years flood. An engineer who questioned the design was fired. In 1975, the dam broke during a typhoon, killing an estimated 86,000 to 230,000 people (the government figure versus an estimate from critics) from immediate impact, starvation and epidemics from the floodwaters.

It was the deadliest dam failure in history. China banned media coverage and only declassified information about it in 2005.

But these days, President Xi Jinping has called for China to build an ecological civilization, and Yu has found enough government support to start sponge city projects in dozens of Chinese cities.

Yu Kongjian stands in a dried-out pond in Xixinan village, Anhui province, that was once used for irrigation. China needs to restore ponds like this, Yu said, to retain water locally. (Liu Bowen / For The Times)

They are a step forward against a ticking clock, as climate change exposes China to more severe and frequent droughts and floods. The occurrence of heavy rains has risen by about 3.8% per decade since 1931, according to Chinas Blue Book on Climate Change (2019). Thats a total increase of more than 20%, Liu said: Very severe change.

Dams built to withstand floods that happen once every thousand years are now facing extreme water levels within 100, or 50 or 10 years of their construction, Yu said. No dam lasts forever, he added. It is not a question of whether but when each one ends  and who potentially pays the price.
European stocks closed higher Tuesday as signs of progress on fresh U.S. government stimulus efforts seemingly outweighed concerns about a burgeoning coronavirus resurgence worldwide.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed up nearly 0.5%, with food and beverage stocks climbing almost 1.4% to lead gains while basic resources declined 0.6%.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday unveiled a new $1 trillion coronavirus relief plan, clearing the path for talks with Democrats in a bid to pass the bill as unemployment benefits expire. The proposal focuses on returning schools and businesses to full functioning and would see unemployment benefits slashed from $600 per week to $200 per week.

Investors will also have an eye on the upcoming meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday, with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell expected to reiterate the central bank's dovish monetary policy stance.

On Wall Street, stocks were lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average off by over 70 points. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were also both in the red.

Concerns over a spike in coronavirus cases are likely capping sentiment, with new travel restrictions being imposed by various countries in Asia and Europe as surges have been reported in a number of countries which had seemingly contained the virus. More than 16.4 million cases have now been confirmed worldwide, with more than 654,000 deaths.

Gold however has continued to rally to record highs, peaking at around $1,975 per ounce in the early hours of Tuesday and putting the $2,000 milestone firmly in its sights.
A government supported IT company in Bengaluru has developed an application capable of capturing an individuals vital health statistics through mobile phone to determine ones propensity to Covid 19 infection and can potentially play a big role in early detection of disease and risk assessment of infected population, according to a ministry of science and technology.

The new technology based on medical screening has the potential to detect possible infection in an asymptomatic individual, helping in prioritising the conventional testing queue as well as in risk assessment of an asymptomatic individual to establish if he/she can become symptomatic apart from assistance in risk assessment of an asymptomatic individual for recovery.

The application, being developed by Bangalore based startup Acculi Labs, creates an individuals Covid risk assessment profile called Lyfas Covid score. While AarogyaSetu works on the principle of contact tracing and requires an individual to feed symptoms, Lyfas is a proper medical screening test which purely depends upon test results.

Generation of Lyfas Covid score has been achieved through repurposing Lyfas-- a clinical-grade, non-invasive, digital functional biomarker smartphone tool for screening, early detection, root cause analysis, acute event risk assessment, prognosis, and home monitoring of chronic diseases.

Lyfas is an Android application in which, when one keeps the index finger on the rear camera of a mobile phone for 5 minutes, captures the capillary pulse and blood volume change and derives 95 biomarkers with proprietary algorithms and signal processing techniques. It uses the power of smartphone processors and smartphone sensors to capture a bunch of body signals, says the statement from the science and technology department of the government of India.

Also Read: Covid-19 pandemic: Can you get the coronavirus twice?

The signals hence captured are then processed on the principle of Photoplethysmography(PPG), Photo Chromatography(PCG), Arterial Photoplethysmography(APPG), mobile spirometry, and Pulse Rate Variability(PRV).

Lyfas then provides cardio-respiratory, cardio-vascular, hematology, hemorheology, neurology based parameters that are capable of tracking minute pathophysiological changes in the body. These changes are further profiled into organ system-wide response, the statement adds.

The technology has been proved to detect asymptomatic individuals with an accuracy of 92%, specificity of 90%, and a sensitivity of 92% in a study conducted with Medanta Medicity hospital, according to the government release. The tool can be handy for population screening, monitoring of quarantined individuals, and surveillance at the community spreading phase.

Witnessing the success of the study, the Medanta ethics committee has approved it for a larger population study. This study is currently registered in Clinical Trials Registry- India (CTRI) and is acknowledged by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the statement adds.

Also Read: Scientists identify immune system variation linked to severe cases

Lyfas has been developed by Acculi Labs in association with the Union governments CAWACH (Centre for Augmenting WAR with Covid-19 Health Crisis) initiative.

CAWACH is supporting market-ready innovations for control of Covid-19 and startup ideas to address associated challenges. Acculi Labs was selected after several rounds of screening for a solution towards mass screening. Its product Lyfas has received a grant of Rs 30 Lakh from DST and is now virtually supported by IIT Madras, Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre (HTIC), MedTech Incubator.

Inexpensive, accessible, point-of-care smartphone based diagnostics is a powerful tool that would tremendously help in screening the high risk cases, sustained monitoring of quarantined cases and general surveillance. Lyfas is an interesting example of the rising power of technology startups in innovating relevant and creative solutions for the emergent challenges with speed and efficacy, said Prof Ashutosh Sharma, secretary, department of science and technology.

The clinical trials and regulatory proceedings for Lyfas Coved Score are expected to be completed by the end of September, after which the testing facility will be made available for the general public.
Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion at 9 PM. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times.

NIA arrests DU professor Hany Babu in Bhima Koregaon case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said Tuesday it has arrested an associate professor of English of Delhi University in connection with the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case.

Read more.

Kejriwal govt rejects Delhi polices list of lawyers for riots cases, fresh face-off with LG looms

Delhis Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government led by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has rejected the proposed list of advocates to represent Delhi Police in court cases linked to riots in northeast Delhi earlier this year in February.

Read more.

Shots from 30,000 feet: Pics show Rafales re-fuelling mid-air on way home

The first batch of five Rafale fighter jets, on their way to India, were seen being re-fuelled mid-air from a French Air Force tanker, and the pictures taken at 30,000 feet were posted on Twitter by the Indian embassy in France.

Read more.

PM Modi to meet banks, NBFCs tomorrow to discuss financial sector

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be joining banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) tomorrow evening to deliberate on the vision and roadmap for the future, tweeted his office on Tuesday.

Read more.

Varanasi craftswomen send wooden Rakhi to PM Modi and jawans in Galwan valley

A group of Varanasi craftswomen have sent hand-made wooden Rakhis to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indian Army soldiers deployed in Galwan Valley near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in eastern Ladakh. The Rakhis made by the women of the PMs parliamentary constituency have been sent through his parliamentary office in the city.

Read more.

India, Mauritius PMs to inaugurate new Supreme Court building on Thursday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Mauritius counterpart Pravind Jugnauth will on Thursday jointly inaugurate the new Supreme Court built in Port Louis with Indian grant assistance, reflecting New Delhis sharpened focus on its neighbourhood first policy.

Read more.

Sushant Singh Rajputs father files FIR against Rhea Chakraborty for abetment to suicide, theft, cheating: Patna Police

Sushant Singh Rajputs father, KK Singh, has filed an FIR with the Patna Police, against the late actors girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty. Sanjay Singh, Inspector General of Patna Central Zone, told ANI that the FIR was registered under various sections, including abetment of suicide.

Read more.

Virat Kohlis climb up a tree and chill throwback pic may make you reflect on the small joys of life

Virat Kohli has shared a new picture on Instagram and chances are his caption may leave you with various thoughts. If youre someone who loves the outdoors, Kohlis post may hit you right in the feels and remind you of a time when you spent your day walking barefoot on the grass or surrounded by nature.

Read more.

Watch: Rafale jets refuelled mid-air on their way from France to India

The 5 Rafale fighter aircraft en route to India were refuelled mid-air. Pictures of the refuelling exercise were taken at a height of 30,000 feet. The Indian Air Force appreciated the support provided by the French Air Force for the Rafale journey.

Watch here.
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Dalio Education will work with towns and cities across the state to bring high-speed internet to people who dont have it, a crisis all the worse in the COVID pandemic because it prevents many students from participating on online learning.

The charity, part of Dalio Philanthropies, announced its latest effort jointly with the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. Both groups said they will issue a plan at the end of August with specifics about money and the scope of the problem, with solutions.

The groups also said Dalio Education would announce projects with individual cities, though they did not name those cities.

The announcement comes almost exactly two months after Ray and Barbara Dalio pulled out of a $200 million, 5-year partnership with the state to address education gaps and target disengaged high school students.

That project, the Partnership for Connecticut, was disbanded in early June amid bickering over open government issues, with the Dalios blaming politics for their decision to end it. They pledged at the time to continue their financial commitment to state education initiatives, but would do so on their own.

As with the Partnershp for Connecticut, the internet initiative includes hopes to bring in other people and groups, and to raise awareness about the digital divide, as the division between connected and unconnected communities is known.

Its very exciting and its really the only way to really solve this problem, which is a big complex problem, but it is solvable, Barbara Dalio said Monday on an online announcement with CCM.

Dalio has worked closely with teachers and administrators in some Connecticut school systems for a dozen years. The Dalios  Barbara and her husband, Ray, founder of Bridgewater Associates in Westport, the worlds largest hedge fund  have given millions of dollars through Dalio Education.

The Dalios, the states wealthiest household estimated at $18 billion by Forbes, maintained their commitment to provide 60,000 laptops to high school students in poor performing high schools throughout the state. That effort was originally taken on by the now-defunct Partnership for Connecticut.

When COVID started, the problem of connectivity had existed for the past 20 years but it never came into the picture in such a strong way as when the teachers had to start teaching online, Barbara Dalio said. There are thousands of students that dont have the connectivity nor have the devices.

Dalio Education did not make a specific financial commitment to the effort, but will provide matching funds to communities for specific initiatives.

How can you talk about equity if all of the students are not able to join? So we thought we really have to do something, Dalio said. We were able to purchase the 60,000 computers, but the computers is not enough. The connectivity has to come too.

Andrew Ferguson, chief education officer for the Dalio Philanthropies, said the final tranche of laptops will be delivered by the end of this week.

Joe DeLong, executive director and president of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said he would not characterize the relationship between CCM and the Dalio Foundation as a partnership because it will in be a newly formed legal entity. Instead, he said it is a joint effort between the groups with a shared mission, and the goal to bring as many people into the effort as possible.

What this is about is people who share a common goal ... the belief that closing the digital divide is important in many ways to providing education and creating economic opportunity, DeLong said.

Speaking indirectly about the state partnership, he said, There are a lot of initiatives that find bumps along the way ... Our concern is finding creative collaborative ways with not just us, but other groups and other people who want to come into this movement. Things that happened in the past that maybe didnt accomplish what they hoped to accomplish. That happens all the time.

He added, of the Dalios, Their heart is into this, its not just their wallet. Barbaras passion about caring for these kids and doing things in the right way. We really believe that were going to find a way to make a difference in this issue.

kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt
With rain forecast in Nepal and in the catchment areas, the flood situation in North Bihar region is likely to deteriorate, officials said Tuesday. Bihar has received 706.4 mm rain against normal rain of 484.6 mm between June 1 and July 28 which is 46% above the normal. Darbhanga has received 127 % surplus rain followed by East Champaran with 103% during the same period, the Patna Met office said..

In Darbhanga district, the swollen Adhwara river set a new highest flood level (HFL) of 48.5 metres at Bishunpur after 35 years, officials said.

The district has already been facing the devastation unleashed by Khiroi and Bagmati rivers for the past one week in the wake of rains in the foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal.

The water resources department (WRD) has alerted the officials of Kishanganj, Purnia and Katihar districts after the Mahananda river rose by almost two metres at Taiyabpur in Kishangan on Tuesday forenoon. The rise in water level of Mahananda was attributed to heavy rains in Nepal, said WRD secretary Sanjiv Hans.

The Burhi Gandak river which has flooded the parts of Muzaffapur, Khagaria and Samastipur, set a few HFL at Sakara in Muzaffapur and thereby exerting tremendous pressure on the safety embankment in the area. The Kosi is also flowing above the danger mark and is hovering near the HFL at Baltara in Khagaria.

Left to fend for themselves, thousands of families have shifted on to embankments or on road with bare minimum belongings to save their life and wait for the water to recede to return home. Hundreds of families have settled down in makeshift polythene tents on NH 28 near Dewapur and are somehow managing to live in the absence of any government relief, said Manoj Yadav, a resident of Barauli in Gopalganj.

Meanwhile, floodwaters from the Gandak, which had breached its embankment at three places in East Champaran and Gopalganj, have entered fresh areas.

Gopalganj is facing unprecedented floods, as pucca houses in Bhawanipur have got submerged with water for the first time in the past many decades, said Somesh Datt, a local resident.

Rail and road traffic have been disrupted in many districts for the past one week as approach roads to bridges have been washed away and floodwaters are overflowing the roads.

The disaster management department (DMD) claimed that about 29.62 lakh people have so far been hit due to the floods in 837 panchayats of 101 blocks of 12 districts across the state. As many as 808 community kitchens are being run to provide food to those in the government-run shelters.

A couple staying in a makeshift shelter on a roadside along Darbhanga- Jayinagar (NH-527B) at Koyla Asthan was crushed to death in their sleep by a speeding van early Tuesday morning.

The deceased were identified as Surendra Yadav (40) and his wife Paramshila Devi (35), a native of Koyla Asthan village.

Infuriated over the incident, local people staged a protest and blocked roads for nearly four hours in protest while seeking compensation for the bereaved family. The deceased had four children.

The block development officer (BDO) Mahtab Ansari said an ex-gratia amount of 4 lakh each, besides 30,000 under National Family Benefit Scheme and 3,000 under Kabir Antyeshti Yojana were granted to the victims family.
PISCATAWAY, N.J., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Amplo Global Inc , offering an AI-driven strategy platform, announced today it has been accepted into the prestigious Microsoft for Startups program . Launched in Summer 2019 in the Microsoft environment, their proprietary cloud-based AmploFly4.0 platform is already helping an array of diverse organizations build the artificial intelligence, machine learning and design-led strategy necessary to effectively identify, address and achieve their new normal.

Amplo Global Inc

By managing the AmploFly4.0 application servers and infrastructure on Microsoft Azure, Amplo Global assures a high level of resilience, scale, and agility to its customers. Participation in the Microsoft for Startup program will enable Amplo Global to now take advantage of all the key benefits and value that come with acceptance. In addition to Azure credits, those benefits include greater access to the powerful Microsoft Developer tools as well as exclusive wide-range programming support that help scale sales, marketing, business, and technological innovation faster and smarter.

Acceptance into the prestigious Microsoft for Startup program required Amplo Global to complete a rigorous interview and application process that confirmed that they exceeded the program's stringent guidelines. In addition to achieving revenue requirements, AmploFly4.0 was recognized for offering an innovative technical solution that supports businesses in their digital transformation.

Anirban Bhattacharyya, Amplo Global Co-Founder CEO, was quick to share the company's enthusiasm about this exciting development and what it will mean to the company and most importantly, its clients. "Being accepted into the esteemed Microsoft for Startups program is tremendous validation, especially for the early adopters of our game-changing AmploFly4.0 platform. Having direct access to already proven tools and resources as well the power of Azure and their Visual Studio will ensure that we truly are rolling out 'best-in-class' solutions." He also noted that "AmploFly4.0 is already working towards participation on the Azure Marketplace and acceptance into the Microsoft Co-Sell program. Those developments would enable us to bring our productized strategy platform to more organizations more quickly as a result," Bhattacharyya added.

About Amplo Global Inc.

Amplo Global Inc is an AI-driven company committed to empowering an organization to take control of its future in today's ever-changing digital world. Their proprietary, cloud-based, data-led and design-led platform enables a business to self-direct its strategy in a quantifiable manner, improve interconnectivity, achieve greater information transparency, reimagine its value chain, refine its customer/supplier relationships and recharge its company culture. Amplo Global Inc, founded in 2018, is headquartered in New Jersey, but has associates and partners throughout the globe, including Europe, India and Singapore.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Holly Hansen

Email: [email protected]

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More letters have been sent to Sri Lankan defence secretary, retired Major General Kamal Gunaratne, demanding an end to the military harassment of Socialist Equality Party (SEP) candidates for the Jaffna district in the August 5 general election.

Around 40 workers from the Sri Lankan railways, the irrigation department and the Colombo port have signed a petition to the defence secretary calling for a halt to the military-police harassment of SEP candidates and a guarantee of their fundamental democratic rights.

The letters and signatures are a response to the campaign launched by the SEP, outlined in its June 30 statement: Hands off the Sri Lankan Trotskyists, SEP demands military stops harassing its election candidates in Jaffna.

On May 28, June 16 and 23, military intelligence officers visited the homes of SEP candidatesRasenthiram Sutharsan in Kayts, Paramu Thirugnanasambanthar at Karainagar and Rajaratnam Rajavel in Jaffnaand demanded their personal and family information. When the candidates pointed out that this was a violation of their democratic rights, the officers said they had been sent by their superiors.

SEP General Secretary Wije Dias wrote to the defence secretary demanding an end to the harassment, explaining that it was a violation of the democratic rights of the SEP and a security danger to the partys candidates.

While this letter and another sent by Dias have been ignored, on July 1 police intelligence officers, who work under the Sri Lankan defence ministry, visited the home of another SEP candidateRajaratnam Thirugnanavelin Kiranchi, Poonakary and demanded his personal information. A couple of days later police intelligence officers visited the same house again demanding the details of SEP candidate Rajaratnam Balagowri.

In a response to an SEP letter to the Election Commission chairman, Jaffna district Election Commission officials visited two party candidates and took statements about the military harassment. The officials claimed that their only task was to send a report to their head office in Colombo. To date the Election Commission has not contacted the SEP about the attack on its democratic rights.

President Gotabhaya Rajapakses government is using the COVID-19 pandemic to advance its plans to establish a presidential dictatorship. It hopes to win a two-thirds parliamentary majority in the election and remove limited constitutional restrictions on dictatorial executive powers of the president.

Military activities in the North and the East have been intensified under the pretext of fighting terrorist activities, along with drugs and crime. Searches at permanent military barricades have been stepped up. New temporary barricades have been established in certain areas and military patrols and searches are occurring in the region.

Special Task Force police commandos have also been deployed in the South under the pretext of an anti-narcotics drive. The military-police deployments across the island are in preparation for state repression of the working class and oppressed masses.

The SEP is being targeted because of its unrelenting struggle for the socialist unification of the working classSinhala, Tamil and Muslim alikein the fight for a Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and Eelam as part of the struggle for international socialism.

We appeal to workers, youth and all those who uphold civil liberties to support the SEPs campaign against military harassment, which is part of the broader struggle to defend the democratic rights of all working people.

Your protest letters should be sent to the Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, with copies sent to the Chairman of the Election Commission and the Socialist Equality Party.

The Secretary of the Ministry of Defence

Email: secdefence@defence.lk Fax: +94 11 2541529 Chairman of the Election Commission

Email: chairman@elections.gov.lk Fax: +94 11 2868426 Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka)

Email: wswscmb@sltnet.lk Fax: +94 11 2869239

We publish below some of the protest letters sent to the Secretary of the Ministry of Defence:

MF, a well-known translator

The Socialist Equality Party is a leading Trotskyist political party, which has been involved in political activity in Sri Lanka since 1968. I have very good knowledge of the policies of this party since July 1970, participating in their public meetings and reading party newspapers in earlier times, and now the World Socialist Web Site, the main propaganda media of the party at present.

Moreover, since the Socialist Equality Party has been accepted as a registered political party, it is entitled to all the democratic rights enjoyed by every other party. I therefore consider the police questioning of three leading members of the party, namely Messrs. Sampanthar, Sutharsan and Rajavel, who are contesting the Jaffna district in the general elections, an anti-democratic action and interference against the rights of the citizens of this country to engage in the politics of their choice. I wish to record my strong protest over this.

UA, a political science professor from the University of Peradeniya

The Socialist Equality Party has a unique identity, as well as social recognition, as a legitimate party operating in Sri Lankan politics. It is a party that is well received, not only in Sri Lanka but also globally. They have legally submitted nominations for the Jaffna district in this election.

The procedure followed by the military intelligence and the police to inquire into the personal information of those candidates is undemocratic.

I strongly oppose that phenomenon.

The SEP was formerly known as the Revolutionary Communist League. Hence we are well aware that it has been an intellectual and principled party, active in the universities for decades.

Military intelligence officers demand for information about the partys candidates raises questions about democratic rights. I hereby urge you to take the necessary steps to stop this practice.

DM, a University of Peradeniya professor

The Socialist Equality Party is a legitimate political party, which is active in the political sphere in Sri Lanka. This party is contesting the upcoming general elections for three districts, after fulfilling the legal procedures of the election process.

The SEP is respected internationally, as well as nationally, for its principled political activity.

We fail to see any logical basis for the military to involve itself in questioning the Jaffna district candidates about their personal information in their homes. This incident not only violates the democratic rights of the SEP candidates, but those of all the citizens of Jaffna.

While I condemn the action by the military mentioned above, I am emphatic that a suitable environment be created so that, not only this party, but all the parties are able to carry out their election work without hindrance.

SS, a writer

In Sri Lanka we see a clear manifestation of the repressive government responses to the working class struggles that are erupting in every country during the capitalist crisis. Harassment through military searches by the government, which is encouraging far-right nationalist and racist forces, of the Socialist Equality Partys Jaffna district candidates is part of the governments increased militarisation of the country. This must be seen as an attack against a party that fights for the unity of the working class across all racial divisions.

It is extremely serious and dangerous that successive ruling class governments in Sri Lanka have worked to usurp the fundamental right to expression, including free artistic expression against me and the masses. Now we see the suppression of the right of the international revolutionary party of the working class to hold and propagate their political views. I strongly condemn this harassment.

It is my understanding that at the foundation of this military intimidation is the fact that the SEPs goal is to provide revolutionary leadership to the working class, against every direct and indirect ally of the bourgeoisie, and take forward its struggle to defeat bourgeois reaction and the plans for a presidential dictatorship.

I stand for the right of SEP members and their supporters to conduct their political activities anywhere in the country. I urge the government to immediately stop the ongoing military searches and harassment of the SEP.

BW, artist

I have learnt that three of the SEP candidates contesting the coming parliamentary elections in Jaffna have been questioned between May 28 and June 23 by military intelligence officials in an attempt to procure information as per their political activity. The three candidates are Rasenthiram Sutharsan, Paramu Thirugnanasambanthar and Rajaratnam Rajavel, who are in the northern region of Sri Lanka.

As a senior citizen and a professional artist, I strongly condemn this military intervention which leads to the violation of democratic rights and the political freedom of the entire working class of this country. Furthermore, I am demanding you to end the harassments of the SEP, which is a lawfully registered political party in this country.

The Action Committee for the Defense of Freedom of Art and Expression (ACDAE)

The Action Committee for the Defense of Freedom of Art and Expression (ACDAE) strongly condemns the governments military harassment of Socialist Equality Party candidates contesting the forthcoming parliamentary elections in the Jaffna district.

The attempts by military intelligence officials to visit SEP candidates homes to gather information, interrogate and photograph them, violate election laws and are anti-democratic. The government has deliberately avoided replying to a letter sent by the SEP General Secretary to the Secretary to the Ministry of Defense about these anti-democratic acts of the military. The army chief has denied the allegations without any investigation. This response by the government indicates that it has issued official orders to the state military, police and intelligence services to undermine the democratic rights of the working people.

The SEP is the only Trotskyist international movement fighting, through the unity of the working class of the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities in the north and south of the country, for the establishment of a Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and Eelam as part of a union of socialist republics in the region against predatory bourgeois rule.

The SEP has opposed in principle the Sinhala chauvinism used by successive Colombo governments to justify the racist war against Tamils that ended in 2009, as well as the separatism and Tamil nationalism of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and other bourgeois Tamil parties. It is clear that the government is targeting the SEP as it cuts across racial lines and fights for the unity of the working class on a socialist program.

The ACDAE states that this attack on SEP members is an extension of the governments repressive program of suppression of the right to freedom of political expression of the working people as a whole. The ACDAE urges the government to immediately stop this anti-democratic harassment of SEP members.

We call on workers, youth, artists and intellectuals to oppose these attacks and to come forward to defend all democratic rights of working people, including the freedom of speech and expression.

Malaka Devapriya, an audio visual producer in Sri Lanka

The expression of ideas, criticism and displays of opposition are essential human rights that we must develop as a civilised society. In recent years in Sri Lanka, we have seen the militarisation of society, the violation of democratic space and rights, and the arbitrary taking into custody of civilians, including critics, social activists and producers, who have voiced opposition to the government. These people have been falsely charged in the courts, others have been repressed, assaulted and killed.

Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim workers in the health, railway, postal and university sectors, along with teachers, have been subjected to repression in response to their class struggles. It is the duty of every human being to unconditionally oppose all contemporary actions to suppress developing social opposition through military, dictatorial and anti-democratic means, as well as the use of executive powers and so-called state methods.
While the battle against COVID 19 is being waged on multiple fronts, there is a section of unsung warriors whose commonplace but invaluable contribution to society goes unnoticed in these trying times.

A short video released by Relaxo Foundation attempts to highlight the essential, and by no means small, role of sanitation workers in keeping our surroundings clean and hygienic and puts them in the spotlight.

Mr Ramesh Kumar Dua, President, Relaxo Foundation, said Sanitation workers across the country are warriors on the frontlines, whose courage and commitment helps us stay safer. This global pandemic has brought to fore the realization of their silent, selfless service to the society which we do appreciate and acknowledge.

As a token of appreciation, Relaxo Foundation has donated 25,000 pairs of slippers to North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) sanitation workers who have been battling COVID-19 pandemic for over 100 days now and counting.
SALT LAKE CITY - A Hawaii man accused of tormenting a Utah family for more than a year by using the internet to send more than 500 people to their house for unwanted services including food deliveries, repairs, tow trucks, locksmiths, plumbers and prostitutes pleaded guilty Monday to one count of cyberstalking.

Loren Okamura, 44, entered the pleas during a video conference hearing based out of U.S. District Court in Utah that capped off a case that prosecutors called an extreme example of the darker and seedier side of modern technology.

Okamuras online stalking in 2018-2019 targeted a father and his adult daughter who live in a quiet, middle-class suburb of Salt Lake City, prosecutors alleged. He sent the woman threatening messages and posted her picture and address online, authorities said.

The Gilmore family had to enhance security around the house and lived in fear of the next unwanted person who would arrive at the house, day or night, their attorney Nathan Crane said.

Utah police went to the North Salt Lake house more than 80 times over a four-month period from November 2018 to February 2019, leading the family to post a sign in the driveway that alerted anyone coming to provide services that it was a scam and to instead report it to police.

The Gilmores are relieved that Okamura accepted responsibility for his actions that took a major toll on them, Crane said.

Mr. Okamura was cowardly hiding behind his computer and just hounding these people, Crane said. Since Mr. Okamura was arrested, this family has finally had some peace, peace they didnt have for the 18 months when he was stalking them.

Crane said Okamura targeted the Gilmores because he felt slighted by a member of the family, though he declined to provide more specifics.

Prosecutors agreed to drop two additional charges  interstate threats and transporting people for prostitution  as part of an agreement that calls for him to get credit for the eight months hes spent in jail since his November arrest at a Honolulu supermarket. The deal calls for three years of supervised release and a return to Hawaii.

Okamura is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 5.

He didnt offer any apologies or explanations during Mondays hearing, but spoke up to request that language in the agreement that said he sent drug dealers to the house be removed. The judge and attorneys agreed.

Its not like drug dealers are advertising, Okamura said. It just occurred out of the other services that I had sent there, mainly the prostitutes. I never intentionally sent drug dealers.

Investigators began honing in on Okamura as the suspect in January 2019 when the Gilmores were granted a protective injunction from him in Utah, but it took investigators until October to gather enough evidence to charge Okamura because of his use of encryption and apps that made him appear anonymous, prosecutors said. He wasnt arrested until late November because police struggled to find him because he didnt have a permanent address or job and authorities said he was savvy with technology used to mask his phones location.

Prosecutors have said they have records from Okamuras cellphone and Apple ID to support the charges.

Vanessa Ramos, his federal public defender in Utah, declined to comment after the hearing.

Okamuras federal public defender in Hawaii, Sharron Rancourt, said in November at his initial appearance in Honolulu that he was mourning his wife but declined to elaborate.

Okamura also sent the woman extensive and repeated texts and voicemails, authorities said. One email told the woman she should sleep with one eye open and keep looking over her shoulder.
Consumer sentiment in several key areas was tempered in Julys IBM Institute for Business Values ongoing survey compared to Junes results. The poll found consumers to remain unsettled about the economy while continuing to shun visits to public spaces, as well as returning to the workplace.

In a separate economic report from IHS Markit, a slow recovery is expected in the U.S., with certain regions faring better than others. The outlook is based on a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the South and West earlier this month. And its the resurgence that has consumers wary about returning to work, taking public transportation and visiting sporting events.

In regard to work, authors of the IBM report said that once employees can return to their offices, 84 percent of respondents indicated that they would still like to work remotely at least occasionally, up 3 percent from June.

A growing majority also said they want employers to take clear and active measures to protect them from exposure to the virus when they return to the workplace while providing flexibility to help ensure mental health and well-being, the IBM report stated.

Other work-related findings include 63 percent of respondents saying there needs to be clear communication from their employers in regard to what is being done to sanitize the workplace, which compares to 54 percent in June. Fifty-eight percent of those polled said employers should have social distancing protocols in place at work, which compares to 49 percent in June. And regarding child care, 41 percent of consumers polled said they feel strongly that their employer should provide special accommodations for individuals to address child-care needs, which is up 6 percentage points from Junes survey.

The survey of over 7,000 U.S. consumers mirrors several polls in recent weeks that showed sentiment shifting as the coronavirus first subsided and then surged this past month. As such, consumer attitudes toward health (personal and public) showed significant changes in Julys IBM survey.

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The report found that in July, 72 percent of those polled report that COVID-19 has made them more concerned about the safety and health of themselves and their families, which compares to 68 percent in June. The same percentage of respondents also said they worry about a second wave of COVID-19 later in 2020, which compares to 65 percent in June.

The poll also revealed that 66 percent of respondents expect to see more global pandemic-like events in the future, which compares to 60 percent in June. Only 13 percent of consumers surveyed believe that the economy will bounce back to where it was prior to COVID-19, a three-percentage point drop from the previous month, authors of the report stated.

Jesus Mantas, senior managing partner of IBM Services, said the results from our ongoing survey underscore that consumer attitudes continue to shift as the effects of the virus fluctuate around the country, and consumers are preparing themselves for more permanent changes in behavior.

These new behaviors define the new preferences that business leaders need to be able to deliver to meet consumers where they are, Mantas said. This is no longer a question of competitive advantage, its a matter of business survival.

In regard to visiting stores, 35 percent of those polled said they dont plan on going to shopping centers or malls this year, which compares to 27 percent in June. And 66 percent of respondents said they would not visit an amusement park (up from 59 percent in June), and 64 percent wont attend a live sporting event this year (55 percent in June).

Looking at transportation, 53 percent of consumers said they will use public transportation such as buses, subways or trains less or no longer at all, which compares to 55 percent in June, while three out of 10 said they would exclusively use their personal vehicle (compared to 26 percent in June). And in good news for carmakers, 70 percent of respondents who dont own a vehicle said they would buy one, which is up 6 percentage points from Junes survey.

Despite the pandemic and recent social unrest, more than half of those surveyed indicated they want to stay in an urban area, the same percentage as polled in June.

But for some, living in urban areas has become less desirable, authors of the IBM report said, adding that about one in five urban consumers indicate they plan to move or will consider moving to non-urban areas as a result of COVID-19, similar to June.

Looking at the broader economy, the COVID-19 pandemic is in the drivers seat and things may not go back to normal anytime soon. In the economic analysis report from IHS Markit, Karl Kuykendall, associate director of regional economics, said the firms expectation is for a slow recovery with conditions starting to approach normal after a vaccine is widely available, which we estimate to be in the latter part of 2021.

Until then, COVID-19 will be an ever-present weight on economic activity until caseloads can be reliably managed, Kuykendall said.

By region, Kuykendall said the Northeast is likely to take the longest to return to pre-pandemic employment levels, as the region is taking a measured reopening approach and its regional economy is more mature and historically slow-growing.

He said the Northeast is also the most densely populated region, which poses another challenge in this environment. While employment growth rates from the third quarter of 2020 and spanning into 2022 will look stronger in the Northeast, this stems from the fact that it is climbing back from a deeper fall.

Meanwhile, the South has seen the softest decline in employment and is on the fastest track to recoup those job losses, especially since it is typically among the top-performing regions. But that outlook comes with a caveat. Kuykendall said this assumes that caseloads do not continue to spiral out of control, with the South facing the most acute downside risks given the recent COVID-19 trends.

Going forward, the fact that California, Florida, and Texas have had to pause or roll back reopening plans will tap the brakes on their near-term employment recovery, he added.

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Kirloskar Electric has said that the unions of Unit-1 (Govenahalli), Unit-7 (Tumkur) and Unit-15 (Budihyal) in Karnataka have called for a strike from July 27. The strike is regarding the partial layoff of workmen.

"During the pendency of conciliation proceeding before concerned Conciliation and Labour officer, the workmen of Unit-7 (Tumkur) and Unit-15 (Budihyal) have called for strike. The company is monitoring the situation and steps have been taken for smooth operations of the Units and to minimise the disruptions. We will provide update on further developments in due course," said the company in a BSE filing.

Kirloskar Electric Company laid off workers at the Govenahalli (Unit-1), Bangalore for two months. It also extended the partial layoff of workmen at the Tumkur (Unit-7) and Budihyal (Unit-15) for a further period of 30 days.

The company had written to the concerned labour department on June 15, seeking approval for the partial layoff of workers at Govenahalli (Unit-1). "This is to inform that the concerned labour department has approved the application to partial lay-off of the workmen of Company's Unit located at Govenahalli (Unit-1), Bangalore for a period of 60 days," it said on Monday.

This came after the company partially laid-off workmen for a period of 30 days from June 13 at Tumkur (unit-7) and Budihyal (unit-15).

Also read: COVID-19 impacts EPFO withdrawals: 8 million members pull out Rs 30,000 crore during April-July
Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced that Eid-Adha holidays will start from Thursday 30 July to Monday 3 August.

The paid vacation is applicable to the public sector companies, ministries and governmental institutions.

The premier greeted the Egyptian people on Eid Al-Adha, wishing all the best for the country.

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After waging years of strikes and protests against cuts to school funding and wages, educators in the US are heading into a direct confrontation with the Trump administration over its drive to reopen schools as the pandemic continues to rage out of control. At a press conference Friday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany branded teachers essential personnel, comparing them to meatpackers, saying schools are essential places of business.

The comparison between meatpackers and teachers is no accident. From the outset of the pandemic, meat processing plants became some of the most dangerous workplaces in the US and globally, with over 30,000 workers infected and more than 100 killed by COVID-19. Facing walkouts and job actions at 22 plants across the US in April, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to force workers back on the job.

The Trump administrations criminal policy of forcing teachers back into classrooms as the pandemic continues to spread uncontrollably will lead to the deaths of countless teachers, students and their family members.

The White Houses declaration that teachers are essential is absurd, coming from an administration single-mindedly determined to destroy public education through budget cuts and privatization. Trump does not care about students. He only cares about getting kids out of the house so their parents can go to work generating profits for corporations.

Having given the corporations trillions of dollars in government bailouts and free cash from the federal reserve, the ruling class is determined to pump profits out of workers to pay for it.

Spearheading the resurgence of class struggle in the US since the powerful statewide wildcat strike organized by West Virginia teachers in February 2018, teachers and education workers have moved increasingly to the left and become more radicalized, with many participating in the mass, multiracial demonstrations against the police murder of George Floyd.

Art teacher Cara Bailey protests the reopening of schools in Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Facebook groups opposed to the reopening of schools have quickly been joined by thousands of educators and parents, while car caravans and rallies denouncing the reopening plans of Democrats and Republicans have taken place in dozens of cities across the country. On Monday, New Jersey educators and parents began a week of action against Democratic Governor Phil Murphys demand that schools reopen with at least partial in-person instruction.

The Trump administrations use of paramilitary forces in Portland and other citiesnow being directed at largely peaceful protestersis only a test run for the use of state intimidation and violence against the working class as a whole. This includes teachers and their supporters.

To justify its demand to open the schools, the Trump administration is actively undermining science. In a recent interview, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos declared, More and more studies show that kids are actually stoppers of the disease, and they dont get it and transmit it themselves.

This was echoed last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which claimed the rate of infection among younger school children, and from students to teachers, has been low.

In reality, thousands of children around the world have become infected, and a growing number are dying from COVID-19. In Florida, over 23,000 minors have tested positive, while five minors have died, including Kimora Lynum, a nine-year-old girl with no preexisting conditions. In Tennessee, 7,572 children ages 5-18 have tested positive for the virus.

In a comprehensive study from South Korea, which involved the contact tracing and testing of nearly 60,000 people who had contact with 5,706 COVID-19 patients, the results found the highest COVID-19 rate for household contacts of school-aged children.

If all schools adhered to Trumps demands, the result would be the deaths of hundreds of thousands of educators, students and parents, and an exponential spread of the pandemic.

In an effort to justify this homicidal policy, the Trump administration and Democratic politicians shed crocodile tears about the impact of school closures on children. What boundless hypocrisy! These same politicians have carried out savage austerity for decades, creating overcrowded classrooms and understaffed offices.

With states facing a combined education funding deficit of at least $300 billion this year, both parties are preparing the greatest assault on public education in US history. A crucial aim of the drive to reopen schools is to force older, more experienced educators into retirement so as to further undermine public education.

Since 2018, over 700,000 educators have engaged in strikes in over a dozen states controlled by both Republicans and Democrats, including Arizona, Oklahoma, Colorado, Washington, California, Kentucky, Illinois and North Carolina. Internationally, mass protests and strikes have taken place in dozens of countries across all six habitable continents.

This powerful strike wave was systematically betrayed by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA), with AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia jetting across the country to negotiate sellout contracts and isolate every struggle that broke out. They worked to channel all opposition behind the Democratic Party, which from Obama on down spearheaded the assault on public education.

The teacher unions are now blocking a mass mobilization of educators to oppose Trumps moves to reopen schools. Instead, they are lobbying for the passage of the fraudulent HEROES Act, which allocates merely $60 billion for schools, while shilling for Joe Biden, who collaborated in the eight-year assault on public education during the Obama administration.

An enormous confrontation is brewing between the working class on the one side and the Trump administration and both big business parties on the other. While some Democrats have announced delays to in-person teaching, they have demonstrated again and again that they will not let safety get in the way of corporate profit.

To carry out a genuine fight back, educators, parents and students must establish a broad network of rank-and-file safety committees, independent of the unions and both big business parties, in every school and neighborhood. These committees should also draw in educators at daycare centers, private schools and charter schools to prepare for a nationwide strike to prevent the unsafe resumption of in-person instruction.

These committees must establish connections with every section of the working class to organize a mass movement against the capitalist system. The unification of the working class of every race and ethnicity is paramount, and all efforts by the unions, the Democrats and their pseudo-left appendages to inject racialist politics must be opposed. The pandemic has sharply exposed that the key issue in society is class, not race, as the criminal indifference of the ruling class devastates workers of every race and ethnicity.

Immense resources are needed to guarantee universal access to high quality education and provide internet access to all, and to allocate essential food and health services. Carrying out these policies requires a radical redistribution of wealth, which will only be possible through the socialist transformation of society.

Above all, educators face a political struggle against the Trump administration and the financial oligarchy for which he speaks. The coming weeks and months will see a vast increase in social tensions and growing resistance by the working class to the capitalist policies of austerity and death. The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) is fighting to build a revolutionary leadership to guide the coming struggles to a successful conclusion. We urge educators and all workers to join the SEP and take up the fight for socialism.
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / Cheapquotesautoinsurance.com (https://cheapquotesautoinsurance.com/) has launched a new blog post that explains the reasons that can make some drivers drop their car insurance companies.

For more info and free quotes, please visit https://cheapquotesautoinsurance.com/should-you-drop-your-current-car-insurance-provider/

Dropping coverage can be a hard thing to do for many drivers, but sometimes is the right thing to do. Policyholders have all the rights to change their insurance providers whenever they want. Typically, policyholders will change their insurers after a bad customer experience or if they feel that they didn't get a fair reimbursement after an auto incident.

Drivers should consider dropping coverage in the following scenarios:

After having a bad experience with customer support. Good customer services should be a top priority for any provider that is selling car insurance policies. Unresponsive or inefficient customer support is a good reason for any policyholder to switch their insurer. Policyholders who had problems contacting their insurers or they were not satisfied how a claim was handled should think twice if remaining to the current insurer is worth it. Drivers who decide to switch their insurers should check the other insurance providers before signing an insurance deal. Also, they should visit the local Department of Insurance website and see the complaint's ratio for every insurance company.

Expensive premiums. Policyholders who have a good driving record and avoid accidents are usually paying affordable car insurance rates. However, if their premiums are increasing at each renewal with no apparent reason, policyholders should contact their insurance providers and demand an explanation. If the insurers can't explain or are refusing to explain why the premiums have increased, drivers are advised to drop their current insurers and look for another provider.

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For additional info, money-saving tips and free car insurance quotes, visit https://cheapquotesautoinsurance.com/

Cheapqquotesautoinsurance.com is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc.

"Changing your current car insurance provider can be a good idea in some situations. Very expensive premiums and bad customer services are some of the reasons that can make someone look for another insurance provider", said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company.

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AdditionallyInitial Prototypes of the Portable, Disposable Devices for the Lateral Flow COVID-19 Test Have Been Produced

NEW YORK, NY and SAN DIEGO, CA, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Aegea Biotechnologies, Inc. (Aegea) ( www.aegeabiotech.com ), a biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of next generation nucleic-acid diagnostic technologies, announces progress on the development of its Point-of-Care (POC) COVID-19 diagnostic test. As described in a previous announcement, Aegea is currently developing two different COVID-19 diagnostic tests. Each applies technology from different issued Aegea patents. One is a PCR-based SARS-CoV-2 test (the SARS-CoV-2 Test), and the other is a POC test that is designed to be widely accessible by providing results within 30 minutes using a small, portable device, without the requirement for complex instrumentation (Lateral Flow COVID-19 Test). These COVID-19 diagnostic tests are being developed under the collaboration agreement with Tauriga Sciences Inc. (OTCQB: TAUG) (Tauriga).

Aegea has produced the initial prototypes of the portable, disposable devices for the Lateral Flow COVID-19 Test. Initial testing of the device has been successful. The Lateral Flow COVID-19 Test device is designed to collect saliva samples directly into a small disposable unit and to use microfluidics to automatically move the sample and reagents into a central processing chamber within the device to perform the capture and isothermal amplification of certain nucleic-acid targets associated with the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19). The results are planned to be read-out visually within about 30 minutes.

Importantly, to continue to expedite the development and commercialization of the Lateral Flow COVID-19 Test, Aegea has hired Dr. George Maltezos as Chief Engineer. Dr. Maltezos is a PhD electrical engineer and entrepreneur. He previously served as Director of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Global Health Initiative where he helped secure $4.5 Million of funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Gates Foundation) under their Grand Challenges Program for a Point-of-Care Clinical Diagnostics Solution for Developing Countries. Previously, Dr. Maltezos was Founder & Chief Engineer of Helixis, Inc. and launched the Eco real-time PCR device, enabling accessible, best-in-class, nucleic acid amplification. Helixis was acquired in 2010 by Illumina Inc. for $105 million. Dr. Maltezos is an inventor or co-inventor on 19 issued US patents, and he earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology and his BS from Columbia University.

We are very pleased with the progress we are making on our point of care, lateral flow coronavirus test, said Lyle Arnold, Ph.D., Aegeas President and CEO. Our isothermal, lateral flow test can be transformational because it should make coronavirus testing significantly more accessible and convenient by utilizing saliva samples combined with very simple devices for amplification and detection. Furthermore, Dr. Maltezos has the ideal knowledge and experience to lead the development of this point-of-care test.

Taurigas CEO, Mr. Seth Shaw, states, Tauriga is delighted with Aegeas progress and innovation. We have already received strong interest regarding the lateral flow coronavirus test, and we believe the test will address an urgent market need and potentially be a tool for helping to control disease spread.

ABOUT AEGEA BIOTECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Aegea Biotechnologies, Inc., located in San Diego, California, is a biotechnology company focusing on the development and commercialization of next generation nucleic acid technologies. A primary focus for the company is nucleic acid technology innovations that embrace molecular diagnostic assays, qPCR technologies, sequencing methods including both Sanger and NGS, and rapid point-of-care COVID-19 testing.

Website: https://www.aegeabiotech.com

ABOUT TAURIGA SCIENCES INC.

Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (TAUG) is a revenue generating, diversified life sciences company, engaged in several major business activities and initiatives. The company manufactures and distributes several proprietary retail products and product lines, mainly focused on the Cannabidiol (CBD) and Cannabigerol (CBG) Edibles market segment. The main product line, branded as Tauri-Gum, consists of a proprietary supplement chewing gum that is both Kosher certified and Vegan formulated (CBD Infused Tauri-Gum Flavors: Mint, Blood Orange, Pomegranate) & (CBG Infused Tauri-Gum Flavor: Peach-Lemon). The Companys commercialization strategy consists of a broad array of retail customers, distributors, and a fast-growing E-Commerce business segment (E-Commerce website: www.taurigum.com ). Please visit our corporate website, for additional information, as well as inquiries, at www.tauriga.com

Complementary to the Companys retail business, are its two ongoing biotechnology initiatives. The first one relates to the development of a Pharmaceutical grade version of Tauri-Gum, for nausea regulation (specifically designed to help patients that are subjected to ongoing chemotherapy treatment). On March 18, 2020, the Company announced that it filed a provisional U.S. patent application covering its pharmaceutical grade version of Tauri-Gum. The Patent, filed with the U.S.P.T.O. is Titled MEDICATED CBD COMPOSITIONS, METHODS OF MANUFACTURING, AND METHODS OF TREATMENT. The second one relates to a collaboration agreement with Aegea Biotechnologies Inc. for the co-development of a rapid, multiplexed, Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) test with superior sensitivity and selectivity.

The Company is headquartered in New York City and operates a regional office in Barcelona, Spain. In addition, the Company operates a full time E-Commerce fulfillment center located in LaGrangeville, New York.

DISCLAIMER -- Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 which represent managements beliefs and assumptions concerning future events. These forward-looking statements are often indicated by using words such as may, will, expects, anticipates, believes, hopes, believes, or plans, and may include statements regarding corporate objectives as well as the attainment of certain corporate goals and milestones. Forward-looking statements are based on present circumstances and on managements present beliefs with respect to events that have not occurred, that may not occur, or that may occur with different consequences or timing than those now assumed or anticipated. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in forward looking statements due to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, such as are not guarantees of general economic and business conditions, the ability to successfully develop and market products, consumer and business consumption habits, the ability to consummate successful acquisition and licensing transactions, fluctuations in exchange rates, and other factors over which Tauriga has little or no control. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in the Risk Factors section of Taurigas Form 10-K and other filings made from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this release, and Tauriga assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

CONTACT INFORMATION:



TAURIGA SCIENCES, INC.



555 Madison Avenue, 5th Floor

New York, NY 10022

Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Seth M. Shaw

Email: sshaw@tauriga.com

cell # (917) 796 9926

Instagram: @taurigum

Twitter: @SethMShaw

Corp. Website: www.tauriga.com

E-Commerce Website: www.taurigum.com

AEGEA BIOTECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Amid an ever-widening crackdown on opposition voices and activism in Hong Kong, city leaders met on Tuesday to discuss postponing September's legislative elections, as the University of Hong Kong (HKU) fired a democracy activist and prominent legal scholar for "misconduct."



Chief executive Carrie Lam met with her cabinet, the Executive Council (ExCo), "to discuss the possibility of postponing the Legislative Council (LegCo) polls, but no decision was reached," the English-language South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.



The paper quoted sources as saying that Lam would convene another meeting once nominations had closed at the end of the week. It said the polls could be postponed amid a third wave of coronavirus infections that prompted Lam's administration to announce an effective lockdown on Monday.



Opposition and pro-democracy candidates swept the board in District Council elections last November, prompting fears among pro-China politicians that they could win a majority in LegCo on a wave of popular anger and months of street protests over the loss of Hong Kong's promised freedoms and autonomy under Chinese rule.



The meeting came as pro-China media organizations stepped up pressure on Lam with a series of reports citing sources as saying the elections would be postponed for a year.



Johnny Patterson, director of the U.K.-based rights group Hong Kong Watch, said postponing the elections would be "an assault on fundamental freedoms," linking it to the recent imposition of a draconian security law on the city by Beijing.



"This decision to consider postponing Legislative Council elections for a year is driven by fear of an opposition pro-democracy majority, and by fears that attempts to disqualify and arrest pro-democracy candidates under the National Security Law will be met by further sanctions from the international community," Patterson said in a statement.



Pressure from Beijing



Meanwhile, Occupy Central founder and legal scholar Benny Tai announced the HKU's decision to fire him, indicating that the decision was likely to have followed pressure from the ruling Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.



"The decision to terminate my appointment was made not by the University of Hong Kong but by an authority beyond the University through its agents," Tai said. "It marks the end of academic freedom in Hong Kong."



In apparent confirmation of Tai's remarks, the ruling Chinese Communist Party's Central Liaison Office in Hong Kong issued a statement soon after the decision, saying Tai had been "justly punished."



"Benny Tai's words and deeds have intensified social conflicts in Hong Kong to a serious degree, and poisoned the political environment," the office said in a statement on its website, accusing him of misleading and "poisoning" the minds of students.



Meanwhile, Tai said academic staff in educational institutions in Hong Kong were "no longer free to make controversial statements to the general public about politically or socially controversial matters."



Neither were the city's university's and college able to protect their staff from political interference, he said.



"I am heart-broken to witness the demise of my beloved university," Tai wrote, but vowed to continue his research and teaching on the rule of law "in another capacity."



The University of Hong Kongs governing council voted to sack Tai for misconduct, over his public order convictions related to the 2014 Occupy movement.



Government broadcaster RTHK said the vote was carried by 18 to 2 and was effective immediately.

Tai was sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment over "public nuisance" charges linked to the 2014 protest movement, but is currently out on bail pending an appeal.



University contract lost



Meanwhile, social worker and activist Shiu Ka-chun has been told that his contract at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) won't be renewed for the coming academic year.



Shiu, a member of the city's Legislative Council (LegCo) representing the social work constituency, was informed of the decision by email on Monday.



Shiu said the university had repeatedly been told by people representing Beijing's interests that he was too high profile and political, and that he shouldn't continue as deputy director of the HKBU social work research center.



Shiu called on HKBU to make public the reasons for the decision to terminate his employment.



"They need to make it clear what exactly is the reason that I am not being renewed ... after 11 years at HKBU," he told RFA on Tuesday.



Shiu said he is reconsidering his life in the wake of recent changes in Hong Kong.



"I'm right in the eye of the storm, and I have no power to decide so much of what happens next," he said.



But he added that he wouldn't lose hope that Hong Kong would regain its traditional freedoms one day: "No matter how dark and difficult it is, we still have to believe in change, and we have to believe that change will occur because of what we do today," Shiu said.



Shiu was convicted of "inciting others to create a public nuisance" after his leading role in the 2014 Occupy Central movement. He was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment, triggering a disciplinary review at HKBU.



Color revolution



China has previously accused Benny Tai of trying to incite a "color revolution" in Hong Kong, citing a draconian security law recently imposed on the city by its National People's Congress.



A spokesman for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO) under China's cabinet, the State Council, has described him as "a political agent of foreign forces in Hong Kong."



Hong Kong and Chinese officials have also warned that protest slogans and other forms of opposition speech fall within the scope of draconian security legislation imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party on June 30.



The government said it "strongly condemns any acts which challenge the sovereignty, unification, and territorial integrity of the People's Republic of China."



It cited the national security law, which bans actions or activities promoting "secession, subversion of state power, and other [dangers to] national security."



"Localist" political groups regarded by Beijing as pro-independence disbanded as soon as the law came into effect, with former Demosisto lawmaker Nathan Law leaving the city soon afterwards, according to media reports.



Reported by Man Hoi-tsan for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
An extensive international study led by Prof. Illana Gozes of Tel Aviv University's Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry found deposits of the tau protein typically found in Alzheimer's patients in tissues taken from the postmortem brain of a 7-year-old autistic child.

The child suffered from the ADNP syndrome, a mutation that causes a deficiency/malfunctioning of the ADNP protein essential for brain development. In light of these findings, the researchers tested an experimental drug called NAP, originally developed for Alzheimer's disease, on nerve cells in a model of ADNP syndrome with the mutation that induced Alzheimer's-like symptoms. The experiment was a success, with the damaged nerve-like cells returning to normal function.

The study was conducted in close collaboration with researchers from TAU's Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Sheba Medical Center, and a variety of research institutions across Europe, including the biotechnology institute BIOCEV in the Czech Republic, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, the University of Antwerp in Belgium, and the University Hospital Centre in Zagreb, Croatia. The study was published on July 13 in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

Prof. Gozes explains that the current study is based on tissues taken from the brain of a 7-year-old boy with ADNP syndrome who died in Croatia. "When we compared the postmortem ADNP syndrome brain tissues to tissue from the brain of a young person without ADNP syndrome, we found deposits of the tau protein in the ADNP child, a pathology that characterizes Alzheimer's disease," Prof. Gozes says.

The researchers then "treated" damaged nerve-like cells carrying an ADNP mutation similar to the deceased child's mutation with a drug candidate called NAP. NAP was developed in Prof. Gozes's laboratory and was originally intended to be used to help treat Alzheimer's disease. "NAP is actually a short active fragment of the normal ADNP protein," says Prof. Gozes. "When we added NAP to the nerve cells carrying an ADNP mutation, the tau protein bound to the nerve cell skeleton properly, and the cells returned to normal function.

"The fact that NAP treatment has been successful in restoring the normal function of neuronal-like cell models with impaired ADNP raises hopes that it may be used as a remedy for ADNP syndrome and its severe implications, including autism," Prof. Gozes continues. "Moreover, because other genetic disorders related to autism are characterized by tau pathologies in the brain, we hope that those suffering from these syndromes will also be able to benefit from NAP treatment in the future."

NAP (also called CP201) has been classified as an "orphan drug" by the US Food and Drug Administration and is currently in the preparatory stages of a clinical trial in children with ADNP syndrome through the company Coronis Neurosciences.

In another phase of the study, the researchers sought to broaden their understanding of the effects of the mutation that causes ADNP syndrome. To do this, they extracted the genetic material mRNA (messenger RNA) from the tissues of the deceased child and performed an expression analysis of about 40 proteins in the same child, encoded by the mRNA. Full genetic sequencing was also performed to determine protein expression in white blood cells taken from three other children with ADNP syndrome.

An in-depth study was carried out on all of the data obtained in the genetic sequencing using advanced bioinformatics computational tools. The data were compared to online databases of protein expression data from healthy individuals, revealing a variety of characteristics that were common to the children with the syndrome but very different from the normal appearance of these proteins.

Prof. Gozes concludes that "the significance of these findings is that the mutation that causes ADNP syndrome damages a wide range of essential proteins, some of which bind to the tau protein, among other things, and impair its function as well. This creates various pathological effects in the brains and other tissues of children with ADNP syndrome, one of which is the formation of tau deposits, known to be a characteristic of Alzheimer's disease.

"The vast and in-depth knowledge we have accumulated through the present study opens the door to further extensive and diverse research. We hope and believe that we will ultimately reach the goal of developing a drug or drugs that will help children with autism resulting from genetic mutations."

American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's most influential, comprehensive and sought-after center of higher learning, Tel Aviv University (TAU). TAU is recognized and celebrated internationally for creating an innovative, entrepreneurial culture on campus that generates inventions, startups and economic development in Israel. TAU is ranked ninth in the world, and first in Israel, for producing start-up founders of billion-dollar companies, an achievement that surpassed several Ivy League universities. To date, 2,500 US patents have been filed by Tel Aviv University researchers -- ranking TAU #1 in Israel, #10 outside of the US and #66 in the world.
In the absence of Amma, what impact will Chinna Amma Sasikala Natarajan have on Tamil Nadu politics after her release from Bengalurus Parappana Agrahara jail?

Convicted and sentenced to a four-year prison term and a fine of Rs 10 crore in a disproportionate assets case, Sasikala will finish serving her time in February 2021, if she pays the financial penalty.

She had embarked on her journey to jail in 2017, after a designed-for-the-cameras, dramatic act of swearing on the tomb of J Jayalalithaa that she will return to take charge of the AIADMK. She was ousted from the party by the very leader she had helped prop up, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, and the ruling dispensation under him hasnt supported her since.

In 2021, the future of Sasikala Natarajan may depend as much on the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is scheming for a foothold in the Dravidian state, as it does on her ability to claw her way back into Tamil Nadu politics.

There is speculation that she could get an early release on account of remission, and if she does get that, it would be the first concrete suggestion that she has the blessings of the BJP, which is in power at the Centre and holds significant sway in the state despite not having a single MLA.

In fact, a Tamil Nadu BJP leader, Dr Aseervatham Achary, had tweeted that she is likely to be released before August 15, but there is no such official indication or confirmation.

Role in Tamil Nadu 2021

Elections in Tamil Nadu will have to be held before May 2021 and at the moment there are no indications of early polls. These will also be the first assembly elections in the state after the demise of Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi.

If an assumption is made that Sasikala will be released in or by February 2021 and elections are held as per schedule, then she is certain to play an active part in the final leg of the polls.

As per section 8(3) of The Representation of the People Act 1951, Sasikala, even after her release, will be barred from contesting an election for six more years. This means she can only campaign or be actively involved in decisions and cannot be a candidate herself.

The ruling AIADMK dispensation, under chief minister Palaniswami, will resist her entry into the party, but it cannot wish her away.

The Sasikala edge

Firstly, having spent time in jail, there would be a certain sympathy factor with the electorate that Sasikala could use. A whisper campaign among AIADMK loyalists is that she was the only one who was punished after Jayalalithaas death and the ruling dispensation only reaped the benefits.

Her nephew TTV Dhinakaran split from the AIADMK and launched the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) with Sasikala as its president. While the splinter group has had a patchy electoral track record, Sasikala, being at the forefront of a campaign could make it more powerful.

Secondly, Sasikala belongs to the Thevar caste which is a compelling force within the AIADMK and has loyalists within the party who will campaign for her aggressively. She, along with the rest of the AMMK, is bound to make an attempt to take control of the AIADMK.

Once the assembly term comes to an end, there is little motivation for MLAs and leaders in the party to stay with the chief minister and the leadership of the AIADMK does not seem to have the ability to face a difficult challenge.

Setting aside the important factor that a post-Covid election will also have a very different dynamic in terms of mass mobilisation, there is bound to be a certain churning in the AIADMK during and after the assembly elections.

The BJP strategy

It is in this churning that the Bharatiya Janata Party could force the AIADMK into a strategy of its convenience and, hence, could be pivotal in determining Sasikalas future.

Firstly, it is not clear what role superstar Rajinikanth will play in the coming elections. Secondly, it is a disintegrating AIADMK space that the BJP would like to build itself on as an opponent to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

What works for the BJP would depend on how multiple factors, including how Rajinikanth approaches the polls.

If he remains non-committal, then the BJP would prefer an AIADMK leadership that could be a front and aid its growth. If he does make a full-fledged entry into electoral politics, then the BJP would ideally like an AIADMK that plays the role of a B-team to the superstar.

In the first scenario, the BJP would prefer an AIADMK under a strong leader as an opponent to the DMK but one that will be controlled by the national party and openly aid its growth in the state. In the second scenario, it may prefer a disintegrating AIADMK which leaves a popular vote that would shift to Rajinikanth.

Further, the BJP has already made systematic and strong inroads into Tamil media and social media and given the increased importance of these vehicles in a post-pandemic election, it may well have the decisive edge and determine the winners in the land of melodramatic Dravidian soap opera.

(The author is a senior journalist. Views expressed are personal.)
Its definitely not business as usual  and it is unlikely that it will not be for a few more months.

Every Monday, for many weeks now, the Indian arm of Nomura Securities has been publishing a Business Resumption Index (called the Nomura India Business Resumption Index, or Nibri). The index has plateaued around 70 for the past month. By mid-June, it had come out of the slump it saw in April  it hit the mid-forties then  and reached the late-sixties, but it has pretty much stayed at that level since. The index value of 100 corresponds to pre-pandemic level business activity and as the firm points out the pace at which economic activity normalises [has] remained broadly unchanged for the week ended July 26. It was 70 on July 19, 68.7 on July 12, 69.2 on July 5, and 70.5 on June 28.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

India was locked down for 68 days between March 25 and May 31, although the second half of this period saw some activities being allowed in a restricted manner.

The indexs plateauing over the past month is an indication that Indias return to economic recovery in 2020-21 will be slow, bumpy, and fraught with risks. Consensus estimates for the level by which the economy will decline this year are hovering around 5%, and some economists believe that the decline could be higher. Its hard to make predictions when there is still no certainty on when a cure will become available (although recent data from Phase 1 clinical trials of several vaccine candidates are promising).

Overall, the Nibri suggests activity remains stuck at around 30 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels, the Nomura research report said.

The data merely reflects the situation on the ground. A report in HT last week said that around half the countrys population is under some form of lockdown  full, partial, or weekend  as local administrations deal with a sudden surge in cases.

On Sunday, India saw in excess of 50,000 new coronavirus disease cases -- the first time it is crossing that mark, with 65% of the cases coming from states and Union Territories other than Delhi, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu, which, together, used to account for 65% of the cases in the country not so long ago. Delhis numbers have fallen sharply, but Maharashtra and Tamil Nadus have risen just as sharply  which means that the contribution of the big three to Indias Covid-19 tally is coming down because cases are rising in other parts of the country. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal are all seeing a spike in new cases. Three of Indias four most populous states are in this list; the one that isnt is Maharashtra, which saw 9,431 cases on Sunday  almost 19% of all new cases recorded in the country. Bihar, Karnataka, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh face the immediate risk of becoming the new hot spots of the coronavirus disease in India, HTs Jamie Mullick wrote on July 27, pointing to factors that individually or together suggest this: rapid rise in new cases, rising positivity rates, and low testing.

Many of these states have been resorting to localised lockdowns to slow the spread of the disease. For instance, Uttar Pradesh announced a hard lockdown on weekends and also in some parts of the state where there are clusters of infections; West Bengal announced one for two days every week; Bihar is locked down till July 31, as are parts of Andhra Pradesh.

It is only natural that lockdowns in Indias most populous states affect activities, business or otherwise. And it is only natural that the Indian economys return to normalcy is affected by the ongoing health crisis in its most industrialised state (Maharashtra), whose capital also happens to be the countrys most important commercial hub.

It will be a while before it is business as usual.

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Students wearing protective face masks talk while practicing social distancing at the courtyard of the flemish secondary school during its reopening in Brussels, as a small part of Belgian children head back to their schools with new rules and social distancing measures, during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Brussels, Belgium. (Image: Reuters)
Hill and Catlett each were charged in the shooting death of off-duty Hammond Officer Lawrence J. Pucalik, 33, on Nov. 14, 1980, inside the Holiday Inn-Southeast, formerly at 3830 179th St. in Hammond.

Hill was convicted of murder in perpetration of a robbery in August 2018 after a trial before a Lake Criminal Court jury. Catlett, who completed a prison sentence in Illinois before being brought to Indiana to face charges, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

The two are accused of using a blue 1973 Chevrolet Impala to flee the scene of Pucalik's homicide and getting into a maroon Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme at the Kennedy Terrace apartment complex.

Hill's motion said the summary is directly contradictory to Ford's testimony at trial that he was shown pictures of the maroon Oldsmobile and immediately identified it was the vehicle he saw.

The motion did not indicate how Brown learned of the detective's summary or why he didn't learn of it until after trial.

Brown wrote the summary was "Brady material" and that Ford's testimony was key in identifying Catlett, Hill and the vehicle.
By Trend

Azerbaijani Defense Minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov sent letters of condolences to Turkish Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar and Chief of the General Staff General of Turkish Army Yashar Guler in connection with the death and injury of Turkish soldiers in the bus accident, Trend reports on July 27 referring to the press office of Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

I am deeply saddened with the news of the death and injury of soldiers of the Armed Forces of fraternal Turkey as a result of the accident of a bus carrying soldiers in the Mut district of Mersin province. I share the grief and bitterness of my relatives, and I express my deepest condolences to their families. I wish a speedy recovery to all the wounded. Your grief is our grief. May Allah Almighty rest the souls of the soldiers," Hasanov said in the letter.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
If you needed one more good argument for learning to swim  the skill may one day come in handy as part of a last-ditch getaway plan.

Or so, apparently, thought an alleged border jumper when he plunged into the Kettle River near Grand Forks, B.C., kicking off what the Mounties called a 2 1/2-hour float chase.

The as-of-yet unnamed man, known south of the border as the naked in Canada guy, began his misadventure in Colville, Wash., where he was arrested and released last week.

Then he allegedly stole a car, and fled to Canada, Grand Forks RCMP detachment commander Sgt. Darryl Peppler told the Star.

Peppler went in to help arrest the suspect when he was found near the stolen car last Friday.

He resisted arrest, and plunged into the Kettle River, rather than go quietly with the RCMP officers.

He did not want to get apprehended, Peppler said. In 20 years of policing, five different postings, that was my first float chase.

The river flows south through Midland, B.C., and into the U.S., meaning it eventually would have carried the man back to where he came from.

But officers and search-and-rescue volunteers were able to follow along the rivershore, which is speckled with sandy beach areas popular with locals for lounging, swimming and legal floating.

Some such beachgoers eventually helped the RCMP retreive the man from a shallow section of river.

As of Monday, the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency were working on possible charges. U.S. law enforcement have a separate criminal investigation.

The pursuit, which Peppler called exceptional lasted a total of 2.5 hours.

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Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 14:57 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669ed1ff 1 Business mining-law-revision,judicial-review,lawsuit,YLBHI Free

Civil society actors across Indonesia have laid out a two-phase lawsuit to challenge the controversial Coal and Mineral Mining Law at the Constitutional Court amid concerns over transparency.

The first phase of the legal process saw mining experts challenging the countrys lawmakers over poor public participation during the laws five-year deliberation. Should they fail, a second round of mining watchdogs  the Clean Indonesia Coalition  will challenge lawmakers over individual articles in the law.

The watchdogs are rooting for the court to accept the first challenge, according to coalition spokesman Arip Yogi Yogiawan of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) on Monday.

That would be better because it increases the possibility of revoking the entire law, he told The Jakarta Post via phone call.

Mining Law No. 3/2020, which was passed on June 10, promises bigger concessions and easier permits for mining companies in hopes of raising Indonesias state revenue and thus enabling the government to finance more public services.

However, civil groups have lambasted the regulation over concerns of its impact on the environment and society. Notable revisions include quadrupling the maximum size of traditional mining zones to 100 hectares and allowing mining activities in rivers and the sea.

Stakeholders have also lambasted the House of Representatives and the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry for not giving civil society groups, foreign investors and regents, among others, time to scrutinize the bill.

The House publicly released a draft bill on May 11 then approved it the following day, giving the public virtually no time to scrutinize the 93-page document.

Civil society set the ball rolling to challenge the law on the afternoon of July 10, when an eight-man plaintiff submitted a judicial review to the Constitutional Court in Central Jakarta.

The plaintiff was composed of Bangka Belitung Governor Erzaldi Rosman Djohan, regional legislators Alirman Sori and Tamsil Linrung, student group leaders Ilham Rifki Nurfajar and Andrean Saefudin, industry observers Marwan Batubara and Budi Santoso and Muslim group leader Hamdan Zoelva.

Its hard to guess but I am hoping, personally, that within three months, the court will decide whether to accept or reject our plea, the teams chief lawyer, Ahmad Redi, told the Post on Monday.

He said the judicial review was initiated by the Mining Society (Koalisi Masyarakat Peduli Minerba), which has been monitoring the laws deliberation since 2015, when the House of Representatives added the law to the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas).

Once the society got word that the House had approved the law, they reached out to regional lawmakers, students and their own members to testify in court.

We made the plea in about a week then immediately submitted it to the court, he said.

His team had to be quick. Existing regulations require such judicial reviews to be submitted to the court within 45 days after a law is signed into action.

His team's latest hearing was on July 24 when mask-wearing judges asked the team to provide more arguments to justify each plaintiffs legal standing. Judge Suhartoyo, in particular, asked the team to halve their 45-page plea.

The Constitutional Court will await the revised pleas up till 14 days from today, said Suhartoyo, concluding the hearing.

The Clean Indonesia Coalition, which comprises seven non-profits including YLBHI, has been gathering evidence and mobilizing grassroots support to challenge the law should the Constitutional Court reject the mining experts plea.

Alliance members were particularly focused on finding Indonesians who live near mines to testify in court, as such citizens had a stronger legal standing, said YLBHIs Yogi.

Those voices need to be brought together. And how to bring them together is our aim going forward, he said.

House lawmaker Eddy Soeparno, deputy chairman of Commission VII that oversaw the laws drafting, told the Post that the commission would send out its mining law working committee to testify in court, should they be summoned.

The 26-member team was led by Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) politician Bambang Wuryanto.

The point is, if there is a summons, we will of course be present, said Eddy.

The ministry has also defended the law in the wake of the judicial review.

Everyone has a right to challenge. But if the Mining Law did not comply with other laws, how could it have passed? said Energy Ministry official Heri Nurzaman, as quoted by kontan.co.id.
On the heels of the Bloomsburg Fair drawing public outcry over images of a man in a dunk tank impersonating Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, a Tioga County tavern is apologizing for a menu item that mocked Levine, a transgender woman.

Some Tioga County residents posted a photo of the menu page of the Crossroad Tavern in Morris Township on social media, at least one to denounce it.

The menu said one of the items, Levine balls, was named after the health secretary and referenced a part of the male anatomy.

Over the weekend, the Crossroads Tavern posted an apology on its Facebook page:

Last week a menu was printed for the tavern that was in poor taste, the apology from the owner indicates. Although I did not print the menu, I am at fault for allowing it to be displayed at my tavern. It was in bad taste and I never meant to offend anyone. I am sorry if I allowed it. I am sorry Dr. Levine and anyone else that was offended. Anyone that knows me, knows that I am not a judgmental person. Once again, I am sorry for my lack of judgement.

The tavern owners could not be reached for comment.

I was disgusted, said Allison Maslar, a Tioga County teacher who saw the page last week and posted a shot of it. It just made me sick to my stomach that in Tioga County, PA, we live with this low-level hate and ignorance. Sometimes I just have to stand up and say that it is wrong.

WETM reports the tavern owner, whose name was not included in the report, spoke with the station but would not go on camera. He told WETM he never meant to hurt anyone and that he wanted to put this in the past, reports indicate.

I posted this for several reasons, Maslar said. I wanted local people to know that this happened. I want the people that I know and love that are not straight or cis to know that I love them and appreciate them and that I do not tolerate hate, that I stand up for their right to exist just the way they are.

This comes shortly after the Bloomsburg Fair posted on its Facebook page about a dunk tank that was part of an effort to raise money for fire companies. It included photos of someone in a dress and wig, meant to resemble Levine. The fair held a news conference last week at which fair officials apologized to Levine.

Gov. Tom Wolf issued a statement defending Levine after the fair post, saying Levine is committed to keeping Pennsylvanians safe and healthy, even those who direct hate-fueled attacks at her.

Department of Health Deputy Press Secretary Maggi Mumma said in a statement Monday about the menu, Dr. Levine always serves at the pleasure of the governor and will continue to serve under his leadership as Secretary of Health. She remains laser-focused on protecting the health and well-being of Pennsylvanians as we navigate this ongoing pandemic.

She said Levine has no further comment.

Levine made history by becoming the highest-ranked transgender state official when Wolf appointed her health secretary in 2015.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
In order to 'spread some love', actress Alia Bhatt shared her own baby photo on Instagram.

Several celebrities such as Deepika Padukone, Hrithik Roshan, Zoya Akhtar, Manish Malhotra, and a plethora of others were among the first to comment on her pictures by declaring how adorable they find Alia Bhatt's photo.

Alia Bhatt / Instagram

Slamming this is actress Kangana Ranaut who in a series of tweets has carefully pointed out that while the nation continues to grieve over Sushant Singh Rajput's unfortunate passing, Bollywood celebrities and A-listers are busy 'hailing Alia's cuteness'.

"Filmi media is circulating dumb Alia's kid pictures & all A-listers are hailing her cuteness, is this a way of whitewashing her criminal father and her own insensitive approach to outsiders?" tweeted team Kangana Ranaut.

Filmi media is circulating dumb alias kid pictures & all A listers are hailing her cuteness, is this a way of white washing her criminal father and her own insensitive approach to outsiders ?https://t.co/jDplZACBeN  Team Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) July 28, 2020

Team Kangana Ranaut then tweeted a collage carrying Sushant Singh Rajput's baby picture and Alia Bhatt's baby picture with a caption that read, " Lets decide whos cuter! Dumb 10th fail nonactor Alia or genius Physics Olympiad winner genuinely good actor Sushant? are we going to get likes from filmi A-listers? Lets see."

Filmi media is circulating dumb alias kid pictures & all A listers are hailing her cuteness, is this a way of white washing her criminal father and her own insensitive approach to outsiders ?https://t.co/jDplZACBeN  Team Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) July 28, 2020

People were quick to call out the nepotistic behavior of these celebrities and were quick to slam them too. Discover fan reactions below.

The same day Sushant's sister posted a childhood pic of Sushant and shared old stories about him. No one from Bollywood gave a damn about it.

He was just ignored like a nobody, similar to how he was treated when he was alive. pic.twitter.com/yub2hvW9jm  !!!Reet!!!! (@CuriousReet) July 28, 2020

Also for Deepika padokone, she is simply a character less woman sitting on ppl laps,driving away,in a party where her ex is present..Maybe she married Ranveer so he can also jelofy such nonsense, Indian families don't..I had high respect from prakash Padukone,but bechare...  pooja (@PmalhotraSn) July 28, 2020

These so called stars doesn't have time to do at least one tweet for SSR but have time for this "CHUTIYAPA". I only find one reason behind it either they r involved in something wrong whtever took place wid SSR or they knew abt it Nd hiding it desperately. Fat rhi h sabki.  Meenakshi Sharma (@Eagleey36680636) July 28, 2020

What Bollywood celebrities don't realise is that the public opinion regarding them has drastically changed and just by uploading Instagram posts nothing is going to change.
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 Agriculture Tyres 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.

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LATEST July 28, 3:50 p.m. California announced its 7-day average for new cases per day has risen to 9,397, up from 9,189 the week before. To date, the state has counted 466,550 cases total.

Of those total cases, 69.4% are in individuals aged 49 and under.

Additionally, 6,896 are currently hospitalized, with 1,975 in the ICU.

July 28, 3:40 p.m. Rep. Ro Khanna (D.-Calif.), who represents Fremont, and Bernie Sanders (I - Vt.) co-introduced legislation Tuesday that if passed, would prompt the distribution of three free, domestically-produced, reusable face masks to all Americans through the USPS.

We are the wealthiest country on earth, yet our health care workers are still facing a shortage of N-95s, our essential workers are having to purchase their own protective face masks, and far too many vulnerable Americans are being left to figure out how to procure this basic need, Khanna said in a statement. Congress has a responsibility to step up where the White House has abdicated its responsibility and ensure every family has the equipment they need to stay safe," he continued. "If were asking folks to wear a mask, which is absolutely essential, its on us to provide one.

July 28, 3:20 p.m. Contra Costa County has approved a mask fine for both businesses and individuals who do not wear a face covering in public settings.

Fees for individuals are $100 for first offense, $200 for second and $500 for each additional violation. Business will be required to pay $250 for first offense, $500 for second and $1,000 for each additional violation.

Napa was the first Bay Area county to introduce fines for rule-breakers and offending businesses can be hit with fees up to $5,000. In Marin County, fines for businesses go as high as $10,000. Sonoma and Alameda counties are also considering fines for non-compliance of COVID-19 safety measures.

July 28, 1:10 p.m. Berkeley Public Health, working with Curative Inc., has announced a self-testing site set to open at San Pablo Park for two days this week, July 29-30. The new site offers an oral-fluid test, and aims to return results within 24-48 hours.

"Our goal is to use what is within our means to expand the availability of testing," said City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley. "This pilot testing program gives us a tool to see how we might expand access to more parts of our community."

Make an appointment, or find more information here at the city's website.

July 28, 12:20 p.m. Californias top health official announced Tuesday the state is now requiring labs and providers to report race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity data to the Department of Public Health when testing for all communicable diseases including COVID-19.

California Health and Human Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said this effort to improve data will allow us to see disparities and improve our ability to address them with interventions.

July 28, 10:10 a.m. Three food suppliers in Los Angeles County failed to report coronavirus outbreaks to the health department and have been ordered to close, according to KTLA.

S & S Foods in Azusa, Mission Foods Corp. in Commerce and Golden State Foods Corp. in the City of Industry each had more than three dozen employees test positive.

July 28, 7:23 a.m. The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors will vote today on an urgency ordinance that would introduce fines for businesses and individuals who violate the coronavirus public health order, such as refusing to wear a mask.

Fees for individuals would be $100 for first offense, $200 for second and $500 for each additional violation. Business would be required to pay $250 for first offense, $500 for second and $1,000 for each additional violation.

July 28, 7:10 a.m. San Mateo Area Chamber of Commerce President Cheryl Angeles told the Mercury News she fears San Mateo County could land on the state watch list "any day" now.

The county has recorded upwards of 100 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the past 14 days  a distinction that should land the county on the state watch list. It is unclear why San Mateo has avoided the list, but Angeles said local businesses are on edge.

"Of course were happy our businesses are allowed to remain open, she said. I can go get my hair dyed this week, which is desperately needed. But the governor could shut us down any day as well. Were all hanging in and holding our breath.

If a county is on the list for over three days, it becomes subject to state-mandated business closures.

July 28, 7 a.m. Santa Cruz County has been placed on the state's monitoring list for counties experiencing an increased spread of COVID-19, county officials said Monday.

The list stipulates that certain sectors of the economy must close or modify their operations as soon as 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. Places that must modify their operations include gyms and fitness centers, personal care services, places of worship and cultural ceremonies, indoor shopping malls and offices for infrastructure sectors that aren't critical.

Critical infrastructure sectors include transportation, water, energy, and financial services, among others.

Retail and outdoor dining operations are unaffected by the change, according to county officials. Also, hair salons and personal services such as skin care, nail services, and among others, massage therapy, can continue to operate outdoors.

Tattooing, piercing and electrology services are prohibited from operating.

Bay City News contributed to this story.

Coronavirus in the greater Bay Area: Links you need

COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENTS

Alameda County: Find the latest COVID-19 numbers and health order.

Contra Costa County: Find the latest COVID-19 numbers and health order.

Lake County: Find the latest COVID-19 numbers and health order.

Marin County: Find the latest COVID-19 numbers and health order.

Monterey County: Find the latest COVID-19 numbers and health order.

Napa County: Find the latest COVID-19 numbers and health order.

San Benito County: Find the latest COVID-19 numbers and health order.

San Francisco County: Find the latest COVID-19 numbers and health order.

San Mateo County: Find the latest COVID-19 numbers and health order.

Santa Clara County: Find the latest COVID-19 numbers and health order.

Santa Cruz County: Find the latest COVID-19 numbers and health order.

Solano County: Find the latest COVID-19 numbers and health order.

Sonoma County: Find the latest COVID-19 numbers and health order.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Here are answers to your most frequently asked questions about coronavirus

Who is getting COVID-19 in SF? Here's a breakdown

Comparing July coronavirus surges in California, Texas, Florida and Arizona

WHEN WILL THE BAY AREA REOPEN?

Is it less dangerous to reopen elementary schools than high schools?

Gov. Newsom orders California schools on watch list stay closed

Spread of COVID-19 increasing in 6 of 9 Bay Area counties, state projects
Authorities tightened security and imposed prohibitory orders near the Ambala Air Force Station in Haryana on Tuesday ahead of the arrival of five Rafale jets from France, banning shooting of videos and photography.

IMAGE: First batch of five Rafale fighter aircraft fly out from France to India. Photograph: @Indian_Embassy/Twitter

The Ambala district administration also prohibited people from flying private drones within the three-km radius of the air base, an official said.

Deputy Commissioner Ashok Sharma said in an order that Section 144, which prohibits assembly of four or more people, has been imposed in the villages adjoining the air base, including Dhulkot, Baldev Nagar, Garnala and Panjkhora.

The jets took off from France on Monday and will arrive at the Air Force station on Wednesday, after covering a distance of 7,000 km with air-to-air refuelling and a single stop in the United Arab Emirates. The fleet comprises three single-seater and two twin-seater aircraft, according to an IAF official.

The Ambala deputy commissioner said shooting of videos or taking photographs of the boundary wall of the air base and its adjoining areas will remain strictly prohibited during the imposition of the prohibitory orders.

Haryana home minister Anil Vij said Ambala police have taken the necessary measures.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader and six-term MLA from Ambala Cantt said the people of Ambala are very enthusiastic and thousands would have come out on the streets to welcome the fighter jets before the touch down had there not been a pandemic.

BJP's Ambala City MLA Aseem Goyal urged to people to light candles in their homes between 7-7:30 pm on Wednesday to welcome the Rafale jets.

Nearly four years ago, India signed an inter-governmental agreement with France for 36 Rafale jets under a Rs 59,000-crore deal to boost the IAF's combat capabilities.

The first squadron of the Rafale jets will be stationed at the Ambala air base.

The five Rafales are scheduled to be inducted into the IAF on Wednesday, though a formal induction ceremony would be held later.

No 17 Squadron, the Golden Arrows, has been resurrected at the Ambala base to operate the Rafale aircraft. The resurrection ceremony in September 2019 was presided over by then Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa, who had commanded the 17 Squadron during the Kargil conflict in 1999.

The IAF has undertaken major infrastructure upgrades at the Ambala base for the deployment of the first Rafale squadron. Built in 1948, the air base is located on the east side of Ambala in Haryana and is used for military and government flights.

The air base has two squadrons of the Jaguar combat aircraft and one squadron of the MIG-21 Bison. Air Force Marshal Arjan Singh was the first commander of the base.

The Mirage fighters that were used for the air strike in Balakot in Pakistan in February 2019 after the Pulwama terror attack had taken off from Ambala.
Assistant Superintendent Michael Stephens outlined the Portage plan, saying the district researched best practices for virtual learning across the country. He said they also checked with the Indiana Superintendents Association and the Indiana Association of School Boards to make sure they received the most up-to-date data.
HEALTH CORONAVIRUS SPAIN face masks

JAVIER BARBANCHO/REUTERS

A new government study found that wearing face masks makes it harder for facial recognition algorithms to recognize people.

The typical error rate for most facial recognition algorithms is 0.3%. When subjects in the study wore a face mask, the error rate rose to anywhere from 5% to 50%.

The algorithms are less likely to recognize someone wearing a mask over their nose, the study found. Wide masks that cover the full face were more likely to trick facial recognition than round masks.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Wearing a mask doesn't just limit the spread of COVID-19  it may also makes it harder for facial recognition algorithms to identify you, according to a new study.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology tested 89 facial recognition algorithms, which have an error rate of around 0.3%. But when those algorithms were used on subjects wearing face masks, the error rate jumped to anywhere from 5% to 50%, researchers found.

The federal government conducted the study in part because it's using facial recognition algorithms to track people's movements and identify suspects across the US, where mask-wearing is now recommended to slow the spread of COVID-19. The NIST study was carried out "in collaboration with" the Department of Homeland Security and US Customs and Border Protection, both of which use facial recognition technology.

The study, which was earlier reported by The Verge, suggests that wearing a face mask would make an individual less likely to be identified by facial recognition. But not all masks are created equal  people are less identifiable when wearing a mask over their nose than when they leave their nose uncovered, the study found.

Findings also suggest that dark masks are better at evading facial recognition than blue surgical masks, and that wide masks that cover a person's entire face beat the algorithms more than round, N95-style masks.

Story continues

"None of these algorithms were designed to handle face masks," said NIST computer scientist Mei Ngan, who authored the report. "With respect to accuracy with face masks, we expect the technology to continue to improve."

Ngan added that NIST plans to test newer algorithms later this summer that were built with face masks in mind.

Kurt Opsahl, deputy executive director of the privacy-focused Electronic Frontier Foundation, said on Twitter that even though the study was conducted by the federal government, its findings could help citizens who want to evade surveillance.

Read the full findings of the NIST study here.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The George Washington University (GW) today announced that it will participate in a clinical trial for an investigational COVID-19 vaccine. GW has been selected as one of approximately 90 sites in the United States to participate in clinical trials of experimental vaccines and monoclonal antibodies as part of the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN), established by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Scientists hope the trials will result in new tools to prevent COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that has killed over 600,000 worldwide, including more than 140,000 Americans.

Led by David Diemert, MD, professor of medicine at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) and a physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at The GW Medical Faculty Associates (MFA), researchers at GW Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH), GW SMHS, and the GW MFA will participate as a trial site in a Phase 3 clinical trial of the mRNA-1273 vaccine, co-developed by NIAID scientists and the biotechnology company Moderna, Inc.

The vaccine uses a chemical messenger called ribonucleic acid or RNA that instructs the body's cells to create a protein that mimics one found on the outer surface of the virus that causes COVID-19. The hope is the injections will spur the body to mount an immune response that will protect against the novel coronavirus. The trial is the latest advance in a series of steps to test the vaccine's safety and efficacy in humans.

COVID-19 is one of the greatest public health challenges of our time, and it is of utmost importance to find a safe and effective vaccine. We are proud to play a role in the network of researchers working to reduce the impact of this deadly disease." David Diemert, MD, principal investigator of the clinical trial at GW

The researchers aim to enroll 500 participants in the clinical trial at GW out of 30,000 volunteers nationwide. The participants must be at least 18 years old, and at least one-quarter will be 65 or older, or younger than 65 but have at least one comorbidity like heart disease, severe obesity or diabetes. The reason for these parameters is to test the effectiveness of the vaccine among populations who are currently at high risk for experiencing severe illness or death if they contract the novel coronavirus. The researchers also hope to include a diverse group of participants from communities that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.

The participants will receive two injections, spaced one month apart. As a control measure, half of the enrollees will receive a saline placebo. All participants will be monitored for symptoms, side effects, and COVID-19. Researchers will follow up regularly with participants for two years after the second dose of the vaccine.

Clinical activities will be directed by infectious disease specialists at the GW MFA.

"This groundbreaking study offers a significant hope that there will be an effective vaccine in the near future, and it speaks to GW's research preeminence that our infectious diseases group has been selected to participate in this groundbreaking trial. Both Dr. Diemert and I along with the entire infectious disease faculty are looking forward to the successful enrollment of this trial here," said Marc Siegel, MD, associate professor of medicine at GW SMHS and a physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the GW MFA.

The study will be conducted in partnership with Milken Institute SPH and the NIH-funded GW HIV Prevention Trials Network clinical research site, led by Manya Magnus, PhD, MPH, a professor of epidemiology at Milken Institute SPH.

"Local engagement in these trials is critical. We will work closely with the community, especially those disproportionately affected by COVID-19, to help create this vaccine," said Magnus, who is a co-investigator on the trial and who will support recruitment and data quality efforts with Milken Institute SPH researchers. "Diversity and inclusivity in this study are key to developing a vaccine that will be safe and effective for all."

The CoVPN was established as part of the federal effort to develop a safe, effective vaccine for COVID-19. The CoVPN merges four existing NIAID-funded clinical trials networks: the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, the HIV Prevention Trials Network, the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium, and the AIDS Clinical Trials Group.

For more information on the CoVPN or to screen for eligibility to participate in the trial, visit coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org/.
by Mathias Hariyadi

Unlike previous years in which priestly ordinations attracted thousands of parishioners and dozens of family members, only a selected few attended the event yesterday.

Pineleng (AsiaNews)  Priestly ordinations in different places in various dioceses has become an annual event in Indonesia, usually between July and September of each year, when one school year ends and before the next one starts.

This year however, because of the coronavirus epidemic across the country, annual priestly ordinations in Java were rescheduled, from July-August to November or December.

It all depends on how the situation actually develops. But we have our plan, which is set for 3 December, said Fr Bambang Sipayung SJ, deputy director of the Indonesian Jesuit Province, speaking to AsiaNews.

"Our plan is for 19 August (if there is no further outbreak)," Mgr Robertus Rubiyatmoko told AsiaNews, adding that any assessment of the current situation will influence the final decision.

"We have cancelled our programme and have not yet decided on a new date, noted Fr Purwanto SCJ, rector of the Sacred Heart Major Seminary of Yogyakarta.

Likewise, "We have no plans this year," said Fr Widiatmoko, the rector of the Oblate Mary Immaculate Major Seminary in Yogyakarta.

But in Pineleng, Manado, North Sulawesi province, a priestly ordination did take place yesterday at the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC) Major Seminary with few participants and strictly adhering to COVID-19 restrictions.

Unlike past years when priestly ordination ceremonies attracted thousands of parishioners and dozens of family members, only a "selected" few attended yesterday's event.

The ten new priests were ordained at the MSC major seminary church in the Diocese of Manado by Mgr Benedictus Estephanus Rolly Untu MSC together with the local superiors, from the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC) Major Seminary and the major seminary of the Diocese of Manado. Of the ten priests ordained, four are from MSC and six from Manado.

During the ritual procession, Bishop Untu and two rectors wore face covering in accordance with COVID-19 restrictions. The ten deacons also wear masks and face shields.

The highlight of the liturgy of priestly ordination  the laying of the hands by the bishop on the future priest or bishop  was done from a certain physical distance in which the hands of the bishop could not touch the forehead of the deacons.

As per tradition after priestly ordinations, the bishop or the head of the religious order publicly announced the first pastoral assignments of the newly ordained priests.

1. Fr Augustinus Budiman MSC will be assigned to the Archdiocese of Merauke in Papua.

2. Fr Andreas Buarlele MSC will be assigned to the Diocese of Amboina.

3. Fr Novri Dien MSC to the Diocese of Makassar.

4. Fr Wensislaus Batbual MSC to the Diocese of Manado.

5. Father Koresta Rian Lila PR will be parish priest at Mary Queen of Peace in Melonguane, Diocese of Manado.

6. Fr Jerry Torebellaz PR will be parish priest at the Sacred Heart of Tomohon, Diocese of Manado.

7. Fr Jufry A. Dotulong PR will be parish priest of St Thomas in Buol, Central Sulawesi.

8. Fr Malvin Karundeng PR will be parish priest at St John the Apostle in Tahuna, Sangihe Islands, Diocese of Manado.

9. Fr Made Pantyasa PR will be parish priest of St Joseph Parish Church in Manado and assigned to the Social communications Commission of the Diocese of Manado.

10. Fr Wayan Sugiarta PR will go to the Socio-Economic Commission of the Diocese of Manado in Lotta, Pineleng.
In late 2017, when David First announced a drone-music performance in Brooklyn, I circled the date on my calendar.

The quality of Mr. Firsts music in that style was already well known, thanks to his 2010 album Privacy Issues (droneworks 1996-2009). So I thought Id be hearing something like the sneakily morphing pieces on that recording  albeit with more live instrumentation on top of his usual electronics, since this performance included his latest ensemble, the Western Enisphere.

But I should have known better: Mr. First rarely works by simple addition or subtraction. Throughout the more than four decades of his career, he has jumped adroitly between styles and scenes, while reinvigorating those scenes from the inside. If his punk trio the Notekillers was little heard in late-1970s New York, its merging of guitar grind and melodic intricacy helped lay the groundwork for underground rock of the 80s. Thurston Moore credits a Notekillers single with influencing the sound of Sonic Youth.
The lawyer for a Tamil family fighting deportation has demanded their release from detention and rebuked Peter Dutton after he said they had wasted $10million of taxpayer cash.

Priya and Nades Murugappan and their two young daughters are the only people being detained on Christmas Island at an estimated cost of $20,000 a day.

The Home Affairs Minister wants them to go back to Sri Lanka - where they fear persecution - and has said the parents are being 'unfair on their children' for fighting deportation.

In an interview with Daily Mail Australia, the family's lawyer, Carina Ford, said it was actually Mr Dutton who was costing the taxpayer by refusing to let the family come back to the mainland while their case is pending.

Priya and Nades Murugappan and their Australian-born daughters Kopika and Tharunicaa are fighting deportation

Kopika (right) and Tharunicaa (left) are pictured at the detention centre on Christmas Island on January 28

The family settled in Queensland on bridging visas but were deported to Christmas Island when they ran out

'The same argument applies that he's being unfair by detaining them, it's as simple as that,' she said.

'I feel that trying to flip it around and blame the parents like that hasn't worked for Minister Dutton.

'I think people can see that it doesn't make sense for the person detaining the children to blame the parents.'

Ms Ford said if the government really wanted to reduce the cost to taxpayers then it would make more sense to release the family from detention on the island which is 1,500km north-west of Australia.

'We are using taxpayer dollars to detain them but they could be in the community while their case is pending, actually contributing, because Nades used to work in the local meatworks, and costing the taxpayer no money,' she said.

Kopika and Tharunicaa (in pink)

'Can you justify spending this amount of money on keeping a detention centre open that no-one else is using? I don't think you can. Maybe that's something the government can re-consider.'

Priya and Nades came to Australia by boat separately in 2012 and 2013, alleging they were escaping the Sri Lankan civil war.

They met in Sydney before getting married and settling in Biloela, Queensland where they had two children, Kopika, four, and Tharunicaa, two.

The family rented a small house, paid for with money Nades earned by working at an abattoir.

While her husband put food on the table, Priya looked after the children and attended Biloela Baptist Church craft group where she made dozens of friends.

But they were kicked out in March 2018 when their home was raided by police at 5am, the day after Priya's bridging visa expired.

Locals started a petition for the family to be allowed to stay and it has been signed by 350,000 people across the country.

In October 2019, the United Nations Human Rights Committee requested the family be let off Christmas Island but the government ignored it.

Minister Dutton does not believe the family are legitimate refugees and wants to deport them - but the courts have ruled they cannot be sent home until their legal proceedings are over.

A Federal Court judge in April ruled their deportation must remain on hold after determining the youngest daughter, Tharunicaa, had been denied procedural fairness in her bid to apply for a protection visa.

The family are stuck on Christmas Island. Pictured: A detention centre on the island

While on bridging visas, the family rented a small house, paid for with money Nades earned by working at an abattoir which struggled to employ Australians. Pictured: The children

The government was also ordered to pay the family more than $200,000 in legal fees.

The family now faces a long wait for their next hearing, which could be late this year or early next year.

Meanwhile, Priya, who has underlying health conditions, was last Saturday airlifted to hospital in Perth with severe abdominal pain and is still receiving treatment there.

Speaking on Sydney radio 2GB last week, Mr Dutton said the family should stop fighting deportation.

'This case has gone on since 2012 I think, and it must have cost now probably over $10 million,' he said.

'That's money that should be going into... communities and helping Australian citizens.

Priya and Nades (pictured) came to Australia by boat separately in 2012 and 2013, alleging they were escaping the Sri Lankan civil war

Priya and Nades Murugappan and their two young daughters are the only people being detained on Christmas Island at an estimated cost of $20,000 a day

'They are not refugees and they have used every trick in the book to make sure they can stay.

'This is a situation of their own making, it is ridiculous, it's unfair on their children, and it sends a very bad message to other people who think that they can rort the system as well.'

Ms Ford urged Mr Dutton to grant a protection visa and allow the family to stay in Australia.

'That's always been our position in this case. It's open to the minister to not have this go on and spend more money on it. The choice is his.'

Priya, who has underlying health conditions, was last Saturday airlifted to hospital in Perth

Ms Ford said she believes there is a 'good prospect' of her winning the case, which centres on two-year-old Tharunicaa, whose visa claim was never assessed.

She will also be arguing that Nades should have his application re-assessed because new evidence has emerged proving he will be in danger if he is sent home.

Nades has claimed he will be persecuted in Sri Lanka because he was forced to join the militant group Tamil Tigers in 2001 and was harassed by the Sri Lankan military.

The Immigration Assessment Authority rejected the claims on the basis he frequently travelled between Sri Lanka, Kuwait and Qatar for work between 2004 and 2010 during the civil war, something that a Tamil Tigers member would not be allowed to do.

Priya has claimed she watched her former fiance get burned alive and was raped during the Sri Lankan civil war which lasted from 1983 to 2009.

Family friend Angela Fredericks said the mother had suffered severe abdominal pain and had been vomiting for two weeks before she was airlifted to Fiona Stanley Hospital on 18 July.

'She's quite overwhelmed at the moment,' Ms Fredericks said on Monday.

'When I spoke to her this morning, she was very groggy. She'd been experiencing quite severe pain overnight again so she was on some strong painkillers.

'The doctors say there's definite issues with her uterus and bladder but they said that wouldn't be causing the pain. So they're still just awaiting the results of the CT scan which was done yesterday.'

Ms Fredericks said the immigration health service on Christmas Island had given Priya painkillers but had not investigated her complaints further.

The Home Affairs Minister (pictured) told the family to go back to Sri Lanka - where they fear persecution

Nades (left with his family) has claimed he will be persecuted in Sri Lanka because he was forced to join the militant group Tamil Tigers in 2001

Priya's transfer to Perth only came when a doctor at the hospital saw her for a fourth time and refused to discharge her.

'We are actually quite concerned because, now that she's had the CT scan, technically they could actually send her back to Christmas Island,' Ms Fredericks said.

''We're incredibly grateful to the doctor on Christmas Island who has stood up for a very vulnerable woman and I really hope that medical staff will continue to do so.'

Groups including the Tamil Refugee Council and National Union of Students gathered outside Fiona Stanley Hospital on Monday to protest the family's continued detention.

Ms Fredericks said Priya's hospitalisation in Perth had been particularly distressing for two-year-old Tharunicaa.

'She really doesn't understand where her Mum is and why she can't see her,' she said.

'It's very distressing for all of them.'

Labor leader Anthony Albanese has described the family's detention as 'publicly funded torture' and said they should be allowed to stay.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has also said the family's Biloela community, who want them to stay, should be listened to.
New Jersey private schools should offer the same option for all-remote learning that the states public schools are required to do amid the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Phil Murphy said on Tuesday.

The answer would be yes, Murphy said at an unrelated event in North Brunswick. I dont know why we wouldnt offer that same flexibility.

Though it wasnt clear in his response whether he would force private schools to offer the option.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks to local people at the Canal Side Heritage Centre in Beeston near Nottingham, England, on July 28, 2020. (Rui Vieira - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Second Wave of Pandemic Emerging in Europe, Says British Prime Minister

The United Kingdom must prepare for a possible second wave of the CCP virus pandemic, signs of which are already emerging in Europe, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.

What we have to do is take swift and decisive action where we think that the risks are starting to bubble up again, Johnson told media during a visit to Nottinghamshire.

Lets be absolutely clear about whats happening in Europe, amongst some of our European friends, Im afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic.

And we all remember what happened last time. Its absolutely vital, therefore, that we make the necessary preparations here in the UK, as we are doing, he said.

British tourists returning to the UK check in their luggage, as Britain imposed a two-week quarantine on all travellers arriving from Spain, on the island of Gran Canaria, Spain, on July 25, 2020. (Borja Suarez/Reuters)

Britain abruptly announced late Saturday that it had taken Spain off a safe-travel list, imposing a 14-day quarantine on anyone travelling from that country.

On Monday, the UK extended its travel advisory against travel in mainland Spain to the Canary and Balearic islands.

Since ending its nationwide lockdown a month ago, Spain has been grappling with a rapid proliferation of new cases.

The health ministry reported 6,361 new cases over the weekend and said it was monitoring 361 clusters around the country.

A woman wearing a mask walks on the beach in Zahara de los Atunes, Cadiz province, south of Spain, July 25, 2020. (Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)

But Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the British decision an error.

The rebound in infections is focused in two regions, Catalonia and Aragon, Sanchez told Telecinco television on Monday.

In most of Spain, the incidence [of the disease] is very much inferior to even the numbers registered in the UK, he said.

Johnson defended the UKs decision on Tuesday, saying, Im afraid if we do see signs of a second wave in other countries it is really our job, our duty, to act swiftly and decisively to stop travellers coming back from those places seeding the disease here in the UK.

St. Wolfgang and the Wolfgangsee lake in Austria on July 26, 2020. The number of people infected with the CCP virus is rising in the upper Austrian tourist spot. (Kerschbaummayr/APA/AFP via Getty Images)

Elsewhere in Europe, a series of localized outbreaks forced the Belgian government to tighten virus containment measures last Saturday, requiring the use of masks in crowded outdoor public spaces and tracing measures at restaurants and bars.

Greece announced new measures on Tuesday, requiring masks to be worn inside retail shops, offices, banks, food stores, and bakeries, though churches are excluded for the time being.

In Austria, 62 people tested positive in the lakeside resort town of St. Wolfgang after an outbreak was detected on July 24.

New infections have also been creeping higher in Germany, where the government made COVID-19 tests at airports mandatory for anyone returning from high-risk areas.

Reuters contributed to this report.
New evidence of kickbacks in Rafale deal appears in French journal Mediapart

Rafale to S-400 air defence systems all set to add more firepower to Indian Air Force

Ready to provide more Rafales to India says French Defence Minister Parly

Watch Rafale fighter jets being refuelled mid-air on their way to Ambala from France

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Jul 28 : The first batch of five Rafale fighter jets tore into the skies over France with sonic boom on Monday to begin their 7000 kms flight to India. The aircraft were seen being refuelled mid-air while they were on their way to Ambala from France.

The aircraft flew out from the airbase in the French port city of Bordeaux and will cover a distance of nearly 7,000 km with air-to-air refuelling and a single stop in the United Arab Emirates before arriving at Ambala airbase on Wednesday, officials said.

The three single-seat and two twin-seat omni-role fighters, flown by seven IAF pilots led by commanding officer Group Captain Harkirat Singh, will touch down in Ambala to launch the 17 Golden Arrows' squadron on Wednesday.

The Rafale aircraft will cover a distance of nearly 7000 kms from France to India. The Indian Air Force pilots and supporting personnel have been provided full training on aircraft and weapon systems by Dassault.

Rafale jet specifications, top speed, price: Here's the lowdown

The aircraft are expected to significantly boost the Indian Air Force''s combat capabilities at a time India is locked in a tense border row with China in eastern Ladakh.

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

India had signed an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore.

An official statement said the delivery of 10 aircraft has been completed on schedule and five will stay back in France for training missions. It said the delivery of all 36 aircraft will be completed by the end of 2021.

The first Rafale jet was handed over to the IAF in October last year during a visit to France by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, July 28, 2020, 16:10 [IST]
Defence and security experts have urged Australia and the United States to join with navies of countries including Japan and India to conduct more joint exercises in the South China Sea, warning China's territorial ambitions should be contained through a broad coalition.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds will look to secure an agreement with the US to work on developing new defence technologies and expanding naval operations in the coming hours, days after Australia branded China's territorial claims to the South China Sea unlawful at the United Nations.

A US Coast Guard vessel, right, and a Philippines counterpart conduct joint exercises west of the Philippines last year. Credit:PCG/AP

The two ministers are in Washington for meetings with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence Mark Esper as part of the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations, where they will also agree on a joint bid to counter disinformation campaigns by China in the region.

The meeting is being closely watched in Beijing, where the Chinese government believes the White House is ramping up pressure on China as an election strategy three months out from the US poll. Chinese state media warned on Tuesday that agriculture and Australia's top export, iron ore, are vulnerable to further trade strikes in retaliation for enhanced US-Australian cooperation in the region.
For Winnipegger Allan Robison, the raising of a statue of the angel Moroni on the top of the new temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was a significant event, the crowning glory.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/7/2020 (540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For Winnipegger Allan Robison, the raising of a statue of the angel Moroni on the top of the new temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was "a significant event, the crowning glory."

Robison, a former president of the church in Manitoba, was among about 30 people gathered Tuesday morning at the site of the temple in the Bridgwater neighbourhood in the south part of the city to watch the statue lifted to the top of the steeple.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The statue depicts Moroni, an ancient prophet in the Book of Mormon, who the faithful believe appeared to church founder Joseph Smith.

"Im happy to be part of it," he said, adding "Ive never been at the raising of the statue of Moroni before."

The raising of the gold leaf-covered statue, which stands 2.4 metres tall and weighs 136 kilograms, represents "that were almost the last stage of construction," Robison said. "It shows were getting close to opening."

The statue was made in Salt Lake City, headquarters of the church, and transported to Winnipeg. It depicts Moroni, an ancient prophet in the Book of Mormon, who the faithful believe appeared to church founder Joseph Smith.

Moroni is seen on top of the temple blowing a trumpet and standing atop a globe, symbolizing the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Identical statues are found on almost all of the churchs 168 temples worldwide.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Moroni will be seen on top of the temple blowing a trumpet and standing atop a globe, symbolizing the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Identical statues are found on almost all of the churchs 168 temples worldwide.

Traditionally, the statue has been placed on temples facing east. More recently church officials have authorized placing it more in line with the front of temples for esthetic reasons. The statue in Winnipeg faces southeast.

Among the group watching the statue go up was Kim Sanchezaldana and his wife and children.

"I am very excited to see this," he said. "Its a symbol of how we can soon be closer to God in the temple."

For Sanchezaldana and the 4,500 other members of the church in Manitoba, the building of the temple also means no more seven-hour drives to the nearest temple in Regina for sacred ordinances such as marriages and baptisms.

"It will be a much shorter drive now," he said, noting he just lives five minutes away.

Jim Kroeker of Cardston, Alta., is the site project manager and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Born and raised in Manitoba, the University of Manitoba graduate has supervised temple constructions in the U.S. and Canada on behalf of the church.

The Winnipeg temple is one of only two in the world built of a stone and brick combination, he said, in keeping with the style of similar buildings in the province.

A unique Manitoba touch are prairie crocuses on the exterior medallions. "It gives it a Manitoba flavour," he said.

He noted temples are not used for Sunday services; there is no one big meeting room inside the building. Rather, it is made up of a number of smaller rooms where members can be baptized, solemnize marriages and receive religious instruction.

For members of the church, "the temple is an embassy to the eternal world," he said, a "link between heaven and earth."

The Free Press is committed to covering faith in Manitoba. If you appreciate that coverage, help us do more! Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow us to deepen our reporting about faith in the province. Thanks! BECOME A FAITH JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project.

Because the site is also considered sacred by the church, construction workers pledged not to spit, smoke or swear while working on the temple or its grounds.

"Its an honour system," said Kroeker. "I never had to call anyone out. Theyve all been very respectful."

In addition to the temple, the site contains a chapel that can seat 300 people. It will be used as a meeting place for a local congregation of the church.

The cost of the temple is completely covered by the church out of its international headquarters. "It will be totally paid when done," said Robison, noting Winnipeg is the last major city in Canada to get a temple.

Sod turning for the temple took place in December 2016 and construction started in 2018. It will be formally dedicated in November.

faith@freepress.mb.ca
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L Brands Inc. is cutting back sharply, with a plan to reduce annual costs by $400 million as it spins off the ailing Victorias Secret business from its much stronger Bath & Body Works unit.

Bath & Body Works will remain a pure-play public company, while Victorias Secret operates as a stand-alone business. This is try number two for the company to put Bath & Body Works front and center, coming after an earlier deal to sell control of Victorias Secret to Sycamore Partners fell through after the private equity firm said the retailer violated their agreement by closing its stores during the pandemic.

More from WWD

Once the deal fell through, L Brands said it would go it alone and split up the businesses. Tuesdays plan lays out how the company plans to start the process.

Investors liked the start and pushed shares of the company up 15.5 percent to $22.10 in after-hours trading.

The cost savings will come though plans to boost profitability at Victorias Secret and to decentralize and streamline corporate functions. About $175 million of the savings will be reached this year, including $75 million to cut 15 percent of the headcount in the firms home office, or 850 associates.

The company is also working to be more disciplined with inventory at Victorias Secret, with fall receipts down 50 percent from a year earlier. The chain also previously revealed plans to close 250 doors this year.

Victoria Secrets U.K. business also entered in to what the firm described as light administration or bankruptcy in June to restructure leases and said it subsequently signed Heads of Terms with a major fashion retailer and is in an exclusive period of negotiation.

Andrew Meslow, chief executive officer of L Brands, said: The board and management remain committed to separating the Bath & Body Works and Victorias Secret businesses, as well as improving the profitability of the Victorias Secret business. During the second quarter, we made meaningful progress toward these goals. Decisions relating to our workforce are incredibly difficult and not taken lightly, but these actions are necessary to best position our company for the long term.

L Brands reports its second-quarter results on Aug. 19 and expects Victorias Secret to show a 40 percent sales decline for the period.
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.
Do you have what it takes to be an industry analyst? Are you an expert in your field? Do you love the search for knowledge? Do you like writing and speaking about your industry? If so, this book will help you on your way.

IT-Harvest Press, an imprint of IT-Harvest, today announced the release of "Curmudgeon: How to Succeed as an Industry Analyst." The author is industry analyst and founder of IT-Harvest, Richard Stiennon. The new book is available for immediate shipping from Amazon.

"Curmudgeon" is the definitive guide to becoming an industry analyst. It will be a must read for anyone who has contemplated a career as an industry analyst or is currently an industry analyst.

Started in 2012, "Curmudgeon" was set aside as Stiennon wrote what is still the best selling book on industry analyst relations: "UP and to the RIGHT: Strategy and Tactics of Analyst Influence." Curmudgeon is a companion book written for analysts instead of marketers. Laced with Stiennons own experience and drawing on contributions from some of the most influential analysts from Gartner, ESG, and META group, "Curmudgeon" is the guide to becoming and succeeding as an industry analyst.

Do you have what it takes to be an industry analyst? Are you an expert in your field? Do you love the search for knowledge? Do you like writing and speaking about your industry? asked Richard Stiennon. If so, this book will help you on your way.

In addition to chapters on how the role evolved and the history of the large firms, there are chapters on A Day in the Life of an Analyst, The Influence Funnel, and a detailed list of the products and services an independent firm can take to market.

Those who have been in the technology industry for years will recognize the names of the famous analysts who have contributed to "Curmudgeon": Duncan Chapple, Tom Austin, Jon Oltsik, Greg Young, Anton Chuvakin, Mark Bouchard, and Bob Hafner.

There are two appendices. Appendix I lists resources for tackling one of the tasks assigned by the author: Writing a Book. Appendix II lists 100 industry analyst firms ordered by number of analysts employed, provided by ARinsights.

"Curmudgeon: How to Succeed as an Industry Analyst" is available for purchase on Amazon.com.

For review copies reach out to leslie@kesscomm.com.

About Richard Stiennon

As one of the foremost industry analysts in cybersecurity Richard Stiennon has presented on the topic of cybersecurity in 33 countries on six continents. He is the author of Stiennon on Security: Collected Essays, Security Yearbook 2020: A History and Directory of the IT Security Industry, Secure Cloud Transformation: The CIOs Journey, and Surviving Cyberwar (Government Institutes, 2010) and Washington Post Best Seller, There Will Be Cyberwar. He writes for Forbes and The Analyst Syndicate. Stiennon has been a key influencer in the industry as a former vice president of research at Gartner, Inc. and in executive research, strategy and marketing roles at a variety of public and private cybersecurity technology companies. He has a BS in Aerospace Engineering and his MA in War in the Modern World from Kings College, London.

About IT-Harvest

IT-Harvest was founded in 2005 by former Gartner VP Research Richard Stiennon. The firm researches all of the IT security industry. For more information visit https://www.it-harvest.com/.
Dil Toh Happy Hai Ji actor Ansh Bagri was reportedly assaulted by a group of men outside his residence in Paschim Vihar, New Delhi on Saturday. He plans on filing a police complaint in the matter.

As per a website, Ansh had returned home from his film shooting in Punjab a few days ago. On last Saturday, he was beaten up by a group of men right outside his residence. As a result of the attack, Ansh has sustained head injuries.

Read: Manish Chaudhary and Partner Catch Eve Teasers and Handover to Mumbai Police

Recalling the incident, Ansh said that he was inside his home when a few men came and said they wanted to talk to him. Sensing danger, Ansh alerted the police, who took around 8-10 minutes to reach the spot where the attack took place. In the meantime, Ansh said, he was beaten up by 8-10 people and nobody came out to help him.

Ansh also said he knew who was behind this attack. He claimed that it was his contractor who had perpetuated the attack on him and was also present on the day of the incident and even filmed the entire act on his mobile phone. As per Ansh, the contractor whom he had given the work of completing construction in his house, did not finish it on time and was demanding more money instead. Ansh further alleged that the contractor would also threaten his sister and mother while he was away in Mumbai amid the lockdown.

Ansh added that he has now fired the contractor and hired a new person for completing construction work on his New Delhi residence. "This incident has left me shocked and scared. I will have to return to Mumbai next week and I am very afraid for my mother and sister who are staying here all by themselves, Ansh said.
The reopening of schools across Ireland will put intense surveillance on the role of children in the Covid-19 pandemic.

The scientific advice is that they are less susceptible to the virus than adults and if they are infected the odds are very much against them falling ill.

But can they become drivers of the virus in a school, leaving adult teachers at risk? And what are the chances of them bringing the virus home and increasing its spread in the community?

These are questions which will be tracked from September and although evidence around the part played by children and young adults when it comes to risk and spread is growing, there is still a lot to learn.

Lower risk

Children appear to be at lower risk for contracting Covid-19 compared to adults. Some 184 children under five in the Republic have tested positive for the virus and 340 were infected between the age of five and 14 years. The youngest person to die of the virus in the Republic was aged 17.

Reports suggest children are less likely to get Covid-19 than adults, and when they do they generally have a less serious illness. Adolescents aged 10 to 17 may be more likely to become infected but they also appear not to be at higher risk of developing a severe illness.

Underlying illnesses

Children and adults with pre-existing conditions are at an increased risk of severe illness from Covid-19. Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities are more likely to have diseases of the respiratory system or heart, putting them at a higher risk.

Children as spreaders

A study from South Korea earlier this month suggested that children under 10 do not transmit the virus at the same level as adults pass it on to others. However, it can happen.

It suggested that older children and adolescents aged from 10 to 19 may spread the virus in the same way as adults. From what we know from other countries it seems the majority of children with Covid-19 were infected by a family member.

Published reports from contact tracing of students with Covid-19 in schools from France and Australia suggest that students are not as likely to transmit the virus to other students compared to household contacts. But research is needed on the transmission between children and members of their household.

Face masks

Other countries are ahead of Ireland in reopening schools and they have also changed the way they are run, introducing physical distancing measures, staggered opening times and pods where groups of pupils stay together.

Denmark, China, Norway, Singapore and Taiwan all imposed temperature checks at entrances to schools. In Taiwan, students returned to school with compulsory temperature checks and use of face masks.

Community transmission

The evidence to date is that a country like Ireland with a low level of community transmission is well placed to take a chance on reopening schools.

There are several weeks to go yet, and it could be that pubs which sell alcohol only may have to stay shut from August 10 so as not to increase the risk of our rates of virus increase.

The findings so far on whether the impact of returning to school leads to increased transmission of the virus or outbreaks are mixed. In Denmark there was a slight rise in cases in the community after schools reopened for younger children.

Israel suffered a significant increase in new cases and outbreaks in schools after it resumed schooling. The reports suggest so far that reopening schools where transmission of the virus is already high could see a further rise.

Experts say a good piece of work is still needed to give insight into what are the most effective mitigation measures.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin conceded that the measures here will need to be flexible and may need to be change over time, which is reassuring for all concerned.


The Korea Times and the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network (APLN) will cohost their first essay contest on "Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament in the Asia-Pacific Region." We invite Korean and international students (both graduate and undergraduate) to submit applications for the project aiming to foster a new generation of young people committed to examining nuclear issues.

Applicants should submit their essays in English in about 800 words, as well as personal information including name, major area of study, year-level, email and phone number. All submissions will be placed in the same judging pool.



Students can choose a topic from the following three themes:



Topic 1

To date, only South Africa has voluntarily and unilaterally denuclearized. What lessons can be learned from that nation's action?



Topic 2

International treaties such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) have been criticized chiefly for lacking a powerful enforcement mechanism. Is effective enforcement of international agreements possible? If so, what would be that enforcement look like and if not, how can such agreements be made better?



Topic 3

Emerging technologies stand poised to revolutionize many fields of human endeavor. Will new technologies such as autonomous drones and artificial intelligence make the world safer or more vulnerable to nuclear destruction?



Deadline for submission: ???????????????

Email:

Announcement of winners:



Prizes

Winners of the contest will receive awards from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Korea Times president-publisher and the APLN chairman. They will receive a small monetary prize and a certificate in addition to having their work published in the APLN and The Korea Times. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a sponsor of the event.


Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has been convicted of crimes involving the multibillion-dollar looting of a state investment fund that brought down his government in a shocking election ousting two years ago.

Najib, who was calm and stony-faced as he became the first Malaysian leader to be convicted, has vowed to appeal against the verdict that could bring many years in prison.

The ruling in the first of his five corruption trials came five months after Najibs Malay party returned to government as the biggest bloc in an alliance that took power from the reformist government that ousted Najibs in 2018.

Analysts said the ruling would bolster the prosecutions case in Najibs other trials and would signal to the business community that Malaysias legal system has strength in tackling international financial crimes.

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Whatsapp Supporters of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak outside court in Kuala Lumpur (Vincent Thian/AP)

I find the accused guilty and convict the accused of all seven charges, Judge Mohamad Nazlan Ghazali said after spending two hours to read out an elaborate ruling.

Some of Najibs supporters waiting outside the courthouse cried when they learned of the verdict.

Najib, 67, faces between 15 and 20 years plus hefty fines for each of the seven charges and has vowed to fight to the end.

He has said he was misled by rogue bankers and the case against him is political.

I want justice. I want to clear my name, he wrote on Facebook.

After this, we will go to the Court of Appeal. I am ready.

A scion of one of Malaysias most prominent political families, he faces 42 charges in five separate trials and could face years in prison.

Najibs lawyers were asking the judge to delay their arguments on sentencing until next week.

Expand Close Najib was found guilty on all seven charges (Vincent Thian/AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Najib was found guilty on all seven charges (Vincent Thian/AP)

The current trial involved a charge of abuse of power, three charges of criminal breach of trust and three money laundering charges involving the transfer of 42 million ringgit (7.6 million) from SRC International, a former 1MDB unit, into Najibs bank accounts.

The judge agreed with prosecutors that Najib had overarching control of SRC, failed to rebut the allegations against him and that prosecutors had established beyond reasonable doubt that Najib misappropriated money for his own use.

The conviction would serve as a solid foundation for the prosecution in ensuing 1MDB-related trials, said Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow with Singapores Institute of International Affairs.

He said the ruling also would strengthen the credibility of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, even though he now relies on Najibs party for support.

Mr Muhyiddin was fired as Najibs deputy five years ago to the date of Tuesdays verdict for speaking out on the 1MDB scandal.

Najibs party is the biggest bloc in the current Malay nationalist alliance that has governed since March with a shaky, wafer-thin majority in parliament.

The ruling was absolutely good for Malaysia, said analyst Bridget Welsh, honorary research associate with University of Nottingham Malaysia.

I think that there is a sense of euphoria among the citizens that justice is being served, among the majority of Malaysians, Ms Welsh said.

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Keep in mind that majority of Malaysians voted (in 2018) for political change, and the 1MDB case was a catalyst in that. The 1MDB case damaged Malaysias reputation, and I think today worked towards restoring that.

Najib is a political scion whose father and uncle were Malaysias second and third prime ministers.

Shortly after he took office in 2009, he set up 1MDB to ostensibly accelerate Malaysias economic development.

But the fund accumulated billions in debt, and US investigators allege that at least 4.5 billion dollars (3.5 billion) was stolen from it and laundered by Najibs associates to finance Hollywood films and buy hotels, a luxury yacht, artwork, jewellery and other extravagances.

More than 700 million dollars (544 million) from the fund allegedly landed in Najibs bank accounts.

During the trial, Najib was accused of using his position to receive a bribe for approving a government guarantee for billions in loans to SRC, committing criminal breach of trust and accepting proceeds from unlawful activities.

Evidence showed a complex trail of ill-gotten money paid for his home renovation, credit card purchases including a Chanel watch bought in Hawaii as a birthday gift for his wife, and disbursements to political parties.

The judge said the defences argument that Najib, as premier, was duped by rogue bankers led by Malaysian fugitive financier Low Taek Jho was too far-fetched as the two had a close relationship.

Investigators have identified Low as the mastermind behind the looting of 1MDB and he remains at large.

Najib testified he assumed the money was part of an Arab donation arranged by Low as a guise to keep Najib from being suspicious of his plundering of the 1MDB fund.

The judge debunked that argument in the guilty verdict, finding it an elaborate but weak fabrication.

Najibs second and third trials involving some of the remaining charges are ongoing. His wife and several officials from his party and previous government have also been charged with graft related to 1MDB corruption.

People should not really be celebrating now we know in Malaysia, many of these politically charged cases, once they get to the appeals court, they get reversed, said James Chin, professor of Asian studies at Australias University of Tasmania.

So the fact that we have todays guilty verdict doesnt mean things will change. Najib will still remain an MP and we have to wait for the appeal court system, Prof Chin added.
Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi - The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) has asked airlines to mobilise aircraft to take passengers out of the central city of Da Nang before 0:00am on July 28.

The administration requested airlines urgently send flight plans to its Air Transport Department for review and approval.

On the morning of July 27, airlines organised some flights to Da Nang with the aim of carrying passengers out of the city. The number of passengers buying tickets, however, fell short of expectations.

CAAV, however, still requires that airlines keep their flight plans and not cancel flights, in case of any sudden increase in demand following Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucs guidance on the implementation of social distancing in Da Nang from the afternoon of July 27.

CAAV previously asked airport authorities to monitor flights from Da Nang at the request of the PM, the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, the Ministry of Transport, and the Ministry of Health, and to keep track of passengers traveling from Da Nang to other localities to ensure timely information in case passengers are found to have COVID-19.

Da Nang International Airport is to use its international terminal to operate domestic flights.

If there is a request to quarantine passengers on flights from Da Nang to Hanoi and HCM City, CAAV and Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) are ready to organise health checks and quarantining for all passengers in the international terminals at Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat International Airports, in line with guidance from the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam Railway Corporation has said that given the complex developments surrounding COVID-19 in Da Nang, it will add more trains from the city to Hanoi and HCM City from July 27.

It will also change tickets without charge and return fares to passengers who purchased tickets to or from Da Nang, Tam Ky, and Quang Ngai stations between July 27 and August 12.

In order to ensure the safety of passengers and employees, the corporation has directed units to continue to strictly implement measures and abide by regulations on COVID-19 prevention at stations and on trains.

In the next few days, based on the actual situation and the travel needs of passengers, the railway sector will continue to adjust train schedules based on directions from the Government and the Ministry of Transport.
Holly Mercer is just like any other happy and healthy toddler.

But two years ago things were very different.

In November 2018 at just over a year old, Holly underwent a gruelling nine-hour operation on her skull at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.

When she was born at the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine the previous September, her mum Judy noticed her newborn was unable to open her eyes.

She later discovered that Holly's skull had fused together in the womb.

"In the days afterwards the doctors and nurses realised there was something not quite right," Judy recalled.

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Holly was referred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast where she was visited by doctors from Alder Hey who confirmed her diagnosis. Holly had been born with a rare condition called Syndromic Craniosynostosis - which causes skull deformities.

Judy was told that her baby daughter would require surgery and Alder Hey was one of only four hospitals in England with a specialist craniofacial team.

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"Normally a child's skull doesn't fuse until they're around two years old," she explained.

"When Holly was born she didn't have any soft spots so as she got bigger there was going to be no room for her brain to grow in the correct way.

"The specialists said if she didn't have fronto-orbital advancement and remodelling surgery there would be no room in her skull for her brain to grow which would cause developmental problems."

For Judy the day of the operation still remains a blur.

She said: "It felt so surreal and strange and I didn't believe it was really happening until it was all over. The doctors came in and told us they would take the top of Holly's skull off, remodel it, and put it back on.

"It was a bit like science fiction but there were a lot of risks involved including the chance of brain damage.

"I just had to put my trust in the doctors that they knew what they were doing. Right after the operation Holly had severe swelling and couldn't open her eyes as they were all puffy. She was left with a scar right across her head from one ear to the other," Judy added.

"A week later we were back home in Larne and Holly was picking up her brush and starting to clean the floor."

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Holly remains under the care of Alder Hey and doctors fly over to Belfast to check on her progress every six months.

She is due to start nursery school next month. "Nearly two years on you can see how the shape of Holly's head has changed and the swelling has all gone," Judy said. "Her development has been really good but she will require more surgery in a few years when she is about eight or 10 which will involve having a frame put around her head. There is more coming her way but the doctors who are monitoring her speech, hearing and eyesight are really pleased with her progress to date.

"Now she's just like a normal toddler who is talking away and having tantrums. She wants to know everything and do everything, loves her nursery rhymes, baking and Fireman Sam too."
Conflicting narratives, lack of evidence leaves much about Mondays escalation between Hezbollah and Israel unclear.

Beirut, Lebanon  UN peacekeepers are investigating an incident on Lebanons southern border after Israel said it foiled a Hezbollah infiltration attempt, though the Iran-backed group said the allegations were absolutely not true.

Fears of a confrontation have risen significantly since Israel reportedly killed a Hezbollah fighter in Syria last week in a series of air raids in that country.

Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for the government, announced on Twitter on Tuesday that Israel had bolstered forces in the northern military zone command with advanced fire systems, intelligence-gathering systems, and special forces.

Video showed UN peacekeepers assessing a rugged area of Lebanons southern border that was shelled by Israel on Monday after it announced a security incident.

In order to get a clear picture of the events, UNIFIL has launched an investigation to determine the facts and circumstances of the incident. Our team is already on the ground to start the investigation, Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL), told Al Jazeera.

UNIFIL are conducting an investigation in the area of the incident yesterday between IDF and Hezbollah pic.twitter.com/x3tec8M0GF  Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) July 28, 2020

He added calm returned to the southern area on Tuesday and the UN force commander Major-General Stefano Del Col was working to prevent misunderstandings and maintain calm through contacts within the Lebanese and Israeli armies.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab denounced the incident as a dangerous military escalation by Israel and said it was an attempt to ignite a clash that could then be used as the basis to modify the mandate of UNIFIL, which is up for renewal next month.

I call for caution in the coming days because I fear that things will slip for the worse in light of the severe tension on our borders with occupied Palestine, Diab said.

Lebanons President Michel Aoun also condemned Israels actions as a threat to the climate of stability in southern Lebanon.

But more than 24 hours later, it remains unclear what exactly happened.





Heres what we know:

At 3:30pm (12:30 GMT) on Monday, the Israeli military announced a security incident in the Mount Hermon area, which is located near the occupied Shebaa Farms region claimed by Lebanon.

About 10 minutes later, Israeli authorities ordered residents on the border area to stay home, and Israel began shelling south Lebanon. The shelling lasted roughly 30 minutes.

By 4:40pm (13:30 GMT), the Israeli army announced that a group of three or four Hezbollah operatives had crossed the southern Blue Line that demarcates Israels 2000 withdrawal from Lebanon, were shot at by Israeli forces, and fled back across the border.

Roads are reopened in the north and civilian life is restored to routine, the Israeli armys Arabic language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said in a tweet.

It took Hezbollah until just before 7pm (16:00 GMT) to issue a statement denying that any operation had taken place, saying the fearful, anxious and tense enemy was attempting to create false, fabricated victories.

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Still, Hezbollah promised that a response was definitely coming after the killing of one of its fighters in Syria the week before in an apparent Israeli air raid.

Just after 8pm (17:00 GMT), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on the allegation that Hezbollah had infiltrated into Israel and said Israeli forces would respond harshly to any future attack.

Two Lebanese Army spokespeople and Defense Minister Zeina Akar could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Where are the tapes?

Some reports in Israeli media have raised doubts over the official version of events, asking for video evidence of the Hezbollah infiltration attempt.





Last September, Hezbollah fired a number of rockets into northern Israel in response to a drone attack on Beiruts southern suburbs.

As part of a plan to prevent an escalation, Israel faked the injury of soldiers by staging an airlift to a hospital before declaring several hours later that no one had been wounded.

The ruse worked but raised questions about trust in the Israeli militarys information. Following the incident, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah slammed the Israeli military as a Hollywood army and pledged a stronger response in the future.

So are there tapes of the incident on Har Dov on Monday? Or was it another Hollywood show? the Israel-based Jerusalem Post asked in a Tuesday article, using the Hebrew name for the Shebaa Farms area.
The Senate's top Republican said Tuesday he opposes a push by President Donald Trump to include in a new $1 trillion coronavirus aid package nearly $1.8 billion to rebuild the FBI headquarters on its current site in downtown Washington.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters he opposes inclusion of the FBI money and all other measures not related to the government's response to the virus.

'When we get to the end of the process I would hope all of the non-COVID related measures are out,'' McConnell said Tuesday. 'No matter what bills they were in at the start.'

McConnell's comments came after Democrats accused Trump of self-dealing with his push on the FBI building, which sits across the street from a downtown hotel that Trump owns on Pennsylvania Avenue, blocks from the White House. The Trump International Hotel could face competition if the FBI moves from the site and another hotel is developed on the property.

Before running for office, Trump expressed interest in redeveloping the FBI property himself, and he has taken a strong personal interest in the effort to rebuild the headquarters.

Out of the bill: Mitch McConnell said the Republican bailout plan should not include $1.3 billion for a new FBI HQ which was inserted by the White House

The FBI headquarters in downtown Washington D.C. sits diagonally across Pennsylvania Avenue from the Trump International Hotel Washington D.C.

'They don't have money for food stamps, but they have money for an FBI building just so that they can diminish competition for the presidents hotel,' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday night.

The admission from McConnell came as he conceded that his caucus is badly split on the new bailout plan after their weekly private lunch, saying: 'We've done the best we can.'

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows were on Capitol Hill Tuesday for a second day of talks with Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader who is now key to advancing any bailout.

'We're a long way apart,' acknowledged Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

'It's a mess,' Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday afternoon after he left a party luncheon where the legislation was discussed.

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said he expects 'significant resistance' from Republicans to the legislation, citing its hefty price tag.

'There is significant resistance to yet another trillion dollars. The answer to these challenges will not simply be shoveling cash out of Washington, the answer to these challenges will be getting people back to work. And as it stands now, I think it's likely that you'll see a number of Republicans in opposition to this bill and expressing serious concerns,' he told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said he expects 'significant resistance' from Republicans to the coronavirus relief legislation, citing its trillion-dollar price tag

Conservatives have joined Cruz in decrying the trillion-dollar price tag.

'We don't have any money in Washington,' Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said. 'There's no rainy day account, there' no savings account. So I'm not for borrowing another trillion dollars to pass out. That's an illusion of wealth, not real wealth, when you create money and give it to people.'

Also damaging the package is a $1.4 billion provision to build a new FBI building, which sits diagonally across Pennsylvania Avenue from the Trump International Hotel Washington D.C.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnnell said Tuesday he wants the FBI funding provision out along with any other spending items that are not related to the coronavirus.

'I am opposed to non-germane amendments,' he said, which would include funding for the FBI building.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a close ally of President Trump's, told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday he'd be fine with stripping the FBI building money out of the package, which is designed to bring another wave of economic relief in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

'I don't know,' he said when asked why the FBI provision was in there. 'That makes no sense to me.'

But White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows expressed confidence the FBI funding would not hold up a final deal.

'There are a number of things in the last bill that had nothing to do with the coronavirus. I think everybody acknowledges that it's a funding mechanism. And I don't see it standing in the way of us getting a deal,' he said Tuesday afternoon of the money.

Democratic leaders Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have been meeting with their Republican counterparts and top administration officials Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Meadows as all sides try to hammer out a bipartisan deal.

There was no sign of one on Monday night when the participants left the Capitol but they are expected to regroup Tuesday afternoon for another round of talks.

Democrats also decried the money for the FBI building.

'They don't have money for food stamps, but they have money for an FBI building just so that they can diminish competition for the president's hotel,' Pelosi said to reporters after meeting with Mnuchin and Meadows on Monday night in her Capitol Hill office.

She charged the president wants to refurbish the existing FBI headquarters 'so that nobody could build a hotel across the street' from the Trump International Hotel.

Schumer also slammed the president for the FBI building funding.

'They managed to have enough money for $2 billion for the FBI headquarters that benefits Trump hotel, and they say they have no money for food assistance. What the heck is going on?' Schumer said.

President Trump has taken a personal interest in the FBI project but neither administration officials nor Republican lawmakers have articulated why the money is in a coronavirus relief bill.

Critics charge the president wants to keep the FBI building at its current Pennsylvania Avenue location - the administration squashed a previous plan to move it the suburbs - to benefit Trump's D.C. hotel. If the headquarters moved to the DC suburbs, it would leave the lot in downtown Washington DC open for development.

Republican Senator Richard Shelby, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the FBI money was in the measure at the request of the White House.

'That was an administration request,' he told reporters Tuesday.

Democratic leaders Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer questioned why the FBI money needs to be in the coronavirus measure

Critics charge the president's Trump International Hotel Washington D.C. would benefit from a new FBI headquarters

Trump told reporters at the White House last week that the FBI needs a new building. The J. Edgar Hoover Building was built in 1963 and there is general agreement it is in need of an upgrade. The debate is over refurbishing the existing building, tearing down the existing building and building a new one on the same site or moving the FBI headquarters out of downtown D.C. and into the suburbs.

'You can renovate the existing building  but it's not a good building  or you could take it down and build a great building for the FBI for 100 years and have it be incredible. Even with tracks on top, they're talking about  you know, we have  because FBI people like to work out a lot. And you could have, literally, quarter-mile tracks on top. It's a very big site, a very wide site,' the president explained at last week's press briefing.

'So I think the idea  the best idea would be to build a new building. And that way, you have it for a long time. Renovation can never be as good as a new building, in that case. I know they're talking about it, whether or not they put it in this bill or someplace else. But the FBI needs a new building, and we'll get it done,' he added.

Negotiations have been ongoing since Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell unveiled the Republicans' $1 trillion coronavirus relief package Monday afternoon. It will cut weekly unemployment benefits from $600 to $200 and include a second round of $1,200 direct checks.

'Republicans want to continue a federal supplement to state unemployment insurance,' the Senate majority leader said.

'In fact, we'll propose a weekly dollar amount that is eight times what Democrats put in place when they controlled the White House and Congress in the Great Recession,' he said of the reduced benefits.

Pelosi, however, pushed back during an interview with MSNBC following the bill's unveil.

'Why are you quibbling over $600 when people need that to buy food, pay rent,' the California Democrat lamented.

McConnell said from the Senate floor Monday afternoon that U.S. economic recovery has been 'promising' so far - claiming there is one foot in the pandemic and one foot in recovery.

'American people need more help, they need it to be comprehensive and they need it to be carefully tailored to this crossroad,' McConnell said during his prepared remarks. 'Our economic policies have to acknowledge both sides of that coin.'

Earlier in the day Monday, McConnell and Pelosi sat side-by-side as they honored the late Democratic Representative John Lewis' life as he lied in State in the Capitol Rotunda

The proposal to reduce unemployment benefits comes after Mnuchin and Meadows announced over the weekend that the White House wants to cap the relief at 70 per cent of initial wages.

This is intended to be an interim measure until states are able to implement a program where workers would be paid 70 per cent of the income they collected pre-coronavirus.

McConnell also touted a measure that would send a second round of $1,200 relief checks to Americans like was included in the sweeping stimulus package earlier this year.

'Chairman [Chuck] Grassley will introduce another round of direct checks for households with the same amount as before, with even more support for Americans who care for vulnerable adult dependents,' McConnell detailed.

The Republican bill comes after Mnuchin and Meadows spent the weekend on Capitol Hill negotiating with GOP leaders over the details of the legislation.

The duo initially said this weekend that the 70 per cent wage compensation program would be in the phase four coronavirus relief package.

The $600 boost in benefits is set to expire in the next few days, meaning if a compromise is not reached, Americans who lost their job during the pandemic could lose thousands of dollars every month.

Democrats, on the other hand, have proposed extending the $600 weekly jobless benefit until January, arguing that the unemployment rate remains unnaturally high due to the health and resulting economic crisis.

The bill, McConnell revealed Monday, also included bolstered Payment Protection Program funds to prevent layoffs and small businesses from closing.

He also said it would allocate $100 billion to reopen schools as the White House pushes for schools and universities to resume in-person classes in the fall.

'We're talking about more than $100 billion more for an education fund than House Democrats put aside in a bill that spent multiple-trillions,' he said.

If passed, it would also protect employers from facing lawsuits over transmission.

Mnuchin also vowed over the weekend that the second round of direct checks would be administered in August.

Even with significantly decreasing the weekly unemployment benefits, the latest bill could be dead on arrival as it is still unclear if Republicans will approve another $1 trillion economic stimulus package.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 05:46:40|Editor: huaxia

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TUNIS, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian President Kais Saied on Tuesday met with visiting Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud to discuss regional issues, including Libya.

The Saudi minister underscored the convergence of the two countries' stances on the challenges facing the region, the Tunisian presidency said in a statement.

He said that both countries agreed that "only a political process can settle peace and stability in Libya without any foreign interference."

For his part, Saied expressed Tunisia's readiness to contribute to finding a political solution accepted by all Libyans, noting that the Libyan crisis has negative repercussions on neighboring countries, Tunisia in particular. Enditem
A hand-picked coronavirus manufacturing taskforce is urging the federal government to underwrite a dramatic expansion of gas supply through tax incentives and financial support for new projects.

A presentation on the final report of the National COVID-19 Co-ordination Commission (NCCC) manufacturing taskforce, seen by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, recommends "cutting red and green tape" to help the gas industry rapidly increase gas extraction and create up to 170,000 manufacturing jobs.

The Qenos plastic manufacturing facility at Botany in Sydney relies on gas. Credit:James Brickwood

The report, which was finalised in late May but is yet to be published, also recommends tax incentives for the construction of gas infrastructure and letting pipeline owners charge higher prices.

A leaked draft interim report from the taskforce sparked furious debate over the role of government support for fossil fuels and the government's energy policy.
Coronavirus LIVE Updates: As COVID-19 cases continued to rise in Tripura, the state government on Wednesday extended the 'complete lockdown' till 4 August.

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India on Wednesday registered 48,513 new cases in the past 24 hours. With this, the countrys total climbs up to 15,31,669. The toll rises to 34,193 with 768 fresh fatalities. India now has over 5 lakh active cases while more than 9.8 lakh patients have recovered.

It has also secured another 90 million doses of two other promising vaccines. However, it is still uncertain which, if any, of the vaccines may work.

The UK government has signed a fourth coronavirus vaccine deal, securing up to 60 million doses of an experimental treatment being developed by drug giants GSK and Sanofi, reports BBC. The government has already signed up for 100 million doses of the Oxford University vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca.

However, the Governor is "fit and healthy," a Raj Bhavan communique said and indicated the move on isolation was a precautionary exercise.

Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit has isolated himself for a week based on doctor's advice, as three more people in the Raj Bhavan here have tested positive for COVID-19, reports PTI.

India's Hetero Labs Ltd said on Wednesday it received local regulatory approval to launch its version of anti-viral drug favipiravir for the treatment of COVID-19, reports Reuters. The drug, priced at 59 rupees (79 cents) per tablet, will be available at drug stores from Wednesday, privately held Hetero said.

Manipur reported its first COVID-19 death as a 56-year-old man succumbed to the disease at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) here on Wednesday, an official said. This is the first COVID-19 death in the state, Director of RIMS, Ahanthem Santa Singh told PTI.

India now has over 5 lakh active cases while more than 9.8 lakh patients have recovered. Recovery rate now at 64.5 percent.

Kejriwal said all beds in such hotels, which were recently attached to hospitals, were lying vacant for the last many days. The decision was taken after the chief minister reviewed the COVID-19 situation in the city.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday announced delinking of hotels from hospitals in view of the improving COVID-19 situation in the national capital, reports PTI.

According to the order, all offices of the Government of India, its Autonomous/Subordinate offices and Public Corporation shall work with 50 percent subordinate staff while officers will attend office. All commercial and private offices allowed to operate at 50 percent strength.

The Bihar government has extended lockdown for 16 days from 1 August, reports ANI, citing an order from the states home department.

Telangana continued to witness a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases with 1,764 additions and 12 deaths being reported, taking the tally of those who tested positive to the virus to 58,906.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday conducted a virtual review meeting with district collectors on the coronavirus situation. So far, the state has recorded 3,659 deaths, he says, according to ANI. The fatality rate in the state at 1.6 percent.

In Maharashtra, 236 more police personnel test positive for Covid-19, and one official died in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 98. The total number of cases in the force is 8,958, of which 6,962 have recovered and 1,898 are being treated, reports ANI, citing the Maharashtra Police.

The city was under 'triple lockdown' since 5 July following a spike in the number of coronavirus cases and patients through contacts. Two coastal regions in the district were declared as containment zones earlier this month after authorities confirmed the community spread of the virus.

Amid rising COVID-19 cases, the Thiruvananthapuram administration has decided to continue with the lockdown but decided to ease certain curbs implemented in the city corporation to ensure livelihood and revive normal day-to-day activities, reports PTI.

The Andaman and Nicobar administration has decided to impose a total lockdown on weekends beginning 1 August, says Chief Secretary Chetan B Sanghi.

Puducherry registered 166 new cases of coronavirus, highest single day spurt on Wednesday, taking the tally of infections in the union territory to 3,171, reports PTI. Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar said in a release that 166 fresh cases were identified at the end of testing of 837 samples.

Earlier, the notice said that the lockdown will be extended for 16 days from 1 August.

The Bihar information and public relations department said that a "fake" notice is being circulated on social media earlier on Wednesday regarding an extension of the lockdown in the state.

The Union health ministry said that the total number of recovered cases is fast approaching 1 million. Recovery rate reaches another high of 64.51 percent amongst COVID-19 patients. The recoveries/deaths ratio is 96.6 percent to 2.23 percent now.

While there were 1,112 active cases total cases treated and discharged were 1,869 and fatalities remained 47 as no death was reported during the last 24 hours. Total patients in home quarantine were 143, the release said.

Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar said in a release that 166 fresh cases were identified at the end of testing of 837 samples.

Puducherry registered 166 fresh cases of coronavirus, highest single day spurt on Wednesday, taking the tally of infections in the union territory to 3,171.

The medicine will be sold at Rs 59 per tablet, PTI reported. The company has been given the manufacturing and marketing approval for Favipiravir from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), Hetero said in a statement.

Hyderabad-based company Hetero has been given permission to sell the anti-viral drug Favipiravir, being used for COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms, under the name 'Favivir'.

"Around 50,000 fresh cases of coronavirus cases are emerging every day in India. As against 1,108 new cases in Gujarat on Tuesday, Andhra Pradesh's tally was 7,948, followed by 7,717 cases in Maharashtra, 6,972 in Tamil Nadu and 5,536 in Karnataka," Rupani told reporters in Rajkot. Gujarat was on the 12th spot in terms of fresh cases. At one point, our mortality rate was 7 percent, the highest in the country. Now its 4 percent," said Rupani

Additionally, international air travel is also prohibited unless permitted by the MHA.

The Centre said that while all educational institutions will remain shut till 31 August, yoga centres and gyms will be allowed to function from 5 August for which SOPs will be issued by the Union health ministry.

The notice also said that all educational institutes will remain shut till 31 August.

The MHA notice on Unlock 3 guidelines said that "All activities, except the following, shall be permitted outside containment zones  Metro Rail functioning, cinema halls, swimming pools, entertainment parks, theatres, bars, auditoriums, assembly halls, and similar places."

According to Unlock 3 guidelines, international travel has been allowed "in a limited manner under the Vande Bharat mission", The Indian Express reported.

"The state also conducted a record 70,584 tests in the last 24 hours. Sixty-five people succumbed to Covid-19 taking the total toll to 1213 in the state," The Indian Express reported.

Andhra Pradesh reported over 10,000 new COVID-19 cases for the first time on Wednesday. 10,093 new cases were reported.

"I am directed to say that apart from availability, the geographical distribution/reach of the drugs included as part of investigational therapies in Clinical Management Protocols for COVID-19, namely Remdesivir and Tocilizumab, may also be monitored.

The ministry has shot off a letter to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), asking it to ascertain how many states and Union territories (UTs) have been covered and which of them are left, as far as the availability and distribution of these drugs by the respective companies is concerned.

The Union health ministry has asked the Drugs Controller General of India to ensure equitable distribution of Remdesivir and Tocilizumab drugs, which have been included as "investigational therapies" in the national treatment protocols for COVID-19, across the country. The aim is to ensure that their availability is not skewed and does not remain confined to metropolitan areas, an official said.

Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issues #Unlock3 guidelines. Restrictions on the movement of individuals during night have been removed. Yoga institutes and gymnasiums will be allowed to open from August 5, 2020. pic.twitter.com/eTTJwWei0K

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday issued guidelines for the next phase of lifting lockdown restrictions in the country. The set of guidelines said that while more curbs are set to lift in areas outside containment areas, the lockdown in containment areas is extended till 31 August.

Additionally, international air travel is also prohibited unless permitted by the MHA.

The Centre said that while all educational institutions will remain shut till 31 August, yoga centres and gyms will be allowed to function from 5 August for which SOPs will be issued by the Union health ministry.

The notice also said that all educational institutes will remain shut till 31 August.

The MHA notice on Unlock 3 guidelines said that "All activities, except the following, shall be permitted outside containment zones  Metro Rail functioning, cinema halls, swimming pools, entertainment parks, theatres, bars, auditoriums, assembly halls, and similar places."

Additionally, social/political/sports/entertainment/academic/cultural/religious functions and other large congregations still not permitted. Also, schools, colleges and coaching institutions will remain closed till 31 August, 2020.

The Centre said, "Independence Day functions will be allowed with social distancing and by following other health protocols, such as wearing of masks etc. In this regard, instructions issued by MHA on 21 July shall be followed."

According to Unlock 3 guidelines, international travel has been allowed "in a limited manner under the Vande Bharat mission", The Indian Express reported.

"The state also conducted a record 70,584 tests in the last 24 hours. Sixty-five people succumbed to Covid-19 taking the total toll to 1213 in the state," The Indian Express reported.

Andhra Pradesh reported over 10,000 new COVID-19 cases for the first time on Wednesday. 10,093 new cases were reported.

We are going through a phase when social distancing and masks can protect us alone. Twenty-one people have regrettably died till now, most of them veterans. The ongoing lockdown that was supposed to continue till Thursday morning would now continue till 5 am on August 4. All guidelines from the ongoing lockdown would be in force, Deb said.

As COVID-19 cases continued to rise in Tripura, the state government on Wednesday extended the complete lockdown till 4 August.

The Maharashtra government on TWednesday extended the lockdown in the state till 31 August.

In Municipal Corporations of Mumbai Metropolitan Area including Greater Mumbai, Pune, Solapur, Aurangabad, Malegaon, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon, Akola, Amravati&Nagpur: Malls&market complexes to be operational from 9 am to 7 pm from 5 Aug, but without theatres,food courts&restaurants pic.twitter.com/TmZ76wyANV

"In Municipal Corporations of Mumbai Metropolitan Area including Greater Mumbai, Pune, Solapur, Aurangabad, Malegaon, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur: Malls and market complexes to be operational from 9 am to 7 pm from 5 Aug, but without theatres, food courts and restaurants," the statement said.

The Maharashtra government on Wednesday issued directions to extend the lockdown, with amendments, to operationalise 'Mission Begin Again' for easing of restrictions and phase-wise opening, till 31 August.

Coronavirus LATEST Updates: As COVID-19 cases continued to rise in Tripura, the state government on Wednesday extended the complete lockdown till 4 August.

We are going through a phase when social distancing and masks can protect us alone. Twenty-one people have regrettably died till now, most of them veterans. The ongoing lockdown that was supposed to continue till Thursday morning would now continue till 5 am on August 4. All guidelines from the ongoing lockdown would be in force, Deb said.

The Centre said, "Independence Day functions will be allowed with social distancing and by following other health protocols, such as wearing of masks etc. In this regard, instructions issued by MHA on 21 July shall be followed."

Additionally, social/political/sports/entertainment/academic/cultural/religious functions and other large congregations still not permitted. Also, schools, colleges and coaching institutions will remain closed till 31 August, 2020.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday issued guidelines for the next phase of lifting lockdown restrictions in the country. The set of guidelines said that while more curbs are set to lift in areas outside containment areas, the lockdown in containment areas is extended till 31 August.

Hyderabad-based company Hetero has been given permission to sell the anti-viral drug Favipiravir, being used for COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms, under the name 'Favivir'.

The medicine will be sold at Rs 59 per tablet, PTI reported. The company has been given the manufacturing and marketing approval for Favipiravir from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), Hetero said in a statement.

The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 is fast approaching the 10-lakh mark, while the case fatality rate has been falling progressively due to coordinated implementation of the 'test track treat' strategy by the Centre, states and Union Territories, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

India's COVID-19 case fatality rate (CFR) is lower than what it is globally. On Wednesday, the CFR stood at 2.23 per cent, the lowest since April 1, the health ministry said in a statement.

"Not only has the CFR been kept low, but successful implementation of effective containment strategy, aggressive testing and standardised clinical management protocols based on a holistic standard of care approach have in tandem resulted in a consistent trend of more than 30,000 recoveries per day for the sixth consecutive day," it said.

The district administration in Thiruvananthapuram has decided to continue with the lockdown but decided to ease certain curbs implemented in the city corporation to ensure livelihood and revive normal day-to-day activities.

Reports claimed that Bihar announced a lockdown extension starting 1 August. However, the govt said reports were "fake". The Nitish Kumar govt will hold a meeting and decide on the lockdown by this evening.

India on Wednesday registered 48,513 new cases in the past 24 hours. With this, the countrys total climbs up to 15,31,669. The toll rises to 34,193 with 768 fresh fatalities. India now has over 5 lakh active cases while more than 9.8 lakh patients have recovered.

Even as the Union health ministry announced that India is among the "countries with the lowest COVID-19 fatality rates", a serological surveillance conducted in Mumbai showed that over half the people in the city's slums are likely to have been infected by the virus.

The survey results, which included 6,936 samples in three wards of the municipal coporation and included both slum and non-slum areas, showed sero-prevalence of 57 percent in slum areas and 16 percent in non-slum areas.

Of them, asymptomatic infections are likely to be a high proportion of all infections, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) said in a press release. 'Sero-prevalence' is defined as the "overall occurrence of a disease or condition within a defined population at one time, as measured by blood tests)," Aids Info said.

The MCGM added that the higher prevalence in slums could be possibly due to population density and shared common facilities (toilets, water points etc), whereas, lower prevalence in non-slums could be due to better social distancing and access to better hygiene.

Meanwhile, the Covid-19 tally in Maharashtra inched closer to 4 lakh (3,91,440 as on Tuesday) with with addition of 7,717 new cases while the toll rose to 14,165 with 282 (121 fatalities in Mumbai region) new deaths, health minister Rajesh Tope said.

Maharashtra's Tuesday figures were lower than the recent highs which saw the state reporting over 10,000 cases last Tuesday.

Stating the Tuesday's figures as a "major relief", Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray, however, warned people not to let their guards down. "Caution: Don't let the guard down! Don't let your mask down! Only get numbers down," he added.

India case fatality rate at 2.25%

Amidst this, India reported 47,000 new cases of coronavirus across the country in the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 14,83,157 while the toll, according to figures released by Union health ministry, rose to 33,425 with 654 new deaths.

Out of the total cases, there are 4,96,988 active cases, while the number of patients cured/discharged and migrated stands at 9,52,744. The recovery rate among COVID-19 patients has increased to 64.23 percent.

The ministry added that more than five lakh COVID-19 tests were conducted in a single day for two consecutive days. On 26 July, India tested a total of 5,15,000 samples and on 27 July, a total of 5,28,000 samples were tested.

The total number of COVID-19 samples tested up to 27 July is 1,73,34,885, including 5,28,082 samples tested on Monday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

The health ministry also said that the COVID-19 Case Fatality Rate (CFR) declined to 2.25 percent, and that "India now is among countries with the lowest fatality rates". The CFR reduced from around 3.33 percent in mid-June to 2.25 percent on Tuesday.

Figures in other states

As many as 3,490 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Uttar Pradesh in the last 24 hours, according to the state health department. The COVID-19 active cases in the state stand at 27,934. So far, 44,520 discharges and 1,497 deaths have been reported in the state.

Tamil Nadu reported 6,972 new COVID-19 cases and 88 deaths on Tuesday, the state government said. The total number of cases stands at 2,27,688 including 57,073 active cases, 1,66,956 discharges and 3,659 deaths.

As many as 5,536 new COVID-19 cases and 102 deaths were reported in Karnataka on Tuesday, according to the state health department. With these new cases of coronavirus, the total number of positive cases in the state stands at 1,07,001 including 64,434 active cases, 40,504 discharges and 2,055 deaths.

Delhi on Tuesday witnessed 1,056 new COVID-19 cases taking the total number of cases in the national capital to 1,32,275, said Delhi government in a bulletin. According to the bulletin, 28 deaths due to COVID-19 were reported today, taking the death toll to 3,881 deaths.

As many as 1,135 patients were recovered/discharged/migrated taking the total number of such patients to 1,17,507 recovered/discharged. The active cases dropped to 10,887 on Tuesday as compared to 10,994 on Monday.

Bengal govt extends partial lockdown till 31 Aug

On Tuesday, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced that the lockdown in the containment zones of the state will continue till 31 August as also the biweekly restrictions in place to check the spread of the coronavirus disease.

Addressing a press conference, Banerjee said schools and colleges will remain closed till 31 August and a decision on their reopening will be taken in September.

"The lockdown in containment zones will continue till 31 August. The biweekly total lockdown across the state will also remain in place till the end of next month," Banerjee said. Total lockdown will be imposed on 2, 5, 8, 9, 16, 17, 23, 24, and 31 August, she said.

"The biweekly lockdown will be implemented mostly on Saturdays and Sundays. But since festivals like Eid as also Independence Day are happening on Saturdays, lockdown will be enforced on some other day," she added.

However, later on Tuesday, the state government withdrew the lockdown on 2 and 9 August due to "festivals and important community occasions".

No deaths in Delhi's LNJP reported on 27 July, says Kejriwal

LNJP Hospital, the Delhi government's biggest COVID-19 treatment facility, did not report any death due to coronavirus on Monday, for the first time in a couple of months, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday.

The 2,000-bed hospital's medical director attributed the feat to "extensive ICU care, plasma bank facility, top heathcare facilities and dedication of doctors and other heathcare workers".

Taking to Twitter, Kejriwal announced, "No death in our biggest COVID hospital LNJP yesterday."

At least one death due to COVID-19 was recorded daily in the past couple of months, but "yesterday no fatality happened at LNJP", Medical Director Suresh Kumar said.

Till Tuesday evening about 389 of the hospital's 2,000 beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients, of whom 88 were in ICU and two on ventilators, he said.

Delhi recorded 1,056 fresh coronavirus infections on Tuesday, taking the tally to over 1.32 lakh, while the death toll from the disease climbed to 3,881, authorities said.

Two accused in Thoothukudi custodial deaths case test COVID-19 positive

Head constable Murugan and constable Muthuraj, two accused in the Thoothukudi custodial deaths case tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, Madurai Central Prison sources were quoted by ANI as saying.

"The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers probing the case also tested positive on Friday, along with another accused Sub-Inspector Pauldurain,'' Prison Deputy Inspector General Palani informed.

Last month, P Jeyraraj (55) and his son J Benicks (31), were allegedly tortured in the police station, leading to their deaths.

Five policemen have been arrested in the case and have been transferred to the Madurai Central Jail from Thoothukudi. A district police court had earlier ordered a 15-day remand for three police officials in the case.

With inputs from agencies
PORTLAND, Maine - Authorities in Maine said Tuesday the shark that killed a woman in a rare attack off the states coast was a great white, the same type of shark that served as the inspiration for the movie Jaws.

The shark bite killed Julie Dimperio Holowach, 63, of New York City, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said. The shark fatally bit Holowach off Bailey Island on Monday while she was swimming.

Scientists were able to later identify the shark as a great white using a tooth fragment, state officials said. Great whites arent common in Maine, which is the northern tip of their range, but recent summers have brought reports of sightings of the giant fish.

The Maine Marine Patrol said a witness saw Holowach swimming off the shore of Bailey Island when she was bitten. Two kayakers helped her get to shore and an ambulance provided further assistance, but she was pronounced dead at the scene, the marine patrol said.

There had previously only been one recorded unprovoked shark attack in Maine, and it was 10 years ago off Eastport, Maine Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher said. He said that bite involved a different species of shark.

He described the Monday attack as highly unusual, but added its cause for vigilance among beachgoers.

The rarity of this event does not mean its not going to happen again, Keliher said.

The attack happened about 30 to 40 feet (9 to 12 metres) offshore, and the rescuers were a man and woman in a rented tandem kayak, said Jeff Cooper, co-owner H2Outfitters on the island, which offers instruction, rentals and sales of kayaks.

The kayakers were on the shore when one of them saw something breach, and realized something was wrong, Cooper said.

They happened to be right there at the scene. They were courageous enough to jump in and retrieve the victim, Cooper said.

One of the kayakers grabbed Holowach, and the other paddled to get her back to shore, said Cathy Piffath, the other co-owner. The kayakers asked not to be identified.

Holowach and her family own property in the area and are well known in the community, which is shaken by her death, said Rob Beal, major of the Maine Marine Patrol.

The Marine Patrol has urged swimmers and boaters to use caution near Bailey Island and to avoid swimming near schooling fish or seals. Large sharks like great whites prey on seals, which are common off Maine. Two coastal state parks, Popham and Reid, are not allowing swimmers beyond waist deep water, state officials said.

Bailey Island is part of the town of Harpswell, about 40 miles (64 kilometres) up the Maine coast from Portland. Harpswell is a town of about 4,700 that is popular with vacationers and second homeowners for its coast, beaches and sweeping views of Casco Bay.
(TNS)  The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on New Mexico students, and school districts have already begun the difficult task of submitting reentry plans that maintain student and teacher safety.But serving 120 deaf and hard-of-hearing students who live all across the state presents its own unique challenges during the pandemic, whether instruction happens in person or online.The Board of Regents for the New Mexico School for the Deaf on Friday approved the schools reentry plan, which states classrooms will remain virtual until at least Sept. 8, in compliance with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams orders.Educators in various school districts have voiced concerns about the difficulties of online learning, many of which NMSD shares, including short attention spans and technological issues. In addition, NMSD officials say the immersive environment of the school, which can help students better learn American Sign Language, could also be impacted.Its not as constant as when theyre on campus, NMSD Superintendent Rosemary Gallegos sad. Thats a drawback with distance learning.Many students, Gallegos said, are not fluent in ASL when they arrive at the school, but constantly communicating with peers and teachers in ASL can increase comprehension over time.Board President Nathan Gomme, who is also executive director of the New Mexico Commission for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, said he attended a school for deaf children and the immersive environment can be critical to a childs understanding.My involvement in that school was at a later age and if I didnt have that support from the group of students, its very possible I wouldve lost out on the access and a lot of the understanding of the language, Gomme said.Like many other schools, NMSD also has a plan for a possible hybrid class model.Under that plan, as early as Sept. 8, students would have the option to attend in-person classes at the schools Santa Fe campus. Those living within a 60-mile radius could be transported by the school to the campus each day or their families would be reimbursed for driving.For students living farther away, NMSD has discussed sending staff members to cities around the state to run learning hubs that students can go to.All students have the option of staying online. Student dorms, where out-of-town students usually live, will not be open.However, in-person classes raise another potential issue: masks and other face-coverings.ASL relies heavily on facial expressions in its grammar, which can indicate someones intent, such as telling a joke or asking a question. Many deaf and hard of hearing people also rely on reading lips for context clues when communicating. Wearing a mask can complicate all of that.NMSD Elementary Principal Scott Mohan, speaking through an interpreter, said ASL with masks is especially hard for those learning the language.As a native speaker of American Sign Language, there are times when a person is wearing a mask and I can follow along pretty well, he said. People who arent native users of the language may struggle more.In response, NMSD has purchased clear masks, face shields and plexiglass for teachers to stand behind, so that a persons mouth can remain visible. Gallegos said masks cant be worn when communicating on Zoom, because it can make it even harder to understand.While acknowledging the challenges, Gallegos said she believes NMSD will still be ready to serve families and provide essential learning to students.Its not the best, but everyone has to give a little bit during this time, Gallegos said.
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Linkedin Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 13:23 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669dfcb6 1 National Papua,West-Papua,women-empowerment,violence-against-women,violence-against-women-in-Indonesia,Papuan-Lives-Matter,inequality,gender-based-violence,gender-inequality Free

The prolonged violence and inequality in Indonesia's easternmost provinces are taking a particularly hard toll on women, increasing the risk of them becoming victims of domestic violence and hampering their empowerment, Papuan rights activists say.

"Papuan people in general experience violence and the psychological stress often lead to domestic violence, so women [in Papua] experience multiple [kinds of] violence," Papuan activist Esther Haluk said during a discussion organized by the Jakarta Feminist Discussion Group on Saturday.

She cited the ongoing military operation against armed rebels in Nduga regency, Papua, which has resulted in the displacement of thousands of civilians in the region, as an example.

While sheltering refugees from the conflict-ridden regency, Esther said many sick and injured women were afraid to go to the hospital as authorities would put Nduga residents under strict supervision.

Her volunteer group also found that women and children made up the highest number of deaths among refugees.

Aside from the violence, Esther added that women of Papua were also subjected to systemic oppression through several gender-biased policies, such as the special autonomy funds that were allocated for women.

To support development in the region, the Papua and West Papua provinces were set to receive Rp 5.86 trillion (US$403.508 million) and Rp 2.51 trillion, respectively, this year from the central government. However, Papua only allocated 6 percent of the funds for women, which would also be shared with indigenous people and religious institutions, while West Papua had no specific regulation for budget-channeling to women's issues.

Read also: Indonesia to evaluate special funds for Papua: Why $7.4bn since 2002 hasn't solved problem

Additionally, Esther said women were marginalized culturally in many cases, such as in determining areas of customary land as women were rarely involved in the matter. Women were also often forced out of their land by land concessions and investments, leaving them economically vulnerable.

She added that in majority Christian Papua and West Papua, misinterpretations of Christian teachings, such as putting men in leadership positions, often placed women as "second-class citizens".



"Generally, women in Papua today experience layers of violence.

Despite the concerns, Elvira Rukambu, a social and political science lecturer from the Cendrawasih University in Jayapura, Papua, said the current discourse of racial issues affecting Papuans had left her hopeful.

She noted the favorable reception of the Papua Lives Matter movement, inspired by the global antiracism movement Black Lives Matter, which has spurred many discussions on racism and humanitarian issues, most of them organized by people outside of Papua.

She compared it to the "shallow" discourse about Papuan issues in previous years, when they were usually limited to whether people support separatism or not and did not reflect the complexity of the regions that had experienced decades of violence and discrimination.

"We must maintain this momentum of discussing Papua with all its complexity, especially by providing a red carpet for women's issues as well," Elvira said.
Democratic and Republican leaders in Alabama are denouncing state Rep. Will Dismukes (R) for attending a birthday celebration in Selma for Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

Dismukes, who is also chaplain for the Prattville Dragoons chapter of the Sons of the Confederacy, gave the invocation at the birthday event, posted on social media that he had a "great time" honoring Forrest, and shared a photo showing him standing in front of a Confederate flag.

On Sunday, people in Selma paid tribute to the late civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), whose body was carried across the Edmund Pettus Bridge; in 1965, Lewis was beaten on the bridge by state troopers as he led a civil rights march. Dismukes took his post down on Monday, telling AL.com it was "in no way glorifying the Klan or disrespecting the late Rep. John Lewis."

The Alabama Democratic Party called on Dismukes to step down, again; in June, they asked for his resignation because he supports the state continuing to fund the Confederate Memorial Park in Marbury. "Americans don't celebrate racists or traitors," Wade Perry, the state party's executive director, said in a statement criticizing Dismukes as "unfit to hold public office." "Nathan Bedford Forrest was both."

Alabama Republican Party Chairwoman Terry Lathan told AL.com it is up to the voters to decide whether Dismukes should be in office, and said it was improper for him to participate in the commemoration. Alabama House Majority Whip Danny Garrett (R) agreed, tweeting that he "cannot fathom why anyone in 2020 celebrates the birthday of the 1st KKK Grand Wizard. And while the body of a civil rights icon beaten by the Klan lies at state Capitol being honored by GOP/Dem leaders from all over the state. This mentality does not rep my party or my faith."

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Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has fired a missile from a helicopter targeting a replica U.S. aircraft carrier in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The exercises - dubbed 'Prophet Mohammed 14th' - were held near the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for a fifth of global oil output.

State television reported the exercise on Tuesday, which is aimed at threatening the U.S. amid tensions between Tehran and Washington.

The U.S. navy has condemned the military exercise as 'irresponsible and reckless'.

It comes a day after satellite images showed the aircraft carrier being towed by a tugboat to the strait from the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.

An image grab from footage obtained from Iranian State TV on July 28, reportedly showing an Iranian mockup imitating a US aircraft carrier being encircled by speedboats during a military exercise near the Strait of Hormuz, above and below

Iran's Revolutionary Guards blasted a mock-up of a US aircraft carrier with missiles on July 28 during military exercises in sensitive Gulf waters, state television said

Iranian commandos fast-roped down from a helicopter onto the replica in the footage aired Tuesday from the exercise called 'Great Prophet 14'

They were staged at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and its decades-old arch enemy the United States.

Footage of the war games broadcast on state television showed the Guards' air and naval forces readying for an attack off the country's southwest coast.

Speedboats skimmed across the water in formation before ground forces fired cannons and a missile was launched from a helicopter.

The mock-up of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier came into view with rows of dummy fighter jets on either side of its landing strip.

The television then cut to rockets being fired out to sea from the backs of trucks, before showing damage to the hull of the mock-up aircraft carrier.

Another missile fired from a helicopter left a trail of smoke before appearing to smash into the side of the fake warship.

An Iranian mockup imitating a US aircraft carrier being hit during a military exercise near the Strait of Hormuz, pictured above and below

Speedboats are seen racing towards a mockup aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz

The small boats then circled the mockup aircraft carrier during the exercise conducted by Iran

Armed forces were then seen rappelling onto the deck of the vessel, before around a dozen speedboats circle around it.

'What was shown today in these exercises, at the level of aerospace and naval forces, was all offensive,' Guards commander Major General Hossein Salami told state television.

The war games come only days after Tehran accused US fighter jets of harassing an Iranian commercial airliner in the skies over Syria.

At least four passengers on board the Mahan Air plane were injured in Thursday's incident, after the pilot took emergency action to avoid the warplanes.

The drill, in a waterway through which 20% of all traded oil passes, underlines the lingering threat of military conflict between Iran and the U.S. after last summer saw a series of incidents targeting oil tankers in the region.

The drill, in a waterway through which 20% of all traded oil passes, underlines the lingering threat of military conflict between Iran and the U.S.

Other footage showed fast boats encircling the mock-up, kicking up white waves in their wake

An aerial view of the Revolutionary Guard's speedboats circling the replica aircraft carrier in a military exercise reported on by Iranian state television

In January, a U.S. drone strike killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad and Tehran responded by firing ballistic missiles targeting American forces in Iraq.

While the coronavirus pandemic has engulfed both Iran and the U.S. for months, there have been increasing signs of a confrontation as America argues to extend a years-long U.N. weapons embargo on Tehran that is due to expire in October. A recent incident over Syria involving an American jet fighter approaching an Iranian passenger plane also has renewed tensions.

Iranian commandos fast-roped down from a helicopter onto the replica in the footage aired Tuesday from the exercise called 'Great Prophet 14.' Other footage showed fast boats encircling the mock-up, kicking up white waves in their wake.

Iranian troops also fired anti-aircraft batteries at a drone target in the exercise from a location that state television described as being near the port city of Bandar Abbas. Troops also fired missiles launched from trucks on land and fast boats at sea, as well as shoulder-fired missiles.

The Guard will use 'long-range ballistic missiles with the ability to hit far-reaching aggressor floating targets' during the drill, said Abbas Nilforoushan, the Guard's deputy commander for operations, according to Guard website sepahnews.com.

Troops also fired missiles launched from trucks on land and fast boats at sea, as well as shoulder-fired missiles (pictured above)

Iranian troops also fired anti-aircraft batteries at a drone target in the exercise from a location that state television described as being near the port city of Bandar Abbas

A missile is fired by Iran's Revolutionary Guard during a training exercise. It was fired by the paramilitary soldiers from a helicopter

That suggests the drill could see a repeat of what happened in 2015, when the Guard mock-sunk a replica.

It wasn't immediately clear if all the footage was from Tuesday, as one overhead surveillance image that appeared to be shot by a drone bore Monday's date.

The replica resembles the Nimitz-class carriers that the U.S. Navy routinely sails into the Persian Gulf from the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the waterway.

The USS Nimitz, the namesake of the class, just entered Mideast waters late last week from the Indian Ocean, likely to replace the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Arabian Sea.

A mockup aircraft carrier is seen damaged from above in the Strait of Hormuz during a live-fire drill by Iran's Revolutionary Guard

The refurbished mockup aircraft carrier is seen towed by a tugboat near Bandar Abbas, a day before it was used in a military drill in the Strait of Hormuz

The mockup aircraft carrier built by Iran is seen at Bandar Abbas, Iran, on February 15 before being put to sea

It remains unclear when or if the Nimitz will pass through the Strait of Hormuz or not during its time in the Mideast.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed last year as tensions initially spiked, spent months in the Arabian Sea before heading through the strait. The Eisenhower came through the strait early last week.

The U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, a spokeswoman said on Monday the Navy remains 'confident in our naval forces' ability to defend themselves against any maritime threat' after satellite photos showed the fake carrier being moved into place.

'We cannot speak to what Iran hopes to gain by building this mockup, or what tactical value they would hope to gain by using such a mock-up in a training or exercise scenario,' Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich told The Associated Press then. 'We do not seek conflict, but remain ready to defend U.S. forces and interests from maritime threats in the region.'
Looking at the kind of destruction fossil fuels are generating, our world is on a lookout for cleaner energy sources.

We surely have solar, wind, even tidal energy, but they cannot really deliver the throughput thermal energy can. But one energy source that has a ton of potential is nuclear energy.

Reuters

The worlds largest nuclear fusion reactor has begun development in Southern France. The development will go on five phases with everything scheduled to be all up and running by the year 2025.



The ITER project is going to cost roughly around 18.2 billion and will try to replicate reactions that occur on the solar surface to power it and produce that energy on a commercial scale. The whole contraption is going to make use of numerous components, weighing a total of around 23,000 tonnes. This is also the most complex engineering feat that will be achieved in the history of humanity.

The whole unit will involve over 3,000 tonnes of superconducting magnets, some of which would weigh as large as an aircraft. These will be connected to 200 kilometres long superconducting cables. All this will be kept at a temperature of -269 degrees celsius by the world's largest cryogenic plant.

The Indian connection

India's Larsen and Toubro has developed a massive component for this reactor -- a 30 diameter wide cryosat that will completely cover the reactor and help it to keep its temps low when the reactions on the inside get got, and in case you didnt know, they can get really hot.

Parts weighing around 650 tonnes in total will leave India for the ITER site in France. These parts will then be assembled and welded on site.

ITER

Why nuclear fusion reaction?

In a nuclear fusion reaction, heavy hydrogen atoms fuse together at a temperature of 150m celsius -- nearly ten times hotter than the suns core.

This reaction results in the formation of a new atom and a neutron. Compared to a fission reaction, the fusion reaction releases four times more energy.

Moreover, fusion reactions dont meltdown and also produce less radioactive waste, so theyre more efficient than fission reactions.
Japfa, CJ, and Hoa Phat were singled out for criticism by the MARDs Department of Livestock Production, Photo: Le Toan

A fresh report from the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Developments (MARD) Department of Livestock Production (DLP) on the husbandry sector and pork price movement has mentioned the names of some businesses believed to have not followed the direction of the government in controlling the price of live hogs.

Since early April the price of a live hog kilogramme has risen, at an average level of VND100,000-140,000 ($4.35-6), due to a lack of supplies. Previous to that, a vast number of sows and piglets died during the African swine fever (ASF) epidemic in the second half of last year, while some good sows were restricted to mating only.

In recent months, the MARD organised meetings and sent delegations to discuss solutions for epidemic prevention with big husbandry businesses. Talks also revolved around strengthening supply resources and reducing the price of live hogs. Many agreed to comply with government requests to offer selling prices at VND74,000-76,000 ($3.20-3.30) per kg, but the ministry noted that some others like South Koreas CJ Vietnam, Vietnams Hoa Phat Group, and Indonesias Japfa Comfeed did not. The report stated that the groups in questions failed to cut down the selling price of live hogs in line with the direction of the government, and often did not open for sales in order to feed pigs and boost their weight, causing the supply deficit and pushing prices higher.

Business denial

In the wake of the MARDs report, all three businesses expressed surprise and grievance. Representatives from CJ, Hoa Phat, and Japfa Comfeed told VIR that they have always offered selling prices on par with other companies such as C.P. Vietnam, Dabaco, and Mavin  the groups praised by the ministry for complying with the call to reduce the price of live hogs.

Do Hoang Long, development and sales manager of Japfa Comfeed, one of 500 biggest firms in Vietnam, insisted that the company has never stopped selling pigs, even at weekends or on national holidays. An average of 700 pigs in the north and 1,000 pigs in the south are offered for sale every day  there is no day we trade no pigs, said Long.

At Japfa Comfeed, every client with a code can buy as much as the company offers based on the volume they had bought in previous months.

From April, the price of Japfa Comfeeds live hogs has never been higher than that of other players, Long explained. It was VND72,000 ($3.15) per kg on average in April, VND75,000 ($3.25) in May, and nearly VND80,000 ($3.50) in June and July.

Long showed VIR the groups database of all transactions over the last four months, adding that misunderstanding between Japfa Comfeed and the DLP must be the reason for the accusations and, in fact, a representative of the department has since talked with the deputy general director of the company to apologise for negatively naming Japfa Comfeed in the report.

Meanwhile, a representative of CJ Vietnam, one of the leading foreign-invested meat processing companies in the country, reaffirmed that this companys prices are no higher than that of the biggest player from Thailand, C.P. Vietnam, which has been setting prices at around VND80,000 ($3.50). Our general director has already called the DLP talking about this, and the head of the department pledged to check the source of this information, the representative said.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Hoa Phat said that the company is a very new player in husbandry with only three farms and 10,000 sows.

We are quite new with very little productivity compared to the rest of the sector, so it is hard for us to impact the selling price on the market, the spokesperson said. We are working with the MARD to understand how they calculate the price stabilisation index of every business.

Hoa Phat, one of Vietnams largest steel producers, has been engaging in agricultural projects for a few years.

Long-term issue

At present, re-populating herds is considered an urgent solution to balance the supply and demand on pork in the domestic market.

According to MARD statistics, in the first six months of 2020, husbandry companies imported a total of 6,000 great grandparent, grandparent, and parent pigs to serve for reproduction. Comparing to the figure of 5,000 breeding pigs of last year, the husbandry companies registered to import 10,000 breeding units this year. Nguyen Van Trong, deputy director of the DLP said that as of June, Vietnam boasted 2.29 million breeding pigs, 115,000 of which are great grandparent and grandparent pigs.

He predicted that with these volumes, the ratio between supply and demand will eventually balance out, contributing to a drop in price.

However, according to representatives of numerous husbandry companies including Japfa Comfeed and Dabaco, if ASF continues to be a threat and cause difficulties for households and small-scale breeding farms in re-populating herds, the selling price of pigs and pork will be maintained at the high level into next year. The main supply, industry leaders said, will depend on the husbandry companies that own breeding pigs, feed, and farm systems. Being aware of the importance in balancing supply and demand, husbandry firms are making efforts to increase breeding pigs and pigs sent to market.

After suspending the mating of pigs for several months due to ASF, Japfa Comfeed then mated 1,400 young pigs. After success in maintaining 50,000 great grandparent, grandparent, and parent pigs during the epidemics peak, Japfa Comfeed imported an additional 600 units and has plans to import 2,000 more breeding pigs to create millions of pigs for market this year. Nguyen Chi Cong, deputy general director of Japfa Comfeed Vietnam said, This year, we target to increase 20 per cent in terms of pigs on-year to 800,000 units. The figure is expected to increase to 1.1 or 1.2 million next year.

Next month the company will import over 1,000 sows to serve for its re-populating plan, and for selling breeding pigs to households.
AstraZeneca will pay up to 4.7billion for the global rights to a potential treatment for breast and lung cancer.

The British drugs giant, which is racing to develop a vaccine for Covid-19, has agreed to hand 800m up front to Japan's Daiichi Sankyo as it is develops a new type of chemotherapy.

Daiichi will receive another 800m if the medicine is approved by regulators and up to 3.1billion more if it becomes a commercial success. The treatment  known as DS-1062  is an antibody drug that targets the protein that is overproduced by cancerous cells.

Unlike conventional chemotherapies, this allows it to selectively attack cancer cells and spare healthy ones, potentially reducing the side effects suffered by patients.

The drug has not yet won approval from regulators but Astra boss Pascal Soriot said it had 'significant potential'. Astra previously collaborated with Daiichi on breast cancer treatment Enhertu, which was given 'breakthrough' status by US regulators earlier this year.

Soriot, 61, added: 'We are delighted to enter this new collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo and to build on the successful launch of Enhertu to further expand our pipeline and leadership in oncology.

'We now have six potential blockbusters in oncology with more to come in our early and late pipelines.' Sunao Manabe, the boss of Daiichi, said: 'This new strategic collaboration with Astra will enable us to deliver DS-1062 to more patients around the world as quickly as possible.'

As with Enhertu, Astra's deal gives it the ability to acquire global rights for DS-1062 in all countries except Japan.

The potential treatment is part of a class of drugs known as 'antibody-drug conjugates'  or ADCs  which pair cancer-killing chemicals with special anti-bodies that cling on to cancer cells while sparing healthy ones.

However, the announcement received a lukewarm reception from investors, with shares dipping slightly by 0.05 per cent, or 4p, to 8648p.

Astra cancer research boss Jose Baselga said early data in May from a DS-1062 phase 1 lung cancer trial played a large role in convincing the firm of the compound's potential.

He said: 'From there, we are going straight to phase 3 studies that will launch this year.'
All India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE)

PRESS RELEASE

The Government of India (GOI) has launched a dangerous two-pronged attack on the education system. On the one hand, on 24 June 2020, it has handed over to the World Bank the privilege of designing the structure, training and governance of the entire system of school education from early childhood care and education (ECCE) to Class XII to facilitate its conversion into a privatized, commercialized and corporatized system instead of strengthening it as a free and compulsory system of public education as required by the Constitution.

Now, on 7 July 2020, it has effected significant deletions from the CBSE syllabus for secondary and senior secondary classes for the academic year 2020-21, removing from its purview chapters and subject matter relating to important movements, events, concepts and values that are central to understanding the character and goals of modern Indias social, cultural and political life. These include a and the listing given below is only illustrative as the exclusions are extensive and clearly aimed at undermining the significance of historical and socio-political features of the countrys contemporary goals for development and obstructing the promotion of scientific temper

a for Class X, the deletion of topics on democracy and diversity; caste, religion and gender; popular struggles, movements and challenges to democracy.

a for Class XI, chapters on federalism, citizenship, nationalism, secularism, and growth of local governance in India have been removed, as have chapters on Peasants, Zamindars and the State; sections on farmers agitations against money lenders; and those on Understanding Partition and Colonialism.

a in Sociology, chapters on the Social Structure, stratification and social processes have been excluded as have those on Environment and Society.

a in Class XI Science (Physics), deletion of the chapters on the Physical World; laws of Physics; Physics, technology and society; Motion and laws of motion; Gravitation; Mechanical properties of Solids; Thermal properties of Matter and Thermodynamics.

a for Class X and IX, chapter on Heredity and Evolution is deleted, as has the chapter on Sources of Energy from the unit dealing with Natural Resources. For internal assessment, from the unit on Management of Natural Resources, Conservation and Sustainability of natural resources are deleted along with examples of peopleas participation for conservation of natural resources; Big Dams: Advantages & Limitations; and alternative, if any; and Water Harvesting.

a The deletion of entire chapters of subject matter on evolution and ecology is especially problematic when we are faced with an international pandemic due to the evolution of a deadly strain of Corona virus, probably precipitated by the depletion of ecological buffer zones between animal carriers and humans. To retreat from a scientific understanding of such phenomena reflects a surrender to prejudiced revivalism on the one hand and on the other results in the central governments shamelessly exploiting the pandemic to buckle down before corporate profiteers and dismantle environmental and ecological protections. Further, it is well-known that the RSS ideologues have opposed the Darwinian Theory of evolution, contending that there is no reference to such an idea in the ancient Hindu scriptures!

The Minister of Human Resource Development has tried to justify this reduction by almost 30% due to the Covid-19 crisis, even claiming that many of the changes are only for this one year because the schools have been closed for three months already. Yet it is surprising that the minister also claimed that 1500 suggestions for this so-called "rationalization" of the syllabus had been received from "educationists" revealing that the move was neither unplanned nor motivated only by the need to reduce the workload for this years examinations. Besides, schools only closed in March so that the substantial exclusions from the syllabus would indicate that little or no teaching on core areas had even been done so far! Is that even possible?

Given the present regimes non-transparent method of `consulting with both `experts and lay persons, this so-called "rationalization" of the syllabus has remained impervious to sharp public critiques by educationists, activists and political leaders and groups. Their diverse and well informed opinions were obviously not regarded as being worthwhile enough to be taken into account.

The pattern of the exclusions makes it only too evident why this has been the case. Indias national movement, the struggle against colonial oppression, the tragedy of the Partition, not only of the Punjab and Bengal, but also of Assam and the other states of the North-East which still continue to resonate in popular consciousness, have been ignored possibly because of the ideological bias of the present regime towards a unitarian "Akhand Bharat".

The complexity of these movements have to be analysed in order to understand what makes India a nation which even today is constituted by many `societies determined by sub-continentally distinct histories of tribal, caste, regional, linguistic, and religious affiliation. Struggles for autonomy extending over almost two hundred years have been sporadic in part but are also enduring in many ways. They were frequently identity-based and yet unifying as the people who rose up against specific forms of exploitation and oppression gained in confidence and strength from each others struggles. Tribal uprisings, peasant revolts, movements for womens rights etc., and above all, the powerful anti-caste social justice movements, marked this period when neither rulers nor religious conservatives could rest easy when confronted by the resistance of the people.

Freedom had to be won not only from the colonialists but also from the feudal satraps and socio-religious reactionaries that were accommodated by them.

The prized values and goals enshrined in the Constitution which the Indian people gave to themselves to make an independent India a modern Nation-State committed to equality, non-discrimination and social justice for all, have been either deleted or severely undermined. The failure to give due attention to social movements and struggles in bringing these values to the forefront diminishes the role of peoples endeavour in transforming a hierarchical and caste-ridden society. As a result, the education system is unable to advance the critical goals of the learning process and inevitably sinks deeper into rote learning.

The significance and purpose of trying to change a discriminatory social order through democratic struggles and practices is most important to understand. Excluding these from the syllabus will suppress instead of encouraging a deeper analysis and comprehension of these questions. Through these struggles and by engaging in democratic procedures, issues are publicly and transparently raised and negotiated. As a result, social agency is created for transformations to be effected which ensures the success and stability of the changes introduced, as well as the alertness of the people towards the need for vigilance and further changes as situations develop. In contrast to this experience, empty official pronouncements and `promises become, as we have frequently seen, mere recipes for failure.

Our future citizens should learn to appreciate the importance of democracy and democratic processes. Unfortunately, the syllabus "rationalization" does the reverse. The Constitutional commitment to a secular notion of citizenship, in which every citizens voice and every democratic opinion is deserving of consideration, is deleted. In particular, the exclusion of the section on citizenship is a direct affront to the powerful movement led by elderly women of the minority Muslim community against The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 which unconstitutionally links citizenship to religion. With the Tricolour and the Constitution as its dominant icons, it drew wider and wider sections of the population into its ambit in huge peaceful protests across the country against the Modi governments assault on the very basis of the Constitutional concept of citizenship. The suddenly imposed official "lockdown" may have been the only way for the central government to stop the spread of the agitation, but the issues that it has raised will have to be tackled transparently and through public debate. The question cannot be settled by authoritarian measures such as arresting and refusing bail under the draconian UAPA to students, activists and citizens who joined the movement in their thousands.

The deletions in the syllabus are aimed at clearing the ground for advocating the Hindutva concept of the Hindu Rashtra for which the present regime is aggressively working. If this concept of Hindu supremacy, veneration of the State and unchallenged adulation and obedience to a Supreme Leader is to be successfully promoted, then it is essential that the Indian people and in particular the children and youth be indoctrinated in a narrative that is completely different from the actual experience and history of the peoples struggles that have contributed to the making of contemporary Indian nationhood and citizenship.

Deletion of the chapter on Federalism and sections on Local Self Governance are therefore not only a failure to notice its significance. The very first Article 1(1) of the Constitution states that aIndia, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.a Explaining the implications of this Article, Dr. Ambedkar clarified in his speech to the Constituent Assembly on 25th November 1949 that the Constitution divides power among various bodies from the Central Government to governments of States and Union Territories; to city/town/ District/village level bodies so that there would be no concentration of power in a few hands.

However, the democratic theory of the separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers of the State, and the federal structure of the Indian State, strengthened by institutionalization of local self governance, is unacceptable to the RSS-BJP which believes in complete centralization and concentration of power in a Supreme Leader a an idea that the RSS, drawing inspiration from Mussolinias Italy and Hitleras Germany, has propagated since the early 1930s. In opposition to the Constitution, their goal is `One leader, one Nation, one State.

To make us `unlearn our actual contemporary history and to accept an alternative that runs counter to it a that is the agenda behind the GOIs manoeuvres to indoctrinate through the education system, and to utilize the Covid-19 crisis to consolidate its political program of communalizing Indian society and the State, and of homogenizing a richly plural and diverse population which, on gaining independence from British colonialism, committed itself to becoming a modern democratic republic and not an authoritarian theological Hindu Rashtra.

AIFRTE appeals to all its member/associate and fraternal organizations and to all the citizens of India who support the demand for acompletely free education of equitable quality for alla a from ECCE right up to the research level i.e. from aKG to PGa a as stipulated by the Constitution, to condemn and resist the Governments nefarious attempts to commercialize, communalize and centralize education.

We will not let the GOI to prop up fascist RSS/Hindutva and neo-liberal capitalismas ideological indoctrination through a deformed and multi-layered system of privatized and corporatized schools, colleges and universities and other educational institutions.

The truncated CBSE syllabus announced by the GOI constitutes a dangerous ideological step towards consolidating its anti-people, anti-Constitution and anti-national agenda. Therefore, it must be the focus of our nation-wide resistance against the fascist Hindutva-cum-neoliberal capitalist assault on our Constitutional Rights and values as reflected in the sphere of Education, just as the anti-CAA movement fought for our Constitutional Rights on the question of citizenship.

Protest the Deletions made by the Union HRD Ministry in the CBSE Syllabus for Classes 9 to 12 under the pretext of aRationalisationa of Syllabus, misusing the alockdowna during Covid-19 Pandemic in order to push BJPas ideological agenda!

Prof. Jagmohan Singh Chairperson, AIFRTE

Dr. Vikas Gupta Organising Secretary, AIFRTE

Dated:24/07/2020
Page Content

In a series of meetings held on Friday, July 24th, by technical staff and today, Monday, July 27th, with the Council of Ministers and its French counterparts, current developments on COVID-19 were discussed, as well as the way forward. During the first meeting today, with Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs and Madame la Prefete Sylvie Feucher, it was agreed upon by both parties that after further evaluation during this current week, that follow up discussions would take place. Prefete Feucher expressed that she is contemplating re-implementing internal controls to better control the spread of the virus.





Shortly thereafter, the Council of Ministers also met with President Daniel Gibbs and his delegation of Vice Presidents from the Collectivite of Saint Martin to further discuss the COVID-19 developments and exchange updates concerning the increase in active cases on both sides of the island. Discussed were measures to be taken in line with the health MOU, as well as assessing the possibility to further synchronize the measures in place in order to mitigate the further spread of the virus throughout the entire island. Also discussed, were the collaborative efforts between Collective Prevention Services (CPS) and the Agence Regionale de Sante Occitanie (ARS) to discuss and share the origins of and strategy for contact tracing of new cases on both sides of the island.





The Government of St. Maarten indicated some of the stricter health protocols and mandatory measures put in place, such as social distancing in public places and compulsory use of facial protection in public, as well as a maximum number of patrons in enclosed spaces. Prime Minister Jacobs also gave updates concerning the Multidisciplinary Taskforce and Enforcement Teams that would continue to monitor, evaluate, and advise the Government on the best practices needed to swiftly crush the spike in cases once more. Mandatory mask usage is also being enforced on French St. Martin as of this week.





Further concerns for the Governments of St. Maarten/St. Martin were related to visitors from St. Barths, which has reopened its borders to visitors originating from the United States. In light of this, the St. Martin representatives indicated that US travelers wishing to visit St. Martin via St. Barths are required to have been in St. Barths for 14-days prior to their scheduled arrival to St. Martin along with a negative COVID-19 PCR test result. St. Maarten has also adjusted its measures to ensure that visitors from St. Barths would also require a negative PCR test and would be monitored as well.





Both parties exchanged COVID-19 statistics, indicating that the cases have resurged via community spread and are committed to continuous dialogue on developments on both sides of St. Maarten. Collaboration between both sides of the island has become more crucial given the free flow of movement on either side.





While President Gibbs expressed grave concern about the reopening of St. Maarten to the US flights in August, the Government of St. Maarten highlighted the preparations being finalized in order to do





so in a controlled manner. These preparations include mandatory PCR testing no older than 72 hours prior to arrival, increased temperature checks, and increased medical personnel at the airport as well as to assist CPS. The Government will also continue to evaluate the health care systems ability to handle the current outbreak.





The meetings were positive overall. Government officials from both sides of the island pledged to further research and work towards the possibility to rapidly increase testing capacity on both sides through a joint request to access EU COVID-19 funding. Both governments also pledged to meet on a monthly basis and to work towards realizing the goal of a joint congress for St. Martin with representatives from both sides.




A total of 1.68 million people have been sampled for nucleic acid tests in Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province, since the city began large-scale testing on Sunday following reports of new COVID-19 cases.

On Sunday alone, more than 1.25 million samples were collected in the city.

According to Zhao Lian, deputy director of the municipal health commission, 6,145 medics have been mobilized to conduct nucleic acid tests at 1,928 test sites across the city, after new domestically-transmitted COVID-19 cases began to emerge in the city on July 22.

The city has suspended 99 bus lines and now requires passengers taking long-distance buses to show negative results from nucleic acid tests conducted within seven days.

Dalian has been providing disinfection services for all buses and trains on a daily and shift basis, said Wang Shaocheng, director of the city's transportation bureau. The city now provides more than 50,000 bus disinfections each day and over 1,000 daily disinfections for trains.

Dalian reported 14 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing its total new domestically-transmitted cases to 38 since July 22.

The city had asked residents to refrain from leaving the city. Those who have to leave have been advised to carry proof of negative nucleic acid test results, conducted within seven days.
Pakistan sets agenda for August 5 with outreach to Malaysia, Turkey

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 28: In the next couple of days, Pakistan has planned a host of propaganda programmes against India. This comes in the wake of a year going by on August 5, when the Indian Parliament abrogated Article 370 or the special status for Jammu and Kashmir.

The Pakistan Army has set out a flow chart titled Black Day-August 5. The programme begins with the visit by the foreign media from Kashmir.

India objects to attempts by Pakistan to convert Gurudwara into a Mosque

Pakistan also has planned a release of a package one by the Public Relations Division and termed this programme as 'Indian brutalities and resilience of Kashmiris. On August 5, a statement would be issued by the DG ISPR on how the Pakistan Army stands by the Kashmiris in their struggle.

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

Several special supplements have been planned in all major newspapers by the Ministry of Information and Broadcast, Pakistan. Further, Pakistan also plans on putting out tweets of the OIC and International Human Rights Organisations. A statement from the President of Turkey, PM of Malaysia and the Chinese foreign office is also on the anvil.

The final package would involve criticism of the Indian Government by Indian political leaders on the Kashmir issue.
A section of Marawi is in ruins after government troops took back the southern Philippine city from militants linked to the Islamic State, Oct. 14, 2017.

Southern Philippine officials and rights groups on Tuesday questioned the governments resolve to rehabilitate the ruined city of Marawi after President Rodrigo Duterte failed to outline plans for it during his State of the Nation Address one day earlier.

The Marawi Reconstruction Conflict Watch, which tracks the rehabilitations progress, noted that Duterte had asked Congress to prioritize recovery of the economy through subsidies and loans, but failed to address the concerns of thousands of Marawi residents who cannot return home.

Well, what about the promised yet much-delayed compensation to stimulate the economy in an area ravaged by war and destitution? When will you direct Congress to prioritize the Marawi Compensation Bill? the group asked.

Many of Marawis displaced residents have been frustrated over stymied efforts to return and rebuild homes destroyed during the five-month battle in 2017 between militants aligned with the Islamic State and government troops. Now they must contend with being locked out during COVID-19 pandemic, the group said.

During his address, Duterte also asked banks and property companies to assist small businesses affected by the coronavirus crisis.

But what about the Maranao who have been waiting for three fruitless years  way before the pandemic and its consequent economic crisis? asked the group, referring to the dominant ethnic Muslim group in Marawi.

The Marawi Compensation Bill seeks to allot 30 billion pesos (U.S. $610 million) for Marawi residents whose homes, businesses and properties were destroyed during the battle, which left about 1,200 combatants and civilians dead.

The bill has been filed but was not moved because the government has not released a final list of those who lost property, because many were sitting on untitled land passed on from generation to generation, officials have said.

We are one with all Filipinos in desiring a quicker release from the health and economic crisis we all face, but how can we trust your word or believe your promises when you have not honored your promises to us, the group said.

Languishing

Amihilda Sangcopan, a congresswoman representing the special interest group Anak Mindanao, said about 17,000 families remain displaced in Marawi and are living with relatives or in temporary shelters.

If the rehabilitation of Marawi was not mentioned in the SONA, does this mean it will not be given priority? she asked, referring to the State of the Nation Address. We waited for him to make any pronouncement that will somehow hasten infrastructure development in Marawi, but there was nothing.

The people of Marawi are languishing in this pandemic, too. And their suffering is aggravated by the fact that they cannot even go home because rehabilitation in Marawi has been slow, three years after that siege, she said.

While building of permanent shelters and rebuilding of damaged mosques have been proceeding slowly, local assemblyman Zia Alonto Adiong said residents need assurances from Congress that members would approve spending for the program going forward.

I would like to remind the public that though three years may seem a distant past, the recovery and rebuilding of Marawi is still a major part of our current state of the nation, said Adiong, who during the crisis was the local government spokesman who stayed in Marawi as the battle raged.

Another Muslim leader in Marawi, Drieza Lininding, stressed that many displaced people have been blocked from returning to their properties in the citys most affected areas over concerns about unexploded ordnance.

The absence of access to our properties is a human rights violation, Lininding said, stressing that there have been many incidents of looting and theft in cordoned-off areas of Marawi.

Duterte imposed martial law in the entire south as the battle broke out on May 23, 2017, and allowed it to continue until December 2019, more than two years after the fighting ended, so the military could prevent militants from regrouping and carrying out fresh attacks.

Despite this, violence continued with deadly attacks including a bombing that killed 23 in January 2019 at a church on Jolo island.
Local independent TD Peter Fitzpatrick has invited Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly to visit the Louth County Hospital in Dundalk to see the work that the frontline staff are doing there.

During his speech to the Dail, Deputy Fitzpatrick explained: We have a fantastic hospital there which is a minor injuries unit, MIU. Back in 2010 it was downgraded, which should never have happened. A great number of people travel daily from the Cooley Peninsula, Omeath and Lordship and pass the Louth County Hospital but cannot use its facilities.

He added: They have to go to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, which is another fantastic hospital but which is completely overstretched. I invite the Minister to come to Dundalk to visit our Louth County Hospital and the MIU and see the front-line staff we have there. Our health system needs to be upgraded and looked after and I promise the Minister that when he comes, he will see the services we have and will see the potential we have for going further.

Speaking about a two-tier health system in Ireland, Fitzpatrick the expansion of GP care without charges for children to be implemented across the board, without phases.

In my constituency office in Dundalk we see situations almost daily where parents cannot avail of medical treatment simply because they cannot afford the cost of a doctors visit or medicine. In 2020 we cannot let a situation continue where parents of children are unable to access medical treatment.

I welcome the changes that the Government are proposing today but I do not agree with the timing or phasing of these changes. We need to implement these changes straight away and not leave parents of sick children unable to access medical care because of financial reasons or fears. Families are struggling and need help. Prevention is the best cure.

The Minister has the opportunity here to do something right. I ask him, please, to put all of the children into one phase.
On Thursday, July 30, at 11:00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency will host a press conference on the subject: "On Prohibition of Political Parties with Actions Aimed at Violating Ukraine's Sovereignty, Territorial Integrity and Undermining the Security of the State." Participants include Commander of the Azov regiment (2016-2017), Head of the headquarters of the National Corps Maksym Zhorin; human rights activist at Platform for Public Initiatives Olha Kasyan; Chairman of NGO Veteranske Bratstvo (Veteran Brotherhood) Dmytro Shatrovsky; Chairman of NGO "Institute for National Development" Mykola Kravchenko; Chairman of NGO "Descendants of the Free" Danylo Mayorov; representative of NGO Sokol Ruslan Andriyko (8/5a Reitarska Street). The press conference will be broadcast on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot. Additional information by phone: (073) 043 9972 (Zoya).
A student from Uttar Pradesh was overwhelmed after he received a phone call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for securing good marks in his class 12 board examinations. According to the ANI reports, the student named as Usman Saifi a resident of Amroha said, "I am overjoyed and I cannot express it in words. The Prime Minister advised me to learn Vedic Mathematics and teach my friends."

READ: Mann Ki Baat: PM Modi Congratulates Students Who Cleared Board Exams

Mathematics, his mischievous brother and writing make Usman happy.



All mathematics lovers like Usman should consider Vedic Maths classesI am sure it would be a great learning experience. #MannKiBaat pic.twitter.com/JOY9bfPaXm  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2020

PM interacts with youngsters

In addition, PM Modi during his Mann ki Baat' session interacted with many youngsters who have recently passed their class 12 board from different parts of the country. While congratulating Usman, PM Modi expressed his well wishes to him and his family. According to the reports, Usman added that he was not able to believe that he was speaking to the world's best leader.

READ: Mann Ki Baat: PM Modi Recounts Pakistan's Sinister 1999 Kargil War Plot; Names Neighbour

The PM also had a talk with Saifi and Kaniga from Namakkal in Tamil Nadu and congratulated them for their success. PM Modi said, "There are many other stories of such young friends whose courage and success in difficult conditions inspire us. I wanted to have as much as possible a chance to talk to young friends but time has its own limitations. I appeal to all young friends that they share with us their stories in their own voice that can inspire the country."

READ: Prime Minister Narendra Modi To Address The Nation In 'Mann Ki Baat' At 11 Am Today

READ: 'Befitting Reply Given In Ladakh': PM Modi Fires Strong Statement On China In Mann Ki Baat

(With ANI inputs)

(Image: ANI)
C hinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has issued a stark warning that Chinas denial of human rights of the Uighur people in Xinjiang is a foreshadowing of the fate of Hong Kong.

The dissident artist said: What is happening in Xinjiang is a look into the future of what will happen to Hong Kong. China sees it as simply a matter of domestic policy to crack down on minority groups by the hundreds of thousands. Tibetans have also faced similar treatment. It has been this way for years.

He added: The Hong Kong situation has shown us that this authoritarian society will never give any space for discussion or negotiation. It is simply incapable of communicating with those with different ideas or ideologies.

They have always been this way and as long as the communists exist will remain the same into the future. One Country, Two Systems was finished the moment China applied its national security law to Hong Kong.

In an exclusive interview that veers between the personal and the political, Ai, 62, a supporter of our Food For London Now campaign, also talked about the painful origins of his floral porcelain plate which goes under the hammer as part of the Sothebys contemporary charity art auction that closes on July 30.

I designed the plate when I was living under detention in China [in 2011], he said. For 600 days, I placed a fresh bouquet of flowers in the bicycle basket in front of my studios gate. I photographed them and posted those images online to demand the restoration of my right to travel.

Plate of protest: Ai Weiweis auction item, on show at Sothebys, was designed during his period under house arrest in China / Nigel Howard

The auction is raising money for The Felix Project, the largest food surplus distributor in the UK and our appeal beneficiary. Ai stressed the importance of ensuring people have enough to eat.

Sharing food is the most fundamental human gesture, beyond ideology or religion, he said. I have visited refugee camps around the world where people ate in unthinkable conditions. I remember seeing people wait in line for hours simply for a cup of tea, people cooking over open flames without any tools.

Since the coronavirus pandemic, Ai has launched himself into artistic and humanitarian projects. Every event that happens around me has an impact on my work. I would have no work without the emotions or consciousness raised by those events.

In June he raised more than 1 million selling face masks with his renowned motifs of sunflower seeds and a defiant middle finger to support the work of international humanitarian charities battling coronavirus.

He has also produced three documentaries, one covering a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh and another about the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.

While he rejects the increasingly popular suggestion of a new cold war between China and the West, he warns that if the West does not have a clear strategy, the West will lose this competition.

Ais father Ai Qing was one of Chinas most eminent literary figures. He fell out of favour with the regime and the family was exiled to Xinjiang in the far-west, where his father was forced to clean communal latrines. In 2015, Weiwei was finally granted a passport and permission to leave China. He now lives in Cambridge and has a studio in Berlin.

Of his vision post the pandemic, he said: Covid-19 will adjust our understanding of how individuals relate to society and the world. It has shown us no one can be safe, healthy and secure all on their own, but must deal with the same issues as their neighbours, community, and even those in other countries.

Ai Weiweis Small Plate With Flowers and other works from the Food For London Now auction are available until July 30.
Headliner

Kokomo

Pan-Caribbean with Indian and Asian flavors is how Ria Graham describes the food at the new spot she owns with her husband, Kevol Graham, and her mother, Karen Valentine, who helps run the place. Both Grahams have experience in the hospitality business. The chef, Christian Aranibar, is from Lima, Peru, but became familiar with Caribbean food while working on Margarita Island off the coast of Venezuela. The menu offers spiced Rasta pasta, marinated shrimp with sauteed callaloo and grilled pineapple, lentil meatballs in coconut curry, braised oxtail and a calypso burger with grilled pineapple, Gruyere, guava and cilantro sauce, and jerk fries. Artwork and crafts from the Caribbean islands decorate the two-level space, which has outdoor seating for 76. Bamboo is the material of choice for the bar where for now tropical, but nonalcoholic, drinks are dispensed.

65 Kent Avenue (North 10th Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 347-799-1312, kokomonyc.com.

Opening

Silver Apricot

Long awaited but finally open, the latest spot from Simone Tong and Emmeline Zhao (Little Tong) puts a contemporary spin on cooking that takes a subtle approach with Chinese flavors. Dishes like charred radishes with honey soy and smoked egg yolk, cucumber melon salad with ramp vinaigrette, skirt steak with pickled wild spring onions and sesame relish, and poached Arctic char with crisp fish cracklings are highlights of a fairly brief menu for outdoor dining and takeout.

20 Cornelia Street (Bleecker Street), 929-367-8664, silverapricot.nyc.

Cleo

The last restaurant-kitchen sighting of the chef Rocco DiSpirito was about a year ago at the Standard Grill in the meatpacking district, where he lasted about a year and a half. Now, hes cooking at a summer pop-up at Cleo and Mondrian Terrace, both in the Mondrian Park Avenue hotel in NoMad. The food is Mediterranean, rooted mostly in Italy, with dishes like spaghetti with pistachio pesto, soft shell crab fritto misto, a burger with provolone served like a hero, and charcoal-grilled pizza bianca. For now, dining is outdoors, and takeout and delivery are available. The chef, who has been selling his own gluten-free nut and seed bread, became involved in this project because he wanted to work with Stephen Brandman, a friend who runs the hotel. They say that some of the proceeds, an amount yet to be determined, are being donated to City Harvest.

Mondrian Park Avenue, 444 Park Avenue South (30th Street), 646-948-2370, mondrianparkave.com.

Caravan Uighur Cuisine

The pillars of this sturdy Silk Road cuisine, laghman noodles and skewered meats (over charcoal), are well represented here. Meat pies, samsa pastries and dumplings, often fiercely spiced, are also served.

200 Water Street (Fulton Street, entrance on Pearl Street), 917-261-7445, no web.
The La Jolla, CA.-based investment fund is the largest student run fund in the U.S. and its investment in HYSR will help drive the development of the Companys breakthrough green hydrogen production technology

SANTA BARBARA, CA, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SunHydrogen, Inc. (OTC: HYSR), the developer of a breakthrough technology to produce renewable hydrogen using sunlight and water, today announced it has received a commitment for the purchase of up to $2.1 million in common stock from Triton Funds LP, of La Jolla, CA (TRITON), pursuant to a common stock purchase agreement between the Company and TRITON. The investment will help accelerate the development of the Companys nanoparticle hydrogen production technology.

TRITON was founded by and is currently managed by students from the University of California, San Diego, and is backed by scientific and academic advisory boards. TRITON is the largest student-run investment fund in the United States and focuses on millennial growth ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investment themes.

In 2012, our Company entered into an agreement with the University of California at Santa Barbara to begin the development of our unique green hydrogen production technology, said Tim Young, CEO of SunHydrogen. It is gratifying to be involved with an investment fund that has been envisioned and managed by professionals educated in Californias state university system to support forward looking companies like ours. Our breakthrough technology has the potential to dramatically change the world of energy production.

Mr. Young continued, Funding from TRITON will be very helpful in providing the resources required to reduce the time it will take to bring our technology to market. The Company intends to use proceeds from the TRITON investment to build shareholder value by adding key technical personnel and equipment needed to support development acceleration, future commercialization, and collaboration with strategic partners.

Principal of TRITON, Jared Alexandria, commented, SunHydrogen fits our model perfectly. The millennial generation is extremely concerned with the current efforts to keep our planet clean and SunHydrogen has the potential to bring about a whole new paradigm for clean energy production. We believe the Companys technology may be the answer to providing inexpensive green hydrogen and ushering in the long hoped-for hydrogen economy. If so, then our investment will have helped change the world.

The shares are being offered by SunHydrogen, Inc. pursuant to an effective "shelf" registration statement previously filed with and subsequently declared effective on July 8, 2020 by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The securities are being offered only by means of a prospectus, including a prospectus supplement, forming a part of the effective registration statement. The terms of the investment are disclosed in the prospectus supplement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

About SunHydrogen, Inc.

SunHydrogen is developing a breakthrough, low cost technology to make renewable hydrogen using sunlight and any source of water, including seawater and wastewater. Unlike hydrocarbon fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas, where carbon dioxide and other contaminants are released into the atmosphere when used, hydrogen fuel usage produces pure water as the only byproduct. By optimizing the science of water electrolysis at the nano-level, our low-cost nanoparticles mimic photosynthesis to efficiently use sunlight to separate hydrogen from water, to produce environmentally friendly renewable hydrogen. Using our low-cost method to produce renewable hydrogen, we intend to enable a world of distributed hydrogen production for renewable electricity and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. To learn more about SunHydrogen, please visit our website at www.SunHydrogen.com .

About TRITON FUNDS LLC

Triton Funds is the nations largest student venture investment fund, managed entirely by students from UC San Diego located in Southern California. With $25M AUM, Triton Funds has taken an active part in both the San Diego ecosystem and nationwide, focusing on investments that will have a lasting positive impact on the Millennial generation with a portfolio of both private and public companies. The aim of Triton Funds is to create a student learning platform that will provide real-world experience and help bridge the gap between a STEM dominated university and Wall Street, helping students jumpstart their careers in finance, while providing strategic capitalization, business development support, and engineered exits to organizations with a viable future in the modern economy. Follow the Triton Funds story by visiting the Triton Funds website, Instragram, Twitter, or reach out directly via email. More information can be found at http://www.tritonfunds.com .

Safe Harbor Statement

Matters discussed in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "may," "intend," "expect" and similar expressions identify such forward-looking statements. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those contemplated, expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein, and while expected, there is no guarantee that we will attain the aforementioned anticipated developmental milestones. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the expectations of the Company and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. These include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties associated with: the impact of economic, competitive and other factors affecting the Company and its operations, markets, product, and distributor performance, the impact on the national and local economies resulting from terrorist actions, and U.S. actions subsequently; and other factors detailed in reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A stern warning for consumers of an increased risk of staycation scams as fraudsters exploit current travel restrictions and the demand for domestic holidays following the latest Government advise to holiday at home, has been issued today.

FraudSMART, the fraud awareness initiative led by Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), made their comments following the latest research from Failte Ireland showing that 60% of people are now planning a break in Ireland in the next six months.

They are urging consumers to take extra caution as they go about booking their holiday and to avoid falling victim to what can be very sophisticated scams that can dupe an unsuspecting person or family. This can, in some cases, put that same family out of pocket, by thousands of euros.

Keith Gross, Head of Financial Crime & Security, BPFI in warning about the risks said: In light of the recently published Green List and Government advise on non-essential foreign travel and holidaying at home this summer there has been a surge in demand for staycation holidays as people opt to stay in Ireland. We know that in June alone the number of people searching for holiday homes around the country was up 112% on the same time last year*.

As a result of this pent-up demand, we are warning consumers of an increased risk in holiday purchase scams as fraudsters take advantage of this. The types of scams we anticipate include copycat websites offering holiday accommodation which will look almost identical to the legitimate site. We are also warning consumers to be on the lookout for fake emails and ads on social media offering holiday deals which appear to be offering bargain prices but are in reality too good to true.

Today we are warning consumers to take extra caution when they are booking domestic holidays and are outlining the key advice holidaymakers should follow to avoid getting caught out and risk loosing their hard earned cash along with their holiday. This include simple checks and tips such as ensuring any website that you use to book a holiday is genuine, never clicking through to a sellers website via an email link or social media advert and never forgetting that if an offer looks too good to be true is usually is.

Top tips and checks when researching and booking staycation accommodation

* Thoroughly research any on-line offer. Check website/web address is genuine and only purchase through an official website.

Type the URL of the company/seller directly into your browser rather than clicking on it from an e-mail or social media post which could take you to a fraudulent site.

* Avoid cheap on-line deals or super deals youll find on social media ads. If the price of your holiday is considerably cheaper that the average cost elsewhere you should be suspicious. Remember if an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is.

* Check out whether the website offering the deal has been reviewed online across different trusted sources.

Use a reputable company and make sure the web address for the reputable company is legitimate.

* Independently verify the property if possible by using Google maps/Street view.

* If renting private /self -catering accommodation, call the owner or agent directly to ensure that it is a real listing also look out to see if the company/firm/owner is a member of a recognised travel/accommodation authority

Most listings are genuine and legitimate but watch out for fake listings. Popular and well known holiday booking websites such as Airbnb, booking.com and FiveStar.ie are reliable places to find accommodation.

* Fake Websites and Fake Social Media Accounts  scammers and criminals will use the opportunity of holiday offers and deals to set up fake websites offering cheap on-line deals which are used to obtain your money and personal information. Websites may look like that of a genuine organisation but subtle changes in the web address indicate that it is fraudulent. Beware of lookalike domain spelling errors in emails and websites addressed.

* Be vigilant. Scammers and criminals do contact people by social media scam ads and posts, phishing e-mails, texts and via calls to scam them. The links contained in the posts ultimately take you to fake websites requesting your personal and financial information.

* Be wary of unsolicited promotional emails, pop-ups and other online adverts offering deals or cheap offers. Never click or follow on an embedded link or weblink that arrives in an e-mail. Instead use your browser to find your holiday booking and check their official website

* Warning sign if you are being pressured. You are rushed and pressured into making a decision there and then, last chance to book or avoid missing this booking is constantly referenced.

As with any on-line offer, pay particular attention to the Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) and always read the small print in such offers.

* Be wary of paying a private individual by bank transfer. Paying by direct bank transfer means your money will be difficult to trace in the event of something going wrong and if it is a scam, it will be very difficult to get your money back.

Genuine suppliers/sellers traditionally have a merchant portal.

Further information on holiday scams and other fraud types can be found on the FraudSMART website www.fraudSMART.ie
Argentine authorities on Monday reactivated efforts to put down alleged intentional fires on the islands of the Parana River delta which have destroyed habitats and filled the Argentine city of Rosario with smoke.

The national government sent hydrant planes to combat the outbreaks in the grasslands outside the city.

Rosario residents took to social media networks to post images and to express their discontent about the smoke drifting into urban areas.

The fires, which the authorities blame on ranchers, began earlier this month and when it seemed the blazes had died down due to the work of firefighters, they resurged over the weekend.

(Representative Image) (Image Credit Pixabay)
ISTANBUL - Turkey will suspend ''for a while'' energy explorations launched last week in the southeastern Aegean sea, in an area contested with Athens off the Greek island of Kastellorizo, Ibrahim Kalin, the spokesman forTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told the Turkish edition of CNN. ''Our president has said: While negotiations continue, we are constructive', said Kalin, assuring that Ankara is ready to ''talk with Greece without conditions''.

''Greece is an important neighbor for us'', added Erdogan's spokesman, urging for ''joint actions also in contested areas''.

Stressing that German Chancellor Angela ''Merkel had a constructive role'' in the de-escalation of tensions with Athens, Kalin however said that in the Aegean ''we were not on the brink of war, as claimed by German media''.

''Let's solve our bilateral issues'' with Greece ''in a bilateral way. No results can be obtained by using EU membership as an instrument of pressure'', continued Kalin, referring to the threat of sanctions against Ankara made by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Australia's government has warned Iranian authorities that they are responsible for the "safety and well-being" of a jailed British-Australian woman after she was moved to a prison outside Tehran.



Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a lecturer in Islamic Studies at Melbourne University, was jailed about two years ago and is serving a 10-year sentence on espionage charges, which she and Australia have rejected.



In a statement on July 28, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Iran had confirmed earlier reports from human rights activists that she had been moved from Tehrans Evin prison to the Qarchak facility, south of the Iranian capital.



The department said it was "urgently seeking access" to the academic, adding: "Dr Moore-Gilbert's case is one of the Australian government's highest priorities, including for our embassy officials in Tehran.



In the past, a number of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience have claimed they had been "exiled" to Qarchak prison as punishment for not "cooperating" with the authorities.



Conditions there have been described by former prisoners as abysmal, and recent reports indicate the jail has had a cluster of coronavirus cases.



The Australian ambassador visited Moore-Gilbert at Evin prison recently and had been in telephone contact with her over the past months, according to Australias Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.



In letters smuggled out of the prison and published in British media in January, Moore-Gilbert wrote that she had rejected an offer to work with the intelligence branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

She said she had been held in an "extremely restrictive detention ward" and that she feared for her mental health.

With reporting by AFP and the BBC
Mens prostate glands tend to enlarge with age, making urination problematic. A new treatment that uses steam to reduce the size of the gland is set to become available across the NHS. Here, retired senior manager and grandfather-of-seven, Simon Dutton, 60, who lives with his partner Jane in Gloucester, tells ADRIAN MONTI how it helped him.

THE PATIENT

Staying fit and healthy has always been important to me. I go to the gym, ride my mountain bike and run; I eat sensibly, dont smoke, and drink in moderation.

Yet in my early 50s, I needed to urinate more frequently, especially during the night, but often felt I couldnt empty my bladder completely.

About seven years ago, my GP referred me to my local hospital. Luckily, after an examination of my prostate [the walnut- sized gland that wraps around the urethra, which takes urine out of the body] and an MRI scan, cancer was ruled out. Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), or an enlarged prostate, was diagnosed.

I was told that as the gland enlarges, it presses against the bladder making you need the loo frequently and, as the urethra is squashed, urinating is more difficult.

I was prescribed tablets to relax my bladder muscles to make urination easier. These helped for a few months, but over the next year, I needed to urinate more often  usually every two hours. I would go four times at night, which would disturb my partner, Jane.

I began to feel that my bladder controlled my life. After online research, I stopped taking coffee (which can make you need the loo) and wouldnt drink anything after 6pm. But this didnt help.

I regularly saw a urologist and had tests to monitor the growth of my prostate and we discussed treatment options.

Retired senior manager and grandfather-of-seven, Simon Dutton, 60, who lives with his partner Jane in Gloucester, told how a new treatment that uses steam to reduce the size of the prostate gland helped him

I didnt want the most common surgery  transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP)  where part of the prostate is removed. I was worried about side-effects including incontinence and erectile dysfunction. So we discussed less invasive procedures, including clinical trials.

In September 2018 I was put forward for a new treatment, Rezum. I was referred to surgeon Wasim Mahmalji, who explained how blasts of steam from a device inserted into my urethra would destroy enlarged tissue, so removing the blockage which was narrowing the urethra.

The treatment took only ten minutes and you could go home that day.

It seemed less invasive than other surgery and the recovery took only a fortnight. There were also fewer side-effects, so I jumped at the chance.

A month later I had the procedure at Hereford County Hospital. I had a general anaesthetic, so only remember waking up with a tube in my bladder. I didnt feel any pain, only slight discomfort from the catheter.

Unlike transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) which can damage surrounding tissue and nerves, the steam destroys only the enlarged prostate tissue at which it is targeted (file image)

About four hours after going in, Jane drove me home. I took things gently for a few days. After a week, the catheter was removed at the hospital. I drank a glass of water to check I could urinate normally.

Straight away I noticed an improvement in my urine flow. Within two weeks everything was working perfectly again. I didnt ever need painkillers.

At a follow-up appointment in May 2019, my urine flow was so strong Mr Mahmalji said my bladder was like a 25-year-olds.

The treatment has given me my life back. I can go for hours without needing the loo  even at night. It hasnt affected my sexual function either. I hope other men will benefit from it, too.

THE SURGEON

Wasim Mahmalji is a consultant urologist at Hereford County Hospital and Nuffield Hereford Hospital.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia affects roughly 50 per cent of men over 50. The prostate, which secretes the fluid in semen and has a role in continence, gets bigger in some men due to hormones such as testosterone.

As the gland enlarges, it narrows the urethra. This can lead to symptoms related to urinating, including wanting to go more, struggling to start, and feeling the bladder has not fully emptied.

Tablets can be used to relax the bladder muscles and shrink the prostate. If these arent effective (some patients cannot tolerate side-effects, which include dizziness and libido problems), surgery is an option.

In the UK more than 12,000 TURP operations are performed annually  using a resectoscope (a thin tube containing a heated wire and camera) when a section of the prostate is removed. This surgery takes 60 to 90 minutes. The patient spends a night or two in hospital, before several weeks recovering at home. It has a success rate of 90 to 95 per cent for the following five to ten years.

What are the risks? Some penile pain after surgery which eases as the prostate heals. The catheter may cause discomfort and sometimes a urinary infection, although patients go home with a course of antibiotics. Small chance of permanent sexual dysfunction with five per cent unable to ejaculate normally. In a post-Covid-19 era, a big advantage of Rezum technology is patients will be in and out of theatre quickly with no need for an overnight stay, says Feras Al Jaafari, a consultant urologist at NHS Fife and the Spire Edinburgh Hospitals Murrayfield. Data suggests there are fewer complications than with [traditional operation] TURP, such as incontinence and bleeding after surgery. This technology can also get men off pills which can abolish sexual function. Its a game-changer for enlarged prostate treatment. Advertisement

However, it can often cause side- effects, such as retrograde ejaculation, which occurs when nerves are damaged. Semen goes into the bladder, which does not close properly, rather than the urethra. Nerve damage also means 10 per cent of men cannot achieve an erection.

In recent years, less invasive treatments have become available with fewer side-effects, including Rezum. I first heard about it at a conference in 2018 when speaking to the U.S. manufacturer of the equipment.

I was later taught the procedure by the company and Professor Richard Hindley, a consultant urologist at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who introduced Rezum to the UK in 2017.

Under a light general or local anaesthetic, a telescopic device is guided into the urethra, with a small camera attached. This device houses a retractable needle which, once activated, attaches to the prostate. Then jets of steam are passed through the needle into the enlarged gland.

These are activated using a hand-held device after sterile water is heated to 103c. I direct the steam to the target area on either side of the prostate.

Each blast lasts nine seconds and the heat kills tissue cells. The treated tissue shrinks, instantly, reducing the size of the prostate.

Unlike TURP which can damage surrounding tissue and nerves, the steam destroys only the enlarged prostate tissue at which it is targeted. There are no reported instances of incontinence, compared with up to 3 per cent of men who have TURP.

Once the ten-minute procedure is completed, we attach a catheter. Pink coloured urine and dead tissue may be seen usually up to a week or two afterwards.

Some patients notice an improvement in symptoms as soon as the catheter is removed and most recover fully in two weeks. We suggest a further two weeks before having intercourse.

Simon (pictured) said: 'The treatment has given me my life back. I can go for hours without needing the loo  even at night'

Ten patients  including Simon  were part of an initial study. The satisfaction rate was 95 per cent and there has been no need to re-operate, but this is an option if the prostate tissue grows back.

Although TURP can also be repeated, it has higher risk of lasting side-effects.

Data from the U.S. shows that only 4.4 per cent of patients needed repeated treatment after five years.

Last month, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended Rezum be rolled out to more NHS hospitals after successful studies in the U.S. and results from 210 patients treated by Professor Hindley. NICE agreed that Rezum improved quality of life with only a low risk of sexual dysfunction. Its currently available at 18 UK hospitals.

This technology is suitable for most men with enlarged prostates, but those with very large ones may do better with another surgical procedure. The key is selecting the right patient for the treatment.

The Rezum procedure costs the NHS about 2,300, and 3,000-5,000 privately.

Amanda Holden revealed her toned shoulders in a sleeveless outfit recently

Secrets of an A-list body: How to get the enviable physiques of the stars

This week: Amanda Holdens shoulders

Amanda Holden revealed her toned shoulders in a sleeveless outfit recently.

The 49-year-old presenter and mother of two is keeping in shape with daily workouts.

As a family, weve not let lockdown stop us from exercising, its actually become an essential hour of our daily lives, whether its a home workout, a bike ride, a run or even a walk around the park, she has said.

WHAT TO TRY: The dumbbell parallel push works the muscles in the shoulders and upper back and can be done sitting or standing.

Hold a weight in one hand at shoulder height in front of you. Draw the weight back by bending at the elbow and pulling the weight towards your collarbone. Ensure the weight stays parallel to the floor. Repeat for 30 seconds then change arms. Do five sets.
At one Houston-area nursing home, at least 117 residents had been infected with the new coronavirus. At another, at least 20 residents who tested positive died. At a third, 86 residents were simultaneously sick.

These snapshots emerged from new data released Monday by the state of Texas showing how many residents and staff had been infected with the new coronavirus in individual nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The move to disclose the data marked a significant step toward increased transparency that advocates and relatives had long demanded.

The information allows individuals to see how many COVID-19 cases have been detected in facilities where their relatives live, and it gives the public a more detailed picture of how outbreaks are spreading among a vulnerable population. One caveat is that some facilities have contracts to accept only COVID-19 patients, so a high number of infections doesnt necessarily indicate that a center has a problem.

Kelley Shannon, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, said she was glad to see the numbers released  though she believed it should have happened sooner.

Families need to be able to look and determine whether a living situation is right for their loved ones, Shannon said. Not only that, we the public need to know where these outbreaks are occurring around the state.

Houston had the highest average rates of nursing home residents who were infected and who died in the state as of July 13, according to figures released Monday and that will be updated every weekday. On average, about 17 residents per facility were sickened by the virus, and 2 residents died per facility.

On HoustonChronicle.com: See COVID cases and deaths at Texas nursing facilities

The Texas Health and Human Service Commission, which regulates long-term care facilities, in May declined to release records on specific outbreaks at nursing homes and assisted living facilities, arguing that health privacy laws prohibited it.

A federal agency in June did publish data about individual nursing homes, though it was in some cases inaccurate or incomplete. The state continued to release only total regional facility case counts  until the state attorney general on July 6 ruled that privacy laws didnt prevent the release of more detailed data.

Not knowing how many cases an individual nursing home had was long a source of angst for people trying to figure out where to get care  or whether they should move a family member, said Greg Shelley, program manager of the Harris County Long-term Care Ombudsman Program at UTHealths Cizik School of Nursing.

Facilities were supposed to update family members about new coronavirus cases, but some didnt feel staff were being honest, and the public typically had no way of knowing about outbreaks.

Now everybody has access to the same information, which is a big sigh of relief, Shelley said, adding, I think its going to help quell a lot of anxiety.

Among those glad to see the information made public was Susan Lederer Russell, whose 96-year-old mother lives in an assisted living facility in the Memorial area. The state data will allow Russell to check the information that her moms facility sent her, she said  which is especially important to her since she cannot visit.

Not having the facts available, that doesnt do anybody any good, Russell said. All you can do is worry and go to the worst place when you dont know It brings you comfort if you find out that your loved one is in a facility that the numbers indicate theyre being careful.

There were 1,100 COVID-19 cases among residents in Houston nursing homes, 350-plus more than in the city with the next highest number, San Antonio, according to the data. And 148 residents infected with the virus died in Houston, compared with 57 who died in the next-highest city, Fort Worth.

The Houston region saw 2,301 COVID-19 cases among residents at nursing homes, according to the states data. There were 253 resident deaths.

Afton Oaks Nursing Center in southeast Houston had the highest number of infected residents reported in the state, with 117 cases. A July 24 statement on the facilitys website said 46 residents were currently positive.

We are doing everything we can to ensure we stop the spread of this within our center and our community, the statement said. Our infection control procedures are in compliance with the CDC and Texas Dept. of Health guidance.

Focused Care at Westwood, in the Alief area, had the most reported deaths locally. It now has only two positive cases, but four more had died since March 23 in addition to the 20 that the state reported, spokeswoman Rebecca Reid wrote in an email.

She added that while the residents tested positive for the virus, they couldnt confirm that the virus was the cause of their death.

The nursing facility with the highest number of active coronavirus cases in Texas was the Medical Resort at Pearland, which reported 86 infected residents.

But theres a reason for those high numbers, said Kara Garman, the resorts executive director. The facility has a contract with the state of Texas solely to accept residents who have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Legislators say Texas should allow nursing home visits to resume

So many nursing homes dont do COVID at all, Garman said. (Residents) need somewhere to go. We have people coming from all over Texas.

The Pearland nursing home reported fewer resident deaths than many other nursing homes  a total of three. And so far, Garman said, only two employees at the resort had been diagnosed with the coronavirus, a far lower number than many other facilities.

Garman said she was one of the employees who got sick  she was out for three weeks in June and still hasnt regained her sense of taste or smell. She doubts she was infected at the nursing home itself.

We hit the ground running and really took all the precautions with (personal protective equipment), really being on top of those screenings, and using hand sanitizer throughout the day, she said.

emily.foxhall@chron.com

jordan.rubio@chron.com

john.tedesco.@chron.com
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28)  The Palace said there was no need to be alarmed at the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the country, saying the death toll remained low.

"Hindi naman po dapat ikabahala ng tuluyan itong numerong ito... dahil kakaunti lang po ang nagkakasakit ng severe or accute," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in his regular televised briefing Tuesday.

[Translation: There is no need to be alarmed over these numbers...because there are very few severe or acute cases.]

As of 4 p.m. on Tuesday, the Department of Health said there were 83,673 COVID-19 cases in the country. The death toll is now at 1,947, while recoveries are at 26,617.

Roque reacted strongly to criticism from Senator Franklin Drilon that the government failed to properly address the crisis.

"Hindi kami sumasang-ayon sa sinasabi ni Senator (Franklin) Drilon. Dahil kung tayo ay pumalpak ng gaya ng sinasabi niya, nagkatotoo po sana yung forecast ng UP na 3.5 million ngayon ang may sakit. Sabi pa nga nung isang think tank, 20 million dapat ngayon ang may sakit... Hindi ba 'yan pruweba na meron tayong mga hakbang na ginawa na tama?" Roque said.

[Translation: We do not agree with what Senator Drilon is saying. Because if we failed, as he claimed, then the 3.5 million cases forecast by UP would have happened. One think tank even said there could have been 20 million people sick by now... Isn't that proof that we have taken measures that were correct?]

During the briefing, Roque added that while new COVID-19 cases are rising, data from the past two weeks show that new cases seem to have plateaued.

"Bagama't tumataas ang kaso ng bagong COVID na nagkakasakit, yung suma total naman po ng lumipas na dalawang linggo ay nagpapakita na parang nagpa-plateau po ang mga bagong kaso, at least dito sa lumipas na dalawang linggo," he said.

[Translation: Although COVID cases are rising, the sum total for the past two weeks show that it seem that new cases are plateauing, at least in the past two weeks.]

Roque said the case doubling rate in the country is now at 8.6 days.
Two more faculty members of McMaster Universitys department of psychology, neuroscience and behaviour have been suspended and barred from campus as a result of an ongoing internal investigation into allegations that relate to the universitys sexual violence policy.

They are in addition to Scott Watter, who runs the cognitive science lab at McMaster and has been suspended by the school since February.

At that time, McMaster also told police about complaints against him. In June, Hamilton police charged Watter, an associate professor, with sexual assault and sexual assault causing bodily harm.

Speaking to The Spectator as Watters lawyer in June, Jeff Manishen said the professor will be defending this matter fully and vigorously.

We look forward to challenging these allegations at trial, whenever it may take place, Manishen said at the time. In the meantime, its important to keep in mind that Dr. Watter is presumed in law to be innocent of the charges.

McMaster launched its own internal investigation.

In a letter Tuesday, McMaster president David Farrar said two additional faculty members of the psychology, neuroscience and behaviour department have been suspended and are no longer allowed on campus. The faculty members are not named in the letter.

Farrar said the schools investigation encouraged anyone with concerns or information to reach out for assistance and to help McMaster better understand any incidents that may have occurred.

That message was heard, and people have responded, he wrote, noting the university received additional complaints in the last number of days.

The new allegations have been added to the scope of the schools ongoing investigation, which an investigator from Toronto-based law firm Rubin Thomlinson LLP is leading.

Farrar said while he is confident in the investigation, the university has decided to take further action than planned given the number of allegations and extent of the complaints.

I have directed that the investigation be broadened to identify any potential systemic or cultural issues within the department that need to be surfaced and addressed, he said.

We owe this level of diligence and action to the complainants who have come forward, he said.

Its unclear if Hamilton police are involved in the expanded inquiry. The Spectator reached out to police for comment late Tuesday and is awaiting a response.

Farrar said complainants who come forward through the investigation will receive extended mental-health support.

University officials advise anyone who needs assistance to consult its sexual violence protocols at svpro.mcmaster.ca and the student wellness centre via wellness.mcmaster.ca.

They can also contact the Sexual Assault Centre Hamilton Area (SACHA), which has a 24-hour support line at 905-525-4162.

McMasters sexual violence policy defines sexual violence as any sexual act or act targeting a persons sexuality, gender identity or gender expression whether the act is physical or psychological in nature, that is committed, threatened or attempted against a person without a persons consent, and includes sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, indecent exposure, voyeurism and sexual exploitation.

Farrar said the university will work to support the continuation of the teaching and research work in the department throughout the investigation.

Due to an emphasis on confidentiality in the schools sexual violence policy, the university wont share any details of the investigation.

I recognize the courage of the complainants who have come forward, and I want to assure them that their allegations will be fully and fairly investigated and that appropriate action will be taken, Farrar said.
In a recent interview with an Italian television program, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, a key negotiator of the agreement, said that with the provisional agreement set to expire in September, the Holy See wants to continue with this step, it wants to go forward.

Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesman, did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening, and top Vatican officials with experience dealing with China declined to comment because they said they did not have sufficient information about the alleged hack.

The revelation comes at a moment when the Trump administration is in near daily confrontation with China over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, closures of diplomatic missions, Beijings campaign to claim vast swaths of the South China Sea and American efforts to limit Chinese technological advances in the United States and its allies, especially for installing next-generation communications gear.

But there is no indication that the Trump administration was involved in the report about the attacks on the Vatican.

Recorded Future concluded that the attack was carried out by a state-sponsored group in China, which it named RedDelta. It said that the tactics used by the group were similar to those of other state-sponsored hacking operations that had been identified in the past. But there were also new techniques and new computer code, and identifying the true source of a hack is difficult.

The revelations are certain to anger the Vatican as its relationship with the Chinese government has been enormously delicate, especially over Chinas crackdown on Hong Kong. When the Vatican issued prepared remarks on July 5 for Pope Franciss blessing at St. Peters Square, it included a message to the people of Hong Kong, saying the current standoff requires courage, humility, nonviolence and respect for the dignity and rights of all. I hope that social and especially religious life may be expressed in full and true liberty, as indeed several international documents foresee.

But in the end, the pope did not deliver those words when he spoke.

The negotiations between the Vatican and Beijing would follow on the provisional agreement of 2018. The deal, the details of which are still largely unknown, was aimed at laying the foundation for a process by which the pope and the Chinese authorities could agree on bishops appointed to the head of official churches in China. As part of the deal, Pope Francis agreed to recognize several bishops who had been appointed by the Chinese government.
Before May 13, David T. Hines's corporate bank account was in the red by more than $30,000. But after the 29-year-old Florida man nabbed a nearly $4 million loan from the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), his fortunes quickly changed.

In fact, just one week after getting money from the fund meant to bailout businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic, Hines was cruising around Miami Beach, Fla., in a new blue Lamborghini Huracan Evo, which cost more than $318,000.

Now, federal prosecutors say that Hines illegally used hundreds of thousands of dollars in PPP loans meant for his moving companies to buy the car as well as a host of personal expenses, including shopping sprees and high-end hotel stays, instead of covering his companies' payroll. The Justice Department announced Monday that he was arrested and charged with making false statements to a lending institution, bank fraud, and engaging in transactions in unlawful proceeds, officials said.

"Collectively, Hines falsely claimed his companies paid millions of dollars in payroll in the first quarter of 2020," Bryan Masmela, a U.S. Postal inspector, said in an affidavit. "State and bank records, however, show little to no payroll expense during this period."

"David is a legitimate business owner who, like millions of Americans, suffered financially during the Pandemic," said Chad Piotrowski, Hines's attorney, in a statement to The Washington Post. "While the allegations appear very serious, especially in light of the Pandemic, David is anxious to tell his side of the story when the time comes."

Hines was among millions of business owners who sought government help when the novel coronavirus upended the U.S. economy. The Cares Act, the $2 trillion coronavirus bill signed into law in late March, included $349 billion in forgivable loans for small businesses to maintain operating expenses, such as payroll. Congress added an additional $310 billion in funding in April.

Hines's arrest is the latest case of alleged fraud to best the program, with business owners inflating employee numbers and claiming higher operating costs. Some even claimed loans for defunct companies. Federal prosecutors have filed numerous charges, including against reality star Maurice "Mo" Fayne, who allegedly spent his funds on a Rolls-Royce and $85,000 in jewelry.

An analysis from The Washington Post also found that data from the Small Business Administration recorded that far more American workers were "retained" thanks to the loans allocated to the businesses than there were actual employees, calling into question the Trump administration's claim that PPP loans helped support 51 million jobs.

Hines first submitted applications for seven businesses, requesting more than $13.5 million worth of loans from a bank in Charlotte, prosecutors said. The bank approved three of the applications for $3.9 million and began sending the funds on May 11.

Hines claimed to own and operate a handful of moving companies, but Masmela said that authorities "found no record of any operating websites" for those businesses. Hines also falsely claimed he had 70 employees, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said his payroll costs were far less than he claimed.

"A review of Hines Companies Accounts from January through April of 2020 shows monthly inflows averaging around $200,000 - far less than the millions of dollars in payroll that Hines sought in the PPP application," Masmela said.

It didn't take long for Hines to exploit the funds for his own enjoyment, prosecutors said. On May 18, just five days after receiving a deposit for almost $750,000 in one of the bank accounts, Hines allegedly wired $320,000 for the Lamborghini, registering the car under both his name and one of the companies that received a PPP loan.

Throughout May and June, Hines also spent the funds on a $4,600 shopping spree at Saks Fifth Avenue. In addition to ride-hailing apps, food delivery services and dating websites, Hines spent thousands on luxury hotels as well as more than $8,500 worth of jewelry, prosecutors allege.

"There does not appear to be any business purposes for most, if not all, of these expenses," Masmela said in the affidavit.
The Korean carmaker was an early backer of hydrogen fuel-cells, but Tesla has streaked ahead with battery-powered cars.

Hyundai Motor Co, an early backer of hydrogen cars, has watched the electric rise of Tesla, including on its home turf. Now it is going on the offensive in the battery-powered market led by its US rival.

The South Korean company plans to introduce two production lines dedicated to electric vehicles (EVs), one next year and another in 2024, according to an internal union newsletter seen by the Reuters news agency.

Euisun Chung, leader of the Hyundai Motor Group conglomerate, which includes Kia Motors, has also held a series of meetings since May with his counterparts at Samsung, LG and SK Group, which make batteries and electronic parts.

The purpose of the talks, which were publicly announced, was for Hyundai to try to secure batteries at a time of tight supply as the race for EVs intensifies, according to several industry sources. Those manufacturers also supply the likes of Tesla, Volkswagen and GM.

Hyundai told Reuters it was collaborating with Korean battery suppliers to scale up its electric car production efficiently. It declined to comment on any plans to introduce dedicated production lines.

Samsung, LG and SK declined to comment to Reuters.

The moves indicate the carmaker is moving aggressively to expand its electric capacity, days after Chung announced on July 14 that Hyundai Motor Group aimed to sell 1 million battery EVs a year and grab a global market share of more than 10 percent by 2025.

There is still some way to go; Hyundai Motor Group sold 86,434 battery EVs last year, according to data from industry consultant LMC Automotive. That was above the 73,278 sold by Volkswagen Group but behind the 367,500 delivered by Tesla.

Hyundai, the worlds number 5 automaker together with Kia Motors, said its agility allowed it to lead the charge into EVs. We are certain Hyundai is never going to fall behind, it added.

No Kodak moment

A senior Hyundai insider, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the company had not been concerned about Tesla when the Silicon Valley company was producing high-end cars.

But it became more worried when Tesla brought out a cheaper Model 3 in 2017, according to the insider who described it as a strategic victory.

A Hyundai insider says the 2017 launch of Teslas Model 3 was a strategic victory [File: Amanda Voisard/Reuters]

No traditional automaker has been successful yet in catching up with Tesla, which retains an edge in battery and software technology.

Hyundai could also face a roadblock from its powerful union, which is worried about job security as EVs require fewer components and workers than gasoline vehicles; at Hyundai, this is partly because the automaker makes a number of key components for conventional cars in-house, while many EV parts are outsourced at present.

The union is pushing for the company to assemble key EV components, like battery packs and motors, in-house to offset any reduction in workforce.

We are not opposed to EV business. Kodak went bankrupt because it stuck to film even as the industry was shifting to digital photography, union spokesman Kwon Oh-kook told Reuters.

We just want to protect the jobs of our members, he said.

Hyundai said automakers and unions needed to accelerate change to remain viable in the long term.

Hydrogen vs electric

Back in 2010, Hyundai Motor Co made 230 electric cars for the government, but they ended up being mothballed at a research centre outside Seoul due to a lack of charging infrastructure, according to Lee Hyun-soon, research and development chief at the time.

A Hyundai Motors Nexo hydrogen car [File: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters]

In a 2014 book, Lee, who developed South Koreas first gasoline engines, said such electric vehicles were not realistic, also citing high battery costs, and that hydrogen cars  a rival clean technology  offered a bright future.

Along with Toyota and Nikola, Hyundai was one of a few automakers to have backed hydrogen cars. It launched the industrys first mass-produced hydrogen car, Tucson Fuel Cell, in 2013 and the NEXO in 2018.

However the technology has not taken off; 7,707 hydrogen fuel cell cars were sold globally last year, compared with 1.68 million battery EVs, according to LMC Automotive.

Fuel cells generate electricity by combining hydrogen, stored in liquid form in the vehicle, with oxygen from the air, and create water as a waste product. They are quicker to refuel than battery-powered cars, but are more complex to engineer due to their need to cool hydrogen to very low temperatures to liquefy it.

In Hyundais home market, Tesla had its best month in June, with its Model 3 beating Hyundais Kona EV, as well as premium models from BMW and Audi.

Hyundai did not expect Tesla to dominate the EV market so quickly, another person familiar with the companys thinking told Reuters.

Hyundai Motor Co has a market capitalization of about 25.3 trillion won ($21.2bn)  less than a tenth of that of Tesla, now the worlds most valuable automaker.

While Hyundai promotes its hydrogen cars with K-pop boyband BTS, it only plans to introduce up to two hydrogen models by 2025, and 23 battery-powered models.

Peter Hasenkamp, vice president at electric startup Lucid, who previously worked at Tesla and Ford, said established carmakers faced historical inertia to make the EV transition.

Part of the reason were based in Silicon Valley is to leverage both software and electrical engineering expertise, Hasenkamp told Reuters.

Youve got a couple of generations for the big car companies to learn really how to do this well. It is a lot harder than they thought it was.
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Bella Thorne is hoping to offload her boldly psychedelic five bedroom home in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles.

The actress put her bright pink house, which she bought in 2016, on the market on Monday, asking $2.55 million.

The super unique home - which features vividly decorated interior walls with expansive graphics - is a comfortably large 4,500 sq ft and is gated for extra security.

Bella Thorne is selling her LA property for $2.55M. The bold pink house was put on the market on Monday

Hot pink: The five bedroom home spans 4500 sq ft and has six bedrooms

Upon entering the property guests are greeted by a rainbow-hued staircase and a massive mural running up the two-story wall.

Bella's bedroom is also a work of art as it features a bathroom covered in ivy and a huge walk-in closet.

The closet has a patterned plum ceiling and central island covered in red fur.

Another room is covered in roses with a chair that hangs from the ceiling.

Compared to the rest of the property the backyard has a minimalist contemporary feel with lush lawn, swimming pool, spa and a built-in grill.

Eye-catching: The staircase is rainbow hued with bright yellow and pink trims separating each area

Not for everyone: The entryway features a massive mural running up the two-story wall

Wow factor: Bella's bedroom is also a work of art as it features a bathroom covered in ivy and a huge walk-in closet

There is also apparently a 'barn door with wine rack room' which is supposedly an 'art piece on its own' but unfortunately it's not pictured on the listing.

Bella, 22, bought the home in 2016 for $2.01 million.

Over the past year she has been renting out the property, which she has dubbed the 'Trippy Twins Fun House,' for parties and photoshoots as well as giving guided tours of the property for $50.

This summer however she let TikTok star Rachel Turner live there before heading off to university in the fall.

Last month Rachel filmed a TikTok video showing fans some of the stuff Bella left behind when she moved out.

Fiery: The walk-in closet features a central island covered in red fur

Bright and bold: The kitchen has a multi-color theme too

Zany: Another room is covered in roses with a chair that hangs from the ceiling

Rachel goes on to reveal that Bella also 'left an entire garage full of stuff' that is stacked in messy piles that nearly reach the ceiling. In one area of the garage, she has posters from her Freeform drama Famous in Love.

'She also left her Teen Choice Award just under a bunch of stuff in the garage, so we decided to frame it and put it up,' Rachel says of the surfboard the actress took home after winning 'Choice Movie Villain' in 2015 for her role in The Duff.

See she left half of the closet full, but the other half was empty,' the TikTok star explains. 'So she did bring a lot of stuff with her, but she left half of her closet.

Perfect for parties: The backyard looks pretty contemporary with a pool and lush lawn, swimming pool and spa, with a built-in grill

Living the life: Rachel Turner, 17, from San Diego, California, is living in Bella's six-bedroom home this summer

Original decor: Rachel, who has more than 450,000 TikTok followers, gave a video tour last month of the one-of-a-kind pad last week, pointing out all the stuff Bella, 22, had left behind

Hard to miss: Bella's tutu-wearing dinosaur and unicorn statues are still in the living room along with framed photos of the former Disney star

'I honestly don't know why, so don't keep asking. I guess she just didn't want it anymore or maybe she does? I dunno.

She's still our landlord, so she comes by every once in a while to check on the house,' she notes. 'I'm going to ask her next time she comes by.'

Before turning it into a rental property, Bella lived in the bachelorette pad with Dani, 27, and decorated it to fit their funky aesthetic.

The property was featured on MTV's Cribs in October 2018 and also got a write-up from Architectural Digest earlier that year.
NEW YORK, July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Wells Fargo & Company ("Wells Fargo" or the "Company") (NYSE: WFC) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and indexed under 20-cv-03697, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired Wells Fargo securities between April 5, 2020, and May 5, 2020, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants' violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Wells Fargo securities during the class period, you have until August 3, 2020, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

Wells Fargo is a diversified financial services company that provides banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services to individuals, businesses, and institutions in the U.S. and internationally.

On April 5, 2020, Wells Fargo announced that it had received strong interest in the Paycheck Protection Program ("PPP"), a program under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the "CARES Act"), and was targeting to distribute a total of $10 billion to small business customers under the requirements of the PPP.

On April 8, 2020, the Federal Reserve announced that it would allow Wells Fargo to exceed the asset cap that it had imposed on Wells Fargo in 2018 after revelations that the Company had opened millions of accounts in customers' names without their permission, a change which would allow Wells Fargo to make additional small business loans as part of the PPP.

That same day, Wells Fargo issued a press release stating, in relevant part, that, "beginning immediately, in response to the actions by the Federal Reserve, [Wells Fargo] will expand its participation in the [PPP] and offer loans to a broader set of its small business and nonprofit customers subject to the terms of the program."

The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about Wells Fargo's business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors that: (i) Wells Fargo planned to, and did, improperly allocate government-backed loans under the PPP, and/or had inadequate controls in place to prevent such misallocation; (ii) the foregoing foreseeably increased the Company's litigation risk with respect to PPP allocation, as well as increased regulatory scrutiny and/or potential enforcement actions; and (iii) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On April 19, 2020, after at least one lawsuit was filed against the Company, reports emerged that Wells Fargo may have unfairly allocated government-backed loans under the PPP. For example, USA Today reported that "[t]he lawsuit filed on behalf of small business owners on Sunday alleges that Wells Fargo unfairly prioritized businesses seeking large loan amounts, while the government's small business agency has said that PPP loan applications would be processed on a first-come, first-served basis." According to the lawsuit, "[t]he move by Wells Fargo meant that the bank would receive millions more dollars in processing fees," and, "[m]aking matters worse, Wells Fargo concealed from the public that it was reshuffling the PPP applications it received and prioritizing the applications that would make the bank the most money."

Following this news, Wells Fargo's stock price fell more than 5% over two trading days to close at $26.84 per share on April 21, 2020.

Finally, on May 5, 2020, Wells Fargo filed a quarterly report on Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission, disclosing, in addition to multiple PPP-related lawsuits initiated against the Company, that Wells Fargo had "received formal and informal inquiries from federal and state governmental agencies regarding its offering of PPP loans."

Following this news, Wells Fargo's stock price fell by more than 6% over two trading days from its closing price on May 4, 2020, closing at $25.61 per share on May 6, 2020.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP

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This new normal of having to respond to the virus on a daily basis was never going to be easy, and until a vaccine or treatment is found it will create huge uncertainty for business sectors such as leisure and tourism. In Spain, the expected flow of tourists from abroad will slow after the U.K. and Norway imposed new quarantine measures on people returning from the country. Not every country has followed suit  France, for example, is only discouraging travel to Catalonia  but the risk of an EU-wide response is ever-present.
Photo of the US Navy accidentally revealed a combat laser on a Minnesota nuclear attack submarine. If We look closely, it seems to be a B. E. Meyers Glare LA-9 / P non-lethal combat laser used to temporarily blind an enemy.

Photo of the US Navy accidentally revealed a combat laser on a Minnesota nuclear attack submarine. If We look closely, it seems to be a B. E. Meyers Glare LA-9 / P non-lethal combat laser used to temporarily blind an enemy.

Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link

Sailors assigned to the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Minnesota (SSN 783) stand topside as they pull into their homeport at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Conn., Dec 20, 2019, following a deployment. (Picture source: Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Steven Hoskins)

If a swimmer or vessel tries to approach a ship with an unknown target, a warning flash is sent in its direction, understandable without an interpreter. At the same time, Glare is a humane weapon.

The built-in laser rangefinder determines the distance to the target and shuts off radiation if there is a risk of damage to the retina. As soon as the target leaves the danger zone, the laser resumes.

The handheld dazzler is capable of sending light signals 4 kilometers at night and 1.5 kilometers during the day. In the meantime, the US Navy deployed a much more powerful stationary laser on one of the frigates, designed for the same purpose. It is called ODIN.

The Glare LA-9/P is classified as an ultra high-powered ocular interruption device (OID) that sends a piercing green beam to innocent bystanders, friendly troops and enemy combatants from a distance. Its ruggedized for field use and can be integrated into your favorite weapons for stability. When activated, it fires a 250-milliwatt beam thats non-lethal but should be enough to cause a temporary difficulty in vision.
A Belfast city centre nightclub owner has made a direct appeal to Stormont ministers for help to save his business after being left with "nowhere else to turn".

Back in January, Patrick Fegan (33) took sole possession of Fourteen Night Club on Tomb Street.

After investing 50,000 for the lease, dipping into his own savings and accepting a small loan from a friend, Patrick was ready for the challenge ahead.

Now with just 200 left in his bank account and having been unable to qualify for any government supports, he has penned an open letter to the Executive to highlight his struggle.

"When the chance came up to own Fourteen earlier this year, I went for it. After three weeks of trading, I had paid back the loan and the future was exciting, then Covid-19 hit and my dream was put on pause," Patrick explained.

Forced to close, dispose of stock and pay booking fees for DJs, Patrick says the experience to date has "just been horrible".

"I have absolutely no income as I didn't qualify for anything, not even furlough for the 18 staff.

"My accountant had applied for a PAYE reference number which is standard practice for setting up a new business.

"This was held up by closed departments during lockdown so I didn't receive it in time and after nine weeks of trying to get it sorted, the guy on the HMRC helpline simply told me it was 'bad timing'.

"The government hospitality grant was a fantastic idea but I didn't receive it as the rates on our property fell above the 51,000 grant cap and currently is sitting at 77,000 per annum.

"The rates relief scheme gave us breathing space but not enough to get trading."

Patrick added: "I'm left stranded with no help, no support and in a nutshell left lost in terms of where to go forward.

"I've a family to feed, a house to heat, a business that should be reopened and a dream to pursue.

"The MLAs are always telling us that they will invest in young business owners and look after home-grown talent in business.

"While I don't doubt this, I feel forgotten."

A spokesperson for Economy Minister Diane Dodds said she will continue working with industry to help businesses through the toughest part of the crisis by supporting them to reopen and trade when safe to do so.

"The minister has set up the Tourism Recovery Steering Group and launched the Economic Advisory Group to bring together Northern Ireland's industry leaders to drive forward the recovery for all," he added.

"The Department has led in paying out over 320m in support grants to over 30,000 businesses across Northern Ireland as part of a wide range of support measures introduced by the Executive and UK Government.

"The minister will continue to work with Executive colleagues and the national government to support business owners, families and communities deal with the impact of Covid-19."
PHOENIX, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Advisor Group, the nation's largest network of independent wealth management firms, today announced that veteran investment banker Richard Page has joined Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. as a Managing Director in its Healthcare Investment Banking Group, effective immediately. In his new role, Mr. Page will work to further expand Ladenburg Thalmann's presence with both new and existing corporate healthcare clients.

David Rosenberg, Co-President and Chief Executive Officer of Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., said, "Ladenburg is pleased to add someone of Rich's caliber to our already talented investment banking team, as we see substantial opportunity to continue to expand our efforts in the healthcare sector, a space we know well. In addition to Ladenburg's growing investment banking and research capabilities, we now also have robust institutional distribution capabilities and the backing of a well-resourced national firm as part of Advisor Group. We look forward to working with Rich to build upon our existing momentum in the healthcare sector."

Mr. Page joins Ladenburg from Janney Montgomery Scott, where he served as the Head of Healthcare Investment Banking and led efforts to expand that firm's scope of financing and strategic advisory transactions within life sciences. Mr. Page previously served as a Co-Head of Healthcare Investment Banking at ThinkEquity and a Director in the healthcare group at JMP Securities. Mr. Page started his healthcare investment banking career at Lehman Brothers and has over 25 years of experience serving biotechnology, specialty pharmaceutical, biomanufacturing, diagnostic, and medical device companies. Mr. Page received a B.A. in Economics from Haverford College and holds Series 24, 7, 63 and 79 FINRA licenses.

At Ladenburg, he will be based in New York and will report to Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc.'s Head of Healthcare Investment Banking, David Strupp.

Mr. Strupp said, "We're excited to welcome Rich to Ladenburg, as his depth and breadth of experience in the healthcare sector will be an invaluable asset to our firm. Rich has particular expertise advising life sciences, biotechnology, specialty pharmaceutical, medical technology and diagnostics companies, and we're confident that he will make important contributions to Ladenburg's future success."

Richard Page said, "Given all the success that the Ladenburg Healthcare Group has had over the last many years, I am thrilled to be joining the firm, and I look forward to working with Ladenburg's talented team to further expand its footprint in healthcare."

About Advisor Group

Advisor Group, Inc. is the nation's largest network of independent wealth management firms, serving approximately 11,300 financial professionals and overseeing over $450 billion in client assets. The firm is mission-driven to support the strategic role that advisors can play in the lives of their clients. Cultivating a spirit of entrepreneurship and independence, Advisor Group champions the enduring value of financial professionals and is committed to being in their corner every step of the way. For more information visit https://www.advisorgroup.com.

Securities and investment advisory services are offered through Advisor Group, Inc. subsidiaries, FSC Securities Corporation, KMS Financial Services, Inc., Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., SagePoint Financial, Inc., Triad Advisors, LLC, and Woodbury Financial Services, Inc., broker-dealers, registered investment advisers, and members of FINRA and SIPC. Securities services are offered through Investacorp, Inc., Securities America, Inc., and Securities Service Network, broker-dealers and members of FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services are offered through Arbor Point Advisors, LLC, Investacorp Advisory Services, Inc., Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, Inc., Securities America Advisor, Inc., SSN Advisory, Inc., and Triad Hybrid Solutions, LLC, registered investment advisers. Advisor Group, Inc. is a holding company. Advisor Group, Inc. is separately owned and other entities and/or marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of Advisor Group, Inc. 20 E. Thomas Rd., Ste. 2000, Phoenix, AZ, 85012. 866.481.0379

About Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. has been a member of the New York Stock Exchange for 135 years and offers a full suite of investment banking and capital markets products and services, including proprietary equity research and a fixed-income trading desk.

Media Contacts:

Joseph Kuo / Chris Clemens

Haven Tower Group

424 317 4851 or 424 317 4854

[email protected] or [email protected]

SOURCE Advisor Group

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Linkedin Kornelius Purba (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 11:28 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669d7327 1 Opinion Mahathir,Mahathir-Mohamad,1MDB,Najib-Razak Free

Former Malaysian prime ministers Mahathir Mohammad and Najib Razak hate each other so much that it is almost impossible for them to reconcile. Mahathir unseated Najib from his PM seat in May 2018 and aggressively campaigned for Najibs imprisonment for corruption. But Najib will likely kiss the 94-year-old politicians hand when they cross paths and thank his former political mentor for becoming his savior.

Whatever the verdict on Monday, Najib may feel relieved knowing that the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the party he once led, is growing stronger and looks set to regain the power it lost in 2018  ironically thanks to the squabbling within the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, which ended the UMNO-led ruling coalitions 60-year stranglehold of Malaysian politics.

A survey by Emir Research think tank found last week that 52 percent of respondents would support UMNO and the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), while 30 percent chose PH and 18 percent were undecided if a snap election was held.

In fact, UMNO has been clawing its way back to power ever since the fragile PH government under Mahathir collapsed in February and Yang Dipertuan Agong appointed Muhyiddin Yassin of the Malaysian United Indigenous Party to replace Mahathir as prime minister. Muhyiddin, who was sacked by UMNO four years ago, named seven UMNO politicians his ministers

For Najib, a fan of Motown music genre and Bruno Mars, the High Courts verdict will appear as a legal technicality. Life can be much easier for Najib, even if he has to serve a long prison sentence, as long as Mahathir and Anwar cannot come to terms and UMNO restores its past glory.

Leaders of other ASEAN member states can take a lesson from how Malaysian realpolitik unfolds. In Indonesia the New Order has formally been gone, but its influence remains and perhaps has hijacked the reformasi movement.

Mahathir, a prime minister for 22 years until 2003, became an inspiration for many elderly politicians in Indonesia to cling on or fight for power when he lead the movement to oust Najib and send him to justice. But it is Mahathirs inability to control his political greed and ego that has effectively killed reformasi (reform) in Malaysia.

Najib is facing 40 charges related to the US$4.5 billion corruption scandal involving 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). The case has also dragged his wife Rosmah Mansor and his step son Riza Aziz into the mess. Rosmah, an Hermes bag lover, is reportedly facing 17 charges of money laundering and tax evasion, while Riza is facing five money laundering charges to the tune of $248 million.

When the new coalition that included Najib's scandal-plagued party seized power in February, many started to raise concerns that the change of power could impact Najib's trial. In fact, charges against Riza were dropped in May after he agreed to return $107 million in overseas assets to Malaysia. A month later, corruption and money-laundering charges against a key Najib ally, Musa Aman, were also dropped.

Hopes for sweeping reforms in Malaysia only lasted less than two years. On May 9, 2018, the multi-racial opposition coalition beat the ruling UMNO-led Barisan Nasional coalition. At that time, people were so enraged by the 1MDB scandal that the Malays, first-class citizens according to the Constitution, put their suspicions and distrust of non-Muslims and non-Malay compatriots behind them to punish the ruling government.

After becoming PM again, Mahathir repeatedly said he would let Anwar realize his long-time quest for the prime ministerial post in two years. It was later clear that Mahathir had lied, as he intended to maintain his grip as long as possible. It was this greed for power that triggered internal conflicts in the government. UMNO genially manipulated the governments problems and told the Malays they would soon be demoted to second-class citizens, as the Chinese and Indians have started to steadily control the government as well as the economy.

When asked by Asia Times on why he distrusted Anwar, Mahathir replied: Its not about distrust. Its about getting the support of the people. While Anwar used to be very popular, now he has lost quite a bit of the support. I believe these people will not support an attempt to make a comeback [] if he is designated as prime minister.

The Star columnist Joceline Tan wrote in her column last month about how Mahathir still behaved like the boss and exuding confidence as though he is just a few more inches or, should we say, a few more MPs [members of parliament] from reclaiming the job he chucked away three months ago.

After assuming power, Muhyyidin, Najibs former ally, used COVID-19 as a pretext and did not allow the parliament to convene to consolidate his power.

Anwar has definitely lost his patience with Mahathir, his former mentor and foe. Anwar has refused to meet with Mahathir. There is a running joke about Mahathirs attitude toward Anwar, who was convicted twice for sodomy. Why was Mahathir so jealous of Anwar?

With the Mahathir-Anwar personal feud intensifying, PM Muhyiddin won a nonconfidence vote on July 13 to sack the Lower House speaker by two votes. It is game over for Mahathir  but also for the countrys political and economic reforms.

Muhyiddin may call for a snap election to ensure his governments stability. Najib will pray for Mahathir to remain strong in his fight against Anwar, as it will keep him safe, albeit at the cost of the nation.

--------

Senior editor at The Jakarta Post
TCN News

Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) organized a virtual press conference with Central and state governments to discuss smooth observance of Eid al Adha, Delhi riots and state of Indias economy.

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JIH Vice President Muhammad Salim Engineer informed that he has written to the Principal Secretaries of all States and Union Territories for ensuring safe observance of Eid al Adha amid the Coronavirus pandemic. Jamaat had earlier made clear that the qurbani (animal-sacrifice) is the most important worship on this occasion and that there can be no replacement or alternative for that. With regards to the same, the Shariah Council of JIH has issued guidelines to the local Imams of masjids and representatives in the Muslim community. In the conference, Jamaat has also emphasized that health and hygiene norms must be followed for the sacrifice.

All norms of social distancing must be strictly followed, said Salim, highlighting that there would be multiple jamaats (prayer-sessions) to reduce the size of the congregation. Additionally, children and the elderly would not be allowed to join the congregational Eid prayer while the customary intermingling and proximity for Eid greetings must be avoided, he outlined.

JIH meeting has also demanded the State and Central governments to cooperate in offering all possible concessions to Muslims and provide security and protection against mischievous and anti-social elements.

On behalf of JIH, Salim further denoted concerns on the report released by the Delhi Minorities Commission on Northeast Delhi riots. He expressed that the Jamaat members are highly concerned at the shocking details provided by the report about the partisanship and bias on the part of the police and government. He raised worrying questions on the authorities stating that their role during the riots, has led to the abject failure of duty and the law and order machinery in the capital of India.

He stated that the violence was organized and had a systematic pattern as mentioned in the report and that JIH concurs with the findings of the report and supports its recommendations. It has also called out on civil and legal agencies to file a petition seeking constitution of a five-member independent committee to investigate the riots as well as proper and prompt action for non-registration of FIRs in all cases where complaints were not converted into FIRs. Salim reiterated that the statements of victims should be recorded under Section 164 of CrPC and protection to witnesses and victims must be provided along with a review of charge sheets filed by the police. It has sought a report on the extent of complicity or abdication of duty by the police during the violence.

Jamaat-e-Islami is dismayed by the lacklustre response of the government to this unprecedented economic challenge, said Salim speaking about the countrys dwindling economy amid the pandemic. He outlined that experts predict is that for the first time in recent history, Indias GDP will actually contract, pushing millions of poor, marginalized into the lap of poverty, and will nullify the fruits of decades of economic growth. Challenging Centre to respond more substantially on the economic crisis, JIH resonated that the 20 lakh crores Atmanirbhar package does not contain any substantial stimulus and therefore will not boost demand, which the nation desperately needs.

It accused the BJP government of reluctance to take up the route of direct cash transfer fearing the breach of fiscal deficit target and a negative appraisal by rating agencies. On the ending note, Salim said that the Jamaat is hopeful that the government will come out of its pretence of business-as-usual and launch a massive three-year plan to stimulate the economy and bring it back on track.
Americas police forces are under attack, in part by peaceful protesters in various cities. The Democrats and their media arm have done their best to domesticate the anti-law enforcement movement, and to make it seem almost normal.

This despite the fact that those who call for defunding or disbanding police forces are a tiny minority. Here in Minnesota, my organizations polling finds that 85% of Minnesotans support their local police. Talk about a silent majority! We have launched a campaign to counter false anti-police narratives by disseminating factual information and allowing supporters of law enforcement to sign a petition at SupportMNPolice.com.

We launched the campaign with 38 billboards placed strategically around the Twin Cities metro area. The billboards extraordinary visibility has resulted in an effort by left-wing criminals to deface them. So far, five billboards have been vandalized; one has already been defaced twice. We have ample funds to continue replacing billboards as fast as criminals can vandalize them.

The most recent attack on one of our billboards, in a prosperous area of South Minneapolis, is interesting:

Note three things: 1) Shoot our police. How peaceful can you get? 2) The Antifa symbol, an A in a circle. 3) The hammer and sickle. This would seem to put to rest any question about the political orientation of those who advocate murdering police officers. What we see here is the vilest sort of extremism.

If you want to learn more about our campaign, go here. And if you want to help us in the fight to defend law enforcement and stand up to Communist bullies, you can donate here.

I have not mentioned what is probably the most important element of our pro-police campaign, from a national perspective. I will get to that later in the day.
In the world of politics, repetition is almost without fail the key to winning elections. The dominant campaign issue in the upcoming election that President Trump, the Republican Party and the conservative media must relentlessly repeat is the now irrefutable fact that Joe Biden, the Democrat party and the mainstream media have tacitly sanctioned sedition and have betrayed the American people. Consequently, if Biden and the Democrats win in November, they will be incapable of preventing the Marxist ultimatums of the radical left from becoming the law of the land.

By refusing to condemn and, instead, implicitly encouraging the ongoing riots and violence, as well as meekly acquiescing to the demands of the left-wing extremist, the Democrat party establishment, which includes the mainstream media, has exposed their spinelessness for the world to see and signed on to government by mob rule.

The Marxist ideologues in the nations professoriate, Antifa, Black Lives Matter, the media and the extreme left-wing of the Democrat party have unabashedly declared their primary objective is to overthrow the government and radically transform the nation. Yet, there is no condemnation or repudiation of these goals from Biden, the Democrat party hierarchy or the mainstream media. By their silence they have wordlessly endorsed sedition.

The dedicated Marxist ideologues now know with certainty that these self-absorbed elitists will cower and surrender in the face of no more than the threat of turmoil throughout the country. Meanwhile, the Party hierarchy and the bulk of the ruling class has naively convinced themselves, that when the time comes, they will be able to mollify these radicals and still maintain command of the levers of power.

Were the Democrats to take over Congress and place a senescent mannequin in the White House, the only remaining ingredient the radical left would need to complete their revolution is the elimination of any serious opposition from the monied capitalists and major industrial sectors while strong-arming them for financial support.

To that end, the so-called captains of industry and finance throughout the country, over the past two months, have fallen all over themselves to placate the left-wing mob by prostrating themselves before them. Faintheartedness that is not lost on their implacable nemesis. Despite the declared objectives of the Marxists, these executives and corporations are willingly paying exorbitant shakedown monies in a myopic effort to buy peace or in lieu of money credulously promoting subversive propaganda to the masses. Thus, casting themselves as de facto co-conspirators in the radical lefts seditious activities.

While these extremists make up just 15% of registered Democrats, they now control the Party and are in position of not only accelerating their ultimate aim of fundamentally transforming America but of dominating the corridors of power in perpetuity.

There are those, such as the duplicitous NeverTrump battalion, the majority of talking heads on cable, many bloggers on the internet, countless ruling elites as well as the Democrat party establishment, who would doubtlessly claim this scenario could never come to pass. That this is mere trafficking in political hyperbole and mindless fear mongering. So, since the lefts favored epithet is to accuse their opposition of being Nazis or Fascists, some historical perspective.

The key event that triggered Hitlers seizure of power in Germany was his appointment as Chancellor in 1933. But in 1932 the situation of the Nazi Party was not promising. In the election of November 1932, the party lost 2,000,000 votes in comparison to the election in July 1932 and their representation in the Reichstag fell from 230 seats to 196 (out of 647) thus, eliminating the party from a dominant role in the formation of a coalition government. The party desperately needed financial support and the backing of a substantial segment of the ruling class to make possible the completion of the Nazi drive to a dictatorship. Something had to be done before the next election in March of 1933.

In January, Hitler met with 25 of Germanys leading industrialists at the home of Herman Goering. Hitler seditiously and unabashedly declared his intention to seize power by violence if the Nazis failed to win a majority in the Reichstag. He clearly stated that private enterprise cannot be maintained in the age of democracy unless a strong leader is in power to control the masses internally and defeat the nations external enemies -- which only he could do.

The message was not lost on these men as none even contemplated reporting Hitler to the authorities for his seditious plot to overthrow the government. They were aware of the violent track record of the Nazis and their militant arm, the SA or Brown Shirts. At the end of the meeting Goering asked for money stating: The sacrifice asked would be so much easier for industry to bear if it realized that the election of 5 March will surely be the last one for the next ten years, possibly for the next hundred years. Convinced that they were buying permanent protection, these industrialists quickly coughed up the equivalent of $30 million today, thus, rendering them de facto traitors to the Weimar Constitution in their complicity with Hitler and the Nazis.

With the public backing of the industrial elites and not so veiled threats of uncontrollable street violence, Hitler successfully intimidated the cabinet and President Paul Von Hindenburg into appointing him as Chancellor prior to the March elections. Their acquiescence was predicated on the conviction that they could easily mollify Hitler by granting the Nazis a modicum of what they demanded and still retain control of the government. Within 6 months, utilizing violence and traitorous tactics the ruling class was too timorous to oppose, Hitler was effectively the dictator of Germany.

Hitler was very aware of two factors that he could exploit to overturn the government and assume dictatorial power. The first, once violence was not firmly dealt with and tolerated then just the threat of violence would be sufficient to intimidate the ruling class. The second, was the inbred naivete and egocentricity of the ruling class in believing that they, by their extraordinary powers of persuasion, could placate anyone or any movement and still maintain power. These lessons are not lost on the Marxists running amok in the United States today.

Biden, the Democrat party and the mainstream media has enabled the fanatical Marxist left in the naive belief that they can, if they win in November, appease them by agreeing to watered-down versions of their demands and thus retain control of the halls of power in Washington. This oblivious egomania is further on display as these credulous buffoons claim to believe that Donald Trump is the greatest threat to the nation in its history and must be defeated regardless of the consequences. Even if their alliance of convenience with the Marxists eventuates in endless violence and the radical makeover of the country.

There is but one word to describe this cabal: traitors. Not because they wish to see Trump defeated or choose to not vote for him in November but that they are willingly and openly in league with those implacably bent on overthrowing the government and radically transforming the United States. A message that must be relentlessly repeated throughout the upcoming campaign.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - A closed-door hearing session of the United Nations Sanctions Committee and the United Nations Team of Experts on Libya was held virtually on Tuesday afternoon in New York
Former President Barack Obama will be joined by actor George Clooney on Tuesday in Obama's latest effort to boost Democrat Joe Biden's presidential campaign.

Obama and Clooney will engage in a "virtual conversation" according to an invitation to donors obtained by Reuters. Tickets range from $250 to $250,000.

In June, Obama held a fundraiser for Biden, Obama's former vice president, that brought in more than $11 million. Biden will face President Donald Trump in the November 3 general election.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced Biden to hold campaign events online or close to his Delaware home. But virtual fundraisers have proven to be effective for Biden, helping him and allied Democratic groups outraise Trump and Republican groups in May and June.

Biden on Tuesday will also give an address in Wilmington, Delaware detailing how he would address systemic racism and racial economic inequality, the fourth and final plank of his sweeping plan to revitalize the coronavirus-hit US economy.

Clooney, an outspoken critic of Trump, and his wife Amal head the Clooney Foundation for Justice, a global human-rights advocacy organization. Last month, he donated $500,000 to the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit that provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly accused.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not attend the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on August 5 as Prime Minister.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not attend the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on August 5 as Prime Minister.

I have said in an interview to Outlook magazine that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not attend that event. Because if he attends that function as the Prime Minister then a message will go in the country that the Prime Minister is supporting people of one faith only, Owaisi said.

If he says he is going to attend the event in his individual capacity, then nobody will question it. Every Prime Minister, if he follows a religion, he has the right to follow it. But Prime Minister is also constitutional head and the Constitution is related to the basic structure of secularism, Owaisi told ANI.

Also read: Ayushmann laments death of action director Parvez Khan, says its a big loss to the industry

Also read: Israeli PMs son apologizes for offensive tweet about Hindus

He said the PM should say that he will go in his personal capacity and no TV channel should live telecast.

There is no religion of the country. Do India and the Government of India have a religion? He is the Prime Minister of Muslims, Hindus, Dalits, Backwards, Sikhs, Christians, and those also who do not believe in any faith, the Hyderabad MP said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on August 5, according to Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, the president of the Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust.

The construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya will begin after the ceremony to lay the foundation stone (bhoomi poojan) in which chief ministers of many states, ministers from the union cabinet, and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat are also likely to participate.

The Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, set up in accordance with the Supreme Court verdict, held its second meeting earlier this month.

In March this year, the Ram Lalla idol was shifted to a temporary structure.

The apex court, on November 9 last year, had directed the central government to hand over the site at Ayodhya for the construction of a Ram temple.

Also read: SC asks Centre to verify J&Ks response on restoration of 4G services

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Virginia Mae (Zachary) McMahan, 89, died in her home on July 25 after a lengthy illness. She was born on April 24, 1931 in Knoxville, Tn., to Herman and Ida Mae (Lundy) Lovelace, the first of three children. As the daughter of a Methodist minister, she grew up in church communities in the mountains of southwestern Virginia and eastern Tennessee, from Independence to Andersonville, from Roda to Loudon. She graduated from the University of Chattanooga in 1954 shortly after her marriage to Walter Zachary and dedicated her life to mothering Elisabeth, John, Virginia, David, and Kathy.

Virginia was a woman of grace: sustaining strength and resilience in adversity, showing compassion and kindness to all, and living her life as an example of her faith. As an elementary school teacher and the single mother of five children, she devoted herself to the service of others. Well-known for her kindness and thoughtfulness to all, whether in the check-out line at the grocery store, the waiting room at the beauty shop, or the church pew across the aisle, she was always available to hold hands, dry tears and babysit children. She was an active member of the church families at Trinity-Woodmore and Rising Fawn United Methodist Churches, cultivating many lasting friendships in those churches.

After her requirement from Chattanooga City Schools in 1990, she cared for her beloved parents in the little house on Woodmore Lane where she hosted Sunday dinners for her children and grandchildren. In 1994, she married the late Sonny McMahan who taught her to love square dancing, Silver Queen cream corn, and Rising Fawn, Georgia. Virginia and Sonny became legendary for their holiday dinners with so much company that they had to cook and serve meals in the fellowship hall at Rising Fawn United Methodist Church.

Adored by her children and grandchildren, she provided support and guidance for them throughout her life, reminding them, Pretty is as pretty does or If you say mama one more time, Im going to change my name. While Virginia weathered many hardships, she carried no bitterness or rancor. Instead, she developed a sweetness of spirit that earned her a treasured place in the hearts of all who knew her  family, friends, even casual acquaintances. Her concern for others and acts of kindness without expecting anything in return reflect her capacity for love and provided the foundation of a life well-lived.

Virginia was preceded in death by her parents, Herman and Mae (Lundy) Lovelace; husband, Sonny McMahan; brother, Lundy (Jane) Lovelace; and loyal companion, Snoopy.

She is survived by her brother, David (Claire) Lovelace; children: John (Anita) Zachary of Los Angeles, CA, Elisabeth, Kathy, and David Zachary, Virginia (Joe) Waddell, of Chattanooga, and adoring step-daughter, Lindsey Fussell; fourteen grandchildren: Kirby (Jake) Yost, Daniel Waddell, Jordan, Lundy, and Nick Longstreth, Lance Snider, Zachary (Kasie) and Katelyn Jackson, Savannah McMahan, Sarah (Kev) Jones, Hannah and Virginia Zachary, Caleb and Micah Zachary; six great grandchildren; and four nieces and nephews.

A Celebration of Virginias Life will be held in the East Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home on Friday July 31, 2020 at 3:00 pm. the family will receive friends prior to the service beginning at 2:00pm. The burial will be Saturday August 1, 2020 at 10 a.m. in Rising Fawn, Georgia in the Hanna Cemetery, 3462 US-11.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial donation to The Boys and Girls Club of Chattanooga. Checks may be mailed to Boys and Girls Club, 610 Lindsay Street, Chattanooga, TN 37403 or donation are accepted through the website: hUps://www.bgccha.org/. Please add Virginia McMahan in the notes section on the final page before submitting.

We respectfully request that all current mandates set forth by Hamilton County Health Department be adhered to. This includes social distancing" and wearing masks at all times while on the premises.

If you are not comfortable attending the service you may join us live for the service at https://www.facebook.com/chattanoogaeastchapel

Arrangements are under the care of Chattanooga Funeral Home Crematory and Florist East Chapel, 404 South Moore Rd. East Ridge, TN 37412.
With the calendar for 2020 lacking any agricultural shows, machinery manufacturers are somewhat limited in options when it comes to getting the news of their innovations out to the customers.

Pottinger are never a company to stand still and with a list of new machines coming on stream this year, they have taken to regular announcements of product developments rather than save them all up for a major exhibition, as would have usually been the case in previous years.

The latest machines to be rolled out in front of us are a new selection of lightweight mowers and trailed rakes, both of which are aimed at the smaller operator without the budget of major contractors.

Novadisc Mowers

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Here in Ireland, we are familiar with the heavy duty Novacat mower combinations, which are generally equipped with conditioners ready to deal with moist, leafy Irish grass.

The latest Novadisc combination range starts at 7.25m and this set-up may be powered by tractors from just 85hp upwards. Yet it is not the power that is always the limiting factor, but the weight of the tractor as well, and here the Novadisc machines score by not being constructed to carry a heavy conditioner.

However, Pottinger insist that it is neither feeble or ineffective as the cutter bar is carried at both ends to avoid distortion and apply an equal pressure across the width of the machine.

As to whether Irish agriculture is ready to totally abandon the mower-mounted conditioner in favour of tedding the cut crop, as is trending in the UK, only time will tell, but the advantages of not carrying a heavy power-sapping unit on the mower are quite numerous, including less stress on the rear end of lighter tractors.

This becomes even more desirable on uneven ground, an environment which is catered for on the Novadisc mowers by a 300 arc of vertical articulation. They will be available in Ireland for next spring.

Trailed Rakes

Pottinger's other provision for the farmer is a selection of rakes with working widths from 4.2m to 7.4m. Rakes of this size are nothing new to the company's portfolio, so the big news here is that they are trailed rather than mounted.

This once again allows their use by smaller tractors, which can handle a machine hitherto beyond their safe operating parameters.

There are two smaller single rotor models and two larger twin rotor units, all of which fold hydraulically from the cab and offer a 50cm ground clearance when turning at the headland.

Pottinger tell us that stability on slopes is of particular importance with the twin rotor models and it offers a wide axle model to cater for use on slopes.

For convenience, the single rotor models can be attached by either the drawbar or ring hitch thanks to the parallelogram design of the rotor's own drawbar.





New tedders add 'more flexibility'

A key element of making good silage is separating the water from the grass while still in the field. This not only encourages favourable fermentation, but will also ensure that less water is needlessly transported and handled.

Drying the crop ahead of a large harvester calls for an equally large tedder and Pottinger have stepped up to the plate with its latest machine, a 17-metre unit with 16 rotors which follow ground contours, allowing the tines to cleanly move the crop without engaging with the soil.

Although the tedder will not be generally available until the 2021 season, an early example of the HIT 16.18 T has been demonstrated in Ireland by Pottinger Sales Manager Ben Stokes, who believes it will find buyers amongst contractors and other large operators.

"Many contractors might be using two 11m machines," he says. "While not replacing them totally, it will add more flexibility and reduce the overall requirement for skilled staff."
Blood platelet counts at the higher end of normal suggest a high risk of cancer in men aged 60 or over, and should be investigated, according to new University of Exeter research.

Platelets perform a crucial function in blood, including helping blood to clot, which helps us heal wounds. However, Exeter researchers have previously found that cancer risk is significantly raised by having an abnormally high blood platelet count (more than 400 x 109/l,) a condition known as thrombocytosis. Now, they have found that cases of cancer greatly increased in older males with a platelet count on the high end of normal range (326 to 400 x 109/l), indicating that these patients should be investigated for cancer.

In a study funded by NIHR and published in the British Journal of General Practice, researchers reviewed the records of nearly 300,000 patients who had platelet counts on the higher end using data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink and the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service. They found that the number of these patients diagnosed with cancer a year later was significantly higher if the patients had even slightly raised platelet levels. Of 68,181 male patients with levels of blood platelet on the higher end of normal, 1,869 cases of cancer were diagnosed within one year. Of these, 720 were an advanced stage. A higher platelet count was most frequently linked to lung and colorectal cancers - both aggressive forms of cancer.

Dr Sarah Bailey, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Exeter Medical School who led the research, said: "After finding that having a blood platelet count above normal range put people at high risk of cancer, we investigated the risk at the high end of normal. We found that men aged over 60 whose platelet count is on higher end of a normal are more likely to have an underlying cancer. Updating guidance for GPs to investigate higher platelet counts could save lives. This is particularly important in a post-COVID era; clues to help GPs identify cancer earlier are crucial to target the backlog in cancer investigation and diagnosis"

Professor Willie Hamilton, of the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "The UK lags well behind other developed countries on early cancer diagnosis. Our findings on platelet count and cancer diagnosis can help to combat that lag. It is now crucial that we roll out cancer investigation of thrombocytosis. It could save hundreds of lives."

###

The paper is entitled 'Cancer incidence following a high-normal platelet count: cohort study using electronic healthcare records from English primary care'.
Protesters in Portland, Ore. on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the use of tear gas and other aggressive tactics employed by federal agents deployed to quell the nightly violence across the city.

The nonprofit Protect Democracy filed suit in federal court in Washington, D.C. on behalf of five women as well as two groups, Dont Shoot Portland and Wall of Moms, a group of mothers who wear yellow and attempt to stand between demonstrators and police. The protesters claim that they demonstrated peacefully but were met with federal agents who sprayed tear gas, shot rubber bullets, and threw flash-bang grenades into the crowd as well as pepper-sprayed and assaulted them during demonstrations outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland.

The plaintiffs claim that federal agencies, the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Protective Service, violated their First Amendment rights as well as their right to free assembly and due process.

The Justice Department has presented a contrary narrative, saying that they were protecting the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, which has been a nightly target of vandalism during evening protests and riots, sustaining extensive damage.

Protests and riots against racism and police brutality have been nearly constant in Portland since the police custody death of George Floyd in May. While some protests have been peaceful, demonstrators who remain on the streets after dark have engaged in property destruction, throwing rocks at police, marking buildings with graffiti, and setting fires.

Federal authorities arrested 18 people last week on a slew of charges related to the demonstrations outside the courthouse, including assaulting a federal officer, willfully damaging government property, and arson.

The lawsuit comes after Oregons attorney general Ellen Rosenblum launched an unsuccessful lawsuit attempting to restrict federal agents ability to arrest Oregon residents. A federal judge in Portland rejected the challenge Friday.

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The Greenville community refrigerator  providing free food to the neighborhood  was stolen from Rose Avenue around noon on Monday after only being in operation for a little more than a week, fridge owner Mariya Chechina said.

Chechina said her sister, Olga, was home when neighbors came by to alert her that someone someone snatched the mini fridge from in front of Olgas home and left. Chechina was on her way when she spoke to The Jersey Journal and had yet to call the police.

We stocked it just this morning, Chechina said.

Chechina, 40, was following the lead of friend, Tatiana Smith, who opened a community fridge on Delaware Avenue in the West Side neighborhood. Initially, the Greenville fridge was loaded with items Smith couldnt fit in her fridge.

While Chechina is upset over the stolen mini-fridge, she still remains optimistic in continuing a community fridge for the Greenville community.

There has been overwhelming community support because there are three offers already from people donating a fridge, Chechina said. I think we are going to move forward with and find a way to continue basically.

Last week Chechina was warned by the Jersey City Health and Human Services Department after an inspector found half-eaten and spoiled food as well as insect infestation.

The inspector said the refrigerator, dubbed the Greenville Community Fridge, had to be supervised, secured and temperature controlled ASAP.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With roughly a month left until school starts, at least 1,000 Missouri families have no idea where their child will attend school in the fall thanks to efforts by their local school districts to block school choice.

This number may be a conservative estimate as the Missouri Virtual Academy (MOVA) alone has received over 1,000 applications to enroll in their school, and nearly 800 of these applications have either been denied or are stuck in administrative purgatory, according to the school. MOVA is just one of several online schools authorized in the state that's facing this issue.

"The egregious efforts being made by Missouri school districts to block parents from choosing the best schooling option for their child during a pandemic are sickening," said Jordan McGrain, executive director of the National Coalition for Public School Options. "Many families are concerned about the safety of resuming in-person education, and do not find comfort in the reopening plans being released by local school districts. Missouri lawmakers established the MOCAP program to give parents options, and these actions are in direct violation of that law."

The news regarding MOVA's application waitlist comes as we learn Governor Mike Parson's anticipates children will contract COVID-19 in Missouri schools. This has many parents concerned, as a recent survey released late last week by PSO revealed 57% of parents said they remained very concerned about risks due to COVID-19, and 75% of respondents anticipate additional school closures in the fall.

These concerns are being translated into significant support for online public schools, with 43% of respondents noting they'd be willing to consider this educational option for their own child. Based on 2019 enrollment data, that would mean more than 390,000 students may not return to their traditional classroom as parents become more familiar with online learning options.

As support grows for online learning, many school districts in Missouri have been denying families the right to choose the best educational option for their child, including by abusing the veto authority over enrollment provided under the Missouri Course Access and Virtual School Program (MOCAP).

The survey also revealed that:

79% of parents oppose giving school districts " veto power" over a parent ' s decision to enroll their child in a full-time online school: and

veto power" over a parent s decision to enroll their child in a full-time online school: and 75% of parents support the state of Missouri granting emergency waivers for parents who wish to enroll their student in an online public school this fall.

SOURCE National Coalition for Public School Options

Related Links

https://publicschooloptions.org






Dino Melaye

A Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has ruled against Dino Melaye while affirming Smart Adeyemi as the duly elected Senator representing Kogi-West Senatorial district.

In a unanimous judgment on Tuesday, a 3 member panel of the appellant court dismissed the appeal filed by Dino Melaye for lacking in merit.

The Kogi State National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal, which sat in Abuja had on 10th 2020, dismissed Mr Melayes petition for lacking in merit.

In its ruling, the tribunal held Mr Melaye failed to prove the allegations of over voting, unlawful votes, and the various electoral malpractices he listed in the petition.

Smart Adeyemi who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, polled a total of 88,373 votes while Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party scored 62,133 votes, after a re-run election was conducted in some parts of the Senatorial district.




PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwas government has allegedly deployed several teams of intelligence officers to hunt down MDC Alliance deputy national chairman Job Sikhala, who has gone into hiding ahead of planned public demonstrations on July 31, NewsDay has learnt.





The teams have made several visits to Sikhalas Chitungwiza home, but failed to locate him.





Sikhala allegedly went into hiding soon after the arrest of July 31 protests organiser and opposition Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume as well as journalist Hopewell Chinono for allegedly inciting violence ahead of the protests.





Chinono and Ngarivhume are languishing in remand prison after they were denied bail following their arrest on Monday last week.





Sikhala was one of the people Mnangagwas administration had targeted to arrest, together with former Zanu PF youth leader Godfrey Tsenengamu in a desperate bid to block the protests.





NewsDay is reliably informed that teams of officers from the CIO, travelling in commuter omnibuses, have been deployed to hunt down Sikhala.





Well-placed sources in the security establishment said they had been tasked to find him at all costs, preferably before Chinono and Ngarivhume are granted bail, most likely after July 31.





Sikhalas mobile phone was yesterday not reachable, but Tsenengamu admitted his home had been frequented by members of the CIO, whom he accused of trying to plant weapons at his home in a bid to get him arrested and charged with treason.





I know all their plots, Tsenengamu said. They have been to my home several times looking for me. I know all their plots to arrest me.

Tsenengamu, who now leads a pressure group, Front for Economic Emancipation in Zimbabwe, backs the July 31 protests.





Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe was not picking calls yesterday, but Zanu PF spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa fumed over the protests, advising Zanu PF supporters to fight back.





Chinamasa accused the MDC Alliance of plotting to destabilise government, lashing out at US ambassador to Zimbabwe, Brian Nichols for allegedly backing the protests.





Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Republic Police yesterday released a list of MDC Alliance officials and activists whom it claimed it wanted to interview in connection with the protests.





The police listed Sikhala, Makomborero Haruziviishe, Godfrey Kurauone, Gift Ostallos Siziba, Promise Mkwananzi, Denford Ngadziore, Allan Moyo, Obey Sithole, Obert Masaraure, Jim Kunaka, Stephen Chuma and Robson Chere.




FLINT, MI  Chicken wings  well good chicken wings  are something customers will drive for from miles away.

And Crazy Legs in Genesee County does not disappoint.

DaVante Powell and Wilson Rogers have been business partners in the Flint area for years, though they didnt set out to be in the food or restaurant industry.

The two met in ninth grade, graduating from Flint Southwestern Classical Academy in 2004. Each went on to graduate from Baker College locally with a degree in business management and human services, respectively.

The budding young entrepreneurs, each 34 years old, already have their foot into a number of local business endeavors, including owning a facility that houses 10 businesses. In September 2019, they realized the need to provide a snack in that Flint business mall.

Initially, wings werent even on the menu. That didnt last long.

The two created a unique concept to air fry wings, a technique that is not produced often in east Michigan, which is exactly why they doubled down to make the idea into a reality. They started with three air fryers, and now have 20.

Its different. Nobody cooks in an air fryer around here, and we know we will do big things, Powell said. The beauty of air fryer wings is it pulls all the greasy calories out and allows you to eat these without feeling guilty, bringing them to a perfect crisp. We wanted to bring this to Flint.

Its the clean way of eating dirty, he added.

The menu is small, and thats exactly how Powell and Rogers want it. They want to specialize and bring customers quality and value into the focus of their food.

There are five styles of sauce available for the wings, including ranch lemon pepper, sweet bbq, Korean teriyaki, peach habanero and crazy crazy heat. The wings can also be served plain.

Combos are available with loaded fries as well.

Loaded fries are also air-fried as potatoes topped with white queso cheese, jalapeno and sweet peppers with a choice of shrimp or chicken. The twist, Powell said, is adding one of the sauce flavors on top.

Everything you touch with us, you get flavor guaranteed, Powell said.

Crazy Legs also serves a homemade Kool-Aid and smoothies.

The business has soared by word of mouth in Flint, so much so that Crazy Legs opened a second location in Grand Blanc. At that location, salads are also available.

Powell said between the two locations, about 600 wings a day are being served with customers who have come from as far as Illinois, Georgia and Canada.

Its the No. 1 finger food. Wings are always there, no matter if youre at a cocktail party or a house party. And good potatoes and French fries are always a crowd favorite whether your 2 years old all the way up to 90, Powell said.

Powell and Rogers continue to build on the dream as they expand, ultimately hoping to have a space to serve Crazy Legs in arena spaces like Dow Diamond in Midland and Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

Crazy Legs has two locations: its original locale at 4526 Beecher Road in Flint and a new express locale at 11236 S. Saginaw St. in Grand Blanc.

The Flint location is open noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and the Grand Blanc location is open from noon to 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays.

More on MLive:

Local Eats: Barley and Vine offers Michigan craft beer, wine and charcuterie

Local Eats: Liquid Lounges coldest beer in Saginaw and unique sliders keep customers rolling in

Local Eats: Grab some gourmet delights at The Broken Egg in Ann Arbor
Six people who attended the Black Lives Matter rally in Sydney today have been arrested, while one of the events organisers was detained by police

Addressing the media on Tuesday, Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing said the situation was ongoing and in addition to the arrests, infringement notices were handed out, along with a $1000 fine.

Of those arrested at the Domain, where the protest took place were three men aged 40, 37 and 22, and two women aged 50 and 23.

A 25-year-old woman was arrested and issued a criminal infringement notice for offensive language.

According to The Guardian, organiser Paddy Gibson was fined and detained by police, but is free to go - other organisers said they too were fined, but not arrested.

On Facebook, the events organisers confirmed the protest had been cancelled.

Please share spread the word the rally is OVER. The struggle for justice will continue, a post on the events Facebook page said.

Black Lives Matter protesters have been arrested in Sydney, including organiser Paddy Gibson. Source: ABC

Organisers have been arrested and fined, and a move-on order has been issued for the entire area, another post said.

We recommend that anyone who was on their way to the Domain does not come anymore. We will be back.

On the Facebook page Justice For David Dungay Jnr an organiser said the police action was over the top and during the press conference it was confirmed few hundred police officers were out in full force, although the exact number was not confirmed.

Davids family have not even been allowed to have a coffee without being harassed and threatened, the post said.

During the press conference Asst Comm Willing insisted police respect peoples right to protest, just not during a pandemic.

We understand the issues that are in question here are significant and are sensitive to a lot of people, he said.

However, we must do what we can to ensure that the public in general are safe at this time.

Hundreds of NSW Police officers were on patrol during a Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney on Tuesday. Source: AAP

Protesters' coronavirus precautions

Justice Mark Ierace on Sunday accepted the police argument that the possibility of community transmission of COVID-19 arising from the Sydney rally made the event too risky.

Story continues

Yesterday, the organisers of the protest lost their court appeal, after the planned protest was prohibited amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The rally was set to start at 12pm on Tuesday, and on the events Facebook page, organisers outlined coronavirus safety protocols to keep protestors safe, including all protesters leave their details to allow for contact tracing if necessary.

David Dungay Junior was just 26-years-old when he died in Long Bay jail in Sydney in 2015, Mr Dungay screamed I cant breathe as guards held him down.

His older sister, Christine Dungay, told Yahoo News Australia she was disappointed the protest was not allowed to go ahead.

I understand with COVID and whats going on with the pandemic, but do they realise racism is a pandemic and has been for hundreds of years  and theres a cure and they refuse to use it, she said.

We just want justice for our brother and equality. If there was no racism, my brother would still be here today.

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.
As the middlemen for todays essential products and services, tech platforms have leverage over both producers and consumers. They also compete with many of the same product and services that depend on their platforms. That potential conflict led Senator Elizabeth Warren to call for the breakup of tech companies when she was running for president. The tech giants are also growing by snapping up potential rivals that might threaten market share. Data compiled by Bloomberg show the big five -- Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft -- have made nearly 500 acquisitions in the last decade worth $161 billion. None may be more controversial than Facebooks acquisition of Instagram in 2012, a takeover critics say eliminated an emerging competitor that on its own would have come to rival Facebook in social media. (In defense of the deal, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg says Instagram in 2012 wasnt large enough to be a real competitor.) The companies also have control over vast amounts of data about their customers, raising concerns about threats to privacy.
SPRINGFIELD  A class action lawsuit filed this week against utility giant Commonwealth Edison seeks to recover potentially hundreds of millions of dollars for consumers who were charged rates under legislation that the company has admitted was aided by a bribery scheme involving Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

The suit, filed Monday in Cook County Circuit Court, accuses ComEd of violating the states Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Businesses Practices Act, which is designed to protect consumers against unfair business practices.

It comes on the heels of an announcement July 17 that ComEd had agreed to pay a $200 million fine after admitting to federal prosecutors that it doled out jobs and payments to close associates of Madigan in an effort to influence him and secure passage of legislation that benefitted the company.

Madigan has not been charged in the case and he has denied any wrongdoing.

Even though ComEd has already paid a $200 million fine. I think it's important to keep in mind that not a penny of that is going to the ComEd ratepayers, Adam Levitt, one of the attorneys involved in the case, said during a video news conference Tuesday. That money is simply a fine  that will ultimately be remitted to the U.S. government.

ComEd serves roughly 4 million residential, commercial and industrial customers in northern Illinois.

Between 2011 and 2019, according to documents filed in federal court, ComEd engaged in a systematic practice of awarding jobs and subcontracts to Madigans associates with the intent of gaining the powerful House speakers support for legislation that the utility company wanted.

Those included the Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2011, which established a formula for automatically adjusting utility rates instead of having to submit rate requests to the Illinois Commerce Commission, and the Future Energy Jobs Act of 2016, which provided its parent company Exelon with additional revenue to rescue its economically troubled nuclear power plants.

In a document known as a deferred prosecution agreement, ComEd admitted that the reasonably foreseeable anticipated benefits of those laws exceeded $150 million.

However, the Citizens Utility Board, an agency that represents consumers in rate cases before the Illinois Commerce Commission, estimates that the formula-based rate adjustments will yield about $700 million for ComEd over 10 years while the Future Energy Jobs Act could yield up to $2.35 billion over 10 years.

This lawsuit is to determine the full extent because we all know that Commonwealth Edison did not admit to $150 million, that this goes much deeper than that, said Stephan Blandin, another attorney in the case. And we're going to have a full accounting from Commonwealth Edison to determine how extensive the fraud was so that the 4 million ratepayers in the state of Illinois will get their money back as a result of this bribery scheme that took place.

Class action lawsuits are different from traditional civil actions because they involve only a handful of plaintiffs who represent an entire class of individuals who might be victims of the same offense. They are used in instances in which there are so many potential plaintiffs that it would not be feasible for each individual plaintiff to pursue legal action on their own.

In this case, three residential customers and three businesses are the named plaintiffs who represent the entire class of ComEds 4 million customers. They include Randall Kuhn, of Lake Forest; Robert Nieman, of Glencoe; Erica Lieschke, of Chicago; Windward Roofing & Construction Inc.; In Demand Electronic Court Reporting Inc.; and Standard Equipment Company.

Although ComEd has admitted to engaging in bribery, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit will need to show they were the victims of fraud, which is a different offense. The Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Practices Act typically involves cases such as pyramid schemes or the sale of some product or service in which the seller intentionally withholds material information.

Blandin, however, said he believes the actions of ComEd fall within the scope of the consumer protection law.

One of the things to keep in mind is that Commonwealth Edison and Exelon (its parent company) have been given a state-authorized monopoly in the state, he said. They provide 70% of Illinois' population with electricity in exchange for a guaranteed profit. In this particular case, one of the things that we're going to be delving into are the two nuclear power plants that were underperforming that ratepayers bailed out as a result of this legislation that was influenced by the admitted bribery.

Officials at ComEd did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Levitt and Blandin said they do not anticipate calling Madigan for a deposition in the case, but they do plan to depose ComEds lobbyists and top executives.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

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OTTAWA - The co-founders of WE Charity argued Tuesday the organization wasn't plucked to run a student-volunteer program because of any close ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, laying out details about how much the endeavour would likely cost and why the charity used a seemingly complicated structure to manage it all.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/7/2020 (540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA - The co-founders of WE Charity argued Tuesday the organization wasn't plucked to run a student-volunteer program because of any close ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, laying out details about how much the endeavour would likely cost and why the charity used a seemingly complicated structure to manage it all.

Brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger opened four hours of testimony at the House of Commons finance committee by saying they regret not realizing how the deal to have WE run the Canada Student Service Grant would be perceived given Trudeau's ties to the group.

The co-founders of WE Charity are to testify before a House of Commons committee today as part of a parliamentary probe into a $912-million student-volunteer program. Craig Kielburger and Marc Kielburger speak during "We Day" in Toronto on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Hannah Yoon

They testified side-by-side before a webcam in a wood-panelled room, faces unnaturally white thanks to the camera's colour balance, peppered by questions from committee members scattered across the country.

As the afternoon wore on, the back-and-forth turned rocky with opposition MPs and the brothers talking over each other, and the Kielburgers slamming what they called inaccuracies meant to drag their organization over the coals for political purposes.

The brothers said WE would have never agreed to take part in the federal program had they known it could jeopardize their 25 years of work.

The duo were highly sought by opposition parties as part of a parliamentary probe into a volunteer program budgeted at $912 million, but which federal officials believed would cost $543 million  and that WE believed would actually cost much less.

WE Charity backed out of administering the program in early July amid a controversy over the Liberal government's decision to award the organization a sole-sourced contract.

Trudeau and his top aide, chief of staff Katie Telford, are scheduled to testify Thursday about the program and the deal with WE.

The Kielburgers said they haven't spoken with Trudeau or his office about the program.

The federal ethics commissioner has begun investigating Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau over their involvement in cabinet decisions on the project  Trudeau because of some $300,000 in speaking expenses covered for his family members, and Morneau's daughter being a WE employee.

Morneau also admitted last week that he repaid the organization more than $41,000 in travel expenses for WE-sponsored trips he and his family in 2017.

"The image that you're giving here is that you're getting influence by the kind of power that you have so when you call, man, they call you," New Democrat Charlie Angus told the Kielburgers at one point in their testimony.

Craig Kielburger said he spoke with Morneau in late April, but the student grant program didn't come up  echoing Morneau's testimony last week.

What did come up was a separate proposal WE submitted to Small Business Minister Mary Ng, Morneau and Youth Minister Bardish Chagger to help some 8,000 youth open small businesses at a cost of up to $14 million.

Craig Kielburger said WE was less interested in the volunteer program and was "trying to advance our own proposal" that it had on the table for two years.

Opposition MPs looked to portray the group as having inside track on running the program because of perceived financial difficulties linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Liberal MPs asked about WE's involvement with politicians of other political stripes, and funding from the previous Conservative government.

The volunteer program is supposed to provide grants of $1,000 for every 100 hours of volunteering, up to a maximum of $5,000 to help defray the cost of school in the fall.

WE was to connect young people with service opportunities through an online platform and disburse grants. WE would have received $43.5 million if the program reached its full potential.

Government officials told WE it could incur eligible expenses before being awarded the agreement. The brothers said they did so to get the program off the ground quickly, knowing they could lose money if cabinet didn't approve the deal.

WE has lost $5 million over the aborted deal, MPs heard.

"We did this to be of service to the government, not for the government to help us and it is incredibly unfortunate the fallout that has occurred," Craig Kielburger said.

A copy of the funding agreement filed with the committee this week showed the government only planned to spend $500 million in grants, even though the Liberals had described the program as having a $912-million budget.

Employment and Social Development Canada, the federal department overseeing the program, said the $543 million in the agreement was what officials estimated it would cost to administer and pay grants to up to 100,000 eligible students or recent graduates  "the expected uptake of the program." There was extra money available if the demand was higher.

During testimony, Marc Kielburger said WE expected the majority of students to volunteer between 100 and 300 hours, making the true cost of the program to be between $200 million and $300 million.

WE was paid its first fees of $19.5 million on June 30  seven days after one of its arms, WE Charity Foundation, signed the federal deal on June 23.

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Former board chair Michelle Douglas told the committee earlier that the foundation didn't appear to have a purpose outside of holding real estate, nor did the board receive a satisfactory explanation for its existence.

The foundation didn't operate or hold any assets before the volunteer program, having been set up originally to limit liability to the charity's assets, the committee heard.

Marc Kielburger cited unspecified expert advice that WE use the foundation to oversee the program because the government expected WE to assume full liability during a health crisis for youth volunteers and partner non-profits. He said ESDC was aware of how WE planned to use its various structures.

On July 3, WE backed out of the agreement. It has promised to repay every dollar it received, about $30 million, but was still sorting out details.

At the time, WE said a program structure was largely in place for the federal public service to manage. It handed everything to the government "hoping to save the program," but problems with what WE put in place have since emerged. The government has yet to open applications.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2020.
The Case of 3MA (Minnesota-McGill-Manitoba-Alberta) Studies

One of the most important aspects of a clinical trial publication is the way it is presented. In todays deceptive times, we have to scrutinize every research publication carefully when we see leading authorities fumbling with their decisions regarding COVID-19.

Before this pandemic, we could close our eyes and believe the words printed in top medical journals like The Lancet, NEJM, Annals of Internal Medicine, but not now. The same applies to the study on Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in prevention or treatment of COVID-19.

HCQ study was highly in news due to the political angle with the US president endorsing it prior, and was also entangled in the monetary maze of huge COVID market. When we dissect out some of the quick studies in the name of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT), shocking anomalies tumble out of the pandoras box.

For the benefit of non-clinical researchers, I will simplify this story to elucidate how data has been massaged and incongruence in findings polished sophisticatedly to provide a masterly shape.

I will provide links to the relevant documents at the end, and quote these references like it is done in a research paper. Such research papers have become the toast of the mainstream media to make you believe that HCQ is dead and that we (the people) should move on (actual quote) to other methods and medicines.

Let us start with the recently published study on 16th July in Annals of Internal Medicine by Dr. David Boulware from Minneapolis who has published his 2nd negative study on HCQ in recent months (1,2) funded by a private donor as stated in the paper.

He was the first author of an earlier study published in NEJM (1) and filled an ICJME form disclosing no conflict of interest (3), conveniently forgetting about the 2019 annual meeting of ASTMH where he declared his financial relationship with commercial interest with Gilead- Makers of Remdesivir (4).

Interestingly, he has split both studies from a single protocol listed on clinical trials.gov (5). The objectives of both studies are not just different, but the objective of 2nd study starts where the first ends. One is about trying to prevent COVID-19 in patients exposed to infection through a close primary contact and second is to treat when COVID-19 has developed. Do you need confirmation with RT-PCR in such a study?

According to this author who is an infectious disease specialist, not necessary for both studies since symptoms should suffice. Thus, in the first study on post-exposure prophylaxis, only 18 per cent people were confirmed to have developed Covid positive status as tested by RT-PCR and in the second study, only 34 per cent patients had RT-PCR confirmed diagnosis. Was this a limitation for them? Apparently not, as was articulated that 4 infectious disease Physicians carefully evaluated the symptoms developed to generate a consensus that it was COVID-19, if RT-PCR was not available.

Sadly, that was the case with 82 per cent of patients in the 1st study and 66 per cent of the 2nd study. How does it matter if a patient had muscle pain (myalgia) or little bit of loose motions to have classified as COVID-19?

Clinical science is paramount and can supersede laboratory science according to these authors. What was the proposed sample size as per original protocol? 3,000 for both studies as per statistical sample size calculation based on the primary endpoints in each study. What if the numbers enrolled would not be adequate? No issue, provide for interim analysis at multiple steps and re-estimate sample size that can reduce from one analysis to other and if required stop the study. How is it possible? Why not, we have stopping rules to our rescue. Thus, when the 1st interim analysis was done in the first study, sample size was reduced from 1500 to 956 and in the 2nd interim analysis, trial was stopped because the endpoint was reached, since RT-PCR was not required to confirm development of COVID-19.

So how does it matter if a patient of sore throat, diarrhoea or muscle pain was confirmed as Covid-19? We found HCQ doesnt prevent COVID-19 even if such patients are 66 per cent of our population. For drawing actionable conclusions, it is necessary to read the fine print if RT-PCR was done for all or not. This is fact and not fiction or satire, as seen when one of the frontline warrior doctor from a leading Mumbai hospital, himself suffering from COVID-19 in his own ICU, came on TV to state that his hospital switched from HCQ to Remdesivir.

To continue our story, this winning team of Minnesota having accomplished the first goal of hitting post-exposure prophylaxis, moved on to demolish the claim that HCQ can work if given early.

This was necessary because most of the earlier studies were in hospitalized patients and the primary care users around the world were striving to use it early to prevent hospitalizations.

Dr. Zelenko in upstate New York was making it a crusade and was much vilified by the political opposition since he gave this idea to his President. In Brazil, there was war raging between right and left wing with many people opposing their Presidents attempts at spreading the use of HCQ. He has sacked two of his health ministers in succession allegedly on account of their stiff resistance to use HCQ.

In France, the PM was sacked by the President again allegedly due to his banning of HCQ despite studies from Prof Didier in Marseille having shown great results. Whole world was split on its use but the end of this war could come closer, if the early use is struck down with a powerful RCT weapon.

Both recovery and solidarity stoppage of HCQ arm was not enough to wipe out HCQ because social media spread the word that the dosage used in these two studies were toxic that was not highlighted by any mainstream media.

When the Chief investigator of Recovery study (Martin Landray) made a mistake in his interview given to France Soir by citing the high dose coming from Amoebic Dysentery as he had possibly mistaken Hydroxychloroquine with hydroxyquinolones that were used for amoebiasis once upon a time (even there the dose of diiodohydroxyquinoline should not exceed 2000 mg/day, Recovery gave 2400 mg of HCQ on day 1). When he denied what he said in his telephonic interview, France Soir published his audio tape of the interview on their website embarrassing him further.

While this was all happening in the background the Minnesota team could not wait any further to finish recruitment in the 2nd split study. What followed with rapid speed was manoeuvring the data collected from their internet surveyed, remotely monitored & no human contact ethical & scientific mail-box RCT. I am only trying to recreate the chain of events that are likely to have happened, while the facts presented below can be easily verified from the sources quoted.

Architects of the 2nd trial had realized that the sample size was far below the required 1500. They decided to move 100 subjects from the first study of post-exposure prophylaxis to be added to the second study that dealt with treatment. The same dose given in both studies came very handy to do this feat, though completely non-compliant to global guidelines.

However, the issue was the difference between patient population based on symptoms. First being prophylaxis study, patients had to be asymptomatic but 2nd being early treatment study had to be symptomatic.

But what if some of these patients developed any of the symptoms hours before they took their first dose of HCQ distributed for their enrolment in the first study? Voila, that solved the problem, these 100 patients were moved from 1st to 2nd study claiming to have developed at least one symptom hours before consuming their first dose. Will that be acceptable? Why not, if you insert a line in the paper saying that it was prespecified in the protocol? Which protocol - study 1 or 2?

Dont you worry, both studies are under the same protocol and same unique no. (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04308668) (5). But, what if the protocol doesnt specifically mention possibility of such a transfer? Most clinicians do not bother to search the protocol and read it once the paper is published in a top journal.

Still there is a big issue, the numbers do not stack up to the sample size requirement of 1500 for the early treatment study. The bigger problem is that hospitalizations are very few, maybe because patients with sore throat and a bout of diarrhea or muscle pain dont need hospital admissions as RT-PCR is not mandatory in this trial too.

Then a brilliant solution could have been suggested. Can we change the primary endpoint? Why not, if NIH could do that for Remdesivir and the product was approved even without meeting the original endpoint, why not in this study? In any case, no regulatory authority could bother about this study, in fact they would be happy with such results, having banned HCQ use in many countries. But what could be the justification for such a major change in the middle of the study? Can we say that hospitalizations were less and sample size would be much more than what we planned (1500)? Wonderful, if you have a friendly DSMB, such justifications will fly. A strict DSMB (data safety monitoring board) will not allow change of endpoint in the middle of study because some parameter like less hospitalization will increase sample size. But not in this case.

Thus, the goalpost of this study was shifted dramatically from Ordinal Scale of COVID-19 Disease maximum severity at day 14 which included the following measurements: 1. No illness 2. Illness with outpatient observation 3. Hospitalization (or post-hospital discharge) 4. Hospitalization with ICU stay or Death to the following new endpoint.

Change in symptom severity score (visual analog scale 0-10) over 14 days. Was it there before as a secondary endpoint? Ok, it was there but we simply removed 5 day and kept it at 14 days which should be enough. Original secondary endpoint: Severity of symptoms at Day 5 and 14, whereas secondary outcome measure as per section 3.2.2 in original protocol was only at day 5 with VAS.

Since secondary endpoints are not statistically powered, there was a need for new statistical estimation of sample size because it became a primary endpoint. While elevating secondary endpoint to primary, they also shaved it off by removing intermediate time point keeping only at 14 days. Why you may ask? There is no explanation provided except that there is a small co-incidence of day 10 symptom severity score showing statistical significance (p=0.05) between HCQ and placebo (table 4, page 11 of supplemental material) (6). Can you imagine that the only significant finding in the whole study being buried in supplemental material and doesnt find any mention in the main paper which declares that HCQ doesnt work.

This burial was possible by changing the primary endpoint in the middle of the study. Were the regulatory authorities in US and Canada kept informed of this plastic surgery on the protocol mid-stream? There is no way to know since it has not been reported.

What about individual symptom measurement? After changing an objective endpoint to a highly subjective endpoint by measuring with visual analog scale (by providing a slider from 1 to 10 cm scale), at least all symptom grading should have been provided. Venn diagram in the paper identifies 174 patients who had at least 2 symptoms out of 3 important ones (fever, cough, dyspnea), how do they rate their improvement for each? Anyway there is no human contact with the patients, they are the ones who agreed to participate. So if a patients fever comes down with HCQ but cough doesnt, he would still not be considered as improved.

Now we come to the last 3 alleged manipulations that were without even any attempt at justification or explanation in the paper or protocol. Before we reach there, it is important to know some more details. Since the DSMB on 24th April had agreed to change the endpoint, statistical estimation was required again for this new shaved secondary endpoint that just became primary.

The statisticians from the DSMB suggested that at least 400 patients will be required for the new endpoint. However, there were only 237 patients meeting the inclusion criteria even after moving 100 patients into this study that were removed from the 1st study. So, they decided to add 35 patients who hadnt consumed a single dose of either HCQ or placebo, who would normally not form part of the analysis population. Then there were additional 69 patients who were tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR (supplemental Table 1) who should not have been enrolled in the study. If their reports came in after enrolment, they should still be excluded from analysis as they violate the inclusion criteria as spelt out below from the protocol-

If a symptomatic person tests negative for SARS-CoV-2, they are not eligible for enrolment. (page 11 of protocol v1.0) (7). This statement continues to exist in the revised protocol v2.3 on page 14 and hence still valid.

Despite adding all these patients in violation of the protocol, only 341 patients could stack up, which was less than 25 per cent of the sample size of 1500 and also short of the 400 mark suggested by DSMB. Now nothing else from their grey doctrine outside of rule book could help. Then they had to rely on their instinct, which suggested to take advantage of those clauses of the protocol readers can easily miss or overlook. If readers miss the difference between an AND and an OR, it would be possible to add 82 more patients who were symptomatic but not having any primary contact PCR positive but the following inclusion criteria was prohibiting their addition-

Exposure to known PCR+ SARS-CoV-2 case within 14 days AND compatible symptoms of fever, cough, or shortness of breath (and no available testing for the individual).

Mark the word AND, if this is treated as OR then 82 cases which had one of the symptoms but no known PCR+ contacts could be added to take the number above 400 (precisely 423).

Thus, If you apply all inclusion criteria strictly framed in the protocol available, the total number reduces to 237 which reduces the statistical power of this study to only 37 per cent which nobody will consider acceptable since the minimum required power is 80 per cent for any good RCT.

There are so many questions that need an answer from the architects of these 2 studies as narrated above. Instead of waiting for the full trial to be completed as per pre-determined sample sizes, what was the tearing hurry to wrap it up with warp speed? What about the 4 reputed universities involved in this study, viz Minnesota, McGill, Manitoba and Alberta? What about the regulatory agencies? Will they inspect data from all these studies to review their decisions to ban a product being sold for 65 years for daily use of many years in other indications? The treatment course for Covid-19 is only 6 days that is being prevented while its daily use in rheumatoid arthritis & SLE continues for chronic use?

Just like the advanced regulatory agencies inspect clinical trial data before approving a new drug, should they not be inspecting data from such studies based on which they ban safe drug in the midst of a pandemic where people are dying. Does it all make sense?

References

1) https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2016638

2) https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-4207#f5-M204207

3)https://www.nejm.org/doi/suppl/10.1056/NEJMoa2016638/suppl_file/nejmoa2016638_disclosures.pdf

4)https://www.astmh.org/ASTMH/media/2019-Annual-Meeting/ASTMH-2019-Speaker-Disclosure-Statement.pdf

5) https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04308668

6)https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/suppl/10.7326/M20-4207/suppl_file/M20-4207_Supplement.pdf

7) https://www.nejm.org/doi/suppl/10.1056/NEJMoa2016638/suppl_file/nejmoa2016638_protocol.pdf

Dr Dhananjay Bakhle, Executive Vice President  Medical Research, Lupin.

(He is profiled in a book Thought Leaders among 22 personalities from different fields published by Tata McGrawHill in 2000)

The views expressed here are his own and do not represent the views of the organization that he works for.

Statement on conflict of interest: Hydroxychloroquine is exported to US by the company he works for but not marketed in India.

(Views expressed in all contributed articles are the respective author's own, and BioSpectrum India does not claim to verify any claims or endorse any opinion whatsoever)
Belarusian Authorities Accused Of 'Fostering Fear' Ahead Of Presidential Vote

By RFE/RL's Belarus Service July 27, 2020

MINSK -- Human rights groups have accused Belarusian authorities of fostering an atmosphere of "fear and intimidation" ahead of a presidential election scheduled for August 9.

The Human Rights Defenders For Free Elections campaign, run by the Belarusian Helsinki Committee and the Vyasna (Spring) human rights center in Minsk, said in a joint statement on July 27 that a campaign of repression has been initiated by the authorities, including the current detention of 25 individuals on politically motivated charges.

In all, the total number of people arrested since the beginning of the election campaign exceeds 1,140, of whom 190 were incarcerated and 333 were ordered to pay fines, the activists said.

The rights groups emphasized that the Supreme Court of Belarus had denied the appeal of potential opposition presidential candidate Valer Tsapkala against the decision of the Central Election Commission to reject his registration and refused to look into a similar complaint filed by another potential candidate, Viktar Babaryka.

Experts of the Human Rights Defenders For Free Elections campaign believe that when making the decision on Tsapkala's complaint, the court ignored the circumstances of the case and failed to take into account "important reasons" that created obstacles for Babaryka's campaign to meet deadlines, which legislation allows to be prolonged.

Tsapkala had to flee the country with his children several days ago, fearing a politically motivated arrest, while Babaryka and his son Eduard were arrested in June on embezzlement charges, which they and their supporters call trumped up and imposed in order to prevent Babaryka from taking part in the vote.

The joint statement by the human rights groups also noted that the Central Election Commission's move to reduce the number of observers at polling stations to five people bars independent observers from monitoring the election process and violates the basic principle of transparency in democratic elections.

The statement expressed a particular concern over statements made by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and the head of the Security Council, Andrey Raukou, about the possibility of involving troops to counter protests and demonstrations.

"Representatives of the Human Rights Defenders For Free Elections consider it as creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in the society," the statement said.

The August 9 election comes as Lukashenka faces mounting public opposition after 26 years in power. Hundreds of people, including activists and bloggers, have been arrested as the government has cracked down hard on rallies and demonstrations supporting opposition candidates who were not registered by election officials.

Western governments and institutions, including the United Nations, have called on Lukashenka's government to stop the crackdown.

Tsapkala's wife, Veranika Tsapkala, who remained in the country, and a coordinator of Babaryka's campaign, Maryya Kalesnikava, have joined to support opposition presidential candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya who, unlike Tsapkala and Babaryka, was registered as a presidential candidate.

Tsikhanouskaya became a candidate after her husband, well-known vlogger Syarhey Tsikhanouski, was incarcerated for openly expressing his intention to run for president.

Tsikhanouskaya also moved her two children to an EU country out of concern for their safety after receiving threats ahead of the election.

On July 26, Tsikhanouskaya told a gathering of thousands of people who came to express their support for her in the southeastern city of Homel that her son told her via the Internet that he was "scared for her."

"I don't want to live in a country where it's scary to live. I want to live in my native country, where it is not scary to live, it is not scary to talk," Tsikhanouskaya said.

She stressed that by removing "the three strongest candidates for the presidency" -- Syarhey Tsikhanouski, Viktar Babaryka, and Valer Tsapkala -- "the authorities failed to take into account that "behind every strong man stands a strong woman."

Lukashenka has rejected domestic and Western criticism of the government's violent dispersal of pro-democracy demonstrations and the disqualification of candidates.

The Belarusian leader has ruled the country since 1994 and is currently serving his fifth term as president. Belarus abolished presidential term limits in 2004.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/belarusian-authorities -accused-of-fostering-fear-ahead-of -presidential-vote/30749247.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.

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After her recent controversial statement on Bigg Boss, Oviya has yet again taken to social media to lash out at the reality show. The actress who rose to fame with the same show had lately asked her fans about their opinion of banning Bigg Boss. Though a few netizens slammed her calling a 'hypocrite', many others supported her statement and said that the show should indeed be banned. She also said that she wished that the makers don't torture the contestants until they commit suicide just for the sake of TRP.

While replying to a user who asked why she didn't read the contract in full to evaluate the risks, instead of going for fame and money, Oviya clarified that she is not saying to ban the show. She added that the makers should have mercy towards the contestants of the show. She said, "A contract paper should not be the license to put someone in mental trauma or make dem commit suicide every life matters! I'm not saying to ban the show. Atleast show some mercy sir! we are all human."(sic)

A contract paper should not be the license to put someone in mental trauma or make dem commit suicide.every life matters! I'm not saying to ban the show.atleat show some mercy sir!we are all human   Oviyaa (@OviyaaSweetz) July 28, 2020

For the uninitiated, Oviya has been a contestant in the inaugural season of Bigg Boss Tamil. She gained huge appreciation for her stint inside the house, which eventually helped her garner a huge fan following. The actress walked out of the show citing health reasons.

On the work front, the actress will next be seen in Raja Bheema in a cameo. Directed by Naresh Sampath, the film has Arav and Ashima Narwal essaying the lead roles. The movie also stars Yogi Babu, Nassar and KS Ravikumar.

Actor Shaam Arrested In Chennai For Gambling

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Holly Willoughby, Christine Lampard and Emily Atack have led the UK stars taking part in the new viral 'women supporting women' Instagram challenge.

Holly, 39, Christine, 41, and Emily, 30, all took to their social media to post a stunning black-and-white photo of themselves in a bid to promote women empowerment.

The viral challenge was created earlier this week and encourages women to support and build each other up through social media. It has been spread by sending DMs to each other explaining the movement and rules.

Women supporting women! Holly Willoughby (pictured), Christine Lampard and Emily Atack have led the UK stars taking part in the new 'women supporting women' Instagram challenge

Once nominated by a friend, the participant has to post a black-and-white photo of themselves to Instagram with the caption 'challenge accepted' and the person who nominated them. They also have to use the hashtags #womenempowerment and #womensupportingwomen.

Holly revealed she was nominated by friend Shiarra Bell, stylist Angie Smith and make-up artist Patsy O'Neill as she posted a stunning selfie.

The This Morning star penned: 'Challenge accepted @shishib @angiesmithstyle @patsyoneillmakeup ... Always and forever I will lift up and support my womenfolk #womensempowerment #womensupportingwomen.'

Empowerment: Holly, Christine (pictured), and Emily all took to their social media to post a stunning black-and-white photo of themselves in a bid to promote women empowerment

Viral challenge: The viral challenge was created earlier this week and encourages women to support and build each other up through social media. It has been spread by sending DMs to each other explaining the movement and rules (Emily pictured)

Christine revealed she was nominated by pals Holly, Nicole Appleton and Nadia Sawalha. She posted a gorgeous selfie and wrote: '#challengeaccepted #womensupportingwomen #womenempowerment @ruby1kid @hollywilloughby @nadiasawalha .'

While Emily shared that she was tagged in the challenge by Pixie Lott, Kimberly Wyatt and stylist Danielle Whiteman as she smouldered for a black-and-white selfie.

She penned: 'Challenge accepted @pixielott @kimberlywyatt @danniiwhiteman  - #womensupportingwomen.'

Victoria Beckham, 46, also posted a photo for the movement and a sweet snap of daughter Harper, nine, for the empowering challenge. She revealed she had been nominated by son Brooklyn's new fiancee Nicola Peltz.

Raising strong women! Victoria Beckham, 46, also posted a photo for the movement and a sweet snap of daughter Harper, nine, for the empowering challenge. She revealed she had been nominated by son Brooklyn's new fiancee Nicola Peltz

Stunning: Fearne Cotton, 38, also posted a black-and-white selfie as part of the movement, she put: '#challengeaccepted @jakkidoodles #womensupportingwomen .'

Happy: Getting involved with the challenge, Ulrika Jonsson, 52, posted a fun snap of herself to Instagram alongside the caption: '#challengeaccepted @gorgeousfifties. Coming for you @miss.disan.77 @loolee_01 @julie_jonesuk @michellemachinj @sabrinaghayour #womensupportingwomen.'

She penned: 'Challenge accepted! Thank you for the nomination @nicolaannepeltz  empowering women has always been at the heart of VB. I'll be nominating all the inspirational women in my life (of which there are many!) x vb.'

Victoria added on Harper's photo: 'Raising strong women is as important as supporting them  #HarperSeven #blackandwhitechallenge #womensupportingwomen.'

Fearne Cotton, 38, also posted a black-and-white selfie as part of the movement, she put: '#challengeaccepted @jakkidoodles #womensupportingwomen .'

Candid: Little Women star Florence Pugh, 24, also took part as she shared a candid black-and-white photo after working out. She penned: 'Challenge accepted. #istanbulconventionsaveslives #womenempowerment #womensupportingwomen.'

Beauty: Model Abbey Clancy also took part in the movement, she penned: 'WOMEN SUPPORTING WOMEN !! To all the strong ladies out there we got this!!'

PCD: Pussycat Dolls star Kimberley Wyatt wrote: 'Women supporting women and lifting each other up is something I hope this little exercise helps us all do more of!!! To all the AMAZING WOMEN OUT THERE!!! We got this....especially when we got each other!'

Love wins: Claudia Winkleman got involved with the challenge and posed in a 'love wins' T-shirt

Getting involved with the challenge, Ulrika Jonsson, 52, posted a fun snap of herself to Instagram alongside the caption: '#challengeaccepted @gorgeousfifties . Coming for you @miss.disan.77 @loolee_01 @julie_jonesuk @michellemachinj @sabrinaghayour #womensupportingwomen.'

Little Women star Florence Pugh, 24, also took part as she shared a candid black-and-white photo after working out. She penned: 'Challenge accepted. #istanbulconventionsaveslives #womenempowerment #womensupportingwomen

'I've been told that the true meaning of this hashtag and this b&w photo- 'It is to shed light onto the Istanbul Convention, women are being subjected to violence and this convention is to end forgiveness for the attacker/murderers.'

Lovely: Presenter Alex Jones posted a gorgeous black-and-white selfie as part of the challenge

Movement: Helen Skleton looked radiant as she posed a photo for the movement and revealed she was tagged by Julia Bradbury

Topical! Frankie Bridge shared a selfie of herself in a black-and-white snakeskin face mask for the movement

'With that in mind, adjust your hashtags if you didn't already do so. Thank you @jessicaroseweiss, @bellathorne and @edibow for inviting me. Let's ride gals. Post your b&w in support of this movement, these women need the world to hear.'

Model Abbey Clancy and her close friend, Pussycat Dolls star Kimberley Wyatt, also took part in the challenge as they tagged each other on Instagram.

A slew of UK stars have got involved with the viral challenge while US celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston, Khloe Kardashian and Hilary Duff have also supported the movement.

Animated: Loose Women star Nadia Sawalha posted a fun snap of herself for the movement

Lovely: Strictly dancer Dianne Buswell looked gorgeous as she posed for a radiant selfie
Serbia Seeks to Purchase More Warplanes to Strengthen its Armed Forces, Potentially from Russia

By VOA News July 27, 2020

Serbia is seeking to further strengthen its armed forces by purchasing more warplanes, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Sunday.

Vucic made the statement while visiting an army tank brigade in Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia's autonomous province of Vojvodina.

"We cannot keep track of the gifts and donations that certain NATO counties in the neighborhood are getting from the United States, Germany and other countries and therefore we must fight alone to preserve the peace alone and to preserve our future alone," Vucic said.

Vucic did not specify what warplanes Belgrade plans to buy but said the intention is the safety of his country and the stability and peace in the Balkan region.

"We, as a military neutral country, want to preserve our military neutrality, which means that we look after our sky alone, to look after our country alone. We will invest money and I believe that we, by not wanting to participate in any sort of race, will always be able to guarantee safety, stability but also peace," Vucic continued.

Pro-government media reported that Serbia had officially asked the United States for 20 fighter-bombers, but Washington had not responded to the request.

The report, however, speculated that in case of a U.S. refusal, Serbia was likely to purchase "Sukhoi-25" attack aircraft from Russia.

"The Americans, Turks and Germans are taking care of their beloved child," Vucic said, referring to Kosovo. He said Washington had recently equipped Kosovo's security forces with armored vehicles.

Although claiming Serbia's military neutrality, Belgrade has recently received a sophisticated anti-aircraft system from Russia, including fighter jets, attack helicopters, and armored vehicles.

Serbia has also obtained military drones from another ally, China.

The U.S. has said that it would impose sanctions against Serbia if Moscow sends more arms to the country, which could threaten the security of neighboring NATO members.

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China on Tuesday announced a decision to suspend extradition and judiciary assistance treaties between its Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and Canada, Australia and Britain.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the announcement at a press briefing.

Canada, Australia and Britain, on the pretext of China's passage of the law on safeguarding national security in the HKSAR, have unilaterally suspended their respective agreements with Hong Kong on fugitives transfer, grossly interfered in China's internal affairs, and seriously violated international law and basic norms governing international relations, Wang said, noting that China firmly opposes this.

He added that with the assistance and authorization of the central government, the HKSAR has actively rendered assistance to Canada, Australia and Britain in accordance with the HKSAR Basic Law and within the framework of the treaties.

The politicization of judicial cooperation with HKSAR by Canada, Australia and Britain has severely damaged the foundation for the HKSAR to carry out judicial cooperation with the three countries and has deviated from safeguarding justice and the rule of law via judicial cooperation, Wang said.

Therefore, the Chinese side has decided to suspend the HKSAR's fugitives transfer agreements and agreements on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters with Canada, Australia and Britain, Wang said.
Actor Ranvir Shorey claimed that a gang exists in Bollywood. In a tweet, he claimed that a group of a select few powerful, corrupt, crafty old men and a select few second generation younger producers who have inherited film empires try to control things in the industry.

The Gang is essentially a mutually beneficial alliance of a few powerful, corrupt, crafty old men, and a few second generation younger producers who have inherited film empires. Their objective is to have control over the top of the pyramid and have pliable stars. #Bollywood, he wrote on Twitter.

"The Gang" is essentially a mutually beneficial alliance of a few powerful, corrupt, crafty old men, and a few second generation younger producers who have inherited film empires. Their objective is to have control over the top of the pyramid and have pliable stars. #Bollywood  Ranvir Shorey (@RanvirShorey) July 27, 2020

In a recent interview with Hindustan Times, Ranvir opened up about being professionally and socially isolated between 2003 and 2005, after his public fallout with the Bhatts. He said that the atmosphere got so toxic for him that he had to briefly leave the country.

Also read | Ranvir Shorey shares experience after fallout with Bhatt family: I was professionally and socially isolated, pressured

The fight for my place in the industry is still on. I am still an outcast. It is not like that fight is over. After I came back, I had to start from scratch. I went back to doing television. I did The Great Indian Comedy Show and from there on, it has been a crawl making my own space as an actor, he said.

Now, thanks to streaming platforms, one doesnt have to depend on the coterie that controls theatrical distribution and media in the country, as far as the movie business is concerned. Since then, I have had to slowly and steadily had to work at my own filmography. I have done parts in films which thankfully got some attention and notice. But that is definitely no thanks to me being accepted by so-called mainstream biggies, he added.

Ranvir, who made his Bollywood debut with Ek Chotisi Love Story in 2002, was last seen on the big screen in Angrezi Medium. He was more recently seen in the film Kadakh, which was released on SonyLIV. His next release is Lootcase, which is scheduled to premiere this Friday on Disney+ Hotstar.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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Cinema hall owners have asked the Central government to allow operations at 50 percent occupancy, arguing that it will not be economically viable otherwise. Reports suggested the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) is considering a staggered opening of theatres with a 25 percent cap on capacity.

The government is in the process of preparing new guidelines for further relaxation of restrictions from August 1. If the 25 percent cap is enforced, in addition to the entire front and back rows, every alternate seat in a row must be kept empty, as per a Business Standard report.

According to the hall owners, unlike in other countries, in India, the cost of the rental is high and tickets are priced low (around Rs 150-250), which makes it unviable to run operations if half the seats are not occupied.

Track this LIVE blog for latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic

The nationwide lockdown, imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19, has impacted 10,000-odd screens (of which 2,800 are in multiplexes).

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

"If in flights, where the average journey is two hours, the middle seat has not been kept vacant. It defies logic why cinema halls being asked to keep front and back rows empty, plus every alternate seat," said a senior executive of a multiplex company.

The owners have proposed a seating arrangement resembling a chessboard, which will ensure 50-50 distribution. "The discussions between screen owners and the government are ongoing and a final call will be taken soon," sources told BS.

Also read: Unlock 3.0: Will schools, cinema halls, international flights restart? Here's what FICCI recommends

Multiplex owners, meanwhile, have prepared a detailed standard opening procedure (SoP) to be followed when operations commence. These include sanitisation of the hall before and after each show, the row-wise exit of customers, staggered show timings, paperless tickets, among others.

Industry body FICCI in its Unlock 3.0 roadmap has suggested the government to reopen multiplexes and cinemas and metro rail, and allow international flight services, among others, with adherence to all safety precautions. The industry chamber has also favoured reopening of schools and educational institutions keeping in mind the local situation, as it outlined standard operating procedures for the lifting of several restrictions as part of Unlock 3.0.
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Kano state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Habu A. Sani, on Tuesday allayed fears of rumoured planned attack by yet-to-identified bandits in Kano.

The police boss told journalists that his men and officers are on top of the situation as both the intelligence gathering and physical combat officers have been out on alert to avert any threat to security of lives and property in the ancient commercial city.

He urged residents to move about their normal duties without apprehension as police and other security agencies are readily on ground.

The Police Boss who gave the assurance while decorating 252 officers of the Command elevated to new ranks, acknowledged that police have received reports of such rumours, but promised that adequate security arrangments have been put in place to forestall any eventuality.

He added that police and sister-security agencies have made several visits to identified areas suspected to be haven for bandits, but revealed that nothing yet was enough to bring panic in the ancient commercial city.

Habu, however, appealed to Muslim faithful to ensure blissful and peaceful Sallah celebrations through obedience to the laws of the and strict adherence to the COVID-19 protocols.

He urged all Kano residents to move about their normal businesses without fear, while appealing to them to report suspicious movements and continue to help the police with the right information that can lead to apprehension and prosecution of criminals and bandits.

Speaking shortly as after decorating the lucky officers, Mr. Habu, urged them to remain as true to duty like the needle to the pole.

According to him, today, we have witnessed the decorations of officers from this command who have been elevated to their new ranks. We give gratitude to Allah for making us witness this day.

I appreciate the approval of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, for these officers to be promoted to the new ranks. Equally, I thank the Police Service Commission who approved your promotion after going through your records.

Many of us have seen a lot of challenges as our service is on cause. Some paid the supreme sacrifice for our their nation. Some lost their lives, some sustained injuries and some are in sick bed awaiting to be well again so that they can continue their service to God, the nation and humanity.

To whom much is given, much is expected. Be ready to face challenges more especially at this trying times we have security challenges in some parts of the country.

You might be posted to those places, but you have to exhibit high sense of professionalism.

You have to maintain full obedience to the rules and regulations of the land and shun corruption.

You must be upright. Respect the constitution and obey the code of conducts. You have to understand that this is service to humanity and your father land.

The police boss who tasked the promotees to remain resolute and never derail from the ethics and ethos of the police force, also thanked the good people of Kano state, for their support and prayers for us to succeed in combating all forms of crime and crimialities.

He thanked President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje for their support to the Command and the Nigeria police in general.

Those promoted to new ranks in the Command include nine Deputy Superitendents of Police (DSP) elevated to Superintendents of Police (SP); four Assistant Superintendents of Police (ASP) promoted to DSPs; and 239 Inspectors who were elevated to ASPs.
The situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border was among the topics discussed over the phone by Russian and Turkish Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The two presidents stressed that there are no alternatives to diplomatic settlement of the conflict, the Kremlin press service said on Monday.



"The presidents exchanged views on the situation in the South Caucasus in the context of the aggravation of the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Vladimir Putin stressed the importance of prevention of any actions promoting further escalation. Both sides said they are interested in settling the conflict situation only by peaceful means, through talks," it said.



The leaders expressed readiness to coordinate efforts to stabilize the situation in the region. Putin and Erdogan also noted that "there are no alternatives to political and diplomatic settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of the principles of international law in the interests of the peoples of Armenia and Azerbaijan," TASS cited the Kremlin as saying.



The presidents also touched upon a number of current issues of the bilateral agenda. "Thus, they gave a positive assessment of cooperation in combating the coronavirus infection, which has made it possible to partially resume regular air service between a number of Russian and Turkish cities from August 1," the Kremlin said.

The situation in Syria and Libya also was among the topics discussed by Erdogan and Putin, the Turkish presidents office said.



The Russian leader also congratulated his Turkish counterpart on the upcoming Kurban Bayrami holiday.
British travellers stranded abroad during the coronavirus pandemic felt like they had been 'left to fend for themselves', according to an influential group of MPs.

Holidaymakers were treated with a lack of 'empathy and compassion' as part of a string of failures by the Foreign Office, they said.

MPs on the Commons Foreign Affairs committee blasted the department for giving 'misleading and outdated' advice, which at the time was 'entirely absent'.

The committee's report also said that the repatriation operation to bring back Britons was 'too slow' and 'placed too much reliance' on costly commercial travel providers.

Passengers from the Holland America Line ship Zaandam walk through arrivals in Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport in London on April 4 after flying back on a repatriation flight from Florida

Some 1.3million nationals were stranded during the coronavirus pandemic and eventually brought back to the UK.

The report said that 'too many UK citizens were not provided with the support that they should reasonably expect' when it came to help abroad.

Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, chair of the committee, said the inquiry concluded there had been 'clear failings'.

The report said: 'Many UK citizens stuck abroad reported that they were unable to access the information that they needed, whilst others were not treated with the empathy and compassion that they should expect.

'Though there were notable successes, the FCO was outpaced by events, leaving many seeing it as out of touch with the needs of those in difficulty.

Ellie Durrant (left), Alice Nuttall, 21 (second left) John Nuttall, 56 (2nd right) leave Gatwick Airport as passengers that travelled on a repatriation flight from Peru arrive on March 31

'Too many UK citizens were not provided with the support that they should reasonably expect to receive.'

The MPs said that 'little was done' to provide financial support for citizens facing hardship while stuck abroad.

They criticised the department for only spending 40 million of the 75 million allotted for repatriations, in a move Mr Tugendhat said could 'only be explained as cost-cutting'.

'For many of those Britons stranded, the advice they received from the FCO was confusing, inconsistent and lacking in compassion, at other times misleading and outdated, and, in the worst cases, entirely absent,' he said.

'The lack of accurate, helpful information meant many felt forgotten and as though they had been left to fend for themselves.

Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs committee, said the inquiry concluded there had been 'clear failings'

'The FCO was at times too slow to recognise and respond to issues with their communication, and going forward must adopt a more agile and adaptable approach.'

MPs said France and Germany were among countries to have placed greater focus on charter flights early on in the crisis and were able to repatriate their citizens 'more quickly'.

The UK chartered 186 flights to support the 1.3 million nationals travelling abroad, whereas Berlin chartered more than 260 flights for 260,000 citizens.

The FCO was criticised for only offering emergency loans as a 'last resort' and MPs said they were 'disappointed' the department considered it was 'acceptable advice' to tell citizens to crowdfund for help returning home.

They said the unspent money should be 'kept aside' for anyone stranded during a potential second wave of Covid-19 and should be used to help Britons who permanently reside overseas to return to the UK.
Ed Westwick and his stunning model girlfriend Tamara Francesconi continued to document their European getaway with a romantic shoot on Tuesday.

The former Gossip Girl star, 33, and his model girlfriend, 23, posed for the stunning snaps during their break to Italy, with some of the incredible backdrops including a lavish yacht and a grand fountain.

As ever Tamara - who began dating Ed last autumn - continued to display her phenomenal figure in an array of sexy ensembles, ranging from a cream corset top to a tiny dress covered with Renaissance artwork.

Ooh la la! Ed Westwick, 33, and his stunning model girlfriend Tamara Francesconi, 23, continued to document their European getaway with a romantic shoot on Tuesday

One snap from the PrettyLittleThing shoot showed Ed and his beautiful girlfriend sharing a look of love as they posed on a lavish yacht.

Tamara displayed her incredible figure in a tight cream corset top with puffed sleeves and matching oversized trousers.

In another snap the model turned up the heat by posing in a sexy mini dress covered with Reniassance-inspired artwork, teamed with a wide-brimmed hat.

Wow! The former Gossip Girl star and his model girlfriend posed for the stunning snaps during their break to Italy

Sizzling: As ever Tamara continued to display her phenomenal figure in an array of sexy ensembles, including a dress covered with Renaissance artwork

Tamara also displayed her model physique in a tiny floral mini dress and thigh-high boots, as the shoot displayed plenty of Italy's stunning classical architecture.

The fashion favourite, who boasts 206k Instagram followers, has been keeping her fans up to date with her travels, posting smouldering shots and cosy selfies with boyfriend Ed.

Ed went public with Tamara during a Los Angeles outing in October, after insiders claimed the couple had been dating for weeks.

Jaw-dropping: Tamara flaunted her endless pins in the strapless printed dress in the snaps surrounded by some of Italy's most stunning architecture

Sizzling: Tamara also displayed her model physique in a tiny floral mini dress and thigh-high boots in one snap from the PrettyLittleThing shoot

European adventure: The fashion favourite, who boasts 206k Instagram followers, has been keeping her fans up to date with her travels

A source told The Sun that Tamara is a hit with Ed's close-knit family: 'Tamara's head over heels with him and Ed is proud to tell everyone Tamara is his girlfriend,' the insider claimed.

'His friends and family all approve and think they're a great match.'

Their holiday comes after fans of the hit series Gossip Girl were eagerly anticipating a secretive announcement from Ed, though they were ultimately disappointed.

Ed teased on his social media platforms, 'Got a little something for you...Tomorrow 1pm.. Hint....xoxo' with an XOXO graphic that was the way the mysterious Gossip Girl ended each message.

Many fans thought the announcement was that he was going to return as his character Chuck Bass in the new sequel/soft reboot series that's happening on HBO Max, but instead he announced a new line of face masks with the XOXO logo.
There have been over 546 total press freedom incidents in the U.S. in the past few months, with roughly 137  over 25%  coming from law enforcement, according to new data from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

The state of play: Of the 125 physical attacks on the press during the recent protests, 77 have come from law enforcement.

New police rules also threaten journalists' access and independence.

Driving the news: The escalating protests in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere around the country are causing a surge in incidents, which were going down after the initial protests had begun in late May.

In Portland , there have been 52 reports of journalists being abused, according to the Press Freedom Tracker, cited by Columbia Journalism Review.

, there have been 52 reports of journalists being abused, according to the Press Freedom Tracker, cited by Columbia Journalism Review. In Seattle, journalists are angry that a Seattle judge ruled that five outlets, including the Seattle Times, must hand over unreleased photos and videos of a protest in May to help law enforcement solve an investigation.

journalists are angry that a Seattle judge ruled that five outlets, including the Seattle Times, must hand over unreleased photos and videos of a protest in May to help law enforcement solve an investigation. In New York, the police department has put forth new rules for review that give officers the ability to further restrict journalists from covering police activity.

Be smart: Experts fear that police are using the excuse of protecting federal property to suppress protest coverage.
Award-winning Central Florida home remodeling company, KBF Design Gallery, announces today the grand opening of its new more than 4,500 square foot showroom in Downtown Maitland. After serving the Central Florida community out of its Altamonte Springs location for more than 15 years, the family-owned and operated business is now welcoming customers at its new location (1295 South Orlando Avenue, across from The Enzian Theater and Park Maitland School) starting July 28. This comes as the founder, Keith Vellequette, retires and his children, 32-year-old Ashley Sheaffer and 29-year-old Adam Vellequette, are named principals of the company.

My sister and I have been fortunate to immerse ourselves in every aspect of the remodeling business since we were teenagers, said Adam Vellequette. Over the last year, we have thoughtfully and strategically planned every detail of what this new showroom should offer our community. As the new generation of leadership, we hope our new space is seen as a destination that not only sparks inspiration for those toying with the idea of a remodel, but also continues to be a trusted source for design expertise and project management for our loyal repeat customers.

When visiting the new showroom, customers are welcome to browse the companys stunning kitchen and bathroom displays that are continually outfitted with the industrys most innovative features including living bathroom greenery walls, silent kitchen sink faucets and Galley kitchen workstations. Customers can also explore the thousands of products displayed throughout the space  including the highest quality and latest backsplashes, tiles, hardware and more, all ranging from traditional to transitional and modern styles.

We understand remodeling your home can be an overwhelming thought -- from deciding on a visually appealing, yet functional, design to choosing a color scheme and style youll love for years to come, said Sheaffer. We support our clients with an entire team, including in-house designers and field project managers, who are passionate about taking the guesswork out of remodeling and delivering results that exceed homeowners expectations.

KBF sets itself apart in Central Floridas remodeling space by its turnkey approach to making a customers design dreams come to life. The team first meets with the client (either in their home or virtually) during a complimentary design consultation where they can learn more about the clients desires. From there, the designer will take the ideas discussed in the consultation and collaborate with KBFs team of experts to custom tailor a design that is creative, unique and personal to the client and their home. This will then be presented in both two and three-dimensional renderings during a design review where the customer and KBF team will finalize the plans before construction begins.

KBF goes the extra mile to ensure each familys construction timeline is as limited as possible. The client is assigned a personal field supervisor who leads the crew of installers during each phase of the project, giving the client peace of mind during the entire process. Throughout the project, KBF will handle every detail  from ensuring the delivery of products, managing the installation and overseeing final touches.

Keith Vellequette founded KBF in 2003 after years of working in remodeling. Wanting to provide clients with a company that could handle design, quality installation and every part and piece of their remodel, he designed and created the KBF showroom as a one-stop-shop for home remodeling. His children, Adam and Ashley, have been part of the business since the beginning -- Adam starting off at age 16 doing demolition in the field, while Ashley built her career foundation in-house working alongside KBFs designers. In their new roles, Adam manages field operations and Ashley oversees the showroom staff leading sales and design.

KBF is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. To schedule an appointment or speak with a designer, please call 407-830-7703.

To learn more about KBF Design Gallery head to http://www.kbfdesigngallery.com and follow the company on social media:

Instagram: @KBFdesigngallery

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KBFDesign/

ABOUT KBF DESIGN GALLERY

KBF stands for kitchen, bath and flooring. By visiting the companys more than 4,500 square foot design gallery, you will find a variety of products to inspire your next renovation project. KBFs extensive sample inventory includes cabinetry, granite, quartz, bathroom and kitchen fixtures, cabinet hardware, tile, wood and much more. Whether you plan on remodeling your entire home, or just a single interior space, a KBF designer can take the stress out of home remodeling through our turnkey approach to bringing your dream space to life.
MIAMI  A blistering letter written last week by a group of organizers for the Florida Democratic Party listing several grievances, including claims that the campaign is suppressing the Hispanic vote, has raised concerns among activists that Democrats are not doing enough to engage Puerto Rican voters.

The internal letter, first reported by The Miami Herald, makes multiple allegations including how organizers have been moved to handle areas they are not familiar with, often with little notice, after spending months organizing in their own communities.

According to one of the organizers who signed the letter, the problems began when the Florida Coordinated Campaign moved in. The campaign includes previous staff members of former New York city mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg.

Everything has gone downhill since the Coordinated Campaign came in, said an organizer who asked not to be named since he's not authorized to talk to the media. You have people from other states that dont understand Florida politics.

The organizer said they were trained by the Democratic National Committee to organize within their communities through personal experiences and in their native languages, but now people are being brought in from states like New York who have no connection to the community.

"I don't think there is bad intention," the organizer said. "I just think there is a disconnect between leadership and our communities."

The letter, viewed by NBC News, states that the Florida Coordinated Campaign is suppressing the Hispanic vote by removing Spanish-speaking organizers from Central Florida, an area with a large concentration of Puerto Ricans, without explanation.

The organizer said most Puerto Ricans support former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, but the problem is talking to them and communicating with them so they vote.

The Florida Coordinated Campaign and the field organizers union, IBEW Local 824, are currently in talks to address the issue, according to a Democratic operative familiar with the talks.

Story continues

One of the concerns among organizers, which has been echoed among Democratic activists, is what they say is a lack of attention to the growing number of Puerto Ricans in the state, who number over 1 million. Over one third of eligible Latino voters in the state are Puerto Rican, similar to the share of Cuban Americans.

Out of the 94 field organizers who signed the letter, only a few are Puerto Rican, the organizer said.

In the 2016 presidential election, Puerto Ricans voted overwhelmingly against Donald Trump, but in the 2018 midterm election their turnout was soft, which worried Democrats.

Trump won Florida in the 2016 presidential election by 1 percent, and the latest poll has Biden leading in the state by 5 points.

Puerto Rican votes can be key

Natascha Otero-Santiago, a board member of the National Puerto Rican Agenda, who is involved with numerous Puerto Rican organizations in Florida, said that the situation with the organizers is they believe that the campaign is not taking the right steps and using 100 percent of their knowledge and experience with the Puerto Rican community.

Otero-Santiago said she had been advising Democrats in Florida and nationally for months that more needs to be done to court Puerto Rican voters.

She expressed a need for more Puerto Rican senior advisers in Florida and for more attention to be paid to the group. She said that with less than 100 days before Election Day, its easier to energize Puerto Ricans so they turn out than to convince Latino Republicans to change their minds about Trump.

We are hopeful this will be a successful campaign. But there are things that need to change and soon, Otero said.

Marcos Vilar, executive director of the progressive group Alianza for Progress, echoed a similar sentiment. Vilar, a Puerto Rican, has been based in Central Florida for years, working with the Puerto Rican community, and he says he understands the frustration among the organizers.

National Democrats and Democrats in general are a lot more aware of the Puerto Rican community than they were six years ago. But I think Florida is very confusing for national Democrats, said Vilar pointing out the diverse Latino community in the state.

He feels that a lot of the improvement in outreach has been because of activists who have been working in Florida for decades.

"There are groups, like Alianza for Progress, that will bring out the Puerto Rican vote. But the missing ingredient is a little bit of energy, a little bit of attention from the candidates themselves," he said.

The coronavirus pandemic has hampered excitement among voters, at a time when Latinos, especially younger ones, have shown less enthusiasm about the 2020 elections in general than they did earlier in the year and at this point in 2016, according to polling firm Latino Decisions, which was hired by the Biden campaign.

Florida is a pivotal swing state that many experts agree the president must win to be re-elected.

Tatiana Matta, a national Latino adviser for the Biden campaign, said that "as a Puerto Rican, I joined this movement to make Donald Trump a one-term president with a particular fire under me.

Every vote matters to our campaign and we take that statement very seriously, which is why we are making necessary investments to turn out the Hispanic Vote, including by reaching out to my fellow Puerto Ricans in Florida," she said in a statement.

Matta pointed out that the campaign has released ads specific to the community, hired a diverse team of Spanish-language organizers and supported the efforts of organizing groups like Boricuas con Biden.

Rep. Darren Soto, D-Fla., who is Puerto Rican and serves a Puerto Rican-heavy district in Central Florida, said he has asked that organizers be brought back to the neighborhoods they were working in.

Upon speaking to them, I have a good comfort level that theyre going to be making those adjustments in the next couple of days or weeks, he said.

He pointed to virtual events the Biden campaign has held to discuss issues important to the Puerto Rican community, like one last week in which he participated with state Rep. Amy Mercado.

Stephen Nuno, a senior analyst with Latino Decisions, said, We often say that members of organizations have two options when they see something wrong; they can voice their grievances or they can leave.

Whichever option they choose can be a function of their investment in the campaign," he said, "and in my view, young Latinos, using their voice rather than leaving, is a good sign for the Democrats in Florida.

Follow NBC Latino on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Chennai, July 28 : Tamil Nadu government will decide on extending the lockdown after Chief Minister K. Palaniswami holds a meeting with medical experts and district collectors, said officials.

The present lockdown comes to an end on July 31 and Palaniswami will be meeting the district collectors on Wednesday and the medical experts on Thursday.

While the total number of persons affected by coronavirus in the state has crossed 2.2 lakh the active cases after taking into account the cured and dead stands at 54,896 as on Monday.

The daily infection rate in the state hovers around 7,000 cases, the virus spread is more in the districts.

The virus spread in the state capital has been controlled to some extent and is hovering about 1,300 cases of new infections per day.

One view is that the lockdown may be extended further with relaxations in the restrictions.
Against the odds, the Lightning marches on

All creatures great and small devour the Lightning.

Shanghaied by coronavirus coverage, our graduation section, planting tomatoes and walking the dogs  census down to two Jack Russell rescues after Tater Tot died at age 16 last month  I failed to note recent anniversaries of the Lightning.

We went live with HendersonvilleLightning.com on April 24, 2012. We debuted the print product a couple of weeks later, on May 9. As friends of the Lightning have heard me say on Lightning radio (8 a.m. Thursdays on WTZQ) or in those long-ago in-person stump speeches, they told me we wouldnt make it nine months, nine weeks or nine days. Were marching toward our 10th birthday, still running down tips, covering politics, government and culture and, of course, new restaurants.

Back in early 2012, my newspaper friends were the biggest skeptics when they read our prospectus. Your advertising and paid circulation numbers are too aggressive, they said. Youre fighting a legacy daily thats well-established, plus TV, radio stations and other digital products.

I knew what they didnt know. I knew the audience. On a gut level, I sensed the need for the kind of product I wanted to deliver. The Lightning, as one reader said, scratches the itch our community has for wanting to know. Not just the headlines but context and history. Not just the who, what, where and when but the why. I tell young reporters: Ask open-ended, not yes-no, questions. Then shut up. Then ask why.

Which brings me to one of the ways were staying afloat. The Google News Initiative recently awarded the Lightning $5,000 from its Journalism Emergency Relief Fund to continue to report original local news at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has demolished retail print advertising.

Andrew DundasThe Google award is one reason Lightning readers have seen new bylines in recent weeks. Our chief correspondents this summer are Andrew Dundas, a rising senior at UNC at Chapel Hill, and Gracie Milner, a rising senior at Hendersonville High School.

Andrew grew up in Kansas and Iowa before moving to Western North Carolina in 2015. He lives in Fairview, where he was homeschooled. After two years at A-B Tech, he transferred to UNC last fall and is studying media and journalism.

Gracie MilnerGracie, whose beat includes how the public schools are operating in the pandemic, is at the top of her class. She volunteers throughout the community as a member of the National Honor Society and the Keywanettes. In addition to her reporting work for us, she works at Survival Innovations in Mills River as a seamstress making personal protective equipment for the fight against covid-19.

While the coronavirus taketh away retail advertising, it giveth new online readers. We had one other anniversary to celebrate recently and its a part of our business strategy, too. We installed the paywall for the website on July 17, 2019. We continue to see a surge in new online readers, from people mostly staying home and taking advantage of our All Access subscription, which includes the website content plus the weekly print product, delivered via U.S. mail on what we call Lightning Thursday. Were getting new readers but always welcome more. To subscribe, go here or call Jan at 828-698-0407.

Thank you, everyone, for being friends of the Lightning. The Lightning survives, the Lightning thrives, because of you.

* * * * *



Contact editor Bill Moss at billmoss@hendersonvillelightning.com.




VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Loyalty Brands, the parent company to a cohesive group of six business services franchises, will be taking its annual summit online this year, allowing those interested in exploring its franchise opportunities a chance to hear and connect with the leaders of each business concept. Each presenter will join participants via Zoom on Thursday, July 30 from noon to 2 p.m. EST. Those interested in joining the free, virtual seminar can register here or learn more on Facebook. All registered participants will receive a unique Zoom code via email that will grant entry the day of the summit.

The following executives will conduct presentations, sharing details of their unique franchise opportunity:

Rafael Alvarez , Chief Operating Officer (CEO) of ATAX, a full-service tax preparation franchise

, Chief Operating Officer (CEO) of ATAX, a full-service tax preparation franchise Jeff and Linda Nyman , CEO and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of First Choice Business Brokers, leading business brokerage

, CEO and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of First Choice Business Brokers, leading business brokerage Steve Rafsky , CEO of Loyalty Business Services, a tax, payroll and advisory services for small businesses

, CEO of Loyalty Business Services, a tax, payroll and advisory services for small businesses Tim and Rodica Lambert , President and Vice President, Shepherd's Guide, largest Christian business directory in the world

, President and Vice President, Shepherd's Guide, largest Christian business directory in the world Kim Marie Brand-Pettid and John Pokorney , CEO and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of LeTip World Franchise, the original business leads networking group

and , CEO and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of LeTip World Franchise, the original business leads networking group Jose Merille , President of Estrella Insurance, an insurance industry leader for over 40 years

Following the presentations, participants are welcome to join a thirty-minute breakout session to get face-time with executives of the brands they are most interested in. They will be able to ask questions and learn more about that specific business opportunity to truly get an in-depth understanding of the franchise partnership.

The pandemic has brought on soaring unemployment numbers  resulting in an ever-present need for interactive discovery day events. Many people have spent this time re-evaluating personal finances and career paths, and Loyalty Brands provides a unique franchise opportunity for interested business owners, as the symbiotic concepts allow for likeminded client referrals, or the ability to grow business acumen by purchasing similar franchise concepts. Moreover, as small business owners continue to rebound in the face of the pandemic, franchise concepts focused on advisory, brokerage, and tax preparation services continue to be an asset to their communities.

"Although we were presented with the unique challenge inflicted by the pandemic, we're humbled to still have the ability to connect with those interested in joining our franchise network, virtually," said Melissa Salyer, Executive Vice President of Franchise Development for Loyalty Brands. "Especially in the midst of the current business landscape we are facing, it's crucial we provide an interactive discovery day to let potential partners know they have the ability to thrive with us. We're excited to introduce all of the brands under the Loyalty Brands umbrella straight from the best sources possible."

Loyalty Brands is looking to attract entrepreneurs who are passionate in helping small business owners succeed. The overarching goal of Loyalty Brands, the parent company of six like-minded business services franchises, is to expand small business service offerings nationwide at an accelerated and supported pace.

For more information about these franchise opportunities, please visit https://loyaltybrands.com/.

About Loyalty Brands

Headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Loyalty Brands is an umbrella franchise company founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur John Hewitt. The Loyalty Brands consist of business brokerage, small business accounting, tax preparation and added services, networking and bartering. The company maintains a community first outlook, meaning that involvement in local communities and giving back is a core value. The multi-brand concept involves businesses that are synergistic and compatible, so potential franchisees could possibly own one or more of the brands for additional customer acquisition and co-marketing opportunities. To learn more about Loyalty Brands, please visit https://loyaltybrands.com/.

Media Contact: Anna Jensen, Fishman Public Relations, 847-945-1300 or [email protected]

SOURCE Loyalty Brands
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28)  President Rodrigo Duterte addressed the nation for an hour and 41 minutes on Monday, but not once did he mention the war-torn city of Marawi, which remains in shambles three years after a terrorists' siege that left over 1,100 people dead.

Several officials from Mindanao pointed out Marawi's absence in Duterte's fifth State of the Nation Address.

LIST: Stimulus bills, new departments top Duterte's Congress wish list

If the rehabilitation of Marawi was not mentioned in the SONA, does this mean it will not be given priority? Anak Mindanao Partylist Rep. Amihilda Sangcopan said in a statement. on Tuesday.

We waited for him to make any pronouncement that will somehow hasten infrastructure development in Marawi, but there was nothing, the Mindanaoan lawmaker said, adding that her fellow Moros were disappointed.

She noted that 17,000 Marawi residents are still displaced  either staying in temporary shelters or relatives homes since the war broke out in 2017. It took five months to liberate the city from Islamic State group-linked fighters.

The people of Marawi are languishing in this pandemic, too. And their suffering is aggravated by the fact that they cannot even go home because rehabilitation in Marawi has been slow, three years after that fated siege, Sangcopan said.

House Deputy Speaker and Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman hoped the President also gave a deadline for the rehabilitation of Marawi, since he was able to give an ultimatum for telecommunications companies to improve their services by December.

Sana binigyan na rin ng taning ang Marawi rehab katulad ng pagbibigay ng taning sa Smart and Globe, Hataman said on Twitter.

[Translation: O hope the Marawi rehab was given a deadline the same way a deadline was given for Smart and Globe.]

Task Force Bangon Marawi earlier expressed confidence it will meet the December 2021 deadline to rehabilitate the city, but several officials, including Vice President Leni Robredo want it fast-tracked.

Zia Alonto Adiong, who served as the Lanao del Sur provinces spokesperson during the Marawi crisis, said the government has started the construction of permanent shelters and rebuilding of damaged mosques, following the release of a 3.5-billion budget recently. But the people of Marawi needed assurance that Congress would allot funds for the rehabilitation to continue, he said.

I would like to remind the public that though three years may [seem] a distant past, the recovery and rebuilding of Marawi is still a major part of our current State of the Nation, Adiong said on Twitter. He is currently spokesperson of the provincial task force against COVID-19.

While Duterte failed to address the Marawi residents concerns on the delayed rebuilding of their city, he stressed that no abuses were committed during the enforcement of martial law in Mindanao for more than two years. Duterte placed the island region under military rule when local and foreign terrorists attacked Marawi in 2017.

Various groups, however, countered his statement, saying martial law had resulted in countless and brutal human rights violations."
Microphone and US Flag View Photo

The Democrat Weekly Address was delivered this week by Congressman Adam Schiff.

Schiff was Tuesdays Newsmaker of the Day. Here is the transcript:

Hello. Im Congressman Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

It was almost exactly four years ago that we first began to see evidence that Russia was interfering in our democracy and seeking to influence our elections. It was shocking and, at the time, unprecedented.

Directed by Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, Russian intelligence officers hacked Democratic emails and dumped them on the web to assist the Trump campaign. In addition, Kremlin-backed trolls in St. Petersburg used social media to stoke racial division, spread misinformation, damage Hillary Clintons campaign and our democracy.

The lights were flashing red, then. And they are flashing red, now. The Russians are once again intent on interfering in our presidential election. They are likely to use some of the same tactics they used in 2016, but we must also be on guard for new efforts to influence the outcome this fall.

U.S. persons, including elected officials, may be a target of a foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder or amplify disinformation to affect our public debate, discourse and decision as to who should be the next President of the United States.

Notwithstanding the growing evidence of this threat, what is President Trump doing to discourage these efforts to meddle in our democratic affairs? I will tell you. Nothing. Not one thing, quite the contrary.

In the face of continued foreign interference, and with a President who refuses to do anything to stop it, how do we protect our democracy? How do we protect the bedrock principle of our constitutional compact, that Americans decide American elections?

Heres how: first, we deter foreign interference from any nation by exposing it and making it clear that there will be serious consequences for any who try to meddle. Second, we disrupt it by any means necessary. Third, we arm the American people with good information to help prevent the spread of lies and disinformation. And finally, we vote. We vote.

Because as significant as the threat of foreign interference is to our elections, there is something even more dangerous to the health of our democracy. And that is domestic efforts to prevent Americans from voting by closing down polling stations, limiting the days and time for voting, imposing deliberately burdensome voter ID requirements, purging voter rolls and discrediting, in advance, the votes of millions of Americans who must vote-by-mail during a pandemic.

For months now, President Trump has sought to undermine the votes of millions by casting doubt on a form of voting he uses himself, vote-by-mail. And the president knows exactly what hes doing.

By suppressing the vote and seeking to disenfranchise people, he is trying to help himself, not the nation. By attacking vote-by-mail, by forcing people to choose between their health and their vote, he is trying to help himself, not the nation. And by seeking to discredit the results of our election before it even takes place, hes trying to help himself, not the nation.

Doing all of these things and at the same time, Donald Trump may end up doing more damage than any foreign government could by refusing to accept the results of the election or allowing a peaceful transition of power. If this is his ambition, he will not succeed.

This week, we lost a pioneer, a leader and a giant on whose shoulders we all stand  Congressman John Lewis. His memory is a blessing to all of us, and must be a guiding light. He was the conscience of the Congress and, more than that, he was my friend.

And while we honor him with our words, we must also honor him with our action  by speaking up and speaking out, by fighting against voter suppression, by fighting for the right to vote for all Americans and by casting that vote.

The President may try to tear down our democracy, but we will build it up. And come November, we will make sure of one thing  that Americans decide American elections.

Thank you.

The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.


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.
Lawyers for the Portland police union on Monday discovered their Northeast Portland office vandalized with windows broken and graffiti scrawled on the buildings exterior.

The vandalism comes amid nightly demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism in Portland since the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man killed when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.

In the last two weeks, the protests have turned their focus against the enhanced federal law enforcement presence in the city and the federal courthouse.

This is no longer about George Floyd, racial equity, social justice, or police reform. That platform has been hijacked by certain people who want chaos, disorder, and destruction, said attorney Anil Karia, one of the lawyers who represents the Portland Police Association. Bricks hurled through windows arent a medium for change. They are being used as weapons of destruction.

Karia also blamed Mayor Ted Wheeler and city commissioners for allowing the violence through their inaction.

Our City Council has allowed for this chaos, with Commissioners (Jo Ann) Hardesty and (Chloe) Eudaly encouraging violence in our neighborhoods, parks, and businesses with their words and Mayor Wheeler and Commissioner (Amanda) Fritz condoning the destruction of our City with their inaction and silence. Enough. They need to stand up and lead our City out of this mess.

The mayor and Hardesty on Monday afternoon called for an immediate meeting in Portland with Acting Homeland Secretary Chad F. Wolf, seeking what they called a cease-fire'' and removal of the federal forces.

Oregons U.S. Attorney Billy Williams in the last week has described an organized group of people who are trying to set fires, destroy the fence outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse and injure federal officers by lobbing fireworks, bottles, and other objects at officers guarding the courthouse.

Federal and state lawsuits are pending, calling the federal officers indiscriminate use of tear gas and impact munitions against crowds, which have repeatedly struck journalists, medics and peaceful demonstrators, excessive and unconstitutional.

On July 18, someone broke into the Portland Police Association office on North Lombard Street and set fire in the lobby area. No one was injured.

The law office for the police union is open and operating. Karia said he was at the office on Saturday and suspects the vandalism was done Saturday night or Sunday. He said the office staff are worried about their personal safety.

Karia said hes disturbed by the graffiti scrawled.

It personally bothers me that someone would allege I am a member of a white supremacist group, said Karia, who is of Indian and East African heritage.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
The governors of the APC-controlled States have stated that they are proud of the leadership and achievements of President Muhammadu B...

The governors of the APC-controlled States have stated that they are proud of the leadership and achievements of President Muhammadu Buharis administration.





The APC Governors said the president has done well in the handling of security issues.





They noted that Buhari also recorded success in pulling the country out of the 2016 economic recession as well as the ongoing management of the COVID-19 pandemic.





The APC Governors made this known at Tuesdays Virtual interaction with President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and the Governor of Kebbi State and Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, Senator Atiku Bagudu.





However, at the meeting, President Muhammadu Buhari commended members of the Mai Mala Buni-led All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker Committee for the work they are doing in repositioning the governing party.





According to him, I am pleased with the Chairman and the work of the committee. He is highly mobile in the efforts to coordinate and strengthen the party. I am happy with his personal efforts.





President Buhari also appreciated the efforts of the APC Governors following the successful conduct of the party primaries in Edo and Ondo States, adding that, I am happy that they knew their responsibilities as Governors and had identified the right priorities.




Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28)  The Department of Health confirmed on Tuesday that another 1,678 people in the country have tested positive for the coronavirus disease.

This brought the national case tally to 83,673, wherein 55,109 are active cases or currently ill patients.

The DOH said around 40 percent or 698 of the new infections came from Metro Manila, which so far registered some 46,000 or over half of the total cases nationwide.

According to Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, President Rodrigo Duterte is set to decide this week whether or not the country's capital region will be placed under the stricter modified enhanced community starting August.

Also among the areas with the most number of new cases are Laguna with 218, Cebu province with 100, Cavite with 87, and Davao del Sur with 33.

For recoveries, the DOH listed 173 more, raising the tally of survivors to 26,617. Four new deaths were also logged, with the national death toll now at 1,947.

During his fifth State of the Nation Address on Monday, the President openly admitted flaws in the government's battle against the pandemic, including issues with ramping up the countrys testing capacity.

READ: SONA 2020: Duterte offers detours on road to pandemic recovery

He said the government is aiming to conduct 1.4 million tests by the end of July  a figure different from the 1.5 million target target DOH had last week.

In June, the goal was even higher, with the government saying it aims to have 1.5 percent of the countrys population  or around 1.65 million people  tested for the viral disease by July 31. As of July 26 data, the DOH has conducted around 1.36 million tests nationwide.

In his speech, Duterte also urged Congress to pass the second version of the Bayanihan Law to speed up the countrys recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Since the start of the year with Wetsuweten blockades, rallies for Black Lives Matter and calls to defund the police, protests sparked by inequality have not slowed down.

Along with some, have come protester arrests. Earlier this month three Black Lives Matter Toronto demonstrators were arrested and charged with mischief after splashing statues of John A. Macdonald and Egerton Ryerson with paint. Today, an encampment at Dufferin Grove was surrounded by Toronto police.

Beyond sorting out legal representation and release in the moment, what happens after the fact, when you have to report back to work?

The Star spoke with two Toronto employment lawyers about what an Ontario resident can do if they are arrested at a protest and worry about how it could affect their job.

If you are arrested at a protest, Mika Imai, an associate at Karimjee Law, pointed out that with many employers, you may not have an ongoing obligation to report police interaction.

However, if you work a job where you have to complete a criminal record check before you start and you interact with vulnerable populations, like a daycare worker for example, you would likely have an ongoing obligation to continue to disclose any sorts of police-involved incidents.

Youd want to look at your contract and see: Do I have an obligation to disclose anything on my criminal record to my workplace? Consult with an employment lawyer first, but you might need to disclose, Imai said. But again, that doesnt necessarily mean that disclosure and knowledge of those activities entitles the employer to terminate you for cause.

Of course, if the arrest means youll be detained for a long period of time and cant attend work, that will bring different issues, Imai said.

Fathima Cader, an employment and human rights lawyer with her own practice, used a situation she encountered earlier in her career as an example.

Cader recalled a case handled by a firm she worked at years ago, where an employee of a non-profit organization, who worked in a highly surveilled neighbourhood in Toronto, was arrested for an alleged criminal offence and was then immediately terminated from his workplace.

I would raise some questions about the authenticity of that termination, Cader said. In this particular situation, the employee was working at a non-profit that is about giving people second chances, for example. The client was also racialized and potentially subject to more surveillance than his colleagues by the police, Cader added.

Cader also pointed out that innocent until proven guilty is a factor in criminal law. There hasnt been, in fact, a finding of fault by a court yet. Why does he necessarily have to be terminated?

Cader noted, however, in a civil context like dealing with an employer, the standard of proof is lower than in criminal law. Its a matter of if its likely that the event happened, rather than beyond a reasonable doubt.

The employer, I dont think can simply wholesale adopt an arrest as proof of misconduct. But it is a tricky argument to make, Cader said. It will come down to the specific questions of what is the alleged offence? What kind of evidence is there of that offence? How publicly was that circulated? What impact did that have on the employers reputation? What kind of work does the employer do that this would be relevant or not relevant? All of that would have to be considered, but I dont think its an open and shut case.

Generally, when termination is on the table, whether you are unionized or non-unionized plays a role.

While non-unionized employees can be let go for any reason that is not discriminatory, if you are unionized, an employer needs just cause to terminate, which Cader explained is basically conduct that would be considered egregious causing a breakdown in the employment relationship.

She added that an example would be Wilful disobedience or misconduct that prejudices the employers business or reputation. Its that latter component she said that becomes relevant where activities outside of work are concerned. Would your actions have an impact on your employers business or reputation?

At a time when anti-Black racism and condemning systemic racism has become more widely supported by corporations, that can be a factor in these cases.

In a unionized setting, attending a BLM protest and getting arrested, whether rightly or wrongly, may be more severe than simply attending. Then, maybe theres a bit more of a reputational impact, Imai said. But again, I think given where our society is right now, and the fairly widespread acceptance of the goals of the BLM movement, I think its going to be hard for an employer to say that they had just cause for discipline.

Clarification  July 28, 2020: This article was updated from a previous version to clarify that the standard of proof in a civil context like dealing with an employer is lower than that required in criminal law.

Angelyn Francis is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering inequity and inequality. Her reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Reach her via email: afrancis@thestar.ca
The acceleration in the number of reported cases and deaths from the Wuhan coronavirus in the U.S. has been driven to a considerable degree by infections in three states: Arizona, Florida, and Texas. Thus, it makes sense to take a closer look at the numbers from these states. (Unless otherwise indicated by a link, all data cited below are from Worldometer.)

Before diving in, its important to note that per capita deaths from the virus in these states are nowhere near the levels of New York and New Jersey, and there is almost no chance that they will ever approach those levels. Yet, Gov. Cuomo has been lionized for his approach to combating the virus in New York, while the Republican governors of Arizona, Florida, and Texas are depicted as dunces by the mainstream media.

Per capita deaths attributed to the coronavirus in New York are 1,681 per one million. In New Jersey, they are slightly higher.

In Arizona, there have been 468 deaths per one million attributed to the virus, about the national average. In Florida, the number is 285. In Texas, it is 203.

There have, though, been significant increases in coronavius cases and deaths in these three states. Lets examine the numbers.

In Arizona, there was a massive surge in reported cases in June. At the beginning of the month, there were only about 1,000 new cases per day. By the end of the month, there were about 4,000.

Predictably, the increase in new cases in June corresponded to an increase in deaths attributed to the virus in July. Early in the month, there were about 50 per day. By the middle of the months, that number had about tripled.

The good news is that the number of new reported cases in Arizona has started to decline  from about 4,000 per day at the beginning of July to about 3,000 per day now. Inpatient hospitalizations have also been declining. Deaths per day, which have held pretty steady since the middle of the month, will likely decline in August due to the drop in new cases in July.

Floridas spike in new cases began a little later than Arizonas. The number of new cases rose steadily in June, but didnt spike until the end of the month. At that time, it reached the 10,000 a day mark.

Things got even worse in early July. By the middle of the month, Florida was reporting anywhere from 13,000 to 15,000 new cases some days. As the month ends, the number has declined a little to around 12,000.

Because Floridas peak occurred after Arizonas, the number of deaths per day attributed to the virus hasnt started to decrease appreciably. At the beginning of the month, Florida was reporting fewer than 100 deaths per day. By mid-month, it was reporting 130 to 150.

On July 23, the number peaked at 173. It dropped during the next few days, but reached 186 yesterday. Hospitalizations for the virus also reached a record number yesterday  585.

With the number of new reported cases per day in Florida declining slightly, it seems likely that the number of deaths per day attributed to the virus will decline next month.

Texas experienced a sharp rise in reported new cases per day throughout June and into July. At the beginning of June, there were few more than 1,000 reported cases per day  an excellent result considering the size of the state. But by the end of the month, there were around 7,500 new cases per day, and by mid-July there were more than 10,000 on most days, with a peak of 12,490 on July 15.

Since then, the number has fallen pretty dramatically to under 7,500 most days.

Deaths per day attributed to the virus in Texas reached their peak last week at more than 200. Thats about five times as many as Texas was reporting at the beginning of June. But over the past few days, the number has fallen off considerably. Hospitalizations for the virus in Texas reportedly hit a record high on Sunday, however.

Nonetheless, like Arizona and Florida, Texas seems to be turning the corner. If the situation in these states continues to improve, so too will the national numbers  provided, of course, that things dont take serious turns for the worse elsewhere in this very big country of ours.
By Ayya Lmahamad

Some 605 citizens were fined during the last 24 hours across the country for violating the strict quarantine regime, the main traffic police department under the Ministry of Interior reported on July 28.

All 605 were fined according to Article 211.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences. Of them 540 were drivers who failed to follow the quarantine regime requirements and 65 were citizens not using facial masks in the public transport.

In the meantime, 270 cars, which had sought to leave the territories where the quarantine is imposed, were stopped, and returned back during the reporting period.

Earlier, it was reported that 43,250 citizens were fined in the period of June 21 and July 26 for violating the quarantine regime, 635 drivers were fined during June 14-16 lockdown, while 2,524 drivers were fined during June 6-7 lockdown.

Azerbaijan first introduced quarantine regime on March 24, and on July 17 decision was taken to extend special quarantine regime until August 31.

On July 17, Cabinet of Ministers announced decision to prolong a strict quarantine regime till August 5.

The new lockdown imposed on July 20 to August 5 include Baku, Jalilabad, Ganja, Masalli, Sumgayit, Yevlakh cities and Absheron district, and Goranboy, Goygol, Mingachevir, Barda, Khachmaz, Siyazan and Sheki.

There is a change in the SMS permit system to control the citizens movement. According to the new rules, the duration of the permits have been extended from two to three hours.

The work of beauty salons and barber shops have also been resumed under the new rules.

The work of transportation was also suspended over the weekends  on July 25-27 and August 1-3.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Richard Rivera

Police unions in New Jersey have always made it clear that they oppose police transparency. Now, with widespread support for transforming the role of police, their closed ranks have tightened.

We know that New Jerseyans overwhelmingly want these changes. But we also know it will take work from all of us to get there - work that we know is necessary.

I know this because I was a West New York police officer in 1991, when New Jerseys first statewide Internal Affairs Policy called for all departments to establish units investigating officer misconduct.

Everyone in the department, myself included, felt these changes were unnecessary, coming from a mindset drilled into us from the first day of training: police could do no wrong.

My department promoted an unpopular supervisor with no street experience to handle internal affairs (IA), a career path that remains a fast-track to move up the ranks.

In 1994, I reported massive corruption at my department  theft, fraud, racketeering, violence, bribery - to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG). I was rebuffed.

Ultimately, the FBI answered my request for help and I posed as a crooked cop in a federal sting operation. I accepted cash bribes and ran my own racketeering crew protecting mobsters. Years later, dozens of officers and a chief admitted to being on the take to the tune of $600,000. Other officers were charged with criminal civil rights violations for beating and robbing Latino victims.

But, during that investigation, I became a target of IA, not for my daily crimes as part of an FBI probe. Rather, I was charged repeatedly with minor rule infractions for interfering with the higher-ups criminal enterprise, which included kickbacks to the mayor from the chief of police.

I learned a central fact about IA: the veil of confidentiality prevented anyone from seeing the details of a flawed system in need of reforms. Nobody could learn what transpired without a court order, which meant no one knew that the process was corrupt.

As the chief and his hand-picked IA unit violated both my rights and the IA policy, I reported their conduct to the county prosecutor. Shockingly, the prosecutor notified my employer, and the next day I was suspended without pay for six months.

I knew my career was over, despite having done the right thing. I demanded a public discipline hearing so anyone could observe the kangaroo court proceeding. An officer who dared support me was disciplined by IA as retribution.

In sum, I racked up 50 department violations, eight IA investigations and five days of disciplinary hearings. The hearing ended abruptly without a conclusion and I was fired.

It took seven years of litigation to clear my name, have charges dismissed, and get reinstated. By then, I had met dozens of cops with similar IA encounters. They agreed that the confidential IA veil needed to be lifted for the public to see the disciplinary process for what it was, and still is: a sham.

I made it my lifes mission to save other cops from a similar fate and to correct institutional defects in law enforcement. I worked for a period as a senior analyst overseeing the Miami Police Department, located in a state with civilian oversight of police and unfettered public access to IA records. None of the doomsday scenarios foretold by New Jerseys police unions from disclosing IA records ever came to pass.

Cops across New Jersey, once again my home, call me weekly about their own IA investigations. Despite fear of reprisal they contact the OAG seeking guidance or intervention. The OAG kicks their cases to county prosecutors, who then in turn send those complaints back to the very chiefs they complained about. This remains the process.

There are no protections for whistleblower cops in New Jersey, period. Given the culture of police protecting and investigating their own, within the framework of a 29-year-old broken system, how can we expect police officers to intervene when they see excessive force or other misconduct?

Citizen complaints are rarely sustained, in large part because the public cannot see the records that keep officers accountable, so the public often gives up on submitting complaints. Only a fully transparent process can force police chiefs to get it right, with fairness to all parties.

An open and transparent IA system and civilian review process can expose rogue police chiefs and investigators if they target officers for doing the right thing instead of investigating those who abuse their power. It allows officers to tell their side, and, most importantly, it allows the community to see whether the workings of their police departments serve the community, or only serve to protect the police.

Thats why I support Senator Loretta Weinbergs bill, S-2656, a bill that would make IA records fully open to the public. Sunlight is the best disinfectant  and the first step to clear the rot left by corruption and abuse.

Richard Rivera is the former chairperson of the New Jersey State Human Relations Council. He is a police practices expert witness and a co-founder of the National Coalition of Latino Officers where he is director of equal employment opportunity complaints.

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Tight deadlines, a lack of resources for special education and concerns about class sizes are among issues teaching unions and opposition parties believe could scupper hopes of reopening schools on time next month.

While the government's roadmap to reopen 4,000 schools has been welcomed, trade unions have expressed fears there is not enough time to roll out plans before doors reopen.

However, Education Minister Norma Foley has reiterated that she believes schools will reopen on time.

Under the plan, an extra 1,000 teachers will be sourced and building works completed so children can go back to classes safely.

While there still will be risks, potential infections have been planned for and some 375m is being put aside to get school classes set up, to hire more teachers and train staff.

Criticising the government's plan, Sinn Fein said that government could have announced its reopening plan for schools much sooner.

Sinn Feins Donnacha O Laoghaire said: "We always knew there was going to be a need for additional staff, we always knew there was going to be need for additional space, we always knew there was going to be need for investment in additional hygiene measures," he said.

"A lot of that could have been handed down to schools, and they could have been well underway on the process of recruiting, seeking additional space, or planning adjustments to their building."

Labour's Aodhan O'Riordain said a magic wand is needed to get everything done in a few weeks.

Both the Teachers' Union of Ireland and the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland also have doubts about the timeline.

TUI General Secretary John MacGabhann said not all schools will be ready to reopen fully by August 31 and that a staggered intake of students may be required.

He told RTE there may be delays finding contractors to carry out works for which 75m is being made available.

ASTI President Deirdre Mac Donald said the timeframe for changes is too tight. It would be a challenge to recruit 1,080 teachers by then, she said.

Education Minister Norma Foley said when the schools reopen younger children will be taught in bubbles or "pods" with a metre between them and that a common sense approach will apply to younger children having to social distance.

Asked if home-schooling is over for parents, Ms Foley said: "Absolutely. The plan that we unveiled yesterday puts significant resources into schools so they can re-open in a safe manner that is sustainable and does not compromise education standards.

"Parents and students and society wants schools to re-open fully open. This is back to school as normal for our school community."

Ms Foley said panels of substitute teachers will be drawn up so that substitute teachers can work in more than one school if and when the need arises.

"Substitute panels for primary schools have been successfully piloted over the past year so now, substitute panels are going to be rolled out nationwide and teachers will have one-year contracts."
More Than 1,200 Civilians Killed In Afghanistan In First Half Of 2020, UN Reports

By RFE/RL July 27, 2020

There were 1,282 civilian deaths in Afghanistan in the first half of the year, while another 2,176 people were wounded over the same period, the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a report published on July 27.

Those numbers include 340 children killed and another 727 wounded, the report said.

"At a time when the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban have a historic opportunity to come together at the negotiating table for peace talks, the tragic reality is that the fighting continues, inflicting terrible harm to civilians every day," said Deborah Lyons, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Afghanistan.

Taliban and Islamic State (IS) militants were behind most of the casualties, accounting for 58 percent of the victims, the report said, adding that pro-government forces were responsible for 23 percent of the civilians killed or wounded.

The numbers represent a 13 percent decrease in the numbers of deaths and injuries reported during the same time period in 2019. The report cites weaker engagement by international armed forces and the Islamic State extremist group as the main reason for the decline.

However, Afghan government security forces and the Taliban were responsible for an almost unchanged number of casualties compared to the previous year, while civilian losses caused by Afghan Army air strikes tripled compared to the first half of 2019.

The report came as efforts to achieve peace in Afghanistan remain in limbo due to disagreements about a prisoner release program between Kabul and the Taliban while violence is on the rise.

The Afghan National Security Council said on July 25 that in the past week the Taliban had killed 46 civilians and wounded 93 others.

The United States and the Taliban struck an agreement in February intended to pave the way for intra-Afghan peace talks between the militants and the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.

Key preconditions for intra-Afghan talks are prisoner exchanges and a reduction of violence.

The Taliban has said it is prepared to hold peace talks with the Afghan government next month after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, provided the prisoner swap has been completed.

However, on July 26, the Taliban accused Afghan security forces of rearresting insurgents who had been released, warning that Kabul would "bear responsibility for the consequences."

Meanwhile, the United States has dispatched its special envoy for Afghanistan on a five-nation tour aimed at advancing the fragile peace process.

The U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, is visiting Doha, Islamabad, Kabul, Oslo, and Sofia, the State Department said in a July 25 statement.

In Doha and Kabul, Khalilzad will "press for resolution of the remaining issues ahead of intra-Afghan negotiations, specifically final prisoner exchanges and reduced violence."

The Qatari capital has been the location of repeated rounds of U.S. talks with the Taliban.

Taliban militants control about half of Afghanistan's territory and they have continued to carry out deadly attacks since the U.S.-Taliban deal was signed.

"Although significant progress has been made on prisoner exchanges, the issue requires additional effort to fully resolve," the State Department said.

Khalilzad will also travel to Pakistan to seek its support in advancing intra-Afghan negotiations.

In Oslo and Sofia, the diplomat will update NATO allies on the Afghan peace process.

With reporting by dpa, Reuters, AP, and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/more-than-1-200 -civilian-killed-in-afghanistan-in-first-half -of-2020-un-reports/30748903.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.

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AMES, Iowa - Exposure to the chemical glyphosate changed the level of some ovarian proteins in mice but did not impact ovarian steroid production, an indication glyphosate may not adversely affect reproduction, according to a new study.

Two studies, published in the peer-reviewed academic journals Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology and Reproductive Toxicology, analyzed how ovarian function in mice responded to various levels of exposure to glyphosate, a chemical extensively used to kill weeds. The research found the highest exposure levels included in the experiments resulted in increased ovarian weight and follicle number, but Aileen Keating, an associate professor of animal science at Iowa State University and lead author, said the research did not uncover evidence that glyphosate affects the healthy functioning of ovaries.

"The big takeaway is that while we did find some changes in ovarian proteins, many of the endpoints we examined were not altered by glyphosate exposure," Keating said.

Keating, whose research focuses on reproductive health, said it's unclear if the increased ovarian size or altered protein abundance that resulted from the highest exposure level could cause changes in the ability of mice to reproduce. Answering that question will require further study, she said. The study found glyphosate exposure did not affect heart, liver, spleen, kidney or uterus weights. Keating said the study's conclusions largely agreed with findings published years ago meant to determine how the chemical can be used safely.

The researchers introduced glyphosate to groups of mice orally, mimicking how humans could be exposed to glyphosate residue in water or in crops used for food production. Groups of mice were exposed to different glyphosate levels and for periods of 5, 10 or 20 weeks. The researchers chose the doses, measured in milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight, to approximate potential glyphosate levels that humans could be exposed to.

However, Keating noted that it remains unclear how much glyphosate humans are exposed to regularly, which made it difficult to judge what levels were appropriate for the experiments. Additionally, they used only the active compound contained in weed treatments, not the additional ingredients.

The use of glyphosate has sparked controversy regarding its proposed health effects. Accordingly, Keating said the researchers designed the study to be as unbiased as possible. For instance, the scientists didn't know the glyphosate treatment of individual samples as they conducted their analysis, which meant perceived expectations or biases could not affect the results.

"It's a commonly used chemical, and there's been some alarm in the media about its use," she said. "We need more well designed, independent studies to see if this is something we should be concerned about."

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Linkedin Jean-Francois Guyot and Fiachra Gibbons (Agence France-Presse) Paris  Tue, July 28, 2020 17:00 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669f6f3b 2 Books Gabriel-Matzneff,Book,Movie,pedophile,writer Free

A bestselling book that exposed the acclaimed French writer Gabriel Matzneff as a pedophile is to be adapted for the big screen, its producers said Monday.

Publisher Vanessa Springora ignited a huge scandal in France earlier this year with her memoir "Consent", in which she described how she was groomed by Matzneff when she was 14.

Two other women have since come forward to say they too were abused by him as teenagers.

Matzneff, who never made a secret of his preference for sex with adolescent girls and boys, is to stand trial in September on a charge of promoting pedophilia.

Prosecutors have also launched a rape investigation into the diarist, long notorious for his 1974 defense of pedophilia, "Les Moins de Seize Ans" ("The Under 16s").

Matzneff, now 83, told French television in January that he regretted past trips to Asia to have sex with minors, claiming that at the time "no one ever said it was a crime".

The scandal has shaken the French literary establishment, in which for years Matzneff occupied a privileged niche, winning the prestigious Renaudot prize in 2013.

Last week a deputy mayor of Paris was forced to resign because of his links to the writer.

The producers of the film said it would be directed by the rising French star, Vanessa Filho, whose debut film "Angel Face" premiered at the Cannes film festival in 2018.

She is also writing the script.

Blind eye

The Matzneff scandal was one of the turning points in the #MeToo movement in France, after decades of people turning a blind eye to the diarist's behavior despite his frankness about his private life.

Within months of the latest installment of his "intimate journals" hitting the shelves, French publishers began pulling his books from shops as Springora's book began making headlines in January.

Matzneff denounced the "unjust and excessive attacks" on him, claiming that his relationship with Springora had been one of "beauty".

But in her book, which quickly became a bestseller, she wrote: "Aged 14, you are not supposed to have a 50-year-old man waiting for you when you leave school.

"You are not supposed to live in a hotel with him, or find yourself in his bed with his penis in your mouth when you should be having your mid-afternoon snack."

Springora said Sunday that her book had helped her "be honest with myself and take back my own story.

"'Consent' helped me reinvent myself," she told the JDD newspaper.

"Today I feel that I have closed a chapter [of my life] and I can move on. But it will always be [a part of] me," she added.
When Ontario schools reopen this fall, staff and students in all grades should wear face masks and class sizes must be smaller or the province is gambling with lives, the head of the Catholic teachers union says.

There certainly needs to be hand sanitizer, handwashing stations, thorough cleaning of schools ... and there needs to be that ability for distancing within classrooms, and certainly for students and teachers to be wearing masks  and any adults, or anybody in the building, needs to be wearing masks, she told the Star in an interview Monday after making public an email sent to Education Minister Stephen Lecce.

Lecce is expected to announce plans for school reopening for the fall and has given boards until Aug. 4 to submit their specific plans on dealing with COVID-19. The province has asked boards to prepare for online-only or a full-time return to school or a mix of the two with safety protocols in place.

In her email, Stuart  who heads the 45,000-member union  wrote that the reopening of schools in the province of Ontario is arguably the most sensitive and significant aspect of Ontarios reopening plan, and if not done successfully, school reopening could devastate the opportunity to protect Ontarians of all ages from a detrimental second wave of COVID-19 ... which could also derail any hopes of economic recovery.

She said its time for the government to listen to those on the front-lines about their concerns about safely starting up school this fall.

The government, she added, has not given boards much direction with little over a month before school is to begin.

On Monday, Premier Doug Ford said Lecce has spoken to a number of Ontario boards and is consulting with health and pediatric experts. Ford said he knows people need answers, they want certainty at home, and an announcement is coming this week.

They want to make sure that when they go back to work in September their kids are taken care of in a safe environment  and thats exactly what were going to do. Our No. 1 priority is to make sure that kids are back in the classroom and that theyre in a safe environment.

Lecce has also said the government will announce additional resources and supports for boards extra costs because of COVID.

The Liberal party released a report that said $3.2 billion is needed in one-time funding to hire extra teachers and custodians and implement other safety measures.

NDP education critic Marit Stiles said: Getting children safely back to school five days a week should be this governments top priority. And its not too late.

There is still time to hire enough teachers and education workers and secure temporary classrooms for students to have more small, safe classes in the fall, she said.

A number of boards have proposed smaller classes when kids do return, with the Toronto board proposing a couple of scenarios including all elementary classes set at 15 students, or a mix with primary students in classes of 15 and those in Grade 4 to 8 in classes of 20.

Last week, the Toronto Catholic board voted in favour of a full-time model that would see classes remain as is, with one trustee saying that reflected the view of some that the government would not ante up enough money for smaller cohorts of kids.

Stuart said that while boards are frustrated because the funding to deal with COVID has yet to materialize, we cannot be jamming 30 kids in a room, even if they are all wearing masks, and expect them to be safe.

Masks, and physical distancing, have been shown to be effective, she added.

We have never gambled with peoples lives in schools, so why would that start now? she said. It wont be cheap, but that is going to be the cost of ensuring we dont have a huge second wave.
The SEEK Contemporary Urban Arts Festival will once again make a colourful return to the streets of Dundalk this week.

According to organisers, the festival is aimed at attracting some of the worlds best outdoor muralists and urban artists to Dundalk, to help promote the town both culturally and artistically.

In its second year, the festival will take place in various locations in the heart of Dundalk from the 1st - 8th August. Building on the success of the 2019 festival there will be guided walking tours, childrens and teenagers painting workshops, and pottery workshops for all to enjoy.

This year the festival is delighted to have a prolific international lineup of artists who are all based on the island of Ireland. Each artist has been tasked with painting a large scale mural of a character or theme which ties in with telling Dundalk's story. A new and innovative way of connecting people to Dundalks vibrant history and heritage.

Aches (Ireland) Theme: Thomas "Sailor" Sharkey - Longwalk, Dundalk

Aches artistic practice is shared in equal balance between contemporary murals and studio artwork. Some of his notable works include the mural of Dolores ORiordan in Limerick and the Edward the Bruce piece from SEEK 2019, which is located on Frances Street. His upcoming piece will depict Dundalk character Thomas Joseph Sharkey aka "Sailor Tom" (1871  1953), Irelands World Heavyweight Champion. Ring Magazine included Sharkey in their 100 Greatest Punchers of All-Time. Sharkey joined the United States Navy in 1892, he was then stationed in Hawaii where he began his successful professional fighting career.

Claire Prouvoust (France) Theme - Dorothy Macardle - River Lane, Dundalk.

Claire Prouvost is a French Graphic Designer and Illustrator living and working in Dublin. She will be rediscovering Dorothy Macardle in her artwork. Dorothy was a historian, journalist, novelist, playwright and activist. She was also daughter of the Chairman of the Macardle Moore Brewery. Dorothy is mainly remembered as the author of The Irish Republic, an account of the War of Independence which was published in 1937 and commissioned by Eamon de Valera.

Chule Mente (Spain) Theme - Railway Heritage Society - Grays Lane (off Park Street), Dundalk

Chula Mentes large murals combine styles taken from many different sources, from ancient art to contemporary, via graffiti and street art. Chula Mente was a guest artist at the SEEK 2019 festival.

Her 2020 piece will be a celebration of over 150 years of railway history in Dundalk. Illustrating 77 years of engineering in the Great Northern Railway works, showcasing the architecture and industrial heritage of Dundalk.

Frizz (Northern Ireland) Theme - Brigid of Faughart - 97/85 Bridge Street, Dundalk

Northern Ireland based artist Frizz, will be painting Brigid of Faughart. Frizz works in both traditional and digital mediums, and has a strong focus on spray painting. Her work largely revolves around the female form, so it is fitting that Frizz will be depicting Brigid in her many guises. Pre-Christian Goddess and Saint, the figure of Brigid holds a central and special place in the narrative of the northeast.

Omin (Ireland) Theme - Paul Kavanagh - Bachelors Walk, Dundalk Hailing from Dundalk

Omin is a graphic artist with a 20-year history rooted in Graffiti. Established on the international graffiti art scene, Omin works across a variety of mediums and surfaces ranging from large-scale murals, canvas and print. Omin will be celebrating Paul Kavanagh, an award-winning local press and commercial professional photographer, whose illustrious career documented the troubles along the border region throughout his career.

Paula Kavanagh, daughter of Paul Kavanagh explained: Its so exciting to see our fathers photography career which largely depicted events and people around the Dundalk and border region, be acknowledged with this mural. He had a great understanding of time and history, which we see reflected in his photographs. It is such a compliment to him and his work that a professional artist will be creating a painting of him for the people of Dundalk, and visitors alike to enjoy. We can't wait to see the final piece.

The Festival could not go ahead without the incredible support of their sponsors, Colourtrend, Creative Ireland, Dundalk Town, Creative Spark, Thinking Cap, Railway Heritage Society, Dromad Hire, Dundalk Tidy Towns, Fairways Hotel, Rocksalt, All City and Montana Paints.

Sarah Daly of Creative Spark, Dundalks Centre for Creativity and Innovation, said the organisers are honoured to have these artists in town.

Dundalk is a vibrant hub for creativity, and we are honoured to welcome these talented artists to our town. Each artwork will bring Dundalks stories to life, and hopefully inspire people to visit and support the arts in the community.

Scheduled guided walking tours will run throughout the festival and will visit both the 2019 and 2020 murals. The tours will allow visitors to explore the themes behind each artwork. Please see the events page on the website for details or click here for bookings.

Painting workshops for teenagers and children with artist Omin. Participants will paint a piece which will combine to form a large urban mosaic. Suitable for children 5  12, and teenagers from 12  16 years. Please see the events page on the website for details or click here for bookings.

Ceramics Workshops with ceramic artist Etaoin OReilly will also run on the 7th & 8th August in An Tain Arts Centre. For bookings please visit www.antain.ie
Asylum seekers in a controversial Kerry Direct Provision centre have gone on hunger strike in protest at the inhumane conditions they are living in.

For four months, asylum who are staying at the Skellig Star hotel in Cahersiveen have been calling on the government to move them out. The group of 41 people left at the hotel includes seven children. The hunger strike follows complaints about the standards of the accommodation and an outbreak of Covid-19 among a number of asylum seekers. About 30 people have already been moved out of the hotel.

We have been traumatised and for us to recover from this we need to be all moved out of this accommodation immediately by the ministers to appropriate accommodation centres. We are just 41 asylum seekers remaining including 7 children.

"More than 30 asylum seekers left the centre to different parts of the country because they preferred to be on the street than to continue to live here, the asylum seekers said in a statement. The hunger strike started at 10am on Tuesday morning.

There have been allegations from the asylum seekers that they had been forced to ration food and water at the centre. The asylum seekers have called on the state to give them access to a social worker. They said they want to be moved to either Mosney Direct Provision Centre or Tullamore Direct Provision Centre.

When Covid-19 hit, the Kerry hotel was set up as a new Direct Provision centre in order to try to ensure social distancing in accommodation centres. A number of asylum seekers were moved from existing centres in Dublin, to Kerry. There has since been 25 confirmed cases of Covid-19 among asylum seekers at the Skellig Star.

Norma Foley, the Kerry TD and now Minister for Education, told the Dails Covid-19 committee last month that she had seen evidence that a person who was suspected of having Covid-19 was taken from Dublin to Kerry on a bus to the Skellig Star hotel.

Locals in Cahersiveen, who welcomed the asylum seekers initially, have repeatedly called on the Department of Justice and the government to move the asylum seekers to better conditions. People living in the town said that they were also being put at risk of contracting Covid-19 by the standards at the hotel.

There were claims that there was poor deep cleaning and sanitising of hotel rooms where there had been confirmed cases of Covid-19.

It also emerged in May that a former manager at the hotel had resigned in protest at the conditions of the Direct Provision centre, and that staff working there had not had appropriate garda vetting.
Jim Mattress Mack McIngvale has expanded on his commitment to bringing meaningful employment to the people of Fort Bend County. In August, the Gallery Furniture will open Premier High School.

Premier High School (is) a mastery-based, blended-learning, college-preparatory program with an emphasis on technology and one-on-one teacher and student interactions, said McIngvale. In addition to Premier High School and in partnership with Houston Community College, WorkTexas and Gallery Furniture will also be offering trade classes for adults.

The trade school is a collaborative effort between Gallery Furniture and Fort Bend County leaders and nonprofits. Fort Bend County Judge KP George, one of the initiative leaders, has worked alongside McIngvale to promote the workforce.

Fort Bend County is proud to partner with Mattress Mack and Gallery Furniture to not only put Fort Bend residents back to work, but to teach 21st century job skills and trades, George said. We are very much looking forward to the trade school and the positive impact it will make on so many lives.

MORE BY CLAIRE GOODMAN: Suspect charged with murder in shooting outside sushi restaurant

The high school is free and open to high school students aged 14-18. Adult students ages 19-26 who have not graduated from high school may complete their education at Premier High School while learning trade skills.

Premier High School is designed for credit recovery and early graduation for students who thrive in smaller, independent learning environments who may feel underserved at traditional public high schools, McIngvale explained. The high school also will offer daily career-tech classes in several different fields giving students the additional opportunity to graduate with certified trade skills.

Adult trade school class options at Gallery Furniture include welding, electrical training, carpentry, home building and auto and diesel technology.

McIngvale also noted that the program can be tailored to individuals with existing school and work schedules or family obligations.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Saint Arnold reopens for dine-in after TABC reevaluates 51 percent rule

Premiere High School is the latest of McIngvales community initiative programs. Last month, McIngvale and George unveiled their WorkTexas Job Center, a three-fold approach to aiding the jobless in the community.

The school opens Aug. 3. Class times are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Gallery Furniture located at 6006 North Freeway. To enroll visit https://premierhighschools.com/galleryfurniturenorth or register in person at Gallery Furniture.

claire.goodman@chron.com
Warning signs are popping up in the water of New Jerseys largest lake.

Water samples collected by the DEP on July 23 found harmful algal blooms to be present at two locations in Lake Hopatcong: Mount Arlington Beach and the Lake Forest Yacht Club.

Both blooms were classified at the watch level on the states new advisory scale. That means that swimming areas remain open, but people should use caution before touching the water.

A third sample collected that day from Lake Hopatcong at Capp Beach found no bloom to be present. Before the three samples on July 23, DEP officials had sampled the lake five times between May 27 and July 16. None of those prior samples showed the presence of a harmful algal bloom.

Despite their label, the blooms are made up of cyanobacteria rather than algae. Contact with such bacteria can cause rashes and allergy-like reactions to flu-like symptoms and gastroenteritis. If the bloom is actively producing cyanotoxins, more serious health effects  like liver toxicity and neurological effects  may occur. The blooms can be fatal to dogs.

The bacteria that forms the blooms thrives in warm, calm water that is rich in nutrients like nitrates and phosphorous. Those nutrients enter the water when things like fertilizer and animal waste are washed into lakes after rain storms.

Last year, Lake Hopatcong became the poster-child for harmful algal blooms in New Jersey when a widespread bloom led to beach closures and warnings against water contact at the lake. That bloom, which was confirmed in mid-June and lasted until mid-November, took a heavy toll on the areas tourism industry.

So far, weve been pretty lucky, Ron Smith, the chairman of the Lake Hopatcong Commission, said of this year. Smith added that hes heard from marinas and other local businesses that tourism is doing fine, with folks around the state looking for things to do outside amid coronavirus restrictions.

Fred Lubnow, who works with the Lake Hopatcong Commission as part of his job as the director of aquatic resources at Princeton Hydro, said the blooms typically hit Lake Hopatcong in the late summer or fall. He added that blooms after Labor Day are not as high of a concern, because recreation on the lake tends to decline after that holiday.

Last years bloom in Lake Hopatcong was one of 39 confirmed around the state, the most in a single year since the DEP began formal monitoring of the blooms in 2017. In response to the rash of blooms, Gov. Phil Murphy announced a $13.5 million plan to help local authorities mitigate future blooms.

In March, nearly $650,000 of that money was granted for projects to help Lake Hopatcong. Smith said that money was initially delayed but is now on the way, and he added that the Lake Hopatcong Commission is hoping for the best with those projects.

The DEP has now confirmed 14 blooms in New Jersey this year, 13 of which are still active.

It is difficult to predict when or where blooms may occur, a DEP spokesman said. So far this year, we are seeing localized occurrences and watch or advisory levels are for the immediate area to where the HAB occurred. While HAB guidance should be followed in these localized areas, other areas of the lake would have no HAB guidance at this time. In all cases, the public should avoid and report water that appears to have green or a spilled-paint like appearance or surface scum.

Recent weather makes it likely that more blooms will be confirmed in coming weeks.

Read more of NJ.coms coverage of New Jersey water issues here.

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Michael Sol Warren may be reached at mwarren@njadvancemedia.com.
PARIS/MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th July, 2020) One of the key events in the construction of the first ever International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will take place on Tuesday in the commune of Saint-Paul-les-Durance in France, where the assembly of the reactor will begin, the ITER project's press service said.

The ITER demonstration reactor is being built next to the Cadarache research center in southern France jointly by the European Union, Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and the United States.

This will be the first large-scale attempt to demonstrate the feasibility of using thermonuclear reactions to generate energy on an industrial scale.

Should the ITER project be successful, mankind will be able to count on the possession of an almost inexhaustible source of energy. The launch of the reactor and the production of the first plasma on it are expected to take place in 2025.

A total of 35 countries take part in the ITER project. United Europe, as the host country of the ITER reactor, contributes 45 percent of the cost of the installation construction, while the other countries, including Russia, 9 percent each.
ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has spotted new gas signatures at Mars. These unlock new secrets about the martian atmosphere, and will enable a more accurate determination of whether there is methane, a gas associated with biological or geological activity, at the planet.



The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has been studying the Red Planet from orbit for over two years. The mission aims to understand the mixture of gases that make up the martian atmosphere, with a special focus on the mystery surrounding the presence of methane there.

Meanwhile, the spacecraft has now spotted never-before-seen signatures of ozone (O3) and carbon dioxide (CO2), based on a full martian year of observations by its sensitive Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS). The findings are reported in two new papers published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, one led by Kevin Olsen of the University of Oxford, UK and another led by Alexander Trokhimovskiy of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia.

"These features are both puzzling and surprising," says Kevin.

"They lie over the exact wavelength range where we expected to see the strongest signs of methane. Before this discovery, the CO2 feature was completely unknown, and this is the first time ozone on Mars has been identified in this part of the infrared wavelength range."

The martian atmosphere is dominated by CO2, which scientists observe to gauge temperatures, track seasons, explore air circulation, and more. Ozone - which forms a layer in the upper atmosphere on both Mars and Earth - helps to keep atmospheric chemistry stable. Both CO2 and ozone have been seen at Mars by spacecraft such as ESA's Mars Express, but the exquisite sensitivity of the ACS instrument on TGO was able to reveal new details about how these gases interact with light.

Observing ozone in the range where TGO hunts for methane is a wholly unanticipated result.

Scientists have mapped how martian ozone varies with altitude before. So far, however, this has largely taken place via methods that rely upon the gas' signatures in the ultraviolet, a technique which only allows measurement at high altitudes (over 20 km above the surface).

The new ACS results show that it is possible to map martian ozone also in the infrared, so its behaviour can be probed at lower altitudes to build a more detailed view of ozone's role in the planet's climate.

Spectral signatures of carbon dioxide and ozone at Mars - This graph shows an example of the measurements made by the Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) MIR instrument on ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), featuring the spectral signatures of carbon dioxide (CO2) and ozone (O3). The bottom panel shows the data (blue) and a best-fit model (orange). The top panel shows the modelled contributions from a variety of different gases for this spectral range. The deepest lines come from water vapour (light blue). The strongest O3 feature (green) is on the right, and distinct CO2 lines (grey) appear on the left. The locations of strong methane features (orange) are also shown in the modelled contributions, though methane is not observed in the TGO data. Larger image https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2020/07/Spectral_signatures_of_carbon_dioxide_and_ozone_at_Mars

Unravelling the methane mystery

One of the key objectives of TGO is to explore methane. To date, signs of martian methane - tentatively spied by missions including ESA's Mars Express from orbit and NASA's Curiosity rover on the surface - are variable and somewhat enigmatic.

While also generated by geological processes, most of the methane on Earth is produced by life, from bacteria to livestock and human activity. Detecting methane on other planets is therefore hugely exciting. This is especially true given that the gas is known to break down in around 400 years, meaning that any methane present must have been produced or released in the relatively recent past.

"Discovering an unforeseen CO2 signature where we hunt for methane is significant," says Alexander Trokhimovskiy. "This signature could not be accounted for before, and may therefore have played a role in detections of small amounts of methane at Mars."

The observations analysed by Alexander, Kevin and colleagues were mostly performed at different times to those supporting detections of martian methane. Besides, the TGO data cannot account for large plumes of methane, only smaller amounts - and so, currently, there is no direct disagreement between missions.

"In fact, we're actively working on coordinating measurements with other missions," clarifies Kevin. "Rather than disputing any previous claims, this finding is a motivator for all teams to look closer - the more we know, the more deeply and accurately we can explore Mars' atmosphere."











New carbon dioxide spectral feature discovered at Mars - This graph shows a new CO2 spectral feature, never before observed in the laboratory, discovered in the martian atmosphere by the Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) MIR instrument on ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). The graph shows the full extent of the magnetic dipole absorption band of the 16O12C16O molecule (one of the various 'isotopologues' of CO2). The top panel shows the ACS MIR spectra (shown in black) along with the modelled contribution of CO2 and H2O (shown in blue); the model is based on the HITRAN 2016 database. The bottom panel shows the difference between data and model, or residuals, revealing the structure of the absorption band in detail. The calculated positions of spectral lines are marked with arrows, in different colours corresponding to different 'branches' of the absorption band (red stands for the P-branch, green for the Q-branch and blue for the R-branch). Larger image https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Exploration/ExoMars/ExoMars_finds_new_gas_signatures_in_the_martian_atmosphere



Realising the potential of ExoMars

Methane aside, the findings highlight just how much we will learn about Mars as a result of the ExoMars programme.

"These findings enable us to build a fuller understanding of our planetary neighbour," adds Alexander.

"Ozone and CO2 are important in Mars' atmosphere. By not accounting for these gases properly, we run the risk of mischaracterising the phenomena or properties we see."

Additionally, the surprising discovery of the new CO2 band at Mars, never before observed in the laboratory, provides exciting insight for those studying how molecules interact both with one another and with light - and searching for the unique chemical fingerprints of these interactions in space.

"Together, these two studies take a significant step towards revealing the true characteristics of Mars: towards a new level of accuracy and understanding," says Alexander.

Successful collaboration in the hunt for life

As its name suggests, the TGO aims to characterise any trace gases in Mars' atmosphere that could arise from active geological or biological processes on the planet, and identify their origin.

The ExoMars programme consists of two missions: TGO, which was launched in 2016 and will be joined by the Rosalind Franklin rover and the Kazachok landing platform, due to lift off in 2022. These will take instruments complementary to ACS to the martian surface, examining the planet's atmosphere from a different perspective, and share the core objective of the ExoMars programme: to search for signs of past or present life on the Red Planet.

"These findings are the direct result of hugely successful and ongoing collaboration between European and Russian scientists as part of ExoMars," says ESA TGO Project Scientist Hakan Svedhem.

"They set new standards for future spectral observations, and will help us to paint a more complete picture of Mars' atmospheric properties - including where and when there may be methane to be found, which remains a key question in Mars exploration."

"Additionally, these findings will prompt a thorough analysis of all the relevant data we've collected to date - and the prospect of new discovery in this way is, as always, very exciting. Each piece of information revealed by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter marks progress towards a more accurate understanding of Mars, and puts us one step closer to unravelling the planet's lingering mysteries."

More information

"First detection of ozone in the mid-infrared at Mars: implications for methane detection" by K. S. Olsen et al. (2020) and "First observation of the magnetic dipole CO2 absorption band at 3.3 m in the atmosphere of Mars by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter ACS instrument" by A. Trokhimovskiy et al. (2020) are published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The studies utilised the Mid-InfraRed (MIR) channel of the Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), reporting the first observation of the 3000-3060 cm-1 ozone (O3) band and the discovery of the 3300 cm-1 16O12C16O magnetic dipole band (which both overlap with the 2900-3300cm-1 methane 3 absorption band) at Mars.

ExoMars is a joint endeavour of the European Space Agency and Roscosmos.

The ACS instrument is led by the Principal Investigator team at the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN) in Moscow, Russia, assisted by the CoPrincipal Investigator team from CNRS/LATMOS, France, and co-investigators from other ESA Member states.

Astrobiology



Please follow Astrobiology on Twitter.
The leaders discussed the implementation of the Normandy Four summit agreements reached in Paris on Dec. 9, 2019.

"The parties welcomed the achievement of an agreement on a full and comprehensive ceasefire in Donbas, which begins at 00:01 Kiev time on July 27, 2020; the President of the Russian Federation supported this agreement," the press service said on Sunday.

The two leaders also agreed on the urgent need to implement additional measures to support the ceasefire in Donbas.

The heads of state also touched on the need for the successful implementation of the agreements reached by the leaders of Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia in Paris, in the context of holding the next Normandy Four summit in Berlin.

Earlier it was reported that on July 22 the representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) agreed on a complete and comprehensive ceasefire in East Ukraine to start at 00:01 on Monday, July 27.

The conflict between the government forces and rebels in East Ukraine has left some 13,000 people dead and 30,000 others injured since it broke out in April 2014.
In my opinion, the media have much to blame for putting fear into the population about the virus. This minute-by-minute broadcasting is ridiculous. Granted it is serious, but its not the first virus to hit the world and there will be more damage done from what the authorities have done to us than what the virus itself has caused and time will prove that to be true. Exposure builds immunity in our bodies and the population should be encouraged about what to do to strengthen their immune systems to fight the disease rather than locking people in their homes, turning people against each other with snitching, and let people live in harmony.

Donna Knights
A Passaic County businessman admitted he stole more than $17 million through a years-long, sprawling market manipulation and tax fraud scheme, authorities said.

Joseph Taub, 41, of Clifton, pleaded guilty in federal court to securities fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Craig Carpenito in a statement.

If his plea agreement is accepted by the court, Taub will be sentenced to 18 months in prison, forfeit $17.1 million and will be required to pay $394,424 to the IRS, the statement said.

Taub is scheduled for sentencing Dec. 1, 2020. His attorney was not immediately available for comment.

Taub, a securities trader, was first charged in 2016.

From 2014 to 2016, Taub, along with Sean Greenwald, an accountant from New York, and a crew of unnamed co-conspirators, would artificially inflate or lower securities prices by buying and selling shares. By influencing the prices of shares in the publicly traded companies, Taub would also provoke interest from other participants, making it appear there was real market interest, the statement said.

Greenwald, 40, of Cedarhurst, on Long Island, pleaded guilty for his part in February 2018 and is awaiting sentencing, the statement said.

The scheme involved brokerage accounts held both under Taubs name and under the names of family members and business entities Taub and others in his crew controlled. At the time Taub and another co-conspirator were charged, the scheme netted them more than $26 million in 2014 and 2015 alone, the U.S. Attorneys Office previously said.

By hiding the identities of those who actually controlled the straw accounts from brokerage firms and the federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS,) Taub defrauded the United States and avoided paying hundreds of thousands in taxes, the statement said. The profits from the straw accounts were taxed at lower rates that applied to the account holders, instead of the rates that applied to Taub, the statement said.

Through this part of the scheme, Taub avoided paying $394,424 in federal taxes.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com.
The Berejiklian government will cut land tax for the next 20 years for new build-to-rent housing projects in an Australian-first designed to give renters longer-term leases.

NSW will give a 50 per cent discount on land tax to developers who invest in build-to-rent schemes, which are designed to provide better quality rental properties and long tenancy agreements.

Inside one of Mirvac's first build-to-rent developments in Sydney Olympic Park.

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the scheme would provide more housing options, greater certainty for renters, boost construction and support jobs during the COVID19 recovery.

"Build-to-rent is popular overseas but still in its infancy in Australia, and we want to remove the barrier and allow this segment of the market to grow," Mr Perrottet said.
RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Gallery Collection, a leading publisher of personalized business greeting cards and company holiday cards for over 90 years, is excited to announce the kickoff of a brand new Summer Photo Contest. Prospective entrants are invited to Help Build Our Summer Story Together by submitting their best 2020 summer photo for the chance to win a $500 cash prize.

Summer Photo Contest

The contest is free to enter, and entries are being accepted now through Sept. 3, 2020, with the winner being announced on Sept. 17, 2020. To review the official contest rules and submit your best summer photo, visit the Summer Photo Contest Submission Page. The Gallery Collection has been running a successful Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship Contest for 14 years, so the company is thrilled to continue the tradition of giving away more cash prizes through this new photo contest.

"We are excited to offer a chance for prospective entrants to join us in capturing the best of summer in 2020," said H.L. DeVore, Chief Marketing Officer for The Gallery Collection. "It has been a difficult year for many, and we thought it would be great to showcase our resolve and perseverance by capturing the best moments of our 2020 summer together in the face of so much hardship and uncertainty."

About The Gallery Collection  Prudent Publishing's The Gallery Collection is a leading publisher of premium quality business greeting cards in the United States. Established in 1929 and still family-owned, the company offers direct-from-the-publisher prices that include customized ink and foil imprints, a large selection of memorable greetings, and matching deckle-edged envelopes made of recycled paper. The Gallery Collection offers an extensive array of company Christmas cards, personalized holiday cards, business birthday cards, presentation folders, certificates, holders, and business cards, many of which are produced by wind power using environmentally friendly, recycled paper stock.

Media Contact:

Gary Gutierrez

Phone: 201-641-7900 x249

Email: [email protected]

Related Images

help-build-our-summer-story.jpg

Help Build Our Summer Story Together

Summer Photo Contest

SOURCE The Gallery Collection
Shia fighters and Israeli forces clash at the border. Netanyahu attacks Hezbollah for playing with fire", pledges a "strong response". The pro-Iranian group denies involvement. A source in the Maronite Patriarchate calls for stronger Lebanese neutrality amid regional tensions.

Beirut (AsiaNews)  The clashes that took place yesterday on the Lebanese-Israeli border between the pro-Iranian Shia Hezbollah and Israeli forces are a new blow to Lebanon's "openness and neutrality" policy, a position backed by Card d Bechara Al-Rahi several times.

In light of the situation, the Maronite patriarchate has stressed the need for Lebanon to take a neutral stance amid fears of a possible war not of its making, amid increased tensions.

According to Israeli media, yesterday a group of Hezbollah fighters tried to cross the border and fire anti-tank missiles against an armed position held by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).

The clash took place at Kfarchouba, near Mount Hermon, and follows action by Hezbollah in retaliation for the killing of Ali Kamel Mohsen, one of the Shia groups prominent leaders, during an Israeli raid into Syria on 20 July.

Reacting to yesterday's incident, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in constant contact with government ally and Defence Minister Benny Gantz, spoke of a "complicated" security situation.

The Israeli leader slammed Hezbollah for playing with fire, threatening "a strong response" to any attack or retaliation against his country or interests in the region.

Hezbollah's response was immediate. It strongly denied taking part in any "clashes" with Israeli forces along the border near Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, in the wake of an attempted "terrorist infiltration".

Commenting on the violence of the past few hours, a Maronite patriarchate source cited by L'Orient-Le Jour said that "this incident highlights" what Card Al-Rahi means "for the positive neutrality of Lebanon in the face of tensions and regional conflicts.

The country, the source goes on to say, "cannot bear the consequences of a conflict of which it is not a party, but in which it is being dragged despite itself by an army that takes its orders from Tehran.

In yesterday's clashes, the attempt to free a part of Lebanese territory is not a game", but a "partly psychological response to an Israeli attack in Syria". And it is the Lebanese people "who risk paying the price.
MI6 spies made an inappropriate attempt to stop a senior judge reading secret papers in a licence to kill case, it emerged yesterday.

Two agents called to ask that the documents should not be passed to members of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, including Lord Justice Singh.

The IPT, which monitors spy agencies, then wrote to MI6 saying the telephone calls had been inappropriate interference in judicial processes. A senior spy had to make an apology.

MI6 spies made an inappropriate attempt to stop a senior judge reading secret papers in a licence to kill case

The papers were originally disclosed in a case brought last year by four human rights organisations over alleged licence to kill crimes linked to intelligence operatives at sister agency MI5.

Lord Justice Singh said yesterday that although something serious had gone wrong he accepted MI6s contrition.

The tribunals secretary acted entirely appropriately in responding the way she did and by drawing these matters to my attention, he said. This tribunal is, in substance, a court which is completely independent of the Government, the intelligence agencies and everybody else. In March 2019, it was recognised that the direct communication was inappropriate.

An apology was given and it was recognised that nothing like this should happen in the future. Everyone recognised that something serious had gone wrong.

Lord Justice Singh (pictured) said yesterday that although something serious had gone wrong he accepted MI6s contrition

Details of the debacle emerged during an IPT hearing in London yesterday. The documents at the centre of the case related to inspections of MI6s work.

They had been passed to the IPT by another body, the Investigatory Powers Commissioners Office.

After receiving the phone calls from MI6, the IPTs secretary Susan Cobb wrote to the agency to say: It was inappropriate for your staff to seek to intervene in ongoing legal proceedings in the way that they sought to do.

Maya Foa of Reprieve, one of the human rights groups involved, said: Britains security services play a crucial role in keeping this country safe. But they do not get to decide what evidence a court should see.
PHOENIX  Two young adults charged with murder in the bludgeoning death of an Arizona State University professor four months ago told investigators that they lured him into the desert under the expectation he would pay money for sex, according to court records.

Investigators say Javian Ezell and Gabrielle Austin instead planned to rob professor Jun Seok Chae when he met them at a spot in the desert where the two lived in a tent. Ezell is accused of fatally striking Chae in the head with a hammer on March 25 during a struggle after the professor refused to hand over money.

The Maricopa County Sheriffs Office, which investigated the case and publicly revealed the arrests on Friday, declined to say whether its investigators determined whether Chae was in fact lured into the desert on the prospect of exchanging money for sex.

Ezell and Austin were 18 at the time, though Ezell has since turned 19.

Authorities say Ezell and Austin wrapped Chaes body in the tent, dumped his remains and the hammer in separate garbage bins, and drove away in the professors car. They were planning to go to Georgia, but were arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana, after police discovered the car was stolen, authorities say.

The body was found on July 17 after a nearly nine-week search at a landfill in Surprise, Arizona. Medical examiners later confirmed it was Chae.

Ezell and Austin were each charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery and vehicle theft. They remain jailed on a $1 million bond.

Attorney Brian Borrelli, who represents Ezell, declined to comment on the case. Attorney Samuel Doak, who represent Austin, didnt immediately return a call Monday seeking comment.

Authorities say Ezell and Austin told investigators about the spot on the northern edge of metro Phoenix where Chae was killed. Evidence of human blood was later found at the scene.

Ezell and Austin remained in a north Louisiana jail from March 29 until they were extradited to Arizona on July 15. Their arrests were publicly announced nine days later by the office of Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone.

Chae, an electrical engineering professor who joined ASU in 2005, was reported missing after he didnt return home after work on March 25. ___ This story has been corrected to show the starting date of Ezell and Austins detention in Louisiana began on March 29, not March 25.
Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot convened a cabinet meeting today at his residence to decide the further course of action. The meeting comes after Governor Kalraj Mishra gave a go-ahead to Congress for convening an assembly session but on 3 conditions.

The Ashok Gehlot-led government on Tuesday has written to Governor Kalraj Mishra urging him to allow convening the assembly session from July 31. Issuing a clarification on the three conditions put forth by governor, Congress responded that calling for an assembly session and ensuring its smooth conduct is the speakers prerogative. Moreover, it is the advisory committee that decides the agenda of the assembly session.

Earlier in the day, Rajasthan state cabinet met at CM Ashok Gehlots residence. After the cabinet meeting, Transport minister Pratap Singh said that the party doesnt want any clashes with the governor, as he is the head of the family. He pointed out that the governor cannot deny the cabinets proposal for an assembly session as it is mentioned in the constitution. He further expressed that he hopes the governor will approve the proposal of starting the session from July 31.

Another cabinet minister Harish Chaudhary, speaking to a news portal, said that it is their right to call the assembly. They have formulated replies to Governors concerns but it is ultimately the governors prerogative on how the session will be held. Terming it as extraordinary circumstances, Chaudhary pointed out that other assembly sessions are being held in the country. He added that the cabinet is likely to send the proposal to the Governor today.

Also Read: India opposes Pakistans attempt to convert gurdwara into mosque in Lahore

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Amid pressure from Congress to convene an assembly session, Rajasthan governor Kalraj Mishra on Monday clarified that Raj Bhavan never intended to not call the assembly session. He has asked the state government to deliberate on giving a 21-day to all members to as to ensure equal opportunity to all members. He further asked them to come up with an arrangement that doesnt put the health of 200 MLAs and 1000 officials under risk.

If anyone gets an infection, how would they prevent its spread to others, he further quipped. In the letter, Kalraj Mishra also clarified that it is his constitutional duty to not endanger the life of 1200 people by not calling a session without any special urgency.

Adamant on calling an assembly session to prove majority, Ashok Gehlot had earlier said that the Congress party would also approach the president and stage protest outside PM Modis residence if required. He also alleged that there is pressure from the top on Governor against calling an assembly session. Amid the political turmoil in Rajasthan, Congress had alleged that there have been attempts to topple the government and pressed horse-trading charges against the opposition. Former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, on the other hand, has argued that opposing the partys leadership cannot be regarded as changing sides or going against the party.

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JOS, Nigeria, July 28, 2020 (Morning Star News)  Muslim Fulani herdsmen on Friday (July 24) killed a church pastor, a 5-year-old boy and eight other Christians in attacks in north-central Nigeria, sources said.

The boy, Joel Cephas, and the Rev. Shamah Kuyet Ishaya of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Zikpak were killed in attacks on predominantly Christian areas in and around Kafanchan, Jemaa County, in southern Kaduna state, between 8 p.m. and midnight, sources said.

The assailants wounded 11 other Christians and burned at least three homes.

Area residents Gideon Agwom, Rachael Nuhu and Essau George, among others, informed Morning Star News by text message of the deaths and the wounded, saying the victims belonged to ECWA, Baptist, Anglican and Roman Catholic churches.

The attacks, which took place during a 24-hour curfew due to the break-down in security in the area, were the latest in a wave of unchecked assaults on Christian communities in Kaduna state this year. The herdsmen attacked the Kafanchan satellite areas of Zikpak, Maigizoh, Ungwan Masara and the College of Education area in Kafanchan.

Pastor Ishaya was a graduate of the ECWA Theological Seminary in Igbaja, Kwara state, and seminary Provost John Olu Adetoyese confirmed his death in a press statement.

Pastor Shamah, among many others, was gruesomely murdered by Fulani herdsmen in an overnight attack yesterday, July 24, Rev. Adetoyese said. May the Lord grant the family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss; may He be with Christians in southern Kaduna. Your journey was so short but fulfilled, Pastor Shamah Kuyet.

Text messages from residents to Morning Star News during the attack and the next day gave some indication of the terror inflicted on the communities.

Christians are getting killed like chickens; children getting slaughtered; women getting raped and molested, reported area resident Thomas Usman. Southern Kaduna is bleeding, and the government is silent; we need help!

Area resident Joel Amadi said in his message, Killing is going on in my fathers village, Zikpak, Kafanchan, and my Dad has been missing, including other villagers; and houses are being burnt, yet no help.

Another resident, Tinom Jatau, said in his text, Another Fulani attack in Kafanchan; Oh God, please intervene and protect your children with Your blood.

Sharon Markus, another resident, wrote, Fulani herdsmen are attacking Kafanchan. Im on the run, I need your prayers.

Paul Gwanzy wrote, Im heartbroken right now. Kafanchan in southern part of Kaduna state is under attack from armed herdsmen, and Christians are dying.

John Tanko wrote, Kafanchan on fire; please wherever you are now, we just need your prayers.

Patience Tanko wrote, Oh Lord, please save your children in Kafanchan; we are at your mercy, as another area resident, Adams Karu, texted, Another bloody attack in Kafanchan. God have mercy and deliver your people.

Markus Bobai texted, My people are in the bush now, crying for help. Guns are being shot everywhere. God, we only have you.

Christian resident Sarki Suleiman texted, God, what is really happening in southern Kaduna, Kafanchan again? What is the crime of Christians in Kaduna state? Why are they killing innocent people? Lord, will the wicked laugh and make merry and mock You? Wont justice be done, oh Lord?

Besides the pastor and young Joel Cephas, Luka Binniyat, spokesman for the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), identified the other eight persons killed.

After looting and vandalizing the town, Binniyat said in a statement, they burnt part of it and gruesomely murdered the following: Kingsley Raphael, 28; Katung Kantiock, 60; Luka Garba, 75; Victor Ishaya, 22; Madam Dakaci, 52; Cecelia Audu, 65; Matina Dauda, 70; and Yanasan Dauda, 70.

Among those wounded by gunshot were Jonathan Ishaya, Marthins Agang, Kassan Duniya and Jenifer Nicodemus, he said.

An Extraordinary Height

The day before the attacks, the Kaduna state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the Rev. Joseph Hayab, had decried prior assaults in a press statement.

The position of CAN is that the killings of innocent lives, maiming and destruction of property across the nation, particularly the fresh attacks in the southern part of Kaduna state, have reached an extraordinary height and are a matter of grave concern; hence, require that the federal government take a proactive approach instead of taking sides, Pastor Hayab said. Aside from the degree of endless destruction of lives and property and governments complicit response, CAN wishes to unequivocally assert that government has not done enough to stop the never-ending attacks, nor has it demonstrated guaranteeing steps to arrest the aggressors.

The president of the Southern Kaduna Baptist Conference, the Rev. Donald Arak, also expressed alarm in a press statement.

We are dismayed that the government is not doing anything to condemn these attacks on Christians, nor give Christians hope that they are working to end these incessant attacks in Kaduna state, Pastor Arak said. On our part, we will continue to pray for Gods intervention to bring to an end these attacks on Christians in Kaduna state.

On Jan. 30 Christian Solidarity International (CSI) issued a genocide warning for Nigeria, calling on the Permanent Member of the United Nations Security Council to take action. CSI issued the call in response to a rising tide of violence directed against Nigerian Christians and others classified as infidels by Islamist militants in the countrys north and middle belt regions.

Nigeria ranked 12th on Open Doors 2020 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution but second in the number of Christians killed for their faith, behind Pakistan.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.

If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at https://morningstarnews.org/donate/?

Article originally published by Morning Star News. Used with permission.

Photo courtesy: Pixabay
Authorities in the southern province of Dong Nai have detained nine people for illegally entering from Cambodia.

The Dong Nai Provincial Lung Hospital.

Director of the Dong Nai Provincial Department of Health, Phan Huy Anh Vu, reported on Monday evening that the group was found when arriving by boat to Tri An Lake.

"They travelled on a small boat from the Tonle Sap to Vinh Cuu District," the official said. "They have been taken to quarantine at the Dong Nai Provincial Lung Hospital."

According to the Dong Nai Provincial Centre for Diseases Control, they have just taken samples for viral testing from 65 crew members on four vessels docking the Co Dau A3 Port from China, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. They all have good health.

At present, there are 13 people being quarantined in the province after returning from overseas. Dtinews
RAANANA, Israel - Israels returning ambassador to the United Nations affirmed the countrys bond with the Trump administration Tuesday, dismissing notions that Israel would pay a price for its tight ties to the divisive president should he be defeated in November.

In his first comprehensive interview since returning from the diplomatic posting, Danny Danon said he was relieved that the more progressive forces in the Democratic Party failed to secure the partys nomination and claimed that Israel could prosper with either Trump or Joe Biden in the White House. When it comes to Israel, he says the countrys supporters in the U.S. put their domestic politics aside.

We have bipartisan support and we value and we cherish it, he said, at a temporary office near his home in central Israel. I spoke publicly against Mr. Bernie Sanders. But he wasnt elected. Mr. Biden is a friend of Israel and he proved it over the years. So, yes, we hear those voices, the radical voices, but theyre not the majority in the Democratic Party.

Dovish backers of Israel have accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of undermining traditional bipartisan support over the past decade. In 2012, he was seen as supporting Mitt Romney against then-President Barack Obama, and Netanyahu famously delivered a speech to Congress in 2015 railing against Obamas nuclear deal with Iran.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington that has close ties to the Democratic Party, said it would be a huge mistake for Israeli officials to expect that all of the clashes with Obama and cozying up to Trump will be forgotten if Biden is elected president.

The Netanyahu team chose a side in American partisan politics while pursuing policies that run counter to American values and interests, he said. In doing so, the right wing has done significant damage to the relationship and should not expect that a new Democratic administration is going to act as if the past decade never happened.

In recent years, Netanyahu has emerged as one of Trumps strongest international allies, lavishing the American president with praise after openly clashing with Obama. Hes been rewarded with what he considers to be a slew of diplomatic achievements, most notably recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital and the moving of the American embassy there.

But it has come at the cost of alienating some of Israels more liberal American allies, who despise Trump, turning Israel into more of a wedge issue. Opinion polls show Republicans to be far more supportive of Netanyahus policies than Democrats, especially among younger voters.

Influential American commentator Peter Beinart recently sent shock waves through the Jewish establishment by breaking a long-standing taboo and endorsing the idea of a single democratic entity of Jews and Palestinians living with equal rights between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean rather than the long-time goal of creating two states for two peoples.

The Democratic Party recently unveiled its Middle East platform, which largely adhered to its traditional approach of supporting Israeli security while calling for a two-state solution. But the partys progressive wing, led by Sanders, has urged a harder line by suggesting that American military aid be conditioned on changes in Israeli policy toward the Palestinians, such as its controversial settlement construction.

Prior to his posting, the 49-year-old Danon was known as an ideological firebrand in the ruling Likud Party who was not afraid to challenge Netanyahu from the right.

Danons maverick ways pushed Netanyahu to fire him from his position as deputy defence minister in 2014. But the following year Netanyahu appointed him as a minister in his government before dispatching him as ambassador the United Nations, a position that 30 years earlier launched Netanyahus own political career.

Danon worked closely with his U.S. counterparts, including the former ambassador Nikki Haley, and said he forged close ties with Arab ambassadors, especially from Gulf states that do not have formal relations with Israel. He also took pride in becoming the first Israeli elected to head a permanent U.N. committee, despite what he called a hostile environment.

Armed with that new perspective after five years in New York, Danon said he is eager to get back into the Israeli political game and hinted that he considers himself a potential successor to Netanyahu.

Eventually, there will be another leader of the Likud, said the soft-spoken Danon, wearing a sharp suit. I support the prime minister. But at the same time, in the Likud party, I think we have to think about the future, about the next generation.

____

Follow Aron Heller on Twitter at www.twitter.com/aronhellerap
One firefighter was injured and dozens of workers were displaced after a five-alarm fire engulfed six commercial buildings in San Francisco on Tuesday morning, the citys Fire Department said.

The fire was first reported at 6:30 a.m. at 13th Street and South Van Ness Avenue, just off Highway 101, in a commercial area that straddles the citys Mission and South of Market, also known as SoMa, neighborhoods, said Lt. Jonathan Baxter of the San Francisco Fire Department.

An auto body shop, a housing materials supply warehouse and the field operations headquarters of the San Francisco Sheriffs Department were among the properties that were damaged, the department said. About 100 workers were forced to flee the flames, and all of them escaped without injury, Lieutenant Baxter said.

Chief Jeanine Nicholson of the San Francisco Fire Department said that at one point 160 firefighters were at the scene trying to douse the flames.
The New York Times

Sprinkled across the ocean floor, invisible from the surface, are hundreds  or maybe thousands  of sinkholes. These blue holes, as scientists call them, do not swallow up everything incapable of fighting their gravitational force, like their black hole cousins. But to those who study them, they are nearly as intriguing.

This week, one particular blue hole off Floridas coast  the Green Banana  captured the imagination of many a land dweller. Headline after headline has offered a variation on the theme: Scientists are flocking to a mysterious blue hole. One publication asked: What Could It Be?

What it is is the Green Banana, one of the deepest blue holes ever discovered, according to Jim Culter, a senior scientist at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, and its on the verge of being studied in the most comprehensive way yet.

Scientists will venture into the Green Bananas depths next month, when they hope to answer longstanding questions about whether the sinkhole  which extends around 275 feet, like an hourglass-shaped 20-story building anchored in the ocean floor  connects to other sinkholes and whether fresh water flows within.

The scientists leading the mission to the sinkhole, which begins 155 feet below the oceans surface around 50 miles off St. Petersburg, agree that the name, the Green Banana, sounds like a bar in Key West. According to Larry Borden, a longtime commercial fisherman and boat captain who has known about the Green Banana for decades, the name emerged in the mid-1970s after a boat captain saw a green banana skin floating by a known spring, as fishermen referred to the underwater sinkholes back then.

They were called springs, Borden said he had heard, because in the 1530s, when Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto was hanging out in the area, fresh water streamed out of the holes.

Spear fishermen who gathered near the holes centuries later, including Borden, wondered how deep they were.

Eventually, Borden told a diver friend, Curt Bowen, about the Green Banana, and in 1993, Bowen became one of the first people to dive to the bottom and map the blue hole. An article in Advanced Diver Magazine, which Bowen owns, posited that there were so many sinkholes on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico that if it were possible to drain it, it would probably look like Swiss cheese.

Nearly 30 years later, scientists still dont know just how porous it is.

Culter said scientists have verified about 20 underwater sinkholes on the west coast of Florida alone, but there are probably twice that number. Part of what makes them hard to count is also what makes them so intriguing, said Emily Hall, a scientist at Mote Marine Laboratory leading the mission: They are difficult to spot from above.

Youre in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and you dont see anything all around, Hall said. And then after diving for quite some time, This hole opens up, and its booming with life.

There seems to be something about the unusual seawater chemistry in blue holes that is particularly good at facilitating life. Pools of fish, oodles of sponges and an array of plants are common within these oases, as Hall calls them. The water inside is also often atypically clear, which is part of why they are beloved by divers.

One reason that so little is known about them, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is that their entry points are often narrow  before they broaden out  making it impossible for an automated submersible to enter.

In next months mission, which NOAA is funding, the plan is to carefully lower a 600-pound lander inside. The lander, shaped like a triangular prism, and divers will collect water and sediment samples and complete a biological survey, Hall said.

The excitement comes from the idea that this is exploration. We dont know what we will see down there biologically and chemically, she said. We have an idea. But every time we go down there we find something new.

The team recently explored a nearby blue hole, around 350 feet deep, known as Amberjack. They were surprised to discover two dead smalltooth sawfish, an endangered species, at the bottom.

Heather Murphy. c.2020 The New York Times Company
By Akbar Mammadov

Joint military exercises held between Azerbaijani and Turkish armed forces contribute to strengthening regional peace and security, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva said during the presser on July 28.

Abdullayeva said that these exercises also serve to strengthen coordination and exchange of advanced practices between the two countries armed forces and are conducted in accordance with the Agreement on Military Cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey and with the annual plan, as stated by the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry earlier.

The spokespersons statement was in response to Armenian Foreign Ministry remarks that the joint drills between Azerbaijan and Turkey were aggravating the situation in the region.

It should be noted that the joint military drills of Azerbaijani and Turkish Land and Air forces will be focused on combat fire drills and flight-tactical training, in which military personnel, armoured vehicles, artillery mounts, and mortars, as well as military aviation and air defence equipment of the the two countries' armies will be involved.

According to the plan, exercises involving the Land Forces will be held from August 1 to 5 in Baku and Nakhchivan, while exercises involving the Air Forces will be conducted from July 29 to August 10  in Baku, Nakhchivan, Ganja, Kurdamir and Yevlakh.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Regina King in "Watchmen." (Mark Hill / HBO)

A prosperous Black community is savaged by an angry white mob, including the Ku Klux Klan. Terrorized men and women are running, trying to escape the gunfire and explosions. Abandoned children cry for their parents while a Black man is dragged through the street by a car. Mayhem is everywhere.

These disturbing scenes re-creating the Tulsa, Okla., race massacre of 1921 formed the unexpectedly brutal opening for HBO's "Watchmen," the reboot of a celebrated graphic novel franchise about a ragged group of costumed crime-fighters. The first episode would unveil another striking image: Sister Night, a masked African American woman and the protagonist waging war against evildoers.

"Watchmen" turned traditional comic-book tropes as well as dramatic TV fare on its head when it premiered last year, injecting hot-button issues such as police brutality against Black people, white supremacy and political corruption into its alternate-universe storyline. The series was the first superhero drama on TV to star a Black woman.

And now it has made Emmy history, becoming the most nominated show in this year's race.

"Watchmen" scored 26 Emmy nominations Tuesday  the most of any show this year and more than any other limited series in the category since the current rules were established in 2015. (The classic miniseries "Roots" earned a record-setting 37 nominations in 1977.)

The show, which attracted both critical acclaim and a massive viewership with its bizarre twists and unconventional story, joined the upper echelon of TV series to earn the most nominations in a single year, including HBO's epic "Game of Thrones," which earned 32 nominations in 2019; "NYPD Blue," which notched 26 in 1994; and FX's "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story," which received 22 in 2016. "Watchmen" outpaced this year's second-most nominated series, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," by six nominations.

Story continues

Among the marquee nods for the series were lead actress (Regina King) and actor (Jeremy Irons). The show also received three of the six supporting actor nominations (Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Jovan Adepo) and three of the six directing slots. Jean Smart added to the haul with her supporting actress nod.

The recognition for the series guarantees that the charged issues addressed by "Watchmen" will be center stage at this year's likely-to-be-virtual Emmy Awards, a ceremony that has often been dominated by major star wattage and discussions about red-carpet glamour. Even the costumes on "Watchmen" resonate with today's headlines: Many of the show's characters, good and bad, wear masks.

Damon Lindelof, the creator of "Watchmen," acknowledged that the attention surrounding the series will likely have an impact on the usually frothy atmosphere, a change he says will be welcome.

"What is even a ceremony given the times we're living in now?" he said. "The idea of stripping away the pomp and circumstance and getting to talk about the work is good." He pointed to other major nominees, including "Ramy," about a Muslim American family, and "Unbelievable," a police drama about an investigation into a series of rapes in Colorado and Washington state.

Said Lindelof, "The content of those shows is talking about the world we're living in in a very direct way, and we have an opportunity. These times call for a change. I have no idea what the show will be, but I do hope it's reflective of the moment that we're in."

Lindelof has said he was determined to merge the fantastic universe of "Watchmen," with its flying ships and raining squid, with what he called "the camouflaged history of America." The series was instrumental in putting a spotlight on the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, a relatively little-known chapter of America's past. He learned about the event through the writing of African American author Ta-Nehisi Coates, who frequently writes about Black identity and white supremacy.

"I consider myself a student of U.S. history, and I thought, 'How did this slip through the cracks?" Lindelof said in an interview with The Times shortly before the premiere of "Watchmen." "I felt incredible shame and guilt. I could have taken that shame and internalized it. Instead, I said, 'I'm going to put that in 'Watchmen.'"

The spotlight that the show shined on Tulsa's painful history brought new attention to this year's 99th commemoration of the event on May 31. President Trump's controversial campaign rally in Tulsa, which came the day after Juneteenth, the holiday that marks the end of slavery in the United States, further highlighted the subject of "Watchmen's" daring opening sequence.

The drama also shook up the "Watchmen" franchise by putting a Black heroine in the center of the action. Alan Moore's original graphic novel and the 2009 movie did not have any characters of color, with the exception of the genetically transformed Dr. Manhattan, who was blue.

Although he was clear in his vision, Lindelof, who co-created "Lost" and "The Leftovers," had concerns about carrying it out. "This was an incredibly difficult story to tell but I was not necessarily the one to tell it," he said. "I struggled with that all the way through."

He assembled a diverse writers room. Of the 12 writers, four were white men, while the remainder were women and/or people of color.

"The only reason 'Watchmen' worked was because other people stepped forward and said, 'I've got this,'" he said. "This was a difficult and humbling experience, but also the most worthwhile of any TV show or movie I've worked on."

But even with all the accolades and Emmy recognition, Lindelof has not changed his mind on a decision that has baffled many a "Watchmen" fan  not moving forward with a second season. The first season ended with a cliffhanger.

"This makes me feel more like it was the right decision," Lindelof said. "I've always felt that 'Watchmen' was not ever mine. It preceded me. It inspired me 30 years ago and I got to take a spin in someone else's car. But the best way to acknowledge that something wasn't yours to begin with is to pass it on. I am so much more excited to see someone else's take on 'Watchmen' than to try and do it again myself. I am very comfortable with that choice."
Jammu, July 29 : A militant was killed on Tuesday as the Indian Army foiled an infiltration bid in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district.

Defence sources said a group of three to four militants tried to sneak into the Indian side of across the Line of Control (LoC) in Kalal sector of Nowshera in Rajouri.

"The group of infiltrating terrorists was challenged by the alert troops of the army. There was an explosion at the spot where the intruders tried to sneak into the Indian side.

"One terrorist was killed while others were forced to withdraw back to the Pakistani side. Two of the withdrawing terrorists were injured in this operation," a source said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 07:03:16|Editor: huaxia

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Children wearing face masks walk with their mother at a street in Tehran, Iran, on July 19, 2020. (Xinhua/Ahmad Halabisaz)

-- Iran reports 2,434 new #coronavirus cases, 293,606 in total;

-- WHO warns of infections surge during Eid al-Adha in Iraq, 2,553 new cases;

-- Saudi records 1,993 new cases, 268,934 in total;

-- Israel registers 2,029 new infections.

CAIRO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Monday reported 2,434 new COVID-19 cases while Saudi Arabia confirmed 1,993 new infections, as the Middle East states are tightening anti-coronavirus precautions for the upcoming Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha to curb the spread of the deadly virus.

In Iran, the hardest hit country in the Middle East, the overall number of the novel coronavirus cases has grown to 293,606, while the pandemic has so far claimed the lives of 15,912 Iranians, up by 212 in the past 24 hours, according to Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education.

She said 1,436 of the new coronavirus patients detected in the past 24 hours in Iran have been hospitalized.

Meanwhile, the Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiee was tested positive for coronavirus, official IRNA news agency reported Monday, noting Rabiee's overall condition is "satisfactory."

Besides, Iran and Iraq have reopened border crossings for trade exchanges after a five-month hiatus in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, Iran's Eghtesad Online news website reported Monday.

Saudi Arabia has so far confirmed 268,934 coronavirus cases in the kingdom, amid a slowdown trajectory of daily infections in the past month.

People attend the first prayers at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 24, 2020. (Xinhua photo)

The Saudi Ministry of Health reported 27 more deaths and 2,613 new recovered cases, increasing the death toll to 2,760 and the total recoveries to 222,936.

Turkey reported 919 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the total confirmed cases in the country to 227,019, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

In addition, 17 people died in the past 24 hours from the virus, taking the death toll to 5,630, while 982 patients recovered in the past 24 hours, raising the total recoveries to 210,469.

Earlier in the day, Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoglu announced that passenger flights Turkey and Russia as well as Kuwait, India and South Africa will resume from Aug. 1.

The Turkish government was also considering resuming flights with Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Iraq, Kenya and Uzbekistan, Karaismailoglu added.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday warned of an increase in COVID-19 infections during Eid al-Adha holiday in Iraq, as the Iraqi health ministry reported 2,553 new COVID-19 cases in the country, raising the total infections in the country to 112,585.

"Iraq is not yet out of the danger phase, and a wave of high infections is inevitable unless there is a commitment to preventive health measures and social distancing to limit the spread of the virus," Wael Hatahit, head of the WHO's emergency team in Iraq, said in an interview with the official al-Sabah newspaper.

A man carries a sheep bought from a livestock market ahead of Eid al-Adha in Rabat, Morocco, on July 25, 2020. (Xinhua/Chadi)

The Qatari health ministry on Monday announced 292 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number in the Gulf state to 109,597, official Qatar News Agency reported.

The ministry attributed the increase in coronavirus infections to gatherings and visits as well as ignoring the preventive measures such as staying at home and social distancing.

Egypt registered on Monday 420 new COVID-19 infections, taking the total number in the country to 92,482, said the Health Ministry.

It is the lowest daily increase registered in Egypt since May 16 when 491 new cases were confirmed, after which daily cases started to rise, with a record 1,774 infections on June 19.

Monday also marked the 18th consecutive day of Egypt's COVID-19 daily infections to fall below 1,000.

Oman reported 1,053 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the total number in the country to 77,058, according to a statement by the Omani health ministry.

The ministry also reported nine new fatalities from the virus, bringing the death toll to 393, and 1,729 more recoveries, raising the total recoveries to 57,028.

The government "urges all citizens and residents to be very careful during Eid al-Adha days, and appeals to them to reduce movement during daylight hours and to abide by the decision to lockdown in the evening," said the country's Supreme Committee tasked with tackling the COVID-19 pandemic in a statement.

Israel's Ministry of Health reported 2,029 new coronavirus cases on Monday, bringing the total infections in the country to 63,985.

People weigh a goat at a livestock market ahead of the Eid al-Adha in Cairo, Egypt, on July 24, 2020. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

This is the third time since the outbreak of the pandemic in Israel in late February that the daily infections exceed 2,000.

Israel's business sector activity has shrunk to the lowest level since 2001 amid the coronavirus crisis, according to a survey issued by the state's central bank on Monday.

With 333 daily new cases, Palestine on Monday announced that it would soon implement new precautionary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the Palestinian territories as Eid al-Adha will start on Friday.

"The Palestinian worshippers will serve the prayers in the morning of the first day of Eid al-Adha in public yards and squares for no more than 15 minutes, and they must abide by the protective precautionary measures," said Ibrahim Milhem, spokesman of the Palestinian government, at a news briefing.

The number of coronavirus infections in the Palestinian territories has totalled 13,457.

In Kuwait, 606 new COVID-19 cases and five more deaths were reported on Monday, raising the tally of infections to 64,379 and the death toll to 438.

Kuwait will start the third phase plan of restoring normal life on July 28, in which labor capacity will increase to no more than 50 percent, with visits to social care homes allowed and curfew hours further reduced.

As the first among the Gulf countries to report COVID-19 cases, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday announced 264 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 59,177.

The UAE health ministry also confirmed one more fatality from the virus, pushing up the country's death toll to 345.

A total of 609 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Morocco on Monday, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the North African country to 20,887.

Earlier in the day, Moroccan Minister of Health Khalid Ait Taleb warned at a press briefing in Rabat that the spread of COVID-19 in Morocco is becoming a big concern given the surge in infections in the past week.

In Lebanon and Libya, the number of COVID-19 cases on Monday rose by 132 and 158 respectively to 3,882 and 2,827. 
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Everyday entrepreneurs and their millions of ventures in the U.S. were resilient in the face of the punishing economic climate of the first two months of COVID-19, according to new data from Venture Forward, GoDaddy's [NYSE: GDDY] multi-year research project that demonstrates and quantifies the impact that ventures have on local communities and the U.S. economy.

The new data reveals that these micro-businesses helped communities withstand the economic impact of shuttered shops and lost jobs during March and April. Also, in communities that have more ventures the data shows that average growth in median income for everyone is higher, unemployment is lower and recovery from prior economic downturn is faster. A venture is defined as a discrete domain name with an active website, representing a business, service, non-profit, cause or idea.

"This new data from the COVID-19 pandemic not only reinforces previous research on the impact of micro-businesses on local economies, but also affirms that ventures play a critical role in buoying communities during difficult times," says Karen Mossberger, Professor, Arizona State University School of Public Affairs. "Venture Forward provides valuable insights for local policymakers into the importance of nurturing micro-businesses, whether supporting entrepreneurs who use technology to quickly adapt in the new stay-at-home world, or cultivating the success of existing ventures who have remained nimble and resilient in the face of change."

GoDaddy's Venture Forward initiative quantifies the impact of everyday entrepreneurs and their ventures on the U.S. economy throughout the nation's 900+ metro-/micropolitan areas, 3,100+ counties and 30,000+ zip codes.

Venture Forward Updates

Ventures are associated with helping reduce the unemployment rate. Adding 1 new venture per 100 people is associated with reducing unemployment by .05 percentage points.

Adding 1 new venture per 100 people is associated with reducing unemployment by .05 percentage points. Ventures stay resilient and agile during COVID-19. The new data shows that between February and April, while the number of small businesses closures increased nationally, the number of ventures remained steady and relatively flat.

The new data shows that between February and April, while the number of small businesses closures increased nationally, the number of ventures remained steady and relatively flat. Small businesses and ventures together can offset unemployment for low income jobs, despite the fact that small businesses saw greater low-income job loss overall and were hit the hardest during COVID-19 . After controlling for other factors, counties with a higher density of small businesses had the largest job losses in April; however, counties with both lots of small businesses and lots of ventures were hit less hard than those counties with lots of small businesses but fewer ventures.

After controlling for other factors, counties with a higher density of small businesses had the largest job losses in April; however, counties with both lots of small businesses lots of ventures were hit less hard than those counties with lots of small businesses but fewer ventures. Ventures and broadband work together to offset job loss. Counties with high broadband penetration didn't display meaningfully lower job loss than counties with lower broadband accessibility, but counties with high broadband penetration combined with high venture density did.

Counties with high broadband penetration didn't display meaningfully lower job loss than counties with lower broadband accessibility, but counties with high broadband penetration combined with high venture density did. Conclusions from Venture Forward data help civic leaders find ways to focus on ventures. Leaders in Gilbert, Ariz. , and Denison, Texas , have both implemented programs focused on helping individuals start and grow micro-businesses as an acknowledgment that ventures have unique needs apart from small and large businesses.

"Amid a global pandemic, everyday entrepreneurs are finding ways to create business opportunities to benefit themselves, their families, and their communities," said GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani. "The impact of these micro-businesses is collectively very large and represents a critical  if often overlooked  contributor to local economies and the national economy."

The research was conducted in partnership with social scientists at the Univ. of Iowa and Arizona State Univ. as well as economists at UCLA Anderson Forecast Center, and combines information about 20 million US ventures built off GoDaddy web domains  a customer could (and often does) have more than one venture  with data from the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics and similar sources. The latest findings are updated with 2020 data and analyzes both the impact of ventures during COVID-19 and the impact the pandemic has had on changes in the number of ventures.

Venture Forward's mission is to bring into focus the benefits of building a more inclusive economy for communities by providing valuable information on the impact of ventures, which are often too small or too new to show up in traditional methods of capturing economic data. The Venture Forward research is available to download and to explore with data visualization tools at www.godaddy.com/ventureforward .

Methodology

The research team used venture density (the number of ventures per 100 people), and then a subset density of highly active ventures, to model effects on economic outcome measures like regional prosperity scores, change in annual household median income and recovery from the Great Recession at the county, city region, and zip code levels. These predictive, multivariate regression models controlled for many additional variables including broadband subscriptions, educational levels, age cohorts, demographics, population, occupational data, poverty, and other relevant economic indicators.

About GoDaddy

GoDaddy is empowering everyday entrepreneurs around the world by providing all of the help and tools to succeed online. With 19 million customers worldwide, GoDaddy is the place people come to name their idea, build a professional website, attract customers and manage their work. Our mission is to give our customers the tools, insights and the people to transform their ideas and personal initiative into success. To learn more about the company, visit www.GoDaddy.com .

 2020 GoDaddy Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Source: GoDaddy Inc.

SOURCE GoDaddy Inc.

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School bus drivers are tasked with being guardians of their pupil passengers to and from school. Providing safe transportation in the current COVID-19 world will require a fundamental change in the way drivers and officials comply with safety guideline

Zonar, the leader in smart fleet technology, today announced its COVID-19 Return to School Safety Solutions, a suite of dedicated compliance resources and configurable software solutions designed to establish new COVID-19 safety protocols for school bus drivers, students and fleet managers when schools return to in-person learning. Through these offerings, schools can more safely resume operations with readily available resources to adapt to rapidly changing requirements. Zonars COVID-19 Return to School Safety Solutions enable fleet managers and drivers to create more touchless experiences, address student tracking, ensure verified sanitization of buses, aid in contact tracing, with numerous options for funding.

School districts are experiencing unprecedented disruptions due to COVID-19. With some lockdown restrictions easing, decision-makers must address the urgency and complexity of reopening their schools. One of the biggest challenges will be to adjust working conditions and adopt new safety practices in order to reinforce parent, staff and driver confidence in school bus transportation. Providing a safer and technologically enhanced environment is a crucial step for these operations to return to normalcy. According to a panel of infectious disease experts at the University of California, San Francisco, up to 70 percent of the U.S. population could contract COVID-19 in the next 12 to 18 months. Taking every step to mitigate the risk of transmission as millions of students return to school is paramount.

"School bus drivers are tasked with being guardians of their pupil passengers to and from school. Providing safe transportation in the current COVID-19 world will require a fundamental change in the way drivers and officials comply with safety guidelines," said H. Kevin Mest, senior vice president and general manager of passenger services at Zonar. "There is no one way to deal with the devastating effects of the pandemic on school transportation. Creating an environment that protects everyone will require discipline and access to customizable technologies like those Zonar developed to address a fleets changing requirements.

Apart from sanitization measures, maintaining strict adherence to social distancing and mask-wearing policies will be important. Zonars COVID-19 Return to School Safety Solutions help schools meet the unique and varying needs of their student population as they return to classes as well as create meaningful changes, empowering families, drivers and teachers to feel safe and successful in the upcoming school year. The COVID-19 Return to School Safety Solutions combines Zonars expert support with pupil transportation offerings that utilize existing infrastructure, help reduce physical touchpoints, ensure sanitization of buses, aid in contact tracing  all while giving parents greater peace of mind.

The Zonar COVID-19 Return to School Safety Solutions includes tools that help:

Design your new normal with expert resources:



Zonars Safety & Compliance team comprised of industry veterans can help schools stay up-to-date with regulatory and national/state/local guidance, safety standards, regularly updated resources from the Center of Disease Control (CDC), free webinars and 1:1 advice for schools around compliance and regulations through an easy-to-use form. This is in addition to Zonars 24/7/365 customer success team, which is at the ready to handle any customer or product specific inquiries.

Find ways to fund your COVID-19 school transportation initiatives:



Budgets are limited. If youre facing a shortfall for fleet management technology, ask our professionals about grant opportunities such as our Don Carnahan Memorial Grant and our partnership with Learn Design Apply, Inc. We can connect you with grant writing experts who offer professional assistance from research to project implementation.

Standardize and electronically verify cleaning protocols:



To help ensure buses are properly sanitized, Zonars patented Electronic Verified Inspection Reporting (EVIR) solution has a new electronically verifiable configuration that helps school officials ensure the cleanliness and sanitization of buses according to CDC guidelines.

Support contact tracing with digital rider visibility:



Zonar provides Z Pass a contactless, card-based rider verification solution allowing schools to know who rode which bus and when so thatif a rider tests positive for COVID-19you can quickly notify the driver and parents regarding the potential exposure.

Verify right student, right bus, right stop



With many schools going to a staggered schedule, Zonar Verify prevents students from getting on the wrong bus or off at the wrong stop. With assistance from the contactless, card-based Z Pass students scan entry and exit from the bus, Verify automatically confirms from the daily routing information that its the right student, right bus and right stop.

Keep parents and caregivers informed about their childs bus location



Zonar MyView put parents and caregivers peace of mind right into the palm of their hand. Parents use the mobile app to locate their childs bus, customize alerts and share and manage access with authorized caregivers. Plus, districts can utilize the back-end portal to communicate bus changes or COVID-related updates to the parents phone.

Update Cummins engines  no mechanic, no cost, no contact:



A trip to the shop for an engine update can take days and require an in-person hand-off. With Zonar OTAir, fleet managers and maintenance workers can update their buses engine control units remotely and safely through their phone in as little as five minutes. Less downtime, less exposure. One less thing to worry about as you modify bus routes and schedules.

For more information about the Zonar COVID-19 Return to School Safety Solutions, find the resource page here: https://www.zonarsystems.com/packages/covid-19-student-transportation-solution/

About Zonar

Founded in 2001, Zonar has pioneered smart fleet management solutions throughout vocational, pupil, mass transit and commercial trucking industries. Zonars mission is to enhance the safety, performance and success of our customers by transforming the delivery of innovative insights for commercial fleets around the world. Zonar achieves this by helping fleets of all sizes maximize the use of their assets with solutions dedicated to improving compliance, efficiency, maintenance, ridership visibility, safety and tracking. Cloud-based services with open APIs drive Zonar's smart fleet solutions by making it easy for fleet owners and managers to stay connected to their fleets and drivers and operators to dispatch. Headquartered in Seattle and part of the Continental family, Zonar also has a Technology Development Center in downtown Seattle, a regional office in Cincinnati, and a distribution center outside of Atlanta. For more information about Zonar, go to http://www.zonarsystems.com.


The Faridabad Police arrested three members of a family, including a woman, from Sector 80 on charges of robbery. According to the police, the woman had allegedly posed as a domestic help and laced her employers food with sedatives at their house in Sector 9 in Faridabad and robbed them of valuables and cash worth 20 lakh on July 14, said the police.

The police said the gang was involved in several robberies in Delhi, Faridabad, Gurugram, Noida and Palwal and followed the same modus operandi. The police said the woman started working as a full-time household help of the family in May this year. The suspect had approached the family through another domestic help and planned to rob them in connivance with her husband and her son.

Inderjeet Singh, a resident of Sector 9, approached police on July 15 and complained that their domestic help had robbed them of jewellery worth 18 lakh and 1.20 lakh in cash, following which a case was registered, said the police.

The police said Singh is a businessman and lives with his wife, son and a daughter in a double-storey house. He was looking for a full-time domestic help and had called a number of people for reference. We hired her in May and she worked well. Her responsibility was to cook and clean the house. On July 14, she served us dinner, after which we all fell unconscious, said Singh.

When the family got up the next morning, they found all the doors and the cupboard open. When Singh went on to check on his children in another room, he found them lying unconscious. He rushed them to a private hospital, where doctors conducted tests and informed him that their food was laced with sedatives. However, they were out of danger. Like Singh, his wife also got up on her own and required no medical assistance, the police said.

Police commissioner OP Singh said that they formed investigation teams as soon as they received the complaint. We took the help of a cybercrime cell and put the suspects numbers on technical surveillance. The woman had involved her son and husband in the incident. As soon as the family fell unconscious on the night of July 14, the suspect called them to Faridabad from Delhi. Together, they carried out the robbery, he said.

The police also roped in secret informers, who told them that the suspects had changed three locations within four days after robbing the family and would be visiting Pahladpur in Sector 80 on Monday. The police surrounded the area and arrested all three of them.  We have recovered all the jewellery and 50,000 from their possession. The remaining money is yet to be recovered, said Singh.

The suspects were identified as Anjali Kumar, Vijay Kumar and Rajesh Kumar of Odisha, who lived in a rented accommodation Sangam Vihar in Delhi. The police said they would start an awareness drive to get verification of tenants and servants done to avoid any untoward incidents.

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But experts say a hospitals overall ranking shouldnt be the only factor a patient uses to choose a hospital. A number of organizations rank and grade hospitals each year using different methodologies that can produce different results. A person who needs surgery might want to look at how a hospital ranks in that procedure or specialty, consider advice from a doctor and look at which hospitals are in-network with his health insurance.
Peterborough Mayor Diane Therrien said a planned new injection of up to $4 billion in federal and provincial funding into Ontario municipalities to help cover costs incurred in the COVID-19 pandemic will represent much-needed support.

Municipalities deliver front-line services to residents and businesses, Therrien wrote in a statement to The Examiner on Monday.

Meanwhile Peterborough will face $10.4 million in lost revenues by the end of August in areas such as forfeited transit fares and parking fees, all due to the pandemic.

Assistance from the province and federal government will reduce the burden on property taxes to support service levels through this disruption, Therrien wrote.

We look forward to seeing the details on specific allocations in the coming weeks.

The provincial government announced Monday that up to half of the $4 billion will be set aside for public transit, but there were no details available on how the rest of the money will be spent.

Premier Doug Ford said at a press conference in Toronto on Monday that the money, provided in partnership with the federal government, will be handed out in the coming months.

Ford did not give details on how the funding would be allocated to Ontarios 444 municipalities; he said those details will be released in the next few weeks.

Municipalities across Ontario have warned they would face significant budget shortfalls without financial assistance as a result of the pandemic, The Canadian Press reported, which would force them to cut services.

Peterborough Kawartha MPP Dave Smith wrote in a statement to The Examiner on Monday that hes incredibly proud of the so-called Safe Restart Agreement that will see up to $4 billion in urgently needed funding for municipalities.

Through this historic agreement, municipalities will have the flexibility they need to address budget shortfalls related to COVID-19, Smith wrote. This funding will help chart the path to recovery and strengthen our communities.

Women and Gender Equality Minister Maryam Monsef, who is also the minister of rural economic development and the MP for Peterborough-Kawartha, could not be reached for comment in time for The Examiners deadline on Monday.

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario, which has been vocal in calling for support, told Canadian Press on Monday the funding represents an important investment in communities in every part of our province, and in Ontarios economic recovery.

The associations president, Jamie McGarvey, said in a statement to the Canadian Press that there should be a formula-based model to allocate the money.
BATESVILLE, Ind., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE: HI) will hold a conference call and simultaneous webcast Thursday, August 6, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. ET. They will discuss the results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2020, which ended June 30, 2020. The live webcast, including a slide presentation, will be available at http://ir.hillenbrand.com under the "Events & Presentations" tab and will be archived on the company's investor relations website through Friday, September 4, 2020.

To access the conference call, participants may register for the call in advance by visiting http://www.directeventreg.com/registration/event/5483126. After registering, instructions will be shared on how to join the call. A replay of the call will be available until midnight ET, Thursday, August 20, 2020, by dialing +1 (855) 859-2056 toll free in the United States and Canada or +1 (404) 537-3406 internationally and using conference ID number 5483126.

Hillenbrand will issue a press release reporting its results after the market closes on Wednesday, August 5, 2020. The full text of the release and financials will be available at http://ir.hillenbrand.com.

About Hillenbrand

Hillenbrand (www.Hillenbrand.com) is a global diversified industrial company with businesses that serve a wide variety of industries around the world. We pursue profitable growth and robust cash generation to drive increased value for our shareholders. Hillenbrand's portfolio includes industrial businesses such as Coperion, Milacron Injection Molding & Extrusion, and Mold-Masters, in addition to Batesville, a recognized leader in the death care industry in North America. Hillenbrand is publicly traded on the NYSE under "HI."

SOURCE Hillenbrand, Inc.

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Moodys Analytics has been voted Best Credit Risk Solution Provider in the 2020 Waters Rankings. Voters choose specific offerings from shortlisted firms to determine these annual rankings. For the fourth time in five years, the Moodys Analytics RiskCalc solution received more votes than any other firms offering.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200727005531/en/

This industry-leading credit scoring platform allows clients to assess the default and recovery risk of private firms and financial institutions. They use RiskCalc models to generate forward-looking probability of default, loss given default, and expected loss credit measures.

We appreciate the voters again selecting the RiskCalc solution, said Nihil Patel, Managing Director at Moodys Analytics. Were proud that it continues to hold such a prominent position in this space. It means that our clients are achieving their business goals and strengthening their credit and financial risk practices throughout the credit lifecycle.

The RiskCalc solution is powered by the Moodys Analytics Data Alliance, one of the worlds largest and most comprehensive data consortia. It now integrates with the Moodys Analytics Credit Sentiment Score tool, so RiskCalc users can benefit from AI-powered media tracking and adverse credit signals from news articles.

Earlier this year, the RiskCalc solution completed a System and Organization Controls (SOC 1) Type 1 examination under the attestation standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

This win in the Waters Rankings adds to our growing list of awards and industry accolades.

About Moodys Analytics

Moodys Analytics provides financial intelligence and analytical tools to help business leaders make better, faster decisions. Our deep risk expertise, expansive information resources, and innovative application of technology help our clients confidently navigate an evolving marketplace. We are known for our industry-leading and award-winning solutions, made up of research, data, software, and professional services, assembled to deliver a seamless customer experience. We create confidence in thousands of organizations worldwide, with our commitment to excellence, open mindset approach, and focus on meeting customer needs. For more information about Moodys Analytics, visit our website or connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Moody's Analytics, Inc. is a subsidiary of Moody's Corporation (NYSE: MCO). Moodys Corporation reported revenue of $4.8 billion in 2019, employs approximately 11,300 people worldwide and maintains a presence in 40 countries.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200727005531/en/
(TNS)  Rhode Island College Foundation and the Providence Children's Museum were both affected by a ransomware attack on an outside vendor that might have exposed personal information.The information might have been compromised when vendor Blackbaud, a software service provider for engagement and fundraising, suffered a ransomware attack, the Providence Children's museum said in an email."Please be assured that PCM does not store credit card, banking information, or social security numbers in the Blackbaud environment, and therefore those data were not involved in the incident," the museum said in an email addressed to museum "friends."In an email, the Rhode Island College Foundation said a copy of the foundation's backup file containing personal information was removed in the attack."Blackbaud asserts that the cybercriminal did not access credit card information, bank account information, or social security numbers," the email says."However, Blackbaud has determined that the backup file may have contained generic, non-sensitive information. Blackbaud has reported to us that based on the nature of the incident, their research, and third party (including law enforcement) investigation, they have no reason to believe that any data went beyond the cybercriminal, was or will be misused, or will be disseminated or otherwise made available publicly."The museum was notified by Blackbaud on July 16. The attempted ransomware incursion began Feb. 7 and continued until May 20, according to the email."Prior to being locked out, the cybercriminal reportedly removed a copy of some Blackbaud customer backup files that may have contained personal information," the email says.
After several tough months, which sent auto sales into a free fall and impacted new launches, the automotive industry is now changing its gear to leverage digital platforms and get back on track. A significant number of automakers have already adapted well to the new reality of social distancing, and are bringing new products, supported by end-to-end online sales experiences, into the market through virtual launches. Twitter has been at the heart of this shift to digital launches, with auto brands making the most of the services conversational power and ad-product offerings.

In the latest episodes of Twitter Marketing Indias (@TwitterMktgIN) live video series #ConversationStarters, Twitter Indias Business Head, Kanika Mittal (@kanikamittal), spoke to Tarun Garg, Director - Sales, Marketing and Service at Hyundai India, and Pallavi Singh (@pallavisbali), Director - Marketing at BMW India, about how auto brands are conceptualising digital innovations to stay connected with their customers.

 #ConversationStarters | We are all set!



Today we have with us Tarun Garg, Director - Sales, Marketing & Service, @HyundaiIndia, in conversation with @kanikamittal, talking about the changing face of Auto in India.



Join the conversation  https://t.co/k8HEA8Yj0t  Twitter Marketing IN (@TwitterMktgIN) July 24, 2020

Navigating roadblocks through digital innovation

In the first episode which aired on Friday, 24th July 2020, Tarun shared that Hyundai (@HyundaiIndia) has been partnering with Twitter in creating successful, high-impact campaigns over the years. The brands most recent launch of the Tucson, which happened live on Twitter, was a massive success too with more than 1 million views in less than 12 hours! The brand has not only been making the best use of Twitters various ad-products, but is also creatively utilising other formats on the service, including the newly introduced Fleets, to engage with their audience.

Reiterating the role of digital innovations in Hyundais journey, he said, Twitter is our beloved medium. The launch of the Creta was very good; we had a reach of 28 million, with 1.5 million views. Weve also had some innovations like Women#Men, a sweet way of having a hashtag between two words, which was one way of attributing our success to women around India who have followed us and supported us.

Further sharing insights on expanding the brands digital outreach, he spoke about how hyperlocal & digital marketing has helped the brand in reaching the rural hinterlands of the country and building the brand further.

Providing a larger perspective on the industry, he spoke about the increased preference for personal mobility, as opposed to shared mobility that was favored in the pre-COVID 19 time, and how this change is benefitting the brand.

Sharing her thoughts, Kanika Mittal, Business Head at Twitter India, said, We have been partnering with automotive brands for several years now and are proud to have created some of the most impactful campaigns with these brands. Twitter has proven to be a lucrative medium for auto brands, especially when it comes to launching new products and connecting with key moments. We are excited to produce more such work through creative collaborations with the finest brands in the country. Twitters leaned-in audience also helps to deliver the results needed for the category and cut through clutter to drive recall.

Luxury brands amplifying personalisation through the digital space

In the second episode which aired on Saturday, 25th July 2020, BMWs India Marketing Director, Pallavi Singh (@pallavisbali) highlighted the importance of experimenting and the value of brands being enablers in these unprecedented times.

While adapting to the current scenario, she mentioned that innovation has been held at the helm of all initiatives at BMW (@bmwindia). The brand launched its Contactless Experience program within two weeks of the lockdowns initiation. Pallavi highlighted how the conversational nature of Twitter is a major support for brands and businesses, especially to have more personalised conversations with customers. As an example, she elaborated the power of Twitter polls in helping brands gain insightful customer feedback and opinions.

 Welcome to Ep. 5 of #ConversationStarters



We have with us Pallavi Singh (@pallavisbali), @bmwindia, in conversation with @kanikamittal, talking about working from home and the state of luxury Auto in India.



Join the conversation  https://t.co/V9iOHioP2k  Twitter Marketing IN (@TwitterMktgIN) July 25, 2020

With customers relying on online sources and information to make buying decisions, Pallavi believes that 90% of the consumers purchase journey already happens online. Elaborating on this point, she mentioned, I think there is going to be a paradigm shift where online will become about consumption for everybody, but on ground experiences would become exclusive. This exclusivity paradigm is going to shift in some ways. Thats going to drive a model which is going to be interesting to see.

Both Tarun and Pallavi emphasised the importance of consumer centricity in building experiences. With the changing times and simultaneously evolving customer expectations, both experts believe that keeping the customer at the heart of their business is what is going to drive impactful innovations in the times to come.
An 1889 political cartoon. Nawrocki/ClassicStock/Getty Images

Antitrust laws were created to keep the big conglomerates, or trusts, that were forming across oil, railroad, steel, and other sectors in the late 1800s and early 1900s from growing too large and powerful.

Now, regulators are coming after 21st-century big tech  the Federal Trade Commission and a group of 48 attorneys general filed two separate antitrust lawsuits against Facebook on Wednesday.

The lawsuits could lead to Facebook spinning off Instagram and WhatsApp, two companies that critics say Facebook neutralized as competitors when the social media giant acquired them.

Facebook as well as Apple, Amazon, and Google have been under heavy scrutiny this year with a congressional investigation into online market competition.

The investigation could eventually lead to more specific legislation designed to keep tech companies from growing too big and mighty  just like how three original antitrust laws began reining in oil and railroad companies over 100 years ago.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook were grilled in front of Congress on July 29 over whether they violate antitrust regulations. Lawmakers have been zeroing in on these companies heavily this year - in October, the Department of Justice filed an antitrust case against Google, accusing the company of having an unfair advantage in the search and ad market.

And on Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission and 48 attorneys general filed two separate antitrust lawsuits against Facebook for "illegal monopolization," accusing the company of leveraging anticompetitive business practices to dominate the market.

The law term "antitrust" has a long history in the United States, and the July hearing was part of a probe into online market competition. The House published a report of its findings in October, in which it declared that the companies have indeed "become the kinds of monopolies we last saw in the era of oil barons and railroad tycoons."

Story continues

Lawmakers will now attempt to determine if antitrust regulations can be applied to four large tech companies that dominate the industry.

But let's back up a bit: What does "antitrust" mean?

Around the turn of the 20th century, "trust" was used as a term to describe a new type of large corporation, as American business titans in the steel, oil, railroad, and banking industries began to form larger conglomerates. For example, the railroad sector needed corralling as hundreds of smaller railroad operators were acquired and clumped together into mega-companies. Another example was Standard Oil, a major oil monopoly, or trust, run by John D. Rockefeller starting in the late 1800s and into the 20th-century.

And so regulators sought to establish laws to keep big businesses across every sector from growing too large and powerful and to maintain a healthy amount of competition in the market.

Trust: This term refers to the big businesses (in this case, in railroad, oil, and steel) that began to form and encroach on smaller competitors in the US

Antitrust: The term that was given to the "trust-busting" set of laws that were created to counteract that encroachment and stem the corporations' growth in size and power

An editorial cartoon, published around 1900, depicting Standard Oil president John D. Rockefeller as the "King of the World". Getty Images

There are three core federal US antitrust laws you should care about: the Sherman Act of 1890, the Clayton Act of 1914, and the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914. The last would lead to the creation of the Federal Trade Commission, which is the main government entity tasked with enforcing antitrust laws today.

Here's what they do, according to Investopedia:

Sherman Act of 1890: This is the backbone of American antitrust policy. It allows the federal government to take companies to court that it believes are participating in anticompetitive practices and abusing their monopoly power.

Clayton Act of 1914: This act was passed to fill in the gaps left by the Sherman Act. It prohibits certain business practices that can weaken economic competition, like anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions or price-fixing.

Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914: Similar to the Clayton Act, this one was passed to further round out antitrust legislation and banned more competitive practices that were deemed unfair or deceptive, such as those that violate consumer protection laws.

How have these laws been used to rein in US businesses in the past?

The Sherman Act was used to break up Standard Oil, which was found to have lowered their prices specifically to drive their competitors out of business, in the early 1900s. The trust was divided into dozens of companies, including what are now ExxonMobil and Chevron.

Then-Microsoft CEO Bill Gates during a hearing in 1998. Douglas Graham/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images

In 1969, the US Justice Department filed a lawsuit against IBM, the New York-based tech firm whose computer market dominance put it on the government's radar. However, the case was thrown out.

In 1982, the US under President Reagan used the Sherman Act to divide phone service goliath AT&T, or "Ma Bell," into eight different companies, or "Baby Bells."

And in the late 1990s, Microsoft was hit with an antitrust lawsuit as Internet Explorer began to dominate the internet browser market by bundling its browser with Windows software, making it difficult for Windows users to install and run competing browsers. A federal judge ruled that the company was indeed in violation, and the company settled in 2001, but it was a pivotal moment for the tech industry as its players began to realize they may have to eventually reckon with oversight from Uncle Sam.

Why is it bad if companies break antitrust laws?

The main reason, economists say, is that healthy competition is key to a steady, thriving economy, one in which small business owners and consumers benefit. If big businesses squash out smaller competitors, and the market is instead ruled by a small number of monopolies, that could result in a shaky economy. Consolidating economic power into a handful of companies could also be dangerous to the nation's democracy, as Wired notes.

So what's the parallel between tech companies and the big businesses around the turn of the 20th century?

Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook - the world's most powerful tech companies - are being investigated over business practices designed to step on smaller competitors and maintain their dominant position in the marketplace. They're all being investigated over antitrust violations, but they're not necessarily being probed for the same thing:

Google: Lawmakers questioned CEO Sundar Pichai regarding the company's iron grip on the advertising and search market and how it has affected other online businesses.

Amazon: The Seattle-based firm is being probed over whether it promotes its own brands ahead of third-party sellers on its online marketplace.

Apple: CEO Tim Cook fielded questions regarding claims that the company gives its own apps special treatment over third parties in its App Store.

Facebook: The social media giant is in the spotlight for the acquisitions it has made in recent years of would-be competitors, like WhatsApp and Instagram.

As for the antitrust case that the US Department of Justice - as well as 11 states - filed against Google on Tuesday, the company now faces the largest challenge in its history. The case argues that Google uses business practices to squeeze out smaller competitors, giving itself an unfair advantage in the search and ad market.

How can antitrust laws be used on Big Tech?

These laws were intentionally created in broad terms in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Retrofitting the century-old laws - or creating new ones - to accommodate 21st-century companies offering products that are at the forefront of tech innovation wouldn't be an easy task. But some government officials, like Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, have said the laws are well-equipped as they are to apply to Big Tech. It just comes down to lawmakers enforcing them.

Indeed, it's not entirely impossible when you consider recent antitrust cases like the 2014 e-book lawsuit against Apple and a 2015 FTC probe into Google over anticompetitive concerns. But it's also worth noting a consumer protection factor that came into play in the 1970s and 1980s that meant "anticompetitive" laws in the US need to show that consumers are being harmed, something much harder to do when it comes to big tech.

Take the example of a search engine like Google dominating. When Standard Oil controlled the marketplace, consumers had only one option for where to buy. Google, meanwhile, wins because consumers mainly choose to use Google. Consumers aren't being harmed - but other companies that want to compete against Google (or Apple or Facebook or Amazon) arguably are.

The task now in front of Congress is determining how to interpret that consumer welfare argument in its enforcement of antitrust laws in the tech industry.

At a House Judiciary Committee hearing with Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifying, policy attorney Ian Madrigal is also Monopoly Man who photo bombs high profile congressional hearings on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Tuesday December 11, 2018. Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images

So then what's going to happen?

The antitrust case filed in October against Google could play out in court over several years.

And the July 29 hearing wasn't a trial, and no one was found guilty. Rather, it was an opportunity for lawmakers to question the tech executives and gather evidence about their business practices by listening to their testimonies. The lawmakers involved in the hearing sit on the House Judiciary's antitrust subcommittee, a group that has already been conducting a yearlong investigation into how companies operate in the digital marketplace. The subcommittee members have been speaking with smaller competitors, who have alleged that tech's biggest firms engage in anticompetitive business practices.

The leaders of the "big four" tech companies attempted to make their case as to why they aren't infringing on the competition. Their answers helped inform the subcommittee's ongoing investigation, which could eventually lead to more specific legislation designed to keep tech companies from growing too large and powerful - just like how the three original antitrust laws began reining in big oil and big railroad over 100 years ago.

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Washington

They command corporations with gold-plated brands, millions or even billions of customers, and a combined value greater than the entire German economy. One of them is the world's richest individual; another is the fourth-ranked billionaire. Their industry has transformed society, linked people around the globe, mined and commercialized users' personal data, and infuriated critics on both the left and right over speech.

Now Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook of Apple will answer for their companies' practices before Congress for the first time as a group. Summoned for a House hearing, they'll raise a hand (remotely) and swear to tell the truth, in the manner of tycoons of Wall Street or the tobacco industry in earlier high-octane televised shamings. It will be Bezos' first-ever appearance before Congress.

The House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust is capping its yearlong investigation of Big Tech's market dominance with Wednesday's teleconferenced hearing spotlighting the four CEOs.

"It's mostly theater. There are few genuine facts left to gather," says Daniel Crane, a law professor at the University of Michigan who focuses on antitrust.

Still, the CEOs' approaches to the questioning are important, Crane notes. "Are they willing to admit that there's a problem with Big Tech's market power or is it denial mode? Will they recommend innovative private solutions, or retreat into defending themselves as champions of consumer interests who play it fair?"

The bipartisan probe stands out in a capital steeped in partisanship, where Republicans and Democrats are now arguing over the size of new federal pandemic relief. It's the first such congressional review of an industry that for over a decade has enjoyed haloed status and a light touch from federal regulators.

Critics question whether the companies stifle competition and innovation and pose a danger to society. The Judiciary panel collected testimony from midlevel executives of the four firms, competitors and legal experts, and pored over more than a million internal documents from the companies.

A key question: Whether existing competition policies and century-old antitrust laws are adequate for overseeing the tech giants or if new legislation and more funding for enforcement are needed.

Subcommittee chairman Rep. David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat, has called the four companies monopolies, although he says breaking them up should be a last resort. With other Democrats, Cicilline has floated the idea of an antitrust moratorium that would block big corporations from acquiring smaller companies during the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans call the idea misguided and socialistic.

The tech companies now face legal and political offensives on multiplying fronts, from Congress, the Trump administration, federal and state regulators and European watchdogs. The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission have been investigating the four companies' practices, including the earlier acquisitions of smaller firms.

Facebook's fiercest critics in Congress, including liberal Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren and conservative Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, have put breaking up Big Tech companies on the table.

And presumed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has said breakups of the giants should be considered.

Short of breakup, the scrutiny of the companies across the U.S. and abroad points toward possible new restrictions on their power.

The CEOs could follow the conventional playbook for congressional "star chamber" hearings, making their case while showing some humility.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Beyond that, each company has a distinct profile, and each tech titan has his own approach and story to tell.

Bezos, the world's richest individual presiding over an e-commerce empire and ventures in cloud computing, personal "smart" tech and beyond, initially declined to testify unless he could appear with the other CEOs. He'll likely face questioning over a Wall Street Journal report that found Amazon employees used confidential data collected from sellers on its online marketplace to develop competing products. At a previous hearing, an Amazon executive denied such accusations.

Lawmakers from both parties suggested Amazon's earlier statements could be misleading and might even constitute perjury. Bezos has said, "We don't use individual seller data to directly compete with them." Amazon says it doesn't believe the Journal allegations are accurate, but has started an internal investigation.

Zuckerberg is a Capitol Hill pro by this point. He endured over five hours of grilling last fall by another House committee on hate speech, privacy, misinformation and Facebook's widely criticized plan for a new digital currency. He also met privately with key lawmakers and with President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticized the tech companies and asserted without evidence that they are biased against him.

In the wake of George Floyd's death and protests against racial injustice, Facebook's handling of hate speech has recently drawn more fire than issues of competition and privacy, especially after Facebook's refusal to take action on inflammatory Trump posts that spread misinformation about voting by mail and, critics said, encouraged violence against protesters. Zuckerberg has said the company aims to allow as much free expression as possible unless it causes imminent risk of specific harms or damage.

Pichai faced his own congressional interrogation in 2018 over online privacy and data protection, the danger of digital monopolies, alleged bias against conservative viewpoints and censorship by China. He acknowledged some points but avoided the yes or no answers that lawmakers demanded. EU regulators already have concluded that Google manipulated its search engine to gain an unfair advantage over other online shopping sites in the e-commerce market, and fined Google, whose parent is Alphabet Inc., a record $2.7 billion. Google has disputed the findings and is appealing.

Attorneys general from both parties in 50 states and territories, led by Texas, launched an antitrust investigation of Google in September, focused on its online advertising business.

Apple, whose iPhone is the third-largest seller in the world, faces EU investigations over the fees charged by its App Store and technical limitations that allegedly shut out competitors to Apple Pay. Cook is expected to lay out the case that the fees Apple charges apps to sell services and other goods are reasonable, especially compared with what other tech companies collect.
Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - The Gambian Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment has informed the business community in the country to resume normal trading and business activities, including export and re-export of essential commodities
Ex-journalist Safronov scuttles plea deal with investigators in treason case

 AGN Moskva, Sophia Sandurskaya

17:52 28/07/2020

MOSCOW, July 28 (RAPSI) - Ex-journalist Ivan Safronov charged with treason has refused to sign a plea deal with investigators, according to attorney Ivan Pavlov.

An investigator proposed a bargain to Safronov envisaging guilty plea and disclosure of his journalist sources, the lawyer told RAPSI on Tuesday. The defendant did not seriously consider the proposal; he denied his guilt.

Safronov was arrested on July 8. The same day Moscows Lefortovsky District Court detained him until September 6. He is suspected of treason. According to the Roscosmos press service, Safronovs arrest is not connected with his work in the company. On July 13, he was charged with treason.

Investigators claim Safronov has transmitted secret military information to the Czech intelligence services which, as it known, are linked to the U.S. security agencies.

The former reporter of Kommersant and Vedomosti newspapers was appointed as advisor of Dmitry Rogozin in May 2020 after a scandal related to the publication of an explosive article about possible resignation of the Federation Council head Valentina Matviyenko.
MILAN, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcantara, the "Made in Italy" luxury lifestyle brand, has redesigned its corporate website with multiple focuses on customers, fashion designers, artists and consumers.

Inspired by the well-known Italian photographer, Giovanni Gastel, the site's new features include sections such as the "A-World" magazine on Alcantara events and environmental initiatives; "Art, Design and Creativity" about the Italian company's relationship with leading artists and art institutions, and "Inspirations" featuring a selection of different textures, patterns and surface treatments of the material created for designers in the worlds of fashion, automotive, home interiors and consumer electronics.

Designers and product developers now are able to download Alcantara color charts, and the website also has a search engine to allow customers to easily locate distributors from around the world.

The new alcantara.com site is fully integrated with the company's social-media outlets to allow visitors to comment and share information from the website via share buttons. Other social-media channels such as Asian WeChat, Tudou and Youku also are available from a navigation bar at the bottom of the web page.

The site currently is available in six languages, including Italian, English, German, Chinese, Japanese and Korean, and is accessible, thanks to adaptive technology, with any type of browser or device, including PCs, smartphones and tablets.

The new website was developed in collaboration with Frank Studio, a digital agency serving the fashion industry, and inspired by Italian photographer Giovanni Gastel, who has worked with famous luxury fashion brands and whose photography has appeared in Vanity Fair, Elle, Glamour Italia and Vogue.

Alcantara S.p.A.

Founded in 1972, Alcantara represents a prime example of Italian-produced quality. A registered trademark of Alcantara S.p.A and the result of unique and proprietary technology, Alcantara  is a highly innovative material offering an unparalleled combination of sensory, aesthetic, and functional qualities. Thanks to its extraordinary versatility, Alcantara is the chosen material for leading brands in numerous specialist fields: fashion and accessories, the automotive industry, interior design, home decor and consumer electronics. These characteristics, together with a serious and proven commitment to the use of sustainable materials, allow Alcantara to express and define contemporary lifestyle: the lifestyles of those who love to enjoy everyday products to the full while respecting the environment. Since 2009 Alcantara has been certified "Carbon Neutral", having defined, reduced and offset all the CO 2 emissions derived from its activity ("from cradle to grave"). To document the company's journey in this field, Alcantara conducts and publishes an annual Sustainability Report, certified by BDO and available for consultation on the company website. Headquartered in Milan, Alcantara also has production facilities and a research department in Nera Montoro in the heart of Italy's Umbria region (Terni).

For further information:

www.alcantara.com

twitter.com/alcantaraspa

facebook.com/alcantara.company

youtube.com/alcantaracompany

instagram.com/alcantara_company/

SOURCE Alcantara S.p.A.

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DETROIT, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ven Johnson Law, PLC, has prevailed in the Michigan Court of Appeals in its lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on behalf of client Mark Goss.

On February 26, 2018, DNR Ranger Roy Pederson was driving a John Deere Gator pulling a grooming rake to groom a ski trail near Sault St. Marie in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Pederson ran a stop sign and collided with a snowmobile driven by Mark Goss, who had the right of way on a snowmobile trail. Pederson's vehicle caught fire, which severely burned Goss, and Pederson died of the injuries he sustained.

In June 2019, Ven Johnson Law, PLC filed this case in the Michigan Court of Claims, asserting that the State of Michigan was liable for Pederson's negligence pursuant to the Motor Vehicle Exception to governmental immunity, which provides that the government is liable if it injures someone through the negligent use of a government-owned motor vehicle. The State immediately filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the Gator should be classified as an off-road vehicle (ORV) and not as a motor vehicle. The Court of Claims judge, Michael Kelly, disagreed with the State's position and denied the motion.

The State then appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals (MCA), which in a unanimous decision affirmed the trial court, and held that the Gator was a motor vehicle, for purposes of that above exception to governmental immunity. As a result, the Goss case can move toward trial.

"This is a tremendous victory for our client. We will aggressively pursue damages on behalf of Mark Goss, who has incurred millions of dollars in medical bills due to severe burns to over 50% of his body, especially to his hands and arms. He has undergone 40 medical procedures to date," said Ven Johnson, president Ven Johnson Law. "Mr. Goss is no longer able to work as the result of severe burns from the explosion and his quality of life has significantly diminished. He is a nationally-ranked marksman and can no longer participate in competitions due to his injuries, among most other activities."

For more information, visit www.venjohnsonlaw.com or call 855-VEN-FIGHTS.

SOURCE Ven Johnson Law

Related Links

http://www.venjohnsonlaw.com


While President Donald Trump heads to West Texas on Wednesday hoping to focus on the oil industry and fundraise for his re-election campaign, hes also touching down in a region hit hard by COVID-19.

In visiting Midland and Ector counties, senior Trump administration officials Tuesday said their goal is to highlight how Trumps deregulatory actions have made the oil and natural gas industry dominant overseas  underscoring that Trump is fighting for the American dream and the American worker.

Before the pandemic hit, U.S. oil production peaked at a record 13.1 million barrels per day in mid-March; exports peaked at nearly 4.4 million barrels a day.

But in going to those counties, Trump also is opening himself up to criticism from Democrats over how he has managed the pandemic. Since July 1, Midland and Ector counties have seen their combined death toll from COVID-19 grow from 26 to 54. And the number of reported coronavirus infections also has more than doubled, from 1,259 on July 1 to 3,264.

Overall, Texas has seen its coronavirus deaths nearly double in July, with more than 6,000 as of Tuesday.

FOR THE LATEST: Interactive maps, charts show spread of coronavirus in Texas

Former Vice President Joe Biden slammed Trump for campaigning while Texas is dealing with a surge in cases and the aftermath of Hurricane Hanna, which hammered South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley.

Mr. Trump, now isnt the time for politicking or photo-ops, Biden said Wednesday morning. Texans need a President with the experience and vision to fight for families no matter how many catastrophes reach our shores.

The pandemic is forcing the Trump administration to take precautions at his events in Texas by requiring social distancing and making sure there is hand sanitizer to keep people safe. That is in addition to mask requirements that have been put in place by Gov. Greg Abbott.

Trump on Wednesday plans to visit Double Eagle Energy in Midland and tour an oil rig where hell give a speech. He also is scheduled to attend a private fundraiser earlier in Odessa to support his re-election effort. Donors are required to donate a minimum of $2,800 to attend the luncheon fundraiser.

The two co-founders of Double Eagle Energy have been major Republican Party donors, combining to give over $244,000 in federal donations to Republican Party candidates and causes in the 2020 election cycle. That includes almost $74,000 to Trumps re-election campaign and a political action committee supporting his re-election.

It marks the third time Trump has visited Texas this year and 16th time since he took office in 2017.

TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

The visit also comes with just 76 days remaining until early voting begins in Texas on Oct. 13 in what has become a far closer race that Texas has seen in previous presidential races. The three most recent public polls have shown Trump in a virtual dead heat with Biden  polling Trump said he does not believe.

Im not one point up in Texas, Trump said earlier this month. Were many points up.

But U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has been warning rank-and-file Republicans that the battle in November is going to be unlike any the GOP has seen in Texas in decades. Cruz said his own experience in 2018 against Democrat Beto ORourke shows 2020 is going to be a battle.

This is a real race, Cruz told the Republican Partys state convention last week.

In 2018, Cruz won his re-election by less than 3 percentage points  which he said is a clear warning for 2020.

Let me tell you right now, every one of those crazed leftists that showed up in 2018 are showing up in 2020, Cruz said. And they are even angrier.

Trumps visit in some respects is a return to a theme his campaign was making a year ago in Texas. Back in the fall, Trump ran full-page newspaper ads and flew a biplane with a banner over a Democratic presidential debate in Houston warning that Democratic plans to address climate change would damage the states economy and put people in the oil industry out of work.

In Midland, longtime state Rep. Tom Craddick said Trumps visit to the area shows the presidents commitment to what remains the states biggest economic driver.

He is committed to making sure we do not ever see a market swing like we experienced in March of this year, Craddick told the Midland Reporter-Telegram. He is committed to making sure Texans and energy producers can spend their time doing what they know best, working. Most of all, he is committed to making sure the American dream is attainable by all Americans. Jobs in the energy industry are certainly a part of the American dream.

While polls have shown the race for Texas could be close, the Biden campaign has not invested much in the state. Biden began running a small TV buy just over a week ago focused on COVID-19, but the size and expense of competing in Texas have dissuaded the campaign from going deeper.

Trump meanwhile has been organizing a volunteer network since last year, convinced they can get more voters to the polls for the president than he had in 2016 when he won Texas by just 9 percentage points, the closest margin for a Republican presidential candidate since the 1990s.

While Democrats are excited about trying to win the state, Samantha Cotten, regional communications director for Trump Victory, said the Trump campaign has done far too much organizing for the Biden campaign to have any shot at winning Texas.

Simply put, Joe Biden and Texas Democrats have no chance of catching up, she said.

Staff writer Sergio Chapa contributed to this report.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan who counts the campaign against India over Jammu and Kashmir as his governments key achievement has involved the countrys spy agency, Inter Services Intelligence, or ISI, in an 18-point plan to mark the August 5 anniversary of India scrapping Article 370 that extended special status to the erstwhile state, people familiar with the development said. The ISI is accused of nurturing terror groups, mostly directed at India and Afghanistan.

The 18-point programme includes a visit by Imran Khan to occupied Kashmir where he is tentatively scheduled to address the assembly in a speech that will be beamed live. Before he reaches Muzaffarabad, Khans government intends a field trip for foreign journalists to the occupied territory, the people added,asking not to be identified.

India tabled laws and resolutions in the Rajya Sabha to strip the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir of its special status under the constitution and split it into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, on August 5. These were passed by the Rajya Sabha the same day, the Lok Sabha the following day, and received presidential assent on August 9.

The introduction of the law was preceded by a security and communication lockdown in Jammu and Kashmir and detention of its top political leaders. Most of them have since been released; PDPs Mehbooba Mufti is among the exceptions.

Pakistan, which like much of the country, was taken by surprise by New Delhis move soon launched an international campaign against the nullification of Article 370. Imran Khan was the face of this pitch on and off Twitter. Khan even focused his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, or UNGA, last September on Kashmir, warned of a blood bath in the region when restrictions were lifted, prophesied a genocide on the streets of the valley and frequently referred to Pakistabs nuke weapons to blackmail the world to intervene.

Only two other countries spoke of Kashmir at the UNGA: Recep Tayyip Erdogans Turkey and Malaysia, then led by Mahathir Mohamad.

China also did issue two statements on the scrapping of Article 370. One asked India and Pakistan to work together on the Kashmir issue. But its primary concern was over the change of Ladakhs status to a federally-administered territory. China is always opposed to Indias inclusion of the Chinese territory in the western sector of the China-India boundary into its administrative jurisdiction, Chinas foreign ministry said then.

New Delhi underlined to Beijing that changing the status of an Indian territory was an internal matter.

For Imran Khans elaborate plan for August 5, Islamabad has reached out to Kuala Lumpur, Ankara and Beijing to issue statements to commemorate the first anniversary of Jammu and Kashmirs new status, the people cited in the first instance said. Or at least release tweets to the effect.

Turkeys Erdogan is expected to oblige but New Delhi is watching how Malaysia responds. Kuala Lumpur has a new prime minister in Muhyiddin Yassin who took over on 1 March. A statement from China, a government official said, didnt matter given , especially against the backdrop of its aggressive attempt expand its territory that led to the standoff and the bloody Galwan clash in east Ladakh, and the first casualties on both sides along the Line of Actual Control in 40 years.

The Pakistani foreign ministry has been told to work closely with spy agency ISI on its diplomatic outreach to Organisation of Islamic Cooperation member countries and international human rights groups, organising commemorative events - even rallies - at missions abroad and drafting a fresh memorandum to be handed over to the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan headquartered in Islamabad, the people added.

Counter terror officials in New Delhi told Hindustan Times that the campaign was drawn up by the military for Imran Khan, right from documentaries, pamphlets and newspaper supplements to the tweets that would be put out. But Imran Khan will front the campaign.

The ISI created the The Resistance Front after August 5, a terror group without the religious label that could be used by Pakistans propaganda machine to claim that terror was home-bred in Kashmir due to Article 370, the people pointed out.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 01:32:18|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Tuesday adopted a resolution to renew the mandate of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for six months.

Resolution 2537, which won the unanimous support of the 15-member council, extends UNFICYP's mandate till Jan. 31, 2021.

The resolution expresses serious concern about the increased number and severity of violations of the military status quo along the cease-fire lines and urges the sides and all involved parties to respect UNFICYP's mandated authority in, and delineation of, the buffer zone.

It urges the sides and all involved parties to renew their political will and commitment to a settlement under UN auspices, and calls on them to refrain from any actions and rhetoric that might damage chances of success.

It calls for the establishment of an effective mechanism for direct military contacts between the sides and the relevant involved parties, encourages full engagement with the proposal on the establishment of such a mechanism presented by UNFICYP, and calls for its timely implementation.

After independence in 1960, the tensions between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots increased. UNFICYP was set up by the UN Security Council in 1964 to prevent further fighting between the two sides.

Turkish troops occupied the northern part of Cyprus in 1974 in reaction to a coup by Athens-backed Greek Cypriots, splitting the country into two. The Security Council has mandated the force to perform additional functions after 1974. Enditem
The Dublin Airport Authority has denied knowledge that social welfare inspectors were collecting PPS numbers from departing passengers  and told an Oireachtas committee they wouldnt expect to know.

The DAAs chief financial officer, Ray Gray, came under fire today from TDs on the Covid-19 committee when asked to explain how such gathering of personal data was taking place at Dublin Airport.

The Department of Social Protection says it has withdrawn Covid-19 pandemic payments from at least 104 citizens because they were identified leaving Dublin Airport on foreign holidays or one-way trips.

But when asked by TDs, Mr Gray said his only awareness of this activity came from things Ive heard in the media.

Sinn Feins Darren ORourke asked him: So you wouldnt know when those checks started and on what basis? What type of information is being collected? The type of activity thats happening in the airports that the authority is responsible for?

Mr Gray replied: Regrettably, Deputy, Im afraid Im unable to assist you with your inquiry.

Mr ORourke persisted, seeking to know the DAAs extent of its knowledge: It seems very strange to me that you wouldnt be aware of this activity, and it raises the question what other activities are you not aware of in our airports.

When asked whether the DAA should be told what State authorities were doing under its roof, Mr Gray replied: We dont have any right of notification or perusal of their activities in relation to data, nor should we.  We dont police the collection of data.

Neasa Hourigan of the Greens questioned whether anyone with a high-vis jacket could enter the airport and question departing passengers without the DAAs knowledge.

The landside part of the airport is an open space, leaving aside Covid considerations. Many people and authorities act within that space, Mr Gray replied, adding that such authorities did not need to notify the DAA.

When Ms Hourigan questioned whether the Department of Social Protection neither sought permission for this action, nor was given any, Mr Gray replied that he had no specific knowledge of how PPS numbers were being collected or Pandemic Unemployment Payment enforcement pursued at the airport.

The committee chairman, Independent TD Michael McNamara, interjected to admonish Mr Gray for coming ill-prepared to answer the question.

Youre not here in a personal capacity but as a representative of Dublin Airport Authority, Mr McNamara said.

I would expect that you didnt adopt a see no evil, hear no evil, do no evil approach. You knew this question was going to be asked coming here today. It was in the news all weekend.

Im not asking what you know. (Im asking) what Dublin Airport Authority knows, Mr McNamara said. And can you come back to us within 48 hours with an answer? Not what you know or dont. Or what you choose to find out - or not find out.

Mr Gray said he would be very happy to do this.

Labour TD Duncan Smith said Mr Grays explanation made no sense.

If a kids choir wants to welcome people home at Christmas in the arrivals hall, they need permission, Mr Smith said. To think that social welfare inspectors can walk up on the land side of the airport and question people without the DAA knowing, or without seeking permission, defies all credibility.
About 500 soldiers from the People's Liberation Army left Zongyang county of East China's Anhui province on Monday morning.

The county along the Yangtze River has been suffering from severe floods since the beginning of July. With more than half a month of hard work by the soldiers on the frontline, the flooding situation has been brought under control.

On hearing the soldiers were leaving, many local residents rushed to the troops' temporary base at a school, carrying agricultural products of their own, including lotus seeds, grapes and boiled eggs.

A China Daily reporter had observed the soldiers for days, finding that they often didn't have time for a meal or sleep as the flood relief work has been a race against time.

As the soldiers left Zongyang, they were rushing northwards to Lujiang county, which lies beside Chaohu Lake, the country's fifth-largest freshwater lake, to continue their flood relief work.

The troops had arrived at Lujiang and had been assigned new tasks by Monday afternoon.
Stargazing is fun to do in the warm summertime, especially during the Perseids meteor shower, which peaks in mid-August. Not every location is a good spot to watch, however. With a little planning, you and your family can enjoy the stellar show.

For the best stargazing, you need to get away from outdoor lights, many of which block starlight through light pollution. Light pollution is extra or poorly directed artificial light that can have consequences for humans, animals and the climate.

Cities create such a nighttime blaze across the United States that about 80 percent of the population never see the Milky Way, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

To escape that glow, travel at least 60 miles from a major city and find a campground or other spot with low light. Go to a field, lake area or somewhere with a horizon that's not blocked by trees. Try to look on a clear, moonless night, as the moon tends to block starlight.

Take a star chart with you or download a star constellation app on a cellphone. Remember that stars twinkle, planets don't, and if the object moves across the sky, it's probably a satellite. If it leaves a streak, it's a meteor.

There are parts of the world officially noted as great places to view meteors, stars such as the Betelgeuse, and star groups such as the Big Dipper. The International Dark Sky Association in Arizona classifies them as Dark Sky Reserves and Dark Sky Parks. Reserves consist of a large, dark core area ringed by cities or towns that have strict light pollution controls. There are 16 reserves in the world, one of which is the 1,416-square-mile Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve. It may have the clearest skies in the lower 48 states.

"It is a unique resource," says Brian Jackson, an associate professor and astronomer at nearby Boise State University. "The skies there are spectacular."

Dark Sky Parks, which are usually much smaller than reserves, can be found in dozens of other places. These areas have dark-sky programs for visitors and outdoor lighting that doesn't cause light pollution.

Although the bulk of them are in the western United States, eastern locales include: Cherry Springs State Park in Susquehannock State Forest in Pennsylvania; James River State Park near Lynchburg, Virginia; Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park in central Florida; and Rappahannock County Park near Washington, Virginia.

Other spots with clear skies include the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and the Green Bank Observatory in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. The observatory is closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, but visitors can walk about the grounds, where some of the world's largest radio telescopes are located.

Many cities are working to reduce light pollution. In Idaho, where dark skies are a major draw for tourists, cities have "dark sky ordinances," laws that require light fixtures that direct light to the ground rather than toward the sky. They also require that outdoor lights be "warmer" colors on the lower part of the color spectrum instead of much brighter blue-hued lights, such as those in some car LED headlights. Not only do these "blue" lights block out the stars, they also disturb animals' sleeping patterns.

Idaho has worked to get its cities to tone down outdoor lights.

"I am very aware of light pollution," says Betsy Mizell, director of the Idaho Conservation League, which helped four counties in Idaho apply for Dark Sky Reserve status. "We're getting further and further away from life (in the wilderness) - some people never see the Milky Way or a shooting star. I think that is really sad."

- - -

LEARN MORE

- Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve: idahodarksky.org.

- International Dark Sky Association: darksky.org.

Click on "resources" and then "material for educators" to get projects and information about light pollution and the stars.

The blogs are easy to read, starting at the middle school level.

- Help document light pollution by taking part in the citizen science project Globe at Night: globeatnight.org.

- Green Bank Observatory: greenbankobservatory.org.

Click on "education" and then "try it at home" for astronomy-related games. There are many camping locations in the surrounding Monongahela National Forest, where one can view stars. Nearby Cheat Mountain or Watoga State Park (wvstateparks.com/park/watoga-state-park)are excellent options.

- - -

METEOR SHOWERS

If possible, plan your trip around the time of a new moon to get the darkest skies or pick a meteor shower at amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar. Choice times for meteor showers in the Northern Hemisphere include:

The Perseids: Mid-July through August 26. Peak is August 11 and 12.

The Orionids: Peak is October 20 and 21

The Leonids: Peak is November 16 and 17

The Geminids: Peak is December 13 and 14
A 31-year-old man from Erftstadt near Cologne has apparently shot his former girlfriend and then himself. "The motive for the act is looking likely to be in the ended relationship," said chief Prosecutor Ulrich Bremer on Tuesday in Cologne, Germany. What had motivated the perpetrators to the deed, was not known. "A farewell letter or other evidence that may be helpful, have not been found." References to other Tatbeteiligte not give up.

The man and his 28-year-old Ex-girlfriend had been found on Monday dead in his apartment in Erftstadt. The current knowledge position of this talk, that the man had asked his former wife under a pretext to his home, explained Bremer.

he Probably got them there immediately after their Arrival shot. Then he aimed the shot gun on himself. With a view to the protection of the personality rights of the deceased and family members other information could not be granted, it said.

Updated Date: 28 July 2020, 07:19

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SEATTLE, WA  The recent surge in coronavirus cases across Washington now appears to be causing an increase in deaths and hospitalizations across the state, according to a new report.

Over the past month, Washington has been breaking records for daily coronavirus counts, sometimes reaching over 1,000 new cases a day. However, most of the new cases have been in younger adults who are at lower risk of serious illness and, as a result, there hasn't been an equal increase in hospitalizations or deaths. A new report says that may be changing, and that both hospitalizations and deaths are on the rise as the disease has begun to spread into higher-risk age groups.

The report from the Bellevue-based Institute for Disease Modeling found that distribution of new coronavirus cases has changed, with a rise in cases in both older adults and children. That, in turn, has led to an increase in hospitalizations across all age groups, except for children under 19 and a possible decline in hospitalizations for adults 40 to 59 in eastern Washington. Otherwise, those rates have universally gone up.

Rising hospitalizations have been matched with an increase in deaths: Deaths have been on the rise in eastern Washington for some time, but researchers say for the first time since March they appear to be rising in western Washington as well.

Courtesy the Institute of Disease Modeling, Microsoft and the Washington Department of Health

Washington's top health officials have long been warning that the surge in coronavirus cases wouldn't stay confined to just younger adults, and now that the disease is moving into other demographics, it's time for residents to reconsider their behavior and do more to slow the spread of the virus.



"We must do more across the state. We are still at great risk for significant growth as the virus continues to spread in Washington state. And, as it moves into more vulnerable age groups, I am very concerned that hospitalizations and deaths will continue to increase," Secretary of Health John Wiesman said. "Our actions matter: Stay home, keep distance and wear a face covering. We all need to take this responsibility seriously and limit our activity to protect the health and safety of our communities."

Story continues

There is some slight hope to be found in the report, however: the study found that new coronavirus cases may have plateaued or be on the decline in King, Spokane, Clark, Franklin and Yakima counties, all of which have recently been struggling with elevated case counts.

The IDM attributes those improvements to better adherence to masking and social distancing timelines, though they note that it could also be due to delays in testing.



A month ago, Yakima had one of the highest COVID-19 rates in the country. Today, they have bent the curve and are one of the few counties in WA heading in the right direction. What changed? They went from 65% to 95% of people wearing masks. #MaskUpWA pic.twitter.com/swLnR2doZT

 Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) July 28, 2020

Also improved is the effective reproduction number  called Re  which shows how many people each new coronavirus patient is infecting. Researchers say that while it is still too high and the virus is still growing, it appears to have gone down in both eastern and western Washington:

"It is a potentially encouraging sign that these estimates are generally lower than those in our previous situation report. However, with Re above 1 overall, we expect COVID-19 burden continues to grow."

To continue to tamp down on coronavirus transmissions and turn the tide, state leaders and health experts are still encouraging residents to take the virus seriously by wearing a mask, practicing safe social distancing, staying home when possible and frequently washing their hands.

Read the full report from the Institute of Disease Modeling



This article originally appeared on the Seattle Patch
RBSE Class 10 result 2020: The Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education (RBSE) will release the results of Class 10 exams 2020 today at 4 pm, state education minister Govind Singh Dotasra, in a tweet, said. Once declared, the candidates can check their results on the official Rajasthan board websites -- rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in and rajresults.nic.in.

In case the site is down due to heavy traffic, candidates can check results via SMS facility and third party servers -- indiaresults.com and examresults.com.

Steps to check RBSE 10th result 2020 online

Step 1: Visit the official Rajasthan board websites- rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in and/or rajresults.nic.in

Step 2: Click on the link reading 'Class 10 results'

Step 3: Enter roll number and other required credentials

Step 4: Click on submit button

Step 5: Your result will appear on screen

Step 6: Download and save for future reference

How to check RBSE Result 2020 via SMS

In order to check the RBSE board result via SMS, candidates need to type RESULT (space) RAJ10A (space) ROLL NUMBER and send it to 56263.

A total of 11, 79, 830 students appeared for the RBSE Class 10 exams 2020. In order to clear the exams, students need to score a minimum of 33 per cent marks in each subject. For subjects with different theoretical and practical exams, the candidates need to clear both these exams separately.

Also read: Coronavirus vaccine update: Covaxin human trials start in Odisha
Summary: Dr. Gunther Kraut, head of Epidemic Risk Solutions at Munich Re, discusses the current state of the pandemic insurance market and what can be expected for the future. He says one of the challenges of developing this market, aside from managing accumulation risk, has been the education process required by the potential insured.

Did Munich Re have any pandemic insurance solutions prior to the crisis?

Munich Re established a dedicated team, Epidemic Risk Solutions (ERS) in 2017 (to our knowledge the only major insurer with a dedicated epidemic risk unit) in order to make societies and economies more resilient against epidemic outbreak risk.

Prior to COVID-19, pandemic insurance did not appear to be widely available or advertised. Why was this?

While evidence suggests that outbreaks are occurring with ever greater frequency and economic impact as a result of environmental shifts such as deforestation, urbanization and global mobility, epidemic insurance is not a commodity product. Its very complex to calculate and requires a lot more market education than well-established insurance products.

Are there any other reasons why businesses would not have purchased pandemic insurance prior to the coronavirus outbreak?

The challenge of developing this market, aside from managing accumulation risk, has been the education process required by the potential insured party. Prior to COVID-19, the risk exposure to individual companies was underestimated.

Will the demand for pandemic insurance increase because of the COVID-19 pandemic? What will be the future of pandemic insurance at Munich Re?

The demand for our non-life ERS products was muted prior to COVID-19. This has significantly changed during the current outbreak. As this is a relatively nascent market, its too early to speculate on the future potential size, but Munich Re believes this to be a scalable opportunity, which was a key consideration in the Board of Management making the decision to create the Epidemic Risk Solutions unit in 2017. Munich Re made the strategic decision to position itself at the forefront of the industrys response to the challenges of insuring epidemic risk.

The demand for insurance also may be stimulated by entities such as rating entities or lending banks requesting such covers to be in place, in particular for investments in certain geographical areas.

What is the typical cost of pandemic insurance?

We would highlight that epidemic risk insurance is not necessarily more expensive than other lines of insurance, but of course pricing needs to be risk adequate, reflecting both expected loss and accumulation risk management effort. The concrete premium depends highly on the precise risk insured and the covered area. However, it may be that before the occurrence of COVID-19, many institutions considered their epidemic risk exposure lower than what historical event data and pricing base indicated. The general risk perception will likely have changed now.

The demand for insurance also may be stimulated by entities such as rating entities or lending banks requesting such covers to be in place, in particular for investments in certain geographical areas. Combining different financing tools may also contribute to structure risk mitigation in an economically efficient way.

What are some examples of typical policy wordings that would feature in pandemic insurance policies?

Generally, the ERS offering spans across all lines of business, including non-life insurance, life reinsurance and public sector products. This is due to our approach to accumulation risk management, which is a prerequisite for this offering. Hence, there is not one typical policy wording. However, on the non-damage business insurance side, wordings for certain industry sectors and product features are more standardized. Still, all ERS products / coverages are tailor-fit to the needs of the respective insured and therefore confidential.

Which sectors does Munich Re ERS address?

The current focus is on solutions for corporates from sectors like retail, hospitality, manufacturing and others.

Dr. Gunther Kraut, head of Epidemic Risk Solutions, has been with Munich Re for 12 years, structuring Munich Res first pandemic risk retrocession program in 2013. Later on, he initiated and co-led the Epidemic Risk Business innovation project, which was then transformed into a business unit with both pricing and underwriting responsibility and a global mandate. Gunther holds a diploma degree in financial mathematics from the Technical University of Munich as well as a business degree from LMU Munich. Subsequently, he obtained a PhD in risk and insurance with a research focus on extreme mortality risks such as pandemics.

Topics COVID-19 Training Development
DETROIT, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Stratview Research announces the launch of a new research report on Dental Restorative Materials Market by Material Type (Amalgam, Glass Ionomer, Composite, and Others), by Defect Class Type (Class I, Class II, Class III, Class IV, Class V, and Class VI), by Restoration Type (Direct, Indirect), by End-User Type (Hospital, Dental Clinic, and Laboratory), 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 dental restorative materials market realities and future possibilities for the forecast period of 2020 to 2025. After a continuous interest in our Composite Filling Market in Dental Restoration report from the industry stakeholders, we have tried to further accentuate our research scope to the dental restorative materials market in order to provide the most thorough picture of the market.

The report estimates the short- as well as long-term repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on the demand for dental restorative materials at the global, regional, as well as country level. Also, the report estimates the possible loss that the industry may register by comparing pre-COVID and post-COVID scenario. 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 the market participants as well as investors in the identification of low-hanging fruits available in the market as well as formulate the growth strategies.

Dental Restorative Materials Market: Highlights from the Report

Dental restorative materials are used in the treatment of the integrity, function, and morphology of missing tooth structure. Tooth structure can be damaged from caries or external trauma. The materials used in dental restoration include composites, glass ionomer, amalgam, porcelain, gold, etc. Amalgam is phasing out of the market because of its harmful mercury content coupled with the inability to match with the tooth color.

The outbreak of Covid-19 has shaken the global economy and has disrupted the entire supply chain of the dental industry across regions. The dental restorative materials market could not escape itself from the pandemic and is anticipated to mark a huge plunge in its sales in 2020, crashing the global market sales to the below 2014 level.

However, the long-term outlook of the market still seems positive and is expected to pick up pace from 2021 onwards with an expected recovery in the patient's footfall. Advancements in dental procedures, rising dental tourism, and growing dental expenditure are projected to boost the market demand in the years to come. Rising awareness regarding oral care in developing economies will also augment the market growth. Telehealth and Teledentistry will offer a pragmatic approach in providing optimal dental care to patients. As a result of that, the dental restorative materials market is estimated to offer significant growth opportunities in the long-term scenario and is projected to reach US$ 1,450.5 million in 2025.

Click Here and Run Through the TOC of the Report: https://www.stratviewresearch.com/toc/1005/dental-restorative-materials-market.html

Based on material, composite is expected to remain the most dominant as well as the fastest-growing material type in the market over the next five years. Its huge dominance is attributed to the superior aesthetics offered by composite restorative materials coupled with the property to chemically bond with the tooth. Glass ionomer also holds a significant share of the market and is slowly gaining traction, owing to the property of releasing fluoride ions to prevent tooth decay in the future.

Based on the end-user type, dental clinic is expected to remain the largest segment of the market over the next five years, propelled by a growing number of dentists coupled with specialized attention provided to patients at dental clinics. Hospitals also have a significant share of the market.

In terms of region, Europe is projected to remain the largest market for dental restorative materials during the forecast period. The region's high share is attributed to high dental expenditure, awareness regarding oral care, presence of skilled dentists, and high adoption of advanced medical technologies. Presence of several hospitals and dental clinics further contributes to the region's larger share.

Despite enduring a severe blow in 2020, Asia-Pacific is likely to remain the fastest-growing market during the forecast period. Significant economic development in the region, growing awareness about oral care, and increasing disposable income of consumers are the major factors propelling the growth of the region's market.

Register Here for a Free Sample of the Detailed Report: https://www.stratviewresearch.com/Request-Sample/1005/dental-restorative-materials-market.html

The supply chain of this market comprises raw material suppliers, dental restorative material manufacturers, distributors, and end users. Key players in the dental restorative materials market are 3M, Coltene Holdings AG, Dentsply Sirona, Envista, Mitsui Chemicals, Tokoyama Dental Corp., Bisco, Inc., Parkell Inc., and Ultradent Products, Inc. All the major players have different growth strategies based on their synergies, product portfolio, market reach, geographical presence, and market positioning. However, strategic alliances and geographical expansion are some of the key strategies adopted by major players to gain a competitive edge in the market.

The market has gradually been consolidating with a good number of M&As recorded over the past five years.

In 2016, Dentsply Sirona Inc. completed the merger of equals between Dentsply International Inc. and Sirona Dental Systems Inc. creating one of the world's largest manufacturers of dental products and technologies.

In 2014, Kerr (now a subsidiary of Envista) acquired Dux Dental to further expand its product portfolio and to better serve dental professionals.

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 dental restorative materials 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:

Dental Restorative Materials Market, By Material Type:

Amalgam (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Glass Ionomer (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Composites (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Others (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Dental Restorative Materials Market, By Defect Class Type:

Class I (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Class II (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Class III (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Class IV (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Class V (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Class VI (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Dental Restorative Materials Market, By Restoration Type:

Direct (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Indirect (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Dental Restorative Materials Market, By End-User Type:

Hospital (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Dental Clinic (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Laboratory (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Dental Restorative Materials Market, By Region:

North America (Country Analysis: The USA , Canada , and Mexico )

Europe (Country Analysis: Germany , The UK, France , Italy , Russia , Spain , and Rest of Europe )

Asia-Pacific (Country Analysis: China , Japan , India , and Rest of the Asia-Pacific )

Rest of the World (Country Analysis: Brazil , the UAE, and Others)

Stratview Research has several high value market reports in the advanced materials industry. Please refer to the following link to browse through our reports:

https://www.stratviewresearch.com/market-reports/Advanced-Materials.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, please contact:

Stratview Research

E-mail: sales@stratviewresearch.com

Direct: +1-313-307-4176

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WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump's administration will continue to reject new applications for an immigration program that allows young, undocumented immigrants to live and work in the country but will let current "Dreamers" renew those protections.

The decision, announced in a Department of Homeland Security memo, comes a month after a divided Supreme Court blocked the White House from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, finding the administration was "arbitrary and capricious" in how it sought to wind down the Obama-era program.

Trump has long sought to roll back the DACA program, which allows some 650,000 immigrants brought to the country as children to live and work in the United States without fear of deportation. President Barack Obama created DACA in 2012 through executive action and without congressional input.

Since the June 18 Supreme Court decision, Trump has pledged to revisit the program  and has also promised sweeping changes to immigration he has indicated he would attempt through executive action. Trump faces reelection in November and has once again turned to immigration as a major campaign issue.

Current DACA recipients would continue to be able to apply for one-year renewals of protections rather than the usual two-year intervals. No new initial requests for DACA will be accepted, according to DHS, while the administration reviews whether the DACA program should be "maintained, rescinded, or modified."

Critics called the administration's review an attempt to limit the program, despite the Supreme Court's decision last month that the administration erred in striking it down in the first place. White House officials acknowledged Tuesday that they expected the move will ultimately face additional legal challenges.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, said he is prepared to return to court immediately.

"The courts have spoken: DACA is in full effect, including for new applications," he said. "We are ready if the Trump Administration tries to block or dismantle DACA. We know what it takes to defend DACA  we've done it before and we'll do it again if necessary."

Story continues

More: Supreme Court ruling upholds DACA program for young immigrants

Some analysts took a more benign view, noting that the administration plans to respect current DACA recipients.

"On the face of it, this is good news for hundreds of thousands of individuals and their families," said Ali Noorani, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum.

"But, like with everything with the Trump administration, details matter," he added. "Furthermore, based on the Supreme Courts ruling, there is no reason the administration should not be accepting new applications."

President Donald Trump speaks during a news briefing at the White House, Thursday, July 2, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump aides stressed that the high court did not find the decision to end the DACA program was illegal, only the way the administration sought to end it.

Leah Litman, an assistant law professor at the University of Michigan, said it appeared that the administration was refusing to comply with the high court ruling.

"This policy also tries to implement the ruling in a way that would allow the admin to more quickly deport DACA recipients if Trump is re-elected and rescinds DACA again, this time successfully," she posted to Twitter.

Bruce Lesley, president of the children's advocacy group First Focus on Children, noted that the Supreme Court's decision left considerable room for the Trump administration to undermine the program.

"It is up to Congress  morally and legislatively  to pass a permanent solution," Lesley said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump to extend DACA protections for young immigrants pending review
The mother of a 12-year-old black boy arrested when police raided his family home after he was spotted playing with a toy gun is suing The Met for racial discrimination.

Armed officers stormed Kai Agyepong's house at 11pm on July 17 before handcuffing the boy and detaining him in a police vehicle after a neighbour reported seeing a black male holding a firearm.

Kai's mother Alice Mina Agyepong, 42, says she is now taking legal action against Scotland Yard to establish 'to what degree action police took was because of the colour of Kai's skin'.

The family's lawyer Iain Gould told MailOnline the family's claim also includes trespass, false imprisonment, assault and battery.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning, Ms Agyepong told how she feared for her family's safety when armed police burst into her home and trained their rifles on her, Kai and her two daughters, aged 16 and 23.

She called the police response 'disproportionate' and criticised their lack of 'professionalism', claiming: 'I would say that again I struggle to see how there was professionalism when actually it was a toy gun.'

Alice Mina Agyepong, 42, is taking legal action against Scotland Yard after armed police arrested her 12-year-old son Kai after he was spotted playing with a toy gun in their home

Police stormed the Agyepong household in Camden, north London on the evening of July 17 and handcuffed and detained young Kai in a police vehicle

The officers, who were responding to a call from a member of the public claiming to have seen a black male holding a firearm, dearrested the traumatised 12-year-old after realising the gun had been mistaken for a plastic toy pistol

'A toy gun in the UK - this is London, not America. There should have been more of a considered assessment based on the reports that the police received.

'That could have been a possibility. They have intelligence, they can find out probably who lives in properties.

'I don't think police should be pursuing crime or trying to save members of the public at the cost of killing innocent people in their home who have done nothing wrong, cause that's exactly what could have happened.'

Iain Gould, representing the Agyepongs, said: 'Major questions will need to be answered by the Metropolitan Police as to how this everyday event escalated into an armed raid, during which deadly force could so easily and tragically have been unleashed upon Mina and her children.

'Even as it stands, with the physical force being 'confined' to the handcuffing of a 12 year old boy, the emotional and psychological impact cannot be underestimated. For a family to have the safety and sanctity of their home violated in such a way, is literally the stuff of nightmares.

Mina Agyepong takes legal action: Solicitor Iain Gould's statement The family's lawyer Iain Gould told MailOnline the proposed legal claims include discrimination trespass, false imprisonment, assault and battery 'A male in the property was arrested on suspicion of possession of a firearm and taken into a police van outside the house. The other residents were escorted out of the property while a search was conducted' Such is the dispassionate, almost robotic, tone of a Metropolitan Police statement made in response to a shocking incident last Friday night involving my client Alice Mina Agyepong and her young family; but sometimes 'dispassionate' can shade into 'disingenuous', for what that carefully crafted statement fails to make clear is that the 'male' who was arrested on suspicion of possession of a firearm, was in fact Mina's 12 year old son Kaiwho had been doing nothing more than playing with his toy gun in the living room of his house. The disingenuous and defensive nature of the Police statement is further reflected in the choice of words used to later describe Kai - 'the youth' and (inaccurately) 'the teenager' - words which obviously tend to convey an impression that Kai was far older than 12, perhaps a young adult rather than, as he is, a child. It seems that a passerby telephoned the Police after peering in through the living room of the family's home and seeing Kai playing (alone) with his plastic toy gun. The rest of the family (Mina and her two daughters) were then awoken in terrifying circumstances as armed Police stormed the house, training their - very real - firearms on Mina and her children and forcing them to march outside with their hands up, where they were detained in full view of the neighbourhood whilst Mina's house was, in her words, 'ransacked' by the Police, who were doubtless hoping to find something - anything ? - that would justify such a gross and disproportionate invasion of the family's home. During this time, Kai, a Year 7 pupil at Maria Fidelis Catholic School was kept handcuffed in a Police vehicle before being eventually 'de-arrested' when the Police established that they had terrorized the family for no purpose other than to arrest a child for playing with a toy in his own home Major questions will need to be answered by the Metropolitan Police as to how this everyday event escalated into an armed raid, during which deadly force could so easily and tragically have been unleashed upon Mina and her children. Even as it stands, with the physical force being 'confined' to the handcuffing of a 12 year old boy, the emotional and psychological impact cannot be underestimated. For a family to have the safety and sanctity of their home violated in such a way, is literally the stuff of nightmares. And not least amongst the questions to be answered will be to what degree the Police response to the report they received was escalated because of the colour of Kai's skin. Given the knowledge we already have in relation to disproportionate uses of force and Police powers generally upon black people, this is a very real concern. I have accepted instructions to act on behalf of Mina and Kai to assist with their Police complaint, and, in due course, to commence a claim for compensation against the Police. Mina also feels, quite rightly, that people need to know about this incident so that the full spotlight of public scrutiny can be shone upon the Police. As a result, she has provided interviews to ITV, BBC and Channel 4 news. As I have said before, media attention upon cases of suspected Police misconduct and wrongdoing is a crucial part of the power which civil society has to balance out the power of the Police, and to avert future cases of error and abuse. I am happy to be playing my part in this case, but so too is every responsible citizen who learns of the case and reflects upon it, and asks the questions which hold the Police to account. Advertisement

'And not least amongst the questions to be answered will be to what degree the Police response to the report they received was escalated because of the colour of Kai's skin. Given the knowledge we already have in relation to disproportionate uses of force and Police powers generally upon black people, this is a very real concern.'

The schoolboy was playing on a laptop while sat on the sofa with his mum Alice when armed officers stormed in.

A passerby claimed he had seen a black male with a gun inside their home and reported it to police.

In fact he had just been playing with a BB pellet gun in the living room.

Scared Kai had red laser guided guns aimed at him as he was nicked and put in a police car outside.

But he was de-arrested after cops realised it was just a fake gun and cops were forced to apologise.

Ms Agyepong had fallen asleep and woke up to see police holding assault rifles.

She told the Today show: 'They did not just come to my house to make enquiries, they had rifles pointed to me and my son and my family the whole time.

'I asked them to lower their guns cause I don't have anything and my children are not armed and they wouldn't.

'They had their red laser lights aimed at my head, my children's head, Kai's head at all times, and at no point did they lower their guns and we was led out at gun point.

'What they sent to my house, as in the police response, is the sort of response you'd expect for a hostage situation in public where lives were in imminent danger.

'I struggle to find that the police have the resources to send out that level of force and response to claims from the public in the facts of what happened with my family. I don't accept that.

'Young black boys are in my opinion targeted by police, even stop-and-search is so much more disproportionate for people like my son Kai. And this is probably the most hardest stop-and-search you can find, guns pointing at you. I do believe it was a factor because I don't have much else to go on.'

Writing on a blog, solicitor Iain Gould said he had accepted instructions to act on behalf of the Agyepongs 'to assist with their Police complaint, and, in due course, to commence a claim for compensation against the Police'.

He slammed the Met's 'gross and disproportionate invasion of the family's home' and vowed to shine the 'full spotlight of public scrutiny' on the police.

'Major questions will need to be answered by the Metropolitan Police as to how this everyday event escalated into an armed raid, during which deadly force could so easily and tragically have been unleashed upon Mina and her children,' Mr Gould wrote.

'Even as it stands, with the physical force being 'confined' to the handcuffing of a 12 year old boy, the emotional and psychological impact cannot be underestimated. For a family to have the safety and sanctity of their home violated in such a way, is literally the stuff of nightmares.

'And not least amongst the questions to be answered will be to what degree the Police response to the report they received was escalated because of the colour of Kai's skin. Given the knowledge we already have in relation to disproportionate uses of force and Police powers generally upon black people, this is a very real concern.'

Kai, a Year 7 pupils at Maria Fidelis Catholic School, is now 'traumatised', 'scared' and 'nervous', his mother said today.

'[Police] have to accept also that BB guns are in circulation in the UK. They are legal, and let's not forget that Kai wasn't doing anything wrong at all. He was just at home, a normal 12-year-old boy, and the police burst into the house and he could have been killed,' Ms Agyepong told the Today show.

'He's traumatised. He's scared in terms of who could be at the door, because that's now a potential. And he's nervous. But I hope that he'll get better, but I do know worry about how he now feels about the police.'

A spokesman for the Met Police previously said that a mandatory referral has been made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Commander Kyle Gordon, the Met's lead for firearms, said: 'There have been a number of well-publicised shootings in London in recent months where members of the public have been injured.

'As the public would rightly expect, we take every report of a firearm seriously in order to protect our communities.

'Officers attending reports such as this must treat them as genuine until they can verify whether or not an actual firearm is present.

'Based on the information at hand, the officers acted in line with their training and my expectations, enabling the incident to be concluded as quickly and safely as possible.'

Commander Gordon said he had watched the body-worn video of the incident and was 'content' with the officers' professionalism and how they had explained to residents what was going on.

'The reporting member of the public was right to call us and we would encourage others who see similar weapons to do the same,' he said. 'We are committed to bearing down on violence and we rely on our communities to help us do this.'

He added that Kai had been immediately de-arrested as soon as officers had established the only weapon in the house was the BB gun.

Kai, a Year 7 pupils at Maria Fidelis Catholic School, is now 'traumatised', 'scared' and 'nervous', Alice Mina Agyepong said

Responding to Commander Gordon's statement, Mr Gould told MailOnline: 'There remain extremely serious questions to be answered by the Met in relation to what appears to have been a totally disproportionate use of force that put the lives of a mother and her young children in grave danger.

'Those questions have not been answered by the Met's latest statement, nor has that statement's defensive tone and disingenuous use of language put my client's mind any more at rest, or dispelled fears that racial prejudice played a significant part in this incident. Once again, the Met have chosen to misleadingly describe Kai as a 'youth' rather than more accurately a child, barely out of primary school.

'Are black boys allowed to be boys (and play with toy guns in the safety - and what should be sanctity - of their own homes) or are they in the eyes of the Met always 'youths' with all the connotations of delinquency, troublemaking and potential threat which that particular word conveys ?

'I will this week be inviting the Met to choose to offer early disclosure to my client of all relevant evidence in this case, including call logs and body camera evidence, in the interests of transparency and fairness and all those values Commander Kyle appears keen to trumpet the Met possess, rather than, as is routine, to hide behind the delays of data protection bureaucracy.'

Yesterday former shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott angrily said that Scotland Yard's actions did not fall in line with 'community policing' and followed up her comments with the Black Lives Matter hashtag on Twitter.

She tweeted: 'How can the Met Police possibly justify arresting a 12 year old at gunpoint, handcuffing him & putting him in a police van?

'This after dozens of armed police officers raided his home at 11.00 at night. All over a toy. Is this what they call community policing? #BlackLivesMatter'.
'I salute Ankara's decision, this is a positive development to de-escalate the tensions,' Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias told reporters

Turkey said Tuesday it had agreed to suspend "for a while" a search for oil and gas off a Greek island which had stoked tensions over energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.

Greece's navy last week said it had deployed ships in the Aegean in "heightened readiness" after Turkey announced plans for a survey near the island -- an area Ankara claims is on its continental shelf.

Turkey's "Oruc Reis" vessel planned to search for hydrocarbons "180 kilometres (110 miles) from the island of Meis (Kastellorizo in Greek)", presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told private broadcaster CNN-Turk.

"Despite this our president said while the negotiations are continuing, let's be constructive and hold (the energy search) for a while," he said.

Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron called for Turkey to be "sanctioned" and accused Ankara of treading on the rights of Greece and Cyprus, as all three nations scramble to exploit recently discovered gas reserves.

Kalin on Tuesday said Greece was an "important neighbour" to Turkey and added: "We are ready to discuss (all disputes) with Greece without any conditions."

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias welcomed Ankara's decision.

"I salute Ankara's decision, this is a positive development to de-escalate the tensions," he told reporters during a visit to Athens by Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya, who was in Ankara for talks with Turkish officials on Monday.

"Greece is always ready for dialogue but not under a regime of threats," Dendias added.

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Philadelphia public school students will not be back in classrooms at least until November. Read more

Philadelphia public school students will not return to classrooms until November at the earliest, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said Tuesday, after plans for a hybrid model of in-person and online instruction sparked fierce opposition.

Under the new plan, which awaits school board approval, the year would begin fully virtually for 125,000 Philadelphia School District students in September, as confirmed coronavirus cases rise in the region and other districts are also opting to start the year without face-to-face instruction.

Instruction in Pennsylvanias largest school system would happen via computer at least through the first marking period, which ends Nov. 17. Students would receive instruction from teachers at their assigned school. The previously planned Digital Academy model, with teachers from across the district instructing students whose families opted into a 100% digital school year, has been scrapped.

If city health officials and others indicate it is safe to do so, students would then transition to a hybrid learning model.

Initially, Hite called for a school reopening plan that would bring most students back two days a week. That plan received intense pushback  including six hours of impassioned calls from principals, parents, and teachers at a school board meeting last week, and a public rally for fully virtual schools last weekend. Hite ultimately withdrew it.

I believe its important to listen, Hite said in a letter to the community Tuesday. And its important to have your trust and support as we all try to create a plan that will help our children learn in an environment we have never experienced.

The school year, once set to begin Aug. 31, will now start Sept. 2.

 READ MORE: Teachers, supporters take to the street for an all-virtual school opening, police-free schools

The school board is scheduled to vote Thursday on the health and safety elements of the revised plan, and on the revised school opening date.

Officials said students will still have access to free school meals throughout the continued building shutdown, as they have since March.

What remains to be seen is how Philadelphia will handle the thousands of children who were not able to connect to the internet when schooling first went remote this spring.

City leaders are also working with numerous local internet companies to provide reliable internet access to all Philadelphia students who need it for the start of school and throughout the school year, the district said in a letter to families sent Tuesday.

Hite said this weekend that he does not support a 100% virtual school year, and that if coronavirus conditions improve, he wants teachers and students back in classrooms.

We will do harm to children if in fact we lose another year without children in front of adults in some form or fashion, the superintendent said Friday night. We know that our children who are most at risk suffered the most academically in the spring. As educators, we can do something about that, and we need to do something about that.

According to the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, 74% of the 7,500 teachers, counselors, secretaries, and other school workers who responded to a survey released Tuesday said they felt personally unsafe returning to school buildings. And 78% said they felt returning to school would jeopardize student safety, while just 6% said they felt it would be safe for students to return.

 READ MORE: School reopenings are a mess, home-schooling pods are coming, and they could make inequality even worse

Jerry Jordan, the PFT president, backed the fully virtual school-year opening.

Never in our lifetimes have we seen a situation like this, and there is no road map for how to navigate so many factors. ... Lives are on the line, Jordan said in a letter to PFT members.

The districts announcement comes as a number of other districts make plans to begin the year virtually. Downingtown, Cheltenham, and Norristown have all announced in recent days their intent to keep children out of buildings, at least for now.

I will not be the superintendent who puts anyone  not one child, not one staff member  in harms way, Norristown Area Superintendent Christopher Dormer said. I cannot, in good conscience, allow any reopening model that increases the risk of infection, illness, or someone dying.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia said Tuesday that most elementary school students would return to buildings five days a week, and high school students would begin the year with a hybrid digital and in-person approach.
Quantum of Solace (Credit: Sony Pictures)

Olga Kurylenko has described how she thought she was going to die during a stunt on Bond movie Quantum of Solace.

She played Bolivian agent Camille Montes in the 2008 movie, Daniel Craig's second outing as Bond, directed by Marc Foster.

The sequence in question was the boat chase, in which Bond rams his dinghy into a yacht, foiling an assassination attempt by Montes, before fighting with her while speeding away from a phalanx of machine gun-toting hired goons.

Read more: The troubled timeline of No Time To Die

Other boats batter into Bond's throughout.

Speaking to Cinemablend, she said: I remember thinking, Ok, this is the day of my death. Im going to die today. It was so intense, because the thing is, it was real. You would think, Oh this is some sort of computer graphic. But no, we were in that boat, and we had that other boat charging straight at us. We were basically going towards each other in super super high speed. Just flying through the water.

She goes on to say that she realised that the situation was serious when the stunt coordinator began speaking to her gravely in the lead up to the sequence.

Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko in Rome (Credit: AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

I remember when the stunt coordinator came to me, looked me in the eye, and said, Olga, were very serious. Hold on, ok? No matter what, just hold on for your life, because the shock is going to be very strong, and you might get thrown into the water. So no matter what you do, you just hold on tightly, ok. Look at me, this is very important, she added.

And I just thought, Oh my god, this is real. Because that boat hit us, for real. It wasnt a mocap, its the real thing. I was like, Wow, these guys are not kidding.

Read more: Who should play James Bond next?

Despite the terror, she adds that she has 'good memories' of the shoot, though 'there was a real sense of danger, we not pretending were scared, and its dangerous. We were scared for real'.

Which all adds to the realism, one supposes.

Kurylenko is next up in the thriller The Room, while the next Bond movie, No Time To Die  Daniel Craig's last turn as Bond  is due out in the UK on 12 November.
AKRON, Ohio  City Council voted Monday to place several proposed changes to the city charter on the November ballot, including a provision that would ultimately make public many recordings in cases where police use deadly force.

Another provision would allow the administration to make more purchases without competitive bidding, a move Deputy Director of Finance Shelley Goodrich said is intended to allow for more contracts to be awarded to minority-owned businesses.

If approved by voters, three of the provisions recommended this spring by a nine-member Charter Review Commission would create three new sections to the charter. Three of the provisions would amend 16 existing sections of the charter.

Here are the highlights:

Police use-of-force recordings

One proposed section to the charter calls for City Council to enact legislation requiring, with some exceptions, prompt public disclosure of police body cam and dash cam recordings of incidents in which officers use deadly force. This would apply to cases where the suspect is not killed, or when police use force that causes serious bodily injury. The release of the video would only be required if its disclosure is allowed under state and federal law, the proposal reads.

Council President Margo Sommerville, who was councils representative on the Charter Review Commission, said she was in support of the new section as a way to improve the relationship between residents and the police.

Some years back, when council decided to vote to approve body cams, I think all of us as a council were really excited about that, because body cams really are tools to help with transparency, Sommerville said during a Rules Committee meeting. Its also a tool that can help to make sure that our police officers are being held accountable and do have high standards.

Competitive bidding requirements

The charter currently requires all contracts for materials, services, equipment and supplies that are more than $15,000 to be authorized by City Council, and for all contracts more than $5,000 to be approved by the Board of Control. Proposed changes would increase the threshold requiring competitive bidding and Council authorization to $50,000, and increase Board of Control approval to $15,000.

Goodrich said the proposed change is in line with Mayor Dan Horrigans push to award more city contracts to minority-owned businesses.

Currently, anything in excess of $15,000 has to go by competitive sealed bidding, which is extremely burdensome, Goodrich said. Its extremely expensive, and its not inclusive. A lot of our minority businesses have found it to be very difficult to comply with and to follow all of the set rules.

Other cities with a threshold of $50,000 or more include Cuyahoga Falls, Columbus, Canton and Cincinnati, and the Ohio Revised Code authorizes municipalities to have a $50,000 threshold, Goodrich said.

A proposed change would also do away with requiring the city to publicly advertise bids for two weeks in a newspaper, and would instead require the city to list public advertisements on the citys website.

Preference in promotions

Under the current charter, military veterans and Akron residents can receive so-called preference points that could comprise up to 40% of evaluations for hiring and promotions. It also calls for only the top three candidates to be considered for each position.

The proposed change would keep the preference points for hiring evaluations, but would do away with the automatic preference points in promotion considerations. Managers could have an option to give preference based on residency or veteran status, but they would not be required to do so. The change also would allow for up to 10 candidates to be considered for a position.

Stacy Doty, Akrons employment and selection manager, told the Rules Committee that the police union and the fire union have done away with preference points for promotional exams through collective bargaining agreements, and another union negotiated a reduced percentage (5%) for promotional exams.

Subpoena power for human resources

The current charter gives the commission the authority to issue subpoenas, which is useful for pre-employment investigations and investigations into possible employee misconduct, Doty said. A proposed amendment would expand that subpoena authority to the mayor, the Human Resources director and the Human Resources Department.

Another amendment would change the probationary period for new employees by doing away with a standard six-month probation for all employees. Doty said most jobs would still have a six-month probation, but said some  including police officers and 911 dispatchers - take longer to train and for managers to evaluate whether they are competent. So, the new section would give HR officials the discretion to determine appropriate probation periods.

New City Council procedures

Rules for holding City Council meetings need some updating, Sommerville said. Not only does the current charter call for the Clerk of Courts to personally deliver notices of each special meeting to council members either in person or at their home, but it also requires council members to hold meetings and vote in person  rules that had to be suspended during each meeting held via Zoom due to the coronavirus.

The biggest change to council proceedings is increasing the number of members needed to call for a special meeting from two to four. The Charter Review Commission had initially proposed raising the number to seven, or a majority of councils 13 members, since most other council votes are decided by majority.

But some council members, including Ward 8s Shammas Malik and At-Large Councilwoman Linda Omobien, raised concerns about how requiring a majority could suppress minority voices. In what At-Large Councilman Jeff Fusco called a compromise, council and the commission amended the proposal to call for a quorum of four.
Mexico Citys police chief has returned full-time to work one month after a brazen attack left him with three bullet wounds and his two bodyguards and a bystander dead.

Omar Garcia Harfuch appeared with Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum at a news conference Tuesday wearing a suit and a brace on his right arm. He returned to work full time Monday.

On June 26, some two dozen gunmen ambushed Garcias armoured vehicle before dawn on one of the capitals main boulevards. That same day, Garcia signalled from the hospital that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel was responsible.

On Tuesday, Garcia upheld that assertion, saying it was based on an investigation that had been underway since last August.

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New Delhi: In connection with the death case of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, Mumbai police have questioned more than 35 people so far. Dharma Productions CEO Apoorva Mehta reached Amboli police station this morning to record his statement.

Apoorva is being questioned by the cops in relation to the film 'Drive' which featured Sushant in the lead role. The CEO of Dharma productions bought a copy of Sushant Singh Rajput's contract which he had with the company at the time of 'Drive' movie.

(Apoorva Mehta with a water bottle in his hand at Amboli Police Station, Mumbai)

Earlier, filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Aditya Chopra and Mahesh Bhatt amongst many others have been questioned by the Mumbai police so far.

Actress Kangana Ranaut was also summoned by the cops a few days back. She said that she is ready to cooperate with the cops but would also like to adhere to the lockdown guidelines amid the coronavirus outbreak. Kangana is in Manali currently. Kangana's counsel has asked the Mumbai Police to send an official for questioning to her hometown or else, she can interact with them via video call.

Meanwhile, Sushant Singh Rajput's fans are demanding a CBI inquiry into the case alleging foul play in his death.
No time capsule will be immersed in the foundation of Ram temple at Ayodhya on August 5, the foundation-laying day. The general secretary of Ram Janma Bhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader, Champat Rai, said the time capsule was pure imagination on the part of a few people.

He said that such a thing was never discussed in any meeting of the trust and there are no such plans. Earlier it was reported that a time capsule made of steel would be immersed in the foundation of Ram temple at Ayodhya. The entire history of Ram Janma Bhoomi temple movement and other ...
NetJets continues to take steps to protect the health and safety of Owners and employees following COVID-19 impact

COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NetJets, the worldwide leader in private aviation announced today that NetJets will offer to reinstate all NetJets Europe pilots and cabin crew who were furloughed in April. Additionally, NetJets will restore a portion of the fleet in Europe to reach typical pre-pandemic flight levels serving customer demand. NetJets plans to add more than 60 additional aircraft across the fleet worldwide between now and year-end 2021, ensuring that the highest levels of service are maintained.

The commercial aviation industry has seen an extraordinary impact because of significantly reduced passenger volumes due to COVID-19. Private aviation fared much better and has rebounded faster, though it is not yet back to pre-pandemic levels. To proactively manage the NetJets fleet size, there was a reduction made in the number of scheduled aircraft purchases and the fleet rejuvenation process in Europe was accelerated by disposing of a small portion of that fleet. These decisions were made amid unparalleled economic uncertainty, when it was unclear how long the period of restricted international flying would last and how the pandemic would impact the broader economy. NetJets sought to insulate the company from deeper reductions later and avoid the need for any bailout while continuing to provide exceptional safety and service to Owners.

"We are confident in the momentum we are seeing and proud of all the work our teams are doing that resulted in our ability to expand our global fleet in this way," said Patrick Gallagher, President of NetJets Sales, Marketing and Service.

Further good news to share involves the recent flight volume and number of new Owners joining NetJets. There is a strong increase in new Owners joining NetJets as more individuals and businesses have come to realize that the ultimate luxury is peace of mind. NetJets traffic in the U.S. never fell as low as it did in Europe because domestic travel was not subject to the border restrictions that significantly limited travel throughout Europe. Globally, NetJets is seeing days with flight volumes within 20% of the typical pre-pandemic levels.

"We are looking forward to welcoming back our team members and welcoming our new Owners," said Elton D'Souza, President, NetJets Europe. "We are thankful to our existing Owners for their remarkable loyalty during this time and for recommending NetJets to friends, family, and colleagues."

About NetJets

NetJets Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company, is the worldwide leader in private aviation. More than 50 years ago, we launched the world's first private jet charter and management company. We went on to pioneer shared aircraft ownership-offering the advantages of owning a private jet, without the responsibilities. Today, we continue to innovate from cockpit and cabin to safety and accessibility. As the owner and operator of the world's largest and most diverse private jet fleet, NetJets hires only the most experienced and accomplished pilots and safety is our first and highest priority. Our full range of aviation options help individuals and businesses do more and miss less via the NetJets, Executive Jet Management, and Marquis Jet Card service brands in North America and Europe. For more information about the world's most reliable and trusted aviation company, visit netjets.com.

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There is more bad news for Bihar, which is grappling with floods triggered by heavy rainfall. The Patna Meteorological Centre has warned of more rain till August 1, especially in northern parts of the state which are closer to the foothills of Himalayas.

Flood waters have spread to new areas in 11 districts, affecting one million more population, the state disaster management department said. The department in its bulletin said that a total of 2.4 million people have been hit by flood across 11 of 38 districts in Bihar, with Darbhanga being the worst-affected.

The whole area over here is submerged and the flow of the water is so fast that the speed is constantly increasing, a Darbhanga resident told news agency ANI.

The flood affected districts are: Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Supaul, Kishanganj, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, West Champaran, East Champaran, Khagaria and Saran.

In fact, the situation is expected to further deteriorate in the entire northern belt - from Gopalganj to Katihar.

Seven rivers (small and tributaries) are already flowing above the danger mark at 24 spots in 15 districts of the state. The embankments are under pressure in these areas.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar said that embankments should be subjected to round-the-clock monitoring to keep the flood situation in check. He has asked the engineers of Water Resources Department to be alert.

Seventeen teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and eight of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) are involved in the rescue operations across the state.

The air-dropping operation of food packets by Indian Air Force helicopters has been stopped in Gopalganj, Darbhanga and East Champaran districts due to worsening of situation and weather.

The operation had started in these places on July 25.

A senior officer of the disaster management department said the relief distribution through boats and other means would continue in these places as also in other marooned districts.

The overflowing rivers of Bihar and the districts impacted:

Gandak: East and West Champaran, Gopalganj, Muzaffarpur and Vaishali

Budhi Gandak: East and West Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur and Khagaria

Baghmati and Adhwara: Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga

Kamala: Madhubani

Kosi: Supaul, Khagaria, Katihar

Mahananda: Purnea, Katihar
Ethnic Karens hold placards protesting the death of a civilian by two Myanmar military soldiers and demanding the withdrawal of troops from four army outposts in Hpapun district, eastern Myanmar's Kayin state, July 28, 2020.

Thousands of ethnic Karens rallied in southeastern Myanmars Kayin state on Tuesday, adding a demand that the government withdraw troops from their district to previous calls for justice for a woman shot dead by two soldiers in her home this month.

More than 4,600 villagers demonstrated outside the army outposts in the second protest this week demanding punishment for the killers of Naw Mu Naw, identified by the army as two drunk army privates who shot her in her home in Poloe Htar village during a scuffle on July 16 after one tried to grab a gold necklace.

The pair, who surrendered a day after the killing and confessed to the shooting, are being detained in an army prison in neighboring Mon state, the Myanmar army said after the incident.

The protesters, who represented 114 villages, demanded the withdrawal of four battalions of troops from the Maewai, Kayko, Wawmu, and Khuthu Htar military camps in Hpapun district.

The presence of the Myanmar military battalions is harmful to the region, said Saw Khan Htel, the head of Hpapun district, also known as Mutraw district. It hampers local peoples activities and living. Thats why we want them to be withdrawn.

Hpapun district is partly controlled by the rebel Karen National Union (KNU), and the presence of government soldiers makes local people feel unsafe because troops treat them as enemies, protesters said.

They always view us as the enemy, although we are not, said Saw Bi, a resident of Kataing Hti village who participated in the protest.

They shoot and kill local people for no reason. They fire heavy shelling into the villages. Thats why we are upset.

The protesters said five local civilians, including Naw Mu Naw, have been killed by Myanmar soldiers in Hpapun since January.

The protesters also said that the presence of military outposts near farms and trails they use daily increases the risk that they may be injured or killed by gunfire.

This year, there have been more incidents of local civilians getting shot by the military, said Naw Wah Ku Shee, a spokesman for the Karen Peace Support Network, which comprises more than 20 Karen community-based and civil society organizations along the Myanmar-Thailand border. Thats because of the presence of military battalions in the region.

Villagers have also reported incidents in which soldiers from the outposts fired artillery into farms, he said.

The people are protesting because we cannot put up with them anymore, the spokesman said.

KNU's complaint

Though the KNU is a signatory to the Myanmar governments 2015 nationwide cease-fire agreement (NCA), recent skirmishes in the area have been triggered by government soldiers entering KNU-controlled territory for road construction work.

As a signatory of the NCA  a truce signed by 10 ethnic armies in Myanmar  the KNU has requested that the state-level Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee (JMC), which monitors the implementation of the truce, investigate the shooting of the woman and ensure justice is delivered.

Major Ae Do from the KNUs Division No. 5 said the JMC has not yet responded to the complaint filed by the Karen force, but added that leaders are likely to discuss it at their next meeting.

But JMC official Matthew Aye said the body had not received the KNUs complaint.

This murder actually occurred, but we havent got their letter, he told RFA. Because we dont have the letter and the official compliant, it is difficult to comment on it. Once we receive it, we will take action.

RFA could not reach Myanmar military spokesmen for comment.

Major General Tun Tun Nyi, one of the military spokesmen, said on July 22 that the army would take action against the two soldiers under military law.

Naing Swe Oo, founder and executive director of the Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, a pro-military think tank, said it is unrealistic to expect the four battalions to leave the area on account of the crime.

These battalions are stationed in the region for security and strategic advantages, he told RFA. Now the local people are making these demands based on their emotions resulting from a crime.

It is not a very realistic demand, he said. The demands to deliver justice and to convict those who committed the murder are more acceptable.

More than 1,500 residents from 35 villages staged the first protest outside the four Myanmar military posts in the area on July 22, the online news journal The Irrawaddy reported.

Posters hanging in a village show ethnic Karenni candidates who will run in Myanmar's general election in November, in eastern Myanmar's Kayah state, July 28, 2020. Credit: RFA video screenshot Dissatisfaction among Karennis

In another sign that ethnic sentiments are increasingly turning against the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) government, Karenni youths in neighboring Kayah state are encouraging locals to vote for ethnic political parties in the general elections slated for November.

They said the NLD has turned a blind eye to Karenni affairs and problems that the minority group faces, despite strong ethnic support for the pro-democracy party during election campaigning across the state in 2015.

Particularly at issue is the Myanmar governments erection of a costly statue of national independence hero General Aung San in Kayahs capital Loikaw in 2018 against the wishes of the Karenni public.

The statues of Aung San, father of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in Kayah and other states have sparked opposition by ethnic minority groups who revere their own local war heroes and see the moves as a bid by the current civilian government to Burmanize, or assimilate, them under rule by ethnic majority Bamars.

We had supported the NLD by voting for it until the end of the election, but when NLD came into power, youths and others found it difficult to keep supporting it because it hasnt tried to solve [our] problems, said Nan Yi, a central committee member of the Union of Karenni State Youth.

Mula Kawretti from the Kayan Women's Organization (KyWO) said her group will support candidates from the Kayan National Party and Kayah State Democratic Party.

We supported the NLD in the previous election with lots of expectations, especially with the trust that the NLD would stand up for ethnic [minorities], she told RFA, referring to the November 2015 elections which the party won by a landslide.

Not only the KyWO supported the NLD, but so did all people and organizations. It is now opposite from what we expected, she added.

Naw Phaw Wa, a member of a technical support group called Lobbyists, Advocators, Innovators and Negotiator (LAIN) based in Loikaw, said local political parties know Kayah states situation better than do other parties.

If these local ethnic parties were in parliament, the peace process that the government is working on would be more effective, he said.

The NLD government is seen as having made lackluster headway on its core pledge to start a peace process to build on the cease-fire, a pact intended to end more than 70 years of armed conflict that has stymied multiethnic Myanmars political and economic development.

Reported by Kyaw Lwin Oo and Soe Soe Htet for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung and Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Donald Trump Jr., shown at a 2019 Trump rally, got his wrist slapped by Twitter for posting a video filled with COVID-19 misinformation. (Paul Sancya / Associated Press)

By conventional standards, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube showed themselves to be paragons of public service Monday when they took down a video promoting a long-debunked "cure for COVID" and agitating against mask-wearing.

The conservative broadcast chain Sinclair also has been praised in some quarters for canceling a segment on one of its television shows promoting an especially unhinged assertion that Dr. Anthony Fauci played a role in manufacturing coronaviruses and sending them to China.

By real-world standards, however, the social media giants and Sinclair failed miserably.

We're a supporter of free speech and a marketplace of ideas and viewpoints, even if incredibly controversial.

Sinclair Broadcast Group

The video remained up on Facebook for hours, long enough to garner more than 14 million views, and reportedly can still be found by determined searchers. Twitter not only deleted the video, but also restricted the account of Donald Trump Jr., who had posted the video on his account. The suspension was to last only 12 hours, however.

And Sinclair came close to providing a platform to the claim about Fauci embodied in a video documentary titled "Plandemic."

Concerns about the firms' inability  or unwillingness  to police their platforms for manifestly deceptive misinformation and disinformation may surface Wednesday during a joint appearance before the House Judiciary Committee by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Apple Chairman Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet, which owns Google and YouTube.

The session's nominal topic is the market power accumulated by these giant corporations, but the power of social media platforms to distribute dangerous myths is certainly pertinent.

Indeed, Darrell M. West of the Brookings Institution suggested that one of the questions that should be high on the lawmakers' agenda is: "What have you done to stop the use of your products for racist appeals, hateful actions, or false information?"

Story continues

It's fair to say that inoculating these platforms against informational toxins isn't always a simple matter, in part because distinguishing the purveying of disinformation from legitimate differences of opinion, especially on scientific matters, isn't always easy.

Some of the conspiracy theories that leach into social media come cloaked with the aura of government statements, thus providing a convenient defense against calls to remove the material.

Consider the case of President Trump, whose Twitter output is not only voluminous  more than 50 tweets on Monday alone  but also chockablock with tweeted and retweeted conspiracy claims and false assertions. The Washington press event at the center of the controversial video Monday was fronted by Rep. Ralph Norman, a far-right member of the South Carolina Republican delegation.

As we've reported, the ability of misinformation and conspiracy-mongering to infect our public discourse is greater than ever before because its sources are no longer limited to inhabitants of the lunatic fringe or commercial entities that have profited from misleading the public, such as tobacco companies.

The speed with which this material can reach the public makes a mockery of the old saw about how a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on  today, a lie can metastasize throughout the global body politic before the truth can even get out of bed.

The defense for posting and publishing such noxious material long has been that exposing it to the public has a disinfectant effect  the public will be able to weigh it against truth and serious discourse, and it will wither away as a result. The power of social media to give such material credibility merely by making it public points to the question of whether some viewpoints are just too noxious.

There should be no question that Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and their cousins could be much better at blocking some of this material before it can reach millions of viewers.

For one thing, some of it has long since been established as mendacious or deceptive.

A Facebook spokesman says the video was removed "for sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19." https://t.co/dTKZMHL7GF  Kevin Roose (@kevinroose) July 28, 2020

Let's consider the video involved in Monday's controversy. Originally posted by the right-wing Breitbart News, the video featured a group of white-coated doctors associated with organizations calling themselves Americas Frontline Doctors and the Assn. of American Physicians and Surgeons.

Neither of these organizations nor many of the participants are unknown to followers of conspiracy theories or debunkers of pseudoscience.

The head of America's Frontline Doctors, Simone Gold, an emergency room physician, has described advice to wear masks as a con of massive proportion. She says the media has an agenda ... to make you think that theres no actual facts out there that you can discern for yourself. ... Thats a really good way to let people live in fear .

Gold, by the way, was a member of the so-called "expert panel" assembled by the Orange County Board of Education as window-dressing for its "white paper" advocating irresponsibly that schools in the county reopen for class without masks or social distancing.

The thrust of the video was to promote the use of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19.

The persistence of the claim for this nostrum, which has been incessantly talked up by President Trump, is simply astonishing given that every randomized clinical trial of the treatment, the gold standard in clinical studies, has found it to be ineffective against the virus (and hazardous for some patients besides).

Yet the videotaped event featured Stella Immanuel, a Houston physician who claims to have treated more than 350 patients with hydroxychloroquine and "they're all well." She called the studies debunking the drug's effectiveness "fake science" and said, "You don't need masks; there is a cure."

Immanuel maintains on her website that "serious gynecological problems, Marital distress, miscarriages, impotence, untold hardship, financial failure and general failure" are caused by "evil spiritual marriages." After Facebook took down Monday's video, she issued a sort of curse against the company via Twitter: "Put back my profile page and videos up or your computers will start crashing till you do."

Hello Facebook put back my profile page and videos up or your computers with start crashing till you do. You are not bigger that God. I promise you. If my page is not back up face book will be down in Jesus name.  Stella Immanuel MD (@stella_immanuel) July 28, 2020

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube would have us believe that they were caught flatfooted for hours by this material.

Then there's Sinclair, which played a more active role in distributing patent disinformation than the social media platforms, until public disclosure caused it to backtrack.

Sinclair is a rapidly expanding broadcast conglomerate that now operates more than 190 television stations coast-to-coast. The right-wing tenor of its news content suggests that it's hoping to share the conservative market with Fox, if not surpass its rival.

Over the weekend, Sinclair was prepared to give a platform to a participant in a certain video known as "Plandemic." Clips of the video don't seem to be available as of this writing from the production's website, but as pseudoscience debunker Dennis Gorski reported in May, the blurb for the video included statements such as this:

"The media has generated so much confusion and fear that people are begging for salvation in a syringe. Billionaire patent owners are pushing for globally mandated vaccines. Anyone who refuses to be injected with experimental poisons will be prohibited from travel, education and work. No, this is not a synopsis for a new horror movie. This is our current reality."

The participant was Judy Mikovits, who was to be featured in a segment of Sinclair's show "America This Week," interviewed by host Eric Bolling, a former Fox News host. Mikovits' professional career was subjected to scrutiny earlier this year by Science Magazine, which did not paint a pretty picture.

In the Sinclair segment, according to a clip and a transcript published by Media Matters for America, Mikovits states, "I believe Dr. Fauci has manufactured the coronaviruses in monkey cell lines and shipped them from and paid for and shipped the cell lines to Wuhan, China, now for at least since 2014."

Bolling subsequently brought on a guest who disputed the claim that Fauci was involved in manufacturing the novel coronavirus, though she maintained that the virus was likely made in a laboratory (another highly dubious assertion).

Sinclair at first defended its program. "We're a supporter of free speech and a marketplace of ideas and viewpoints, even if incredibly controversial."

We also interviewed a medical expert who debunked Dr. Mikovitzs claims as conspiracy theories. Were a supporter of free speech and a marketplace of ideas and viewpoints, even if incredibly controversial.  Sinclair Broadcast Group (@WeAreSinclair) July 25, 2020

But that won't do. The defense of pandering to ignorance in the name of informational "balance" is an old stunt that depends on portraying disagreements as "controversies" even when no real controversy exists. (We took Katie Couric to task in 2013 when she aired an interview with an anti-vaccination activist as though she was merely reporting the controversy, and she quite properly conceded the misstep.)

In the Sinclair case, there is no controversy about Fauci's role in the coronavirus. No serious evidence that he played any such role exists. Sinclair at first responded to "feedback" about the Bolling segment by delaying the broadcast but subsequently pulled the plug entirely, telling CNN that "given the nature of the theories [Mikovits] presented we believe it is not appropriate to air the interview."

It's gratifying, one supposes, that the limits of Sinclair's shame and sensitivity to public "feedback" have been determined. But it was a close call. Sinclair should never have given a platform to Mikovits' claim, for any effort to check it out would have revealed the dangers of putting it on the air. The question is whether Sinclair has learned anything from the episode  just as the question is whether Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have learned that it's imperative to address videos such as the hydroxychloroquine news conference proactively. Lives are at stake.
The Trump administration moved forward with plans to regulate content on social-media platforms Monday, formally asking federal regulators to start overseeing how these platforms treat user-generated content.

In a petition to the Federal Communications Commission, the Commerce Department called for an FCC rule-making to reinterpret key elements of Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. That provision has given online companies broad immunity from legal liability for their users actions, and wide latitude to police content on their sites.

Unfortunately, large online platforms appear to engage in selective censorship that is harming our national discourse, the petition says. The FCC should determine how Section 230 can best serve its goals of promoting internet diversity and a free flow of ideas, as well as holding dominant platforms accountable for their editorial decisions, in new market conditions and technologies that have emerged since the 1990s.

The action follows complaints by U.S. President Donald Trump and others who say left-leaning Silicon Valley technology companies unfairly censor conservative views on their digital platforms.

The internet industry has dismissed those claims, and is expected to resist attempts to reframe Section 230 as an intrusion on the free-speech rights of technology companies.

In a statement, FCC chair Ajit Pai said the commission will carefully review the petition. But FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, said the panel shouldnt take this bait.

While social media can be frustrating, turning this agency into the presidents speech police is not the answer, Rosenworcel said in a statement. If we honour the constitution, we will reject this petition immediately.

Still, the petition comes amid the run-up to the Nov. 3 election and is likely to lead to further scrutiny of political content on social-media platforms.

The Commerce Department request follows an executive order issued by Trump in May, when he proposed limits on Section 230 after Twitter Inc. said it would apply a fact-checking notice to tweets by the president with unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud.

Twitter described the executive order as a reactionary and politicized approach to a landmark law, and the measure already has been challenged in federal district court in Washington, D.C., by an online-rights group, the Center for Democracy and Technology, in a case that is ongoing.

Trumps order seeks to make it easier for federal regulators to hold companies such as Twitter and Facebook Inc. accountable if they unfairly curb users speech by, for example, suspending their accounts or deleting their posts.

The order directed the Commerce Department to petition the FCC to set up a rule-making proceeding to clarify the scope of Section 230. A key focus of that proceeding would be to determine when platforms have failed to live up to their obligations to act in good faith under the law when they police content.

The rule  if it were adopted by the FCC  would be similar to a transparency rule already in place for internet service providers such as cable and wireless companies. That rule is aimed at promoting fairness in how the providers treat internet traffic from different websites.

In effect, the new rule would impose the same fairness principle for how social-media platforms treat their users comments, requiring the companies to live up to their public commitments. If companies failed to live up to their commitments, they could be subject to punishment by the Federal Trade Commission, a separate agency.

In a statement, the FTC said it is committed to robust enforcement of consumer protection and competition laws, including with respect to social-media platforms.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement that the petition is aimed at fostering a free flow of ideas on the internet.

President Trump is committed to protecting the rights of all Americans to express their views and not face unjustified restrictions or selective censorship from a handful of powerful companies, Ross said.

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RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A pair of researchers at the University of California, Riverside, has used machine learning to understand what a chemical smells like -- a research breakthrough with potential applications in the food flavor and fragrance industries.

"We now can use artificial intelligence to predict how any chemical is going to smell to humans," said Anandasankar Ray, a professor of molecular, cell and systems biology, and the senior author of the study that appears in iScience. "Chemicals that are toxic or harsh in, say, flavors, cosmetics, or household products can be replaced with natural, softer, and safer chemicals."

Humans sense odors when some of their nearly 400 odorant receptors, or ORs, are activated in the nose. Each OR is activated by a unique set of chemicals; together, the large OR family can detect a vast chemical space. A key question in olfaction is how the receptors contribute to different perceptual qualities or percepts.

"We tried to model human olfactory percepts using chemical informatics and machine learning," Ray said. "The power of machine learning is that it is able to evaluate a large number of chemical features and learn what makes a chemical smell like, say, a lemon or a rose or something else. The machine learning algorithm can eventually predict how a new chemical will smell even though we may initially not know if it smells like a lemon or a rose."

According to Ray, digitizing predictions of how chemicals smell creates a new way of scientifically prioritizing what chemicals can be used in the food, flavor, and fragrance industries.

"It allows us to rapidly find chemicals that have a novel combination of smells," he said. "The technology can help us discover new chemicals that could replace existing ones that are becoming rare, for example, or which are very expensive. It gives us a vast palette of compounds that we can mix and match for any olfactory application. For example, you can now make a mosquito repellent that works on mosquitoes but is pleasant smelling to humans."

The researchers first developed a method for a computer to learn chemical features that activate known human odorant receptors. They then screened roughly half a million compounds for new ligands -- molecules that bind to receptors -- for 34 odorant receptors. Next, they focused on whether the algorithm that could estimate odorant receptor activity could also predict diverse perceptual qualities of odorants.

"Computers might help us better understand human perceptual coding, which appears, in part, to be based on combinations of differently activated ORs," said Joel Kowalewski, a student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program working with Ray and the first author of the research paper. "We used hundreds of chemicals that human volunteers previously evaluated, selected ORs that best predicted percepts on a portion of chemicals, and tested that these ORs were also predictive of new chemicals."

Ray and Kowalewski showed the activity of ORs successfully predicted 146 different percepts of chemicals. To their surprise, few rather than all ORs were needed to predict some of these percepts. Since they could not record activity from sensory neurons in humans, they tested this further in the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) and observed a similar result when predicting the fly's attraction or aversion to different odorants.

"If predictions are successful with less information, the task of decoding odor perception would then become easier for a computer," Kowalewski said.

Ray explained that many items available to consumers use volatile chemicals to make themselves appealing. About 80% of what is considered flavor in food actually stems from the odors that affect smell. Fragrances for perfuming cosmetics, cleaning products, and other household goods play an important role in consumer behavior.

"Our digital approach using machine learning could open up many opportunities in the food, flavor, and fragrance industries," he said. "We now have an unprecedented ability to find ligands and new flavors and fragrances. Using our computational approach, we can intelligently design volatile chemicals that smell desirable for use and also predict ligands for the 34 human ORs."

###

The study was partially funded by UCR and the National Science Foundation.

The technology has been disclosed to the UCR Office of Technology Partnerships, assigned UC case number 2019-131, is patent pending, titled "Methods for identifying, compounds identified and compositions thereof," and licensed to the startup company Sensorygen Inc. Founded by Ray in 2015, Sensorygen utilizes computational biology and artificial intelligence to discover natural replacements for toxic and harsh chemicals in everyday products, including finding new flavors and insect repellents.

The research paper is titled "Predicting human olfactory perception from activities of odorant receptors."

The University of California, Riverside (http://www.ucr.edu) is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment is more than 24,000 students. The campus opened a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of almost $2 billion. To learn more, email news@ucr.edu.
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Federal officers who are protecting Portland's courthouse under the orders of the Trump administration have revealed that they 'fear for their lives' after 61 nights of protests in the city, but demonstrators say they are fighting back to protect themselves from the agents.

President Donald Trump sent federal agents to Portland earlier this month and has since said he would be sending 100 more troops into the city to protect federal property.

Demonstrators have taken to the streets to demand justice for black men and women who have died at the hands of police officers across the US, including George Floyd who took his last breath under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer on May 25.

And while many protests have been peaceful, some have turned violent for both officers and protesters.

'It's scary. You open those doors out, when the crowd is shaking the fence, and... on the other side of that fence are people that want to kill you because of the job we chose to do and what we represent,' said a Deputy US Marshal who has been protecting the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse for weeks.

He requested anonymity because protesters have identified him and posted his personal information online.

'I can't walk outside without being in fear for my life,' he said. 'I am worried for my life, every time I walk outside of the building.'

The agent then said that downtown Portland has started to look a lot like downtown Baghdad.

'I finally get outside at 7am, after being in the building since 3pm the day prior, and I look east and I'm like, "Oh, the world's normal over there and people are driving to work and the city is clean and functioning,"' the Deputy US Marshal said.

'And I look out on the street and it looks like downtown Baghdad.'

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Federal officers who are protecting Portland's courthouse under the orders of the Trump administration have revealed that they 'fear for their lives' after 61 nights of protests in the city, but demonstrators say they are fighting back to protect themselves from the agents

Federal police advance upon a line of protesters outside the Multnomah County Justice Center after an unlawful assembly was declared Monday night

Federal police use tear gas and less-lethal munitions against protesters along the perimeter barricade of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse on Monday

'It's scary. You open those doors out, when the crowd is shaking the fence, and... on the other side of that fence are people that want to kill you because of the job we chose to do and what we represent,' said a Deputy US Marshal who has been protecting the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse for weeks

Demonstrators are seen holding Black Lives Matter signs and umbrellas as tear gas engulfs them during Monday night's protest

Demonstrators hide behind umbrellas and shields as they face-off with federal agents during a protest in Portland Monday night

Federal property has been increasingly targeted as the city's protests against racial injustice march on. But Trump's decision has added fuel to the fire and re-energized Portland protesters who arrived by the thousands outside the courthouse Monday night.

Within the past few days, federal agents have seen as many as 4,000 people on a single night, the largest total so far.

The US Marshals Service decided last week to deploy 100 deputy marshals to fortify security outside the federal courthouse, according to an internal email obtained by The Washington Post on Monday.

The email indicated that the marshals began arriving last Thursday, ahead of a heated weekend that saw heavily armed federal troops repeatedly fire tear gas, flash bangs and pepper balls into crowds of protesters as they attempted to breach a fence surrounding the courthouse on Saturday and Sunday night.

Trump decried the protests and subsequent media coverage in a pair of tweets on Monday night, writing: 'The Fake News Media is trying to portray the Portland and Seattle "protesters" as wonderful, sweet and innocent people just out for a little stroll.

'Actually, they are sick and deranged Anarchists & Agitators who our great men & women of Law Enforcement easily control, but who would destroy our American cities, and worse, if Sleepy Joe Biden, the puppet of the Left, ever won.

'Markets would crash and cities would burn. Our Country would suffer like never before. We will beat the Virus, soon, and go on to the Golden Age - better than ever before!'

The president sent a direct warning to protesters earlier in the night, tweeting: 'Anarchists, Agitators or Protestors who vandalize or damage our Federal Courthouse in Portland, or any Federal Buildings in any of our Cities or States, will be prosecuted under our recently re-enacted Statues & Monuments Act.

'MINIMUM TEN YEARS IN PRISON. Don't do it!'

And prior to that tweet, Trump doubled down on his support for the federal agents' actions in another post, claiming that federal properties in Portland 'wouldn't last a day' without their presence.

Hours later the US Attorney's Office in Oregon shared photos of items that had been confiscated from them over the weekend - including gasoline, hockey sticks, defense shields, leaf blowers, paint sprayers, cans of paint, and a jar prepped for a Molotov cocktail.

The US Attorney's Office in Oregon on Monday released photos of items that were confiscated from protesters over the weekend. The items included gasoline, hockey sticks, defense shields, leaf blowers, paint sprayers, cans of paint, and a jar prepped for a Molotov cocktail

Several items confiscated from Portland protesters - including several gasoline canisters and projectiles - are seen in a photo from the US Attorney's Office in Oregon on Monday

Trump decried the protests and subsequent media coverage on Twitter Monday night

Trump sent a direct warning to protesters in Portland and nationwide in a tweet on Monday

At 10.15pm Monday night, a man tried to climb the fence outside the courthouse and was quickly arrested.

Thirty minutes later, the fence rocked and leaned sharply as dozens of protesters pressed their weight against it, some of them throwing their bodies against it at a running start.

Monica Arce, a professional midwife, said that demonstrators are not being violent but are sending a message to Trump that his agents are not wanted in their city.

'We are not here being violent or being destructive. We have a positive message - there is nothing to quell here,' she said, referencing Trump's statement that the agents were there to quell unrest.

'The people of Portland are saying, "We don't want this presence here and we don't think we need them at all."'

Thirty minutes later, someone fired a commercial-grade firework inside the fence. Next came a flare and then protesters began using an angle grinder to eat away at the fence.

A barrage of items were then thrown into the courthouse, including rocks, cans of beans, water bottles and potatoes. Within minutes, the federal agents at the fence perimeter fired the first tear gas of the night.

Despite the confiscations, Monica Arce, a professional midwife, said that demonstrators are not being violent but are sending a message to Trump that his agents are not wanted in their city

'We are not here being violent or being destructive. We have a positive message - there is nothing to quell here,' she said, referencing Trump's statement that the agents were there to quell unrest,' Arce said

A demonstrator is seen kneeling as munitions are launched into the crowd of protesters in Portland on Monday night

A 'leaf-blower dad' checks on the Wall of Moms after tear gas is deployed by federal police outside the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse on Monday

Federal agents are seen arresting a man during Monday night's demonstrations in Portland

A demonstrator reacts during a protest against racial inequality and police violence in Portland early Tuesday morning

Federal officers are seen standing outside the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse on Monday

Agents with the Federal Protective Service, US Marshals Service and US Customs and Border Protection have feared for weeks that they would be hit by a firework or flare or blinded by a laser.

Many were sent from out of town to reinforce the local agents - some are members of an elite Border Patrol tactical team sent in as reinforcements. But others were already stationed there and said they had chosen to live in the Portland area and call it home.

'You see a lot of commentary on social media about, "Well, they're wearing protective gear so that it's not going to hurt them." Okay, I'll put the same protective gear on you and I'll throw a brick at your head and you tell me if you feel comfortable with that,' said a senior US Marshals Service official.

'They can put out 10 seconds of something (on social media) that unfolded over several minutes, and those are the 10 seconds that look bad for us, whereas the rest of it would look bad for everybody,' he said, speaking of the protesters. 'They use what serves their narrative.'

Protester Eli Deschera, 21, of Portland, said: 'I think what people fail to realize is, us in Portland, we're still playing defense so anything we do, it's a defensive maneuver. We are protecting ourselves at the very most and each other.

'I think that using chemical warfare on civilians is anything but protecting and serving, which is what they're supposed to be doing.'

One of the people at the very front of the fence was Travis Rogers, a US Air Force veteran who recently quit his job as a Medicaid case manager, in part because he would have been fired anyway if he got arrested for protesting.

Rogers said he has spent most days trying to take down the fence and screaming at the federal agents guarding it, asking them to explore their conscience.

Agents with the Federal Protective Service, US Marshals Service and US Customs and Border Protection have feared for weeks that they would be hit by a firework or flare or blinded by a laser

A protester is seen kicking a canister of teat gas away from him and other demonstrators on Monday

Demonstrators draw a peace sign in front of a fire during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse early Tuesday morning

A fire was lit during a demonstration outside Portland's Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Monday

Demonstrators shield themselves from advancing federal officers during a Black Lives Matter protest early Tuesday morning

After six years working for the military, Rogers said he felt better equipped than many to find talking points that might make the agents think about their mission more critically.

'I think it is a good idea to try to plant some seeds in their heads for... them to go home and sleep on. These are people's kids and mothers and wives and daughters that they're gassing and theyre going to have to go home to THEIR mothers and wives and daughters,' said Rogers.

'I try to encourage them to think about the fact that they're on the wrong side of history and that they will not be treated so kindly.'

In one incident, a firework exploded near a federal agent, leaving his hearing deadened and bloody gashes on both forearms.

By the end of the night, five other federal agents would be injured, including another who got a concussion when he was hit in the head with a commercial-grade firework. One agent was hospitalized. Several agents have lingering vision problems from the lasers.

After each night of protest, they seize dozens of homemade shields, slingshots, blocks of wood and chunks of concrete.

'My friends have been hit in the head with hammers. I know people who have been shot with fireworks. It's disgusting,' said the Deputy US Marshal. 'I've never thought I'd have to walk around in my office building wearing a gas mask to go sit in front of my computer.'

Outside, hundreds of protesters surged back from the courthouse with each new round of tear gas, dumped saline solution and water into their stinging eyes, vomited or doubled over to catch their breath, then regrouped to march back to the fence.

'Stay together, stay tight! We do this every night!' they chanted.

Demonstrators hold their arms up behind federal officers during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Monday

People hold signs that read, 'no justice, no peace' during a demonstration on Monday outside Portland's courthouse

'I think what people fail to realize is, us in Portland, we're still playing defense so anything we do, it's a defensive maneuver. We are protecting ourselves at the very most and each other,' said Eli Deschera, 21. The Wall of Moms group is seen holding up their signs during Monday night's protest

A man is seen with his hands in the air as he stands in front of federal agents on Monday night

A protester is seen standing in front of a fire with their first in the air as other demonstrators gather around on Monday night

Middle school teacher, Azure Akamay, was coughing so hard from tear gas that she could barely speak.

'I was just standing right on the corner... listening to the music and kind of didn't even see it coming. I mean, there wasn't any announcement or anything like that. By the time I just got to this corner here, I basically couldn't see,' Akamay said.

In the very front, those with gas masks formed a wall against the tear gas and pepper balls with shields and umbrellas.

Protesters who began wielding leaf blowers to push the gas back on the federal agents several days ago found that now the agents, too, had leaf blowers.

Kennedy Verrett, a composer and music teacher, had been teargassed twice since he's been protesting.

'When you are sent to protect property...' he said of the agents, trailing off. 'My ancestors were once property. No one protected them. Tear gas is nothing when you have lived in America as a black man for 40 years.'

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has repeatedly asked the Trump administration and the DHS to remove the federal troops, arguing that they have only made the situation in his city worse.

Wheeler joined the mayors of five other US cities in writing an appeal to Congress on Monday, asking to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized federal agents to cities that don't want them.

'This administration's egregious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities should never happen,' the mayors of Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City, Albuquerque and Washington, DC, wrote to leaders of the House and Senate.

The mayors said they support legislative efforts to require notice and consultation with and consent from local authorities before deployments; require visible identification at all times on federal agents and vehicles unless on an undercover mission authorized by the local US Attorney; and impose limitations on federal agents' crowd control activities to protecting federal property.

The letter came after demonstrations in several other cities descended into violence over the weekend.

Protesters set fire to a courthouse in Oakland, California; an armed protester was shot and killed in Austin, Texas; vehicles were set ablaze in Richmond, Virginia; and two people were shot and wounded in Aurora, Colorado after a car drove through a protest.

But as for Portland, the federal militarized officers will remain in the city until attacks on the US courthouse cease end.

'It is not a solution to tell federal officers to leave when there continues to be attacks on federal property and personnel. We are not leaving the building unprotected to be destroyed by people intent on doing so,' US Attorney Billy Williams said.
Pittsfield School Committee Eliminates Full In-School Opening Plan



The school Committee on Monday morning voted to eliminate planning for a full school reopening in the fall. The district educates more than 5,200 children in a dozen school buildings. PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The School Committee agreed to eliminate a full in-school education model and asked the administration to continue developing a hybrid and remote model.

The committee voted Monday morning during a special meeting to take the full in-person education model off the table and continue working on hybrid and remote options while continuing negotiations with bargaining units.

"We don't need you at this point to approve a specific model but to give the administration and the bargaining units more of a direction on which way to spend the majority of our time," Superintendent Jason McCandless said. "As we reach a month away of what is currently the first day of school ... we need to focus meeting time when it comes to negotiating and getting an agreement down on paper."

The committee's series of votes directed the administration to submit to the state a preliminary plan that would include a hybrid learning plan as well as a remote learning plan. The district will report that the state's preferred full in-person learning is not a possibility.

While the state has been setting up the potential for reopening schools by providing health guidelines, no decision has yet been made by the administration. Gov. Charlie Baker has resisted calls from the federal government to reopen schools  and the possible withholding of federal aid if they don't. Vice President Michael Pence raised that issue at a brief press event with Baker on Nantucket over the weekend, saying he would ensure the Bay State had the resources to reopen schools.

"To open up America we need to open up America's schools," the vice president said, according to a report in the Worcester Telegram. "I support your effort to open the economy, but it's important to reopen schools."

The United Educators of Pittsfield posted a statement through social media stating that they wish to resume education in the fall remotely. The teachers' union felt a remote learning period would allow time to fully develop a hybrid learning plan that would work for both students and staff.

Deputy Superintendent Joseph Curtis said they plan to enter into negotiations in earnest this week and the vote allows the administration to continue negotiating a hybrid and remote model. A vote to endorse the UEP's statement would direct the administration to fully focus on remote learning in the fall nixing both hybrid and full in-person models in the statement to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

McCandless said although their opinion does differ from the UEP, he said they aren't too far apart in many areas and both agree more time is needed.

"There are areas where we overlap and are in agreement with our bargaining units," he said. "We would agree that we are not ready to have kids back to school at the end of August ... We totally agree that we need more time to figure this out."

Curtis added that because of timelines the school year will most likely start later into September. He said this is a rough guess and the School Committee would ultimately have to vote on the matter.

McCandless did go through a presentation outlining some of these possible scenarios and first touched on the state's preferred goal of a full in-person school week. Students would have to be masked and stay 3 feet apart.

The administration would prefer 6 feet apart, which just is not possible inside the school buildings.

"I think that all of us basically reject the notion that 3 feet of distance is adequate," he said. "We cannot facilitate a full school in any of our schools with 6 feet of distance It almost drives us completely away from the all-day, all-student model."

He read through some survey data and noted 56.2 percent of responders would not be willing to send their kids to school for a full in-person school week.

But 58.4 percent of those who responded no said they would be willing to send their kids to school if a hybrid model is used that would reduce student capacity.

McCandless said there is a sense that some students just benefit from in-person interaction with teachers even if it is minimal and they would like to preserve this in some way.

"We do know that it is going to be much better for the educational health and social-emotional health of some of our students to have some version of in-person as soon as possible," he said.

The superintendent said although a full remote scenario is being planned, the district is also developing two separate hybrid systems that would accommodate social distancing by shrinking the student body in the schools at one time.

An morning/afternoon model would split the student body in half for 2 1/2-hour shifts At each school, a morning cohort would go in leaving sometime in the late morning. The second cohort would then go to school and leave around 3 p.m.

Students would be provided core instruction in the building and participate in remote experiences for the rest of the day.

McCandless said they believe teachers would need a 45-minute preparation period and would be given a one-hour unpaid duty-free lunch. A 30-minute collaborative planning period would also be scheduled in the middle of the day.

Custodial work would take place at this time.

This all would have to be negotiated with the bargaining units and would likely extend the workday.

McCandless went over a second model, the "AARRR/ RRRAA" model, in which students would go to school two full days each week and learn remotely for the rest of the week.

McCandless said this model provides less consistency and lunch would have to be scheduled as well as frequent mask breaks.

With the half-day model, students would be provided lunch but would eat at home.

"Lunch is a concern of ours and this would take eating right out of the picture," he said.

Curtis noted that all of this is "rough thinking" and true negotiations would truly guide scheduling

McCandless added that according to a survey, 14.3 percent of the student body are in a high-risk category per the U.S. Centers of Disease Control.

With this, he noted there is still a portion of the student body that will simply not feel safe returning to school.

Because of this, the plan is to provide a robust fully remote system or virtual academy that will function as its own school for families and staff who are not willing to return to school in any physical form.

Curtis said they expect between 1,000 to 1,200 to enroll and roughly 60 staff members.

McCandless reiterated that the vote does not commit the district to anything and the committee could still decide to start the school year remotely or fully in one of the hybrid systems. As more information becomes available through the negotiation process, he will brief the School Committee.

The School Committee will have to vote on a plan before Aug.10

The meeting went more than three hours and, before diving into presentations, the committee took public comment. Mostly educators spoke in opposition to opening school in person.

Some felt the model would not be workable and potentially unsafe. There was also a concern that teachers would spend more time making sure kids were wearing their masks and social distancing than teaching. Also, some felt there would be staffing issues with employees urged to stay home even with minor cold symptoms.

There were also questions over ventilation and the use of fans.

McCandless said this input along with a staff survey to be released will help inform future planning.

"We are not going to come up with a system that is going to thrill everybody so we all have to do our best," he said. "We have to do our homework and we have to do what the data tells us."
The young Eritrean arrived at the center with another Eritrean earlier this month. They appeared to be severely malnourished, and one died before it was possible to transport him to a hospital, the agency said.
EQTEC PLC - technology solutions company for waste gasification to energy projects - Issues letter to Aries Clean Energy LLC asking it to withdraw all of its claims of patent infringement made on July 9. Reiterated "absolute rejection" to Aries' claims and "anti-competitive application of legal threat to achieve undue commercial ends". Has been advised Aries yet to legally serve complaint against EQTEC, and is yet to formally respond to the lawsuit. EQTEC said letter has been sent to correct misinformation in Aries' complaint and to put Aries on notice of potential liability and legal obligations should it not withdraw complaint immediately. EQTEC reaffirms commitment to North Fork Community Power development in North Fork, California.

Current stock price: 0.48 pence

Year-to-date change: more than tripled

By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
With the majority of Ontarios regions now in Stage 3 of reopening, with the exception of Toronto, Peel and Windsor-Essex, a trend not seen in months has emerged in the last few days: there are more new COVID-19 cases being found on average outside the GTA than in it.

Since July 23, the rolling seven-day average of new infections of the new coronavirus in all regions outside of the GTA surpassed those originating in the GTA, largely driven by spikes in new cases in Windsor-Essex and Ottawa. And, in a change from the way the virus was reported predominantly in people over 60 during the initial wave of the pandemic in Ontario, new cases in the last several weeks have been mainly in the under-40 demographic.

We are seeing that the new spikes are taking place in people who are least risk averse and more likely to congregate, to break the rules and congregate in group settings, said Susan Bondy, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Torontos Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

So its very difficult, people are growing fatigued, people who do not perceive that theres a risk to them are getting together and gathering, and the response is really to try to change the behaviour.

On Monday, a frustrated Premier Doug Ford railed against the organizers and attendees of three parties in Brampton Saturday night, one which saw some 200 people show up before police broke it up.

The full extent of the law needs to be thrown at these people. Throw everything in the kitchen sink at them, Ford told reporters. Ive never seen anything like it. You think the cheese slipped off the cracker with these people.

Brampton is part of Peel Region, which remains in Stage 2. Peel reported 16 new and probable cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, for a total of 6,724 cases to date  the majority in Brampton.

Ontarios public health units are reporting a total of 40,873 confirmed or probable cases as of Monday afternoon, up 150 from the day before, with 2,799 deaths.

Stage 2 vs. Stage 3

Ontarians in Toronto, Peel and Windsor-Essex will have to wait a bit longer to find out when the province plans to give the go-ahead for the regions to move to Stage 3 of reopening. An announcement is expected Wednesday.

The rolling seven-day average of new cases in Toronto has been on its most recent downward trend since July 19, with five new cases reported Monday.

Peels rolling seven-day average shows its most recent downward trend began July 14, while Windsor-Essex saw the same measure begin an upward trend most recently on July 17.

In Ottawa, 28 new cases were reported Monday, while Windsor-Essex reported 41. The two regions have been experiencing notable upticks in infection throughout July and are reporting the worst rates of new infections in the province.

I would say that our Stage 2 communities in Ontario are doing extremely well because of the hard efforts of our public health units, Bondy said.

I think the urban public health units deserve an enormous amount of praise and recognition for the fact that they are being effective in taking new outbreaks that have completely new characteristics each time and new challenges each time and finding intelligent ways to respond, she continued.

Bondy used the expression whack-a-mole to describe new outbreaks, saying it is impossible to predict when or where there might be surges.

In Windsor-Essex, which has seen significant outbreaks among migrant workers, the province should consider waiting until the trend of new cases is conclusively declining, said Todd Coleman, an epidemiologist and assistant professor in health sciences at Wilfrid Laurier University. He said there may be strategies the province could use to move the region to Stage 3 if the migrant workers are primarily interacting with each other or effectively isolated.

Any strategy in an area where there is an active increase in cases should be extremely cautious, he said.

B.C. cases on the upswing

British Columbia, generally lauded for its measured response to the pandemic and for keeping its new infections low, has seen an uptick in new infections in recent weeks.

Nearly 1,000 people are now in quarantine following parties in the Okanagan around Canada Day that resulted in 86 people catching COVID-19. And a packed gathering on a beach in Stanley Park last week for a drum circle had Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.s provincial health officer, warning that there is still some risk of catching the virus outside if people dont practise social distancing. On Friday, the province reported an outbreak of 13 cases on Haida Gwaii.

On Monday, B.C. announced 81 new cases between Friday and Monday, bringing the provinces total number of cases to 3,500.

While B.C. has seen nowhere near the number of cases Ontario has, the increases on the west coast are a lesson in the importance of remaining vigilant, said Coleman.

Its the same lesson that we see in many other areas  how easy it is to pass this infection on from person to person, he said, noting it also represents how delicate the decision making needs to be around whether we reopen somewhere or not.

Case study: Australia

While Canada has been slowly emerging from its lockdown, Australia is beginning to see a rise in cases. The wave triggered the state of Victoria to enter a six-week lockdown, with the city of Melbourne making face coverings mandatory in public spaces.

With Australia, it is very much localized to one community, Bondy explained. Theyre being very aggressive. Its now required to wear a mask when you leave the house in Melbourne, not just when you go inside places.

Its not so much that we expect a wave  were going to expect additional outbreaks like this that are regional and hard to predict, Bondy said. Every country should be expecting to see outbreaks that will demand a response.

Australia has 14,935 total COVID-19 cases, with 9,311 recoveries. In Victoria there were 532 new cases Monday  the vast majority of the 549 new cases reported countrywide. The border between Victoria and New South Wales has been closed for several weeks to contain Melbournes outbreak.

The virus was initially well-contained in Australia, which had widespread compliance with social distancing measures and a ban on travel from high-risk countries early days on. The country closed its borders March 19 to all non-citizens, while offering widespread testing.

With files from Ed Tubb

Kenyon Wallace is a Toronto-based investigative reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @KenyonWallace or reach him via email: kwallace@thestar.ca

Jenna Moon is a breaking news reporter for the Star and is based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @_jennamoon
City Council President Jason Williams and law partner Nicole Burdett were granted subpoenas Monday for records of their former tax preparer as they take aim at the federal tax-fraud charges against them.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman approved subpoenas for Henry Timothy and B & B Accounting Services, the firm Timothy ran out of his house in Westwego. The subpoenas seek drafts and notes for the tax returns that federal prosecutors claim Williams and Burdett, both criminal defense attorneys, conspired to inflate over the five tax years ending in 2017 -- among other records.

Feldman has ordered oral arguments for Aug. 5 on a motion by Williams and Burdett to dismiss the 11-count indictment against them. The pair allege that prosecutors convened a grand jury during the coronavirus lockdown to indict Williams on flimsy charges, with the goal of kneecapping his campaign for Orleans Parish district attorney.

The indictment was returned June 26, four weeks before the state qualifying period.

The decision to go forward, has interfered in the democratic process, impaired the ability to call a representative grand jury, and deprived Councilman Williams and Ms. Burdett of their rights to a speedy trial, their motion states.

Williams, 47, entered the race last week for district attorney and will vie against three former district judges for a seat that District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro left up for grabs when he announced Friday he would forego a third term.

Former judges Arthur Hunter, Keva Landrum and Morris Reed qualified to run.

Williams and Burdett cited a Justice Department memo from 2012 on Election Year Sensitivities, describing a policy that politics should play no role in the decisions of federal investigators or prosecutors regarding any investigations or criminal charges.

Attorney General William Barr issued a memorandum with the same wording on May 15, six weeks before the grand jury issued the indictment against Williams and Burdett.

Prosecutors said the charges were approved by the Tax Division of the U.S. Justice Department on April 27 and June 18, prompting them to seek time with a grand jury in New Orleans that a federal judge allowed to sit June 26, during the shutdown.

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U.S. Attorney David Josephs office denied allegations of dirty politics. Prosecutors said they moved forward in part to clear fast-approaching time limits on two of the 11 counts that Williams and Burdett face over allegations that they conspired to inflate Williams deductions by more than $700,000 over five years.

Josephs office in the Western District of Louisiana is prosecuting the case, after an earlier recusal by the New Orleans office now led by U.S. Attorney Peter Strasser.

Joseph, a nominee of President Trump who was confirmed as U.S. Attorney in March, 2018, will not be around for the outcome. On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate confirmed Joseph as Trump's nominee for a federal district judgeship in the western district.

How that might alter the prosecution of Williams and Burdett is uncertain. Joseph had his confirmation hearing in January, and his departure was anticipated. Prosecutors said in a recent court filing that approval for the charges came from the Tax Division of the Justice Department.

Six of the counts in the indictment involve the alleged false deductions, which reaped Williams at least $200,000 in tax relief, the indictment alleges. The first of those counts is a conspiracy charge.

The remaining counts accuse Williams and Burdett of failing to file the proper forms for more than $60,000 in cash receipts from their law practice.

The subpoenas approved Monday also ask for all text messages, emails and other communications between Timothy and the pair since 2012, about the time Burdett referred Williams to the tax man.

They say their aim is to refute allegations that Williams directed Timothy, whom they allege falsely claimed he was a certified public accountant, to illegally bloat their write-offs.

Prosecutors have acknowledged that Timothy is cooperating with them in the criminal case. A tentative trial date has been set for Sept. 14.
The city of Chicago added Nebraskans to its long list of travelers who must quarantine for two weeks  or face fines of up to $500 per day.

On Tuesday, Chicago officials announced they were adding four more states  Nebraska, North Dakota, Missouri and Wisconsin  to the 22 already under its Emergency Travel Order.

The move takes effect Friday and is part of the citys attempt to slow COVID-19 by isolating those traveling to Chicago or returning home from states with what it considers significant rates of community spread.

Anyone traveling from a designated state is directed to self-quarantine for a 14-day period or the duration of their time in Chicago, whichever is shorter, the city said on its website.

It listed suspect states as those having more than 15 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, per day, over a seven-day rolling average. And Tuesday, it reported Nebraskas case rate at 15 to 20-per-100,000  just above its threshold.

Later Tuesday, officials confirmed 258 new cases in Nebraska, the ninth consecutive day with 220-plus new cases.

There are now 25,157 confirmed cases among Nebraska residents since the outbreak took hold last spring, and 321 deaths.

As of Tuesday, 122 patients with COVID-19 were in Nebraska hospitals.

The Chicago order is sweeping, making only a few exemptions, mostly for essential workers and those needing out-of-state medical care. It applies to those not having symptoms and even those who have tested negative.

And it includes a penalty of $100 to $500 per day, with a $7,000 maximum fine, for those caught violating it.

Its also specific in its requirements for quarantining, ordering travelers to stay inside a single, designated dwelling for 14 days before going out, and separating themselves from others inside as much as possible. They can leave only to seek medical care or a COVID-19 test  not for food or supplies  and then must wear a mask.

Chicago plans to communicate the quarantine order through messaging on highways, social media and at airports.

The Lincoln Airport typically sends two flights a day to Chicago, but officials hadnt yet discussed whether to post signs at the departure gates, said David Haring, its executive director.

At this point, we have no intent to issue any signage, he said Tuesday. But that could change.

Last week, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut also added Nebraska to their mandatory quarantine lists.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7254 or psalter@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSPeterSalter
India's third Covid wave likely to peak on Jan 23, daily cases to stay below 4 lakh: IIT Kanpur scientist

SC directs states to reach out to 10,000 kids orphaned due to Covid-19, pay compensation

India logs over 3.17 lakh new Covid cases in last 24 hours; daily positivity rate up at 16.41 per cent

France sends ventilators, test kits to assist India in coronavirus fight

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, July 28: France on Tuesday handed over to India ventilators, test kits and other medical equipment as part of its assistance in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The medical equipment was handed over to the Indian Red Cross Society by French Ambassador to India Emmanuel Lenain at the Palam Air Force Station after the assistance material was flown to Delhi on board a French Air Force aircraft.

"Delighted to hand over COVID-19 medical equipment from France to Shri RK Jain, Secy General @IndianRedCross," Mr Lenain tweeted along with pictures of the handover.

Made in India ventilators help in breathing without intubation, says Health Ministry

"France earlier granted 200 million euros in financial aid to India through @AFD_en (French development agency). With @IFCCI1 CSR committee, French companies, too, have contributed to relief efforts in India," he said.

President Emmanuel Macron had recently announced the donation of medical equipment to India, as well as provision of technical expertise, according to a statement by the French embassy.

Sushant's father files FIR against Rhea Chakraborty | Oneindia News

As part of this medical assistance package, France is donating to India 50 Osiris-3 ventilators and 70 Yuwell 830 ventilators with BiPAP mode, it had said.

Osiris ventilators are particularly useful for emergency transport, intra-hospital transfer and recovery. They have different ventilation modes, including non-invasive ventilation, it said.

The Yuwell 830 ventilators have bi-level positive airway pressure (BiPAP) -- a non-invasive technique to supply oxygen to the lungs without intubation. These high-quality ventilators meet the needs of Indian hospitals, the embassy had said.

The donation by France also includes 50,000 high-quality serological IgG/IgM test kits and 50,000 nose and throat swabs and modes of medical transport, the statement said.

The equipment was transported on a French Air Force A330 MRTT equipped with a Morpheus kit, which enables the transport of critically ill patients.
Muslim society, writes Ziya Us Salam in Nikah Halala: Sleeping with a Stranger, is in a state of denial on nikah halala. Many in the community blame television channels for raking it up to garner TRPs, he says.

The book is an attempt to take the lid off this legalized form of prostitution, encouraged under the garb of faith by men of religion, the author writes. In the book, based on research of Islamic jurisprudence and his own investigations, Mr Salam argues that the practice is more widely prevalent than most people allow themselves to believe, and flourishes in ...
In response to Lee Lucas recent letter, If its not a hoax, its a Democrat power grab, Im dismayed that the South Jersey Times saw this as fit to publish. Conspiracy theories are one of the main reasons I completely avoid social media, but now theyve found their way into your organization.

Allowing someone to float the idea that doctors are erroneously attributing to COVID-19 other causes of death is irresponsible. Lucas evidence of this potential malpractice? A hunch.

One dictionary definition of hunch is a feeling or guess based on intuition rather than known facts. So, Lucas has a fact-free gut feeling, and were off to the races.

Medical professionals, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have stated that the COVID-19 death toll is likely undercounted, not overstated, for several reasons I wont go into here. I suggest anyone who is skeptical do a cursory internet search, as there is plentiful media coverage of issue based in fact, reason and logic.

Lucas does attempt to support his hunch by asking, How can New Jersey have more deaths than the whole country of Germany? I suggest a visit to Our World in Datas website (ourworldindata.org). They have an excellent analysis and timeline about Germanys response. In short, it came down to prevention, detection, containment and treatment. They simply did it all better.

Lucas posits that there are political and economic forces that want the pandemic to continue. Shame on him. Id put this up there with 9/11 was an inside job or Sandy Hook never happened.

We live in an amazing age of information. Being misinformed or uninformed is a choice. I have a hunch that your readers are trying to stay informed. Please help them by avoiding letters that veer off into the fever swamp.

Ian Grant, Mullica Hill

Give climate change coverage more balance

I have so many questions. I would like to know if South Jersey Times readers actually know the difference between climate change and weather.

When you step outside and observe the conditions, you are experiencing weather, and that naturally changes. Do the readers know the difference between static and dynamic?

Our climate has most certainly changed through the ages. Much of our coastal continent was underwater millions of years ago. We also had the Ice Age, and Earth is affected by sun spots as well. All things in our lives are dynamic, as is the universe. I understand that man does affect our climate, and we do so just by being human.

Another burning question: Why is Jeff Tittel (the head of the New Jersey Sierra Club) seem to be the only resource your writers use for expertise on this subject? It would be refreshing to hear what other experts in the field have to say. After all, we all have opinions.

Additionally, does editorial page cartoonist Drew Sheneman equate all conservatives with fat, dumb slobs? Thats the way he routinely draws them. Asking for a friend.

Heres hoping your one-sided newspaper survives.

Ellsworth C. Schafer Sr., Lower Alloways Creek

Strong lobbying one cause of nursing home outbreak

As writers Ted Sherman and Susan Livio discuss in the a recent nj.com article (They vowed to act as nursing home deaths soared. Instead N.J. legislators are ignoring the shocking nightmare ) residents of nursing homes and long-term-care facilities have borne the brunt of COVID-19 with grievous consequences.

With the aging of the American population, the specter of nursing home residence looms large for all of us. In New Jersey alone, close to 50,000 people currently reside in nursing homes, and countless others will face that prospect in the future.

While the Legislatures failure to act to curb the onslaught of the disease in these facilities is tragic, it is not surprising. Lobbying groups for the powerful nursing home industry and hospitals contribute generously to legislative elections. Among other things, they have consistently and vigorously weakened measures to upgrade staffing ratios. This harms residents, their caregivers and their families.

Powerful lobbies and unlimited campaign spending drown out the voices of ordinary citizens. We need a constitutional amendment to place reasonable limits on spending by these groups, including dark money, groups, so that we can be heard.

Rosalind T. Kaplan, Cherry Hill

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Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com

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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.




'The Badals have made the Akali Dal a family enterprise and undermined the Sikh faith. They have no right to call themselves Akalis. We have approached the Election Commission to register ourselves as the Akali Dal with a different nomenclature. We will impress on peoples minds that we are the real Akali Dal,'

Sai Manish reports on the fight for supremacy over the Akali Dal.

IMAGE: Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal with son and party president Sukhbir Singh Badal. Photograph: PTI Photo

As the Shiromani Akali Dal, Indias oldest regional party, gears up to mark its 100th year, it faces an existential crisis.

Yet again.

The Dhindsa clan, whose patriarch Sukhdev Dhindsa, a minister in the erstwhile Atal Bihari Vajpayee Cabinet, has raised the banner of revolt.

Dhindsa, along with a group of renegades, after being expelled by the party earlier this year, has claimed ownership of the Akali Dal by passing a resolution to dislodge Sukhbir Singh Badal as the partys president.

This is the second revolt among the Akalis in as many years.

In the run-up to the 2019 elections, some of the partys top leaders had drifted away to float the Akali Dal-Taksali, an outfit which is now gravitating towards Dhindsa and attracting anti-Badal leaders to make one final push to end the Badal clans association with the party.

The Badals have made the Akali Dal a family enterprise and undermined the Sikh faith. They have no right to call themselves Akalis. We have approached the Election Commission to register ourselves as the Akali Dal with a different nomenclature. We will impress on peoples minds that we are the real Akali Dal, said Parminder Dhindsa, son of Sukhdev and an MLA in Punjab.

Thanks to the Narendra Modi factor, in the 2019 general elections, the Akali Dal won two seats, the same as the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Now the key to the Badals survival lies with Union home minister Amit Shah.

The home ministry has to set the ball rolling for elections to the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee, the Sikh parliament entrusted with managing all affairs connected with the religion.

The last SGPC elections were held in 2011, and since 2016, when its five-year term ended, the body has been virtually running on extensions granted by the central government.

In Punjab politics, whoever runs the SGPC is considered the real Akali Dal and those who run the Akali Dal are expected to dominate the SGPC.

Those who were turfed out by the Badals are now looking forward to the SGPC elections.

Dhindsa is believed to be inching closer to the BJP and reportedly campaigned for the party in the 2019 elections.

He, along with other rebels, has urged Shah to call elections to the 170-member SGPC without delay.

But Shah isnt too keen to do so right away.

With the assembly elections due in 2022 and the Akali Dal performing no better electorally than its junior partner in the state, Shah, by virtue of his unfettered powers to call the SGPC elections, could well decide the timing.

A democratic party formed to uphold the tenets of Sikhism has degenerated into a family-run enterprise. I think, as long as Parkash Singh Badal, 94, is around, the Akalis would win the SGPC elections. After him, the party could witness a massive churn, said Ashutosh Kumar, political analyst.

Bir Devinder Singh, former deputy speaker of Punjab and a member of the Akali Dal-Taksali, has a different view on the matter.

The Badals and their supporters will be routed from the SGPC. They have betrayed the Sikhs. Sukhbir Badals support to the Dera Sacha Saudas Ram Rahim is well known. They even pressured the Akal Takht to go easy on Ram Rahim. Under their watch the Guru Granth Sahib was desecrated.

However, the Akalis have tried to undo the damage caused by their perceived dilly-dallying with forces inimical to the interests of Sikhism.

In 2016, Parliament passed legislation that prohibited Sehajdhari Sikhs from voting in SGPC elections.

In a rousing speech in Parliament, Harsimrat Badal, minister and Sukhbirs wife, championed it as an Akali initiative to restore the purity of the faith by thwarting the designs of those conspiring to weaken the Sikh community.

In effect, any Sikh who trims or shaves his beard or hair wouldnt be allowed to vote in SGPC elections.

Those who called themselves Sehajdharis were exempt from this prohibition in the British era Act.

In addition, Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim was convicted of rape by a Central Bureau of Investigation court in 2017 and is serving a 20-year prison term.

The Badals, who were targeted for their proximity to the controversial cultist, will go to town, claiming credit for his incarceration.

With most of the splinter Akali groups led by people riding into their political sunset, Sukhbir and Harsimrat remain the most prominent faces in the party.

But 2020 is different from 1997, when L K Advani and Parkash Badal formed the first BJP-Akali alliance, which fought every election together in the following years.
The developer of the new Merchant Square office block in Belfast city centre has completed a refinancing of the building.

Danske Bank has funded the refinance of the Grade A development, which will be occupied by business advisory firm PwC.

Merchant Square was developed by Oakland Holdings, which footed the bill for the project with its own investment, and loans from Fairfield Real Estate and the NI Investment Fund.

Now the borrowing from the NI Investment Fund, which is managed by CBRE, has been paid off.

Will Church of CBRE Capital Advisors said: "We are delighted by the early repayment of the fund's first loan. Acceleration of this type of development in a market short of funding options is exactly what the Northern Ireland Investment Fund was created for. The ability for occupiers to see sites under development before committing to taking space is critical in completing the funding circle." PwC is to locate 3,000 jobs in Merchant Square.

Adam Dickson of Oakland Holdings said: "In spite of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, and the difficult economic circumstances, we handed over Merchant Square at the end of June. This is the most significant speculative development ever undertaken in Belfast and has led to the largest private sector letting in the region at over 20 per sq ft."

The project involved replacing the old 1960s-style commercial buildings on the site at Wellington Square. Mr Dickson said it was "a lead project in the emergence of a new Belfast". He added: "The re-financing of the development means that we can look ahead to new and further expansions in Belfast and across these islands."
NYUAD astrophysicist investigates the possibility of life below the surface of Mars

A rover expected to explore below the surface of Mars in 2022 has the potential to provide more insights

The findings published in Scientific Reports, Springer Nature suggests the presence of traces of water on Mars, raising the question of the possibility of a life-supporting environment

Abu Dhabi, UAE - July 28, 2020: Although no life has been detected on the Martian surface, a new study from astrophysicist and research scientist at the Center for Space Science at NYU Abu Dhabi, Dimitra Atri finds that conditions below the surface could potentially support it. The subsurface - which is less harsh and has traces of water - has never been explored. According to Atri, the steady bombardment of penetrating Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) might provide the energy needed to catalyze organic activity there.

Atri's findings are reported in the study Investigating the biological potential of galactic cosmic ray-induced radiation-driven chemical disequilibrium in the Martian subsurface environment in the journal Scientific Reports, Springer Nature.

There is growing evidence suggesting the presence of an aqueous environment on ancient Mars, raising the question of the possibility of a life-supporting environment. The erosion of the Martian atmosphere resulted in drastic changes in its climate, surface water disappeared, shrinking habitable spaces on the planet, with only a limited amount of water remaining near the surface in form of brines and water-ice deposits. Life, if it ever existed, would have had to adapt to harsh modern conditions, which include low temperatures and surface pressure, and high radiation dose.

The subsurface of Mars has traces of water in the form of water-ice and brines, and undergoes radiation-driven redox chemistry. Using a combination of numerical models, space mission data, and studies of deep-cave ecosystems on Earth for his research, Atri proposes mechanisms through which life, if it ever existed on Mars, could survive and be detected with the upcoming ExoMars mission (2022) by the European Space Agency and Roscosmos. He hypothesizes that galactic cosmic radiation, which can penetrate several meters below the surface, will induce chemical reactions that can be used for metabolic energy by extant life, and host organisms using mechanisms seen in similar chemical and radiation environments on Earth.

"It is exciting to contemplate that life could survive in such a harsh environment, as few as two meters below the surface of Mars," said Atri. "When the Rosalind Franklin rover on board the ExoMars mission (ESA and Roscosmos), equipped with a subsurface drill, is launched in 2022, it will be well-suited to detect extant microbial life and hopefully provide some important insights."

###

About NYU Abu Dhabi

NYU Abu Dhabi is the first comprehensive liberal arts and science campus in the Middle East to be operated abroad by a major American research university. NYU Abu Dhabi has integrated a highly-selective liberal arts, engineering and science curriculum with a world center for advanced research and scholarship enabling its students to succeed in an increasingly interdependent world and advance cooperation and progress on humanity's shared challenges. NYU Abu Dhabi's high-achieving students have come from more than 115 nations and speak over 115 languages. Together, NYU's campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai form the backbone of a unique global university, giving faculty and students opportunities to experience varied learning environments and immersion in other cultures at one or more of the numerous study-abroad sites NYU maintains on six continents.

This story has been published on: 2020-07-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.




Rotimi Amaechi

Nigerias minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has revealed that he is scared of the deadly coronavirus.

He revealed that in order to stay safe, he carries his sanitiser and extra mask around, The Nation reports.

The minister and ex Rivers state governor disclosed this in Abuja on Monday, July 27, during the briefing by members of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.

Going further, the minister said if not for pressure, he would not have allowed the railway to function.

I carry mask and sanitiser everywhere I go and the reason is that I have seen people die of COVID. So, Im dead scared. If you ask the national coordinator of PTF, I refused that we should open the railway. It is the pressure of those who want to participate in the forthcoming spiritual activities (Sallah) that made me accept that the railways from Abuja to Kaduna resume, he said.
Amid a political tussle, the Rajasthan government on Tuesday said that the governor is the head of the family, and that they dont want clashes. The remarks were made by Rajasthan Transport Minister Pratap Singh after a cabinet meeting where governor Kalraj Mishras three conditions for calling an assembly session were discussed.

We do not want any clashes with the governor, he is the head of the family. Constitution says governor cannot deny the cabinets proposal. We hope that respecting the constitution the governor will approve the proposal of starting the session from July 31, said Singh.

The minister also added that the state government has replied to all the queries raised by governor Kalraj Mishra.

The cabinet meeting was held at chief minister Ashok Gehlots residence in Jaipur.

The Congress government in Rajasthan is in turmoil after simmering differences between Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot came out in the open.

The Congress has accused the BJP of indulging in horse-trading to bring down the Gehlot government. It has also accused the BJP of pressuring the governor to delay the assembly session. The BJP and Mishra have rejected all the allegations.

Gehlot wants an assembly session to be convened so that he can prove his majority. He has approached the governor with a proposal to convene the session of the state assembly.

Mishra agreed to calling the session, but put forward three conditions on Monday - a 21-day notice for the sitting of the House; live-streaming of floor test; and ensuring social distancing in view of the Covid-19 outbreak.

If the government wants to win a vote of confidence, then it can become a reasonable ground for calling the assembly session on short notice. But it has to be said, a Raj Bhavan statement said on Monday.

Congress leaders said a 21-day notice isnt necessary and pointed out that in 2014, the third session of the 14th Rajasthan assembly was summoned on September 7 and the proceedings of the House began on September 15. There have been umpteen instances when the assembly was called with a much shorter notice, said Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

The governor had earlier questioned the need for calling the session when the government already had the majority and the disqualification matter was pending in the Supreme Court.
A kebab shop owner was subjected to a tirade of racist abuse and spat on by a woman who bared her breasts at him while falsaccusing him of rape.

The woman, 33, entered the Kebabish restaurant in Falkirk shortly before midnight on Tuesday, July 21, where she allegedly became abusive to the staff and caused 7,000-worth of damage to the store.

During her tirade, she grabbed one staff member's t-shirt and appeared to spit at the workers.

This is the moment a kebab shop customer in Falkirk starts abusing staff members ahead of exposing her breasts and accusing them of rape

The 33-year-old woman grabbed one member of staff and spat at him during the incident at Kebabish in Falkirk on July 21

At one stage the woman, pictured, pulled down her top to expose her breasts

She then exposed her breasts at the workers, who were filming the incident, before she fell over on the floor.

The woman left the restaurant before police arrived, however she was later arrested and charged in connection with the incident.

She appeared before Falkirk Sheriff's Court the following day where she pleaded guilty to assault, vandalism, threatening and abusive behaviour and breach of bail conditions.

The case was adjourned for sentencing next month.

Owner Zoheib Arshad said he was shocked by the incident.

He told The Scotsman: 'She threw her takeaway that we made for her all over the place, then spat in our faces and shouted racist remarks and accused me of rape, it was horrific.

'This woman then broke our till that we take orders from and smashed our display fridge into thousands of pieces on the floor which cost us somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000.

'We have been here as a family business for 12 years and never ever had such an aggressive customer like this before, to the point where we had to call the police.

Mr Arshad said the woman was on the phone outside his shop while he was preparing her food. Following the conversation she became aggressive to Mr Arshad and his staff.
28 Jul  Nikki Valdez seems to be regretting her decision to vote for President Rodrigo Duterte in the 2016 Presidential Election, seeing how the country turned out to be four years into his administration.

As reported on Inquirer, the actress posted a long message on social media, saying that she was one of the voters who supported Duterte in his campaign, thinking that he will become a voice to the marginalised after he promised to help the poor.

"We saw your simplicity that even if you are the president, the people can reach you. We saw your political will," she pointed out.

However, Valdez stated that she now questions the President's way of governing and morality, and noted how he had cursed at the Pope, is disrespectful to women, and prioritised his revenge over everything else.

She also questioned some of the decisions and subjects that President Duterte were more focused on during the pandemic, including the Ati-Terror Bill and the closure of ABS-CBN instead of other important issues.

"Is this your plan for the Philippines? What will you say tomorrow? It's just a joke?" she added.

(Photo Source: Nikki Valdez Instagram)
By Associated Press

MANILA: Hundreds of protesters in the Philippine capital marched and staged motorcades Monday against a new anti-terror law and other issues despite police threats of arrests ahead of President Rodrigo Duterte's annual state of the nation speech.

Four suspected protesters in a passenger jeep were taken into police custody in suburban Quezon city, but hundreds gathered at the nearby University of the Philippines campus, said Metropolitan Manila police chief Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas. Other groups protested via online video, including one that planned to burn Dutertes "e-ffigy in a virtual rally.

Authorities have banned public gatherings of more than 10 people under coronavirus restrictions, but protesters said the government was using the health crisis as a cover to mute widespread criticism over a wide range of issues, including its handling of the pandemic.

Waving flags and holding up placards, the protesters, wearing face masks amid a continuing rise in coronavirus infections, lashed out at an anti-terror law that Duterte signed early this month. More than a dozen petitions have been filed before the Supreme Court for the law to be declared unconstitutional, mainly on fears it could be used to muzzle legitimate dissent and human rights defenders.

The protesters also condemned the shutdown of the Philippines' largest TV network, ABS-CBN Corp., after a committee in the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Dutertes allies, voted to reject a new 25-year franchise for the broadcaster. Duterte had repeatedly threatened to shutter the network, partly for what he said was the companys failure to broadcast his campaign ads in 2016 and its support of a rival candidate. ABS-CBN has denied any wrongdoing.

A convoy of vans carrying protesters staged a brief rally outside the TV networks headquarters on Monday, displaying posters that read, Stay safe, not silent.

The failed government response to the rising number of infected people, the worst economic crisis in history ... will be remembered as part of Dutertes legacy, left-wing protest leader Renato Reyes said.

Duterte, who took office in mid-2016, is expected to focus in his speech later Monday on his administrations handling of the pandemic, which officials have described as a relative success but critics have labeled as chaotic and an alarming failure. He was expected to call on legislators to immediately pass a new bill that would grant him emergency powers to realign huge budgets to respond to the pandemic.

Duterte eased a lockdown in Manila, a bustling capital of more than 12 million people, and quarantine restrictions elsewhere on June 1 after the economy shrank slightly in the first quarter and unemployment soared. The economic downturn may be worse in second quarter and usher in a recession, economic officials say.

As a health safeguard, only a few dozen legislators will be allowed to be present at the heavily secured House of Representatives, where Duterte is to deliver his speech.

Several legislators, senators and congressional staffers have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent months.

The Philippines remains a Southeast Asian hotspot for the virus, with more than 80,000 confirmed cases, including nearly 2,000 deaths.
Police arrest stolen vehicle suspect who fled, entered occupied home

The homeowner was able to get out of the home safely, but Aberdeen police are now negotiating the surrender of the suspect.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

By Jeyhun Alakbarov  Trend:

The third Shollar water pipeline is planned to be built to ensure the rational use of water resources in Azerbaijan, Head of the Design Department in Azersu OJSC (water operator) Bahadur Kengerli said.

Kengerli was speaking about the measures within the action plan to ensure the rational use of water resources for 2020-2022 in the country, Trend reports on July 28.

The plan envisages special measures for the exploration and use of alternative water sources, which also cover the design of the third Shollar water pipeline, head of the department added.

"This is one of the major projects aimed at further ensuring stable water supply to the Absheron region, Baku, Sumgayit and Khirdalan cities," Kengerli said.
Vadodara:

RBI's ban on district cooperative banks exchanging or depositing demonetised notes has hit tribal milk producers and farmers in Gujarat's Chhotaudepur district.

They are not in a position to buy essential commodities for daily requirements from the market as they have stopped getting cash from their respective village-level milk cooperative societies.

Sangramsinh Rathwa, a director on the Board of Baroda Milk Dairy (Baroda Dairy Milk Producers Cooperative Society) told PTI that he has asked the dairy's chairman and managing director to take up the issue with the Centre and RBI so that the tribals can get their payment immediately.

Baroda Milk Dairy daily collects 2.5 lakh litres of milk from 450 village level milk producers cooperative societies in Chhotaudepur district which have total membership of 45,000 tribal milk producers and farmers, he said.

The dairy has already deposited Rs 14 crores into the accounts of these cooperative societies in three branches of the Baroda District Central Cooperative Bank in Chhotaudepur for making payment to their members, belonging to the poor tribals communities, he said.

However, the tribals who do not have their savings account in these bank branches are now not in a position to withdraw the amount, Rathwa said.

Ranjitsinh Rathwa, another director of Baroda Milk Dairy, said the dairy pays these milk cooperative societies of Chhotaudepur on the 7th, 14th and 21st of every month.

Senior Congress leader Mohansinh Rathwa said, "I have sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union finance minister Arun Jaitley to ask RBI to direct Baroda District Central Cooperative Bank to ensure speedy payment to these poor tribals at the earliest as the situation has become grim."

Naranbhai Rathwa, the former Union minister of state for railways in the earlier UPA government, who represented the tribal reserved seat of Chhotaudepur in Lok Sabha for four terms, also expressed concern over the issue.

He said some of tribals under the below poverty line category do not have money to buy grains, groceries or seeds and fertilisers as no one is accepting the old currency notes.

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If you dont have an underlying health condition, its safe out there, Gov. Doug Ducey told Arizonans in late May, hoping to stimulate the economy. Those words were also a death sentence for Dad, a healthy and exuberant 65-year-young man named Mark Anthony Urquiza. He, like so many others, would not have died if American leaders  President Donald Trump and governors like Ducey  hadnt been so cavalier about pushing consumers to spend money. They have blood on their hands.

By the time a shelter-in-place order took effect in March, both my parents believed in mask-wearing and social distancing. I work to reduce zoonotic transmission of disease by protecting tropical rainforests from deforestation, so Id been talking to them about the coronavirus for months. We watched in horror as New York brought in refrigerated trucks and dug mass graves.

I was particularly worried for their safety because of who they are and where they live. The data shows that Latino people are three times more likely than white people to contract coronavirus and twice as likely to die of it. My dad, a Mexican American, was a front-line worker in the manufacturing industry. Like most people of color, he didnt have the luxury of simply working from home or taking a leave of absence. Not working meant not getting a paycheck. He was part of the skeleton crew that kept the economy going, until he was furloughed in late April.

I also suspected that Maryvale, the Phoenix neighborhood where I grew up and where my parents still lived, would become a hot spot: Public health crises explode in the poorest ZIP codes, the communities suffering most from government disinvestment. Maryvale is more than 75 percent Hispanic, with 30 percent of its residents medically uninsured; about 28 percent live below the federal poverty line. By June, when Arizona outnumbered cases per capita globally, my parents ZIP code was the states epicenter. Meanwhile, testing was woefully inaccessible, leaving people standing in lines for 13 hours  in 115-degree weather  in hopes of getting a test.

When Arizona started to reopen on May 15, I couldnt compete with the message coming out of the White House, projected across cable news and reinforced by Ducey. Dad was a Republican. He watched Fox News, and he had voted for Ducey and Trump. When they told him not to live in fear, that very few people would catch the disease, that its effects werent serious, he believed them. My parents listened respectfully to me and to what I had to say about the coronavirus, but they also trusted our elected officials when they said we were on the other side of the pandemic. The governor said it was safe, Dad told me as, for the first time in months, he prepared to go out and meet up with his friends at their favorite karaoke bar. Why would he say that if it wasnt?

A few weeks later, as he was fighting to breathe and terrified that he might die, he told me he felt betrayed. It was one of our final conversations. The next day, he was put on a ventilator. He died five days later, without family, as an ICU nurse held his hand. My father didnt deserve that ending, and neither did the 141,000 people, and counting, that weve lost.

We got to this crisis because our leaders decided not to lead. The pandemic has surged across the country because politicians refused to acknowledge the severity of the disease, to increase testing when it was needed and boost contact tracing, to give people enough desperately needed economic relief so they could stay home. Too many elected officials chalked everything up to individual choice and responsibility  and then refused to give the public clear direction on how to minimize risk.

At every stage of this slow-motion catastrophe  downplaying the virus, disregarding the advice of scientists, encouraging people to liberate themselves from health restrictions, pushing states to reopen too fast, without a plan  the Trump administration and its allies have made one thing abundantly clear: People like my dad are expendable, no matter how they vote.

Judging by other countries that have contained their outbreaks, it seems obvious that the coronavirus was not some unforeseeable natural disaster that we were helpless to prevent or mitigate. I refuse to let our government officials wash their hands of our suffering.

Urquiza is the founder of Marked By COVID, and wrote this piece originally for The Washington Post.
Hryvnia set at UAH 27.76 to U.S. dollar on July 28

10:35, 28.07.20 7521

The official forex rate against the euro for July 28 is set at UAH 32.60 per euro.
Rebranding

28 July 2020

Fairmont Century Plaza will be the centerpiece for a highly walkable enclave where anything a discerning traveler could want can be found within the wood and glass walls, or just steps beyond them. Pedestrians can stroll from Minoru Yamasaki's lovingly restored mid-century modern hotel to innovative outdoor retail and dining establishments. They can rendezvous for coffee or lunch beside a powerful Jaume Plensa sculpture in the grand public plaza, or toast artisanal cocktails at sunset on the hotel roof by the pool. In the heart of Los Angeles, the 400-room hotel will offer guests and locals alike a gourmet cafe, Lumiere Brasserie, a rooftop bar, and more. Through its design, architecture, and location, the Century Plaza Hotel has the ability to remake the past in a way that resonates with modern guests. It will be a place to see and be seen, take home that trophy, slip upstairs to celebrate, or just to retreat into a luxurious suite or one of the top-floor residences and soak up all that retro-modern beauty.

Fairmont's portfolio is full of buildings with stories to tell - many locations don't just exude history; they are regional landmarks. Few, however, were built to redefine what city living could be. Since its inception, Fairmont Century Plaza has called upon the brightest design and architectural minds to construct more than just a "Los Angeles" hotel. Our experience is at the core of a city within a city, out to redefine what it means to live, work, and play in Southern California. Beginning with the Hotel and City's master-planned origins, this is the place where everything is by design. With a starchitect dream-team assembled again, Fairmont Century Plaza will once more embody the blueprint for something better. Our constant pursuit to build what others would leave on paper makes this a unique place where guests are encouraged to become the architects of their own destiny. Welcome to our Radiant City - the brightest star in the cosmos of L.A.
Deputy John McGuinness has called on Simon Harris, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, to progress a university for the South East and has pointed to Kilkenny for its location for a campus. He joins all of the elected representatives from the region in a campaign to deliver a regional university.

Addressing the Minister in the Dail this week, Deputy McGuinness said, the South East is an area that has been held back economically and socially in terms of its development. Its qualities may be recognised but its true ability to move forward and what it has to offer has not been given the appropriate status within the state.

It is not today or yesterday that we have spoken about a university for the South East. It actually dates back in history in terms of a university for Kilkenny, covered in a book written by Michael Conway and in more recent years, Mary MacAleese began the conversation about having an outreach from Armagh based in Kilkenny, to try further the interest if universities in regions around the country, making them more accessible to people, he continued.

Its not just about geographical location. Its about funding. Its about ensuring the courses that are run there are meaningful, that the qualifications are not dumbed down but beefed up and that everyone has the opportunity to attend university and to better themselves educationally regardless of their age or where they come from, he said.

As legislators we must do everything we possibly can to ensure that, not only the financial aspect is pushed out to support others, but that the structures are there to ensure easy access. I would say to the Minister, in terms of universities, you need to look at the strength of a region and I hope that a university for the South East is established soon.

I want to encourage Waterford and Carlow to come together quickly and to avail of the 90million thats there so they can complete their application and move the project forward to the delivery stage. By delaying it in any way is simply delaying the possibilities for people and we cannot allow that to happen, concluded Deputy John McGuinness.








A British-Australian academic has been moved 'as punishment' to a notorious Iranian prison known for using bleach baths to deal with headlice infestations.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a Cambridge-educated lecturer, was moved from Tehran's Evin prison to Qarchak prison earlier this week, according to the Centre for Supporters of Human Rights.

Reza Khandan, the husband of lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh who was imprisoned in Evin prison after speaking out on human rights issues, posted online that authorities had moved Dr Moore-Gilbert for 'punishment reasons'.

Mr Khandan said she was able to send a message to him saying: 'The conditions are very bad I cannot eat anything, I am very disappointed, I am so very depressed'.

Qarchak is around 33 miles south of Evin and houses prisoners convicted of murder as well as drugs offences, Mr Khandan wrote in a Facebook post.

The lecturer from the University of Melbourne was arrested in September 2018 while visiting an educational conference in the country and later convicted of espionage.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a Cambridge-educated academic, was moved from Tehran's Evin prison to Qarchak prison earlier this week, according to The Australian

The outside of Iran's notorious Qarchak prison where Dr Moore-Gilbert has been transferred

She was reported as 'suspicious' to Iran's Revolutionary Guards by fellow conference delegates and someone she was interviewing and arrested at Tehran airport as she prepared to fly out of the country, the Guardian said.

She has previously published work on the 2011 Arab uprisings and on authoritarian governments.

She spent two years in Evin prison before the move to a prison that has been described as one of the 'worst female jails in the world'.

Letters smuggled out of prison and published in January revealed the lecturers fears for her mental health.

She said: 'I'm taking psychiatric medications, but these 10 months that I have spent here have gravely damaged my mental health.

'I am still denied phone calls and visitations, and I am afraid that my mental and emotional state may further deteriorate if I remain in this extremely restrictive detention ward.'

After being jailed in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran for two years, Dr Moore-Gilbert was transferred to Qarchak prison (pictured) which has been called out for human rights abuse

She also appeared to suggest she had been offered the chance to become a spy.

'I am not a spy. I have never been a spy and I have no interest to work for a spying organisation in any country,' she wrote.

Coronavirus is understood to be spreading within the prison and sources say social distancing is impossible.

Dr Moore-Gilbert has been in solitary confinement and on several hunger strikes, and is said to have been beaten for trying to comfort new prisoners by passing notes and writing to them on prison walls.

Dr Moore-Gilbert was at Tehran airport waiting to fly home to Melbourne when she was detained by Iranian authorities.

The dual UK-Australian national is understood to have been sentenced to ten years for spying.

She has claimed Iran tried to recruit her as a spy and she was shown two sentences by authorities, one with 13 months' imprisonment and the other a decade-long term.

Both Evin Prison and Qarchak prison are controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Intelligence Organization.

'Qarchak jail is where common prisoners are held. It's overcrowded and some of them are dangerous,' said Hadi Ghaemi, director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, according to the BBC.

He added: 'They're not happy with her resilience and her refusal to co-operate.'

Dr Moore-Gilbert (pictured) was arrested while at an educational conference in September 2018 and later convicted of espionage

Qarchak prison was in December 2019 labelled by the U.S. Department of State as being responsible for 'gross violations of internationally recognised human rights'.

'It is known for unbearable conditions, including regular assaults and inappropriate behavior of prison guards towards women, chronic lack of water, unsanitary living spaces,' a statement from the Department of State reads.

The prison reportedly has about 2,000 inmates, many political prisoners, but only 600 beds and head lice are controlled by shaving the hair of the woman followed by bleach baths.

Last month Dr Moore-Gilbert was reportedly beaten by guards and heavily drugged after encouraging other prisoners to sing and hum in their cells.

Dr Moore-Gilbert (pictured) recently lost an appeal against her 10 year sentence

There had been reports she had attempted suicide but her family denied these.

'She has strongly denied reports that she has attempted suicide or that she is being tortured,' they said.

'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.'

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade previously said Dr Moore-Gilbert was still a top priority.

'Dr Moore-Gilbert's case is one of our highest priorities, including for our embassy officials in Tehran,' the statement states.

'We do not accept the charges upon which Dr Moore-Gilbert was convicted and continue all efforts to have her returned to Australia as soon as possible.'

Foreign Minister Marise Payne has repeatedly raised the case with her Iranian Foreign Minister Jawad Zarif, a spokeswoman said.

It comes after letters smuggled out of Dr Moore-Gilbert's cell in Evin prison, and seen by The Times and The Guardian, showed she begged to leave the restrictive unit where she had served periods in solitary confinement.

Mr Khandan has been vocal about a number of political prisoners after his wife was jailed for 38 years in 2019 for political reasons.

'[Ms Moore-Gilbert's situation] is absolutely unbearable ... we don't know what has happened to her in these past two years,' he has previously said.
Job Title: Laboratory Technician

Organization:

Epicentre

Duty Station:

Mbarara, Uganda

Reports to:

Laboratory Manager

About US:

In 1995, Epicentre

created a permanent research centre in Uganda to support MSF projects in the

region. The primary role of Epicentre in Mbarara is to conduct clinical

research following Good Clinical Practice (GCP) requirements on critical public

health burdens in Uganda and Africa. To reach this objective, Epicentre

collaborates closely with the Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST).



Job Summary: The overall goal for the Laboratory Technician

position is the successful implementation of study protocols in collaboration

with the France (Paris) and Ugandan Principal Investigators, Mbarara-based

Epicenter research team, and other collaborators

Location:

MSF/Epicentre Mbarara Research Centre (EMRC), Uganda

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

 Perform analyses and report results of

laboratory procedures performed in the laboratory, according to GCLP standards.

 Participate in all laboratory activities:

CD4+ testing using PIMA analyser, Rapid Diagnostic tests (RDT), haematology,

clinical chemistry, smear microscopy, media preparation, others as applicable

 Ensure that the procedures are performed

following standard operating procedures (SOP)

 Participate in the implementation of quality

assurance procedures

 Participate in follow up of the internal

andexternal quality control

 Participate in the regular maintenance of

laboratory equipment both internally (daily or weekly procedures) or externally

(annual maintenance).

 Participate in the biosafety aspects of the laboratory

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

 The ideal candidate must hold a Diploma in

Medical Laboratory Techniques

 Experience in laboratory

procedures(Hematology, Clinical chemistry, microscopy,

 Use of PIMA CD4+ analyser)

 Knowledge in using word, excel and power

point

 Ability to communicate

 Experience/knowledge of GCLP and lab safety

requirement

How to Apply:

All Interested

candidates are invited to hand deliver only their application and CV to:

Resources Manager

MSF/Epicentre

Mbarara Research Base

P. O. Box 1956,

Mbarara.

Or by email: send

only your application and CV as one pdf or doc file indicating your name and position

applied for e.g. Naanda Watu_ Lab Technician, to:

epi-ug-rec@epicentre.msf.org

Deadline: 6th

August 2020

For more of the latest jobs, please

visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or

find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
It is in the best interest of member states, and of Nigeria in particular, to fortify the Gulf of Guinea Commission, so it can perform the roles for which it was set up, President Muhammadu Buhari has said.

The president spoke Tuesday in a virtual audience with the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Florentina Ukonga, a Nigerian.

The Gulf of Guinea is very strategic, and it is regrettable that most member states of the Commission are not up and doing. We need to check the theft of oil through the Gulf, the smuggling of arms and ammunition, and the breaking of border regulations through the waters, President Buhari said.

He promised that Nigeria would be alive to her responsibilities in terms of prompt payment of dues, adding that he would also write leaders of member states to participate actively in the programmes of the Commission, and to defray their financial commitments.

While thanking Angola, where the secretariat of the commission is based, for keeping faith with its responsibilities, President Buhari pledged that in spite of the economic challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic, we should keep the organization going.

Mrs Ukonga had raised the many ills that plague the commission to include lack of funds, through non-payment of annual dues by member countries, poor attendance at meetings or sending of low-level representation, non-holding of elections to determine who the next chairman would be, since Nigeria finished her tenure in 2018.

The Gulf of Guinea Commission, she said, is the framework for consultation on issues of development and cooperation by members, lamenting that in the absence of such, there were deleterious developments like overfishing of the waters, oil theft, pollution issues, arms trafficking, and others.

She appealed to President Buhari to rally the leaders of member countries, so that the commission can fulfil its purpose.

Femi Adesina

Special Adviser to the President

(Media and Publicity)
I thought it was a simple mistake. You cant enter the clinic for two weeks, they said. Negative test result doesnt matter  were following the state order. I read the state order again: If an Affected Traveler is unable to self-quarantine for the required period, the self-quarantine requirement will not apply provided that the Affected Traveler has had a negative test result for COVID-19 in the 72 hours prior to arriving in Connecticut.

Implemented the day we left, this order had been modified throughout the last week while I was in South Carolina. Initially, my husband and I were exempt. Then, the wording changed to work-related travel. The travel had already happened  now we werent exempt. The quarantine wouldnt have been a problem, except I had a time-sensitive medical treatment coming up. Surely they will implement a negative testing exception, I kept thinking during my week in South Carolina. Then, when the exemption came out, it read prior to travel. That cant be right, I thought. Symptoms can take a couple days to show up  surely they would prefer the test to be after you leave the surging state so as to know if you are actually carrying the virus back to Connecticut.

I could understand the thought process for out-of-state residents wanting to travel to Connecticut  perhaps you could catch an asymptomatic traveler and prevent the travel altogether. But for a Connecticut resident visiting another state, its not easy to obtain a test. Many testing centers require state ID or proof of residency in that state in order to be tested. Furthermore, we were attempting to isolate at much as possible, only seeing the family we had come to see; the idea of going to a COVID testing site in another state during a new surge prior to leaving seemed to make less sense than our original plan  we would go home, we would isolate a few days to ensure any symptoms that might show up had shown up, and then wed be tested to make sure we were negative and allow us entry into the medical clinic.

But the amendment to the mistake allowing Connecticut residents to show proof of a negative test never showed up. I emailed the Department of Public Health in Connecticut. The response was crystal clear, Since you have already returned to Connecticut, testing is unfortunately not an option under Connecticuts Travel Advisory. I couldnt match up the logic. The FAQs specifically explained that if a test result was pending upon a travelers entrance to Connecticut, that traveler could remain in self-quarantine in Connecticut until the test result is received, so the Department of Public Health allowed for an option for travelers who did not have a negative test result in hand. So why not a Connecticut resident who was tested upon return to home?

The answer finally became clear. I believe Connecticut was artificially deflating its numbers. If a test result showed up from a Connecticut testing center, Connecticut would have to report it. However, if a traveler had the test result from another state, it would go on that states numbers, even though the traveler was already in Connecticut. At the expense of its residents who might need medical care or have other urgent needs, Connecticut was making no exception to end quarantine for a traveler from Connecticut who tested negative, even though, due to the time delay, that traveler was more likely to be truly negative than a visitor from another state who was tested prior to leaving that state. To be sure, a negative test result is not a get out of jail free card  social distancing, masks and caution are still extremely important; however, false negatives are much more likely to happen with travelers who have a test result in hand prior to leaving a state with high infection rates than they are if a traveler has waited a few days and then is tested.

If Connecticut has decided we are no longer all in this together and is instead making politically expedient choices at the expense of its residents, it is a disappointing reflection on Connecticuts leadership. As a result, I recommend Connecticuts commissioner of public health allow Connecticut residents who are unable to quarantine to obtain a negative test result in Connecticut in order to end their mandatory quarantine, not only to encourage testing and reflect actual infection rates, but also to allow its residents to receive the care they need.

Rebecca Vermette lives in Hamden.
Pennridge to vote on one textbook; further review on other one
With the coronavirus pandemic refusing to slow down, Google has some new working plans for its employees. A report claims that Google is planning to make its 200,000 full-time and contract employees work remotely until July 2021. Apart from Google, many other tech companies have resorted to working from home for their employees but Google is the only company so far that is planning an extension.

As per a Wall Street Journal report, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has spoken with top executives about the same. Pichai had then sent a mail to his employees announcing the new work from home plan. "To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we are extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021, for roles that don't need to be in the office," the email obtained by The Verge read.

Google earlier had plans to reopen some of its offices for employees by July 6, 2020 things didn't happen as planned as Google has now extended the joining date till July 2021.

Earlier, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had announced that it would allow many of its employees to work from home permanently. He also predicted that most of its new hires at its headquarter will work from home.

Talking about Facebook's work from home plans, Zuckerberg had told The Verge, "We're going to allow people to request to be a permanent remote worker at some point. And they don't have to make that decision right now, obviously. We already announced that people can remotely work through the end of 2020 if they want. And if COVID is still prevalent, it's possible that that extends beyond that. But on a long-term basis, we're going to let people request to work permanently remotely. We're going to focus on experienced employees rather than new college grads, who I think need to be in the office more, for training.

Earlier in May, Twitter had also allowed its employees to work from home. said that it won't open its offices before September and when it does, it wouldn't rush into things or go back to how things were before the lockdown. Bouncing back to work will be careful and intentional.

"We were uniquely positioned to respond quickly and allow folks to work from home given our emphasis on decentralization and supporting a distributed workforce capable of working from anywhere. The past few months have proven we can make that work. So if our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home and they want to continue to do so forever, we will make that happen. If not, our offices will be their warm and welcoming selves, with some additional precautions, when we feel it's safe to return," Jennifer Christie, Vice President, People, Twitter had said in a statement.
FAIRFIELD  Masks, hand sanitizing, social distancing and health screening will be the new norm in Fairfield public schools.

The Fairfield public school system unveiled the first draft of reopening plans late last week. According to Superintendent Mike Cummings, the plans will be revised frequently over the coming weeks as the first day of school approaches.

He said the plan will be adapted by the changing nature of health data in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as by the questions, concerns and ideas generated by the initial draft.

The plans come more than six months after the first case of COVID-19 was identified in the United States. In Connecticut, 48,776 people have tested positive for the respiratory illness and 4,413 people have died after contracting it as of July 24.

The strategies the plans outline for reducing the risk of spreading coronavirus include social distancing, wearing masks or face coverings, establishing smaller, contained learning groups to limit the number of individuals students interact with, frequent cleaning and continual monitoring of student, staff and community health.

The first priority the plans set forth, out of a list of four, was the safety of students returning to in-person school.

Our schools will be prepared to reinforce healthy practices among our staff and students, take preventative actions to prevent the spread of all respiratory illnesses and prepare for any potential cases or increased transmission of COVID-19, the plans said.

The plans laid out four priorities for reopening starting with the safety of students and staff. Next was flexible instructional schedules based on current virus transmission levels, with the understanding that the model used may change as more information becomes available.

The emotional and social well-being of students family and staff was also listed as a priority, with a focus on accounting for traumatic experiences people may have had during the pandemic. There is a growing body of research, the plan said, showing that social and emotional learning is fundamental to academic success.

The final priority was to have all students achieve at the expected grade level by the end of the school year in 2021.

The plans also stipulate that students must stay home if they are feeling sick, have any symptoms consistent with COVID-19 or have had close contact with a person diagnosed with COVID-19. Parents must check their children's health every morning before sending them to school, and have to ensure their childs temperature is below 100 degrees.

Masks will be required,with two breaks provided before and after lunch. Parents will be responsible for providing masks, but the school will have disposable ones on-hand if a student forgets one.

Ultimately, our commitment to our students is that the Fairfield Public Schools are an improved school system and that we carry into the 2021 school year our commitment to provide your child with the best education, no matter the circumstances in which that education is delivered, Cummings said.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A new study will look at the toll the coronavirus (COVID-19) has placed on the people dedicated to keeping New York City moving throughout the pandemic.

The NYU School of Global Public Health, in collaboration with Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100, representing more than 40,000 New York City bus and subway workers, has launched a series of studies focused on assessing the risks and impacts of the coronavirus pandemic for transit workers.

Our research aims to identify and better understand the individual and workplace factors that put this essential workforce at risk for COVID-19, in an effort to protect their health and wellbeing, said Robyn Gershon, clinical professor of epidemiology at NYU School of Global Public Health, who will lead the research project.

We need to address this important gap in our knowledge about occupational exposure to coronavirus, and use these findings to determine what additional protective measures are needed going forward, Gershon added.

During the height of the coronavirus pandemic in New York City, transit workers remained on the job to transport other frontline workers, while the majority of residents were told to stay home to avoid spreading or contracting the virus.

Over the past four months, thousands of New York City transit workers have been infected with the virus, with over 90 members of TWU Local 100 succumbing to the virus.

This will be the first time outside public health experts gather information from transit workers about their experiences during the pandemic and put the MTAs actions under the microscope. We cant bring back our fallen heroes. But we can keep working to improve safety on the job and thats what this is all about, said Tony Utano, president of TWU Local 100.

The first part of the study, taking place this month, consists of virtual focus groups, interviews and surveys of New York City transit workers to assess the risks faced by employees during the early months of the pandemic and whether the MTAs response was sufficient and timely.

In addition to the physical health risks, the study will evaluate the impact that working through the pandemic had on transit workers mental health.

Following the pilot study, NYU will launch larger, more expansive studies later this year featuring thousands of transit workers.

Once the studies have been completed, NYU researchers will work with TWU Local 100 and the MTA to create a Best Practice Guidelines and Recommendations document that is expected to be published this fall.

MTA workers are the heroes moving heroes of this pandemic and theres nothing more important to us than the health and safety of our colleagues. The MTA has led the nation in responding to the COVID-19 crisis and we will continue to take every possible action to protect our employees and customers, said MTA spokesman Shams Tarek.
Amitabh Bachchan has reacted sharply to trolls in an open letter he wrote from the Covid-19 ward in a Mumbai hospital. He penned the note to anonymous trolls who have been wishing his death due to the novel coronavirus.

"They write to tell me... 'I hope you die with this Covid,'" the megastar began his blog.

"Hey, Mr. Anonymous... you do not even write your Father's name,... because you do not know who Fathered you... there are only two things that can happen... either I shall die or either I shall live. If I die you won't get to write your diatribe anymore, by weathering your remark on a celebrity name... pity."

He added: "The reason for your writing to be noticed was because you took a swipe at Amitabh Bachchan... that shall no longer exist... !! If by God's grace I live and survive you shall have to be 'weathering' the 'swipe' storm, not just from me, but on a very conservative level, from 90+ million followers."

"I have yet to tell them to... but if I survive I shall... and let me tell you they are a force incensed... they traverse the entire World... from the West to the East from the North to the South ... and they are not just the Ef of this page... that extended family shall in the flash of an eye become 'extermination family'!! All I shall say to them is... 'thok do saale ko'."

After his granddaughter Aaradhya and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan tested negative for coronavirus and were discharged from hospital, Big B had penned an emotional letter on his blog.

"They go home, the little one and Bahurani .. and the tears flow out .. the little one embraces and tells me not to cry .. 'you'll be home soon' she assures .. I must believe her..." he had written on Monday night.

Big B also shared that as the day passed by, in the evening he sat and contemplated "on that which brings vexation... in averse sleep hours the writing thoughts run through the mind and brain... tomorrow or as soon as it is daybreak shall I bring it all to book .. scathing, defiant, angered, indignation profound..."
The Melbourne man slapped with a hefty fine for driving more than 30km from his home to buy butter chicken says he will contest the penalty.

Noel Atkinson, 48, is accused of flouting stay-at-home orders when he drove 32km from Werribee in Melbourne's west to the CBD to pick up a meal from Indian restaurant Desi Dhaba on July 18.

Within metres of the restaurant, Mr Atkinson was stopped by police and slapped with a $1,652 fine.

Within metres of arriving at the Desi Dhaba restaurant, Noel Atkinson was slapped with a $1,652 fine, which he says he will contest

As a tradesman, Mr Atkinson travels 100km every day for work and thought driving 32km for butter chicken would have been acceptable under the stay-at-home orders

'It's a bit hefty. I'm going to contest it. Have my day in court and hopefully I can get the magistrate to waive the fine,' he told A Current Affair.

He was one of 74 people who were hit with fines for breaching lockdown that day.

As a tradesman, Mr Atkinson travels 100km every day for work and thought driving 32km for butter chicken would have been acceptable under the stay-at-home orders.

'I thought you could travel for food. The rules aren't specific. They need to be more black and white, not grey,' he said.

'I didn't realise I was (breaking the rules). If I knew I was, I wouldn't have done it. I would have stayed home.'

Mr Atkinson enjoying some butter chicken. He will contest the hefty fine

Desi Dhaba restaurant (pictured) owner Amit Teteja said he was taken aback by Mr Atkinson's dedication to getting his butter chicken and will now provide him a year's worth for free

Desi Dhaba owner Amit Teteja said he was taken aback by Mr Atkinson's dedication to getting his butter chicken and will now provide him a year's worth for free.

Indian restaurants across the city have latched on to the trending topic by rolling out marketing campaigns for their delivery services, such as 'save $1,650 by staying home'.

The strict lockdown was reintroduced in metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire on July 8 to stem the tide of rising coronavirus cases.

There are thousands of police and military personnel checking vehicles at roadblocks across Melbourne while the lockdown is in place.

Victoria Police and ADF personnel work at a vehicle checkpoint along the Princes Freeway outside of Melbourne after the city went into lockdown in response to an outbreak of the coronavirus disease on July 13

Workers are seen wearing face masks in Melbourne on Monday as the city endures its second lockdown while coronavirus cases continue to rise

Police have also conducted thousands of spot checks at homes, business and public places across the state.

Residents are only allowed to leave their homes for work, food, medical reasons or for exercise.

Residents in Melbourne and Mitchell Shire must also wear a mask or face covering when they're not at home, unless exempt.

People in the locked-down areas who do not wear a mask when outside their residence for one of the four allowed reasons could face a $200 fine.

Victoria recorded a total number of 384 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday and a further six deaths.
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She also asserted the victim admitted he was drunk like a skunk during the incident.

So, ultimately, we have some sort of scuffle in a bathroom, and I think were going to have to get down to some serious issues as to credibility and who it is that ultimately was the aggressor here, who was defending himself, Wise said.

Michael Schreiber, Laneys attorney, said Laney was punched in the face on the casino floor and dropped his cellphone. When Laney was seen on surveillance footage following the states victim, it was to get the phone back, Schreiber argued.

Wildwood Crest officials commend 2 police officers WILDWOOD CREST  Two borough police officers were honored Wednesday after they responded to 

You can see that the contact between my client and the alleged victim  theres no force used whatsoever, and it takes place in a matter of seconds, Schreiber said. So my client says it wasnt a robbery, it wasnt even a theft. ... My client says he was just asking for his cellphone back.

The state does not believe whatsoever that the robbery victim took the phone, Fipp countered, asserting force was used.

Similarly, Walkers attorney, Joseph Swift, argued that Walker was just helping a friend and wasnt involved in the stabbing.
PRETORIA, South Africa, July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- United Allied States (UAS) is holding an inaugural presidential election on July 30th in Pretoria, South Africa. The Congress of the UAS will select among final nominees to elect the new entity's first President and Chief Executive.

The nominees include:

United Allied States United Allied States

Mr. Arno Nilsen

Mr. Stephen McCullah

Mr. Raymond Richardson

Mr. Stephanus Hermanus Duminy

Under the UAS charter, the President performs strategic and day-to-day leadership responsibilities that promote and protect the civic and economic interests of citizens and businesses. He/She also serves as Head of State who carries out the vision of making the United Allied States the freest place on Earth.

Among the Chief Executive's duties are to implement goals and priorities; enforce laws passed by Congress, as well as rulings of the Supreme Court. The President also leads security personnel and all departments of the Executive Branch.

The Interim Congressmen are Joseph Marrello, Cory Cozad, and Wessel Sevenster. The election vote will be streamed on YouTube. For more information, visit https://uas.govt.agency and follow the UAS on social media for links to the broadcast.



Individual Rights and Liberties

The United Allied States is guided by the principles of preserving individual rights and liberty, respect for human rights and promoting free-market enterprise. Citizens and businesses pay 0% personal income tax and 0% corporate tax, respectively. The sovereign entity participates in treaties with countries that grant special economic zones in exchange for services.

For updates, visit UAS:

The mission of the United Allied States (UAS) is to establish a worldwide, sovereign nation of states that give residents unparalleled freedom and prosperity. It will utilize principles that foster economic growth and wealth creation. The UAS will also promote the values of individual freedom, respect for human life, and free enterprise. With a vision to positively impact the lives of citizens, allies, and partners on the African continent.

Website: uas.govt.agency

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/united-allied-states

Twitter: @UASgov

Facebook: @unitedalliedstates

Media contact:

Wessel Sevenster

[email protected]

(512) 360-0438

SOURCE United Allied States
On their way to India from France, five Rafale jets were refulled mid-air from a French tanker at a height of 30,000 feet, according to photos released on Tuesday by the Indian embassy in France.

The jets took off from the Merignac airbase in French port city of Bordeaux on Monday, and will be arriving in India on Wednesday afternoon after covering a distance of nearly 7,000 km.

"Indian Air Force appreciates the support provided by French Air Force for our Rafale journey back home," the IAF tweeted

On Monday evening, the Rafales landed at Al Dhafra airbase in the UAE after flying for over seven hours, officials said adding it was the only stopover by the jets while flying from France to India.

"Few shots from 30,000 feet! Mid air refuelling of #RafaleJets on their way to #India," the Indian Embassy in France tweeted along with a number of pictures of the jets being refuelled mid-air.

The fleet, comprising three single seater and two twin seater aircraft, is arriving at Ambala airbase on Wednesday afternoon where they will be officially inducted into the IAF as part of its No 17 Squadron, also known as the 'Golden Arrows', said one of the officials.

The aircraft are expected to significantly boost the IAF's combat capabilities at a time when India is locked in a tense border row with China in eastern Ladakh. The IAF has already deployed all its frontline fighter jets in key airbases along the Line of Actual Control, the de-faco border between India and China.

India had inked a Rs 59,000 crore deal on September 23, 2016 to procure 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation.

The first Rafale jet was handed over to the IAF in October last year during a visit to France by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

The first squadron of the Rafale jets will be stationed at Ambala air base.

Official sources said the Rafale jets are likely to be deployed in the Ladakh sector as part of IAF's efforts to enhance its operational capabilities along Line of Actual Control with China in view of the border row with the country.

The aircraft is capable of carrying a range of potent weapons. European missile maker MBDA's Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile and Scalp cruise missile will be the mainstay of the weapons package of the Rafale jets

Meteor is the next generation of BVR air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) designed to revolutionise air-to-air combat. The weapon has been developed by MBDA to combat common threats facing the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Sweden.

The Meteor is powered by a unique rocket-ramjet motor that gives it far more engine power for much longer than any other missile, said an official.

The second squadron of Rafale will be stationed at Hasimara base in West Bengal.

The IAF spent around Rs 400 crore to develop required infrastructure like shelters, hangars and maintenance facilities at the two bases.

Out of 36 Rafale jets, 30 will be fighter jets and six will be trainers.

The trainer jets will be twin-seater and they will have almost all the features of the fighter jets.
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has trained media practitioners to enhance their understanding and interpretation of results from Ghanas maiden multidimensional poverty report, which examined poverty beyond monetary deprivations.

The national Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report looked at how people experience poverty in their health, education, and living standards. The report, to be launched on 29th July 2020, was developed by the Ghana Statistical Service with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) of Oxford University.

The training participants expressed their satisfaction and look forward to the launch to disseminate the key findings of the report.

"This training has been very insightful for me. I have come to appreciate the methodology and the issues discussed in the report even before it is launched, noted Anass Sabit, Bono East Regional Correspondent, Joy News/ Joy FM.

The training facilitator, Corinne Mitchell, Director of Programmes and Operations at Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford emphasized that developing an MPI report helps countries to complement monetary poverty statistics, track poverty over time, and strategically develop policies to target marginalized regions, groups and households.

Countries like Sierra Leone and others have launched their Multidimensional Poverty report and it is informing their policies and other areas of development. I believe the launch of this report in Ghana is timely especially during this COVID-19 pandemic and will contribute to fast track the elimination of poverty and ensure no one is left behind, noted Corinne.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index report was computed using data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) 2016/2017 and the harmonized 2011 and 2018 Ghana Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS).

The MPI media training, which was held virtually, had about 30 Journalists from broadcast, print, and online media houses in Ghana.
A southern West Virginia town has been without water service for several days after a pump broke, prompting concerns about a shortage of a precious resource during the coronavirus pandemic.

Residents of the 563-customer system are having to scramble to get water for doing things as simple as washing their hands  a heightened priority during the COVID-19 scare.

Right now were currently in a health crisis due to the water outage, city of Gary Treasurer Tracy Allison said.

After a pump in the citys water system broke last week, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported residents have been using creek water to flush toilets. City officials have made donated bottled water available, local firefighters are making deliveries in communities hit by the outage and water is being provided by tankers from the West Virginia National Guard and the city of Welch.

Among the businesses without water service are the McDowell County Health Department, a nursing home and other health clinics.

McDowell County Commission President Cecil Patterson said the commission approved the purchase of a new pump with funding from a local Economic Development Authority. But Patterson said its not known when the pump would be available.

We call every day to find out, Patterson said Friday.

City Recorder Larry Barber called the outage crazy.

We just need to be patient and relaxed and let everybody do their jobs, and hopefully this will be over by (this) week, Barber said. Were just trying to take care of everybody, the elderly first.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Virginia
Liverpool, N.Y.  Anthony Pietricola and Frances Romano were middle schoolers in Syracuse when they met at Grant Middle School.

They grew up together, and discovered they never wanted to be apart.

I just liked her a lot. And she liked me, too, Anthony said. And that settled it.

Over eight decades later, simply loving each other is still enough.

Anthony and Frances, who are 101 and 100, celebrated their 81st wedding anniversary on the Fourth of July. Theyre just five years away from tying a world record: The longest known marriage lasted 86 years, according to Guinness World Records.

The Liverpool couples son estimates his parents have known each other for all but 12 years of their long lives.

Whats kept them happily entwined for so long?

We had no secret, Anthony said. We just love each other. Thats all.

7 81 years of marriage: A CNY couple celebrates

Anthony and Frances grew up on the North Side of Syracuse during the Great Depression. They both left the now-closed North High School before graduating to work. Anthony had been skipping out on school anyway, said his son, Anthony Pietricola Jr. He was a musician and spent his nights playing for music-hungry audiences across the city.

The couple got married on the Fourth of July in 1939 when Frances was 20 and Anthony was 21. They welcomed their first child, Anita, into the world three years later.

Then, World War II pulled the family apart.

Anthony was drafted into the Army and sent to the South Pacific. He was part of a group of musicians who worked with Mickey Rooney to create a show to entertain soldiers. The group flew from island to island, playing music and working to make their fellow soldiers smile.

If they didnt laugh at every line, wed take it out, Anthony said.

The soldier worked up his own routine where he had a puppet play the trumpet. The shtick eventually got him a ticket home: An admiral who saw the act decided to bring Anthony with him to keep him laughing on a trip across the Pacific Ocean back to the states.

Anthony returned to Syracuse, where he was reunited with his sweetheart and their young daughter. Their son, Anthony Jr., was born the next year.

Everything was OK, he said.

The couple raised their children on West Colvin Street.

They were an affectionate couple and acted as equals  bickering, but never fighting, their son said. They played cards and went to the beach. They spent time together with their friends and family.

Frances was a stay-at-home mom and a great cook, her son said  keeping her family happy with her Sicilian-style Italian cooking. She was also a talented seamstress skilled at tatting, a special way of making lace.

Anthony worked as music teacher. He played with stars like Nat King Cole at the Three Rivers Inn, the former Phoenix night club. And he got his GED diploma and took college classes with the help of the GI Bill.

When their kids went to college, the Pietricolas moved from Syracuse to Liverpool. Together, they watched their family grow. Anthony and Frances welcomed four grandchildren. Now, they have eight great-grandchildren.

Together, they have also lived through sorrow: Their daughter, Anita Brennan, died of cancer in 2009. She was 67 years old.

Since they married young, the Pietricolas expected theyd see many anniversaries, Anthony Jr. said.

It seemed like they expected the number to get high, their son said. But when they hit 75, they started to take notice.

Announcements celebrating milestones from their 60-year anniversaries to now date back decades in The Post-Standards archives. They describe celebrations of the past, like dinner parties at Pier 57 and The Retreat.

The couple now mostly stay at home in their Liverpool apartment. Anthony stopped driving last year when he turned 100, his son said. Frances gets help from in-home aides.

This year, as the coronavirus pandemic roared on, they celebrated 81 years of marriage at home with sandwiches from The Retreat. Frances didnt eat hers, Anthony said, so he ate both.

As they head into their 82nd year together, Anthony said they feel lucky to still be together.

How do they plan to continue to make it work?

Love each other, Anthony said. Thats all.
In two recent decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the government may not discriminate against private religious schools, but the schools may discriminate against their employees.

Sound troubling? It is. While there is a kernel of logic in each decision, the logic was stretched past the breaking point.

The first case involved a Montana scholarship program that allowed state-subsidized scholarships to be used at private secular schools but not private religious schools. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, held that the exclusion of religious schools violated the First Amendments Free Exercise Clause, which he said forbids discrimination against religion.

Here is the kernel of truth in Roberts opinion. There is no doubt that some forms of government discrimination against religion are unconstitutional. For example, the government may not favor one religion over another, such as by giving benefits to Buddhists but not Protestants or Jews. Likewise, the government may not favor secular institutions over religious if the discrimination reflects hostility toward religion. The court would not allow a municipality to provide police, fire and sewer services only to secular institutions and not religious.

Difficulties arise only because there is another religion clause in the First Amendment, the Establishment Clause, which requires separation between church and state. The framers included this clause to help the country avoid the religious strife that engulfed Europe for centuries when religious and political power were aligned. To maintain this separation of church and state, our American tradition has been that churches rely on voluntary support from their adherents, not on taxpayer money. As the Supreme Court famously said in 1947, No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions.

The Montana case fell where the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses collide. Roberts emphasized the Free Exercise Clause nondiscrimination value, holding that Montana could not exclude religious schools from the scholarship program because the schools were being disqualified solely because of their religious character. Justice Stephen Breyers dissent emphasized the Establishment Clause church/state separation value, arguing that government money should not fund sectarian religious education.

You can decide for yourself whether taxpayer money should be used to teach Catholic students about the existence of the Holy Trinity or Muslim students about the Prophet Muhammads revelations. Even if you think this use of public funds is proper, you might still think Roberts decision is problematic when paired with the Courts second recent religious school decision.

In that case, the question was whether religious school teachers can sue their institutions for discrimination based on race, age, sex or disability. One teacher alleged she was terminated because of her age. Another alleged she was fired because of her disability (she had breast cancer and had requested a leave of absence to obtain treatment). In both instances, the majority of justices said the teachers could not sue the schools for discrimination.

Sound outlandish? Maybe, but here again there is a kernel of logic. Surely everyone would agree that the government may not dictate whom a congregation may hire as its religious leader. For example, even though churches are not exempt from sex discrimination laws, a church is still allowed to discriminate against women when selecting a priest. Indeed, it would be an egregious infringement on church autonomy if government regulated employment decisions about a churchs minister.

In the second religious school case, the court concluded that this same ministerial exception applies to employment decisions about religious schoolteachers. After all, these teachers often act like ministers; they teach religious doctrine and frequently engage in religious rituals. Even a math teacher may be required to convey religious values. Consequently, the court held that these teachers, like ministers, are barred from bringing discrimination claims against their employers. This was true even if the teachers claimed that they were fired because of their age, disability, or race and not because they ineffectively taught calculus, French or the catechism.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor decried the majoritys decision in her written dissent. She said that the majority allowed religious school employers to discriminate because of a persons skin color, age, disability, sex, or any other protected trait so long as the employers claim that the employees duties included carrying out the mission of the church.

Bottom line: Religious schools must not be discriminated against when government benefits are being distributed, but the schools may discriminate against their teachers with impunity.

It is the Golden Rule, just turned on its head: Do unto others what may not be done unto to you.

Alan Garfield is a professor at Widener University Delaware Law School.
Theology may be far from our minds during a pandemic in a seemingly secular age. Our interactions with the non-human world of microbial pathogens appear wholly at odds with our relations with another kind of non-human realm that we designate as divine.

Yet, if the past teaches us anything, it is to look carefully at the changes under way in society and politics today, so we can glean, perhaps against the grain, the theological underpinnings of our shifting world views.

Pandemics and religion in antiquity

Pandemics are as old as human settlements and agriculture. Sudden, widespread mortality due to zoonotic diseases struck terror in the villages and towns of our earliest-known ancestors. It invited them to contemplate the afterlife and to propitiate deities who might offer patronage in this life and beyond.

In his famous account of the Plague of Athens, possibly caused by typhus, Thucydides tells us about the helplessness of his fellow citizens in the face of imminent death. The gods, he noted, had abandoned the Athenians, who, left to themselves, gave up any pretence of morality.

Six centuries later, the Antonine Plague, probably smallpox, elicited a similar reaction among the Romans. The powers of the old deities appeared to wane in the crowded, filthy urban centres that dotted the Roman Empire from Britain to Syria. Roman citizens and subjects turned in vain to Apollo Alexikakos, averter of evil, as five million perished, roughly a third of the population.

By the time of the Plague of Cyprian hit a couple of generations later, the ancient Roman world had begun turning towards Christianity in a quest for everlasting life. This pandemic appears to have been a viral hemorrhagic fever, though influenza cannot be ruled out. It is named after Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, who came to symbolise the calm manner in which Christians cared for the sick and prepared for life after death. By contrast, the traditional Roman deities were believed to be wreaking their vengeance on pagan worshippers. Unsurprisingly, it did not take more than a generation for Christianity to assume the mantle of Roman state religion.

Around the same time, in the Kushana capital of Gandhara, near modern-day Peshawar, lay worshippers propitiated Buddhist goddesses such as Hariti to cool off high fevers and the burning sensation on their pockmarked skin. Other prophylactic goddesses such as the leaf-clad Parnashabari and the snake-goddess Manasa have been worshipped by those seeking respite from snake bites and smallpox for at least a millennium in eastern India.

The worship of pandemic-specific deities, in fact, continues even today in India in temples dedicated to the smallpox goddess Shitala, the cold one. In polytheistic societies such as South Asia, rituals often combine medical practices, such as variolation, with a belief in the magical powers of deities and healers.

Theologies of plague

Although Christianity promised earthly solace and salvation to its adherents, it was far from invulnerable. The bubonic plague arrived in the Byzantine Empire in the mid-sixth century. For the next two centuries, as historian Kyle Harper has shown recently, popular cults dedicated to saints and the Virgin Mary proliferated across the empire.

Orthodox Christianity came to merge with the pagan religions of the Mediterranean world, moving away from its monotheistic Judaic origins. Harper also points to an opposed tendency in the Byzantine lands towards a new monotheistic creed based on divine revelation, Islam.

In Western Europe, the effects of bubonic plague in the mid-14th century were just as far-reaching. The Black Death ripped through the feudal structures that tied together lords and peasants. Clerical intercession seemed futile as fear of the Grim Reaper haunted medieval Europeans.

Priests, eager to describe the plague as divine punishment, succumbed to the pandemic as often as the laity. Jews, lepers, and those deemed social deviants were turned into scapegoats. Radical religious movements thrived. The Flagellants and their ritual self-mortification produced much enthusiasm in their wanderings across German-speaking villages. Claiming a more elevated piety than the clergy, they yearned for the return of the long-deceased Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II as a messiah.

The Lollards sought a less spectacular end, though no less radical: the translation of the Bible to vernaculars, such as English, and an end to the veneration of saints, fasts, confessions, and pilgrimages. Seeking to bring religious practice into greater conformity with scriptures, they rejected the Churchs view of the Eucharist as a transformation of bread and wine into Christs body and blood.

Although both Flagellants and Lollards were deemed by Rome to be heretical, they paved the way for direct lay interpretation of scriptures and individualistic notions of piety among various Protestant sects, at least some of whom espoused millenarian ideas about a world turned upside down and the impending apocalypse.

These radical ideas have tended to be pushed to the fringe by mainstream Protestantism, but aspirations for an earthly paradise have hardly ceased. Indeed, mainline Protestant churches have pursued an oddly statist vision of the same earthly paradise, by which individual piety and the disciplinary techniques of the state come to be aligned neatly with each other.

Both individual notions of piety and the states disciplinary practices co-evolved in Western Europe with the plague until the late 17th century.

In Catholic Europe, the plague carried different implications altogether. In response to Protestant reformers, Catholic theologians sought to defend clerical authority and the necessity of mediation between the divine and human realms. If Protestant churches followed the logic of straight lines and their surrounding plague-stricken cities sought quadrillage, or patterned gridlines, under centralised states, the Catholic response was rooted in awe-inspiring complexity, even baroqueness.

In a pandemic spread over centuries, the imperfect, sinful, ways of humanity seemed to match the capriciousness of Gods will. The clergy remained the Catholic laitys best hope for salvation.

The Islamic response to plague was far from unintelligible to Christian Europe. Persian polymath Ibn Sina might well have been the first proponent of social distancing, but Ibn Khatib and Ibn Khatima in Granada were the scholars of the plague best known by their Christian contemporaries.

Both saw the plague as Allahs will, but they also sought to observe the disease, distinguish between bubonic and pneumonic varieties, and contain its spread. Understanding the logic of contagion was, to them, entirely compatible with an Orthodox Sunni interpretation of the Quran.

They adhered to a doctrine of occasionalism, which posits that stable patterns in nature and society can be perturbed occasionally by dramatic events; the former comprehensible to the human mind and the latter less so, but both follow Gods will. As such, failure to protect oneself  and others  is not merely foolish, but also a failure to heed God.

The Maghribi philosopher Ibn Khaldun, who personally endured loss during the plague, took occasionalism to heart in his treatise on the rise and fall of civilisations, Muqaddimah. Some have viewed his work and the lack of quarantine in the early modern Islamicate world from Morocco to Indonesia as fatalistic, particularly in comparison with quarantine regimes that emerged with modern states in post-Reformation Europe.

But such a view fails to appreciate that everyday protective measures are wholly compatible with a firm conviction that God is ultimately sovereign over life and death. Despite the lack of quarantine during pandemics, a growing understanding of the body and an increasing consciousness of Gods ways could happily coexist.

As we recall long-forgotten plagues and peoples, it ought to be clear that pandemics are as much moments of social and political transformation as they are moments of religious change.

Going viral in a secular age

We are habituated to think that we live in a secular age, but as philosophy scholar Charles Taylor has argued, far from settling into a comfortable unbelief  [our age] is schizophrenia, or better, deeply cross-pressured.

All the theological responses discussed above are discernible during the past century: the sense of despair and helplessness when we feel abandoned by the divine; a renewed interest in propitiating deities via prayers and offerings; the defensiveness and shoring up of clerical authority; a turn to new ways of worship or even new deities; preparing for the apocalypse; rationalising ones faith with an impulse to protect oneself and others.

But modern Western societies are habituated to believe that humans are masters of the Earth and lord over its flora and fauna. This belief is, as the writings of early modern philosophers such as Rene Descartes and John Locke reveal, a thinly disguised theological world view that arose with Protestantism, as it sought to subjugate or eliminate its rivals in Europe and beyond.

What these rivals in Catholic Europe or the polytheistic worlds of Asia, Africa, and Latin America shared in common was, above all, a recognition of the natural limits to human growth, based on a conception of ourselves as existing on a continuum with other life on Earth. The relentless pursuit of wealth via global capitalism and modern states, however, has regarded growth as limitless.

As some grew fabulously wealthy at the expense of others between Columbuss voyage to the Americas and the onset of World War I, the human population quadrupled. During the past century, we have quadrupled again. The plague bacterium is now tamed along with the mass killers of the past, such as malaria, cholera, typhoid, measles, and smallpox.

Our principal threat comes from viruses, strands of intermixed DNA that straddle the blurred boundaries between the living and the non-living. From the common cold to influenza and Ebola, viruses challenge the vain anthropocentric world view that the Protestant Reformation bequeathed to modern Europe and, by way of colonialism and imperialism, the rest of the world.

Viruses long predate our arrival on the planet, and, despite our role in displacing their animal hosts from their wild habitats, there is no reason to doubt that they will outlive us too. If we can somehow apprehend the world from the viruss world view, we would think differently about pandemics and the lines that we draw to separate ourselves from nature.

At least since the influenza pandemic of 1918, viruses have mocked our supremacist claims as a species. In response, some turn to traditional religions and deities, as before, but most are turning to our secular deity, the modern state. Alas, as we are starting to realise, the anxious high priests of the Leviathan can offer little solace in a pandemic. Much like our worship of other deities during past millennia, our faith in modern states cannot make the virus go away.

In virtual reality, however, a theological revolution is brewing. While rumours and fake news on social media are spreading much like the COVID-19 virus, new forms of loosely organised collectives are emerging within and across national borders.

Black Lives Matter is the most conspicuous today, but we ought not to discount its alt-right detractors. Some refer to these online collectives as tribes, implying an atavistic return to a primordial sociality.

These collectives may signify the demise of the cult of the individual, a mirroring of God by the deification of the modern self. But these imagined tribal communities might also be understood as hive minds that decompose individual producers into millions of data points that are produced and consumed simultaneously.

These human-generated data combine, separate or recombine, ironically much like viruses, to form digital collectives based on intense faith and affect. The unwitting disaggregation of discrete individuals to myriad data points ought to be seen alongside what Yuval Noah Harari has christened dataism, a futuristic faith centred around the mysterious powers of data to solve all human problems.

The COVID-19 pandemic marks a turning point in the history of this fledgeling faith. It has intensified tendencies towards do it yourself religiosity or spirituality when organised religions and states have failed to satisfy believers and non-believers alike. Traditional modes of worship offline in mosques, temples, and churches have not only ceased temporarily but are increasingly characterised by some in cybersphere as the refuge of backward peoples who have not upgraded to the digital age.

The pandemic has also amplified the desire for spectacle and spurred an age of post-literacy. Memes, along with likes, comments, and shares, are central to practices of collective effervescence in a digital age marked by physical distancing. Amusingly, the word meme comes from the militant atheist Richard Dawkins, whose book The Selfish Gene (1976) explained how organisms co-evolved on the planet via horizontal gene transfers and genetic mutations.

Online faiths and creeds today differ greatly from each other, but, as we see during this pandemic, the hive mind, not the individual, is its constituent unit. The unattached sceptic or agnostic is the unicorn of our times. Yet the death of the individual, including the theological baggage attached to it, has occurred surreptitiously. Far from a bang, there has not even been a whimper. It is wrong to suggest, as Charles Taylor does, that secular people are cross-pressured in an age of schizophrenia. This is a humanist gloss on the data-driven stirrings of a post-human world.

Ecstatic and millenarian groups seeking a new heaven and new Earth are leading the theological revolution under way. These groups that pursue visions of earthly liberation from liberalism and technocracy to capitalism and patriarchy are not, however, typically treated as liberation theologies. At their core, nonetheless, is a salvationist belief, common in cyberspace, that those who were  or believe themselves to be  oppressed must now be liberated and a post-millenarian golden age ushered in. We wish to re-enchant our world by breaking free from the immanent frame or God-shaped hole of our secular age.

Apokalypsis in Greek may signify the end of the world as we know it, but it also means a revelation that unveils ugly or hidden truths about our world. Just as US President Donald Trump appears to American evangelicals as a necessary evil to lead us to a new beginning, COVID-19 may well seem to hive minds today as an agent of radical change. No one knows precisely what this change might be or where it will lead us. But there seems a strong conviction that, despite the powerful status-quo forces that reign over us, we cannot and will not return to how we lived before the pandemic.

The dramatic spread of COVID-19 ought to make us rethink that oft-repeated phrase going viral. When the virus holds sway over our minds and bodies, human beings are reduced to caged creatures.

Just like past pandemics, this one, too, has drawn us closer to the prospect of death and compelled us to contemplate the meaning(s) of life. But we are neither the existentialist heroes of an Albert Camus novel nor the hapless victims of bygone plagues. As the virus seeps between our bodies, our minds are rewired. A new alluring reality and its enchantments await us. We can live apart together until we cease to matter to each other or even exist.

Whatever our digital afterlife looks like, the viruses will outlive us in a post-human world.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
By Katie Lannan, State House News Service

BOSTON  Three senators who helped craft their branchs policing bill will join the Judiciary Committees House chair, the head of the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus and a former state trooper on a conference committee that will try to reach a House-Senate compromise on police reform.

Each branch named its negotiators on Monday. On the Senate side, its Democrats William Brownsberger of Belmont and Sonia Chang-Diaz of Jamaica Plain, and Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican.

The House appointed Rep. Claire Cronin, an Easton Democrat who as co-chair of the Judiciary Committee led the Houses effort to compile a police reform bill; Springfield Democrat Rep. Carlos Gonzalez, who chairs the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus; and Rep. Timothy Whelan, a Brewster Republican who voted against the bill.

Chang-Diaz, the sole member of the Black and Latino Caucus in the Senate, and Brownsberger chaired the working group that developed the Senate's bill. Tarr was the only Republican on that panel.

Brownsberger and Cronin played leading roles in negotiations on a criminal justice reform package. Those talks lasted for 113 days. The police reform conferees have a much tighter timeline  Friday marks the last day of formal legislative sessions for the two-year term, though there is a possibility that lawmakers could agree to work beyond that deadline because of the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Protests across Massachusetts and the country in response to police killings of unarmed Black Americans, including George Floyd in Minneapolis, catapulted the issues of law enforcement accountability and racial justice onto Beacon Hills agenda.

The Black and Latino Caucus on June 2 put out a reform plan that included four-state level action items  creation of a certification and decertification system for law enforcement officers, establishment of clear and uniform limits on excessive force and a duty to intervene, a commission for comprehensive civil service review, and a commission on structural racism. In a statement Monday, the caucus said all four of those ideas were included in the House bill.

With this bill we take a step to rise above the fray of our shared dark past across the country and here in Massachusetts, Rep. Nika Elugardo, a member of the caucus and Boston Democrat, said before the Houses final vote Friday. This bill is an important beginning not because the ink on this page is beautiful or comprehensive or complete or even entirely fair. This bill is a beginning because of how we came together to create it, not without flaws or lapses of judgement  I myself have gotten caught up in the tension more than once  but we brought this bill through the tears, the smears, the fears, weve exchanged lobs and jeers at one another. Through our individual issues with race, through our anger and our concerns, we found a way to share values.

Gov. Charlie Baker, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Karen Spilka have all said they want to see a policing bill completed by July 31, the day legislative rules set as the end of formal lawmaking business. Spilka and DeLeo have separately suggested the possibility of extending the session if major issues are not resolved in the next few days, though no specific plan for doing so has been put forward and agreed to.

Both versions of the police reform bills create new commissions that would certify police officers and decertify those who have committed misconduct, though the structures differ. The House and Senate also diverged in their approaches to limiting qualified immunity that shields police officers from civil lawsuits.

As the six lawmakers seek to reach consensus, they'll be dealing with legislation that prompted a range of opinions, and some decisions made on votes that were tighter than is often typical on Beacon Hill.

The Senate passed its bill (S.2820) in the early morning hours of July 14, on a 30-7 vote. After three days of debate, the House voted 93-66 to pass its bill (H.4860) Friday night. No Republican lawmaker in either branch voted for the bills  Tarr and Sen. Patrick OConnor voted present, and all other Republicans opposed it.

The vote margins indicate it would be difficult to finalize the bill in informal sessions, where unanimous consent is required to advance a bill. It's also not clear at this point what Baker might think of whatever final version might reach his desk, where he'll have the option to sign, veto or amend it.

Whelan, a former state trooper, said the original version the bill had many holes in it and that through the amendment process, representatives installed more holes than theyd filled. He said the bill expanded by geometric proportions beyond the narrow focus that law enforcement representatives had agreed to with the Black and Latino Caucus.

"We look at this bill that we have here today, it gravitated from those specific important points that we arrived at consensus on to now we have things included in here, they diminish the due process rights of the union sisters and brothers assigned to those unions representing police officers," Whelan said. "It weakens their rights for arbitration. It clearly violates the constitutional double jeopardy protections. It significantly changes their working conditions without granting impact bargaining."

Rep. Colleen Garry, a Dracut Democrat who represents a district along the New Hampshire border, said the bill could prompt current police officers to leave their jobs in Massachusetts. She said police treat her constituents with respect and deserve respect in return, and that the bill doesn't give officers the benefit of the doubt.

Ill tell you this  the ones who are close to retirement are going to retire, because theyre not going to risk everything that theyve worked hard for their entire career to have somebody bring a frivolous claim against them, and the young ones, theyre already applying for jobs in New Hampshire, she said.

Rep. Jack Lewis, who is white, said he has a Black son who is "six years away from driving and I already lose sleep from my inability to protect him," and that his own worry is only a fraction of that experienced by parents of color, who have never been able to ignore the fear of police brutality. A Framingham Democrat who co-chairs the House Progressive Caucus, Lewis said he's seen some police officers "use fear to achieve their objectives" over the last few weeks, by suggesting that qualified immunity reforms would lead to officers quitting "in droves" and losing their homes in "frivolous lawsuits."

"I'll never be able to experience the fear that people of color experience every day, but if the police use even a fraction of the fear tactics that they have used over these last several weeks ... on individuals and communities of color, then I can only begin to imagine the deeply instilled fear and mistrust that the police must conjure," Lewis said.

Last week, when the House released its bill, Spilka, Brownsberger and Chang-Diaz said they looked forward to working towards a final, stronger version of this bill that combines the best of both to put more power in the hands of civilians, shift resources to the communities most impacted by overpolicing, and build a more equitable and just future.
The vessel used to lay one of Google's other subsea cables.

Google announced Tuesday it intends to set up a new undersea fiber-optic cable between the U.S., the U.K., and Spain as part of an effort to improve its services.

The cable  named Grace Hopper after the American computer programming pioneer  will provide "better resilience for the network that underpins Google's consumer and enterprise products," Google said.

"Once commissioned, the Grace Hopper cable will be one of the first new cables to connect the U.S. and U.K. since 2003, increasing capacity on this busy global crossroads and powering Google services like Meet, Gmail and Google Cloud," said Bikash Koley, vice president of Google Global Network, in a blog post.

"It also marks our first investment in a private subsea cable route to the U.K., and our first-ever route to Spain," Koley said. "The Spanish landing point will more tightly integrate the upcoming Google Cloud region in Madrid into our global infrastructure."

The Mountain View-headquartered company added that the cable will incorporate "novel optical fiber switching" that will allow it to move traffic around internet outages more competently than before. It will also have 16 fiber pairs (32 fibers), which is a "significant upgrade" to the internet infrastructure that connects the U.S. with Europe, Koley said.

The cable will run along the ocean floor from New York to the Cornish seaside resort town of Bude in the U.K. and Bilbao in Spain. It will run 6,250 km from the U.S. to the U.K. and 6,300 km from the U.S. to Spain.

Google signed a contract earlier this year with underwater cable provider SubCom, which is headquartered in New Jersey, and the project is expected to be finished in 2022. Google declined to say how much the new cable is costing the company.
KFC workers have been filmed working in a 'filthy' kitchen, with deep greasy puddles on the ground with pieces of chicken, chips and litter strewn everywhere.

Parents Robbie and Mimi got a behind-the-scenes look at the 'putrid' kitchen when they pulled up to collect their meal at the drive-thru window at KFC Tamworth on Saturday night.

They later uploaded the video to Facebook, where it was labelled 'disgusting', 'putrid' and 'filthy' by users and has since amassed more than 113,000 views.

In the clip, the fast-food workers repeatedly walk through the greasy puddle in the centre of the kitchen which has KFC's signature potato and gravy suspended in it.

The manager then intervenes and offers a free, repacked meal, but they were so put off by the state of the restaurant that they decided to feed it to their dog.

Parents Robbie and Mimi got a behind the scenes look at the 'putrid' kitchen (pictured) when they pulled up to collect their meal at the drive-thru window at KFC Tamworth on Saturday

The video begins with a KFC worker, a teenage boy, holding out an EFTPOS machine for Robbie to pay for his meal.

The worker is only wearing a glove on his right hand while his left hand is ungloved.

'Show them what you've got on your hand,' Robbie asks, prompting the working to mumble something ineligible and walk away without another word.

His female colleague calls after him as he walks through a deep puddle of grease with chicken, chips, potato and gravy, napkins and plastic cups in it.

The video begins with a KFC worker, a teenage boy, holding out an EFTPOS machine for Robbie to pay for his meal. Robbie accused the worker of using 'dirty hands' to pack his food, which his manager later admitted was 'absolutely disgusting'

The manager of the store, a young man, then arrived at the window to address their complaint, again wading through the greasy puddle.

'He touched the food and he had one glove on and his other hand was filthy. I asked him to show his and he wouldn't show it and he just took off,' Robbie explained.

'His hands were dirty, he had them on the food.'

'If you want, I can completely repack that because that is absolutely disgusting and I'll talk to him for you,' the manager replied.

Robbie then panned over to the KFC bag with grease stains on it before handing it back to the KFC manager.

'Look at that stuff on there, look. Look how dirty the bag is,' Robbie said.

'That is not acceptable, I'll go talk to him,' the manager replied before walking away.

A female worker then repacked the meal but once again had to walk through the disturbingly deep puddle of water in the store.

'Look at that, walking around in slop. That's chatty,' Robbie remarked.

'Chat' is an Australian slang term for disgusting.

A female worker then repacked the meal but once again had to walk through the bizarrely deep puddle of water in the store. The puddle appeared to have grease floating on top with chicken, chips and potato and gravy strewn throughout

The manager then returned, conceding: 'I'm not sure what was on his hand but I can see there's stuff on there.'

He also asked Robbie to stop filming, but the customer said he had to continue recording for 'my health and safety'.

'I'm so sorry about that, mate. We've remade the meal for you and I'm not going to make you pay because that is absolutely disgusting. Sorry about that,' the manager replied.

The video, which then cut off, was later uploaded to Facebook, where people described the kitchen as 'disgusting', 'putrid' and 'filthy'.

When asked if they ate the food, Robbie's wife Mimi said: 'No, we gave it to the dog.'

A KFC spokesman said: 'Were extremely concerned to see this footage.

'Weve contacted the customer and are in the process of investigating this issue, as we take our food safety and hygiene standards very seriously.'
JACKSON, MI  Jackson Public Schools will return to the classroom this fall under a hybrid model, with students attending in-person classes two days a week.

Jackson Public Schools Board of Education approved the districts Return to Learn plan Monday, July 27, by a 5-1 vote, creating a plan with two different student cohorts that will attend school during different days of the week to avoid exposure to each other.

Under the schedule, the cohort A students will attend in-person classes on Monday and Tuesday, while cohort B will be in classes on Thursday and Friday, with Wednesday set aside as a day to clean the districts buildings.

Jackson Public Schools Superintendent Jeff Beal said the flipped instructional model is fluid and flexible and could be different 60 or 90 days from now.

In the meantime, it will allow students to learn lessons and concepts online before going over and mastering those subjects in person, Beal said. When they arent in the classroom, students will learn from teachers virtually via Zoom, Google Meet and during phone calls for individual and small group lessons.

The plan will help the district move toward strictly in-person classes if the state moves into Phase 5, Beal said, making a potential transition into more classroom time more seamless.

Beal said the district hopes to return to the class full-time - which would be possible if the state moves into Phase 5 - at some point during the academic year and potentially by the end of the first trimester.

Grand Rapids superintendent recommends starting school year online-only

Its a large task and kind of a moving target, as we try to create options for students and families to engage in education safely and for us to bring our staff back to an environment that is safe, but also one that is nurturing for our students, Beal said.

I believe we have built a plan around flexibility  around our ability to step forward into Phase 5 and really move more toward in-person education.

The flipped model will allow Jackson Public Schools to limit how many students are in the classroom, Beal said, projecting class sizes to range between 12 and 15 students.

One thing we know is our classrooms were built for about 30 students, Beal said. In order to social distance in our buildings, were going to need to bring that number down to about 14.

To make in-person instruction work in a safe environment, Jackson Public Schools is investing in $1.18 million in personal protection equipment and technology like Chromebooks and iPads.

The district will stock up with 350,000 extra masks supplied for children and another 250,000 for adults. It also purchased 250 plexiglass dividers for its offices and public greeting areas, in addition to a supply of N95 masks and face shields.

Students in grades 6-12 will be required to wear a mask, including on the bus, while it is recommended for students to wear masks in grades K-5, Beal said. If a student or staff member comes to school without a mask on, they will be provided with one.

While the board shared its confidence in the plan, board treasurer Libby Brown said she was concerned about the hybrid model and its potential to expose children and teachers to COVID-19.

Theres just a lot of issues Im concerned about and Im just wondering if its the time to go back to school instead of doing virtual, said Brown, who voted against the Return to Learn plan.

Beal said he wished he had the ability to keep COVID out of our buildings, but admitted he would not be able to protect students or staff any more than if they were going to the grocery store.

He stressed that safety was a major concern for him and the roughly 70 others who contributed to creating the Return to Learn plan.

Having in-person instruction will allow students to download lessons on school technology and address any issues they have with devices while having access to reliable high-speed internet, addressing equity concerns within the district, Beal said.

Are Michigan students really going back to school? Teachers, health officials say reopening is a minefield

Access to high-speed internet is something thats beyond Jackson Public Schools ability to provide, Beal said. When students come to school in their cohort, those students can access our high-speed internet, we have the ability to download to their devices all the videos and lessons they will need, so when they go home, they can open their computer or iPad and work offline without the need for internet access within the home.

Board President Erin White said he has heard a wide range of opinions from parents about what direction the district should go to start the academic year  from starting the year virtually to holding in-person instruction five days a week.

He believes putting Jackson Public Schools in the middle lane via hybrid instruction will allow it to be more versatile in responding to the constant challenges and changes that have become normal during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What brings confidence to me that we have the best plan is we had 70-plus people work on this from different backgrounds in education, White said. ... I think this plan puts us in the best position to pivot if we need to.

Jackson Public Schools will continue to work with the Jackson County Health Department in the scenario of a positive case among its staff or student body, noting it is a big chunk of our guiding voice.

The health department will continue to handle testing and contact tracing within the district, Beal said, and ultimately would determine  along with the state of Michigan  if the district needed to close down a building or its entire in-person operations.

Parents who are not comfortable sending their child to in-person classes may opt to enroll their child virtually through South Central Michigan Virtual, Beal said, while teachers who have underlying conditions should contact Beal or human resources to make appropriate accommodations.

We know we have parents that are going to opt to keep their children at home, Beal said.  We also know we have parents who want their kids in school, no matter what.

I think the greater majority of us are all a little bit nervous about what the health risks are associated with the pandemic. I wish I had a perfect solution, but today, I think were going to bring forward our best efforts to keep everyone safe. If we can educate our children in those precautions, I think we can do our part to try to make this a healthier situation going forward.

READ MORE:

Michigan trying to ward off coronavirus second wave that could shutter schools and businesses

Ann Arbor Public Schools plans fully virtual start to new school year

Kalamazoo schools cant open safely, must be remote, teachers union says
SINGAPORE, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- PeopleStrong announced today that it has secured an agreement to power the HR technology for leading software development agency  Titansoft.

PeopleStrong will implement Alt Recruit (next-generation recruitment system), Alt Worklife (leading HRMS Software which provides a Hire to Retire solution) and Alt Performance (talent and performance management solution to enable faster outcomes).

"We chose PeopleStrong as our HR system service provider because of its flexibility to adapt to our agile way of work and unique HR practices. Other suppliers did not have systems that looked like they could be flexible enough to suit our needs. Another major factor is the comprehensiveness of the system which would enable us to have a digital touch point at every step of the employee journey," said Joanna Zhan, Team Lead, People Operations, Titansoft. "For employees and candidates alike  we hope to be able to provide a better end-to-end experience. In a world where HR is embracing tech, we hope the new partnership with PeopleStrong would help us to stay ahead of the curve with data that is easily accessible for informed business & policy decisions. It will also reduce redundancies and free up more time for HR team to be involved in strategic initiatives."

Ankur Sehgal (Regional Director, APAC, PeopleStrong) added, "We are happy to have Titansoft onboard PeopleStrong's integrated people experience platform. PeopleStrong's Mobile-first HCM solution will help Titansoft digitise their employee experience on a single unified multi-country platform. We look forward to partnering with Titansoft on this journey towards New Code of Work."

PeopleStrong is Asia's leading Work and HR Technology company, headquartered in India. With a million users from 350+ enterprises across industries, PeopleStrong impacts people productivity and experience agenda of enterprises and accelerates their journey towards the #NewCodeofWork. PeopleStrong's product suite includes next-gen applications in the space of HR Technology (Talent Acquisition, Human Capital Management, Talent Management), Productivity, Analytics and Platform. Known for its penchant to innovate, PeopleStrong has many firsts to its name, the recent one being the application of Machine Learning in Recruitment (through Match Making) and Employee Experience (through Asia's first HR Chatbot Jinie). PeopleStrong is the first company in the space to be successfully assessed on SSAE18 and recently won the prestigious CIO's Choice Award for Talent Management on Cloud.

Contact:

Adrian Tan

Adrian.tan@peoplestrong.com

+65-98523746

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/946957/PeopleStrong_Logo.jpg

SOURCE PeopleStrong
WASHINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Robert O'Brien, national security advisor for U.S. President Donald Trump, has tested positive for COVID-19, the White House confirmed on Monday.

"He has mild symptoms and has been self-isolating and working from a secure location off site," the White House said in a statement. "There is no risk of exposure to the President or the Vice President."

The diagnosis has made O'Brien, a top aide for Trump and the president's fourth national security advisor, the highest ranking U.S. official known to have tested positive for coronavirus.

The White House statement came shortly after multiple U.S. media outlets broke the news.

O'Brien, 54, has been out of the office since late last week, Bloomberg News reported on Monday morning, citing people familiar with the situation.

He left his office in the White House last Thursday, CNN reported, citing a source.

O'Brien reportedly came down with coronavirus after a family event and has been isolating at home while still running the National Security Council (NSC), doing most of his work by phone.

Part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, the NSC advises the President on national security and foreign policy.

O'Brien, whom Trump tapped to lead the agency in September 2019, recently returned from Europe, where he met with officials from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy.

The White House recently ended regular temperature checks for all those entering the White House complex, but those who will come into close contact with Trump are still given rapid tests.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during a briefing last week that Trump has tested "often."

"As I've made clear from this podium, the president is the most tested man in America," McEnany told reporters at the White House. "He's tested more than anyone, multiple times a day, and we believe that he's acting appropriately."

However, Trump has dismissed the claim that he takes more than one test a day.

"I didn't know about more than one. I do take probably, on average, a test every two days, three days," he told reporters during a White House press briefing last week. "I don't know of any time I've taken two tests in one day, but I could see that happening."

Last week, two White House executive offices closed their cafeterias because an employee tested positive for coronavirus.
Dublin, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Research Report of the Imported Soybeans Industry in China 2020-2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



Soybeans are important raw materials of common edible oil and feed material of the breeding industry in China. China has a huge demand for Soybeans while the domestic supply could not meet consumption. In 2019, China's Soybean consumption was 106.50 million tons, domestic production was 18.10 million tons and import volume was 88.51 million tons, which showed a very high dependence on import soybeans. Thus, China allowed more countries, such as Bolivia, Russia, and Benin to export soybeans that meet the requirements.

According to the analyst, soybeans are mainly produced in the Northeast and North China regions. From 2015 to 2019, the sown area of soybeans in China increased from 6.83 million hectares to 9.34 million hectares, and the production of soybeans rose from 12.37 million tons in 2015 to 18.10 million tons in 2019. Import volume went up from 81.69 million tons in 2015 to 88.51 million tons in 2019. Import soybeans always have a competitive advantage, since the price of imported soybeans is always lower than that of domestic soybeans.

According to the analyst, imported soybeans in China include soybeans for cultivation, black soybeans, green soybeans, yellow soybeans, and other soybeans not for cultivation, most of them came from Brazil and the USA from 2017 to April 2020.

According to the analyst, as for major import sources of soybeans in the future, it is expected to be Brazil, the USA and Argentina. The demand for soybeans is estimated to be relatively low in 2020 because of COVID-19, and then reach 124 million tons by 2024. The gap between supply and demand could be around 94 million tons in 2024, worth the value that exceeds USD 40 million.



Readers may obtain the following information from this report:

Economic Environment of the Soybean Industry in China

Policies in Imported Soybeans in China

Analysis of Supply and Demand of Soybeans in China

Analysis of Imported Soybeans in China

Analysis of Major Sources of Soybeans in China

Price Trends of Imported Soybeans in China

Driving Forces and Opportunities of Imported Soybeans in China

Forecasts on Imported Soybeans in China 2020-2024

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Key Topics Covered:



1 Analysis of Soybean Industry's Environment

1.1 Economy Environment

1.1.1 China's GDP and per capita Disposable Income of Residents

1.1.2 Grain Production in China

1.2 Policy Environment

1.3 About CRI



2 Analysis of China's Soybean Industry, 2015-2019

2.1 Planting of Soybeans in China

2.2 Demand and Supply of Soybeans in China

2.3 Price of Domestic Soybeans



3 Analysis of Soybean Imports in China, 2015-Apr.2020

3.1 Types of Imported Soybeans in China

3.2 Import Scale of Soybeans

3.3 Comparison of Import Price and Domestics Price, 2016-Apr. 2020



4 Major Sources of Soybean Imports in China, 2017-Apr. 2020

4.1 Major Sources of Soybean Imports in China, 2017

4.2 Major Sources of Soybean Imports in China, 2018

4.3 Major Sources of Soybean Imports in China, 2019

4.4 Major Sources of Soybean Imports in China, Jan. -Apr. 2020



5 Forecasts on China's Soybean Market, 2020-2024

5.1 SWOT Analysis

5.1.1 Driven Force and Market Chance

5.1.2 Threats and Challenges

5.2 Forecast on Demand and Supply of Soybeans in China, 2020-2024

5.2.1 Forecast on Demand

5.2.2 Forecast on Soybean Imports

5.2.3 Forecast on Major Sources of Soybean Imports



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/igbqun

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tech2 News Staff

Earlier this month, Samsung announced that the Galaxy Unpacked 2020 event will take place on 5 August at 7.30 pm IST. Now, days ahead of the event, a new teaser has been released that reveals all the devices that can be expected at the event.

The teaser confirms that five devices will debut on 5 August. Notably, the video doesn't give out the names of the devices but as per a report by GSMArena, these devices will include Galaxy Note 20 series  Galaxy Note 20, and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra  Galaxy Z Fold 2, Galaxy Watch 3, Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Tab S7, and Galaxy Tab S7+.

Another report by MySmartPrice reveals that the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is expected to come in both 4G and 5G variants. The report has further revealed the European pricing of Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Galaxy Buds Live.



Going by the report, Samsung Galaxy Note 20 4G variant with 256 GB storage is likely to be priced at 1099 (approx Rs 96,500), Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G variant that offers 512 GB of storage is expected to be priced at 1,449 (approx Rs 1,30,000), Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G variant with 256 GB storage might be priced at 1,349 (approx Rs 1,18,000) and Galaxy Buds Live are likely to be priced at 189 (approx Rs 16,500).

Leakster Ishan Agarwal has also revealed in a tweet that the sale of Galaxy Note 20 series will start on 28 August in India.

Exclusive for @91mobiles: Samsung India is planning to launch the Galaxy Note20 Ultra '5G' in India. Yes, it will be their first 5G device, unlike the S20 Ultra which got LTE Moniker. Sales starting 28th August. Check out link for colors coming to India: https://t.co/sq8O0BZTto  Ishan Agarwal (@ishanagarwal24) July 27, 2020

In addition to this, the tipster has reportedly informed 91Mobiles that Galaxy Note 20 is likely to be available in Green, Bronze colour options, whereas the Ultra model might come in Black and Bronze hues.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series expected specifications

The smartphone series will come with an S Pen which will also come with the same colour scheme. It is expected that the smartphones of the series are likely to be powered by Snapdragon 865 or the latest Snapdragon 865+ chipset.

As per a recent report, Galaxy Note 20 Ultra might offer up to 12 GB RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. The Verge has reported that the entire series is expected to come with 5G and a 120Hz refresh rate display.

Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 expected specifications

Going by a previous report, Galaxy Fold 2 might offer a larger cover display than the 4.6-inch screen on the original Samsung Galaxy Fold. The size of the foldable display of the second generation phone may be increased to 7.7-inch compared to Galaxy Fold's 7.3-inches.

The report states that the device is likely to feature an Infinity-O panel with a punch hole for the selfie camera. It is also being speculated that Fold 2 will come with S pen support.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 expected specifications

Galaxy Watch 3 will reportedly come in 4 different versions  two in a 41 mm size and the other two in a 45 mm size. The display of the smartwatch is likely to be protected by Gorilla Glass XD and is expected to have 5ATM water-resistance.

Both models of Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 are believed to come with LTE variants and GPS, and be equipped with a heart-rate monitor. The devices are also expected to come with blood pressure monitoring.
Bryan Steffy/Getty; Griffin Johnson/Instagram; Noah Beck/TIkTok

A handful of TikTok's biggest stars have their eyes set on a new social media platform.

Josh Richards, Noah Beck and Griffin Johnson have joined the social media app Triller, citing growing security concerns on TikTok as their reason for the move.

But they won't just be posting content  the boys will also work behind the scenes with the app on their executive team. Richards, 18, has signed on as an investor and chief strategy officer, while Johnson and Beck will both serve as advisors and equity shareholders.

"The opportunity to work with the amazing people at Triller is something I am deeply committed to," Richards tells PEOPLE. "We are going to take the world by storm! Get ready, everyone.

RELATED: TikTok's Josh Richards Signs Recording Contract to 'Trailblaze a New Music Style'

While the stars will continue posting their viral videos on TikTok, the group plans to slowly migrate their audience to Triller.

"I cant wait to be a part of something bigger than myself," Johnson tells PEOPLE.

"I am here to make the creator community a more cohesive environment," adds Beck. "With the initiatives we are building at Triller, we will most certainly achieve our goal."

Triller is an L.A.-based music video that is also financially backed by rappers Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne.

The announcement comes as TikTok continues to face growing scrutiny over how it manages customer data.

After seeing the U.S. and other countries governments concerns over TikTok  and given my responsibility to protect and lead my followers and other influencers  I followed my instincts as an entrepreneur and made it my mission to find a solution, Richards said of his involvement with Triller, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In a statement responding to the announcement, TikTok tells PEOPLE, "Tens of millions of Americans come to TikTok for entertainment and inspiration, especially during the pandemic  including our creators and artists who are building livelihoods from the platform. We're motivated by the passion and creativity of our community, and committed to protecting our users' privacy and safety as they share their stories, spark meaningful careers, and connect with a global community."

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Richards, Johnson and Beck are among the app's top users, with a combined 37 million followers.

User security is of the utmost importance to TikTok  we are fully committed to respecting the privacy of our users, a spokesperson for TikTok told PEOPLE in part in early July after Amazon mistakenly asked employees to not use the app on their work devices.

TikTok, which allows users to share short videos featuring everything from dances and lip-syncing videos to viral jokes, was launched in 2016 and is owned by ByteDance, a tech company based in Beijing.

Though the company has maintained that it stores all U.S. user data in the United States, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in early July that the U.S. was considering banning it, along with other Chinese social media apps, due to national security concerns.

A TikTok spokesperson told CBS News at the time that the company has never provided user data to the Chinese government, and would not do so if asked. The spokesperson also confirmed to the outlet that the apps operations in Hong Kong had ceased in light of a new security law backed by China that would ban treason, secession, sedition and subversion.

Plans to open a Transparency Center within the company were put on pause in May due to coronavirus.
Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM is set to report second-quarter 2020 results on Jul 31, before the opening bell.

In the last-reported quarter, the leading integrated energy company reported earnings of 53 cents per share that beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 4 cents, thanks to growth in production volumes from the prolific Permian and Guyana oil resources.

Notably, ExxonMobil beat earnings in three of the past four quarters, the average surprise being 307.9%, as shown in the chart below.

Lets see how things have shaped up prior to the announcement.

Trend in Estimate Revision

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter loss of 65 cents has seen one upward revision and five downward movements in the past 30 days. The figure suggests a year-over-year decline of 189%.

Exxon Mobil Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Exxon Mobil Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Exxon Mobil Corporation price-eps-surprise | Exxon Mobil Corporation Quote

Further, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $33.6 billion, indicating a decline of 51.4% from the year-ago reported figure.

Factors to Note

From April-end, the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude improved more than 239% through the June quarter owing to partial recovery in fuel demand with the easing of lockdown measures. The recovered commodity pricing scenario is likely to have given some support to the companys upstream business.

However, ExxonMobils overall worldwide exploration and production activities are likely to decline from the year-ago period owing to the virus outbreak. Notably, oil and gas resources across the globe have witnessed a decline in total rig count in all months of the June quarter of 2020. This is likely to lower oil equivalent production volumes of most energy majors with ExxonMobil unlikely to be an exception. Thus, the consensus estimate for the companys daily oil equivalent production is pegged at 3,632 thousand barrels (MBoE/D), suggesting a decline from 3,909 MBoE/D in the second quarter of 2019.

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Also, as compared to the prior-year comparable quarter, ExxonMobils refining business is likely to take a hit owing to the pandemic. Importantly, for ExxonMobils worldwide daily refinery throughput, the consensus estimate is pegged at 2,794 thousand barrel per day (MBbl/D), suggesting a decline from 3,930 MBbl/D in the year-ago quarter.

However, partial resumption of economic activity in the June quarter of 2020 and thus some recovery in fuel demand since more people got back to work, especially in the months of May and June, are likely to give some support to the refining operations of the leading global integrated energy company.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for ExxonMobil this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an earnings beat. That is not the case here as you will see below.

Earnings ESP: Earnings ESP represents the difference between the Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate. ExxonMobil has an Earnings ESP of -0.80%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: ExxonMobil currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.

Stocks That Warrant a Look

Though an earnings beat looks uncertain for ExxonMobil, here are a few firms that you may want to consider on the basis of our model. These have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat in the upcoming quarterly reports:

Cabot Oil Gas Corporation COG has an Earnings ESP of +5.00% and is a Zacks #3 Ranked player. The company is scheduled to release second-quarter results after the closing bell on Jul 30. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Antero Midstream Corporation AM has an Earnings ESP of +27.87% and a Zacks Rank of 3. It is scheduled to report second-quarter results on Jul 29.

Enbridge Inc ENB has an Earnings ESP of +0.78% and a Zacks Rank #3. The firm is scheduled to release earnings on Jul 29.

These Stocks Are Poised to Soar Past the Pandemic

The COVID-19 outbreak has shifted consumer behavior dramatically, and a handful of high-tech companies have stepped up to keep America running. Right now, investors in these companies have a shot at serious profits. For example, Zoom jumped 108.5% in less than 4 months while most other stocks were sinking.

Our research shows that 5 cutting-edge stocks could skyrocket from the exponential increase in demand for stay at home technologies. This could be one of the biggest buying opportunities of this decade, especially for those who get in early.

See the 5 high-tech stocks now>>



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Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) : Free Stock Analysis Report



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28)  Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi has ordered faster implementation of the National Renewable Energy Program 2020-2040 to achieve its target of 20,000 megawatts of renewable energy in 20 years.

There is a need to fast track the NREP to help the country achieve the goals set forth in the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, Cusi said in a statement on Tuesday.

The program contains the policy framework under the Republic Act 9513, or the Renewable Energy Act of 2008.

The official also said that it is already late to update the NREP 2011-2030 given developments in the past years.

The department said based on its accomplishment report for 2020, NREP 2020-2040 presents a paradigm shift by renewable energy systems, namely:

1. Consumer + RE Systems that aims to develop renewable energy for consumers in the agriculture, health and education sectors;

2. Consumer + RE Systems + Distribution Utility that aims to promote investments; and

3. Consumer + RE Systems + Distribution Utility + System and Market Operations that targets to increase investments in large-scale renewable energy projects and accelerate compliance with standards and policies.

The shift comes amid President Rodrigo Duterte's recent proclamation that that he was ready to open the borders for trade, including big time coal which is considered to be a nonrenewable energy because it takes time to form.

Earlier this month, Duterte told military troops in Jolo that coal will be used for the next 30 years, while solar energy is unsustainable.

Meanwhile, groups across Asia are urging China-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to stop financing fossil fuel projects and instead focus on helping build economic resilience as countries try to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The toxic impacts of these projects not only undermine global climate goals, but also exacerbate the consequences of the coronavirus crisis, Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development said in an open letter to the financial institution.

It added that what is needed now are climate-friendly responses both for the health and climate crises.

APMDD Coordinator Lidy Nacpil also said that they should close policy loopholes in order to stop supporting such projects.

The group also called out the institutions lack of clear strategy on achieving its own climate mitigation targets despite its pledge in 2017. APMDD noted a report that for every $1 the bank invests in renewable energy, at least twice is invested in fossil fuels.
Washington (AFP) - The United States and Australia said Tuesday they will expand military cooperation as tensions soar with China, presenting a common front between the allies.

Going ahead in Washington with annual talks despite the coronavirus pandemic, Australia's foreign and defense ministers offered clear, if more mildly stated, support for a hawkish shift on China by President Donald Trump's administration.

"The United States knows the threats that you and the rest of the free world face. And the United States stands with you in our unbreakable alliance," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Australian ministers during a joint news conference.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper hailed the participation of five Australian warships last week in exercises with a US carrier strike group and a Japanese destroyer in the Philippine Sea.

"These exercises not only bolster interoperability, but also send a clear signal to Beijing that we will fly, we will sail and we will operate wherever international law allows and defend the rights of our allies and partners to do the same," Esper said.

Australian Defense Minister Linda Reynolds said the two countries will build ties across a slew of defense areas including hypersonic, electronic and space-based warfare.

The cooperation will "strengthen our shared ability to contribute to regional security and to deter malign behavior in our region," she said.

In a joint statement, the ministers said they discussed expanding operations in the northern Australian city of Darwin, where US Marines have been rotating in since 2012 under an initiative of former president Barack Obama.

The United States will establish a military fuel reserve in Darwin and the allies will consider exercises there with like-minded countries -- a likely reference to Japan and India.

In one step that had been too far, Australia last year said it would not serve as a base for US intermediate-range missiles -- widely seen as a way to target China.

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Esper, asked if Australia had warmed to the missiles, said the allies had a "full suite of capabilities and strategies we intend to roll out together in the years ahead."

- Australian solidarity -

Pompeo has championed a hard line on China, questioning the half-century US policy of engagement and urging an alliance to confront a "Frankenstein" Beijing.

Despite Australia's reliance on trade with China, Prime Minister Scott Morrison's right-leaning government has largely backed the United States.

Australia has seconded its longtime ally's calls for an international investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and joined Pompeo in rejecting Beijing's sweeping claims in the South China Sea.

Pompeo hailed Morrison for refusing to "bow to Beijing's wishes" after China retaliated by discouraging travel and trade with Australia and was accused of waging cyberattacks against government sites.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne, however, acknowledged that the two nations "don't agree on everything" and stressed the importance of multilateral institutions, after Trump bolted from the World Health Organization.

As the ministers met, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi -- in a phone call with his counterpart from another US ally, France -- accused Washington of "reckless provocation of confrontation."

- Tied to US election? -

China as well as Trump's domestic critics accuse the US president, who is trailing in polls ahead of November elections, of seizing on China to divert from criticism of his own handling of the pandemic in the United States, which has suffered the highest death toll of any country.

But Trump's presumptive Democratic rival Joe Biden has also vowed a tough approach on China amid wide criticism of the Asian power on issues from trade to its incarceration of Uighur Muslims to its clampdown in semi-autonomous Hong Kong.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore, a close US ally that maintains cordial relations with China, said the US relationship with Beijing historically "always gets entangled" in US presidential elections but stabilizes afterward.

"I'm not sure whether it will happen this time because I feel it's quite different," Lee told the Atlantic Council in Washington.

"The degree of animus and, sad to say, bipartisan consensus on treating China as a threat is quite extraordinary and I fear that it may carry over past the election and, if it does, I think that bodes ill for the world."
President Muhammadu Buhari in a brief statement late Monday, has appealed to major stakeholders in the ongoing Mali crisis, to consider proposals offered by the intervening Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS).

President Muhammadu Buhari earlier today, participated in a Virtual Extraordinary Session of Economic Community Of West African States, ECOWAS, Heads of State and Government.

The meeting was called to further deliberate on issues raised at last weeks Bamako meeting, in the regions bid to finding a lasting solution to the crisis in Mali.

The crisis began in Mali after the court nullified results of 31 parliamentary seats in the polls in May announcing victory in favor of some other contenders.

President Buhari said:

Today we made good progress in our efforts as ECOWAS Heads of State and Government to bring lasting resolution to the political situation in Mali.

I appeal to all the Malian stakeholders to consider the proposals for the reform of the Constitutional Court and for the resolution of the issue of 31 seats at the National Assembly. It is also important that all Malians embrace the call for a Government of National Unity.

Compromise and concessions are necessary for a peaceful resolution of the current crisis; one which would be acceptable to all parties.

I once again commend the various layers of efforts that have gone into resolving the situation in Mali, and especially the efforts of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, whose painstaking engagements as Special Envoy and Mediator provided a clear road-map to containing the crisis.

Meanwhile in Mali, the resistance group M5 is insisting that the declaration is as a result of a prompting from the incumbent President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

They are also determined not to shift grounds unless the Constitutional Court be dissolved, and the President resigns, before they can allow peace return to the country.

Riots on July 10 led to the killing of some protesters by security agents, causing the crisis to spiral out of control, hence the intervention by ECOWAS.
WASHINGTON - Attorney General William Barr will tell the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that President Donald Trump has not inappropriately intervened in Justice Department business - even though Barr has more than once moved in criminal cases to help the president's allies - and he will defend the administration's response to civil unrest in the country, according to a copy of his opening statement.

Barr, according to the statement, will take a defiant posture as he testifies before the panel for the first time since Democrats took control of it, alleging that they have attempted to "discredit" him since he vowed to investigate the 2016 FBI probe of possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, and that the media has been unfair in covering unrest. He is expected to face critical questioning on his response to anti-police-brutality protests across the nation, his controversial interventions in high-profile cases involving allies of Trump and many other matters.

According to a Democratic committee counsel, lawmakers will ask Barr about his role in dispatching federal agents to respond to police-brutality protests that have at times grown violent - first in the District of Columbia and, more recently in Portland, Ore. Several Democratic leaders - including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, N.Y. - have asked the Justice Department and Homeland Security inspectors general to probe the federal government's actions in those cities and raised questions about whether they were legal.

"Citizens are concerned that the Administration has deployed a secret police force, not to investigate crimes but to intimidate individuals it views as political adversaries, and that the use of these tactics will proliferate throughout the country," Nadler and others wrote earlier this month.

Barr will emphasize the violence that has accompanied some demonstrations, especially in Portland, where protests have raged for dozens of nights outside the federal courthouse, according to a copy of his opening statement.

"What unfolds nightly around the courthouse cannot reasonably be called a protest; it is, by any objective measure, an assault on the Government of the United States," Barr will say, according to the opening statement.

Democrats are also likely to ask about a broader range of topics, including what they see as the politicization of the Justice Department, Barr's misleading statements defending Trump's assertion that voting by mail would "open the floodgates to fraud," and what they call his "failure" to enforce voting rights laws.

In his opening statement, Barr will insist that Trump has done no wrong. "From my experience, the President has played a role properly and traditionally played by Presidents," Barr will say, according to the statement.

Republicans, meanwhile, are likely to seek the latest information about U.S. Attorney John Durham's work exploring the origins of the FBI's 2016 investigation into possible coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia. Barr recently told Fox News that he expected to see developments in Durham's investigation "hopefully before the end of the summer." Many Democrats have come to view Durham's probe as a political exercise meant to discredit the FBI investigation that long dogged Trump's presidency, though Republicans see it as an effort to uncover FBI corruption in the previous administration.

About two months ago in D.C., Barr orchestrated a massive show of force in response to protests over George Floyd's death in Minneapolis police custody, deploying agents with the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals and the Bureau of Prisons to help quell unrest.

The move came after demonstrators set a fire at St. John's Episcopal Church, not far from the White House. But critics said Barr's maneuvers went too far - particularly when he ordered the removal of a group of demonstrators from Lafayette Square in front of the White House, just before Trump walked across the area to pose for a photo. Police dispersed the largely peaceful crowd, using mounted officers and gas.

More recently, U.S. marshals - whose agency is part of the Justice Department - participated in the federal law enforcement response in Portland. Much of the controversy there has been driven by images of Department of Homeland Security personnel in military garb clubbing some protesters and stuffing others into unmarked vehicles, alarming civil liberties advocates.

The massive federal deployment was reminiscent of what happened in D.C., and with some local mayors raising concern about the administration sending law enforcement to its streets, Barr and Trump revealed that they were expanding a Justice Department anti-violence initiative to do just that.

Barr and other officials have stressed that the initiative, called Operation Legend, is separate from the federal government's response to violence at protests. The Justice Department, Barr has said, is sending hundreds of agents with the FBI, DEA, the U.S. Marshals Service and others to supplement existing violent-crime task forces. But local leaders have expressed wariness that Barr and Trump have other intentions, and that their moves are meant mainly to help Trump's political prospects by casting him as a law-and-order president.

In his opening statement, Barr will lean into that image. He will criticize efforts to defund police, and will seek to stress that many more black people are killed by homicides than die at police hands. He will note: "The threat to black lives posed by crime on the streets is massively greater than any threat posed by police misconduct."

"When the police are attacked, when they are defunded, when they are driven out of urban communities, it is black lives that will suffer most from their absence," Barr will say, according to a copy of his opening statement. "It is for that reason that, in select cities where there has been an upsurge in violent crime, we are stepping up and bolstering the activities of our joint anti-crime task forces, which have been successful in the past."

The Justice Department and Homeland Security inspectors general have said they will examine the federal response in Portland and D.C., which Barr could use as a reason to decline answering more specific questions about the matter.

Barr is also sure to face scrutiny about his personal interventions in the criminal cases against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and longtime Trump associate Roger Stone.

Stone was convicted in December of lying to Congress as it investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election. Earlier this year, as Stone was awaiting sentencing, Barr overruled the recommendation for a penalty that career prosecutors gave to a judge in favor of a more lenient one. One of the prosecutors on that case, Aaron Zelinsky, testified to the House Judiciary Committee last month that the move was "based on political considerations." Stone was ultimately sentenced to 40 months in prison, but Trump commuted the term this month - a move Barr reportedly opposed.

A counsel for Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said current and former Justice Department officials have come forward since with their own whistleblower accounts, but did not name whom.

Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying about his dealings with a Russian diplomat. But as he was awaiting sentencing, he switched legal teams, tried to attack his own case and soon gained an ally in Barr's Justice Department. Barr ordered the U.S. attorney in St. Louis, Jeff Jensen, to review the matter, and, at Jensen's recommendation, had the Justice Department try to get the case dismissed.

The move again raised questions about politicization. A D.C.-based federal judge initially balked at granting the department's request, though he was ordered to do so by an appeals court - which sided with Barr. The judge is challenging that decision.

Barr will tell lawmakers that Trump "told me from the start that he expects me to exercise my independent judgment to make whatever call I think is right," and, "That is precisely what I have done," according to his opening statement.

"Like his predecessors, President Trump and his National Security Council have appropriately weighed in on law-enforcement decisions that directly implicate national security or foreign policy, because those decisions necessarily involve considerations that transcend typical prosecutorial factors," Barr will say, according to the statement. "Moreover, when some noteworthy event occurs that potentially has legal ramifications - such as leaks of classified information, potential civil rights abuses by police, or illegal price fixing or gouging - the President has occasionally, and appropriately, confirmed that the Department is aware of the matter."

Barr probably will face questions about his ousting of Geoff Berman as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan - an effort that briefly resulted in a standoff between Berman and Barr - and what, if any, role he played in authorities' move to take former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen back into custody after he had been released from federal prison as part of the government's effort to stem the spread of coronavirus. A federal judge last week ordered Cohen to again be released, saying the Justice Department's returning him to prison was retaliation for writing a book about Trump.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Abaco Systems today announced the IPN254, a rugged fourth generation 6U OpenVPX/SOSA aligned heterogeneous multiprocessor solution that leverages Abaco's partnership relationships. It demonstrates Abaco's commitment to continuing innovation with the latest technology and performance standards, while aligning with relevant industry standards.

In line with Abaco's commitment to maximizing the value of customer investments and minimizing long term cost of ownership, an alternative version of the IPN254 provides a straightforward, cost-effective technology insertion/upgrade solution for users of the IPN252, delivering substantially superior performance with minimal disruption. The IPN254 provides an upgrade from a third generation Intel processor to a ninth generation processor, and improves on the IPN252's 1.4 TeraFLOPS of GPU performance with 6.4 TeraFLOPS.

This innovative combination of the latest NVIDIA Turing TU106 embedded/chip-down GPGPU with the latest generation Intel Xeon E CPU yields maximum processing performance in a rugged, single 6U VPX slot. Additionally, the IPN254 utilizes Mellanox ConnectX-5, facilitating dual 40 GigE KR4 data plane fat-pipes for increased bandwidth across the system.

The IPN254 addresses the customer requirement for data plane bandwidth, as well as increased application- and mission data security. It increases overall system performance to contribute to customers' success in data-intensive digital signal processing applications including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), high performance airborne radar, synthetic aperture radar, and ground moving target indicators.

Peter Thompson, Vice President of Product Management at Abaco Systems, said: "The IPN254 demonstrates Abaco's commitment to listening to our customers and delivering the increased GPU and CPU performance their applications need, but within the same SWaP envelope. It also leverages our highly-valued partnerships with Intel and NVIDIA to deliver a product that will enable our customers to do more with less, thereby lowering overall cost of ownership."

Technical Overview

The IPN254 features the NVIDIA Turing TU106 embedded/chip-down GPGPU (6.4 TFLOPS peak performance) and the Intel Xeon E CPU with 64GB DDR4 with ECC, 32 MB Flash, and up to 256 GB SSD. It includes the Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ FPGA with its advanced security features, and delivers a multi-fabric architecture on the data, control, and expansion planes. The IPN254 provides support for the latest DisplayPort 1.4 outputs capable of 4K @ 120 Hz or 5K @ 60 Hz, in line with the latest display standards. It also provides a dual 40 GbE data plane, plus dual 10GbE ports on the control plane, and 16 lanes of PCIe on the expansion plane enabling the IPN254 to move unprecedented amounts of data within the IPN254 itself as well as around the wider ecosystem of which it is part. The IPN254 is available as a SOSA aligned offering.

More Information

Data Sheet

About Abaco Systems

With more than 30 years' experience, Abaco Systems is a global leader in open architecture computing and electronic systems for aerospace, defense and industrial applications. We create innovative, modular solutions based on open standards that are characterized by outstanding price/performance, ultimate rugged reliability and minimal SWaP. Our goal is to be a significant contributor to our customers' success, partnering with them to reduce cost, time-to-deployment and risk and supporting them over the long term. With an active presence in hundreds of national asset platforms on land, sea and in the air, Abaco Systems is trusted where it matters most. www.abaco.com

Intel and Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. NVIDIA and Quadro RTX are registered trademarks or trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation. Xilinx and Zynq are registered trademarks, and Ultrascale+ is a trademark, of Xilinx, Inc. SOSA is a trademark of The Open Group. DisplayPort is a trademark of VESA. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Abaco Systems

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Advocates for the a controversial police accountability bill heading for the state Senate on Tuesday held their positions, insisting police union claims that they could lose their houses in future lawsuits, as well as towns concerns that they could end up paying a lot more for the damages of rogue officers, are unfounded.

At issue, as it was last week, is a section that tightens the rules on so-called qualified immunity that protects law enforcement officers from lawsuits by people claiming their rights were violated. Police unions and others in law enforcemen say the provision goes too far.

In fact, the lives of average law enforcement officials will not change if the bill, mimicking existing federal law, passes the state Senate, advoates said. Gov. Ned Lamont last week indicated that he would sign it.

A cop would only face a suit where he has violated the constitutional rights of someone, and did not have a good-faith belief he was following the law when he did so, said state Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, who introduced, then defended the wide-ranging police accountability bill during a seven-and-a-half-hour-long House debate that ended at 9 a.m. on Friday.

And even then, the municipality has to indemnify against damages, unless a jury finds the officers act willful and malicious, Stafstrom, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on Monday.

Republicans say the bill may have unintended consequences and should not have been rushed through in a special session as one of four bills with one day of debate for each General assembly chamber.

The short two-day notice we received for the virtual public hearing has me concerned that the Connecticuts legislative body is taking a rushed approach to handling a very important and emotionally charged issue affecting many people in and out of law enforcement, said Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, who noted the potential for unintended consequences.

By the time the bill reached the House floor early Friday, the immunity section had become the product of a compromise that, according to the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, made it more workable and less onerous.

The bills changes included removing language that would have allowed a direct action against a municipality. The final legislation also deleted a section on punitive awards for intentional acts.

The reason for the section, said Stafstrom who co-authored the bill with committee co-chairman Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, was the desire on the part of Democrats to respond to what is seen as the hard-to-use federal qualified immunity, in which lawsuits against particular rogue cops can only go forward for cases that are exactly similar to cases that had been decided in the past.

Emphasizing the dangers of moving too quickly, Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, asked Attorney General William Tong over the weekend for an opinion on whether a certain section of the bill related to investigations of allegations against police was unconstitutional. Fasano said he supported the measure but didnt believe it passed legal muster.

Tong on Monday responded with a letter that said, in part, theres no time for a formal opinion before the Senate acts, and it could be inappropriate considering the House already adopted the measure. But Tong said hes confident the bill would be constitutional.

Fasano immediately sought a delay in the vote from the Senate Democtatic leaders.

Advocates for rights of Black and Hispanic people charge that federal laws are essentially useless in gaining awards for constitutional violations that could amount to racist attacks.

The issue of qualified immunity has created a firestorm over the last week, with 300 police gathered at the Capitol warning of mass retirements and resignations on Thursday before the House debate. Advocates led by Black government and religious leaders say its a crucial part of the accountability legislation, particularly in the national Black Lives Matter demonstrations that brought millions of people of all colors into the streets in protest over decades of racism that crystalized after the choking death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.

On Monday, religious leaders joined state Treasurer Shawn Wooden in a news conference outside the State Office Building near the State Capitol, to call for support of the legislation in the Senate.

I am also the subject/object of the intimidation that some police officers bring upon any simple stop, said the Rev. Anthony Bennett, pastor of Mt. Aery Baptist Church in Bridgeport. It is my hope and prayer that the senators will deliberate. We are done dying without accountability, and we believe this police accountability bill will take a step forward in making police officers who misconduct, to allow them to have accountability.

Asked Monday whether he would try to lobby senators to act in favor of the legislation, Lamont said he believes there is enough support in the Senate, which has a 22-14 Democratic majority, plus Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, in case of a tie vote.

I would approve it, Lamont reiterated during his Monday news briefing. I think its a good bill. It takes into account transparency and accountability, builds more trust between the police and the local community. I think its important. I think the House made it a better bill and I hope the senate passes it.

Asked if he would help lobby the bill, Lamont said he would assess the bills support.

My understanding is its moving along pretty well, Lamont said. Its greatly improved. Nobody is having their immunity stripped away. The qualified immunity here in Connecticut now matches the federal government. Qualified immunity is in place for the vast majority of anything a cop could be doing. Theres just in case of wanton, reckless, willful wrongs, in that case your immunity would no longer cover.

Stafstrom said that since 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court has held a requirement that a plaintiff must show a defendant law enforcement official violated clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known and the plaintiff is required to cite another case with very similar circumstances.

In one case, the high court said in 2019 that police officers should have recognized they were wrong when they stole $225,000 while executing a search warrant, but they did not have clear notice that it violated the Fourth Amendment.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
Hussain alleged that the Delhi Police didn't furnish information on a sixth FIR filed against him, and only gave details of 5 cases

New Delhi: A Delhi court has dismissed an application moved by suspended AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain, who was arrested in a case related to rioting in north east Delhi in February, accusing police officials of abusing their power and filing a false and fabricated report about pending cases against him.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Purushottam Pathak rejected the application seeking necessary legal action against the investigating officer or the Station House Officer or Deputy Commissioner of Police of North East and Deputy Commissioner of Crime Branch of Delhi police.

Hussain had levelled the allegation while pointing out that the police had not furnished information to the court on a sixth FIR filed against him.

But the court, in its 25 July order, said that there was no merit in the application and "not providing information is a bonafide mistake on the part of investigating agency".

During the hearing held through video conferencing, advocate Javed Ali, appearing for Hussain, told the court that initially Hussain had filed an application in March, seeking necessary directions to the police to provide copies of FIRs in which he has allegedly been booked along with the status report.

The police had informed in its report filed before the court on 19 March that Hussain was booked under five cases, said Ali.

Thereafter he was arrested in another FIR which was registered in February but the details were not provided in their 19 March report, Hussain's lawyer further said.

He claimed that this created doubt and showed that the sixth FIR was "ante dated, forged and fabricated" or the report dated 19 March was "manipulated".

The police told the court that there was absolutely no intent to furnish wrong information before the court as alleged and the Station House Officer may have inadvertently missed out on mentioning the sixth FIR.

The court noted that "non-disclosure of accused in the sixth FIR was not deliberate and there was no point assuming that the DCP-North East and DCP-Crime/SHO concerned have deliberately withheld the information and that too for causing any harm to Hussain... It seems that not providing the information is a bonafide mistake on the part of Investigating Agency".

Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on 24 February after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.
Microsoft is honored to recognize Velosio for their achievements this past year, their dedication to our customers, and their innovation around the Microsoft Cloud.

Velosio, a technology partner specializing in business management solutions for small and medium-sized companies and larger enterprises, has achieved the prestigious 2020/2021 Inner Circle for Microsoft Business Applications. This makes the 25th consecutive year Velosio has achieved Inner Circle. Membership in this elite group is based on sales achievements that rank Velosio in the top echelon of the Microsofts Business Applications global network of partners. Inner Circle members have performed to a high standard of excellence by delivering valuable solutions that help organizations achieve increased success.

2020/2021 Inner Circle members are invited to the Inner Circle Virtual Summits, taking quarterly between July 2020 and June 2021, where they will have a unique opportunity to share strategy and network with Microsoft senior leaders and fellow partners.

This recognition of Inner Circle for Microsoft Business Applications coincided with Microsoft Inspire, the annual premier partner event, which took place July 20-21, 2020. Microsoft Inspire provides the Microsoft partner community with the opportunity to learn about the companys road map for the upcoming year, establish connections, share best practices, experience the latest product innovations and learn new skills.

Each year we recognize Microsoft Business Applications partners from around the world for delivering innovation and driving unsurpassed customer success, said Cecilia Flombaum, Microsoft Business Applications Ecosystem Lead. Our Inner Circle members are chosen based on their business performance as well as capabilities as an organization, whether thats creating IP, developing solutions, or having an industry leading focus on digital transformation. Microsoft is honored to recognize Velosio for their achievements this past year, their dedication to our customers, and their innovation around the Microsoft Cloud.

With over 30 years of business systems experience, Velosio is a leader in deploying business applications through the cloud and delivering unparalleled client experiences. By collaborating with the teams at Microsoft, Velosio maintains a strong expertise of the Microsoft platform to provide innovative solutions, strong services and unparalleled value to their clients.

Velosio supports the entire Microsoft Dynamics portfolio, Office 365 family and Azure services to deliver innovative and fresh ideas across ERP, CRM, Power Platform, business intelligence, and cloud technology helping clients optimize their business operations. Every day we strive to enable clients to realize business value faster, simplify the process of deploying technology, acquire deeper data-driven insights, and explore ongoing innovation to drive business forward.

Velosio is honored to again be recognized by Microsoft as an Inner Circle Partner. It is especially gratifying this year because the award is testimony to Velosio team members experience and dedication to delivering innovative cloud technology, software, and services that helped our clients survive a difficult business climate while positioning them to thrive in the future, said Velosio President and CEO, Joseph Longo.

For more information on Velosio, visit Velosio.com.

About Velosio

Velosio is a leader in deploying business applications through the cloud and delivering unparalleled client experiences. One of the largest Microsoft partners in North America, Velosio supports the entire Microsoft Dynamics portfolio, Office 365 family and Azure services. The solutions portfolio includes ERP, CRM, Productivity, Business Intelligence, and Power Platform. Velosio is the only Microsoft Cloud Distributor that specializes in Dynamics 365 and is a prominent Microsoft Master VAR. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Velosio serves over 4,000 clients from more than 40 offices in the US and Canada.
The Minister of Communications and Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ablekuma West Constituency, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has presented medical equipment to the Dansoman Polyclinic and Personal Protective Equipment to four Senior High Schools (SHSs) in the constituency.



At the Dansoman Polyclinic, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful donated examination and head lights for theatre purposes, pulse oximeter, a printer and other office stationery, including chairs, note books and pens to management of the clinic.



Receiving the equipment, Dr Felicia Anderson, the doctor in charge of the Dansoman Polyclinic, on behalf of management expressed their appreciation and called for the support of government in completing their extended health facility.



For each of the four schools, the Communications Minister donated a number of hand sanitisers and face masks to all final year students, in addition to sanitary towels for female students.



The schools visited were Saint Margaret Mary Senior High Technical School, His Majesty SHS, 7 Great Princes Academy, and the Ebenezer SHS.



Mrs Owusu-Ekuful encouraged final year students to give off their best despite the era of the coronavirus pandemic and excel in their West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE), indicating that, with the training they have received in their various schools, she was optimistic they would pass.



If you take your dreams and education seriously, there is nothing you cannot do as long as you put your mind to it, she said.



The world is waiting for you as young adults to also make your path and leave that impression and do your best for the development of the country, she added.



According to the Ablekuma West MP, the government recognises education as pivotal in the countrys human and national development, and has therefore made efforts to solidify the education sector through its policies.



This government put great effort and has prioritised education as one of its key areas of intervention in the life of this country and its development, she noted.

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.

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NEW YORK, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Republicans have proposed a second $1,200 stimulus check for Americans and $500 for each dependent, reports the Enrolled Agents and tax advisers Bambridge Accountants New York.

The HEALS Act (Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, and Schools Act) includes:

HEALS Act stimulus check

A second $1,200 stimulus check for all U.S. citizens worldwide, on the same income limits as the first stimulus check

stimulus check for all U.S. citizens worldwide, on the same income limits as the first stimulus check Additional $500 for each dependent

for each dependent Unemployment benefits will still be enhanced, but these will drop from $600 to $200 a week

to a week Return-to-work bonus of $450 a week

a week Help for renters to stop evictions

Stimulus Checks

The $1,200 payments will follow the same income thresholds as the first payments earlier this year.

Individuals will receive the full $1,200 if their income is up to $75,000 - above that level, they will still receive a partial payment up to income of $99,000.

Joint filers will receive $2,400 if their income is up to $150,000 - above that level, they will still receive a partial payment up to joint income of $198,000.

There will also be $500 for each dependent (up to a maximum of three dependents). Unlike the first stimulus payments for dependents, there is no age limit.

When Will the Stimulus Payments Arrive?

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that Republicans have the backing from President Trump to ensure that the payments would be made in August 2020.

The President's acting chief of staff, Mark Meadows, added, "The President has been very clear. He wants to make sure that the American people have what they need during this unprecedented time."

Are U.S. Expats Eligible for Stimulus Checks?

Like the first payments, the $1,200 checks are for all Americans, including U.S. expats living abroad. Once the 2018 and 2019 U.S. returns have been filed, the payments should automatically be sent to U.S. citizens.

Is the Stimulus Check Taxable?

No - the IRS have confirmed that the stimulus checks are not treated as income and taxpayers do not have to pay tax on the amount. Also, it does not affect income when someone applies for federal government assistance.

What Happens If You Owe Tax or Have a Payment Plan With the IRS?

Americans will still receive their payment even if they owe tax or have a payment plan with the IRS. If they owe child support, then the payment can be offset.

Bambridge Accountants has offices in London and New York and offers reasonable flat fees for the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures and annual U.S. expat tax preparation services - plus IRS and FATCA queries for Americans overseas.

Contact: Alistair Bambridge, [email protected], +1 646 956 5566

www.bambridgeaccountants.com

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HOUSTON - The U.S. government did not release 100 immigrant children detained with their parents despite this weeks deadline set by a judge who had described family detention centres as on fire due to the threat of the coronavirus.

Instead, more parents and children were held in the three centres this month than last month, according to government data. Immigration authorities in July have brought into the centres dozens of parents and children, at least 40 of whom have since tested positive for COVID-19.

Meanwhile, according to lawyers who work with detained families, there had been rumours circulating that many or all families would be released by Monday.

At the detention centre in Dilley, Texas, a 3-year-old girl and 11-year-old boy will soon reach a full year in custody with their parents.

Our families have had a lot of practice in having their hopes lifted and then crushed, said Shalyn Fluharty, director of Proyecto Dilley, which represents families at the centre.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday that it was in compliance with Judge Dolly Gees June 26 order, which originally set a July 17 deadline for the release of all children held by ICE for more than 20 days. ICE had signalled for weeks that it would not voluntarily free more than 300 parents and children detained at facilities in Texas and Pennsylvania.

Gee oversees a court settlement known as the Flores agreement that sets standards for the governments treatment of immigrant children in custody. Her order did not cover the childrens parents. A different federal judge separately refused to order the release of parents.

After extending the July 17 deadline to Monday, Gee on Saturday denied the Trump administrations request for another extension. But in her Saturday order, Gee said that her order to release children could be considered unenforceable if any of three conditions werent met.

A key sticking point has been whether the government should ask parents to release their children to family members and stay in immigration detention on their own. One of the conditions in Gees order was children could be released to family sponsors with the parents consent. The others were ICE deciding to free parents or a separate court order requiring the release of parents.

Lawyers for detained families argue parents should be released with their children. They have publicly split with Peter Schey, a non-profit attorney who has long represented childrens interests in the Flores agreement and says parents should be given the choice to stay in detention and have their children released.

ICE has released thousands of detained immigrants since the start of the pandemic, including hundreds of parents and children since April. The three family detention centres in Texas and Pennsylvania are well below their capacity.

The agency declined to comment on Mondays deadline but said lawyers for both sides continue to dialogue in anticipation of providing an update to Gee next week.
On July 21, 2020, LEGO announced that the upcoming LEGO Technic V-22 Osprey had been cancelled. Set number 42113 was an officially licensed model of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft used by the US Navy, Marines, Air Force and Japanese Self-Defense Forces.

Despite being just 10 days away from its August 1 release date, LEGO pulled the Osprey from its website and announced that shipments of the new set would not go out to retailers. In their official statement, LEGO said:

The LEGO Technic Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey was designed to highlight the important role the aircraft plays in search and rescue efforts. While the set clearly depicts how a rescue version of the plane might look, the aircraft is only used by the military. We have a long-standing policy not to create sets which feature real military vehicles, so it has been decided not to proceed with the launch of this product. We appreciate that some fans who were looking forward to this set may be disappointed, but we believe it's important to ensure that we uphold our brand values.

LEGO's policy of not making sets based on military vehicles goes back to its very beginning. In fact, the original LEGO brick colors in the 1950s didn't even include grey because LEGO feared that they could be used to make military vehicles like tanks.

Orange trim wasn't enough to distance the V-22 from its military use (LEGO)

In recent years, LEGO has limited the scope of their military restriction to modern military vehicles. This allowed them to create sets based on historic military vehicles like the WWI-era Sopwith Camel biplane and Fokker Dr.1 triplane.

Licensed IPs like Indiana Jones and Star Wars have also allowed LEGO to make sets with military themes that weren't modern or real. Indiana Jones set number 7198 included an armed Pilatus P-2 with Luftwaffe markings from The Last Crusade and set number 7683 featured the fictional Nazi flying wing bomber from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Under the Star Wars license, LEGO has created molds for fictional blasters that come from the galaxy far, far away.

However, while LEGO has not released a licensed modern military set, it has released some that bear striking resemblances to modern military vehicles. LEGO Creator 3-in-1 sets have featured vehicles that look remarkably like the AH-64 Apache (31023), F-14 Tomcat (4953), Rafale M (5892), F-35 Lightning II (31039) and even the V-22 (31020). LEGO City set number 60021 City Cargo Heliplane is a dedicated set that also bears a striking resemblance to the V-22. The main difference between the aforementioned sets and the cancelled V-22 seems to be the official licensing by Bell and Boeing, who make the real-life aircraft.

It looks like a V-22, but it isn't (LEGO)

In July, the German Peace Society issued a warning against LEGO releasing the licensed V-22. Despite rebranding of the aircraft in the set to make it a search and rescue aircraft, the German Peace Society released a statement saying:

On 1. August 2020 LEGO plans to release its first ever military set while internal corporate value documents forbid the production of current military vehicles. The German DFG-VK also criticises the license placed on the set. With every buy, customers help to finance arms companies.

Despite the set being ready for release with advertisements and stock ready to go, LEGO has marked all packaged sets of the V-22 for return to circulation. While LEGO stores will never receive the set, some smaller retailers did receive their first orders early and buyers have been quick to scoop up the rare sets. New Zealand seems to have received the most shipments as Ebay listings for the V-22 all ship from New Zealand and are selling for well over $1,000. Some retailers are even returning their stock to LEGO rather than selling them.

While this turn of events has been a major disappointment for LEGO fans, the fact that the set got so close to release can be seen as a sign of things to come. While the V-22 is used exclusively by armed forces, it's not unreasonable to think that military aircraft with civilian variants like the C-130 Hercules or the CH-47 Chinook might be turned into licensed LEGO sets in the future.

Commercials were filmed and ready. Note the "Rescue" markings. (LEGO)

More articles from We Are the Mighty:

Check out this crazy impressive Marine Corps Air Station made of LEGOs

These guys made an awesome model of Omaha Beach with LEGOs

The 5 most decorated troops in American history

We Are The Mighty (WATM) celebrates service with stories that inspire. WATM is made in Hollywood by veterans. It's military life presented like never before. Check it out at We Are the Mighty.
Count New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall among the skeptics about the Department of Justices decision to send additional federal law enforcement officers to Albuquerque as part of Operation Legend.

Federal law enforcement should not be misused as part of the presidents political agenda, whether in Albuquerque, Portland, or any other U.S. city, the Democrat said in a news release following President Donald Trumps announcement at the White House last Wednesday.

He mentioned the federal law enforcement operation where demonstrators were allegedly taken into custody in Portland during recent protests. Udall also hinted the operation was an attempt by the president to politicize such issues as public safety.

But officials such as U.S. Attorney for New Mexico John Anderson insist protesters would not be targeted here, and there was no connection between this operation and what happened in Portland.

Still, the senator said he would seek answers about the exact authorities, missions, duration and conditions attached to this operation.

One of the men who hopes to replace Udall in the Senate, Republican nominee Mark Ronchetti, voiced support for federal assistance, and called out state and local leaders who are demonizing law enforcement and attempting to distract New Mexicans from the extreme crime crisis within Albuquerque by calling for the resignation of Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales for fighting crime.

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., was among the officials calling for Gonzales to resign. Ronchetti criticized the Democratic senators use of stormtroopers in reference to the federal law enforcement officers being sent to the city.

Our political environment cant be so poisonous that it blinds us to what bonds us all together  the desire for safe streets to raise our families, Ronchetti said in a news release.

DEFENSE SPENDING BILLS MOVE ON: The U.S. House and Senate both passed their versions of National Defense Authorization Act of 2021 last week.

Both versions of the NDAA include funding for projects at Kirtland and Holloman Air Force bases, as well as White Sands Missile Range.

Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory would also receive funds for infrastructure projects. Provisions also address contamination cleanup from years of use of fire suppression foam at military instillations around the country, including Cannon and Holloman Air Force bases in New Mexico.

The differences between the versions will be ironed out in a conference committee before a final vote in each chamber.

TORRES SMALL MOST VULNERABLE DEM? Another sign that the 2nd Congressional District race between Democratic incumbent Xochitl Torres Small and Republican Yvette Herrell will be one of the most watched in the country this election season came in the form of a July 17 Washington Post story called The 10 House seats likely to flip in November.

Post writer Amber Phillips listed Torres Small as the most vulnerable because Trump won the district in mostly rural southern New Mexico by a 10% margin in 2016. She pointed out the district leans conservative.

Torres Small won the seat over Herrell by less than 4,000 votes in 2018. But Phillips said the first-term Democrat is doing what she can to hold the seat, citing her substantial fundraising edge.

Scott Turner: sturner@abqjournal.com
Sure, it might be warm Wednesday, but what about the rest of the week?
Four years after an agreement between two countries, India's first batch of five Rafale fighter aircraft, that took off from France's Istres airbase on July 27, will land in India on July 29. These jets will significantly boost the combat capabilities of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

A person who played a significant role in the quick delivery of the jets to India is Air Commodore Hilal Ahmad Rather who is presently Indias Air Attache to France. He has also weaponized the jets as per conditions suitable for India. The IAF officer was seen with India's ambassador to France Jawed Ashraf.

According to sources, Air Commodore Rather hails from the Bakshiabad area of Anantnag district in Jammu and Kashmir and studied in Sanik School. He is a graduate from Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) and also from the Air War College in the USA, where he passed with academic distinction.

The IAF officer received Vayu Sena Medal, given for devotion to duty, when he was a Wing Commander in 2010 and Vishisht Seva Medal when he was a Group Captain in 2016. He has also won the Sword of Honour in NDA. He was commissioned on December 17, 1988, in the IAF fighter stream.

He has completed more than 3,000 hours of accident-free flying on MiG 21s, Mirage-2000, and Kiran aircraft. The IAF officer is a Fighter Combat Leader and a qualified Flying Instructor.

Air Commodore Rather has served as a Directing Staff at DSSC as well. He has commanded a Mirage-2000 Squadron and also a front-line Air Force Base.

The five Rafale jets are the first batch of the 36 supersonic omnirole combat aircraft that India is buying from France. Till now, 12 IAF fighter pilots have completed their training on the Rafale fighter jets in France and a few more are in the advanced phase of their training. According to the contract between India and France, the two countries a total of 36 IAF pilots are to be trained on the Rafale combat jets by French aviators. While most of the IAF pilots will be trained in France, some of them will undergo the exercise in India.

Rafale is capable of carrying a range of potent weapons. European missile maker MBDA's Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile and SCALP air-to-ground cruise missile will be the mainstay of the weapons package of the Rafale jets.

The IAF will further boost the capabilities of the combat aircraft by equipping it with the HAMMER missiles from France. The order for the HAMMER standoff missiles is being processed under the emergency powers for acquisition given to the armed forces by the Centre. HAMMER missiles have the capability to take out any types of targets at the range of around 60-70 kms.

The trainer Rafale aircraft will have the tail numbers of the RB series in honour of the IAF Chief RKS Bhadauria who played a significant role in finalising Rafale deal. India had inked a Rs 60,000 crore deal with France in September 2016 for 36 Rafales to bolster the capabilities of IAF.
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Linkedin Larissa Rausch (Agence France-Presse) Berlin  Tue, July 28, 2020 08:07 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669bd69c 2 Entertainment Berghain,Berlin,music Free

The coronavirus is keeping Berlin's legendary clubs closed but techno mecca Berghain has found a way to throw its doors back open, luring visitors with an unusual sound exhibition.

Just 50 people are let in at a time to allow for physical distancing, but without the venue's notoriously picky doormen standing guard, no one has to worry about being denied entry.

Once inside Berghain's imposing Kessel Hall, it's not the sound of techno that fills the space.

Instead, visitors to the former power plant are enveloped by an eery, almost surreal soundscape of rhythmic throbbing, soft city noises, murmurings and even the whirling of helicopter blades.

"You listen, you experience, you can close your eyes or leave them open and follow the sound across the room," said Carsten Seiffarth, co-curator of the Singuhr projects, a platform that organizes sound art installations.

The show, known as "Eleven songs -- Hall at Berghain" is the brainchild of artistic duo Sam Auinger and Hannes Strobl and runs until August 2.

Fellow curator Markus Steffens said the pair were invited to come up with an acoustic experience "for and with the space" -- a concrete, high-ceilinged former machine hall located behind the main club rooms worshiped by techno lovers worldwide.

"The room itself is a kind of instrument to them," Steffens said, where the sound interacts with the architecture to create different listening experiences.

Read also: Germany alarmed at tourists partying in Mallorca

Queues and face masks

The project was conceived last year, well before Germany went into lockdown to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although many of the restrictions have been lifted in recent months with shops, restaurants and museums allowed to reopen, nightclubs remain shut over concerns that huge crowds mingling indoors could fuel a surge in infections.

Organizers of Berghain's sound exhibition said they initially feared people wouldn't come.

"We didn't really know what was going to happen. What if no one came because they were afraid of getting infected?" said Seiffarth.

But he needn't have worried. Visitors, wearing face masks, have already been queuing to get in.

With crowd numbers capped at 50, culture fans can spread out comfortably across the vast hall, while the large open windows allow for plenty of fresh air, Seiffarth said.

Besides, people are ready to get out of the house and do something different after weeks of confinement, he added.

"Here, you can be with other people," Seiffarth said.

"It's also about having an experience with this room and feeling emotions that go beyond just listening."

Topics : Berghain Berlin music
Here are todays leading news stories:

Society

-- Vietnam did not register any new case of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Tuesday morning. The countrys tally remains at 431, with 365 having recovered.

-- A special flight is scheduled to leave Vietnam for Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday to bring home 219 Vietnamese citizens, of whom 120 are diagnosed with COVID-19.

-- Authorities in the central city of Da Nang have decided to lock down three local hospitals and four streets from July 28 until at least August 11, as these areas are linked to the locally-transmitted COVID-19 cases recently recorded in the city.

-- Police in the southern province of Dong Nai confirmed on Monday they had apprehended the owner and three managers of a local club for allegedly harboring the illegal use of narcotics at the venue.

-- The Hanoi administration announced on Monday that all people who have been to areas linked to COVID-19 patients in Da Nang must be tested for the novel coronavirus.

-- The border guard office in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang reported on Monday it had detected 214 cases of illegal border crossing and arrested 392 people since March 10.

-- A total of five earthquakes that were measured at 3.0-5.3 degrees on the Richter scale occurred in Moc Chau District in the northern province of Son La on Monday afternoon. The prime minister has ordered local authorities to promptly deal with the damage caused by the tremors.

Business

-- The Saigon Dairy Factory of the Vietnam Dairy Products JSC (Vinamilk) has become the fifth Vietnamese factory granted a transaction code to export dairy products to China, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

-- The steering committee for the restructuring of credit organizations held a meeting in Hanoi on Monday, chaired by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

World news

-- Over 16.6 million people have been infected with the new coronavirus around the world while more than 655,800 have lost their lives, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Health's statistics. Above 10.2 million patients have recovered.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Supermodel Gigi Hadid proved that she does not only have a pretty face but also an eye for interior design...albeit quite uniquely.

This came after the Victoria's Secret angel and soon-to-be-momma took to Instagram to show off her luxury bohemian-inspired New York City apartment, which she called her "passion project."

Gigi Hadid's Million Dollar "Dream Spot"

"Spent all of last year designing and curating my passion project/dream spot," Hadid wrote as she shared to her 55.4 million IG followers a glimpse of her two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. "Of course it all came together right before quarantining out of the city .... but I'm excited for the time I'll get to spend enjoying all the special corners that were made with a lil help from some of my favorite creatives (tap!) who embraced my ideas and didn't call me crazy."

Her newly renovated space, which she reportedly bought in December 2018 for a whopping price of $5.82 million, has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a landscaped private terrace complete with a fire pit, barbecue grill, and outdoor refrigerator-- perfect for late-night cozy bonding moments for the soon-to-be family of three.

From Pasta Filled Cupboards To New Yorker Wallpapered Bathrooms

Moreover, the 25-year-old Vogue cover girl displayed her fun and playful personality in her NYC apartment.

Gigi showed her eccentric style with unusual accent pieces like a giant ballpoint pen, and a cupboard filled with dried and dyed pasta spirals. She also has a luxe marble bathroom decorated with iconic New Yorker magazine covers.

Meanwhile, her friends and fans were proud of her amazing skill and even commended how she transformed her apartment into a colorful new space with unique pieces.

"Queer Eye's" resident fashion designer Tan France responded: "OMG! It turned out so great, Gi! It's beautiful," while the millionaire supermodel's father and a real estate developer Mohamed Hadid wrote: "The warmest colors. The perfect comfort zone, the perfect eye-pleaser, the perfect design..for the eye, the soul, and the body. It is a living space..in love with it."

Unfortunately, despite her excitement and efforts she put into her "passion project," others took to social media to express their confusion and even mocked Gigi for her bizarre aesthetic and "ugly" design choices.

"Gigi Hadid's house being ugly brings me comfort," one user posted.

Another one even pointed out that her storages are "expensive" but used it in a toddler's arts and crafts project," while another critic reacted: "I wish I could unsee the interior design of Gigi Hadid's house. I've never hated something more in my life."

More upsetting decor from her bazillion $ manhattan apartment pic.twitter.com/EmcuUxJFY6  (@whysimonewhy) July 26, 2020

The Tommy Hilfiger model might be preparing her new space as she and boyfriend Zayn Malik are excited for the arrival of their first child.

Last April, the supermodel confirmed her pregnancy during her virtual appearance with "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." Gigi mentioned that she "wished" that they could have announced it on their terms, but they "were very excited and happy and grateful for everyone's well wishes."

The duo is reportedly spending the quarantine in Hadid's Pennsylvania farm alongside sister Bella and mom Yolanda.

READ MORE: Prince Harry Heartbreak: Queen Elizabeth Insulted, Palace Return with Meghan Markle Now Impossible
Working men with higher incomes are more likely to develop high blood pressure, reports a study.

The study was presented at the 84th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Circulation Society (JCS 2020).

Men with higher incomes need to improve their lifestyles to prevent high blood pressure, said study author Dr Shingo Yanagiya of the Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan. Steps include eating healthily, exercising, and controlling weight. Alcohol should be kept to moderate levels and binge drinking avoided.

More than one billion people have high blood pressure worldwide. Around 30-45% of adults are affected, rising to more than 60% of people over 60 years of age. High blood pressure is the leading global cause of premature death, accounting for almost 10 million deaths in 2015. Of those, 4.9 million were due to ischaemic heart disease and 3.5 million were due to stroke.

Japan alone has more than 10 million people with high blood pressure, and the number continues to rise. Dr Yanagiya said: High blood pressure is a lifestyle-related disease. As a physician seeing these patients I wanted to know if risk varies with socioeconomic class, to help us focus our prevention efforts.

This analysis of the J-HOPE3 study examined the relationship between household income and high blood pressure in Japanese employees. A total of 4,314 staff (3,153 men and 1,161 women) with daytime jobs and normal blood pressure were enrolled in 2012 from 12 workplaces.

Workers were divided into four groups according to annual household income: less than 5 million, 5 to 7.9 million, 8 to 9.9 million, and 10 million or more Japanese yen per year. The researchers investigated the association between income and developing high blood pressure over a two-year period.

Compared to men in the lowest income category, men in the highest income group were nearly twice as likely to develop high blood pressure. Men in the 5 to 7.9 million and 8 to 9.9 million groups had a 50% higher risk of developing high blood pressure compared to men with the lowest incomes, although the positive association did not reach statistical significance in the 8 to 9.9 million groups.

The findings were consistent regardless of age and were independent of baseline blood pressure, worksite, occupation, number of family members, and smoking. The relationships were slightly weakened after accounting for alcohol consumption and body mass index (BMI; kg/m2), both of which were higher for men in the higher income groups.

In women, there was no significant link between income and blood pressure. However, women with higher household income tended to have a lower risk of developing high blood pressure.

Some previous Japanese surveys have reported that higher household income is associated with more undesirable lifestyles in men, but not in women, said Dr Yanagiya. Our study supports this: men, but not women, with higher household incomes were more likely to be obese and drink alcohol every day. Both behaviours are major risk factors for hypertension.

He concluded: Men with high-paying daytime jobs are at particular risk of high blood pressure. This applies to men of all ages, who can greatly decrease their chance of a heart attack or stroke by improving their health behaviours.

Dr. Yusuke Yoshikawa, the public relations coordinator for JCS 2020, said: Hypertension is one of the most important risk factors of cardiovascular disease in Japan because the average daily salt intake in Japan (approx. 10 g/day) is much higher than desired. As the current guidelines2 strongly recommend a healthy lifestyle to control high blood pressure, this study suggests a potential key to successful intervention for those who are at risk of heart disease and stroke.

Professor Michel Komajda, a Past President of the ESC and course director of the ESC programme at JCS 2020, said: The ESC is delighted to be part of JCS 2020 in Kyoto. We value our special partnership with JCS and the high quality of Japanese research. Japan is among the top submitters of abstracts to ESC Congress.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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(CNN)  The Trump administration took a key step on Monday toward fulfilling the president's executive order on social media, formally asking the FCC to develop regulations that could apply to Facebook, Twitter, and other tech platforms.

The petition for rulemaking puts the ball in the FCC's court. The agency must now decide whether to agree to US President Donald Trump's call for FCC oversight of internet platforms. Trump and other Republicans have long criticized companies, including Facebook and Twitter, for allegedly censoring conservatives; the companies have denied the claims.

"President Trump is committed to protecting the rights of all Americans to express their views and not face unjustified restrictions or selective censorship from a handful of powerful companies," said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a statement.

FCC spokesman Brian Hart said the agency will carefully review the petition.

Under Trump's May executive order, a branch of the Commerce Department known as the National Telecommunications and Information Administration was expected to call on the FCC to "clarify" Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the law that has shielded tech companies from much litigation over internet content since its passage in 1996.

Trump's social media order was introduced and signed days after Twitter applied a warning label to his tweets that said they were "potentially misleading." Twitter highlighted two of Trump's tweets that claimed, without evidence, that mail-in voting would lead to widespread voter fraud. Trump later threatened to "strongly regulate" or shut down social media platforms. Since then, Trump has continued his attacks against Twitter.

Legal experts say the executive order is on shaky ground, as the FCC has traditionally avoided regulating internet companies. The order is already facing at least one legal challenge that claims it is unconstitutional.

Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democratic FCC commissioner, said the agency should steer clear of the request.

"The FCC shouldn't take this bait," Rosenworcel said in a statement. "While social media can be frustrating, turning this agency into the President's speech police is not the answer. If we honor the Constitution, we will reject this petition immediately."
I remember the smell of grass and canvas, the songs of birds and cicadas, the dawn sunlight gracing the top of my tent as I lay there until the smell of bacon drifted through the campsite. I climbed out of my sleeping bag, pulled back the tent flaps, and ran the 20 feet to the back door for breakfast. That was camping when I was five, and Ive loved sleeping outside ever since.

I ventured a wee bit farther from home over the years, however. The edge of the Grand Canyon, the bottom of Mexicos Copper Canyon, beachside on an island in the Andaman Sea, sandbars in the middle of rivers, or county parks right outside of town.

Near or far there is a campsite with your name on itliterally, in fact, if you book a reservation. While the pandemic has some of us climbing the walls, why not get outside them and go camping? Fresh air, spaced-out socially distant campsites, and some of what the Japanese call shinrin-yoku or forest bathingtime in green space that cleanses the mind and soothes the nerves.

Not an experienced camper? No problem. You dont need to be an old pro to load up the car and hit a national, state, county, or even city park with designated sites. Many parks are fully modern with electrical hookups, hot showers, and concessionaires for firewood, kayak rentals, and even Wi-Fi (but dont use ityoure getting away, right?). Even the most rustic (and cheap) national forest sites often supply picnic tables, fire rings, a water source, and vault toilets.

Where to Go

There are many things to consider when choosing a campground. How rough do you rough it? How far do you want to drive? Just down the road or clear across state lines to landscapes quite different from your own corner of the country. Is there swimming? Hiking? Is it accessible?

Each states Department of Natural Resources keeps good online information about its parks, but county and city parks may require a bit more googling. The US Forest Service (fs.usda.gov) and National Parks websites (nps.gov) are searchable by state, or if you know your destination, type the forest or park name in the search bar with camping. You can find bigger modern campgrounds and abundant rustic ones that might be nothing more than six sites in a loop or a short hike from a gravel parking lot.

Some sites may be first-come, first-served while others offer or even require reservations. Some states have farmed out reservations to services such as Going to Camp (GoingToCamp.com) or Reserve America (ReserveAmerica.com) with both online and phone options. Other states have their own systems, such as Ohio, for example, with ReserveOhio.com. When calculating camping costs be aware that many parks have vehicle or entry fees as well, which may be different for out-of-state plates.

Best Time to Go

Modern outdoor gear has pushed camping to a year-round activity, even snowy winter. Of course, summer is hugely popular, meaning you need to consider parks filling, especially on weekends. Autumn colors and the decline of mosquitoes make fall a great choice as well. Once in mid-September, I was the only camper on Rock Island, a Wisconsin state park in Lake Michigan; it was paradise.

Bringing Pets

Pets are domesticated animals, so going camping is as much a break from the comfort zone for them as it is for us. Many parks have leash rules, and some places, such as picnic areas, beaches, designated nature trails, and playgrounds, dont allow them at allalthough some parks do offer pet swim areas and off-leash areas. Many people love a happy pup, but a barking dog at night amid 100 other campers wont make you any friends.

Planning Well

I asked park rangers about the biggest mistakes campers make and a popular answer was packing too much stuff. Still, you do want to be prepared for various possibilities.

This may seem like an odd time to pull out Maslows hierarchy of needs, but the base level of that pyramid is most important when you head into nature: physical needs, food, water, warmth, and rest. Carry a cooler with enough ice (depending on your distance from an ice source at the park) and sufficient food, and dont forget the necessary cooking utensils and a lighter or matches if you plan to build a fire. A grill may not be necessary if your park has them on their fire rings, and firewood is typically sold nearby.

Even the most rustic sites will have a potable water source for campers, even if just a hand-pump, but youd need a vessel to carry that back to your site. Pack clothes for every eventuality: rain, a cool night (which becomes especially cooler if your clothes are wet or youve been swimming), and strong sun and heat.

And finally, shelter: Most tents are easy to set up these days and waterproof. Consider sleeping pads for under your sleeping bag. I had no problem sleeping on rocks and tree roots when I was five; adult me, however, is a whiny bear to be around the morning after such sleep. Most sites have picnic tables (check to be sure) but you might want lawn or camp chairs for around the fire, or a hammock for lazing in the afternoon. Properly store food and dispose garbage; if your campsite is messy you may end up sharing your shelter with the local raccoons, or worse, a curious bear depending on where youre camping.

Maslows next level of concern is safety. Pack your medicines and bandages, sunscreen and ointments or antibiotic creams for cuts, burns, and bug bites, and perhaps a whistle if you get lost hiking or tweezers for splinter or stinger removal. Have a plan for when the emergency exceeds your band-aids and aspirin, and know where to go in a lightning storm or tornado.

After the basics are covered, address those mental and emotional needs: bring good company, whether thats your favorite people, a good book, or a pair of binoculars and a bird guide. Then immerse yourself in the great outdoors. A 2017 review of 64 health studies conducted from 20072017 found broad agreement that Nature therapy as a health-promotion method and potential universal health model is implicated for the reduction of reported modern-day stress-state and technostress. Just what the doctor ordered.

And one more thing: if you are not a morning person or have never been to the wild, maybe pack earplugs and a sleeping mask. Morning comes quickly enough, and while there may be no city noise, the hustle and bustle of the forest may surprise some. I assure you, its all worth it.

Kevin Revolinski is an avid traveler and the author of 15 books, including The Yogurt Man Cometh: Tales of an American Teacher in Turkey and several outdoor and brewery guidebooks. He is based in Madison, Wis., and his website is TheMadTraveler.com
Update: Shortly before 5 p.m., authorities said the couple had been found safe. No other details have been released.

Earlier: Authorities are asking for the publics help in finding a missing elderly couple.

William Vernon Bishop, 91, and Juanita Hutchinson Bishop, 89, live in St. Clair County and are believed to have been headed to Shelby County when they disappeared. According to an Alabama Law Enforcement Agency alert, the couple was last seen in the area of Bishop Lane in Indian Springs on Monday.

Both suffer from conditions that could impair their judgment. They could be traveling in a 2002 red Ford F350 with Alabama license plate 59XA209A.

William Bishop has blue eyes and gray hair. He is 6-feet, 4-inches tall and weighs 215 pounds. Juanita Bishop is 5-feet, 3-inches tall and weighs 140 pounds.

Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the Shelby County Sheriffs Office at 205-669-4181.
The Delhi government appeared headed for another flashpoint with the Lieutenant Governor on Tuesday after it rejected a panel of lawyers proposed by the Delhi Police in cases linked to the deadly communal riots and the anti-CAA protests in the Capital earlier this year, citing the need for a free and fair trial over the violence.

In February, 53 people died in communal riots triggered by violent clashes between the supporters and opponents of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA. Cases are currently being argued in the Supreme Court and the high court in cases related to the riots.

The decision to reject the lawyers panel backed by LG Anil Baijal was taken at a meeting of the Delhi cabinet, chaired by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The cabinet rejected the panel on the grounds that the courts have raised serious questions on the fairness of the riots investigation, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government said in a statement. The cabinet also observed that in such a situation a free and fair trial of these cases would not be possible by a panel of lawyers selected by the Delhi Police itself, it said. It directed the home department to constitute an impartial panel of the best possible lawyers in the country to fight the cases.

Tuesdays meeting was held on the direction of LG Baijal, who, in a letter to Kejriwal on July 16, gave the Delhi government a weeks time to decide on the panel of lawyers it wanted to appoint to fight the cases. On July 10, the Delhi Police sent a proposal to the Delhi government, recommending the names of six special public prosecutors, including solicitor general Tushar Mehta and additional solicitor general Aman Lekhi to fight 85 cases related to the riots and clashes during protests against CAA.

LG Baijals office declined to comment on the matter.

On July 18, the LGs office, in a statement on the same matter, said the north-east riots and the anti-CAA protest cases are of highly sensitive nature as they involved large-scale communal violence and require careful handling in view of the gravity and deep impact on the society.

The Delhi government later said that anyone who was guilty of causing communal violence in the Capital should be punished severely, but in no case should the innocent be harassed.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, while rejecting the idea of the panel proposed by the Delhi Police, earlier demanded that the Delhi governments team of lawyers led by Rahul Mehra be assigned the task.

Tuesdays Cabinet note, seen by HT, rejected the LGs view of going with the Delhi Polices panel on three grounds: allegations against the Delhi Police that its investigation in these cases was biased; lawyers should be independent of the police; and the matter does not qualify as rarest of the rare case for the LG to interfere.

The judiciary has also made adverse remarks against Delhi Polices investigations on several occasions Therefore, in order to ensure that all facts are presented before the judges, it is extremely critical that the government advocates are independent of the Police. Therefore, the panel suggested by Delhi Police should be rejected, the Cabinet note said.

It observed that it is the basic principle of criminal jurisprudence that investigations should be completely independent of prosecution and the police should not be allowed to decide the lawyers in any case. The Cabinet also alleged repeated interference by the LG in appointing the panel of lawyers. It asserted the Delhi government has the right to appoint public prosecutors.

The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, in its order dated July 4, 2018, has repeatedly mentioned that the LG should use this power in rarest of rare cases. Which lawyer should represent a case - this matter certainly cannot qualify as rarest of rare case, the Cabinet note read.

A senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that as per the procedure, the next step in the matter will be that the LG will send it to President Ram Nath Kovind.

The latest run-in comes barely a month after the LG and the Delhi government disagreed over the appointment of 11 public prosecutors proposed by the Delhi Police in lower courts for over 750 riot cases. The LG then decided to refer the matter to the President, citing a difference of opinion. Following the move, then home minister Satyendar Jain had approved the Delhi Polices panel.

Responding to the governments statement on Tuesday, the Delhi Police said it will leave no stone unturned to ensure successful prosecution in the riots cases. Delhi Police has conducted the investigation of N-E riot cases in a fair and impartial manner and to improve the quality of prosecution it has recommended the panel of senior law officers for the post of special prosecutors under section 24(8) of CrPC for group of anti-CAA and N-E riot-related important cases, said Delhi Police spokesperson MS Randhawa.

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Last updated on January 27 at 9:45 a.m. EST.

It took a couple months and a few tweaks in the delivery system, but by June, most eligible Americans had received a one-time stimulus check from the Treasury Department of up to $1,200 to spend or save as they wished. What the current presidential administration didn't count on  despite weeks of warnings from public-health experts  was that a summer surge of coronavirus cases across the country would lead to renewed shutdowns in the lifestyle and hospitality sectors and overwhelming need for another round of relief.

So as $600-per-week in additional unemployment benefits expire on July 31 and the Paycheck Protection Program continues to come under scrutiny for failing to serve its stated purpose (i.e. bridging true small businesses through this time), Congress has set about finalizing a new $1 trillion sequel to its initial $2 trillion CARES Act. The details are being fine-tuned as we speak, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin  while insisting any extension of unemployment benefits will emphasize rewards for returning to work over payments that rival or exceed an average worker's wages  has pledged that another wave of no-strings-attached, one-time stimulus checks will make their way into millions of checking accounts. But when?

Related: Where's My Stimulus Check?

As of now, Mnuchin foresees the cash finding its way to folks' wallets very soon. As reported by AP, Mnuchin announced this past weekend, Well get the majority of them out in August and those will help people." That is, of course, predicated on the latest CARES package passing smoothly and expeditiously prior to the Senate's upcoming August recess.

But given the precarious state of the economy and the inevitability of more modest unemployment payments, it behooves everyone to ensure their up-to-date tax filings are on record with the IRS. You can do so via this online tool, and we will keep you posted as more information is made available.

Update: After this article went to press, Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) shared the outline of his party's proposed $1 trillion HEALS Act. A key piece of it is Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley's (R-Iowa) American Workers, Employees, and Families Assistance Act, confirming a second round of checks and direct deposits  up to $1,200 for individuals and $2,400 households, with an additional $500 per eligible dependent  to American households. We will continue to update this story as specifics on delivery of payments becomes available.

Update: On August 8, President Trump signed executive orders detailing plans to extend unemployment benefits and eviction moratoriums, among other relief measures. While it remains unclear whether those orders will translate to concrete rule of law, they did not address assurances of a second round of $1,200 stimulus checks. That is because the original authorization for the first round of checks has long since expired, and entirely new legislation would need to be enacted by Congress to trigger a renewed one-time payment. Meanwhile, those anxious for clarity on the matter can at least brush up on whether they'd qualify for the $1,200 infusion.

Update: As Congressional leadership continues its stalemate over another round of overall pandemic relief for individuals and small businesses, a ray of light has emerged via the self-anointed Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan coalition of 50 House Representatives seeking to work through the aforementioned bottleneck. Earlier this week, the Caucus revealed details of a proposed "March to Common Ground" framework that's effectively a formal compromise between Senate leadership's "skinny stimulus" package and Democrats' more robust Heroes Act. The Problem Solvers' proposal includes the allocation of $280 billion toward renewed $1,200 stimulus checks (plus $500 per child and dependent adult). In response, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows commented that "March to Commond Ground" could "show the way" to immediate relief. Here's hoping.

Update: On September 29, the House of Representatives unveiled a modified version of its earlier Heroes Act. The $2.2 trillion stimulus plan, sponsored by House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita M. Lowey (D-NY), would cost the government $1.2 trillion less than its original iteration, possibly making it more palatable to Senate Republicans. And as in the earlier draft, it does allow for $1,200 stimulus checks to most individuals, as well as $2,400 for most married couples and an additional $500 per household dependent. As of this writing, House Dems continue to negotiate terms for potential, enacted legislation with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Update: Following his return to the White House after several days at Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland for Covid-19 treatments, President Trump tweeted his desire to effectively forestall stimulus talks until after his election  assuming he wins. There will likely be pushback on this from the House of Representatives and even Republicans in Congress. We will keep you posted.

Update: Despite a glimmer of hope in the wake of bipartisan support for a proposed $908 billion compromise bill drafted in early December, it did not include any language concerning a new round of $1,200 stimulus checks for individuals and families. And as of this writing, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared unlikely to shepherd the proposal through Congress. The wait for relief continues.

Update: On Dec. 16, it was widely reported that Congress was finally nearing a bipartsian Covid-relief package just ahead of winter break. The proposed legislation would reportedly include $600 individual stimulus checks, half the $1,200 sum of the previous round, but an improvement on the previous prosposals' total exclusion of one-time payments. Numerous outlets have additionally reported that movement on the issue was motivated by Republicans leadership's concerns over securing wins in January's upcoming Georgia Senate runoffs.

Update: At long last, on Dec. 22, Congress passed a bipartisan, $900 billion stimulus bill as part of a $2.3 trillion spending package put together just prior to the holiday break (and, more pressingly, as everyone from renters to small-business owners and those still left jobless amid the pandemic in dire straits as previous assistance expires and shutdowns reemerge). As expected, the individual stimulus check for Americans who earn under $75,000 a year has been halved relative to the first round, from $1,200 to $600 per person. Likewise, the allocation will be $600 per dependent as opposed to double that sum. Assuming President Trump signs off, what's still undetermined is how fast these payments will be processed and delivered. Holidays or no, time is certainly of the essence. We will continue to keep you posted.

Update: President Trump is threatning to hold up the entire Covid relief bill unless individual stimulus payments are increased from $600 to $2,000 per person. The tradeoff? The removal of "wasteful and unnecessary" spending in the package, though it's unclear what precisely that points to. Again, we will continue to update you as more is confirmed.

Update: On Sunday, December 27, just after crucial benefits  such as enhanced unemployment  from the previous Covid relief package had expired, President Trump finally signed the latest $900 bipartisan bill into law, triggering the imminent delivery (possibly within days, per outgoing Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin) of millions of individual $600 stimulus checks for individuals and dependents. But, thanks to Trump's unexpected, 11th-hour screed last week about the bill's shortcomings  particularly the relatively paltry per-person stimulus outlay  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may still succeed in pushing through separate legislation to more than double that amount to $2,000 per person. Strange business, politics. And we will of course keep you posted.

Update: Sadly, as of January 27, 2021, new President Joe Biden's push to supplement the recent $600 payments authorized last December with $1,400 additional funds (a piece of Biden's overall $1.9 trilion Covid-relief proposal) for those eligible is stuck in typical Congressional gridlock. We will continue to keep you posted, but wise money says it will be some time before more direct federal aid arrives in individuals' and families' accounts.

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New York, July 28 : Indian pharmaceutical companies may be able to benefit from US President Donald Trump's plan to reduce the prices of drugs that would allow individuals to import prescription medications directly.

This provision was one of several executive orders Trump has signed to lower the prices of medicines in the US, which are the highest in the world.

Under the order issued last week, individuals can get waivers to import prescription medications "provided such importation poses no additional risk to public safety and results in lower costs to American patients".

Health Secretary Alex Azar explained that under the "personal importation" provision, the Food and Drug Administration will set up a system to allow the safe import from countries that have regulatory regimes comparable to the US.

The FDA has a presence in India to ensure that medicines made there "meet FDA's safety and quality requirements", according to the agency.

The order is scheduled to come into effect on August 24 and in the meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies can come up with proposals to cut costs of medications.

Azar suggested that a model for allowing individuals to import medicines would the system set up by Florida and some Native American tribes' administrations for getting pharmaceuticals from Canada under previous Trump initiatives.

He said that injectible medicines and controlled drugs such as opioids would not be allowed for in under the personal importation programme.

India exports pharmaceuticals worth about $5.8 billion to the US every year, making it the single largest market.

Unveiling his order, Trump said, "For decades, our citizens have paid the highest prices for drugs - prescription drugs - anywhere in the world, and it's not even close." The same medicines are sold with a much higher markup in the US.

"A pill that would cost $1 could be $7, $8 in our country. Same exact pill," Trump said, mentioning Germany and Canada in particular.

A major step he has taken is requiring Medicare, the federal health insurance programme for seniors, to pay the lowest prices other countries pay.

Explaining its impact, Trump said that if some other country pays $1 and the US was paying $5, it will now pay only $1.

In reality "what's going to happen is their number will go up, our number will come very substantially down, and we'll all agree at two and a half or two or whatever the final number is," he said.

One effect of this on countries like India is that prices of medications sold there by multinationals could be increased, if the US brings it into how the pricing mechanism is determined. However, India does not have a similar centralised government mechanism for drugs purchase like the US Medicare or those of some European countries.

Trump was mainly taking aim at European countries through this provision, derisively calling their systems "socialist healthcare".

"We incredibly and foolishly bear the full cost of all research and development, which is massive, in all fairness to the drug companies." "It also means that the US taxpayers are effectively subsidising the socialist healthcare systems of foreign welfare states and many other countries." (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter at @arulouis)
The University of Abuja Teaching Hospital and the National Hospital Abuja (NHA) have denied rejecting patients with other illnesses on account of COVID-19.

But Ivian Kwaghe, the Consultant Physician Infectious Disease, UniAbuja Teaching Hospital, and Tayo Hastrup, spokesperson, NHA, said this in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja that their facilities were involved in such behaviours.

This is coming against the backdrop of claims by some Abuja residents that the hospitals were rejecting patients with other illnesses in favour of those with COVID-19.

Premium Times had also reported how public hospitals in Abuja were rejecting patients over fear of COVID-19.

Ms Kwaghe said the hospital was opened to all and it had been accepting patients with no COVID-19-related illnesses, stressing that those patients without COVID-19 were being managed accordingly

According to her, it is just at the COVID-19 isolation centre that non-related cases were being denied treatment, adding other patients who do not have COVID-19 are being managed in other departments of the hospital.

NAN sought to know from the infectious disease expert the time frame that the vaccine for COVID-19 to heal the disease would be out.

We dont know when COVID-19 will leave us, maybe we will be here for the next one year, it may be longer, nobody knows.

And we also dont know how soon we will get an effective vaccine, nobody can really tell how long it will be with us, she said.

Also, Mr Hastrup said the allegation that the NHA was abandoning other patients was not true.

We cannot turn down patients here in National Hospital, we dont do that. Why are we here if you say we are turning down patients? We have our trauma centre, we have the accident emergency, we have the GOPD centre.

There is no issue about NHA turning down patients, we attend to every patient. It is only that every patients that is suspected of COVID-19, we put them in the COVID-19 centres, that is what we do.

He said that the hospital was doing its best in the management of COVID-19-related cases and would in no way turn down patients with other illnesses.

(NAN)
SAVANNAH, Ga., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, African Pride, leading haircare product manufacturer with more than 30 years' experience creating quality and affordable products, unveiled a new #TakePrideAndVote campaign in partnership with Tina Lawson, businesswoman, cosmetologist and ambassador for And Still I Vote, a national call to action spearheaded by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, to empower Black and Brown communities across the country to take back the vote this November 2020.

For years, decision makers nationwide have passed laws making it harder to cast a ballot  especially for people of color. In every corner of the country, policymakers have put up discriminatory barriers for these targeted communities and African Pride customers to shut them out for voting right. From closing polling locations in Black neighborhoods early, turning registered voters away for lack of proper identification check in to wrongfully erasing voters from the rolls  low-income families, seniors and college students  they are taking away the people's right to vote and rigging the system. Thankfully, Ms. Tina Lawson has been an advocate for the HEROES Act, helping provide economic relief and protecting the rights of all registered voters and families in our Black and Brown communities during these difficult times.

17 Million people were purged from voter rolls between 2016 and 2018

6 Million people were denied the right to vote in 2016 due to a previous felony charge

25 states, half of the states in the country, have enacted voting restrictions in the last decade

"We understand that 2020 is a critical election year," said Kendria Strong, EVP of Marketing & Innovation at African Pride. "It's now time to empower our communities to take action and impact change by increasing voter registration and elevating voices. Together with Ms. Tina Lawson, ambassador for And Still I Vote, African Pride is committed to creating a platform that inspires and motivates generations."

Kicking off the 5-month-long campaign today, and leading up to Election Day this November 3, 2020, the brand will host celebrity Instagram Lives with Ms. Tina Lawson titled, "Talks with Mama Tina," to empower Black communities by arming them with the knowledge, tools and influence to make every single one of our votes count. The educational series will also share key voting statistics from And Still I Vote, along with important dates to know such as the 55th Anniversary of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and National Voter Registration Day, and much more.

"I'm happy to be in partnership with African Pride," said Tina Lawson. "They are helping to change the narrative and elevate Black voices, reminding us that our vote and our voice matters. We have to connect these dots for our community."

African Pride's #TakePrideAndVote campaign is call to action to encourage people from across the country to join the voting rights movement and impact real change. Coming together with our Black and Brown community, we can now be properly armed with the tools needed to get to the polls this fall.

It's time for a democracy where every eligible voter can cast a ballot and have it counted. Join us on Instagram to learn how you and your vote can effect real change. For additional information on the #TakePrideAndVote campaign, upcoming "Talks with Mama Tina Presented by African Pride," the African Pride brand or products visit AfricanPrideHair.com and follow #TakePrideAndVote and @MyAfricanPride on Instagram and Twitter and @MyAfricanPrideHair on Facebook.

About African Pride

For 30 years, African Pride has addressed the haircare needs of all hair types and textures whether natural or relaxed with brands like Black Castor Miracle, Moisture Miracle, Shea Miracle, Olive Miracle and Dream Kids. We believe in the unspoken power of a great hair day. The boost of energy that's given when your beauty and confidence is intertwined should be accessible to all women. That's why we created African Pride products with premium, natural ingredients at an affordable price to ensure that you're less stressed about your hair and more focused on stepping into your best self. For more information about the brand, visit AfricanPrideHair.com, and tell us your hair story by engaging with us on social and using the hashtag #MyAfricanPride.

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Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi has turned the term lethality into a central theme of his tenure. Kochavi is investing great efforts in improving the militarys lethal combat abilities  its capacity to hit as many targets as possible in the shortest time by virtue of the IDFs decisive technological superiority in terms of intelligence, air power and precise counter fire.

Kochavis goal is simple: inflicting maximum heavy damage and casualties on the other side by stretching the IDFs military capacity to its limits in order to shorten the duration of the next war. The chief of staff believes that if the damage Hezbollah sustains in its next confrontation with the IDF is unsustainable from the start, its leader, Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, would conclude that there was no point in dragging out the confrontation with Israel. In other words, the greater the lethality, the less time it will take to stop the fighting and Israel will save itself a protracted, costly and bloody war next time.

Developments in the Israeli-Hezbollah arena in recent years have been the exact opposite of this scenario  lots of fire and brimstone, smoke and mirrors, bangs and bugles, but very few casualties, enabling both sides to pretend it has landed painful blows on the other, while in fact emerging intact, for the most part.

Such was the case on July 27, when a team of three to five Hezbollah terrorists crossed the international blue line border between Lebanon and Israel near Mount Dov (known by the Lebanese as Shebaa Farms), the usual arena of Israel-Hezbollah clashes, on their way to carry out an attack on IDF troops.

The IDF had been awaiting such a group attack attempt for days, and had prepared to the hilt to avoid being surprised. A 19-year-old IDF scout identified the Hezbollah fighters crossing the borderline  an area where there is no fence  and raised the alarm. They were carrying personal weapons and heavy bags. We kept them in our sights and tracked them along several hundred meters, a senior military source speaking on condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor later that day. And we opened heavy fire when they drew closer to the IDF position overlooking the slopes of Mount Hermon.

There remains, however, a niggling question. A beefed-up infantry battalion force, backed by a Merkava tank, aircraft and choppers, awaited the infiltrators  but failed to hit a single one of them at relatively short range and instead allowed them to turn back and cross back into Lebanon without a scratch. In other words, what about the IDFs famous lethality doctrine?

The answer is simple. In the scenarios drawn up in extensive discussions leading up to the incident, the IDF was instructed to try to end the event without casualties on either side in order to avoid setting off a chain of Hezbollah and Israeli responses and counter-responses, possibly culminating in a conflagration at the worst conceivable time for each side. Lebanon is mired in an unprecedented economic crisis, food is scarce, power is limited, Nasrallah is under political siege and is blamed for having dragged Lebanon into the hole in which it now finds itself. The situation in Israel is somewhat similar. While there is plenty of food and electric power, unemployment has surged within weeks from almost none to over 20% and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus popularity is plunging. The last thing he needs right now is a war.

The Hezbollah operation was supposed to avenge the death of one of the groups fighters  Ali Kamel Mohsen Jawad  in a July 20 strike on an Iran-backed target near Damascus, attributed to Israel. To begin with, Nasrallah was not overly invested in this revenge action although he adheres to the rules he had set out over a year ago. According to these rules, Hezbollah would respond to the killing of each of its fighters, not only in Lebanon but in the Syrian arena, too. Yet this time, Nasrallah sought to ensure a low-intensity revenge operation. He did not express himself on the incident, instead dispatching his deputy Naim Qassem to face the TV cameras and talk with journalists identified with the movement.

However, Nasrallah seems to have had a surprising change of heart shortly after the July 27 incident. In an about-turn, Hezbollah denied Israeli reports of the incident, claiming it never happened and that as far as it was concerned, it had not yet settled its score with Israel and the revenge for the killing of its man in Syria was still to come.

This unexpected response forced Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz to summon camera crews to Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv in order to deliver a live, primetime threat to the Lebanese movement. If Hezbollah hits Israeli soldiers, a senior Israeli military source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Israel will hit dozens of Hezbollah fighters in a disproportionate response.

Unlike previous bursts of violence between the sides, this time the tensions have lingered rather than quickly dissipating. Hezbollahs declaration and the threats by Gantz and Netanyahu have left the cauldron boiling. Behind the scenes, the parties engaged are expressing deep concerns. On the Lebanese side, speculation is rife regarding Nasrallahs predicament under siege and his possible conclusion that a violent clash with Israel sending masses of Israelis into shelters was just the thing he needs to restore his movement to its self-proclaimed status as Lebanons defender.

Similar concerns have emerged in Israel. Senior political sources say that some in Netanyahus circle are toying with the idea of taking advantage of the current situation to land a powerful pre-emptive strike on Hezbollah that would remove or at least reduce to a minimum the growing threat of rockets and precise missiles arrayed against Israel. According to this theory, the fact that the Israeli economy is in crisis and Lebanon is on the verge of collapse makes the current conditions ideal for a pre-emptive Israeli strike. The fact that a sympathetic president such as Donald Trump is still ensconced in the White House fuels this idea further, as does Netanyahus personal political circumstances and the impasse in his contacts with his rival/partner Gantz.

In other words, despite the somewhat derisive tone at the start of this piece regarding the IDFs lethality motto, the coming months could drag both sides into unprecedented lethality, which neither side intended, to begin with. I must honestly add that to date, Netanyahu has displayed an abundance of caution regarding military adventures. On the other hand, he has never found himself at such an impasse and under such heavy siege. The less he has to lose, the more others should worry about what they stand to lose in case of an escalation that would set the region on fire.
Liam Campbell, who was found civilly liable for the Omagh bombing, has been given a date next January to appeal an extradition order surrendering him to Lithuania, where he is to answer charges of international weapons trafficking.

Campbell (58) was arrested in Upper Faughart, Dundalk, Co Louth, on December 2, 2016, on foot of the second European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued by Lithuanian authorities to be endorsed by the High Court here. It was the third attempt overall by Lithuania to seek Campbell's surrender.

The 1998 Omagh bombing was the single deadliest incident in the Troubles, resulting in 29 deaths.

In a judgement returned from the High Court on June 26, Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly said she was satisfied that an order for the surrender of Campbell could be made.

However, Campbell lodged an appeal against his extradition order which was given a date for hearing in the Court of Appeal on Monday.

During case management procedures at the court, Mr Justice John Edwards fixed January 19 next year as for the date for the appeal hearing, which is expected to last a full day.

Ronan Kennedy SC, for the State, asked for Campbell's hearing to be put into the next case management list before the Court of Appeal in order to get the earliest possible date.

Mr Justice Edwards agreed for Mr Campbell's case to be mentioned before the three-judge court on October 9.

The arrest warrant for Campbell stated that he allegedly organised the preparation for the smuggling of weapons in support of the terrorist grouping the Real IRA (RIRA) between the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007.



In his submission for leave to appeal, counsel for Campbell Mr Remy Farrell SC successfully argued that there was a question on a point of law as to whether or not the wording of an "intention" by a foreign jurisdiction to put someone on trial was the same as putting them on trial.

The Minister for Justice, represented by Mr Patrick McGrath SC, had opposed the submission for leave to appeal.

Ms Justice Donnelly formally made the order for Campbell's surrender on July 13 and also granted him leave to appeal his surrender on a point of law. She said that the High Court was "amenable" to clarity being sought as to whether an intention to put someone on trial is

"coterminous" with putting them on trial.

The judge said that the respondent's case was on "very nuanced matters" and that it was not "necessarily about the strength of the point in the case" but it was whether or not there was "uncertainty".

The EAW had sought Campbell to prosecute him on three offences: preparation of a crime, illegal possession of firearms and terrorism. The maximum sentence for the offence of terrorism is 20 years.

The warrant alleges that Campbell "made arrangements, while acting in an organised terrorist group, the Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA) to acquire a substantial number of firearms and explosives from Lithuania and smuggle them into Ireland".

It further alleges that during the end of 2006 to 2007 Campbell "made arrangements with Seamus McGreevy, Michael Campbell (his brother), Brendan McGuigan and other unidentified persons to travel to Lithuania for the purposes of acquiring firearms and explosives, including, automatic rifles, sniper guns, projectors, detonators, timers and trotyl [TNT]".

Campbell had previously spent four years in custody in Northern Ireland during a second attempt to extradite him but was released when he succeeded in his objection that to do so would be a breach of his rights.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28)  President Rodrigo Duterte's warning to telecommunications companies Smart and Globe diverts attention from his failure to discuss plans to address the pandemic, among other issues, a telco expert said.

During his fifth State of the Nation Address, the President criticized the two leading telco players for their lousy service and ordered them to improve their services before December.

"The patience of the Filipino is reaching its limit, Duterte said. I will be the one to articulate the anger of the Filipino people and you might not want what I intended to do with you.

For Democracy.net co-founder Pierre Tito Galla, the Presidents call-out is a distraction  a "believable" one, now that many are highly dependent on the internet due to the need to socially distance.

Doon sa kaniyang SONA, wala siyang sinabi tungkol sa ano ang gagawing plano mula ngayon hanggang sa end ng kaniyang term tungkol sa pandemic, Galla said in an interview on CNN Philippines News.PH on Tuesday.

[Translation: In his SONA, he didnt say anything about the governments plans to address the pandemic starting from now until the end of his term.]

The Chief Executive was expected to focus on the country's COVID-19 roadmap to recovery, but he took numerous detours in his speech.

Galla added that Duterte failed to mention the rehabilitation of the war-torn city of Marawi, which remains in ruins three years after terrorists siege.

Several officials from Mindanao pointed out this omission, with House Deputy Speaker and Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman saying he hoped that the President would also give a deadline for the Marawi rehabilitation, the same way he gave an ultimatum to the telco providers.

READ: Marawi rehab not a priority? Duterte SONA hit for leaving out war-torn city

Push for passage of ICT reform bills

According to Galla, if the government is serious in its demand for a higher quality of internet service, it should move to pass Information and Communications Technology reform bills filed in Congress.

These include the measures on open access in data transmission, spectrum management reform, and other bills seeking to amend telco policies, he said.

Galla argued that reforms are necessary to increase competition in the industry, which will then result in an improved quality of service, lowered costs, and increased customer satisfaction, which he said the country is not getting right now.

Kasi kung dalawa lang ang telco  na for example nga, mobile  eh madaling maging tamad kasi I will only be as good as the other guy, he said.

[Translation: Because if there are only two telcos  for example, for mobile  it is easy to be lazy because I will only be as good as the other guy.]
The high school graduating class of 2020, circa COVID-19, had many social disappointments. No prom, a stay-at-home spring break and worst of all, no opportunity to walk across the stage, grab a scrolled diploma and hear elated family members scream their name from nosebleed seats in the bleachers.

At last, though, theres good news for young people in the Constitution State. Last month, the Board of Regents for Higher Education announced that virtually all first-time college students can enroll in Connecticut community colleges for free this fall. While additional funding would be required to continue the scholarships in the spring, this overture rolls out the welcome mat for students on the fence about their pandemic-tainted future.

Indeed, sky-high unemployment rates and uncertainty around what college might look like in the fall has prompted many high school graduates to rethink their college plans. The latest national poll shows that about one-third of them now say that they may defer or cancel college attendance this fall. Heres hoping the regents decision convinces some of these young people in Connecticut to choose college over the couch.

A change of heart is particularly important since workers with more education, on average, strongly out-earn those with less. Yet what is true on average can sometimes mask underlying differences. Where you live can affect how much you earn since local labor markets, the cost of living and the cost of college all play a part.

It turns out thats particularly true in Connecticut. A new report published by our organization and authored by economist John Winters, What You Make Depends on Where You Live, finds that, on average, Connecticuters with bachelors degrees earn 65 percent more than those with associate degrees ($118,454 versus $71,594 for full-time, full-year workers) and almost double (96 percent more) that of workers with high school diplomas.

This statewide statistic doesnt tell the full story, though. Take the Bridgeport-Stamford area (population 944,000). Out of over 100 metro regions examined in the report, Bridgeport has the largest earnings advantage in favor of those with bachelor degrees (versus those with associate degrees). On average, residents there with a four-year degree earn a whopping $166,463 annually, while those with two-year degrees earn a still-impressive albeit lower salary of $83,495. Of course, that nearly-100 percent difference in favor of bachelors degrees reflects the fact the Bridgeport-Stamford is just an hour train ride away to the Big Apple, where the demand for highly educated labor is particularly strong.

Contrast that with the states other large metro area, Hartford (population 1.2 million). On average, Hartford workers with bachelors degrees earn 46 percent more than their associate degree brethren ($103,515 versus $70,697)  less than half the premium enjoyed by college-educated Bridgeport-Stamford residents.

Then theres New Haven-Milford (population 858,000), where the average earnings premium enjoyed by bachelors versus associate degree holders shrinks to just 35 percent ($90,709 versus $67,040). New Havens smaller size likely contributes to these more narrow margins.

In short, both proximity to New York City and the size of a metro region appear to positively impact college-educated workers in Connecticut. This reflects a national pattern whereby larger cities tend to see greater financial advantages to higher education than do rural areas or areas outside cities.

In fact, nationally, the bachelors-versus-associate-degree premium ranges from 34 percent in the smallest cities to 56 percent in the largest. Moreover, in the rural regions of New England, workers with bachelors degrees on average make just 24 percent more than those with associate degrees.

Information on earnings differences between two- and four-year degrees matter. Thats because, lets face it, not every young person wants to get a bachelors degree or to work a white-collar job. Others cant afford the exorbitant costs of a traditional college or university, especially now with a weakened economy.

Thats why the option to enroll tuition-free in a community college this fall is such a gift, especially for those who were on the fence about their plans. Heres hoping they enroll, study hard and take advantage of the many opportunities those colleges have to offer, including marketable two-year degrees and technical certificates, as well as smooth entry into a four- year college or university. But, as students decide among those choices, allow us to add another consideration: where they want to live after college.

Because if high school graduates dont take geography into account, they may waste not only a free semester of community college, but precious time, money, and effort.

Amber M. Northern and Michael J. Petrilli are senior vice president for research and president, respectively, at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
President Trump indicated it could be three time's a charm for finding an appropriate venue to deliver his Thursday night Republican National Convention speech.

In June he moved his portion of the RNC from Charlotte, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida after fighting with North Carolina's Democratic governor over the state's coronavirus restrictions that could prevent him from having a packed reception.

But on Thursday, the president had to call off the 'convention celebration' in Jacksonville due to Florida's jump in COVID-19 cases, with nearly 9,000 new cases reported Monday.

President Donald Trump hinted Tuesday that he could give his Republican National Convention speech in a different city after ditching plans to have the full RNC in Charlotte and cancelling the Jacksonville portion of the convention last week

PLAN A: President Trump was originally supposed to give his August 27 address in Charlotte, North Carolina at the Spectrum Center

PLAN B: Once Republicans and North Carolina's Democratic governor couldn't come to an agreement, the president moved the primetime convention speeches to Jacksonville, where they were expected to be delivered from the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena

'So I told my team it's time to cancel the Jacksonville, Florida component of the GOP convention,' the president said at the top of his press briefing last week.

'And I'll still do a convention speech in a different form, but we won't do a big, crowded convention per say. It's just not the right time for that,' Trump added.

Since then, reporters have tried to nail down where he would deliver his Thursday night speech, slated for August 27, when the candidate traditionally accepts his or her party's nomination.

While the Monday part of the RNC - when delegates nominate Trump - will take place in Charlotte, the president has remained noncommittal about bringing the whole thing back to the state after his tussle with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

'We'll be doing a speech on Thursday - the main speech, the primary speech,' Trump first said when asked for clarity in the briefing room Tuesday. 'Charlotte they will be doing nominating on Monday, that's a different period, a different thing happening.'

'I speak on Thursday, OK?'

Reuters Steve Holland then asked where Trump would physically be to make his speech - and would it happen in Charlotte.

'We'll be announcing it soon,' Trump teased. 'Anybody got an idea? We'll be announcing it soon.'

Trump's response shines a spotlight on the uncertainty of campaigning in the time of coronavirus.

In a brief attempt to get back on the campaign trail the president held a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in mid-June, but it was not well attended likely in part because of the continued spread of COVID-19.

Another planned Trump campaign rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire was scrapped, though the campaign attributed the decision to bad weather.

Now, like Democrat Joe Biden, Trump is holding virtual events and fundraisers, though has also met with smaller groups of supporters including at Bedminster over the weekend and recently at his Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
One question that many school leaders and practitioners are grappling with is how they can best support Black students. A litany of data has highlighted disparate outcomes for them at the K-12 level. We must do better. Teachers can and must be part of efforts to improve classrooms for Black students. Teachers who make a difference are able to move beyond traditional classroom practices to ensure that they feel comfortable and safe in classrooms.

As a former classroom teacher and student, I can attest to the need for extra attention and care to help Black students feel comfortable in historically excluded spaces. Schools explicitly exclude them by way of suspensions and implicitly exclude them through curriculum, culture, and policy. Black students are not the only ones who suffer racial discrimination in school, but in light of the recent protest for Black liberation across the country, it is imperative that Black students receive particular emphasis and focus. School practices must account for their experiences and needs. When we find ways to demonstrate care for Black students, our empathic actions benefit all students.

Here are five suggestions for how we can show care for our Black students:

1. Make sure curricular materials are inclusive and positively represent all Black folks.

We must consider Black students when creating curriculum to ensure instructional materials are inclusive of all Black life. By all, I mean men, women, LGBTQ+, mixed-raced folks, and those with disabilities. It is not enough to discuss Black people briefly during thematic units on marginalized groups. Their historical exclusion in instructional materials contributes to the lack of care Black students experience in school. Without curricular representation, the contributions of Black innovators, the examples of Black excellence, the struggle for Black liberation, and the diversity within Blackness are absent from curricular materials. Black people must be equally represented across all disciplines to ensure that Black students feel included in the learning environment. As educators, we should ask ourselves:

When we find ways to demonstrate care for Black students, our empathic actions benefit all students."

 Are any of my books written by Black authors?

 Do my books and curriculum materials illustrate the diversity that exists within the Black community?

2. Seek feedback from Black students.

It is impossible for any teacher, regardless of race, to understand the experiences of Black students in our classes, unless they ask their Black students directly. As teachers, we rarely seek feedback from our students, and this prevents us from understanding how Black students may be experiencing our class. Black people experience this country in unique ways based on structural disadvantages and systemic racism. Unfortunately, the experiences in classrooms are no different. It is important to listen to the voices of Black students because they are often those who suffer most in the learning environment.

To show care for them we must seek answers to questions such as:

 What does it feel like to be a Black student in my classroom or in this school?

 Do Black students feel safe in my classroom?

 How can I help Black students experience success in my classroom?

3. Educate ourselves and our students on the nature of racism.

It is difficult for anyone to combat racism, if they do not understand it. Racism is a complex, multifaceted issue that has permeated American society for centuries. Racism is so deeply embedded in American culture that it often goes ignored by those not directly affected. To psychologically and emotionally protect Black students in the classroom, we must develop our understanding of racism and the many ways it presents itself.

As teachers, we can learn more about racism by watching lectures on combating anti-Blackness, attending anti-racist workshops, and reading anti-racist literature. As we educate ourselves about racism, we must find ways to educate our students as well. We must engage in difficult conversations with our students that support the elimination of anti-Blackness in our classroom and school. And we should ask ourselves:

 Do my students understand the racial context of the text, lesson, and/or unit?

 Do my students see me discuss race- related issues?

 Do my students know how to interrupt racism by my example and by examples theyve learned in class?

4. Believe Black students.

Many Black students go through school simply not being believed or constantly trying to prove their innocence. Blackness in school is often seen as a sign of guilt, which means that Black children are not often viewed as innocent in the same ways that other children are viewed. Far too often when Black students express themselves in school, they are ignored or not given the same attentiveness as their peers. Black students need teachers to believe them when they speak about how they experience schooling. The information students share should inform future policy around issues such as curriculum, discipline, and overall school climate. Black students need allies who will support them in times of turmoil and back them in conflicts with other adults on campus. Not only must we support them through conflicts, but we need to celebrate all of their successes and progress as well. Black students need to feel trusted, and teachers must show them that their thoughts, opinions, and experiences matter.

5. Build relationships with caregivers.

One of the best ways to show care for Black students is by building relationships with their families. As teachers, we must get to know Black caregivers in efforts to demonstrate our commitments to their childrens success. In the book I recently co-authored, No More Teaching Without Positive Relationships, I wrote about the benefits that come along with teachers finding ways to build relationships and collaborate with caregivers. Caring for Black students requires an understanding of the way care is demonstrated in their home lives. It is important that Black students view their teachers and caregivers as members of the same team working hand in hand to ensure their success.

It is not enough for schools to release a formal statement about how they are supporting Black students. Black students should not have to wait until the murder of another unarmed Black person in order to feel like their educators care about Black life. As educators, we have a responsibility to take consistent actions and create environments that are safe for all Black students. What are we waiting for?
MIDDLETOWN  The school districts reopening plans and protocols amid the coronavirus pandemic are being recognized this month as a nationwide model for its holistic, comprehensive and rigorous approach to educating students.

Middletown Public Schools was featured in a July 23 Time piece, As the School Year Approaches, Education May Become the Pandemics Latest Casualty, by Katie Reilly and Molly Ball.

The writers visited Wesley Elementary School to learn about the Summer Learning Academy, a hybrid program for children in grades one to four.

The preparation gap essentially starts from birth all the way up to four. The achievement gap is a symptom of the preparation gap, Conner told The Press in mid-July.

Middletown 2021: Keys to Innovation & Equity, the districts strategic operating plan for the 2018-21 academic years, is poised to erase that disparity in learning, he has said.

Time photos show students in line, standing six feet apart on hula-hoops on the ground during the pilot program, as well as teachers in face shields reading outside to students from a safe distance.

The city will also be featured this week on a national television program, Conner said. Being highlighted in town, and in Time and NBC Nightly News, this is the hard work the community has put in for kids, he said.

The district has so far spent $1 million  partly on digital thermometers, additional musical instruments, face shields and other personal protective equipment, according to the story.

Conner said hes pleased the districts hard work is being recognized on a national stage.

This is great. Its a testament to all the educators, as well as staff, thinking differently on being able to have a level of creativity, and a level of group think on how we can be able to design a new model with specific priorities: health, safety and academics, he said.

For information, visit middletownschools.org.
Critical of the dilution of Article 370 that ended special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Omar said his party would oppose it in the Supreme Court.

Srinagar: Upset over downgrading of Jammu and Kashmir to the status of a Union Territory following abrogation of Article 370, former chief minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said he will not contest Assembly elections till full statehood is restored.

However, Omar, a former union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, made it clear he would continue to work for his party National Conference (NC) and people of Jammu and Kashmir.

"I have been leader of the Assembly of the state. In its time the most empowered Assembly. I cannot and will not be a member of what is now one of the most disempowered Assemblies in the country. It''s as simple as that," Omar told PTI.

"It is not a threat or blackmail, it's not a display of me sulking. It's just a simple acknowledgement that I won''t fight an election to lead the Union Territory which is such a disempowered Assembly."

Strongly critical of the dilution of Article 370 of the Constitution, Omar said many reasons had been given to justify abrogation of the provision that granted special status, and claimed that none of those stand any scrutiny.

Omar, who is the vice president of the NC, was critical of what had been done to Jammu and Kashmir on 5 August, 2019, and said his party would oppose it in the Supreme Court.

"We believe in democracy and peaceful opposition," said the 50-year-old leader.

The abrogation of Article 370 was supposed to end terrorism but the government had been telling Supreme Court that violence in Jammu and Kashmir was increasing, he said. Similarly, arguments touted such as lack of development and investment due to Article 370 belie facts, he added.

Asked whether his decision not to contest the Assembly polls has been discussed with the leadership of his party, Omar replied, "It's my view and it's my decision. No one can be forced to fight an election against their will."

On the delimitation exercise being carried out by the administration of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar said, "NC is and will continue to explore all legal options to deal with the developments and decisions post 5 August last year."

The elections are likely to be held only after the delimitation exercise is completed in the union territory, which came into existence on 31 October last year. The erstwhile state was split into two union territories - Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
HARTFORD  The state Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved legislation to allow mail-in voting for the Nov. 3 presidential election for voters who want to avoid crowded polling places during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sen. Dennis Bradley, D-Bridgeport, was the lone dissenter in the 35-1 vote after he criticized a culture of absentee ballot shenanigans in his hometown, particularly remembering an election he lost when 60 votes were recorded from an empty lot.

Although the bill was on-track to be easily approved, conservative state Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott wasnt going to let the imminent action get in the way of his arguments against the legislation. The ranking member of the Government Administration & Elections Committee, he warned that tampering and election fraud could be encouraged by the statewide distribution of absentee ballots.

Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Killingly, and Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport pushed back against the charges during the first of four debates scheduled for the business day, including a wide-ranging police accountability bill that forced an all-nighter in the state House of Representatives last week.

Flexer, who recently gave birth to a girl, used her newborn as a way to stress the need for mail-in balloting during the coronavirus pandemic that has caused concern among many state residents who are afraid to go into crowded places such as polling place.

They know that that is the most-important duty that they have as American citizens, Flexer said.

Voters, she said, will not have to choose between the health of themselves and their families, and their right to vote, if the bill passes.

The Democratic majority in the Senate is 22-14, which was identical to the vote against Sampsons first amendment, defeated an hour and 20 minutes after the debate started. During votes, senators entered the chamber from their caucus rooms a few at a time, touched the voting buttons on their desks, then returned to their Capitol offices.

Custodial crews regularly cleaned surfaces in the Senate during the afternoon.

Current state law limits absentee ballot eligibility to people who are actually ill, out of town on business, in the military or have a religious conflict. During the early stages of the pandemic, Gov. Ned Lamont issued an executive order allowing for mail-in balloting for the August 11 Republican and Democratic primaries. The bill, which is expected to be signed by the governor, would allow people who are afraid of becoming ill to use absentee ballots in November.

Sampson criticized the tactic by House leaders who adjourned the special session last Friday morning after the passage of the last bill, giving the Senate no choice but to either approve or defeat the four bills as written and approved in the House.

That concerns me, because there are changes I would like to see made to this bill, Sampson said, who still planned to submit amendments. I am going to support this bill anyway, he conceded, after Haskell took over the lead of the debate. The public should realize that this bill is not just about allowing people to vote based on having COVID-19 as a concern and being able to obtain an absentee ballot. It is really chock full of unrelated and even contrary items.

Sampson questioned whether the bill is actually needed.

What this legislation addresses is the folks who havent been diagnosed with COVID-19, Haskell said. Perhaps theyre immuno-compromised. Perhaps they are elderly. Perhaps theyve just been watching the news and are fearful about entering into a crowded polling location. People are thrilled about the opportunity to vote from home, said Haskell, vice chairman of the committee.

State policies seem to indicate that it is safe for at least some people to gather as long as they are wearing a mask and remain socially distant? Sampson asked Haskell.

Just because something is safe for some, does not mean that it is safe for all, Haskell said. Sampsons two amendments failed.

Bradley said he was worried about corruption. Very oftentimes there is manipulation, trickery and full-out deception in the absentee ballot process, he said. He said that absentee ballot procedures have reached dysfunction levels in Bridgeport. We have to protect the electoral process in this country.

Last fall, Bradley, a lawyer, represented a city employee in the court case challenging Mayor Joe Ganims Democratic mayoral primary victory over state Sen. Marilyn Moore.

Even supporters of the bill had critiques, stressing that it is only going to be in effect for the November election.

With I support this bill I am not satisfied with it, said Sen. Alexandra Kasser, D-Greenwich, adding that local officials wont be allowed to start counting the results of absentee ballots until the morning of Election Day. This bill will last less than 100 days and in only limited circumstances, she said.

"This should be a first step, not a last step however, said Secretary of the State Denise Merrill after the vote. According to recent polling, there is a broad and bipartisan consensus - Connecticut voters want to be able to vote more conveniently, through Early Voting and No-Excuse Absentee Ballots, every year, not just in 2020, just like the voters in 43 other states.

But overall, leaders said it is a step toward wider voter reforms to be discussed in the 2012 legislative session. This bill has been a long time coming, said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk. In this pandemic, it only makes it more important that we get this done today, he said. Were in very unprecedented times right now so its important for us to listen and lead.

The reality is our people are frightened, said Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven. He called Lamonts earlier executive order reasonable and prudent and needs to be extended to November, as Lamonts emergency powers will expire in September.

But Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, disagreed with Secretary of the State Merrills decision to send applications for absentee ballots to every registered Republican and Democrat in the state in advance of the primaries. Theres a problem tracking these, Fasano said. There are people who are going to be disenfranchised by her actions, not our actions.

Voting on the bill, following the three-hour debate, was delayed because Flexer, the new mother, drove home a half hour a way to tend to her infant. While waiting for her to return, Senate began debate on a bill that would expand coverage for telehealth services. When she returned, the first vote was the telehealth legislation, which passed 35-0.

By 5 p.m., the Senate had completed the third of four bills, legislation that would lower insulin costs for diabetics, capping prices at $25 a month. The bill passed 35-1 with Sampson the lone vote against the measure. All three head to Lamont for final action.

The most controversial bill, on police accountability was on track to be debated later in the afternoon or evening.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
U.S. President Donald Trump expressed unusual confidence in the South Korea-U.S. alliance on National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, which fell on Monday. This year marks the 67th anniversary of the truce that halted the war.

"Our Armed Forces continue to proudly serve side-by-side with our [South] Korean military counterparts," Trump said in a statement. "This ironclad alliance, forged in war and reinforced by a shared love of liberty and deep ties of friendship, is vital to peace and stability in both Asia and the world."
(Updates with official prices) By Peter Hobson LONDON, July 28 (Reuters) - Copper prices slipped on Tuesday after workers at a mine in Chile signed a new labour contract, removing the risk of a disruptive strike, while doubts about demand grew as rising coronavirus cases stoked concern about the global economy. Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 0.4% at $6,393 a tonne in official trading, though still close to a two-year high of $6,633 reached on July 13.

WisdomTree analyst Nitesh Shah said prices, which are higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic, should continue to rise as demand recovers and coronavirus safety measures restrict production. But he said a spike in cases in many parts of the world raised questions whether demand growth will "be as vigorous as expected."

CHILE: Supervisors at Antofagasta's Centinela copper mine in Chile agreed to a new contract offer, the union president said. VIRUS: Nations in Asia introduced restrictions and Britain imposed a quarantine on travellers from Spain, as the world confronted the prospect of a second wave of coronavirus infections. DOLLAR: The U.S. dollar rose slightly from two-year lows, making metals pricier for buyers holding other currencies. FACTORIES: Export expectations in Germany rose in July, new orders rose last month for U.S.-made capital goods and profits at China's industrial firms increased in June. UNITED STATES: Senate Republicans on Monday proposed a $1 trillion coronavirus aid package. VACCINE: Moderna and Pfizer launched two 30,000-subject trials of coronavirus vaccines that could clear the way for regulatory approval and widespread use by the end of this year, the companies said. STOCKS/SPREAD: On-warrant copper stocks in LME-registered warehouses fell to 44,850 tonnes from around 250,000 tonnes two months ago. A premium for LME cash copper over three-month metal also points to tight nearby supply. OTHER METALS: LME aluminium was up 0.1% at $1,709 a tonne, zinc fell 1% to $2,215, nickel slipped 1.4% to $13,525, lead was unchanged at $1,850.50 and tin was 0.4% lower at $17,960. (Reporting by Peter Hobson; Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Edmund Blair and Barbara Lewis)

LME price overview COMEX copper futures All metals news All commodities news Foreign exchange rates SPEED GUIDES ))
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jul. 28

By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:

The value of trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan amounted to $899.1 million over first five months of 2020, compared to $1.1 billion during the same period of 2019, Trend reports with reference to Kazakhstans Statistics Committee.

The share of Uzbekistan in total value of Kazakhstans trade turnover was 2.6 percent during the reporting period of 2020 which is compared to 3.1 percent during the same period of 2019.

Kazakhstans export to Uzbekistan amounted to $673.2 million over the period from January through May 2020 compared to $841 million during the same period of 2019.

Uzbekistans share in total volume of Kazakhstans export amounted to 3 percent during the reporting period of 2020 compared to 3.6 percent during the same period of 2019.

In turn, Kazakhstans import from Uzbekistan amounted to $225.9 million over the reporting period compared to $277.5 million during the same period of 2019.

Uzbekistans total share in Kazakhstans import was 1.8 percent during the reporting period of 2020 which is flat year-on-year compared to 2 percent during the same period of 2019.

The total volume of Kazakhstans trade turnover amounted to $34.9 billion over the period from Jan. through May 2020 which indicates a decrease from $37.5 billion during the same period of 2019.

Kazakhstans export amounted to $22.3 billion during the reporting period of 2020 ($23.6 billion in the same period of 2019), whereas import amounted to $12.6 billion ($13.9 billion).

---

Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 14:14:03|Editor: huaxia

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PHNOM PENH, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia on Tuesday confirmed a new imported COVID-19 case, raising the total number of infections in the country to 226, said a Health Ministry's statement.

The COVID-19 positive case was detected on a 32-year-old Indian man, who arrived in Cambodia on Sunday from India via connecting flights in Malaysia and South Korea, the statement said.

"The man tested positive for the COVID-19 on Monday and currently, he has been hospitalized at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital in capital Phnom Penh for treatment," it said.

According to the statement, the remaining 89 passengers, who are on the same flight with the Indian man from South Korea to Phnom Penh, have been placed under a 14-day mandatory quarantine at various quarantine centers in the capital.

Cambodia on Sunday decided to temporarily suspend flights from Malaysia and Indonesia after the kingdom had seen a remarkable spike in imported COVID-19 cases through these flights.

The suspension will take effect from Aug. 1, 2020 onwards until further notice, said a Heath Ministry's statement.

Health Minister Mam Bunheng said in the statement that Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen approved the suspension after Cambodia had recorded 108 COVID-19 cases imported to the kingdom through flights from Malaysia and Indonesia from June 20 to July 25.

Cambodia has so far recorded a total of 226 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 147 patients cured and 79 remained in hospital. Enditem
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Linkedin Francesco Guarascio and Elvira Pollina (Reuters) Brussels, Belgium/Milan, Italy  Tue, July 28, 2020 07:10 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669ba7b5 2 World EU,pandemic,pfizer,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,sanofi,novel-coronavirus,Johnson-and-Johnson,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-vaccines Free

European efforts to secure potential COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Sanofi and Johnson & Johnson are mired in wrangles over price, payment method and potential liability costs, three EU officials told Reuters.

The bloc is in talks with at least six vaccine makers to acquire up front doses of potential shots against the novel coronavirus, officials told Reuters earlier in July, in a strategy meant to increase the chances of having COVID-19 vaccines for its population.

Despite the urgency to seal deals amid a global race to secure the most promising shots, the EU is struggling to reach swift agreements, said the officials, who are involved in the talks, and declined to be named because the negotiations are confidential.

The United States, meanwhile, has already inked two supply agreements with AstraZeneca and Pfizer among other major funding deals.

The EU's negotiations with Johnson & Johnson are among the most advanced but have yet to conclude amid a back-and-forth over how to share liability costs if the potential vaccine showed unexpected side-effects, two of the officials told Reuters.

Johnson & Johnson had no immediate comment.

France's Sanofi is negotiating to supply 300 million doses of the potential vaccine it is developing with British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc to the EU and wants an immediate upfront payment for the entire stock, two officials said.

But the EU wants to pay in tranches and delay some payments until the vaccine has passed large clinical trials, the officials said.

This has caused "some hurdles," one of the officials said.

A spokesman for Sanofi declined to comment.

A spokesman for the Commission, which is leading EU talks with drugmakers, declined to comment.

Aside from the Pfizer, Sanofi and Johnson & Johnson discussions, the EU is also in talks with biotech companies Moderna and Germany's CureVac, officials told Reuters earlier in July.

Moderna and CureVac were not immediately available to comment.

A deal with AstraZeneca for its vaccine under development with Oxford University was struck by four large EU countries in June and is now about to be completed for the whole 27-nation bloc, officials said.

One official said the EU was seeking to seal three or four advance purchase deals.

"OVER BUDGET"

The most complex talks appear to be with Pfizer and BioNtech which are developing a vaccine using an experimental technology known as messenger RNA, or mRNA, which has not been approved for commercial use by medical authorities.

The two firms want the EU to pay them for 500 million doses only if their COVID-19 vaccine is authorised, one official told Reuters.

This might eliminate the EU's risk of losing money should the shot prove unsuccessful. But the bloc fears that if it waits for the vaccine to be proved effective, the bill could be much higher and they risk going "over budget," one of the officials said.

In a further potential complication, some EU negotiators have raised doubts about mRNA, which is also used in the potential COVID vaccines developed by Moderna and CureVac.

Pfizer and BioNtech are also discussing liability issues with EU negotiators, a fourth person familiar with the talks told Reuters.

Pfizer and BioNTech declined to comment.

The US government last week agreed to pay nearly $2 billion to buy enough of the vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech to inoculate 50 million people, but with payments conditional on their vaccine being successful in large clinical trials.

The price agreed under that deal of nearly $40 per course of treatment is considered too high by the EU, officials told Reuters last week.

The EU is relying on about 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) from an emergency fund to finance its possible deals with vaccine makers, which could be topped up with payments from EU governments.

For instance, the agreement with AstraZeneca initially negotiated by Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands cost the four countries 750 million euros for 300 million doses of the potential shot, an Italian official said, with an option to buy a further 100 million doses.

That works out at 2.5 euros per dose.

It is not clear whether under ongoing talks that money will now be provided by the EU emergency fund.
Tourists from Ukraine will be allowed on the same grounds as of July 30.

Bulgaria will allow tourists from Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia, Montenegro, Moldova, Israel and Kuwait to visit its resorts as of July 28 if they have negative COVID-19 tests, the health ministry said.

The negative tests have to be done 72 hours prior to arrival, Reuters reported.

Read alsoEU not ready to reopen borders for Ukraine because of high COVID-19 incidence

Tourists from Ukraine will be allowed on the same grounds as of July 30, the ministry said in a statement.

Bulgaria is eager to help its struggling Black Sea summer resorts, where foreign visits have plunged due to travel bans over the coronavirus pandemic.
NEW YORK, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading supplier of innovative energy and natural gas products, Kiwi Energy has joined forces with Ampion in order to offer community solar to New York customers that reside within the Ampion serviceable areas. With no upfront costs and absolutely nothing to install, the new partnership provides qualifying Kiwi Energy customers the option to subscribe to a solar farm and receive a discounted credit on their electricity bills.

Kiwi Energy

When most people think of solar energy, the first image that likely comes to mind is of rooftop solar panels. However, for many households (and businesses alike), rooftop or residential solar is not a viable option, simply because they rent, live in multi-tenant buildings or have roofs that are unable to host a solar system. In fact, according to a 2008 study completed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), only 22% to 27% of residential rooftop area is suitable for hosting an on-site photovoltaic (PV) system after adjusting for structural, shading or ownership issues.

Thanks to a new program created by the State of New York, rooftop PV is no longer the only option homeowners, renters, and businesses have for going solar. Community solar expands everyone's access to solar energy. A solar farm is a simple way that people can benefit from solar energy without having to install panels on their roofs. A solar farm is a power plant whose electricity is generated by capturing energy from the sun. The electricity is then distributed via the utility grid. People can subscribe to a solar farm and receive a discounted credit on their electricity bills for their share of the power produced.

The entire process for customers to sign up is quite easy. Based on each household's annual electricity usage, Ampion will assign a share of a solar farm's total production. The solar farm will produce electricity on a customer's behalf and deliver it to the grid. Each subscriber will then receive dollar credits for the amount of electricity produced by "their share" of the solar farm. They will continue to receive a monthly bill from their utility company with their credits applied. Ampion will send an invoice for 90% of the value of the credits that were applied to the utility bill.

"We are looking forward to partnering with Ampion to be able to provide our New York customers access to solar energy who may have not previously had the option of going solar. Solar generation offsets more than 73 million metric tons of CO2 emissions each year. Community solar provides a convenient, efficient, and cost-effective way for people to reduce their environmental impact," said Richard Booth, President of Retail Operations of Kiwi Energy.

About Kiwi Energy

Kiwi Energy is an energy retailer dedicated to providing innovative energy solutions for electricity and natural gas supply. We focus on environmentally conscious products backed by friendly and efficient customer service. As a company, we pride ourselves on transparency and our team is always happy to help with any questions about the energy industry or our services. Please visit https://kiwienergy.us/ to learn more.

About Ampion

Ampion is a Public Benefits Corporation whose mission is to make it easy for everyone to access clean, renewable energy. Ampion is working to see real progress in the fight against climate change. We're committed to operating in a way that produces sustainable value to all of our stakeholders: our neighbors in the communities we serve, our employees, our investors, and our business partners. Our success is defined by how well we serve the greater good, not just the profits we earn. For more information, visit www.ampion.net or call 800-277-3641.

Media Contact:

Nichola Clark

[email protected]

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Ghana's former High Commissioner to India, Sam Pee Yalley, has appealed to all political parties to stop the politics of insult, stressing such culture dents the image of the country.



He cautioned the parties and young politicians to desist from throwing tantrums at their opponents, especially on the airwaves.



Speaking on UTV's 'Adekye Nsroma' programme, Sam Pee Yalley stated that; "Politics of insults seems to be the order of the day and I asked a question, how did we get here? Because it is gradually becoming a norm especially among the young politicians. All they know is to insult and dont care who that person is; whether the President, Vice President or an elderly person. Is that where we want to go?



He also charged party Communicators to speak on issues saying, our basic role as Communicators is to sell our candidates.



He further lauded Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, the NDC's Election 2020 Running Mate, describing her as affable.







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.

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Three residents at a Jacksonville long-term care facility have tested positive for COVID-19, but officials hope they have prevented any additional cases.

The three positive cases at Jacksonville Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center at 1517 W. Walnut St. were confirmed Friday after routine weekly testing. Spokesman Eric Clark said the residents were isolated and that no staff members have tested positive; one contracted therapist was earlier diagnosed with coronavirus and since has been in isolation off-site.

Resident and staff safety remains our top priority, Clark said. Protecting against coronavirus requires very strong monitoring and continual diligence, which we are continuing. We frequently check all of our residents and staff for COVID-19, working very closely with local and state health departments, and continue to do so.

There had been no additional positive cases as of Monday.

Family members are being notified if new cases are confirmed and the center has a phone number  217-875-1973  to provide daily updates on weekdays.

Staff members continue to monitor every resident and healthcare worker on site for fever and other symptoms of coronavirus, and have a thorough cleaning process in place.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Illinois Department of Health have issued guidelines that allow skilled nursing facilities to resume limited outdoor visitation with residents while still combating the pandemic, but reservations are required.

The facility offers therapy services and rehabilitation care; residents have the option of a long- or short-term stay in addition to respite services.

The outbreak  a minimum of two positive test results is required to be classified as an outbreak  is the second for nursing homes in the Jacksonville area since June.

Morgan County Health Department reported June 11 that Aperion Care at 1021 N. Church St. had 47 people test positive for COVID-19 and that two people associated with those cases died from COVID-19.

Ten new cases of COVID-19 were added since Friday in Morgan County, bringing its total case count to 168.

The new diagnoses involved two men in their 20s, two women in their 20s, a man in his 40s, a man in his 50s, a woman in her 50s, a man in his 30s and two men in their 70s, 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.

One of those newly diagnosed with the virus is in the hospital; the others are isolated at home.

Of Morgan Countys total cases, 142 people have been released from restrictions and there have been five deaths.

Cass County confirmed five new cases during the weekend and one Monday, bringing its total case count to 176. The new cases are in a boy and a girl between 10 and 19, a man in his 20s, woman in her 20s and two men in their 30s, according to Cass County Health Department.

Of the total, 141 people have recovered and 11 have died in Cass County.

The weekend brought two new positive cases in Greene County, involving a woman in her 70s and a man in his 70s, according to Greene County Health Department.

That brings the countys total case count to 17, with 11 people having recovered.

Total cases in other west-central Illinois counties as of Monday were: 12 in Brown County; 59 in Jersey County; 112 in Macoupin County; 11 in Pike County; 823 in Sangamon County; six in Scott County; and 14 in Schuyler County, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Statewide, 1,231 new cases of coronavirus disease and 18 deaths were reported Monday, according to the state health department.

There have been 172,655 cases in Illinois and 7,416 deaths.
Armenia says its soldier killed by sniper fire near Azerbaijan border

Iran Press TV

Monday, 27 July 2020 5:42 PM

Armenia's military says one of its soldiers has been killed by sniper fire from across the border with arch-foe Azerbaijan.

It serves as the latest bout of violence in the recent flare-up of tensions between the two former Soviet republics.

In a brief statement on Monday, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia announced that the soldier had been "killed by sniper fire from the direction of the enemy" overnight.

The deadly incident came after a week of relative calm on the flashpoint border.

The clashes, which erupted in mid-July, have so far claimed the lives of 19 people, including the Armenian trooper, from both sides.

Azerbaijan alleged that Armenia was using "large caliber machine guns and sniper rifles" and violating a truce multiple times along the border over the past 24 hours.

Azerbaijan has been engaged in a dispute with Armenia over Karabakh  a territory which broke away from Azerbaijan in a bloody war in the 1990s after being seized by ethnic Armenian separatists. Some 30,000 people were killed in the conflict, which ended with a fragile truce in 1994.

In 2016, scores were killed in four days of renewed fighting.

The recent border violence, unusual as it erupted some 300 kilometers from the mountainous Karabakh, has seen artillery shelling and mortar fire, with both sides blaming each other for starting the clashes.

Azerbaijan even threatened to strike Armenia's nuclear power station if its strategic facilities were attacked.

Russia, the United Nations and Western powers have already called for an immediate de-escalation amid fears that Moscow and Ankara, which backs Baku, could be drawn into a full confrontation.

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Cologne Bonn airport, Germany. Photo: Ying Tang/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The German government will make coronavirus tests compulsory for people arriving in the country from high-risk areas from next week.

The government had said over the weekend that it was examining the legality of making testing mandatory, and whether it went against peoples rights.

On Monday (27 July) evening, federal health minister Jens Spahn said that he would order compulsory testing for travellers returning from risk areas. The regulation should come into force next week and the tests will be free of charge.

"We must prevent travel returnees from infecting others unnoticed and thus triggering new chains of infection," said Spahn in a tweet.

In terms of the legality of compulsory tests, they can be mandated under a rule in the Protection Against Infection law, which refers to obligatory testing in an epidemic situation of national importance.

With increasing numbers of Germans returning from vacations in Europe, especially from Spain, fears are growing that the country could be gripped by a second wave of the virus.

READ MORE: Germany tops global leadership poll for third year in a row

Unlike the UK, which has now ordered a 14-day quarantine period for people arriving back from Spain, it has yet not been designated as a high-risk area by Germany.

However, Germanys foreign office advises against unnecessary tourist trips to the autonomous regions of Aragon, Catalonia, and Navarra due to the high number of infections.

Germanys swift and decisive nationwide lockdowns and mass testing is seen as two main reasons why the countrys death toll from COVID-19 is much lower than other large EU countries.

Germany has had just over 207,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, and the number of deaths, as per the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, stands at a little over 9,100.

However, last weekend saw a spike, with 815 new cases on Friday (24 July) and 781 on Saturday (25 July), the highest daily spikes since mid-May. On Tuesday, the number of new cases also doubled to 633 with the head of Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI) blaming an increase of social contact in workplaces and at parties.

Germanys public health institute currently labels around 130 countries as risk areas, including the majority of states in the US.
Receives bids for 8.34 crore shares

The initial public offer (IPO) of Mindspace Business Parks REIT received bids for 8.34 crore shares today, 28 July 2020, as against 6.77 crore shares on offer, as per the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) website data at 17:00 IST. The issue was subscribed 1.23 times. The issue opened for bidding on Monday, 27 July 2020, and it will close on Wednesday, 29 July 2020. The price band of the IPO is fixed at Rs 274-275.

Ahead of its IPO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT on Friday (24 July) raised Rs 1,518.74 crore by allocating 5.52 crore shares to 54 anchor investors at Rs 275 per unit, the upper end of the IPO price band. The anchor allotment was led by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) such as the Government of Singapore, funds managed by Nomura, Capital Group, Fidelity, HSBC and Schroder.

The Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), which is backed by Mumbai-based real estate company K Raheja Corp and private equity firm Blackstone, is the second REIT IPO after Embassy Office Parks REIT.

The IPO aims to garner Rs 4,500 crore. The issue will raise Rs 1,000 crore of fresh capital while promoter K Raheja group and Blackstone will sell units worth Rs 3500 crore.

The proceeds of the fresh issue will be utilised towards partial or full pre-payment or scheduled repayment of certain debt facilities of the Asset SPVs availed from banks/financial institutions (including any accrued interest and any applicable penalties/ premium); purchase of Non-Convertible Redeemable Preference Shares (NCRPS) of Mindspace Business Parks Private Limited (MBPPL); and general purposes.

Mindspace Business Parks REIT owns a quality office portfolio located in four key office markets of India. Its portfolio includes a total leasable area of 29.5 million sq ft with five integrated business parks and five independent offices across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi: Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Chirag Paswan on Monday tweeted to say that Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray has assured fair probe by Mumbai Police in actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death case. Chirag spoke to CM Thackeray about the case last evening. In a series of tweets, the politician said that the Chief Minister told him that all the people whose names have been linked to the case will be called for interrogation by the Mumbai Police.

Chirag Paswan further added that CM Thackeray has said that if there is a need for a CBI probe, he will give the orders immediately.

Read what the politician tweeted:

Sushant's sudden death by suicide on June 14 has sent shockwaves across the country. He was said to be under stress and depression.

Mumbai Police is currently investigating Sushant's death case. As of now, 39 people have been interrogated by the cops. Dharma Productions CEO Apoorva Mehta recorded his statement on Tuesday and yesterday, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt was called for questioning.

The final postmortem report confirmed that Sushant died by asphyxia due to hanging, adding that no foul play was found in the case. However, his fans are demanding a CBI probe into his death to ensure a fair investigation.
By PTI

NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court Tuesday dismissed the pleas seeking removal of former Director General of Police (DGP) of Uttar Pradesh K L Gupta from the 3-member inquiry commission set up to probe the killing of gangster Vikas Dubey in police encounter.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said it would not allow the petitioners, who had referred to statements given by Gupta to the media for seeking his removal, to cast aspersions on the member of inquiry commission.

The commission will also probe the killing of eight policemen allegedly by Dubey's gang and the subsequent encounter of the gangster and five of his purported associates by the cops.

"We are satisfied that these statements (given by Gupta) were made by him as an ordinary citizen. In our view, it cannot be assumed that Gupta has made up his mind one way or the other. We, therefore, see no merits in the instant applications which are accordingly, dismissed," said the bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.

The top court was hearing two applications filed by advocates Ghanshyam Upadhyay and Anoop Prakash Awasthi seeking removal of Gupta from the commission.

Besides Gupta, one of the two applications had also sought removal of former high court judge Justice (retd) Shashi Kant Agarwal as an member of the inquiry commission.

"We are satisfied that the objection arises because of an incomplete reading and understanding of K L Gupta's statement, who is a former DGP, Uttar Pradesh, made to the media," the bench said in its order.

"It is very clear that Gupta has in the same interview stated that we should not be judgmental. This is not the end but a start'," the bench said.

One of the petitioners alleged in the apex court that statements given by Gupta reflected his bias as it suggested that he was giving a clean chit to the police for encounter.

"Why are you casting aspersions on him? Don't do this. We will not allow you to do this," the bench said, while observing that Gupta's statement was balanced and the petitioners should look into the whole statement.

The bench, after perusing the media reports pertaining to interviews by Gupta, said the inquiry would not be vitiated as former judges of the apex court and the high court are part of the commission.

The apex court had on July 22 approved the Uttar Pradesh government's draft notification for appointing former top court judge Justice (retd) B S Chauhan as the chairman of the three-member inquiry commission.

Eight policemen, including DSP Devendra Mishra, who were ambushed in Bikru village in Chaubeypur area of Kanpur when they were going to arrest Dubey and fell to bullets fired from rooftops shortly after midnight on July 3.

Dubey was killed in an encounter in the morning of July 10 when a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur met with an accident and he tried to escape from the spot in Bhauti area, the police had said.

Prior to Dubey's encounter, five of his alleged associated were killed in separate encounters.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Uttar Pradesh, said there should not be any controversy on the issue as Gupta had only said that there should be inquiry into the incident.

Mehta said the statements should be read out in full context and not selectively.

The bench observed that Gupta had also made it clear in his statements that if any policemen will be found guilty after inquiry, then they will be punished.

The top court said it cannot entertain these applications based on the apprehension of the petitioners and change the member of the commission.

The bench said that even in a trial, the charge sheet is accepted and accepting it does not mean that contents of the probe report has been believed by the court.

On July 22, the apex court had directed that the inquiry commission should start functioning within a week and the probe be concluded within two months.

The apex court had passed the order last week while hearing a batch of petitions which have sought court-monitored probe into encounters of Dubey and five of his alleged associates.

Some of the pleas have also sought probe into the killing of eight policemen on July 3.

In an affidavit filed in the apex court earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government had said that it has constituted a 3-member SIT, headed by UP additional chief secretary Sanjay Bhoosreddy on July 11, to look into the crimes committed by the dreaded gangster and the alleged collusion between Dubey, police and politicians.

Mehta had earlier informed the court that Dubey, who was facing 65 FIRs, was released on bail.

On June 20, the apex court had said that it is a "failure of the institution" that a person like Dubey got bail despite several cases lodged against him.

The Uttar Pradesh government, in its affidavit filed in the apex court, had said that the police party escorting Dubey from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh to Kanpur had to "fire back in self-defence" as he had tried to escape and was killed.
NOTE: The Press Council has not upheld a complaint about this article. Read the full adjudication here.

Australias workers' compensation system was never part of the royal commission into financial services, but it is now clear it should have been.

Evidence of doctor shopping, agents knocking back legitimate claims to earn bonuses and delays and denials of medical treatment are just a few of the tactics being used in a system that has totally lost its way.

Chris Iliopoulos had her workers comp claim rejected. Credit:Jason South

Instead of acting as a safety net for sick and injured workers, the $60 billion system has become a gravy train for insurance agents, consultants and so many other hangers-on.
Thierry Bollore, CEO of Renault, talks to journalists after French carmaker Renault's 2018 annual results presentation at their headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt

By Costas Pitas

LONDON (Reuters) - Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) <TAMO.NS> has picked ousted Renault boss Thierry Bollore as its next chief executive, with a mission to return Britain's biggest carmaker to profit after a big hit from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bollore took over at Renault <RENA.PA> in January 2019 after the fall of Carlos Ghosn, but was always viewed a close to the French carmaker's long-time boss and was pushed out in October when it looked for a fresh start.

Bollore will take over at JLR on Sept. 10, replacing Ralf Speth, whose tenure ends after more than 10 years.

"It will be my privilege to lead this fantastic company through what continues to be the most testing time of our generation," Bollore said in a statement on Tuesday.

JLR was hit this year first by disruption to sales in China and then by lockdowns across Europe and North America as the COVID-19 outbreak spread around the globe.

In 2019, it cut jobs to address tumbling diesel sales, which helped it return to profit. But as the pandemic struck, it slumped to a pretax loss of 422 million pounds ($543 million) for the year ended March 31, 2020.

The company has already taken steps to tackle the crisis, including agreeing a loan facility of around $700 million with lenders in China and further staff reductions.

It is also in talks with the British government over potential support, according to media reports.

Bollore takes over a business that built just over 500,000 cars in 2019/20. He faces a number of tasks, including how to handle the Jaguar brand, which underperforms the Land Rover marque, how quickly to electrify its lineup and a potential hit from Brexit if trade barriers are imposed.

JLR has a partnership with BMW on electrification and parent company Tata Motors recently recommitted to the company.

"Tata Group recognises and values Jaguar Land Rover's future potential highly," said JLR Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran earlier this month.

"That is why this company is central to our global automotive presence  a presence that we intend to develop for years to come."

(Additional reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru and Gilles Guillaume in Paris; editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)
Police officers are seen during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 29, 2020. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

After Ending Police Contract, Minneapolis Schools Quietly Post Job Listings for Security Guards

The public school district in Minneapolis, after cutting their ties with the citys police in early June, has quietly sought to replace contracted school resource officers (SROs) with privately hired security guardsa move that enraged the teachers union, which wants no policing on campus at all.

In the wake of the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police officers, the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) board of education voted unanimously to terminate its contract with the Minneapolis Police Department, saying it cannot continue to be in partnership with an organization that has the culture of violence and racism. As the new school year approaches, however, the MPS found itself in need of a security force to keep campuses safe.

According to an online job posting, the MPS plans to pay between $65,695 to $85,790 for 11 public safety support specialists (PSSS). The PSSS wont be police officers, but are required to have law enforcement degrees and experience. Their list of responsibilities include: breaking up fights, event security, and providing a bridge between in-school intervention and law enforcement.

The MPS hiring effort soon came to the notice of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), reported local newspaper City Pages. The MFT, which played an active role in prompting the district to cut ties with the police, was furious that it had not been consulted about the plan.

When we said we didnt want any more SROs, any more police officers in our buildings, we did not mean, hire a bunch of private security officers and put them in our buildings,' MFT President Greta Callahan told City Pages. More than 100 Minneapolis teachers and families participated in a No Cops In Our Schools rally on July 19 outside the district headquarters to protest against what they called rent-a-cops.

In response, the MPS said they were hiring for PSSS on an accelerated schedule to ensure we have staff onboard and extensively trained before Aug. 18, the first day of school.

Unfortunately, because we used an existing job description to allow us to meet our August 18 deadline, the job description did mention a background in law enforcement, the district explained in a statement, adding that most of applicants they had interviewed dont have that experience.

The most important experience required for the position is understanding and making authentic connections with students so that students do not feel another adult is being brought in to control them, the district said.

The deaths of George Floyd has caused many school districts to consider stop contracting with local police departments or dismantling their own campus police forces. Protesters in several major cities, notably Chicago, Denver, and Portland, have demanded the removal of resource officers from schools.
I remember the debates when it was unveiled; initially there was great fanfare but it very quickly devolved into a much-publicised controversy, attracting huge public and media debate. It became a staple on the front pages of Melbournes newspapers for six months or so. Its rare that art actually makes the front pages, and it kept cartoonists employed for months.

Ron Robertson-Swanns Vault has a rich and wonderful but chequered backstory. It started life as a newly commissioned sculpture for the City Square in 1980: a confident, formally complex marker of place, open and embracing of audience. Robertson-Swann was a highly regarded contemporary artist who had trained under and alongside leading international figures including Anthony Caro and the studio of Henry Moore, and his proposal was representative of art at the time and late-modernist sculpture of the 1970s.

Max Delany, artistic director/ and CEO of ACCA. Credit:Chris Hopkins

There were various demonstrations for and against Vault, including a public rally in August 1980 to "Save Our Sculpture". It became a political issue too, and was very much the fall guy for opposing factions on Melbourne City Council. The Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) imposed a green ban, and refused to relocate the work, and said if it was moved they would stop work on the Queen Victoria Market site. At the time the BLF was involved in green bans to save cultural heritage  exemplified by Jack Mundey in Sydney, who died recently  that was the tenor of the times. They were acting in defence of the artist, who was getting short shrift and treated in a desultory way.

Vault is like a weathervane for the way people express views about the shape of the city, our values as a community and our vision for the future. The sculpture, along with the artist, was treated shabbily at the time; it was in situ for less than a year in the City Square. Summarily, one night it was dismantled and relocated to what was a derelict part of the city then, Batman Park on the Yarra, where it sat forlornly for years. It was only with the development of Crown Casino that it suddenly found itself at the centre of the action again.

As well as being symbolic of different ideologies of art and culture, its been widely influential and the subject of numerous homages. The architects Ashton Raggatt McDougall designed a scale model of Vault in the interior of RMITs Storey Hall. Several tram stops in the CBD, designed by the City of Melbourne design team, reference it in the yellow origami-style bases. Angela Brennan wrote a fabulous poem about it, and it has featured more recently in a film by Eugenia Lim. Theres a great book about it by Geoffrey Wallis, called Peril in the Square.

For me, that is one of the great things about Vault, it shows the ways that communities form around certain works of art. It has had changing fortunes and speaks of our transition from a conservative, less tolerant city to a vibrant metropolis that welcomes diverse cultures. It also suggests that works of art are not fixed in their meaning or significance.
A 400-year-old oak tree on Great Oak Farm in North Coventry Township in Chester County. The farm is being preserved through a conservation easement between the owners, Sean Boyd and Jessica Neff-Boyd, and Natural Lands. Read more

Natural Lands has signed a conservation easement to preserve whats known as the Great Oak Farm in North Coventry Township, Chester County, and along with it a historic 400-year-old white oak tree.

The easement guarantees the 10-acre parcel wont be developed.

When we purchased the Great Oak Farm in 2018, my husband and I knew we had come across something very special, so when we were approached with the idea of a conservation easement, we jumped at the opportunity, Jessica Neff-Boyd said in a news release by Natural Lands, a nonprofit conservation organization based in Media, Delaware County.

After buying the property, we learned about the connections of this land to the Lenape Native American tribe, how the original deed was held by the Penn family, and all about the oak tree, Neff-Boyd said.

Natural Lands said the oak was identified as one of 100 surviving Penns trees, meaning those that were alive when William Penn arrived in America 1682. It is the only such tree in the township.

The easement outlines three zones of protection  highest, standard, and minimal. The tree would be within the most protected zone.

Another plus for the property: It connects along St. Peters Road with the 688-acre Coventry Woods Preserve, which is owned by North Coventry.

The Great Oak Farm includes tributaries of Pigeon Creek, designated as a high-quality stream by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Every successful conservation project starts with property owners that make a choice to preserve their land, said Natural Lands president Oliver Bass.

On behalf of North Coventry Township, I am very grateful to Sean and Jessica Boyd and their extended family for the conservation of this iconic property, said Chris Washburn, chairperson of the townships Open Space Review Board.

Chester County Commissioners Marian Moskowitz, Josh Maxwell, and Michelle Kichline said in a joint statement: that Great Oak Farm is exactly the type of property that our Northern Conservation Initiative was designed to support.

Chester County and North Coventry gave grants totaling $150,000 to the Boyds in return for the easement, according to the agreement filed with the township.

Natural Lands is a regional conservation land trust with 43 nature preserves in Pennsylvania and South Jersey.
"War, like every other human ailment, tends to leave the body politic folded along ancient creases and festering old sores."

- W.E.B. Du Bois

WASHINGTON -- Few Americans have memories of the only year in U.S. history comparable to 2020 for sudden and comprehensive disruption of Americans' lives. To place today's myriad social traumas and dislocations in perspective, read Tracy Campbell's "The Year of Peril: America in 1942."

Pearl Harbor had catapulted the nation into total war when just two years earlier its army was smaller than Portugal's, and its population was so ravaged by malnutrition and negligible health care during the Depression that half of the Army's first recruits were deemed unfit. The armed forces -- and blood supplies -- would remain racially segregated, although in 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt had told civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph that African Americans could be musicians on Navy ships "because they're darned good at it."

The saccharine myth that "everything changed" in a nation united by the sense of "all being in this together" was belied by lynchings and violent killings, such as that in Sikeston, Missouri, of an African American accused of assaulting a white woman.

After he was tied by his feet to a truck and dragged to his death, the local newspaper said this would "protect the wives of soldier boys." When some black soldiers in Oklahoma City were forced to ride on segregated trains for 24 hours without food while white soldiers were fed, an indignant FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover investigated the African American who reported this. In the epicenter of the Arsenal of Democracy, aka Detroit, rioting, gun-toting whites persuaded the city to rethink integration of public housing.

In California, Gen. John "A Jap is a Jap" DeWitt said of the 112,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast, "There are indications these are organized and ready for concerted operation." The indications were the absence of indications. This, DeWitt said, indicated secret plotting, so these Americans were sent to concentration camps. Including Fred Korematsu, who had tried to enlist. His challenge to internment reached the Supreme Court, where he lost. In 2018, the court repudiated this decision.

In 1942, in New Haven, Connecticut, Anne Miller, having developed a blood infection after a miscarriage, became the first person successfully treated with penicillin. By 1945, U.S. pharmaceutical companies were producing 650 billion units of it a month.

In 2020, vilification of such companies has paused, presumably to be resumed after they find a COVID-19 vaccine.

In 1942, the War Production Board banned cuffs and pleats on men's trousers to save cloth. Daylight saving time became a national law in order to save 736 million kilowatt hours of electricity. Rationing of gasoline, automobile tires, sugar, coffee and much else impended, but Congress, which never misses an opportunity to miss the point, voted itself pensions. After two months of hearing the vox of an unamused populi, it repealed them.

Tracy Campbell, a University of Kentucky historian, says that in 1942 the War Rumor Project "began systematically monitoring Americans," relying on "barbers, bartenders, doctors, hairdressers, police officers, and drugstore owners to eavesdrop on their neighbors." Many rumors arose from preexisting prejudices: A poll found that 42% of Americans thought "Jews have too much power and influence."

When a foolhardy regent suggested canceling the University of Georgia's football season, Gov. Eugene Talmadge (D) said that before doing that, they would try "putting our debutantes to hoeing potatoes." The Bulldogs won the national championship.

Seventy-eight years later, some football factories, aka universities, might be more apt to have football Saturdays than weekday classes.

Disrupting crises can be history's accelerants. In January 1942, in the Philippines, the U.S. Army conducted the last mounted cavalry charge in U.S. history. In December, beneath the University of Chicago's football stands, there occurred the first sustained nuclear chain reaction, a harbinger of nuclear weapons.

George Will's email address is georgewill@washpost.com.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 16:10:02|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese researchers are tracking the country's first Mars probe with the help of a very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) orbit determination system. China launched its Mars probe, Tianwen-1, on July 23, kicking off the country's independent planetary exploration mission. Researchers from the Sheshan Mountain VLBI Station with the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have been tracking the probe and collecting data since its launch. VLBI is a type of astronomical interferometry used in radio astronomy, as it can collect accurate data and increase its angular resolution during astronomical observation. China's VLBI system is composed of four stations located in Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming and Urumqi and a VLBI data analysis center at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory.
Two short sections of Scripture have been used for thousands of years to say that women should be silent in the church, and women should not be allowed to teach men.

Claiming that there are numerous passages conflicting with this interpretation, many evangelical denominations, as well as mainline denominations, have interpreted these verses differently. Others insist on what they call a literal interpretation, which requires women to keep quiet.

This topic just wont go away.

In 2019, prominent reformed Baptist minister John MacArthur told Beth Moore, a Southern Baptist, to go home, criticizing her ministry which sometimes reaches men.

And headlines were made recently in Wylie, Texas when Mayor Eric Rogue, also a pastor, requested that only men be allowed to pray at a city council meeting.

Rogue didnt say why he was applying these verses to women speaking outside the church, but he did cite the two oft-quoted sections from the New Testament:

Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. 1 Corinthians 14:34-35

And,

A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. 1 Timothy 2:11-12

Should these verses prevent women from speaking, teaching, and leading in the church?

Loren Cunningham, founder of WYAM ministries, said, We must never judge a verse in isolation. Instead, we must look at the entire Bible to make decisions on individual issues. [1] In other words, if another section of Scripture contradicts a particular interpretation, that calls into question the legitimacy of that interpretation.

Is silencing women in the general assembly and not allowing them to instruct or lead mixed groups consistent with the whole teaching of Scripture?

Lets examine how women minister in the Bible to find out.

Do women speak, instruct, and lead in the Old Testament?

How do women minister in the Old Testament? Lets look at three.

1. Consider Miriam:

The first female leader we see in Scripture is Moses sister, Miriam. God said to the prophet Micah,

I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. (Micah 6:4)

Miriam was chosen by God to go before His people. It is critical to note that one-third of Israels first leadership team was female. [2] This woman, identified in Scripture as a prophetess, conducts the entire nation in worship after the parting of the Red Sea. (Exodus 15:20-21)

Some have argued that the words attributed to Miriam in Scripture were first uttered by Moses, and therefore, she only repeated what a man said. And she repeated it just for the women.

But in Scripture, God calls Miriam a leader without specifying who she led. And God calls Miriam a prophetess. A prophetess does not repeat mans words to the people. A prophetess repeats Gods words to the people.

Miriam was not a silent woman. Her role as a leader and prophet in early Israel was ordained by God.

2. Consider Deborah:

The next prominent female leader we see in ancient Israel was Deborah. Her credentials are hard to overlook and deserve some close scrutiny.

Deborah is identified as a judge and a prophetess, which are positions of leadership in both the government and the church (Judges 4:4-5). It important to note that she maintained these positions of high-ranking leadership over the entire nation of Israel for over 40 years (Judges 4:3, 5:31).

Because her leadership directly contradicts a universal application of 1 Timothy 2:11-12, many arguments have been formulated to dismiss Deborahs contributions.

Here are several:

The No Available Men Argument against Deborah:

Whenever Deborah is mentioned by those who believe that the New Testament silences women, the no available men argument is applied. Jewish scholars insist that the only reason this righteous judge and prophet rose to prominence was because there were no men who were available, willing, or suitable to take the job.

Nowhere does Scripture say this. In fact, the Bible says the opposite: "Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and He saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge" (Judges 2:18).

The Biblical account is clearIsrael was saved from the hands of their enemies all the days of Deborah. So according to Scripture, God raised up this female judge because under her reign as Israels highest-ranking leader, the nation was victorious and the land had peace forty years (Judges 5:31).

By all accounts, Israel flourished under Deborahs rein. Only one judge, Ehud, served longer than Deborah, and only two, Gideon and Othniel, served equal terms. That is pretty good company. Every other judge and prophet in Israel had far shorter and more tumultuous reigns.

The argument that there were no willing or suitable men in a nation with tens of millions of menfor four decadesis specious at best, preposterous at worst.

The Reluctant Leader Argument against Deborah:

Some say that Deborah was a reluctant leader of Israel because after the nations mighty victory over the evil King Sisera, she sings:

"When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselvespraise the Lord! (Judges 5:2)

It is true that in her song, Deborah praises the men in Israel who fought and chastises the men who didnt. Both Deborah and Barak, Israels military commander, identify four tribes that refused to fight. They rail against those men who refused to take the lead and liberate Israel from her enemies (Judges 5:15-17).

It is also true that Deborah was a reluctant military leader. When she commands Barak to lead his men in battle, he refuses to go without her. So Deborah goes with great reticence (Judges 4:8). Still, Israel is victorious with Deborah at the helm.

But while Scripture does affirm that Deborah was a reluctant general, nowhere does Scripture suggest that she was a reluctant prophet or judge.

Rather, the Bible shows Deborah to be esteemed, enthusiastic, and confident in these roles. And after securing Israels victory in battle, Deborah returns to her position as the nations chief prophet and judge for another four decades, without any reluctance.

The Gods Judgement Argument against Deborah:

Others say that Deborah ruled during a time when Israel was under Gods judgment due to rebellion and idolatry. But the people rebelled during the reigns of many other judges and prophets as well. During Samuels reign, the people rejected Gods clear direction and demanded a king (1 Samuel 8:19).

Does this mean that Samuel was not called by God?

Clearly he was.

If we validate the calling of a judge or prophet based on the condition of the people, most of them would be disqualified.

The arguments used to disqualify Deborah are problematic both logically and theologically. But more importantly, what do these arguments say about God? How can He bless and deliver a nation operating under an ungodly form of leadership?

Cunningham addresses this very dilemma,

Others say that sometimes God allows a woman to lead because a man refused to obey Him. But that would mean that on those occasions God acts unrighteously, setting aside His own laws. This cannot be! [3]

To be clear, there was no law forbidding women to instruct or exercise authority in the Old Testament. And the only place in the New Testament that suggests this prohibition is 1 Timothy 2:11-12. But if it was Gods principle for only men to lead and instruct, then He set that principle aside with Deborah and the other women mentioned in this article.

3. Consider Huldah:

Another venerable leader mentioned in the Old Testament is Huldah. During King Josiahs reign, the long-forgotten Book of the Law was found by Hilkiah, the priest, and was brought to Josiah causing him to tear his robes.

Go inquire of the Lord for me and for the remnant in Israel and Judah about what is written in this book that has been found, the King insisted. (2 Chronicles 34:21)

One wonders why Hilkiah wasnt up to the task himself. In all of Israel, who heard the voice of God more clearly than the high priest? Who was more qualified to be Gods mouthpiece to the king?

Answer:

A womanthe prophetess Huldah, who delivered Gods word to Josiah.

She prophesied disaster on the nation for forsaking God, but she prophesied a reign of peace over Josiah for heeding the Word of the Lord. The king, in turn, made a covenant with God and then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves to it. (2 Chronicles 34:32)

Such was the effect of one godly woman's fearless prophecy. Her words changed the course of the nation.

Do women speak, instruct, and lead in the New Testament?

In the New Testament, we see many examples that are problematic with the idea that women are not to speak in church or minister in the general assembly.

Consider Pentecost:

Fifty days after Passover, the entire church was gathered. Suddenly,



All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. (Acts. 2:4)

Of this dramatic, gender-inclusive event, Loren Cunningham says,

The Holy Spirit didnt just fall on the remaining eleven apostles. He fell on all 120 men and women disciples, and each onlooker in the crowd found someone preachingin his or her own language. Peter had to get up and quickly explain. After all many women were preaching, declaring the wonders of God! This just wasnt done. So Peter reminded them the words of the prophet Joel: And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days [4] (Joel 2:28-29).

Why would the Holy Spirit cause women to pray and prophesy at this early gathering of the church if women werent supposed to minister in the mixed assembly, if they werent even supposed to speak?

The Holy Spirit cannot cause someone to do what God forbids them to do.

Consider Pauls teaching in 1 Corinthians 11:

Three chapters before Paul says, it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church, he gives women clear instructions on how to pray and prophesy in the church. In the context of worship, Paul instructs:

Every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head. (1 Corinthians 11:5)

Biblical scholar David J. Hamilton points out the obvious:

Paul told both men and women what to wear while ministering in public because he expected both men and women to minister in public. [5]

And to be clear, when Paul taught women how to pray and prophesy in the church, He wasnt talking about something done on the sidelines of church activity. To pray and to prophesy summarized the full scope of the Jewish concept of priestly ministry. To pray is to speak to God on behalf of Gods people. To prophesy is to speak to Gods people on behalf of God. [6]

Keep in mind, the New Testament church was a very different gathering than our western non-denominational fellowship or mainline denomination today. There were no Sunday schools, men's, women's, or children's ministries. There were no worship teams, missions departments, administrative offices, or parking attendants. There were no thirty-eight-minute sermons with a PowerPoint containing five bullet points followed by an alter call.

"Praying and prophesying" were at the center of church ministry in the New Testament. Unlike now, praying and prophesying happened in every gathering of the church. It does not make sense that Paul would tell women how to pray and prophesy in the church if he expected them to remain silent, or to only prophesy to women.

Consider the Ministry of These New Testament Women:

Anna was a prophetess who never left the temple but stayed there day and night (Luke 2:36). Clearly, she prophesied at the Temple. She met Jesus and talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem. (vs. 38) She was one of the first evangelists who testified the Good News about Jesus in the church.

Priscilla was commended by Paul alongside her husband, Aquila, seven times in Scripture. But contrary to the Roman custom of naming the man first, five times Pricillas name came first.

Paul does not do this without a reason, said John Chrysostom, a fourth-century church father. He seems to acknowledge a greater godliness for her than for her husband. What I said is not guess-work [Priscilla] took Apollos and she instructed him in the way of the Lord and made him a teacher brought to completion" [7] (Acts 18:24-26).

Chloe is mentioned as the leader of one of the Corinthian house churches. (1 Corinthians 1:11)

Phoebe is commended by Paul, who called her a deacon and entrusted her to carry his letter to the Roman church. (Romans 16:1)

Junia, acclaimed by Paul as an outstanding apostle, is commonly acknowledged by contemporary New Testament scholars to be a woman. (Romans 16:7)

So what do these two passages mean in light of all the passages that seem to conflict?

Volumes have been written on this topic.

For example, Dr. John Temple Bristow contends that in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul was telling women to stop chattering during what had become very unruly services. The original Greek verb choices as well as the context of order, which is the clear theme of the entire chapter, support this interpretation. [8]

And why does Paul tell Timothy that he does not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over men?

Bristow says, Teachers, at first, had to be men, for only men were educated in the faith. And Jewish custom strictly forbade women from conversing with men other than their husbands. Moreover, the Jewish sages declared that any man who spends too much time talking with women will inherit Gehenna (hell). [9]

It would be hard to receive a teaching from someone if you believed communicating with that person would send you to hell.

These possible meanings merely scratch the surface. The interpretations of these two passages deserve its own in-depth analysis to consider the original Greek language and cultural context. Only then can we arrive at an interpretation that is consistent with the portrayal of women throughout Scripture.

Whatever the meaning might be, the afore-mentioned discrepancies should compel us to ask questions. These contradictions in Scripture about women must not be glossed over or ignored.

Where does this leave women when it comes to ministry in the church?

Women who speak in church, women who lead, prophesy, or teach are often accused of violating the literal interpretation of Scripture when they minister.

Which verses are they violating? The verses that tell them how to pray and prophesy, or the ones that dont. Should they follow the many verses that clearly show women leading and instructing, or the two that differ?

Women are conflicted. We have gifts that are often silenced with interpretations that elevate two passages while ignoring so many others.

Make no mistake; this issue is really about proper biblical interpretation not about biblical authority. [10]

We agree that Scripture is authoritative. But what does Scripture authoritatively say?

Dr. Sandra Richter, Professor of Biblical Studies at Westmont College, summarizes the ministry of women throughout Scripture beautifully saying:

Deborah was not a mistake. Huldah was Prophet. Junia was not a man. Romans 16 is not an anomaly. Priscilla was a preacher. And the women prophesying in 1 Corinthians 11 were exercising the most treasured and authoritative gift of their known covenant If [a woman] is called and gifted, Church, it is your job to recognize that gift, develop that gift, and deploy that gift. This isnt your Kingdom, it is His.

Amen.

Sources:

1. Loren Cunningham and David Joel Hamilton, Why Not Women?, YWAM Publishing, 2000, pg. 39

2. L. Cunningham, pg. 53.

3. L. Cunningham, pg. 52.

4. L. Cunningham, pgs. 58-59.

5. D. J. Hamilton, pg. 178.

6. D. J. Hamilton, pg. 178.

7. John Chrysostom, First Homily on the Greeting to Priscilla and Aquila, trans. By Catherine Clark Kroeger, Priscilla Papers 5.3 (Summer 1991) 18.

8. John Temple Bristow, What Paul Really Said About Women: An Apostles Liberating Views on Equality in Marriage, Leadership, and Love. Harper Collins, 1991, pg 63.

9. J. T. Bristow, pg. 71.

10. John H Armstrong, How I Changed My Mind About Women in Leadership: Compelling Stories from Prominent Evangelicals. Lessons My Mother Taught Me Without Trying. Zondervan, 2010, pg. 25. Photo Credit: GettyImages/Avosb

Catherine Segars is an award-winning actress and playwrightturned stay-at-home-momturned author, speaker, podcaster, blogger, and motherhood apologist. This homeschooling mama of five is the host of CHRISTIAN PARENT/CRAZY WORLD, a Life Audio podcast about raising godly kids in an ungodly world, and she is matron of the Mere Mother website, which delves into critical cultural issues that affect families and marginalize mothers. Catherine helps parents navigate through dangerous secular landmines to establish a sound Biblical foundation for their kids. You can find Catherines blog, dramatic blogcast, and other writings at www.catherinesegars.com and connect with her on Facebook.

Listen to Catherine's FREE podcast - Christian Parent, Crazy World, available now at LifeAudio.com!




The worlds streets, beaches and ocean have been hit by a tidal wave of Covid-19 waste including plastic face masks, gloves, hand sanitizer bottles and food packaging, said the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).



Plastic pollution was already one of the greatest threats to our planet before the coronavirus outbreak, said Pamela Coke-Hamilton, UNCTADs director of international trade. The sudden boom in the daily use of certain products to keep people safe and stop the disease is making things much worse.



Global sales of disposable face masks alone are set to skyrocket from an estimated $800 million in 2019 to $166 billion in 2020, according to business consulting firm Grand View Research.



Social distancing has also led to a flood of products delivered daily to homes  wrapped in a plethora of packaging  as people turn to online shopping and takeout services. The ensuing plastic waste is enormous.



For instance, during Singapores eight-week lockdown that eased on June 1, the island city-states 5.7 million residents discarded an additional 1,470 tons of plastic waste from takeout packaging and food delivery alone, according to a survey cited by The Los Angeles Times.



Historical data tell us that about 75% of coronavirus plastic will likely become waste clogging our landfills and floating in our seas. And the costs are staggering, said UNCTAD.



The negative spillover effects of plastic waste on fisheries, tourism and maritime transport, for example, add up to an estimated $40 billion each year, according to the UN Environment Programme.



Trade policys role



Plastic is an ingredient in countless products traded internationally every day  from cars to toys to household appliances. Even goods that contain no plastic, such as apples or chocolate bars, are shipped in millions of tons of plastic packaging each year.



Plastic production and consumption are a global system that has lots of trade dimensions, Coke-Hamilton said.



But the important role that global trade policies could play in the fight against plastic pollution has not garnered the attention it deserves.



The number of trade measures mentioning plastics  such as technical regulations, subsidies, licenses and bans  reported to the WTO has increased annually by 28% over the past decade, showing growing concern among WTO members.



But the way countries have been using trade policy to fight plastic pollution has mostly been uncoordinated, which limits the effectiveness of their efforts, Coke-Hamilton said. There are limits to what any country can achieve on its own.



She said the 164 developing and developed economies that make up the WTO have the ability to write multilateral trade rules that could more effectively address the fundamental issues of the global plastics economy.



The list of non-toxic, biodegradable or easily recyclable materials that could replace plastic includes many well-known materials, such as glass, ceramics, natural fibres, paper, cardboard, rice husk, natural rubber and animal proteins.



Since many plastics substitutes are also labour intensive, changes in production and consumption patterns could create new jobs, Coke-Hamilton said.  TradeArabia News Service
Melissa George looked glowing as she stepped out in Venice, Italy, on Tuesday.

The Paris-based Australian actress, 43, tellingly placed a hand on her stomach as she strolled around with friends in the picturesque city.

The Golden Globe nominee, who is known for her roles in Grey's Anatomy and Alias, looked chic in a lace white dress, which she paired with brown sandals.

Summer vibes: Melissa George looked glowing as she stepped out in Venice, Italy, on Tuesday

Clue: The Golden Globe nominee, who is known for her roles in Grey's Anatomy and Alias, tellingly placed a hand on her stomach

The former Home and Away star accessorised with cat-eye sunglasses and a designer handbag.

At one stage, Melissa put on a face mask to help limit the spread of COVID-19. The virus has devastated Italy, with more than 246,000 cases reported as of Tuesday.

She is in the country for the Filming Italy Sardegna Festival.

Fashionista: The former Home and Away star looked chic in a lace white dress, which she paired with brown sandals. She accessorised with cat-eye sunglasses and a designer handbag

Pals: Melissa was joined by several friends on the outing, including a stylish gentleman in a white shirt and black shorts

Melissa shares two children, sons Raphael, six, and Solal, four, with her ex-partner Jean-David Blanc, a French entrepreneur.

She split from Jean-David in 2016 after five years together following an alleged domestic violence incident at their home in Paris.

They were both charged over the incident, and the businessman was ordered to pay Melissa 1,000 in damages, and she to pay him 1.

Safety first! At one stage, Melissa protected herself with a surgical face mask. Italy has been devastated by COVID-19, recording more than 246,000 cases as of Tuesday

Mother of two: She shares two children, sons Raphael, six, and Solal, four, with her ex-partner Jean-David Blanc, a French entrepreneur. Melissa is pictured with a friend on Tuesday

Case of the ex: Melissa and Jean-David are pictured together in Paris on July 3, 2013

Her boys: Melissa is pictured here with her sons, Raphael and Solal, in an undated photo

Due to a custody arrangement, their children can't leave France with their mother without their father's consent, which means she is now based in Paris.

Notoriously-private Melissa hasn't revealed if she is in a relationship.

Last year, she was romantically linked to Australian model Jarrod Scott, 30, after they were pictured together in Paris.

Bitter end: She split from Jean-David in 2016 after five years together following an alleged domestic violence incident at their home in Paris

Legal matter: They were both charged over the incident, and the businessman was ordered to pay Melissa 1,000 in damages, and she to pay him 1

Woman's Day published photos of Jarrod placing a hand on Melissa's back as the pair took her two children out for a stroll.

At the time, a source said: 'He's already happily playing dad to her kids, so it's definitely long term.

'She wouldn't have introduced the boys to him otherwise.'

Here to stay: Due to a custody arrangement, their children can't leave France with their mother without their father's consent, which means she is now based in Paris

Her lips are sealed: Notoriously-private Melissa hasn't revealed if she is in a relationship

Rumours: Last year, she was romantically linked to Australian model Jarrod Scott, 30, after they were pictured together in Paris

Gossip: Woman's Day published photos of Jarrod placing a hand on Melissa's back as the pair took her two children out for a stroll

Claims: At the time, a source said: 'He's already happily playing dad to her kids, so it's definitely long term. 'She wouldn't have introduced the boys to him otherwise'

Mystery man? Jarrod Scott is pictured here at a fashion event in Sydney on August 28, 2019

Jarrod later denied rumours they were dating, saying: 'I haven't had a girlfriend in a long time. We do have mutual friends though.'

When asked about the photo of them looking cosy in Paris, he added: 'I don't know what happened with that photo that floated around. I am very much single.'

Jarrod's representative confirmed to Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday that he is not dating Melissa and that he hasn't been in Europe for months.

Melissa was previously married to Chilean furniture designer and film director Claudio Dabed from 2000 to 2011.

You can watch Grey's Anatomy on Stan.
Though visibly silent on her widely followed Twitter and Facebook accounts since June 30, Yanqi continues to hold behind the door meetings with rival factions of NCP, one led by Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, and another by former Prime Minister Pushp Kamal Dahal Prachanda.

Kathmandu/New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) In a last ditch effort, Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi is making all out efforts to prevent a split in the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP).

The controversial Ambassador, who is perceived close to Nepal's Chief of Army Staff General Purna Chandra Thapa, is seen as the architect of the ongoing trouble on the India-Nepal border.

Yanqi, who has more than 44,000 followers on Twitter, mostly Nepali, is quite active with local NGOs, youth forums and trade organisations.

At Kalapani as well as in the recent border tension in Tanakpur, Uttarakhand, local Nepali traders played a key role in launching anti-India protests. At Tanakpur, located in Uttarakhand's border district of Champawat, Nepal had encroached on no-man's land, despite serious objections raised by the Indian authorities.

At the moment, Yanqi is reportedly holding parlours with top comrades of NCP to prevent the ruling party from an inevitable split as Prime Minister Oli seems reluctant to make truce with Prachanda.

A prominent Nepali English daily reported that Oli is keen to float a new party. One of Oli's close aides has filed an application with the Election Commission to register a new party.

A split in NCP will dent the left unity in the Himalayan republic, a position not suited to Beijing's game of plan.

Earlier, a standing committee meeting of the NCP had failed to sort out the difference between Oli and the rival faction led by Prachanda.

According to NCP insiders, Prachanda feels that Oli's behaviour has created chaos in the party cadre and he (Oli) should step down from the PM's chair or from the co-chairmanship of NCP.

As the rivalry hots up for the PM's chair, Beijing suspects that New Delhi is behind driving a wedge between the two rival factions of the NCP.

Therefore, Yanqi has been tasked to pacify the senior leadership in Nepal's left party. For its own convenience and interest, China wants a strong, united NCP ruled government in Kathmandu.

Earlier, Yanqi had met senior NCP leader Jhalanath Khanal twice in a week. A close source to Khanal said that the Chinese envoy held talks with former Prime Minister Khanal for around 45 minutes at the latter's residence in Swayambhu in the capital city.

Officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kathmandu have dubbed the Ambassador's recent moves as sheer violation of diplomatic norms. The standard protocol demands that there should be a representative of the Foreign Ministry present during such political meetings.

Yanqi also held a few meetings with senior party leader Madhav Kumar Nepal last week. A section of NCP leaders had then raised eyebrows as the meeting took place at a time when the internal rift within the NCP was heading towards a split.

Yanqi, 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.

Yanqi knows several languages, including Urdu, Hindi and Nepali. She frequently appears on Nepali TV channels and is one of the most popular diplomats in Kathmandu.

--IANS

ds/arm
Today show host Allison Langdon broke down on the air during a moving interview with a couple who donated their late son's organs as she revealed her sister is alive today because of a similar transplant.

Allison struggled to speak after the segment with Brooke and Ibrahim Urasli whose son died in New South Wales in 2017.

'It's a very important issue to my family. We have our sister because of organ donation, nearly six years, and she's about to have another baby, which is something none of us thought would happen, she's a gorgeous Mum, anyway, you finish this.'

Co-host Karl Stefanovic comforted Allison, offered her tissues and asked her if she was okay.

Ibrahim (left) and Brooke Urasli (right) told Allison how the tragic death of their 3-year-old son Zane allowed five other little lives to live

Brooke and Ibrahim Urasli's son Zane (pictured) was hit by a car in 2017, and after 10 days in intensive care, they made the agonising decision to turn off his life support

Allison Langdon (right) posted this photo with her sister (left) after her organ transplant at Westmead Hospital

Karl helped Allison through it by making her laugh. He asked if her sister was a troublemaker and Ally jokingly said yes and replied that she was the 'angelic one'.

He told Allison she was a beautiful woman and said 'we love you for sharing the story'.

'That is just such a lovely thing to share with everyone and it's such an important message at this time because it's something you need to sit down with your family and to plan out because we've seen life that comes from those worst possible circumstances, your sister included.'

Allison called organ donation a gift. She has previously said her sister was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 11 and growing up her family were mindful of it.

Karl Stefanovic (left) made Allison Langdon (right) laugh by asking if her sister was a troublemaker after she cried on air

Allison Langdon (right) with her sister Kristen (left), who is about to welcome another baby

In 2010, Kristen's health deteriorated after she gave birth to a little girl and within a year it was clear she needed to receive a kidney transplant.

Kristen was later put on dialysis and received a suitable donor kidney thanks to a life-saving operation in 2014.

Allison was very emotional as she told the audience her sister was going to be a Mum again.

She ended the segment by urging people to talk about organ and tissue donation.

This week is Donate Life Week and only one in three Australian's are currently registered.
A magazine has come under fire after it described the 16-year-old heir to the Dutch throne as 'plus-size' on its front cover.

Princess Amalia, the eldest daughter of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, is pictured alongside her mother on the most recent issue of Caras, a celebrity gossip and royal news magazine published in Spanish and Portuguese.

The photograph, one of several released this month by the Dutch royal family and not taken for the magazine, is published alongside a headline that, once translated, reads: 'Maxima's oldest daughter proudly wears her "plus-size" look.'

The magazine's subhead, once translated, reads: 'The harassed heir to the throne of the Netherlands faces criticism with force and with the support of her parents. A princess who goes through puberty without taboos and defends her figure of "real woman".'

However it is not thought the princess provided any quotes to the magazine or has ever commented on her weight in public.

Social media users and media outlets from Maxima's native Argentina have blasted the magazine for using the term to describe the teenage royal, saying it is 'dangerous', 'disrespectful' and 'shameful'.

Princess Amalia, the eldest daughter of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, is pictured alongside her mother on the most recent issue of Caras, a celebrity gossip and royal news magazine published in Spanish and Portuguese. The headline, once translated, reads: 'Maxima's oldest daughter proudly wears her "plus-size" look

In response, the magazine released a statement saying the story was designed to tackle stigmatization and inspire readers who might be struggling with their own body confidence issues.

The front cover photo shows Princess Amalia in a blue dress alongside her mother Queen Maxima during a summer photo call at their residence, Palace Huis Ten Bosch. The photos were released by the Dutch royal family.

Queen Maxima, who worked as an investment banker before marrying into the royal family, and King Willem-Alexander, son of former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, are also parents to Princess Alexia, 15, and Princess Ariane, 13.

All five family members were photographed in the charming outdoor photo shoot, which is an annual tradition for the Dutch royal family.

The cover quickly garnered attention after it was shared via social media to Caras' 2.7 million Instagram followers and 500,000 Twitter followers.

Princess Amalia, pictured in February, is the eldest daughter of the Dutch King and Queen

An international royal romance! How Maxima, an Argentine former investment banker, fell for the Dutch prince who introduced himself as simply 'Alexander' King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands in December King Willem-Alexander, 53, became king after his mother, Beatrix, now 82, abdicated in April 2013 after 33 years as reigning monarch. He met his future wife Maxima, who was born in Argentina, in 1999 at the annual Seville Fair in Seville, Spain, where she was introduced to him as simply 'Alexander'. Maxima, who at the time was working in New York as an investment banker for Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, thought the strapping Dutchman was joking when he told her that he was not only a prince, but the heir to the Dutch throne. The couple met again two weeks later in New York City and a relationship blossomed across the continents. They announced their engagement in March 2001 and married the following year, holding both civil and religious ceremonies. There was controversy surrounding the match because Maxima's father, Jorge Zorreguieta, held a role as a cabinet minister during the National Reorganization Process, the most recent Argentinian dictatorship. He did not attend his daughter's wedding because of the connection, and his wife chose not to fly without her husband. Willem-Alexander and Maxima have three daughters, Princess Amalia, 16, Princess Alexia, 15, and Princess Ariane, 13. As the eldest child, Princess Amalia is heir to the Dutch throne. As King Willem-Alexanders wife, Queen Maximas main role is to support the head of state in performing his formal duties and is known for her warm nature and vibrant dress sense. Queen Maxima holds numerous public posts and uses her previous career as an investment banker to campaign for greater financial literacy in the country. Willem-Alexander and Maxima have three daughters, Princess Amalia, 16, Princess Alexia, 15, and Princess Ariane, 13, pictured together this year. As the eldest child, Princess Amalia is heir to the Dutch throne Advertisement

The post attracted thousands of comments, with many arguing it's inappropriate to focus on the young royal's body rather than her achievements.

National Argentine newspaper La Nacion spoke to political scientist and feminist writer Florencia Freijo, who argued focus should be placed on the teenage royal's achievements, rather than her weight.

Local body positive activist Brenda Mato added the headline is 'counterproductive' in its desire to celebrate diverse body types because it calls for the reader to 'look at' Amalia's figure.

The sentiment was echoed on social media, with one Twitter user posting: 'You have to be very nefarious to propose/ approve this cover. They belittle her Amalia, a beautiful, sensitive and intelligent teenager playing cool.

'They talk about bullying and they are doing it to them. And they give a very dangerous message to the girls of 16 who read.'

Writing in Spanish, another said: 'Chubophobic, violent and irresponsible cover. For people like you are, we are one of the countries with the highest number of cases of eating disorders in the world.

'Are they are aware of the damage they do? ENOUGH to pass judgement on people by their physique!'

A flood of Twitter users blasted the publication for focusing on the royal's body shape instead of her achievements and accused Caras of 'bullying'

A third added: 'They say that she looks proud of her "plus-size" look and then say that she is a victim of bullying. They are disgusting, they are late and they have a shameful social irresponsibility. Whoever she is, she is a 16-year-old girl with a real body that must not be objectified or stigmatised.'

Despite the criticism, Hector Maugeri, an editor at the publication, stood by the decision and argued the story was intended to help other teenage girls who might be struggling with their body image.

In a lengthy Instagram caption, he wrote: 'The story of Amalia, Maxima's daughter and heir to the throne, is a story of self-improvement and resilience.

Hector Maugeri, who is a director at the magazine, has stood by the publication's decision to use the controversial title. Pictured: King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima, Princess Amalia, Princess Alexia and Princess Ariane of The Netherlands at their summer photo call

'The teenager, after having undergone brutal bullying during her childhood (something that Maxima also suffered and commented on on more than one occasion) managed to overcome it along with the love of her family, and above all, believing in her and in the woman he wants and chooses to be.

'CARAS is a magazine that always gave "voice" to those that society once tried to silence. We are not qualifiers.

'We are communicators and this week, Amalia's story is an example for other girls who could - or go through - the cruelty of those who only know how to see darkness and not light.'

The Dutch Royal family hasn't commented on the magazine cover.
Attorney General Herbert Slatery said a government mandate to wear masks in a health crisis is "constitutionally defensible."

He said, in a nine page opinion, "as a general proposition, a governmental mandate that requires a general population to wear face coverings in public due to the health emergency caused by COVID-19 would be constitutionally defensible."

He added, "The constitutionality of any particular governmental mandate, though, would depend on its specific terms and the underlying authority of the governmental entity issuing it."

Governor Bill Lee has declined to order all Tennessee citizens to wear a mask. However, he allowed mayors in 89 of the 95 counties to issue mask mandates if they choose.

Click here to read the full opinion.
Right about now parents would typically be shopping for back-to-school and looking forward to getting kids out of the house after the summer break.

This year, with the highly contagious coronavirus still upending life, legions of parents find themselves in an ambivalent position: Amid conflicting reports, many remain on the fence as to whether they will allow their children to return to school, if schools even open. Others dont even know at this time if their school districts will open up for in-classroom instruction in a few weeks. More resolute parents have long made up their minds to keep the kids home.

All in all, for thousands of parents across the region, this years back-to-school rite of passage remains riddled with frustration and uncertainty. Parents say they lack clear assurances from officials about the safety of their children; others say they lack information and guidance as a whole.

Harrisburg is not giving us the time to make that decision, said Star Williams, a mother of six. I should have the time to think about it. To think about the questions. But they are not giving us that opportunity.

Two of her children attend Harrisburg School District so Williams has to decide whether they will be heading back for in-classroom instruction. Two others attend charter school, and Jekai, 16, attends Dauphin County Tech. Kalani, 17, is about to enter Norfolk State University as a freshman.

Im on the fence about that too, Williams says of her eldest daughter. Shes going to another state. I dont know if she is in class wearing her mask. She is mature enough to know what is right and wrong but Im weighing my options right now.

Like so many parents, Williams feels the tug of indecision at the center of her childrens welfare and education. She is leaning toward sending the two who attend charter school back to in-classroom school, and the two who attend Harrisburg, she will keep home and do cyber school.

Im concerned that Harrisburgs classrooms are already overcrowded, she said. How are you going to social distance? Are they getting new classrooms? Are some going to come in one day and not others? They are not telling us anything. If I have to make a decision right now, I would choose not to send them back, but we dont know what the plan is and its already about to be August.

Even as parents grapple with their personal decisions, school districts themselves are sending a collective sign of uncertainty. Across the state, some districts have issued firm declarations that schools will reopen, while others have delayed announcements about brick-and-mortar instruction.

All of Pennsylvanias 500 school districts have received the same guidance from the state Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: That guidance is built around social distancing, masking and hygiene. But scores of districts are offering their own unique reopening plans.

Many school districts across Dauphin and Cumberland counties, for instance, have announced their plans for the fall semester, while others, like Harrisburg, are planning to unveil their plans in the coming weeks. York City schools have pushed their start date to September; and West Shore School District is among the ranks of districts planning to start the year with all online learning. For now, most districts are offering a cyber option for parents who dont feel comfortable sending their kids back to brick-and-mortar classrooms.

Indeed, districts are calling for flexibility, with the options to phase in or tier classes, and of course, masking is virtually universal.

Some parents are not convinced that sending children back to brick-and-mortar schools is a safe option. Thats driving a surge in enrollment for cyber schools across the state.

Ralph Rodriguez, and wife Cierra Ross, fifth from left, whose five children attend school in the Harrisburg School District, have decided they will do cyber learning through the district's Cougar Academy. July 27, 2020. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

I dont think our children are worth the experiment. Their lives are worth more, said Ralph Rodriguez, whose five children attend schools in the Harrisburg School District, and has decided they will do cyber learning.

Rodriguez, who works for the Steelton-Highspire School District, and has helped coordinate summer enrichment for the district, says he knows first hand the challenges in ensuring that schools, teachers and students abide by all the CDC mitigation guidance.

After a summer trying to enforce federal guidances with students, he said it is a virtually impossible endeavor.

They are supposed to keep six feet apart and wash their hands every half hour, Rodriguez said. Students want to have fun when they are in school. They are not concerned with COVID or getting sick, even though adults and the CDC are concerned about those things, kids just want to have fun. I just dont see that its possible.

He is troubled by the threats from President Donald Trump, who insists that students across the country be brought back to classrooms in the fall.

How can we win this battle? Rodriguez said.

Some school districts have even surveyed parents. In the Harrisburg School District, for instance, 2,000 parents  at least half of the population  preferred online learning this school year. Out of the hundreds of surveys sent out by Steelton-Highspire, only a small number of parents indicated they would be amenable to sending their children back to school.

Rodriguez echoes concerns shared by parents: The price they want us to pay is too high. I cant gamble with the lives of children. No my children or anyones children.

Scores of school districts have given parents options: namely, in-school learning, online learning and cyber school.

In-school learning is important for single parents and parents who dont have the option to work from home. Online learning has rigid time and supervision constraints, which may not work for all families.

The cyber school option - which adheres to the curriculum but not a time frame - seems to be the best fit for many families.

Joan Milner has opted for that route, but she worries that her daughter, Dalia, will miss out in the end.

Education isnt just learning from a book, said Milner, who was hoping Dalia, who attends Pleasant View Elementary School in the Red Lion School District, could go back to school this fall. You develop friendships. You learn lots of different things. Theres a lot of social interaction that you get from art class or music class. It helps you develop as a person. To sit in front of a computer all day, I think shes going to miss out. She might get good at math or good at reading, but that doesnt make a whole person.

In the meantime online school enrollment continues to surge. Eileen Cannistraci, CEO of Insight PA Cyber Charter School, for instance, has seen a 50 percent increase in new enrollments compared with last year. She believes the pandemic is the contributing factor.

Typically, at this time of the year in July you dont see parents who are really engaging in trying to find out about schools, she told told WJAC in Johnstown.

You see that more towards mid-August. So we are seeing a spike at a time of the year when we normally dont but we dont know if this trend will continue or is it just that its a little earlier this year due to COVID versus last year.

For thousands of parents, though, the inevitability of online learning has its share of disappointment.

Milner said she and her husband decided on cyber school after realizing what a typical day school might look like for Dalia.

What that day is going to look like is not something we think is conducive to fostering a learning environment for children, Milner said.

Beyond the requisite masking and hand hygiene, Milner is concerned about the restricted social and interpersonal interactions that would be mandated by guidelines.

Thats just not a good environment for children, she said.

Rodriguez seems a little taken aback by some of the rhetoric from elected officials regarding a return to school. That includes Trump, who has repeatedly insisted that schools fully open and has threatened to withhold federal money from districts that do not.

Scientific studies further complicate things for parents.

Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, earlier this month published a report that concluded that children infrequently transmit COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Researchers concluded that provided schools follow appropriate social distancing guidelines and take into account rates of transmission in their community, they can and should reopen in the fall.

But recent studies are increasingly indicating that the age of the children is a vital factor: A large study from South Korea indicates that older children seem to spread coronavirus on par with adults.

Rep. Scott Perry, a Republican whose district includes Harrisburg, is pushing a return to schools. Perry last week during an online town hall highlighted scientific studies showing that schoolchildren are less likely to spread COVID-19.

We must put politics aside, listen to the science, and reopen schools; our childrens development and well-being depend on it, Perry followed up on Twitter. Scientific studies around the world show that our schools can reopen and keep our children, teachers, staff, and families safe.

Rodriguez chided Perry, however, noting what he said was the irony of a message delivered online.

With all due respect, Rodriguez said. I dont see Scott Perry in my community. If it wasnt dangerous he wouldnt be having his meetings on Zoom. He would be willing to come into my community to have a conversation. That tells me a lot.

We must put politics aside, listen to the science, and reopen schools; our childrens development and well-being depend on it.



Scientific studies around the world show that our schools can reopen and keep our children, teachers, staff, and families safe. A thread:  RepScottPerry (@RepScottPerry) July 23, 2020

Rodriguez recognizes the price his children will pay. His twins are violinists, he has a wrestler and a cheerleader.

They dont know how their future looks extracurricular, he said.

But he reasserts, that when elected officials stop having official meetings online  signaling a different health landscape  he will continue to put his children first.

Parents say they are overwhelmed with the information and the data that is broadcast daily.

As coronavirus infection rates continue to spike, some districts are reversing decisions.

Behemoth school districts, like Philadelphias, have been tossed into chaos as parents, administrators and teachers voice concerns about reopening in a few weeks. The Philadelphia school board last week delayed voting on a plan that called for students to attend some in-person classes this fall.

Pittsburgh Public Schools are weighing a resolution that would pave the way for schools to begin the year online. More than 4,000 students have already enrolled in full-time e-learning for the fall, CBS in Pittsburgh reported.

Even the school attended by Barron Trump, the presidents son, has signaled some reservation. St. Andrews Episcopal School, a private school in Washingtons Maryland suburbs, informed parents it would not fully reopen in September out of concern over the potential for coronavirus transmission.

All seemingly run counter to new, updated CDC guidance , calling for schools to reopen.

Milner said she is trying to get past the clamor of conflicting information.

Im just going to sit back and Im going to try to create as much a normal environment for my daughter as humanly possible in this environment, she said. Whether I think the government is doing the right thing, honestly, it doesnt matter. All that matters is that I create a kind of environment in which my daughter is nurtured and doesnt live in fear, and she has as good an experience as she can. I wish more people would feel that way.

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Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chairs the meeting of the steering committee for the restructuring of credit organisations on July 27 (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi  The steering committee for the restructuring of credit organisations held a meeting in Hanoi on July 27 under the chair of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

At the event, participants reviewed the implementation of the National Assemblys Resolution 42 and Project 1058 on restructuring the credit institution system in association with bad debt settlement for 2016-2020.

The Government leader shared participants view that over the last three years, the whole system of credit organisations has improved considerably.

In particular, total asset value and equity has increased by 5 percent while the rate of non-performing loans (NPLs) has been brought down to 1.63 percent, or 4.43 percent if the NPLs sold to the Vietnam Asset Management Company and possible NPLs are included.

The divestment of their capital from non-core businesses and the settlement of cross-ownership and -investment have been carried out actively. As a result, 2.2 trillion VND (95.2 million USD) has been divested, and manipulation by big shareholders has been basically solved.

Almost the entire system have been rectified and consolidated. Notably, State commercial banks have continued to play an important role as their total assets account for 42.8 percent and their loans 47.9 percent of the whole systems.

Besides, non-bank credit institutions, peoples credit funds and micro finance organisations have been restructured and operated more healthily, helping to curb loan sharking.

About 557 trillion VND of NPLs has been dealt with, 76 percent of which has been handled by credit organisations themselves.

At the meeting, PM Phuc requested the continuation of synchronous solutions to step up the restructuring of the credit organisation system, settle NPLs, ensure the systems efficiency and safety as well as monetary-credit security, and make use of the restructuring to support socio-economic recovery and development in the face of COVID-19 impacts.

He asked the State Bank of Vietnam to keep devising key tasks and solutions to achieve the set targets.
The running mate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Flagbearer, Professor Jane Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has outlined four thematic areas she believes will spearhead change in youth and gender should the NDC win the December elections.

In today's turbulent political and economic climate, she said the NDCs plan will be critical for ensuring youth and gender development in Ghana.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang, who was speaking during her outdooring as the running mate of John Mahama, also said these reforms were imperative for sustainable economic growth.

She maintained that it was time for Ghanaians to vote the NDC back into power after four years spent in opposition.

The reforms she proposes included systematic institutional changes that will effectively address the needs and aspiration of the youth, whilst leveraging on Technical and Vocational Training.

First, we must be mindful of the fact that 60 percent of our population will be under the age of 30 in a few years.

That is why it is so critical that we systematically reform all our systems to effectively address the aspirations of our youth and country, she said.

Secondly, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said Ghana needed meaningful, quality and comprehensive education that goes beyond the access and responds to the future we can actualise.

She further stressed the need to leverage on vocational and technical training to equip many into meaningful and fulfilling work, as her third point.

Finally, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang stressed the need for more equity in a bid to realised the NDCs plan for development.

Fourth, we must provide opportunities that transcend political patronage, 'connection' and the practice of whom- you- know. Equal and fair opportunities based on merit are imperative for sustainable economic growth. The time for that shift is now.

---citinewsroom
PHILIPSBURG:--- In a series of meetings held on Friday, July 24th, by technical staff and today, Monday, July 27th, with the Council of Ministers and its French counterparts, current developments on COVID-19 were discussed, as well as the way forward. During the first meeting today, with Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs and Madame la Prefete Sylvie Feucher, it was agreed upon by both parties that after further evaluation during this current week, that follow up discussions would take place. Prefete Feucher expressed that she is contemplating re-implementing internal controls to better control the spread of the virus.

Shortly thereafter, the Council of Ministers also met with President Daniel Gibbs and his delegation of Vice Presidents from the Collectivite of Saint Martin to further discuss the COVID-19 developments and exchange updates concerning the increase in active cases on both sides of the island. Discussed were measures to be taken in line with the health MOU, as well as assessing the possibility to further synchronize the measures in place in order to mitigate the further spread of the virus throughout the entire island. Also discussed, were the collaborative efforts between Collective Prevention Services (CPS) and the Agence Regionale de Sante Occitanie (ARS) to discuss and share the origins of and strategy for contact tracing of new cases on both sides of the island.

The Government of St. Maarten indicated some of the stricter health protocols and mandatory measures put in place, such as social distancing in public places and compulsory use of facial protection in public, as well as a maximum number of patrons in enclosed spaces. Prime Minister Jacobs also gave updates concerning the Multidisciplinary Taskforce and Enforcement Teams that would continue to monitor, evaluate, and advise the Government on the best practices needed to swiftly crush the spike in cases once more. Mandatory mask usage is also being enforced on French St. Martin as of this week.

Further concerns for the Governments of St. Maarten/St. Martin were related to visitors from St. Barths, which has reopened its borders to visitors originating from the United States. In light of this, the St. Martin representatives indicated that US travelers wishing to visit St. Martin via St. Barths are required to have been in St. Barths for 14-days prior to their scheduled arrival to St. Martin along with a negative COVID-19 PCR test result. St. Maarten has also adjusted its measures to ensure that visitors from St. Barths would also require a negative PCR test and would be monitored as well.

Both parties exchanged COVID-19 statistics, indicating that the cases have resurged via community spread and are committed to continuous dialogue on developments on both sides of St. Maarten. Collaboration between both sides of the island has become more crucial given the free flow of movement on either side.

While President Gibbs expressed grave concern about the reopening of St. Maarten to the US flights in August, the Government of St. Maarten highlighted the preparations being finalized in order to do so in a controlled manner. These preparations include mandatory PCR testing no older than 72 hours prior to arrival, increased temperature checks, and increased medical personnel at the airport as well as to assist CPS. The Government will also continue to evaluate the health care systems ability to handle the current outbreak.

The meetings were positive overall. Government officials from both sides of the island pledged to further research and work towards the possibility to rapidly increase testing capacity on both sides through a joint request to access EU COVID-19 funding. Both governments also pledged to meet on a monthly basis and to work towards realizing the goal of a joint congress for St. Martin with representatives from both sides.
The head of Egypt's General Intelligence Service delivered a verbal message from Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to the head of Sudan's sovereign council Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan

The head of Egypt's General Intelligence Service Abbas Kamel met with the head of Sudan's sovereign council Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan in Khartoum on Tuesday, conveying a verbal message from Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on the ways to support and develop bilateral relations and enhance joint interests, according to Sudanese state news agency SUNA.

Kamel briefed Al-Burhan on the outcomes of his meeting with the vice president of Sudans sovereign council Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and with Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok regarding the developments in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and efforts exerted to overcome the differences between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the project in the spirit of dialogue.

The Egyptian official said the meeting emphasised the significance of the joint cooperation between the two countries in various security and economic fields.

In addition, Sudans newly formed GERD committee convened for the first time on Tuesday to review the country's negotiation position throughout all previous stages of negotiation on the mega-dam, SUNA reported.

The meeting touched on Ethiopia's initial action in filling the mega-dam and its impact on Khartoum, as well as the path of negotiations in the future.

The committee reiterated Sudan's stress on the importance of reaching a fair, binding agreement on the GERD for all parties.

Addis Ababa surprised Cairo and Khartoum by announcing last week that its first-year target for filling the dam's reservoir had been achieved.

A few days before Addis Ababa made its announcement, the Sudanese authorities had recorded a decline in water levels on the Blue Nile coming from Ethiopia.

Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia have agreed to postpone the second meeting in the ongoing AU talks until 3 August for further internal consultations, after Cairo and Khartoum expressed their concerns over the Ethiopian action.

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In 2017, Shehu Akowe, a rights activist, tested positive for Hepatitis B when he volunteered to donate blood for an ailing friends son admitted at the National Hospital, Abuja.

If not for the donation of blood, Mr Akowe would not have known he had the viral infection that can cause a chronic infection, cirrhosis, and liver cancer, if not managed.

Not until that day I dont know anything about hepatitis though I have been hearing the name. I never noticed or felt any symptoms, he told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday evening.

Like Mr Akowe, many Nigerians have very little knowledge of this disease transmitted through unsafe injection practices.

If you are not aware, you will not get tested and if you are not tested, the disease will not be detected.

At least 30 Nigerians interviewed by this newspaper on Monday did not know some of the common symptoms of hepatitis which include abdominal pain and fatigue. Some have been screened for the disease but do not know there is a vaccine that can protect them against the viral infection.

Many victims of the disease have not been lucky to detect it early. Most times, the disease is diagnosed at a late stage or after it has caused other damages to their bodies, especially the liver.

Mr Akowe was one of the few people who detected their status early when there was still a chance for treatment.

The doctors said my test result showed my immune systems had been protecting me against the disease and that was why I was having no symptoms, he said. They said I was lucky to have come for screening on time, I was prescribed drugs to boost my immune system.

World Hepatitis Day

World Hepatitis Day (WHD) takes places every year on July 28, to bring the world together under a single theme and to raise awareness of the global burden of viral hepatitis in order to influence real change.

This years theme, Hepatitis-free future, holds a strong focus on preventing hepatitis B among mothers and newborns, and spreading awareness about the disease amid COVID-19 pandemic.

So, it becomes all the more crucial to know about the nature, prevention, and treatment of these viral illnesses.

Health experts have repeatedly pointed to poor awareness and screening for Hepatitis as a major reason why the infection has remained endemic in Nigeria.

2030 target

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), dying of viral hepatitis in Africa is now a bigger threat than dying of AIDS, malaria, or tuberculosis. Yet, hepatitis does not usually get the awareness and funding it deserves.

Nigeria is among African nations that signed to a Global Health Sector Strategy (GHHS) target set by the WHO in 2016 to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030, and provided to run from 20162021.

This strategy has been adopted and endorsed by 194 countries. The aim is to reduce new hepatitis infections by 90 per cent and deaths by 65 per cent between 2016 and 2030.

Currently, only 12 countries are on track to eliminate hepatitis by 2030.

Viral hepatitis kills more than 1.3 million people each year, more than HIV/AIDs or Malaria, yet there is a cure for hepatitis C and a vaccine and effective treatment for hepatitis B.

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The 4,000 deaths each day caused by viral hepatitis are preventable. Currently, 290 million people live with viral hepatitis, completely unaware, and one of the key reasons is a lack of knowledge about the disease.

Nigeria is off-track from meeting its target.

Hepatitis B, according to the Ministry of Health, has a national prevalence of 11 per cent while hepatitis C has a prevalence of 2.2 per cent. Both have become leading silent killers in the country; more than half of the nations population are believed to never have been tested and, therefore, do not know their infection status.

Ignorance

Mike Omotosho, a public health expert and President of Hepatitis Zero Nigeria Commission, said about 17 to 21 million Nigerians estimated to be living with viral hepatitis do not know that they are infected, placing them at greater risk for severe, even fatal, complications from the disease.

According to him, the level of knowledge of the viral infection remains low amongst Nigerians despite the fact that it is a leading cause of death and claims the lives of many each year.

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The major problem is that a lot of people are not aware of. It is so bad that when you talk to 10 people, each of them will have something to say about hepatitis. Most people do not know what hepatitis really is or even its symptoms, causes or prevention.

Almost 20 million Nigerians are working around with the hepatitis virus. Also, less than 5 million of those people know their status.

If you truly do not know your status, you may not be able to know what to do next. So, testing is very important. If a person gets tested and he or she is unfortunate that it is hepatitis B, there are luckily HIV management facilities and some of those drugs are actually similar.

As scary as COVID 19, there is actually another disease that kills more people than COVID. Hepatitis actually kills more people than COVID. Almost 500 million people globally suffer hepatitis and out of these numbers, 1.4 million die every year globally, meaning that about 4000 people die from hepatitis and its related illness daily. Hepatitis is a silent killer.

Poor funding

Besides poor awareness and lack of screening, there are also gaps in the diagnosis and treatment of viral hepatitis in Nigeria. The cost of diagnosis and treatment is another challenge.

Nnabuchi Chidinma, a consultant gastroenterologist & hepatologist, Asokoro District Hospital, said a lot of NGOs and Civil Society Organisations have taken it upon themselves to go out into the community to screen people and also educate them on the infection but the government has not done much in putting funds together to fight this disease.

Nigeria does not have the political will and a robust budget line to support the elimination of this silent killer disease that infects more than 20 million people in our country every year, Ifeanyi Ekeh, a public health expert said.

Most donor agencies have traditionally focused on HIV and TB rather than hepatitis, which means the disease been grossly underfunded.

In Nigeria, the hepatitis B vaccine has been included as part of the immunisation schedule for children since 2004. This has helped reduce hepatitis B rates in children. However, rates in adults have gone up.

This stems from a lack of knowledge about the disease, and poor health-seeking behaviours, which makes screening for viral hepatitis difficult, according to an article published by the Nigerian Health Watch during last years World Hepatitis Day.

If the Nigerian government is to reduce the burden of viral hepatitis by 2030 in line with global objectives, it must also find a way to reduce the cost of hepatitis treatment for Nigerians and make screening free, health experts say.

Low coverage of testing and treatment is the most important gap to be addressed if Nigeria is to achieve the global elimination goals by 2030.

Ailment

Hepatitis has various modes of transmission but is commonly spread by exposure to infected body fluids.

It can be spread through sweat, needle-sharing, mother to child transmission at birth, and unsafe blood transfusion.

Some of the symptoms of the disease include: yellowing of the eyes, abdominal pain, and dark urine. While some people particularly do not experience any symptoms, it could lead to chronic cases, liver failure, cancer, or scarring.

Chronic cases require medication and possibly a liver transplant.
BARCELONA, Spain  A resurgence of coronavirus cases in Spain and beyond have people questioning if Europe, which has already been traumatized by more than 181,000 deaths in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, can reduce the impact of a second wave.

Clusters of cases have appeared in various parts of Europe. In Spain, some have required drastic measures. Now, epidemiologists throughout the continent agree that a second series of outbreaks is inevitable. The big question however, is whether the second wave arrives as a series of manageable ripples, often at the local and regional levels, or an all-out tsunami.

As we move forward through time, the number of waves we will observe will be a function of how much of the economy we open up, said Gerardo Chowell, a professor of mathematical epidemiology and chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences at the Georgia State University School of Public Health. You should be expecting these waves. But you can also be ready to control them. Its not easy to do but it is possible.

It is a project that can easily go wrong as was witnessed in Spain, which has had 6,361 new cases since Friday  855 in the past 24 hours, according to the Spanish Health Ministry.

(The U.S. has recorded 146,546 deaths from the coronavirus during the pandemic, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overnight Sunday to Monday, the CDC reported 61,795 new cases for a total of 4.23 million.)

The cases in Spain were driven for the most part by a combination of factors: young people gathering at parties, on the beaches and in nightclubs, often spreading the disease among themselves.

At the same time, in the city of Lleida some 156 kilometers (96 miles) from Barcelona, migrants who had arrived to pick fruits and vegetables were often housed in extremely close quarters. Many even slept on the street.

This may already be a second wave, Maria Jose Sierra of the Spanish Health Ministrys Coordination Center for Health Alerts said last week.

Story continues

The consequences of losing control  or even being perceived as such  can be profound.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Over the weekend, the British Transportation Ministry announced that all travelers coming from Spain to the United Kingdom must self-quarantine for two weeks or face stiff penalties or jail time.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex said Friday that French citizens have been advised not to travel to the Spanish region of Catalonia until the health situation there improves.

Spanish government officials insist that despite the recent outbreaks, quarantine measures are unwarranted.

"Spain is a safe country," Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said Sunday. "Like other European countries, Spain has new outbreaks. It's not unusual."

Nevertheless, some of Spains regional governments, which are normally charged with implementing health measures, have come under withering criticism.

Image: (Manu Fernandez / AP)

We were advising the government that we needed 2,000 contact tracers in Catalonia, said Alex Arenas, a researcher and epidemiological modeler at the University of Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain.

Arenas said that the Catalan regional governments projections, which assumed that the number of cases would remain stable during the tourist season, were not realistic.

I dont know what they were thinking, he said.

Part of the problem is technical. While virtually every government in Europe has a legion of experts to address the spread of the disease, this is less true at the regional and the local levels.

Public health departments are used to managing noncommunicable diseases but they have never managed infectious disease epidemics, said Oriol Mitja, an associate professor of infectious diseases and global health at the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in Spain.

If Spain represents a place where the spread of COVID-19 threatens to get out of hand, much of the rest of Europe cannot be said to be better off.

Archbishop of Barcelona Cardinal Juan Jose Omella arrives to officiate a Mass for victims of the coronavirus at the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona on July 26, 2020. (Pau Barrena / AFP - Getty Images)

Rates of transmission are roughly stable across Europe with countries like the U.K., Spain and Albania reporting more cases than others.

No country is in red zone, EnricAlvarez, abiophysicist at the biocomsc group of Polytechnic University of Catalonia, said. But lots are in the yellow zone.

The continent is in a transition period, Flavia Riccardo, an epidemiologist at the Italian Ministry of Health, said. In Italy and elsewhere in Europe,, public health officials are racing against time to bolster their monitoring systems, including contact tracing, intensive care unit capacity, as well as messaging so as to keep the disease at a manageable level.

This outbreak is not over, she said. There are a lot of things that we might have right now that we may eventually get wrong. We still havent seen the end of the story.
An Egyptian court sentenced several young women to two years in prison on Monday for posting indecent dance videos on TikTok in a fraught case that critics describe as a further crackdown on self-expression in the conservative society.

The women were also fined 300,000 Egyptian pounds (14,570) each for violating the values and principles of the Egyptian family, inciting debauchery and promoting human trafficking, according to a statement from the public prosecutor.

Their lawyers vowed to appeal the ruling.

The prosecution statement named just two of the defendants  20-year-old student Haneen Hossam and 22-year-old Mawada Eladhm  and said the other three helped run their social media accounts.

Both women recently vaulted to TikTok fame, amassing millions of followers for their video snippets set to catchy Egyptian club-pop tracks. In their respective 15-second clips, the women wearing makeup pose in cars, dance in kitchens and joke in skits  familiar and seemingly tame content for the platform.

But their social media stardom became their undoing in Egypt, where citizens can land in prison for vague crimes such as misusing social media, disseminating fake news, or inciting debauchery and immorality".

Eladhm's lawyer, Ahmed el-Bahkeri, confirmed the sentencing. The prosecution deemed Eladhm's photos and videos disgraceful and insulting.

Eladhm was crying in court. Two years? 300,000 Egyptian pounds? This is really something very tough to hear, said Samar Shabana, the attorney's assistant.

They just want followers. They are not part of any prostitution network, and did not know this is how their message would be perceived by prosecutors, she added, in reference to their posts encouraging young women to share videos and chat with strangers in exchange for money on another social media platform.

Although Egypt remains far more liberal than Gulf Arab states, the Muslim-majority country has swung in a decidedly conservative direction over the past half-century. Belly dancers, pop divas and social media influencers have faced backlash for violating the norms.

The string of arrests for moral issues is more broadly part of a clampdown on personal freedoms that has accelerated since President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi came to power in 2013.

A widely circulated online petition described the arrests as a systematic crackdown that targets low-income women, and urged authorities to free the nine young women detained in recent months for posting TikTok videos. Monday's sentencing was the first.

Over the past weeks, the issue of women's rights has galvanised nationwide attention in Egypt. Dozens of accusations of serial sexual assault at the country's most elite university has prompted disbelief, outrage and an unprecedented outpouring of support, becoming Egypt's answer to the #MeToo movement.

But whether the firestorm will have a long-term impact on women's freedom in Egypt remains to be seen. Critics say state prosecutors' willingness to come down so severely on the TikTok women, who tend to come from lower-income families in which traditional values are firmly entrenched, has raised doubts that the movement can cut across the country's stark class lines.

AP
People wearing face masks in Ibiza. (Getty)

Spains prime minister has criticised Britains decision to close the so-called air bridge, arguing that holidaymakers from the UK would be safer from coronavirus in Ibiza than at home.

In an unexpected move over the weekend, the UKs Department for Transport announced British tourists would face a mandatory 14-day isolation upon their return from Spain.

Junior transport minister Charlotte Vere said on Tuesday that the UK is looking at setting quarantine rules for different regions within countries overseas, but will continue to make decisions on a country-wide basis for now.

For the time being we are taking the approach by country for border measures, but it is the case that it could be that we could put them in place for regions in the future, she told the House of Lords. We are not there yet but we are certainly looking at it.

Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez argued on Monday, however, that the infection rate in many areas of his country is far lower than in the UK.

Sanchez told Spanish TV: The error, in my judgment, and hence the lack of alignment of the United Kingdoms response, is based on considering the cumulative incidence of [the virus in] the entire country.

We are talking with British authorities to try to get them to reconsider a measure that, in our opinion, is not well adjusted if we consider epidemiological criteria of Spain, particularly in some tourist destinations in our country.

Sanchez said that the Balearics and Canary Islands, as well as the regions of Valencia and Andalusia, had a lower infection rate than Britain.

It would be safer to be in those destinations than in the United Kingdom, he added.

Passengers in the arrivals concourse at Heathrow Terminal 4, London. (PA)

The overall rate of infection in Spain is 35.1 cases per 100,000 people, while the UK is at 14.7, according to the latest figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Data collected up to 19 July suggests that the Balearic and Canary Islands do, in fact, have much lower rates than the Spanish mainland.

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The British government is reportedly to be in talks to exempt tourists returning from the Spanish islands from the mandatory quarantine because of the lower levels of risk.

The Foreign Office currently advises against "all but essential travel" to countries without air bridge agreements in place.

Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that there were signs of a "second wave" of coronavirus in Europe, as he defended changing travel advice on Spain.

"What we have to do is take swift and decisive action where we think that the risks are starting to bubble up again," he said on a visit to Nottingham on Tuesday.

"Let's be absolutely clear about what's happening in Europe: Amongst some of our European friends, I'm afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic."

Coronavirus: what happened today

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With reports emerging that Prince Harry is having a hard time in Los Angeles, a royal expert has claimed that the royal prince will return to the U.K. soon.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's decision to step down as senior members of the monarchy shocked royal watchers. Unfortunaley for them, ever since they left the country and relocated to Los Angeles, none of their plans has happened yet.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex originally claimed that their main reasons for leaving were due to privacy concerns and their desire to be financially independent. Nonetheless, the coronavirus pandemic and paparazzi issues have affected them negatively and has delayed their plans.

Now, one royal expert is certain that Prince Harry will come back soon, saying "he would be crazy not to."

In a recent interview with The Telegraph, former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter said that Prince Harry's move "does not make sense" to the monarchy and British people.

"British people are clearly just saddened that this star, in their eyes - and I mean Harry, not Meghan - has left the country and gone his own way," he said. "It doesn't make sense to a lot of them."

LA Life Not Suitable For A Royal Prince

Carter also pointed out that the LA life is not suitable for a royal prince, which is why he believes Prince Harry would be leaving Meghan Markle and go back to U.K..

"Los Angeles is not a place for people who don't have a part in the professional firmament," he continued.

The royal expert added that Meghan's background as a Hollywood star would help her get back on track again. However, Prince Harry, who only served the monarchy as a soldier, does not have any "saleable talent" to survive in Los Angeles.

While Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's plan to establish their new venture "Archewell" is far from reality right now, the royal couple is focusing on addressing the worsening global warming.

But Carter suggested that it is not enough for them to be the successful couple they want to be.

"You can get it right if you stay on message in LA," Carter continued. "But I think it's very hard to start telling people about the fate of the planet when you're flying in private planes, living in a 14-bedroom Beverly Hills mansion and living off the state."

Prince Harry Will Not Land A Job In L.A.

Another royal expert previously warned that the royal prince would feel incapable and powerless in LA. Once it happens, Prince Harry leaving Meghan Markle for the U.K. would be a decision he needs to make.

The author of "Prince Harry: The Inside Story," Duncan Larcombe explained to Closer how the 35-year-old duke could be nothing but Meghan's "plus one" and be like a "duck out of water".

"Harry didn't go to university, and he hasn't had much work experience other than being in the army and charity work," Larcombe explained. "Being in Hollywood is likely to make him feel like a duck out of water, as it will be tricky for him to find a suitable role."

The royal prince only went to Eton College before he entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 2005. He then served the British Army for over 10 years before he dedicated his time to the charity sector with his brother Prince William under The Royal Foundation.

Because of his minimal knowledge and skills outside the monarchy, he might fail and lose his pace while Meghan could continue pursuing her Hollywood dreams alone.

Once he feels that way, royal watchers might see Prince Harry leaving Meghan Markle as he would be missing the royal family more than ever.

READ MORE: Meghan Markle Controlling Prince Harry? 3 Times Duchess Showed She's More Dominant
Following the worldwide success of "Weathering With You" in cinemas, Netflix will now bring the anime movie to its platform soon.

Earlier this July, Netflix added Makoto Shinkai's "Your Name" to its growing anime catalog. With that said, the production company is set to share another heartwarming film before this month ends in "Weathering With You."



Release Date

On July 26, Netflix announced that the Japanese hit-anime movie "Weathering With You" will land on the site on July 31.

The film was originally released in Japan on July 19, 2019. Since then, its popularity has risen worldwide. It is highly successful and well loved, even receiving a 91 percent positive ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.

Furthermore, "Weathering With You" has seen its fan base grow in 140 countries all over the globe, bagging over US$193.1 million worldwide and 14.06 billion in Japan.

It also premiered during the Toronto International Film Festival and was chosen as Japan's official submission for Best International Feature, setting another record to be the first anime film to be nominated since "Princess Mononoke" by Ghibli Studios in 1998.

Since its release, the movie garnered multiple awards and acknowledgements. It was Japan's entry for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, and it received four Annie Award nominations -- including Best Independent Animated Feature.

Cast

The "Weathering With You" main Japanese voice actor and actress are Kotaro Daigo (Hodaka Morishima) and Nana Mori (Hina Amano).

Its supporting Japanese actors and actresses consist of Shunoguri (Keisuke Suga), Tsubasa Honda (Natsumi Suga), Sakura Kiryu (Nagisa Amano), Sei Hiraizumi (Yasui), and Yuki Kaji (Takai).

Meanwhile, GKIDS -- an award-winning film distributor in New York -- confirmed that the English version is coming, with the film's voice cast completed.

"The Hobbit" actor Lee Pace, "Mad Man" actress Alison Brie, and Emmy awardee Riz Ahmed will be the ones to give life to the supporting characters for the English version.

Brandon Engman and Ashley Boettcher will be voicing Hodaka and Hina, the male and female leads, respectively.

Plot

The film is about a teenager named Hodaka, who runs away from his home island to Tokyo. He is welcomed with a never-ending rain in the city and ends up meeting the girl who can change the weather and clear the skies, Hina.

The film was completed with aesthetically pleasing and meteorologically-inclined settings.

In an interview with Polygon during the TIFF, Shinkai said that he only wanted to explore two themes in his latest film and mentioned about climate change.

He pointed out that the issue has been tied with people's lives every day, and incorporating it into "Weathering with You" was something he took a point of by creating the main characters with the wishes of what is best for everyone.

Shinkai dedicated the film to young people in Japan. He also mentioned that he was able to finish the movie with the help of RADWIMPS, the rock band who also made the album for "Your Name."

Sneak Peek!

Here's a little advice for you: if you have seen "Your Name" and plans to watch "Weathering With You" on Netflix for the first time, be ready and prepare a tissue box as something surprising is about to pop out on screen!

READ MORE: 'The Kissing Booth 2': 3 Things You Did Not Know About The Epic Sequel!
Sudanese asylum-seeker Yasir was illegally detained by a militia in Libya. Evacuated to safety in Niger, he checks his phone at UNHCR's Emergency Transit Mechanism camp outside Niamey, May 2019.  UNHCR/John Wendle

Thousands of refugees and migrants are dying, while many are suffering extreme human rights abuses on irregular journeys between West and East Africa and Africas Mediterranean Coast.

A new report released today by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) at the Danish Refugee Council, titled On this journey, no one cares if you live or die, details how most people taking these routes suffer or witness unspeakable brutality and inhumanity at the hands of smugglers, traffickers, militias and in some cases even State officials.

For too long, the harrowing abuses experienced by refugees and migrants along these overland routes have remained largely invisible, said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. This report documents killings and widespread violence of the most brutal nature, perpetrated against desperate people fleeing war, violence and persecution. Strong leadership and concerted action are needed by States in the region, with support from the international community, to end these cruelties, protect the victims and prosecute the criminals responsible.

Collecting accurate data on deaths in the context of irregular mixed population flows controlled by human smugglers and traffickers is extremely difficult as many take place in the shadows and away from the view of authorities and their formal systems for managing data and statistics. However, the reports findings, primarily based on MMCs 4Mi data collection programme, and data from additional sources, suggest that a minimum of 1,750 people died on these journeys in 2018 and 2019. This represents a rate of least 72 deaths per month, making it one of the most deadly routes for refugees and migrants in the world. These deaths are in addition to the thousands who have died or gone missing in recent years attempting desperate journeys across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe after reaching north African shores.

Around 28 per cent of deaths reported in 2018 and 2019 happened as people attempted to cross the Sahara Desert. Other hotspots for fatalities included Sabha, Kufra, and Qatrun in southern Libya, the smuggling hub of Bani Walid south-east of Tripoli and several places along the West African section of the route including Bamako and Agadez.

While most reports and data are still coming in for 2020, at least 70 refugees and migrants are known to have died in 2020 already, including at least 30 people were killed at the hands of traffickers in Mizdah in late May.

The men, women and children who survive are often left with lasting and severe mental health issues as a result of the traumas they faced. For many, their arrival in Libya is the final staging post on a journey characterized by horrific abuses including random killings, torture, forced labour and beatings. Others continue to report being subjected to brutal violence, including being burnt with hot oil, melted plastic, or heated metal objects, electrocution and being tied in stress positions.

Women and girls, but also men and boys, are at high risk of rape and sexual and gender-based violence, particularly at checkpoints and border areas, and during desert crossings. Some 31 per cent of respondents interviewed by MMC who witnessed or survived sexual violence in 2018 or 2019 did so in more than one location. Smugglers were the primary perpetrators of sexual violence in North and East Africa, accounting for 60 per cent and 90 per cent of the reports from the respective routes. However, in West Africa, the primary perpetrators were security forces/military/police officials, accounting for a quarter of reported abuses.

Many people reported being forced in to prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation by traffickers. Between January 2017 and December 2019, UNHCR recorded over 630 cases of trafficking of refugees in eastern Sudan, with nearly 200 women and girls reporting being survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

Once inside Libya, refugees and migrants are at risk of suffering further abuses, as the ongoing conflict and weak rule of law means smugglers, traffickers and militias are often able to act with impunity. UNHCR welcomes recent steps taken by the Libyan authorities against armed groups and traffickers, including raiding a smuggling ring and freezing the assets of various traffickers. The agency calls on the international community to provide more support to the authorities in their fight against human trafficking networks.

Many who attempt the sea crossing to Europe are intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard and returned to Libyan shores. More than 6,200 refugees and migrants have so far been disembarked in Libya in 2020, suggesting the final figure for the year will likely eclipse the 9,035 returned in 2019. They are often taken and held arbitrarily in official detention centres, where they face daily abuses and appalling conditions. Others end up in unofficial centres or warehouses controlled by smugglers and traffickers who subject them to physical abuse in order to extract payments.

The careless treatment of refugees and migrants we witness along these routes is unacceptable, said Bram Frouws, Head of the Mixed Migration Centre. The data we provide also once again shows that Libya is not a safe place to return people to. Sadly, this may not be the last report documenting these violations, but it adds to the mounting evidence base that can no longer be ignored.

Pockets of progress have been achieved in recent years to address the situation, with some of the criminals responsible for the abuses and deaths placed under sanctions or arrested. There has also been a reduction in the number of people being held in official detention centres in Libya. UNHCR has repeatedly advocated for an end to arbitrary detention of refugees and asylum seekers and stands ready to support the Libyan authorities in identifying and implementing alternatives to detention.

Overall, greater efforts are needed to strengthen the protection of people travelling these routes and to provide credible, legal alternatives to these dangerous and desperate journeys. Greater cooperation is needed between States to identify and hold accountable the criminal perpetrators of these horrific abuses at different points along the routes, share key information with relevant law enforcement agencies, dismantle smuggling and trafficking networks and freeze their financial assets. National authorities should also take greater steps to investigate reports of abuses by State officials.

These measures must go hand in hand with efforts to address the root causes that drive these journeys and an unequivocal commitment to ensuring that no one rescued at sea is returned to danger in Libya.

The report and multimedia content including photos, video testimonies and b-roll footage are available at this link: https://www.unhcr.org/5f1ab91a7

For more information, please contact:

Mixed Migration Centre

In Geneva, Bram Frouws, [email protected], +41 79 889 54 39

UNHCR

A panel discussion for journalists will be held to launch the report at 1345 Central European Time on 29 July. The panelists will include:

Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean

Ayla Erin Bonfiglio, Regional Coordinator for Mixed Migration Centre North Africa (online)

Prof. Maya Sahli-Fadel, African Union Commissioner and Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Asylum-Seekers, Internally Displaced Persons and Migrants in Africa (Dialing in online from Algeria) (online)

Othman Belbeis, IOM Senior Regional Advisor to the Director General on Middle East and North Africa

Journalists can receive an invitation to participate through Zoom by contacting Charlie Yaxley at [email protected] . The event will also be livestreamed at http://webtv.un.org/

30 July is the United Nations World Day Against Trafficking In Persons
No attacks have been recorded since Tuesday midnight.

Russia's hybrid military forces on July 27 mounted three attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, amid the newly-agreed truce.

"In particular, the enemy opened fire from grenade launchers of various systems and small arms on Ukrainian soldiers deployed near the village of Vodiane, as well as using automatic grenade launchers, heavy machine guns rifles near the village of Pivdenne," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said in a Facebook update as of 07:00 Kyiv time on July 28, 2020.

"The Ukrainian defenders did not fire back. There were no casualties among our soldiers as a result of enemy shelling," it said.

Read alsoRussian-led forces violate new truce in Donbas  JFO Commander

In addition, another act of provocation was recorded near the village of Novomykhailivka, where terrorists planted three POM-2 anti-personnel mines near Ukrainian positions, using hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers.

No enemy attacks have been reported since Tuesday midnight.

"The Joint Forces adhere to the ceasefire and are ready to adequately respond to any treacherous and provocative actions by the enemy. No shelling has been recorded in disengagement areas No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3," the report says.

As UNIAN reported earlier, participants in the Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine, Russia, OSCE) on the peace settlement in Donbas on July 22 agreed on a complete and comprehensive ceasefire along the contact line from 00:01 on Monday, July 27.

The new ceasefire regime began to operate in Donbas at 00:01 Kyiv time on July 27.

Before the new agreements came into force, President Volodymyr Zelensky had a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Senior military officers and President Zelensky say the new truce does not mean that the Ukrainian military will not be able to return fire in response to enemy attacks.
A labourer unloads bags of sugar from a delivery truck to a market in Karachi

By Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan on Tuesday allowed the import of 300,000 metric tonnes of sugar to meet a shortage in production below consumption levels, the finance ministry said, a move that could support global prices.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), a top body that makes crucial financial management decisions, gave the green light to the importers.

"The ECC considered a proposal by the Ministry of Industries and Production for import of refined sugar by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to maintain buffer stocks, and allowed import of up to 300,000 metric tonnes of white sugar," the ministry's statement said.

Pakistan - which had been exporting sugar until earlier this year - has a shortage after production fell below demand in the 2019/20 marketing year that ends on Sept. 30.

The price has risen sharply in the last few months, reaching as much as 90 rupee a kg amid a scandal that sugar barons have made billions.

An investigation report made public in May by Prime Minister Imran Khan's government found that sugar mill owners had made a windfall profit of over 100 billion rupees ($600 million) through actions such as fudging the production cost to claim subsidies, under-reporting their stocks and exploiting farmers.

The report mentioned cabinet ministers, and Khan last week ordered a crackdown on the sugar industry to bring prices down.

The sugar price was as low as 54 rupee a kg when Khan took over in late 2018. Opposition parties say Khan would look the other way to help his aides, a charge the government has denied.

The finance ministry set up a committee to finalise a mode of sugar procurement.

(Writing by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Giles Elgood)
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri was found guilty on Tuesday of charges related to misappropriation of 42 million Malaysian Ringgit (RM) from at the state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad(1MDB).

The Malaysian high court Judge Mohd Ghazali, who read the detailed judgment, said that the defence had failed to establish any doubts against the prosecution's case, New Straits Times reported.

Among other things, he ruled that Najib's defensive stance of blaming fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho was not valid.

Najib, 67, was reportedly calm upon hearing the verdict.

The former Prime Minister is accused of committing three counts of criminal breach of trust, which resulted in the swindling of RM42 million from the former 1MDB unit SRC International. He was entrusted with control over the fund as the prime minister.

He also faced a separate charge of abusing the same positions for self-gratification of the same sum.

Najib was found guilty on all seven charges of abuse of power, breach of trust and money laundering, but experts said the verdict could be overturned on appeal, the New York Times said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 18:39:21|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia reported one new case of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking its total tally to 289, the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Tuesday.

"A total of 686 tests for COVID-19 were conducted across the country yesterday and one of them was positive," the NCCD's head Dulmaa Nyamkhuu told a daily press conference.

The latest confirmed case is one of the over 260 Mongolian nationals who returned home from Europe on a chartered flight on Monday, said Nyamkhuu.

Meanwhile, four more patients have recovered from the disease, raising the total to 222, he added.

All 289 cases were imported, mostly from Russia, according to the NCCD.

No local transmissions or deaths have been reported in the country so far. Enditem
BALTIMORE  Dr. Joseph Costa, the chief of critical care who treated the sickest COVID-19 patients at Baltimore's Mercy Medical Center, succumbed to the virus at the age of 56 Saturday, the hospital confirmed to CNN.

"Joe was more than a trusted colleague; he was also a true friend to many," Sister Helen Amos, executive chair of Mercy Health Services Board of Trustees, and Dr. David Maine, Mercy Health Services president and CEO, wrote in a letter to the hospital community. The letter was forwarded to CNN by the hospital's spokesman and also shared on Facebook.

"He dedicated his life and career to caring for the sickest patients. And when the global pandemic came down upon us, Joe selflessly continued his work on the front lines  deeply committed to serving our patients and our city during this time of great need. His memory will live on as an example to us all."

Members of Costa's family were not available for comment to CNN. Hospital spokesman Dan Collins told CNN that the family is not giving media interviews at this time.
A PUB has welcomed back its former landlord  just over a year after he left.

Ted Docherty ran the Crown in Playhatch for more than 10 years before deciding to focus solely on the White Hart in Nettlebed, which he has run since 2010.

The Brakspear pub opened on Wednesday for the first time since being forced to shut by the covid-19 pandemic.

During the lockdown, the White Hart offered groceries for sale and sold takeaway meals.

Mr Docherty said: It was so great to be able to invest in supporting the community. Our steaks have always been popular so we used our butchers to supply them to Nettlebed and the surrounding areas.

We created an online shop so people could order items like fresh fruit and vegetables, dried goods, toiletries and meat. We then added takeaway meals once we recognised the appetite for taking a break from cooking.

It was great to keep busy and spend time supporting our customers when they were struggling to get to the shops, or couldnt get hold of items.

The pub is now open but will continue to offer the online shop and takeaway service. Mr Docherty said he was delighted to be back in Playhatch, adding: It has been great getting stuck into one pub but I really missed the Crown.

His TM Dining steaks will be back on the menu as well as a range of wines from South Africa, where Mr Docherty grew up.

Brakspear chief executive Tom Davies said: Were delighted Ted will be running the Crown again. His many years of experience in hospitality and his constant drive and creativity are a great combination. Were sure hell do a great job.
The balance of domestic and foreign currency loans in the Yangtze River Delta region stood at 41.79 trillion yuan (about 5.97 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of June, up 14.8 percent year on year, official data shows.

According to the Shanghai head office of the People's Bank of China, as of the end of June, the balance of RMB loans was 40.64 trillion yuan, up 14.8 percent year on year, registering an increased growth of 0.1 percentage points compared to the same period last year.

In June alone, new RMB loans in the region hit 557 billion yuan, an increase of 83.7 billion yuan year on year, while new foreign currency loans stood at 2.5 billion U.S. dollars during the period.

Meanwhile, the balance of domestic and foreign currency deposits in the region was 52.98 trillion yuan as of the end of last month, up 12.8 percent year on year, with the balance of RMB and foreign currency deposits in the region standing at 51.09 trillion yuan and 266.8 billion U.S. dollars, respectively.

Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui come under the ambit of the Yangtze River Delta region. Enditem




A retired Brisbane dentist who drugged a teenage dental nurse with laughing gas before sexually assaulting her 40 years ago has been jailed for at least three-and-a-half years.

Peter James Agnew, 68, gave the young woman about four times the normal dose of nitrous oxide before unzipping her uniform while supposedly treating a hole in her tooth in 1980.

As the woman, then 19, lay dizzy and disorientated in his dentist chair, she attempted to fight Agnew off but he was too strong, the Brisbane District heard during his trial.

Brisbane dentist Peter James Agnew, 68, has been jailed for at least three-and-a-half years for raping a dental nurse in his practice in 1980

Agnew, then 27, also exposed the woman to pornographic images in the dental surgery's lunchroom and later raped her, pushing her to the floor after the last patient had left.

'You would have known she was in the surgery that night, locking up, completing her duties, cleaning the surgery, and you came back to work and raped her,' Judge Deborah Richards said on Tuesday.

The woman resigned the following day.

Agnew was convicted of indecently assaulting and raping the woman after she confronted him in 2016 to gather evidence for investigating police.

Judge Richards said his actions were contemptuous and despicable.

'You were in a position of authority over her and she was clearly someone who was in awe of that position of authority, and the position that you held made you confident and brazen,' she said.

Agnew was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment and will be eligible for parole after serving half of the term.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-27 23:53:33|Editor: huaxia

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GENEVA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Governments should react quickly and communicate transparently to ensure small numbers of COVID-19 cases and clusters don't "reignite sustained and efficient community transmission", said a senior expert of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday.

Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, made the appeal when talking about the recent resurgence of COVID-19 cases worldwide.

Countries such as Japan and Australia that have had contained the virus are experiencing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases. Japan has reported 4,740 newly confirmed cases to WHO in the past seven days. "When the measures to suppress the virus are lifted, the virus returns," Ryan noted.

Some of the resurgences have started from long-term care facilities such as nursing homes, others were happening in places like nightclubs, where people come together and spend a prolonged period of time, said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead of the WHO Health Emergencies Program.

Meanwhile, Ryan said that in order to efficiently control the resurgence, countries need to have "consistent, clear, sustained interventions," and to get the interventions down to the community level. It is equally important that governments be "honest and trustful" and "communicate reality on the ground" to the public.

Latest numbers from WHO show that globally there have been more than 16 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 646,000 deaths as of Monday. Enditem
Abidjan (AFP) - An independent panel of experts, headed by former Irish president Mary Robinson, has cleared the beleaguered leader of the African Development Bank (AfDB) of corruption, according to a report obtained by AFP.

Akinwumi Adesina, 60, a charismatic speaker known for his elegant suits and bow ties, became the first Nigerian to helm the AfDB in 2015 -- but a 15-page report earlier this year claimed that under his watch the bank had been tarred by poor governance, impunity, personal enrichment and favouritism.

The panel of three experts, led by Robinson alongside Gambia's Chief Justice Hassan Jallow and the World Bank's former integrity vice president Leonard McCarthy, cleared Adesina of all charges alleged by whistleblowers.

"The Panel concurs with the Committee in its findings in respect of all the allegations against the President and finds that they were properly considered and dismissed by the Committee," Monday's report concluded.

The African banking institution and Adesina -- who is the sole candidate for the bank's August's presidential elections -- has been battered by the rollercoaster of allegations after the whistleblowers' complaints were leaked to the media in April.

The former Nigerian finance minister had always declared himself "innocent" of the charges.

Robinson -- who led Ireland from 1990 to 1997 before serving as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights until 2002 -- dismissed the 16 whistleblower allegations against Adesina.

The panel did not investigate the charges themselves, as that was not within their mandate.

The AfDB plays an important if largely behind-the-scenes role in African economies, financing projects in agriculture, health, energy, education, transport and other development sectors.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and largest economy, has firmly backed Adesina in the face of the allegations.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said the panel's report "validates his competence and integrity to lead" the bank.

"This conclusion of the review of the Report of the Ethics Committee should finally draws a curtain on the allegations that have created distractions for the institution in recent months," Buhari said in a statement on Twitter.

"I urge Dr. Adesina to remain steadfast, dedicated and resolute in pursuing his noble goals for the Bank, especially with the now-expected second term in office."
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Apollo Telehealth, the telemedicine division of India's largest private healthcare chain Apollo Hospitals, expects 50 percent of its outpatient department (OPD) consultations to go virtual in three years.

At present, 15 percent OPD consultations are so. Our plan is to make it 50 percent," said Vikram Thaploo, Chief Executive Officer, TeleHealth, Apollo Hospitals, in an interview to Moneycontrol.

"Look at leading US healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente. They are already doing 70-75 percent OPD consultations virtually; ten years back, it was 25 percent," Thaploo said.

Telemedicine allows healthcare professionals to evaluate, diagnose and treat patients using telecommunications technology  from phone calls to video, chat platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Mobile App, Skype, email and fax.

One of the major reasons for the tepid response towards it in India has been the lack of clarity over informed consent. The ground has now been cleared, with the government releasing the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines in March, just weeks after the country was hit by COVID-19.

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

As per the guidelines, if a patient initiates telemedicine consultation, consent is implied. These guidelines have been in the making for 10 years, Thaploo said.

Inflection point

While people were aware about the power of telemedicine, the avalanche effect came only because of COVID-19," he said.

Apollo, which was carrying out 10,000-plus teleconsultations per day during pre-COVID-19 days, has seen a jump of 300 percent. In fact, Apollo Hospitals, which had to scale down its non-emergency OPD operations due to COVID-19, managed to stem the tide by offering virtual services.

Thaploo says there isn't much difference in the pricing of physical and virtual consultation.

Apollo Telehealth has 1,000 dedicated doctors for virtual consultations. The division also runs point-of-care centres to deliver healthcare services across Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and other states as part of Public-Private Partnerships, in addition to providing consultation to corporates.

Apollo TeleHealth Foundation has launched a toll-free call service, Sanjeevani Telehealth Seva, for non-COVID patients in Bhopal and Indore as many hospitals have suspended OPDs.

Omnichannels

Apollo has floated Apollo 24|7, an end-to-end omni-channel healthcare platform, to enable users from any part of the country to avail Apollo services over phone.

The platform currently offers a full bouquet of services such 24x7 consultation with Apollo doctors pan-India and across 55 specialities, medicine delivery at home, diagnostic test booking, doorstep sample collection, digital health records and more.

Thaploo says Apollo 24|7 plans be an aggregator by including doctors from even non-Apollo networks. A lot of start-ups and even telecom giants like Reliance Jio are betting big on digital healthcare service now.

When there is competition, we'll get better quality and price. From a corporate point of view, it makes you much smarter. We will beef up our services. If our quality is 99.9 percent, we'll try and make it 100 percent. The most important part about competition would be that as our chairman (Pratap Reddy) keeps saying, you increase the size of the pie, your size will also increase," Thaploo said.
Friday marked an unfortunate benchmark anniversary in Pennsylvania, the 11th anniversary of the last minimum wage increase. The states wage floor has been stuck at $7.25 since July 24, 2009, when the federal government last raised the minimum wage.

Pennsylvania has not acted to get above that level despite repeated calls from the governor and workers. Twenty-nine states now have a higher minimum wage, and 21 states increased the wage floor this year.

With many workers struggling to get by, especially essential workers who are providing vital services during the pandemic, Gov. Tom Wolf again called on legislators to raise the wage, the seventh time he has done so.

In January, the governor proposed raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour on July 1 with annual 50 cent increases until reaching $15 an hour in 2026.

Of course state lawmakers soon had more pressing things on their minds as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all non-essential businesses and schools in March.

But as the state reopens including state government, Wolf makes the point  and we agree  that now is an even more important time to raise the minimum wage.

Today is a sad reminder that across the state many workers are on the job and earning poverty wages because Pennsylvania hasnt raised the minimum wage in over a decade. Many of them are essential workers, who throughout the COVID-19 pandemic have gone to work and put themselves at risk to provide the services all of us rely on, Wolf said in a press release on Friday.

The continuing push to raise the minimum wage on both the national and state levels got some traction in 2019 with legislative proposals that did not go as far as Wolfs call for an eventual $15 an hour but did get above the abyssmal $7.25. Those proposals failed to get past the argument that raising the minimum wage would hurt small business owners.

In the current economic environment in which those same small business owners are struggling to stay afloat, that argument will be even louder. However, giving the essential workers who are still on the job in Pennsylvania an increase generates income to spend locally in those same small businesses.

Workers earning the current minimum wage  many of whom are minorities  are living below federal poverty guidelines. Even the proposals to get to $10 an hour dont bring families out of poverty.

A $10 an hour job nets $20,800 a year before taxes, below the federal poverty guideline of $21,330 for a family of three. At $12 an hour, the $24,960 in earnings is below poverty level for a family of four.

Some employers, such as Target and Walmart, have recognized the importance of getting to a living wage, and we commend them. But without the guide of a higher earnings floor, too many workers in Pennsylvania remain in poverty.

Many of these are essential workers on the front lines in health care institutions and nursing homes as aides, maintenance workers, and food service providers. Others are home health care aides and hourly cleaners, whose services have been both critical and risky during this pandemic.

Eleven years is far too long for Pennsylvania workers to endure the lowest earnings floor among neighboring states. We urge lawmakers to demonstrate to workers, especially those on the front lines, that their efforts are worth something more than the lowest tier. Action to raise this wage floor is necessary  now more than ever.
The South Korean government said Tuesday that it would begin work on launching its own military surveillance satellites to monitor North Korea, after negotiating a loosening in an agreement with the United States that limits the kind of rockets it is permitted to develop.

South Korea and the United States have just finished negotiations to revise their missile guidelines, first signed in 1979, under which Washington maintained tight restrictions on what type of missiles and rockets Seoul could develop, Kim Hyun-jong, a senior national security aide to President Moon Jae-in, said in a news briefing Tuesday.

Kim denied that the easing of the missile guidelines had been part of negotiations over how much South Korea should pay annually to help cover the cost of keeping 28,500 US troops in the South. President Donald Trump has insisted on a sharp increase from this years 1.04 trillion won ($866 million), accusing South Korea of not spending enough for its own defense.

Under the revised guidelines, Kim said, Washington has removed the limit on how powerful solid-fuel rockets that South Korea can build to launch space vehicles. Solid-fuel rockets are much easier to store and handle than their liquid-fuel counterparts, making them ideal for missile engines.

The lifting of the cap allows South Korea to build powerful rockets with potential applications for long-range ballistic missiles. Seoul remained obliged not to build ballistic missiles with a range of more than 800 kilometers, or 497 miles, Kim said, but hoped to start launching low-orbit military surveillance satellites using its own solid-fuel rockets within the next several years.

I cannot go into classified military details, but I can tell you that we will soon have many low-orbit military satellites with excellent surveillance capabilities monitoring the Korean Peninsula from the sky 24 hours a day, Kim said.

South Korea has no military satellites of its own, relying instead on US spy satellites to monitor North Korea. But with Trump questioning the merit of keeping US troops in South Korea even as the Norths nuclear and missile capabilities have rapidly expanded, Seoul has struggled to augment its own abilities to counter the North Korean threat.

South Korea plans to deploy five military reconnaissance satellites by 2023 at a cost of $1 billion, the national news agency Yonhap reported.

On Tuesday, Kim said that South Korea has lacked eyes and ears despite its $41.6 billion defense budget, partly blaming restrictions in the missile guidelines.

Under those guidelines, the United States provided South Korea with technical help in building missiles. But it also imposed restrictions on missile developments because of concern over a regional arms race. The guidelines have been revised three times before.

In 2012, as the Norths missile threat increased, the United States agreed to let South Korea possess solid-fuel ballistic missiles with a range of up to 497 miles as long as the payload did not exceed 500 kilograms, or about half a ton.

In 2017, the United States lifted the payload limit. But South Korea is still banned from developing ballistic missiles with a range of more than 497 miles.

South Korea test-launched a new short-range ballistic missile, Hyunmoo-4, in March. The missile had a 497-mile range but was designed to carry a payload of up to 2 tons, according to South Korean news media.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th July, 2020) Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Taher Siala has discussed with his Algerian counterpart, Sabri Boukadoum, bilateral coordination mechanisms to return the situation in Libya to the political track, the Libyan Foreign Ministry affiliated with the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) said.

"Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Taher Siala and his Algerian counterpart have discussed during a phone conversation coordination between the two countries in a bid to return to the political process and dialogue in Libya, and the role that Algeria plays in this regard," the foreign ministry said in a statement in the late hours of Monday.

The two diplomats also talked other core issues, including measures to tackle COVID-19.

In early 2020, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced that his country was ready to host talks between the Libyan warring parties to settle the longstanding conflict.

The Arab country has repeatedly affirmed its stance on the matter, as well as the importance to find a peaceful political solution to the crisis in neighboring Libya.

In mid-June, Tebboune held talks with the speaker of Libya's eastern-based parliament, Aguila Saleh, following a settlement roadmap proposed by Cairo, which called on the belligerents to cease fire.

Last week, the Egyptian parliament unanimously approved a possible dispatch of military forces to conduct combat operations outside the country. It came after President Abdel Fattah Sisi said that his country had an internationally legitimate right to intervene in Libya and assist the eastern administration, which is the GNA's main rival, to protect its national security.
As ACH Risk Managers in banks, credit unions, and organizations embrace the new normal of risk management, we help them confront the challenge; to keep their risk limits current and in alignment with the business health of their originators, said Lori Frank, Argos Risks President and CEO.

Argos Risk, a leading provider of Third-Party Risk Intelligence (TPRI) services for managing and monitoring the financial viability and overall business health of third-party relationships, today announced its expanded Regional Payments Associations partnership with Wisconsin Automated Clearing House Association, Inc. (WACHA) under the Mid-Atlantic Clearing House Association, Inc. (MACHA) acquisition.

Prior to acquiring WACHA, MACHA served financial institutions, businesses, and municipalities in Maryland, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Northern Virginia, Northeast West Virginia, and Southern Pennsylvania. Payment Advisory Resource (PAR), a former subsidiary of WACHA, has also become a wholly-owned subsidiary of MACHA and will continue to deliver compliance, audit and consulting services, and risk management under the combined payment association.

WACHA has been a subscriber of Argos Risks flagship solution, AR Surveillance, since 2012 and monitors a variety of companies including construction, advertising, consulting, professional services development, and software companies. As payments continue to converge and evolve, we were excited about the opportunities this merger provides the combined membership and further introducing the benefits of third-party risk intelligence services, said Mary Gilmeister, MACHAs President and CEO.

Argos Risks reputation is built on delivering an innovative third-party risk intelligence solution; providing operational excellence to proactively meet challenging market conditions. AR Surveillance leverages more than 10,000 data points to assign risk scores to a bank, credit union, or companys third-party commercial relationship. It automatically generates and sends alerts about significant changes, such as lawsuits, liens, mergers, acquisitions, key executive changes, and current material news and events while providing actionable insights into originator viability allowing one to quickly and consistently assess originator risk levels.

We are delighted to continue to work with Mary in her new role as MACHAs President and CEO, said Lori Frank, Argos Risks President and CEO. In our fast-changing environment, we adapt to new demands, expectations, and norms, said Frank. As ACH Risk Managers in banks, credit unions, and organizations embrace the new normal of risk management, we help them confront the challenge; to keep their risk limits current and in alignment with the business health of their originators.

About Argos Risk

Argos Risk is a leading provider of Third-Party Risk Intelligence solutions. Over the past decade, Argos Risk has fulfilled a need for timely and comprehensive risk mitigation knowledge with third-party risk intelligence. Argos Risk provides innovative and affordable subscription services to help companies manage the risk associated with their third-party relationships in Supply Chain Management, Vendor Management, ACH/RDC origination, and Direct and Indirect Lending. For more information, visit http://www.argosrisk.com.

About MACHA

MACHA, founded in 1975, is a member-based organization and is recognized as the premier payment resource expert for information related to all payment rules and networks. MACHA shares a common strategy with its membership in the pursuit of maximized business efficiencies, improved and evolving payment processes, reduced risk and cost, and increased participant satisfaction. With the combined organizations, MACHA now serves over 500 members. To learn more, contact Mary Gilmeister at mgilmeister@wacha.org or call (262) 345-1245.
SAN FRANCISCO, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Truework , the consent-based identity platform that gives consumers control over their personal and professional information, today announced a partnership with telemedicine company Hims & Hers.

Hims & Hers offers affordable at-home testing for COVID-19, in partnership with Rutgers Clinical Genomics Laboratory at RUCDR Infinite Biologics, Rutgers University. Truework and Hims & Hers are working together to give the employees of Truework's partner companies access to COVID-19 testing through the Hims & Hers platform.

"Employers across the country are trying to get people back to work, but balancing that against the reality of spiking cases makes verifying the COVID-19 health status of employees more critical, at the same time as continuing shortages in testing makes it more difficult," explained CEO Ryan Sandler. "Hims & Hers is committed to making medical care more accessible and we're thrilled to partner with them to bring their at-home COVID-19 testing solution onto the Truework platform to help get more people back to work safely."

Andrew Dudum, CEO of Hims & Hers said, "We're committed to doing everything we can to stop the spread of COVID-19 and widespread testing is a vital part of that effort. We're proud to be one of the first telehealth companies to offer access to at-home testing for COVID-19, and excited to partner with Truework to enable employers to incorporate testing into their return-to-work plans."

Truework's core product, a verified identity platform, protects sensitive personal data behind consumer consent. The automated employment and income verification service removes the need for HR departments to respond directly to requests from lenders, landlords, background check companies and others. Whenever a third party requests sensitive data, like income, the respective employee receives an email or text with specific details about the inquiry and is given the option to approve or deny the request. With an emphasis on privacy and security, Truework maintains best-in-class security certifications, including ISO27001, SOC2 Type 1 & 2.

Truework's network of over 40,000 lenders, background check companies, and other verifiers completes thousands of employment and income verifications every day, with industry-leading turnaround times.

Truework's employer network spans all industries, from healthcare to technology, and includes The College Board, Oscar Health, The Motley Fool, Divvy, Tuft & Needle, and Techstars.

About Truework

Truework is a platform for employment and income verification that puts consumers in control of their personal data. Truework digitizes the verification process for HR departments, banks and others, to make it faster and more secure for employees to get verified when applying to transactions like loans, jobs and apartment rentals. Founded by Ryan Sandler, Ethan Winchell and Victor Kabdebon in 2017, the company is backed by Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures and others, and has raised $45 million to date. To learn more, visit www.truework.com .

SOURCE Truework

Related Links

http://www.truework.com


COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruption in the aviation industry and there are very little signs of recovery. Even after two months of resumption of domestic flights, corporate travel numbers have recovered by a very small amount, said Dhruv Shringi, Co-Founder & CEO at Yatra.com.

Shringi said during a briefing that presently business travel is only about 10 to 15 per cent of the pre-COVID-19 level. Shringi also said that much of the air travel happening right now is essential in nature. "It is mostly essential travel that is happening now. Customers are also visiting friends and relatives. But there is no leisure travel at the moment," Shringi said.

Domestic flights, as well as international, were suspended back in March when the first nationwide lockdown was announced to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Two months later on May 25 domestic flights were resumed. International flights are still banned but the government has allowed a few of through its Vande Bharat Mission repatriation exercise, and air bubbles.

"The recovery in travel is gradual. It may not be a V or W-shaped recovery," said the Yatra.com CEO. "If one goes by the daily update provided by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, about 60,000 to 70,000 people are travelling a day. This is in comparison to about 4.5 lakh tickets that were sold on an average daily, before COVID-19," Shringi added.

To attract customers, fares have been 'meaningfully low' as compared to last year. Shringi added that yields are down by 7-8 per cent from last year.

Yatra.com has been put in a tough spot as nearly 50 per cent of their business comes from corporate travel. To make up for the slump in corporate travel the company has expanded its horizons.

Shringi said that Yatra is becoming a digital service platform for its corporate clients. Its clientele includes 800 large corporates, 20,000 small and medium enterprises, and over one lakh hotels, Money Control reported.

The company is now looking towards skill development. It has already partnered with education portal UpGrad to offer skill development courses for the companies it serves. It is also procuring consumables for these companies.

Aside from this, Yatra will also offer digital safety solution to its clientele. The company is hoping that this shift in its corporate strategy will help in keeping it steady during this slump in corporate travel.

Shringi is not worried about the company running out of cash anytime soon. He reiterated that the company has enough cash in its books. "We have $48 million in our balance. This will go a long way as our monthly burn rate is about $1.2 million," he said.

Also Read: Govt tweaks FDI rules; NRIs can now acquire up to 100% stake in Air India

Also Read: India's crackdown on Chinese apps irks China, vows to protect firms' interests
- Gabbi Garcia wowed the netizens with her stunning walk-in closet tour

- In her latest vlog, Gabbi showed her shoe, bag, make-up, and clothes collection

- She also shared some details about the design of her luxurious closet and its displays

- It was her boyfriend, Khalil Ramos, who helped her shoot her latest vlog

PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed!

Kapuso star Gabbi Garcia recently showed off her stunning walk-in closet at home in her latest vlog.

KAMI learned that Gabbi also shared her shoe and bag collection to her followers.

Photo from @gabbi on Instagram

Source: Instagram

In a YouTube video, the Kapuso actress made a vlog to give a quick tour of her walk-in closet. The video was shot by her boyfriend, Khalil Ramos.

The 21-year-old actress showed some of her favorite heels, sneakers, bags, and make-ups. According to the actress, her dad helped her decorate the walk-in closet.

The entire closet was filled with pink, white, and gold colors which really gave a classy and cozy vibe.

Gabbi has different closets for her heels, bags, blazers, sneakers, and make-up. It was also seen in the vlog that she has a mini-bar station in there and a fitting room.

I opted to put like a mini lounge for them to chill or kapag magchi-chikahan lang kami, she said.

Most of the displays in her walk-in closet were gifts given to her by her parents, sister, and partner Khalil.

PAY ATTENTION: Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news!

Gabriella Lopez or Gabbi Garcia is a famous actress and recording artist in the Philippines. She is under GMA Network and she also has an active YouTube channel.

Earlier, Gabbi called out the netizens who called her names for supporting ABS-CBN Network despite being a Kapuso artist.

Months ago, she also stunned the netizens with her jaw-dropping swimsuit photos. It gained hundreds of thousands of likes and positive comments from the netizens.

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
CINCINNATI, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard Textile, a leading global innovator, manufacturer, and distributor of healthcare, hospitality, and consumer products, announces the addition of two new associates to the company's healthcare team, focused on serving the government marketplace.

Lyddane Knewitz has joined the company as Government Sales Manager. An accomplished sales professional in this arena, Knewitz comes to Standard Textile with significant expertise in government contract and sales management. She has spent more than a decade developing partnerships with Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense (DOD) hospitals, conducting product trials with clinicians, and administrating Federal, State and Local contracts in accordance with government regulations and requirements.

Ken Tyler (HRLLD, CFM, FAC3, CPCM) has joined Standard Textile as a Government Program Advisor. Tyler managed the Department of Veterans Affairs' Laundry and Textile Operations from 1977 until his retirement from the VA in 2000. He has spent the last twenty years leading and developing government programs, and he received a VA Lifetime Achievement Award for his part in modernizing and building 73 laundry facilities supporting VA Healthcare Operations. Tyler served for 28 years in the US Marine Corps Reserve and he is a recipient of over 30 combat decorations, including the Silver Star and a Purple Heart.

Tyler remains active in numerous professional organizations such as TRSA, the Association for Linen Management (ALM), the Association for the Health Care Environment (AHE), and many others. He is a graduate of the VA Leadership Program and is a recipient of numerous awards from the government, including the GSA Excellence in Administration Award.

"We are excited to welcome Ken and Lyddane to the Standard Textile team. They will both provide focused support, tremendous vision and expertise, and excellent service to our government partners," said Tom Main, Group Vice President, Standard Textile.

About Standard Textile

Founded in 1940, Standard Textile has developed a culture of innovation, quality, and service. With more than 80 patents, its products are engineered to deliver durability, longevity, and value. A vertically integrated company, Standard Textile is a leading global provider of total solutions in the institutional textiles and apparel markets. Leveraging textile design, manufacturing, and laundry expertise, and its global infrastructure, this company serves customers in the healthcare, hospitality, interiors, workwear, and consumer markets worldwide. For more information visit standardtextile.com.

Contact:

Judy Sroufe

Vice President, Brand Marketing and Communications

[email protected]

Standard Textile

One Knollcrest Drive

Cincinnati, OH 45237

(513) 238-0592

www.standardtextile.com

SOURCE Standard Textile

Related Links

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TRENTON  A former elections investigator has accused Catherine DiCostanzo in a lawsuit of engaging in discriminatory hiring practices.

The Republican Mercer County superintendent of elections faces a separate allegation from a fellow GOPer that she used the N-word about a Black Democratic colleague two years ago who was appointed by the governor to replace her, according to documents obtained by The Trentonian.

Together, the allegations represent a possible pattern of discriminatory behavior that has hounded DiCostanzos office for years.

DiCostanzo forcefully denied the allegations in a phone interview Monday.

This is all about politics. I hope you realize that, she said. That did not come from my mouth.

Bruce Camp, a Black ex-investigator, filed a lawsuit this month alleging DiConstazo engaged in discriminatory hiring practices. He brought forward the allegations years before filing the lawsuit, according to state records.

He worked for DiCostanzos office for roughly a decade before he was fired in July 2018 after complaining that he witnessed iniquities in hiring practices and pay connected with race, according to his lawsuit.

An investigation was opened into Camp once he raised the allegations, and he was let go, according to the lawsuit, which also names the state and county as defendants.

The county declined to comment on the suit.

Camp and another employee, Vera Ward, claimed they were hired for entry-level position at lower salaries than two Latino employees, Xavier Silva and Natalie Mercado, who worked in the same positions, state records show.

An administrative law judge found no element of the factual scenario that appears compatible with discriminatory intent, Craig Sashihara, the director of the state Division of Civil Rights, wrote in a letter to Camps attorney in 2017.

Sashihara found insufficient evidence of discrimination in upholding AOL Judge Jeff Masins dismissal of the complaint.

Undeterred by the decision, Camp moved forward with the lawsuit, filed July 16.

Defendants discriminated against plaintiff because of his race, in that the reason provided for plaintiffs adverse employment actions and termination was pretextual and similarly situated non-African-American employees were not terminated for such reason, attorney Mark Laderman, who did not respond to a phone call seeking comment, wrote in the filing.

In a separate incident around the same time, DiCostanzo allegedly called Nate Walker, the Black deputy superintendent of elections, a motherf**king n*gger behind his back, according to documents obtained by The Trentonian.

DiCostanzo, a Republican, was appointed by former Gov. Chris Christie in 2012 to serve a five-year term as county elections superintendent. She has been a holdover since her term expired.

She reportedly used the slur during a meeting in her office with Anthony Conti, a fellow Republican elections board member.

Conti met to inform DiCostanzo that he had been nominated by Lisa Richford, the chairwoman of the Mercer County Republican Committee, to fill Walkers spot as deputy elections superintendent.

Earlier, DiCostanzo, who is white, allegedly learned from Walker that Gov. Phil Murphy had appointed him as her successor.

I had to learn this from a motherf***ing n*gger that I was not being reappointed, DiCostanzo allegedly told Conti during the conversation, referring to Walker.

DiCostanzo claimed in an interview she had already been informed by the governors office that she was being replaced before any discussion with Conti.

The allegations were outlined in a letter Mamta Patel, the director in the New Jersey Division of Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action, wrote to Richford on June 26, 2019.

Walker was not directly mentioned in the letter, but Richford confirmed the alleged slur was made about him.

There was a lag between Conti reporting the exchange to Richford, sometime in 2018, and the EEO/AA opening an investigation, according to the letter.

Richford explained that she was delayed in filing a complaint because she couldnt get a straight answer about the state agency that would handle an investigation.

Richford emailed Tim Hillmann, one of Murphys senior advisors, on June 18, 2019, with the allegations about DiConstanzos slur, according to Patels letter.

The allegations were forwarded on to the EEO/AA, which wrote to Richford about a week later confirming her complaint was received.

Richford said she also sent letters with the allegations about DiCostanzo to Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes, county counsel Paul Adezio and other political leaders in the region.

She should have been gone by the next day, Richford said.

A spokesman for Patel declined to comment on what happened to the investigation into DiCostanzo.

DiCostanzo accused Richford of targeting her after she refused the chairwomans alleged marching order to replace a member of her staff.

The elections superintendent said Richford demanded that she get rid of her confidential secretary, who is Black, during a lunch meeting at the Yardville Inn in 2017.

She gave me an ultimatum, DiCostanzo said.

DiCostanzo said her refusal to fire the secretary meant she was not on Richfords nice list.

She claimed she never used the N-word during a conversation with Conti, comparing him to a snake.

He has to look in the mirror, she said. I just cant understand why he would say or do that.

DiCostanzo said she was cleared by the EEO/AA of wrongdoing, but she couldnt immediately provide a letter to corroborate her claim, and the agency wouldnt confirm as much.

She said shes considering taking legal action against Conti and Richford for defamation.

I know I can look in the mirror and thats not me. Thats my character and I spent a long time with my character, she said. They just like to be divisive and cut people. Im not gonna stand by and allow it. Its very, very disheartening that people would stoop to those levels.

When first asked about the letter, Hughes said he was unaware it had been sent to him and this was the first time he heard of the allegations against DiCostanzo.

He called back later to confirm receiving a copy of the letter.

The county appears not to have acted on the allegations, deferring to state officials to investigate DiCostanzo, who is still considered a county employee despite being a gubernatorial appointee.

Im not going to get into the middle of she-said-she-said between Cathy DiCostanzo and her county chair, Hughes said. Why dont you ask Conti about it?  I heard nothing from Anthony Conti. Im hearing it from you.

Hughes wouldnt say whether he believed Contis allegations about the elections superintendent.

He denied trying to insulate DiCostanzo from any possible consequences.

Youre telling me what you think Conti said to Richford and what Richford said to you, he said. Now thats four times removed, and thats not a question Im going to respond to.  I dont have a reason to protect Cathy DiCostanzo from anything.

Conti provided a statement to investigator Ryan Mistichelli on July 3, 2019 about his interaction with DiCostanzo.

But he has repeatedly refused to say what he told the investigator when The Trentonian contacted him for comment. The newspaper first reached out to Conti last fall, but he refused to say what he knew at the time.

The Trentonian reached out to the elections commissioner again Monday after learning about Camps filing.

Despite being told that DiCostanzo faced a separate allegation of racist practices, Conti would not budge.

I really dont wish to elaborate. I did what I had to do to [tell] the authorities, and thats pretty much it. I dont want to elaborate any further. I was called in. I was interviewed. I did my civic duty, spoke the truth, and I was told not to say anything to anyone about anything. Thats where I am.

Conti said he never learned of the outcome of the investigation.

Honestly, I have not followed up on it, he said.

Richford said she has also been kept in the dark about the outcome.

We did all the right things, she said.

Aside from the racial allegations, questions remain about why DiCostanzo remains in office. Her appointment expired three years ago, and Murphy nominated Walker, a Democrat, as DiCostanzos replacement in June 2018, according to Politico.

Walker has yet to be confirmed by the Democrat-controlled Senate.

Sen. Shirley Turner of the 15th Legislative District said she didnt understand the hang-up over Walker, calling him a perfect gentleman who has her blessing to take over for DiCostanzo.

She wasnt aware of the EEO/AA investigation into DiCostanzo but suggested the state agency owes the public an answer on what it uncovered during its investigation.

If it wasnt [true], I think they certainly owe it to the superintendent of elections. If it is true, the public should be aware of it. In any case, she has overstayed her welcome in that office.

Murphys office referred questions about the delay on Walkers confirmation to Senate Majority leadership.

Senate President Steve Sweeney did not respond to a request for comment.

Editors Note: An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the aide who Lisa Richford contacted. It has been updated to reflect the correct name of Murphys advisor.
A British-Australian academic jailed in Iran on claims of spying has been transferred to a remote jail notorious for allegations of dangerous conditions and ill treatment of prisoners, according to human rights campaigners.

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, listed as a specialist in Middle eastern politics at the University of Melbourne, had been serving a ten year-sentence in a Tehran jail before being moved to Qarchak prison, which activists say suffers from a lack of medical care, drug problems and abuse between prisoners.

Dr Moore-Gilbert was reportedly jailed on claims of spying. Evidence of her conviction has not been made public by Iranian authorities but her imprisonment was revealed last year by the Australian government. Dr Moore-Gilbert strongly denies all charges against her.

News of her transfer was announced by Reza Khandan, a campaigner and husband of jailed human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.

In a phone call with Mr Khandan from prison, Dr Moore-Gilbert said: I cant eat anything ... Im so disappointed ... Im so very depressed.

She told Mr Khandan that she had last spoken with her family around one month earlier.

A report into conditions at Qarachak prison, published in March by Iranian human rights activists, found there was a lack a medical and dental care, widespread drug use and instances of rape and other abuses among prisoners.

It also found that prisoners with contagious diseases are not separated from others. Coronavirus is reportedly present in the prison.

Iran temporarily released more than 100,000 prisoners due to concern over the spread of Covid-19.

Qarchak prison is located in the desert some 30 miles outside of Tehran (Google)

Dr Moore-Gilbert was arrested in September 2018 after attending an academic conference at which she was due to speak. Her imprisonment was revealed a year later by the Australian government.

Marise Payne, Australia's foreign minister, said she had been in contact with Tehran several times regarding the imprisonment of Dr Moore-Gilbert, along with two other prisoners.

Dr Moore-Gilbert has been silent since January, when a series of letters written between July and December 2019 were smuggled out of Evin prison, where she was previously held.

In the letters, she protested her innocence and spoke of her extremely restrictive detention which was severely damaging her mental and physical state. She noted on several occasions that she was on hunger strike.

She also claimed Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a military body who deal with intelligence, had offered her work as a spy, an offer she denied.
Edifecs, Inc., a Bellevue, Washington-based global health information technology solutions company, received a growth investment from TA Associates and Francisco Partners.

The financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020, were not disclosed. In conjunction with the funding, Ashutosh Agrawal, a managing director at TA Associates, Ezra Perlman, co-president of Francisco Partners, Jennifer Mulloy, a managing director at TA Associates, and Ali Evans, a vice president at Francisco Partners, will join the Edifecs Board of Directors.

Founded by Gurpreet (Sunny) Singh in 1996, Edifecs is a premier technology company in the U.S. healthcare market with solutions focused on interoperability, workflows, value-based care payments and analytics. Since its inception, the company has provided a full range of capabilities to support most healthcare entities (i.e., payers, providers, employers, third-party administrators and government agencies). The company allows customers to optimize the secure exchange and processing of administrative and clinical data, reducing the cost of meeting various regulations and automating workflows involved in multiple core processes within the healthcare ecosystem. Edifecs has more than 600 employees in Bellevue, Washington, Atlanta, Georgia and Mohali, India, and an engineering center in Moldova.

FinSMEs

28/07/2020
Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Shutterstock

With presumptive Democratic Party nominee Joe Bidens prospects for the White House looking increasingly rosy, more Democrats are finding themselves in the camp that believes in not rocking any boats.

Which is why some in the party have found it peculiar that the former vice president appears to be increasingly considering one of the seemingly riskier picks for a VP of his own.

Susan Rice, who was national security adviser to President Barack Obama, has become a major player in the veepstakes. And for good reason. She is a deeply familiar figure for both Biden and some in his inner circle, as well as a steady hand who could offer him governing support from the get-go. She is also, however, a deeply familiar figure to Trump and his dedicated supportersin that shes a villain at the heart of numerous Obama-era outrages that have animated conservatives for years, from the attack at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi to the beginning of the investigation into the Trump campaigns ties with Russia.

Choosing Rice, many Democrats fear, would reinvigorate Trumps so-far flat attempts to recreate his 2016 win by sticking Biden with some of the same story lines that dogged Hillary Clinton in 2016. Republicans maintain that few Democratic rile up the GOP baseand juice their fundraising numberslike Obamas former national security hand, and insist that theyd welcome Biden elevating her to the ticket.

Rice is extremely accomplished and experienced and would obviously help a President Biden tremendously on national security, but on the political side, unfortunately, she has been the target of crazy right-wing hate for years, said one Democratic aide, who requested anonymity to discuss the vice presidential selection candidly. The things they say about her have little connection to reality, but that didnt stop people from voting against Hillary Clinton in 2016 for similar reasons.

Susan Rices Second Act: A Remarkable Rebound From Benghazi

Story continues

Rice was not talked about as a logical VP pick early on in the process, owing mainly to the fact that shes never held elected office before. But her name is now increasingly mentioned alongside Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) as a potential running mate. Thats sparked some consternation in the party. But there is also a growing cohort of Democrats arguing that the Obama stalwart could help cleanse the party of its lingering 2016 fears, and drive a stake through the web of right-wing conspiracies that Trump loves to leverage against his opponents.

The Republicans will viciously attack whoever Biden picks as VP, Tommy Vietor, the former Obama spokesperson at the National Security Council, said in an email to The Daily Beast. The dishonest attacks against Susan over Benghazi are the definition of old news, and no one wants to relive that right-wing Fox News fever dream in the middle of a pandemic Susan Rice is brilliant. Joe Biden knows her and trusts her, and she would be ready to govern on day one. That's all that matters."

Picking her, said one Democratic foreign policy aide, would send an important sign that Biden is willing to tell the conspiratorial right to go fuck themselves.

The dilemma over Rices place on the VP shortlist has brought to the forefront many of the strategic debates that Democrats continue to grapple with nearly four years after the 2016 election. The party is wary of adopting the same risk-averse approach that defined Clintons bid. But theyre also confident that Trump is self-immolating and fearful that handing him a distraction to use would be political malpractice.

All things Benghazi would probably flare back up, conceded a top Democratic Party bundler who is backing Rice as VP, before adding that the GOPs lack of investigative action the last three years has shown it was always a hollow.

The Biden campaign declined to comment about consideration of Rice as a running mate.

Obama: Susan Rice Is 'Outstanding'

Rices accomplishments are hardly the stuff of a political novice. She held various high-profile diplomatic and national security posts in the Bill Clinton White House before spending the George W. Bush years as a Brookings Institution foreign policy expert, a perch from which she advised high-profile Democrats, including then-candidate Obama. When Obama won, she became a significant presence through the entirety of his presidency, serving as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during his first term and then national security adviser during his second.

That record put Rice at the center of the 2012 attacks on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, during which she became the target of GOP outrage for asserting that the attackwhich killed four Americanshad grown out of a protest, a claim that remains unclear. But the remarks ultimately helped sink Rices standing as a possible successor to Clinton as secretary of state, though the GOP-commissioned Benghazi report later found she had been informed by mistaken intelligence and hadnt committed any wrongdoing. Her role in the episode was scrutinized again in 2016, with some saying she took the fall for Clinton, who was secretary of state during Benghazi.

More recent grist for Trump and his backers is Rices involvement in a perceived scandal relating to then-candidate Trump in 2016: the surveillance of Trump associates who were communicating with foreign individuals. Americans who are swept into this kind of surveillance typically have their identities hidden from U.S. officials, but they can be revealed, or unmasked, if theres a national security imperative for doing so.

In spring 2017, it was reported that Rice had ordered the unmasking of Trump associates who had been communicating with foreign officials. Trump took it a step further, alleging she had leaked the identities to the press and broken the law, a claim she categorically denies and for which there is no supporting evidence.

And in May, the Trump administration declassified an email that Rice sent to herself on the day of Obamas handover of power to Trump, which referenced concerns from then-FBI Director James Comey that Trumps team had been in contact with Russian agents. Rices successor-to-be, Michael Flynn, had been in contact with the Russian ambassador, though Comey did not know about what. Trumps allies have used the email to bolster the theory that Obama, on his way out of office, had initiated a program of surveillance on Trump, while Rice has strongly contended otherwise.

Asked how the presidents campaign might respond to Biden choosing Rice as a running-mate, a Trump spokesperson declined to say specifically, only noting that no vice presidential candidate can fix Bidens problems. A GOP strategist, however, told The Daily Beast that when it comes to ginning up conservative campaign contributions, Warren might be most effective as a foil, but Id put Rice up there as well.

But Rory Cooper, a longtime Republican strategist and critic of the president, argued that Rices perceived baggage wasnt really baggage at all, since Biden himself was a more powerful symbol for the Obama era than anyone else associated with it.

If they are licking their chops, said Cooper, frankly, it confirms they cant manage a campaign worth a damn.

For some Democrats, the idea of not picking Rice because of fear of what Trump might do in response to it resembles a defensive strategy of a bygone era. The president is bound to attack whoever is chosen, the logic goes, making it foolish to proactively cede the ground.

Susan Rice is absolutely one of the most qualified people in the bracket right now, said Molly Claflin, an attorney at good-government group American Oversight and a former staffer for Senate Democrats on the Russia investigation. If youve got a highly-qualified, incredibly well-respected foreign policy thinkeris the possibility of Fox News attack pieces enough to deprive the American people of having that very experienced person on the ticket?... Thats letting Fox News win.

But a Rice selection wouldnt just present challenges to Bidens right: her joining the ticket also bears the risk of upsetting some in the progressive wing of the party that Biden has worked to win over since the 2020 primary effectively ended. Yasmine Taeb, a Democratic National Committeewoman in Virginia, said in an email theres concern that Rice represents an establishment thinking on national security and foreign policy.

We don't like her, right? She's not someone that the left would be happy with and I think that would be a mistake for the Biden team to go with Rice, said Taeb, who also works as senior policy counsel for Demand Progress and endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the 2020 primary.

Others were less concerned with Rice, expressing faith in whatever final verdict Biden comes to.

Bill Shaheen, a DNC member from New Hampshire who endorsed Biden ahead of the states February primary, downplayed the idea that the controversy surrounding Rice and Benghazi could hurt Biden if he picks the former Obama administration official.

I think the American people are not going to want to go back to Benghazi, Shaheen said. They want to build this country back up again.

And some were skeptical that Rice would end up as Bidens pick at all. While she has a personal working relationship with the former veep that other contenders lack, her areas of strength overlap with hisa disadvantage in a process that, historically, is meant to bolster a candidates areas of weakness.

Biden has experience on foreign policy, said Joe Trippi, who managed former Vermont Gov. Howard Deans 2004 presidential run, which means its likely the one place he doesnt need more help on when it comes to governing.

I don't know that it'll be Rice, mostly because that's an area that Biden has covered, not because of any vulnerability that gets created," Trippi said.

with reporting from Scott Bixby and Sam Stein

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The head of Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, addresses a news conference on the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Berlin, on July 28, 2020. (Tobias Schwarz/Reuters)

Negligence Blamed for Germanys Virus Case Rise

BERLINNegligence is behind Germanys steady rise in new coronavirus infections, the head of a state-funded research body said on Tuesday, adding it was unclear if a second wave was underway.

The new developments in Germany make me very worried, Lothar Wieler, of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases, said during his first news conference in weeks.

The rise has to do with the fact that we have become negligent, he added, urging people not to flout social distancing rules.

The number of daily new cases almost doubled on Tuesday to 633, and the RKI, which is Germanys most closely followed compiler of COVID-19 data, linked that to increased contact at parties and the workplace.

A doctor holds a test stick before a voluntary coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test at the new Duesseldorf Airport Corona Test Center in Duesseldorf, Germany, on July 27, 2020. (Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

With 206,000 confirmed cases and just over 9,000 deaths, Germany wants to avoid a second wave, which would bring back lockdowns after economically crippling restrictions that closed many businesses for six weeks in March and April.

Europes biggest economy withstood the pandemic with far fewer deaths than some large neighbors like France and Italy.

The summer holiday season has prompted fears that tourists returning from destinations experiencing a surge in new cases like Spain could sow the seeds of a second wave.

But Wieler downplayed that.

It is irrelevant if you are on holiday or at home, he said. The holiday is as much a part of the precautions against the spread of COVID-19 as your work and home life. The setting is irrelevant.

Germany on Tuesday advised holidaymakers not to travel to several Spanish regions including Catalonia, home to Barcelona.

The port city of Hamburg is weighing a ban on selling alcohol in its red light district after revelers ignored social distancing rules at the weekend.

By Joseph Nasr
Washington, July 28 : Six Democratic Party mayors have urged the US Congress to block President Donald Trump's administration from sending federal law enforcement agents to their cities amid the ongoing protests.

The mayors of Portland, Chicago, Seattle, Albuquerque, Kansas City and Washington D.C. signed a letter on Monday accusing the Trump administration of "egregious use of federal force", the BBC reported on Tuesday.

"We call on Congress to pass legislation to make clear that these actions are unlawful and repugnant," the letter, sent to the leaders of both parties in the Senate and House of Representatives and tweeted by Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, added.

Portland has seen 61 consecutive days of protests, which escalated after federal officers arrived this month.

The Portland protests began as part of the nationwide racial justice rallies triggered by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May.

The letter comes as US Attorney General William Barr is set to defend the agents' deployment during a congressional testimony on Tuesday.
Each evening in Portland, the peaceful protesters who dominate during the day are replaced by more militant mobs who set fires, attack police officers, and vandalize federal buildings.

One night last weekend, six local and federal officers who took refuge inside the citys besieged federal courthouse had been injured, according to an Associated Press reporter who was with them.

One had bloody gashes on both forearms, and trouble hearing, the result of powerful fireworks that exploded too close. Another had a concussion, also from fireworks. Laser beams targeting the inside of the courthouse caused vision problems and eye pain for several officers. Each night, police seized dozens of homemade shields, slingshots, blocks of wood, and chunks of concrete. Protesters used bolt-cutters to break through legitimate security barriers and scribble obscene slogans on federal buildings.

This is indefensible behavior, and Democratic leaders should be showing more spine by objecting to it with force. This is not the Black Lives Movement, whose millions of supporters across the country have been overwhelmingly peaceful. This is thuggery, by mostly white crowds, and its being used by conservatives to discredit the movement.

Democratic leaders could take a tip from a protestor who is trying to tamp down the violence, Edreece Phillips, 48, a Black hip-hop artist. He said federal agents told him they would stay inside if protesters would keep their distance, a bargain hes been pushing on the streets.

They dont come out unless we try to go in, he told USA Today. All that stuff people are doing is making it so that Black voices are being heard less and less and less often.

The violence is giving President Trump exactly what he wants. He inflamed the violence in Portland by sending in federal officers with little or no training in crowd control, against the will of the local governments, and unleashing them on peaceful protesters. The violence has grown much worse since they arrived.

You can watch the videos. These poorly trained officers shot one peaceful protester in the head with a non-lethal bullet, fracturing his skull. They used clubs to beat down a 53-year-old Navy veteran, also entirely peaceful, who was left with broken bones in his hand. They whisked away another man in an unmarked van, wearing no insignia.

But to answer this with mob violence allows Trump to pose as a law-and-order president, just as he hoped. It distracts from his catastrophic incompetence in managing the pandemic. And it gives Fox News a chance to play endless loops of scenes of chaos, as the right-wing echo chamber uses it to discredit the movement.

A Princeton researcher who studied the Civil Rights demonstrations of the 1960s found convincing evidence that violence undermined support for the cause, while peaceful demonstrations strengthened it.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. understood that and remained peaceful in the face of violent provocations that make Portlands protests look like a tea party. Mahatma Gandhi understood it, too. And so do most of the courageous protesters who have come out during this pandemic, compelled by their love of country to make it better, to help it live up to its promise.

The violent protesters in Portland, and elsewhere, should get a bonus payment from the Trump campaign for throwing him this lifeline. Democrats, including Joe Biden, need to step up and be heard on this, before Trump and his crew succeed in attaching this violence to them.

More: Tom Moran columns

Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.
Multiple Explosions Hit Iraq Weapons Depot Used By Pro-Iran Militia

Radio Farda July 27, 2020

A weapons depot at al-Saqr base belonging to Iraq's federal police force but also used by pro-Iran paramilitaries exploded on Sunday in Baghdad's southern suburbs.

Iraq's military blamed the explosion on high summer temperatures and poor storage, but given continuous tensions in the region some say it could have been a possible attack.

Pro-Iran militia sources claimed that United States forces bombed the base.

Multiple explosions could be heard in Baghdad on Sunday evening. Videos on social media plumes of smoke rising and a huge fireball erupting.

Security sources said the depot, which is part of a military base used by both the police and paramilitary forces, was one that had caught fire in August last year.

That fire also set off explosions heard across Baghdad, killing one person and injuring 29 others. There were no casualties reported immediately on Sunday.

Iraqi paramilitary groups with links to Iran last year blamed a series of blasts at their weapons depots and bases on the United States and Israel as tension escalated between Washington and Tehran.

The U.S. killing of Iran's Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a drone missile strike in Baghdad in January raised the threat that Iraq could become a battlefield in a conflict between Washington and Tehran.

With reporting by Reuters

Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/multiple- explosions-hit-iraq-weapons-depot-used-by- pro-iran-miitia/30748167.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.

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Microsoft stunned the gaming industry when it announced this week it would buy game publisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, a deal that would immediately make it a larger video-game company than Nintendo.
The General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia is urging members of the party to unite and rally behind the leadership of the party to ensure their victory in the 2020 polls.

According to him, the NDC will only be able to secure victory if they close their ranks and forge forward in unity.

Delivering an address at the official ceremony to outdoor the partys running mate, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Asiedu Nketia said all members of the party must commit themselves to work hard towards the partys return to power.

If we are united and determined to make a change in our circumstances, it shall be. But we cannot win an election with a divided front. Ill like to urge everybody who wants to see a change to let us close our ranks, he advised.

Asiedu Nketia said while there may be some persons who will not agree with some decisions taken by the party in recent times, it will be important to still rally behind the partys efforts.

It is our duty to close our ranks, rally around our leadership and make sure that the mission of rescuing Ghana is accomplished. This is the time for party members to collectively take ownership of the future John Mahama government, he added.

NDC election 2020 campaign

The NDC is seeking to return to political power in the December 2020 polls after being voted out in 2016.

In 2016, John Mahama, then the incumbent, lost the election to the New Patriotic Partys Nana Akufo-Addo.

President Akufo-Addo is seeking a second-term extension of his mandate with the same running mate, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

John Mahama, who lost power with Kwesi Amissah Arthur as his Vice President at the time, earlier in July named Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, a former University Vice-Chancellor and Education Minister in the NDC government as his running mate into the 2020 polls.

Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang

Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang (born 22 November 1951 in Cape Coast, Ghana) is a former Minister for Education in Ghana.

She was appointed in 2013 by President John Mahama after the 2012 Ghanaian general election and served until January 2017 when the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration was elected to power.

She is a member of the National Democratic Congress.

Professor Opoku-Agyemang, former Vice-Chancellor of University of Cape Coast, Ghana, was the first female Vice-Chancellor of a state University in Ghana.

She assumed duty on October 1, 2008, succeeding Emmanuel Addow-Obeng.

---citinewsroom
Protests, in places violent, roiled US cities overnight, as demonstrations reignited at the presence of federal troops. Riots were declared in Portland, the centre of a new wave of protests, and in Seattle amid teargas, fires, hurled stones and bottles. In Austin, Texas, a man had been shot dead on Saturday when he approached a vehicle and a person inside opened fire.

Thousands of demonstrators marched in groups around Portland, Oregon, some yelling Feds go home! in response to the Trump administrations decision to send federal agents there in late June.

The police said protesters used power tools to try to cut through the fence of the federal courthouse and pulled a section down. At one point, protesters lobbed fireworks and other projectiles toward federal agents there, who fired back with tear gas. A riot was declared, and the police reported an unspecified number of arrests.

In Seattle, Washington, a riot was declared after thousands of protesters battled with police: throwing rocks, bottles, fireworks and other explosives. Police used pepper spray and flash bangs to disperse the crowds.

In Austin, Texas, an unidentified man was killed by a person in a car he approached around 10pm during protests downtown. The police said the suspected shooter was arrested. Other protests flared in New York, Los Angeles, Oakland, Omaha, Nebraska, among other cities.

In Aurora, Colorado, protesters set fire to a municipal court building. Aurora police said on Twitter that a vehicle drove through a crowd of protesters, one of whom fired a gun and hit another protester.

protests flared up in cities of New York, Los Angeles, Oakland, Omaha, Nebraska and several others.
A leading infectious disease expert believes New South Wales is at 'real risk' of a second wave of coronavirus if masks aren't made mandatory.

University of NSW professor Raina MacIntyre believes community transmissions could rise rapidly and masks should be worn immediately.

'Pre-emptive measures such as using face masks early should be used in NSW, the earlier you use it, the more effective it will be,' she told the Financial Review.

'It may make the difference between not going the same route as Victoria.'

Infectious disease experts are urging the New South Wales government to make masks mandatory in a pre-emptive move to limit the risk of a second cornavirus outbreak

Professor MacIntyre's warning comes as NSW Health recorded nine locally acquired COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,400.

Meanwhile 17 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed across NSW on Monday, bringing the state's total to 3,496 with five in intensive care.

Sydney residents were advised on Monday of two more positive cases involving staff from The Apollo and Thai Rock restaurants in Potts Point.

Anyone who visited The Apollo between July 23 and July 25 or Thai Rock between July 15 and July 25 are being asked to get tested and quarantine for 14 days.

NSW Health is also asking anyone who lives in or has visited the Potts Point area in the past two weeks to get tested if they have respiratory symptoms.

Meanwhile, a person who visited two pubs in Sydney's southwest while infectious has now tested positive.

The comments come after NSW recorded nine locally acquired COVID-19 cases on Monday and staff at two Potts Point restaurants tested positive (The Apollo restaurant in Potts Point pictured)

NSW Health is urging staff and patrons who went to Mounties in Mount Pritchard on July 24 and 25 and the nearby Pritchard's Hotel on July 23 to isolate for 14 days and get tested if they have symptoms.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says the coming weeks will be critical for managing the recent and renewed spread of the virus, which has been linked to a second wave outbreak in Victoria.

'It only takes one or two cases for there to be a ripple effect,' Ms Berejiklian told the Nine Network on Tuesday.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Professor MacIntyre for further comment.
New Delhi: Maharashtra minister and Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray said Mumbai on Tuesday saw only 700 new Covid-19 cases, which is a "major relief" after three months. He said that the decline in cases happened on a day which saw the highest number of Covid-19 tests so far (8,776). This is the lowest single-day spike in new cases in the last three months.

"Only 700 cases today in Mumbai & that too with highest testing till date in Mumbai in a single day(8776). This is chase the virus in full capacity. A major relief after 3 months. Caution: dont let the guard down! Dont let your mask down! Only get numbers down!," Thackeray said on Twitter.

The good news: Only 700 cases today in Mumbai & that too with highest testing till date in Mumbai in a single day(8776).This is chase the virus in full capacity. A major relief after 3 months.

Caution: dont let the guard down! Dont let your mask down! Only get numbers down!  Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) July 28, 2020

He said the Maharashtra capital will see more testing.

"Mumbai will see more testing with chase the virus initiative of the @mybmc. It is also the only city to have liberalised testing and allowed citizens to test at will"," he said in a series of tweets.

He said "chase the virus" model of Mumbai is being replicated in Mumbai Metropolitan Region as well. Mumbai was the first Indian metro to have faced most of the brunt of the pandemic.

"Chase the Virus model of Mumbai is being implemented in MMR region actively that has seen a ramping up of facilities in the past few weeks. Along with MMR, rest of Maharashtra too is taking all efforts to tackle covid pandemic effectively," the Shiv Sena scion said.

While the state's health department is yet to issue the complete numbers on Tuesday, on 27 July, 1,033 COVID-19 cases and 39 deaths were reported in Mumbai. The total number of positive cases had risen to 1,10,129 in the city, including 81,944 patients recovered and discharged and 6,129 deaths, Municipal Corporation Greater Mumbai (MCGM) said.

The COVID-19 tally in Maharashtra increased to 3,83,723 on Monday with addition of 7,924 new cases while the death toll mounted by 227, including 39 fatalities in Mumbai region, to 13,883.

A total of 8,706 patients were discharged in the day, taking the number of recovered cases in the state to 2,21,944.

As of Monday, Maharashtra had 1,47,592 active cases.

A total of 19,25,399 people have been tested so far in the state.

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WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump brushed off the new $1 trillion Senate GOP coronavirus legislation as "sort of semi-irrelevant" Tuesday, dismissing its significance a day after Senate Republican leaders overcame contentious internal divisions to roll it out.

At the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., disavowed a key Trump administration priority in the bill - funding for a new FBI headquarters - while the second-ranking GOP senator suggested that Congress might be unable to make a deal in time to avert the expiration of emergency unemployment benefits on Friday.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said Congress might have to pass a stand-alone extension of unemployment benefits, a piecemeal approach that administration officials have floated but that Senate Republican leaders had avoided publicly embracing before now.

"If things are, the wheels have come off by then, then I think it would probably argue for doing something skinnier or smaller and then, you know, regrouping," Thune told reporters. "But again, we'll know a lot more about that in the next few days."

If the wheels were not entirely off Tuesday, negotiations were not off to a great start. Democratic leaders accused McConnell of not wanting to get a deal at all, while one Republican senator called the new GOP bill "a mess."

At the White House, Trump was asked if there were elements of the bill he opposed.

"Yeah, there are, actually. And we'll be talking about it. There are also things that I very much support," the president said. "But we'll be negotiating. It's sort of semi irrelevant because the Democrats come with their needs and asks and the Republicans go with theirs."

McConnell told reporters that he did not support $1.8 billion for a new FBI building included in the bill at the behest of the Trump administration, calling it "non-germane" and declaring: "When we get to the end of the process, I would hope all of the non-covid-related measures are out."

And McConnell acknowledged divisions among Senate Republicans over the legislation, which he announced Monday after days of delay.

"I think it's a statement of the obvious, that I have members who are all over the lot on this," McConnell told reporters. "There are some members who think we've already done enough, other members who think we need to do more. This is a complicated problem."

The problems arose even before negotiations begin in earnest with Democrats, who lobbed insults at Republicans over their divisions and what Democrats called the inadequacy of the GOP bill at a moment of deep economic uncertainty. Nearly 30 million Americans remain unemployed and the economy is at a precarious juncture with coronavirus cases spiking and some states pulling back on reopening plans.

Democrats want to spend three times more than the $1 trillion in the GOP package, and support continuing $600 weekly enhanced unemployment insurance benefits that expire days from now. The GOP plan would slash the $600 weekly payments to $200 weekly until states can transition to a complex new system aimed at replacing 70% of what a person would've earned before the person lost their job. Republicans say the current benefit gives people an incentive to stay out of work.

Democratic leaders also balked Tuesday at a five-year liability shield included in the GOP plan, aimed at shielding health-care providers, schools, employers and others from lawsuits from people who become ill. McConnell has repeatedly described the liability provision as his one "red line" in the talks.

"That is no way to negotiate, particularly when his provision is so extreme. . . . It's a radical change of all liability law," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-.N.Y., said after he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for their second day of talks.

"It seems to me Senator McConnell really does not want to get an agreement made," Pelosi said.

Democrats have indicated to top White House negotiators that they would be unwilling to reduce the current level of enhanced unemployment benefits, and they were also pushing for nearly $1 trillion in state and local aid, which was excluded from the GOP bill, Meadows told reporters late Tuesday.

The reception from some Republicans was not much more positive than the Democratic reaction.

"It's a mess. I can't figure out what this bill's about," Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said after a closed-door GOP lunch attended by Meadows and Mnuchin. "This is not going to be the bill. They're going to go negotiate with Pelosi. We have no idea what the final bill will be, and we'll be the last to know."

Inside the lunch, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, proposed a more gradual phasing out of unemployment benefits than what is proposed in the GOP bill, suggesting that the benefits scale down by $200 every 30 days for three months rather than being cut overnight by two-thirds, according to a person with knowledge of his comments who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe them.

"I'd like to see us deal with unemployment more rapidly than I think is going to take for the entire legislation to be completed," Romney told reporters later.

Trump offered assurances that unemployment insurance would be extended, telling reporters at the White House: "We'll do something. We're gonna take care of the people."

Sen. John Neely Kennedy, R-La., said he opposes the GOP plan to have states switch their unemployment benefits to a wage replacement scheme. "Many of our state departments of labor - they just got microwaves last week, much less being able to reprogram the computer in 60 days to effectuate a complicated formula," Kennedy told reporters.

Kennedy also suggested that many other GOP senators were frustrated by the measures. "Some of my colleagues are not either as crazy or candid as I am and they're not going to say anything, but I'm not the only one," Kennedy said. "And I still don't know what's in the bill. . . . You can't assess something if you don't know what's in it."

The bill also includes a new round of $1,200 stimulus checks to individual Americans, about $105 billion for schools with some of the money tied to reopening, a large new injection of money for the small-business Paycheck Protection Program, and $30 billion for the military, including hundreds of millions of dollars for projects the Trump administration had canceled, to pay for Trump's border wall. There's also new money for coronavirus testing and tracing and federal health agencies, despite initial opposition from the Trump administration to those expenditures.

The money for the FBI headquarters is an issue President Donald Trump has taken a personal interest in. The aging building sits across the street and diagonal from his hotel in downtown Washington, and plans had been in place to move the agency to the suburbs.

Moving the building could leave the lot open for redevelopment, and Trump has said he would like to see a brand new FBI building erected on that spot.

Asked about the justification for including the money for the FBI building in a bill that is supposed to be aimed at fighting the coronavirus, Meadows conceded Tuesday that there was no connection between the FBI building and the pandemic that has killed more than 145,000 Americans.

"There are a number of things in the last bill that had nothing to do with the coronavirus. I think everybody acknowledges that it's a funding mechanism," Meadows said of the legislation, which Republicans have been laboring to keep at $1 trillion so fiscal conservatives do not revolt. Meadows called the money for the FBI building "just a pressing need."

GOP senators criticized the inclusion of the FBI headquarters money.

"I don't understand. I mean, if somebody can explain to me how - I just don't get it, I mean, how's it tied to the coronavirus?" said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. "During the pandemic, let's focus on solving the problem."

Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., criticized the $1,200 stimulus payments that Republican leadership included in their legislation. "The vast majority of direct payments went to people who did not have any lost income, and we're going to do that again except on a bigger scale," Toomey said.

"The Republicans will be divided on this one," Toomey added in an interview on CNBC on Tuesday morning. "We're already spending a tremendous amount of money, and that's before Speaker Pelosi gets her pound of flesh."

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., was among several GOP senators who said they have concerns about the overall cost of the bill, after Congress already spent $3 trillion in March and April to prop up the economy.

"We need to spend what we have to spend, and not a dime more. This perception that's being pushed right now is that we need to make everyone whole, I adamantly disagree with," Lankford said. "You can't make everyone whole in the whole country . . . that's absurd."
Scrolling through the website of Kin Dee Thai Cuisine, I longed to sit inside its cool white dining room, lit up by red touches and glints of gold.

I wanted to sip a cocktail flavored with Thai ingredients at Kin Dees crisp counter bar; or to linger over chef Miranda Loethamfus photogenic dishes out on the front patio, snugged into a white basket chair lined with red cushions.

Not to put too fine a point on it, I wanted my old free-ranging life back. It smarted that Loethamfus intricate blue-petaled Thai Flower Dumplings, their intense hue imparted by butterfly pea vine, were only available for dine-in customers.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Heres where you can find some of Houstons best hot dogs

Same for the gorgeous little Mini Salad Wraps, green leaves tucked into tiny glass tumblers and filled with a trail mix of dried shrimp, coconut shreds and crushed peanut in sweet and sour sauce.

Long ago, on a visit to Thailand, the mother of my hostess served us a similar leaf-wrapped treat as we sat on cushions in her tiny Bangkok courtyard. The bundles were an invigorating, contrapuntal surprise that stays burned in my memory.

Now I couldnt even travel to eat their cousins at a restaurant in the Heights.

More Information Kin Dee Thai Cuisine in the Heights 1533 N. Shepherd, 281-826-2655. L&D daily: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-10 p.m. Mondays-Fridays; 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays See More Collapse

What I could do, however, was order a representative sample of Loethamfus cooking from the restaurants online menu. Its best to start by perusing the regular menu, with its alluring photographs, before proceeding to the order online page, which is powered by the efficient ChowNow app.

Youll be required to specify degree of spiciness for some dishes. (I ordered medium in all cases, my baseline at a restaurant thats new to me.) Though the interesting cocktails are not dispensed to go, a selection of beers and a small, well-chosen wine list is available to go, along with Thai Tea, iced butterfly pea tea and the like.

Curbside Chronicles: Saltillo is as good as you remember it.

If you prefer curbside to indoor pickup, theres a hitch: You cant specify a later time for curbside. Its ASAP only. If you try to schedule for later, youre automatically switched to pickup mode.

I ended up with semi-curbside service anyway. When I pulled up in front of Kin Dees facade in the pleated-metal mixed-use building on North Shepherd, a car with its emergency flashers on had parked in the traffic lane right in front of me. The driver came out with bags of food, and I figured Id follow his lead.

I went inside, scoped out the situation (quite a few customers dining in) and was met by masked staffers who suggested ever so tactfully that I remove my car to their back parking lot, of which I had known nothing.

Pulling into a marked curbside space back there, I could see the problem: The restaurants back windows are at an angle that makes keeping an eye out for curbside customers difficult.

Nevertheless, three staffers emerged with brown paper grocery sacks stacked with what turned out to be exceptionally well-packed food, plus a chilled bottle of Cremant, the Burgundian sparkling wine thats a great partner for spicy Thai fare.

At my self-isolating friends house, we set out our meal with oohs and ahs. Loethamfus cooking is as delicate and precise to look at as it is to taste.

Not that it lacks conviction. The medium dishes offered suitable chile heat. Unlidded, the green papaya salad, with its leaves of crunchy cabbage and bright tomatoes, wafted a bumptious cloud of fish sauce. And a whole fleet of tiny containers bore dips and condiments galore: tiny wheels of green chile in vinegar; a dark-red chile dip; crushed red chile flakes; sweet and sour fish-saucy dip; crushed peanuts, lime segments; whatever one might need to customize dishes to suit.

Reader, I loved it all.

The Khao Soi northern-style curry had a velvet-textured coconut chicken leg quarter as its centerpiece and a flock of textural elements: shredded cabbage, slivered shallot, thin crisped noodles wrapped up into a bronzy knot, slidy egg noodles running underneath. Its pink-flushed yellow curry sauce had a lilt and dimension that come from a mortar and pestle, not a can.

Likewise the pale-green chicken curry, khang khiao wan, its breast-meat slices fleshed out with thin flaps of caramelized eggplant and a twinge of Thai basil. Spooned over soft nests of vermicelli noodles, a treatment in line with Kin Dees noodle theme, it is lovely stuff.

So is a tart-enough pad Thai wrapped in an omelet as thin and burnished as a crepe. Its a Thai treatment Ive encountered before but seldom packaged in such an accomplished omelet. Even the shrimp involved were beautifully cooked, as big and pearly as you please. My only sorrow was that there werent enough bean sprouts to liven the textures  but I made up for it, almost, with a healthy flourish of crushed peanuts.

Honestly, I cant wait to eat this pad Thai again, and next time Ill ask for extra bean sprouts.

The tiny fried won ton Money Bags surprised us with the savor of their minced chicken and shrimp filling and the snap of their sweet and sour dip. Six of them vanished in a flash. Skewers of glossy chicken sate were so tender and nuanced, with their complex peanut sauce and cucumber relish, that I couldnt remember when Id had better.

The sate was another in a parade of respectfully handled proteins that set Kin Dee apart. Yes, its pricier than the citys funkier Thai and Thai-Lao faves. But the quality ingredients and immaculate cooking here deliver their own value.

So do fun ideas such as fresh mango with pandan leaf tinting its coconut sticky rice; and a delightful version of Thai toast in which grilled milk bread gets a fluff of pandan cream on top.

Loethamfu and her friend and business partner, Lukkaew Srasrisuwan, opened just two months ago, in mid-pandemic. I can already tell their venture will be a favorite of mine. In fact, Im hanging on partly to be able to eat at Kin Dee when the coast clears.

alison.cook@chron.com
Police hold a perimeter at Lafayette Square near the White House as demonstrators gather to protest the killing of George Floyd in Washington on June 2, 2020. (Olivier Douliery /AFP via Getty Images)

Park Police Chief Says Protesters Were Not Cleared From Lafayette Square for Trump Visit

The chief of the U.S. Park Police testified Tuesday that protesters were not cleared from Lafayette Square in Washington on June 1 in the midst of unrest in the wake of George Floyds death.

Trump was later seen standing at Lafayette Square while holding a Bible in his hand.

We were notified earlier in the day that the president was going to visit Lafayette Park to view the damage that was done to the park over the course of the preceding days, but we were not given a time on when he was visiting, acting Park Police Chief Gregory Monahan said during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing.

The removal of protesters affiliated with Black Lives Matter was not linked to President Trumps plans to visit the park, the park chief said. He said he wasnt ordered by the White House to do so, adding that Attorney General William Barr or Interior Secretary David Bernhardt also did not weigh in.

President Donald Trump holds a Bible as he visits outside St. Johns Church across Lafayette Park from the White House, in Washington, on June 1, 2020. (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo)

President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside of St Johns Episcopal Church across Lafayette Park in Washington, on June 1, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

There is 100 percent zero correlation between our operation and the presidents visit to the church, Monahan said, adding, We did not clear the park for a photo op.

Floyds death on May 25 sparked demonstrations, riots, arson attacks, and vandalism across many major U.S. cities.

On June 1, protesters were forced out of the park by several law enforcement agencies, including Park Police. Some reporters claimed that they used non-lethal munitions and clubs to disperse the protesters.

Sometime after that, Trump crossed the square and held up a Bible near St. Johns Church. The night before, George Floyd-related rioters in Washington attempted to set the church on fire, causing minor damage, and at the same time, they looted businesses, set fires, and clashed with police near the White House.

Vandals attempt to pull down the statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square near the White House on June 22, 2020. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Were very happy to report that the rest of the church and parish house is untouched except for some exterior graffiti, which the citys graffiti team has already covered up, the church said in a statement at the time.

About three weeks later, vandals and protesters attempted to pull down a statue of former President Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square.

A major in the DC National Guard, Adam DeMarco, will testify on Tuesday that Park Police acted unlawfully that day. DeMarco previously ran as a Democrat for Marylands 3rd Congressional District in 2018.

The demonstrators were behaving peacefully, exercising their First Amendment rights, he is expected to say in front of the panel.
AURORA, Colo.  A car drove through a crowd and a protester was shot in the Denver suburb of Aurora during demonstrations against racial injustice.

Aurora police said on Twitter that protesters were walking on Interstate 225 on Saturday when a vehicle drove through.

Police said a protester fired a weapon, striking at least one person, who was listed as stable at a hospital.

Authorities said that the vehicle was towed and that they are investigating. Protesters also broke windows to the courthouse, and a fire was started in an office, police said. An unlawful assembly was declared, and police ordered protesters to leave the area, authorities said.

Tensions have been heightened at recent protests against racial injustice since federal officials were sent to quell demonstrations in Portland, Oregon. Police declared a riot Saturday in Seattle.

Protests sparked by the death on May 25 of George Floyd, a Black man in Minnesota who died after a white officer held him to the ground with a knee to his neck, have highlighted other cases of fatal police violence.

In Colorado, protesters have been drawing attention to the death of Elijah McClain, who was stopped by police while walking down an Aurora street in August after a 911 caller reported him as suspicious. Police placed him in a chokehold, and paramedics administered 500 milligrams of ketamine, a sedative, to calm him down. He went into cardiac arrest and was later declared brain-dead and taken off life support.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has been very active throughout the lockdown period. It came out with many circulars which will have a direct impact on traders and investors.

For instance, from August 1 two major changes are being introduced.

Earlier, if a trader wished to utilise his shares as margins, only a Power of Attorney (POA) to the broker was required. But from August, he will be required to pledge securities with the broker to use the securities as margin.

Another big change is the introduction of upfront collection of margin in the equity segment, like derivatives, where the investor needs to provide margin before executing delivery trades.

This will thus end the concept of 'T+2 day' system where a client was allowed to pay the whole investment amount within 2 days of initiating trades.

Also Read: BT Buzz: Want to make quick bucks in the stock market? Learn what not to do

While the market intermediaries were engaged in the implementation of the above two changes, SEBI came out with a new circular on July 20, 2020 on "Intraday Trading" laying down the framework for verification of upfront collection of margins from clients.

Currently, for intraday trades, the broker deposits upfront margin with the exchanges. However, at the investor level, the exchanges check the availability of margins post market closure on net positions. For e.g. If a trader buys 1000 qty of Reliance shares and sells them on the same day, net quantity at the end of the day being 0, no margin is required to be collected from the trader.

The brokers collect only a small fraction say 3% of total trade providing a leverage of 33x. The leverage can go as high as 100x if the margin collected is only 1%. Some of the full-service brokers collect margins after T+2 days virtually providing unlimited leverage.

A client can thus use excessive leverage and incur losses which may be more than his capacity to pay. This could also result in the broker defaulting and impacting his other clients. To safeguard investors from such a scenario, the circular has been introduced by SEBI.

Brokers cannot determine their own margins and will have to collect the "Peak Margin" as prescribed by the exchanges i.e. VAR + ELM Margin. This will spell doom for full-service brokers who provide additional margins as a service offering to their clients.

It is estimated that almost 30-35% of Intraday turnover of exchanges are based on additional leverage. Now assuming full margin is required, the total turnover would shrink by around 20% (since balance part margin was still being collected from clients).

Also Read: Rakesh Jhunjhunwala raises stake in this lender as stock gains 75% in four months

Leverage is a double-edged sword

A 100% gain on your investment followed by a 100% loss will take your portfolio to 0.

Traders assume that they can earn higher profits using leverage. But it can also lead to an accelerated loss if the trade goes against them. Higher the leverage, higher the chance of blowing up your capital. Due to the increase in margin, the intraday leverage will decrease and thus help the traders sustain longer in the volatile markets.

Upfront margins will now become compulsory and failure to keep them will invite margin penalties by the exchanges. Thus, one may have to keep additional balance with the broker. A better option is to choose online payment transfers. Most discount brokers provide the option of paying through net banking via a payment gateway.

An increase in margin will reduce the return on capital. This will result in lesser speculation activity and thus reduce liquidity and market depth.

Execution is the Key!

Since the full-service brokers won't be able to provide additional leverage as an extra feature, it doesn't make sense to pay the higher % based brokerage and traders would start shifting to discount brokers. Thus, the brokers won't be competing on margins anymore and would be forced to provide better service.

The provisions of the circular will be implemented in a phased manner starting from December 1, 2020 and its full impact would be seen from September 1, 2021.

(The author is CEO & Founder, Samco Group)
Actor jailed

"An actor who appeared in the film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and the TV series Rush was sentenced to eight years jail yesterday. Jack Charles, 34, of Ascot Vale, pleaded guilty to 56 charges including 48 counts of burglary. Judge Shillo said that Charles had psychological and personal problems as a result of his childhood and the uncertainty of his professional life. Charles had become a drug user to help him cope with his problems."

Aide freed

"An application by the US government for the extradition of a former aide to the late Howard Hughes failed in a Sydney court yesterday because of the man's diplomatic immunity. Mr John Herbert Meier, 44, who is now an economic ambassador for Tonga was arrested in Sydney on an extradition warrant alleging obstruction of justice in Salt Lake City. The court ruled, however, that Mr Meier's diplomatic passport protected him from arrest."

Singer banned
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 00:33:28|Editor: huaxia

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BANGKOK, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The Thai Ministry of Commerce said the high demand from China for durians had actually saved Thai durian farmers from suffering the sluggish economy due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Chinese appetite for Thai durians remains strong despite the pandemic and weak global demand for goods, said the ministry.

The ministry's latest figures indicated that Thailand exported 567.29 million U.S. dollars worth of durians to China in the first four months of 2020, up 78 percent year-on-year.

In 2019, Thailand exported 1.46 billion U.S. dollars' worth of durians to overseas markets, a rise of 54.6 percent from the previous year, with China and ASEAN nations accounting for 98 percent of export volume.

"Before the COVID-19 crisis, Chinese merchants already visited the Thai durian farms and have placed direct orders before the start of the annual harvest season," Auramon Supthaweethum, director-general of the Ministry's Trade Negotiations Department, told Xinhua.

Auramon estimated that 2020 will see total durian production in Thailand at 900,000 tonnes, with 85 percent of them exported. Enditem
Supermarkets were facing a fresh challenge today after online giant Amazon announced that Prime customers can now get their food shop delivered for free.

Shoppers using the 1.17billion company are now able to get groceries straight to their door without leaving their sofas on the new service.

It replaces the previous system where Prime members - who already had to pay 7.99 - needed to pay an extra 2.99 for a food order.

Now as long as customers in London and the south-east - including Surrey, Hampshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire - and spend more than 40 on Fresh orders they will get their groceries delivered free.

A member of staff at one of the new Amazon Fresh fulfillment centres preparing a delivery

What is Amazon Fresh? Amazon Fresh is an Amazon Prime benefit available at no extra cost to existing Prime subscribers. Prime members in around 300 postcodes across Greater London and the South East (including London, Surrey, Hampshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire) can do their weekly shop on Amazon Fresh, with local produce, brands and artisan products, included in the cost of Prime membership. Amazon said delivery in two-hour windows is now free on orders over 40 and the minimum order value has been lowered from 40 to 15. Shops that come in under 40 will be charged a 3.99 delivery fee. Customers will be able to access between 12,000 and 15,000 products online including products from retailers and brands including Booths, Morrisons, Whole Foods Market, Pepsi, Danone, Arla, Warburtons and Britvic. Amazon Fresh customers will also be offered a selection of thousands of products from local producers including GAIL's Artisan Bakery, C.Lidgate and Paxton & Whitfield. Advertisement

The US e-commerce giant also plans to expand the free delivery to 'millions more' customers around the UK by the end of the year and speed up deliveries in a bid to capitalise on the booming online grocery industry.

It is understood that Prime customers in Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh will be among the first to benefit from the wider roll-out.

The huge push will see current warehouses - also called fulfillment centres - adapted and expanded to be able to safely store the food from suppliers before it is delivered to buyers,

It means suppliers, who include bakers and butchers, will have their goods transported to the hubs ready for Amazon to distribute themselves.

The same will happen with any supermarkets who decide to opt-in to the ambitious new system.

A spokesman for Amazon told MailOnline that Amazon Fresh will supply food from supermarkets Morrisons, Whole Foods Market, and Booths, as well as smaller suppliers including GAIL's Artisan Bakery, C.Lidgate and Paxton & Whitfield.

But food from 'nervous' supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda will not be supplied as the US retailer looks to 'capture a material slice' of the market.

Shops that come in under 40 will now be charged a 3.99 delivery fee. Customers will be able to access between 12,000 and 15,000 products online - compared to 40,000 products on Ocado.

Shoppers in 40 postcodes in Surrey and Berkshire can also book a one-hour slot for 3.99 or get same-day delivery.

A worker at one of the new centres picks a pineapple to deliver on the new delivery service

The new Amazon Fresh fulfillment centres will be in retrofitted and expanded buildings

Retail analyst Richard Hyman called Amazon a 'voraciously ambitious business that wants to dominate every market that it trades in'.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he added that UK supermarkets will be 'rightly nervous' as Amazon wades into the grocery market.

'History shows that Amazon doesn't enter markets lightly, and it doesn't enter markets to be another player. This is a voraciously ambitious business that wants to dominate every market that it trades in,' Mr Hyman said.

Amazon says customers using the delivery network will be able to pick between 12,000 and 15,000 products from a special section found on its website

Who are Amazon Fresh's biggest rivals? Ocado Zoom and Ocado.com Ocado Zoom is Ocado's on-demand service stocking a wide selection of ocado.com's range. So if you want groceries delivered now, or later the same day, and you live in West London, then Ocado Zoom's for you. Zoom is only available to a limited number of postcodes from a small site in west London. They provide a choice of over 10,000 products with a minimum order 15 and a delivery charge that starts from 1.99. Sainsbury's Chop Chop customers can order up to 20 items via an app for delivery by bike within 60 minutes for a flat delivery fee of 4.99. There is a minimum spend of 15 and the service is available in selected areas of Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, and Reading. Tesco.com Tesco.com guarantees same-day delivery by 7pm if ordered by 1pm, with 'same day' plan. Waitrose 'Rapid' Customers can choose 25 items, delivery within two hours. There is a minimum 10 order with a 5 delivery fee in a select number of postcodes. Advertisement

'Now it's not going to dominate the UK grocery market any time soon because there's rather a lot of players in it already who are actually pretty good at what they do. But I think we shouldn't be under any doubt that they will capture a material slice of this market.

'It's certainly true that when someone with the pockets that are as deep as Amazon enters the market and their existing retail business model doesn't need to make any profit because they make their profit doing other things, that represents a potential challenge of significant dimensions.'

He added: 'One of the things we've all learned about Amazon over the years is that they are very unconventional and they're also extraordinarily secretive. So there's a lot about this that they've not told us.'

Amazon release their second quarter results on Thursday. Investors who have seen the share price rise by around 60 per cent this year will be hoping for more good news from the technology giant. The surge in Amazon shares saw founder Jeff Bezos add 10billion to his wealth in just one day last week.

Food delivery has doubled in size to more than 3million orders per week since the start of the pandemic as families avoid crowded spaces and learn to shop online.

Traditional supermarkets have already seen their market share undercut by German discounters, which hold more than 13 per cent of the UK market, and sellers such as Ocado and Amazon post a threat online.

Russell Jones, UK country manager for Amazon Fresh, said: 'It's a really obvious next step to take. Grocery delivery is one of the fastest growing businesses at Amazon and we think this will be one of the most-loved Prime benefits in the UK.'

Tom Brereton, an analyst at Global Data, said: 'It's a bold and ambitious move from Amazon.'
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Reuters international news agency is interviewing Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, as the nation struggles to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

The interview Tuesday comes as some coronavirus outbreaks in the South appear to be showing signs of slowing after states delayed or rolled back their reopening plans. However, Fauci told ABC "Good Morning America" earlier Tuesday that he's concerned about the virus spreading to other states, including Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana and Ohio.

He said the so-called positivity rate, or the percentage of tests run that are positive, appears to be rising in those states.

"That's a surefire sign that you've got to be really careful," Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Good Morning America.

Fauci also defended his work advising the public on the coronavirus pandemic, saying he has not misled the American public "under any circumstances." The comment came in response to retweets on Twitter from President Donald Trump on Monday evening accusing Fauci of misleading Americans.

"I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances," he said.

 CNBC's Berkeley Lovelace Jr. contributed to this report.

Read CNBC's live updates to see the latest news on the Covid-19 outbreak.
VANCOUVERThe British Columbia government has paused legislation aimed at detaining youth under 19 in care after they overdose but the representative for children and youth joined advocates calling on the province to withdraw it altogether.

Jennifer Charlesworth said Monday the proposed changes to the Mental Health Act would deter youth from asking for help over fears theyd be forced to stay in hospital for up to seven days.

The bill would disproportionately impact Indigenous youth and many of them may have turned to drugs as a way to numb trauma that could include being removed from their families, Charlesworth said.

The current toxic drug supply, which led to a record number of overdoses in B.C. last month, requires the government to instead focus on providing early interventions and residential treatment, she said.

She said involuntary care takes away what little control youth may have so its up to them to choose if they want to get treatment.

Mental Health and Addictions Minister Judy Darcy has said the goal is to stabilize youth and connect them with services in the community.

Stabilization for what? Charlesworth asked, noting a report issued by her office in March showed the province had no intensive community day treatment program.

There were six youth-specific intensive care management programs in B.C. but none in the Fraser or northern regions, she said.

Seven residential detox programs offer 27 youth beds but six had wait lists. Out of the six publicly funded community residential treatment programs, five had wait lists, some up to three months, the report said.

Involuntary care may have a place in some extreme situations. However, its not a place to begin, Charlesworth said.

Darcy said Monday that the government ran out of time to get through the bill before the end of the legislative session but will continue seeing input from those who hold a wide variety of views.

Consultations over several months included the First Nations Health Authority, the First Nations Health Council, First Nations health directors and the Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society, which worked on a pilot project with psychiatrists at BC Childrens Hospital, where some patients were Indigenous, Darcy said.

The First Nations Health Authority said in a statement that it welcomes the delay to approving a measure that would allow for the involuntary hospital admission of youth and will continue to participate in discussions on how to address issues involving overdose in a culturally safe and appropriate way.

This is a challenging issue and there is wide diversity of opinion on it, very strongly held views, Darcy said.

Premier John Horgan suggested he is in favour of the proposed legislation, saying hes spoken with parents whose children died after leaving hospital and provisions of the proposed legislation may have given them an opportunity for recovery.

I believe its the right way to go and we dont have the support of the legislature at this time so were going to be taking a pause, he said, noting the pushback and the NDPs precarious minority situation.

Hawkfeather Peterson, spokesperson for the BC/Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors, said she sits on two government-chaired committees related to drug use and was shocked that she and others werent consulted before the legislative amendments were proposed.

Whether the bill is paused or not, our government has really loudly proclaimed that substance-using youth do not deserve the same rights and protections as others, Peterson said, adding those already at risk of dying from overdose face enough stigma.

British Columbia declared a public health emergency in April 2016 as overdoses began escalating. Since then, more than 5,000 people have died.

Drug users in British Columbia were behind the effort to open North Americas first supervised injection site in 2003 after years of court challenges by the federal government.

Insite was initially opened illegally as a life-saving measure that was later duplicated around the country for people who could use injection drugs under medical supervision.

Garth Mullins, spokesperson for the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, said civil disobedience may be one way to deal with the provinces regressive drug policy if the bill is not pulled.

Mullins, a former heroin user, said he too is among people and groups, including Moms Stop the Harm, that recently quit committees that the B.C. government chairs.

Until they get this right, were going to see more people die.

Read more about:
Ex-prime minister found guilty of corruption in landmark verdict, but remains free pending the outcome of an appeal.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been sentenced to serve 12 years in jail after a court in Kuala Lumpur found him guilty of corruption in the first of several cases linked to the alleged theft of billions of dollars from the state fund, 1MDB.

Tuesdays ruling makes Najib the first Malaysian leader to be convicted of corruption.

But the 67-year-old remains free as Judge Mohamad Nazlan Ghazali granted a stay order on the execution of Najibs sentence, pending an appeal.

Surely, I am not satisfied with the result, Najib told reporters as he exited Kuala Lumpurs High Court.

But within our system, the high court is the first court and the decision was only made by one judge. We have the benefit of an appeal, he added, vowing to continue the effort to clear my name.

The guilty verdict against Najib relates to his role in diverting an estimated 42 million ringgit ($9.87m) from SRC International, a unit of 1MDB, into his personal bank accounts. The judge had found the former prime minister guilty on all seven charges filed against him.

I find that the prosecution has successfully proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. I therefore find the accused guilty and convict the accused on all seven charges, Mohamad said.



Malaysias Najib guilty of all charges in 1MDB-linked graft case (2:30)

He then ordered Najib to pay a fine of 210 million ringgit ($49m) and gave him 12 years in jail on one count of abuse of power, 10 years each for three counts of criminal breach of trust and 10 years each for three counts of money laundering.

But the judge also ordered the sentences to run concurrently, meaning Najib will serve 12 years in prison.

The conviction comes just six days after the high court ordered Najib to pay the government as much as 1.69 billion ringgit ($400m) in unpaid taxes and penalties, covering the years from 2011 to 2017.

Political vengeance

Prior to the sentencing, Datuk V Sithambaram, the lead prosecutor in the case, had called for a ruling that serves as a precedent for all in public office that no one is above the law.

Najib then took the dock to defend himself, insisting that he was not aware of the SRC payment into his bank accounts.

I did not demand the 42 million nor was it offered to me. There is no witness who can say so, he said.

Prosecutors had argued that Najib played a direct role and gave instructions to deposit the 42 million ringgit into his bank accounts, which was later used for political funding, the purchase of luxury goods and renovations on his property.

But the former prime ministers lead defence lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, said Najib was not part of the conspiracy to the defraud the government, laying the blame on party-loving fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low.

When news of the guilty verdict reached Najibs supporters gathered outside Kuala Lumpurs High Court some cried while others shouted, Long live my boss. Some also condemned the judges verdict as political vengeance.

The crowd outside Kuala Lumpur's High Court following the arrival of #Malaysia ex-PM Najib ahead of his graft verdict on Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/njmnZa7kV4  Ted Regencia  (@tedregencia) July 28, 2020

Later when Najib exited the court building, the defiant crowd cheered and chanted his name.

Lim Wei Jiet, a Malaysian constitutional lawyer, called Tuesdays ruling historical because it marked the first time a former leader has been convicted of an offence.

Suspension of sentences pending an appeal was normal, he said.

It is not over yet. Having said that, it doesnt mean we cant stop and appreciate that this is a small step in the rejuvenation of the rule of law in Malaysia. Only two years back, there was a state-sanctioned attempt to silent any form of dissent regarding 1MDB. Today, at the very least, there is some form of vindication for those who dared to stand up against the powers that be, often at great personal risk.

The United States Department of Justice alleges $4.5bn in government money had been drained from 1MDB during Najibs time as prime minister. The scandal at 1MDB fuelled mass protests and led to the downfall of Najibs government in May 2018.

The former leader has faced three separate trials in relation to 1MDB so far.

Sokongan padu ahli UMNO dan rakyat kpd DS @NajibRazak dari seluruh negara. pic.twitter.com/EARsgJsxpj  Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (@DrZahidHamidi) July 28, 2020

The second case against Najib covers several charges, including 21 counts of money laundering involving $550m directly from 1MDB, while the third case, which started on November 18, relates to the alleged abuse of power and cover-up of an audit report at 1MDB.

Two more trials are also pending.

But Najib has remained free on bail despite the charges against him, criticising the policies of his former mentor, Mahathir Mohamad and the coalition that replaced him.

Mahathir himself was forced to leave the job in March this year, after a group of disgruntled former members of his coalition, backed by Najibs party, UMNO, pledged their support to the current Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Additional reporting by Zaheena Rasheed
Property developers Stockland and Mirvac's residential business will benefit from the pausing of the NSW stamp duty for first-home buyers.

Under the plan, the NSW government will provide stamp duty relief for first-home buyers purchasing newly built properties. The waiver will increase to $400,000 for vacant land and $800,000 for new house and land packages.

Maquarie analysts said with 19 per cent of Stockland's product in NSW, "we believe the group should achieve a sales benefit from the additional stimulus".

Stockland's residential division will benefit from the NSW stamp duty waiver.

"This provides further confidence in our above-consensus expectations for Stockland's residential earnings, driven by federal and other state-level stimulus packages," the Macquarie analysts said.
Rating Action: Moody's assigns Aa3 to Schuylkill Valley SD, PA's $26.7M GO Notes, Series of 2020 and Series A of 2020

Global Credit Research - 27 Jul 2020

New York, July 27, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service has assigned a Aa3 general obligation limited tax (GOLT) rating to Schuylkill Valley School District, PA's (Berks County) $23.5 million General Obligation Notes, Series of 2020 (Tax-Exempt) and $3.2 million General Obligation Notes, Series A of 2020 (Federally Taxable). Moody's maintains Aa3 GOLT and issuer-level ratings for the district. The issuer-level rating is equivalent to the district's hypothetical general obligation unlimited tax (GOULT) security; there is no debt rated by Moody's associated with the GOULT security.

RATINGS RATIONALE

The Aa3 GOLT and Issuer ratings reflect the district's satisfactory financial position which to date, has been minimally impacted by the coronavirus crisis. The finances are expected to remain satisfactory due to only modest exposure to economically sensitive revenues and stable state aid. Additionally, the rating considers the district's moderately-sized tax base with average wealth levels, a slightly elevated debt burden, average pension liabilities and manageable fixed costs.

The absence of a distinction between the Issuer and GOLT ratings reflect Pennsylvania School districts' ability to apply for exceptions to the cap on property tax increases in order to cover debt service, the Commonwealth's history of granting such exceptions, and the district's full faith and credit pledge supporting all general obligation debt.

We regard the coronavirus crisis as a social risk under our ESG framework given the substantial implications for public health and safety. The coronavirus crisis is not a key driver of this rating action as we do not see any immediate, material credit risks for Schuylkill Valley School District. That said, the situation surrounding the coronavirus is rapidly evolving and the longer term impact will depend upon both the severity and duration of the crisis. If our view of the credit quality of the district changes, we will update the rating and/or outlook at that time.

Story continues

RATING OUTLOOK

Moody's generally does not assign outlooks to local government issuers with this amount of debt outstanding.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OF THE RATINGS

- Material increase in reserves and liquidity

- Significant growth in the tax base and improved resident wealth and income levels

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO A DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

- Failure to maintain structurally balanced operations resulting in material draws on reserves

- Material contraction of the tax base and deterioration of resident wealth and incomes

LEGAL SECURITY

The Series of 2020 and Series A of 2020 notes are secured by the district's full faith and credit pledge supported by its authority to levy ad valorem property taxes subject to the limits of Pennsylvania Act 1, "Taxpayer Relief Act."

USE OF PROCEEDS

Proceeds from the Series of 2020 will be used to refund the district's outstanding General Obligation Note, Series of 2017 and finance various capital improvement projects throughout the district. Proceeds from the Series A of 2020 will be used to refund and restructure a portion of the district's outstanding General Obligation Bonds, Series of 2014.

PROFILE

Schuylkill Valley School District is located in Berks County (Aaa stable) in the southeastern portion of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Aa3 stable). The district covers approximately 53 square miles and includes the townships of Bern, Centre, and Ontelaunee and the boroughs of Leesport and Centerport. The district operates one elementary school, one middle school and one high school and its most recent enrollment was approximately 2,100 students.

METHODOLOGY

The principal methodology used in these ratings was US Local Government General Obligation Debt published in September 2019 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBM_1191097. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.

For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.

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Vile graffiti vandals who defaced shopfronts and a memorial dedicated to bushfire victims with coronavirus conspiracy theories are still on the run.

Residents in the Victorian suburb of Yarra Glen are furious about the widespread vandalism they woke up to on Sunday morning as the state struggles to control a second wave of the virus.

Multiple locations were targeted in the vandalism attack north-east of Melbourne, including a coloured glass mural in memory of the 173 lives killed in the Black Saturday bushfires that devastated the region in 2009.

'F*** Cops. They do as told not what's right,' vandals sprayed on the mural.

Unveiled in 2014, the memorial was designed and built by well-known artist Ernst Fries, who died earlier this year.

A mural designed in memory of Black Saturday bushfire victims in Yarra Glen was defaced with disgusting graffiti

His daughter Reggie Clarke found about the vandalism while listening the radio and rushed down to inspect the damage, which has since been removed.

'It was disgusting and not a good way to treat a memorial,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'The locals know all about it and treat it with respect.'

She added the memorial meant a lot to her father, who was commissioned by the local council to design one.

'He thought long and hard about how to best represent that horrible day,' Ms Clarke said.

She told Nine News: 'Dad died in March so I'm pleased he hasn't seen this. He (would have) been really upset about it.'

Ms Clarke had this plea for those responsible.

'Haven't you got anything better to do. It's not just a piece of art,' he said.

The defaced memorial was designed by Reggie Clark's (left) late father Ernst Fries. She's glad he's not around to see the damage to the memorial, which meant a lot to him

The local bakery in Yarra Glen was among the multiple locations vandalised on the weekend

The local IGA supermarket was also defaced with the tag 'Covid is a lie.'

'Honestly this just made me nothing but disappointed and incredibly sad. Also just proves how ignorant these people truly are and just how low their morals are,' a resident captioned the photo.

Other local shops, a car park and a popular park were also vandalised.

Furious locals have expressed their anger on a community Facebook page, where one described the damage as 'disgusting, disrespectful and so disappointing'.

Graffiti vandals defaced multiple locations with coronavirus conspiracy theories and anti-police slogans. Pictured is the damage at the local park

'What the actual F is wrong with people? As a healthcare worker I can assure you it is NOT a lie and in fact very real. I would say I'd hope these morons catch covid so they could see just how real it is! but then again they would be the idiots to spread it,' one woman wrote.

'The person that did that needs to be exposed to the emergency department to witness how bad it really is. Shame on you whoever you are!'

Police are reviewing CCTV as part of the ongoing investigation.

'It's just disappointing that someone would resort to graffiti to get their message across in this scenario,' Yarra Glen Police Sargeant Richard Coulson told the Mountains Views.

'It's rare to see in this town, so we'd like to get to the bottom of it.'

Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Teenagers have been the biggest beneficiaries of JobKeeper pocketing 19 per cent pay rises since the coronavirus pandemic began as everyone else lost income.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released new payroll data for the first time since Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week announced the $1,500 a fortnight wage subsidies scheme would be scaled back in late September.

Workers younger than 20 saw their wages skyrocket by 19.1 per cent between March 14, before the COVID-19 shutdowns, and July 11 as every other age group suffered average pay drops of 4.8 per cent.

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Teenagers (Brisbane youth in the city's Queen Street mall, pictured) have been the biggest beneficiaries of JobKeeper pocketing 19 per cent pay rises since the coronavirus pandemic began as everyone else lost money. Every other age group took a pay cut with average wages falling by 4.8 per cent between May

The official figures were also released after New South Wales Young Labor activist Belinda Thomas, 19, whinged about having to apply for ten retail jobs when she had a dozen years' experience as a classical musician.

'Unable to use my 12 years of training as a classical musician to find a job, I ended up sending about 10 applications to retail jobs and only ended up scrounging one by chance,' she said in a video.

The evidence showed the young weren't the worst hit by the pandemic, with middle-aged workers in their forties suffering the steepest wage cuts of 6.5 per cent since March.

Men have also suffered more from the pandemic than women, with their wages plunging by 6.6 per cent during the past four months compared with 2.4 per cent for women.

The number of male jobs also fell by 5.8 per cent, slightly more than the 5.5 per cent decline in female employment.

Victoria saw the sharpest drop in jobs, thanks to a new lockdown in Melbourne and the neighbouring Mitchell Shire, with payrolls in that state falling by 7.3 per cent.

By comparison, New South Wales suffered a 5.3 per cent drop as tourism-dependent Queensland saw a five per cent decrease in employment.

From September 28, JobKeeper will no longer be paying a flat fortnightly rate of $1,500 to workers whose employers have been badly affected by the coronavirus downturn.

The figures were also released after New South Wales Young Labor activist Belinda Thomas, 19, whinged about having to apply for ten retail jobs when she had a dozen years' experience as a classical musician

Men have also suffered more from the pandemic than women, with their wages plunging by 6.6 per cent during the past four months compared with 2.4 per cent for women. The number of male jobs also fell by 5.8 per cent, slightly more than the 5.5 per cent decline in female employment. Pictured is a construction worker in Melbourne wearing a face mask in July

Instead, full-time workers will be receiving $1,200 every two weeks as those working 20 or hours less were allocated $750.

Unemployment during June amid COVID-19 Australia's unemployment rate climbed from a 19-year high of 7.1 per cent in May to 7.4 per cent in June - the highest since November 1998 Number without work climbed from 923,000 to a record-high 992,300 Close to a million people unemployed for the first time ever - surpassing 960,200 record set in December 1992 Unemployment increased even though 210,800 more people were employed as COVID-19 shutdowns eased That was because the participation rate increased from 62.7 per cent to 64 per cent as more people looked for work Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics labour force data for June Advertisement

JobKeeper is being reduced to $1,000 a fortnight for full-time workers from January, with part-timers to get $650.

The $70billion JobKeeper program was due to finish at the end of September but it was extended by another six months to the end of March, costing taxpayers another $16.6billion.

Australia's unemployment rate rose to a 22-year high of 7.4 per cent in June, with youth unemployment more than double that at 16.4 per cent.

A record 992,300 Australians were last month officially without work as the economy plunged into a recession for the first time in 29 years.

Treasury said Australia's effective unemployment rate without JobKeeper was 11 per cent, a jobless level not seen since late 1993.

In another surprise the mining industry, which already had Australia's highest salaries, suffered the sharpest pay drop of 22.6 per cent between March and July - more than four times the 4.8 per cent pace of every other sector.

Accommodation and food services have been the worst affected by the coronavirus crisis, with the number of jobs plunging by 18.1 per cent in four months - triple the labour market-wide average of 5.6 per cent.

Across all industries, the official payrolls data also showed 35 per cent of jobs lost at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic had been regained by mid-July.

Still, Westpac senior economist Justin Smirk said the pace of recovery had slowed since May when the initial COVID-19 trading restrictions were eased.

'Weekly payrolls suggest the recovery may have run out of puff in July,' he said.

Victoria saw the sharpest drop in jobs, thanks to a new lockdown in Melbourne and the neighbouring Mitchell Shire, with payrolls in that state falling by 7.3 per cent
Aged care employers say they can't afford pandemic leave without federal assistance, warning the new requirement could send agencies providing relief workers to Melbourne's coronavirus-stricken facilities broke.

Staffing agencies have appealed to federal Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck to underwrite their pandemic leave liability, saying if extra workers deployed in Melbourne's aged care homes this month had to isolate due to the virus, it could cost them up to $4.5 million.

Agencies employing aged care relief staff say they cannot afford to pay pandemic leave. Credit:Louise Kennerley

The Fair Work Commission on Monday ruled employers must cover up to two weeks' pay for aged care workers who needed to self-isolate due to COVID-19 if they worked regular hours.

Two weeks' pay for a nurse employed on an agency contract at $40 an hour would cost $3000, Recruitment, Consulting and Staffing Association chief executive Charles Cameron said, with 1500 such workers deployed in Melbourne through 58 member agencies since July 1.
(UPDATE: Saginaw finds no violation of police policies or procedures in use of stun gun, arrest of demonstrator)

SAGINAW, MI - Several dozen protesters gathered in front of the Saginaw County Governmental Center Monday afternoon in solidarity with a demonstrator who was stunned by police and arrested during a protest on Sunday.

Cornelius Phelps, a Saginaw resident and activist, was released from police custody shortly before the demonstration on Monday, July 27. He addressed the crowd and members of The Ghost of George Floyd, a Saginaw collective opposing police brutality.

Weve still got work to do, Phelps said. What we need to do now is put in the steps to end police brutality and its father, white supremacy.

Video posted to The Ghost of George Floyds Facebook page shows Phelps on Sunday talking to police outside the Fraternal Order of Police building on South Niagara about whether or not the protesters there were on private property.

After a brief scuffle with officers, Phelps is wrestled to the ground and subsequently shot with a stun gun after he does not put his hands behind his back as police ordered, the video shows.

The Saginaw Police Department and Saginaw Prosecutors Office have not issued any statements about the incident on Sunday and could not be reached for comment. Its not clear if Phelps is facing any formal charges.

Phelps on Monday said he was arrested at a demonstration calling attention to police unions. He commended the Saginaw Police Department for quickly investigating and firing an officer recently accused of using excessive force, but condemned other officers for calling in sick afterwards.

We done rescheduled Call Out Cop Unions, Phelps said. Welcome to Call Out Cop Unions... Thank you for coming to the rain check.

Saginaw City Council member Annie Boensch attended the protest, as did members Jamie Forbes and Bill Ostash, who all said they have known Phelps for a long time. Boensch said she will wait for a review from the police department before fully forming her opinions, but is concerned about the escalation she saw in the video.

I sincerely hope that any charges that might be brought against Mr. Phelps are dropped or not pressed, Boensch said. This is not the way we want to interact with our citizens... the tone and tenor I heard coming from the officers in that video were not really a tone and tenor I think would lead to the peaceful deescalation of what was a peaceful event.

Clint Bryant, a former councilmember and a candidate for 95th District state representative, said the community needs healing after the incident of alleged police brutality which led to the firing of an officer.

Protests need to turn into policy, Bryant said. He called for citizens advisory councils for every level of police both state and local, an open records system and an end to police using militarized force.

That should be a standard for us in the State of Michigan, Bryant said. This kind of activity can happen anywhere.

Read more:

Protest planned after video surfaces showing police using stun gun on demonstrator in Saginaw

Saginaw Police Department back to full staff after recent officer shortage

Saginaw police officer fired for excessive force against woman, 57, hed arrested
Seventeen medical residents and a friend at the University of Florida Health reportedly acquired coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) after throwing a house party.

According to WUFT, the 17 anesthesiologist and a one friend of them contracted COVID-19 early this month after attending a private party as shown from internal documents, and as based on the statements of hospital insiders.

People who are familiar with the situation spoke anonymously as the UF Health prohibits employees from talking to reporters without any authorization.

Timothy E. Morey, the chairman of anesthesiology at the University of Florida College of Medicine, sent an email on July 10 to report that the hospital system had 18 total positive cases of the COVID-19. Said patients are recovering in their home.

The reported cases include two senior residents, 14 junior residents, a fellow at the said University, and an administrative employee, according to the latest data from yesterday.

The anesthesiology department wished the patients a speedy return to good health. It is still unclear if the medical residents would return to work with patients when they recover from the virus.

The WUFT said the UF Health had difficulties tracing and preventing the spread of the virus, especially that even trained healthcare professionals conduct private parties. Florida has already issued warnings regarding the risks of COVID-19 spreading at social gatherings.

On Monday, Florida reported the lowest daily case in three weeks. New hospitalizations declined and the ICU capacity dropped. According to Forbes, the state is starting to show signs that COVID-19 cases spike may have peaked. However, the public health experts gave warning against dismissing any measures that are in place. Experts said Florida must work hard to prevent the spread of the virus.

Steffanie Strathdee, associate dean of global health sciences at UC San Diego and infectious disease epidemiologist, told Forbes that the coronavirus spreads through complacency and not just through coughing and sneezing.

She added that preventing a resurgence may go a long way if there is an absence of federal and state mandates to strictly implement the use of face masks in public as well as having social distancing.

"A friend of mine who is an infectious disease physician in San Diego said this when California thought it was out of danger: 'The fact that the epidemic has peaked doesn't mean the virus has disappeared. It just means that we now have room for you in the ICU'," Strathdee said.

On Monday, there are 8,892 new COVID-19 cases reported in Florida. This count has been the lowest in three weeks. But the number showed to be still higher than other countries in the world, which reported cumulatively over the entire course of the pandemic.

Check these out:

New Study Shows Other Strategies to Combat COVID-19 and Reduce its Symptoms

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An In-Depth Guide to Shopping, Dining, and Hosting Potlucks During COVID-19
Dr. Kylie Moore-Gilbert from the University of Melbourne has reportedly been sentenced to 10 years behind bars in Tehran, Iran, in September 2019. (AAP Image/Supplied by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade)

Australian Lecturer Moved to Iranian Jail

Australian university lecturer Kylie Moore-Gilbert, jailed in Iran for spying, has been moved to a harsh womens prison in the desert.

The dual UK-Australian national has been in Tehrans Evin Prison since September 2018. She denies all the espionage charges against her.

Reza Khandan, the husband of lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh who is in Evin prison for her human rights activism, has posted on Facebook that Moore-Gilbert was transferred in recent days to Qarchak womens prison for punishment reasons.

Khandan said Moore-Gilbert was able to contact him to say the conditions at Qarchak were very bad.

I cannot eat anything, I am very disappointed, I am so very depressed, he reported her saying.

Moore-Gilbert told Khandan she had last spoken to her family about a month ago.

Qarchak is in the desert east of Tehran and is reportedly rife with coronavirus, is very overcrowded, has poor sanitation and not enough beds for all inmates.

The jail holds political prisoners as well as those who have committed violent crimes.

In May, Moore-Gilberts family issued a statement saying she was in good health and she had strongly denied reports that she has attempted suicide or that she is being tortured.

She seems to be in good health considering her situation. We love her and miss her. We ask that you continue to respect both Kylies and our privacy while we concentrate on getting her home.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says it is aware of Moore-Gilberts move to Qarchak Prison and is urgently seeking further consular access to her at this new location.

Dr Moore-Gilberts case is one of our highest priorities, including for our embassy officials in Tehran, a DFAT spokeswoman said in a statement on Tuesday.

Our Ambassador to Iran recently visited Moore-Gilbert in Evin Prison, and she has had telephone contact with her family and the Ambassador over the last several months.

We hold Iran responsible for Dr Moore-Gilberts safety and well-being.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne had repeatedly raised the case with Iranian Foreign Minister Jawad Zarif, a DFAT spokeswoman said.

Moore-Gilbert, who lectured in Islamic studies at the University of Melbourne, was arrested in September 2018 while at an educational conference and was later convicted of espionage.

She is understood to be serving a 10-year sentence.

Canberra
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Linkedin Riska Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 18:45 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669feeee 1 Business SOEs,banks,fund-placement,stimulus-package,COVID-19 Free

State-owned banks have collectively disbursed Rp 43.5 trillion (US$2.99 billion) in working capital loans using funding provided by the government, deputy State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) minister Kartika Tiko Wirjoatmodjo has said.

Tiko said on Tuesday the loans were disbursed to 518,797 borrowers as of July 22.

The figure was equal to 145 percent of the total Rp 30 trillion provided by the government in June, which was intended to be channeled as loans to shield businesses from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This seems to be supported by the fact that interest in new loans increased in July, a month after the government made the funds available on June 25, he said during a webinar organized by the Institute of Development on Economics and Finance (Indef).

Read also: State banks to disburse $6.32b in loans to help businesses recover from COVID-19 hit

The provision of the funding is part of the governments stimulus worth Rp 695.2 trillion to strengthen the healthcare system and bolster the economy. The funds are supposed to help bank liquidity and stimulate credit growth, as banks conduct credit-restructuring for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), while business players can use the loans to support expansion plans during the pandemic.

The Indonesian economy grew 2.97 percent in the first quarter of this year, the slowest in 19 years. The government expects the economy to shrink by up to 5.08 percent in the second quarter as the outbreak paralyzes business activity.

Tiko went on to say that Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) had disbursed Rp 21.21 trillion, while Bank Mandiri had disbursed Rp 14.93 trillion in loans. Those figures were higher than the governments fund placement of Rp 10 trillion in each bank.

Read also: Banks ask OJK to extend debt relief program amid mounting COVID-19 cases

Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) also managed to disburse Rp 6.04 trillion from the Rp 5 trillion of government-provided funding, while Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) only disbursed Rp 3 trillion of the Rp 5 trillion of government funds placed with the bank.

Tiko said that the disbursement would hopefully continue until August with a total disbursement of Rp 90 trillion, three times the amount of funding aimed at fueling the economy.

Once we reach this target, we hope the government will place more funds [in state-owned banks] so we have the ammunition to be more aggressive in disbursing new loans, he said.
A total of 5.64 million new urban jobs were created by China in the first half of 2020, achieving 63 percent of the annual target, and the surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas stood at 5.7 percent in June, said the countrys Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) during a press conference held on July 21.

As China steadily advances its work resumption and implements measures to stabilize employment, a rising demand is seen in the labor market and employment is gradually getting back to stability.

The country has recruited 554,000 employees for over 10,000 key enterprises, and sent more than 6 million migrant workers back to work by chartered flights, trains and buses. The MOHRSS figures also indicated that the registered unemployment rate in urban areas stood at 3.84 percent, and the market demand turned from a drastic decline when COVID-19 firstly broke out to positive growth.

The employment went through a low-to-stable progress in the first half of the year, said Zhang Ying, an official with the MOHRSS. The gradual recovery of employment came from the effective COVID-19 response, orderly work resumption, gradual pickup of economy and the targeted policies launched by the MOHRSS, Zhang introduced.

A series of policies to stabilize employment were rolled out in the January-June period during which insurance premiums worth 63.6 billion yuan were returned to over 4.34 million enterprises to help them sustain stable payrolls, benefiting 100 million employees. Besides, 40.5 billion yuan worth of employment subsidies were also handed out.

China has launched comprehensive online recruitment services since the beginning of this year, including an online recruitment activity carried out by the MOHRSS in which the ministry released information of 27.61 million jobs and received nearly 20 million resumes. The ministry also launched a recruitment campaign for the private sector, and more than 2 million pieces of job information have been released.

By taking a series of measures, China ensured the employment of impoverished migrant workers. As of the end of June, the number of impoverished rural workers finding jobs in urban areas had reached 28.3 million, outnumbering the total from last year.

The reduction and exemption of corporate social insurance premiums are an important measure taken to counter the impacts from COVID-19. As of the end of June, employers saw a decline of 576.9 billion yuan in insurance payments related to old-age, unemployment and work-related injuries, and payments worth 43.1 billion yuan were postponed over the period

In June, relevant departments extended the implementation of the policy to reduce and exempt corporate social insurance premiums. According to Nie Mingjuan, head of the pension and insurance office at the MOHRSS, the policy will remain valid till the end of the year, and the total premium reduction is expected to reach 1.6 trillion yuan.

The unprecedented intensity and scale will help lift enterprises out of adversity, and stabilize and expand employment, Nie said.

The proportion of enterprise workers basic pension funds under central government allocation was raised to 4 percent this year. A total of 740 billion yuan was allocated by the central government, and the inter-provincial allocation stood at 170 billion yuan. As of mid-June, the second-quarter fund had all been allocated, which offered firm support for provinces with difficulties to pay the basic pension.

On July 21, the MOHRSS issued a ranking of the top 100 most wanted jobs in the second quarter, which suggested a larger short labor supply in the manufacturing sector, especially metal heat treating, foundrymen, fitters and riveters.

It is reported that the MOHRSS will hold the first national skill contest this year, and make it a biennial event. The contest has the same competitions with the WorldSkills, and also adopts those closely related to economic and social development, as well as people's lives, covering manufacturing, information communication, construction, transportation and life services.

The high-level skill contest helps promote skill training, and is estimated to propel nearly a million people to participate in provincial and municipal contests, said Zhang Lixin, director of the ministrys Department of Vocational Capacity Building. These measures will all improve the quality of the workforce, and offer support for economic restructuring and high-quality development, he added.

Zhang introduced that China has a workforce of nearly 800 million people, including 200 million technical workers. They are an important foundation for Chinas manufacturing and creation, playing an important role in promoting high-quality economic development. The national skill contest will spur the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of technical workers, and play a leading and guiding role for building a workforce that is knowledgeable, skillful and innovative.
MINNEAPOLISStay strong, stay calm and activate your mask power!

Thats what the Kratt brothers, who save animals on PBS Kids Wild Kratts, tell children in a public service announcement. Daniel Tigers Neighborhood also will pitch in with a singalong special.

Cartoon characters arent the only ones helping kids get used to donning face masks. Local nurses and pediatricians are trying to guide Minnesota families, especially now that Minnesotas new mandate calls for everyone over age five to wear a mask indoors, unless they have a condition or disability that makes it difficult.

Its itchy.

Its uncomfortable.

Why do I have to wear it?

Those are just some of the complaints Dr. Gigi Chawla has heard from children.

But Chawla, the chief of general pediatrics at Childrens Minnesota, said its important to let children  and their parents  know that they are part of the solution to COVID-19.

Wearing those masks anytime that youre around people is really, really useful in protecting others and having others protect you, she said. It protects others from your respiratory droplets that you have every time youre speaking, talking, coughing, yelling or sneezing or any of those types of things. So by wearing a mask you are being as safe as you can for others, and having others doing that same thing for you helps keep you safe.

Chawla is quick to point out that children under age two should not wear masks, which are a strangulation hazard. And she knows that the very young arent super spreaders. In fact, studies have shown that the greatest risk of transmission is from adults to young children, not between kids or kids to adults, she said. Even so, having kids wear masks is very important.

If were really making sure that adults are wearing masks, that is super-helpful. Adults, however, have a greater sense of how to socially distance, she said. The challenge for kids is that, although they may be at slightly less risk of transmitting among themselves or transmitting to an adult, they dont have a sense necessarily of what 6 feet is. And that is really difficult for controlling any respiratory droplets.

At Parents in Community Action, a non-profit that runs Head Start centres in Hennepin County, Nadia Higgins and other nurses have been collecting photos and videos of teachers doing fun things with masks on. They hope parents share those images with their children before they return to classrooms.

Higgins said that seeing positive images of people wearing masks is essential for very young children.

The way that they understand their world is through the faces around them and thats how they feel safe. But when faces are covered  and we know that from Halloween  its like the ground is shifting under their feet. So, we need to do what we can to help, she said.

The nurses are also sharing strategies with parents through their Facebook page and in weekly phone calls.

One thing that has been really successful with kids is to say, Were going to be superheroes and were going to put on our masks now, said Higgins.

You can practice it at home and incorporate it into play. Who wears a mask? Superheroes wear a mask. What are you doing when you are wearing a mask? Youre helping other people. Youre keeping your bad germs to yourself.

Higgins also suggests letting kids put masks on their dolls or stuffed animals. And instead of nagging a young child to keep a mask on, she tells parents and teachers to try developing a little code.

If you see your child touching their mask, you could say, Wiggle, wiggle hands! Everyone wiggle hands, to help them keep their hands off their masks.

Stella Nyakundi, a nurse who also works with Parents in Community Action, advises parents to explain to children that we wear masks to keep others safe instead of warning that you could get sick without one.

That would be scary, Nyakundi said. We are explaining the rationale so they dont get scared.

Fit and fashion

So far, it hasnt been hard for Sandi Langowski, a mom of two from Minnesota City, Minn., to get her sons to wear masks. The boys, who are 13 and seven, wore them for a family outing to Duluth, and keep them on when they go in a store.

We simply told them the mask will help keep them as well as others safer when were in close contact, said Langowski.

Still, she isnt sure they are ready to wear a mask for an entire day.

I am concerned about keeping the mask on during the school day and bus rides to and from school, she said. Weve only had the kids wearing the masks for very short periods of time, so a full day may be a challenge.

Thats a challenge that kids can meet, according to Chawla.

Can a child wear a mask for eight hours a day? Of course, the answer to that is yes, she said. It doesnt restrict your breathing or anything like that. But anyones  and especially kids  ability to wear a mask for a prolonged period of time can be really challenged by the way it fits, how warm you are and the conditions that youre wearing the mask under.

That means getting the right size and fit.

Kids and their little faces, their nose bridges arent necessarily so prominent, so it can be hard to keep a mask on, and have it not slip down under their little noses, she said. The broader the strap behind the ear, the more it disperses the pressure on the back of the ear and its much more comfortable. A little more speaking room around the mouth can be helpful so that the whole thing isnt pressing on a kids face.

How a mask looks can make a big difference, especially for older kids.

As kids get to be a little bit older, nine, 10, 11, you can help it be part of their identity, Chawla said. They can help design the mask, and have it be colourful, or rhinestone-studded. Whatever appeals to them. At that age, it gets to be really important to have an external persona.

For teens, an honest discussion about the why can happen, she said. Its about a social responsibility, Chawla said, to keep others healthy, and for others to keep you healthy.

Once kids are comfortable wearing a mask, parents have one more chore: remembering to wash those cloth masks every day.
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex left their royal duties behind in search of a more private way of life. Despite their high hopes for a life out of the spotlight, however, they might face more privacy concerns in the US, an expert explains.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Victoria Jones/PA Wire

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wanted more privacy

Prince Harry and Meghan shocked the world when they announced their plans to take a step back from their royal duties. After Queen Elizabeth met with other senior royals to discuss whether or not Prince Harry and Meghan could have a half-in/half-out role in the family, it was determined that the Sussexes would leave their royal life behind entirely.

The decision that I have made for my wife and I to step back is not one I made lightly, Prince Harry shared in a speech in January. It was so many months of talks after so many years of challenges. And I know I havent always gotten it right, but as far as this goes, there really was no other option.

Will Prince Harry and Meghan get the privacy they want?

While the Sussexes escaped from the spotlight in the UK, royal expert Katie Nicholl told ET that she believes they are struggling with their new chapter in Los Angeles. According to Nicholl, the Sussexes were sorely mistaken about their expectations for having more privacy.

I think one of the big concerns when the couple moved to Los Angeles was security, at least, who was going to pay for that security. Its my understanding that theyre renting Tyler Perrys home, which comes with its own security entourage, Nicholl explained.

She continued, One of the key issues for them is that they are in the spotlight. They attract a huge amount of attention and their concern has always been how they would balance their private lives with their public roles.

The Sussexes may have had more privacy in the UK

Despite that desire to escape the media and public attention, Nicholl said Prince Harry and Meghan were actually better protected in the UK.

A lot of people might think that they have been naive in expecting a greater level of privacy in Los Angeles. America has different privacy rules to the U.K., she explained.

Nicholl continued, While they were living in Britain, there were no paparazzi pictures of them. There was still a gentlemans agreement between the press and the palace that when the principals  the senior members of the royal family  were enjoying private time, that private time was respected. So if the couple were papped, then the British newspapers agreed with the palace that they wouldnt use those paparazzi pictures.

RELATED: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Will Never Get the Privacy They Desire, Expert Claims

Prince Harry and Meghan were naive

Nicholl further explained that Prince Harry and Meghan were naive in believing that they would have the privacy they desired.

There is no doubt in my mind that if they were still living at Frogmore House in Windsor, there would not be this level of intrusion. It simply would not be tolerated, the royal expert explained. If they had gone to L.A. hoping for a quieter life, where they could duck out of the spotlight, they were sorely mistaken.

I think the Sussexes have been a little bit naive to expect that they can move to Beverly Hills, where theres clearly huge media attention on them, and not be photographed by the paparazzi, she added.
With the anticipation of the Ontario governments release of its return to school plan this week, local education administrators, teachers and parents have concerns.

In June, the Ontario government requested school boards prepare for three possible return to school models: online only, full-time in-school with smaller classes and strict hygiene protocols, or a mix of the two.

The province has requested that we provide them with a detailed plan that outlines three scenarios on how we could return to the class, said District School Board of Niagara chair Sue Barnett. We have done that, plus some.

Weve been told by the Ministry of Education that teachers will return to the classroom on Sept. 1 with students following a week later, but given the uncertainty and the unknowns of what the Ministry of Education will do, I cant say for sure that school is starting in September.

Not knowing is not what concerns Barnett the most.

My biggest concern is how we will ensure the safety of our staff and students with our current budget.

On June 19, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said every school board in Ontario will receive funding increases ... Were investing in grant for student needs, an additional $730 million to ensure our restart is safe for kids.

However, Barnett said the provinces grants for student needs doesnt include money for safety, and I am not willing to reallocate funds.

I am happy to push this through to the minister.

Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario Niagara member Brian Barker expressed similar concerns.

My concerns are for the safety of all stakeholders, he said. Having people go back to school without a real commitment of funding from the government to increase cleaning protocols, provide PPE (personal protective equipment) and keep classes small enough to maintain physical distancing, would put the health and safety of everyone at risk. Seven cents a student wont cut it.

Barker is also frustrated with how long it has taken the province to release its plan.

The province not having a tangible plan to share with staff, teachers, parents about four weeks before the start of school is highly problematic.

Parents in Niagara are also vocal about their concerns.

From an Indigenous perspective it triggers us from the emotional and mental perspective, said Jillian Issacs, a resident of Fort Erie and mother two children.

Our children are longing for those friendships and relationships. How are the school administrators going to enforce that? How are they going to enforce social distancing with the young ones? How are they going to teach our children about COVID-19? If I was given the choice. I would prefer the hybrid model that is currently being considered.

Robyn Bourgeois, associate professor of womens and gender studies at Brock University, said she is not sending her children back to school in the fall.

I dont think any form of education is worth the risk. I do not want my children to be guinea pigs, she said.

In the three years, theyve been in school, theyve been sick every year and when you add the complexities of COVID-19 it adds additional risks. I dont see how any model being presented would alleviate my concerns. I am considering homeschooling or online.

Premier Doug Ford and Lecce have said the province will release its direction to school boards this week. Barnett is anticipating the announcement will be made Tuesday.
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'If Asia does become a Chinese dominated space, it will not only be because India failed to get its economic act together but also because it did not stand up for its democratic credentials,' warns Shyam Saran, the former foreign secretary.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi listens to Chinese President Xi Jinping speak at the G20 virtual summit to discuss the global response to COVID-19, March 26, 2020. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

India and China have reportedly agreed to carry out disengagement of their forces along the Line of Actual Control and this is positive news.

However, heightened mistrust will remain and there will continue to be wariness on the Indian side about moves the Chinese may make in the coming days.

The additional claims to territory that China has made have been reiterated.

On the economic and trade fronts, it is likely that there will be a decrease beyond what was already the result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cross-investment by Indian and Chinese firms may stall if not decrease. So, we may have our own version of 'decoupling' in progress.

The strategy of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' will accentuate this trend.

It is clear that the consensus that underlay India-China relations for the past several decades has broken down.

What were the key elements of this consensus?

One, that India was not a threat to China and China was not a threat to India.

Two, that there was enough room in Asia and the world for both India and China to grow.

Three, India was an economic opportunity for China and China for India.

And, four, that India-China relations had acquired a strategic and global dimension, thus enhancing the importance of strong and cooperative relations between them.

Precisely for this reason, the two sides wished to seek a political resolution to their boundary issue so that they could work together on a series of global issues where they had convergent interests.

This consensus was made explicit during the visit of then Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to India in 2005, but has been steadily eroding at least since 2009.

The last time India and China worked together on a global issue was during the Copenhagen Climate Change summit in 2009.

The change was visible during Wen Jiabao's subsequent visit to India in 2010 when he declared that the border issue may be resolved only in the long term.

In 2015, during the Paris Climate summit, it was the template worked out by the United States and China that became the basis of the Paris Agreement.

India was no longer a key player. China began to benchmark itself against the US and relegated relations with other emerging countries to the second rung.

China regards its relations with India as no longer a significant factor in its Asian and global strategy. To put it bluntly, the Asian space, it believes, has room only for an ascendant China, not India.

The latest developments bring to a head the breakdown of the earlier consensus, though this may have been clouded by the high profile, even theatrical events such as the series of leadership summits between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

China is good at using theatrics to mask its intention and lull its adversary into complacency.

But the signs were there, if only they were read correctly.

There is an additional ideological dimension to China's effort to demote India in its hierarchy of power. This is to show up India's democratic polity as chaotic and inefficient and no match for the superior model which China represents.

This is of a piece with its constant disparagement of Western democracies -- particularly the US, which under Donald Trump is hardly an advertisement for liberal democracy.

This becomes important in managing political discontent and in stifling dissent within China, comparing its seeming orderliness and efficiency with the images of disarray even in mature democracies.

The massive failure of Chinese authoritarianism to acknowledge the eruption of the epidemic promptly and to transparently alert the world to its dangers, which would have been unthinkable in a liberal democracy, was cleverly masked in the subsequent and ruthless efficiency with which it was tackled.

What should have been seen by the world as a dangerous failure inherent in its so-called 'superior' model was turned into a clever demonstration of its success in tackling the pandemic.

What is more, this inherent fault line carries dangers not only for the people of China, but for the rest of the world.

The more this model seduces other countries, the greater the world's vulnerability to such crises in the future.

I have so far looked at the ideological dimension in utilitarian terms. Far more important is the value that democracies attach to fundamental freedoms, the rule of law and the accountability of State power.

As the centre of gravity of global power continues to shift to Asia, China wants not only to dominate militarily and economically but less obviously, ideologically.

As the second largest country in the region, choices that India makes will be an important factor in determining whether this new crucible of power will also be painted in the ideological colour of its currently more powerful rival.

If India is determined to contest Chinese dominance in Asia, it will have to do so not only in the military and economic fields, but also in the ideological field.

Reaffirming faith in our liberal democracy and the values enshrined in the Indian Constitution are indispensable to confronting Chinese hubris.

It is unfortunate that there has been a tendency in this country to hold up China as a model that India must aspire to.

There is constant bemoaning that being a democracy has held back India, and even admiring Mr Modi because he is a 'strong leader' like Xi Jinping.

In failing to acknowledge India's incredible success in managing a multi-ethic, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural society and that, too, without sacrificing individual freedoms and dignity as its greatest strength, we undervalue the very asset which distinguishes us from the arid homogeneity that China aspires to.

China is welcome to its monochromatic future. That must never be India's aspiration.

If Asia does become a Chinese dominated space, it will not only be because India failed to get its economic act together but also because it did not stand up for its democratic credentials.

The future of democracy in Asia and the world may well be determined by choices India makes.

Former foreign secretary Shyam Saran is a senior fellow, Centre for Policy Research.
B arcelona midfielder Arthur Melo is back in Brazil and has told the Catalan club he has no intention of returning for the Champions League.

Arthur will join Juventus this summer in a 72million (65.7m) deal, with Miralem Pjanic moving in the other direction, in a transfer 'swap' agreement announced at the end of last month.

The Brazilian had not wanted to leave Barcelona, but said in a tweet that he would continue to be professional and help the team secure their objectives for the remainder of the campaign.

However, he has not played a single minute since the move was announced and was out with a mystery ankle problem at the end of the club's LaLiga season.

The 23-year-old failed to report back after a few days off and was not present for coronavirus testing at Barcelona's training ground on Monday.

Arthur did not have permission to return to Brazil and Standard Sport understands Barca will take disciplinary action against the midfielder, who was expected back to prepare for the club's Champions League last-16 second leg against Napoli on August 8.
Legislators, Governor Mike Parson and staff members pass by the work daily as they enter the Governor Office Building and many stop to examine it carefully.

Gray is an acclaimed California pop artist who has used a flag theme frequently during his 35-year career. He assembled "Fragmented" recently in the lobby of the building.

"This is the first time I have actually deconstructed the entire flag for one work," says Gray. "I've titled it 'Fragmented' because of the state of our country today. But, while we are divided on many issues, we are always united behind our flag. And, like our country, I feel the work is dynamic and that it has movement and energy. I think it reflects the price we pay for freedom in a pluralistic society."

Howerton told the News Tribune in Jefferson City he picked the work because "I just love flags, and this is a unique flag by a unique artist. I'm patriotic and I get a lump in my throat just thinking about America."

Gray is widely known for his mural "Flabbergast," painted two years ago on corrugated metal siding at 2 World Trade Center, site of the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York City. Gray's bright colors, shapes and iconic comic images were all included in the vibrant mural, which he created to help lift the spirits of those who work in the downtown business district. The feedback Gray got from passersby while painting there for over a month confirmed it did the job.

Fans of pop art frequently visit Gray's website and online shop to see artwork and merchandise he has created, ranging from backpacks and leggings, to furniture.

CONTACT: J. Markham Consulting, [email protected] for more information, interviews and images.

SOURCE Todd Gray Studios

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https://toddgray.com


Previous studies have raised concerns that the coronavirus can lead to big strokes in young patients, but a new analysis from Penn Medicine finds that most strokes in patients at Penns three Philadelphia hospitals were in older people with known stroke risk factors like high blood pressure and diabetes.

Only one stroke patient was under age 50.

Doctors had worried that stroke might be a huge risk for coronavirus patients, said Brett L. Cucchiara, a stroke neurologist who is senior author of the paper, published this month in the journal Stroke. The risk is real, but its not really as big a problem as we were worried it was going to be.

Pascal M. Jabbour, a vascular neurosurgeon at Jefferson Health, said multiple studies have found associations between COVID-19 and clotting in various parts of the body. He was part of a much-publicized study with researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York in the spring that looked at stroke patients with major blockages during the peak of the East Coast coronavirus surge. Their small study of 14 COVID-19 patients with stroke found that about 40% were under age 55 and 55% had no risk factors for stroke.

In some, stroke was the first symptom of the coronavirus. A more recent and still unpublished study involving 12 centers in the United States and Europe and 50 stroke patients found that about a third were under age 55 and a third had stroke as their first symptom. Thirty-eight percent had no stroke risk factors.

This is something important, Jabbour said. We shouldnt downplay this thing.

He said the public needs to know to take stroke symptoms like sudden numbness or loss of balance seriously when the coronavirus is circulating. The message from both papers should be, regardless, if you have stroke symptoms, you need to call 911.

 READ MORE: Cardiac, stroke cases still down at Philly-area hospitals as patients continue to delay care

Because Jabbours team looked only at people who had strokes, he could not say how unusual it is for coronavirus patients to have the large-vessel blockages he targeted.

The Penn team looked only at strokes, not at whether patients developed clots outside the brain.

They examined data on 844 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 from March 15 to May 3. Of those, 2.5% had strokes caused by clots, a low percentage when considering how many COVID-19 patients do not need hospitalization, Cucchiara said. While he does not have this sort of data on people with other conditions, he said that stroke rate would probably not be unusual in people in an intensive care unit, but those patients usually are older with more chronic health problems. The COVID-19 patients had an average age of 59. We dont normally see a population thats relatively young thats this sick, Cucchiara said.

 READ MORE: COVID-19 is more likely to hospitalize and even kill people with these preexisting conditions

An early study from Wuhan, China, found that 2.3% of hospitalized coronavirus patients had strokes. A large study in New York found a rate of almost 1%.

Studies have also found that the risk for stroke is higher among people who have recently had the flu. Jabbour cited a recent study that found stroke risk was 7.5 times higher in COVID-19 patients than in those with the flu.

Sixty-eight percent of the COVID-19 patients at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, and Pennsylvania Hospital during the study time period were Black, a figure that surprised Cucchiara. Black patients accounted for 80% of the people who had strokes. Because they are more likely to have risk factors like high blood pressure and diabetes, Black individuals tend to be at higher risk for strokes than other groups. Most of the coronavirus patients who had strokes had high blood pressure, diabetes, or other risk factors like heart failure. More than one-third had a previous stroke.

 READ MORE: Breaking down the toll of Phillys coronavirus hospitalizations by race, age, and neighborhood

Nearly 1% of the patients had bleeding in the brain, a type of stroke that is especially dangerous. That was more than Cucchiara had expected. Patients are now even more likely to receive blood thinners because doctors want to prevent clots. This is kind of a cautionary note, Cucchiara said.

Most of the patients in the Penn study had strokes after they were hospitalized. On average, the strokes occurred 21 days after symptoms began.

Cucchiara doubts the coronavirus directly causes clotting, but said inflammation caused by viral infection can make blood clot more easily. Critical illness may also be a factor. Stroke may be more common in patients who are immobilized and hooked to machines and IV lines.

Jabbour said the studies are not contradictory. They are just pieces of information from different perspectives as scientists try to understand this new disease. This is a multifaceted disease, he said. Really, were still collecting data.
Pastor returns to preach first sermon after being hospitalized 100 days for COVID-19

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After 100 consecutive days of hospitalization due to the COVID-19 disease, a 69-year-old pastor in Ohio came back to his congregation on Sunday to preach a sermon.

Jonathan Mitchell, the pastor of Faith Fellowship Church of God in Youngstown who was put on a respirator for 30 days and kept in the ICU for another month while in hospital, was back in his church Sunday to preach his first sermon in a long time, WKBN reported.

This is my life, I cant [do] nothing else. This is my life and I honor God and thank Him for this opportunity and that the church still wants me, Mitchell said.

The pastor was discharged from the hospital on July 15. On his way back home, he was told they would stop by the church to pick up mail. But many members were waiting in the church to greet him, the newspaper reported earlier.

My goodness, my heart is overwhelmed. We love you, we love you. My heart is overwhelmed with joy, he was quoted as saying at the time. My church, look at em. I taught em to love for five years. Look at em. Theyre lovers.

He also joked, Im a different man. COVID gave me curly, wavy hair.

Recalling his time in the hospital, Mitchell said, A nurse come to me and said they lost me two times, said they called me the miracle man. He added that he lost hope at one point but God reminded him of the first commandment: Have you loved me today?

In April, a Virginia pastor, Kenny Baldwin of Crossroads Baptist Church in Fairfax County, shared with his congregation, after he was released from the hospital, that he had severe and horrific symptoms of COVID-19 and that he cried out to God for a chance.

The doctor basically said with this disease youre going to get worse fast or youre going to hold on and eventually get better, and we dont know which one it will be, he said at the time. I was begging, God, please just give me a chance. Please get me through this.

He said all he had was the Lord. I saw God and experienced Him in a way like never before and He reminded me that His promises are true and that His word stands and that He never leaves or forsakes us.
By Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters) - A coronavirus surge in Florida, California and a handful of other hard-hit states could be peaking while other parts of the country may be on the cusp of growing outbreaks, the top U.S. infectious diseases official said on Tuesday.

A spike in cases in Florida, along with Texas, Arizona and California this month has overwhelmed hospitals, forced a U-turn on steps to reopen economies and stoked fears that U.S. efforts to control the outbreak are sputtering.

"They may be cresting and coming back down," Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC's "Good Morning America" program regarding the state of the outbreak in several Sunbelt states.

Fauci said there was a "very early indication" that the percentage of coronavirus tests that were positive was starting to rise in other states, such as Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee and Kentucky.

"That's a surefire sign that you've got to be careful."

He urged the states with rising positivity rates to act quickly now to prevent a surge and other states to reopen carefully following guidelines established by U.S. officials and health experts.

Fauci has become a lightning rod for some supporters of President Donald Trump who accuse the 79-year-old health official of exaggerating the extent and severity of the U.S. outbreak and playing down possible treatments.

Trump, who is seeking a second term in the White House in the Nov. 3 election, retweeted a post accusing Fauci and Democrats of suppressing the use of the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus. The post included a link to a video of a group discounting the need for face masks.

A Twitter spokesman confirmed that tweets with the video were in violation of the company's COVID-19 misinformation policy, and the tweets shared by Trump were deleted.

In his interview with ABC, Fauci defended his work to protect Americans' health.

"I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances," he said.

Story continues

RISING TOLL

The number of people in the United States who have died of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, rose to 148,446 on Monday, with more than 4.3 million confirmed cases, according to the latest Reuters tally.

Florida had 191 coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day increase since the start of the epidemic, its state health department reported on Tuesday.

Texas became the fourth state with more than 400,000 total cases, joining California, Florida and New York in the grim club. But in a glimmer of hope, Texas' current hospitalizations due to COVID-19 fell on Monday, according to its state health department.

The rise in deaths and infections has dampened early hopes that the country was past the worst of the economic fallout in March and April when lockdowns brought business activity to a near standstill and put millions out of work.

The U.S. Congress on Tuesday was locked in difficult talks over another coronavirus aid package to help American families and businesses recover from the crisis.

In late March, as the economy was beginning to crater, Congress passed a $2.3 trillion stimulus package that included enhanced unemployment benefits to blunt the pain of lockdowns that were being adopted to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Senate Republicans announced on Monday a $1 trillion coronavirus aid package hammered out with the White House, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell touted as a "tailored and targeted" plan to reopen schools and businesses, while protecting companies from lawsuits.

But the proposal sparked immediate opposition from both Democrats and Republicans. Democrats decried it as too limited compared with their $3 trillion proposal that passed the House of Representatives in May. Some Republicans called that one too expensive.

The Republican proposal would give many Americans direct payments of $1,200 each, provide billions in loans to small businesses and help schools reopen. But it would slash the current expanded unemployment benefit from $600 per week in addition to state unemployment to $200 per week. The enhanced unemployment benefit expires on Friday.

The supplemental benefit has been a financial lifeline for laid-off workers and a key support for consumer spending.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Daniel Trotta, Patricia Zengerle and Lisa Shumaker Writing by Paul Simao Editing by Howard Goller)
A 24-year-old security man, identified only as Isaac, has been arrested by police in Asaba, Delta State for defiling his neighbours 3-year-old daughter.

According to a source, Isaac is close to the victims family, and she is, sometimes, left in his care. Unknown to the family, he has been abusing the minor.

Narrating what led to his arrest, the source said: The mother was searching for the child and she was told she is with him. So she relaxed. Only for her child to come back into the house crying that her private part hurts.

When the mother checked she found blood and cream. That was when she started questioning the child and raised alarm.

Isaac was subsequently handed over to the police after he was disciplined by some Army Officers who were in the area supervising road construction.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday raided offices of Hyderabad-based GVK Group, and its promoters in connection with a money-laundering probe related to alleged irregularities crore in the Mumbai airports development and maintenance, two officials said. The Group runs the airport.

The case pertains to the period from 2006 and deals with the diversion of money from Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), in which GVK Group has a 50.5% stake and the state-owned Airports Authority (AAI) of India 26%, to other companies of the company, causing a loss to AAI and the exchequer. The amount involved is 800 crore. The ED money laundering case is based on a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case probing the alleged diversion of funds.

The officials said the searches were primarily conducted at the companys Mumbai and Hyderabad offices. The office of MIAL was also raided, they added. MIAL is a joint public-private partnership venture between AAI, GVK Group, and few other entities.

ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act this month on the basis of CBIs June 27 First Investigation Report (FIR) that named 13 people, including the Groups chairman, G V K Reddy, MIAL, and several companies that were given airport contracts.

According to the FIR, the promoters of the Group in MIAL allegedly siphoned off funds fraudulently adopting various modus operandi in connivance with their executives and unnamed AAI officials. CBI has alleged MIAL signed fake contracts in 2017-18 with at least nine companies on the pretext of real estate development. HT has seen a copy of the FIR.

AAI signed an agreement with the Group in April 2006 for the airports operation, management, development, up gradation, and maintenance. MIAL was to share 38.7% of its revenue as an annual fee with AAI as per the agreement.

The Group did not respond to an email query on the raids. In a June 27 statement, it assured the company will cooperate with CBIs probe. MIAL would have provided every assistance had the agency [CBI] sought explanation or any document even if a preliminary enquiry had been initiated. MIAL is a transparent and responsible corporate entity which is committed to cooperate with the agency in its investigation to arrive at the truth.

CBI and ED are probing GVK Group for alleged irregularities worth over Rs 800 in the Mumbai airports development and maintenance.

They have named GVK Group, and 13 people including its chairman, G V K Reddy, his son, G V Sanjay Reddy, and several other companies as well as unknown public servants for alleged irregularities.

The AAI signed an operation, management and development agreement with the Group in April 2006 for the airports modernization, up-gradation, operation, and maintenance.

The company is accused of getting into contracts illegally to siphon off funds of the airport.
BEIRUT - The leader of a major Christian group in Lebanon on Tuesday blamed the militant group Hezbollah and its local allies led by President Michel Aoun for the rapidly deteriorating economy and worsening relations with neighbouring Arab countries, saying the only solution is for them to leave power.

Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces Party, told The Associated Press that Mondays military activity along the border with Israel was a clear indication the current Lebanese government, which Hezbollah supports, doesnt have sovereignty in the south, along Israels border, where thousands of U.N. peacekeepers are based.

The Israeli military said it thwarted an infiltration attempt Monday by Hezbollah militants, setting off one of the heaviest exchanges of fire along the volatile Israel-Lebanon frontier since a 2006 war between the bitter enemies. Hezbollah denied its members were involved in any activity along the border while the Lebanese government commented only a day later.

Yesterdays incident gives a clear idea about the state of sovereignty for the Lebanese state. Is that acceptable? Geagea said in the telephone interview. Which Arab and foreign countries want to deal with a government that considers itself nonexistent at a time when there is a security danger along its border?

Hezbollah and its allies of the Free Patriotic Movement of President Aoun control majority seats in parliament and are the main backers of the current government that took office earlier this year. Prime Minister Hassan Diab replaced Western-backed Saad Hariri who resigned in October, following nationwide protests against widespread corruption and mismanagement by Lebanons rulers.

Since then, the government has struggled to contain the escalating crisis, made worse by the pandemic. The government defaulted on paying back its debt for the first time in March, and the past few months have seen the Lebanese currency lose more than 80% of its value.

The government has requested a bailout from the International Monetary Fund but negotiations with the lender that started in mid-May have stalled because of divisions within the Lebanese leadership. Oil-rich gulf nations as well as international donors are refusing to give Lebanon a hand before major reforms are carried out within state institutions.

Geagea, whose party has taken part in successive governments for the past decade and has 15 legislators in the 128-member parliament, said Lebanon received much assistance from Arab and Western countries in the past but all was wasted. Only a new, independent government would be able to win back the international communitys confidence, he said.

Geagea warned the alliance between of Hezbollah and Aouns party has brought Lebanon to where it is and they will continue to do the same in the months to come.

As long as they are in power we will continue in the crisis. It is a very simple and clear equation, Geagea said. They are living on a different planet.

The states strategic decisions are in Hezbollahs hands, leading to deteriorating Lebanons relations with Arab states, he also said.

Geagea, whose party played a major role in Lebanons 1975-90 civil war, said that once Hezbollah withdraws its fighters from Yemen, Syria and Iraq, and stops implementing Irans policy, Arab states will most likely review relations with Lebanon.
The Republicans' proposed coronavirus relief package in the Senate includes $29 billion for the Pentagon, including nearly $8 billion in procurement and acquisition funding for major weapons and aircraft programs.

The appropriations legislation would fund Navy expeditionary medical ships, an expeditionary fast transport ship and P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft; F-35A Joint Strike Fighter stealth jets, C-130J Hercules transport aircraft and A-10 Warthog wing replacements for the Air Force; and Strykers and new AH-64 Apache helicopters for the Army, as well as missile defense programs, according to the draft proposal released Monday.

Read Next: Goldfein Departs: On a Future Bomber, Female Pilots and Surviving a Shootdown

The proposal contains $29 billion in funding for the Pentagon overall; it would also reimburse defense companies for coronavirus-related expenditures -- such as those incurred during stop-work orders -- as authorized by the CARES Act, according to Defense News.

The Senate proposal would restore some programs that were slashed in the 2020 defense budget in order to redirect funding to the southern border wall.

In February, the Trump administration sought a reprogramming request for $3.8 billion from military aircraft and shipbuilding funds in the Fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act; some of the programs targeted for reduction at the time had been overfunded by Congress, officials said, at levels above the military's original request.

Army Lt. Col. Chris Mitchell, a Pentagon spokesman, told Task & Purpose on Tuesday that $3.5 billion of that money has already been obligated toward the wall construction effort, which has led to disputes among lawmakers and the White House.

Many Senate Democrats were quick to oppose the latest legislation, with many businesses shuttered and millions of people out of work during the pandemic.

Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, called the package a "wish list" for the Defense Department instead of much-needed relief for American citizens.

"What does this have to do with the immediate crisis?" he said in a statement. "The bill provides nothing to address the long lines at food banks and shortchanges [in] education and child care, but we can shore up the defense industry? I am at a loss for words."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, a longtime critic of the defense industry, called the bill "obscene."

"Senate Republicans are using COVID-19 relief as cover to shovel $30 billion to defense contractors while gutting unemployment insurance, providing zero dollars for state and local governments, and doing absolutely nothing on the looming eviction crisis," she said in a statement.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214.

Related: F-35s, Reaper Drones Would Be Cut in New Border Wall Funding Proposal
Amiya Meethal By

Express News Service

KOZHIKODE: Stuck in Kerala for nearly four months, Tunisian national Dhouha Hafsi almost fell into depression. She lost appetite and suffered sleep loss as three of her attempts to fly back home went in vain during the lockdown period. But the fourth attempt came through and she boarded a flight on July 22. After a 40-hour journey spanning four airports and three flights, Dhouha finally landed in her

hometown of Monastir.

"I didn't even inform my family about my arrival as I feared some last minute bottleneck would hamper my trip. In Kerala, especially in the last one month, I was just a step away from falling into depression," Dhouha told TNIE over phone from Monastir, where she is in quarantine.

She had reached the Greens Ayurveda Hospital at Azhiyur here on January 8 to attend a three-month certificate course in Ayurveda Lifestyle. "I was to return on April 7 but, suddenly, lockdown happened. I thought the situation would be back to normal soon. But nothing happened. I had to renew my tourist visa three times," Dhouha elaborated.

She was happy in the initial days as there were six other foreign women at the Greens hospital who were also stuck. But others left Azhiyur towards the end of June. "I felt more isolated then. The only relief was the group formed by the Tunisian Embassy comprising Tunisian citizens stuck in India," she said.

Dhouha tried to catch the Tunisian evacuation flight on May 22, but couldn't reach New Delhi. Though her ticket was okayed for a Qatar Airways flight on July 3, the flight was cancelled at the eleventh hour. There was also an Indian evacuation flight to Dubai, but it was only for UAE residents.

A business card brings hope

Following civil aviation news closely, she came to know that India and France were operating special flights for a specific period. "My attempt was to get out of India as the sky between Tunisia and France was open. While clearing all the unwanted stuff from my bag, I stumbled upon a business card of Farook Batha, the Calicut airport service manager of Qatar Airways. He told me that I can fly to France."

Through Batha, she got in touch with Shankar Subbra, duty manager of Air France at the Bengaluru airport. She was told that she can fly only with a special permission from the Tunisian Embassy in India.

"I was granted that permission by the Tunisian envoy to India, Nejmeddine Lakhal. Shabeena Sultana, the Tunisian Consul in Bengaluru too provided all support. The last-minute glitch came in the form of credit card. I had to pay for the ticket through a credit card which I didn't have. Again, the embassy intervened and I was allowed to pay in currency upon my arrival at the Bengaluru airport. Finally, I left Azhiyur on July 22 morning," Dhouha said. She flew out through the Kannur-Bengaluru-Paris-Tunis route before reaching Monastir.

Meanwhile, the Tunisian Ambassador to India, Lakhal, told TNIE that the assistance received from the Indian authorities, particularly from the Ministry of External Affairs, in facilitating the return of stranded Tunisians was highly appreciable.

'I rediscovered myself'

The Tunisian said the stressful experience has helped rediscover herself. "Crisis management is the best thing I learned. I thank God for coming across such wonderful people who made my return possible," she said. Dhouha will soon document her-lockdown experiences in Kerala.

So, will she come back to Kerala?

"Of course, I will. Kerala is a land of magic. Let these bad times be over. I would definitely come back," pat came the reply.
Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, head of the Vietnamese mission to the United Nations (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi  Vietnam called for strengthening protection of women and promoting their rights in Afghanistan, during a videoconference held by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on July 27.

Themed Women and the Afghan Peace Process: Ensuring Womens Participation and Promoting their Rights, the Arria-formula meeting was co-organised by Afghanistan, Germany, Indonesia and the UK.

Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, head of the Vietnamese mission to the United Nations, expressed his support for the peace process led by Afghans, and underscored the importance of the constant implementation of Resolution 2513 supporting the February 29 Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan.

He acknowledged the efforts of the Afghan Government in protecting and promoting the role of women with nearly 25 percent of the negotiation teams members being women.

The diplomat shared the challenges that women and girls in the country are facing, and underlined the need to address rooted issues relating to these challenges, particularly promoting sustainable peace and socio-economic development.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said he has spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apprise him of the political situation in the state and he has promised him to get the matter seen.

Gehlot said he also wrote to the prime minister a few days back over the issue, even as the Congress Legislature Party sent a memorandum to President Ram Nath Kovind, seeking his intervention to facilitate an assembly session in the state. Apprising a CLP meeting of his talks with the Prime Minister, Gehlot said, I told him that I had written a letter to you and this is the situation.

Governor behaved like this with us. The PM said that he will get the matter seen as if he did not know anything. The Chief Minister said he also tweeted his letter to the PM to him so that when he meets him at any function, he does not say he did not know about it. CLP members, meanwhile, claimed in the memorandum to President Kovind that the horse-trading of MLAs was on in Rajasthan to topple an elected government.

Governors of many states are "defying" the Constitution at the behest of the ruling party at the Centre without worrying about the dignity of their posts, they alleged in the memorandum.

A Congress leader apprised reporters of the Gehlot talks to the PM after a meeting at a hotel here where MLAs are holed up following rebellion by Sachin Pilot against the Gehlot government. Pilot has since been ousted as deputy chief minister and Rajasthan Congress chief.

The chief minister addressed the MLAs at the meeting after a Prarthna Sabha and it was attended by senior Congress leaders. The Congress leader said a retired secretary general of Lok Sabha observed that it is for the first time in 70 years that the Governor has returned the Cabinet's decision to convene an assembly session.

Previously, sessions have been called on short notices. Making seating arrangements is a tension of the Assembly and the Speaker and not of the Governor. You can understand why questions are being asked, a government statement said later quoting the chief minister.

What Governor wants is to delay as he cannot refuse. The more delay is done, it will be easier to break and take them in their camp through horse-trading. They do not have any other aim, the Chief Minister was quoted as saying.

The aim is to reduce the majority that we have today. He will call the session immediately after it reduces, he added. As per the official statement, Gehlot said the 19 dissident MLAs know that they will have to vote in favour of the Congress once the Assembly session is convened and a whip is issued. If they vote against the whip, their membership will be terminated, he pointed out.

It is in the hands of the Speaker. It is a right. To avoid action, the entire game is being played in the supervision of Delhi's sultanate. So, they are delaying. How much they will be able to delay, it will be known soon, the chief minister said.

In the memorandum to President Kovind, the CLP members demanded his intervention and permit the state government to call an assembly session.

India is battling the COVID-19 pandemic and the Rajasthan government wants to call the assembly session to discuss with all members the economic problems facing the state along with the coronavirus situation so that people get relief. But the state government is not being allowed to call the session, they said in the memorandum.

Without taking names, the CLP members said despite a prima facie evidence of horse-trading and corrupt practices by Union ministers, not removing them from the cabinet is a "blot" on democracy.

With a feeling of political vendetta, the use of investigative agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax Department to weaken and intimidate democratically elected governments and public representatives is highly condemnable, the CLP members said.

Recently the ED had raided Ashok Gehlot's elder brother Agrasen Gehlot's house in Jodhpur in a fertilizer scam case. In the memorandum, the CLP members urged the President to intervene in Rajasthan and wherever efforts are being made to undermine democracy through undemocratic methods and corrupt practices.
Several armed men broke into the house of a family in Ghaziabad and robbed them of jewellery and cash worth Rs 13 lakh at gunpoint early on Tuesday morning. The cops said that they are investigating the incident and also probing if any known person was behind the dacoity (robbery committed by five or more persons).

The family said that at least six armed men broke into their house in Chiranjeev Vihars sector-9 at around 1:30 am on Tuesday and left at around 4 am while threatening them of dire consequences if they tried to raise an alarm or alert police. The Chiranjeev Vihar area is close to Harsaon police lines.

The family alleged that their calls to the police were not answered.

The men left our house at 4am on Tuesday. The police did not take calls and we had to go to the local police post to alert them about the incident. As per our initial assessment, the robbers took away jewellery worth Rs 11 lakh besides about Rs 2 lakh in cash. They also took away money which my father had withdrawn from a bank on Monday, said Kanchan Sharma, the house owner.

Police interacting with the people in the area.

The incident comes at a time when night curfew - between 10pm and 5am - in wake of Covid-19 is in place and police patrolling is beefed up.

Kalanidhi Nathani, senior superintendent of police (SSP), said that the robbers fled with jewellery and cash during the incident. He however declined to comment whether there was a lack of police patrolling in the area.

We have roped in several teams and are also scanning CCTV footage. The CCTV at the house was not functional. The family informed us that 5-6 robbers had come and fled with jewellery and cash. We are probing the case and also trying to find if there is involvement of any known person or not, Naithani told reporters.

Sharma recounted how they entered the house and held the members at gunpoint.

They broke into the house by cutting through the window grille. They were six in number and were carrying weapons and knives. There were a total of 11 members, including children, of our family. After they entered the house, they had children at gunpoint while threatening all of us to keep quiet. They tore the bedsheets and tightly fastened our mouths with it, said Sharma.

She said that her sister, along with her family, had come to visit her on Monday. The family said that they thrashed several family members, including a girl.

After they took us at gunpoint and fastened our mouths, they locked all of us in the bathroom. The men seemed to be in the age group of 35-40 years and were well built. They did not speak in local dialect and seemed to be from eastern UP. After they were done looting, they pulled us out again from the bathroom and locked us in one of the rooms. They left soon after, she added.

Sharma said that she lost her husband and five other family members to the tragedy resulting out of flash floods in Kedarnath in 2013.
LAKE MARY, Fla., July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Insurance Office of America (IOA) is driving the digital revolution within the insurance industry by launching the nations first fully integrated quote comparison and buy platform for home and auto coverage.



This industry-leading technology, which is underpinned by data science and machine learning, allows consumers not only to compare quotes but also to buy home and auto coverage online in under three minutes from the most trusted insurance providers in the United States. Its name? SimplyIOA.

We have listened to our customers, engaged in focus groups, consulted with industry experts, invested in technology, and created an innovative, one-of-a-kind quote and buy platform, said IOA Chairman and CEO Heath Ritenour. With SimplyIOA, our aim is to deliver convenience to consumers by fundamentally changing the conventional method of buying coverage.

SimplyIOA harnesses the power of big data and artificial intelligence to provide consumers with a fast, transparent, and secure method of buying home and auto insurance online.

IOA has partnered with the nations most respected and trusted insurersProgressive, Safeco, Travelers, Nationwide, American Integrity, Tower Hill, and Universal Property & Casualtyto create an unrivaled digital experience. The SimplyIOA platform delivers confidence and convenience to consumers who are seeking to buy coverage for a competitive price, while enjoying a three-minute quote, compare, and buy online journey. The result is an omni-channel, intuitive, and fully responsive digital experience.

This is an exciting time for Insurance Office of America as we transition into the insurtech sector with SimplyIOA, said Heath. We will continue to refine our online offering to meet consumer expectations at every touch point, while delivering an optimal digital experience for purchasing insurance.

ABOUT SIMPLY IOA

SimplyIOA, brought to you by Insurance Office of America, is an online insurance quote, compare, and buy platform for home and auto insurance. It is the first fully integrated quote comparison and buy platform in the United States. Underpinned by data science and machine learning, SimplyIOAs technology allows consumers to compare quotes and buy home and auto coverage online from the nations most trusted insurance providers in under three minutes. It provides consumers with an omni-channel, intuitive, and fully responsive digital experience. For more information, visit SimplyIOA.com .

ABOUT INSURANCE OFFICE OF AMERICA

Insurance Office of America (IOA) is a full-service insurance agency founded in 1988 by John Ritenour and Valli Ritenour. It is one of the fastest-growing independent agencies in the United States. IOA is ranked 13th on Insurance Journals 2019 Top 100 Independent Property/Casualty Agencies report and 25th on Business Insurances 2020 100 Largest Brokers of U.S. Business list. IOA was named a National Underwriter Agency of the Year in 2018. Headquartered in Longwood, Florida, part of the greater Orlando community, IOA has more than 1,200 associates located in over 60 offices in the U.S. and London. For more information, visit ioausa.com .

SimplyIOA media contact:

Jason Butts

media@simplyioa.com

813-262-2483

Uproar PR media contact:

Hannah Young

hyoung@uproarpr.com

321.236.0102 x234
As the Chinese army continues to play hardball on the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, a 1965 war veteran, says tough questions must be asked of the Centre on national security to ensure that mistakes are not repeated. Singh also tells DHs Sagar Kulkarni that there was a total lack of support from the Centre to the states in handling the Covid-19 crisis.

Q. How is the Covid-19 situation in the state, as other states experience a surge in infections?

A. Punjab ranks 18th among all states in terms of number of cases. While this might look good on the face of it, we are worried as the numbers are going up. What is also worrying is that experts are projecting a peak in Punjab by September, which means the crisis will deepen over the next two months. We are preparing for the worst-case scenario, though we do hope and pray that things will not come to that and we are able to reverse the trend sooner.

Q. We are now in Unlock mode. How is Punjabs industrial belt faring?

A. My priority has always been to save lives but after around two-and-half months, it was becoming critical also to revive business and industry. We were the first state in the country to request the central government to allow industry to operate with on-site labour.

Since Unlock began, industries have gradually reopened. Currently, 90% of our total industry is operational, with both internal and migrant labour. This is a good sign, though real on-ground revival will take time, especially given the continuing rise in Covid-19 cases in India. The Centre needs to intervene more actively to support industry and also to push up demand.

Q. Do you think the Covid-19 outbreak could have been handled differently by the Centre?

A. Theres a lot the Centre could and should have done better to manage the pandemic. For one, the lockdown should have been better planned so that proper arrangements could have been made for migrants. Then, there is the matter of total lack of support to the states for handling the pandemic. There has been no effort on the Centres part to help us out in this difficult time, when our fiscal resources have completely dried up.

Q. During the lockdown, the Centre promulgated three ordinances to usher in reforms in the agriculture sector. How do you view them?

A. By no stretch of imagination can they be called reforms. These ordinances sound the death knell for our farmers and will destroy our well-established marketing system, which has served Punjab and our farmers well for all these decades. By all indications, they will pave the way for the end of the minimum support price and procurement system.

It is clear that the Centre, having exploited Punjabs farmers to the maximum to build Indias food sufficiency, no longer finds them of use and have decided to throw them to the wolves. These ordinances cannot be legally or constitutionally tenable, as agriculture is a state subject and the Centre has absolutely no authority over it. I will be leading an all-party delegation to meet the Prime Minister on this issue. Unfortunately, the BJP and the Akalis are not supporting our efforts.

Q. Congress has been criticising the Modi governments handling of the Chinese intrusion in Ladakh, with Rahul Gandhi making some sharp comments. Is it working well for Congress? Other Opposition parties have been muted or have chosen to back the Centre on the China issue.

A. The question is, why, after Doklam, when Chinese aggression came totally out in the open, did we continue to stick to the 1993 agreement. It is not that we are not supporting the Modi government. Of course, Congress is supporting the Centre on this issue of national security. But they need to answer questions: How come the Chinese were building infrastructure? Was it intelligence failure? And all Rahul is doing is asking relevant and pertinent questions in the interest of the nations security, so that we dont make the same mistake again.

Q. The Congress Working Committee is expected to meet to extend the tenure of Sonia Gandhi as party chief. Is the absence of a full-time president affecting the party?

A. There is no question of Sonia Gandhi being a part-time leader. She has led the party earlier but did not want to take over on a long-term basis and hence, she made it clear that she would only fill in as an interim president. So, there is no question of the party functioning being affected in any way.

Q. Congress appears unable to hold on to power in states it won after a long time. Now, there is trouble in Rajasthan which is blamed on the inter-generational fight in the party. What is the solution to this?

A. There is no inter-generational fight in Rajasthan. There are some differences between the youth and seniors everywhere. But unfortunately, the gaps (in numbers of MLAs) were narrow in Madhya Pradesh, and so the BJP took advantage of it. I remember becoming a minister for the first time around 16-17 years after entering politics. But the problem is, nowadays everyone wants to become minister in their first term. Things dont work like that. Everyone has to wait for their turn.

There are calls for Rahul Gandhi to return as Congress president, but he is still said to be reluctant.

This is a decision that will be taken by consensus by the Congress Working Committee. But Rahul is ideally suited for the job. He is young, which is what the country needs today, given that the majority of Indias population is under 40. The younger generation needs to take over. Congress needs a youth leader with whom the countrys majority population can relate and who understands their vision and dreams and can help realise them.
As we approach the busiest bank holiday of the year, Water Safety Ireland is appealing for people to swim at lifeguarded waterways and to adhere to Government and HSE guidelines, as there have been a number of reports of crowded beaches and people not adhering to social distancing.

All lifeguarded waterways are listed at https://watersafety.ie/ lifeguards.

In 2019, 105 people drowned but to help reduce drownings, the public should take personal responsibility when on or near water, have a healthy respect for the dangers and ensure that all activities are safe and within the persons ability. Novice and beginners must always - swim within your depth and stay within your depth.

Water temperature is approaching its highest for the bathing season (sea water is between 14 and 16 Celsius and freshwater is between 16 and 18 Celsius so people should encourage their friends and family to join them for an open water swim, as it benefits both physical and mental health.

The need for personal responsibility is reflected in the fact that Lifeguards administered first aid to 3,284 people last season. They located 289 lost children and rescued 260 casualties from the water nationwide.

Beware of rip currents on all surfing beaches or those with a steep gradient. These can quickly take a person away from shore which is helpful to the surfer but can cause tragedy for those who do not understand such currents. Lifeguards are trained to spot these currents and keep people away from danger. Should you find yourself in one, then simply swim parallel to the shore until you leave it, then swim back ashore, Further details at https://watersafety.ie/ recreation

Stranding will also be a risk for many coastal walkers therefore a mobile phone should be carried to call 112 in an emergency and ask for the Coast Guard.

Parents should provide constant uninterrupted supervision as thirty children aged fourteen and under drowned in ten years. Never use inflatable toys in open water as they can quickly be swept out to sea by offshore winds and currents.

Alcohol should be avoided before or during any aquatic activity. Alcohol is a factor in an average of three of every ten drownings.

Those going afloat should always wear a lifejacket and carry a portable Marine VHF and/or a personal locator beacon. Details on lifejackets at https://watersafety.ie/boating
CB Financial Services (CBFV) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.54 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.14 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.55 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of 285.71%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this holding company for Pennsylvania-based Community Bank would post earnings of $0.47 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.14, delivering a surprise of -70.21%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates three times.

CB Financial Services, which belongs to the Zacks Banks - Northeast industry, posted revenues of $12.97 million for the quarter ended June 2020, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.24%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $13.10 million. The company has not been able to beat consensus revenue estimates over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

CB Financial Services shares have lost about 35.8% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's decline of -0.5%.

What's Next for CB Financial Services?

While CB Financial Services has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Story continues

Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for CB Financial Services was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.20 on $13 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $1.10 on $52.20 million in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Banks - Northeast is currently in the top 44% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Given that extensive mandate, the department cant do it alone; it needs help from state and local governments and the private sector. Through joint intelligence centers, the agency shares threat information with state and local authorities. Similarly, the departments cybersecurity agency can carry out its mission only by working with businesses that operate critical infrastructure like the electric grid.

This cooperation rests on a critical foundation: public trust. Other government officials, private businesses and citizens will cooperate only if they are confident that the department is focused on legitimate security objectives, with strict fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law.

For these reasons, the departments leadership and direction over its first dozen years was studiously bipartisan. Indeed, early concerns that the department was too heavy-handed with aviation and border security measures reinforced leaderships commitment to impartiality and avoidance of political rhetoric.

Even now, many parts of the department faithfully honor their public obligations. For example, cybersecurity works closely and effectively with state and local election officials and with the private sector, like power companies, that operates our critical infrastructure against foreign adversaries. The Transportation Security Administration also carries out its aviation security responsibilities professionally and effectively.

But now other elements of the department are putting the public trust at risk. While it was appropriate for the departments personnel to deploy to protect the Portland federal courthouse against threats by some violent actors, the tactics actually employed looked heavy-handed and dismissive of legal constraints. Videos reveal agents operating in camouflage uniforms with no clear identifying insignia. That may be appropriate combating transnational drug gangs in a border environment, but not in American cities. Other videos and reports make clear that even peaceful demonstrators  such as individuals identifying as military veterans  were struck with nonlethal projectiles and strong tear gas. And there was no respect for, or coordination with, the wishes of local authorities.
Dreamstime, HO

With approximately eight months left on a 46-month prison sentence, an inmate at a Beaumont federal prison killed his new cellmate. On Friday, a federal judge sentenced the man to an additional 30 years in prison.

Carroll Ellis Hayes, 40, of Mobile, AL, pleaded guilty to 2nd degree murder in January before US District Judge Marcia Crone sentenced him to 360 months in prison.
Tahlia Rubio was axed from Channel Seven's Farmer Wants A Wife reboot during its very first episode.

But despite being rejected by farmer Alex Taylor, the stunning model, 23, claims they have remained in contact.

'Alex and I are just mates, we chat here and there,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

Scroll down for video

EXCLUSIVE: Farmer Wants A Wife star Tahlia Rubio (pictured) has revealed what REALLY happens on the reboot's set and why she's still in contact with farmer Alex Taylor

Alex, who is a sheep and cattle farmer from Cunnamulla in South West Queensland, was forced to send four ladies home on Sunday's premiere - which was filmed seven months ago.

'We chat here and there, but its mainly just to check in to see how we are feeling about the show and life in general,' Tahlia said of her friendship with Alex, 29.

'In a weird way we [the cast] are all like one big family. We went into this journey to find love together so it's something unique that we all share,' she said.

'We check in to see how we are feeling about the show and life in general': The stunning model, 23, says despite being rejected by farmer Alex Taylor (left), they have remained mates

'In a weird way we [the cast] are all like one big family': Tahlia also praised the seven other women she met on the show, and labelled them 'life long friends' (pictured)

'You don't know what it's like': Tahlia claimed there was more than what meets the eye when creating her one-hour episode, and trolls should be kinder to the females and farmers

Tahlia also claimed she's since created a close bond with the 'incredible women' she was on the show with, and considers some of them 'life long friends'.

While Tahlia's time on the show may have appeared like a blip for most viewers, she claims more than what meets the eye went into creating her one-hour episode.

Past reality TV stars, such as those on Channel Nine's Married At First Sight and Channel 10's The Bachelor, have often stated that filming can take long hours or multiple days. It's unclear if Seven's Farmer Wants A Wife is the same.

However, on an Instagram Story she wrote: 'You don't know what it's like to be filming 15+hours out of the day on multiple days in a row to produce a few snippets of one, one hour episode.'

'We put out hearts on the line and were very vulnerable': Tahlia uploaded an Instagram Story urging viewers of the show to be kind to its loved-up hopefuls as she believes everyone is on their own genuine journey to find love on the wholesome reboot

Still looking! Despite not finding love on the series, single star Tahlia said she felt 'blessed' to be part of the reboot and hopes to find Mr.Right outside of the show

'We put out hearts on the line and were very vulnerable,' Tahlia added, urging viewers of the show to be kind to its loved-up hopefuls as she believes everyone is on their own genuine journey to find love on the wholesome reboot.

'Be kind to these women and farmers... you cannot judge them as a person based off a reality tv show,' she said.

Despite not finding love on the series, Tahlia said she felt 'blessed' to be part of the reboot and hopes to find Mr.Right outside of the show.

Farmer Wants A Wife continues Sunday from 7pm on Channel Seven
When potential homeowners begin to look for a property, they likely come to the process with some hopes and expectations in mind - about the location, the neighborhood vibe, conveniences, number of bedrooms, or at-home amenities. But avid readers often have a particularly practical item on their wish lists, too. They look for homes not only with ideal places to tuck away with a good book, but also places to store and even display their favorite titles. Often, theyre intrigued by inviting libraries and brightly illuminated rooms or reading nooks where they can minimize distraction and enjoy some quiet time.

Here is a look at some homes for sale across Greenwich that may be of interest to buyers with book collections. For example, theres a lovely library at 13 Aiken Road, a six-bedroom brick manor on four acres, listed for $4.25 million by Joy Kim Metalios and the Metalios Group at Houlihan Lawrence. Shari Greenleaf manages client care for the Metalios Group.
Description

GIS  28 July 2020 : A Master Plan was finali s ed on October 23, 2017 for the development of 2,160 arpents of land under the purview of Landscope and on December 26, 2017, Landscope invited potential promoters interested in developing projects in the first phase of the Smart City of Cote d'Or to express their interest through an Expression of Interest exercise. As of March 30, 2018, which was the end date of this fiscal year, 59 application s had been received for this purpose.

This statement was made by the Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Dr Renganaden Padayachy, today at the National Assembly, in re ply to a Private Notice Question in regard to the 2,179 arpents of land at Cote dOr managed by Landscope.

The Minister of Finance recalled that Landscope (Mauritius) Ltd is a public company whose main shareholder is the G overnment of Mauritius. He pointed out that Landscope owns and manages a diversified portfolio of real estate assets in Mauritius, covering the office, retail and industrial sectors. Landscope also develops and manages business and industrial parks , the Smart cities.

Dr Padayachy indicated that out of the 59 submissions, 31 were shortlisted by the Assessment Committee which then recommended th e list to the Landscope Board of Directors.

Of the 31 bidders, two promoters, namely , Ergoma Consortium directed by Nundun Gopee Ltd and Cote dOr Smart City J.V. directed by Consolidated Holdings Ltd / Gamma Civic Limited have proposed to develop all zones 2.A and 1.A, in partnership with Landscope.

He also dwelt on the proceedings of the exercise and elaborate d on the running and role of Landscope .

Minister Padayachy pointed out that he was informed by Landscope that the Master Plan for the said Smart City was unanimously approved on October 23, 2017 by the Landscope Board of Directors and that to date the Government has not approved any joint venture or project related to the development he mentioned.
On July 27, the biggest test to date of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine was underway. About 30,000 Americans received shots created by the U.S. government. Some volunteers were given the vaccine while others received a placebo dose.

Another company, Pfizer Inc., announced that it had started its own study of its vaccine candidate in the U.S. and elsewhere. That study also aimed to recruit 30,000 people.

Poll: Will you get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available?

As vaccine trials ramp up, we took a look into FDA guidelines for testing ahead of nation-wide vaccine roll outs.

Lab Testing

Vaccines are developed in laboratories where they undergo initial testing. If tests show that the vaccine in development has "potential," it will be tested on animals. "If a vaccine is safe in animals, and studies suggest that it will be safe in people, clinical trials with volunteers are next." - FDA

Clinical Testing

There are three phases of clinical testing for vaccines in development.

Phase 1: The first clinical test is done with 20-100 adult volunteers. "In Phase 1, scientists begin to learn how the size of the dose may be related to side effects. If possible at this early stage, scientists also try to learn how effective the vaccine may be."

Phase 2: The next phase begins if no serious side effects are found during phase 1. In phase 2, "several hundred" volunteers test the vaccine. "This phase includes studies that may provide additional information on common short-term side effects and how the size of the dose relates to immune response."

Phase 3: "In Phase 3 studies, hundreds or thousands of volunteers participate. Vaccinated people are compared with people who have received a placebo or another vaccine so researchers can learn more about the test vaccines safety and effectiveness and identify common side effects." - FDA

Monitoring for side effects



After licensing, a vaccine is monitored by the FDA for potential risks and side effects because even the largest clinical tests may fail to identify rare side effects. Additionally, "vaccine trials may not include groups who might have different types of side effects or who might have a higher risk of side effects than the volunteers who got the vaccine during clinical trials. Examples of these groups include people with chronic medical conditions, pregnant women, and older adults." - FDA

VAERS and VSD

The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System is used by the FDA and the CDC to gather reports of adverse side effects from vaccines. "Scientists monitor VAERS reports to identify adverse events that need to be studied further. All serious reports are reviewed by medical professionals on a daily basis." Scientists and doctors study reports to determine if the adverse side effects were, in fact, a direct result of a vaccine using the CDCs Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD). - FDA

Licensing

A vaccine is licensed if the FDA determines that the benefits "outweigh" any potential risks. Once licensed, a vaccine is available for use by the public. - FDA

Manufacturing

"Once a vaccine is licensed, FDA regularly inspects vaccine manufacturing facilities to make sure they are following strict regulations. Vaccines are manufactured in batches called lots, and vaccine manufacturers must test all lots of a vaccine to make sure they are safe, pure, and potent. Vaccine lots cannot be distributed until released by FDA." - FDA

CDC

Ingredients: Formaldehyde

Formaldehyde is a naturally-occuring gas that is made in the body. It can also be found in some building materials, car exhaust, tobacco smoke, foods and some vaccines. It is also used in the chemicals used to embalm bodies. The Formaldehyde in vaccines is used to "inactivate viruses so that they don't cause disease." It is used, for example, in the polio vaccine.

The American Cancer Society has studied the possible link between exposure to formaldehyde and cancer. According to the ACS, "exposure to relatively high amounts of formaldehyde in medical and occupational settings has been linked to some types of cancer in humans, but the effect of exposure to small amounts is less clear."

According to the FDA, "Formaldehyde is diluted during the vaccine manufacturing process, but residual quantities of formaldehyde may be found in some current vaccines. The amount of formaldehyde present in some vaccines is so small compared to the concentration that occurs naturally in the body that it does not pose a safety concern."

Ingredients: Adjuvants

Some vaccines include adjuvants, which are substances used to boost the immune system. Aluminum salts are a common adjuvant in vaccines. According to the FDA, aluminum salts have a "demonstrated safety profile of over six decades of use and have only uncommonly been associated with severe local reactions." Aluminum salts are used in the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and hepatitis B vaccines, for example. Other vaccines such as Cervarix (to prevent cervical cancer caused by HPV) and the H5N1 vaccine, use other adjuvants.

"When evaluating a vaccine for safety and efficacy, FDA considers adjuvants as a component of the vaccine; they are not licensed separately." - FDA

Ingredients: Antibiotics

The presence of antibiotics in some vaccines is to prevent bacterial contamination during manufacturing. According to the FDA, trace amounts of these antibiotics may appear in the vaccine and have bot been associated with severe allergic reactions.

"Because some antibiotics can cause severe allergic reactions in those children allergic to them (such as hives, swelling at the back of the throat and low blood pressure), some parents are concerned that antibiotics contained in vaccines might be harmful. However, antibiotics most likely to cause severe allergic reactions (e.g., penicillins, cephalosporins and sulfa drugs) are not used in vaccine production, and therefore are not contained in vaccines." - FDA

Ingredients: Preservatives

"Preservatives are added to some vaccine formulations to prevent the growth of bacteria or fungi that may be introduced into the vaccine during its use, e.g., repeated puncture of a multi-dose vaccine vial with a needle." - FDA

Ingredients: Fetal calf/bovine serum

"In the manufacture of viral vaccines, the virus may be grown in cells. These cells need a source of nutrition, which in some instances may be provided by fetal bovine serum," the FDA writes. Fetal bovine serum is made by extracting cells from a bovine fetus. The cells come from cows that are being slaughtered for meat.

Ingredients: Sugars, amino acids, proteins

"These substances may be added as stabilizers. They help protect the vaccine from adverse conditions such as the freeze-drying process, for those vaccines that are freeze dried." - FDA
Two years ago, Phillip Bethancourt received a morbid text and directions from his longtime friend.

I just shared a computer file with you, his friend John Powell wrote in September 2018. Dont read it until after Im dead. Im making contingency plans for my family and church, and youre a part of that so you have your own instructions sheet. Im just trying to make sure my plans are solid.

Powell, the pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in New Caney, died on July 19.

Police said he and a friend were driving on a stretch of highway in Sherman when they saw a car thatd been in a small wreck and caught fire.

Powell pulled over and was helping the other motorists when a truck approached. Seeing that it would not be able to stop in time, Powell pushed at least one person out the trucks path, likely saving their life.

He was a 38-year-old husband and father of four, and pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in New Caney.

He grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and later received a degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Hed wanted to be a pastor since he was 14, and the talented young preacher eventually moved to Hamlin, in west Texas, to lead a small church there.

In 2017, he moved to New Caney with his family to establish a church on behalf of Northeast Houston Baptist Church.

Though there are only about 140 members of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Powells death sent shockwaves across the Southern Baptist Convention.

That much was clear as thousands of people celebrated Powells life this weekend. A memorial service, recorded from Houston Northeast Baptist Church because of COVID-19, has been watched more than 14,600 times.

Many said they were friends of Powell, though some watched simply to honor the young pastors life. One person said they were viewing from South Korea.

Why did God let this happen to John Powell? Nathan Lino, pastor of Northeast Baptist, asked during the two-hour service. Do you know of a more righteous man than John Powell? The scriptures tell us that there is a reward of God for the righteous, that he gives to some righteous people at his discretion. We dont understand to whom He gives it or why, but he does.

And this reward of the righteous is that he lets you come home early, Lino continued.

For Bethancourt, it was an opportunity to fulfill the now-seemingly prescient directions his friend gave him two years ago.

Todays service is a reflection of what he desired us to do, which is to focus our attention on Christ, Bethancourt said before announcing a missions drive in honor of Powell. John had a heart for helping others and a heart for seeing the Gospel reach the nations, whether that was serving widows in Hamlin (in west Texas), going door to door in evangelism in New Caney or going to unreached people and groups in Kazakhstan.

John has never been move alive than he is right now, he said.

robert.downen@chron.com
The opportunity to see his crush is what drove one of Hilary McDevitts sixth-grade students to log into the live online classes she began hosting after COVID-19 shuttered the elementary school she teaches at in Bridgeport.

This is so silly, right? But this is the stuff the kids get up and go to school for in the morning., McDevitt said.

He would make sure he was up and his hair brushed before that class meeting, McDevitt was told by the childs mother. These meet-ups really mattered for the kids who were on. Its very isolating to do everything just on your own. The synchronous instruction was the place where it felt like we were together, where you build community, and you can still find places to laugh.

Children find motivation to show up for school from all different places; some come for gym or art class, others for science, and countless others to see their friends or teachers.

The pandemic has complicated that model.

With many expecting schools to close again this upcoming school year as the virus rages around the country, educators must figure out how to lure online the 137,000 children throughout Connecticut who either didnt participate in remote learning at all or did so minimally after school buildings closed last March.

In Bridgeport, half of the student body didnt show up regularly for remote schooling during the pandemic compared to 19 percent who were chronically absent before school buildings closed. Its not just the urban districts facing this challenge. In nearby Newtown, where McDevitts son was in eighth grade when schools closed, 14 percent of the students didnt show up regularly for online school compared to 4 percent who regularly missed school prior to the pandemic.

There seems to be widespread agreement that even if students did participate fully in the remote learning offered, students fell behind where they would have been if classrooms stayed open  and students will fall even further behind if schools close this fall.

So what is the solution if schools must close?

Many agree that holding live classes online and hosting small group sessions is the next best option.

It is critically important, in my personal opinion, for the social emotional connection to see the faces of your friends and your teacher. To hear the voice of your teacher, theres a calming effect when youre able to, in your mind, replicate the experience of the past, Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona said of live, synchronous classes. I would argue that the majority of those benefits are social emotional, in addition to the instruction that the teacher is providing on a concept that a student might not be familiar with. Its harder to understand a concept that you dont have a teacher teaching.

Hartford Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez agrees.

We know that in learning theres a social dynamic at play with learning. Learning happens best when theres an interaction between the content, the students, the adult, the peers, and some of those clearly are missed in an asynchronous delivery, she said. Its the power of that entire synergy thats important in the learning process.

Other education experts agree.

All kids get so much more than just academic content from school. That emotional learning and connection is much richer through face to face contact. But if thats not possible, being online in a virtual synchronous setting can provide some of that connection and really keep cultivating the relationship between the teacher and the students and among the students. It is really important, said Morgean Donaldson, a professor at the University of Connecticuts Neag School of Education who studies teacher quality.

But live classes played a limited role in many districts last spring. A survey of superintendents conducted by the CT Mirror five weeks after schools closed showed that 15 percent of the districts that responded  8 of the 54  were not offering live classes at all. And in places where it was provided, the frequency varied widely from schools that offered only weekly 30 minute classes to daily lessons.

Mara Rabinowitz, whose oldest son attends elementary school in Fairfield and whose youngest son attends a special education school in Trumbull, has seen the difference live instruction plays.

The expectations are high for my oldest. He has time slots, like 9:30 to 10:15, he has English class, then 10:15 to 11, he has math. He knows that hell be supported by those teachers at that time. For my younger son, hes just sort of told, you know, kind of just go on whenever you want,' she said. Its night and day  and its really, really unfair. Its really disappointing. School is not just about giving kids work to do and having them complete it. You need a teacher on the other end that teaches them.

Numerous roadblocks stand in the way of every student in Connecticut getting live online learning, ranging from the difficulty of getting all 527,829 public school students their own computers and connected to the internet to getting the states 35,414 teachers and their unions to agree to provide regular live online instruction.

Federal funding is expected to make it a bit easier for districts to provide live instruction online. The governor plans to announce later today that he will spend $43 million of the federal COVID-19 funding it received to help close the so-called digital divide by purchasing 50,000 laptops and connecting 60,000 students to the internet.

While the State Department of Education does recommend that schools dedicate half of each school week to live online teaching, it leaves it entirely up to local officials to determine what will be offered if schools do close again.

On Monday, the State Department of Education and Columbia Universitys Center for Public Research and Leadership released a 35-page report highlighting best practices for districts to follow when providing distance learning. Among the so-called essential actions is that districts make clear the expectation that educators deliver and students attend synchronous 1:1, small group, and large group (whole class or school) instruction each day in all subject areas.

The state associations representing teachers unions, school boards and superintendents all helped create the guidance.

So you have some communities that are going to rise to the occasion and have a lot of live learning, and you have some that are going to be beholden to their collective bargaining agreements locally and they will do the bare minimum unless the state provides some requirements, said Amy Dowell, the leader of the state chapter of Education Reform Now, an advocacy organization affiliated with Democrats for Education Reform. For the long haul students might be home, and I think it will really come down to town-by-town what type of remote school they get.

Getting connected

Couryn Mendez-Barner, who is going into ninth grade in the fall, struggled some days to sign into her online classes because of a weak internet connection. When the number of those days began to mount, her mom purchased a printer so she could at least print out the worksheets her daughters teacher put online for all the students struggling to get connected.

Im afraid of what the next school year is going to look like, said Chantel who was disappointed with the education her eighth grader received after school buildings closed in Bridgeport. She has teamed up with other parents and church leaders with the advocacy group Faith Acts to advocate for better remote learning, asking for every student in Connecticut to be provided with a computer, high-speed internet and more consistent and robust live instruction.

We cant have a repeat, Chantel told a crowd rallying earlier this month outside Bridgeport City Hall.

As the virus threatens to close schools again this fall, a crisis is brewing as officials scramble to get every student connected to their remote online classes.

Statewide, nearly 50,000 students  about one out of every 11 students  were in need of a computer or another device as of mid-May, a survey conducted by the State Department of Education found. And nearly 29,0000 students didnt have internet access, it was too slow, or their smartphone or computer wasnt compatible with the learning platform being used by their school.

In general, districts with a majority of white students report few issues with internet and device access.

State data show that while there have been significant investments to get students connected, there is still a long way to go with just 58 percent of middle schools and 71 percent of high schools providing every student with a computer. Weak internet connection also stands in the way of going online since 15 percent of Connecticut homes and 8 percent of residents under the age of 18 do not have a broadband connection, U.S. Census data show.

Low-income families are significantly less likely to have broadband access  56 percent for those earning under $30,000 compared to 92 percent for those making over $75,000  the non-partisan Pew Research Center reports. Closing this digital divide is critical since Connecticut has among the largest achievement gaps in the nation between students from low-income families and their classmates.

The state teamed up with billionaire Ray Dalio to provide high school students in high-poverty districts with a laptop, and on Monday Dalios wife, Barbara announced they will also be chipping in to get students connected to the internet.

Bridgeport Superintendent Michael Testani said computers donated to his district means that nearly every student now has their own computer if schools do close again. But only 90 percent of his students have adequate internet access.

Ninety percent in a lot of things is great, but if theres 10 percent of our kids that dont have the internet, thats 2,000 kids that are not accessing the curriculum. That is a problem. It goes beyond the public school system to solve this problem, Testani said.

There are also significant challenges with districts having the technological capacity to host live classes online.

In Rocky Hill, for example, in order to avoid overwhelming the servers, third grade teacher Pauolo Zocco was given two time slots a week to host live classes. Those meet-ups helped energize class discussions about the book the class was reading.

The live sessions are probably my favorite part of distance learning because I could see my class and interact with them. I didnt have to just type back and forth with them. It was nice to kind of rekindle our relationships, which I thought was very important, he said.

Getting teacher buy-in

In some districts teachers were expected to host live classes when schools shut, while in many others that decision was left to individual teachers.

If districts want to require more live classes, they will have to negotiate with the unions the impact that will have on teachers. To accommodate such a shift, the states largest teachers union has asked that the live sessions not be recorded  even for students who missed class to later watch - that they be provided with a computer and a $50 a month stipend to cover internet costs, and they not be evaluated on their online teaching.

There are going to be obvious changes in working conditions, so there absolutely needs to be a discussion and a resolution of how those changes would take place, said Donald Williams Jr., the executive director of the Connecticut Education Association.

Some of the concerns being raised by teachers threaten to stand in the way of providing students regular live instruction.

I think its something that is extremely doable. I think some of the adults need to remove some of the barriers because its outside of their comfort level. It is a scary thought for some educators, said Testani, the superintendent from Bridgeport.

He said the pushback that he has heard about requiring live instruction surrounds having anyone other than just students listening in.

Theres something about the classroom environment that teachers hold sacred. Some teachers want to close that door and that is their world and their domain. And except for the times that their supervisor  pops in to do an evaluation and observation, that is their domain, he said. Unfortunately, we have to be open to the idea that during these livestream classes, that parents may sit and observe. I think theres a lot to be gained by having parents participate, because then they can go off and support their child when it comes to doing the assignments, doing the homework, doing the projects that are going to be assigned outside of the classroom.  I know it is scary for us to have people there critiquing every word, every move you make.

Live classes need to be part of the school day, he said.

I dont think we can do what we did in the spring again in the fall. I dont think thats appropriate for our kids, he said.

Leaving this to local officials and teachers unions to sort out could lead to problems, some worry, as different districts or schools move toward more robust remote learning and others fall behind.

With enough lead time there could become a new set of expectations, said Sarah Wolfin, a professor at the University of Connecticuts Neag School of Education who studies the relationship between education policy and equitable instruction.

Without statewide expectations, she worries, There could become larger problems and larger inequities. And I think that some of these things could become contentious among teachers and principals and families as well. To hear that, in one school, this is the experience and a few miles over, teachers are not doing that.

If districts are not able to sort out robust live classroom experiences online, everyone seems to agree there needs to be some plan to connect personally with students.

There needs to be that connection and that relationship through the remote learning period - otherwise students will get lost, said Donaldson.
New Delhi, July 28 : With a brand value of $241.2 billion (a 17 per cent increase year-over-year), Apple has topped the Forbes' annual list of the World's Most Valuable Brands, which looked at the top 100 companies from the fiscal year 2019.

Google with $207.5 billion (a 24 per cent increase from same period last year) and Microsoft with $163 billion (a 30 per cent rise) were the first and second runners-up, respectively.

The top 100 most valuable brands in total were worth $2.54 trillion, up from $2.33 trillion last year.

Companies based in the US made up more than 50 of the top 100.

The tech sector was the most common in the rankings with 20 companies, followed by 14 in financial services, 11 in auto and eight in retail.

"Companies including Amazon, Netflix and PayPal all show substantial gains in brand value since last year's list, falling in line with trends related to e-commerce, streaming and digital payments," Forbes said on Monday.

There are some newcomers too.

"Brands like Nintendo, Burger King, Hennessy and AXA, for example, all made their way onto the ranking, while Philips, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Nissan and Kellogg's were knocked off," the list revealed.

Several brands had notable shifts in the annual rankings.

Adidas went from 61st to 51th and and Netflix moved up from 38th to 26th.

Some luxury brands also saw significant changes, with Chanel going from 79th to 52nd and Cartier from 64th to 56th.

Some of the companies with the biggest losses were legacy tech companies like GE, HP Inc and IBM, which saw total values decrease by 14 per cent, 12 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, revealed the report.
By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors brought tax charges on Tuesday against a Harvard University professor accused of lying to authorities about his ties to a China-run recruitment program and funding he allegedly received from the Chinese government for research.

Charles Lieber, the former chair of Harvard's chemistry and chemical biology department, was charged in an indictment filed in federal court in Boston with failing to report income he received from Wuhan University of Technology in China.

The four tax-related counts are in addition to two counts of making false statements to federal authorities that Lieber, 61, pleaded not guilty to in June.

Marc Mukasey, his lawyer, said in a statement that Lieber was innocent. "He didn't hide anything, and he didn't get paid as the government alleges," he said.

Lieber's case is one of the highest-profile to emerge from a U.S. Justice Department crackdown on Chinese influence within universities amid concerns about spying and intellectual property theft by the Chinese government.

The case centers on China's Thousand Talents Program, which U.S. authorities say China uses to entice overseas Chinese citizens and foreign researchers to share their knowledge with China in exchange for perks including research funding.

Prosecutors said Lieber in 2011 became a "strategic scientist" at Wuhan University of Technology and later contractually participated in the Thousand Talents Program.

Under his contract, Lieber was paid up to $50,000 a month and living expenses of up to $158,000, prosecutors said. He also was awarded more than $1.5 million to establish a research lab, the prosecutors said.

In exchange, Lieber agreed to organize international conferences, publish articles and apply for patents in the university's name, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors alleged that in 2018 and 2019, Lieber lied to U.S. authorities about his involvement in the Thousand Talents Plan and affiliation with Wuhan University of Technology.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Peter Cooney)
YEREVAN, JULY 28, ARMENPRESS. In an interview to the Russian RBK Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Azerbaijan has unleashed the recent military operations on the Armenia border in the direction of Tavush province as there are many Armenian villages there, adding that thats the reason that Azerbaijan has not launched its attack towards Artsakh.

There are many Azerbaijani civilian settlements near the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact, therefore, its very difficult to launch at attack in the direction of Nagorno Karabakh now. They attacked in the direction where the border is not so well equipped with cameras. I want to state that there is only one Azerbaijani village in that direction, but contrary to this, there are many Armenian villages in that direction, the PM said.

Since July 12th, Azerbaijan has launched a series of cross-border attacks against Armenias northern Tavush province, targeting civilian settlements and infrastructures. Currently the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is relatively calm.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
The main reasons for his woes appear increasingly to be two crises that, unlike most of his crises, Trump did not generate himself. One is the coronavirus pandemic. The other is the national racial reckoning ignited by the choking death of George Floyd beneath a Minneapolis police officers knee.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Sued by Racing Supremo for Portraying Him Condoning Wholesale Horse Slaughter

Racing heavyweight Peter Vlandys is suing the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for defamation after the 7.30 program allegedly portrayed Vlandys as having callously permitted the slaughter of retired racehorses. It comes as the ABC faces scrutiny over its editorial standards.

The segment titled The Final Race was aired in Oct. 2019 and alleged that hundreds of former racehorses were being sent to a slaughterhouse in Caboolture, an hour north of Brisbane, in Queensland.

Vlandys, the CEO of Racing New South Wales (NSW), agreed to be interviewed for the program, however, he claims he was misrepresented by the broadcast and depicted as permitting the wholesale slaughter of thoroughbred horses.

Further, he alleges ABCs 7.30 program failed to inform him of secret recordings from the Queensland slaughterhouse, despite repeated requests to ABC reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna for evidence of horses being mistreated.

Peter Vlandys, CEO of Racing NSW and Chairman of the NRL speaks to the media during an NRL press conference in Sydney on March 23, 2020. (Matt King/Getty Images)

Vlandyss barrister, Bruce McClintock SC, told the federal court on July 27 that his client was ambushed by the ABC.

[The program] deprived the applicant of the opportunity to explain, as was fact that Racing NSW has no jurisdiction over Queensland, he said.

He repeatedly asked, in the course of the interview, what material they had showing the appalling treatment of racehorses, he added, saying the journalist declined to show the video or to describe it  so he was completely in the dark.

When they came to broadcast the segments of the interview (featuring Vlandys), they intercut that footage with the footage of my client, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Following the broadcast of the program, Vlandys reiterated through a racing industry news website, on Oct. 18, that Racing NSW is the only state in Australia  that prohibits horses from being sent to a knackery or abattoir if they have been mainly involved in NSWs racing industry.

Racehorses during a recovery session at Botany Bay in Sydney on March 25, 2020. (Mark Evans/Getty Images)

Further, in NSW it is illegal for an abattoir to process a horse for human consumption, unlike other states, he added.

In the statement of claim against ABC, Vlandys says he has been greatly injured by the program and that his business, personal, and professional reputation has been brought into disrepute.

The ABCs barrister, Clarissa Amato, told the court the ABC denied the program had defamatory meaning and questioned how Vlandys could be awarded damages if he claimed injury without having seen the episode.

He is claiming damages for hurt feelings when he has never seen the program, the ABCs barrister said.

However, McClintock says Vlandys was very, very well aware of the programs content and that the barrister was planning to show him the footage for the first time in the witness box.

He said Vlandyss fresh reaction would allow the judge to gauge his reaction and any potential damages.

ABC Under Increasing Scrutiny for Editorial Practices

The ABCs editorial procedures have been recently criticised by several state and federal MPs, as well as activists and members of the community, following its controversial broadcast of a Foreign Correspondent video program and a Background Briefing podcast program about Falun Gong, which aired on July 21.

Dr. Lucy Zhao of the Falun Dafa Association of Australia had a similar experience to Vlandys.

Zhao told The Epoch Times: They [the ABC] didnt tell me what the program is about or what question they wanted to ask or how my interview would be used.

They just wanted to get some words they wanted from me and were not interested in listening or reporting truthfully what I want to express, she added.

As a result, Liberal Democrats MP David Limbrick wrote to the ABC board demanding an investigation into the circumstances around the production and broadcast of the program.

Falun Dafa Day parade in Manhattan, New York City, on May 16, 2019. (Edward Dye/The Epoch Times)

Zhao offered to introduce ABC to Falun Gong practitioners locally so the report could be balanced and fair, but the ABC were not interested.

The ABC challenged criticism of the program releasing a statement saying we stand by the accuracy and integrity of the reports.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 28, 2020) - TransCanna Holdings Inc. (CSE: TCAN) (FSE: TH8) ("TransCanna" or the "Company") TransCanna announces that the first batch of its cannabis concentrate products that is being co-branded with award-winning product producer, the Summit Boys, will be available for purchase this week.

Lyfted Farms Inc. (a TransCanna subsidiary) is now supplying high-quality-cannabis 'trim' (a by-product of cannabis flower production) to the Summit Boys for processing into an already popular line of cannabis concentrates branded as 'Caviar.' These retail products now also include innovative packaging featuring a 'window' to showcase the superior color and texture of the concentrates.

Cannabis concentrates have a greater proportion of cannabinoids and terpenes when compared to natural cannabis flowers, and can increase the potency of cannabis flower. Demand for these concentrates are also the fastest-growing of any cannabis product in the California market (the largest Cannabis market globally.)

The Summit Boys are a well-known legacy recreational cannabis product producer with a cult-like following on Instagram of over 66,000 followers. In 2019, the Summit Boys earned over 14 Bay Area Cannabis Cup awards in several categories, including for Best Product and Hybrid Concentrate.

"The sale of these products is the first exciting step in our distribution plan to bring a higher-quality product to market by aligning with California's most reputable industry partners, said Bob Blink, TransCanna CEO, adding that consumers recognize the Summit Boys for their quality of product and processing superiority. This collaboration also increases our profit margin for each harvest by converting trim, which can be valued as low as USD $0.15 per gram, into a refined finished product that wholesales for USD $17.00 per gram."

"Our goal has always been to make the best tasting and smelling products that drive customers to come back for what we have to offer. Now that we are using even higher quality trim from Lyfted Farms we can't wait to see how our customers react," said Mike Larson, the Summit Boys CEO. "This is the best product that we've ever produced. Fire into the process equals fire out."

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.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws or forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the expectations or beliefs regarding future events of management of the Company. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" or "occur". This information and these statements referred to herein as "forward-looking statements", are not historical facts, are made as of the date of this news release and include without limitation estimates and forecasts and statements as to management's expectations for growth and the commencement of operations of the Company's Daly facility.

The forward-looking information in this press release is based upon certain assumptions that management considers reasonable in the circumstances, including that operations will commence at the Company's Daly facility in Modesto, California, as and when expected.

These forward-looking statements involve numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, events or developments to be materially from any future results, events or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties associated with the forward-looking information in this news release include, among others, dependence on obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals, including state, local or other licenses and any inability to obtain all necessary governmental approvals licenses and permits to complete upgrades to its Daly facility in a timely manner; engaging in activities which currently are illegal under U.S. federal law and the uncertainty of existing protection from U.S. federal or other prosecution; regulatory or political change such as changes in applicable laws and regulations, including U.S. state-law legalization, particularly in California, due to inconsistent public opinion, perception of the medical-use and adult-use marijuana industry, bureaucratic delays or inefficiencies or any other reasons; any other factors or developments which may hinder market growth; reliance on management; and the effect of capital market conditions and other factors (including those related to the COVID-19 pandemic) on capital availability; competition, including from more established or better financed competitors; and the need to secure and maintain corporate alliances and partnerships, including with customers and suppliers.

Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such 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 and forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, forward-looking information or financial out-look, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.



NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/60619
Malis opposition has rejected a plan put forward by West Africa's regional body Ecowas to resolve an ongoing political crisis. They insist that President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita resign, despite the threat of sanctions.

Less than a day after leaders of West African regional bloc Ecowas submitted a new plan to resolve Malis protracted political crisis, the opposition has once again flatly rejected it.

The opposition, a coalition group called M5-RFP, whose figurehead is Saudi-trained Muslim cleric Mahmoud Dicko, insists that President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita step down as part of the solution.

Neighbouring countries are concerned that the political instability in Mali, marked by numerous protests will derail the fight against Islamist extremists in the region.

The Ecowas leaders met in an extraordinary video summit on 27 July and asked an internal commission "to consider sanctions against all those who act contrary to the normalisation process of the crisis.

They do not agree with the opposition, and stand by Mali's embattled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, maintaining that Mali's democratic constitution must be respected.

The United Nations Security Council on Monday urged the various parties in Mali to follow the regional blocs recommendations.

The Ecowas four-point plan called for the resignation of 31 members of parliament, including the speaker of the National Assembly  whose disputed election triggered the crisis. This involves fresh elections for the 31 parliamentary seats.

The bloc called for the re-modelling of the constitutional court. It proposed that a unity government be "established rapidly" and urged the opposition to join it.

Hours after the summit, President Keita responded with a cabinet reshuffle, naming six ministers to core positions, including Tiebile Drame as foreign minister and General Ibrahim Dahirou Dembele as defence minister.

They are tasked with negotiating with the opposition to form the government of national unity.

Story continues

But the M5-RFP opposition coalition refuses to join Keita in a shared government.

"The M5-RFP states with regret that the conclusions of the Heads of State Summit do not take into account the depth and gravity of the socio-political crisis that has Mali's future hanging in the balance," it said in a statement.

It added that it will restart the protests on 3 August if their demands are not met.
Three people have been charged with violating the governors executive order limiting gatherings after police spent hours breaking up a mansion party in Jackson Township that grew to over 700 people Sunday night and clogged neighborhood streets with traffic, authorities said.

Police said they started receiving complaints about a disturbance on Mill Pond Road around 8:30 p.m. from nearby residents.

After arriving and seeing the large crowd, offices contacted the homeowner, 40-year-old Jackson resident Yaakov Weiss, who told them he had rented the property on Airbnb and he had left when about 200 people were there, authorities said.

The home, which sits on a cul-de-sac in the suburban neighborhood, costs $795 a night to rent and is described as a stunning 3,700+ square foot home, according to the Airbnb listing. The hosts rules include no parties or events.

Police said the gathering eventually grew to more than 700 people with over 100 vehicles parked in the area. As authorities tried to clear the crowd, more people continued arriving.

Weiss and the party organizers, Patience Guanue, 23, and Alicia Hinneh, 22, both of Newark, were all issued summonses for violating the governors executive order, police said. Under current coronavirus restrictions in New Jersey, outdoor gatherings are limited to 500 people and indoor gatherings to 100 people or 25% of a rooms capacity, whichever is less.

Authorities also received a 911 call from a nearby resident reporting that people who had left the party had broken into their residence and were damaging property, police said.

It was determined that a family member of the caller who had been at the original party had invited a large group from the party back to the residence. Additional officers responded and the unwanted group was then dispersed from this second residence, Jackson police said.

This was the second large party authorities in Ocean County broke up recently. In Brick last Monday, three people were charged after multiple departments broke up a rowdy party that grew to more than 400 people in the Baywood section of Brick Township.

At the governors daily press briefing on Monday, New Jersey State Police Colonel Pat Callahan said the continued ban on indoor dining and bars could be driving people to hold house parties instead.

I do think the fact that bars and restaurants are closed then create this underground situation which is certainly not one we want because... young people, even if asymptomatic and youre positive, the fact that you can transmit that to your family members is certainly one that concerns us, Callahan said.

In a statement, Airbnb Spokesman Ben Breit said the company removed both of the party organizers from the platform, deactivated the listing and is investigating further.

To help stem large gatherings in light of COVID-19, Airbnb announced in April that it temporarily removed the parties and events allowed rule from New Jersey listings that formerly authorized parties and temporarily disabled the event-friendly search filter used so guests can find places for gatherings.

We strongly condemn the reported behavior, which represents both a clear violation of Airbnbs community policies and a particularly serious abuse during this public health crisis, Breit said.

All on-duty Jackson officers worked to clear the crowd and direct traffic until 1 a.m., with help from surrounding law enforcement agencies, police said.

The Freehold Police Department, Howell Police Department, Lakewood Police Department, Ocean County Prosecutors Office, Ocean County Sheriffs Department and New Jersey State Police helped clear the area.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo.
A crucial meeting of Nepal's ruling scheduled for Tuesday to iron out the differences between Prime Minister and the rival faction led by party executive chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" has been postponed indefinitely.

The meeting of the 45-member Standing Committee of the (NCP) was scheduled for 11 am.

The two leaders -- Prime Minister Oli and Prachanda -- need more time for informal consultations to sort out their differences, Standing Committee member Ganesh Shah said, announcing the postponement of the talks.

On Wednesday last week, a Standing Committee meeting was briefly held at the Prime Minister's Official residence at Baluwatar. However, the prime minister did not attend the meeting.

Subsequently, the party decided to convene another meeting a week later, on July 28, to review its activities, the government's performance, finalising division of work among party's cadres and leaders, and proposed general convention among other issues.

Tuesday's meeting was postponed as the two leaders need some more time for consultation, PM's press advisor Surya Thapa said in a Facebook post.

The date of the next meeting will be decided after the two leaders hold consultations, he said.

A bitter internal feud has been brewing in the ruling NCP since the last few weeks after top party leaders, including Prachanda, demanded Oli's resignation, saying his recent anti-India remarks were "neither politically correct nor diplomatically appropriate." They are also against Oli's autocratic style of functioning.

The differences grew further after Oli said that some of the ruling party leaders are aligning with the southern neighbour to remove him from power after his government issued a new political map incorporating three Indian territories of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura.

Prachanda on Monday last week said efforts were going on to resolve the intra-party differences and ruled out an early general convention of the party as proposed by embattled Prime Minister Oli.

Oli and Prachanda have held at least eight meetings in recent weeks to sort out the differences between them. But, as the Prime Minister did not accept the condition of a one-man-one-post, the talks failed. Oli has refused to give up his post as prime minister as well as a co-chairman of the NCP.

(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.)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to facilitate the clearance of the state's financial dues on the Centre, and said it would help her government fight the COVID-19 pandemic more effectively.

The opposition CPI(M) and the BJP, however, criticised the chief minister for seeking more funds, contending she should rather take measures to stem alleged corruption in her party and the state government.

Banerjee, during an online programme where Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated new testing facilities in West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, also sought the creation of a separate fund for combating the viral outbreak.

She reasoned that the state disaster response fund was meant for tackling devastation caused by natural disasters such as flood and cyclone.

"I have two to three requests for the Centre. First, I would like to tell you (the prime minister) that the financial burden of the state is increasing every day. For COVID-19, we have spent Rs 2,500 crore so far, but have received only Rs 125 crore from the NHM (National Health Mission).

"Our state is yet to receive dues of Rs 53,000 crore from the Centre. I would like to request the PM to help clear at least a portion of the dues so that we can continue doing our work," Banerjee said during the online programme.

The chief minister also told the PM that the state was yet to receive Rs 4,135 crore as GST compensation for April-May. She urged Modi to allow the states to borrow more money by raising the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) limits.

Referring to the devastation caused by Cyclone Amphan, Banerjee said her government has got no financial aid from the Centre other than the advance assistance of Rs 1,000 crore.

"We have submitted our estimation of Rs 35,000 crore. A report was also submitted by the Central team which had visited the state after the calamity. We have released Rs 6,500 crore for Amphan relief but have not received anything other than the Rs 1,000 crore, which you (Modi) had provided us. So, I will request you to look into the matter," she said.

"The Centre has asked us to spend money from the state disaster fund for COVID-19 expenses. What if there is a natural disaster tomorrow? Where will we get more money from? It would be better if a separate fund is created for the COVID-19 pandemic," she stated.

Lauding the Centre for its efforts to open a new laboratory in the city, Banerjee requested the Union government to facilitate the setting up of more such laboratories in state-run hospitals.

During the virtual event, Banerjee also said that her government is planning to increase the number of daily COVID-19 tests to 25,000 by August 15 from the current around 16,000.

On University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines making it mandatory for higher educational institutes to conduct final-year exams by September 30, she requested the PM to direct the HRD ministry to take up the matter with the statutory body as the "decision needs reconsideration".

"The UGC had issued guidelines on April 29 stating that there was no need to make final examinations compulsory amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We had made preparations accordingly. Now the UGC revised its guideline and made final exams compulsory. How can students sit for examination when all educational institutions are shut?" she said.

Hitting out at Banerjee, state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said the claims made by her were "baseless.

"The allegation that the Centre is not providing funds is completely baseless. The Union government has given enough... But the state government and the TMC are more interested in siphoning off the funds rather than helping the poor," Ghosh said.

Echoing him, CPI(M) legislative party leader Sujan Chakraborty said the state government should release the names of cyclone Amphan beneficiaries along with other relevant details before seeking more funds from the Centre.
(Natural News) The Sinclair Broadcast Group has caved to threats from CNN over its planned airing of a controversial interview featuring Plandemics Dr. Judy Mikovits, which will no longer be shown to viewers.

As part of an investigative look into various perspectives concerning the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), Sinclair had planned to air this interview with the author and creator of the popular Plandemic film and book, which call into question the official government narrative. But this is no longer happening thanks to CNN censorship.

After CNN learned that Dr. Mikovits was going to have a wide platform to present her viewpoint that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) is not what it seems, the fake news network created an online petition demanding that Sinclair pull the interview from its lineup, or else.

Sinclair had initially refused to capitulate, explaining to CNN that at no juncture are we aligning with or endorsing the viewpoints of Dr. Mikovits. The goal was simply to have a conversation about the topic so viewers could make up their own minds based on the presented information.

However, allowing viewers to think for themselves does not align with CNNs agenda, prompting it to launch a campaign against Sinclairs right to free speech. And sadly, Sinclair eventually relented to CNNs threat by agreeing to cancel the interviews airing.

We are incredibly aware of the dangers of COVID-19 and our stations across 81 markets have remained steadfast in covering their communities with a focus on safety and adherence to local protocols and regulations nationwide, the broadcaster tweeted.

After further review, we have decided to delay this episodes airing. We will spend the coming days bringing together other viewpoints and provide additional context. All stations have been notified not to air this and will instead be re-airing last weeks episode in its place, it further added.

First Amendment-hating leftists call for Sinclair to be abolished for daring to support free speech

Not stopping there, Sinclair made sure to brown-nose Americas doctor Anthony Fauci, claiming that it valiantly support[s] his work to further prevent the spread of COVID-19.

This was clearly added to diffuse CNNs triggering over the fact that Dr. Mikovits has heavily criticized Fauci over his bungling of the crisis, not to mention his lying about the effectiveness of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as a proven coronavirus remedy.

The only position concerning Fauci that CNN is willing to accept is one that worships him as some kind of medical god, ignoring his blatant contradictions and financial conflicts of interest as if they are irrelevant or fictitious.

Molly Jong-Fast, the editor at large of The Daily Beast, was quick to brag on Twitter that she and her ilk had successfully shamed [Sinclair] into doing the right thing. Russ Bengtson, another far-leftist who works for the mainstream media, took it a step further by tweeting, Can we shame them out of business next.

Others, including one Twitter user named Sheila whose profile picture depicts a cartoon image of President Trump slicing off the head of the Statue of Liberty, are still upset that Sinclair used the word delaying in its tweet, suggesting that at some point in the future this leftist-dreaded interview might still air.

DELAYING IS NOT SUFFICIENT!!! this Sheila character shrieked, adding DESTROY IT!

In other words, when leftists do not agree with someones viewpoints or perspectives, their immediate and only response is to destroy it. There is no room for free speech, ever, despite the lefts insistence that it supports democracy and the right to have ones voice be heard.

If you have not yet seen Plandemic, you can watch it at Brighteon.com.

More related news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) plandemic is available at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

Summit.news

NaturalNews.com
HIGHLAND  A serious crash on Cline Avenue Monday night knocked a car off the road and sent a woman to the hospital, according to police.

The crash took place at about 8:30 p.m. Monday on the 8600 block of southbound Cline Avenue, between Ridge Road and the Borman Expressway, according to a police report.

A Ford Fusion driven by a 34-year-old woman from Bloomington, Illinois crashed into a stopped Toyota Camry, knocking it off the road, according to the police report. The Camry was driven by a 17-year-old girl from Griffith who did not report any injuries.

The 34-year-old driver suffered scrapes and cuts and was taken by Superior Ambulance Service to Community Hospital in Munster for treatment.

"Alcohol use is suspected in this crash and officers are awaiting toxicology results," Highland Police Department Commander John Banasiak said in a press release.

No arrest has been made at this point.
Nine months after Richard Branson's space venture, Virgin Galactic, started trading on the New York Stock Exchange, the company has a new CEO, plucked from the top ranks of Disney. The space tourism company has settled into its new home, a futuristic building known as Spaceport America that rises in the New Mexico desert like a mirage and features an "astronaut lounge."

The one-piece blue jumpsuits have been designed for its customers by Under Armour, and Virgin Galactic's new chairman recently said the company is within "spitting distance" of beginning to fly the 600 or so people who have put down as much as $250,000 for joyrides to the edge of space and back.

On Tuesday, the company reached another milestone, showing off the inside of the spacecraft it calls SpaceShipTwo, a sleek crew cabin for six passengers and two pilots, outfitted with custom seats, plenty of windows and 16 cameras to record all manner of weightless somersaults for the ultimate social media boasting.

"This cabin has been designed specifically to allow thousands of people like you and me to achieve the dream of spaceflight safely - and that is incredibly exciting," Branson said in a statement.

Since Branson founded the company in 2004, Virgin Galactic has carried on through a series of delays and setbacks, including a fatal accident in 2014 that killed a pilot. But now, after successfully flying people to space twice, it says it is poised to finally claim the mantle of "the world's first commercial spaceline."

After years of design and testing the engineering and technology behind a spaceplane that would travel Mach3, or three times the speed of sound, Virgin Galactic now needs to show its investors, customers and the public at large that Branson's quixotic dream can indeed become a truly profitable venture, capable of reliably flying passengers to space.

Toward that end, it has taken some significant steps recently, including its announcement, a year ago, that it would merge with Social Capital Hedosophia, a New York investment firm and go public.

Virgin Galactic said the move would give it the capital it needs to expand its fleet of spaceships and move into markets around the globe. Late last year, it also announced that Boeing would invest $20 million in the company to help develop technologies that would allow for high-speed transportation to ferry passengers across the globe faster than the speed of sound and possibly through space.

While Virgin has been working toward beginning commercial operations, it has posted a net loss of $133 million over the past two quarters. But as of the end of March it had cash and equivalents of $419 million, some 600 "future astronauts," representing $80 million in revenue. Another 400 potential customers have put down $1,000 in refundable deposits giving them the first chance of buying tickets when they go back on sale.

Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, also plans to fly paying customers on suborbital flights to the edge of space. While its reusable New Shepard rocket has reached space numerous times, the company has yet to fly humans, and it has not announced ticket prices. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Earlier this month, Virgin Galactic made another dramatic move when it announced that Michael Colglazier would become CEO, replacing George Whitesides, who has spent a decade at the company as it grew from 30 employees to more than 900 and becomes Chief Space Officer, perhaps the most original title in corporate America. He will focus on developing new spaceflight technologies.

Colglazier comes to Virgin Galactic after 30 years at Disney, where he served as president and manager of Disney Parks International and as president of the Disneyland Resort.

"Disney and Virgin share a common commitment to world class service, incredible innovational delivering unique, unforgettable experiences," he said in a recent call with analysts.

But Space Mountain this is not.

Virgin's goal is to open up space to the masses, realizing Branson's goal of turning ordinary people, or at least those able to afford the steep ticket price, into astronauts, championing the transformative experience of seeing the Earth from a distance.

Now that it is getting closer to achieving those first flights - Branson has said he hopes to fly before the end of the year - it showed off the interior of its crew cabin Tuesday.

The experience begins at Spaceport America, where passengers will board the spaceship. Unlike traditional rockets that launch vertically, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is "air launched." It is tethered to the belly of a twin fuselage airplane that escorts it to an altitude of about 45,000 feet. There, it releases the spaceship, which fires its rocket motor, and shoots almost straight up to an altitude of more than 50 miles. It then falls back to Earth and glides to the runway like an airplane.

Inside the cabin, there are six passenger seats, custom fitted to their bodies, each with two dedicated windows for star and Earth gazing. Virgin Galactic had wanted to unveil the cabin with a big ceremony, inviting VIPs, the media, customers and investors. But because of the coronavirus, it developed a presentation on virtual reality that allows users to visit the runway at Spaceport America, meet Virgin Galactic's pilots, walk around inside the spacecraft and even blast off to space.

The cabin has mood lighting and hand holds around the windows to help passengers when they reach space, unbuckle their seat belts and experience a few minutes of weightlessness. At the end of the cabin, there is even a giant mirror that the company says "allows astronauts to view themselves weightless while illuminated by the natural brightness of the Earth." Each seat back has a digital screen that displays flight data.

"It was really designed with a lot of care to keep the focus on planet Earth and weightlessness," Whitesides said in an interview. "It doesn't have a lot of garish designs on the walls or anything like that. It was all very conscious design decisions to make sure that the focus of attention was the windows, and really what is behind the windows."
The Mandal Revenue Officer (MRO) of Akiveedu in Andhra Pradeshs West Godavari district on Monday refuted reports of Covid-19 patients being ill-treated after a person, later identified as a drunkard, was taken to a hospital on a garbage vehicle.

On Sunday, a man was taken to hospital on a garbage vehicle in Aibhimavaram village in Akiveedu mandal, triggering rumours that Covid-19 patients are being ill-treated.

However, the MRO, Prasad, told ANI over the phone and clarified that the said person, identified as Satish Kumar, was a drunkard and not a Covid-19 patient.

Also read: Global recoveries hit 10 million even as Covid-19 rages on

Satish Kumar came from Vijayawada to Aibhimavaram two days ago and was lying down under a bus stand. He is not a COVID-19 patient. He is a drunkard. He fell near the bus stand in an inebriated condition. On Sunday, the local village secretary saw him and called a 108 ambulance vehicle. However the vehicle did not turn up, Prasad said.

Click here for complete coronavirus coverage

As there was no option available in the remote village, the village secretary used the garbage vehicle to carry him to Akiveedu government hospital. Doctors conducted preliminary tests and found that he was under the influence of alcohol, the official added.

When the doctors were making arrangements for conducting a COVID-19 test, he escaped, Prasad said.
A conservative coronavirus-denier is urging others to take the virus seriously after 14 members of his family were infected and one died when he threw a party to celebrate the birth of a grandchild.

Tony Green, a 43-year-old from Dallas, and his partner, threw the party on June 13 for more than a dozen family members including father-in-law Rafael Ceja, his partner's grandmother and sisters.

Masks were not worn during the event, which was thrown to celebrate the birth of a grandchild, with Green explaining he believed coronavirus was a 'hoax.'

But within days of the gathering, 14 family members, including Green and the parents of the newborn baby, had fallen ill with coronavirus.

Their grandmother later died.

14 members of the same family in Texas were infected with coronavirus following a gathering

Tony Green, from Dallas, threw the party with his partner (pictured), and invited the in-laws after months of social distancing

Green would not identify the 14 victims but said they included two of Ceja's sisters, one of his nephews and a brother-in-law.

His decision to go public about the outbreak in the family has caused a rift.

'You cannot imagine the guilt I feel, knowing that I hosted the gathering that led to so much suffering,' Green, a gay conservative wrote in a Dallas Voice op-ed where he urged others to take the virus seriously.

'You cannot imagine my guilt at having been a denier, carelessly shuffling through this pandemic, making fun of those wearing masks and social distancing. You cannot imagine my guilt at knowing that my actions convinced both our families it was safe when it wasnt.'

Green said he voted for President Trump and was skeptical about COVID-19 until his family was affected.

'I admit I voted for Donald Trump in 2016. I admit traveling deep into the conspiracy trap over COVID-19,' Green wrote. 'All the defiant behavior of Trumps more radical and rowdy cult followers, I participated in it. I was a hard-a** that stood up for my "God-given rights."'

'In great haste, I began prognosticating the alphabet soup about this "scamdemic." I believed the virus to be a hoax,' he added. 'I believed the mainstream media and the Democrats were using it to create panic, crash the economy and destroy Trumps chances at re-election.'

The Trump supporter said he first became concerned after the party when he woke up feeling unwell, and by June 15, his partner and parents had all fallen sick as well.

Rafael Ceja (pictured) has been placed on a life support machine after contracting Covid-19 at the family gathering

While the downward trend in cases is prominent in the hotspot states of Florida, Texas, Arizona and California, 22 other states are currently seeing an increase in new infections

'The pain and trauma that was yet to come is more than anybody could have prepared for,' Green wrote on a GoFundMe page set up to cover medical costs.

Green is gay and isn't married but he considers his partner's family to be his in-laws who traveled from Dallas to Austin for the gathering at got ill the night their arrived.

Green and his father-in-law, Ceja, were both admitted to hospital on June 24.

Green nearly suffered a stroke after the virus attacked his nervous system.

Between June 17 and 23, Ceja's mother fell ill and was admitted to hospital where she died on July 1 after suffering from pneumonia caused by the virus.

It was only on July 2 that Governor Greg Abbott made wearing a face mask or covering mandatory in places where 20 people or more are gathered. Abbott ordered bars to close on June 26 after cases related to drinking venues began to spike.

'We just felt the worst was behind the country because everything was easy, things were reopening and none of us were experiencing any symptoms,' Green told NBC News.

Ceja was unaware his mother was in a room next to his, according to Green.

On July 12, Green learned that his father-in-law Ceja had been placed on a life support machine after also suffering from pneumonia.

His mother-in-law, Marisa, called him 'crying and screaming in terror' to tell him the bad news.

Green said she refused to accepted the more than $7,000 raised on GoFundMe because of other family members' 'continuous harassment and vindictive behavior.'

A funeral for Ceja's mother was held on July 14, with only 10 family members allowed to attend. The same day five more family members tested positive.

Green said 12 of the 14 who contracted the virus have either recovered or are recovering.

'For those who deny the virus exists or who downplay its severity, let me assure you: The coronavirus is very real and extremely contagious,' Green wrote in his op-ed. 'Before you even know you have it, youve passed it along to your friends, family, coworkers and neighbors.'

Green added: 'You do not want your loved ones suffering and dying from this because you are taking a political stand or protecting the economy over their lives.'

New coronavirus cases across the United States have started to decline for the first time in five weeks.

The seven-day average for daily infections this week is now just under 66,000, which is the lowest it has been in 10 days.

Infections have been surging since early June when COVID-19 started spreading in Sunbelt states and the US recorded single daily highs of more than 77,000 cases.

New coronavirus cases across the United States have started to decline for the first time in five weeks. The downward trend in cases is prominent in the hotspot states of Florida, Texas, Arizona and California. But even as cases start to plateau in those hard-hit states, 22 other states - mostly in the Midwest - are currently seeing an increase in new infections

On Monday the Texas Department of State Health Services reported more than 4,000 active cases. In total, there have been 385,923 cases and 5,713 deaths reported in Texas.

While the downward trend in cases is prominent in the hotspot states of Florida, Texas, Arizona and California, 22 other states are currently seeing an increase in new infections.

Cases are mostly rising in the Midwest, which public health officials say is a sign the virus is spreading north from the Sunbelt states.

Infections also surged this week in some Northeastern states, like New Jersey, where infections fell after peaking in April.

Dr Deborah Birx, the head of the White House taskforce, is continuing to urge states with rising infections to close bars, cut back on indoor dining and to mandate face masks.
Pompeo Speaks on How to Deal With China and CCP

Commentary

Secretary of State Michael Pompeo gave a seminal foreign policy address at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library on July 23.

For those of us who knew and admired President Nixon, it was a nostalgic occasion. And after Pompeo had delivered a thorough address on the problems and dangers and requirements of relations between China and the democratic world, the president of the librarydistinguished broadcaster Hugh Hewittstruck a parallel between the Pompeo address and, as he put it, that of another secretary of state with a military background speaking to this secretarys alma mater, Harvard University, when Gen. George C. Marshall unveiled the Marshall plan there in 1948.

Pompeos address was the last of a series of four by senior administration figures designed to attract public attention and the interest of allies to the complicated developing relationship with China. National security adviser Robert OBrien, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Attorney General William Barr had all spoken on different aspects of Chinese relations in the past several weeks.

Its now the principal foreign and national security preoccupation of the government and will remain so after the election, whatever its result.

Distinguishing China From Soviet Union

Pompeo went to some lengths to distinguish what needed to be done with China from the containment policy that was devised and implemented with respect to the Soviet Union.

The USSR was never an economic threat and was never seriously integrated in the world economy, where much of the threat posed by China is precisely the theft of industrial and technological intelligence, and the undermining and usurpation of much of the basis of the commercial prosperity of the West.

While the Soviet Union required military containment, including assistance against armed rebellions based on militant ideological differences in underdeveloped countries, the threat from China is a combination of economic and technological skulduggery and the gradual assertion of a sphere of military and economic influence over an ever-widening part of the world, gradually approaching the North American and Western European citadel of our democratic civilization.

In one of the questions afterward, Hewitt presciently asked if there was a comparison to be made between Nixons triangulation of Great Power relations with his historic visit to Beijing in 1972, and the current status of RussianAmerican relations. Pompeo delicately implied that President Donald Trump is exploring a relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin that could capitalize on a shared concern about the expansion of Chinese influence at the expense of both the former Soviet Union and Russia itself, and Americas East and South Asian allies.

Distinguishing the CCP From China

As is now the common practice of this administration, a distinction is made between China and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Hewitt posed a question, based on a comment by the director of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, that the distinction is spurious.

Pompeo replied that its legitimate as the United States and the West generally want to stop dishonest Chinese commercial practices, intellectual property theft, and the intimidation of other countries, although not to impose an airtight segregation of China from the rest of the world.

Pompeo endorsed Nixons declared goal of bringing China back into the world and conducting useful relations with it, while updating President Reagans policy toward the Soviet Union, Trust but verify, to Mistrust and verify, while hoping to incentivize a reform of dishonest Chinese practices.

He declared what is intended to be the Western policy to engage and empower the Chinese peoplea dynamic, freedom-loving people who are completely distinct from the Chinese Communist Party.

The Chinese have no history of freedom in 4,000 years, but in the present racially charged climate, its justifiable to distinguish between one of the worlds ancient and eminent nationalities and its current official regime. The idea is to reciprocate the Chinese meddling and espionage and propaganda effort by inciting as much righteous objection to the totalitarian oppression of the Beijing regime as possible.

There is no reason for us to continue to practice unilateral restraint in dealing with the Chinese threat.

Democratic Alliance Considered

Pompeo lamented that Chinese intimidation has already effectively immobilized and intimidated several U.S. allies. Nonetheless, he believes the state of international resolution will rise steadily among most traditional American allies. They need to be convinced of the seriousness of the United States in assisting all countries to resist unfair pressure from China, and will become more resolute as long as they understand that its only dishonest conduct by the Chinese that is opposed, not any fundamental hostility to China itself.

He raised the interesting point of creating an alliance of Democratic states. From my modest and completely unofficial podium, I have often suggested that NATO be reconstituted not as a North Atlantic organization, but as a defensive alliance of at least semi-democratic states all over the world, reciprocally guaranteeing existing frontiers and arrangements.

The logical cornerstones of such an alliance on the edge of the declared areas of Chinese expansionist ambitions are India, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, and, if there isnt an early improvement in Chinese conduct, Taiwan. Vietnam is not democratic and the Philippines and Thailand at the moment are playing footsie with Beijing.

Its a fluid situation but by any calculation, the United States and its reliable allies have the ability to assemble all the political, economic, and military strength needed to protect the legitimate interests of all associated countries.

Failed Hopes

The secretary of state acknowledged candidly the failure of the long-standing hope that accommodation of China and indulgence of its idiosyncratic notions of international agreements would gradually lead to a policy of responsible compliance with agreed international rules.

He left conspicuously open the possibility that the CCP deliberately exported the coronavirus to the world to sow political and economic chaos among its chief competitors.

Pompeo announced and encouraged relentless responses to Chinese human rights violations and the breaking of treaty obligations, including the Uyghurs and Hong Kong. (Tibet wasnt mentioned.)

And he was particularly critical of Hollywood: the epicenter of American creative freedom and self-appointed arbiters of social justice, for being obsequious self-censors (of) even the most mildly unfavorable references to China.

Pompeo declared that China is increasingly authoritarian at home and more aggressive in its hostility to freedom everywhere else. This is not obviously true, but it is certainly true that China is becoming much more efficient and formidable in its ability to control its own population and to discomfort countries that are inadequately submissive.

He concluded by asking every leader of every nation to start by doing what America has doneto simply insist on reciprocity, transparency, and accountability from the Chinese Communist Party. It was an excellent speech presaging a very necessary adjustment to American and Western foreign and security policy.

Conrad Black has been one of Canadas most prominent financiers for 40 years, and was one of the leading newspaper publishers in the world. He is the author of authoritative biographies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, and, most recently Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
For those investigating Google SERPs in the gaming industry, it would probably be interesting to look at an example from search results for keywords related to bingo in the UK. During the recent lockdown and especially after Googles search algorithm update in May, many industries that are somehow related to online have suffered from a sharply decrease in websites traffic. Gaming sites were not an exception  some have lost 
Hyderabad: The number of COVID cases is inching close to the 60,000 mark in Telangana. With 1,610 new cases added during the 24 hours prior to Monday night, the number now stands at 57,142. Nine more persons lost their lives, taking the number of deaths to 480.

Telangana's daily Covid-19 bulletin is now being issued in the morning with 8 p.m. of the previous day as the cut-off point.

As per the latest bulletin, the state has 13,753 active coronanvirus cases, of whom 8,479 are asymptomatic ones put in home isolation. While 15,839 samples were tested on Monday, the results of 809 tests were awaited, it said. All the data released in the bulletin pertains to the 24-hour period from 8 p.m. on July 26 to 8 p.m. on July 27.

The new trend in the state is that rural Telangana is reporting more cases (692) than Hyderabad (531), the capital. Of the 692 cases, 437 were reported from three urbanized districts: Ranga Reddy (172), Warangal Urban (152), and Medchal-Malkajgiri (113). Sangareddy district recorded 74 cases.

Of the rest of the 255 cases, Karimangar district, which was repeatedly showcased by the government as the district that taught the rest of the country what Covid-19 containment efforts should be like, contributed 48 cases in 24 hours. From July 21 to July 27, Karimnagar's contribution to Covid-19 in Telangana was 428 new cases.

Nizamabad district recorded 58 cases, followed by Peddapalli with 48, Suryapet with 35, Jogulamba-Gadwal with 34, Mulugu with 32, Khammam and Nalgonda with 26 each, while Warangal Rural had 25 fresh cases.
Description

GIS  28 July 2020:The number of requests including complaints, suggestions and queries registered on the Citizen Support Portal for the year 2019 is 41,628, out of which 84% have been successfully dealt with. For the period January 2020 to 24 July 2020, 29,256 requests were registered out of which 63 % have been successfully dealt with. Over the period 28 April 2017 to 24 July 2020, the portal has registered 138,325 requests and complaints out of which 83.5% have already been addressed.

This information was communicated by the Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, today, in the National Assembly, in reply to a Parliamentary Question pertaining to the number of requests and complaints filed by the Citizen Support Unit (CSU) for the year 2019 till date and the number of cases solved.

Lauding the online complaints management system, the Prime Minister recalled that Government is leaving no stone unturned in its quest for continual innovation and progress. The ultimate mission, he said, is to modernise the public sector to better serve the nation and bringing a smarter Government closer to its citizens through the click of a button.

How the Citizen Support Portal works

Speaking about the Citizen Support Portal launched in April 2017, he underlined that it consists of an open source software which establishes the link between all Government institutions and the public thereby promoting an inclusive and citizen centric service delivery. The portal enables citizens to register and track their complaints online on www.csu.mu through a unique reference number on a 24/7 basis wherever they are, he pointed out.

Citizens who do not have access to computers have the possibility to register their complaints in the 35 Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) or 95 Citizen Support Corners in Post Offices around the island. CAB Organisers then refer the complaints to Desk Officers or focal points of around 320 institutions comprising Ministries, Departments, Local Authorities and parastatal bodies. More than 1 500 trained civil servants in these organisations are responsible to follow up and address these complaints. The portal is disability-friendly and can be used by those with visual impairments.

The management of the portal is done at the level of the CSU of the Prime Ministers Office and complaints are channeled to all Ministries, Local Authorities and Parastatal Bodies for redress within clear timeframes and response to citizens. The CSU has classified the requests/complaints into 206 categories such as street lighting, pricing issues, building and permits, drains and road infrastructure, cleaning of bare land, employment and job seeking, together with a timeframe to resolve the requests and complaints in each category.

Ensuring monitoring and evaluation

According to Mr Jugnauth, monitoring and evaluation is one of the most integral and critical parts undertaken at the level of the CSU. A Monitoring and Evaluation Report is prepared by the CSU which uses scientific data captured on the portal to analyse the needs of citizens region-wise and the gaps and weaknesses with a view to taking initiatives and appropriate measures to tackle those issues.

The Prime Minister acknowledged that the citizen-centric engagement platform has been an effective tool to bridge the gap between Government policies and citizens needs. It has to a great extent brought the most awaited radical change positively impacting on the process of complaints management, transparency, accountability, government decision making and the quality of public service delivery, he stated.

In addition, in May 2018, a Task Force was set up in each of the 20 constituencies to ensure a close monitoring of the complaints received by each organisation on the Citizen Support Portal. Around 200 Task Force meetings have been conducted as at July 2020.

Communication campaign

The Prime Minister highlighted that communication has also been an effective tool to ensure proximity and close interaction with citizens in order to build trust and gather real time data at grass roots level. Since April 2017, the CSU has embarked on a vast communication campaign in order to cover the whole population and to ensure that the citizens are made aware of their rights and benefits provided by government.

He added that the project has met with a resounding success not just locally but has also received recognition at international level. Furthermore, the project received the Bronze Award at the African Association for Public Administration and Management under the innovative management category.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday questioned the government over a Chinese company's engagement in a smart metering project of the Jammu and Kashmir government and demanded answers as to what was the compulsion.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera alleged that Chinese company Dongfang has received a sub-contract for smart metering of power meters in Jammu and Kashmir and wondered how the power ministry could involve a Chinese firm in such a sensitive area.

"We want to know, what is the compulsion? Why would the government allow a company like Dongfang to get into Jammu and Srinagar, to get into the electricity power sector, to get into the RF technology area of the power sector. Why? What are your compulsions," he asked at a virtual press conference.

ALSO READ | China slams ban on another set of Chinese apps by India

The Congress leader said on the one hand the government is banning Chinese apps, but on the other hand it is allowing something as critical as power consumption data going to the hands of Dongfang, which he claimed is not only reporting to the Chinese Army and the Chinese government, but has close ties with the current establishment of Pakistan.

"These are very critical questions, in a time when our brave jawans are trying to protect our borders in Ladakh. We do not expect the Government to act, the way it is acting," he said.

Khera also alleged that the Chinese company has several question marks around the globe for its integrity and for its proximity and direct control of the Chinese Army and the Chinese government.

"When that company is allowed to enter into a strategic area of a sensitive state like Jammu & Kashmir, then there are question marks, then these are worrying signs," he said.

Khera said Dongfang was even banned by the World Bank for some time.
WASHINGTON, July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Postmaster General Louis DeJoy issued the following statement today:

"The Postal Service is in a financially unsustainable position, stemming from substantial declines in mail volume, and a broken business model. We are currently unable to balance our costs with available funding sources to fulfill both our universal service mission and other legal obligations. Because of this, the Postal Service has experienced over a decade of financial losses, with no end in sight, and we face an impending liquidity crisis.

"Congress and the Postal Regulatory Commission must enact legislative and regulatory reforms to help address the situation. At the same time, it is imperative for the Postal Service to operate efficiently and effectively. Indeed, there are alternatives to every product that we offer, and the only way that the Postal Service can continue to provide prompt, reliable, and affordable universal postal services for all Americans over the long-term is by vigorously focusing on the efficiency of our operations.

"To start with, we must better adhere to our existing operating plans, which were developed precisely to ensure that we meet our service standards in an efficient and effective manner. It is evident that the Postal Service has the ability to improve in that area. On the day that I was sworn in as Postmaster General by our Board of Governors, the Postal Service Inspector General issued a report entitled "U.S. Postal Service's Processing Network Optimization and Service Impacts." In that report our Inspector General indicated that the Postal Service spent $1.1 billion in mail processing overtime and penalty overtime, $280 million in late and extra transportation, and $2.9 billion in delivery overtime and penalty overtime costs in FY 2019. Yet, even after incurring these additional costs, the Postal Service has not seen material improvement in our service performance scores. While we did not fully agree with all aspects of OIG's report, we did not dispute the fundamental conclusion that we need to redouble our efforts to focus on our plans to improve operational efficiency and to further control overtime expenditures. The Postal Regulatory Commission has also recognized in its most recent reports that the Postal Service is not on a sustainable path, and that we continue to fall short of achieving our service targets with regard to the majority of our market dominant products.

"The Postal Service has spent the last four years unsuccessfully trying to obtain reform legislation from Congress and pricing reform from the PRC, while remaining focused on the efficiency of our operations. Given our current situation, it is critical that the Postal Service take a fresh look at our operations and make necessary adjustments. We are highly focused on our public service mission to provide prompt, reliable, and efficient service to every person and business in this country, and to remain a part of the nation's critical infrastructure. However, changes must be made, and we will refocus on all of the items within our control, and propose changes to some that are not, in order to ensure that we will be able to continue to fulfill our universal service obligation to all of America."

Contact: Dave Partenheimer

202-268-2599

[email protected]

usps.com/news

SOURCE U.S. Postal Service

Related Links

http://www.usps.com


PARIS (AP)  Cheering protesters tugging on ropes tore down a statue of Napoleon's wife on the Caribbean island of Martinique and another from the French territory's colonial history, adding to a growing list of monuments being ripped down and defaced in spreading global revulsion of racial injustice.

Frances government on Monday condemned the vandalism. Prime Minister Jean Castex said violence, albeit symbolic, and hatred will never push forward any cause.

Protesters with sledgehammers first hacked at the stone base of the statue of Empress Josephine, which was already missing its head. As drummers beat out a rhythm, they attached cords to it, brought it crashing down and stamped and jumped on it.

Also brought down Sunday to screams of delight was a statue of Pierre Belain dEsnambuc, a French trader who in 1635 established France's first permanent Caribbean colony on Martinique. The mayor of Fort-de-France, the island's capital, had said that he wanted to take down the statue in coming weeks but the protesters beat him to it.

The protesters' actions directly challenged a vow in June from French President Emmanuel Macron that France will not take down statues of controversial, colonial-era figures as has happened in some other countries in the wake of Black Lives Matter movement.

Josephine was born on Martinique and lived there into her teens before moving to Paris. She and Napoleon Bonaparte married in 1796.

Belain established France's first Caribbean colony on St. Kitts, which later became British, before taking possession of Martinique for France's King Louis XIII.

Other statues have also been torn down in Martinique and in French Guiana. Statues have come down outside of France, too, as the Black Lives Matter movement has gathered pace in the wake of the death in the United States of George Floyd.

___

For AP coverage of racial injustice issues: https://apnews.com/Racialinjustice
Europe is bracing for a second wave of coronavirus as continuing outbreaks raise the prospect of reimposed restrictions at a time when millions of people are travelling across the continent for their summer holidays, The Guardian writes.



The Belgian government has warned that country could be put into a second "complete lockdown" following a significant spike in infections, while the Spanish region of Catalonia may also have to reintroduce lockdown measures if outbreaks are not brought under control within 10 days.



In France, the health minister has called for greater vigilance after a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in young people, and Germanys public health advisory body has said it is deeply concerned about the rise in cases over the past few weeks.



Germanys public health advisory body, the Robert Koch Institute, has said it is deeply concerned about the rise in cases over recent weeks. The new number of new cases climbed past 800 on Friday after several weeks of hovering between 300 and 400. At the pandemics height, Germany saw over 6,000 cases a day.



The health minister, Jens Spahn, has warned that partying holidaymakers on Mallorca or Ibiza are in danger of forgetting rules such as physical distancing and hand-washing, contributing to the threat of a second wave. He announced he is planning to introduce obligatory testing for travellers returning from areas considered high risk because of their level of coronavirus cases.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 05:37:44|Editor: huaxia

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AMMAN, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Jordan's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned Azerbaijani Ambassador in Amman Rasim Rzayev, following a statement issued by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on the summoning of the Jordanian ambassador in Baku on Monday.

The ministry expressed its "astonishment" to Rzayev over the summoning of the Jordanian ambassador, as Jordan's diplomat was told that the meeting was for discussions rather than a summoning, according to a Foreign Ministry's statement.

The ministry also expressed astonishment over remarks by Azeri officials about Jordan that included "allegations that Jordan exports weapons to Armenia."

The statement said Jordanian defense industries export to private companies, and "there is an open international market with private companies that work under international laws and constraints governing their work."

It stressed that Jordan always commits to international laws and stressed the "deep-rooted, brotherly and distinguished" ties between Jordan and Azerbaijan. Enditem
Last week, Ranvir Shorey had tweeted that between 2003 and 05, he went through psychological trauma when he faced professional and social isolation and claimed that there were lies about him in the press. While he didn't mention any names in his tweets he said that things became so toxic that he had to fly out of the country for some time.

Ranvir was talking about the 'Insider' vs 'Outsider' debate which has been reignited in the aftermath of Sushant Singh Rajput's death.

The despair I went through at the time was enough to break me, but I survived thanks to my family and a few friends. I even had to leave the country because of how toxic the environment got for me. Coincidence? No. Modus operandi? Yes.  Ranvir Shorey (@RanvirShorey) July 22, 2020

Now, in a recent interaction with Hindustan Times, the actor shared more details about the tweet and opened up about his fallout with the Bhatts. He said, "I went through a similar experience where I was professionally and socially isolated, equally pressured from all ends. Every chance and every platform they would get, they would be lying about me, saying I am an alcoholic and abuser. You feel so helpless and powerless because these people are so powerful that the press will just listen to them and not even bother calling you for your side of the story. You just feel so helpless and frustrated because you cant do anything about it. It got really toxic for me at the time and I had to leave the country for a while."

"Nobody bothered to check the facts because a certain party is more powerful, famous and more friendly with the media. Only their version comes out. The facts and reality of the other persons story never comes out. The media is to blame for half of it," he added.

Upon his return to the country, he started from scratch and did television for some time and slowly and steadily started working on his filmography. He said he's still an outcast continues to fight for his place in the industry.

Ranvir said he doesn't see Insider vs Outsiders furore as a debate. Instead, he sees it as a handful of people having power over distribution and media and step-child treatment given to smaller films and talent which they dont approve of.

"Thanks to streaming platforms, one doesnt have to depend on the coterie that controls theatrical distribution and media in the country, as far as the movie business is concerned," he told the publication.
Smaller than a postage stamp, Drapers custom miniaturized microarray can be equipped with up to 10,000 surface probes to help identify genetically engineered organisms in soil and water. "Current methods for detecting engineered organisms read only a subset of all the genetic material thats present in the sample, typically through next-generation sequencing. That process inherently misses information and does not reveal important genetic context. Kirsty McFarland, Draper.

Advances in gene editing technology and improved access via the web have substantially increased the prevalence of engineered organisms in our world. Benefits range from pest-free crops to reduction in the spread of infectious diseases, but along with these advantages comes a need to identify good bioengineering from the kind that might pose a threat.

To address this challenge, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has contracted with Draper to develop new kinds of detection systems that can identify whether engineered organisms have been created from natural organisms. Officials at ODNIs Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) have awarded Draper a two-year Phase 2 contract under its Finding Engineering-Linked Indicators (FELIX) program, for a total contract value worth $7.8 million.

The award calls for Draper to continue development of two distinct lab-based genetic tests, custom bioinformatics pipelines that contextualize DNA sequencing data, and miniaturized microarray hardware with a specialized design. The devicesmaller than a postage stampallows multiple rounds of genetic tests on any organism, from a broad variety of sources including soil and water. Potential applications include biothreat detection, environmental monitoring and food inspection.

The microarray can be equipped with up to 10,000 surface probes to help identify genetic engineering. The device and associated lab methods combined are sensitive enough to pick out a ratio of a single engineered organism against a complex environmental background containing millions of natural organismsa signal-to-noise ratio that is a significant improvement over current methods.

Kirsty McFarland, molecular microbiologist and Principal Investigator on Drapers FELIX program, says the technologies under development will be able to detect genetic signatures that are not accessible with current technologies. Current methods for detecting engineered organisms, in soil for example, read only a subset of all the genetic material thats present in the sample, typically through next-generation sequencing. That process inherently misses information and does not reveal important genetic context, she said. She noted that one gram of soil may contain up to one billion microbial genomes.

To accompany each genetic identification system, Draper also developed two custom bioinformatics tools, which include a computational pipeline and visual dashboard that convert lab data into actionable intelligence that users can see on a computer screen.

Drapers FELIX contract is the result of close collaboration between the Synthetic Biology group and Drapers Special Programs Office.

Draper

At Draper, we believe exciting things happen when new capabilities are imagined and created. Whether formulating a concept and developing each component to achieve a field-ready prototype or combining existing technologies in new ways, Draper engineers apply multidisciplinary approaches that deliver new capabilities to customers. As a not-for-profit engineering innovation company, Draper focuses on the design, development and deployment of advanced technological solutions for the worlds most challenging and important problems. We provide engineering solutions directly to government, industry and academia; work on teams as prime contractor or subcontractor; and participate as a collaborator in consortia. We provide unbiased assessments of technology or systems designed or recommended by other organizationscustom designed, as well as commercial-off-the-shelf. http://www.draper.com


NOTE: The Press Council has not upheld a complaint about this article. Read the full adjudication here.

NSW Treasury abandoned an independent review into the troubled state government-owned insurer icare after it complained the proposed investigation would be overkill.

The department prepared a procurement request for consultants to conduct an interim statutory review into icare's effectiveness and whether it was "on track to deliver the benefits that it was established to deliver" in August 2019.

The review was budgeted to cost up to $80,000 and was expected to be finished by the end of 2019, but it never proceeded.
If anyone has seen or heard from Leila Cavett, please call the Walker County Sheriffs Office at (205) 302-6464, or the Mirimar, Florida Police Department at (954) 602-4000. Posted by Walker County Sheriff's Office on Monday, July 27, 2020

Police investigators in South Florida said they are searching for the mother of a toddler found wandering alone Sunday morning in an apartment complex parking lot.

Late Monday, the Miramar Police Department tweeted that investigators are searching for Leila Cavett, 21, who may be the childs mother, adding that they are concerned for her safety and well-being.

Cavett, according to her Facebook page, lives in Atlanta. Police said she was last seen driving a mid-to-late 90s white Chevy 3500, with a red tailgate and a Baby on Board sign on the passenger window.

Cavetts sister, Gina Lewis, said in a Facebook post Monday that shes seeking donations to travel from Jasper to Miramar to see the the boy, who she believes is her 2-year-old nephew.

Please help me find my sister my heart is breaking, Lewis wrote. I cannot breathe.

Authorities in Walker County were notified on Monday that the mother and child might have ties to the area.

Our investigative division is cooperating and assisting Miramar police in any way possible to help bring this mother and son back together, said Walker County Sheriffs Office spokesman T.J. Armstrong. We are praying for this child and family, and hope they are reunited soon.

During a news conference Monday, Ebony Williams told reporters she saw the little boy in the parking lot and figured the child's mother must be close by. She said she got out of her truck and heard him crying.

I asked him Wheres your mommy? and he just kind of pointed kind of everywhere, Williams said. I reached out my hand for him, and he grabbed a couple of my fingers and we just started walking around the complex hoping that I would find somebody looking for him or calling his name.

Williams, who said she's been staying with a friend at the apartment complex, asked neighbors if they knew the boy's mother. She knocked on doors, but no one recognized the child. She said he wasn't able to communicate, it was all baby talk.

She called police, who took the child to the station, and posted his picture on social media, searching for his parents. The photos went viral, which is how Lewis saw them.

Lewis told WPLG the family has no connections to South Florida.

Were in the middle of a pandemic, Lewis said. So its not like they were taking a vacation out of the blue with the baby. Theres no way.

The child was turned over to the Florida Department of Children and Families.
The Commercial Division of the Accra High Court has given the greenlight for the founder of the defunct Capital Bank, William Ato Essien, to challenge the revocation of the banks operating licence by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).



That was after the court dismissed an application by the BoG which was urging the court to set aside a counterclaim by Essien challenging a suit filed against him and 15 other shareholders by the Receivers of Capital Bank over their alleged role in the collapse of the bank.



In a ruling, the court, presided over by Justice George Koomson, held that the application by the central bank seeking to stop the counterclaim by Essien, had no merit.



It is my considered opinion that there is no merit in applicants (BoG) application. This application is dismissed for being unmeritorious, this court has jurisdiction to determine the counterclaim, Justice Koomson ruled.



The ruling has, therefore, paved the way for the court to determine both the suit by the defunct bank, represented by the receiver, which seeks to recover over GH837 million from the shareholders, and the counterclaim by Essien, challenging the revocation of the banks operating licence by BoG.



Collapse of Capital Bank



Capital Bank was one of seven indigenous banks whose licences were revoked by the BoG after they were declared insolvent following a massive clean-up of the financial sector by the Central Bank from 2017.



Under a purchase and assumption arrangement, the BoG allowed the state-owned bank, the GCB Bank, to take over Capital Bank and UT Bank in order to protect depositors fund and also enable them to stay afloat.



The central bank then merged the remaining five other indigenous banks into one entity known as the Consolidated Bank.



Legal actions



On November 2, 2018, the defunct bank acting through its receivers  Mr Vish Ashiagbor and Mr Eric Nana Nipah, both of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), initiated a civil action against Essien and 15 other shareholders and directors of the bank. The legal action is meant to recover over GH837 million, being what the receivers claim were loans that the shareholders granted to themselves which remained unpaid.



It is the case of the plaintiff that the defendants breached their fiduciary duties under the Companies Code, 1963 (Act 179) and have caused serious financial loss to the bank.



In October last year, the Attorney-General also instituted a criminal prosecution against Essien and three others over their alleged dissipation of GH620 million liquidity support given to Capital Bank by the BoG between June 2015 and November 2016.



They have denied any wrongdoing and have pleaded not guilty on 26 counts of stealing, abetment to stealing, conspiracy to steal and money laundering.



Counterclaim



In response to the civil action by the receivers, Essien, on December 5, 2018, filed a counterclaim against the BoG. Among other reliefs, Essien wanted the court to declare the BoGs revocation of the operating licence of Capital Bank as capricious, arbitrary, unfair and against the rules of natural justice.



BoGs application



On June 28, last year, the BoG filed an application urging the court to set aside the counterclaim by Essien on the basis that it was an abuse of due process



Court reasons



The BoGs arguments, however, failed to convince the court.



On the issue of the court not having jurisdiction to hear the counterclaim, Justice Koomson held that Article 140 of the 1992 Constitution conferred jurisdiction on the High Court in both civil and a criminal matters.



According to the court, the 1992 Constitution had clearly indicted matters such as chieftaincy as outside the purview of the High Court and, therefore, in the absence of any such constitutional restrictions, the High Court could hear any matter.



This court jurisdiction cannot be so ousted to the extent that Act 930 is not a constitutional provision, the court held. With regard to the BoG not being the right defendant to the counter claim, the court held that the BoG was the principal of the receivers, who are acting as agents, and, therefore, the BoG and the receivers could be sued jointly.





Source: graphiconline.com









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YEREVAN, 28 JULY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 28 July, USD exchange rate down by 0.33 drams to 484.64 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.58 drams to 568.29 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.07 drams to 6.71 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 0.94 drams to 623.93 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 518.16 drams to 30175.98 drams. Silver price up by 29.37 drams to 379.8 drams. Platinum price up by 36.93 drams to 14459.67 drams.
I hope Prince Harry and Meghan Markle took their stuff out of Frogmore Cottage.

At this point, its possible the Queen has personally changed the locks. Is there a British slang that translates into oy? Blimey? Shambles? Cock-up? Not sure. All I know is after reading excerpts from an upcoming book about why the Duke and Duchess of Sussex ditched the royal family for California dreaming, my reaction was a lot of oy and a little bit of eesh.

Written by veteran royal reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, and due out Aug. 11, the book is called, Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family. A more accurate title: Burning Bridges: Harry and Meghan and the Undoing of a Modern Royal Family.

The book, described this week as a biography, is clearly written from the perspective of Harry and Meghan. Fair enough. Just based on current litigation, the two feel like theyve been wrongly maligned by the tabloids, violated by the paparazzi and misunderstood writ large. A book that tries to correct the record  even if the authors and the former royals deny any collaboration  is not a bad idea. People of the world, heres why Megxit really happened.

But in excerpts published by The Times & Sunday Times of London, Harry and Meghan do not come across as victims of a stodgy or even possibly racist institution. They seem more like their own worst enemies. The rift between Harry and Prince William, for example, apparently started after the elder brother simply warned his sibling to take as much time as you need to get to know this girl.

You know what that is? Sound advice. Harry was in a trance during this whirlwind romance. He was gaga for Megs. William simply cautioned him to go slow. Id say the exact same thing to one of my brothers. But for some reason, Harry found this comment snobbish. He assumed William was denigrating his future soul mate, when all he was really doing was trying to protect his kid brother.

Since Megxit, Markle has been painted as a royal-family-wrecker, a diabolically ambitious commoner who glommed onto Harry and turned him against his own. Her estranged biological family has led this charge. But the excerpts this week suggest she tried her best to fit in while possibly unaware Harry always wanted out. Meghan didnt really appreciate the dynamic that swallowed her whole.

She didnt ride shotgun into the royal family  she unwittingly became Harrys get-away driver.

As the book quotes the Duchess as telling a friend: I gave up my entire life for this family. I was willing to do whatever it takes. But here we are. Its very sad.

The saddest part is that Harry seems to be the architect of their voluntarily exile. After he met Meghan in 2016, he lurked on social media under fake aliases, including @SpikeyMau5 on Instagram and Spike Wells on Facebook. Harry was the first to say, I love you, just three months after meeting Meghan. Harry obsessed over negative articles and social media comments about the couple. Harry began to see demons everywhere that were conspiring against his happily-ever-after, dark forces within and without the royal family that questioned the relationship. So not content to play second fiddle to William and Kates first violin, Harry and Meghan decided to go it alone in Los Angeles  with a brief layover in Canada  to realize their charitable dreams as ambassadors for a better world in proximity to the A-list celebrities who see the couple as A-list equals.

But nothing in the excerpts prove this was a wise move in the long run.

Harry and Meghan are not renegades  they just seem lost. If the goal of the authors was to champion the couple as a modern force capable of remaking the royal family, a power duo inclined to renovate The House of Windsor, the new L.A. addition seems to be built on a shaky foundation.

The excerpts put a strobe light on the swirling dysfunction between Harry and William, between Meghan and Kate. As it turns out, the once nicknamed Fab Four were really more of a Doomed Two. The book suggests Kate and Meghan were never really at war, mostly because they were never on the same battlefield; Kate and Meghan simply had nothing in common.

But what this book will do is make it much harder for William and Harry to ever reunite.

And thats whats truly sad. Blood should not be diluted by circumstance.

Burning bridges is the worst way to find freedom.
A large state school in Wyndham was forced to reverse its plan to reopen on Tuesday after receiving conflicting advice from two Victorian government departments.

Manor Lakes P-12 College has been shut for seven days after a senior student tested positive to COVID-19.

It was one of almost 70 Victorian schools listed as shut on Tuesday due to a recent positive case, prompting calls from school leaders to close all classrooms and send students home for remote learning.

Manor Lakes P-12 College was shut down after a senior student tested positive to COVID-19. Credit:Joe Armao

The school of 2200 students in Melbournes outer south-west was informed by the Department of Education on Sunday night that it was safe to reopen because "cleaning and contract tracing has been completed".
Grand Rapids will join the rest of the state in no longer being categorized as high-risk for COVID-19, Michigan Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun announced at a press conference Tuesday.

The good news is that the Grand Rapids region has seen a two-week, steady decline in the rate of new cases and today we will be able to move them out of the high-risk category, Khaldun said.

The region had been designated high-risk in early July and was the only such region in the state as of July 24.

The risk categories, listed on the MI Safe Start map, do not correspond to the states economic reopening phases or dictate which businesses can operate.

Related: Why a state-supported map had people believing parts of Michigan were closing again

The Detroit, Grand Rapids and Saginaw regions each have a little over 40 cases per million per day, she said.

The Kalamazoo and Lansing regions have over 30 cases per million per day but have seen recent downward trends. The Jackson area is just under 30 cases per million per day, but has seen a continued, slow increase in the case rate for the past six weeks, she said.

Overall, in the past two weeks, Michigan has seen a plateau in the number of daily new cases, Khaldun said. Hospitalization rates are declining and death rates remain low, she said, which are positive signs.

One sign thats not positive? The state has tested an average of 27,000 people per day and the rate of positive tests is going up. Its at 3.7% as of last week, Khaldun said, above the 3% cutoff many experts say you want to be below. The state will continue to monitor this, she said.

She said last week there were 78 new outbreaks identified by local health departments. Of those, 31% were tied to nursing homes and long-term care facilities, 22% were tied to social gatherings, 10% were associated with workplaces and 9% were tied to restaurants, she said. Other places with outbreaks include child care, agricultural work settings, bars, personal care services and gyms.

Her update came as part of a press conference, which also included calls from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and others for the Republican-led Senate to negotiate and pass additional COVID relief funding for individuals and states.

She criticized a Republican plan for additional coronavirus relief that would not continue the additional $600-per-week unemployment aid, instead slashing it to $200 per week.

In Washington D.C., Democrats and Republicans are negotiating an additional aid package before the current one runs out Friday, according to The Associated Press.

State Budget Director Chris Kolb reiterated a call for additional state funding from Congress, too.

In short, federal funding was key to balancing our current fiscal year budget. But now that federal funding is gone and Fiscal Year 21 is staring us right in the face, Kolb said.

The state will be billions short, Kolb said. An additional revenue estimating conference is planned to peg the exact number.

Whitmer also reiterated her calls for a nationwide mask order.

If were going to continue to beat back this virus and help our state recover, we need more help and leadership at the federal level, Whitmer said.

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 executive orders requiring people to wear face coverings over their mouth and nose while in public indoor and crowded outdoor spaces. See an explanation of what that means here .

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus .

For more data on COVID-19 in Michigan, visit https://www.mlive.com/coronavirus/data/ .

Related stories:

Tuesday, July 28: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Michigan reports 488 new cases of coronavirus for Monday, July 27

Grand Rapids downgraded to high risk for coronavirus control, other regions also drop

Coronavirus risk phase heightened for Grand Rapids, Lansing regions after increase in cases
Brazilian Armed Forces sent helicopters, a Hercules plane and soldiers to combat the fires in the Pantanal, the world's biggest tropical wetlands where the fires more than doubled during the first half of 2020 compared with the same period last year.

The joint effort between firefighters, members of the IBAMA (the Brazilian environment agency), the Navy, the Army, the Air Force and the government of Mato Grosso do Sul state, started on the weekend and will continue until the fires are under control.

According to data released by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research, INPE, there were 2,534 recorded fires in the Pantanal between January and June this year, 158% more than the same period in 2019 when the institute recorded 981 fires.

In July, the institute had registered 1,322 fires, a total of 3,856 blazes in the wetlands that extend through the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, in central-western Brazil.

Technicians from the institute estimated the total area of the Pantanal burned this year at 1,969 square miles (5,100 square kilometres), until the end of last month.

Mato Grosso do Sul state has declared a state of environmental emergency. It says the critical period of seasonal forest fires is just beginning and cites extreme conditions such as high temperatures, strong winds and low air humidity.

The sharp increase in fires comes amid domestic and international concern over Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's calls to clear land in order to drive economic development, and follows a surge in fires, many blazes set to make land available for farming and other industry, in the Amazon last year.

On July 16, the Brazilian government issued a decree banning burning in the Pantanal wetlands and the Amazon forest for four months. However, in the Pantanal alone, 1,002 fire spots have been identified since the decree came into force.

(Representative Image) (Image Credit Pixabay)
Emirates is offering UAE nationals and residents a chance to plan a quick escape this summer to the idyllic islands of the Maldives.

With the gradual re-opening of borders, travel restrictions in Maldives have eased and passengers visiting the island nation will not be required to quarantine upon arrival, or provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test. Customers can now take advantage and start planning a safe and stress-free holiday with family and friends.

Economy Class passengers can enjoy fares starting from AED3,625 ($986.8), Business Class passengers can enjoy fares starting from AED8,925 ($2,429.6), and First Class passengers can enjoy fares starting from AED20,245 ($5,511.2). The offer is valid for bookings made starting today until August 10, for travel until May 31, 2021.

Travellers can also book with Emirates Holidays and enjoy a five-star holiday experience starting from AED5,309 ($1,445.2) per person, including a three-night hotel stay and airfare.

Visitors to Maldives will be awed by its white sandy beaches, crystal clear water, and luxurious resorts. Experience world-class spa retreats, delicious food and enjoy exploring breath-taking marine life in some of the world's best diving destinations.

Emirates currently offers customers five weekly flights to the Maldives, utilising a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Starting from August 9, the airline will increase its services to six times a week to meet customer demand. Emirates flight EK656 departs Dubai at 02:30 am and arrives in Male at 07:40 am local time. The return flight, EK657, departs Male at 09:10 am and arrives in Dubai at 12:10 pm local time. - TradeArabia News Service
London: Britain will crack down on junk food advertising and introduce calorie counts on menus in an effort to tackle obesity and ease the pressure on the country's National Health Service amid the coronavirus pandemic.

For British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the intersection of obesity and the coronavirus is personal. Johnson was, by his own admission, "way overweight" when he was admitted to hospital after becoming ill with COVID-19 this year, and his health deteriorated to such an extent that at one point he needed intensive care.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Credit:AP

Studies have linked obesity to a greater risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19 and Johnson, writing in the British newspaper The Daily Express, described his time in hospital as a "wake-up call".

"We all put things off  I know I have," Johnson wrote. "I've wanted to lose weight for ages, and like many people I struggle with my weight."
Former Red Hat Head of HR for APAC brings 20 years of experience to Crypto.com

HONG KONG, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Crypto.com today announced it has named Wendy Montgomery its first-ever Chief People Officer. Montgomery, who brings more than two decades of experience to her role, is skilled in strategic and operational human resources, and has in-depth experience in high-growth technology and ecommerce environments.

Originally from the United Kingdom, Montgomery started her career in the British Army. Following her work in the army, she moved into the private sector. Her most recent role was as Head of Human Resources for Red Hat Asia Pacific, the world's leading provider of open source, enterprise IT solutions.

Crypto.com has seen a rapid climb in recruitment this year, doubling its team from 250 in January to over 500 staff at the close of July. The influx of new talent and future staffing plans have created a rich opportunity for the newly appointed CPO.

Wendy Montgomery, Chief People Officer of Crypto.com, said: "I'm looking forward to using my experience to create and nurture a strong culture that supports high-performing, collaborative teams and achieves strategic objectives. Crypto.com is at a pivotal moment for rapid growth, which I look forward to being a part of. Ultimately, my goal is to support Crypto.com's mission to put cryptocurrency in every wallet and accelerate the world's transition to decentralized finance."

Kris Marszalek, Co-Founder and CEO of Crypto.com, said: "I'm absolutely thrilled to welcome Wendy to the team. The timing couldn't possibly be better to bring in a seasoned executive like Wendy to lead all facets of HR function. Our team is now 500+ people strong, essentially doubling the size of the company in 6 months, all against the backdrop of WFH arrangements during the Covid pandemic. Wendy is tasked with strengthening our culture and processes to make sure we continue being a fantastic place to work and a high performance team, as we continue our rapid growth trajectory."

About Crypto.com

Crypto.com was founded in 2016 on a simple belief: it's a basic human right for everyone to control their money, data and identity. With over 3 million users on its platform today, Crypto.com provides a powerful alternative to traditional financial services, turning its vision of "cryptocurrency in every wallet" into reality, one customer at a time. Crypto.com is built on a solid foundation of security, privacy and compliance and is the first cryptocurrency company in the world to have ISO/IEC 27001:2013, CCSS Level 3, ISO/IEC 27701:2019 and PCI:DSS 3.2.1, Level 1 compliance. Crypto.com is headquartered in Hong Kong with a 500+ strong team. Find out more by visiting https://crypto.com .

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1220461/Crypto_com_Chief_People_Officer.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/888271/Crypto_Logo.jpg
Click here to read the full article.

By 2026, 61 percent of the luxury market will be comprised of Millennials and Generation Z, and their perception and attitude toward brands are being shaped now by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Millennials and Generation Z continue to take over as primary luxury consumers, a recent report conducted by Boston Consulting Group and Highsnobiety predicts the luxury consumer will become unrecognizable in the next few years. Already described as a demographic with a values-first approach to consumerism, the coronavirus pandemic has largely served to pronounce consumer behavior even further.

While research began in 2019, the companies resurveyed respondents after the COVID-19 crisis for an accurate pulse and updated insights. According to Sarah Willersdorf, global head of luxury at BCG and coauthor of the report, the crisis will likely continue to accelerate several consumer mind-sets and behavioral trends.

The post-crisis new reality will have many structural changes that brands and retailers will need to reconcile. Consumers will be increasingly health and environmentally conscious, even more engaged on digital and social channels, and many will revert to trusted and iconic brands, Willersdorf said. We also wanted to test if our results held true in a COVID-19 world, and what we found was that the pandemic has only heightened the importance of our findings.

According to companies research, while traditional markers of luxury like superior quality, attentive design and an elevated native are still critical, they are no longer sufficient. Notably, a key finding from the repulse survey found that only 11 percent of the Highsnobiety readers said they did not want to hear from fashion brands at this time. Further, respondents said they had an expectation that brands take a more proactive involvement on the world stage than ever before.

The authors of the report write, brands that are successful in this new environment do not simply respond to trends or outside narratives, but instead become true drivers of culture. Put simply, brands need to become culturally credible to remain successful.

Story continues

Cultural credibility is a brands perceived relevance to a consumers values and social circle, Willersdorf said. The building blocks of cultural credibility are the brands timelessness, a brand narrative that evokes emotions, the advocacy of key opinion leaders and a consumers social circle, as well as a curated assortment and creative partnerships with culturally relevant authorities.

Brands that are culturally credible, therefore, are those that are able to foster loyalty by enabling and encouraging participation and communication. While cultural credibility has always been a factor for consumers, the report notes that it has accelerated recently.

[These brands] talk to their audience before and after production, Willersdorf said. They spotlight relevant causes and amplify them in the mainstream through advertising, creative projects, business philosophy, and through the products themselves. They agitate and direct politicization  through sport, diversity, urbanism or environmental issues, depending on the brand. They collaborate with others to meet and subvert expectations, and to harness local and subcultural knowledge, seeking advocacy from cultural pioneers and the circles they direct. Most importantly, brands that are culturally credible are both aspirational and accessible.

The research also analyzed sales data from 32 brands from traditional luxury to sportswear and streetwear brands over a three-year time frame, matching growth rates with the cultural credibility scores derived from the survey. Brands that delivered on both luxury fundamentals and the key factors that constitute the reports cultural credibility matrix saw annual revenue growth that was two to three times as much as those who only delivered on classic luxury factors and are not considered culturally credible.

There has always been an interplay between the wider culture and the corner of it we classify as luxury, yet the speed at which new cultural associations formulate and dissolve is accelerating each year, Willersdorf said. A new generation that was raised during this reformulation (and who are digital and social natives) is on course to dominate the market. They are informed, active and networked. They respond critically and collectively to what brands, retailers and media are signaling, and they expect to be included in the conversation.

In the repulse survey, taken after COVID-19, half of the survey respondents stated a brands timelessness had increased importance, followed by a brand narrative that builds an emotional connection at 33 percent, social responsibility at 25 percent, and a brand being worn by key opinion leaders and the consumers social circle at 24 percent.

Peer-to-peer interactions are instrumental in helping a brands idea spread and earn their place in the zeitgeist, authors said of the report. The most successful brands build responsive products designed for a specific mind-set rather than a demographic.

The report also studied a group called cultural pioneers, who hold an influential authority but are not traditional influencers. These pioneers are described not as vapid, as the authors of the report note influencers are seen, but rather innovators who embrace new ideas and commodities even before early adopters. Cultural pioneers influence the influencers and are, according to the report, the strongest indicator of where the market is heading.

Notably, the report finds that rather than shopping at traditional department stores, cultural pioneers prefer multibrand retailers like Dover Street Market and The Webster.

Cultural pioneers are trailblazers in the domain of style and culture whose influence animates and substantiates brand credibility within the broader consumer set  especially with Gen Z and Millennials, Willersdorf said. Their top three sources of inspiration are IRL/WOM, brand-owned social media; multiband specialty retail, and lifestyle publications. With respect to multibrand specialty [stores], these retailers offer a high level of curation and inspiration, with a unique in-store environment, and they are known by cultural pioneers for discovering new and lesser-known brands.

In its survey, the companies found 47 percent of cultural pioneers self-identify as creative compared to 27 percent of all Gen Z and 23 percent of Millennials. And while 50 percent of cultural pioneers said they are more likely to shop mobile or resale platforms, only 20 percent of all respondents said they have used these platforms to make a purchase in the last year.

The research also found that Gen Z, in particular, spends half of the purchase journey seeking inspiration. More than 70 percent of Gen Z globally, and 82 percent of Gen Z in the U.S., said they make purchase decisions while seeking inspiration.

Generation Z spends 51 percent of their purchase journey being inspired or inspiring others, versus 37 percent for Generation X, Willersdorf said. Social media is Gen Zs largest inspiration channel, both from people [friends and cultural pioneers] and brands they follow and is an essential discovery platform. They also find inspiration on brand-owned websites and apps, as well as brand stores.

For More WWD Business News:

EXCLUSIVE: Klarna and Cosmopolitan Team to Launch Hauliday, a Virtual Shopping Event

Studies Find COVID-19 Has Solidified Gen Zs Core Values

Online, Social Seen as Key to 2020 Holiday Shopping Season

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Washington: Russian intelligence operatives are using a trio of English-language websites to spread disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, seeking to exploit a crisis that America is struggling to contain ahead of the presidential election in November, US officials said on Tuesday.

Two Russians who have held senior roles in Moscows military intelligence service known as the GRU have been identified as responsible for a disinformation effort directed at American and Western audiences, US government officials said.

Disinformation around coronavirus is being used to divide and confuse people in the West. Credit:Jamie Brown

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.

The information had previously been classified, but officials said it had been downgraded so they could more freely discuss it. Officials said they were doing so now to sound the alarm about the particular websites and to expose a connection between the sites and Russian intelligence.
Vietnams Danang has suspended all flights and travel by train or bus to or from the coastal city for 15 days following a surge of at least 18 cases of COVID-19 infection over the weekend, sources in the country say.



Vietnam had previously been among the most successful countries in tackling COVID-19, reporting no deaths among its 95 million peoplea record that was attributed to effective contact tracing, strict quarantines, and early testing.



But on July 23, Vietnam confirmed two new cases of infection, breaking a streak of no new cases in 99 days, and at least 18 have now been confirmed in Danang alone, with three others also listed in the nearby province of Quang Nam and one in Quang Ngai, according to state media reports.



Earlier reports said the government was trying to evacuate some 80,000 mostly domestic tourists from the popular beach resort area, but state media later said many had left on their own, while other travelers were quarantining in hotels.

Danang is now under strict quarantine, a local source told RFAs Vietnamese Service on Tuesday.



This area has seen an outbreak of COVID-19, so the whole area is under quarantine, said Thanh Lam, a city resident living near Danang Hospital.



Many main streets near the hospital are also under quarantine, and some food stores, markets, and supermarkets are now selling food to go, she said, adding, Other shops are closed.



City residents are now calmly listening to official information and are observing social distancing, said Dinh Gia Hung, a lecturer at the Danang Architecture University.



People had a lot of experience with the earlier orders to observe social distancing, and so they are not showing much excitement now, he said. In general, Danang is preparing well enough for this second outbreak of the pandemic.



City authorities have banned public gatherings of more than two people and have ordered nonessential services to close, Vietnams official Tuoi Tre online news service said on July 28.



[It has also] required citizens to wear face masks whenever outdoors, and asked them not to leave their home unless for essential trips while maintaining a two-meter distance in social interactions, Tuoi Tre said.



Chinese migrants suspected



The new surge in cases may be tied to a recent influx of migrants illegally entering the area from China, Dinh said.



I have heard that some Chinese people have illegally come into Vietnam, but that the government could not control or manage them, he said.



Currently in my district, Son Tra, 10 Chinese people were found staying illegally at local motels.



For many days, no new COVID cases were reported in Vietnam. But many foreigners have now entered Vietnam illegally, and this may be the reason that COVID-19 is now spreading in the city, he said.



Officials in Danang and other Vietnamese cities and provinces have recently discovered dozens of Chinese who entered the country illegally and were found staying in local hotels and other facilities in July, state media and other sources say.



Local authorities must carefully test and isolate anyone illegally entering Vietnam, Dinh said, adding, and they must then announce the test results to local residents, because we need to know the reason for this second spread of the pandemic in the city.



Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Huy Le. Written in English by Richard Finney.
London: Johnny Depp was not violent towards his ex-wife Amber Heard and she was the one who would attack him, a London court heard on Tuesday, as the Hollywood actor's libel trial against a British tabloid neared its end.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star is suing News Group Newspapers, publishers of The Sun, and one of its journalists, Dan Wootton, over a 2018 article that called him a "wife beater".

Johnny Depp arrives at the High Court in London on Tuesday. Credit:AP

Depp, 57, and his former wife Heard, 34, both gave evidence at the trial. Depp said he was never violent towards Heard or any other woman and that she was the one who attacked him.

In a closing speech, Depp's lawyer David Sherborne said while Depp had been open about his use of drugs and alcohol, Heard had played down her own consumption of them as well as her issues with anger and jealousy.
Seidu Yahaya

28.07.2020 LISTEN

The Savannah Regional Police Command has arrested the chief of Kafaba, Seidu Yahaya, in connection with the lynching of Akua Denteh, a 90-year-old woman after she was accused of being a witch.

Police Commander for the Savannah Region, DCOP Enoch Adetwum Bediako, confirmed the arrest to journalists.

He said the Kafaba Chief was arrested in Damongo today, July 28.

According to him, the police are interrogating the chief in connection with the murder of madam Denteh in Kafaba.

With the arrest of the Chief, I know he will assist us in arresting the rest of the suspects, the police boss noted.

DCOP Bediako assured that the police were committed to apprehending the culprits.

He says I know people have fled Kafaba they can run but they can't hide.

It would be recalled that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), James Oppong-Boanuh, a few days ago, dispatched homicide experts from the National Police Headquarters to the Savannah region to help search for the murderers of madam Denteh.

The suspects are one Sanje, who is said to have hosted Hajia Filipina, a priestess who declared the deceased a witch.

The other suspects are one Aliu, a teacher, Bumaye, Ashley and Manafo.

---Daily Guide
After their harrowing time as COVID-19 patients, Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks received one of the greatest news of their lives -- especially since it is something that they have been wanting.

The Hanks are now both officially Greek citizens, as CNN reported. In the social media post of none other than Greece's prime minister, Tom and Rita can be seen proudly holding up their shiny, new passports. The two beamed up to the camera, knowing full well that they have a special reason to celebrate this week despite the hardships they have undergone the past few months dealing with a deadly virus within their bodies.

Last year, the couple and their children became honorary Greek citizens after they played a crucial role in raising awareness about the 2018 fires that ravaged areas near Athens, killing over 100 people. Tom was not a citizen then, but his care and attention brought the issue in the global media, garnering the aid and support that was much needed.

"Tom Hanks is a person who showed real interest in the people who suffered from the fire in Mati and promoted this issue in the global media," Greek Interior Minister Takis Theodorikakos shared to CNN in a statement in December.

Wilson is born part Greek while Hanks is a Greek Orthodox convert. They own a property at the island of Antiparos and occasionally vacation in Greece. They also produced several movie projects based on the Greek community, and they never hid their admiration and love for Greece and the Greeks. Earlier this year, Hanks announced that for him, no other country can compete with Greece in terms of beauty.

"I've been Hellenic now for the better part of 32 years," Hanks revealed to the reporters at the 2020 Golden Globe Awards earlier this year. "Greece is a haven... I've been around the world, I've been to the most beautiful places in the world, none of them tops Greece."

He added that the place can heal and is good for the soul.

Maybe a complete healing is just what Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, and their whole family need. They had such a rough year after all, with both Hanks and Wilson testing positive for the COVID-19 and having undergone all the nasty symptoms associated with it. They had different symptoms from each other, but both suffered quite some.

According to Rita, after all the difficulties she experienced with that virus, her outlook in life changed totally. She said that priorities were brought to the surface and she stopped taking things for granted. Post-recovery was a reflective time from the whole family and she is beyond grateful to have recovered.

Wilson was relieved beyond compare because she knew full well that things could have gotten so much worse -- she could have died, Hanks could have died, or both of them could have died!

There are also days when she was still very ill with the coronavirus that she would feel a bit better and then her conditions would plummet. With that said, she realized that she cannot control everything and just rely on having a very strong faith.

READ MORE: Doja Cat Mocks COVID-19 -- Tests Positive!
US espionage claims on Chinese diplomats in Houston pure slander: FM

Global Times

Source: Global Times Published: 2020/7/27 20:29:02

US accusations of Chinese diplomats in Houston engaging in aiding economic espionage, attempted theft of scientific research and participating in "massive illegal spying" campaigns are complete slander, and if the US is bent on attacking China, it will never be short of excuses, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

The consulate general in Houston is China's first consulate general opened in the US after the two countries established diplomatic relations. For more than 40 years, the consulate general has been committed to enhancing mutual understanding and bilateral cooperation in various fields, which has gained wide recognition from the general public in the Southern US, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry, said at Monday's routine press briefing.

Local media said the Houston area benefited a lot from China's consulate general in Houston which had been a bridge for tourism, trade and culture exchanges between the Houston area and China, Wang said.

Relevant local officials were astonished to learn the news of the Houston consulate's closure, and hoped that China and the US can resolve their differences in a peaceful way and that China can relaunch the consulate there, Wang said.

The above-mentioned facts showed that the accusations of the US are weak. For the US side, if it is bent on attacking China, it will never be short of excuses, Wang said.

For some time, a few anti-China US politicians have continuously smeared China and provoked China in an attempt to contain China and reap personal gains.

For example, they wantonly placed restriction on normal reporting activities of Chinese media in the US, expelled Chinese journalists, suppressed Chinese firms, and maliciously attacked the Communist Party of China (CPC) and China's political system.

The real intention of these anti-China politicians is evident, that is to deliberately sabotage China-US relations, Wang said.

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Coronavirus LIVE updates: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced the extension of partial lockdown in state till August 31. "We are extending the partial lockdown in the state, which was in force till July 31, till August 31," she said. However, making an exemption, the Bengal government has said that there will be no lockdown in the state on August 1, on the occasion of Bakr Eid.

India saw a single-day spike of 47,704 cases and 654 deaths in the last 24 hours taking the Covid-19 tally to 14,83,157, including 4,96,988 active cases. The death toll has climbed to 33,425 while 9,52,744 patients have been cured or discharged, the Health Ministry said today. Meanwhile, Eighty-one more people, including 14 BRTF and two Assam Rifles personnel, tested positive for novel coronavirus in Arunachal Pradesh, pushing the northeastern state's caseload to 1,239 on Tuesday, a senior health official said.

Meanwhile, as the global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic crossed the 6,50,000-mark, Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc commenced two 30,000-subject trials of Covid-19 vaccines that could make way for clearance and use by the year-end, the companies said in a statement on Monday.

HERE ARE THE LIVE UPDATES ON CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC:

 "Locals and metros have to start....Centre has to help the states. Railways should step in and bring back migrant labourers," NCP chief Sharad Pawar told News18.

 81 Fresh COVID-19 Cases in Arunachal; Tally Rises to 1,239 | Eighty-one more people, including 14 BRTF and two Assam Rifles personnel, have tested positive for COVID-19 in Arunachal Pradesh, taking the northeastern state's caseload to 1,239 on Tuesday, a senior health official told PTI.

 Tripura government launched a door-to-door Covid-19 survey, while also imposing a three-day lockdown in the state.

 Conduct Last Rites of COVID-19 Suspects Without Waiting for Test Report: Odisha Govt to Collectors | The Odisha government has asked all district collectors, SPs, municipal commissioners and health officials to conduct the last rites of coronavirus suspects without insisting on testing of swab or waiting for the report, an official told PTI.

Story continues

 Can't Say Crisis is Over Till Daily Positive Cases Fall Below 500: Satyendar Jain | Delhi's health minister Satyendar Jain said today that in terms of active cases, the national capital has reached the tenth position from the second position. "Till the number of daily positive cases falls below 500, we cannot say that this crisis is over," he said. On the issue of herd immunity, Jain said, "We need to have a population with 40% to 60% having antibodies to reach herd immunity...As of now, Delhi stands at 23%. We will be conducting another test to find out where we stand."

 Mumbai reported 700 new positive cases, the lowest figure in the last 100 days and the doubling rate is 68 days now. Additionally, 8,776 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, the highest so far, the BMC Commissioner said today.

 India's Covid-19 Tally Rises to 14,83,146 | India saw a single-day spike of 47,704 cases and 654 deaths in the last 24 hours taking the Covid-19 tally to 14,83,157, including 4,96,988 active cases.

tally_today

 US Adds 57,000 Covid-19 Cases in 24 Hours: Johns Hopkins | The United States on Monday reported 57,039 fresh coronavirus cases in 24 hours, Johns Hopkins University reported in its real-time tally. The US is the worst-hit country in terms of both death toll and total caseload, which stood at 4,286,663 as of 8:30 pm on Tuesday, according to the Baltimore-based university. After a fall in infection rate in the late spring, the US has seen a recent surge in COVID-19 cases, especially in southern and western states such as California, Texas, Alabama and Florida. Until Sunday, the number of daily infections had exceeded 60,000 for 12 straight days, with some days notching more than 70,000 new cases, news agency AFP reported.

 Moderna, Pfizer Start COVID-19 Vaccine Trials| The trials, both launched on Monday, are the first late-stage studies backed by the Trump administration's effort to fast-track the creation of measures against Covid-19, spurring hope that an effective vaccine will help end the pandemic. Notably, the two vaccine candidates rely on a new technology that enables faster creation and manufacturing than traditional vaccine production methods. However, it does not have an extensive track record, news agency Reuters reported.

 US President Trump wore a mask and detailed the possibility of a Covid-19 vaccine by the end of the year.

 Germany's Confirmed Covid-19 Cases Rise by 633 to 206,242 | The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany went up by 633 to 206,242, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases revealed on Tuesday. The reported death toll increased by 4 to 9,122, the tally showed.

 Rajasthan Govt Tightens Covid-19 Measures | Amid a surge in coronavirus cases, Rajasthan government today tightened measures and announced a fine of Rs 10,000 for non-adherence to sanitisation and social distancing at workplaces.
Vaulsys becomes a TPSP of UnionPay International

DUBAI, UAE, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- UnionPay International and Vaulsys today announce their partnership: Vaulsys becomes a Third Party Service Provider (TPSP) of UnionPay International. The two parties will join force to support the UAE's vision to further digitize the payment industry. Vaulsys is deploying its systems across two different continents in 3 locations across Pakistan, Africa and UAE. Through these 3 locations, Vaulsys intends to serve UnionPay cardholders across the Middle East and Africa regions. Vaulsys plans to carry out business in UnionPay card issuance, card acceptance, cross border remittance, QR payment (issuance and acquiring) and online payments via UPOP. This will enhance the current payment landscape and in turn, improve the lives of the masses in the MEA region.

With over 8.4 billion cards issued in 61 countries and regions, UnionPay is the world's largest bankcard organization in terms of card issuance. In the Middle East, UnionPay is present in 11 countries, and has reached 100% acceptance in the UAE and Pakistan. Moreover, various innovative payment products, including UnionPay contactless payment QuickPass and UnionPay QR Code payment, have been launched in the Middle East region.

Vaulsys is known in the banking and payment industry for its products and solutions namely aulPay - POS/ATM/Web switch, VaulCard - Card Management System, VaulPurse - a Wallet Management System, VaulGuard - AML/Fraud Management System, VaulPi - Microservices basd API system, and VaulGate - API Gateway.

"We are very excited to be a TPSP agent of UnionPay International," said Usman Qureshi, CEO, Vaulsys. "Teaming up with UnionPay International to provide access to UnionPay cards and digital payments is an exciting development for our company and will enable us to bring further value to our products and customers in the MEA region.

This development will also support SME businesses who have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic to launch their digital payment products and solutions in a cost efficient manner. Our headquarters are based in UAE and the domestic hosting and processing of card payment transactions will also help the domestic economy to boost back."

"UnionPay is committed to providing secure and seamless payment experiences to our cardholders worldwide. We believe this partnership will drive further growth of the payment ecosystem and bring more benefits to the customers, merchants in the MEA region," said Han Wang, General Manager of UnionPay International Middle East Branch.

Established in 2015, Vaulsys took a holistic approach in delivering the payment services across multiple channels. From customization and installation of all the delivery channels (POS, ATMs, Internet Gateways, etc.), to designing powerful software solutions to serve as middleware and backend systems, and to setting up the connectivity and network from the front office all the way to back office; Vaulsys brings a new concept to the payments industry of becoming a single most trusted partner to fulfil all the payments needs of any business.

At Vaulsys, we visualized a world of payments full of unique challenges, increased pressures, higher regulations and diverse customer preference giving rise to a whole set of opportunities to improve the very eco-system of payments. This defined our vision to build a fintech powerhouse to cater to the needs of the payment industry, enhance the business of banks, financial institutions and enterprises and in turn, improve the lives of people.

About UnionPay International

UnionPay International (UPI) is a subsidiary of China UnionPay focused on the growth and support of UnionPay's global business. In partnership with more than 2300 institutions worldwide, UnionPay International has enabled card acceptance in 179 countries and regions with issuance in 61 countries and regions. UnionPay International provides high quality, cost effective and secure cross-border payment services to the world's largest cardholder base and ensures convenient local services to a growing number of global UnionPay cardholders and merchants.
100 Years Ago  1920: Nineteen quarts of bonded whiskey was confiscated by Federal Agent George Johnson in a house at 1012 Potter St. yesterday afternoon. It is now safely under three locks at police headquarters. James Gradwell, of 20 Eighth Ave., Newark, N.J., said to be the one time owner of the precious liquor, occupies Cell No. 13, pending his removal to Philadelphia today. Gradwells liquor might have had a safe arrival and delivery had it not been for someone roughly handling the suit case at the Sixth Street station. Anyway, the suit case fell with a thud, bottles broke and liquor flowed. When coppers then visited the house at Potter Street, they found some had reached its destination. A truck in an adjoining outshed contained the real stuff.

75 Years Ago  1945: The search for the oldest manufacturing business in Delaware County came to an end this week (we think) at the William Rose and Brothers Tool Works, in Sharon Hill. Founded in Philadelphia in 1798, just nine years after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution by the first nine states, the Rose firm has been in operation for 147 years. For the past 56 years the company has been located on Elmwood Avenue. Very literally, the Rose company had a great deal to do with the foundations of this great nation.

50 Years Ago  1970: Allan J. Ofensend is going north for this health  from Marple to Radnor. Marples former township manager thinks can lick a disease he called the Delaware County syndrome by moving five miles up the road. Indications of that syndrome, according to Ofensend, include a parochial attitude, an unwillingness to move local government into the 20th century, preference for caretaker government, considerable apathy, and partisan politics playing a major role.

25 Years Ago  1995: Chester yesterday welcomed back five of the 16 police cadets furloughed earlier this year for a lack of funding. City council voted unanimously to appoint Michael Ruggieri, Robert Gorman, Anthony Johnson, Lamont Graves and Michael Paulley as full-time patrolmen in the Chester Police Department, giving the force a total of 99 officers.

10 Years Ago  2010: Citing issues from the potential of increased traffic and crime to decreased property values and quality of life, Concord Township residents voiced numerous concerns Tuesday night regarding the possibility of a Costco behind Brinton Lake Corporate Center on Baltimore Pike. We want to retain the rural charm of Concord Township, said Ann Dockerty. Brinton Lake and Thornton roads are country roads not suited to this amount of traffic.

 COLIN AINSWORTH
Kuala Lumpur: A Malaysian court has sentenced former prime minister Najib Razak to serve up to 12 years in prison after finding him guilty in the first verdict in a series of trials linked to the 1MDB state investment fund.

The current trial involved a charge of abuse of power, three charges of criminal breach of trust and three money laundering charges.

Malaysia's former prime minister Najib Razak, centre, arrives at the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex on Tuesday. Credit:AP

Najib was calm and stone-faced as he became the first Malaysian leader to be convicted. He has vowed to appeal the verdict and took an oath in brief remarks from the dock before the sentencing that he was unaware of the graft.

High Court Judge Mohamad Nazlan Ghazali sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail on one count of abuse of power, 10 years each for three counts of criminal breach of trust, and 10 years each for three counts of money laundering, as well as a fine of 210 million ringgit ($69.1 million). But he ordered the sentences to run concurrently, meaning that Najib will face up to 12 years in jail.
Joel Courtney thinks The Kissing Booth 2 is better than The Kissing Booth.

I just think that we really came into our characters in more of a powerful way in the second film, because we knew the characters, we already had history with these characters, said the actor, who plays Lee Flynn in Netflixs rom-com sequel, which dropped on Friday.

We had history with each other. I think that it really allowed for more depth of character and character building. And then on set, there was a comfortability.

Once he found out there would be a second film, Courtney was excited to return to the characters that drove the original  Netflixs most-rewatched movie of 2018  and built a solid fan base.

There were rumours (of a sequel), he said. There were basically fan petitions happening at that time and I kept thinking, It would be nice, but I dont want to build my hopes too high, and then we got the green light and I was just ecstatic. I was so excited to get to come back to these characters that I fell in love with.

Within six months after the first film was released, the casts social media accounts exploded. Fans were begging for a second film.

They fell in love with these characters, said Courtney, 24. Ive been working for 10 years, Ive worked on a lot of projects, but very few reached the audience like I think The Kissing Booth did. And it was a really special occasion. I knew it as soon as social media started showing us.

The Kissing Booth 2, which once again stars Joey King as Lees best friend, Elle Evans, and Jacob Elordi as his older brother, Noah Flynn, both expands upon and adds new themes to those addressed in the first instalment. The sequel sees Lee and Elle as high school seniors, with Noah, now Elles long-distance boyfriend, away at college.

The themes for the second film are kind of like learning to be OK in your circumstances, Courtney said. For Lee its specifically learning boundaries, and what it means to be able to be in a relationship, and honestly just. like, accept the consequences and learn to face issues. Theres problems and trials that he comes across in the second film and its because of his inability to basically say no to his best friend and to his girlfriend.

Courtney believes The Kissing Booth 2 will connect with people across multiple walks of life because of how real the characters problems are. And he expects continued appeal to all different age groups, from tweens and teens to their parents and adults in general.

I think it took a lot of adults back to their high school years, Courtney said. I think it reminded a lot of people of those John Hughes films from the 80s.

So moms can watch this movie with their daughters. Younger kids can watch this movie because its about their age group. Theres just something so real and down to earth about every single one of these characters that pretty much anyone who watched it can find themselves in one of our characters in the movie.

Courtney relates very strongly to Lees character. The actor is the youngest of four siblings, with a sister and two brothers. He also shares personality traits with Lee.

Were both just absolute goofballs, and we love a good time and we love with our whole hearts, he said. And when that goes well, its the most joyful thing in the world, and when it goes badly it hurts like nothing else is hurt. Lee feels with his entire being. And hes very empathetic and Elles his ride-or-die.

Director Vince Marcello, who also co-wrote and produced both films, felt that Courtney connected with Lees character the moment he watched the actor read his lines.

I was struck by his ability to find authentic, childlike joy in any moment, Marcello said. This is key to Lees character. Lee is a child  becoming a man but still desperately clinging to his adolescence. The Kissing Booth is a coming-of-age story but not just for Elle. Lee and Noah both struggle through their own battles to become the young men they were meant to be.

There were no false moments in this journey for Joel, who was able to capture a youthful innocence despite being in his early 20s, the director said.

In life, Courtney considers himself to be a balance between Elle and Lee, and says Lee has taught him some helpful lessons for life and his career.

Ive learned to love people and to kind of take them where they are, the actor said. Circumstances being what they are, like if someones having a bad day, thats OK, just be kind, be patient. Dont expect them to just change their attitude just because theyre around you. I think thats kind of one of the things that Lee expects is everyone to be as happy as he is all the time.

Marcello noticed the strong transition that Courtney made as Lee between the two films.

In this first film, Lee is in the unenviable position of being the sensitive younger brother of Noah Flynn, the most popular guy in school, he said. In his senior year and moving on to college, he has the chance to come out of Noahs shadow and into his own. This is such a relatable scenario for anyone who had to follow in the footsteps of a successful older sibling. Joel navigates this transition so beautifully while still holding onto the essential characteristic that makes Lee who he is.

Marcello also noticed real growth in Courtneys acting process.

From the start of KB1, Joel was always fun-loving but also a prepared and disciplined actor on set, he said. In KB2, however, I saw him truly come into his own. I was grateful and so impressed as I watched him prep, rehearse and execute difficult scenes that ranged from comedy to drama to action, and all with passion, focus and intensity.

In fact, his entire awareness and appreciation of the filmmaking process moved to another level, all while remaining an absolute delight to work with.

Courtneys future plans include a film with Lionsgate called Jesus Revolution, co-starring Jim Gaffigan and set to begin production in 2021.

The storys about this group of kids in the countercultural movement in the late 1960s, the hippie movement, and they learn about themselves, they learn about life and faith, and they come into themselves, he said. And they grow a lot during those crazy, crazy times.

As for a third Kissing Booth, Courtney would be on board with returning to the franchise.

For the record, I would be totally down, he said. I would be in full support of doing it. But, he said, with the world in such a crazy commotion right now, its not the time to be travelling or working in large groups, like on a film set. And its up to Netflix to work out those details.

But if there were a petition from fans after the second one to do a third, I would totally sign it.

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Hezbollah says ready to confront any Israeli aggression

Iran Press TV

Monday, 27 July 2020 7:09 AM

Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem has reiterated the Lebanese resistance movement's readiness to confront any Israeli aggression.

Speaking in an interview with al-Mayadeen TV channel on Sunday, Sheikh Qassem declined to clarify the movement's response to an Israeli attack that killed one of Hezbollah fighters in Syria last week.

"Let the Israelis have their own estimations and calculations in this regard," he said.

Hezbollah announced the death of Ali Kamel Mohsen, one of its members, in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus on July 20 and promised retaliation.

Sheikh Qassem also played down recent Israeli threats, saying there were "mere chest-beating."

His remarks came after Israel's minister of military affairs Benny Gantz warned Syria and Lebanon that they would be held responsible for any attacks against Israel coming from their territory.

"We don't want any unnecessary escalations, but anyone who tests us will be met by a very high capability to take action, and I hope we won't need to use it," Gantz said.

Sheikh Qassem dismissed the prospect of an all-out war with Israel in the next few months.

"Israel's political confusion and low expectation from war outcomes as well as US President Donald Trump's quagmire eliminate the possibility of an imminent eruption of the war," he said.

But he promised Tel Aviv will be delivered yet another defeat if it launched an aggression.

"If Israel decides to go to war with us, then we will confront them, and the 2006 [Second Lebanon] War will be the model for our response," Sheikh Qassem said.

The Israeli military went into high alert near the Lebanese border, amid concerns that Hezbollah would conduct a retaliation attack.

Gantz made his threats during a visit to the border between the occupied territories and Lebanon on Sunday, where he said the Israeli regime was "prepared for all possibilities".

Shortly later, an Israeli spy drone crashed inside Lebanon, according to an Israeli military spokeswoman.

In his interview, Sheikh Qassem also touched on the US harassment of an Iranian passenger plane over Syria, saying Washington wants to wreck a strategic pact between Iran and Syria.

The move by the US warplanes was similar to Israeli tactics in the past, when Israel's aircraft used civilian planes as a shield to draw fire from Syrian air-defense systems.

Iran and Syria signed a "comprehensive" agreement to boost military and defense cooperation on July 8.

On Thursday night, US warplanes operating illegally in Syria conducted aggressive maneuvers dangerously close to an Iranian Mahan Air flight over Syria's al-Tanf region.

Mahan Air's Flight 1152 had taken off from Tehran and was en route to the Lebanese capital, Beirut, when the incident happened.

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Senate Republicans finally announced on Monday the amount that each individual will receive for the next stimulus package based on their proposal. They called the White House-backed proposal as HEALS Act.

Senate Republicans have unveiled the details of their next stimulus, which is expected to come out this August. They called the next stimulus bill as Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, and Schools or HEALS Act, which is the government's respond to the economic and public health crisis.

The proposed HEALS Act of the Senate Republicans will include a variety of components. The proposal includes liability protection, the second round of direct payments to the Americans, and a second round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to help the hardest-hit small business owners, according to a published article of CNN News.

However, the Republican-led HEALS Act has cut the amount of weekly unemployment benefit from $600 to $200. The $200 weekly unemployment benefit is perhaps the most controversial aspect of the Republican-led proposal. It is the provision in the proposed HEALS Act that was backlashed by the Democrats.

The unemployment benefit under the CARES Act is set to expire at the end of this week. This means that unemployed Americans will have to depend their weekly unemployment claims based on their respective state.

Typically, a state implements a system by providing a 70 percent wage replacement for laid-off workers.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republican senators have authored another bold framework to help the Americans just like with the CARES Act in March. He also stressed that they need the Democratic lawmakers to do their part.

McConnell asserted that Democrats should put aside partisan stonewalling and rediscover the sense of urgency so that the CARES Act will be signed into law. He also hoped that in the next two or three weeks the Senate will get the next stimulus relief bill to the house.

However, the Democrats are already unified in their $3 trillion proposals that they passed in May. They called the bill as HEROES Act that aims to extend the CARES Act. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the HEALS Act of Republicans as half-hearted, half-baked, too little, and too late.

Meanwhile, it was also revealed that the original plan of the Republicans to unveil the details of the next stimulus was supposed to be last week. However, it was delayed due to disputes and holdups. This dispute has mainly stemmed from the different ideas of Republican and Democratic lawmakers in coming up with the next stimulus provisions.

Meanwhile, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine on Monday said the proposal "would allow the hardest-hit small employers, those whose revenue has declined by 50 percent or even more, to receive a second PPP forgivable loan." Collins added that "to ensure that we are targeting assistance to employers that need help the most, we limit those second loans to small businesses with 300 or fewer employees."

Republican lawmakers are also divided within their ranks as to how they would put up together a proposal. Some Republican senators were worried about putting up another trillion on top of the relief aid they enacted last March.

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By Manas Mishra and Michael Erman (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc on Tuesday said other developed countries would not get a lower price for its coronavirus vaccine than what it will charge the United States under a contract announced last week.

By Manas Mishra and Michael Erman

(Reuters) - Pfizer Inc on Tuesday said other developed countries would not get a lower price for its coronavirus vaccine than what it will charge the United States under a contract announced last week.

The U.S. government agreed to pay nearly $2 billion to buy enough of a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer and German biotech BioNTech SE <22UAy.F> to inoculate 50 million people at a price of $39 for a two-dose treatment course.

That deal likely set a global benchmark for vaccines at about the same price as a seasonal flu shot and could pressure other vaccine makers to set similar prices.

"All the countries that are developed right now will not receive a lower price for the same volume commitment than the U.S.," Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla said on a conference call.

Pfizer said the vaccine's price could change once the pandemic period ends, compared with its initial decision aimed at ensuring broadest access.

Pfizer is one of many companies racing to bring COVID-19 vaccines to market, seen as essential to ending a pandemic that has claimed more than 655,000 lives globally.

Bourla told Reuters that Pfizer was in concurrent talks with the European Union and several of its member states on supplying them with the vaccine.

"We are negotiating with the EU because that would be much easier. But also we are having extensive discussions with several member states, just in case we can't find agreement with the EU," Bourla said.

BioNTech and Pfizer on Monday began a large, late-stage trial of one of their vaccine candidates to demonstrate its efficacy hours after Moderna Inc announced the start of a 30,000-subject trial of its vaccine using a different technology.

Bourla called an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump last week that would tie what Medicare pays for drugs to lower prices in other countries an enormous distraction at a time where the industry needs to be completely focused on developing a potential COVID-19 vaccine or treatment.

The CEO said Pfizer could rethink U.S. expansion plans if the Trump order were to be implemented.

On Tuesday, Pfizer beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit by 12 cents a share and raised its full-year earnings forecast range by 3 cents, as the U.S. drugmaker predicted a recovery in vaccination rates and doctor visits after patients avoided treatments over coronavirus fears in the year's first half.

The company took a roughly $500 million hit to total sales in the second quarter as the drop in visits to hospitals and doctors' offices curtailed demand for several products.

The impact was offset somewhat by demand for blood thinner Eliquis, which has been used to help treat COVID-19 patients.

Pfizer now expects 2020 adjusted profit of $2.28 to $2.38 per share. Pfizer shares rose 4% to $39.07.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru and Michael Erman in Maplewood N.J., Additional reporting by Carl O'Donnell; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Bill Berkrot)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
New Delhi, Jul 28 (UNI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his Mauritius counterpart Pravind Jugnauth will jointly inaugurate the new Supreme Court building of Mauritius on Thursday.

The inauguration is scheduled to take place through video-conference in presence of senior members of Judiciary from Mauritius and other dignitaries from both the countries, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.



The building has been constructed with Indian grant assistance and will be the first India assisted infrastructure project within the capital city of Port Louis, it added.



The new Supreme Court building project is one of the five projects being implemented under the Special Economic Packageof USD 353 million extended by the Indian government to Mauritius in 2016.



The project has been completed within schedule and below expected costs.



The building is spread over an area of more than 4700 sqm with over 10 floors and a built up area of around 25,000 sqm.



The building flaunts a modern design and green features with focus on thermal and sound insulation and high energy efficiency.



The new building will bring all divisions and offices of the Supreme Court of Mauritius into a single building improving its efficiency.



In October 2019, Prime Minister Modi and the PM of Mauritius had jointly inaugurated the Phase -I of the Metro Express Project and the new ENT Hospital project in Mauritius, also built under the special economic package.



Under Phase-I of Metro Express project, construction of 12 km of metro-line was completed in September last year, while work on its Phase -2 envisaging 14 km of metro-line is ongoing.



Through the ENT Hospital project, India assisted in construction of a 100 bed state of the art ENT hospital in Mauritius.



The successful and timely completion of India assisted high quality infrastructure projects in Mauritius shall also create greater opportunities for Indian companies in Mauritius and in the region.

The new Supreme Court Building will be an important landmark in the city center symbolizing the strong bilateral partnership between the two countries, it added.

UNI ASH SHK2203
San Francisco, July 28 : Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has claimed that Artificial Intelligence will be 'vastly smarter' than any human and would overtake us by 2025.

"We are headed toward a situation where AI is vastly smarter than humans. I think that time frame is less than five years from now. But that doesn't mean that everything goes to hell in five years. It just means that things get unstable or weird," Musk said in an interview with New York Times over the weekend.

This is not the first time that Musk has shown concern related to AI. Back in 2016, Musk said that humans risk being treated like house pets by AI unless technology is developed that can connect brains to computers.

He even described AI as an 'existential threat' to humanity.

"I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I were to guess like what our biggest existential threat is, it's probably that,'' he said.

However, Musk helped found the artificial intelligence research lab OpenAI in 2015 with the goal of developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) that can learn and master several disciplines.

Recently, OpenAI released its first commercial product, a programme to make use of a text-generation tool that it once called too dangerous.

It has the potential to spare people from writing long texts. Once an application is developed on the basis of the programme, all they need to give is a prompt.

OpenAI earlier desisted from revealing more about the software fearing bad actors might misuse it for producing misleading articles, impersonate others or even automate phishing content.
A new piece in Family Practice, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that tracking symptoms affiliated with the novel coronavirus through an app may not be a good predictor of the spread of the disease.

Over the course of 2020, as the novel coronavirus has spread across the globe causing extensive illness and economic havoc to communities everywhere, health care providers and the general public have been eager to find a way to identify the illness. In the absence of readily available tests, scientists have worked to identify clues to detect those who might have the illness as a way to combat the spread of the virus.

A recent study, "Real-time tracking of self-reported symptoms to predict potential COVID-19," published in Nature Medicine, suggested that a prediction score combining loss of smell and taste, fatigue, cough, and loss of appetite - collected through an app - was able to prospectively identify people at risk of COVID-19.

Researchers here compared the main features of the population involved in the Nature Medicine study, and the performance of their score, with data from a cross-sectional study conducted between March 24th and April 29th 2020, and applied the Nature Medicine model to these data.

Applying the probability threshold in the Nature Medicine study to these data indicated that 41% of positive tests were false positives, while 17% of negative tests were false negatives.

In the Family Practice piece, general practitioners referred most patients because they were complaining of COVID-like symptoms. It is likely that this population was symptomatic due to the triage performed by general practitioners prior to testing. Indeed, nearly half the patients in the sample reported fever (45.4%), reflecting the common reason for doctors to refer patients to testing at the time these data were collected.

Fever was registered in the app in the Nature Medicine study by only one-third of patients.

In conclusion, while real-time symptom collection through an app seems to be an attractive method to screen for potential infections, and the Nature Medicine study confirms the crucial value of specific symptoms such as loss of smell and taste, the score proposed in the study does not appear to perform well in a primary care population.

"These results confirm the crucial role of laboratory testing in COVID-19 and the need to support research on COVID-19 in primary care populations," said the letter's lead author, Benoit Tudrej.

###

The letter, "Is a COVID-19 prediction model based on symptom tracking through an app applicable in primary care?" is available to the public on July 28th.

Direct correspondence to:

Benoit Tudrej

Mermoz Primary Health Centre

99 avenue Jean Mermoz, 69008 Lyon, FRANCE

dr.tudrej@gmail.com

To request a copy of the letter, please contact:

Daniel Luzer

daniel.luzer@oup.com
Staying vigilant against the virus

All hands on deck: As of mid-June, Delawares epidemiology team swelled from 16 people to almost 190  including about 100 members of the Delaware National Guard who joined the effort in mid-May to assist with contact tracing for people who were in close contact with someone who had the virus. Photo by Delaware National Guard

Daunting task: Only months into her job as Delaware's deputy state epidemiologist, Erica E. Smith '08 faced the challenge confronting health officials worldwide: how to respond to the worst health crisis in a generation. Submitted photo Photo - of - Hide Caption

Several months into her job as Delawares deputy state epidemiologist, Erica E. Smith 08 faced the daunting challenge confronting health officials worldwide: how to respond to the worst health crisis in a generation.

When the coronavirus began spreading throughout the United States early this year, Smith and her team of epidemiologists and investigators moved from their home base in Delawares capital city of Dover to the more centrally located State Health Operations Center in Smyrna. There, they combined forces with health systems and other state agencies to track COVID-19 data, talk with patients and strategize ways to contain the virus.

By late April, the usual epidemiology team of 16 had increased to 60 in the battle against COVID-19. As of mid-June, the team was at almost 190 people  including about 100 members of the Delaware National Guard who joined the effort in mid-May to assist with contact tracing for people who were in close contact with someone who had the virus.

When we spoke on April 29, the pandemic was peaking in Delaware, with 337 people being treated in hospitals on April 27 and the highest number of new hospitalizations, 121, on April 30. The daily number of new COVID-19 cases hit 496 on May 10, before dropping to 34 on June 2.

The day we talked, we had just identified a large number of cases in Sussex County, she said in a follow-up email in mid-June. We worked with the poultry industry there to institute safety measures, social distancing, personal protective equipment and testing in their facilities. We also held several dozen community testing events in places where high numbers of cases were identified.

Known as the birthplace of the broiler chicken industry, Sussex County produces more chickens than any other county in the nation  about 200 million pounds per year. The county also has a sizeable Latino population. People identifying as Hispanic or Latino make up a disproportionate number of the COVID-19 cases in Sussex at 37% and statewide at 27%, though they comprise only about 9% of the overall population in the county and the state.

Responding to trends has been a key part of Delawares response, along with Gov. John Carneys directives that residents wear masks in public and stay home if possible. On June 25, the governor delayed Phase 3 of the states economic reopening. While the numbers of new cases and hospitalizations were down significantly from the peak, there was an uptick in the latter part of June as teenagers and young adults headed to Dewey, Rehoboth and Bethany beaches. Of the cumulative 13,050 coronavirus cases in Delaware as of July 15, those between 18 and 34 years old made up the largest number of any age group, at nearly 4,000.

Too many Delawareans and visitors are not following basic public health precautions, Carney said in his June 25 announcement, urging residents to keep wearing their masks and practice physical distancing. Weve heard and seen concerns, especially in our beach communities, in restaurants, in gyms and at sporting events.  Weve seen what has happened in other states when folks let their guard down. Lets not be one of those states.

His warning  backed by the efforts of Smith and her team  appears to have had an effect, as new cases declined again in early July. During a briefing on July 14, Carney announced that New York, New Jersey and Connecticut had moved Delaware off their list of states whose travelers are required to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. Carney also spelled out plans to reopen schools for in-person instruction, pending a resurgence of the virus.

Our main focus now is building a robust contact-tracing effort, Smith said. Building on the work conducted by the National Guard, Delaware is implementing a more long-term solution that involves hiring 200 people and working with the research institution NORC at the University of Chicago on expanded testing and tracing of coronavirus cases.

As an infectious disease epidemiologist, Smith is used to dealing with routine illnesses such as the flu, measles, Salmonella and Lyme disease. Along with others in her field, shes also been preparing for pandemics since the outbreak of the H1N1 virus in 2009.

Still, I never imagined it would be quite like this, she said. While many people remained under stay-at-home orders, Smith and her colleagues would come to work each day with masks on and undergo a temperature screening and brief interview as they enter the building.

As the months wear on, one of the main threats they face in fighting COVID-19 is what she termed quarantine fatigue.

One of the bigger challenges is the natural desire for humans to be social with one another. The longer we ask people to do it, the harder it is, Smith said. Were trying to reinforce the importance of the message that even if you feel fine, you can still spread the virus. People are frustrated, but unfortunately, until were able to have some kind of a treatment or vaccine for the virus, we have to wrap our minds around that this is the new normal.

While she may not have envisioned her current situation, Smith has known she wanted to be an infectious disease epidemiologist since she was a high school student in Alexandria, Virginia, when she read the book The Hot Zone about the emergence of the Ebola virus. Her interest in that career path led her to William & Mary, where she majored in biology and minored in anthropology. Smith then earned a master of public health degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and a doctorate from Drexel University, working for state health departments along the way.

Smith said she developed important time management and organizational skills during her rigorous studies at William & Mary that help her in her present high-pressure environment. One of the memorable experiences from her time at W&M was working with Virginia Institute of Marine Science professor Jeffrey Shields on a project during the summer between her junior and senior year, investigating a parasite that grows on marine grasses. Another was playing flute and piccolo with the Wind Ensemble and the Pep Band.

Im still in touch with most of my friends from the ensemble, she said.

Smith, who graduated into a challenging economic climate during the recession of 2008-2009, empathizes with graduates who are starting their careers now. Her advice: Be ready to adapt to unexpected opportunities in a rapidly changing world.

A year ago, if someone asked what I do, no one ever had any idea what that was, she said. Now epidemiology has become part of the vocabulary. I just finished graduate school last year, and Im glad to be out and in the work force and able to help out here in Delaware.
Chloe Zhaos Nomadland is the first movie announced in the new partnership between Venice, Toronto, New York and Telluride festivals, which typically compete against each other for world premiere rights.

Chloe Zhaos Nomadland, starring Frances McDormand, will premiere across the major fall film festivals in an alliance forged by the Venice, Toronto, New York and Telluride festivals.

Nomadland, Zhaos follow-up to her acclaimed 2018 film The Rider, is the first movie announced in the new partnership that has brought together the falls biggest movie launch pads, which typically compete against each other for world premiere rights.

Toronto and New York are prepping primarily virtual editions. Telluride was forced to cancel entirely, but it will carry on in drive-in screenings in Los Angeles.

(Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak)

Nomadland will debut across Venice, Toronto, and at Telluride from Los Angeles on 11 September. New York, which named the film its centerpiece, will premiere Zhaos film on a later date.

Adapted from Jessica Bruders non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, the film is about a woman, Fern, who after her Nevada business collapses, joins with other older American workers laid off in the Great Recession to travel the country in campers.

The American road fascinates me, said Zhao. Its heartbreakingly beautiful and deeply complicated. Ive traveled it for many years and always hoped to capture a glimpse of it. Im thankful to be able to make Nomadland and excited for audiences to join Fern on her adventure.

Fox Searchlight is planning to release Nomadland theatrically in the fall.

It is a film that acquires particular meaning in a moment of pandemic induced seclusion, proving that values like mutual support and a strong sense of community can save us from solitude, failure, and despair, said Alberto Barbera, director of the Venice International Film Festival. I am also happy to share the opportunity to support this beautiful film with our fellow festivals of Telluride, Toronto, and New York: a concrete sign of solidarity and collaboration in this unprecedented and difficult time.
Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely to be infected with and die from the novel coronavirus, regardless of where they live, a new study suggests.

Researchers found almost three times the number of cases and and deaths in wealthy minority neighborhoods compared to similar areas that have mostly white residents.

This was true across 10 major US cities including New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, according to New York University Grossman School of Medicine.

What's more, when limited to low-income counties, the risk of infection and deaths for black and Hispanics from non-white neighborhoods was eight to nine times greater than those living in predominantly Caucasian towns.

Blacks and Hispanics in low-income and minority neighborhoods in the US had eight times the infection risk of whites in low-income and mainly white towns. Pictured: A healthcare worker tends to a patient in the COVID-19 Unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, July 2

'While we expected to see greater numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths in predominantly non-white, low-income communities, we were surprised that this relationship still held even after we accounted for poverty rates,' said lead author Dr Samrachana Adhikari, an assistant professor in the department of Population Health at NYU Grossman.

'Given our findings, we believe that structural racism may explain these racial disparities in number of cases and deaths noted in Black counties.'

For the study, published in JAMA Network Open, the team analyzed data from the 2018 US Census Small Areas Income and Poverty Estimates program, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state health departments.

Researchers focused on 10 large US cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia and Seattle.

Cases and deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, were examined per 100,000 people across 158 counties in these cities.

The team says infections in these areas account for 64 percent of all cases through May 10 in the nation.

Of the 158 counties, 51.3 percent were considered 'less poverty' counties with a median income of $79,834.

The remaining 48.7 percent were labeled 'more poverty' counties with a median income of $60,240.

In the poorer counties that were mostly made up of non-whites, the coronavirus infection was nearly eight times that of a county with mostly white people.

Additionally, the death rate was more than than nine times greater in minority neighborhoods than in white neighborhoods.

However, the same was true in the 'less poverty' counties.

In this case, more affluent areas made up of minorities saw about three times as many infections and deaths as the richer Caucasian towns.

'We have known for decades that racism kills,' said co-author Dr Gbenga Ogedegbe, a professor of Population Health and Medicine at NYU Langone.

'Racism is a public health issue which has been implicated in the racial gap in mortality and in health outcomes.'

He adds that the findings indicate that structural racism is an underlying factor causing higher rates of cases and deaths in minority communities.

'The fact that non-white residents died from the virus at higher rates than white residents in both wealthier and poorer communities should be a major alarm bell to policymakers at the national and local government levels, academic medical centers, and the country at large,' Ogedegbe said.

For future research, the team hopes to look at more granular data breaking down residents by race and ethnicity to look at any factors driving these rates.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said Tuesday it has arrested an associate professor of English of Delhi University in connection with the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case.

Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil, 54, is a resident of Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh.

The case relates to inciting people and giving provocative speeches during an Elgar Parishad event organised by the Kabir Kala Manch at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which promoted enmity between various caste groups and led to violence resulting in loss of life and property and statewide agitation in Maharashtra, an NIA spokesperson said.

On September 11, 2019, the Pune police had searched his house in connection with the Elgar Parishad case. The Pune Police filed a charge sheet and a supplementary charge sheet in this case on November 15, 2018 and February 2, 2019 respectively.

The spokesperson said that during investigation, the NIA found that senior leaders of CPI (Maoist), an organisation banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, were in contact with the organizers of Elgar Parishad as well as Hany Babu to spread the ideology of Maoism/Naxalism and encourage unlawful activities.

The NIA took up the investigation of the case on January 24 this year and arrested two other accused - Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha - on April 14.

During further investigation, it was revealed that accused Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil was propagating Naxal activities and Maoist ideology and was a co-conspirator with other arrested accused, the NIA spokesperson said.

Hany Babu will be produced before NIA Special Court in Mumbai on Wednesday, he said.
NEW YORK  Less than two weeks ago, a young television reporter died after falling off a scooter rented from the moped-sharing company Revel. After her death, which was believed to the first involving a Revel scooter, the startup vowed to do better on safety.

Then, Tuesday morning brought a second fatality, when a man who was driving a Revel moped crashed into a light pole in Queens.

Hours later, Revel, whose electric-blue, Vespa-like vehicles have become a familiar sight on the streets of New York City, announced that it was suspending its operations in the city.

The decision came as moped sharing has spiked in popularity, both in New York and globally. Within the last year, Revel, which is based in Brooklyn, has expanded to four other U.S. cities and announced plans for a fifth. Similar startups have launched in cities in Europe and Asia, where mopeds have long been more common.

Revel, in a statement posted on its website, said it would shut down its New York City service in order to review and strengthen our rider accountability and safety measures but that it planned to restart operations in the city in the near future.

ALSO TV reporter dies after accident involving Revel scooter

A spokeswoman said Revel was in active discussions with city officials but declined to comment further.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said his administration had been in discussions with Revels chief executive after a number of reports of recent crashes involving the mopeds, which can travel up to 30 mph. The mayor called the situation unsatisfactory and unacceptable.

De Blasio added that the city had the ability to regulate, restrict and even prohibit Revel scooters, and that the company would need the approval of city officials to restart its operations.

Our people have been talking to Revel, and theyve been making changes, but not enough changes, is the bottom line, the mayor said. This has just gotten to be too much. It just doesnt work the way its structured.

De Blasio did not offer specific criteria that Revel would need to meet, and city officials did not immediately respond to questions.

The mayors actions drew criticism from some street safety advocates, who noted that the number of deaths from Revels mopeds paled in comparison to the 95 people killed and more than 18,000 injured in car crashes so far this year.

Its arrival was also cheered by safe-street advocates who have called for transit options safer than cars, especially in areas poorly served by the citys public transit network.

As safety concerns mounted, Revel said in an email sent to its users Sunday that it had 3,000 vehicles on the streets of New York, and that its riders were traveling about 100,000 miles per day.

Yet for some, the easy access to Revels scooters was a source of consternation. The company caps its mopeds speed at 30 mph  above the 25-mph speed limit intended to curb crashes on most New York City streets.

New York state considers mopeds to be limited-use motorcycles, but Revels do not require a motorcycle license to operate because of their top speed.

As of Tuesday, at least a dozen lawsuits had been filed against Revel either by riders who said the scooters malfunctioned, or people who said they had been injured by Revel riders.

Daniel Flanzig, a lawyer representing injured people in a number of those cases, said that Revel had failed to adequately advise users of safety concerns.

None of their advertising or marketing ever seemed to focus on the fact that theyre dangerous, Flanzig said.

Flanzig added that he supported the idea behind Revel and similar transportation options that would reduce the number of cars on city streets. But like the mayor, he wanted to see the company take more forceful steps to ensure safety for riders and pedestrians alike.

You need to make sure that people have an adequate understanding of the dangers of riding them, and they can do it safely, Flanzig said.

After the death of Kapur, Revel said it had strengthened its rider safety procedures. In Sundays email, the company said it had suspended more than 2,000 Revel riders in the past six weeks.

It also promised to unveil new safety measures, including requiring users to take an in-app safety exam and to confirm they are wearing a helmet before they begin driving.

In addition to New York, Revel currently operates in Washington; Miami; Austin, Texas; and Oakland, California, according to the companys website. The company said it had not suspended its services in those cities.

Austins transportation department said in a statement that it did not plan to alter Revels operations there. Officials in Washington said they would continue to monitor Revel use in the city.

Officials in the other cities did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Wellington, July 27 (IANS) The New Zealand government announced on Monday that it will spend NZ$51 million ($34 million) on the country's embattled overseas education sector, as schools, universities and tertiary institutes continue to reel from the loss of foreign students in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NZ$5 billion foreign student industry has been essentially ground to a halt after the government closed the borders in March due to the health crisis, reports The New Zealand Herald newspaper.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins, who announced the package with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, said that education providers should not expect to bring in students from overseas this year.

He added that much of the sector's recovery in the future comes down to when the borders will be reopened.

Hipkins promised that no universities are going to go broke in the short term, as a result of the border closure.

There have been 31,000 New Zealanders who have returned since the borders closed.

He said international students, if they do come to New Zealand, will be responsible for the costs of their isolation.

The Minister further said that the government was "acutely aware of the challenges" the education sector is currently facing.

"We are sensitive to the impact the unexpected loss of revenue will have had on international education providers and the investment announced today will help cushion the blow," he was quoted as saying by The The New Zealand Herald newspaper.

--IANS

ksk/
EDMONTON - Alberta municipalities that have been economically thrashed by the COVID-19 pandemic are receiving more than $1 billion in support from other levels of government.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/7/2020 (540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney updates media on measures taken to help with COVID-19, in Edmonton on March 20, 2020. Alberta municipalities whose economies have been thrashed by the COVID-19 pandemic are receiving more than $1 billion in support from other orders of government. The funds include $500 million in provincial money for shovel-ready infrastructure projects starting this year, which is part of Alberta's multi-billion dollar recovery plan. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says he knows these are eye-popping numbers that represent a lot of borrowed money. He says this year's budget deficit is expected to exceed $20 billion. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

EDMONTON - Alberta municipalities that have been economically thrashed by the COVID-19 pandemic are receiving more than $1 billion in support from other levels of government.

The funds include $500 million in provincial money for shovel-ready infrastructure projects starting this year  part of Alberta's multibillion-dollar recovery plan.

Municipalities and Metis settlements can start applying for funding to build roads, bridges and other infrastructure that would not have been built otherwise this year or next.

Alberta and Ottawa are also together contributing more than $600 million for municipal and transit operating costs under the federal-provincial Safe Restart Agreement.

Premier Jason Kenney says he knows these are eye-popping numbers that represent a lot of borrowed money.

He says this year's provincial budget deficit is expected to exceed $20 billion.

"All of this will lead to a great fiscal reckoning. But right now, in the face of the deepest jobs crisis in nearly a century, we must prudently leverage the province's balance sheet to diversify and to create jobs, to build and to ensure a strong economic future," Kenney said Tuesday.

"Because if we don't get people back to work, if we don't restore investor confidence and get our economy growing again, the fiscal challenge will become insurmountable. So jobs and the economy must come first."

A fiscal update is expected in about a month, Kenney said.

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson said his city is expected to take a $172-million hit this year from rising costs and plummeting revenues, and has had to make deep service and staff cuts.

"This relief announcement is a validation of what mayors have been saying for months: That economic recovery itself is at risk in our communities without financial support for municipalities," he said.

"A quick and complete recovery for our province depends immensely on the ability of our cities and towns and our counties to recover confidently and continue, especially in the big cities, to provide services like transit at service levels that reduce crowding."

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he's always been proud that his city hasn't needed outside support for its operating budget until now.

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.

But he said Calgary is looking at a $400-million deficit this year and that it, too, has resorted to mass layoffs and service cuts.

Ridership on Calgary's light-rail transit system was down as much as 90 per cent during the pandemic, Nenshi noted.

"This pandemic has been terrible. It has been terrible for so many of us ... and it will be terrible in ways that we haven't yet realized," he said.

"But today's announcement gives citizens the confidence that the three orders of government are working together, because we get through this the way we always get through things  and that is together."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 28, 2020.

 By Lauren Krugel in Calgary
Survivor was just removed from CBS fall lineup in 2020 due to the ongoing concern over coronavirus. While the network explained that theyre trying to look out for the best interest of their cast and crew, there are still those who believe precautions like these arent necessary. Now, Survivor alum Russell Hantz is taking to Twitter to tell fans to put on their masks and deal with it.

Russell Hantz tells fans to wear their masks

With the Mask thingYou do know the government MAKES you wear your seatbelt right?? This isnt the first time the government mandated something to protect you or others. #justsaying  Russell Hantz (@russellhantz) July 17, 2020

RELATED: Survivor: Why Kellee Kim Isnt Ready to Forget Season 39

Survivor legend Russell Hantz wants you to put on your mask already. The CBS reality show alum, who previously was not wearing masks regularly during the COVID-19 outbreak, has decided its time to stick with the advice of health professionals and don his mask.

Hes encouraging others to do the same as well. Hantz took to Twitter to explain why he thinks folks should be wearing their masks. He wrote, With the Mask thingYou do know the government MAKES you wear your seatbelt right?? This isnt the first time the government mandated something to protect you or others.

Hantz added in another tweet, Why wouldnt i wear a mask?? I think its smart to wear a mask even during flu season. To me its not political.

Hantz, who tends to lean fairly far to the right when it comes to politics, has been taking pains to point out that keeping your friends and family healthy should not be a matter of political discourse  rather one of common sense.

Survivor star responds to critics on Twitter

Russell Hantz and Jeff Probst of Survivor | Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty Images

Some critics took to Twitter to try and put Russell Hantz on blast for his new stance regarding wearing masks.

One user wrote, What changed your mind from the moment you were walking through the grocery store with your daughter getting steaks without a mask on youtube? It just appears like youre doing this to change your public perception.

Hantz replied, Because it was not mandatory and now it is and I accept it!

Another user added, I mean to be fair, wearing a mask shouldnt be a left vs right thing. We dont have to turn everything into some political debate here.

Hantz replied, Agreed!

When another user suggested that this is a matter of pushing a political agenda, Hantz wrote back, I dont let that bother me. Im just trying to protect my family the best I can.

Jeff Probst dishes on the future of Survivor amid COVID-19

Jeff Probst of Survivor | CBS via Getty Images

Russell Hantz isnt the only one looking out for his people. Jeff Probst has been opening up about CBS choice to pull Survivor from the fall lineup, as well as what the future of the show may look like amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

The legendary host wrote a letter to the cast and crew explaining the decision. As reported by CBS News, Probst wrote, hough Fiji has no reported cases and is beautifully remote, our crew numbers over 400 and are flying in from over 20 different countries, creating a need for more time to fully analyze and create our new production safety plan. The situation is unprecedented and we are learning more information every day. It is out of concern for the well-being of all of you that we have taken this step.

As for the future of Survivor amid the pandemic and the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement, Probst added, Our job is to use this format to explore new ways to examine how were behaving as people and how were relating to each other. There are all kinds of things happening in the world right now  certainly they impact the physical aspects of production, but theyre also going to change the tone and subject matter of a lot of shows. I think Survivor is going to be one of those shows.

He went on to explain, The entire culture is in a beautiful upheaval, and our job is to respond to it to make sure that Survivor continues to reflect our culture and our behavior and how were interacting with each other. Everything thats happening is going to inform the future of Survivor.
New Delhi:

With the public still facing cash crunch, Big Bazaar on Tuesday announced that customers can withdraw cash up to Rs 2,000 by using debit cards at all its stores from November 24.



In a statement, the Future Retail firm said all its stores, along with all fbb ones, will be enabled to allow customers to withdraw up to Rs 2,000 from their own bank accounts, using their debit/ATM cards.



It said the facility is now available at 258 Big Bazaar and fbb stores in over 115 cities and towns across the country.



State Bank of India has helped Big Bazaar activate this facility through the banks Cash at POS machines. Customers can withdraw cash from their bank accounts of any scheduled bank in the country, the company said.



We are trying hard to ease any difficulties faced by customers due to the demonetisation of some currency notes and support the governments initiative in meeting its objective, Kishore Biyani, Chairman, Future Retail, said.



Now with customers being able to withdraw cash at Big Bazaar stores, they are welcome to visit our stores instead of qeueing up at banks and ATMs.

The cash withdrawal facility will be subject to all applicable restrictions imposed by banks, Reserve Bank of India and government notifications from time to time.



The government recently allowed the withdrawal of cash of up to a limit of Rs 2,000 by swiping debit cards at select petrol pumps using point-of-sale transactions (POS) machines.



Customers can follow four simple steps to withdraw cash:



1. Visit the dedicated cash counter at the store,

2. Swipe their debit/ATM cards

3. Enter the PIN

4. withdraw up to Rs 2,000 from their accounts

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
The son of Boohoo's 1.6million-a-year chief executive was found dead in his bed after taking a morphine overdose during lockdown just ten days before his 21st birthday, an inquest has heard.

Louis Lyttle, 20, whose father is fast fashion chain boss John Lyttle, died at the family's 1.9million mansion near Sevenoaks, Kent, it emerged today.

He was discovered unresponsive and not breathing after failing to get up for work at 5am on Monday, April 20. Louis, who is understood to have worked for his father at Boohoo in the marketing department, was pronounced dead by paramedics at 6.20am.

An inquest into his death of Mr Lyttle opened at County Hall in Maidstone, Kent, with the cause of death given as morphine toxicity. It is not known why he was taking the strong painkiller.

He is survived by his parents John and Clodagh, who met in their native Ireland while working as buyers for Primark in Dublin in the 1990s, and his two sisters, Laura and Kate.

A friend of the family in Galway, where Louis was born, told MailOnline today: 'We're all devastated to hear this has happened to their beautiful son, Louis. We had heard he had died during lockdown but had no idea of the circumstances. It's just so sad.'

According to his LinkedIn profile, Louis was a former pupil at the 27,000-a-year King's School in Canterbury, studied business management at Cardiff University and also worked at Boohoo since July last year.

His father, a marathon enthusiast who helped run Primark before moving to Boohoo in 2019, travels from Sevenoaks to the company's headquarters in Manchester by train to work through the week, and his digital marketer son is likely to have regularly travelled with him.

Mr Lyttle has recently been dealing with a crisis at Boohoo over claims that clothes made for the fast fashion firm were produced throughout lockdown by staff paid just 3.50 per hour, below the minimum wage, and without adequate PPE.

Louis Lyttle, 20, the son of fast fashion chain boss John Lyttle, right, died at home near Sevenoaks in April after an overdose of morphine, an inquest has heard

A full inquest hearing into Louis' death has now been adjourned until September 24, coroner Alan Blunsdon said. Louis was laid to rest in a churchyard outside Sevenoaks.

He was born in Galway, Ireland and his occupation was confirmed as digital marketer at Boohoo. Before this, he reportedly interned at banking company, Investec, and health insurers, Religare, according to LinkedIn.

'The richest shopkeeper you've never heard of': Who is Boohoo CEO John Lyttle? John Lyttle, 51, was born in Ireland and after leaving school joined Primark as a trainee store manager. Irish-born Mr Lyttle worked in Dublin where he met his future wife Clodagh, who also worked for the business in the 1990s. He rose through the ranks to the role of head of buying before joining the Arcadia Group, run by Sir Philip Green, as buying director in the UK. Mr Lyttle then worked at Matalan for five years as trading director before returning to Primark in 2010. He oversaw sales rocket to over 7billion in his role as chief operating officer. When he was appointed chief executive of Boohoo its executive chairman Mahmud Kamani described himself as 'thrilled' to have him on board. He described himself as a keen runner in a recent interview, but showed the scale of his ambition at the clothing company. Mr Lyttle said: 'We might have started in the UK market. But really what we want to be is truly a global player'. But he has had to battle a number of scandals in his first year in the job. It is alleged staff were paid way below the minimum wage and were not given up-to-scratch PPE. Mr Lyttle has been forced to launch a review into what has happened in the company's UK supply chain. Boohoo have found no evidence that staff were paid 3.50 per hour. Advertisement

His father John, who was previously Primark's chief operating officer for a decade after top jobs at Matalan and Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group, has declined to comment on the death of his son.

He started out in retail having left school school in Ireland and joined Primark as a trainee store manager. His main hobby is running and he has completed six marathons.

Mr Lyttle is married to Clodagh from Kilworth, County Cork. They met while they were both working as buyers for Primark in Dublin in the 1990s.

As he rose up the career ladder, they relocated to the UK before coming back to Primark HQ in Dublin for a second stint when he sat on the board.

A former colleague said Lyttle was known as the 'silent assassin' while working for Primark as a big part of his job to fire people.

'But on a one to one, he was a very nice guy. Himself and Clodagh are a lovely couple and very strong together', he said.

When asked if the family wanted to pay tribute to Louis, a woman answered the intercom on the front gate today said: 'no comment'.

The Lyttle family live in Sevenoaks, Kent, one of the wealthiest commuter towns in the UK famed for its leafy roads packed with mansions owned by traders, bankers, lawyers and other highly-paid professionals working in London.

It also has a number of celebrity residents, including Gloria Hunniford.

Mr Lyttle has been forced to launch a review of the company's UK supply chain following allegations that clothes made for Boohoo were produced in sweatshops by staff paid below the minimum wage during lockdown.

Boohoo had more than 1.3billion wiped from its share value in two days this month when retailers such as Next and Asos dropped its clothing from their websites.

He was brought into Boohoo in March 2019 and was said to collect a near 1.6million a year for the role.

The Offaly-born exec is on a salary of 615,000, but his contract also allows an annual bonus of up to 900,000. A further 50million bonus is on offer if he can push the company's value from 2billion to 5billion.

But Boohoo's share price has tanked by 1.40 to 2.66 after it was stung by the sweatshop scandal.

At the start of lockdown there was further woe for the company, founded in Manchester by Mahmud Kamani.

Staff including models, photographers, makeup artists and stylists were told to come into work after their bosses said it was 'business as usual', a whistleblower claimed. One source said those who stayed away were threatened with a pay cut.

One insider told the Telegraph: 'Boohoo has advised staff to observe the two metre separation rule.

'However, that is impossible to achieve due to the nature of the work.

'The company is still profit-driven and not standing with the rest of the country in the effort to reduce the rate of infection.'

Louis, who is understood to have worked for his father John (pictured) at Boohoo, was pronounced dead by paramedics at 6.20am on April 20

While the company has already said it had found no evidence of the small hourly payment, it did confirm it discovered two of its suppliers had not complied with its code of conduct. Their contracts have now been terminated.

Some workers at the factory were allegedly paid 3.50 an hour - well below the 8.72 minimum wage for 25s and over - while also failing to offer protection from coronavirus.

Mr Lyttle has said the claims - if true - are 'totally unacceptable' and has promised to take action.

He has launched an 'immediate and independent' review of the company's UK supply chain, and is also looking to build a 'model factory' to ensure workers are treated fairly.

Boohoo have found no evidence that staff were paid 3.50 per hour.

In addition, Mr Lyttle has written to Home Secretary Priti Patel, urging the Government to establish a licensing scheme for UK-based textile manufacturers.

The National Crime Agency is investigating the city's garment industry and has visited premises to investigate 'concerns of modern slavery and human trafficking'.

Home Secretary Priti Patel called the claims against fast-fashion suppliers in the city 'truly appalling' and promised action.

'Staff working in sweatshops during lockdown, workers paid below the minimum wage and fined for smiling': Scandals that have rocked fast fashion behemoth Boohoo

Boohoo has become a fashion phenomenon - now worth 3billion, but en route to becoming one of the UK's most popular brands it has been stung by a series of scandals in recent years.

Last month the fast fashion brand came under fire following an article which alleged that workers in a factory making clothes for the company were being paid as little as 3.50 an hour.

The report said the factory, which displayed the Jaswal Fashions signage, was also operating during the local coronavirus lockdown without additional health measures in place.

In 2018 a Financial Times investigation found evidence of dangerous working conditions, undisclosed subcontracting and people paid below the minimum wage.

In 2017 employees working for Boohoo.com allegedly risked getting fired for smiling or checking their mobile phones, an investigation by Channel 4 found.

Boohoo founder Mahmud Kamani, pictured right, alongside his son Umar, who helped them set up Pretty Little Thing. Their supply chains and working conditions have come under scrutiny

The conditions are an open secret and were investigated by Dispatches.

They found factories making clothes for River Island, New Look, Boohoo and Missguided were paying workers as little as 3 an hour in conditions that fell short of health and safety standards.

Boohoo CEO John Lyttle, pictured in LA last year, joined in 2019 with the promise of a 50m bonus if he can boost the company's value by 2023

And an inquiry by Parliament's Human Rights Commission three years ago found that between a third and three quarters working in these factories were paid below minimum wage and were working in unsafe environments.

Most are from minority ethnic groups, with around 33.6 per cent born outside the UK.

In the programme Kieron Hardman a former Boohoo team leader alleged: 'In one instance, I received an email to ask me if I could give somebody a strike because somebody was smiling.'

Liana Wood, an employment lawyer, said of the undercover reporting: 'If that individual is 1 minute late and they have to work 14 minutes unpaid, then that is potentially unauthorised deduction from wages.'

The charity Labour Behind the Label has accused Boohoo of failing to do enough to monitor conditions at factories.

The retailer said it would look into the claims but insisted it had 'followed and adhered to all aspects of [Government] guidance'.

Boohoo was founded in 2006 by Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane and the company is now worth more than 3billion.

Before Boohoo shot onto the ever-growing fast fashion scene, its owner Mr Kamani, 55, sold handbags in traders' stall.

He spotted the potential of internet sales and set up his online retailer in 2006 with the aim of delivering their own-branded fashion at rock bottom prices.

The company started out with just three staff and operated out of a Manchester warehouse.
NEW YORK, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the current analysis of Reports and Data, the Protein Engineering market was valued at USD 1.86 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 4.77 billion by the year 2027, at a CAGR of 12.3%. Protein engineering is the process of conception and production of unnatural polypeptides, which is achieved through the modification of different amino acid sequences that are found in nature. With the wide application of protein engineering, various synthetic protein structures and functions can now be designed completely using a computer and produced in the laboratory using various methods.

With the advent of technology, the rising demand is expected to provide traction to the market. For instance, computational protein design holds a potential promise to revolutionize protein engineering. Protein engineering is significantly in demand as it can develop useful or valuable proteins. It is known to be an emerging research field that helps researchers in understanding protein folding and recognition used for protein design principles. Protein engineering market is spurred by various reasons such as availability of immense information regarding 3D protein structure, advancement in structural bioinformatics, novel protein design algorithms, and other factors that have made it possible to use computational approaches for research and development in protein engineering. Strategic utilization of approaches that have been discovered with research has enabled better stability and increased catalytic activity of the protein. Moreover, it has increased its applicability in various fields that will further expand the market. Protein engineering has also evolved to become a potent tool contributing considerably to the developments in both synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. The rising funding for synthetic biology by governments and other healthcare institutions may drive the industry extensively in the future. Furthermore, substantial ongoing research in the drug discovery process is expected to fuel the market during the forecast period. Growing technological advancements and innovative instruments useful for protein engineering may drive the market extensively in the future. The emergence of new diseases due to microorganisms may also trigger market growth.

Request free sample of this research report at: https://www.reportsanddata.com/sample-enquiry-form/3369

However, factors such as high cost of instrumentation and lack of skill professional may hamper the protein engineering industry in the forecast period.

COVID-19 Impact:

WHO is focused on the latest scientific findings and knowledge on COVID-19. Various researchers and scientists are discovering new ways to tackle COVID-19 infection. Furthermore, the market of protein engineering is also going to get significantly affected due to the multiple kinds of research which are being carried out in this field. With the advent of technology, improving protein stability is an essential goal for clinical and industrial applications, however no commonly accepted and widely used strategy for efficient engineering is known. Furthermore, during the COVID-19 outbreak, protein engineering market is significantly impacted because many of the procedures involve lab automation. Market players are focusing on a research-based approach that will provide traction to the market. For instance, Vir Biotech identified two antibodies that could be effective in preventing and treating COVID-19. However, the high requirement of funds is expected to hamper the market during this period.

To identify the key trends in the industry, click on the link below: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/protein-engineering-market

Further key findings from the report suggest

Innovations in the protein engineering industry has contributed to the high growth of the industry. For instance, in March 2020 , scientists from the Unites States and Taiwan introduced a new protein based on the sonification which was made using machine learning technique.

, scientists from the Unites States and introduced a new protein based on the sonification which was made using machine learning technique. In 2019, Creative Biolabs launched a new product into the industry known as cd25 monoclonal antibody. The antibody can be widely used in conditions like organ rejection by the body after organ transplantation, especially kidney transplants.

Various collaborations are expected to fuel the industry growth. For instance, in 2019, Agilent Technologies acquired BioTek Instruments. The merger allowed Agilent to establish itself in the immunotherapy and immune-oncology segments and strengthen its position.

In March 2020 , Gilead announced its acquisition of Forty-Seven for around USD 4.9 billion . The acquisition would particularly help Gilead to expand itself in the immuno-oncology department.

, Gilead announced its acquisition of Forty-Seven for around . The acquisition would particularly help Gilead to expand itself in the immuno-oncology department. Regionally, the North American segment occupied the largest share in the industry owing to factors including increasing research and development expenditure and the presence of highly advanced instruments and equipment for drug discovery. The Asia Pacific region is expected to be the fastest growing segment owing to the rising government initiatives and funding for protein-based drug discovery and increasing technological advancements.

region is expected to be the fastest growing segment owing to the rising government initiatives and funding for protein-based drug discovery and increasing technological advancements. Key participants in the market include Thermo Fisher Scientific, Danaher Corporation, Agilent Technologies, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Bruker Corporation, GE Healthcare, Waters Corporation, Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, Genscripts USA , Inc. and Perkinelmer, Inc.

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For the purpose of this report, Reports and Data has segmented the Protein Engineering market on the basis of product, type, technology, end use and region:

By Product Outlook (Revenue in Million USD; 2017-2027)

Instruments

Consumables

Software & Services

By Type Outlook (Revenue in Million USD; 2017-2027)

Monoclonal Antibodies

Erythropoietin

Interferons

Vaccines

Colony-stimulating Factors

Growth Hormones

Coagulation Factors

Others

By Technology Outlook (Revenue in Million USD; 20172027)

Rational Protein Design

Irrational Protein Design

By End Use Outlook (Revenue in Million USD; 20172027)

Biopharmaceutical Companies

Contract Research Organizations

Academic Research Institutes

Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion; 2017-2027)

North America

U.S



Canada

Europe

UK



France



Spain



Rest of the Europe

Asia Pacific

China



India



Japan

MEA

Latin America

Brazil

Browse more similar reports on Biotechnology category by Reports And Data

Biological Safety Testing Market: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/biological-safety-testing-market





https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/biological-safety-testing-market Bioinformatics Market: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/bioinformatics-market





https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/bioinformatics-market Biobanks Market: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/biobanks-market



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Lollapalooza Goes Virtual with 4 Day Free Lolla2020 on YouTube

Lollapalooza Chicago is officially cancelked this year, but organizers have announced plans to mark the festival weekend with Lolla2020, a free four-night virtual festival on the original dates of Thursday, July 30 through Sunday, August 2.

Lolla2020 will air exclusively on YouTube and feature more than 150 performances and appearances, including fan-favorite sets from past Lollas, including international editions, original performances from artists all over the world, classic archival sets from some of the festivals most popular headliners and a series of special late-night performances.

New Performances

Lolla2020 will also feature brand new original live performances from artists including Alison Wonderland (Live Set), Carnage, H.E.R., Kali Uchis, Kaskade, Louis the Child, NGHTMRE, Pink Sweat$, SAYMYNAME, Tank and the Bangas, The Neighbourhood, Vic Mensa, Yungblud, ZHU and many more.

In between the music, Lolla2020 will feature interstitial content that highlights important moments from the festivals history or showcases aspects of the festivals come community in Chicago.

Perrys Back with Chicagos Mayor

Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot will appear throughout the weekends festivities, including hosting conversations with Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell and hip-hop legend LL COOL J.

As well, Lollapalooza founder and Janes Addiction frontman Perry Farrell will be front and center, hosting discussions with the likes of Lars Ulrich, Chuck D, Matt Pinfield and more.

Hell also lead a special Kind Heaven Orchestra performance featuring Taylor Hawkins, a David Bowie tribute with pianist Mike Garson, the first Porno for Pyros reunion in 24 years, and a few other special surprises.

The festival kicks off at 5PM CET on July 30th at Lolla.com and YouTube.com/Lollapalooza.

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A group of Houston physicians and scientists want to fund medical devices that could save childrens lives if they come down with COVID-19.

The Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium is trying to entice scientists to develop technologies that would help in the fight against COVID-19. Through grant funding, up to $25,000 per applicant, the group will provide cash for researchers trying to create medical devices that would help what Executive Director Dr. Chester Koh said is a vulnerable population.

While COVID-19 appears to be much milder in children than adults, theyre still able to transmit the virus. However, pediatric cases are still rising in the state, and a subset of the younger population can develop severe inflammatory symptoms including severe stomach pain, fever, trouble breathing and vomiting as their immune systems overreact to the virus.

Venture capital funds and government organizations across the country are pumping more money into COVID-19 research, along with other medical and biotech innovation, that could help manage the biggest public health crisis in a generation.

DATA SHOW: Texas reported 700 new COVID-19 deaths. Here's why it happened.

Those same funds are unlikely to go to smaller ventures such as pediatric device manufacturers, Koh said. Companies are more likely to spend time devising medical devices for adults because the market is larger than it is for childrens devices.

But that doesnt mean its unprofitable.

With pediatric devices, you could be the one player in a niche market all by yourself, he said.

The Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium is an accelerator for medical tech companies focused on developing equipment for pediatric care nationwide. It is based at Texas Childrens Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine.

Koh and other researchers at the consortium, which includes physicians and scientists from both hospitals, Texas A&M, the University of Houston and Fannin Innovation Studio, received a $6.75 million grant from the Food and Drug Administration in 2018 to be disbursed over a five-year period to device manufacturers. It is one of five research groups in the U.S. receiving federal funding to further pediatric devices research.

We are not experimenting on kids, Koh said. We just want to relieve some burden and we dont want to increase risk.

Applications for the grant are due Aug. 5. Funding will be awarded on Sep. 1.

gwendolyn.wu@chron.com

twitter.com/gwendolynawu
WASHINGTON  After a career working his way through the ranks of the Texas medical sector, helping develop Texass A&M Universitys federal contract to mass produce vaccines, Brett Giroir seemed an obvious pick to run the federal governments coronavirus testing program.

Now, four months after the coronavirus pandemic hit U.S. shores in earnest, Giroir, assistant health secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, is coming under fire as the United States struggles to get its testing regime in order.

While the number of tests being conducted is increasing steadily, the nations medical labs are being overwhelmed, public health experts said. Laboratories across the country are reporting a shortage of supplies, from the swabs they put up patients noses to the chemical solutions known as reagents upon which testing equipment relies, delaying data critical to controlling the spread of the disease.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Trump administration reverses course, extends support for Texas COVID testing sites

Giroir acknowledged the problem in an appearance on CNN Sunday morning, in which he said it was taking too long for patients to find out if they had tested positive for COVID-19.

The delays that most people talk about are at the large commercial labs that perform about half the testing in our country, he said. We need to continually improve our ecosystem.

U.S. laboratories and state health agencies are competing against each other for supplies, raising calls for the federal government to step in, as governments in Europe and Asia have done, to take control of the supply chain.

But so far Giroir has resisted efforts to nationalize the U.S. COVID-19 testing effort, preferring to leave final decisions on testing and most coronavirus response to state officials, many of whom - like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott - have resisted health experts advice on the grounds of defending personal liberty and reopening the economy.

Meantime, patients are waiting between five and six days on average for their test results with some waiting more than a week, said Josh Sharfstein, vice dean at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

That leaves those infected with COVID-19 to delay quarantining and further spread the disease among their social circles and limit the effectiveness of contact tracing efforts.

Results need to happen in a day or two. If its taking five to six days, its already been passed on, Sharfstein said. Theres no federal control of the supply chain. weve let everyone fend for themselves, with everyone competing against each other. Its been shockingly inefficient.

As a result, medical researchers, who advise politicians on shutdowns, quarantines and other policy to contain the virus, are chronically trying to catch up.

One only need look at Giroirs former employer, Texas A&M, where he served as vice chancellor and then CEO of the universitys hospital and medical research facility until 2015.

Going into July 4 weekend, Rebecca Fischer, an epidemiologist at A&M, had been worried about a repeat of the statewide spike in cases that followed Memorial Day. More than three weeks later a spike in the data had yet to materialize, but Fischer knew with the diseases incubation time and up to week-long delays in getting laboratory results back it could very well be the data simply hadnt caught up.

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When a person becomes infected, its five to six days before they start to see symptoms and then a day or two until they see a clinician and then we see the testing delay, she explained. When we look at data were not seeing todays situation, were seeing a week agos situation. And the problem is the more people we send to be tested the longer the delay in reporting back to patients.

How much of the delay in testing results should be laid at the feet of Giroir - a longtime pediatrician and former chief medical officer at Childrens Health in Dallas - versus the president himself is difficult to parse. Since ordering the production of ventilators through the Defense Production Act in April, Trump has resisted efforts to order similar steps for other equipment.

You know, were a country not based on nationalizing our business. Call a person over in Venezuela, ask them how did nationalization of their businesses work out? Not too well, he said at a press conference in March.

If Giroir has any problem with that point of view, so far hes kept quiet.

Reputation as driven leader

The Health and Human Services Department declined to make Giroir available for an interview. But speaking to National Public Radio earlier this month, he said he was hopeful that wait times for test results would decrease with the development of so-called point-of-care tests, which can be administered at a pharmacy or doctors office and provide immediate results.

Certainly by September, we expect to have 15 (million) to 20 million point-of-care tests. Thats as many tests as were doing every month now, he said.

At A&M, Giroir carried the reputation as a driven health care leader but also one who could be difficult to work with.

He had an acrimonious split with the university in 2015 after the appointment of President Michael Young, who Giroir told news reporters had given him 30 minutes to resign or he would be fired.

On HoustonChronicle.com: A&M Health Science Center head forced to resign

For Giroir, who had helped win the university the $286 million vaccine grant in 2012 from the federal governments Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, it was a sharp come down. And in the weeks that followed a public war of words developed, with the university later issuing a statement saying, it is inaccurate and disingenuous at best to attribute growth in (research funding) solely to Dr. Giroir.

Those close to Giroir maintain he was nothing more than the victim of a political shakeup. But there is also an acknowledgment that he can rub some people the wrong way.

Andrew Strong, a Houston attorney and former general counsel at A&M, said Giroir had been hard on him at times but said it was all at the purpose of achieving the best outcome for patients.

Yes. he will bulldoze people to get there, but its because he wants to get things done when the crucible is at the highest, he said. He has a sense of duty like no one Ive ever known.

How successful Giroir was in developing A&Ms vaccine program remains open for debate.

A federal review of the vaccine program at A&M and three other sites in Florida, Maryland and North Carolina in 2018 found operational capability has not been adequately developed and must be improved to meet federal standards, according to the Washington Post.

Giroirs supporters have defended the program as a work in progress. On Monday the Trump administration announced it was giving A&Ms vaccine facility $265 million to mass produce ten of millions of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the Maryland pharmaceutical firm Novavax  should the vaccine prove effective in trials.

Giroir has become an increasingly visible face in the administrations COVID-19 response, appearing with the president and in Congressional hearings in an admirals uniform  though never a member of the military Giroir is entitled to wear the uniform as head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

He drew criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike last month when he announced he was closing federally run community testing centers in favor of increasing the number of tests administered by pharmacies and state health agencies.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Giroir downplayed how far testing would go in stopping the spread of the disease and urged the public, particularly younger people who have been linked to recent outbreaks, to take more personal responsibility through wearing masks and practicing social distancing.

Testing is critical, but we cannot test our way out of the current outbreaks, he said. We must be disciplined about our own personal behavior.

james.osborne@chron.com

Twitter.com/@osborneja
AURORA, Colo. (AP)  A car drove through a crowd and a protester was shot in the suburban Denver suburb of Aurora during demonstrations against racial injustice.

The Aurora Police Department said on Twitter that protesters were walking on Interstate 225 Saturday when a vehicle drove through.

Police said a protester fired a weapon, striking at least one person who was taken to a hospital in stable condition.

Authorities said the vehicle was towed and they are investigating. Protesters also broke windows to the courthouse and a fire was started in an office, police said. An unlawful assembly was declared and police ordered protesters to leave the area, authorities said.

Tensions have been heightened at recent protests against racial injustice since federal officials were sent to quell demonstrations in Portland, Oregon. Police declared a riot in Seattle on Saturday.

Protests sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man in Minnesota who died after a white officer held him to the ground with a knee to his neck, have also highlighted other cases of fatal police violence.

In Colorado, protesters have been drawing attention to the death of Elijah McClain, who was stopped by police while walking down an Aurora street in August 2019 after a 911 caller reported him as suspicious. Police placed him in a chokehold, and paramedics administered 500 milligrams of ketamine, a sedative, to calm him down. He went into cardiac arrest, was later declared brain dead and taken off life support.
Sharing sourdough starter, the live culture at the heart of every loaf, can be an act of care and creating community

When I think of a food that most frequently populates or defines my life, it is bread. The thread of my life can be traced by the bread in it.

There are the peanut butter and honey sandwiches my mom used to pack into little Ziploc bags for me and my siblings to take to the community pool. We would unwrap them with shriveled fingers, cuddled up onto oversized towels by the far fence in the shade.

Cheese on toast, an open sandwich set under the broiler for a few minutes, was a weekly staple in our house. To this day, I cannot smell cheese melting without picturing my dad sitting in the warm light of the kitchen, hands wrapped around a cup of tea, cheese on toast on his plate.

When we visited my grandparents in Eli, England, they used to take us to the river that ran near the cathedral with day-old stale bread to feed the ducks. I remember my grandmothers soft, lotioned hands giving us each a chunk of bread, me and my sister trying to sneak a bite for ourselves, only to spit it right back out.

Later visits to my grandparents were marked by the ritual of making bread in the breadmaker before bed. My grandad, meticulous in everything he did, would measure out the ingredients and set the timer so that we would wake up to the smell of freshly baked bread in the morning. My grandparents were breakfast enthusiasts, and would pack the table full with marmalade, jams, butters, fruit, and a full pot of tea to have alongside our baked loaf.

When we traveled to France with my extended family, we would spread cheese, pate, and meat on our freshly baked baguettes. I have vivid memories of my uncles arms overflowing with a dozen baguettes, carrying them over to where we were congregated on an ancient stone wall outside of a castle.

As a high school student, bread was the base for a hastily made sandwich as I ran out the door for school. In college, it came in the form of packaged dinner rolls stuffed in my apartment freezer, the closest to home cooking I came in those years. As a newlywed, bread was the way I began to experiment in the kitchen: with pumpkin bread, muffins, and scones.

A New Chapter

I didnt discover sourdough until a few years ago, when my sister came to visit. I had just had my first baby, and she brought a loaf of sourdough bread with her. I remember the warmth of my kitchen that evening as I sat exhausted on the bench at my table, while my sister ladled out a hearty vegetable soup to go with thick slices of toasted sourdough slathered with butter. It was like after weeks of being stranded at sea, Id finally found land.

The next time my sister came, she left me a part of her sourdough startera live, fermented culture of flour, water, and wild yeast and bacteria that acts as the leavener in sourdough bread. When she explained that this starter was connected to the loaf that had fed so much more than my stomach in those hazy postpartum days, I felt drawn to it. I loved the idea that food could be connected to us tangibly as well as emotionally.

I spent hours researching how to feed my starter, discarding a portion and adding a little flour and water to keep it alive and healthy, and bake sourdough. It was a learning process: I would forget to feed my starter, and had trouble figuring out how to take enough out each week. I tried out several different recipes, and made some flat, tasteless loaves of bread.

Eventually, I found success with a recipe from Emilie Raffa, the New York-based food blogger behind The Clever Carrot and author of Artisan Sourdough Made Simple. Her own starter was mailed to her from a blogger friend, Celia, all the way in Sydney, Australia.

Do not overthink it, Raffa said, about the process of making sourdough. Bread does not have to be complicated. Just tasty.

Her recipe mixes together basic ingredients most of us have on handflour, olive oil, water, and saltwith the starter. Sourdough is not a quick bread; it requires hours of resting and rising, then a few minutes of stretching and folding before another rise. I loved walking past my ball of dough rising on the counterit gave me a feeling of both deep belonging and nostalgia.

The results were indeed tasty. I began to look forward to that first slice of warm bread from my weekly bake. My daughter grew until she was old enough to taste the bread. Now shes old enough to help me bake it, too.

Theres something about sourdough, on both a physical and spiritual level, thats life-changing, Raffa told me. I think I understand what she means. I love knowing where my bread comes from, and being such an integral part of its journey from a lump of flour to nourishment at my dinner table.

Culturing Community

Last summer, a few of my neighbors started baking sourdough. I had finally let the starter from my sister go, after a month-long trip to Europe during which it had fermented beyond use in my fridge, so I took a jar of starter home from one neighbor. After it had been fed for a few weeks and doubled in size, I gave some to another neighbor. Before we knew it, there were six or seven of us baking bread from the same sourdough starter!

We would send one another pictures of our loaves (some rounder than others) and laugh together about our mishaps in the kitchen. Some of these neighbors were already good friends, but for a few of them, sharing a sourdough starter gave us a new point of connectiona way of coming together even as we baked in our separate kitchens.

Sourdough baking has become increasingly popular during this season of social distancing, as evident on social media, and I think it is in no small part due to the fact that its starter can be shared.

As Raffa said, food, by nature, is meant to be shared. Once the pandemic hit, sourdough became a bridge that connected families, friends, and total strangers all over the world. Because sourdough is not a static craft, the connection and community will continue to evolve for years to come.

Raffas own sourdough starter, a portion taken from Celias starter, named Priscilla, connected her to a large pool of other people. Through Priscilla, Raffa writes on her website, which Celia has graciously shared with hundreds, if not thousands of people all over the world, I became part of an international family tree of bakers! Their shared love of sourdough fostered a real-life connection: Raffa and Celia were able to meet in person for the first time in Sydney two years ago.

Give the gift of sourdough starter. (Tanya_morozz/Shutterstock)

When my sister brought me that first loaf of sourdough, she extended that thread of bread into my life. Ive been able to pick up that thread and connect it to my own home and children, and to my friends and neighbors, and as Ive done so, Ive learned that its the people who make the food important as much as the food itself.

Baking bread from a starter from your neighbor, who got that starter from her friend, who got that starter from his grandmother, reminds us that as humans, we have a deep need for connection. No matter how long we are required to keep our distance, sourdough starter teaches us that we will never stop searching for reminders that we are tethered to one another.

Ready to join the sourdough baking community? Try Emilie Raffas beginner-friendly recipes:

Beginner Sourdough Starter

Sourdough Bread

Rachael Dymski is an author, florist, and mom to two little girls. She is currently writing a novel about the German occupation of the Channel Islands and blogs on her website, RachaelDymski.com
The United Nations has called for an independent investigation into the death of an ethnic-Uzbek rights defender, Azimjan Askarov, while in Kyrgyz custody.



Askarov, a 69-year-old human rights activist died in a Bishkek prison hospital on July 25 of what Kyrgyz officials described as pneumonia.



"There should be a prompt, impartial, and effective investigation into his death," Elizabeth Throssel, a spokeswoman with the UN rights office, told journalists in Geneva on July 28, adding that his family had the right to redress under international human rights law.



Askarov, who also contributed to independent news websites, had been in prison for almost a decade after he was sentenced to life in prison for creating a mass disturbance and involvement in the murder of a police officer during deadly ethnic clashes between local Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the southern cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad .He and his supporters rejected the charges saying they were politically motivated.



More than 450 people, mainly ethnic Uzbeks, were killed and tens of thousands more were displaced during the violence that erupted in June 2010.

Throssel said the UN rights office had urged Kyrgyz authorities in May to allow Askarov to leave prison since his health was frail, leaving him among the most-vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic.



She also reiterated a UN call for the Kyrgyz government to "consider an early humanitarian release of the most vulnerable prisoners" in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.



Authorities there, she stressed, had "repeatedly and publicly expressed their commitment to international human rights norms and standards, which also include obligations to ensure the right to health and the right to life."



Throssel said Askarov should not have been in prison in the first place.



The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the European External Action Service (EEAS) have expressed their regrets over Askarov's death, which came despite their numerous calls for his release on humanitarian grounds.



"It is important that the circumstances of his death, and the conditions in which he was held in the final months of his life, are clarified." the EEAS said.



"Just two months ago, ODIHR voiced regret over the decision of Kyrgyzstans Supreme Court to uphold the life sentence imposed on Askarov in 2010. It is unfortunate that the Kyrgyz authorities did not use the opportunity open to them to restore justice." ODIHR added in a statement.



In May, Human Rights Watch said Askarov suffered from cardiac and respiratory conditions and had not received "appropriate medical attention in prison." It also warned that he was at high risk of contracting COVID-19, a disease that disproportionately affects older people and individuals with underlying illnesses.



The UN Human Rights Committee has found that Askarov was arbitrarily detained, denied a fair trial, and tortured. It ruled that the activist should be released immediately and his conviction quashed.



However, Askarov's conviction was upheld by Kyrgyz courts after several appeals.

With reporting by AFP and Interfax
 Close Bill Barr insists he did not intervene to help Donald Trump's friends

Attorney General William Barr testified in a congressional hearing today, titled the Oversight of the Department of Justice, in front of the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee. The hearing started off rocky, though, after Chairman Jerry Nadler was involved in a car crash on the way to the hearing.

Mr Barr's appearance on Capitol Hill was in first in front of the House Judiciary Committee despite multiple attempts by the Democrats to get the attorney general to testify before them.

In his opening testimony, Mr Barr vehemently defended his independence from the president after facing accusations of making decisions to appease Donald Trump. Mr Barr also defended the decision for federal agents to be deployed to cities like Portland, calling demonstrators in the city violent rioters and anarchists.

Mr Nadler then accused the attorney general of "aiding" and "abetting" in the president's "worst failings" during his own opening statement. He accused Mr Barr of many failings while attorney general, including allowing interference into the criminal cases of Trump allies, like Roger Stone and Michael Flynn.

Democrats chose what happened with Mr Stone as one line of questioning during the hearing. Mr Barr defended his decision to recommend a lesser sentence for the Trump ally, even though he supported the man being found guilty, but Democrats accused him of making the recommendations for a smaller sentence to appease Mr Trump.

Another important moment happened when Mr Barr was questioned about former US Attorney General Geoffrey Berman of SDNY stepping down. Mr Barr admitted he publicly announced the attorney general was stepping down prior to the man agreeing to leave office. He later backtracked that statement by saying Mr Berman was "removed" from office.

One theme consistent throughout the entire hearing was Democrats' refusal to let Mr Barr answer many of their questions. Instead the Democrats would cut the attorney general off to make their own statements. At one point, Mr Barr questioned why he was asked to speak in front of the hearing if he was unable to answer questions.

Republicans, on the other hand, used their time to attack Democrats and defend the attorney general. Top Republican Jim Jordan shared a video at the start of the hearing showing misleading imagery about the protests happening across the nation. Critics accused the representative of skewing the narrative and promoting propaganda.

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One of the highest-profile hacks of last week was Garmins services going down as a result of a ransomware attack. The financial and reputational damage of such attacks can be rather large and our regular readers know, companies have been and will continue to go out of business due to lax security. In Garmins case, the ransom request is a nice, round $10 million.

Obviously, what many companies are doing, isnt working.

We arent suggesting there is a quick fix to the problem or even that a single post like this can give you all the information you need to keep your company impenetrable.

What we can suggest however is new ways of approaching the problem of cybersecurity so you dont end up like Garmin or, for that matter, SUNY Erie, the college who was also recently taken down as a result of ransomware.

And a subtle reminder It doesnt matter how large your company is or how good your backups are. Thanks to ransomware becoming extortionware and hacker affiliate programs, you are more likely than ever to get hit and pay the ransom when you do!

This is why Digital Defense, Inc. recently announced the release of Frontline Threat Landscape, a new feature within the companys vulnerability management technology that incorporates threat intelligence to prioritize critical vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Accessible within Frontline.Cloud, the companys SaaS security assessment platform, the feature leverages machine-based learning to provide threat intelligence data that delivers a more granular determination of risk for vulnerabilities identified in an organizations network.

Our Frontline Threat Landscape feature is a game-changer in that organizations can shed the overwhelming weight of responding to a vast number of vulnerabilities that pose minimal risk. Threat Landscape shines a light on the truly critical vulnerabilities that present the greatest risk to our clients based on their individual network characteristics, states Mike Cotton, SVP, Engineering. Some vulnerabilities may be identified as high level, but if a cybercriminal cannot exploit, spending valuable resource time to remediate is not time well spent and may ultimately expose the organization. Our technology provides the data to expose, rank and address vulnerabilities in a focused and efficient manner to significantly reduce risk.

According to Gartners Market Guide for Vulnerability Assessment, Not all vulnerabilities are created equally. Exploitability, prevalence in malware and exploit kits, asset context, and active exploitation by threat actors are critical qualifiers in assessing cyber risk. The report further describes the incorporation of threat intelligence into vulnerability management technologies. Methods are applied that analyze and prioritize vulnerabilities by using threat intelligence, organizational asset context, and risk modeling approaches such as attack path analysis. This is also an area in which advanced analytics methods are also being used, such as ML. This permits more granular and intelligent remediation strategies than the more simplistic severity approaches, especially at scale and when remediating with constrained resources.*

Frontline Threat Landscape empowers organizations to prioritize remediation and optimize resources by combining:

Real-world vulnerability exploitation metrics

Industry-standard severity scores

Digital Defense Vulnerability Research Team analyst insight

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A variety of arts organisations will make their home in Woolwich from next spring as part of a major redevelopment initiative.

Following a 31.59 million restoration of historical industrial buildings on the Royal Arsenal, there will be a new large-scale concert venue, as well as rehearsal and studio spaces to house music, theatre, dance, spoken word, comedy, exhibitions and food and drink, all housed within the "Woolwich Works" hub.

Resident artists within the venue will be National Youth Jazz Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, Luca Silvestrini's Protein, Punchdrunk and the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair.

Originally meant to open in 2020, the new hub is set to be "London's new cultural quarter for the arts" and will feature:

A 1200 seated or 1800 standing performance venue

An external courtyard for performances

Five studios, which will also be used for performances and rehearsals spaces

A cafe, bar and spaces for community groups as well as to hire for weddings, parties, conferences and events

The project will be working with the local community and schools as well as creating jobs in the area. It will also coincide with the much-awaited completion of the Crossrail train network.

James Heaton, Woolwich Works chief executive, comments: "Some people may wonder whether now's the right time to be launching a new cultural hub, given everything that's going on in the world. Certainly, the context in which we're doing so is very different to that we'd expected  and a huge amount of thought, soul-searching, and analysis has gone into reviewing our plans for Woolwich Works and re-evaluating our role post-Covid-19.

But ultimately, we are founded on the power of the arts and culture to transform lives: to inspire people to imagine, create and innovate; to build confidence, enable communication and drive collaboration; to empower and make change; and to create jobs and act as a catalyst for economic regeneration."
Malta's armed forces have rescued 95 migrants from a sinking boat in the Mediterranean Sea.

They were found north of Libya, and brought ashore at a military base near the Maltese capital Valletta on Monday (July 27).

A volunteer organization Alarm Phone had reported the small boat was overcrowded and taking on water in an area within Malta's search-and-rescue region.

It's not the first rescue Maltese authorities have performed this month.

In mid-July, a patrol boat rescued another group of 63 migrants and brought them to Malta.

One of those migrants tested positive for coronavirus and medical authorities put the group in quarantine.

The Mediterranean sees occasional attempts by migrants to cross into Europe - sometimes in dangerous and overcrowded boats.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says they are often trying to flee conflict and acute poverty.

Last week, hundreds of migrants crossed in small boats to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.

Officials said the migrants arrived from Libya.
Hoy #GoogleDoodle ilustra a la elegante vicuna, animal nacional de Peru, que aparece en la bandera y el escudo de armas de este pais.



???? Feliz Dia Nacional ???? ? https://t.co/RoM4PD9KPV pic.twitter.com/lLHlikZuvk
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 27, 2020 | 03:06 PM | PADUCAH

"All at once, a little tingle like electricity ran over my whole body, just in the time you could flip your finger," said Farmer, "I was trying to say electricity, and I started slurring the word and couldnt get it out."





Tanner Dublin, a Patient Access Coordinator, immediately realized that Farmer was experiencing a stroke.





"During hospital orientation, we go over stroke awareness, and we have a quick card on our badge that has "F.A.S.T.," for face, arm, speech and time," Dublin said. "Knowing this, with his slurred speech and with his face starting to draw, he was indeed having a stroke. Once I noticed that his face had started to draw, my supervisor called Code Stroke, and my team lead called the ER charge nurse to notify them of what was going on. Within 30 seconds, they were there. They got him to where he needed to be."





Farmer was then rushed to the emergency department where he received a clot-busting drug known as tPA. If the drug is given during the first four-and-a-half hours after the start of stroke symptoms, it has shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke, including lessening the chance of permanent disability.





Farmer was able to recover and was discharged a short time later.





"I was amazed the young man trying to take the information knew what to look for, and then I was told he was trained to do that," he said. "I think the world of Baptist Health for doing their job and doing stuff like that. The Lord was looking after me, taking care of me that day."





On average, someone within the U.S. suffers from a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 800,000 people suffer from a new or recurrent stroke every year.







B.E.F.A.S.T. is a great acronym for learning stroke symptoms:





 B - Balance: Does the person have a sudden loss of balance?

 E - Eyes: Has the person lost vision in one or both eyes?

 F - Face Drooping: Does one side of the face droop or is it numb? Ask the person to smile.

 A - Arm Weakness: Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?

 S - Speech Difficulty: Is speech slurred, are they unable to speak, or are they hard to understand?

 T - Time to call 911: If the person shows any of these symptoms, even if the symptoms go away, call 911 and get them to the hospital immediately.





Additional signs of a stroke include sudden severe headache with no known cause, sudden confusion, and trouble understanding.



A local man has recovered from a stroke thanks to a fast-thinking hospital employee.When 68-year-old Danny Farmer visited Baptist Health Paducah earlier in the year to register for a routine test, he began to feel odd as he was walking from the parking lot into the building.
Congress will air bipartisan concerns that Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple crush rivals at the expense of US consumers.

Chief executives from four of the biggest U.S. technology companies will face a moment of reckoning Wednesday in an extraordinary joint appearance before Congress that will air bipartisan concerns that they are using their dominance to crush rivals at the expense of consumers.

The House antitrust subcommittee will hear testimony livestreamed from Amazon.com Inc.s Jeff Bezos, Facebook Inc.s Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet Inc.s Sundar Pichai and Apple Inc.s Tim Cook as part of its yearlong inquiry into technology industry competition. The panel is armed with more than a million pages of internal company documents gathered as part of its probe.

Representative David Cicilline, the panels Democratic chairman, wanted to hear from the CEOs together as he concludes his investigation into whether the companies are squashing smaller rivals and foreclosing competition. In a coup for Cicilline, the session will mark the first time these tech leaders will appear before lawmakers together. Its also Bezoss debut on the witness stand.

The participation of all four CEOs  who command enterprises with a combined value of nearly $5 trillion  signals the degree of pressure theyre facing from an American public increasingly outraged by the industrys inability to police itself. Theyll likely face questions about whether theyve done enough to contain privacy breaches, election misinformation and the spread of racist and violent content.

They will not be able to simply run out the clock or duck by giving general or evasive answers, said William Kovacic, a former member of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission who is now a professor at George Washington University.

[File: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg]

Republicans will likely air concerns shared by President Donald Trump that the companies hold an anti-conservative bias. Bezos has become a Trump target over his ownership of the Washington Post, which has closely covered the administrations foibles.

The hearing comes as the coronavirus pandemic leaves millions of homebound workers, parents and teachers more reliant than ever on the companies online platforms to earn a living, buy groceries, stay connected and educate their children. And the remote video hearing may diminish some of the spectacle, depriving lawmakers of the opportunity to berate the executives in person while also potentially creating hiccups as participants fumble with their mute buttons.

The companies face a variety of complaints about their business practices, from charges that Amazon abuses its power over the third-party merchants that sell on its site to allegations that Facebook acquires companies to eliminate potential rivals. Critics have claimed that Googles dominance of search and online advertising allows it to preference its own products and squeeze publishers. And some app makers contend that Apple uses its grip on high-end devices to force apps into its payment system, extracing high fees in the process and deciding which ones survive.

The companies, all of which are expected to announce earnings the day after the hearing, have also gone on acquisitions sprees this year, waving off watchdog scrutiny. They all declined to, or didnt return requests for, comment.

Heres a look at how the hearing may break down by witness:

Amazons Jeff Bezos: Market player or umpire, or both?

The worlds richest man is making his debut before Congress, giving lawmakers a fresh target. Bezos should expect a tough grilling from Cicilline, who holds up the e-commerce behemoth as the prime example of how Big Tech firms use their size to prioritize their own commercial interests over customers needs.

The worlds richest man Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is making his debut before Congress [File: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg]

Cicilline has also questioned whether an Amazon lawyer told the truth in previous testimony. During a hearing last year, Cicilline slammed Amazon for undermining third-party sellers. He pressed a company lawyer, Nate Sutton, about the relationship, prompting Sutton to deny that Amazon uses individual seller data to launch competing goods.

Subsequent media reports contended that company employees did just that, causing Cicilline to suggest that Sutton may have been untruthful. He said Bezos needed to appear to clear up the matter.

Amazon faces antitrust probes by the FTC, California and the European Union, which are all looking at the companys role as a marketplace, Bloomberg has reported.

Cicillines staffers include Lina Khan, who helped provide the intellectual underpinning of a movement for revamped competition enforcement with her legal scholarship on Amazon.

Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg: Protecting free speech or digital ad business?

The CEO whos arguably provoked the greatest amount of outrage among both parties lawmakers, Zuckerberg has been a frequent visitor to Capitol Hill in recent years.

He gave two days of testimony on the companys privacy practices in 2018 as part of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which a U.K. political consultancy with ties to Trumps presidential campaign harvested data on millions of the sites users without their knowledge. Last year, he faced skeptical lawmakers about the companys digital currency, Libra.

Now Zuckerberg is grappling with an ongoing advertiser boycott led by civil rights groups because of what they say are his failures to tackle racism, discrimination, voter suppression and election misinformation on his platform. Cicilline has called Facebooks policy of allowing politicians to post advertisements that are demonstrably false a business decision, rather than a move to protect free speech. Facebook last week started adding voting information labels to posts about the 2020 U.S. election, including those shared by Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

Democrats may ask about Zuckerbergs meetings with Trump and whether his hands-off approach to misleading content is designed to appease the White House, which has vowed to punish social-media companies for their supposed anti-conservative bias.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is preparing to argue that hindering American technological innovation only helps China [File: Al Drago/Bloomberg]

Facebook is the subject of federal antitrust probes by the Justice Department and FTC, which share jurisdiction for enforcement of competition laws but rarely double-up on targets. Its also under investigation by 45 state attorneys general. Critics have focused on how the company extracts user data to power its advertising operation, as well as its acquisition strategy.

Congress also has been asking questions about Zuckerbergs purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as whether Facebooks treatment of apps it didnt buy, including Vine, Snapchat, FourSquare and TikTok, were efforts to squelch competition.

In response, Zuckerberg is preparing to argue that hindering American technological innovation only helps China, that Facebook faces threats from companies including TikTok and that the success of properties it acquired was the result of its investment.

Although Zuckerberg has previously faced lawmakers, his testimony on Wednesday will be his first focused on antitrust.

Googles Sundar Pichai: Staring down a DOJ antitrust lawsuit

While Bezos and Zuckerberg may draw the most rhetorical fireworks, Pichai may be facing the most immediate danger with Attorney General William Barr weeks away from filing a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit against Google for its dominance in the digital advertising market.

The company is also being investigated by a 48-state coalition led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is also focusing on digital ads. Other states are looking into the companys dominance of online search and its mobile operating system. Some of them could also join the Justice Department case.

Google has argued that regulators should establish a broad definition of the ads market, including television. The company also has pointed to the insurgent challenge from Amazon for digital ad spending.

Google is also facing criticism for the way it collects data and how it handles disinformation on services like YouTube. Googles $2.1 billion deal for device-maker Fitbit Inc. is undergoing an extended antitrust review, a takeover seen as a test for regulators.

Of all the CEOs, Apples Tim Cook has been the most successful in deflecting scrutiny from Washington [File: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg]

Although Pichai previously testified before the Judiciary Committee in 2018 over anti-conservative bias, he may be best remembered in Congress for the empty chair behind the Google nameplate when he angered lawmakers earlier that year by skipping a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on foreign election meddling.

Apples Tim Cook: Master of deflection amid App Store probe

Of all the CEOs, Tim Cook has been the most successful in deflecting scrutiny from Washington. Hes forged strong relationships with the White House, appeared on business councils with Trump and pushed the companys trade interests. Apple has largely avoided conservatives accusations over liberal bias. Cook has also dodged the kind of criticism that Democrats have launched against Zuckerberg for courting Republicans.

While it has stayed out of the political crossfire, Apple is the subject of a Justice Department antitrust probe for rules that require many app makers to use the companys payment system, Bloomberg has reported. App makers such as Spotify Technology SA are raising red flags, particularly in Europe, with complaints about the fees Apple charges on its App Store, especially when the company has competing offerings.

Apple defended the fees it charges developers who sell software and services through its App Store, saying recently that the 30% cut is standard industry practice and is similar in magnitude to the commission rates charged by many other app stores and digital content marketplaces.

Cook previously testified in 2013 about Apples payment of taxes, although he hasnt appeared before Congress during the backlash to tech power that has grown during Trumps presidency.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The state bar exam, which had been rescheduled for early September, will instead be administered remotely in the beginning of October, the states chief judge announced.

In a statement on Monday, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore acknowledged the online testing option may not be a perfect solution, but said it is a sound alternative in view of the nationwide surge in coronavirus (COVID-19) cases.

Candidates who signed up for the in-person exam on Sept. 9 and 10 will automatically be registered to take the online bar exam on Oct. 5 and 6, according to the New York State Board of Law Examiners web site.

Registrants for the September exam who dont want to take the remote test can withdraw from it, the web site said.

The test was originally slated for July 28 and 29.

But due to the coronavirus pandemic, the exam was rescheduled for September.

However, the heightened public health risks, travel restrictions and quarantine requirements now in place made the in-person, socially-distanced test untenable in officials estimation.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

DiFiore assigned a Working Group to assess options. The panel recommended New York participate in the online bar exam being administered by the National Conference of Bar Examiners in October, said the judge.

The group concluded the online test would allow 2020 law school graduates a means to obtain their license to practice while ensuring their qualifications for admission to the bar, said DiFiore.

A number of other jurisdictions around the country are doing the same.

On a related front, the judge said the state Court of Appeals has amended its rules to permit eligible law school graduates working in New York to practice law under the supervision of a lawyer in good standing in the state.
After just a month-long pilot study, the promenade created on Southeast Ankeny Street between 27th and 28th Avenue has been deemed a success by the business owners there.

Whats being called the 28th Ave Promenade is part of a larger statewide project called Portland Promenades, which is led by community members and business owners who strove to expand seating for businesses to stay at capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic, all while following social distancing guidelines.

The Portland Promenade Project is a community advocacy group that supports using public spaces such as streets for restaurants and other business uses.

The idea behind the promenades is to close down streets where several businesses are located in order to open it up more for pedestrians. The concept is popular in European countries and has also been seen in other states such as Florida, California and Indiana, according to the Portland Promenades website.

Travis Preece, owner of Ankeny Tap & Table and Gorges Brewing, said in a press release that the closure on Southeast Ankeny Street had resulted in business being up over 800% compared to when the pandemic started. He told The Oregonian/OregonLive the promenade has allowed for 108 people to be seated outside.

While we were confident it would be popular, we were cautious to prepare for the likelihood of crowds, Preece said. We took several extra precautions and had multiple trainings, and the result has been a welcoming outdoor environment where guests feel safeand for a time can feel a sense of normalcy.

There is currently a team of neighbors, business owners and neighborhood association members working on opening up all of 28th Avenue to help more than 15 local businesses until their permit expires Nov. 1.

Zach Katz, neighborhood activist, said in the press release their team had been working with the Portland Bureau of Transportation to express that its more important to sustain the citys neighborhoods than make it easy for cars to move through them.

Patricia Earley, owner of Paterson, a vegan restaurant and bar, said without the promenade her business was doomed.

We opened four months before the pandemic and were just getting our legs, she said. And BOOM everything went away.

She said the restaurant was too small to effectively social distance and make enough money to keep it open, and that the promenade could be the only hope for small businesses on 28th Avenue.

As Portland learns to live with COVID-19, it is becoming increasingly clear that the virus is not going anywhere soon and we must find creative ways to help our businesses ASAP, Katz said. Opening up our streets for businesses is one of the clearest ways that we can provide retail and restaurant space to safely operate.

Several businesses have joined together to petition the city to approve the 28th Ave Promenade as of June 26, such as Artemisia, Fifty Licks, Base Architecture + Design LLC, Paterson and ZimZim. They proposed that Burnside, Couch and Everett streets remain as cross streets for auto traffic and delivery access. The promenade would be open until Nov. 1 of this year.

The Kerns Neighborhood Association has also expressed general support in the promenade as of July 1, stating it will greatly help local restaurants and businesses increase income and stay in business, among other reasons.

Hundreds of businesses citywide, including some on 27th and 28th avenues, are using on-street parking space for outdoor dining and other business space, thanks to free permits from the Portland Bureau of Transportations Healthy Businesses Program. The program was created this year to help businesses use public space to safely reopen as Portland recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses across the city are encouraged to learn more at the programs website.

-- Ty Vinson

tvinson@oregonian.com

503-221-4315; @ty_vinson_

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Congress members protested against what they called the murder of democracy and buying of opposition leaders by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, but forgot to observe social distancing in Panchkula on Monday. Many of them were also seen with their face masks pulled down.

The event was organised on the call of Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president Kumari Selja in an open ground in Sector 5.

The MLAs and local leaders who attended sat in tents close to each other and holding placards. Some pulled down their masks .

The protest started at 11 am and continued till 1pm. It was attended by around a 100 persons. The aim was to raise a voice against the BJP, which is creating crisis in the state, said Sudha Bhardwaj, officiating chief, Haryana Womens unit.

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Hazleton, PA (18201)

Today

Cloudy with periods of snow after midnight. Low around 25F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 80%. Snow accumulations less than one inch..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of snow after midnight. Low around 25F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 80%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.
A survey has found that 50% of employees are looking to move jobs after COVID-19. Photo: Getty

Half of UK employees are planning on looking for a new job after COVID-19, according to new research.

This is partly driven by a desire for more flexible working and a better work/life balance, according to a survey of 1,150 employees carried out in July 2020 by Hooray Health & Protection. With the coronavirus crisis forcing many businesses to transition to remote working during lockdown, many employees are looking to continue with flexible working post-COVID-19. Three quarters (75%) said that flexible working would have some impact on their morale as lockdown restrictions ease.

Many workers are looking to switch jobs due to a lack of employee benefits, the survey found. Almost half (47%) of businesses currently offer no employee benefits to their staff and 64% of those working on the frontline during the coronavirus crisis do not receive any employee benefits.

Income protection was the most sought after, with 24% citing this as the most desirable benefit, followed by health insurance (22%).

The COVID-19 crisis has been devastating for the job market and the true extent of the aftermath is still yet to be revealed. However, the biggest impact has been the human one with people fearing for their lives and their livelihoods, said Charlie Cousins, founder of Hooray Health & Protection.

READ MORE: Majority of Brits apply for jobs at work

As businesses work to find their feet in this new normal we find ourselves in, their employees need to be at the heart of their approach if they are to survive.

The survey demonstrates that 50% of staff in the UK are already considering seeking new employment, therefore businesses must adapt quickly and significantly to ensure that their workforce are receiving the support they need.

Flexible working can be hugely beneficial for businesses and as the survey suggests, three quarters of staff welcome this. Employers who embrace this new way of working are likely to be the ones who find increased productivity and morale among their staff as they provide a better work-life balance to employees.
UPDATE: Teen, adult who died from fire-related injuries in Allentown blaze are identified, coroner says

INITIAL POST: A 16-year-old boy saved his younger sisters by throwing them from a second-floor window during a house fire Monday morning in Allentown, but his 14-year-old brother, who went to awaken an uncle in the basement, died along with the adult, according to NBC10 out of Philadelphia.

A relative told the television station that both boys are heroes.

City fire chief James Wehr on Tuesday morning said the fire at 739 N. Fair St. remains under investigation but doesnt appear suspicious at the moment.

A neighbor told the television station that the older teen did something amazing in saving his sisters.

Wehr said he believed passersby caught the children. The teen hurt his legs when he jumped to safety, a neighbor told lehighvalleylive.com, and he was burned as well.

Wehr confirmed a teenager helped his younger sisters get out of the burning home before he leaped.

In the interview with NBC10, a neighbor said, the teen couldnt go down the stairs with all the fire so the first thing he thought of was to push out the AC and throw his little sister out. Save her at least.

Relative Jeovanni Ortiz called both boys heroes, the television station said.

He is a hero and his little brother, the one that died, Im calling him a hero too because he got woken up by his older brother and went downstairs to go wake his uncle, Ortiz told NBC 10. His uncle was sleeping in the basement.

An Allentown resident named Jeovanni Ortiz did not immediately return a phone call from lehighvalleylive.com

The mother of the children told the TV station that the girls were OK.

Autopsies were planned for Tuesday morning on the man and the 14-year-old who were found dead in the home, Lehigh County Coroner Eric Minnich said. The office will seek to determine the cause and manner of the deaths and release their identifications once all family is notified.

The home is owned by Heriberto Santiago, Lehigh County property records say, and Fehr said he was 90 percent sure it was owner occupied.

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com.
Were calling this moment a cocooning,  he said. Like being in a cocoon, going inside of ourselves and working on ourselves so we can show up in a different way. If we can release anxiety and identify our divine gifts and activate them, tomorrow can be the first day of the best days of your life if we can release the pain of the past.
Allyson Bento, a graduate student at UND and a resident of Canada, has not been home to Winnipeg in months owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
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DASSAULT AVIATION

AND THE ACE AERO PARTENAIRES FUND

(Saint-Cloud, France, July 28th 2020) - Dassault Aviation welcomes the creation of the ACE Aero Partenaires investment fund.

This initiative was announced last June by Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy, Finance and Recovery. The four industrial companies Airbus, Safran, Thales and Dassault Aviation launched a call for tenders and selected the Tikehau fund and its subsidiary ACE.

The ACE Aero Partenaires fund is a key lever to support SMEs and Mid-Caps in the civil aviation industry severely affected by the economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dassault Aviation will contribute 13 million to ACE Aero Partenaires. Contributions from the French government, main contractors and Tikehau Capital, the fund manager, will enable the fund to count on an initial amount of 630 million, higher than the 500 million planned. The objective remains a total fund raising of 1 billion.

"This success demonstrates the strategic nature of civil aeronautics in terms of employment, technology and foreign trade. Such a commitment, which is set to grow with the contribution of other investors, will effectively help the exceptional French aerospace supply chain, which is the basis of our industry," said Eric Trappier, Chairman & CEO of Dassault Aviation. It is about supporting the most fragile companies, preserving skills, encouraging digital modernization and environmental transition. The solidarity and cohesion of our eco-system have been exemplary for more than a century. Dassault Aviation is proud to be part of this tradition, which is one of the foundations of the dynamism of the aeronautics industry in our country".

ABOUT DASSAULT AVIATION:

With over 10,000 military and civil aircraft delivered in more than 90 countries over the last century, Dassault Aviation has built up expertise recognized worldwide in the design, development, sale and support of all types of aircraft, ranging from the Rafale fighter, to the high-end Falcon family of business jets, military drones and space systems. In 2019, Dassault Aviation reported revenues of 7,3 billion. The company has 12,750 employees.

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The climate crisis and the coronavirus pandemic may feel like uniquely modern concerns, but 1,500 years ago some societies may have been grappling with eerily similar issues, researchers have said.

Climate change and a major pandemic may have been the backdrop for a significant economic downturn on the edge of the Byzantine Empire in the mid-sixth century CE, archaeologists in the Middle East have suggested.

Tracking the rise and fall of viticulture (wine-making), a team of Israeli archaeologists have said commercial wine sales appeared to plummet in the years following plague and global cooling caused by an enormous volcanic eruption.

The first wave of what later became known as the Black Death spread throughout the Byzantine Empire and beyond, and became known as the Justinianic Plague, after Emperor Justinian, who contracted the deadly disease but survived.

While the plague has become associated with the medieval period of European history when tens of millions died, its earlier waves also inflicted high mortality, and brought a broad range of socio-economic impacts.

At the same time as the Justinianic Plagues worst effects were being felt, the planet was in the grip of the coldest decade of the last two thousand years.

A cataclysmic volcanic eruption is known to have occurred in late 535 or early 536CE.

It is not known exactly where the volcano erupted, but tree ring analysis, ice cores and geological sulphate deposits all confirm written accounts of short-term global cooling.

The Byzantine historian Procopius wrote of the dramatic change in climate in 536 AD in his report on the wars with the Vandals. He said: During this year a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness ... and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear.

Despite the evidence of both the volcanic eruption and the early wave of bubonic plague, scholars still disagree on the extent of the socio-economic upheaval that resulted.

The Israeli archaeologists said: This scholarly debate is unsurprising considering that even today, leaders and policymakers around the world differ on the severity and correct response to Covid-19, not to mention climate change.

But they added: One reason that hindsight is not 20-20 when it comes to ancient plagues is that ancient reports tend to exaggerate, or under-represent, the human tolls, while archaeological evidence for the social and economic effects of plague are very hard to find.

The new research focused on viticulture in the middle of Israels arid Negev desert, and sought to discover when and why the agricultural settlement of the Negev Highlands was abandoned.

Agriculture in this area of desert was made possible through rainwater runoff farming which reached its peak in the Byzantine period, as seen at sites like Elusa - which was famous in the fifth century for its wines - and the ancient cities of Shivta and Nessana.

However, despite many well-preserved architectural features of the ancient sites, the research teams discovered even more compelling evidence about life during that period in an unexpected place: the rubbish heaps.

Your trash says a lot about you, said Professor Guy Bar-Oz of the University of Haifa.

In the ancient trash mounds of the Negev, there is a record of residents' daily lives - in the form of plant remains, animal remains, ceramic shards, and more.

We excavated these mounds to uncover the human activity behind the trash, what it included, when it flourished, and when it declined.

One of the key discoveries was of grape pips. The other was of amphoras - pointed-bottomed clay pots used for transporting wine and other liquids.

Black Death 'plague pit' in Lincolnshire Show all 7 1 /7 Black Death 'plague pit' in Lincolnshire Black Death 'plague pit' in Lincolnshire Twenty-seven of the skeletons belong to chidren, researchers believe University of Sheffield Black Death 'plague pit' in Lincolnshire The layout of the bodies in the grave University of Sheffield Black Death 'plague pit' in Lincolnshire The find was 'completely unexpected' University of Sheffield Black Death 'plague pit' in Lincolnshire A Tau cross pendant found in the grave. The token was believed to cure skin illnesses University of Sheffield Black Death 'plague pit' in Lincolnshire Archaeologists believe the local community was 'unable to cope' with the outbreak University of Sheffield Black Death 'plague pit' in Lincolnshire The discovery has national significance, experts believe University of Sheffield Black Death 'plague pit' in Lincolnshire The plague-causing bacterium has only previously been confirmed in two sites in London University of Sheffield

For the present study, nearly 10,000 grape seeds, wheat and barley were retrieved and counted from 11 rubbish mounds at three sites.

Identifying seed and fruit remains is a unique capability of our lab, said archaeobotanist Professor Ehud Weiss.

It relies on the Israel National Reference Collection of Plant Seeds and Fruit held in our lab, and on years of experience in retrieving, processing, and analysing plant remains from sites of all periods in Israeli archaeology.

One of the researchers first observations was the high numbers of grape seeds in the ancient rubbish tips. This finding fit well with previous scholars suggestions that the Negev was involved in export-bound viticulture.

Byzantine texts laud the vinum Gazetum or Gaza wine as a sweet white wine exported from the port of Gaza throughout the Mediterranean and beyond.

This wine was generally transported in a type of amphora known as Gaza jars or Gaza wine jars, which have been found at sites throughout the Mediterranean.

In Byzantine Negev rubbish mounds, these Gaza jars are found in high quantities.

Daniel Fuks, a PhD student in the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, and who led the study, said: Imagine youre an ancient farmer with a plot of land to feed your family. On most of it, you plant cereals like wheat and barley because that's how you get your bread.

On a smaller part, you plant a vineyard and other crops like legumes, vegetables and fruit trees, for your family's needs.

But one day you realise that you could sell the excellent wine you produce, for export, and earn enough cash to buy bread and a bit more. Little by little you expand your vineyard and move from subsistence farming to commercial viticulture.

If we look at your trash and count the seeds, we'll discover a rise in the proportion of grape pips relative to cereal grains. And that's exactly what we discovered: A significant rise in the ratio of grape pips to cereal grains between the 4th century CE and the mid-6th century. Then suddenly, it declines.

Furthermore, with Dr Tali Erickson-Gini, an expert in ancient Negev pottery, the team investigated ratios of Gaza jars in the rubbish mounds, and found the rise and fall tracked those of the grape pips.

The researchers concluded that the commercial scale of viticulture in the Negev region, as seen in the grape pip ratios, was connected to Mediterranean trade, attested to by the Gaza jar ratios.

The study also suggests the volcanic eruption, which was known to have led to drought in Europe, may have increased precipitation, possibly including high-intensity flash flooding, in the southern Levant, damaging local agriculture.

Professor Bar-Oz said: It appears that agricultural settlement in the Negev Highlands received such a blow that it was not revived until modern times. Significantly, the decline came nearly a century before the Islamic conquest of the mid-seventh century.

Two of the most likely triggers for the mid-sixth century collapse - climate change and plague - reveal inherent vulnerabilities in political-economic systems, then and now, the authors said.

The difference is that the Byzantines didn't see it coming, said Mr Fuks.

We can actually prepare ourselves for the next outbreak or the imminent consequences of climate change. The question is, will we be wise enough to do so?

The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
NEW YORK, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ankura, a global business advisory and expert services firm, is pleased to announce that 41 of its professionals have been named among the top advisors worldwide in the Who's Who Legal: Consulting Experts 2020 list. This ranking demonstrates Ankura's depth of advisory experience across various sectors and geographies, with experts from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas receiving recognition for their work supporting clients as they navigate complex challenges and seize opportunities.

Who's Who Legal is a leading publication that annually identifies the foremost legal practitioners and consulting experts in business law through nominations, an in-depth database, peer references, and extensive research. Those ranked the highest in their practice areas by Who's Who Legal's database are included in its list of leading consulting experts.

"This recognition by Who's Who Legal is a reflection of the hard work and dedication our professionals have put toward developing their expertise and helping clients achieve their goals," said Philip Daddona, President of Ankura. "Our people provide valuable insights in all types of situations, delivering measurable and meaningful results to help our clients address both critical challenges and opportunities. We applaud our professionals for their passion, expertise and dedication to collaboration and client success  these attributes define our firm's culture and make Ankura unique."

Who's Who Legal has recognized the following Ankura professionals as leading consulting experts for their exceptional work across a wide range of high-profile and complex projects:

USA

Bernard F. Woolfley (Forensic Accounting)

Brad Pinne (Tax Disputes and Data Analytics)

David Dale (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

David M Eisenstadt (Economics: Antitrust and Competition)

Darin Buchalter (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

Frederick R. Warren-Boulton (Economics: Antitrust and Competition)

Gene L Deetz (Financial Advisory and Valuation: Quantum of Damages)

Greg D Crider (Construction: Quantum and Financial Advisory and Valuation: Delay and Quantum of Damages)

Israel Almodovar (Construction: Quantum and Financial Advisory and Valuation: Delay and Quantum of Damages)

James Langenfeld (Economics: Antitrust and Competition)

Jean-Michel Ferat (Forensic Accounting)

Jessica Block (Data and E-Discovery)

John Levitske (Financial Advisory and Valuation: Quantum of Damages)

John F Stark (Digital Forensics)

Katie Jensen (Data and E-Discovery)

Luke Tenery (Data and E-Discovery)

Mark Clews (Data and E-Discovery)

Martin Wilczynski (Forensic Accounting)

Patrick M Kelly (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

Peter V Badala (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

Robert W Davenport (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

Scott D Gray (Construction: Quantum and Financial Advisory and Valuation: Delay and Quantum of Damages)

Toshi Dezaki (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

EMEA

Andrew Caldwell (Financial Advisory and Valuation: Quantum of Damages)

Jon Fowler (Data and E-Discovery)

Mamas Stavrou (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

Matthew Finn (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

Michael Stokes (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

Richard Chalk (Digital Forensics and Data and E-Discovery)

Tanya Gross (Digital Forensics and Data and E-Discovery)

Tony Farrow (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

Guy Elkington (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

Paul Taplin (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

David Dellar (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

Jacqui Record (Construction: Quantum and Delay and Forensic Accounting)

APAC

Karen Fletcher (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

Jon Prudhoe (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

Premjit Dass (Forensic Accounting)

Ben Burley (Construction: Quantum and Delay)

Neill Poole (Forensic Accounting, Financial Advisory and Valuation: Quantum of Damages, and Asset Recovery)

Fred Chan (Digital Forensics and Data and E-Discovery)

To learn more about Ankura professionals' expertise and distinct advisory capabilities, please visit www.ankura.com/expertise/.

About Ankura

Ankura is a global business advisory and expert services firm defined by HOW we solve challenges. Whether a client is facing an immediate business challenge, trying to increase the value of their company or protect against future risks, Ankura designs, develops, and executes tailored solutions by assembling the right combination of expertise. We help clients navigate a wide range of corporate performance and risk management challenges, including those pertaining to compliance, investigations, forensics, technology, turnaround and restructuring, and corporate strategy. We build on this experience with every case, client, and situation, collaborating to create innovative, customized solutions, and strategies designed for today's ever-changing business environment. This gives our clients unparalleled insight and experience across a wide range of economic, governance, and regulatory challenges. At Ankura, we know that collaboration drives results. For more information, please visit: www.ankura.com.

SOURCE Ankura

Related Links

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Patients having an operation or treatment on the NHS no longer need to self-isolate for 14 days before going to hospital.

Updated guidance says strict social distancing and hand washing is enough to cut the risk of patients taking the virus into hospitals in England.

NHS patients will only need to self-isolate for a few days after taking a test in the run-up to them entering hospital, health bosses now say.

Surgeons hope the relaxation of rules will help them to tackle the huge waiting lists that have built up during the Covid-19 crisis.

But they called for all patients to be given tests for the coronavirus before and after their operation to keep a lid on any potential outbreak.

The change in advice was made because the virus is circulating at much lower levels than it was during the peak of the crisis in March and April.

Patients having an operation on the NHS no longer need to self-isolate for 14 days prior as a coronavirus precaution (stock)

Millions of operations were cancelled in March to make room for Covid-19 patients, with the outbreak expected to flood hospitals.

Hospitals in England were told to postpone all non-urgent elective operations from 15 April at the latest, for a period of at least three months.

NHS England statistics show 1.5million patients have been forced to wait at least 18 weeks to start treatment, the worst figure since 2007.

In a bid to start tackling the growing backlog, which hospital bosses have warned could take four years to clear, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) changed the guidelines.

It said yesterday that for most people, the blanket rule for self-isolating before an operation would no longer be necessary.

It is unclear how the rule  which came into force in May as part of NHS England's plan to re-start elective care  was ever enforced.

ALL NHS STAFF SHOULD BE ROUTINELY TESTED, JEREMY HUNT SAYS All NHS staff need to be routinely tested for coronavirus to prevent a second wave in winter, according to the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt. In a letter to his replacement Matt Hancock and NHS England boss Sir Simon Stevens, Mr Hunt said nurses, doctors, cleaners and porters must be screened weekly. This will reassure staff they are not unwittingly carrying the virus, and because tests can produce false negatives, it is essential to carry them out frequently, he said. Hospital trust chiefs are yet to decide on testing regimes because they say they need clarify from the Government. For months only people with tell-tale symptoms of Covid-19 were being given access to tests because the Government was struggling to ramp up its swabbing capacity. Routine testing is slowly being rolled out for care home staff and residents after the sector was devastated by the first epidemic. But there has been reluctance from health bosses to screen all hospital workers on a regular basis - possibly due to not having the capacity. The feat would involve swabbing up to a million additional people a week, and the Government is only testing around 2.3million people weekly, currently. Mr Hunt, who chairs the House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee, said NHS staff need to be reassured weekly tests will begin by September. He wrote: 'NHS staff want to know they will get the weekly testing that has now been offered to care home staff so they can be confident they won't pass on infections to patients. 'The chief medical officer for England (Professor Chris Whitty) says he supports this in principle so there should be no further delays given the complicated logistics necessary to set it up ahead of winter.' Advertisement

Guidance says that patients having planned care 'involving any form of anaesthesia or sedation should follow comprehensive social distancing and hand hygiene measures for 14 days before admission'.

'They should also be advised to have a test for Sars-CoV-2 within three days before admission and self-isolate from the day of the test until the day of admission,' the guidance added.

For all other planned procedures, including diagnostic tests such as MRI scans, they should also be advised to 'follow comprehensive social distancing and hand hygiene measures for 14 days' beforehand.

Those in groups considered more vulnerable to the virus should still be told they 'should consider self-isolating for 14 days' before a planned procedure, Nice added.

This may include people who are more at risk of Covid-19, such people who are obese.

Some types of surgery would carry an additional risk if the person being operated on already had Covid-19, and so they should consider self-isolating for 14 days before a planned procedure.

For example heart surgery, a major operation which would have a huge impact on someone's health, could be detrimental if the patient has to fight off Covid-19. Their body would be weaker from the surgery and on top of that, the virus can put extra strain on organs like the heart during disease, it's been shown.

Nice also warned those most at risk of Covid-19, including those of older age, from a black, Asian or other minority ethnic group, or with an underlying health condition, should be told so because it may influence their decision about whether to go ahead with their operation.

In a statement, Nice said that the new recommendations aimed 'to balance the risks associated with Covid-19 with the potential harms that can arise from delays in elective treatment and diagnostic procedures'.

Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England, said: 'Local teams have made significant progress since May in bringing back services in a way that is safe for patients and staff.

'This updated guidance, which reflects the continued decline in infections and the increased availability of testing, will help them now go further and faster.'

Layla McCay, a director at the NHS Confederation  which represents trusts across the country, is hopeful the new guidance will encourage people to have their operation.

She told The Times that health service leaders had said anecdotally that some of their patients had been put off going in for planned treatments because of the self-isolation rule.

These included those whose personal circumstances would not easily allow it, such as those in full-time jobs who can't afford that much time off.

Ms McCay said that it made sense for decisions to be made locally, rather than having a generic national policy.

THIRD OF CANCER PATIENTS HAVE HAD DISRUPTIONS TO THEIR TREATMENT A third of cancer patients has suffered potentially deadly disruptions to treatment as a result of coronavirus, it was revealed today. Hundreds of thousands have had vital scans, tests, surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy delayed or cancelled during lockdown, a study by Cancer Research found. In total, the charity estimates around 38,000 fewer cancer treatments have occurred since lockdown began 18 weeks ago  with the NHS facing an enormous backlog that will only get worse. Some of these procedures would have saved or extended lives, granting cancer patients precious extra time with friends and family. Advertisement

The Royal College of Surgeons of England welcomed the relaxation of rules, but had concerns the advice misses an opportunity to provide robust advice for testing.

Professor Cliff Shearman, vice president, said: 'We believe the guidance misses the opportunity to provide robust advice on testing for patients and healthcare workers, which is crucial in preventing the spread of the virus and keeping surgery going.

'In order to get through the backlog, surgery must be restarted safely, and this can only be done by having accurate and timely testing for healthcare workers and patients.

'This means we have to test staff regularly  preferably up to twice a week and they must have adequate and appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE).

'Patients should ideally be tested on the day of admission, as well as 72 hours before surgery takes place to take account of the level of false negatives in the testing regime.

'Adding to that, all patients should be tested upon discharge, not only when they are discharged to other care settings, but also into the community. Currently there is no mention in the guidance on testing for healthcare workers.'

He suggested patients are treated at a 'Covid light site' where they are at the least risk of catching the virus.

The guidelines do state that people having inpatient surgery who stay in hospital for more than five days should be tested for SARS-Cov-2 between five and seven days after admission.
Rankings of universities are based on various criteria in research and academic education and allow for a comparison of universities on both the national and international level. In the German university sector, international rankings are gaining importance for e.g. partnership negotiations, students marketing, acquisition of third-party funding, or staff recruitment. Still, university rankings are discussed rather controversially. In particular, the partly intransparent methodology or the general attempt to evaluate universities are criticized.

At regular intervals, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology participates in various university rankings. Among the most important international rankings are the world university rankings of Times Higher Education (THE) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) as well as the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) or Shanghai Ranking.
Video: France Dispatches Rafale Fighters for India Amid Tense Situation Along Chinese Border

Sputnik News

07:25 GMT 27.07.2020(updated 12:08 GMT 27.07.2020)

New Delhi (Sputnik): India purchased 36 Rafale fighter jets from France under a government-to-government deal in 2016 at a cost of $8.7 billion. The delivery of the jets was expedited by France at the behest of India after border tensions with China worsened in April of this year.

The new Rafale jets add strategic depth and strength to India's air combat capabilities, says an Indian official after dispatching five Dassault Aviation fighters from Dassault Aviation Facility, Merignac, France on Monday. These five include three single seater and two twin seater aircraft. The jets are headed to the Ambala Air Base in Punjab, close to Ladakh and the Pakistan border.

Pilots and ground crew have received comprehensive training on the aircraft, including its highly advanced weapons systems, the Indian Air Force said last week in a rare declaration of operational status.

After the arrival of the Rafale fighter jets "efforts will focus on operationalisation of the aircraft at the earliest". Sputnik has already reported that Rafale weaponry arrived at the Ambala Air Base in the first week of July.

Sources indicated that the Indian Air Force has also decided to purchase an Armement Air-Sol Modulaire Hammer air-to-ground precision strike weapon system.

Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh talked to his French counterpart Florence Parly on 2 June after receiving reports of delay in the delivery of jets due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) for the supply of 36 Rafale jet envisages delivery of aircraft in a flyaway condition along with associated equipment. The Indian government did not seek to license manufacturing or transfer of technology as it considered the "deal would not have been cost effective for an order of this size".

Dassault aviation will provide five years of performance-based logistics (PBL) support with options for an additional seven-year extension. The terms finalised by the two sides also provide for 50-year product support by the manufacturer.

Dassault has made India-specific changes to the aircraft and mounted different types of missiles: beyond visual range (BVR) air-to-air Meteor, short and medium-range air-to-air MICA, and precision-guided air-to-ground SCALP missiles.

A Sputnik

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The Bombay high court (HC) last Thursday dismissed anticipatory bail applications filed by two directors of scam-hit Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank.

After perusing investigation papers Justice Sadhana Jadhav pronounced the operative order of rejecting anticipatory bail applications filed by the PMC Bank directors, Gurnam Singh Hothi and Daljit Singh Bal.

The judge said neither of the PMC Bank directors deserved discretionary relief of pre-arrest bail.

Hothi and Bal had moved the HC after the sessions court had rejected their anticipatory bail pleas.

However, the sessions court had granted them interim protection from arrest till June 15, and the interim protection was extended by HC from time to time.

While rejecting the applications, Justice Jadhav also withdrew the interim protection, and as a result, paved the way for the arrest of the two accused in the PMC Bank scam, estimated to be 7,457.49 crore.

Detailed reasoning for dismissal of the pleas is awaited.

The Mumbai Polices economic offences wing (EOW) had on September 30, 2019, registered a case in connection with the fraud perpetrated by the bank officials and accused many of its directors of illegally extending huge loans to realty firm, Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) and its group companies to the tune of Rs 4,355 crore.

According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), PMC Bank had masked 44 dodgy loan accounts involving advances to the tune of Rs 7,457.49 crore to some entities, including HDIL, by tampering with its core banking system, and the accounts were accessible only to select staff members.

The bank had created 21,049 fictitious accounts in a bid to ensure its master data tallies to the loan disbursals of Rs. 7,457.49 crore, RBI has stated in an affidavit filed in response to other PMC Bank-related petitions before the HC.
PORTLAND, Ore.  Federal agents who have clashed with protesters in Portland, Oregon, will begin a phased withdrawal from the city, Gov. Kate Brown said Wednesday.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement the plan negotiated with Brown over the last 24 hours includes a robust presence of Oregon State Police in the downtown of the states largest city.

State and local law enforcement will begin securing properties and streets, especially those surrounding federal properties, that have been under nightly attack for the past two months, Wolf said.

Agents with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will begin leaving the citys downtown area on Thursday, Brown said. Federal Protective Service agents  who are always posted at the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse  will work alongside state police to guard the exterior of the courthouse and a limited number of other federal agents will remain inside the courthouse, she said.

Wolf said that although federal agents will leave the downtown area, they will maintain a presence in Portland until we are assured that the Hatfield Federal Courthouse and other federal properties will no longer be attacked and that the seat of justice in Portland will remain secure. If conditions in Portland improve significantly, then the U.S. government will reassess its staffing levels in the city, he said.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler applauded the end of what he called an illegal occupation in a lengthy Twitter post, saying the news came on the same day that the City Council would vote on whether to refer a major police reform initiative to voters in November.

The federal occupation of our community has brought a new kind of fear to our streets. Federal agents nearly killed a demonstrator, and their presence has led to increased violence and vandalism in our downtown core, he said. The work of reform deserves our communitys full and complete attention, and I know that Portlanders will stay engaged.

Before departing Wednesday for a trip to Texas, President Donald Trump insisted federal troops would not leave Portland until local authorities secured their city.

Either theyre gonna clean up Portland soon, or the federal government is going up, and were gonna do it for them, he said.

The announcement was an abrupt about-face from just two days earlier, when the U.S. government said it might send more federal agents to Portland instead.

The U.S. Marshals Service and Department of Homeland Security had been weighing this week whether to send in more agents. The marshals were taking steps to identify up to 100 additional personnel who could go in case they were needed to relieve or supplement the deputy marshals who work in Oregon, spokesman Drew Wade said.

Brown, who worked with Vice President Mike Pence on the withdrawal, cautioned Wednesday that the departure of the Border Protection and immigration agents may not immediately resolve the conflict at the courthouse. Protests have roiled Portland for more than two months since the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after being pinned at the neck by a white Minneapolis police officer.

Like many other protests nationwide, they sought to highlight and call for an end to racial injustice, but they had increasingly focused on federal property even before the U.S. agents arrived.

I have grown increasingly concerned at the nightly confrontation between local community members and federal officers. We need to recognize that the protests in Portland are not solely about the federal presence, Brown said.

Many protesters want to see the Portland Police Bureau defunded and are angry that officers used tear gas on protesters multiple times before the federal government arrived and tensions escalated further. Brown said the departure of the federal agents was a chance to address that anger and begin to make improvements in community policing.

I will work with community leaders and elected officials to take bolder action to reform our police practices  including those of the Portland Police Bureau. We need to get this right, she said.

The nightly Portland protests often spiral into violence as demonstrators target the U.S. courthouse with rocks, fireworks and laser pointers. Federal agents respond with tear gas, so-called less-lethal ammunition and arrests.

Protesters have tried almost every night to tear down a fence erected to protect the building, set fires in the street and hurled fireworks, Molotov cocktails and bricks, rocks and bottles at the agents inside. Authorities this week reinforced the fence by putting concrete highway barriers around it.

Demonstrators near the courthouse Wednesday were met before dawn with tear gas, pepper balls and impact munitions fired by agents, the Oregonian newspaper reported.

___

Lemire reported from Washington.

___

Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus and Andrew Selsky at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky.
Reliance Industries (RIL)'s subsidiary Reliance Brands has reportedly bought out the stake of Ronnie Screwvala-owned Unilazer Ventures in Zivame. According to Scewvala, his company has sold its entire 15 per cent stake in Zivame to Reliance Brands.

Reliance Brands, which sells many luxury brands such as Diesel, Jimmy Choo, Tiffany and Mothercare in India, is likely to buy 100 per cent stake in Zivame. It is estimated that Reliance could pay $160 million (around Rs 1,200 crore) for acquiring Zivame, according to a report in the Economic Times.

At present, Zodius is the largest shareholder in Zivame with about 60 per cent stake. Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd owns about 25 per cent.

Zivame was founded by Richa Kar in 2011. In FY19, Zivame posted revenue of Rs 140 crore. According to Zivame's website, it has 30-plus retail stores and a presence in more than 800 partner stores across the country.

Meanwhile, reports have emerged that RIL might acquire Kishore Biyani-controlled Future Group's retail business for Rs 24,000-27,000 crore. RIL will also absorb Future Group's partnerships with foreign brands and retailers. For example, Future Retail Ltd had inked a master franchise deal with 7-Eleven Inc. to develop and operate 7-Eleven stores across India. No stores have opened so far, but the business is likely to go to RIL.

Also read: Govt tweaks FDI rules; NRIs can now acquire up to 100% stake in Air India

Also read: Microsoft India most attractive employer; Samsung, Amazon bag second, third spots
Kolawole Oluseyi Akande, University of Ibadan

World Hepatitis Day  28 July  is an opportunity to raise awareness of hepatitis and encourage commitments of governments, policy makers and the public towards eradication of this dangerous disease.

The World Health Organisation has chosen hepatitis free future as its theme this year and is focusing on prevention of hepatitis B among mothers and newborns. The World Hepatitis Alliance has chosen the theme find the missing millions  the millions of people who have hepatitis B but are not aware of it.

In Nigeria alone, there could be about 15 million people who are unaware that they are infected. The danger of this is that some of them could go on to develop liver disease, including cancer. They could also continue to infect others around them, especially family members and sexual partners. This is why it is important to screen family members and sexual contacts of anyone diagnosed with hepatitis B virus infection.

Hepatitis means inflammation of the liver and viral causes are the most common.

There are five types of hepatitis virus, named A, B, C, D and E. Hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) are the most common cause of long-term liver damage, accounting for about 90% of deaths from viral hepatitis. Hepatitis D virus is not a complete virus and can only affect those who already had hepatitis B.

Hepatitis A & E viruses are transmitted by faeco-oral routes. Faeco-oral routes means pathogens in faecal particles pass from one person to the mouth of another person. This is usually as a result of poor hygiene and lack of adequate sanitation.

Hepatitis B, C and D are transmitted through vertical transmission, child to child transmission, transfusion of unscreened blood, use of unsterilised equipment for surgical procedures, indiscriminate use of sharp objects such as local circumcision, tribal marking, ear piercing, tattoos, reuse of needles and syringes and unprotected sexual intercourse. Vertical transmission refers to passage of a pathogen from mother to baby immediately before and after birth. It might occur through direct contact during or after birth.

Prevalence

HBV and HCV are international public health problems, chronically infecting 292 million and 71 million people respectively worldwide. The two viruses cause about 1 million deaths annually. But the burden of hepatitis is not evenly spread. The sub-Saharan African and Western Pacific regions account for about 68% of all chronic hepatitis B infections. The reason for this discrepancy is the delay in the availability of vaccines and frequency of risky behaviours in these regions.

A recent study in Nigeria found the prevalence of hepatitis B and C in the country to be 8.1% and 1.1% of the population respectively. This means that about 19 million Nigerians have hepatitis B or C. We found in our research that about 11% of Nigerian patients with hepatitis B also had hepatitis D. The co-existence of hepatitis B and D is a greater threat to liver health than hepatitis B virus alone.

Unfortunately, most patients with hepatitis B and hepatitis C infections are asymptomatic and can remain so until the liver is significantly damaged. The World Health Organisation has estimated that only about 10% and 19% of patients with chronic HBV and HCV are aware of their infections. Hepatitis B and C viruses could lead to liver cancer if not properly treated. The median survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) in sub-Saharan Africa is less than three months.

The Society of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Nigeria advocates in its HBV guideline that all unimmunised adults in Nigeria should be screened for hepatitis B infection, especially when they visit a hospital for whatever reason. This is to ensure that the millions of people with asymptomatic infection are diagnosed and treated, if need be.

Its not known whether all healthcare workers are following this advice.

Prevention and treatment

The World Health Organisation aims to reduce new HBV infections by 90% and deaths by 65% by 2030. The United Nations also placed combating hepatitis as the third target of goal 3 of its sustainable development goals.

Though HBV has no cure, it is preventable through vaccination and avoidance of risky behaviours that promote its transmission. There is no effective vaccine that can prevent hepatitis C but it is curable with the available medications.

Prevention of mother to child transmission is the most important intervention to reduce the incidence of chronic hepatitis B. This is because, unlike adults who acquire the infection, 90%-95% of children who acquire the infection from their mothers will have persistent infection until adulthood. All pregnant mothers should be screened for HBV but screening and treatment are unaffordable for many of these women.

HBV vaccination has been incorporated into the routine immunisation programme for children in Nigeria since the late 1990s and it is free. Two things that stand in the way of prevention efforts in Nigeria are the cost of the investigations of HBV and HCV, which are not covered by the national health insurance scheme, and the knowledge of health workers.

In another study we conducted, only 44% of health workers were aware of the mother to child route of transmission of HBV.

Though hepatitis B has no cure, there are effective medications that reduce the possibility of liver damage and cancer. Because they are imported to Nigeria, though, these medications are not necessarily affordable or available. This reduces the compliance of patients on this drug.

As we mark the 2020 World Hepatitis Day, government and nongovernmental organisations should create greater awareness of screening. Those found positive should then be linked with treatment centres. There should be continuous education of all health workers on hepatitis routes of transmission and treatment.

In addition to measures which are free according to national policy, screening for HBV and HCV should be free. Large procurement of treatment drugs or encouragement of their local production should also be encouraged so that they are affordable and available. This will help to ensure a hepatitis free Nigeria.

Kolawole Oluseyi Akande, Lecturer, Gastroenterology & Hepatology Unit and Consultant Gastroenterologist & Hepatologist , University of Ibadan

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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As Pennsylvanians pay less taxes for the second year in a row on tax day, it serves as an encouraging reminder of President Trumps fulfillment of his promise to lower taxes. The Trump Administrations new and improved tax code economically empowers Pennsylvanians with its simple, fair, pro-growth and pro-family policies.

Over 80 percent of middle-income Americans experienced a tax cut thanks to President Trump, with lower-middle class households experiencing the largest cut. Every income group in Pennsylvania received a tax cut, and a median income family of four received a $2,000 annual tax cut.

Another benefit of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act is the doubling of the standard deduction, which provides tax relief and simplifies the tax filing process. Ninety percent of Pennsylvania households choose to take the standard deduction, benefitting a total of 4,415,920 households in the Keystone State.

Republican tax cuts are also enabling Pennsylvania businesses of all sizes to expand operations and help their employees with more hiring, raising pay and increasing employee benefits. Utility companies in all 50 states are passing on the tax savings in the form of lower electric, gas and water bills from Pennsylvania companies such as: Citizens Electric Company of Lewisburg, National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation, PECO Energy Company and Pennsylvania Electric Company.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden promised that the first thing he would do in office is repeal President Trumps historic tax cuts and raise taxes along with adding a $4 trillion burden on middle class families, businesses, investors, and 80 percent of American taxpayers. Joe Bidens tax policy is heavily influenced by Bernie Sanders socialist ideas through their joint unity platform, which would lead to an immediate $2,000 tax hike for a typical Pennsylvania family of four.

While President Trump puts working families first, Biden puts working families last and would cut the child tax credit in half after President Trump doubled it in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. With help from Ivanka Trump, President Trumps 100 percent increase in the Child Tax Credit has benefitted 823,380Pennsylvania households. It should not be forgotten that every Democrat voted against giving Pennsylvanians a tax cut as well as this child tax credit.

To Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats dismay, President Trumps tax relief was far from Armageddon; it played a vital economic role in reigniting our countrys economy and creating more jobs throughout the pandemic recovery.

The recent success of manufacturing jobs coming back to the U.S. would be reversed by Joe Biden, who would raise corporate tax rates by a third, leading to a significant number of Pennsylvania jobs going back overseas.

Furthermore, Joe Biden continues to proudly back tax-hiking proposals like big government-run health care which would raise taxes by $16 trillion, and the disastrous Green New Deal which would partially be funded by a 70 percent tax rate.

In complete contrast to Biden, President Trump always puts the American workers first and understands the value of every hard-earned dollar. He believes Pennsylvanians deserve to keep as much of their paycheck as possible, while still paying taxes for items of importance like the military and infrastructure.

As our country is in the process of bouncing back to the successful economic levels we were at pre-pandemic, the American people cannot afford the tax increases of a Biden administration.

As Nov. 3 approaches, the Keystone State will remember the financial benefits received under the Trump Administration such as lower taxes, higher savings, and lower expenses. President Trump believes money is best kept in the hands of the American people, and the American people trust the economy in the hands of President Trump who always makes economic decisions with their best interest in mind.

Lawrence Tabas is chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party.
GRANITE CITY  A Granite City man on Monday pleaded guilty to a 17-count federal indictment on wire fraud, failure to file individual and corporate income tax returns and money laundering.

Douglas J. Kiffmeyer, 45, promoted himself as a retirement planner, financial consultant and tax advisor with businesses under the names of Modern Retirement Professionals and Kiffmeyer Tax Advisory Group, Inc.
HEFEI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- While many Chinese residents relocate to townships to escape floods, some in east China's Anhui Province are sheltering away in special villages. China has entered its rainy season. Since June, continuous downpours have lashed large parts of southern China, and the waters of many rivers in the affected regions have exceeded warning levels. On July 23, authorities closed the spillways at Wangjiaba, a major flood diversion channel on the Huaihe River, almost 77 hours after they were opened in a move to reserve capacity in flood zones. Since the spillways were opened, 1,360 cubic meters of water roared through the diversion area per second in the midst of pouring rain, inundating local farmlands in the county of Funan. A total of 375 million cubic meters of water has been stored in the Mengwa buffer zone in the county, swallowing an area of more than 180 square km, home to about 155,000 residents. Amid the sea of floodwater stand highland villages known as "zhuangtai" by locals. The villages have long served as shelters for people living in the flood diversion area. Created in 1953 alongside the Wangjiaba hydrological station, the zhuangtais contain four townships, where residents live in homes built dozens of meters above sea level. The zhuangtais are either natural low hills or artificially built structures providing a safe haven from river flooding. Zheng Jichao lives on one of the zhuangtais besieged by floods from the Huaihe River. "I have experienced a dozen floods since I was a little kid. I am used to the situation now," said Zheng, who has stored enough food at home to last till the flood recedes. "The only concern is that the farmland has been submerged," said Zheng, 72. Over the years, nearly 800 million yuan (about 114 million U.S. dollars) has been spent to upgrade the infrastructure of these zhuangtais. "We were afraid of floods before. There wasn't enough food and we didn't have access to drinking water," Zheng's wife recalled. More than 100 residents are living on the same zhuangtai with Zheng and his wife, most of whom are children and seniors. "Supplies are sent to them by boat every day based on the villagers' needs. When the water stabilizes, we will also arrange boats to pick them up," said Li Tongshi, a local official appointed to the zhuangtais to help the villagers. In another zhuangtai, Guo Guomin was cutting the hair of her fellow villagers stranded in the isolated highland village. "Yesterday I gave four people haircuts. It was all for free," said Guo, who had no previous experience cutting hair. The water level at Wangjiaba rose to 29.66 meters by 6:36 a.m. on July 20, exceeding the recommended level of 29.3 meters, according to the Huaihe River Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources. Spillways of Wangjiaba were opened to divert the floodwater to the adjacent Mengwa buffer zone. The move is expected to bring relief to the residents in central China's Henan Province, where the upper reaches of the Huaihe River run through, and alleviate the pressure on the downstream sections affected by the swollen river. The 1,000-km-long Huaihe River is one of China's major waterways, running through the east of the country between the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. The main course of the Huaihe River has faced flood risks recently due to heavy rains. Spillways of Wangjiaba have opened to divert floodwater 16 times since it was put into use in 1953, with the last time being in 2007. Enditem


Project-based learning can help students educate themselves

Blitz Mode 2020 is the newest INTEK recruitment mode, which provides prospects for people who are interested in technology to experience the groups outstanding Full Stack Developer curriculum.

Each eventful Sunday is composed of an IT IQ test, teamwork activities, and interviews held for participants to discover whether they are suited for a job as an IT developer.

Plus, those who yearn to enrol in the three-month programme could receive 30 per cent off tuition fees after three months of learning.

Students who come to INTEK receive the most innovative educational practices from around the globe, prompting the best approach of IT knowledge. Plus, the institute provides a learning place full of soft skills and project-minded, product-oriented, team players, English proficient and customer-facing  all required at a real company.

In addition to project-based learning, INTEK educates people to freely shape their future by having a sense of responsibility, allaying their fear of change, and being willing to apply their thinking, creativity, and initiative into their works to embrace the digital revolution.

We are focusing on teaching our students how to adapt themselves to anything that might happen in the future. What we are trying to develop in INTEK is teaching them to learn how to learn, stated Chinh Phan, adding more to the core institutes educational value of talent catalyst and creative culture booster, as well as a future-ready and future-proof mindset.

Vietnam currently lacks skillful engineers and, while the technology industry stimulates development of big cities, the number of competent engineers can not accommodate the requirements of substantial quantity. Additionally, the number of graduate engineers who can get decent jobs could be counted on one hand.

INTEK designs the right environment and ecosystem which will enable students to nurture their inner talent and unleash their potential.

It dignifies connections among people in the institute, prompting a good co-working environment which prepares them with proper skills needed for their future careers. It is certain that every student who becomes an INTEKer and graduates from INTEK can meet the realistic demands of IT companies and earn a high salary.

A good name is developed, not by one broad stroke of a brush, but by many small acts over a period of time.

After two years of presence in Vietnam, INTEK has proven its contribution in supporting accomplished engineers for the technology industry.

It highlighted an effective project-based learning method the institute uses to guide its students on the path to autonomy. Chinh Phan said, Projects use the talents of each team member. People put something they know together in a basket to solve the problem. Thats what happens in a company: your boss gives you a project, a team is set up, everyone brings something to solve the issue.

The new project-based learning model asks students to educate themselves together every moment once they carry out a project.

It is different from traditional education, said Chinh Phan. Project-based learning is sharing and collaborating. The main strength of the method is when someone has an idea, that individual shares it with others, together, two or more of them will bring something new and valuable to the project and even community. Project-based learning is not about competition, but an environment that makes people feel uplifted and comfortable to share their information and ideas.

INTEK encourages students to always ask themselves whether they are going in the right direction, sharing and learning from others to hit their target. Project-based learning models develop creative and critical thinking that allows people to confront problems, lead initiatives, and sound off.

The group plans to expand its scale to rural and remote areas, and hopes that with its efforts, people who are interested in IT can access good education.

Small acts can be built up and the best possible version of a person can be achieved, according to INTEK. It believes that by making a few steps every single day, the institute can contribute to the countrys development of highly-qualified and skilled engineers.
 Flash

At least three Katyusha rockets on Monday hit a military base housing U.S. forces near Iraq's capital Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

The attack took place in the evening when the three rockets landed on al-Taji Camp, some 20 km north of Baghdad, with the casualties unclear yet, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Iraqi security forces launched a search in the surrounding area for the attackers, the source said.

Al-Taji Camp is a huge military base containing an air base where some U.S. troops are stationed.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, but the Iraqi military bases housing U.S. troops across Iraq and the U.S. embassy in the Green Zone have been frequently targeted by mortar and rocket attacks.

The Iraqi-U.S. relations have witnessed a tension since Jan. 3 when a U.S. drone struck a convoy at Baghdad airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.

The U.S. airstrike prompted the Iraqi parliament on Jan. 5 to pass a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in the country.

More than 5,000 U.S. troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces in the battles against the Islamic State militants, mainly for training and advisory purposes.
No one can lawfully embark on any type of protest action unless they notify the Commissio
OTTAWA  The railway to Churchill needs even more government funding to keep running on thawing permafrost, its owners say, arguing $74 million in federal funding to maintain the line isnt enough.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/7/2020 (541 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  The railway to Churchill needs even more government funding to keep running on thawing permafrost, its owners say, arguing $74 million in federal funding to maintain the line isnt enough.

The Trudeau Liberals are asking the Pallister government to pick up the tab.

"Theres a level of urgency with COVID, and funding ending, because of the revenue pressure," Murad Al-Katib, head of Arctic Gateway Group, told the Free Press.

He would not specify how much funding the group is seeking from both levels of government.

The Hudson Bay Railway washed out between Gillam and Churchill in spring 2017, leading to a lengthy dispute with Denver-based Omnitrax, which ultimately sold the rail line to Ottawa.

The Liberals transferred Churchills railway and port to a new, local consortium called Arctic Gateway in September 2018, spending $74 million to acquire the line, transfer it and fund repairs up until the end of this year.

The rail line resumed service in late 2018. The federal government has also allocated $43 million over the coming decade to subsidize operations.

Thats not enough money, according the consortium.

Earlier this month, War Lake Chief Betsy Kennedy, a consortium board member, wrote in the National Post that the line could stop running before the end of the year if governments dont cough up more cash.

"The cost of fixing the tracks running through muskeg has been much higher than expected. Without an additional investment from the federal and Manitoba governments, the train could fall silent once again before the year ends," reads Kennedys July 4 letter.

Yet Al-Katib insisted Monday that the timeline isnt quite so dire.

"Weve got funding in place to sustain ourselves to the end of the year, so thats not the issue," he said. "Its really looking at the forward program, in 2021 to 2025."

The firm wants to better anchor the track on muskeg, and do dredging around the port to repair its wharf.

"The (federal) government is talking about stimulus dollars coming out; and we want to be ready for this," said Churchill Mayor Mike Spence.

The COVID-19 pandemic has cut anticipated tourism while a global decline in mining operations means fewer freight clients for the railway, Al-Katib said, though the grain harvest will ramp up fall shipments.

He said larger shipping containers will help increase summertime shipments in the coming years, making the supply chain more economically viable.

Al-Katib was critical of the Pallister government, saying Ottawa has invested the lions share of funding.

"The province, with the exception of some very modest training dollars has been absent in the support of this infrastructure, and thats been quite a difficult position for us," he said.

Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal was not available Monday for an interview, but suggested in an email that Pallister should put up more funding.

"This is an opportunity for all orders of government to work together and support this great economic project. Thats why, earlier this month, I requested a meeting with Premier Pallister to discuss next steps with all partners," Vandal wrote.

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Pallisters spokeswoman responded that he will consider the groups request.

"The province is reviewing information received from Arctic Gateway Group and planning to engage in discussions with the group and the federal government."

Meanwhile, Arctic Gateway is still fighting a Federal Court appeal against a 2018 regulator ruling that compelled Omnitrax to fix the railway or potentially face fines or a takeover.

Al-Katib said his group inherited both the court case and documents suggesting Omnitrax couldnt actually have repaired the line within the timeline the Canadian Transportation Agency provided.

"The railway could not have been fixed, at the time the level-of-service breach was adjudicated," Al-Katib said.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 06:43:39|Editor: huaxia

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ATHENS, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Arancha Gonzalez Laya expressed Spain's support for Greece in stability in the Mediterranean region during her visit to Athens on Tuesday when meeting with the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and her Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias.

According to government sources, Turkey's recent conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque was also discussed.

Gonzalez Laya said after meeting her Greek counterpart that during her visit to Turkey on Monday she had the impression that Turkey was interested in dialogue, adding that this needs to be proven in action.

In terms of Libya, the Greek FM urged for an active role of EU on constant violations of an arms embargo imposed on Libya.

"We should all support the IRINI operation. Turning Libya into a failed state, would be a great problem for the EU," he said.

The Spanish FM said all sides should respect the arms embargo, by air, land and sea.

"We need to promote a sincere effort by all the political parties in Libya, to reach a political understanding that we want to see unconditional ceasefire," she pointed out.

Both sides committed to expanding their coordination on the migration issue, as both countries are points of entry and first reception for refugees and migrants.

They reaffirmed their mutual content over the EU recovery fund granted to all EU member states to deal with the coronavirus repercussions on their economies. Enditem
A former Wexford accountant has consented to a number of High Court orders in a liquidator's investigation into the running of three insolvent companies.

Alan Hynes has agreed not to reduce his assets below 2.46 million or transfer, encumber or otherwise deal in assets relating to Hynes Jewellers Wexford (HJW), JW Fashions (JWF) and Tuskar Property Holdings (TPH), all in liquidation, pending further hearing.

Last month, liquidator Myles Kirby was granted, on a one side only represented basis, an interim asset freezing order against Mr Hynes, and his cousin Frank Hynes, arising out of the liquidator's investigations into the three firms.

The liquidator claims Alan Hynes effectively controlled and/or acted as a de facto director of the 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 arising from his involvement in Tuskar Asset Management.

Alan Hynes was in court on Wednesday when, representing himself, he initially sought an adjournment of a hearing as to whether the orders should continue pending hearing.

He said if he had more time he would be able to provide information and explanations sought by the liquidator. When Mr Justice Michael Quinn refused an adjournment, Mr Hynes said he was consenting to the orders, including the freezing order, and would supply within four weeks information and accounts sought by the liquidator.

There was no representation or appearance by his cousin Frank or another co-defendant, Adrian O'Reilly, from Cambridge in England, a director of TPH, and the case against them was heard in their absence.

Mr Justice Quinn made the same orders against Frank Hynes as against Alan Hynes. He also ordered Frank Hynes and Mr O'Reilly to attend court for examination in relation to the liquidation investigation.

The judge did not make a freezing order against Mr O'Reilly but said he must provide information in relation to his dealings with the company.

A company called Tuskar Investment Group must not deal with or transfer assets and must provide information in relation to financial dealings concerning the liquidated companies.

In the substantive proceedings against all respondents, due for hearing in November, the liquidator seeks various orders and declarations, including that the three firms be wound up as one company as their affairs were commingled, that Alan Hynes acted as a shadow director and that the Hynes cousins and Mr O'Reilly be made personally liable for the debts.

In an affidavit seeking last month's interim order, Mr Kirby said he has uncovered a series of improper transactions which amount to frauds on the companies and/or their creditors who are owed 2.4 million, the bulk of it in unpaid taxes due from the firms to Revenue.

The order was also against Tuskar Investment Group, which the court heard the liquidator believed was being used as an umbrella company for all the other firms and was the latest vehicle being used by Alan Hynes to seek to divert assets with a view to evading creditors.

The Hynes family was involved in the jewellery trade in Wexford with the HJW firm. Mr Kirby said his investigations had been hampered by a "striking lack of records and accounts and a lack of co-operation" by the Hynes and O'Reilly respondents.

He believed Mr O'Reilly was acting under the direction of Alan Hynes. Mr Kirby says the value of payments made by the TPH company between 2015 and 2020 was just over 1 million 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.
SAN DIEGO, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DTx Pharma, Inc. (DTx), a privately-held biotechnology company creating novel RNA-based therapeutics to treat the genetic drivers of disease, announced today the appointment of Bryan Laffitte, Ph.D., as Vice President, Biology. In his newly created role, Dr. Laffitte will be responsible for leading the company's research and development team and exploring new target opportunities for DTx's fatty acid delivery platform.

"We are excited to welcome Bryan to DTx  he is a highly decorated scientist with a proven track record in preclinical and translational biology across a wide range of therapeutic areas," said Arthur T. Suckow, Co-Founder and CEO of DTx Pharma. "His experience leading scientific teams in both large pharma and biotechnology companies will be critical as we advance our fatty acid conjugate technology platform to solve the drug delivery challenges associated with RNA-based therapies."

Dr. Laffitte brings almost twenty years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry experience to DTx, with significant expertise leading research teams across many scientific disciplines and advancing programs from pre-clinical development through IND filings. Dr. Laffitte joins DTx from Inception Therapeutics, Inc., where we served as Vice President, Biology and was responsible for the managing research activities for Inception and several of its subsidiary companies including Tempest Therapeutics, Lycia Therapeutics, Osprey Therapeutics and Metis Therapeutics. Prior to Inception, Dr. Laffitte served in roles of increasing responsibility over a thirteen-year period  most recently as Director, Regenerative Medicine - at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research (NIBR). During his time at GNF/NIBR, Dr. Laffitte lead several functions including the strategic direction of the Regenerative Medicine Group, the pre-clinical pharmaceutical development for several programs in a wide range of indications, and the Type 1 Diabetes collaboration with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), which Dr. Laffitte was responsible for securing the largest research grant ever (~$25M) from the JDRF. He initiated and led the Novartis FXR Agonist project leading to the development of tropifexor (LJN452) which has demonstrated Proof of Concept in Phase 2 clinical trials in two indications including Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis. He was a member of the Novartis FXR Agonist global project team and acted as co-lead of the strategic initiative on targeted drug delivery. In 2016, he was named the VIVA (Vision, Innovation, Value and Achievement) Award winner and was named the Novartis Leading Scientist for the year.

Before GNF/NIBR, Dr. Laffitte served as Investigator, High Throughput Biology at GSK Research and Development. Dr. Laffitte received his Ph.D. in biological chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Laffitte has presented his research at several leading medical conferences and is the author on 30 peer-reviewed publications.

"I am thrilled to join DTx at such an important time in the company's maturation," said Dr. Laffitte. "The company's fatty acid delivery technology platform is very exciting and I believe we have the ability to target undruggable tissue and cell types to create a new and powerful class of RNA-based medicines. I look forward to helping the team translate the promise of DTx's science toward new medicines for patients suffering from genetic diseases."

About DTx Pharma

DTx Pharma, Inc. is a privately-held biotechnology company creating novel RNA-based therapeutics to treat the genetic drivers of disease. The company's proprietary delivery technology platform utilizes fatty acids as targeting ligands to enable the delivery of oligonucleotide therapies to tissues and cell types throughout the body. In preclinical studies, DTx has demonstrated cellular uptake and broad activity of oligonucleotides in the retina, muscle, heart, neurons, T cells and many other specialized cell types. Based upon the novelty, IP position and data demonstrating the effectiveness of its proprietary fatty acid motifs, DTx has previously received investment, nondilutive funding and other forms of support from Eli Lilly, Eye CRO and the CMT Research Foundation (CMTRF) for its ocular and muscle programs and has received multiple grant awards from the NIH (NCATS, NIA), and the TPEP program of Alzheimer's Association and Rainwater Charitable Trust to advance its efforts to treat CNS diseases. To learn more about DTx Pharma, please visit www.dtxpharma.com and follow DTx on Twitter @DTxPharma.

Contact:

Amy Conrad

Juniper Point

858-366-3243

[email protected]

SOURCE DTx Pharma

Related Links

https://www.dtxpharma.com


Zimbabwes government has asked the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank to act as transaction advisors as it seeks to privatise the state-owned telcos NetOne and TelOne.

NetOne is Zimbabwes second largest mobile operator while TelOne is the fixed incumbent. TeleGeography reports that the government is looking to merge the units and sell off a 60% stake in the combined entity. Local news outlet Chronicle quoted Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube as saying last year that the state aimed to retain a 40% holding in the firms.

The government is reportedly looking to raise $350 million by privatising state-owned properties. It has already divested stakes in Telecel Zimbabwe, Zimpost and POSB Savings Bank.

Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) had previously been contracted as transaction advisors, but the government has now dropped this arrangement, with Ncube noting that Net One and Tel One have indicated that they cannot afford US$5 million transactional fees for consultancy services.

Following the unsustainable fees for the transaction, Government has cancelled the transactional contract with PwC and is looking at retendering or sourcing for the services of other bi-lateral or multilateral partners, added Ncube.

In this regard, a formal request has been made by the secretary of SEPs Reforms, Corporate Governance and Procurement to the World Bank local office to ask IFC to be transactional advisors since these do not need upfront payment.
The inside of Virgin Galactics space plane is like a space-age executive jet.

The seats recline to absorb the forces of acceleration toward space. Mood lighting shifts during each phase of the flight. Twelve windows  two for each of the six passengers, who have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each for a seat  provide an impressive view of Earth and the darkness of space. Sixteen cameras will capture you floating. And the back of the cabin includes a big circular mirror so that you can watch yourself enjoying a few minutes escaping the effects of gravity.

Virgin Galactic will be offering short up-and-down trips to the edge of space, essentially like giant roller coaster rides with better views, in its space plane, SpaceShipTwo.

But how can the company unveil the fancy new interior of its space plane in the middle of a global pandemic when journalists are not able to gather for a fancy media event?

Modern technology provided an imaginative solution. Virgin Galactic sent Oculus virtual reality headsets as loaners to journalists so that they could chat with the designers of the cabin while walking through a computer-generated version of it  an experience of almost being there while being nowhere near there.
CHICAGO, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Industrial Valves Market With COVID-19 & Oil Price Crisis Impact Analysis By Function (On-off/Isolation, Control), Material, Type, Size, End-User (Oil & Gas, Energy & Power, Water & Wastewater Treatment), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Industrial Valves Market size was valued at USD 48.1 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 85.7 billion by 2025. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.3% during the forecast period. Increasing demand for valves from the pharmaceuticals industry due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, growing focus on the development of smart cities globally, rising need for connected networks to maintain and monitor industrial equipment, and surging requirement for establishing new nuclear power plants and revamping existing ones are the key driving factors for the industrial valves market.

Ask for PDF Brochure:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=256097136

Plug valves to account for the largest share of the industrial valves market

Plug valves are expected to lead the industrial valves market, by type. Plug valves are similar to ball valves. The moving part of a plug valve consists of a tapered plug instead of a ball. Plug valves are mainly used on pipes carrying raw sewage, sludge, and grit. They are also used in digester gas systems. Plug valves can seal well, and they do have a tight shut-off. However, some plug valves are made with a reduced port, which means that the flow passageway through the valve is smaller than the adjoining pipe's cross-sectional area. This leads to a higher pressure drop. In this case, full-bore plug valves are useful. Plug valves are heavy and require more space, but they are reliable and durable. In some cases, plug valves are used for throttling purposes. Eccentric plug valves are used for a wide range of flow control and isolation applications, including clean and dirty water, sewage, sludge and slurries, air, and other services.

Oil & gas accounted for the largest share of the industrial valves market in 2019

The oil & gas industry accounted for the largest share of the industrial valves market in 2019 owing to the growing transportation sector, increasing energy demand, and rising drilling activities in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. However, at present, the world is facing an economic crisis due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The onset of this epidemic has affected the oil & gas industry badly, with oil prices slashing like never before. Similarly, on the one side, major oil-producing companies are running out of space to store extracted oil, while on the other side, the oil demand has declined drastically, which has created a huge demand-supply gap. Oil & gas is one of the key industries for industrial valves, but the pandemic has adversely affected the industrial valves market in 2020 to a greater extent.

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North America to account for the largest share of the industrial valves market by 2025

North America is a large consumer and a producer of natural gas, and the market in this region is dominated by the US supply and demand dynamics. The US was the world's largest producer and consumer of natural gas in 2019. This factor, along with the shale gas boom in North America, contributed to the significant growth of the oil & gas industry in the region until 2019. However, right from the beginning of 2020, the entire world has been strongly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, a health and an economic crisis. The US is among the most affected countries in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has plummeted the oil demand drastically. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that the global oil demand was 11.4 million b/d, lower in March 2020 than the annual average in 2019. It further forecasts the demand to be 17.1 million b/d, lower in April 2020. For the year, the EIA estimates that the demand will be 95.5 million b/d (5.2% lower than that in 2019). This is anticipated to be the largest drop since the EIA began keeping records. This drop in demand is likely to have an adverse impact on the growth of the industrial valves market in 2020.

A few of the key players in the industrial valves market are Emerson (US), Cameron - Schlumberger (US), Flowserve (US), IMI Plc. (UK), Metso (Europe), Spirax Sarco (UK), Crane Co. (US), KITZ Corporation (Japan), Trillium Flow Technologies (UK), and BRAY International (US).

Related Reports:

Ball Valves Market by Size (Up to 1", 1"-6", 6" to 25", 25" to 50", 50" and Above), Type (Trunnion Mounted, Floating, Rising Stem), Material (Stainless Steel, Cast Iron, Alloy, Cryogenic), Industry, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2024

Control Valve Market by Material, Component (Actuators, Valve Body), Valve Size, Valve Type (Rotary and Linear), Industry (Oil & Gas, Water & Wastewater Treatment, Energy & Power, Chemicals), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025

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British Airways today faced an 'immediate' strike threat from union bosses over job cuts amid fears over further travel chaos to families trying to plan a holiday abroad.

Unite leader Len McCluskey claimed BA chief executive Alex Cruz had 'published a timetable to fire and rehire thousands of your workforce on August 7'.

Mr McCluskey also told how MPs and newspapers alike have condemned the actions of the Spanish boss, adding: 'Perhaps you don't understand that the British sense of fair play runs deep in the psyche of the British people.'

It comes as the UK Government advised against all but essential travel to Spain after the emergence of a second wave of coronavirus in parts of the country.

BA has so far used state furlough schemes, accessed 300million of UK Government loans and retired its fleet of 747 jumbo jets earlier than planned.

The carrier, owned by International Airlines Group, has also gone on a huge job-cutting plan, having originally said it would axe up to 12,000 roles.

A fleet of British Airways Boeing 747 standing at London Heathrow Airport (file picture)

Unite leader Len McCluskey (left) wrote to British Airways chief executive Alex Cruz (right)

It struck a deal with its pilots union last week to make fewer people redundant - 270 down from plans for 1,250 redundancies - in return for other staff taking pay cuts.

However, sources close to the airline said it was false to say all BA staff face dismissal or will have to sign a new contract from August 7.

In the letter released yesterday, Mr McCluskey said he had himself received a letter from Mr Cruz on Sunday but was 'both staggered and offended' by his arrogance.

Airlines are refusing to cancel flights to Spain despite Government advising against all but essential travel Airlines are refusing to cancel flights to Spain  despite the Government advising against all but essential travel. The move puts hundreds of thousands of British families in limbo and at risk of losing thousands of pounds. It also puts the airline industry at odds with the UK Government by ignoring a public safety edict. The Government issued the travel warning after the emergence of a second wave of coronavirus in parts of Spain. Customers would normally expect travel firms to cancel the flights and offer refunds. But all the major carriers, which have suffered massive losses following the collapse of air travel, have snubbed the Government and continue to offer the flights. This means families will potentially lose their holidays and their money. People could ignore the Government and take their flights. But they would have to quarantine for 14 days when they get back and their travel insurance may be void. Alternatively, they could cancel their trip without any guarantee of a refund. British Airways and easyJet have suggested they will offer vouchers for future flights, rather than a refund, for those who cancel. Ryanair has refused to offer anything. It even suggested people who changed their flights could incur charges of up to 95 per person. The Civil Aviation Authority said there was nothing it could do to ensure those with a flight-only booking got a refund. It suggested they claim money back from a travel insurance policy, but most insurers have clauses that reject any claims linked to coronavirus. Advertisement

The union boss wrote: 'In the opening paragraph you state "it has taken this long for you to realise and accept this".

'This reference infers that I am only now understanding the financial difficulties that British Airways face. How dare you suggest such a thing.

'I have attempted for months to try to get you to understand the need to treat your workers with respect and dignity and this is the only way to get through this pandemic together.

'It is your staff, not you, that have for many years, built the good name of British Airways and contributed billions of pounds to its profitability year on year.'

Mr McCluskey added that Mr Cruz and his management team had 'dragged the good name of British Airways through the mud'.

The union leader continued: 'Have you ever asked yourself why so many MPs from all parties, at the highest level, have condemned British Airways or why newspaper and media outlets have been appalled at your actions?

'Perhaps you don't understand that the British sense of fair play runs deep in the psyche of the British people.'

Mr McCluskey added: 'My shop stewards and reps speak to members constantly, dealing with the stress, anxiety and heart ache caused by your management style and strategy.

'Instead of criticising Unite reps, you should actually listen to them, instead of pretending to do so in order that you can tick some consultative process box and you might, at long last, realise that the only way to have a lasting peace and avoid months/years of industrial unrest is to work with us to achieve an acceptable way forward.

'You have now published a timetable to fire and rehire thousands of your workforce on August 7. We will work every hour between now and then, to convince you not to do so.

'You can take this letter as our commitment to do that. However, you can also take this an intention to defend our members by moving towards industrial action with immediate effect.'

BA is currently operating 15 per cent of its normal schedule and losing 20million a day, with two of its biggest markets, the US and India, effectively closed.

A BA spokesman told MailOnline today: 'For more than 100 years British Airways has been flying millions of people around the world. Today that world remains largely closed.

'This is the biggest challenge the airline and our industry has ever faced. Sadly, the global pandemic has resulted in job losses across every industry. Many airlines have already made thousands of staff redundant.

A British Airways Boeing 747 is seen at London Heathrow Airport earlier this month on July 17

'We are not immune to this crisis. We have to adapt to survive, so we will continue with the proper, lawful consultative process and we will keep inviting union representatives to discuss our proposals to the serious challenges we face.

'It is not too late to find solutions  as we have done with Balpa (British Airline Pilots Association)  and to protect jobs.'

It comes after 1.5billion was wiped off the value of Britain's leading travel companies yesterday as quarantine chaos and fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections shook markets.

Investors dropped shares in airlines and tour operators after the Government removed Spain from the quarantine-free list with just a few hours' notice.

Thousands of holidaymakers cancelled trips to Spain as well as countries such as France and Germany amid concerns they could be next.

In the letter released yesterday, Mr McCluskey said he had himself received a letter from Mr Cruz on Sunday but was 'both staggered and offended' by his arrogance

At the same time Ryanair sounded the alarm over a deadly second wave hitting later this year during the flu season.

IAG fell 5.9 per cent, Ryanair was down 3.9 per cent, Easyjet lost 8 per cent, Jet 2 owner Dart dropped 8.5 per cent and Wizz Air sank 4.5 per cent.

At the same time, Britain's biggest tour operator Tui fell 11.4 per cent lower while cruise operator Carnival fell 8.4 per cent.

IAG has lost around 70 per cent of its value on the stock market this year, while Tui has lost 68 per cent, Easyjet 62 per cent and Ryanair 28 per cent.

The pandemic came at a time the industry was already strained due to concerns over fierce competition and low consumer confidence.

In March regional carrier Flybe went bust and in September last year Thomas Cook collapsed stranding 150,000 UK holidaymakers abroad.
Kim said that South Koreas intelligence and reconnaissance capability would be significantly improved when it produces and launches solid-fuel rockets to put low-earth orbit spy satellites into space. He said it makes more sense to use solid fuel rockets for such satellite launches because the price of solid propellant is only about one tenth of the price of liquid propellant.
A climate activist from India has been named by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to his new advisory group comprising young leaders who will provide perspectives and solutions to tackle the worsening climate crisis, as the global body mobilizes action as part of the Covid-19 recovery efforts.

Archana Soreng joins six other young climate leaders from around the world who have been named by Guterres to his new Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change.

Soreng is experienced in advocacy and research, and she is working to document, preserve, and promote traditional knowledge and cultural practices of indigenous communities, the UN said in a statement on Monday.

Our ancestors have been protecting the forest and nature over the ages through their traditional knowledge and practices. Now it is on us to be the front runners in combating the climate crisis, said Soreng, who has studied regulatory governance from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai and is the former TISS Students Union President.

The young activists, aged between 18 and 28 years, will advise the UN chief regularly on accelerating global action and ambition to tackle the worsening climate crisis.

The announcement marks a new effort by the United Nations to bring more young leaders into decision-making and planning processes, as the UN works to mobilize climate action as part of the Covid-19 recovery efforts.

We are in a climate emergency. We do not have the luxury of time, Guterres said in a video announcing the establishment of the advisory group.

We need urgent action now  to recover better from COVID-19, to confront injustice and inequality and address climate disruption, he said.

Guterres said young people are on the front lines of climate action, showing nations and leaders what bold leadership looks like.

That is why I am launching my Youth Advisory Group on climate change today  to provide perspectives, ideas and solutions that will help us scale up climate action, the UN chief said.

The members of the Secretary-Generals Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change represent the diverse voices of young people from all regions as well as small island states. They will offer perspectives and solutions on climate change, from science to community mobilization, from entrepreneurship to politics, and from industry to conservation, the UN said.

The initial seven members of the group have been chosen to give frank and fearless advice to the Secretary-General, at a time of growing urgency to hold government and corporate leaders to account on climate action.

The other selected members of the group are climate activist Nisreen Elsaim of Sudan, Fijis Ernest Gibson, the co-coordinator for 350 Fiji, a regional youth-led climate change network, young economist Vladislav Kaim of Moldova who is committed to ensuring green and decent jobs for youth.

Sophia Kianni of the United States who has helped organise nationwide strikes and is the founder of international nonprofit Climate Cardinals, founder and coordinator of Generation Climate Europe and spokesperson for Youth and Environment Europe, Nathan Metenier of France and lawyer and human rights defender Paloma Costa of Brazil.

The establishment of the group builds on last years successful Youth Climate Summit  the first time a Secretary-General has convened a summit for young people entirely devoted to climate action.

The summit brought over 1,000 young climate champions together from more than 140 countries to share their solutions on the global stage and deliver a clear message to world leaders: we must act now to confront the climate crisis. The initiative is also aligned with the Secretary-Generals vision for the UN Youth Strategy, launched in September 2018.
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who tested positive for coronavirus, on Tuesday chaired the first virtual cabinet meeting from hospital and said if the infection is detected early, then it is not incurable and is like any other cold, cough and fever.

Sharing his experience with his ministerial colleagues while chairing the cabinet meet from hospital through video conferencing, Chouhan said there is no need to panic about coronavirus and it can be controlled by remaining alert.

"If it is detected soon, then it is not an incurable disease and is like cold, cough and fever only. The infection becomes dreaded only when it reaches the lungs of the affected person, the 61-year-old BJP leader said.

He said if a person develops any symptom of the disease, then he or she should immediately consult a doctor.

Informing about his own health, Chouhan said, "Since Monday, there is no complaint of fever and coughing is also under control."

"I am washing my own clothes as others are not supposed to do so. With this, I am also getting relief in one of my hands which was operated sometime back, and now even my fist is getting properly closed. I am also making my own tea," he said.

Chouhan was on Saturday shifted to a private hospital in Bhopal after he tested coronavirus positive.

Since the chief minister is in hospital, he has been reviewing the status of COVID-19 situation in the state and holding other departmental meetings every day through video conferencing.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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Guarantee prosecution's political neutrality



A prosecution reform committee has caused a controversy over its recommendation that the prosecutor general should be deprived of any power to directly command or supervise investigations. The non-binding recommendation, if adopted by the Moon Jae-in administration, may risk putting much-needed law enforcement reform in harm's way.



On Monday, the panel established by the Ministry of Justice announced a series of suggestions that are apparently aimed at weakening the top prosecutor's authority. What is most controversial is a recommendation that the prosecutor general should be excluded from the chain of command for conducting investigations. It stressed the need for handing over the prosecutor general's investigation command authority to the heads of the high prosecutors' offices.



If this recommendation is turned into action, the country's chief prosecutor could become a "paper tiger" with little power to direct and supervise investigations. In other words, he or she could lose control over all 2,200 prosecutors. At the same time, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office may be reduced to a nominal unit.



We believe such a change is a step in the wrong direction. What is prosecution reform for? It is undoubtedly to enhance the prosecution's independence and political neutrality which are critical to fair and objective investigation. Regrettably, however, the panel's recommendations run counter to the purpose of the reform.



More worrisome is that the justice ministry has continued to try to strengthen its direct control of the prosecution. This attempt has raised questions about why the Moon administration is adamant to reform the law enforcement agency. And the liberal government is coming under criticism for trying to tame the prosecution, instead of ensuring its independence and neutrality.



The recommendations seem to reflect the ministry's intention of taking direct control of law enforcement. They have come amid an escalating conflict between Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae and Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl over investigations into high-profile corruption cases involving close aides to President Moon.



Their showdown reached its highest point early this month when Choo invoked her authority to directly command the prosecution over a case surrounding a close associate of Yoon and a former cable channel reporter who face allegations of colluding to dig up dirt on pro-Moon pundits.



Against this backdrop, Minister Choo has emphasized that it is necessary to check the power of the prosecutor general. That is why the reform committee recommended that the ministry directly command the heads of high prosecutors' offices over specific investigations. The panel also suggested that a judge or lawyer  and not limited to a male candidate  be appointed as prosecutor general, ending the practice of prosecutors monopolizing the top post.



The recommendations have some positive aspects. But taken overall, they are politically biased. They appear to protect the inner circle of the powers that be, rather than to promote real prosecution reform to firmly establish the rule of law. Minster Choo should no longer shout empty slogans of checks and balances in a dubious attempt to tame the prosecution and cover up corruption among ranking officials and political bigwigs.


The central forensic science laboratory(CFSL) has concluded that Jawaharlal Nehru University student Sharjeel Imams voice appears to match the one in video clips of allegedly seditious speeches delivered by him last year on the campuses of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), according to the lab report seen by HT.

The Delhi Police crime branch submitted a copy of the report, along with transcripts and video files of the speeches, to a city court on Saturday. The findings are a crucial piece of evidence in the cases against Imam, who has been accused of delivering inflammatory speeches on the campuses of Jamia and AMU campuses in the days leading to the violence outside the Jamia on December 13 and 15 last year.

Police have charged Imam for sedition (Indian Penal Code 124A) and accused him of mobilising people to block roads and cut of essential supplies while protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

The voices marked exhibit Q-1(S) & Q-2(S) are the probable voices of the person (Sharjeel Imam), whose specimen voice is marked Q-1(s), the report dated April 20 reads.

According to the police, Imam refused to give a sample of his voice for examination but was ordered by the court on February 12 to do so.

Though the report uses the word probable, Delhi Police wrote in their submission to the court that the result of CFSl is conclusive enough to establish that the speeches dated December 13 and 15 were indeed delivered by Imam.

Former Delhi Police additional commissioner Ashok Chand said probable is a technical language that the scientific officers use. There must have been some ambient noises in the voice sample which is why the report says probable match, said Chand.

Had it not matched, the CFSL would have clearly mentioned that the samples did not match and the report is negative, said Chand.

But Imams lawyer, Ahmad Ibrahim, said, These things are insignificant. In February, Imam had given a hand-written application to the Patiala House court where he had informed the magistrate that his voice was modulated and he was asked to speak a few sentences from the speech. The court had taken the plea in cognisance and will consider it during trial. So these things will not matter to the case. We will file a bail application as soon as we get a copy of the charge sheet.

Imam, a student of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, was arrested on January 28 from his house in Bihars Jehanabad by a joint team of Delhi and Bihar police. After his arrest, police had said that they would probe Imam for the alleged violence in Jamia campus. Police have in the charge sheet said that Imam misrepresented facts of the new Citizenship Law, widely published it across different colonies and mosques in Delhi, and delivered inflammatory speeches to mobilise people.

After Imams arrest, a tweet was posted from his handle, which said he had surrendered and had full faith in the process of law.

Police have also attached copies of pamphlets about the new citizenship law recovered from Imams laptop (this, too, was confirmed by the forensic laboratory report), that, according to the police charge sheet, were later distributed across different mosques in Delhi while asking people to protest on the streets and block roads.

A statement of a photocopy shop owner in south Delhi, where around 5,000 such pamphlets were photocopied has also been attached in the charge sheet. Police said the pamphlets had details of non-existent detention camps in different parts of the country.

In the charge sheet, police attached at least 10 transcripts of Imams speeches, which, they said, were found in his Google drive.

According to the transcripts, Sharjeel asked people not to believe in the Constitution and teach the courts a lesson. Another excerpt of speech attached is one allegedly delivered by Imam in Asansol on January 22, 2020, in Muslims were urged asked join the protest because they do not have adequate representation in Parliament, the courts, the army, or the police. In another transcript of a speech dated, December 13, police allege that Imam asked people to organise chakka jam and stop supply of milk and water in Delhis colonies.

Imam, a resident of Kako in Bihar, was pursuing a doctorate degree from the Centre for Historical Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

He was one of the organisers of the anti-CAA protests in the national capitals Shaheen Bagh. Imam is currently jailed in Assam.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act was passed by Parliament last year and opened a fast-track to citizenship for Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist, Christian and Jain refugees who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan or Afghanistan and entered India on or before December 31, 2014. Soon after, violent protests broke out across India, beginning in the north-east, with activists and opposition parties saying the law violated constitutional provisions and was discriminatory towards Muslims. In response, the government said the law aimed to provide a safe haven for people fleeing persecution and was not meant to take away anyones rights or citizenship.

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Thursday, July 30 and Friday, July 31 have been declared as public holidays to mark this years Eid-el-Kabir Celebration.

This was contained in a statement issued on Tuesday by Georgina Ehuriah, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior.

The statement quoted Rauf Aregbesola, Interior Minister, as congratulating Muslim faithful and all Nigerians both at home and abroad on the occasion.

The statement read partly: He called on the Muslims to continue to imbibe the spirit of love, peace, kindness and sacrifice, as exemplified by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) and to also use the period to pray for peace, unity, prosperity and the stability of the country especially as the world is witnessing global health challenges caused by Covid-19 pandemic.

The minister reiterated the Muhammadu Buhari-led regime commitment in battling the scourge of COVID-19 pandemic.

Aregbesola, therefore, called on the masses to support the government in its avowed determination to build a peaceful, harmonious and prosperous country, where the rights of every citizen, are protected and guaranteed, as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Saudi Arabia records lowest temperature in 30 years

Erdogan's visit to Ukraine scheduled for February 3

Russian peacekeeping contingent establishes order of passage through Lachin corridor

French Senate votes to ban hijab at sporting events

Armenian FM: All necessary conditions to be created for Demarcation Commission work

Olaf Scholz: Borders in Europe cannot be changed by force

Lavrov presents Armenian Ambassador to Russia, with the Order of Friendship

Bill Gates warns of pandemics far more serious than COVID-19

Macron: EU countries must work together on agreement for stability and security

Turkey Central banks and UAE sign agreement worth almost $5 billion

Blinken: Western countries need unity to stop Russian aggression against Ukraine

Iranian President performs evening namaz in Kremlin after talks with Putin

Turkish police detain women protesting price hikes in hygiene products

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Merkel refuses job in UN structure

Greece receives the first batch of French Rafale fighters

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Talks between presidents of Russia and Iran start in Kremlin

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Blinken: Russia has plans to increase force on Ukraine borders

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Greek PM Mitsotakis threatens Turkey with sanctions

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Turkey and Azerbaijan to start laying gas pipeline to supply Nakhichevan

UK begins to supply Ukraine with anti-tank weapons

Armenian PM holds meeting on Armenia's Transformation Strategy until 2050

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Tehran to not accept any border change in South Caucasus

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Parliament vice-speaker says he is familiar with Armenia proposals on border demarcation commission work

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OSCE Chairmanship on Aliyev statement: We reiterate our full support to Minsk Group Co-Chairs

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Voters in the southern end of Macomb County will go to the polls next Tuesday to settle on two candidates to square off for a seat in the Michigan House of Representatives in November.

State House seats have 2-year terms. Representative receive a salary of $71,685 and reimbursement of expenses. Republicans currently hold a 58-51 edge, with one vacancy.

The primary election will trim the field of political hopefuls in seven of the countys 10 districts in the state House of Representatives by picking the respective Republican and Democrat in each district to advance to the general election in November.

The Macomb Daily asked the candidates whose districts fall south of Metropolitan Parkway, including the 18th, 22nd, 25, 28th and 31st districts, to provide information about their candidacy.

The 18th District (Eastpointe, St. Clair Shores and part of Grosse Pointe Shores) features the most crowded field hoping to become part of Macomb Countys delegation in the state House. Three Democrats and three Republicans are vying for their respective partys nod to advance to November.

On the Democratic side, incumbent state Rep. Kevin Hertel hopes to win a third term. His opponents are Patrick Biange and Christopher Jeffery.

Hertel, a former legislative analyst at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. He is the finance chair for the House Democratic Caucus, and is a founding member and current treasurer of the Michigan Legislative Labor Caucus.

The priorities I fight for every day are the things that are important to the families across the 18th District: Properly funding our schools, reducing the cost of prescription drugs, protecting our environment and investing in Michigans infrastructure are all vital to moving our state forward, said Hertel, 35.

Biange, 53, is a former U.S. Army medical department officer. Included in his goals are K-12 pupil well-being and safety; adult and youth recreation; Lake St. Clair clean water initiatives; and economic development.

I plan on creating and proposing legislation that strengthens our education system, environment, economy and community well-being. My various proposals will transform our state by providing the best opportunities and overall quality of life for all of us, Biange said.

Jeffery did not respond to The Macomb Dailys requests for information about his candidacy.

The GOP trio is composed of Michael Babat, Brian Hakola and Christine Timmon.

Hakola, who turns 52 on Election Day, is a machinist and home renovator.

I am the average man that works hard to provide for his family. I have grown tired of watching generations politicians who get elected only because of name recognition who do nothing but raise taxes and grow wealthy off our backs, he said. Its time for us to stand up and make a change and finally make our voices heard.

Timmon, 78, is retired from Detroit Edison. She said her goals include: job training for boys, immigration reform; return of states rights; auto loan and auto insurance reforms; and reforming election laws and marriage laws.

I will always follow the written laws of the State of Michigan and the

United States Constitution, she said.

Babat did not provide information about himself for this report.

The race in the 22nd District (Roseville and eastern Warren) is the only House district in Macomb County without an incumbent this year. Three Democrats and two Republicans hope to fill the seat being vacated by John Chirkun, who is term-limited.

The most familiar name in the Democratic runoff is Richard Steenland, the longtime Roseville City Clerk. He is opposed by Ryan Nelson and Michael James Anderson.

Steenland, 58 has been the clerk of Roseville since 2007 and previously served on the City Council.

My biggest focus is restoring the economy and getting past the pandemic. We need to ensure that we have the equipment/resources/policies in place to protect our families and avoid further shutdowns, Steenland said. We also need to invest in funding our public schools, preschool through post-secondary, to give our kids an opportunity for a successful future. It means reprioritizing existing funds, restoring the economy to increase the tax base, looking at reforming Proposal A, and improving accessibility/affordability of college and trade schools.

Steenland said tax incentives must be reviewed and revenue sharing restored to fund police and fire service and infrastructure improvements, including a long-term bipartisan solution that fixes roads. He said access to quality and affordable health insurance/prescription drug coverage must be maintained by preserving the Healthy Michigan program.

Anderson, 26, is a member of the Roseville Community Schools Board of Education. He said he is pursuing a masters degree at Wayne State University.

Anderson said state control over local school boards should be reduced to allow for greater autonomy for each district. He wants to ensure funding for education is stabilized by creating a graduated income tax.

Repeal Right to work laws in our state, reinstate the prevailing wage laws, and end the practice of forced arbitration in employer-employee conflicts in the workplace, Anderson said, adding that guidelines should be created to reinstate the right of unions to automatically withdraw dues from workers wages.

He said Healthy Michigan should cover all state residents, while allowing companies and unions the ability to offer and bargain for expanded coverage on their own if desired.

This will be funded by raising the payroll tax and will save money by reducing the cost burden on employers for already existing plans and streamlines healthcare administration that each employer uses individually, he said.

Nelson, 42, is self-employed as an executive recruiter. He said he formerly worked in Washington, D.C. on political campaigns for Republicans and Democrats.

Of his bid for the district seat, Nelson said: I started my campaign with the same approach I will use every day while in office: When I need information to write legislation, or to vote, or to stand up and fight on an issue, Im not going to take guidance from the lobbyists or the bureaucrats in Lansing, Im going to call and knock on doors back home and ask for the wisdom and perspective from our neighbors.

The two-man field on the Republican side features former Warren councilman Steven Warner against Jeff Bonnell.

Warner, 56, is a production assistant at Becker Orthopedic. He served on the Warren council for a dozen years before being term-limited in 2019.

I am proud to say I am the only candidate that has 12 years of positive legislative experience, Warner said. I contributed in helping to help guide the City of Warren through one of its most difficult financial times since the Great Depression.

He said he helped alleviate basement flooding in Warren.

I can honestly say that when I left office the City of Warren was truly a better place to live. I will work just as hard for the residents of the state of Michigan, he said.

Bonnell did not submit information about his candidacy for this report.

In the 25th District (eastern Sterling Heights and a portion of northeastern Warren), incumbent Democrat and former Sterling Heights councilman Nate Shannon, 47, is unopposed on the Aug. 4 ballot and awaits the winner of the Republican contest.

Republican voters will decide whether a rematch of the November 2018 election is in order. Jazmine Early hopes to emerge from the field of three GOP hopefuls and again campaign this fall against Shannon as she did two years ago. To do so, Early would have to get past fellow Republicans Paul Smith and Adam Wiley.

Early, 50, is a Republican Party political activist. She said she is employed as a freelance draftsman and language instructor.

My motivation to fight for the residents and run for office is not politically motivated, but is based on moral and fiscal responsibility. We cant afford to see our state being bankrupt in the hands of a governor that is overreaching her power. I have the courage and experience as a community leader to be willing to stand for the people in Michigan, she said.

Serving in different levels with the city and the Republican Party groups at the city, county and state level has shown me that Michigan needs somebody who will truly fight for our residents whether it is against tax increases, finding resources to fix the roads without new taxes, improving our health care system, and making sure our state is a safe place to live and work, Early said.

Smith, 74, is a retired General Motors industrial engineer and project manager. He served on the Sterling Heights City Council from 2011-2013.

Smith said he has two top priorities.

Obviously, as a true Republican, I will defend the taxpayers from the aggressive greed of the governess, he said.

On a local level, I will sponsor legislation to ban the oppressive petitioning that makes Sterling Heights City Council a permanent dictatorship. Virtually everywhere else, including city, county, township, school board, and the state legislature, there is only a $100 filing fee. Sterling Heights requires a near-impossible 880 petition signatures to get on the city ballot, said Smith, adding that he will push to make a $100 deposit/filing fee a state law.

Wiley, 41, is CEO and majority owner of Anbo Tool. He is a precinct delegate in Sterling Heights.

Wiley said he is running for office because he cares about the district, children, grandchildren, roads, the environment and jobs.

The COVID outbreak proved to me that there is definite lack of leadership in Lansing and voters in the 25th District needed to start looking in (their) own backyards. I also take personal Constitutional rights very seriously and the erosion of rights over the last 20 years upsets me greatly which I have found is common amongst the voters of my district. When I reach Lansing I will give the people of the 25th District the blue collar, hardworking representation they deserve.

In the 28th District (Center Line and western Warren), incumbent Democrat Lori Stone faces challenger William Massad as she tries to win a second term.

Stone, a former teacher in the Fitzgerald Public Schools from Warren, scored an upset in 2018 when she unseated fellow Democrat Patrick Green in the primary election. She said she is seeking re-election to ensure all children in Michigan can receive a high-quality public education.

I have worked on education issues ranging from early childhood education to career and technical education. A member of the bipartisan education caucus, Im working across party lines to develop stronger legislation together. There is much work to be done on our communitys priorities including adequate and equitable education funding, high-quality affordable healthcare and prescriptions, and investing in infrastructure, Stone said.

Transparency and accountability of elected officials is essential to representative government, said Stone, adding that she has conducted two to three community conversations per month including addressing such issues as opioids, elder abuse and auto insurance reform.

Massad did not provide information about his candidacy for this report.

The Republic contest features police officer Stephen Colegio against Clifford Frost, a party activist.

Colegio retired as a lieutenant in the Warren Police Department in 2017 and currently is a police officer in the village of Lexington in Sanilac County. His wife, Kelly, is a former Warren city councilwoman. Last spring, he also filed as a candidate for Macomb County clerk and later withdrew.

Colegio, 55, described his candidacy with several pros: pro-union, pro-law enforcement, pro-life and pro-family.

I am for more funding for the police departments in Michigan. I am for funding for recruitment, training, and retention of the best possible officers with community service as the focus, he said.

In addition to college preparatory training in high schools, Colegio said he wants more training in schools for such careers as carpentry, masonry, welding and robotics.

With a significant reduction in the states prisoner population, he suggested spending on corrections needs to be reviewed.

Frost, 73, also of Warren, is a realtor. He has served on Warrens crime commission and the Tax Increment Finance Authority, and chaired the Macomb County Community Services South Center Advisory. He has been a member of the Macomb County Republican Executive Board, the Michigan Republican Party State Committee and a precinct delegate.

Frost said he desires to bring state tax dollars back to our community and to report back to constituents on a regular basis and listen to concerns to take to Lansing.

The 31st District (Fraser, Mount Clemens and southern Clinton Township) features a rematch of the 2018 primary election on the Democratic side. Incumbent state Rep. William Sowerby of Clinton Township is opposed against by Fraser resident Michelle Robertson.

Sowerby, 63, is seeking his third 2-year term. His House assignments have included the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Committee, the Education Committee, and Local Government Committee. Prior to working in Lansing, Sowerby was Clinton Township treasurer for 20 years and served seven years before that on the Macomb County Board of Commissioners.

Michigan needs an economy that lifts everyone, not just a wealthy few, said Sowerby, noting that his experiences in government have provide the skills to make good decisions during troubling, yet hopeful, times like now.

In Lansing I have either sponsored, co-sponsored, or voted on bills that reform our tax laws, raise the minimum wage, create pay equity for women, increase fines on those that pollute our waterways, create ethics and accountability reform for elected officials, increase education funding for better outcomes for students, and prohibit large pharmaceutical price increases  just some of the issues I will continue to fight for or improve upon, Sowerby said.

Robertson did not respond to requests by The Macomb Daily for information about her candidacy.

On the Republican side, Lisa Valerio-Nowc hopes to win the partys nod as she did in 2018, for the chance to square off again versus Sowerby in the fall. To get there, she must get past fellow Republican Austin Negipe of Clinton Township.

Valerio-Nowc said she is campaign on the issues of practical health care, productive schools and not de-funding police.

It is absolutely critical to support our officers and promote ways to improve law enforcement training and resources giving them the tools they need to do their jobs effectively, she said. The coronavirus has brought into focus the need to have practical healthcare, not just accessible. A one-size-fits-all government-funded health care is not practical.

It is unthinkable, as a librarian, that our students schools are failing them in reading and math skills. Productive education should provide our students with the skills necessary to be prepared for the future. Its time we drop Common Core ideas and get back to simple, basic principles of education, said Valerio-Nowc, 53.

She is a member of Clinton Townships Cultural Diversity Committee and the Inclusive Playground Committee.

Negipe did not provide information about his candidacy for this report.
Borussia Dortmund have set Manchester United a deadline of 13 days if they want to complete a sensational 110million deal for Jadon Sancho.

The 20-year-old is due back in Dortmund on Thursday for the start of their pre-season training before the Bundesliga kicks off again in mid-September.

Dortmund want any deal for the England international done by August 10 when they leave for a pre-season training camp in Switzerland, even though the transfer window will stay open until October 5.

Borussia Dortmund have set Manchester United a deadline of 13 days to sign Jadon Sancho

The 20-year-old star is due back in training on Thursday for Dortmund pre-season training

However, as reported by Sportsmail, United will refuse to meet Dortmund's current valuation of the player despite preparing a move for the England international.

Sancho remains United's No 1 priority in the transfer window, but the Old Trafford side are yet to make a formal offer, with sources telling Sportsmail that reports in Germany of an opening bid of 89m being rejected are wide of the mark.

The England international, who joined Dortmund from City for 8m in 2017, has less than two years left on his contract at Dortmund and is keen to leave for United.

United do have more money to spend after qualifying for next season's Champions League following their victory against Leicester on the final day of the Premier League season.

The England international has been making the most of his time off with a holiday in Ibiza

But United chief Ed Woodward and the club will refuse to meet Dortmund's current valuation

But they are reticent to splash out a fee that is double what Chelsea paid to sign Timo Werner from Red Bull Leipzig and what Bayern Munich spent to take Leroy Sane back to the Bundesliga from Manchester City.

United will take a similar stance over Aston Villa's 80m demand for Jack Grealish after the Midlands club avoided relegation.

United are in the market for Grealish but he remains less of a priority than Sancho, especially given the increasing probability that Paul Pogba will remain with the club.

Boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer also wants a new centre-back but will first have to offload some defenders with Marcos Rojo set to leave and a question mark hanging over the future of Chris Smalling - with Roma reportedly struggling to meet United's asking price - and Phil Jones.
The Azad Maidan police on Sunday arrested two men for breaking into one of the Mumbais popular pav bhaji joints at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and stealing 100kg butter and cheese.

Located opposite Brihanmumbai Municipal corporation (BMC) headquarters Cannon pav bhaji joint is popular among the tourists and foodies.

In his complaint to Azad Maidan police, the owner PN Dandekar, a resident of Haj House area, said that three days ago he received a call from a person informing him about the theft at his store.

When Dandekar visited the store, which has been shut since March due to lockdown, he found that someone had entered the store from a rare side of the store by breaking the grills. When HT contacted Dandekar, he did not respond to calls.

According to the police, a preliminary probe revealed that two suspects had brought a tempo and stole 80kg, butter, 20kg cheese, sugar bags and utensils worth 1 lakh from the store.

During an inquiry, names of two local pavement dwellers cropped up, following which Santosh Thapa, 20, and Karan Jadhav, 25, were arrested on Sunday.

The two are local footpath dwellers and sell scrap for a living. They told us that due to lockdown they had no work and food. We are trying to recover the utensils, said a police inspector requesting anonymity.

The two have been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. A city court has remanded them in police custody till July 30.
By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan increased export of goods to Turkey in the first six months of 2020, local media reported with reference to the State Customs Committee on July 27.

According to the statement, during the reporting period, Turkey, Iran and Turkmenistan accounted to the largest amount of goods imported from Azerbaijan among Organization of Islamic Cooperation countries.

The value of goods exported to Turkey accounted to $739.5 million, while from Iran $137.4 million. Export to Turkmenistan accounted to $49.8 million.

Thus, Azerbaijan has increased export to Turkey in the first six months of 2020, compared to the same period last year. Export to Iran and Turkmenistan decreased during the reporting period, compared to 2019.

Earlier it was reported that, Russia accounted to the largest amount of goods imported from Azerbaijan among CIS countries in the first six months of 2020. Goods exported to Russia amounted to $380.5 million.

Moreover, during the reporting period, among Spanish-speaking countries, the largest amount of goods were exported to Spain from Azerbaijan worth $129 million.

The countrys overall foreign trade turnover amounted to $9.8 billion in the first half of 2020, with a surplus of $41.5 million.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
In the summer of 1979, a youthful Louis March was part of the organizing team of the Black Youth Conference in Toronto. The two key issues on the table back then are strikingly similar to what is topical in 2020: police brutality and anti-Black racism.

Its more than 40 years later now and we are seeing a social response in a public outcry, supported by visual evidence of police brutality against Black people, said March, a longtime community advocate and founder of the Zero Gun Violence Movement, an organization that works with youth to promote safe and healthy communities in Toronto.

The public trust in police institutions is at an all-time low because what the police say theyre doing and what were seeing on the streets by video is totally different, despite years of advocacy for real change.

Events such as the recent murder of George Floyd, which set off a chain of protests in the U.S., Canada and around the world, are part of the reasons March still participates in Torontos annual Emancipation Day Underground Freedom Train event  a symbolic subway ride that happens every Aug. 1 in recognition of the day that slavery was abolished throughout most British colonies in 1834.

In 2008, Ontario moved to recognize Aug. 1 as Emancipation Day, and the Senate followed suit a decade later, but advocates have long pushed for the day to be a national public holiday, as it is in many Caribbean countries. Earlier this year Toronto-area Liberal MP Majid Jowhari introduced a motion in the House of Commons seeking an official designation of Aug. 1 as Emancipation Day. Theres a public petition on the same matter.

While the first Monday of August is a holiday in several provinces, including Ontario, it is widely referred to as the Civic Holiday. In Toronto it is also referred to as Simcoe Day in honour of John Graves Simcoe who was the founder of York (todays Toronto) and the first lieutenant-governor appointed by the British Empire to administer the new colony of Upper Canada in 1791. He also passed the Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada in 1793.

In the United States, Juneteenth  also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day  is celebrated every June 19, and in recent months the push to make it a federal holiday has gained momentum. June 19, 1865 is when the last group of enslaved people were declared free in the State of Texas, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on Jan. 1, 1863.

The current uprising from Black communities against systemic racism and police brutality is a reminder that society has ignored fundamental issues affecting them for far too long, and true emancipation should start by acknowledging that and working towards total liberation, March said.

Its important to recognize that the landscape has changed, he said, noting the propagation of social media helps with the spread of information to a level that no one can say they didnt know the types of oppression Black and other racialized communities are facing. As much as emancipation is a celebration of the end of one of the most brutal chapters in Black peoples history, it must also be an opportunity to examine what freedom and liberation mean today and how they can be used to move to a better future.

We have to use this moment to reimagine what tomorrow can look like if everybody participates, if everybody is winning, said March, who added his Zero Gun Violence Movement applies a similar philosophy: if gun violence is not an issue in an affluent community like Rosedale, it should not be an issue in a less affluent community like Rexdale.

Emancipation must mean aspirations for fairness and equity, for a just society where everybody has a shot at a quality of life that reflects the resourcefulness and richness of a country such as Canada.

Due to the ongoing physical distancing measures to stop the spread of COVID-19, organizers of this years Freedom Train event have moved it online. Instead of filling TTC subway cars with crowds of people singing, dancing and drumming like in previous years, there will be a virtual YouTube streaming ceremony displaying various aspects of life for Black Canadians.

The event usually attracts about 1,000 participants, but event organizer Itah Sadu said shes confident the online component will garner a much larger crowd from across the globe. Its all about channelling the spirit of Harriet Tubman, who played a key role in secretly helping scores of enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad.

We come together to think about this milestone in our history, to disrupt the existing notion of emancipation and have a new energy to think about what else we can be emancipated from, said Sadu, co-owner of A Different Booklist, an independent multicultural bookstore that promotes authors from the African and Caribbean diaspora.

The Toronto Caribbean Carnival, formerly known as Caribana, takes place over the same long weekend annually precisely because it has roots in the spirit of resistance and the celebration of freedom, she said.

Sadu has watched over the years as advocates and Black politicians in Canada push for true emancipation, but she believes theres still a lack of willingness, especially on the part of those in positions of power, to allow tangible change. As she puts it, you can say the right things but if racism is still in your heart, nothing can change.

What is happening today, with mass protests across the globe and the rise of Black Lives Matter movements, is a watershed moment in which young people especially are saying they dont want the world just the way it was given to them, she said.

We are about our own self-determination, and not about being led by people who are sympathetic to our cause but still see themselves in a position of leading us, she said. For us to move forward, they cannot look at our community through any lens of social service or charity. Those blinds need to come off so we can all be seen as equal contributors to society.

Technology, added Sadu, plays an important role in making that happen. Young people who have watched the video of George Floyd being murdered in broad daylight will grow up knowing that its a lie to say Black people arent oppressed, she said.

Is racism going to go away tomorrow and in our lifetime? Nah, because in a lot of peoples hearts itll still be there, she said. But you cannot be paralyzed. You have to fight the battle and be part of the change.

Editors note  July 30, 2020: The headline was changed to clarify that Emancipation Day has not been formally designated by the federal government.
Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak will serve up to 12 years in prison after being found guilty of crimes involving the multibillion-dollar looting of the 1MDB state investment fund that brought down his government.

Najib was calm and stone-faced as he became the first Malaysian leader to be convicted. He has vowed to appeal the verdict and took an oath in brief remarks from the dock before the sentencing that he was unaware of the corruption.

Judge Mohamad Nazlan Ghazali sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail on one count of abuse of power, 10 years each for three counts of criminal breach of trust, and 10 years each for three counts of money laundering, as well as a fine of 210 million ringgit (38.3 million). But he ordered the sentences to run concurrently, meaning Najib will face up to 12 years in jail.

Supporters of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak outside court in Kuala Lumpur (Vincent Thian/AP)

The judge said the sentence was appropriate and proportionate taking into account that Najib had committed the crime from a position of trust as prime minister, his final plea and the need to deter others from committing the same crime.

The ruling in the first of his five corruption trials came five months after Najibs Malay party returned to government as the biggest bloc in an alliance that took power from the reformist government that ousted Najibs in 2018.

Analysts said the ruling would bolster the prosecutions case in Najibs other trials and would signal to the business community Malaysias legal system has strength in tackling international financial crimes. But others cautioned the ruling could be overturned and his political party remains in office.

I find the accused guilty and convict the accused of all seven charges, the judge said after spending two hours reading out an elaborate ruling.

Najib was found guilty on all seven charges (Vincent Thian/AP)

Najibs lawyers had argued for a light sentence, saying the defence was crippled by the judges refusal to delay the sentencing arguments until next week. Prosecutors said the case had tarnished the country as a kleptocracy and sought a sentence that would remind those in high public office that no-one is above the law.

Story continues

Speaking from the dock, Najib asked the court to take into account his achievements during his nine-year tenure and gave an oath that he was not aware of the 42 million ringgit (7.6 million) channelled into his bank accounts from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.

I did not demand the 42 million, I did not plan for the 42 million, nor was the 42 million offered to me. There has been no evidence nor witness to this. And I also like to say that I have no knowledge of the 42 million, Najib insisted.

Supporters of Najib wait outside court (Vincent Thian/AP)

Some of Najibs supporters outside the courthouse cried when they learned of the verdict while others chanted free bossku and long live bossku. The nickname meaning my boss was coined for Najib in his social media campaign to reinvent himself as a working-class leader.

Najib, 67, has vowed to fight to the end. He has said he was misled by rogue bankers and the case against him is political.

He wrote on Facebook: I want justice. I want to clear my name. After this, we will go to the Court of Appeal. I am ready.
ALPHARETTA, Ga., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Avanos Medical, Inc. (NYSE: AVNS) will webcast its conference call discussing financial results and business highlights for the second quarter 2020 on Tuesday, Aug. 4 at 9 a.m. ET. The company will issue a news release detailing its results before the market opens that same day.

The conference call will be hosted by Joe Woody, chief executive officer, and Michael Greiner, senior vice president and chief financial officer.

To join the live conference call, dial 877-240-5772 in the United States. A simultaneous webcast of the call and a related presentation will be accessible via the Investors section of the Avanos Medical website, https://avanos.investorroom.com/.

A replay of the conference call will be available Aug. 4 at noon ET by dialing 877-344-7529 in the United States and entering passcode 10146222. It will be available for one week. A replay of the webcast also will be accessible in the Investors section of the website, approximately one hour following the completion of the conference call.

About Avanos Medical, Inc.

Avanos Medical (NYSE: AVNS) is a medical device company focused on delivering clinically superior breakthrough solutions that will help patients get back to the things that matter. Headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, Avanos is committed to creating the next generation of innovative healthcare solutions which will address our most important healthcare needs, such as reducing the use of opioids while helping patients move from surgery to recovery. Avanos develops, manufactures and markets its recognized brands in more than 90 countries. For more information, visit www.avanos.com and follow Avanos Medical on Twitter (@AvanosMedical), LinkedIn and Facebook.

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Millionaire farmer Ben Goldsmith was facing growing pressure over his role as a Defra board member last night as it emerged he had benefited from tens of thousands of pounds in farming subsidies.

Mr Goldsmith faces controversial allegations  exposed by the Daily Mail at the weekend  that he breached rules by releasing red deer and wild boar on his land in Somerset.

He is already under investigation by police over the claims. However the Mail can also reveal that he is now facing the threat of a second investigation  by the local district council.

Millionaire farmer Ben Goldsmith , pictured, received 25,000 in EU subsidies for his farm in Somerset

Mr Goldmsmith, pictured on his farm, is accused of releasing wild boar and red deer on his land in contravention of Defra rules - where he is a non-executive director

Despite the controversy, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) continued to stand by Mr Goldsmith yesterday and said he would remain in his position.

And last night, Mr Goldsmith  the brother of environment minister Zac  hit out at the allegations  saying they were a storm in a teacup.

Meanwhile, this newspaper has also discovered that Mr Goldsmith  a non-executive board member of Defra  pocketed 25,000 in EU subsidies for his family farm last year. The payments were under a scheme that ministers have vowed to reform post-Brexit.

Mr Goldsmith is now facing added pressure from the local National Farming Union chairman, who said he should consider his position if he was found to have released wild boar.

Mark Weekes, South West Regional Board chairman, said: If anybody releases wild boar or any wild animals classed as dangerous, it is an irresponsible act.

I dont know whether Ben Goldsmith has done this. But I think he would probably have to look very closely at his position if the police find he has.

It is understood that police are investigating claims that the financier released red deer and wild boar from his estate in south Somerset, while the local district council is considering a probe into the wild boar allegations. Releasing wild boar could result in a maximum of two years jail.

Yesterday Mr Goldsmith said: Were talking about a few deer here. Its just a few deer in a large, wooded, remote landscape, and theyre native and theyre beautiful and I think most people will struggle to understand why this is anything more than a storm in a teacup. He defended taking the money from the EU, adding: I think that farmers should be rewarded for the public goods that they deliver on their farms.

Im in the most ambitious environmental stewardship schemes that there are and Im not milking the taxpayer and the land.

The money is controversial as it is part of the EU Common Agricultural Policy scheme which ministers have vowed to reform.

They have branded it wasteful and bureaucratic and plan to replace it with a system to put environmental protection first. Mr Goldsmith, 39, was appointed a non-executive board member of Defra in March 2018.

He is an enthusiast for rewilding  bringing wild animals back to areas from which they have disappeared, and returning the countryside to its natural state.

When confronted with the allegations over his Somerset farm last week, Mr Goldsmith claimed that he had attempted to round up almost all of the deer following complaints from local farmers and horse breeders and produced photographs.

But he later admitted it was a lie and that he was bulls*****ing and apologised. He also admitted feeding wild boar but denies releasing them. Speaking to the Mail yesterday, Mr Goldsmith said: I think most people who have noticed the story about the handful of deer which escaped their enclosure on my farm will be a little bemused by the fuss.

Yes I should have contained them more effectively, and for that Im sorry. Im sure however that there are some people out there who will be quietly quite pleased to know that these beautiful, native animals are now living free in this wooded and wild part of Somerset. According to Defras annual report, Mr Goldsmith  a non-executive director  received 25,080 in Stewardship, BPS (Basic Payment Scheme) and Woodland payments for the family farm.

About 3billion of state subsidy is paid to farmers each year but this will be phased out in England between 2021 and 2027. Some 61 per cent of farm income comes from the subsidy and many recipients get more than 1million.

In his first speech as Environment Secretary in 2017, Michael Gove  who appointed Mr Goldsmith  said the Government would reform the EUs wasteful farming subsidy scheme.

He said it would be ditched in favour of a system that rewards farmers and landowners for protecting the countryside.

A spokesman for South Somerset District Council said it had not received an official complaint... but will be reviewing information with relevant organisations to determine if any action is necessary.

A spokesman for Defra said: Were aware of the claims and there is an ongoing investigation. It wouldnt be appropriate to comment while the investigation is ongoing.

The new system will see farmers receive payments to enhance the environment such as planting trees or hedgerows.

The Brexiteer branded the policy bureaucratic and said a post-Brexit system of support for agriculture would put environmental protection first.

Under the CAP, at least 3billion is handed out to landowners in the UK every year, largely calculated on how much they farm. In total, 39 recipients got 1million or more.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said: We are investigating, in partnership with other agencies, after receiving reports of potential offences under the Wildlife and Countryside Act and the Deer Act involving the release of wild boar and red deer in south Somerset.
New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday (July 28, 2020) arrested Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil, who is an accused in the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case.

The 54-year old was working as an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Delhi University.

"This case arose out of Vishram Baug PS Pune regarding inciting people and giving provocative speeches during Elgar Parishad organized by the activists of Kabir Kala Manch at Shaniwarwada, Pune on December 31, 2017, which promoted enmity between various caste groups and led to violence resulting in loss of life and property and state-wide agitation in Maharashtra," read NIA's official statement.

It added, "During the investigation, it was revealed that senior leaders of CPI (Maoist), an organisation banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, were in contact with the organizers of Elgar Parishad as well as the accused arrested in the case to spread the ideology of Maoism/Naxalism and encourage unlawful activities."

Notably, the Pune Police had filed a charge sheet and a supplementary charge sheet in this case on November 15, 2018, and February 21, 2019, respectively.

The NIA took up the investigation of the case on January 24, 2020, and had arrested accused Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha in April 2020.

NIA said, "During further investigation, it was revealed that accused Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil was propagating Naxal activities and Maoist ideology and was a co-conspirator with other arrested accused."

Arrested Hany Babu, a resident of Gautam Buddha Nagar (Uttar Pradesh) will be produced before NIA Special Court (Mumbai) on July 29 and his police custody will be sought for custodial interrogation.

Further investigation in the case is continued.
Smoke from the fire that ravaged a Navy warship in San Diego Bay contained elevated levels of toxins.

The local Air Pollution Control District found smoke from the USS Bonhomme Richard contained a dozen potentially harmful substances but they were at levels which don't pose known health risks, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

The district issued the Navy a notice of violation for creating a public nuisance and contaminating the air.

The findings from the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District contradict earlier statements by the Navy that 'there's nothing toxic in there.'

The local Air Pollution Control District found smoke from the USS Bonhomme Richard contained a dozen potentially harmful substances but they were at levels which don't pose known health risks

Testing found the smoke contained more than a dozen potentially harmful substances, such as benzene, chloromethane and acetonitrile

The 1,200-degree inferno that roared aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard for four days caused 'extensive' damage to 11 of the assault ship's 14 decks

Testing found the smoke contained more than a dozen potentially harmful substances, such as benzene, chloromethane and acetonitrile.

However, officials say that brief exposure at the levels measured is unlikely to be harmful to humans.

The Navy has yet to say whether the vessel will be repaired.

The 1,200-degree inferno that roared aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard for four days caused 'extensive' damage to 11 of the assault ship's 14 decks, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday said.

The admiral visited the warship at Naval Base San Diego earlier this month, just one day after the Navy announced that all known fires aboard the vessel had finally been extinguished, after a tireless near-92 hour battle.

'I wanted to see the ship firsthand, the extent of the damage,' Gilday (right) told reporters after inspecting the ship. 'The damage is extensive.'

More than 160 people had been aboard when the blaze erupted at 8:30am last Sunday. It had been undergoing maintenance when the fire was first reported in a lower cargo area where seafaring tanks are parked

Pictures taken by @Osinttechnical show the 'extensive damage' caused by the blaze which burned for more than four days off San Diego harbor. It is not yet known if the ship will sail again

The blaze first broke out aboard the ship on July 12 at 8:30am. The conflagration erupted on USS Bonhomme Richard's lower decks, sending temperatures as high as 1,200 degrees and triggering several explosions as it tore through the ship

'I wanted to see the ship firsthand, the extent of the damage,' Gilday told reporters Wednesday. 'The damage is extensive. There is obvious electrical damage to the ship. There is structural damage to the ship. There is mechanical damage to the ship that we need to assess in much more detail before we make a final determination of next steps.'

Gilday added that the fate of the 22-year-old ship remains uncertain, hinting that it may not be worth restoring the vessel considering it is already half-way through its service life.

In his summary report of the ship's state, Gilday noted: 'There is fire and water damage, to varying degrees, on 11 of 14 decks,' as first reported by Defense News.

'The island is nearly gutted, as are sections of some of the decks below,' Gilday continued, adding that 'sections of the flight deck are warped/bulging.'

The blaze first broke out aboard the ship on July 12 at 8:30am. The conflagration erupted on USS Bonhomme Richard's lower decks, sending temperatures as high as 1,200 degrees and triggering several explosions as the flames tore through the ship.

Four days after the initial spark, the fire on the USS Bonhomme Richard was still burning Wednesday, as firefighters inched their way deeper into its compartments in a search to find every smoldering hot spot

More than 60 sailors and civilians have been treated for minor injuries, heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation

It could cost an estimated $4 billion to replace the ship if it is deemed un-salvageable

Gilday wrote in his summary that although sailors' efforts to combat the flames were 'rapid', a wind that swept through the vessel and the series of explosions caused the situation to spiral out of control.

His investigation determined the fire spread 'quickly up elevator shafts, engine exhaust stacks, and through berthing and other compartments where combustible material was present.'

'The explosions, some were intense, and the uncertainty of their location and timing, led to a situation, that might have been under control late Sunday night, but expanded into a mass conflagration.'

The Admiral also acknowledged that the ship's Halon fire suppression system  which could have extinguished the initial fire  was not activated because it was undergoing maintenance.

Hundreds of federal and Navy firefighters rotating on 15-minute shift patterns battled to save the burning warship for four straight days before the flames were put out on July 16.

The Bonhomme Richard been homeported at Naval Base San Diego since its last deployment in spring 2018, when it returned from a six-year port switch to Sasebo, Japan

Teams of sailors rotating on 15-minute firefighting shift patterns poured water into the ship from the pier and from tugboats tirelessly for four days

The Bonhomme Richard was undergoing maintenance when the fire was first reported in a lower cargo area where seafaring tanks are parked

Amid the unrelenting fight, firefighters blasted the ship with hoses on its interior and exterior, with helicopters dropping more than 1,500 buckets of water on the flames from above.

The US Navy reported that the ship had taken on so much matter that it began pitching onto one side in port.

In his letter, Gilday praised the work of Bonhomme Richard's crew, as well as the hundreds of sailors who rushed to the scene, many without orders to do so.

'There were Sailors from across the San Diego waterfront who responded to this fire  hundreds of them; many without receiving direction to do so,' Gilday wrote, adding that a number of sailors and firefighters 'had to be ordered  and re-ordered  to go home at some point and get some rest.

'I also met with the air crews of HSC-3; the aerial bucket brigade who dropped nearly 700K gallons of water on the blaze, day and night, from their helos,' he continued.

'Their efforts were critical in helping get the fire under control; and they used their IR [infrared] capability to locate hot spots and vector fire teams to the source. Awe inspiring teamwork.'
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

Coronavirus: India records 47,703 new COVID-19 cases, 654 deaths in 24 hours

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

New Delhi, July 28: Union Health Ministry on Tuesday said India's COVID-19 tally mounted to 14,83,156 as the country added more than 97,000 cases of the coronavirus disease in two days even as the death toll crossed the 33,000-mark.

According to the health ministry, the country reported 47,703 new cases of the viral disease and 654 fatalities in the last 24 hours. The death toll is at 33,425. This is the sixth consecutive day that India has recorded more than 45,000 cases in a day.

Priyanka Gandhi calls for rethink on B Ed entrance exam amid rapid spread of COVID-19

The dashboard also showed 35,176 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours, which has taken the number of recoveries to 9,52,743. The recovery rate is 64.23 per cent. More than 30,000 patients of the viral disease recovered daily for the last five days.

On Monday, the government said the case fatality rate in India, which has one of the lowest fatality rates in the world, is progressively falling and it is 2.28 per cent.

Oxford COVID-19 vaccine: Human trials to be conducted in these 5 sites in India

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

The total number of samples tested up to Monday is 1,73,34,885 and the Union health ministry has said more than five lakh COVID-19 tests have been conducted in a single day over the two consecutive days.

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched three state-of-the-art high throughput Indian Council of Medical Research laboratories in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Noida to further ramp up the country's daily coronavirus testing capacity by 30,000.

The Prime Minister said efforts are underway to increase the capacity to a million in the coming weeks.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, July 28, 2020, 10:55 [IST]
The episode Line Spectrum Border is yet another showcase of Michaela Coels boundary-pushing writing, taking two of I May Destroy Yous most in-turmoil characters and allowing them to make mistakes that affect others. This installment begins back in group therapy, where Arabella confidently responds to a womans story about a man who is avoiding her because he believes everything has gone too far with the current call-out culture and Me Too movement. Arabella draws a connection between men taking advantage of victims shamed silence over their harassment and assault and men expressing outrage over the cultural movement empowering women to speak up. Theo even hides a small smile as she watches Arabella progress from shy newcomer to motivational leader in her group.

When reunited with her best friends, Terry and Kwame, Arabella vapes, eats chips, and enjoys their company. Shes back to being herself again. Since Kwame is still recovering from his sexual assault by a male partner, he tells them hes going to explore the other side of his sexuality and try dating a woman. His friends playfully tease him about that prospect. Arabella says shes not straight when she corrects Kwames assumption that she and Terry are, but their fun is interrupted by a call from his next potential date. A second call breaks up the groups fun, this time sending Terry and Arabella on a trip to the police station for an update on Arabellas case.

It has been nine months since her world was upended by rape, and after an investigation of the details and the DNA samples, the caseworkers deliver the harsh news that theyve reached a dead end. There wasnt enough of a DNA sample from the perpetrator to substantiate a match, and the DNA they did try to match ended up negative. The news returns Arabella to the station lobby in a quiet state of staring off into the middle distance while surrounded by garbage bags full of her belongings. Trying to get her friend back on the path of self-care, Terry suggests leaving and going to a happier place. Arabella then asks for a plane ticket to see Biagio in Italy, which Terry tries to argue against, only for Arabella to twist her reasoning and justify the spur-of-the-moment trip to reunite with him. Arabella hurriedly gets ready, putting on the wig Biagio last saw her in even though she has essentially stopped wearing it since she had her head shaved.

That night, Kwame awkwardly starts his date with Nilufer (Pearl Chanda). After a bumpy start, she smiles at him reassuringly and takes off the hat she wears when feeling self-conscious. Walking back to her place, she asks Kwame if hes into white girls. He says hes into everything and asks what shes into. Im into Black guys. Couldnt you tell? she says, laughing. Kwames eyebrows dart upward; hes taken aback by her frankness. Well, yeah, thats me, he says, shrugging, with a hint of apprehension, but he follows her lead to come up to her flat.

In a taxicab in Italy, Arabella nervously looks at the crumpled bills in her hands. Since shes still short on funds, as we saw in the previous episode, this adventure isnt going to look like the all-expenses-paid trip to Italy she took with Terry last year. With no luggage or bag, she sprints to Biagios place and rings his bell. Theres no answer. She tries to call him but runs out of data. Undeterred, she sneaks into the building when someone enters and, using the spare key, lets herself into his apartment to wait for him.

Meanwhile, Nilufer begins kissing Kwame, who looks uncomfortable and awkward. When things escalate to sex, certain moments remind him of his traumatic experiences. As soon as it sounds as if shes finished, he lies on his side, shaken. Still maintaining a flirty air, she smokes a joint in bed and relaxes with Kwame, who eventually eases into conversation. The two bond over a rap song they know the lyrics to, but he stops when she substitutes the word ninja for the N-word. He laughs and says its weird. She tries to defend herself, saying she wouldnt say it because she has Black friends  and out of precaution because she cant even ask for the British slang term for a cigarette without offending gay men. Kwame is puzzled by the hypocrisy and points it out, finally telling her hes gay. Angry that he lied to her, she kicks him out. Later, hes back on Grindr, ready to return to male company.

In Italy, Biagio comes home and startles Arabella, who tries to regain her composure and play the song they heard when they first made out. His shocked expression never quite goes away and instead curdles into anger. Yelling, he asks why she broke into his house. Arabella meekly responds that she wanted to apologize, but this is obviously not the way she planned their conversation would be. Youre crazy, he says over and over. She continues to explain herself and her plans: She ordered his favorite pizza, and she wanted to see him. His resistance seems to melt, and he apologizes. She tells him shes there as long as he wants her to be.

When Arabella runs downstairs to get the pizza, she comes back to find the door locked. She knocks, bangs, and yells, calling out that she left her passport inside, so she cant leave without it. Almost immediately, her passport slides back to her from under the door, a definitive rejection. Arabella snaps, yelling insults and kicking his door in retaliation. Finally, Biagio appears  with a gun in his hand. Arabella runs off without a word, sneaking onto the beach where they watched the sunrise on their first night together. Now she sits on the sand, alone and cold in the dark. She groggily awakens in the morning sun, stands up, and walks into the ocean as the episode ends, her pink head bobbing above the surface in the final moments.

In previous episodes, Arabella may have made some mistakes  the most egregious one being to lock Kwame into a triggering situation she didnt know about  but she made a seriously miscalculated, messy move by crash-landing on Biagios doorstep. He has clearly kept his distance intentionally, choosing to ghost her and ignore her previous calls. Rather than taking his hint, however cool and callous it was, Arabella gives in to her obsessive impulses and forces her way back into his life for an in-person chat that goes terribly for her. Nobodys in the right in this situation. The same goes for Kwame keeping his sexual identity from his hookup, no matter how imprecise her policy on slurs may be. This shows exploration of complicated relationships is a journey that will leave no taboo or problematic subject untouched, and no party fully innocent.




Each Rainbow Deluxe Sampler Pack Contains One Blister Pack of Each of the Six Distinct Tauri-Gum Flavors/Versions

NEW YORK, NY, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: TAUG) (Tauriga or the Company), a revenue generating, diversified life sciences company, with a proprietary line of functional supplement chewing gums (Flavors: Pomegranate, Blood Orange, Peach-Lemon, Pear Bellini, Mint, Black Currant) as well as two ongoing Biotechnology initiatives, today announced that it is now Pre-Selling its propriety Rainbow Deluxe Sampler Pack (Rainbow Pack) exclusively on its E-Commerce Website ( www.taurigum.com ). The Company has assembled a multi-faceted and diverse marketing initiative to support the upcoming  Official Launch  of this important new product offering. Each Rainbow Pack carries an MSRP of $99.99and there will be a special packaging component for customers to enjoy.

Link: https://taurigum.com/products/rainbow-deluxe-sampler-pack

The Official Rainbow PackProduct Launch is expected to commence during the first two weeks of August 2020.

Separately, the Company is planning to issue a press release on Monday August 3, 2020 to disclose the performance of its highest margin E-Commerce business segment  for the Month of July 2020. The Company continues to experience impressive levels of growth and overall strength  with respect to this most important business segment.

ABOUT TAURIGA SCIENCES INC.

Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (TAUG) is a revenue generating, diversified life sciences company, engaged in several major business activities and initiatives. The company manufactures and distributes several proprietary retail products and product lines, mainly focused on the Cannabidiol (CBD) and Cannabigerol (CBG) Edibles market segment. The main product line, branded as Tauri-Gum, consists of a proprietary supplement chewing gum that is both Kosher certified and Vegan formulated (CBD Infused Tauri-Gum Flavors: Mint, Blood Orange, Pomegranate) & (CBG Infused Tauri-Gum Flavor: Peach-Lemon). The Companys commercialization strategy consists of a broad array of retail customers, distributors, and a fast-growing E-Commerce business segment (E-Commerce website: www.taurigum.com ). Please visit our corporate website, for additional information, as well as inquiries, at www.tauriga.com

Complementary to the Companys retail business, are its two ongoing biotechnology initiatives. The first one relates to the development of a Pharmaceutical grade version of Tauri-Gum, for nausea regulation (specifically designed to help patients that are subjected to ongoing chemotherapy treatment). On March 18, 2020, the Company announced that it filed a provisional U.S. patent application covering its pharmaceutical grade version of Tauri-Gum. The Patent, filed with the U.S.P.T.O. is Titled MEDICATED CBD COMPOSITIONS, METHODS OF MANUFACTURING, AND METHODS OF TREATMENT. The second one relates to a collaboration agreement with Aegea Biotechnologies Inc. for the co-development of a rapid, multiplexed, Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) test with superior sensitivity and selectivity.

The Company is headquartered in New York City and operates a regional office in Barcelona, Spain. In addition, the Company operates a full time E-Commerce fulfillment center located in LaGrangeville, New York.

DISCLAIMER -- Forward-Looking Statements



This press release contains certain forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 which represent managements beliefs and assumptions concerning future events. These forward-looking statements are often indicated by using words such as may, will, expects, anticipates, believes, hopes, believes, or plans, and may include statements regarding corporate objectives as well as the attainment of certain corporate goals and milestones. Forward-looking statements are based on present circumstances and on managements present beliefs with respect to events that have not occurred, that may not occur, or that may occur with different consequences or timing than those now assumed or anticipated. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in forward looking statements due to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, such as are not guarantees of general economic and business conditions, the ability to successfully develop and market products, consumer and business consumption habits, the ability to consummate successful acquisition and licensing transactions, fluctuations in exchange rates, and other factors over which Tauriga has little or no control. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in the Risk Factors section of Taurigas Form 10-K and other filings made from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this release, and Tauriga assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Contact:
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

By Fidan Babayeva - Trend:

The export of Azerbaijani products to Kyrgyzstan increased 1.7 times from January through July 2020 compared to the same period of 2019, Trend reports referring to the statistical bulletin of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan.

According to the report, the export of Azerbaijani products to Kyrgyzstan in the first six months of this year totaled over $1.4 million, while a year earlier it was $857,000. Kyrgyzstans share in the total export of Azerbaijan remained unchanged and amounted to 0.01 percent.

Foreign trade operations between Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan amounted to $2.5 million, which is 3.8 percent less compared to the same period last year, said the report.

Imports of Kyrgyz products to Azerbaijan dropped 1.7 times, amounting to $1 million. The share of Kyrgyzstan in the total imports of Azerbaijan decreased from 0.04 to 0.01 percent of the total import.

The balance of foreign trade turnover between the two countries for the reporting period was positive and equaled $425,000, the report noted.

Azerbaijan's foreign trade turnover amounted to $12.6 billion in the first half of 2020, which is 34.1 percent less compared to the same period of 2019. The balance of foreign trade turnover decreased by 10 percent on an annualized basis and remained negative, making up $2.6 billion.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: Fidan_Babaeva
ISLAMABAD - The Taliban announced a temporary cease-fire Tuesday as pressure built to bring the militants and the Afghan government together for direct peace talks now months overdue.

The Afghan government welcomed the move marking the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha and ordered Afghan government forces to respect the truce. But the gestures of goodwill come as violence across the country remains high, despite the signing of a peace deal between the Taliban and the United States in February.

The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, returned to the region this month to build momentum for direct talks between the two sides. Under the February accord, talks with the government were set to begin in March.

A controversial prisoner exchange and continued violence were key sticking points. The Afghan government has recently indicated that it may be willing to release the 5,000 prisoners demanded by Taliban leadership as a precondition to talks. And the Taliban has said the group is open to direct talks after the Eid holiday, once the prisoner swap is complete.

The Taliban cease-fire announcement called on the group's fighters to "halt offensive operations against enemy forces" during the three-day holiday starting Friday. But if government forces attack, the statement said, "they must be met with a strong response." The statement also said the group's fighters are not permitted to travel to government-controlled territory.

A cease-fire in 2018 was marked by extraordinary scenes of Taliban and government fighters crossing enemy lines to greet one another. Reports later emerged that the cessation of violence also led to large numbers of defections from the Taliban's ranks.

Despite brief pauses in fighting, the war in Afghanistan remains one of the world's deadliest conflicts, according to a United Nations report released this week.

During the first half of this year, more than 1,200 civilians were killed and 2,100 injured. The Taliban and other anti-government militant groups were responsible for most of those casualties, according to the report.

Overall, the numbers mark a decrease in civilian deaths and injuries when compared with the same period last year, but U.S. and Afghan government officials say the levels of violence remain too high. After the signing of the peace deal with the Taliban, U.S. officials said they expected violence across the country to remain low. A week of reduced violence preceded the signing, prompting many to hope decades of deadly conflict had turned a corner.

But in the months that followed, the "reluctance" on both sides to make concessions to facilitate direct talks suggests that once negotiations begin, they are likely to be a lengthy process, according to Scott Worden, the director of the Afghanistan and Central Asia programs at the United States Institute for Peace.

It "shows what difficult compromises may look like during talks," Worden said. "Each side will have to give a little on core concerns. But much more difficult issues - rights, governance and power-sharing - lie ahead."

The agreement between the United States and the Taliban does not outline what form of government will rule postwar Afghanistan. Taliban leaders have said they are open to discussing issues of democracy and human rights, but some Afghans fear a power-sharing deal could undermine the country's fragile democracy.

Several hours before the cease-fire announcement, the Taliban's leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, issued a lengthy online statement addressed to "the Muslim Afghan nation," in which he declared that the insurgents are "on the threshold of establishing an Islamic government" but do not seek a "monopoly over power" and are also looking forward to intra-Afghan talks.

He called on insurgent fighters to "treat civilians with utmost care" and "consider the protection" of their fellow Afghans, to "give greater attention to obedience" to God and to strengthen their "internal bond and cohesion" in the ranks. These appeals appeared aimed at unifying and cautioning Taliban forces, in which some commanders have insisted on continuing to fight even as Taliban negotiators were discussing terms for peace.

The Afghan government has released more than 4,400 Taliban prisoners, according to the country's National Security Council. The Taliban says it has released more than 800 members of the Afghan security forces, but the government says the true number is fewer than 600 because many of those released were civilians.

- - -

Constable reported from Kabul, Afghanistan. The Washington Post's Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar and Aziz Tassal in Kabul contributed to this report.
DZ Bank AG: Post-Stabilisation Notice



Not for distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States or any jurisdiction in which such distribution would be unlawful.



DZ BANK AG (contact: Ralph Ockert; telephone: +49 69 7447 7051) hereby

gives notice that no stabilisation (within the meaning of Article 3.2 (d) of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU Regulation 596/2014) was undertaken by the Stabilising Managers named below in relation to the offer of the following securities.

The security to be stabilised:





Issuer: ASFINAG

Guarantor (if any): Explicit, unconditional & irrevocable guarantee by the

Republic of Austria

Aggregate nominal amount: EUR benchmark

Description: 0.00%, due 16. of July 2027

Offer price: 101.818%

Other offer terms: Payment 8. July 2020, denoms 100k/1k, soft bullet

Stabilisation: DZ BANK AG

Stabilisation Coordinator:

Stabilising Managers:



DZ BANK AG

Barclays plc, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, RBI

Stabilisation period expected to start on: 08.07.2020





Stabilisation period expected to No later than 30 days after the

proposed end on: issue date of the securities

Existence, maximum size and The Stabilising Manager(s) may over-allot

conditions of use of over-allotment the securities to the extent

permitted in facility. Accordance with applicable law.

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.

This announcement is not for distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States or any other jurisdiction in which such distribution would be unlawful.



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.
Afghan interpreters who worked with British troops but were denied sanctuary here will get a better deal, ministers promised yesterday.

A Government spokesman said Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel recognised their 'crucial service' and would find a settlement.

The Daily Mail revealed yesterday that just two interpreters have been allowed into the UK under a scheme established two years ago.

Former defence secretary Gavin Williamson promised at the time that 50 interpreters would be given the green light along with their families.

Pictured: An Afghan translator on a British Chinook helicopter over Helmand Province. Afghan interpreters who worked with British troops but were denied sanctuary here will get a better deal, ministers promised yesterday

Following urgent talks at the Ministry of Defence, sources close to Mr Wallace admitted 'it is not good enough only two have come'.

The spokesman added: 'The Home Secretary and Defence Secretary are committed to dealing with these legacy issues, and putting a fair system in place for those who have served this country.

'When it comes to Afghan interpreters, the ministers absolutely recognise the crucial service they provided and that it's right we resolve their settlement.' One option could be to let in interpreters who served from 2006 onwards but quit their jobs because of death threats or expired contracts. Only interpreters who were made redundant and served in Helmand province for more than a year have been allowed into the UK so far.

The source said the ambition at the 'minimum' would be to change the criteria so more interpreters can come. Some officials believe this could take the total to dozens.

Former defence secretary Gavin Williamson (pictured last week) promised at the time that 50 interpreters would be given the green light along with their families

The Prime Minister's spokesman said in light of this newspaper's revelations: 'The Government acknowledges the important work which the Afghan interpreters did on behalf of the UK.'

The Mail's award-winning Betrayal of the Brave campaign reported that interpreters have been shot at, intimidated and some have been killed by the Taliban because they worked with British forces during the Afghan conflict.

So far the Government has cast doubt on the claims of intimidation made by the interpreters and said the threats they faced did not warrant a visa to the UK. The Government allowed 445 interpreters plus their family members to come to Britain under the original scheme.

Interpreters gave a cautious welcome to the promises last night. One said: 'We have heard hollow words so often before and we trust the Government will finally recognise the danger and sacrifice we have all made.'
Marise Payne and Linda Reynolds. Credit:Illustration: John Shakespeare

What do Hollywood star Nicole Kidman and Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne have in common? And please dont mention hair colour.

Both rank among an elite few, including reality talent show judge Dannii Minogue and media magnate Kerry Stokes, who are all managing to dodge compulsory hotel quarantine.

Canberra sources tell us that Payne and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds will both be exempted from compulsory hotel quarantine when they return to Australia from the AUSMIN meeting in Washington with the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Returning travellers arriving in Sydney have had to pay $3000 per adult but exemptions can be granted on medical, health or compassionate grounds.
Funds raised through an accelerated bookbuild offering announced on July 27, 2020

Crossover round inclusive of US and EU specialized biotech investors Perceptive Advisors and The Invus Group along with other new investors and existing shareholders

The placement was oversubscribed

"2020 has presented the opportunity for Nanobiotix to adapt to unique operational challenges and a rapidly changing market environment. What has not changed is our duty to advance the development of NBTXR3 so that its potential benefits are available to patients around the world as soon as possible. Regardless of the external environment, for Nanobiotix to deliver on its vision it is critical that we expand our shareholder base to include influential investors from the United States." Laurent Levy, CEO of Nanobiotix

Regulatory News:

Not for release, publication or distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States, Canada, Australia or Japan. This press release is not intended as an offer and is for informational purposes only.

NANOBIOTIX (Paris:NANO) (Euronext: NANO ISIN: FR0011341205 the "Company"), a clinical-stage nanomedicine company pioneering new approaches to the treatment of cancer, announces today that, in connection with its previously announced capital increase, it has placed 3,300,000 new ordinary shares of a nominal value of 0.03 each (the "New Shares"), for a total gross proceeds of approximately 20.1(US$23.8) million by means of an accelerated bookbuild offering reserved for a specific class of investors described below (the "Reserved Offering

The issue price of the New Shares is 6.10 per share, representing a 14.5% discount to the average of the volume weighted-average stock price of the Company's ordinary shares of the last trading day preceding the pricing (i.e. July 27, 2020), which was 7.1331, in accordance with the 28th resolution of the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of the Company held on May 20, 2020. The Reserved Offering is expected to close on or about July 30, 2020.

The New Shares have been placed with investors meeting the category defined in the abovementioned 28th resolution i.e. investment funds and companies that invest on a regular basis, or that have invested more than 1 million over the 36 month-period preceding the Reserved Offering, in the health or biotechnology sectors ("Eligible Investors"). Among Eligible Investors, the Reserved Offering was open to institutional investors (i) in France and elsewhere outside the United States in reliance on the exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 (the "Securities Act") provided by Regulation S promulgated under the Securities Act and (ii) in the United States that are "Qualified Institutional Buyers" within the meaning of Rule 144A under the Securities Act in reliance on the exemption from registration under Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act.

The Reserved Offering was conducted by Jefferies International Limited ("Jefferies"), acting as Sole Global Coordinator and Joint Bookrunner, and Gilbert Dupont and ODDO BHF SCA (together with Jefferies, the "Placing Agents") acting as Joint Bookrunners.

Use of Proceeds

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Reserved Offering to:

Prepare and initiate our lead program in head and neck cancers with the start of the global phase III advancing us towards the United States and European Union registrations;

Complete the escalation of the immune-oncology phase I basket-trial for NBTXR3 in combination with anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors (pembrolizumab or nivolumab) in patients with locoregional recurrent or recurrent and metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma or with lung or liver metastases from any primary cancer that is eligible for anti-PD-1 therapy;

Extend the Company's financial visibility.

Following the issuance of the New Shares and payment of their subscription price, the Company's amount of cash and cash equivalents will be 511 million. Based on such cash position, the Company conducted a specific review of its liquidity risk and believes it will be able to fund its operations for at least the next 18 months.

The Company's Shareholding Structure After the New Share Issue

Following the issuance of the New Shares, the Company's total share capital will be 780,934, equal to 26,031,122 shares, with a par value of 0.03, representing 114.5% of the total current share capital of the Company. On an illustrative basis, a shareholder holding 1% of the Company's share capital before the Reserved Offering and who did not participate in the Reserved Offering will now hold 0.87% of the Company's share capital after the Reserved Offering.

Shareholders Number of

shares before

the Reserved

Offering (1) % of the

share

capital

before

the

Reserved Offering % of

voting

rights

before

the

Reserved

Offering Number of

shares after

the

Reserved

Offering (1) % of

share

capital

after the

Reserved

Offering % of

voting

rights

after the

Reserved

Offering Subscription

(in ) Institutional Investors 7,583,156 33.4% 32.0% 10,883,156 41,8% 40,3% 20,130,000 Retail 13,044,097 57.4% 55.7% 13,044,097 50,1% 48,9% Employees and Management 1,296,156 5.7% 8.7% 1,296,156 5.0% 7.6% Family Offices and Other 793,325 3.5% 3.6% 793,325 3.0% 3.1% Liquidity Contract 14,388 0.1% 0.1% 14,388 0.1% 0.1% Total 22,731,122 100% 100% 26,031,122 100% 100% 20,130,000

(1)To the Company's knowledge and based on the last analysis from December 2019.

Admission to Listing of the New Shares

The New Shares will be admitted to trading on the regulated market of Euronext in Paris upon their settlement and delivery, which is expected to occur on or about July 30, 2020. They will be listed under the same code as the Company's existing ordinary shares (ISIN FR0011341205), carry dividend rights as from their issue date and be immediately fungible in all respects with the Company's existing shares.

The Reserved Offering was not subject to a prospectus to be approved by the French financial markets authority (Autorite des marches financiers the "AMF

Standstill and Lock-up Provisions

In connection with the Reserved Offering, the Company has entered into a lock-up agreement restricting the issuance of additional ordinary shares for a period ending 90 days after settlement and delivery of the New Shares, subject to customary exceptions as well as the ability to request a waiver from the Sole Global Coordinator (including to permit a potential U.S. initial public offering, which the Company does not intend to request nor expect to occur within 30 days post admission of the New Shares). The Company's management board members and supervisory board members are also subject to a lock-up for a period of 90 days after settlement and delivery of the New Shares, subject to customary exceptions.

Risk Factors

The Company draws the public's attention to the risk factors related to the Company and its activities presented in section 1.5 of the universal registration document approved by the AMF under number R.20-0010 on May 12, 2020, which is available free of charge on the website of the Company (www.nanobiotix.com) and on the AMF website (www.amf-france.org).

In addition, investors are invited to consider the following risks: (i) the market price for the Company's shares may fluctuate and fall below the subscription price of the shares issued pursuant to the Reserved Offering, (ii) the volatility and liquidity of the Company's shares may fluctuate significantly, (iii) sales of Company's shares may occur on the market and have a negative impact on the market price of the shares, and (iv) the Company's shareholders could undergo a potentially material dilution resulting from any future capital increases that are needed to finance the Company.

About NANOBIOTIX: www.nanobiotix.com

Incorporated in 2003, Nanobiotix is a leading, clinical-stage nanomedicine company pioneering new approaches to significantly change patient outcomes by bringing nanophysics to the heart of the cell. The Company's first-in-class, proprietary technology aims to expand the benefits of radiotherapy for millions of patients without increasing harmful side effects. The Company also seeks to demonstrate the product's clinical value when used in combination with other anti-cancer therapies including checkpoint inhibitors and parp inhibitors.

The Nanobiotix philosophy is rooted in designing pioneering, physical-based approaches to bring highly effective and generalized solutions to address unmet medical needs and challenges.

Nanobiotix is listed on the regulated market of Euronext in Paris (Euronext: NANO ISIN: FR0011341205; Bloomberg: NANO: FP). The Company's headquarters are in Paris, France, with a US affiliate in Cambridge, MA, and European affiliates in France, Spain and Germany.

Disclaimer

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy ordinary shares of the Company, and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction.

This announcement is an advertisement and not a prospectus within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017, as amended (the "Prospectus Regulation

In France, the Reserved Offering described above took place solely as a placement to a category of institutional investors, in accordance with Article L. 225-138 of the "Code de commerce" and applicable regulations.

With respect to Member States of the European Economic Area (including France), no action has been taken or will be taken to permit a public offering of the securities referred to in this press release which would require the publication of a prospectus (pursuant to article 3 of the Prospectus Regulation) in any Member State.

This press release and the information it contains is not an offer to sell, nor the solicitation of an offer to subscribe for or buy, New Shares in the United States or any other jurisdiction where restrictions may apply. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration under the Securities Act or an exemption from registration thereunder. Nanobiotix does not intend to register the New Shares under the Securities Act or conduct a public offering of the New Shares in France, the United States, or in any other jurisdiction.

This communication is being distributed only to, and is directed only at (a) persons outside the United Kingdom, (b) persons who have professional experience in matters relating to investments falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order"), and (c) high net worth entities, and other persons to whom it may otherwise lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). Any investment or investment activity to which this communication relates is available only to relevant persons and will be engaged in only with relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this communication or any of its contents.

Solely for the purposes of each manufacturer's product approval process, the target market assessment in respect of the New Shares has led to the conclusion in relation to the type of clients criteria only that: (i) the type of clients to whom the New Shares are targeted is eligible counterparties and professional clients only, each as defined in Directive 2014/65/EU, as amended ("MiFID II"); and (ii) all channels for distribution of the New Shares to eligible counterparties and professional clients are appropriate. Any person subsequently offering, selling or recommending the New Shares (a "distributor") should take into consideration the manufacturers' type of clients assessment; however, a distributor subject to MiFID II is responsible for undertaking its own target market assessment in respect of the New Shares (by either adopting or refining the manufacturers' type of clients assessment) and determining appropriate distribution channels.

This distribution of this press release may be subject to legal or regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions. Any person who comes into possession of this press release must inform him or herself of and comply with any such restrictions.

This press release has not been independently verified and no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made or given by or on behalf of any of the Placing Agents or any of their parent or subsidiary undertakings, or the subsidiary undertakings of any such parent undertakings, or any of such person's respective directors, officers, employees, agents, affiliates or advisers, as to, and no reliance should be placed on, the accuracy, completeness or fairness of the information or opinions contained in this press release and no responsibility or liability is assumed by any such persons for any such information or opinions or for any errors or omissions. All information presented or contained in this press release is subject to verification, correction, completion and change without notice.

The Placing Agents are acting exclusively for the Company and no one else in connection with the Reserved Offering and will not regard any other person (whether or not a recipient of this press release) as their client in relation to the Reserved Offering and will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to their client nor for providing advice in relation to the proposed Reserved Offering. Jefferies is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom.

1 Excluding the potential reimbursement of any outstanding financial debt.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200727005854/en/

Contacts:

Nanobiotix

Investor Relations Department

Ricky Bhajun

+33 (0)1 79 97 29 99

investors@nanobiotix.com

Media Relations

France TBWA Corporate

Pauline Richaud

+ 33 (0) 437 47 36 42

Pauline.richaud@tbwa-corporate.com
The Government has issued a resolution approving the first protocol that amends the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA).

The protocol was signed on January 22, 2019.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is in charge of implementing the protocol in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and other relevant ministries and agencies. Their work aims to support the business community in capitalising on opportunities, rights and interests brought about by the document.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is assigned to complete procedures for related external work before August 1.

ATIGA came into effect on May 17, 2010. The agreement targets the elimination of tariffs to foster trade among Southeast Asian nations, supports joint efforts to handle non-tariff barriers, and promotes customs cooperation inside the bloc.

According to the pact, ASEAN member states offer each other incentives that are equal or higher than those applied for ASEANs partners in free trade agreements signed by the bloc./. VNA
Apoorva Mehta, CEO of Dharma Productions, has reportedly submitted a copy of late actor Sushant Singh Rajputs contract for the film Drive to the Mumbai Police. Apoorva was summoned for questioning in the case and recorded his statement at the Amboli police station on Tuesday. He was there for three hours.

Directed by Tarun Mansukhani, Drive was Sushants last release before he died by suicide on June 14. After several delays, the film skipped a theatrical release and premiered on Netflix in November last year.

Sushant died by suicide on June 14. He was being treated for clinical depression. It has been alleged that professional rivalry may have had a role to play in his death. The Mumbai Police are currently investigating the case and have questioned at least 38 people. Summons have also been sent to Kangana Ranaut and Karan Johars manager.

Also read: Sushant Singh Rajputs sister Shweta Singh Kirti reveals why family has not demanded CBI probe

Fans have been demanding that Sushants death probe be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. Shekhar Suman has been amplifying the demand and has even started a Justice for Sushant Forum for the same.

Meanwhile, when Sushants sister Shweta Singh Kirti was requested to push for a CBI inquiry, she said that the family is waiting for the Mumbai Police to finish their investigation. We were waiting for Mumbai police to finish the investigation and come up with their reports, she told a fan 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 more

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Harry said "I love you" to Meghan three months into their relationship, the book claims.

Meghan, then best known for her role in legal drama Suits, immediately said the feelings were reciprocal and the pair started talking about their future together.

In Finding Freedom, co-authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand wrote the couple went on dates in London, Toronto and Botswana as the relationship bloomed.

The book said: "For Meghan, she was all in.

"Nothing could get her to slow down, not even a friend who cautioned her about getting involved with Harry.

"Three months into their relationship, a Meghan friend said, they had already begun swapping the words 'I love you'.

"It was Harry who said it first, but Meghan immediately replied, 'I love you, too'.

"From there it didn't take long for them to begin talking in non-oblique terms about their future."

The book also detailed how the now Duchess of Sussex left "clues" about the romance before it became public, including posting a photo of a Love Hearts candy with the inscription Kiss Me and the caption "Lovehearts in #London" to Instagram on the night of a date.

She also began to follow an Instagram account with the username @Spikeymau5 which, the co-authors said, was Harry's private account.

Spike apparently came from a Facebook alias that he used - Spike Wells - while the second half of the moniker was a nod to one of his favourite DJs Deadmau5.

Harry confirmed the relationship in late 2016, along with a stark attack on the media, accusing them of subjecting his girlfriend to "a wave of abuse and harassment".

The couple announced their engagement in November 2017 and wed after a ceremony at Windsor Castle the following May.
Chennai: The Tirunelveli CB-CID has submitted their status report on the Tuticorin Jayaraj-Bennix investigation (father-son custodial death case), in a sealed cover to the Madurai branch of the Madras High Court.

The case has been adjourned for August 17 and the Court has also directed the CBI team that has arrived from Delhi to submit a similar report.

In suo-motu hearings of the case of the custodial deaths of the father-son duo, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court has passed several orders to speed up the delivery of justice.

In line with these orders and the ensuing investigation, a total of 10 police personnel from the Sathankulam police station have been arrested and remanded in the Madurai Central jail.

Initially, the CB-CID, led by DSP Anil Kumar was tasked with handling the case before a team of CBI officers from Delhi took it over.

The major breakthrough in the case was because of a woman constable of the Sathankulam Police Station, who despite facing intimidation from her male colleagues (as per the magistrates report), informed the Judicial Magistrate regarding the torture that took place in the station and the evidence connecting the same.

During a hearing on Tuesday, the court condemned three police personnel from the Sathankulam station for having threatened and insulted Judicial Magistrate Bharathidasan who had visited the station during the initial probe.

The lawyer representing the State Government also informed the court that the Tuticorin district judge was monitoring the progress of the investigation.

The Court had earlier ordered the CBI and CB-CID to file their respective status reports in a sealed cover before July 28.

However, since a few CBI officers who were investigating the case are under treatment after contracting COVID-19, the court has given them until August 17 to file their status report.
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Tristan Heanue got his first taste of the movie business in his early twenties when Hollywood came to his native Connemara.

Romantic drama Tristan & Isolde was filming in the west, and Heanue landed a job doubling for an up-and-coming actor by the name of James Franco. This means he would stand in for the actor during the setting up of scenes"

I was his double for five or six weeks and it was great, he says of that summer in the west of Ireland.

Henry Cavill was on it, and Mark Strong - loads of really good actors.

Id harboured notions for a year or two before, but sitting around watching these actors, I was like: Maybe I could do that.

"Up until then I didnt really know what I wanted to do. I was a bit lost I think, but I was always very creative, Id tried writing songs, writing poetry.

Life and circumstances would, for a time, send him down another path. I came up to Dublin in 2004 and I wanted to study acting but I had no money.

"So I went working in construction and I ended up working in that until the crash came and I got let go in 2008.

Desperate to make an income in an unprecedented recession, Heanue spent 18 months working as a door-to-door salesman for two prominent companies.

He eventually left after auditioning for a production of Martin McDonaghs The Loansome West, still in his sales suit with his van outside, and getting the part.

It was a tough time, struggling to make commissions to get by, but at least the rejection at the doorstep prepared him for a career as an actor, he laughs.

It was horrible. I hated it. But it totally did because you got so used to rejection and being chased away down the driveway by people.

Tristan Heanue at the Cork Film Festival awards ceremony last year. Picture: Denis Minihane.

"When I walk out of an audition now I almost instantly am able to put it out of my mind, unless its something youre in love with. You just move on.

He adds that is even more the case since he started writing and directing his own work.

Read More 5 TV shows for the week ahead

Because now Ive been on the other side of the table, Ive had people audition for things, you see that sometimes how little control you have over it.

"There are so many different things at work, when you go into an audition, you could do a good job and youre just not right for whatever reason. But you have to go in and give a good account of yourself.

He certainly does just that in Broken Law, a robust, well-paced crime thriller set in contemporary Dublin.

He plays Dave Connolly, a loyal and respected Garda whose motivations are tested when his criminal brother (Graham Earley) lands in big trouble with a local hoodlum (John Connors) and is desperately in need of his siblings help.

It marks a strong feature debut from Paddy Slattery, a shorts and music video director who turned to film after being in a car accident in his twenties that has left him confined to a wheelchair.

Paddys been trying to make it so long and put so much into it and his motivation never wavered no matter what setbacks along the way, says Heanue of the filmmaker.

His determination and his positivity would put most people to shame, hes inspiring.

"I was working with him on this for a good number years, so Id seen it at very close hand, the ups and downs, the hills you have to climb to get it done.

It was Slattery who first encouraged the actor to try writing and directing and Heanue has since established himself as a shorts filmmaker - his latest, Irish-language short Ciunas, was nominated for an IFTA last week.

Another short is being prepared to go into production, while he is also developing his first feature film.

I was looking for a creative outlet because I hadnt worked in a few months. I shot and made my first film in 2013. That was out of needing an outlet and to just express myself, I guess.

"Why dont I go find the strongest character I can for myself? That was called In This Place and it premiered at the Fleadh in 2014.

"Mark O'Connor saw it and gave me a part in Cardboard Gangsters. Ciaran Creagh gave me a part in In View and lots of stuff came from just writing and making that short."

A new short, Harmless, was put on hold during the Covid crisis, but its clear that Heanue will be a busy man as soon as normal service resumes.

- Broken Law is released in cinemas this Friday, July 31
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) has announced it will put its paywall back up in August as it acknowledged it needs subscription payments amid the current decline in advertising.

The newspapers decision, announced Monday, reverses a 2016 move to take down its then-10-year-old paywall, following its acquisition by tech behemoth Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. At the time, Alibaba said it was removing the paywall to grow the papers readership.

Starting next month, the financial hubs leading English language newspaper will roll out a metered paywall on its website and mobile app, Tammy Tam, the papers editor-in-chief, said in a letter to readers. Under the metered system, readers will be prompted with a message to choose from a range of payment options after reaching the monthly limit of free articles. SCMP has not announced how much subscriptions will cost.

In the letter, Tam explained that the paper could no longer support itself on ad sales. Comprehensive reporting is costly and the century-old advertising model is no longer enough to sustain high-quality news, she said in the letter.

The decision came in response to the tougher business environment facing the citys news media industry, which has been reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic and months of political unrest as many locals protest Beijings tightening control over the former British colony.

Despite attracting more than 50 million readers worldwide, the papers largest source of revenue comes from business advertisers, who are now reconsidering their media presence in the city as they aggressively cut their advertising budgets. The newspapers revenue dropped by half in the first quarter, said CEO Gary Liu. We are operating in a new normal, he said.

The plunging ad revenues faced by free news outlets like the SCMP has prompted them to evolve into more sustainable businesses. Apple Daily, owned by Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, fully converted to a subscription model in 2019.

SCMPs decision follows a trend by global print media, in which more and more outlets are adopting paywalls as an important revenue source as internet giants like Google LLC and Facebook Inc. poach their ad sales business. Many major Western media outlets now charge for access to their articles, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

At the end of 2015, Alibaba acquired the SCMP and other media assets of South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. in a HK$2.1 billion ($335 million) deal. The following April, Alibaba decided to remove the paywall and give readers free access to SCMPs news online, with the exception of some premium features exclusive to paid users.

The purchase raised concerns among some over the newspapers editorial independence as its control shifted from Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok to Chinese mainland billionaire Jack Ma, because the paper often reported on issues considered sensitive by Beijing.

Bloomberg contributed to this story.

Contact editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
For the first time ever, Australian TV networks have no idea how many people are watching their programming.

Data firm Nielsen was the subject of a 'ransomware cyber attack' the night before last Wednesday's Big Brother finale and has not reported any TV ratings data since.

On Tuesday, TV Blackbox revealed that the backup data is only stored on in-home ratings boxes for seven days, meaning viewership totals may soon be lost forever.

Big Bother: Delays in reporting TV ratings data due to a 'ransomware cyber attack' on data firm Nielsen are approaching a critical seventh day. Ratings information for shows such as the Big Brother finale may soon be lost forever. Pictured: Big Brother host Sonia Kruger

'While it is true "that all households are still collecting viewing data", TV Blackbox can reveal that data is only stored for seven days,' the industry website noted.

This means that data from the night of Tuesday, July 21 will be lost forever if Nielsen fails to correct the issue in the next 24 hours.

'If it stretches into subsequent days, more data will go missing including the all-important Big Brother finale data for Channel Seven.'

The issue is of major concern to networks and advertisers because the data is used to determine millions of dollars in future advertising spending.

Down to the wire: On Tuesday, TV Blackbox revealed that the backup data is only stored on in-home ratings boxes for seven days, meaning viewership totals may soon be lost forever. Pictured: Big Brother contestant Angela Clancy during last Wednesday's finale

'Nielsen has become aware of an unexpected disruption relating to the Australian TV Audience Measurement (TAM) data centre environment. This disruption is derived from a ransomware attack in which Nielsen was the victim,' a Nielsen spokesman said.

The issue is still under investigation and the perpetrator of the data breach remains unknown.

As a result, it's unclear whether Channel Seven will ever know how well the Big Brother finale performed.

You win some, you lose some: Data from the night of Tuesday, July 21 will be lost forever if Nielsen fails to correct the issue in the next 24 hours. Pictured: Big Brother winner Chad Hurst

Running behind: 'If it stretches into subsequent days, more data will go missing including the all-important Big Brother finale data for Channel Seven,' TV Blackbox reported. Pictured: Big Brother runner-up Daniel Gorringe and his girlfriend, Ana Cannon

Other shows impacted include Sunday's Australian Ninja Warrior premiere on Channel Nine and Bachelor in Paradise on Channel 10.

On Friday, OzTAM, the company which employs Nielsen to handle ratings data, announced that it expected to have the issue resolved by Wednesday.

'Nielsen's top priorities are to ensure that the environment is safe and to restore and release the overnight ratings. This will be followed closely by releasing data for missing dates,' they said.

Raising doubts: The issue is of major concern to networks and advertisers because the data is used to determine millions of dollars in future advertising spending. Pictured: Chad Hurst
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Linkedin Rozanna Latiff (Reuters) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Tue, July 28, 2020 09:32 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669cab31 2 SE Asia Malaysia,Najib-Razak,corruption-case,1MDB,corruption,graft,graft-trial Free

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak arrived at a Kuala Lumpur court on Tuesday to hear a verdict in the first of several trials he faces over a multi-billion dollar graft scandal at 1MDB, a state fund he founded.

Najib, who was voted out in a historic 2018 election, faces dozens of criminal charges over allegations that $4.5 billion was stolen from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Prosecutors allege more than $1 billion of the funds made its way into his personal accounts.

A Malaysian high court will deliver a verdict in the first case over seven charges of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of power against Najib for allegedly illegally receiving nearly $10 million from former 1MDB unit SRC International. He has plead not guilty.

Court proceedings are expected to start at 0200 GMT.

The former premier arrived in court to shouts of "long live Najib" by hundreds of supporters who had gathered outside.

Wearing a mask and flanked by top leaders of his party, Najib offered prayers just outside the courtroom.

"This is my chance to clear my name," Najib said in a Facebook post on Monday night.

"Whatever the decision tomorrow at the high court, it does not end here," he said, adding that both sides would appeal any decision at the federal court.

Najib's lawyers say he was misled by Malaysian financier Jho Low and other 1MDB officials into believing that the funds banked into his accounts were donated by the Saudi royal family, rather than misappropriated from SRC as prosecutors have alleged. Low denies wrongdoing.

If convicted, the former premier could be punished with hefty fines and jail terms of up to 15 or 20 years on each charge.

It is unclear if he will be sentenced immediately if found guilty. His lawyers have said sentencing could be delayed or suspended due to the complex nature of the case.

The implementation of the sentence can also be stayed if Najib pursues an appeal at the federal court.

Allegations of corruption over 1MDB have hung over Najib for more than five years. But the criminal charges came only after his defeat in the 2018 election when his successor Mahathir Mohamad reopened investigations.

The closely-watched case is seen as a test of Malaysia's efforts to root out corruption, after Najib's party was returned to power in February as part of an alliance led by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

The verdict could have far reaching political implications.

A guilty verdict could boost Muhyiddin's credibility with the public, but weaken his coalition, which counts Najib's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) as its biggest component - and potentially trigger snap polls.

An acquittal could turn public sentiment against Muhyiddin, and encourage the opposition to challenge the ruling coalition's two-seat majority in parliament.

The court's decision comes just days after Malaysia reached a $3.9 billion deal with Goldman Sachs over its role in helping 1MDB raise money.
Russian Sukhoi fighters intercepted American spy planes over the Black Sea at least three times in four days between July 23 to 27. Russia scrambled its Sukhoi Su-27 fighters on July 23, 24 and 27 after tracking US P-8A Poseidon surveillance and anti-submarine aircraft flying close to its border on all the three occasions.

According to Russia, all the intercepts by Sukhoi Su-27s were carried over neutral waters of the Black Sea. The Su-27 returned to base after the US P-8A Poseidon turned away from the Russian border.

The Russian Defense Ministry issued a statement giving details of the intercept. "On July 27, 2020, Russian airspace control means spotted an aerial target approaching the Russian state border over the Black Sea neutral waters. A Su-27 fighter jet of the Southern Military Districts air defense forces was scrambled to intercept the target."

"The Su-27 planes flight was performed in strict compliance with international rules of the use of airspace. The Russian border was not violated," the statement asserted.

The July 27 intercept comes just three days after a similar incident in the same region involving a Russian Su-27 and US P-8A Poseidon. On July 24, a Su-27 was launched after Russian radars picked up the US P-8A Poseidon flying over the Black Sea. A day earlier, too, there was an aerial intercept involving another Su-27 and P-8A Poseidon.

"The crew of the Russian jet fighter approached the flying object at a safe distance, and identified it as a US P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance plane. After the US plane turned away from the Russian border, the Russian fighter successfully returned to the home airbase," the Defense Minister claimed about the July 23, 2020, incident.

Ukraine Defense Ministry stated that it had conducted the Sea Breeze-2020 multinational military exercises from July 20 to 27 in the Black Sea which involved US warplanes and troops. The nine-country military exercise also saw troops from his France, Spain, Turkey, Bulgaria, Georgia, Norway and Romania.
A beloved hermit who has called an island paradise his home for the past 31 years is facing eviction amid plans to demolish his home.

Since 1989, Mauro Morandi has been the sole inhabitant of the Isle of Budelli, deciding to ditch his life as a PE teacher and become the island's caretaker when he washed up on its iconic pink beach Spiaggia Rosa.

Four years after the Italian government made the island part of a national park, the hermit of Budelli is fighting for his right to remain on its shores.

He told CNN Travel: 'I fear that if I'm gone, it will be the end of Budelli too.'

Mauro Morandi has been living on the Isle of Budelli since 1989, when his catamaran engine failed and he washed up on its iconic pink beach Spiaggia Rosa

The hermit, also known has Mauro of Budelli, gained a large following online after sharing pictures of the picturesque island

Mauro has lived as the sole inhabitant of Budelli since 1981, but authorities in Italy have been trying to have him removed since it became a national park in 2016

Mr Morandi, 81, was sailing for the Polynesia from Italy when his catamaran's engine failed and he headed towards the picturesque island.

After more than three decades of caring for the island and sharing its beautiful views with others online, Italian authorities now want to demolish his home to make way for an environmental observatory.

In 2016 the island became the Italian government took over the island and made it part of La Maddelana National Park.

The takeover challenged the rights of the hermit, who developed a large group of followers online, to remain on the island.

The Isle of Budelli rests in the Mediterranean Sea, between Corsica and Sardinia, near Italy

Italian authorities say they need to remove Mr Morandi's hut, along with a Second World War radio station as they're classed as 'illegal constructions'

More than 3,000 people have signed a petition to keep Mauro da Budelli on the island, saying his pictures show the 'beauty and the miracle of uncontaminated nature'

In 2016 the park's then president Giuseppe Bonanno warned Morandi's age and the standard of his home raised 'several legal problems' with him remaining on the island, adding: 'Morandi symbolizes a man, enchanted by the elements, who decides to devote his life to contemplation and custody.

'No one ignores [his] role in representing the historical memory of the place  But it's hard to find a contractual arrangement for a person in his position.'

In the quiet winter months, he spends his time editing his pictures and uploading them onto his Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages.

'The pictures represents my mood and state of mind,' he told MailOnline in 2016.

But while the colder months can be lonely, he draws more than 1,300 tourists to the island in the summer.

Four years later, the guardian of Budelli is now facing eviction by the end of 2020.

Mauro spends the winters editing and uploading photographs of the island, but can draw more than 1,000 tourists in the summer

Mr Morandi, who has looked after the island for 31 years said: 'I fear that if I'm gone, it will be the end of Budelli too'

He told CNN Travel: 'I'm ready to do all I can to stay here, even if that means they'll have to drag me away. I wouldn't know where else to go live, certainly not back home in the north, nor what to do -- this is my life. I just don't see myself playing cards or bowls.

'All I ask is, if I must be sent away during the renovation works, that I can come back after and keep doing what I do each day: guard the endangered pink coral beach, keep tourists at bay, protect the nature. I fear that if I'm gone, it will be the end of Budelli too.'

More than 3,000 people have signed a petition to protect the island caretaker's right to remain.

Supporters say the 81-year-old 'could be usefully left as a caretaker of the construction site,' amid plans to build an environmental observatory on the island

The Isle of Budetti passed through the hands of a series of private owners before the Italian government made it part of La Maddalena Park in 2016

Mr Morandi says he wants to return once essential works are carried out so he can 'guard the endangered pink coral beach, keep tourists at bay and protect the nature'

Blasting attempts to move Mr Morandi, the Italian petition says his pictures and lifestyle have show the 'beauty and the miracle of uncontaminated nature'.

It suggests the 81-year-old 'could be usefully left as a caretaker of the construction site in order to check, and at the same time not be forced to leave his home'.

La Maddalena Park's president Fabrizio Fonnesu told CNN it was intervening on 'all illegal constructions in the park,' which include the popular hermit's hut and a Second World War radio station which has 'undergone modifications which aren't in accordance with the rules'.
On Sunday, John Hinderaker posted a commentary titled Cui Bono, [who benefits?] voicing his opinion that it was unlikely the Covid-19 pandemic was an accident:

Could the Chinese have deliberately arranged for the worldwide dissemination of the Wuhan virus? Yes, rather easily. They could have created the virus, too, but that isnt necessary. Once the virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, by means unknown, the rest was probably inevitable.

Considering the unusual structure of Covid-19 for a bat virus and the fact that the Chinese dispatched a veritable army of carriers from Wuhan to the rest of the planet, Mr. Hinderakers view seems not at all unreasonable, especially since it coincides with my own! And so, I sprang into action and fired off an email to those unfortunates who reside in my correspondents list to apprise them of this discovery.

You can just imagine the tone of some replies.

The instant and categorical denial of even a possibility of the Covid-19 virus having been deliberately spread around the globe by the Chicoms fails to recognize the inherently devious soul of Communism. The Soviet Communists were labeled the Masters of Deceit for good reason. That moniker was earned in the early 1920s while the Bolsheviks were still in the process of solidifying their hold on the Russian Empire. The mechanism they devised to help accomplish this became known as The Trust.

The following description from author Edward Jay Epsteins online diary conveys the depth and effectiveness of that deception in a 1976 conversation with Raymond Rocca who was Head of Research for James Jesus Angleton, former Chief of CIA Counterintelligence:

 "The Trust," Rocca explained, lighting up a professorial pipe, was a clandestine organization that operated in the Soviet Union from 1921 to 1928. Its official title was the Monarchist Union of Central Russia. Supposedly, its purpose was to overthrow the Communist regime in Russia and restoring the Czarist Monarchy. Since its headquarters, and cover, was a municipal credit association in downtown Moscow, it became known among anti-communist conspirators outside of Russia as "The Trust." Anti-communist exiles in Europe first heard of the existence of this resistance organization in September 1921 from a Soviet official named Aleksandrovich Yakushev. On his way to an international lumber conference in Oslo, he slipped away from his delegation and contacted a leader of the anti-Communist movement in Estonia. He explained to him that though he was outwardly working for the Communists, he, and other high officials of the Soviet government, had come to the conclusion that Communism was infeasible in Russia. He also confided that they had formed a group, The Trust. He claimed that it had been so successful in recruiting government officials disillusioned with Communism that it was now the underground equivalent of a government-in-exile, with its members infiltrated in all key ministries, including the secret police. He then asked to be put in touch with other leaders of the anti-Soviet movement abroad, suggesting that The Trust would act as the "service organization" for them inside Russia. It would arrange through its network of collaborators smuggle out whatever secret document these exile groups needed. Within a year, this offer was relayed to exile groups in Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Helsinki-- and accepted. The exile groups outside of Russia received secret documents on the Soviet economy which they then passed on to Western intelligence services, which paid them handsomely for the information. This triangular trade in secrets-- from The Trust to the exiles to west intelligence -- continued for six years. The Trust also furnished fake passports and visas for exiles to smuggle themselves, or their relatives, in or out of Russia. It also delivered arms and supplies to their partisans. It even contracted to undertake sabotage and assassination missions for them in Moscow and Petrograd. One by one, all the exiled leaders came to accept The Trust. So did the intelligence services of France, Germany, England, Austria, Sweden and Finland. [snip]  "The Trust was not an anti-Soviet organization, it only imitated one." In reality, he continued, the Trust was a creature of the Soviet secret police. Its purpose was not to overthrow Communism, but to manipulate real anti-communist organizations into misleading the West. [snip] The deception succeeded in neutralizing most of the anti-Communist exile groups, and luring back into the Soviet Union leading anti-Communists, such as Sydney Reilly and Boris Savinkov, who were arrested, given show trials and executed. As an added bonus, it earned enough money from the sale of secrets to eleven western intelligence services to finance all the activities of Soviet intelligence for a decade.

By comparison, the Covid-19 pandemic is a relatively simple and straightforward operation given that the Communist Chinese have the rest of the world doing most of the heavy lifting for them. Just kick over that first domino. Of course, this doesnt prove anything in a legal sense. But it is a possibility. One only need assess the likelihood given the Chicoms valuing of human life.

Oh, and of course, the Dems have only been manipulated into helping effectuate the pandemic.
In the meeting, the officials explained Centre's guidelines in bringing about constructive reforms as part of one-nation, one ration card, ease of doing business, making municipalities and corporations self-reliant and reforms in the power sector.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy held a review meeting on the guidelines given by the Centre for expanding the purview of Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) in the municipalities and corporations. The officials explained the guidelines given by the Centre in bringing about constructive reforms as part of One-Nation, One Ration Card, Ease of Doing Business, making municipalities and Corporations self-reliant and reforms in the power sector.

The officials said that the state was in the forefront in introducing portability in ration cards and bio-metric system in supply of rice to consumers in conformity to the Centres decision of One Nation, One Ration Card. Moreover, 1.39 crore rice cards have almost been ceded to the Aadhaar cards, the officials told the Chief Minister.

They said that the state was forging ahead in the ease of doing business as desired by the Centre. Single Window system was being followed to curb red-tapism. Similarly, the state government was ahead in renewals to industries and ensuring that the industrial sector does not face any difficulties. The Chief Minister outlined the need for safety in the industries and seeing that they maintain pollution control, in view of the recent gas leak mishap in Visakhapatnam.

Also Read: Mayawati on Rajasthan crisis: Waited for right time to teach Gehlot a lesson

Also Read: Rajasthan crisis: Gehlot meets cabinet a day after Governor allows assembly session

When the officials said that the guidelines given by the Centre on industrial safety in view the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, the Chief Minister directed the officials to see that there were no lapses in providing safety to workers.

With regard to reforms in the municipalities and corporations, the Chief Minister said that qualitative services should be ensured the urban areas by providing safe drinking water and maintaining cleanliness. He directed the officials to have a standard mechanism in providing services to the people.

In view of bringing about reforms in the power sector, the Chief Minister said efforts should be made to contain losses in power supply. The officials said that when compared to other states, losses in power sector in AP were negligible. A 10,000 mega-watt solar power project was in the pipeline to overcome the losses due to the 9-hour daytime power supply to the agricultural sector in AP, the officials said and added that the feeder system was being upgraded for the purpose.

Also Read: India opposes Pakistans attempt to convert gurdwara into mosque in Lahore

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West African leaders on Monday called for the swift creation of a unity government in Mali and a fresh vote after disputed elections, but warned of sanctions against those opposing efforts to end the country's crisis.

In a statement issued after a video conference, heads of the 15-nation regional bloc ECOWAS stood by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita but called for a unity government to be "established rapidly" and urged the opposition to join it.

Ministers in charge of defence, justice, foreign affairs, national security and finance would be appointed before the unity government is created.

The appeal came after weeks of protests and rising tension in the war-torn Sahel nation, alarming neighbours and allies who fear a spiral into chaos.

Mali. By (AFP)

But -- addressing demands by protestors that Keita quit -- leaders also said the country's democratic constitution had to be respected.

They also envisaged "sanctions against all those who act contrary to the normalization process of the crisis."

Keita, in power since 2013, is battling major problems on several fronts, including an eight-year-old jihadist revolt and a slumping economy.

But much of Mali's current tension was sparked in April, when the Constitutional Court tossed out 31 results from long-delayed parliamentary elections, benefiting Keita's party and sparking protests.

Tensions then ratcheted up into a crisis on July 10 when an anti-Keita rally organised by the June 5 Movement, a loose coalition of opposition groups and religious leaders, turned bloody.

A man painted in the colours of Malian flag at a demonstration last month in Independence Square in Bamako. By MICHELE CATTANI (AFP)

Eleven people died in clashes with security forces over several days -- in the worst bout of political unrest Mali has seen in years.

Addressing the disputed election, Monday's summit called for the immediate resignation of the contested 31 MPs and the holding of by-elections in their constituencies.

In the meantime, parliament could continue to operate with the 116 other MPs.

The summit also called for an overhaul of the Constitutional Court, and for Keita to use his constitutional powers to nominate the nine members if this failed to make headway.

Jihadist bloodshed

The summit spelt out its support for a blueprint for compromise that ECOWAS drew up on July 19 only to see it rejected by the June 5 Movement.

Five West African presidents pitched that plan during a one-day mediation mission to Mali on Thursday.

The figurehead of the protest coalition, Mahmoud Dicko, fiercely rejected the proposals.

"I would prefer to die as a martyr rather than die as a traitor," the Saudi-trained imam said at the time.

"The young people who lost their lives (in the protests) did not lose them for nothing."

The protest movement has coalesced around a conservative Saudi-trained imam, Mahmoud Dicko. By MICHELE CATTANI (AFP)

Despite this failure, the summit swung its weight behind the original plan again.

President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger, who also currently heads ECOWAS, urged Malians to reject violence and to continue dialogue.

But, he added, "We have also decided to support all the proposals made by the ECOWAS mediation."

Successive rallies against Keita since last month have rattled the 75-year-old's grip, as he was already facing increasing pressure to end Mali's eight-year-old jihadist conflict.

The impoverished nation of 20 million has lost thousands of lives, and hundreds of thousands of people have been driven from their homes, despite the presence of French and UN troops.

Mali is a member of ECOWAS, which has intervened in several crises in West Africa, notably in The Gambia, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The other member-states are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
(CNN)  US President Donald Trump's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, has tested positive for Covid-19, according to an official familiar with what happened.

O'Brien's diagnosis marks the highest-ranking Trump administration official known to have tested positive. It's unclear when O'Brien last met with Trump. Their last public appearance together was over two weeks ago during a visit to US Southern Command in Miami on July 10.

O'Brien is experiencing "mild symptoms" and is "self-isolating and working from a secure location off site," according to an unnamed statement to the press from the White House. That statement confirmed O'Brien's test results to reporters before his staff was formally informed. Several National Security Council staffers told CNN that they weren't informed that O'Brien tested positive and learned of the news from media reports.

O'Brien, one of Trump's top aides, recently returned from Europe, where he and his top deputy met with officials from the UK, France, Germany and Italy. O'Brien took a family vacation, during which he was likely exposed to the virus, immediately following his trip to Europe, a senior administration official tells CNN.

A senior administration official told CNN that O'Brien has been working from home since last week. A source familiar said O'Brien was last in the office last Thursday, when he abruptly left the White House. The White House statement said there is "no risk of exposure to the President or the Vice President."

White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters that one of O'Brien's daughters also contracted Covid-19 and that's how he believes he got it.

The National Security Council chief was accompanied on the trip to Europe by Secret Service agents, staffers and multiple reporters. Multiple pictures released from the trip showed O'Brien neither practicing social distancing nor wearing a mask.

One foreign official tells CNN that the Elysee, the French presidential palace, is scrambling as it processes the news of O'Brien's positive test result. O'Brien met with Emmanuel Bonne, French President Emmanuel Macron's top foreign policy adviser on July 14. Bonne briefs the French President multiple times a day.

Just days later, Macron and Bonne traveled to Brussels for negotiations at a European Council Summit.

On Thursday, O'Brien, who by then had returned to Washington, abruptly canceled a meeting with another European official, saying, simply, it was "for personal reasons."

As the pandemic has spread, the President has defended not wearing a mask or social distancing, with many of his top officials and White House staffers following suit, saying that it's not necessary because they are tested every day. O'Brien's positive test underscores the unique challenges of keeping the virus away from the West Wing and the President's immediate orbit.

Asked about the risk O'Brien's diagnosis poses to the President, Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room" Monday evening that it depends on when O'Brien was infected and the level of his exposure to Trump.

"You have to have contact in a situation where you're there long enough and close enough to have an increased risk," Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said. "I don't know the contacts he had, the proper authorities are doing the contact tracing right now."

Last week, administration officials were alerted that a cafeteria employee on White House grounds had tested positive. Kimberly Guilfoyle, the President's son's girlfriend and top campaign fundraising official, tested positive before a trip to Mt. Rushmore earlier this month. Multiple Secret Service agents and campaign staffers tested positive after becoming infected while preparing for the President's Tulsa campaign rally in June. Vice President Mike Pence's communications director Katie Miller tested positive for coronavirus in May, and one of the President's personal valets tested positive earlier that week.

O'Brien, Trump's fourth national security adviser, has been largely out of sight during the coronavirus pandemic. CNN has previously reported that rather than helping to lead the administration's response, he has delegated responsibilities to top aides and even bypassed coronavirus task force meetings.

Trump tapped O'Brien, a former lawyer and hostage negotiator, to the post in September 2019, one week after he fired John Bolton amid disagreements on foreign policy issues.

This story has been updated with additional developments Monday.

CNN's Vivian Salama contributed to this report.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Trump's national security adviser tests positive for Covid-19"
Peter Strzok, the former FBI counterintelligence agent who was fired by the agency for sending anti-Trump text messages during the 2016 campaign, is releasing a book detailing his lingering concerns that the president could be compromised.

The book, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump, due out two months before the November election, will offer an insider account of the investigation into whether the 2016 Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the presidential election, the Associated Press reported.

Russia has long regarded the United States as its Main Enemy, and I spent decades trying to protect our country from their efforts to weaken and undermine us, Strzok said Tuesday in a statement accompanying the book announcement.

In this book, he added, I use that background to explain how the elevation by President Trump and his collaborators of Trumps own personal interests over the interests of the country allowed Putin to succeed beyond Stalins wildest dreams, and how the national security implications of Putins triumph will persist through our next election and beyond.

In more than 20 years at the FBI, Strzok worked on a number of high-profile investigations, including into whether then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information on the private email server she relied on as secretary of state.

Stzok worked on the Russia investigation, interviewing former national security adviser Michael Flynn about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition period. He also briefly served on special counsel Robert Muellers team before being removed for derogatory and pejorative text messages about Trump sent and received during the 2016 campaign.

The text messages exchanged with FBI lawyer Lisa Page led the president to accuse Strzok and others in the FBI of plotting against his campaign and committing treason. For his part, in a July 2018 congressional hearing Strzok insisted that he never allowed his personal viewpoints to influence his work.

Story continues

Strzok was fired from the FBI a month later, a move that, in a statement announcing the book, publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media said was the result of the Trump administration using his private expression of political opinions to force him out.

But by that time, the statement added, Strzok had seen more than enough to convince him that the commander in chief had fallen under the sway of Americas adversary in the Kremlin.

Though the Russia investigation, which lasted for nearly two years, did not find a criminal conspiracy between Moscow and the Trump campaign, the publisher said that in the book, Strzok grapples with a question that should concern every U.S. citizen: When a president appears to favor personal and Russian interests over those of our nation, has he become a national security threat?

Former FBI director James Comey and former deputy director Andrew McCabe have each released books on the Trump investigation, while former Justice Department prosecutor Andrew Weissmann is due out with a book in September.

More from National Review
FILE - This April 1, 2014 file photo shows an ACT Assessment test in Springfield, Ill. The popular ACT college admissions exam is broadening how it reports student's scores. The exam's traditional 36-point scale remains unchanged, but starting next year students will receive an ACT score on two new "readiness indicators" reflecting how they did in terms of career readiness and understanding a complex text. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File) Read more

People across the state, and country, are trying to figure out how to keep students and teachers safe. But when it comes to college admissions tests, a lot of students cant wait, especially if they want to apply for early admission. And Im one of them.

The organizers at ACT, the nonprofit of the same name that runs the test, have released lengthy guidelines for how they will keep students safe from contracting or spreading the coronavirus. But theres a problem: Centers might not be following them.

They are putting kids lives at risk, said Bob Schaeffer, the interim executive director at Fair Test. The pandemic is not their fault. The poor way in which they reacted to it is definitely their fault.

Heres what I saw, and experienced, taking the ACT in July:

Finding a test

Trying to find a place to take the ACT during the pandemic was stressful. My test date in June had been canceled, and when I tried to reschedule, the only dates I could get were too close to the college admissions deadlines. I had no choice but to take the ACT outside of Philadelphia.

Though many students have been rushing to take the test, colleges seem to be quickly adapting their admissions process, and many have said they wont require test scores.

The vast majority of schools in the country now, like 60%, including UPenn, and all the liberal arts colleges around Philadelphia, are test optional, at least till next year, for the Class of 2021 and many permanently so, said Schaeffer.

But some students, including me, still think the test will hold weight on the college admissions process, and dont want to miss any opportunity to get into the college of our choice. Also, test scores are still seen as important for getting scholarships.

Getting to the test

When I arrived at Delaware County Christian School on the day of the test, there was a long line of students outside, all spaced six feet apart. Many were wearing face masks and gloves and carrying calculators and pencils in Ziploc bags. When I got to the front of the line, a woman took my testing ticket, and told me my room number.

Not everyone who tried to take the test that day got that far. When I signed up to take the ACT, I was told surprise cancellations could happen up to the date of my test. This had already happened to me twice, and it happened to many students who tried to take the test in July, too.

Some [sites] suddenly canceled at the last minute, leaving thousands of kids who had registration tickets, and were told their centers were open, who showed up at 8 a.m., to find a sign on the door saying the center had closed, said Schaeffer.

Taking the test

My room was a normal classroom, which would usually hold about 25 students. Pennsylvania currently allows indoor gatherings of up to 25 people. But the 16 desks in this room were spaced about three or four feet apart, not six, which is required by the ACT guidelines, and recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The test site coordinator refutes this point, and maintains that students were six feet apart.)

The instructor asked a series of screening questions, such as if we had been in contact with a person with symptoms, or if we had traveled to high-risk locations in the last two weeks.

I learned that a number of students were from different states. In my testing room, more than half of the students were from somewhere else. I met students from New York City and New Jersey who were staying at a nearby hotel.

Right before we started the test, the instructor said we could take our masks off while taking the test. I kept mine on, but I was the only one: All of my peers in the classroom took their masks off for the duration of the test. At the end of the test, we were simply dismissed, and could walk out of the building as we pleased, mask or not.

In an email ACT said, It is recommended that students wear masks while testing, while only the testing center staff are required to wear masks. ACT said that test centers are required to abide by the COVID-19-related policies.

Schaeffer says he has heard about these inconsistencies happening elsewhere, too.

They didnt have to open test centers at all, says Schaeffer. They could have required test centers to adhere to the safest practices possible, and they consciously have not done so. The answer you got is what everyone else gets: We recommend them for test takers. That is not sufficient.

Is it safe?

The organization said that it expects these requirements to carry on into the fall test dates and that it would adapt the policies as CDC recommendations change.

But online testing wont happen soon.

 ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters.

After the pandemic began, both ACT and SAT said that they would create computerized tests, and both of them have said they cant do it this year. So both of them have postponed it until next year, said Schaeffer.

As for me, I will keep studying for my next ACT, and possibly take it again this fall, with my mask on. Hopefully, things will be safer.

Timothy L. James is a senior at G.W. Carver High School of Engineering and Science working at The Inquirer this summer.
LONDON, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: FCN) today announced the appointment of seven professionals in the Cybersecurity practice in London and Seoul, South Korea, continuing the firms investment in talent globally to help clients address complex cyber challenges.

The appointments include Senior Managing Director Patrick MacGloin , Managing Director Paul Reilly , Senior Director David Harvey, Directors Stephen Deutsch and Oliver Price, and Senior Consultants Jinsuk Oh and Sam Brown. Their arrivals follow the addition of Joshua Burch as a Senior Managing Director and Head of Cybersecurity for Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa and Kyung Kim as a Senior Managing Director and Head of Cybersecurity for Asia Pacific in late 2019.

FTI Consultings investment in its global Cybersecurity practice comes as cybersecurity remains a top concern for most organizations. According to the FTI Consulting Resilience Barometer 2020 , less than half of all executives surveyed are managing cyber-attacks proactively, and only 10 percent believe they have no cybersecurity gaps at all, despite cyber-attacks being identified as having the most negative impact on revenue.

Our global landscape has shifted rapidly in recent months, but one constant is the threat posed by cybersecurity risks. The cyber risk landscape is dynamic and fluid and requires top talent to stay ahead of the threats, said Anthony J. Ferrante , Global Head of Cybersecurity at FTI Consulting. This group of talented professionals further enhances our ability to help clients protect their assets and quickly respond to incidents that could threaten their freedom to operate.

Mr MacGloin, who is based in London, brings 20 years of international security experience to FTI Consulting as a former diplomat and consulting partner. He has broad technical cybersecurity experience, having built successful cyber and data privacy practices in Europe, the United States and Middle East. He also has specialised in building response and complex investigations practices, helping clients respond to sensitive and complex breaches and ransomware, delivering security due diligence during acquisitions, and advisory in cyber disputes and litigation. Mr MacGloin has been on the advisory boards of various international professional bodies and conferences, including the RSA Cybersecurity Conference and the Chartered Institute of Information Security. His work for a Dubai government entity received the 2016 Global Cyber Risk Strategy Award from the Institute of Risk Management.

Mr Reilly, who is based in London, has nearly 20 years of security experience, specifically in post-breach and remediation work. He has been involved in the recovery phase of some of the largest data breaches in the UK and has experience developing security target operating models across top-tier banking organizations and multinational manufacturing companies. Prior to joining FTI Consulting, he spent seven years in professional services and 12 years as an officer in the British military.

Mr Harvey, who is based in London, has extensive, global experience in cybersecurity and the delivery of complex digital transformation projects. He has a strong engineering and operations background with leadership and management experience at a strategic level. Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr Harvey held a range of cybersecurity roles at the UK Ministry of Defence. Most recently, he was the Head of Automation for KPMG UK.

Mr Deutsch, who is based in London, has more than 10 years of experience leading, building and maturing security operations, attack detection and incident response capabilities. He has held previous consulting positions at Nettitude Group and Context Information Security. Prior to becoming a consultant, Mr Deutsch built and ran the Bank of Englands Security Operations Centre and the operations team within KPMGs global Security Operations Center.

Mr Price, who is based in London, is a response and resilience consultant with a decade of experience helping organisations respond to cyber incidents and develop systems to minimise their business impact. Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr Price built and ran the incident response team at S-RM, a global risk consultancy, where he worked on data breaches and complex malware incidents for firms across a wide range of sectors and sizes. He has also held security management roles in the technology, finance and legal sectors.

Mr Oh, who is based in Seoul, South Korea, has nearly 20 years of corporate and government experience, specializing in information security, fraud and investigations. He joins FTI Consulting from eBay Korea, where he was a Manager for the Fraud Security Team and was responsible for fraud risk and detecting, preventing and reporting fraud attacks. In addition to his corporate experience, Mr Oh served as a cyber crime investigator at the Korea National Police Agency for more than five years, where he conducted fraud and cyber crime investigations, including distributed denial of service attacks on the National Election Commission and South Korean government websites.

Mr Brown, who is based in London, joins FTI Consulting from NCC Group, where he was a cybersecurity analyst. Mr Brown is experienced in delivering complex cybersecurity projects and has international experience working on a range of client matters. Mr Brown has also completed his CISMP certification.

About FTI Consulting

FTI Consulting, Inc. is a global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organisations manage change, mitigate risk and resolve disputes: financial, legal, operational, political & regulatory, reputational and transactional. With more than 5,500 employees located in 27 countries, FTI Consulting professionals work closely with clients to anticipate, illuminate and overcome complex business challenges and make the most of opportunities. The Company generated $2.35 billion in revenues during fiscal year 2019. For more information, visit www.fticonsulting.com and connect with us on Twitter (@FTIConsulting), Facebook and LinkedIn.

FTI Consulting, Inc.

555 12th Street NW

Washington, DC 20004

+1.202.312.9100

Investor Contact:

Mollie Hawkes

+1.617.747.1791

mollie.hawkes@fticonsulting.com
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VANCOUVER, BC, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Elemental Royalties Corp. ("Elemental") (formerly Fengro Industries Corp. ("Fengro")) (TSXV: ELE) is pleased to announce the closing of its previously announced business combination resulting in the reverse takeover of Fengro by Elemental Royalties Limited (the "Transaction").

The Transaction

Effective July 27, 2020, as a condition to the completion of the Transaction, Fengro changed its name to "Elemental Royalties Corp." and consolidated its share capital (the "Consolidation") on the basis of 209 (old) common shares for 1 (new) common share. Immediately following the Consolidation, Fengro had an aggregate of 753,706 common shares outstanding.

Pursuant to the terms of the Transaction all outstanding securities of Elemental Royalties Limited, a British Virgin Island company, were exchanged (the "Share Exchange") for post-Consolidation securities of Elemental on a 4.8114 for 1 basis, resulting in 22,664,788 Elemental common shares being issued to former shareholders of Elemental Royalties Limited. Further details regarding the Transaction can be found in the Filing Statement (the "Filing Statement") dated July 15, 2020 and filed under Elemental's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

The parties to the Transaction have made their final submission to the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") in connection with the Exchange's issuance of its listing bulletin.

It is anticipated that the common shares of Elemental will commence trading on the TSXV under the ticker symbol "ELE" on July 30, 2020.

Subscription Receipt Financing

As previously announced June 10, 2020, Fengro and 1249739 B.C. Ltd., a wholly-owned British Columbia subsidiary of Elemental Royalties Limited ("ERL Finco"), completed a brokered subscription receipt financing in connection with the Transaction for combined aggregate gross proceeds of $23,969,029.50 (the "Offering"). Canaccord Genuity Corp., acted as lead agent and sole bookrunner, together with Haywood Securities Inc. and Sprott Capital Partners LP.

Pursuant to the Offering, ERL Finco issued 17,713,615 subscription receipts ("ERL Finco Subscription Receipts") and Fengro issued 724,100 subscription receipts (each, a "Fengro Subscription Receipt"). Following the satisfaction today of the escrow release conditions, each of the ERL Finco Subscription Receipts and the Fengro Subscription Receipts automatically converted, on a 1 for 1 basis, into post-Consolidation common shares of Elemental. The common shares of Elemental issued upon conversion of the Fengro Subscription Receipts are subject to the remaining balance of the statutory four month hold period, ending October 11, 2020. Proceeds of the Offering have been released from escrow. Following the completion of the Share Exchange and the conversion of the ERL Finco Subscription Receipts and Fengro Subscription Receipts, 41,856,209 post-Consolidation common shares of Elemental are issued and outstanding.

Escrowed Shares

On completion of the Transaction, certain principals of Elemental have entered into a Tier 1 Value Escrow Agreement with the Exchange and Computershare Trust Company of Canada, as escrow agent, in respect of 8,883,783 Elemental common shares and 2,760,109 performance share units. Under the terms of the Escrow Agreement, 25% of such escrowed securities were released upon closing with subsequent 25% releases occurring 6, 12, and 18 months from closing.

Board of Directors and Executive Management

Each of the directors and officers of Fengro resigned their positions concurrent with the completion of the Transaction and the following individuals were appointed as directors and officers of Elemental:

Frederick Bell - Chief Executive Officer and Director Peter Williams - Director Martin Turenne - Director John Robins - Director Matt Anderson - Chief Financial Officer Greg Owen - Vice President, Operations Richard Evans - Senior Vice President, Technical

Auditors

Concurrent with the closing of the Transaction, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has been appointed auditors of Elemental.

Additional Information for Shareholders

Elemental's transfer agent, Computershare Trust Company of Canada ("Computershare"), will be mailing Direct Registration System statements to all former Elemental Royalties Limited shareholders (other than for those that are required to be in certificated form) setting out each holder's shareholdings. The ISIN number for Elemental common shares is CA28619L1076.

Former holders of pre-Consolidation common shares of Fengro will be receiving by mail, from Computershare, a letter of transmittal with instructions on how to remit your former Fengro common shares for post-Consolidation Elemental common shares.

For further information, please refer to the Filing Statement posted to Elemental's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, as well as the press releases dated November 5, 2019, April 30, 2020, May 21, 2020, June 8, 2020, June 10, 2020 and July 17, 2020.

About Elemental

Elemental is a precious metals royalty company with a portfolio of producing and exploration assets spanning Burkina Faso, Chile, Mexico, Kenya and Western Australia.

On behalf of Elemental Royalties Corp.

Frederick Bell

Disclaimer

Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the Filing Statement prepared in connection with the Transaction, any information released or received with respect to the Transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of Elemental should be considered highly speculative.

The TSXV has in no way passed upon the merits of the Transaction or the Offering and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange Inc.) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in any jurisdiction. Any securities referred to herein have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to a U.S. Person absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and applicable state securities laws.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain certain forward-looking information and statements ("forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, that are not based on historical fact, including without limitation statements containing the words "believes", "anticipates", "plans", "intends", "will", "should", "expects", "continue", "estimate", "forecasts" and other similar expressions. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Elemental undertakes no obligation to comment analyses, expectations or statements made by third-parties in respect of Elemental, its securities, or financial or operating results (as applicable). Although Elemental believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking information in this press release are reasonable, such forward-looking information has been based on expectations, factors and assumptions concerning future events which may prove to be inaccurate and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond Elemental's control, including the risk factors discussed in the Filing Statement which are incorporated herein by reference and are available through SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking information contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and are made as of the date hereof. Elemental disclaims any intention and has no obligation or responsibility, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Share numbers noted in this press release may not match the numbers disclosed in the Filing Statement due to rounding pursuant to the process of completing the Consolidation and the exchange of Elemental Royalties Limited securities for post-Consolidation common shares.

SOURCE Elemental Royalties Corp.
Shocking details have emerged of how a Sydney mother allegedly murdered her ex-lover with her car.

Jackline Musa had an argument with Payman Thagipur in the car park of his apartment complex in Wentworth Point in Sydney's west in June and then allegedly got behind the wheel of her Toyota Kluger.

The 44-year-old allegedly drove into him, throwing him several metres across the floor before pinning the 31-year-old against the wall of the car park with her car.

Residents inside the apartment complex said the whole building shook as a result of the impact of the car hitting the wall.

Jackline Musa (pictured) allegedly pinned ex-lover Payman Thagipur against a wall with her car

Payman Thagipur (pictured) was treated by police ad paramedics in the car park of the apartment complex, but died at the scene

Graphic CCTV footage of the incident was played in Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday, showing Mr Thagipur following Musa out of his apartment before the incident occurred.

In the footage Musa is seen getting out of her car after the collision and then standing over Mr Thagipur's crumpled body.

The court heard Musa had smashed through Mr Thagipur's garage door and caught him with another woman.

Musa previously claimed to police Mr Thagipur jumped out in front of her as she was leaving the car park.

Scratches on the wall of the car park where Musa allegedly pinned Mr Thagipur with her Toyota Kluger

Daily Telegraph reported Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge said Musa's actions looked deliberate.

'She walks toward where the victims is lying ... she doesnt render any assistance to him despite the fact shes an aged care worker, she is used to rendering assistance when its needed,' she said.

'It does appear on the face of it that it was an intentional act, it was done with speed and with force - it appears to be once he was struck she just continued until she could go no further because his body and car came into contact with the wall.

'I have grave concerns that her disposition is such that she would be at risk of further offending in terms of if she was released.'

Musa was denied bail and will return to court in August.
N ew restrictions have been introduced immediately in Oldham after a surge in coronavirus cases.

The new guidance, which comes into force on Tuesday and will last two weeks, aims to halt the spread of the virus and avoid a local lockdown as seen in Leicester.

The boroughs 235,000 residents are being asked not to have social visitors to their home and to keep two metres apart from friends and family when seeing them outside.

People who are "shielding" will also be asked to continue to shield for another two weeks from Friday, July 31 and care homes will not relax the recent lifting of restrictions on visiting

The new moves come after the number of cases of coronavirus in the borough increased over the last week.

Oldham has seen 119 cases in the seven days to July 25. By comparison, the week ending July 17 saw just 26 positive cases.

This means a current rate of 50.2 positive tests per 100,000 versus 10.2 per 100,000 the week before.

Councillor Arooj Shah, deputy leader of Oldham Council and cabinet member for Covid-19 recovery, said: "Were urging residents to continue to take the risk of coronavirus seriously and to stick to the guidelines.

"The best way to avoid infection is to limit contact with others as much as possible and to stay home wherever you can, including working from home.

"Limit contact with other people and respect social distancing where you do go out; keeping at least two metres from those not in your household and avoid shaking hands or hugging."

He added: "Where meeting outside you should meet in groups of no more than six people from different households.

Gatherings larger than six should only take place if everyone is exclusively from two households or support bubbles."

Local lockdown in Leicester during Coronavirus pandemic 1 /41 Local lockdown in Leicester during Coronavirus pandemic Leicester has seen 866 cases in the past two weeks PA A city council worker carries rubbish from a coronavirus testing centre at Spinney Park which will be incinerated Getty Images Leicester could be the site of the UK's first local lockdown PA The Government says it is supporting officials in Leicester in their battle against Covid-19 PA Members of the military set up a walk-in mobile Covid-19 testing centre at Spinney Hill Park in Leicester PA A worker for Leicester City Council disinfects public toilets PA A man cleans the windows of a launderette in Leicester PA A member of military personnel uses a tub to collect used a self-test kit from a member of the public at a COVID-19 drive-through mobile testing unit set up at Evington Leisure Centre in Leicester, AFP via Getty Images Members of the military operate a walk-in mobile Covid-19 testing centre at Spinney Hill Park in Leicester PA People queue at walk-in mobile Covid-19 testing centre at Spinney Hill Park in Leicester PA A man wearing a protective visor crosses the road on mobility scooter in Leicester PA Members of the military operate a walk-in mobile Covid-19 testing centre at Spinney Hill Park in Leicester PA People walk by an electronic billboard displaying a government message AFP via Getty Images Robin Dignall and Maria Demetriou-Clamp disinfect chairs at their hair salon Hair@1RD in Leicester as the city may be the first UK location to be subjected to a local lockdown after a spike in coronavirus cases PA A woman wearing a PPE mask walks past social distance advisory singns in Leicester's North Evington neighbourhood Getty Images People walk by an electronic billboard displaying a government message AFP via Getty Images Soldiers from the Royal Logistics Corp operate a mobile coronavirus (Covid-19) testing site at Evington Leisure Centre Getty Images A youth cycles past a sign telling local residents to "Social Distance" and advising on how to help "Prevent the Spread" of coronavirus, in the North Evington district of Leicester AFP via Getty Images Gallowtree Gate in Leicester after the Health Secretary Matt Hancock imposed a local lockdown following a spike in coronavirus cases in the city. PA A man sits on a bench, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Leicester Reuters A worker disinfects a bin following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Leicester, Reuters A worker disinfects a McDonald's restaurant Reuters A police car on Gallowtree Gate in Leicester PA Shops open their shutters in Leicester after the Health Secretary Matt Hancock imposed a local lockdown following a spike in coronavirus cases in the city PA AFP via Getty Images Reuters PA AFP via Getty Images Getty Images PA PA

Cllr Shah said people should be "doing everything possible" to avoid gatherings of more than 30 people and urged people to wear a mask and abide by social distancing guidelines.

The local council said a significant proportion of recent cases involve multiple individuals testing positive within a household, pointing towards household spread as the issue, especially in households with large families.

Around 20 per cent of the boroughs population are from Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage.

Along with other towns with a large Asian population suffering elevated infection rates, public officials and local politicians say large families, often living in small terraced houses and looking after elderly relatives at home, explain the ethnic populations vulnerability to the disease.

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Katrina Stephens, director of public health for Oldham, urged anyone with symptoms to get a test.

"Where people test positive or have symptoms, or where people have been in contact with someone who has tested positive, they must ensure they follow the guidance on self-isolation," she said.

A helpline is available to support those self-isolating with access to food, medicine, financial support and loneliness on 0161 770 7007.
Days after the Uttarakhand government allowed pilgrims from other states to visit the Char Dham shrines with certain conditions, priests from Gangotri shrine in Uttarkashi district on Tuesday announced that they will keep the shrine closed till August 15.

This decision was taken looking at the increasing cases of Covid-19 in the state. In the past week, over 1,000 cases have been reported from the state.

After a meeting of the Gangotri Dham Temple Committee, Purohit and Sadhu Samaj, priests from Gangotri shrine unanimously decided that the shrine will remain closed till August 15 with immediate effect and the entry of pilgrims and devotees will be prohibited.

The priest community has further decided to set up two-kilometre long barriers before the shrine and paste a poster with the details about the shrine being closed.

Also read: Indias Covid-19 fatality rate falls to 2.25%, recovery rate crosses 64%

Suresh Semwal, chairman of Gangotri Dham Temple Committee, said he has also informed the district magistrate of Uttarkashi in this regard through a memorandum.

Earlier, the temple was closed for darshan, now, we will block the entrance of the shrine by setting up barriers two kilometres ahead and prohibit the entry of anyone towards the shrine. We have decided this to prevent the community-spread of Covid-19 in this area, said Semwal.

The Uttarakhand government on Friday decided to allow pilgrims from other states to visit the Char Dham shrines with some conditions.

According to the new guidelines, the pilgrims will need to have a latest RT PCR negative report (conducted within 72 hours of entering the state). Those who dont have the negative report will be required to complete the mandatory quarantine period after entering the state before proceeding with their pilgrimage to Char Dham shrines.

The pilgrims will also be required to upload their negative RT-PCR report, or a report stating their completion of quarantine, on the website of the Char Dham board to get the permission to visit the Char Dham shrines. They will also need to keep all these documents with them during the pilgrimage.
The Environment Court "erred erroneously" when making the decision to dismiss appeals against the expansion of the Otakiri bottling plant, says counsel for Ngati Awa.

More than 100 Ngati Awa whanau gathered in Rotorua yesterday as their fight to prevent the expansion of the plant, which would see over a billion bottles produced annually, reached the High Court.

Ngati Awa did not stand alone and was joined by Ngai Te Rangi, Ngati Pikiao and Sustainable Otakiri.

Creswell New Zealand, a subsidiary of Chinese company Nongfu, seeks to expand the plant and export the water overseas.

It's expected the expanded plant will provide at least 60 jobs in the district.

The Environment Court dismissed the group's appeals against the grant of resource consents by Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Whakatane District Council last year, as it felt it did not have jurisdiction over the "end use" of the water, which it said would happen in other nations.

This includes the consumption of the water and environmental effects of plastic waste.

Instead it could only consider the actual taking of the water aquifer.

However, counsel for Te Runanga o Ngati Awa Horiana Irwin-Easthope says the Environment Court has "erred erroneously" when making that decision and did not consider the local effects of the water plant, including how it could prevent the iwi from exercising its right to kaitiakitanga.

Irwin-Easthope says if the water is exported and Ngati Awa could not exercise that right, the impact of that would be felt "squarely" in New Zealand.

She notes that not all the water would be exported internationally, and some would be sold within New Zealand, therefore the plastic waste is a local issue.

She says it was made clear to the court that Ngati Awa is already practising kaitiaki and is attempting to reduce the number of plastic bottles in its rohe by banning them from its various businesses, including its boats.

As it decided it could not consider the "end use" of the water take, Irwin-Easthope says the Environment Court "closed its mind" to the actual, real, local outcomes of the water take.

She says this is a "fundamental error" and the matter should be referred back to the Environment Court with further guidelines from the High Court.

Counsel for Ngati Pikiao Environmental Society Rob Enright says the Environment Court failed to consider rangatiratanga as a relevant consideration for the resource consent.

He says as the Environment Court did not refer anywhere in its decision to rangatiratanga as put to it by Ngati Pikiao that was a "fundamental failure" to consider a relevant matter.

Enright says Ngati Pikiao's Treaty of Waitangi rights were missing from the decision.

"Treaty principles are mandatory and must be considered."

Enright also recommends the matter be brought back before the Environment Court so it could consider the spiritual effects on iwi.

Counsel for Ngai Te Rangi Jason Pou says his client wants to support its cousins in this fight.

He criticises the Environment Court's decision to rely on testimony from regional council experts on the mauri or life force of water, rather than those put forward by Ngati Awa.

Pou says the Environment Court opted to go with evidence presented by the regional council expert that the mauri of water is sustained wherever it went, because it would eventually be returned to the earth through its natural water cycle, as it aligned Western science to form the basis of the view.

Experts from Ngati Awa say the mauri is diminished when water is removed from its rohe.

Pou says the court can not simply agree with one individual and claim it represents the views of an entire iwi.

He says in their kaitiaki role, different iwi might have different ideas on how to manage their taonga but that is for the iwi to decide, not someone else.

"Who has the right of kaitiakitanga and who has the right to speak on behalf of a people about their spiritual connection to the water?

"When they listened to these views, they formed funnel vision, this funnelled what questions they asked and funnelled how they viewed the matter before them."

Pou says the iwi are consistent that extraction took the mauri from the water and to mix it elsewhere is offensive.

For the iwi to set aside its culture, it will need very good justification, he says.

Submissions in the High Court hearing are set to run until Thursday.

However, early indications are that it may be finished by Wednesday.

Today, the court is expected to hear from counsel for the regional council and Creswell NZ in the morning followed by counsel for the Whakatane council and Sustainable Otakiri in the afternoon.
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Something to look forward to: The House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee is looking forward to Wednesday's hearing where the CEOs of Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook will make a joint appearance to answer questions related to their companies' business practices. For the past 13 months, the Subcommittee has been analyzing an enormous pile of documents from Big Tech companies to understand how they have come to dominate their respective markets. Asking the CEOs the right questions might lead to more adequate legislation that ensures fair competition and thus better chances for new market entrants and smaller players.

The hearing will be livestreamed today, starting at 12pm ET / 9am PT. You can watch it on the embed above.

For scale, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook currently have a combined market cap of around $5 trillion and generated revenues of $773 billion in 2019. The hearing is not meant to seek punitive action against the four tech companies, but it should serve as the basis for an updated legislation that could prevent further abuse of market power from the dominant forces in the tech industry.

Lawmakers had already acquired 1.3 million documents from the tech giants and conducted several interviews and public hearings, meaning they should be well prepared with the right line of questioning. Specifically, the bipartisan antitrust panel wants to find out if Big Tech has grown too big and whether this has allowed a relatively small number of platforms to dominate their respective markets by working around current competition law.

Update: The CEOs opening statements have been posted on the House Judiciary Committees site.

A quick excerpt from Apple CEO Tim Cook's statement reads "After beginning with 500 apps, today the App Store hosts more than 1.7 million.. .if Apple is a gatekeeper, what we have done is open the gate wider. We want to get every app we can on the Store, not keep them off." Google's Sundar Pichai: "free services like Search, Gmail, Maps, and Photos provide thousands of dollars a year in value to the average American."

Meanwhile part of Mark Zuckerberg's opening statement reads "the American way, by starting out with nothing and providing products that people find valuable ... I believe it's important to maintain the core values of openness and fairness that have made America's digital economy a force for empowerment and opportunity here and around the world."

Jeff Bezos says "We should scrutinize all large institutions, whether theyre companies, government agencies, or non-profits. Our responsibility is to make sure we pass such scrutiny with flying colors."

In a joint statement, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler and Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline explained that "given the central role these corporations play in the lives of the American people, it is critical that their CEOs are forthcoming. As we have said from the start, their testimony is essential for us to complete this investigation."

Some speculate the biggest target of the hearing will be Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who is now the world's richest man. Bezos will have to explain to antitrust regulators how his company's mission "to continually raise the bar of the consumer experience" relates to practices of predatory pricing, burying competitors in search queries, and abusing third-party seller data to create its own products.

For some of the members of the Judiciary Committee, earlier testimony with respect to how Amazon manages its marketplace may have been "misleading, criminally false or perjurious." Bezos will likely bring into attention an Amazon-commissioned study that showed how small businesses have actually seen "rapid sales and hiring growth" as a result of joining the retail giant's online marketplace, with the majority of these companies using Amazon as an online sales channel.

Apple's Tim Cook almost managed to avoid antitrust scrutiny by forging strong relationships with White House officials and supporting president Trump's "Made in America" initiative with the Mac Pro line. He has also been very vocal about large social platforms that tend to amass user data and profit from it, which is part of Apple's strong stance on user privacy.

However, as the App Store has grown into a large business that accounts for $519 billion in consumer spend every year, many have brought into question the company's tight control over it. Specifically, the company has been accused of "Sherlocking" functionality from certain apps and rendering them obsolete. Some companies feel they're being coerced into paying 15 to 30 percent of their revenue made from digital goods and services that are sold through the App Store.

Last week, an Apple-commissioned study defended the practice, noting that most app stores charge the same 30 percent commission rate. It also pointed fingers at other marketplaces where retailers and travel booking services take an even higher cut on the revenues made through them. The study also mentions how most app stores and marketplaces require users to go through the platform owner's payment mechanism and actively police other behaviors like redirecting to an outside service.

Google is a different beast that holds dominant positions in search, mobile services, advertising, and online video. The company has made a number of acquisitions and mergers including DoubleClick, AdMob, YouTube, and Android -- all of which have allowed it to amass the data of billions of consumers and potentially guided its overall strategy over the years through things like Android Lockbox.

Moreover, CEO Sundar Pichai will have to explain why Google has been making controversial changes to Search over the years that have mostly served to benefit Google at the expense of its competitors. Pichai can always point fingers at Amazon, as the retail giant has taken the lead in recent years when it comes to products searches.

It also helps that YouTube, which is arguably one of the world's largest search engines, operates as an independently-led subsidiary of Google. However, regulators can still attack Pichai on Google and Apple's billion-dollar search agreement, which leaves competitor search services in the dust when it comes to over one billion users who buy the latter company's high-end devices.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is also expected to get grilled on issues relating to the company's many past acquisitions, including WhatsApp and Instagram. A case can be made that Facebook owns not one, but three of the largest social platforms out there, when it could have owned just one -- the others it acquired before they could challenge its market position.

Then there's the acquisition of VPN provider Onavo, which was reportedly used to collect data on users and inform on which online services to purchase or clone. Last year, court filings revealed that Facebook had been leveraging its data policies to thwart potential rivals, as confirmed through recordings of internal communications that were presented in court.

Facebook also operates a large advertising business that may be too big and too permissive with controversial topics. Zuckerberg will likely have to explain why a large ad boycott by several companies and civil rights groups has done little to hurt the company's bottom line.

Ultimately, the hearing won't reveal any surprising facts about these companies and will likely feature some theatrics, as is often the case with antitrust hearings. Still, it will be interesting to see how regulators intend to make their case -- after all, these companies compete more or less in the same markets.
DETROIT -- The Detroit Pistons announced at the beginning of July that they would partner with the Michigan Secretary of States office in a series of initiatives to drive voter awareness and participation.

Now, more than 50 of the teams employees are set to get some lessons as they prep to be poll volunteers for the upcoming elections on Aug. 4 and Nov. 3. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is set to thank the group for their time, as well as encourage more people to volunteer at the polls.

Related: Detroit Pistons take initiatives to drive voter awareness, participation

With the coronavirus pandemic forcing Michigans residents to shelter in place, there has been a shortage of poll volunteers to help with the election.

The Detroit Pistons are tremendous civic leaders and I am proud to partner with them to ensure more citizens are educated voters and active participants in our democracy, Secretary Benson said in the release shared at the beginning of July.

As weve worked with them over the past few weeks to develop this robust and comprehensive partnership, its become clear that the Pistons commitment to ensuring our elections are accessible to all is a reflection of their dedication to their fans and the entire Michigan community.

The Pistons have declared those dates as company-wide paid days off to make sure all staff members can vote, volunteer as election workers and rally others to do the same. Volunteers will work at the Pistons Performance Center in Detroit, as well as another site.

Right now with all thats going on, especially with all the social injustices, this is one way that we can help in terms of our civic engagement, Pistons vice president of community relations Erika Swilley said.

In addition to the use of the Pistons training facility as a voting Satellite Center and employees working as poll volunteers, the team will use its social media platforms to share PSAs to help with voter education.

The team has also set up a voter registration page at Pistons.com. It will also host live voter registration and education events with non-partisan community organizations to spread information on how to register, vote and complete and return voting ballots.
Storywood Tequila announces UK distribution partnership with Proof Drinks

Award-winning Storywood Tequila has announced a new UK distribution partnership with Proof Drinks.

Proof Drinks will take on all sales and distribution responsibilities for the Storywood Tequila range, and the partnership will increase Storywoods exposure to the UK market. Storywood Tequila has just arrived in the UK and, as the only tequila fully matured in whisky casks, is thought to be a genuine world first.

Storywood Tequila has the heart of Mexico and the soul of Scotland and was founded by Scottish chef, whisky enthusiast and wood ageing expert, Michael Ballantyne, who was inspired to create this innovative tequila while spending time in his mothers hometown of San Miguel De Allende, Mexico.

Ballantyne says: Our mission is to bring new flavours to tequila through oak. We work with distilleries, wineries and cooperages from around the world to hunt for the freshest casks. Our oak and flavours are what we love, but its the places we go and the people that we meet along the way that become our story. Storywood Tequila is our chapter one, with many more to come.

The premium tequilas start with a 10-year-old mature 100% Blue Weber agave, which is harvested from the lowland region of Jalisco and is married with the natural spring water from Volcan de Tequila that flows down from the mountains. This liquid is then aged in handpicked Speyside whisky casks, flown over from Dufftown, Scotland.

Jeremy Hill, managing director of Proof Drinks and part owner of the brand, says: I thoroughly enjoy working with people and brands to transform the fortunes of drinks businesses, and love working with visionaries. I thought Michaels concept of ageing Storywood Tequila in Speyside oak casks was innovative and I wanted to become involved with its journey.

James Pattison has recently been appointed Brand Director for Storywood, having previously worked at Hi-Spirits with Jeremy Hill. He comments: Working on brands that challenge existing categories and perception, and eventually become trend-setters, is the only place for me. Im delighted to link back up with Jeremy and even more delighted to get to work on this absolutely fantastic product with such a passionate founder in Michael.

28 July 2020 -
MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, MI  The city manager of Muskegon Heights has been returned to the job following a two-week suspension.

The city council voted Monday, July 27, to return Troy Bell to the job hes held since the beginning of the year.

Bell was suspended on July 13 after council members became concerned about several issues: how he was being paid, a contract with a communications app company and an incident at a Norton Shores store.

The council voted 5-2 to approve an amendment to the motion reinstating Bell. That amendment requires development of a 90-day employee engagement plan for Bell. Council members Bonnie McGlothin and Andre Williams cast the no votes.

In an apparent misstep, the council voted only on that amendment, and not the actual motion to reinstate Bell. The meeting was held at the council chambers and digitally via Zoom. City Attorney Doug Hughes, contacted after the meeting, said he noticed the council had not voted on the motion but that the amendment passed by a 5-2 majority and he didnt think it was my call to raise the issue.

The council also called for a workshop to be hosted by the Michigan Municipal League for the council and the city manager about their various roles.

Bell could not be reached for comment following the meeting

Mayor Walter Watt told MLive following the meeting that he would return a phone call, but did not immediately. MLive was seeking comments about the procedural issue, Bells reinstatement and Watts unhappiness with Hughes.

Related: Muskegon Heights city manager suspended after less than a year on the job

While Bell has kept his job, Hughes role now is in question. Apparently unhappy with how Hughes, a contracted attorney, handled the Bell complaints, the council voted to seek proposals from other attorneys to represent the city.

Watt, who along with council member Marshall Cook voted against placing Bell on suspension, spoke most forcefully about Hughes, but without providing specifics.

The display and disrespect and the overall lack of respect to leadership of the community was just outright crazy, Watt said, referencing the events of the last several weeks.

Other council members referenced a conflict with Hughes work as attorney for the city of Norton Shores and its investigation into a personal police issue Bell had with an establishment in that city.

Hughes told the council he had nothing to do with the Norton Shores investigation, but would be happy to recuse himself from that issue. He also said he welcomed the opportunity to submit a proposal for city attorney services.

We welcome the review, Hughes told MLive later. Its something Ive been through professionally for four decades.

Council member Kellie Kitchen called the request for proposals to replace Hughes punitive. She also said that Bell needs his own attorney, and not use the citys, if necessary as a result of the Norton Shores incident.

Bell discussed the incident at the Norton Shores Meijer with Paul Billings of WUVS 103.7 The Beat radio.

He described how a man cut in front of him in line and when he protested called Bell the N word and threatened him physically. Bell told Billings on July 16 that he showed the man his identification, which the man perceived to be a police badge, and the man ended up calling Norton Shores police.

A spokeswoman at the Norton Shores Police Department told MLive on Friday, July 24, that there had been no police reports involving Bell.

Related: Mayor threatens to resign if Muskegon Heights city manager is fired

Another concern the city council expressed when suspending Bell was a contract with Bloomz he signed without a vote by the council. The contract is for a city-wide communications app allowing city officials to share messages and information with subscribing residents.

It called for two payments of $3,567 each, or $7,134, by the end of June and another $5,000 payment by Sept. 1, according to terms of the contract obtained by MLive through the Freedom of Information Act

Bell has the authority to commit to payments of up to $5,000 without council approval.

The city has the option to opt out of the Bloomz contract by Nov. 1, before a monthly subscription kicks in, which is $5 per household or a total of $17,820 per month.

Another complaint involved Bell continuing to receive an hourly wage of $44 as compared to his $85,000 salary. When taken as a 40-hour week, the compensation is nearly the same, but not if overtime is worked. He was to switch to the salary once he received certification from a professional organization.

Bell told Billings he completed the certification process, but the actual certificate has been held up in the mail due to COVID-19. He also said that hes worked a lot of hours and the overtime costs are attributed to the COVID cost and should be eligible for CARES act reimbursement. The federal CARES act allows reimbursement to local governments for necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency.

The councils vote to reinstate Bell came after a handful of commenters spoke on his behalf. Those included entrepreneurs who said Bell had gone out of his way to help and encourage them.

They also included Bells wife and stepdaughter.

Prior to coming to Muskegon Heights, Bell was a guest lecturer at Purdue University. He is a former Miami, Florida, police officer and has worked as a deputy city manager in Washington and California, as well as a city and school administrator in Florida.

Also on MLive:

One person shot dead in Muskegon Heights

Its a go for new sculpture at Muskegon Lake Michigan beach

Grand Rapids superintendent recommends starting school year online-only
A BBC Casualty worker was stunned when armed police smashed through his front door in an armed raid - before realising they were on the wrong street.

Lighting engineer Charlie Gough, 23, had returned home to find five police cars parked outside his home in Grangetown, Cardiff.

Police wielding machine guns descended on his house after receiving reports of a disturbance involving 'a group of men armed with weapons' - but cops quickly realised they were at the wrong address.

'If they were just going to knock on a door and got the wrong house, it'd be no big thing but when they've got machine guns you would think they would double check,' Mr Gough said.

Lighting engineer Charlie Gough, 23, had returned home to find five police cars and armed officers outside his home in Grangetown, Cardiff. Pictured: Police at Mr Gough's home

Mr Gough (pictured) is back working on Casualty after taking Covid-19 safety training at the television set used for the hospital drama in Cardiff

'They burst in and smashed the door. They were all stood outside outside ready to raid the house. If I had been inside it would have been terrifying.'

Mr Gough is back working on Casualty after taking Covid-19 safety training at the television set used for the hospital drama in Cardiff.

Neighbours on the street had thought the BBC may have been using the lighting engineer's house 'as a location' after the dramatic scene on a Sunday afternoon.

Police wielding machine guns descended on his house (left) after receiving reports of a disturbance involving 'a group of men armed with weapons' - but police quickly realised they were at the wrong address. Pictured right: The correct house on a nearby street

A bird's-eye view of the street shows the house that was supposed to be raided, and the only that actually was

Mair Jones, 42, said: 'We know Charlie works for the BBC - and we thought he might be using his house as a location.

'But then we all realised the guns were very real and that there were no cameras. It was very dramatic.'

South Wales Police has since apologised for the raid, and confirmed it has arranged for the destroyed door to be repaired.

Police said three men in their 30s and a 16-year-old boy were later arrested in a second raid at the correct property. Pictured: The later raid

South Wales Police have since apologised for the raid and confirmed they had arranged for the door to be repaired

A spokesman said: 'Following reports of a disturbance in Cornwall Street involving a group of men armed with weapons, firearms officers were making arrest enquiries in the Grangetown area of Cardiff.

'While looking for one of the suspects, officers unfortunately attended the wrong address.

'Officers apologised to those living in the house and have made arrangements for the door to be repaired.'

Police said three men in their 30s and a 16-year-old boy were later arrested in the second raid.
Senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil on Tuesday appeared reaching out to the estranged ally Shiv Sena, a day after the party president JP Nadda asked state cadre to endeavour to form a government in Maharashtra on its own strength.

Patil also said the BJP, being a national party, can't share the post of chief minister with any regional party,because if it does so then it will have to replicate the same formula in states like Bihar and Haryana.

"If the BJP's parliamentary body recommends the state unit to forge an alliance with the Shiv Sena to protect the interest of the stateI must make one point clear that even if both the parties (the BJP and the Sena) come together, we will not contest any election jointly in future," Patil, who heads the state BJP unit, told a Marathi news channel.

The BJP and its old ally Sena fell out over sharing the post of chief minister in Maharashtra after the 2019 Assembly elections.

The Sena then went on to join hands with the NCP and the Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government with Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister.

Patil seemed to underline compulsions of the BJP vis-a-vis sharing the post of chief minister. "We had been liberal with the Shiv Sena in the last five years. We were even ready to share more portfolios after the 2019 Assembly polls, but the BJP, being a national party, can't share the post of CM with any regional party. If we do so, we will have to replicate the same formula in states like Bihar, Haryana and others, he said. The BJP shares power with regional allies in these states.

In a virtual address from Delhi, Nadda on Monday told the party workers from Maharashtra to get ready to "bring the party to power on its own" in the state.

He had also asked the Maharashtra party unit to strengthen its IT cell and expose the Uddhav Thackeray-led state government's "failure".
DGAP-News: 4basebio AG / Key word(s): Offer



The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Heidelberg, Germany and Cambridge, UK, 28 July, 2020 - 4basebio AG (Frankfurt: 4BSB; ISIN: DE000A2YN801; Prime Standard) announces that its investor Sparta AG intends to submit a takeover bid for the company's shares. According to an announcement Sparta published on July 27, 2020, Sparta has decided to make a voluntary public takeover offer to all 4basebio shareholders to buy their shares at an expected price of EUR 2,00 per share. According to Sparta AG, the final terms of conditions will be provided with a complete offer document to be found online at https://sparta.de/spv2/investoren/4basebio. As required by German takeover law, the management board and supervisory board of 4basebio will submit a statement on the offer after publication of the offer document, to be published on www.investors.4basebio.com. About 4base bio:

4basebio AG, formerly operating under the name of Expedeon AG, is an enabler of exciting advances in medical science and patient care. After divestment of its immunology and proteomics products portfolio on January 1 2020, the Company changed its name to 4basebio AG reflecting the enhanced focus on technologies and products centered around DNA. The Company is focussing on DNA manufacturing to supply DNA products for therapeutic and other uses requiring large amounts of high-purity DNA, such as the fast-growing market of novel gene therapies and gene vaccines. Besides DNA manufacturing, 4basebio aims at providing research and diagnostic products based on its RNA reverse transcriptase, DNA polymerase and DNA primase enzymes, addressing the research tools and diagnostic products markets.

4basebio AG has offices in Germany, Spain, UK, and the US. The Company is listed on the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Ticker: 4BSB; ISIN: DE000A2YN801).

More information: www.investors.4basebio.com For further information, please contact: 4basebio AG

Dr. Robert Mayer

Manager Investor Relations

T: +49 171 3876 540

Email: robert.mayer@4basebio.com

Investors' information: investors.4basebio.com MC Services AG (Investor Relations and International Media Relations)

Julia Hofmann

Phone: +49 89 210228 0

Email: 4basebio@mc-services.eu ### This publication is intended for information only and constitutes neither an offer to sell nor an invitation to buy securities. Some statements included in this press release, relating neither to proven financial results nor other historical data, should be viewed as forward-looking, i.e. not definite. Such statements are mainly predictions of future results, trends, plans or goals. These statements should not be considered to be total guarantees since given their very nature they are subject to known and unknown risks and imponderability and can be affected by other factors as a consequence of which the actual results, plans and goals of 4basebio AG may deviate greatly from the established conclusions or implied predictions contained in such statements. 4basebio does not undertake to publicly update or revise these statements in the light of new information or future results or for any other reason. ###

28.07.2020 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


AG Paxton Issues Legal Guidance on School Reopenings

AG Paxton issued legal guidance in response to a request from Stephenville Mayor Doug Svien regarding recent county-wide orders which demand sweeping school closures.

Paxton's guidance was lauded by Sen. Bettencourt, whose office issued the following statement:

Senator Bettencourt (R-Houston) lauded the decision by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-Texas) to make clear that local health departments do not have the authority to preemptively shut down Texas schools. Currently, roughly 3.2 million of the 5.5 million students in Texas live in seventeen counties where local health departments have ordered schools to be preemptively closed. The Attorney General makes clear that local health departments are able to perform clean up on specific areas after an event has occurred.

Common sense prevails with this opinion by Attorney General Paxton, said Senator Bettencourt. Let the school districts try to open under the plan offered by the Texas Education Agency which has a lot of built-in flexibility for either virtual or in classroom learning. What we cannot have is local health departments jumping the gun and taking their focus away from hotspot clean up.

This opinion from the Attorney General, among other things, states the following:

Local health authorities may not issue sweeping orders closing schools for the sole purpose of preventing future COVID-19 infections. Rather, their role is limited by statute to addressing specific, actual outbreaks of disease.

The decision to close schools on a preventative basis, whether public or private, remains with the school system leaders.

School district trustees have the exclusive power and duty to govern and oversee the management of the public schools of the district.

The opinion by the Attorney General should be respected by the school districts, local health departments, and especially the County Judges who I call on to follow this common-sense AG opinion, he added.

The Texas Education Agency, after extensive study and working with Governor Abbott (R-Texas), Lt. Governor Patrick (R-Texas), Speaker Bonnen (R-Angleton), various committee chairs, and many of those working in the school system in Texas, previously released comprehensive guidelines for a safe return to on-campus instruction for the upcoming school year. Their guidance has provided flexibility to school districts to start the year virtually or in a hybrid model for classroom instruction.

Lets use this opinion to give the decision on opening schools back to the school boards, the teachers, the parents, and families of students, continued Senator Bettencourt. Reopening of schools can be done in a safe manner, as prescribed by the CDC and many medical doctors opinions. It is better for kids to have the option of in-person instruction, especially for special needs, foster children, and low socio-economic students et al, by any measure I understand, concluded Senator Bettencourt, a member of both the Senate Education and Higher Education Committees.

The following is Paxton's address:

Dear Mayor Svien: This letter responds to your request, under Government Code section 418.193, for guidance about whether a local health authority may order the closure of schools. As background, we note several local health authorities have issued orders purporting to delay in-person instruction at public and private schools for the upcoming school year. These orders generally rely on state law allowing a health authority to control communicable diseases. But nothing in the law gives health authorities the power to indiscriminately close schoolspublic or privateas these local orders claim to do. Although the plain language of the law provides some authority to local health authorities to quarantine property in certain instances, that authority is limited. It does not allow health authorities to issue blanket quarantine orders that are inconsistent with the law.

Local orders must not conflict with state law.

When construing statutes, courts start with the plain language to give effect to the Legislatures intent. Courts recognize that the words the Legislature chooses should be the surest guide to legislative intent. Where text is clear, text is determinative of that intent.Chapter 81 of the Health and Safety Code generally allows the Department of State Health Services or a local health authority to act to prevent the spread of a communicable disease. In particular, section 81.082 allows control measures to be imposed on people, places, or things. Under the statute, these measures can include:

 immunization

 detention

 restriction

 disinfection

 decontamination

 isolation

 quarantine

 disinfestation

 chemoprophylaxis

 preventive therapy

 prevention

 education.

It is important to note, however, that the law also specifies when these control measures may be applied. Section 81.084 governs the application of control measures to property. First, Section 81.084 provides that the Department or a local health authority may quarantine property only if there is reasonable cause to believe that property . . . is or may be infected or contaminated with a communicable disease[.] Second, even when there is such a reasonable belief, the period of quarantine is limited. Section 81.084 restricts the duration of a quarantine to the period necessary for a medical examination or technical analysis of samples taken from the property to determine if the property is infected or contaminated. If the property is not infected or contaminated, the quarantine must be removed. If the property is found to be infected or contaminated, the health authority must remove the quarantine and return control of a property if technically feasible control measures to disinfect or decontaminate property are effective. We presume the Legislature selected language in a statute with care and that every word or phrase was used with a purpose in mind. The plain language of chapter 81 requires a local health authority to have at least a reasonable belief that infection exists on property before quarantining or imposing control measures on the property. Because nothing in chapter 81 allows a health authority to issue quarantine or control orders for property without any evidence or reasonable belief that actual infection exists, we therefore believe that a court would conclude that such prophylactic orders are prohibited.

Similarly, section 81.085 empowers the Department or a local health authority to impose an area quarantine coextensive with the area affected by an outbreak of communicable disease. Like a property quarantine under section 81.084, an area quarantine requires at least reasonable cause to believe that individuals or property in the area may be infected or contaminated with a communicable disease. Therefore, like a property quarantine, an area quarantine may not be imposed for purely prophylactic reasons. To the extent a local health authority seeks to employ section 81.085 to order closure of a school, the authority would need to demonstrate reasonable cause to believe the school, or persons within the school, are actually contaminated by or infected with a communicable disease. Even then, local health authorities would be wrong to rely on section 81.085 to quarantine individual parcels of property. That provision states that, If an outbreak of communicable disease occurs in this state, the commissioner or one or more health authorities may impose an area quarantine coextensive with the area affected. Coextensive means to the exact extent. In this context, the outbreak of communicable disease . . . in this state is most naturally read to apply generally to the COVID-19 pandemic, not to infections occurring in individual buildings or locales. That is particularly true given that chapter 81 includes a separate provision for quarantining specific property. This provision can therefore not be read to authorize the quarantine of individual schools by local health authorities. The outbreakto the extent it exists in schoolsexists equally throughout their jurisdictions. Finally, a local health authority may not impose an area quarantine until it consults with the Department, and it must give written notice to and consult with each affected county and municipality. We turn now to the other laws that some local health orders cite as additional authority, to determine if these laws contain the power to close schools that chapter 81 does not. Both Section 121.024 of the Health and Safety Code and chapter 25, subsection 85.1(g), of the Texas Administrative Code generally recognize the duties imposed on a health authority. They do not, however, authorize quarantines of property that are inconsistent with controlling state lawchapter 81. Nor does subsection 97.6(h) of the Texas Administrative Code provide any support here. An agency can adopt only such rules as are authorized by and consistent with its statutory authority. Subsection 97.6(h) purports to allow health authorities to close schools or other places of assembly. It is based on the Departments authority to control communicable diseases under chapter 81. Thus, subsection 97.6(h) can give health authorities the power to close schools only to the extent that power is authorized by and consistent with chapter 81 and other applicable law. As we stated above, a health authority may quarantine property or implement control measures under sections 81.084 or 81.085 only if there is at least a reasonable belief that property or persons within the quarantined area are infected or contaminated. Therefore, the only potentially valid construction of subsection 97.6(h) is one that allows health authorities to quarantine school property after it becomes or is reasonably believed to be infected. To conclude otherwise would allow health authorities to circumvent statutory requirements governing the application of control measures to property, by relying on an administrative regulation that conflicts with those standards. Because a health authoritys power to quarantine property under chapter 81 is limited, so too is the authority to close schools and other places of assembly under subsection 97.6(h).

Local orders that conflict with the Governors orders are superseded.

To mitigate the spread of COVID-19 while continuing to reopen the State, the Governor issued Executive Order GA-28. Relevant here, the order limits business establishments to operating at 50 percent capacity or less, but it allows the following services to operate without any capacity restrictions:

 any services listed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Securitys Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in its Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce, Version 3.1 or any subsequent version

 religious services

 local government operations.

The order further provides: For the remainder of the 20192020 school year, public schools may resume operations for the summer as provided by, and under the minimum standard health protocols found in, guidance issued by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Private schools and institutions of higher education are encouraged to establish similar standards. Finally, GA-28 states that it supersedes any conflicting order issued by local officials in response to the COVID-19 disaster . . . to the extent that such a local order restricts services allowed by this executive order. And it suspends relevant laws, including the control-measure provisions in chapter 81 of the Health & Safety Code to the extent necessary to ensure that local officials do not impose restrictions in response to the COVID-19 disaster that are inconsistent with this executive order. . . . The Governors orders have the force and effect of law. Accordingly, GA-28 should be construed according to ordinary principles of statutory construction.

Applying these principles here, nothing in GA-28 prohibits any school from opening. Indeed, the opposite is true. Religious services, such as those provided by religious private schools, and local government operations, such as public schools, are permitted to open and are excluded from any capacity restrictions. The only limitation that GA-28 expressly imposes on school operations is TEAs guidelines, which apply only to public schools. Furthermore, our conclusion that GA-28 allows all schools to open is bolstered by the text in GA-28 that simply encourages private schools and institutions of higher education to adopt standards similar to TEAs. By recommending that private schools adopt such protocols, GA-28 presumes that private schools and institutions would be open to employ them.

Under its plain language, the Governors order allows all schools to operate. Public schools must follow TEAs guidelines, while private schools and institutions should establish similar protocols.

Therefore, local orders that restrict these permitted school operations conflict with GA-28 and are superseded. Local officials lack authority to impose restrictions, including control measures under chapter 81 of the Health and Safety Code, insofar as they are inconsistent with GA-28. Accordingly, GA-28 both supersedes local orders that restrict the permitted operations of schools and suspends relevant laws that could allow local officials to impose restrictions on schools that are inconsistent with the Governors order.

Education of our children is an essential Texas value. Texas law gives independent school districts the primary responsibility for implementing the States system of public education and ensuring student performance. Districts are political subdivisions of the State, like cities and counties, and governed by boards of trustees who are elected by voters within the district. District trustees have the exclusive power and duty to govern and oversee the management of the public schools of the district, subject only to laws expressly delegating authority to TEA or the State Board of Education. Although a local health authority may possess some authority in limited circumstances to close schools, this authority is cabined by laws governing the application of control measures to property and the Governors executive orders. Therefore, a local health authority may act under chapter 81 of the Health & Safety Code to order a quarantine of school property only in the limited circumstances allowed by that chapter, and as permitted by GA-28. Critically, local health authorities may not issue blanket orders closing all schools in their jurisdiction on a purely prophylactic basis. The decision to close schools on such a preventative basiswhether public or privateremains with school system leaders who should consult with relevant public health authorities, including the Department and local health authorities. We recognize, of course, that these unprecedented circumstances are difficult times for many Texans and may require difficult decisions from our State and local leaders. But, as the Texas Supreme Court has recognized, [t]he Constitution is not suspended when the government declares a state of disaster. Government action, no matter how urgent or expedient it is believed to be, may not exceed the constitutional limitations that have been placed upon it by the People. We encourage local and school system officials to work together to make the best decision, within their authority under the law, to protect the health and safety of the residents of their jurisdictions.

Sincerely,

Ken Paxton

Attorney General

View the official document here.
Africa Oil Week has launched of first in a series of complimentary reports, produced in association with Wood Mackenzie. The report Opportunities for Africa in the Energy Transition, will be accompanied by a free-to-attend webinar taking place this Wednesday (29 July, 15:00 GMT+1).

Posing the question What does the energy transition mean for Africa?, the report explores the continents role in meeting global hydrocarbon demand and examines how Africas position as a hydrocarbon exporter will be challenged under various accelerated energy transition scenarios. It also looks at how net zero goals, electrification, and new technology deployments are accelerating the energy transition globally, whilst providing an overview of how these factors are at play within Africa.

Moderated by Wood Mackenzies Valentina Kretzschmar, the accompanying webinar will include frank discussions around both the challenges and opportunities for Africa in the energy transition. The expert contributors, listed below, will be on-hand to provide cutting-edge analysis and answer questions from the audience:

David Brown, Head of Markets & Transitions  Americas, Wood Mackenzie

Ville Rimali, Director  Growth & Development, Wartsila

Jonathan Evans, VP Africa New Ventures, BP Exploration

Ade Adeola, Managing Director, Energy & Natural Resources, Standard Chartered Bank

The report is available here (https://bit.ly/330FbNc)

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 21:16:50|Editor: huaxia

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BISHKEK, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Kyrgyzstan's total COVID-19 cases reached 33,844 on Tuesday, after 548 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours.

Eight of the new cases are medical workers, raising the tally of contracted medical workers to 2,691, Ainura Akmatova, head of the public healthcare department of the country's health ministry, told a daily news briefing.

Akmatova also reported 28 new deaths in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 1,329.

Total recoveries now stand at 22,296, with 1,091 new ones, she said, adding that 10,227 patients are currently receiving treatment in the country.

The pandemic situation in Kyrgyzstan has stabilized over the past week, with a decline in coronavirus cases, Prime Minister Kubatbek Boronov said during a Tuesday briefing.

However, Boronov added that the epidemic situation remains critical in some regions -- particularly the city of Osh, the Jalal-Abad region, and the Issyk-Kul region.

Kyrgyzstan recorded its first infection with COVID-19 on March 18. Enditem
Two teenage girls in India have discovered an Earth-bound asteroid. According to the Indian space education institute, the girls used images from a University of Hawaii telescope to identify the asteroid.

According to reports, the asteroid is presently near Mars and its orbit is expected to cross that of Earth in about one million year's time. The same has been confirmed by SPACE India, an institute where the two girls received training.

SPACE India even tweeted about the discovery on its Twitter handle -

DISCOVERY ALERT!

We are proud to announce VAIDEHI VEKARIYA SANJAYBHAI and RADHIKA LAKHANI PRAFULBHAI, two students of P.P. SAVANI CHAITANYA VIDYA SANKUL (CBSE) from Surat with the help of SPACE-AIASC discovered a new Asteroid which is a Near-Earth Object named HLV2514. pic.twitter.com/HXpOvrwxNY  SPACE India (@Spacian) July 25, 2020

Vaidehi Vekariya, one of the two girls who made this discovery possible said, "I look forward to... when we will get a chance to name the asteroid." She even added that she wants to become an astronaut.



Radhika Lakhani, the other student said she was working hard for her education and pointed out how she doesn't even have a TV at home so that she can concentrate on her studies.

The asteroid is currently called HLV2514. It'll be officially named only after NASA confirms its orbit.

These two girls, who are from Surat, managed to discover the object as a part of an asteroid search campaign conducted by SPACE India along with the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC).

 Reuters

International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC), for those of you who don't know, is a NASA-affiliated citizen scientist group. The girls used specialized software to analyze the images snapped by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii.



IASC Director J Patrick Miller has confirmed the discovery of the asteroid, but we're waiting to hear from NASA for a confirmation.

We think it's a great effort and we'd like to congratulate the young girls for their contribution.

Source: Gadgets360
Picture it: A robust middle-aged doctor of matronly dignity commanding CNN pampered prince Fredo Cuomo to come on in and take a urine test for her like a good boy. It was an image not unlike that of Saddam Hussein opening his mouth for his dental inspection, but with crybaby Cuomo, it's simply funnier. She wanted the self-important CNN anchor to prove that he's not the hypocrite she thinks he is, because, yes, those who get well from COVID-19, such as he had, very commonly do it by taking hydroxychloroquine.

That really happened, in so many words, when Dr. Stella Immanuel, a fiercely passionate doctor based in Texas, called for Cuomo to prove he hadn't been using HCQ because he was such a loudmouth about denouncing it. For her, it was pretty obvious the treatment was easy and effective, based on her own experience as a doctor saving lives.

Love to see a debate between TV Drs, Fauci and these FRONTLINE Drs.. Cmon lets do this! What network is brave enough to air a debate like this? https://t.co/V1w3o8E2Is  Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) July 28, 2020

She effectively called on Fredo Cuomo to come on in and get his urine test to show us all how sincere he was ... which is impossible to not snicker at the visualized specter of.

More importantly, she made the critical point that hydroxychloroquine is often used by the very people who claim it's too dangerous for the general public to use, and that the inexpensive medication has been shown by serious medical studies as well as her own lived experience as a medical practitioner to be safe and effective at killing off COVID. The fact that the medication has been demonized is nothing but a bid to Get Trump, who has praised the treatment. The losers here are the people who really would benefit from it and whose doctors can't or won't give it to them.

And that's why she was with a group called American Frontline Doctors, speaking from their own doctorly experience on the steps of the Capitol to testify that hydroxychloroquine works.

Immanuel, whose passionate testimony beginning at about the 5:30 point of the UGE video said that she herself treated 350 COVID patients with HCQ, same as doctors in Asia, Africa and Europe do, and not one died. Her described bedside manner, telling patients 'you're not going to die' must have been immensely assuring to many a patient with a terrifying diagnosis associated with so much death, based on her sureness of knowledge. And she's got science on her side. Just three weeks ago, a huge medical study confirmed HCQ's efficacy. A previous "study" by the famed British medical journal Lancet debunking HCQ got retracted because it was found to be junk. Aside from the studies, these doctors spoke from their own medical experience, the things they saw with their own eyes on the frontlines of the COVID pandemic, and sought to tell of.

And for that, they got censored. YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook removed all evidence of their testimony from their sites, leaving only smaller sites with the evidence they gave, effectively silencing them.

According to Breitbart, which took the brunt of the censorship:

Facebook has removed a video posted by Breitbart News earlier today, which was the top-performing Facebook post in the world Monday afternoon, of a press conference in D.C. held by the group Americas Frontline Doctors and organized and sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots. The press conference featured Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) and frontline doctors sharing their views and opinions on coronavirus and the medical response to the pandemic. YouTube (which is owned by Google) and Twitter subsequently removed footage of the press conference as well. The video accumulated over 17 million views during the eight hours it was hosted on Facebook, with over 185,000 concurrent viewers.

Twitter has on its sidebar the 'corrective' retrograde argument from the FDA that hydroxychloroquine is not effective or safe. Somehow the pencil-pushers' HCQ claims trump those of doctors who have saved actual patients from it. And now the big tech companies are censoring and silencing the doctors, effectively sending some patients to die without HCQ.

Even CNBC viewed that in askance, putting the word 'false' in quotes.

Worse still, the doctors spoke of an atmosphere of fear and silencing, which was why these doctors took their testimony went to Washington. There shouldn't be fear in telling the truth.

It's as clear a violation of the First Amendment as any -- the idea that a trained doctor with years of experience cannot testify to what he or she saw with his or her own eyes is outrageous. It's the Sovietization of America if it goes on. It makes the case for Congress to force these companies to forfeit their "like a utility" platforms and force them to be regulated as edited publications. The truth is getting out about HCQ and for those who benefit, it's the difference between life and death. These brave doctors can see this. The disgusting establishments trying to silence them cannot.

Hat tip: GatewayPundit

Image credit: UGETube, screen shot, enhanced with FotoSketcher
Boris Johnson today warned there are 'signs of a second wave' of coronavirus in Europe as he defended the UK's decision to reimpose quarantine rules on Spanish travel.

Britain's decision to drop Spain from its safe travel list has sparked a diplomatic war between Madrid and London.

The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the UK's blanket ban on all non-essential travel to Spain is an 'error' and is 'unjust'.

But Mr Johnson insisted this morning the UK Government must act quickly to respond to what it believes are threats to the domestic fight against coronavirus.

He said: 'What we have to do is take swift and decisive action where we think that the risks are starting to bubble up again.

'Let's be absolutely clear about what's happening in Europe, amongst some of our European friends, I'm afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic.'

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson insisted it is up to individuals to decide whether to travel abroad this summer amid mounting uncertainty and questions over whether holidays to other European nations could also soon be axed.

He said: 'These are decisions for families, for individuals, about where they want to go.'

He added: 'It's vital that when people are coming back from abroad, if they are coming back from a place where I'm afraid there is another outbreak, they must go into quarantine.

'That's why we have taken the action that we have and we will continue, throughout the summer, to take such action where it is necessary.'

The sense of uncertainty over booking trips abroad only increased after Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she would not currently book a foreign holiday over fears quarantine rules could quickly change.

She said people should be 'very, very cautious about booking foreign travel' and that 'I wouldn't, if you were asking me, be booking a foreign holiday right now because of these reasons'. She said she would instead choose to go on holiday in Scotland.

The Spanish Government today insisted that Spain remains a safe and 'secure' destination for tourists as Germany also imposed travel restrictions on its European neighbour.

Berlin has linked foreign holidays to a 'concerning' rise in cases in Germany and it has now advised its citizens to avoid the regions of Catalonia, Aragon and Navarre - but not the southern coast or the Spanish islands.

The most up to date figures show the number of new cases is rocketing upwards in Spain. It announced 6,361 new cases over the weekend, up from 4,581 the previous weekend. France announced 2,551 new coronavirus cases on Monday

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has claimed that tourists are safer in his country than the UK. These are the worst coronavirus hotspots in each country and the number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 people

Ministers insist 14 day quarantine rules remain in place despite claims self-isolation period could be cut to 10 days Ministers today insisted the requirement for travellers returning to the UK from non-safe coronavirus countries to quarantine for 14 days remains in place despite claims the self-isolation period could soon be slashed. Reports overnight suggested the Government is considering reducing quarantine from 14 to 10 days in order to make family holidays abroad slightly more feasible. The proposals would see returning travellers tested eight days after they land and if the check comes back negative they would be given the green light to leave their homes two days later. It is thought that shaving four days off the fortnight quarantine period could be enough to persuade some holidaymakers to go ahead with their trips despite mounting uncertainty over foreign travel. The Government fears its sudden decision to reimpose quarantine rules on Britons returning from Spain will prompt mass cancellations and kill the summer holiday season. But local government minister Simon Clarke said this morning that 'the situation remains that the Government's advice is that you must quarantine for 14 days'. He told Sky News: 'I wouldn't want to blur that message. That is the current position. Obviously, with all of this guidance, we continue to take advice on the science and on the best practice that is sensible. 'But we wouldn't want to get any mixed messages today at all to the public: It is a 14 day quarantine.' Advertisement

The Government announced on Saturday that it was tightening rules on travel to Spain because of rising case numbers.

But ministers faced accusations of presiding over chaos after initially banning travel to the Spanish mainland but travel was still allowed to the Canary and Balearic islands.

However, everyone returning to Britain from anywhere in Spain was still told they have to quarantine for 14 days.

The Foreign Office then moved last night to toughen the travel advice relating to the Spanish islands to bring them into line with the rules applying to the mainland.

Britons make up over a fifth of foreign visitors to Spain, which relies heavily on tourism, and Madrid has said the UK government gave it no warning that the quarantine move was coming last weekend.

Mr Sanchez told Spanish TV station Telecinco on Monday night: 'I think the UK's decision is an incorrect one.

'Spain is made up of a number of regions that have a cumulative rate of contagion that is lower than the European average as well as the UK average.

'The Spanish tourist industry has acted very responsibly over the past few months and has transferred a message of security with regards to the health emergency we are experiencing.

'It's true that on a global level the coronavirus pandemic continues to show a very worrying development and at European level as well, but in Spain the spread of the virus is not occurring in a uniform way.'

Mr Sanchez said the Spanish government is pushing for the UK to reverse its decision as he claimed that 'in epidemiological terms, it would be safer to be' in certain parts of Spain on holiday than in the UK.

'We are going to carry on talking because we are friends and we have many commercial and economic links as well as geopolitical links,' he said.

A spokeswoman for the Spanish government insisted today that the country is still a safe place for tourists to visit.

The spokeswoman said: 'We are a secure destination that has made preparations and strengthened itself to deal with the virus and any outbreaks.'

She added: 'All the figures demonstrate the situation is good in most of the country, where the regional authorities have only registered a low incidence of the illness.'

Diplomatic ties were strained this morning after local government minister Simon Clarke said the UK disagreed with Mr Sanchez's assessment that travel to Spain should be allowed to continue.

Mr Clarke told the BBC: 'We respectfully disagree with the Spanish government's position on this.

'We obviously continue to work closely with them and we wish them every success in managing this outbreak, but we've seen a very sharp increase in cases in Spain.

'A 75 per cent increase in cases reported between the middle of last week and the end of last week. That's why we took the action that we have.

Boris Johnson, pictured during a visit to Beeston near Nottingham today, has warned there are 'signs of second wave' of coronavirus in Europe

Nicola Sturgeon said today that she would not currently book a foreign holiday because of quarantine uncertainty

The UK Government has now banned all non-essential travel to mainland Spain and the Spanish islands. Pictured is a quiet beach today in the resort of Portinatx in Ibiza

Nicola Sturgeon warns against foreign travel Nicola Sturgeon has said she would not currently book a holiday abroad because of fears quarantine rules could quickly change. The First Minister, speaking at her daily coronavirus briefing, said she does not want to raise expectations over a possible compensation scheme for people forced to self-isolate after returning from Spain. It comes after regulations for travelling from the country were changed just two days after it was made exempt, meaning holidaymakers will have to spend 14 days in isolation on their return. Ms Sturgeon warned quarantine restrictions could be reimposed at short notice and said she would opt to take a holiday at home. The First Minister said: 'Right now, be very, very cautious about booking foreign travel that is not essential because you don't know that when you're in a country they may change their regulations and so you might find yourself restricted in that country and when you go to come home you might find that the quarantine rules have changed here. 'I wouldn't, if you were asking me, be booking a foreign holiday right now because of these reasons. 'I would be choosing, if I had the time to go on holiday, to spend it here in Scotland.' Advertisement

'Clearly, you do have to make decisions on a country-wide basis. There is going to be internal transfer within Spain and it's important that we do our utmost to protect the public.'

Ministers decided on Saturday to reimpose quarantine restrictions on Spain after it emerged 10 Britons had returned from the country with coronavirus and Professor Chris Whitty said 'doing nothing isn't an option'.

The Government's Covid-O committee met at the weekend after Health Secretary Matt Hancock raised concerns about a spike in Spanish infections on Friday.

The group of six senior ministers, which includes Michael Gove, Grant Shapps and Priti Patel, were apparently told by Prof Whitty, the chief medical officer, that the situation in Spain had deteriorated in the last 48 hours.

Ministers were told there had been an increase in infection in 15 of Spain's 19 regions but the 'clincher' was the fact that 10 Britons had recently tested positive after coming back from the country.

Prof Whitty described the number as 'statistically significant' as ministers took the controversial decision to reimpose quarantine on Spanish travellers at less than five hours notice.

The account of the meeting came as Mr Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said he will return early from his holiday in Spain tomorrow amid growing fears that holidays in France and Germany could also be axed because of rising infection rates.

There is also mounting speculation that travel to Belgium could soon be impacted after the country put the brakes on its coronavirus lockdown exit strategy.
A Ukrainian serviceman is seen at a position on the front line near Novotoshkivske

KYIV (Reuters) - A full and comprehensive ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists that entered into force in eastern Ukraine on Monday has already been violated by separatists, Ukrainian military said.

Ukrainian, Russian and OSCE negotiators last week agreed on a full ceasefire in eastern Ukraine from Monday, putting on hold the military conflict that has claimed more than 13,000 lives since 2014.

"In the middle of the night, the enemy opened fire on the positions of Ukrainian soldiers from hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers and small arms, and ... at noon they fired from automatic heavy-duty grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms," Ukrainian military said in a statement.

Ukrainian forces did not open fire in response, but on Sunday the defence ministry said in a statement that its forces "stand ready to give a proper rebuff to the enemy in case of violation of the agreements".

The current ceasefire was backed by the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who agreed "the need for an urgent implementation of extra measures to support the ceasefire regime in Donbass".

Zelenskiy has sought to resolve the conflict since his election last year, arranging a number of prisoner swaps.

"We are talking about the possibility of a real ceasefire on both sides," the head of Ukraine's joint forces operation Volodymyr Kravchenko told a televised briefing.

"The situation is stable and controlled," he added.

The separatists' DNA news agency said on Monday observers "did not record any violations of the ceasefire by the security forces of Kiev, starting from 00:01 on July 27 this year."

Ukraine and Russia have been foes since 2014, when Moscow seized Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and backed the rebellion in the east.

Major combat ended with a ceasefire agreed in the Belarus capital Minsk in 2015, but sporadic clashes still regularly kill civilians, Ukrainian soldiers and separatists.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets, Editing by William Maclean and Hugh Lawson)
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Mitchell Kukulka.

Thursday, July 23

10:27 p.m. -- A 51-year-old Lee Township woman was concerned because she found out from a third party that her neighbor was not happy with her and stated he "wanted her gone for good." The woman said this is a ongoing issue with him, and wanted to report it just in case something were to happen.

10:22 p.m. -- Deputies responded to a car-deer crash in Larkin Township.

9:09 p.m. -- A 20-year-old Lee Township woman reported that she was concerned for her safety after getting into a heated argument with her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend. The 20-year-old said the ex-girlfriend stated she was going to come to her house and beat her up. Deputies monitored the area and made contact with the 20-year-old, who said she did not think the other woman was going to show up, and that she was all set.

5:14 p.m. -- Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the area of East Indian Street and Ashman Street.

4:12 p.m. -- A deputy was dispatched to the area of North Swede Road near East Saiko Road for single-vehicle crash.

2:14 p.m. -- A deputy responded to a vehicle crash in Porter Township.

12:48 p.m. -- Officers responded to an incident of drug possession in the area of East Patrick Road and Illinois Street.

12:30 p.m. -- Officers responded to a report of domestic violence in the 4900 block of Russell Street.

10:23 a.m. -- A deputy was dispatched to a Mount Haley Township residence to speak with a 59-year-old man regarding a suspicious situation. The man thought he saw two men wearing hazmat suits walking on his property near his barn. The deputy checked the area and found no evidence. The were no foot prints in the farm field near his property, nor near his barn.
BSPs dilemma on Dalit politics was evident when ten months after its six MLAs, who had won on her party symbol in 2018 and subsequently merged with Congress, it issued whip asking them to vote against Ashok Gehlot government.

Dalit leader Udit Raj dismissed the BSPs whip saying the party has no right to issue a whip as the anti-defection law is not applicable in this case when all six MLAs, joined the Congress and accused Mayawati of acting as B team of BJP.

Over a week ago, Mayawati had demanded President Rule in Rajasthan. However, it is not the first time that the BSP has taken a strong stand against the Congress.

Facing a dent in its Dalit vote bank from both the main national partiesBJP and Congress in different elections, Mayawati has repeatedly trying to strike a balance, veering towards a nuanced equidistant policy from the both, seeking to paint them as anti Dalit and BSP the soul entity to espouse the Dalit cause.

In 2018 assembly elections in Karnataka, where the BSP has a minuscule presence, it tied up with JDS, making the fight triangular in some seats. Congress cried foul saying it aimed at helping the BJP. But after elections Congress-JD(S) came together and a lone BSP MLA supported the alliance government that lasted 15 months.

Before that, BSP spurned the offers of Congress for alliance in MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in 2018 Assembly polls for a united fight against the BJP. As post elections, Congress won in all three states, BSP was quick to declare its support to the Congress in government formation. When the six BSP MLAs jumped the ship to join Congress in September last year, Maywati cried betrayal. The two MLAs of the BSP, however, remained with the party.

BSP, which had tied up with the BJP in 1995 after a failed experiment of alliance with the SP, had for last few decades have been maintaining the Naagnath-Saanpnaath (both meaning the lord of snakes) terminology for both the Congress and the BJP it was their approach towards the Dalits that necessitated the formation of a party like BSP. Also Rahul Gandhi's dine with Dalit programmes in 2009-11, contributed to defeat of BSP in 2012 UP state polls.

In the last six years, a substantial chunk of Dalits, particularly non-Jatavs (Mayawatis caste) had voted for BJP and now Congress led by Priyanka Gandhi in UP is trying to revive its old BMD (Brahmin Muslim Dalit) vote base in Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 Lok Sabha MPs to Parliament.

Its a double whammy for BSP, whose OBC-Dalit formulae by tying up with SP in 2019 Lok Sabha polls in which her party won 10 seats after scoring duck in 2014 Lok Sabha polls when she contested alone. She broke the tie-up later.

Months before 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale extended an open invitation to Mayawati to have a tie up with the BJP, something which is again gaining a buzz before 2022 state assembly polls but the BSP has dismissed as the handiwork of Congress, which is trying hard to revive in UP this time.

So, while UP is a lost case for Mayawati, the other states follow a typical pattern of BSP not doing well when Mayawati is not in power in UP. BSP, out of power in UP since 2012, could not do well in state polls in other states. Mayawatis earlier formulae of bring a Dalit-Brahmin unity

That answers for Mayawatis complex twists and turns, who now faces a sort of crisis of survival in state politics as she cannot accept Chief Ministerial claim of Akhilesh Yadav of SP, whose party has a complementary separate vote base and cannot back Congress either, whose revival could a see Dalit votes shifting towards the latter. Mayawati has very limited options.
R apper Wiley has used his personal Facebook to write more abusive posts aimed at his Jewish critics.

The musician was given a seven-day Twitter ban and dropped by his management company over accusations of anti-Semitism after posting a torrent of abusive comments on his Instagram and Twitter accounts.

The grime artist has since been posting on his personal Facebook page under his name Richard Kylea Cowie, the BBC reports.

The posts aimed abuse at Jewish celebrities who expressed dismay at Wiley's comments, including Lord Alan Sugar.

Facebook told the Standard it has now blocked access to Wiley's Facebook and Instagram profiles for seven days and deleted content which violates its policies.

Grime artist Wiley dropped by management after anti-Semitism claims

According to the BBC, Wiley's posts mentioned Golders Green - an area in London with a large Jewish community.

In one post, which appears to have been deleted, he reportedly said: "Who called the police? Are you from Golders Green? I am coming to sit down with you... Labyrinth you could come along as you have forgotten what colour you are."

The last post on his account says: "When you get money dont forget ya skin colour dont change even if they treat you nicely always remember they are looking at the money in you not really you as a human."

A spokesman for Facebook said: "There is no place for hate speech on any of our platforms, including attacks against Jews.

"We have deleted content that violates our policies from Wiley's Facebook and Instagram profiles and have blocked access to them for seven days.

"Were continuing to investigate the situation."

The Standard has contacted Wiley and the Metropolitan Police for comment.
OTTAWAHealth Canada has approved the use of remdesivir to treat patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19.

The federal agency says the antiviral drug may be used to treat patients who have pneumonia and require extra oxygen to help them breathe.

Its the first drug Health Canada has authorized for the treatment of COVID-19. Health Canada approved its use in adults and adolescents.

Remdesivir, which has been shown to shorten hospital stays, is administered intravenously and will be used only on patients that can be closely monitored.

Canadas chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said use of the drug requires close medical supervision.

Some of the range of side effects could involve other organs such as the liver, Tam said Tuesday.

Health Canada has actually reviewed all this information and determined that the benefits outweigh the risk of the side effects. But again this is not a drug that you use as an outpatient. You have to be in a hospital setting where someone can monitor all that.

Until now, a small number of patients have been treated with remdesivir in Canada under a special access program.

The drug has also been granted emergency or conditional authorization in the United States, Europe, Japan, Singapore and Australia.

Two clinical trials authorized by Health Canada are ongoing to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of remdesivir.

Remdesivir is sold under the brand name Veklury and manufactured by Gilead Sciences Canada.

Tam said the Public Health Agency of Canada is talking to the manufacturer about securing a Canadian supply, but admitted supply is very limited globally from this company.

Those discussions are taking place right now. I think the company will begin to accelerate its capacity but the bottom line is that the supply is not plentiful.
NTU scientists develop new approach to COVID-19 testing that yields results in 36 minutes

Clinician-scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) have demonstrated a way to improve the speed, handling time and cost of COVID-19 laboratory tests.

The improved testing method yields results in 36 minutes  a quarter of the time required by existing gold-standard tests.

The test, which can be done with portable equipment, could also be deployed in the community as a screening tool.

Photo courtesy: NTU

In a press statement, NTU said the new approach could enable the wider adoption of COVID-19 testing for diagnosis in academic or research laboratories. It will also allow for screening and research in countries and regions with limited laboratory capabilities.

Currently, the most sensitive method for testing for COVID-19 is through a laboratory technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which have to be performed by highly trained technical staff and can take a few hours. Currently, automated equipment for sample preparation costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, and requires specialised laboratory facilities.

The method developed by NTU LKCMedicine streamlines the steps and allows direct testing on the crude patient sample. This cuts down the turnaround time from sample-to-result, and removing the need for RNA purification chemicals.

"Our rapid COVID-19 test involves a single-tube reaction that reduces hands-on time and biosafety risk for lab personnel, as well as the likelihood for carryover contamination during the processing of samples, said Wee Soon Keong, a PhD candidate at NTU LKCMedicine.

Aside from testing for COVID-19, the method developed by the NTU LKCMedicine team can also be used to detect other viruses and bacteria, including the dengue virus, which is set to plague Singapore as the country braces itself for one of the worst dengue outbreaks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Newser)  Months after Variety published a piece on "furious," "distressed," and "outraged" crew members on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, the magazine reports that WarnerMedia has launched an internal investigation. The probe comes after another piece on the "toxic work culture" at the show, this one published on BuzzFeed earlier this month. Employees have complained about issues ranging from how crew members were treated amid the coronavirus shutdown to alleged racism and intimidation. Executives sent a memo last week telling staffers that WarnerMedia's employee relations group, plus a third-party consultant, will interview current and former staffers about their experiences working on the show. Warner Bros. Television has not officially commented, nor has anyone from the show.

story continues below

However, executive producers did comment to BuzzFeed, issuing a joint statement saying they were "truly heartbroken and sorry" to hear the allegations, which included things like a Black employee being told by one of the main writers, "Im sorry, I only know the names of the white people who work here" to awkward laughter. The same employee says she and another employee were told by a senior producer, "Oh wow, you both have box braids; I hope we dont get you confused." That was just one of multiple accounts in the piece; another former employee says they were issued a warning after creating a GoFundMe to cover medical expenses not covered by their work health insurance; they were later fired for posting an office selfie on Instagram, despite the fact that co-workers had done the same in the past with no consequences. (Read more Ellen DeGeneres stories.)
There are people who know who killed my son, and they will not come forward because they dont feel protected, she said. We need these witnesses to be protected. Someone knows who killed my baby, she said as a tear ran down her cheek underneath her sunglasses.
A 16-year-old boy saved his younger sisters by throwing them from a second-floor window during a house fire Monday morning in Allentown, but his 14-year-old brother, who went to awaken an uncle in the basement, died along with the adult, according to NBC10 out of Philadelphia.

A relative told the television station that both boys are heroes.

City fire chief James Wehr on Tuesday morning said the fire in the 700 block of North Fair St. remains under investigation but doesnt appear suspicious at the moment.

A neighbor told the television station that the older teen did something amazing in saving his sisters.

Wehr said he believed passersby caught the children. The teen hurt his legs when he jumped to safety, a neighbor told lehighvalleylive.com, and he was burned as well.

Wehr confirmed a teenager helped his younger sisters get out of the burning home before he leaped.

In the interview with NBC10, a neighbor said, the teen couldnt go down the stairs with all the fire so the first thing he thought of was to push out the AC and throw his little sister out. Save her at least.

Relative Jeovanni Ortiz called both boys heroes, the television station said.

He is a hero and his little brother, the one that died, Im calling him a hero too because he got woken up by his older brother and went downstairs to go wake his uncle, Ortiz told NBC 10. His uncle was sleeping in the basement.

The mother of the children told the TV station that the girls were OK.

Autopsies were planned for Tuesday morning on the man and the 14-year-old who were found dead in the home, Lehigh County Coroner Eric Minnich said. The office will seek to determine the cause and manner of the deaths and release their identifications once all family is notified.

The home is owned by Heriberto Santiago, Lehigh County property records say.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com.

More: Firefighters hurt after people in burning apartment wait to call 911, try to put out blaze themselves
Astronomers from the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) Collaboration have released a database of spectra and associated fundamental stellar parameters for 451,783 unique Milky Way stars.

RAVE is a magnitude-limited spectroscopic survey of Milky Way stars randomly selected in Earths southern hemisphere.

The observations were performed at the 1.23-m UK Schmidt telescope (UKST) at the Anglo-Australian Observatory using a multi-object spectrograph.

RAVE used a dedicated fiber-optical setup to simultaneously take spectra of up to 150 stars in a single observation.

By means of spectroscopy, the light of a star is decomposed into its rainbow colors, said Dr. Matthias Steinmetz, leader of the RAVE Collaboration and an astronomer at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, and his colleagues.

By analyzing the spectra, the radial velocity of a star  its movement in the direction of the observers view, can be determined.

Furthermore, stellar spectra also enable us to determine stellar parameters like temperatures, surface gravities, and composition.

In order to trace the structure and shape of our Milky Way Galaxy, the astronomers successfully obtained 518,387 spectra for 451,783 stars.

The stars were also matched with stars from the second data release of ESAs Gaia mission.

The RAVE data releases provided new insights into the motion of stars and chemical structure of our Milky Way, Dr. Steinmetz said.

The final data release concludes one of the first systematic spectroscopic Galactic Archaeology surveys.

Its really exciting to think about finishing this 15-year project.

Thanks to RAVE, we gained new insights into the structure and composition of our Milky Way.

Alongside its database, the RAVE team also published two scientific papers in the Astronomical Journal.

_____

Matthias Steinmetz et al. 2020. The Sixth Data Release of the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE). I. Survey Description, Spectra, and Radial Velocities. AJ 160, 82; doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab9ab9

Matthias Steinmetz et al. 2020. The Sixth Data Release of the Radial Velocity Experiment (Rave). II. Stellar Atmospheric Parameters, Chemical Abundances, and Distances. AJ 160, 83; doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab9ab8
Russia and China should continue to strengthen their relations in defiance of Western attempts to sow discord between them, Russian communist leader Gennady Zyuganov said Monday.

Zyuganov, chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Russia, made the remarks in a statement after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for the creation of a "new alliance" to counter China last week.

After his speech, when asked if Russia could be coaxed "into the battle to be relentlessly candid about the Chinese Communist Party," Pompeo said that he indeed saw such an opportunity.

"This proposal is extremely dangerous and destructive ... The goal is to drive a wedge into the strategic partnership and friendly ties between Russia and China," Zyuganov said.

The Communist Party of Russia welcomes the fact that Russia and China have cemented their friendship and deepened close cooperation, he noted.

"The Communist Party of Russia has always helped to strengthen relations between the two countries. Our inter-party ties with the Communist Party of China are aimed at bringing the two peoples closer together, enhancing security and harmonizing international relations," he said.

According to Zyuganov, the friendship and partnership between Russia and China provides an opportunity for both to jointly develop the economy and technology, strengthen peace and security, and protect sovereignty.

"We are convinced of the prospects for deepening strategic cooperation with Beijing," he said.
The Delhi government is likely to delink hotels that were recently attached with dedicated Covid-19 hospitals as there has been a decline in the number of active cases of the novel coronavirus in the last few days in the city, sources said on Tuesday.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is likely to chair a strategic meeting on Wednesday wherein a decision to delink the hotels may be taken, said a government source.

With no patients in hotels and reducing number of patients in Delhi hospitals, important strategic decisions may be taken, he said.

According to the Delhi health bulletin, 12,633 COVID beds in hospitals and more than 4,000 beds in dedicated COVID care centres were lying vacant due to declining number of positive cases of coronavirus.

The number of active cases of Covid-19 was 10,887 on Tuesday including 6,219 patients recuperating under home isolation, the bulletin said.

The Delhi government had in early June empowered the district magistrates in 11 districts to use hotels as an extension of hospitals treating Covid-19 patients as the cases surged.

A total of 40 hotels were designated as extensions of various hospitals across the city.

Patients with moderate symptoms staying at such hotels received basic healthcare and were to be shifted to the attached hospitals in case their condition worsened.

Three hotels in south west Delhi were earlier this month delinked from their respective hospitals due to low occupancy. But the decision was reversed by the district authorities within a day.
A friend of teen mom Paige Johnson has been indicted over her death, 10 years on from her disappearance.

Jacob Bumpass, the last person to see 17-year-old Johnson alive after driving her home from a party in September 2010, was on Tuesday indicted on charges of abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.

Johnson's remains were not found until March 25 this year near Williamsburg Township in Clermont County, Ohio, approximately 45 minutes away from her parent's home in Florence, Kentucky.

When police questioned Bumpass, who was 22 at the time and described as one of Johnson's acquaintances, he told them he dropped her off at the intersection of 15th Street and Scott Boulevard in Covington, Kentucky.

But investigators said phone records placed Bumpass near Johnson's home, in a different area, at that time.

His phone later pinged a tower near East Fork State Park in Clermont County, leading investigators to search there for Johnson.

Paige Johnson, left, was last seen at a party with friends on September 23, 2010. Friend, Jacob Bumpass, right, said he dropped her off at an intersection and she was never heard from again. He was on Tuesday indicted on charges of abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence

Bumpass had not been named as a suspect until Tuesday but had been questioned about Johnson's disappearance. He has been in and out jail on unrelated incidents, WLWT reports.

Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders said he hopes homicide charges will follow but a cause of death had not been determined.

He added: 'We don't know if she was shot or stabbed or died of a drug overdose. So we're going to go with the charges we know Clermont County prosecutors can convict on.'

Bumpass is being held at the Clermont County Jail without bond.

Donna Johnson, Paige's mom thanked police and said: 'I filled up with such joy when I heard he was arrested. This day is the day I have been waiting for.'

Paige's sister Brittany Haywood told cincinnati.com: 'I have known from the beginning who the guilty party was in my sister's disappearance.

'Right now I am in a complete state of euphoria knowing that Jacob Bumpass has been arrested and will finally have to answer for his actions after remaining silent for nearly 10 years.'

Kentuckys Covington police said Johnsons body was found near Williamsburg Township, Ohio, about 30 miles east of where she was last seen

Bumpass had not been named as a suspect until Tuesday but had been questioned about Johnson's disappearance. He has been in and out jail on unrelated incidents, WLWT reports

Ohios Clermont County Sheriffs office said they were contacted in March by a person who said they found human remains in a wooded area near Williamsburg Township, pictured

Ohio's Clermont County Sheriff's office had said in March they were contacted by a person who said they found human remains in a wooded area near Williamsburg Township.

Investigators from the sheriff's office, Covington police and the county coroner's office then searched the area for two days and recovered the body. The remains were identified using dental records, officials said.

'There remain many questions and much work,' Nader had said in March. 'We all wanted to find Paige alive. Today, I'm sad to say that hope evaporated entirely.'

Johnson was the mother of a then two-year-old daughter when she disappeared. The girl, who lives with her father's family, is now approaching her teens.

Johnson was the mother of a then two-year-old daughter when she disappeared

Continuous efforts were made over the past 10 years to find Johnson, including vigils and Facebook pages, filled with people seeking clues.

None of it led to Johnson.

Rob Sanders, commonwealth attorney for Kentucky's Kenton County, said the investigation was frustrating from the beginning. He said potential witnesses had lied, refused to cooperate, told half-stories or gave false leads.
T he Emmy nominations have been announced, celebrating the very best television from the last year.

In a year that has been full of surprises (with the award ceremony delayed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic), and with Game of Thrones no longer dominating the annual awards show, several programmes unexpectedly found themselves with a number of nods.

And even more surprisingly, some A-List stars and stellar shows found themselves snubbed from categories they may have thought they were a shoo-in for.

Heres just a selection of snubs and surprises from the nominations list

Snub: Rose Byrne (Mrs America)

Rose Byrne did not make the final cut / BBC/FX/Sabrina Lantos

While Mrs America lead Cate Blanchett picked up a nod for Phyllis Schlafly in Mrs. America, Byrne has received rave reviews for her performance as activist Gloria Steinem. Having gone to extreme lengths to channel the sardonic feminist from the Midwest, the Australian Byrne lights up the screen in the same way as counterpart Blanchett  but has seemingly been overshadowed by Blanchetts star power.

Surprise: Phoebe Waller-Bridge  (Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series)

Phoebe Waller-Bridge has scored another Emmys nod / Getty Images

Yes, Fleabag may be well and truly over (even Fleabag herself has told us to let it go), but Phoebe Waller-Bridge is still a mainstay at awards shows. This time, the writer has received a nod for her episode of Saturday Night Live last year, which she hosted, funnily enough, after sweeping the board at the Emmys.

TODO: define component type apester

While everything Phoebe Waller-Bridge seemingly touches turns to awards gold, her SNT opening monologue, as well as her Love Island pastiche, were not as half as clever or as nuanced as her razor-sharp and flawless scripts in Killing Eve and Fleabag  so to see her nominated in this category despite an underwhelming performance has led to a few furrowed brows.

Snub: Daisy Edgar-Jones for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited series, and Normal People for Outstanding Limited Series

Daisy Edgar-Jones was not nominated, unlike her co-star / BBC/Element Pictures/Hulu

Paul Mescal thoroughly deserves his nomination after winning a legion of fans as chain-wearing champion Connell Waldron  but it seems wrong-footed for his co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones to not be recognised in the same way. Edgar-Jones was simply captivating as Marianne Sheridan, and is as equally as compelling to watch as Mescal was. It was both their efforts that made Normal People a worldwide phenomenon, so it is seems like a mistake for them not to be honoured equally.

Elsewhere, Normal People as a limited series in its own right failed to make the cut, despite receiving nods for its writing, directing and casting  which also seems like an oversight.

Surprise  The Masked Singer

The Masked Singer is huge amounts of fun / Fox

While it has become a huge phenomenon over in the UK (and rightly so, its first series was a breath of fresh air for Saturday night television), its American counterpart has been hugely popular ever since it launched in 2019. Since then, the show has had four series, and has upped its game with an even more bizarre selection of costumes and creatures: its only right that both the producers and the costume designers, even if it isnt the usual Emmys fare.

Surprise - Jeremy Pope (Hollywood)

Netflix: Ryan Murphy's Hollywood - In pictures 1 /18 Netflix: Ryan Murphy's Hollywood - In pictures Netflix Netflix Netflix Netflix Netflix Netflix Netflix Netflix Netflix Netflix Netflix Netflix Netflix Netflix

Although Ryan Murphys take on 1940s America was hotly-anticipated by fans, the Netflix drama series opened to very mixed reviews and was not the instant hit many thought it would be.

Murphy faces stiff competition for the trophy / Getty Images

Thats not to say Jeremy Popes performance as Archie Coleman, a Black, gay screenwriter trying to break into a tough, homogenous industry is not outstanding, though the 27-year-old faces tough competition from Hollywood heavyweights Hugh Jackman and Jeremy Irons for the gong

It seems Pope was as surprised as we were when he received the nomination, tweeting a random assortment of letters at the news.

Double snub  Reese Witherspoon (Little Fires Everywhere/The Morning Show)

From left: Reese Witherspoon in Little Fires Everywhere, The Morning Show and Big Little Lies. / Hulu/Apple/HBO

Her co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell and Kerry Washington have received nominations for their performances, but Reese Witherspoon has been overlooked in both series, surprisingly.

She found herself also without a nod for Big Little Lies ; instead Meryl Streep and Laura Dern received recognition.

However, Oscar-winning Witherspoon is unlikely to be too ruffled by the news, having also worked as a producer on several of the projects.

Surprise - The Mandalorian (Best Drama)

Baby Yoda will hit the Emmys / via REUTERS

The flagship Disney+ show received an impressive 15 noms following todays announcement, but it came as a surprise to many after receiving the nod for Best Drama.

While the space Western became widely discussed when it was first released on the brand new streaming platform, a lot of its well-executed drama and compelling storyline was overshadowed by the adorable (if not never-ending) Baby Yoda memes.

Surprise: Dev Patel  (Outstanding Guest Actor in a comedy series)

Dev Patel has been nominated for his TV work / TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images

Were more used to seeing Patel recognised in his major Oscar-winning roles (Lion and Slumdog Millionaire, to name a few) so it was refreshing (if not surprising) for the star to receive a nod for his small role in Modern Love.

Patel struck a fine balance between audacious and vulnerable in the second episode of the Amazon Prime series as a tech giant who has created a new dating app.

Its no means his biggest role by far, but that doesnt mean the former Skins actor is no less brilliant in it.
Four retirees slumped and were hospitalised on Tuesday in Imo during a protest to demand for five months arrears of their pension allegedly owned them by the state government.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the incident happened at the protest scene around the Government House roundabout in Owerri.

One of the retirees, who slumped but was revived, Margret Onuoha, said she retired from the state civil service on Grade Level 14.

She claimed that her late husband, Eugene Onuoha, also a retiree, died in the struggle in 2016 and was never paid till date.

Mrs Onuoha said her heath condition had worsened in the last five months that she has not received her pension.

NAN reports that the protest, led by the state Chairman of Imo Pensioners Intervention Committee, Iyke Ohaneje, caused heavy traffic as the protesters blocked the popular Okigwe Road roundabout.

The retirees displayed placards with inscriptions; We are not ghost retirees, Uzodimma is playing politics with our lives, Pay us our money now or face the wrath of God.

Mr Ohaneje said the protest was about the third the pensioners had embarked upon and accused the state government of ignoring the plight of the retirees.

Government is owing us a total of 45 months pension arrears, but we are asking it to pay us five months arrears accumulated since March 2020, he said.

The chairman said they embarked on the protest because the state government had alleged that they were ghost pensioners.

Government has accused us of being ghost pensioners, but we have woken up from the grave to tell the government that we are not ghost retirees, he said.

Addressing the retirees, the state Commissioner of Police, Issac Akinmoyede, appealed to the protesters to maintain peace and channel their grievances to the appropriate quarter.

He also assured that he would communicate their message to the governor for action.

(NAN)
The crisis in Victorias meat industry has worsened with another day of sharply rising new coronavirus cases, as the meat union warned a shutdown of the industry could cause shortages and prompt panic buying.

Infections connected to meatworks have become the second-biggest public health problem in the state after aged care centres, with a combined 32 new cases on Tuesday linked to the four largest outbreaks.

The JBS site has been linked to a major COVID-19 cluster. Credit:Joe Armao

However, the Cattle Council of Australia sought to reassure consumers there would be no shortages of beef at butcheries and supermarkets despite the second surge of infections in Victoria. The councils president, Tony Hegarty, said the industry had introduced "solid practices" to continue supplying domestic and international markets.

"When plants have shut down, our industry partners in the processing sector have enacted strict protocols to effectively isolate the problem, stopping further spread of the virus," he said.
Howard Debenham, former Australia's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka has described the ex-President of the island nation Ranasinghe Premadasa as a 'delusional tyrant' in his memoir entitled 'Waiting round the Bend', according to reports. Debenham, who served in the country since 1992 in his book reportedly blamed Premadasa for supporting numerous massacres carried out by the Sri Lankan army against the Tamil people. As per reports, Debenham in his book wrote that his personal relationship with Premadasa became very good which in turn helped the bilateral relationship between Australia and Sri Lanka to prosper.

Read: Lankan Govt Orders Police Probe Into Ex-LTTE Deputy Leader's Claim Of Killing 2,000 To 3,000 Troops

According to reports, Debenham wrote that his relationship with Premadasa grew to a point that whenever he wanted to see what was going on at the ground with the civil war, the president would facilitate an unescorted trip for him to go see it first hand. In his memoir, Debenham wrote that he had personally visited many villages after massacres carried out by the military against civilians. Debenham also mentioned one instance when he featured on the hit list of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) after the then Australian foreign minister upon his instigation denounced the group in the House of Representative, the lower house of the Australian parliament.

Read: Sri Lanka To Keep 11th Anniversary Of Victory Over LTTE Low Key Amidst COVID-19

Premadasa's assassination

As per reports, Debenham also wrote about how the judiciary in Sri Lanka was subverted during the reign of Premadasa and how opposition voices were silenced at his behest. Debenham in his book further accuses Premadasa of using his success and power to enrich himself and his cronies. Premadasa was assassinated in 1993 in Colombo after a suicide bomber detonated a bomb as the then-president received him at a rally. The explosion carried out by an LTTE operative also killed 17 others.

Read: Sri Lanka Signs $400 MN Currency Swap With India To Meet Financial Needs Amid COVID

Read: Sri Lankan Port Workers End Protest Over Alleged 'Indian Pressure' After Talks With PM Rajapaksa
Dont worry about Maggie: our conservatives prefer punishment to "reform". If your citizen-strength bulldust detector isnt pinging like blazes, you need a new one. And if Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have a fraction of the courage of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, Ill eat the hat Im not yet bald enough to need.

Speaking from experience, Frydenberg is like the fat man whose eyes are bigger than his belly and orders more than he can eat. He wanted to give his hardline Liberal backbenchers a thrill by invoking the holy names, but he and his boss dont have the appetite for tough reforms.

Who is Josh Frydenberg kidding? Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Credit:AP

The truth is that only conservatives of a certain age (and failing memories) hanker after the glory days of Thatcher and Reagan. No one else wants to return to the halcyon era of privatisation and deregulation because by now most people realise how lacking in halcyonicity those things are.

In any case, all the obvious reforms have already been made. When youve privatised Telstra, Qantas, the Commonwealth Bank, the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories and much else, whats left? Selling off Australia Post?
DUBLIN, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Indonesia Telecoms Industry Report 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report provides analyses of revenue and market forecasts as well as statistics of the Indonesian telecoms industry including market sizing, 5-year forecasts, market insights and key telecom trends. It also features the following:

Overall Telecommunications Market by Major Operators

Telco Operators Profile, Revenue and EBITDA Mix

Mobile Subscribers & Revenue Market Overview and Forecasts

Spectrum Holdings

IoT Market Overview

Broadband Subscribers & Revenue Market Overview and Forecasts

National Broadband Network Detailed Market Overview and Forecasts

Thematics / Opportunities relating to 5G, M&A and e-Commerce

Telco Infrastructure Review

Telco Transaction Database

Report at a Glance



Globally, the telecommunications sector is proving to be a core and essential infrastructure service to national economies, with data infrastructure becoming critical in a connected world and will likely increasingly attract a new class of investors such as large infrastructure funds. The publisher expects the Indonesian telecommunications industry to remain steady thanks to the defensiveness nature of the industry, amid the political uncertainties and an uncertain economic outlook due to the COVID-19 pandemic.



The Indonesian telecommunications market is a thriving mobile market with five large network operators, an incumbent fixed-line provider with near-monopoly and the overall market underpinned by strong economic fundamentals.



Indonesia is among the fastest developing telecommunications market in the world, driven by growth in both mobile and fixed broadband subscriptions. The pubisher forecasts that mobile subscriptions will continue to grow strongly in the 2020-25 period after a slow down in 2018. Fixed broadband subscribers will also continue to grow and increase its household penetration. The ratio of the telecommunications sector revenue to GDP is declining from a peak in 2010, sliding down every year since then.



Expanded coverage, greater affordability, service improvements, increased data usage and smartphone penetration are the main drivers of growth in the telecoms sector. The country continues to expand its fibre-optic network and 4G coverage, backed by strong investment in capital expenditure. Investment in the telecoms sector grew at a fast pace and momentum maintained expected in the 2020-25 period.



The publisher expects the overall telecoms market to grow strongly through to 2025 after a decline in 2018 due to the SIM registration regulation with overall market growth resuming from 2020 onwards.



Capex Investments



The Capex to GDP ratio remained relatively stable between 2014 and 2019. The capital expenditure (Capex) from telecommunications operators is growing strongly as mobile operators build out their 4G coverage and increase capacity to fulfil strong data demand and increased smartphones take-up. The publisher expects Capex spend to grow between 2020 and 2025.



Mobile Subscribers and Revenue



The mobile subscriber penetration rate fell in 2018, after the government implemented new requirements for SIM registration in May 2018. The publisher forecasts the growth to resume and accelerate again during the 2020-25 forecast period.



Mobile network operators are facing competitive pressure with the market shifting to unlimited voice and text and data allowance increasingly becoming the sole offering differentiator.



The publisher benchmarked mobile data pricing across 8 countries in the Asia Pacific region and found that Indonesia is lagging behind in terms of data download but we expect the country to catch up as 4G coverage is accelerating and smartphone penetration is increasing especially in regional areas.



According to our benchmark study of mobile data pricing, India has the lowest rate per GB at just a few cents per GB, while Indonesian pricing is already fairly low when benchmarked against neighbouring countries.



Broadband Subscribers - FTTH Push



The publisher estimates the broadband subscribers growth will be sustained by household growth and a reduction of the number of underserved premises previously not able to connect now served by the Internet but now served by FTTH services.



The Indonesian fixed broadband market is growing at double rate year on year and will continue over the 2020-2025 period with a growing appetite for high-speed data among the expanding middle-income class in Indonesia driving fixed broadband take-up and household penetration



Thematics - Telecoms Infrastructure / 5G / M&A / e-Commerce



The long-envisioned Palapa Ring national broadband network is now completed and operational since the end of 2019. The US$1.3bn project incorporates eight different networks.



Mobile operators are accelerating their 4G LTE coverage with a strong momentum of 225 4G BTS (Base Transceiver Station) per day in 2019 quarter. Indonesia's tower market is fairly mature with nearly 100,000 mobile towers used around the country growing by about 3,000-5,000 new towers, rooftops or infill sites per year across all operators. Mobile operators are also fiberising towers, small cells and rooftops at a rapid rate to accommodate data growth usage.



The arrival of 4G moved the Internet off our desktops into our palms and pockets, 5G could transform the network from something we carry around to something taking us around either virtually (augmented reality or virtual reality) or in reality (autonomous vehicles), the 5G outcome and benefits beyond fast connectivity remain largely unknown in terms of business models, investments required and timeline.



Investment funds are assigning high valuation multiples to telecommunications infrastructure assets such as mobile towers, data centres, submarine cable and fibre infrastructure. This report outlines some real market examples of how investors view and value these investments with real industry examples and EV/EBITDA comparatives and benchmarks.



Most telecommunications operators are in heavy investments phase both in fixed and mobile segments, spending heavily upgrading their 4G network infrastructure. The publisher expects a wave of consolidation in Indonesia not before 2022-2023, as margins get squeezed further and a new Capex cycle kicking with 5G.



The increase in smartphone penetration made possible by the availability of low-cost devices has triggered growth in e-commerce, tapping into the potential of Indonesia's emerging middle class with relatively high disposable income. GoJek, Tokopedia, Grab and Bukalapak are leading the pack with e-commerce, ride-sharing and mobile payments.

Key Topics Covered



1 Key Statistics

1.1 Indonesia's Population

1.2 Indonesia's Households

1.3 Indonesia's GDP



2 COVID-19 Impact



3 Overall Telecommunications Market, 2014-2025

3.1 Market Overview

3.2 Historical Telecommunications Market Revenue, 2014-2019

3.3 Overall Telecommunications Market Forecast, 2018-2025

3.4 Telecommunications Market Capital Expenditure, 2014-2025

3.4.1 Historical Telecommunications Capex Spend, 2014-2019

3.4.2 Capex to Revenue Benchmark

3.4.3 Capex to Revenue Country Benchmark

3.4.4 Capex to GDP Benchmark

3.4.5 Telecommunications Capex Spend Forecast, 2018-2025



4 Telecommunications Operators Profile

4.1 Telkom Indonesia Profile

4.1.1 Telkom Revenue and EBITDA Mix

4.1.2 Telkomsel

4.2 Indosat Ooredoo Profile

4.2.1 Indosat Revenue and EBITDA Mix

4.3 XL Axiata

4.3.1 XL Axiata Revenue and EBITDA Mix

4.4 Tri Indonesia

4.4.1 Tri Indonesia Revenue and EBITDA Mix

4.5 Smartfren Profile

4.5.1 Smartfren Revenue and EBITDA Mix

4.6 Other Players Profile

4.6.1 Link Net

4.6.2 MNC Vision

4.6.3 BizNet



5 Mobile market

5.1 Mobile Subscribers Historical and Forecast, 2014-2025

5.1.1 Mobile Subscribers Historical, 2014-2019

5.1.2 Mobile Subscribers Market Share, 2014-2019

5.1.3 Indonesia Smartphone Share, 2020

5.1.4 Mobile Subscribers Forecast, 2018-2025

5.2 Mobile Revenue Historical and Forecast, 2014-2025

5.2.1 Historical Mobile Revenue, 2014-2019

5.2.1 Mobile Revenue Market Share, 2014-2019

5.2.2 Mobile Revenue Forecast, 2018-2025

5.2.3 Mobile Subscribers ARPU, 2014-2019

5.3 Spectrum Holdings

5.3.1 Existing Spectrum Holdings and 5G Trials

5.3.2 Mobile Frequencies Portfolios Analysis

5.3.1 Spectrum Depth Benchmark by Country

5.4 Mobile Download Data and Pricing Trends

5.5 Mobile Speed Tests

5.5.1 Ookla Mobile Speed Tests

5.5.2 OpenSignal

5.6 Internet of Things (IoT)



6 Broadband Market

6.1 Fixed Broadband Subscribers Historical, 2014-2019

6.2 Fixed Broadband Subscribers Forecast, 2018-2025



7 Telecommunications Infrastructure Investments

7.1 Fixed Infrastructure

7.1.1 Palapa Ring Completed

7.1.2 FTTH - 30m premises to go

7.1.1 Submarine Cables

7.2 Mobile Tower Infrastructure Landscape

7.2.1 4G Mobile Coverage Expansion

7.2.2 Mobile Tower Market Share, 2019

7.2.3 Tower Density Benchmark

7.3 Telco Infrastructure Comparative



8 Thematics / Opportunities

8.1 Increasing Scale - Consolidation

8.2 Growing Scope - Cross-Industry

8.3 New Telco Operating Model

8.3.1 The Attraction of Infrastructure Multiples

8.4 5G Developments

8.4.1 5G Overview

8.4.2 5G - Relative Capex Investments and Frequency Range

8.4.3 5G OpenRAN

8.4.4 Beyond 5G



9 Telco Transaction Database



List of Companies Mentioned (A-Z)



BizNet

GoJek

Indosat

Kabel MNC Play

Link Net

Mitratel

MyRepublic

Protelindo

Smartfren

Telkom

Telkomsel

Tokopedia

Tower Bersama

Tri Indonesia

XL Axiata

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/38be0o

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

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For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


If winter cant stop those on the East Coast from ordering iced coffee, a pandemic isnt going to stop them either.

Food delivery company DoorDash did its mid-year Deep Dish, which checks in on popular food trends, nationally and regionally, how users ate through social distancing, cravings across the US and Canada, the largest amount of money spent on a single order, and more, according to a blog post.

Expectedly, the first item listed for the East Coast is iced coffee.

But those on the Eastern Seaboard also spent the coronavirus pandemic ordering donuts and belgian waffles for breakfast.

For lunch, people on the East Coast ordered crispy chicken sandwiches, chips, and iced tea. And chicken quesadillas, caesar salads, and fried rice were often ordered for dinner. Finally, for a little late night snack, customers ordered chicken fingers, apple pie, and sugar cookies.

This was a pretty big difference from other parts of the county.

The West Coast has been ordering a lot french toast and create your own pizzas. The Midwest is enjoying mac & cheese, chimichangas, and chocolate milkshakes. And the South likes sausage biscuits, buffalo wings, and sweet iced tea.

Overall, the most ordered item across the county was chicken sandwich and french fries.

Iced coffee came in fifth place.

Related Content:
Approved by the State President, the honour is bestowed upon foreign individuals and collectives that have made substantial contributions to building, consolidating, and developing the friendship between Vietnam and other countries around the world.

At the event, Vietnamese Ambassador to Brazil Nguyen Thi Kim Hoa spoke highly of Gamiliels contributions to Vietnam from January 2012 to April 2018.

During his six-year term, he helped bolster exchanges between delegations at all levels, including visits by Mozambican Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario to Vietnam in 2017 and President Truong Tan Sang to the African country a year earlier.

He also, at the time, called on Mozambique to support Vietnam in the election to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC), member of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the UN Human Rights Council, and the Executive Board of UNESCO.

The diplomat also contributed to the organisation of joint committees meetings and political consultations, and the signing of various bilateral agreements, among others.

Hoa voiced her belief that Gamiliel Sepulveda Joao Munguambe will further work to strengthen the Vietnam-Mozambique friendship.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI:The National Investigation Agency on Tuesday arrested Delhi University professor Hany Babu in connection with the Bhima Koregaon riots for allegedly propagating Naxal activities and Maoist ideology.

54-year-old Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil, a resident of Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, is an Associate Professor with the Department of English, a spokesperson of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said.

During investigation it was revealed that Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil was propagating Naxal activities and Maoist ideology, an NIA statement said.

The case relates to inciting people and giving provocative speeches during an Elgar Parishad event organised by the Kabir Kala Manch at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which promoted enmity between various caste groups and led to violence resulting in loss of life and property and statewide agitation in Maharashtra, the official said.

NIA sources said Babu has close association with arrested activists Rona Wilson and Gautam Navlakha. The NIA has accused Hany Babu of conspiring with other arrested accused in the case to carry out subversive activities. He will be produced in a special NIA court in Mumbai on Wednesday where the NIA will seek further custody for questioning, the agency said, in a statement.

ALSO READ | Submit report on jailed poet-activist Varavara Rao's health, HC tells Nanavati Hospital

Babu is a resident of Noida and was recently summoned by NIA Mumbai branch for questioning. Officials said after questioning him for the last few days a decision was taken to arrest him.

During the course of questioning his association with accused Gautam Navlakha and others was established. The need for custodial interrogation was felt, an official said.

The NIA had taken over investigation in this case from Pune police in 2020. The investigating agency named 11 of the 23 accused in the FIR, including activists Sudhir Dhawale, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha. Except Teltumbde and Navlakha, the others were arrested by Pune Police in June and August 2018 in connection with the violence. They were accused of having links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), and are still in prison.

Babus home was searched by the Maharashtra police in September 2019 as part of the investigation into the violence that broke out in Bhima Koregaon village near Pune on January 1, 2018, a day after an anti-caste event called the Elgar Parishad was held. On Tuesday, NIA sources said that Babu's residence and other places associated with him have not been searched yet by NIA but searches can be carried out to look for incriminating evidence that might help the NIA in its investigations.
A.R. Rahman once said in an interview that hes quite convinced theres a gang in Bollywood that has been working against him.

So Shekhar Kapur wrote on Twitter, You know what your problem is @arrahman? You went and got #Oscars. An Oscar is the kiss of death in Bollywood. It proves you have more talent than Bollywood can handle

Rahman responded, Lost money comes back, fame comes back, but the wasted prime time of our lives will never come back. Peace! Lets move on. We have greater things to do.

Fellow Oscar winner Resul Pookutty aired similar thoughs as Rahman a few days ago.

If the gang can keep a Rahman out of Bollywood, then god save the lesser mortals. Award-winning editor and writer Apurva Asrani agrees. He says that if the Whos Who of the Indian film industry can be subjected to such things, then he shudders to think what would happen to others.

Asrani also alleges that the the gangs of Bollywood join forces with corrupt journalists to turn lies into popular beliefs.

If this can happen to a Rahman or a Resul, then imagine what the smaller names go through. The problem is, these camps/groups are not straightforward about their games. They plan their Cancel Culture and ghosting in DMs and on WhatsApp. Then they start writing bad things about a person, they pan their films or ignore their achievements. Then people who follow them, or want favours from them join the gang. This includes many journalists who write negative/mocking stories about the person. Within a few weeks, lies become the truth for the public, says Asrani.

ARR is unaffordable

On the other hand, former Stardust editor-turned-filmmaker Ramkamal Mukherjee, who has made award-winning films like Cakewalk and Seasons Greetings, says that the claim that Oscar winners are being kept out are far from reality.

The fact is its tough for filmmakers to afford Rahman. As a filmmaker, I would love to collaborate with Rahman, but will he work within the budget that our film can afford? Unfortunately, none of the music companies is paying producers for the songs.

The days are gone when the rights of movie songs would fetch lakhs and crores. But now music companies ask us to give it away as a complimentary deal against a marketing spend, which is not even clearly shared with the producers.

"In such a situation we have to change our way of functioning and continue producing good music. Camps and groups will be there, we can either fight it out or keep ranting. Choices are very personal, says Mukherjee.

But over the years, there have been others who have made similar allegations about the film industry. Simi Garewal did not name the person who kept her out of Bollywood.

Parveen Babi in one of her last interviews in 1998 spoke about how she was ostracised.

Today, the majority of the industry has cut ties with me because of one man Anyway, I dont feel let down. On the contrary, I feel its their loss. The film industry is wonderful in the beginning, when you are in your youth. But then, it doesnt let you grow in any other direction. The reason I didnt attempt to make a comeback in the industry is because this man is still there, she had said.

Former editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta talks about how Karan Johar felt hurt and Farhan Akhtar and family were upset about Zoya not winning an award, how Hrithik Roshan was upset about his dad not winning the Best Director award, how Katrina Kaif cried at not winning awards, and how they didnt want to perform at or attend functions because they were not being awarded.

With Bollywood camps wanting to call the shots and control everything in their space, is it surprising that a Sushant Singh Rajput lost his life in an attempt to be a part of this golden club?
A cleaner of a private school in Logan, south of Brisbane, has returned a positive test for COVID-19 and forced the closure of the Parklands Christian College.

She was one of two 19-year-olds who travelled together and returned from Melbourne via Sydney on July 21, Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles said.

These young women have gone about their business within the community they live in, so there will be a large amount of contact tracing to be done, he said.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young flagged the further closure of shopping centres and restaurants, along with a lockdown of aged-care facilities in the region for at least 48 hours as a rapid cleaning and contact tracing response occurs.
Uttar Pradesh government has requested Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to probe into the illegally accumulated properties of Jai Vajpayee - a close associate of slain gangster Vikas Dubey.

Reportedly, Vajpayee is a known industrialist in Kanpur city. He has allegedly worked for Dubey in property dealing and money-laundering.

Dubey was arrested by the Madhya Pradesh Police in Ujjain on July 9 from premises of Mahakal temple after he was on the run for some days. He was killed in an encounter by the Uttar Pradesh Police on July 10 after he attempted to flee.

The gangster was the main accused in the encounter that took place in Bikru village in Chaubeypur area of Kanpur, in which a group of assailants opened fire on a police team, which had gone to arrest him. Eight police personnel were killed in the encounter.
I encourage the board to be bold and put forth a very inclusive policy and ordinance, we can set an example for the rest of the area, said Moens. We have a long way to go in town but do what you can to be as inclusive as possible. Were held back by the myth that developers are going to run away because of affordable housing, I dont think thats true.
Police say five Pakistani counterterrorism commandos and two suspected militants were killed in a raid on a militant hideout in northwestern Pakistan.

Police spokesman Imtiaz Khan said an hours-long firefight erupted early on July 28 when the commandos from the Counterterrorism Department tried to raid a house in the village of Roni in the Chilas district, 460 kilometers north of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, which borders Afghanistan.

Along with the two militants killed, a cache of weapons and explosives was recovered, Khan said.

It was not immediately clear which militant group was involved in the firefight. The Pakistani Taliban -- the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) -- is active in the area.

A group of villagers temporarily blocked the Karakoram Highway to protest the killing of what they called "innocent civilians" in the raid.



Roshan Khan Diameri, a university student from the area, told RFE/RL that one of the two suspected militants killed by the commandos was a student at Namal University in Islamabad. Diameri said the other man was a local laborer whose name was Basharat.



There was no immediate official reaction to the allegation.

A UN report released last week said that more than 6,000 Pakistani militants were hiding in neighboring Afghanistan, the majority of them from the TTP, which has also aligned with the Islamic State (IS) group based in Afghanistan.

The report said the TTP and the IS affiliate pose a serious threat to both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

TTP in 2018 set fire to 14 schools for girls in the area; police arrested more than 35 militants suspected of involvement in the attack.

Based on reporting by AP and Geo.tv
Workers clear a disused site at Hillview Road/Crumlin Road junction in Belfast behind which was been used as an illegal dump. (Liam McBurney/PA)

The removal of mounds of waste at illegal dumping sites in north Belfast is nearing completion, according to a councillor.

Used mattresses, medical equipment, food waste and gas bottles were among the waste piled up at two sites off the Crumlin Road.

Community representatives said a number of residents had left their homes due to large numbers of rats and flies.

Protests were staged by residents demanding action to clear the waste.

Good to see the last of the illegally dumped waste being removed from the Crumlin Road site, beside the car wash, this morning. pic.twitter.com/b4qMSY9CuR  Brian Kingston (@BrianKingston) July 28, 2020

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) said it was made aware of dumping at Edenderry Industrial Estate on June 11.

Waste was also dumped at a site close to the junction of Hillview Road and Crumlin Road.

On Tuesday workers appeared to be clearing the final quantities of waste from the Hillview site, with the Edenderry Mill site around 80% cleared.

DUP councillor Brian Kingston said he understands Belfast City Council and the Environment Agency are monitoring the removal of the waste.

Expand Close ABD Grab Services clearing a disused site behind a car wash on Belfasts Crumlin Road that was been used as an illegal dump. Woodvale residents complained to local representatives that this site and second in Edenderry Industrial Estate raised health concerns. PA Photo. Picture date: Tuesday July 28, 2020. See PA story ULSTER Waste. Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp ABD Grab Services clearing a disused site behind a car wash on Belfasts Crumlin Road that was been used as an illegal dump. Woodvale residents complained to local representatives that this site and second in Edenderry Industrial Estate raised health concerns. PA Photo. Picture date: Tuesday July 28, 2020. See PA story ULSTER Waste. Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

This was an unlicensed waste facility, it wasnt registered to handle waste. There didnt seem to be any sorting of the waste, it just all seemed to be thrown into this large warehouse unit and built up, he said.

It was totally irresponsible, no consideration for the social consequences and the health consequences for those living locally.

Large-scale dumping like this is bad enough in a rural area, but happening in a densely populated urban area meant the negative consequences were felt by a huge number of people with the flies and the rats, which is why we wanted an urgent response.

Thankfully we are getting towards the end of the removal and we will push to make sure it is completed.

Anecdotally we have had reports that the number of flies has greatly reduced.
By Express News Service

MYSURU: About 41 families that lost their land to Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) have now been served a final notice to vacate their homes as also the very village where they lived for generations. Notice has also been served to the over 100 years old Sr Gurukambaleshwara Veerashaiva Mutt and its devotees.

When the process to acquire land for the biggest industrial area in Thanvapura and Adakalanahlli in Nanjangud taluk started in 2005-06, the villagers opposed it and took up a legal battle.

As petitions did not come up for hearing, the farmers presumed the proposal of land acquisition was dropped. However, now they have been served with an additional notice to vacate their houses.

Many of the families who lost their land to the KIADB are left with nothing to survive on, and are in no mood to vacate. They even threatened to commit suicide if they are forced out of their villages.

After running from pillar to post, the villagers have now decided to knock the doors of Opposition Leader Siddaramaiah, who earlier represented Varuna constituency, and the sitting MLA Yathindra.

Meanwhile, Raitha Sangha activists staged a protest and put out posters around the village that they were not for sale and would not give in to forcible eviction. They also threatened to lock up officers who came to the village to evict them.

(If you are having suicidal thoughts, or are worried about a friend or need emotional support, someone is always there to listen. Call Sneha Foundation - 04424640050 (available 24x7) or iCall, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences' helpline - 02225521111, which is available Monday to Saturday from 8 am to 10 pm.)
JAIPUR: The much-awaited Rajasthan RBSE Class 10 results 2020 was declared by the Rajasthan Board Secondary Education (RBSE) at 4 PM on Tuesday (July 28, 2020). After the official declaration of the result, the same is now available on RBSE's official websites: - rajresults.nic.in and rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in.

Out of the total 11 lakh students who had taken the exam, 80.63 % have passed. Girls have again outscored boys. As compared to last year, this year the pass percentage of girls is 81.41 % and that of boys is 79.99 5 %. This year the Rajasthan Board will not release the merit list.

The results can also be checked on mobile: Follow these simple steps - Open Google Chrome or any browser on your smartphone. Visit the official website http://rajresults.nic.in/. Then, click on SSC (Class 10th) results. Key in your roll number and submit.

The passing mark for RBSE 10th Exam students is 33 per cent in all six subjects namely Science, Social Science, English, Hindi, Mathematics and either of Sanskrit/ Urdu/ Rajasthani/ Music/ others.

Here's how to check Rajasthan Board Class 10th results online:

1. The students should first visit the RBSE's official websites: rajresults.nic.in and rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in.

2. Click on the link showing class 10 results option

3. Now enter your roll number and put the required details

4. You can now see your result is being displayed on the screen

5. Check your scorecard carefully and download the result copy for future reference

Students can also check the RBSE 10th result 2020 via SMS: Type  RESULT (space) RAJ10A (space) ROLL NUMBER  and send it to 56263.

The Rajasthan Class 10 exams were scheduled to be held from March 20 to 24 but the exams were postponed due to coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown. The exams were later held between June 29 and 30.

The RBSE Class 12th Science results 2020 were declared on July 8 and the overall passing percentage was recorded at 91.96. The RBSE Class 12th Commerce result 2020 was announced on July 13.
The offender has managed to escape.

A synagogue in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Mariupol, Donetsk region, has reported an attack by a young man with an axe.

The incident happened on the morning of July 28, the United Jewish Community of Ukraine told UNIAN, citing the leader of the Jewish community of Mariupol.

Read alsoAntisemitism in Ukraine lowest across Europe  Zelensky

The young man carrying an axe came to the synagogue, he was met by guard Rikhard Holomazov.

A fight began, during which the guard was injured; he sustained a head injury and had his arm broken.

The synagogue's security guard managed to seize the axe. The attacker escaped, but prior to this, he had thrown rubbish, cans and bags with feces and sand towards the synagogue's building.

During the incident, there were women and the rabbi in the synagogue. None of them was hurt.

The police, who promptly responded to the call, are now looking for the attacker and investigating the incident.
EDWARDSVILLE  In the wake of Gov. J.B. Pritzkers recent visit to the Metro East, the Madison County Health Department reminds everyone that its latest advice to reduce the spread of coronavirus remains the same but more emphatic  wash your hands, watch your distance from others and wear masks.

The public health side [of the pandemic] doesnt change, said Amy Yeager, director of community health and public information officer.

She also recommends sanitizing common and high-use touchpoints  at home, in the car, at work, at school, at church, etc.

It is what it is  a new virus not identified until December 2019, Yeager said of the coronavirus. Its still here and were still learning what it does and how it acts. That takes patience and time.

Yeager said the community needs to work together to slow the spread of the virus, protect the community and get through this pandemic successfully. Even within the current group limit of 50 people, Yeager said the three Ws should still be followed.

A point Yeager repeatedly emphasized is that her department has 36 people covering a county with a population of approximately 265,000. Yeager said she and the staff have worked from home for weeks now to lessen their chances of contracting the virus and none of them can afford to contract it.

Yeager said the departments stance has evolved with a greater understanding of the virus, which she said can be seen through medical experts changing recommendation on masks guidelines.

In late winter and early spring, the US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams and Dr. Anthony Fauci told the general population not to wear masks; that they should be reserved for health care professionals who needed them. Yeager said as more information became known about coronavirus and its spread, those guidelines changed, first telling people to create masks at home out of common items like bandannas or cloth cutouts to fit faces with a layer of absorbent material fitted within.

More Information DASHBOARD For detailed information on the county's coronavirus data, testing site locations and lots of other virus data, visit the Madison County Health Department's coronavirus dashboard and click the appropriate tab at the bottom of the screen. See More Collapse

While Yeager said masks are not a 100 percent certain method of prevention, they do cut down on the odds of people getting the virus, especially if they are not able to social distance or they find themselves among a large group of strangers.

Yeager also reminded the public that this a global phenomenon. Thats about as big in our field as you can get, she said.

Since she and her department are working from home and not at their facility in Wood River or making rounds throughout the county, Yeager said it was hard to know if county residents took a laxer approach to masks.

What we have heard through phone calls to the office and from social media, anecdotally, is that it sounds like people are not adhering to social distancing guidelines, she said.

As for mobile testing, be it walk-up or drive-thru, Yeager said its going well and there has been more of it lately. A recent Glen Carbon testing site proved quite popular, with wait times at or near 60 minutes, according to a village trustee and a staff member. Yeager said these sites typically record between 100 and 300 visitors.

She said until the science and the frontline medical workers tell them differently, they must work with what they have. She said the best driver they have to keep cases low is individual behavior and its everyones responsibility and all citizens have roles to play during these unusual times.

Yeager noted other diseases have not taken a respite while the worlds been focused on the coronavirus; West Nile is still out there and with it, the three Rs apply  reduce, repel and report. People should reduce or eliminate any sources of standing water on their property  gutters, tire swings, sandboxes, plastic pools, birdbaths  and fill in any low spots in their yards where water gathers during and after rain.

Mosquitos are most active at dusk and she advises people to wear pants and long-sleeved shirts and shoes, not flip-flops, to minimize exposure. Yeager pointed out that West Nile season runs through mid-October. As outside temperatures cool, she recommends homeowners and landlords check window screens and replace any damaged ones.

Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at (618) 659-5735.
With the government finances getting adversely affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic, theremay shift will be a shift towards PPP-based road projects, a top IRB Infrastructure official said.

Addressing the company's 22nd annual meeting virtually, the company's Chairman and Managing Director Virendra Mhaiskar said the firm will focus on BOT (build-operate-transfer)-based projects.

"The (coronavirus) pandemic has impacted government finances for foreseeable future, and, hence, the upcoming awards will likely shift more in favour of public-private partnership (PPP) model such as BOT or toll-operate-transfer (TOT) projects that are funded by private players, and away from the current hybrid annuity and EPC (engineering-procurement-construction) models which put the onus of funding entirely on the government," Mhaiskar said.

He further said BOT will continue to be the company's preferred mode. Mhaiskar added, "Our sense is that the competition in this segment will remain reasonable allowing for meaningful internal rate of return."

While the company will focus on BOT, it will selectively bid for TOT and hybrid annuity model (HAM) projects as well.

On the impact of the coronavirus-induced lockdown on the business, Mhaiskar said the company is back to 70-80 per cent of pre-Covid-19 toll collections and all its construction sites are now operational.

A nationwide lockdown was imposed from March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus. While the construction activities were stalled completely, the government had allowed toll collection from April 20.

The company, which launched the country's first public infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) in 2017, launched its second Rs 4,400-crore private InvIT along with Singapore's Sovereign Wealth Fund GIC in February 2020.

"In the first key development for 2019-20, we closed this transaction in February 2020 and received first tranche of capital infusion amounting to Rs 3,753 crore, which was deployed for part deleveraging and balance as equity towards construction commitments. These InvIT units are now valued at Rs 13,000 crore as per third-party independent valuer where IRB owns 51 per cent stake," Mhaiskar added.

He noted that with this cashflow, the enhanced platform will allow the company to pursue accelerated growth in the months and years to come.

The capital, invested thus far, will continue to provide returns on continued long-term basis as the portfolio matures and grows further. We have accordingly proposed a 50 per cent dividend for 2019-20. We look forward to business getting back to normal soon and promising times ahead with meaningful awards going forward.

The company reported a 15 per cent decline in its profit after tax in 2019-20 to Rs 721 crore due to the lockdown. In 2018-19, it had reported a profit of Rs 850 crore.

The company's consolidated income was marginally up by 2 per cent in 2019-20 to Rs 7,047 crore from Rs 6,903 crore in 2018-19.

Also Read: Govt tweaks FDI rules; NRIs can now acquire up to 100% stake in Air India

Also Read: India's crackdown on Chinese apps irks China, vows to protect firms' interests
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has reached out to car-making royalty in the choice of its new chief executive, Thierry Bollore, who is a refugee from Renault in the aftermath of the Carlos Ghosn scandal.

He arrives at the Tata Motors-owned car maker at a desperate time.

JLR's far bigger and better resourced rivals, BMW and Daimler, are throwing everything at developing electric cars that can compete with soaraway Tesla. The luxury British manufacturer has so far developed just one e-model, the Jaguar I-Pace.

Leap of faith: Thierry Bollore arrives at the Tata Motors-owned car maker at a desperate time

The key to JLR's success in modern times has been its focus on design. It now finds itself hamstrung by a lack of scale compared with competitors. It ran up a loss of 500m in the three months to March before experiencing the very worst of lockdown.

It is reported that JLR is seeking a large credit of more than 1billion from the Government's Project Birch aid scheme.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is being extremely tough with commercial firms seeking favours, particularly those which have rich proprietors.

Sunak's tough line with Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic eventually unlocked personal capital from the entrepreneur and matching funds from its co-shareholder Delta in the US.

Tata Motors is run and financed independently of India's Tata Group, its ultimate controlling investor.

But as Tata is among India's most successful group of companies, one understands why Sunak might be loath to write a taxpayer cheque.

In much the same way as Rolls-Royce is key to British aerospace, so JLR is a vital component of Britain's motor industry and home to that most iconic of British vehicles, the Land Rover. It is unthinkable that it would be allowed to fail.

It is not what has happened to JLR's finances in the peak of the pandemic which is important but what comes next. JLR has begun adjusting, with redundancies of 1,000 staff and 1billion of savings. This on top of a previous package of efficiencies.

Its revival under Tata Motors ownership has been a triumph for overseas investment in the UK. But it has reached a crossroads. The two big issues for car makers are overcapacity and building greener cars.

Bollore has vast experience of both. However, he is making a big jump in moving from mass production to the image-driven luxury sector.

Cleaning up

Reckitt Benckiser is among a small group of British companies equipped to be a long-term winner from Covid-19. Its brands, from Dettol to Cillit Bang, are what every household needs.

So it is no surprise that operating profits powered ahead in the first half of the year. Chief executive Laxman Narasimhan has ramped up a new 'solutions' service for companies ranging from Delta Airlines to Avis seeking to improve hygiene.

In a world of deep cleaning and disinfecting Reckitt is perfectly placed. Compass, Mitie and big outsourcers may regret they didn't get there first. But they don't have the products, research centres or brands.

The 25 per cent uplift in the share price since the start of the year suggests that investors trust Narasimhan. His predecessor Rakesh Kapoor had a torrid time, including having to handle a death toll in South Korea from a poisonous chemical in humidifiers, complaints about misleading marketing of Nurofen and the opioids legacy parked at spin-off Indivior.

Another inheritance is Narasimhan's next problem. The accounting punishment of writing down baby food maker Mead Johnson has been taken. Performance is suboctane, with sales falling 4.8pc in the second quarter. Reckitt is known for skill in polishing up bombed-out brands, but the baby formula has defied the magic touch.

Turning it around will be trickier than flogging Dettol in a pandemic.

Shop talk

Selfridges is a store group owned by wealthy people, offering great choice and service for well-heeled tourists.

But with the travel industry nearly at standstill, trade has ground to a halt. The group is having to adjust which means 450 staff, 14 per cent of the workforce, face redundancy. The Weston family-controlled enterprise plans to reshape and focus online.
Houston is preparing to launch a grant program that will dole out $15 million to hundreds of small businesses struggling to survive the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under a plan to be considered by city council Wednesday, the city would contract with Houston Business Development, Inc., a community lending nonprofit, to administer the funds with a maximum grant of $50,000. That would mean at least 300 businesses could access the program.

The hope is to help businesses that heretofore have not been provided assistance from federal programs like the Paycheck Protection Program, said Marlon Mitchell, the president of Houston Business Development.

The money behind the program would come from the $404 million the city received from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. While the city has used most of those funds to pay for redeployed employees and health services directly associated with the pandemic, it also has tried to target assistance to people struggling financially because of the ongoing outbreak. In May, the city launched a $15 million rent relief program that was exhausted within hours of its launch.

Harris County already has launched two programs aimed at small businesses  one in April with $10 million in forgivable loans and another in July with $30 million in grants. The application window for the latter ended Friday.

If approved, demand for the citys small business grants is expected to be similarly strong.

Mitchell and Marsha Murray, director of the citys Office of Business Opportunity, said the money will not be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Instead, the city will develop a scoring matrix that looks at several factors, including whether businesses have had access to other relief, how many people they employ, whether they can demonstrate a legitimate chance of survival with the funds, have a legacy status and are located in under-served communities.

Laura Murillo, president and CEO of the Houston Hispanic Chamber, said the citys program and strategy would be a much-needed investment. She said many of the Hispanic Chambers members, hit hard by the downturn, did not apply for federal relief because of its complex requirements and competitive nature.

Many of them just shied away, Murillo said. What weve found is that the city and the county are trying to do their best to provide these resources.

Carol Guess, chair of the board of directors for the Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce, echoed the sentiment, saying she knows many Black-owned businesses did not access the federal relief program.

To be eligible, businesses must have less than $2 million in pre-pandemic annual gross revenue; have been operating for more than a year; demonstrate harm from governmental actions or other factors in the pandemic; and be current on all city requirements and taxes.

Unlike PPP, the city program will not include stipulations about how businesses spend the funds, but the grants will will come with a training curriculum intended meant to teach businesses how they can retool or adjust to become more resilient. Houston Business Development will design and offer that training.

Its more management and technical assistance, Mitchell said. You know the saying, Its one thing to give someone a fish, its another to teach them to fish.

If council votes Tuesday to enact the program, Houston Business Development will release details about how to apply for the grants.

Chambers of commerce are eligible for the program, according to the agenda item. Murray and Mitchell said they were included to recognize the resources they offer to other small businesses.

Murillo said the Hispanic Chamber was evaluating the eligibility requirements and had not yet decided whether to apply. Guess said the Black Chamber of Commerce would apply for a grant.

We need the help to continue helping black businesses, Guess said.

The Greater Houston Partnership is not eligible because its net revenue exceeds $2 million.

dylan.mcguinness@chron.com
A former San Francisco firefighter and a marine engineer have sued the city, claiming they were subjected to racial discrimination, harassment and retaliation while working for the Fire Department.

David Hawkins, who resigned in June after more than 20 years with the Fire Department, and Lawrence Thomas, an engineer working on the departments fleet of fireboats, claim they were passed over for assignments in favor of white colleagues with comparable or less experience and blocked from performing their duties. Hawkins and Thomas are Black.

Hawkins started working on a fireboat at Station 35 in 2009, making him only the second Black person to work a permanent assignment on a fireboat in a century, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in San Francisco Superior Court.

The complaint describes a number of tense confrontations between Hawkins and other Fire Department employees over several years, including one in 2011, when Hawkins claims a white lieutenant assigned work that came with extra pay to a non-African American firefighter with less seniority.

When Hawkins complained about being passed over for the job, the lieutenant and three other Fire Department officials allegedly confined Hawkins to a small, dimly lit room where they cursed, yelled and berated Hawkins over an extended period of time. Hawkins was later compensated after complaining about the incident, according to the lawsuit.

Hawkins resigned after he returned to his office last month to find it allegedly vandalized, with all of his possessions tossed in the garbage can. At the time, he was working as a high-rise building inspector in the Financial District.

He was forced to resign as a result of unremitting hostility that created an offensive, hostile and intolerable work environment, the complaint said.

Hawkins also claims he faced retaliation after advocating for Thomas to be hired as a marine engineer for the fireboats. The two met at a party in late 2013, according to the complaint, and Thomas applied for the role in April 2014. He allegedly scored poorly on an oral examination administered by a white boat pilot, according to the complaint. He protested the results, and the hiring of an engineer in his stead that didnt meet other eligibility requirements.

In 2018, Thomas was hired to be a fill-in marine engineer, but claims he was assigned only a tiny number of shifts, a fraction of those worked by his white counterparts. Since Jan. 28, Thomas has allegedly been given eight hours of work per week for training each month, but no actual shifts as an engineer.

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.

Hawkins and Thomas are being represented by former San Francisco supervisor, mayoral candidate and civil rights attorney Angela Alioto. Aliotos son, Joe Alioto Veronese, previously served on the citys Fire Commission, the Fire Departments policymaking body.

Alioto stirred controversy last year after she used a racial epithet multiple times during a meeting of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee where city workers were raising concerns about racial discrimination and pay inequity. Alioto, who later apologized, said she was attempting to underscore the corrosive, traumatic effects the word has in the workplace and urged the city workers to press their cases in court.

Well review the lawsuit once weve been served with it, and well address it in court, said John Cote, a spokesman for the city attorneys office.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
Investcorp, a leading global provider and manager of alternative investment products, said its credit management business has closed an approximate 250 million ($293 million) collateralized loan obligation (CLO).

The closing of the Harvest CLO XXIV DAC (Harvest XXIV) deal, its second in 2020, comes following the successful closing of 489 million Harvest CLO XXIII in March 2020, which remains the largest European CLO issued year to date.

This transaction also represents the firms 17th 2.0 (second generation, post-financial crisis) European CLO and brings total assets under management (AUM) in European CLOs to over 7 billion.

According to Investcorp, the CLO attracted strong interest from 19 external investors and is backed by a diversified portfolio of senior-secured leveraged loans across typically defensive, resilient industries such as Services, Healthcare, Software and Education.

The notes offered in the transaction are subject to a one-year non-call and three-year reinvestment period, it stated.

Jeremy Ghose, Global Head of Investcorp Credit Management, said: We are pleased to have successfully closed Harvest XXIV as we believe the current environment offers attractive opportunities to invest in strong, performing assets at attractive levels.

"Following the final close of our Mount Row (Levered) Credit Fund in May, this brings total new AUM raised in 2020 year to date to US $1.5 billion. We believe this latest milestone is a testament to the strength of our credit platform and our teams ability to capitalize on market opportunities in a post COVID investment landscape."

"We are grateful to our new and existing investors for their continued support and enthusiasm for our credit investment strategy," he noted.

Investcorps Credit Management business manages approximately $13 billion AUM globally and is among the largest leveraged loan credit managers in Europe. Investcorp Credit Management has a more than 15-year history of investing across global credit markets and ranks as a top five European CLO manager.
Only 700 new Covid-19 cases were reported in Mumbai today that too with the highest single-day testing till date, said Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday. He said a total of 8,776 tests were conducted on Tuesday, out of which only 700 tests were found positive in the financial capital, news agency ANI reported. "The good news: Only 700 cases today in Mumbai and that too with the highest testing till date in Mumbai in a single day (8,776).

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National flags of China (R) and the United States. (Xinhua/Bao Dandan)

BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- At 10 a.m. on Monday, as required by China, the U.S. Consulate General in Chengdu was closed. Relevant Chinese authorities then entered through the front entrance and took over the premises, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on its website.

On July 24, the ministry informed the U.S. Embassy in China of its decision to withdraw its consent for the operation of the consulate, a "legitimate and necessary response" to an earlier U.S. unilateral provocation of demanding that China close its Consulate General in Houston.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin later on Monday dismissed media reports saying the U.S. closure of the consulate aimed to crack down on theft of commercial secrets, engagement in illegal activities and even espionage over a long period, and served to deter staff working at other Chinese consulates from similar activities, quoting interviews with high-ranking U.S. officials.

"The U.S. remarks are groundless accusations, and are purely slander and defamation," Wang told a daily press briefing when responding to a query about his comments on the relevant reports.

As the first consulate general set up by China after the establishment of diplomatic ties, China's Houston consulate has been committed to promoting mutual understanding among various communities and cooperation in various sectors between the two countries, which has won recognition from various communities in the south of the United States, Wang said.

Wang quoted local U.S. media saying that as China is the second-largest trading partner of the Houston region, the latter has benefited a lot from the consulate, which has served as a bridge linking the region to China in terms of tourism, trade and cultural exchanges.

American high school students participate in the Open Day event of the Chinese Consulate General in Houston, Texas, the United States, on June 26, 2019. (Xinhua/Gao Lu)

He also quoted relevant local U.S. officials who have expressed their shock at the U.S. decision to shut down China's consulate, as well as their hope to see a peaceful settlement of disputes and the consulate's resumption of operations.

For some time, a few anti-China U.S. politicians, driven by attempts to contain China and motives of seeking personal gains, have been fabricating smearing remarks against China repeatedly and scaling up provocative measures, the spokesperson said, citing unwarranted restrictions by the U.S. side on Chinese media's normal news reporting, oppression of Chinese enterprises under the abused concept of national security, as well as wanton interrogation, harassment and even detention of Chinese overseas students.

"The true purposes of these U.S. politicians are abundantly clear, which is to purposefully undermine China-U.S. relations and turn back the wheels of history," said Wang.

He pointed out the above-mentioned abominable acts have increasingly met with criticism from rational people with a sense of justice, citing a joint statement recently issued at a conference attended by experts and scholars from 48 countries. The statement reminded people of the threat to world peace posed by the U.S. government's increasingly ferocious remarks and acts against China, and expressed support for the two countries to build ties based on dialogue and commit themselves to global unity.

"The current situation in China-U.S. relations is not what China desires to see, and the U.S. side is responsible for all of this," said the spokesperson, once again urging the U.S. side to immediately retract its wrong decisions and create the necessary conditions for bringing the bilateral relationship back on track.
Lund University, one of the top 100 educational institutes on this planet, recently shared a post on its Facebook page that would put every Indian's head to shame.

The Swedish university has had it with Indians making fun of the University's name. In case you didn't know, the name sounds like the slang word used for male genitalia in Hindi language.

Lund University

The name of the Swedish Lund university has been on numerous memes and even funny comments on the Facebook page of the University.

The Swedish educational institution has now released an official statement, revealing that it knows what Indians think the name means and it tries to clarify it in the most polite way, and these words will truly embarrass every Indian.



The post stated, "We have had this Facebook page for ten years now and every now and then it is rediscovered by students in certain countries who spread it to their friends. We are well aware that our name is entertaining to you and with thousands of languages in the world, there will of course always be words that sound funny in another language. Lund is the name of a medieval town in Southern Sweden. The word means green area and is pronounced in a very different way in Swedish than the word that you are thinking of in your language. "

Facebook: Lund University

It added, "The university name comes from the name of the city and the Swedish name is Lunds Universitet. This is an international research university founded in 1666 and ranked among the worlds top 100 universities. The Facebook page is used to communicate with prospective students from around the world and to answer their questions about admission, scholarship and more. Every year, we receive applications from 170 countries around the world from students who would like to receive a degree from a top-ranked university.



It concluded stating, If you are not a prospective student, we would appreciate if you could write your comments directly to your friends and not on our page. As admins of the page, we need to spend hours deleting hundreds of comments to keep the page manageable, relevant and available for serious students questions."

People on the internet were truly ashamed about this and expressed their emotions through Twitter.

Twitter

The Lund University is a reputed university that has contributed to countless life-saving researches. We've even covered their achievements several times.

While this might seem like all fun and games to some people online, this will truly affect those Indian students who genuinely are wanting to visit the university. Everything has a limit and this time, weve really crossed it.
A major public inquiry in Britain will examine Australia's involvement in an international health scandal in which victims were historically infected by blood contaminated with deadly hepatitis C and HIV.

The Herald and The Age can reveal that leading Australian infected blood campaigner Charles MacKenzie will today be announced as a core participant in the long-running UK inquiry and is due to give evidence later this year.

Campaigner Charles MacKenzie will give evidence on behalf of thousands of Australians infected by contaminated blood. Credit:James Alcock

It comes amid fresh questions over whether contaminated blood exported from Australia went on to cause harm overseas, after a UK survivor alleged he was diagnosed with hepatitis C after being treated with blood products manufactured in Perth.

Thousands of Australians became severely ill or died after being infected with blood containing Hepatitis C or HIV between the 1970s and early 1990s, before proper screening procedures were introduced.
SAN DIEGO, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- North American-based, founder-led, outsource provider of Sales and Customer Care outsource workforces with 25 years of success, S&P Data LLC announced today that Gregory Johnson joined the company as Chief Revenue Officer as part of a meta growth plan to meet the increased demand for remote and off-premise Sales and Service workforces in response to COVID-19 and new ways of working.

As S&P Data's CRO, Johnson will lead the company's revenue growth strategy and execution to become the #1 provider of remote, off-premise and hybrid sales and customer care workforces in North America.

S&P's CEO, Co-Founder and serial entrepreneur, Dan Plashkes said, "The selection process for Gregory actually commenced nearly 10 years ago when he and I met at one of our major clients, American Express. Gregory was an obvious entrepreneur at heart but was also a successful corporate executive who rose to senior ranks of a global service-centered organization. This combination was rare and led us to partner over the years as Gregory built new organizations to drive revenue growth in Financial Services and Fin-Tech."

Following his early career at United Parcel Service and Cardinal Health, Johnson rose to senior posts at American Express and Capital One as well as cutting edge Fin-Techs, Xero, LendingPoint and OnDeck Capital. Johnson commented, "For me, joining S&P Data is a 10-year vision come true. S&P Data was a great match for me as we share foundational values of diversity, service, and growth." Johnson holds a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing from Arizona State University and went on to complete his MBA.

S&P Data's COO, David Borts remarked, "With many companies shifting to Work from Home programs, Gregory is joining the team at a near-perfect time as the demand for well-trained Work from Anywhere outsource employees will continue to grow."

In conjunction with the CRO role, S&P Data is appointing Rohit Krishna to Deputy Chief Growth Officer as a supporting role to Johnson as CRO. Mr. Krishna joined S&P in 2012 and has since held several progressive leadership positions including building out the organization's PMO division, leading various accounts as a Director of Client Services and most recently, running S&P Data's flagship Canadian HQ as a Senior Director of Operations. He will now leverage his internal expertise to help drive revenue strategy execution. Krishna holds a Bachelor's degree in Finance and Marketing from McMaster University and a Masters in Project Management.

S&P Data is eager to engage with companies in need of outsource sales and service programs to add to its long list of successful partnerships from Fortune 500 to Small Businesses.

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Industry Dive, a business journalism company, is acquiring the marketing arm of NewsCred, a global technology company, executives tell Axios.

Why it matters: Industry Dive is a niche B2B media company, but it's long been profitable, and it's pretty sizable.

Catch up quick: The deal includes all of the studio's assets, including its 100+ client roster and 40 employees from NewsCred's Content Marketing studio.

The acquisition adds 40 new people to the company's 175 current employees and it expands its presence from D.C. to New York, London and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Details: The acquisition will help Industry Dive sell custom ads to its audience of more than 11 million business decision-makers across 20 niche industries, which includes topics like banking, bio, pharmaceuticals, construction, education, grocery, marketing, retail, smart cities, transport, waste and others.

Industry Dive's growth strategy has always been to take business topics that already have sizable audiences and advertising potential and launch a digital, ad-supported newsletter and other products around each.

has always been to take business topics that already have sizable audiences and advertising potential and launch a digital, ad-supported newsletter and other products around each. It determines which verticals to invest in through several criteria, like whether a particular field has high turnover, heavy government regulation or if there's high capital spend within the industry, particularly on technology.

through several criteria, like whether a particular field has high turnover, heavy government regulation or if there's high capital spend within the industry, particularly on technology. "We think each vertical can be worth $10 million$20 million just in digital newsletter ad spend," says Industry Dive co-founder and CEO Sean Griffey.

just in digital newsletter ad spend," says Industry Dive co-founder and CEO Sean Griffey. Retail is the company's largest vertical, and waste is growing fast.

The big picture: Last year, Industry Dive sold a majority stake to Charlotte, North Carolina-based private equity firm Falfurrias Capital Partners, seven years after its founding in Washington, D.C.
Love Islands Dr Alex George has said he trying to find strength as he mourns the death of his younger brother Llyr.

On Friday, the 30-year-old shared the news on Instagram, explaining that he had lost [his] beautiful little brother to mental health.

In a new post shared on his Instagram story on Monday, Dr George thanked friends and fans for their incredible support and said that he and his family are going through the hardest and darkest times.

These are the hardest times I could ever have imagined, he wrote.

The kindness and love our family has received has been incredible and I am so grateful.

Dr George continued: In the darkest times we must pick ourselves up, find strength and be there for our family and friends. That is exactly what I will do.

In his earlier post, Dr George previously explained that Llyr was due to begin studying at medical school next month.

He added that he was so proud of his brother, who would have been an incredible doctor.

I cant believe I am actually writing this post. I have lost my beautiful little brother to mental health he wrote.

I love you so much Llyr. The kindest and most caring soul. I was so proud of you starting medical school next month, you would have been the most incredible doctor. We are hurting so bad.

No words can explain. As a family we are devastated. We love you and miss you so much. Please rest in peace x Our boy.

Friends, family and followers of the reality star were quick to share messages of support on social media, including TV host Lorraine Kelly, who wrote: Oh Alex Im so so sorry. Sending you all my love.

If you are experiencing feelings of distress and isolation, or are struggling to cope, The Samaritans offers support; you can speak to someone for free over the phone, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.

If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

The Helpline is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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CEOs at four US tech companies will face questions about whether or not they actively stifle competition on Wednesday. Thats according to recent reports citing statements from members of the US Judiciary Committee slated to question the executives.

The congressional hearing is at the center of an ongoing antitrust probe, involving Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. The probe intends to hear from the executives to determine whether or not the strategies they employ are anticompetitive. Specifically, according to statements attributed to Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal, to determine if copy-acquire-kill strategies are being employed.

The questions, Ms. Jayapal indicates, will center on that term in the context of tech CEOs use their clout to buy or suppress potential rivals. Ms. Jayapal suggests that documents obtained by lawmakers suggest that just such strategies are in use. In fact, the lawmaker says that very specific language from top-level executives points directly to those types of strategies.

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What are copy-acquire-kill strategies?

As noted above, copy-acquire-kill strategies are relatively straightforward, with the term being fairly descriptive of the practice. Summarily, it refers to efforts by the tech companies facing questions, pushed by the CEOs, to either copy, acquire, or otherwise kill off the competition. And there are some real-world examples that could be used, apparently perpetrated by the CEOs in question.

Facebook may provide the most prominent example since the company has been quick to buy up competitors in the social media space. Most notably, that includes Instagram and WhatsApp.

But the company has also worked to release new products or introduce features that mirror the competition. The company, for example, has introduced features that are very similar to Snapchats into its own services. And so has Google, for that matter. In both cases, thats with the introduction of Stories features. Facebook has also made many attempts to replicate competing apps just as they become popular.

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When will the tech CEOs face these questions?

Now, it isnt immediately clear whether those are the strategies that will be questioned specifically since Ms. Jayapal was not specific about that point. But the hearing, set to include Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Google CEOs Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Sundar Pichai, will take place on Wednesday. Thats if no further delays take place.

None of the CEOs will appear in person due to the ongoing global health crisis still impacting the US. Instead, at 12 pm, theyre scheduled to appear remotely.
Bazaar Corporate Radar | Feb 22, 2021, 12:00 AM IST

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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.
Burke pointed to Perdues record on combating racial and religious discrimination during his more than five years in the Senate, including his co-sponsoring of a resolution last year condemning all forms of anti-Semitism. Perdue also signed a letter in 2017 along with all other 99 sitting senators urging top law enforcement officials in the Trump administration to do more in response to the rise in threatening messages against Jewish schools and institutions.
G ermany's top infectious diseases expert today hit out at people ignoring social-distancing rules as he admitted he was very worried about rising Covid-19 cases.

Lothar Wieler, who heads the Robert Koch Institute, said negligence was behind a spike in infections, but added that it was unclear if the country was experiencing a second wave.

The number of daily new cases almost doubled today to 633, with the institute linking the increase to more social contact at parties and in the workplace. The new developments make me very worried, Mr Wieler said in his first news conference in weeks. The rise has to do with the fact that we have become negligent. Germany has been regarded as one of Europes success stories in terms of tackling the pandemic, but infections have been rising steadily over the last couple of weeks, with the seven-day rolling average jumping from 288 on July 13 to 557 yesterday.

Meanwhile in France, transport minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari today revealed that plans to build a fourth terminal at the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport will be reconsidered. The project to receive 40 million more passengers by 2030 is probably no longer justified as it was planned, he said on Europe 1 radio.

Pariss iconic Grand Rex cinema, which remained open throughout the Second World War, is to shut for August because of low demand and the postponement of Hollywood releases.

In the United States, Republicans and Democrats were today launching intense negotiations over a proposed $1 trillion stimulus to help millions of virus-hit American workers and businesses.

Republicans in the Senate laid out the spending plan which would include $100 billion for schools and one-off payments of $1,200 to most Americans, replacing a $600 a month boost to unemployment benefits during the pandemic. The move sets the stage for days of talks between the two parties before the current jobless support package expires on Friday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi implored President Donald Trumps administration and Republican lawmakers to stop infighting and come to the negotiating table with the Democrats, who have proposed their own $3 trillion plan. Time is running out, she said.

Nearly one in five US workers are collecting unemployment benefits. Republicans fear the support is deterring many from returning to work.

Senator Mitch McConnell said Republicans want to continue the unemployment supplement. But we have to do it in a way that does not slow down reopening.

In Australia, police arrested the organiser of a banned anti-racism protest in Sydney and dispersed dozens of demonstrators.

Prime minister Scott Morrison cut short an interstate tour to help deal with a very complex coronavirus outbreak in aged care homes in Melbourne, the epicentre of a second wave of infection, as Victoria state reported 384 new cases. State Premier Daniel Andrews said 769 active coronavirus cases had been linked to aged care centres.
When Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach met with President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday, he was carrying a copy of a plan for the Department of Homeland Security.The DHS oversees border security and immigration, issues on which Kobach advised Trump throughout the campaign.There had been speculation that Kobach might be under consideration to head the department in the lead-up to his meeting with Trump, and photographic evidence appears to confirm that.When Trump greeted Kobach at his clubhouse door in Bedminster, N.J., Kobach carried a document with the headings "Department of Homeland Security" and "Kobach Strategic Plan for the Next 365 Days."The details of the document were first reported by The Topeka Capital-Journal, which zoomed in on a photograph taken by The Associated Press.A McClatchy analysis of the photograph reveals that Kobach's plan includes reintroducing the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System so that "All aliens from high-risk areas are tracked."Kobach had previously told Reuters about this idea, prompting accusations that Trump planned to create a Muslim registry.Kobach's plan includes the use of "extreme vetting" for immigrants from countries that are considered high risk, asking them whether they support "shariah law, jihad, equality of men and women, the United States Constitution." Kobach would also reduce the number of refugees from Syria to zero.Bill Stock, the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said Kobach was committed to restricting immigration from an ideological perspective and using whatever tools he had. Stock said if Kobach brought that push to the Department of Homeland Security he would be likely to find himself in court, much as he did with the immigration and voter ID laws he championed at the state and local level."The policies that he proposes, in many instances, would be subjected to challenge from those who believe in due process and fairness," Stock said.Lena Arkawi, campaign manager for the American Relief Coalition for Syria, said Kobach's Syria plan would be "deeply immoral," with Syrians facing bombings, terrorist attacks and shortages of food and medical care."They have no choice but to leave in the face of certain death," she said in a statement. "We implore President-elect Trump to reject inhumane proposals to ban refugees and instead embrace the proud American tradition of granting refuge to the world's most vulnerable people."Naureen Shah, the director of the security and human rights program for Amnesty International USA, called Kobach's plan an "incredibly chilling set of proposals that are reminiscent of the kinds of religiously based discrimination and targeting of minorities that we've criticized governments and armed groups around the world for.""It is horrifying to think that the U.S. government is poised to go down the road of targeting people based on their nonviolent beliefs," Shah said. "And I also question the wisdom of policies that are sure to, frankly, scare the hell out of people in this country who are law-abiding and would report crimes if they saw them taking place."The National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, which was established in 2002 under President George W. Bush, was indefinitely suspended by the Obama administration in 2011. Shah said the program was dismantled because the DHS considered it ineffective and counterproductive to its anti-terror efforts.She drew a distinction between the program under Bush and its potential re-establishment under Trump. "It's preceded by a campaign where the president-elect and his surrogates specifically talked about Muslims and religion as a basis for policies," she said.The document also includes what appears to be a plan to deport a "record number of criminal aliens in the first year" and the construction of a wall along the southern border.Kobach, who could not be reached by phone Monday, has been an outspoken supporter of Trump's idea to construct a border wall, helping to add it to the Republican Party's national platform.Trump's transition team said in a statement Sunday night that the president-elect and Kobach had discussed "border security, international terrorism and reforming federal bureaucracy."Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, who is poised to become the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, told McClatchy she hoped Kobach would not be nominated for a post at the DHS."I've made my opinion of Kris Kobach very clear," McCaskill, a former prosecutor, said Monday.McCaskill previously told McClatchy that the idea of Kobach becoming attorney general _ another position for which he was rumored to be under consideration _ "is frightening to those of us who've watched him in his career.""I know too much about Kris Kobach," McCaskill said. "There's no way I could ever support him."She said Kobach had "fashioned some of the most unconstitutional immigration laws around the country, most of which have been thrown out by the courts.""This is a perfect role for him," said Kelly Arnold, the state chairman of the Kansas Republican Party.Arnold called Kobach a "border security hawk" who could "make sure that what Donald Trump campaigned on is implemented" if he is tapped to lead the DHS or to serve the administration in another capacity.Speaking of Kobach and Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, a national security hard-liner whom Trump nominated to become CIA director, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback called both "very talented" and "cutting-edge."The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a hard-line group that advocates for stricter immigration restrictions, also praised Kobach. He has done extensive legal work for the federation's offshoot, the Immigration Reform Law Institute. (The federation has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its views on immigration. It strongly disputes that characterization.)"He certainly has a commanding knowledge of the whole immigration issue," said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the federation. "He has come down very clearly as someone who champions the interests of the American public as the primary stakeholders in immigration policy, and he has worked with a lot of local governments around the country to provide them with the means by which they can protect their own community interests when the federal government is failing to protect those interests."Kobach served under then-Attorney General John Ashcroft at the Justice Department in the days immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Ashcroft tasked him with researching loopholes in the immigration system.Kobach also helped craft a controversial Arizona law, SB 1070, which requires law enforcement agents to demand to see the immigration papers of anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally.The Homeland Security document appears to include a reference to voter rolls, but the specific proposal is obscured by Kobach's hand.He has championed stricter voting laws during his tenure as Kansas secretary of state.The state adopted a requirement that voters provide proof of citizenship, such as birth certificates or passports, when they register. Kobach has contended that the policy prevents noncitizens from voting, but his critics say it makes it tougher for actual citizens to vote."I think any proposal that Kris Kobach makes about voting rights is one that we should be concerned about, because he has a record of working to undermine the right to vote," said Micah Kubic, the executive director of the Kansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "Everything that he's advanced so far has been designed to make it harder for eligible citizens to vote."
While Gov. Phil Murphy wont hold one of his usual coronavirus press conferences in Trenton on Tuesday, hell be appearing a North Brunswick hair salon to announce another $15 million to help small businesses.

Murphys 11 a.m. appearance at the A-List Hair Studio on Route 130 will be streamed live on the governors YouTube channel. He is also expected to take questions from the media after the announcement.

Hair salons and barbershops in New Jersey reopened June 22 after being closed for more than two months in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus.

Officials said early Tuesday that the number of people in the states 71 hospitals with coronavirus or a suspected cases increased to 718 from 696 as of 10 p.m. Monday. On a more optimistic note, fewer patients are on ventilators and receiving critical care. Those figures decreased from 54 to 50 and from 128 to 112, respectively. In mid-April more than 8,000 were hospitalized.

The death toll from the COVID-19 outbreak in New Jersey climbed Monday to 15,804 confirmed and probable fatalities with 179,812 total cases while the rate of transmission jumped back above the key benchmark of 1, meaning the outbreak is increasing again.

The latest update includes 17 new confirmed deaths and 446 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, though officials have stressed that reporting delays could affect when those deaths and cases are recorded.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Matt Arco contributed to this report.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks were flat to slightly lower on Tuesday as investors weighed the possibility of additional fiscal stimulus from the United States against rising coronavirus cases around the world. U.S. Senate Republicans on Monday proposed a $1 trillion coronavirus aid package that slashes unemployment benefits from the current $600 per week to $200, generating swift backlash from Democrats. The proposal extends the paycheck protection program, which is scheduled to expire on August 8. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged Democrats to compromise with Republicans on the plan, as unemployment benefits will expire at the end of this week. Investors also await the outcome of a two-day policy meeting of the Federal Reserve starting later in the day for directional cues. The benchmark CAC 40 slid 6 points, or 0.12 percent, to 4,933 after losing 0.3 percent the previous day. Rexel, a distributor of electrical supplies, tumbled 3.2 percent after it slipped to a net loss during the first half of the year. Peugeot shares surged 4 percent after PSA Group said a strong rebound is underway. Luxury goods conglomerate LVMH slumped 4.6 percent after its operating profit dived 68 percent in the first half of the year. Gucci owner Kering dropped 1.2 percent and Hermes International declined 1.6 percent. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
MILAN  The month of July is showing improvements in all of Salvatore Ferragamos markets, but the closure of stores during the coronavirus pandemic hurt the companys top line in the first half of the year.

The Florence-based luxury group reported preliminary sales on Tuesday at the end of trading, which showed a 46.6 percent drop to 377 million euros in the first six months ended June 30. This compares with 705 million euros in the same period last year.

Sales in the second quarter fell 60.1 percent, impacted by the pandemic, the lockdown of commercial activities and the lack of international traffic.

As of June 30, the company had 643 points of sales, including 389 directly operated stores and 254 third-party-operated stores in the wholesale and travel retail channels.

In the first half, the retail distribution channel reported a 41 percent drop to 260.6 million euros, representing 69.2 percent of the total. In the second quarter, retail revenues decreased 51.2 percent.

Sales in the wholesale channel tumbled 56.4 percent to 110.8 million euros, accounting for 29.4 percent of the total.

In the second quarter, wholesale revenues were down 75.7 percent, mainly penalized by the performance of the travel retail channel and of the fragrances division.

The Asia Pacific area continued to be the groups largest market in terms of revenues, decreasing by 39.9 percent to 166.7 million euros, accounting for 44.3 percent of the total. In the second quarter, sales in the area were down 35.3 percent at constant exchange rates, benefiting from the positive performance of the retail channel in China, which recorded growth of 11.6 percent at constant exchange rates.

In particular, as of July 25, the group had registered solid growth in directly operated stores in Mainland China, Korea and Japan compared with July last year.

Europe showed a 51.7 percent decrease in revenues in the first half, which fell to 85.7 million euros, accounting for 22.8 percent of the total. Sales in the second quarter were down 71.9 percent at constant exchange rates, strongly penalized by store closures and the lack of tourists in the period.

Story continues

These factors affected all regions. North America was down 54.4 percent to 69.7 million euros, representing 18.5 percent of the total in the first half, with the second quarter plummeting 81.1 percent.

The Japanese market registered a 37.4 percent decrease in revenues in the first half to 36.8 million euros, accounting for 9.8 percent of the total, with the second quarter reporting a 56.1 percent drop.

Revenues in Central and South America were down 54.6 percent to 17.4 million euros, accounting for 4.6 percent of the total. In the second quarter they dove 89.2 percent.

By product category, sales of shoes, a core business for Ferragamo, were down 46.4 percent to 159.5 million euros, accounting for 42.4 percent of the total.

Revenues of leather goods and handbags fell 43.6 percent to 158.5 million euros, representing 42.1 percent of the total.

Ready-to-wear was down 47.3 percent to 19 million euros, accounting for 5.1 percent of the total.

Fragrances registered a decrease of 66.3 percent to 14 million euros, representing 3.7 percent of the total, also impacted by the performance of the travel retail.

As reported in May, Michele Norsa has returned to Ferragamo, joining the board as director and executive deputy chairman. Ferruccio Ferragamo helms the company as chairman, but passed his executive proxies to Norsa, and Micaela le Divelec Lemmi remains chief executive officer. Norsa first joined Ferragamo in 2006 and helped it expand globally, publicly listing it in 2011 in his role as ceo, and exiting in 2016.

Ferragamo launched a new web site during the lockdown in Italy at the end of April, as part of the companys recent increased drive into technology and social media. The company unveiled a video during Milan Digital Fashion Week earlier this month about the values of the brand, and in July introduced the Augmented Store 360, a virtual tour of its boutiques, compatible with AR devices, and which allows consumers to buy online and visit the Ferragamo Museum in Florence, including an interactive tour led by personal guides.

Separately, earlier on Tuesday, organizers of the Venice Film Festival confirmed that the event will go on as scheduled in a physical format, running Sept. 2 to 12, and Luca Guadagninos feature-length documentary on founder Salvatore Ferragamo will be presented in the Out of Competition section.

Guadagninos documentary traces Ferragamos artistic journey, while also exploring the history of Italy and America, the latter the country where he first developed his business, creating shoes for the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. The film relates Ferragamos path, starting his career as an apprentice shoemaker in Naples and then becoming the owner of the Hollywood Boot Shop in California, to his return to Italy, founding his namesake company in Florence.

The film, said the Festivals artistic director Alberto Barbera, is fascinating, disruptive and perfectly accomplished.

We were overjoyed to learn that the film about my fathers life would be presented at the Venice Film Festival, said Ferruccio Ferragamo, Salvatores son. It is an honor for me and my entire family that a director of Luca Guadagninos caliber would take an interest in our family history, adapting it for the big screen.

Ferragamos autobiography inspired Guadagnino to develop the project starting in 2017, reaching out to the Ferragamo family. The director had access to the fashion brands archives, family anecdotes and interviews, including with the late Wanda Miletti, Salvatores wife, who died in October 2018.

For three years, Fondazione Salvatore Ferragamo and Museo Salvatore Ferragamo worked with the director and screenwriter Dana Thomas. Research was also based on the tape recordings of Salvatore Ferragamo reading aloud some of the chapters of his autobiography, which were restored for the occasion, and the radio interviews he gave in Australia. In a teaser, Martin Scorsese says that Ferragamo, born in 1898 in Bonito, in Italys Campania region, moved to Naples, which at the time in itself was another galaxy.

That has been my lifes work: striving to learn to make shoes that always fit and the refusal to put my name to any that do not fit, writes Ferragamo in the preface to his autobiography. Therefore please look behind the story of the small, barefoot, unlettered boy who became a famous shoemaker, and seek the pleasure you will obtain from walking well.

Guadagnino, whose movie Call Me By Your Name received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and one for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Timothee Chalamets interpretation, in 2012 founded the production company Frenesy Film specifically for taking on projects with major fashion brands, and he has directed or produced short films or commercials for, among others Fendi, Giorgio Armani, Ermenegildo Zegna, Salvatore Ferragamo, Sergio Rossi, Cartier, Pomellato and Valentino.

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New York has started accepting applications for its Excelsior Scholarship program that aims to provide students with free tuition to state colleges and universities.

But a state official warned Tuesday that tuition aid may be reduced this fall because of the coronavirus pandemic, and scholarships may be limited to previous recipients.

Freeman Klopott, speaking for the state Division of Budget, said the state began accepting scholarship applications Friday without knowing whether the federal government will help New York deal with a $61 billion revenue loss over the next four years.

The state had delayed the application process since June, blaming the coronavirus pandemics impact on the states finances.

Without more federal aid, the scholarship program is at risk, Klopott said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Yorks members of Congress have called for more direct federal aid to state and local governments in a coronavirus relief bill unveiled this week in Washington.

Excelsior Scholarships pay for SUNY and CUNY tuition after other state and federal grants are used. The scholarship covered up to $6,470 for the 2019-20 academic year. Tuition for that same year was $7,070.

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WASHINGTON, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) and The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) today announced partnerships with the nonprofit Testing for America to support historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in their COVID-19 testing plans for students, faculty and staff to help safely reopen campuses.

It is especially important for HBCUs to safely reopen this fall as communities of color across the US have been disproportionately affected by the health and economic crises caused by COVID-19, and HBCUs can and will play a vital role in our nation's recovery.

Combined, UNCF and TMCF enroll almost 300,000 students at more than 80 historically black colleges and universities. Since March, the organizations have been working with their member schools on crisis management, stabilization and now reopening campuses.

"All institutions must be able to test when they reopen for in-person instruction  whether this fall or 2021," said UNCF President and CEO, Dr. Michael L. Lomax. "TFA's ability to link us to high-quality providers, coupled with other safety guidance and financial support, will help bring necessary, continuous and reliable testing to entire campus communities. We are happy to partner with TFA on this critical work to help our campuses and students successfully navigate this pandemic."

"The Thurgood Marshall College Fund is confident our new partnership with Testing for America will bring abundant and accurate COVID-19 testing to our member-schools, helping them to safely reopen and protect our communities," said TMCF President and CEO Harry Williams.

The program is being pioneered at Delaware State University, and another half-dozen HBCUs have since become partners, with others in the process of joining.

At Delaware State, up to 3,000 students, staff and faculty will be tested frequently in combination with other safety protocols such as social distancing, a hybrid of virtual and in-person classes, mandatory masks and contact tracing. Special accommodations have been set up for students who test positive.

"The HBCU brand of excellence, education and care is specifically targeted to talented students who simply need an open door and a welcoming environment. We are home. And safety must be our priority," said Delaware State University President Tony Allen. "Our relationship with Testing for America is the No. 1 driver of our ability to reopen our campus safely."

TFA is a nonprofit established by leading academics, engineers and entrepreneurs to solve the testing crisis in America. The organization has identified and is supporting a portfolio of high-quality, scale-ready technologies that can complete millions of tests per day at very low cost.

"We don't need to wait for new innovations. We have the technology now to dramatically increase access to meaningful, affordable, repeat testing to help us safely and permanently reopen schools, businesses and ultimately the US economy," said TFA Founder Jason Yeung.

TFA is currently in active discussions with K-12 schools, other higher education institutions and businesses across the country on safe and permanent reopening testing plans, as well as seeking additional philanthropic supporters and major donors to sponsor testing initiatives.

Current TFA partners include Cerner, a global health care technology company, and Illumina, the world leader in genomic sequencing, as well as philanthropic donors.

"This is solvable, and this is scalable," said Francis deSouza, chief executive officer of Illumina. "What Testing for America has launched is demonstrating this can be done successfully, and we are proud to be part of the solution that can enable testing at scale. We encourage others to reach out and join in."

About Testing for America (TFA):

Testing for America (TFA) is a non-profit organization whose goal is to make low-cost, highly reliable testing abundant and empower Americans with the information they need to make public health decisions and ultimately reopen schools, businesses and the US economy. Testing for America is a nonprofit LLC structured within the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology (501c3). For more information: www.testingforamerica.org.

About the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF):

Established in 1987, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) is the nation's largest organization exclusively representing the Black College Community. TMCF member-schools include the publicly-supported Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Predominantly Black Institutions, enrolling nearly 80% of all students attending black colleges and universities. Through scholarships, capacity building and research initiatives, innovative programs, and strategic partnerships, TMCF is a vital resource in the PK-12 and higher education space. The organization is also the source of top employers seeking top talent for competitive internships and good jobs. TMCF is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization. For more information about TMCF, visit: www.tmcf.org.

About the United Negro College Fund (UNCF):

United Negro College Fund is the nation's largest and most effective minority education organization. To serve youth, the community and the nation, UNCF supports students' education and development through scholarships and other programs, strengthens its 37 member colleges and universities, and advocatess for the importance of minority education and college readiness. UNCF institutions and other historically black colleges and universities are highly effective, awarding nearly 20 percent of African American baccalaureate degrees. Today, UNCF supports more than 60,000 students at more than 1,100 college and universities across the country. Its logo features the UNCF torch of leadership in education and its widely recognized motto, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." Learn more at UNCF.org.

About Delaware State University:

Established in 1891 as a Land Grant Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Delaware State University has grown over the past 129 years into one of the nation's premiere public HBCUs, serving over 5,000 students. The University's vision is to be the most substantively diverse, contemporary unapologetic HBCU in the nation. An R2 Doctoral-granting Research Institution, the University is nationally known for signature programs in Aviation, Life Sciences, Optics, Business, Nursing, and Education, and has educational partnerships with other institutions in 23 countries around the globe. The University is known for its commitment to technological equity, wraparound student support, and high-quality, personalized instruction at the lowest cost in Delaware. Learn more at desu.edu.

SOURCE Testing for America

Related Links

http://www.testingforamerica.org


At the time, it had come as a shock, the good kind, to everyone who looks up to Patek Philippe. Launched in a limited edition of 12 watches as a world debut at the Watch Art Grand Exhibition Singapore 2019, the Ref. 5303 Minute Repeater Tourbillon was the first Patek Philippe timepiece with a transparent dial. Not one with a skeleton movement, since those are necessarily left naked for the eye to see, but a full movement, and a very complicated and intricate one at that.

Ref. 5303R-001 Minute Repeater Tourbillon  Patek Philippe

This ground- and mold-breaking timepiece has now become part of the current Patek Philippe collection with a slightly reworked design. This new grand complication was created explicitly for connoisseurs of striking watches. It stands out with its open architecture that allows the minute repeater mechanism including the hammers and gongs to be admired in action while the watch sits on the wrist. It thus expresses a new dimension of Patek Philippes creative policy that puts users in the focus. The transparency facet also applies to the tourbillon: the back side of its cage can be seen beneath the hand of the seconds subdial at 6 oclock. It is a small, perfectly orchestrated work of art with shiny steel parts that contrast handsomely with the golden plate.

Ref. 5303 Minute Repeater Tourbillon  Patek Philippe

Transparent dial

The aesthetic appeal of the manually wound caliber R 27 TO PS was subtly reworked to highlight its full beauty, especially with individual openworked components. Patek Philippe also leveraged its ancestral skills in the manual finishing of movement parts, including Geneva striping for the plate, circular-graining for the recesses, and circular satin finishing of the strikework hammers.

Manually wound caliber R 27 TO PS  Patek Philippe

The rose-gold case is decisively unique, featuring a broad polished bezel as well as white-gold intarsias engraved with foliage motifs in the flank and strap lugs. The white-gold slide in the left-hand case flank to trigger the minute repeater is decorated with the same motifs. The hour circle is an engraved sapphire-crystal ring with powdered rose-gold marker dots. A sapphire-crystal case back shows the movement from the other side, framed as in a pierced white-gold amphitheater inspired by the case intarsias and the repeater slide.

Ref. 5303 Minute Repeater Tourbillon  Patek Philippe

Blue blood

In Patek Philippe's book, chronographs have a very specific place : the Geneva-based brand consider it to be nobility. The complication's blood is even bluer with the split-seconds chronograph, a pinnacle of watchmaking according to Patek, in which they've put an unrivaled level of technical effort. Presented in 2015, Patek Philippes first split-seconds chronograph based on the proprietary caliber CH 29-535 PS in a classic configuration was the Ref. 5370 with a platinum case and a black enamel dial. This coveted grand complication has now been updated with a new blue face that revisits Patek Philippes storied tradition in Grand Feu enamel dials. The dial color of the compact hand-crafted masterpiece in 18K gold is incomparably intense and refined with a glossy finish. Its legibility is outstanding, as befits the class of a technical instrument. The hours and minutes are clearly and crisply indicated by extended leaf-shaped hands with luminous coatings and applied Breguet numerals in white gold.

Ref. 5370P-011 Split-Seconds Chronograph  Patek Philippe

Plenty of patents

The two-phase chronograph movement features two pushers for the three classic chronograph functions and a third one in the crown to start and stop the split-seconds hand, a perfect combination of tradition and innovation. The traditional facets of this manually wound timepiece are its classic architecture with column-wheel control and the horizontal gear clutch. Numerous optimizations and patented innovations manifest the 21st century as does the fundamentally redesigned split-seconds mechanism. The elegance of the polished case with a concave bezel and satin-finished recesses in the flanks gains prominence with a shiny night blue alligator strap and the platinum fold-over clasp. As is the case with all of Patek Philippes platinum wristwatches, the new Ref. 5370P-011 is graced with a small diamond between the lugs at 6 oclock.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) painted the integrity of the Justice Department as "more at risk than at any time in modern history" in opening remarks at a hearing for Attorney General Bill Barr Tuesday, accusing him of shielding President Trump from responsibility and eroding democratic norms.

Why it matters: The hearing, which focuses on the DOJ's alleged politicization under Barr, is the attorney general's first time appearing before the committee. Barr in his own remarks accused the committee's Democrats of trying to discredit him over his investigations into the origins of the FBI's Russia probe.

What he's saying: Nadler said Barr has "aided and abetted the worst failings of this President," listing six decisions he claims have "left us deeply concerned about the Department of Justice."

"First, under your leadership, the Department has endangered Americans and violated their constitutional rights by flooding federal law enforcement into the streets of American cities, against the wishes of the state and local leaders of those cities, to forcefully and unconstitutionally suppress dissent.

"Second, at your direction, Department officials have downplayed the effects of systemic racism and abandoned the victims of police brutality; refused to hold abusive police departments accountable for their actions; and expressed open hostility to the Black Lives Matter movement.

"Third, in coordination with the White House, the Department has spread disinformation about voter fraud, failed to enforce voting rights laws, and attempted to change the census rules to flaunt the plain text of the Constitutionall in the apparent attempt to assist the Presidents reelection.

"Fourth, at the Presidents request, the Department has amplified the Presidents conspiracy theories and shielded him from responsibility by blatantly misrepresenting the Mueller Report and failing to hold foreign actors accountable for their attacks on our electionsundermining both national security and the Departments professional staff in the process.

"Fifth, again and again, you personally have interfered with ongoing criminal investigations to protect the President and his allies from the consequences of their actions.

"Finally, and perhaps most perniciously, the Department has placed the Presidents political needs over the public health by challenging stay-at-home orders in the states hit hardest by the pandemic. The Departments persistent efforts to gut the Affordable Care Act will make recovery that much harder."

The other side: "Spying. That one word. That's why they're after you," Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said in his opening statement, accusing Democrats of retaliating against Barr for his attempts to uncover misconduct in the FBI's Russia investigation.
There was a meeting of Black students over in Berkeley. And we says, well, we're thinking about organizing a political electoral machine, because we don't have enough Black politicians, other people-of-color politicians, and that's very important. I said, so me and Huey here are talking about patrolling the police, so we can capture the imagination of the people. With guns. We're talking about they killed Medgar Evers, they bombed kids in a church. And we got rampant police brutality all over Berkeley, Oakland, et cetera. And Frisco. And what I'm trying to explain to them, we have to get rapid notoriety right away so that we can start registering people to vote. [Ron] Dellums was there, first time I'm meeting him. And he says, that is right. "But," he says, "you're talking about having guns?" I says, yeah. And Huey went on. California Penal Code, what have you, free speech, Second Amendment, the right to bear arms and Eighth Amendment  can't subject people to cruel and unusual punishment. Fourth Amendment  no illegal searches. Patrolling the police is just a tactic.
RACINE  Chad Andersen sat behind a table covered with boxes packed with face masks in the doorway of the Anthony Lane Community Oriented Policing House on Monday morning.

The veteran Racine Police Department officer has been stationed at the COP House for 3 years now, but it was the first time he had been tasked with working during a nationwide pandemic.

I dont like calling this the new normal. I dont want this to be the new normal, he said.

He, like officers at each of the citys other COP houses and firefighters at Racine fire stations, was tasked with distributing free masks in the morning and afternoon to any community member who needed them. They do need them now.

The citys mask mandate, one of about a half-dozen in the state, went into effect at 8 a.m. Monday. Other Wisconsin cities with similar requirements are Green Bay, Whitewater, Superior, Milwaukee and Madison, as well as all of Dane County.

Requiring masks is a more proactive measure to fight the spread of coronavirus, which has killed 893 Wisconsinites and 146,545 Americans. Although some residents  including seven of Racines 15 aldermen, who voted against the ordinance drafted by Mayor Cory Mason  think requiring masks is a step too far. Gov. Tony Evers has publicly said hes thinking about issuing a statewide mandate, but he doubts it would remain in effect long due to the fact the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the Department of Health Services statewide Safer at Home order.

Individuals who ignore the order could be fined. Businesses too could face fines and possibly could lose their license if they defy the order.

But as of 5:34 p.m. Monday, no citations had been issued, according to the City of Racine.

In an email, City Spokesman Shannon Powell, We did get several calls to the office today with people asking about the ordinance and what the rules are. Most of the questions were people asking if they had to wear a mask all of the time. The answer is obviously no and we walked them through when they should and when they are not required to wear masks. Most people thought the expectations and rules were reasonable and fair after getting the explanation, according to those in our office who were taking the calls. As of the writing of the email, (the Racine Police Department) says they have not issued any citations. Their goal is to work on educating the community as to why it is important to wear a mask and to make them available to the community as they interact them.

Numbers increasing here

Official data shows that the coronavirus is still spreading in Racine County, although no longer at one of the fastest rates in the nation. Since the end of May, the daily average for positive COVID-19 tests in the county has only reached 10% twice, although both of those days have been in the past 20 days.

Still, the county has had a rising case rate since the beginning of the month. The 14-day moving average for testing in the county is now at 6%, up from the 3% the county maintained from June 17-July 10.

Thus, Racine County has been in the high risk category since July 12, after having been in the moderate category since June 24.

On a week-to-week basis, the positive percentage of tests fell for eight consecutive weeks, from the final week of May (when the percentage of positive tests in the county was 15.36%) through the week ending July 20 (when the percentage of positive tests in the county was 7.58%). But this past week, from July 20-27, the rate grew to 7.68%.

The citys case rate has been almost an exact mirror of the countys case rate in recent weeks, with rate of cases per 100,000 residents being almost exactly the same between the county and the city since the second week of July.

Updated numbers

As of Monday, the case rate for the city and the county was just below 250 cases per 100,000 people.

In total since COVID-19 data started being tracked in March, the City of Racine Health Department (which also has the villages of Elmwood Park and Wind Point in its jurisdiction) has recorded 1,798 confirmed cases, 16,364 negative tests and 30 deaths. Two of those deaths have come in the past week.

For the rest of the county, there have been 1,777 confirmed cases, 19,377 negative tests and 42 deaths  with one more death coming in the past week.

That brings Racine Countys totals to:

2,974 confirmed cases

35,741 negative tests

72 deaths

Free testing this week WHAT: Free community COVID-19 testing WHO: Coronavirus testing will be performed by the Wisconsin National Guard WHERE: Case High School, 7345 Washington Ave., Mount Pleasant WHEN: 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Wednesday-Friday The National Guard will be back in the area to perform testing at Festival Hall from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Aug. 4-6 and Aug. 18-20.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 17:23:32|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

KUNMING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Police in southwest China's Yunnan Province have busted a drug trafficking operation, catching five suspects and seizing more than 37 kg of drugs.

After receiving a tip-off, police in Nanjian County under Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture dispatched a task force to investigate the case.

On July 20, five suspects were nabbed in Jingdong County of Pu'er City, with two vehicles and 37.85 kg of suspected methamphetamine seized on the spot.

Further investigation is underway. Enditem
Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard fired a missile from a helicopter targeting a replica US aircraft carrier in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, state television reported on Tuesday, an exercise aimed at threatening the US amid tensions between Tehran and Washington.

The exercises  dubbed Prophet Muhammad 14th  were held near the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for a fifth of global oil output.

Footage of the war games broadcast on state television showed the Guards air and naval forces readying for an attack off the countrys southwestern coast.

Speedboats skimmed across the water in formation before ground forces fired cannons and a missile was launched from a helicopter, leaving a trail of smoke before appearing to smash into the side of the fake warship.

The Iranian maritime manoeuvre was staged at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the United States.

The amphibious transport dock ship USS John P Murtha (LPD 26) is seen as it transits the Strait of Hormuz [File: Kyle Carlstrom/US Navy via Reuters]

The US Navy condemned the irresponsible and reckless behaviour by Iran, calling it an attempt to intimidate and coerce.

The US Navy 5th Fleet, which is based in the Gulf state of Bahrain, also criticised Irans use of the replica aircraft carrier.

We are aware of the Iranian exercise involving attacking a mock-up of a vessel similar to a motionless aircraft carrier, its spokeswoman Commander Rebecca Rebarich said in a statement emailed to the AFP news agency on Tuesday.

The US Navy conducts defensive exercises with our partners promoting maritime security in support of freedom of navigation; whereas, Iran conducts offensive exercises, attempting to intimidate and coerce.

An MV-22 Osprey aircraft is seen on the deck of USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz [File: Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters]

While the coronavirus pandemic has engulfed both Iran and the US for months, there have been increasing signs of a confrontation as the US has argued for extend a years-long UN weapons embargo on Tehran that is due to expire in October.

The war games came only days after Tehran accused US fighter jets of harassing an Iranian commercial airliner over Syria.

At least four passengers on board the Mahan Air plane were injured in Thursdays incident after the pilot took emergency action to avoid the warplanes, Iranian authorities said.

Tensions have escalated between Tehran and Washington since US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the landmark Iran nuclear deal in 2018.

The two countries have come to the brink of direct confrontation twice since June 2019, when the Guard shot down a US drone in the Gulf.

Their animosity deepened after Irans most prominent general, Qasem Soleimani, was killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport in January.

One of the most recent confrontations was in mid-April, when the US accused the Guard of using speedboats to harass its warships in the Gulf.
Prosecutor demands 5.5 years in jail for former head of Russian Authors Society

 City news agency Moskva, Kirill Zykov

15:43 28/07/2020

MOSCOW, July 28 (RAPSI)  A prosecutor on Tuesday asked the Presnensky District Court of Moscow to sentence ex-Director General of the Russian Authors Society (RAO) Sergey Fedotov to 5.5 years in jail in a case over embezzling more than 762 million rubles (over $10.5 million at the current exchange rate), RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

Moreover, the prosecutor demanded 4.5-year jail terms for his mother and ex-deputy director of the organization Vera Fedotova and ex-employee Anzhela Ageikina, ex-CEO of the Service Operation Company Svetlana Temesheva and her husband VolodiyNazgashvili each.

Investigators believe that Fedotov and other defendants transferred the authors royalty payments to the fake accounts and then cashed the money.

Fedotov also admitted embezzlement of 12 million rubles during payment of legal services that had not been provided to the Society. The trial is held under a special procedure, without examining evidence, as the defendant has pleaded guilty.

In December 2018, Moscows Tverskoy District Court ordered the accused persons to be placed in detention. Investigators believe that they transferred the authors royalty payments to the fake accounts and then cashed the money.

In June 2017, Fedotov was convicted in his first embezzlement case and sentenced to 1.5 years behind bars.

As previously reported, employees of the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service (FSB) have revealed a fraud scheme over illegal alienation of RAOs property. Damage caused to the RAOs property has been estimated at 500 million rubles (over $7 million at the current exchange rate). The defendant pleaded guilty.

In December 2017, he was released on parole.
New Delhi, July 28 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday said cannot look at one part of the statement and question the integrity as it junked pleas to remove former Uttar Pradesh DGP K.L. Gupta as a member of the inquiry commission set up to probe the Vikas Dubey encounter case.

The petitioners cited Gupta's statements in the media supporting police action.

A bench comprising Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, Justice A.S. Bopanna and Justice V. Ramasubramanian told the petitioners there is a retired Supreme Court judge and High Court judge on the panel besides Gupta. "Why are you worried? Why are you casting aspersions on them? Do not do this" the Chief Justice told advocate Ghanshyam Upadhyay, one of the petitioners who moved the court seeking a court-monitored probe into the encounter of Dubey and his aides, and also sought reconstitution of the probe panel.

Upadhyay, citing news reports, contended that Gupta has already given a clean chit to the officers involved in the encounter in an interview. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the UP government, argued that Gupta had said let the inquiry happen, as a petition is there and the court will decide the matter.

The Chief Justice said that Gupta is not taking sides in the controversy. "We cannot change this person like this because of the apprehensions. You are only looking at one part of it", the bench told the petitioner.

Upadhyay claimed Gupta has justified and supported the version of the police, and alleged that he is biased. The Chief Justice replied "What is your interest in having another officer appointed?" Another petitioner in the matter Anoop Awasthi submitted that he has also filed a plea to remove Gupta from the panel and cited his statements in the media.

The Chief Justice said, "In a trial also you first take the chargesheet and you accept it. Accepting does not mean you believe it. A right-minded person who reads the whole statement will not believe this man is biased." After a hearing on the matter, the apex court dismissed the petitions.

On July 22, the apex court accepted the appointment of a three-member inquiry commission headed by former top court judge Justice B.S. Chauhan into the encounter killing of gangster Vikas Dubey, and asked the commission to submit its report within two months to the court and the Uttar Pradesh government.

"We direct that the notification constituting the Commission and incorporating the Terms of Reference as approved by us, shall be issued immediately. The Commission shall sit at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh and start functioning within a period of one week from today," said the bench also comprising Justices Bopanna and Ramasubramanian.

The other two members of the probe commission are retired judge of Allahabad High Court Justice Shashi Kant Agarwal and former Director General of Police K.L. Gupta.
The Turkish government has admitted Istanbul could be yet another venue to be added to the 2020 'corona calendar'.

The latest confirmed additions to the schedule are the Nurburgring, Portimao and Imola, taking the calendar up to 13 races and counting.

"We are pleased that we continue to make strong progress in finalising our plans for the 2020 season," said F1 CEO Chase Carey.

While Formula 1 will not travel to the American continents in 2020, F1's Middle Eastern venues are expected to be added to the end of the current schedule.

And Turkey, having last staged a race at the popular Istanbul Park venue in 2011, could become yet another 2020 host.

The country's government has announced that under the "presidential auspices of the Republic of Turkey, the Istanbul Park race circuit continues to work for inclusion on the Formula 1 race calendar for 2020".

F1 is hoping its eventual calendar adds up to 18 races, even though the sport admits that travelling to the US, Brazil and Mexico is not possible "due to the fluid nature of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic".

"The cancellation was not surprising for us, but we cannot accept the reasons for it," Brazilian GP promoter Tamas Rohonyi is quoted by Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper.

Even the forthcoming Spanish GP is under a cloud, with the population in nearby Barcelona currently suffering through a resurgence of the virus.

Italy, though, will host no fewer than three grands prix - at Monza as usual, but also at Ferrari-owned Mugello and the former San Marino GP venue Imola.

"It is a great satisfaction," said Angelo Sticchi Damiani, president of Italy's national motorsport authority Aci.

"The world is now realising that Italy is the only country in the world with three circuits approved for Formula 1, thanks to years of great passion for this sport," he told Rai radio.

(GMM)
A woman's wife has now become her husband but the couple vowed to stay together while he transitions from female to male.

Blayr Batchelor, 27, married her then wife Kai-De Batchelor, 31, four years ago at an idyllic beach-side wedding in Florida, where they are both from.

However, their lives changed forever almost two years ago when assistant manager Kai-De came out as transgender to her wife.

Despite her shock at the revelation, Blayr vowed to stick with her soulmate as he began his transition and the pair, from Florida, now say the experience has brought them closer than ever.

Kai-De began taking testosterone in May of this year, shortly after the couple celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary.

Blayr Batchelor (left), 27, married her then wife Kai-De Batchelor, 31, four years ago at a beach-side wedding in Florida, where they're from. Kai-De then came out as transgender in 2018 and has been on testosterone treatment since May. Pictured: The couple on their wedding day

Despite her shock at the revelation, Blayr vowed to stick with her soulmate as he began his transition and the pair, from Florida, now say the experience has brought them closer than ever. Pictured left and right: The couple earlier this month

Blayr, who is a hairstylist, said: 'I don't care if Kai-De is a boy or girl. I just love Kai-De.

'I know transitioning is what's going to make him happy.

'It took me a while to process it at first as we had been together for five years at the time and Kai-De was always a confident lesbian.

'I never thought he was struggling. We stayed together through staying open and connected. If I have questions, we sit down and talk together.

'It has brought us closer than we were before because we're talking through are feelings more.'

The soul mates first met in 2013 through mutual friends, while Blayr was working as a waitress at Hooters in Louisiana and Kai-De was living in Alabama.

Despite their idyllic romance, deep down Kai-De was struggling with a secret he had kept hidden for almost 30 years

Blayr, who is a hairstylist, said: 'I don't care if Kai-De is a boy or girl. I just love Kai-De. I know transitioning is what's going to make him happy. It took me a while to process it at first as we had been together for five years at the time and Kai-De was always a confident lesbian.' Pictured left: The couple earlier this month and right, after a recent hair cut for Kai-De

Blayr initially ignored Kai-De's attempts to strike up conversation by text and the pair only met in person after he made the four-hour journey by car to her restaurant in Louisiana to confess his love for her in summer 2013.

Blayr moved in with Kai-De in Alabama a month after meeting and the lovebirds wed in April 2016 at a last-minute beach-side ceremony in Pensacola, Florida.

Despite their idyllic romance, deep down Kai-De was struggling with a secret he had kept hidden for almost 30 years.

He eventually confessed to Blayr by text on her birthday in September 2018 that he was transgender.

The soul mates first met in 2013 through mutual friends, while Blayr was working as a waitress at Hooters in Louisiana and Kai-De was living in Alabama. Pictured left: Shortly after their wedding and right, in June

Blayr is now sharing their unique love story on her Instagram @thebatchelors420, in a hope of inspiring other couples where one partner is transitioning to stay together.

And despite changing genders, unlike many people in her situation Kai-De has no plans on changing her birth name.

He said: 'It's still new for me to get called "he" or "him", but many people accidentally called me sir before I came out.

I've been known as Kai-De for 31 years and have no plans of that changing.

'I kept it because it's the most trans name I could possibly have been given.

'I don't know how people would take it if I suddenly wasn't Kai-De any longer.'

The soul mates, from Florida, first met in 2013 through mutual friends, while Blayr was working as a waitress at Hooters in Louisiana and Kai-De was living in Alabama. Pictured: The day the couple met

Blayr initially ignored Kai-De's attempts to strike up conversation by text and the pair only met in person after he made the four-hour journey by car to her restaurant in Louisiana to confess his love for her in summer 2013. Pictured left: A year after getting married and right, earlier this month

Kai-De said: 'I was terrified about telling anyone the truth. I was worried I would be rejected.

'When I finally told Blayr it was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. It's one of those things that I have always known.

'When I was four of five, I said I would get surgery to be a boy, but people told me I was being silly and was just a tomboy.

'I was groomed me to make me fit into a girl's world and I thought that was the word I had to live in.

'Being a lesbian seemed like the only option.'

Kai-De is seen above before and after starting testosterone treatment
Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary warned yesterday that more pay cuts and job losses could be in the pipeline if the health emergency caused by the pandemic continues into winter.

Speaking after Europe's largest airline posted a 95pc drop in revenues to 125m for the three month to June, Mr O'Leary also said the company would be going to court this week to challenge the Government's "green list" of safe countries for travel without quarantine on return.

Lockdowns and pandemic travel restrictions pushed the budget airline to losses of 2m a day and it carried just half a million passengers during the period, compared to 41.9m people in the corresponding period in 2019.

More than 99pc of Ryanair's fleet was grounded between mid-March and the end of June thanks to the pandemic and it has laid 250 workers off already.

"We cannot rule out that there will not be further pay cuts and job losses, if things get worse," Mr O'Leary told a call for financial analysts after the earnings were announced.

"We have made significant progress negotiating pay cuts but if Covid-19 continues into winter and certainly into the summer of 2021 we will have to revisit job losses," he added.

The airline had over 3.9bn cash at June 30, as the group moved quickly from mid-March to preserve cash, cut costs, cancel share buybacks and defer all non-essential capital expenditure.

It is now at break even levels on a cash flow basis.

Ryanair has been vocal in its objections to restrictions on travel both here in Ireland and in the UK and is calling for freedom of movement between the State and the rest of the European Union rather than a prescriptive list.

"Instead the government has produced a green list of 14 countries, four of which have no direct flights from Ireland. We don't believe there is a scientific basis for it," Mr O'Leary said.

"We will be challenging that in the courts later on this week," he added.

Since July 1 the carrier has resumed flights across most of its route network.

It expects to operate approximately 40pc of its normal July schedule, rising to circa 60pc next month and, it said, "hopefully" 70pc in September.

However, it has massively reduced its passenger traffic estimates for the year, down to 60 million from an original target of 150 million.

Mr O'Leary described the decision by the UK government to add Spain to its quarantine list from midnight on Saturday as "a badly managed over reaction."

Any restrictions should have been implemented on a regional basis, or in the form of limiting flights from Catalonia where there has been a surge in cases, he said.

"However, we have become used to the UK mismanaging Covid and it is something we have to deal with."

Shares in Ryanair lost just over 4pc in afternoon trading, while Easyjet and Aer Lingus-owner IAG - both of which have a large presence in the Spanish market - were down 9pc and 7pc respectively.

Davy analyst Stephen Furlong expects Ryanair to make a 738m loss this year and to return to profit next year.

"We retain our 13.5 price target," he said.
New Delhi, July 29 : More troubles for Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's elder brother Agrasain Gehlot seems to be coming up as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned him for questioning in fertilizer scam case.

According to top ED sources, the agency has asked Agrasain Gehlot to appear before it on Wednesday at its office in the national capital.

Last week, the financial probe agency carried out searches at 13 locations including the residential and official premises of Gehlot and others in Rajasthan, West Bengal, Gujarat and Delhi.

The ED searches were carried under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

The ED has filed a case under the PMLA based on a Customs Department complaint and charge sheet in the alleged fertilizer scam case.

According to ED officials Anupam Krishi, a company owned by Agrasain Gehlot was involved in exporting Muriate of Potash (MoP) fertilizer, which is banned for exports. MoP is imported by Indian Potash Limited (IPL) and distributed among farmers at subsidised rates.

According to the officials, Agrasian Gehlot was an authorised dealer for IPL and between 2007-09, his company bought MoP at subsidised rates and instead of distributing to farmers sold it to few other companies, who in turn exported it to Malaysia and Singapore in the guise of industrial salt.

The searches comes in the backdrop of a political crisis in Rajasthan after the rebellion by then Deputy Chief Minister and PCC President Sachin Pilot, who was sacked from these posts on July 14.

The case was unearthed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence in 2012-13. The BJP had raised the issue in 2017.
Gwyneth Paltrow almost worked with Brad Pitt on one of his biggest hit films.

During a chat with Rob Lowe on his Literally podcast that debuted Monday, the 47-year-old actress shared that she was up for the role of Susanna in the 1995 film Legends Of The Falls which would have cast her Henry Thomas' fiancee and then Pitt's lover, but she lost it to Julia Ormond.

'I really wanted it,' said the mother-of-two who went on to date Pitt when she played his love interest in Se7en, which came out that same year.

Stories from the Nineties: Gwyneth Paltrow almost worked with Brad Pitt on one of his biggest hit films. Seen in July 2019 in Paris

That could have been her: During a chat with Rob Lowe on his Literally podcast on Monday, the 47-year-old actress shared that she was up for the role in the 1995 film Legends Of The Falls as Pitt's lover, but she lost it to Julia Ormond

So much chemistry: Ormond's character falls for Pitt who is the wild child of the family

The Oscar-winning actress dated Pitt from 1994 until 1997 and for a while they were even engaged.

Gwyneth told Lowe that when she was younger she tried hard to get the films she wanted but it didn't always work out.

Another example was the 1995 movie Sabrina, which is a remake of 1954 classic that starred Audrey Hepburn as Sabrina Fairchild, a chauffeur's daughter who grew up with the wealthy Larrabee family.

That role was also snapped up by Ormond, who co-starred with Harrison Ford and Greg Kinnear.

They fell for each other anyway: 'I really wanted it,' said the mother-of-two who went on to date Pitt; seen in 1996

Their shared film: They went on to co-star in Se7en, which came that same year; far right is Morgan Freeman

For his part, Lowe said he lost plenty of meaty roles too like the one Timothy Hutton landed in 1980's Ordinary People.

And he also said he was offered the role of McDreamy played by Patrick Dempsey in Grey's Anatomy. That one Rob seemed to regret a lot as he said Patrick has made a whopping $70M off that part.

'Rob, you're not supposed to talk about money,' said Gwyneth to her longtime friend Lowe.

Lost chance: Another example was the 1995 movie Sabrina, which is a remake of 1954 classic that starred Audrey Hepburn as Sabrina Fairchild, a chauffeur's daughter who grew up with the wealthy Larrabee family. That role was also snapped up by Ormond, who co-starred with Harrison Ford

This is the same interview where Gwyneth told Rob that she learned how to perform oral sex from his wife, which made headlines instantly.

Also on the show Paltrow said she feels uneasy about the 'advantage' children of famous parents have in Hollywood.

The Politician actress admitted her actor parents, Blythe Danner and the late Bruce Paltrow, 'refused' to let her into the public eye before she turned 18.

And she believes it is vital to raise her and ex-husband Chris Martin's children, Apple, 16, and Moses, 14, to have a strong work ethic and not to rely on their famous name.

Shucks: For Rob's part, Lowe said he lost plenty of meaty roles too like the one Timothy Hutton landed in Ordinary People. Hutton with Mary Tyler Moore

Hard luck: And he also said he was offered the role of McDreamy played by Patrick Dempsey in Grey's Anatomy. That one Rob seemed to regret a lot as he said Patrick has made a whopping $70M off that part. Dempsey seen with Ellen Pompeo

'That's why I think it's so important ... to raise a kid that has a work ethic and whose values are aligned with yours or with their own sense of who they are, etc, because the truth of the matter is the doors can be opened for you, but if you think about all the people who try and it doesn't happen,' said the Iron Man actress.

The Goop founder has never wanted Apple - who has a job in a clothing store - or Moses to be spoiled and thinks the best she can do is instill strong values in them.

She said: 'As a parent you think, all I can do for these kids is teach them right from wrong and teach them what work is.

'I've really tried not to just hand them things.'

Not spoiling them: Paltrow also told Lowe she believes it is vital to raise her and ex-husband Chris Martin's children, Apple, 16, and Moses, 14, to have a strong work ethic and not to rely on their famous name

Her mommy sense: 'That's why I think it's so important ... to raise a kid that has a work ethic and whose values are aligned with yours or with their own sense of who they are, etc, because the truth of the matter is the doors can be opened for you, but if you think about all the people who try and it doesn't happen,' said the Iron Man actress

Gwyneth - who is married to Brad Falchuk - is very proud of her children and can't wait to see what they go on to achieve.

Speaking on podcast Literally! With Rob Lowe, she said: 'I think, it's really been interesting to be [Apple's] mother, because as she's come into her own, it's almost like, you know, it's like watching her harness her own power with every passing year, and I'm just like, "What is this child here to do?"

'She's so bright and so funny... she's hilarious.

Get a job kids! The Goop founder has never wanted Apple - who has a job in a clothing store - or Moses to be spoiled and thinks the best she can do is instill strong values in them. She said: 'As a parent you think, all I can do for these kids is teach them right from wrong and teach them what work is. 'I've really tried not to just hand them things'

'And Moses is so unique and so deep and like such an old soul -- and also really talented. Like, scarily talented.'

The 47-year-old star admitted she won't let the teenagers have public social media accounts and they 'understand' her rules.

She said: 'I won't let them be public on any social media or anything like that, I try to keep them out of the public eye as much as possible.

'You know, now it's different, 'cause kids are like, "Can I have a YouTube channel?" and I'm like, "No, you can't. Absolutely not."'

Proud of her mini me: 'I think, it's really been interesting to be [Apple's] mother, because as she's come into her own, it's almost like, you know, it's like watching her harness her own power with every passing year, and I'm just like, "What is this child here to do?"'
KYIV -- Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has left the post of presidential envoy in the trilateral contact group on resolving the ongoing conflict between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian armed forces in the countrys east.



President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said on July 28 that Kuchma had decided to end his activities in the group. The office did not give any reasons for the decision.



Kuchma, who ran the country between 1994 and 2005, served as Ukraine's presidential envoy in the trilateral group consisting of representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from 2014 to 2018.



On June 3 last year, days after Zelenskiy was inaugurated as Ukraine's president, Kuchma returned to the group that has been involved in negotiations on a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine's eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, known jointly as the Donbas. Some parts of the region have been under the control of Kremlin-backed separatists since April 2014.



The armed conflict in Donbas started after Russia forcibly annexed Ukraine's Crimea region in March 2014. Kyiv and Western governments have accused Moscow of armed support for the pro-Russian separatists.



Russia insists it has nothing to do with the conflict, saying that some "volunteers" from Russia may have gone to fight in the Donbas.
Attorney General William Barr is set to testify before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday for the first time in his year-and-a-half long tenure as the nation's top law enforcement official.

Democrats hope to grill him over a long list of controversies and his repeated interventions in matters of interest to President Donald Trump.

Barr's appearance follows more than a year of stand-offs and delays -- he hasn't appeared before any congressional committee since May 2019 when he testified to a Senate panel on his handling of former special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russia's interference in the 2016 election -- later declining to appear before the House.

Since then, outrage among Democrats on the committee has only grown over Barr's refusals to hand over documents or responses to their inquiries into episodes that they argue show clear politicization of the Justice Department under Barr's watch.

Democratic committee sources told ABC News the members plan to highlight how they believe Barr's actions have benefitted Trump and his reelection campaign over the national interest, on everything from policing and the role of federal law enforcement in national protests, to the commutation of longtime Trump ally Roger Stone's sentence and handling of former national security adviser Michael Flynn's case. In recent days the panel held a prep session for members to prepare for Barr's first appearance before the committee.

According to an opening statement released by the Justice Department Monday evening, Barr appeared ready to strike a tone of defiance amid Democrats' attacks.

"Ever since I made it clear that I was going to do everything I could to get to the bottom of the grave abuses involved in the bogus "Russiagate" scandal, many of the Democrats on this Committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that I am simply the President's factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions," Barr is expected to say. "Judging from the letter inviting me to this hearing, that appears to be your agenda today."

Story continues

PHOTO: Roger Stone, former campaign adviser to President Donald Trump, arrives for his criminal trial on charges of lying to Congress, obstructing justice and witness tampering at U.S. District Court in Washington, Nov. 6, 2019. (Tom Brenner/Reuters, FILE)

Late last month, two current officials in the department appeared before the committee to outline allegations of political interference in the DOJ's antitrust division, as well as Barr's move to overrule career prosecutors' sentencing recommendation for Stone.

MORE: Justice Department releases Stone clemency grant after inquiry from judge

The Justice Department disputed the accounts of both whistleblowers, John Elias and Aaron Zelinsky, as "hearsay" and Barr has insisted his decision to recommend a lighter sentence for Stone was in no way tied to the president -- despite Trump's tweet congratulating Barr just hours after the prosecutors on the case resigned over his intervention. Trump later commuted the entirety of Stone's sentence.

Barr will also likely face questions over his handling of the firing of former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman in June.

Earlier in the month Berman testified behind closed doors to the committee in detail about his ouster, raising issue -- in particular -- with how Barr sought to offer him alternative positions in the administration as a means of securing his resignation, while handing over temporary control of the office to an ally, the U.S. attorney in New Jersey Craig Carpenito as the president's permanent nominee Jay Clayton awaited confirmation before the Senate. After a dramatic weekend showdown, Berman agreed to leave the office after he said Barr had decided to "respect the normal operation of law" and hand over control of the office to Berman's deputy Audrey Strauss.

PHOTO: Geoffrey Berman, former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, arrives for a closed door meeting with House Judiciary Committee, July 9, 2020, in Washington. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP, FILE)

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler argued Barr's efforts to "entice" Berman to step down seemed like a "kind of quid pro quo" that "is awfully close to bribery." Nadler and other Democrats on the committee have suggested that impeachment of Barr remains on the table, despite the fact it would almost certainly face a similar end as Trump's acquittal following his impeachment earlier this year.

MORE: Fired US attorney Geoffrey Berman appears before Congress

Nadler's committee already voted to hold Barr in contempt last year for defying congressional subpoenas over the failed effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

Republicans on the committee have sought to defend Barr from what they have described as a fishing expedition by Democrats who are frustrated with Barr's criticism of the FBI and its investigation into Trump's 2016 campaign. Barr has questioned the basis for the Russia investigation and last year tasked U.S. Attorney John Durham with probing any potential criminal wrongdoing by law enforcement officials involved in its early stages.

In May, Barr ordered the criminal case against Trump's former national security adviser to be dismissed after Barr said a separate review uncovered evidence undercutting the legitimacy of the FBI's investigation. But the district judge overseeing Flynn's case, Emmet Sullivan, did not immediately accept the DOJ's motion, and Sullivan is currently appealing an order from a panel on the higher D.C. Circuit Court that recently demanded he agree to throw out the case.

MORE: Michael Flynn's case ordered dismissed after appeals court overrules judge

A source familiar with Republicans' strategy leading up to the hearing said their members, by contrast, will likely look to focus attention on policing and the response to unrest that has in some cases sparked violence in cities across the country.

PHOTO: Attorney General William Barr speaks as President Donald Trump listens in the Oval Office of the White House after receiving a briefing on July 15, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Pool via Getty Images)

In recent weeks, Trump and Barr have dispatched a surge of federal officers to cities around the country seeing spikes in violent crime, in addition to dozens of federal agents sent to Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, whom Barr said would be tasked with protecting federal property amid protests. The deployments have drawn scrutiny from Democrats and local officials in the cities, who have questioned both the the administration's legal authorities and the tactics employed by officers on the ground.

A Democratic committee counsel said the majority would press Barr on the deployments "designed to give the president the graphics he wants with his campaign," along with his recent comments about expanded mail-in ballots leading to widespread fraud, which were criticized by election security experts.

Last week, the DOJ's inspector general Michael Horowitz announced he had opened an investigation into conduct by agents in Portland, as well as the department's controversial response to unrest in Washington, D.C., and the push against mostly peaceful protesters on June 1 that made way for Trump's photo-op in front of a church next to Lafayette Square.

MORE: Trump calls tear gas reports 'fake news,' but protesters' eyes burned just the same

Nadler and other Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Barr soon after the incident demanding answers about his role in ordering the protest's dispersal. Barr has denied that the order to move back the protest was connected to Trump's photo-op.

Separately on Tuesday morning, the House Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing titled, "Unanswered Questions About the US Park Police's June 1 Attack on Peaceful Protesters at Lafayette Square." Acting Chief of the U.S. Park Police Gregory Monahan and District of Columbia National Guard Maj. Adam DeMarco are slated to testify.

Democrats to grill AG Barr over interventions in matters of interest to Trump originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Duty-free store operator Laox will close half of its locations in Japan, the company said Tuesday, seeing no recovery on the horizon from a plunge in Chinese, South Korean and other Asian tourists.

The 12 stores marked for closure include locations in Fukuoka, Hokkaido and Okinawa. Some of the shops had been shut temporarily in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

The news adds to the list of cutbacks in Japan's service sector during the pandemic, from restaurant closures to the bankruptcy filing by a major apparel brand.

Laox, whose parent is Chinese retailer Suning.com, once thrived by catering to Japan's crowds of visitors from China and South Korea. Inbound tourist spending accounted for around one-third of its revenue. But the coronavirus-induced travel slump has forced the chain to rethink its business model.

The company in June outlined an early retirement program equivalent to about half of its staff, not including subsidiaries. This followed an announcement on job cuts in February. After the store closures, Laox plans to focus more on products geared for Japanese consumers, such as food.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday called for an investigation into a charity concert that drew a packed crowd of partiers in the tony beach village of Southampton this past weekend.

"It wasn't just a gross violation of public health rules. It was a gross violation of common sense," Cuomo said during a press conference call. "We're taking that very seriously."

Cuomo said the town of Southampton could face penalties for violating public safety measures. He said the village leadership will be involved in the inquiry by the New York State Department of Health.

"This is a law. There are civil penalties. There are criminal penalties," he said. "The town of Southampton is going to have a problem. I don't know how they approved that permit."

Cuomo urged local governments to step up and "do their job." Many bars and restaurants in New York City are continuing to receive citations for violating the state's coronavirus measures, according to the governor. On Monday, 26 citations were issued in Manhattan and 16 in Queens, he said.

"I need the NYPD to do a better job in New York City," he said.

The concert, called Safe & Sound, was a drive-in charity event that included performances from the Chainsmokers. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, who moonlights as D.J. D-Sol, opened the concert.

The event quickly came under fire after video footage on social media showed crowds of people not social distancing, wearing masks or following public health measures.

According to the event description, the concert was "designed to maximize social distancing." All venue staff were required to wear masks and attendees were encouraged to wear masks when going to restrooms.

The tailgate area allowed up to 600 vehicles, and guests weren't allowed to leave their designated area unless using a restroom. The event also restricted each vehicle to hold a maximum of four guests in a sedan and six in a SUV.

The organizers said in a statement they adhered to all state and local health mandates, and the concert followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines.

Goldman Sachs released a statement Tuesday saying that Solomon "agreed to participate in an event for charity in which the organizers worked closely with the local government and put strict health protocols in place." The company said Solomon performed early and left before the show ended.

"The vast majority of the audience appeared to follow the rules, but he's troubled that some violated them and put themselves and others at risk," the investment bank said in a statement.
The U.S.-Taliban deal signed Feb. 29 was touted as the best hope for peace in Afghanistan after decades of war. While the U.S. and NATO have already begun reducing their troop strength, the second phase of the deal  which calls for talks between the Taliban and the Kabul political leadership  has been delayed. Much of the delays have been as a result of Kabuls reluctance to free several hundred of the Taliban prisoners identified for release as part of the agreement.
3 1 of 3 Milford Police Department Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Milford Police Department Show More Show Less 3 of 3





MILFORD  Police are asking the publics help to identify a suspect in the theft of more than $9,000 in jewelry from a Connecticut Post Mall store last month.

Police Monday posted two photos of the suspect on the departments Facebook page.
A month after applications closed for a program recognizing workers who braved COVID-19 to provide goods and services to Manitobans, the heroes have yet to receive a single cent.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/7/2020 (541 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A month after applications closed for a program recognizing workers who braved COVID-19 to provide goods and services to Manitobans, the heroes have yet to receive a single cent.

The province announced the $120-million Risk Recognition Program in mid-May and rolled out details on June 2, setting an application deadline of June 18. It later broadened the program's scope, increasing the income threshold, and gave applicants until June 29 to come forward.

Government spokeswoman Andrea Slobodian said Monday the Finance Department is "working hard" to ensure payments are deposited in applicants' bank accounts "as soon as possible."

She could not estimate when the deposits might occur, but said, "It won't be weeks."

The Manitoba government says more than 90,000 people applied for the program. It's still sifting through the applications.

Each applicant stands to receive about $1,300.

"The province continues to review the many applications received  this includes resolving errors such as incorrect data," Slobodian said in an email to the Free Press.

"The review/follow-up process needs to be completed before (the) Finance (Department) deposits any funds, as it needs an exact count since the amount will be divided equally between eligible recipients. We want to do this once and do it correctly," she said.

The federal-provincial program was announced in April by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to top up the wages of low-income Canadians working in essential services during the pandemic. Ottawa provided $3 billion of the estimated $4 billion in program costs, with the provinces picking up the rest. Program details were left with the provinces.

Originally, Manitoba said it would make payments to part- and full-time employees who worked at least 200 hours in the 10-week period between March 20 and May 29 and earned no more than $2,500 per month. It later expanded the qualifying threshold to a total pre-tax employment income of less than $5,000 per month, or $12,500 in total during the 2.5 month eligibility period. Overtime pay was excluded from the calculations.

"The review/followup process needs to be completed before (the) Finance (Department) deposits any funds, as it needs an exact count since the amount will be divided equally between eligible recipients. We want to do this once and do it correctly."  Andrea Slobodian, Government spokeswoman

Officials with two local unions, each with thousands of eligible members, say it's unfortunate that the government couldn't be more specific as to when workers can expect their payments.

"We are, of course, concerned about the delay. The bigger issue is the uncertainty  a timeline with an end date for a decision and... payment could have been communicated to the public and any applicants," said Elizabeth Carlyle, national representative with the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

Jeff Traeger, president of UFCW Local 832, said he is not surprised there was some delay in getting payments out, considering the way the program is structured.

But he said workers should have been kept in the loop.

"I do think if government isn't going to get their act together and get the money out tout de suite then they definitely should come out and tell Manitobans why it's taking so long," Traeger said.

Even though the UFCW leader was on the government's advisory committee for the program, he has received no updates about the timing of payments.

"I'm hearing from you that 'it's not going to be weeks' for the first time," he told the Free Press Monday.

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"I do think if government isn't going to get their act together and get the money out tout de suite then they definitely should come out and tell Manitobans why it's taking so long."  Jeff Traeger, president of UFCW Local 832

UFCW Local 832 represents more than 17,000 members working in food production, food-distribution warehousing, grocery retail, hospitality, security, personal care and assisted living. It estimates more than half of its membership would have been eligible to apply.

Brianne Goertzen, a Child Care Coalition of Manitoba board member, said the program payment delay is "deeply troubling," considering child-care workers "have gone above and beyond during the pandemic."

"This is just another indication of the lack of respect for the child-care sector as a whole," she said.

Child-care centres are stretched for cash and the province has been dragging its feet in guaranteeing necessary operating funds are in place to make sure they're up and running at full capacity, Goertzen said.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
Thought Machine, a London, UK-based cloud native core banking technology firm, raised an additional $42m in funding for its series B funding round.

This round extension, which will close in early August, is led by Eurazeo Growth, with participation from British Patient Capital and SEB. This brings the rounds total value to $125m following $83m secured in March led by Draper Esprit and joined by Lloyds Banking Group, IQ Capital, Backed and Playfair Capital.

The company intends to use the funds to invest in growing its business at international scale  hiring key roles in APAC, US and Australia  while continuing to develop new products and features, including its upcoming advanced payments solution.

Led by Paul Taylor, CEO and Founder, Thought Machine has built Vault, a modern cloud native core system for banks constrained by legacy technology. Its API-driven solution enables banks to innovate and offer customized products and personalised customer experiences. Over the last months, the company has scaled up international hiring, adding 100 employees in the first two quarters of 2020 across three regions. Thought Machine has also expanded product compatibility to all major cloud providers and will be making major client announcements in the coming months. The company, which has opened its second largest office in Singapore, serves SEB, Lloyds Banking Group, Atom bank and Standard Chartered Bank as clients.

FinSMEs

28/07/2020
Ryan German has kept 40 employees working at his restaurant, Caffe Gelato, in Newark, Delaware.

The Paycheck Protection Program provided a lifeline to help him through an unprecedented spring as the coronavirus pandemic tore through the country. The loan, now exhausted, covered seven weeks of payroll. But the restaurant is facing down an unknown future with extended restrictions on operations and changing consumer preferences.

"We need another injection of capital," German said. "We're trying every angle to stay open but facing a lot of headwinds."

The Italian restaurant is located near the University of Delaware and operated throughout the pandemic. It started up a business to deliver groceries and home meal kits to customers' homes. Its staff also began to pick up outdoor services like power washing, to keep everyone working, German said.

But uncertainty remains its biggest challenge, German said. The university has shifted to remote learning and it's unclear when students will return to campus. The restaurant's catering business for weddings and events is on hold.

"The thing that's missed are the big holidays. The big, busy, busy days in restaurants don't exist," German said. "While we may be able to get 50% of sales on any given day, we are missing Mother's Day, Easter brunch, University of Delaware graduation."

Business owners like German are eagerly awaiting the next round of stimulus to see what's done with the PPP. The program still has $131 billion remaining in funding as of July 17, and businesses who have not yet applied for a loan can do so through Aug. 8.

A proposal from Senate Republicans revealed Monday set aside $190 billion for PPP loans. It also allows small businesses with fewer than 300 workers that have seen revenue fall by more than 50% to apply for a second round of PPP aid, and authorizes $100 billion for loans to seasonal businesses and companies in low-income census tracts that can show a revenue reduction of more than 50%. Those areas have been disproportionately impacted by the Covid-19 crisis.

Recent data from the National Federation of Independent Business finds the majority of members surveyed (71%) have now used their entire PPP loan, with the remaining 29% not far behind. In addition, about a fifth of small business owners either have or anticipate having to lay off employees after using the PPP loan, and almost half of borrowers anticipate they will need additional financial support in the next 12 months.

What's more, about a quarter of respondents said they would have to close their doors if the current economic conditions don't improve in the next six months, with an additional 22% reporting they will not be able to operate for longer than seven to 12 months under current economic conditions. More than half are not anticipating near-term problems as they are better financially situated.
As we move closer to the November election, the myth of black victimization continues to be fostered by Democrats and their feeble nominee for president. There was a time in politics when candidates would make insinuations about their opponents' policies or their lack of character. A Democrat might say his Republican opponent didn't vote for or support a certain type of civil rights legislation while not mentioning that the bill referred to was merely a frivolous attempt at virtue-signaling by radicals within the extreme left. Even though the bill was doomed to fail in both the House and Senate, the Democrats who voted for it were then on record as compassionate people  the implication being that Republicans are not.

However, in 2020, an election year that the left wing must win if its members are to complete their Marxist revolution in the USA, insinuations about opponents are not nearly enough. Therefore, whenever Joe Biden sticks his head out of his underground bunker and deigns to say a few words about his candidacy, he must take full advantage of the illusion called "systemic racism." To make an impact worthy of a headline, he called Trump the country's "first racist president." Thanks to a corrupt media establishment, we live in an era in which Mark Twain's witticism rings true: "a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on." Consequently, the president, whose policies have reduced the unemployment rate for blacks and other minorities to the lowest in history, is, in some bizarre transmogrification of logic, called a racist.

On the contrary, if he were a racist, he'd be doing what Democrats have been doing for generations: keeping blacks in virtual bondage in order to convince them that racism is systemic. How else can they get their votes unless they make them believe that their only hope is to vote for Democrats? To continue the lie, Biden has a section in his platform called "a plan for investing in our communities through housing." It sounds altruistic enough until you read the fine print. To cut to the chase, it means that a Biden administration will endeavor to change the zoning rules in communities across the country. Their reasoning will be that not enough minorities can afford single-family homes in the suburbs, hence the suburbs are practicing racial discrimination. By the way, this was first promulgated by the Obama regime. The far left, led by Biden, is now doubling down on that reasoning.

According to the "plan," those suburbs, which don't have enough minority ownership of homes, must agree to change the zoning and allow much more affordable housing  i.e., increased density through multi-family apartment buildings. In other words, why shouldn't we have low-income apartment buildings towering over single-family homes in suburbia? The plan implies that those zoning laws are keeping black families from growing up in a crime-free environment with access to better education. Notwithstanding the fact that zoning laws exist to decide what can be built in a town, not who can live there, Biden's plan suggests that it's all about race. Zoning protects all residents by making sound decisions that positively impacts their future. For example, you wouldn't want a bomb factory to be built next to a school or a ten-story apartment building next to single-family homes.

First of all, according to the Federal Fair Housing Act (FFHA) of 1968, it's already illegal to discriminate against minorities in housing. So what does this have to do with equality? Well, to rational, honest people, nothing. But to the leftist, redistributionist mindset, a person's inability to afford a home is tantamount to economic discrimination. With that logic, why should you live in a home worth $300K while others live in mansions costing millions? Your neighbor drives a Rolls while you navigate around town in a Hyundai? Grab the pitchforks! The truth is that minorities are moving into the suburbs on their own, and they have as much interest in prudent zoning laws as the majority has. In addition, speaking about majority, The Atlantic, an American lifestyle magazine, which is not exactly a conservative publication, recently wrote, "[T]he majority, 52 percent, of African Americans in the nation's top 100 metro areas live in the suburbs of those regions." Given that stat, a fair question would be, what is the problem? The answer is that Democrats disregard facts and continue to promote myths.

What we see in Biden's policies are more radical attempts to divide the country by race and class warfare and make them another part of the Democrat Party control machine. The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agency under Obama took away grant money from any communities that he deemed guilty of not having enough minority homeownership in their area. Those areas could also be sued by the feds if they refused to show "improvement." With some powers that weren't granted to him under the FFHA, Obama added language called "Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing" (AFFH), which would radically undercut the political and economic independence of the suburbs. It would allow bureaucrats in HUD to control zoning laws  the placement of transportation and business districts and the drawing of school districts. Democrats have made a decision that the suburbs are not providing them with enough votes, so they must be punished.

The good news is, thanks to President Trump, Obama's AFFH rule, which he created out of thin air and basically says communities are guilty of segregation by statistics if there are not enough minorities in the area, has been rescinded. The bad news is, if Biden is elected, that rule will be back in effect, and the destruction of the suburbs will proceed as planned.
WASHINGTON - Reflecting presidential candidate Joe Bidens careful positioning, a key Democratic Party committee on Monday approved a 2020 platform that presents a liberal outline for the country but rejects many policies pursued by the lefts most outspoken progressives.

The document, approved by Democrats platform committee on a voice vote, now goes to more than 4,000 Democratic delegates who will vote by mail on whether to approve the document ahead of the partys August convention, which will take place almost entirely online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The final draft endorses universal health care coverage but, as Biden does, calls for a public option insurance plan to compete in existing private insurance markets as the next step. Committee members overwhelmingly rejected amendments to more explicitly endorse the single-payer insurance model like what Bernie Sanders pushed.

In a lengthy passage demanding an overhaul of the criminal justice system, Democrats decry the effects of a decadeslong war on drugs. But committee members rejected an amendment calling to legalize marijuana. The same section demands an end to police violence against Americans, but it does not endorse some activists calls to defund the police.

In total, the platform is part of Bidens effort to balance the centre-left establishment that has been his political home for decades with the partys ascendant progressive wing represented by high-profile figures like Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In fact, the drafting process included a series of policy committees that Bidens campaign convened with Sanders campaign after the Vermont senator finished as runner-up in the nominating fight. Ocasio-Cortez was included in that process, while Warren has emerged as a key policy adviser who talks regularly with Biden.

Bidens goal has been to avoid the kind of rancour that hobbled Hillary Clintons general election campaign four years ago, even as President Donald Trump and Republicans lambaste the former vice-president as captive to a radical left.

The platform committee voted repeatedly Monday not to modify language that would push the party closer to embracing Sanders Medicare for All health insurance model, sticking with Bidens preferred language promising to build on the 2010 health care law signed by President Barack Obama.

Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and former health commissioner for the city of Detroit, argued that the coronavirus outbreak demonstrates why the country needs a single-payer system like Medicare for All rather than just an expansion of the Affordable Care Act.

We have an opportunity to go bigger because this moment demands it, El Sayed said, arguing for an amendment that was eventually defeated.

Cecilia Munoz, who was director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Obama, countered that the platform was already shaping up to be the most progressive ever proposed by Democrats. She also noted that it incorporated the work of the Biden-Sanders task forces that had laboured to craft language to appeal across the Democratic spectrum.

Im proud and thankful that the Biden-Sanders unity task force has outlined such a progressive statement on our partys views on this issue, Munoz said. I believe we should retain that language, the language that they negotiated.

On climate, the platform calls for rejoining international alliances of nations agreeing to sharp reductions in carbon pollution. Biden, after working with progressives, agreed explicitly to the goal of making the nations energy grid carbon neutral by 2035. That detail does not appear in the platform. The document also makes no mention of some Democrats Green New Deal legislative proposals that includes even more aggressive timelines.

The partys discussion of law enforcement reflects the nations reckoning with systemic racism.

Our criminal justice system is failing to keep communities safe, the draft reads, adding that police brutality is a stain on the soul of our nation. The platform calls for strict national standards governing the use of force and for the nation to reimagine policing for the benefit and safety of the American people, with the U.S. Justice Department taking a more active role in collecting statistics on police violence and investigating departments where it is alleged. But the document stops short of activists calls to defund the police, reflecting Bidens position on the matter.

Trump has sought to link Biden to the activists calls for eliminating traditional law enforcement.

Still, Democrats draft language on policing and law enforcement is significantly sharper than a much shorter section on the matter in 2016. That platform called for improving police-community relations but emphasized: Across the country, there are police officers inspiring trust and confidence, honourably doing their duty  demonstrating that it is possible to prevent crime without relying on unnecessary force. They deserve our respect and support.
Herman and Popp host weeklong far-right summits  which Der Spiegel said serve as Petri dishes of brainwashing, conspiracy theorizing, and calls for violent action  in Cape Breton four times a year. The pair has denied links to Eckhardt, whose professional website called Canada a refuge from the European Unions increasingly authoritarian and runaway administrative machinery.

The report in Germany  contains many false statements, Herman and Popp said in an email to the Halifax Examiner. We have nothing to do with Frank Eckhart, the real estate agent from Cape Breton. Andreas last had seen Mr. Eckhart about 15 years ago, Eva does not know the man at all and has never had any contact with him.

Nova Scotians have called on the provinces attorney general to address the creeping threat of right-wing ideology.

Polish communities in our region stand in solidarity with all communities in denouncing hatred, extremism, racism and anti-Semitism, said Tom Urbaniak, chairperson of the Atlantic Canada district of the Canadian Polish Congress. I think most Cape Bretoners of all backgrounds viscerally oppose hatred and extremism. If any far-right groups are seeking to build sanctuaries or clusters on our island to promote or cultivate a frightening alternative universe, they are definitely looking in the wrong place.
UK Board 10th result 2020: The Uttarakhand Board of Secondary Education (UBSE) has declared the Class 10 board results today (29 July, Wednesday) at 11 am.

UK Board 10th result 2020: The Uttarakhand Board of Secondary Education (UBSE) has declared the Class 10 board results today (29 July, Wednesday) at 11 am.

The results are now available on the boards official website  ubse.uk.gov.in. The result were announced in the presence of state education minister Arvind Pandey and chairman of the board RK Kunwar.

Students can check their Class 10 exam results by entering their details in the widget below:

Steps to check UK Board Class 10th result 2020:

Step 1: Go to the official website - ubse.uk.gov.in

Step 2: On the homepage, click on the result tab

Step 3: You will be redirected to a new page, where you will have to choose UBSE 10th Result 2020

Step 4: Enter your roll number and other login credentials and press Submit

Step 5: Your result will be displayed on the screen. Download and take a printout for future reference.

Around 1.4 lakh students took the Class 10 exams, which were to be held between 3 to 25 March. However, some exams were postponed due to the nationwide coronavirus lockdown and were held between 22 and 24 June. The evaluation of answer sheets was completed by 15 July.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- There were 1,687,113 consumers in China taking delivery of the locally-produced PVs (including car, SUVs, MPVs and minibuses) in June, a year-on-year decrease of 6.1%, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). However, luxury brands still defied the overall downward trend with their deliveries jumping 27% from a year ago to 246,236 units, versus the 5.1% and 17.3% decline in the sales of mainstream JV brands and China's self-owned brands.

Regarding the year-to-date performance, luxury brands still outpaced the overall market and moved ahead of the other two sectors. Retailing 1,053,442 units in total, premium brands just posted a slight growth of 0.6%, while the overall market, mainstream JV brands and China's indigenous brands saw their deliveries slid 22.4%, 20.7% and 31.2% respectively.



As for this year's monthly sales, luxury vehicle sector only recorded sales drop in February and March, where none of the sectors dodged the heavy hit cast by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pandemic was ebbing, the retail sales of luxury vehicles have been mounting up month by month from April to June.



Let's take a look at how specific models performed. The CPCA's data show that there were five premium car modelsthe Audi A6, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, C-Class, the BMW 5 Series, the Audi A4 whose respective deliveries all exceeded 10,000 units in June. Notably, the occupants of the first three places all posted robust year-on-year growth of over 20%.



Within the premium SUV unit, the Germany's Big Three all took one spot on the top 3 list by June retails and none of them failed to surpass the 10,000-unit threshold.

The blooming growth in premium vehicle sales might be linked to various incentives the central and local governments rolled out to spur auto consumption badly bruised by the coronavirus pandemic.

In February, Foshan, a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, became China's first one that launched detailed policies in 2020 to boost automobile shopping, including affording buyers with subsidies worth 2,000 yuan ($287) to 5,000 yuan ($717) per vehicle. Then, Guangdong provincial government clearly noted that cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen would be encouraged to further ease the restriction on releasing license plates.

From then on, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Hebei, Shandong, Sichuan, Jilin and other regions all rolled out their policies to speed up the auto sales recovery.



(All New Audi A6L, photo source: FAW-Volkswagen)



Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the CPCA, said the growth in luxury brands' sales made a significant contribution to the rebound of the overall auto market. Partially thanks to the upward movement in luxury vehicle sales, China's PV market gained this year's first-time year-on-year increase in May. Besides, the 27% growth and roughly 14% of market share reflect an increasingly greater contribution luxury vehicles offered to the overall market. The stimulus effects and consumers' car shopping desire have been better conveyed in the luxury auto market.

Aside from the policy reason, other factors associated with the phenomenon perhaps include consumers' preference for upscale models in auto replacement and the sales promotion offered by luxury car dealers.

China's motor vehicle population reached roughly 360 million units by the end of June 2020, of which 270 million units are automobiles, according to China's the Ministry of Public Security. With the vehicle parc climbing in the country, the demands from the consumers who want to replace old cars or buy more cars are creeping up as well.

(Audi A3 Sportback, photo source: FAW-Volkswagen)

At the same time, it is becoming easier for users to get a luxury vehicle as automakers have added some entry-level models priced at around 200,000 yuan ($28,673) to their product lineups. For instance, BMW launched the base version of the 1 Series priced at 231,800 yuan ($33,232) and the starting price of the Audi A3 stands at only 193,200 yuan ($27,698). Meanwhile, the growing penetration rate of auto finance & loans are favorable to the market expansion of premium cars.

Moreover, quite a few luxury brands have offered substantial discounts, enticing more consumers to buy luxury cars.

Let us take the 2020 Audi Q5L which hit the market in last November. Its prices for delivery have been cut by up to 100,000 yuan ($14,337) in some regions, which enables a consumer to get an Audi Q5L by paying roughly 300,000 yuan ($43,010). The prices of the Audi A3 available for delivery have been reduced to as low as around 150,000 yuan ($21,505).

(Volvo S60, photo source: Volvo Cars)



Compared to the so-called first-tier brands (Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz), the second-tiers even acted more aggressively. After using discounts, a consumer can pay less than 250,000 yuan ($35,840) to drive a Volvo S60, Cadillac CT4 or CT5 home.

The likes of Jaguar, Lincoln, Acura and Infiniti have all provided generous discounts.

The rise in premium vehicle sales and market share portends that the share of JV brands and Chinese self-owned brands have been further encroached. On the other hand, the current incentives mainly focus on spurring the demands of auto replacement, so that the needs of car-free consumers are somewhat downplayed. Some industry insiders suggest that the government should make more efforts to prompt car-free consumers to buy their first car by means of such measures as lowering the purchase tax on vehicles with low displacement, and boosting the demands of rural residents. It is of great significance to expand domestic auto sales and maintain a sustainable consumption.
Haas team boss Guenther Steiner does not expect to achieve good results during the two races at Silverstone. According to the Italian, this is mainly due to the disappointing performance of the Ferrari engine which is mounted in the back of the Haas.

Little joy at Haas

Steiner thinks that Haas is currently in battle with Alfa Romeo and Williams in the rearguard and he thinks the shape will vary from circuit to circuit. "We know it is very power sensitive Silverstone. So there will be no joy", he says to Motorsport.com.

"We are all mixing it up and I think it's a little bit track depending who is on top of it: is it high speed, is it low speed?" he said, when asked about the battle between the three backmarker teams.

Fight with Alfa Romeo and Williams

Steiner thinks Haas belongs in the middle of the Alfa Romeo, Haas and Williams group. The U.S. team knows it has to make good use of its chances when they occur on track. During the GP of Hungary the team made an excellent call by bringing the two cars in for dry weather tyres before the race start. This allowed Kevin Magnussen to score his first point for the 2020 team.

"It's fairly difficult for us to get points at the moment, and especially some of the races which are coming up, they're not in our favour", Steiner continues.

"We always try to do our best and maybe we can find some opportunity like we get [in Hungary], you never know. If you give up you never find the opportunity, so you need to keep on trying to find something. But you don't expect it", concludes Steiner.
SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Consumer Federation of California (CFC) has endorsed Proposition 15, the Schools & Communities First initiative, which will close corporate property tax loopholes to generate billions for California's schools, community colleges, and local governments  all while protecting homeowners, renters, small businesses, and agriculture. Prop 15 also implements new small business tax cuts for those hardest hit by this crisis.

For decades, corporations have shifted their tax burden onto the backs of consumers and homeowners. Despite arguing that these corporate giveaways help consumers, the savings big corporations get from their special interest tax loopholes don't benefit California consumers. The Los Angeles Times stated that "the burden of property taxation shifted decisively onto residential owners from commercial and industrial properties over the last four decades."

Simply put, corporate tax loopholes benefit big corporations, not everyday Californians. In order for California to fully recover from our crisis and reinvest in the future, these corporate property tax loopholes should be closed, as they are in Proposition 15.

"This whole myth that big corporations and wealthy landlords pass down the savings they get from their special interest tax loopholes is absolutely false, and the fact that opponents of Proposition 15 keep trying to mislead voters on this issue says a lot about their campaign," said Consumer Federation of California Executive Director Robert Herrell. "Prop 15 is exactly what California needs to recover from our current crisis and invest in the future. Now more than ever we can't afford corporate tax loopholes at the expense of our schools, our kids and our local communities."

Polling has consistently shown that Californians overwhelmingly support closing corporate tax loopholes to reclaim investments for schools and local communities. In addition to PPIC polling showing a 7 point increase in support for the measure between November 2019 and April 2020, polling of the ballot language that voters will see in November showed 58% support from likely California voters.

According to a recent analysis just 10% of the biggest, most valuable commercial and industrial property owners would generate 92% of the new revenue, illustrating the fact that the largest corporations in the state have gotten a free ride. Moreover, Proposition 15 exempts owners of commercial and industrial properties with combined value of $3 million or less. 90% of all commercial and industrial property in California is worth $3 million or less.

Since 1960, the non-profit Consumer Federation of California has been a strong advocate for consumer protection laws and regulations.

SOURCE Consumer Federation of California

Related Links

http://www.consumercal.org


Demonstrators kept up a call Tuesday for the Mobile Police Department to release its policies and procedures to the public, questioning a 90-day administrative review as a delaying action.

About a dozen demonstrators participated in a gathering in front of Government Plaza before Tuesdays meeting of the Mobile City Council; several participants went on to address the council.

What do you need 90 days so you can go write up a new policy and say This is it? said Antonio Moore, whod organized the demonstration as an action of the group Mobile For Us.

Tuesdays developments follow extensive discussion of police affairs at a July 9 council meeting. A number of topics were brought up in a discussion motivated by the Memorial Day death of George Floyd during a police encounter, and subsequent nationwide protests and demonstrations.

Mayor Sandy Stimpson said the same day that he was assembling a task force and giving it 90 days to review police and other city procedures; Police Chief Lawrence Battiste expressed reluctance to release well over 800 pages of departmental policy, saying it could confuse the public rather than help.

Prior to the council meeting, demonstrators chalked slogans on the sidewalk in front of Government Plaza and displayed signs with slogans such as 90 days is too much time to give answers you already have.

Tuesdays demonstration and council meeting yielded no sign of change in the administration position that a 90-day review would precede any action on releasing police policies and procedures. The meeting did, however, reveal some ongoing differences of opinion over a council-appointed citizens committee on police affairs.

Several years ago, after the fatal shooting of Black teen Michael Moore during a police encounter, the council went to great lengths to formulate an ordinance establishing such a committee. The ordinance ultimately was passed but the effort never seemed to bear fruit. More recently, following Floyds death, some members of the public have called again for such a committee to become active in Mobile.

Council President Levon Manzie said that while the legal framework was in place and the previously established committee had included well-intentioned citizens, it had indisputably fizzled. One cause, he said, was that some citizen members appointed by council members had proved to be inflexible in their views.

You had those who thought the police could do no wrong, in any instance, even with body camera footage, and you had those that thought law enforcement could do no right, Manzie said. And that type of composition will lead to what happened, which that everybody resigned, it went nowhere and it was not effective.

Council member Joel Daves said at least one member had refused to go through required training intended to give members an understanding of police procedures. Other members couldnt be counted on to show up for meetings. He was reluctant to appoint another representative, he said, unless his fellow council members assured him things would be different this time. Thats where I am on it, he said.

Council member Bess Rich said that no matter what happened, the council wouldnt be able to give the committee the power to issue subpoenas.

Manzie urged council members to go ahead and nominate committee representatives. Everybodys accepted the fact it was a failure, he said, urging a try and try again mentality.
Why does Netanyahu's Lukid Part fond of President Donald Trump?





We are not planning to annex any part of Palestinian territory but we are planning to claim our sovereignty, Director of Foreign Affairs at Israel's Likud Party, Mr Eli Vered Hazan told The New Normal of Truth Side TV. Joining by Nilantha Ilangamuwa, former editor of Sri Lanka Guardian, from his house in Jerusalem, Mr Hazan, a strong supporter of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to justify every action of the incumbent government which is under fire due to a series of protests in locally and internationally as well as lack of majority in the Knesset. However, Mr Hazan did not hesitate to give us his frank opinions on reports issued by the international community including, The United Nations over Israel and President Donald Trump's favourable policies on Israel.









Mr Eli Vered Hazan is also a lecturer at the S.I.D College and a regular guest and contributor to Israeli and international news channels. He has served as an adviser to the Minister of Education; Parliamentary adviser to the Chairman of the Likud faction and the Coalition; and a publicist for Israel Hayom Newspaper. Studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Eli has completed a German language course at the University of Vienna, Austria.





Watch Here;
















The vigilance of the Volta Regional Directorate of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has yielded dividend as two suspects peddling repackaged orthodox medicine as herbal product for patronage by unsuspecting public have been busted.



They are Joyce Domie, 45, and James Nyakpo, 35, who were arrested at information centre at Sokode, a suburb of Ho Municipality.



Mr Gorden Akurugu, Regional Director of FDA, briefing the Ghana News Agency said, the duo were picked up upon tip-off of peddling varieties of unregistered medicinal products.



He said a number of unregistered drugs were seized from them, which contravenes section 118 of the Public Health Act, ACT 851, which stipulates that a person shall not manufacture, prepare, import, distribute, supply or exhibit for sale of a drug, herbal medicine product, cosmetic or any household chemical substances without approval from FDA.



Mr Akurugu said one of the drugs have been identified as Dexamethasone, which is a corticosteroid used in a wide range of health conditions for its anti-inflammatory and immune-suppressant properties and at the moment used in the management of COVID-19, strictly for patients on ventilators.



However, he said the suspects were selling this drug as pain-killers christened locally as dompe dompe to innocent customers, and noted that the drug could trigger serious health complications, if consumed by the public without prescription by a medical officer, saying this drug is given at certain conditions, which the peddlers lacked.



Mr Akurugu said the FDA had stepped up its surveillance in the region to reduce the surge in the activities of quacks peddling a number of unregistered food or medicinal products to the public.



The duo have been handed over to the police for further investigations and subsequent prosecution.



Other unregistered medicines discovered by the team include, Jae Mawu Herbal product, Paa Appiah capsules, Yesu Tease Manpower, Nana Appiah prostrate capsules, Paa Appiah Kooko capsules, Nana Amoakuwaa G Capsules, Blac Salt and oil and others.

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.

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"Theres a bunch of things you can do with it," says Justin Godsey, the listing agent for an Arizona ghost town that hes representing. "Its open to a lot of possibilities."

Listed for $1.25 million, the mostly defunct 40-acre town of Cleator, AZ, includes a functioning bar, general store, and 20 other structuresnamely, the towns original homes.

"There are residents who live there and prefer to live off the grid," says Godsey. Those hardy souls might pique the interest of a buyer in search of an income stream.

The current tenants are renting on a month-to-month lease, and as the listing details put it, "The population is low, but it's a friendly bunch."

Another potential income opportunity? The purchase also includes mining rights for the large expanse of desert acreage.

"The federal rights do transfer with the sale of the property, along with the possibility of renaming the town," says Godsey.

Established in 1864 as a gold-mining town, it was called Turkey Creek, but its post office closed in 1954.

The population dwindled, and thats when it becamefor lack of a better worda ghost town, says Godsey.

When James P. Cleator bought the town in 1925, the tiny desert burg took his name. Relatives of the founder still own Cleator, but are now ready to hand it over to a buyer with a vision, says Godsey.

Locals may know Cleator as a stop en route to off-roading spots nearby. The city of Prescott lies an hours drive north, and Phoenix sits about 90 minutes south of Cleator.

Aerial view of Cleator, AZ realtor.com

Bar realtor.com

General store realtor.com

Aerial view of Cleator, AZ realtor.com

Aerial view of Cleator, AZ realtor.com

Aerial view of Cleator, AZ realtor.com

What could a seller do with this ghost town? Well, given the interest in off-roading in the area, Godsey suggests building an off-road park.

If its used for commercial [purposes], or as a destination, keeping the history of the ghost town" could be a great idea, he says. "Maybe turning it into a ghost-town bar? Or maybe somebody wants to turn it into a spa-getaway destination?

While the bar is currently operated by a third party, the towns new owner could renegotiate the contract, and potentially, find a new operator.

Godsey says that based on his research, he believes that red tape could surface for a buyer trying to incorporate an honest-to-goodness town.

Resurrecting the city would require fire, police, and other municipal services.

Im doing a lot of back-end work behind the scenes to answer those questions, he says.

Interest isnt coming only from Arizonaor even just the Southwest.

Im fielding questions from all over the country, he says. Ive had some pretty exciting conversations with people.

Whoever snaps this up will already be in love with the idea of rural lifebecause theres no city nearby.

Its definitely remote. Its 11 miles off I-17. Youre basically going down a dirt road. Youre surrounded by the Bradshaw Mountains and Prescott National Forest, says the agent.

What's priceless is the chance to resurrect this slice of forgotten history.

"The opportunity of owning a town is so rare, says Godsey.

In fact, a promotional video he created (his second career is in film production) has received nearly 100,000 views already. Could the town's next owners have spotted their chance? We'll keep an eye on it.

The post A Real-Life 'Schitt's Creek'? Arizona Ghost Town Available for $1.25M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Tue, July 28, 2020 14:15 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669e6695 2 World US,Australia,bilateral-meeting,bilateral-relation,China Free

The United States and Australia on Monday opened top-level talks in which they are expected to seek a common front amid soaring tensions between Washington and Beijing.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper welcomed to Washington their Australian counterparts, Marise Payne and Linda Reynolds, for two days of talks that will include a news conference on Tuesday.

The annual talks come as President Donald Trump's administration takes an increasingly hard line against China on issues from defense to human rights to trade.

The United States last week ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, alleging espionage, and Pompeo declared that decades of Western engagement had built a "Frankenstein" Beijing.

Australia has fought alongside the United States in every major conflict since World War I and its right-leaning government has largely backed the Trump administration's approach.

Australia recently followed the United States in rejecting Beijing's sweeping claims in the South China Sea and has backed calls led by Pompeo for an international inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Critics accuse Trump of attacking China in an election year to distract from his own handling of the coronavirus in the United States, which has suffered the highest death toll of any country.

Payne and Reynolds, in a statement before their trip, said they would self-quarantine for 14 days on their return in line with Australian requirements for all international travelers.

The United States and Australia on Monday opened top-level talks in which they are expected to seek a common front amid soaring tensions between Washington and Beijing.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper welcomed to Washington their Australian counterparts, Marise Payne and Linda Reynolds, for two days of talks that will include a news conference on Tuesday.

The annual talks come as President Donald Trump's administration takes an increasingly hard line against China on issues from defense to human rights to trade.

The United States last week ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, alleging espionage, and Pompeo declared that decades of Western engagement had built a "Frankenstein" Beijing.

Australia has fought alongside the United States in every major conflict since World War I and its right-leaning government has largely backed the Trump administration's approach.

Australia recently followed the United States in rejecting Beijing's sweeping claims in the South China Sea and has backed calls led by Pompeo for an international inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Critics accuse Trump of attacking China in an election year to distract from his own handling of the coronavirus in the United States, which has suffered the highest death toll of any country.

Payne and Reynolds, in a statement before their trip, said they would self-quarantine for 14 days on their return in line with Australian requirements for all international travelers.
Inside Hook

The ongoing saga of the release date for Christopher Nolans Tenet is beginning to look as complex as the plot of one of his films, with twists and turns to match. Last week, Warner Bros. announced that the films planned mid-August release date was no longer in the cards, and that an announcement about a new plan was forthcoming. Industry observers hotly debated what might come next: could the film be pushed back into 2021? Could Nolan be persuaded to support a simultaneous theatrical and digital release of the film? Could Tenet become an HBO Max exclusive?

In the end, none of those options came to pass. (Though its worth saying that nearly every sentence in here has an implicit for now at the end of it, given the number of alterations made to the films release schedule so far.) According to a report by Zack Sharf at IndieWire, Tenet will open in 70 countries in late August, followed by a limited U.S. release in early September.
Caterers of funerals, weddings, corporate conferences and other events have been left out of the Chancellor's 4.1billion tax cut for the hospitality industry, official guidelines suggest.

The 70billion UK events industry has been on its knees as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, with caterers seeing months of event bookings vanish overnight and some seeing takings fall close to 95 per cent.

But despite the industry being put into 'hibernation' since the March lockdown caterers appear to have been sidelined by the Treasury, according to documents published by HMRC detailing the 15 per cent cut in VAT.

The trade body representing independent caterers called on the Treasury to clear up any confusion around the tax cut and not to once more overlook an industry employing more than 100,000 people.

Companies which supply food to funerals, weddings and corporate events could have been left out of the Treasury's VAT cut for the hospitality industry, official guidance suggests

Hot and cold cafe and restaurant food, hot takeaway food, non-alcoholic drinks and takeaway tea and coffee all had the VAT slashed on them from 20 per cent to 5 per cent on 15 July until January to ease the pressure on the hospitality industry.

But the taxman's documents stated 'any supplies of food and drink that are supplied as part of a supply of catering services for consumption off-premises', which include food supplied for wedding receptions or corporate conferences or cooked to deliver to a dinner party, 'remain standard rated'.

Caterers told This is Money they felt they had been left out in the cold.

Sue Rathmell, VAT partner at accountants MHA MacIntyre Hudson, told This is Money a caterer who cooks offsite in their own home or place of business and then takes food to a wedding or other event venue would have to charge 20 per cent VAT, rather than 5 per cent.

She said: 'Hot food provided in this way would be covered by the reduced rate, but cold food appears to be subject to 20 per cent VAT. If this is the case, then some caterers may be unfairly excluded from the VAT reduction announced by the Chancellor.'

Many caterers supply both hot buffet options and cold canapes and sandwiches.

Dan Fox, commercial director at the Nationwide Caterers Association, said while the new rules had yet to be fully clarified around catering, the signs did not appear good for a sector which he said had already been overlooked.

We call on the government for the parameters of this VAT cut to be made explicitly clear and for confirmation that catering for private events such as weddings and funerals will benefit from the reduction in VAT to 5 per cent Dan Fox, Nationwide Caterers Association

He told This is Money: 'It is very disappointing and frustrating that it appears that catering for private events such as weddings and funerals do not benefit from the VAT reduction.

'This means that thousands of small, independent, family businesses who have not been able to operate for four months due to the coronavirus crisis and still have significant restrictions on what they can do, will either have to charge higher prices for catering at weddings and funerals or have lower profits.

'The mobile and event catering industry employs over 100,000 people and contributes over 2billion to the UK economy, yet most of these businesses did not benefit from the hospitality grants and could be overlooked yet again.'

He added: 'We call on the government for the parameters of this VAT cut to be made explicitly clear and for confirmation that catering for private events such as weddings and funerals will benefit from the reduction in VAT to 5 per cent in the same way that other hospitality businesses will do.

'This is clearly the right and fair thing to do.'

If caterers do not pay the reduced rate, not only will their customers have to pay more at a time when hotels, pubs and restaurants can charge less, but businesses hit hard by months of usual trade disappearing over spring and summer will not be able to relieve the pressure on their margins by pocketing the tax cut.

'We're disproportionately more expensive'

Alix Caiger (right) told This is Money her West London-based catering company had seen turnover fall 85% due to the pandemic

Alix Caiger, 32, who runs the West London-based luxury catering company Caiger & Co, described the exclusion of the catering industry as 'infuriating', having previously been unable to claim previous support measures aimed at the hospitality industry like grants and business rate relief.

She told This is Money her turnover was already 85 per cent down on what it would usually be, with 15 weddings postponed until next summer and other events being cancelled as a result of the lockdown. Other caterers had seen their turnover fall as much as 90 to 95 per cent, she said.

Already struggling, she now has to compete with restaurants and other event venues which prepare their food on-site who can charge lower VAT and can benefit from the Chancellor's August food voucher scheme. This lets those eating out between Monday and Wednesday get up to 10 off.

She claimed being excluded from the Treasury's VAT cut had already proved a point of contention with some clients. 'We've had them ask why our VAT was 20 per cent not 5 per cent, we're disproportionately more expensive', she said.

Her calendar for the whole year had been cleared at the start of April, she said, having already pivoted to delivering frozen meals in the second week of March, while she began offering recipe boxes in May.

Caiger & Co usually cater for weddings of up to 200 people and other big events but these disappeared as a result of the coronavirus. Instead she resorted to delivering frozen meals

'This has given us a revenue stream', she said, 'but it's not equivalent to doing 15 events a week with big weddings'.

And even though government guidance has allowed weddings to go ahead with up to 30 people present and suggested conferences and corporate events could return by October, she currently only has small private events and weddings scheduled August and September.

'The size of the job is the difference, 150 to 200 people compared to 10 to 30', she said.

'We have no events scheduled for the foreseeable future'

Companies which supply working breakfasts and lunches aimed at businesses and cater for corporate events have also been devastated by the lockdown, the ban on indoor gatherings and a move towards working from home.

Family run 40-year-old Greater Manchester-based Impact Catering caters for corporate conferences in the city and usually works a lot with the University of Manchester, especially around graduation time.

Alix said other caterers had seen revenue fall as much as 95% on a normal year

But the lockdown led them to close its doors, furloughing several staff, after it decided the cost of switching to deliveries or offering takeaway service wasn't worth it.

One of its directors, Sarah Hamer, 58, told This is Money: 'Although we are primarily a business to business caterer, we do cater for weddings and private events so do feel quite unfairly disadvantaged in that we won't benefit from being able to offer cheaper catering packages to the public.

'Given that 99 per cent of our business clients are currently working from home and have no events scheduled for the foreseeable future we would have welcomed being able to offer our catering services to the public at a reduced and consequently more attractive price point.'

Her husband Gary, 59, also a director at the business, said he hoped come September there would be a return to 'some semblance of normality' with some business lined up.

What has VAT been cut on? The rate of VAT has been cut from 20% to 5% on the following food stuffs: 1. Hot and cold food for consumption on the premises on which they are supplied 2. Hot and cold non-alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises on which they are supplied 3. Hot takeaway food for consumption off the premises on which they are supplied 4. Hot takeaway non-alcoholic drinks for consumption off the premises on which they are supplied

He said the company had been doing odd jobs for regular clients and small business lunches but would normally cater for events and conferences of up to 200 people.

Sarah added: 'I'm not exactly sure why the new rules have failed to cover event hospitality but believe it would have been a very welcome and much needed stimulus to help businesses like ours get through the next few months.'

As well as seemingly sidelining the 70billion events industry, the Treasury's VAT reduction was previously criticised as a tax cut for chains like Wetherspoons rather than a lifeline for independent 'wet led' pubs which rely on selling alcoholic drinks, with the rate of VAT on alcohol kept at 20 per cent.

Tom Stainer, the chief executive of the Campaign For Real Ale, previously told This is Money it was 'disappointing' that VAT was not cut on beer and cider.

The rules also pose a logistical challenge for pubs and restaurants which will charge different VAT rates on different items on their menus.

This is Money contacted the Treasury for comment on the new VAT rules and the seeming exclusion of the catering industry but did not receive a response.
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Linkedin John Geddie and Aradhana Aravindan (Reuters) Singapore  Tue, July 28, 2020 17:00 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669f5cda 2 SE Asia Singapore,spy,China,US,US-China,US-China-tension Free

The case of a Singaporean caught spying for China in the United States has reawakened fears over China recruiting intelligence assets on an island state which has won trust among Western governments while keeping on good terms with Beijing.

Jun Wei Yeo, a 39-year-old academic who also goes by the name Dickson Yeo, pleaded guilty in a US court on Friday to acting as an illegal agent of Chinese intelligence. He will be sentenced in October and faces up to 10 years in prison.

Singapore's home ministry said in a brief statement on Sunday that it had been aware of Yeo's case since his arrest by US authorities in November, and he is receiving consular assistance.

Court documents show Yeo was lured into becoming a Chinese asset four years earlier while attending a forum in Beijing to give a presentation on Southeast Asian politics. He moved to the United States in January, 2019.

"One fool like this can get all Singaporeans suspected," academic and former Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan said in a Facebook post in response to the spy's case.

Initially claiming to represent China-based think tanks, Yeo's recruiters offered to pay him for political reports and information, but he learned later that some of his contacts were intelligence agents, the court records show.

Tasked with finding people with non-public information about politics, economics, and diplomacy, Yeo first focused on Southeast Asia, before switching to the United States.

When he moved to the United States his handlers gave him a bank card and told him to communicate with them using multiple phones to avoid detection.

Using a fake consultancy and business networking site LinkedIn, Yeo reached out to individuals, targeting those with financial or work troubles, and paid them to write reports.

Among those he lured was a civilian with high level security clearance working on a US military fighter jet program.

Yeo's former PhD supervisor at Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy was an ethnic Chinese US citizen, who was accused by Singaporean authorities in 2017 of being an agent of foreign influence for an undisclosed country.

Huang Jing denied those allegations, and while never convicted he had his residency pass revoked.

Now working in Beijing, Huang said he was shocked and glad Yeo had been caught, noting that he had an "obvious sense of insecurity and hunger for being somebody".

Two former classmates said that Yeo had dreamed of becoming a diplomat but felt he had been shunned by the Singapore establishment. Yeo could not be reached for comment.

Asia's Switzerland

The home ministry said investigations into Yeo "had not revealed any direct threat" to Singapore.

While Yeo may have drawn the line at betraying his own country, he was caught spying against the superpower with whom Singapore has the closest security ties, though the city-state is bound by its own rules to pursue a neutral foreign policy.

At loggerheads with the United States over trade and other issues, Beijing denied knowledge of Yeo's case on Monday and accused the United States of using espionage claims to smear China.

Deteriorating Sino-US relations hit a new low during the past week, as the United States closed China's consulate in Houston and China retaliated by seizing the US consulate in Chengdu.

Yeo's case reinforced concerns raised in Western security think-tanks that Singapore was a soft target for China to recruit well-educated ethnic Chinese assets whose passports grant them easy access to countries almost everywhere.

"People might be more suspicious of Singaporeans if there is a perception that Singapore is compromised," said Chong Ja Ian, a visiting Singapore scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute in Cambridge, Mass.. Chong said the incident may also make it more difficult for Singapore to walk the diplomatic tightrope between Washington and Beijing.

Often described as the Switzerland of Asia because of its wealth, international finance network and neutrality, Singapore is one of the most politically stable countries in a region where the United States and China have competing interests.

China is Singapore's biggest trading partner, as it is for many countries in Asia.

A report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in 2018 found Singapore universities had among the highest level of collaboration globally with researchers from the China's People Liberation Army (PLA).

And US-based think tank Jamestown Foundation last year said that China used business associations and other organizations in Singapore to spread propaganda about a "greater China" identity among Singaporeans, 75% of whom are ethnic Chinese.

Bilveer Singh of the National University of Singapore's department of political science, said the city-state's openness and strategic location has made it a hub for many countries to "acquire intel" and "agents of influence".

Yeo was "definitely not an isolated case," he said.

A Mexican researcher from another Singapore university, Duke-NUS, was arrested in the United States earlier this year for acting on behalf of Russia.

Reuters asked the home ministry for comment on whether Yeo was an isolated case and, among other questions, whether there would be any restrictions on academics coming from, or visiting China.

The ministry said it would not be commenting further.
Southern Missouri Bancorp (SMBC) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.76 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.52 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.81 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of 46.15%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this bank holding company would post earnings of $0.66 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.55, delivering a surprise of -16.67%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times.

Southern Missouri Bancorp, which belongs to the Zacks Financial - Savings and Loan industry, posted revenues of $26.85 million for the quarter ended June 2020, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 13.32%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $22.73 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates three times over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

Southern Missouri Bancorp shares have lost about 43.4% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's decline of -0.5%.

What's Next for Southern Missouri Bancorp?

While Southern Missouri Bancorp has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Story continues

Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Southern Missouri Bancorp was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.69 on $24.46 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $2.50 on $95.39 million in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Financial - Savings and Loan is currently in the bottom 21% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.



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LONDON (dpa-AFX) - St. James's Place (STJ.L) reported gross inflow of funds for the first half period of 7.3 billion, a decline of 2%, compared to 7.4 billion reported last year. Net inflow of funds of 4.5 billion, was slightly up from the prior year's 4.4 billion, reflecting strong retention of existing client investments. IFRS profit before shareholder tax for the six-months ended June 30, 2020 was 221.9 million compared to 57.3 million last year. IFRS profit after tax surged to 178.1 million from 45.8 million in the previous year. Underlying cash result was 114.4 million versus 125.1 million in the prior year period. Underlying cash basic earnings per share was 21.4 pence, down from the previous year's 23.7 pence per share. 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.
3 1 of 3 Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 3 of 3





BRIDGEPORT  A 17-year-old city youth will not only be tried as an adult on robbery and assault charges, his case will be open to the public.

Infante Lugo of Noble Avenue was arraigned Monday, charged with first-degree robbery and first-degree assault.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

By Ilhama Isabalayeva  Trend:

The Azerbaijani armys adequate response to Armenias military provocations caused the commotion in Armenia, Chairperson of the "Women of the XXI century" Public Union Mahira Amirhuseynova told Trend on July 28.

The acts of vandalism which are committed by Armenians in foreign countries testify to this, chairperson added.

"In relations with all countries, we put at the forefront a friendly and good-neighborly policy, Amirhuseynova said. Armenia is an occupier and the whole world knows it. However, if Armenia abandons its inhumane policy, withdraws its armed forces from the Azerbaijani lands, wants to live with us in peace and prosperity, we are ready to help it escape from the misfortune in which it fell through its own fault.

All the political teams that were in power in Armenia put the country's people in a difficult, depressing situation, chairperson said. Armenia has been isolated from the world, it is in a blockade. The economy of this country is extremely deplorable. By paying attention to the statistics, one can see that the Armenians are fleeing their country. Aggressive behavior, atrocities of Armenians abroad against peaceful and fair rallies of Azerbaijanis are illogical and incompetent."

Presently, Azerbaijan is fighting on two fronts, Amirhuseynova said. Modern information platforms today are shamelessly used by the hostile forces, malicious people and sometimes just envious and biased circles, that look to spread fakes, fabricated materials, she said.

The forces supporting Armenias occupation policy are guided by the principle "all is fair in war". I am glad that the majority of users of the Azerbaijani segment of social networks do not succumb to provocations, expose lies and slander, know how to distinguish good and evil and post truthful information about the origin of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Amirhuseynova said. Indeed, one of our main tasks is to bring to the world community the voice of truth, the demand for justice."
The Taliban announced Tuesday they wont carry out military operations in Afghanistan for three days during the Muslim holiday of Eid ul Adha that starts this weekend.

In a statement promising a brief respite to the fighting, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahed said commanders have been ordered not to carry out operations for three days and nights, but are allowed to defend themselves if attacked.

The statement also said Taliban fighters are not to fraternize with Afghan security forces personnel and neither side is to cross into the others territory.

The Afghan government welcomed the Taliban announcement and presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said Afghan security forces were ordered not to attack but only defend themselves.

The Taliban announcement follows a conciliatory message by leader Maulvi Hibatullah Akhunzada earlier Tuesday to mark the Muslim holiday. Both communiques come as Washingtons peace envoy returns to the region to try and jump-start negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

In his Eid message, Akhundzada said the Taliban doesnt seek to monopolize power in a future political makeup of Afghanistan. He also said they support education for all and are abiding by the peace deal signed with the U.S. in February. The lengthy message repeatedly references an Islamic government the Taliban seek to establish, without elaborating how it would be different.

U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was expected in the Afghan capital of Kabul, as well as in Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office. He was also expected in Islamabad, but there was some question about whether Pakistan was still part of his itinerary.

The U.S.-Taliban deal signed Feb. 29 was touted as the best hope for peace in Afghanistan after decades of war. While the U.S. and NATO have already begun reducing their troop strength, the second phase of the deal  which calls for talks between the Taliban and the Kabul political leadership  has been delayed. Much of the delays have been as a result of Kabuls reluctance to free several hundred of the Taliban prisoners identified for release as part of the agreement.

Kabul had claimed those Taliban prisoners were hardened criminals, guilty of major crimes.

But on Tuesday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he was ready to free the remainder of the prisoners, without specifying why the change of heart or if an agreement had been reached with the Taliban to substitute some of them, a proposal the Taliban earlier rejected.

Under the deal, Kabul is to release 5,000 Taliban and the insurgents had promised to free 1,000 government and military personnel. So far, Kabul has freed bout 4,000 and the Taliban nearly 800.

With this action, we look forward to the start of direct negotiations with the Taliban in a weeks time, said Ghani in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Ghani also called for a permanent cease-fire but the Taliban have consistently said they were ready to negotiate a cease-fire in the talks with Kabul  whenever they begin  and accused the Afghan government of attacking the Taliban in their homes.

Last week, the Taliban announced they were ready for talks with Afghanistans political leadership after the Eid al-Adha holiday, providing the last of the Taliban prisoners had been freed by then. The announcement followed one of the most significant shakeups in the Taliban in years.

The Taliban have stuck to their promise not to attack U.S. and NATO troops, but have carried out scores of attacks on Afghan military targets. The United States would like to see those attacks reduced or stopped.

The Islamic Emirate has fulfilled its obligations regarding signing an agreement with the United States ... and efforts toward launching intra-Afghan negotiations, said Akhunzada. It is now up to the other parties to determine how they utilize this opportunity.

The Taliban, whose regime was ousted in 2001 by the U.S.-led invasion, said they would allow girls to go to school and women to work, should they return to power. Under a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, girls were not allowed to go to school and women were barred from working.
Police, Officials Say Seeds Sent From China to US Homes a Brushing Scam

Authorities and police believe that packages sent to homes around the United States with mysterious seeds and Chinese writing might be linked to scam online reviews.

Officials in Utah and Virginia previously warned residents who received the packages not to plant the seeds, fearing they could be of an invasive species.

We have done some researching and it does appear that these seeds are tied with an online scam called brushing, the Whitehouse Police Department in Ohio wrote on Facebook of the strange seeds.

It added, A brushing scam is an exploit by a vendor used to bolster product ratings and increase visibility online by shipping an inexpensive product to an unwitting receiver and then submitting positive reviews on the receivers behalf under the guise of a verified owner. The department called on people who have received the seeds to contact them to dispose of them.

North Carolinas Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said Monday that the deliveries are probably linked to an international Internet scam.

How the scam works is that a seller trying to boost the ratings of their own products creates a fake email account to make an Amazon profile before buying the items with a gift card, shipping them to a random persons address. The owner of the account then is listed as a verified buyer after the package is delivered to the address, allowing them to write a review so that it gets a higher number of positive ratings. It then pushes their products higher on Amazon, according to James Thomson, a former business consultant for Amazon, reported the Boston Globe in 2018.

The Globe reported that a Massachusetts couple in 2018 kept receiving mystery packages from Amazon, including USB-powered humidifiers and dog collars.

In addition, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, citing officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, claimed the mystery packages of seeds being sent to unwitting recipients are a brushing scam.

While we have no reason to suspect at this time that these seeds were sent with ill intention, we want to take every precaution to be sure an invasive or otherwise threatening plant species doesnt take hold here, it said on Monday, reiterating that people shouldnt plant them and mail the items to the agencys address.

If one planted the seeds, they should [pull] up the plants before double bagging them and putting them in the trash. Its not a good idea to compost them, the agency said.

The incident made international headlines after Lori Culley, who lives in Tooele, told FOX13 in Salt Lake City that she received two small packages in her mailbox last week, adding that most of the writing was in Chinese. The packages label, however, said there were earrings inside.

I opened them up and they were seeds, Culley said, adding she never ordered seeds. Obviously theyre not jewelry. She said that the seeds were sent to at least 40 people around Tooele.
In his prime, Bill Herbert was a man of motion.

Walking was his thing. Hed walk to meet his brother for an early morning coffee and chocolate-dipped doughnut at Country Style, near Dixie Road and Lakeshore Road East.

On his days off, hed walk to a local bar to meet friends. After two beers, never more, hed amble home to his apartment, with a Saloon sign made of driftwood hanging in his living room, and fall asleep.

He was an early-to-bed, early-to-rise kind of guy, said his daughter, Terra Herbert.

In his elder years, living with dementia, Bill kept walking, even when he moved into the behavioural unit at Peel Regions Sheridan Villa, with an emotion-focused care model that gave Bill, now 79, the freedom to do his thing. Hed patrol the perimeters of the hallway, checking on women in their offices. Is everything OK? hed ask. When the nurses or social workers nodded yes, his eyes would shine.

Along came COVID-19 and, in early May, just as he moved onto a different floor, Bill tested positive. He was moved to the COVID unit with 12 other infected residents. Other than one day of drowsiness, Bill never really seemed sick.

He kept walking, an unwelcome pastime in a system now focused on rigorous infection control. Staff kept leading him back to his room, patiently donning and doffing fresh personal protective equipment, only to repeat a few minutes later when he emerged again.

Eventually, the message was received. In mid-June, two weeks after the outbreak ended, with no family caregivers allowed inside to help, Bill became depressed, staff said, and refused to leave his bed.

Mary Connell, the dementia adviser for the Region of Peel, said workers at the Mississauga home tried to get Bill on his feet again, but he would roll over in bed, his back turned and refuse to speak. She believes the loss of movement, the lack of circulation, at least in part, led to the blood clot in his left leg. Now Bill is in a wheelchair, his foot swollen.

When his daughter visited last Thursday, his eyes were flat, although he seemed interested in the chocolate-dip Tim Hortons doughnut she brought as a treat.

How did this happen? Herbert asked staff, 20 minutes into her visit, as her father grew restless. He never sits still.

Connell replied: What ended up happening, I think, in isolation is he just got tired of being told to go back into his room and then he just stayed in bed.

Bill grimaced. Connell leaned down to check his foot, which was swollen. His leg hurts, she said. Its quite cold compared to the other one.

Bills face was hard to read, his head down. It was time to take him inside.

Love you Daddy, Herbert said. She started crying.

Can I give you a hug? I love you Daddy. You be good, OK? Ill see you soon.

Its not unexpected that an older person forced to stay immobile would develop a blood clot, said Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics with Sinai Health System.

One of the common things we see is increased blood clots. People on long-haul flights who are not getting up and walking around are much more likely to get a blood clot, Sinha said.

With immobility itself, you have significant health implications, he said. Decreased oxygen to the brain, which makes it harder to think clearly, it can increase your risk of delirium, makes your cognition worse, less oxygen to your lungs, for example. You get less oxygen to your lungs and poor circulation.

Forced immobility and emotional isolation are documented in the long-term indicators that all nursing homes collect, as part of the Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) data collection tool.

In a recent Star story, Sheridan Villa said its long-term-care indicators from February to May, worsened depressive mood, unexpected weight loss, antipsychotic medication, pressure ulcers and falls, showed that residents were declining. Sheridans managers released the data to show the impact of isolation on residents. Sheridan, along with other Peel homes, has focused on the individual needs of residents using an emotion-focused care program called Meaningful Care Matters (formerly Butterfly).

In June, its most recent month of data, Sheridan Villas indicators for weight loss and falls show additional struggles for residents, while the data for mood, medication and pressure ulcers showed some improvement. Connell said those improvements are likely due to changes that allowed people to start leaving their rooms, seeing each other again and, starting June 18, getting outdoor visits with families.

Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, said residents who love to walk, such as Bill and others with dementia, are increasingly at risk as the system embraces the rigour of infection control, shutting out family caregivers who once played a significant role in the home, helping with exercise, eating and bathing.

Why arent the families allowed inside? Grinspun asked. Some homes are allowing essential family caregivers, but many have strict limits.

Grinspun is worried hospital protocols are starting to dominate long-term care. Of the 11 nursing homes that now have outside management (three under government orders and eight voluntarily) all are now managed by hospitals, according to the Ministry of Long-Term Care.

The philosophy of nursing homes is they are the home of the residents, she said. The philosophy of hospitals is I need to fix your infection. We likely have a clash here of philosophies.

She said she has heard of a few homes where nurses have been told to sedate residents who like to walk.

(Long-term care) nurses are refusing to give sedatives, psychotropic drugs, to people with Alzheimers who wander because that is what the residents do. That is what they do! And sedatives are not the solution.
More than one lakh COVID-19 tests were done in on July 26 as against just 72 on March 23, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Monday after the launch of a high-tech testing facility in Noida.

He said UP accounted for six per cent of the 6,000 tests conducted daily across the country in April and by July that figure rose to 15 per cent and his government aims to take that to 20 per cent soon, according to an official statement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in the day launched three such ICMR facilities in Noida, Kolkata and Mumbai via video-conference that are able to test more than 10,000 COVID-19 samples daily.

Adityanath, who attended the virtual event along with his counterparts from Maharashtra and West Bengal, expressed gratitude to the prime minister for the initiative, which he said would help speed up tests and also safeguard lab technicians from contracting the infection.

"Uttar Pradesh, under the guidance of the prime minister, is rapidly ramping up COVID-19 tests. On July 26, 1,06,000 COVID-19 tests were done in as against just 72 on March 23. Tests are being done in the state via the RT-PCR, TrueNAT and antigen-based techniques, he stated.

He said at present, 40,000 RT-PCR tests are being done daily in the state, while 56,000 are done by the rapid antigen-based technique and 10,000 by TrueNat technique.

He said technicians are also being trained continuously with the help of Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and King George Medical University (KGMU) to ensure quality in tests.

He also thanked PM Modi for providing through the ICMR a COBAS machine to Moti Lal Nehru (MLN) Medical College in Allahabad.

He said the state government had set up a COVID care fund in the wake of the pandemic outbreak.

"This fund is being used to set up RT-PCR labs in every medical college and zonal headquarter of the state," the chief minister said, according to the statement.

The state's COVID care fund is being used to procure COBAS machine for KGMU and SGPGI in Lucknow and BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur which will boost the testing capacities at these places, he added.

Earlier, speaking at the launch, PM Modi said India is in a much better position than other countries in the fight against COVID-19 as a result of "right decisions taken at the right time" and asserted that the country has expanded its health infrastructure at a rapid pace to deal with the pandemic.

The deaths due to the in India are much lower than many big countries, he said.

Noting that India's recovery rate is also higher than other countries and is improving on a daily basis, Modi said the total number of people who have recovered from the virus is about to reach the 10 lakh mark.

On the occasion, Union Health Minsiter Harsh Vardhan described the launch of the ICMR facilities in Noida, Kolkata and Mumbai as historic.

Testing laboratories and facilities are being set up across the country in large numbers and work is underway to establish labs in every district, Vardhan said, according to the statement.

(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.)
SAN DIEGO, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- MVPvets, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that assists and prepares transitioning military veterans for meaningful employment in medical device and life science companies, announced the appointment of board member, Col. Gregory Gadson, United States Army (Ret.). "We are honored to welcome such a force and advocate for wounded warriors, veterans, and those with disabilities to help further the mission of MVPvets," said Capt. Derek Herrera, UCMC (Ret.) of Gadson's new appointment.

Col. Gregory Gadson, United States Army (Ret.)

Gadson is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and served as an Army officer for 25 years. Greg served in every major conflict of the past two decades, including Operations Desert Shield/Storm in Kuwait; Operation Joint Forge in Bosnia-Herzegovina; Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2007, during combat operations in Iraq an improvised explosive device (IED) cost him both legs above the knees and normal use of his right arm and hand. Since his injury, he has served as Director of the United States Army Wounded Warrior Program and founded a management consulting business, Patriot Strategies, LLC. Gadson's experience as a wounded warrior that successfully transitioned back into the civilian workforce will serve as a great resource for fellow wounded veteran MVPvets members who face unique challenges.

Along with Gadson's new appointment, MVPvets announces the launch of a new program, The Academy, to lead transitioning military veterans through a 6-week long virtual training and career mentorship program beginning this August. Many topics are relevant to military veterans and service members within 6 months of separation and include virtual interviewing, resume writing, goal setting, job search planning, and more. The free program will be led virtually by MVPvets staff and industry mentors from medical device and life science companies. Upon course completion, graduating fellows will be invited to virtually attend The MedTech Conference in October. The MedTech Conference, powered by AdvaMed, will serve as an invaluable resource for fellows to have access to the world's top medtech executives and innovators, educational programming, and business development opportunities.

"I am excited to be a part of an organization that is adapting its programs virtually to meet the needs of transitioning service members. The Academy and MedTech Conference will help MVPvets in its mission to connect military veterans with engaged mentors and careers in the medical device and life science industries," said Gadson.

For more information, please email [email protected] for the link to apply for the MVPvets Academy.

MVPvets is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization connecting life science companies with talented veterans ready to serve a purpose, with a broad bandwidth of skills, and an extraordinary focus on achieving goals. MVPvets' network has grown to nearly 100 life science and medical device companies, hundreds of mentors, and thousands of veterans.

For more information, visit www.mvpvets.org. MVPvets is endorsed by the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed).

AdvaMed is the world's largest medical technology trade association, representing more than 400 companies that produce the medical devices, diagnostic products and health information systems that are transforming health care through earlier disease detection, less invasive procedures and more effective treatments. AdvaMed members range from the largest to the smallest medical technology innovators and companies. For more information, visit www.advamed.org.

Media Contact:

Victoria Hathaway

205.809.6050

[email protected]

SOURCE MVPvets

Related Links

http://www.mvpvets.org


100 years ago

Lake search on for teenager

Every effort was being made to locate the body of 19-year-old Sarah E. Sammons of North Pearl Street in Albany after she sank from view when her canoe overturned on Crystal Lake the previous weekend. Commander Walter S. De Lany of the U.S. Navy recruiting station was directing the efforts of two experienced deep sea divers, who were sent into the lake to make soundings to ascertain whether it was advisable to make the search underwater.

The depth of the water was said to be between 40 and 110 feet, and Sammons was believed to have disappeared in an area where the lake depth was 60 feet. De Lany and his men took up the task at the direct request of the Times Union. Prior to this, airplanes piloted by former Army aviators Ellsworth Hayner and James Boyland, both of Troy, circled the lake using tactics employed during the war to locate enemy submarines, but with no success.

 Times Union, July 28, 1920

50 years ago

Hubbard receives first assignment

Father Howard Hubbard, 31, interrupted the reporter to take a call and then to phone a 19-year-old drug addict. After four years of seminary at North American College in Rome, Italy, and being ordained in Rome in 1963, he had returned to Albany for his first assignment at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception. It was his introduction to the South End. The next year, while pursuing his master's degree, Hubbard joined the Interfaith Task Force, which worked with community organizations in the South End and Arbor Hill.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

He approached Bishop Edward Maginn with an idea for a storefront aid center and the Providence House opened in October 1966. It established itself as a referral and counseling center and Hubbard recruited 150 volunteers for recreational and tutorial programs. "Apathy is the greatest problem," he said. The young minister of the church hoped to learn the needs of the larger community and act as interpreter of those needs, "like a bridge."

 Times Union, July 28, 1970

Looking Back is compiled by C.J. Lais Jr. and Azra Haqqie.
COLLINSVILLE, Ill., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ameren Illinois has allocated $8 million in bill payment assistance to help qualified residential customers reduce or eliminate a past-due account balance. Under the "Fresh Start" program, up to $700 is available for customers struggling to pay energy bills as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the program opened on July 9, nearly 5,000 Ameren Illinois customers have received bill payment assistance.

"This has been a very difficult stretch for many of our customers," said Richard J. Mark, Chairman and President, Ameren Illinois. "While we're seeing some indications that the economy is improving and people are getting back to work, the need for assistance remains high. We're glad to be in a position to provide additional financial support and offer a fresh start for customers who are most in need."

The Fresh Start program is designed to help those customers impacted most by the coronavirus. Income-qualified Ameren Illinois customers with past-due account balances may be eligible for funding. For example:

A family of four with a monthly income of up to $4,367 may be eligible to receive up to $400 for electric bills and up to $300 for natural gas bills. Customers in this income range must first receive assistance from the Illinois Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) before applying for Fresh Start funding. To apply for LIHEAP, visit HelpIllinoisFamilies.com or call 877-411-9276. If a past-due balance remains after LIHEAP assistance is received, apply for Fresh Start by calling Ameren Illinois at 1.800.755.5000, Monday through Friday between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.





may be eligible to receive up to for electric bills and up to for natural gas bills. Customers in this income range must first receive assistance from the Illinois Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) before applying for Fresh Start funding. To apply for LIHEAP, visit HelpIllinoisFamilies.com or call 877-411-9276. If a past-due balance remains after LIHEAP assistance is received, apply for Fresh Start by calling Ameren Illinois at 1.800.755.5000, Monday through Friday A family of four with a monthly income between $4,367 and $7,642 may be eligible to receive up to $200 for electric bills and up to $150 for natural gas bills. Fresh Start funds for past-due customers in this income range are administered by the Energy Assistance Foundation. See the list of participating agencies and apply by visiting WarmNeighborsCoolFriends.org.

Income Guidelines are on a sliding scale based on family size. Visit AmerenIllinois.com/Recovery for detailed income eligibility guidelines.

Customers with an outstanding balance can work with Ameren Illinois to establish an extended payment schedule. Repayment terms may be extended up to 24 months. Call 800.755.5000 for details.

Information on funding and other assistance being provided under Ameren Illinois' COVID-19 Economic Hardship Recovery program can be accessed at AmerenIllinois.com/Recovery.

About Ameren Illinois

Ameren Illinois delivers energy to 1.2 million electric and more than 800,000 natural gas customers in Illinois. Our mission is to power the quality of life. Our service territory covers more than 1,200 communities and 43,700 square miles. For more information, visit AmerenIllinois.com, find us on Twitter @AmerenIllinois or Facebook.

SOURCE Ameren Illinois

Related Links

http://www.ameren.com


COVINGTON, Ky., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- AtWork Group, a rapidly growing national staffing franchise, announced today the opening of its new office in Covington, Kentucky, extending the company's reach in the greater Cincinnati area. The location is owned and operated by Walt and Angela Tracy, who also own AtWork's Cincinnati, Ohio location.

"With our expansion into Northern Kentucky we're looking forward to developing a strong presence in the state of Kentucky," said Jason Leverant, president and COO of AtWork Group. "By coupling franchise owners with a proven track record of success with the experience, tools, and resources of AtWork's national franchise network, clients and associates alike will be able to realize why AtWork has been named a Best of Staffing award winner for 5+ years!"

"Being AtWork owners has given us the ability to live out our passion for connecting people with opportunities that come from employment and education," said Walt Tracy, Co-Owner of AtWork Cincy and AtWork Northern Kentucky. "We are excited to serve the Northern Kentucky region!"

The new office is located at 525 West Fifth Street, Suite 124, Covington, KY 41011 and will place job seekers into jobs in the light industrial, manufacturing, administrative, janitorial, and warehouse and fulfillment fields. The business may be reached at 859-878-1708 or by visiting AtWork.com/NorthernKY.

AtWork Group was recently ranked in: Staffing Industry Analysts' report on the Largest Staffing Firms in the United States, Franchise Business Review's Top Innovative Franchises, Forbes' America's Best Executive Recruiting Firms and America's Best Professional Recruiting Firms, Entrepreneur Magazine's Franchise 500, Franchise Times' Fast & Serious, Franchise Times' Top 200+ and Inc. Magazine's Inc. 5000.

SOURCE AtWork Group
As many as 1200 police officers in every 28-day roster are assigned to check travellers at road borders and airports, guard quarantine hotels and ensure compliance with COVID-19 regulations.

According to Police Minister Mark Ryan's office, there were 12,038 Queensland police officers on June 30 this year  meaning the pandemic occupies one-tenth of the state's police officers.

Drivers are stopped by police at the Queensland-NSW border in the Gold Coast hinterland. Credit:Elise Derwin

The Queensland Police Service has considerable recent experience in similar mass operations: the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, the 2014 G20 Leaders Summit and several natural disaster responses.

However, these figures show the high number of boots on the ground needed to prevent COVID-19 clusters and community transmission returning to the Sunshine State.
NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Thousands of social workers across the country are calling for police reform to their local police departments, statehouses, and to Capitol Hill. Members of the National Association of Social Workers in New Jersey, New York City, Delaware, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado chapters are calling elected officials in their communities, states and in Washington for the creation of accountable policing in local communities, the creation of mandatory civilian review boards, elimination of qualified immunity, and urging the United States Senate to support legislation similar to HR7120, the "George Floyd Justice in Policing Act", which passed the House of Representatives last month.

"Creating an accountable police force starts by implementing policies that make the police force directly responsible to the people they serve," said Jennifer Thompson, social worker and Executive Director of the National Association of Social Workers in New Jersey and Delaware. "True transformative change will occur when precincts in cities and towns across our country adopt new attitudes towards policing and community interactionwhen they work collaboratively and in partnership with communities, rather than from an authoritarian perspective," Thompson continues. "And while that work happens at a local level, it can be guided by strong state and federal law and policy."

The profession of social work is no stranger to political and social action. The NASW Social Work Code of Ethics notes attention to the environmental forces that create social problemsfor instance how the forces of racism and bias contribute to problems between police and the communities they serveis fundamental to social work. Social workers are agents of change and seek to promote the responsiveness of organizations, communities, and other social institutions to individual and community needs and social problems.

"The social work profession is deeply rooted in social justice and advocacy," said Dr. Claire Green-Forde, social worker and Executive Director of the National Association of Social Workers-NYC Chapter. "As a profession, we are called to engage and lead this dialogue as we are keenly aware of the racial injustices that plague our society as well as the profound ways that these injustices influence every aspect of our lives and the communities we serve," Dr. Green-Forde continues. "We believe that police reform is intimately connected to the larger call for social justice, racial equity, and criminal justice reform."

Social workers bring a variety of skills and experiences to the fight for social justice and police reform. Regardless of the setting in which a social worker practicescommunity center, hospital, mental health agency, school, elected office, and moreall social work education includes grounding in cultural sensitivity, awareness of internal bias, and a systems perspective that helps social workers develop a keen sense of internal and external forces that combine to create social problems.

"When you see the scope of work that social workers are engaged in, as well as the diversity of their expertise, it is clear why leadership looks to us for guidance as it relates to police reform," added Will Francis, social worker and Executive Director of the National Association of Social Workers in Texas. "But social workers must be engaged in the dialogue from the beginning. We must have a seat at the table in the planning and policy-making phases as well. In addition to asking critical questions, we're asking for seats at the local, state and national tables."

"Under normal circumstances, we would be marching, we would be organizing, we would be knocking on doors and taking meetings in every town, statehouse and in Washington," added Brandie Reiner, social worker and Executive Director of the National Association of Social Workers in Arizona. "Right now, advocacy looks different, but we will not be silent. We will not be deterred. We are called to action, and today, our profession meets that call."

Mildred "Mit" Joyner, President of the National Association of Social Workers, quoting her friend, the late Representative John Lewis, added, "We must show up, stand up and speak up and bend the arc of justice toward equality for all."

"This may be the defining work of our generation," says Heather McLaughlin, social worker and Executive Director of the National Association of Social Workers in Colorado. "The specters of slavery, Jim Crow, and racial bias in law enforcement have pervaded our society for far too long. As social workers and agents of social justice, we have the responsibility to work towards systemic change for the betterment of communities of color."

"The efforts today are just one piece of how we are creating change in our communities," Thompson furthered. "Our message to all of our government leadership is that our profession, social workers, are watching and leaning in---holding everyone accountable as we create change. But we aren't just saying 'do better' we are also saying, 'we are here to do the work too, let's get to it.'" Thompson concluded.

About the National Association of Social Workers New Jersey, Delaware, New York City, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado chapters.

Founded in 1955, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is the largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world, with more than 120,000 members. The chapters referenced represent over 20,000 social workers in their respective states. For more information on the work, you can visit www.naswnj.org.

Media Contact:

Jennifer Thompson

Phone: 917.968.0181

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE National Association of Social Workers New Jersey

Related Links

http://www.naswnj.org


Teachers have been warned not to travel abroad at the end of the summer holidays because they face potentially losing pay if they are put into quarantine during term time.

Like many other key workers, school staff are unable to work from home and face taking unpaid leave if they get caught up in the newly-modified quarantine rules.

All school in England are due to return in September despite an ongoing battle between unions and the government over safety measures including whether pupils should wear masks.

The Department of Education says that schools should 'avoid a member of staff having to quarantine during term time' effectively barring teachers from taking a foreign holiday towards the ends of the summer holidays.

The government has warned that there is 'no risk free travel' and quarantine restrictions can be introduced with no notice on any country.

British Citizens arrive at the Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport after the UK imposed a quarantine on all travellers from Spain

Boris Johnson this morning warned it was up to individuals to decide whether they wanted to take the risk of going abroad in the present circumstances amid fears of a second coronavirus wave sweeping Europe.

The announcement risks sparking another huge row between the Government and teachers' unions.

They have been at war with Education Secretary Gavin Williamson since the spring over attempts to reopen schools before the summer.

Mr Williamson was forced to abandon plans to get all primary school children back in classes before the summer holidays after opposition and questions over whether it was possible with social distancing measures put in place that limited classes to 15 pupils.

The UK has removed Spain from its list of safe countries to travel to after fears were raised that the European country was experiencing a second wave of coronavirus infections.

Unhappy Brits have been returning from the popular tourist destination and will now have to enter in a 14-day quarantine.

Currently employers do not have to pay while you are in self-isolation and you are not eligible for statutory sick pay.

It has led to growing calls from the government to provide additional support to people who have been caught out by the sudden change in rules. People who are self-employed or can't work from home will lose two weeks wages.

Headteachers are also quizzing teaching staff on their plans for the holiday break.

The Department of Education has warned there is a possible risk to overseas travel while teachers are enjoying their holiday break.

It added: 'Where it is not possible to avoid staff having to quarantine during term time, school leaders should consider if it is possible to temporarily amend working arrangements to enable them to work from home.'

A joint letter from the Association of School and College Leaders, the NAHT union for head teachers and the Local Government Association, said anyone who found themselves in long-term quarantine may have to take annual leave or unpaid leave.

A passenger arrives at Gatwick Airport, following an announcement on Saturday that holidaymakers who had not returned from Spain and its islands by midnight would be forced to quarantine for 14 days

Joanne Jackson was one of many unhappy Britons returning from their holiday break yesterday to find work now disrupted.

The 49-year-old had just returned from a two-week break in Nerja and said she has now lost 2,000 in wages due to the quarantine.

The care worker from Manchester said: 'It is a ridiculous decision and disgraceful one. Everyone abroad should have been given two weeks' notice, not just a few hours.

'Thanks to the Government, I have lost 2,000 in wages. Who is going to pay my wages? Who is going to pay my mortgage and bills? What will I do for money?

'Where I have been staying, the infection rate is zero. The government should make people who are returning from high-risk areas quarantine, and not put a blanket-ban on the whole of Spain.

'I am absolutely livid that I now have to quarantine. I'll be back over in Spain soon. It won't stop me flying.'
UT extension publication earns top honors from national organization

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A publication authored by two University of Tennessee Extension specialists has been given the highest honor by a national professional society.

Cotton Nitrogen Management in Tennessee (Publication W 783) has been awarded a 2020 Educational Aids Blue Ribbon by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). Educational Aids Blue Ribbon Awards are given to informational materials that contribute to the understanding of agricultural and biological subjects outside the traditional classroom setting. The award was presented at ASABE's 2020 annual international meeting, held virtually July 13-16.

Lori Duncan, row crop sustainability specialist in the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, authored the publication in 2019 with assistance from Tyson Raper, cotton and small grains specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences. As UT Extension specialists, Duncan and Raper spend a great deal of time working with Tennesseans to help optimize inputs, increase profits, and generally make farming in Tennessee more sustainable.

Since nitrogen applications make up a large portion of fertility budgets each year, properly selecting the rate of application and understanding the nitrogen cycle are critical in maximizing the efficiency and sustainability of the cotton production system. This publication not only describes this cycle and potential loss mechanisms, but it also describes ways to maximize nitrogen use efficiency. This publication can help growers optimize applied nitrogen while also preventing movement or loss out of the production system. Duncan and Raper have summarized numerous field studies conducted within Tennessee and pooled research conducted throughout the Mid-South to produce a cumulative set of recommendations for cotton nitrogen management.

UT Extension specialists are subject matter experts who serve Tennesseans throughout the state. From farm management principles to budgeting as a family, UT Extension specialists work every day to make Tennessee a better place to live, work and raise a family.

###

Through its land-grant mission of research, teaching and extension, the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. utia.tennessee.edu.

This story has been published on: 2020-07-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Johnny Depp was a drug addict prone to violent rages and a misogynist who assaulted his wife, a London court was told as the actor's libel trial against a UK tabloid neared its end.

The 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star is suing the publisher of 'The Sun', and one of its journalists, Dan Wootton, over a 2018 article that called him a "wife beater".

Depp (57) and his former wife Amber Heard (34) both gave evidence at the trial. Depp said he was never violent towards Heard or any other woman and she was the one who attacked him.

Heard described multiple incidents when she said Depp assaulted her.

Summarising the defence case, that the allegation of wife beating was true, lawyer Sasha Wass portrayed the actor as "a hopeless addict".

She read from an email Heard had sent to herself in 2013, before the couple married, in which she recorded her feelings about Depp's alleged drug-fuelled rages. The email was addressed to Depp but not sent to him.

"You have hit me repeated. something you should Never have done... And None of this would be possible without the booze and drugs. NONE," Heard wrote. Ms Wass said Depp's excessive drug-taking led to uncontrolled outbursts during which he would become a violent alter ego he called "The Monster", and his memories of his own behaviour were impaired by drugs and alcohol.

Ms Wass quoted from a text Heard sent Depp in 2014. "I am scared, Johnny, so scared, I watch as this thing steals my life out from under me," Heard wrote. "He steals my man from me and replaces him with something terrifying and unrecognisable."

Ms Wass accused Depp of "deep misogyny", citing texts and emails in which he used words like "whore", "slut" or "worthless hooker" about Heard and other women.

She quoted from texts he had sent in 2013 to actor Paul Bettany in which he had spoken about drowning and burning Heard.

"Mr Depp has sought to deploy the more old-fashioned methods used to discredit women. She is a gold-digger, a shrew and an adulterer," the lawyer said, adding that jealousy was the catalyst for many violent episodes.

She said Heard denied cheating on Depp, and it was irrelevant, and that as a successful actress Heard was financially independent.

"Underlying the relationship was a clash of cultures and generations," Ms Wass said, describing Heard as a young, ambitious actress.

She said Depp did not want her to keep appearing in films with young, attractive actors and it made him angry that he could not control her.

By accusing Heard of physically assaulting him, Depp was seeking to reverse the roles of offender and victim, Ms Wass said.

Accused of violence and excessive drug-taking, he had responded by levelling the same accusations at her.

Addressing one of the arguments made by Depp's legal team - that no witness apart from Heard or her sister said they had seen Depp hit Heard - Ms Wass said domestic violence took place behind closed doors.

She also rejected the Depp team's accusation that Heard had made up her allegations as part of a hoax, saying it was "risible" to suggest that Heard would have accumulated a dossier of false information over the entire course of the relationship.

After the couple split up, Ms Wass said, Depp set out to destroy Heard.

"She's begging for total global humiliation... She's gonna get it," he said in a text to a friend in 2016. "I have no mercy, no fear and not an ounce of emotion, or what I once thought was love, for this gold digging, low level, dime a dozen, mushy pointless dangling overused flappy fish market."

He also described in very graphic terms an act of violence he would like to commit against someone he called "Mollusk".

Depp had accused Heard of cheating on him with tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, which she denies.

Depp's lawyer, David Sherborne, is due to make his closing arguments today. A ruling is not expected immediately.
Our clients often like to evaluate LAD Solutions services while on the go and are not necessarily in a place where they can use a desktop device to view the company's website.

LAD Solutions has announced that the company has just relaunched its website at ladsolutions.com. After several years of doing business with old design, they have decided to upgrade the sites branding in favor of a more modern and user-friendly website.

The features of the latest upgrade of the website include the following:

Mobile-Friendly Site Design

With mobile traffic accounting for roughly 51 percent of global traffic, todays best practices for web design recommend that businesses design their websites for users who will access their content from multiple devices, including mobile devices. Ali Pourvasei, one of the three founders of LAD Solutions says that it just made sense to ensure that users can access the website from any device with a better, more friendly experience.

Our clients often like to evaluate LAD Solutions services while on the go and are not necessarily in a place where they can use a desktop device to view the company's website, Mr. Pourvasei added.

Proven Client SEO Rankings

LAD Solutions new website upgrade completely changes the way in which the company has opted to display the results that it obtained for clients. Instead of focusing on lengthy written testimonials as many companies do, LAD Solutions takes a different approach. For their top clients, the company has opted to display the clients Google Search Positions and search keywords. This allows potential clients to check the company's results immediately themselves by searching the terms in Google, providing irrefutable proof and demonstrated SEO knowledge.

Instead of only writing how their clients felt emotionally about their services or publishing lengthy white papers, LAD Solutions provides hard data directly on the website in an easy to understand, approachable fashion for the average business owner.

Comprehensive Digital Marketing Services

LAD Solutions is a comprehensive digital marketing firm. Aside from SEO services, the company also provides Pay Per Click Management (PPC), Web Design & Development for creating User and Mobile-Friendly Websites, and more. All of these services are geared towards helping their clients increase their online traffic, leads and sales. The website offers a brief description of each service on the home page and detailed descriptions on the inner pages so that potential clients know what to expect before obtaining a quote.

Clean Design

The most important factor in why LAD Solutions upgraded its website: clean design. With a careful analysis of the performance of the previous version of its website, they wanted a new website that was uncluttered, simple, and easy with a lot more white space. The bold colors help to highlight important areas of the website while the white space offers much-needed relief. The result is a website that delivers important information about the company's services without making visitors feel bombarded, overwhelmed and distracted.

The new website is already live and ready to accept new clients. To learn more about LAD Solutions services and view the new website, go to ladsolutions.com.

About LAD Solutions: LAD Solutions is a nationally recognized Los Angeles-based full service digital marketing firm. They work with national clients from top brands in various industries. To learn more about the services offered by LAD Solutions, go to ladsolutions.com.


By Ted Gover





Congressman John Lewis' passing on July 17 came at a difficult time of fraught race relations in the U.S. amid a once in a hundred-year worldwide pandemic. While the American people have lost a civil rights icon during a trying period of inter-community tension, the world is also bereft of a leader whose moral courage provided universal lessons and inspiration for the many suffering amid ongoing human rights abuses today.



John Lewis will largely be remembered for his immense personal sacrifices to help American society fight the scourge of racism as well as for his service as U.S. Representative to Georgia's 5th Congressional District. Going forward, his lifework to secure the dignity of every human being will continue to have profound lessons for marginalized communities in the U.S. as well as beyond American shores.



The teachings provided by Lewis' 60 plus years fight for equality are applicable to all peoples regardless of race, faith, tradition or geography. His deeds are of immeasurable value as the world community is beset by secular divisions, geopolitical rivalries and systemic human rights violations.



While some may consider it fanciful thinking to believe that Lewis' noble actions can change the brutal policies coming out of Beijing, Pyongyang, Tehran and Caracas, many fail to consider that people suffering under these regimes can find hope from the stories and heroics of others. This follows a long tradition of oppressed people worldwide receiving fortitude and strength from American civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Congressman Lewis after him.



Foreign leaders, policymakers, clergy, educators and others seeking to improve the plight of oppressed groups in distant lands - - such as China's Uighurs; Hong Kong rights advocates; Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar; North Korean and Iranian political prisoners; the food-deprived in Venezuela - - will continue to look to Lewis' narrative on how the efforts of one person can make a difference amid hate and oppression.



Critics assert that while Lewis' example shows the capacity of democratic societies to change for the good, such activism has no applicability to the harsh facts on the ground in such authoritarian systems as China, North Korea, Iran and Venezuela. Yet, the examples set by Congressman Lewis are particularly compelling for others overseas who strive to secure basic, fundamental rights amongst persecution in their own lands. This, too, will serve as an important part of Lewis' legacy.



Amid continuing egregious human rights abuses in our world today (North Korea and China as two examples) in which civilians are jailed, tortured and subjected to forced labor and executions due to their dissenting political views or faith, Congressman Lewis' lifelong work of championing human rights is as relevant as ever on the international stage. Lewis' example will continue to serve as a guiding light for those in our time who are under the thumb of oppression, providing hope and strength in their continued fight for dignity and freedom.





Ted Gover, Ph.D., writes on foreign policy and is the director of the Tribal Administration Program at Claremont Graduate University.


LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Rio Tinto has disclosed the maiden Inferred Mineral Resource at the 100% owned Winu copper-gold project. It has revealed the discovery of a new zone of gold dominant mineralisation about 2 km east of the Winu deposit in the Paterson Province of Western Australia. The company targets first production from Winu in 2023. The company said that the inferred Mineral Resource, reported at a 0.2% copper equivalent cutoff, is 503 million tonne at 0.45% copper equivalent or CuEq. This includes a higher grade component of 188Mt at 0.68% CuEq at a cutoff grade of 0.45% CuEq. According to the company, study work to date suggested the copper mineralisation supports the development of a relatively shallow open-pit mine, combined with industry-standard processing technology that is used at other Rio Tinto sites. Drilling continues to refine the overall geometry of the system and controls. The deposit remains open at depth as well as to the north and southeast Figures 1 to 4. The Winu project team continues to work with local Nyangumarta and Martu Traditional Owners and regulators to progress the agreements and approvals required for any future development. 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.
Washington: US Attorney-General William Barr faced pointed questions from Democrats about the government's response to protests across the nation over police brutality, his controversial interventions in high-profile cases and an array of other matters.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said the Justice Department had been created with two main aims - to replace a system of "party spoils" with professional government attorneys and enforce the nation's civil rights laws - and that the attorney general had failed on both counts.

US Attorney-General William Barr appears before a House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. Credit:AP

"Your tenure has been marked by a persistent war against the department's professional corps in an apparent attempt to secure favours for the President," Nadler said.

Barr, who appeared before the panel for the first time since Democrats took control of the House, defended the administration's response to civil unrest in the country, saying, "Violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests to wreak senseless havoc and destruction on innocent victims."
Christian charity asks Rep. Ted Yoho to resign over alleged profanity against AOC

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Bread for the World, a bipartisan Christian organization committed to alleviating hunger and poverty, announced Saturday that it asked Florida Congressman Ted Yoho to resign from its board after New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez alleged that he called her a dangerous, disgusting, crazy, f*****g b***h. He has denied the claim.

As a bipartisan Christian organization committed to alleviating hunger and poverty through sound public policies, Bread for the World upholds the values of respect, dignity, and compassion that Jesus calls us to when engaging decision makers from across the political spectrum. We believe that Rep. Ted Yohos recent actions and words as reported in the media are not reflective of the ethical standards expected of members of our Board of Directors, Bread for the World said in a statement.

Bread for the World met with Rep. Yoho on Friday and he has resigned from the board of Bread. During that conversation, we reaffirmed our joint commitment to expanding opportunity for men, women, and children around the world and thanked Rep. Yoho for his commitment to foreign aid effectiveness and transparency. Despite these areas of agreement, Bread sought his resignation as an action that reaffirms our commitment to coming alongside women and people of color, nationally and globally, as they continue to lead us to a more racially inclusive and equitable world.

The announcement came a day after Yoho denied the claims made by Ocasio-Cortez in a Fox News interview where he noted that he directed criticism at her policy positions and not her personally.

Everything was directed at policy and yeah, she thought it was right for people to go ahead and shoplift if you're hungry. I said, 'seriously, as many social programs and faith-based programs and all these food kitchens around, the best that you can do is to offer people in your district to go ahead and shoplift  while you're calling at the same time to defund the police? Those are just absolutely the most frickin crazy policies you've ever had'  and I said 'your policies are disgusting' and I turned around and walked away," Yoho recalled.

When questioned about his use of profanity, Yoho said he only muttered to himself that Ocasio-Cortez's comments to him were "such frickin B.S."

"She's making hay out of this, she's fundraising off of this, out in front of the Capitol wearing her COVID mask, playing [music], making fun of this. Yet she's on the floor crying saying how bad this is but yet she's out there saying the same thing. You know, it's disingenuous, Yoho added.

Yoho previously offered an apology on the House floor on Thursday, for the abrupt manner of the conversation I had with my colleague from New York.

The offensive name-calling words attributed to me by the press were never spoken to my colleagues, and if they were constructed that way, I apologize for their misunderstanding, he said.

Responding in a speech of her own to Congress last Thursday as well, Ocasio-Cortez said that Yoho accosted her and called her crazy and dangerous. Shortly after that encounter, she said he called her a f*****g b***h in front of reporters.

These are the words Representative Yoho levied against a congresswoman, Ocasio-Cortez said from the House floor.

Mr. Yoho mentioned that he has a wife and two daughters. I am two years younger than Mr. Yohos youngest daughter. I am someones daughter too, she noted. Having a daughter does not make a man decent. Having a wife does not make a decent man. Treating people with dignity and respect makes a decent man. And when a decent man messes up, as we all are bound to do, he tries his best and does apologize.

Ocasio-Cortez argued that it was clear Yoho did not want to apologize.

In its statement on Saturday, Bread for the World said it hoped political leaders would be able to engage in civil dialogue that can lead to real structural change in the U.S. and around the world.

During this critical time in our nation in which millions depend on U.S. government leadership and improved public policies that center on those most impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, it is our hope and prayer that government leaders will find the moral courage and political will to foster healing and civil dialogue that leads to real structural change in our country and globally, the organization said.
China is planning to build a new advanced amphibious assault ship to help the countrys marines fight on land and at sea amid a number of territorial disputes in the region, according to reports.

The ship is thought to be similar in design to the Type 075 landing helicopter dock, which was launched last year, but equipped with an electromagnetic catapult launch system which is currently only found on the most advanced aircraft carriers.

The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Monday that plans to build the ship by the China Shipbuilding Group, the governments main contractor, had not yet been approved and the project would take at least five years to complete.

Last week the Global Times newspaper, the Communist Party mouthpiece, reported on what it called speculation about a new Type 076 vessel based on procurement notices posted online by Chinas government.

The ships development, if reports are accurate, would come amid heightened tensions in the South and East China Seas, with territorial disputes between China and Taiwan and an increased US presence in the region in recent years.

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The Chinese government regards the self-governing Taiwan as a province of the country and Xi Jinping, Chinas president, has called for reunification with the mainland.

In a speech last year, Mr Xi said China would make no promise to renounce the use of force and suggested it would be reserved as an option for reunification.

Global Times cited analysts as suggesting any new, advanced amphibious assault vessel could be used to retake Taiwan.

However, Li Jie, a naval commentator, told the Post that the assault ship would not be designed necessarily for a potential attack on Taiwan and would instead be focused on conflicts and territorial disputes in the high seas.

Ian Easton, a senior director at the Project 2049 Institute foreign policy think tank, told Reuters earlier this month that China was likely to expand its military capabilities.

Ten years from now, China is almost certainly going to have marine units deployed at locations all over the world, Mr Easton said.

The Chinese Communist Partys ambitions are global. Its interests are global. It plans to send military units wherever its global strategic interests require.

The proposed ship would be Chinas largest and the third-largest amphibious assault ship in the world, behind the USs Wasp-class and America-class ships.

It came as Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that Russias navy would be equipped with hypersonic nuclear strike weapons and underwater drones in a potentially significant development of its military capabilities.
UW College of Business Introduces New Major and Redesigned Minor in Entrepreneurship

The University of Wyoming College of Business will launch a new major in entrepreneurship as part of the Bachelor of Science in business and a redesigned business minor in entrepreneurship this fall.

These two entrepreneurship programs offer a variety of rich developmental experiences that include applied learning, case analysis, research projects, team-based active-learning projects and guest speakers, in addition to traditional classroom lectures and discussions designed to develop and encourage the entrepreneurial mindset. In both programs, there is a strong emphasis on written and oral communication skills, teamwork, ethics and personal initiative.

The major in entrepreneurship serves students wishing to learn and apply theories of entrepreneurship. The major is designed to assist students to start and/or run their own ventures or bring innovation to an existing organization by providing them with exposure to the development and testing of business concepts; analyzing the potential success of their concepts using a variety of tools and methodologies; being flexible in developing new ventures and innovative ideas; and formulating and implementing value propositions that will assist in the establishment and growth of new ventures.

The major in entrepreneurship also provides students with skills related to how to enact creative solutions, innovative ideas and strategic change in existing organizations. Thus, students will be prepared to start new ventures and/or act entrepreneurially within existing businesses.

The new major in entrepreneurship is designed to provide students with an in-depth exposure to all things related to entrepreneurship. The focus of the major is on helping students to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset, which can then be used to create a new venture or contribute outside-the-box thinking within an existing company, says Patrick Kreiser, Rile Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship and Leadership in the College of Business. Further, a core component of the coursework is to engage students in experiential learning projects so that students can learn by doing. Whether its through creating new businesses that change the marketplace, identifying frame-breaking new business models within existing companies or harnessing creativity in their everyday lives, the new major in entrepreneurship will support students in creating and enacting careers tailored to their own dreams and aspirations.

The redesigned minor in entrepreneurship provides flexibility and interdisciplinary appeal to non-business majors while incorporating core entrepreneurship coursework. The College of Business is partnering with other colleges at UW and with Wyoming community colleges to identify coursework that satisfies both the respective colleges and the UW entrepreneurship minor program requirements.

The minor in entrepreneurship is designed to include a list of approved entrepreneurship elective coursework from partnering colleges. For example, approved electives from the College of Engineering and Applied Science or the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources will apply toward the 15 hours of entrepreneurship minor program requirements.

The College of Engineering and Applied Science is excited to further strengthen our partnership and collaboration with the College of Business through the new interdisciplinary entrepreneurship minor, says Cameron Wright, interim dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science. The College of Engineering and Applied Science has offered several entrepreneur-related courses in the past, but this new minor will allow our students to greatly deepen their knowledge of entrepreneurship. With this greater skill set, we expect more students will feel ready to start companies that, in turn, can support the Wyoming economy.

Students seeking additional information on the entrepreneurship program can email the program adviser, Denise Sheen, at dhsheen@uwyo.edu. Entrepreneurial organizations wishing to know more about the entrepreneurship programs can email Josie Voight at voight@uwyo.edu or call (307) 766-4197.

To view program requirements, visit www.uwyo.edu/business/entrepreneurship.
WASHINGTON - John Lewis made his final trip Monday to the Capitol, where lawmakers paid tribute to the late congressman and delivered a standing ovation when a recording of his booming voice - a clarion call for racial justice - echoed through the Rotunda.

Lewis, D-Ga., who died of cancer July 17 at age 80, will lie in state for two days at the Capitol, where the nation has honored past presidents, lawmakers and other distinguished citizens.

"It is fitting that John Lewis joins this pantheon of patriots, resting upon the same catafalque as President Abraham Lincoln," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said at the memorial event, which was marked by speeches, an emotional rendering of "Amazing Grace" and tears.

"We knew that he always worked on the side of the angels - and now, we know that he is with them," she said of Lewis, adding that he always "understood the power of young people to change the future."

Lewis's voice - urging young graduates to "get in the way" and find a way to get in "good trouble, necessary trouble" - filled the Rotunda as a recording of his 2014 speech at Emory University's commencement ceremony was played. Afterward, Pelosi summoned all those present to stand and applaud.

Members of the House and Senate - most masked because of the coronavirus pandemic - Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and congressional aides quietly streamed past the flag-draped casket, which was moved to the top of the East Front steps Monday evening for the public to pay tribute.

Vice President Mike Pence, a former House colleague of Lewis's, paid his respects, accompanied by his wife, Karen, as did presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, the former vice president and Delaware senator. He and his wife, Jill Biden, paused with hands over their hearts and placed their hands on the casket.

President Donald Trump, whom Lewis publicly clashed with and declared "illegitimate," told reporters outside the White House on Monday that he would not be attending the memorial events.

The son of sharecroppers, Lewis fought for civil rights, nearly dying at the age of 25 when he led about 600 protesters in a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. State troopers beat the demonstrators, and Lewis suffered a cracked skull on what became known as Bloody Sunday.

Within months, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, meant to end the obstacles preventing black people from voting.

The tributes at the Capitol came shortly after Lewis's body made its last visit to Washington's civil rights landmarks midday Monday, pausing at the Lincoln Memorial, where he was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington. The motorcade also stopped at the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, and the newly minted Black Lives Matter Plaza outside the White House, where he made his last public appearance in early June.

More than two dozen people lined the King memorial awaiting the motorcade. Among them was Jackie Smith, 63, who had left home in Raleigh, N.C., at 5:30 a.m. to pay his respects to Lewis.

"He meant a lot to me as an African American," Smith said, describing Lewis as his role model. "He was someone who, as he said, got into 'good trouble,' and a person who believed you could get a lot done without violence."

Many brought their children. Stephanie Cornish, 42, said she rented the documentary "John Lewis: Good Trouble" so her 12-year-old daughter would understand the gravity of his loss and legacy before traveling to the memorial from Bowie, Md., to see his funeral procession.

Led by a fleet of 16 motorcycles, the hearse slowed to a stop just ahead of the memorial to Lewis's friend and mentor in the civil rights movement.

Sean Kennedy was welling up.

"I've had these emotions since he passed and I kind of internalized them. I felt I just had to be here today without question," said the 55-year-old from Bethesda, Md.

He rushed to catch up with the hearse for one last look at Lewis. As it carried on toward the Lincoln Memorial, Kennedy said: "I'm so thankful I came. It's nice to be able to say goodbye."

Hundreds also gathered at Black Lives Matter Plaza to watch the motorcade pass through one of the city's newest landmarks. There, Janet Purnell, 65, danced and blew bubbles at the center of the plaza, feet from where Lewis stood during his final public appearance last month.

Purnell, who has lived in the District of Columbia for more than 34 years, said what she admired most about Lewis was that he fought tirelessly for others until his death. The reason she attended Monday's procession, she said, was simple.

"I just had to be here to honor this human being," she said. "I wanted to be in his presence one last time."

As the crowds swelled into the afternoon, a speaker system blared audio of Lewis's 1963 speech at the March on Washington. When his motorcade arrived and paused at the center of the plaza, some raised their fists and others put their hands on their hearts - but most stopped and stared.

Among those who watched in amazement was Mariel Collazo Schwietert, 10, who traveled with her family from New York to see the procession.

"We're still fighting over rights that we should've seen solved a long time ago," she said. "I don't know why we're still doing this now."

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, also stopped at the plaza to pay tribute - telling reporters after the procession that she had a chance to talk to Lewis's family and relay how much he meant to the city.

Bowser said a fitting way to honor Lewis's life would be for Congress to restore protections of the Voting Rights Act through a bill the House passed in December.

In the days since Lewis's death, there have been renewed calls for Congress to act on voting rights. In 2013, the Supreme Court invalidated a crucial component of the 1965 law, ruling that Congress had not taken into account the nation's racial progress when citing certain states for federal oversight. The House passed legislation in December to restore those protections, but the bill has languished in the GOP-led Senate.

"An honor to his life would be that the Senate pass the voting rights act that they're sitting on," Bowser said. "I agree with so many who said getting the Voting Rights Act restored is a fitting, fitting tribute to John Lewis."

Ahead of the memorial service, the House unanimously approved a measure renaming H.R. 4, the voting rights bill, after Lewis.

Lewis is the second black lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol, after his close friend Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who died in October, lay in state in National Statuary Hall.

About 110 to 120 seats were spaced out in the cavernous Rotunda, about a third or less than would normally be on hand for an arrival ceremony. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, seated in the southern half of the room, occupied about half the allotted space. Many caucus members were wearing black masks with white lettering reading "Good Trouble" in honor of Lewis's personal motto.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., led members of the GOP in honoring Lewis, a group that included House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga.

Potential Biden vice presidents Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Reps. Karen Bass, D-Calif., and Val Demings, D-Fla., also were on hand.

McConnell recalled hearing Lewis speak at the March on Washington more than 50 years ago and said Lewis "lived and worked with urgency because the task was urgent."

"But even though the world around him gave him every cause for bitterness, he stubbornly treated everyone with respect and love," McConnell said.

When the ceremony ended, the House and Senate sergeants at arms coordinated a receiving line in which VIPs could pay their final respects to Lewis, beginning with his son - John-Miles Lewis - standing before his father's casket. The rest of the Lewis family, accompanied by his longtime chief of staff, Michael Collins, then circled the casket and said goodbye.

The public has been prohibited from entering the buildings of the Capitol complex since mid-March because of the pandemic, so Lewis's coffin was positioned at the top of the center steps of the Capitol, just outside the Rotunda, Monday evening. The public was able to walk up to the bottom of those steps, with social distancing and mask-wearing requirements. Lewis is scheduled to be flown to Atlanta to lie in state Wednesday in the Georgia Capitol ahead of a funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the historically black church where King preached.
This year's policies, an upgrade of last year's version, expanding areas for support, relaxed subsidy requirements, and encouragement to apply technologies. For example, under the new policies, the subsidy amount for major projects with a total investment of more than 20 million yuan was increased from five million yuan to 12 million yuan, and the use of smart film and television platforms and cutting-edge cloud services will be subsidized.

Shanghai Songjiang district is a significant hub of China's film and television industries. Thanks to supportive measures implemented by the district amid COVID-19 epidemic, an additional 549 film and television enterprises were introduced to settle down in Songjiang in the first half of this year, surging 124.08 percent year-on-year, according to Zhao Yong, head of the district's publicity department.

Last Sunday also witnessed the launch of a number of film and television projects. For instance, the publicity department of Songjiang district inked a strategic cooperation agreement with the Shanghai branch of China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd., aiming to address high risks and uncertainties of film and television products. According to the agreement, financial means will be used to transfer the compensation risks caused by delay and over-budget in film production.

On the same day, a benchmark research report on Shanghai as a high-tech film and television city was also released, providing analysis tools and decision-making reference for administrators and practitioners in film and television industries.

The press conference, hosted by CPC Shanghai Songjiang District Committee, Government of Songjiang district and undertaken by Songjiang publicity department, Songjiang culture and tourism bureau, is one of the official events of the 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival being held from July 25 to August 2.

See the original link: https://en.imsilkroad.com/p/315140.html

SOURCE Xinhua Silk Road Information Service
Hamiltons Catholic school board says it is reviewing its relationship with the WE Charity in light of recent information.

The Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Boards (HWCDSB) announcement comes on the heels of a call from the Toronto District School Boards (TDSB) chair to suspend and review the boards partnership with WE.

Marnie Jadon, HWCDSB spokesperson, did not elaborate on what recent information included, only saying in a followup email it involved recent developments.

The charity made has made headlines this month after WE backed out of an agreement with the federal government to run a student-volunteer program with a $912-million budget. It did so after controversy arose over the charitys ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

Trudeaus mother was paid $250,000 in honorariums for speaking at WE events between 2016 and 2020 and his brother received $32,000. Morneaus travels expenses were covered to the tune of more than $40,000 for trips he and his family took with WE  costs he has now repaid  and his daughter works for WE. An ethics probe is now underway.

Robin Pilkey, chair of the TDSB, said she is calling for a suspension pending a review because the extent of the boards partnership with WE  financial and otherwise  remains unclear.

Were giving corporations access to our students and we are serious about that, Pilkey said in an interview with The Spectator. She said ME to WE clubs exist in TDSB schools and students attend WE Day events.

Pilkey said she has concerns about the separation between WEs for-profit and not-for-profit enterprises and wants the review to determine if students were involved in making money for the for-profit side. The ME to WE side of the WE operations is a for-profit social enterprise corporation controlled by the Kielburger brothers, who founded WE.

An emergency motion to suspend the program comes to the Toronto board Aug. 4.

In a statement, WE Charity says it proactively sent a letter to school boards on July 24, informing them partnerships are on pause.

As our organizations mandate evolves, as program delivery changes, and given the unpredictable nature of media cycles and the undeterminable amount of time until this matter is fully addressed, we have decided that we would like to proactively pause the formal and public relationships between school boards and WE Charity, the letter stated.

Explaining the nature of the HWCDSBs partnership with WE, spokesperson Jadon said: Some of our schools have participated in initiatives such as WE Scare Hunger in support of local food banks, and as a result of their efforts have been invited to attend WE Days in Toronto.

Jadon confirmed the HWCDSB does not have formal contracts or agreements with WE. The review will look at school relationships.

The form of that review hasnt been decided, she said.

The Hamilton public board, meanwhile, said it has no partnerships with ME to WE nor connections to the WE Charity. It hasnt discussed whether schools will limit their relationships with WE, said Shawn McKillop, spokesperson for the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB).

McKillop confirmed schools have raised funds for the charity in recent years and its likely students attended WE events in Toronto.

The board did partner with WE to host an event at Hamilton Place in 2009 and 2010.

McKillop said no funds have been given to them, but records only go back to 2013.
Ive visited northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region for more than ten times since 2004. The region has beautiful scenery, abundant natural resources, and friendly people. Ive made many friends there.

There was a time when terrorist, separatist and extremist forces had caused huge damage to the stability and development of Xinjiang, and posed grave threats to the safety of peoples lives and property.

I visited the region again upon invitation last year, and I was gratified to see all kinds of positive changes there.

I saw busy streets with endless streams of cars and people. Modern hospitals, well-equipped schools, and fashionable shopping malls were seen everywhere.

The great social order and the significantly improved security presented the regions vitality, showing the rapid development of Xinjiang.

What impressed me most was Chinese governments firm determination to support Xinjiangs development and safeguard the stable life for people there.

The central government of China has made great efforts to encourage talents across the country to work in Xinjiang and attract outstanding enterprises to invest and build factories there, which has quickly boosted Xinjiangs construction and development.

In recent years, Xinjiang has created massive jobs for local people, and actively carried out poverty alleviation. Fruitful results have been achieved.

In Kashgar, I met an old Uyghur friend running business of traditional instruments. He told me that the local residents were obviously enjoying a stronger sense of gain, happiness and security.

Everyone cherishes the harmonious society featuring stable development and solidarity, he said. His remarks inspired me, and I thought to myself, Dont the endeavors to safeguard peoples well-being also give a guarantee of their human rights?

At present, certain politicians in the U.S. are trying to make troubles for the bilateral ties between the two countries to serve political needs of their country. While protecting human rights and freedoms are only a disguise, what they really aim at is to seize political interests.

By withdrawing from international treaties and organizations frequently, the U.S. is sabotaging the international order established after World War . The countrys hegemonic acts have posed serious threats to world peace and stability.

As the world is increasingly globalized, those who attempt to prettify or even glorify violence will eat their own bitter fruit sooner or later.

Not long ago, the U.S. has witnessed extensive protests against police brutality, which revealed its deep-rooted racial discrimination. The U.S. must face its own human rights issues.

The measures Chinese government has taken to fight terrorism and extremism in accordance with the law in Xinjiang have yielded remarkable results. These measures are indispensable for guaranteeing the regions stability and prosperity.

Terrorism and extremism are the common enemies of mankind and pose severe threats to human rights. Its a common responsibility of the international community to combat criminal acts of terrorism and extremism.

Countries in the world should stand firm against such deeds as politicizing the human rights issue, playing double standards on human rights issues, and interfering in domestic affairs of other countries under the guise of protecting human rights.

(The article is based on Peoples Daily correspondent in Pakistan Ding Xuezhens interview with Makhdoom Babar, president and editor-in-chief of Pakistani newspaper Daily Mail.)
Feds pepper sprayed this Vietnam Veteran/photographer right in the face. His name is Mike Hastie. He was an Army medic. #PortlandProtests pic.twitter.com/CLZwKvuTxH
Five Rafale aircrafts in the first set of the trrop consigned to India, had taken off from an airbase in France to join the IAF fleet in Ambala on Monday, to land on Wednesday in a long-awaited development in a deal of over Rs. 60,000 crore.

All the five Rafale aircraft landed safely at the Al Dhafra airbase in UAE on Monday after a sortie in excess of seven hours, the Indian Air Force said.

In a long-awaited development, five Rafale fighter aircraft took off on Monday for India from an airbase in France to join the Indian Air Force fleet in Ambala on Wednesday.

The fighter aircraft were flagged off by the Indian Ambassador to France from an airbase in Merignac in France where he interacted with the India crew flying it to India. The five aircraft flying to India include seven Indian pilots including the commanding officer of the 17 Golden Arrows squadron.

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All the pilots have been trained on the aircraft by the French Dassault Aviation company as per the agreement signed for the biggest-ever defence deal signed by India in 2016 for acquiring 36 Rafale jets for over Rs 60,000 crore.

The aircraft would make their first stopover at a French base in the United Arab Emirates on their way to India and would be refuelled by the French Air Force tanker aircraft somewhere around Greece or Israel over the sea before landing there.

After a stopover, these will then proceed towards Ambala and reach by July 29 morning. The delivery of the aircraft was earlier supposed to have been done by May-end but this was postponed by two months in view of the COVID-19 situation in both India and France.

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The government issued an amended draft Defence Acquisition Procedure on Tuesday, wherein it elaborated on how to use "leasing" method to get various defence products and on procedure to procure information and communication technology systems for the armed forces.

IMAGE: Indian Army T-90 tanks and BMP infantry combat vehicles carry out the exercise at Stakna in Leh. Photograph: ANI Photo

The first draft of the DAP, which was then called Defence Procurement Procedure, was issued on March 20 this year.

In a statement, the defence ministry said on Tuesday it received suggestions from various stakeholders running into more than 10,000 pages on the first draft.

Therefore, after analysing those suggestions and holding meetings with stakeholders, the ministry said, the amended DAP was issued.

The ministry said there are four new chapters in the amended DAP -- leasing; simplified capital expenditure procedure; acquisition of systems products and ICT systems; procurement from DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation), DPSUs (Defence Public Sector Units) and OFB (Ordnance Factory Board).

"The amended second draft (known as DAP) has since been finalised by the review committee driven by tenets of defence reforms announced as part of the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan' and has been placed in the public domain," the ministry said.

The stakeholders can send their comments on the amended draft by August 10, 2020.

In March this year, the first draft of the DAP had introduced "leasing" as one of the categories to get defence equipment at affordable rates. The second draft has a whole chapter on it explaining the terms, conditions and procedure for procurement under the "leasing" method.

The DAP is issued to ensure timely procurement of best military equipment and platforms for the armed forces through optimum utilisation of budgetary resources.

Moreover, the DAP's focus is also on promoting self-reliance in defence equipment production, with an ultimate aim to develop India as a global defence manufacturing hub.

The DAP remains in place for a period of five years.

The last DAP was issued in 2016.

According to the Department of Defence Production, India aims to export defence products worth Rs 15,000 crore in 2020-21.

Between April 1 and July 23, India has been able to export defence equipment and platforms worth Rs 1,892 crore, it said on its website.

In 2019-20 and 2018-19, India's defence exports stood at Rs 9,115 crore and Rs 8,320 crore, respectively, the department noted.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jul. 28, 2020 | GRAVES COUNTY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 28, 2020 | 11:12 AM | GRAVES COUNTY

Students in Graves County will return to classes a little later than originally thought.



At a special called meeting Monday night, the Graves County School Board voted unanimously to start classes on Aug. 26. Earlier this month, board members approved an Aug. 6 start date. Superintendent Matt Madding says there are several reasons for moving the start date back.



"COVID cases in Graves County are on the rise," Madding said. "We're growing faster with positive cases in our county than any of the surrounding counties"



Madding said starting later in August will allow teachers to be as prepared as they possibly can be to deliver the best instruction that they can deliver to students.



"Knowing that instruction is going to be completely different this year than what it has been in years past, we wanted to be able to provide more opportunities for our teachers to come in and prepare lesson plans, so they can deliver quality instruction in a way they've never had to before."



Madding said the later start date will also allow teachers to prepare for a possible non-traditional instruction break, if that should happen. Graves County students have the choice of in-person or virtual instruction this year.












In an apartment building several blocks away, someone shot into an apartment building in the 700 block of Madison Street shortly before 11:58 p.m., police said. A 22-year-old Gary man, Kevon Pippins, was hit. He was also taken to the hospital, where he died, the Lake County Coroner said in a release.
Welsh Government pledges to ensure no one is left behind with 40m package to support training and employment

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jul 28th, 2020

The Welsh Government has today pledged to support everyone to find work, education or training or help to start their own business as it launched a 40m skills and jobs fund.

The fund is part of a longer-term plan to help Wales recover from coronavirus; to build back better and ensure no one is left behind.

Todays announcement builds on a 50m package for skills and learning targeted towards higher and further education unveiled by Education Minister Kirsty Williams last week.

At the heart of the new funding is a pledge that everyone over 16 will receive the assistance they need to access advice and support to find work or to pursue self-employment or to find and take up a place in education or training.

It will also focus on more support for apprenticeships, together with traineeships, redundancy assistance, retraining programmes and careers advice  all will be crucial in helping to address an expected rise in unemployment and the risk of deepening economic inequality caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Finance Minister and Trefnydd, Rebecca Evans said: Coronavirus threatens to severely affect all the progress weve made in reducing unemployment and economic inactivity in Wales over the last decade.

This 40m investment in jobs and skills will be vital in helping soften the impact of the pandemic and will be key to driving our economic recovery.

As we work to recover from the impact of pandemic, we want to ensure our economy emerges stronger, fairer, greener, more agile and more productive than before. Ultimately we want to build back better  for this to happen, people and businesses need support to face the challenges and pressures coronavirus has placed on them.

The Welsh Governments Employability and Skills support aims to help employers take on new workers, with incentives for recruiting apprentices and young people.

It also aims to help adults overcome barriers in both maintaining and gaining work with a focus on Wales growth sectors.

The plan includes an emphasis on achieving better outcomes for people who will be affected most by the economic downturn, including disabled people, people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, women, and those with low skills and on low wages.

The 40m package will provide:

 More than 20m to incentivise employers to recruit and retain 5,000 apprentices, increase the capacity of traineeship programmes and support more graduates to access work experience, work tasters and paid work placements.

 Almost 9m to help workers access retraining and find new employment, including in areas of skills demand, through ReACT and the Union Learning Fund. This includes the national roll-out of the personal learning accounts programme so an additional 2,000 people can learn new skills and gain new qualifications.

 Funding for traineeships, Working Wales and Communities for Work Plus will be increased to help match people to job opportunities and promote self-employment and new ways of working, as well as funding to support employer-led training through the Flexible Skills programme.

 There will be support for a new Barriers Fund, offering up to 2,000 to support people who may not have previously considered self-employment, in particular women, young people, people from BAME communities and disabled people.

Commenting on the announcement, Economy Minister Ken Skates said: We have already provided Welsh business with the most generous package of support in the UK, which has been crucial in helping them through the crisis.

Todays announcement goes a step further and supports our workforce. This 40m package will help incentivise employers to take on and train new workers, including apprentices and young people. It will also help employers to retain and reskill the existing workforce and support individuals looking for work to secure employment or start up their own businesses.

We are doing everything we can to drive our economic recovery. I now call on our employers to take advantage of the incentives were putting in place and play their part in providing quality job and training opportunities right across Wales.

Education Minister, Kirsty Williams added: Adding to the 50m I announced last week to support our colleges and universities, this additional funding will create further opportunities for people to expand their knowledge and skills at one of our further or higher education institutions.

More than 8m will be used to create new degree apprenticeships in digital and advanced manufacturing, help 250 graduates overcome barriers to access work experience placements and to increase the activities of employment bureaus in colleges across Wales.

We will also expand our personal learning account programme to reskill or upskill more than 2,000 working people, helping them take a step up the employment ladder and expand the career options available to them.

It is important that we invest now to support a workforce with the skills to drive forward our economic response to the coronavirus.
People on ventilator support in Delhi saw only 2-fold rise from Jan 1-14: Data

3-kg bomb at Delhi flower market: Police yet to zero in on any suspect

Delhi professor arrested in Bhima Koregaon case over maoist ideology

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, July 28: Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil, an associate professor in the Department of English, was arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case.

A section of the Delhi University fraternity and some student outfits condemned the arrest of professor Hany Babu MT by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday, saying it was "a blatant attempt to silence dissent".

The NIA accused him of propagating Naxal activities and Maoist ideology and being a "co-conspirator" in the case.

The news of his arrest was "shocking", said Abha Dev Habib, a professor at Miranda House college where Hany Babu''s wife Jenny Rowena also teaches.

Sharad Pawar summoned by Bhima-Koregaon commission

Sushant's father files FIR against Rhea Chakraborty | Oneindia News

"He has risen as the voice of marginalised students and is a pro-democracy activist. If you put anyone in jail now (amid the COVID-19 pandemic), it is like giving death sentence.... We will continue to protest for his release," she said.

According to a professor, Rowena was attending a college meeting online when she got the news of the arrest and immediately left it.

Another professor, requesting anonymity, said Babu had applied for leave a few days ago to go to Maharashtra for some personal work. The news of his arrest is very "disturbing", he added.

Nalini, a student of Delhi University''s English Department, said, "Ambedkarite intellectual and anti-caste activist Hany Babu''s arrest is yet another draconian attack on the democratic ethos of India and a blatant attempt to silence dissent by the Modi government. This attack upon intellectuals should alarm all progressive voices in the country."

"He is a much better person than he is being made out to be. We all know what is happening in the current time and how there has been a witch-hunt of activists," said a final-year student of English (Hons), requesting anonymity.

The final-year student said Hany Babu was his linguistics professor in third semester.

Kawalpreet Kaur, the Delhi unit president of the All India Students'''' Union (AISA), tweeted, "The news has hit home. Delhi University professor, Hany Babu has been arrested by NIA in Bhima Koregaon case. Everyone in academic fraternity must oppose this arbitrary use of power and give unflinching support to professor. This witch-hunting against democratic voices must end."

The Left-backed AISA said, "Fabricated charges and lies have been the modus operandi of NIA and investigative agencies. The arrest of Prof. Hany Babu proves the Modi government wants to silence and harass pro-democracy forces."

In September last year, officers of the Pune police, which was earlier probing the case, conducted searches at the residence of Hany Babu in Noida and seized his laptop and mobile phone.

From anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) activists to pro-democracy activists, intellectuals and academics, the BJP government is sparing none in its attempt to weaken democracy, the AISA said and demanded Hany Babu''s immediate release.

The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), an umbrella body of student outfits and civil society organisations, called his arrest "blatant harassment and intimidation of persons who question the State and struggle for the rights of the marginalised and oppressed castes, classes and communities".

Hany Babu has been an anti-caste activist who has been consistently fighting for social justice within and outside the university space, it said.

CASR demanded immediate release of all activists and intellectuals arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case.

The case relates to an Elgar Parishad event of December 31, 2017, organised by the Kabir Kala Manch at Shaniwarwada in Pune, where alleged provocative speeches were made, promoting enmity between various caste groups and leading to violence resulting in loss of life and property and statewide agitation in Maharashtra, an NIA official said.
Hotelier Andre Balazs in May 2019

Andre Balazs is turning his famous Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles into a private members club and may do the same to some of his other glitzy properties.

The hotelier told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that he had been working on the member-only model for the last three years but that the COVID-19 pandemic sped it up.

He noticed his well-heeled guests preferred to be among people they knew because they would then also know where they had been.

'There is something to be said for knowing people.

'You can chat with them; you know where they have been,' he said.

A source told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that clientele were already 'clambering' to get memberships despite no information about annual dues being released yet.

'There have been many, many calls already,' the source said.

It's unclear how much annual dues will be or how the club will differ from Soho House, the most well-known members club with locations in Manhattan, London and Miami among others.

Balazs said guests are already vetted at the hotel.

'We have always screened our guests. Guests are never more than one degree of separation away,' he said.

Balazs also owns the Mercer Hotel in Manhattan and Chiltern Firehouse in London.

He has not yet revealed whether he will adopt a members-only model there too.

All of Chateau Marmont's hotel employees were laid off in June as a result of the lockdown-imposed closure.

The famous L.A. institute has been closed for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Balazs says he hopes to turn it into a members club by the end of the year

The hotel has been a Hollywood institution for decades. Above, John Belushi's body is removed from the famous hotel after he overdosed in 1982

A portrait of Iggy Pop in one of the paved areas of the hotel in 1996

Elton John and Elizabeth Taylor at a surprise birthday party for John at the hotel in 2000

Supermodel Janice Dickinson (left) at the hotel in 2004 and Helmut Newton (right) in an undated image in the hotel's grounds

Balazs with Joan Collins and Lady Victoria Hervey at Chateau Marmont in 2010. The hotel is already a notorious hotspot for celebrities

Most were let go without severance and instead had access to a $250,000 fund set up by Balazs and donors.

Balazs donated $100,000 to the fund personally.

It's unclear how Balazs' members club will differ from Soho House, which is owned by Nick Jones (the pair are pictured together)

Now, there will be fewer staff at the members club but Balazs said he wants them to be trained to a higher standard.

All of his hotels have remained closed throughout the pandemic.

The Mercer is now accepting reservations.

For other members clubs, Balazs is considering a private Greek island and the south of France.

Balazs and his father made their fortune by selling their biotech company in 1981 for $750million.

He bought Chateau Marmont in 1990.

It had by then cemented its reputation as a Hollywood institution where musicians and film stars parties in peace and privacy.

Balazs has for decades rubbed shoulders with celebrities.

In 2017, he was among public male figures to be accused of sexual misconduct amid the growing MeToo movement.

He was accused of groping Amanda Anka, Jason Bateman's wife, after the premiere of Horrible Bosses in 2017.

She said he convinced her to climb up a fireman's ladder at Chiltern Firehouse, and that he groped her as she climbed.

Bateman was there and is said to have confronted Balazs about the incident. Balazs never commented on the accusations.
BOGOTA, July 28 (Reuters) - Colombia has launched the process to award bandwidth licenses in the 700, 1,900, 2,500 and 3,500 megahertz (MHz) spectrums, the last of which would allow 5G technology to be implemented in the Andean country, the government said Tuesday.

Companies have until Aug. 24 to send a letter to the ministry of information technology and communications (MinTIC) to express their interest.

"We have opened the floor for expressions of interest for future license awards for use of the radio spectrum in the bands of 700 MHz, 1,900 MHz, 2,500MHz and, for the first time, 3,500 MHz," MinTIC Minister Karen Abudinen said in a statement.

"This last band is one of the most important for developing 5G technology in the country."

In December Colombia awarded bandwidth licenses to three companies in the 700MHz and 2,500MHz spectrums, for more than 5 trillion pesos ($1.36 billion), in a move to widen its cell phone coverage and internet in the most remote parts of the country.

($1 = 3,679.17 pesos)

(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Richard Chang)
L ove Islands Dr Alex George has revealed he is experiencing the hardest times [he] could ever have imagined after the death of his younger brother Llyr.

George, 30, shared the tragic news on Friday on Instagram, explaining that he had lost [his] beautiful little brother to mental health.

In a new post shared on his Instagram story on Monday, George thanked friends and fans for their incredible support and vowed to find strength in these darkest times.

These are the hardest times I could ever have imagined, he wrote.

George shared an update on his Instagram story / Instagram @dralexgeorge

The kindness and love our family has received has been incredible and I am so grateful.

In the darkest times we must pick ourselves up, find strength and be there for our family and friends. That is exactly what I will do.

George previously explained that Llyr was due to begin studying at medical school next month.

He said he was so proud of his brother, who would have been an incredible doctor and was the kindest and most caring soul.

He added that his family is devastated and hurting so bad after his death.

George, an A&E doctor who has worked on the NHS frontline during the coronavirus crisis, appeared on Love Island in 2018.

For confidential support, call Samaritans on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org
The Duchess of Cornwall led the way for the royal family as she donned a bespoke 38 face mask while visiting the National Gallery in London today.

Members of the British royal family, including Prince Charles, 71, and Camilla, 72, have not been wearing masks while venturing out on royal engagements in the last few weeks.

The decision not to wear masks on public engagements may come as a surprise to some because the royal couple would be more 'at risk' than younger members of the royal family such as the Cambridges or the Wessexes.

But today Camilla opted for a pretty Liberty-print face mask, made for her by couture designer Fiona Clare, which featured a bold peacock print, as she stepped out in the capital for the visit to the gallery in Trafalgar Square.

The bespoke mask, reportedly a birthday gift from a friend, cost 38 - 32 of which is donated to the Literacy Trust and My Dear New Friend, a new movement, created by Alice Irwin, that encourages children and adults to use the power of letter writing to build new friendships and help members of the community support each other at this difficult time and beyond.

The Duchess of Cornwall, 72, stepped out in a face mask for the first time as she arrived at the National Gallery in London today

The peacock print is not currently on sale from Liberty, meaning it's likely a vintage print from the archives, thus pushing up the price.

Camilla appeared to be extra vigilant with the cover up today, opting to choose the mask in the street as she made her way to the National Gallery.

The duchess's stylish blue Liberty print mask, which matched the navy blue shade of her dress.

The Duchess donned the pretty mask with a bold and bright peacock print, adding a pop of gold to her simple blue tunic dress.

Her blonde bob was styled in an impeccable blow-dry, and she sported a sweep of mascara to accentuate her eyes.

The Duchess opted for a stunning mask printed with a bold turquoise and gold peacock desin for the occasion

The Duchess is the second royal to be seen wearing a face covering during the pandemic, after Prince William donned a medical mask while visiting the Oxford Vaccine Group's facility

After an unprecedented 111 days with its doors closed, the National Gallery started welcoming visitors again on July 8 - the first major national art museum to reopen in the UK following lockdown.

Camilla complied with the gallery's new rules for her indoor engagement.

All staff at the tourist attraction in Trafalgar Square now wear face coverings and it is recommended that all visitors do the same.

The royal met staff involved in the organisation's Covid-19 response and reopening process during her visit today.

Shortly after visiting the newly-opened National Gallery, the Duchess went on to meet store and pharmacy staff in Boots in Piccadilly Square

The royal spoke with staff to learn about the company's response to the coronavirus crisis, and hear about support of the charity Hestia's Safe Spaces programme

The Duchess also spoke with staff about and her own Wash Bags project during her visit to the store in central London

The number of visitors to the gallery has been reduced so that social distancing can be maintained during visits.

Meanwhile visitors are also encouraged to wear face coverings, for safety and the safety of other visitors and staff, although it is not mandatory.

Camilla told the Gallery's chair Lord Hall, who was wearing a clear visor, and gathered staff: 'You're the first gallery to open.

'I think it's brilliant. Hopefully it's going to inspire a lot of others to follow you on.

The royal was joined by National Gallery Director Gabriele Finaldi and Chair of the Board of Trustees Tony Hall in the newly refurbished Room 32 as she visits the recently reopened National Gallery in London

While the Duchess wore a mask, staff members at the National Gallery opted to wear sneeze shields

Camilla joked with staff as she called it 'brilliant' that the gallery has been able to reopen amid the global crisis

Camilla called it 'brilliant' that the gallery has been able to open after the coronavirus pandemic

The Duchess met with staff at the gallery as she heard how the team had worked to reopen the London gallery

She prompted laughter as she pointed at her fabric mask and added: 'If anybody can hear me through this... Anyway congratulations to all of you.'

Members of the royal family have had to adapt to an unprecedented change in the way they carry out royal duties during the coronavirus pandemic.

Public appearances were swapped for online video calls as the Windsors followed the rules and stayed at home, but in recent weeks the royals have been carrying out socially distanced engagements.

The Prince of Wales contracted the Covid-19 disease, but isolated from Camilla, who did not catch the virus.

It marked the first time that the Duchess has been seen in a face mask during the coronavirus pandemic

The royal appeared relaxed as she walked through the London streets to the recently reopened National Gallery

The Duke of Cambridge was pictured in a surgical mask when he visited the Oxford Vaccine Group's facility in June to see work being done to find a vaccine.

The Earl and Countess of Wessex have also both seen wearing masks as they volunteered during lockdown.

Camilla also visited Boots' Piccadilly Store to hear about their support of the charity Hestia's Safe Spaces programme for victims of domestic violence.

Today marked the first occasion Camilla, who returned to in-person engagements last month, has been seen in a mask.

The Duchess opted to match her bold and bright face mask with a pretty blue dress for the occasion

Prince Charles and Camilla have undertaken a host of public engagements over the past week as they travelled to Cornwall for their annual trip.

While the couple maintained social distancing at each engagement, neither the Prince of Wales or the Duchess opted to wear face coverings during the appearances, despite both falling into the 'at risk' age bracket.

Ahead of her trip to the dukedom, the Duchess also met with the Chelsea Pensioners at the Royal Hospital Chelsea last week.

Many of the pensioners wore a form of face coverings for the royal occasion, while Camilla opted not to wear a mask for the visit.

Prince Charles and Camilla had opted not to wear face coverings during royal engagements over the last few weeks

The decision by the British royal family not to wear masks during public engagements has been in stark contrast to the attitude undertaken by their European counterparts.

Queen Letizia and King Felipe have frequently worn medical masks during recent engagements, as they tour Spain to help support economic, social and cultural activity after the outbreak.

Their children Princess Leonor, 14, and Princess Sofia, 12, who have joined them for a host of occasions, have also been seen donning the coverings.

And they're not the only royals to have opted to wear masks during royal visits.

Despite being in the 'at risk' age category, the Duchess of Cornwall has yet to wear a face covering in public (pictured, at the Royal Hospital Chelsea)

Queen Mathilde, who is known for her love of bright colours and vibrant outfits, has been experimenting with face masks during her past few weeks of engagements.

The Belgium royal has often co-ordinated her mask with her colourful dresses for royal occasions, including while visiting a residential care center 'La Maison de Mariemont this week.

The Queen, along with husband King Philippe of Belgium, and their children Princess Elisabeth of Belgium and Prince Gabriel of Belgium each donned masks while attending the National Parade in the front of the Royal palace.

During Camilla's recent visit to meet with Chelsea Pensioners, many could be seen wearing face coverings

It comes as the UK government toughened its stance on the wearing of face coverings in public places.

Passengers have had to use them on public transport since June 15 and they were made compulsory in shops and supermarkets in England on July 24.

Rule breakers will be hit with a 100 which can be reduced to 50 if paid within a fortnight.

Unlike the British royals, Queen Letizia and King Felipe has adopted a face mask on almost every public outing since the start of the outbreak (pictured, visiting the San Prudencio Foundation)

Meanwhile Queen Mathilde has taken to matching her outfits with her stylish face coverings, while her family have also been wearing masks (pictured, during the National Parade in the front of the Royal palace this week)
Papillon  officially known as M49  has evading her captors for a second time

A wild bear in Italy has justified its nickname of "Papillon" by escaping from a supposedly secure enclosure in the Dolomites for the second time.

The brown bear, which biologists know as M49, first escaped from an enclosure near the northern town of Trento last year, clambering over a 13ft-high barrier and an electrified fence.

The escape was considered so daring that the bear was nicknamed Papillon, after the 1969 book by Henri Charriere about a prisoner escaping from the penal colony of Devil's Island, in French Guiana.

The bear went on the run for 10 months, raiding beehives and barns. After being declared a nuisance, it was recaptured in April and returned to the enclosure from which it fled.

Now, Papillon has done it again, fleeing a second time from the wildlife centre in Casteller, near Trento.

The escape was announced by Maurizio Fugatti, the governor of the autonomous province of Trentino. This time, however, officials have a much better idea of where the bear is because it is equipped with a tracking collar.

National park rangers have been dispatched to recapture the bear but animal rights groups said it should be allowed to remain free. Sergio Costa, Italy's environment minister, said he believed the animal should remain at liberty.

The bear was originally captured last July after officials judged that it was getting too close to human habitations and posed a potential danger to people. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
Four siblings operating inflatable paddlecrafts on Lake Michigan were among 56 people saved by U.S. Coast Guard personnel on the Great Lakes over the weekend.

In addition to saving 56 lives, Great Lakes USCG crews were involved in 81 cases and assisted 264 people, according to a news release from USCG 9th District.

In the case of the four siblings, they did one thing right before rescuers arrived that saved their lives: They stayed with their vessels, authorities said. They were not wearing life jackets.

Its much easier to scan for a spot a vessel than it is to spot a person in the water. Plus, it helps conserve energy whether the person is sitting on the vessel or holding onto it, said Karl Willis, USCG 9th District search and rescue specialist.

The siblings, a 13-year-old and three 19-year-olds, entered Lake Michigan from Loyola Beach in Chicago on Sunday, July 26, authorities said. They were on two inflatable kayaks without life jackets.

The teens did not return before dark and their parents found their cellphones and other personal items on the beach, authorities said. They called Chicago 911, which notified USCG Sector Lake Michigan, which issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast and launched response boat crews from Station Wilmette Harbor and Station Chicago. A MH-65 Dolphin Helicopter crew joined the search from Air Facility Muskegon.

Wilmette Harbors 29-foot response boat-small crew found the two inflatable kayaks about 4.5 miles from shore, authorities said. All four teens were onboard the paddlecrafts. The response boatcrew transported the siblings to their parents at Montrose Harbor with no reported injuries.

The siblings said bad weather caused them to drift farther than anticipated, and they were struggling to paddle back to shore.

These kids are extremely lucky none of them ended up in the water since they were not wearing life jackets, Willis said. The Great Lakes rarely reach temperatures that are safe to be in for a significant amount of time. Even strong swimmers must be cautious of the temperature, currents, and wind.

Chicago fire and marine units assisted in the search, and police and fire personnel established an incident command post at Loyola Beach.

USCG Air Station Detroit assisted in a separate incident on Sunday in which the survivors remained with their vessel, likely saving their lives.

After a search, two men were found by USCG rescuers clinging to their capsized 15-foot sailboat near Waterport, New York. One was sitting on top of the sailboat without a life jacket. The other was in the water, wearing a life jacket and holding onto the boat.

When the two men, ages 78 and 65, were about four hours overdue from their sailing trip, USCG stations Niagara and Rochester launched 45-foot response boat-medium crews, and Air Station Detroit launched an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew. The USCG also issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast and coordinated with local law enforcement to determine the last known position of the vessel.

The crew from Station Niagara spotted the overturned sailboat around 6:50 p.m. with one man sitting on the hull without a life jacket, and the other in the water holding onto the vessel with a life jacket on. The crew brought the men aboard and transported them to Point Breeze with no reported injuries.

The men reported the sailboat had capsized around 10:30 a.m.

This case illustrates the importance of filing a float plan, Willis said. They were stranded for approximately eight hours with no communication devices and only one life jacket. Luckily, they had informed someone when they should be expected, which ultimately launched the search and saved their lives.

In addition to filing a float plan with someone ashore and staying with the vessel, USCG recommends the following precautions when traversing the Great Lakes:

Wear a life jacket.

Have an operable communications device (and a backup).

Keep serviceable signaling devices readily available.

Invest in a personal locating beacon so you can send your exact location to emergency responders.

Never operate a vessel under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

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CasPhotography/iStockBy LUCIEN BRUGGEMAN and SOO RIN KIM, ABC News



(NEW YORK) -- Tens of thousands dead. Millions more infected. An economy crippled. How did we get here?



When an outbreak of the novel coronavirus emerged late last year in Wuhan, China, few could have imagined the depth of its devastation. The virus crossed borders and oceans, eventually spreading throughout the United States and forever reshaping the lives of those left in its wake.



Now, months later, a wide-ranging ABC News investigation examines the evolution of the global pandemic through extensive interviews with current and former public health and national security officials.



Their collective voice tells the story of a viral infection that exposed gaps in leadership that left millions of Americans vulnerable.



Here are five key takeaways from the ABC News investigation:

'Red Dawn': A collection of former officials sounded an alarm. Were they heard?



In January and February, as the nascent coronavirus grew from outbreak to epidemic to pandemic, a group of former public health and national security officials, some of whom had helped craft a set of so-called "pandemic playbooks" to help guide a unified federal response, privately encouraged officials across the Trump administration to heed warnings of an impending disaster.



Dr. James Lawler, a former National Security Council (NSC) official during both the Bush and Obama administrations who worked specifically on pandemic preparedness, said this was "a serious group," with "many folks who had thought for a long time about pandemics."



To them, at least, the seriousness of the threat was clear.



"Our various groups that look at these things were giving each other the play-by-play on what we were hearing and what we were seeing," Lawler told ABC News. "It was obvious very early on, in January, that this had the potential to be a serious global event."



They exchanged concerns and ideas in a lengthy email thread, which they called "Red Dawn Rising" -- a reference to the Cold War-era film by the same name in which a band of Americans work to repel Soviet invaders. In hindsight, the concerns they raised seem prophetic.



Frustrated with a president who seemed intent on downplaying the disease's threat, this band of experts -- six of whom spoke with ABC News, many for the first time publicly -- offered their unvarnished thoughts to senior administration officials, including top medical advisors in the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services.



"The president began to say that nobody could imagine that something like this could actually occur," Dr. Dan Hanfling, a biosecurity and disaster response expert in Virginia, told ABC News. "The truth is that there was a group of us that had been trying to raise the alarm."



On the eve of crisis, a pandemic preparedness office scrapped



The White House National Security Council once featured a pandemic preparedness desk that monitored for biological threats to the security of the United States.



Its dissolution -- less than a year before the novel coronavirus first emerged in China -- has become fodder for the president's critics.



The office traced its roots back to 2015, when Ron Klain, who had been brought on to coordinate the Obama administration's Ebola response, suggested leaving a permanent position in place at the NSC to deal with pandemic preparedness. Obama agreed, and the White House's National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense was born.



Then John Bolton took the helm as President Donald Trump's third national security advisor. Eager to shake up the national security bureaucracy and downsize the staff, Bolton disbanded the office in 2018.



"It is my understanding that they were trying to reduce the size of the National Security Council, and there are a lot of arguments for why that is a good thing," said Elizabeth Neumann, who until recently served as the Trump administration's assistant homeland security secretary for threat prevention and security policy. "That said, the National Security Council plays a really critical role when it comes to crises and inter-agency coordination."



A senior administration official rejected claims that Bolton and Trump disbanded the office, telling ABC News that its work was absorbed elsewhere within the NSC to "optimize responsiveness to challenges in largely overlapping fields." The official added that "no positions related to pandemic preparedness were eliminated" in the re-shuffling.



Bolton echoed the administration official's denial, insisting the office's dissolution amounted to nothing more than a "streamlining" of the NSC, but critics feel strongly that Bolton's decision impeded the federal government's ability to react effectively to the novel coronavirus by removing a coordinating office and signaling that pandemic preparedness was not a priority.



"I play music," Hanfling told ABC News. "It's pretty helpful to have somebody leading, somebody who is actually signaling the changes and counting the time and so on, and I think that's what that office would have provided."



"In retrospect," he said, "not such a great move.



Lost time: After early action, opportunities squandered



Experts say that a delayed response from the federal government and a lack of cooperation from foreign counterparts hampered the nation's ability to prepare for the pandemic.



Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the Chinese central government's resistance to help from the U.S., despite the CDC's offers, was a missed opportunity for American scientists to learn about the virus early in the crisis.



"I think that was unfortunate," Redfield told ABC News. "If we could've gotten in to assist China in the first weeks of January, I think there would be a different situation today.  We had literally 20, 30 people ready to go in and assist, and then to be sorta told, 'Stand down.' Yeah, it's frustrating."



Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert, told ABC News the Chinese government's refusal to provide a sample of the actual virus to American scientists caused another significant delay in understanding that speed at which it the virus was spreading from person to person. By the time the outbreak in Washington state made it clear the virus was spreading through human contact, Fauci said, community spread had already progressed significantly.



"It isn't something where you know everything that you're going to know from day one," Fauci told ABC News. "The insidious aspect about community spread is that  you don't know who is infecting who. Once that happens, that is the big red flag that we have a real serious problem. And that's when we first started realizing the first community spread that was not related to an identifiable source. Now we see an explosion of that. That's exactly what went on in New York, went on in Chicago and New Orleans, and what is currently now, as you and I are speaking, which is going on in several of the southern states."



Once public health officials identified the potentially catastrophic nature of the contagion, the challenge was to act immediately and get leadership and the public on the same page, said Elizabeth Neumann, who until April served as assistant homeland security secretary for threat prevention and security policy.



"When you're an emergency management professional, you're constantly balancing not wanting to be Chicken Little," Neumann told ABC News. "'The sky is falling, the sky is falling.' Then nothing happens, and the next time you have to say the sky is falling, nobody believes you."



"So there's always a tension there," Neumann said, "in trying to clearly communicate to the public, clearly communicate to leadership, what the concerns might be, what the likelihood of a potential disaster could be."



Tom Bossert, former homeland security adviser to Trump and an ABC News contributor, said sticking with containment efforts until there was hard evidence of community spread was a "sequential mistake" made during those critical early months as symptomatic and asymptomatic infectious people were "walking around in any community at any given time, unbeknownst to not only the public health authorities, but to the people that were sick."



"Once there's 1% or more prevalence," Bossert said, "it becomes very difficult for human, non-pharmaceutical interventions to contain it."

Inadequate testing blinds leaders



Until April, the United States lagged far behind numerous other countries on testing even as community spread was actively occurring across the country and around the world.



"Like any threat, you can't fight it if you don't know where it is," Klain told ABC News.



Assistant Secretary of Health Adm. Brett Giroir, the nation's top health official tapped by Trump to oversee coronavirus testing, told ABC News the government was not prepared to ramp up its testing efforts early in the pandemic because testing supplies were not part of the national stockpile.



"When I looked to see what was there, there was nothing there," Giroir told ABC News. "We didn't know what industries were involved. We needed these strange things called swabs. Who makes swabs?"



According to CDC Director Redfield, companies were slow to jump into testing early on in the coronavirus crisis because of their past experience with SARS and MERS. Because those ailments never spread widely, private labs saw tests go unused, he said.



"By the time they developed the test there was no market for the test," Redfield told ABC News.



But the president's critics say the administration should have quickly used the Defense Production Act to boost testing efforts early on -- an effort that's now being implemented as several states and private labs are once again faced with testing shortages, supply issues and a significant lag in turnaround time for test results nearly half a year into the pandemic even after the federal government and states across the country have significantly ramped up testing efforts.



Food and Drug Administration Commissioner and White House Coronavirus Task Force member Stephen Hahn attributes the current testing shortage to an increase in demand as tests open up to asymptomatic people.



"I think it's a reasonable public health strategy that we've done that," Hahn told ABC News. "Our job at FDA is to say, 'Okay, where's the next generation of tests so that we can scale up by tens of millions per month?' Fortunately, that's happening."



But several states, including California, have recently reverted to prioritizing symptomatic patients. Former New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett told ABC News the lag in turnaround time for testing results -- which is as long as a week in some places -- is "not acceptable."



"It makes a complete mess of all public health prevention strategies of a communicable disease," said Bassett, who oversaw New York City's Ebola response. "You have to have rapid turnaround."



Mixed messages undermine a public's confidence in response



In 2005, when President George W. Bush dispatched his top public health officials to craft a pandemic preparedness plan, a top priority was to convey a clear, unified message to the American people about the federal government's response.



"It was interesting to go back and reread the pandemic plan from 2005," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, who directed the CDC from 2002 to 2009 and helped convince Congress to adopt the Bush strategy. "If you go down the list, it included  communication capability development with trustworthy spokespeople."



Public health officials say Trump's rhetoric has set back efforts to convey a unified message to Americans.



Both supporters and critics of the president have accused him of downplaying the threat of the pandemic.



"As I watched a lot of this evolve from January through February and March, I was worried about a number of mistakes that, it appeared to me from the outside, were being made, or at least in communication with the public were being made," said Tom Bossert, a former homeland security advisor to Trump who was also a security aide to Bush when the 2005 pandemic plan was enacted. "I mean, this is the part that's so hard for me. Yes, of course, there's bad leadership right now. It's so self-evident that you don't need me to say."



The president and his close political advisors often offered messages in direct conflict with his public health experts. The friction between the two factions came to a head earlier this month when the president's trade advisor, Peter Navarro, penned an op-ed in USA Today critical of Fauci, the administration's top infectious disease expert.



"What are people supposed to think when the federal government has a plan for reopening and the president is telling people to ignore his experts' own plan for reopening?" asked Klain. "That confuses everyone. It leads to politics, division, divisiveness. It leads to some of these protests you were seeing."



Trump imposed a travel ban from Europe, which he has cited as an important early response. But some health experts say it also drove a massive number of people back to the U.S. at a time when social distancing was needed.



"He said he was banning everyone, and that led to a panic," Klain said. "It led to thousands and thousands of people coming back from Europe who didn't need to come back. It led to people being jammed up in U.S. airports and probably a lot of coronavirus was brought to this country and spread once in this country."



"The implementation of that could have gone much -- needed to have gone better, because people ended up in those crowded hallways for a long period of time," Neumann said. "And many were exposed, and reportedly have passed because of their exposure waiting to clear customs."



Public health experts haven't been immune from criticism for their mistakes. In early March, for example, Fauci characterized the risk of Americans contracting the illness as "really relatively low" while the surgeon general discouraged the use of masks.



Adm. Brett Giroir, the Trump administration's testing coordinator, described how conflicting messages erode public trust in the government's response -- and the challenges of being the bearer of bad news.



"I can tell you I've tried  and all my colleagues have tried, to the best of our ability  to be completely transparent and open with the American people. I've been accused of being the person who's more negative," Giroir said. "I've tried to be right down the middle of the fairway. Because I believe it's important for the American people  to know that this is very serious."



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
The first five of a batch of French Rafale fighter jets purchased by New Delhi in a controversial multibillion-dollar deal headed to India on Monday for rapid deployment amid rising tensions with China.

The deal, estimated to be worth $9.4 billion, has been overshadowed by corruption allegations levelled by the opposition Congress party although Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rejected the claims.

The jets built by Dassault Aviation -- and piloted by officers from the Indian Air Force (IAF) -- took off from Merignac in southwest France, the company said in a statement.

By Wednesday, they should be at Ambala air base in northern India, some 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the Pakistani and Chinese borders.

They will refuel midair several times on the way and also make a stopover in Al Dhafra in the United Arab Emirates, where France has an air base.

They are accompanied by two A330 Phenix MRTT refuelling planes from the French Air Force, one of which is carrying 70 ventilators, 100,000 test kits and a team of 10 health experts to support India in its fight against COVID-19, according to the French defence ministry.

Delivery of the Rafale jets -- 36 of which were ordered by India in September 2016 -- officially began in October but the planes stayed in France for training of the pilots and mechanics.

Delivery should be complete by 2022.

"I am strongly impressed by the amazing efficiency and determination of the Indian Air Force and Indian Ministry of Defence," the chief executive of Dassault Aviation, Eric Trappier, said in a statement.

He said that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, they had managed to "master rapidly all aspects of the Rafale for comforting Indian sovereignty and contributing to the protection and security of Indian people."

- 'Nimble and deadly' -

The planes are awaited with impatience by New Delhi, which is eager to update its ageing fighter jet force as tensions flare with both China and Pakistan.

Story continues

Brutal hand-to-hand fighting in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh last month left 20 Indian soldiers dead. China has said it also suffered casualties but has not given figures.

Tensions are also running high with Islamabad after India scrapped the semi-autonomous status for the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir and imposed a major security clampdown.

The IAF has said that once the planes arrive in India, "efforts will focus on operationalisation of the aircraft at the earliest."

"Our air force pilots tell us that these are extremely swift, nimble, versatile and very deadly aircraft," said India's ambassador to France Jawed Ashraf.

"This is going to add a great deal of strength to our airpower and defence preparedness but it is also a powerful symbol of our strategic partnership between France and India," he added.

The controversy over the deal in India stems from the naming of Reliance group -- a conglomerate owned by billionaire Anil Ambani that has little experience in aviation -- as Dassault's local partner.

Ambani is reported to be close to India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party.

Modi and the government deny any misconduct and India's top court has dismissed calls for an investigation into the deal, saying it saw no evidence of "commercial favouritism".

Meanwhile Dassault, which counts India as its first international customer in 1953, hopes to sell additional Rafales to New Delhi.

India in May 2017 put forward an official request for information for the supply of 57 combat planes intended for the Indian navy and another in July 2018 for 110 jets intended for the Indian Air Force.
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SOUTHERN KADUNA ELDERS CONSULTATIVE FORUM

PRESS STATEMENT

1 Southern Kaduna has been in the eye of the storm over the incessant attacks and massive destruction of lives and property in the past few weeks. As elders of the area and indeed Kaduna State, we are greatly disturbed by the unfolding tragedy ripping across our land. We cannot therefore, afford to continue sitting and folding our arms in the face of the continued violence that portents a bleak future for future generations.

2 We have come to acknowledge SOKAPU as the voice and hope for Southern Kaduna. And we call on our people to support SOKAPU for the good work it has been doing.

3 As everyone knows, in their oaths of office, Mr. President and all the 36 state Governors undertook to create a conducive environment for the peaceful co-existence of all citizens irrespective of creed, religious or ethnic, to ensure a seamless development and healthy growth of our country, given the fact that we have lived together in an integrated and symbiotic manner until the brutal invasion of our communities by those who government have come to confirm as foreign Fulani. What is happening in Southern Kaduna today and by extension some states of the federation is at variance with the above laudable objective.

4. We once again appeal to Mr. President to urgently intervene in a more effective way, given the magnitude and rapid spread of the killings, especially in the past five weeks, notwithstanding the 24 hours curfew imposed by the state governor. More troops and equipments should be deployed to Southern Kaduna to battle the situation urgently just as was done in Birnin Gwari and Katsina State

5. Mr. President is requested to call the Kaduna State Governor to order to live up to the tenets of his office being the Chief Security Officer of the state on this serious destruction of lives and property of citizens. What is more, he once publicly confirmed the knowledge of where the bandits come from and even paid them money to stop the killings which still persists on a massive scale.

6. All in all, the heartless destruction of lives and property in Chikun, Kajuru Z/Kataf, Kauru, Kaura, Sanga, and Jemaa LGAs, despite the curfew, is a serious embarrassment which should worry the power that be. The time for government to justify the confidence reposed in it by the people is therefore, overdue.

Sign: Elder Peter Buba

(Secretary)
Mumbai, July 28 : Actress Kriti Sanon, who turned 30 a day ago, has thanked fans for their wishes and love. She also urged them to do a good deed in her name.

On Tuesday, Kriti took to Instagram and penned a 'thank you' note to fans, appealing them to contribute their bit to society.

"A big big thank you to all the fans for the unconditional support, heartwarming edits, messages and love.. In many low moments of my life, you guys have managed to make me smile and feel motivated! I promise to always make you all proud!, But if you guys really wanna do something for me on this special day: Do a good deed in my name. -- Donate clothes/books/money/blood -- Help the underprivileged -- Feed some poor families -- Plant some trees -- Feed street dogs and cats -- Spend time with special kids or maybe in an old age home(ofcourse when Covid is over) -- Sponsor some child's education who probably can't afford the basic right to primary education.

" Make someone Smile! In these tough times, we need to do our bit to make this world a better and happier place. There is too much suffering and negativity around. Be Kind. There can be NO better gift for me than see you all spread some love and happiness around! Let that be my birthday gift from now on every single year," Kriti wrote.
Defector Accused of Rape in South Korea Swims Back to North Korea

By William Gallo July 27, 2020

South Korea has acknowledged that a North Korean defector, who had been accused of rape in the South, may have sneaked past South Korean border guards before apparently swimming back to his North Korean homeland.

At a briefing Monday, South Korean military officials said they found the man's bag near a drainage ditch he apparently used to get under a barbed wire fence on the northeastern island of Ganghwa, which is separated from North Korea by a portion of the Han River Estuary.

The 24-year-old, who fled North Korea in 2017, had recently been accused of raping another defector and was the subject of an arrest warrant in the South, according to South Korean media reports. He had also recently lost his job, the reports say.

But South Korean health officials said the re-defector was not registered as a COVID-19 patient or as someone who had come in contact with infected individuals.

That undermines North Korea's accusation that the man may have brought the coronavirus into the communist country.

Apparently referring to the same person, North Korean state media on Sunday said a "runaway" suspected to be carrying the coronavirus returned to the North on July 19th "after illegally crossing the demarcation line" that separates the two Koreas.

It was the first time North Korea has acknowledged a possible coronavirus infection. North Korea has declared a state of emergency and imposed a lockdown around Kaesong City, the border town where the re-defector was found.

Why admit it now?

Even though 16 million coronavirus infections have been reported worldwide, North Korea had long insisted it was completely free of the virus - a claim most outside observers said was practically impossible.

North Korea shares a 1,400-kilometer-long border with China, where the virus originated. Although the North formally closed its borders in February, much of its trade with China is informal and hard to control.

Many analysts said North Korea may be using the incident to finally acknowledge a coronavirus outbreak, even while blaming South Korea.

"This would make for an extremely convenient way for the regime to admit the existence of COVID-19 in the country," wrote Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein, a North Korea specialist at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

"The message is: our anti-epidemic measures, such as closing the northern border, were flawless. But one case still slipped through the cracks," he said. "Having a first confirmed case coming in from the south relieves the regime of any awkwardness vis-a-vis China."

The move could also have a domestic message, says Go Myong-Hyun, a research fellow at the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

"They're trying to send a message that North Korea is under siege, that there is a lot of infection going on outside of North Korea, and that the regime is trying their utmost to keep the country clean and effective," he said.

In recent months, North Korea has hurled aggressive rhetoric at the South, accusing it of prioritizing relations with Washington over Pyongyang.

"It goes along with the spin that South Korea is not to be trusted," says Go. "They are trying to attach this negative image of an infection, virus, and pandemic along with South Korea and the defectors at the same time."

Border security lapses

The defector incident has also raised concerns about possible security lapses along the 250-kilometer border that separates North and South Korea.

A politburo meeting convened Saturday by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chastised the "loose guard performance in the frontline area" where the runaway occurred and vowed possible "severe punishment," according to state media.

When North Koreans flee their country, they usually do so via the border with China, since the border between North and South Korea is one of the most heavily fortified in the world.

But somehow the defector at the center of North Korea's coronavirus claims appears to have crossed the inter-Korean border twice.

The defector, surnamed Kim, detailed his 2017 escape from North Korea in a pair of YouTube interviews last month with another defector.

"I decided to escape because of poverty," he said in the interview that surfaced Monday.

Kim said it took more than seven hours to reach South Korea. The journey, he said, included crossing a minefield, going through barbed wire and electric fences, and swimming across the Han River.

The number of North Korean defectors reaching the South has steadily fallen in recent years, as North Korea and China tighten border controls. The coronavirus has only made things more difficult. During the second quarter of this year, the number of incoming defectors reached an all-time low, with only 12 reaching the South.

North Koreans who have fled to the South rarely return. Since 2015, only 11 North Korean defectors have gone back to the North, South Korea's Unification Ministry said Monday.

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NEW YORK, July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of American Electric Power Company Inc. ("American Electric" or the "Company") (NYSE: AEP). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether American Electric and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On July 21, 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder in connection with an alleged illegal scheme involving bribery in return for Householder's championing of Ohio's House Bill 6 ("HB6"), a state-funded bailout of two nuclear power plants. On July 25, 2020, the Columbus Dispatch reported that AEP, a beneficiary of HB6, made significant financial contributions to politicians and organizations that supported HB6's passage. On this news, AEP's stock price fell sharply during intraday trading on July 27, 2020.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

888-476-6529 ext. 7980

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP

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London-based insurtech Zego has partnered with e-scooter company, Ginger, to provide insurance for the UKs first ever e-scooter trial, which has just launched in the Tees Valley, a city region in the north east of England.

The partnership follows the governments announcement to legalise rental e-scooters on UK roads as part of a 12-month trial period.

Ginger has deployed an initial 100 scooters as part of the trial, with an expected 300 scooters by August. Zegos policy covers all units and is fully integrated into Gingers sign-up process to ensure that users have the governments required third-party liability insurance. Zego also supplies additional personal accident cover which automatically switches on and off as the rider uses the vehicle.

Ginger said it is absorbing the price of the insurance so that no extra cost is passed onto its riders.

Zegos bespoke model helps Ginger to fulfil its requirements from an insurance and safety point of view, while equipping the company with real-time data analysis, enabling it to better understand the behavior of its riders and take informed decisions around safety to reduce the risks of accidents. Zego will ensure that its experience as the first official UK e-scooter insurer contributes to future policy decisions surrounding the widescale introduction of the vehicles.

Zego was founded in 2016 and offers a range of flexible B2B insurance models for fleet businesses and new mobility services, from minute-by-minute insurance to annual cover, providing far more flexibility than traditional insurers, with pricing based on usage data from vehicles.

It is already partnered with European micro-mobility company, Dott, to insure its fleet of shared e-scooters across France, Belgium and Italy. While Zego utilizes the same insurance product across Europe, its model is adapted to suit local requirements.

Ginger is a British based electric micro-mobility company, which operates a fixed location model, unique among their competitors. Using docks or location technology, as well as working in partnership with local authorities and councils, this ensures streets remain free of abandoned scooters, which has dogged rollouts across Europe, as well as the world more broadly. The company also offers shared bikes, e-bikes and e-microcars.

We are delighted to be partnering with Ginger and playing an important part in the UKs first e-scooter trial. These schemes offer huge potential and will play a key role in helping cities get moving again in a safe and sustainable way, commented Sten Saar, CEO and co-founder of Zego.

We want to support the growth of this industry across the UK by creating adaptable insurance models to suit the needs of e-scooter fleets, riders and local cities. For this form of transport to be widely adopted and welcomed by all, its essential that e-scooters come with the right insurance without causing inconvenience for riders, Saar added.

Ginger is delighted to be working with Zego to bring the first operational e-scooter trial to the UK. Both Ginger and Zego share a passion to make the world a better place through zero-emission sustainable transport and this partnership has been the product of a genuine understanding of our needs and the communities we operate, said Paul Hodgins, CEO of Ginger.

Earlier this month, the UK government announced the legalization of shared e-scooter schemes in the UK as part of a 12-month trial period. English town Teesside was the first trial to go live, as a number of other cities and counties have now opened their tender processes and are expected to roll out their own trials in the coming weeks and months. This includes, West Midlands, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, Slough Borough, Nottingham & Derby, Liverpool, York and Bristol. Once submissions for tenders have been submitted, the cities will announce who their preferred partner is for the trial.

About Zego

Zego is an insurer specializing in flexible insurance for new mobility and fleet service providers, offering highly customised policies to gig economy workers and businesses. Established in 2016, Zego has provided over 230 million hours of insurance protection to over 110,000 vehicles. In 2019, Zego raised $42 million in Series B funding and was the first UK insurtech to be awarded an insurance license. Zego is a trading name of Extracover Ltd., which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

About Ginger

Ginger is a London-based based electric micro-mobility, which operates a fixed location model, using docks or location technology to provide all the environmental and customer benefits of electric scooters while ensuring that streets remain free of the chaos of abandoned scooters.

Source: Zego

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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A Malaysian court sentenced former Prime Minister Najib Razak to serve 12 years in prison on Tuesday after finding him guilty in the first of several corruption trials linked to the multibillion-dollar looting of the 1MDB state investment fund that brought down his government two years ago.

Najib was calm and stone-faced as he became the first Malaysian leader to be convicted. He took an oath in brief remarks in the dock that he was innocent.

Judge Mohamad Nazlan Ghazali sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail on one count of abuse of power, 10 years each for three counts of criminal breach of trust, and 10 years each for three counts of money laundering, as well as a fine of 210 million ringgit ($49.4 million). But he ordered the sentences to run concurrently, meaning that Najib will face only up to 12 years in jail.

The judge allowed a stay of the jail sentence and fine pending Najibs planned appeal. But he raised the bail amount and ordered Najib to report to the police twice a month.

As to my supporters, I hope they will continue to believe in me and believe in our struggle, Najib said at a news conference after the sentencing.

Najibs father and uncle were Malaysias second and third prime ministers. Shortly after he took office in 2009, he set up 1MDB to ostensibly accelerate Malaysias economic development.

But the fund accumulated billions in debt, and U.S. investigators allege that at least $4.5 billion was stolen from it and laundered by Najibs associates to finance Hollywood films and buy hotels, a luxury yacht, artwork, jewelry and other extravagances. More than $700 million from the fund allegedly landed in Najibs bank accounts.

The judge read out an elaborate two-hour ruling on Tuesday that convicted Najib of all seven charges.

He said the sentence was appropriate and proportionate taking into account that Najib had committed the crime from a position of trust as prime minister, his final plea and the need to deter others from committing the same crime.

The ruling in the first of his five corruption trials came five months after Najibs Malay party returned to government as the biggest bloc in an alliance that took power from the reformist government that ousted Najibs in 2018 elections.

Analysts said the ruling would bolster the prosecutions case in Najibs other trials and would signal to the business community that Malaysias legal system has strength in tackling international financial crimes. But others cautioned the ruling could be overturned as his political party remains in office.

Prosecutors earlier said the case had tarnished the country as a kleptocracy and sought a sentence that would remind those in high public office that no one is above the law.

Najib asked the court to take into account his achievements during his nine-year tenure and gave an oath that he wasnt aware of the 42 million ringgit ($9.8 million) channeled into his bank accounts from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.

I did not demand the 42 million, I did not plan for the 42 million, nor was the 42 million offered to me. There has been no evidence nor witness to this. And I also like to say that I have no knowledge of the 42 million, Najib insisted.

Some of Najibs supporters outside the courthouse cried when they learned of the verdict while others chanted free bossku and long live bossku. The nickname meaning my boss was coined for Najib in his social media campaign to reinvent himself as a working-class leader.

Najib, 67, has vowed to fight to the end. He has said he was misled by rogue bankers and the case against him is political.

I want justice. I want to clear my name, he wrote on Facebook late Monday. After this, we will go to the Court of Appeal. I am ready. He faces 42 charges in five separate trials.

The conviction would serve as a solid foundation for the prosecution in ensuing 1MDB-related trials, said Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow with Singapores Institute of International Affairs.

He said the ruling also would strengthen the credibility of current Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, even though he now relies on Najibs party for support. Muhyiddin was fired as Najibs deputy exactly five years ago for speaking out on the 1MDB scandal.

Najibs party is the biggest bloc in the current Malay nationalist alliance that has governed since March with a shaky, wafer-thin majority in parliament.

The ruling was absolutely good for Malaysia, said analyst Bridget Welsh, honorary research associate with the University of Nottingham Malaysia.

I think that there is a sense of euphoria among the citizens that justice is being served, among the majority of Malaysians, Welsh said. Keep in mind that majority of Malaysians voted (in 2018) for political change, and the 1MDB case was a catalyst in that. The 1MDB case damaged Malaysias reputation, and I think today worked towards restoring that.

During the trial, Najib was accused of using his position to receive a bribe for approving a government guarantee for billions in loans to SRC, committing criminal breach of trust and accepting proceeds from unlawful activities.

Evidence showed a complex trail of ill-gotten money paid for his home renovation, credit card purchases including a Chanel watch bought in Hawaii as a birthday gift for his wife, and disbursements to political parties.

The judge agreed with prosecutors on Tuesday that Najib had overarching control of SRC and failed to rebut allegations that he misappropriated money for his own use.

The judge said the defences argument that Najib, as prime minister, was duped by rogue bankers led by Malaysian fugitive financier Low Taek Jho was too far-fetched as the two had a close relationship. Investigators have identified Low as the mastermind behind the looting of 1MDB and he remains at large.

Najib testified he assumed the money was part of a donation by the Saudi royal family arranged by Low as a guise to keep Najib from being suspicious of his plundering of the 1MDB fund. The judge debunked that argument in the guilty verdict, finding it an elaborate but weak fabrication.

Najibs second and third trials involving some of the remaining charges are ongoing. His wife and several officials from his party and previous government have also been charged with graft related to 1MDB corruption.

People should not really be celebrating now ... we know in Malaysia, many of these politically charged cases, once they get to the appeals court, they get reversed, said James Chin, professor of Asian studies at Australias University of Tasmania.

So the fact that we have todays guilty verdict doesnt mean things will change. Najib will still remain an MP (member of parliament) and we have to wait for the appeal court system, Chin added.

Prosecutors said they expect the appeals process to be completed within a year.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Nabors Industries Ltd. ("Nabors" or the "Company") (NYSE: NBR) today reported second quarter 2020 operating revenues of $534 million compared to operating revenues of $718 million in the first quarter of 2020. The net loss from continuing operations attributable to Nabors common shareholders for the quarter is expected to be $152 million, or $22.13 per share, compared to a loss of $395 million, or $56.72 per share in the prior quarter. After-tax charges in the second quarter are expected to be $54 million, or $7.68 per share, primarily related to asset impairments and severance costs. After-tax charges in the first quarter totaled $260 million, or $36.86 per share.

For the second quarter, adjusted EBITDA was $154 million compared to $188 million in the prior quarter. In the U.S., a 50% decline in Lower 48 rig count for the industry drove a 36% reduction in Nabors' drilling rigs, as well as a sharp decline in Nabors Drilling Solutions. International activity, especially in Latin America, was impacted by COVID-related disruptions, which resulted in significantly lower dayrates for our temporarily idled rigs. In addition, several contracts were not renewed or were terminated before their expiration. The Rig Technologies segment recorded its highest quarterly adjusted EBITDA level in five years, due to stronger sales in international markets and stringent expense control. Total overhead was reduced by $30 million, a 25% sequential decrease. Second-quarter results also benefitted from one-time net gains to adjusted EBITDA of approximately $8 million, primarily revenue from early terminations on drilling contracts for the International segment.

Anthony G. Petrello, Nabors Chairman, CEO and President, commented, "As we adjusted to the steep activity decline, Nabors delivered strong results in the second quarter, driven by increased market share and strong margins in the Lower 48, resilience in our International business and improved results in our Rig Technologies segment. In addition, we slashed our overhead expenses and capital spending, while making notable progress on our priorities to generate free cash flow and reduce net debt. At the same time, our global team remains focused on minimizing the impact of the pandemic on our employees and on our operations.

"The second quarter operating performance reflected significant activity declines in North America, as operators completed the bulk of their plans to reduce drilling. In the U.S. Lower 48, we lowered our costs swiftly in response to customer actions. Our daily rig margins remained at high levels despite some weakening in our average dayrates for the fleet.

"In our International Drilling segment, rig count declined by 4.3 rigs, a 5% reduction. In addition to the situation in Venezuela, where our main customer exited the market, various customers responded to the global drop in demand by adjusting their drilling plans. As well, strict COVID lockdowns in Latin America resulted in reduced dayrates during the lockdown periods. Nonetheless, adjusted EBITDA held up well, as we benefitted from significant early termination revenue.

"Although activity in the Lower 48 seems close to a bottom, the full impact of pricing reductions on average fleet margins still lies ahead. In addition, as is usually the case, activity trends in most international markets lag the U.S. We expect international rig count and pricing to continue falling over the remainder of the year, though not as steeply as the industry has experienced in the Lower 48.

"In this environment, we will remain focused on cost and capital discipline. We will ensure our direct and overhead costs, as well as our capital expenditures, are as aligned as much as possible to our activity levels."

Consolidated and Segment Results

The U.S. Drilling segment reported $77.7 million in adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2020, a $24.1 million, or 24%, reduction from the prior quarter, primarily due to the decline in activity in the Lower 48 market. During the quarter, Nabors' Lower 48 rig count decreased by 31.8 rigs or 36%. Average daily margins in the Lower 48 widened to $10,449 as favorable cost performance offset the erosion to average fleet dayrates. The U.S. segment's rig count currently stands at 55, with 49 rigs in the Lower 48. Based on the Company's current outlook, the third quarter average Lower 48 rig count should fall by two to three rigs from the second quarter exit rate of 49, while drilling margins should fall to between $9,000 and $9,500, reflecting more normal costs and the continued impact of lower pricing.

International Drilling adjusted EBITDA increased sequentially by $2.0 million, to $93.5 million. Activity declines across several markets and disruptions related to the COVID-19 virus impacted results. The second quarter included one-time net gains totaling approximately $8 million, primarily early termination revenue. The quarterly average rig count, at 82, declined by 5% from the prior quarter. Average margin per day increased to $14,091, including a net benefit of approximately $1,070 from the unusual items. The international rig count currently stands at 74. The Company's outlook includes a further reduction in average rig count in the third quarter, and a decline in adjusted EBITDA.

Canada Drilling reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $0.6 million, as rig activity in that market reached its seasonal low point. Average daily gross margin and the average working rig count decreased significantly during the quarter. The second quarter rig count was two rigs, down from 17 in the prior quarter. The usual seasonal downturn was exacerbated by the current market environment. For the third quarter of 2020, the Company expects an improvement in this segment's adjusted EBITDA as seasonal activity picks up. The Company anticipates rig count to improve by four rigs in the third quarter.

In Drilling Solutions, adjusted EBITDA of $9.4 million declined sharply compared to the first quarter, due to reduced activity across service lines and heightened price competition. The industry rig count, which dropped significantly more than the Nabors rig count, hurt this segment's U.S. revenue as compared to the reduction in the Company's U.S. drilling rig activity.

In the Rig Technologies segment, second quarter adjusted EBITDA was $3.2 million, reversing the prior quarter adjusted EBITDA loss of $3.2 million. Higher international sales and strict cost control contributed to the improved results.

Cost Reductions and Capital Discipline

The second quarter results reflect several actions taken by the Company to improve its fixed cost structure. Primarily, these measures include a streamlined corporate organization, reduced compensation, and a field-support infrastructure optimized for the lower level of activity. Combined, the Company estimates that these actions should generate savings of $96 million beginning in the second quarter through the end of 2020. This reduction represents an additional $11 million in savings as compared to the amount communicated at the end of the first quarter.

Capital expenditures were $49 million in the second quarter, and totaled $109 million for the first half of 2020. As previously disclosed, the Company expects capital expenditures of approximately $240 million for the full year.

Free cash flow, defined as net cash provided by operating activities less net cash used by investing activities, as presented in our cash flow statement, reached $101 million in the second quarter. Total debt declined by $112 million and net debt, defined for financial reporting purposes as total debt less cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, declined to $2.78 billion, a $117 million reduction. The improvement in free cash flow as compared to the first quarter was driven by the absence of semiannual interest payments on senior notes during the second quarter and lower capital expenditures. Working capital provided a headwind to the Company's cash flow. In Latin America, collections were affected by the COVID lockdowns and by negotiations on the dayrates for the lockdown periods. Collections globally were well below Nabors' expectations.

William Restrepo, Nabors CFO, stated, "Nabors' adjusted EBITDA and cash generation, despite the adverse environment, demonstrated the Company's resilience. Looking ahead, we expect further deterioration in the domestic and international markets. As such, we have increased our efforts to continue delivering our goals. We remain committed to meaningfully reduce our net debt in 2020.

"Our overhead costs were cut significantly below the first-quarter levels, exceeding our initial targets. G&A, R&E and field support expenses totaled $89.1 million in the second quarter as compared to $118.9 million in the prior quarter, a 25% reduction. We expect those costs to fall just below $80 million in the third quarter and remain at those levels in the fourth, a 33% reduction as compared to the first quarter. The full year 2020 should be $145 million dollars below the prior year, a 28% year-on-year reduction.

"During the second quarter, we purchased approximately $187 million of our shorter-term notes in the open market at a discount to par. The remaining balances of our 2020 and 2021 senior notes now stand at $139 million and $154 million, respectively. At June 30, our balances of cash and cash equivalents plus our undrawn credit facility totaled nearly $925 million."

Mr. Petrello concluded, "Our commitment to generate free cash flow and reduce net debt this year is unwavering. We continue to evaluate all aspects of the Company with the goal of streamlining our operating processes.

"We will continue to drive technology and performance in the drilling sector. We firmly believe that the future of our industry and the Company's success will be determined by our ability to continue automating the drilling process and integrating the relevant services onto our leading-edge rig platform. At the same time, we are positioning the Company to capitalize on several far-reaching transformations which are currently underway in our industry. The recent launch of our RigCloud digital platform, for streaming analytics and improving rig and operational performance, is a key element of our digitalization strategy. These initiatives will allow us to further improve performance, enhance placement and quality of the wellbore, reduce well cost and enable remote operations with fewer people at risk on the well site.

"We spent the last several years focusing our value proposition on the group of operators we thought most capable of sustaining scale in their markets. These operators demand industry-leading rig capabilities, performance, and advanced technology. Our track record across these dynamics has established Nabors as the leading provider of drilling services to these customers. This strong position will serve us well as we emerge from this downturn.

"I would again like to thank our employees for their hard work in this trying environment. I remain confident that their commitment and perseverance will be rewarded in the recovery."

About Nabors

Nabors (NYSE: NBR) owns and operates one of the world's largest land-based drilling rig fleets and provides offshore platform rigs in the United States and several international markets. Nabors also provides directional drilling services, tubular services, performance software, and innovative technologies for its own rig fleet and those of third parties. Leveraging advanced drilling automation capabilities, Nabors highly skilled workforce continues to set new standards for operational excellence and transform the industry.

Forward-looking Statements

The information included in this press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, as disclosed by Nabors from time to time in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The results included in this press release are preliminary and unaudited and are subject to change and finalization based on the completion of the Company's normal quarter-end procedures, particularly as it relates to impairments and valuations or reserves around the carrying value of various assets on our balance sheet. As a result, these preliminary results may be materially different than the actual results reflected on the Company's Form 10-Q, when it is filed. We do not expect there to be any differences in revenues, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted operating income (loss), free cash flow or net debt, or any of the rig activity or daily rig financial information, but there could be material differences to net loss from continuing operations attributable to Nabors common shareholders and earning per share.

The preliminary results and forward-looking statements contained in this press release reflect management's estimates and beliefs as of the date of this press release. Nabors does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements.

Non-GAAP Disclaimer

This press release may present certain "non-GAAP" financial measures. The components of these non-GAAP measures are computed by using amounts that are determined in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("GAAP"). Adjusted operating income (loss) represents income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes, interest expense, earnings (losses) from unconsolidated affiliates, investment income (loss), impairments and other charges and other, net. Adjusted EBITDA is computed similarly, but also excludes depreciation and amortization expenses. In addition, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted operating income (loss) exclude certain cash expenses that the Company is obligated to make. Net debt is calculated as total debt minus the sum of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. Free cash flow represents net cash provided by operating activities less cash used for investing activities. Free cash flow is an indicator of our ability to generate cash flow after required spending to maintain or expand our asset base. Management believes that this non-GAAP measure is useful information to investors when comparing our cash flows with the cash flows of other companies. Each of these non-GAAP measures has limitations and therefore should not be used in isolation or as a substitute for the amounts reported in accordance with GAAP. However, management evaluates the performance of its operating segments and the consolidated Company based on several criteria, including adjusted EBITDA, adjusted operating income (loss), net debt, and free cash flow, because it believes that these financial measures accurately reflect the Company's ongoing profitability and performance. Securities analysts and investors also use these measures as some of the metrics on which they analyze the Company's performance. Other companies in this industry may compute these measures differently. Reconciliations of consolidated adjusted EBITDA and adjusted operating income (loss) to income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes, net debt to total debt, and free cash flow to cash flow provided by operations, which are their nearest comparable GAAP financial measures, are included in the tables at the end of this press release.

Media Contact: William C. Conroy, Vice President of Corporate Development & Investor Relations, +1 281-775-2423, or Kara Peak, Director of Corporate Development & Investor Relations, +1 281-775-4954. To request investor materials, contact Nabors' corporate headquarters in Hamilton, Bermuda at +441-292-1510 or via e-mail [email protected]

NABORS INDUSTRIES LTD. AND SUBSIDIARIES PRELIMINARY CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME (LOSS) (Unaudited)





















Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

June 30,

March 31,

June 30, (In thousands, except per share amounts) 2020

2019

2020

2020

2019



















Revenues and other income:

















Operating revenues $ 533,931

$ 771,406

$ 718,364

$ 1,252,295

$ 1,571,046 Earnings (losses) from unconsolidated affiliates -

-

-

-

(5) Investment income (loss) 2,036

469

(3,198)

(1,162)

10,146 Total revenues and other income 535,967

771,875

715,166

1,251,133

1,581,187



















Costs and other deductions:

















Direct costs 326,557

496,664

461,840

788,397

1,017,621 General and administrative expenses 46,244

64,415

57,384

103,628

132,582 Research and engineering 7,305

11,920

11,409

18,714

25,440 Depreciation and amortization 211,120

218,319

227,063

438,183

428,710 Interest expense 51,206

51,491

54,722

105,928

103,843 Impairments and other charges 57,852

102,570

276,434

334,286

99,903 Other, net (30,795)

7,899

(17,110)

(47,905)

28,068 Total costs and other deductions 669,489

953,278

1,071,742

1,741,231

1,836,167



















Income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes (133,522)

(181,403)

(356,576)

(490,098)

(254,980) Income tax expense (benefit) 4,446

11,398

17,693

22,139

41,197



















Income (loss) from continuing operations, net of tax (137,968)

(192,801)

(374,269)

(512,237)

(296,177) Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of tax 23

(34)

(93)

(70)

(191)



















Net income (loss) (137,945)

(192,835)

(374,362)

(512,307)

(296,368) Less: Net (income) loss attributable to noncontrolling interest (10,167)

(10,729)

(17,465)

(27,632)

(24,905) Net income (loss) attributable to Nabors $(148,112)

$(203,564)

$(391,827)

$ (539,939)

$ (321,273) Less: Preferred stock dividend $ (3,653)

$ (4,312)

$ (3,652)

$ (7,305)

$ (8,625) Net income (loss) attributable to Nabors common shareholders $(151,765)

$(207,876)

$(395,479)

$ (547,244)

$ (329,898)



















Amounts attributable to Nabors common shareholders:

















Net income (loss) from continuing operations $(151,788)

$(207,842)

$(395,386)

$ (547,174)

$ (329,707) Net income (loss) from discontinued operations 23

(34)

(93)

(70)

(191) Net income (loss) attributable to Nabors common shareholders $(151,765)

$(207,876)

$(395,479)

$ (547,244)

$ (329,898)



















Earnings (losses) per share:

















Basic from continuing operations $ (22.13)

$ (30.31)

$ (56.72)

$ (78.85)

$ (48.43) Basic from discontinued operations -

-

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.03) Total Basic $ (22.13)

$ (30.31)

$ (56.73)

$ (78.86)

$ (48.46)



















Diluted from continuing operations $ (22.13)

$ (30.31)

$ (56.72)

$ (78.85)

$ (48.43) Diluted from discontinued operations -

-

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.03) Total Diluted $ (22.13)

$ (30.31)

$ (56.73)

$ (78.86)

$ (48.46)







































Weighted-average number of common shares outstanding:

















Basic 7,052

7,031

7,051

7,052

7,023 Diluted 7,052

7,031

7,051

7,052

7,023







































Adjusted EBITDA $ 153,825

$ 198,407

$ 187,731

$ 341,556

$ 395,403



















Adjusted operating income (loss) $ (57,295)

$ (19,912)

$ (39,332)

$ (96,627)

$ (33,307)

NABORS INDUSTRIES LTD. AND SUBSIDIARIES PRELIMINARY CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

























June 30,

March 31,

December 31, (In thousands) 2020

2020

2019

(Unaudited)



ASSETS









Current assets:









Cash and short-term investments $ 494,278

$ 489,658

$ 452,496 Accounts receivable, net 349,005

454,718

453,042 Assets held for sale 562

1,936

2,530 Other current assets 309,077

324,524

340,598 Total current assets 1,152,922

1,270,836

1,248,666 Property, plant and equipment, net 4,395,725

4,597,308

4,930,549 Goodwill -

-

28,380 Other long-term assets 433,768

440,404

553,063 Total assets $ 5,982,415

$ 6,308,548

$ 6,760,658











LIABILITIES AND EQUITY









Current liabilities:









Current portion of debt $ -

$ -

$ - Other current liabilities 523,690

584,870

656,548 Total current liabilities 523,690

584,870

656,548 Long-term debt 3,276,103

3,388,014

3,333,220 Other long-term liabilities 241,005

264,742

295,333 Total liabilities 4,040,798

4,237,626

4,285,101











Redeemable noncontrolling interest in subsidiary 434,131

429,824

425,392











Equity:









Shareholders' equity 1,413,147

1,555,921

1,982,811 Noncontrolling interest 94,339

85,177

67,354 Total equity 1,507,486

1,641,098

2,050,165 Total liabilities and equity $ 5,982,415

$ 6,308,548

$ 6,760,658

NABORS INDUSTRIES LTD. AND SUBSIDIARIES SEGMENT REPORTING (Unaudited)





















The following tables set forth certain information with respect to our reportable segments and rig activity:















































Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended



June 30,

March 31,

June 30, (In thousands, except rig activity) 2020

2019

2020

2020

2019



















Operating revenues:



















U.S. Drilling $ 173,784

$ 323,402

$ 274,901

$ 448,685

$ 643,611

Canada Drilling 3,564

11,389

25,591

29,155

36,704

International Drilling 301,078

326,905

337,110

638,188

664,161

Drilling Solutions 33,129

64,583

55,384

88,513

130,005

Rig Technologies (1) 33,582

72,751

42,150

75,732

144,504

Other reconciling items (2) (11,206)

(27,624)

(16,772)

(27,978)

(47,939)

Total operating revenues $ 533,931

$ 771,406

$ 718,364

$ 1,252,295

$ 1,571,046





















Adjusted EBITDA: (3)



















U.S. Drilling $ 77,659

$ 124,924

$ 101,809

$ 179,468

$ 249,929

Canada Drilling (564)

1,069

7,931

7,367

8,515

International Drilling 93,510

86,767

91,509

185,019

172,611

Drilling Solutions 9,411

22,461

19,439

28,850

43,507

Rig Technologies (1) 3,176

3,160

(3,178)

(2)

864

Other reconciling items (4) (29,367)

(39,974)

(29,779)

(59,146)

(80,023)

Total adjusted EBITDA $ 153,825

$ 198,407

$ 187,731

$ 341,556

$ 395,403





















Adjusted operating income (loss): (5)



















U.S. Drilling $ (23,395)

$ 20,392

$ (7,404)

$ (30,799)

$ 45,075

Canada Drilling (5,795)

(5,537)

37

(5,758)

(5,596)

International Drilling 276

(6,884)

(4,147)

(3,871)

(12,521)

Drilling Solutions 1,733

13,793

10,549

12,282

26,648

Rig Technologies (1) (1,492)

496

(8,151)

(9,643)

(4,652)

Other reconciling items (4) (28,622)

(42,172)

(30,216)

(58,838)

(82,261)

Total adjusted operating income (loss) $ (57,295)

$ (19,912)

$ (39,332)

$ (96,627)

$ (33,307)





















Rig activity:

















Average Rigs Working: (6)



















Lower 48 57.2

114.6

89.0

73.1

113.0

Other US 6.6

7.6

7.4

7.0

8.5

U.S. Drilling 63.8

122.2

96.4

80.1

121.5

Canada Drilling 2.2

7.4

16.8

9.5

11.8

International Drilling 82.4

88.6

86.7

84.6

89.1

Total average rigs working 148.4

218.2

199.9

174.2

222.4





















Daily Rig Revenue:



















Lower 48 24,744

25,783

27,199

26,238

25,794

Other US 74,825

78,922

80,996

78,089

75,588

U.S. Drilling (8) 29,927

29,091

31,339

30,776

29,267

Canada Drilling 18,105

17,024

16,767

16,920

17,184

International Drilling 40,129

40,529

42,717

41,456

41,160





















Daily Rig Margin: (7)



















Lower 48 10,449

10,222

9,891

10,110

10,197

Other US 46,032

39,760

43,756

44,828

38,965

U.S. Drilling (8) 14,132

12,061

12,497

13,148

12,204

Canada Drilling 899

3,764

5,694

5,146

5,338

International Drilling 14,091

12,610

13,471

13,773

12,616





(1) Includes our oilfield equipment manufacturing, automated systems, and downhole tools.



(2) Represents the elimination of inter-segment transactions related to our Rig Technologies operating segment.



(3) Adjusted EBITDA represents income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes, interest expense, depreciation and amortization, earnings (losses) from unconsolidated affiliates, investment income (loss), impairments and other charges and other, net. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure and should not be used in isolation or as a substitute for the amounts reported in accordance with GAAP. In addition, adjusted EBITDA excludes certain cash expenses that the Company is obligated to make. However, management evaluates the performance of its operating segments and the consolidated Company based on several criteria, including adjusted EBITDA and adjusted operating income (loss), because it believes that these financial measures accurately reflect the Company's ongoing profitability and performance. Securities analysts and investors use this measure as one of the metrics on which they analyze the Company's performance. Other companies in this industry may compute these measures differently. A reconciliation of this non-GAAP measure to income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes, which is the most closely comparable GAAP measure, is provided in the table set forth immediately following the heading "Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures to Income (loss) from Continuing Operations before Income Taxes".



(4) Represents the elimination of inter-segment transactions and unallocated corporate expenses.



(5) Adjusted operating income (loss) represents income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes, interest expense, earnings (losses) from unconsolidated affiliates, investment income (loss), impairments and other charges and other, net. Adjusted operating income (loss) is a non-GAAP financial measure and should not be used in isolation or as a substitute for the amounts reported in accordance with GAAP. In addition, adjusted operating income (loss) excludes certain cash expenses that the Company is obligated to make. However, management evaluates the performance of its operating segments and the consolidated Company based on several criteria, including adjusted EBITDA and adjusted operating income (loss), because it believes that these financial measures accurately reflect the Company's ongoing profitability and performance. Securities analysts and investors use this measure as one of the metrics on which they analyze the Company's performance. Other companies in this industry may compute these measures differently. A reconciliation of this non-GAAP measure to income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes, which is the most closely comparable GAAP measure, is provided in the table set forth immediately following the heading "Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures to Income (loss) from Continuing Operations before Income Taxes".



(6) Represents a measure of the average number of rigs operating during a given period. For example, one rig operating 45 days during a quarter represents approximately 0.5 average rigs working for the quarter. On an annual period, one rig operating 182.5 days represents approximately 0.5 average rigs working for the year.



(7) Daily rig margin represents operating revenue less operating expenses, divided by the total number of revenue days during the quarter.



(8) The U.S. Drilling segment includes the Lower 48, Alaska, and Gulf of Mexico operating areas.

NABORS INDUSTRIES LTD. AND SUBSIDIARIES RECONCILIATION OF NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES TO PRELIMINARY INCOME (LOSS) FROM CONTINUING OPERATIONS BEFORE INCOME TAXES (Unaudited)









































Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

June 30,

March 31,

June 30, (In thousands) 2020

2019

2020

2020

2019



















Adjusted EBITDA $ 153,825

$ 198,407

$ 187,731

$ 341,556

$ 395,403 Depreciation and amortization (211,120)

(218,319)

(227,063)

(438,183)

(428,710) Adjusted operating income (loss) (57,295)

(19,912)

(39,332)

(96,627)

(33,307)



















Earnings (losses) from unconsolidated affiliates -

-

-

-

(5) Investment income (loss) 2,036

469

(3,198)

(1,162)

10,146 Interest expense (51,206)

(51,491)

(54,722)

(105,928)

(103,843) Impairments and other charges (57,852)

(102,570)

(276,434)

(334,286)

(99,903) Other, net 30,795

(7,899)

17,110

47,905

(28,068) Preliminary Income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes $(133,522)

$(181,403)

$(356,576)

$(490,098)

$(254,980)

NABORS INDUSTRIES LTD. AND SUBSIDIARIES RECONCILIATION OF NET DEBT TO TOTAL DEBT

























June 30,

March 31,

December 31, (In thousands) 2020

2020

2019

(Unaudited)















Current portion of debt $ -

$ -

$ - Long-term debt 3,276,103

3,388,014

3,333,220 Total Debt 3,276,103

3,388,014

3,333,220 Less: Cash and short-term investments 494,278

489,658

452,496 Net Debt $ 2,781,825

$ 2,898,356

$ 2,880,724

NABORS INDUSTRIES LTD. AND SUBSIDIARIES RECONCILIATION OF FREE CASH FLOW TO NET CASH PROVIDED BY OPERATING ACTIVITIES (Unaudited)















Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

June 30,

March 31,

June 30, (In thousands) 2020

2020

2020











Net cash provided by operating activities $ 142,610

$ 59,162

$ 201,772 Less: Net cash used for investing activities (41,376)

(50,773)

(92,149) Free cash flow $ 101,234

$ 8,389

$ 109,623



Free cash flow represents net cash provided by operating activities less cash used for investing activities. Free cash flow is an indicator of our ability to generate cash flow after required spending to maintain or expand our asset base. Management believes that this non-GAAP measure is useful information to investors when comparing our cash flows with the cash flows of other companies. This non-GAAP measure has limitations and therefore should not be used in isolation or as a substitute for the amounts reported in accordance with GAAP. However, management evaluates the performance of the consolidated Company based on several criteria, including free cash flow, because it believes that these financial measures accurately reflect the Company's ongoing profitability and performance.

SOURCE Nabors Industries Ltd.

Related Links

www.nabors.com


Technavio has been monitoring the silicones market and it is poised to grow by USD 5.46 bn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 6% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005492/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Silicones Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. China National Bluestar (Group) Co. Ltd., CHT Group, CRI-SIL Silicone Technologies LLC, Dow Inc., DuPont de Nemours Inc., KC Co. Ltd., Momentive Performance Materials Inc., Rogers Corp., Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd., Siltech Corp., and Wacker Chemie AG are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Growing demand for silicone elastomers has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Silicones Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Silicones Market is segmented as below:

Product Elastomers Fluids Resins Gels And Others

Geographic Landscape APAC Europe MEA North America South America



To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40523

Silicones Market 2020-2024: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our silicones market report covers the following areas:

Silicones Market size

Silicones Market trends

Silicones Market industry analysis

This study identifies the growing demand for medical-grade silicones as one of the prime reasons driving the silicones market growth during the next few years.

Silicones Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the silicones market, including some of the vendors such as China National Bluestar (Group) Co. Ltd., CHT Group, CRI-SIL Silicone Technologies LLC, Dow Inc., DuPont de Nemours Inc., KC Co. Ltd., Momentive Performance Materials Inc., Rogers Corp., Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd., Siltech Corp., and Wacker Chemie AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the silicones market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform

Silicones Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist silicones market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the silicones market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the silicones market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of silicones market vendors

Table Of Contents :

PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT

2.1 Preface

2.2 Currency conversion rates for US$

PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE

Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

Value chain analysis

Market segmentation analysis

PART 04: MARKET SIZING

Market definition

Market sizing 2019

Market Outlook

Market size and forecast 2019-2024

PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY PRODUCT

Market segmentation by product

Comparison by product

Elastomers Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Fluids Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Resins Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Gels and others Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by product

PART 07: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY END-USER

Market segmentation by end-user

Comparison by end-user

Industrial process Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Construction Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Personal care and consumer products Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Transportation Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Others Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by end-user

PART 08: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 09: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024

South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Key leading countries

Market opportunity

PART 10: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 11: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 12: MARKET TRENDS

Increasing adoption in electrical and electronics industry

Growing demand for medical-grade silicones

Increase in preference for bio-based products

PART 13: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 14: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

China National Bluestar (Group) Co. Ltd.

CHT Group

CRI-SIL Silicone Technologies LLC

Dow Inc.

DuPont de Nemours Inc.

KC Co. Ltd.

Momentive Performance Materials, Inc.

Rogers Corp.

Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd.

Siltech Corp.

Wacker Chemie AG

PART 15: APPENDIX

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

Definition of market positioning of vendors

PART 16: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses 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/20200728005492/en/

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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/
Egyptian leader says negotiations will be a long battle amid heightened tensions among Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.

Egypts President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has said talks about Ethiopias Nile dam would drag on but voiced hope for a negotiated settlement to the dispute.

El-Sisis comments, in a speech on Tuesday, came amid heightened tensions between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the vast Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile.

For nearly a decade, talks about the operation and filling of the mega-dam have faltered.

We are negotiating, and these negotiations will be a long battle, el-Sisi said, before adding, we will succeed, God willing.

Last week, Ethiopia announced it had reached its first-year target for filling the reservoir, a move that sparked anxiety in downstream Egypt and Sudan, who fear for their vital water supplies.

El-Sisi said Egyptians fears over the dam are legitimate and natural but warned the media against making threats of military action.

Interactive: Could mega-dams kill the mighty River Nile?

The long-running dispute has recently overflowed online, with Egyptians and Ethiopians sparring in online posts over their rights to the Niles waters.

Cairo has feared Ethiopias dam would severely cut into its share of the Nile, which provides 97 percent of the water needs of more than 100 million Egyptians.

Ethiopia, which began building the dam in 2011 and hopes it will produce vast amounts of electricity for its slightly larger population, said it is vital for its development.

It has insisted downstream countries water supplies will not be affected.

Sudan hoped the dam would help regulate flooding, but in June, it warned that millions of lives would be at great risk if Ethiopia unilaterally fills the dam.

The Nile, the worlds longest river, is a lifeline supplying both water and electricity to the 10 countries it crosses.

Earlier this month, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed hailed the historic early filling of the dam.

The completion of the first round of filling is a historic moment that showcases Ethiopians commitment to the renaissance of our country, Abiy, the 2019 Nobel Peace laureate, said.

The fact that we reached this milestone by our own efforts when no one else believed in our capabilities to accomplish such initiatives makes the moment even more historic.

We conducted the filling of the dam without causing harm to anyone, said Abiy.
Irans delegation will arrive in Ukraine on July 29-30 to hold talks on compensation for downing a UIA plane near Tehran in January this year.

"We have invited Irans delegation to Kyiv and we appreciate that they accepted the invitation. They will arrive on July 29-30, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said during a joint press conference with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Jacek Czaputowicz in Warsaw on July 27, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

The Ukrainian minister stressed that a precise sum of compensation would be determined as a result of the negotiations.

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). All passengers and crew were killed in the crash.

On July 18, France's Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) received Flight PS752s recorders from Iran.

On July 24, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Yevhenii Yenin informed that the transcript from Flight PS752s recorders had confirmed illegal interference with the plane.

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East Africa: keeping the lights on

ICR Research By

Published 28 July 2020

With overcapacity and pricing pressures weighing in on the east African cement industry, cement producers are setting their sights on the return of strong demand by 2023. In the meantime, will they prepare by taking up a stronger position, possibly through industry consolidation? By Standard Investment Bank, Kenya.

The East African Community (EAC) recorded real GDP growth of 5.9 per cent in 2019, slower than the 6.6 per cent growth in 2018, with the deceleration cutting across most member countries. GDP growth in Uganda was 4.9 per cent in 2019 compared to 6.1 per cent in 2018, while Tanzanias was 6.3 per cent compared to seven per cent in 2018. Burundi recorded an improvement from 1.6 per cent in 2018 to 1.8 per cent in 2019. Rwanda recorded the highest GDP growth rate of 10.1 per cent, supported by both the private and public sector. Kenyas GDP growth is estimated at 5.4 per cent in 2019 compared to 6.3 per cent in 2018, with growth more pronounced in service-oriented sectors.

The construction sector in Kenya, which makes up 5.6 per cent of GDP, registered a growth of 6.4 per cent in 2019, lower than the 6.9 per cent in 2018  recording slower growth for the fourth year running due to the slowdown in infrastructure development. However, the real estate sector grew by 5.3 per cent, an improvement from the 4.1 per cent growth in 2018.

Cement sector: keeping the lights on

EAC member states are generally experiencing similar trends in the cement sector, grappling with overcapacity, pricing pressures and weakening demand. Rwanda is somewhat of an exception with sufficient demand and one operational cement manufacturer, CIMERWA, while Tanzania saw a recovery from 2019. The region seems to be on a downward trend in the cyclical nature of the sector, with hopes for a recovery in demand within the next three years. Adding fuel to the fire is the COVID-19 pandemic that is limiting economic activity, consequently repressing cement demand and production, as well as hampering the importation of production inputs.

Kenya

In Kenya cement consumption declined by 1.3 per cent in 2019 to 5.8Mt while production decreased by 2.3 per cent, shrinking for the third-consecutive year to record the lowest output in five years. The weak demand is a result of the slowdown in construction and real estate, lag in infrastructure development, fiscal budget cuts, lower exports and low credit access to the sector, which is currently considered as risky. Cement exports from Kenya have been declining since 2015 and fell from 144,275t in 2018 to 61,658t in 2019, largely on increased capacity in export markets.

Table 1: key figures for the Kenyan construction sector 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Contribution to GDP, by activity (%) Construction 4.9 5.1 5.6 5.5 5.6 Real estate 7.5 7.6 7.0 7.0 6.9 Change in GDP, by activity (%) Construction 13.8 9.9 8.4 6.9 6.4 Real estate 7.2 8.8 6.1 4.1 5.3

Domestic cement consumption has been falling since 2017, following a gentle upward trajectory from the beginning of the century and a strengthening from 2009 on the back of increased demand from aggressive infrastructure development. Consumption peaked in 2016 at 6.3Mt and eased in subsequent years.

The upturn resulted in the expansion of capacity that is now the bane of the sector, following a slowdown in planned government projects (Standard Gauge Railway, roads, stadiums, dams, etc) and commercial property. Demand for office space in Nairobi is estimated to have fallen to an eight-year low in 2019. Currently, capacity of at least 10.6Mta stands against demand of 5.8Mt. Coupled with lower demand in the private sector and export markets, as well as a softening economy, manufacturers in this low-margin business are doing their utmost to keep the lights on. Competition for market share has resulted in price undercutting, yet the cost of production remains high, further eroding margins. COVID-19 is likely to force manufacturers and distributors to slash costs further. Production may be increasingly hindered by importation constraints during the pandemic, providing an edge to manufacturers with self-sufficient clinker.

The individual homebuilder, who was the major consumer before the infrastructure boom, is increasingly significant in light of the plunge in infrastructure and commercial development. Though also suffering from low disposable incomes on slowed economic growth and limited access to affordable credit, the homebuilder serves in keeping the lights on for cement manufacturers.

In February 2020, Bamburi Cement launched a low-cost cement called Fundi (22.5) for masonry and plasterwork, suited for single-storey houses, retailing at lower market prices (US$5.10-5.30/50kg bag). LafargeHolcim has a similar product in Tanzania.

Tanzania

Tanzania is well-endowed with limestone, natural gas and coal deposits, making it favourable for cement production. Similar to Kenya, competition has been very stiff in the past five years with the entry of new producers and capacity expansion by older players, resulting in pricing pressures. However, the Tanzanian cement market started to recover in 2019 and players posted better margins, thanks to increased infrastructure spending, lower imports from Kenya, credit supply growth and reduced competition from the stalled operations of ARM Cement. Lower imports were aggravated by a border dispute between Kenya and Tanzania in 2018-19, which triggered import restrictions that included a ban on cement imports from Kenya to Tanzania. Tanzania had locked out cement products from Kenya in 2018 due to the use of imported clinker, but it was resolved after bilateral talks and a verification process by Tanzania. Nonetheless, there are fewer cement imports to Tanzania from Kenya on increased production capacity.

Policy uncertainty has been a challenge with the current government in Tanzania, especially among investors and corporates, due to the erratic nature of its protectionist policy directives. One of these directives was a ban on coal announced in August 2016. The ban was initially viewed negatively with low-quality supplies and sub-optimal utilisation rates of cement plants. However, the effect is neutral and depends on a companys terms with coal providers and the transport cost. In the fight for market share and with coal mines located in southern Tanzania, distribution efficiency has been a critical success factor in sustaining margins.

Consolidation: stronger together

2019 saw a key transaction in east Africa: the administration of ARM Cement and the subsequent sale of assets in Kenya and Tanzania. ARM Cement was placed under administration in August 2018 by its creditors and some of the assets sold in 2019. ARM Cement operates five grinding plants (two in Kenya, two in Tanzania and one in Rwanda) and two clinker plants, including a 1.2Mta clinker plant in Tanzania.

National Cement, which has taken the lead in transactions in the cement sector, acquired assets of ARM Cement in Kenya in 2019 for US$50m. National Cement is a Kenyan cement manufacturer, owned by the Devki Group of companies, with a subsidiary in Uganda and produces the Simba Cement brand. National Cement had also acquired Cemtech (a subsidiary of the Sanghi Group, India) earlier in 2019 for an undisclosed amount. Cemtech received initial approvals to mine limestone and manufacture cement in 2009, with plans to reap from the vast limestone deposits in West Pokot, Kenya. Ten years later, the plant had not been set up, dogged by regulatory challenges. National Cement acquired Cemtech in March 2019 but is yet to commence construction.

National Cement is the only cement producer in Kenya on an aggressive expansion drive (target: 3.5Mta). The company installed additional capacity of 1.2Mta clinker in 2018 and 0.75Mta grinding in 2020. Moreover, it aims to double the capacity of the new 0.75Mta plant in 2020, in addition to benefitting from the acquisition of distressed assets.

Globally, 2019 saw increased discussions around acquisitions, mergers and takeovers in the cement sector, with some large players such as LafargeHolcim considering divestment in Middle East and African markets. LafargeHolcims subsidiary in Kenya, Bamburi Cement, has reported lower earnings for the last three years but remains one of the strongest players. It has a subsidiary in Uganda, Hima Cement, which is struggling with land acquisition and sales in Rwanda due to a Uganda-Rwanda border dispute. With Rwanda looking to increase local cement manufacturers, the future looks dim for Hima Cement.

Meanwhile, Chinese cement players are targeting global expansion partly through acquisition. ARM Cements assets in Tanzania were acquired by Huaxin Cement, a Chinese company, where LafargeHolcim is the largest shareholder.

Outlook

EAC economies are expected to post lower economic growth in 2020, in line with contracting global growth. The IMF predicts a three per cent contraction of the global economy due to disruptions to economic activity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kenya is projected to grow its economy by between 1-2.3 per cent in 2020 and around two per cent is forecast for Tanzania.

A momentary decline in construction sector growth is expected in Tanzania in 2020, on account of the pandemic as well as upcoming general elections. Nonetheless, the sector should pick up afterwards, supported by infrastructure development and credit supply growth. An optimistic longer-term outlook is dependent on the sustainability of demand growth, supported by both the private and public sectors.

Equally, demand for real estate and construction in Kenya will be suppressed in 2020 due to the economic effects of the pandemic. Though the period until demand recovery is uncertain, there is a general expectation of a recovery after 2022 (general elections)  a new government will most likely be keen to have its own legacy infrastructure projects. In the meantime, the tough spell could be moderately eased by the governments Housing pillar under the Big Four agenda as well as housing and infrastructure deals secured between Kenya and the UK. The government of Kenya initiated an affordable housing programme with a target of 500,000 units by 2022 as part of its Big Four Agenda. The programme is being implemented as a public-private partnership where the government provides land and a private developer puts up the units. In January 2020 at the UK-Africa Investment Summit, Kenya secured investment deals worth over GBP1.3bn, which include infrastructure financing and housing. Some of the significant announcements include mobilising private finance into Kenyan projects, support in designing a new facility to underpin infrastructure projects across Africa, including Kenya, and a GBP30m investment into the construction of 10,000 energy-efficient affordable homes for rent and sale.

For cement companies, the competitive advantage will lie in operational efficiency and balance sheet strength. Unleveraged manufacturers and those producing their own clinker locally have the upper hand on continuity through the current low-demand cycle and the global pandemic.

In addition, sustainability is an emergent trend in the cement sector, and though more entrenched in developed economies, there are visible initiatives in east Africa, mostly under the LafargeHolcim group. Beyond the constructive environmental impact of sustainability initiatives, there is a resultant long-term cost reduction effect, providing a competitive edge.

Standard Investment Banks review of the east African market last year envisaged consolidation within the Kenyan cement sector in the short- to medium term, driven by the need to boost margins in a highly competitive market. In a market where demand growth will be subdued for a considerable period, consolidation remains the ideal means of survival.
Indya Moore, left, stars as Angel in "Pose." (JoJo Whilden / FX)

"Pose," a popular TV drama centering on trans characters, has once again received zero Emmy nominations for its trans performers.

On Tuesday morning, "Pose" stars Indya Moore and Angelica Ross responded to the snubs, which included their portrayals of Angel and Candy, respectively. The 2020 nominations also excluded Janet Mock, the trailblazing trans director who executive produces "Pose."

"I didn't invent the academy or any of the award shows," Moore tweeted. "If they think my work is unworthy Chile that's just that. ... Imagine if we depended on cis ppl to validate anything about us."

Imagine if we depended on cis ppl to validate anything about us.   (@IndyaMoore) July 28, 2020

Ross quickly became emotional while reacting to Tuesday's announcement, explaining that her tears were "not about an award or nominees," but about a much bigger societal issue.

"Ultimately, I need you to understand that I am so tired," she said. "Because those of you that know me know that I'm not just working in front of the screen or behind the lens or whatever. I'm working around the clock to get our society to value trans lives and Black trans lives. And listen, I feel what I feel because I feel like there is nothing we can do."

"Pose" did score a handful of 2020 nominations, including a lead actor nod for defending champion Billy Porter, who last year became the first openly gay Black man to win for lead actor in a drama. The series was also recognized for makeup, hairstyling and costume design.

It was not nominated for drama series, despite making the cut last year.

Ross and Moore also celebrated talent who did get nominated, including Zendaya ("Euphoria"), Jeremy Pope ("Hollywood"), Kerry Washington ("Little Fires Everywhere"), Regina King ("Watchmen") and Issa Rae ("Insecure").

Story continues

"Fam, 'We' came a long way," Moore continued, after lamenting the lack of writing recognition for Mock and writing or directing nods for series creator Steven Canals. "Ya'll look what @StevenCanals, a black puerto Rican from the Bronx did gurl. He said our culture is a sensation and he gagged the whole earth and wrote 'Pose.'

"[And] then Goddess @janetmock teleported from the universe of infinitely ... magical stuff and crushed some sugar, some spice and everything transsexual & softly blew the contents with her hand using her holy afro futuristic breathe unto the book of 'Pose.' & then our cast was born."

Fam, ' We ' came a long way. Ever grateful @MrRPMurphy pushing us thru.



Ya'll look what @StevenCanals, a black puerto Rican from the Bronx did gurl. He said our culture is a sensation and he gagged the whole earth and wrote Pose. @PoseOnFX   (@IndyaMoore) July 28, 2020

Moore also retweeted several supportive messages demanding recognition for them and their costars, as well as balking at the TV academy's move to nominate "Stranger Things" in the drama series category over "Pose."

"This is about the Emmys. This is about the BET Awards. This is about the NAACP. This is about the Golden Globes," Ross said. "This is about the police force. This is about our healthcare system. This is about housing. This is about a legal system. This is about America, who refuses to acknowledge trans people and our humanity."

Canals weighed in on the acting snubs as well, advocating for Mj Rodriguez's lead performance as Blanca. Rodriguez appeared to address the nominations buzz this morning with the simple message, "I love you all."

"Okay, real talk...," Canals tweeted. "what does @MjRodriguez7 have to do  aside from baring her heart & pouring her soul into every damn scene  to get a Best Actress nomination?!"
Rumble

Flossey is living a wonderful life on a beautiful farm in Millbrook, Ontario. It's what is knows an "ethical farm" where cows have space to roam and graze instead of being kept indoors for most of their lives. Flossey's farm has vast expanses of lush, green grass, rolling hills, ponds full of fresh water, and forested areas for shade. This is life as it should be for these gentle creatures. Dave is a farm hand who often helps out with some of the chores and animal care. He decided to take a break on this warm, summer day and he took a seat on the hill overlooking the pasture.
As part of a $4.5 million land deal, the ancestral homeland of the Esselen Tribe has been returned to its people after being landless for a quarter of a millennium.

We are back after a 250-year absence  because in 1770 our people were taken to the missions, Tom Little Bear Nason, chairman of the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County, told the Monterey County Weekly. Now we are back home. We plan on keeping this land forever.

The 1,200 acres of undeveloped private property near Big Sur, known as the Adler Ranch, are being transferred to the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving tribal heritage.

The property, on the Little Sur River, is home to old-growth redwoods and endangered wildlife such as the California condor and red-legged frog, which will be protected as part of the deal.

Working on behalf of the tribe, Portland-based environmental group Western Rivers Conservancy secured a $4.5 million grant from the California Natural Resources Agency to cover the land purchase.

We are going to conserve it and pass it on to our children and grandchildren and beyond, Nason told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Getting this land back gives privacy to do our ceremonies. It gives us space and the ability to continue our culture without further interruption. This is forever, and in perpetuity, that we can hold on to our culture and our values.

In the 18th century Spanish colonists built a military outpost in Monterey and founded missions in the region where tribal members were captured, baptized and "converted" to Catholicism. By the early 1800s, nearly all of the tribe had been wiped out by disease.

Nason said the now 214-member Esselen tribe will share the land with other tribes originally from the area, including the Ohlone, the Amah Mutsun and the Rumsen people.

"Were the original stewards of the land," Nasan told the Sentinel. "Now were returned."

Andrew Chamings is an editor at SFGATE. Email: Andrew.Chamings@sfgate.com | Twitter: @AndrewChamings
DES MOINES  President George H.W. Bush was on board, and former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin and his colleagues made sure it passed the U.S. Senate. But in early March of 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act, a civil rights bill for disabled individuals, was stalled in the House.

It got stuck in a lot of different committees, Harkin remembered. We were all worried that we werent going to get the bill.

It wasnt until members of ADAPT, a disability activist organization, showed up at the U.S. Capitol and staged a protest for the television cameras  taking themselves voluntarily out of their wheelchairs and climbing the Capitol building steps however they could  that attention became focused on the cause.

To me, that remains an iconic moment, Harkin said. When the evening news carried that and it became global, I think that just provided the spark  that last little thing we needed to convince people in the House and others that we needed to get this bill through.

The protest worked, and the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law July 26, 1990.

But even as he celebrates the law he introduced 30 years ago  meant to give those 1 in 5 Americans with a disability the opportunity for full participation in society  Harkin bemoans the goals had not all been achieved, citing unemployment, technology that failed to serve disabled people and inaccessible housing.

The younger generation  the ADA generation  dont be satisfied with what you got. Weve got a ways to go, Harkin said.

Harkin and other former legislators gathered on a Zoom call as part of a week of events surrounding the ADA anniversary by RespectAbility, a national disability advocacy nonprofit. The sessions are being held from noon to 2 p.m. through Friday.

Tucker Cassidy, a disability rights activist who lives in Waterloo, said the fact the sessions were being held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic was a boon to the disabled community.

Everybody knows what a Zoom conference is now, Cassidy said. If we can make them more accessible, we will show up. Its just that, if youve got the door locked, how are people going to get in?

The same is true with telehealth and beginning to happen with education, he noted.

But many other facets of his life are still barricaded: It took Cassidy 12 years to find an accessible apartment through HUD, for example. Now that he owns his own home, he tried shopping in person for furniture at a Waterloo furniture store and couldnt get his chair through the door.

The owner apologized, Cassidy noted, but also said that building had been renovated within the past year. But because it was historic, building owners could ignore accessibility provisions in the ADA.

They didnt even think about that fact. They didnt take the opportunity to make it an accessible building, he said. It blew me away: Here we are 30 years later, and were still having to run into stuff like that. In short, we have a long way to go.

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Georgia's Republican Senator David Perdue has removed a Facebook ad featuring his Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff after he was accused of being anti-Semitic for allegedly doctoring his rival's nose to make it appear bigger.

The now-deleted advertisement features a black and white photo of Ossoff, who is Jewish, that show him having an enlarged and distorted nose.

The ad show Ossoff next to Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who is also Jewish, with a banner that reads: 'Democrats are trying to buy Georgia! Help David Perdue fight back!'

While Perdue's campaign has deleted the ad, they deny accusations it played on an anti-Semitic trope.

The campaign, instead, says the distortion was an 'accident' and blamed it on an 'outside vendor'.

Senator David Perdue's now-deleted advertisement features a black and white photo (left) of Jon Ossoff, who is Jewish, that show him having an enlarged and distorted nose. The original photo (right) was taken in back in 2017

While Perdue's campaign has deleted the ad, they deny accusations it played on an anti-Semitic trope. The campaign, instead, says the distortion was an 'accident' and blamed it on an 'outside vendor'

Ossoff has since blasted his incumbent Republican rival and President Trump ally, calling the ad a 'divisive' and 'disturbing' tactic.

'Sitting US Senator David Perdue's digital attack ad distorted my face to enlarge and extend my nose. I'm Jewish. This is the oldest, most obvious, least original anti-Semitic trope in history. Senator, literally no one believes your excuses,' Ossoff tweeted late Monday.

'Perdue should take personal responsibility for his campaign, and donate the money he raised using a doctored image of my face to a nonpartisan group that promotes tolerance, peace, and reconciliation.'

A spokesperson for Perdue's campaign distanced themselves from the ad, saying the size of the Democrat's nose was an 'unintentional error'.

'In the graphic design process handled by an outside vendor, the photo was resized and a filter was applied, which appears to have caused an unintentional error that distorted the image,' a spokesperson said.

'Obviously, this was accidental, but to ensure there is absolutely no confusion, we have immediately removed the image from Facebook.

The ad show Ossoff next to Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who is also Jewish, with a banner that reads: 'Democrats are trying to buy Georgia! Help David Perdue fight back!'

'Anybody who implies that this was anything other than an inadvertent error is intentionally misrepresenting Senator Perdue's strong and consistent record of standing firmly against anti-Semitism and all forms of hate.'

The original photo of Ossoff that appeared in the ad was taken back in 2017.

The distorted photo was first brought to light by Jewish news organization Forward.

They reported the ad went live on Facebook on July and was displayed between 3,000 to 4,000 times before it was eventually deleted.

Ossoff, who works as a media executive and documentary filmmaker, will face Perdue in November for a US Senate seat representing the state.

He is known for breaking fundraising records during a 2017 special election loss for a US House seat.

Ossoff entered the race for the Senate last September with the endorsement of the late civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis.

He has made fighting inequality and corruption a core part of his message.
Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust plc (the "Company")

The Board of Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust plc is pleased to announce the appointment of Victoria Stewart as a non executive independent Director of the Company with effect from 1 September 2020.

Victoria spent twenty two years as a fund manager, joining Chiswell Investment Management in 1994 before moving to Royal London Asset Management in 1998. She was the sole manager of the Royal London UK Smaller Companies Fund from its inception in 2007, leaving in 2016 and taking up a non-executive director role with Secure Trust Bank PLC where she is chairman of the remuneration committee. Victoria has considerable experience of managing and investing in various investment vehicles and mid and small-cap listed companies and has a strong working knowledge of performance analysis and corporate governance. Victoria is also a non-executive director of Artemis Alpha Fund plc and JPMorgan Claverhouse Investment Trust plc.

She has a beneficial holding of 4,200 shares in the Company.

There are no further details required to be disclosed under Listing Rule 9.6.13.

Aberforth Partners LLP, Secretaries (Tel: 0131 220 0733)

28 July 2020
by Melani Manel Perera

The National Peace Council marks the 37th anniversary of the start of the countrys civil war, just a few days before the 5 August national election by calling for unity between Sri Lankas various communities. The goal is to achieve a shared future and peaceful coexistence in a devolved political system that respects Sri Lankas pluralistic society.

Colombo (Asia News)  Sri Lanka will go to the polls on 5 August. In view of this, the National Peace Council (NPC) has invited candidates, parties and voters to build a path of national reconciliation based on mutual understanding, trust and justice.

Irrespective of which party wins the forthcoming election, the country has to be united otherwise we will all lose. This is a challenge that continues to stand before us 37 years after Black July 1983, the NPC said in a statement.

On 23 July 1983, Tamil Tigers rebels ambushed Sri Lankan soldiers, killing 13. This sparked an anti-Tamil pogrom by majority Sinhalese. The civil war that followed ended in 2009 with the militarys victory.

For the NCP, the political, social and economic divide and the lack of reconciliation between Sinhalese and Tamils lies at the root of the conflict.

Our country has suffered far too long from our inability to unify and connect all citizens within one framework of governance that all can agree is reasonable and just, the NPC statement goes on to say.

This month of July needs to become a time of introspection where the Sri Lankan nation reflects on our divided past and [on] how to achieve a shared future and peaceful coexistence.

According to the NPC, the values on which to re-establish government structures are those that guarantee equal rights, equal opportunities and equal protection under the law.

This is indicative of the need to also continue to seek a solution in which the devolution of power gives to the ethnic and religious minorities the confidence in their security and future in a manner that would hold our pluralistic, multi-ethnic and multi-religious society together.
Bain & Company has announced three new partner promotions in the Middle East, which features four office locations and a team of 300 plus professionals.

Tom De Waele, who was named Managing Partner of Bain & Company Middle East effective January 1 2020, welcomed the new leadership team.

Since joining Bain in 2003 in Brussels and later moving to the Middle East in 2008, De Waele has been renowned for his expertise across Financial Services in the GCC and Egypt, with emphasis on large-scale multi-year transformations and merger integrations for banks, insurance players and capital market actors.

He has also actively served prominent Financial Investor and Private Equity clients across Europe and the Middle East both on the deal-side and on a number of large post-acquisition value creation programs. His main areas of expertise include growth strategy, mergers and acquisitions including post-merger integration, end-to-end digital transformation of sales and service, simplification and cost optimisation as well as organisation.

De Waeles philosophy is to bring the best of Bain globally to Bains clients in the region combined with deep insider-knowledge of the local market and ecosystem to assist them in reaching their strategic ambitions.

My ambition for the next few years includes steering regional clients towards success on a regional and global level, utilising digital, big data and advanced analytics to aid and accelerate bold, future-thinking transformations, said De Waele.

I am also focused on making sure that Bain continues to be a great place to work for the best business talent in the Middle East, who bring extraordinary creativity and focus to every client assignment. Each member of our organisation is carefully selected keeping in mind the companys vision and mission. As we welcome the next-generation leaders, who are an integral part of the firms ongoing success, we wish them continued luck as they undertake their new roles.

The three newly promoted partners are Eric Guraieb, Sami Abdul Rahman and Anne-Laure Malauzat.

Guraieb is an integral part of the firms Energy & Natural Resources and Performance Improvement practices. His focus lies in R&D and innovation, economic development, as well as advising regional leaders in the Oil & Gas industry on national energy policies in the Middle East.

He also has expertise in advising clients on new business ventures, strategy and operation performance improvement. He holds a broad base of consulting expertise acquired in North America and the Middle East, mainly in the industrial sector, where his mastery lies in energy, infrastructure and manufacturing. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and a bachelors degree in industrial engineering from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.

Rahman is a core member of the firms Public Sector and Results Delivery practices with over ten years of experience advising clients across key Middle Eastern Markets. He specialised in working with governments and ministries on critical topics such as national transformation, national and regional economic development, culture, tourism, sustainability and food security.

He holds a BSc. in biology and bio-systems engineering from the American University of Beirut and a MSc. in water science from Auburn University, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar.

Malauzat is an active member of the firms Retail, Consumer Products and Social and Public Sector practices. She leads Bain Social Impact and co-chairs [email protected] in the Middle East. She is an expert in turnaround and growth strategy, performance improvement, distribution and sales enhancements, customer experience transformations and commercial due diligence.

She has worked with a range of private sector clients in retail, consumer products, real estate, financial services and pharmaceuticals. She has also led projects for public sector organisations around national socioeconomic development, vision planning, government transformation, education, entrepreneurship, workforce planning and innovation. -- Tradearabia News Service
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British tourists today said they were still flying to Spain so they don't lose their money - despite Boris Johnson's warning the country could be facing a second wave and the need to quarantine for two weeks when they get back.

Although thousands of people have cancelled their holiday plans after ministers gave just five hours warning of the new restrictions, others remained determined to go.

Holidaymakers leaving from Manchester Airport today claimed they would feel safer in Spain because it was dealing with coronavirus better than the UK, while others complained travel companies were refusing refunds.

Nigel Hunt, 54, was travelling with his family to their villa in Fuerteventura. He told MailOnline: 'We toyed long and hard with the idea of going and decided we would be safer over there than here.

'We live close to Blackburn and Hyndburn where cases are spiking so we feel safer in Fuerteventura.'

Mr Johnson defended his decision today, insisting that Europe was showing 'signs of a second wave', while Nicola Sturgeon said she would not book a holiday abroad just now over fears rules could change again soon.

The PM said: 'What we have to do is take swift and decisive action where we think that the risks are starting to bubble up again.

'Let's be absolutely clear about what's happening in Europe, amongst some of our European friends, I'm afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic.'

In other developments today -

Popular British staycation spots were overrun with bookings with some sites fully reserved until next year;

Spain's PM Pedro Sanchez said country was 'safe' and criticised the new measures as 'an error' and 'unjust';

Coronavirus cases in town of Oldham, Greater Manchester, surged by 240 per cent in the week up to July 25;

UK posted 12 more Covid deaths in a preliminary toll as weekly coronavirus fatalities dropped to another low;

British Airways faced an 'immediate' strike threat as Unite members walked out over plans to cut 12,000 jobs;

Teachers were told not to travel abroad at the end of the summer because they face potentially losing pay if they are put into quarantine during term time.

Nigel Hunt, 54, was at Manchester Airport today travelling with his family to their villa in Fuerteventura. Also pictured are his wife, Helen (far right) and his children Gracie (left) and Mason

Erica Thompson, a carer from Wigan, Greater Manchester, was flying to Fuerteventura to visit her parents. Dan Guzlinski (right) said it would have cost 1,000 to change his destination

The most up to date figures show the number of new cases is rocketing upwards in Spain. It announced 6,361 new cases over the weekend, up from 4,581 the previous weekend. France announced 2,551 new coronavirus cases on Monday

Oldham becomes the latest town to face tighter coronavirus restrictions after a 240% surge in cases Oldham today became the latest place to introduce tighter coronavirus restrictions after a 240 per cent surge in cases in the past week. Official NHS statistics show 119 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in the Greater Manchester town in the week up to July 25. This equates to a rate of 50.5 cases per 100,000 people  the third highest rate in the country, behind only Blackburn with Darwen and Leicester. Council bosses have now urged all of the borough's 235,000 residents to not let any visitors into their home for at least two weeks. They are keen 'to prevent a strict local lockdown being put in place' like that seen in Leicester, which has yet to be freed from the draconian restrictions. It puts Oldham at odds with the rest of England, after lockdown rules were relaxed earlier this month to let people to stay overnight with loved ones. Advertisement

Nigel Hunt, who runs his own business and is from the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, explained that he felt more comfortable because the family were going to their own holiday home.

His wife Helen, who works for Lancashire County Council, said: 'We are over there until August 17 but if things don't change, I'll be coming home a week early so I can use part of my holiday as the quarantine period. We have managed to get holiday insurance to cover us. I do feel we will be safer out there than back at home.'

Boris Johnson decided to reintroduce a quarantine on Spain move after it emerged 10 Britons had returned from the country with coronavirus.

Chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty declared the number 'statistically significant' and said that 'doing nothing isn't an option'.

However, many tourists leaving for Spain for Manchester Airport today were determined not to call off their travel plans.

Steelworker Dan Guzlinski, 36, from Southport, Merseyside, was going to Tenerife with his family.

'If we don't go we lose our money because the holiday hasn't been cancelled. We tried to change the destination but it would have cost an extra 1,000.

'We are going for two weeks and the way everything is at the moment, I think we will be safer over there.'

Erica Thompson, a carer from Wigan, Greater Manchester, was flying to Fuerteventura to visit her parents.

She said: 'I think the Spanish Government has got a better handle on it than our own.

'Everyone has to wear masks and the Army is out on the streets to enforce social distancing measures. They are doing it properly.

'Our government has made a bit of a mess of it from the start. I still don't think they have got a proper grip on things.'

Mrs Thompson, who is visiting her parents for four days, added: 'People are taking it seriously out there and sticking to the rules.

'In the UK, people were having parties, family coming round to their houses and generally not following the rules.

'I'm not sure whether I will have to self-isolate when I get home because a friend told me I was on the exemption list but I will have to see. I will have to see what work says.'

How Chris Whitty killed Spanish holidays: Chief Medical Officer 'DEMANDED ministers put Spain back on quarantine list Ministers decided to reimpose quarantine travel restrictions on Spain after it emerged 10 Britons had returned from the country with coronavirus and Professor Chris Whitty said 'doing nothing isn't an option'. The Government's Covid-O committee met on Saturday afternoon after Health Secretary Matt Hancock raised concerns about a spike in Spanish infections on Friday. The group of six senior ministers, which includes Michael Gove, Grant Shapps and Priti Patel, were apparently told by Prof Whitty, the chief medical officer, that the situation in Spain had deteriorated in the last 48 hours. Ministers were told there had been an increase in infection in 15 of Spain's 19 regions but the 'clincher' was the fact that 10 Britons had recently tested positive after coming back from the country. Advertisement

Kieran Alexander, 30, from Manchester, is flying to Tenerife for a two-week break with his friend Alex Jackson.

He said: 'We are meeting friends who are already over there.

'We managed to get insurance, which was a little more expensive, to cover us so we decided to go. We just want to get on the plane now and get over there.'

Mr Jackson, 37, added: 'We did try to get our money back but we're unable to. We have been trying to contact On The Beach for two weeks but no one has got back to us, which is a disgrace.

'We have been completely ignored by them.

'Ryanair is still flying so we would have ended up losing 1,200 in total.

'I'll have to quarantine when I get back but that's OK because I'll be able to work from home.'

Meanwhile, tourists returning from Spain today reacted angrily at news they would have to quarantine.

Peter Rowen, 72, a retired engineer from Manchester, had been on holiday to Alicante with his friend, John Manning, 69.

'I think everything the government has done regarding this pandemic has been an absolute shambles.

'To let people go away and then come back and have to quarantine for 14 days is out of order.

'We are both single and live alone, so we are now going to have to rely on our families to go shopping for us while in quarantine.'

Chris Miskell, 64, from Crewe, had returned from Alicante with his wife, Anne.

The retired managing director said: 'I think it's Public Health England putting the pressure on trying to make up for the bad decisions made in the past.

'It just seems a knee-jerk reaction and one that hasn't been thought out very well.

'I'm angry that I have to quarantine but at least I'm in a position where it won't affect me as much as others, although it is still an inconvenience.'

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has claimed that tourists are safer in his country than the UK. These are the worst coronavirus hotspots in each country and the number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 people

Britain's decision to drop Spain from its safe travel list has sparked a diplomatic war between Madrid and London.

The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the UK's blanket ban on all non-essential travel to Spain is an 'error' and is 'unjust'.

But Mr Johnson insisted this morning the UK Government must act quickly to respond to what it believes are threats to the domestic fight against coronavirus.

He said: 'What we have to do is take swift and decisive action where we think that the risks are starting to bubble up again.

'Let's be absolutely clear about what's happening in Europe, amongst some of our European friends, I'm afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic.'

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson insisted it is up to individuals to decide whether to travel abroad this summer amid mounting uncertainty.

He said: 'These are decisions for families, for individuals, about where they want to go.'

He added: 'It's vital that when people are coming back from abroad, if they are coming back from a place where I'm afraid there is another outbreak, they must go into quarantine.

Spanish PM says quarantine is 'unjust' and claims tourists will be SAFER in his country Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez Spain's Prime Minister has blasted quarantine restrictions as 'unjust' and said tourists will be safer in his country than the UK as ministers prepare to slash quarantine from 14 to 10 days to salvage getaways for millions of families. Pedro Sanchez last night criticised the government's sudden decision to force Britons returning from Spain to stay at home for two weeks and called on the government to reconsider its decision. Tourists braced to enter quarantine are worried the fortnight self-isolating could cost them paid work and there are fears the newly-imposed rules could kill off the summer holiday season. Speaking moments after the Foreign Office hardened its stance and advised against non-essential travel to the whole of Spain, including the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands, Mr Sanchez told Spanish TV station Telecinco on Monday night: 'I think the UK's decision is an incorrect one. 'Spain is made up of a number of regions that have a cumulative rate of contagion that is lower than the European average as well as the UK average.' Advertisement

'That's why we have taken the action that we have and we will continue, throughout the summer, to take such action where it is necessary.'

The Spanish Government today insisted that Spain remains a safe and 'secure' destination for tourists as Germany imposed travel restrictions on its European neighbour.

Berlin has linked foreign holidays to a 'concerning' rise in cases in Germany and it has now advised its citizens to avoid the regions of Catalonia, Aragon and Navarre - but not the southern coast or the Spanish islands.

The Government announced on Saturday that it was tightening rules on travel to Spain because of rising case numbers.

But ministers faced accusations of presiding over chaos after initially banning travel to the Spanish mainland but travel was still allowed to the Canary and Balearic islands.

However, everyone returning to Britain from anywhere in Spain was still told they have to quarantine for 14 days.

The Foreign Office then moved last night to toughen the travel advice relating to the Spanish islands to bring them into line with the rules applying to the mainland.

Britons make up over a fifth of foreign visitors to Spain, which relies heavily on tourism, and Madrid has said the UK government gave it no warning that the quarantine move was coming last weekend.

Mr Sanchez told Spanish TV station Telecinco on Monday night: 'I think the UK's decision is an incorrect one.

'Spain is made up of a number of regions that have a cumulative rate of contagion that is lower than the European average as well as the UK average.

'The Spanish tourist industry has acted very responsibly over the past few months and has transferred a message of security with regards to the health emergency we are experiencing.

'It's true that on a global level the coronavirus pandemic continues to show a very worrying development and at European level as well, but in Spain the spread of the virus is not occurring in a uniform way.'

Mr Sanchez said the Spanish government is pushing for the UK to reverse its decision as he claimed that 'in epidemiological terms, it would be safer to be' in certain parts of Spain on holiday than in the UK.

'We are going to carry on talking because we are friends and we have many commercial and economic links as well as geopolitical links,' he said.

A spokeswoman for the Spanish government insisted today that the country is still a safe place for tourists to visit.

The spokeswoman said: 'We are a secure destination that has made preparations and strengthened itself to deal with the virus and any outbreaks.'

She added: 'All the figures demonstrate the situation is good in most of the country, where the regional authorities have only registered a low incidence of the illness.'

Meanwhile, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned quarantine restrictions could be reimposed at short notice and said she would opt to take a holiday at home.

She said: 'Right now, be very, very cautious about booking foreign travel that is not essential because you don't know that when you're in a country they may change their regulations and so you might find yourself restricted in that country and when you go to come home you might find that the quarantine rules have changed here.

'I wouldn't, if you were asking me, be booking a foreign holiday right now because of these reasons. I would be choosing, if I had the time to go on holiday, to spend it here in Scotland.'

Boris Johnson, pictured during a visit to Beeston near Nottingham today, has warned there are 'signs of second wave' of coronavirus in Europe

Diplomatic ties were strained after local government minister Simon Clarke said the UK disagreed with Mr Sanchez's assessment that travel to Spain should be allowed to continue.

British Airways faces 'immediate' strike threat as Unite warns of job cuts walk out British Airways today faced an 'immediate' strike threat from union bosses over job cuts amid fears over further travel chaos to families trying to plan a holiday abroad. Unite leader Len McCluskey claimed BA chief executive Alex Cruz had 'published a timetable to fire and rehire thousands of your workforce on August 7'. Mr McCluskey also told how MPs and newspapers alike have condemned the actions of the Spanish boss, adding: 'Perhaps you don't understand that the British sense of fair play runs deep in the psyche of the British people.' BA has so far used state furlough schemes, accessed 300million of UK Government loans and retired its fleet of 747 jumbo jets earlier than planned. Advertisement

Mr Clarke told the BBC: 'We respectfully disagree with the Spanish government's position on this.

'We obviously continue to work closely with them and we wish them every success in managing this outbreak, but we've seen a very sharp increase in cases in Spain.

'A 75 per cent increase in cases reported between the middle of last week and the end of last week. That's why we took the action that we have.

'Clearly, you do have to make decisions on a country-wide basis.

'There is going to be internal transfer within Spain and it's important that we do our utmost to protect the public.'

Ministers decided on Saturday to reimpose quarantine restrictions on Spain after it emerged 10 Britons had returned from the country with coronavirus and Professor Chris Whitty said 'doing nothing isn't an option'.

The Government's Covid-O committee met at the weekend after Health Secretary Matt Hancock raised concerns about a spike in Spanish infections on Friday.

The group of six senior ministers, which includes Michael Gove, Grant Shapps and Priti Patel, were apparently told by Prof Whitty, the chief medical officer, that the situation in Spain had deteriorated in the last 48 hours.

Ministers were told there had been an increase in infection in 15 of Spain's 19 regions but the 'clincher' was the fact that 10 Britons had recently tested positive after coming back from the country.

Prof Whitty described the number as 'statistically significant' as ministers took the controversial decision to reimpose quarantine on Spanish travellers at less than five hours notice.

The account of the meeting came as Mr Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said he will return early from his holiday in Spain tomorrow amid growing fears that holidays in France and Germany could also be axed because of rising infection rates.

There is also mounting speculation that travel to Belgium could soon be impacted after the country put the brakes on its coronavirus lockdown exit strategy.

An aerial view of Figueretas beach in Ibiza today, where there were tiny crowds during what is usually one of the busiest times of the year

The UK Government has now banned all non-essential travel to mainland Spain and the Spanish islands. Pictured is a quiet beach today in the resort of Portinatx in Ibiza

In other developments in Britain's coronavirus crisis today, officials posted 12 more Covid-19 deaths in the preliminary toll as separate figures revealed the number of people dying each week has dropped to another low.

Department of Health chiefs have yet to confirm the final daily figure, which is often much higher because it takes into account lab-confirmed fatalities in all settings.

The early count  which only includes a fraction of the Covid-19 deaths in England  is calculated by adding up updates declared by each of the home nations.

NHS England today posted 12 deaths in hospitals across the country. No fatalities were recorded in any setting in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland again.

It came as the Supreme Court judge Lord Jonathan Sumption called on Britain to learn to live alongside Covid-19 because 'there have been far worse diseases'.

Meanwhile, Downing Street was urged to toughen up its 'back to work' message after a string of top firms said they would not be encouraging staff back to offices for months.

The lack of staff commuting into their offices has left city centres deserted and ravaged high street businesses, which rely on a steady stream of commuters and visitors coming through their doors.

Selfridges today told staff it plans to cut 450 jobs  around 14 per cent of its total headcount  in the latest UK jobs carnage with the tally of layoffs now above 66,000 since the coronavirus crisis began.

There were plenty of empty beach chairs on the Costa Del Sol today, which would usually be at the height of the holiday season

What staycations are left for Brits whose foreign holidays have been ruined? Disappointed holidaymakers are left with a choice of campsites for 150 a night or 200 for three-star hotels as prices rocket by 50%

Mark Duell for MailOnline

Britain's cottages, hotels and holiday sites are seeing a rush in bookings as people give up on travelling abroad amid quarantine fears and opt for a staycation instead.

Families are booking up dates for UK holidays in 2021 despite the cost of some stays going up by 50 per cent as operators try to recoup some of their lockdown losses.

Those hoping for a last-minute stay in a holiday hotspot this weekend will find campsites for 150 a night or 200 a night for three-star hotels as demand soars.

One four-star hotel on the beach in Newquay, Cornwall, comes in at nearly 350 a night, while a one-bedroom cottage in the Cotswolds will set you back 280 a night.

Demand will also be boosted by rising temperatures over the next few days, with Friday expected to be the hottest day of the year so far with 91F (33C) highs.

Slots at campsites, B&Bs and cottages across Britain are also running out because holidays postponed during the lockdown are now being rebooked for next year.

A family room at the three-star Best Western Livermead Cliff Hotel in Devon costs 440 for two nights this weekend as demand surges for hotels and cottages amid the staycations boom

What can I do if I've booked a holiday to Spain? Can I get a refund on my flights? Airlines are refusing to cancel flights to Spain  despite the Government advising against all but essential travel. The move puts hundreds of thousands of British families in limbo and at risk of losing thousands of pounds. It also puts the airline industry at odds with the UK Government by ignoring a public safety edict. The Government issued the travel warning after the emergence of a second wave of coronavirus in parts of Spain. Customers would normally expect travel firms to cancel the flights and offer refunds. But all the major carriers, which have suffered massive losses following the collapse of air travel, have snubbed the Government and continue to offer the flights. This means families will potentially lose their holidays and their money. People could ignore the Government and take their flights. But they would have to quarantine for 14 days when they get back and their travel insurance may be void. Alternatively, they could cancel their trip without any guarantee of a refund. Can I switch my flight date or change destination? British Airways and easyJet have suggested they will offer vouchers for future flights, rather than a refund, for those who cancel. Ryanair has refused to offer anything. It even suggested people who changed their flights could incur charges of up to 95 per person. What if I have booked a package holiday? If you booked a package holiday which cannot go ahead as planned, you are entitled to a refund and it should be returned within 14 days. However, a number of airlines have not cancelled flights and some tour operators are also doing the same - this means you might not get a refund without a fight. Companies will be expected to cancel package holidays to Spain and its islands and offer refunds. An estimated 1.8m bookings will be affected. Tui has suspended all holidays to Spain up to and including August 9. It said customers travelling 'will be able to cancel or amend holidays and will be able to receive a full refund or the option to rebook their holiday with a booking incentive and our customer service team will proactively email these customers'. Jet2 and Tui have cancelled trips up to certain dates in August. Kuoni, even though it is not cancelling trips, is offering refunds or rebookings at a later date. Will I be able to cancel a direct hotel booking? If you have booked directly with a hotel it is unlikely that they will let you cancel without abiding by their cancellation charges. You could try appealing to their goodwill and there is certainly no harm in asking. They may for instance let you move to a later date. If you have booked through a third-party website like Booking.com, Expedia or Lastminute, you may find that the cancellation terms are more generous, depending on what sort of reservation you made. If it is not offering either option, contact your travel insurer to see if you can claim on your policy instead. Will my insurance cover it? Only Nationwide's FlexPlus travel insurance, which comes with its 13-a-month current account, covers trips cancelled because Foreign Office advice changed after a booking was made - while it also covers a trip being cut short because of a local lockdown. Other policies from the likes of Trailfinders, Nationwide, Axa, All Clear, Coverwise and Insure For will cover coronavirus-related cancellations, but not because of a change in government travel restrictions. The Civil Aviation Authority said there was nothing it could do to ensure those with a flight-only booking got a refund. It suggested they claim money back from a travel insurance policy, but most insurers have clauses that reject any claims linked to coronavirus. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has said it is 'likely' that travel insurance will remain in place for holidaymakers already in Spain until they return home. However, those attempting to travel to countries against FCO advice would invalidate their travel insurance. The ABI said people who booked a trip or took out travel insurance after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic may not be covered for travel disruption or cancellation. In either circumstance, travellers should check with their insurer. What if my trip isn't cancelled but I want to cancel it? If your trip isn't cancelled, contact your travel provider in the first instance to see if they are offering refunds, or again, a change of date. If they are not, you may have to swallow the cost of cancelling your holiday and then fighting to get a refund through your insurance, credit card provider through Section 75 or a chargeback, offered by some banks. While most tour providers still haven't shown their hand, it is thought likely most will cancel holidays given the Government advice. What should I do if I am already in Spain? People currently on holiday in Spain have been encouraged to follow the local rules, return home as normal and check the FCO's travel advice pages on gov.uk for further information. The FCO is not advising those already travelling in Spain to leave. Abta - the UK's travel trade association - has advised customers in the country to continue their holidays and return as normal. What if I am going on holiday elsewhere? The FCO continues to advise against non-essential international travel except to the countries and territories on its exemption list. But local government minister Simon Clarke said the reality is that holidaymakers travelling abroad during the coronavirus outbreak will have to accept there is a 'degree of uncertainty'. He said people going on holiday should understand that they may be asked to self-isolate on their return and the Government must reserve the right to keep the British public safe. Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said anyone making travel arrangements needs to recognise the restrictions that may be placed upon them by the Government on their return to the UK. What will happen when I get back from Spain? If you're returning to the UK from Spain you will need to provide your journey and contact details and self-isolate for 14 days. This may drop to 10 days soon. You may be fined up to 100 if you refuse to provide your contact details or more if you break this rule more than once. You may also be fined up to 1,000 if you refuse to self-isolate, or you could face further action. Will my employer pay me if I have to quarantine? This will depend on your employer and their rules. If, for example, you can still work from home, there should - in theory - be no problem with you quarantining. However, you are not automatically entitled to statutory sick pay from your employer if you have to quarantine after coming back off holiday, according to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. Some employers will offer sick pay  either statutory or a higher level, depending on their policy. It could be that if your employer is unable to offer you sick pay, you could take annual leave to avoid missing out on any payment, although this may not be possible if you do not have enough left to take. However, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said no worker following quarantine guidance should be penalised by employers, including by being put on to sick pay. Advertisement

Charles Millward, the owner of Staycation Holidays, told The Times: 'People should be worried about finding availability next year.

'A lot of dates are already taken because they will have been moved from this year - one of our properties only has three weekends free next year from March until September.

'In general our properties will increase in price next year by 20 per cent to recoup the cost owners lost during the lockdown.

'One property we're booking for next year has gone up by 50 per cent. I think that will happen more and more as owners have lost thousands of pounds and need it back.'

Up to 14million Britons are expected to go on a UK holiday before children go back to school in September, giving the country's economy a 3.7billion boost.

Havens said bookings at its 36 parks are up 96 per cent year-on-year, while demand for caravan sites is up 140 per cent in Devon and bookings are surging at Butlins.

UK holiday agent Hoseasons said it has employed extra telesales staff to cope with extra demand with bookings made for the next year up by a third on normal levels.

Its cottage break bookings are up 223 per cent over the last month compared to the same period in 2019, while call volumes are at more than ten times the normal level.

Writer and broadcaster Sally Jones, who lives in Warwick, told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'I do think it's totally bonkers to encourage people to go abroad at the moment when we don't know which countries are going to be shut down, where we're going to have quarantine coming back from, say, Croatia or France.

'There's wonderful, wonderful places in England. I think most people don't really know their own country that well.'

She added: 'Why not go and explore places like, say, Scotland or the beaches of Northumberland?

'There are these incredible places in England  most of us have never been there.'

British campsites have also seen a boom in bookings as people give up on foreign trips.

The website Pitchup.com, which sends 800,000 people a year to 2,000 UK campsites, said bookings on Sunday were double last year's high for a single day.

It took some 6,100 bookings, representing around 18,000 people, which was up by 20 per cent on the previous Sunday. Founder of the booking platform, Dan Yates, said there is a clear switch to staycations.

He said: 'For many who were just starting to consider booking a trip abroad this is probably the nail in the coffin, with the change in regulations fundamentally damaging consumer confidence to travel overseas.

'The tightened financial climate means British holidaymakers are unlikely to take the risk of not being able to work when they return which has likely been the catalyst for this weekend's surge in UK bookings.'

The website also offers bookings to campsites across Europe. Mr Yates said: 'The tourism and hospitality sector has been decimated by Covid and our Spanish site owners are in uproar.

'They believe a more localised approach which focuses on quarantine in the specific regions which have been affected by the Covid peaks would have been a more appropriate and effective response by the UK government.

'This is, however, good news for domestic campsites and caravan parks as thousands will substitute a UK holiday for their usual one abroad.'

Mr Yates said: 'The ever changing guidance is likely to cause mass confusion and concern amongst Brits, with many likely to elect to play it safe and staying closer to home this year.'

Airbnb has said that on bookings made on the weekend of June 27/28, more than 70 per cent were staycations.

A spokesman said: 'Staycations are great for Brits who want to explore beyond their own four walls again, but also for the hospitality industry and Airbnb hosts who depend on the income from listing on our platform.

'We've seen a significant spike in demand as travel becomes a reality again, with our trending destinations showing people are keen to explore the many interesting towns and rural areas the nation has to offer, providing a welcome boost to local businesses.'

Speaking about going abroad, Guy Anker from MoneySavingExpert told The Times: 'People who booked a holiday or took out insurance after mid-March are not going to be covered by a local lockdown or the decision to change travel advice.

'My advice would be, do not spend any money at the moment that you can't afford to lose, or where flexibility is not written into your airline ticket or hotel booking.'

Meanwhile Boris Johnson has indicated that quarantine restrictions could be imposed on further European countries if a 'second wave' of coronavirus hits the continent.

The Prime Minister already faces a diplomatic row with Spain after warning against all but essential travel to the country - and its resort islands - and insisting that travellers arriving in the UK from there spend a fortnight in quarantine due to an increase in cases.

But he defended the move and insisted the Government would not hesitate to act if flare-ups of coronavirus occurred in other destinations.

'I'm afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic,' the Prime Minister warned.

With holidaymakers already facing uncertainty over trips abroad this summer, Mr Johnson indicated further action could be considered by the Government.

'It's vital that when people are coming back from abroad, if they are coming back from a place where I'm afraid there is another outbreak, they must go into quarantine,' he said.

'That's why we have taken the action that we have and we will continue, throughout the summer, to take such action where it is necessary.'

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described the restrictions on travel to the country as an 'error'.

He pointed out that the upsurge in coronavirus cases is focused in two regions, Catalonia and Aragon, adding: 'In most of Spain, the incidence is very much inferior to even the numbers registered in the United Kingdom.'

Madrid had been urging the UK to exclude the Canaries and Balearics - which include popular tourist resorts on Ibiza, Majorca and Menorca - from its quarantine requirements.

But instead, official travel advice was tightened to bring the islands in line with the Spanish mainland.

The move has dealt a further blow to the travel industry, which was already reeling after the lockdown.

Mr Johnson said it was up to individuals to decide whether they wanted to take the risk of travelling in the present circumstances.

'These are decisions for families, for individuals, about where they want to go,' he said.

The decision to impose quarantine restrictions was made after England's chief medical officer Chris Whitty reportedly told ministers that 10 Britons who tested positive for coronavirus after July 1 had reported visiting Spain in the 14 days before their test.

Mr Johnson said: 'I'm afraid if we do see signs of a second wave in other countries, it is really our job, our duty, to act swiftly and decisively to stop ... travellers coming back from those places seeding the disease here in the UK.'

Britons make up over a fifth of foreign visitors to Spain, which relies heavily on tourism, and Madrid has said the UK Government gave it no warning that the quarantine move was coming over the weekend.

Travel firm Tui UK cancelled all holidays to the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands after the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) updated travel advice.

Tui's decision runs from Tuesday July 28 up to and including Friday July 31.

Holidays to Spain's mainland were already cancelled from Sunday July 26 up to and including Sunday August 9.

The company said: 'The UK Government must work closely with the travel industry as this level of uncertainty and confusion is damaging for business and disappointing for those looking forward to a well-deserved break.'

Jet2 has suspended flights and holidays to Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza up to and including August 9, after the Government changed its advice on travel to the Balearic and Canary Islands.

The company had already suspended flights and holidays to mainland Spain until August 16, and yesterday evening advised customers due to travel to the Balearic and Canary Islands today not to go to the airport.

'Where customers are affected by any programme changes, we have been repeatedly recognised for how we have been looking after customers, offering the option to rebook with no admin fee, a Refund Credit Note or a full cash refund, and we will be contacting customers to discuss these options,' Jet2 said.

'We will also be contacting customers who are currently in these destinations to advise them of their options regarding flying back to the UK, so we urge customers not to contact us.

For customers who are due to travel to these destinations after the dates given above, we will provide an additional update once we receive more information from the Government.

'What we need now is clarity and consistency from the Government. We understand that this is a fast-moving situation, however the information we are receiving is contradictory and often comes with little or no notice.

'We want to provide customers, who work hard and save hard for their well-deserved holidays, with timely information and we need this from the Government. We would like to sincerely thank our customers for their understanding and patience.'

Labour said the Government must abandon its one-size-fits-all approach and introduce sectoral support for struggling businesses to ensure that public health measures such as the change in quarantine rules for people returning from Spain do not lead to mass job losses.

Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said: 'The Government's handling of this issue has been nothing short of chaotic.'

Acting Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: 'The Prime Minister is right... to warn that some countries face the possibility of a second wave of coronavirus.

'However, it is extremely worrying that he has not acknowledged or acted upon the risk of a second wave here in the UK.

'Yesterday, I met with families who had lost loved ones due to Covid-19. Many just want the Prime Minister to start an independent inquiry immediately, so that the Government does not make the same mistakes that cost so many lives earlier this year.'

A stay this weekend at another campsite in Chiddingly, East Sussex, will cost you 332 - as the demand for staycations continues to increase
(Newser)  Residents of Hong Kong who don't want to live under new Chinese restrictions might be able to relocate en masse to Ireland if a real estate tycoon's vision is realized. Ivan Ko wants to build a small new city dubbed Nextpolis in Ireland to be the home of 50,000 Hongkongers, reports the Guardian. He already has presented the plan to Irish officials, and this iteration is a drastically reduced version of the original, reports the Times of London. It calls for what the Guardian describes as a "semi-autonomous" region of about 20 square miles, probably between Dublin and Belfast. "We are not thinking about anything like a separate border, different official languages, and different political system," he says. But schools would teach Cantonese.

story continues below

The Irish government doesn't exactly sound thrilled with the idea, with a spokesperson for the department of foreign affairs saying it has had "limited" contact with Ko since an initial inquiry about the project late last year. (Ko announced his scaled-down version, about a tenth of the original size, just this week.) On the other hand, a spokesperson for the Dundalk chamber of commerceone of the areas seen as a possible fitis gung-ho. "If its going to be accommodated in Ireland we are the prime location," he says, citing proximity to airports, universities, and even the border with Northern Ireland, should residents opt to live in the United Kingdom. (Read more Hong Kong stories.)
Sabry has been detained since April 2018 on charges of operating a news website without a licence, joining the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, and publishing fake news

Egypt's supreme state security prosecution ordered on Monday the release of Adel Sabry, the editor-in-chief of the independent news website Masr Al-Arabiya, pending investigations after his two-year precautionary detention ended, head of the Egyptian Press Syndicate Diaa Rashwan announced.

Sabry has been detained since April 2018 on charges of operating a news website without a licence, joining the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, and publishing fake news.

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Despite the best efforts of the propaganda media (aka, MSM) to sanitize as mostly peaceful violent, property-destroying and federal agent-blinding demonstrations that have engulfed Portland, Seattle, and other cities, the American people are catching on that Antifa is the armed auxiliary street force of the Democrat party, just as the KKK was a century and more ago. While the Dems thought that their strategy of making conditions terrible so that voters would throw out the incumbent was sound, it turns out that the availability of dramatic footage of real violence on social media has put the lie to the media coverups.

.@JoeNBC still claiming the protests in Portland are peaceful pic.twitter.com/RWC52rbQyA  Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 23, 2020

Its gotten so bad that Rep. Jerrold Nadler actually insisted that Antifa violence on Portland was a myth, only to be hustled away from the interviewer by a staffer who saw the PR disaster that was unfolding.

Twitter video screen grab

I ran into Jerry Nadler in DC and asked him to disavow the Antifa violence/rioting in Portland.



His response?



THATS A MYTH pic.twitter.com/veImyE2rju  Essential Fleccas  (@fleccas) July 27, 2020

Evidently, Nadler believed the sanitized version of the demonstrations broadcast by the alphabet networks was bought by the public. (See this hilarious Twitter video on the ins and outs of selling riot footage to the nets.)

Tucker Carlson, the highest rated host in cable news history, regularly calls the rioters Biden voters, and that is an easier sale to the public than Nadlers fantasy.

As a result, some Democrats are openly expressing their fear that the rioters are helping Trump. This tweet by Clinton consigliere Lanny Davis yesterday is getting a huge amount of attention:

Violent protesters lighting fires and using violence in Portland should wear @realDonaldTrump buttons. That is who they are helping.Progressives in Portland need to call them out, including the Mayor. ReTweet please. Dont allow violent people help @realDonaldTrump  Lanny Davis (@LannyDavis) July 27, 2020

Lanny Davis is not the first Democrat to become aware of the potential for disaster as voters realize the truth of Tucker Carlsons label for the rioters as Biden voters. Mayor Libby Schaaf of Oakland, who saw police headquarters and the Alameda County Courthouse attacked and attempted to be burned down over the weekend, warned:

"Vandalizing our downtown gives Donald Trump the images he wants and the justification he seeks to send Federal troops into American cities. We celebrate passionate protest but Oaklanders need to know that when they attend protests after dark, they may be providing cover for agitators who are more intent on stoking civil unrest than advancing racial justice."

Mayor Schaaf had her consciousness raised last Tuesday when:

A group of people vandalized Oakland Mayor Libby Schaafs home early Tuesday, spray-painting graffiti, splashing red paint on the walls and setting off fireworks that targeted the house before dawn, according to neighbors and a spokesman for the mayor. Messages in red paint and black-and-purple spray paint covered the mayors home, as well as a stone wall that runs along the property, the sidewalk and street. Messages included Wake up Libby, Blood on your hands, Take responsibility and Defund OPD. The graffiti remained on the home and surrounding surfaces as of late Tuesday morning. Around 2 a.m., 15 to 20 people in black approached the home on foot, chanting Wake up, Libby, said Desiree Alexander, who lives across the street. They began setting off fireworks in the street and smoke filled the air, Alexander said.

The Democrats, including the Biden campaign, are riding a tiger. If they attempt to dismount, they will be eaten by the tiger, as Libby Schaaf discovered. Bernie Sanderss most enthusiastic supporters are still smarting from the Dem establishment handing the nomination to Joe Biden as a front man, and significant numbers of them could peel off if Biden attempts to restrain the rioters, whom he has not even criticized to date. And the hysterically angry rioters, many of them white, college educated women in their twenties, could turn on Biden as with ample ammunition from his past career befriending KKK Kleagle Robert Byrd and enriching his family with his political connections.

President Trump, to their dismay, has played the riots perfectly, with his administration expressing resolve but refraining from oversteps that would hand a Kent State-like massacre, complete with martyrs, to the rioters and their political beneficiaries in the Democrat party.
Vikram Solar to set up 3 GW solar module production line in TN

Encouraged by the Indian governments new approach in localisation of solar cell production and Prime Minister Narendra Modis appeal to the industry to push for self-reliance, local solar module maker Vikram Solar has announced plans for a new solar cell and module manufacturing facility.

Vikram Solar plans to set up a 3-gigawatt solar manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu, which will produce wafers, cells, and modules and is expected to be operational in five years. The company has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Tamil Nadu towards this.

The development of the manufacturing facility would entail an investment of about $727.4 million by the company. It expects to create 7,542 jobs across the country.

The fact that the decision to set up a manufacturing facility in India comes at a time when solar module exporters globally are reducing or shutting production capacity for want of export orders, speaks of the direct impact of the governments vision for AtmaNirbhar Bharat.

India, which has been flooded by cheap solar module imports from China and neighbouring countries, aims to make itself self reliant by reducing imports of Chinese equipment as part of its plan to revive the economy from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

To protect the interest of domestic manufacturers and to reduce dependence on imports, the Director General of Trade Remedies has proposed an extension of the safeguard duties on imported solar cells by one more year. The directorate has recommended a 14.9 per cent duty for the first six months from 30 July this year, and 14.5 per cent for the next six months.

A similar announcement was made by ReNew Power as well last week to set up 2 GW manufacturing facility for cells and modules by investing Rs20,000 crore.

India currently has a manufacturing capacity of 11 gigawatts of solar modules and 3.1 gigawatts of solar cells. Out of the countrys annual demand of 10 gigawatts of solar equipment, 85 per cent is imported.

The moves by Indian companies come at a time when elsewhere, in Taiwan, United Renewable Energy (URE) announced plans to sell one of its manufacturing units in the country to consolidate production efforts.

It said that its board of directors approved the disposal of the Jhunan Kebei manufacturing facility for NT$1.04 billion (~$35.3 million) to Taiwan Mask Corporation, a manufacturer of masks for semiconductor production processes.

The company noted that it would continue to manufacture solar cells and modules in its other production sites in Taiwan and adjust production based on market demand.
San Francisco, July 28 : Multiple government authorities in California have opened investigations into concerns over safety measures put in place at Amazon centres to protect its workers from Covid-19, the media reported, citing a court filing.

Amazon's workplace practices are being probed by California's Attorney General Xavier Becerra, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, and the San Francisco Department of Public Health, according to the court filing on Monday by San Francisco superior court judge Ethan Schulman, The Guardian reported.

The filing follows a case brought by a worker at Amazon's San Francisco warehouse who accused the company of not putting in place adequate measures to protect the employees.

In a lawsuit filed on June 11, the Amazon worker, Chiyomi Brent, alleged that the online retail giant put workers at "needless risk" as they were required to share certain equipment and were also not allowed extra time to maintain social distancing measures.

The San Francisco superior court judge, however, did not issue a preliminary injunction on Monday.

Saying that the Amazon worker could not demonstrate immediate harm, Schulman added that the California state authorities were better suited to address the concerns of Brent.

Over the past few months, Amazon has announced several new measures aimed at keeping its workers safe. However, the company has also faced criticism from former and current employees regarding its safety measures.
President Muhmmadu Buhari is holding a virtual meeting with members of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF). The meeting took off ...

President Muhmmadu Buhari is holding a virtual meeting with members of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF).





The meeting took off at about 11:25am.





Chairman of the PGF and Kebbi Governor Atiku Bagudu is physically present for the meeting while others are participating virtually.





Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha and Chief of Staff to the President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, are also physically at the meeting.





The agenda for the meeting is yet to be ascertained at the time of filing this report.




The Delhi government on Tuesday rejected the panel of lawyers proposed to represent the city police in the riots cases, observing that a free and fair trial of the cases would not be possible by the lawyers selected by them.

Keeping in mind the principles of the criminal justice system and the need to ensure independence between investigation and prosecution, the Delhi cabinet has directed the Home Department to form an impartial panel of the best possible lawyers in the country for the cases related to the Delhi riots.

The Delhi Police had, earlier, sent a proposal to the Arvind Kejriwal-led government to appoint six senior lawyers, including Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and ASG Aman Lekhi, as Special Counsel in the High Court and Supreme Court in 85 cases related to the riots in northeast Delhi and the anti-CAA protests.

The government had then rejected the Delhi Police's proposal and said that government's lawyer Rahul Mehra and his team were capable of getting justice in these cases.

Lt Governor Anil Baijal, however, disagreed with the proposal sent by the Delhi Home Minister and asked for the file using his special power.

He then wrote to Chief Minister Kejriwal, saying that the Delhi cabinet should take a decision on this matter.

At its meeting on Tuesday, the Kejriwal cabinet thoroughly studied the proposal made by Baijal and the Delhi Police. Noting that anyone who is guilty of causing communal violence in Delhi should be punished severely, it held that there should not be any punishment or harassment of innocent people and hence, rejected Baijal's suggestion to approve the Delhi Police's panel of lawyers.

The cabinet further relied on the observations of Justice Suresh Kumar of the Delhi High Court who had earlier stated that the Delhi Police is taking the entire judicial system on a ride in the riot cases.

Besides this, it pointed that various session courts and media have questioned the role of the Delhi Police during the riots and its investigations.

The cabinet hence observed that in such a situation the panel of lawyers of the Delhi Police would not be able to ensure justice in these cases and as that these cases are very important, the Delhi government's panel of lawyers should represent these cases.

It has also noted that the investigating agency should not be allowed to decide the lawyers.

Alluding to the fundamental principle of the criminal justice system, the cabinet noted that it is not possible to expect a free and fair trial by lawyers appointed by Delhi Police.

It also rued over the way that the Lt Governor is repeatedly interfering in the decision of appointment of the panel of lawyers, citing how the apex court's Constitution Bench has clearly stated in its July 4, 2018 order that the Lt Governor "can exercise his authority over decisions of the elected government only in the rarest of rare cases".
Anuja Susan Varghese By

Express News Service

KOCHI: In a sign that the virus has breached all barriers despite the best of precautions, instances of patients undergoing treatment for other ailments at private hospitals contracting Covid-19 have been reported from across Kerala.

As the situation worsens, patients admitted for treating diseases such as cancer, kidney disease, and heart complications have died after being infected with the virus. The death of a 61-year old cancer patient, who was rushed to Government Medical College Hospital, Kalamassery, from Lakeshore Hospital in Kochi on Sunday after testing COVID positive, has jolted the health department.

With a number of nurses and doctors in private hospitals testing positive for COVID daily, chances of patients contracting the virus from the hospitals themselves cannot be ruled out, opine experts. With over 400 healthcare workers having been infected with Covid-19 in the state so far, the situation is precarious. There could also be instances of non-COVID patients getting the disease from asymptomatic patients from hospitals and other healthcare centres.

Since July 16, 10 cases of patients getting infected with SARS-CoV-2 while under treatment for other diseases have been reported in Ernakulam alone. Similar instances were also reported in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Kozhikode leading to departments getting shut down temporarily.

If healthcare workers, including doctors and nurses, who directly deal with the admitted patients in their respective departments get infected, the entire hospital, including all patients, are at a huge risk. Another possibility of infection is from other patients. Non-COVID hospitals are always at risk. Maintaining social distancing and treating everyone as a likely COVID patient are the only solution. This rule applies even among the medical staff, said Monu Varghese, a pulmonologist in Kochi.

Sadanandan, 60, a native of Vilakkottur in Kannur, died at Government MCH, Pariyaram, while undergoing treatment for cancer and heart-related problems on July 21. His swab results tested positive after his death. Similarly, a 79-year-old woman admitted to Rajagiri Hospital in Aluva with kidney ailments expired on July 20. Her swab samples also tested positive for COVID.

The Department of General Medicine and Cardiology was shut at the General Hospital, Ernakulam, after doctors and staff tested positive on July 8. The outpatient wing of the Gynaecology Department at the MCH, Kottayam, was shut after two doctors and five patients tested positive on Sunday.

It is difficult for patients with comorbidities to fight COVID-19, especially those with high blood pressure and other serious ailments. It is a very unfortunate situation, said a health official.
PARIS  Carrefour posted a 6.3 percent rise in second-quarter sales on a like-for-like basis, spurred by growth in Latin America.

The crisis confirms the relevance of our multiformat and omnichannel strategy, as well as the strength of our commercial assets, resulting from three years of a demanding and rapid transformation, said Carrefour chairman and chief executive officer Alexandre Bompard.

The executive has steered a broad overhaul of the company over the past two and a half years, increasing organic food offers, and bolstering e-commerce, through partnerships with technology companies, including reinforcing a deal with Uber Eats in France with plans to launch the service in Belgium.

Fast like-for-like growth in Brazil and Argentina, where lockdowns continue, helped offset a more subdued performance in Europe, where Spain and Belgium led growth. The retail giants performance in France was dragged down by a weaker performance from its sprawling hypermarkets, which are slowly recovering activity following the lockdown period. Sales in Italy, Poland and Romania declined, on a like-for-like basis.

Sales for the second quarter reached 18.64 billion euros, weighed down heavily by foreign exchange rates, notably the depreciation of the Brazilian real and Argentinian peso.

Breaking down its performance by month, the retailers said that during the lockdown periods, consumers favored convenience and supermarket stores, activity declined in hypermarkets. Consumers made fewer store visits but the average basket increased, while online orders for food remained strong, the retailer said. Carrefours non-food business, especially apparel, suffered during lockdowns, with Italy and Spain ordering the closure of non-food activities.

Reopenings in Europe in May and June led to buoyant food business, the retailer said, flagging pent-up demand.

The company confirmed its financial targets, noting recurring operating profit rose 29 percent over the first half to 624 million euros, growth driven by Europe outside of France and Latin America, with improvement in its performance in Taiwan.

Bompard, who recently reshuffled top management in a number of European markets, moving Christophe Rabatel from Poland to Italy, for example, noted that the reason behind the recent changes was to rally efforts around operational excellence to better serve customers.

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Spain's Prime Minister has blasted quarantine restrictions as 'unjust' and said tourists will be safer in his country than the UK as ministers prepare to slash quarantine from 14 to 10 days to salvage getaways for millions of families.

Pedro Sanchez last night criticised the government's sudden decision to force Britons returning from Spain to stay at home for two weeks and called on the government to reconsider its decision.

Tourists braced to enter quarantine are worried the fortnight self-isolating could cost them paid work and there are fears the newly-imposed rules could kill off the summer holiday season.

Speaking moments after the Foreign Office hardened its stance and advised against non-essential travel to the whole of Spain, including the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands, Mr Sanchez told Spanish TV station Telecinco on Monday night: 'I think the UK's decision is an incorrect one.

'Spain is made up of a number of regions that have a cumulative rate of contagion that is lower than the European average as well as the UK average.

'The Spanish tourist industry has acted very responsibly over the past few months and has transferred a message of security with regards to the health emergency we are experiencing.

'It's true that on a global level the coronavirus pandemic continues to show a very worrying development and at European level as well, but in Spain the spread of the virus is not occurring in a uniform way.

'Sixty-two per cent of the new cases are occurring in two regions but in the majority of the country, the cumulative incidence of the virus is lower than the European average and the UK average.'

The UK government is now considering shaving four days off the two-week quarantine is hoped to persuade those who are grappling with whether or not to fly to press ahead with their journey.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has claimed that tourists are safer in his country than the UK. These are the worst coronavirus hotspots in each country and the number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 people

Tourists in Benidorm on Monday who are now subject to quarantine restrictions when they return to the UK

British Citizens arrive at the Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport after the UK imposed a quarantine on all travellers from Spain

Under proposals being fine-tuned by Matt Hancock, returning travellers who test negative eight days after they land will be given the green light to break quarantine early two days later.

Travellers could lose their holidays AND cash as airlines refuse to cancel flights to Spain Airlines are refusing to cancel flights to Spain  despite the Government advising against all but essential travel. The move means hundreds of thousands of British families are in limbo and at risk of losing thousands of pounds. It also puts the airline industry at odds with the Government because it is ignoring a public safety edict. The Government issued the travel warning after the emergence of a second wave of coronavirus in parts of Spain. Customers would normally expect travel firms to cancel the flights and offer refunds. But all the major carriers, which have suffered massive losses after the collapse of air travel, continue to offer the flights. This means families will potentially lose their holidays and their money. Advertisement

The additional two days is a buffer in case any symptoms arise, according to the Daily Telegraph which first revealed the planned reduction.

A source told MailOnline that trimming the quarantine period from 14 days to 10 is a 'live discussion'.

Mr Sanchez added: 'We are talking to the British authorities to try to get them to reconsider a decision which we think is mistaken if we take into account the epidemiological situation in Spain as a whole and specifically some of our tourist areas such as the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands as well as the Valencian Community or Andalucia.

'In epidemiological terms, it would be safer to be in these areas than in the UK.

'We are going to carry on talking because we are friends and we have many commercial and economic links as well as geopolitical links.

'Rather than reproaches what we have to do is try and find a point of equilibrium that above all involves the UK making its decision based on the cumulative evolution of the virus in these regions which are tourist areas.'

It comes after the government extended travel restrictions to the Spanish islands and warned that other holiday destinations could follow.

The Foreign Office is now warning against 'all but essential' travel to the Balearics and Canaries, having already done so for the mainland.

Travel firm Jet2 responded to yesterday's diktat by cancelling flights to all Spanish destinations and told passengers not to go to the airport.

Downing Street warned: 'Unfortunately no travel is risk-free during this pandemic.' Sources said there were 'no immediate plans' to change travel and quarantine advice to other countries.

But Croatia and Belgium are thought to be of concern, and ministers are also monitoring France and Germany.

Last night Grant Shapps cut short his own holiday in Spain to deal with the crisis.

The Spanish government and Britain's travel industry trade body, the Association of British Travel Agents, argue it is not necessary for the Canaries and Balearics to be included in the quarantine, pointing out that infection rates on these islands are low

Britons arrive at the Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport, and face quarantine on their return to the UK

The Transport Secretary, whose wife and children will continue their holiday without him, will have to quarantine at home for two weeks.

He told the Mail he 'didn't feel right' continuing his holiday when others were having their plans wrecked.

The Spanish prime minister appeared to last night let slip that Mr Shapps has been holidaying in Ibiza.

In an interview, the journalist put it to PM Pedro Sanchez that: 'Two UK ministers are in Spain at the moment, one in Ibiza and the other in Lanzarote, something which is quite telling when it comes to the security situation in this country.'

It is known that Tory MP and business minister Paul Scully is in Lanzarote, and Mr Sanchez made no efforts to correct the interviewer over the whereabouts of Mr Shapps.

Spain was put on the UK's quarantine list at just five hours notice - but cases are starting to rise in other European countries. France and Germany are the most at risk of another quarantine order, both popular holiday destinations for Britons

France's new coronavirus cases are also starting to rise - prompting fears that it will be the next country to be subject to a lockdown with no notice. Belgium and Germany are also starting to see a rise in new coronavirus cases

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove also cancelled a trip to the Balearics on Saturday.

Ministers were last night facing a backlash from travel experts and the airline industry over the 'chaotic' handling of the air bridges policy, which has been in place for only three weeks.

The Spanish government, international airline bosses, holidaymakers and travel firms said Britain had got it wrong on safety, science and economic impact.

Former Tory Cabinet minister Michael Portillo said it 'looked like a deliberate attempt to wreck the recovery'.

But a government source said: 'This was always a safety first policy. If we think there is a risk we will end up importing cases from overseas then we will act decisively to prevent it.'

The change in advice came as:

Britons began cancelling trips across Europe amid fears snap travel bans and quarantine rules will be imposed;

The boss of Tui, Britain's biggest travel firm, called for tax breaks for the industry as shares in the sector slumped;

The company last night cancelled holidays to the Balearic and Canary islands;

Health minister Lord Bethel said the Government was relying on holidaymakers to self-isolate voluntarily because it could not police the rules;

Downing Street acknowledged some returning Britons might have to sign on for benefits if their employers refused to pay them while they self-isolated;

There were fears that some British tourists could get locked down in Spain as case numbers rise;

The Spanish government said the UK had overreacted and should lift the quarantine rules on its islands immediately;

No 10 rejected calls to replace quarantine with a testing regime at airports.

The Government shocked the nation and travel industry at the weekend with new advice against all but essential travel to mainland Spain.

Tourists walk with their luggage outside the airport upon their arrival to Palma de Mallorca in Spain today

The Department of Health last night refused to be drawn on reports of an imminent reduction to 10 days, stating the government does not comment on leaks.

It insisted that anyone returning from Spain should go into a 14-day home quarantine. Breaking quarantine risks a 1,000 fine.

How do the worst infected areas in Spain compare to the UK? According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) over the last two weeks Spain has 35.1 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. This compares to 14.7 for the UK and 14.6 for nearby France. The three worst affected areas in the UK currently are Blackburn with Darwen, Leicester and Oldham. Blackburn with Darwen which has a rate of 75.2 per 100,000 people which is currently worst in the UK. Leicester, which currently has a government imposed local lockdown, has 56 per 100,000 and Oldham has 50.5 per 100,000. Spain also has specific areas that are seeing spikes in coronavirus cases, with the region of Catalonia particularly badly affected and well as Aragon and Navarre. The current rate for Aragon is 160.1 cases per 100,000, which is significantly higher than any region in the UK. Navarre has 79.2 cases per 100,000 and Catalonia has 63.1 cases per 100,000. The data is from the data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control). Advertisement

The decision was taken amid fears of a second wave of Covid in Spain after case numbers rose by 75 per cent in just 48 hours last week.

The rate of infection in Spain is 35.1 cases per 100,000 people, while the UK is at 14, according to the latest figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

The Balearic and Canary islands were included in the quarantine restrictions but excluded from Foreign Office warning against 'all but essential travel.'

The omission had led to hopes yesterday that the islands, where coronavirus cases are said to be lower, might be lifted out of the restrictions altogether, following intense lobbying from Spain.

Those hopes were dashed last night by the latest Foreign Office advice.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We have considered the overall situation for British nationals travelling to and from the Balearic and Canary Islands, including the impact of the requirement to self-isolate on return to the UK, and concluded that we should advise British nationals against all non-essential travel to the whole of Spain.'

It was claimed last night that the Chief Medical Officer had warned that ten Britons who had tested positive for coronavirus since July 1 had reported visiting Spain in the 14 days before their test.

The government's handling of the quarantine imposition will be under the microscope, after MPs accused the Foreign Office of failing to provide sufficient support to Britons stranded abroad early in the pandemic.

Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs committee, criticised the department for giving 'misleading and outdated' advice, which at times was 'entirely absent'.

The committee's report published on Tuesday offered a critical assessment of the Foreign Office's response to some 1.3million nationals becoming stranded as the crisis set in.

The Government's repatriation operation was criticised as 'too slow' and for having 'placed too much reliance' on commercial travel providers, unlike other nations who acted more swiftly with charter flights.

'Many UK citizens stuck abroad reported that they were unable to access the information that they needed, whilst others were not treated with the empathy and compassion that they should expect,' the report said.

Where next for quarantine? Travel firms on the brink as Britons pull out of trips all over Europe

By Sean Poulter and James Tozer for the Daily Mail

British holidaymakers are cancelling trips across Europe amid fears that snap travel bans and quarantine rules will be imposed.

Warnings from ministers that they could extend new controls on travelling to Spain to other nations has sent a shiver through the travel industry.

Both Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Health Minister Helen Whately have flagged the possibility that travel bans could be widened. It has been suggested that France, Belgium and Germany might join Portugal on the list of countries with restrictions.

Downing Street last night warned tourists 'no travel is risk-free' as the prospect of the Canary Islands and the Balearics being exempted from the quarantine ruling on Spain dwindled.

Britons in quarantine may have to sign on for benefits Holidaymakers returning from Spain may have to sign on for benefits if their employer will not pay them to quarantine, Downing Street said yesterday. The sudden change in travel guidance for Spain at the weekend means hundreds of thousands of British holidaymakers currently in Spain will have to self-isolate at home for 14 days when they return. Under the regulations they risk a 1,000 fine if they leave their home during this period. People asked to self-isolate after coming into contact with an infected person are eligible for statutory sick pay. But a loophole in the law means those asked to quarantine after returning from holiday are not. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said holidaymakers who miss out on pay or work because of the quarantine period may be eligible for Universal Credit or employment support allowance instead. He said the Government expected employers to be 'flexible' in allowing staff to work from home while self-isolating. Advertisement

The Prime Minister's official spokesman added: 'Anyone travelling abroad should be aware that our travel advice is under constant review.'

It came as tour operator Jet2 said it was calling off flights to Spanish destinations, along with Faro airport in the Algarve.

It demanded 'clarity' from the Government during this 'fast-moving situation'.

Industry expert Paul Charles, of public relations firm the PC Agency and a member of the Quash Quarantine pressure group, said the decision to re-impose restrictions on visits to Spain has 'almost cancelled the summer season'.

He said: 'A lot of people are fearful the Government will put quarantine in place for other countries. Companies won't be able to survive the winter.

'People are cancelling not just Spain but other short-haul bookings. We've heard of lots of cancellations for holidays to France, Italy and Greece.

'Not getting bookings throughout late summer means that there will be many more job losses in the travel industry and more businesses will go under.'

Former Tory cabinet minister Michael Portillo warned that leaks suggesting France or Germany might be next are causing 'chaos and a lack of confidence'.

Tim Hawkins, of Manchester Airports Group, said the impact on some holiday firms could be 'the final nail in the coffin'.

Mrs Whately said: 'We have to keep the situation under review and I think that is what the public would expect us to do.'

When asked about France and Germany being included, she said: 'If we see rates going up in a country where at the moment there is no need to quarantine  we would have to take action.'

Health Minister Lord Bethell added: 'Within individual countries there is no way for us to control intra-country transport, it is therefore very difficult to have a regional exemption list, and that is why we've not been able to give exemptions to the Balearics.'

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, who may have to cancel a trip to Ibiza, said: 'It's an inconvenience for me but it's as nothing compared to the importance of putting public health first.'

It is feared Belgium could be the next country to fall off the travel corridor list after drastic social distancing orders were imposed.
A cross-section of senior Benin chiefs on Sunday, rejected efforts by the sacked National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, to drag them into partisan politics, urging the APC candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu to try out his luck at the poll, come September 19, 2020.

According to the chiefs, their traditional duties to Edo people, irrespective of the political parties they belong, restrain some of them from campaigning for any candidate, and would not be swayed by Oshiomholes genuflections and pleas.

Edo people are very rational people, they know who to vote for on September 19. Some of us are pensioners and we know the candidate that will not delay our monthly pension. The civil servants, teachers and other government workers know the candidate that will prioritise their wellbeing and sustain the ongoing reforms in all sectors of the state.

The chiefs who pleaded not to be mentioned, noted that some of them occupy very sensitive positions in the palace of His Royal Majesty, Omo NOba NEdo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II, hence would join the Benin monarch in prayers for a peaceful election in the state.

Some of us came for this meeting with Oshiomhole to hear what message he has for us. But I felt embarrassed when he went down on his knees to start begging us to vote for the APC candidate. Oshiomhole said he made a mistake for campaigning for Obaseki in 2016. What is the guarantee that he is not making a worse mistake this time?

We are not children, we cant be manipulated by politicians. Oshiomhole had his time as governor for eight years, and all Benin people supported him. He should allow Edo people choose their leader this time, without being hoodwinked, one of the chiefs said.

He added that majority of Edo people will support the candidate that is committed to a peaceful and secure state devoid of warlords and killer gangs, to sustain the progress we have witnessed in all aspects of our lives in recent times.
RTHK: US rights icon John Lewis lying in state at Capitol

The body of Congressman John Lewis was lying in state at the US Capitol on Monday as Americans paid their final tributes to the civil rights icon.

Former vice president Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, and Vice President Mike Pence were among those expected to pay their respects.

Lewis, a 17-term Democratic member of the US House of Representatives from the southern state of Georgia, died of pancreatic cancer on July 17 at the age of 80.

A military honour guard escorted Lewis' flag-draped casket into the rotunda of the US Capitol, a rarely bestowed honour, after a motorcade drove it through the streets of the US capital.

Representative Elijah Cummings, who died last year, was the first black congressman to lie in state in the Capitol although in Statuary Hall, not in the rotunda.

Other politicians who have lain in state recently in the Capitol include former president George HW Bush and Arizona senator John McCain.

"It is fitting that John Lewis joins this pantheon of patriots," Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House, said at a solemn ceremony.

"John Lewis became a titan of the civil rights movement and then the conscience of the Congress," Pelosi said.

Lewis' casket was to be moved outside to the Capitol's steps later in the day to allow members of the public to pay tribute in a socially distanced manner on Tuesday.

The hearse carrying Lewis' body to the Capitol paused briefly in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the trip and also stopped at "Black Lives Matter" Plaza, a stretch of street which has been cordoned off a couple of blocks from the White House.

Lewis was a persistent critic of Donald Trump and the Republican president was asked on Monday if he would not be going to the Capitol to pay his respects.

"No, I won't be going. No," he said.

On Sunday, a lone caisson drawn by two black horses carried Lewis' body across the Alabama bridge where in 1965 a policeman fractured his skull during a protest that helped forge his reputation as a fearless civil rights leader.

The procession across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the city of Selma came on the second of six days of solemn commemorations for Lewis.

It also came in a year when the "Black Lives Matter" protests against police brutality have brought thousands onto US streets, underscoring the still-raw depths of the country's racial history.

The procession was saluted by a line of Alabama state troopers - a starkly different reception from what Lewis received on the March 7, 1965 march in Selma, when a trooper beat the then-25-year-old to the ground, nearly killing him.

The march, on a day later dubbed "Bloody Sunday," was considered a turning point in the civil rights movement.

Lewis grew up in the Alabama city of Troy. His parents were sharecroppers, and he once worked in a cotton field. While attending segregated schools, Lewis was inspired by the peaceful protests of civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr.

On Thursday, the commemorations for Lewis will end in Atlanta, Georgia, where he will be remembered in a private service in the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King once preached. Lewis' burial will follow. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2020-07-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
One in every three tigers in India lives outside reserves, according to a report, Status of Tigers, Co-predators and Prey in India (2018) released on Tuesday, highlighting the challenge of protecting Indias national animal and reducing instances of man-animal conflict. The proportion has increased from around the one in every four tigers living outside reserves according to a 2014 study.

India recorded a 33% increase in tiger numbers from 2014 to 2018, according to the summary of the report, All India Tiger Estimation Results, released last year. There were 2,967 tigers in India in 2018, compared to 2,226 in 2014.

Currently, the tiger population within reserves is 1,923, which means that 35% of the population is still outside tiger reserves.

No tigers were recorded in Mizorams Dampa and West Bengals Buxa tiger reserves while they face the severe threat of local extinction in Jharkhands Palamau reserve, according to the report. Corbett Tiger Reserve, which is among reserves at or nearing capacity, had the largest population of tigersabout 231in 2018, the report released by Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar added.

Madhya Pradesh had the most tigers (526), followed by 524 in Karnataka and 442 in Uttarakhand. Madhya Pradesh overtook Karnataka, which recorded the highest number of tigers in 2014406 .

Also read: First evidence of tiger breeding in Assam sanctuary brings cheer

The largest contiguous tiger population in the worldabout 724was found in the Western Ghats (Nagarhole-Bandipur-Wayanad-MudumalaiSatyamangalam-BRT block). The second largest about 604was found across Uttrakhand and western Uttar Pradesh (Rajaji-Corbett-Ramnagar-Pilibhit-Dudhwa block).

Bandhavgarh, Bandipur, Nagarhole, Mudumalai, and Kaziranga had over 100 tigers each while Dudhwa, Kanha, Tadoba, Sathyamangalam, and Sundarban had over 80 each.

Three tigers each were recorded in Dampa and Palamau and two in Buxa during the 2014 tiger estimation exercise.

Although, no tiger images were obtained during the sampling session but Dampa Tiger Reserve is one of the important cross-boundary tiger reserves important for the tiger and other wildlife conservation by providing connectivity to other protected and forested area, the report said. It may be possible to reintroduce tigers in this landscape from the only source in the North-Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra Landscape i.e. Kaziranga Tiger Reserve. However, a proper protection regime and control of insurgency is required before bringing back tigers is to be considered.

Even in 2014 the estimate of three tigers was based on molecular work and not direct sightings or tiger signs. This time the entire park including core and buffer area was surveyed but no tigers were seen. My sense is that there were always a very low number of tigers in Dampa. To the west of Dampa there is an open border with Bangladesh. They may be moving there. But the habitat in Dampa is phenomenal and so is the diversity of felines-- marbled cats; golden cat, leopard cat etc. Forest guards are working in extremely difficult conditions but the reserve supports so much diversity possibly because of them, said Priya Singh, an independent wildlife biologist who has focused her research on Dampa.

No tiger was recorded in Palamau Tiger Reserve, which once had a healthy population of tigers, during the 2018 assessment, according to the report. One tiger was photo captured and evidence of tiger signs was recorded from the reserve between January and August 2019.

Corbett, Kaziranga, Nagarhole, Ranthambore are among tiger reserves at or nearing capacity. Corbett has the highest density of tigers in the country 14 per 100 sq km. This also is a challenge for habitat management, said National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) officials.

Some reserves reaching capacity is an issue. We have to see how we can maintain carrying capacity through habitat manipulation. For example, if grasslands are managed well, they can support a good number of herbivores which in turn can support a large number of tigers, said NTCA member secretary SP Yadav.

He emphasized the tiger estimation exercise is a snapshot and that the fact that no tigers were recorded in Dampa and Buxa mean that no tigers were seen in these reserves in 30 to 40 days when the camera trap-based estimations were carried out.

Most of the areas where tigers are occupying the area outside reserves are well connected with the source population through migratory corridors. This is the case in the Corbett-Ramnagar region, and in central India tigers can take care of themselves; they do not require micromanagement if they get space. For example, tigers are occupying the Ramnagar-Terai east and west area which is contiguous to Nepal. You have to provide them corridors to move and river banks should be free of encroachment, said Anup Kumar Nayak, who was NTCA member secretary when the 2018 estimation was conducted.

Wildlife Institute of India scientist Qamar Qureshi said Palamau had its heyday when Project Tiger conservation programme was launched in the 70s. But due to [Left-wing] insurgency, the area has not got good protection. There is too much disturbance. Buxa and Dampa had very few tigers always. But Assam and some parts of Arunachal Pradesh like the Dibang Valley have good numbers and the habitat.
Bunnings has denied it apologised to customers who refused to wear face masks in their stores after 'Karens' filmed themselves arguing with staff over the new rules.

Elizabeth 'Lizzy' Rose claimed the warehouse giant issued her with an apology after she entered the store in Maribyrnong, just west of Melbourne, with a medical certificate exempting her from wearing a mask.

Ms Rose, a self proclaimed high priestess witch who performs exorcisms for a living, said she was denied customer service and Bunnings management called the police on her.

'Bunnings have just sent me an apology and pulled down their posts and asked me to provide my contact information so they can calmly and respectively find a solution to what wrongfully occurred yesterday in the Maribyrnong store,' she wrote on Facebook on Monday.

But Bunnings have denied issuing an apology to shoppers who went against the mandatory mask requirement for residents in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire amid a second wave of coronavirus infections.

Exorcist Lizzie Rose said she has a medical certificate that exempts her from wearing a mask. She has filmed herself shopping at Bunnings

Managing Director Mike Schneider said Bunnings have put the welfare of their team and customers 'at the core' since the COVID-19 pandemic.

'As the community has seen from a couple of disappointing incidents over the weekend, our team are doing everything they can to help keep everyone safe in sometimes challenging circumstances,' he said.

'To be absolutely clear, we require that all customers wear a face mask or face covering if they visit a Bunnings store or Trade Centre in metropolitan Melbourne, or the Mitchell Shire.

Mr Schneider said exceptions would only be made for children aged under 12 and customers with valid medical reasons.

'Regardless of what some people have said online, we make no apologies for following the advice of the Chief Health Officer in order to keep everyone in our stores safe,' Mr Schneider said.

Ms Rose claimed the warehouse giant issued her an apology after she entered the store in Maribyrnong, just west of Melbourne

This graph shows how the state's second wave has not been kept under control even with lockdown. Victoria recorded its biggest ever daily spike on Monday

'And to those who are claiming we have backed down from enforcing these rules and apologised, let me be clear: we haven't and won't. And any representations that we have are false.

'We won't tolerate abuse against our team members and any customers who do not respect the hard work of our team will be denied entry -- and if needed will be referred to Victoria Police.'

Mr Schneider also thanked 'the vast majority of customers' who have followed the rules.

Ms Rose emerged as one of the leaders of a group of Melburnians that have come to police attention since mandatory mask wearing laws were implemented on Thursday July 23.

'I went shopping in my local Bunnings where I've spent thousands of dollars over nearly 18 years and was rudely illegally denied customer service due to not wearing a facial mask, despite the fact that I produced a legal medical certificate of exemption,' she posted after visiting the store.

Ms Rose emerged as one of the leaders of a group of Melburnians that have come to police attention since mandatory mask wearing laws were implemented on Thursday July 23

What is a 'Karen'? A 'Karen' is a term for a self-righteous woman, sometimes racist and usually middle-aged, who tells people how to do their jobs, asserts their rights and complains to the manager. The term became popular in meme culture on internet forum Reddit to describe problematic women. A Karen meme is often combined with the quote: 'Can I speak to the manager?' The male version of a 'Karen' is sometimes referred to as a 'Kevin'. Advertisement

'Management called the police, stating to police that my exemption was 'bogus' which is completely untrue.

'This is absolutely disgusting treatment of a customer and a direct contradiction to Mr Daniel Andrews, the premier of Victoria's, instructions stating that no person with a medical exemption is to be refused service, goods or products.'

The video showed Ms Rose referring to masked customers as 'zombies' as she walked without a mask through the aisles.

'People are so very silly,' she said. 'And they're so silly and it's so very sad that they're not evolved enough to see.'

Ms Rose was seen arguing with a checkout operator before she turned the video off.

Ms Rose's stance came amid similar protests by another 'Bunnings Karen', Kerry Nash, who filmed herself in a store in the Melbourne suburb of Narre Warren on Friday.

She accused staff at the store of abusing her human rights by politely asking her to wear a mask, and was briefly arrested after clashing with police outside.

Ms Nash was later released by officers after revealing she had a medical exemption, which she had initially chosen not to present to staff.
One of the most challenging aspects of working for schools in the current environment is that just when you think you have things figured out, you are forced to pivot in a new direction. Many districts started with plans recently to completely reopen school buildings, but most now appear to be shifting to a hybrid model, according our latest EdWeek Research Center survey. And news reports show a growing number are choosing to start the school year with full-time remote learning. That decision-making curve happened all within the past month or so, amid a lot of politicking around these issues.

This environment has created a pace of change that can be confusing and exhausting for educators, parents, and students. And it is prompting a shift in opinion among educators about federal, state, and local leaders; models of instruction; and mask requirements for students and educators.

Our surveyadministered to 1,366 educators (242 district leaders, 251 principals, and 873 teachers) July 22 and 23tracks opinions on those issues as well as featuring additional survey data about teacher layoffs and the availability of instructional tools for remote learning.

Here are 7 key takeaways from the survey:

1. Educators Losing Confidence in Trump, DeVos, Governors, and School Boards for COVID-19 Response

Back in April, when the EdWeek Research Center last surveyed educators on the topic, 57 percent of teachers and district leaders said their opinions of their states governors had grown more favorable as a result of how they had reacted to coronavirus issues related to K-12 schools.

On this most recent survey, administered on July 22 and 23, that percentage had plunged to 39 percent, although it did vary considerably among the 16 states that attracted enough survey respondents to break out the results state by state. (Respondents hailed from the District of Columbia and from all but one of the 50 states (South Dakota)).

In Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and Pennsylvania, most teachers, principals, and district leaders said their opinion of their governors grew more favorable based on the way they handled issues related to the coronavirus and K-12 schools. By contrast, most educators in Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas reported that their opinions of their governors had grown less favorable. Overall, half of Texas teachers, principals, and district leaders, and less than half of their peers in Iowa, Missouri, and Oklahoma said in July that they had a favorable view of their governors, the EdWeek Research Center survey found.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has also lost support since April, when 45 percent of teachers and district leaders said their opinions of her had grown less favorable as a result of her coronavirus response. In July, 66 percent said their opinion had grown more negative due to her coronavirus response.

Even among teachers, principals, and district leaders who support President Donald Trump, just 10 percent said the secretarys handling of the coronavirus had improved their opinion of her. More than half of Trump supporters (53 percent) said their opinions of DeVos had remained unchanged while 37 percent said their views of the Secretary had grown more negative.

As for the president, 66 percent of teachers, principals, and district leaders surveyed in July said that their opinion of Trump had grown less favorable as a result of his K-12 coronavirus response. (The Research Center did not survey educators in April about the impact of Trumps coronavirus response on their opinions.)

Closer to home, the share of teachers who said the coronavirus response had improved their opinions of their local school boards was especially low, with just 24 percent of teachers saying in the July survey that their opinions had improved as a result of their school boards coronavirus responses, compared with 40 percent for district leaders.

2. Districts Leaning Toward Mixture of Remote and In-Person Instruction

With the majority of school districts scheduled to start school within the next month or so, the predominant reopening model appears to be a mixture of remote and in-person learning.

Seventy-nine percent of district leaders say they will adopt some type of hybrid approach, the most common of which is to offer families a choice between 100 percent remote versus 100 percent in-person learning.

Thirteen percent of leaders said their districts will provide full-time remote instruction while 9 percent said 100 percent of schooling will be in person, with no remote options.

Larger districts are significantly more likely to go 100 percent remote while smaller districts are significantly more likely to provide all their schooling in person. The average enrollment of an all-remote district is 14,387, compared with 525 for districts planning all in-person instruction.

Full-time remote instruction is reported significantly more often by district leaders in the Western United States, where 39 percent say theyll take this approach, compared with 11 percent in the South, 5 percent in the Midwest, and less than 1 percent in the Northeast.

3. Full-Time Remote and In-Person Options Reveal Divides

A hybrid of remote and in-person learning is the most popular school reopening model at this point in time47 percent somewhat support it and 25 percent completely support it. However, when it comes to more-uniform models (full-time in-person vs. full-time remote instruction), educators are split by demographic, professional, regional, political, and health-related characteristics.

Supporters of full-time remote instruction are significantly more likely to be Black or Hispanic educators in urban areas and to live in the Southern United States. Black and Hispanic people are more likely to suffer severe effects or die from the coronavirus, according to health experts.

Proponents of full-time remote instruction are more likely to have physical conditions (such as diabetes or heart disease) believed to exacerbate the effects of the coronavirus or to live with someone who has such a condition.

At this point in time, there appear to be differing views among district leaders and principals, compared with teachers, over full-time in-person instruction. Nearly 2 out of 3 district leaders and 63 percent of principals support this approach, compared with 41 percent of teachers.

Full-time in-person instruction is more popular at the elementary level than among secondary teachers and principals.

Full-time, in-person instruction supporters are also more likely to work in rural areas and to live outside the Northeastern United States. They are less likely to have physical conditions believed to exacerbate the effects of the virus or to live with someone who does. More than 3 out of 4 hold favorable views of Trump, who was strongly advocating for reopening schools with in-person instruction.

4. Support for Mask Requirements for Students Nearly Doubled

Back in June, when the EdWeek Research Center surveyed educators about issues related to the coronavirus, just 34 percent of district leaders said student face masks would be required when schools reopened. On this most recent survey in July, that share nearly doubled to 67 percent, meaning student face masks could be the rule rather than the exception in schools that offer-in-person instruction in the fall.

Support for student face mask requirements is higher among district leaders who work in suburban school systems (81 percent), towns (78 percent), and cities (70 percent), compared with those in rural locales (59 percent). Southern administrators were least likely to report support for this requirement (52 percent). Northeastern district leaders were most likely (83 percent).

Employee face mask requirements also grew more common, with the percentage of district administrators saying theyd be required jumping from 54 percent in June to 79 percent in July.

Overall, support for staff and student mask requirements is strong among teachers, principals, and district leaders. Eighty-seven percent say staff should wear masks at school and nearly as many (86 percent) say students should too.

5. A Quarter of District Leaders Plan to Postpone the First Day of School to Prepare for COVID-19. Heres What Theyre Doing.

For schools that do reopen their buildings this fall, student and staff safety will be a major undertaking. In fact, 25 percent of district leaders surveyed said they had postponed the first day of school in order to better prepare for the coronavirus, with delays more frequently reported by leaders working in larger school districts, in towns, and in the Southern and Northeastern United States.

Both in July and in June (when the Research Center last surveyed educators about the coronavirus), promoting handwashing and making hand sanitizers widely available were the most common safety measures planned, with close to 100 percent of administrators saying they will adopt these approaches. Ninety percent or more of administrators also say their districts will clean more intensively and require sick students and employees to stay home.

Since June, school district leaders have grown considerably more likely to say they plan to implement several safety measures, including prohibiting large group gatherings, requiring student and staff face masks, designating one-way hallway pathways to limit congestion, and improving ventilation.

Plans for social distancing on school buses remain relatively rare, as are programs for COVID-19 testing for employees or students.

6. Students Likely to Lack Access to Key Science, Social Studies Resources for Remote Learning

On previous surveys throughout the spring of 2020 , the EdWeek Research Center asked teachers and administrators which tools were very effective for teaching math, English/language arts, social studies/history/civics, and science in a remote environment.

Across the board, for each of these four subject areas, educators were most likely to tell us that live/synchronous videoconferencing tools like Zoom were very effective for remote learning.

The good news is that most district leaders and principals surveyed in July (88 percent) said teachers will have access to videoconferencing tools if remote learning occurs during the 2020-21 school year.

However, when it comes to two approaches that educators deemed very effective for science and one for social studies, access could be more uneven.

Most educators say that science experiments that students can do with materials they have at home and virtual labs/experiments/dissections are very effective for remote science instruction. Yet just 44 percent of principals and district leaders say their teachers will have access to at-home experiments and even fewer (38 percent) say they will be able to use virtual labs. Virtual labs are less available at the elementary level, where less than a quarter of principals report having them, than in secondary schools, where more than half of school leaders say theyre available.

More than half of educators surveyed this spring also said that movies and documentaries were very effective for teaching social studies remotely. Yet just 34 percent of principals and district leaders say they will be available for remote learning this school year.

7. 92 Percent of District Leaders Say No Teacher Layoffsat Least Not Yet

The news media has been full of reports of districts planning to lay off teachers as state and local revenues have plummeted during the pandemic. Thousands of teachers have already been let go. Thats the bad news.

The better news is that 92 percent of district leaders who responded to the EdWeek Research Centers July survey say they have not laid off any teachers. And just 1 percent say that, while they have not yet laid off any teachers, they plan to do so. The remainder say layoffs have already occurred.

These results should, however, be interpreted with caution since many district leaders may not yet have a clear view of how the economic downturn will impact their budgets.
Donald Trump Jr, son of the President of the United States of America, found his account suspended from Twitter temporarily for posting "misleading and potentially harmful information" about coronavirus.

On his account, the post is no longer available and is replaced with a message that says "no longer available". It appears as though he still able to tweet, The Independent reported.

News of the suspension came from Republican strategist and ally, Andrew Surabian. According to him, the suspension was a demonstration that Twitter is a "threat to free expression" and that it was "continuing to engage in open election interference". However, Surabian also posted a screenshot that showed that the tweet had in fact been banned over accusations of misinformation, the report said.

Donald Trump Jr will not be allowed to tweet from his account for 12 hours. He is also restrained from using other features like following users and liking tweets.

A Twitter spokesperson said this was not a suspension, that it was a "temporary lockout until the Tweet is deletednot a suspension.", Vice News reported.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The tweet that triggered this suspension was a video that had falsehoods about COVID-19. This video showed a group of people dressed in white lab coats claiming to be from an organization called Americas Frontline Doctors. It contained material where these people claimed masks were not needed and that hydroxychloroquine was a cure, the report said.
Five kids at Camp Pathfinder seem to have little in common. But their skills  for drawing, magic, math, history and inventions  come in handy when they go on a treasure hunt. What starts as a camp activity becomes an urgent quest  the camp needs money to stay in business. The story, the first in the Pathfinders Society graphic novel series, follows the kids as they learn about a quirky inventor-explorer who may be the key to finding the treasure.
Tom Holland is one of Marvels most popular stars. The young English actor rose to fame on the stage, appearing in plays like Billy Elliot the Musical, and tested the waters in BBC productions before signing a contract with Marvel Studios.

Holland has since appeared in five films as the character of Peter Parker, with more to come. As popular as he is now, it seems hard to believe that there was a time when Hollands first appearance as Spider-Man was a glimmer in the distance.

However, as Holland revealed in a 2017 interview, there was a good reason why Marvel gave Holland a test run in the form of a cameo well before he began working on his first standalone Spider-Man film.

When was Tom Holland cast as Spider-Man?

Tom Holland | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images

RELATED: Marvels Tom Holland Just Leaked Some Great Spider-Man 3 News

Holland was born in England in 1996. He was raised in a large family, with loving parents and three younger brothers.

After receiving an excellent education, Holland turned his attention to the theater. At an early age, he displayed a talent for dancing and gymnastics, and his work in the theater enabled him to show off his abilities. For several years, Holland toured with the production of Billy Elliot the Musical, until early 2010, when he left the show to pursue other projects.

After appearing in some BBC shows, Holland landed his first role in a major motion picture  The Impossible, opposite Star Wars actor Ewan McGregor. Holland proved that he had a natural affinity for dramatic acting, and film studios began to take notice.

He went on to appear in Ron Howards movie, In the Heart of the Sea, as well as several other well-received films. In 2015, Tom Holland made headlines all around the world when Marvel Studios announced that they had cast him as their new Spider-Man, succeeding stars like Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.

Tom Hollands eagerly anticipated first appearance as Spider-Man

In 2016, the film Captain America: Civil War was released. The movie was noteworthy for several reasons.

Not only was it the film that set up the confrontational dynamic between Captain America and Tony Stark, but it provided viewers with their first look at Holland as Spider-Man/Peter Parker. Although his part in the movie was barely more than a cameo, it allowed fans to see Holland wearing the iconic Spider-Man suit and even engaging in some combat.

Marvels decision to introduce their new Spider-Man via a cameo was an intelligent one. As Holland revealed in a 2017 interview, Marvel Studios wanted to test the water and get a look at how fans would react to Hollands performance as Spider-Man.

Holland admitted that the reaction, following his cameo, was overwhelmingly positive: It just turns out they wanted to see my version.

Whats next for Tom Holland?

After five turns as Spider-Man, Holland has become an expert. Still, the years ahead will bring him even more challenges, as many fans expect that the third installment in the Spider-Man series will be one that forces Peter Parker to further deal with the fallout surrounding Tony Starks death.

In addition, Parker will have to learn how to grow into the kind of mature hero that the world needs, leaving much of the childish trappings behind him. Portraying a character with that level of growth will be a challenge, for sure  but Holland has proven that he is more than up to it.

It seems likely that fans will continue to love the character of Spider-Man just as much as they did in the days following the release of Captain America: Civil War.
New Delhi, July 28 : The government proposes to set up multiple committees to draw and implement guidelines and procedures for vetting, registration and security clearance of suppliers sharing a land border with India.

The exercise is aimed at preventing frivolous suppliers to gain market access in India while restricting and ensuring security compliance from suppliers of Chinese origin.

India's relations with China have nosedived following the bloody clash in eastern Ladakh on June 15 and the simmering tension along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The government has already put all FDI proposals by investors from the countries sharing land border with India on the clearance route, meaning such proposals will now require government approval first.

Official sources said that a committee comprising officials of the Home Ministry, the External Affairs Ministry and the Finance and Commerce Ministries would first draw up the guidelines and framework to vet application from these countries requiring government clearance.

Then another committee under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) would be set up to vet all applications for supplies coming from countries sharing land border with India.

This commuter would ensure whether prior registration of suppliers needs to be done and whether the supplier can get security clearance.

Another committee under a joint secretary-level official will be set up for registration of suppliers under the new guidelines.

"The entire exercise is aimed at preventing supplies and investment into the country from entities that could pose security threat to the country's installations by way of bringing malware in their supplies or putting the country's infrastructure projects to greater risk of a possible collapse," said the official source quoted earlier.

In the power sector, Power Minister R.K. Singh has already said that all imports, particularly those coming from China, will face scrutiny and would first be cleared by the ministry before progressing further.

The Power Ministry has already proposed higher duty on solar power equipment to restrict Chinese imports while instituting a system of incentivised loans to entities using all domestic equipment.

The restrictions and systems being put in place by the government is expected to affect infrastructure sectors such as power, telecom, highways etc. that depend a lot on imports for critical equipment from neighbouring countries, particularly China.

Taking the level of restrictions further, all vendors registered on government e-marketplace (GeM) would now be required to produce a certificate declaring their compliance to the new procedures on procurement. Registration to GeM has been made mandatory for all supplies to public sector enterprises.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Germany is bouncing back quickly from the pandemic, according to a survey of businesses that is a reliable weather vane of the direction of Europes largest economy. But economists cautioned that a return to normal is still a long way off.

The business climate index compiled by the Ifo Institute in Munich, which measures levels of optimism among business executives, rose more than expected in July after suffering record declines earlier in the year. There was a particularly strong rebound in services, a category that includes professions such as housecleaning, brain surgery and management consulting. The manufacturing, construction and retail sectors also recovered.

Businesses believe that the worst is over, Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, said in a note to clients.

Several factors continue to weigh on growth. Consumers are likely to be cautious about spending because they are worried about keeping their jobs. Businesses have taken on debt to get through the crisis, and may cut back on investment in new equipment. The number of new coronavirus cases is rising in Germany, France and other countries as residents return from holidays abroad, threatening a second wave of the pandemic and renewed lockdowns.
President Donald Trump wore a mask and talked up the possibility of a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year on Monday as he looked to show voters in the battleground state of North Carolina that he is responding to the pandemic.

Trump, whose job approval ratings have dropped as many Americans believe he has handled the virus badly, sought for the second week to look in command after setting aside his hands-off approach.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

I trust all Americans to do the right thing but we strongly advise everyone to especially, especially focus on maintaining a social distance, maintain a rigorous hygiene, avoid crowded gatherings and indoor bars and wear masks when appropriate, Trump said.

The Republican president spoke during a visit to a Fujifilm plant in Morrisville, North Carolina, where work on a vaccine is being performed. During a tour of the facility, he wore a mask publicly for a second time, the first being on a trip to Walter Reed Medical Center near Washington earlier this month.

I heard very positive things, but by the end of the year, we think were in very good shape to be doing that, Trump said of a potential vaccine.

He expressed confidence in the economic recovery and said: A lot of governors should be opening up states that theyre not opening.

Infection rates have climbed since June in the United States, which leads the world in the total number of deaths and cases. National security adviser Robert OBrien became the most senior official in Trumps inner circle to test positive for the coronavirus, the White House said on Monday.

Trump, who is seeking re-election on Nov. 3, has his work cut out for him in North Carolina, a state he won narrowly in 2016 and where he had originally hoped to accept his nomination for a second term.

A new NBC News/Marist poll said Democrat Joe Biden led Trump by 7 points in North Carolina. It said respondents by a 2-to-1 margin favored Democratic Governor Roy Coopers opposition to a large Republican nominating convention event in Charlotte, North Carolina, in late August.

Coopers opposition prompted Trump to try to arrange a big event in Jacksonville, Florida, but that plan fell apart last week and now it is unclear where Trump will give his acceptance speech.

Republican delegates are still to meet in Charlotte in late August to conduct some convention business.
China, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal on Monday agreed to work together to fight COVID-19 and resume economy.

The agreement came when Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted a conference of foreign ministers of the four countries via video link.

Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan Mohammed Haneef Atmar, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistani Minister for Economic Affairs Khusro Bakhtyar and Nepali Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali attended the video conference.

Wang said that as a neighbor and partner, China stands ready to continue to work with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal to overcome difficulties, safeguard people's health, promote the resumption of work and production and enhance people's livelihood until final victory over COVID-19.

Wang proposed that the four countries consolidate consensus of solidarity against COVID-19, carry out joint cooperation mechanism on COVID-19 response in the region, enhance cooperation in the fight against the pandemic and in vaccine, and accelerate economic recovery and development after the pandemic.

Ministers from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal said the three sides are willing to deepen cooperation with China to fight COVID-19, ensure the flow of trade and transport corridors, facilitate people-to-people and trade connection, build a "silk road of health" and community of a shared future for humanity.
(Bloomberg) -- Delivery Hero SE has raised its full-year revenue guidance, in a sign the food-delivery company continues to benefit from the lockdown that resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company said FY revenue guidance will be raised to 2.6-2.8 billion euros ($3.05-$3.29 billion) up from 2.4-2.6 billion eurosDelivery Hero said its gross merchandise value year-on-year rose 66% at 2.8 billion euros, while second quarter revenue was up 96% year-on-year to 612 million euros.Company said it will expand into Japan in the third quarter.

Key Insights

The Berlin-based company said order numbers in the second quarter rose 94% versus the same period last year, in preliminary guidance issued earlier this month.The company said it managed 4 million orders delivered in a single day and over 100 million orders delivered in June, breaking its own record of monthly ordersThe company said it added 130,000 new restaurants in the second quarter alonePreviously said it expects to close its deal for control of South Koreas biggest food delivery app, Woowa Corp., in the second half of the year, part of a wave of consolidation in the food-delivery industry.The company could be valued at as much as 30 billion euros once the deal with Woowa closes, Chief Executive Officer Niklas Ostberg said in an interview earlier this month.And Delivery Hero wants to keep growing. The company is holding regular discussions with other food delivery companies, including Rappi and Glovo, about potential deals, Ostberg has said. Its also outlined plans to sell as much as 1.5 billion euros of convertible bonds intended for general corporate purposes and to take advantage of attractive investment opportunities that may arise.

Market Context

Delivery Hero has been tipped as one of the companies that could grab a seat in Germanys benchmark DAX index after its stock continued to rise throughout the coronavirus crisis.A spike in orders during lockdowns helped boost the stock by about 33% since January giving the company a market value of 18.8 billion euros.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-27 23:51:29|Editor: huaxia

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (Front) speaks during a press briefing in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday rebuffed U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's slanderous remarks on the Communist Party of China (CPC), saying his sensational and irresponsible claims were criticized and condemned by people who pursue peace and justice, including Americans with a broader vision.

Richard Haass, president of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, recently cited his article in Washington Post titled "What Mike Pompeo doesn't understand about China, Richard Nixon and U.S. foreign policy" on Twitter to criticize Pompeo's speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. In his words, "Pompeo's China speech Thursday not only misrepresented history but advocated a policy for the most important relationship of this era that is neither viable nor coherent. That he delivered it at the Nixon Library only added insult to injury."

When asked to comment on that, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at regular press conference that Pompeo negated every aspect of China-U.S. relations over the past 40 years, flagrantly attacked the CPC and called on countries to gang up on China.

"His outrageously deranged words have been criticized and condemned by all people who love peace and have a sense of justice, including those in the United States," Wang said.

"Pompeo's accusation of 'CPC's designs for hegemony' is out of not only ignorance but also bias," the spokesperson said.

Wang said that the CPC started with only dozens of members, and today it has grown into a major party with over 91 million members and has long been the ruling party in the world's most populous country. The reason for it, which Pompeo is ignorant of, is that the CPC always puts people's interests as the first priority, and always sticks together with the people through thick and thin. As revealed in a research recently published by the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University, under the leadership of the CPC, the Chinese people's overall support and satisfaction toward the central government exceeds 93 percent. According to a research result released by Edelman, 95 percent of the Chinese people trust the Chinese government, ranking the top of all countries surveyed, while the United States is the second to last with trust from only 48 percent citizens. The CPC's goal is to realize the great renewal of the Chinese nation, not replacing the United States. In the end, the international status of the United States depends on itself, not others. The CPC is a political party that strives for the well-being of the Chinese people as well as the progress of mankind. China champions and practices the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. China is the largest contributor of peacekeepers among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and has been contributing to the peaceful settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, the Iranian nuclear issue and other regional and international hotspots, as well as the response to climate change and other global challenges. In recent years China has contributed over 30 percent to the world economic growth, and has helped a lot in the international response to the financial crisis in Asia and the global financial crisis.

"These are all facts witnessed by the whole world, which cannot be erased by Pompeo," Wang said.

"Pompeo was calling for an anti-China coalition in his speech, but he seems to have forgotten that in the 21st century, instigation of hatred and confrontation runs counter to the trend of the times. The United States gains no support in trying to reverse the wheel of history," Wang said.

"Pompeo talks all about safeguarding democracy and freedom, but he doesn't represent democracy and freedom at all. He serves the U.S. hegemony and the interest groups behind him. But long gone are the days of ideological confrontation. The world today is on an unstoppable trend toward multi-polarity," he said.

"It has been almost half a century since President Nixon's visit to China. The development of China-U.S. relationship over this period of time taught us that a steady and sound bilateral relationship grows only when there's equality and mutual respect," the spokesperson said.

"China doesn't intend to change the United States, and the United States surely cannot alter China. We would like to develop China-U.S. relations featuring coordination, cooperation and stability, but we reject any bullying and injustice," Wang said.

"The Chinese people are not weak-kneed, and the world are not easily deceived. We urge a few U.S. politicians to stop slandering the CPC and the Chinese people and undercutting China-U.S. exchange and cooperation," he said.

"We call on all peace-loving countries and people to step forward and say no to the insanity of Pompeo and his like that jeopardizes world peace," he added. 
By PTI

LONDON: A healthcare charity is leading a campaign for the UK government to translate its COVID-19 public health guidance in languages like Gujarati, Bengali and Urdu, amid safety concerns for those who do not speak English well.

Doctors of the World UK and over 20 local authorities, public health bodies and non-profit organisations wrote to UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Minister for Communities and Local government on Monday to translate the public health messaging into other commonly spoken languages.

"To tackle the huge challenge of COVID-19 together, it is critical that everyone is supported to stay healthy and included in overall public health measures," reads the letter.

"We urgently seek reassurance that the government will consider and include non-English speakers in its response to Covid-19 and commit to produce and maintain accessible Covid-19 guidance in languages that reflect England's multilingual communities," it notes.

In England and Wales, over 4 million people speak a main language other than English with 864,000 speaking little to no English.

The campaign group laments that making Covid-19 guidance available in other languages has been largely left to local authorities and non-profit organisations.

Doctors of the World UK said that its translated resources have been accessed over 59,000 times, demonstrating the need for translated guidance in a range of languages.

"The production of accessible and translated public health information for the public during a public health emergency is a central part of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care's statutory duty to protect the nation's health and wellbeing, and to address health inequalities in England," their letter demands.

In March, at the peak of the coronavirus lockdown, the UK government provided guidance on social distancing in 11 languages, including Bengali, Urdu and Arabic.

But the guidance has since changed and there have been no government-backed translations of the latest measures related to social distancing and wearing of face coverings in shops and public transport.

When the heavily Indian-origin region of Leicester recently became the first to be hit by a localised lockdown, local charities offered the government advice in Gujarati  the second most popular language in the region.

A UK government spokesperson said it would not be "feasible" to provide translations for all the languages spoken across England and Wales, believed to be around just under 100, but stressed that it had provided translations for "key messages" around coronavirus into the most commonly spoken languages in the UK.

"The government is committed to ensuring people across the UK receive the information they need to stay safe," the spokesperson said.
Lindy Cameron will succeed Ciaran Martin as the new Chief Executive of the National Cyber Security Centre

A former conflict diplomat who became the first woman to complete the same selective military course taken by the head of the armed forces will lead the UK's fight against cyber hackers.

From October Lindy Cameron, the outgoing director-general of the Northern Ireland Office, will succeed Ciaran Martin as the new Chief Executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

Ms Cameron, who as a civilian in 2009 completed Shrivenham Defence Academys prestigious Higher Command and Staff Course, a pivotal course whose alumni include General Sir Nick Carter, the Chief of Defence Staff, said she relished the opportunity to take the NCSC to the next level.

Ms Cameron, who has worked as director-general at the Department for International Development (DfID), responsible for programmes in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, which included work in Iraq and Afghanistan, added that the department, which is part of GCHQ and was established in 2016, had over the past four years, transformed the UKs approach to cyber security and set a benchmark for other countries to follow.

Ms Cameron, who was born in Northern Ireland, initially began her career in the private sector with McKinsey, the consultancy firm. Earlier this year she was appointed CB in the 2020 New Years Honours List for her services to international development.

Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Defence Select Committee, said Ms Cameron, who he first met in Helmand Province, where she worked as the director of the Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team from 2009 to 2010. He described her as a formidable character who speaks her mind and has a passion and energy in everything she does.

As the person responsible for the post conflict stabilisation programmes she was not scared of speaking her mind and going into danger zones in order to complete the task.

Mr Ellwood added that she was an astute operator able to make her mark but without rattling cages.

Story continues

A personal friend told The Daily Telegraph that due to the multitude of roles she has held in her career she was part of the national security tribe who understands the bigger picture.

She is respected, has put the hard yards in and comes at things from a national security side.

As the UK's lead authority on cyber security, the NCSC oversees the response to cyber attacks and improving the cyber resilience of the UK's national infrastructure.

Ms Cameron joins the NCSC as the UK faces progressively more sophisticated cyber attacks from hackers linked to the governments of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. Earlier this month the NCSC announced it had found evidence that a hacking group linked to the Russian government had been attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine research from organisations in the UK. Jeremy Fleming, the director of GCHQ, said Ms Cameron was joining the team at a time when cyber security has never been more essential to the nation's resilience and prosperity. "Lindy's unique blend of experience in government, overseas and in security and policy issues make her the ideal leader to take NCSC into the next stage of its delivery, he said.
Biden says Putin will pay 'dear price' if he invades Ukraine
27.07.2020 LISTEN

Fashion-conscious residents of Accra, particularly those living in the Ga East Municipality, now have the finest opportunity to upgrade their wardrobes as fashion outlets in Achimota Retail Centre (Achimota Mall) have announced windfall reduction sales for shoppers.

Reportedly in response to a spontaneous request from fashion-savvy customers, all the fashion shops at Achimota mall have decided to rip down prices radically, leading to what has now become the biggest fashion sale in Accra this year.

This year marks the 5th anniversary of the Centres service to the communities in this part of the capital so in the course of the coming months until our birthday on October 29th, we plan to reward loyal customers with a line-up of juicy and exciting promotions and giveaways, Centre Manager Olivia Torpey told reporters.

Miss Torpey said, This entire week, until the end of August, our clothing outlets, the footwear stores, the jewellers, the perfumery and even our hairstylists have all significantly slashed prices to enable customers to replenish their reserves. We want to make the point that, even in the midst of the unfortunate pandemic, people, especially our customers, deserve to look and feel good.

Presenting some details of the fashion promotion, Kobby Ampong, Marketing Manager at Achimota Retail Centre said, there cannot be a better time than now for fashion aficionados to shop at ARC... as the malls fashion outlets have unanimously cut prices of most of their stock and services by at least 15%, up to as high as 60%.

For instance, Bijou, our jewellery specialists, are now selling their most priced stock to customers at 20% discount, while Bata, the footwear store has marked down prices of its shoes by as high as 50%.

UK Brands, the unisex clothing outlet which lines up all the top brands in the United Kingdom announced a 40% cut in prices as early as two weeks ago, while Mr Price (MRP), the male clothing specialists, has surprised customers with discounts ranging from 20% up to 70%, Ampong said.

Ampong said, beauticians, Hair Village have cut the cost of all services by 15%, while Brand Essentials, the malls biggest dealer in unisex underclothing is offering a whopping 50% discount on all products and Nadys, the exclusive ladies wear outlet has discounted products from between 40% and 60%.

Located at Dome, off the Accra-Nsawam highway, Achimota Retail Centre introduced modern, secured one-stop retail services to the south-eastern quarter of the capital five years ago and now serves diverse income categories from almost a dozen adjoining communities in the Ga East Municipal Area

The centre is anchored by the popular food store chain, Shoprite and the general merchandise retailer, Game and offers customers and patrons an appealing variety of tenant mix comprising both international and Ghanaian brands.
The flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama says he will introduce a new action plan to tackle the corruption menace if given the nod in December 2020.

We will as part of an Integrity for Development action plan, launch Operation Sting, he announced on Monday, July 27, 2020.

John Mahama disclosed this at a ceremony to outdoor his running mate, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, ahead of the 2020 polls.

According to the former president, Operation Sting is an anti-corruption crusade, which under my watch will involve massive, far-reaching and practical governmental reforms. It will be ruthless against all corrupt political appointees and public sector workers.

 citinewsroom
An elderly driver has escaped without injury after driving his SUV into a Chinese restaurant at Eastwood, in Sydney's north.

Police were called to the Eastwood Peking Seafood Restaurant on Rowe Street just after midday and greeted by the sight of a damaged Honda CRV that had driven onto the footpath and into the window of the business.

A driver appears to lose control of his car, crashing into a shopfront and taxi in Eastwood, Sydney. Credit:Nine News

The driver, a man in his 80s, tested negative to a breath test. The shopfront sustained minor damage.

Video obtained by a bystander shows the front of the car smash into a garbage bin before it spun around and reversed first into the front of the restaurant and then the metal poles outside a branch of the National Australia Bank next door.
On Thursday, July 23, Garmin started sending out a notice to its users, stating that the company was experiencing an outage. While occasional outages are fairly common in the tech space, what was happening at Garmin was hardly everyday business. ZDNet promptly reported that the company has been hit by a rather extensive ransomware attack, one which appeared to take down the companys websites, apps, internal communications, customer support services, and critically, Garmin hardware, software and databases that are used actively for aerospace and even maritime navigation. Earlier yesterday, Garmin partially confirmed the same via a global media statement.

While Garmin has seemingly played down the severity of the hack, the cyber attack is actually of massive, massive consequence. The ransomware-led outage at Garmin came on the same day as CISA-NSAs joint advisory on serious cyber attacks threatening some of the most critical, industrial IoT deployments. Almost as a show of their might and abilities, a part of Garmins affected services included their aerospace and even maritime navigation technologies. In essence, the attack could actually have been exponentially more impactful  particularly if commercial aerospace was operating as per its pre-Covid-19 usual.

It also sheds light on how ransomware and related cyber crime techniques have advanced significantly, and also, how the data-led world poses a great amount of risk  all summing up to suggest that Garmin was a very meticulously chosen prey, one that may have been a precursor to an impending wave of cyber attacks.

Evil Corp at play

The ransomware that toyed with Garmins systems is alleged to be WastedLocker  the nomenclature assigned to the malware by UK-based security firm, NCC Group. As Stefano Antenucci, cyber threat analyst at Fox-IT, a division of NCC, says, WastedLocker was discovered by cyber security professionals as recently as May this year, and is masterminded by Maksim Viktorovich Yakubets  the alleged leader of notorious cyber criminal group, Evil Corp. Unlike general ransomware attacks, WastedLocker deploys a far deeper technique that capitalises on cyber security lapses to ensure that the ransom encryption takes longer, and at times also becomes impossible, for companies to fight against.

Garmin has not officially used the term ransomware as part of its statement, but its wording fairly indicates so. The company stated yesterday that it was the victim of a cyber attack that encrypted some of its systems on July 23. Perhaps more important, on this note, is this passage: We have no indication that any customer data, including payment information from Garmin Pay, was accessed, lost or stolen. Additionally, the functionality of Garmin products was not affected, other than the ability to access online services. Affected systems are being restored and we expect to return to normal operation over the next few days. We do not expect any material impact to our operations or financial results because of this outage. In other words  all of the classic indicators of a ransomware attack.

A Garmin India spokesperson declined News18s request for an interaction on the topic.

The extent of the threat

So, why is this attack on Garmin so significant? The answer lies in Yakubets activities, Evil Corps activities of late, and how WastedLocker works.

One example of just how widespread and impactful WastedLocker can be is given by Symantecs spokesperson for its Critical Attack Discovery and Intelligence Team. According to the team, Evil Corp recently targeted a series of cyber attacks that infected the websites of a number of USA-based publications with malware. This malware then injected a further malware payload into selected visitors of the websites, which then enabled them to install WastedLocker on strategic systems. Symantec has claimed that Evil Corps series of cyber attacks have hit at least 31 organisations already, with eight of them being Fortune 500 companies. There has so far been no disclosure on which companies may have been compromised.

NCC-Fox-ITs Antenucci further states that Evil Corps modus operandi also involves affecting the backup infrastructure of companies. This increases the time for recovery for the victim, or in some cases due to unavailability of offline or offsite backups, prevents the ability to recover at all, he says. To an extent, this would explain why it has been taking Garmin long to restore its services. Garmin Connect, the user dashboard, is seemingly coming back online for users now.

flyGarmin and Garmin Pilot, which are critical commercial aviation services that require regular database updates as per USAs Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulation, were down for four full days, before coming back online yesterday. At a normal time in a pandemic-free world, this could have caused significant mayhem. Thankfully, FAA database data says that the airspace database update was delivered to requisite systems a week prior to the ransomware attack, although Garmin aviation hardware still went offline. A Wired report on the matter says Garmins Active Captain app, used for maritime navigation, may have also suffered from the attack.

Warning bells ringing

More than just being an isolated attack, the Garmin hack shows the severity and extent to which a sophisticated malware can impact critical industrial IoT systems. Alarmingly, on July 23, the same day of the Garmin attack, the United States Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and NSA issued industry-wide advisories to be extra vigilant about cyber attacks on industrial IoT deployments, in the coming weeks. The attack on Garmin, hence, could have just been the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Garmin has further claimed that it has received no indication of its user data being compromised, which also falls in line with how Evil Corp and WastedLocker work. As Antenucci says, The group has not appeared to have engaged in extensive information stealing or threatened to publish information about victims in the way that the DoppelPaymer and many other targeted ransomware operations have. We assess that the probable reason for not leaking victim information is the unwanted attention this would draw from law enforcement and the public.

While reports remain disputed as to whether Evil Corp demanded a $10 million ransom from Garmin, and if the latter paid the same, whats more alarming to note is the extent of severe risk that many of the worlds biggest companies are at. On the scale of sophistication, WastedLocker is far more impactful than the likes of WannaCry and NotPetya, which have so far been some of the worlds largest coordinated cyber attacks. The new wave, which has apparently only just begun, looks set to transcend it all.
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They've been married for fifteen years.

But Matt Damon and wife Luciana Barroso proved that the romance is still well and truly alive on Monday, when the couple packed on the PDA during a day at the beach in Malibu.

The Bourne Supremacy actor, 49, and his 44-year-old Argentinian wife embraced and kissed in the surf during their day in the Californian sun.

Honeymooners: Matt Damon and wife Luciana Barroso proved that the romance is still well and truly alive on Monday, when the couple packed on the PDA during a day at the beach in Malibu

The star of the forthcoming Ridley Scott film The Last Duel showed off his toned pecs and arms as he emerged from the water wearing just a pair of board shorts.

Damon stayed sun smart by covering up with a cap and sunglasses for the dip.

The Academy Award winning screenwriter at one point could be seen sipping a cup of coffee while standing the shallows and exchanging pleasantries with a local surfer.

Looking good: The star of the forthcoming Ridley Scott film The Last Duel showed off his toned pecs and arms as he emerged from the water wearing just a pair of board shorts

Romance ain't dead: The Bourne Supremacy actor, 49, and his 44-year-old Argentinian wife embraced and kissed in the surf during their day in the Californian sun

Puppy love: At one point she carried one of the couple's dogs into the Pacific ocean to get his paws wet

Mom-of-four Luciana meanwhile flaunted her own summer-ready beach body in a dark green bikini.

At one point she carried one of the couple's dogs into the Pacific ocean to get his paws wet.

Matt and Luciana share three children, Isabella, 14, Gia, 11, and Stella Damon, nine, while Luciana also has a 21-year-old daughter Alexia Barroso from her previous marriage to Arbello Barroso.

Caffeine hit: The Academy Award winning screenwriter at one point could be seen sipping a cup of coffee while standing the shallows and exchanging pleasantries with a local surfer

Mom duties: Matt and Luciana share three children, Isabella, 14, Gia, 11, and Stella Damon, nine, while Luciana also has a 21-year-old daughter Alexia Barroso from her previous marriage to Arbello Barroso

Home again: Earlier this year it was first revealed that Matt and his family were isolating in Ireland after becoming stuck by a travel ban enforced on the country

Earlier this year it was first revealed that Matt and his family were isolating in Ireland after becoming stuck by a travel ban enforced on the country.

The Hollywood star had been residing in a lavish 7million ($9million) pad in the rural area.

Matt first spoke about living in lockdown in the Emerald Isle during an interview with Graham O'Toole and Nathan O'Reilly on Ireland's Spin 103.8's Fully Charged.

During the interview the star also revealed that Alexia had made a full recovery from coronavirus while living in New York City.

Despite her being from Luciana's previous relationship however he referred to her as his 'eldest daughter.'

He said: 'Our oldest daughter is in college, she's in NYC. She had COVID really early on, along with her roommates and got through it fine. But everybody's OK...'

California Uber Alles: The star and his family have since jetted back to their home in California where they can make the most of the sun-soaked beaches and beautiful weather

Dad bod: Damon looked good for the dip, showing off his cut body in just a pair of board shorts

Arms day: Matt's arms and shoulders looked especially toned for the summer outing

'For Lucy's mum and my mum, it's scary for that generation. I think we've all got the message now, everyone's doing the isolation and social distancing and hand-washing and everything we can to mitigate this but it's frightening, certainly for our parents.'

Speaking about his time in Ireland, he said: 'It's incredible. This is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. It feels a little like a fairytale here. Bono lives over there, Enya lives over there'.

The star and his family have since jetted back to their home in California where they can make the most of the sun-soaked beaches and beautiful weather.

Winners are grinners: The star of The Martian is constantly busy, with two acting projects currently underway, namely The Last Duel and Stillwater
Lebanon's prime minister Tuesday accused Israel of provoking a "dangerous escalation" along the border in an attempt to modify the mandate of a U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, cautioning against "a slide toward the worse" in coming days.

Hassan Diab's comments came a day after the Israeli military said it thwarted an infiltration attempt by Hezbollah militants  setting off one of the heaviest exchanges of fire along the volatile Israel-Lebanon frontier since a 2006 war between the two enemies.

Hezbollah denied its fighters had engaged in any attack along the border, but the Israeli military said it was sure the Iranian-backed militant group had carried out the operation, and Israeli forces in the area remained on heightened alert.

Manal Abdel Samad, Lebanon's minister of information, blamed Israel for the flare-up and said it confirmed what she called Israel's "hostile mentality".

Meanwhile, Lebanon's government on Tuesday held a regular session at Baabda Palace and approved the Higher Defense Council recommendation to impose a partial coronavirus lockdown as of today.

A complete lockdown will be implemented as of Thursday, for a period of 5 days, to be followed by a 2-day break, and another 5 days of complete lockdown, after which the outcomes will be evaluated.
Farmers protest: IFA members protesting outside the Department of Health last April over flaws in the Fair Deal nursing care costs scheme. Photo: INM

Work on legislation that would reduce Fair Deal nursing home costs for farm families has been postponed till the autumn.

The move confirmed by the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste in recent days has been described as 'incredibly disappointing' by farmer representatives, with the financial burden of nursing home care a huge concern for many farm families.

Despite underlining the importance of the changes for the farming community, An Taoiseach Micheal Martin told the Dail that legislation would not be dealt with this month and will fall to the autumn session.

"I have, however, asked the ministers to prioritise this matter and it is in the Programme for Government. People have been waiting for some time. There have been some issues with some of the stakeholders regarding this matter, which perhaps have delayed its progress, but I am determined that we will get this legislation published and into the House," he said.

Under legislation approved by the Government in June 2019, it was proposed to extend the three-year cap provision to farmers and business owners.

The current system sees farm families and small business owners required to set aside 7.5pc of the value of their land annually to fund a place in a nursing home.

The proposed policy change to the Nursing Homes Support Scheme would cap contributions based on farm and business assets at three years, where a family successor commits to working the productive asset.

Commenting on the proposal to postpone the Fair Deal legislation further, the chair of ICMSA's farm business committee, Shane O'Loughlin, described the decision as "incredibly disappointing" and one that did not send out a good signal to farmers at this very difficult time.

"This legislation has been ready to come through the Dail since 2019, and to further postpone it to next autumn feels like this legislation is 'kicked down the road' indefinitely," said Mr O'Loughlin.

"There are farm families who are losing significantly while this legislation is not enacted, and every year is costing a farm family 7.5pc of the value of their farm - a massive amount that could be the difference in a farm's future viability."
Updated: July 26, 2021

Just like everything else this year, back-to-school shopping looks a little different.

That even applies to military families, who are used to finding a house, registering for school and shopping for supplies all inside a 48-hour window. Our lives are regularly full of change, but 2020 wore us out and 2021 isn't doing much better.

You may be thinking that nothing can make school supply shopping better, but fear not. There are some tricks. And since my children's school district is among the first to go back this year (yup, they start next week), let me share some of what I've learned.

1. Take inventory. Start by looking at what your kids need and then check what you already have on hand. Often, they don't use all the supplies from one year to the next, and if they were home the last quarter of last year, you may have extras. See what you need, check the quantities required for more than one kid, and then go shopping.

2. Shop online. I know some of you like shopping in stores, but I've been buying school supplies online forever. Target's School List Assist is a great option, and then you can do curbside pickup or have it delivered. I shopped at Amazon and Target, where I was able to buy everything on two lists for a reasonable amount of money.

3. Buy more masks. Chances are your kids already have a mask or two, but you're going to want more -- one for each day of the week and a spare. When you find the kind that fits your kid well, buy a lot. Some great options include the disposable ones or Cat & Jack from Target; Old Navy has packs of 5. If you still have your stash from last year, get them ready to go.

4. Shop sales. There's no reason to pay full price for, well, anything. But definitely not for school supplies or clothes. Back-to-school shopping trips can wipe out your budget, especially if they come on the back of a move. But if you can buy items in bulk, get them on sale or split up the cost over two months, you may be able to save money.

5. Delegate. Over the past few years, my service member has managed to snag leave for that last week of summer/first few days of school. It's been wonderful. I have sent him to the store with the shopping list. He took our daughter to the mall for clothes and handled the school's open house last year while I was in the emergency room with our toddler. Delegate and outsource things. Have your teenager load up the Amazon cart with what they need. Ask your mom to shop around for some items if you don't have time. Use your virtual village and save your sanity.

6. Don't stress. If there's anything we've learned over the last few months, it's that things will change. Last year, we had no idea what was going on with school and things changed last minute. This year, well, we still aren't really sure. Things are fluid, and getting hung up on one plan will drive you crazy. Trust me, I'm already there.

This school year is going to look different from last year, which looked different from the year before, and it's OK. As a military family, you've weathered a lot, and this year is no exception. Count your blessings, buy the sharpened pencils and embrace this adventure, just like every other.

-- Rebecca Alwine can be reached at rebecca.alwine@monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebecca_alwine.

Keep Up with the Ins and Outs of Military Life

For the latest military news and tips on military family benefits and more, subscribe to Military.com and have the information you need delivered directly to your inbox.
Trip Jennings was shot in the eye with a less-lethal round by federal agents in Portland, Oregon.

Trip Jennings/Instagram

Trip Jennings, a videographer who has worked with PBS and National Geographic, was shot by law enforcement with a less-lethal round while covering a Black Lives Matter protest in Portland, Oregon.

Speaking to Business Insider, Jennings recounted the moment that federal agents began firing tear gas and pelting protesters with rubber bullets.

"I had a helmet on. I had a flak jacket on. As soon as I exposed something that was vulnerable, which was my face, they shot me," Jennings said.

Jennings was rushed to the hospital by volunteer medics. He said, a day later, that the hemorrhaging in his eye is even worse.

"I'm hoping there's no permanent damage," he said.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Trip Jennings doesn't know why law enforcement agents Portland shot him in the head, nor if there will be lasting damage to the eye in which he was struck with a less-lethal round.

But the videographer for PBS and National Geographic fully understands that if this can happen to him  a 6'2" white guy with a fancy camera around his neck; a veteran journalist complying with a police order to disperse  then what about those without that privilege?

"It's a rare moment where my white privilege doesn't fully protect me," Jennings said in an interview with Business Insider on Monday, hours after checking out of the hospital where he was treated for a hemorrhaging eye.

"I know in almost any situation that I interact with the cops, I might get in trouble if I've been speeding but I'm not going to die," he said. "This is one of the few moments in my life, in the United States, where I wasn't sure."

A veteran journalist who has covered protests around the world, Jennings was a block and a half from the Portland Federal Building in Oregon's largest city, the scene of daily clashes between protesters and a growing assortment of US law enforcement deployed by President Donald Trump, when around midnight he heard a muffled order shouted through a loudspeaker.

Story continues

He doesn't know what caused the protest to be declared an illegal riot, but he is clear about what happened next.

"It was accompanied by a lot of tear gas and a lot of impact munitions," he recounted. "I hunkered down behind some of the activists' shields and shot some photos. And then there was just too much tear gas to stay."

Related video: What historians, activists are saying about the movement to remove statues

Hundreds of people then took flight, including Jennings, fleeing the cloud of burning chemical agents.

"It was like a scene from a movie," Jennings said. "This giant cloud of tear gas began to part and move in the wind and expose this line of law enforcement in camouflage and black armor, marching up the street."

"All the sudden there was just a barrage of impact munitions all around me," he recalled, referring to less-lethal rounds, such as rubber bullets and beanbags, that are intended to inflict damage short of mortality. He remembers one protester's shield being repeatedly slammed by what he believed to be pepper-spray projectiles.

When the shooting stopped, "I figured that was a good time for me to leave," Jennings said.

It wasn't. Minutes later, his back to the line of police, away from any crowd, camera in hand, Jennings stopped by a tree, and turned around to check the distance now between him and law enforcement.

"I had a helmet on. I had a flak jacket on," Jennings said. "As soon as I exposed something that was vulnerable, which was my face, they shot me."

He could walk, so he went to find volunteer medics nearby, who cared for his bloodied eye  the munition had shattered his gas mask  and loaded him in a car that police then shot up with more less-lethal rounds, he said.

Alexander Reid Ross (@areidross) July 27, 2020

Jennings is not the first journalist to be shot in the eye at a Black Lives Matter protest. It happened to Linda Tirado, a freelance journalist who told Business Insider that she was blinded by a "non-lethal" but life-changing projectile. Over one weekend, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, monitors documented over 100 police attacks on credentialed members of the media, including TV crews on the receiving end of a less-lethal volley.

For Jennings, who awaits an appointment with a specialist for his damaged eye, the whole ordeal is "a setback."

"I'm hoping there's no permanent damage," he said.

It's also a revelation.

"I remember being in a class years ago; a talk from another AP photographer. He said, 'wear your press vests and do your job and you will be fine,'" Jennings said. "That, in my experience, has always been the sort of agreement that we have."

Last week a US District Court judge restrained federal agents from using non-lethal force against journalists and legal observers. The Department of Homeland Security, which has agents in the city, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the incident.

Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com

Read the original article on Business Insider
Americas largest dairy export customer is our neighbor to the south. Mexico imported nearly $1.5 billion of U.S. dairy products in 2019. The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is aiming to protect those advancements, more so than trying to open the country up even further, said Ted Jacoby on the July 22 episode of Hoards Dairyman DairyLivestream. Jacoby is the CEO of T.C. Jacoby & Company and has been involved in getting dairy products to Mexico for decades.

When it comes to trade, the ease of getting product from buyer to seller can make a significant impact on the value of the relationship in terms of time, cost, and customer service. Thats what makes the U.S. a prime partner for Mexico.

Orders from Europe or New Zealand would take a month or two to arrive, whereas the U.S. can deliver within a few days, Jacoby explained. Our advantage with Mexico is first and foremost logistics, he added.

A weakened economy

This strong relationship has helped U.S. dairy exports to that country begin to slowly climb back up after significant slides this spring. In April, Mexican imports of dairy products such as skim milk powder were off as much as 30%, Jacoby said. The effects of the pandemic and a devalued peso are hitting the countrys economy hard.

Exports of key products to Mexico remain below last years levels, though. More U.S. traders are looking to Mexico because markets in Southeastern Asia are very competitive right now, but challenges remain there, as well.

Overall, I would say Mexico is improving. Theyre starting to move in the right direction, but its an uphill battle, noted Jacoby. Theyre facing some of the same struggles the U.S. is in terms of dealing with COVID-19 and the pandemic.

The good news is everybody needs to eat. Mexico is a regular food importer, and when it comes to dairy, the U.S. is their number one export partner, he added.

There is demand

Among the U.S.s biggest product advantages in Mexico is nonfat dry milk. While well over 90% of both the butter and cheese produced in America is consumed domestically, only about 40% to 50% of nonfat dry milk is used here  the rest is exported. Nearly all of the nonfat dry milk Mexico imports is from the U.S.

Certain cheeses produced in the U.S. are also valuable for Mexican imports, particularly mozzarella for pizzas. The countrys dairy industry is growing, and at the same time, so does consumer demand for dairy products. Were in a good position to be the major beneficiary of that growth, Jacoby predicted.

An ongoing series of events

DairyLivestream will air twice each month for the remainder of this year. The next broadcast will be on Wednesday, August 5 at 11 a.m. CST. Each episode is designed for panelists to answer over 30 minutes of audience questions. If you havent joined a DairyLivestream broadcast yet, register here. Registering once registers you for all future events.

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.

(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2020

July 23, 2020
She was brutally dumped by Ciarran Stott for intruder Kiki Morris on Monday night's Bachelor in Paradise.

But Jessica Brody was more upset to discover the other stars knew of Ciarran and Kiki's 'secret plan' to be on the show together, before she did.

'Renee [Ciarran's ex] had knowledge of things I didnt... She knew he and Kiki had this plan, this hook-up plan prior,' Jessica told news.com.au on Tuesday.

Scroll down for video

Bachelor In Paradise blindside! Jessica Brody claims other cast members knew about Kiki Morris and Ciarran Stott's 'secret hook-up plan' and DIDN'T tell her

Intruder Kiki, 32, introduced herself to the tattooed lothario, 25, in what appeared to be an attempt to hide the fact they already knew each other before the series.

'Rumours have been circling that Ciarran and Kiki have been intimate with each other  and know each other quite well,' Alisha Aitken-Radburn told producers during the episode.

Ciarran's ex Renee Barrett later confirmed the rumours to Jessica after she was dumped.

'It was planned all along... they wanted to get to the end (of the show) together,' she told Jessica on screen.

'It was planned all along... they wanted to get to the end (of the show) together': Renee (middle) told Jessica (left) about Ciarran and Kiki's past only after he dumped her

'Renee [Ciarran's ex] had knowledge of things I didn't': Jessica told the publication the pertinent information was never relayed or hinted to her prior to being dumped in Paradise - when it could have been useful

Jessica told the publication the pertinent information was never relayed or hinted to her prior to being dumped in Paradise - when it could have been useful.

Despite Renee not sharing the details of Ciarran's 'secret plan' with Jessica earlier, the women are still both 'friends' with each other on social media.

Jessica has even personally praised Renee.

'I want to thank @reneejbarrett for being so strong and pushing through her own pain to make sure I am okay. What a woman,' she wrote on Instagram this week.

Tellingly, Jessica is not 'friends' with Ciarran Stott or Kiki Morris on the social media platform.

'What a woman': Despite Renee not sharing the details of Ciarran's 'secret plan' with Jessica earlier, the women are still both 'friends' with each other on social media. Jessica has even personally praised Renee

After Ciarran left on a romantic date with Kiki, Jessica told producers she had feelings for the Englishman.

He chose to spend the night with Kiki and boasted to producers that he had spent the night with the bombshell in the past.

On Monday night's episode, Ciarran ended his relationship with Jessica after she pulled him aside for a chat.

'I still want to be a mate to you I'm clearly doing what I want to do, so just crack on. Like, we're not boyfriend and girlfriend,' he said.

He later dumped her at the rose ceremony for Kiki.
The fate of the Phillipsburg Free Public Library may be left to voters to decide this fall.

The town council is moving toward including a referendum on the November ballot, one that is sure to be controversial. It will ask residents if the Broubalow Way library should be closed and the town join the county library system instead.
VANCOUVER, BC, July 27, 2020 /CNW/ - FireFox Gold Corp. ("FireFox" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on its summer exploration program, including the commencement of the next-generation integrated interpretation and targeting exercise for the Company's gold projects in the Central Lapland Region of Finland.

FireFox has engaged GoldSpot Discoveries Corp. (TSXV: SPOT) ("GoldSpot"), a leader in utilizing artificial intelligence for target generation in mineral exploration. GoldSpot will apply machine learning and its proprietary expertise to delineate new drill-ready targets for orogenic gold mineralization, as well as identify prospective areas regionally. The process will involve analyzing all available geological and remote sensing data from FireFox's properties, including information from the current field program such as the results of the ongoing high-resolution airborne magnetics survey. GoldSpot will work closely with the FireFox technical team, as well as FireFox's Technical Advisor and orogenic gold specialist, Dr. Richard Goldfarb.

FireFox's chairman, Patrick Highsmith, remarked on the alliance with GoldSpot, "We are very excited to unleash GoldSpot's cutting-edge technology on our gold projects in northern Finland. Our new integrated team encompasses FireFox's deep Finland expertise and more than 120 years of economic geology experience, and the structural geology, geophysics, geochemistry, and technology mavens from GoldSpot. We believe the future of gold discovery will be driven by high-quality data, technical excellence, and smart application of machine learning."

Denis Laviolette, Executive Chairman and President of GoldSpot Discoveries, commented "GoldSpot Discoveries is excited to bring our big data solution to Finland, a world class mining jurisdiction that is notoriously rich in data. We believe FireFox's gold projects have incredible potential and GoldSpot will be able leverage its team and technology to unlock significant value. We believe GoldSpot's approach to integrating FireFox's existing and newly generated datasets with the Geological Survey of Finland's impeccable geodatabase (which includes over 130 years of historical data), will provide FireFox with a significant advantage over other explorers in the area."

GoldSpot's subject matter experts will homogenize, integrate, process and interpret exploration datasets such as mapped or logged lithology, geophysics, surface and downhole geochemistry, and structural data. These interpreted and derived products will be used as input layers to GoldSpot's proprietary AI (machine learning) techniques, which will then be validated by their team of expert geoscientists, in collaboration with the FireFox team.

Summer Exploration Program Update

FireFox is also pleased to report that its previously announced summer exploration program is well underway. The 2,100 line-kilometre unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based magnetic survey is approximately 50% complete with results expected by the middle of August (see news release dated July 14, 2020 and note revision to 2,100 from 1,100 line-kilometres). Trenching is underway at the Jeesio Project and the reconnaissance mapping and sampling program is ongoing. Several batches of samples have already been dispatched to the laboratory for gold and multi-element analyses.

Quality Assurance

Patrick Highsmith, Certified Professional Geologist (AIPG CPG # 11702) and director of the Company, is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Highsmith has helped prepare, and approves, the technical information in this news release.

Dr. Petri Peltonen, Exploration Manager of FireFox Gold, is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Dr. Peltonen has supervised the collection and interpretation of the technical data generated in the Company's field program and has helped prepare, and approves, the technical information in this news release.

About FireFox Gold Corp.

FireFox Gold Corp is listed on the TSX Venture stock exchange under the ticker symbol FFOX. The Company is focused entirely on gold exploration in Finland where it is exploring its project portfolio that includes over 150,000 hectares of prospective ground.

Finland is one of the top mining investment jurisdictions in the world as indicated by its multiple top-10 rankings in recent Fraser Institute Surveys of Mining Companies. Having a strong mining law and long mining tradition, Finland remains underexplored for gold. Recent exploration results in the country have highlighted its prospectivity, and FireFox is proud to have a Finland based CEO and technical team.

For more information, please refer to the Company's profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.

About GoldSpot Discoveries Corp.

GoldSpot Discoveries Corp. (TSXV: SPOT) is a technology and investment company that leverages machine learning to reduce capital risk while working to increase efficiency and success rates in resource exploration and investment. GoldSpot combines proprietary technology with traditional domain expertise, offering a front-to-back service solution to its partners, and in some cases, capital to finance exploration programs. GoldSpot's solutions target big data problems, making full use of historically unutilized data to better comprehend resource property potential. For more information see www.goldspot.ca .

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

"Carl Lofberg"

Chief Executive Officer

Forward Looking Statements

The information herein contains forward looking statements that are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include: changes in world commodity markets, equity markets, the extent of work stoppage and economic impacts that may result from the COVID 19 virus, costs and supply of materials relevant to the mining industry, change in government and changes to regulations affecting the mining industry.

Forward-looking statements in this release may include statements regarding: the current and future work program, including the extent and nature of exploration to be conducted in 2020, as well as receipt of survey results on the properties described. Although we believe the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, results may vary. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the expectations of FireFox as of the date of dissemination and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. Readers should not place undue importance on forward-looking statements and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. FireFox does not undertake to update this information at any particular time except as required in accordance with applicable laws.

SOURCE FireFox Gold Corp.

For further information: FireFox Gold Corp., Email: [email protected], Telephone: 604-328-4789

Related Links

www.firefoxgold.com


Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 20:07:38|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia repatriated 262 nationals on a chartered flight from South Korea on Tuesday, according to the country's emergency services.

The Seoul-Ulan Bator flight landed at the Buyant-Ukhaa international airport on Tuesday afternoon, the National Emergency Management Agency said in a statement.

The repatriated people included pregnant women, the elderly, children, the disabled, sick people and those with financial or other problems, it said, adding that they will be isolated at designated facilities for 21 days.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Mongolia has evacuated more than 14,700 nationals on chartered flights, buses or trains from different parts of the world, according to the agency.

The Asian country has confirmed 289 COVID-19 cases so far, with no local transmissions or deaths. Enditem
Press Release

28 July 2020

Coronavirus has reshaped the hospitality business landscape like never before. Offering hotel owners, a strong alternative, LEVA Hotels has rolled out compelling brand conversion options for existing properties looking for change. The choice of having one of Leva brands or managing the owner asset with their branding as a Third party or white label operator. A higher Gross Operating Profit (GOP), lower management fees and global operations with a highly experienced international team purely focused on revenue maximization and offering cost effective models and fees.

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Mr. JS Anand, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of LEVA Hotels, said, "The world is changing and so is the way to do business in our industry. There are many variables coming into play. Hotels need much more than just conventional hotel management agreements. LEVA Hotels gives access to a unique portfolio of brands and an internationally rounded management team with standardization, action and result oriented to focus on bottom line owner profitability. We have carried out brand conversions and positioning in less than 60 days."

Third-Party Management is an excellent alternative to the traditional asset or resource heavy owner operator or direct management structure. Under the scheme, property owners can take over the franchise of any brand along with the management services of the Leva team

that manages their own brands or international brands or owner's individual brand.

Mr. JS Anand stated, "We have also launched a design division where we have the resources of an architect and designer that create a soft cosmetic refurbishment model with elements of the brand .On the management side we ensure Greater flexibility in contract terms, higher profits due to lower cost structure by way of clustering resources across multiple properties and more defined management method are some of the key advantages."

LEVA Hotels is uniquely positioned in the upscale and midscale segments with three complementary and well differentiated brands designed to provide a solid return on investment for owners and greater value to guests.

Building up on its growth momentum, the brand is aggressively exploring expansion opportunities across the GCC, Africa, Europe and USA. In addition to its flagship hotel LEVA Mazaya Centre, a deluxe 4-star hotel in Dubai, the group had recently signed management agreements for two beautiful hotels in Muscat and a stunning property in Kampala.
The venues reopening its doors include Cairo National Theatre, El-Ghad Theatre, Alexandria's Bayram El-Tunisi Theatre, among others

Numerous Cairo theatres will reopen their doors to audience during the upcoming Eid Al-Adha, the management of the Theatre Artistic House at the Ministry of Culture announced on Monday.

Ismail Mokhtar, head of the Theatre Artistic House expressed his happiness to welcome the actors and the audiences to the venues which witnessed an over four-month-long shutdown due to the Coronavirus disruption.

Mokhtar stressed that all precautionary measures are being set in place in the venues reopening in Cairo and Alexandria.

Among the plays to be performed in Cairo during the upcoming Eid El Adha are The Optimist at the National Theatre, The Accident at El Ghad (Tomorrow) Theatre, two plays at the halls of El Taleya (Avant-Garde) Theatre, Moliere's The Miser staged by the Youth Theatre troupe at Malak Opera, among others.

Alexandria's Bayram El-Tunisi Theatre will host Cairo's Modern Theatre troupe with their successful show 'Happy Journey'.

The youngest viewers will be able to attend plays tailored for them at the Cairo's Metropole Theatre and at the Puppet Theatre in Attaba in Downtown Cairo.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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Iran has moved a mock-up US aircraft carrier to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, satellite images show, suggesting it will use the look-alike vessel for target practice in war games in a Gulf shipping channel vital to world oil exports.

The use of dummy American warships has become an occasional feature of training by Irans Revolutionary Guards and its naval forces, including in 2015 when Iranian missiles hit a mock-up resembling a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.

Tehran, which opposes the presence of US and Western navies in the Gulf, frequently holds naval war games in the strategic Strait, the conduit for some 30% of all crude and other oil liquids traded by sea.

One of the images taken on July 26 by US-based space technology firm Maxar Technologies showed an Iranian fast attack boat moving toward the model US carrier in the strategic waterway. Another image showed model planes lined up on the deck of the fake carrier.

We cannot speak to what Iran hopes to gain by building this mock-up, or what tactical value they would hope to gain by using such a mock-up in a training or offensive exercise scenario, said Commander Rebecca Rebarich, the spokeswoman for the US Navys Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet.

We remain confident in our naval forces ability to defend themselves against any maritime threat.

Tensions have spiked between Iran and the United States since 2018, when US President Donald Trump withdrew from Irans 2015 nuclear deal with six powers and reimposed sanctions that has sharply dropped Tehrans oil exports.

Irans Guards in April said Tehran would destroy US warships if its security is threatened in the Gulf. Iranian officials have repeatedly threatened to block Hormuz if Iran is not able to export oil or if its nuclear sites are attacked.

There have been periodic confrontations between the Iranian Guards and the US military in the Gulf in recent years. US officials have said closing the Strait would be crossing a red line and America would take action to reopen it.

Iran cannot legally close the waterway unilaterally because part of it is in Omani territorial waters. However, ships that sail it pass through Iranian waters, which are under the responsibility of the Irans Guards naval force.

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse)  Tue, July 28, 2020 14:02 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669e4fe2 2 News travel,tourism,international-travels Free

Travelers from Taiwan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia are the most willing to get on an international flight when it's possible again, according to online travel giant Agoda.

Avid travelers around the globe are dying to know when it will be possible to cross the globe again. Top tourist destinations are empty of foreign visitors; Paris, in particular, is feeling the loss of its regular visitors from Asia. Will the covid-19 pandemic reshape traveling habits?

A glance at the Agoda study provides a glimpse of what the future may hold. Roughly 51 percent of Taiwanese travelers say they are ready to travel internationally again, as are 45 percent of South Koreans and 43 percent of Saudi Arabians.

Read also: WHO to travelers: Keep an eye on 'anywhere and everywhere' COVID-19

Overall, 65 percent of the travelers surveyed stated a preference for traveling domestically in the coming 12 months, meaning that only 35 percent felt ready to travel internationally. Australians, for example, listed planned destinations in Southeast Asia, Eastern Asia and Europe.

Nevertheless, even the participants willing to travel internationally won't be traveling to the ends of the earth just yet. Nearly half (46 percent) said they would not like to travel by air for more than three or four hours at present.

With holidaygoers the world over choosing to take vacations within the borders of their own country, which are the most popular destinations among a country's own citizens?

Indonesians stated a preference for Bali while Thais indicated their preferences for the authenticity of Chiang Mai and the gorgeous beaches of Phuket and Hua Hin. Australians have a vast territory of options: Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast (the east coast around Brisbane) are their preferred spots. Vietnamese participants chose Da Nang, Dalat and Nha Trang for their tourism plans. Finally, Americans noted plans to visit New York, Orlando and Los Angeles.
More than 1,000 same-sex couples in civil partnerships in Northern Ireland could convert to full marriage if changes to the law are agreed, Amnesty International has said.

Campaigners in Northern Ireland asked shadow secretary of state Louise Haigh to help secure the shift during a meeting in Belfast on Tuesday.

Same-sex civil marriage became legal in Northern Ireland on January 13, but couples who wish to have a religious ceremony as part of their wedding, or who wish to convert their civil partnership to a marriage, are still not able to do so.

Expand Close Louise Haigh visiting the Lyra McKee mural in Belfast (Liam McBurney/PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Louise Haigh visiting the Lyra McKee mural in Belfast (Liam McBurney/PA)

Campaigners want Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis to lay new regulations in Parliament and introduce the changes as a matter of urgency.

Amnestys Northern Ireland director Patrick Corrigan said: We are keen to get the last element of marriage equality legislation over the line, which will allow over 1,000 same-sex couples currently in civil partnerships to convert to marital status if they wish.

A UK Government spokesman recently said conversion entitlement regulations will follow as soon as possible, before the end of this year.

On her first visit to Northern Ireland since becoming shadow secretary of state, Ms Haigh met local LGBT+ and same-sex marriage campaigners, with whom she has been working since her appointment in April.

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She said: I am incredibly proud of the role Labour MPs like Conor McGinn played in bringing marriage equality to Northern Ireland, and it is a privilege to meet the inspiring campaigners who made it happen.

But we know there is still work to be done in bringing forward the regulations that will make possible the conversion of a civil partnership to marriage.

That is the final piece of the jigsaw that must be delivered.

I will continue to work with local groups to ensure that this and other pressing issues facing the LGBT community in Northern Ireland are addressed.

Mr Corrigan said the Labour Party was a huge part of the success in the fight for same-sex marriage at Westminster.
Police at the scene said it appeared that at least one gunman got out of a white vehicle and opened fire on the group as they stood on the homes porch. Chicago fire officials initially issued a call for additional medical personnel to help assist all of the victims, according to a department spokesman.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Ned Hill will never forget his first encounter with Larry Householder. During the Perry County state legislators first term as Speaker of Ohios House of Representatives, Householder visited a board meeting of an industry group that Hill was attending.

The ethos of pay to play was palpable, recalls Hill, an Ohio State University professor of economic development. I saw him work the room, pounding peoples chests with his fingers and telling them how much their donation was going to be. It was the closest thing to a shakedown that I have ever seen. I turned to the person beside me and said, Dorothy, were not in Kansas anymore. .... People were used to campaign contributions, but not tithing.
Australia's most popular residential property was viewed almost 14,000 times in four days before being flooded with offers well above the asking price.

The Gold Coast home immediately received 30 written offers from prospective buyers willing to pay above the price guide of $605,000 to $665,000.

Real estate agent Stewart Reed said he toured 243 groups of buyers through the home in scenes he 'doubted' he would ever see again.

Australia's most popular residential property (pictured) was viewed almost 14,000 times in just four days before offers well above the asking price began to flood in

Property manager Stewart Reed said he toured 243 groups of buyers through the four bedroom, three bathroom Gold Coast home in scenes he 'doubted' he would ever see again

Up to 13,000 people viewed the property online while more than 750 people inspected the home in person.

Mr Reed felt the unrenovated Tugan home, which remained untouched for 30 years, added a heightened level of appeal for some buyers.

The owners and their property manager transformed the look of the property with focus on presentation and a new coat of white paint.

'This bunch of buyers felt the property was so beautiful they didn't care that the house was 30 years old because they fell in love with the presentation,' Mr Reed said.

'We got a response and a sale price which has left the sellers smiling.'

Mr Reed said many of the offers were above $700,000, realestate.com reported.

Mr Reed said there are always buyers ready to snatch up a property that's 'presented and priced to sell', especially for in-demand areas like the Gold Coast

He said a large pool of buyers exists who will always want to snatch up a property that is 'presented and priced to sell'.

'Even in a cautious market like this, buyers will step up to part with money if they believe they're getting the best buy or the perfect solution to their lifestyle with nothing left to do,' he said.

The four bedroom and three bathroom home also proved popular with renovators

The median price for a home in Tugun, bordering the beach, is listed at $698,000.

It's considered a 'high demand' area with more than 1500 real estate queries and 541 property visits every day.
Disney World on Monday changed its park rules with a ban on valved masks. A ban was also put in place for masks made of mesh material and those with holes in them.

The valved mask ban was Disney World's effort of keeping guests and cast members safe within the park as the threats of the coronavirus pandemic continues to take over the United States. They said mesh masks, holed and valved masks were no longer acceptable personal protective equipment (PPE), a report from Business Insider noted.

The new rules were explained by Disney World, citing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"At this time, based on guidance from health authorities, neck gaiters, open-chin triangle bandanas, and face coverings containing valves, mesh material or holes of any kind are not acceptable face coverings," the Disney World said in a statement.

The Florida theme park will accept face masks with at least two layers of material. The mask, whether disposable or reusable, has to cover the nose and mouth of the wearer, the Fox Business reported.

The masks also need to be secured with ties of ear loops to allow the wearer to move about hands-free.

Disney said this new addition to their rules is a "substitute for physical distancing."

The new rules follow the recent changes in Disney World's rules on not wearing a mask while guests are eating or drinking. A People report said the change of rules are there to make sure guests are sitting down when they eat or drink, instead of walking around while doing so.

The face mask rules aren't the only ones Disney World imposed. It also required temperature checks and social distancing in lines. The theme park reopened last July 11.





What is Wrong with Valved Masks?

Valved masks may let the wearer breathe easier, but scientists have urged people to stop using these kinds of facial coverings. They feared using such masks will only spread the virus further.

In a Metro UK report, Dr. Bharat Pankhania of the University of Exeter Medical School said masks with valves on it create faster air flow from the mouth of the wearer out through the valve. This could create a "plume of infection."

The report added that there are no filters involved in outward air flow for valve masks. Incoming air can be filtered, but the air that the wearer lets out is not filtered.

This means a person wearing a valve mask can be protected from the virus, but if they are not aware that they have coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), they can only spread it further without knowing it. It removes the key point of masks-protecting others.

Supporting scientific claims, the CDC also recommended against the use of valved masks because of the threats they pose.

The ABC News reported that the usual cloth masks are even better at fighting the spread of the coronavirus than the valved ones.

"Cloth and surgical masks would clearly rank superior," said William Schaffner, MD of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, noting that the valve masks don't protect everyone around him.

"Sorry about that... if you're wearing masks just to protect yourself that's different than the program that we're thinking of -- the goal that we're trying to implement," Schaffner said.

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A view of Singapore skyline, amid the (COVID-19) pandemic, in Singapore, on July 14, 2020. (Edgar Su/Reuters)

Singapore Spy Case Reawakens Fears China Recruiting on Island State

SINGAPOREThe case of a Singaporean caught spying for China in the United States has reawakened fears over China recruiting intelligence assets on the island state that has won trust among Western governments while keeping on good terms with Beijing.

Jun Wei Yeo, a 39-year-old academic who also goes by the name Dickson Yeo, pleaded guilty in a U.S. court on Friday to acting as an illegal agent of Chinese intelligence. He will be sentenced in October and faces up to 10 years in prison.

Singapores home ministry said in a brief statement on Sunday that it had been aware of Yeos case since his arrest by U.S. authorities in November, and he is receiving consular assistance.

Court documents show Yeo was lured into becoming a Chinese asset four years earlier while attending a forum in Beijing to give a presentation on Southeast Asian politics. He moved to the United States in January 2019.

One fool like this can get all Singaporeans suspected, academic and former Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan said in a Facebook post in response to the spys case.

Initially claiming to represent China-based think tanks, Yeos recruiters offered to pay him for political reports and information, but he learned later that some of his contacts were intelligence agents, the court records show.

Tasked with finding people with non-public information about politics, economics, and diplomacy, Yeo first focused on Southeast Asia, before switching to the United States.

When he moved to the United States his handlers gave him a bank card and told him to communicate with them using multiple phones to avoid detection.

Using a fake consultancy and business networking site LinkedIn, Yeo reached out to individuals, targeting those with financial or work troubles, and paid them to write reports.

Among those he lured was a civilian with high level security clearance working on a U.S. military fighter jet program.

Yeos former PhD supervisor at Singapores Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy was an ethnic Chinese U.S. citizen, who was accused by Singaporean authorities in 2017 of being an agent of foreign influence for an undisclosed country.

Huang Jing denied those allegations, and while never convicted he had his residency pass revoked.

Now working in Beijing, Huang said he was shocked and glad Yeo had been caught, noting that he had an obvious sense of insecurity and hunger for being somebody.

Two former classmates said that Yeo had dreamed of becoming a diplomat but felt he had been shunned by the Singapore establishment. Yeo could not be reached for comment.

Asias Switzerland

The home ministry said investigations into Yeo had not revealed any direct threat to Singapore.

While Yeo may have drawn the line at betraying his own country, he was caught spying against the superpower with whom Singapore has the closest security ties, though the city-state is bound by its own rules to pursue a neutral foreign policy.

At loggerheads with the United States over trade and other issues, Beijing denied knowledge of Yeos case on Monday and accused the United States of using espionage claims to smear China.

Deteriorating Sino-U.S. relations hit a new low during the past week, as the United States closed Chinas consulate in Houston and China retaliated by seizing the U.S. consulate in Chengdu.

Yeos case reinforced concerns raised in Western security think-tanks that Singapore was a soft target for China to recruit well-educated ethnic Chinese assets whose passports grant them easy access to countries almost everywhere.

People might be more suspicious of Singaporeans if there is a perception that Singapore is compromised, said Chong Ja Ian, a visiting Singapore scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Chong said the incident may also make it more difficult for Singapore to walk the diplomatic tightrope between Washington and Beijing.

Often described as the Switzerland of Asia because of its wealth, international finance network, and neutrality, Singapore is one of the most politically stable countries in a region where the United States and China have competing interests.

China is Singapores biggest trading partner, as it is for many countries in Asia.

A report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in 2018 found Singapore universities had among the highest level of collaboration globally with researchers from Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA).

And U.S.-based think tank Jamestown Foundation last year said that China used business associations and other organizations in Singapore to spread propaganda about a greater China identity among Singaporeans, 75 percent of whom are ethnic Chinese.

Bilveer Singh of the National University of Singapores department of political science, said the city-states openness and strategic location has made it a hub for many countries to acquire intel and agents of influence.

Yeo was definitely not an isolated case, he said.

A Mexican researcher from another Singapore university, Duke-NUS, was arrested in the United States earlier this year for acting on behalf of Russia.

Reuters asked the home ministry for comment on whether Yeo was an isolated case and, among other questions, whether there would be any restrictions on academics coming from, or visiting China.

The ministry said it would not be commenting further.

By John Geddie and Aradhana Aravindan
It is one of those stories about Majorca which has long intrigued me. How and why did it happen? And if it hadnt happened, would a tourist resort now have an entirely different name? I think it would.

This is the story of Sa Poblas beach. As we all know, Sa Pobla doesnt have a beach. It is an inland municipality. But it used to have a beach, one where the villagers would go in summer and even put up makeshift summer huts. Those were the days before the likes of the Costas Authority or over-zealous town hall officials. The people of Sa Pobla were creating their huts, unmolested by officialdom, and they were doing so on part of the long stretch from Alcudia to Can Picafort.

On another part, the so-called French beach in Alcudia, Gerard Blitz installed the very first and very rudimentary Club Mediterranee. When officials from the town hall turned up and saw the collection of army surplus tents and basic facilities that Blitz had organised, it seems that they shrugged their shoulders, assumed these French were mad (Blitz was in fact Belgian) and left them to it.

May 1954. That was the fateful month; the month when Sa Pobla lost its beach. Over three days, three town halls - Alcudia, Muro and Sa Pobla - met to ratify the geographical demarcation of the three municipalities in the wetlands of Albufera. The town halls had been asked to do this (ordered to do this) by the Geographical and Cadastral Institute, a centralised government body which was creating a definitive map of municipal boundaries for the whole of Spain.

Although there was a lack of clarity, the limits as they applied to the coast seemed fairly logical. For Muro, there was the settlement of Ses Casetes des Capellans, the seaside church bungalows by the border with Santa Margalida (Can Picafort), which were bequeathed to the town hall for Muro people to use in summer. The Muro part of Albufera to the coast was defined by Capellans and the Gran Canal of Albufera. Sa Poblas part was between the canal and the old Cami Can Blau (now the road that leads to the power station). The five municipalities on the bay of Alcudia all had their beach, although Albufera wasnt an issue for Arta or Santa Margalida.

This was to change in 1954. Rather like there was little officialdom to control temporary structures on beaches, there was also an absence of public consultation. It is a matter that can still provoke some resentment in Sa Pobla. One day, the people had a beach; the next day, they didnt. Few had been aware what was being discussed at those meetings.

The discussions (arguments) about the borders had in fact been going on for several centuries. In 1631, some Sa Pobla residents had engaged in a spot of Albufera land-grab from Alcudia. There was an appeal to the royal procurator, and the ruling went in favour of Alcudia. Litigation was to follow, and in 1863 Sa Pobla sought clarification, stressing its claim to a coastal strip which would seemingly once have been Alcudias. This came to nothing, and so in 1944 the three town halls agreed to have another go. By this time, regardless of that one-time land-grab, Alcudia was pretty clear as to what was its land (as clear as it was possible to be). The real confusion was now between Sa Pobla and Muro, and the confusion remained; in 1945 they gave up.

With the Geographical and Cadastral Institute to gee them along, the town halls gathered in May 1954. Alcudias representatives, including the mayor, Josep Tous Lliteras, were largely absent, as the issues were principally ones for the other two town halls. So, Muro and Sa Pobla were to end up establishing eight milestones, and the consequence of these milestones was that Sa Pobla, which had once insisted that the coastal strip belonged to it, relinquished the right to what was a two-kilometre stretch of land across Albufera to the coast.

It has been said that Sa Pobla did bad business; the mayor of Sa Pobla, Onofre Pons, wasnt in attendance for all the meetings. Anyway, on the third day, May 24, the town hall representatives signed the document which confirmed all the milestones that were to now mark out the boundaries. For Sa Pobla, the business may not have seemed that bad, as the municipality gained some agricultural land, but it was business guided by old thinking - that coastal land was basically worthless.

The tourism boom had yet to start, but developments would have been, should have been evident. Gerard Blitz and Club Med were no longer in Alcudia, but the pioneering tour operators were starting, while elsewhere in Majorca - Calvia - the town hall was embarking on a process of granting permissions for coastal developments. The tourism boom was to pass Sa Pobla by.
Initial public offer (IPO) market has picked up momentum after a gap of four months with Rossari Biotech shares making their bumper debut on BSE and NSE in July. In March, SBI Cards IPO saw a tepid response from investors amid market gloom caused by coronavirus crisis in the country. On the other hand, 2019 saw a huge number of companies taking the IPO route to raise capital. Top companies that hit the primary market with initial public offerings (IPOs) last year included IRCTC, CSB Bank, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, Prince Pipes, IndiaMart, Neogen Chemicals, Rail Vikas Nigam, Sterling and Wilson Solar, and Affle India among others.

India Inc might not be able to replicate its IPO performance but there are still a slew of big ticket share sales which may lighten up the mood of investors this year.

Here's a look at the top IPOs scheduled to hit the market in second half of this year.

NCDEX

National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) plans to launch the Rs 500-crore initial public offer (IPO). This includes a fresh offering of shares as well. Shareholders who have decided to offer their shares through OFS include NABARD, Punjab National Bank, Oman India Joint Venture Fund, Canara Bank and IFFCO.

The company received market watchdog's approval in April this year. The IPO comprises fresh issue aggregating up to Rs 100 crore and an offer for sale of up to 1.44 crore shares. As per the RHP, the company intends to utilise net proceeds towards contribution to the core settlement guarantee fund, net worth requirements of National Commodity Clearing Limited and general corporate purposes.

Equitas Small Finance Bank

Being one of the largest small finance bank (SFB) in India in terms of the number of banking outlets, the lender had earlier filed papers for its Rs 1,000 crore IPO in December last year and received its approval from SEBI by March 2020. The IPO of the Chennai-based lender was supposed to be launched on March 3. Although in the same month, the company announced that it would defer the launch of its initial public offering due to coronavirus-led weak market conditions. The issue consisted of a fresh issue of Rs 550 crore and offer for sale of 8 crore shares by parent firm Equitas Holdings. The bank is likely to consider a pre-IPO placement of up to Rs 300 crore

Monte Carlo

The initial public offer (IPO) of the Ahmedabad-based firm is expected to fetch Rs 550 crore. As per the company's draft papers, the IPO comprises fresh issuance of shares worth Rs 450 crore, and an offer for sale of up to 30 lakh equity stocks by existing shareholder Kanubhai M Patel Trust. The company plans to utilise the proceeds of the issue towards investment in projects, to meet working capital requirements and for other general corporate purposes.

Burger King

Burger King India submitted its draft papers for IPO with SEBI in November 2019 and received approval from the market watchdog in January this year. Burger King's offer comprises fresh issue of equity shares aggregating up to Rs 400 crore and an offer for sale of up to 6 crore equity shares by QSR Asia, the promoter. Edelweiss, Kotak Mahindra Capital, JM Financial, and CLSA are the investment bankers managing the Burger King IPO. The IPO will comprise a secondary share sale worth Rs 600 crore by Everstone Capital and fresh fundraising worth Rs 400 crore. As per the company's RHP, net proceeds from the public issue will be used to fuel funding roll-out of new company-owned Burger King Restaurants and general corporate purposes.

Home First Finance

Home First Finance Company (HFFC) on November 29 filed a draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its IPO and received the nod from SEBI in March 2020. The IPO consists of a fresh issue aggregating up to Rs 400 crore and an offer for sale of up to Rs 1,100 crore by the selling shareholders. DRHP said the company might consider a pre-IPO placement of up to Rs 160 crore. The company said it plans to utilise the net proceeds for augmenting its capital base to meet its future capital requirements arising out of the growth of its business and assets and to receive the benefits of listing of equity shares on stock exchanges.

EaseMyTrip

Online travel company EaseMyTrip had in December 2019 filed draft papers with capital markets regulator Sebi to float its Rs 510-crore IPO. IPO also involves an offer-for-sale mechanism through which the company's founders Nishant Pitti and Rikant Pitti plan to sell shares to the tune of Rs 255 crore each. EaseMyTrip.com, Easy Trip Planners Private Ltd said that objective of the public issue was to achieve the benefits of listing equity shares on stock exchanges.

Computer Age Management Services

CAMS had filed draft papers with Sebi in January this year to raise Rs 1,000 crore through IPO. Headquartered in Chennai, the company is co-owned by NSE Investments, Warburg Pincus, Faering Capital ACSYS Investments and HDFC Group. These investors are expected to partially offload their stake via IPO. Claiming to be India's largest registrar and transfer agent (RTA) serving several mutual funds in India, the company provides services of the transaction, payment, settlement and reconciliation, dividend processing, record keeping, report generation, intermediary empanelment and brokerage computation and compliance.

NSE

National Stock Exchange- country's largest bourse is also expected to come up with its IPO this year. Company's listing plans have been stalled for almost three years due to a probe by SEBI against the bourse and its top officials. Besides the IPO, the company's existing shareholders plan to offload 20-25% stake to public through the offer for sale (OFS) route.

UTI AMC

Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on June 23, 2020, gave its approval to the initial public offering (IPO) papers filed by UTI Asset Management Company (UTI AMC).

India's oldest mutual fund UTI AMC plans to sell up to 8.25% stake via initial public offer (IPO) route this year as it looks to divest the stake held by its five shareholders.

The Rs 3,500 crore IPO is likely to be priced at Rs 850-900 per share as per bankers. Kotak Mahindra Capital, Axis Capital, Citigroup, DSP Merrill Lynch, ICICI Securities, JM Financial and SBI Capital are bankers to the offer. The public issue consists of an offer for sale by shareholders including State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, LIC, Punjab National Bank and T Rowe Price. First three shareholders will sell 10,459,949 shares each, while the other two will offload 3,803,617 shares each. UTI AMC's four domestic shareholders LIC, State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Bank of Baroda (BoB) own 18.5 per cent stake each and also have their own AMCs.

Lodha Developers

Lodha Developers planned to launch its Rs 5,500-crore IPO in July 2018 but later shelved the plan due to unfavourable market conditions. The Mumbai-based developer planned to raise Rs 3,300 crore from the IPO for outstanding debt servicing, which stood nearly at Rs 18,000 crore as of January 31, 2018. Kotak Mahindra Capital, CLSA India, JM Financial and Morgan Stanley India are lead bankers to the IPO. The real estate developer is yet to take a call on the timing of the issue.

Bajaj Energy

Bajaj Energy received Sebi's go-ahead in last September to raise an estimated Rs 5,450 crore through an initial share-sale offer. Bajaj Energy's initial public offer (IPO) comprises fresh issue of shares aggregating up to Rs 5,150 crore and an offer for sale up to Rs 300 crore by Bajaj Power Ventures, that currently owns 100% stake. As per company's RHP, it intends to utilise the proceeds from the IPO to purchase 6,99,36,900 equity shares of Lalitpur Power Generation Company from Bajaj Power Ventures and Bajaj Hindustan Sugar for Rs 4,972 crore, and the remaining amount will be utilised for general expenses.

Barbeque Nation

The initial public offer (IPO) of the casual dining restaurant chain Barbeque Nation Hospitality comprises fresh issue of shares worth Rs 275 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 98,22,947 equity shares. Through the IPO, the company's promoter, CX Partners plans to sell partial stake in the casual dining chain. Ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's investment firm Alchemy Capital holds 2.05% stake in the company. IIFL Securities Limited, Axis Capital Limited, Ambit Capital Private Limited, and SBI Capital Markets Limited are the book running lead managers to the issue. The restaurant chain also might consider a pre-IPO placement of up to Rs 150 crore. The company will utilise the proceeds of the issue to repay an outstanding borrowing of Rs 205 crore in part or full and for general corporate purposes.

IREDA

Integrated Renewable Energy Development Agency ( IREDA) received the final nod for an IPO from SEBI in September last year. The 100% govt-owned entity is eyeing for a stake sale of around Rs 700 to Rs 750 crore. The IPO is likely to be launched in September this year.

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved the listing of IREDA in June 2017. Under the listing proposal, IREDA will issue fresh 13.90 crore shares, increasing the paid-up share capital of the company from Rs 784 crore to Rs 923 crore. At present, the company has 78.46 crore equity shares. IREDA is registered as a non-banking financial company with RBI.

LIC

The listing of LIC is expected to be the country's largest-ever in terms of market capitalisation along with Reliance Industries, TCS and HDFC Bank. LIC IPO is likely to be held in the second half of this fiscal.

Modi government in Budget 2020 had proposed to sell a part of its holding in LIC through an initial public offering (IPO), in a move to fetch a valuation of around Rs 8-10 lakh crore.

Angel Broking

The brokerage firm earlier had filed its draft papers with the regulator on September 5, 2018, and received SEBI's approval in July 2019. The IPO, that includes a fresh issue of shares and an offer for sale, comprises equity shares of the face value of Rs 10 each of the company aggregating up to Rs 600 crore.

Shyam Steel

After approaching SEBI in June last year, the company received its IPO approval from the market regulator in September 2019.

Its IPO consists of a fresh issue of up to Rs 200 crore and an offer for sale of up to 66.70 lakh shares. The OFS comprises up to 11.60 lakh shares by the promoter and up to 55.09 lakh shares by other shareholders, as per the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP).

EESL

Energy Efficiency Services (EESL) is planning its initial public offering at Rs 5,000 crore. The state-run firm is a joint venture (JV) set up by four companies - NTPC, Rural Electrification Corp, Power Finance Corp (PFC), and Power Grid Corp. of India. As per media reports, the company plans to utilise the proceeds from the listing to lease electric vehicles (EVs) and install smart metres to measure power consumption, the report said. The company has been valued at around Rs 5,000 crore by financial services company Investec. As per Saurabh Kumar, managing director of EESL, the firm is expected to post a profit of around Rs 200 crore on revenue of Rs 4,000 crore this year.
Respada Global Healthcare Summit Covid-19 is a pivotal moment defining future trends in healthcare and this summit is an opportunity for innovators, front-line workers, investors and policymakers to take a closer look at the changing healthcare landscape.

A Global Healthcare Summit with pioneers and leaders in the healthcare industry will take place on 30 July 2020. This virtual event is organized by Respada, an invitation only niche platform providing private market opportunities to the ultra-affluent.

Robert Bollinger, Founder and Director, John Hopkins Universitys Center for Clinical Global Health Education will be delivering the keynote address on Grand Challenges in Public Health Policy. In his speech, Bollinger will address the challenges faced by global leaders at the time of Covid-19 and give insight into critical decisions that followed the pandemic. He will also illustrate key opportunities as well as crossroads for public-private partnerships in the light of Covid-19.

The summit will consist of two panels and the first panel on Healthcare Technology Trends will focus on topical issues such as contact-tracing, telehealth and adoption of health technology that leapfrogged in 2020. The second panel on Drug Development Landscape will discuss the impact of Covid-19 on the shifting landscape of biopharma firms.

Ten thought leaders from across the globe including Reid Maclellan, MD, Founder and CEO, Cortina Health, Fai Poon, President, Quacell Biotechnology Ltd., Uzma Sayed, MD, President, Align Us and Lyle Berkowitz, MD, CEO, Back9 Healthcare Consulting, Jonathan Larsen, Chairman and CEO, Ping An Global Voyager Fund, Samoon Ahmad, MD, Bellevue Medical Center, Reid Rubsamen, MD, Flow Pharma and David Kerwar, Chief Product Officer, Mount Sinai Health System, will be members of the panel.

John Prince, CEO, Respada who is also a panelist says, Covid-19 is a pivotal moment defining future trends in healthcare and this summit is an opportunity for innovators, front-line workers, investors and policymakers to take a closer look at the changing healthcare landscape.

A media briefing session is scheduled for 29 July 2020 at 10 AM ET and Respada invites friends from media to participate in this session. Please click here to RSVP.

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North Wales bakery firm secures lucrative deal in the Middle East

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jul 28th, 2020

A North Wales bakery firm has struck gold securing a three month contract to supply a supermarket chain in Qatar.

Denbighshire-based Henllan Bread achieved the deal after joining their first virtual trade webinar during lockdown with hopes of moving into other regions.

Online meetings have become the new norm during the Covid-19 pandemic, and have been explored by food and drink companies as a new way of expanding export markets, with the help of the Welsh Government.

Located in Denbigh, Henllan Bread carries out deliveries of bread, cakes and pies six days a week around north and mid Wales, as well as the Shropshire borders and the Wirral.

The company has also exported products across the Atlantic to the USA and as far as the Middle East.

Having had products already listed in the Qatar region, Ed Moore, director of Henllan Bread, joined his first Food and Drink Wales Export Club webinar in June.

He said: The Qatar webinar was my first as part of the export club. The speakers were knowledgeable and for any business with an export plan these events are a well worth exercise.

Joining an export clubs virtual webinar means that producers like us are still able to connect and start conversations with buyers all over the world. It is a great tool as I can join calls wherever or whenever I want.

On this occasion I was able to connect with the general manager of a major supermarket chain after the webinar which has led to securing an order which is great news.

Now our cakes, the Welsh collaboration cake range and our popular sandwich range, will be in store in Qatar from this Saturday. It will be a 12 week trial but we are hoping to secure more in the Middle East region going forward.

The number of people taking part in the webinars has risen since the pandemic started in March.

They offer an opportunity to meet with prospective buyers, distributors and importers in order to develop business relationships.

The Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths said: This is a wonderful way for many of our food and drink companies to showcase their products and capabilities, whilst sharing information in a format that is suited to the current climate.

In these uncertain times it has been crucial to think of different ways to connect people, and our webinars have given businesses the platform to communicate with buyers and suppliers from all over the world.

Wales is open for business and with our programme of events supporting the food and drink sector, they can look at different markets and channels available.

Our aim is to support those businesses who are exporting, and help them understand the obstacles, inspire them and make the most of all the possible markets available so businesses are in a better place after lockdown.

The Henllan Bakery case is a great example of how to use the webinars to your advantage and connect with international buyers across the world.

Even though we cant take our producers internationally we are still delivering opportunities for them.
Department of Defense Education Activity parents have two additional days to decide whether to send their children to school in person next month or enroll them in virtual learning for at least a semester.

DoDEA has extended the deadline for signing students up for virtual learning to July 30. The option is being made available to any student concerned about the risks of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as those with health vulnerabilities, according to DoDEA officials.

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The DoD is planning for all students to begin school in their local classrooms between Aug. 17 and Sept. 1, depending on location.

Schools will open contingent on the force health protection status of local installations. Under Health Protection Conditions Alpha and Bravo, students will report to their schools. Under HPCON Charlie or higher, school buildings will be closed and students will receive instruction from their teachers remotely.

When the school year starts, students in traditional classrooms can expect schools to be frequently cleaned and sanitized, according to DoDEA guidance, and desks are to be placed at least six feet apart, if an installation is under HPCON Bravo.

Students will be expected to practice social distancing and must wear face coverings when physical distancing is "difficult." Staff also should wear face masks per the guidance, but they are not required.

For those selecting the virtual learning option, school begins Aug. 24. Students will receive instruction from a school established by DoDEA that is independent of their local classrooms, and their experience will remain the same regardless of local health conditions.

The virtual school will have its own staff and instructors, and students will work with teachers -- and parents -- to ensure that they are accomplishing the work.

Students "will be able to access the instructional content and assignments 24/7, allowing for student scheduling flexibility" while teachers will provide regular office hours and ongoing support and engagement as needed, according to DoDEA.

But there are many questions about what services will be supported and how learning will take place, according to military parents facing the decision.

In a statement to parents, DoDEA Director Tom Brady encouraged them to choose the in-school option, saying classroom instruction is the "optimal environment for most of our military-connected students."

"Restoring teaching and learning to the familiar environments of our classrooms provides students with stability and continuity. Face-to-face instruction and the routines of school add significantly to success and growth for all students," Brady said.

Still, if they have concerns, virtual learning is available through DoDEA, as well as independent home schooling.

The union that represents DoDEA teachers has started encouraging parents to choose the virtual learning option for their children. According to a post on its Facebook page, the

Federal Education Association lacks confidence in DoDEA's ability to safely reopen schools under current conditions.

In a statement, FEA President Brian Chance said DoDEA's precautions are "completely unrealistic."

"DoDEA expects teachers to somehow clean every surface within a classroom while simultaneously educating children," he wrote. "DoDEA is refusing to require students to wear masks and is instead expecting children as young as five to remain seated and a safe distance from each other throughout the day. How can a teacher safely interact with a child if that child is not wearing a mask?"

FEA's director for stateside DoDEA schools was more blunt.

"DoDEA's plan to reopen its schools for in-person learning is a disaster waiting to happen!" Jane Loggins said. "DoDEA needs to immediately switch to a remote opening of all schools and maintain remote operation until such time as the COVID threat rescinds in the communities around DoDEA schools, adequate protective equipment and cleaning plans can be guaranteed at all schools, and testing with fast, reliable results becomes readily available."

Parents say the decision is not easy. In some places in Europe, for instance, schools are not telling parents the exact protocols they plan to follow until after they know how many students choose virtual learning or parents inform the DoDEA that they plan to homeschool.

"The lack of answers and unrealistic measures being taken did not exude confidence on [my children's] behalf," a mom wrote on the FEA page.

In other areas, like Beaufort, South Carolina, where installations are at different HPCON levels, parents still don't know whether they have the option to enroll their children at the brick-and-mortar school.

During a question-and-answer session hosted by DoDEA Southeast District last week, administrators said they understood the issue has come up and officials are "working with installation commanders" for additional guidance.

"I am sorry, but that is not a proper answer," wrote one frustrated parent during the session.

The DoDEA operates 160 schools in 11 countries, as well as Guam and Puerto Rico, serving more than 69,000 students.

The activity began closing in late winter in response to the spreading pandemic. Schools in Italy were closed Feb. 24, followed by South Korea and Bahrain on Feb. 26. Schools in the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe, Turkey, Japan and the U.S. closed in March.

Officials announced in May that the schools would remain closed until the end of the school year. The DoDEA has been offering online courses during the summer for some students.

More than 36,600 personnel, dependents and DoD employees have tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus since February and 3,417 dependents -- spouses, retiree family members and children -- have contracted it, according to the DoD. Three military personnel and seven dependents have died.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

Related: DoDEA Gives Students on Military Bases a Break on Grades
Three new studies presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC), which runs July 27 to 31, 2020, suggest that getting a pneumonia vaccine or the annual flu shot could lower the risk of Alzheimer's disease in seniors.

In the first of the three studies reported at AAIC 2020, researchers at the McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston looked at data on 9,066 Americans. They found that getting just one flu vaccination was linked with a 17 percent reduction in the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease. Consistently getting an annual flu shot lowered the rates by a further 13 percent. The team also found that patients who got their first flu shot at a younger age, age 60, benefited from bigger risk reductions than those who got their first flu shot at age 70.

In the second study, a team from Duke University Social Science Research Institute examined possible links between the pneumonia vaccine and Alzheimer's risk. After looking at 5,146 participants they found that receiving the vaccine between the ages of 65 and 75 reduced the risk of developing Alzheimer's by 25 to 30 percent, even after accounting for other potential factors such as sex, education, and smoking status, and by up to 40 percent if the subject did not have a certain gene that has been linked to pneumonia risk.

The third study, by the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, didn't look at vaccinations to prevent infection, but 1,496,436 aged over 65 who had visited the hospital with an infection. The team found that people with both dementia and an infection died at a 6.5 times higher rate compared with people who had neither dementia or an infection, while those who had an infection but not dementia had a 3-fold increased risk.

"With the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines are at the forefront of public health discussions. It is important to explore their benefit in not only protecting against viral or bacterial infection but also improving long-term health outcomes," said Maria C. Carrillo, PhD, Alzheimer's Association chief science officer.

"It may turn out to be as simple as if you're taking care of your health in this way -- getting vaccinated -- you're also taking care of yourself in other ways, and these things add up to lower risk of Alzheimer's and other dementias," she added. "This research, while early, calls for further studies in large, diverse clinical trials to inform whether vaccinations as a public health strategy decrease our risk for developing dementia as we age."

A large review of 243 observational prospective studies and 153 randomised controlled trials published earlier in July in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry also identified ten risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, including diabetes, poor body mass index (BMI), reduced education, high blood pressure in midlife, low blood pressure, head trauma, high levels of homocysteine, less cognitive activity, stress and depression.
Area Realtors are struggling to find homes for people coming from New York City who have $2 million in cash, while public school enrollment is near level with last year, a conundrum discussed at a Tourism and Economic Development Advisory Committee, [TEDAC], meeting on Thursday, July 23.

There is a lot of wealth coming here  tremendous for New Canaan and for the state. There is a lot of cash buyers. Melissa Rwambuya, president of the New Canaan Board of Realtors, said at the meeting.

It is really tough to be a buyers agent right now. It is incredibly frustrating. I have cash buyers that would pay up to $2 million and they just cant find anything, Rwambuya said.

Though the town is seeing a dramtic influx, New Canaan Public School enrollment has increased by only 10 students since June 28, more than last year, bringing the total to 4,194 students enrolled for the upcoming school year, Director of Human Resources Darlene Pianka said at a recent Board of Education meeting.

William Raveis / Contributed photo

I am seeing on a daily basis is that stuff [inventory] is going in one day. It is going above asking. There are multiple offers. It is going to take time for all of this to close and for all of us to calibrate what all the new pricing is. But, I do think it is going to be very good for the New Canaan economy, Rwambuya said.

Certainly due to COVID, I have been busier this summer, Stephanie Radman, a town greeter, said.

I was just wondering where are all these people going to school, Radman said.

It is perplexing to me that there are tons of homes selling to families, but they are not enrolling their children, here we are July 23, said Radman who mentioned she has greeted 3,200 families in her 11 years on the job.

Maybe I can address that because I have some insight, Rwambuya said. Most of these people from New York City are already enrolled in private schools in the city and they have already paid their $60 grand for next year, she said.

The schools are offering online learning. So I think there is still the holdover and these people do believe that maybe they are going to go back to New York City next year, for some time, and they dont want to lose those coveted spaces in the private schools, Rwambuya said.

What we are seeing is a lot of our new members are young families and a lot of their kids arent even in kindergarten yet, Victoria Merwin, of the New Canaan Newcomers Club, said.

I would say the majority of our newest families are in that young preschool age, she added.

I do think all of these renters and new residents.will become permanent residents of New Canaan so I would see a major spike the following year rather than this September, Rwambuya said.

TEDAC Chairman Tucker Murphy asked, Do you think they will do a full year?

Again their kids are still enrolled in these prestigious schools, so maybe they [their parents] are thinking their New Canaan home, that they just purchased, is a weekend home. If things change dramatically in January they will go back.

A lot of these people held on to the residences in the city, Rwambuya said.

I truly believe that once you live in New Canaan and you live in this community, you are not going to go back, she said.

Every day I am showing houses, and theres just not a lot of inventory and a ton of demand, Rwambuya said.

Definitely a lot more sales going on, so I went back to look at property transfers for the last five years, Radman said.

During the spring and summer months, I was surprised, she said, to see there were more transfers in 2017 than in 2020. This year there were 106 transfers during the warmer months, and in 2017, there were 113 she said.

I was shocked, she said.

I do think the numbers that you are talking about are really lagging, what I am seeing on a daily basis is that stuff is going in one day, with multiple offers, Rwambuya said.
New Delhi:

Brigadier, Northern Command, S Gotra said India Army launched a counter offensive along the LoC in retaliation to yesterdays offensive in Machhil sector of Kashmir.

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Army launched a counter offensive against Pakistan along the LoC on Wednesday, three days after Indian soldiers were killed, with body of one of them being mutilated in a cross-LoC attack.

2) Live: PM Modi must address note ban issue in Parliament, demands opposition during protest

The Opposition parties on Wednesday staged a combined protest against the government over demonetisation drive by forming a giant human chain outside the Parliament raising slogans and carrying placards demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modis presence in the House.

3) Mulayam to launch Partys poll campaign from Quami Ekta Dals bastion Ghazipur

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav will formally launch the party's election campaign with his first rally at Ghazipur on Wednesday.

4) Watch: No service charges on e-transactions through mobile phones, says Shaktikanta Das

To boost cash flow to agri sector and ease farmers' problem facing acute cash-crunch during Rabi crop sowing season, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das briefed media on new schemes by government after demonetisation exercise to help farmers.

5) Malayalam star Mohanlal faces flak for supporting Centre's demonetisation move in blog

Malayalam actor Mohanlal's latest blog on demonetisation is making headlines after he has made a comparison between queues outside the ATM and liquor outlets.





















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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 20:29:34|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the opening ceremony of the fifth annual meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, July 28, 2020. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for making the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) a new platform that promotes development for all its members and facilitates the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Xi made the remarks when addressing via video link the opening ceremony of the fifth annual meeting of the multilateral development bank.

He called on efforts to make the AIIB a new type of multilateral development bank that promotes development across the world, a new type of development platform progressing with the times, a new type of high-performance institution for international cooperation and a new paradigm of multilateral cooperation.

The AIIB, proposed by Xi in late 2013, was officially launched in January 2016.

"The initiative is designed to develop infrastructure and connectivity in Asia and deepen regional cooperation for shared development," Xi said.

From the 57 founding members to today's membership of 102 spanning the six continents of Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, South America and Oceania, the AIIB has grown from strength to strength and provided nearly 20 billion U.S. dollars in infrastructure investment to its members.

"With more good friends and partners getting on board for higher-quality cooperation, the AIIB has established itself in the world as a new type of professional, efficient and clean multilateral development bank," said Xi.

Stressing that the global response to COVID-19 has made it clear that mankind rise and fall together in a community with a shared future, Xi said that "mutual support and cooperation in solidarity are the only way for mankind to overcome crises."

He called on countries to pursue more inclusive global governance, more effective multilateral institutions, and more robust regional cooperation to address issues emerging in the course of economic globalization.

The AIIB should commit itself to serving the development needs of all its members and providing more high-quality, low-cost and sustainable investment for both traditional and new types of infrastructure, said Xi.

"This will give renewed impetus to economic and social development in Asia and beyond," he said.

Xi called on the AIIB to constantly update its development philosophy, business model and institutional governance and provide flexible and diverse development financing products, so as to help enhance connectivity, promote green development and boost technological advance.

Moreover, Xi called for ensuring high standard and high quality in the development of the AIIB in order to make the bank a new type of high-performance institution for international cooperation.

He also suggested the AIIB stay open and inclusive to become a new paradigm of multilateral cooperation.

China always supports and adheres to multilateralism, and pursues development with the rest of the world in the spirit of openness and mutually-beneficial cooperation, said Xi.

"China will continue working with other members to support the AIIB and make it a success, and contribute more to the global response to risks and challenges and the pursuit of shared development," he said. Enditem
The infant required intensive care but made a full recovery in three weeks, after which she and the mother were discharged in June.

Doctors in Pune have confirmed that it is possible for a pregnant woman with a COVID-19 infection to transmit the virus to her child through the placenta. This came after the first documented case of vertical transmission (from mother to child) was documented in a Pune hospital, with the infant showing a severe case of the illness.

The first COVID-positive birth in the country was a baby girl, born to a 22-year-old mother at the BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital on 27 May, as per a report in Hindustan Times. The infant required intensive care but made a full recovery in three weeks, after which she was discharged in June.

The newborn and mother were isolated at birth, after the mother was thought to have contracted COVID-19, according to a Times of India report. The baby, too, appeared to have severe signs of the infection, including a fever, lethargy and abnormal blood parameters that suggested inflammation.

"The baby required intensive care in terms of high flow oxygen support for a week but recovered completely over three weeks. Both the woman and infant were discharged upon recovery 21 days after the delivery, the hospitals paediatrician Dr Aarti Kinikar told TOI.

Researchers from the BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital reported that they found proof that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was transmitted from mother to child through the placenta. The placenta is the physical link between the mother's uterus and the growing foetus through which the mother's blood is filtered and essential nutrition passes into the amniotic fluid that surrounds the foetus.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in an April advisory, pointed to emerging evidence that suggested a pregnant woman can transmit the coronavirus infection to her unborn baby. The release highlight that it is still unclear what proportion of COVID-19 pregnancies affect a foetus, and that vertical transmission from mother to foetus was a probability that is still being studied. The guidance on how to manage COVID-19 in pregnant women also followed.

Scientists have pointed out that vertical infection is well-documented in other viral epidemics, like in HIV and Zika virus infections. However, in the case of COVID-19, there is a lack of scientific literature to validate the probability of vertical transmission.

The global research community pegged this form of transmission as unlikely and rare, but possible. There have also been other cases of 'transplacental' vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from mother to child. Many cases in which the foetus appeared to have antibodies, without the mother testing positive for coronavirus have also been reported.

This points to uncertainty about how a foetus is infected, and under what conditions a COVID-19-positive mother can pass on the infection to her foetus.
Last month, US president Donald Trump signed into law a bill allowing him to impose sanctions on Chinese officials involved in the mass incarceration of more than 1m Uighurs and members of other largely Muslim minorities in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang.

The bipartisan Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 (UHRPA) condemned the abuses and called on the Chinese authorities to close their vocational education centres in the region immediately, ensure respect for human rights, and allow people living in China to re-establish contact with family, friends, and associates outside the country.

In theory, Trump could show genuine global leadership by implementing the act vigorously. Researchers in many countries have reported that, in addition to detention, Uighurs are being subjected to torture, forced labour, and sterilisation.

Two Uighur groups have accused the Chinese authorities of physical and cultural genocide in a complaint filed with the International Criminal Court.

Author Anne Applebaum has compared Western indifference to what is happening in Xinjiang today with the willful determination of European governments and the Vatican to ignore the famine Joseph Stalin engineered in Ukraine in 1932-33, and the Nazi concentration camps a decade later.

One might add more recent examples to the list.

Viewed against this background, the United States willingness to condemn Chinas behaviour and impose costs for it, even if only with individual sanctions, is a step in the right direction.

Moreover, this step might well gain the attention of Muslims in countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, and Turkey.

The Pakistani and Indonesian governments are willing to play by Chinese rules in order to secure investment; Pakistan signed a letter last year defending Chinas treatment of Uighurs, while the Indonesian government says that it will not meddle in the internal affairs of China.

Turkey initially offered Uighurs asylum in the 1950s when Chinese communists took over Xinjiang.

Today, Turkish police are reportedly arresting Uighur activists and sending them without explanation to deportation centres, sometimes for months.

In this context, a broad US-led effort to hold the Chinese government even partly to international account for its treatment of Uighurs  particularly at a time when America is having to reckon with its own current and past racist crimes  could mark an important turning point.

At the very least, it would remind China that the world is watching.

Sadly, Trumps actions will likely convince Muslims only of the depths of his hypocrisy. Trump signed the UHRPA on the same day that allegations contained in his former national security adviser John Boltons new book were flooding the airwaves.

According to Bolton, Trump was not merely indifferent toward Uighurs human rights, but actively encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping to build concentration camps to hold them.

Then there are Trumps own Muslim travel bans. The initial ban, issued in January 2017, barred all refugees and immigrants from several predominantly Muslim countries from entering the US; the measure was struck down by the courts and then revised several times until it passed constitutional muster.

Since then, numerous stories have emerged demonstrating the devastating and potentially life-threatening impact of these restrictions on refugees, Muslims, and non-Muslims living in the designated countries.

One of those affected is Afkab Hussein, a former Somali refugee now living in Columbus, Ohio. Afkab has been waiting since 2015 for his wife and young children to join him in the US, but Trumps bans have prevented them from doing so.

Trumps support for a law that calls on the Chinese authorities to permit re-establishment of contact between people in China and outside the country, therefore, rings hollow.

The UHRPA also accuses the Chinese government of using wide-scale, internationally-linked threats of terrorism as a pretext to justify pervasive restrictions on and serious human rights violations against Uighurs and others in Xinjiang.

But Trumps executive orders seeking to bar Muslims from entering the US included similar clauses.

His first executive order cited the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US as a justification for banning refugees and immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, despite the absence of evidence that citizens of any of these countries, much less refugees, carried out the attacks.

Subsequent iterations of the ban continued to cite terrorism as a rationale. In practice, however, the Trump administration has merely blocked family members from joining loved ones in the US, and reduced admissions of vulnerable refugees to historically low levels.

The tension between Trumps belated embrace of Uighur rights and his all-too-evident dislike of Muslims (unless they are Saudi princes) raises the deeper question of who the ultimate audience is for Americas  or any countrys  foreign policy.

Ordinary Muslims can have no doubt about how Trump feels about them, no matter what he might say to their governments. They only have to follow his Twitter feed or watch his press conferences.

Trump is the first US president to disdain normal processes for crafting and vetting official statements, preferring instead to engage directly with US voters and citizens of other countries via social media.

But although he has mobilised a large constituency, he has also succeeded in alienating large segments of the public in America and elsewhere.

His denigration of entire populations  such as calling Mexicans rapists or Muslims terrorists  resonate louder and longer than any official statements issued by the White House or the US State Department.

It remains to be seen whether those impressions will outlast Trumps presidency.

The US House of Representatives just passed the 'No Ban Act', which would repeal the Muslim travel ban and prevent the use of religious discrimination to bar immigrants.

And if a new US administration succeeds Trump following Novembers presidential election, it will have to address other countries governments and citizens with one voice  and without the glaring hypocrisy to which they have grown accustomed.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former director of policy planning in the US State Department (2009-11), is CEO of the think tank New America, Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, and the author of Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family.

Wardah Khalid, a foreign-policy analyst and activist, is a Security Fellow at the Truman National Security Project
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Thats partly just from all the evidence piling up on just how difficult it would be to do the hybrid model, Breymaier said. The logistics alone are mind-boggling. Remote is going to be the one thats least risky and most likely going to be the decision where Im not going to have to look back and say the decision I made caused harm to people.
Boris Johnsons government is dragging its feet when it comes to tackling racism and is failing to treat the problem as a top priority, the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has said.

Last month No 10 launched a review into race and ethnic disparities in response to the Black Lives Matter protests, sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in the US.

However, EHRC chairman David Isaac  set to leave his role next week  said there had been enough reviews into racial inequality, accusing ministers of failing to act on existing recommendations.

I do believe the government is dragging its feet, Mr Isaac told the BBC. They seek to understand it [racism] but are they taking action and is this a top priority? I dont believe so.

The time for recommendations, in my view, is over  we know what needs to be done. Lets get on with it, he said, adding: A coherent race strategy is a top priority and I call upon the government to act urgently.

There have been several reviews into racial inequality in recent years  including the Lammy review into inequality in the criminal justice system and the McGregor-Smith review into inequality in the workplace.

Mr Isaacs said there were a lot of quick wins the government could implement immediately  including making it mandatory for companies to publish their ethnicity pay gap. In too many companies around the country there are not enough senior people of colour, he said.

The equalities minister Kemi Badenoch said Mr Isaacs remarks criticising the government were disappointing.

The Conservative MP told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: Its simply not true that the government is dragging its heels on this issue and I absolutely refute that.

She added: I have had several meetings with [Mr Isaac] and hes never raised that with me.

Black Lives Matter: London protests Show all 25 1 /25 Black Lives Matter: London protests Black Lives Matter: London protests Actor John Boyega speaks in Hyde Park at a Black Lives Matter protest. Demonstrations broke out across the US and world after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of a white police officer Rex Black Lives Matter: London protests Getty Black Lives Matter: London protests Getty Black Lives Matter: London protests Reuters Black Lives Matter: London protests AP Black Lives Matter: London protests AP Black Lives Matter: London protests AP Black Lives Matter: London protests Rex Black Lives Matter: London protests AFP via Getty Black Lives Matter: London protests EPA Black Lives Matter: London protests EPA Black Lives Matter: London protests AP Black Lives Matter: London protests EPA Black Lives Matter: London protests AFP via Getty Black Lives Matter: London protests AP Black Lives Matter: London protests EPA Black Lives Matter: London protests EPA Black Lives Matter: London protests EPA Black Lives Matter: London protests EPA Black Lives Matter: London protests AP Black Lives Matter: London protests EPA Black Lives Matter: London protests AP Black Lives Matter: London protests AFP via Getty Images Black Lives Matter: London protests Getty Images Black Lives Matter: London protests PA

Ms Badenoch claimed the government had carried out 16 of the recommendations made in the Lammy review. People act as if none of this work is happening, she said. There is so much that has been done.

The minister claimed the review into race and ethnic disparities was worthwhile because it would look at the underlying causes of inequality.

Mr Johnson was criticised for saying he wanted to change the narrative and stop the sense of victimisation when he launched the new review in June. Labours shadow equalities secretary Marsha de Cordova said the remarks were condescending and designed to let himself and his government off the hook.
IRVINE, Calif., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The answer to this question is a resounding yes ! CEOs CFOs / Controllers /Any Officer /Accounting Employees of a Company can be, and often are, held accountable for tax fraud or other tax crimes that occur under their watch or through their participation. The behavior will have to have been willful on the part of the Corporate Officer or Accounting Employee like instructing a subordinate to commit tax fraud or by directly committing it themselves via "cooking the books", for it constitutes a chargeable tax crime. The prosecution may also be able to prove its case under a theory of "willful blindness." The concept of willful blindness is that even if you did not technically know that tax fraud was being committed, you should have known better due to your position and background and intentional avoidance of the facts.

In 2015, the former CEO of Arrow Trucking Company was sentenced to 7 and a half years in jail for tax fraud.

In 2019, the former CEO of a Pennsylvania oil and gas company was charged with and eventually pleaded guilty to tax evasion and the related tax-adjacent crime of bank fraud.

In July 2020, the CEO of a McCandless, PA cleaning company was sentenced to two years in prison for tax evasion that occurred under his watch at his company.

The best thing you can do if you are a Corporate Officer or Accounting Employee who knows they have exposed themselves to potential criminal tax liability is to hire a skilled Criminal Tax Defense Lawyer like those at the Tax Law Offices of David W. Klasing before a tax audit or criminal tax investigation begins. We can try to get you and your company back into compliance through a voluntary disclosure program. If you have already been charged, our lawyers can work to negotiate a pre indictment disposition of your case or fight for a not guilty verdict at trial.

To set up a consultation, call our office today at (800) 681-1295 or book ONLINE today.

See the full version of this article Here

Public Contact: Dave Klasing Esq. M.S.-Tax CPA, [email protected]

SOURCE Tax Law Offices of David W. Klasing, PC
Listen to Outbreak Alabama: Stories from a Pandemic, above.

In a special episode, AL.com reporter Sarah Whites-Koditschek, was in Selma for the John Lewis memorial where he crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge one final time before the Alabama-born congressman is laid to rest.

The civil-rights leader, who had served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgias 5th congressional district since 1987, died on July 17. He was 80.

In 1965, Lewis led the Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, which resulted in an incident known as Bloody Sunday, as armed Alabama police attacked unarmed civil rights demonstrators, Lewis among them.

On Sunday, Lewis' body was taken across the Edmund Pettus Bridge one final time, with crowds lining the streets of downtown Selma to honor the late congressman and civil rights activist.

AL.coms Sarah Whites-Koditschek was there. We spoke about what she saw and heard at the memorial for late Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis in Selma, including the precautions taken to avoid the spread of COVID-19 and those who showed up from near and far to pay their respects.

Outbreak Alabama will release two or three episodes per week, chronicling the experiences of those directly impacted by COVID-19s spread, including health care professionals, business owners, city leaders, artists, AL.com reporters and many others.

If you or anyone you know is affected by coronavirus and want to share your story, please email bflanagan@al.com. For all of our coverage on the outbreak and how it continues to impact Alabama, visit AL.com/coronavirus.

Listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Acast or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like the show, please rate it and write us a review. Thank you for listening.

More from Outbreak Alabama:

A restaurant celebrates 40 years, despite the pandemic

Moderating a COVID-19 Facebook group

The scramble to reopen schools

Yall have to wear a mask

COVID-19s psychological toll

Setting the wrong records

What its like to have coronavirus

Its not about you

The death rate

Its on us, yall

The unemployment crisis

Trending the wrong direction

Do we even want a football season?

Where is God right now?

Are you ready for concerts again?

CNNs Kaitlan Collins on covering COVID-19 and Trump

Protesting during a pandemic

Cases are surging in Tuscaloosa

Nick Saban steps it up

Whats next for schools?

The spike in Montgomery

Astonishing disparities in the rural South

Where is the nursing home data?

Is it a mistake to reopen now?

Whiter Thomas on staying creative during the pandemic

Our successes and failures so far

The return of retail

A barbers dilemma

Is it really time to reopen Alabama?

A coronavirus survivors message to the rest of us

Ivey not ready to reopen just yet

Crime in the age of coronavirus

What role do our churches play?

The absence of sports

Learning from a distance

Walt Maddox on leading Tuscaloosa through coronavirus

Social distancing, or not

Coronavirus early impact on musicians

Alabama restaurants
PALO ALTO, Calif., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sciton Inc., a leading manufacturer of medical and aesthetic lasers and light source technologies, today announced that it was awarded the Great Place to Work Certification. Using validated employee feedback gathered with Great Place to Work's rigorous, data-driven methodology, Certification confirmed 9 out of 10 Sciton employees have a consistently positive experience at Sciton. Great Place to Work is the global authority on workplace culture, employee experience, and the leadership behaviors proven to deliver market-leading revenue and increased innovation.

"We are thrilled to be recognized as a Great Place to Work," says Aaron Burton, CEO at Sciton. "We make our employees experience a priority every day. It means a lot that our employees have reported a consistently positive experience with their co-workers, their leaders, and their jobs. This is important to us because we put our employees first, and we know that when our employees enjoy what they do, they are more productive, produce better results, and keep wowing our customers."

Overall, 88% of employees at Sciton, Inc. say it is a great place to work compared to 59% of employees at a typical U.S.-based company. Sciton received high marks in many areas, with the following categories scored exceptionally high: Intimacy 91% which measures employees enjoyment of deep interpersonal relationships their colleagues, Camaraderie 90% which measures satisfaction within working relationships, Pride 90% which measures a sense of fulfillment in their work, job, team, and the company's reputation in the greater community, Personal 90% how they view their individual contributions to the organization, Team 90% pride in their team's accomplishments and everyone's willingness to give extra for the team, and Justice 89% which measures employees belief that leadership promotes inclusive behavior, avoids discrimination, and is committed to justice.

Visit our certification site her Sciton Great Place to Work Certification Site

"We congratulate Sciton, on their Certification," said Sarah Lewis-Kulin, Vice President of Best Workplace List Research at Great Place to Work. "Organizations that earn their employees' trust create great workplace cultures that deliver outstanding business results."

ABOUT SCITON

Sciton, Inc., located in Palo Alto, California, is a totally employee-owned medical device company established in 1997 by co-founders Jim Hobart, Ph.D., and Dan Negus, Ph.D. Sciton is committed to providing best-in-class laser and light solutions for medical professionals who want superior durability, performance and value. Sciton offers aesthetic and medical devices for women's health, fractional and full-coverage skin resurfacing and skin revitalization, phototherapy, vascular and pigmentation lesions, scar reduction, acne, body contouring, and hair reduction. Sciton operates worldwide with direct sales forces in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, and distributor partners in more than 45 countries. For more information and a complete listing of Sciton systems, visit www.sciton.com.

ABOUT GREAT PLACES TO WORK

Great Place to Work is the global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, they have surveyed more than 100 million employees around the world and used those deep insights to define what makes a great workplace: trust. Great Place to Work helps organizations quantify their culture and produce better business results by creating a high-trust work experience for all employees. Emprising, their culture management platform, empowers leaders with the surveys, real-time reporting, and insights they need to make data-driven people decisions. Their unparalleled benchmark data is used to recognize Great Place to Work-Certified companies and the Best Workplaces in the US and more than 60 countries, including the 100 Best Companies to Work For and World's Best list published annually in Fortune. Everything they do is driven by the mission to build a better world by helping every organization become a Great Place to Work For All.

To learn more, visit greatplacetowork.com, listen to the podcast Better by Great Place to Work, and read "A Great Place to Work for All." Join the community on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Facebook: @ScitonInc / https://www.facebook.com/ScitonInc

Instagram: @Sciton_Inc / https://www.instagram.com/sciton_inc/

LinkedIn: @ScitonInc / https://twitter.com/sciton

SOURCE Sciton, Inc.

Related Links

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A Kuwaiti man has been arrested for slapping an Egyptian expat worker in the Gulf country where anti-expat sentiment is very becoming increasingly alarming.

The man, The New Arab reports, was filmed slapping the Egyptian cashier on the face at least three times, as a woman tried to intervene to stop the assault.

The Gulf country according to Egyptian authorities arrested the suspect. Egypts ministry of immigration and Egyptian affairs took charge of the incident and demanded the account.

Nabila Makram Abdel-Shahid, minister of state for immigration and Egyptian affairs abroad, contacted Ambassador Hisham Asran, consul general of Egypt in Kuwait, to follow up the position of the Egyptian who was assaulted by a citizen at work, the ministry said.

During the call, Ambassador Hisham Assran stressed that the incident is an individual and does not represent the strength of the bilateral relations between the two peoples and the stability of hundreds of thousands of Egyptian workers in the State of Kuwait.

The Egyptian according to the Kuwaiti activists was deterred by police to lodge a complaint against the Kuwaiti man.

Egyptian workers are reportedly victims of frequent racist attacks. The latest incident came in the backdrop of increasing anti-expat sentiment in the Arab Gulf country.

In May a renowned Kuwaiti snapchat influencer was condemned for launching a racist tirade against Egyptians in the Gulf state, calling them servants and hired workers, The New Arab reports.

Reem Al-Shammari branded Egyptians in Kuwait worst and dirtiest community and nothing more than servants. She also added that the Egyptians were only hired to serve Kuwaiti nationals.

You are only hired hands brought over here on contracts to serve us and then leave. Why dont you understand this? she said.

She went on accusing the state for making Egyptians they are equal partners in her home country.

In April, another Kuwaiti influencer, actress Hayat al-Fahad, 71 caused waves when she called on authorities to throw out expats amide the ongoing covid-19 pandemic in order to provide medical attention to Kuwaitis.

We are fed up. If we fall ill, there are no hospitals.

Why, if their countries do not want them, should we deal with them? Arent people supposed to leave during crises?

We should send them out put them in the desert. I am not against humanity, but we have reached a stage where were fed up.

The oil-rich country relies on expats workers for unskilled employments such as housekeeping and laboring. Foreigners account for 80 per cent of countrys entire population.
Everything seemed fine as Robert Smith visited his in-laws outside Hermiston. But about 15 minutes later, after hed returned to his home just up the road, his wife received the call from her mother.

Something was wrong with dad. They needed to come over. Quickly.
Any business conducting work near live powerlines must consider the risk they pose as part of its safety planning, says WorkSafe.

Logging company Mike Harris Earthmoving Limited was fined $100,000 at the Rotorua District Court on Friday, after a worker suffered burns from an electric shock that left them without full use of their right hand.

In November 2018, Mike Harris Earthmoving Limited was using a forwarder, a vehicle used to pick up and transport logs, at a Rotorua site when the forwarders crane stopped working.

The forwarder was then transported to an area on site to be repaired.

Once moved, the vehicle came in close enough contact with live powerlines for electricity to be conducted through the vehicle.

As a result a worker who was holding a rail on the side of the machine at the time suffered a serious electric shock.

Worksafe says the worker suffered full thickness burns to his right foot and had to have two of his toes amputated.

He also suffered full thickness burns to his right hand and has not been able to regain full use of his hand.

WorkSafes Acting Chief Inspector Danielle Henry says the incident left one person seriously injured but also put several others at serious risk.

This work should not have been carried out near live powerlines. Before beginning repairs the company should have considered proximity to the powerlines and the potential for worker injury if the machine came into contact with live electricity.

Mike Harris Earthmoving Limited didnt have an area designated for repairs. This is a reminder to all businesses that the risk of powerlines must be considered. This companys failure to do so has left a worker with life changing injuries.
Senate Republicans have unveiled their $1 trillion coronavirus relief plan as the virus continues to infect tens of thousands across the country every day. The bill includes another round of stimulus paychecks for Americans and also sets aside funding for small businesses, Covid-19 testing capacity and schools. Two companies have now begun the phase three trials of their respective vaccine candidates as Pfizer and Moderna race to introduce the first safe and effective vaccine to the market.
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Linkedin Inforial (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia  Tue, July 28, 2020 17:00 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669f6380 4 Inforial Free

Many people are exploring the possibilities of earning extra income from online trading. Many others, however, are still skeptical about the safety of online trading, suggesting that the falsehoods and misunderstandings about the activity need to be addressed and debunked.

One persistent myth about online trading is that it is scientifically unprecise and based on hunches and gut instincts only. To debunk this common misperception, one can simply consult an online trading platform or financial planner and will concede straight away that online trading is not rocket science but instead, is based on clear financial analytics and experience.

Anyone who is interested in online trading can be guided by consultants and financial planners who will help them devise an investment scheme upon their careful analysis of market conditions. The analysts will also assess the fundamentals of the companies in which a potential trader would like to invest to manage the risks of the investment.

Guided by these online platforms and financial planners, new traders can start to refine their own analytical skills in online trading, especially when they have a strong drive to get better at it.

To begin online trading safely and carefully, it is highly suggested to consult trusted digital trading platforms and analysts.

. (./.)

Binomo Indonesia is one such platform that can help budding traders earn some extra income through the online trading of currency exchange rates and shares of large companies. It provides high-quality access to the worlds financial markets and cooperates with customers all over the world.

To start, just download the Binomo application on Google PlayStore or Binomo APK from the platforms website. Once their account is created, users can start practicing on a demo account. Should they have any questions, a team of experienced consultants are ready to help via email or chats using the applications platforms.

The Binomo app is designed to make trading pleasant and convenient, regardless of ones level of experience. Beginners can get a free US$1,000 Binomo login demo account to practice their skills, with free training to improve their trading skills with the platform. The platform also provides round-the-clock trading, including in currencies and cryptocurrencies, equities and commodities as well as indices and over-the-counter trading transactions.

Users with any question about Binomos operations can easily access its support team, capable of speaking various languages, including Indonesian and English. A minimum deposit of $10 is required to start Binomo trading.

. (./.)
Oh, the classic sights of Rome: ancient Roman ruins, cobblestone streets, picture-perfect restaurants, quaint leather shops, and weed dispensaries.

Tourists in the Eternal City may be taken aback by a recent addition to the ancient cityscape: legal marijuana shops. Theyre hard to miss, with storefronts plastered with bright green marijuana-leaf decals and the occasional flashing LEGAL sign.

Despite appearances, Rome is no Amsterdam. In 2016, Law 242 was passed in Italy, legalising the sale of cannabis products with a low level of THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana. Thus, so-called cannabis light was born, and cannabis light dispensaries took Rome by storm.

Also read:

A brief history of Italys most powerful mobs

What is cannabis light?

Cannabis light is a strain of cannabis that has a very low level of THC. AP News aptly describes cannabis light as the decaf coffee of marijuana. Though it is marketed as a marijuana-style product, it is more closely related to hemp. The common differentiation between hemp and marijuana is found in the THC level, as they are both similar looking (and smelling) subspecies of the cannabis sativa plant. Hemp usually has around a 0.3% THC level, whereas marijuana THC levels range from 4% to 20%.

The common THC level of cannabis light is 0.2% to 0.6%.

In Italy, cannabis light is sold in a dried form that looks identical to marijuana-- so much so that it must be labelled as a collectors item to evade laws regarding the sale of marijuana, and every package comes with a not suitable for smoking sticker.

There are many strains of cannabis light, with various names, colors, and characteristics. In many ways, the culture surrounding cannabis light mimics that of typical marijuana counter-culture, with one key difference: cannabis light probably wont make you high.

Also read:

Why is cannabis light legal?

In 2016, Law 242 was passed to ease growing restrictions on industrial hemp farmers and encourage agricultural sustainability. Hemp cultivation is good for the environment for a variety of reasons: it grows quickly, requires little water, absorbs toxins and replenishes soil, and captures carbon dioxide more effectively than trees.

Hemp is a versatile plant that can be used to make food products, beauty products, clothing, paper, building supplies, and more. With the passing of Law 242, Italian lawmakers were setting the scene for a more environmentally-friendly agricultural landscape.

Heres where cannabis light comes into play: because hemp naturally contains trace amounts of THC, a very low-level of THC was declared acceptable by law. Law 242 declared that hemp was legal for production and sale, and farmers would not be penalised for growing hemp with a THC level up to 0.6%. The comical side effect of legalised hemp production was the cannabis light industry, an industry with all of the talk and none of the walk of illegal cannabis.

Also read:

Nonetheless, cannabis light took Rome, and all of Italy, by storm. Hundreds of companies have been created since 2016, selling cannabis light and cannabis flavored and themed items, such as energy drinks, T-shirts, candles, and pipes. Some Italians quit their jobs or ended their businesses to open cannabis light dispensaries. The cannabis light industry has generated an estimated 40 million euro in revenue. Labeled weak at best and useless at worst by customers, cannabis light and cannabis light dispensaries still managed to spark political backlash.

In 2019, cannabis light was put on trial at the urgency of conservative politicians who had a moral objection to the cannabis light industry. Matteo Salvini, the leader of the League political party, said, It is neither possible nor acceptable that in Italy there are 1,000 shops where there are drugs legally, in broad daylight.

Also read:

The Supreme Court ruled that cannabis light and other cannabis sativa derivatives in the form of flowers, buds, leaves, and oils, could not be sold unless they did not produce a narcotic effect and were clearly not meant for human consumption--a confusing ruling considering the nature of cannabis light. For now, the issue seems to be on hold, and cannabis light dispensaries can still be found all over central Rome and all of Italy.

Is Italy on track to legalise marijuana?

In late 2019, Italian courts ruled that cannabis could be grown domestically, but only in small amounts. As of 2020, marijuana is decriminalised for possession and legal for medical use, but it is still illegal to sell and grow on a large scale.

Despite the buzz surrounding cannabis light, it is unlikely that marijuana will be legalised in Italy in the near future due to pressure from conservative political parties, such as the League and Forza Italia.

Where are cannabis light dispensaries located?

Cannabis light dispensaries can be found all over central Rome, and all of Italy. Many are stationary shops, while others come in the form of discreet vending machines.
As the coronavirus crisis in Iran shows no sign of abating, the clerical rulers have to decide what to do with upcoming religious ceremonies that are highly important for the regime both ideologically and in terms of financial interests of hardliners.

As the mourning month of Muharram is approaching fast, medical and public health experts in Iran oppose busy religious congregations, while hardliners including those at the conservative-dominated Judiciary insist that religious gatherings should be held, albeit with a degree of care for safety of the congregants.

Speaking against the Ministry of Heath's attestation, Judiciary Spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said on Tuesday 28 July "Our faithful people can hold prayers and congregations while observing hygienic rules."

On the same day, Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi insisted that crowded Muharram rituals and mourning ceremonies should be held during the month which starts on 21 August.

This comes while Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raeesi said on Tuesday the ministry is against holding crowded congregations particularly indoors. He warned that not observing the preventive protocols will worsen the pandemic crisis.

Raeesi added that Iranians cannot observe all the religious rituals the same way they did in previous years. "Indoor congregations are strictly prohibited," he said.

Health Minister Saeed Namaki also called on everyone "to take coronavirus seriously."

The conflicting remarks come as the COVID-19 death toll is rising. Some 235 people died in Iran as a result of coronavirus infection on Monday. This includes Seyyed Javad Ayatollahi, the Friday Prayer Imam of Yazd in central Iran and Professor Badrozaman Qarib, a renowned woman of letters among many others.

The rising death toll which has offcially surpassed 16,000 has returned lockdown regulations to many places as 12 Provinces have declared a state of red alert and health warnings have been issued in another 13 provinces.

Earlier, President Hassan Rouhani had said in controversial remarks that "Mourning rituals should be held even in areas where red alert warnings have been issued." He further claimed that religious congregations have not led to the spread of COVID-19.

Rouhani's statement was strongly criticized and he was reminded that he called for shutting down the holy shrines in Qom and Mashad when the pandemic started.

Meanwhile, amid strong protests by traditional media and on social media, the Rouhani administration is adamant to hold the university entrance exams where millions of students have to mingle for a few days. However, despite the health risks, without entrance exams "the business of education" cannot continue in the next academic year that starts in late September when two million new students start spending money as an investment for their future.

Religious congregations in Muharram have strong political and financial significance for the government and its hardliner supporters. Financial considerations are also valid about university entrance exams.

Traditionally, the government sends hardliner insiders to all over the country to seize the opportunity of Muharram gatherings to spread the government's ideological message.

Observers have said on social media that tens of billions of rials are involved in holding religious rituals during Muharram. Just as one example, eulogists who mobilize crowds for mourning make between 20 to 30 million rials for a routine performance that lasts around an hour. It may not be significant when converted into U.S. dollars, but the amount is about twice as much a government employee would earn in a month.

Furthermore, organizations such as the Municipality of Tehran are known for spending hundreds of billions of rials during the month facilitating huge mourning rituals that need accommodation, transportation, and catering. Most of this money circulates among circles of hardliners in various neighborhoods.

Health authorities say rituals this year may be observed only "for short periods of time, along with social distancing and sanitization while everyone wears face masks." There are also hygienic concerns about the food that is usually offered to those who take part.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Javad Haji Ali Akbari the man in charge of holding Friday Prayer rituals in Iran said on Tuesday that after several months, Friday Prayers have been resumed in around 400 Iranian cities and town where there is no red alert.
Iraqs prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi said Monday he had ordered an investigation into the killing of two anti-government protesters, saying security forces were not authorised to fire a single bullet toward the demonstrators. Twenty-one protesters were also wounded in the overnight clashes.

Separately, four katyusha rockets landed in Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, which houses US-led coalition troops, according to three Iraqi security officials. One official said the rockets targeted a runway used by Iraqi helicopters, close to where American forces are present. One helicopter was damaged. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The violence comes after months of quiet in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and were an embarrassment to prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who has vowed to meet protester demands by holding early elections and investigating the death of hundreds of protesters at the hands of security forces in recent months.

Tensions between the security forces and the demonstrators soared late Sunday when dozens of protesters cut the road connecting two main intersections  Tayaran Square and Tahrir Square  in the capital Baghdad. Some burned tires while others chanted slogans about power cuts in the scorching summer months.

Iraq is facing electricity shortages amid searing summer temperatures that can top 50 degrees Celsius, or about 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

A senior Electricity Ministry official said the power supply fell short by 10,000 megawatts this summer, down 1,000 megawatts compared to last year, due to lack of maintenance in several power plants because of lack of of funds in state coffers. This has also slowed investment projects to add more power to Iraqs grid, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Every bullet directed our youth and our people while demanding their rights is a bullet directed at our dignity and principles, al-Kadhimi said in a televised speech Monday evening. He said he had ordered a probe and requested to have the facts before him within 72 hours.

Al-Kadhimi said there is no magic solution for Iraqs electricity problem, which is a result of decades of corruption and mismanagement and cannot be resolved overnight. He said his government was working on a solution, and reiterated his intention to pave the way for early elections in line with protesters demands.

In October, mass anti-government protests erupted in Baghdad and across Iraqs predominately Shiite south as tens of thousands of angry Iraqi youth took to the streets to decry rampant government corruption, unemployment and poor services, including electricity. Pressure from protests lead to the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi.

Since October, over 600 demonstrators have been killed during protests due to live fire and tear gas used by security forces. But al-Kadhimi, who was sworn in as prime minister in May, also has to cope with an unprecedented economic crisis spurred by falling oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic.

Iraqs health ministry has reported 110,032 cases, including 4,362 deaths.

The spread of the coronavirus had halted mass rallies and prompted most protesters to leave, with only a few remaining at the tent sit-in at Tahrir Square, once the epicentre of the protest movement.

Ali al-Bayati, a spokesman for the semi-official Independent High Commission for Human Rights, also said two protesters had been killed. The commission said their reports indicate live fire and pellet rifles were used to disperse protesters.

Earlier, Iraqi security officials said demonstrators had hurled firebombs and stones at the riot police, while rights monitors said security forces set fire to demonstrator tents at Tahrir Square.

A statement from the military spokesman Yahya Rasool said security forces had been given strict instructions not to use violence against peaceful protesters except in the event of extreme necessity. He said the events in Baghdad squares were unfortunate and that a probe was underway into what happened.

We are aware of the difficulties that our people are going through, Rasool said. This government, with its short life, is trying to address (them) under exceptional economic and health conditions, he said.

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New Delhi: Against the backdrop of New Delhis fresh ban on 47 clones of prohibited Chinese apps, Beijing said on Tuesday that it will take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies. Indias June 29 ban on 59 mobile apps with Chinese background, including WeChat, severely damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies, Chinese embassy spokesperson Ji Rong said in a statement.

The Indian government has the responsibility to protect the legitimate rights and interests of international investors in India, including Chinese businesses, in accordance with market principles, she added. The Chinese side has lodged solemn representation to the Indian side and asked the Indian side to correct its wrongdoings, Ji said, responding to a media query on whether WeChat was asked to stop providing services to its Indian users.

The ban orders for the Chinese apps and their clones are among a string of economic measures unveiled by the Indian government in the wake of the months-old border standoff between the two countries. There was no immediate reaction by Indian officials to the Chinese spokespersons comments.

Following the death of 20 Indian soldiers in a brutal clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), there were demands from the public and political parties for restrictions on trade ties with China.

Spokesperson Ji said the Chinese government consistently asks Chinese enterprises to abide by international rules and local laws and regulations when conducting external cooperation.

She added, Practical cooperation between China and India is mutually beneficial. Deliberate interference in such cooperation will not serve the interests of the Indian side. China will also take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.

Despite the June 29 ban, Indian users of WeChat were able to use the communication app till the weekend. When users sought to use the app this week, they received a message saying services were not available due to local restrictions.

On Monday, Indias information and technology ministry announced the fresh ban on 47 apps, most of them clones and variants of the apps banned in June. The total number of Chinese-origin mobile applications blocked is 106.

The government is also examining other Chinese apps for violating user privacy and national security.

...

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Health official: Omicron cases 'just skyrocketing here in the community'

As of Jan. 18, McLaren Northern Michigan had 23 COVID-19 inpatients at the Petoskey-based hospital, which included 10 in critical care units and 13 in non-critical care units.
UK Board 12th result 2020 DECLARED: UBSE has released the Class 12 board results today (Wednesday, 29 July) on ubse.uk.gov.in

UK Board 12th result 2020 Date and Time: The wait of around 1.35 lakh students in Uttarakhand has come to end as the Uttarakhand Board of Secondary Education (UBSE) has released the Class 12 board results today (Wednesday, 29 July) at 11 am.

The results are now available on the boards official website  ubse.uk.gov.in. The result were declared in the presence of state education minister Arvind Pandey and chairman of the board RK Kunwar.

Students can check their Class 12 exam results by entering their details in the widget below:

Steps to check UK Board Class 12th result 2020:

Step 1: Go to the official website - ubse.uk.gov.in

Step 2: On the homepage, click on the result tab

Step 3: You will be redirected to a new page, where you will have to choose UBSE 12th Result 2020

Step 4: Enter your roll number and other login credentials and press Submit

Step 5: Your result will be displayed on the screen. Download and take a printout for future reference.

The Class 12 exams began on 2 March and were to conclude on 25 March. However, some exams were postponed due to the nationwide coronavirus lockdown. UBSE then conducted the pending papers for Biology, Geography, Physics, Mathematics and Sociology between 22 and 24 June and the evaluation of answer sheets was completed by 15 July.

Students need to score at least 33 percent marks in each subject and obtain an aggregate score of 40 percent to pass in the exam. Last year, 73 percent students cleared the Class 12 exams.
The Rev. Al Sharpton was among dozens of mourners who on Monday attended the funeral service for Davell Gardner Jr., the adorable 22-month-old toddler who was tragically shot dead in his stroller by a stray bullet during a family cookout at a New York City playground.

Gwen Carr, the mother of slain Black man Eric Garner, who was killed by a police officers's chokehold in 2014, also attended the funeral service.

The family and loved ones of little Davell joined together to lay the child to rest at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, which sits just a mile away from Raymond Bush Playground in Brooklyn where the heartbreaking shooting happened on July 12.

Two men wearing masks were seen carrying a small casket, decorated with blue trimmings and a children's cartoon, into the venue as community members grieved outside.

Davell Gardner Sr. (left) sobbed during his sons funeral service on Monday only to be comforted by the Rev. Al Sharpton, who attended the service and gave a eulogy

The casket for 22-month-old Davell Gardner Jr. (pictured) was surrounded by flower bouquets and stuffed toys as dozens of family and community members gathered at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church on Monday to lay the child to rest

The casket of Davell Gardner Jr. is carried into Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, which sits just over a mile away from where the toddler was shot dead on July 12 by a stray bullet

Davell Gardner Jr, (pictured) was sitting in a stroller with his family outside of Raymond Bush Playground in Brooklyn this month when two suspects opened fire around 11:35pm

'This young boy deserves the same kind of attention that hopefully could shake up this city,' said Sharpton.

Sharpton gave an impassioned eulogy that cast blame on gun manufacturers, gun special interest groups, Republican politicians, as well as called for Brooklyn community members to stop a slew of gun violence that has put New York City on edge in recent weeks.

'So this is not new for us,' said Sharpton, referring to instances of gun violence in the city.

'But when I heard it was a one-year-old child...if nothing shakes this community to see this young baby - [with a] casket that doesn't even need pall bearers - this is a disgrace that gun manufacturers, gun distributors and those that are responsible need to have to deal with,' said Sharpton.

'These kids out here dont have gun manufacturing plants in Bed-Stuy, they dont make bullets, [gun distributors] inundate our communities with guns, and we cant even get a background check legislation passed.'

Rev Al Sharpton (pictured): ''But when I heard it was a one-year-old child...if nothing shakes this community to see this young baby - [with a] casket that doesn't even need pall bearers - this is a disgrace that gun manufacturers, gun distributors and those that are responsible need to have to deal with'

Rev Al. Sharpton said that little Davell Gardner Jr. is around his grandson's age and added that a similar incident could have happened to him

Pictured: The casket of Davell Gardner Jr. is visible at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church on Monday during the funeral service

Gardner Sr. (left), pictured with the Rev. Al Sharpton: 'It was such a great experience being a first time father and having a son. And gun violence took my son. I love you Junior'

Davell Gardner Sr. (pictured) broke down crying when talking about his son and recalling how he will no longer be able to spend time with Davell

He added that it's 'not that we're playing the victim', but 'many of you are cowardly and won't fight the NRA or the right-wing that benefit off of this.'

Sharpton added that Davell was around the same age as his grandson and a similar incident could have happened to him.

'This boy was not even two-years-old...that could have been my grandson. If you can look at a baby and not stop this gun violence, then you are not worth anything to anybody,' said Sharpton.

As Sharpton spoke, the toddler's casket sat surrounded by bouquets of flowers with a large teddy bear and an Elmo toy on top.

Sharpton then took a moment to compare the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement that has taken the country by storm to instances of violence within the Black community.

'Black Lives Matter, well did those voices matter when we end up doing it to each other? Matter means it matters, and this one-year-old boy matters to me! And it ought to matter to you and matter to everybody in this city.'

Samantha Gardner, grandmother of 1-year-old Davell Gardner Jr., who was shot and killed while sitting in his stroller during a family barbecue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, is overcome by grief during the funeral at the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church

Davell Gardner Sr, the father of Davell Gardner Jr. is comforted by Sharpton during the funeral service of his son, 1-year-old Davell Gardner Jr.

Davell Gardner Sr. (center) helps to move the coffin of his son, Davell Gardner, Jr., out of the church as the Rev. Al Sharpton accompanies them following the funeral service

Pictured: a prayer card at the funeral of Davell Gardner, Jr. at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church

Attorney General Letitia James echoed similar sentiments and vowed to hold the suspects involved in Davell's death accountable.

'My faith teaches me that in heaven theres a special place for children but my faith also teaches me that theres a special place in hell for the person that did this and for all the individuals who are responsible for gun violence in our communities,' said James, AM NY reports.

'Black lives do matter, but Black lives and the lives of babies must matter to us first and foremost.'

During the funeral service, Sharpton also comforted Davell Gardner Sr., as the heartbroken father became overwhelmed with emotions and teared while talking about his baby boy.

'You know, thats my first born son and he carried a legacy for my family,' said Gardner Sr.

Gardner Sr. (left), comforted by the Rev. Al Sharpton (right): 'He could change anybodys day. He just had so many people that he loved and they loved him back. The day Junior was born was the happiest day of my life ... and he was taken too soon.'

Davell Gardner Sr, the father of Davell Gardner Jr. (center) and Sharpton carry the casket at the conclusion of the the funeral service

Gardner Sr. was overcome with emotions during the funeral service just two weeks after his first-born son died in a shooting in Brooklyn

Gardner Sr. is consoled by family members and loved ones after speaking at the funeral of his son on Monday when he recalled being a first-time father

Family members of Davell Gardner Jr. arrive for his funeral at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church on Monday afternoon

Gardner Sr. remembered his son as a sweet, smiley child whose inner light could illuminate a room.

'He could change anybodys day. He just had so many people that he loved and they loved him back,' said Gardner Sr. 'The day Junior was born was the happiest day of my life ... and he was taken too soon.'

'My son is gone. I dont have anybody else. I dont have somebody there tugging on my clothes, calling me daddy.'

The distraught father sobbed as he recalled the wonderful experience he had raising Davell.

'It was such a great experience being a first-time father and having a son. And gun violence took my son. I love you Junior,' said Gardner Sr., according to Pix 11.

'They took my son. They took my family.'

Pictured: Davell Gardner Sr. and Davell Gardner Jr.

Gwen Carr (far left), the mother of Eric Garner, attended the funeral service as well on Monday

As the small casket was placed inside a hearse after the funeral, Gwen Carr said she attended the service because she understands what its like losing a child.

In July 2017, officers in Long Island approached 27-year-old Eric Garner over suspicions he was selling single cigarettes that day.

During the arrest, one officer placed Garner in a chokehold as the father-of-six desperately pleaded, 'I can't breathe!' 11 times before becoming unresponsive.

Garner's heartbreaking plea 'I can't breathe' would later be echoed by three years later in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by George Floyd.

Both men died in police custody, but they and the phrase 'I can't breathe' has transcended moments in time to become a national Black Lives Matter movement.

The casket of Davell Gardner, Jr. is transferred from a horse-drawn carriage to a hearse before his burial at the Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York

Rev. Al Sharpton helped carry little Davell Gardner Jr.'s casket on Monday with the child's father, Davell Gardner Sr.

Alicia Gordon (pictured), aunt of Davell Gardner, Jr., holds a picture of Davell after his funeral in the Brooklyn borough of New York,

The child's casket, covered in blue trim and children's cartoons, was placed inside a funeral car on Monday following the funeral service

Little Davell was murdered on July 12 while sitting in a stroller outside of Raymond Bush Playground in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood around 11:35pm.

The young New York City family had enjoyed a cookout with loved ones earlier in the day and were still at the park.

Suddenly, two men dressed in all black approached the area, opened fire with a gun and quickly fled the scene as chaos ensued. The child's stroller was left behind at the scene.

Davell's shooting was one of 11 incidents in which 16 people in New York were shot over the weekend

Davell., who was struck in the abdomen, was rushed to a local hospital before he succumbed to his injuries.

Mayor Bill de Blasio later observed a moment of silence and declared himself 'heartbroken' over the boy's death, part of a recent surge of gun violence in the city.

'It's just horrifying,' de Blasio said at a news conference to discuss the coronavirus.

'A baby boy, Davell Gardner Jr., one years old, playing at a playground. Davell was just starting his life and his life was full of possibilities. And now he's gone.'

Three other men in the area at the time of the shooting were injured, but survived the scary incident.

No charges have been filed yet, but a person of interest is reportedly in custody. Local police have urged residents to come forward with information in the case to bring justice for Davell

The boy's grandma Samantha had earlier told The New York Daily News: 'So, when is it going to end? When are these young African American men, when are they going to stop with the shooting and the killing of all these innocent kids? It dont make any sense.'

Calling Davell the 'joy' in her life, she added: 'They need to stop this gun violence. I feel like this: You all are ranting and raving about black lives. But you take a life that was only a year and half old. And its not fair.'

She added: 'I hope they catch the b******s and put them under the jail cell.'

Felicia Gordon (pictured) arrives for the funeral of her son 1-year-old Davell Gardner Jr. at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church

Anyone with information on the case should contact the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-8477, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577, or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com

Garner's family was outside Raymond Bush Playground in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood having a cookout. A stroller was left at the scene as well as several chairs

Davell Sr. noted that not enough people are pushing for change in the community.

'The community is just getting worse and worse. Nobody's doing nothing about it. Nobody. Nobody is trying to make a change,' said Gardner Sr.

'And it's sad to say that. Like every day is just worse. You don't know if you're going to live to see the next day.'

'You took my son's life. I can't get that back. I can't hold him no more. I can't hear him calling me daddy no more. I can't kiss them no more. I can't play with them no more. I can't do nothing with him no more.'

The young toddler's death comes amid a surge in gun violence and shootings across New York City's five boroughs in recent weeks.

The New York Police Department recorded 43 shootings during the week of Davell's death, NBC New York reports, compared to the 13 last year.

There was a 231 per cent increase between that week in 2019 and this year.

One hundred and fifteen New Yorkers have been fatally shot since the year began, which is an additional 69 victims compared to the same six-month period last year.

In total, there have been 777 shooting victims with the majority of incidents involving people between the ages of 18 and 40.

On Sunday, eight people were shot dead in New York City, including a 16-year-old boy and an 18-year-old. who were found with gunshot wounds to the head.
A student teacher has brought High Court proceedings against Maynooth University over not being allowed graduate as she was not able to complete her teaching practice after the Covid-19 pandemic forced schools to close.

The action has been brought by Ekaette Kwuogor from Cappagh Road, Finglas, Dublin 11 who had been studying for a Higher Diploma in Further Education at the university's Department of Adult and Community Education.

The court heard that in she was accepted into the programme for the 2019-20 academic year and last January she commenced the teacher training part of her course.

The court heard that the naturalised Irish citizen was delayed from starting her teaching practice over having to furnish police clearance reports from both the gardai and the police in her native Nigeria. The court heard that there was a delay in the issuing of the Nigerian police report, the provision of which was a prerequisite before she could commence the teaching practice of her course.

Arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic, schools everywhere were closed last March and she and her classmates could not continue their teaching practice modules.

In April she was informed by the college that she could not graduate this year as she had not had sufficient opportunity to gain teaching experience on placement for an appropriate assessment to take place. She would have to come back and complete her course in the 2020-21 academic year.

She appealed the decision not to allow her graduate, but has not received any word of the the outcome of that appeal. She claims that the delay in making the decision is inordinate, inexcusable and in breach of her rights to natural and constitutional justice.

The court heard that she attended every class, carried out every assignment and did every essay required of her, and was a model student. She even started her teaching practice when other members of her class were on holidays, her counsel Femi Daniyan Bl instructed by solicitor Geoffrey Nwadike said.

Counsel said his client was particularly concerned over the failure to make a decision in relation to her appeal as the new academic year was about to commence.

In proceedings against National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ms Kwuogor seeks various orders including one compelling the college to make a decision in respect of her appeal.

She also seeks declarations that she is entitled to a decision or a timeframe from the university as to when her appeal has been finalised.

The matter came before Mr Justice Charles Meenan, in an ex-parte application on Monday.

The judge directed that the application for judicial review be made on notice to the university.

The matter will return before the court later this week.
Ellen DeGeneres's talk show is reportedly being investigated after numerous claims of issues on set by staff members.

An internal investigation is said to have been launched by the shows distributor, Warner Bros Television, and its producer, Telepicture, following reports of bad treatment while working on the show.

According to Variety, Warner Bros Televisions owner, WarnerMedia, will lead the investigation alongside an anonymous third party firm, who will interview current as well as former staff members.

The news was reportedly discovered after current employees received a memo filling them in on the situation.

Several reports indicating a poor workplace environment on the long-running daytime shows set have surfaced throughout the past four months.

Former employees of DeGeneress series accused its producers of fostering an environment filled with racism, fear and intimidation.

Ten individuals who used to work on the show, and one current employee, anonymously alleged to BuzzFeed News incidents including being fired for attending two family funerals, and producers joking that two black employees look similar and may cause confusion.

Many of the accusers alleged that the shows environment is dominated by fear, and claimed that employees who dont raise concerns about work hours or microaggressions are rewarded.

A source claimed: They feel that everybody who works at The Ellen Show is lucky to work there  So if you have a problem, you should leave because well hire someone else because everybody wants to work here.

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DeGeneres, who is is reportedly worth $330m (264m), was not directly blamed for the workplace environment in these particular instances.

However, weeks before, she found herself at the centre of several accusations of mean behaviour after comedian Kevin T Porter pledged to donate $2 to a Los Angeles food bank for every insane story his Twitter followers tweeted to him about her.

Several of Ellen DeGeneress staff members have claimed her show is dominated by fear (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

He branded the 62-year-old DeGeneres notoriously one of the meanest people alive.

Earlier this month, the shows production company denied speculation that it will be cancelled as a result of these allegations.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, DeGeneres continued to host the show from her home in California, but soon faced criticism when it was alleged her crew members had been left in the dark about their pay situation.

A spokesperson for the show admitted to poor communication with employees, but attributed the blame to confusion caused by lockdown restrictions.

WarnerMedia has declined to comment. Representatives The Ellen DeGeneres Show have been contacted by The Independent.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show has been on the air since 2003. it regularly attracts high-profile celebrities, and is filmed in California.
(Alliance News) - Boohoo Group PLC on Tuesday outlined the terms of an investigation into its supply chain, as the fast-fashion retailer grapples with claims it sold clothes made in factories where staff were paid less than the minimum wage.

The stock was up 5.1% at 266.66 pence each in London on Tuesday morning. However, the stock ended July 3, the last trading day before allegations from The Sunday Times were published, at 387.50p.

The Sunday Times newspaper reported allegations that workers in Leicester's Jaswal Fashions Ltd factory making clothes for Boohoo brand Nasty Gal were being paid as little as GBP3.50 an hour and operating without social distancing measures in place.

Boohoo earlier in July distanced itself from Jaswal Fashions however and added that while it has seen "non-compliance" with its code of conduct, it has not seen evidence of its suppliers paying workers GBP3.50 per hour.

Alison Levitt, a lawyer, will head up a probe an independent probe "of our UK supply chain", Boohoo said earlier in July.

The investigation, Boohoo explained on Tuesday, will assess whether the allegations made are "well-founded".

And if they are, the probe will consider to what extent the company "monitored its supply chain in Leicester and had knowledge of the allegations". It will also consider whether Boohoo has complied with the law and will then make recommendations based on the probe's findings.

Boohoo Deputy Chair Brian Small said: "We are pleased to share the terms of reference for the upcoming independent review into our Leicester supply chain. We believe this demonstrates how seriously we, as a board, are treating the recent allegations into our supply chain. The group is committed to delivering the highest standards of ethics, compliance and transparency.

By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
South Sudan Misses Deadline to Form New Parliament

By Waakhe Simon Wudu July 27, 2020

Parties to South Sudan's revitalized peace deal missed a regional deadline Sunday to dissolve and reconstitute parliament.

A July 14 communique by East African bloc IGAD (Inter-Governmental Authority on Development), which mediated South Sudan's peace agreement, called on President Salva Kiir to dissolve the current National Legislative Assembly by July 26.

A partial unity government was formed five months ago, but parliament has yet to be reconstituted and Kiir appointed state governors just a few weeks ago.

Information Minister Michael Makuei told VOA's South Sudan In Focus that the parties are still working on "the process" of reconstituting parliament.

There is no good reason for the delay, according to Boboya James, a policy analyst and researcher with the Institute of Social Policy and Research in Juba.

"The more you delay, the more you make the people of South Sudan suffer. It is important for the formation to happen so that the structures of government under the peace agreement are able to function," James told South Sudan in Focus.

The parties are well aware of the IGAD deadline but waited for the new governors to assume their posts before appointing new party representatives in the National Legislative Assembly, according to Josephine Lagu, chairperson of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance.

"Most parties were waiting for the appointment of the state governors, and obviously you know discussions about allocation of positions at the state levels, so that parties are clear who are some of the candidates now that will be eligible to join the transitional national legislative assembly," Lagu told VOA.

The parties are still negotiating how to allocate ministerial portfolios at the state level, Lagu said.

Repeated calls to First Vice President Riek Machar spokesperson James Gatdet and the SPLM-IO's Peter Manoah for comment were unsuccessful as neither SPLM-IO official answered their phone.

The peace deal requires that the current 400-member parliament be dissolved and reconstituted to include the full 550 members of the unity government, including nearly 40% representation from parties other than Kiir's ruling SPLM party.

The deal allocates 332 parliamentary slots to the ruling SPLM, 128 to Machar's SPLM-IO, 50 to the South Sudan Opposition Alliance, 30 to the umbrella opposition group referred to as "Other Political Parties," and 10 members to the Former Detainees.

In the interest of transparency, the parties should explain to the South Sudanese people why the new parliament has not been formed, James said.

"It is also important for the government to come out to Upper Nile [state] and tell them why certain things are not happening. You know we were very happy when Salva Kiir came out and said 'no, the reason as to why I am unable to appoint the governor of Upper Nile is because of a, b, c, d.' That provided relief to the public because you know there was a lot of speculation and speculation creates a lot of anxiety within the public arena, so it is important for that to happen," James told VOA.

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A Chinese mainland spokesperson Monday refuted remarks from Taiwan about Taiwan students studying on the mainland and religious affairs.

In response to claims that the mainland derailed efforts by Taiwan students seeking transfer back to schools in Taiwan, Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said mainland colleges received no such transfer applications from Taiwan students.

Noting the mainland's achievements in curbing COVID-19, Zhu stressed that the mainland has always been caring about Taiwan students on the mainland, adding that no Taiwan student on the mainland contracted COVID-19.

Zhu also denounced allegations made by the Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan that the mainland had recently destroyed Buddhist books published by Taiwan religious groups.

Zhu said the mainland protects the freedom of religious belief, as well as legally published books on religion.

The publication of Taiwan religious figures' books on the mainland is protected, Zhu said.

However, publishing or printing illegal publications will not be allowed, said Zhu.

The legal publication of books by Taiwan religious figures and groups on the mainland has been smooth, Zhu said, pledging further support for religious exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.
WASHINGTON  From the earliest days of the recent protests against police brutality and racism, some top federal law enforcement officials viewed the demonstrators with alarm and called for an aggressive federal response that two months later continues to escalate.

A memo from the deputy director of the F.B.I., dated June 2, demanded an immediate mobilization as protests gathered after George Floyds death while he was in police custody a week earlier. David L. Bowdich, the F.B.I.s No. 2, declared the situation a national crisis, and wrote that in addition to investigating violent protesters, instigators and inciters, bureau leaders should collect information with robust social media exploitation teams and examine what appeared to be highly organized behavior.

Mr. Bowdich suggested that the bureau could make use of the Hobbs Act, put into place in the 1940s to punish racketeering in labor groups, to charge the protesters.

When 9/11 occurred, our folks did not quibble about whether there was danger ahead for them, he wrote, telling aides that the continuing coronavirus pandemic should not hold them back. They ran head-on into peril.
Over 60 People Killed in Armed Attack on Village in Western Sudan

Sputnik News

04:06 GMT 27.07.2020

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - Over 60 people have been killed and about 60 injured during an attack in the West Darfur province of Sudan, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"More than 60 people were reportedly killed and approximately 60 injured during an armed attack in Masteri Village, north of Beida locality, in West Darfur, on 25 July", the Office said in a statement.

Darfur has been facing a conflict between different communities since the 1980s, which significantly escalated in 2003 when rebel groups launched a campaign to topple the government of then-President Omar Bashir.

In 2007, the UN Security Council and the African Union sent a joint peacekeeping mission to the region. In October 2019, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution to extend the mission mandate in Darfur for another year.

The conflict has resulted in around 300,000 casualties and the displacement of up to 3 million people by United Nations estimates.

 Sputnik

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A month after Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's suicide, his father K K Singh has filed an FIR against his rumoured actor girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and six others, including her family members, on charges of abetment to suicide. In a six-page FIR, Krishna Kishore Singh has raised questions over transfer of Rs 15 crore from Sushant's bank account to another account which was not related to him.

The late actor's father alleged that Sushant had Rs 17 crore in his account in 2019, but within months Rs 15 crore was transferred to the bank accounts not linked to him. He said that it should be investigated how much of that money has been defrauded by Rhea and her associates.

Sushant's father lodged an FIR with Rajiv Nagar police station in Patna under various sections of IPC including 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 380 (theft in dwelling house), 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 306 (abetment of suicide).

Also Read: Sushant Singh Rajput's father files FIR against Rhea Chakraborty

As per report, two inspector-rank officers and two sub-inspector rank officers from the Bihar Police are in Mumbai for investigation.

The Mumbai Police, which is investigating Sushant's accidental death report, has so far not filed an FIR in the case. The police have questioned several Bollywood bigwigs including filmmakers Mahesh Bhatt and Sanjay Leela Bhansali. On Monday, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt was summoned by the Mumbai Police for questioning. Actor Kangana Ranaut has also been summoned by the cops for questioning.

Also Read: Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case: Mahesh Bhatt to record statement with Mumbai Police

Rhea Chakraborty has also recorded her statement. Rhea was questioned by the Mumbai Police on June 19 for nine hours straight regarding actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death. During the questioning, Chakraborty confirmed that she had been living with Rajput and that they were looking to make a joint investment into a property as they were planning to get married in November.

Also Read: Sushant Singh Rajput death: Rhea Chakraborty grilled by police for 9 hours

Sushant, aged 34, was found hanging from the ceiling of his apartment in suburban Bandra in Mumbai on June 14. Several political leaders and film personalities have demanded a CBI probe into his death. However, Maharashtra's Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has ruled out requests for a CBI probe in the case.

Here are important allegations made by Sushant's father against Rhea in the FIR:

Before meeting Rhea in 2019, Sushant was not suffering from any mental disease. However, after meeting Rhea, it should be investigated why Sushant became mentally disturbed.

If Sushant was being treated for mental illness, why no consent was taken from the family members?

Sushant, who wanted to leave work in films and shift base to Coorg in Kerala, received no support from Rhea Chakraborty who had told him that he can't shift from Mumbai.

When Rhea thought that Sushant would not agree to stay in Mumbai then on June 6, 2020, she took huge cash, jewellery, credit cards, important documents, laptop and medical records and left his house. She also blocked Sushant's number on her phone.

Sushant told his sister that Rhea has taken all documents and has threatened to disclose before the media that he has gone mad and no one will give him work.

Rhea took Sushant to her residence during the treatment and he was overdosed. Rhea told everyone that Sushant had dengue.

Rhea was not letting Sushant sign any film. Whenever a proposal came, she forced Sushant to accept the project if she had the lead role opposite him in the film.

Sushant's reliable and old staff was changed by Rhea and replaced by people known to her so that she can micromanage Sushant.

In December 2019, Rhea forcibly made Sushant change his mobile number to stop him from talking to his family and close people regularly. Rhea did not allow Sushant to visit his family in Patna.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Afghanistan saw a 13% drop in the number of civilians killed and wounded in violence across the country in the first six months of this year, compared to the same period last year, according to a U.N. report released Monday.

The report credited the drop in casualties in part to the reduction of operations by international forces  which now only act when called upon and in support of the Afghan forces  and also to a decrease in the number of attacks by the Islamic State group.

However, the report underscores the still heavy toll the conflict continues to inflict on the civilian population  and sends a harsh message to both the Taliban and the Afghan government forces, saying civilian casualties caused by the warring sides in the conflict continue to be high.

The report comes against the backdrop of a U.S.-Taliban peace deal signed at the end of February and touted as the best hope for peace in Afghanistan after decades of war. While the U.S. and NATO have already begun reducing their troop strength, the second phase of the deal  which calls for negotiations between the Taliban and the Kabul government  has been delayed. Much of the delays have been as a result of Kabuls reluctance to free some Taliban prisoners identified for release as part of the agreement.

The U.N. report said 1,282 people were killed in violence in the first six months of 2020 in Afghanistan and 2,176 were wounded. That represents an overall 13% decrease from the same period in 2019. The report said the U.N. had recorded 17 attacks by IS causing civilians casualties during the first six months of 2020, down from 97 attacks in the same period last year.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the report, describing it as propaganda aimed at defaming the Taliban. He blamed airstrikes and heavy artillery by government forces and their allies, saying they are responsible for the majority of civilian casualties.

The Afghan government, meanwhile, said the U.N. reports underscores the governments own findings that the Taliban are responsible for the vast majority of the civilian casualties. The statement added that the recent increase in Taliban attacks comes despite the insurgents' commitments under the U.S.-Taliban deal.

Story continues

At a time when the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban have a historic opportunity to come together at the negotiating table for peace talks, the tragic reality is that the fighting continues, inflicting terrible harm to civilians every day, said Deborah Lyons, the head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan.

Civilian casualties from airstrikes carried out by Afghan forces tripled in the first six months of the year, compared to the same time period last year. Afghan forces were responsible for 23% of the civilian casualties, while the Taliban were responsible for 43%, the report said.

I urge the parties to pause, to reflect on the chilling incidents and the harm that they are causing to the Afghan people as documented in this report, and to take decisive action to stop the carnage and get to the negotiating table, said Lyons.

Women and children continue to be disproportionately affected by the direct and indirect impacts of the armed conflict, comprising more than 40% of the total civilian casualties, meaning both the killed and the wounded, the report said.

The report noted that children in Afghanistan are especially vulnerable to abuse by both sides, including being recruited for combat.

Last week, a government airstrike killed at least 14 people in western Herat province, many of them women and children. Hundreds of people had gathered in the province's Adraskan district to welcome home a former Taliban fighter freed from jail, when aircraft reportedly pounded the gathering.

The government said the strike was being investigated.
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is likely to acquire Kishore Biyani-controlled Future Group's retail business for Rs 24,000-27,000 crore. The deal, which is in the final stage of negotiations, will bolster RIL's position in India's retail segment.

The approximate deal value comprises the liabilities of the Future Group that Reliance plans to absorb, the Mint reported, citing sources which further stated that the five listed firms, including Future Supply Chain, Future Market Networks, Future Consumer, Future Lifestyle Fashions and Future Retail Ltd, will be merged into Future Enterprises Ltd (FEL). The entities will be integrated before the sale of assets.

Also Read: Mukesh Ambani's RIL in final-stage talks to buy Future Group's retail business

Following this, the FEL will carry out a slump sale of its retail assets to one of the retail subsidiaries of RIL which has exclusivity on the deal till July 31, by when the conglomerate needs to sign a binding agreement.

One of the sources further told the publication that negotiations are underway and the deal may take time to conclude.

RIL will also absorb Future Group's partnerships with foreign brands and retailers. For example, Future Retail Ltd had inked a master franchise deal with 7-Eleven Inc. to develop and operate 7-Eleven stores across India. No stores have opened so far, but the business is likely to go to RIL.

Also Read: Mukesh Ambani's RIL set to acquire Kishore Biyani-led Future Group

Future Group has accrued heavy debt over the years. As of September 30, 2019, debt at Future Group's listed entities rose to Rs 12,778 crore from Rs 10,951 crore as on March 31, 2019, the report stated.

Negotiations on the deal began earlier this year as one of Biyani's holding entities defaulted on the loan payment.

According to reports, Biyani, once the poster boy of India's retail sector, had earlier held several discussions with other potential investors as well.

Various big players like US-based retail giant Amazon had evinced interest in Future Group, but a deal with RIL offered a thorough solution to Biyani's debt issues.

Also Read: Retail war: Meet the competition of Kishore Biyani's Future Group
Both sides have concentrated the latest types of weapons that can hold at gunpoint both populated areas and infrastructure. Such tensions are difficult to control, the former American co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick told The Voice of America amid the tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border

These weapons are very difficult to take back from the parties, he noted. It is advisable not to reach the point where one of the parties is impatient or thinks it can gain an advantage in the war. There will be no winners in such wars, there will be only human losses. The new conflict will be more destructive. He added that during his co-chairmanship, they saw that there is public assistance in finding ways to settle, and now societies have taken more extremist positions, which hinders the efforts of the president or prime minister, aimed at a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

As for the fact that Aliyev dismissed FM Elmar Mammadyarov and appointed to this post a person with no diplomatic experience, Warlick noted that a small number of people were connected to the settlement of the conflict, mainly the president, the PM, and their FMs. They understood the issue. The foreign ministers of the two countries fully understood the issues and did not put forward proposals that were initially doomed. Any change complicates the process, since they do not own the details of the whole process, they are not familiar with it from the inside.
Starting this year, new procedures are in place to apply at Swiss universities.

Depending which university, foreign students now need a certificate declaring them apt to study. Said document needs to be generated by a university from same country where the high school diploma was issued.

Egan Paquay, Luxembourgish student at the University of St. Gallen, elaborates why this process can be complicated: "The University of Luxembourg usually only provides such a certificate if they offer the same study program. By now, there are quite a few restrictions for more specialised courses, like for instance theology or chemistry, which you can no longer study in Switzerland."

In some cases, an entry exam needs to be taken to be accepted into a study program. The University of Luxembourg already issued a statement indicating the institution's willingness to help students and generate certificates if possible.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-27 13:26:55|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of 264 Mongolian nationals returned from Europe aboard a chartered flight to the Mongolian capital on Monday amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the State Emergency Commission (SEC).

The repatriated people include pregnant women, the elderly, children, and those with health, financial or other problems, the SEC said, adding that they will be isolated at designated facilities for 21 days.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, Mongolia has evacuated more than 14,500 nationals from several countries, according to the commission.

As of Monday, the East Asian country has registered 288 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with no local transmissions or deaths. Enditem
Texas A&M University has been selected to lead the effort producing mass quantities of one coronavirus vaccine candidate selected as part of the Trump administrations plan to make such shots available to the U.S. population in record time.

A university center  opened three years ago to develop and manufacture drugs to fight bioterrorist threats and future pandemics  will receive roughly $265 million in federal money to manufacture up to 100 million doses of the vaccine under a plan announced Monday by President Donald Trump.

Weve been preparing for this since we got federal authority to build the center, said John Sharp, chancellor of the Texas A&M System. Were pleased to be part of the effort to save lives and protect the country.

The Texas A&M centers mass production of the vaccine, made by Novavax Inc., likely would begin in early 2021 if ongoing trials show the companys candidate is safe and effective. The candidate is one of five that have been selected for Operation Warp Speed, the ambitious project the administration touts will result in at least one licensed vaccine by the end of the year to be delivered to large numbers of people early next year.

The vaccine would be produced at Texas A&Ms Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing, one of three national biosecurity centers created by a 2012 grant by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The other two are in Maryland and North Carolina.

A&Ms facility, which opened in 2017, is owned and operated by Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, with whom the university began subcontracting in 2014. The company provides manufacturing processes for pharmaceutical companies.

All federal money for the project flows through Texas A&M.

Trump announced the selection in North Carolina, where another plant of Fujifilm is manufacturing the Novavax vaccine for the companys clinical trials. Trumps announcement, made following a tour of the plant, was part of his attempt to highlight progress in the development of a vaccine.

Nothings happened like this since the end of World War II, Trump said at the news conference. Not only is Operation Warp Speed accelerating the development of a vaccine, its directing a colossal industrial mobilization to ensure its rapid delivery. Instead of the usual sequence of vaccine development testing and trials followed by production, our strategy is to conduct these phases simultaneously.

But Gerry Farrell, chief operating officer of Fujifilms Texas operation, said the companys mass production of the vaccine probably wont begin until January. Novavax, whose vaccine candidate is already in a Phase 1 trial to establish safety, anticipates moving into a Phase 2 study next month, then a final Phase 3 trial sometime in the fall. The latter two phases, each larger than the previous one, evaluate whether the vaccine is effective as well as safe.

At the news conference, Trump said that the government is awarding Novavax $1.6 billion for its vaccine work, making accelerated vaccine development and production possible. He added that in College Station, Texas, Monday, I am proud to announce HHS award to the Fujifilm Texas A&M Innovation Center. He called the center quite the place.

Farrell said producing 100 million doses of a vaccine is a six- to nine-month project.

Farrell said the federal government also could still tap it to mass produce one or more other Operation Warp Speed vaccine candidates. But 100 million doses would be Fujifilms full capacity in that time span, whether it involves one or more vaccines.

There is no guarantee the Novavax vaccine will be shown to be effective. The company has never brought a vaccine to market.

Novavaxs vaccine uses a harmless bacteria to deliver microscopic particles that carry fragments of the coronavirus, prompting the immune system to mount an immune response. The method has worked against such viruses as hepatitis B.

Fujifilms North Carolina plant is manufacturing enough batches to inoculate up to 30,000 subjects for the Phase 3 trial. The company would then transfer the manufacturing process to College Station in late 2020.

The Texas A&M center was created with a $285 million award, which included $176 million from the federal government, the most it paid out for any of the three centers. The state of Texas added $40 million, the Texas A&M System $20 million and commercial interests $50 million for the project.

The three biosecurity centers were created as a result of the 2009 swine flu scare, a time when only one American company had manufacturing facilities to produce a vaccine solely in the United States. Texas A&M was the only university selected to create one of the centers.

Despite the investment  federal spending on the centers has hit $670 million to date  the centers had not been tapped to manufacture vaccines for the ongoing coronavirus pandemic until now.

todd.ackerman@chron.com
The victim of the capital's latest gun murder was riddled with bullets on his mother's doorstep.

Thomas McCarthy (55) was shot at least eight times when he opened the door of his mother's home to a gunman at 11am yesterday at Croftwood Park, Ballyfermot.

Mr McCarthy may have been targeted by a notorious local criminal who feared that he was going to be attacked first, the Herald can reveal.

Gardai are investigating if Mr McCarthy travelled back to the capital from his home in England to "seek retribution" after a 25-year-old local criminal was blamed for assaulting a woman who was well-known to the victim.

"If the theory proves correct then they got to Mr McCarthy first and brutally murdered him at his mother's home," a source said last night.

The 25-year-old criminal has numerous previous convictions, including for knife crimes and reckless driving, has served a number of jail terms and has also been homeless on occasion.

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Mistaken

However, gardai are investigating all circumstances around the killing and have not ruled out the possibility that Mr McCarthy was the victim of mistaken identity.

Senior sources told the Herald last night that Mr McCarthy was not known to gardai for involvement in organised crime, but a man well known to him has connections to the gang led by notorious criminal Derek 'Dee Dee' O'Driscoll.

"The deceased man was living in England and he had only been back for just over a week," a senior source said.

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"While he is not known to gardai for involvement in organised crime and his motivations for being back here are being examined, he is also close to a Ballyfermot man with connections to the O'Driscoll crew, who have been involved in organised crime for decades.

"Another theory is that it was this individual who was the target and the gunman just let loose on whoever answered the door.

"This was relatively well planned, even down to a lack of CCTV in the area where the cars were burnt out so there is definite local knowledge in whatever theory proves to be true," the source explained.

A senior source said that four shots were discharged at the victim when he answered the door and another four shots were fired at him inside the house as he attempted to move away from the lone gunman who wore a face mask.

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Mr McCarthy is understood to have a partner and children living in England.

Gardai yesterday appealed for information in the case and Superintendent Tony Twomey led a briefing at Ballyfermot Garda Station.

He said gardai were interested in finding a blue Ford Fiesta, which was burned out at Le Fanu Drive nearby, and a silver Skoda Octavia, which officers believe drove to Monksfield Walk in Clondalkin and travelled through Park West or the New Nangor Road.

It's believed the lone gunman drove the Fiesta to the shooting and then burnt it out before getting into the Octavia to flee.

"A male abandoned the car in Monksfield Walk and left towards a green area adjacent. We have no further information of travel after that location," Supt Twomey said.

"We are appealing to motorists and pedestrians who may have been in any of those locations between 10.30am and 11.30am and who may have seen anything unusual. We are also appealing for anyone with dashcam phone footage."

Supt Twomey added that although it's early in the investigation it seemed the two vehicles were used by the lone gunman.

"The victim had recently returned to Ireland and we are still trying to establish a motive.

"It's the early stages so there's a lot of information to gather. We are really interested in seeing what the public have seen. There were other people in the house."

The garda confirmed they were members of the man's family.

The area of Croftwood Park where Mr McCarthy was killed is a quiet cul de sac in Cherry Orchard, with a large green area in front of the house he was in when he was targeted.

This means the killer could only get in and out of the estate on the same road.

The house was sealed off yesterday morning as shocked neighbours gathered at their gates.

On the green in front of the house there were goal posts set up for the local children, who played while gardai and detectives discussed the incident beyond the streams of garda tape that stretched across the roadway in front of the house.

Escaping

Neighbours said they heard shots yesterday morning but did not immediately know where they were coming from.

Those that spoke said they did not see anybody escaping the scene.

"All we saw was the commotion afterwards, gardai and the armed support unit, and the ambulance was there for a while," said one local woman.

A pathologist inspected the scene at the front door of the house where Mr McCarthy was targeted, before moving inside to continue.

Later, in the early afternoon, members of the Garda Technical Bureau arrived to carry out a forensic examination of the scene.

There had been no arrests last night with a major line in the investigation being that the murder was carried out by either the reckless 25-year-old criminal or enemies of the 'Dee Dee' O'Driscoll gang.

Last October more than 250,000 was seized from Derek 'Dee Dee' O'Driscoll (43) and his associate David Reilly (36) as part of a CAB probe which revealed the gangsters were involved in an extortion campaign in which Dublin City Council workers were targeted in a spate of violent crimes.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (Front) speaks during a press briefing in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

China on Monday rebuffed U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's slanderous remarks on the Communist Party of China (CPC), saying his sensational and irresponsible claims were criticized and condemned by people who pursue peace and justice, including Americans with a broader vision.

Richard Haass, president of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, recently cited his article in Washington Post titled "What Mike Pompeo doesn't understand about China, Richard Nixon and U.S. foreign policy" on Twitter to criticize Pompeo's speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. In his words, "Pompeo's China speech Thursday not only misrepresented history but advocated a policy for the most important relationship of this era that is neither viable nor coherent. That he delivered it at the Nixon Library only added insult to injury."

When asked to comment on that, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at regular press conference that Pompeo negated every aspect of China-U.S. relations over the past 40 years, flagrantly attacked the CPC and called on countries to gang up on China.

"His outrageously deranged words have been criticized and condemned by all people who love peace and have a sense of justice, including those in the United States," Wang said.

"Pompeo's accusation of 'CPC's designs for hegemony' is out of not only ignorance but also bias," the spokesperson said.

Wang said that the CPC started with only dozens of members, and today it has grown into a major party with over 91 million members and has long been the ruling party in the world's most populous country. The reason for it, which Pompeo is ignorant of, is that the CPC always puts people's interests as the first priority, and always sticks together with the people through thick and thin. As revealed in a research recently published by the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University, under the leadership of the CPC, the Chinese people's overall support and satisfaction toward the central government exceeds 93 percent. According to a research result released by Edelman, 95 percent of the Chinese people trust the Chinese government, ranking the top of all countries surveyed, while the United States is the second to last with trust from only 48 percent citizens. The CPC's goal is to realize the great renewal of the Chinese nation, not replacing the United States. In the end, the international status of the United States depends on itself, not others. The CPC is a political party that strives for the well-being of the Chinese people as well as the progress of mankind. China champions and practices the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. China is the largest contributor of peacekeepers among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and has been contributing to the peaceful settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, the Iranian nuclear issue and other regional and international hotspots, as well as the response to climate change and other global challenges. In recent years China has contributed over 30 percent to the world economic growth, and has helped a lot in the international response to the financial crisis in Asia and the global financial crisis.

"These are all facts witnessed by the whole world, which cannot be erased by Pompeo," Wang said.

"Pompeo was calling for an anti-China coalition in his speech, but he seems to have forgotten that in the 21st century, instigation of hatred and confrontation runs counter to the trend of the times. The United States gains no support in trying to reverse the wheel of history," Wang said.

"Pompeo talks all about safeguarding democracy and freedom, but he doesn't represent democracy and freedom at all. He serves the U.S. hegemony and the interest groups behind him. But long gone are the days of ideological confrontation. The world today is on an unstoppable trend toward multi-polarity," he said.

"It has been almost half a century since President Nixon's visit to China. The development of China-U.S. relationship over this period of time taught us that a steady and sound bilateral relationship grows only when there's equality and mutual respect," the spokesperson said.

"China doesn't intend to change the United States, and the United States surely cannot alter China. We would like to develop China-U.S. relations featuring coordination, cooperation and stability, but we reject any bullying and injustice," Wang said.

"The Chinese people are not weak-kneed, and the world are not easily deceived. We urge a few U.S. politicians to stop slandering the CPC and the Chinese people and undercutting China-U.S. exchange and cooperation," he said.

"We call on all peace-loving countries and people to step forward and say no to the insanity of Pompeo and his like that jeopardizes world peace," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 01:10:29|Editor: huaxia

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NEW DELHI, July 28 (Xinhua) -- For the second consecutive day on Tuesday, India carried over half a million tests in a single day, thereby setting up a new record, the country's health ministry said.

"India creates and maintains a new high of more than 5 lakh (half a million) COVID-19 tests conducted in a single day over two consecutive days," the ministry said.

Data from India's top health research body - Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) showed on July 26 that a total of 515,472 samples were tested and on July 27 the number of samples tested was 528,082.

The health ministry described the increase in testing as a result of their policy to contain the spread of the pandemic.

"This is the outcome of the Union (federal) government's focus on aggressive testing, tracking and treatment policy to curb the spread of COVID-19," the ministry said.

So far over 17.3 million tests have been conducted in India at its designated laboratories.

"A cumulative total of 17,334,885 samples have been tested up to July 27, 2020," the research body on Tuesday said.

Health officials attribute the increase in testing capacity to the consistent adding up of more laboratories.

In January this year, there was only one laboratory to carry out COVID-19 tests. However, the number of laboratories at present is 1,310.

As per ICMR of the 1,310 laboratories, 905 are in the government sector and 405 in the private sector.

On Monday Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched three hi-tech COVID-19 testing facilities for West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Modi said the number of COVID-19 tests would soon be ramped up to a million a day in coming weeks.

The federal government has advised all states to keep up the strategy of "Test, Track and Treat".

India Tuesday said the number of COVID-19 cases in the country have reached 1,483,156 including 33,425 deaths.

India's case fatality rate (CFR) is falling and currently at 2.25 percent.

Meanwhile, the ministry said 952,743 people have been discharged from hospitals after showing improvement, which has pushed the recovery rate to 64.23 percent. Enditem
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28)  The remains of 54 more overseas Filipino workers from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have arrived on Tuesday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said 39 of the OFWs succumbed to COVID-19 while the rest died of natural causes.

Bello added that the deceased were brought straight to crematoriums, following strict health protocols.

It was the last batch of remains to be brought home via mass repatriation. The rest will be flown in via commercial flights, according to the Department of Labor and Employment.

Bello assured that qualified relatives of the deceased Filipinos will receive assistance from the government.

If they are members of OWWA, they will be provided with the bereavement benefits of about 120,000, Bello said.

Bello added that aside from the repatriation of the remains, his department has brought home a total of 111,000 OFWs.
Small-business advocates say borrowers with small loans should be able simply to certify that they followed the rules, and provide documentation only if asked. A coalition of almost 150 groups sent a letter to legislative leaders this month calling for the threshold to be set at loans of $150,000 or less -- which would be about 4.3 million loans, or 87% of the total approved as of July 24, according to the SBA.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-27 20:36:48|Editor: huaxia

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People buy face masks and sanitary products from street vendors amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on June 25, 2020. (Str/Xinhua)

-- COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh reach 226,225 with 2,772 new cases;

-- Indonesia reports 1,525 new COVID-19 cases, 57 new deaths;

-- India reports highest daily spike of nearly 50,000 COVID-19 cases, as total cases reach 1,435,453;

-- Australia records biggest daily increase in COVID-19 infections, deaths.

HONG KONG, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia-Pacific countries on Monday:

DHAKA -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh reached 226,225 as 2,772 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours.

Senior Health Ministry official Nasima Sultana said in a media briefing that 37 deaths were also reported in the last 24 hours across the country.

She said the total number of recovered patients in the country now stands at 125,683.

A man wearing a face mask walks on a street in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 20, 2020. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia reported another seven new COVID-19 infections, bringing the national total to 8,904, the Health Ministry said.

One more case has been released, bringing the total cured and discharged to 8,601 or 96.6 percent of all the cases.

No new deaths had been reported, leaving the total deaths at 124.

Photo taken on July 25, 2020 shows members of the Sumber Cipta Ballet rehearsing "To Live To Love To Dance" as a virtual ballet performance with face masks amid COVID-19 outbreak in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Xinhua/Agung Kuncahya B.)

JAKARTA -- The COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 1,525 within one day to 100,303, with the death toll adding by 57 to 4,838, the Health Ministry said.

According to the ministry, 1,518 more people were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 58,173.

A girl is seen wearing a face mask at a pier in Manila, the Philippines on July 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)

MANILA -- The number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines surged to 82,040 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,657 new cases.

The DOH said that the number of recoveries further rose to 26,446 after 359 more patients have survived the disease.

The death toll also increased to 1,945 after 16 more patients have succumbed to the viral disease, the DOH said.

Afghan workers make face masks at a factory in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, July 15, 2020. (Photo by Rahmatullah Alizadah/Xinhua)

KABUL -- Afghanistan reported 106 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, taking the country's total to 36,263, the country's Ministry of Public Health said.

Up to 1,269 deaths have been recorded since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country in February, an increase of 10 within the past 24 hours.

Out of the total infected people, 25,198 have recovered, including 18 who showed improvement and were discharged from hospitals since early Sunday.

Patients and a health worker do yoga at a COVID-19 care center in New Delhi, India, July 24, 2020. (Photo by Partha Sarkar/Xinhua)

NEW DELHI -- India's federal health ministry on Monday morning reported 708 more deaths and 49,931 new COVID-19 cases during the past 24 hours, taking the number of deaths to 32,771 and total cases to 1,435,453.

This has been the highest single-day spike in terms of fresh COVID-19 cases in the country.

According to ministry officials, 917,568 people have been discharged from hospitals after showing improvement, and the number of active cases in the country stood at 485,114.

Australia's national airline Qantas's last Boeing 747 passenger jumbo jet flies out from Sydney, Australia, on July 22, 2020. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei)

SYDNEY/CANBERRA -- Australia recorded its biggest daily jump in COVID-19 cases, with 549 new infections, as well as its deadliest day, with 10 people passing away on Sunday after contracting the virus.

All of the deaths and almost all of the confirmed cases occurred in the southeastern state of Victoria which in the past month has seen case numbers surge despite the reintroduction of social distancing restrictions.

The state also recorded an additional six fatalities on Monday, taking the national COVID-19 death toll to 161.

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for patience and said "all of the options" were on the table to fight against coronavirus.

A teacher welcomes a student at Kyungbok High School in Seoul, South Korea, May 20, 2020. (Photo by Lee Sang-ho/Xinhua)

SEOUL -- South Korea reported 25 more cases of the COVID-19 as of midnight Monday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 14,175.

The daily caseload fell below 30 in a week, but it continued to grow in double digits due to small cluster infections and imported cases.

One more death was confirmed, leaving the death toll at 299. The total fatality rate stood at 2.11 percent.
Actress Kriti Sanon, who turned 30 yesterday (July 27, 2020), thanked her fans for all their warm wishes through her Instagram page. Kriti shared a note on Instagram and wrote, "To all my fans and supporters  My birthday wish for all my coming birthdays!  ."

In the note, Kriti wrote, "A big big thank you to all the fans for the unconditional support, heartwarming edits, messages and love.. In many low moments of my life, you guys have managed to make me smile and feel motivated."

The Raabta actress further promised her fans that she will surely make them proud.

The actress also requested her fans that if they want to do anything special for her, they can do a good deed in her name.

Kriti wrote, "Donate clothes/books/money/blood. Help the underprivileged. Feed some poor families. Plant some trees. Feed street dogs/cats. Spend time with special kids or maybe in an old age home (of course when COVID is over). Sponsor some child's education who probably can't afford the basic right to primary education. Make someone smile."

Kriti Sanon Posts Cryptic Message A Month After Sushant Singh Rajput's Death

Kriti further added, "In these tough times, we need to do our bit to make this world a better and happier place. There is too much suffering and negativity around. Be kind. There can be no better gift for me than see you all spread some love and happiness around."

Kriti's post is indeed heartwarming. We truly hope that her fans give her request a thought!
China will be taking a digital leap for pets since the country mandated that all dogs in Shenzhen should be microchipped. According to Techcrunch, China's southern city, Shenzhen announced in May that chips should be implanted to the dogs in the city, joining the ranks of Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia, and other countries that mandate the use of microchips on dogs.

All registered dogs in Shenzhen would be implanted with microchips for free, which would be used to help find lost dogs and determine ownership of dogs. The chip info can only accessed by authorized personnel, dismissing concerns over privacy breach. ... pic.twitter.com/VMlTHjijpw  Phoenix Capital (@PhoenixSquawk) May 31, 2020

Also Read: [Fact Check] Viral Photo of Bizarre Fish With Human Lips and Teeth is Not Real, Experts Say

The Shenzhen Urban Management Bureau's social media posts stated that the city regulators started to set up injection this week, across their partnering clinic. The size of the chips that will be implanted under the skin of the dog's neck is like the size of a grain of rice. Besides, it could last for 15 years.

Also Read: [VIRAL] Don't Know How To Wear a Face Mask? This Police Dog Will Show You the Proper Way

The report explained that when authorize personnel scanned the chip on a dog's neck, a unique 15-digit number matches the dog's name and breed, as well as its owner's contact information and identity. The mandatory microchips will help reduce stray dogs in the streets.

The microchip doesn't track the dog's location since it is a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip. The local media report also confirmed that the authority doesn't store any personal information of the pet's owner.

Other countries that implants microchips under the dogs' skins

The Shenzhen government plans to pass a bill legalizing the microchip implants because of the growing pet population in the city. The owners who will not comply will face a fine or will be forced to turn their dogs over to regulators. According to the official data if the city, almost 200,000 dogs and cats are owned by 20 million residents in 2019.

China is not the first country to mandate microchip implants on dogs. BBC previously reported that the United Kingdom also ordered dog owners to have their pets implanted with microchips. Those who will not have their dogs microchipped will be fined up to 500 or $644. In England, Wales, and Scotland, it is legally required that all dogs must have a microchip implant by the time they reach eight weeks old. For more interesting animal facts, get notified with the latest news at TechTimes.

For more interesting animal discoveries or innovations, always visit TechTimes. Also, check how this police dog will teach you to wear a mask.

Also Read: [BEWARE] 100-Year-Old Metal-Eating Bacteria Discovered: Should We be Scared?

This article is owned by TechTimes,

Written by: Giuliano de Leon.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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Police have fired teargas at protesters in Tempe, Arizona, and Portland while hundreds of activists gathered on the streets of Austin as cities across the US saw their 61st consecutive night of unrest.

A protest to support the Black Lives Matter movement turned violent in Tempe on Monday night when demonstrators clashed with local police in the middle of a roadway.

The demonstration began peacefully at about 5pm as roughly 200 people gathered in Tempe Beach Park. Protesters then began marching through the streets and ultimately blocked traffic on Scottsdale Road, prompting Tempe Police to declare the gathering unlawful.

After the crowd ignored orders to disperse, police deployed tear gas at the protesters, who responded by launching projectiles and shouting profanities as they moved toward a line of officers on bicycles.

Similar scenes of chaos and violence erupted elsewhere across the country across Monday night into early Tuesday.

In Oregon, a crowd of 1,000 activists clashed with agents outside the federal courthouse when a group protesters began attacking a protective fence that had been put up around the building to protect it. Rubber bullets and tear gas was fired into the crowd, as bottles and fireworks were sent back the other way.

And in Austin, Texas, where a protester was shot dead on Saturday, hundreds of people marched to the police headquarters to demand justice.

Amid the rising tensions, the mayors of five major US cities - Portland; Seattle; Chicago; Kansas City; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Washington - are appealing to Congress to make it illegal for the for the federal government to deploy militarized agents to cities that don't want them - claiming their presence is actually escalating the unrest.

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TEMPE, ARIZONA: Police fired tear gas into a crowd of protesters and threatened to make arrests as an anti-racism demonstration turned chaotic on Monday night in Tempe

TEMPE, ARIZONA: Video showed Tempe police officers taking at least one person into custody after the protesters blocked Scottsdale Road and ignored orders to disperse

TEMPE, ARIZONA: The Tempe protest began peacefully at about 5pm Monday as roughly 200 people gathered in Tempe Beach Park to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement

TEMPE, ARIZONA: After gathering in the park the protesters made their way to the Mill Avenue bridge, where they kneeled in the road and sang 'Happy Birthday' to Dion Johnson, who was shot and killed by an Arizona state trooper on May 25

In Tempe, police said demonstrators gathered near Scottsdale Road and Playa Del Norte Drive ignored repeated request from officers to disperse and exit the roadway.

'Participants will NOT be allowed to enter the roadway on Scottsdale Rd in either direction and MUST remain on the sidewalk,' Tempe PD warned in a tweet.

However, law enforcement say the crowd did not stay on the sidewalk and instead continued to gather in the road. The crowd then reportedly began advancing towards police, yelling profanities and hurling objects at officers.

During the scuffle, Tempe Police say one officer was injured when an unknown projectile thrown by protesters struck them in the face, causing a laceration which required medical attention.

Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir tweeted about the confrontation between police and protesters just after 8pm local time, writing: 'It is unacceptable to hurl projectiles at people  cops are people there to protect free expression and provide public safety. When you throw objects at them, that is NOT OK.'

Seven protesters were arrested in total Monday and held on a varying degree of charges. Video recorded by AZFamily.com showed officers tackling one demonstrator to the ground. Police were also seen using pepper on activists as they attempted to disperse two hundred person-strong crowd.

The protest that preceded the clash was organized in honor of Dalvin Hollins and Dion Johnson, two black men who were shot and killed by police in metro Phoenix.

Demonstrators shield themselves from advancing federal officers during a Black Lives Matter protest early Tuesday morning

A protester kicks a tear gas round back towards federal officers near the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse after an unlawful assembly was declared Monday night

Demonstrators hold signs and umbrellas as tear gas engulfs them during Monday night's protest

Federal police advance upon a line of protesters outside the Multnomah County Justice Center after an unlawful assembly was declared on Monday

Protesters hold umbrellas and shields to keep from getting struck by less-lethal munitions during a demonstration on Monday

A protester is seen kicking a tear gas munition away from him and others after it was launched by federal agents outside the federal courthouse on Monday

Monday marked the fourth anniversary of when 19-year-old Hollins was fatally shot by Tempe police responding to a call about a suspected robbery at a Walgreens in 2016.

It was also the day before what would have the 29th birthday of Johnson, who was shot and killed by Arizona State Trooper George Cervantes on May 25, 2020.

The protesters marched to the Mill Avenue bridge, where they kneeled in the road and sang 'Happy Birthday' to Johnson.

They also hung a large banner on the bridge with the words: 'End qualified immunity' - referencing the legal doctrine that protects law enforcement and other officials from being sued for official actions.

The organizers of the demonstration - Tempe Against Police Violence, Black Lives Matter Phoenix-Metro, Direct Action Arizona and Young Democratic Socialists of America - demanded that the state Department of Public Safety release the names of all officers involved in Johnson's death.

They're also calling for the officers involved in both deaths to be fired, in addition to all officers who are 'accomplices to wrongful death or use of force violations', as well as ensuring that police officers are no longer dispatched for mental health or substance abuse 911 calls.

'We're sick and tired of our folks, our brothers and sisters being killed by the racist police departments,' organizer Darien Barrett of Tempe Against Police Violence told AZFamily.com.

TEMPE, ARIZONA: Seven protesters were arrested in total Monday and held on a varying degree of charges

TEMPE, ARIZONA: Video recorded by AZFamily.com showed officers tackling one demonstrator to the ground.

TEMPE, ARIZONA: Police say one officer was injured when an unknown projectile thrown by protesters struck them in the face, causing a laceration which required medical attention

Tempe police have fired a chemical agent at protesters who were standing in the middle of the intersection. Several people are being attended to by volunteer medics that are part of the protest. pic.twitter.com/pYDWnYkBFX  Audrey Jensen (@Audreyj101) July 28, 2020

TEMPE, ARIZONA: At about 8pm Tempe Police declared the protest unlawful as crowds refused to clear the road

TEMPE, ARIZONA: Protesters were seen hurling projectiles at officers ordering them to clear the road in Tempe on Monday

Demonstrators clash with police during protests in Tempehttps://t.co/alA2Lyq5BK pic.twitter.com/231fibRFIs  azfamily 3TV CBS 5 (@azfamily) July 28, 2020

Monday marked the 61st night of nationwide protests against racism and police brutality sparked the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis cop kneeled on his neck on May 25.

A large protest formed in Portland, Oregon, where clashes between demonstrators and federal agents intensified over the weekend outside the city's Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse.

Scenes from Monday evening were significantly calmer than preceding nights - though many feared violence could erupt later on after police were seen deploying gas into crowds.

Portland's 'Wall of Moms' turned out once again, albeit in slightly smaller numbers than they had last week.

The crowds gathered in Lownsdale Square before making their way toward the courthouse and ultimately congregating next door at the Multnomah County Justice Center.

At around 9pm local time a few federal officers were seen emerging from the courthouse, eliciting boos from the crowds across the street.

The officers immediately turned to walk back into the courthouse as people shouted at them and appeared to advance.

Soon after the throngs of people outside the Justice Center erupted with chants of: 'I can't breathe!'

Myke Tavarres, a former NFL player from Lake Oswego who has become a familiar face at the protests, was heard urging people to stay away from the courthouse because targeting it would only stoke violence with the federal agents.

Meanwhile another large demonstration was held in Austin, where an armed protester was shot dead over the weekend after a car drove into the crowd.

A few dozen people set up outside the Austin Police Department headquarters and chanted at a line of officers stationed outside for a few minutes before the officers retreated into the building.

Earlier on Monday it was revealed that President Donald Trump is sending at least 100 additional federal agents into Portland after weekend protests saw the troops repeatedly fire tear gas, flash bangs and pepper balls into crowds as they attempted to breach a fence surrounding the federal courthouse.

Federal police face off with protesters in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland on Monday

Demonstrators draw a peace sign in front of a fire during a Black Lives Matter protest outside the Portland federal courthouse

Demonstrators light a fire during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Monday

A fire burns near a group of protesters gathered outside the federal courthouse Monday night

In response, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is now leading the charge of an appeal to Congress seeking to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized agents to a city when they're not wanted.

'This administrations egregious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities should never happen,' the mayors of Portland; Seattle; Chicago; Kansas City; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Washington wrote to leaders of the US House and Senate.

Video from early Tuesday showed law enforcement officers filling a street with gas to disperse protesters. Several loud booms of an unknown origin could be heard in the footage.

Hours earlier agents repeatedly fired tear gas, flash bangs and pepper balls at protesters outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland. Some protesters had climbed over the fence surrounding the courthouse, while others shot fireworks, banged on the fence and projected lights on the building.

Wheeler and City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty late called for a meeting with Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf to discuss a cease-fire and removal of heightened federal forces from Portland.

Earlier in the day, a U.S. official said militarized officers would remain in Portland until attacks on a federal courthouse cease - and more officers may soon be on the way.

'It is not a solution to tell federal officers to leave when there continues to be attacks on federal property and personnel,' US Attorney Billy Williams said. 'We are not leaving the building unprotected to be destroyed by people intent on doing so.'

PORTLAND, OREGON: A man addresses a crowd outside the Multnomah County Justice Center on Monday night

PORTLAND, OREGON: Placards are seen next to a fire during protests on Monday night

PORTLAND, OREGON: The so-called 'Wall of Moms' activist group took to the streets of Portland yet again on Monday night to demand that federal agents leave the city following a weekend of violent clashes outside the city's courthouse

PORTLAND, OREGON: A demonstrator sets fire to an American flag in downtown Portland on Monday night as cities across the US were roiled by another night of violent clashes between protesters and law enforcement

PORTLAND, OREGON: A large protest formed in Portland, Oregon, where clashes between demonstrators and federal agents intensified over the weekend outside the city's Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse

PORTLAND, OREGON: Many protesters were seen carrying gas masks in anticipation of attacks from federal agents

PORTLAND, OREGON: Monday night's demonstration convened outside the Multnomah County Justice Center

Portland has had nightly protests for two months since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. President Donald Trump said he sent federal agents to the city to halt the unrest, but state and local officials said they are making the situation worse.

Trumps deployment of the federal officers over the July 4 weekend stoked the Black Lives Matter movement. The number of nightly protesters had dwindled to perhaps less than 100 right before the deployment, and now has swelled to the thousands.

Trump said on Twitter that federal properties in Portland 'wouldn't last a day' without the presence of the federal agents.

The majority of people participating in the daily demonstrations have been peaceful. But a few have been pelting officers with objects and trying to tear down fencing protecting the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse.

Williams, whose office is inside the courthouse, called on peaceful protesters, community and business leaders and people of faith to not allow violence to occur in their presence and to leave downtown before violence starts. He said federal agents have made 83 arrests.

Demonstrations in support of racial justice and police reform in other cities around the U.S. were marred by violence over the weekend. The U.S. Marshals Service has lined up about 100 people they could send to hotspots, either to strengthen forces or relieve officers who have been working for weeks, agency spokesperson Drew Wade said.

Kris Cline, principal deputy director of Federal Protective Service, said an incident commander in Portland and teams from the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice discuss what force is needed every night.

Cline refused to discuss the number of officers currently present or if more would be arriving.

Some protesters have accused Wheeler of hypocrisy for speaking out against the federal presence because, under his watch, Portland police have used tear gas and other riot-control weapons on protesters, including peaceful ones.

Cline said Portland police should take over the job of dispersing protesters from the courthouse area from the federal officers.

'If the Portland Police Bureau were able to do what they typically do, they would be able to clear this out for this disturbance and we would leave our officers inside the building and not be visible,' Cline said.

He said relations between the federal officers, some of whom live in Portland, and city police were good.

Portland police responded Sunday evening to a shooting at a park close to the site of the protests. Two people were detained and later released, police said. The person who was shot went to the hospital in a private vehicle and was treated for a non-life-threatening wound.

Also late Sunday, police said someone pointed out a bag in the same park, where officers found loaded rifle magazines and Molotov cocktails. The shooting was not related to the items, police said.

PORTLAND, OREGON: Black activist Myke Tavarres speaks addresses a crowd outside the Multnomah County Justice Center

PORTLAND, OREGON: A sea of 'Moms' dressed in yellow hold up their hands outside the Multnomah County Justice Center

PORTLAND, OREGON: Protesters don gas masks in preparations for tear gas explosions outside the federal courthouse

PORTLAND, OREGON: People gather in a protest camp near the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse as the city prepares for another night of unrest on Monday

AUSTIN, TEXAS: Protesters march through the streets of downtown Austin on Monday night

AUSTIN, TEXAS: In Austin, where a protester was shot dead on Saturday, hundreds of people marched to the police headquarters on Monday night to demand justice

Trump decried the protests and subsequent media coverage in a pair of tweets on Monday night, writing: 'The Fake News Media is trying to portray the Portland and Seattle "protesters" as wonderful, sweet and innocent people just out for a little stroll.

'Actually, they are sick and deranged Anarchists & Agitators who our great men & women of Law Enforcement easily control, but who would destroy our American cities, and worse, if Sleepy Joe Biden, the puppet of the Left, ever won.

Trump decried the protests and subsequent media coverage on Twitter Monday night

'Markets would crash and cities would burn. Our Country would suffer like never before. We will beat the Virus, soon, and go on to the Golden Age - better than ever before!'

The president sent a direct warning to protesters earlier in the night, tweeting: 'Anarchists, Agitators or Protestors who vandalize or damage our Federal Courthouse in Portland, or any Federal Buildings in any of our Cities or States, will be prosecuted under our recently re-enacted Statues & Monuments Act.

The president also sent a direct warning to protesters in Portland and nationwide in a tweet earlier Monday

'MINIMUM TEN YEARS IN PRISON. Don't do it!'

And prior to that tweet, Trump doubled down on his support for the federal agents' actions in another post, claiming that federal properties in Portland 'wouldn't last a day' without their presence.

Protesters from the Wall of Moms and Don't Shoot Portland activist groups filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security on Monday, accusing federal officers of violating their free speech, using excessive force and overstepping their authority.

The suit came as reports emerged that the DHS is also considering sending 50 additional Customs and Border Protection personnel to Portland in the coming days.

Many critics see the deployment of federal troops as a political ploy by Trump to drum up a 'law and order' campaign amid his uphill re-election battle - while the president and his allies insist that it was necessary to protect the city.
New data presented by Juul Labs at the AcademyHealth 2020 Annual Research Meeting links the JUUL System's market entry to decreased cigarette sales in the Canadian market

San Francisco (July 28, 2020) -- As part of Juul Labs' ongoing engagement with the public health community, the company today announced findings from a new study at the AcademyHealth 2020 Annual Research Meeting linking the JUUL System's market entry to decreased cigarette sales in Canada. The conference, which took place virtually, focuses on the intersection of health, health care, and policy.

The study, conducted and presented by Dr. Shivaani Prakash, Juul Labs' Director of Health Economics and Policy Research, found that the JUUL System's market entry in Canada likely decreased combustible cigarette sales, especially in urban markets. Using city-level data on cigarette and JUUL System sales in Canada and variation in timing of the JUUL System's market entry in a study, researchers ran econometric difference-in-difference models. They found that within the first 12 months of market entry, market entry and availability of the JUUL System likely led to a 1.5% decrease on average in store-level cigarette sales volume, within one large retailer chain. Overall, this could translate to over 400 million fewer cigarettes sold in Canada within the first year of the JUUL System's market entry.

They also found that the decline in cigarette sales magnified as the JUUL System's market share increased in stores, suggesting that local tobacco market competition plays a strong role in uptake and purchase of vaping products. For every 1% increase in the JUUL System's market share at the store-level, there was an associated 0.5% reduction in cigarette sales.

This work provides strong evidence that the availability of vaping products could reduce cigarette sales, and suggests that providing alternative nicotine products to adult smokers could drive down combustible cigarette consumption, said Rasmus Wissmann, Vice President of Data at Juul Labs. Further research is needed to determine the long-term impact of vapor products on cigarette sales, and the net population health impact of such products.

Identifying the impact of vaping products in global markets can help policymakers understand the role of alternative nicotine products in the commercial tobacco product market, and better evaluate the impact of such products.

As part of the Premarket Tobacco Product Application (PMTA) process in the United States, Juul Labs has built a comprehensive research program focused on examining the public health impact of the JUUL System. This includes research on the JUUL System's impact on the individual user, their ability to convert adult smokers from combustible cigarettes, and the net-population impact on public health.

Juul Labs will continue to share results from its science and research program with the public health communities as it works to support the scientific basis for the category, as well as future regulatory filings.

###

About the Study

The Impact of Juul Market Entry on Cigarette Sales: Evidence of Store-Level Sales Declines from Canada was presented virtually at the AcademyHealth 2020 Annual Research Meeting.

Researchers used longitudinal panel data to run difference-in-difference panel causal inference models in order to determine if the entry of the JUUL System in a city had an impact on cigarette sales, after controlling for macroeconomic variables and seasonal and location-specific variation with fixed effects. Data points included:

Monthly panel data on cigarette sales in Canada at the store-level, drawn from a large convenience store retailer's dataset from October 2017-August 2019

Quasi-random variation in date and timing of the JUUL System's entry in a city

Measures of the JUUL System's market share among tobacco products

Researchers controlled for macroeconomic variables including average store-level cigarette sales prices, temperature, gasoline prices, unemployment rate, and population size. They also ran models to compare results for stores in urban versus rural areas, as well as to compare results between sales of low versus high-priced cigarettes.

About Juul Labs

Juul Labs' mission is to transition the world's billion adult smokers away from combustible cigarettes, eliminate their use, and combat underage usage of our products. We believe that vapor products can offer adult smokers an alternative to combustible cigarettes and, in so doing, reduce the harm associated with tobacco. Nicotine is addictive and can cause certain harms to health. It would be best if no one used any nicotine product. Anyone who smokes should quit. Adult smokers who have not successfully quit should completely switch to potentially less harmful alternative nicotine products. Juul Labs does not want any non-nicotine users, especially those underage, to try our products, as they exist only to transition adult smokers away from combustible cigarettes.

For more information about the company, please visit http://www.juullabs.com.

Media Contact

press@juul.com
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Record high temperatures will continue to be challenged across the Middle East this week as blistering heat and dry conditions remain over the region.

Extreme heat was felt across the Middle East with temperatures in the upper 40s C (115-120 F) across the region on Monday and many areas reaching above 50 C (122 F) on Tuesday.

The week got off to a blazing start in Baghdad, Iraq, with a temperature reading of 50.6 C (123.1 F) on Monday. But on Tuesday, the temperature climbed even higher. According to reports from the area, the temperature reached 51.7 C (125 F) in the afternoon, surpassing the all-time record high temperature of 51.2 C (124 F) for the city.

Scorching high temperatures are forecast to continue this week as an area of high pressure remains overhead, allowing dry conditions and plenty of sunshine to bake the region.

Baghdad once again challenged its highest recorded temperature on Wednesday afternoon, but the temperature fell just short of the record, reaching 51 C (124 F).

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

The ancient city's origins date back to the 700s when it served as one of the most significant cultural centers for Arab and Islamic civilizations for centuries, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Currently more than 7.6 million people reside in the Iraqi capital. For comparison, about 8.3 million reside in New York City.

In recent days, Baghdad has been rocked by protests, according to The Associated Press, and tensions escalated with security forces killing two demonstrators on Sunday. Electricity shortages have been one of the top issues protesters have been demonstrating against, and something that's been magnified by the record heat that's set in.

The countrywide record for all-time highest temperature is 53.8 C (129 F) set in Basra, Iraq, on July 22, 2016.

While eastern Iraq will be home to the highest temperatures on Wednesday, with widespread measurements of 49 C (120 F) and above expected, readings above 38 C (100 F) will be common across Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman and parts of Iran.

Story continues

Overall, Thursday turned out to be the hottest of the stretch of heat despite no records being broken.

The core of the heat of once again located over eastern Iraq as well as Kuwait. Afternoon temperatures of 53 C (127.4 F) and 52.8 C (127 F)were reported in Amarah and Al Basrah, Iraq, respectively.

The high temperature reached 53.1 C (127.6 F) in Sulaibiyah, Kuwait into the afternoon hours on Thursday, falling just short of the record high.

The average high temperature for July in Damascus, Syria, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, are near 49 C (120 F). However, the hottest areas this week are in eastern Iraq, including Baghdad, where the average high temperature for the month is 45 C (113 F).

A storm system moving by to the north will suppress the area of high pressure over the Middle East into the weekend. This will cause temperatures in some locations to trend a couple of degrees lower.

However, this will be short-lived as temperatures are expected to surge again by the end of the weekend.

The Middle East holds the record for the highest temperature in Asia. Mitribah, Kuwait, recorded a high of 53.9 C (129 F) on July 21, 2016, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
How it unfolded

Cochran, whose Hot Meals U.S.A. program fed free hot meals throughout central Nebraska after two floods in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic, was responsible for getting the USDA surplus food delivered to Kearney, but its been a bumpy road.

Last spring, Cash-Wa contacted Kyla Martin, director of development at Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska and oversees its Food Bank. Cash-Wa wanted to bid on the Farmers to Families program and give the food to the Food Bank. However, the USDA awarded the bid to C&C Produce, a Kansas City company that was authorized to, but did not, deliver any food to Nebraska, South Dakota or North Dakota. A furious Cochran contacted the office of U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse. He also called the USDA every day.

That did the trick.

Not long after that, Cochran called Martin and told her that a semitruck load of produce was on its way to the MONA parking lot, where Cochrans Hot Meals U.S.A. was serving lunch every day.

However, the boxes needed to be unloaded with a forklift, and the MONA site was not set up for that. Cochran suggested that the Food Bank accept the truck. Martin agreed.
Nokia Corporation NOK is slated to report second-quarter 2020 results on Jul 31, before the opening bell. In the March-end quarter, the companys earnings per share were in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate.



The Finland-based telecom equipment maker is likely to have recorded lower aggregate revenues on a year-over-year basis. This might be primarily due to the negative impact of COVID-19 on the overall market. Nokia expects majority of this impact to have taken place in the second quarter.



Lets discuss the factors that are likely to get reflected in the upcoming quarterly announcement.

Factors at Play

During the quarter under review, Nokia deployed the worlds first 450 MHz private wireless LTE network for power grid operators in Poland. Also, the company expanded its AirScale portfolio with new product innovations designed to fulfill the evolving needs of 5G networks. Nokias audio technology, OZO Audio, was selected by OnePlus to power its OnePlus 8 Pro smartphone.



Nokia was selected by Taiwan Star Telecom as a 5G network provider. The company launched new WaveFabric Elements optical portfolio for the 400G ecosystem to meet rising demands for 5G and cloud. Nokia and Vodafone Idea completed the first phase of the worlds largest deployment of Dynamic Spectrum Refarming in India.



Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited deployed Nokias automation, analytics and machine learning software to improve customer service. China Unicom selected Nokias core networking products for 5G. Nokia secured two contracts from China-based webscale giants, Tencent and Baidu, for data center interconnect network solutions. Such developments are likely to have had a positive impact on the companys second-quarter top line.



Nokia was picked by TOYOTA Production Engineering Corporation to deploy an industrial-grade private wireless network at its manufacturing design center in Fukuoka, Japan. National Broadband Ireland selected Nokia to deploy a fiber broadband solution for 540,000 rural premises. Nokias Network Services Platform was chosen by SDN Communications, a leading broadband service provider in South Dakota and southern Minnesota, to provide dynamic control of SDNs services throughout its IP and optical networks.



For the June-end quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for aggregate revenues is pegged at $5,632 million, which indicates a decline of 12% from the year-ago quarters reported figure. Adjusted earnings per share are pegged at 3 cents, which calls for a drop of 50% from the prior-year quarters recorded figure.

Story continues

What Our Model Says

Our proven model doesnt predict an earnings beat for Nokia this season. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. But thats not the case here. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.



Earnings ESP: Nokias Earnings ESP, which represents the difference between the Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate, is -20.00% as the former is pegged at 2 cents and the latter at 3 cents.

Nokia Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Nokia Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Nokia Corporation price-eps-surprise | Nokia Corporation Quote

Zacks Rank: Nokia currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.

Stocks to Consider

Here are some companies that you may want to consider as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:



Electronic Arts Inc. EA is slated to release first-quarter fiscal 2021 results on Jul 30. It has an Earnings ESP of +4.45% and a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.



Apple Inc. AAPL is scheduled to release third-quarter fiscal 2020 results on Jul 30. The company has an Earnings ESP of +4.41% and a Zacks Rank #3, at present.



Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. MMC has an Earnings ESP of +3.95% and a Zacks Rank of 3. The company is set to report second-quarter 2020 results on Jul 30.

These Stocks Are Poised to Soar Past the Pandemic

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Secretary-General of ASEAN Dato Lim Jock Hoi speaks to Vietnam News Agency on Vietnams contributions to ASEAN over the years and a vision of the future for the bloc.

Lim Jock Hoi, Secretary General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).  VNA/VNS Photo

At the age of 53, ASEAN is showing its youth, dynamism, development and attractiveness. What are the achievements, values and identities of ASEAN?

On the whole, ASEAN has done well in its 53 years of integration journey.

Various mechanisms of co-operation have continued to be put in place under the respective sectors within its political-security, economic, and socio-cultural spheres of its community-building process between ASEAN and its external partners.

Since its inception in 1967, ASEAN has successfully provided and maintained peace, prosperity and security in the region, allowing each member state to undertake national economic development, and to thrive and integrate within the region and into the global economy.

With closer market integration, it was able to build and create an 'investor-friendly' business environment.

Today, ASEAN finds itself the fifth biggest economy and third most attractive international investment destination. It is also the worlds fourth-largest trading region.

As ASEAN becomes more economically-competitive, it brings better employment opportunities to its 680 million populace.

With better jobs, it leads to rising living standards and alleviating poverty of the ASEAN people.

With higher income, it led to the expansion of the middle class, with families having more disposable income, and the youth receiving better access to education.

This further led to greater people-to-to-people movements in the region, like tourism, students-exchange and youth volunteerism or internships.

These developments resulted in an enhanced and conducive environment for us to undertake broader awareness-raising and deeper identity-building, as we promote 'ASEAN: A Community of Opportunities for All'.

Vietnam joined ASEAN on July 28, 1995. In the past 25 years under the common roof of ASEAN, what has Vietnam achieved and contributed to ASEANs development?

Since joining ASEAN, Vietnam has been an active participant and contributor to the regional integration journey and the community-building process.

During Vietnams holding of ASEAN Chairmanship in 1998, 2010, and 2020, Hanoi readily displayed able and decisive leadership in steering the region towards undertaking important priorities.

One example is the Mid-Term Review (MTR) of the implementation of ASEAN Community 2025 Blueprints currently being conducted.

This is pivotal in assessing the progress and challenges while addressing the implementation gaps of the three pillars.

Another example is RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) which is the ASEAN-driven trade pact deemed the largest global trade agreement comprising all key Asian economies.

I am also glad to see how Vietnam has raised ASEANs international profile in the past 25 years.

For example, as Vietnam officially began its term as president of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as part of its stint as a non-permanent UNSC member for 2020-21 term, Hanoi set out priorities with issues it considers of significance and where it can also play an important role, including, among others, climate change, and co-ordination between the UN and ASEAN. Economically, Vietnam has reached out to the global market by signing numerous trade agreements  both bilaterally and multilaterally  with different partners.

Two latest examples would be the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the Vietnam  European Union Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).

How do you evaluate the role of Vietnam in ASEAN, as well as the relationship between ASEAN and Vietnam?

There is no doubt that Vietnam has successfully integrated itself to the ASEAN family since its joining.

According to a PwC study, Vietnams GDP will be among the worlds top 20 by 2050, in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.

Its economic success, political stability and visionary leadership, coupled with the vibrant energy of its people, are assets to the building of the ASEAN Community.

Given its geographical location, Vietnam plays an important role in taking the lead in strengthening linkages between ASEAN mainland and the rest of the region, in particular on global emerging issues like climate change, biodiversity, marine debris, agriculture, and sustainable environment, especially along the Mekong sub-region.

What do you expect of ASEAN under the leadership of Vietnam this year? What are the difficulties or challenges ASEAN will have to overcome?

2020 started off as an important year for ASEAN.

While COVID-19 has slightly derailed some of its events and initiatives, ASEAN has stayed focused on undertaking important milestone exercises, as the region demonstrates commitment in its integration journey.

The MTR of the implementation of ASEAN Community 2025 Blueprints and RCEP are examples I have cited.

Of course, the foremost challenge now is for the region to continue to work closely together in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic with swiftness, openness and cohesiveness.

In this regard, Vietnam has done extremely well in initiating practical measures to tackle this issue, especially in addressing the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19.

Working in close collaboration with Thailand, Vietnam has led the establishing of the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund.

ASEAN will also launch a Regional Reserve for Medical Supplies, and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on Public Health Emergencies.

Other priorities include laying the groundwork to prepare ASEAN in adapting to and thriving in the era of Industry 4.0, including bridging the digital divide, and working towards a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient economy and society.

What will ASEAN look like in three years, five years and coming decades? What will be the place for this regional bloc in the 'Asian century'?

The emergence of Asia is indeed exciting times, and ASEAN is well-positioned to showcase the prospects of the so-called 'Asian century'.

As a start, an ASEAN with enhanced political cohesion, economic integration and social responsibility, will continue to work with likeminded nations and states towards a dynamic, inclusive and open global community where prosperity and responsibility for peace and security are shared by all.

Within the grouping, ASEAN will maintain and strive to be a responsible, open, rules-based, and globally connected player, that participates in global value chains and supply-chain connectivity.

ASEAN will also continuously strengthen its co-operation mechanisms and resources to be agile and resilient in addressing future challenges.

In doing so, ASEAN would be ready to seize the opportunities in the evolving regional and global environment. VNS

Vietnam  a proactive, responsible and leading member of ASEAN Since becoming a member of ASEAN 25 years ago, Vietnam has developed into an important member of the group and has significantly contributed to elevating the blocs position and consolidating the centrality of ASEAN within the region.
By Akbar Mammadov

The State of Palestine firmly supports Azerbaijans territorial integrity and stands for the implementation of the UN Security Council over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Palestinian Ambassador Nasir Abdulkarim said during the meeting with Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, the ministrys press service reported on July 27.

The ambassador also expressed condolences to the families of the Azerbaijani servicemen killed as a result of the military provocation committed by Armenian armed forces in the Azerbaijani-Armenian border on 12 July.

The ambassador noted with satisfaction that the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has always demonstrated cooperation and coordination in the activities of the diplomatic corps in Azerbaijan. Speaking about the bilateral relations, Nasir Abdulkarim said that there are fraternal ties between the two peoples, and the relations between the countries have historical roots.

The minister emphasized the mutual support of both sides within the international framework. It was also stressed that so far, mutual visits between the two countries have contributed to the development of these relations.

Bayramov informed Nasir Abdulkarim about Armenias deliberate military provocation committed on the border and the current situation in the region. He noted that Armenian could achieve none of its goals, on the contrary, it once again showed its aggressive nature and faced the decisive position of the international community.

Bayramov, noting that Armenias aggressive policy is the root of the tension in the region, emphasized the need to eliminate the consequences of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict and the negotiations on the settlement of the conflict should serve this purpose.

He also stressed that Azerbaijan demands substantive and results-oriented negotiations and does not participate in the negotiations just for the sake of negotiations.

Expressing gratitude for the warm reception, the Palestinian ambassador conveyed the congratulations of the Palestinian Foreign Minister and his best wishes to Bayramov on ensuring Azerbaijans national interests on the international arena.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
BAINBRIDGE, Ga., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Danimer Scientific , a leading developer and manufacturer of biodegradable materials, today announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected the company as one of eight organizations receiving a total of nearly $5.7 million in support to conduct research and development projects within the biomanufacturing industry. Of the eight recipients, Danimer Scientific is the sole organization focused on the manufacture of biodegradable plastics.

The project will accelerate the commercialization of polyhydroxyalkanoate, a material verified by the University of Georgia as a truly biodegradable alternative to traditional petrochemical plastic. To carry out the work, Danimer Scientific will work closely with research teams at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden Colorado and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. With access to state-of-the-art facilities and expertise provided by the DOE program, Danimer Scientific will produce tunable combinations of PHA with different chain lengths, enabling the creation of new biodegradable plastics for a greater range of applications.

"Reducing the environmental impact of single-use plastic waste is one of the most pressing issues facing our planet, and with the DOE's support, we can explore potential new areas of applications for PHAs that have not been tried before," said Phil Van Trump, CTO of Danimer Scientific. "We thank the DOE for its support of this project and are looking forward to breaking new ground in the world of biodegradable plastics."

Part of the Agile BioFoundry (ABF) consortium, the eight projects selected by the DOE will leverage National Laboratory capabilities to address challenges in biomanufacturing.

Sponsored by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Bioenergy Technologies Office, the Agile BioFoundry (ABF) aims to advance biomanufacturing by uniting and expanding the capabilities of the National Laboratories to develop a robust, agile biomanufacturing platform accessible to researchers across the private and public sectors. ABF partners include Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and more than a dozen university and industry partners.

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Justin Trudeau is having a bad summer, but its not his first brush with uncomfortable political heat in July.

In fact, theres a lot about the summer of 2020 that boomerangs back to the long hot days of 2017, when Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Governor-General Julie Payette  each in their own ways  created political firestorms for Trudeaus government.

History has a knack for repeating itself in this government, even when its in the midst of unprecedented political times.

The presence of Morneau and Payette in this summers political headlines speaks not just to recurring characters, but to recurring themes for Trudeau, and quite possibly some lessons unlearned from three years ago.

Its striking, in retrospect, how two announcements within one week in July 2017 have retained the power to send ripples through this very strange year in Canadian politics.

On July 13 three years ago, the news emerged that former astronaut Payette was being named by Trudeau as the next governor-general. Five days later, on July 18, Canadas finance minister unveiled a proposal to close tax loopholes for self-employed people working as private corporations.

Both of these decisions would come back to haunt the Trudeau government  even now, in the summer of 2020.

While historians will probably never agree on exactly when Trudeaus honeymoon in power ended after his triumphant 2015 election victory, the events of July 2017 certainly sealed the idea that this Liberal government was flawed and fallible.

Within days of the Payette announcement, journalists began to unearth incidents from her past that cast doubts on her suitability for such a high office  a dismissed assault charge and involvement in a fatal collision when she lived in the United States.

Questions, good ones, were raised about how Payette cleared the vetting process, and why the Trudeau government had not put her appointment through the selection panel that had been established for her predecessor, David Johnston, when he was appointed by Stephen Harper.

Meanwhile, the Morneau announcement was also starting to look more ill-considered with each passing day of that long hot summer. Small-business owners of all kinds were girding for all-out revolt against the tax changes, calling them an attack on entrepreneurs and hard-working Canadians.

By the time fall rolled around, Liberal MPs were feeling the political damage; Morneau would eventually soften the proposal to ease its impact on small businesses.

The connecting thread between those two controversies was lack of political forethought and a certain tone-deafness among members of Team Trudeau. So convinced were they of their own correctness in the two announcements that due diligence went out the window  proper vetting in Payettes case, potential political impact in the tax issue.

There was one more connecting theme  it wasnt just opposition critics who were the most outraged, but Liberals themselves. The worst political wounds are always the self-inflicted ones.

Much has been written, including by this columnist, about how the WE controversy of today contains echoes of Trudeaus past run-ins with the ethics commissioner. But the parallels to the political missteps of summer 2017 are also worth a recall.

Once again, in 2020, here is Morneau neck-deep in controversy, looking out of touch with people whose annual income roughly matches the cost of his familys WE-sponsored trips, which the finance minister neglected to turn down and forgot to pay for. What was it about the summer of 2017 that failed to sink in with Morneau and the advisers around him?

Payette is back in the news for what looks like serious turmoil among her staff: hair-raising stories told to CBC about tantrums and management-inflicted humiliation at the highest reaches of the GGs office. Stories have been simmering for the past three years about Payette being a difficult fit for the job  a problem that may have come to light in a proper review of her qualifications.

The whole story of how WE Charity came to be such a serious problem for Trudeau this summer is just a little too similar to the bumpy summer of 2017  a government barrelling ahead with plans and personalities that should have raised red flags before they were announced.

Sure, Liberals may take some comfort from the fact that Morneau, Payette and the prime minister himself survived the summer of 2017. But just as that summer disrupted the long, post-election honeymoon, this summer of 2020 is a crashing blow to all the good reviews Trudeau and his team were accumulating in the pandemic.

Everyone in Canada likes to store up good summer memories for the long cold winter. But bad-summer memories can be handy too, especially for governments interested in learning from mistakes, not repeating them.
CHICAGO  Chicago added Missouri, Wisconsin, Nebraska and North Dakota to the list of states where people who are traveling to the city must quarantine for two weeks as Illinois learned that its own residents must do the same when they travel to New York, New Jersey or Connecticut.

Chicago officials said that beginning Friday, anyone from those states who doesn't comply with the requirement could face possible fines. They issued the quarantine order in early July. Initially, it applied to travelers from 15 states, but it has been updated weekly based on increasing numbers of confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

The expansion announced Tuesday brought the total number of affected states to 22.

Three of the five states bordering Illinois are included in the order; Iowa was listed in a previous update. Chicago officials acknowledged that Wisconsin's inclusion, though, could be more complicated.

Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of Chicago's Department of Public Health, said city residents who work in Wisconsin or vice versa can continue commuting if their jobs require it but should otherwise limit their activities.
Police in the central province of Quang Nam announced on July 27 that they have found a group of Chinese nationals staying at a beachside villa in Dien Duong ward, Dien Ban town, who are believed to have entered Vietnam illegally.

Some of the group have attempted to escape from police detention, while 21 have been sent to State-designated quarantine camps.

Legal proceedings have been launched against the case of brokering illegal entry into Vietnam and paying bribes, under Articles 348 and 364 of the Penal Code.

A day earlier, a Chinese man was arrested in neighbouring Da Nang city for illegally bringing foreigners into Vietnam.

Gao Liang Gu, 42, was captured by police forces in Da Nang and Quang Nam on July 25 while he was staying at a hotel in Ngu Hanh Son district.

He has been identified as the leader of a ring trafficking Chinese nationals into the two localities in recent weeks. He was taken to Quang Nam for further questioning.

Da Nang police found four Chinese nationals illegally in Vietnam during an administrative inspection in Khue My ward, Ngu Hanh Son district on July 11, and another group of 27 in a hotel in An Hai Bac ward, Son Tra district, on July 26.

All have been quarantined and tested in line with COVID-19 prevention and control regulations./.VNA
A Black Lives Matter rally in Sydney's CBD was shut down before it even started, with police arresting and fining several protesters, including one of the organisers.

While the protest was scheduled to start at midday in The Domain, by noon protesters had left the area after being encouraged to disperse and issued with move-on orders.

Paddy Gibson is detained by NSW Police at the Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney. Nick Moir

Almost 1500 people had indicated on Facebook they would attend the rally, but only about 40 turned up.

Six were arrested, five of whom were issued with a $1000 penalty infringement notice for breaching public health orders.

One of those was co-organiser Paddy Gibson who was removed by police before midday after speaking to an officer. The officer had been telling protesters on a megaphone they were breaching the public health orders.

Six people were arrested at an illegal Black Lives Matter rally at the Domain, Sydney.

Protesters chanted, "Let him go, let him go," as Mr Gibson was being led away. He urged the crowd to disperse and not to come to his aid.

A woman, 25, was also arrested and issued a criminal infringement notice for offensive language.

The protest was organised by the family of David Dungay jnr, a Dunghutti man who died in custody in 2015 after he was held down by Corrective Services officers while gasping "I can't breathe".

Mr Dungay's nephew Paul Silva said he wanted to see the officers involved in his uncle's death stood down and the matter reinvestigated by Safework NSW.

Protesters are detained and fined at the Black Lives Matter march. Nick Moir

He said police had shut down a table where protesters were handing out masks and hand sanitiser.

Mr Silva was issued with a move-on order and, as he was leaving the area, said: "NSW Police have told us we will be arrested."

Mr Gibson was released from police custody and issued a $1000 fine.

As he was leaving, Mr Gibson said he was "all right".

"We tried to be as safe as we could today," he said. Well continue our fight for justice. I dont regret it at all."

Protesters are told to move on by NSW Police. Nick Moir

Another man, who was also issued a $1000 fine, tore it up and said he would take the matter to court.

Several hundred police officers were at the rally, including the riot, dog and mounted police squads.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing said while the force appreciated people's right to protest, it was not appropriate to do it in the midst of a pandemic.

"We understand that the issues in question here are significant and are sensitive to a lot of people. However, we must do what we can to ensure that the public in general are safe at this time," he said.

"We are not anti-protest, just don't do it in the middle of a pandemic.

"Find another way to express your views, find another way to have your voice," he said.

Last week, police took court action seeking a prohibition order for the rally, which was granted on Sunday.

The prohibition order did not ban the rally, but left participants exposed to potential criminal sanction including for breaching public health orders.

While an appeal was lodged, it was later dismissed by the NSW Court of Appeal. Despite the outcome, protesters vowed the rally would go ahead.

Mr Dungays mother Leetona appeared at State Parliament with supporters just before 3pm to present a petition calling for the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions to consider laying criminal charges against the prison guards who restrained her son.

Almost 100,000 people have signed the petition.

"It was a bit scary, she said of the rally. "We showed them a sign that we weren't going to give up."

With Michaela Whitbourn
Yves here. A point that caught my attention comes partway thought this piece, that the US is repositioning forces to the China theater. The wee problem with any aggression or even just displays is that the time to Do Something about Chinas claims on the South China Sea was in 2014 when China started constructing its artificial islands.

By Paul Rogers, professor in the department of peace studiesat Bradford University, northern England. He has been writing a weekly column on global security since 28 September 2001; he also writes a monthly briefing for the Oxford Research Group. His latest book is Irregular War: ISIS and the New Threat from the Margins (IB Tauris, 2016), which follows Why Were Losing the War on Terror (Polity, 2007), and Losing Control: Global Security in the 21st Century (Pluto Press, 3rd edition, 2010). He is on Twitter at: @ProfPRogers. Originally published at openDemocracy

In the run-up to Novembers election, Donald Trumps position looks increasingly fraught as his poll ratings slip. If he does become more desperate he may look for a foreign diversion, perhaps a useful little war in a far-off place with not too big a country. An earlier column pointed to North Korea or Iran as possible hosts, especially as each has its own need for a political diversion. There are also indications, however, of rising tensions with a somewhat more powerful state.

A confrontation with China, over the contested islands of the South China Sea would be a particularly helpful for the US Navy, which has been having more than its fair share of problems recently. First came two collisions in 2017 involving US destroyers and merchant ships in the west Pacific, which killed seventeen sailors and pointed to serious deficiencies in training. As Defense News reported: What was not thoroughly answered by the reviews was how it was possible, on two of the worlds most advanced warships, that the watch teams on the bridge and the radar monitors in the combat information center aboard the destroyers didnt manage to coordinate to avoid the collisions.

More recently we had two of the navys nuclear-powered supercarriers being confined to port because of COVID-19 outbreaks. To rub salt in the wound the US Air Force, by pure coincidence of course, staged a series of intercontinental exerciseswith its strategic bomber force. All three bomber types  the B-1B, the B-2 and the B-52  were used in demonstrations of global reach, the planes taking off from the continental US and heading to exercises in either western Europe or the west Pacific.

That was bad enough but last Sunday week saw a massive fire in the 40,000-ton amphibious warfare ship the USS Bonhomme Richard, moored in San Diego harbour. The cause of the fire is not known, but it took many days and both navy and civilian firefighters to put it out, leaving hundreds of millions of dollars of damage, so bad that the ship may well be scrapped rather than repaired. Eleven of its fourteen decks were damaged, some of them wrecked almost beyond recognition, and sections of the flight deck were left warped and bulging.

The Bonhomme Richard is commonly deployed with aircraft, formerly the AV-8B version of the UKs Sea Harrier jump jet and now the new US F-35, and to all intents and purposes has the capability of a light aircraft carrier. Its likely loss is a further blow to the navy: this is where a show of strength against China really will come in handy, as long as it doesnt get too hot.

As if on cue, the Pentagons rhetoric on presumed Chinese designs on South China Sea marine resources included a comment from the Secretary of the Navy, James Esper: American aircraft carriers have been in the South China Sea in the Indo-Pacific since World War II and well continue to be there, and were not going to be stopped by anybody.

This followed a deployment of two aircraft carrier strike groups, headed by the carriers Ronald Reagan and Nimitz, to joint exercises in the region at the start of July. Since then, according to the US Naval Institute, the Ronald Reagan group has moved to the Philippine Seafor exercises with a Japanese destroyer and a substantial Australian task group led by the amphibious warfare ship HMAS Canberra. The Nimitz, meanwhile, has moved on to exercises with the Indian navy.

The whole process is part of a wider US positioning of military forces around Chinathat includes the recent deployment of four US Air Force B-1B Lancer strategic bombersfrom Dyess Air Force Base in Texas to Andersen AFB on Guam in the western Pacific. According to the commander of the USAFs 7th Bomb Wing,Colonel Ed Sumangi, in a news release: Our wing has conducted, and participated in, a variety of exercises over the last year to ensure we are primed for large-scale missions such as this one. Were excited to be back in Guam and proud to continue to be part of the ready bomber force prepared to defend America and its allies against any threat.

China, meanwhile, has rather upped the ante by announcing a series of live fire military exercises reportedly involving the firing of 3,000 missiles, with the South China Morning Post reportingthat:

Chinas air force held live-fire drills and sent more fighter jets to its base on disputed Woody Island in the South China Sea last week, as the US Navy steps up drills and freedom of navigation operations in the region. The Peoples Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command conducted the drills on Wednesday and Thursday last week, with more than 3,000 missiles fired at moving targets at sea, state-run China National Radio reported on Sunday. It did not say where in the South China Sea the exercises were held. Photos from the drills posted on state broadcaster CCTVs website showed they involved JH-7 bombers and J-11B fighter jets.

None of this means that a conflict is imminent but in these circumstances and with parts of the South China Sea claimed variously by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan as well as China, the concern at times of high tension lies in the risk of unplanned escalation stemming from factors usefully summarised in the acronym AIM  accidents, incidents and mavericks. Perhaps the particular issue here lies not with direct risks in and around the South China Sea but back in Washington DC and the desperate need of the biggest maverick of them all, President Donald J. Trump, to get re-elected in November.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 00:40:38|Editor: huaxia

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SAN FRANCISCO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Google will allow most employees to work from home through June 2021 as COVID-19 cases continue to surge, according to a report by San Francisco Chronicle on Monday.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of both Google and parent company Alphabet Inc., has decided to keep its workforce under a work-from-home mandate until at least July 2021, the newspaper reported.

Pichai said in a memo to employees that most of the company's workers can stay home for an additional six months, extending a policy that was previously through the end of 2020. The decision will affect up to 200,000 Alphabet employees and contractors worldwide, the report said.

"To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we are extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021, for roles that don't need to be in the office," Pichai was quoted as saying.

The absence of Google workers, along with other tech firms like Facebook and Salesforce, has devastated restaurants and shops in the region. The shift to working from home has also contributed to a housing slump in the Bay Area.

The Mountain View, California-based company will report second-quarter earnings Thursday. Google said in April when the first-quarter earnings report came out that it would pause hiring for most positions as the coronavirus pandemic caused a "significant slowdown" in its core advertising business. Enditem
Staff separate the cabin of the plane that is used to repatriate 219 Vietnamese citizens in Equatorial Guinea. The flight takes off on July 28 from Hanoi. Photo by Vietnam News Agency.

The World Health Organization has hailed Vietnam for its quick response to the latest Covid-19 outbreak and bringing back its stranded citizens from abroad.

Kidong Park, the WHO Representative in Vietnam, referring to the recent Covid-19 cases caused by local transmission in Da Nang and the nearby province of Quang Ngai, said: "We will not be surprised if Vietnam records more Covid-19 cases in the community in the upcoming time.

"It shows that the disease surveillance system has been working effectively, allowing it to find cases quickly and in time.

"We believe Vietnam will be able to quickly detect infection cases, track down suspected ones and locate the stricken areas to put down the outbreaks."

He was speaking at a meeting with the National Steering Committee on Covid-19 Prevention and Control in Hanoi Monday, Vietnam News Agency reported.

Since April 16 the country had gone 99 days without a single local case of infection.

But on July 25 a man in Da Nang was diagnosed with Covid-19, and then three more cases of community transmission were found the next day in the city and Quang Ngai.

On Monday, seven patients and four medical staff at the Da Nang Hospital tested positive.

Authorities are still searching for the source of infection of all 15 patients.

Until the new Covid-19 cases were discovered last weekend, the only others infected were citizens returning from abroad on repatriation flights organized by the government.

This reflects a "humanitarian policy which could reinforce peoples trust in the government," Park said.

WHO respects Vietnams decision to bring home hundreds more from stricken areas, including 219 from Equatorial Guinea, of whom more than half are infected, and 226 from Uzbekistan, of whom around 100 are infected.

On Tuesday morning a flight left for Equatorial Guinea from Hanoi along with a medical team.

Those in Uzbekistan are expected to be brought back early next month.

Since April Vietnam has operated more than 60 flights to bring home more than 16,000 nationals from over 50 countries and territories, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

With dozens of new infections expected to be found in Da Nang, the steering committee has called on the Ministry of Health to have its personnel at hospitals and clinics in localities near the city to stand by to assist.

By Tuesday morning Vietnam had reported 431 Covid-19 cases, 66 of them active. The rest have recovered.
Scranton, PA (18503)

Today

Considerable cloudiness. Morning high of 28F with temps falling to near 15. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Bitterly cold. Considerable clouds early. Some decrease in clouds late. Low 6F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.
Divorce is the death of a marriage, and it produces both loss and grief. The Bible uses strong language when discussing divorce; Malachi 2:16 says:

The man who hates and divorces his wife, says the LORD, the God of Israel, does violence to the one he should protect, says the LORD Almighty. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful. (NIV)

For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless." (ESV)

If he hates and divorces [his wife], says the Lord God of Israel, he covers his garment with injustice, says the Lord of Hosts. Therefore, watch yourselves carefully, and do not act treacherously. (CSB)

For I hate divorce," says the LORD, the God of Israel, "and him who covers his garment with wrong, says the LORD of hosts. So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously." (NASB)

For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. (KJV)

We are probably most familiar with the NASB translation and have heard the phrase God hates divorce. Strong language is used in Malachi to show that the marriage covenant is not to be taken lightly. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible comments on the verse phrase The man who hates,

The clause is difficult and may be understood in reference to God as the one who hates divorce (e.g., I hate divorce in other translations like NRSV or NASB), or in reference to the man who hates and divorces his wife. Regardless, God hates a broken covenant (cf. 1:3; Hos 9:15).

The notes continue and point out that divorce is a type of social crime as it breaks the marital covenant and takes protection away from the woman who was afforded it legally in the marriage. Divorce not only puts the one being divorced in a difficult position, but it also causes much suffering for all involved, including the children in the family.

The ESV Study Bible agrees that this is one of the most difficult Old Testament passages to translate. Because of this the ESV has a footnote for verse 16 that says 1 Hebrew who hates and divorces 2 Probably meaning (compare Septuagint and Deuteronomy 24:1-4); or The LORD, the God of Israel, says that he hates divorce, and him who covers. This translation that God hates divorce puts the focus of the passage on Gods hatred of the practice of divorce vs. the hatred of the man doing the divorcing. Whichever way the verse is translated (Gods hatred toward the practice, or the hatred of the man committing divorce), God is opposed to this type of divorce (faithless husbands sending away their wives) in Mal. 2:13-15. And Malachi is clear that marriage is indeed a covenant derived from the creation account. Marriage involves an oath taken before God, therefore, when it is broken it is broken before God. The Bible has more to say about divorce below.

Where Does the Bible Talk about Divorce?

The Old Testament:

In addition to Malachi, here are two other passages.

Exodus 21:10-11,

If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money.

Deuteronomy 24:1-5,

If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD. Do not bring sin upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.

The New Testament:

From Jesus

Matthew 5:31-32,

It has been said, Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce. But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Matt. 19:1-12,

When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason? Havent you read, he replied, that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and said, For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. Why then, they asked, did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away? Jesus replied, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery. The disciples said to him, If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry. Jesus replied, Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by othersand there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.

Mark 10:1-12,

Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them. Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? What did Moses command you? he replied. They said, Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away. It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law, Jesus replied. But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. He answered, Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.

Luke 16:18,

Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

From Paul

1 Corinthians 7:10-11,

To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

1 Cor. 7:39,

A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord.

Find More Verses Here.

Related: This Is the Reason God Actually Hates Divorce by Laura Petherbridge on Crosswalk.com.

What the Bible Actually Says about Divorce

[David] Instone-Brewer [author of Divorce and Remarriage in the Church] argues that Jesus not only defended the true meaning of Deuteronomy 24:1 but also accepted what the rest of the Old Testament taught on divorce. Exodus taught that everyone had three rights within marriage  the rights to food, clothing, and love. (We see these even in Christian marriage vows to love, honor, and keep.) Paul taught the same thing: married couples owe each other love (1 Cor. 7:3-5) and material support (1 Cor. 7:33-34). If these rights were neglected, the wronged spouse had the right to seek a divorce. Abuse, an extreme form of neglect, also was grounds for divorce. There was debate on whether or not abandonment was grounds for divorce, so Paul dealt with it. He wrote that believers may not abandon their partners and, if they have done so, they should return (1 Cor. 7:10-11). If someone is abandoned by an unbeliever, or a spouse who will not obey the command to return, then the abandoned person is "no longer bound."

The Old Testament allows for, and the New Testament affirms, the following grounds for divorce:

Of course, having grounds for divorce does not mean that one should divorce. God hates divorce, and for good reason. It can be devastating for all involved, and the negative effects can last for years. Divorce always should be a last resort. But God does allow for divorce (and subsequent remarriage) in some cases when marriage vows are broken.

-What the Bible Actually Says about Divorce section excerpted from What the Bible Says about Divorce: A Guide for Men by Chris Bolinger on Crosswalk.com.

3 Truths Every Christian Needs to Know about Divorce

1. God Hates Divorce

Oh, I know you cringe when you hear that! Its thrown in your face as if divorce is the unpardonable sin. But lets be honest: God does hate divorceand so do youand so do I. As I began to look more deeply into Malachi 2:16, I found the context interesting. You see, the context is of the unfaithful spouse, the one who hurts his/her spouse deeply. Its about being cruel to your spouse, the one that we should love and protect more than any other. God hates the actions that often lead to divorce as we know it. Since we are throwing around things that God hates, lets take a look at another passage:

There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community (Proverbs 6:16-19).

Ouch! That stings! Let me just say that anyone who is throwing Malachi 2:16 at you needs to stop and take a look at Proverbs 6. We, as Christians, need to remember that there is none righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10). We need to remember that Christ died for our pride and our lies just as much as he died for our divorces. And, its often the sins of Proverbs 6 that lead to divorce. Since walking through my own divorce, I have come to the conclusion that God hates divorce because of the immense pain and suffering that it causes his children. It is far less about sin and far more about his fathers heart for us.

2. To Remarry... Or Not?

I am sure you have heard the arguments that you cannot remarry unless you want to live in adultery and risk your eternal soul. I, personally, have a real problem with that. Lets start with interpretation of scripture. I am neither a Greek nor Hebrew scholar. There are enough of those around that I can turn to them to gain from their years of education and experience. However, not one of us was around to have full knowledge of what God intended when he gave the Holy Spirit inspired scripture to the authors. There are scholars who say remarriage is never an option. There are scholars who say remarriage is only an option in the case of adultery. And there are scholars who say remarriage is always allowed because of Gods grace.

No matter what, any interpretation is exactly that: a human interpretation. Only the scripture itself is a divinely inspired Word of God. We have to be very cautious about taking a human interpretation and forcing it on others, lest we become like the Pharisees. Ultimately, your decision to remarry is between you and God. It is a decision that should be made in prayer and consultation with trusted biblical advisors. And, it is a decision that should only be made when you (and your future spouse) have taken plenty of time to heal from your past hurts and to become as much like Christ as possible.

Heres a quick thought for you: the lineage of Christ recorded in Matthew 1 lists a prostitute (Rahab, who eventually married Salmon), an adulterous couple (David, who married Bathsheba after having her husband murdered), and a widow (who married her kinsman-redeemer, Boaz). I find it very interesting that there are three women who were remarried in the direct lineage of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Can we say grace?

3. God is the Redeemer of All Things

Throughout scripture, we are given so many promises to show us that there is always hope! Romans 8:28 tells us that all things work together for the good of those who love God. Zechariah 9:12 tells us that God will repay two blessings for each of our troubles. In John 11, Jesus proclaims that he is the resurrection and the life; he will take you from the death of divorce and breathe new life into you. And 1 Peter 5:10 says that the suffering wont last forever but one day he will have you put together and on your feet again.

When this journey began for me nearly six years ago, I wasnt sure I believed those promises. God had failed me, or so I thought. I had dedicated my life to him, and the blessing I received was a husband who was unrepentant of his adultery. I was finished with God. But he wasnt finished with me. He pursued me relentlessly and called me to get my security from him. He gently reminded me that he has been with me all the days of my life and that he wasnt going to leave me now. He reminded me that he has great plans for me. I was a broken, rejected mess. But God reminded me that he loves me, that I am his chosen child, his treasured possession. He told me that I am the apple of his eye (Psalm 17:8). He reminded me that I am his masterpiece, created to do good works (Ephesians 2:10). I was once called, and can never be disqualified because his call is irrevocable (Romans 11:29).

-3 Truths Every Christian Needs to Know about Divorce excerpted from 3 Beautiful Truths Every Divorced Christian Needs to Know by Dena Johnson on Crosswalk.com.

What Should You Do When Your Spouse Wants Out?

Do Be Patient

Patience buys time. No matter how difficult, take life one day at a time. Make decisions one by one. Overcome obstacles separately. Start with matters you can do something about. Patiently work out how to deal with situations or problems that seem overwhelming. Take time to seek wise counsel.



Do Ask a Trusted Third Party

Do you know someone that your departing spouse holds in high esteem? If so, ask that person to intervene in your marriage. It may be a pastor, a friend, her parent, or even one or more of your children (if mature). Ask the person(s) to spend time with your mate, to listen to her, and to do everything possible to influence her to agree to marriage counseling or our intensive marriage weekend workshop. Our experience is that often a spouse who absolutely refuses counseling or a workshop when asked by a spouse will agree, if reluctantly, when urged by a third party that they deeply care for.



Do Provide a Perk

If you want to try marriage counseling or attend a marriage intensive workshop such as our Marriage Helper 911, you may be able to convince your reluctant spouse to attend by offering something if she does. Many times in our workshop, for example, people have told me that the only reason they came was that their spouse offered some concession in their pending divorce in return for their coming. Almost universally, I hear that from a person who during the workshop concluded that he wanted to stay in his marriage. I didnt want to be here. She said if I came, shed agree to _____ when we divorced. Im glad I came. I see how we can work this out.



Do Prove You Have Changed

Rather than focusing only on the faults of your spouse, admit your own weaknesses. When you begin working on improving yourself in those areas, you benefit yourself. You also make strides toward salvaging your marriage.



Do Persevere

It takes strength to work at saving a marriage when your spouse wants to leave. Stay strong. Find a support system of people who will encourage you and who will be optimistic about the possibility of reconciliation. Focus on taking care of yourself. Exercise. Eat as you should. Start a new hobby to keep your mind from obsessing on your troubles. Get involved in your church. Get individual counseling. Whether your marriage makes it or not, you need to provide for yourself spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically. Actually, as you do, you also do the things that have the strongest likelihood of causing your spouse to realize what he will lose if the marriage ends.

-What Should You Do When Your Spouse Wants Out excerpted from What to Do When Your Spouse Wants Out by Joe Beam on Crosswalk.com.

7 Thoughts If Youre Considering Divorce

1. Trust the Lord, dont trust yourself. Relationships can cause hurt, and hurt people find it hard to think straight. God knows all, sees all, and works everything together for your good. Trust in the Lord and what He says in his Word.

2. Realize that the answer to suffering is not always to move away from it. God sometimes calls us to follow Him by walking into or remaining under suffering. (I am not talking about remaining under abuse, but the many other conflicts and sufferings of life that married people face in a fallen world.)

3. Contemplate that God is accomplishing a purpose in your sufferings.

4. Wait on the Lord. Dont act hastily. Keep doors open. Only close the doors that you are certain God says you should close.

5. Dont just trust that God can change someone elses heart. Trust that He can change and renew your heart.

6. Meditate on Scripture related to the issue of marriage, separation, and divorce.

7. Whatever actions you consider taking, ask whether you can take that action for the glory of God.

-7 Thoughts If Youre Considering Divorce excerpted from 11 Important Thoughts for Those Considering Divorce by Randy Alcorn on Crosswalk.com

5 Positive Things to Do after Divorce

1. Manage Conflict with Peace

Jesus is a great example for how to conduct ourselves in the face of conflict. He kept himself calm by knowing God was still in control even as His enemies were attacking. He spoke out to His disciples sharing that He knew they were going to betray Him but He left the consequences of these actions in Gods hands. You cannot control how your spouse behaves during or after the divorce, but you can control how you act and treat other people. Treat them with the respect they deserve as the parent of your child, or at least as a fellow human being  even if theyre acting like some sort of alien from outer space.

2. Embrace the Circumstances God Has You In

I am reminded of the story of Jesus and His disciples in the boat (Matthew 8:23-27). A huge storm began raging around them while Jesus slept peacefully. The disciples were afraid that these circumstances would ruin them and their boat. But Jesus knew who was in control. Then Jesus calmed the storm and showed the disciples Gods power over all situations. Most divorcing people are very scared during the divorce journey. We dont know how were going to survive. But as we embrace these unwanted circumstances, we realize that God was with us through the storm and through the pain. He is never going to leave or let you drown. During my divorce, I knew He wasnt going to stop the storm immediately. Actually it still hasnt really stopped, but He is always working things out even if I cant yet see it. I only need to have faith in His promises.

3. Challenge the Lonely Feelings with Benevolence While Single and Healing

Feeling lonely after divorce is a real concern of many of the women I speak to. It seems to be the biggest struggle that Christian women (and Im sure men too) face while working on healing. When the divorce wasnt wanted in the first place, feeling lonely seems to be an added consequence to an already mounting list. But we learn in the Bible that singleness is a gift from God. It may be hard to see it as such when youre feeling so much pain and loss. But its often an invitation to seek a relationship with the One who knows how to cure the pain and fill the void.

4. Reclaim Your Life and Your Finances After Divorce

Another big struggle I hear from divorced people is the loss of their old life and the lifestyle they were used to living. This is huge loss that also needs to be mourned. It is difficult knowing that you worked so hard to help your spouse achieve a career and financial success, yet now you have to start your life over at what feels like the very beginning, without his or her help (or only temporary help). I was a stay-at-home mom, homeschooling my two youngest children, when I faced my divorce. I had not worked outside of the home since before my 10-year-old was born. I had only done a little bit of freelance writing and social media work for bloggers, and I hadnt finished my college education. Im not saying it has been easy, but each year gets more exciting as I listen to Gods leading and direction for my life. I can see where things I did before my divorce, and even before my marriage, have become useful to me today.

5. Be Cautious with Future Relationships as to Not Repeat Divorce

Most of the articles Ive read about the consequences of divorce talk about the high divorce rate of second and third marriages. Knowing these statistics kept me trapped in my adulterous marriage thinking I would only face another divorce in the future. I can still see where this is very relevant to the conversation, but when we work through our emotional healing and get rid of any excess baggage, we all can go on to live an emotionally healthy life (with or without another marriage). Sometimes were preyed upon by an evil-hearted person (who fools and traps us) but other times we choose an unhealthy mate because we dont think we deserve any better. Often this is subconscious until we see the pattern of harmful relationships, realizing we have a broken relationship picker.

As someone on the other side of all the divorce baggage and healing, I can say its worth it to do the hard work before moving on to dating and remarriage after divorce. Whether I remarry or not I know that I wont fall for the same tricks that worked on me 20 years ago. Ive learned a lot from my divorce and the healing afterwards. I hope you will do the same as well.

-5 Positive Things to Do after Divorce excerpted from 5 Positive Things You Can Do after Divorce by Jen Grice on iBelieve.com.

What Parents Need to Know about Children of Divorce

Kids and divorce is a complex subject and there are no easy answers. However, its imperative for parents to learn that they play a pivotal role in minimizing the trauma kids experience when their parents separate or divorce. Here are a few tips that might help:

Most kids will initially go into a form of denial when their parents separate. They believe, this is temporary, my parents will get back together. Even years later many kids still dream about their parents reuniting, which is one reason why they resist a parents remarriage.

Allow the child time to grieve. Children are unable to communicate grief in the same manner as adults. Therefore, they may be sad, angry, frustrated or depressed but can not express it.

Do not lie. In an age appropriate manner, and without gory details, tell the truth. The number one reason kids blame themselves for their parents divorce is because they were not told the truth.

When a parent belittles, bashes, or criticizes the other parent it can emotionally destroy a childs self worth. If dad is a no-good loser, I must be one too. If mom is a tramp, thats what Ill become.

The children who do the best after a divorce are those who have a strong relationship with both biological parents. Therefore, do not withhold visitation unless the child is being neglected or in danger.

Divorce is a death. With time to grieve, the proper help, and Jesus Christ, children from divorced homes can eventually become whole again. What they need is a godly, stable single parent who is willing to slow down, listen to instruction, and take the steps necessary to heal.

-What Parents Need to Know about Children of Divorce excerpted from What You Need to Know about Kids of Divorce by Laura Petherbridge on Crosswalk.com.

Related Articles:

Further Resources

Resource for Women:

The Christian Womans Guide to Starting over after Divorce

Resource for Men:

What the Bible Says about Divorce: A Guide for Men

Prayers for Divorce:

Photo credit: GettyImages/LiountmilaKorelidou

Liz Auld is the managing editor for Salem Web Network; she edits and writes content across the editorial sites (Crosswalk.com, Biblestudytools.com, iBelieve.com, Christianity.com). She has a B.A. in Religious Studies and has taken post-graduate classes in Theology and Global Studies. She enjoys reading books from a variety of genres, trying new recipes, and visiting family.
The Farmers Union of Wales has welcomed the news that bovine TB vaccine trials are due to begin shortly in England and Wales.

The trials form part of a longer-term strategy towards possible vaccine rollout by 2025.

They will be conducted over the next 4 years on behalf of the Welsh government, the Scottish government and Defra.

Bovine TB continues to be one of the most significant issues facing cattle keepers in Wales, with more than 12,000 cattle slaughtered in 2019 due to this disease.

Dr Hazel Wright, FUW senior policy officer said: Losing TB-free status is devastating to farming families and the restrictions on a farm can be emotionally and financially destructive.

The current Welsh bovine TB eradication programme target for TB freedom is 2041.

However, much of the current TB eradication programme is reactive and removes animals from the farm after they have contracted the disease.

Vaccination, in combination with a usable DIVA test, can act as a preventative measure and could play a vital role in disease eradication.

The start of vaccine trials represents many years of research and development into bovine TB vaccines and diagnostic tests," Dr Wright said.

"We hope to be informed as the research continues and we will await the results of the trial with great interest."

She said cattle vaccination continued to be one of the tools in the box that had been unavailable to farmers.

However, she said vaccination was not a silver bullet and it remained just one method of bovine TB control.

"We continue to support an holistic approach to bovine TB control in Wales which is guided by science and not politics," Dr Wright said.
U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh in 2018 . (Leah Mills / Pool Photo)

Members of Saad Jabris family are missing.

The former Saudi intelligence officer, along with U.S. congressional lawmakers and human rights groups, say Saudi Arabia's ruling royal dynasty is holding the Jabri relatives hostage to lure the family patriarch back to the desert kingdom from his self-imposed exile in Canada. Jabri is said to have incriminating information about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Critics call it the latest crackdown by the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, who apparently feels empowered in part by a Trump administration that has shown little interest in condemning authoritarian regimes or advocating for human rights. Trump essentially whitewashed the crown prince's involvement in the gruesome murder of a U.S.-based Saudi journalist two years ago.

Without the accountability that past U.S. governments have demanded, Prince Mohammed is becoming more ruthless," said Mohamed Soltan, head of a Washington-based human rights organization Freedom Initiative. "That wouldnt have happened without the Trump administration.

With polls showing President Trump is trailing in November, some countries are beginning to view the coming few months as perhaps their last chance to make provocative moves, cement gains or crack down on rivals before a more traditional U.S. policy takes hold and prevents or condemns such steps.

From Hungary to Honduras, increasingly autocratic governments are using the coronavirus pandemic as cover to grab power and institute constitutionally questionable measures of control in the name of security, all without protest from the U.S. government, which has been distracted by its own COVID-19 crisis and criticism over its heavy-handed response to racial justice protests nationwide.

Several Latin American countries have learned that as long as they cooperate with Trump on his immigration policies, they can get away with self-enriching corruption, gutting of the courts and political repression  reversing years of U.S.-backed attempts at reform in the neighboring region.

Story continues

And it's probably no accident that leaders of China and Russia have made moves during the Trump administration to effectively lock themselves into power for life, with no protest from Trump.

El Salvador's millennial-aged President Nayib Bukele in recent weeks has ridden roughshod over the national Legislature and the Supreme Court to further his own standing, undermining institutions that U.S. taxpayers spent millions of dollars over the years to build up. He is confident a Trump-led government will not utter a word of criticism, analysts in San Salvador say.

"Authoritarianism pre-existed Trump, but in the last three years it has gotten much worse" and appears on the ascendancy, including in sensitive and strategically important parts of the Western Hemisphere, said Gimena Sanchez-Garzoli, who tracks numerous of the region's countries at the Washington Office on Latin America.

In Honduras, source of a large share of people fleeing to the United States, President Juan Orlando Hernandez, an unindicted co-conspirator in a U.S. drug-trafficking case against his brother, has enjoyed unwavering support from Trump. (The brother was found guilty; the president has denied wrongdoing.) Hernandez won a controversial reelection in late 2017, thanks largely to a hasty endorsement from the Trump administration, and is believed to be maneuvering to run again, a move considered illegal and unconstitutional in Honduras.

Israel has already benefited enormously from Trump, who moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and unabashedly sided with Israel against Palestinians in peace talks. Until recently, it appeared Israel was planning to take advantage of that cozy relationship with Trump to embark on the ultimate power move: annexing parts of the occupied West Bank that Palestinians claim as their state.

The idea of annexation, considered illegal under international law, has invited widespread global condemnation, including from inside Israel  but not from the Trump administration. A future President Biden would be unlikely to stand for such a provocative step.

Perhaps fearing such a move might complicate Trump's reelection campaign, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to back off for now.

But while annexation may be on ice until after the U.S. election, Israel may be finding other ways to take advantage of its close relationship to Trump. A series of mysterious explosions in Iran at nuclear-related facilities in recent weeks has raised speculation about whether Israel was responsible. Under President Obama, Israel often found itself restricted, particularly when it came to possible confrontations with Iran, which could inflame the region.

Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, a rare Republican elected official willing to criticize Trump, says the administration's policies have set a poor example for the rest of the world and weakened America's traditional U.S. role as a global leader and unifier.

"We're saying, 'America first. Everybody go off and do your own thing.... Pursue your own interests,'" Romney said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing this month. "And America looks like we don't care about bringing the world together."

Several Arab states with poor human rights records, including Saudi Arabia, have lobbied the White House successfully in recent months to circumvent U.S. congressional opposition and push forward major acquisitions of U.S. weapons. A year ago, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo agreed to unfreeze the sale of $8 billion in weapons to Riyadh despite widespread opposition from Congress and human rights organizations.

And earlier this month, Trump ordered U.S. officials to ignore provisions of international arms-control agreements and proceed with the sale of large, armed Reaper drones to countries in the Middle East. (The restrictions were nonbinding but were negotiated and had been observed by 34 other world powers since 1987.)

"This reckless decision once again makes it more likely that we will export some of our most deadly weaponry to human rights abusers across the world," Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said recently. "This is yet another reckless move by an administration fixated with eliminating the international cooperation that has made the United States and other countries safer for decades.

Some of America's enemies may also be eyeing the next few months, hoping to lock in gains so they can negotiate with the next U.S. administration from a position of strength, several diplomats said.

"There is always the risk that America's adversaries will believe that as the U.S. is absorbed in its own internal affairs, it won't have the attention span to respond to their provocations," said Daniel Shapiro, a retired veteran State Department and National Security Council official and now a visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel. "They might want to expand their leverage."

Iran, for example, has stepped up support for its proxies , positioning Hezbollah forces in Lebanon on its border with Israel, according to former Israel intelligence officials.

"We see much more presence of Hezbollah along the border" which has created fear of renewed military attacks, said Sarit Zehavi, a retired Israeli army lieutenant colonel who now works with a think tank along Israel's northern border with Lebanon.
The dish highlights tasty broth, flat pieces of fried pork, attracting both locals and foreigners who taste it. A bowl of Cao Lau noodle soup Most people are curious about the name of the dish. An explanation says Cao lau is actually the local pronunciation of delicious dish in Chinese. Another says a long time ago, traders coming to Hoi An wanted to enjoyed noodles served on the top floor of eateries to easily look after their goods. This is the reason why the dish is called cao lau, which means high buildings in Vietnamese. Like Quang-style noodle soup, cao lau is a specialty of the central region in general and Hoi An in particular. However, some may not tell the difference between the two dishes. In fact, ingredients and the preparation of cao lau and Quang-style noodle soup both have their own features. The noodles used for cao lau are shorter than those for Quang noodle soup. The rice for cao lau noodles has to be soaked in water mixed with cajuput firewood ash. The step helps the noodles have a light yellow color. In addition, rice after being ground has to be mixed with water from the well-known Ba Le well in Hoi An which is believed to create the special taste of the noodles. Hoi An Market - PHOTO: LE TRANG Another difference is the crispy rice paper served with cao lau is brown while that for Quang-style noodle is rice paper with black sesame. At some local eateries, cooks use roasted pork skin instead of rice paper. The balance of flavor is what makes cao lau specialincluding noodles, slices of grilled pork, crispy rice paper, herbs collected from Tra Que vegetale village and Hoi An-style chili paste. If you dont have time to travel to Hoi An to enjoy this specialty, visit some eateries serving the dish in Saigon like Hoi pho Cao Lau, Vi Quang Cao Lau, Boong Cao Lau, etc. The dishes served there may be as good as the original. SGT


Press Release

July 28, 2020 Grace Poe on Telcos and PUV drivers ON TELCOS The frustration is growing by the day for fast, affordable and reliable internet service, which has become a necessity as people rely more on digital technologies amid the pandemic. We know that improving internet service and coverage will happen not only by obligating the telcos but government regulators as well to remove the roadblocks to building the necessary communication infrastructure. Pertinent national agencies and local government units should step up so that the approval of at least 25 regulatory permits for the construction of cell towers will not take six months. We also reiterate our call for the passage of the E-Government Act to make government services accessible online. This will establish real-time service and streamline business registration with government agencies, while ensuring transparency of dealings. To fully implement this when passed, internet connection is crucial. Both government and telcos should work double time to give our millions of Filipinos better and cheaper connectivity by the end of the year. We expect them to act with urgency and sense of duty for the sake of our people. ON PUV DRIVERS We will be watching. With no less than the President giving the marching orders to the DSWD and the DILG to look into the plight of our jeepney drivers, we hope something will be done to alleviate their woeful condition more than four months into the quarantine. Cash assistance should reach all displaced drivers. No one should be excluded or left out from the social amelioration program. While this aid will help them tide over for a few weeks, what this sector needs is a regular source of income to sustain them in the crucial months ahead. To date, only around 8,000 jeepneys have been reportedly allowed to resume operations. These comprise only 14 percent of the 55,000 registered in the National Capital Region. Concerned agencies owe it to our drivers and their families to lay down a clear plan on what to do with those who have been kept out of the roads. We must not leave them begging on the streets to keep their families' hunger at bay. Jeepney drivers will be an important component of the transport sector in ensuring mobility as we embark on a gradual, calculated reopening of the economy.
RESTON, Va., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology company, will attend the Jefferies 2020 Virtual Industrials Conference webcast.

Roger Krone, Leidos Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, will participate in a question and answer "fireside chat" on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020 at 1:15 p.m. ET.

A live audio webcast of the event will be available on the Leidos Investor Relations website at http://ir.leidos.com. A replay of the webcast will be available following the presentation at the same link listed above for 30 days afterward.

About Leidos

Leidos is a Fortune 500 information technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company's 37,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $11.09 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2020. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.

SOURCE Leidos

Related Links

http://www.leidos.com


Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's father has reportedly filed a first information report (FIR) against actress Rhea Chakraborty, Sushant's girlfriend, for abetment to suicide. The FIR, which alleges that Rhea took money from Sushant and instigated him to take his life, has been registered at Sushant's hometown Patna in Bihar. Sushant Singh Rajput died by suicide on June 14, 2020.

Sushant    Rhea    FIR; Rhea        | FilmiBeat

ANI confirmed the news by quoting the Inspector General of Patna, Central Zone. The news agency tweeted, "FIR registered against actor Rhea Chakraborty under various sections, including abetment of suicide, on the complaint of #SushantSinghRajput's father: Sanjay Singh, Inspector General, Patna Central Zone."

FIR registered against actor Rhea Chakraborty under various sections, including abetment of suicide, on the complaint of #SushantSinghRajput's father: Sanjay Singh, Inspector General, Patna Central Zone  ANI (@ANI) July 28, 2020

Rhea was alleged to have been dating Sushant for a while before he ended his life. The actress was among the first few to be questioned by the Mumbai Police following Sushant's suicide. ALSO READ: Sushant Singh Rajput Death Case: Details of Viscera Report Out!

It is to be noted that Sushant Singh Rajput's father had not registered a complaint with the Mumbai Police when he was questioned. According to reports, he had said that he has nothing against anyone.

Recently, a fan asked Sushant's sister why the family had not asked for a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) probe into the actor's death. She replied that they were waiting for the Mumbai Police to finish their investigation and come up with report. On July 27, the viscera report came in and the Mumbai Police revealed that there is no foul play in Sushant Singh Rajput's death.

ALSO READ: Sushant's Sister Reveals Why Family Has Not Yet Demanded CBI Inquiry In Actor's Death Case

A month after Sushant Singh Rajput's death, Rhea Chakraborty had reached out to India's Home Minister Amit Shah, requesting a CBI probe into the case. "Respected @amitshahofficial sir, I'm Sushant Singh Rajputs girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, it is now over a month since his sudden demise. I have complete faith in the government, however, in the interest of justice, I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry into this matter. I only want to understand what pressures prompted Sushant to take this step. Yours sincerely Rhea Chakraborty #satyamevajayate," she had written on her social media.

ALSO READ: Sushant Singh Rajput Death Case: Shekhar Suman Backs Rhea Chakraborty For Seeking CBI Probe

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
The International Monetary Fund approved $4.3 billion (R70.7 billion) in emergency funding for South Africa, the largest emergency disbursement for any country yet to assist with fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

The funds support the authorities efforts in addressing the challenging health situation and severe economic impact of the Covid-19 shock, the Washington-based lender said in a statement Monday.

Once the pandemic is behind, there is a pressing need to ensure debt sustainability and implement structural reforms to support the recovery and achieve sustainable and inclusive growth.

With more than 445,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases and almost 7,000 fatalities, South Africa is the worst-hit country on the continent.

A lockdown aimed at curbing the spread is devastating the economy, with the government expecting it to contract 7.2% this year.

Even before the pandemic hit, South Africa was stuck in its longest downward cycle since World War II and the gross domestic product probably contracted more than 30% in the second quarter, according to central bank forecasts.

Government debt is now projected to peak at close to 90% of GDP in 2023-2024 and the budget deficit will swell to a record this year.

Going forward, our fiscal measures will build on our policy strengths and limit the existing economic vulnerabilities which have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said in a statement Monday.

The lockdown that started on March 27 and has been eased gradually is weighing on output and will further reduce tax revenue thats been falling short of targets for most of the past five years.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a 500 billion-rand ($29.9 billion) stimulus package in April and the National Treasury has said the government is seeking $7 billion of this from multilateral lenders.

Other Loans

The New Development Bank has already granted a $1 billion loan, while the nation is borrowing about R5 billion ($300 million) from the African Development Bank.

The country will seek up to $2 billion from the World Bank, according to Treasury Director-General Dondo Mogajane.

The IMF money comes after some senior officials in the ruling African National Congress and its alliance partners initially rejected suggestions that the government seek help from multilateral lenders, saying the structural adjustments associated with such loans would undermine the nations sovereignty.

However, the IMF emergency loans that are aimed at the virus and health interventions come without the normal conditions that have concerned past borrowers.

The IMF in April doubled its emergency lending capacity to $100 billion, and Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that the fund will mobilize more than $18 billion to respond to requests from more than 40 African countries.

The lender has now approved more than $14 billion in emergency financing to help nations on the continent, including $3.4 billion for Nigeria and $2.8 billion for Egypt. On top of that. the IMF last month approved a 12-month $5.2 billion standby arrangement for Egypt.
Its a phone call that the modest family, from Tamil Nadus Namakkal district describes as a surprise of a lifetime. When their daughter Kaniga scored 490/500 in her class XII exams, it a was indeed a wonderful feeling for the family, but never did they expect a call from the Indian Prime Minister Narendra himself, whose conversation with the student was featured on his monthly radio address Mann Ki Baat.

Kaniga who is currently preparing for her NEET (Medical entrance examination) says that it was a sudden phone call, during which the officials did a sound check and thereafter transferred it to the Prime Minister. It happened all of a sudden and we didnt know anything about it, nothing less than a complete surprise. The Prime Minister was very friendly and made me feel at ease. He spoke in an encouraging tone and this call has motivated me to work harder and secure admission into a reputed institution for my MBBS she told WION.

Youngsters like Kaniga and her sister personify the spirit of New India, where success is not merely determined by the family one is born in, the school/ college one studied, the big city one lives in. Hardwork and perseverance gives results. India is changing. #MannKiBaat pic.twitter.com/orEEFzPdfA  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2020

Aspiring to be a Neurosurgeon, Kaniga is from a very humble family, with no background in professional streams, but is the second child in the family to choose the medical stream. Her elder sister Shivani is currently pursuing her MBBS at a college in Trichy. Their father is a heavy vehicles driver and usually drives trucks carrying hazardous petrochemical products and their mother is a homemaker.

Kaniga aspires to secure a top rank in NEET and complete her MBBS from Chennais Madras Medical College or the Armed Forces Medical College following which she would specialize in Neurosurgery.

Speaking of her parents, Kaniga is all praise for their love, affection and care. Our father always wished that both of us must become doctors and encouraged us, our mother would always sit with us while studying and never scolded us. She was constantly helping us in ensuring that we put in maximum efforts and did our best Kaniga says.

For the high score, she thanks her faculty who guided her correctly and also conducted daily and weekly tests. Having prepared for NEET and CBSE board exams seems to have made the task easier for Kaniga. I worked hard the entire year and revised towards the end. Initially there were some challenges and tough lessons, but towards the end I was quite well versed. My friends and faculty were of great help in this journey, she adds.

Her father Nataraj is overwhelmed by the congratulatory calls and messages from people around. He hopes that his daughter will be able to do very well in the NEET exam and secure a seat under the government quota, which would be financially manageable for the family. He adds that the last few months have been quite tough for him with work being scant, but his daughters achievements are what make him feel proud.

Following the mention on Mann Ki Baat, the BJP Youth wing members met the family, felicitated the student and assured their family of their support.
Secrets of the Houston Consulate  The China Angle with Simone Gao

Hello, welcome to The China Angle. Im Simone Gao.

The US-China showdown has seen a new development since our last episode of the China Angle. On July 22, the US ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas. Staff there have 72 hours to leave or they will face arrest. The State Department said that the closure was ordered to protect American intellectual property and Americans private information.

The news came in as a fire broke out at the Chinese consulate in Houston on the night of July 21. A drone video sent to a local news station showed several open fire pits in the courtyard. Houston police later confirmed that the consulate officials were burning documents in the courtyard upon learning of the conviction.

Interestingly, the announcement of the closure came one day after the Justice Department indicted two Chinese hackers on charges of trying to steal research into a coronavirus vaccine. On July 22, Senator Marco Rubio echoed the urgency of this order in a Fox interview:

The Chinese consulate in Houston is a massive spy center for the Chinese Communist Party and forcing it to close is long overdue.

If its long overdue, why didnt the US act earlier? Senator Rubio did not specify what exactly prompted the closure, but his claim was corroborated by David Stilwell, who oversees policy for East Asia and the Pacific at the State Department. Stilwell said the Houston consul general and two other diplomats were recently caught having used false identification to escort Chinese travelers to the gate area of a charter flight in George Bush Intercontinental Airport. He described the Houston consulate as the epicenter of research theft by the Chinese military in the US.

Its true that Chinese IP theft has gone on for years. POTUS himself has repeatedly condemned this behavior, which has cost the US economy billions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs every year. But nothing remotely as severe as the closing of a Chinese consulate had been carried out until now. Historically, such closures have almost always been done in retaliation to foreign aggressions that seriously undermined the countrys national security. If that is true, what could have prompted the US to act this time? Is it really intelligence theft? Or is the US onto something bigger?

In fact, theres something noteworthy about the announcement made by State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus. Ortagus statement leaves many questions unanswered, including: What exactly did she mean by the Chinese officials interfering in Americas internal affairs? What did the Chinese regime do to violate Americas sovereignty and intimidate its people, which America cannot and will not tolerate? How is the Houston consulate different from other Chinese consulates, which have been involved in espionage for decades? Today, we sat down with Chen Yong-lin, Beijings first secretary and consul for political affairs in Sydney, who defected in 2005. We discussed this issue, why the US ordered the shutdown with such urgency, and what the US intends to accomplish.

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Rating Action: Moody's assigns Aa1 to Missouri's Series B 2020 appropriation bonds; outlook stable

Global Credit Research - 27 Jul 2020

New York, July 27, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service has assigned a Aa1 rating to the State of Missouri's $190 million Special Obligation Refunding Bonds, Series B 2020, to be issued by the Missouri Board of Public Buildings. The outlook is stable.

RATINGS RATIONALE

The Aa1 rating on Missouri's appropriation bonds is based on the special, limited obligation of the Missouri Board of Public Buildings to pay debt service solely from anticipated appropriations to be made by the state from its general fund. The Aa1 rating is notched once off the state's Aaa general obligation rating, factoring in the essential nature of the projects financed by the bonds and the need for annual legislative appropriation for payment of debt service.

We regard the coronavirus outbreak as a social risk under our ESG framework, given the substantial implications for public health and safety. The coronavirus crisis is not a key driver for this rating action. We do not see any material immediate credit risks for Missouri. However, the situation surrounding the coronavirus is rapidly evolving and the longer term impact will depend on both the severity and duration of the crisis. If our view of the credit quality of Missouri changes, we will update the rating and/or outlook at that time.

RATING OUTLOOK

The appropriation bonds carry the stable outlook of the State of Missouri, which reflects the state's history of stable available fund balances, strong financial management practices, and below average debt and pension burden. Missouri's strong expenditure flexibility has enabled the state to proactively respond to the revenue declines caused by the coronavirus. The governor restricted spending to balance the fiscal 2020 and 2021 budgets. The state's continued ability to make spending cuts as necessary coupled with strong liquidity and budget reserve balances will help the state maintain stable finances despite uncertainty regarding the length and severity of the impact of the coronavirus on the state's economy.

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FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OF THE RATING

- Given that the bonds are rated based on the state's Aaa rating and notched once off the state's rating due to the risk of non-appropriation, an upgrade is unlikely

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO A DOWNGRADE OF THE RATING

- A downgrade of the State of Missouri's rating

- Non-appropriation of needed funds for debt service

LEGAL SECURITY

The bonds are special, limited obligations of the Missouri Board of Public Buildings payable solely from annual appropriations paid to the board by the state. The state's obligation to make these payments is subject only to annual legislative appropriation. Through the Office of Administration (OA), its central service and administrative control agency, the state covenants to include in the governor's annual budget request the amount necessary for the board to make annual debt service payments. Once the funds are appropriated, the OA additionally covenants to submit a request to the state treasury to transfer funds to the trustee in time for debt service.

The likelihood of the legislature failing to make appropriations for the bonds is minimal, given that Missouri, like many state governments, relies on continued market access for subject-to-appropriation debt for a broad range of capital financing needs. If the legislature fails to appropriate sufficient funds, bondholders have no mortgage or security interest in the facilities financed. Interest payments are due April 1 and October 1, providing a sufficient period from the July 1 start of the state's fiscal year to mitigate any risk of default caused by late budget adoption.

USE OF PROCEEDS

Proceeds from the Series B 2020 bonds will be used to refund certain outstanding Special Obligation Bonds Series A 2012 and Series A 2013 for estimated net present value savings of $15.2 million or 7.4% of the refunded bonds.

PROFILE

Missouri is the eighteenth largest US state by population (6.1 million in 2019) and the twenty-second largest state by GDP ($332 billion in 2019 current dollars).

METHODOLOGY

The principal methodology used in this rating was Lease, Appropriation, Moral Obligation and Comparable Debt of US State and Local Governments published in July 2018 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBM_1102364. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.

For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

The rating has been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent (s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.

This rating is solicited. Please refer to Moody's Policy for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on its website www.moodys.com.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.

The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph 3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies. Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's office that issued the credit rating is available on www.moodys.com.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.

Pisei Chea Lead Analyst State Ratings Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 7 World Trade Center 250 Greenwich Street New York 10007 US JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Emily Raimes Additional Contact State Ratings JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653

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If your bucket-list trip to Shanghai Disneyland has been put on hold, now you can experience one of the park's most popular attractions from your living room.

Hop aboard TRON Lightcycle Power Run in this new video shared with "Good Morning America." Youll discover all sorts of fascinating insights into the creation and story of this thrilling and iconic roller coaster attraction.

MORE: Bermuda, Barbados hope to lure travelers to work and live for a year

Based on the Tron series, the attraction takes guests on a ride through the Grid on their own light cycle. A similar semi-enclosed steel motorbike roller coaster attraction is coming to Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World in 2021 in time for the park's 50th anniversary. The first steel support columns were installed in May 2019 and the final piece of the attractions ride track was lowered into place in November.

The attraction -- called TRON Lightcycle / Run at Magic Kingdom -- is located near Space Mountain and has more than 3,000 feet of track.

The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of ABC News.

Ride along on Tron at Shanghai Disneyland before it opens at Magic Kingdom originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com
DONALD Trumps national security adviser Robert OBrien has tested positive for Covid-19.

OBrien, 54, is the closest to the president known to have become sick with the virus. However the White House said his infection is of no risk to the president or vice president Mike Pence.

OBrien has been out of office since late last week, according to Bloomberg. The security advisor contracted the virus when he was on a break with his family, it has been reported.

His daughter, whos of college age, was understood to have become ill first, White House economic director Larry Kudlow informed the media.

The White House stated OBrien has mild symptoms and had been self-isolating and working from a secure location off site,

There is no risk of exposure to the president or the vice president.

He had first tested negative before receiving a positive result, according to reports but he hadnt been in the company of the president recently.

I havent seen him lately, Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.

Senior White House staff are tested everyday for Covid-19. There have been 16.2 million cases of Covid-19 globally with more than 650,000 deaths.

The U.S is still struggling to contain the virus and polls have highlighted voters are angered at how Trump is handling the crisis.
Onlookers narrowly avoided being hit by an out-of-control car as it mounted a footpath in Sydney's northwest and crashed into the front of a restaurant.

A man in his 80s driving a Honda CRV was trying to park his car when he accidentally reversed through the front of an Eastwood seafood restaurant on Tuesday at about 12.20pm.

A group of terrified pedestrians screamed and ran away from the carnage, while two hero firefighters sprang into action and got to work moving people out of the way.

The car then accelerated and slammed into the front of a parked taxi which brought the rampage to an end as smoke poured out of the CRV.

A man in his 80s driving a Honda CRV reversed through the front of an Eastwood seafood restaurant in Sydney's northwest on Tuesday at about 12.20pm

A street sign and a bin outside of a NAB bank next to the restaurant were also destroyed by the driver when the car initially mounted the footpath.

Pedestrians walked across broken glass and debris and gathered around the vehicle to check on the man.

One of the firefighters helped the elderly driver out of the vehicle, which had stopped smoking, and called emergency services.

Fire & Rescue NSW Acting Superintendent Rob Jansen said the elderly man had been trying to park the car when the incident occurred.

'He was having a bit of trouble so his wife got out and he's reversed the car and  whether he's confused the accelerator from the brake  he's ended up mounted the kerb and hit the front of the shop,' Supt Jansen told news.com.au.

A group of terrified pedestrians screamed and ran away from the carnage, while two firefighters moved people out of the way and one of them screamed: 'Everyone get inside'

Supt Jansen said the man tried to move the car but instead jerked it backwards and forwards before it sped into the restaurant.

He said the firemen who helped pedestrians move out of the way were on their lunch break.

'They (the firefighters) ushered some people into another shop and they were able to make sure the driver was okay,' he said.

NSW Police said the driver tested negative to a roadside breath test and suffered no injuries and no pedestrians were harmed.

The front of the seafood restaurant only received minor damage.

'Officers from Ryde Police Area Command attended and have commenced inquiries into the incident,' police said in a statement.
The possibility of a Covid-19 cluster in a childcare setting or school cannot be ruled out, acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn has warned.

He also said it could happen that a child could pass on the virus to a teacher.

Dr Glynn was responding to questions yesterday after the Government announced a wide-ranging plan for the reopening of schools in September.

Asked about claims by health officials in the UK that there is no known case of a pupil infecting a teacher, he said he was not aware of the comment but the "risk of transmission from younger children to adults in relative terms is much less than from adult to adult".

However there is no "zero risk" and he would not be surprised if there are cases.

The best protection for all workers is that the level of community spread of Covid-19 is low.

"I am sure there will be cases and clusters we have to deal with. Hopefully, the experience our public health teams have gained over the last couple of months, and the knowledge parents and families have gained, will stand to us as we move forward."

It is also important that classes in schools should not mix, he added.

As far as the wider population is concerned, it comes back to individuals doing "multiple small things, multiple times a day".

New guidelines are now to be drawn up for parents to advise them on when to call the doctor if their child develops worrying symptoms they fear could be Covid-19.

There are fears that anxious parents will flood GPs with calls once children return to school.

Dr Siobhan Ni Bhriain, of the HSE, said: "We have always advised parents if your child gets sick on what to do - get their temperature down. But in this instance if you are concerned your child has a respiratory illness, do make contact with your GP."

The announcement on schools came as the spread of the virus remained low yesterday with 11 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and no deaths.

Over the past 14 days, there have been 196 newly diagnosed cases of the virus here, 52pc of whom were men. The median age is 37.

Nearly one in 10 cases were related to travel and one-third was due to community transmission where the person who was infected could not say where they picked it up.

Meanwhile, workers in many essential occupations are particularly vulnerable to severe illness from Covid-19, according to a new study published today by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

The study identified those occupations in Ireland that have highest vulnerability to more severe illness from Covid-19 due to workers' underlying characteristics.

The study compares workers across three risk dimensions: Covid-19-vulnerable chronic illness rates, such as chronic heart disease and chronic respiratory disease; older age; and living in a deprived area.

Dr Brendan Walsh, of the ESRI, said: "Our study identifies workers who may have worse outcomes if they contract Covid-19, due to underlying health conditions, older age, and living in a deprived area.

"We find frontline occupations such as road transport drivers and care workers are particularly vulnerable, as are security guards, agricultural workers, process plant operators and those working in housekeeping and related services."
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The Child, popularly known as "Baby Yoda," is a character in the new Disney+ series, "The Mandalorian" Episodic Photos, Disney

While "Watchmen," "Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and "Schitt's Creek" secured Emmy nominations on Tuesday, there were quite a few shows  and actors  that didn't make the cut. And then there were the shows and performers that were a long shot to get on this year's ballot. We'll have to wait until September to see who ends up taking Emmys home, but here are some of the programs that were the most surprising nominations and the ones that got snubbed. If you haven't had a chance to check out the full list of nominees for this year's Emmys, you can do so here.

Snub: Reese Witherspoon

Despite appearing in three Emmy-nominated shows, Reese Witherspoon was left without a chance to win an acting award. The actress starred in "The Morning Show," "Big Little Lies" and "Little Fires Everwhere," but it was her co-stars that found themselves on this year's ballot. Jennifer Aniston was nominated for "The Morning Show," Kerry Washington earned a nod for "Little Fires Everywhere" and Laura Dern and Meryl Streep garnered acknowledgements in the supporting actress category for "Big Little Lies."

Reese Witherspoon as Elena Richardson in "Little Fires Everywhere." Hulu

It was pretty clear after watching "The Mandalorian" on Disney+ that it was destined to garner Emmy nominations for its technical achievements in special effects, prosthetic makeup and sound mixing. Few would have guessed that The Child and Mando would get a nomination for best drama series. The show has steep competition in the category, including "The Crown," "Ozark" and "Succession."

The Mandalorian and the Child on Disney+'s "The Mandalorian." Disney

Snub: Bob Odenkirk

Bob Odenkirk has been a perennial acting nominee in the Emmy's lead actor category since 2015, but this year the actor isn't listed on the ballot. New to the line-up of leading actor nominees is Steve Carell for his work on "The Mornings Show" and Jeremy Strong for "Succession." Meanwhile, Jason Bateman ("Ozark"), Sterling K. Brown ("This is Us"), Brian Cox ("Succession") and Bill Porter ("Pose") reprise their spots on the list.

Bob Odenkirk is Jimmy McGill aka Saul Goodman, a lawyer and a former scam artist from "Better Call Saul." AMC

Surprise: Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt's cameo on "Saturday Night Live" back in April was brief, but memorable enough to secure him an Emmy nomination for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for his portrayal of Dr. Anthony Fauci. Typically, these nominations go to actors who have hosted a full episode of "SNL."

Brad Pitt as Dr. Anthony Fauci during the "Fauci Cold Open" on "Saturday Night Live" on April 25, 2020. NBC | NBCUniversal | Getty Images

Snub: Aaron Paul

Like Witherspoon, Aaron Paul had multiple opportunities to be nominated for an Emmy this year. The actor reprised his role as Jesse Pinkman in the Netflix movie "El Camino," portrayed an ex-soldier with PTSD in HBO's "Westworld," and was a convicted murderer in "Truth Be Told" on Apple TV +. On Tuesday, the veteran actor came away empty-handed.

Aaron Paul reprises his role as Jesse Pinkman in "El Camino," a Netflix movie that acts as a sequel and epilogue to the television series "Breaking Bad." Netflix

Surprise: "What We Do In The Shadows"

The cult-favorite FX series adaptation of Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi's vampire mockumentary scored eight nominations Tuesday, including one for outstanding comedy series. The quirky comedy has been a big hit with fans, but was overlooked last year in the wake of nominations for "Barry," "Veep," "Russian Doll" and "Fleabag," all of which are absent this year.

Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, and Natasia Demetriou star in the FX show "What We Do In The Shadows." FX

Oscar-winner Al Pacino made his return to TV in Amazon Prime Video's Nazi-killing drama "Hunters" this year, but both the actor and the show failed to secure nominations in major categories. The drama category this year is particularly tough with "The Crown," "Ozark" and "Succession" all facing off. Also in the mix is "Better Call Saul," "The Handmaid's Tale," "Killing Eve," "Stranger Things" and, surprise, "The Mandalorian."

In 1977, in New York City, a secret group of Nazi hunters fight a clandestine war against the cabal of high-ranking Nazi officials in hiding in the United States who working to create the Fourth Reich. Amazon Prime Video

Surprise: Zendaya

Critics praised Zendaya's turn as Rue Bennett in HBO's "Euphoria" and her performance didn't go unnoticed by the Emmy voting body. She was nominated for best actress in a drama series alongside acting heavyweights Jennifer Aniston ("The Morning Show"), Olivia Colman ("The Crown"), Jodie Comer ("Killing Eve"), Laura Linney ("Ozark") and Sandra Oh ("Killing Eve"). This is her first Emmy nomination.

Zendaya stars as Rue Bennett in HBO's "Euphoria." HBO

Snub: Kaitlyn Dever and Merritt Wever

Although Netflix's limited series "Unbelievable" garnered four nominations, including one for best supporting actress (Toni Collette), its leads Kaitlyn Dever and Merritt Wever were left off the ballot. "Unbelievable" is about a teen (Dever) that reports a rape, but recants her story. Then two detectives (Wever and Collette) find evidence that uncovers a string of similar rapes.

Kaitlyn Dever stars as Marie Adler in "Unbelievable" on Netflix. Netflix

Two years ago, Issa Rae, the star and co-creator of "Insecure" earned a lead actress nomination for her work on the comedy, but the show received few other nods. This year, Rae is once again nominated for best lead actress in a comedy series and "Insecure" is up for best comedy series. With "Barry," "Veep," "Russian Doll" and "Fleabag" absent from awards contention this year, "Insecure" gets a chance to shine.
T he world's biggest test of an experimental coronavirus vaccine has been launched in the United States.

Some 30,000 Americans have so far rolled up their sleeves to receive injections in the final-stage testing of the vaccine.

Volunteers at several sites across the US were given either a real dose of the vaccine, which is being developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc, or a placebo.

Dr Frank Eder of Meridian Clinical Research, the company that runs the Binghamton, New York trial site, said: "Weve been sitting on the sidelines passively attempting to wear our masks and social distance and not go out when its not necessary.

"This is the first step of becoming active against this."

The vaccine is being developed by National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc / REUTERS

Melissa Harting, a 36-year-old nurse who received an injection in Binghamton, said: "Im excited to be part of something like this. This is huge."

Scientists have set records by getting vaccines into massive testing just months after Covid-19 emerged, but they have stressed that the public should not fear that anyone is cutting corners.

"This is a significant milestone," National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins said after the first test injection of Modernas vaccine was given in Savannah, Georgia.

"Yes, were going fast, but no, we are not going to compromise."

A nurse prepares a shot of the vaccine being developed by National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc / AP

After volunteers get two doses a month apart, scientists will closely track which group experiences more infections as they go about their daily routines, especially in areas where the virus is spreading unchecked.

It will be months before results trickle in, and there is no guarantee the vaccines will ultimately work against the disease which has killed more than 650,000 people around the world.

The answer probably will not come until November or December, cautioned Dr Anthony Fauci, National Institutes of Healths infectious diseases chief.

Another company, Pfizer Inc, announced that it had started its own testing of its vaccine in the US and elsewhere, which also aims to recruit 30,000 people.

Several other vaccines made by China and Oxford University began smaller final-stage tests in Brazil and other hard-hit countries earlier this month.

But the United States requires its own tests of any vaccine which might be used in the country.
New Delhi: The Department of Higher Secondary Education (DHSE), Kerala will release Class 11 Results or Kerala Plus One Result on the official website of Kerala Results. Reports say that DHSE Kerala is expected to make the announcement anytime this month. The DHSE would release the results on keralaresults.nic.in.

Once released, candidates can check their results by visiting the official website. Students can also check their Kerala DHSE class 11 results on dhsekerala.gov.in.

Kerala Education Minister C Raveendranath had earlier made an announcement regarding the Kerala DHSE +1 results 2020 and said that the results will be announced soon. The minister made the announcement while announcing the Kerala Plus Two results 2020 on Wednesday.

How to check Kerala DHSE Kerala Plus one result 2020 online:

Step 1: Log in at the official website of Kerala DHSE  keralaresults.nic.in;

Step 2: On home page, click at 'HSE Results'.

Step 3: Click at Plus one results.

Step 4: Fill in your roll number and other credentials.

Step 5: Your result will be displayed on the computer monitor.

Step 6: Download and take a printout of it for future references.

Those students who appeared in the Kerala DHSE +1 Exams 2020 are advised to keep checking at the boards official websites - keralaresults.nic.in and dhsekerala.gov.in to know their result.

The Kerala DHSE class 12 result is now available on the official website of the Kerala board - keralaresults.nic.in, dhsekerala.gov.in.

In the Kerala DHSE class 12 results, the pass percentage has registered an improvement of 0.77 per cent as it is 85.13 per cent in 2020 as compared to 84.33 per cent in 2019. A total of 3.75 lakh students appeared for Kerala Board +2 exams out of which 3.19 lakh passed the exams successfully.
Paul J. Herman, president of Brown Harris Stevens Residential Management, said that many of the city and states recommended best practices for reopening have been confusing, especially as they relate to apartment buildings. (The city entered the fourth and final phase of its reopening plan on July 20, though many indoor activities remain prohibited.)

Its been tough throughout the various phases because the language about what the specific requirements are coming out of the governors office and other state and city agencies hasnt been that clear and weve had to interpret a lot of it ourselves, Mr. Herman said. For example, we know what to do with the movers, but we still dont know the definition of what a visitor is, whether its a nanny, a friend or a delivery person.

For those dealing with co-ops and their infamously fastidious boards, what was already an invasive and tedious process has become an expanding maze of logistical hurdles.

Each building has been affected differently by the pandemic and no single approach is likely going to work, said attorney Neil B. Garfinkel, broker counsel to the Real Estate Board of New York, which issued its own set of guidelines in April. In my view, boards have the right to set their own policies as long as they are acting with uniformity and in the best interest of shareholders.

Lailani Moody had just begun moving out of her Upper East Side co-op to a Westchester retirement community when the pandemic arrived and moves were stopped, forcing her to leave behind clothes and furniture.

Ms. Moody, 77, a former accountant, decided in December to sell her co-op studio on 72nd Street, where she had lived since 1997. Despite an already sluggish residential market, it sold briskly. We already had a signed contract, and everything seemed fine, said Ms. Moodys broker, Harriet Norris of Douglas Elliman.

But the deal got held up when the co-op board demanded additional financial information from the buyer. Ms. Moody had hoped to stay in the studio part-time while she waited for the issue to be resolved, but with her retirement community under quarantine, she wasnt able to return to Manhattan, nor could she complete the move because her old co-op had banned all outsiders, which meant no moving companies, cleaning services or visitors.
Rating Action: Moody's assigns B2 rating to Summit Materials' proposed $700 million senior unsecured notes

Global Credit Research - 27 Jul 2020

New York, July 27, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) assigned a B2 rating to Summit Materials, LLC's (Summit Materials) proposed $700 million senior unsecured notes due 2029. Concurrently, Moody's upgraded the ratings on Summit Materials' senior secured credit facility to Ba1 from Ba2 and senior unsecured notes to B2 from B3. Moody's also affirmed Summit Materials' B1 Corporate Family Rating and B1-PD Probability of Default Rating. The outlook is stable. Finally, Moody's upgraded the company's Speculative Grade Liquidity rating to SGL-1 from SGL-2.

The proceeds from the new notes will be used to redeem the company's 6.125% senior unsecured notes due 2023 and to partially repay outstanding borrowings under the revolving credit facility. The rating on the 2023 notes will be withdrawn at the close of the transaction. The transaction will be leverage neutral while improving the company's debt maturity profile. This is reflected in Moody's affirmation of Summit Materials' B1 Corporate Family Rating. Pro forma for the proposed offering, Moody's projects Summit Materials' debt-to-EBITDA (inclusive of Moody's adjustments) will be 4.6x at year end 2020.

The upgrade to the senior secured credit facility results from the larger amount of unsecured debt in the company's capital structure, which will absorb a higher level of losses in a recovery scenario. The upgrade to the senior unsecured debt reflects its larger proportion of the company's total debt capital structure, resulting in a loss given default expectation that is closer to the average across the company's entire capital structure. The upgrade to the Speculative Grade Liquidity rating reflects the company's stronger free cash flow generation and significant cash position.

Story continues

"With the proposed $700 million offering Summit Materials will enhance its financial flexibility and will have no significant debt maturities until November 2024," said Emile El Nems, a Moody's VP-Senior Analyst.

Assignments:

..Issuer: Summit Materials, LLC

....Senior Unsecured Notes, Assigned B2 (LGD5)

Affirmations:

..Issuer: Summit Materials, LLC

.... Corporate Family Rating, Affirmed B1

.... Probability of Default Rating, Affirmed B1-PD

Upgrades:

..Issuer: Summit Materials, LLC

Senior Secured Credit Facility, upgraded to Ba1 (LGD2) from Ba2 (LGD2)

Senior Unsecured Debt, upgraded to B2 (LGD5) from B3 (LGD5)

Speculative Grade Liquidity Rating, upgraded to SGL-1 from SGL-2

Outlook Actions:

..Issuer: Summit Materials LLC

Outlook, Remains Stable

RATINGS RATIONALE

Summit Materials' B1 Corporate Family Rating reflects the company's strong market position as a leading regional producer of construction materials in Texas, Kansas, Utah, Missouri and Kentucky and its vertically integrated asset base. In addition, Moody's rating is supported by the company's solid EBITDA margins and good liquidity profile.

At the same time, Moody's rating takes into consideration the company's vulnerability to cyclical end markets, the competitive nature of its cement and ready-mix concrete businesses and significant revenue exposure to Texas, Kansas and Utah. Governance characteristics considered for Summit Materials is the company's willingness in the past to take on additional leverage in order to fund growth through acquisitions. That said, the company has not engaged in meaningful M&A since 2018 and we do not expect the company to grow through acquisitions over the next 12-18 months.

The stable outlook reflects Moody's expectation that Summit Materials will maintain stable sales and profitability after an unusual temporary decline in US economic activity due to the coronavirus outbreak. Moody's outlook also considers a return to stable end-market demand in public and private infrastructure.

Summit Materials' SGL-1 Speculative Grade Liquidity rating reflects Moody's expectation of a very good liquidity profile over the next 12 to 18 months. At June 27, 2020, the company's liquidly was supported by its cash balance of $253 million and $329 million of availability under its $345 million revolving credit facility (net of $16 million of outstanding letters of credit).

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

The ratings could be upgraded if:

 The company improves its operating performance and liquidity profile

 Debt-to-EBITDA is below 3.25x for a sustained period of time

 EBIT-to-Interest expense approaches 3.0x

The ratings could be downgraded if:

 The company's operating margin declines to below 9% and its liquidity profile deteriorates

 Debt-to-EBITDA is above 4.5x for a sustained period of time

 EBIT-to-Interest expense is below 2.0x

 The company engages in excessive share repurchase activity

The principal methodology used in these ratings was Building Materials published in May 2019 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1158917. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

Summit Materials, LLC is a construction materials company primarily operating in Texas, Kansas, Utah, Missouri and Kentucky. Summit Materials is an acquisition / roll-up vehicle in the construction materials space, focusing on aggregates, cement, and related downstream products such as ready mix concrete and asphalt, as well as related construction services. The company serves private construction and public infrastructure end markets which represented 65% and 35% of total revenue, respectively.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.

For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action, and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action, the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity. Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures, if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.

The ratings have been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent(s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.

These ratings are solicited. Please refer to Moody's Policy for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on its website www.moodys.com.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.

The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph 3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies. Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's office that issued the credit rating is available on www.moodys.com.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.

Emile El Nems Vice President - Senior Analyst Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A. JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Dean Diaz Associate Managing Director Corporate Finance Group JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A. JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653

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On June 25th, 2020, Nigerias ruling political party the All Peoples Congress (APC), took a decisive measure to save the party from an imminent collapse. The party was sitting on the edge of a cliff drifting towards disintegration. Numerous internal wrangling, several court cases and power play were threatening its very existence.

The partys National Executive Committee (NEC) was left with the only option of dissolving the National Working Committee (NWC). And so it was, the NWC was dissolved.

The next challenge was to get the right person for the job at this challenging moment. The unanimous decision of NEC in the nomination of Hon. Mai Mala Buni, Yobe state Governor, to chair the 13 member caretaker committee to rescue the party became necessary and obvious.

While inaugurating members of the caretaker committee, Governor Buni reminded the committee that the task ahead was herculean yet, achievable. He emphasized the policy of true reconciliation, justice and fairness to all as the major antidote to reclaim the party.

The first major reconciliatory/consultation move was a visit to the legendary Bisi Akande at his Ila Orangun country home in Osun state. This became the beginning of the success story for the assignment.

Governor Buni, supported by Abubakar Bagudu, Governor of Kebbi state and Chairman, Progressives Governors Forum, Abubakar S. Bello of Niger state and their Osun state counterpart, Boyega Oyetola, had consistently expressed optimism that it will be a true reconciliation of all members and successful rehabilitation of the party.

Akande, a key founding member of APC did not mince words while receiving the team. He said in clear and unambiguous terms that the calibre of people on the committee and others who visited him had renewed his hope for a new APC. He said with Mai Mala chairing the committee, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

There is great hope in what l have seen today in this committee, the party will certainly bounce back to life and much stronger. I will continue to leave myself open to the committee and, also call on other stakeholders to support the promising committee to rescue the party.

For Buni, the reception accorded the committee by Akande, was a tonic for the committee to work assiduously to achieve the set goal of reinventing the party.

With such support and encouragement from founding members like Chief Bisi Akande, we are strengthened and confident that all stakeholders would extend the required support for the party to emerge stronger, he said.

Some stakeholders of the party were however sceptical over the possibility of the Buni led committee to convince Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The sceptics believed that the dissolved Adams Oshiomole National Working Committee was a political structure of Tinubu. It was feared that the National leader would not forgive the dissolution so easily. However, his acceptance to see the Buni led committee within a short notice, to many, came as a surprise.

What was more surprising were his comments after their meeting. The feared Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said the meeting was about consultation and not reconciliation. There is no problem in the party that warranted a call for reconciliation, what we have is a consultation for the growth of the party.

That singular outing by Governor Buni and his team was a turning point towards the repositioning of the party. This was supported by other talks going on between the committee and other seemingly aggrieved stakeholders who were quick to embrace the policy of true reconciliation preached by the committee.

For those closely following the caretaker committee, it was not surprising when on Friday afternoon, Governor Buni led former Speaker House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, to the Presidential Villa to see President Muhammadu Buhari. The outcome of the meeting was the announcement of Dogaras return to APC. Dogara was a former APC stalwart who was eventually elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives. He left APC for PDP when he fell out with the former Governor of Bauchi, his home state, Mohammed Abubakar.

The return of Dogara back to APC, is by all standard and measure, a big catch for the party. Honourable Dogara remains a national figure with a lot of political influence within and outside Bauchi state. His earlier defection from APC to PDP before the 2019 election caused political havoc leading to the APC losing Bauchi state to PDP. He is indeed a valued treasure for any political party.

The policy of fair play and justice as preached by the caretaker committee was practicalised in the just concluded APC primary election in Ondo state. Dialogue dominated the campaigns which saw many aspirants stepping down in the interest of the party while those who contested were given equal opportunities and fair hearing. This became a solution to the initial fear of violence in the Ondo primary election.

Dogaras return to APC within just a month after the caretaker committee was constituted, significantly implies that more big wigs that left the party for feeble and shallow reasons and now engaged by the Buni led committee, are definitely on their way back to the party.

As the events unfold, all eyes are now looking towards Yola for the return of the Atikus, Kano for Kwankwaso, llorin for Saraki and Sokoto for Tambuwal, among others.

Bunis approach, which is centred on true reconciliation, justice and fair play, has no doubt taken the path of building a sustainable internal democracy in the APC, and opening a new chapter of developmental democracy for national growth. It also builds the capacity of political parties on fairness, transparency and equal opportunities to politicians to actualize their political ambitions. The approach if sustained would check unnecessary cross carpeting which has become a political fashion in Nigerias democracy.

This is an approach that needs to be supported by true democrats and emulated by all political parties including the PDP who had to pay the price of losing the 2015 election.

Mamman is the Director-General, Press and Media Affairs to Gov. Mai Mala Buni.
New Delhi: The first batch of India Air Force's (IAF) five Rafale jets that landed safely in Al Dhafra airbase (United Arab Emirates) on July 27, 2020, after a sortie in excess of 7 hours were clicked getting mid-air refueling at almost 30,000 feet.

See pictures below:

The IAF Rafales will fly out for India on the morning of July 29 and will reach Ambala Air Force Station in the afternoon.

The first batch of Rafale aircraft that flew out from the airbase in the French port city of Bordeaux on July 27 was part of the New Delhi-Paris Rs 59,000-crore deal that will provide IAF with 36 multi-role fighter aircraft.

Also read | Designer of patches for Rafale fighter jets pilots wanted to be IAF pilot, says motivated by his heroes

As per an official statement, the delivery of 10 aircraft has been completed as slated and five will stay back in France for training missions. All the 36 aircraft (30 fighter and six trainers) will be reportedly delivered by the end of 2021.

The Rafale jets arrive at a time when India is engaged in a skirmish with China at the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh.

The violent clashes between the Indian Army and China's Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) on June 15 witnessed 20 Indian troops being killed in action and as many as 50 reportedly died on PLA side.

The Rafale jets are likely to be deployed in the Ladakh sector as part of IAF's efforts to enhance its operational capabilities along the LAC in view of the recent clashes with the Communist nation.

Also read | Here's why Rafale fighter aircraft can become a game-changer for India with Sukhoi Su-30MKI
Lawsuit seeks to delay enforcing Noem's new abortion pill ban

Planned Parenthood and ACLU of South Dakota are suing Noem and the Department of Health in enforcing a new abortion pill ban.
The only competition will be confined to the 100 individual seats up for grabs in the 300-member chamber

Egypt's Mostaqbal Watan Party is expected to secure an easy landslide victory in the Senate elections scheduled to be held 11-12 August.

The final list of the Senate election candidates released by the National Elections Authority (NEA) on Sunday evening revealed that the National Unified List led by the Mostaqbal Watan Party will contest the 100 seats reserved for party lists in the 300-member chamber unopposed.

It was expected that two other party coalitions  Ittihad and Long Live Egypt  would also vie for the 100 party list seats, but their papers were rejected by the NEA upon the grounds that they failed to submit the required candidacy documents.

Egypt's newly reconstituted Senate will be comprised of 300 seats, one-third of which will be elected via the individual candidacy system, another third through the closed party list system, and the final third to be named by the president. The Senate law stipulates that at least 10 percent of the seats be allocated to women.

Senate members' tenure is set at five years.

In terms of individual seats, the final tally also shows that Mostaqbal Watan (or the Future of the Homeland Party) is also set to dominate the poll. The party, which holds the majority in the House of Representatives, has fielded the largest number of candidates, with the final list indicating that 95 members will be contesting the 100 individual seats.

This makes Mostaqbal Watan the leading political party to field candidates for individual seats, followed by the Wafd Party, with only 20 candidates. There are 24 political parties fielding individual candidates.

Mostaqbal Watan also dominates among the 11 political parties running under the umbrella The National Unified List with the slogan For the Sake of Egypt, fielding 59 candidates.

Al-Ahram political analyst Amr Hashem Rabie told Ahram Online that the final list of Senate election candidates released by the National Elections Authority shows that Mostaqbal Watan is sure to win the 100 seats reserved to party lists unopposed.

"Article 25 of the Senate law, however, stipulates that if a party list runs unopposed, it shall be required to win at least 5 percent of the vote in order to be declared the winner," said Rabie, "but if it failed, a re-election would be held."

Rabie says that although Mostaqbal Watan is a new party that was founded in 2014, it was able in a short time to become the majority party.

The party is funded by a lot of businessmen who strongly support Egypt President Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi's economic and security policies. The party gained 53 seats (9 percent) in the House of Representatives' elections in 2015, but in 2018 and 2019 it was able to swell its ranks in parliament by attracting representatives of other political parties.

Mohamed Shawki, the legal representative of Mostaqbal Watan, told reporters Monday that the Mostaqbal Watan-led National Unified List will do its best to win the required 5 percent of the vote.

"The number of registered voters in Egypt is estimated at 63 million and this means that we have to get around 3 million votes, and this is not difficult," said Shawki.

Shawki also indicated that the Mostaqbal Watan-led National Unified List will strictly follow the NEA's instructions related to campaigning.

"We will not hold public rallies due to the coronavirus, but we will use loudspeakers and caravan cars to promote for the list," said Shawki.

Hossam El-Khouli, deputy chairman of the Mostaqbal Watan Party, said the failure of political forces to form coalitions to run for the party list seats was largely due to the fact that most of them chose to join the National Unified List led by Mostaqbal Watan.

The Mostaqbal Watan-led National Unified List includes 11 parties: the Mostaqbal Watan (59 candidates), the People's Republican (10 candidates), the Guardians of the Nation (10 candidates), the Wafd (eight candidates), the National Movement (two candidates), the Reform and Development (three candidates), the Tagammu (two candidates), the Conference (one candidate), the Egyptian Freedom (one candidate), the Egyptian Democratic Socialist (three candidates), and Modern Egypt (one candidate).

The Mostaqbal Watan-led National Unified List will include the party's leader, former chairman of the Supreme Constitutional Court Abdel-Wahab Abdel-Razek, who is expected to be chairman of the Senate.

The list also comprises deputy chairman of the party Hossam El-Khouli, Wafd party deputy chairman Yasser El-Hodeibi, Wafd assistant secretary-general Tarek El-Tohami, editor of the Tagamu party's mouthpiece Al-Ahali Amina Al-Naqash, deputy editor of the independent weekly Al-Osbou Mahmoud Bakri, Chairman of the Egyptian Socialist Democratic Party Farid Zahran, and steel tycoon Ahmed Abu Hashima.

The competition for the 100 party list seats will be held in four districts, two with 15 seats each and two with 30 seats each. The four districts are: the Cairo and Middle Delta (35 seats), the East Delta (15 seats), Alexandria and the West Delta (15 seats), and the North, Middle and South Upper Egypt (35 seats).

The only competition in next month's Senate election will now be confined to the 100 individual seats up for grabs in the 300-member chamber. As many as 95 Mostaqbal Watan candidates will be contesting the 100 seats reserved for individuals.

"This, again, means that Mostaqbal Watan is set to dominate the poll without much competition," said Rabie.

El-Khouli said as many 24 political parties have candidates vying for the 100 individual seats.

"There will be much competition, and I expect the next Senate to include representatives from a diversity of political forces," said El-Khouli.

The NEA announced on Sunday evening that the papers of 787 candidates have been accepted. The initial figure was 762, but appeals from rejected candidates were accepted by administrative courts to bring the final number to 787 candidates.

Campaigning began on Sunday and will end on 7 August.

The polls will kick off for Egyptians abroad on 8-9 August, and will start in Egypt on 11-12 August.

The polls results will be announced on 19 August.

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The BBC will axe Newsrounds afternoon edition after almost 50 years after audiences for its bulletins on the small screen continued to fall in lockdown.

The broadcaster wants to move more of its childrens content online in an attempt to halt declining TV viewing numbers among young people.

Ofcom approved the BBC's plans after the corporation told the TV watchdog it wanted to expand the range of content on the Newsround website - as its online audience rose by a quarter over the first three months of lockdown.

The BBC had hoped to have the changes in place by this April, but all non-essential decision-making was paused by Ofcom at the start of lockdown.

Ofcom's approval means that the BBC can reduce the minimum amount of news it broadcasts on children's channel CBBC from 85 hours to 35 hours per year.

The decision also means that the BBC is free to slash the beloved after-school Newsround bulletin, a hallmark of the show which first aired on April 4, 1972.

The BBC has been given the go-ahead to axe Newsround's afternoon television slot as the coronavirus crisis 'accelerates' the decline in TV viewing

Despite children being off school during lockdown, Newsround viewers continued to fall in 2020, from 37,000 children aged six to 12 in 2019 to just 24,000 in April and May this year.

By contrast, Newsround's online audience is growing and its website enjoyed two of its highest weeks ever during the coronavirus lockdown.

As its online audience rose by around 25 per cent during the first three months of the crisis, Newsround's average TV audience size among children aged six to 12 was 24,000 in April and May, compared to 37,000 in the same months last year.

Newsround editor Paul Plunkett today revealed that Newsround is also planning to hire its first full-time environmental journalist, to launch a new YouTube channel and aims to deliver 'big journalistic moments' that can be used across BBC News.

He said: 'Whilst this feels like a big change, we know that the Newsround website already reaches many more children than the teatime bulletin.'

Opponents of the BBC's changes have argued that Newsround's TV bulletins are a 'safe haven' for children from the dangers of online fake news.

Ofcom's decision frees the BBC to slash the beloved after-school Newsround bulletin, a hallmark of the show which first aired on April 4, 1972 (pictured, anchor John Craven)

The BBC had hoped to have the changes in place by this April, but all non-essential decision-making was paused by Ofcom at the start of lockdown (pictured, Krishnan Guru-Murthy)

Media regulator Ofcom rejected these claims, insisting instead that 'it is important for the BBC to be able to have the flexibility to experiment with where it delivers content in order to remain relevant to younger audiences, who are increasingly consuming less BBC content, particularly via linear TV'.

'We support the aspiration behind the BBC's proposals to shift its focus towards where its audience is moving,' Ofcom said.

A BBC spokesman said: 'We're delighted that Ofcom has approved these changes to our operating licence. This will allow us the flexibility to make more news for more children across more platforms ensuring the much-loved brand continues to thrive in the modern day.'

An Ofcom spokeswoman said: 'We agree that it makes sense for the BBC to provide more children's content online.

Viewing of Newsround bulletins on CBBC continued to fall in 2020, from 37,000 children aged six to 12 in 2019 to 24,000 in April and May this year (pictured, Helen Rollason)

'Given significant shifts in children's media habits, which have continued during the pandemic, this should help the BBC to engage better with its youngest audiences, who are critical to its future success.

'But we're also imposing important safeguards to ensure that the quality of content on the CBBC and CBeebies channels is maintained, and that the impact of the BBC's changes are carefully monitored.'

Ofcom approved the BBC's request to reduce the minimum amount of news it is required to broadcast on CBBC from 85 hours to 35 hours a year.

It said the 'BBC needs to think about how it makes its online content easily discoverable' online.

The TV watchdog also accepted the broadcaster's request to reduce the first-run UK originations quota for children's content on CBBC from 400 to 350 hours - to take account of the agreed 50-hour reduction in the number of hours of children's linear news broadcast on CBBC.

BBC DENIES axing political journalist Andrew Neil in latest job cuts saying he is 'in talks' over new TV role after broadcaster was accused of pandering to 'left-wing, pro-remain elitists' for cancelling his BBC Two interview show

By Jack Wright and Joe Middleton for MailOnline

The BBC denied axing political journalist Andrew Neil in their latest round of job cuts, saying he is 'in talks' over a new TV role after cancelling his BBC Two interview show.

The veteran broadcaster's political programme - The Andrew Neil Show - has not been on the air during the coronavirus pandemic, and the corporation confirmed the programme will not be returning.

It comes as the corporation has announced plans to cut a further 70 jobs from its news division, meaning the total number of job losses is expected to be 520.

Viewers have criticised the BBC for pandering to 'cancel culture' and 'Left-wing, pro-Remain establishment elitists', with Labour MP Wes Streeting tweeting: 'The cancellation of @afneil's show is great news for those in power wishing to avoid scrutiny and a shame for everyone else.'

Mr Neil, 71, made no comment but shared social media posts from viewers and public figures criticising the BBC's decision and praising his tenacious interviewing style.

However a BBC source told the MailOnline they currently in discussions with the veteran broadcaster - famed for his forensic no-holds-barred interviews - to start a new interview series on BBC1.

The source said: 'Any talk of letting go of Andrew totally misses the mark. We're huge fans of Andrew's long-form political interviews and are actually hoping to put a show like this on BBC One, rather than BBC Two.'

'We remain committed to Andrew Neil's in-depth interviews (as well as the Budget, US Election and other Specials).

'The Andrew Neil Show will not be returning but we're in discussions about a new interview series on BBC1'.

Andrew Neil's political programme has not been on the air during the coronavirus pandemic, but the broadcaster said the show will not return even as the crisis subsides. A BBC spokesman told MailOnline that Mr Neil, 71, will not present Politics Live on a regular basis and head of news Fran Unsworth (right) there are no plans to replace his show with anything similar

Andrew Neil was retweeting social media posts critical of the BBC's decision to axe his short-lived programme as the corporation announced plans to axe another 70 jobs

Viewers were quick to defend Mr Neil and accuse the BBC of being run by 'left-wing establishment elitists' bowing under pressure from the 'cancel culture gang'

Furious viewers slammed the BBC for axing Mr Neil's short-lived show, with Labour MP Wes Streeting tweeting: 'The cancellation of @afneil's show is great news for those in power wishing to avoid scrutiny and a shame for everyone else'

Martin Daubney, a former Brexit Party MEP, tweeted: 'The Cancel Culture Gang - who claim cancel culture doesn't exist - will be delighted Andrew Neil has been cancelled. The BBC splurges 100million on 'diverse' content, then axes their No1 political journalist Total madness!'

From the 'Empty Chair' to Owen Jones: Some of Andrew Neil's 'greatest hits' at the BBC Andrew Neil explains why he wants to interview Boris Johnson prior to the election The 'Empty Chair': Neil vs Boris Johnson, December 2019 Mr Neil delivered a direct interview challenge to Boris Johnson during the 2019 General Election, telling him it was 'not too late' to accept his invitation to chat before the poll. Mr Johnson had refused to be interviewed by Mr Neil, who had spoken with Labour's Jeremy Corbyn and the Lib Dems' Jo Swinson. During an 'empty chair' moment,Mr Neil said: 'There is of course still one to be done, Boris Johnson. We have been asking him for weeks now to give us a date, a time, a venue. As of now, none has been forthcoming.' 'It is not too late. We have an interview prepared. Oven-ready, as Mr Johnson likes to say. The theme running through our questions is trust - and why at so many times in his career, in politics and journalism, critics and sometimes even those close to him have deemed him to be untrustworthy. 'It is, of course, relevant to what he is promising us all now.' Neil vs Ben Shapiro: May 2019 Mr Neil clashed with US conservative commentator Ben Shapiro on the BBC's Politics Live last year. Mr Shapiro was subjected to a tough interview by Mr Neil about previous remarks he had made, including 'Israelis like to build, Arabs like to bomb crap' and his support for new abortion laws in Georgia. The American, formerly of Breitbart, then accused Mr Neil of bias and suggested abortions after more than six weeks of pregnancy were brutal. 'You purport to be an objective journalist,' Mr Shapiro said. 'The BBC purports to be an objective, down-the-middle network. It obviously is not, it never has been, and you as a journalist are proceeding to call one side of the political aisle ignorant, barbaric and sending us back to the dark ages.' Mr Shapiro later said that he had been 'destroyed' by Mr Neil in the interview. Neil vs Owen Jones: January 2019 Mr Neil and commentator Owen Jones clashed in a row during the broadcast of the This Week programme. The row began after Mr Jones made a film about far-Right protesters who harassed him and other journalists. During the debate, Mr Jones raised Mr Neil's work outside his role at the BBC as chairman of the Press Holdings media group which publishes the weekly magazine The Spectator. As the debate drew to a close Mr Jones claimed the editorial line of The Spectator and other papers legitimised some far-Right views, provoking an angry response from Mr Neil. Mr Neil told Mr Jones: 'Your smears and lies about me are not going to be dealt with tonight so just move off it.' Neil vs Paris jihadists: November 2015 Mr Neil delivered a rousing speech against the Paris attackers who 'slaughtered 132 innocents to prove the future belongs to them, rather than a civilisation like France'. In his rousing message, he listed the artists and theorists who shaped French culture and who overshadow ISIS's beliefs and acts. 'I can't say I fancy their chances. France. The country of Descartes, Monet, Sartre Rousseau to Camus, Renoir, Berlioz, Daft Punk, Zizou Zidane,' he said. 'Liberte, egalite, fraternite and creme Brulee. 'Versus what? Beheadings, crucifixions, amputations, slavery, mass murder, medieval squalor and a death cult barbarity that would shame the Middle Ages.' He then thundered: 'I think the outcome is pretty clear to everyone but you. You will lose. In a thousand year's time, Paris, that glorious city of lights, will still be shining bright as will every other city like it. And you will be as dust, along with the ragbag of fascist Nazis and Stalinists that previously dared to challenge democracy and failed.' Advertisement

His colleague Rupert Lowe said: 'Axing Andrew Neil (@afneil) is a ridiculous decision. The one journalist who was capable of putting together a decent interview. The BBC's reputation goes lower and lower. I wonder which overpaid stars continue on the gravy train'.

Kate Hoey tweeted: 'If @afneil no longer on the BBC makes it much easier to stop watching ANY of their political coverage'.

Pro-Brexit pundit Darren Grimes said: 'The BBC seem to be doing all they can to make the case for axing the telly tax'.

YouTuber Mahyar Tousi said: 'The BBC has cancelled Andrew Neil. Which means the organisation is now fully dominated primarily by left wing pro Remain establishment elitists.'

One social media user commented: 'Of course they [the BBC] couldn't let such prolific 'social justice' campaigners go. Watch them on all channels.'

Another tweeted: 'The BBC without Andrew Neil is a much poorer institution. When so much content reveals editorial bias across so many channels, he's one of the journalists you can rely on to really grill everyone'.

Mr Neil earned 200,000 to 249,999 as a BBC presenter in the financial year 2016-17, according to the BBC.

MailOnline has contacted Mr Neil for comment.

Mr Neil last week said that his future at the BBC was in doubt and that he may be 'surplus to requirements'.

He told The Radio Times: 'I would like to be doing more shows, of course I would. I don't know what's happening.

'There's no clarity at the moment, so I'm just waiting for the BBC to make up its mind,' he added, before hinting that he was weighing up his options.

'Let's say I'm looking at the portfolio and shaking up the mix,' he said.

'I mean, we're all thinking about the balance of our lives, aren't we?'

Mr Neil was retweeting angry social media posts critical of the BBC's decision to axe his short-lived programme.

The BBC said the decision 'addresses the BBC's worsening financial position and draws on the experiences of operating' during the coronavirus pandemic.

Head of news Fran Unsworth said: 'During this crisis audiences have turned to BBC News in their millions and I'm incredibly proud of what we, as a team, have been able to achieve.

'But if we don't make changes, we won't be sustainable. This crisis has led us to re-evaluate exactly how we operate as an organisation.'

BBC plans include having fewer reporters overall, while more correspondents will be asked to work across a range of content. It will invest in new community affairs roles around the country, while reducing numbers in London.

The BBC added that 'digital is at the heart of our journalism' and that it 'a new original journalism team will also be created, incorporating several staff from the Derbyshire show, to pursue under-reported and exclusive stories'.

Politics Live, currently airing on Wednesdays, will return four days a week. Over 100 MPs and peers called on the BBC this month to protect the programme from the axe.

BBC Parliament will 'focus on live and as-live coverage of the elected chambers across the UK and produce daily and weekly highlights programmes'.

The BBC said it will 'no longer commission most of the other bespoke programmes we currently make for BBC Parliament, although we will continue to draw on our archive to broadcast our popular historical election coverage'.

In January the BBC announced plans to cut 450 jobs in a bid to save 80million, which included axing the popular Victoria Derbyshire Show.

The corporation postponed those job cuts and the decision to end free TV licences for the over-75s in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

That contributed to a further budget shortfall, meaning that the number of proposed job losses in news has increased by 70 posts.

Ms Unsworth announced that BBC News will concentrate on fewer stories, with journalists pooled in centralised teams rather than working for specific programmes.

The BBC News Channel and BBC World will continue to share some output, although they will remain separate channels.

Radio 4's In Business and the Business Live page on the BBC News Website will also close, while business news bulletins on the BBC News channel will be reduced.

Ms Unsworth said: 'Covid-19 has changed all of our lives. We are still covering the most challenging story of our lifetimes.

'During this crisis audiences have turned to BBC News in their millions and I'm incredibly proud of what we, as a team, have been able to achieve.

'But if we don't make changes, we won't be sustainable. This crisis has led us to re-evaluate exactly how we operate as an organisation.

'And our operation has been underpinned by the principles we set out earlier this year - fewer stories, more targeted and with more impact.

'We're aiming to reach everyone, every day. For BBC News to thrive, and for us to continue to serve all our audiences, we have to change.'

Broadcasting union Bectu said it would hold BBC management to account and seek to avoid compulsory redundancies.

The BBC revealed The Andrew Neil Show will end as the corporation slashes a further 70 jobs in BBC News, taking the total number of redundancies to 520

'BBC News is one of the most trusted brands at home and abroad. In an era of fake news and during an unprecedented health crisis this trust in a public service broadcaster is critical,' said Bectu head, Philippa Childs.

'The government needs to take back responsibility for free licence fees for the over-75s, providing precious resources that would allow BBC News to continue to provide its world-leading range of news broadcasting.'
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Never-before-seen photos and letters reveal intimate details of Angelina Jolie's life before she became Hollywood's most iconic actress.

The exclusive images and correspondence obtained by DailyMail.com offer a rare glimpse into the Oscar winner's wild teenage years in Beverly Hills.

The Maleficent star can be seen at age 14 in the pictures drinking with friends, eating pizza, lounging in bed and even posing in front of a cemetery.

The actress, now 45, wrote about her hangovers, the men she was attracted to and her dysfunctional relationship with her family in letters and postcards to her closest friends in her teenage years.

DailyMail.com has obtained never-before-seen photos of actress Angelina Jolie in her teenage years along with letters she wrote her closest friends

A source close to Angie in her youth said she was a rebellious youngster who was 'anti-Beverly Hills'

'We partied. We drank and smoked cigarettes and took acid,' and old friend of Angie's told DailyMail.com. 'We roamed about wherever we could get on the bus'

The source, who provided the images and letters on condition anonymity, first met Angie when they both attended El Rodeo Middle School in Los Angeles, California.

The source, who provided the images and letters and has asked to remain anonymous, first met Angie when they both attended El Rodeo Middle School in Los Angeles, California

The pair became close, and the source described Angie as 'eccentric and beautiful' with an interest in the 'dark side.'

The source claimed that the young Angie was a wild child, drinking alcohol, taking acid and smoking weed in her early teens.

But Angie was always generous, they said, frequently lending friends money and giving to the homeless.

They said: 'She was always a wonderful person and we had a wonderful friendship. People don't realize that she was always charitable, wild but charitable. I hadn't seen her one time for six months and she gave me money.

'As she was better funded than us, Angie would always be generous in sharing with me and other friends. She could not walk by a homeless person without offering food or money and remarking that homelessness is awful.

'That was when she was 14. It's not a surprise that she has become so important in giving a voice to refugees around the globe.'

The source added that Angie was a rebellious youngster who was 'anti-Beverly Hills.'

'We partied. We drank and smoked cigarettes and took acid,' they said. 'We roamed about wherever we could get on the bus.

'She tried to do the things that were wild, that were anti-Beverly Hills. We dressed in black and thought we were anarchists.

'We didn't want to drive fancy cars and we would stick up for people who were being bullied at school.'

In one letter she wrote that she had met 'Mr Perfect.' 'I met Mr Perfect. I don't know his name, he's a great kisser, I'll never see him again!' she wrote. 'When I get back we'll have another one of those nights'

In a series of postcards sent in 1989, 14-year-old Angie wrote to her friend about men she was attracted to. 'Nobody knows I like him but he said he wants to work with me,' she wrote. 'He's perfect, tall, thin, black hair, lives in a studio!'

Angie wrote about her birthday and how she was looking forward to spend time with her friend. 'Well another birthday. One for me...on for you. Are you 17 already? Where does the time go?' she wrote

She discussed her dysfunctional relationship with her family, writing 'I wish I was going somewhere. New York doesn't count. I'd rather lay naked in a pit full of red ants than go visit my relatives'

In another post card to her friends in August 1989, she wrote about being on an airplane. 'Hello I just got my period can you believe this. It's just my luck,' she wrote. 'Ive been on this plane now for 3 hours and going mad!'

Angie pondered about the meaning of life in one letter from 1991, written when she was 16. 'Nothing much ever changes!!,' she wrote. 'When you think about it nothing stays the same. Thank God!'

In a series of postcards sent in 1989, 14-year-old Angie wrote to her friend about men she was attracted to.

She wrote: 'He's a photographer I met today, nobody knows I like him but, he said he wants to work with me, I hope so because I want him.

'He's perfect, tall, thin, black hair, lives in a studio! But I think he's gay! Oh well!'

In another letter, she wrote that she had met 'Mr Perfect.'

'I met Mr Perfect. I don't know his name, he's a great kisser, I'll never see him again!'

In one letter, also written when she was 14, Angie complained of a hangover.

She wrote: 'My plane flight was a bi**h, especially with a hangover!'

The source claimed that Angie's mother Marcheline Bertrand, who passed away at the age of 56 of breast cancer, arranged for her daughter to take birth control at 15, to Angie's annoyance.

'She was annoyed when her mom gave her birth control pills and granted permission for Angie's boyfriend to sleep in her room.

'Angie rebelled and did the opposite by not sleeping with him at all and flushing the pills. She was always strong-willed and resilient from the time we met at the age of 13.'

The source claimed that Angie's mother Marcheline Bertrand, who passed away at the age of 56, arranged for her daughter to take birth control at 15, to Angie's annoyance. Angie's relationship with her famous dad Jon Voight, now 81, was very strained after he cheated on Marcheline

The source said, 'She was always a wonderful person and we had a wonderful friendship. People don't realize that she was always charitable, wild but charitable. I hadn't seen her one time for six months and she gave me money'

The source added that Angie was attracted to the dark side and dreamed of becoming a funeral director and even took a course in embalming

Angie is seen posing in front of a cemetery as a teen. Her childhood friend said she was always interested in death and suicide

The source was full of praise for Marcheline, who they described as 'a cool mom.'

'Her mom was really cool and would let us do what we wanted. She let us hang out and drink at their home because she preferred to know where we were.'

But the source said that Angie's relationship with her famous actor dad Jon Voight, now 81, was very strained after he cheated on Marcheline.

The source claimed that Angie once even threw a computer Voight had given her out of her bedroom window.

'At the time, Angie was very angry and disgusted by him. He brought a brand new computer for Angie and her brother James at a time when computers were expensive and scarce.

'Right after he left Angie threw it out of her bedroom window. Marcheline didn't even get mad because she understood Angie's anger was on her behalf.'

In one letter, Angie complained about visiting family in New York. She wrote: 'I'd rather lay naked in a pit full of red ants than go visit my relatives.'

The future actress is seen as a teen lounging on a couch surrounded by friends as they ate pizza and drank beers

'She tried to do the things that were wild, that were anti-Beverly Hills. We dressed in black and thought we were anarchists,' the source said

Angie is seen in the right corner of this photo sitting at a table full of beer bottles with friends

Angie went on to become an award-winning and world famous actress and a mother to six children. But the star never turned her back on her unconventional upbringing

The source added that Angie was attracted to the dark side - the actress dreamed of becoming a funeral director and even took a study-at-home course in embalming.

She enjoyed hanging out at cemeteries and in one picture she poses in front of a graveyard in LA.

'Angelina was kind of obsessed with suicide and darkness - she was interested in the darker side of life if you will,' they said.

Angie pondered on the meaning of life in one letter from 1991, written when she was 16.

'Well, I'm alive and still looking for the reason,' she wrote.

The source also lifted the lid on Angie's modeling career and claimed that the beauty was asked to lose weight.

'She was so thin and so beautiful but she told me that her agency wanted her to lose five to ten pounds.It was crazy,' the source said.

Angie went on to become an award-winning and world famous actress and a mother to six children. But the star never turned her back on her unconventional upbringing.

She once told Vogue magazine: 'I am still at heart - and always will be - just a punk kid with tattoos.'
Caught in the middle, govts in Europe, Africa and Asia are walking a fine line with the worlds top two economies.

Antagonisms between the United States and China are rattling governments around the world, prompting a German official to warn of Cold War 2.0 and Kenyas president to appeal for unity to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Global trade already was depressed by the two-year-old tariff war between the worlds two largest economies. That rancour has spread to include Hong Kong, Chinese Muslim minorities, spying accusations and control of the South China Sea.

Caught in the middle, other governments are trying to defend their own interests.

Germany

Chancellor Angela Merkels government wants to preserve trade and cooperation on global warming but says a security law tightening Beijings control over Hong Kong is a difficult issue.

The Hong Kong security laws potential disruption of the autonomy Beijing promised to the former British colony is no reason to stop talking but is a worrying development, Merkel said.

Europes biggest economy has yet to take a final position on Chinese tech giant Huawei despite US pressure to exclude its equipment from next-generation telecom networks as a possible security risk.

China is an important partner for us but also a competitor, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement after a videoconference on Friday with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.

Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to preserve trade and cooperation on global warming but sees Chinas Hong Kong security law as a worrying development [File: Michael Sohn/AP Photo]

Peter Beyer, the German governments coordinator of Transatlantic cooperation, expressed alarm in an interview with the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland newspaper group.

We are experiencing the beginning of a Cold War 2.0, Beyer said. He criticised both sides but said, the US is our most important partner outside the EU, and that is how it will stay.

France

President Emmanuel Macron has called US President Donald Trump my friend but is trying to avoid riling Beijing.

China is an important partner for us but also a competitor. Heiko Maas, German Foreign Minister

France has not echoed Trumps criticism of Beijings handling of the coronavirus, but French legislators applauded Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian last week when he condemned abuses of minority Uighurs in Chinas northwest.

Le Drian mentioned mass arrests, disappearances, forced labour, forced sterilisations, the destruction of Uighur cultural heritage. He said France has asked that the camps be closed.

Frances foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian last week condemned abuses of minority Uighurs in Chinas northwest [File: Virginia Mayo/AP Photo]

All these practices are unacceptable, the minister said. We condemn them.

Trumps ambivalence towards US allies and flouting of diplomatic norms has alarmed France.

Sino-American tensions dont benefit France, said Valerie Niquet of the Foundation for Strategic Research, a think-tank. We share the same interests as the United States towards China, we adopt more or less the same positions, so it doesnt bring us any positive element.

European Union

Europes strategic relations with China will be an issue for the European Union while Germany holds the rotating presidency of the 27-nation bloc, Merkel said this month.

EU foreign ministers have not managed to agree on a common position on China.

Sino-American tensions dont benefit France. Valerie Niquet, Foundation for Strategic Research

Regarding Hong Kong, options include closer scrutiny of exports of sensitive technology to the territory and changing visa policies for its residents. But there is no talk of economic sanctions or targeting Chinese officials with penalties.

The message is that the recent actions change the rules, said the top EU foreign policy official, Josep Borrell. This will require a revision of our approach and will clearly have an impact on our relations.

South Korea

South Korea is squeezed between its main military ally and its biggest trading partner.

In 2016, Beijing destroyed supermarket operator Lottes business in China after the conglomerate sold a plot of land in South Korea to the government for an anti-missile system over Chinese objections.

US President Donald Trump flanked by Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (right) and South Koreas President Moon Jae-in (left) in 2017 [File: Evan Vucci/AP Photo]

Washington is unhappy with South Koreas desire to ease sanctions on North Korea to encourage disarmament and is uneasy about its use of Huawei technology.

Trump complains about the cost of stationing 28,500 US troops in South Korea to protect against North Korean threats. A cost-sharing agreement expired in 2019 without a replacement.

The US-Chinese row has thrown a question to South Korea about which side to choose, the newspaper Dong-A Ilbo said in an editorial on Monday.

Sooner or later we will be forced to provide an answer, no matter how hard we tried to avoid it, the newspaper said.

India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to embrace both Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump, but the pandemic and a border clash that killed at least 20 Indian soldiers have fuelled anti-Chinese sentiment.

Protesters have called for boycotts of Chinese goods and burned Chinese flags. They applauded the governments ban on the popular Chinese video-sharing app TikTok and some other Chinese apps.

Were not going to fight coronavirus if one country fails and another succeeds. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta

Washington wants stronger ties with India and supported its controversial move a year ago to split its only Muslim-majority state, restive Jammu and Kashmir, into two federally controlled territories. This month, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said the United States would stand up to China on the Indian border dispute.

For India, it is opportune that the US is applying more pressure on China, and if it can get it to behave, that would be welcomed by the entire neighbourhood, said Jayadeva Ranade, president of the Centre for China Analysis and Strategy think-tank in New Delhi.

Africa

China-US tensions are taking a toll. The African Development Bank said last year trade disruption due to the tariff war could lead to a 2.5 percent drop in economic output for some African countries.

For India it is opportune that the US is applying more pressure on China. Jayadeva Ranade, president, Centre for China Analysis and Strategy

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said political disputes should be set aside to better fight the coronavirus.

Lets not be sucked back into isolationism or unilateralism. We need each other today more than ever, Kenyatta said an Atlantic Council event last month. Were not going to fight coronavirus if one country fails and another succeeds.

Southeast Asia

The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has avoided taking steps that would alienate Washington or Beijing, both important trading partners.

Philippine presidential candidate Elly Pamatong burns a Chinese flag in Manila on December 4, 2015, to denounce Chinas island-building at the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea [File: Bullit Marquez/AP Photo]

The great powers, as they escalate their rivalry, will woo us into their side, said Harry Roque, a spokesman for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. We will advance our national interest.

The regions most sensitive conflict  over control of the South China Sea  escalated when the Trump administration publicly rejected most of Beijings claims to one of the worlds busiest waterways.

We are making clear: Beijings claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a July 13 statement.

The Philippines and Vietnam, among the most vocal critics of Chinese assertiveness, could benefit from that stance but will move cautiously, said Greg Poling of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

They arent going to stick their necks in a noose until they see real follow-through from Washington, Poling said.


RESULTS



SECOND QUARTER 2020



Consolidated Revenue: 55.0m



Consolidated Growth: + 2.6%



Organic Growth on a like-for-like basis: + 1.9%



Profitability (EBITDA margin): 14.4%



FIRST HALF OF 2020



Consolidated Revenue: 112.1m

Consolidated Growth: + 7.7%

Organic Growth on a like-for-like basis: + 6.0%

Profitability (EBITDA margin): 13.1%



ANALYSIS



The + 6% organic growth for the 1st half of 2020 at constant exchange rates on a likefor-like basis can be broken down as follows:



- Software: - 9.1%- Services: + 7.9%The Software division shows a decrease, mainly due to the postponement of licence revenue that was budgeted for the first half-year.The Services division reacted to the crisis with different trends depending on the countries.Two countries stood out in particular:- BeLux (-0.4%) that did not show growth due to the Tipik subsidiary, in charge of the development of information systems linked to the organisation of events within the European Union.- The UK (+ 18.9%) whose business activity was energised by the Oil market.2020 OUTLOOKSword Group plans organic growth of 5%+ (versus 12% budgeted) associated with an EBITDA margin of 13% (no change in relation to the initial budget).PROJECT TO SELL THE BUSINESS ACTIVITIES IN FRANCEArgos Wityu and Sword Group have entered into negotiations with a view to the acquisition by Argos Wityu of the French business activities of Sword Group.The perimeter concerned by the operation envisaged includes:- The Services business activities currently managed by the French subsidiaries in France,- The international Software activities with the National Trademark and Patent Offices.This perimeter, the profitability of which is in line with the Group standards, generates a revenue trend of 60 million for 2020.Argos Wityu is a European Fund whose investment strategy favours company growth, and who invests in particulier in the new technologies sector. While preserving the assets and expertise developed by the Group in France, Argos Wityu and the current management team of Sword France have an ambitious development project.Sword Group will focus on:- In France, the Software activities generally speaking,- In the GRC sector (Risk Management and Compliance), acquisitions that provide products that are complementary to those already managed by this division,- In the UK, Services through aggressive mainly organic growth but also supported by targeted acquisitions,- In the other countries, the pursuit of its organic growth accompanied by potential acquisitions.[The operation remains subject to information and consultation of the staff representatives and to approval of the anti-trust authorities.]

Attachment
Attorney General William Barr is testifying before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday for the first time in his year-and-a-half long tenure as the nation's top law enforcement official.

Democrats are grilling him over a long list of controversies and his repeated interventions in matters of interest to President Donald Trump.

MORE: Democrats to grill AG Barr over interventions in matters of interest to Trump

Barr's appearance follows more than a year of stand-offs and delays -- he hasn't appeared before any congressional committee since May 2019 when he testified to a Senate panel on his handling of former special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russia's interference in the 2016 election -- later declining to appear before the House.

Here's how the hearing unfolded:

PHOTO: Attorney General William Barr testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing in the Congressional Auditorium at the Capitol Visitors Center, July 28, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/AFP via Getty Images)

3:58 p.m. Hearing adjourned

Chairman Nadler adjourned the hearing after a contentious five hours.

2:30 p.m. Barr says use of tear gas appropriate 'to disperse unlawful assembly'

In an exchange during which Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., asks Barr a question about the use of tear gas on Portlander Christopher David -- a Navy veteran seen on viral video being beaten by federal agents -- Barr says, "I don't know what kind of gas it was."

Barr went on to defend the federal presence in Portland and the use of force against protesters, claiming that agents are needed to prevent "violent attacks on federal courts" from "metastasizing around the country."

Asked by Cicilline if it's ever appropriate for officers to use force against peaceful protesters, Barr says it is when the gathering is unlawful.

"It is appropriate to use tear gas when it's indicated -- to disperse an unlawful assembly and sir, unfortunately peaceful protesters are affected by that," Barr said.

But Barr continued to deny the use of tear gas at Lafayette Park on June 1, even as a U.S. National Guard major testified in a different House hearing Tuesday that there was, and that he picked up the shells on the street that day.

Story continues

PHOTO: Attorney General William Barr appears before a House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 28, 2020. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post via AP)

Cicilline also asks Barr whether it's ever appropriate to accept or solicit foreign election assistance.

"Depends what kind of assistance," Barr said, before being pressed further. "No, it's not appropriate."

"OK, sorry you had to struggle with that one, Mr. Attorney General," Cicilline quipped back.

When Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Mich., challenged Barr on why white nationalist protesters in Michigan earlier this year did not face the same federal response as Black Live Matter protesters, Barr argues it's a matter for governors.

Jayapal also called Barr's denials that tear gas was used in Lafayette Park a "semantic distinction."

1:52 p.m. Committee takes a recess

The House Judiciary Committee take a recess for approximately five minutes.

1:48 p.m. Barr fields questions on why he isn't investigating Trump for Stone commutation, defends BOP decision to revoke Cohen's home confinement

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Mass., presses Barr on why he hasn't launched an investigation into Trump based on his commutation of Stone's sentence and previous testimony during Barr's confirmation in which he said it would be illegal for a president to pardon someone in exchange for a promise that the person not incriminate him.

"Why should I?" Barr said when Swalwell asks why he wasn't investigating Trump.

Swalwell goes on to ask Barr if he was aware of a tweet from the president that said Stone's decision not to cooperate with Mueller's prosecutors showed "guts," and Barr answers he didn't read the president's tweets. Barr then said he believes Swalwell was operating on a "Rube Goldberg" theory in saying the pattern of facts justified an investigation into Trump.

"If I applied this standard there would be a lot more people under investigation," Barr said.

PHOTO: Attorney General William Barr testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing in the Congressional Auditorium at the US Capitol Visitors Center July 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Matt Mcclain/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Barr then defends the Federal Bureau of Prisons' decision to try and revoke Michael Cohen's release to home confinement after he refused to sign an agreement restricting him from publishing a book -- a decision that a judge reversed last week stating DOJ's actions appeared "retaliatory."

"Something that people don't seem to understand is that his home confinement was not being supervised by the Bureau of Prisons," Barr said. "It was being supervised by the probation office which is part of the U.S. Court system and it was the U.S. Court system that had the requirements about not writing."

Republican Rep. Tom McClintock of California then pushes Barr for answers on why those involved in the early stages of the Russia investigation have not been prosecuted.

Barr answers that the COVID-19 crisis delayed some actions U.S. Attorney John Durham was looking to take as part of his investigation, seemingly referring to convening grand juries, before adding, "He is working very diligently and justice isn't something you order up on a schedule like you order pizza."

He then tells McClintock that he "understood" his concern that should Trump be defeated in November it could endanger Durham's investigation.

Barr also criticizes Democrats for what he describes as their failure to condemn those who have sought to vandalize federal courthouses.

"What makes me concerned for the country is this is the first time in my memory that the leaders of one of our great two political parties, the Democratic party, are not coming out and condemning mob violence and the attack on federal courts," Barr said. "Why can't we just say, you know, the violence against federal courts has to stop? Could we hear something like that?"

PHOTO: Attorney General William Barr appears before the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington, July 28, 2020. (Pool/Reuters)

1:21 p.m. Barr vents anger in exchange on Stone, faces questions on 2020 election

Barr appears to be growing increasingly rankled as Democrats lob accusation after accusation against him, while either declining to let him respond or interrupting him, saying they are reclaiming their time when he tries to answer.

During a probing line of questioning about Barr's intervention in the sentencing recommendation for longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Pa., attempts to drill down why Barr would overrule prosecutors who had issued their recommendations for Stone's sentencing based on clearly spelled out DOJ guidelines, as well as who raised the case with Barr in the first place.

Barr fires back, noting that Judge Amy Berman Jackson eventually sentenced Stone to three years in prison, below the original recommendation Barr had overruled.

"The judge agreed with me, Congressman, the judge agreed with me!" Barr said as Deutch pressed him.

PHOTO: Attorney General William Barr during a the House Judiciary Committee hearing July 28, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

"The issue here is whether Roger Stone was treated different because he was friends with the president," Deutch said. "Mr. Attorney General, can you think of any other cases where the defendant threatened to kill a witness, threatened a judge, lied to a judge, where the Department of Justice claimed that those were mere technicalities?"

Barr declines to answer the question directly, instead repeating his previous statement that Judge Berman Jackson "agreed" with his lowered recommendation.

During later questioning with vice presidential hopeful Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., Barr says he is not familiar with the high-profile case of the death of Elijah McClain, the 23-year-old unarmed Black man who died after he was apprehended by Aurora, Colorado, police in August 2019.

Rep. Cedric Richmond questions Barr on his unfounded claims that increased mail-in voting will lead to widespread fraud.

Barr, asked whether he believed the 2020 presidential election will be "rigged," says, "I have no reason to think it will be." He adds, though, that he stood by his claims that increased mail-in voting presents a "high risk" of massive fraud.

Rep. Cedric Richmond says Bill Barr "brought no black people" onto his top staff when he took over at DOJ: "That, sir, is systematic racism." "Actions speak louder than words. You really should keep the name of the Honorable John Lewis out of the Department of Justice's mouth." pic.twitter.com/gTc5p1bAji  ABC News (@ABC) July 28, 2020

"What I have talked about, made very clear is that I'm not talking about accommodations by people of who have to be out of the state or have particular need not to -- inability to go and vote," Barr said. "What I'm talking about is the wholesale conversion of the election to mail-in voting."

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries confronts Barr with statements from Trump that he says raise the idea that Trump might not leave office if defeated in November. Asked what he would do if Trump loses but refuses to leave office, Barr answers, "If the results are clear I would leave office."

Asked to defend his praise of Trump's response to the COVID-19 crisis, Barr argues former President Barack Obama was largely to blame for the current lag in testing the country is experiencing.

"The problem with the testing system was a function of President Obama's mishandling at the CDC and efforts to centralize everything in the CDC," Barr said.

"That is inaccurate," Jeffries shoots back.

12:40 p.m. Barr asks for a recess

Barr asks for a recess, and the House Judiciary hearing stands adjourned for approximately five minutes.

PHOTO:Attorney General William Barr testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing in the Congressional Auditorium at the U.S Capitol Visitors Center July 28, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/AFP via Getty Images)

12:35 p.m. Barr denies his original order to clear the protesters was related to Trump's photo-op

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas seeks to push Barr on his statements that he doesn't believe "systemic racism" exists broadly in police departments across the country.

"I don't agree there's systemic racism in police departments generally in this country," Barr said.

Confronted by Lee about the limited number of civil rights prosecutions conducted during the Trump Administration, Barr says he believes prosecutions under Section 241 and 242 "are extremely strong," while adding some prosecutions this year have been disrupted because grand juries have largely been suspended during the COVID-19 crisis.

Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee goes on to aggressively question Barr about his involvement in the clearing of the mostly peaceful protest in Lafayette Square on June 1.

Barr says he first learned President Trump might come out of the White House "sometime in the afternoon" and that he only learned "later in the afternoon" that he might visit St. John's Church for his photo-op -- but again denies his original order to clear the protesters was related to the photo-op.

Attorney General Bill Barr: "I'm supposedly punishing the president's enemies and helping his friends. What enemies have I indicted? Could you point to one indictment that has been under the Department that you feel has been unmerited?" https://t.co/TtCZXxSTLG pic.twitter.com/Ty0J97h3QM  ABC News (@ABC) July 28, 2020

In an exchange with Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., Barr says he agreed that those who have referred to law enforcement sent to Portland as "storm troopers" are potentially endangering the officers on the ground.

"I think that's possible," Barr said. "I think it's irresponsible to call these federal law enforcement officers storm troopers."

Reviving Barr's comments made to ABC News criticizing President Trump's tweets on the Roger Stone case, Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., seeks to get Barr to admit that Trump's tweet influenced his decision to overrule the prosecutors' sentencing recommendation.

"It was within the guidelines but it was not within Justice Department policy in my view," Barr replied. "Let me ask you. Do you think it's fair? Do you think it is fair for a 67-year-old man to be sent to prison for seven to nine years?"

Barr then appears to forget that the Justice Department also sought at one point to revise the sentencing recommendation against Flynn before it moved to withdraw the case against him altogether.

12:06 p.m. Barr pushes back against accusations he has politicized the DOJ, says officers are "on the defense" in Portland

Nadler begins his line of questioning noting that Barr incorrectly stated at a July 22 press conference at the White House that the pilot launch of "Operation Legend" in Kansas City had yielded 200 arrests in a span of mere weeks.

"Correct," Barr said, when Nadler noted Barr "misspoke."

"Operation Legend" in Kansas City has, in fact, had only resulted in one arrest in Kansas City at the time Barr made his remarks.

Nadler uses the exchange to try to accuse Barr of wielding the Justice Department's powers to assist in Trump's campaign for reelection. He pushes him to answer whether he's discussed the campaign with Trump, and Barr acknowledges it has come up in conversations but seeks to disconnect that from law enforcement matters.

Barr repeatedly pushes back, saying he rejects the idea that the department has sought to suppress protests rather than arrest those committing violence and vandalism of federal property. He also argues Nadler was conflating the anti-crime initiative under "Operation Legend" and the deployment of federal officers to cities where rioters have threatened federal property.

"We're not out looking for trouble." Bill Barr defends federal law enforcement actions in Portland, Oregon: "Federal courts are under attack. Since when is it okay to try to burn down a federal court?" https://t.co/TtCZXxSTLG pic.twitter.com/s2hrpAZRdA  ABC News (@ABC) July 28, 2020

In his first exchange with a Republican on the committee, Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Barr seeks to negate claims that he has politicized the Justice Department.

"What enemies [of the administration] have I indicted? Could you point to one indictment?" Barr said. "You you say I helped the president's friends. The cases that are cited, the Stone case and the Flynn case, are both cases where I determined that some intervention was necessary to rectify the rule of law."

He repeats that he believes the prosecution of Roger Stone was "righteous" and that he only intervened out of a belief that the prosecutors initially recommended an excessive sentence for him.

"The president's friends don't deserve special breaks but they also don't deserve to be treated more harshly than other people," Barr said.

Asked if he believes the role of the attorney general was to be the "president's wingman," as Eric Holder one referred to himself, Barr answers, "No, I have already described what I think the duty of the attorney general is."

He adds of the actions by federal officers in Portland that they are largely, "on the defense" against violent rioters trying to damage the courthouse.

"We are not looking for trouble," Barr said. "If the state and city would provide the law enforcement services that other jurisdictions do we would have no need for additional Marshals in the courthouse."

11:46 a.m. Barr says Justice Department operates independent from Trump

In his opening remarks, Barr defends his "independent judgment" in Justice Department handlings, insisting he has not inappropriately acted to please the president.

"Ever since I made it clear that I was going to do everything I could to get to the bottom of the grave abuses involved in the bogus 'Russiagate' scandal, many of the Democrats on this committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that I am simply the president's factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions," Barr said. "Judging from the letter inviting me to this hearing, that appears to be your agenda today."

Barr goes on to say Trump "has not attempted to interfere" in his prosecutorial decisions, which might include lessening the sentencing recommendation for the president's longtime friend and campaign adviser Roger Stone and the move to dismiss charges against his first national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Bill Barr says Pres. Trump "has told me from the start that he expects me to exercise my independent judgement." "It is precisely because I feel complete freedom to what I think is right that induced me to serve once again as attorney general." https://t.co/TtCZXxSTLG pic.twitter.com/elAqJSd0Fo  ABC News (@ABC) July 28, 2020

"My decisions on criminal matters have been left to my independent judgment, based on the law and fact, without any direction or interference from the White House or anyone outside the Department," Barr said.

11:33 a.m. Nadler says Barr has "aided and abetted the worst failings" of Trump, Jordan goes after Russia investigation, playing video of violence around protests

After saying he's fine after a minor car accident on the way to the hearing, Nadler opens by portraying Barr as a corrupt actor blatantly bending the power of the nation's top law enforcement agency to benefit Trump personally and politically.

"Your tenure has been marked by a persistent war against the department's professional core in an apparent attempt to secure favors for the president," Nadler said. "In your time at the department, you have aided and abetted the worst failings of the president."

PHOTO: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler before questioning Attorney General William Barr at the Capitol Visitors Center, July 28, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/AFP via Getty Images)

He takes Barr to task for the department's recent actions against protesters and its handling of the unrest in Portland and Seattle, where Barr has defended the actions of federal officers sent to protect federal courthouses.

"Others have lost sight of the importance of civil rights law, but now we see the full force of the federal government brought to bear against citizens demonstrating for the advancement of their own civil rights," Nadler said. "There is no precedent for the Department of Justice to actively seek out conflict with American citizens under such flimsy pretext or for such petty purposes."

House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler to Attorney General Bill Barr: "Your tenure has been marked by a persistent war against the Department's professional corps in an apparent attempt to secure favors for the president." https://t.co/TtCZXxSTLG pic.twitter.com/0Zip28TdhD  ABC News (@ABC) July 28, 2020

Nadler goes on to preview several controversies that House Democrats will look to confront Barr on, including but not limited to the deployment of federal law enforcement to cities experiencing unrest and protests, unfounded statements regarding mass voter fraud, and "amplifying" conspiracies coming from Trump by investigating the investigators who launched the Russia probe.

"The message these actions send is clear, in this Justice Department the president's enemies will be punished and his friends will be protected no matter the cost, no matter the cost of liberty, no matter the cost of justice," Nadler said. "The administration has twisted the Department of Justice into a shadow of its former self capable of serving most Americans only after it has first served those in power. This committee has a responsibility to protect Americans from that kind of corruption, Mr. Barr."

Republican ranking member Jim Jordan then takes over, using his remarks to highlight alleged abuses in the beginnings of the Russia investigation.

"Spying, that one word. That's why they are after you, Mr. Attorney General," Jordan said.

Jordan then introduces a roughly 10-minute long video splicing clips from the media and other politicians referring to protests around the country as "peaceful protests" side- by-side with clips of violence and an emotional statement from a family member of retired St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn, who was shot and killed by looters in the city on June 2.

PHOTO: Attorney General William Barr takes the oath before he appears before the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., July 28, 2020. (Matt McClain via Reuters)

9:38 a.m. Hearing delayed after Nadler in car crash

A committee source confirms House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., was in a car accident on his way to the hearing, but he is OK and was en route to Capitol Hill in a cab.

The car hit something, but Nadler was not injured.

The hearing's start will be delayed for at least 45 minutes.

Contentious 5-hour House hearing with AG William Barr concludes originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Rockets could launch into space from the Whitsundays by 2022 if a Queensland government proposal passes viability tests.

The government has spent more than a year trying to find a potential new orbital rocket site in the state, and on Tuesday announced it would launch a probe to determine if Abbot Point in north Queensland was suitable.

A satellite launches from Cape Canaveral. Credit:AP

Abbot Point, from where mining giant Adani plans to ship coal overseas, is about 100 kilometres north of Airlie Beach.

If the plan is successful, the area would be home to the state's first commercial launch site.
A COVID-19 cluster spreading in Sydney's inner-city suburb of Potts Point has forced a senior adviser to the Prime Minister into self-isolation and prompted warnings for all residents and visitors to the suburb to get tested even if they have the mildest of symptoms.

Three more cases linked to the Thai Rock and The Apollo restaurants in Potts Point were confirmed on Tuesday night. The vice commodore of The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, his partner, and another staff member from The Apollo were among those who tested positive.

People in Potts Point have been told to monitor for any symptoms. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

A western Sydney primary school will also be closed on Wednesday after a student tested positive to coronavirus.

It comes as 400 new cases were reported nationally to 4pm on Tuesday, with Victoria reporting 384 new cases and a further six deaths. The national death toll stands at 167.
The virtual water-cooler topic du jour around Parliament Hill is of course all about what kind of permanent damage the WE fiasco will do to the Liberals.

Will heads roll? Can Finance Minister Bill Morneau last much longer? Will there be a cabinet shuffle? Will the Liberals dig in their heels and goad the opposition into an early election? On and on.

But the fiasco is already taking a toll.

Young people are now at the forefront of contagion of the coronavirus. The chief public health officer warned again this week that 61 per cent of the new cases reported over the previous week were under the age of 40  the same demographic that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has courted so heavily for votes and made repeated promises to help during the pandemic.

Never have young people needed strong direction from a public leader like now, and that leader should be Trudeau  the person who has gravitas as the prime minister and who should have had enough credibility among young people to urge them to put on their masks, refrain from large parties and act responsibly for the sake of the country.

Instead, even as COVID-19 numbers rise, Trudeaus public appearances have declined as he deals with the WE controversy, and his direct appeals to young people are barely heard.

Pandemic aside, theres also the impact on how the government will work with the private and not-for-profit sectors in the future.

Collaborating with third parties  whether they be charities, corporations or other organizations  has long been an area of fascination for governments. The Conservatives and the Liberals have flirted with different models  some of them successful, some of them not so much. The hope is that by working closely with third parties, government money will go further and reach its targets more efficiently, and everyone wins.

Its an experimentation in delivery of public policy, and its well worth the effort despite the occasional setback.

At its best, such collaboration has the federal government decide on public policy goals and provide a chunk of funding for an outside organization to implement and deliver the program. Sometimes financing can come from elsewhere, leveraging the federal money or taking on some of the financial risk.

The federal government has been working with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for years this way and ramped up the arrangement through the Green Municipal Fund with an extra $900 million in 2019. The hope is that the low-carbon projects will be chosen and financed quickly and directly rather than getting tied up in federal-provincial negotiations.

Governance is essential to this kind of government spending because the potential for a conflict of interest is huge. FCM is not a federal institution with the federal governments best interests at heart; it is a group representing mayors and city officials who often lobby Ottawa for more money. What allows Ottawa to give the FCM power to manage a government fund is a strong arrangement for accountability. Theres an independent counsel, and all players are bound tightly by an agreement that includes a requirement for specific outcomes.

The Canada Infrastructure Bank is perhaps an example of how this arrangement has worked less well. The concept, announced in 2016, has stumbled along as officials and stakeholders spent years trying to hash out proper governance that would allow the bank to leverage billions in federal money to build infrastructure projects.

The financing has not gushed as expected, and theyre still wrestling with the right model.

But the point here is that the arrangement needs to be airtight, with proper accountability, solid objectives and a clear requirement to deliver.

The WE contract was between a government in a rush to help young people during the pandemic and a charity that was in financial trouble, according to testimony Tuesday from former board chair Michelle Douglas. She clashed with the charitys founders, the Kielburger brothers, over access to financial details at a time when the organization was shedding a huge number of employees.

Just weeks later, the federal government entered into talks with the organization and then agreed to pay it up to $43 million to place thousands of students at other charities. And now the project is embroiled in an ethics scandal in which both the prime minister and the finance minister have been accused of favouring an organization with ties to their respective families.

Clearly, many mistakes were made and boundaries crossed, and the hearings and ethics commissioners report should get to the bottom of it all.

But theres already collateral damage. A profound suspicion around dealing with third-party collaborators has set in, as witnessed by the aggressive questioning from the committee members over the past week.

These arrangements are crucial to many local public policy initiatives, especially involving community-based charities. Theyre also an important part of government making sure it is constantly innovating in how it designs social programs.

Lets not throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Arabella Del Busso is certainly embracing her wild new look.

After debuting a braided hairstyle earlier this month, the former NRL WAG returned to social media once again on Tuesday to flaunt her striking style.

In a short clip posted to Instagram Stories, the 30-year-old lingerie model posed in her apartment wearing an animal print crop top and bike shorts.

'Looking like Jane ready to find Tarzan': Former NRL WAG Arabella Del Busso, 30, flaunted her new braided hairstyle as she posed on Instagram in animal-print activewear on Tuesday

Arabella's eyebrows appeared much darker than usual, while her naturally fair complexion seemed to be enhanced with the help of a spray tan.

'Looking like Jane ready to find Tarzan,' the controversial ex-girlfriend of West Tigers player Josh Reynolds wrote in the caption.

Arabella debuted her tight braids in a glossy selfie earlier this month, but provided no explanation as to the reason for her dramatic change.

Is that really you? Arabella's eyebrows appeared much darker than usual, while her naturally fair complexion seemed to be enhanced with the help of a spray tan. Pictured right in April

Arabella raised eyebrows in late May after viewers noticed that she looked different in her televised 60 Minutes interview compared to her Instagram photos.

She later hit back at Channel Nine, insisting that they had used lighting techniques to make her look old and square-faced.

'I don't look like that. I looked at 60 Minutes and how my face looked and I was mortified,' she said.

Transformation: Before getting braids, Arabella had sported sleek, blow-dried waves (left). She debuted her braided hairstyle on Instagram (right) earlier this month, but didn't explain why

'The lighting they used, the angles they took. I thought, my goodness I do not look like that,' the brunette continued.

Insisting she barely uses Photoshop to edit her images, Arabella declared: 'I actually do look like my Instagram photos. There is a bit of lighting [editing] here and there. That's all.'

The glamazon previously told Daily Mail Australia that she's had a breast enhancement, dental veneers and lip fillers to transform herself over the years.

Hmm! Arabella raised eyebrows in late May after viewers noticed that she looked different in her televised 60 Minutes interview (left) compared to her Instagram photos (right)

Subtle tweaks: Insisting she barely uses Photoshop to edit her images, Arabella said: 'I actually do look like my Instagram photos. There is a bit of lighting [editing] here and there. That's all'

Arabella is no stranger to controversy, especially following her high-profile split from rugby league star Josh.

The former couple met on Instagram in 2018 and had a one-night stand, after which she claimed she fell pregnant with twins.

It was later alleged that Arabella showed Josh a fraudulent ultrasound scan, which he claims she used to fake a pregnancy.

She has denied faking pregnancies or miscarriages, but admitted on 60 Minutes to passing off another woman's sonogram as her own to 'spite' Josh.
Capt Amarinder Singh

Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday condemned the attempts reportedly being made to convert a famous gurdwara in Pakistan's Lahore city into a mosque.

"Strongly condemn attempts being made to convert holy Gurdwara Sri Shahidi Asthan in Lahore, site of martyrdom of Bhai Taru Singh Ji, into mosque.

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Capt Amarinder Singh tweet

"Urge @DrSJaishankar to convey Punjab's concerns in strongest terms to Pakistan to safeguard all Sikh places of reverence," Singh said in a tweet.

India lodged a strong protest with the Pakistan High Commission over reports of attempts being made to convert the gurdwara at Naulakha Bazaar into a mosque.
One of the final steps of a major vaccine study in the US is now under way with the first of 30,000 planned volunteers receiving shots of the experimental dose.

The vaccine, developed by National Institutes of Health and Moderna, is one of several candidates in the final stretch of the global race to find a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, which has claimed more than 648,000 lives worldwide.

The Moderna trials will be conducted blindly with two different groups of volunteers who are unaware if theyre receiving the real shot or a placebo.

They will receive two doses and then return to their normal lives where scientists will track which group experiences more infections.

Were optimistic, cautiously optimistic that the vaccine will work and that toward the end of the year there will be data to prove it, Dr Stephen Hoge, president of Massachusetts-based Moderna, told a House subcommittee last week.

Theres still no guarantee that the Moderna vaccine will protect against the virus and it will take months for the first data to arrive from the Moderna test if the study goes to plan.

The first vaccinations were completed in Savannah, Georgia, one of more than seven dozen trial sites across the country that are set to help to check not only if the vaccine works but also whether it is safe for use.

Several other vaccines made by China and by Britains Oxford University earlier this month began smaller final-stage tests in Brazil and other hard-hit countries.

However, the US government is conducting its own tests of any vaccine that might be used in the country. Every month through fall, the government-funded Covid-19 Prevention Network will roll out a new study of a leading candidate with 30,000 newly recruited volunteers.

More than 150,000 people have filled out an online register declaring their interest in participating in the trials, said Dr Larry Corey, a virologist with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute in Seattle, who helps oversee the study sites.

We all feel so helpless right now. Theres very little that we can do to combat this virus. And being able to participate in this trial has given me a sense of, that Im doing something, Jennifer Haller of Seattle told the AP.

Be prepared for a lot of questions from your friends and family about how its going, and a lot of thank-yous.

The doctor emphasised how important it is that enough Black and Hispanic participants are reflected in the studies as populations that have been hit hard by the virus.

These trials need to be multigenerational, they need to be multiethnic, they need to reflect the diversity of the United States population, Dr Corey told a vaccine meeting last week.

Vaccine development around the world has been severely accelerated against normal timelines with scientists confident that vaccination is the worlds best hope in the fight against the pandemic, which has infected over 16 million people in the world so far.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press
The department has been holding weekly meetings with all school districts to keep them informed of the latest news from the state health department.

If we can walk through this together, we will be stronger in our county because of that, she said.

She stressed the importance of the communities reducing spread as a way of helping keep schools safe.

I think there is a fair mix of precautions being utilized and not being utilized, she said. Ive heard some communications from people that masks had been worn, but people still got COVID. Masks are one precautionary measure. There is nothing that is going to be 100 percent unless someone stays home all the time and isolates.

Williams said in Johnson and Scott counties, there was a steep climb in the number of cases reported in mid-June, then a decrease in July. She said in Muscatine County there had been a drop off in the first part of June and then numbers began picking up. The upswing is not as high as it was in April or May, she said. She also said there has been a lot of correlations between the increase and community activity, especially gatherings of 10 people or more.

In speaking of precautions people can do to make sure they remain safe, she advised the standard precautions of wearing a mask, washing hands frequently, and keeping distance from other people. Williams commented that everything at this point is a risk mitigation effort.
Clearinghouse Community Development Financial Institution "We are tremendously grateful to Comerica Bank for their concern and commitment to the community, said Douglas J. Bystry, President and CEO of Clearinghouse CDFI.

Clearinghouse Community Development Financial Institution (Clearinghouse CDFI) announced today a $1.1 million equity investment from Comerica Bank, a financial services company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The investment will be leveraged ten times for direct lending in low-income and distressed communities. Comerica Bank, the largest bank in Texas, also has retail operations in California, Arizona, Florida, and Michigan. This is Comerica Banks second equity investment in Clearinghouse CDFI.

Navigating the financial challenges of COVID-19 has put a strain on small businesses and entrepreneurs who remain vital to our neighborhoods and communities, said Comerica Bank Chief Community Officer Irvin Ashford Jr. Comerica remains committed to helping those impacted continue to push forward, and we believe this investment in Clearinghouse CDFI will deliver critical resources that aid in small business survival, recovery and viability.

Clearinghouse CDFI will use this investment to benefit low-income and distressed communities facing economic hardships resulting from the ongoing pandemicincluding minority owned businesses throughout Texas. The $1.1 million investment will help Clearinghouse CDFI continue financing small businesses, community facilities, affordable housing, and other projects that create jobs and services in these underserved areas.

We are tremendously grateful to Comerica Bank for their concern and commitment to the community, said Douglas J. Bystry, President and CEO of Clearinghouse CDFI. It is an extraordinary and timely investment given the current economic environment. Along with this investment, we are pleased to announce the opening of a new office in Dallas, which will allow us to help even more businesses and communities in Texas. We are most excited about this strong partnership with Comerica Bank to deploy needed capital into underserved communities throughout the state.

Community development projects previously financed by Clearinghouse CDFI include:



Paul Quinn College$5.84 million loan to a Texas HBCUa historically black college/university located in Dallasto build its first new campus facility in 40 years.

Reimagine$10 million in financing to improve and expand critical disability services for adults and children throughout Southern California.

Santa Cruz Valley Regional Hospital$2.5 million working capital loan for a rural Arizona hospital serving several local retirement communities.

Clearinghouse CDFI has funded $1.9 billion in total loans for over 1,900 community projects over the past 23 years. These projects have created or retained more than 21,500 jobs and benefit over 1.9 million individuals. This includes the rehabilitation of more than 18 million square feet of blighted properties. In 2019, Clearinghouse CDFI financed projects served 550,000 individuals from minority populations. Four in five individuals were from historically disenfranchised populations, and 65% of all loans were made to minority and women-owned organizations.

About Comerica Bank:

Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA) is a financial services company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and strategically aligned by three business segments: The Commercial Bank, The Retail Bank, and Wealth Management. Comerica focuses on relationships, and helping people and businesses be successful. In addition to Texas, Comerica Bank locations can be found in Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan, with select businesses operating in several other states, as well as in Canada and Mexico. Comerica reported total assets of $84 billion at June 30, 2020 and celebrated its 170th anniversary in August 2019.

About Clearinghouse Community Development Financial Institution:

Clearinghouse CDFI addresses unmet credit needs throughout the U.S. and in Indian Country through direct lending, equity investments, and financial assistance. For over 23 years, Clearinghouse CDFI has helped bridge the gap between conventional lending standards and the needs of low-income, distressed, and communities of color. Clearinghouse CDFI is also a B Corpa certification received from the nonprofit B Lab. B Corps are companies who meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability, and use business as a force for good. More information is available at: http://www.ccdfi.com.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is no visionary, and his Libyan policy may well carry the high risk of a miscalculation leading to a dangerous military confrontation with Egypt.

According to one of the four experts who spoke at The Fight for Libya" webinar organized July 22 by a United Arab Emirates-based think tank, this has been the recurring theme. The webinar was held on the same day as the announcement of the Turkish-Russian joint statement on Libya, which some consider a slap at Ankara's Libya policy.

It was only two days after the Egyptian parliament authorized military intervention in Libya. There was speculation that Turkish-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) forces were about to launch an attack on Egypt and the UAE-backed Khalifa Hifter forces to seize control of Sirte province and al-Jufra air base.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared the two strategic locations a month ago to be Egypt's "red line." Sirte, the hometown of late Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, stands out as a door opening to Libyas oil-rich regions lying between Tripoli and Benghazi.

For Turkey, which initially emerged as a "game-changer" in the Libyan conflict with its robust support of the GNA that broke Hifter's siege around Tripoli, there would be no cease-fire until Sirte and al-Jufra were controlled by the GNA. That was made explicit by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who said declaring a cease-fire is not to the advantage of the GNA.

Yet despite the possibility of a direct military confrontation between Turkey and Egypt, there are also astute assessments that neither side really wants or is ready for that.

For many in Egypt's military leadership, the disastrous intervention in the north Yemen civil war remains a cautionary experience that has influenced Cairo's lack of appetite for foreign military adventures despite its emphasis on martial power and its regional projection, read a July 13 report by the Foreign Policy Research Institute. This institutional hesitation presents yet another limitation that may effectively stop Cairo from going beyond a symbolic intervention in Libya that would look to counterbalance Turkey, the report added.

Only 10 days after Cavusoglu's statement, Russia stepped in. And on July 22, Moscow extracted a Turkish pledge for "creating conditions for a lasting and sustainable ceasefire in Libya, the joint statement announced after a series of ministerial-level meetings between Ankara and Moscow. The high-level consultations were initiated during Russian leader Vladimir Putins visit to Istanbul on Jan. 9 to de-escalate the situation on the ground and pave the way for a political process in Libya."

Turkey and Russia disclosed that they agreed on four points, of which the following two are the most important: "Continue joint efforts, including encouraging the Libyan parties, with a view to creating conditions for a lasting and sustainable cease-fire, and facilitate the advancement of the intra-Libyan political dialogue in line with the conclusions of the Berlin Conference that was held in September 2019 with the participation of major powers.

In short, Turkey committed itself, upon Russian demand, to refrain from going to war for Sirte and al-Jufra. Also, the reference to intra-Libyan political dialogue might be interpreted as Turkey, albeit implicitly, conceding to accepting Hifter as a party in the peace process, given the Libyan leader was also present at the Berlin Conference.

In a sense, the point reached between Turkey and Russia is by no means a diplomatic victory for Erdogan; on the contrary, it is a vindication for Sisi.

It is even more interesting to note that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks came only an hour after the announcement of the Turkish-Russian joint statement.

"The situation in Libya we're dealing with now is rooted in NATO's aggression carried out [in] 2011 in gross violation of the UNSC resolution. The external players, especially those from outside the region, couldn't have cared less about Libyan people [and] statehood," Lavrov was quoted as saying on the Russian UN Missions official Twitter account. He was careful enough not to mention the name of Turkey as a NATO member "from outside the region."

"Unlike many other external players, Russia has never tried to place any bet in the Libyan game. We have always worked with all the political forces in Libya, had them visit Moscow at various times, and we continue to maintain contact with them now," Lavrov stated in another tweet. The insinuation is clear. Moscow is working with Hifter who, according to Ankara, is a "putschist warlord."

"Libya's neighbors including Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt should play the most important role, because [this is] about stabilizing a country that is their immediate neighbor. Security of Algeria [and] Libya's other neighbors depends on how successfully problems are resolved," a third tweet by Lavrov stated.

As such, Russia hasn't only legitimized Egypt's involvement in the Libyan game but also succeeded in having Turkey on board the diplomatic track.

Hence, a Turkish-Egyptian war looks to have been averted. In this respect, Turkey's presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin's explanation to Reuters following the Turkish-Russian joint statement is no more than face-saving.

"For the cease-fire to be sustainable, al-Jufra and Sirte should be evacuated by Hifter," Kalin told the news agency, referring to a demand that was expressed by Erdogan.

All those who have faith in Erdogan's Libyan policy, which is now contained by Russia, can count on the inconsistency of Turkey's president. There is nothing permanent for Erdogan. Hence, although a war with Egypt that could have erupted due to his miscalculation is averted for the time being, one can never know what the near future might bring. The risk of war in Libya involving Turkey has not been permanently prevented.
Flula Borg voices yodelling troll Dickory in 'Trolls World Tour'. (Credit: Amanda Edwards/WireImage/Universal)

Trolls World Tour voice actor Flula Borg has admitted he was terrified when Universal opted to release the film on-demand rather than in cinemas.

The studio opted not to delay the film in the early days of the coronavirus lockdown and instead used the animated sequel as a guinea pig for the new premium video-on-demand model.

Fortunately for all involved, the move proved a money-spinning success story  albeit one that sparked conflict with cinema chains.

Borg, who played yodelling troll Dickory in the colourful musical, told Yahoo Movies UK he was concerned about those who devoted years to working on the movie.

Read more: Films streaming early because of coronavirus

As you know, I didnt have a huge role, but there are people who have spent thousands of hours on this film, said the 38-year-old musician and internet star.

'Trolls World Tour'. (Credit: Universal)

He added: Thats whats wonderful with animation, that you have these big teams who dedicate their lives for years to these projects. I was very afraid that this would not work.

But I think its safe to say that it was good that it was this first, you know, hamster-pig into the world.

It was wonderful for parents to have something to entertain children during a very strange time in our history. So I think it worked out.

Read more: Disney boss says movies could skip cinemas

Borg, who has made his name with high-energy performances as a musician and comedian, said he brings that energy to the recording booth, with many glucoses the key to his style.

Flula Borg speaks at the 71st Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards on Saturday, July 27, 2019. (Photo by Phil McCarten/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)

Its something where its very difficult to make a mistake, he added.

And if you do, no one cares because youre just burning MP3 files. No one cares. Wear what you like, say what you like. Its great.

Read more: Onward director discusses releasing just before lockdown

As well as his role in Trolls World Tour, Borg has also voiced characters in Ralph Breaks the Internet and Ferdinand, while appearing in animated superhero show Teen Titans Go.

His next major performance will be as part of the new ensemble for James Gunns secretive and unusual DC movie The Suicide Squad.

Story continues

Read the full interview with Flula Borg in which he discusses his love for sequels, the secret to going viral and whether hed return to yodel again in another Trolls movie...

Yahoo Movies UK: Congratulations on Trolls World Tour. I thought the film was loads of fun!

Flula Borg: Thank you very much. It was fun to be in it. I love the variety and I was just glad to be included  like a child playing kickball.

A few times now, youve come in for the sequel of something. You did it with Pitch Perfect and with Wreck-it Ralph and now with Trolls. Do you find it difficult joining something with the sequel or do you enjoy coming into a world that already exists?

My friends have been teasing me about this sequel thing, youre right. Again, I am just very happy to be included. I love it when someone gives me a tiny box to play in, which I have received in all of these films. Then, at the end, I get to eat the box, which is always very tasty.

And this box contains yodelling!

Yes, its my speciality  kind of, but not really.

Did you do your own yodelling?

Of course, every day! Its how I begin my mornings as a German, you know.

Sam Rockwell and Flula Borg in 'Trolls World Tour'. (Credit: Universal)

Its a small role in this movie, but a fun one. Whats it like to actually go into the recording booth and get into the mind of a yodelling troll?

Its very fun. I must tell you that my favourite roles are tiny and confusing. Youll be watching them and then youre like whats just happened? and then something new has happened. Its my favourite thing and my desire in life to be a confusing German spy.

Youve done a lot of voice work in your film career so far. What is it that draws you to voice work?

Well, its something where its very difficult to make a mistake. And if you do, no one cares because youre just burning MP3 files. No one cares. Wear what you like, say what you like. Its great.

Read more: Julia Sawalha claims she was dismissed from Chicken Run sequel

Is that something youre able to do then, to improvise in these movies?

Exactly. They kick me out. This is what happens. If you watch me do it, theyre like okay, thats too much, please leave and Im like okay cool, am I fired?

Did you have any fun ad libs that did make it into the movie?

Absolutely! It was both nice and confusing because I usually forget everything I say and do, not just in life but in these recording sessions too. Oftentimes, you are very pleasantly surprised or confused, both of which I think are very important emotions.

Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake in 'Trolls World Tour'. (Credit: Universal)

I always like to ask people who do animated films whether they got to spend any time with any of the other cast members?

As you probably know, the way these films go in my experience is that you go in and youre lucky if youre ships passing in the night or a human passing in the hall. Its a very weird, but lovely experience. In the end, all the ingredients are separate but then you get to eat and watch a nice sandwich  but only at the end, two years later.

This film became a guinea pig for this new way of releasing big films in the midst of the pandemic. What was it like to be at the centre of that experiment with this film?

I was terrified. As you know, I didnt have a huge role, but there are people who have spent thousands of hours on this film. Thats whats wonderful with animation, that you have these big teams who dedicate their lives for years to these projects. I was very afraid that this would not work.

Read more: Digital purchases overtook physical media during lockdown

But I think its safe to say that it was good that it was this first, you know, hamster-pig into the world. It was wonderful for parents to have something to entertain children during a very strange time in our history. So I think it worked out.

And one of the things with kids films is that children want to watch films again if they like them, which you can do at home.

Thats correct, yes. And unlimited pee-pee breaks, which I think is also very important.

Especially with the amount of sugar people will be consuming watching this film.

Oh yes, exactly. So many glucoses!

Flula Borg accepts the award for Best Comedy Series, at VH1's 5th Annual Streamy Awards on September 17, 2015. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Dick Clark Productions)

I imagine it was a bit like that recording it as well?

As you can tell by my energy levels, thats how I begin my day. Its like sugar, caffeine and sprints.

We talked about this films online release and obviously the internet has been very good to you through your career. Is there a secret to going viral and making the internet work for you?

Well I can tell you, no. I have tried 350 videos on YouTube and I think there are 320 nobody has seen. I think its just a volume game. Make a lot of things, throw them into the sky and see what happens. I can tell you that after these years of doing this, I perhaps know less about what will work and what will not work.

If they were to make a Trolls 3 and to invite you back, would you be up for it?

Oh, I would be up for it, down for it, left for it, right for it. Please, count me in.

Maybe Trolls 3 will just be the yodelling trolls and nothing else?

Yes, Troll-delling. Im totally in. It would be so fun, I love it. Its a genre of music that not enough people, I think, have exposure to. Lets increase it.

Barb (Rachel Bloom) in 'Trolls World Tour'. (Credit: Universal)

You moved over from Germany to the USA. Have you had any problems in the industry because you dont sound like everybody else, or does that help?

I think its both. I think there are 99 projects where people would be like lets call Flula and everybody else would be like that is the stupidest, most terrible idea in the world. But then there will be one project where people would be like oh, I think Flula is the only person who can do this job. So its both wonderful and confusing. And listen, Im very excited for my occupations any time I receive one.

One of the things with the release of this film is that it has, in some ways, been quite controversial with cinema chains upset about the release. Do you think this film represents a struggle between the internet and cinemas and did you ever expect it to be so important to the industry?

No, and thats what I was saying earlier. I was terrified at what this would do for the people making the movie. The future of cinemas is a really weird area. Im 900 years old, but I dont know how things are going to look and how theatre-going is going to look in the future. I have no idea.

Read more: Cinema First announces movies heading to reopened multiplexes

I really want all of these things to continue to be exciting. Lets go to the theatre and watch a movie or lets stay home and eat all of the popcorn and have unlimited urine breaks. Im very much hoping both can exist in happy times.

Flula Borg speaks onstage at The 8th Annual Shorty Awards on April 11, 2016. (Photo by D Dipasupil/Getty Images for The Shorty Awards)

I hope so too. One of the things I think is really interesting about you is the way you have spread yourself across so many media  films, music, stand-up, internet videos, DJing. Do you have a favourite area to work in?

When youre a German Ziploc bag, youre happy to hold a piece of raw chicken. Anything your container can hold, you should do it. Youre a container, so just do whatever will work for the industry. That has always been my strategy. Youre a Ziploc bag, just do it.

Do you have any other exciting things on the way?

Theres a few animated projects that I dont think Im allowed to announce yet. Then, as always, Im creating my own things. Im doing childrens music now, which is very fun. I have a song with a band called Go, Banana, Go. Theyve allowed me to do a song with them about German lessons, which features very inaccurate and confusing lessons about German.

Then I have a weird DJ character, who I think is a time traveller whos shirtless and wears a strange helmet who I think Im related to. Hes coming out with music soon as well. Its a confusing life I lead. Can I say this?

Absolutely! I think everyone else is just going to have to keep up.

Trolls World Tour is available on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK from 27 July.
Oppo Reno 4 Pro is confirmed to launch in India on July 31. Oppo Reno 4 Pro Indian variant could be powered by a Snapdragon 720G processor. Oppo Reno 4 Pro to go on sale on Amazon India.

Oppo Reno 4 Pro is confirmed to launch in India on July 31 and is a bit different from the Oppo Reno 4 series that was launched in China in June 2020. In that, the Indian variant of the Reno 4 Pro is rumoured to come with a quad-camera setup on the back, unlike the Chinese variant that has three rear cameras.

Moreover, there is a possibility that the Reno 4 Pro that launches in India could be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G instead of the Snapdragon 765G. Otherwise, the phone is expected to come with a 6.55-inch AMOLED screen with 90Hz refresh rate and support for 65W fast charging out-of-the-box. Oppo Reno 4 Pro launches in India on July 31 and will go on sale on Amazon India. Here's a brief look at the specifications of the Reno 4 Pro that launched in China.

Oppo Reno 4 Pro specifications

Oppo Reno4 Pro( 29999 at amazon) features a 6.55-inch Full HD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels) resolution AMOLED screen with punch-hole cutout on the top-left corner that gives it a 20:9 aspect ratio. The display supports a 90Hz high refresh rate and is certified for HDR10+ playback. The screen is further topped by a layer of Gorilla Glass 6 for added protection against daily wear and tear.

It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G with an octa-core CPU and Adreno 620 GPU. It is paired with upto 12GB RAM and 256GB storage.

The Reno 4 Pro has three cameras on the back which consists of a primary 48MP with f/1.7 aperture, a 13MP telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom and a 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera with 120-degree field-of-view. The rear cameras are capable of shooting in 4K at 30fps with support for optical image stabilization. On the front, housed within the punch-hole cutout is a 32MP selfie camera.

It is equipped with a 4,000mAh battery with support for 65W fast charging via SuperVOOC 2.0 fast-charging adapter that Oppo claims can go from 0-100% in 36 minutes.
Earlier this year, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made the bombshell decision to step down as senior members of the royal family -- a move that truly rocked the British monarchy to its core.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex received massive backlash for turning their backs on the royal family, and people suspected that it was Meghan who brainwashed the 35-year-old Harry to stay away from his family.

However, recent revelations claim that even before meeting the 38-year-old former "Suits" actress, Prince Harry is already willing to leave the Firm because he felt left out, especially after his older brother, Prince William, married Kate Middleton.

Prince Harry's Struggle

In the Sussexes' bombshell biography, "Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and The Making of a Modern Royal Family," it was revealed that Prince Harry felt frustrated and overshadowed by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge even before he met Meghan.

The book claimed that the sixth heir to the throne initially wanted to be out of the spotlight, so he dedicated himself to the military.

According to authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, meeting the fierce Meghan gave Prince Harry the courage to pursue his plan to turn his back against the royal family -- hence the sensational "Megxit."

The authors said an insider revealed that Prince Harry felt like a "spare part" in the family after he was continuously labeled as the "awkward plus one" of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

"They'd turn up at premieres, and there was this sense that he felt a bit like a spare part. Long before Meghan, he wanted to change things," the insider said.

Tension That Triggered Prince Harry

Prince Harry's eagerness to leave the royal family was further strengthened when he reached his breaking point during his May 2018 wedding with Meghan Markle. The book claimed that the tension arose after Prince William asked his younger brother "Are you sure about this?" before he walks down the aisle.

On top of that, Prince Harry felt that the Cambridges were not making an effort to welcome Meghan into the family when she arrived in the United Kingdom.

"He felt at once used for their popularity, hounded by the press because of the public's fascination with this new breed of royal couple, and disparaged back within the institution's walls," read an excerpt from "Finding Freedom."

The Sussexes also felt "pushed out" by the Cambridges, who left them bombarded with negative publicity while saying nothing to protect or defend them.

Things escalated quickly when the Sussexes felt the need to break a royal protocol, directly going to Queen Elizabeth II to talk about the change they wanted to do before getting off from royal duties and flying to Canada last year.

The book asserted that Prince Harry and Meghan finally decided to quit as senior royals while in Canada. The couple tried setting a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II in January 2020 to talk about "Megxit," but she was unavailable until the end of the month, leading them to announce their decision without warning.

READ MORE: Kate Middleton Pregnant? Why Baby No.4 Is Unlikely For Prince William And Kate
Susan Rice might not be explicitly saying that she wants to be presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's running mate  but the former national security advisor hasn't been shy about suggesting she's more than ready, willing and qualified to fill that role if he wants her.

"Bring that one on, that's all I'll say," Rice told radio show host Ricky Smiley last week when he commented on how happy he would be if she ended up debating Vice President Mike Pence.

And after noting the strengths of other women being considered by Biden, Rice said that in terms of her own strengths, "if I can put it that way, is that I have served in the executive branch in the White House. At the top levels of the federal government for almost two decades."

"I know how to make things work and how to get stuff done," she told Smiley.

Rice, who served in the Obama administration as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and then as national security advisor, indeed has a long, impressive foreign policy resume.

Before holding the senior-level posts, Rice, a Stanford grad, had a four-year stint in the mid-1990s on the National Security Council during the administration of President Bill Clinton, and then spent Clinton's second term as the assistant secretary of State for African Affairs.

Rice's foreign policy chops  and her two-decade history of working and dealing with Biden when he was a U.S. senator and President Barack Obama's vice president  in the past alone would have made her a legitimate contender for the role as Biden's running mate.

Rice is the only person on the vice presidential short list who has spent hundreds of hours in person with Biden, who places a premium on trust and personal rapport on his list of running mate VP qualifications.

In recent weeks, the 55-year-old Rice has come to be considered among the front-runners for that position.

Biden has said he will select a woman to be the vice presidential candidate, and on Tuesday said that he plans to announce his choice in the first week of August.

Amid the dramatic public response to the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, Biden has shown an unprecedented willingness to consider several Black women  Rice among them  for the role. Rice's late father, Emmett Rice, in 1979 became the second Black person ever appointed to the Federal Reserve board.

"I don't know that there's another African American woman in the country, or any woman other than maybe Hillary Clinton, who has the stripes that she has on foreign policy," House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., told The Atlantic, after giving Biden a list of potential VP picks that included Rice.

Rice was not available for an interview with CNBC.

But a person close to her said: "She's not campaigning for anything."

"This has never been about her," the source said. "As she herself has said, she's focused on helping elect Joe Biden in November because she believes it is essential to America's future that we defeat Donald Trump."

One potential mark against Rice in a checklist of qualifications for vice president is the fact she has never run for, much less held, elective office, unlike the other women being considered by Biden as a running mate.

While Rice had suggested in a 2018 Twitter post that she would challenge Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, she never followed through on that.

Tweet

The last major-party vice presidential nominee who never previously held elective office was Sargent Shriver, who was Democratic nominee Sen. George McGovern's running mate in 1972.

Shriver was the first director of the Peace Corps. He also served as President Lyndon Johnson's director of the Office of Economic Opportunity and then as President Richard Nixon's ambassador to France.

But Shriver was an anomaly in several respects.

He happened to be a brother-in-law of President John F. Kennedy and his two senator brothers, Robert and Edward Kennedy, at a time when the Kennedy name was close to sacrosanct in the Democratic Party. Shriver also was tapped as the second running mate for McGovern after then-Sen. Thomas Eagleton of Missouri dropped off the ticket following revelations that he had undergone electroshock treatment for depression.

Rice told The New York Times in an interview this week, "It is true I have never run for office on my own behalf, but I've run for office on behalf of others."

"If I were to decide to do it, there's nothing about it that on its face would feel uncomfortable or unfamiliar," said Rice, who currently is a distinguished visiting research fellow at American University's School of International Service.

Last fall, she published a New York Times best-selling memoir, "Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For."

In addition to Rice's lack of elective office experience, at least one item on her resume, serving as U.N. ambassador in 2012 when four U.S. compound staffers were killed in Benghazi, Libya, also might weigh against her with some voters.

The Benghazi attack, which killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, has been a hobby horse for Republican criticism of Rice, as well as of Hillary Clinton, who was Obama's secretary of State at the time.

Rice was accused by GOP members of Congress of misleading the public by stating, in news interviews days after the attack, that it was "a spontaneous reaction" to demonstrations against the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, which themselves were prompted by outrage against an anti-Muslim film.

It later emerged that the attack in Benghazi was coordinated by an Islamic militant group.

Rice had relied on a CIA assessment for her claim and had noted in news interviews that it was based on preliminary information.

Obama defended her from critics of her statement.

But months later, she withdrew her name from consideration as Clinton's successor as secretary of State, citing the need to avoid a "very prolonged, very politicized, very distracting" Senate confirmation process.

Another factor that could weigh against the Rhodes Scholar is her reputation for being blunt in dealings with others.

A number of news profiles of Rice have used the terms "sharp elbows" and "brusque" to describe her.

When asked about those characterizations, the source close to Rice said, "We would not even be having this conversation if she were a man."

"I mean, nobody is disputing Ambassador Rice's effectiveness or integrity," the source said. "The fact is, she has always been about getting results for the American people."
Pitching for further strengthening of relations, Israel on Monday said the supply of advanced medical equipment to India was the reciprocation of the help extended to it by the South Asian country to tackle the coronavirus crisis.

India had on April 7 sent to Israel medical equipment and five tonnes of medicines, including hydroxychloroquine, which was earlier dubbed as a game changer in the fight against coronavirus.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reached out to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi with a special request for the supplies.

A special flight carrying researchers, defence experts and advanced medical equipment from Israel landed India on Monday.

The Israeli team will join hands with researchers in India to develop a rapid testing solution for COVID-19.

Reacting to it, Deputy Director General for Asia and the Pacific at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gilad Cohen, wrote in a blog for Times of Israel that the unprecedented global pandemic has provided an opportunity for both countries to "assist each and further enhance their relations".

"Israel's exceptional gesture today was a welcome 'thank you' to India, which, just a few months ago, sent medicines and other essential diagnostic equipment," Cohen wrote, adding that his country "went out of its way" to approve the export and transfer of sophisticated ventilators to India.

"In this way, Israel and India successfully transformed this unprecedented global pandemic into an opportunity to assist one another and further enhance their relations," he asserted.

Pointing out the improvement in the Indo-Israel relations over the past several years, the diplomat said it's hard to believe that just three decades ago, Indian passports were valid for every country except Israel .

Cohen in his blog also highlighted the growth in the bilateral trade, which was just US dollar 200 million in 1992, when the diplomatic relations were established between both countries.

Cohen also hailed the leadership of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the country is emerging as a regional and global power under him.

"Under the leadership of Narendra Modi, India is assuming its role as a regional and world power and our diplomacy has succeeded in showing India the many advantages that can come from strengthening its ties with Israel", Cohen said.

"The Foreign Ministry is determined to continue cultivating its ties with the second largest country in the world to ensure that our relations with India continue to thrive into the future", he concluded.

The Israeli team, comprising 20 experts from various fields, will help development diagnostic technologies.

It is being led by Israel's Ambassador to India Ron Malka and Defence Attach Col Assaf Meller.

The team also includes Prof Nati Keller, an infectious diseases specialist from Sheba Medical Center; and Itai Gordon, head of the Innovation Department at the Israel's Ministry of Health.

The delegation includes engineers and other professionals from the companies involved in the development of various diagnostic solutions.

"What they all have in common is the ability to detect the presence of the virus in the body quickly--usually within minutes, a statement from the Israeli Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

Developing diagnostic capabilities is a goal for the State of Israel and of many additional countries around the world. It is the most effective way to cut off chains of infection, prevent prolonged quarantine and enable the reopening of the global economy, it said.

On Friday, Israel's Alternate Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, Benny Gantz, had talked to Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, expressing hope that the strong bilateral ties between the two countries will contribute significantly to the global efforts in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I was glad to speak this morning (Friday) with Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh about the excellent defence cooperation enjoyed by our two countries and our shared aspirations for stability and calm in our regions", Gantz told PTI.

"I told him that I welcome the promotion of bilateral partnership, even in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, and that I am sure that the Israeli delegation arriving in India next week will contribute significantly to global efforts to combat it, he had said.

Also read: India-China border tensions figure in defence talks with Israel

Also read: COVID-19 test results in 30 secs? India, Israel to develop new rapid testing kit
(Natural News) Weve known for several years that Chinese authorities collect DNA samples from their people, but theyve recently ramped up their efforts in a way that is concerning observers around the world. A report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute shows that theyve expanded their genetic surveillance program beyond Tibet, Xinjiang and other areas that are largely home to ethnic minorities repressed by the government. In fact, DNA collection has now extended throughout the country with no apparent purpose.

Its believed that the goal of Chinese authorities is to collect the DNA samples of as many as 70 million males in the country. The samples can serve as a tool for Chinese authorities to track down any boy or man they choose for whatever reason they want by matching their DNA against official family records, witness statements or surveillance footage.

Not surprisingly, the Chinese government is denying that the program exists. Nevertheless, researchers have found evidence pointing to the huge scale of the program. This includes official procurement orders for DNA testing and kits, along with government reports. Some of the places where DNA is known to be harvested widely include the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia in the north, the southwestern provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan, the eastern areas of Jiangsu and Shandong, and central southern Hunan.

Photos have been uncovered of police pricking childrens fingers at school to collect samples of their blood, which is a violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Theyve also found official documents that show DNA samples are being collected in big cities, illustrating that they are moving far beyond their past focus on rural areas.

For example, an official report on the website of the Sichuan province government outlines the public security bureaus efforts to create a DNA database on the provinces capital, Chengdu, and seeks expertise on creating a male ancestry investigation system. It indicates the DNA samples have already been collected for nearly 600,000 male residents throughout the city. According to the procurement report, building such a genetic database on the citys residents helps police to maintain public order and stability as well as meet the needs of daily case work. Of course, thats probably code for keeping the Chinese Communist Party in power and squashing dissenters.

Private companies are helping

The effort is not being carried out by police alone. Private companies from both within China and abroad have been helping to carry out this attack on Chinese citizens privacy. One such company is Thermo Fisher, a Fortune 500 company based in the U.S. They produced the 140,000 DNA testing kits the city of Liuyang is using to test its men.

A company representative told the New York Times in a statement that it was 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.

Their statement fell to address concerns raised by the publication regarding the possibility of genomic data being abused by Chinese police. The same firm has come under fire in the past from human rights organizations and scholars alike for supplying the equipment needed to collect and analyze DNA to Chinese authorities to support their oppression of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

Right now, it looks like China is the only country in the world whose police are harvesting mass quantities of DNA samples outside of criminal investigations. However, there are a lot of concerns that other countries will soon join them, with places like India, Malaysia and Thailand already pushing the boundaries.

Chinas case is particularly concerning because they are subjecting people with no criminal history to DNA collection, forcefully collecting the samples in some cases. Once China manages to get 70 million samples, amounting to 10 percent of its male population, it could identify anyone in the country. Thats because the database catalogs short tandem repeats, which are markers that are extremely similar between different men who are in the same male lineage. This means it can even be used to track down family members who havent provided DNA samples when combined with other data, like family trees.

Sources for this article include:

DNYUZ.com

Futurism.com
Hours after urging black voters to support Trump, Milwaukee businessman is shot dead

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Republican Sen. Ron Johnson from Wisconsin is among several voices calling for justice after Bernell Trammell, a black Milwaukee business owner, was shot dead last Thursday just hours after he urged black Americans to vote for President Donald Trump.

Bernell Trammell was known to many in Milwaukee. My condolences to his family and friends. I hope they get answers and justice soon, Johnson tweeted late Friday.

Trammell, 60, who ran Expressions Journal, a small publication where he also made large signs with political and religious messages such as Vote Donald Trump 2020 was well-known in Milwaukees Riverwest neighborhood, WTMJ-TV reported.

Affectionately known as Ras, Milwaukee Police say he was shot dead outside his store at about 12:30 p.m. Thursday.

This was just hours after he gave an interview to blogger Armstrong Ransome, which was published on thegoddegree.com, explaining why black Americans should support the re-election of President Donald Trump because he is the sign of the times.

I am encouraging Afro Americans from all walks of life and culture here in Wisconsin, particularly here in Milwaukee, to vote Donald Trump for this year. Trump 2020. I believe Trump is the sign of the times in which Afro Americans according to  who the world wickedly or ignorantly calls Jesus Christ, told us that we discern the skies as far as weather and were correct but were not as correct when it comes to the signs of the times, Trammell said.

Now the reason why I said Trump is the sign of the times is that Trump did something, nobody has done, no president, black or white has done from the White House. He took an Afro American Woman, a descendant of the slave and took her all the way to the White House and gave her a position, show the whole world that an Afro American woman, a descendant of the slave, has the intelligence to run his staff and that was Omarosa in Trumps cabinet, he said.

Omarosa Manigault-Newman, is the former director of communications for the White House's Public Liaison Office.

Condoleeza Rice, a member of the Republican Party, was the first female African-American Secretary of State and the first woman to serve as National Security Adviser during former President George W. Bushs administration.

Trammell also noted that President Trump sat down and spoke with African Americans such as Kanye West when explaining why black Americans should vote for Trump during his interview with Ransome.

No less than two hours after I left from filming Ras Bernell I had heard word from Facebook that the someone in the area that Ras Bernell stays in had been shot. To my surprise it was Ras Bernell, Ransome wrote. He was murdered right outside of his shop where we were just speaking. His home. Seemingly these were his last words. He took his time to think about what he was going to say and I let it him have the floor. He was adamant, poised and well-articulated.

In a statement reacting to Trammells death, the Republican Party of Wisconsin called it senseless.

It is tragic to learn of the senseless murder of Bernell Trammell, and I offer my sincere condolences to his family and friends," Chairman Andrew Hitt said. "Because of Trammells well known political activism and the possibility that his murder could be politically motivated, I respectfully request that United States Attorney Matthew Krueger open an investigation into this heinous crime. No American should fear for their personal safety because of where they live or their political affiliation."
Beijing reported one new local Covid-19 case on Tuesday, its first in 21 days, as infections linked to the latest flare-up in Northeast China have spread to nine cities around the country.

The 53-year-old Beijing patient had dined with an asymptomatic carrier who had previously been in the Liaoning province port city of Dalian, where 44 cases have been reported since last week, the capitals health commission reported (link in Chinese). The pair met in Jinzhou, another Liaoning city.

Cases linked to the Dalian outbreak, which is thought to originate with a seafood importer, have been detected in cities in five provincial-level regions, including the southern province of Fujian and as far north as Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, said Zhao Lian, deputy director of Dalians health authority, on Tuesday.

China is seeing its greatest daily new Covid-19 figures in months, recording 68 confirmed cases on Tuesday, of which 57 were in the far western region of Xinjiang and six were in Liaoning, according to the National Health Commission (link in Chinese). Beijing reported two coronavirus cases on Tuesday, one of which was imported from overseas.

Beijing government spokesperson Xu Hejian said at a Tuesday conference that the capital will strictly implement medical observation measures for inbound travelers from medium- and high-risk areas in Dalian and Xinjiangs capital Urumqi, the epicenter of its outbreak.

The capital is also encouraging its residents not to take trips to medium- and high-risk areas, Xu said. Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said people with fever or respiratory symptoms should avoid long-distance travel.

Beijings new case has sparked particular concern as it was found in one of Asias most populous residential communities, which reportedly houses over 700,000 people. Residents of the Tiantongyuan community began to receive nucleic acid testing on Tuesday morning.





The Liaoning government on Sunday ordered all of the provinces prefecture-level cities besides Dalian, 13 in all, to impose a 14-day mandatory quarantine on people who have arrived from Dalians medium- and high-risk areas since July 14.

While Dalian has not declared a citywide lockdown, residents of medium- and high-risk areas are banned from leaving in principle. Public transportation has been shut down and residential compounds in those areas are sealed off to outsiders.

Residents of the citys low-risk areas require a negative coronavirus test result from the previous seven days to leave. The city also announced Tuesday it would suspend gatherings in restaurants.

The nine cities which have reported infections linked to Dalian are Tieling and Anshan in Liaoning; Siping, Changchun and Baicheng in Jilin; Hegang and Suihua in Heilongjiang, Fuzhou in Fujian; and Beijing.

Fuzhou said it entered wartime mode on Monday after an asymptomatic case was reported. The city has since collected around 1,500 samples from people who had been in contact with the patient for nucleic acid testing. The provincial capital said (link in Chinese) it was taking the strictest measures to contain the coronavirus.

Heilongjiang on Tuesday reported (link in Chinese) two asymptomatic cases, a woman who had traveled to Dalian and her husband. Neighboring Jilin reported (link in Chinese) one asymptomatic case, a person who worked at the seafood company at the center of Dalians outbreak. The two provinces have each reported a total of four asymptomatic cases.

The resurgence in Dalian began on July 22 when an employee of Dalian Kaiyang World Seafood was confirmed to have Covid-19. The government of Dalian has collected samples for testing from about half of its 6 million residents in the past few days.

Urumqi, which has recorded 311 cases since mid-July, has launched a similar testing campaign for its 3.5 million residents which is nearing completion, although the source of infections remains unclear.

This story has been updated to correct the name of the government agency where Zhao Lian works. It is the Dalian health authority.

Contact editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)
OnePlus first midranger Nord is now making its way to different markets. Today the phone has finally landed in India where it can be pre-ordered at the local Amazon website, with shipping scheduled for next Tuesday. There are three options, with prices starting from INR27,999 ($375/320).

The OnePlus Nord with 8GB RAM and 128 gigs of storage is offered in both Gray Onyx and Marble Blue for that price. There is also an instant discount with a certain cards, and OnePlus offers six-month extended warranty and 50 GB cloud storage, which are part of a new program called Red Cable Club.

The company also offers a 12/256 GB version of the Nord in Gray Onyx for INR29,999 - that is the equivalent of $400/340. For comparison, the price in Europe for the very same variant is nearly 50% higher at 499.

Pre-orders are ending on Monday, a day before the shipping date of August 4. There is a fourth version incoming that is said to be exclusive for India - a 6/64 GB one for INR24,999 ($320/285), but that one isnt scheduled to appear before September.

Source | Via
OFFHAND there are thousands of brilliant minds in and out of government who have a handle on the problems that have plagued the country for centuries. So why have we remained shackled to a social structure that has kept the big majority of us in economic backwaters?

Why do we continue to simply take sides with factions of the oligarchy that take turns exploiting the countrys resources for their own benefit? We have the human capital; why are we not organizing a non-partisan Think-Tank that would figure out how to cut the Gordian knot.

We can easily compose this Think-Tank of the best minds from all sectors of society with the exception of the religious sector. The Catholic Church must not be allowed to interfere in the affairs of a secular pluralistic state mainly because it has always behaved as a legitimizer of our unjust social order. It moreover threatens with hell-fire those who disagree with its pontifications.

Theme? Agenda 2030: The Philippines a modern country in Southeast Asia, towards prosperity for all. The idea is to move the country from its outdated feudal structure and culture (of regionalism, dependence etc.) to a modern secular pluralistic state that works for the greater good of the bigger number.

Everything must be disclosed and reviewed, no sacred cows in answering the questions: Where are we? What do we want? Where are we going?

Topics? 1- Changes in the educational system. Top priority should be to provide with quality education every Filipino child. Focus must also shift to critical thinking to help students understand complex systems and the relation between self and society and thus acquire a balanced sense of personal freedom and communal responsibility. Religious education must be strictly voluntary. Of corollary importance is a modern family planning program as fewer children means better educated children.

2- Reorientation from consumer-driven to production-driven economy. Had oligarchs been less greedy we would have industrialized ahead of South Korea. Because they remain greedy, Vietnam is getting $36 billion in foreign investments to our meager $6 billion.

3- Modernization of our political system. Congress is an exclusive club for billionaires and does not represent the people. Proportionate representation must be worked into our system and ethical standards set for all government officials. We need assurances they will serve the people and not just get richer and more privileged.

As long as their lordships, the oligarchs, take exclusive turns at the helm of this country there will never be prosperity for all. A comprehensive social restructure is needed. We have the human capital to do it peacefully and democratically. So, why dont we?
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said the government is making efforts to attract FDI in infrastructure sector to address liquidity crunch faced by the Covid-19-hit economy.

The Road Transport, Highways and MSME minister also said that talks are on with various pension funds, insurance funds and financial institutions.

"Infrastructure is the most economically viable industry. The internal rate of return of projects is very good.

"We are trying to get FDI (foreign direct investment) in Infrastructure as it is 100 per cent allowed. We are trying to bring Insurance Fund, Pension Fund etc, while talks are on with the World Bank, ADB... We are moving fast in that direction," Gadkari said, addressing a webinar on Road Development in India.

Urging private players to join hands with the government, he said the economy - hit by coronavirus - is passing through a crucial phase and requires liquidity.

At the same, Covid-19, adding the government has taken a policy decision to offer projects only after 90 per cent land acquisition and regulatory clearances like forest and environment.

"In infrastructure, we are trying as to how we can get maximum investment. Today, there are huge opportunities in highways, power, transport, water, communciation and other sectors," he said, adding industrial development and job creation was not possible without propelling infrastructure.

Gadkari also stressed the need to bring down logistics costs and said that Rs 1 trillion Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will result in reducing the travel time between the two metropolises to barely 28 hours resulting in lesser logistics cost by way of enhanced cargo movement in lesser time.

"There is huge potential in alternative fuel and electricity. I have just purchased an electric SUV. Our petrol expenditure which was Rs 12-13,000 per month has now slashed to Rs 600-Rs 800 per month, while charging can easily be done," the minister said.

He said the government is promoting LNG for long distance vehicles like trucks and buses which will be much cheaper as compared to diesel vehicles while focus is also on ethanol and methanol.

An electric highway pilot project is also on anvil on the upcoming Delhi-Mumbai expressway project.

About highway projects, he said currently the government is encouraging projects on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), hybrid annuity and other modes as the present condition of Indian contractors is not comfortable for BOT (build, operate and transfer) projects.

Gadkari said the government has identified a list of 15-20 project totalling 3,000 km on BOT and will see the response on the basis of one or two projects.

The minister also said the target was to build highways worth Rs 15 trillion in two years.Also Read: Construction, beautification work underway for Ayodhya bypass at Rs 55 crore: Nitin Gadkari

Also Read: Nitin Gadkari tells Amazon to list products from rural India separately
COLUMBIA, Mo.  Democrats will choose between a former assistant Missouri attorney general and a former federal prosecutor in the Aug. 4 primary to decide who will challenge Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt this fall.

Elad Gross, 32, who served under former-Attorney General Chris Koster, said he was inspired to make the race in late 2018 by his legal fight to shed light on who was bankrolling former Gov. Eric Greitens dark money nonprofit.

Rich Finneran, 36, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri for seven years, said Schmitts continued efforts to overturn the federal health care law contributed to his decision to join the campaign.

The Attorney General serves as Missouris chief legal officer, representing and providing legal guidance to state agencies and defending challenges to the validity of state laws. The office enforces consumer protection, environmental and Sunshine laws, handles appeals of felony convictions and serves as a special prosecutor in criminal cases when appointed.

Gross and Finneran promise to take a very different approach to the office from Schmitt, who was elected state treasurer in 2016 and appointed attorney general following Josh Hawleys election to the U.S. Senate in 2018.

Transparency and corruption

Facing likely impeachment and pending criminal charges, Greitens resigned in June 2018. When he did, a legislative probe of the secret donors behind his dark money nonprofit also ended.

Gross filed a still-pending lawsuit in Cole County Court hoping to unmask those donors, believing the public had a right to know who was trying to influence state government.

He said he decided to run during arguments for that case in October 2018, when when the attorney for the other side reminded the judge that the attorney general had the power to intervene at any time.

The attorney general should have been in that room, Gross said. It shouldnt have been up to a private citizen to enforce the law.

Gross said he will bulk up the offices public corruption unit, and use its role in regulating nonprofits to help rein in anonymous campaign spending in Missouri. He will also put a major focus on both enforcing the states Sunshine Law but also helping educate government officials around the state to ensure it is followed.

Finneran said hes also dedicated to improving transparency in state government, vowing to make public all responses to Sunshine Law requests so the press and public can see why any records were produced or not produced.

If elected, Finneran said he will not blindly defend government agencies that are not following the states open records and transparency laws.

Health care

Finneran contends that Schmitt has needlessly politicized the office.

Case in point, he said, is the ongoing lawsuit seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act.

Schmitt is among the roughly two dozen Republican attorneys general who signed on to a lawsuit asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the federal health care law, a move that would wipe out coverage for as many as 23 million Americans  including an estimated 250,000 Missourians.

The law was rendered unconstitutional, Schmitt and his fellow GOP attorneys general argue, when Congress zeroed out the tax penalty for not buying insurance  the so-called individual mandate. The lawsuit argues that because the individual mandate was a key pillar of the Affordable Care Act when Congress first enacted it, voiding it should mean the rest of federal health law should fall as well.

Finneran said the lawsuit is clear evidence that Schmitt puts politics over the interests of Missourians.

Eric Schmitts lawsuit would take away coverage for pre-existing conditions, Finneran said. It would eliminate guaranteed coverage for children who are on their parents insurance until they are 26. Its a waste of taxpayer resources to invest the attorney generals efforts to overturn a law that protects health care for the people of Missouri, especially in the midst of a global pandemic.

Gross also opposes efforts to overturn the federal health care law, and like Finneran supports efforts to expand Medicaid eligibility in Missouri. The question of Medicaid expansion will also appear on Tuesdays primary ballot.

Violent crime

Missouri lawmakers have returned to Jefferson City to debate legislation aimed at combating violent crime, and both Gov. Mike Parson and Schmitt have made the issue a focus of their 2020 campaigns.

Gross and Finneran believe the GOP is too focused on looking tough on crime and is ignoring better strategies to make Missouris cities safer.

The goal shouldnt simply be to punish crime after it occurs, Finneran said, but rather to prevent crime in the first place.

The way to do that is to look at the problem holistically, to think about ways we can promote safety in our communities, he said.

He also said you cant simply prosecute without considering how the individuals going to jail will ultimately reintegrate into society.

Gross notes that when he was in college he founded the Education Exchange Corps, a nonprofit organization that has helped children throughout St. Louis City learn the power they have to lead through civic engagement.

The more you work with kids, he said, the more you see the impact of what is happening outside the classroom.

Crime needs to be looked at as a public health issue, Gross said, with efforts focused on figuring out how to prevent people from committing crimes in the first place.

You can prosecute and put people in prison all you want, he said, but if you spend more effort preventing crime from happening well see better results.

Grassroots campaign

Both Democratic challengers expect to be outspent in the fall campaign by Schmitt.

Gross, who touts more individual donors at this stage in the campaign than both 2016 attorney general candidates combined, reported earlier this month that he has raised $184,000 so far. His campaign reported just under $40,000 cash on hand.

Finneran has fared slightly better, reporting in July that he has raised nearly $250,000 so far with around $78,000 cash on hand.

Schmitt, who faces no primary opponent next week, has raised nearly $1 million and has around $645,000 cash on hand, according to his July disclosure reports.

And Schmitt will benefit from an independent political action committee established to bolster his campaign. The PAC has nearly $2 million cash on hand, according to its July disclosure, with $1 million coming from one man  retired investor Rex Sinquefield of St. Louis.

Gross said whoever the nominee is, they will have to rely on a grassroots campaign to win the office, a challenge that has become even more difficult during a pandemic.

Before the virus, I made 409 meetings around the state, Gross said. When we hit Nov. 3, Im hoping folks see (Schmitt) putting all these ads up and say I actually met Elad. This other guy never showed up.

Finneran believes people are ready for a change in Missouri.

We have to get people to the polls, he said, and make sure Missourians know the choice is between a former prosecutor who is going to put them first and an unelected incumbent who always puts politics first.
A Victorian schools coronavirus face mask policy  which requires students masks to be one of four colours only  has stirred up debate on social media, with one commenter branding it frankly ridiculous.

Students at Lighthouse Christian College are required to wear a face mask while on school grounds as well as while travelling to and from school, the principal, Avril D Howard, announced in a YouTube video on July 22.

The school requires students' face masks to be one of four colours only. Photo: Lighthouse Christian College.

According to the Student Face Mask Guidelines presented in the video, the masks can be either the single-use or washable types but must be a standard solid colour only.

The prescribed colours include grey, black, blue or white  presumably to tie in with the schools uniform  and all designs/patterns are prohibited.

Students are not allowed to wear scarves or bandanas as a substitute if they dont have a mask that meets the schools guidelines  instead, they must collect a mask from school reception.

Students with a medical condition that exempts them from wearing a face-covering are instructed to advise their Sub School leader.

Schools face mask rules slammed

After a screenshot of the guidelines was shared on Facebook, the schools face mask rules attracted criticism with many suggesting that the focus should be on the act of wearing of face masks, regardless of what they look like.

I feel like this is not the time to be picky, one user wrote in the comments.

Photo: Facebook.

Another took issue with the potential stress upon parents and carers to source school-approved ready-made face masks, or fabric to make their own at home, during a time when resources are already stretched.

I could understand if the mask had an offensive logo or pattern on it but not allowing masks unless they are a solid colour of the school uniform is frankly ridiculous, they wrote.

People are going to have a hard enough time finding fabric as it is (I bet the local fabric shops are pretty low in stock by now), let alone having to make sure it is the correct solid cover, they added.

Story continues

RELATED:

Photo: Facebook.

Yet another user argued that the schools policy prioritised the students appearance  and by extension, the schools as well  rather than their health.

My mask isnt green because Im trying to make a fashion statement, its green because thats the fabric I have at home, they said by way of example.

By saying masks can only be a certain colour theyre prioritising masks as a school pride fashion statement rather than prioritising the wearing of masks in the first place, they added.

Photo: Facebook.

Not everyone was critical of the schools policy, with one Facebook user calling it reasonable in light of the trend for face masks sporting offensive slogans.

To be fair, since people are printing masks like this, some sort of mask policy is reasonable, they wrote.

Another pointed out that the school has stated that students without face masks for whatever reason can easily pick them up at reception.

It says masks are available at student reception so I dont think this is an accessibility issue, they said.

A third user, however, had a counter-argument ready, saying that requiring un-masked students to enter a highly-populated area of the school such as reception might not be the best idea.

Yeah just walk into one of the most travelled parts of the school, specifically by kids without masks, to get a mask, they stated.

One Facebook user who called the school's face mask rules 'reasonable' included an example of the offensive coronavirus face masks for sale. Photo: Facebook.

Do VIC schoolchildren have to wear masks?

Depending on their age and the location of their school, students in Victoria may be required to wear face masks.

The states Health and Human Services website states: Students under the age of 12 do not have to wear face coverings. Students ages 12 and over in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire will need to wear face coverings under current restrictions.

Lighthouse Christian College students range in age from three-years-old (Kindergarten) to 17 to 18-years-old (Year 12) however there is no reference to age-related face mask requirements in the Student Face Mask Guidelines.

The co-educational private school is located in Keysborough, a 17-minute drive south-east of Melbournes CBD, meaning it falls into the metropolitan Melbourne area and is obliged to adhere to the states face mask requirements introduced at midnight on July 22.

School students in Victoria may have to wear a face mask depending on their age and location. Photo: Getty Images.

Lighthouse Christian College has been contacted for comment.

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When Ebony Williams first spotted the toddler, the curly haired boy was standing in a parking space of a Miramar apartment complex.

She didnt see any adults nearby and then she heard him cry. So the mom of four went closer  thinking his mom had to be in the car or somewhere.

But she realized he was alone.

This is the boy found in Miramar, wandering near the Willowbrook Apartments.

I just walked around the complex hoping I would find someone looking for him, she said.

By Monday evening, it had been more than 24 hours since she found him wandering in the the 1800 block of Southwest 68th Avenue, in the area of the Willowbrook Apartments. The boy is believed to be between 2 and 3 years old and has not been able to communicate.

She called police after doing a little detective work on her own, walking in and outside the complex, hoping shed hear someone calling for him. She said he was friendly and grabbed her two fingers when she held out her hand to him.

In a Monday afternoon press conference, Miramar police said the boy  who was found in nothing but a T-shirt and diaper  was in the care of the Broward Sheriffs Office Child Protective Investigations Section.

Investigators were working several tips, but still had not identified the boy. They released video of the little boy walking down the hallway of the police department holding a dinosaur toy.

On Monday evening, Miramar police confirmed that they were looking into a tip that the boy is the son of Leila Cavett, who according to her Facebook page lives in Atlanta.

Cavett was last seen driving a mid-to-late 90s white Chevy 3500, with a red tailgate and a Baby on Board sign on the passenger window, according to police.

(1/2) Update: Detectives are actively searching for Leila Cavett, who may be the mother of the child found yesterday. We are concerned for her safety and well-being. She was last seen driving a white Chevy 3500 (mid-to-late 90s model), with a maroon or red tailgate. Anyone with pic.twitter.com/lFwTFBS8A9  Miramar Police (@MiramarPD) July 27, 2020

Please help me find my sister my heart is breaking, Gina Lewis, who says she is Cavetts sister, said in a Facebook post Monday afternoon.

Story continues

I cannot breathe, she added in a comment.

Lewis, who was asking for donations to travel from Atlanta to Miramar to see the boy Monday, said she was certain that he is her 2-year-old nephew, Kamdyn Cavett.

The Walker Countys Sheriffs Office in Alabama posted Monday that Cavett was missing and asked for anyone with information to contact them or Miramar police.

We are aware of the social media posts advising Leila Cavett is this childs mother, Tania Rues, a Miramar police spokeswoman, said in an email. We have several detectives looking into this further. At present time, we cannot conclusively state the little boys identity. We have received numerous tips and are investigating each one of them.

Rues said it is very uncommon that a young child is not identified soon after being found.

For Williams, its heartbreaking.

She said Monday that she credits God for putting her there to find him before anything bad could happen.

He could have gotten hit by a car... anything could have happened to him, she said. I wanted vanilla coffee creamer at 7 in the morning  thats really how it happened. Gods good. He knew what he was doing and he put me in the right spot. I am not a hero, not anything else. Im just a mom.

Anyone with information about this boy should call the Miramar Police Department at 954-602-4000.

Miami Herald photographer Charles Trainor Jr. contributed to this report.
A child part of a small group aged between 6 to 10 years-old is seen in classroom at a nursery school, as part of a pilot test to see how social distancing can work in schools throughout the region of Piedmont, proposed by the mayor of Borgosesia Paolo Tiramani, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, near Vercelli, Italy. (Image: Reuters)
TORONTO, July 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Belo Sun Mining Corp. (Belo Sun or the Company) (TSX: BSX) reports, in accordance with the policies of the Toronto Stock Exchange, that the nominees listed in the management proxy circular dated June 19, 2020 for the 2020 Annual Meeting of shareholders of Belo Sun (the Meeting) were elected as directors of the Company. Shareholders at the annual meeting also approved the appointment of the Company's auditors and the approval of the Companys amended stock option plan. 67.23% of all of the issued and outstanding shares of Belo Sun were represented at the Meeting.



Belo Sun would like to welcome Rui Botica Santos to its Board of Directors as a newly elected director. Mr. Santos is a qualified lawyer in Brazil and is widely regarded as a leading lawyer in the mining sector and has over 25 years representing and assisting international corporations in negotiations and disputes with the State regarding mining businesses activities, namely on M&A, exploration, extraction and environmental licenses, for both the mining and oil and gas industries. Mr. Santos has strong experience in dealing with Brazil, Portugal, Timor-Leste, Angola and Timor-Leste jurisdictions. Mr. Santos is currently, a board member of Somincor, a copper producing mine in Portugal fully owned and operated by Lundin Mining and of Ascendant Resources Inc, a resource company listed on the TSX. Mr. Santos is a Partner of CRA - Coelho Ribeiro e Associados  a Portuguese Law Firm, where he leads the firms Arbitration and Mining practices. He is also the founding partner of CRA Timor-Leste, a law firm based in Timor-Leste focused on mining and Oil & Gas. Mr. Santos is also an expert on dispute resolution matters. Currently Mr. Santos has the position of President of the International Tribunal of FIA  Federation Internationale de Automobile, (Paris, France), Judge of the International Court of Appeal of FIA and arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.



Story continues

Detailed results of the vote for the election of directors held at the Meeting on July 27, 2020 in Toronto, Ontario are set out below.

Election of Directors

The shareholders approved the election as directors of the persons listed below, based on the following vote.

Nominee % Votes For % Votes Withheld Peter Tagliamonte 99.74 0.26 Mark Eaton 99.33 0.67 Peter Nixon 99.64 0.37 Rui Botica Santos 99.74 0.26 Carol Fries 99.62 0.38

Shareholders voted 99.56% in favour of the approval of the appointment of the Companys auditors, with 0.44% of shareholders withholding their vote on the appointment of auditors.

Shareholders voted 83.53% in favour of the approval of the Companys stock option plan, with 16.48% of shareholders voting against the approval of the stock option plan.

Belo Sun's board would like to express its gratitude to its shareholders for their high levels of participation and support.

About the Company

Belo Sun is a Canadian-based mining company with a portfolio of gold-focused properties in Brazil. The Company is currently focused on the development of the Volta Grande Gold Project. Belo Sun trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol BSX. For more information, please visit www.belosun.com or contact Investor Relations at +1 (416) 309-2137.

Caution regarding forward-looking information:

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, statements regarding the shareholder meeting voting results and the election of directors. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including risks inherent in the mining industry and risks described in the public disclosure of the Company which is available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.belosun.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.




Ottawa, July 28 : Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will testify in Parliament on Thursday about his role in his government's decision to grant a charity organization a contract to run a student volunteer program worth millions of dollars.

Trudeau's chief of staff Katie Telford will also appear before the House of Commons for questioning on the same day over the C$900 million ($664 million), which has now been halted, reports Xinhua news agency.

Trudeau has been under fire since June 25 when his government granted WE Charity group a sole-sourced contract to run the program.

The Trudeau family has a close relationship with the organization.

Trudeau's wife, mother and brother were allegedly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for their appearances at WE Charity events.

Due to public outcry, the WE Charity and the Trudeau government announced on July 3 that they were ending the contract.

On July 13, at a press conference, Trudeau said he made a mistake in not recusing himself from cabinet discussions about granting the program to the charity group.

The Canadian Conservative Party and other opposition parties have been pushing for more answers and have launched three separate parliamentary probes.

They have also prompted the Parliamentary ethics commissioner to launch conflict of interest investigations into both Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau's dealings on granting WE Charity the contract, calling on both to resign.

Earlier this week, Morneau said he had paid WE Charity back C$41,366 in outstanding expenses that the organization covered for two trips his family took in 2017, and that his wife has reportedly made C$100,000 in donations to the organization in recent years.
Royal Administration Services, Inc., National Provider of Vehicle Service Contracts & Insurance Related Products, Enters Into PowerBand Referral Agreement

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / PowerBand Solutions Inc. (TSXV:PBX)(OTCQB:PWWBF)(Frankfurt:1ZVA) ("PowerBand", "PBX" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Royal Administration Services, Inc. ("Royal Admin"), a provider of automotive insurance products across the United States, will be recommending dealers use the PowerBand virtual transaction platform for drivers and dealers.

Royal Admin entered the agreement with PowerBand's strategic partner and investor, Texas-based D&P Holdings, Inc. ("D&P"). Under the agreement Royal Admin will direct dealerships to the PowerBand digital transaction platform, which allows drivers and dealers to buy, sell, lease and trade vehicles from a smart phone and other digital devices, as easily as buying a product on Amazon.

Founded more than 30 years ago, Royal Admin is licensed in all 50 states and has access to more than 80,000 vehicle service centers across the United States. Royal Admin will receive a fee for each referral.

"This is a further extension of our ability to offer insurance and warranty products to drivers and dealers on the PowerBand digital transaction platform," said PowerBand CEO Kelly Jennings. "We now have a network of partners in the automotive insurance sector who will be referring PowerBand to thousands of dealers, who can reach millions of consumers."

Previously, PowerBand announced that the Comprehensive Auto Resources Company, Inc. ("CARco"), one of the United States' leading administrators of automobile protection products, will be promoting PowerBand's virtual transaction platform to auto dealers across the United States.

CARco, which works with six national insurance companies and more than 1,000 agents, is also working with D&P Holdings, Inc. ("D&P"). D&P is one of the United States' largest administrators of automotive warranty and insurance products, directly working with more than 850 dealerships in all 50 states. It has partnered with the Company, allowing drivers to now have access to Royal Admin, CARco and D&P vehicle protection and insurance products when they buy, lease, sell or trade vehicles on PowerBand.

"PowerBand is an entirely new way for drivers to acquire or sell a car and we wanted to be part of this industry breakthrough," said Dominic Sansone, EVP Royal Admin. "We are confident that dealers will be motivated to offer our products to their customers across America using PowerBand."

PowerBand's U.S. leasing operation, operated by MUSA Holdings, LLC ("MUSA"), which PowerBand acquired a 60 per cent share of in July 2019, began lease originations this month in Texas and Florida, with a California launch planned imminently. More U.S. states will follow in 2020.

Founded in 2016, MUSA's innovative transaction platform provides dealers and consumers with the most advanced leasing options in the industry. MUSA takes applications, calculates leases, auto-decisions applications, provides approvals back to dealer partners and prefills lease contracts accurately. Approvals can occur in seconds. As a result of its proprietary technology, MUSA was awarded a contract by Tesla Motors to become a national leasing partner in 2018.

About PowerBand Solutions Inc.

PowerBand Solutions Inc., listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and the OTCQB markets, is a fintech provider disrupting the automotive industry. PowerBand's integrated, cloud-based transaction platform facilitates transactions amongst consumers, dealers, funders and manufacturers (OEMs). It enables them to buy, sell, trade, finance, and lease new and used, electric- and non-electric vehicles, on smart phones or any other online digital devices, from any location. PowerBand's transaction platform - being trademarked under DRIVRZ - is being made available across North American and global markets.

For further information, please contact:

Richard Goldman, VP Corporate Development

P: 1-866-768-7653

rgoldman@powerbandsolutions.com

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to the Company and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. As a result, we cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize, and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated.

Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by Canadian securities law.

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws, unless an exemption from such registration is available.

SOURCE: PowerBand Solutions Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/599193/More-Than-1800-Additional-Automotive-Dealerships-to-be-Introduced-To-PowerBands-Virtual-Transaction-Platform-for-Drivers-and-Dealers
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 05:57:27|Editor: huaxia

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The casket of late U.S. congressman and civil rights figure John Lewis, carried by a military honor guard, arrives at Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., the United States, on July 27, 2020. Late U.S. congressman and civil rights figure John Lewis lay in state in the Capitol here on Monday. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

WASHINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Late U.S. congressman and civil rights figure John Lewis lay in state in the Capitol here on Monday.

Lewis, who died earlier this month at age 80 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, has become the first African American lawmaker in the nation's history to lie in state beneath the Capitol Rotunda.

In a ceremony, lawmakers paid tributes to Lewis, who had fought for voting rights throughout his 33 years in Congress.

Vice President Mike Pence and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, are among those expected to pay their respects at the Capitol on Monday.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who's in North Carolina on Monday afternoon, told reporters that he wouldn't be stopping by the Capitol.

Born into a family of sharecroppers in 1940, Lewis was hailed for his leadership in the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

A founder and early leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Lewis led protests against racial injustice in an era in which apartheid was still rampant in the American South.

He was the youngest and longest surviving speaker at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom movement, which culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
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Ministers decided to reimpose quarantine travel restrictions on Spain after it emerged 10 Britons had returned from the country with coronavirus and Professor Chris Whitty said 'doing nothing isn't an option'.

The Government's Covid-O committee met on Saturday afternoon after Health Secretary Matt Hancock raised concerns about a spike in Spanish infections on Friday.

The group of six senior ministers, which includes Michael Gove, Grant Shapps and Priti Patel, were apparently told by Prof Whitty, the chief medical officer, that the situation in Spain had deteriorated in the last 48 hours.

Ministers were told there had been an increase in infection in 15 of Spain's 19 regions but the 'clincher' was the fact that 10 Britons had recently tested positive after coming back from the country.

Prof Whitty described the number as 'statistically significant' as ministers took the controversial decision to reimpose quarantine on Spanish travellers at less than five hours notice.

The account of the meeting came as Boris Johnson today warned there are 'signs of a second wave' of coronavirus in Europe as he defended the UK's decision to reimpose quarantine rules on Spanish travel.

Mr Johnson said: ''Let's be absolutely clear about what's happening in Europe, amongst some of our European friends, I'm afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic.'

Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said he will return early from his holiday in Spain tomorrow amid growing fears that holidays in France and Germany could also be axed because of rising infection rates.

There is also mounting speculation that travel to Belgium could soon be impacted after the country put the brakes on its coronavirus lockdown exit strategy.

Meanwhile, local government minister Simon Clarke said today that the British public will just have to accept there is a 'degree of uncertainty' around foreign travel at the moment.

Elsewhere in the UK's ongoing battle against coronavirus:

Boris Johnson defended the Government's decision to impose quarantine restrictions on Spain

PM said it 'is really our job, our duty, to act swiftly and decisively to stop ... travellers coming back from those places seeding the disease here'.

Mr Johnson said it was up to individuals to decide whether they wanted to take the risk of going abroad in the present circumstances.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the UK's quarantine travel decision was an 'error' as he described it as 'unjust'.

Travel experts said the changing guidance on quarantine meant 'hundreds of thousands of UK holidaymakers in Spain' or those who are about to fly are 'utterly confused'.

Britons were warned by legal experts not to book a foreign holiday unless they can afford to lose the money.

UK tourism chiefs warned Britons to make their reservations for 'staycations' next year as soon as possible amid a surge in bookings.

Families are rushing to book up dates for UK holidays in 2021 despite the cost of some stays going up by 50 per cent as operators try to recoup some of their lockdown losses.

Figures published on Tuesday by the ONS show that 51,366 deaths involving Covid-19 had occurred in England and Wales up to July 17, and had been registered by July 25.

The most up to date figures show the number of new cases is rocketing upwards in Spain. It announced 6,361 new cases over the weekend, up from 4,581 the previous weekend. France announced 2,551 new coronavirus cases on Monday

The UK Government has now banned all non-essential travel to mainland Spain and the Spanish islands. Pictured is a quiet beach today in the resort of Portinatx in Ibiza

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has claimed that tourists are safer in his country than the UK. These are the worst coronavirus hotspots in each country and the number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 people

Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, is said to have told ministers on Saturday that 'doing nothing isn't an option' after a spike in coronavirus in Spain

UK and Spain in war of words over quarantine decision Ministers today risked worsening a war of words with Spain over the UK's decision to reimpose quarantine travel restrictions. Spanish Prime Minister Pedor Sanchez said the move by Britain was an 'error' and is 'unjust'. But local government minister Simon Clarke hit back this morning as he said the UK does not agree with the Spanish claim that Britain has miscalculated the data on rising coronavirus infections. Mr Clarke told BBC Breakfast: 'We respectfully disagree with the Spanish government's position on this. 'We obviously continue to work closely with them and we wish them every success in managing this outbreak, but we've seen a very sharp increase in cases in Spain. 'A 75 per cent increase in cases reported between the middle of last week and the end of last week. That's why we took the action that we have. 'Clearly, you do have to make decisions on a country-wide basis. There is going to be internal transfer within Spain and it's important that we do our utmost to protect the public.' Advertisement

The decision to ban all but essential travel to Spain and to enforce quarantine on all arrivals coming back to the UK has sparked widespread fury among holidaymakers and travel firms.

The Government faced accusations of presiding over chaos after it initially banned travel to the Spanish mainland but said people could still go to the Canary and Balearic islands - but everyone returning to Britain from anywhere in Spain would have to quarantine.

The Foreign Office then moved last night to toughen the travel advice relating to the Spanish islands to bring it into line with the rules applying to the mainland.

The quarantine decision has been described as an 'error' by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez who said: 'In most of Spain, the incidence is very much inferior to even the numbers registered in the United Kingdom.'

The decision to reimpose quarantine on Spanish travellers came as a shock to many in Westminster but a source briefed on the crunch call between ministers on Saturday said the numbers in Spain showed immediate action was required.

The source said someone on the call had said 'if we had seen this level of infection in a region of England we would have put it straight into lockdown'.

A Government source told The Telegraph that Prof Whitty was instrumental in guiding the decision on reimposing quarantine.

They said: 'Ahead of the meeting Chris Whitty had already made it clear that he was going to say that doing nothing wasn't an option.

'It wasn't so much that the rate of transmission had increased over the previous three days, it was that there were quite a few cases of Brits coming back from Spain with the virus, so that was the clincher.'

Mr Shapps saw his own holiday plans ruined by the decision after he had flown to Spain with his family.

The Transport Secretary has come under fire for failing to have already returned to deal with the crisis in person.

Ministers dampen hopes that the self-isolation period will soon be cut to 10 days Ministers today insisted the requirement for travellers returning to the UK from non-safe coronavirus countries to quarantine for 14 days remains in place despite claims the self-isolation period could soon be slashed. Reports overnight suggested the Government is considering reducing quarantine from 14 to 10 days in order to make family holidays abroad slightly more feasible. The proposals would see returning travellers tested eight days after they land and if the check comes back negative they would be given the green light to leave their homes two days later. It is thought that shaving four days off the fortnight quarantine period could be enough to persuade some holidaymakers to go ahead with their trips despite mounting uncertainty over foreign travel. The Government fears its sudden decision to reimpose quarantine rules on Britons returning from Spain will prompt mass cancellations and kill the summer holiday season. But local government minister Simon Clarke said this morning that 'the situation remains that the Governments advice is that you must quarantine for 14 days'. He told Sky News: I wouldnt want to blur that message. That is the current position. Obviously, with all of this guidance, we continue to take advice on the science and on the best practice that is sensible. But we wouldnt want to get any mixed messages today at all to the public: It is a 14 day quarantine.' Advertisement

He told The Times he will be back in the UK tomorrow: 'I've been in constant contact with officials and industry representatives since I arrived.

'I think it's right to get back to work in the UK as soon as possible in order to help handle the situation.

'The sooner I get back from Spain myself, the sooner I can get through quarantine.'

The Spain decision has also impacted Mr Gove's holiday plans, with the Minister for the Cabinet Office reportedly having been due to fly to Ibiza at the end of this week.

Mr Clarke told the BBC this morning the UK Government must reserve the right to take action to keep the British public safe during the Covid-19 pandemic.

'The reality is people travelling abroad will have to accept that there is a degree of uncertainty,' he said.

'As the situation changes on the ground, we have to reserve the right to take action to keep the British public safe. That's what we've done in the case of Spain.'

Mr Clarke also said ministers 'very strongly encourage employers to take a sensible and compassionate approach to people who find themselves' having to quarantine following a trip to Spain amid fears some will not be able to work from home.

He said people in 'genuine crisis' can access Universal Credit but that 'we really do hope that employers will be supportive and put sensible steps in place to accommodate people who are affected by this'.

Britons make up over a fifth of foreign visitors to Spain, which relies heavily on tourism, and Madrid has said the UK government gave it no warning that the quarantine move was coming last weekend.

Travel firm TUI UK cancelled all holidays to the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands after the Foreign Office updated its travel advice last night.

TUI's decision runs from Tuesday July 28 up to and including Friday July 31. Holidays to Spain's mainland were were already cancelled from Sunday July 26 up to and including Sunday August 9.

Jet2 also said that it was cancelling flights to a raft of destinations in Spain from Tuesday after the FCO announcement.

Rory Boland, Which? travel editor, said: 'This is the third announcement we've heard from the Government regarding travel to Spain in the last three days. Hundreds of thousands of UK holidaymakers in Spain or about to fly are utterly confused.'

An aerial view shows the quiet beaches and hotel pools in the resort of Portinatx in Ibiza

Britons arrive at the Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport, and face quarantine on their return to the UK

Real Madrid's striker Mariano test positive for coronavirus - just 10 days before trip to face Manchester City Real Madrid striker Mariano Diaz has tested positive for coronavirus will now miss their Champions League tie with Manchester City next month. The club have confirmed that Diaz returned a positive Covid-19 test and is now in quarantine at home after missing training on Tuesday. Spanish newspaper Marca are reporting that Diaz returned a positive test on his return from holiday following a trip after the conclusion of the LaLiga season. The Spanish giants are due to play the second leg of their last-16 Champions League tie at the Etihad Stadium on August 7. Advertisement

Labour said the Government must abandon its one-size-fits-all approach and introduce sectoral support for struggling businesses to ensure that public health measures like the change in quarantine rules for people returning from Spain do not lead to mass job losses.

The announcement of the Government's new Spanish travel warnings came after Prime Minister Boris Johnson's official spokesman said decisions on border measures and travel advice 'can be changed rapidly if necessary to help stop the spread of the disease'.

He went on: 'Unfortunately no travel is risk-free during this pandemic and disruption is possible and so anyone travelling abroad should be aware that our travel advice and exemption list is under constant review as we monitor the international situation.'

The announcement happened amid fears more European holidays could be thrown into disarray this summer with reports of potential new coronavirus lockdowns in France and Germany.

Meanwhile, the Government dampened hopes that quarantine for people arriving from Spain or other countries with high coronavirus levels could be cut to ten days after reports that ministers have been looking at the move.

Returned travellers would need to quarantine for eight days before being tested, and then only remain in quarantine for another two days should they test negative.

But Mr Clarke insisted this morning that the 14 day quarantine requirement remains in place.

Don't book a foreign holiday unless you can afford to throw away the money, warn experts as British staycation spots are overrun and booked out NEXT YEAR

Britons were today warned not to book a foreign holiday unless they can afford to lose the money with dreams of a summer getaway now hanging in the balance.

Concerns over travel restrictions abroad intensified as UK tourism chiefs warned Britons to make their reservations for 'staycations' next year as soon as possible. Families are booking up dates for UK holidays in 2021 despite the cost of some stays going up by 50 per cent as operators try to recoup some of their lockdown losses.

Slots at campsites, B&Bs and cottages across Britain are also running out because holidays postponed during the lockdown are now being rebooked for next year.

Up to 14million Britons are expected to go on a UK holiday before children go back to school in September, giving the country's economy a 3.7billion boost - with Havens saying bookings at its 36 parks are up 96 per cent year-on-year, demand for caravan sites up 140 per cent in Devon and bookings also surging at Butlins locations.

But speaking about going abroad, Guy Anker from MoneySavingExpert told The Times: 'People who booked a holiday or took out insurance after mid-March are not going to be covered by a local lockdown or the decision to change travel advice.

'My advice would be, do not spend any money at the moment that you can't afford to lose, or where flexibility is not written into your airline ticket or hotel booking.'

UK holiday agent Hoseasons said it has employed extra telesales staff to cope with extra demand with bookings made for the next year up by a third on normal levels.

Its cottage break bookings are up 223 per cent over the last month compared to the same period in 2019, while call volumes are at more than ten times the normal level.

The empty Jet2 check-in desk at Edinburgh Airport this morning after UK tourists were told not to travel to Spain

Jet2 staff stand at the check-in desk at Edinburgh Airport today after the new UK guidance on not travelling to Spain

What can I do if I've booked a holiday to Spain? Can I get a refund on my flights? Airlines are refusing to cancel flights to Spain  despite the Government advising against all but essential travel. The move puts hundreds of thousands of British families in limbo and at risk of losing thousands of pounds. It also puts the airline industry at odds with the UK Government by ignoring a public safety edict. The Government issued the travel warning after the emergence of a second wave of coronavirus in parts of Spain. Customers would normally expect travel firms to cancel the flights and offer refunds. But all the major carriers, which have suffered massive losses following the collapse of air travel, have snubbed the Government and continue to offer the flights. This means families will potentially lose their holidays and their money. People could ignore the Government and take their flights. But they would have to quarantine for 14 days when they get back and their travel insurance may be void. Alternatively, they could cancel their trip without any guarantee of a refund. Can I switch my flight date or change destination? British Airways and easyJet have suggested they will offer vouchers for future flights, rather than a refund, for those who cancel. Ryanair has refused to offer anything. It even suggested people who changed their flights could incur charges of up to 95 per person. What if I have booked a package holiday? If you booked a package holiday which cannot go ahead as planned, you are entitled to a refund and it should be returned within 14 days. However, a number of airlines have not cancelled flights and some tour operators are also doing the same - this means you might not get a refund without a fight. Companies will be expected to cancel package holidays to Spain and its islands and offer refunds. An estimated 1.8m bookings will be affected. Tui has suspended all holidays to Spain up to and including August 9. It said customers travelling 'will be able to cancel or amend holidays and will be able to receive a full refund or the option to rebook their holiday with a booking incentive and our customer service team will proactively email these customers'. Jet2 and Tui have cancelled trips up to certain dates in August. Kuoni, even though it is not cancelling trips, is offering refunds or rebookings at a later date. Will I be able to cancel a direct hotel booking? If you have booked directly with a hotel it is unlikely that they will let you cancel without abiding by their cancellation charges. You could try appealing to their goodwill and there is certainly no harm in asking. They may for instance let you move to a later date. If you have booked through a third-party website like Booking.com, Expedia or Lastminute, you may find that the cancellation terms are more generous, depending on what sort of reservation you made. If it is not offering either option, contact your travel insurer to see if you can claim on your policy instead. Will my insurance cover it? Only Nationwide's FlexPlus travel insurance, which comes with its 13-a-month current account, covers trips cancelled because Foreign Office advice changed after a booking was made - while it also covers a trip being cut short because of a local lockdown. Other policies from the likes of Trailfinders, Nationwide, Axa, All Clear, Coverwise and Insure For will cover coronavirus-related cancellations, but not because of a change in government travel restrictions. The Civil Aviation Authority said there was nothing it could do to ensure those with a flight-only booking got a refund. It suggested they claim money back from a travel insurance policy, but most insurers have clauses that reject any claims linked to coronavirus. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has said it is 'likely' that travel insurance will remain in place for holidaymakers already in Spain until they return home. However, those attempting to travel to countries against FCO advice would invalidate their travel insurance. The ABI said people who booked a trip or took out travel insurance after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic may not be covered for travel disruption or cancellation. In either circumstance, travellers should check with their insurer. What if my trip isn't cancelled but I want to cancel it? If your trip isn't cancelled, contact your travel provider in the first instance to see if they are offering refunds, or again, a change of date. If they are not, you may have to swallow the cost of cancelling your holiday and then fighting to get a refund through your insurance, credit card provider through Section 75 or a chargeback, offered by some banks. While most tour providers still haven't shown their hand, it is thought likely most will cancel holidays given the Government advice. What should I do if I am already in Spain? People currently on holiday in Spain have been encouraged to follow the local rules, return home as normal and check the FCO's travel advice pages on gov.uk for further information. The FCO is not advising those already travelling in Spain to leave. Abta - the UK's travel trade association - has advised customers in the country to continue their holidays and return as normal. What if I am going on holiday elsewhere? The FCO continues to advise against non-essential international travel except to the countries and territories on its exemption list. But local government minister Simon Clarke said the reality is that holidaymakers travelling abroad during the coronavirus outbreak will have to accept there is a 'degree of uncertainty'. He said people going on holiday should understand that they may be asked to self-isolate on their return and the Government must reserve the right to keep the British public safe. Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said anyone making travel arrangements needs to recognise the restrictions that may be placed upon them by the Government on their return to the UK. What will happen when I get back from Spain? If you're returning to the UK from Spain you will need to provide your journey and contact details and self-isolate for 14 days. This may drop to 10 days soon. You may be fined up to 100 if you refuse to provide your contact details or more if you break this rule more than once. You may also be fined up to 1,000 if you refuse to self-isolate, or you could face further action. Will my employer pay me if I have to quarantine? This will depend on your employer and their rules. If, for example, you can still work from home, there should - in theory - be no problem with you quarantining. However, you are not automatically entitled to statutory sick pay from your employer if you have to quarantine after coming back off holiday, according to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. Some employers will offer sick pay  either statutory or a higher level, depending on their policy. It could be that if your employer is unable to offer you sick pay, you could take annual leave to avoid missing out on any payment, although this may not be possible if you do not have enough left to take. However, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said no worker following quarantine guidance should be penalised by employers, including by being put on to sick pay. Advertisement

Charles Millward, owner of Staycation Holidays, which manages 120 UK properties, told The Times: 'People should be worried about finding availability next year.'

He added that one property has just three weekends free next year from March until September, and the staycation has 'suddenly become massive for us this summer'.

Writer and broadcaster Sally Jones, who lives in Warwick, told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'I do think it's totally bonkers to encourage people to go abroad at the moment when we don't know which countries are going to be shut down, where we're going to have quarantine coming back from, say, Croatia or France.

'There's wonderful, wonderful places in England. I think most people don't really know their own country that well.'

She added: 'Why not go and explore places like, say, Scotland or the beaches of Northumberland? There are these incredible places in England  most of us have never been there.'

British campsites have also seen a boom in bookings as people give up on foreign trips.

The website Pitchup.com, which sends 800,000 people a year to 2,000 UK campsites, said bookings on Sunday were double last year's high for a single day.

It took some 6,100 bookings, representing around 18,000 people, which was up by 20 per cent on the previous Sunday. Founder of the booking platform, Dan Yates, said there is a clear switch to staycations.

He said: 'For many who were just starting to consider booking a trip abroad this is probably the nail in the coffin, with the change in regulations fundamentally damaging consumer confidence to travel overseas.

'The tightened financial climate means British holidaymakers are unlikely to take the risk of not being able to work when they return which has likely been the catalyst for this weekend's surge in UK bookings.'

The website also offers bookings to campsites across Europe.

Mr Yates said: 'The tourism and hospitality sector has been decimated by Covid and our Spanish site owners are in uproar.

'They believe a more localised approach which focuses on quarantine in the specific regions which have been affected by the Covid peaks would have been a more appropriate and effective response by the UK government.

'This is, however, good news for domestic campsites and caravan parks as thousands will substitute a UK holiday for their usual one abroad.'

Mr Yates said: 'The ever changing guidance is likely to cause mass confusion and concern amongst Brits, with many likely to elect to play it safe and staying closer to home this year.'

Issuing advice to those concerned about holidays in Spain, Brian Brown of Defaqto said: 'If you are in Spain now your insurance will cover you as normal. This will include curtailment and medical claims. However, it will not include curtailment if you just want to come home early.

'You won't however have any compensation from your travel insurer for any enforced quarantine on your return to the UK.

'If you are on your way to Spain right now by car you might also have problems.

'If you enter Spain after the FCO advised you not to, then you will have no cover at all, including medical insurance.

'So, if you are driving through France to Spain, you should turn around and come home, or find somewhere else to have your holiday.'

He added that those who have a booking to Spain but can't now travel because the FCO has advised against it, should first go to the travel provider.

Mr Brown continued: 'Airlines and package operators will likely cancel the flight/holiday. You should ask them for a refund, or to transfer your holiday to another destination or time.

'If you can't get refunds, for instance if you booked your accommodation directly with the hotel, your travel insurance might pay out, but only if the policy covers you for change of government advice and you booked the holiday and bought the insurance before the FCO changed its advice.

'You will need to check your insurance policy wording.

'If you are planning to travel somewhere else, where the FCO currently says you can go, but now don't want to take the risk then no travel insurance policy will cover you for cancellation. Disinclination to travel is not an insured peril.'

Meanwhile Sally Jaques of GoCompare Travel Insurance, said: 'If a holiday company is still taking customers to mainland Spain, which at the moment would be against FCO advice, those holidaymakers are between a rock and hard place.

'They can't cancel their holiday and claim their holiday cost back on their insurance and by travelling to a destination classified as an area where the advice is to avoid all non-essential travel, they will be invalidating their travel insurance policy.

'If they fall ill abroad, have an accident, or have their luggage lost or stolen, their insurer is unlikely to pay out a claim.

'The best option for holidaymakers in this situation who don't want to take the risk is to request to rebook their trip for a later date, when hopefully the pandemic will have abated or at least the situation will be clearer. However, holiday companies are under no obligation to do this.

'The sudden turnaround of advice regarding travelling to mainland Spain and the quarantine requirements imposed for all of Spain, including its islands, highlights how unpredictable foreign travel is at the moment.

'Customers booking holidays anywhere this summer run the risk of having their trips cancelled or being left in an almost impossible situation of not wishing to travel, being pushed into ignoring FCO advice by their tour operator and invalidating their insurance whilst away.

'Frankly anyone choosing to go abroad this year is taking a gamble.'

In a huge blow to the tourism industry both at home and abroad, ministers have extended travel restrictions to the Spanish islands and warned that other holiday destinations could follow.

The Foreign Office is now warning against 'all but essential' travel to the Balearics and Canaries, having already done so for the mainland.

This is on top of 14-day quarantine on return.

Travel firm Jet2 responded to the diktat by cancelling flights to all Spanish destinations and told passengers not to go to the airport.

Downing Street warned: 'Unfortunately no travel is risk-free during this pandemic.'

Sources said there were 'no immediate plans' to change travel and quarantine advice to other countries.

But Croatia and Belgium are thought to be of concern, and ministers are also monitoring France and Germany. Last night Grant Shapps cut short his own holiday in Spain to deal with the crisis.

The Transport Secretary, whose wife and children will continue their holiday without him, will have to quarantine at home for two weeks.

He told the Mail he 'didn't feel right' continuing his holiday when others were having their plans wrecked. Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove cancelled a trip to the Balearics on Saturday.

Ministers were last night facing a backlash from travel experts and the airline industry over the 'chaotic' handling of the air bridges policy, which has been in place for only three weeks.

The Spanish government, international airline bosses, holidaymakers and travel firms said Britain had got it wrong on safety, science and economic impact.

Tourists look around Boscastle village in Cornwall on a rainy day yesterday as people go on staycations across the UK

Former Tory Cabinet minister Michael Portillo said it 'looked like a deliberate attempt to wreck the recovery'.

Spanish PM says quarantine is 'unjust' and claims tourists will be SAFER in his country than in the UK after FCO changed contradictory advice and urges Brits not to travel to islands Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez Spain's Prime Minister has blasted quarantine restrictions as 'unjust' and said tourists will be safer in his country than the UK as ministers prepare to slash quarantine from 14 to 10 days to salvage getaways for millions of families. Pedro Sanchez last night criticised the government's sudden decision to force Britons returning from Spain to stay at home for two weeks and called on the government to reconsider its decision. Tourists braced to enter quarantine are worried the fortnight self-isolating could cost them paid work and there are fears the newly-imposed rules could kill off the summer holiday season. Speaking moments after the Foreign Office hardened its stance and advised against non-essential travel to the whole of Spain, including the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands, Mr Sanchez told Spanish TV station Telecinco on Monday night: 'I think the UK's decision is an incorrect one. 'Spain is made up of a number of regions that have a cumulative rate of contagion that is lower than the European average as well as the UK average. 'The Spanish tourist industry has acted very responsibly over the past few months and has transferred a message of security with regards to the health emergency we are experiencing. 'It's true that on a global level the coronavirus pandemic continues to show a very worrying development and at European level as well, but in Spain the spread of the virus is not occurring in a uniform way. 'Sixty-two per cent of the new cases are occurring in two regions but in the majority of the country, the cumulative incidence of the virus is lower than the European average and the UK average.' Advertisement

But a government source said: 'This was always a safety first policy. If we think there is a risk we will end up importing cases from overseas then we will act decisively to prevent it.'

The Government shocked the nation and travel industry at the weekend with new advice against all but essential travel to mainland Spain.

At the same time, it said anyone returning from there should go into a 14-day home quarantine. Breaking quarantine risks a 1,000 fine.

The decision was taken amid fears of a second wave of Covid in Spain after case numbers rose by 75 per cent in just 48 hours last week.

The rate of infection in Spain is 35.1 cases per 100,000 people, while the UK is at 14, according to the latest figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

The Balearic and Canary islands were included in the quarantine restrictions but excluded from Foreign Office warning against 'all but essential travel.'

The omission had led to hopes yesterday that the islands, where coronavirus cases are said to be lower, might be lifted out of the restrictions altogether, following intense lobbying from Spain.

Those hopes were dashed last night by the latest Foreign Office advice.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We have considered the overall situation for British nationals travelling to and from the Balearic and Canary Islands, including the impact of the requirement to self-isolate on return to the UK, and concluded that we should advise British nationals against all non-essential travel to the whole of Spain.'

It was claimed last night that the Chief Medical Officer had warned that ten Britons who had tested positive for coronavirus since July 1 had reported visiting Spain in the 14 days before their test.

It comes after one of the country's most popular holidays seemed to be struggling with the onslaught of guests.

Swathes of people have descended on St Ives, Cornwall - famed for its narrow streets - seemingly struggling to adhere to social distancing guidelines.

Car parks in the area are reaching capacity, and people are packing on to the town's popular beach and into cafes and restaurants surrounding it.

Officials in St Ives have introduced a 'keep to the left' policy in an attempt to ensure everyone can keep to the one-metre plus distance currently advised.

Guests in the town have also been advised to wear a face mask and to avoid cramming into smaller shops. And in an effort to further reduce congestion in St Ives, access for most vehicles has been restricted between 10am and 6pm.

Malcolm Bell, chief executive of Visit Cornwall, admitted some locals were still 'nervous' about the sudden rush of tourists. In spite of that, he added that on the whole 'everyone is sticking to social distancing rules' despite some of the historic towns being 'close to capacity'.

* Have you taken photographs of a busy UK resort this week? Please email them to: pictures@mailonline.co.uk *
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 13:25 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669dffcf 1 National pandemic,regional-heads,coronavirus,South-Kalimantan,virus-korona-indonesia,South-Sumatra,Central-Java,regent,mayor,COVID-19 Free

Amid concerns over Indonesias ever-growing tally of confirmed coronavirus cases, several regional heads across the archipelago have come forward and announced that they have tested positive for COVID-19.

Nadjmi Adhani, the mayor of Banjarbaru in South Kalimantan, posted a video message on Instagram on Monday, informing the public that he and his wife had contracted the coronavirus.

In the 2-minute clip, Nadjmi is seen wearing an oxygen mask while addressing the viewers from what appears to be a hospital room.

Id like to remind all Banjarbaru residents that COVID-19 is no laughing matter, he said in the video.

[The disease] is real and we have to fight it by adhering to health protocols.

Nadjmi went on to say that Banjarbaru deputy mayor Darmawan Jaya Setiawan would oversee all official matters related to the administration during his recovery period.

As of Monday, South Kalimantan had confirmed 5,689 COVID-19 cases and 273 deaths from the disease.

In South Sumatra, Ogan Ilir Regent Ilyas Panji Alam told a press conference about his COVID-19-positive diagnosis on Monday.

Ilyas, who sat on a couch in his official residence while tethered to an intravenous pole throughout the press conference, said he had previously had his swab sample tested at Bhayangkara Palembang Hospital and that the result came back positive.

According to the test result that I received this morning, I have contracted COVID-19, he said as quoted by kompas.com.

To colleagues who have come into contact with me, please have yourself tested.

Read also: Tanjungpinang mayor dies at 59 after testing positive for COVID-19

Ilyas said that, although he felt healthy, he would remain isolated in his home for the foreseeable future to minimize the risk of further viral infection in the region.

He called on Ogan Ilir locals to comply with the available health procedures, including maintaining a safe physical distance between one another and wearing a face mask in public.

South Sumatra had recorded 3,275 positive COVID-19 cases and 154 fatalities linked to the disease as of Monday.

In Central Java, Surakarta Deputy Mayor Achmad Purnomo was declared coronavirus-free on Saturday after having previously tested positive for COVID-19.

The test came out negative, Achmad told tribunnews.com on Monday.

Despite the encouraging test result, however, Achmad is still due to remain in self-quarantine to ensure full recovery.

As of Monday, Central Java had confirmed 8,622 COVID-19 cases and 574 deaths. (rfa)
JOHANNESBURG (AP)  The U.S. military on Tuesday acknowledged killing a civilian and wounding three others with an airstrike in Somalia earlier this year.

This is the second in a new series of quarterly reports the U.S. Africa Command issues on airstrikes in Somalia and allegations of civilian deaths after coming under pressure from Somalis and human rights groups.

The new report substantiates allegations around a Feb. 2. airstrike. At the time, the U.S. said one member of the al-Shabab extremist group was killed in the vicinity of Jilib.

This admission is the third case they have substantiated in 13 years of airstrikes in the country, Brian Castner, Amnesty International's senior crisis adviser for arms and military operations, said in a statement. Now that there has been an acknowledgment of their actions, there must be accountability and reparations for the victims and their families.

While the U.S. statement didn't give details about the civilian killed, the Amnesty statement said the airstrike killed a woman and wounded three of her relatives.

The human rights group last year released an investigation into U.S. airstrikes in Somalia that led to the U.S. acknowledging killing five civilians and wounding six others in three separate airstrikes.

The Trump administration has dramatically increased the number of airstrikes carried out in the Horn of Africa nation against the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group and, to a lesser extent, a small number of fighters linked to the Islamic State group in northern Somalia.

The U.S. carried out at least 63 airstrikes in Somalia last year, most of them against al-Shabab, which often carries out deadly attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and controls large parts of central and southern Somalia.

The new U.S. statement said it had received 12 new allegations this quarter around four incidents. It said four incidents remain under review, three of them from its previous report.

The U.S. Africa Command said those who wish to make allegations can submit them in their native language on its website.
No Cabinet secretary relishes testifying before lawmakers conducting oversight, but Barr has been unusually successful in avoiding trips to Capitol Hill. He has never appeared before the House judiciary panel, which has oversight responsibility for the Justice Department, including during his first stint as attorney general under President George Bush. And he has not testified before Congress at all since May 2019, when he appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions about the report by the special counsel, Robert Mueller.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 18:36:47|Editor: huaxia

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Dazhanchang Town is located in Zhongning County, northwest China's Ningxia. All of the town's 116,000 residents have been relocated to live here since the 1980s. The migrant farmers have successfully turned their new hometown into a better place to live. A farmers' choir was also founded in April, 2019 to enrich local people's cultural life.
BRISTOL, VA.  Seven officers and a dispatcher at the Bristol Virginia Police Department have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Bristol Virginia City Manager Randy Eads.

Eads said that the city government learned of the first positive cases on Thursday, July 16, and said that all eight of those staff members began to quarantine around that time. He added that some of them sought testing after experiencing symptoms linked to the virus. None of them have been hospitalized.

Eads said that 41 of the Police Departments employees, including the eight who tested positive, have been tested for the virus so far.

As a city management team, weve been preparing for this since Feb. 28, Eads said. So when it did happen, we had a plan in place of how to deal with it.

At this point in time, you have to assume that anyone can catch the virus at any given time, Eads added. I would encourage everyone to wear a mask, socially distance and recognize that the virus is a threat to everyone, and be smart.
Charles Barkley Quote1 I believe in this effort and believe it can make a difference, says Charles Barkley. Past News Releases RSS

The Charles Barkley Foundation is teaming up with a healthcare technology company to combat health disparities in the Black community due to Coronavirus. Last week was the launch of the Save Our Selves (S.O.S) Council, comprised of Black influencers, technologists, healthcare professionals, and policy makers concerned about the health of Black Americans.

The SOS Council has launched two initiatives. One is a healthcare provider matching service for black consumers who may want to visit with a doctor remotely. This initiative will help get resources to those needing healthcare service, given the current climate those with medical concerns may feel more comfortable reaching out to doctors through remote patient monitoring. The other is a nationwide online mobile survey at http://sos.synsormed.com/ to research information on the health and economic status of the Black community. The goal is for people to complete the survey as well as share it. A phase 2 effort in August will use this information to provide much-needed resources to black communities.

SynsorMed CEO Theodore Harvey says, The survey is quick, and it asks general questions to find out if a person is categorized as an essential worker, was able to see a doctor during the COVID-19 pandemic, and if theyd like access to a doctor.

This has never been done before, Harvey says, This is the first nationwide survey that will collect true, accurate information regarding Black Americans health status, so that health care resources can be directed where theyre needed most.

The number of COVID-19 cases is still rising, Harvey says, And Blacks are being adversely affected, but we can do something if we act now. The Racial Data Dashboard of the COVID Tracking Project indicates the death rate for Black Americans from COVID-19 is twice that of other racial groups. Additionally, in states including Georgia and South Carolina, 50% of all deaths from COVID-19 are of Black Americans.

I believe in this effort and believe it can make a difference, says Charles Barkley.

The work is important because of the history of Black Americans being disproportionately impacted by diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic illness. Harvey says those are not just health care matters. They are also economic matters, because the Black population has less access to adequate food sources and health care.

The pandemic, economic anxieties, and police brutality have devastated the black community in recent months. Additionally, recent data projections forecast a rise in COVID-19 cases in the next several weeks.

With this data from the online survey, we hope to influence policy makers in expediting COVID-19 testing, mental health services, and clinical support to areas that need it the most, says Harvey. This effort will help the Black community receive resources they didnt receive previously.

Instead of giving in to despair, we believe we can make a difference. We believe we have what we need in our own community to save ourselves.

SYNSORMED BACKGROUND

Founded in 2014 by Theo Havey and Amin Holmes, SynsorMed is a digital health platform that encourages patient engagement and compliance. The SynsorMed platform is a device-agnostic RPM platform. Each paired monitoring device has a Bluetooth sensor that transmits readings directly to the cloud through the SynsorMed app on a patients smartphone.

SynsorMed enables patients to measure key medical data from the privacy of their home and securely upload that data to their physician through the companys proprietary, cloud-based app, thereby avoiding the need to schedule appointments for routine check-ups. Physicians using the SynsorMed platform have access to more robust patient data and can review patient records in real-time through an online portal and dashboard, which provides those physicians with an additional available appointment time to serve other patients  leading to increased practice revenues.

To participate in the S.O.S. survey, visit http://soscouncil.com/.
Islamabad, July 28 : Senate of Pakistan, the upper house of parliament, passed a resolution, lauding Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani, calling on the government to confer him with the countrys highest civil award "Nishan-e-Pakistan". This is a shocking affront to the Government of India and once again highlights Pakistans unequivocal support to Kashmiri separatist hawks like Geelani. It will obviously evoke a strong response from an already angry Indian government which has fulminated against Pakistans 30 year proxy war in Kashmir.

The resolution was unanimously passed in the Senate of Pakistan with a complete consensus over what they called "relentless" struggle of Syed Ali Geelani.

The government and the opposition benches, praising the ailing Kashmiri leader for his "unwavering commitment, dedication, perseverance and leadership", moved the resolution jointly.

The resolution also appreciated Geelani for "exposing Indian atrocities, suppressive measures and human rights violations in Indian occupied Kashmir".

The move comes in wake of the one-year completion of revocation of special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir by the Modi government. On August 5, 2019, India abrogated Article 370 and 35A and changed the status of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.

Since then, Jammu and Kashmir has been in a state of lockdown with curfew imposed in the valley.

Syed Ali Geelani, leader of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat has been supportive of Pakistan's case against India on Kashmir, calling for independence from India and unification with Pakistan.

Geelani, along with other leaders of the hurriyat, have been detained several times in the past as Kashmir valley continues to stay under detention, curfew and communication blackout.

The 90-year-old has been sick and put under house arrest over which Pakistan has expressed deep concern and termed it "unjustified" as he being in feeble health condition.

The resolution passed in the Senate of Pakistan has proposed the federal government to change the name of Pakistan University of Engineering Technologies (PUET) in Islamabad as Syed Ali Shah Geelani University of Engineering and Emerging Sciences (SGUEES).

"Include the lift and struggle of Syed Ali Shah Geelani in the educational curriculum at federal and provincial level and mobilize world conscience to help Gillani get best available treatment at a place of his choice," read the resolution.

Pakistan's step has come hours after Geelani's announcement to observe a strike on August 5 and August 15 in Jammu and Kashmir in protest against the abrogation of special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

"August 5 is one of the darkest chapters of Kashmir. They day should be observed as an awareness day and the Kashmiri diaspora around the world should protest outside Indian embassies," Geelani said in a statement.
An animal activist group and Texas Parks and Wildlife are now involved in the aftermath of an incident that killed 5,000 fish in the San Pedro Creek and the San Antonio River in June after an ammonia leak at the Kiolbassa Smoked Meats plant.

The Texas Animal Freedom Fighters are planning a protest and hold vigil for the fish on Aug. 7 in response to the incident. According to initial reports, a leaky ammonia pipe in a refrigeration system at the production facility at 1325 S. Brazos St. caused an evacuation just before midnight on June 29. Four employees were evaluated on scene for exposure to fumes, but were not hospitalized.

RELATED: More than 5K fish died in the San Antonio River after ammonia gas leak at meatpacking plant

Surrounding neighborhoods were not in danger, officials said.

The San Antonio Fire Department used water to dilute the ammonia in the air, a spokesperson for Kiolbassa said. The water used to neutralize the chemical then ran off into the stormwater systems near San Pedro Creek, before streaming into the main stem of the San Antonio River's Mission Reach, causing approximately 5,500 fish and other aquatic wildlife to die by July 1, the San Antonio River Authority said.

The activists are asking Texas Parks and Wildlife to impose restitution for the damage to public resources and lives lost. TPWD confirmed Monday that they will begin talks with Kiolbassa and will work toward recovering the value of the killed fish.

Kiolbassa spokeswoman Laura Waldrum said Tuesday that they have been working closely with Texas Parks and Wildlife, the San Antonio River Authority, Texas Commission of Environmental Quality, San Antonio Water System and the San Antonio Fire Department to prevent a leak from happening again. Waldrum said the company has invested in retrofits for the building which will prevent future leaks and ensure there is no repeat of the June incident.

"We take responsibility for this accident and are prepared to face any associated penalties," she said.

Chris Vaughn, a San Antonio River Authority aquatic biologist, explained the effects of the ammonia on the fish. He said the toxicity breaks down the fish's cells and caused them to suffocate. He said the direct impact zone was relatively small and the fish will "quickly" re-populate the area. Vaughn also said the ammonia-water solution will not have a long-lasting effect, according to a previous mySA report.

"The rivers ecosystem is extremely resilient and the bounce back will be quick," he said.

From noon to 2 p.m. Aug. 7, the group will protest Kiolbassa for the death of the fish and wildlife and "environmental destruction" of the river. The group will then walk to the river to hold a vigil for fish.

Madalyn Mendoza covers news and puro pop culture for MySA.com | mmendoza@mysa.com | @maddyskye
New Delhi, July 28 : Employee unions of banking and insurance sectors, affiliated to the RSS-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), on Tuesday staged protests across the country against the likely move of privatising state-run banking and insurance entities.

The Delhi Pradesh Bank Workers' Organisation, which is also affiliated to BMS, in a statement said that the unions also protested against the dilution of labour laws.

Further, the National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW), which was also part of the protests, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi opposing the privatisation among other demands.

The other demands of the NOBW include pension upgradation of bank employees, merger of 7.75 per cent special allowance in basic pay and compassionate appointment to pre-2014 cases.

The bank workers' body also said that bank employees should also be treated as 'corona warriors' and sought Rs 50 lakh insurance cover for them.

"Bank employees are economic warriors and contributing their services in all circumstances including 'note bandi (demonetisation) and present Covid-19 to maintain essential services and helping government in giving the financial assistance to the needed persons like PMJDY accounts of women, different type of pensioners and requirement of Loan facilities for borrowers," it said in its letter to the Prime Minister.

The resistance to privatisation comes as a new disinvestment policy is in the making and according to people in the know, would have the banking and insurance sector under its ambit.

Among the insurance companies, the Life Insurance Corporation of India will not be part of this disinvestment process. There are a total of eight state-run insurers, including six general insurance companies and one reinsurance company.

In the banking space, with the latest merger of public sector banks coming into effect in April, India currently has 12 public sector banks, down from 27 in 2017.

During the announcement of the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' economic package in May, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the Centre will come up with a new Public Sector Enterprise Policy, and open up all the sectors to the private sector.
Timor-Lestes Ministry of Justice claimed it removed a controversial article of the proposed defamation law after hearing public criticisms but has in fact retained the article which will deliver penalties and up to one year in prison for those found guilty. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Timor-Leste Press Union (TLPU) continue to condemn the proposed law as fundamentally flawed and urge authorities to immediately withdraw the law from consideration.

In early June, the government of Timor-Leste announced that it proposed to introduce new criminal defamation laws. The proposal was met with an immediate backlash from press freedom advocates NGOs and many politicians. The IFJ presented the government with a detailed critique of the proposal, highlighting the dangers of the proposed re-introduction of a criminal defamation law into Timor-Leste to Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak on July 14.

On July 19, the national director for legal affairs at the Ministry of Justice, Nelinho Vital, informed journalists that the government would remove Article 187 (paragraph B, number 1) from the proposal, which deals with what is known as aggravated penalties, after hearing public criticisms of the law. These penalties, if adopted, would mean that a sentence would be doubled or tripled if the defamation was of a public figure and/or through the media (including social media).

But despite these assurances, the IFJ has learned that Article 187-A remains in the proposed law and still criminalises all defamation, including that of public officials, political parties, and/or through the media. In its earlier advice, the IFJ warned that the proposal deals a blow to transparency in government by permitting politicians and powerful individuals to use the power of the state to prosecute journalists. The law also fails to provide any protection for journalists and their sources, provides no guidance for prosecutors and is directly contrary to stated positions of numerous international human rights bodies, including the UN Human Rights Committee and the special rapporteurs on freedom of expression of the UN, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Organization of American States, all of whom have urged states to repeal criminal defamation laws.

TLPU said: TLPU stands with its position to oppose the proposed defamation law since it violates the value of democracy, human rights, and also the constitution.

The IFJ said: The only concession offered by the Ministry of Justice, turns out to be no concession at all. All it achieves is a clumsy attempt to blunt the serious and well-founded criticisms levelled by civil society groups. The substance of these criticism has been left unanswered by this present proposal. Press freedom is in grave danger by the proposed criminal defamation law, signalising a shift in Timor-Leste from an emerging democracy to an autocratic government.
Diversified property group Stockland has expanded its footprint in the Macquarie Park office precinct in a deal to buy a new development site from the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies in Australia.

Under the deal, Stockland has entered into a put-and-call deed to buy for an undisclosed sum, the healthcare companys 1-5 Khartoum Road, Macquarie Park office building.

The four-hectare site sits adjacent to Stockland's M-Park commercial office project, which is expected to start later in 2020 and has a potential consolidated development end value of more than $1.5 billion.

A render of the new Stockland Macquarie Park M_Park campus development in Sydney.

Stockland, which develops office, retail and mixed-use residential communities, received development approval for the first stage of the M-Park precinct, a $123 million 18,000 square metre office, co-working and retail building in December 2019.
New Delhi, July 28 : After Delhi seemed to be overwhelmed by the Covid-19 catastrophe, a respite may be in sight with the number of cases beginning to decline consistently, and it appears that the curve may plateau soon. Could this become a ground for reopening schools and colleges in New Delhi so that students can achieve herd immunity against the coronavirus? Would it really work? A specialist of infectious diseases Issac Bogoch, at University of Toronto, Canada, thinks otherwise. Bogoch insists that Covid-19 is an extremely contagious infection, and it can be devastating for people over 60 years of age.

What is exactly herd immunity?

It is a kind of indirect protection from infectious diseases. 'Herd immunity' ensures that a large percentage of the population becomes immune to infections like Covid-19, and it can be achieved either through exposure to the infection or via vaccination.

India on Tuesday registered 47,703 fresh Covid-19 cases taking its tally to over 14.83 lakh cases while with 654 new deaths, fatalities crossed 33,425. The recovery rate has improved to 63.92 percent.

"We have to be very careful with the concept of allowing people to get infected with this virus to develop natural (herd) immunity," said Bogoch in an interview with IANS.

Below are excerpts from an exclusive chat:

Q: Recently, few experts recommended that schools may be reopened in New Delhi, as this may help in developing herd immunity. Do you think this concept of herd immunity is really going to work in bringing things back to normal? Would children not act as carriers of the virus infecting the adults in their family and neighbourhood?

A: We have to be very careful with the concept of allowing people to get infected with this virus to develop natural (herd) immunity. This approach does not seem to work (in this case). This is a very contagious infection, and it is clear that the virus can be devastating to those over the age of 60 or with underlying medical conditions. Also, in many areas that had widespread epidemic, once they have their epidemic under control, these areas are still far from what it may take to reach some degree of herd immunity.

Q: In India, a trend has been noticed that patients who have recovered from the viral infection have had their lungs in bad shape. Also, Covid-19 is considered responsible for strokes and neurological disorders; Could we say Covid-19 is no longer a respiratory disease?

A: Many respiratory infectious diseases, including COVID-19, have manifestations outside of the lungs. We are seeing examples of clinical issues outside of the lungs in those with COVID-19, such as blood clots, and smell and taste disturbances.

Q: Is it possible to eliminate Covid-19 anytime soon? How long do you think people would have to wear masks and adhere to social distancing norms, is the virus going to stay with us for a long time?

A: Unfortunately, in much of the world I do not think it is possible to eliminate COVID-19 in the pre-vaccine era.

That doesn't mean we should not strive toward elimination -- we should do everything possible to keep community transmission as low as possible, but for most places, elimination is an unrealistic goal.

Even if the infection is eliminated in some small region, it can be easily re-imported once travel resumes. A vaccine, even an imperfect vaccine, will significantly help with elimination strategies.

Q: Do you think the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine has the potential to be a real game-changer, not only for a Covid-19 vaccine but for the development of future vaccines?

A: The results of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine from Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials looks very promising, but we still need to be patient and wait for Phase 3 clinical trial results, which will inform us on if this vaccine reduces the chances of acquiring COVID-19.

This vaccine and others in development stages look extremely promising, but I do not want to get overly excited just yet -- let's see how these vaccines perform in larger clinical trials first.

Q: A potential coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University in association with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has produced a promising immune response in a large, early-stage human trial. Do you think this is the step towards developing a vaccine providing long-lasting protection against Covid-19?

A: This is a major step forward. We still need to see the results of larger human trials, and these are ongoing for this vaccine and a few other COVID-19 vaccines too. An effective vaccine will be an essential step toward returning to life as we remember before COVID-19.

(Sumit Saxena can be contacted at sumit.s@ians.in)

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- Syndicated from IANS
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysian authorities said Monday they found 26 Rohingya Muslims, including women and children, hiding on a northern islet after they were initially feared drowned after jumping off a fishing boat.

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency launched a search for the group after one Rohingya migrant found Saturday on the islet off the northern resort island of Langkawi told investigators that at least 24 other Rohingya were missing.

Following further interrogation, the agency found 26 Rohingya refugees hiding on the islet on Sunday, said senior agency official Zawawi Abdullah. The group included 12 men, 10 women and four children, officials said.

Zawawi said the Rohingya were believed to have been transported by local fishermen from a main vessel further out at sea and let off near Langkawi so they could sneak in undetected.

The Rohingya have been detained for further investigation and will be handed to the immigration department, he said in a statement. Two other Rohingya migrants were also arrested for suspected trafficking.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar due to a military crackdown, and many live in densely crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh. Muslim-dominated Malaysia has been a common destination of boats arranged by traffickers who promise the refugees a better life abroad.

Last month, Malaysian authorities detained 269 Rohingya and found a body on board a suspected smuggling boat off Langkawi that they said had been intentionally damaged so it couldnt be turned back to sea. The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency later said that the 269 were transferred from a larger vessel on which dozens of people were believed to have died and their bodies thrown into the sea.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said Malaysia cannot accept any more Rohingya refugees as it struggles with an economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But he said those already in the country will not be sent back to sea.

Malaysia is home to over 2 million illegal immigrants as well as some 180,000 refugees and asylum seekers  including 101,000 Rohingya  who are registered with the U.N. refugee agency.
Late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's father, KK Singh, has registered an FIR against actress Rhea Chakraborty and her family at Rajiv Nagar Police Thana in Patna.

Late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajputs father, KK Singh, has registered an FIR against actress Rhea Chakraborty and her family including Indrajit Chakraborty, Sandhya Chakraborty, Shruti Modi, Showik Chakraborty, and others under Sections 341, 342, 380, 406,420, 306 and 120 (B) of the IPC at Rajiv Nagar Police Thana in Patna.

Sanjay Singh, Inspector General, Patna Central Zone was quoted by ANI as saying that an FIR has been registered against actor Rhea Chakraborty under various sections, including abetment of suicide, on the complaint of Sushant Singh Rajputs father.

Sushants father has claimed that Rhea Chakraborty had kept Sushant away from his family and entirely in her control. She was also controlling his bank account. It was also reported that Rs 15 crore was withdrawn from his bank account in the last one year and transferred to accounts that had no link with him, said Sanjay Kumar Singh.

SSRs father registered a five-page FIR against Rhea, accusing her of taking money from Sushant and instigating the actor to commit suicide.

4 member team of Patna police is currently in Mumbai in connection with Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case. The Patna Police are investigating about the statements of 38 persons, including Bollywood directors Mahesh Bhatt, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and Aditya Chopra, which were recorded by the Mumbai Police.

Also read: West Bengal extends partial lockdown till August 31

Also read: India China standoff: Beijing says disengagement at most locations complete

Nishant Singh, SHO of Rajiv Nagar police station, was made the investigation officer of the suicide case, said a police officer. He added that ever since Sushants suicide, KK Singh, his father, has been troubled. He met a senior police officer of Patna and told his sorrows to him. He did not have faith in the Mumbai police in this regard.

On June 8, When Rhea found that the bank balance of Sushant is going down, she left with cash, jewelry, laptop, credit card, its pin number and password, and important documents and doctors receipts, said Sushants father, in his FIR.

Sushant called his sister and informed her that Rhea had pressurized him to show doctor receipts to the media and would prove him mentally ill. No person would give him work after that. Sushants secretary Disha died by suicide on June 8 night. She was appointed by Rhea as Sushants secretary. Later, Rhea blocked Sushants number on her mobile phone. Sushant was scared that Rhea could have made him accountable for his managers suicide as she had threatened to frame him in the secretarys suicide case

For the unaware, Sushant and Rhea dated for a while before the actor died by suicide on June 14.

To question the Chehre actress, Rhea, in connection with SSRs death case, Bihar Police officers have reached Patna. Patna police have met with DCP of the Mumbai investigating team.

Sushants father has expressed his inability to go to Mumbai to fight the case due to health issues. When he was questioned by the Mumbai police in June, he did not register a complaint and said that he has nothing against anyone.

The case has been filed under special circumstances and hence the FIR has been kept under the classified category and sent to the court, said Patnas SSP.

Rhea Chakraborty had earlier shared a post on social media to request Home Minister Amit Shah to initiate a CBI investigation in Sushant Singh Rajputs death case. In her post, she addressed Sushant as her boyfriend for the first time.

She tagged Amit Shah in her post and wrote that she is Sushant Singh Rajputs girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, it is now over a month since his sudden demise. She has complete faith in the government, however, in the interest of justice, she requested Amit shah with folded hands to initiate a CBI inquiry into this matter. She only wanted to understand what pressures prompted Sushant to take this step.

Earlier, Mumbais Bandra police had questioned Rhea in connection with the actors suicide case. Mumbais Bandra police are investigating the death of the late actor.

Also read: Owaisi opposes PM Modis visit to Ram Mandir bhumi pujan ceremony

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U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) arrive at a news briefing after they returned to the Capitol from a White House meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington, on May 22, 2019. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Pelosi, Schumer Reject GOPs CCP Virus Relief Package

Top Democrats have rejected a GOP proposal to offset economic damages suffered during the monthslong CCP virus pandemic, setting up the prospect of long negotiations after various federal assistance programs are slated to expire.

Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) met with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, according to reports.

We are somewhat frustrated. We had hoped there would be a bill, and instead in the Senate theyve put little pieces here and there and everywhere. Its pretty clear they dont have 51 votes in the Senate for a proposal, Schumer told reporters on Monday night after he met with the two White House officials.

Democrats have argued that the Senate Republican proposal falls short of providing funding to state and local governments, does not have safeguards for eviction notices, and does not invest in lower-income communities.

We very much want to get something done for the needs of the people and the needs of the country, he added.

Democrats in the House passed a sweeping, $3 trillion measure called the HEROES Act, which prompted criticism from Republicans and President Donald Trump as having too many provisions. Trump has said the bill is dead on arrival because it contains numerous legislative programs that are not related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the bill presented on Monday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) suggested cutting down the $600-per-week expanded unemployment insurance to $200 per week before switching to replace 70 percent of wages starting in October. The 70 percent plan was previously proposed by Mnuchin, who told reporters that were not going to pay people more money to stay at home than work.

This legislation serves as a starting point for bipartisan negotiations, Grassley said. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to not let partisan differences derail progress.

House Democrats want to extend the $600 payments until January 2021 under the HEROES Act.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) holds a press conference after a pro forma session where the Senate passed a nearly $500 billion package to further aid small businesses due to the COVID-19pandemic, at the US Capitol in Washington on April 21, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Democrats on Monday criticized the GOPs unemployment proposal.

The $600 dollar enhanced unemployment benefit has been a lifeline. It has allowed families to keep a roof over their heads, feed their children, and pay their bills, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) wrote on Twitter. Slashing this benefit by two-thirds unfairly punishes Americans who lost their jobs through no fault of their own.

They have something in there like  no money for food stamps or nutrition assistance, Pelosi also told reporters on Monday, adding that right now were at a time when children are food insecure in our country. People are hungry who never thought theyd go to a food bank.

On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced the GOP bill will be called the HEALS Act, which stands for health, economic, assistance, liability protection, and schools. The details of the plan, according to the Kentucky Republicans remarks on the Senate floor, include $1,200 direct payments similar to the CARES Act, a sequel to the Payment Protection Program (PPP) to help small businesses, more funding for schools, and a liability shield for hospitals, businesses, and other entities. Treatment, testing, and vaccines funding will also be included.

McConnell also criticized the provisions in the HEROES Act, accusing Democrats of attempting to push a socialist manifesto onto the country in times of crisis.
Camping module (Photo by Yan Chipeng)

By Lai Yuhong and Jing Bin

BEIJING, July 28  Recently, the first modular camping and supporting system, which was piloted by the Joint Logistic Support Force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), has passed the procedure of evaluation and been officially distributed to the military.

The system provides various modules that can be quickly-assembled into a field camp, which includes tent, container, steel-structured house, and combination modules. According to the characteristics of specific tasks and environmental conditions, the troops can carry out flexible insertion and assembly, so as to facilitate quick maneuver capability and better support for the troops.

As a mature industrialized product, the inflatable tent of the system is lightweight, simple in structure, and quick to open, which can be flexibly put together and be integrated with multiple functional modules including commanding, accommodation, conference, storage, dining, bathroom, and air conditioning. A field camp can be quickly set up in a short time based on the system, which is able to provide integrated field camping support for a battalion-sized troop unit.

In order to meet the troops' needs in field camping to the maximum extent, the relevant departments under the PLA Joint Logistic Support Force have also made a number of improvements and innovations in the design of the supporting system, as shown by the integrated tap water equipment that could provide both domestic and direct drinking water for service members; and the mobile silent power station that makes use of advanced noise reduction technology.

It is reported that the PLA Joint Logistic Support Force will continue to cooperate with scientific research institutions such as the PLA Academy of Military Sciences to optimize and improve the system's functional modules, such as camouflage protection, anti-strike, and so on.
Authorities said on Monday a woman was killed in an apparent shark attack off the coast of Bailey Island in Maine, according to the Boston Globe.

The Maine Marine Patrol said the woman had been swimming off shore near White Sails Lane in Harpswell  a collection of islands and peninsulas northeast of Portland, Maine  when she was injured in an apparent encounter with a shark, the Globe reports.

Officials have been urging swimmers and boaters to be careful near Bailey Island and to avoid swimming around fish and seals.

Around 3:30 p.m, the Coast Guard was called to the incident off Harpswell, according NBC affiliate News Center Maine.

Several kayakers helped bring the woman to shore, the Globe reports. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Lasts week, we lost iconic avant-garde fashion designer, Kansai Yamamoto. Yamamoto is best known for this long-term collaboration with David Bowie, especially the costumes for the Martian rocker's Ziggy Stardust tour.

On the Fashion United website, there's a piece about the 2018 Brooklyn Museum evening with Yamamoto, done in support of the David Bowie Is exhibit.

Here, Yamamoto describes his collaboration with Bowie:

"Unlike me, Bowie was quiet, shy, but on stage he flips a switch and becomes David Bowie," says Yamamoto. "Me, I'm always that way." But they shared a love of what the designer calls "radical appearance," and when asked what they learned from each other, he replies that through Bowie he developed his understanding of Western dress while he helped Bowie interpret Eastern clothing. He agrees that he sees a direct line between what he created in the 70s for Bowie and the current conversation on gender and dress. "I approached Bowie's clothes as if I was designing for a female," he admits. "Notice there is no zipper in front." But he feels proud seeing how the younger generation attending the "David Bowie Is" exhibit can express themselves when compared to the societal restrictions he encountered in Japan 50 years ago, as a self-taught, broke, designer launching his career at the age of 21. A photographer had snapped a picture of him walking along London's Kings Road and it was featured on the cover of Life magazine. "I felt every day I was the model in a fashion show and everyone around me were members of the audience," he says. "There were many times, people looked at me weird."

Read the rest.

Images: FashionUnited and FaceMePLS (CC BY 2.0)
Their deaths were attributed to "complications due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus."

No additional information will be released in order to protect their privacy, the press release says.

These two people were the first in Custer County to die of COVID-19.

The Gallatin County death involved a man in his 50s found unresponsive in his home July 7, according to a health department press release.

"City-County Health Department was informed Monday that the state medical examiner attributed the death to COVID-19 and a number of significant underlying health conditions," the press release says.

The other death the state reported Tuesday morning was in Lincoln County. The Lincoln County Health Department said in a Facebook update published late Monday afternoon that it had received a report of a "COVID-19 related death." He was a man in his 80s who died Sunday.

In a press release about the Yellowstone County death, the county health officer wrote that RiverStone's thoughts and prayers were with the man and his family. Felton also elaborated on the risk of COVID-19 to people in their 20s to 40s.
It's the 15th day of the libel battle of Johnny Depp against News Group Newspapers. The trial is set to hear some closing arguments before its conclusion tomorrow.

Depp is suing NGN and British tabloid The Sun's executive editor Dan Wooton over a 2018 article that referred to him as a "wife beater" and exclaimed that they have "overwhelming evidence" he assaulted Amber Heard.

A lawyer for The Sun said on Monday that Depp abused his ex-wife Amber Heard because for these three reasons.

Misogyny

According to Sasha Wass QC, a deep misogyny is J against Heard.

Wass claimed that the 57-year-old actor described himself as a "southern gentleman who respected women," but his texts showed that what he was saying wasn't true.

Depp had described women as "sluts," "fat ugly whores" and called others "worthless hookers."

He even reportedly called his former partner Vanessa Paradis a "withering c*nt."

Wass further said that the "Edward Scissorhands" star created a misogynistic image of Amber Heard as "the stereotype of a nagging woman."

The lawyer added that aside from the insulting nicknames he called women, Depp preferred to use more "old-fashioned" nicknames such as "gold digger, shrew and adulterer."

Jealousy

The court also heard that jealousy was one of the main reasons for Johnny Depp's outbursts.

It has been reported that Depp accused his ex-wife of having an affair with James Franco and Elon Musk. Heard denies being unfaithful.

Depp told the court previously that the was convinced the claim was valid.

According to the "Aquaman" actress, Depp was jealous of her and Franco working together again that he flew into a blind rage and became violent towards her on a private jet in 2014.

Even SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been dragged into the libel case. Musk and Heard became publicly identified as a couple after her split from Depp shortly after. Since then, the new couple has had an on-again, off-again relationship.

Addiction

Amber Heard claims that her former husband had jealous rages and turned violent, becoming into his alter-ego "monster" under the influence.

The court heard that the "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" star was a "hopeless addict" whose own doctor had revealed, "romanticized the whole drug culture."

Johnny Depp reportedly is kind, charming, and generous, but when he becomes under the influence of drinks and drugs, "he becomes very different."

Wass claimed, "Alcohol and narcotics brought out the monster in Mr. Depp" which included outlandish mood swings and strange behavior patterns.

"Permeating all of the evidence, in this case, is the character Mr. Depp himself - his well-documented evidence of violence and destruction over his adult life which had occurred when he was under the influence."

The Sun's defense relies on fourteen allegations made by Amber Heard of Johnny Depp's violence from 2013 until 2016. This included the time they rented home in Australia, his private island in the Bahamas, and the couple's downtown Los Angeles townhouse.

The trial is set to conclude tomorrow.

If Johnny Depp wins, the judge will decide how much The Sun will be paying him. He may also be entitled to aggravated damages.

READ MORE: Kanye West Axed? Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian Worry Rapper May Ruin Their Empire
Amid simmering tensions between India and China at Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh, the first batch of five Rafale fighter aircraft took off from France's Istres airbase on Monday (July 27) and will land at Ambala in India on Wednesday (July 29).

Sources said that security has been beefed up at Ambala Air Force Station ahead of the arrival of Rafale jets and the station is fully prepared to welcome Rafale jets, which will arrive in India after covering a distance of almost 7,364 kilometres. It is learnt that around 3 kilometer area near Ambala Air Force Station has been declared as a no-drone zone. Talking to Zee Media, Ambala Cantonment DSP said that anyone found violating the security arrangements will face strict legal action.

The five Rafale jets landed safely in Al Dhafra airbase on Monday after a sortie in excess of 7 hours. The five Rafales will fly out for India on Wednesday (July 29) morning and reach Ambala Air Force Station in the afternoon.

The five Rafale are the first batch of the 36 supersonic omnirole combat aircraft that India is buying from France. Till now, 12 IAF fighter pilots have completed their training on the Rafale fighter jets in France and a few more are in the advanced phase of their training. According to the contract between India and France, the two countries a total of 36 IAF pilots are to be trained on the Rafale combat jets by French aviators. While most of the IAF pilots will be trained in France, some of them will undergo the exercise in India.

Rafale is capable of carrying a range of potent weapons. European missile maker MBDA's Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile and SCALP air-to-ground cruise missile will be the mainstay of the weapons package of the Rafale jets.

The IAF will further boost the capabilities of the combat aircraft by equipping it with the HAMMER missiles from France. The order for the HAMMER standoff missiles is being processed under the emergency powers for acquisition given to the armed forces by the Centre. HAMMER missiles have the capability to take out any types of targets at the range of around 60-70 kms.

The trainer Rafale aircraft will have the tail numbers of the RB series in honour of the IAF Chief RKS Bhadauria who played a significant role in finalising Rafale deal. India had inked a Rs 60,000 crore deal with France in September 2016 for 36 Rafales to bolster the capabilities of IAF.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and his Polish counterpart Jacek Czaputowicz have opened the new building of the Embassy of Ukraine in Poland in Warsaw, where the embassy's consular office will be located, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"I walked through the corridors of the house and this is how we want the world to see Ukraine: comfortable, modern, elegant, comfortable, and full of meaning. I am convinced that this building symbolizes a Ukraine we want to build," Kuleba said.

He thanked former Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Markiyan Malsky for starting the project to create a new building of the Embassy of Ukraine in Poland and incumbent Ambassador Andrii Deshchytsia for its successful completion.

Czaputowicz, in turn, stressed that the new building of the Embassy of Ukraine in Poland is "a good symbol of the rooting of Ukrainians in Polish society."

According to him, the presence of a significant number of Ukrainians in Poland is "very useful for the Polish economy." He said that a large number of Ukrainians need consular care in Poland, and the opening of a new consulate building will greatly help Ukrainians.

Czaputowicz stressed that his talks with Kuleba were "fruitful." He noted that before that the ministers had talked on the phone three times and only now there was an opportunity to meet in person.

"Poland has consistently supported Ukraine's sovereignty and independence within the borders set by international law," Czaputowicz said.

He said that Ukrainians and Poles need mutual support. He also noted that Warsaw will continue to support Kyiv on its path towards the EU and NATO.

Kuleba and Czaputowicz signed a "symbolic act" on the opening of a new building of the Embassy of Ukraine in Poland.

About 200 guests took part in the opening ceremony for the new consulate building.

Photo credit: Ukrainian Foreign Ministry

op
A 24-year-old man who tested positive for coronavirus coughed and spit on a Tigard police officer during an arrest Sunday morning, police confirmed.

Tigard Police arrested Miguel Hernandez-Cuesta after they confronted him in the parking lot of a McDonalds on Southwest 72nd Avenue, and he spit on the officer, according to a news release.

Police arrived at the fast food restaurant around 2:20 a.m. Sunday after employees reported that a man had fallen asleep in the drive-thru and appeared to be drunk. When officers arrived, they found the man, later identified as Hernandez-Cuesta, had moved his car out of the drive-thru and into the parking lot. He appeared to be passed out and partially hanging out of the open drivers side door. The car was still running.

Officers said they smelled alcohol, and asked Hernandez-Cuesta to turn off the car. According to police, he instead put the car in drive and rolled forward, nearly hitting a patrol car. Police officers were able to arrest him. While they were searching him for weapons, Hernandez-Cuesta started coughing hard and told officers he had coronavirus. According to the news release, an officer asked him to stop coughing on them, but he turned to face one officer and then coughed and spat on her face from less than a foot away.

Tigard Police Department said that officer was wearing a surgical mask and gloves when Hernandez-Cuesta spat on her, and she is now quarantining and monitoring for any potential coronavirus symptoms.

Washington County Sheriffs Office spokesman Brian van Kleef said Hernandez-Cuesta was in the jail for about six hours before being released, and that he had already been tested before being lodged in the jail. Van Kleef said Hernandez-Cuesta was quarantined during that time.

His test results came from outside our facility, he said.

But van Kleef said the jails medical staff does have the ability to test inmates. Van Kleef said inmates and jail staff are also required to wear masks outside jail cells, and anyone who is suspected of having coronavirus, or who has been tested at the jail, is placed in quarantine at the jail. He said there are two medical isolation cells, which have reverse airflow, at the jail. He said so far, there have only been two or three positive cases from people tested while lodged in jail. He said he did not know how many people the jail has tested for coronavirus since the pandemic began.

Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR

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Outdoor warning siren manufacturers continue to seek strategic, long term collaborations with corporate and government bodies to sustain funding and sales.

ROCKVILLE, MD / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / The outdoor warning sirens market is expected to grow sluggishly to a valuation of US$ 206 Mn during the assessment period between 2020 to 2030. The Fact.MR report says that extensive lockdown measures, suspension of manufacturing activities, and trade restrictions during the covid-19 pandemic, are all having a negative impact on the outdoor warning siren market in the short term. Recovery is likely to be gradual as economic uncertainty from the pandemic is expected to continue in the near future.

"Aimed towards large-scale, outdoor signaling purposes, outdoor warning siren manufacturers are increasingly pushing for the development of high-powered, customized voice warning systems. Research and development on controllers, sirens, software solutions, and intelligent systems, enables a greater degree of customization for myriad applications," says the Fact.MR analyst.

Request a report sample to gain more market insights at

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=1435

Outdoor Warning Sirens Market - Important Takeaways

Omni-directional variants of outdoor warning sirens are increasingly replacing rotational alternatives, driven by superior warning amplification, and lower maintenance requirements.

Cloud based siren systems are gaining popularity, owing to remote upgrades, and wider range of product functionality.

North America is a major consumer of outdoor warning sirens, driven by frequent incidences of natural disasters, and higher government investments.

Outdoor Warning Sirens Market - Driving Factors

Growing numbers and frequency of natural disasters on a global scale are a primary factor driving demand for outdoor warning sirens.

Strict workplace safety regulations imposed by government bodies bolster adoption rates.

Outdoor Warning Sirens Market - Leading Constraints

High costs associated with purchase and installation of outdoor warning sirens holds back sales.

Data security issues and false positive warnings are continuing challenges for manufacturers.

Anticipated Market Impact by Coronavirus Outbreak

The coronavirus outbreak is negatively influencing the outdoor warning siren market. Disruption of production and testing activities during the pandemic has reduced demand in the near term. Concerns of the contagion spreading amid the workforce in the industry is a key challenge for manufacturers. Also, governments are increasingly redirecting resources towards handling the pandemic, which limits budgets of local administrations towards the installation of new outdoor warning sirens, hurting short term market prospects.

Explore the global outdoor warning siren market with 130 figures, 41 data tables, along with the table of contents of the report. You can also find detailed segmentation on https://www.factmr.com/report/1435/outdoor-warning-sirens-market

Competition Landscape

Some of the leading manufacturers in the global outdoor warning siren market include but are not limited to Federal Signal, Sentry Siren Inc., Mid-State Communications, Darley, Monroe Communications, and American Signal Corp.

Outdoor warning siren systems manufacturers are largely interested in entering into long term contracts with local government bodies that are prone to natural disasters to sustain revenue streams through sales and maintenance activities.

For example, Monroe (La.) Communications has recently won project approval for setting up an early-warning emergency siren system for El Dorado city. Similarly, Federal Signal has entered into a contract to set up automated outdoor warning sirens in Rock Island County, which is integrated with a mobile app to boost accuracy and timeliness of warnings. American Signal Corp has been shortlisted by FEMA to deploy early warning systems with multilingual capabilities, in the Caribbean.

More on the Report

The FACT.MR's market research report provides in-depth insights on outdoor warning siren market. The market is scrutinized according to coverage pattern (directional, rotating, and omni-directional), source (mechanical, electromechanical, and electronic), and range (below 2500 feet, 2500 to 5000 feet, and above 5000 feet) across six key regions (North America, Latin America, Europe, East Asia, South Asia & Oceania, and Middle East and Africa).

Explore Wide-ranging Coverage of FACT.MR's Industrial Goods Landscape

Marine Airbag Market: Find insights on the global marine airbag market with analysis of segments, statistics, influencers, market players and business strategies adopted over a 10-year forecast period.

Outdoor Power Equipment Market: FACT.MR's report on the global Outdoor Power Equipment Market offers insights on the market set for strong growth during 2018-2028, including restraining forces, revenue sources, market leaders, and market strategies.

Onboard Maintenance Systems Market: Read an analysis on the onboard maintenance systems market with insights on growth factors, opportunities, restraints, regional market forecast, regulatory policies, and strengths of market leaders.

About Fact.MR

Fact.MR is a leading provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. Fact.MR is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India. FACT.MR's latest market research reports and industry analysis help businesses navigate challenges and take critical decisions with confidence and clarity amidst breakneck competition.

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The Vietnamese fintech scene is flourishing, drawing in local and international investors alike, photo Le Toan

FPT Telecom was last week granted a licence by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) after two years as a non-bank intermediary payment service, with its soon-to-be-launched Foxpay as the core product.

Since the beginning of 2020, the SBV has approved two other non-bank firms, Gpay and Vindiva, to provide payment services.

Vietnam is now home to more than 150 fintech firms, rising from 40 in 2016. Thirty-five of them operate in payment and 40 in peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, while others have provided banking support services without directly collecting fees from end-users.

Foxpay is slated to deliver seamless services to clients, including e-payment gateway, e-wallet, and special payment intermediaries services, FPT Telecom noted.

The potential for cashless payment in Vietnam is enormous thanks to the growing middle class and rapidly improving telecom infrastructure. Some 70 per cent of the population is still unbanked, especially in remote areas, and at least half of the total population has access to the internet. Only around 37 per cent of Vietnamese consumers are using contactless card payments and around 42 per cent are making mobile contactless payments, cited from VISA research.

In terms of funding, Asia-Pacific consultancy Solidiance pointed out that Vietnams fintech market was expected to $7.8 billion this year, from $4.4 billion in 2017.

Finance lecturer Huy Pham from the School of Business and Management at RMIT Vietnam emphasised there are over 20 e-wallets in the country, but the majority of the market falls into big names such as MoMo, Moca, and ZaloPay.

MoMo is one of the oldest players and the most notable e-wallet in this market with a huge customer database, while Grab and Zalo are taking advantage of their own ecosystems so the competition in this market is quite stiff, leaving a tiny opportunity for newcomers, Pham told VIR. Together with the changing landscape in this market from a basic e-wallet to a super app, the old and experienced players will definitely have a competitive advantage over the new ones.

According to Phams colleague Huy Doan, also a finance lecturer, a typical way for e-wallet providers to expand their customer base is to build their own business ecosystem (such as associated e-commerce and delivery platforms) so this opens up the chance to increase customers awareness if the firm can build up a user-friendly ecosystem to facilitate the use of e-wallets.

Besides, the e-wallet firms can also work with banks to reach customers without having to expand their network of branches and offices, saving costs and improving business efficiency.

On the other hand, the SBV once revealed its intention to tighten regulations on the domestic fintech sector by setting a foreign ownership limit of 49 per cent. However, the central bank scrapped the cap a few months ago.

Doan cautioned that the SBV is concerned about the manipulation of foreign investors and the safety of the national monetary policy. This leads to limiting activities of e-wallets such as limit on top-up and withdrawal methods. Currently, the only official method to top up or withdraw money from an e-wallet is by using an account with a bank that is partnered with the e-wallet provider.

To allow customers to top up and withdraw money using bank accounts at non-partnered banks, the e-wallet provider must connect with an entity providing e-payment infrastructure services such as Napas, said Doan. Besides, no access to non-bank customers is also a challenge  by law, customers are required to have bank accounts linked to their e-wallets to use the service.

Looking on the bright side, there has been increasing interest in the Vietnamese e-payment market in the last few years, with domestic fintech companies attracting considerable interest from foreign investors.

A report by UOB, PwC, and the Singapore Fintech Association reveals that $420 million, equivalent to 36 per cent of all fintech funding in Southeast Asia, was raised for Vietnamese firms in the first nine months of 2019.

This includes funding from Warburg Pincus to MoMo, from Softbank and GIC to VNPAY, and from Ant Financial to eMonkey, making Vietnam the second amongst ASEAN members in regard to fintech funding behind Singapore ($714 million, or 51 per cent).

In addition, foreign investors who are unable or unwilling to wait for the removal of foreign ownership in the banking sector to enter the market are now taking detours to get into the payment industry.

According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, deals are currently being reviewed by major South Korean financial institutions, including Shinhan Bank and KEB Hana Bank. Other South Korean banks which have a presence in Vietnam or are seeking to enter the market are also looking at fintech firms to add value to their banking system.

Newswire KoreaHerald reported that seven fintech companies headquartered in South Korea are preparing to make further inroads into 14 markets including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Hong Kong, as part of their efforts to become unicorn startups.
Auto major Tata Motors Ltd has appointed Thierry Bollore, former CEO of Renault, as the new chief executive officer of Jaguar Land Rover Plc with effect from September 10. Bollore succeeds Prof Sir Ralf Speth, who will assume the role of non-executive vice chairman in the company.

"I am delighted to welcome Thierry to Jaguar Land Rover. An established global business leader with a proven track record of implementing complex transformations, Thierry will bring a wealth of experience to one of the most revered positions in the industry," Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons, Tata Motors and Jaguar Land Rover plc said.

The new CEO has extensive expertise in the automotive business, most recently as CEO of Groupe Renault and previously in senior positions at global automotive supplier Faurecia, a company statement said.

"Jaguar Land Rover is known around the world for its peerless brand heritage, exquisite design and deep engineering integrity. It will be my privilege to lead this fantastic company through what continues to be the most testing time of our generation. Renowned for their passion and spirit, the people of Jaguar Land Rover are the driving force behind its success. I couldn't be more excited to join the team continuing to shape the future of this iconic company," Bollore said.

JLP recently entered into agreements with lenders in China for a secured term loan facility of 5 billion yuan ($704.50 million), marking its first debt financing in China. The appointment of new CEO comes at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has hit global automaker's supply chains and sales. Tata Motors this month reported a 64 per cent decline in group global wholesales, including that of JLR, to 91,594 in June quarter of the current financial year over year-ago. Global sales of JLR stood at 65,425 vehicles in the June quarter, it said adding that Jaguar wholesale units during the period were 17,971 vehicles, while Land Rover wholesales for the quarter were 47,454 vehicles.

Also read: Tata Motors' JLR seeks COVID-19 support package in UK, say reports
A bitter Dail row blew up over the funding of politics after the Taoiseach said a Sinn Fein office in Donegal had been established with American money.

Micheal Martin made the claim - which prompted a furious denunciation from SF spokesman on Finance Pearse Doherty - after the Government had seen off an attempt to ban Pandemic payment cancellations by 76 votes to 56.

That outcome prompted renewed criticism of the Government's handling of ministerial pay, with the Taoiseach insisting he was now gifting the Exchequer 25,000 a year as a result of a Cabinet decision on Monday night.

Mr Martin then referred to a TD's salary being pegged to that of a civil service principal officer at a rate of 96,000 annually, saying this was the right thing to do because "if politicians get into a competition" for lower pay for purposes of public perception, it would be to the detriment of politics generally.

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It would mean that only rich people could afford to enter politics and to leave the House itself vulnerable to wealthy "outside influences."

He then made allegations about the funding of a Sinn Fein office in Donegal. It prompted Pearse Doherty to jump to his feet in undisguised anger.

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He said the Taoiseach had accused him of illegality and called on him to withdraw the allegation because foreign funding of a political party is against the law. Ignoring the Ceamm Comhairle telling him he was out of order, he said he was looking for the protection of the chair. The Taoiseach had suggested the office was "funded from an illegal source," he said, namely America.

Mr Martin said he had made no allegation in relation to illegality by the Deputy. He said there were statements in the media, "on the public record," in relation to the office, expressing thanks that US beneficiaries had "enabled them to develop the office," but he accepted Deputy Doherty's assertions and withdrew the imputation. "If not true, I withdraw." Mr Doherty said it had been a "scurrilous statement," followed by an attempt to defend the indefensible.

Mary Lou McDonald said the PUP cancellations were a "disgraceful action" given the public backlash following ministerial pay increases last week, but the understood the superjuniors had since been "shamed" into surrendering much of their increase, although they would still all benefit by a 10,000 rise.

She asked was it true, as reported in the Irish Independent, that notwithstanding a ministerial pay cut announced by the Taoiseach on Monday night, he would still take home 1,500 more than his predecessor, Leo Varadkar.

Mr Martin said there would be no additional cost to the taxpayer despite the "legal changes" last week, and he would be gifting back 25,000 annually, having previously, in 2010, surrendered 80,000 in severance and pension entitlements.

But he admitted to Labour Party leader Alan Kelly that the gifting mechanism allowed for his full salary to be considered for future pension entitlement as if it had been paid. "The pension will be on the full amount," Mr Kelly said, criticising the allocation of two Garda drivers and a Garda car to foreign minister Simon Coveney, "worth 200,000." The granting of an aide-de-camp to the Tanaiste had meanwhile been "bloody well ridiculous."

Mr Martin conceded: "The pension relates to how the salary is set up. You are correct."

Paul Murphy, the Rise TD, said that if the Government was a shop that advertised "10 per cent" off all goods, yet the prices turned out to be higher than they were the previous month, it would be in breach of consumer protection legislation. "It's an utter joke," he said. "They are trying to escape from public outrage, but they can't even do that."

Mr Martin said the salary surrender was something he was happy to do."
Australias former trade commissioner in China believes Australian business leaders must speak out against the deteriorating relationship between the two countries and that keeping a low profile is no longer an option.

Accusing the Australia China Business Council, the Business Council of Australia and the Australia-China CEO Roundtable of being silenced, Michael Clifton said the business community must do more to highlight Chinas contribution to the economy and deserved better than to be dismissed as a greedy, self-interested pro-Beijing lobby.

Mr Clifton spent six years as head of the Australian Trade and Investment Commission in China until 2017 and now leads the China Matters think tank. His comments are likely to spark a backlash from government figures concerned about the rise of China and its influence over business.

Testing times: Prime Minister Scott Morrison and China's President Xi Jinping. Credit:

Australias relationship with China has plunged to its lowest level since diplomatic relations were established in the 1970s. The coronavirus has acted as a catalyst for multiple disputes between Beijing and Washington, Canberra and London over Chinas territorial ambitions in the South China Sea, Hong Kong, and the future of its 5G provider Huawei.
[July 28, 2020] TTN Introduces "Intra-sourcing" with White Paper Tyler Harden, Executive Vice President of TTN Fleet Solutions, announced today the company's release of a white paper titled, Intra-sourcing: A Model for Collaboration and Business Continuity. Harden described "Intra-sourcing" as a business model that captures the benefits of both insourcing and outsourcing - one that would allow fleet maintenance professionals and contact center operators to maintain control of policies and protocols even as they leverage technology, expertise, and infrastructure offered by third-party service providers like TTN. He said the solution - and the white paper - should be of particular interest to companies interested in maintaining fleet services during emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic. The white paper can be downloaded at the company's website, here: https://www.ttnfleetsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/intrasourcing.pdf

"At its heart, intra-sourcing is a high-performance business model through which organizations mitigate risk, generate new value, and achieve competitive advantage," Harden said. "It can best be characterized as a long-term, business collaboration where business functions - such as call center and fleet maintenance services - are maintained through the combined efforts of internal and external partners, where both are heavily invested in the outcome of the collaboration." The white paper provides examples for fleet managers and operators to consider, and it suggest keys to success for implementing intra-sourcing. "We operate at the tip of the spear," Tyler declared, "as the industry's preferred choice for modern approaches to maintaining fleet and equipment uptime in an environment as dynamic as the one our industry is facing now. Fleet maintenance professionals are finding themselves under unique pressures and in unchartered circumstances. With this white paper, we're suggesting a way forward that can minimize risk, generate new value, and achieve competitive advantage." TTN Fleet Solutions helps customers achieve better business results with industry-leading vehicle maintenance and repair technology and services. The company offers emergency roadside assistance, towing and accident management, scheduled maintenance, and contact center solutions. For more information, visit www.ttnfleetsolutions.com or call (800) 825-4138. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005173/en/

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In 2008, in the midst of a recession, Seth Cripe chose an inauspicious time to launch a wine business. Then in 2020, he chose the worst possible time to open a tasting room.

The first tasting room for Cripes Lola Wines, which has had a robust national retail presence for years, opened in January in Calistoga  then reopened, after the COVID-19 shutdown, in June. But inopportune timing or not, the tasting room feels like a breath of fresh air in Napa Valley.

Cripes wines are uncommonly vibrant, with equal footing in the eclectic and the traditional. Whats more, they possess a quality thats rare to find in Napa, and which may become increasingly important to drinkers as the pandemic wears on: affordability. Its three core wines, a Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir and a Pinot Noir rose, cost around $20 per bottle, and some of the best Lola bottlings  like Chenin Blanc and Malvasia from St. Helena, and Riesling from Monterey  are between $30 and $40.

More people ought to know about these wines, and they ought to know about Cripe, too. Yet, although the winemaker, along with his fiancee and business partner, Rafaela Costahas, has been hustling for more than a decade, he may be better known for his side gig. In addition to Lola, Cripe is also the owner of Cortez Conservas, one of the few U.S. producers of bottarga, the Italian delicacy of cured fish roe.

Ive gotten way more attention for the bottarga than for my wines, he laughs. Cripes bottarga is made from mullet caught off of Floridas Gulf Coast, near his hometown of Anna Maria Island, Fla. (His brother helps run the daily operations in Florida.) Top restaurants including Octavia, Cotogna, Delfina and Mister Jius are fans. His biggest customer pre-coronavirus, he says, was the Los Angeles pizzeria Gjelina, which topped a pie with bottarga, smoked mozzarella, tomato confit and jalapeno.

The classic Italian preparation of bottarga is grated over spaghetti, with lemon, breadcrumbs and red pepper. But at the Lola tasting room Cripe prefers to serve it as the great 17th century diarist Samuel Pepys ate it, with bread and butter.

It turns out to be a winning combination. On top of a soft, cushiony baguette and a slab of creamy butter, a thin slice of assertive, briny, toothsome bottarga grows more mellow. Follow that bite with a sip of Lolas unctuous, peachy Riesling or textured, piquant Malvasia, and youll wonder where the pairing has been all your life.

Thats an experience you wont find anywhere else in Napa Valley  or anywhere else, period. The year 2020 may have dealt Cripe some difficult blows, but if any wine business looks poised to survive the coronavirus crisis, its Lola.

Erik Castro / Special to The Chronicle

Cripe first made wine as a teenager in a bucket in his garage. The material: sugar, bakers yeast and Concord grapes that grew wild in Cortez, the fishing village just across the bay from his native Anna Maria Island.

It was not an easy childhood, he says. Cripe left school after the eighth grade and moved in with an older brother, escaping a difficult situation at home. He found work at an upscale restaurant, the Beach Bistro, where he began to learn about fine wine.

One night, Clarke Swanson, the owner of Swanson Vineyards in Napa Valley, came into the restaurant for dinner. Cripe introduced himself and asked if Swanson needed any help with the upcoming harvest. Later that year, a 17-year-old Cripe drove to California to work the 1996 vintage.

After four years at Swanson  including a stint in Australia, where Cripe learned about fortified wine production to help improve Swansons Angelica  he landed a job at Caymus Vineyards, where he stayed until 2007. By then, Cripe was becoming impatient to be his own boss, and to make wines according to his own vision.

That vision started off with a whole-cluster, native-fermented, 12% Russian River Valley Pinot Noir  precisely the opposite of the rich, opulent Pinot style that was in vogue in 2008. His next output had even less commercial appeal: Riesling. I always made the Riesling pretty radical, Cripe says, with skin contact and no sulfur. Just to make things a little bit stranger, he bottled it under a crown cap, a closure typically reserved for sparkling wines.

Eventually, Cripe decided that if he really wanted his business to succeed, hed have to make a substantial amount of product and price it so that restaurants could afford to pour it by the glass. He put a lot of effort into making his three core wines, the Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and rose, as good as they could be while staying around $20 a bottle.

Erik Castro / Special To The Chronicle

It isnt always easy to find wines at those prices that resist the mass-market tropes of residual sugar, overripe fruit flavors and excessive oak, but Lolas do. Thats precisely why Cripe wanted to get Lola (which takes its name from Cripes rescue dog) to its current 14,000-case output. If I was going to be in national distribution, I really wanted to stand for something, he says. His wines are available in grocery stores like Publix and Whole Foods.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

The motivation for starting a bottarga company, however, came from a different place within Cripe. After leaving Anna Maria Island for Napa Valley, he didnt return to Florida for 10 years. But as Cripe grew more established in California, he began to look for a way to reconnect with his home.

Mullet is the main haul of Cortez fishermen in winter. Yet Cripe had never heard of bottarga, which is traditionally made from mullet, until he tasted it one evening, grated over pasta, at the French Laundry in 2007. Afterward, he looked into the economics and was floored. Chefs were paying $300 a pound for this Italian bottarga, while his fishermen friends in Florida were getting paid about 60 cents a pound for mullet roe.

He returned to Florida and learned how to make the salted, cured roe, helping his friends increase their paychecks. He believes he was the first in the country to produce bottarga. Although Cripe says it took him three years after making his first batch to sell any, Cortez Conservas now makes about 2,000 pounds of cured roe per year.

Once he mastered the standard, salt-cured mullet, Cripe got creative. He now makes a buttonwood-smoked version  burnt orange-colored, deeply savory  after learning about indigenous Floridians tradition of drying mullet over buttonwood planks. He also salt-cures blackfin tuna loin, which results in salty, deliciously fatty slices that almost recall prosciutto.

Cured fish and wine might not seem like they have much in common at first glance, but they are surprisingly kindred. Both are modes of preservation, transforming a fresh, perishable food into something that can keep for years or longer. Both are deeply tied to their place of origin, capable of expressing terroir. And Cripe believes both his conservas and his wines can help ensure a healthier environment in the future by making sustainable farming and fishing economically viable.

Erik Castro / Special to The Chronicle

The economic viability of a winery tasting room, on the other hand, is something Cripe is still sorting out. It took him 12 years after founding Lola Wines to open the Calistoga house, and it was open for barely three months before the coronavirus changed everything. I keep questioning when this thing is going to work financially, he says.

Luckily, despite the current prohibition on indoor wine tastings in California, the Lola tasting room has a secluded backyard, lush with greenery. Its worth visiting not only for the wines, and not only for the bottarga, but also because its a beautiful little place, a peaceful retreat from the hectic energy of many other Napa wineries. Cripe says hes trying to keep that all in mind as partial-shutdown mode continues. Whats a few more months, in the scheme of things? In the end, he says, I try to remember that were going to be doing this forever.

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicles wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley Instagram: @esthermob
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(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg will tell U.S. lawmakers that competition in technology is thriving and warn of Chinese influence on the industry when he testifies Wednesday before a subcommittee of U.S. Congressional leaders focused on antitrust.

In prepared remarks released on the eve of the hearing, the CEO positions antitrust as a geopolitical issue, and says that harming American companies could open the door to greater market share for Chinese competitors.

We believe in values -- democracy, competition, inclusion and free expression -- that the American economy was built on, Zuckerbergs testimony reads. Theres no guarantee our values will win out. For example, China is building its own version of the internet focused on very different ideas, and they are exporting their vision to other countries.

Zuckerberg will also argue that there is plenty of competition in the tech industry, and that the numerous products Facebook now operates are proof of that constant need to adapt. Facebooks prior acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, and its expansion into new fields like augmented and virtual reality, are a benefit to consumers, he will say.

We built these new products and services because the intense competitive pressures we face push us to experiment with new ideas, Zuckerberg will say in his testimony.

He will also repeat a call hes made numerous times in the past several years for regulators to help write clearer rules for the internet so Facebook and other tech companies dont have to make their own decisions about free speech or privacy. If we do this right, we can preserve whats best about this technology -- the freedom for people to connect and express themselves and for entrepreneurs to build new things -- while also protecting society from broader harms, his remarks read.

Zuckerberg will appear Wednesday at noon Washington time before the House Judiciary subcommittee focused on antitrust. Hell be joined by the CEOs of Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc.

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It is our goal at Baker to ensure our distance learning students are given unfettered access to a quality educational experience, said Dr. Lesa Louch, President of Baker College Online.

The online programming at Baker College has been unanimously approved by the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) to retain its Quality Certification status. The USDLA certifies institutions and educational providers who meet its 90+ Quality Standards for distance learning.

In the 2020 annual review of its online programming, Baker College was commended by the USDLA for its commitment and passion to ensure a quality distance education program for administration, staff and students. The organization's feedback to the College indicated, The USDLA Board acknowledges and appreciates the Colleges thoughtful preparation in establishing its direction-setting priorities and is honored to be working with a College that is a role model for other institutions. As fellow distance-learning practitioners, we take pride in the accomplishments of the College and its faculty and staff who work to serve students at a distance.

Baker College offers more than 75 academic program options for both undergraduate and graduate degrees through its online or online/on-ground degree programs. An early adopter of online educational resources, Baker College has been offering its students remote learning options since 1994.

It is our goal at Baker to ensure our distance learning students are given unfettered access to a quality educational experience, said Dr. Lesa Louch, President of Baker College Online.

In reviewing Bakers annual report, the United States Distance Learning Quality Standards Certification Team agrees that Baker is continuing to deliver on its promises. According to the USDLA documentation, The Team reviewed the Progress Report and enthusiastically and unanimously agreed to recognize continued Quality Certification status for Baker College.

More information on Baker College Online is available at baker.edu/campuses/global-campuses/baker-online.

# # #

About Baker College

Founded in 1911, Baker College is Michigans largest, private not-for-profit college and the top private transfer school in the state. Baker College has multiple on-ground campus locations and two affiliate sites across the state, as well as an online global campus offering more than 75 academic program options for both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Learn more at http://www.baker.edu.
SUNNYVALE, Calif. and SINGAPORE, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Plug and Play joins the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) new Startup Competition in collaboration with Wakalua, as it looks to identify innovators with the power to further tourism's cross-cutting contribution to sustainable development.

As the United Nations specialized agency for tourism, UNWTO has been guiding the sector's efforts to contribute to the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Now, as the global community faces just 10 years to reach this ambitious agenda for people and the planet, tourism's unique ability to advance several of the SDGs is more relevant than ever.

Against the backdrop of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development 2020, held under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), UNWTO has launched the SDGs Global Startup Competition. The program is organized in partnership with Wakalua, the innovation hub of leading tourism group Globalia, and is supported by Plug and Play, a global innovation platform and active early-stage investor. It also has strong private backing with the Advanced Leadership Foundation, Amadeus, Amazon Web Services Activate, BBVA, ClarkeModet, The Far Co, Globant, Google, IE University, Mastercard, Mentor Day, and Telefonica, as lead promoters of innovation.

UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashviki said: "Tourism's cross-cutting nature is unique. As a sector, it touches on almost every part of our economies and our societies. This competition will rally all sectors around efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and place innovation and sustainability at the heart of global economic recovery."

"Unequivocally, COVID-19 has challenged everyone's path to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Innovation is needed now more than ever at the intersection of travel and sustainability. As a global innovation platform that specializes in cross-industry open innovation, Plug and Play is committed to supporting UNWTO and Wakalua in discovering and sourcing high potential startups worldwide that can make a real difference to the pursuit of SDGs," said Patricia Nordstrom, Travel & Hospitality APAC Lead, Plug and Play.

The competition is not only open to innovators within the tourism sector. Startups of every kind, from all over the world, are invited to participate provided that they:

Are innovative in nature and provide value-added solutions

Are sustainability-driven

Are scalable, with potential for international growth and potential to be applied in corporations and destinations (countries, regions)

Are an Early Stage or Series A startup

Have a tested pilot and business plan

Have been accelerated before

Have a full-time team already in place

The 17 most disruptive startups (1 for each of the SDGs) will be given support to scale-up and make a real difference to the future of destinations. UNWTO will present the best ideas to its Member States, Affiliate Members and investors, providing them with a unique networking and matchmaking opportunity. Additional benefits on offer include the chance to pitch at a special UNWTO Demo Day and access to technological support and to the UNWTO Innovation network, as well as a curated mentorship program with both one-on-one and group training sessions on key topics such as Intellectual Property, sustainability in business and leadership.

Applications are now open and will close on 20 September 2020. The winning startups will be announced in November. To find out more and to apply, visit the UNWTO SDGs Global Startup Competition webpage.

About Plug and Play

Plug and Play is a global innovation platform. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we have built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services, and an in-house VC to make technological advancement progress faster than ever before. Since inception in 2006, our programs have expanded worldwide to include a presence in over 30 locations globally, giving startups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond. With 30,000 startups and 400 official corporate partners, we have created the ultimate startup ecosystem in many industries, including Travel & Hospitality, with offices in Silicon Valley, Singapore, Shanghai, and Vienna, etc. We currently work with Accor, Airbus, Asian Development Bank, CWT, IATA, JetBlue Technology Ventures, Marriott International, Pacific Asia Travel AssociationStar Alliance, TUI Group and many more. Companies in our community have raised over $9 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Dropbox, Honey, Lending Club and PayPal. For more information, visit https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/

About the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), a United Nations specialized agency, is the leading international organization with the decisive and central role in promoting the development of responsible, sustainable, and universally accessible tourism. It serves as a global forum for tourism policy issues and a practical source of tourism know-how. Its membership includes 159 countries, 6 territories, 2 permanent observers, and over 500 Affiliate Members. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , YouTube , LinkedIn , and Flickr .

About Wakalua

Wakalua is the first global innovation hub for tourism boosting innovation through unique public-private partnerships in more than 150 countries. We are powered by Globalia, leading tourism corporation in Spain and Latin America, in collaboration with the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the United Nations Specialized Agency promoting responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. At Wakalua we want to discover the most innovative, disruptive, and sustainable solutions in tourism for tomorrow's traveler. We believe only through innovation and collaboration will we be able to create sustainable solutions in tourism for generations to come.

For more information, visit https://www.wakaluahub.com/

Plug and Play Contacts

Patricia Nordstrom, [email protected]

Olivia Yam, [email protected]

SOURCE Plug and Play

Related Links

https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com


KYODO NEWS - Jul 29, 2020 - 05:50 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Japan saw 982 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, the highest single-day total on record, according to a Kyodo News tally.

The figure, based on information from local authorities, reflects a resurgence of virus infections that is beginning to expand beyond Tokyo. The previous single-day record of 981 new cases came last Thursday.

On Tuesday, Osaka and Aichi prefectures reported 155 and 110 new cases, respectively, a single-day record for each of the prefectures with large urban populations.

Tokyo, the hardest-hit area in Japan, reported 266 cases, compared with 131 on Monday when the number slipped below 200 for the first time in seven days.

Earlier Tuesday, the Osaka prefectural government decided to request its citizens to refrain from drinking in groups of five or more people as the area has been seeing a significant uptick in infections. Nightlife districts accounted for about 30 percent of new cases in July.

The request will be in effect from Saturday through Aug. 20, but gatherings of family members will be excluded from the measure, prefectural government officials said.

Tuesday's 155 cases in Osaka marked an increase from 87 announced the previous day. The western Japan prefecture saw triple-digit single-day increases for five straight days through Sunday.

Yasutoshi Nishimura, minister in charge of the coronavirus response said Tuesday the names of nightlife establishments should be disclosed if infections are confirmed there as a result of insufficient anti-virus measures.

At a meeting with the mayors of six major cities, Nishimura said municipalities should take more stringent measures against nightlife businesses, given Japan has seen a resurgence in new cases on the back of increasing infections at hostess bars and host clubs.

In Japan's hostess bars, women entertain male customers over drinks and flirtatiously chat with them, while in host clubs, men do the same for their female customers.

Japan's cumulative total of infections topped 32,800, including around 700 cases from the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama in February.

The Aichi prefectural government confirmed 110 new infections, a single-day record for the central Japan prefecture, Gov. Hideaki Omura said.

Describing the situation as "very serious" in a news conference, Omura asked Aichi residents to refrain from nonessential activities.

In a video conference with the mayors of Fukuoka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nagoya, Sapporo and Yokohama, Nishimura said the government will discuss how to strengthen measures against the viral spread at a meeting of its coronavirus task force this week.

Nishimura said eating and drinking establishments should comply with guidelines set by the nightlife industry to help block the spread of the pneumonia-causing virus.

If customers or staff members of an establishment that failed to follow the guidelines are confirmed to be infected, the businesses should be named so that customers who visited them can know about the infections, he said.

Currently, local governments only make public the names of such establishments when there is an agreement to do so.

Kyoto Mayor Daisaku Kadokawa said it is necessary to take "compulsory measures" against businesses reluctant to cooperate with authorities.

Meanwhile, the central government will set uniform standards to allow local governments to take stricter steps against the spread of the virus more quickly, according to sources close to the matter.

The uniform standards are expected to include the ratio of patients in serious condition to available hospital beds and will be discussed at the subcommittee's meeting.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

The Israeli American Council (IAC) has condemned the attacks of the Armenian radicals on members of the local Azerbaijani community on July 21 in front of the Azerbaijani Consulate General in Los Angeles, Trend reports on July 28 referring to the consulate.

IAC stressed the unacceptability of the attack on Azerbaijanis gathered in front of their consulate general, notes the importance of preserving freedom of speech and assembly, and that violence against peaceful demonstrators poses a threat to American society and democratic values.

The organization expressed confidence that the law enforcement agencies will complete the investigation of the incident and take decisive measures in accordance with its results.

IAC founded in 2007 unites about 250,000 American Israelis. The Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles has been maintaining close friendly relations with this organization for a long time.

The clashes between Azerbaijanis and Armenians in Los Angeles were triggered by gross ceasefire violations by Armenian armed forces on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border in the direction of Tovuz district of Azerbaijan. The fighting continued in the following several days as well. Azerbaijan lost a number of military personnel members, who died fighting off the attacks of the Armenian armed forces.

Meanwhile a group of Armenians living in Los Angeles, California, attacked and injured a group of Azerbaijanis who gathered to peacefully protest the Armenian aggression.

The incident took place July 21 in front of Azerbaijan's Consulate in the city where Armenians verbally and physically assaulted Azerbaijanis across the street, desp
China takes over premises after closure of US consulate

Global Times

By Cui Meng in Chengdu, Liu Caiyu and Fan Anqi in Beijing Source: Global Times Published: 2020/7/27 9:59:31

China takes over premises after closure of US Consulate General in Chengdu

The US Consulate General in Chengdu was officially closed at 10 am on Monday, as required by the Chinese side. China's competent authorities then entered through the front entrance and took over the premises, China's foreign ministry said Monday.

The closure of the US consulate has led to layoff of some Chinese employees. However, the Global Times has learnt that some Chinese employees were not properly compensated in accordance with laws and regulations after a sudden layoff.

Before the closure, strict traffic controls have been put in place around the premises.

The Global Times reporter in the early morning saw cranes hoisting containers inside the main entrance of the US Consulate, while crowds gathered to witness the "historic" moment, taking photos and recording videos.

Since Saturday, people and vehicles were frequently seen going in and out of the consulate and locals have quietly gathered behind the police cordon in front of the main gate of the Consulate.

Since the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday notified the US Embassy in China that it had decided to revoke permission for the operation of the US Consulate General in Chengdu, no irrational behavior has been seen in front of the Consulate. However, at one point on Saturday, one person sang The Grand China but was taken away immediately, while another person set off firecrackers outside the Consulate on Friday.

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A US flag-draped casket containing the remains of Georgia congressman John Lewis arrived by plane at Joint Base Andrews in Camp Springs, Maryland, on July 27.

The casket was en route to Washington, where a public viewing would be held outside the US Capitol Building. Department of Defense personnel were recognizing the congressman with military funeral honors, the department said.

Lewis, a civil rights activist and Democratic congressman, was the first black lawmaker to be given the honor of lying in state in the US Capitol rotunda, reports said. Credit: DVIDS via Storyful
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 23:20:39|Editor: huaxia

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ANKARA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- As Turkey is struggling to contain the COVID-19, the country's vital tourism sector is slowly recovering from the impact of the pandemic, industry professionals said.

In Belek, which is famous for its many resorts on the Mediterranean Sea in southern Antalya province, hotels are promoting "safe tourism" in line with health guidelines issued by Turkish authorities to attract foreign visitors.

"We hosted tourists from Ukraine and people from the Balkans in recent weeks ... but our occupancy rate has not reached 30 percent yet. So for the moment, it's quite difficult to predict the future," Mehmet Keskin, a manager of a Belek resort, told Xinhua.

"We have reservations for the coming weeks and we are ready to welcome our visitors with all the necessary health precautions," Keskin said, adding that his resort had been certified by the Ministry of Tourism over hygiene and safe distancing rules.

Turkey has eased in early June most of its COVID-19 restrictions and tourism facilities in the country reopened with measures to ensure safety, but the occupancy rate has remained low as visitors are worried about the virus and wanted to avoid packed places.

Turkey's Transport and Infrastructure Ministry last week said Ankara and Moscow have agreed to resume flights following three and a half months of suspension amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Flights from Russia to Turkey will gradually resume on Aug. 1, semi-official Anadolu Agency reported, with initial flights to two biggest cities Ankara and Istanbul.

Flights to coastal cities where the bulk of touristic resorts are located, are scheduled to resume on Aug. 10.

Some 7 million Russians visited Turkey last year, according to reports published in the Russian press.

Russian citizens topped the list and accounted for 15.6 percent of all tourist arrivals in Turkey in 2019, according to the Turkish Culture and Tourism ministry.

Tourism accounts for over 10 percent of Turkey's economy, bringing in tens of billions of U.S. dollars in hard currency and employing millions of people.

With a vulnerable economy and dwindling foreign currency reserves, tourism revenues are essential for the nation.

In 2019, Turkey's annual tourism revenues rose to an all time high, hitting 34.5 billion dollars, according to official figures.

The Turkish government set a target of around 40 billion dollars for 2020 but this has become almost impossible with the pandemic.

Nevertheless, hotel owners expect the sector to gain momentum. Mediterranean Touristic Hoteliers Association Chairman Erkan Yagci said that 285 hotels have applied for the safe tourism certificate, and more are preparing to do so.

For nearly 10 days so far, Turkey's daily new COVID-19 cases hovered around 900 and the country has recorded nearly 230,000 cases and over 5,600 deaths. Enditem
Even before the pandemic, researchers found that volatility hurts the poor regardless of income level. Lisa Gennetian, an economist at Duke University, found that behavioral problems increased in schools at the end of the food stamp monthly benefit cycle, as groceries dwindled and tensions rose.

Having a low income is bad, Ms. Gennetian said, but having a low income that yo-yos is worse.

The growth of near poverty can increase food insecurity.

The official definition of poverty is an all-or-nothing measure. It indicates whether a family is below the line  $28,170 for that typical family of four  but not how far below.

A pandemic that makes a poor family poorer could increase food insecurity even if it does not change the poverty rate. So could a crisis that increases the number of near poor, or people with incomes up to twice the poverty line.

Mr. Parolin found that the share of near poor who experience food insecurity (22 percent) was not greatly different than the rate among the poor (29 percent). A crisis that swells their ranks could increase food insecurity.

Many immigrants cannot get aid.

Hardship appears to be rising especially fast among immigrants, for at least two reasons.

Undocumented immigrants are barred from most government aid, so the safety net expansion has done them little good. They number about 11 million, and about four million children who are American citizens live with them in mixed-status families. That means a lot of people are facing the crisis without government help.

In addition, the Trump administration, through its new public charge rule, is dissuading legal immigrants from seeking aid. The rule allows the government to count the receipt of benefits as a negative factor when immigrants seek permanent residency. It has spread broad fear and confusion, leaving some immigrants reluctant to seek help. While poverty projections should account for such rules, it is not clear if they adequately do so in such unusual times.

Among those caught between need and fear is a Houston factory worker named Mariana, who asked that her last name be kept private because she feared government reprisals. She quit her job before the pandemic to have a baby and cannot find work.
New Delhi, July 28 : After the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, another Muslim body has moved the Supreme Court, urging it not to issue notice on a plea filed by a Hindu body challenging the constitutional validity of The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which provides for maintaining the existing "religious character" of holy structures as on August 15, 1947.

The Peace Party of India, in an application, contended that if the plea is entertained, it will open flood gates of litigation against countless mosques in the country, and the religious divide from which the country is recovering in the aftermath of the Ayodhya dispute will only be widened.

A PIL filed was filed by 'Vishwa Bhadra Pujari Purohit Mahasangh' seeking directions from the apex court to declare Section 4 of the 1991 Act as ultra vires and unconstitutional.

The petitioners' contentions gain significance in the case of Kashi and Mathura where two disputed mosques stand. The law does not allow the conversion of a temple into a mosque and vice versa.

The petition filed by the Jamiat Ulema-I-Hind, opposing the Hindu body's plea, also urged the top court not to issue notice in the matter.

"It is submitted that even issuance of notice in the present matter will create fear in the minds of the Muslim Community with regard to their places of worship, especially in the aftermath of the Ayodhya dispute and will destroy the secular fabric of the nation," it said, terming the plea an attempt to open the litigation route on disputed religious structures other than the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya.

"Section 4 of the Places of Worship Act, prevents members of the Hindu community from reclaiming those places of worship, which according to the petitioners were Hindu places of worship but were allegedly converted by Muslim invaders... it is apparent that the present petition seeks to indirectly target places of worship which are presently of Muslim character." The Jamiat had contended that the top court itself noted that the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 protects and secures the fundamental values of the Constitution. "It was further observed that it was a legislative instrument designed to protect the secular features of the Indian polity, which is one of the basic features of the Constitution. The Places of Worship Act is intrinsically related to the obligations of a secular state. It reflects the commitment of India to the equality of all religions," added the plea.

The Muslim bodies have also urged the apex court to allow them to implead themselves in the matter.
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, wearing a face mask with his supporters arrives at courthouse in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 28, 2020. (Vincent Thian/AP)

Malaysian Ex-PM Najib Convicted of 7 Graft Charges Over 1MDB

KUALA LUMPUR, MalaysiaA Malaysian court pronounced former Prime Minister Najib Razak guilty Tuesday in his first corruption trial over the multibillion-dollar looting of the 1MDB investment fund.

The ruling came five months after a new government took power with Najibs Malay party the biggest bloc in the alliance. His partys shocking election ouster in 2018 was driven by public anger over the 1MDB scandal.

I find the accused guilty and convict the accused of all seven charges, Judge Mohamad Nazlan Ghazali said after spending two hours to read out his ruling.

Najib, 67, has promised to appeal. He has said he was misled by rogue bankers and the case against him is political.

From day one, I have said this is the chance for me to clear my name, he wrote on Facebook late Monday. After this, we will go to the Court of Appeal. I am ready.

A scion of one of Malaysias most prominent political families, he faces 42 charges in five separate trials and could face years in prison.

The current trial involved a charge of abuse of power, three charges of criminal breach of trust and three money laundering charges.

The judge said Najib failed to raise reasonable doubt and that prosecutors had established beyond reasonable doubt that Najib misappropriated money for his own use.

Najibs party is the biggest bloc in the current Malay nationalist alliance, which was formed in March after a political coup by Muhyiddins party toppled the former reformist government.

Najib shortly after taking office in 2009 set up 1MDB to ostensibly accelerate Malaysias economic development.

But the fund accumulated billions in debt, and U.S. investigators allege that at least $4.5 billion was stolen from it and laundered by Najibs associates to finance Hollywood films and buy hotels, a luxury yacht, artwork, jewelry and other extravagances. More than $700 million from the fund allegedly landed in Najibs bank accounts.

Najibs wife and several officials from his party and previous government have also been charged with graft. Najib, whose father and uncles were Malaysias second and third prime ministers, denies any wrongdoing. He calls the prosecutions a political attack on him.

Najibs first trial began in April 2019 over seven charges related to the transfer of 42 million ringgit ($9.8 million) from SRC International, a former 1MDB unit, into his bank accounts through intermediary companies. Najib was accused of using his position to receive a bribe for approving a government guarantee for billions in loans to SRC, committing criminal breach of trust and accepting proceeds from unlawful activities.

Evidence showed a complex trail of money through the accounts that paid for renovating Najibs home, credit card purchases including a Chanel watch bought in Hawaii as a birthday gift for his wife and disbursements to political parties.

Jynwel Capital Limited CEO Jho Low attends the 2014 Social Good Summit at 92Y on Sept. 21, 2014 in New York City. (Taylor Hill/Getty Images)

In defense, Najib has said he was misled by rogue bankers led by Malaysian fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, identified by investigators as a mastermind in the 1MDB saga.

Najib testified he assumed the money was part of an Arab donation arranged by Low. The judge said in the guilty verdict that it is an elaborate but weak fabrication.

Najibs lawyers said Low had used the donation as a guise to keep Najib from being suspicious of his plundering of the 1MDB fund. Prosecutors argued that Najib was the real power behind 1MDB and SRC, and called the Arab donation manufactured evidence to cover up his tracks.

By Eileen Ng
A "protection strategy" for the Galapagos Islands has been set up by Ecuador's president after hundreds of fishing vessels - many of them Chinese - were spotted near the archipelago's exclusive economic zone.

The Ecuadorian Navy has identified around 260 boats and increased patrols to ensure they do not enter the area of the ecologically sensitive islands - the inspiration for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

In several tweets over the weekend, Lenin Moreno described the Islands as "one of the richest fishing areas and a hotbed of life for the entire planet", and used the hashtag #SOSGalapagos.

He added that former Mayor of Quito, Roque Sevilla, and ex-environment minister Yolanda Kakabadse, along with "more specialists", would be "responsible for designing the Galapagos protection strategy and respect for its maritime resources".

Chinese fishing vessels appear each year near the Galapagos, attracted by marine species such as the hammerhead shark, which is in danger of extinction.

In 2017, a Chinese vessel was captured in the Galapagos Marine Reserve carrying 300 tons of marine wildlife.

"We are on alert, conducting surveillance, patrolling to avoid an incident such as what happened in 2017," defence minister Oswaldo Jarrin told reporters.

"There is a corridor that is international waters, that's where the fleet is located," he said, adding that none had attempted to enter the exclusive economic zone.

Volunteer pressure group, the Blue Planet Society, has said "we are watching the destruction of the ocean in real time".

Spokesperson John Hourston told Sky News: "The threat that the industrial Chinese fishing fleet poses to the unique and spectacular marine life of the Galapagos archipelago cannot be overstated."

He also said the vessels were "sucking the life from this biodiversity jewel".

"Marine life doesn't recognise lines on a map. Unless the high seas are given protection, the ocean is in danger of becoming become a lifeless desert."

The Galapagos Islands are home to a wide variety of marine wildlife, including turtles, giant tortoises, flamingos and albatrosses.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28



By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan (TUIE) are working with Turkmen producers to share best practices for fruit tree pruning, pest control, nutrition and potato production/post-harvest management, the representative of USAID told Trend.

The USAID has also been cooperating with TUIE in the horticulture sector.



"In November 2018, USAID, in cooperation with the TUIE, partnered with the private company Hil Standart, to establish Turkmenistans first private and commercially operated food safety laboratory, with the aim of increasing horticultural exports," said the USAID official.



The laboratory was officially opened in March 2019. The new microbiology lab perform commercial food testing services for domestic producers and exporters.

Also, USAID partnered with Turkmen horticulture trader, TUIEs participant Ter Onum send the first trial shipment of 19 tons of fresh melons overland to Austria in refrigerated trucks in September of 2019.



"Ter Onum worked with melon farmers in Turkmenistans Dashoguz region to source the melons, then sorted, packaged, and loaded them on trucks for transport," added the representative.



The USAID also noticed that the mentioned shipment was successful, therefore, 2 other shipments followed in October 2019 for a total of 55 tons of melons.



Besides the horticulture, USAID is engaged on issues of trade, energy connectivity, and transboundary water resources management both in Turkmenistan and other Central Asian countries.



In terms of USAIDs activity is Turkmenistan, USAID Future Growth Initiative, which was designed to spur productive economic activity across Central Asia, including Turkmenistan, is very important.



"In Turkmenistan, the USAID Future Growth Initiative is working in information technology and light manufacturing (small-scale carpets, leather, and handicrafts manufacturers) sectors," said the representative.



---

Follow the author on Twitter: @JeilaAliyeva
Peterborough Police need a light-armoured vehicle, writes one citizen in a letter that the police services board will review on Tuesday  never mind the whiners and socialist ideologists who are trying to bully their kumbaya mentality on the rest of the city by saying the vehicle represents the militarization of police.

Peterborough isnt safe, the citizen writes, and problems of drug addiction and violence are exacerbated by the poor them, its not their fault crowd of enablers.

You have to face it: many of the criminal element are better equipped in many ways than our police force, writes the citizen, whose name was withheld by police (though the letter was shared with The Examiner).

Suck it up, buttercup: that is the reality.

Peterborough Police recently accepted a new light-armoured vehicle (LAV) from an anonymous donor, and some opponents have since written to The Examiner  and a few to the Peterborough Police Services Board  demanding that the vehicle be turned away or that the name of the donor be revealed.

The police board has received letters for and against the donation of the LAV and at a meeting on Tuesday will review three letters in support.

Some citizens have objected to the donation of the LAV because they believe it to be an unnecessary show of force in a smaller city such as Peterborough.

But the citizen whose letter will be received first on Tuesday writes that hed like to be a happy-hand-holding-Kumbaya-singing-naive-optimistic idealist who feels that way, but he cannot.

Meanwhile city council gave preliminary approval last week to ask the police board in writing who donated the LAV, how much it will cost in maintenance and how much it will eventually cost to replace.

The plan was to go to a final vote at a council meeting Monday night (after The Examiners print deadline).

But city council has no business asking the identity of an anonymous donor whose gift was accepted by the police board in a closed-session meeting, the citizen writes.

Its my sincere hope that the police board responds to councils formal and public request by replying essentially for council to pound salt on the matter, the letter states.

At a police board meeting in late June, member Bob Hall called the LAV a necessary piece of safety equipment.

At that same meeting, Chief Scott Gilbert said the vehicle will be used in a defensive manner for officer and community safety.
Attorney General William Barr is defending the aggressive federal law enforcement response to civil unrest in America, saying 'violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests' sparked by George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Barr will tell members of the House Judiciary Committee at a much-anticipated hearing on Tuesday that the violence taking place in Portland, Oregon, and other cities is disconnected from the death of Floyd, which he described as a 'horrible' event that prompted a necessary national reckoning on the relationship between the Black community and law enforcement.

'Largely absent from these scenes of destruction are even superficial attempts by the rioters to connect their actions to George Floyd's death or any legitimate call for reform,' Barr will say of the Portland protests, according to a copy of his prepared remarks released by the Justice Department on Monday.

Barr will also touch on other controversies that have shadowed his tenure, including his handling of the investigation into Trump campaign ties to Russia, which he derisively refers to as 'the bogus "Russiagate" scandal.'

The Justice Department on Monday released a copy of remarks Attorney General Bill Barr (above) will deliver Tuesday in his first appearance in front of the House Judiciary Committee

The testimony underscores the Justice Department's ongoing effort to differentiate between increasing violence in some cities and the death of Floyd, which civil rights prosecutors are investigating as a potential crime. Massive but peaceful demonstrations had followed Floyd's death in May.

The attorney general, speaking as Congress and the public pay respects to the late Rep John Lewis, will acknowledge to lawmakers that Floyd's death struck a chord in the Black community because it reinforced concerns that Blacks are treated differently by police.

But he will also condemn Americans who he says have responded inappropriately to Floyd's death through what he said was rioting and anarchy.

'As elected officials of the federal government, every member of this committee - regardless of your political views or your feelings about the Trump Administration - should condemn violence against federal officers and destruction of federal property,' Barr says.

'So should state and local leaders who have a responsibility to keep their communities safe. To tacitly condone destruction and anarchy is to abandon the basic rule-of-law principles that should unite us even in a politically divisive time.'

Civil unrest escalated in Portland after federal agents were accused of whisking people away in unmarked cars without probable cause; they were detained and later released.

And in Washington, DC, peaceful protesters were violently cleared from the streets by federal officers using smoke bombs and pepper balls ahead of a photo op by Trump in front of a church, where Barr had accompanied him.

The attorney general has defended as necessary the broad use of law enforcement power to deal with the situation, but the department's internal watchdog has opened investigations into use of force and other tactics by agents in both cities.

In the speech Barr will defend the aggressive federal law enforcement response to civil unrest in America, saying 'violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests' sparked by George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police. Pictured: Federal agents forcefully detain a woman during a protest in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday night

'Largely absent from these scenes of destruction are even superficial attempts by the rioters to connect their actions to George Floyd's death or any legitimate call for reform,' Barr will say of the Portland protests (pictured Sunday night)

The hearing on Tuesday marks Barr's first appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, bringing him face-to-face with a panel that voted last year to hold him in contempt and is holding hearings on what Democrats allege is politicization of the Justice Department under his watch.

It comes during a tumultuous stretch in which Barr has taken a series of actions cheered by President Donald Trump but condemned by Democrats and other critics.

Barr makes reference in his prepared statement to that antagonistic relationship, saying that 'many of the Democrats on this Committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that I am simply the President's factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions. Judging from the letter inviting me to this hearing, that appears to be your agenda today.'

Beyond the federal response to the demonstrations, Barr is also expected to be pressed in detail about his intervention in criminal cases arising from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

The hearing will provide Barr with a forum to offer his most detailed account to date for his actions in the criminal cases, which he has said were taken in the interests of justice and without political pressure.

Those include the Justice Department's decision to drop the prosecution of former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn - a request now tied up in court - and his firing last month of the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, whose office oversaw investigations into allies of the president.

Barr also pushed for a more lenient sentence for another Trump ally, Roger Stone, prompting the entire trial team's departure.

That decision was at the center of a separate hearing before the same committee last month, when one of the prosecutors alleged that politics from Justice Department leadership had influenced the handling of the sentence.

Barr's speech also touches on his handling of the investigation into Trump campaign ties to Russia - led by special counsel Robert Mueller (above) - which the attorney general derisively refers to as 'the bogus "Russiagate" scandal'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday on MSNBC that Democrats want to question Barr about how Trump 'is undermining the Constitution of the United States'.

Barr previously rebuffed the House committee and Pelosi said that 'we hope that he will show up'.

In the past, Barr has said that Flynn, who pleaded guilty as part of Mueller's probe to lying to the FBI, should never have been charged and that the original sentencing recommendation for Stone - also charged in the Mueller investigation - was excessive.

Barr's opening statement does not delve into the details of the case, though he will insist Tuesday that Trump has not attempted to interfere in those decisions and has 'played a role properly and traditionally played by presidents'.

Republican lawmakers have been overwhelmingly supportive of Barr's performance and are likely Tuesday to help him push back against some of the Democratic criticism.

Even among the GOP members, though, Barr faces pressure to deliver results soon on an investigation that he initiated into the origins of the Russia probe.

It is not clear when or how that investigation, being led by US Attorney John Durham of Connecticut, will end, but Barr has said he hopes to have results by the end of the summer.

The hearing on Tuesday marks Barr's first appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, bringing him face-to-face with a panel that voted last year to hold him in contempt and is holding hearings on what Democrats allege is politicization of the Justice Department under his watch. Pictured: Barr listens to President Donald Trump speak in the Oval Office on June 15

Read Barr's full prepared remarks below:
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Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner has dropped his bid for an early release from prison, on the same day that German police dug up an allotment near his former home and removed possible evidence in bags in the hunt for the missing girl.

Brueckner is currently in prison in Kiel for drug offences and had launched legal proceedings for an early release after serving two-thirds of his sentence.

The two-thirds benchmark passed on June 7, leading to fears he could be released and subsequently disappear before the Maddie case was resolved.

However, he has now dropped his bid, though he is still appealing against a conviction for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman, also in Praia da Luz.

The drugs conviction is due to keep him behind bars until shortly before the end of January next year and, after that, a seven year jail term for the rape of the elderly American widow on the Portugese Algarve is due to kick in.

It comes as police were seen digging up a garden with an excavator after fencing off the allotment and sending in a sniffer dog this morning, four miles outside Hannover where Brueckner once lived.

'I can confirm that the search is being carried out in connection with our investigations into the Maddie case,' said Julia Meyer from the prosecutor's office in nearby Braunschweig.

What police are hoping to find is not clear, but Brueckner is known to have lived in a trailer and worked in a car repair garage in the area, in between spells living in Portugal where Madeleine disappeared in 2007.

Police were later seen withdrawing bags of possible evidence from the site, with a witness telling German newspaper Bild that Brueckner had previously lived at the allotment.

A German police officer stands chest-deep in a hole while a sniffer dog watches on at an allotment near Hannover today where authorities are digging up a garden in their search for Madeleine McCann

German police use an excavator at an allotment garden near Hannover today in an operation linked to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007

Police were digging up the the garden with 'heavy equipment' including an excavator after fencing off the allotment this morning

An excavator in the allotment today which was being searched by German police in connection with the Madeleine McCann investigation in which they have had the leading role since Brueckner was identified as the key suspect last month

Christian Brueckner (right) is prime suspect in the kidnap and murder of three-year-old Madeleine (left) in 2007 while she was on holiday in Praia da Luz

Police were today searching an allotment in the area marked in red, outside the city of Hannover in northern Germany

What do we know about Maddie murder suspect Christian Brueckner and his criminal past? 1976: Christian Brueckner is born in Wurzburg under a different name. He was adopted by the Brueckner family and took their surname. 1992: Brueckner is arrested on suspicion of burglary in his hometown of Wurzburg, Bavaria. 1994: He is given a two-year youth jail sentence for 'abusing a child' and 'performing sex acts in front of a child'. 1995: Brueckner arrives in Portugal as an 18-year-old backpacker and begins working in catering in the seaside resorts of Lagos and Praia da Luz. But friends say he became involved with a criminal syndicate trafficking drugs into the Algarve. September 2005: He dons a mask and breaks into an apartment where he rapes a 72-year-old American tourist. The victim was bound, gagged, blindfolded and whipped with a metal cane before being raped for 15 minutes. She said afterwards that he had clearly enjoyed 'torturing' her before the rape. April 2007: He moves out of a farmhouse and into a campervan now linked to the crime. The farmhouse is cleaned and a bag of wigs and 'exotic clothes' is found. May 3, 2007: Madeleine McCann is snatched at around 10pm from her bed as her parents eat tapas with friends yards away. Brueckner's mobile phone places him in the area that night. He returns to his native Germany shortly after that. October 2011: He is sentenced to 21 months for 'dealing narcotics' in Niebull, in northern Germany. 2014: He moves to Braunschweig where he starts running a town-centre kiosk. He then goes back to Portugal with a girlfriend. 2016: He is back in Germany. He is given 15 months in prison for 'sexual abuse of a child in the act of creating and possessing child pornographic material'. May 3, 2017: Brueckner is said to be in a bar with a friend when a ten-year anniversary appeal following Madeleine's disappearance is shown on German television. He is said to have told him in a bar that he 'knew all about' what happened to her. The friend apparently went to police. June 2017: He heads back to Portugal and is extradited again to Germany to face 15 months' imprisonment for the sexual abuse of a child. August 2018: After his release from prison he lives on the streets. But he was jailed again for drug offences. September 2018: Brueckner is arrested in Milan and extradited to Germany and to face trial for raping the American tourist after a DNA match to hair found at the scene. July 2019: He is jailed for 21 months for drug dealing in the northern German resort of Sylt. August 2019: Brueckner is charged with the rape of the American tourist in Praia da Luz in 2005. December 2019: He is convicted of rape raping the tourist based on DNA evidence. He is given a seven year sentence, but has not yet started it because of an ongoing appeal. June 4, 2020: Brueckner is named by German media as the prime suspect in Madeleine's disappearance. Advertisement

Police put up a fence around the allotment after they started their search early this morning, meaning they could only be seen through a copse of trees.

Some of the detectives were wearing forensic suits and putting possible pieces of evidence into plastic bags, while others were using rakes and shovels to scour for clues.

A sniffer dog was also deployed, while one officer stood chest-deep in a hole that had been dug at the allotment.

Trees were cut down to assist the search, according to local newspaper HAZ, while police vans were parked outside the allotment and in a nearby field by the side of a canal.

The search was taking place between the towns of Ahlem and Seelze to the west of Hannover city centre - and is expected to continue into Wednesday.

Meyer, the prosecutors' office spokeswoman, said she could not give any further details on the operation but added only that police would 'still need some more time to finish.' It is not clear in what way Brueckner might be linked to the garden.

The search was being carried out by officials from the prosecutors' office in Braunschweig, where Brueckner was convicted of rape last year, and the German federal police.

Brueckner, a career criminal, was identified as the new lead suspect in June after German police released a trove of new evidence including details of his cars and phone numbers, urging people to come forward with new tip-offs.

Investigators in Germany said at the time that Madeleine was assumed to be dead, going further than British police who are still treating the toddler's disappearance as a missing-person case.

Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, last month denied receiving a letter from German investigators stating that 'there is evidence or proof' Madeleine is dead.

German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who is leading the German investigation into Madeleine's disappearance, said that a letter had been written to the couple, but would not reveal what it said.

Mr Wolters said prosecutors have 'concrete evidence', but not 'forensic evidence' that Madeleine was killed by the suspect and may 'know more' than Scotland Yard, who are still treating the case as a missing person investigation.

The Metropolitan Police maintain their active investigation into Madeleine's disappearance, Operation Grange, is a missing person inquiry as there is no 'definitive evidence whether Madeleine is alive or dead'.

In the days after the renewed appeal, Scotland Yard said they received hundreds of tips to their Operation Grange team.

Brueckner is thought to have worked in a car repair shop while living in a trailer in Hannover, and his last known address in Germany was 40 miles away in Braunschweig.

German media says he received at least two criminal convictions from a Hannover court, one for forging documents in 2010 and another for theft in 2013.

He split his time between Germany and Portugal from 2013 to 2015, prosecutors in Hannover have said.

At the end of 2012, he reportedly opened a small shop in Brunswick with his then girlfriend. After they split up, he continued to run the shop alone until he gave it up 18 months later, along with the adjacent apartment.

Portuguese authorities are also continuing their investigation and earlier this month searched a series of wells in the Algarve region.

Police and divers in the Algarve region examined a series disused wells in Vila do Bispo, around 10 miles from Praia da Luz.

Multiple investigators were at the scene with specialist diving equipment to examine the wells, with the largest thought to be more than 40ft deep.

Brueckner is known to have lived on the Algarve coast and his Portuguese mobile phone received a half-hour phone call in Praia da Luz around an hour before Madeleine went missing 13 years ago - a key piece of evidence in the German investigation.

Police hope to track down the person who placed the call, regarding them as a crucial witness to Brueckner's movements on the night of Madeleine's disappearance.

Brueckner made a living doing odd jobs in the area where Madeleine disappeared, and was also known to have burgled hotel rooms and holiday flats.

He has not yet spoken to investigators, who say they are convinced that he has committed other sex attacks.

German investigators wearing protective gear are seen through the trees during their search of an allotment garden near Hannover on Tuesday morning

A sniffer dog took part in the police search, which prosecutors have given few details about and is expected to continue into Wednesday

An excavator at the scene during an operation which authorities have given few details about, beyond confirming that it related to the Madeleine McCann investigation

Uniformed German police officers at an allotment garden plot near Hannover today where the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance is continuing today

The area was fenced off by police today after the search got underway with 'heavy equipment' four miles outside Hannover

Madeleine went missing from her family's holiday apartment in the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday, as her parents dined with friends at a nearby tapas bar.

Despite a huge international manhunt, no trace of her has been found, nor has anyone been charged over her disappearance.

In September 2007, Gerry and Kate McCann were questioned by police as formal suspects. The following July, the Portuguese police dropped their investigation because of a lack of evidence and cleared the McCanns of any involvement.

The UK government has continued to fund Scotland Yard's investigation despite increasing doubts over whether the case would ever be solved.

The McCanns' lawyer Rogerio Alves said police have only 22 more months to nail down the case because of a 15-year statute of limitations in Portugal.

Speaking on McCann: The Hunt for the Prime Suspect on ITV, Alves said: 'We have a 15 years time barrier, even to manslaughter, to homicide, to certain sexual offences  and even to the most serious kind of kidnapping.

'So we are still on time. But time is getting short now.'

A police vehicle outside the allotment, where the police officers' operations were partly hidden by trees and fencing

A police van outside the allotment near Hannover where authorities from the Braunschweig prosecutor's office and the German federal police were investigating today

A police van is parked near a skip and a line of tape near the allotment which was being searched in northern Germany today

Kate and Gerry McCann (pictured together) discovered their daughter Madeleine missing in Praia da Luz in May 2007

Brueckner's name has also been mentioned in connection with other missing children, some of whom vanished in similar circumstances to Madeleine.

In one case, five-year-old Inga Gehricke vanished from a forest in Saxony-Anhalt in 2015 and prosecutors confirmed they were probing possible connections to the McCann case, while saying that Brueckner was not currently a suspect.

He reportedly had a property in the town of Neuwegersleben, around 60 miles south-west of Stendal when Inga went missing.

Separately, the family of German six-year-old Rene Hasse, who went missing in the Algarve in 1996, revealed that police are re-investigating the case for the first time in 20 years.

Dutch police have also prepared a dossier for German police to look for a possible link to the disappearance of seven-year-old Jair Soares in 2005.

Jair went missing when he went to buy chips near the town of Monster in the South Holland province of the country on August 4, 1995.

A spokesman for police in The Hague confirmed that after announcing their intention to exchange information they have now presented the case and 'were in talks'.

He said: 'Presenting the case means that we look if there are any similarities between the cases. So we look for clues that connect them.'
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio Medicaid rolls continue to increase, due to the pandemic and economic fallout associated with it.

The program tends to get more enrollees as the economy gets worse, since its considered a government safety net. Ohios strong economy over the past couple of years has resulted in lower numbers of beneficiaries. The last time Ohio Medicaid had 3 million enrollees was January 2018.

In June, 2.98 million low-income Ohioans were enrolled in the program, up from 2.92 million in May and 2.88 million in April, according to the Ohio Department of Medicaids caseload report.

Most of the increases are in the part of the program thats most sensitive to the economy -- Medicaid expansion -- available to people with incomes at or below 138% of the federal poverty line, or $35,535 a year for a family of four.

Medicaid is a program jointly paid for by the state and federal government. The increases occurring in Ohio are not unusual: The Kaiser Family Foundation says enrollments in April increased for all but five states.

Loren Anthes of the Cleveland-based health care think tank the Center for Community Solutions, said that hes seen projections that Ohio Medicaid rolls could increase by 1 million in coming months. Thus far, the increases arent high enough to reach that threshold, but the state is still in its first wave of the coronavirus outbreak.

Medicaid is especially important right now because its providing parents access to health care when in the middle of a pandemic, he said.

The state faced a revenue shortage during the fiscal year ending June 30 and cut $210 million from Medicaids budget. The agency realized the savings by negotiating lower rates with managed-care organizations.

If the economy doesnt pick up, there may be more Medicaid cuts this fiscal year, Anthes said.

Anthes hopes the U.S. Senate will pass a provision in the U.S. Houses latest coronavirus aid package that would provide money to state Medicaid programs.

Ohio and other states would use the money to pay for health care, which would boost the economy. And the money could cushion the state if more budget cuts are needed, he said.

More coverage:

Ohio Medicaid rolls now increasing, a reverse from the downward trend

Number of Ohio coronavirus cases has surpassed 85,000: Monday update

As promised, Gov. Mike DeWine vetoes bill decriminalizing public health orders
Amid a rising number of new COVID-19 cases in Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northams administration Tuesday announced new public restrictions aimed at curbing a dramatic surge in the Hampton Roads area.

While the rest of the state will remain under the Phase 3 guidelines, private and public gatherings in the states eastern region will be limited to 50 people from the current statewide limit of 250.

The Northam administration is also moving to shut down bar activity on the eastern part of the state, and as such, will mandate that all restaurants stop serving alcohol at 10 p.m., and close down for service at midnight.

In addition, restaurants will now need to limit indoor dining capacity to 50%. Current Phase 3 guidelines pose no capacity limits, only say that parties must be socially distanced.

The stricter restaurant guidelines will only apply to a subset of the states eastern region: Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Suffolk, Portsmouth, Hampton, Williamsburg, Newport News, Poquoson, James City County and York County.

What were effectively doing is trying to close down bars in this region, because technically we dont have bars to close, said Northam spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky, pointing to the Virginia code, which doesnt allow for bars, only eating establishments that also sell alcohol.

Closing alcohol sales at 10 p.m. is our attempt to close bars and end the sort of congregating were seeing in bar-like establishments, Yarmosky said.

In recent weeks, Virginia has seen its count of new daily COVID-19 cases rise after weeks of downwards trends. The seven-day average of new daily cases hovers above 800, not far from the 1,036 average seen at the states peak on May 21.

In Lynchburg and surrounding counties, the numbers of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continues to rise. A total of 128 new cases across the region were reported over the weekend, according to numbers from the Virginia Department of Health. Up until then, the highest number of new cases reported in a single day was 34.

Earlier this month, Centra Health reported a total of 24 COVID-19 patients in Lynchburg General Hospital between its ICU and specially designated COVID-19 unit, which takes patients with less severe symptoms. As of Tuesday morning, the hospital had a total of 31 COVID-19 patients: 19 of them in the designated unit, 13 of them in the ICU and eight of those ICU patients on ventilators.

Much of Virginias growth has stemmed from dramatic increases in the states eastern region, a hot spot for beachgoers.

The administrations decision falls in line with recommendations from federal officials brought to Virginias doorstep on Tuesday.

A top White House official working on the nations coronavirus response, Dr. Deborah Birx, urged leaders in Virginia during a meeting in Richmond to increase public restrictions to curb the spread of the virus amid an uptick in cases.

Birx met with Northam and other Virginia officials as part of a multi-state tour that includes Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. All five states are seeing a rise in new daily COVID-19 cases.

Birx said that restricting indoor dining and closing down bars has been a successful strategy in order states with growing COVID-19 numbers, as well as increased mask wearing.

Birxs cautionary message on Tuesday seemed a departure from past interactions between states and the White House, which has at times chided states for being heavy-handed with public restrictions.

For example, President Donald Trump has at times challenged face mask orders, while Birx on Tuesday urged 100% mask mandates.

Birxs message on mask wearing also went further than what health officials in Virginia have advised.

Northams face mask order requires people to wear masks inside in settings where people congregate, like office buildings and stores. Birx said on Tuesday that people residing with someone who is particularly vulnerable to the virus  the elderly or those with pre-existing health challenges  should consider wearing a mask in their home.

Rachel Mahoney contributed

Twitter: @MelLeonor_




There will be no gatherings to mark both Heroes and Defence Forces holidays due to Covid-19, a Cabinet Minister said on Tuesday.





Traditionally, the days are marked by huge gatherings at the National Heroes Acre and provincial shrines across the country while on Defence Forces day; members of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces entertain crowds with coordinated mass displays.





The suspension of Heroes and Defence Forces festivities mirrors Independence celebrations in April which were low key due to the pandemic.





Addressing a post Cabinet media briefing, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said commemorations to mark the two holidays would be held virtually.





July Moyo, the minister of Local Government and Public Works,as the Acting Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on State Occasions, briefed Cabinet on the suspension of gatherings.





2020 Heroes Day Commemorations and the Defence Forces Day Celebrations. There will be no gatherings this year to mark both events. His Excellency, the President will address the nation using virtual platforms.





The 2020 Heroes Day Commemorations will be held under the theme REMEMBERING OUR HEROES on 10th August, the Defence Forces Day Celebrations will be held on 11th August, 2020 under the theme ZDF: CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF EXCELLENT SERVICE TO THE PEOPLE, she said.





Mutsvangwa added: The Virtual celebrations will take place over a period of two (2) weeks and covered by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Services (ZBC)-TV, which will extensively feature the Zimbabwe Defence Forces exploits, community assistance projects and the Defence Forces Medical Outreach Programme.





To date, Zimbabwe has 2 704 confirmed COVID-19 cases, a 68 percent increase from 1 713 cases reported on 20 July, 2020.





The total number of COVID-19 fatalities has also increased to 36 from the 26 reported last week.





Due to the spike in locally transmitted Covid-19 cases which has increased by 112 percent from 791 to 1 675 during the past week, Mutsvangwa said government will hold some meetings virtually to limit spread of the disease among officials.





In order to curb the further spread of the disease among Government officials, the holding of meetings by virtual means will be enhanced. At universities and colleges, face-to-face classes have been suspended and lessons will be carried out online.





Those who had started writing examinations will be allowed to complete them, while those who had not started their examinations will have them deferred, said Mutsvangwa.
By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean women detained in prison camps suffered from torture, rape and other forms of "multiple and serious" violence by security and police officials, a U.N. human rights report said on Tuesday, citing accounts from over 100 women.

The women, detained between 2009 and 2019 after failing to flee the country, recounted in interviews with U.N. investigators in Seoul after their release, how they were deprived of food, sleep, daylight and fresh air while in the detention centres and prison camps.

Many also said in the report titled "I Still Feel The Pain" that they were subjected to torture, invasive body searches, forced abortions and even rape by authorities there. All of the women eventually managed to defect to South Korea.

"I did not sleep and worked because I did not want to be beaten. It was excruciating to a level that I even attempted to commit suicide," one woman was quoted as saying.

North Korea did not immediately react to the report but it has previously called criticism over its human rights record a "plot to overthrow" its regime.

Another woman recalled one of her first nights in detention in 2010 when she was raped by an officer.

"He threatened that ... I would be humiliated if I rejected him. He even told me he could help me to be released sooner if I did as he said," she said.

Gathering information in isolated North Korea is notoriously difficult, and the report acknowledged the lack of access to the country limited the agency's ability to verify the interviewees' accounts.

Daniel Collinge, a U.N. human rights officer who co-authored the report, said the project was aimed at putting pressure on Pyongyang to improve the situation, while urging other countries not to deport defectors who risk their lives to achieve freedom and prosperity.

South Korea's Moon Jae-in government, which is trying to improve ties with the North, recently came under criticism after revoking the licenses of defector groups and banning their campaigns to send anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
Germany Rejects U.S. Proposal For Russia's Return To G7

By RFE/RL July 27, 2020

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has rejected allowing Russia's return to the Group of Seven (G7), after U.S. President Donald Trump raised the prospect of Moscow rejoining the club of leading economic powers.

"The reason for expelling Russia was its annexation of Crimea and intervention in eastern Ukraine," Maas said in an interview to be published on July 27 in two German newspapers, Rheinische Post and Bonner General-Anzeiger.

"So long as we don't have a solution there, I don't see any chance" of Russia rejoining the G7, Maas said.

Trump suggested that Russia return to the G7 in May when he announced plans to postpone the annual summit until September because of the coronavirus pandemic. He said he would like to expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea, and India.

At the time, Trump said it was "common sense" to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to an expanded G7 summit because countries needed to talk to Russia despite its policies on the international stage and illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Russia was formerly in the group but was expelled in the wake of its forcible annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Maas said the relationship with Russia right now is difficult "in many dossiers."

"Russia itself can make the largest contribution to opening such doors," Maas said of the idea to allow Moscow back into the elite group.

"The G7 and G20 are two sensibly coordinated formats. We don't need a G11 or G12," he said.

The G7 includes the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan, France, Britain, and Italy.

Maas noted Russia is needed to reach solutions to conflicts in Syria, Libya, and Ukraine.

A solution to these issues "will happen with Russia, not against Russia," he said.

Germany currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union and has been involved in diplomacy to end the conflicts in Libya, Syria, and Ukraine. It is also a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council.

With reporting by Tagesschau, dpa, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/germany- rejects-russia-in-g7/30748671.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.

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In Wawas latest settlement with aggrieved former workers, the firm has agreed to pay $21.6 million to as many as 10,000 retirees and their lawyers to settle a complaint that the chain unfairly forced them to sell shares they had been promised as retirement savings.

The proposed settlement, reached earlier this month in the case of Cunningham v. Wawa, follows a similar pact in 2018 in which Wawa agreed to pay $25 million to a different group of more than 1,200 former managers and other senior Wawa employees.

Those earlier ex-Wawa employees, in a case called Pfeifer v. Wawa, said they, too, were forced to sell their private Wawa stock when the company, amending the plan in 2014 and 2015, canceled a promise they could keep it until retirement, allegedly violating federal law.

In sum, Wawa has now agreed to pay almost $50 million to resolve complaints from former employees that it forced them to sell their lucrative stock in a maneuver designed to make sure the founding Wood family kept control of the firm. The stock has tripled in value since and the lawsuits say the tactic costs the workers a fortune.

According to the Cunningham lawsuit, the departed workers were told that Wawa needed their shares for new workers, even though they had more than enough shares set aside for that purpose.

According to the suit, Wawa leaders forced them to sell their stock in Wawa Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) after a law passed under President Barrack Obama made it easier for Wawa to convert from a typical C-corporation into a family-business-style S-corporation. This ended its federal income tax obligation and made the company more profitable.

Wawa veteran John J. Cunningham and three others who launched the case in 2018 could collect $25,000 each under terms of the settlement. Others will average a little more than $2,000, minus legal fees and costs totaling up to 21% of the payout.

 READ MORE: Wawa founding family accused of cheating former workers out of millions in company stock

Wawa has more than $12 billion in yearly sales and 900 stores with 36,000 employees in the states around Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. and in Florida. It does not disclose profits.

Wawa did not admit wrongdoing in the Cunningham suit. It said in a joint statement with the workers lawyers that the company reached a settlement to prevent further legal costs, disruptions and uncertainty caused by the case.

Lawyers for the workers called the proposed settlement fair and reasonable. If U.S. District Court Judge Paul Diamond and state and federal labor regulators approve, ex-employees who qualify for payments will be notified and given time to challenge the settlement.

The deal works out to a payment of $500 a share, which falls fall short of the thousands of dollars a share that some employees said they had lost.

About 20,000 Wawa employees are enrolled in the Wawa ESOP, besides those who were forced to sell. Although some senior and long-serving employees have accumulated $1 million or more worth of shares, many participants are hourly workers who have only begun to accumulate shares, which are rewarded based on hours worked and type of service. Every year, thousands of workers leave without qualifying for shares.

According to the Cunningham complaint, buying back the shares gave members of the Wood family control of more than 50 percent of the company (the ESOP has most of the rest).

 READ MORE: Wawa to pay $3 million to family of 3-year-old scalded by hot water

The suits contended that the George Wood Family Trust, which controls a large block of family shares, is scheduled to terminate in 2030, which will likely put pressure on Wawa to consider a possible sale or IPO public stock offering. Controlling a greater share of the company could give the family a greater say over any such potential sale of the company.

However, Wawa officials have said there is no plan to take the company public, though past CEOs have considered doing so as Wood family members divided over whether to keep control of Wawa or liquidate their shares and invest elsewhere.

Shares appraised by a firm hired by the Wood family members who control the board of the Wawa ESOP estimated each shares value at $12,744 in the spring of 2019, up from $4,544 in 2013.

Although they are not traded on any stock market, Wawa shares have gained value faster than the major U.S. stock market indexes because Wawa is a growing and profitable company, and because of its change in tax status.

The workers were represented by a group of law firms led by California-based Feinberg, Jackson, Worthman & Wasow LLP and by Block & Leviton LLP, Washington, D.C. Wawa was defended by lawyers at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP of Philadelphia.
Carrie Cook/ABC NewsBY: STEPHANIE EBBS and CHRISTINA CARREGA



(NEW YORK) -- Officials in at least 15 states across the country have issued warnings for residents not to plant unsolicited packages of seeds delivered through the mail and labeled as coming from China.



The United States Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security, and other state and federal agencies are investigating the packages that have shown up in mailboxes across the country.



The thin light gray packaging has a shipping label that appears to come from Suzhou, a city west of Shanghai, China, and identifies the contents as a piece of jewelry like a ring or earrings. Inside, however, is a clear plastic bag of unidentified seeds.



"At this time, we dont have any evidence indicating this is something other than a 'brushing scam' where people receive unsolicited items from a seller who then posts false customer reviews to boost sales," USDA officials said.



"Do not plant seeds from unknown origins," they added.



Officials are collecting the seed packages from recipients and will test their contents to determine if they contain anything that could be of concern to the country's agriculture or the environment, officials said.



Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed on Tuesday that the labels are forged and says the Universal Postal Union "strictly" prohibits sending and receiving seeds through the mail.



"After confirming with China Post, the China Post face-to-face slips on this batch of mails are forged, and there are many errors in the layout of the face-to-face slips and information items," Wenbin said during a press conference. "China Post has negotiated with U.S. Post to return these fake mails to China for investigation."



Since Sunday, residents in cities including Nashville, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Tampa and Minneapolis have reported receiving the mysterious packages.



The USDA urges anyone who receives an unsolicited package of seeds to immediately contact their state's plant regulatory official or the plant health director of their state's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.



"Please hold onto the seeds and packaging, including the mailing label, until someone from your state department of agriculture or APHIS contacts you with further instructions," officials said.

ABC News' Kirit Radia contributed to this report.



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Troubled department store retailer David Jones has offloaded one of its key Bourke Street stores in Melbourne to property fund manager Newmark Capital for $121 million.

The upmarket retailers menswear store  on the south side of the Bourke Street mall opposite David Jones' main emporium next to Myer  is likely to be refurbished and converted into a loft-style office by the new owner, with high-traffic retail on the ground floor.

Newmark has purchased David Jones' menswear store in Bourke Street Mall. Credit:

As foreshadowed by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald in May, the retailer confirmed on Tuesday it had exchanged unconditional contracts with Newmark for the 2247 square metre site at 299 Bourke Street on a short-term leaseback basis.

Several parties are understood to be running the ruler over David Jones two remaining flagship stores, Sydneys Elizabeth Street outlet and the Bourke Street Mall department store, after the group's South African parent, Woolworths Holdings, appointed investment bank UBS to undertake a strategic review of their ownership structure.
Europe is preparing for the COVID-19 second wave amid outbreaks of infection in individual countries, which increases the likelihood of re-imposing quarantine restrictions, The Guardian reported.

The Belgian government has warned that a strict quarantine may be declared in the country amid a spike in the number of infected by 71% between July 17-23 - from 163 to 279 cases.

Belgiums PM, Sophie Wilmes announced Monday a series of further restrictive measures but said a second lockdown may be inevitable.

If we cannot reduce the coronavirus, it will be a collective failure, Wilmes said. Experts say it is possible to avoid another lockdown. But it must be remembered that the worlds leading scientists are incapable of knowing how the situation will develop. We must not frighten people, but neither should we abuse them by pretending to know everything.

The Spanish region of Catalonia may also re-impose restrictions if COVID-19 outbreaks are not brought under control within 10 days. Nearly 8,000 cases have been diagnosed in Catalonia over the past 14 days  accounting for almost half of the 16,410 detected across Spain. The regional government has ordered the closure of all nightclubs and placed a midnight curfew on bars in and around Barcelona and Lleida.

In France, Health Minister Olivier Veran has called for greater vigilance after a spike in infections among young people, and Germany's public health advisory body said it is "deeply concerned" about the increase in sickness over the past few weeks.
The president said that the government has embarked on the execution of an ambitious plan to develop the country's textile industry, which involves replacement of factories over two years

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi inaugurated on Tuesday the first stage of a new industrial complex built by the Egyptian National Company for Industrial Development in Sharqiya governorate's 10th of Ramadan City.

According to a statement by the Egyptian presidency, El-Sisi inaugurated a cotton textile complex comprised of six factories in Robeiki industrial city.

The inauguration event was attended by Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal and Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly.

The Egyptian National Company for Industrial Development is part of the Egyptian Armed Forces' National Public Service Projects Organisation.

The new complex aims at exploiting the full value of Egyptian cotton and to avoid exporting it in raw form.

According to the CEO of the Egyptian National Company for Industrial Development Lt. General Kamel Helal, the complex was built in nearly 30 months over 429 feddans.

The project will provide in its first stage 1,350 direct job opportunities and 12,000 indirect job opportunities, Helal told reporters earlier on Tuesday before the inauguration.

He also added that Egypt was going to have a big and important revival in the textile and weaving industry in the upcoming period, and that the project is part of the Egyptian administrations plan to revive the Egyptian cotton industry.

As part of the inauguration ceremony, the president watched a short film titled "The Threads of Hope." The film documents the story of the building of the industrial complex in Robeiki, which is considered the first smart industrial city in the country.

Lt. General Ihab El-Far, the head of the Armed Forces Engineering Authority, explained that 26 Egyptian companies and three consulting firms participated in the construction of Robeiki complex.

He added that 44,000 workers and 1100 engineers and technicians built the complex. He also explained that work on 13 industrial complexes across the nation has been completed with work on three more underway.

El-Sisi said that the government has embarked on the execution of an ambitious plan to develop the country's textile industry, which involves replacement of factories over two years.

During the event, President El-Sisi revealed that EGP 1.1 trillion have been allocated for transportation projects in Egypt till 2024.

El-Sisi also said that he has commissioned the minister of transportation to solve the issue of a residential building in Cairos Zamalek neighbourhood getting caught in a landslide two days ago.

Concerning coronavirus, the Egyptian president called on the public to continue to take health precautions.

I hope that the precautionary measures taken in the past months continue. We have managed to move from big infection numbers to small numbers, thank God, he said, adding that the health measures were taken in parallel with economic measures to allow several sectors to continue operating through the crisis.

He added, however, that if anything happens again, we may have return to lockdown.

Egypt has so far recorded 92,482 cases of coronavirus, including 4,652 deaths and 34,838 fully recovered patients.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 22:55:30|Editor: huaxia

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DAR ES SALAAM, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Tanzanians gathered on Tuesday to say a final goodbye to the country's third president Benjamin Mkapa at a state funeral in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

In a national address for the funeral, Tanzanian President John Magufuli said Mkapa's death was a loss for Tanzania, Africa and the world at large.

"Mkapa was a global citizen. He was a dynamic leader, a seasoned diplomat, a mediator and a peacemaker," Magufuli said in his address televised live by state-run Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation.

He said Mkapa was instrumental when he took part in peace talks and reconciliation for countries in the Great Lakes region.

The head of state added that during his administration, Mkapa also oversaw the country's economic reforms, good governance and growth of the private sector.

Mkapa, who died on Friday, will be buried on Wednesday in his native village of Lupaso in Masasi district in Mtwara region.

Born on Nov. 12, 1938, Mkapa served two five-year terms from 1995 to 2005. Enditem
In 2017, Rep. Ilhan Omar was serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives when a group of young people held a rally at the state capitol in St. Paul, calling for stronger gun control legislation. The demonstration hit home for her in more ways than oneit was led by her daughter, Isra Hirsi.

In that moment, Omar was reminded that she had been just a year older than her daughters age when the Columbine High School massacre occurred in 1999. If my generation had acted with the urgency that her generation had acted, she wonders, would my daughter be at the state capitol asking for us to introduce sensible gun laws and to protect the lives of young people? Omar shared the memory on Monday, when she and now 17-year-old Hirsiwho is cofounder of the U.S. Youth Climate Strikejoined a virtual conversation as part of Fortune Most Powerful Womens Paying It Forward series.

Omar, a Democrat who in 2019 was elected to represent Minnesotas Fifth District in the U.S. House of Representatives, said that moment of realization is one of the reasons she fights for transformative change, because I know that complacency is what brought us here. Hirsis action helped her understand how we dont have the luxury of waiting another year or two or three and passing the buck to the next generation.

She said that while shes not naive, she does tend to be the optimist in the room, and she is hopeful that the current social justice movement taking place in the U.S. would prevail.

Omar, who is one of just two Muslim women in Congress, pointed to history for supporting evidence, noting that the Montgomery bus boycott lasted 395 days before a single change took a place. The police killing of George Floyd occurred on May 25, and on June 25, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was passed. Within 30 days, not only did we introduce a piece of legislation, we debated it in committee and passed it on the House floor, she said. That kind of rapid change has never been possible in our nations history, period.

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Omar, who fled Somalia with her family as a child and spent four years in a refugee camp before being granted asylum in the U.S., said that one of the reasons shesomeone who experienced war and famineremains optimistic, is that she is alive today because someone chose to invest in her. Someone was optimistic about saving my life, she said. So I remain optimistic about whats possible for us to save the lives of others who are not as fortunate as us.

Omar also discussed why she decided to join her colleague Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in responding to Rep. Ted Yoho, who reportedly called Ocasio-Cortez a fing bitch on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. (Yoho has said he is sorry for the abrupt manner of the exchange but that he never engaged in offensive name-calling and that as a man with a wife and daughters he was very cognizant of my language.)

Omar said the incident was part of a shared experience that women have across communities across the world.

What were asking for is fundamental respect and fundamental equality, she said. She noted that in her House remarks, she talked about how she did not want men to act decently toward women because they have a wife, sister, or mother. We want men to act decently with us because they think of us as equal humans deserving of decency and respect, she said.

Omar added that out of the thousands of people who have served in Congress, only 79 have been women of color. Its an important milestone, she said. But once again that reminds you that people are still getting comfortable with the fact that we are here as colleagues equal to them, and wielding the same power and influence as them.

More on the most powerful women in business from Fortune :

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Jennifer Carole, whose father was murdered by the Golden State Killer in 1980, is speaking out against several scenes in HBO's "I'll Be Gone in the Dark."

Carole is the daughter of Lyman Smith, a 43-year-old attorney who was slain alongside his wife, Charlene, in their Ventura home. Joseph James DeAngelo confessed to the killings in a court appearance on June 29.

The third episode of the HBO docuseries discusses the Smith murders and shows graphic photos from inside the home. Among the crime scene images shown on screen are the couple's blood-stained bed and the log used to bludgeon Charlene and Lyman to death, with what appears to be blood and human remains around it.

Carole alleges that HBO told her graphic photos would be included in the show, but that they would be blurred out. "It's so upsetting to me," she said on her podcast "The Lawyer's Daughter." On that podcast, Carole shows an email exchange she alleges is between herself and an HBO producer. "Just so the team knows, this has wrecked me," Carole writes in one email.

HBO allegedly told Carole that future episodes of the show will blur graphic images of her father's assault. Executive producer and director Liz Garbus told the Ventura County Star that they spoke with Carole and "took steps to address her concerns."

"The thing that changed our lives forever was finding my dad dead in that bed. It changed our family. The idea that once again my brothers and frankly my uncle could be retraumatized by something they didnt expect is honestly something more than I can handle," Carole told the Ventura County Star.

In addition, Carole, who appears on the docuseries, objects to one theory put forth by former Contra Costa Sheriff's Office investigator Paul Holes. Holes says on the show that it's possible Lyman Smith was forced to witness to his wife's rape before they were both killed. Carole says there is no evidence for this claim and asked HBO to remove that segment.

"I don't want all of you guys to think that happened because my dad would have endured even more," Carole says on her podcast. "And it's just wrong."

"I'll Be Gone in the Dark" focuses as much on the life and work of author Michelle McNamara as it does the Golden State Killer crimes. McNamara, who died in 2016, investigated the serial killer for her book "I'll Be Gone in the Dark." As part of that amateur investigation, McNamara obtained dozens of boxes of evidence from the Orange County Sheriff's Department, which has led to some controversy over whether the sheriff's department failed to protect the chain of custody by allowing a civilian to take case files.

Carole says she is not sure where HBO obtained the Smith crime scene photos, as they have not been released to the public.

"I'm so sorry that everybody wants to have this delusion that Michelle McNamara was going to solve this case. It's a shared delusion. It's magical thinking," Carole says on her podcast. "But it also led a lot of people to do a lot of really bad, negligent, risky things to put our whole case  our whole case  at risk because of this delusion."

Katie Dowd is the SFGATE managing editor. Email her: katie.dowd@sfgate.com | Twitter: @katiedowd
HILLSBORO  Amid dueling protests outside its building Tuesday, the Jefferson County Health Department board declined to vote on a county mask requirement after more than four hours of citizen comment and discussion.

Instead, the board discussed working on improving its public information campaign to emphasize the importance of masks to businesses and community members.

Before the meeting, police stood between two shouting groups in the Hillsboro parking health department parking lot as protesters gathered.

On one side, almost 40 people stood without wearing masks, many holding signs that read No mask mandate and No law, no masks" and shouted their opposition to what they saw as government overreach.

Across the parking lot, another 20 gathered in favor of masks shouted back.

I wear a mask to protect others, said Jessica Shepherd, 40, from Herculaneum. Im tired of these people yelling at me and telling me Im living in fear when the only thing I fear is potentially giving a virus to someone else unknowingly that might kill them.

Masks have been recommended by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and healthcare professionals as an important way to stem the spread of the virus. Mask requirements are in place by St. Louis and St. Louis County, while St. Charles County and Jefferson County have released recommendations that people wear masks.

I say no mask mandate, one of the protesters Samantha Wood, 27, of Franklin County said. You have the choice to wear a mask, I have the choice to not wear a mask. Its my body, my choice. My health is my responsibility. I dont expect anybody else to take responsibility for my health."

Larry Tinnin, 39, from De Soto, agreed with Wood as many from the unmasked crowd sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" behind him.

If a person wants to wear a mask, great, Tinnin said. If a store or business wants to mandate a mask, great. But if I dont want to wear one, its my health.

Desiree McClelland, a 59-year-old from High Ridge, said if the county enacts a mask mandate, she will refuse to wear one.

Im tired of people taking control of us, McClelland said. This is all a one-world order kind of thing going on, and thats ridiculous. I dont want it to happen and Ill do everything in my power to stop it from happening.

But Jenny Ruble, 44, from Festus, said rising case numbers are the reason residents should wear masks.

Jefferson County needs masks, Ruble said. We need people to care about each other and wear them. The more people that wear them, we slow the spread. I dont wear my mask for myself, I wear it for someone else. And if we all did that, we would make a difference in the (case) numbers that continue to rise.

The protest was the second within a week, as tensions in the Jefferson County board have risen with the arrival of a newly elected member and mask-skeptic Suzy Davis.

Davis refused to wear a mask inside board meetings both on Tuesday and last week, where face coverings were required, and often clashed with other members of the board. Davis operates the Rocking J Ranch wedding venue in High Ridge and was elected to the board June 2.

Board chairperson Dennis Diehl released a public statement criticizing Davis this week.

Diehl said Davis "made numerous false or misleading statements on Facebook and other media."

"Since her election, she has persistently led what I can only describe as an effort to assassinate the character of the JCHD Director and of the Department itself," Diehl wrote, adding that Davis has been treating meetings as a campaign event for future elected office.

Diehl said Davis contributed to sharing false information that the county would enact fines and criminal penalties if people do not wear a mask if a mandate is enacted. Davis rejected this.

I did not give out any misinformation, Davis said. I dont believe we should have to cover our face. I believe we should be able to build our own immunities and trust our system, and I also believe the positive numbers are not indicative of what is actually going on.

As Davis spoke, several people around the corner shouted toward the county health departments building in protest of a potential mandate.

"Theyre Americans, Davis said of the protesters. People are going to say how they feel, and if they feel like there is something gonna be made for them to do that is unnecessary, theyre going to stand up.

She went on to claim a cure for coronavirus has been found, furthering her stance against masks.

My opinion is based from my doctor and the doctors Ive listened to and studied under. Several doctors (including) a doctor from Midland, Texas, that found a cure for it. Did you know there is a cure for COVID? Its a nebulizer with a cocktail of ... steroids, antibiotics and zinc.

Davis does not have a degree in the medical field and has not worked as a medical professional, she said.

Diehl said the case numbers in Jefferson County, though not as bad as larger counties, are accelerating.

What wed like to see is everybody work together to take care of each other and try to mitigate this problem, Diehl said.

Jefferson County by Tuesday had reported 1,211 virus cases and 25 deaths since the pandemic began. The county's seven-day average of new daily cases rose to 48 Monday, up from around 10 at the end of June.

Updated at 8 p.m. Tuesday with more information.

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John Barrowman has blamed 'selfish' lockdown flouters in California for allowing 'devastating illness' to spread throughout the state.

The Scottish-American actor, 53, appeared on Lorraine today from his Palm Springs home, where he's currently staying so that he can shop and run errands for his parents John, 87, and Marion, 82, because they are shielding.

All individuals living in the State of California are currently ordered to stay home or at their place of residence, except for work, shopping or other essential errands.

He told that the rising number of cases in the state was because of 'people not following the rules' and said those people are preventing people from being able to work, and families from being reunited with each other.

John Barrowman, pictured at his home in Palm Springs, has blamed 'selfish' lockdown flouters in California for allowing 'devastating illness' to spread throughout the state

The actor, 53, appeared on Lorraine today where he told that the rising number of cases in the state was because of 'people not following the rules'

'The devastation here with everyone getting sick is just because people are not following the rules,' John said.

'What get's me is everyone saying, "I want to do this, and I want to do that, and I want go out with friends".

'The more you do that, the more you keep us from what we actually want to do, because we're staying in and trying to fight this thing.

'It's stopping people going back to work, families not being able to meet, celebrate together - because some people are just being selfish and the bottom line is, wear a mask.'

The Scottish-American actor told host Christine Lampard (left) is currently shopping and running errands for his parents John, 87, and Marion,64, as they are shielding at home

He claimed those not following the rules are preventing people from being able to work, and families from being reunited with each other

California has had 467,000 confirmed cases of the virus and 8,544 deaths, with cases drastically spiking in the months of June and July.

John revealed that he is doing everything he can to take care of his parents who are at greater risk of the virus because of their age and underlying health conditions.

He told: 'We've been pretty much locked in and locked down since the whole thing started, so we're coming into month five.

'My mum and dad who live down the street, I do all their grocery shopping. I'm taking my mum to the hospital tomorrow. She has to get an an injection for lady issues. I take her, mask myself up and head to the hospital with her.

The actor, pictured in London in March this year, recently landed a role in BBC One drama Holby City, and revealed the show will soon be resuming filming

'I'm basically doing everything for them because I'm shielding them, they're not allowed to go out, because my mother has asthma and my father is 87.

'Trying to keep my father in once place, trying to keep him down is not easy, it's really not'.

The actor recently landed a role in BBC One drama Holby City, and revealed the show will soon be resuming filming, and were lucky enough to already have access to crucial PPE.

Speaking of resuming filming, he said: 'It was just question of them letting me know how they're running it.

'The one thing they do have on the set is hand santiser and masks, which was already there for filming anyway - so they're a step ahead of other productions.'
Marc Vetri checks the progress of one of his his pastas during a preview of his 14-seat Italian Market pasta bar Fiorella, at the Fitler Club on December 18, 2019. Read more

Three times. Philadelphia restaurants have prepared to reopen for indoor dining three times in two months.

Initially it was June 26, when Governor Tom Wolf announced we were going to green phase. But Mayor Jim Kenney said, Not so fast! and pushed it until July 3.

We were all ready to go. My team hired staff, purchased new partitions, and reworked the dining rooms. We bought food, made new menus that were easier to execute and practiced the flow of the dining room with all of the new protocols.

Then came another pump fake from the Mayor: Lets wait until Aug. 1. Today, it announced a ban on indoor dining until Sept. 1 earliest.

This last false start was even more devastating than the original shutdown on March 16. If you told me back then that we would still not have any idea when we were going to open restaurants in Philadelphia by August, I would have said that was insanity.

Approaching the fall, instead of training staff and modifying the dining room for a safe new normal, we are still waiting, confused as ever, for any sign from our mayor that he will hold to a reopening date. Small businesses, already working on revenue fumes and borrowed resources to prepare to safely open, fear the Mayor will once again play the Lucy from Peanuts role, pulling the ball at the last second.

 READ MORE: The Other Side: Reopening restaurants is a death sentence for workers and the industry | Opinion

And for what? No one seems to know. Even medical professionals Ive spoken with who have been on the front lines through this entire pandemic are confused.

Erin Sabolick, an emergency medicine doctor and acting co-director of Einsteins ED-ICU, informed me that at the height of the pandemic they had over 180 patients with approximately 50 of those in the ICUs on a ventilator but recently dropped to 14 admitted COVID patients with 3 on a ventilator. Multiple doctors I talked to at Jefferson shared that in April and May, they were at 100% capacity but are below 10% today. They indicated to me that we can open the economy and restaurants with a safety-focused, common sense approach. The citys data shows, despite some fluctuation in new infections and a recent uptick, hospitalizations have been declining.

There is risk in everything we do. The mayor is basing reopening on taking zero risk at all, but that approach does not actually result in zero harm. We dont shut down highways because there is a high risk of traffic accidents and deaths. We use common sense, create laws, limit speed, follow traffic lights, all to prevent incidents. We can open restaurants with the same safety-focused approach balancing fear and logic.

 READ MORE: Le Virtu owner: Restaurants, including mine, should be shut down and given coronavirus relief | Opinion

Restaurants have gotten some blame for surges. This claim does not square with reality. For example, officials in Spain, Australia, and Japan have attributed new surges to young people going to nightclubs and large gatherings, not dining out. There is a material difference between un-masked young people crowding beaches and clubs, and locals choosing to dine inside a neighborhood establishment run by a responsible restaurateur who has installed plexiglass barriers, invested in air purifiers, set tables 6 feet apart, and has mandated masks, temperature checks, and constant hand washing by staff.

The maddening aspect for so many of my fellow restauranteurs is the reason-defying inconsistency across industries and society. You can sit on an airplane six inches from someone with recirculated air blowing in your face for five hours. Yet there is no discussion of shutting down airlines, only bailing them out. Meanwhile, the future of federal legislation to save independent restaurantsthe RESTAURANTS Actis unclear, if finally gaining steam.

 READ MORE: What its like to be a server during the pandemic: The things that I loved about my job  they were gone.

Philadelphia recently opened up gyms, and the School District is still considering reopening in the fall, giving families the choice to go online-only or attend some class in person.

Dining, inside or out, should similarly be a choice. Many people dont want to eat out. The Inquirers own Craig LaBan just dedicated an entire article to explaining why hes not ready. But why not give those who do the choice, with appropriate precautions?

Instead of working with responsible business owners to reopen safely, the Mayor seems to be promoting an Us (government) vs. Them (restaurant workers) mentality. He doesnt realize that we are all in this together, and all ready to be responsible together. But we need a coherent planactual leadershipthat listens to public health experts as well as economic experts to safely balance our citys broader wellbeing.

As Dr. Sabolick told me: We all know COVID may kill, but increasing jobs lost, food insecurity, and other financial and emotional stressors also has a cost in lives.

Without a balanced approach we may wipe out a generation of small businesses and the people who depend on them. That includes not just direct employees, but the supply chain neighborhood restaurants work with, including farmers, fisherman, electricians, plumbers, artisans, and more. When our industry fails, so too does theirs. We all rely on each other for survival. When are we going to bring everyone to the table and come up with solutions?

I keep hearing from friends, customers, and family, hang in there or youll get through this. The fact is, this will likely NOT pass for independent restaurants. We are on the brink of collapse that there is no coming back from, and thats not hyperbole. Already thousands of restaurants have closed for goodfrom Michelin Star chefs to mom & pop community cornerstonesleaving north of 8 million workers unemployed. Without opening of modified indoor dining in the coming weeks, independent restaurants as we know them could cease to exist.

 HELP US REPORT: Are you a health care worker, medical provider, government worker, patient, frontline worker or other expert? We want to hear from you.

This virus is not going away any time soon. We cannot simply hide in our homes until its gone. At some point we have to figure out how to live with COVID in the most responsible way. Simple things like mask wearing, washing hands, and social distancing clearly work well, as many of us have been working in kitchens in a safe and healthy way. It is in our industrys interest to do this right, taking every conceivable precaution to ensure as safe an experience as possible for our diners and our workers. Its time our local leadership understood that.

We have to mitigate risk, be responsible, and return to a new normal of economic life without overburdening our public health system. But we have to decide to do it, not simply keep pulling the ball or moving the goal posts for lack of resolve.

Our industry, our city, and our communities are at stake.

Marc Vetri is the owner of Vetri Cucina and Fiorella in Philadelphia.
Jaipur, July 28 : The Rajasthan cabinet met at Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's residence on Tuesday to discuss the objections of Governor Kalraj Mishra to calling a special Assembly session. The meeting lasted for two and a half hours.

The Gehlot team drafted its reply and sent the letter to the Governor for the third time requesting him to call the session on July 31. It is now waiting for Raj Bhavan's answer.

Soon after the cabinet meeting, transport minister Pratap Singh Khariyawas said that it is our legal right to call the session.

"The Governor cannot question it, yet we are answering his queries. As far as the 21 days notice is concerned, 10 days have already passed, yet the Governor has not issued any date. If the Governor does not accept our proposal this time, then it will be clear that there is no Constitution governing the nation." The Governor has returned the file of the state government twice which proposed to call the special Assembly session. The Gehlot government now seems to be adamant on convening the special session from July 31.

The political turmoil initially started with the Sachin Pilot vs Ashok Gehlot fight which is now turning into a Gehlot vs Governor tussle.

Earlier, the Governor on Monday rejected the proposal of the Gehlot government to call a special Assembly session and said that the session can be convened, but the government will have to give 21 days notice.

The Governor also asked the government if it wanted a vote of confidence. "If, under any circumstances, a vote of confidence motion needs to be passed, then it should be done in the presence of the Principal Secretary of the Parliamentary Affairs Department and a video recording should be done. It should also be telecast live," he said and asked that if the assembly session is called, how will social distancing be maintained? He asked if there was any system by which 200 members and more than 1000 officers and employees are not in danger of coronavirus infection? If someone has an infection, how will it be prevented from spreading, the Governor said.
A child has her temperature checked as she arrives at a Head Start day care center for the children of farmworkers in Stockton on July 22. More than 70% of new cases of coronavirus in California's fertile San Joaquin Valley are Latino workers, but advocates say they lack testing and access to care. (Max Whittaker / For The Times)

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Latinos in the Central Valley have been disproportionately harmed by the spread of COVID-19, prompting the governor to send "strike teams" to eight counties while asking the California Legislature to approve $52 million to improve testing, tracing and isolation protocols in those regions.

Newsom said the targeted approach on eight counties  San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare, and Kern counties  comes as the state is seeing widening disparities in deaths and infections of Latinos statewide. Those increases are particularly felt in the Central Valley, where Latinos make up a higher percentage of residents.

The strike teams will be deployed later this week.

"This disease continues to grow in the state of California, it continues to spread, but not evenly," Newsom said Monday while speaking at Diamond Nuts in Stockton. "It is disproportionately impacting certain communities and certain parts of the state."

Latinos and Black people have contracted the virus at a higher rate overall than the general population. However, the gap is widening for Latinos. After adjusting for population, Latinos are three times more likely to test positive for the novel coronavirus than white people.

Newsom said the rate of positive coronavirus tests in the Central Valley range from 10.7% to as high as 17.7%. The state's average is 7.5%.

The surge in cases has hit farmworkers in those regions particularly hard, in part because they often live in close quarters, share transportation to job sites and have little access to healthcare.

Newsom said the $52 million he is asking the Legislature to approve for local public health departments in the Central Valley will come from $499 million in grants the state received from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The governor said he wants to use the $52 million to improve "our isolation protocols, our quarantine protocols, our testing protocols and to enhance our healthcare workers by providing more support as well as more personnel" in the Central Valley.

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Newsom said his targeted efforts will mirror those in Imperial County, which has been one of the hardest-hit areas of the state. The rural county, which borders Mexico and Arizona, has reported 1,240 new cases of COVID-19 in the last two weeks.

"We were able to make some improvement in terms of the transmission and spread of the virus by deploying a number of strike teams," Newsom said.

Those strike teams were made up of state, federal and local personnel who worked to increase hospital capacity and reduce transmission through contact tracing and assisting with workplace outbreaks. The governor's office said those efforts helped drop the two-week average from 836 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 to 308 per 100,000.

"We are doing exactly the same thing throughout the Central Valley," Newsom said.

The focus on California's heartland comes as Newsom has highlighted the need for the state to ensure workplace protections are adequate for essential employees.

Newsom said Friday that he plans to work hand in glove with the Legislature to increase COVID-19-related sick leave, ease workers compensation claim requirements, enforce labor laws and ensure employers are reporting outbreaks. The state Legislature reconvened Monday from an extended recess after having to shut down twice this year due to COVID-19 concerns.

Lawmakers have until Aug. 31 to send bills to Newsom before adjourning for the year.

Newsom's decision to target the Central Valley for virus mitigation coincides with his standoff with two small cities there that have defied state orders by allowing businesses to remain open despite being on the state's watchlist. Newsom has threatened to cut off federal coronavirus funding that the state is handing out to Atwater and Coalinga unless they follow state directives.

Atwater Mayor Paul Creighton on Friday called the move "a bullying tactic" to "extort us."
More snow on the way in Pennsylvania; here's how much to expect
Last week, Trump directed the Republican National Committee to sharply scale back the partys convention, the final chapter in a saga involving whether and where the event would be held. It was initially set for Charlotte, but was later divided into a two-part event after North Carolina authorities refused to guarantee mass gatherings, with the more public, in-person events to be held in Jacksonville, Fla.
This past week, a new group calling itself Beyond Politics (BP) threw buckets of bright-pink paint at the entrances to the London offices of four global NGOs, including Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace.

We have no words to describe our disgust, messages left at the scene told their targets. We accuse you of appeasing radical evil. BP accuses NGOs of not taking the issue of climate change seriously enough. In the face of this monstrosity, what have you done? Fuck all thats meaningful. This somewhat pathetic green-on-green hostility has yielded little media attention, but it illustrates the global environmental movements bizarre and longstanding contradictions.

BP and its petty vandalism were the brainchild of Extinction Rebellion (XR) co-founder Roger Hallam, who got himself excommunicated from his own movement after he told German newspaper DieZeit that the Holocaust had been almost a normal event . . . just another fuckery in human history. Hallams confidence was not dented by exile and charges of anti-Semitism, however. After all, he had seemingly driven an environmental movement from a standing start to a global concern in just a matter of months. Motivated by the indescribable suffering and death of billions of people, Hallam now demands that big NGOs either drive your organisations into a final battle with this genocidal regime or disband yourselves.

Though Hallam is credited with co-founding XR, he forgets the role of money in its ascendancy. It was through the generosity of, among others, billionaire hedge-fund manager Christopher Hohn that XR could afford offices, legal costs, and its protesters generous per diems. Though populated by self-identifying system-crashing anti-capitalists, XR suited Hohns 30 billion portfolio, which he uses to threaten companies such as BlackRock and Moodies with divestment should they fail to conform to green diktats.

Hallam is right about one thing. Green NGOs have developed cozy relationships with the establishment. Even XR, which managed to bring only a few thousand people out into Londons streets, nonetheless succeeded in shutting down those streets, thanks to the nearly full cooperation of the Metropolitan Police and the glowing, uncritical support of London mayor Sadiq Khan. Within a year, XR was invited by MPs to give evidence to committees at the very government departments that its protests had shut down. Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Gove held a conference with the group to discuss its demands. Parliament declared a climate emergency and convened a Citizens Assembly to hasten the government on a path toward its newly stated net zero ambition. All as XR had demanded.

How was this possible? XR has a high profile and cash in the bank, but it is an organization with just a few thousand members, with unpopular aimsbringing down governments and dismantling industrial, democratic, capitalist society.

It is the close relationship between radical environmentalism and the government that better accounts for XRs success than any power XR generated for itself. XR succeeded not because it had mobilized the British public but because it used cash from philanthropic funds to reanimate a small army of surplus activists as an off-the-shelf PR outfit, with well-established strategic and communications teams and extant connections to media and government.

It was ever thus. Environmentalism has long been lucrative for the well-connected, who are able to tap into streams of cash from philanthropic foundations to service corporate social-responsibility virtue-signalling PR and government propagandabig business, in other words. Very big.

The blueprint for this pact was established in the 1980s, when the United Nations appointed Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland to the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). Brundtlands 1987 report, Our Common Future, laid out the framework for a sustainable global political order.

In Brundtlands schema, ordinary voters have no role in the body politic of the global ecological Utopia. In place of the democratic competencies of national governments, NGOs will serve as the real intermediaries between supranational governance, industry, finance, and science on the one hand, and the hoi polloi on the other. Thus, whereas green NGOs were once seen as single-issue campaigns or charities, they are today recast as civil society.

The quid pro quo has required NGOs to sustain two aspects. First, they must act like dignified members of global society, able to mingle politely with royalty, corporations, billionaires, dignitaries, and despots. Second, street-level environmentalists need to act as would a popular movement  a task which, despite the green movements half-century of history, it has not yet achieved. Hence, green activism is better characterized by high-profile, media-friendly stunts and shrill, alarmist rhetoric than by representative membership organizations with coherent constitutions and founding objectives.

This more performative role, however, has created a tension and a liability for the movement: the believers created by the unchallenged narrative of imminent doom are themselves left out of the cozy insiders compact.

Earlier this year, Michael Moore and director Geoff Gibbss film, Planet of the Humans, blew the green movements cover in the political mainstream. The film argued that, as radical as high-profile greens pretend to be, they are in fact the placemen of billionaires and corporate interests. Moreover, green energy turns out to be at least as environmentally destructive as any other extractive industry, and it requires the publicrather than the venture-capitalist backers of radical environmental movementsto provide subsidies for the demolition of forests and natural landscapes.

It is because the coordinates of the climate change debate are so easily turned upside-down that the green movement turns on its own with an aggression usually reserved for its putative enemies. Moore and Gibbss film was swiftly denounced as an abominationa work of far-right, white supremacist fossil-fuel propaganda that must be censored.

Through its hostility to debate and dissent, environmentalism has spawned a growing movement of those whom it cannot accommodate and cannot answer: fire-and-brimstone ecological zealots that no policy will ever satisfy. Fearmongering, it turns out, is a Pandoras box.

Pink paint is just the start. Coming over the horizon are Greta Thunbergs contemporaries: an entire generation whose sense of the future is being shaped by ecological propaganda. What will this next generation do? They cant all be bought off, as many in the first generation of environmentalists were, with jobs in eco-consultancies or NGOs to service the interests of hedge-fund managers. But they have learned from that generations teachers, scientists, and governments to despise democracy. And they have learned that the way to assert themselves is to take to the streetsnot to give voice to carefully articulated grievances but to perform infantile tantrums.

Ben Pile is a researcher, commentator and blogger.
Dr. Malcolm Adams is an economist, educator, and entrepreneur who is committed to leaving a legacy of great service. He was recently recognized as one of the Top 100 Global Leaders in Finance by the Global Conference on Insurance & Finance for his reach, impact, innovation, future readiness, and market demand in the finance industry. Dr. Adams credits his own economic development for his current success and has proven himself to be an economic growth accelerator.

Learn more about Dr. Malcolm Adams

He's put in the time to become an expert. He holds certifications in Systems Engineering, Finance, Business & IT Strategy Alignment, and an Honorary Doctorate. He is a member of the International Association for Energy Economics and the Chairman of the Banking & Finance Committee of the Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce. National Black Chamber of Commerce Chairman Larry Ivory commented on the amount of latitude given to Dr. Adams. "The Chamber prides itself on finding very talented people to carry out the mission of the organization," he says, "and I believe that Dr. Adams has the expertise to propel the Chamber in strengthening Black businesses in Illinois and nationwide."

Purposeful Economics Vol. 1

He's currently focused on economic development in Illinois. His current projects include: The Fair Access to Credit Initiative, a Minority Business Readiness Program with Rapid Ratings, and a Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge. He's also collaborating with Northpoint Development on a Joliet Economic Development Plan for Preston Heights  Chicago Street, with Bradley University as the anchor institution.

Dr. Adams' other projects include consulting with the United Nations regarding their Sustainable Development Goals and helping to scale business on the West coast as a consultant to local Los Angeles staple, Vermont Slauson Economic Development Corp. He's still working with individuals to form their estates, furthering his mission of helping 100,000 families accrue, manage and protect their wealth.

If you would like to speak further with Dr. Adams, schedule a consultation today.

Follow Dr. Adams on Social Media: Twitter (@DrMalcolmAdams) |

Instagram: (@DrMalcolmAdams) | LinkedIn: (@MalcolmAdamsIAEE)

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New Delhi, July 28 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested Delhi University Professor Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil in connection with its ongoing probe into the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case.

An NIA spokesperson said that it arrested Tharayil, 54, who is currently working as Associate Professor in Department of English at Delhi University and a resident of Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh. The NIA had taken over the probe on January 24 this year from the Maharashtra Police.

The case pertains to inciting people and giving provocative speeches during Elgar Parishad organised by the activists of Kabir Kala Manch at Shaniwarwada in Maharashtra's Pune on December 31, 2017, which promoted enmity between various caste groups and led to violence resulting in loss of life and property and state-wide agitation in Maharashtra.

During police investigation, it was revealed that senior leaders of CPI (Maoist), an organisation banned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, were in contact with the organisers of Elgar Parishad as well as the accused arrested in the case to spread the ideology of Maoism and encourage unlawful activities.

The Pune Police had filed chargesheet and a supplementary chargesheet in this case on November 15, 2018 and February 21, 2019 respectively. After taking up the probe the anti-terror probe agency had arrested accused Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha on April 14 this year. The spokesperson said that during further investigation, it was revealed that accused Tharayil was propagating Maoist activities and Maoist ideology and was a co-conspirator with other arrested accused.

He will be produced before NIA Special Court in Mumbai on Wednesday and his police custody will be sought for custodial interrogation.
He said the case was most likely connected to the Thai Rock restaurant case in Potts Point. Also in the inner city, Fitness First Kings Cross closed for cleaning after a person who attended a gym class on July 20 tested positive for the virus. A person who attended Fitness First in Kings Cross on July 20 for a class has tested positive. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer A Fitness First spokespersons said NSW Health had contacted all members who were identified as potential close contacts of that case and no other members or staff were at risk. "The club has undergone a process of deep cleaning in addition to increased daily cleaning that has been taking place since the club reopened in June," the spokesperson said. "The club remains open and safe for all those visiting."

Two other cases reported in NSW on Tuesday morning were a returned traveller in hotel quarantine and a person who acquired COVID-19 in Victoria and is in isolation. A woman in her 30s, who was a passenger on Jetstar flight JQ506 from Melbourne to Sydney on July 25, tested positive. NSW Health is contacting other passengers considered close contacts, who were seated in rows 10 to 14, and is directing them to get tested if they have even mild symptoms. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Tuesday advised residents not to travel to NSW, as her state recorded no new cases. "We have a hard border closure with Victoria, we have three declared hotspots with NSW and, if there are further outbreaks, we will not hesitate to take action," she said.

Loading "If we have to take even stronger measures, we will take stronger measures." In Victoria, Premier Daniel Andrews said only the most urgent elective surgeries would go ahead as the state manages the outbreak in multiple aged-care facilities, with 769 active cases in the sector. "That will free up beds and it will free up staff. Staff is the biggest issue," he said. "It's about having staff who are able to provide care and support to the most vulnerable residents in, and coming out of, private sector aged care."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, speaking on Queenslands Sunshine Coast, said that, while he was due to spend a few days in the state, he would return to Canberra to help Victoria. Mr Morrison said dealing with the aged-care crisis was a "shared responsibility" between governments. "I think the urgency of the situation requires me to return to Canberra," he said. Pharmacy staff isolate after attending hotspot restaurant Eighteen staff members from the pharmacy attached to St Vincent's Private Hospital are self-isolating after they dined at Thai Rock in Potts Point on Friday, July 17.

Loading "In accordance with a NSW Health directive that anyone who visited the restaurant for more than two hours between July 15 and July 25 [should] be tested and self-isolate for 14 days, the pharmacy staff who dined at the restaurant are currently in self-isolation awaiting the results of COVID-19 tests," a spokesman for HPS Pharmacies said. "St Vincent's Private Hospital and the pharmacy have arrangements in place to continue pharmacy operations with patient and staff welfare the priority." Dr Chant urged people to avoid non-essential travel and gatherings, and to avoid gyms unless equipment was "thoroughly cleaned" between patrons. "Of particular concern is transmission in venues such as hotels and restaurants, the gym, and social gatherings," she said.

"Don't host or go to a gathering of more than 10 people at home." Dr Chant reminded anyone who feels even the mildest symptoms to get tested and to stay at home until they are cleared, and said people must maintain social distancing, hand hygiene and cough etiquette while out and about. "Use a mask if you're in situations where you are unable to socially distance, particularly indoors," she said.

Mr Morrison said, while there were "outbreak zones" in NSW, the state government had them under control. Loading "There are some concerning outbreaks in NSW but they're getting on top of them extremely quickly and containing them," he said. "They're able to keep their economy open and they're able to get on top of an outbreak, and it is in Australia's national interests that they be successful." There are 75 cases linked to the Thai Rock Wetherill Park outbreak, 56 associated with the cluster at the Crossroads Hotel in Casula in Sydney's south-west and eight linked to the Batemans Bay Soldiers Club cluster.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The number of Midland Country residents who have recovered after testing positive for coronavirus has increased by 260 since late last week, according to the Midland Health Department.

The department reported Tuesday that the number of recoveries has reached 1,113, up from 853 on Friday. That puts recoveries in the county well above the number of active cases  839.
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Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle enjoy a match at Wimbledon last year. (Image via Getty Images)

A quality pair of sunglasses are a must for summer. But many celeb-favorite brands boast a hefty price tag.

Despite having access to some of the most elite names in fashion, Meghan Markle is known to wear several styles by affordable sunglasses brand Le Specs.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex wearing Le Specs Bandwagon sunglasses. (Photo by Karwai Tang/Getty Images)

The Australian brand was founded on the principle of creating avant-garde, high-quality designs at attainable prices. Affordable Le Specs have graced the famous faces of stars like Beyonce, Bella Hadid, Rihanna and Lady Gaga.

Markles favorite pair of Le Specs appears to be the Bandwagonand they ring in at just $69. She has been photographed with her trusty pair of Le Spec frames for years.

These retro shades feature a cool matte tortoiseshell finish. (Photo: Nordstrom)

In July 2019, Markle wore the Bandwagon shades while she attended the Womens Singles Final at Wimbledon alongside her sister-in-law Kate Middleton.

The 1950s-inspired sunglasses feature a matte tortoiseshell finish and a glare-reducing polarized lens with 100 percent UV protection.

Meghan Markle wears her favorite Le Specs sunglasses. (Photo: Getty Images)

Markle rocked her trusty Bandwagon sunnies again on day two of her royal tour of South Africa, pairing her Le Specs with jeans and her go-to Madewell denim jacket.

Nordstrom shoppers also love the Bandwagon frames, calling Le Specs eyewear a stylish and affordable alternative to pricier designs.

These are perfect for my face! Lightweight, polarized and so cool! I wish I had found these before I spent $200 on Tory Burch and Ray-Bans, one shopper wrote. These have received so many compliments. Will keep this brand in mind when needing more sunglasses.

Very trendy and lightweight! another wrote. They look great on and match all of my outfits! I love that they are polarized.

Want to jump on the Le Specs bandwagon? Hurry! These celeb-approved frames are sure to sell out fast.

The reviews quoted above reflect the most recent versions at the time of publication.

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Brock Beck, the 20-year-old son of former Rangers star defenseman Barry Beck, was found stabbed to death last weekend in Canada, according to a report in the New York Post.

The younger Beck and an unidentified 16-year-old were found by Hamilton, Ontario police in a driveway in nearby Binbrook, Ontario at 2 a.m. Sunday.

Beck was rushed to the hospital, but was pronounced dead a short time later. The 16-year-old survived and was released.

According to the report, Beck and the teenager were initially being followed by the suspects in a car before being confronted in the driveway.

The motive is still unclear and police have yet to arrest anybody.

Barry Beck, who was traded to the Rangers prior to the 1979-80 season and captained the Blueshirts for six years, responded to his sons murder on Facebook.

Why would someone stab him multiple times if not to kill him, said Barry Beck, the No. 2 overall pick of the Colorado Rockies in 1977 and a nine-time All Star. May god have mercy upon the assailants souls and may detectives find them before I do!
We were able to work out these six subtypes ... that make a bit more sense of this strange disease, said Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at Kings College London. At the moment, were treating it like its all the same flu, but clearly everyone reacts very differently  because they are different people or something about the virus is different.
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. S&P/Case-Shiller home price index for May is scheduled for release at 9:00 am ET Tuesday. Ahead of the data, the greenback traded mixed against its major counterparts. While the greenback held steady against the euro, it fell against the rest of major rivals. The greenback was worth 105.10 against the yen, 0.9164 against the franc, 1.2893 against the pound and 1.1732 against the euro as of 8:55 am ET. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Armenias Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on Monday had a telephone conversation with Nassif Hitti, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants of Lebanon.

The interlocutors exchanged views on ways to further expand and strengthen bilateral cooperation.

In the context of addressing the social and economic challenges due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of international cooperation and mutual assistance was mutually emphasized.

The FMs of Armenia and Lebanon also discussed a number of issues on the international and regional agenda. Minister Mnatsakanyan touched upon regional peace and security and presented to his Lebanese colleague the respective approaches of Armenia.
BOCA RATON, Fla., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- GM Law Firm, a legal debt attorney group, continues to help those individuals mired in debt which has changed since the onset of the COVID-19 virus.

During these difficult times, credit card debt in the U.S. is actually on the decline. In fact, CNN recently reported that the American debt related to credit cards actually dipped below $1 trillion for the first time since 2016.

With so many non-essential businesses closed due to the pandemic, Americans are not spending on things like restaurants or gasoline which is allowing many to put whatever extra income they have into reducing their existing credit card balances.

That's the good news. The bad news is personal debt is increasing in the medical sector.

At the end of 2019, 137 million Americans battled medical debt, and a new study from academic research showed that nearly 67 percent of bankruptcies in the U.S. were tied to medical debt. For families succumbing to terrifyingly increasing numbers of COVID-19 related medical bills, the time is now to seek legal advice to prevent worst-case scenarios.

"The debt burden is shifting dramatically from one category to another," admits Chantel Grant, Esq., a debt lawsuit specialist and Senior Partner at the GM Law Firm. "We're seeing more families hit with unexpected medical bills due to the coronavirus who are looking for solutions to this mounting financial crisis."

Fighting Medical Debt Before a Lawsuit Ensues

Medical debt lawsuits are on the rise, as hospitals are more quickly throwing the debtor into collections. Having an expert legal counsel negotiate with the debt collectors on your behalf is beneficial to finding those areas where debt can be eliminated.

There are also several federal statutes in place to protect consumers against harassing debt collector tactics like the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act that the GM Law Firm attorneys use to a consumer's benefit.

There are also nuanced defense strategies such as bill verification to ensure what's being billed was actually performed. In addition, statutes of limitation laws that differ from state to state can offer another line of defense. The GM Law Firm has successfully handled personal debt cases for over 15 years. The firm now offers free consultation during the COVID-19 pandemic to determine where you stand in the face of daunting debt.

About GM Law Firm, LLC

GM Law Firm is a consumer advocacy law firm based in Boca Raton, Florida, that empowers clients battling credit card, private student loan and medical debt to fight for their rights and help negotiate a satisfactory debt resolution. The experienced attorneys from the GM Law Firm also legally protect clients against harassing debt collectors and provide a customized strategy for debt defense. Contact GM Law Firm for a consultation.

Press Contact

The Avita Group

7472252777

gmlawfirmllc.com

SOURCE GM Law Firm, LLC

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Forty-three cases have been reported in the two weeks since July 12; before that there were 28 cases reported in 3 months, Stoney said. About half of these recent cases are related to an ongoing outbreak in Perkins County.

Individuals who had direct contact with the positive cases were notified of their exposure and given instructions to self-quarantine for 14 days from the date of exposure. Direct contact means they were within 6 feet for 15 minutes or more. Anyone who had brief or minimal contact is at low risk and is not required to quarantine. Those people are encouraged to self-monitor for symptoms.

Free COVID-19 testing events being held throughout the health district, provided by Marks Pharmacy of Cambridge, Community Hospital of McCook and Banner Health of Ogallala Community Hospital. Anyone interested in being tested can fill out the assessment at testnebraska.com or call 402-207-9377 and select a local testing site to make an appointment.
Popular electronic band The Chainsmokers is facing widespread criticism online after footage from a concert over the weekend in Southampton, New York, went viral.

Various clips of the performance, shared by multiple Twitter users, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, show crowds of people standing shoulder to shoulder, where some members wore masks but not all.

The concert, according to the official event website, was intended to be a "safe," "drive-in" gathering, with attendees required to stay within a certain foot radius of their car and only able to leave to use the restroom, when they would need to wear a mask.

But footage and photos from the event do not appear to align with these guidelines, which prompted New York state's health commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker, to send a letter to the supervisor of the town of Southampton, Jay Schneiderman, on Monday.

'Safe & Sound' Drive-In Concert Fundraiser Presented by JAJA Tequila and In The Know Experiences In Partnership with Bumble (Kevin Mazur /

The letter, obtained by TODAY, began by referencing the state's "declared state of emergency," which started March 7, and Cuomo's executive order, which bans non-essential gatherings larger than 50 people.

"I am greatly disturbed by reports concerning the 'drive-in' concert held in your town this past weekend, which apparently involved thousands of people in close proximity, out of their vehicles, a VIP area where there was no pretense of a vehicle, and generally not adhering to social distancing guidance," Zucker wrote.

'Safe & Sound' Drive-In Concert Fundraiser Presented by JAJA Tequila and In The Know Experiences In Partnership with Bumble (Kevin Mazur /

"I am at a loss as to how the Town of Southampton could have issued a permit for such an event, how they believed it was legal and not an obvious public health threat," he added before demanding local officials provide details around the permit.

Zucker also asked why the event was "allowed to continue when it became clear violations were rampant?"

On Monday night, Gov. Cuomo said he was "appalled" by the footage.

"Videos from a concert held in Southampton on Saturday show egregious social distancing violations," he tweeted. "I am appalled. The Department of Health will conduct an investigation. We have no tolerance for the illegal & reckless endangerment of public health."

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Spokespeople for the Chainsmokers did not immediately respond to TODAY's request for comment.

On Twitter, critics called out the apparently risky nature of the event, given the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

"Imagine if the f-----' Chainsmokers blew it for us," wrote one Twitter user.

"yall risked corona.........for the ..... chainsmokers......." added another.

"No social-distancing during a pandemic. We may be doomed..." tweeted a third.

At this stage in the outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends social distancing and wearing a mask when near other people as two crucial ways to prevent spread of the virus. Last week, the U.S. surpassed 140,000 coronavirus deaths, and NBC News reported that more than 30 states are still seeing increasing case rates.
The flight crew and medical staff on the Vietnam Airlines flight that left Hanoi on July 28, 2020 to evacuate 219 Vietnamese in Equatorial Guinea. Photo courtesy of the medical staff.

An unprecedented flight departed from Hanoi on Tuesday morning to bring home 219 Vietnamese workers, of whom 120 are Covid-19 positive, from Equatorial Guinea.

The Ministry of Health dispatched two doctors and two nurses from Hanois National Hospital for Tropical Diseases on board the aircraft alongside ventilators, protective clothing and specialized masks to support the infected Vietnamese.

The aircraft would fly directly from Hanois Noi Bai International Airport to Bata International Airport in Equatorial Guinea, the total flying time being over 12 hours.

At Bata Airport, Covid-19 negative passengers will board the aircraft first, followed by their infected compatriots. Doctors and ground staff will monitor all boarding passengers.

Four positive pressure chambers using plastic screens were set up on the aircraft to separate the infected passengers from others.

The flight is scheduled to return to Vietnam at around noon on Wednesday, with everyone aboard to be quarantined upon arrival. The infected ones will be treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases. This will be the highest number of Covid-19 patients the hospital has to treat at once.

The repatriation flight can be considered unprecedented, as Vietnam has no direct flights to Equatorial Guinea, a nation with poor infrastructure and ongoing conflict.

A positive pressure chamber is set up on a Vietnam Airlines aircraft used to bring home 120 Vietnamese infected with Covid-19 from Equatorial Guinea. Photo by VnExpress/Manh Hung.

Flight attendant Pham Xuan Truong said the crew to Equatorial Guinea volunteered to evacuate the stranded workers, some of them in critical condition, despite the high risk of infection.

Doctor Than Manh Hung, head of the medical staff onboard, said no flight has ever transported such a large number of passengers infected with the novel coronavirus, and that he is prepared for the worst scenario.

Such a high number of infected patients poses a challenge for the medical team. The rate of positive patients is very large, about 50 percent, while there are about five to seven in critical condition, Hung noted.

The narrow space on the aircraft, lack of ventilation and high virus concentration make medical staff vulnerable to Covid-19 infection.

"All of us are worried, but prepared for the worst scenario that we can get infected with Covid-19," he said.

The flight was set to depart on August 3 but was rescheduled to a week earlier.

"We have raced against time to prepare everything and help airline staff learn how to wear protective equipment because they are not medical personnel, even a small mistake can lead to trouble," Hung said.

Early in July, over 200 Vietnamese workers in Equatorial Guinea had sent a letter to Vietnamese representative agencies in Angola, asking for help. Many were confirmed to be carrying the virus.

They were working at Sendje Hydropower Plant in Equatorial Guinea under labor contracts between Duglas Alliance Ltd of the U.K. and three Vietnamese companies.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc ordered relevant agencies to arrange a special flight to bring the Vietnamese workers home since many had been infected.

More than 16,000 Vietnamese have been brought home from 50 countries and territories on 60 flights since the country started repatriating citizens stranded abroad on April 10, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

50 more flights would bring another 13,000 people home by the end of next month.

Vietnam has reported 431 Covid-19 cases, including 15 cases of community transmission in the past few days. The country of 96 million people, which shares a long border with China, has recorded no deaths so far.
President Theodore Roosevelt stands with conservationist John Muir on Glacier Point in Yosemite in 1903. (MPI / Getty Images)

To the editor: One cannot judge the values held by people in the past using the standards of the present. Prior to the 19th century, slavery was present in almost every society on Earth. It is even acknowledged in the Bible.

To consider John Muir a bigot for representing the values of his time is irresponsible and distorts the values of his time.

Imagine someone from the 22nd century judging you for failing to stop driving fossil-fueled vehicles after scientists acknowledged the damage that carbon dioxide emissions did to the atmosphere and to future generations.

In fact, there is an inertia to ideas. Time is necessary for societies to change, and it is wrong to blame Muir for representing what were the conventional views of his time.

Fred Krueger, Santa Rosa

..

To the editor: Muir's biggest failing was being born in the first half of the 19th century. In those days, Europeans routinely assumed they were superior to the other peoples of the world.

The horrors of the 20th century were often consequences of that assumption. Unchallenged assumptions can be very dangerous.

As Muir and the Sierra Club that he founded have warned us, future generations may judge us quite harshly for our assumptions about proper stewardship of this planet. To avoid those condemnations, we should act now to end environmental destruction.

Jim Ralston, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: Recent revelations about Muir's statements show that regrettably, he was a racist. But he may also have been somewhat of a misanthrope.

Muir's love of nature was unquestioned, and he devoted his life to its preservation. His gift was the ability to convince people that we should preserve a collection of nature's timeless jewels for future generations to enjoy.

In reality, he was endeavoring to protect these wild wonders from the exploitation of future generations. Muir knew humanity for what it was: selfish, short-sighted and destructive. But he also knew the idea of environmental preservation would only garner acceptance as long as it pertained to the enjoyment of people. Protecting nature for nature's sake was a nonstarter.

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Through it all, Muir helped create the Yosemite, Sequoia, Grand Canyon, Mount Rainier and Petrified Forest national parks. If the ancient redwood trees, an untold numbers of thriving animal species and an impressive array of pristine wilderness had one person to thank for their continued existence, it would be Muir.

Mark McCloud, Newhall

..

To the editor: The assertions by Muir's critics are incompatible with many of his written thoughts about equity.

As a young man in Wisconsin, he wrote of the Winnebago people "being robbed of their lands and pushed ruthlessly back into narrower and narrower limits by alien races who were cutting off their means of livelihood."

In 1876, he wrote a newspaper article calling for vacation time for "men, women and children of every creed and color from every nation under the sun."

Our public lands are the best thing our government has done for all of us. Muir would encourage us not to divide ourselves, but to get more of everyone out on the trail.

Peter Yates, Culver City


China is calling for dialogue following a statement from Kim Jong Un on Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal.



Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Tuesday at a regular press briefing North Korea's security concerns are not being addressed in the international community, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.



The Chinese statement comes after the Trump administration and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have repeatedly expressed a commitment to talks on denuclearization. North Korea has yet to respond to those offers of dialogue, however.



"The current peace process on the Korean Peninsula is in a challenging phase," Wang said. "That North Korea's reasonable concerns are not being respected is the main issue."



"We must make efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and to realize permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula and the region," Wang said.



China is reacting to North Korean statements after KCNA reported Tuesday Kim marked the 67th anniversary of the Korean War armistice with a speech highlighting North Korean advances in nuclear weaponry.



"With our reliable and effective self-defense of a nuclear deterrent, there will be no more wars on this territory, and our country's security and future will be forever guaranteed," Kim said on the day North Korea refers to as the day of "victory in the fatherland liberation war."



Kim also said the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce, was an event of "pain and grief" that must not be repeated.



North Korea has overcome "all kinds of pressure and challenges to walk the path of a self-developed nuclear power," Kim said.



The North Korean leader also referred to the United States and its allies as "imperialists" with "bestial characteristics," without mentioning those countries by name.



China was referred to as a true friend who deserves tribute, however.



Chinese authorities have been instrumental in the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors, the majority of them who are women.



On Tuesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said the defectors are beaten, detained under unsanitary conditions and suffer from malnutrition in North Korea after being returned from China. (UPI)




Mumbai police are famous for creating awareness of any issue in a creative manner. They recently caught the attention of netizens after sharing a meme to stress upon the importance of wearing face masks amid rising cases of COVID-19.

The police took to Twitter to share a Andaz Apna Apna- inspired meme to urge people to wear face masks to protect themselves from the novel coronavirus and prevent it from spreading. Putting out the meme, they wrote, "Smart Boy".

It was inspired from a scene in the movie in which Paresh Rawal says to his doppelganger, "Teja main hoon, mark idhar hai (I am Teja, the mark is here)." Mumbai police gave a funny twist to the dialogue, changing it to "Teja main hoon, mask idhar hai (I am Teja, the mask is here). They also wrote #MaskApnaApna on the meme.

The tweet is being circulated on social media. People have also flooded it with comments appreciating Mumbai police for their creativity.

This is not the first time police have used a scene from Andaz Apna Apna to raise awareness. Maharashtra police last year in November shared a funny clip from the movie to encourage people not to drive triple-seat.

Sharing the clip, the police tweeted, "Don't drive triple-seat and be a 'kachcha khiladi." The police took the scene from the film, celebrating the 25th anniversary of iconic movie.

The video shows Aamir Khan and Salman adjusting on a moped to make space for Paresh Rawal.
Students in Massachusetts will return to the classroom up to two weeks later than initially planned this fall.

Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeff Riley announced the decision on Monday following discussions with the Massachusetts Teachers Association, AFT-Massachusetts and the Boston Teachers Union.

The school year will be reduced from 180 days to 170 days to allow school districts the additional 10 days to prepare for the start of the 2020-2021 school year.

Students must receive a minimum of 850 and 935 hours of structured learning time for elementary and secondary students, respectively.

Structured learning time is defined in the regulations as time during which students are engaged in regularly scheduled instruction, learning activities, or learning assessments within the curriculum for study of the core subjects and other subjects. In addition to classroom time where both teachers and students are present, structured learning time may include directed study, independent study, technology-assisted learning, presentations by persons other than teachers, school-to-work programs, and statewide student performance assessments.

Districts must start no later than Sept. 16.

Massachusetts school districts must create three educational plans: a full return to in-person classroom; hybrid of in-person and remote learning; and fully remote learning.

Many districts have said social distancing mandates will force them to offer a hybrid of in-person and remote learning, welcoming students back to the classroom physically on a rotating basis.

Massachusetts school districts pivoted to remote learning in mid-March amid a growing number of coronavirus cases, leaving educators scrambling to teach their students. Some offered remote classes over Zoom while other districts relied on take-home work packets for students.

The decision to reopen schools was based in part because of the lower infection rate of COVID-19 among children and the negative impact of keeping children out of the classroom.

Part of our responsibility as educators, administrators, and parents is to do all that we can to help our children in this difficult time, Riley said in June. As we all know, there is no substitute for the attention and engagement that is only possible with in-person learning. We can mitigate the risks associated with COVID-19 for in-person school programs and prevent the significant consequences of keeping students out of school and isolated. It will take all of us working together to make this successful.

Major facility changes will occur in most schools, including but not limited to: reconfiguration of desks in classrooms to allow for social distancing; limiting traffic in hallways; and installation of additional hand-washing hand sanitizing stations.

Classrooms will feature student desks facing forward with at least 3 feet from seat edge to seat edge, the reopening guidance states, though 6 feet is encouraged when possible. All students will have assigned seating in their classrooms.

State guidance calls for students to spend as much time as possible with a single group of students, rather than shifting from room-to-room and mixing with other groups of students.

There is no maximum classroom size number in the state guidelines though larger cohorts of students will need to utilize larger classrooms or alternative spaces, such as auditoriums and libraries. For larger spaces, districts are recommended to break up such rooms with temporary walls or dividers into smaller classrooms.

All staff and students in second grade and older will be required to wear masks. Students in kindergarten and first grade will be encouraged, but not required to wear masks.

Parents or guardians should supply their children with reusable masks which should be washed daily. Schools will have extra disposable face masks available if needed.

Students are recommended to have at least two mask breaks per day for recess and meal time. During these times, students must be at least 6 feet apart.

School transportation will also significantly differ when students return to in-person learning this fall.

All staff and students, regardless of age, will be required to wear masks at all times. Exemptions to the mask mandate will be made for students with medical and/or behavioral reasons.

The new guidelines will significantly decrease the number of students on each bus. An 83-passenger bus in operation will now be able to seat up to 27 passengers - 33% capacity.

A 47-passenger bus is now limited to 15 passengers.

A 14-passenger bus may only be used to transport 6 people.

With the decreased capacity, Massachusetts school districts will encourage parents and guardians utilize alternative modes of transportation, from driving children to school daily, carpooling with a specific group of families or children walking to school.

If a student or staff member reports coronavirus-like symptoms during the school day, they will be evaluated by the school nurse for symptoms. If a student exhibits symptoms, they will be placed in the designated medical waiting room to be picked up by their parent or guardian. If a staffer presents COVID-19 symptoms, they must head home then follow testing protocols.

The symptoms include:

Fever (100.4 Fahrenheit or higher), chills, or shaking chills

Cough (not due to other known cause, such as chronic cough)

Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath

New loss of taste or smell

Sore throat

Headache when in combination with other symptoms

Muscle aches or body aches

Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea

Fatigue, when in combination with other symptoms

Nasal congestion or runny nose (not due to other known causes, such as allergies) when in combination with other symptoms

If a student or staffer presents symptoms, they must get a COVID-19 test and test negative before returning to school. If they choose not to get tested, they must self-quarantine for two weeks.

A list of test sites is available here, and Massachusetts also has an interactive testing map. Additionally, every school should maintain a list of available testing sites. As of now, its not recommended by state education officials. Students and staff should discuss testing with their health care providers.

If a student is tested and it comes back negative, they can return to school once they are asymptomatic for at least 24 hours.

If they test positive, they must remain at home and notify the school of the results, the local board of health and people with whom the child has been in close contact with recently.

A recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs shows the majority of Americans believe such safety measures are necessary for schools to reopen.

Of those surveyed, less than 8% believe K-12 schools should reopen for normal in-person instruction.

About 14% sought to have schools reopen with minor changes while 46% believe major adjustments are necessary for the safety of students and staff.

An additional 31% said they dont believe schools should reopen this fall, instead continuing remote learning.

Related Content:
CHICAGO, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Industrial Valves Market With COVID-19 & Oil Price Crisis Impact Analysis By Function (On-off/Isolation, Control), Material, Type, Size, End-User (Oil & Gas, Energy & Power, Water & Wastewater Treatment), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Industrial Valves Market size was valued at USD 48.1 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 85.7 billion by 2025. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.3% during the forecast period. Increasing demand for valves from the pharmaceuticals industry due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, growing focus on the development of smart cities globally, rising need for connected networks to maintain and monitor industrial equipment, and surging requirement for establishing new nuclear power plants and revamping existing ones are the key driving factors for the industrial valves market.

Ask for PDF Brochure:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=256097136

Plug valves to account for the largest share of the industrial valves market

Plug valves are expected to lead the industrial valves market, by type. Plug valves are similar to ball valves. The moving part of a plug valve consists of a tapered plug instead of a ball. Plug valves are mainly used on pipes carrying raw sewage, sludge, and grit. They are also used in digester gas systems. Plug valves can seal well, and they do have a tight shut-off. However, some plug valves are made with a reduced port, which means that the flow passageway through the valve is smaller than the adjoining pipe's cross-sectional area. This leads to a higher pressure drop. In this case, full-bore plug valves are useful. Plug valves are heavy and require more space, but they are reliable and durable. In some cases, plug valves are used for throttling purposes. Eccentric plug valves are used for a wide range of flow control and isolation applications, including clean and dirty water, sewage, sludge and slurries, air, and other services.

Oil & gas accounted for the largest share of the industrial valves market in 2019

The oil & gas industry accounted for the largest share of the industrial valves market in 2019 owing to the growing transportation sector, increasing energy demand, and rising drilling activities in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. However, at present, the world is facing an economic crisis due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The onset of this epidemic has affected the oil & gas industry badly, with oil prices slashing like never before. Similarly, on the one side, major oil-producing companies are running out of space to store extracted oil, while on the other side, the oil demand has declined drastically, which has created a huge demand-supply gap. Oil & gas is one of the key industries for industrial valves, but the pandemic has adversely affected the industrial valves market in 2020 to a greater extent.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Industrial Valves Market"

107  Tables

73  Figures

234  Pages

Inquiry Before Buying:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=256097136

North America to account for the largest share of the industrial valves market by 2025

North America is a large consumer and a producer of natural gas, and the market in this region is dominated by the US supply and demand dynamics. The US was the world's largest producer and consumer of natural gas in 2019. This factor, along with the shale gas boom in North America, contributed to the significant growth of the oil & gas industry in the region until 2019. However, right from the beginning of 2020, the entire world has been strongly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, a health and an economic crisis. The US is among the most affected countries in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has plummeted the oil demand drastically. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that the global oil demand was 11.4 million b/d, lower in March 2020 than the annual average in 2019. It further forecasts the demand to be 17.1 million b/d, lower in April 2020. For the year, the EIA estimates that the demand will be 95.5 million b/d (5.2% lower than that in 2019). This is anticipated to be the largest drop since the EIA began keeping records. This drop in demand is likely to have an adverse impact on the growth of the industrial valves market in 2020.

A few of the key players in the industrial valves market are Emerson (US), Cameron  Schlumberger (US), Flowserve (US), IMI Plc. (UK), Metso (Europe), Spirax Sarco (UK), Crane Co. (US), KITZ Corporation (Japan), Trillium Flow Technologies (UK), and BRAY International (US).

Related Reports:

Ball Valves Market by Size (Up to 1", 1"6", 6" to 25", 25" to 50", 50" and Above), Type (Trunnion Mounted, Floating, Rising Stem), Material (Stainless Steel, Cast Iron, Alloy, Cryogenic), Industry, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2024

Control Valve Market by Material, Component (Actuators, Valve Body), Valve Size, Valve Type (Rotary and Linear), Industry (Oil & Gas, Water & Wastewater Treatment, Energy & Power, Chemicals), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

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MarketsandMarkets INC.

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Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]

Visit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com

Research Insight : https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/industrial-valve-market.asp

Content Source : https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/industrial-valve.asp

SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
OAKLAND, Calif., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Xantrion Inc., announced today that CRN  , a brand of The Channel Company, has named Xantrion to its 2020 Solution Provider 500 list. This annual list ranks the largest North American IT channel partner organizations by revenue.

The Solution Provider 500 is the industry standard for recognizing the highest performing technology integrators, strategic service providers and IT consultants. It is the industry's predominant channel partner list, serving as a valuable resource for technology vendors looking to partner with top solution providers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the global economy and the IT industry. For the channel, it's no longer business as usual but the companies on this year's CRN Solution Provider 500 list are meeting the new challenges head-on.

"CRN's Solution Provider 500 list showcases the top IT channel partner organizations across North America," said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. "This year, companies on this list represent a combined revenue of $393 billion, a data point that underscores the impact and influence these solution providers have on the IT industry. On behalf of The Channel Company, I'd like to congratulate these companies for their outstanding contributions to the growth and success of our industry."

"We are honored to be included in the Solution Provider 500 list for the second time. I attribute our inclusion to our world class support and ability to deliver relevant solutions like our Xantrion Managed Security service," said Anne Bisagno, President, Xantrion Inc.

The complete 2020 Solution Provider 500 list is available online at https://www.crn.com/sp-500/sp2020.htm.

About Xantrion Inc.

Experts in cybersecurity and technical support, Xantrion provides outsourced IT services for midsized companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its team of IT experts brings impeccable technical and business skills to every assignment. Featuring an award-winning strategic approach, SOC2 Type II certified security practices, 24/7 help desk, fixed fees, and a 99.9% uptime record, Xantrion is a proven partner for managed IT and security services.

About the Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. https://www.thechannelcompany.com

CONTACT:

Anne Bisagno

Xantrion

510-588-8201

[email protected]

SOURCE Xantrion Inc.

Related Links

http://www.xantrion.com


The Finance Minister of the Republic of Ghana has made extraordinary progress with him at the helm of affairs as a director of the national economy. With him at post, the numbers keep getting better and the better keeps getting best.

Hon. Adongo of the NDC, even though could call his elementary economics ideas as one from a professional, could not help in managing the economy when his party was in power but so vociferous in attacks on the current man of the moment.

Ken Ofori Atta has presented a budget review to Parliament for debates, as we seek to recover from the effects Covid19 posed and continue to pose to our economy. In the budget are stimulus packages, relief packages, tax reductions and many pragmatic steps and decisions that many believe will make good fortunes for the country in its quest to recover. As the President said, "we know how to bring back our economy..."

Meanwhile, Hon. Adongo has referred to the Finance Minister as a clever thief. This is mainly because the Finance Minister mentioned that the country has fed 400.000 persons who needed relief during lockdown to the tune of GHC 54 million.

This is a clear indication that the Ndc lacks mathematical and statistical accuracy and therefore jumps on the back of insults to deal with situations they don't have strength to solve. The math is so simple that even JHS students know that if 400.000 persons are fed with GHC 5 a day for 30 days it will in itself amount to GHC 60 million. Of course the lockdown period was for a 21 day period and we also know the food shared was more than GHC 5 per head. What at all could be blinding a whole party not to see this clearly.

Well, the answer lies in H.E. Dr. Bawumia, anytime Dr. Bawumia sneezes the Ndc catches a cold and the cold clouds their senses depriving them the ability to do proper analysis of the subject matter at hand, can't blame Hon. Adongo though, H.E. Dr. Bawumia has been a thorn in Ndc's flesh especially that of Hon. Adongo, anytime the Economic Team headed by H.E. Dr Bawumia comes out swinging with facts backed by data to show the level of our growth, Hon. Adongo and his Inept Team also goes to the Haystack to look for the needle, how pathetic, Hon. Adongo trying to be on the same pedestal with H.E. Dr. Bawumia and the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta is like the snake going to visit the mongoose.

The narrative is so true that the alternative we have is very scary and empty. Our resolve to bless the authority we have as voters and hand it over to Nana Akufo-Addo for the second period running is Unwavering and God willing the NPP Shall Continue To Rule.

FOUR MORE FOR NANA.!!!!!!!!!!

May God Bless Ghana,

Nana Addo And The NPP.

...Signed...

Nana Boateng

NPP Germany Branch Communications Director.
By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan increased export of goods to Turkey in the first six months of 2020, local media reported with reference to the State Customs Committee on July 27.

According to the statement, during the reporting period, Turkey, Iran and Turkmenistan accounted to the largest amount of goods imported from Azerbaijan among Organization of Islamic Cooperation countries.

The value of goods exported to Turkey accounted to $739.5 million, while from Iran $137.4 million. Export to Turkmenistan accounted to $49.8 million.

Thus, Azerbaijan has increased export to Turkey in the first six months of 2020, compared to the same period last year. Export to Iran and Turkmenistan decreased during the reporting period, compared to 2019.

Earlier it was reported that, Russia accounted to the largest amount of goods imported from Azerbaijan among CIS countries in the first six months of 2020. Goods exported to Russia amounted to $380.5 million.

Moreover, during the reporting period, among Spanish-speaking countries, the largest amount of goods were exported to Spain from Azerbaijan worth $129 million.

The countrys overall foreign trade turnover amounted to $9.8 billion in the first half of 2020, with a surplus of $41.5 million.
Chairperson of the New Patriotic Party(NPP)-USA, Obaa Yaa Frempong says the opposition NDC running mate sounded like a poet in her speech at her outdooring yesterday Monday

Obaa Yaa in an interview on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM said obviously there wont be any takeaway for Ghanaians who sat through to listen to the NDCs running mate.

I can tell you for a fact that nobody will even remember what the woman said in terms of policy direction of the NDC, Obaa Yaa told host Bonohene Baffuor Awuah.

Meanwhile, John Mahama has said he is convinced that with Opoku-Agyemangs zeal for service and her unquestionable integrity, she will greatly impact the development focus of our activities as a party and when we come into government.

She has already began her policy briefings as incoming Vice President, ready and willing to work hard for Ghanaians, Mahama said amid applause from NDC members present.

The academic repute formally mounted the campaign platform last night after being outdoored by the Flagbearer as his running mate.

The party held a ceremony at University of Professional Studies (UPSA) to officially outdoor Prof. Opoku-Agyemang as running mate for the December 2020 Presidential elections.

---kasapafmonline
Last week Egypts parliament gave its backing to General Abdel Fatah el-Sisis threat to send troops to Libya in support of warlord Khalifa Haftars forces in Libya. It could lead to a direct clash with Turkey, drawing in the imperialist and regional powers.

Haftars Libyan National Army (LNA) controls the east and south of the war-torn country and is backed by Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt. It is fighting to retain control of Sirte against Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarrajs United Nations-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in the capital Tripoli, which is backed by Turkey, Qatar and Italy.

The division of the country into two rival power centres, Tripoli and Benghazi, is the outcome of the bloody civil war for the control of the countrys energy resources, the richest in Africa. It was precipitated by the NATO-led invasion of Libya and the assassination of long-time ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. It also pits NATO allies, Turkey and Italy, against France.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans deployment of military experts3,500 Syrian mercenaries belonging to rebel Syrian militias and ex-ISIS fighters for wages ranging from $500 to $2,000 a month, as well as armed dronesprevented Haftars forces, which had been besieging Tripoli for 14 months, from taking the capital and have pushed back his forces eastwards. Turkey now wants GNA forces to press on to the coastal city of Sirte, close to the main export-orientated oilfields Haftar still controls and take the airbase in Jufra.

Haftars withdrawal from the oil region would hand over the countrys main oil facilities to Tripoli.

The Tripoli government condemned Egypts decision as a hostile act and direct interference, amounting to a declaration of war.

El-Sisi, who seized power in a bloody military coup in 2013, said, Egypt will not stand idle in the face of any moves that pose a direct threat to the national security, not only the Egyptian and Libyan, but also the Arab, regional and international ones. In a closed-door session, the House of Representatives unanimously approved the deployment of the Egyptian armed forces on combat missions outside Egypts borders to defend Egyptian national security against criminal armed militias and foreign terrorist elements. The deployment would be on a western front, meaning Libya.

On Saturday, Egypts naval forces took part in joint maritime training exercises with French vessels in the southern Mediterranean, in preparation for combat missions against hostile forces. It follows similar exercises in French territorial waters in March 2019, joint air-sea exercises in the Mediterranean Sea in July, and further joint naval exercises in September.

El-Sisi has presented a Turkish-backed GNA attack on Sirte, 1,400 kilometres from Egypt, as a threat to Egypts western border and national security. He cited the demand of tribal leaders and politicians from Haftars base in the eastern port city of Benghazi for Cairos military support to protect Libyan sovereignty to provide a fig leaf for Egypts intervention.

His move is aimed at securing Egypts geostrategic interests in the Levantine Basin in the eastern Mediterranean that contains newly discovered gas fields, of which by far the largest is Egypts Zohr field with an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas), with other potential resources in the Nile Delta.

This has made Egypt one of the biggest producers in North Africa and the Middle East, exporting 172.8 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas in 2019. Cairo is also seeking to become a vital link for energy trading between the Middle East, Africa and Europe, with its two large-scale gas export terminals at Iduku and Damietta, the only ones in the eastern Mediterranean, which cool gas into liquids for export by tankers.

But el-Sisis plans for Egypt to become an export hub for Europe, after signing an agreement with Cyprus in 2018 to construct a pipeline to its Aphrodite field, have been stymied by Turkeys November 2019 agreement with the GNA in Tripoli. That agreement, in return for Ankaras military support, demarcated the maritime borders between the two countries, vastly expanding Turkeys territorial watersalso claimed by Greece and Cyprusand denying the claims of Crete, Rhodes and other islands.

Since then, Ankara has expanded its gas exploration efforts to waters claimed by Greece. Last week, a Turkish naval expedition escorting oil-drilling vessels in the Aegean Sea off the Greek island of Kastellorizo nearly escalated into war between Turkey and Greece, both members of the NATO alliance, that were on the verge of war in the 1990s.

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron upped the ante against Turkey, posting a Facebook message in Greek expressing his full solidarity with Greece and Cyprus against Turkeys violation of their sovereign rights, adding We must not accept threats to the sea area of an EU member state.

He has called for sanctions against Turkey over the issue and pulled out of NATOs planned exercises in the Mediterranean over Ankaras role in supporting the LNA against Haftar, its proxy in Libya, and allegations that Turkish vessels were harassing its ships.

Macrons increasingly close military relations with the butcher of Cairo is aimed at securing Egypt as Frances local proxy to provide the necessary boots on the ground to protect Haftar and thus French oil and gas interests against the rival Turkish, Qatari and Italian-backed forces.

For Egypt, the key issue is that the new maritime border blocks the route of its proposed pipeline, gives Ankara an increasing role in the eastern Mediterranean and forces the major powers, Russia, the US and the European Union, to view it as a key player in the region.

Cairos hostility to Turkey stems from Erdogans warm relations with former President Mohammed Mursis Muslim Brotherhood-led government, elected in 2012 after Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign by the Egyptian masses. El-Sisis ouster of Mursi, with Saudi Arabia and the UAEs support in 2013, blocked Turkeys efforts to build diplomatic, economic and military relationships with Egypt. Ankara refused to recognize him, viewing his seizure of power as illegal and his regime illegitimate.

El-Sisis concern is that Turkeys presence and support for al-Sarrajs GNA could consolidate the power of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya, turning the country into a militant base against Egypt. While Riyadh and Abu Dhabi share Cairos antipathy to Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood, their purpose in backing Haftars LNA is to isolate Qatar, which has close links with Iran and supports the Brotherhood and the GNA in Tripoli.

The eastern Mediterranean, including North Africa, has become the focus of ever widening conflicts, with all the imperialist and regional powers pursuing their own rapacious demands for control over the regions wealth, resources and transport routes.

El-Sisis proposed war against Turkey in Libya is profoundly unpopular with the Egyptian people, who have launched the Arabic hashtag I did not delegate, opposing parliaments authorization for el-Sisi to intervene on the basis of preserving national security, calling it an attempt to deflect criticism of his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic fallout.

Egypt officially has more than 92,000 cases and 4,606 deathsthe highest in the regionalthough one government minister has repeatedly warned that the real number could be five or even 10 times higher. According to Baseera, the Egyptian Centre for Public Opinion Research, at least 616,000 people have been infected with the virus.

According to the Egyptian Medical Syndicate, more than 3,000 medical workers have caught the disease and at least 117 doctors have died. In May, it warned that the health care system was on the point of collapse and blamed the government for failing to provide the necessary drugs or beds, adequate personal protective equipment or enough tests for medical workers who came into contact with those known to be infected. The governments response has been to crackdown on health care workers who dared to criticise the governments handling of the crisis, with increasing numbers being threatened or detained by the security services.

Even before the pandemic, around a third of the 100 million population were living below the poverty line. According to the countrys statistics agency, more than a quarter of those with a job were not working due to lockdown measures that have condemned millions to destitution, while more than half of those working were on reduced hours or days.

Tourism, which accounts for nearly 5 percent of GDP, has evaporated, while remittances from Egyptians working in the Gulf states have plummeted from the usual $27 billion per year (at least 10 percent of GDP) as foreign workers have been laid off, with many returning to Egypt, adding to the growing numbers of unemployed. Revenues from the newly expanded Suez Canal have fallen due to the world recession.

As its foreign currency reserves fell to just $31 billion, Egypt turned to the International Monetary Fund for a $2.8 billion loan in May to combat COVID-19. It has just received approval for another $5.2 billion loan that will require even greater austerity measures at the expense of the Egyptian working class.

It is these conditions that prompted el-Sisi to approve the recent amendments to Egypts emergency laws granting himself and the armed forces additional powers laying the basis for a military dictatorship and banning all political opposition to the domination of the corporate, financial and military elite over economic and political life.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / Zinc8 Energy Solutions Inc. ("Zinc8" or the "Company") (TSXV:ZAIR) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an engagement with Incite Capital Markets Inc. ("Incite") of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to provide investor relations and capital markets advisory services to the Company.

Incite will initiate and strengthen relationships with the financial community including shareholders, investors and other stakeholders for the purpose of increasing awareness of the Company, its technology and its activities. A key part of this mandate will focus on increasing visibility and building relationships with analysts, investment dealers, financial advisors and other investment professionals. Incite will also spearhead the Company's investor relations initiatives, including its participation in investment conferences, planning and organization of investor events, and assist in the dissemination of Company news and information to Zinc8 stakeholders. Incite Capital and its executives currently hold approximately 5% of the issued and outstanding shares of Zinc8 Energy Solutions.

The agreement with Incite has an initial term of 12 months, for which Incite will be paid a monthly fee of $15,000 and will be granted an option to acquire 200,000 common shares of Zinc8 at a price of $0.20 per share. The options will be exercisable for a period of three years from the date of grant and will vest monthly over the first 12 months of the contract.

About Incite Capital Markets

Vancouver, BC-based Incite Capital Markets is an independent, innovative and trusted capital markets advisory corporation. Built on a proven track record of over 20 years' experience helping companies achieve the best results possible, Incite provides expertise in capital markets, corporate communications, and investor and media relations. In addition to strategic insights, Incite invests in small to mid-sized technology companies. This unique and specialized synergy where corporate finance and communications meet, is an advantage for any company looking to elevate their profile. For further information, please visit www.incitecapitalmarkets.com.

About Zinc8 Energy Solutions Inc.

Zinc8 has assembled an experienced team to execute the development and commercialization of a dependable low-cost zinc-air battery. This mass storage system offers both environmental and efficiency benefits. Zinc8 strives to meet the growing need for secure and reliable power.

To watch a short video outlining Zinc8's technology, please visit:

https://zinc8energy.com

More about the Zinc8 Energy Storage System (ESS)

The Zinc8 ESS is a modular Energy Storage System designed to deliver power in the range 20kW - 50MW with capacity of 8 hours of storage duration or higher. With the advantage of rechargeable zinc-air flow battery technology, the system can be configured to support a wide range of long-duration applications for microgrids and utilities. Since the energy storage capacity of the system is determined only by the size of the zinc storage tank, a very cost-effective and scalable solution now exists as an alternative to the fixed power/energy ratio of the lithium ion battery.

Technology

The Zinc8 ESS is based upon unique patented zinc-air battery technology. Energy is stored in the form of zinc particles, similar in size to grains of sand. When the system is delivering power, the zinc particles are combined with oxygen drawn from the surrounding air. When the system is recharging, zinc particles are regenerated, and oxygen is returned to the surrounding air.

Applications

The flexibility of the Zinc8 ESS enables it to service a wide range of applications. Typical examples include:

Smoothing energy derived from renewable sources such as wind and solar

Commercial/Industrial backup replacing diesel generators

Industrial and grid scale, on-demand power for peak shaving and standby reserves

Grid-scale services such as alleviating grid congestion, deferring transmission/distribution upgrades, energy trading and arbitrage, and increasing renewable energy penetration.

Architecture

The Zinc8 ESS is designed according to a modular architecture that enables a wide variety of system configurations to be created from a small number of common subsystems. Each subsystem implements a single element of the technology:

The Zinc Regeneration Subsystem (ZRS) provides the recharging function

The Fuel Storage Subsystem (FSS) provides the energy storage function

The Power Generation Subsystem (PGS) provides the discharging function

Notice Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains certain statements or disclosures relating to Zinc8 Energy Solutions that are based on the expectations of its management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to Zinc8 Energy Solutions which may constitute forward-looking statements or information ("forward-looking statements") under applicable securities laws. All such statements and disclosures, other than those of historical fact, which address activities, events, outcomes, results or developments that Zinc8 Storage anticipates or expects may or will occur in the future (in whole or in part) should be considered forward-looking statements.

Forward looking statements in this press release include that we can execute the development and commercialization of a dependable low cost zinc-air battery; that our mass storage system offers both environmental and efficiency benefits; and that we can help meet the needs for secure and reliable power. Zinc8 Energy Solutions believes the material factors, expectations and assumptions reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable at this time, but no assurance can be given that these factors, expectations and assumptions will prove to be correct. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are not guarantees of future performance. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements including, without limitation: that our technology fails to work as expected or at all; that our technology proves to be too expensive to implement broadly; that customers do not adapt our products for being too complex, costly, or not fitting with their current products or plans; our competitors may offer better or cheaper solutions for battery storage; general economic, market and business conditions; increased costs and expenses; inability to retain qualified employees; our patents may not provide protection as expected and we may infringe on the patents of others; and certain other risks detailed from time to time in Zinc8 Energy Solution's public disclosure documents, copies of which are available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligations to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws.

Neither the CSE nor any Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For more information please contact:

Incite Capital Markets

Kristian Schneck / Eric Negraeff

Ph: 604.493.2004

Zinc8 Energy Solutions Inc.|

Mark Baggio

Ph: 647-909-5053

Email: investors@zinc8energy.com

SOURCE: Zinc8 Energy Solutions Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/599169/Zinc8-Announces-Investor-Relations-and-Capital-Markets-Advisory-Services-Engagement-with-Incite-Capital-Markets
JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education (RBSE), Ajmer is all set to release the RBSE class 10th board results 2020 in next few minutes. The RBSE 10th results 2020 will be announced by the board at 4 pm on Tuesday (July 28). Students will be able to check the results for Rajasthan Board class 10th RBSE 2020 online.

The results would be made available on RBSE's official website - rajresults.nic.in.

Rajasthan Education Minister Govind Singh Dotasra on Sunday announced that the RBSE board would declare the Rajasthan Class 10th results on July 28 at 4pm. "Result of Class 10 Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education will be released tomorrow, July 28, 2020, at 4 pm," he tweeted yesterday.

The RBSE class 10th results 2020 are awaited by almost 11 lakh students.

Once officially declared, the students who appeared in the Rajasthan RBSE class 10 examinations this year will be able to check their scorecards on - rajresults.nic.in and rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in.

The passing mark for RBSE 10th Exam students is 33 per cent in all six subjects namely Science, Social Science, English, Hindi, Mathematics and either of Sanskrit/ Urdu/ Rajasthani/ Music/ others.

Here's how to check Rajasthan Board Class 10th results online:

Step 1: Students should first visit the RBSE's official websites: rajresults.nic.in and rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in

Step 2: Click on the link showing class 10 results option;

Step 3: Now enter your roll number and put the required details;

Step 4:You can now see your result is being displayed on the screen;

Step 5: Check your scorecard carefully and download the result copy for future reference.

Students can also check the RBSE 10th result 2020 via SMS: Type  RESULT (space) RAJ10A (space) ROLL NUMBER  and send it to 56263. The SMS notification will have a direct link to check the RBSE Class 10th results.

The Rajasthan Class 10 exams were scheduled to be held from March 20 to 24 but the exams were postponed due to coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown. The exams were later held between June 29 and 30.

The RBSE Class 12th Science results 2020 were declared on July 8 and the overall passing percentage was recorded at 91.96. The RBSE Class 12th Commerce result 2020 was announced on July 13.
The logo of the application TikTok on Dec. 14, 2018. (Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images)

Social Media Giants Called to Australian Senate Probe

TikTok, Facebook, Twitter and Google officials have been invited to give evidence at an Australian Senate inquiry into foreign interference through social media.

Senators hope Australian representatives from video-sharing platform TikTok appear at a hearing on August 21, while the others have been asked to attend in September.

The inquiry is looking at the use of social media for purposes that undermine Australias democracy and values, including through misinformation being spread.

Its also looking at ways to reduce such risks and international responses to cyber foreign interference and misinformation.

The federal government is keeping a close eye on TikTok over fears it shares user data with China, an accusation the social media company denies.

The company has recently beefed up its campaign to clear its name, insisting it would never share data with Beijing if asked.

TikTok says Australian data is stored in the US and Singapore.

RMIT Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation director Matt Warren had told AAP its more concerning how much data is being taken and how it is used.

TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, which also works on AI.

The app not only accesses a phones camera and microphone, but the contact list and information from other apps including location data.

Rebecca Gredley in Canberra
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the world to its knees. The elderly population is especially under stress because of higher vulnerability to the virus. Many need help for carrying out everyday tasks, such as fetching groceries, paying bills, or obtaining medical support.

To ease their worries, Hindustan Times, in association with its partners, has kicked off a campaign called #HTForElders. All that people have to do is to call on a helpline number, and a volunteer will attend to their queries. The number has been set up with help from Samarth Eldercare.

People have also been asked to thank the elderly folks in their lives by writing them a message. It might be a small gesture, but it can nevertheless make them smile during this pandemic.

Here are some of the best stories.

Stories that move us

Aparajita from Raichur has dedicated a message to her mother Kamalini, who is 82 years old

Aparajita from Raichur has dedicated a message to her mother Kamalini, who is 82 years old.

My mother taught me to bake the perfect cake while wearing a pair of six-inch heels and red lipstick. She played Frank Sinatra as my lullabies, but also made me recite the Vishnu Shahasranam every day. She told me that chocolate could fix heartbreak. She also told me that there would be an imperfectly perfect man for the perfectly imperfect me. She, an engineer, accepted that I didnt have a genius, scientific brain like hers, and smiled when I read Pablo Neruda to her. She taught me to be fierce. Most importantly, she taught me never to apologise for who I am or to stop my eyes from shining. Thank you , Ma, for teaching me to live, not just exist, she writes.

Twinkle Sharma from Delhi is extremely close to her maternal grandmother, Vimla Sharma, and dedicates her success to this admirable woman.

Twinkle Sharma from Delhi is extremely close to her maternal grandmother, Vimla Sharma, and dedicates her success to this admirable woman.

If today Im standing on my feet, its just because of her. She helped me complete my education. She is my role model. Today, Im everything because of her, she adds.

For Dheeraj from Udupi, there is no else like his mother, Jalaja Mendon.

For Dheeraj from Udupi, there is no else like his mother, Jalaja Mendon.

She is my world, the only person who connects me with the rest of the family, he expresses.

Roshni Agrawal from Delhi considers herself lucky to have had her grandparents, Gopal Prasad Bhatnagar and Hemlata Bhatnagar, as part of her life.

Roshni Agrawal from Delhi considers herself lucky to have had her grandparents, Gopal Prasad Bhatnagar and Hemlata Bhatnagar, as part of her life. She highlights how they have supported her through ups and downs in life, and encouraged her to follow her heart without worrying about what others thought.

My maternal grandparents have always supported me, even when I failed in history in the first year of college. They encouraged me with their wise words, and asked me not to get disheartened by the results. Later, I reappeared for the paper and not only passed the exam, but also completed my graduation with flying colours. My maternal grandparents arent just my grandparents, but my second parents. They have also taught me several subjects, and helped me with my homework. My maternal grandfather is no more, but I miss him every day. Thank you is just a small word for them. They have done a lot for me!

Isha Sindhwani from Hisar writes a heartfelt message for her grandfather, Shanti Lal Sindhwani.

Isha Sindhwani from Hisar writes a heartfelt message for her grandfather, Shanti Lal Sindhwani.

I have never missed cutting any of my birthday cakes without him. And he voluntarily asks me for a cup of hot coffee, which is a rare moment. He always supports me in all my good decisions. He is an empathetic person, and I admire that about him, she shares.

Amrit Krishna, who is from Katihar, is especially indebted to his father, Chandra Shekhar Pathak, for guiding him all along.

Amrit Krishna, who is from Katihar, cant thank his parents enough for all they have done. He is especially indebted to his father, Chandra Shekhar Pathak, for guiding him all along.

Whenever I am in any serious problem, my Papa helps me. My Papa is truly my best friend, he says.

These stories of gratitude and love have moved us, and more importantly, brought so much happiness to these elders.

You, too, can share your story by filling up this form: https://bit.ly/2W3q7d8

And dont forget: the best entries will be featured on Hindustan Times!
The university, the second to pull out as a host, said holding the event would require too many health precautions.

The University of Notre Dame has become the second United States university to withdraw as the host of one of this falls three scheduled presidential debates amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The university was set to host the inaugural face-off between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden on September 29. The first debate will now be hosted by Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates announced Monday.

The commission has selected Cleveland Clinic as its health adviser for all three presidential debates and the one scheduled vice presidential debate.

Reverend John I Jenkins, president of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, said in a statement that the health precautions necessary to stage the debate would have greatly diminished the educational value of hosting the debate on our campus.

Student attendance would be restricted and volunteer opportunities minimised, Jenkins said.





Trump is facing a difficult election season as the one-two punch of the coronavirus and nationwide protests over police brutality have weighed on his approval ratings.

Debate cancellations could bode well for Biden, known for his public gaffes.

Trump, who is pitching himself as the law and order candidate, is sending unrequested federal agents to Portland, where they are allegedly brutalising largely peaceful protesters. The move is being seen as an abuse of executive power.

Biden has taken aim at Trumps handling of the coronavirus crisis, which Trump largely downplayed in its initial months.

For all his bluster about his expertise handling the economy, hes unable to explain how hell actually help working families hit the hardest, Biden said last week while unveiling a plan for improved child and eldercare. You know, hes quit on you. Hes quit on this country.

The University of Michigan was scheduled to host the second presidential debate but withdrew last month. That debate will now be held at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami.

A third presidential debate will be held in Nashville on October 22. A debate between Vice President Mike Pence and the yet-unnamed Democratic vice presidential nominee will be held in Salt Lake City on October 7.
Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that the UK could impose further restrictions on European countries if a "second wave" of coronavirus hits the continent.

It comes after Englands chief medical officer Chris Whitty reportedly told ministers that 10 Britons who tested positive for coronavirus after July 1 said they had come back from Spain.

The Iberian nation has seen a large spike in cases, with 900 in the past two days alone, as Spanish authorities warn the country could be facing the start of a second major outbreak.

Yahoo News UK looks at the European countries that are incresingly worried about a second wave.

People wearing face masks sit on a bench in Barcelona, Spain. (Getty)

France

Authorities in France have said the R rate of infection is now up to 1.3, suggesting that infected people are contaminating 1.3 other people on average.

The country has reported an increasing number of new infections in recent days, with 1,130 announced on Friday.

Infection indicators now resemble those seen in May, when France was coming out of its strict two-month lockdown.

We have thus erased much of the progress that wed achieved in the first weeks of lockdown-easing, a spokesperson for the French government said on Tuesday.

They appealed for a return to collective discipline, asking people to work from home and get tested if they have any suspicions of infection.

Passengers wearing a face masks arrive at Manchester Airport. (Getty)

Spain

Spain has also seen a large increase in new cases, with 8,000 new cases diagnosed in the region of Catalonia over the past 14 days - almost half of the 16,410 detected across Spain.

In response Catalonia has cracked down on nightlife, ordering all nightclubs to close for 15 days, and put a midnight curfew on bars.

In the neighbouring region of Aragon, where there has also been a rise in infections, 738 new cases were recorded on Friday and Saturday.

Many outbreaks have originated in bars and clubs, but other clusters have been traced to seasonal fruit and vegetable pickers, whose poor living and working conditions often make social distancing difficult.

Story continues

A graph showing Spain's spike in cases. (European CDC)

Belgium

The Belgian government has also announced a series of new measures in an attempt to prevent a second spike in cases.

On Monday, however, prime minister Sophie Wilmes warned that a second lockdown may be inevitable.

If we cannot reduce the coronavirus, it will be a collective failure, Wilmes said at a press conference following a meeting of the countrys national security council.

Experts say it is possible to avoid another lockdown. But it must be remembered that the worlds leading scientists are incapable of knowing how the situation will develop. We must not frighten people, but neither should we abuse them by pretending to know everything.

There was a 71% increase in the seven-day average number of infections in Belgium between 17 July and 23 July in Belgium, up from 163 new cases a day to 279.

Germany

Experts in Germany say they is on the cusp of a second wave of cases, with the head of the countrys public health agency saying he is "very concerned" by rising infections.

"We are in the middle of a rapidly developing pandemic," Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), told reporters.

Mr Wieler said Germans had become "negligent" and urged people to wear masks and respect social distancing and hygiene rules.

In the past week the country has recorded 3,611 new infections.

UK

The UK has seen small-scale flare ups across the country in recent week, including in Leicester which went into a local lockdown earlier this month.

Fears are now rife that people jetting off on summer holidays may be bringing the virus back to the UK.

Boris Johnson has repeatedly stated that the government would not hesitate to act if flare-ups of coronavirus occurred in other destinations.

Its vital that when people are coming back from abroad, if they are coming back from a place where Im afraid there is another outbreak, they must go into quarantine, he said.

Thats why we have taken the action that we have and we will continue, throughout the summer, to take such action where it is necessary.

Greece

The Greek government said on Tuesday it is making masks compulsory again in shops and public services in response to a recent rise in infections.

The move comes as part of an attempt contain the spread of a small number of cases, and will see mandatory face-mask use extended to more venues from Wednesday.

Greece has seen a small rise in confirmed novel coronavirus cases after the gradual restart of the tourism season.

It reported 35 new cases within the past 24 hours, including 4 traced at border entrances to the country.

Austria

Austria has seen a steady rise in its number of cases with one town, St. Wolfgang, near Salzburg, suffering a large outbreak last week.

People in the town and its surrounds have been urged to stay at home after 44 people tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday.

In response Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said last week Austria would be bringing back mandatory face masks in supermarkets, smaller grocery stores, post offices and banks.

Austria has reported over 20,000 cases and more than 700 related deaths so far.

Coronavirus: what happened today

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Local people began drifting down to the Skellig Star hotel shortly after 10am.

They were there to support the 32 asylum seekers in the direct provision centre who are embarking on a hunger strike.

The Skellig Star is located on OConnell Street in the south Kerry town of Cahirciveen. Daniel OConnells image is prominent along the street named after him. Next to the Skellig Star is the closed Daniel OConnell Hotel. Further down the street there is a guide to the OConnell heritage trail. What would The Liberator have made of dispossessed people in his hometown embarking on a hunger strike to achieve basic human rights?

At 10.30am, 10 residents filed out of the hotel. They lined up on the street, presenting an array of posters highlighting their fervent wish to be moved from the centre. That in effect would close the Skellig Star as a direct provision facility. Last March the Department of Justice signed a twelve-month lease with businessman Paul Collins, who owns the company that runs the centre.

The asylum seekers are at the end of their tether. They have been in the centre since mid-March when it opened. There has been a succession of controversies around the Skellig Star since then. The latest one, the last straw apparently, was what the residents say was restrictions on their access to water.

Signs in the Windows of the Skellig Star Direct Provision Centre in Cahersiveen as residents begin an Indefinite Hunger Strike. Picture: Alan Landers.

Cahirciveen is on a boil water notice since July 9. In recent weeks the residents claim they were restricted to one litre of water a day. On July 19 the hotel ran out of bottled water but supplies were replenished the following day. A statement from the department said that residents have access to two litres, but did not address the allegation that it was a single litre daily in the weeks prior to the media inquiry.

At no time were residents without access to safe drinking water, the statement read.

Some of the residents claim that they are still restricted to a single litre daily.

Currently, there are 41 residents at the centre, down from 105 who were transferred there on opening. An outbreak of Covid  the origins of which continue to be shrouded in mystery  saw over 20 residents transferred to other centres in April and May. Dozens more simply left of their own volition, preferring to take their chances with homelessness rather than remain in the hotel.

One of the big issues during the outbreak of Covid-19 was the complete absence of proper facilities in which to self isolate. Yet, last October, the department sanctioned the hotel as suitable as a direct provision centre to accommodate 300 residents. These residents were initially scheduled to move in on November 4 last. Irrespective of the upheaval caused by the pandemic, that plan appears in retrospect to have been ill thought-out.

Locals and residents of the Skellig Star Direct Provision Centre in Cahersiveen stand together once more with renewed calls to close the centre and move the residents to more suitable accommodation. Picture: Alan Landers.

I would leave but I cant because I have a wife and child, says Azwar Fuard, one of those embarking on the hunger strike.

Another resident, Precious, was holding one of the posters at the entrance to the hotel. She is from South Africa and doesnt want to give her second name.

This is not untypical among asylum seekers who fear retribution if they speak out.

The conditions are horrible, she says. Especially for kids. They have not had nutritious food since they arrived."

She is sharing a room with her 14 year-old son. The children have nowhere to play or go except their room. We were told there was an area at the back of the hotel but this is a construction site.

Work has been ongoing on apartments at the rear of the hotel complex.

Notably, the centre has not been inspected since the pandemic outbreak. The department says this is due to health concerns, but it is difficult to see how an inspection could not be carried out.

Precious says she feels she has no option but to go on hunger strike.

It is a serious move but we will make sure that our kids and the people in here who are suffering from underlying illnesses dont suffer, she said. This is just so difficult, especially for the kids.

The opening of the Skellig Star and the subsequent controversies highlights one the major issues that have dogged the direct provision system.

Residents of the Skellig Star Direct Provision Centre in Cahersiveen begin an Indefinite Hunger Strike on Tuesday. Picture: Alan Landers.

The system is operated for profit. This effectively places some of the most vulnerable people on the planet in the care of private operators motivated to make money. In such a scenario some operators will comply with both the highest standards and, in some cases, compassion for their residents. Not all operators are imbued with that kind of integrity.

The system also means that the department must identify suitable properties.

In recent years centres have increasingly been opened in rural areas, often already overstretched in terms of services, and at the cost of huge disruption for asylum seekers, as well as diminished possibilities that they will be able to access work.

To what extent the current government intends to change the system remains to be seen.
- Jemimah had visited her relatives in Nyahururu and requested to be taken to Thomson's Falls before she returned home

- The woman and her brother Zablon Mangafu agreed to visit the famous tourist attraction for sightseeing on the evening of Sunday, July 26

- She spotted a rock and opted to pose on it so that his brother could capture the moment

- It was during the session that she slipped off the rock and fell into the raging waters as her brother watched helplessly

An adventurous visit to Thomson's Falls in Laikipia county turned tragic when a woman slipped off a rock she was standing on and fell into the raging river.

The deceased woman identified as Jemimah Oresha and her brother Zablon Mangafu had visited the tourist attraction site on Sunday, July 26, when they opted to take pictures.

READ ALSO: Bondo police boss dies after developing fever, breathing difficulties

Jemimah at the spot where she slipped. The woman was posing for the camera. Photo: Kenya News Agency.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: My hubby remarried while I nursed wounds in hospital after accident that killed 21- Embu woman narrates

Mangafu said her sister had travelled from Kitale a day before and was set to return home on Monday, July 27, but she insisted she had to go for sightseeing at the famous tourist attraction, Kenya News Agency reported.

According to the brother, they agreed to catch a glimpse of river Ewaso Nyiro at the downstream where Thomson's Falls is located.

An excited Jemimah identified a huge rock on the river bank on which she stood and posed while his brother captured the moments.

READ ALSO: Kenyan envoys' plane headed to Benjamin Mkapa's funeral turns mid-air

Jemimah's brother said she requested to visit the famous tourist site. Photo: Kenya News Agency.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Ayub Timbe: Harambee Stars winger leaves Reading after six months

It was during that photo session when she slipped and fell into the raging waters.

By July 27, her body had not been recovered from the river despite the ongoing search mission being undertaken by the county emergency team.

The family appealed to the county government to deploy more divers to help bolster the operation even as residents living downstream were urged to be high on alert should they spot the body.

READ ALSO: COVID-19 update: 606 more test positive as 14 more die

Nyahururu sub-county police commander Geoffrey Mayek said that the search mission was suspended on Sunday evening due to high levels of the river owing to heavy rains.

In 2018, two university students from Jaromogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology and Bondo Technical Training Institute drowned in River Yala while taking selfies.

Derrick Auka and Sharlet Atieno had gone to the river for recreation before they met their tragic end.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

I did not sacrifice Ayeiya, family wants 21 million as compensation - Wakimani of Churchill Show -TUKO TV.

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Shi Zhengli, deputy director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, said President Donald Trump owes her country an apology as she again denied assertions that the novel coronavirus is linked to the Wuhan lab where she works.

Shi said in an interview published July 24 in Science magazine that she and her colleagues encountered the virus in December last year, when reports of the disease first emerged in the city. She said the lab hadn't seen or studied the virus before that.

"U.S. President Trump's claim that SARS-CoV-2 was leaked from our institute totally contradicts the facts," Shi said in the article. "It jeopardizes and affects our academic work and personal life. He owes us an apology."

The question of the coronavirus's origin has become an increasingly politicized issue as relations between the U.S. and China deteriorate. Trump, who has repeatedly referred to covid-19 as the "China virus," and U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo have suggested a link between the Wuhan lab and the outbreak, although no evidence has ever been presented publicly.

The World Health Organization is sending a team of researchers to China to study the virus's animal origins.

While Shi, who is renowned for her work on coronavirus in bats, has previously dismissed any link between the virus and the lab, her comments in the interview provided the most detailed rebuttal yet:

- WIV has identified hundreds of bat viruses, but never anything close to SARS-CoV-2, Shi said.

- Questions have been raised about a possible link with RaTG13, a bat virus similar to SARS-CoV-2. Shi said the lab didn't culture that bat virus, making an accident unlikely.

- Shi said differences in the sequences of the two viruses suggest they diverged from a common ancestor 20 to 70 years ago.

- Shi's partial genome sequencing in 2016 of a coronavirus she called 4991 led to suspicions it was SARS-CoV-2. But Shi said 4991 is actually RaTG13: 4991 was named for the bat, and was switched to RaTG13 after the entire virus was sequenced.

- The Wuhan lab is subject to inspections, and antibody tests have shown no infections among staff. Shi said the lab has never been ordered to destroy any samples after the pathogen emerged.

- Shi said the coronavirus probably originated in bats and jumped to humans either directly or through an intermediate host.

- The lab found RNA fragments from the virus in various places in the Wuhan seafood market, but not in frozen animal meat. Shi said years of surveillance in Hubei province hasn't turned up bat coronaviruses close to SARS-CoV-2, leading her to believe the jump from animals to humans happened elsewhere.
Indian pilots would be flying five Rafale jets from France on Monday and reach the Ambala Air Force station on Wednesday. The team would take a night halt at Al Dhafra air base near Abu Dhabi in the UAE.

Sources said that India was left with no other option in the emerging emergency situation other than opt for HAMMER missiles, which are already compatible with and integrated into the Rafale jets; thus ignoring integration of SPICE 2000 bombs in the fighter jets, as of now.

Emphasising the emergency situation India is facing, Indian officials on the condition of anonymity said that Rafale jets with the HAMMER missiles would be put into operation without delay. The sources said that a team of ground support staff and pilots have undergone training for the last one-and-half years in France.

The Indian Air Force has stated: "IAF aircrew and ground crew have undergone comprehensive training on the aircraft, including in its highly advanced weapons systems and are fully operational now. Post the arrival, efforts will focus on operationalisation of the aircraft at the earliest."

It was pointed that the Rafale jets with HAMMER missiles carried out air strikes in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

The authorities, however, have stressed that it does not mean that India-specific changes cannot be done or SPICE bombs have been replaced by HAMMER.

Both munitions have different capabilities.

HAMMER -- Highly Agile Modular Munition Extended Range -- is a medium-range modular air-to-ground weapon designed for the French Air Force and the Navy. It a rocket- enabled precision missile with a range of 60 km perfectly suited for high altitude.

SPICE bomb, which stands for Smart, Precise Impact, Cost-Effective, is equipped with a family of weapons used for air-to-ground operations. India has been using SPICE 2000 bombs since 2015 on Mirage-2000.

Apart from the HAMMER missiles, the Rafale aircraft will also be armed with beyond- visual range missiles like Meteor, SCALP and MICA, increasing their ability to take on incoming targets from a distance.

A senior Indian Air Force officer said that Rafale fighter jets would be a major force multiplier. "There would always be a fear factor within the minds of the enemies," said the officer, adding that even one Indian Rafale fighter can thwart the enemy's plans.

The Meteor is a beyond-visual range air-to-air missile with a range of 150 km plus while SCALP is a long-range cruise missile with a range of 200 km that can be launched from the aircraft for deep strikes to hit fixed and stationary targets in land or in waters.

MICA missiles can be used both for visual and beyond-range air-to-air interception and air-to-ground strikes.

The first batch of five Rafale jets will be inducted into the IAF on July 29 at the Ambala Air Force Station, subject to weather conditions, IAF has said. The final induction ceremony will take place in the second half of August.

India is procuring 36 jets comprising two squadrons of the Indian Air Force in the next two years.

(Sumit Kumar Singh can be reached at sumit.k@ians.in)

--IANS

sk/tsb
Massachusetts lawmakers painted the coronavirus stimulus package unveiled by Senate Republicans on Monday as inadequate and irresponsible in light of severe and widespread economic fallout sparked by the pandemic.

Despite general bipartisan agreement that another stimulus is needed during the crisis, Democrats and Republicans are at odds over nearly every proposal within the $1 trillion Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell laid out in parts Monday. Democrats are entering talks with Senate and Trump administration leaders pushing for a comprehensive plan, not a piecemeal approach, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in an interview Tuesday.

Neal checked off a list of demands Democrats are bringing to the negotiating table, including state and local government support excluded from the GOP proposal, extending an employee retention tax credit, more money for hospitals, more money for food security, another round of relief for middle income people and enhanced unemployment insurance.

Many Massachusetts lawmakers urged the Senate to simply pass the $3 trillion Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, which the Democratic-led House of Representatives approved more than two months ago. McConnell called the Democrats package a liberal wishlist, and Republicans note the federal government has already spent more than $3 trillion to rejuvenate the economy after the outbreak shuttered businesses and schools nationwide.

The HEROES Act called for extending a $600 weekly enhancement to unemployment insurance through the end of the year. The supplemental benefit expires at the end of the week. Republicans proposed the boost be reduced to $200 on the premise that $600 is a disincentive to return to work.

I think its irresponsible, Neal said of GOP proposal. When youre looking at 30 million Americans now having applied for unemployment insurance, this is now a matter of survival. The pandemic is continuing to surge and when you look at the long term consequences of unemployment insurance, we were talking about a plan that was helping people to pay their rent and make their mortgage payments.

Neal said he raised the unemployment issue during a conference call Tuesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is negotiating with Senate counterparts alongside Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Neal argued that you cant quit your job to get unemployment insurance and said some of the rumors are irresponsible. While there may be some cases of people delaying go back to work, he argued there was no real evidence the weekly unemployment bonus was a widespread disincentive to return to work.

McConnell said Democrats are pretending it is controversial that taxpayers should not pay people more not to work, than the people who do go back to work. The American people dont call that a controversy. They call that common sense. They call that basic fairness.

McConnell argues Republicans created a serious framework and successfully targeted needs in jobs, health care and schools.

The Republican proposal includes stimulus checks that are nearly identical to the ones provided through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, but expands the definition of dependent to include $500 payments for children at home over the age of 18.

The plan also includes more than $100 billion to help schools reopen; more than $16 billion to assist with testing; and another $190 billion to refresh the Paycheck Protection Program, which provided loans to small businesses.

McConnell said Monday night that the question is whether Democrats will come to the table in good faith. In March, when they did, we passed the CARES Act unanimously. In June, when they didnt, police reform collapsed. It will take bipartisanship to make law.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley noted in a statement that many of the provisions in the CARES Act are done with, and that next weekend, the rent will be due and 30 percent of Americans have little to no confidence they will make it.

People need real relief now, but the Occupant of the White House and Republicans in Congress continue to play games with peoples lives as they work to cut unemployment benefits and force students and teachers back to school before its safe to do so, Pressley added. It is shameful, it is callous and it is reckless.

Pressley called for expanding stimulus payments to our immigrant neighbors and extending eviction and foreclosure moratoriums throughout the crisis in the final package, which lawmakers hope to finalize before a month-long recess begins in early August.

In a Twitter thread Monday night, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the next stimulus package was about economics, but also about our values.

Warren pinned the expiration of moratoriums, supplemental unemployment benefits and student loan relief on GOP leadership, saying while Trump & Pence were bungling the COVID-19 response, Mitch McConnell refused for months to even entertain the idea of another relief bill. Now times up and his caucus still cant get on the same page on the bill theyve been writing in secret.

Magic wands and glitter dust wont solve the economic crisis thats getting worse, she added. Republicans need to wake up, extend unemployment benefits, expand the eviction moratorium and work with Dems on a real relief bill now. Its the right thing to do for our economy and for our families.

Magic wands & glitter dust wont solve the economic crisis that's getting worse. Republicans need to wake up, extend unemployment benefits, expand the eviction moratorium, & work with Dems on a real relief bill now. Its the right thing to do for our economy & for our families.  Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 27, 2020

The Democrats HEROES Act would have allocated $875 billion to state and local governments whose budgets have been decimated by unforeseen revenue losses, leading to more than 1.5 million municipal layoffs. For a town-by-town breakdown of HEROES Act allocations, read here.

The GOP plan includes no new funding for states and towns, but frees up $150 billion available from a pervious stimulus to let towns and states help cover budget shortfalls.

State & local governments are struggling right now  costing roughly 1.5 million Americans their jobs, Rep. Lori Trahan said on Twitter. The GOP Senate must pass the #HeroesAct immediately to help our communities contend with serious budget shortfalls & keep services running!

State & local governments are struggling right now  costing roughly 1.5 million Americans their jobs. The GOP Senate must pass the #HeroesAct immediately to help our communities contend with serious budget shortfalls & keep services running!  Congresswoman Lori Trahan (@RepLoriTrahan) July 27, 2020

Pelosi met with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Tuesday. Pelosi told reporters that without additional aid to state and local governments, more municipal employees faced layoffs, which would only lead to an even bigger drain on federal resources.

What are we saving by not helping them? she said, referencing state and local governments and working families.

Neal noted that providing some funding for state and local governments has bipartisan backing, including from Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker.

Rep. Katherine Clark used McConnells own line against him, deriding the Republican proposal as a corporate wishlist, citing the Kentucky senators push for liability protections for companies so they dont face lawsuits over coronavirus cases. McConnell has called liability protections a red line that must be included in the next package.

Americans waited over 2 months for #MitchMcConnell to announce that he wants to cut unemployment benefits by $400 a week and give corporations liability protection and a tax write-off for business lunches.



This isn't relief for families. It's a corporate wishlist.  Katherine Clark (@RepKClark) July 27, 2020

Rep. Seth Moulton also urged passage of the HEROES Act, saying businesses are hurting because Senate Republicans are failing to act.

Senate Republicans blocked the HEROES Act which the House passed back on May 15. Now they cant agree on where to focus... Posted by Congressman Seth Moulton on Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Joe Kennedy III, entangled in an increasingly combative Democratic primary, also had sharp words after the roll out of the GOP proposal.

It wont just be be wholly inadequate, it will be a death sentence for desperate Americans who have waited months for relief if the package excludes recurring stimulus payments (Markey and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris previously called for $2,000 payments for the duration of the pandemic), an extension of full unemployment insurance benefits and moratoriums on evictions and utility shutoffs, Markey said.

If Senate Republicans propose anything short of:



-recurring payments

-extension of *full* UI benefits

-moratorium on evictions and utility shutoffs



it wont just be be wholly inadequate, it will be a death sentence for desperate Americans who have waited months for relief.  Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) July 27, 2020

Mitch McConnell sat on the HEROES Act for 2 months while our economy collapsed and our frontlines went without PPE. Now... Posted by Joe Kennedy III on Monday, July 27, 2020

Kennedy, meanwhile, said frontline workers grappling with the impacts of the virus have gone too long without personal protective equipment while the HEROES Act stalled in Congress. Kennedy called the Republican plan a watered-down version of the HEROES Act that has no connection to the reality our communities face.

One of the few bipartisan certainties in the Republican package is that tens of millions of Americans will receive direct checks similar to those in the CARES Act. For more on the stimulus checks, read here.

Pending changes during negotiations, the HEALS Act will see the IRS will send $1,200 relief checks to single taxpayers who earn up to $75,000 annually, and $2,400 to married taxpayers who file jointly and make up to $150,000.

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iStock/svetikdBy: BILL HUTCHINSON, ABC News

(NEW YORK) -- The two owners of a New Jersey gym were arrested on Monday morning for continuing to operate their business in defiance of Gov. Phil Murphy's COVID-19 orders for indoor workout facilities to remain closed.



Ian Smith, 33, and Frank Trumbetti, 51, owners of Atilis Gym in the Camden County town of Bellmawr, were taken into custody at their business, where they have been staying since last week, officials said. They were arrested when they attempted to open their doors again.



Smith of Delanco Township and Trumbetti of Williamstown were each charged with fourth-degree contempt, obstruction and violation of a disaster control act, according to Acting Camden County Prosecutor Jill S. Mayer. Both were released with disorderly person summonses, Mayer said in a statement to ABC News.



After being released, Smith issued a statement on Facebook saying, "Welcome to America 2020, where feeding your family and standing up for your Constitutional rights is illegal."



"They took Frank and I away and boarded up our private place of business," Smith said, adding a video of him and Trumbetti being handcuffed outside the gym. "This is gonna be fun in court. If this doesnt alarm you, youre part of the problem. Please share and repost, lets make these idiots answer for their power trip."



The arrests come after New Jersey Superior Court Judge Robert T. Lougy issued a court order on Friday for Trumbetti and Smith to vacate the gym and cease operating in defiance of Murphy's executive orders intended to blunt the spread of the coronavirus.



But Mayer said the men allegedly defied Lougy's order within hours of its being issued.



"From July 24 through July 27, a number of individuals were observed entering and using the gym, a direct violation of the court order," Mayer's statement reads.



Smith and Trumbetti were arrested and taken to the Bellmawr Police Department for processing when they refused a request by police to voluntarily leave the gym, according to Mayer.



Lougy's order authorized the state health department to not only put locks on the gym's doors but to also erect barriers over the entrance to ensure compliance with Governor Murphy's order.



Following Lougy's decision, Christopher Arzberger, an attorney for the gym owners, told reporters that Smith and Trumbetti were "disappointed that this motion for contempt was granted."



"However, we do respect the judge's decision and will be taking all necessary steps to see if there is an issue of appeal here," he said. "We understand our clients' concerns. Small businesses have been under fire lately and we want to make sure all small businesses have an opportunity to be heard."



In a video posted on Facebook on Friday evening, Smith said he and Trumbetti planned to stay inside the gym in defiance of the order.



"We will not be backing down under any circumstances," Smith said while wearing a ball cap reading "Lions Not Sheep" and a T-shirt with the words "Make America Lift Again."



He said Lougy's contempt of court order was based on the prosecution's "extremely weak" case.



"It was based on circumstantial evidence and had nothing directly tying us to a violation of Murphy's executive orders," Smith said. "However, it still went through because that's what Murphy wants and that's what Murphy gets."



Since mid-May, Atilies Gym has become a rallying point for people against Murphy's orders, which were issued in March. More than 200 people showed up to support the first attempt to reopen the gym on May 18, waving American flags and chanting "U.S.A! U.S.A.!" as the doors opened. At the time, police issued the first of several $2,000 citations for violating the rules.



Smith and Trumbetti said they had taken precautions prior to opening by limiting the number of members allowed inside to work out, implementing social distancing rules and asking members to wear protective face masks.



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati lashed out at Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, saying he merged her partys MLAs with Congress due to malicious intent.

In Rajasthan, after elections results BSP gave unconditional support of all its six MLAs to Congress. Unfortunately, chief minister Ashok Gehlot, out of his malicious intent and to damage the BSP, merged them with Congress unconsititutionally. He did the same even in his last tenure, Mayawati said on Tuesday.

We have asked the six MLAs, who are elected to Rajasthan assembly on the symbol of BSP, to vote against Congress in any proceedings to be held during assembly Session. If they dont do so, their party membership will be cancelled, she added.

Mayawati also said that the party is ready to go to court. The BSP could have gone to the court earlier too but we were looking for a time to teach Congress party and CM Ashok Gehlot a lesson. Now we have decided to go to the court. We will not let this matter alone. We will go even to the Supreme Court, the BSP chief said.

Her remarks came a day after the Rajasthan high court disposed of a petition by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator who questioned speaker CP Joshis alleged inaction over the merger of all six BSP MLAs in the state with the Congress last year.

The decision came hours after the speaker upheld the merger while responding to the complaint by BJP leader Madan Dilawar filed in March.

The move is a boost for the Ashok Gehlot led government which retains its tenuous majority in the house even as it fights a legal battle concerning the disqualification of a rebel group of 19 Congress lawmakers led by former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot.

In his petition, Dilawar said that the speaker declared the six BSP MLAs - Sandeep Yadav (Tijara), Wajib Ali (Nagar), Deepchand Kheria (Kisangarh Bas), LakhanMeena (Karauli) and Rajendra Gudha (Udaipurwati) - as having merged with the Congress on September 18, 2019. The move increased the Congresss strength in the House.

He had petitioned the speaker on March 16, seeking disqualification of the BSP MLAs under the 10th schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection laws).

In 2008, too, six BSP lawmakers merged their party with the Congress in the assembly. Gehlot was the chief minister then.
With the polar bears pictured on the cover of his new book Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All, Michael Shellenberger is here to report that polar bears are alive and well. He is announcing to the world that things are not as bad as we are being told. Throughout the book, the author provides a litany of positive trends for the environment, for a message that contrasts sharply with what he describes as a broad and deep misinformation campaign propagated by environmental advocates. The overall theme of the book is that environmentalists have deliberately exaggerated news of impending climate disaster or the collapse of biodiversity. While threats exist, we have much reason to hope that human societies will adapt to environmental change with the right combination of technology, management, and good governance.

The book is about communication, specifically political communications to the public about the environment. Shellenberger spends many pages describing how the press exaggerates environmental threats, always presenting the worst-case scenarios of computer projections as inevitable. The reader meets the main characters who shaped the history of the communication strategies of environmental advocates going back at least to the 1960s. Early on, Shellenberger notes, activists selected messages based on their shock value, not their veracity. The more devastating the vision of the future, the more effective the message. Promoting misconceptions was effective in rallying support.

The fact that nuclear reactors had little to do with nuclear bombs was no reason not to scare the public into thinking that they did. Using a single instance of habitat loss and extrapolating from there to planetary species extinction was justified because it drew attention to threats to biodiversity. When it comes to the dangers of climate change, propagating fear has become the main communication strategy. Shellenberger decries the culture of despair this has created and the real damage done by scaring teenagers about a grim future. This is deliberate. In the words of Greta Thunberg, the 17-year-old darling of climate alarmists, I want you to panic.

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Written intelligently and cogently, the book aims at an educated audience but does not cater to the NPR crowd. Shellenberger recoils from the elitism and disingenuousness he sees as typical in the environmental-advocacy community. He directly takes on the New York Times and The New Yorker, revealing strong populist sympathies, though he never expresses these explicitly. Citations of reputable scientific sources such as the IPCC (though he also criticizes the IPCC for being too political) as well more than 100 pages of footnotes back up Shellenbergers argument. The ambition of the book is vast  as it tries to address the science behind environmental claims as well as the communication strategies used to promulgate them. Shellenberger weighs in on big scientific, philosophical, and even psychological questions that perhaps warrant more circumspection than certainty.

The book is crammed with personal-interest stories, told in a conversational style. We meet a farmer in Africa complaining about wild gorillas eating her sweet potatoes and having no redress, a young woman in Indonesia who moves from the farm to the city, and an NGO staffer who names what technologies she thinks should and should not be available to them. Apocalypse Never is autobiographical in that it marks the conversion of the author from a young activist who embraced the reigning anti-technology bias of environmentalism to a more mature analyst who sees how modern forms of energy and agriculture can improve the environment and the lives of billions. On the flip side, Shellenberger has become convinced of the great damage done by preventing the poor of the world from having modern amenities.

The real threats to the poor, Shellenberger argues, are the absence of economic development, poor local governance, primitive agriculture, and relying on wood for fuel. But the message the public hears is that climate change is the primary problem that poor people face. Every storm, every forest fire, every drought is attributed to climate change. No mention is made of proactive measures such as the development of water-management systems that irrigate crops and protect from floods, sewers that prevent the spread of disease, seed varieties that are drought-resistant, and reliable electrical service that improves daily life in rural communities. Every rich country in the world has used these technologies to advance, yet they are denied to the poor because such solutions interfere with maintaining an image of impending disaster and the mood of all-encompassing panic that must accompany the climate-change cause.

Shellenberger addresses issues of environmental conservation in the global South as well as environmental policies in the industrialized countries of the global North. He notes that, curiously, environmental advocates have made it harder to implement pragmatic solutions. In the poor countries, energy technologies that would allow indigenous people to become more resilient to the effects of climate change are discouraged, as are innovative agricultural practices deemed unsustainable. In the rich countries, zero-carbon-energy solutions such as nuclear energy are dismissed out of hand because they undermine the idea of scarcity  the supposed fate of civilization.

According to Shellenberger, a more sinister motive drives the opposition to technologies that benefit the environment and poor people: simple greed. He extensively documents the lavish gifts bestowed on radical environmental organizations, such as 350.org, by the very oil and gas companies they claim it is their objective to destroy. Oil- and gas-company executives sit next to renewable-energy entrepreneurs on the boards of directors of the top environmental NGOs, thanks to a confluence of interests. For example, because renewable-energy systems inevitably require backup generation for those hours when the sun doesnt shine and the wind doesnt blow, the companies that provide that backup favor renewables. The two industries also share a competitor in nuclear energy and are happy to promote an environmental agenda that opposes nuclear power and ensures long-term demand for their products and services. The aligned interests ensure that these industries grow together.

Why do renewable-energy systems remain so attractive despite their shortcomings? Shellenberger argues that their popularity derives from the romantic notion that what is deemed natural is always superior to man-made substitutes. Because it is natural, energy derived from the sun and wind represents an ideal, even though it blankets landscapes with many tons of industrial equipment exposed to the elements for decades and directly threatens wildlife from desert mammals to rare bird species. Shellenberger argues that society must find a way to get beyond the marketing to see that the artificial product is frequently better than the natural one. The best strategy for saving nature is to use human ingenuity to develop alternatives that allow us to leave nature alone and let it flourish. We should not use nature to save it.

Historically, it was artificial products such as coal that saved what remained of the forests of England in the late 18th century. It was petroleum derivatives that replaced whales as a source of fuel in the 19th century. Similarly, in the 20th century, plastics replaced the tortoise shell and whale baleen that had been used in products required to be both stiff and bendable. We focus today on how plastics pollution threatens the worlds oceans, ignoring that the development of plastics substantially reduced the demand for some of the most valued sea creatures. As with many other environmental issues, the problem of plastic waste in the oceans is most readily solved by human action, in this case better solid-waste management in the nations of Southeast Asia.

Shellenberger extends this argument by advocating more-intensive energy and food production to free up more land for nature. Modern farms that grow more food on less land directly benefit nature as whole by removing marginal farmland from production. Similarly, raising seafood in offshore pens is better than scouring the seven seas for wild fish; replacing bush meat with domesticated livestock protects wild animals; and using modern fuels instead of wood for home cooking and heating helps preserve forests.

Shellenberger is passionate about nuclear energy and its potential for reducing global carbon dioxide emissions. One of his strongest arguments for nuclear energy emphasizes its minimal footprint on the landscape, in contrast with renewable-energy systems that must necessarily collect energy from diffuse sources over extensive areas. In sum, he argues that saving nature requires supporting modern agriculture, managed forestry, and nuclear power to minimize the human footprint.

Despite the nostalgia, prevalent in wealthy countries, for some imagined Eden in the past, the poor know that life is made better by modern amenities such as indoor plumbing and energy without smoke and ash. For the rural poor, especially women, in places such as India and Indonesia, having a washing machine and enough electricity to run it makes a whole world of difference. Using renewables to provide rural communities with just enough electricity to run a few light bulbs after dark does not meet their needs. Like Americans and Europeans, the poor worldwide want running water and refrigerators and air conditioning. NGOs advocate low-energy systems for the poor that conform to their idea of sustainability, but the poor want real electricity, not fake electricity.

Similarly, while protecting wild-animal habitats is a valid goal, those who wish to preserve some pristine vision of the wild  a vision cultivated in Oslo or Tokyo or Boston  should not ignore poor dirt farmers in Africa who lose their crops to protected species. On this topic as elsewhere, Shellenberger rebukes activists for their condescension and lack of empathy. Again and again, he stresses that we must recognize the need for economic development among indigenous people so they can obtain the standard of living that individuals in the global North take for granted.

Just about every rich country in the world has raised its standard of living by industrializing. In the latter decades of the 20th century these countries have reduced pollution by shifting their economies away from heavy industry to providing services, but this happened only after they modernized their agricultural sectors and then aggressively cultivated manufacturing. The shift from agriculture to manufacturing spurred the massive wave of farmers moving to the cities. Today, sub-Saharan Africa is too poor for deindustrialization; it must start with modernizing its agriculture and civil infrastructure.

While economists are drawn to the notion that developing countries can essentially skip the carbon-intensive technologies as they develop, a concept known as energy leapfrogging, people in the real world need refrigerators and toilets before they can build an economy on digital applications or become software engineers. The detached vision of sustainability in which the global South lives out the well-laid plans of the rich and is happy with their lot has been criticized as conservation colonialism, and it represents an attitude that Shellenberger derides consistently in the book.

Shellenbergers attitude toward climate change is summarized in a quote he offers from MIT climate scientists Kerry Emanuel: Lift people from poverty and keep the temperature as low as possible. Going further, he cites Francis Bacon, who in his vision of modern science argues that charity adds the corrective spice to science. In other words, as an ardent environmentalist, one-time vegetarian, and citizen of Berkeley, Shellenberger chooses compassion and hope over indignation and despair.

The arc of the book exposes a building sense of resentment, in keeping with the political currents of our time. He identifies with the frustration and hostility felt by London wage-earners prevented from getting to work by climate alarmists who shut down the London tube. He attacks the celebrity culture that surrounds climate advocacy for its open hypocrisy, vanity, and greed. Both first- and second-generation environmental experts are blamed for deceiving the public under the guise of science communication. From sounding the alarm of overpopulation in the 1960s, to predicting widespread famine in the 1980s, to confusing nuclear weapons with nuclear power, to terrifying the young with the prospects of uniformly calamitous climate change, environmental experts have manipulated the public to impose their vision on others. Not only have they displayed little regard for the human costs of these campaigns, they have consistently clung to a misanthropic view that casts humans  particularly the unwashed masses of the global South  as the chief problem on the planet.

Though he never says it, Shellenberger draws on many of the same deep resentments that brought Donald J. Trump to the White House. He sees progressives as manipulative, and he shows sympathy for many right-wing claims, even citing the recently deceased Roger Scruton on the politics of resentment. He shares populist views right down to his nostalgia for icons of mid-20th-century America, such as the Century of Progress slogan of the 193334 Chicago World Fair and the Atoms for Peace initiative of the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s. This environmentalist who comes from the American Midwest even shows affinity for a religious viewpoint.

Shellenberger is no Republican, but the list of individuals and organizations he praises and those he criticizes overlap substantially with the heroes and villains of todays libertarian Right. Like Michael Moore in his recent movie Planet of the Humans, Shellenberger discerns a dark side in the world of green technology, arguing that it is not as green as advertised and is ultimately self-serving.

In showing his contempt for many notable progressive celebrities and institutions, he bravely opens the door to creating a new constituency that includes both Gen-Xers and the Millennials who grew up on the products of Silicon Valley. He offers a glimpse of what could be a formidable political movement for centrist environmentalism in the United States in the 2020s. The book provides a roadmap for appealing to the political sensibilities of Americans who want a clean environment but may not want to buy into the progressive character of the current environmental movement.

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CAMBRIDGE, England, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Vital Signs Solutions, an early-stage, venture-backed startup developing innovative, digital preventative healthcare solutions has completed a unique double landmark - starting a strategic relationship with the world-leading Colour Lab at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and adding Professor Graham Finlayson, a renowned world-expert in this field and Head of the Colour Lab, to their Advisory Board.

Professor Finlayson is a recognised world-expert in the area of digital colour analysis with over 300 published, referenced papers and 30+ patents, many of which are implemented in commercial products including photo processing software, dedicated image processing hardware and in embedded camera software.

Professor Graham Finlayson will advise Vital Signs Solutions on its path to delivering a range of physical blood tests that are integrated with their proprietary PocDoc software platform, with fully quantitative results immediately available to a user via the PocDoc smartphone and tablet app.

This comes very shortly after Vital Signs Solutions announced it had been awarded an Innovate UK grant to adapt its PocDoc software platform to digitise any COVID-19 antibody rapid test assay, with initial beta test trials taking place in the coming weeks.

Steve Roest, CEO of Vital Signs Solutions, comments: "We have developed a ground-breaking digital technology platform that uses smartphone cameras for precise colour measurement and determining the concentration of key blood-based biomarkers associated with major global diseases. We are delighted to support Professor Finlayson's ongoing world-leading work in the field of colour calibration and honoured to be a supporter of UEA."

Graham Finlayson, Professor of Computer Science said, "At UEA, we have for some time, been interested in how we can measure colour in every-day scenes to the same accuracy as in laboratory-based conditions. While we've made good progress towards achieving this goal the research continues. We are excited to receive a generous donation from Vital Signs Solutions who are driving innovation in this area and we are looking forward to partnering with them in the future."

Website: www.vitalsignssolutions.com
US President Donald Trump's administration, bolstering his tough immigration stance in an election year, said on Tuesday it will reject any new applications for the so-called "Dreamer" immigrant program and shorten the deportation protections of those whose eligibility is soon to expire and needs renewal.

A senior administration official said there would be a lengthy review of a Supreme Court ruling last month that found the administration had erred in the way that it had decided to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, in which some 644,000 immigrants are enrolled.

The review is likely to take at least 100 days, putting off any final decision on the program until after the Nov. 3 election in which Trump is fighting for a second term against Democrat Joe Biden.

The administration said it would consider ending the program, which shields from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the United States illegally after entering as children - a group often called 'Dreamers.'

The administration plans to continue its existing policy of not accepting new DACA applicants, a policy in place since 2017, the official told Reuters. It will extend the eligibility by a year for those DACA immigrants whose protection from deportation was due to expire, as long as they do not have a criminal record, the official said.

The previous policy had been to extend the eligibility for two years.

In addition, a memorandum issued by the Department of Homeland Security said permits allowing DACA recipients to travel outside the country would only be issued in "exceptional circumstances."

"These actions will limit the scope of the program while DHS and the administration review its legality, justifications for a possible wind-down and other considerations relevant to deciding whether to keep or wind down the DACA policy," the official said.

In justifying his concerns about the policy, acting secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf said he was concerned the program was sending "mixed messages" on immigration enforcement.

"DACA makes clear that, for certain large classes of individuals, DHS will at least tolerate, if not affirmatively sanction, their ongoing violation of the immigration laws," the memo said.

He said that while recent border crossers are not eligible for the program, keeping it in place "creates some risk" of encouraging future illegal crossings of children "by suggesting a potential for similar future policies."

Trump has made his hardline stance on both legal and illegal immigration a central platform of his presidency and his 2020 re-election campaign, but DACA is a complicated issue for him because of increasing public support of the program.

A February Reuters/Ipsos poll found 64% of U.S. adult respondents supported DACA's core tenets. A similar December 2014 poll found that 47% of U.S. adults supported DACA.

Decision Criticized

Leon Rodriguez, former director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under President Barack Obama, said the Trump administration's move to limit the scope of the DACA program - which was introduced in 2012 under Obama - appeared to go against the intent of the Supreme Court ruling.

"So they think they can get away with half ending DACA renewals and persisting in not opening up first time DACA applications?" Rodriguez said. "Doubt that's what the Supreme Court had in mind."

Sanaa Abrar, advocacy director for immigrant rights organization United We Dream, said it was "outrageous they are absolutely refusing to do what the Supreme Court ruled, which was to return the program to its original 2012 state."

"We know that multiple federal courts have been on our side, not just about the wrongful way the administration ended the program but about the validity of the original program," Abrar said.

The Supreme Court left the door open for Trump to attempt again to rescind the program, ruling only that the administration had not met procedural requirements and its actions were "arbitrary and capricious" under a federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act.

The administration filed paperwork with the district court in Maryland on Tuesday clarifying its plan.

The official said the administration will conduct "an exhaustive review" of the memos that it initially used to justify the winding down of the program.

"We're going to review all of that and all the underlying communications that informed those documents, so that when the administration next acts on DACA, it will be anchored on this comprehensive review," the official said.

Trump, in an interview with Noticias Telemundo earlier this month, said he would soon unveil an immigration measure that he said would include some protections for DACA.

"We're working out the legal complexities right now, but I'm going to be signing a very major immigration bill as an executive order, which the Supreme Court now, because of the DACA decision, has given me the power to do that," Trump said.

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With no cameras, no fanfare and fewer than two dozen guests, the secret wedding of Princess Beatrice could hardly have been more different to the bonanza nuptials of her younger sister Princess Eugenie.

Just a week after the low-key Windsor ceremony that took royal watchers by surprise, one of Beatrice's closest friends, Cressida Bonas, who dated Prince Harry, followed suit and exchanged vows with Harry Wentworth-Stanley in private.

The BFF brides took the decision to marry their respective partners despite the government's restrictions around weddings, which limit the number of people at a service to just 30 and will only allow receptions of the same number from Saturday.

The result was two intimate weddings that were far removed from the well-publicised affairs one might expect from two such well-connected women in the public eye.

Speaking to FEMAIL, Lavinia Stewart-Brown, founder of Stewart-Brown-Events, a bespoke wedding planning company based in London, explained she thought the pair could lead the way in a trend towards smaller, more low-key weddings, even once restrictions have lifted.

With no cameras, no fanfare and fewer than two dozen guests, the secret wedding of Princess Beatrice could hardly have been more different to the bonanza nuptials of her younger sister Princess Eugenie. Pictured, Beatrice and Edo with the Queen and Philip on their wedding day

Just a week after the low-key Windsor ceremony that took royal watchers by surprise, one of Beatrice's closest friends, Cressida Bonas, who dated Prince Harry, followed suit and exchanged vows with Harry Wentworth-Stanley in private. Pictured, Cressida with Harry

The planner said she has already noted a significant number of couples who have opted for 'intimate, small town hall ceremonies' because they wanted the focus of the day to be on the love between two people, rather than the 'over the top day'.

Smaller numbers can also actually lead to more luxurious ceremonies, Lavinia explained.

'You do not need to have a large wedding to have an incredible time. If anything, smaller weddings are much more intimate and you can put more money towards making it beautiful with flowers, finer wines, beautiful crockery, or whatever is important to you.

'You can also choose a venue without worrying about space restrictions, which will be very refreshing for those who have always dreamed of a London wedding. So many of my clients want to have a London wedding, but find that they need to go further out due to space restrictions.

'The positive of this virus is that it has made people think about how they can make things more intimate and still have a very special and memorable time.'

She added: 'There is something very magical about keeping it small, choosing your closest family members and friends to see you marry the person you love.

'You can always have a different celebration or a larger party as such down the line if that is what you want. But the most important thing is that the two people who love each other are getting married.'

THE TREND-SETTERS

News of Beatrice's wedding, which took place in the grounds of Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew's Windsor home, only emerged once the vows had been exchanged and the first photos were shared 24 hours later. Pictured, one of the four photos released by the royals

In a similar vein, news of Cressida and Harry's wedding was only made public after the event when an Instagram post (pictured) by her brother was spotted by eagle-eyed royal watchers

Princess Beatrice, 31, married Italian property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi on July 17 in a Windsor ceremony attended only by close family including his four-year-old son, Wolfie, and the bride's grandparents the Queen, 94, and Prince Philip, 99.

News of the wedding, which took place in the grounds of Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew's Windsor home, only emerged once the vows had been exchanged and the first photos were shared 24 hours later.

Details of the reception have yet to be confirmed, although it is thought the couple invited guests to a sit-down meal under a trendy open-aired tent in the grounds of the Yorks' family home.

To complete the low-key feel, the bride borrowed her dress from the Queen and wore the tiara the monarch herself wore on her own wedding day.

In a similar vein, news of Cressida and Harry's wedding was only made public after the event, after an Instagram post by her older brother was spotted by eagle-eyed royal watchers.

Like the princess, she did not announce the wedding in advance to avoid any press coverage and details of the day have been kept under wraps.

Cressida and Harry, the son of the Marchioness of Milford Haven, also followed government guidelines and kept the guest list to just 30 people - a far cry from the large congregations one might typically expect at a society wedding.

Indeed Cressida had previously estimated that she would have some '120 people' at her big day, once her and Harry's closest family and friends were accounted for.

SO WHO COULD BE NEXT?

James Middleton, the younger brother of the Duchess of Cambridge, was set to wed his fiancee Alizee Thevenet in May but had to cancel their plans due to Covid-19. Pictured, the couple at the wedding of Lady Gabriella Windsor and Mr Thomas Kingston in May 2019

A smaller, private wedding might be particularly appealing to the couple as it would help avoid the media spotlight that Pippa and James experienced at their 2017 wedding, pictured

There is no shortage of couples who might soon follow suit and exchange vows in private, rather than wait for a potential change in the government guidelines.

The good news is that money can buy access to the country's most exclusive - and private - venues, making the prospect of a secret wedding more achievable for those with deep pockets.

Among them is James Middleton, the younger brother of the Duchess of Cambridge, was set to wed his fiancee Alizee Thevenet in May but had to cancel their plans due to Covid-19.

Details of the event had not been released but the couple had their choice between a venue in the UK, like his sister Pippa Middleton and her husband James Matthews, or one in Alizee's native France.

Princess Diana's niece Lady Kitty Spencer could choose something low-key when she weds South Africa-born multi-millionaire, Michael Lewis, 61. Pictured, Kitty last week in Rome

A smaller, private wedding might be particularly appealing to the couple as it would help avoid the media spotlight that Pippa and James experienced at their 2017 wedding.

Tatler cover girl Sabrina Percy, who is engaged to Phineas Paige, also put her 2020 wedding plans on hold but now be tempted by a quieter affair.

Princess Diana's niece Lady Kitty Spencer could choose something low-key when she weds South Africa-born multi-millionaire, Michael Lewis, 61.

Mr Lewis, a fashion tycoon, is 32 years older than Lady Kitty and five years older than Earl Spencer.

The Spencer family seat of Althorp House is sure to be a likely choice for a wedding venue, although Mr Lewis's vast fortune means nowhere will be off limits.
Japanese car maker Mitsubishi has confirmed it has frozen the introduction of any new models to the European market as part of plans to retreat from the continent entirely, including pulling out of the UK.

On Monday, the vehicle manufacturer forecast its second straight year of losses as it suffered a plunge in sales due in part to the coronavirus pandemic.

It said it will not only freeze new-generation models from Europe but will also cease developing cars - like the hugely popular Outlander PHEV - for European sales.

Mitsubishi announced on Monday that it will be not be introducing any new models to European markets due to ongoing financial woes

Mitsubishi's current model line-up, also including ther Mirage supermini, ASX, Eclipse Cross and Shogun crossover and SUVs and the L200 pick-up, will remain on sale in Europe and the UK for as long as emissions regulations and residual stock levels will allow.

Dealerships - which are operated by the Colt Car Company in the UK - will continue to offer after sales, parts and servicing to existing customers in Europe until the foreseeable future, the brand said.

Japan's sixth biggest automaker made the announcement after it released a statement anticipating an operating loss of 140billion yen (1.03billion) for the year ending March 2021.

It will embark on a plan to shrink its workforce and production, and close unprofitable dealerships to cut 20 per cent of fixed costs in two years.

This would be Mitsubishi's biggest loss in at least 18 years according to company financial records and the second dip into the red in consecutive years.

'To pave the way to recovery, the top priority of all executives is to share a sense of crisis with employees to execute cost reductions,' chief executive Takeo Kato told reporters this week.

Outlander ousted: The Outlander PHEV has been one of the best-selling plug-in hybrid cars in the UK for years, but the latest generation model is now unlikely to be sold in Europe

The firm will now focus its resources on the South-East Asian market, where it currently has a 6.4 per cent market share, compared with just 1 per cent in Europe and 0.9 per cent in North America.

Confirmation of a planned 'freezing of the introduction of new products in Europe' means upcoming models such as the next-generation L200 pick-up truck and Mirage supermini are unlikely to be sold in the UK.

That will also be the case for the popular, though ageing, Outlander PHEV.

It has been among the best-selling alternative fuel vehicles in the UK since it went on sale in 2012.

In 2015, Prime Minster Boris Johnson - who was then Mayor of London - travelled to Tokyo to test the current Outlander PHEV as part of the Government's push for drivers to switch to greener vehicles.

A company statement said: 'The forecast of costs to be incurred due to the freeze on introduction of new vehicle models has already been reflected in the earnings forecast for fiscal year 2020 that we announce today.

'The specific amount is currently being examined. We will make an announcement promptly if further related matters for disclosure arise.'

UK dealerships will continue to offer after sales, parts and servicing to existing customers until the foreseeable future, the brand said

The shaky results come as Mitsubishi Motors' alliance partners Nissan Motor Co. and Renault of France work to recover from the downfall of their former chairman, Carlos Ghosn.

Ghosn was out on bail, awaiting trial on various financial misconduct allegations in Tokyo, when he fled late last year to Lebanon.

He has said he is innocent of the allegations of under-reporting future compensation and breach of trust.

Mitsubishi Motors has denounced Ghosn.
REGINA - Saskatchewans premier is urging people to wear masks when they cant physically distance to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but he is stopping short of mandating their use indoors.

There may be a point in time, either on a regional basis or maybe even provincewide, where we will have to go to wearing masks as a mandatory measure, Moe said during a Monday media briefing. We have not made that decision as of yet.

I would far sooner want to have that conversation prior to shutting down sectors of our economy.

Moe and chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said wearing a mask is already a must in certain settings, such as in long-term care homes or when getting a haircut.

Shahab said there are already more people wearing masks when shopping, and doing so should become a habit for people.

Saskatchewan reported 31 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, with 22 of the cases on Hutterite colonies.

The province now has 307 active cases of COVID-19, the most it has ever had since the pandemic began.

On July 11, there were only 40 active cases. Currently, there are 14 people in hospital with four in intensive care.

Over the past few weeks, the province has seen a spike in infections in the south and central areas of the province, in part tied to spread on Hutterite colonies.

Moe said some of the new cases could also come from people suffering from pandemic fatigue and becoming lax around public health measures.

To deal with the current outbreak in Hutterite communities, the government plans to send health officials to every colony to check for the virus, Moe said.

Rural and Remote Health Minister Warren Kaeding said many colonies have gone into voluntarily lockdown on non-essential travel and some decided to withdraw from participating in farmers markets.

To date, officials say Saskatchewan has seen 1,209 total cases of COVID-19.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2020.
North Koreas leader signals he has no intention of giving up nuclear weapons despite deadlock in talks with US.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called his countrys nuclear weapons a solid security guarantee and a reliable, effective deterrent that could prevent a second war on the Korean Peninsula.

Kim made the remarks on Monday as he celebrated the 67th anniversary of the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War at a reception for war veterans in Pyongyang, according to a report by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday.

The speech signalled once again that the North Korean leader has no intention of giving up his nuclear arsenal despite the United Statess attempts to get him to do so.

Kim said North Korea had developed nuclear weapons to win the absolute strength to prevent another war.

Now we are capable of defending ourselves in the face of any form of high-intensity pressure and military threats from imperialist and hostile forces, he said.

Thanks to our reliable and effective self-defensive nuclear deterrent, there wont be any war on this land again, and our countrys safety and future will be firmly guaranteed forever.

Fireworks launched in Pyongyang on July 27, 2020, to celebrate the 67th anniversary of the Korean War armistice [KCNA via AFP]

People watch the fireworks to mark the 67th anniversary of the Korean War armistice in Pyongyang [KCNA via Reuters]

The Korean War, which pitted Soviet and China-backed troops from the north against US-led United Nations forces, killed an estimated two million people and laid to waste cities and villages on both sides of the border.

The three-year conflict ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty, leaving North and South technically at war.

Virus emerges

Kims speech, emphasising the defensive nature of North Koreas nuclear weapons programme, followed recent remarks by both North Korean and US officials suggesting they were reluctant to engage in a new round of diplomacy on Pyongyangs nuclear programme anytime soon.

Kim and US President Donald Trump have met three times since Kim reached out to Washington and Seoul for talks in 2018. But the nuclear diplomacy stalled after a second Kim-Trump meeting in Vietnam last year collapsed when Trump Kim rejected Kims proposal for extensive sanctions relief in return for a limited denuclearisation step.

Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, has said Trump would only want to engage with Kim if there were real prospects of progress. Kims sister and senior ruling party official, Kim Yo Jong, has said a new summit would be unpractical for North Korea and that Pyongyang would not give Trump a high-level meeting that he could boast about as a foreign policy achievement.

Kim entered this year with a promise to bolster his nuclear programme and threatened to unveil a new strategic weapon. He also said he would no longer be bound by a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests.

North Koreas economic difficulties are believed to have worsened due to the coronavirus pandemic, which led North Korea to seal its border with China, its biggest trading partner and economic pipeline, in January.

Kim on Friday ordered the total lockdown of the city of Kaesong near the border with South Korea because a person there had suspected COVID-19 symptoms.

KCNA reported on Tuesday that authorities were swiftly supplying masks, medicines, test equipment, food and other necessities to Kaesong. It said authorities tightened their border closures.

Experts say a pandemic in North Korea could have devastating consequences because of its broken healthcare system and lack of medical supplies.
As the sun was setting and the crowd of protesters outside the federal courthouse grew larger, a loud voice echoed from the front lines of the demonstration.

Dont tell me how to protest, a young Black man shouted at a white protester. Dont tell me what to do.

Though it's unclear what prompted the dispute, the white protester backed down.

Such confrontations have played out several times during protests at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in downtown Portland and serve as just one example of how internal divisions among protesters have Black activists worrying that their demands for police reform and equality have been drowned out.

Black protesters in Portland  where the population is 77% white  said many protest groups at the federal courthouse, including the Wall of Moms, teachers and healthcare workers, have been receptive to shifting the focus back on amplifying Black voices and their fight against police brutality, but that some still worry their cause of racial justice may be eclipsed by the presence of federal agents and some of the disruptive tactics protesters have been engaging in.

Im happy some people are coming out, but not many people have been asking the Black community what they need, said Anita Randolph, a 33-year-old neuroscientist at Oregon Health and Science University and a Portland resident.

The feds have been here since early July. Where were people then?

Randolph has been dropping off supplies and first aid kits since protests erupted in Oregons largest city in May. She said as the protests grew larger, some white demonstrators have been centering themselves as the focal point of the protests and as a result are co-opting the movement and diverting attention away from Black protesters original demands.

Other Black activists agree.

They point to examples such as the viral photo that has been given the moniker Naked Athena.

To many Black  and white  protesters on the front lines, the photo might have spoken to protesters' resistance against the presence of federal agents, but they worried it diverted attention from the overall issue of institutionalized racism that Black communities in Portland and elsewhere face and the changes activists have been demanding.

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Those goals include defunding the police and reinvesting that money into more resources for the Black community to improve education and fight income inequality.

"I'm there to get the message out that Black lives matter. The focus is shifting because some people are down there because of the federal presence and it's distracting from the bigger issue about racial equality," said Sarah Maginnis, a white protester.

"It's confusing for some white protesters because they don't know who to listen to and who to turn to. There's no clear leadership."

The 29-year-old Portland resident said the original purpose of the protests has been lost in part because of federal agents' excessive use of force on protesters and the young and mostly white anti-government protesters who provoke them.

Those protest tactics and subsequent nightly standoffs between federal agents and protesters have resulted in internal rifts among different groups.

But regardless of differences over protest techniques, Maginnis said she believes one way white protesters can still be an ally toward the Black community is to put themselves between federal agents and Black protesters when those standoffs occur.

Randolph and other Black activists agreed that the Black Lives Matter cause is being lost because there is no clear leadership as far as Black activist groups that are organizing people to protest at the federal courthouse.

The decentralized nature of the protest movement and such internal divisions have made it hard to come up with solutions, Randolph said.

"We are going to need a unified front if we are going to survive," she said. "We are going to need to talk about the issues that we are facing and come up with real solutions."

While demonstrations have been ongoing since George Floyds death in Minneapolis police custody in May, the number of protests had been dwindling for some time, even after President Trump sent federal agents to Portland this month.

Several factors sparked the resurgence of protests, including the shooting in the face of an unarmed protester by a federal agent. The protester was badly injured. In another incident, two agents in camouflage military uniforms were seen on video whisking away a person into an unmarked vehicle.

Now the protest movement outside the federal courthouse has morphed into what appears to be a sustainable, organized and functioning resistance that includes a wide array of grievances  the most recent being an end to the presence of federal officers, which many protesters see as a trampling of peoples civil liberties.

The nightly standoff between protesters and federal agents has been playing out in predictable ways. As the sun sets, peaceful protests begin, with Black activists giving speeches and chanting "Black lives matter."

But in the early morning hours, young and mostly white protesters begin their nightly ritual of setting off fireworks and throwing bottles across the protective fence that has been erected to protect the federal courthouse, prompting federal agents to come outside and deploy volleys of tear gas, rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades and other munitions at protesters  including those who have been peacefully protesting.

The standoff usually ends about 3 a.m., with plumes of white tear gas billowing in the sky as agents retreat back inside the courthouse.

That pattern was generally repeated late Monday into early Tuesday, although the crowd was smaller than on previous nights. The standoff also did not last as long, but federal agents persisted in deploying tear gas, flash grenades and other munitions to disperse protesters.

Alaysia Atkins, a 24-year-old Black activist in Portland, said she understands why the message of the protests evolved, but she hopes protesters continue to hold local politicians accountable.

Ill be out here for 365 days if I have to, she said. Im fighting for my life.

Other Black activists said they viewed this moment as an opportunity.

Teressa Raiford, executive director of Dont Shoot Portland, a Black-led social justice and advocacy nonprofit, said Trumps deployment of federal officers has spurred large amounts of donations that will help accelerate change not only for the Black community in Portland but throughout Oregon as well.

So many people have been donating money to help us get the resources we need, she said.

Black leaders are doing a lot of behind-the-scenes organizing, Raiford said, pointing to several class-action lawsuits filed in collaboration with others against the city of Portland for its use of tear gas and other munitions on protesters. Such collaboration enabled her nonprofit to file a lawsuit against the city on June 5.

A temporary agreement was reached on June 27, in which the Portland Police Bureau agreed to limit its use of less-lethal devices.

Litigation matters. Im hoping we can get more people to sue for damages," she said. "So many people have been harmed by the assaults and excessive force that is [playing] out and somebody will have to pay for it.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported Monday that the Department of Homeland Security is preparing to send more federal agents to Portland  about 50 additional Customs and Border Protection agents  according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said the plan had not been finalized and it was unclear whether the officers would replace agents already on the ground.

The AP also reported that mayors in six cities  Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City, Mo., Albuquerque and Washington, D.C.  asked Congress to stop the federal government from deploying federal agents to cities that don't want them.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty on Monday referred to the presence of the agents as a "federal occupation" and called for an immediate meeting with Department of Homeland Security leadership on the ground in Portland and with acting Secretary Chad Wolf "to discuss a cease-fire and removal of heightened federal forces from Portland."
Providing frontliners with the tools needed to combat the COVID-19 disease, Nissan in Sunderland has already produced half million personal protective equipment.

And now they are handing over the production of the needed protective aprons to HMP Northumberland.

The 500,000 production milestonewhich has supplied over 100 health care institutionswas covered by a 57-strong staff of volunteers in less than three months.

Nissan Sunderland Vice President for Manufacturing Alan Johnson was quoted as saying, Im extremely proud of the way the team at the plant answered the call to produce PPE for our frontline workers.

Producing more than half a million aprons in such a short period of time demonstrates the skill, ingenuity and dedication of our team at the plant. As a team we are delighted to hand over the apron manufacture to HMP Northumberland so they can continue the work thats already been started, he added.

COVID19_Aprons Nissan Sunderland

Aside from donating PPE-producing equipment, Nissan Sunderland also shared their know-how to a group of staff and 15 residents at the prison in Acklington, Northumberland. This team is hoping to initially produce 40,000 aprons every week.

Last April, the Japanese carmaker worked on creating the protective aprons, after they received a request from the Royal College of Nursing and Unite for UK manufacturers.

In the span of eight days, a team of staff volunteers managed to develop and build a process onsite to produce the much-needed plastic aprons.

Samantha Pariser, Director at HMP Northumberland, said: Both HMP Northumberland and Sodexo Justice are delighted to be taking over this project from Nissan.

Not only is it great to be giving back to local and regional NHS Trusts and care homes, but its also a fantastic opportunity for our residents within the establishment to learn new skills which will help them once they have been released, while also decreasing the likelihood of reoffending.

Locally, dealer partners of Nissan in the Philippines have conducted relief efforts for frontliners in the fight against the pandemic.

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Nissan Clark

Nissan Clark employeesmanaged by Laus Group of Companiesdistributed 270 food packs to various frontline health workers in Pampanga City's major hospitals, as well as face masks, face shields and other PPEs to Pampanga and Bulacan LGUs

Meanwhile, Tetra Sales and Services and its LICA Group affiliates has offered free Nissan vehicle rentals for frontliners in partnership with Hertz Philippines. They have also provided accommodations for medical workers in LICA Group-owned hotels and dormitories in the Manila area.

Nissan Tacloban, under the Chan Group of Companies, gave out food packs for medical professionals and hospital staff in the area.

Photos from Nissan

Also read:

Nissan gives hefty discounts to welcome 'new normal'

Nissan is most awarded mass market car brand for 2020

Nissan Further Extends PMS, Payment
Huawei executives failed to show at the Defence Select Committee where they were due to give evidence

Huawei executives were last night accused of snubbing the Commons Defence Committee over 5G weeks after it received a grilling over freedom of speech.

The Daily Telegraph understands that Jeremy Thompson and Victor Zhang, vice presidents of Huawei UK and Dr Yao Wenbing, vice president of business development, were all expected to give evidence before the committee, as they had done earlier this month when invited by the Science & Technology committee.

During the meeting the executives refused to comment on the row with China over Hong Kong only moments after insisting that the companys UK leaders were free to express their opinions.

Days later Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, confirmed the UK would ban Huawei from the its 5G network and set a new deadline for stripping it out of all infrastructure at the cost of 2bn, by 2027.

Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Defence Select Committee, told those gathered at Tuesday's meeting: Huawei were supposed to join us, unfortunately theyve declined to be here. This might be connected to the recent announcement in July. Im sure theyre here in spirit, if not, Im certain theyre going to be listening.

Meanwhile, executives from BT and Vodafone who did attend the committee warned that bringing forward the date by which they must remove Huawei equipment from 5G networks risked significant service blackouts.

Mark Francois, a former armed forces minister, suggested backbench MPs could seek to amend the bill dictating the timeframe for Huawei's removal from 5G in the UK, and said he "wouldn't be surprised" if the current cut-off date of 2027 was amended to 2023 "whether the Government likes it or not".

However BT's chief technology officer Howard Watson warned against such approach, which he said would cause significant mobile network outages.

He added that was the wrong thing to do for the nation given the dependence that we've all found on our telecommunications networks through the time that we've been through in the last four or five months.
Between the morning and afternoon sessions, there is an hour that will be spent clearing and cleaning the classroom, LTHS officials said. The plan is for students to work on assignments at home during the part of the school day they are not in school.
Indian and Chinese front-line troops have completed disengagement at most locations on the border, China said on Tuesday -- a statement Indian Army officers described as a play of words that did not reflect the full picture on the ground.

The Chinese foreign ministry was giving an update on the disengagement of border troops following last Fridays three-hour meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on border affairs, which met to review the situation in the border areas and the disengagement process in the western sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Also read | How the cold will alter the India-China power equation next month in Ladakh

Responding to a specific query on whether Indian and Chinese soldiers had completed disengagement at Galwan Valley, Hot Springs and Gogra areas, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said disengagement was completed in most areas. Indias external affairs ministry did not comment on the matter .

The front-line frontier defence forces of the two countries have disengaged in most locations, and the current situation continues to develop in the direction of easing and cooling, he said.

But Indian Army officers said the locations did not really cover the key areas of conflict.

Completed disengagement at most locations reveals there are locations where the process hasnt made significant progress. Disengagement at Pangong Tso and Patrolling Point-17 (Gogra) hasnt been up to the desired level, an Indian Army officer aware of the matter said on condition of anonymity.

Also read | Indian Navys clear message to Beijing following escalation of border tension registered by China: Report

Differences between India and China on the disengagement process along the LAC emerged following the meeting last Friday, with New Delhi calling on Beijing to sincerely implement the understandings on troop withdrawals reached by senior military commanders of the two sides.

Recently China and India have conducted intensive communication through military and diplomatic channels. We have held four rounds of commander level talks and three meetings of WMCC, Wang said on Tuesday.

Now we are preparing for the fifth round of commander level talks to study the settlement of the remaining issue. We hope India will work with China to implement our consensus and uphold peace and stability along our border areas, he added.

The commander-level talks are likely to be held later this week.

Following last Fridays WMCC meeting, a statement from the Indian external affairs ministry said the two sides agreed it was necessary for both sides to sincerely implement the understandings reached between senior [military] commanders in their meetings till date.

India at the WMCC meeting focused on the need for China to completely withdraw its forces from key friction points in Ladakh sector in keeping with commitments made at the meetings of the corps commanders and the July 5 phone conversation between the two Special Representatives on the border issue, people aware of the matter told HT in New Delhi.

It is still not clear whether Beijing is looking at the disengagement of troops in the same way.

The Chinese statement on the same WMCC meeting, issued in Beijing in Mandarin, referred to positive progress made by the front-line border defence forces of the two countries to disengage and ease the situation on the ground.

Northern Army commander Lieutenant General YK Joshi last week said that disengagement between forward deployed Indian and Chinese soldiers from friction areas along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) was a complex and intricate process that required diligent execution.

Joshi said disengagement was being verified on the ground to ensure its veracity and correctness. He said de-escalation of the border conflict would begin after complete disengagement.
After Sushant Singh Rajput's father filed an FIR against actress Rhea Chakraborty for abetment to suicide, a four member team of the Patna police reached Mumbai to investigate the matter. In the FIR, Sushant's father has made serious allegations against Rhea and four members of her family.

Inspector General Sanjay Kumar Singh has been quoted as saying, "KK Singh lodged the case with Rajiv Nagar police station against Rhea Chakraborty, and her family including Indrajit Chakraborty, Sandhya Chakraborty, Shruti Modi, Showik Chakraborty and others under Sections 341, 342, 380, 406,420, 306 and 120 (B) of the IPC. Sushant's father has made a serious charge against Rhea and her family. He has alleged that she had kept Sushant away from his family and completely in her possession. She was also handling his bank account. It was also reported that crores of rupees were withdrawn from his bank account."

Sushant died by suicide on June 14 at his apartment in Mumbai.

The FIR against Rhea was filed at the Rajiv Nagar police station in Patna, Sushant's hometown. Sushant's father apparently did not trust the Mumbai police with regard to the investigation, and therefore met a senior police officer of Patna. With this FIR, Sushant's family has gone public with their accusations for the first time.

In his statement, Singh continued, "Sushant called his sister and told her that Rhea had threatened him to show doctor receipts to the media and would prove him mad. Thereafter, no person would give him work. On June 8 night, Sushant's secretary Disha died by suicide. Rhea had appointed her as Sushant's secretary. Later, Rhea blocked Sushant's number on her cell. Sushant was afraid that Rhea could have made him responsible for his manager's suicide as she had threatened to frame him in the secretary's suicide case."

Earlier, Rhea had requested a CBI probe into Sushant's death, and tagged Union Home Minister in her social media post.

In the investigations being done by Mumbai police, Rhea was among the first to be questioned. As of now, around 40 statements have been recorded by Mumbai police, including those of Sushant's father, Shekhar Kapur, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and most recently, Mahesh Bhatt and Apoorva Mehta.

Sushant's death has triggered discussions on mental health, insider-outsider debates on the Hindi film industry, mud-slinging by celebrities, and enormous speculation by celebrities, netizens and the media on the circumstances leading the actor to take this extreme step.

ALSO READ: Sushant Singh Rajput's Father Files FIR Against Rhea Chakraborty For Abetment Of Suicide: Report
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Leading Tanzanian opposition leader and presidential candidate Tundu Lissu arrived back in the country on Monday, three years after being shot 16 times.

Hundreds of supporters turned out to greet him at the airport chanting "president, president," as Lissu waved from the top of a white car.

Lissu has been a harsh critic of Tanzania's government under the leadership of John Magufuli who has been president since 2015.

Having survived an assassination attempt, he has been living in Kenya and Belgium undergoing medical treatment.

The gunmen have never been found.

Lissu has announced his presidential run and expects the Chadema party to endorse him.

(Representative Images)
The one-way rally is likely to give way to sideways consolidation at some point and investors best be ready when it comes. We also believe that if a second wave of COVID comes about, market dynamics may change materially, Jinesh Gopani, Head  Equity at Axis AMC, said in an interview to Moneycontrol's Sunil Shankar Matkar.

Edited excerpt:

Q: Given the 45 percent rally seen from March lows, is it just a liquidity driven rally?

The situation on COVID-19 continues to remain fluid. As we stand today, the market perception of the economic impact has diminished significantly as India has begun to reopen. Furthermore, many frontline consumer facing businesses have seen a steady recovery as they have adapted to the current situation very well. Markets have cheered this and hence the resulting over 45 percent rally. There is also a significant flow of money due to the global central bank liquidity push. Public markets, the world over have seen significant influx of money that is driving stock prices higher. This global move has been emulated in India as FPIs have returned to the markets meaningfully. We also believe significant money continues to remain on the sidelines.

A caveat however remains that markets are volatile and sharp sell offs cannot be ruled out. The one-way rally is likely to give way to sideways consolidation at some point and investors best be ready when it comes. We also believe that if a second wave of COVID comes about, market dynamics may change materially.

Q: The flow into equity-oriented mutual funds has been declining consistently for last three months and SIP also has seen a moderation during the same period. What is the major lows, what is the market actually discounting well in advance or is it just a liquidity driven rally?

The trend in mutual fund inflows is a function of the health of the economy. In an environment where cash is king and investors want to remain as liquid as possible, investors have shied away from long term investment products. To that effect flows into equity mutual funds fell. However, the industry SIP book has remained robust. That degree of persistency has been seen as a sign of maturity of the Indian retail investor. With that being said, we believe this a short term impact as people are conserving capital as industry wide job loss fears have spiked and should recover as investors played the entire cycle and reaped the benefits.

Q: Most of technology stocks are near their 52-week highs given the strong results from large players despite COVID-9-led lockdown, which clearly indicated that work-from-home has been working smoothly for them. So what are you advising to your clients now and what is the rationale behind it?

The COVID and the resulting remote working requirements have created significant new opportunities in the digital ecosphere. Faster implementation of technology has led to new business opportunities for IT service providers, including Indian IT companies. The recent results and management commentary from the listed companies also indicate significant business opportunities in this space. Indian companies have been large beneficiaries due to the significant engagement they have with global companies and the recognition these companies have built over time.

Disruption as a theme has always been an opportunity for new idea generation. COVID-19 and the resulting changing business landscape for technology companies is likely to open up opportunities for companies that are flexible enough to adapt to changing business requirements.

Q: Given the stellar rally in benchmark/broader markets and across leading sectors, what are those key sectors which are yet to participate in the rally and are worth looking at now. Also what are those sectors one should keep invested or completely avoid now? Also, what are your thoughts on BFSI space?

We will not look to ignore sectors with a wide brush. We will remain stock specific. Given this correction we have been looking to add quality balance sheets with good growth prospects. Market leaders will remain a focus. For example, even today, within the banking space private banks account for 5-6 percent of total industry market share while the rest is dominated by public sector banks. There is significant headroom for these companies to wrestle market share from incumbents. The same is the case in many sectors.

As active managers our role is to identify changing macro trends and companies best positioned to capture growth, market share and sectoral leadership. A quick look back through history shows that in markets, winners keep changing. The goal of every active fund manager is to catch the next cycle and build a portfolio of winners over a consistent period of time. As bottom up investment managers, our view has always remained more stock specific rather than sector specific and we believe our portfolios today reflect our views across of markets.

Q: What is ESG and Sustainable Investing Concept? How these funds work and what are the features of these funds? As a fund manager, what are parameters you consider before selecting the stock of the company? Do you think that ESG metrics will be one of the most critical metrics to evaluate before making an investment in that particular company, say in next 5-10 years down the line?

Long term decision making in businesses has historically factored only the tangible costs of their processes. Investors have also used the same yardstick as the trade-off between financial risk and return is well understood by them and the markets. Sustainability is an additional dimension, which brings a forward looking and holistic approach to investment. Incorporating the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) thought process is no longer a luxury but a necessity. This change is a result of company stakeholders proactively evaluating and addressing sustainability challenges in a company across society, consumers, regulators and investors.

Going forward, to make credible long term assessment of sustainable growth potential of any business, assessing the impact through the ESG lens is imperative. This approach will give investors a better understanding of the companys business and the intangible costs associated with doing business.

The intangible impact costs that the company invariably bears for not being ESG compliant be it costs associated with environmental damage, social impact like those occurring out of striking workers or damaging consumer confidence or governance factors around management integrity have a long term bearing on the companys prospects and thereby investor returns.

Considering all these factors we expect ESG to become a core part of investors long term equity allocation.

Q: There are many global companies that are not listed in India but their business/services/products are available worldwide. How a common investor can invest in such companies through MF route and take advantage of global diversification of the portfolio.

Global investing through mutual funds as a concept has been around for a while now. However, they have been receiving much needed attention off late due to wider acceptance and greater understanding. Mutual funds offer two ways in which investors can gain exposure to global markets  feeder funds or funds that deploy a proportion of assets to international stocks.

The aim of investing globally is to take advantage of opportunities that may often not be available on domestic exchanges. From an asset allocation standpoint investing in global assets may yield twin benefits  lower correlation thus diversifying away market risks and benefits accruing from currency depreciation. Since INR has a tendency to depreciate versus the international basket of currencies  investing in global assets may help preserve international purchasing power especially if your expenses are linked to international currencies like childrens international education or an overseas family vacation.

: The views and investment tips expressed by investment expert on Moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and Valdis Dombrovskis, executive vice president of the European Commission, will co-chair the 8th China-EU High-level Economic and Trade Dialogue on Tuesday.

Themed "Post-COVID-19 China-EU Cooperation, Promote Steady Recovery and Growth for Global Economy," the dialogue will be held via video link.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of China-EU diplomatic relations. Started in 2007, the dialogue is a mechanism under which the two sides communicate and coordinate economic and trade policies and it has played an important role in promoting mutually-beneficial cooperation and addressing concerns of the two sides.
LONDON  A British-Australian academic serving a 10-year sentence in Iran for espionage has been moved to a remote prison south of Tehran that is said to be riddled with coronavirus cases, according to rights activists, raising further concerns about her deteriorating health.

The academic, Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a Cambridge-educated professor in Islamic studies at the University of Melbourne, was arrested in 2018 at the Tehran airport as she tried to leave Iran after a conference. Her detention was publicly confirmed a year later by the Australian authorities.

Ms. Moore-Gilbert has strongly denounced the charges and maintains her innocence. She was tried in secret and had been detained for the past two years at Evin prison in Tehran, where friends say she was often forced to sleep on the floor and sent to solitary confinement.

She was moved on Friday to Qarchak, a notorious and isolated womens detention facility southeast of the capital, according to Reza Khandan, an Iranian rights activist who said he spoke to Ms. Moore-Gilbert by telephone.
Budget airline Jet2.com said on Monday it would be cancelling flights from Britain to 10 destinations in Spain on Tuesday, after earlier cancelling flights to four destinations.

Late on Monday, the airline said on Twitter it would be cancelling all flights to mainland Spain, the Balearic And Canary Islands, Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza on July 28.

Flights scheduled back to the UK from those destinations will be operating, the airline said.

The cancellations to Spain came after the UK government said holidaymakers returning to Britain would need to quarantine for two weeks.

"Following the latest government advice regarding travel to mainland Spain from the UK, we have taken the decision to suspend our flights and holidays programme to Costa de Almeria, Alicante, Malaga and Murcia from 28th July up to and including 16th August," the airline said on Twitter.

Jet2.com, owned by Dart Group, said it was also suspending flights from Britain to Faro, Portugal, until Aug. 16.
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.
WASHINGTON, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Campaign for Personal Prescription Importation (CPPI) released the below statement following President Donald J. Trump's signing of an executive order giving Americans access personally import safe and access affordable medicines from abroad.

"Americans' need for affordable prescription drugs has never been greater then it is right now amid the Coronavirus pandemic. President Trump's executive order rightly opens the door for Americans' to access safe prescription drugs through accredited Canadian pharmacies. These pharmacies provide medicines at a fraction of the price that consumers pay for the same medicines in the U.S.," said Jack Pfeiffer, executive director of the Campaign for Personal Prescription Importation.

"While federal legislation has been evasive, for years millions of Americans have turned to personal prescription importation from licensed Canadian pharmacies as prices in the U.S. soared."

Full Text of Executive Order on Increasing Drug Importation to Lower Prices for American Patients

Savings Behind Personal Prescription Importation from Online Canadian Pharmacies

A CPPI Personal Prescription Importation Survey released July 13, 2020, highlights the incredible savings that Americans can access through personal prescription importation:

$109,424,575 estimated 2020 savings of the CPPI community, January through July

of the CPPI community, January through July $245 average monthly savings on prescription drugs from online Canadian pharmacies

on prescription drugs from online Canadian pharmacies $648 average monthly savings for people who spend more than $300 on prescriptions

for people who spend more than on prescriptions 63% save over $100 /month ordering from online Canadian pharmacies

ordering from online Canadian pharmacies 98% would recommend personal prescription importation from online Canadian pharmacies

from online Canadian pharmacies 50-90% savings per drug evidenced in U.S. versus Canadian cost comparison

Taking Advantage of Personal Prescription Importation Savings

Over 2.4 million Americans have been importing prescription drugs from foreign countries for years. The new Executive Order, further eases restrictions and clarifies the U.S. government's support for the practice of personal prescription importation. Americans do not need to wait to take advantage of the incredible savings, they can take these easy steps now:

Contact your doctor for a written medical prescription

Choose a safe and licensed online pharmacy like those certified by the Canadian International Pharmacy Association .

. Find and purchase your product

Upload or send your prescription

Receive your medication delivered safely to your residence.

About the Campaign for Personal Prescription Importation

https://personalimportation.org

The Campaign for Personal Prescription Importation (CPPI) is a national nonprofit patient advocacy organization that fights for Americans' access to safe, affordable prescription medications from Canada for personal use. Tens of millions of Americans  especially the elderly and others on fixed incomes  struggle to pay the extremely high price of prescription medications in the U.S. We are here to be their voice.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans use licensed Canadian pharmacies annually, to purchase their daily prescription medications at an affordable price. We believe that all Americans have a right to affordable medications. It is time to change the current U.S. policy on this issue to provide immediate access to life-saving medications, taken daily for chronic health conditions, at affordable prices.

SOURCE Campaign for Personal Prescription Importation

Related Links

https://personalimportation.org


Wild tigers have made a remarkable comeback in five of the countries where the endangered animal is found, conservationists have said.

Increasing numbers of the big cats have been recorded in Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Russia, a decade on from the launch of an ambitious scheme to double the population of the species.

In 2010, when the TX2 initiative began, it was estimated wild populations of the big cat were at an historic low, with as few as 3,200 animals remaining across the 13 range countries where they are found.
More F-35s will be bought by South Korea which is beefing up with an aircraft carrier as the stakes get higher in the Indo-pacific and South East China. The U.S. is escalating its efforts in creating an arms race to have a carrier or two in the backyard for Asian nations.

These jump jets will be stationed on a light carrier that is a sign that South Korea is making changes in the region very seriously, reported Forbes.

For some, the existence of a light carrier is not needed with the major threat in the south in the Korean peninsula. Not a sea and land warfare will be a venue if there are hostilities.

Or as analysts have seen, having a carrier full of F-35s with anti-ship missiles can convince China to rethink wanting to go into the Yellow Sea. South Korea will not tolerate any Chinese incursions that will affect the nation, cited CFR.

Having a carrier can change help if the North does decide to invade when it can stage attacks against North Korea in a pinch.

The armed forces are for sowing down the North and to blunt the tank forces of Pyongyang with the help from American armor and infantry of the 2nd U.S. Army infantry Division, and air support in South Korean and Japan.

Seoul strategically made its military in a way that it can focus on ground and close air support as big factors to push back North Korea. They are armed with tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, with support artillery that includes planes, assault helicopters, and precision-guided missiles to charge into battle.

Also read: US Air Force Sends Spy Drones as Eyes Over South China Sea

One thing Seoul has never abandoned is how to send naval and marines into the fray. During the Korean war when it was the most difficult part of the campaign in the 1950s, two divisions of the U.S. Marine Corps were dropped at Inchon on the west coast of Korea to flank the Northern Armies as a second phase.

The U.S. and Seoul are willing to repeat the Amphibious landing at Inchon as a gambit move like the 1950s that paid off. Till now, the South Koreans have a tradition of keeping a detachment of marines for a strong military component. With the help of their American allies, the Korean marines can secure any theatre of conflict.

Land-based fighters could contribute to the amphibious campaign, of course-as could U.S. Navy fighters from the U.S. Pacific Fleet's supercarriers. But the amphibious group's organic fighters, who are operating close to the beaches directly in support of the landing force, will likely provide the most effective air support.

Advantages of light carriers

The USS America is designed to operate the new F-35s on her decks with the short take-off and landing variant (STOL). At most the decks can carry a dozen F-35s, but the rotorcraft will not be there to bring the marines to the beaches or landing area.

Seoul is very interested in getting the F-35s on their light flat tops soon. In 2019, the start of building the 30,000-tonner variant of the 15,000-tonner Dokdo. The LPH II is smaller than USS America, bot closer to Japan's Izumo-class light carriers.

Having a light carrier that carries a total of 16 F-35s is exactly what the South Koreans want.

It would take $300 million to get the Dokdo built, but the LP-II will cost more with the F-35s spending will increase.

Related article: Italian Minister of Defense Declares Commitment to Acquire Advance F-35s After Others Call to Stop Purchase

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Roughly half of Alabamas students are heading back to the classroom  at least part-time- in the coming weeks.

How long they will be able to stay there remains to be seen.

One of the overwhelming questions facing Alabama educators and parents is what will happen if multiple students or teachers are diagnosed with coronavirus. Its a challenge schools will have to face eventually, according to State School Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey.

(Coronavirus) could be going on for over a year, 18 months. We cant stay out of school forever, Mackey said during a Tuesday morning interview on the syndicated Rick & Bubba radio program. Obviously, we have a lot more infections than we did on March 13 (when schools closed) but weve got to try to find a way to get some normalcy back to the kids and find a way to get kids back in school.

Mackey said about 50% of students will be returning to in-person learning in the coming weeks with dates set by local school boards. The remainder will be attending classes virtually. Every district has its own plan for start dates and operating procedures, many based on the Alabama Department of Public Healths risk indicator rating for individual counties.

Reopening Alabamas K-12 schools: Here are the plans

Will schools close again?

When asked if schools could shut down again in the fall, Mackey replied I hope not, but yes, its a definite option.

Operations will depend on coronavirus spread and individual school systems will have policies in place when a case is diagnosed.

In general, however, Mackey said there is an unwritten rule that when the percentage of student absences due to an illness such as the flu hit 20%, you shut it down.

The reason weve landed at 20% is thats the number of people missing where you really cant go forward. You have so many people missing its just impossible to keep anything going normally, Mackey said.

COVID, with its requirements to quarantine or isolate people, is different, Mackey said.

With the flu, you dont say we have a kid in our kindergarten class with the flu and 6 other kids or 8 other kids or, God forbid, the whole class, have go home for a number of days but with COVID we do have that. There will be a number in there where you just cant keep operating and unfortunately, its probably going to be below 20% because for every kid that gets it, what were seeing now is were probably going to have 6-10 others put in quarantine, Mackey said.

You get to the point where you just cant keep going because people have been forced in quarantine.

The Center for Disease Control now recommends people who test positive for coronavirus quarantine for at least 10 days after symptoms first appear, have at least 24 hours with no fever and no fever-reducing medication and show a general improvement of symptoms. Those who test positive for COVID-19 but have no symptoms can end their isolation after 10 days have passed since their first positive test.

Mackey said hes working with State Health Officer Scott Harris to develop metrics that can be used by school systems.

The ultimate goal, he stressed, was to have kids safely learning in the classroom but acknowledged hard decisions will have to be made.

Were have to make decisions on how we can balance it. Were choosing between bad decisions and worst decisions. Its bad and worse, he said.
Canberra, July 28 : Nearly three billion animals were killed or displaced during the devastating 2019-20 Australian bushfires, according to a new report issued on Tuesday.

The findings meant it was one of "worst wildlife disasters in modern history", according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which commissioned the report, the BBC reported.

The mega blazes, which swept across every Australian state, also killing at least 33 people.

Mammals, reptiles, birds and frogs died in the flames or from loss of habitat.

During the peak of the crisis in January, scientists had estimated that 1.25 billion animals had been killed in New South Wales and Victoria alone.

But the new estimate takes in a larger area. About 11.46 million hectares - an area comparable to England - was scorched from last September to this February.

"When you think about nearly three billion native animals being in the path of the fires, it is absolutely huge - it's a difficult number to comprehend," the BBC quoted Professor Chris Dickman, who oversaw the project by 10 scientists from Australian universities, as saying.

He said they could not yet state an exact death toll, but noted the chances of animals escaping the blazes and surviving were "probably not that great" due to a lack of food and shelter.

In February, the Australian government identified 113 animal species which needed "urgent help" after the bushfires.

Almost all on the list had lost at least 30 per cent of their habitat in temperate forests and grasslands of Australia's south and east.
Income is inextricably linked to access to education in America and it has been for a century, according to a new study from researchers at Stanford University and Rice University.

"A century of educational inequality in the United States," published July 27 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examines the link between education and income dating back to the early the 20th century. The research draws upon a dozen nationally representative datasets on college enrollment and completion between 1908 and 1995 as well as tax data from more recent years. It is one of the first studies to examine this link over such an extended period of time.

Researchers Michelle Jackson from Stanford and Brian Holzman from Rice's Houston Education Research Consortium, part of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research and School of Social Sciences, found that income and educational inequality moved in lockstep with one another throughout the 20th century. The authors said previous studies of this topic, which haven't examined data going so far back in time, did not reveal such a strong link.

Their paper detailed how inequality in college enrollment and completion rose in the 1930s and 1940s amid rising income inequality; was low for Americans born in the late 1950s and 1960s, when income inequality was low; and rose again for Americans born in the late 1980s, when income inequality peaked. This U-turn indicates the nation is experiencing levels of collegiate inequality not seen for generations, the authors wrote.

"Long story short, the findings reveal that longstanding worries about income inequality and its relationship to college opportunity are warranted," Holzman said.

One notable exception was during the Vietnam War. For young people at risk of serving in the war, collegiate inequality was high while income inequality was low. During this period, inequality in college enrollment and completion was significantly higher among men than women, suggesting a bona fide "Vietnam War effect," according to the paper.

The researchers hope the paper will further demonstrate the systemic nature of the link between income and education and inform future work on increasing educational opportunities, particularly for disadvantaged people.
Egypts Ministry of Emigration is following up closely with the Egyptian embassy in Saudi Arabia on the case of two Egyptian workers who were murdered in the Kingdom by a Saudi citizen, Minister of Emigration Nabila Makram said on Tuesday.

According to the minister, two Egyptian construction workers were shot dead by a Saudi citizen in an altercation at one of the Saudi mans construction projects.

The victims were Ezz El-Din Mohamed Abdel-Shafei, 43, and Adel Abdel-Emam Hussein, 37.

The victims bodies are still in the custody of the Saudi authorities due to the ongoing investigation.

Minister Makram added that the Saudi citizen who shot and killed the two men turned himself in to the police and confessed to committing the crime.

Makram said that she has trust in the Saudi judiciary and that the perpetrator will receive his punishment according to the Kingdoms laws.

She also added that the murder was an isolated incident and does not represent the brotherly relations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

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Quebec's police watchdog is investigating a woman's death in Drummondville after she was found seriously injured one day after she asked the police for help managing her son.

The 57-year-old woman showed up at the Drummondville detachment of the provincial police on Sunday at 1:30 p.m., asking them to force her son to undergo a psychiatric assessment, according to preliminary information released by the Bureau des enquetes independantes (BEI).

The BEI did not provide the son's age but says in a statement he had been living with his mother for the past few weeks.

The provincial police, the Surete du Quebec, could not assist the woman at that time and so she left and went to work, the BEI says.

On Monday at around 9:30 a.m., somebody contacted the SQ and asked them to check in on her because they were concerned for her well-being.

When police arrived at the scene, they found a seriously injured woman  the same woman who had requested assistance the day before.

The woman was transported to hospital where she was declared dead, the BEI says.

Now eight BEI investigators are on the case.

Because the SQ was involved in the woman's death, Montreal police services, the SPVM, will assist with the investigation by providing two forensic experts.

With the BEI investigating, the SQ provided no comment.

Earlier in the day Monday, Radio-Canada reported it was a friend who contacted police Monday morning after she had hadn't heard from the woman.

When officers arrived at the residence on Pinard Street, a man in his 30s was found on the scene, Radio-Canada reported. Provincial police investigators met with the man.

The first step of any BEI investigation is to determine if the preliminary information is accurate. The BEI steps in whenever someone is killed or injured during a police operation.

Anyone who witnessed the event is asked to contact the BEI.
IRISH author Colum McCann has paid tribute to his hero father as he celebrated being placed on the 2020 Booker Prize longlist.

Mr McCann, from Dublin but who lives in New York, has been nominated to the prestigious list for his book Apeirogon - a tale of two bereaved parents caught up in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Read More

This is an enormous one, Mr McCann told RTE Morning Ireland. It was a surprise, its almost 3am in New York.

My heart is firmly back in Dublin, where I still have lots of family waking up to the news

Mr McCann said he hoped his mother in Deansgrange, south Dublin, was tuned in for updates on his success this morning.

Its fantastic, the author said. And he paid an emotional tribute to the man whod inspired him to write, his late father.

My father passed away a few years ago, Mr McCann said. He was the literary editor of the Evening Press. He was a great hero of mine in terms of stories.

The writer said his mother is doing well, shes living in Deansgrange. I think shell be jumping out of her chair, hearing my voice.

My phone and email is blowing up and it was only announced at midnight, its a tremendous honour.

The book is centred on two fathers who lose their children during the conflict and Mr McCann said the tale could just as easily be based in Belfast, Glasgow or The Bronx.

Its about two fathers who lose their daughters in a conflict in Israel and Palestine, he said.

Its about people who shouldnt know each other but make the choice to know each other

He praised the choice of several young, new writers, who he felt emerging as a reflection of the interesting political times.

Its an interesting, fantastic list, he said. There are so many young writers. We are in a political moment when new stories are being told.

I think the list reflects the new political moment. We are looking for younger voices to tell us about where we live, it is important to figure out what other people are saying in places, to go into new places with literature as cultural celebration

'Apeirogon' tells the story of two real-life fathers who are united by grief across the Israeli/Palestinian divide.

Israeli father Rami Elhanan's 14-year-old daughter Smadar was killed in a Palestinian suicide bombing in 1997, while Bassam Aramin's 10-year-old daughter Abir was killed by an Israeli rubber bullet in 2007. The two men are campaigners for peace in the Middle East.

McCann has described 'Apeirogon' as a "hybrid novel with invention at its core, a work of storytelling which, like all storytelling, weaves together elements of speculation, memory, fact and imagination".

Other writers to make the longlist include Hilary Mantel who could become a triple Booker Prize winner with the third book in her Cromwell trilogy. She is longlisted for 'The Mirror And The Light', the follow-up to Tudor novels 'Wolf Hall' and 'Bring Up The Bodies'.

Eight names on the 13-strong longlist are debut novelists - Diane Cook, Avni Doshi, Gabriel Krauze, Kiley Reid, Douglas Stuart, Brandon Taylor, Sophie Ward and C Pam Zhang.

Gaby Wood, literary director of the Booker Prize Foundation, said: "When the judges had drawn up their longlist of 13 books, one of them said: 'Out of interest, how many debuts are there?'

"We counted. It was more than half the list. That's an unusually high proportion, and especially surprising to the judges themselves, who had admired many books by more established authors, and regretted having to let them go."
tech2 News Staff

While brands like Oppo and OnePlus have their own fast charging tech, Qualcomm's Quick charge technology has still been more prominent in smartphones. The last time Qualcomm released an update to the charging tech was back in 2017, when it announced the Quick Charge 4+. Three years later, Qualcomm has now revealed the Quick Charge 5.

According to Qualcomm, the Quick Charge 5 can charge a smartphone with 4,500 mAh battery, from zero to 50 percent in 5 minutes. Qualcomm says that Quick Charge 5 is the "worlds first commercially viable fast charging platform to support more than 100 W charging power in a smartphone."

Quick Charge 5, as per Qualcomm, is also 70 percent more efficient than Quick Charge 4 and offers 10 times the power delivery of Quick Charge 1. This solution supports 2S battery and 20 Volts of power delivery.

Qualcomm confirms that Quick Charge 5 is backward compatible with Quick Charge 2.0, 3.0, 4, 4+ and existing handsets powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile platform.

Additionally, the manufacturer reveals that Quick Charge 5 also comes with features like Qualcomm Battery Saver and the Qualcomm Smart Identification of Adapter Capabilities technology, that help extend the battery life cycle on a users device.

Quick Charge 5, our fastest and most versatile charging solution, will enable consumers to enjoy their devices for longer periods of time, without worrying about the time required to recharge. We are proud to expand our technology portfolio and make accessible 100 W+ charging a commercial reality, said Ev Roach, VP Product Management, Qualcomm.

Quick Charge solutions are widely available in a variety of mobile devices. The latest generation of Quick Charge 5 not only provides superior charging capabilities but helps intelligently extend a device's battery life and reduce thermal output, said Zhang Lei, Mi Phone vice president, and hardware R&D general manager at Xiaomi.
ATLANTA, July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern Company has been named the 2020 Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) Utility Business Models Power Player of the Year. The announcement comes as part of SEPA's annual awards that celebrate innovation and collaboration of utilities, industry players and individuals shaping the future of energy.

The Utility Business Models Power Player of the Year award recognizes organizations, project teams and/or individuals who have demonstrated unique innovation and leadership in efforts to create new utility business models that advance the adoption of clean energy resources and help to achieve carbon reduction and clean energy goals.

Southern Company's first-of-its-kind Smart Neighborhood Initiative is a real-world R&D project designed to help inform how energy could be produced, delivered and consumed in the future. In Smart Neighborhoods designed and developed by the Southern Company system and its project partners, homeowners agree to allow data collection on power usage and environmental information from their homes which, along with data from the distributed energy resources, will provide researchers valuable operational experience as the company continues to evaluate microgrids, residential battery storage and rooftop solar. Data collected from the HVAC systems, heat pump water heaters and other technologies will help inform new programs and services that will better meet customer needs. The state-of-the-art homes and latest technologies benefit customers through improved comfort and convenience as well as lower operating costs. Additionally, the Southern Company system's renewable energy subscription programs and grid investment plan demonstrate its commitment to building the future of energy.

"This year's Power Players winners showcase innovation in clean energy," said SEPA President & CEO Julia Hamm. "They are spearheading the visionary projects, innovative programs, and collaborative partnerships that will accelerate the transition to a clean and modern energy future. As our industry grapples with unprecedented challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, this leadership is more necessary now than ever."

The Southern Company system's Smart Neighborhood Initiative demonstrates the company's industry-leading commitment to building the future of energy. The Southern Company system continues to increase the reliability, resiliency and affordability of the clean energy delivered to the system's customers and communities.

About Southern Company

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is a leading energy company serving 9 million customers through its subsidiaries. The company provides clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy through electric operating companies in three states, natural gas distribution companies in four states, a competitive generation company serving wholesale customers across America, a leading distributed energy infrastructure company, a fiber optics network and telecommunications services. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and affordable prices below the national average. For more than a century, we have been building the future of energy and developing the full portfolio of energy resources, including carbon-free nuclear, advanced carbon capture technologies, natural gas, renewables, energy efficiency and storage technology. Through an industry-leading commitment to innovation and a low-carbon future, Southern Company and its subsidiaries develop the customized energy solutions our customers and communities require to drive growth and prosperity. Our uncompromising values ensure we put the needs of those we serve at the center of everything we do and govern our business to the benefit of our world. Our corporate culture and hiring practices have been recognized nationally by the U.S. Department of Defense, G.I. Jobs magazine, DiversityInc, Black Enterprise, Forbes and the Women's Choice Award. To learn more, visit www.southerncompany.com.

SOURCE Southern Company
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Republic of Peru Martin Vizcarra Cornejo.

Dear Mr President, it is on the occasion of the national holiday of your country  Independence Day that on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan I wish to cordially congratulate you and the people of Peru, the letter said.

There are opportunities for further development of friendly ties between Azerbaijan and Peru, both bilaterally and across the multilateral platforms, the letter said. On this notable day, I wish strong health and success to you, and everlasting prosperity to your people.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
How chemists are building molecular assembly lines

Part of the challenge is programming the actions of molecular machines and reducing the waste from chemical triggers that get them to work.
The Last Frontier states challenges dont end there, but Alvarez takes the states idiosyncrasies in stride.

Most of Alaska has its own set of circumstances. You might have to deal with what we call Unique Alaskan Properties that would never be lent on in the lower 48, he explains. In some places its common for a house to be built on pylons, for example, or it might have a non-traditional water source  perhaps its not connected to a city pipe but has to use a cistern in an area where it rains a lot. That kind of set-up would not work in places like Arizona.

Not only is it commonplace for properties to lack a water connection, often they also lack road access and are only reachable via water or air.

Because of the way it is up here, there has to be a workaround, he says. A lot of houses here might be built on a lake or even on an island in the middle of the lake. But a savvy loan officer whos been in the area for a while knows that a property with no road access can still work.

The weather is, of course, a major factor, as are the shortened days of winter, when sunlight in Anchorage comes in at less than six hours a day. The states originators typically make the bulk of their money for the year in a four-and-a-half-month period between May and September.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 00:33:39|Editor: huaxia

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Christoph Heusgen (C), the German UN ambassador, whose country holds the Security Council presidency for the month of July, chairs a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Central African Republic at the UN headquarters in New York, on July 28, 2020. The Security Council on Tuesday adopted a resolution to extend sanctions against the Central African Republic (CAR) for a year. (Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Tuesday adopted a resolution to extend sanctions against the Central African Republic (CAR) for a year.

Resolution 2536, adopted unanimously by the 15-member council, decides to renew the sanctions regime -- an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze -- till July 31, 2021.

It also decides to extend the mandate of the panel of experts, which helps the Security Council implement the sanctions, till Aug. 31, 2021.

The resolution requests the panel of experts to provide to the Security Council a midterm report no later than Jan. 31, 2021, and a final report no later than June 30, 2021.

The resolution expresses particular concern about reports of illicit transnational trafficking networks which continue to fund and supply armed groups in the CAR, and requests the panel of experts to devote special attention to the analysis of such networks.

It requests the CAR authorities to report by June 15, 2021, on the progress achieved regarding the reform of the country's security sector; the disarmament, demobilization, reintegration and repatriation process for members of armed groups; and the management of weapons and ammunition.

It requests the UN secretary-general to conduct, no later than June 15, 2021, an assessment on the progress achieved by the CAR authorities on those key benchmarks for the purpose of a review by the Security Council of the arms embargo on the CAR government.

The resolution affirms the Security Council's intention to review the sanctions regime, at any time as may be necessary, in light of the evolution of the security situation in the country and the progress in the key benchmarks.

The CAR has been mired in a civil war since 2012. The presence of armed groups has prevented the government from establishing state authority in most parts of the country. Enditem
Business performance improved throughout the quarter as a result of re-openings, government stimulus and successful collaboration with customers to respond to changes in the market.





TransUnion achieved second quarter 2020 results in line with its Upside Case as provided in its scenario-based outlook.





TransUnion strengthened its liquidity position, increasing cash on hand by $126 million during the quarter to $432 million, while also reducing its net leverage ratio.

CHICAGO, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) (the Company) today announced financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2020.

TransUnion delivered results in line with our Upside Case Scenario outlook as a result of improving economic conditions in most of our markets as well as the outstanding work of our associates around the world, said Chris Cartwright, President and CEO. During the quarter, we remained focused on delivering the right solutions and insights for our customers to help them weather the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the same time, we continue to invest for the long-term in our Global Solutions and Global Operations organizations as well as our accelerated technology initiative, Project Rise. All three made meaningful progress during the quarter and we believe we are well positioned to deliver significant results in the future.

While we are pleased with our recent performance given the challenging environment, we remain diligent in managing our costs and our liquidity position to ensure the short-term and long-term health of the Company.

Second Quarter 2020 Results

Revenue:

Total revenue for the quarter was $634 million, a decrease of 4 percent (3 percent on a constant currency basis, 3 percent on an organic constant currency basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019.





Adjusted Revenue, which removes the impact of deferred revenue purchase accounting reductions and other adjustments to revenue for our recently acquired entities, was also $634 million for the quarter, a decrease of 4 percent (3 percent on a constant currency basis, 3 percent on an organic constant currency basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019.

Earnings:

Net income attributable to TransUnion was $69 million for the quarter, compared with $101 million for the second quarter of 2019. Diluted earnings per share was $0.36, compared with $0.53 for the second quarter of 2019.





Adjusted Net Income was $127 million for the quarter, compared with $132 million for the second quarter of 2019. Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share for the quarter was $0.66, compared with $0.69 for the second quarter of 2019.





Adjusted EBITDA was $243 million for the quarter, a decrease of 8 percent (7 percent on a constant currency basis, 7 percent on an organic constant currency basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 38.2 percent, compared with 39.7 percent for the second quarter of 2019.

Second Quarter 2020 Segment Results

U.S. Markets:

U.S. Markets revenue was $405 million, essentially flat compared with the second quarter of 2019 on both a reported and an organic basis. U.S. Markets Adjusted Revenue was also essentially flat compared with the second quarter of 2019 on both a reported and organic basis.

Financial Services revenue was $222 million, an increase of 4 percent (4 percent on an organic basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019.





Emerging Verticals revenue, which includes Healthcare, Insurance and all other verticals, was $183 million, a decrease of 5 percent (5 percent on an organic basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019. Emerging Verticals Adjusted Revenue decreased 5 percent (6 percent on an organic basis).

Adjusted EBITDA was $171 million, a decrease of 2 percent (2 percent on an organic basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019.

International:

International revenue was $120 million, a decrease of 21 percent (15 percent on a constant currency basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019. International Adjusted Revenue was also $120 million, a decrease of 22 percent (16 percent on a constant currency basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019.

Canada revenue was $24 million, a decrease of 5 percent (2 percent on a constant currency basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019.





Latin America revenue was $17 million, a decrease of 34 percent (22 percent on a constant currency basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019.





United Kingdom revenue was $39 million, a decrease of 16 percent (13 percent on a constant currency basis). Adjusted Revenue was also $39 million, a decrease of 19 percent (16 percent on a constant currency basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019. Excluding the impact of the revenue from the divestment of assets held for sale, Adjusted Revenue would have decreased 16 percent (13 percent on a constant currency basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019.





Africa revenue was $9 million, a decrease of 36 percent (a decrease of 21 percent on a constant currency basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019.





India revenue was $18 million, a decrease of 29 percent (23 percent on a constant currency basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019.





Asia Pacific revenue was $13 million, a decrease of 10 percent (12 percent on a constant currency basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019.

Adjusted EBITDA was $37 million, a decrease of 37 percent (32 percent on a constant currency basis) compared with the second quarter of 2019.

Consumer Interactive:

Consumer Interactive revenue was $128 million, an increase of 4 percent compared with the second quarter of 2019.

Adjusted EBITDA was $62 million, an increase of 4 percent compared with the second quarter of 2019.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Cash and cash equivalents were $432 million at June 30, 2020 and $274 million at December 31, 2019. In addition, we have $300 million of undrawn capacity on our Senior Secured Revolving Credit Facility. For the six months ended June 30, 2020, cash provided by continuing operations was $379 million compared with $308 million in 2019. The increase in cash was due to a decrease in working capital and interest expense, partially offset by a decrease in operating performance in the second quarter as a result of COVID-19. Cash used in investing activities was $117 million compared with $108 million in 2019. The increase in cash used in investing activities was due primarily to an increase in net purchase of other investments. Capital expenditures were $88 million in both years. Cash used in financing activities was $87 million compared with $187 million in 2019. The decrease in cash used in financing activities was due primarily to debt prepayments made in 2019.

Business Continuity COVID-19 Update

Our primary focus continues to be the health and safety of our associates, our customers, and the wider communities in which we operate. As we continue to successfully work from home across the globe, we see no reason to rush our associates back into the office. We will continue to closely monitor the situation in all our markets.

In the meantime, we have recently begun offering associates additional office equipment and accessories to enhance their work from home experience to ensure we are all able to continue serving our customers and consumers as effectively as possible.

We have and will continue to be disciplined in managing our cost structure and investment priorities as we adapt to the changing macro-economic landscape and the impact it is having on our business.

Full Year 2020 Guidance and Third Quarter 2020 Scenario-Based Outlook

The global spread and unprecedented impact of COVID-19 continues to be complex and rapidly-evolving. Given the ongoing uncertainty across all our geographic and vertical markets, we are continuing to suspend full year guidance. We will continue to assess this decision, and intend to reinstate full year guidance at the appropriate time once we have sufficient visibility.

We are similarly unable to provide third quarter 2020 guidance. Instead, we believe that providing a scenario-based outlook which contemplates a base case, an upside case and a downside case is more appropriate at this time. Under this scenario-based approach, our base case assumes the continuation of current market trends through September 2020, our upside case assumes a meaningful improvement in current trends and our downside case assumes a meaningful deterioration in current trends. For more details on each scenario, including the expected financial outcome and balance sheet implications, please see our presentation materials which are available on the TransUnion Investor Relations website at www.transunion.com/tru .

The Companys scenario-based outlook for the third quarter is based on a number of assumptions that are subject to change and many of which are outside of the control of the Company. If actual results vary from these assumptions, the Companys expectations may change. There can be no assurance that the Company will achieve these results expressed by the base case, upside case or downside case.

Earnings Webcast Details

In conjunction with this release, TransUnion will host a conference call and webcast today at 8:00 a.m. Central Time to discuss the business results for the quarter and certain forward-looking information. This session may be accessed at www.transunion.com/tru . A replay of the call will also be available at this website following the conclusion of the call.

About TransUnion

TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing a comprehensive picture of each person so they can be reliably and safely represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good.

A leading presence in more than 30 countries across five continents, TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people.

http://www.transunion.com/business

Availability of Information on TransUnions Website

Investors and others should note that TransUnion routinely announces material information to investors and the marketplace using SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls, webcasts and the TransUnion Investor Relations website. While not all of the information that the Company posts to the TransUnion Investor Relations website is of a material nature, some information could be deemed to be material. Accordingly, the Company encourages investors, the media and others interested in TransUnion to review the information that it shares on www.transunion.com/tru .

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This earnings release presents constant currency growth rates assuming foreign currency exchange rates are consistent between years. This allows financial results to be evaluated without the impact of fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. This earnings release also presents organic constant currency growth rates, which assumes consistent foreign currency exchange rates between years and also eliminates the impact of our recent acquisitions. This allows financial results to be evaluated without the impact of fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates and the impacts of recent acquisitions.

This earnings release also presents Adjusted Revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin, Adjusted Effective Tax Rate, Adjusted Net Income (Loss) and Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share for all periods presented. These are important financial measures for the Company but are not financial measures as defined by GAAP. We present Adjusted Revenue as a supplemental measure of revenue because we believe it provides a basis to compare revenue between periods. We present Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income as supplemental measures of our operating performance because these measures eliminate the impact of certain items that we do not consider indicative of our cash operations and ongoing operating performance. Adjusted EBITDA is also a measure frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in their evaluation of the operating performance of companies similar to ours. Our board of directors and executive management team use Adjusted Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA as compensation measures. Under the credit agreement governing our Senior Secured Credit Facility, our ability to engage in activities such as incurring additional indebtedness, making investments and paying dividends is tied to a ratio based on Adjusted EBITDA. These financial measures should be reviewed in conjunction with the relevant GAAP financial measures and are not presented as alternative measures of GAAP. Other companies in our industry may define or calculate these measures differently than we do, limiting their usefulness as comparative measures. Because of these limitations, these non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation or as substitutes for performance measures calculated in accordance with GAAP, including operating income, operating margin, effective tax rate, net income (loss) attributable to the Company, earnings per share or cash provided by operating activities. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are presented in the attached Schedules.

We define Adjusted Revenue as GAAP revenue adjusted for certain acquisition-related deferred revenue and non-core contract-related revenue as further discussed in the footnotes of the attached Schedules 1, 2, and 3. Beginning in the third quarter of 2019, we no longer have these adjustments to revenue. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) attributable to TransUnion plus (less) loss (income) from discontinued operations, plus net interest expense, plus (less) provision (benefit) for income taxes, plus depreciation and amortization, plus (less) the revenue adjustments included in Adjusted Revenue, plus stock-based compensation, plus mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and business optimization-related expenses including Callcredit integration-related expenses, plus certain accelerated technology investment expenses to migrate to the cloud, plus (less) certain other expenses (income). We define Adjusted Net Income as net income (loss) attributable to TransUnion plus (less) loss (gain) from discontinued operations, plus (less) the revenue adjustments included in Adjusted Revenue, plus stock-based compensation, plus mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and business optimization-related expenses including Callcredit integration-related expenses, plus certain accelerated technology investment expenses, plus (less) certain other expenses (income), plus amortization of certain intangible assets, plus or minus the related changes in provision for income taxes. We define Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share as Adjusted Net Income divided by the weighted-average diluted shares outstanding. The above definitions apply to our calculations for the periods shown on Schedules 1 through 5.

Forward-Looking Statements

This earnings release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on the current beliefs and expectations of TransUnions management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Any statements made in this earnings release that are not statements of historical fact, including statements about our beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include information concerning possible or assumed future results of operations, including our scenario-based outlook and descriptions of our business plans and strategies. These statements often include words such as anticipate, expect, guidance, suggest, plan, believe, intend, estimate, target, project, should, could, would, may, will, forecast, outlook, potential, continues, seeks, predicts, or the negative of these words and other similar expressions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements include; the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; the timing of the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic; macroeconomic and industry trends and adverse developments in the debt, consumer credit and financial services markets; our ability to provide competitive services and prices; our ability to retain or renew existing agreements with large or long-term customers; our ability to maintain the security and integrity of our data; our ability to deliver services timely without interruption; our ability to maintain our access to data sources; government regulation and changes in the regulatory environment; litigation or regulatory proceedings; regulatory oversight of critical activities; our ability to effectively manage our costs; economic and political stability in the United States and international markets where we operate; our ability to effectively develop and maintain strategic alliances and joint ventures; our ability to timely develop new services and the markets willingness to adopt our new services; our ability to manage and expand our operations and keep up with rapidly changing technologies; our ability to make acquisitions, successfully integrate the operations of acquired businesses and realize the intended benefits of such acquisitions; our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property, trade secrets and other forms of unpatented intellectual property; our ability to defend our intellectual property from infringement claims by third parties; the ability of our outside service providers and key vendors to fulfill their obligations to us; further consolidation in our end-customer markets; the increased availability of free or inexpensive consumer information; losses against which we do not insure; our ability to make timely payments of principal and interest on our indebtedness; our ability to satisfy covenants in the agreements governing our indebtedness; our ability to maintain our liquidity; share repurchase plans; our reliance on key management personnel; and other one-time events and other factors that can be found in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, and any subsequent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q or Current Report on Form 8-K, which are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are available on TransUnions website ( www.transunion.com/tru ) and on the Securities and Exchange Commissions website ( www.sec.gov ). Many of these factors are beyond our control. The forward-looking statements contained in this earnings release speak only as of the date of this earnings release. We undertake no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect the impact of events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this earnings release.

In addition to factors previously disclosed in TransUnions reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and those identified elsewhere in this press release, the following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements or historical performance: failure to realize the benefits expected from the recent business acquisitions; the effects of pending and future legislation; risks related to disruption of management time from ongoing business operations due to the recent business acquisitions; macroeconomic factors beyond TransUnions control; risks related to TransUnions indebtedness and other consequences associated with mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, and legislative and regulatory actions and reforms.

For More Information

E-mail: Investor.Relations@transunion.com

Telephone: 312.985.2860

TRANSUNION AND SUBSIDIARIES

Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited)

(in millions, except per share data) June 30,

2020 December 31,

2019 Assets Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 432.2 $ 274.1 Trade accounts receivable, net of allowance of $26.0 and $19.0 433.1 443.9 Other current assets 199.4 170.2 Total current assets 1,064.7 888.2 Property, plant and equipment, net of accumulated depreciation and amortization of $497.6 and $454.4 203.3 219.0 Goodwill 3,280.7 3,377.8 Other intangibles, net of accumulated amortization of $1,589.9 and $1,482.1 2,247.2 2,391.9 Other assets 229.2 236.3 Total assets $ 7,025.1 $ 7,113.2 Liabilities and stockholders equity Current liabilities: Trade accounts payable $ 198.0 $ 176.2 Short-term debt and current portion of long-term debt 55.7 58.7 Other current liabilities 328.5 336.5 Total current liabilities 582.2 571.4 Long-term debt 3,573.4 3,598.3 Deferred taxes 401.8 439.1 Other liabilities 231.1 165.0 Total liabilities 4,788.5 4,773.8 Stockholders equity: Common stock, $0.01 par value; 1.0 billion shares authorized at June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, 195.3 million and 193.5 million shares issued at June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively, and 190.1 million shares and 188.7 million shares outstanding as of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively 2.0 1.9 Additional paid-in capital 2,056.4 2,022.3 Treasury stock at cost; 5.2 million and 4.8 million shares at June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively (212.2 ) (179.2 ) Retained earnings 761.7 652.0 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (468.6 ) (251.6 ) Total TransUnion stockholders equity 2,139.3 2,245.4 Noncontrolling interests 97.3 94.0 Total stockholders equity 2,236.6 2,339.4 Total liabilities and stockholders equity $ 7,025.1 $ 7,113.2





TRANSUNION AND SUBSIDIARIES

Consolidated Statements of Income (Unaudited)

(in millions, except per share data) Three Months Ended

June 30, Six Months Ended

June 30, 2020 2019 2020 2019 Revenue $ 634.4 $ 661.9 $ 1,322.0 $ 1,281.2 Operating expenses Cost of services (exclusive of depreciation and amortization below) 218.6 216.2 443.7 424.3 Selling, general and administrative 201.1 196.7 436.4 392.4 Depreciation and amortization 90.8 89.2 181.2 182.7 Total operating expenses 510.5 502.2 1,061.3 999.4 Operating income 123.9 159.7 260.7 281.8 Non-operating income and (expense) Interest expense (33.5 ) (45.2 ) (71.1 ) (90.2 ) Interest income 1.1 1.8 3.0 3.3 Earnings from equity method investments 2.1 3.3 4.6 7.1 Other income and (expense), net (0.7 ) 26.7 (7.7 ) 19.9 Total non-operating income and (expense) (30.9 ) (13.4 ) (71.2 ) (59.9 ) Income from continuing operations before income taxes 93.0 146.3 189.6 221.8 Provision for income taxes (23.0 ) (39.4 ) (45.2 ) (39.9 ) Income from continuing operations 70.0 107.0 144.3 181.9 Discontinued operations, net of tax  (3.0 )  (4.6 ) Net income 70.0 104.0 144.3 177.3 Less: net income attributable to the noncontrolling interests (1.5 ) (2.5 ) (5.6 ) (4.9 ) Net income attributable to TransUnion $ 68.5 $ 101.5 $ 138.7 $ 172.4 Income from continuing operations $ 70.0 $ 107.0 $ 144.3 $ 181.9 Less: net income from continuing operations attributable to noncontrolling interests (1.5 ) (2.5 ) (5.6 ) (4.9 ) Income from continuing operations attributable to TransUnion 68.5 104.5 138.7 177.0 Discontinued operations, net of tax  (3.0 )  (4.6 ) Net income attributable to TransUnion $ 68.5 $ 101.5 $ 138.7 $ 172.4 Basic earnings per common share from: Income from continuing operations attributable to TransUnion $ 0.36 $ 0.56 $ 0.73 $ 0.95 Discontinued operations, net of tax  (0.02 )  (0.02 ) Net Income attributable to TransUnion $ 0.36 $ 0.54 $ 0.73 $ 0.92 Diluted earnings per common share from: Income from continuing operations attributable to TransUnion $ 0.36 $ 0.55 $ 0.72 $ 0.93 Discontinued operations, net of tax  (0.02 )  (0.02 ) Net Income attributable to TransUnion $ 0.36 $ 0.53 $ 0.72 $ 0.90 Weighted-average shares outstanding: Basic 189.9 187.5 189.6 187.1 Diluted 192.0 191.3 192.0 191.2

As a result of displaying amounts in millions, rounding differences may exist in the table above.

TRANSUNION AND SUBSIDIARIES

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited)

(in millions) Six Months Ended June 30, 2020 2019 Cash flows from operating activities: Net income $ 144.3 $ 177.3 Add: loss from discontinued operations, net of tax  4.6 Income from continuing operations 144.3 181.9 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 181.2 182.7 Net loss/(gain) on investments in affiliated companies and assets-held-for sale 0.5 (22.6 ) Net (earnings)/dividends, from equity method investments 1.8 1.4 Deferred taxes (11.2 ) 0.1 Amortization of discount and deferred financing fees 1.9 3.2 Stock-based compensation 21.5 16.6 Provision for losses on trade accounts receivable 10.3 5.6 Other 3.8 1.6 Changes in assets and liabilities: Trade accounts receivable (12.5 ) (32.6 ) Other current and long-term assets (7.5 ) (34.8 ) Trade accounts payable 28.8 6.1 Other current and long-term liabilities 16.5 (0.9 ) Cash provided by operating activities of continuing operations 379.4 308.3 Cash used in operating activities of discontinued operations  (7.3 ) Cash provided by operating activities 379.4 301.0 Cash flows from investing activities: Capital expenditures (87.6 ) (88.0 ) Proceeds from sale/maturity of other investments 24.7 10.5 Purchases of other investments (50.7 ) (19.8 ) Acquisitions and purchases of noncontrolling interests, net of cash acquired (5.2 ) (45.9 ) Proceeds from disposals of assets held for sale 1.6 40.3 Other 0.7 (4.9 ) Cash used in investing activities of continuing operations (116.5 ) (107.8 ) Cash used in investing activities of discontinued operations   Cash used in investing activities (116.5 ) (107.8 ) Cash flows from financing activities: Repayments of debt (31.2 ) (133.9 ) Proceeds from issuance of common stock and exercise of stock options 12.9 12.8 Dividends to shareholders (29.0 ) (28.5 ) Distributions to noncontrolling interests  (0.8 ) Employee taxes paid on restricted stock units recorded as treasury stock (33.1 ) (36.9 ) Payment of contingent consideration (6.4 )  Cash used in financing activities (86.8 ) (187.3 ) Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (18.0 ) 1.4 Net change in cash and cash equivalents 158.1 7.3 Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 274.1 187.4 Cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 432.2 $ 194.7

As a result of displaying amounts in millions, rounding differences may exist in the table above.

SCHEDULE 1

TRANSUNION AND SUBSIDIARIES

Revenue, Adjusted Revenue, and Adjusted EBITDA growth rates as Reported, CC, Inorganic, Organic and Organic CC (Unaudited) For the Three Months Ended June 30, 2020 compared with the Three Months Ended June 30, 2019 Reported CC Growth(1) Inorganic(2) Organic

Growth(3) Organic CC

Growth(4) Revenue: Consolidated (4.1 )% (2.8 )% 0.1 % (4.3 )% (2.9 )% U.S. Markets (0.1 )% (0.1 )% 0.2 % (0.3 )% (0.3 )% Financial Services 4.3 % 4.3 %  % 4.3 % 4.3 % Emerging Verticals (5.0 )% (5.0 )% 0.5 % (5.4 )% (5.4 )% International (20.8 )% (14.7 )%  % (20.8 )% (14.7 )% Canada (4.9 )% (1.6 )%  % (4.9 )% (1.6 )% Latin America (34.4 )% (21.5 )%  % (34.4 )% (21.5 )% United Kingdom (15.9 )% (12.9 )%  % (15.9 )% (12.9 )% Africa (35.8 )% (20.9 )%  % (35.8 )% (20.9 )% India (29.1 )% (22.5 )%  % (29.1 )% (22.5 )% Asia Pacific (10.5 )% (11.7 )%  % (10.5 )% (11.7 )% Consumer Interactive 3.9 % 3.9 %  % 3.9 % 3.9 % Adjusted Revenue: Consolidated (4.4 )% (3.0 )% 0.1 % (4.5 )% (3.1 )% U.S. Markets (0.1 )% (0.1 )% 0.2 % (0.3 )% (0.3 )% Financial Services 4.3 % 4.3 %  % 4.3 % 4.3 % Emerging Verticals (5.1 )% (5.1 )% 0.5 % (5.5 )% (5.5 )% International (21.6 )% (15.6 )%  % (21.6 )% (15.6 )% Canada (4.9 )% (1.6 )%  % (4.9 )% (1.6 )% Latin America (34.4 )% (21.5 )%  % (34.4 )% (21.5 )% United Kingdom (18.7 )% (15.8 )%  % (18.7 )% (15.8 )% Africa (35.8 )% (20.9 )%  % (35.8 )% (20.9 )% India (29.1 )% (22.5 )%  % (29.1 )% (22.5 )% Asia Pacific (10.5 )% (11.7 )%  % (10.5 )% (11.7 )% Consumer Interactive 3.9 % 3.9 %  % 3.9 % 3.9 % Adjusted EBITDA: Consolidated (8.0 )% (6.8 )%  % (8.0 )% (6.8 )% U.S. Markets (2.4 )% (2.4 )% 0.1 % (2.5 )% (2.5 )% International (37.1 )% (31.9 )%  % (37.1 )% (31.9 )% Consumer Interactive 4.4 % 4.4 %  % 4.4 % 4.4 %





SCHEDULE 1

TRANSUNION AND SUBSIDIARIES

Revenue, Adjusted Revenue, and Adjusted EBITDA growth rates as Reported, CC, Inorganic, Organic and Organic CC (Unaudited) For the Six Months Ended June 30, 2020 compared with the Six Months Ended June 30, 2019 Reported CC Growth(1) Inorganic(2) Organic

Growth(3) Organic CC

Growth(4) Revenue: Consolidated 3.2 % 4.3 % 0.2 % 3.0 % 4.1 % U.S. Markets 6.8 % 6.8 % 0.4 % 6.4 % 6.4 % Financial Services 12.6 % 12.6 %  % 12.6 % 12.6 % Emerging Verticals 0.6 % 0.6 % 0.8 % (0.2 )% (0.2 )% International (6.6 )% (1.8 )%  % (6.6 )% (1.8 )% Canada 4.7 % 6.8 %  % 4.7 % 6.8 % Latin America (19.4 )% (8.0 )%  % (19.4 )% (8.0 )% United Kingdom (0.9 )% 1.4 %  % (0.9 )% 1.4 % Africa (19.7 )% (8.1 )%  % (19.7 )% (8.1 )% India (7.9 )% (3.2 )%  % (7.9 )% (3.2 )% Asia Pacific (4.8 )% (6.0 )%  % (4.8 )% (6.0 )% Consumer Interactive 3.3 % 3.3 %  % 3.3 % 3.3 % Adjusted Revenue: Consolidated 2.7 % 3.8 % 0.2 % 2.5 % 3.6 % U.S. Markets 6.8 % 6.8 % 0.4 % 6.4 % 6.4 % Financial Services 12.6 % 12.6 %  % 12.6 % 12.6 % Emerging Verticals 0.5 % 0.5 % 0.8 % (0.3 )% (0.3 )% International (8.4 )% (3.6 )%  % (8.4 )% (3.6 )% Canada 4.7 % 6.8 %  % 4.7 % 6.8 % Latin America (19.4 )% (8.0 )%  % (19.4 )% (8.0 )% United Kingdom (6.8 )% (4.6 )%  % (6.8 )% (4.6 )% Africa (19.7 )% (8.1 )%  % (19.7 )% (8.1 )% India (7.9 )% (3.2 )%  % (7.9 )% (3.2 )% Asia Pacific (4.8 )% (6.0 )%  % (4.8 )% (6.0 )% Consumer Interactive 3.3 % 3.3 %  % 3.3 % 3.3 % Adjusted EBITDA: Consolidated 0.7 % 1.7 % (0.1 )% 0.8 % 1.8 % U.S. Markets 8.0 % 8.0 % (0.2 )% 8.1 % 8.1 % International (21.5 )% (17.5 )%  % (21.5 )% (17.5 )% Consumer Interactive (0.2 )% (0.2 )%  % (0.2 )% (0.2 )% nm: not meaningful (1)

Constant Currency (CC) growth rates assume foreign currency exchange rates are consistent between years. This allows financial results to be evaluated without the impact of fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. (2) Inorganic growth rate represents growth attributable to the first twelve months of activity for recent business acquisitions. (3) Organic growth rate is the reported growth rate less the inorganic growth rate. (4) Organic CC growth rate is the CC growth rate less inorganic growth rate.





SCHEDULE 2

TRANSUNION AND SUBSIDIARIES

Consolidated and Segment Revenue, Adjusted Revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted EBITDA Margins (Unaudited)

(dollars in millions) Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2020 2019 2020 2019 Revenue and Adjusted Revenue: U.S. Markets gross revenue Financial Services $ 222.2 $ 213.0 $ 452.6 $ 402.1 Emerging Verticals 183.2 192.9 374.7 372.6 Total U.S. Markets gross revenue 405.5 405.9 827.3 774.7 Acquisition revenue - related adjustments(1)  0.2  0.4 U.S. Markets gross Adjusted Revenue $ 405.5 $ 406.0 $ 827.3 $ 775.0 International gross revenue Canada 24.1 25.4 50.6 48.4 Latin America 17.2 26.2 41.5 51.5 UK 39.2 46.6 88.0 88.8 Africa 9.0 14.0 23.3 29.0 India 17.6 24.9 48.4 52.6 Asia Pacific 12.5 14.0 25.6 26.8 Total International gross revenue 119.7 151.1 277.4 297.1 Acquisition revenue - related adjustments(1)  1.6  5.6 International Adjusted Revenue $ 119.7 $ 152.7 $ 277.4 $ 302.7 Consumer Interactive gross revenue $ 128.4 $ 123.6 $ 255.1 $ 246.9 Less: intersegment eliminations U.S. Markets (17.4 ) (17.2 ) (34.5 ) (34.7 ) International (1.2 ) (1.3 ) (2.5 ) (2.5 ) Consumer Interactive (0.4 ) (0.2 ) (0.8 ) (0.4 ) Total intersegment eliminations (19.1 ) (18.6 ) (37.8 ) (37.5 ) Total revenue, as reported $ 634.4 $ 661.9 $ 1,322.0 $ 1,281.2 Acquisition revenue-related adjustments(1)  1.7  5.9 Consolidated Adjusted Revenue $ 634.4 $ 663.6 $ 1,322.0 $ 1,287.1 Adjusted EBITDA: U.S. Markets $ 171.2 $ 175.4 $ 342.7 $ 317.5 International 37.5 59.6 97.7 124.5 Consumer Interactive 61.7 59.1 119.1 119.3 Corporate (27.7 ) (30.4 ) (53.5 ) (58.7 ) Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA $ 242.7 $ 263.7 $ 506.0 $ 502.6 Adjusted EBITDA margin: U.S. Markets 42.2 % 43.2 % 41.4 % 41.0 % International 31.3 % 39.0 % 35.2 % 41.1 % Consumer Interactive 48.1 % 47.8 % 46.7 % 48.3 % Consolidated 38.2 % 39.7 % 38.3 % 39.1 %

Segment Adjusted EBITDA margins are calculated using segment gross Adjusted Revenue and segment Adjusted EBITDA. Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA margin is calculated using consolidated Adjusted Revenue and consolidated Adjusted EBITDA.

Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2020 2019 2020 2019 Reconciliation of net income attributable to TransUnion to consolidated Adjusted EBITDA: Net income attributable to TransUnion $ 68.5 $ 101.5 $ 138.7 $ 172.4 Discontinued operations, net of tax  3.0  4.6 Net income from continuing operations attributable to TransUnion 68.5 104.5 138.7 177.0 Net interest expense 32.3 43.4 68.1 86.9 Provision for income taxes 23.0 39.4 45.2 39.9 Depreciation and amortization 90.8 89.2 181.2 182.7 EBITDA 214.7 276.4 433.2 486.5 Adjustments to EBITDA: Acquisition-related revenue adjustments(1)  1.7  5.9 Stock-based compensation(2) 19.4 8.2 21.7 20.9 Mergers and acquisitions, divestitures and business optimization(3) 7.1 (23.9 ) 11.5 (12.6 ) Accelerated technology investment(4) 3.3  5.8  Other(5) (1.8 ) 1.3 33.8 1.9 Total adjustments to EBITDA 28.0 (12.7 ) 72.8 16.2 Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA $ 242.7 $ 263.7 $ 506.0 $ 502.6

As a result of displaying amounts in millions, rounding differences may exist in the tables above and footnotes below.

(1) This adjustment represents certain non-cash adjustments related to acquired entities, predominantly adjustments to increase revenue resulting from purchase accounting reductions to deferred revenue we record on the opening balance sheets of acquired entities. Deferred revenue results when a company receives payment in advance of fulfilling their performance obligations under contracts. Business combination accounting rules require us to record deferred revenue of acquired entities at fair value if we are obligated to perform any future services under these contracts. The fair value of this deferred revenue is determined based on the direct and indirect incremental costs of fulfilling our performance obligations under these contracts, plus a normal profit margin. Generally, this fair value calculation results in a reduction to the purchased deferred revenue balance. The above adjustment includes an estimate for the increase in revenue equal to the difference between what the acquired entities would have recorded as revenue and the lower revenue we record as a result of the reduced deferred revenue balance. This increase is partially offset by an estimated decrease to revenue for certain acquired non-core customer contracts that are not classified as discontinued operations that will expire within approximately one year from the date of acquisition. We present Adjusted Revenue as a supplemental measure of our revenue because we believe it provides meaningful information regarding our revenue and provides a basis to compare revenue between periods. In addition, our board of directors and executive management team use Adjusted Revenue as a compensation measure under our incentive compensation plans. The table above provides a reconciliation for revenue to Adjusted Revenue. (2) Consisted of stock-based compensation and cash-settled stock-based compensation. (3) For the three months ended June 30, 2020, consisted of the following adjustments: a $4.8 million loss on the impairment of a Cost Method investment; $3.6 million of Callcredit integration costs; $1.2 million of acquisition expenses; and a ($2.5) million gain on a Cost Method investment resulting from an observable price change for a similar investment of the same issuer. For the six months ended June 30, 2020, consisted of the following adjustments: $7.5 million of Callcredit integration costs; a $4.8 million loss on the impairment of a Cost Method investment; $3.3 million of acquisition expenses; $0.3 million of adjustments to contingent consideration expense from previous acquisitions; a ($2.5) million gain on a Cost Method investment resulting from an observable price change for a similar investment of the same issuer; a ($1.8) million gain on the disposal of assets of a small business in our United Kingdom region that are classified as held-for-sale; and a ($0.1) million reimbursement for transition services provided to the buyers of certain of our discontinued operations. For the three months ended June 30, 2019, consisted of the following adjustments: a ($31.2) million gain on a Cost Method investment resulting from an observable price change for a similar investment of the same issuer; a ($0.9) million adjustment to contingent consideration expense from previous acquisitions; a ($0.2) million reimbursement for transition services provided to the buyers of certain of our discontinued operations; $4.4 million of Callcredit integration costs; a $3.3 million loss on the impairment of a Cost Method investment; and $0.8 million of acquisition expenses. For the six months ended June 30, 2019, consisted of the following adjustments: a ($31.2) million gain on a Cost Method investment resulting from an observable price change for a similar investment of the same issuer; ($0.2) million reimbursement for transition services provided to the buyers of our discontinued operations; $8.6 million loss on the impairment of certain Cost Method investments; $8.5 million of Callcredit integration costs; and $1.6 million of acquisition expenses. (4) Represents expenses associated with our accelerated technology investment. (5) For the three months ended June 30, 2020, consisted of the following adjustments: a ($2.0) million gain from currency remeasurement of our foreign operations; a ($0.3) recovery from the Fraud Incident, net of additional administration expenses; $0.4 million of loan fees; and $0.1 million other. For the six months ended June 30, 2020, consisted of the following adjustments: $30.5 million of expense incurred in connection with the Ramirez litigation; a $2.9 million loss from currency remeasurement of our foreign operations; $0.8 million of loan fees; $0.2 million of fees related to our new swap agreements; $0.1 million other; ($0.5) million reimbursement of fees associated with the refinancing of our Senior Secured Credit Facility; and a ($0.2) recovery from the Fraud Incident, net of additional administration expense. For the three months ended June 30, 2019, consisted of the following adjustments: $0.8 million of deferred loan fees written off as a result of the prepayments on our debt; $0.6 million of loan fees; and $(0.1) million from currency remeasurement. For the six months ended June 30, 2019, consisted of the following adjustments: $1.0 million of loan fees; $0.8 million of deferred loan fees written off as a result of the prepayments on our debt; $0.2 million from currency remeasurement.





SCHEDULE 3

TRANSUNION AND SUBSIDIARIES

Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Earnings Per Share (Unaudited)

(in millions, except per share data) Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2020 2019 2020 2019 Net income from continuing operations attributable to TransUnion $ 68.5 $ 104.5 $ 138.7 $ 177.0 Discontinued operations, net of tax  (3.0 )  (4.6 ) Net income attributable to TransUnion $ 68.5 $ 101.5 $ 138.7 $ 172.4 Weighted-average shares outstanding: Basic 189.9 187.5 189.6 187.1 Diluted 192.0 191.3 192.0 191.2 Basic earnings per common share from: Income from continuing operations attributable to TransUnion $ 0.36 $ 0.56 $ 0.73 $ 0.95 Discontinued operations, net of tax  (0.02 )  (0.02 ) Net Income attributable to TransUnion $ 0.36 $ 0.54 $ 0.73 $ 0.92 Diluted earnings per common share from: Income from continuing operations attributable to TransUnion $ 0.36 $ 0.55 $ 0.72 $ 0.93 Discontinued operations, net of tax  (0.02 )  (0.02 ) Net Income attributable to TransUnion $ 0.36 $ 0.53 $ 0.72 $ 0.90 Reconciliation of net income attributable to TransUnion to Adjusted Net Income: Net income attributable to TransUnion $ 68.5 $ 101.5 $ 138.7 $ 172.4 Discontinued operations  3.0  4.6 Net income from continuing operations attributable to TransUnion 68.5 104.5 138.7 177.0 Adjustments before income tax items: Acquisition revenue-related adjustments (1)  1.7  5.9 Stock-based compensation(2) 19.4 8.2 21.7 20.9 Mergers and acquisitions, divestitures and business optimization(3) 7.1 (23.9 ) 11.5 (12.6 ) Accelerated technology investment(4) 3.3  5.8  Other(5) (2.3 ) 0.7 33.0 1.0 Amortization of certain intangible assets(6) 47.9 52.5 96.5 109.2 Total adjustments before income tax items 75.4 39.2 168.5 124.4 Change in provision for income taxes per schedule 4 (17.0 ) (11.8 ) (39.6 ) (54.6 ) Adjusted Net Income $ 126.9 $ 131.8 $ 267.6 $ 246.8 Weighted-average shares outstanding: Basic 189.9 187.5 189.6 187.1 Diluted(7) 192.0 191.3 192.0 191.2 Adjusted Earnings per Share: Basic $ 0.67 $ 0.70 $ 1.41 $ 1.32 Diluted(7) $ 0.66 $ 0.69 $ 1.39 $ 1.29 Anti-dilutive weighted stock-based awards outstanding 0.3  0.3 0.1

As a result of displaying amounts in millions, rounding differences may exist in the table above and footnotes below.

(1) This adjustment represents certain non-cash adjustments related to acquired entities, predominantly adjustments to increase revenue resulting from purchase accounting reductions to deferred revenue we record on the opening balance sheets of acquired entities. Deferred revenue results when a company receives payment in advance of fulfilling their performance obligations under contracts. Business combination accounting rules require us to record deferred revenue of acquired entities at fair value if we are obligated to perform any future services under these contracts. The fair value of this deferred revenue is determined based on the direct and indirect incremental costs of fulfilling our performance obligations under these contracts, plus a normal profit margin. Generally, this fair value calculation results in a reduction to the purchased deferred revenue balance. The above adjustment includes an estimate for the increase in revenue equal to the difference between what the acquired entities would have recorded as revenue and the lower revenue we record as a result of the reduced deferred revenue balance. This increase is partially offset by an estimated decrease to revenue for certain acquired non-core customer contracts that are not classified as discontinued operations that will expire within approximately one year from the date of acquisition. We present Adjusted Revenue as a supplemental measure of our revenue because we believe it provides meaningful information regarding our revenue and provides a basis to compare revenue between periods. In addition, our board of directors and executive management team use Adjusted Revenue as a compensation measure under our incentive compensation plans. The table above provides a reconciliation for revenue to Adjusted Revenue. (2) Consisted of stock-based compensation and cash-settled stock-based compensation. (3) For the three months ended June 30, 2020, consisted of the following adjustments: a $4.8 million loss on the impairment of a Cost Method investment; $3.6 million of Callcredit integration costs; $1.2 million of acquisition expenses; and a ($2.5) million gain on a Cost Method investment resulting from an observable price change for a similar investment of the same issuer. For the six months ended June 30, 2020, consisted of the following adjustments: $7.5 million of Callcredit integration costs; a $4.8 million loss on the impairment of a Cost Method investment; $3.3 million of acquisition expenses; $0.3 million of adjustments to contingent consideration expense from previous acquisitions; a ($2.5) million gain on a Cost Method investment resulting from an observable price change for a similar investment of the same issuer; a ($1.8) million gain on the disposal of assets of a small business in our United Kingdom region that are classified as held-for-sale; and a ($0.1) million reimbursement for transition services provided to the buyers of certain of our discontinued operations. For the three months ended June 30, 2019, consisted of the following adjustments: a ($31.2) million gain on a Cost Method investment resulting from an observable price change for a similar investment of the same issuer; a ($0.9) million adjustment to contingent consideration expense from previous acquisitions; a ($0.2) million reimbursement for transition services provided to the buyers of certain of our discontinued operations; $4.4 million of Callcredit integration costs; a $3.3 million loss on the impairment of a Cost Method investment; and $0.8 million of acquisition expenses. For the six months ended June 30, 2019, consisted of the following adjustments: a ($31.2) million gain on a Cost Method investment resulting from an observable price change for a similar investment of the same issuer; ($0.2) million reimbursement for transition services provided to the buyers of our discontinued operations; $8.6 million loss on the impairment of certain Cost Method investments; $8.5 million of Callcredit integration costs; and $1.6 million of acquisition expenses. (4) Represents expenses associated with our accelerated technology investment. (5) For the three months ended June 30, 2020, consisted of the following adjustments: a ($2.0) million gain from currency remeasurement of our foreign operations; and a $(0.3) million recovery from the Fraud Incident, net of additional administrative expenses. For the six months ended June 30, 2020, consisted of the following adjustments: $30.5 million of expense incurred in connection with the Ramirez litigation; a $2.9 million loss from currency remeasurement of our foreign operations; and ($0.5) million reimbursement of fees associated with the refinancing of our Senior Secured Credit Facility. For the three months ended June 30, 2019, consisted of the following adjustments: $0.8 million of deferred loan fees written off as a result of the prepayments on our debt and a ($0.1) million gain from currency remeasurement of our foreign operations. For the six months ended June 30, 2019, consisted of the following adjustments: $0.8 million of deferred loan fees written off as a result of the prepayments on our debt and a $0.2 million loss from currency remeasurement of our foreign operations. (6) Consisted of amortization of intangible assets from our 2012 change in control and amortization of intangible assets established in business acquisitions after our 2012 change in control. (7) As of June 30, 2020 and June 30, 2019, there were 1.3 million and 1.1 million contingently-issuable performance-based stock awards outstanding that were excluded from the diluted earnings per share calculation, respectively, because the contingencies had not been met.





SCHEDULE 4

TRANSUNION AND SUBSIDIARIES

Effective Tax Rate and Adjusted Effective Tax Rate (Unaudited)

(dollars in millions) Three Months Ended

June 30, Six Months Ended

June 30, 2020 2019 2020 2019 Income before income taxes $ 93.0 $ 146.3 $ 189.6 $ 221.8 Total adjustments before income tax items from schedule 3 75.4 39.2 168.5 124.4 Noncontrolling interest portion of Adjusted Net Income adjustments     Adjusted income before income taxes $ 168.3 $ 185.5 $ 358.1 $ 346.3 (Provision) benefit for income taxes (23.0 ) (39.4 ) (45.2 ) (39.9 ) Adjustments for income taxes: Tax effect of above adjustments(1) (16.5 ) (5.8 ) (35.7 ) (25.6 ) Eliminate impact of excess tax benefits for share compensation(2) (4.7 ) (6.3 ) (21.0 ) (27.3 ) Other(3) 4.3 0.2 17.1 (1.7 ) Total adjustments for income taxes (17.0 ) (11.8 ) (39.6 ) (54.6 ) Adjusted provision for income taxes $ (39.9 ) $ (51.2 ) $ (84.8 ) $ (94.5 ) Effective tax rate 24.7 % 26.9 % 23.9 % 18.0 % Adjusted Effective Tax Rate 23.7 % 27.6 % 23.7 % 27.3 % As a result of displaying amounts in millions, rounding differences may exist in the table above. (1) Tax rates used to calculate the tax expense impact are based on the nature of each item. (2) Eliminates the impact of excess tax benefits for share compensation. (3) Eliminates impact of state tax rate changes on deferred taxes, valuation allowances on foreign net operating losses and valuation allowances on capital losses and other discrete adjustments.





SCHEDULE 5

TRANSUNION AND SUBSIDIARIES

Segment Depreciation and Amortization (Unaudited)

(in millions) Three Months Ended

June 30, Six Months Ended

June 30, 2020 2019 2020 2019 U.S. Markets $ 56.9 $ 56.1 $ 112.8 $ 113.1 International 28.6 28.6 58.1 60.6 Consumer Interactive 3.8 3.2 7.5 6.5 Corporate 1.4 1.2 2.8 2.5 Total depreciation and amortization $ 90.8 $ 89.2 $ 181.2 $ 182.7

As a result of displaying amounts in millions, rounding differences may exist in the table above.
The new Grace Hopper cable will join existing Google cables like Curie, pictured here.

Google

Google announced a new undersea cable project on Tuesday.

Named after American computer scientist Grace Hopper, the new cable will connect the US with the UK and Spain.

Google says it expects the cable to be finished by 2022.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Google is planning to lay more than 3,000 miles of transatlantic undersea cable by 2022.

The tech giant announced its new Grace Hopper undersea cable project on Tuesday.

The Grace Hopper cable, named after the famous US computer scientist, will connect New York to Bude in the UK and Bilbao, Spain. The distance from New York to Bude in Cornwall, England is roughly 3,290 miles.

In a statement Google said Grace Hopper marks its first private investment in a private subsea cable route to the UK, and its first ever cable route to Spain.

Related video: Google, Apple and other are fighting COVID-19

Google says the Grace Hopper cable is expected to be completed by 2022, and the company will use a new technique to make it more reliable than existing fibre-optic cables.

"Grace Hopper will incorporate novel optical fiber switching that allows for increased reliability in global communications, enabling us to better move traffic around outages," Google said.

Google's Curie cable.

Google

The cable is set to funnel 340-350 terabytes of data per second, which according to Google equates to 17.5 million people streaming 4K videos simultaneously.

Google already has three privately-owned undersea cables: Curie, Dunant and Equiano.

Curie runs down the West coast of the US from Los Angeles all the way down to Valparaiso in Chile, stopping off in Panama, and is already online. Dunant stretches from Virginia Beach in the US to France, and is expected to become accessible later this year. Equiano runs from Portugal all the way down the West coast of Africa to Cape Town, South Africa, and is expected to be completed next year.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The situation in Kiev is not cam now. The Capitulation Resistance Movement suspected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of surrendering positions in Donbass and announced protests at his office. Among those who sympathize with the movement, there are many supporters of ex-President Petro Poroshenko. In fact, the movement's message, in which one can see h the desire to find reliable allies, was addressed to them. The movement announced through its social media platforms that Zelensky's team, having agreed to a ceasefire in Donbass, went against Ukraine's interests.

The appeal says that Ukraine's armed forces have lost the authority to return fire, cannot conduct intelligence activities, and "for any resistance to an aggressor, we can be brought to disciplinary action." "Russia is actually turning into an observer. Ukraine will be forced to negotiate with the so-called LPNR ... We will not allow disarming our army and turning our military into targets. Our army is protecting us today. Therefore, our duty is to protect our army," the appeal says, also expressing concern about the "defeat of Ukraine", which caused "protests."

The situation began to deteriorate after it became known about the ceasefire scheduled to begin at midnight on July 27 and the telephone conversation between Vladimir Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. It played into those who see signs of surrender of Ukraine's national interests after reports that Ukraine's positions were being fired upon contrary to the agreement despite the desire declared by the Minsk contact group to "strictly control the ceasefire regime and identify which side is violating it."

The commander of the Joint Forces Operation, Lieutenant General Vladimir Kravchenko confirmed at a briefing on Monday that the "cease-fire" had been violated several times during the night. But, according to Kravchenko, since there was no immediate threat, the Ukrainian military did not return fire. "But in the future," if the enemy violates the cease-fire and creates a threat to the lives of our servicemen, the response will be instant and decisive," Kravchenko said.



This statement didn't lower the degree of tension. Moreover, Donetsk announced that no one had fired at the Ukrainian forces, and apparently Kiev started another information provocation, and maybe it's not just information one.

Against this background, it became known about the phone talks between Zelensky and Putin. According to the presidential press services, they discussed the ceasefire regime, and the political settlement of the conflict in general. According to reports, Vladimir Putin described the resolution on local elections in 2020 that was passed by the Verkhovna Rada on July 15 as running counter to the Minsk agreements and putting settlement prospects in jeopardy."

The Verkhovna Rada passed a resolution calling local elections in Ukraine, with the exception of those territories that Kiev calls "temporarily occupied". There, elections can take place only after the implementation of all the points of the Minsk agreements on ensuring security, including the withdrawal of troops, since any other scenario, in the opinion of Ukrainian MPs, leads to the legitimization of the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics.

According to the press service of the Ukrainian President, Zelensky and Putin also touched upon issues related to local self-government in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which is under study in the Trilateral Contact Group, and the draft law on decentralization, which provides for changes to the Constitution of Ukraine. The second topic especially alarmed the zealous guardians of protecting Ukraine's interests. This document was recently introduced by President Zelensky to the Verkhovna Rada. This project implied expanding the powers of the parliament to define and name administrative units, and they saw it as a threat of "creeping recognition" of the self-proclaimed Donbass republics. The bill was withdrawn for improvement. And since it was discussed with Putin, the Capitulation Resistance Movement expressed its fears about the destruction of statehood, not to mention that "while negotiating with Putin on this topic, Zelensky ... recognizes the loss of a part of sovereignty, if such Ukraine's internal issues as changes to the Constitution are discussed with the leader of the aggressor country. "

The protest being organized by the Capitulation Resistance Movement is expected to receive strong political support. In addition to the fifth president Petro Poroshenko's supporters, the activists could be joined by former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's Popular Front. On the eve, he suggested that hiding behind a truce, Moscow seems to be preparing for a new special operation. Yatsenyuk sharply criticized Zelensky's actions, saying that instead of negotiating he should announce to the Russian President that "Ukraine will never fulfill the Minsk agreements in the Russian version," and Russia will not be able to return Ukraine to its orbit.



So what's the point of all the talks being held in Donbass? Put in these terms, obviously, there is no sense. And if the Capitulation Resistance Movement, together with political parties, impose their will on Zelensky, thats how its gonna be.
Anti-government protesters have taken to the streets of Iraqs capital and other cities following the funerals of two people killed during clashes with security forces the night before.

The two protesters were killed late on Sunday in central Baghdad during renewed demonstrations against corruption, unemployment and poor public services, including a lack of electricity, as the country reels under a major heatwave.

The deaths were the first during anti-government demonstrations since new Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi was sworn into office in May.

On Monday, clashes between protesters and security forces broke out again in Baghdad and other cities.

In the capital, security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse protesters who threw stone and petrol bombs, according to reports.

Later on Monday, al-Kadhimi said in a televised speech that the protests were a legitimate right and the security forces do not have the permission to fire even one bullet in the direction of the protesters.

He said he had opened an investigation and demanded results within 72 hours.

Military spokesman Yehia Rasool said in a statement that security forces had been given strict instructions not to use force against protesters unless necessary.

Iraqs biggest anti-government protests in decades broke out last October and continued for several months, with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis demanding jobs, services and the removal of the ruling elite, which they said was corrupt. Some 500 people were killed.

The protests caused the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who was replaced in May by al-Kadhimi, a former intelligence chief.
New Jersey reported 24 new coronavirus deaths and 565 new cases Tuesday as the rate of transmission increased once again and remains above the key benchmark that indicates the outbreak is expanding after weeks of declines.

Its a mixed bag, Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday during a press conference on small business grant funding in North Brunswick. Were not out of the woods yet.

The rate of transmission increased to 1.14. When the transmission rate is above 1, it means that each new case leads to more than one additional case. The rate was 1.09 on Monday after falling below 1 over the weekend to .84 on Sunday.

The 565 new cases is the most reported in a single day so far this month and the third time in four days that number was above 500. New Jersey health officials reported 547 cases Saturday, 512 Sunday and 446 Monday. Murphy has cautioned that the rise in new cases could reflect a backlog from last week in getting test results processed and counted.

The latest update pushes the total number of cases to 180,295 and the total known confirmed and probable deaths to 15,825. That includes 13,905 lab confirmed deaths and 1,920 considered likely caused by COVID-19.

The number of patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases at New Jerseys hospitals increased slightly as of Monday night to 718. That includes 50 patients on ventilators and 112 in intensive or critical care. New Jersey had more than 8,000 patients at the states 71 hospitals at the peak in mid-April.

Murphy cited the recent reports of massive mansion house parties and other case clusters among young people as concerning issues as the case numbers increase.

New Jersey also expanded its coronavirus quarantine travel advisory on Tuesday to include 34 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. Thats up from 31 states last week.

COUNTY-BY-COUNTY NUMBERS

Atlantic County: 3,297 cases (31 new), 227 confirmed deaths (15 probable)

Bergen County: 20,341 cases (48 new), 1,783 confirmed deaths (263 probable)

Burlington County: 5,684 cases (44 new), 430 confirmed deaths (41 probable)

Camden County: 8,167 cases (45 new), 514 confirmed deaths (55 probable)

Cape May County: 800 cases (6 new), 81 confirmed deaths (5 probable)

Cumberland County: 3,166 cases (23 new), 143 confirmed deaths (13 probable)

Essex County: 19,376 cases (42 new), 1,856 confirmed deaths (247 probable)

Gloucester County: 2,999 cases (14 new), 196 confirmed deaths (7 probable)

Hudson County: 19,399 cases (22 new), 1,330 confirmed deaths (175 probable)

Hunterdon County: 1,123 cases (2 new), 70 confirmed deaths (56 probable)

Mercer County: 7,966 cases (30 new), 569 confirmed deaths (43 probable)

Middlesex County: 17,580 cases (36 new), 1,196 confirmed deaths (212 probable)

Monmouth County: 9,947 cases (44 new), 756 confirmed deaths (100 probable)

Morris County: 7,091 cases (17 new), 676 confirmed deaths (153 probable)

Ocean County: 10,293 cases (57 new), 942 confirmed deaths (70 probable)

Passaic County: 17,348 cases (24 new), 1,090 confirmed deaths (156 probable)

Salem County: 866 cases (7 new), 78 confirmed deaths (5 probable)

Somerset County: 5,155 cases (18 new), 480 confirmed deaths (78 probable)

Sussex County: 1,286 cases (2 new), 158 confirmed deaths (37 probable)

Union County: 16,410 cases (31 new), 1,174 confirmed deaths (175 probable)

Warren County: 1,321 cases (5 new), 156 confirmed deaths (14 probable)

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

The rate of transmission jumped back above the key benchmark of 1 Monday. While day-to-day fluctuations arent cause for too much alarm, the rate of transmission, or Rt, is used as a key metric to decide whether to reopen more businesses in the state.

Were monitoring this every single day and again, day-to-day fluctuations, we dont go totally crazy, State Epidemiologist Dr. Christina Tan said Monday. Again, we look at several different metrics, the cases, the positivity, the syndrome and surveillance, and theyre  those three metrics are very highly correlated, actually. And we havent seen anything unusual, but we certainly echo the message about not being complacent.

An increase in the transmission rate above 1 earlier this month, causing Murphy to pause the states reopening plans, which are currently in Phase 2.

A new poll, meanwhile, showed two-thirds of New Jerseyans favor keeping restrictions in place until a vaccine or treatment is available, according to Fairleigh Dickinson University. Only 29% of people surveyed said they want a return to normal despite the risks.

Republicans were the only demographic where a majority (53%) said they support a return to normal life over restrictions, according to the poll.

A new poll, meanwhile, showed two-thirds of New Jerseyans favor keeping restrictions in place until a vaccine or treatment is available, according to Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Theres scant evidence in New Jersey that the public is looking for a speedy return to normal as long as a treatment or a vaccine remain out of reach. It looks like the heavy toll the virus took early on in the pandemic has left state residents leery of letting down their guard, Krista Jenkins, director of the FDU poll and a professor of politics and government at FDU said in a statement.

The same poll also showed a large percentage of people (77%) support making wearing masks in public mandatory, while only 20% said it should be optional.

As of Tuesday, there have been nearly 16.5 million positive tests for COVID-19 across the globe, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. Of those, more than 654,000 have died, while nearly 9.6 million have recovered.

There have been nearly 148,000 deaths in the United States, by far the most in the world.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
Ramy Youssef in an episode of "Ramy." (Craig Blankenhorn / Hulu)

TVs first Muslim American sitcom has scored an Emmy nomination.

Ramy Youssef, the co-creator and star of Hulus Ramy, was among those recognized in the comedy actor category when the 2020 Emmy nominations were announced Tuesday morning. Youssef was also nominated for directing, while Season 2 co-star Mahershala Ali earned a supporting actor nod.

Ramy, which released its second season in May, is an irreverent half-hour comedy that follows Egyptian American Ramy Hassan (Youssef) as he grapples with his Muslim faith while navigating life as a millennial in New Jersey.

Theres this idea that when you say youre Muslim, that youre either all in or youre trying to escape it, Youssef told the L.A. Times in a previous interview. I love the idea of gradations and levels, just like everybody else has.

In January, Youssefs performance was recognized at the Golden Globe Awards, where he took the prize for lead actor in a comedy series. Despite Ramys critical acclaim, Youssef was considered a long shot in a category that included a number of well-known comedy vets such as Bill Hader and Paul Rudd.

Although Ramy is considered the first mainstream Muslim American sitcom, it is not the first series focused on a Muslim person to be recognized by the Television Academy.

Master of None, which starred co-creator Aziz Ansari as Indian American and secular Muslim Dev Shah, scored 12 Emmy nominations over its two-season run. It won the comedy writing Emmy in both 2016 and 2017 (Ansari and co-creator Alan Yang were the winners in 2016, while the 2017 award was shared by Ansari and Lena Waithe).

2017 was also the year actor Riz Ahmed was recognized for his work on The Night Of, in which he portrayed Nasir Khan, a Muslim college student accused of murder. Ahmed won the Emmy for lead actor in a limited series, making him the first Muslim and person of Asian decent to win a lead acting Emmy.
This week Ben talks with Professor Karine Nahon, an associate professor of information science at the Interdisciplinary Center at Herzliya, the president of the Israel Internet Association and chairwoman of the National Committee of Ethics, Regulation and Artificial Intelligence. Prof. Nahon says that while Israeli democracy isnt dead yet, there are reasons to worry about its stability and future. The combination of mounting political pressure on Israel's gatekeepers, the use of the Shin Bets strategic tools to track Israeli citizens and the general feeling of emergency amid the coronavirus crisis are all pushing Israels fragile democracy to the brink.
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Venezuelans reacted on Monday to President Nicolas Maduro's statement that Catholic leaders who have been critical of the way the government is handling the coronavirus pandemic should lend their churches to government health services, as the number of new confirmed infections steadily increases.

Gloria Estevez, who is retired, said she disagrees that churches should be used as quarantine spaces or healthcare facilities.

"We are waiting for the churches to open to attend the Eucharist," she said.

She said hospitals need to be better prepared so they are able to treat those infected with COVID-19, like in other countries.

In a televised meeting with ministers on Sunday, Maduro said church officials should lends their facilities those requiring treatment, rather than just providing criticism.

The country is now coping with Venezuelan returnees who had left the country in previous years, but are now short on opportunities in their host countries during the coronavirus lockdown.

In recent days Father Numa Molina, a Catholic priest that supports Maduro's administration, said returnees may pose a risk to Venezuelans, a statement criticised by religious authorities.

Catholic churches remain closed for religious services, but crowds still gather outside to pray.

A day before more restrictions are due to be eased, Maduro also said a radical quarantine will remain in place in Caracas, and six states as part of a renewed effort to stop the spreading of COVID-19.

Those states include Miranda, Zulia, Sucre, La Guaira, Tachira and Bolivar.

Venezuela is considered one of the world's least prepared countries to confront the pandemic, with hospitals routinely short on basic supplies like water, electricity and medicine.

The nation has registered considerably fewer COVID-19 cases than others in the region, and some experts fear that Venezuela's approach to rely on rapid tests is failing to record some cases.
Photo credit: Kaldy et al.

From Popular Mechanics

A new paper in Genes describes how two different types of fish (sturgeon and paddlefish) bred to create hybrid offspring.

The creation of these hybrid sturddlefish was accidental and occurred in a lab in Hungary while researchers were trying to breed Russian sturgeons in captivity because the fish is endangered (with some sturgeon species being critically endangered.)

In a wild turn of events, a new kind of fish has been born in a lab entirely by accident. The sturddlefish is a hybrid between a Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) and an American paddlefish and came into existence by accident.

Both fishwhich are considered endangeredmanaged to breed while in captivity at a Hungarian lab.

We never wanted to play around with hybridization. It was absolutely unintentional, Attila Mozsar, a senior researcher at the Research Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Hungary, told The New York Times.

The sneaky fish ended up creating hundreds of hybrid offspring, but some have since died. According to the researchers, survival in all hybrid family groups ranged from 62 percent to 74 percent 30 days after hatching. This also marks the first time that successful hybridization has occurred between both species.

This new sturddlefish came into existence when the research team tried to breed more Russian sturgeons via gynogenesis, a type of asexual reproduction in which sperm is necessary but leaves no traces of its DNA behind. As a result, the offspring ends up with 100 percent maternal DNA (and none from the paternal contributor.)

This is where the American paddlefish comes into as the team used sperm from this fish to start the gynogenesis in the sturgeon. What researchers were not expecting was that the sperm and egg would fuse creating a new hybrid fish. Still, the hybrids arent all the same; some are close to an even 50/50 genetic split between their two parents, but others appear more sturgeon-like while others have stronger paddlefish traits. According to Live Science, all of the hybrids are carnivorous just like the sturgeon who feeds on mollusks and crustaceans. This is unlike the paternal paddlefish who feed on various zooplankton.

Story continues

The Times reports that approximately 100 sturddlefish remain alive today. The team behind the accidental hybridization says that they have no plans for creating more sturddlefish in the futurea short-lived life for a species that was never meant to be.

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WARSAW, Ind., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- To provide clients with cutting-edge, enhanced technology solutions, 212 Media Studios has partnered with Amplified Solutions, a development startup based in northern Indiana. The partnership also augments 212's already robust web development services and opens doors for more successful developments in the future.

"Having worked with the principals of Amplified for some time, I've always respected their service delivery process, attention to client needs, and ongoing willingness to stay ahead of the technology curve when it comes to software development," says 212 Chief Marketing Officer David Phelps. "This partnership will allow us to provide next-level solutions that compete with the country's leading firmsbut at price points and delivery times far below average."

In the past year, 212 and Amplified Solutions have already worked together to deliver a revolutionary online reservation and collaboration solution for an international client headquartered in San Francisco. As technology advances and clients' needs increase, both companies are looking forward to the expanded partnership.

"This partnership allows us to combine the engineering expertise of Amplified Solutions with the marketing polish and impeccable user experience that 212 Media Studios is known for," says Brandon Wilhite of Amplified Solutions. "The result is an enhanced ability to provide a complete set of software development services for all types of businesses."

About 212 Media Studios

212 Media Studios is a team of strategic thinkers and visionary creators based in Warsaw, Indiana. Through research, branding and inbound marketing, 212 creates comprehensive, personalized strategies that meet the business needs of clients in industries like technology, healthcare, higher education and non-profit. To learn more about 212 Media Studios' services and offerings, visit 212mediastudios.com.

Contact: Bailey Gerber

Email: [email protected]

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Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge President Donald Trump, proposed Tuesday to triple federal contracting for racial minorities by 2025 and reduce college costs to ensure women and people of color benefit from his economic recovery plans.

Biden noted that with 18 million out of work, the economic crisis resulting from the coronavirus pandemic has hit Black and Latino communities especially hard, with unemployment rates of 15.4% and 14.5% respectively. Biden said his goal is rebuild a more inclusive society.

"We need to make bold, practical investments to recover from the economic mess were in, and to rebuild for the economic future our country deserves, Biden said at the William Hicks Anderson Community Center in Wilmington, Delaware. Today Im here to explain how the Build Back Better plan will deal with systemic racism and advance racial equity in our economy.

The Trump campaign said Tuesday there was nobody worse suited to address racial inequality than Biden. Katrina Pierson, a senior adviser to the campaign, said Trump has a record of accomplishment for Black Americans including low unemployment before the pandemic, legislation overhauling the criminal justice system and record funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Joe Bidens record and proposals prove that he indiscriminately spreads economic misery for all Americans, so he has addressed inequality that way," Pierson said. "Its time for Joe Biden to exit the stage and his brand of condescending, acceptable white liberal racism can go with him."

Biden's proposals include:

 $100 billion in low-interest business loans through state, local, tribal and non-profit lending programs in Black and Latino communities.

 $50 billion in venture capital through tax credits under state and local investment initiatives.

 $30 billion for businesses of racial minorities  or 10% of his $300 billion innovation fund  under his program to ensure government contracting buys American-made products.

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 Tripling federal contracting for businesses owned by racial minorities from 5% to 15% by 2025.

To help families of color build wealth, Biden proposed:

 $15,000 tax credits to help low- and middle-income families buy their first home.

 $10,000 per person cancellation of student loan debt.

 Tuition-free education at public colleges and universities for any family earning less than $125,000, which Biden estimated would cover 91% of Black families and 88% of Latino families.

People listen to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden at the Hyatt Park community center on May 4, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. It is Biden's first visit to South Carolina as a 2020 presidential candidate.

Previous planks in his economic recovery proposals dealt with manufacturing, climate change and caregivers. For each element, Biden promised that women and racial minorities would benefit

 For manufacturing, Biden proposed direct federal spending targeted for small businesses with outreach to those owned by women and people of color.

 For the development of clean energy, Biden proposed to spur development of electric vehicles and renewable power that he said would create good-paying union jobs for working-class families.

 Caregivers for children, the elderly and disabled are disproportionately women and racial minorities, so Biden said his proposal to boost their salaries and providing more training for advancement would directly benefit them.

In addition to the economic proposals, Biden released a video with former President Barack Obama talking about the need to overhaul policing. Protests nationwide were sparked after the May 25 death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police.

Biden has said Trump is the first racist to win the presidency, although at least 12 previous chief executives owned slaves, including eight while in office.

But Trump has argued that nobody has done more for Black Americans than he has, with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln.

In promoting the economy, Trump said unemployment rates were low among nearly all racial minorities before the coronavirus pandemic. And his administration overhauled the criminal justice system in a way Biden and Obama were unable to accomplish.

Trump has sided vocally with law enforcement during the protests, saying officers are needed to control a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders and heinous crimes of violence.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joe Biden proposes federal contracts, debt relief targeting minorities
John MacArthur says Grace Community Church has duty to remain open

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Pastor John MacArthur of Californias Grace Community Church announced that his church would continue to hold in-person services despite state-mandated restrictions banning in-person worship services.

About two weeks after California indefinitely closed churches and other businesses in more than 30 of the state's 58 counties as part of its response to the coronavirus, author and theologian MacArthur has given a biblical basis for his decision. Compliance would be disobedience to our Lords clear commands, he wrote in a statement to the congregation on Friday.

Government officials have no right to interfere in ecclesiastical matters in a way that undermines or disregards the God-given authority of pastors and elders, MacArthur wrote.

Christ is Lord of all. He is the one true head of the church (Ephesians 1:22; 5:23; Colossians 1:18). He is also King of kingssovereign over every earthly authority (1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14; 19:16). Grace Community Church has always stood immovably on those biblical principles. As His people, we are subject to His will and commands as revealed in Scripture. Therefore we cannot and will not acquiesce to a government-imposed moratorium on our weekly congregational worship or other regular corporate gatherings. Compliance would be disobedience to our Lords clear commands. Some will think such a firm statement is inexorably in conflict with the command to be subject to governing authorities laid out in Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2. Scripture does mandate careful, conscientious obedience to all governing authority, including kings, governors, employers, and their agents (in Peters words, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable [1 Peter 2:18]). Insofar as government authorities do not attempt to assert ecclesiastical authority or issue orders that forbid our obedience to Gods law, their authority is to be obeyed whether we agree with their rulings or not. In other words, Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 still bind the consciences of individual Christians. We are to obey our civil authorities as powers that God Himself has ordained. However, while civil government is invested with divine authority to rule the state, neither of those texts (nor any other) grants civic rulers jurisdiction over the church. God has established three institutions within human society: the family, the state, and the church. Each institution has a sphere of authority with jurisdictional limits that must be respected. A fathers authority is limited to his own family. Church leaders authority (which is delegated to them by Christ) is limited to church matters. And government is specifically tasked with the oversight and protection of civic peace and well-being within the boundaries of a nation or community. God has not granted civic rulers authority over the doctrine, practice, or polity of the church. The biblical framework limits the authority of each institution to its specific jurisdiction. The church does not have the right to meddle in the affairs of individual families and ignore parental authority. Parents do not have authority to manage civil matters while circumventing government officials. And similarly, government officials have no right to interfere in ecclesiastical matters in a way that undermines or disregards the God-given authority of pastors and elders. When any one of the three institutions exceeds the bounds of its jurisdiction it is the duty of the other institutions to curtail that overreach. Therefore, when any government official issues orders regulating worship (such as bans on singing, caps on attendance, or prohibitions against gatherings and services), he steps outside the legitimate bounds of his God-ordained authority as a civic official and arrogates to himself authority that God expressly grants only to the Lord Jesus Christ as sovereign over His Kingdom, which is the church. His rule is mediated to local churches through those pastors and elders who teach His Word (Matthew 16:1819; 2 Timothy 3:164:2).

Read the full statement here.

On July 13, the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that churches, fitness centers and businesses in several industries in 30 California counties would be ordered to shut down again unless they can operate outside or through pick-up services. As of Saturday, the order now applies to some 33 counties with two others on a government monitoring list.

MacArthur said the government is specifically tasked with the oversight and protection of civic peace and well-being within the boundaries of a nation or community.

God has not granted civic rulers authority over the doctrine, practice, or polity of the church, he continued. The biblical framework limits the authority of each institution to its specific jurisdiction. The church does not have the right to meddle in the affairs of individual families and ignore parental authority. Parents do not have authority to manage civil matters while circumventing government officials.

The pastors and elders of Grace Community Church, therefore, respectfully inform our civic leaders that they have exceeded their legitimate jurisdiction, and faithfulness to Christ prohibits us from observing the restrictions they want to impose on our corporate worship services, he added.

In late May, immediately after President Trump declared churches to be essential and said they should be allowed to reopen as long as they adhere to the CDC's health guidelines, the Ninth Circuit decided in favor of Newsoms statewide stay-at-home order and rejected an emergency motion to allow for in-person religious services to proceed in California. Follow the Ninth Circuit's decision, the elders of Grace Community Church said they would continue to delay the church's reopening "and leave it in the hands of God.

For a state like California to decide that abortion providers, marijuana dispensaries, and liquor stores are essential while churches are forced to the back of the line via a seemingly endless series of moving goalposts and ever more restrictive hoops to jump through, is the very essence of upside-down Romans 1 immorality, the church stated at the time. We stand against it plainly, and moving forward, we are striving to pursue every biblical and legal means to oppose it.

However, the churchs statement added, Even so, for now, the Ninth Circuit decision is sadly the law of the land in California, and we gladly submit to the sovereign purposes of God.

Other California pastors are also deciding whether to continue to comply with Newsom's second round of lockdown restrictions ban in-person church gatherings indefinitely or to defy the order and meet in-person.

Greg Fairrington, pastor of Destiny Christian Church in Rocklin, California, said in a Facebook video posted July 14 that he would be holding in-person services.

"I believe my mandate as a pastor is to obey the Word of God. And part of what we do is worship together as a church," Fairrington said. "We are not going to allow our government to use data that is not supported factually to shut the church down."

However, Pastor John Cox of Riverpark Bible Church in Fresno told The Christian Post in an earlier interview that Romans 13:1 tells Christians to submit to government.

"It put us in a tricky spot. We want to be who God ordered us to be. But also, [we] want to be gracious and submit to leadership," Cox said. "We don't want to worship in defiance or to stand against the government, but as the people of God."

Cox said that Riverpark services would be online and not in-person for the time being. The primary issue, according to Cox, is the vagueness of the order. He said, knowing what is permitted and what is not can be difficult to distinguish.

Last week, the Pasadena-based Harvest Rock Church, which has campuses throughout the state, and Harvest International Ministries, a nonprofit corporation with 162 member churches statewide and over 65,000 affiliates worldwide, filed a complaint in federal court against Newsoms COVID-19 executive order that they say also bans church members from holding Bible studies and other small group meetings in their homes.

As part of the exercise of its sincerely held religious beliefs, Harvest Rocks Church campuses also have numerous Life Groups, which meet in the homes of members of the Church to worship together, engage in Bible study, fellowship with one another, and minister to the needs of each other, the complaint explained.

Harvest Rock has and exercises a sincere religious belief that Life Groups are an essential way for the church to fulfill its mission and to foster a healthy, vibrant, and growing Church community such that its members can gather together to grow in the Lord, mature in their faith, and understand the Scriptures better.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-27 01:41:52|Editor: huaxia

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BEIRUT, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's number of COVID-19 infections increased on Sunday by 168 cases to 3,747 while death toll went up by four cases to 51, the National News Agency reported.

Firas Abiad, director general of Rafic Hariri University Hospital, said on Sunday that Lebanon stands on a knife-edge amid large increase in COVID-19 cases in the country.

"The figures witnessed in the past few days predict horrific developments unless we change course," Abiad said in a tweet.

Lebanon has, over the past days, witnessed the highest increase in COVID-19 infections since the outbreak of the virus on Feb. 21.

Some people in Lebanon did not commit to proper measures to stop the spread of the virus, as they were seen in groups on beaches, pubs and other places, according to Health Minister Hamad Hassan.

Abiad urged the cabinet for strict measures, adding that any counter measures require at least two weeks to show an impact.

He emphasized that stricter measures in community and airport in addition to partial lockdowns can slow the rise in numbers.

"It will require a major change in public attitude and conduct, and a serious approach by authorities in enforcing the measures," he said.

He noted that the other option would be a full lockdown for a specified period.

"This is easier to implement by the authorities, and does not depend on the choice of the public while it allows a better control of the pandemic. The economic consequences, however, will be severe," he said.

The Interior Minister Mohammad Fahmi has instructed the closure of pubs and beaches for one week starting from July 27, adding that he will be observing the situation to figure out the measures that must be taken in the coming days to protect people with minimum damage to the economy. Enditem
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) in the second half of 2020, Vietnams export-import turnover has been bouncing back since May, and is forecast to witness a brighter growth after many nations begin to ease measures to control the pandemic and begin to accelerate their economic recovery process, said MoIT Deputy Minister Cao Quoc Hung.

Under the General Statistics Offices (GSO) latest survey on business trend of manufacturing and processing firms, 34.2 per cent of respondents expected that in the third quarter, their export orders will rise, and 44 per cent forecast that their export orders will continue being stable.

In a specific case, three weeks ago, Nguyen Van Dung, director of domestically-owned electronics producer Hung Dung JSC based in the northern province of Vinh Phuc, met online with three new partners from Japan and South Korea to agree on export orders on supplying them with electronics items, with total value of nearly $8 million until late 2020.

We earned export turnover of $10 million in the first half of the year, down from $15 billion in the same period last year due to these markets lockdown of trade activities with overseas partners, Dung said. Our exports were boosted in January and February, and then halted in March and April. They were resumed in mid-May thanks to Japan and South Korea gradually reopening their markets to import activities.

The company has also spent a big sum of money importing electronic items from South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia for its production. The import turnover since early this year has increased 5 per cent on-year. It is expected that if the pandemic is well controlled in these markets in the third quarter, the firms export and import turnover will grow by about 6 and 7 per cent this year, respectively.

Dungs company has contributed to a rise in the electronics sectors performance in the first half of the year, when the sectors export-import turnover hit $19.28 billion and $27.04 billion, up 24.2 and 13.3 per cent, on-year, respectively. Samsung accounts for over 90 per cent of Vietnams total electronics export turnover in the period. However, the MoIT said that Samsung Vietnam is expected to reduce its export target from $51.38 billion last year to only $45.5 billion in 2020.

The MoIT reported that while many items witnessed a cut in export-import turnover in the first six months, electronics is among several key export items with an on-year rise in export turnover in the period, especially in June such as cameras and their spare parts (22 per cent on-year, mostly exported by Canon), textiles and garments (17.8 per cent), footwear (10.8 per cent), wood products (16.6 per cent), and crude oil (27.6 per cent).

The General Department of Vietnam Customs last week released its updated trade figure for Vietnam, stating that the countrys total export-import turnover is creating momentum for an increase, from $36.11 billion in April (down 22 per cent or $10.17 billion against March) to $37.36 billion in May, and $43.28 billion in June. Of the $43.28 billion, $22.57 billion was for export turnover, up 17.6 per cent on-month, and $20.71 billion was for import turnover, up 14 per cent on-month.

The economy enjoyed a trade surplus of $1.85 billion in June and a record figure of $5.46 billion in the first six months of the year  far higher than the $1.7 billion in the same period last year.

According to GSO, the big trade surplus is impressive, and the local trade and production situations are visibly improving as the majority of Vietnams 31 groups of imported goods are used for production and exportation.

Imports of production materials account for 91.4 per cent of total import mix, a large part of which are machinery and equipment, a representative from the GSOs Department of Trade and Service Statistics, told VIR.
One of the things that Sandy Bochese likes about her job as a school library media specialist is being around the hundreds of kids who attend Edison Middle School in West Orange.

Teaching is not a solitary occupation; we thrive on the dynamics of interacting with our students, she said.
The big picture: In this day and age of wireless communications, itd seem like a pretty safe bet to assume that a large portion of international Internet traffic is handled wirelessly via satellites. The truth of the matter, however, is that a vast network of underwater network cables connects the US with other parts of the world and is responsible for 98 percent of international Internet traffic.

As society becomes increasingly reliant on the Internet, the importance of this critical infrastructure only gets magnified. Its why Google on Tuesday announced it is building a new private subsea cable to link the US with other parts of the world.

Google is partnering with subsea cable provider SubCom on the project, which is named Grace Hopper after the American computer scientist by the same name. Hopper, who died in 1992, was a pioneer in the field of computer programming. She is credited with creating one of the first compilers, which directly led to the development of the COBOL programming language.

SubCom has been in business since 1955 and has worked on more than 200 systems over the years.

The undersea cable will feature 16 fiber pairs (32 fibers) and provide Google with a direct route to the UK and Spain. According to the tech giant, itll be the first submarine cable to implement optical fiber switching technology, allowing them to better route traffic during outages.

Google and SubCom anticipate completing work on the Grace Hopper cable in 2022.

Masthead credit: Vismar UK
Scientists are joining forces to save Lake Titicaca's endangered and unfortunately-named 'scrotum frog' from extinction.

The frog, Telmatobius culeus, which is unmistakable due to its baggy folds of skin, lives in Lake Titicaca, which sits on the border between Peru and Bolivia.

It is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, due to over-harvesting for human consumption, habitat destruction and climate change.

It is also threatened by the introduction of exotic species such as trout, which feed on its tadpoles, and is even crushed into a drink as a supposed aphrodisiac for humans.

The scrotum frog is the largest fully aquatic frog in the world, but its population fell by 80 per cent from 1994 to 2004, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The frog, Telmatobius culeus, which is unmistakable with its shaggy folds of skin, lives in Lake Titicaca, which sits on the border between Peru and Bolivia

Since then, populations are estimated to have declined to up to 90 per cent in some parts of the lake, CNN reports.

In a coordinated effort, the governments of Bolivia and Peru, with the support of the UN, have formed a cross-border conservation team to protect the species, which has a body length of up to 8 inches (20cm).

This team is composed of institutions from several countries such as Bolivia's Museum of Natural History, the Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia, the Denver Zoo, Natural Way-Peru and the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador.

The institutions will 'complete the information gaps presented by the knowledge of this emblematic frog,' Bolivia's Natural History Museum said.

The service will provide relevant ecological information on Telmatobius culeus for Peru and Bolivia, giving more awareness of the natural and human-related factors that the species faces.

All the information generated will serve for decision-making and future conservation actions, which will ensure the survival of the species.

Researchers will study the frogs' underwater habitats, evaluate population status and study the species' genetics.

The Titicaca Water Frog is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

This unique species, which has a diameter similar to a dinner plate, is endemic to Titicaca Lake, located at an altitude of 12,500 feet (3,810 meters) between Bolivia and Peru.

The frog's many folds of skin help them breathe in their high-altitude habitat in the Andes mountains, more than 12,500 feet above sea level.

But the species is the main ingredient of frog juice, a popular aphrodisiac that does not actually gain anything from the addition of frogs, according to the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA).

High demand, in addition to lake water extraction, pollution, and introduced trout, has also 'pushed the species to become critically endangered in recent decades', WAZA says.

Thousands of the large, wrinkly green frogs were found floating on the surface of the Coata river in southern Peru in 2016

In 2016, w ildlife officials in Peru investigated the mass death of thousands of the rare frogs near the Bolivian border.

Locals estimated the bodies of 10,000 Titicaca water frogs were found in Lake Titicaca and its adjoining rivers.

Based on local residents' statements and samples taken in the days after the incident, it is believed that more than 10,000 frogs were affected over about 50 kilometers (30 miles), said Peru's National Forestry and Wildlife Service in a statement at the time.
M aya Jama has said she statistically should have gone off the rails, after her boyfriend was shot dead outside a pub when she was 16.

The TV presenter told Cosmopolitan she thinks it was her career that saved her because it gave her something to look forward to.

She said: When I was 16 I went through a lot. With my boyfriend passing, it gave me a fearless approach to things. I felt like life was really short.

Out of everything that [has] happened in my life, that was a reality check on a massive scale.

Rising star: Jama has become one of the UK's much-loved presenters / Cosmopolitan UK / Danika Magdelena

At 16 you think the world is a fairytale and it took me out of that. It made me even more determined," the 25-year-old continued.

If it hadnt been for going through those difficulties, my whole perception of life would be different.

I dont let myself get wound up over smaller things because I know what its like to feel actual pain. I dont dwell on a lot.

She added: Statistically I should have gone off the rails then, and it feels like my career was the thing that saved that from happening because I had hope and there was something to look forward to.

When you go through trauma, if you dont have something to look forward to, thats when you can get stuck in a rut.

Cover star: Jama fronts this month's Cosmopolitan magazine / Cosmopolitan UK / Danika Magdelena

Jama, who dated grime star Stormzy for four years, said her experience of having a high profile relationship has made her cautious about future romances.

She said: It makes me nervous [about] who Im going to be with next, because if they arent in the public eye already, maybe theyre going to be brought into [it]. Its made me extra careful.

I was 20 when I got into that [with Stormzy]. Now life is different. Even social media is bigger. Its going to be harder to keep things private but Ill do my best.

The September issue of Cosmopolitan is on sale from July 30.

Additional reporting by Press Association
Im really out here hustling to feed other peoples families, Clark said. We all have a responsibility to do more, a responsibility to do something. I didnt have a gang of people to make this happen. All I had was respect for my people, love for my community and because I was so consistent, because I was so genuine, doors opened eventually. It never happens when you want it to happen. But its going to happen as long as you stay true to who you are and stay true to your work and your goals. Its going to happen.
Hyundai Motor Wins 2020 Future Mobility of the Year Awards

Founded in 2019, KAIST Future Mobility of the Year Awards recognizes concept cars that make outstanding contributions to the future of mobility

HDC-6 NEPTUNE and built-in e-scooter won the Public & Commercial and Personal categories respectively





SEOUL, July 28, 2019  Hyundai Motor Company today won two 2020 Future Mobility of the Year (FMOTY) Awards for HDC-6 NEPTUNE and the companys built-in e-scooter. Established by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Graduate School for Green Transportation in 2019, the awards recognize concept vehicles that make outstanding contributions to the future of mobility.

FMOTY awarded the hydrogen-powered fuel cell heavy-duty truck HDC-6 NEPTUNE in the Public & Commercial category and the built-in e-scooter in the Personal category. Sixteen judges, including top automotive journalists from 11 countries, selected Hyundai Motors submissions from a total of 71 concepts that have debuted at international motor shows for consideration in three categories: Private, Public & Commercial, and Personal. The judges lauded Hyundai Motors concepts for introducing innovative transport technologies and services for the future of mobility.

HDC-6 NEPTUNE, which debuted at the North American Commercial Vehicle Show last November, took inspiration from the iconic Art Deco streamliner railway trains of the 1930s. The concept embodies Hyundai Motors vision for a zero-carbon emission future as the company leads a paradigm shift to eco-friendly commercial vehicles. As the demand for zero-carbon and eco-friendly commercial vehicles is expected to increase gradually, FMOTY judges showed support for the first concept vehicle to incorporate hydrogen fuel cell power into commercial delivery.

The built-in e-scooter, which debuted as a prototype at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2017, is currently being considered as an option for future vehicles. As its name suggests, the electric scooter will be integrated into vehicles, charging itself while the car is operating to provide the last-mile mobility  a feature the judges regarded highly in addition to its great build quality.

HDC-6 NEPTUNE is like an ambassador concept vehicle that illuminates Hyundai Motors top status and prowess in next-generation fuel-cell electric vehicles and fuel-cell technology, said SangYup Lee, Senior Vice President and head of the Hyundai Global Design Center. It embodies Hyundai Motors vision and customer value as the leader of global hydrogen mobility industry in its futuristic design.

Dong Jin Hyun, Head of Robotics Lab at Hyundai Motor Group, added: The built-in e-scooter delivers both mobility and usability, and sets a new standard for the individual last-mile mobility market.

This years FMOTY ceremony took place today at the KAIST Academic Cultural Complex in Daejeon, attended by SangYup Lee, Senior Vice President and head of the Hyundai Global Design Center; Hak Soo Ha, Design Director at Hyundai Motor Group; and Dong Jin Hyun, Head of Robotics Lab at Hyundai Motor Group.

Last December, Hyundai Motor unveiled its Strategy 2025 roadmap, under which the company will develop Smart Mobility Devices and Smart Mobility Services as the twin core pillars of its business. The synergy between the two pillars is expected to facilitate the companys transition into a Smart Mobility Solution Provider. Hyundai Motor aims to become one of the worlds top three manufacturers of battery and fuel cell EVs by 2025 and lay the groundwork for platform-based bu
Health experts warn the crisis could get worse as cases mount and strained health workers fear facing a burnout.

New Delhi, India  A sharp increase in Indias coronavirus cases in recent weeks has raised concerns over the state of its healthcare infrastructure as well as fears of an extended crisis.

Nearly 48,000 new reported cases on Tuesday brought Indias tally close to 1.5 million, making it the worlds third-most affected country behind only the United States and Brazil. The South Asian nation has reported 33,425 deaths so far.

Three states  Delhi, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu  account for more than half the cases, with the Indian capital having more than 130,000 cases, well ahead of the other two worst-hit cities  Mumbai and Chennai.

Last week, a study conducted by the National Centre for Disease Control and released by the federal health ministry found that approximately 23 percent of Delhis population of 20 million have had the novel coronavirus.

The serological survey, which tested samples to find out if people were exposed to the virus in the past, was carried out in the capital between June 27 and July 10.

Despite the sharp increase in cases, the testing rate in the country remains low, with an average of 180 tests a day per million of population.

On Tuesday, Indias top medical research agency, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said about 528,082 COVID-19 tests were conducted across the worlds second-most populous nation, which has more than 1.3 billion people.

To ramp up testing capacity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched three facilities in Mumbai, Kolkata and Noida on the outskirts of Delhi. Officials said each facility is capable of testing as many as 10,000 samples a day.

Friends, the way right decisions were taken at the right time has resulted in our country being in a far controlled situation compared with other countries, Modi said in a TV address during the launch.

People in New Delhi wait for their reports as health workers collect swab samples for COVID-19 in a mobile testing van [Rajat Gupta/EPA]

Tough few months ahead

But health experts, still struggling to predict the trajectory of the pandemic despite models and predictions, tend to disagree and fear the crisis in India might get worse.

It is going to be a tough few months ahead, but there is effectively no brake on the virus, and I dont expect a decline for quite some time, Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Washington-based Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, told Al Jazeera in an email interview.

Days before Modi announced a nationwide lockdown to contain the virus in March, Laxminarayan had warned of a tsunami of coronavirus cases in India in an interview with the BBC.

Last month, the World Health Organizations (WHO) chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan claimed the country would see the pandemic spread in waves, a prediction now endorsed widely by health experts.

Another study, attributed to ICMR, predicted India will see a peak in November, but the medical body distanced itself from that study, calling it non-peer-reviewed modelling which did not reflect its official position.

In yet another study, released on July 8, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US warned that by spring next year, India might record 287,000 cases a day.





But deaths in India due to the virus have been significantly lower than other hotspot nations. Last week, the federal health ministry once again claimed Indias deaths-per-million to be among the lowest in the world.

Deaths in the US and the United Kingdom are respectively 21 and 33 times higher than India.

However, virologist and CEO of the Wellcome Trust, Dr Shahid Jameel, points out that deaths per million people is low across countries in South and Southeast Asia.

While India has about 24.22 deaths per million, Indonesia has 17.69, Pakistan 26.55 and Sri Lanka 0.51. Jameel said it would be far-fetched to assume all these countries are under-reporting deaths.

I think there is a biological reason to it. This is not poor reporting or hiding data, he told Al Jazeera. It is just that we are exposed to so many other infectious diseases that our innate immunity, our first line of defence, is possibly better.

There are also allegations of data fudging and a mismatch in reporting the number of deaths in India.

The Delhi state government was found to be under-reporting deaths compared with what was recorded at funeral homes. The figures from Gujarat, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra states have also been questioned.

Laxminarayan told Al Jazeera the current death rate per million population dont mean much since India will take much longer to reach its peak given the size of its population.

Workers bring wood for the funerals of COVID-19 victims at a New Delhi crematorium. The pandemic has left Indias morgues struggling to cope with a large number of bodies and graveyards and crematoriums overwhelmed [Manish Swarup/AP]

Burnout among health workers

A grim health scenario in India would mean a long haul ahead for its healthcare workers, already stretched under limited resources as coronavirus cases continue to mount.

New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, which have the best healthcare facilities in the country, are already facing a shortage of doctors and other health workers.

In recent weeks, nurses and other hospital staff have protested and taken to social media to share their work and living conditions. Complaints mainly include working hours extending at times to more than 12-hour shifts, and sub-standard personal protective equipment (PPE) or none at all made available to them.

New Delhi-based United Nurses Association estimated that until June 30, more than 1,000 nursing staff had been infected in the capital alone.

It also claimed that more than 500 nurses and paramedics in Delhi and Mumbai have quit because of the work conditions.

If the government doesnt focus on the protection and health of healthcare workers, it [health system] is going to collapse, Joldin Francis, general secretary of the association, told Al Jazeera.

If a nurse is not getting PPEs or proper wages or any leaves, why would they put their lives at risk?

India spends a little over 1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on public health, one of the lowest percentages in the world, resulting in poorly funded and severely under-staffed state hospitals and a mushrooming of private facilities that millions of the countrys poor cannot afford.

Until last year, India faced a shortage of 600,000 doctors and two million nurses. The countrys doctor-population ratio is appallingly low. While the WHO recommends one doctor to serve 1,000 people, a government doctor in India attends to an average 11,082 people.

In impoverished states such as Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, there is just one government doctor for nearly 18,000-28,000 people, according to health ministry data released in 2018.

We know that at some point of time, we will get infected. Doctors I know are only scared for their families, for young children and old parents, said a doctor working in a Delhi government hospital. He did not want to reveal his name.

He and his wife, who is also a doctor, are both on coronavirus duties and take turns to look after their 10-month-old daughter.

If Delhi and Mumbai are struggling, I dont know what is going to happen in Uttar Pradesh or Bihar, he told Al Jazeera.

Most of us dont even get the time to realise that were so stressed. I feel in a couple of months, doctors will not be able to perform at the level they were able to do earlier. There will be burnout.

Despite concerns among healthcare associations, the health ministry has not shared data on coronavirus infection among health workers.

Healthcare workers are of significant concern. Many are dying and others who are infected face stigma, while all of them face stress and fatigue. We are paying the price for decades of neglect of public health, Laxminarayan told Al Jazeera.

According to the Indian Medical Association, nearly 100 doctors have died due to COVID-19 in India while at least 1,302 have tested positive for the virus until July 16.

Migrant workers arrive at a Mumbai railway station to catch a train to Bihar during a nationwide coronavirus lockdown [File: Divyakant Solanki/EPA]

Infection spreads in rural areas

Honestly, I dont know what is going to happen, said Jameel. Looking at India as a whole makes very little sense  In some regions, the curve is going down, and in some regions, the curve is flat or going up.

Jameel mentioned Delhi as an example of the curve moving towards flattening, while predominantly rural Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states as examples of the curve going up.

He suggested that a one size fits all strategy will not help authorities trying to control the spread of the virus.

Over the past four weeks, 66 districts of Uttar Pradesh saw a more than 100-percent spike in confirmed cases compared with those recorded between March 15 and June 30. In nine districts, the spike ranged between 500 and 3,200 percent.

The northern state, Indias most populous, has now deployed weekend lockdowns to control the spread along with complete lockdowns in the worst-affected districts.

Neighbouring Bihar faces a similar situation. In May, one in four returning migrant workers was found to be COVID-19 positive. The state saw a 60-percent increase in cases in the last two weeks alone. Currently, the state is under a two-week lockdown.

Further south, states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka are adding significant numbers to the national tally.

Kerala, the state praised internationally for effectively flattening the curve, is now witnessing a second wave with a surge in daily cases. It is also the only other state, apart from West Bengal, that has admitted to community transmission of the virus in some areas.

Meanwhile, the federal health ministry continues to deny community transmission of the virus and, instead, cites a low fatality rate  2.25 percent  and high recovery rate  64.24 percent  as signs of its success in handling the pandemic.
DALLAS, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc. ("NREF" or the "Company") (NYSE: NREF) announced today the appointment of Catherine Wood as an independent director to the Company's board of directors effective July 27, 2020.

"We are very excited to welcome Ms. Wood to our board. We believe Ms. Wood brings a fresh perspective to the board and a unique background that complements the current directors," said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, James Dondero.

Ms. Wood is Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of ARK Investment Management LLC ("ARK"), a registered investment adviser, which she founded in January 2014. Prior to ARK, Cathie spent 12 years at AllianceBernstein as Chief Investment Officer of Global Thematic Strategies. Ms. Wood joined Alliance from Tupelo Capital Management, a hedge fund she co-founded. Prior to her tenure at Tupelo Capital, she worked for 18 years at Jennison Associates LLC as Chief Economic Officer and several other positions. She started her career in Los Angeles at The Capital Group as an Assistant Economist. Ms. Wood received her Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude, in Finance and Economics from the University of Southern California.

About NREF

NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc., is a publicly traded REIT, with its shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "NREF" primarily focused on originating, structuring and investing in first mortgage loans, mezzanine loans, preferred equity and alternative structured financings in commercial real estate properties, as well as multifamily commercial mortgage backed securities. More information about NREF is available at http://www.nexpointfinance.com.

Contact:

Jackie Graham

Investor Relations

972-628-4024

[email protected]

Media Inquiries

[email protected]

SOURCE NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc.

Related Links

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The Delhi government on Monday launched a web portal to make job opportunities available to those who lost employment due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, a move aimed at reviving the capital's economy.

The web portal -- http://jobs.delhi.gov.in - can be used by those looking for jobs and also for employers looking to recruit people. It will be called a 'Rozgar Bazar', said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during a digital press conference.

"Those who are looking to recruit people for jobs can go to the website and update their requirement. Job seekers can also go there and update their qualification, experience and requirement," the Chief Minister added.

He said that the move will immensely help businesses, construction companies, professional and shopkeepers in the capital city. "It is a big step towards bridging the gap between job seekers and providers."

Kejriwal also requested the labourers who had migrated to their states during the lockdown to come back and resume their jobs. "A lot of migrant labourers have now started coming back. I request the rest to come back as the situation is stable in Delhi."

The Labour and Employment Minister Gopal Rai said that the service is free and warned middlemen not to seek money from people. "Businessmen, construction companies and skill centres are also requested to register."

Rai also asked people to help those who do not know how to operate the website. The Delhi government also showed a procedural video to help people understand how to apply.

A person can first Google the website, select one of the two options - if you are on the lookout for jobs then select 'I want a job' or else click on 'I want to hire', enter mobile number, put the OTP, select job category, build a profile and submit.

"Select the job you like and connect to the employer with the help of a call or WhatsApp," the video showed.

Meanwhile, Delhi CM also asserted that a special order will be taken out on Monday to allow hawkers to resume their work.
Textiles arent the main means of contamination for the SarsCov-2 virus, but studies have shown that it can survive on clothes for various periods of time. Thats why several companies are planning to launch lines of virus-killing denim.

Last month, Swiss company HeiQ announced that its Viroblock NPJ03 textile treatment had been tested against the SARS-CoV-2 virus strain and proved to be 99.99% effective in killing it. Virpblock had previously been tested against coronavirus 229E, another strain of virus in the Coronavirus family, but this latest test showed that the combination of silver salts with a vesicle technology was effective against the Covid-19 causing virus as well. HeiQ has since announced collaborations with several denim brands to create SarsCov-2-resistant clothes.

Photo: 2goldi/Pixabay

HeiQ claims that Viroblock NPJ03 deactivates bacteria and viruses on textile surfaces within a few minutes and renders the bacteria and viruses harmless. Textiles equipped in this way reduce the rate of infection by 99.99%, which stops the transmission and the spread of bacteria and viruses through textiles.

That sounds impressive, but according to a HeiQ press release, the virus deactivation isnt exactly instantaneous. In a test conducted by researchers at the Doherty Institute, a known concentration of SARS-CoV-2 virus was contacted with a fabric treated with Viroblock NPJ03 for 30 minutes, after which measurements showed a SARS-CoV-2 virus reduction of over 99.9%. Its unclear how long it takes for the treatment to neutralize the virus, but its apparently under 30 minutes.

The confirmation of antiviral activity of HeiQ Viroblock against SARS-CoV-2 is an important milestone. This data forms part of our ongoing efforts to help provide textiles with greater levels of protection against viruses and contribute to efforts towards mitigation of the global pandemic, HeiQ CEO Carlo Centonze said.

Viroblock technology can be used on all types of textile fibers, including protective masks, bed linens, towels, or work clothes. It makes sense that it be used on the front lines of the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, like the clothes of medical professionals, but apparently casual fashion brands are interested in it as well.

Denim brands DL1961 and Warp + Weft have already announced collaborations with HeiQ to create lines of Viroblock-treated jeans. They are scheduled to be launched in October 2020.

The special treatment is applied on denim in liquid form during the laundering process to provide a sanitizing and germ-resistant. It reportedly stays active on treated fibers for up to 30 wash cycles.
New Delhi, July 28 : Air India service engineers have joined the unrest on pay cuts and told the management that the 40 per cent pay cut is leading to resentment among the employees leading to a disheartening impact on their mind and health.

In a letter to Air India Chairman and Managing Director, All India Service Engineers Association said that they are shocked to a see a huge 30 per cent pay cut in the salary for the month of June. This is in addition to the 10 per cent pay cut in March, April and May taking the total deduction to 40 per cent.

"We would like to inform you that the recent paycut is arbitrary, illegal, discriminatory and is in gross violation of the law of the land," the association said.

"This has resulted in a state of unrest and resentment among our member employees leaving a disheartening psychological impact on their mind, health and day to day working/life," the service engineers said.

They have pointed out that the pay cut violates the Industrial Disputes Act and there is an order of the Supreme Court on pay cuts during the pandemic.

The association said they supported the airline during the lockdown period and helped to undertake the Vande Bharat mission to bring Indian from abroad.

'We spent money from our own pocket to attend duty as there was strict lockdown and there was no public transport. Even the management provided minimal transport facility without social distancing norms thereby risking the lives of employees," they said in the letter.

Air India employees said that there has been no cut in other PSUs or Indian Railways which have been hit financially or operationally by the pandemic.

They have demanded that the "unilaterial, irrational, illegal and discriminatory pay cut" be withdrawn with immediate effect.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
DUBLIN, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Outlook of Diabetic Macular Edema - Current Landscape and the Way Forward" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global market for DME was ~$3.7 billion in 2019 with the US alone contributing to 51% market share, owing to the higher incidence rates of diabetes amongst the developed nations. In 2018, ~2.4m people in the US had DME, of that only ~70% got diagnosed and treated. Anti-VEGFs lead the DME market due to its proven efficacy as compared to steroids, making it a premium priced segment. As a result of high cost, approved anti-VEGFs, the market witnesses extensive use of off-label us of Avastin (Roche/Genentech) and Triamcinolone acetonide - Kenalog (BMS). Despite being the last entrant in the anti-VEGF segment, Eylea has emerged as a leader owing to its superior efficacy with US market share ~69% by value ($4.6 billion) in 2019.



Although the multifactorial nature of DME has become clearer with involvement of several pathways, approved therapies target only one pathway and half of the patients continue to lose vision even after the treatments. In addition, high cost, adverse effects associated with intra-vitreal injections and limited patient convenience highlights the high unmet need. As a result, a few dozen initiatives are being undertaking to develop improved therapies for DME by a range of pharma companies globally.



The late stage pipeline comprises of long-lasting VEGF blockers and compounds with VEGF-independent mechanisms such as Tie-2/Angiopoietin pathway modulators and integrin inhibitors. In the long run, non-invasive therapies (oral and topical), prophylactic treatment and gene therapy is likely to transform DME's treatment paradigm. Current major players in the DME market, including Regeneron and Roche, are focusing on maintaining the market share with formulations improvements reducing the frequency of administration, as their products heads for patent cliff.



Despite biosimilars entry, the DME drug market in the US is estimated to grow rapidly (~ $2 billion - 2020) to reach $3.3 billion by 2025 (CAGR 10%), with over 90% contribution from anti-VEGF. In the coming decade, DME treatment is likely witness a paradigm shift from invasive injectable treatments to non-invasive options. The future therapies will empower ophthalmologists with better options to manage the debilitating condition without compromising the patient's vision and safety



This report provides insights into:

Epidemiology, multifactorial pathophysiology of DME, and significant role of inflammatory cascade in the progression of DME

Current treatment paradigm, clinical development outcomes of approved and off-label drugs, real-world data comparison of the approved therapies and limitations of the current therapies

Current and future market landscape of DME drugs (anti-VEGFs and steroids), along with the potential impact of biosimilars entry on the Innovator molecules

In depth analyses of development pipeline (Pre-clinical -PhIII), while identifying the novel therapies with the potential to change the treatment paradigm

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1: Executive Summary



Chapter 2: DME Is Just Not A VEGF Disease - Inflammatory Cascade And Angiogenesis, What Impacts The Most?



Chapter 3: DME - An Increasing Economic And Quality Of Life Burden Globally



Chapter 4: Shifting Treatment Paradigms of DME



Chapter 5: Novel Pipeline Candidates To Transform The Treatment Paradigm By Addressing The Key Unmet Needs - Longer Durability And Improved Delivery Profiles



Chapter 6: Even Amidst Biosimilars Entry, The High-Cost Dme Drug Market In The Us Is Estimated To Grow Rapidly Due To The Entry Of Drugs With More Durability, Non-Invasive Treatment Options And Eventually With The Entry Of Gene Therapy



Companies Mentioned



3SBio

Adverum

Aerie

Aerpio

Alcon

Alimera

Allegro Ophthalmics

Allergan

Allied Minds

Ampio

Araim

Astellas

BMS

BioInvent International

Chengdu Nakasone

Clearside Biomedical

Genentech

Genmab

Graybug Vision

Icon Bioscience

KalVista

Kala

Kodiak Sciences

Novartis

OSI

OcuNexus Therapeutics

Oculis SA

Opthea Limited

Outlook Therapeutics

Oxurion NV

PhotoOpTx

Rasayani Biologics

Regeneron

Roche

Santen

SciFluor Life Sciences

Stealth BioTherapeutics

Wakamoto

YD Global Life Science

iCo Therapeutics

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/37aalj

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.

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A shadowy syndicate of international fraudsters specializing in smuggling, blackmail, extortion and money laundering scams are behind alleged involvement of some top Nigeria government officials in a deal to sell about 48 million barrels of Nigerias crude in 2015, documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES have shown.

On Monday, reports alleged that a huge volume of Bonny Light crude oil purportedly stolen from Nigeria was traced to some storage facilities in various ports and terminals in China, including Qingdao, Zhoushan and Rhizao just as President Muhammadu Buhari was being sworn into office in 2015.

SAMANO SA DE CV claimed it made the discovery of the purported stolen crude oil after its officials were approached by some people in China seeking buyers of the oil.

Counsel to SAMANO, Gboyega Oyewole, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said his client reported the discovery of the stolen crude oil to some senior government officials and requested them to investigate.

Mr Oyewole said the discussion with the officials involved the payment of five (5) per cent whistleblowing compensation for information furnished them. He said the Nigerian officials reneged on the agreement.

But court documents and reports of security and anti-graft agencies seen by this newspaper on Monday revealed that the allegations followed a familiar pattern in several schemes in the past involving SAMANO for which its officials are being chased by Interpol and the security agencies in the United States of America.

Court documents as well as reports from the Nigerian Police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) identify the ringleader of the syndicate as Marco A. Ramirez, an American, who took refuge in Nigeria years ago.

Mr Ramirez is currently on the wanted list of Interpol and U.S. security operatives for a series of money laundering charges pending against him, including forgeries, blackmail and obtaining by false pretence since 2010.

A sealed indictment against him in a case filed on March 29, 2016, before the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas named Mr Ramirez and his wife, Bebe Ramirez of being behind a fraud syndicate that swindled people of millions of dollars through various mail and wire fraud schemes between 2010 and 2013.

His Mexican associate, Jose Salazar Tinajero, has been in and out of jail in South America due to the involvement of his company, SAMANO, in highly sophisticated smuggling and money laundering scams.

Coincidentally, at the time Mr Ramirez was facing charges in the U.S., Mr Salazar was standing trial in Paraguay after being busted in August 2016 for involvement in various crimes, including smuggling of fake gold valued at about $22 million to be sold in Hong Kong.

Messrs. Ramirez and Salazar are accomplices now working through SAMANO SA DE CV, a shadowy company registered in Reynosa, Tamaulipas in Mexico as a marketing company, which has been behind most of their international criminal commercial scams.

Although registered as a trading firm dealing in all kinds of supplies, equipment, merchandise and goods in general as well as professional and consultancy services to government and private entities, court filings showed SAMANO has been involved in more scams than trade.

Registered under the sole administratorship of Mr Salazar, who resides in Mexico, SAMANO has a network of partners and associates across Europe, Asia, America, and Africa, who sniff around for money-making opportunities, especially among senior government officials.

While in Nigeria, Mr Ramirez deployed the SAMANO strategy in its schemes, by hatching a plot to profit from Nigerias crude oil money through blackmail, intimidation, and manipulation of the media against top government officials.

Investigations showed that Mr Ramirezs main targets were mainly key associates of President Muhammadu Buhari and some top officials of the administration, including the current Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari.

A fugitive on the run

Mr Ramirez has been a fugitive wanted in the United States since 2012, a sealed indictment by a U.S. court revealed.

He was indicted for operating a foreign fraud scheme counterfeiting a U.S. Federal Immigration programme used to defraud several nationals, including Nigerians, of more than $3 million.

A grand jury in Texas filed 13-count charges of money laundering against him, his wife Bebe and another accomplice, David Perez Jr. in 2016.

Court documents seen by this reporter showed the Ramirezs conspired to enrich themselves through the perpetration of mail and wire fraud.

Describing the manner of their conspiracy, the prosecution said the Ramirezs received huge sums from clients after misleading them and failing to fulfil their contracts with them.

The document showed the Ramirezs used the proceeds of their fraudulent schemes to purchase luxury cars, pay off civil judgments, refund other investors who demanded that their funds be returned, enriched themselves while failing to obtain permanent residency status through the EB-5 Visa Programme for the majority of the investors.

Mr Ramirez fled the U.S. and settled in Nigeria where he managed to infiltrate government circles and made himself known to prominent persons in the country as an American businessman. He used his access to obtain sensitive government information used against officials in Nigeria and abroad.

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In September 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice wrote to Nigeria to seek Mr Ramirezs extradition to face charges in the U.S. for the crimes he committed in the country.

Since March 2019, Mr Ramirez, along with Mr Salazar and their Nigerian accomplice, Francis Ibomor and others at large, have been facing charges of extortion, blackmail and obtaining by false pretence brought against them in case file at a Federal High Court in Abuja by the federal government through the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.

The charges against them were made after repeated complaints from senior government officials and top businessmen in the country, some of who had fallen victim to the plot of the syndicate and lost huge amounts of money.

Official court records obtained by this newspaper showed that among those who reported extortion by the syndicate to the Nigerian Police included Air Commodore Mohammed Umar and one Ahmed Saleh who accused the suspects of defrauding them of $45,000.

The particulars of the offences Mr Ramirez and others were accused of are contained in a statement filed at a Federal High Court in Abuja by Akutah Pius Ukeyima, an assistant chief state counsel.

The statement accused the defendants of being in possession of forged documents they used to intimidate and harass top Nigerian government functionaries and putting them in fear of injury to their persons and reputation, thereby dishonestly inducing them to habitually deliver certain oil contracts to him.

Mr Ramirez is as well facing two separate criminal trials both at the Federal Capital Territory High Court in charge No. FCT/HC/CR/147/2016, and at the Federal High Court, Lagos in Charge No: id/2763/2016, both respective charges preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

Police Report indicts SAMANO

An interim Nigerian police investigative report on Messrs. Ramirez, Salazar and their Nigerian accomplices exposed their criminal activities in Nigeria.

The 23-page report, dated April 29, 2019, and signed by DIG Anthony Michael Ogbizi, detailed how police investigators trailed the duo and their victims to uncover their criminal activities following a petition from the Attorney-General of the Federations office.

The report established that Mr Ramirez, who neither have residence permit nor work permit, first visited Nigeria on the invitation of one Habib Mohammed, who worked at the Nigerian Embassy in New York, to promote the US Visa programme in 2014.

That visit enabled him to meet many other Nigerians in both the government and the private sector, including Ahmed Saleh, a Kano-based businessman who later became one of his victims after he was duped of $45,000.

Mr Saleh, who provided information and document that nailed them, told the police that shortly after he was introduced to Mr Ramirez, he started bringing different business proposals and introducing different companies to him.

He said Mr Ramirez later invited Mr Salazar into the country after the Mexican claimed he had documents to show that some Nigerian crude oil stolen in 2015 were in China.

Mr Saleh, who is well connected within government circles, took Mr Ramirez and his partner, Mr Salaza,r to Air Commodore Mohammed Umar, who he claimed, was knowledgeable about oil matters.

But Commodore Umar immediately told them the Nigerian government had already established a committee on recovery of stolen crude oil in China, and that it had most of the information it needed.

Again, Mr Saleh said the Commodore told them that the Chinese government already indicated interest to buy the crude.

Disappointed with that information, Messrs Ramirez and Salazar were said to have requested if Mr Umar could assist them to have a direct allocation of crude oil from Nigeria, a request Mr Saleh said was turned down because he did not have the power or influence to do so.

Regardless, he said he still introduced them to Mele Kyari who was then the Head of Crude Oil Marketing. But Mr Kyari told the duo that the possession of a refinery was one of the major requirements from prospective bidders to qualify to bid.

When the NNPC called for bidding, SAMANO also submitted documents but failed to qualify.

Melee Kolo Kyari, NNPC GMD

Police findings confirmed that while it was true that the criminal duo met Mr Kyari by virtue of his position as head of crude marketing department of the NNPC then, There is no evidence that Mele Kyari ever received any gift, or promised any benefit to the suspects, or involved in any suspicious transaction with the suspects.

The report further established that There are suggestive influences that the suspects are skilful fraudsters/schemers who do not have any verifiable legal business in operation in Nigeria.

The police said the criminals wanted to blackmail and exploit Mr Kyaris gentle disposition and patriotic move to ensure that the actions of Messrs. Saleh and Umar did not drag officials and the government into disrepute.

Findings also showed the duo threatened to publish damaging reports about activities of top government officials as a ploy to put fear and pressure on them so they can succumb to their demands.

The police also found official government documents in their possession when Ramirez was arrested in 2019, forcing investigators to conclude that SAMANO had become a threat to national security.

Allegations Against Nigeria

In the letter by its legal adviser, SAMANO claimed to have discovered crude oil abandoned in storage tanks in China ports following information by a client in Dominican Republic who it claimed wanted to buy the crude.

SAMANO claimed to have contacted the authorities in Nigeria through its representative, Mr Ramirez, who said he later got in touch with his friend, Hamman Saleh, to investigate and obtain authorization from the Nigerian government to participate in the sale of crude oil.

Besides, the company claimed Mr Saleh informed them that the Nigerian government officials said they were not aware of any Nigerian crude oil in China ports.

However, on the companys insistence that the company had to deliver the evidence physically to appropriate government officials in Nigeria, Mr Salazar was reportedly invited to Nigeria in August 2015.

Late Abba Kyari

On arrival in Abuja, Mr Salazar claimed there was a meeting with late Abba Kyari to whom he claimed to have delivered the evidence of the abandoned oil in company of Air Commodore Muhammed Umar.

In June 2016, SAMANO said it was one of the companies invited to meet President Buhari during his visit to Washington DC.

Mr Ramirez stated that he was invited again by Mr Saleh to come for a meeting with Mr Umar with further proof of their claims.

They group also claimed Mr Umar requested them to address all the information collected on the abandoned oil to Mele Kyari, who was then the head of the Crude Oil Marketing Division of the NNPC.

SAMANO claimed at the end of several negotiations and conversations with both Messrs. Kyari and Umar, they promised to reward him with 5% of the market value of the 48 million barrels when sold at $75 per barrel, the price Nigerias light crude oil sold was sold at the time.

Despite the agreement, SAMANO said it learnt later in October and November from its source that the abandoned crude oil was sold following a sales authorization by the NNPC.

They claimed all efforts to get the reward they were promised was rebuffed by the NNPC, resulting in their decision to sue the NNPC in Mexico or London.

SAMANO said it resolved to invoke the provisions of the Whistleblower Policy of the Federal Ministry of Finance to compel the NNPC to pay the 5% whistleblower compensation on the total value of 48 million barrels of oil at $75 per barrel.

The Big Doubt

Experts say it was impossible to ship 48 million barrels of crude oil out of the country illegally, nor dispense even a barrel of oil in China without the involvement of the government of the Peoples Republic of China prior to November 2018.

While the issue of illegal oil bunkering has thrived in Nigeria for long, the experts said it was a long shot to claim 48 million barrels of the countrys oil were abandoned in China in 2015, when daily oil production was below 1.6 million barrels. This will imply that the entire crude production of one month was abandoned.

Counter Claims

However, the report of the Police investigation into the petition against Marco Ramirez, Jose Salazar, Francis Ibomor and other accomplices, accused them of criminal intimidation, threat to life, and conspiracy using forged documents to intimidate and blackmail.

Although three of the suspects are at large, the police said two of them are currently standing trial following a petition by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation.

On SAMANOs claim that it secured an agreement with Mele Kyari and Commodore Umar for 5% value of the purportedly stolen oil and all its logistics expenses, the report said they provided no proof of that.

As the companys affidavit in a Mexican Court revealed, SAMANO planned to rely on WhatsApp conversations it had with these people as proof of an agreement.

The report said the implication is that in essence, there was no legally binding agreement with NNPC. Only pieces of electronic messages exchanged.

Whistleblower Policy

Nigerias Whistleblower policy provides that if the government can recover stolen or concealed assets through information provided by a whistleblower, then he/she may be entitled to between 2.5%-5.0% of the amount recovered.

However, to qualify for the reward, the whistleblower must provide the government with the information it does not already have and could not otherwise obtain from any other publicly available sources. The actual recovery must also be because of the information provided by the whistleblower.

However, indications are that SAMANO did not provide any information or evidence of the abandoned oil in China. Even by the companys own admission, Nigerian officials doubted its claims and requested for proof, which was not provided.
* Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said his government's intervention policy after the country's first domestic transmissions of the coronavirus in March prevented as many as 1.3 million to 3.5 million infections. Speaking during his annual address to the nation, Duterte said the country's lockdown, which was one of the world's longest and strictest, had kept infections in check but acknowledged the government was slow in getting its COVID-19 testing programme moving. The Philippines has recorded 82,040 infections and 1,945 deaths.

* Indonesia surpassed 100,000 cases of the novel coronavirus on Monday, reporting 1,525 new infections to take the total number to 100,303, data from the country's Health Ministry website showed. The number of deaths in the Southeast Asian nation related to COVID-19 also increased by 57, to bring the total to 4,838, the data showed.

* Brazil registered an additional 555 deaths attributable to the novel coronavirus over the last 24 hours and another 24,578 confirmed cases, the health ministry said on Sunday. The South American nation has now registered 87,004 deaths and 2,419,091 total confirmed cases.

* Russia reported 5,635 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Monday, its lowest daily rise since April 23, pushing its national tally to 818,120, the fourth largest in the world. In a daily readout, the official coronavirus taskforce said 85 people had died over the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 13,354.

* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 340 to 205,609, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Monday. The reported deaths remained unchanged at 9,118, the tally showed.

* White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said Sunday that the next round of COVID-19 relief package will include US$1,200 direct payments to Americans, as a resurgence of COVID-19 cases across the country poses major risk to the economic recovery. As the total number of COVID-19 cases across the nation surpasses four million, more than 150 prominent US medical experts and health professionals have signed an open letter, urging decision makers to shut down the country and contain the surging pandemic.

* China's foreign ministry said on Monday that the US consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu has closed as of 10 a.m.(0200 GMT). China on Friday ordered the closure in response to Washington's order for the Chinese consulate in Houston to be shut.

* Australia's prime minister called for patience and said "all of the options" were on the table to fight against coronavirus on Monday when the country reported the largest number of cases in a single day. As of Monday afternoon there had been 14,935 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia. Victoria has confirmed 532 new cases of the virus, a new record-high daily increase for any state or territory, with another six deaths, taking the national death toll to 161.

* An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 jolted South Sandwich Islands region at 22:53 local time on Saturday (0053 GMT on Sunday), the U.S. Geological Survey said. The epicenter, with a depth of 10.0 km, was initially determined to be at 60.783 degrees south latitude and 25.3145 degrees west longitude.

* Floods in India's northeastern state of Assam have so far killed 102 people and badly affected a population of over 5.6 million, officials said on Monday, when the country is being gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), floods have claimed five lives and affected 2.4 million people in 23 districts during the past 24 hours.

* Hurricane Douglas is approaching the US state of Hawaii on Sunday with torrential rains and damaging winds. According to the National Hurricane Center, Douglas was about 145 km east of the capital Honolulu. The local government has opened evacuation centers with space for 1,600 people. The storm is churning with a speed of up to 85 miles (140 km) per hour after Hanna, the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic season, lashed along the Texas coast.

* Afghanistan on Monday reported 106 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, taking the country's total to 36,263, the country's Ministry of Public Health said. Up to 1,269 deaths have been recorded since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country in February, an increase of 10 within the past 24 hours.

* Portugal will go on high alert as more than 850 firefighters struggle to put out a fire sweeping across part of the country's central region on Sunday, with strong winds and high temperatures complicating efforts to tackle the blaze. The wildfire has been raging in the municipality of Oleiros since Saturday afternoon but it has spread to two neighbouring municipalities and has already forced the precautionary evacuation of a number of people.

* Almost half of Bangladesh remained in the grip of floods on Monday with scores of casualties reported. According to the daily flood situation report of the country's disaster response coordination center, the floods have killed 119 people in 21 (out of 64) districts since June 30. Of the victims, 96 people died of drowning, 13 of snakebites, eight of lightning, and one of diarrhea. The report said 43,78,732 people were affected due to the floods in 31 out of the country's total 64 districts.

* Chile on Sunday reported a total of 345,790 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) since the outbreak began and 9,112 people have died from the disease. According to the Health Ministry, in the previous 24 hours tests detected 2,198 new cases of infection and 92 more patients died. Some 318,095 people have recovered from COVID-19 nationwide.

* Israel plans to gradually resume international flights, Minister of Transport Miri Regev announced Sunday night. Regev said in a statement that she had received Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's approval for her ministry's plan for resuming flights.

* Iran's non-oil exports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year starting March 20 rose by eight percent in value year on year, Eghtesadonline reported Sunday. From March 20 to June 20, Iran exported around 3.8 million tons of non-oil commodities worth US$967 million to the UAE, said Farzad Piltan, director general of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran's Arab-African Affairs Office.

* Iran's Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday that the Islamic republic supports peace and stability in Afghanistan. Mohammad Ebrahim Taheri, special representative of the Iranian foreign minister for Afghan affairs, dismissed the recent remarks by Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, who blamed Iran for "insufficient support" for the Afghan peace process.

* Morocco will stop people entering and leaving some of its biggest cities from midnight to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases, the interior and health Ministries said on Sunday. On Sunday, the health ministry said 633 new COVID-19 cases were recorded, one of the biggest daily rises so far, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 20,278, with 313 deaths and 16,438 recoveries.

* An Israeli drone crashed inside Lebanon during operational activity along the border, an Israeli military spokeswoman said. Israel's Channel 12 reported that the drone crashed after it experienced a technical failure.




Haiti - News : Zapping...





The Federation of Haitian Bars denounces

In its resolution 2020-05, the Federation of Bars of Haiti denounces the circumvention of the law on Legal Assistance operated by the executive and recalls the imperative need to install the Board of Directors alone able to guarantee the independence of the National Legal Assistance Council (CNAL). He asks international institutions to make their technical and financial support conditional on respect for the law and declares that, in this context, the President of the country's 18 jurisdictions will not participate in the irregular establishment of Legal Assistance Offices (BAL).



New DG at the Ministry of Public Works

In the official journal Le Moniteur #122 dated July 24, 2020, citizen Edouard Wilson was appointed Director General of the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communication. He replaces Vilma Max Andre in this position.



Drugs : 2 arrests in Malpasse

Monday, in Malpasse, a detachment of the Narcotics Trafficking Brigade (BLTS) arrested Mathieu Vil and Avrius Jean at Fonds-Parisien level who were in possession of 31 grams of cocaine.



Environment: Support from the Ministry to Civil Society

According to the Minister of the Environment, the Ministry will support all civil society initiatives aimed at protecting the environment. This is why, through the Germplasm and Plant Propagation Centers of the Ministry of the Environment, various varieties of seedlings (fruit and forest) are produced and made available to organized structures of civil society for similar activities.



72nd Anniversary of the Northern Orchestra

3I wish a happy 72nd Birthday to all the Musicians of the Septentrional Orchestra, to the Staff Members and to the various Fanatics of the group here and elsewhere. 1948-2020, 72 years of good music. Septen one day, Septen always!" Dieudonne Luma Etienne See also : https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-31394-icihaiti-music-the-orchester-septentrional-celebrates-its-72-years.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















by Biju Veticad

The Indian finance minister has promised that recent amendments would be scrupulously reviewed. The Indian government wants to tax aid transfers between dioceses, parishes and congregations. For expert, the authorities want to freeze funding for missionary activities in northern India.

Thiruvananthapuram (AsiaNews)  Recently, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Catholic authorities in the State of Kerala that recent amendments to the laws on income tax and charitable activities would be scrupulously reviewed.

On 31 May, Card George Alencherry, president of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference, and Fr Sebastian Mundathikunnel, president of the Kerala Conference of Major Superiors, sent a memorandum to the minister opposing changes to the legislation on taxing income of religious institutions.

The governments proposal to amend articles 11, 12 and 13 of tax legislation bans aid transfers between parishes of the same diocese or between different institutions or houses of a congregation.

Card Alencherry urges the government to review the amendments, which he said goes against the principles underlying all religions  loving one another, caring for each other, and being charitable to others.

The modification of tax regulations will allow the government to increase, according to market prices, the value of properties that Catholic institutions have owned for centuries.

For the Indian Church, this is unacceptable, given that such a revaluation would be included in the income of dioceses, parishes and congregations. It says such a method of calculation is inappropriate and will oblige Church authorities to pay large sums in taxes.

Card Alencherry notes that the Catholic Church, which has been present in India since the first century AD, has always strictly abided by the rules and regulations on charitable activities, income taxes and foreign aid.

Catholic economist M.T. Philip told AsiaNews that behind the amendment there could be the governments hidden attempt to block money for Catholic missionary activities in northern India, where Hindu nationalism and fundamentalism are strongest.

In fact, the new legislation cancels exemptions for religious institutions. Prof Philip explains that South India-based Catholic congregations often have homes and mission centres in the rest of the country. Any charitable transaction between these structures will result in the loss of their status as religious institutions, and will therefore be taxable.
Film-Cross-Festival Premiere This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Frances McDormand in a scene from the film "Nomadland." Chloe Zhao's film will premiere across the major fall film festivals in an alliance forged by the Venice, Toronto, New York and Telluride festivals. It's the first movie announced in the new partnership that has brought together the falls biggest movie launch pads, which typically compete against each other for world premiere rights. (Searchlight Pictures via AP)

NEW YORK (AP)  Chloe Zhao's Nomadland, starring Frances McDormand, will premiere across the major fall film festivals in an alliance forged by the Venice, Toronto, New York and Telluride festivals.

Nomadland, Zhao's follow-up to her acclaimed 2018 film The Rider, is the first movie announced in the new partnership that has brought together the fall's biggest movie launch pads, which typically compete against each other for world premiere rights.

Toronto and New York are prepping primarily virtual editions. Telluride was forced to cancel entirely, but it will carry on in drive-in screenings in Los Angeles.

Nomadland will debut across Venice, Toronto and at "Telluride from Los Angeles" on Sept. 11. New York, which named the film its centerpiece, will premiere Zhao's film on a later date.

Adapted from Jessica Bruder's non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, the film is about a woman, Fern, who after her Nevada business collapses, joins with other older American workers laid off in the Great Recession to travel the country in campers.

The American road fascinates me," said Zhao. Its heartbreakingly beautiful and deeply complicated. Ive traveled it for many years and always hoped to capture a glimpse of it. Im thankful to be able to make Nomadland and excited for audiences to join Fern on her adventure.

Fox Searchlight is planning to release Nomadland theatrically in the fall.

It is a film that acquires particular meaning in a moment of pandemic induced seclusion, proving that values like mutual support and a strong sense of community can save us from solitude, failure, and despair, said Alberto Barbera, director of the Venice International Film Festival. I am also happy to share the opportunity to support this beautiful film with our fellow festivals of Telluride, Toronto, and New York: a concrete sign of solidarity and collaboration in this unprecedented and difficult time.

___

This story has been corrected to fix a misspelling of Chloe Zhaos last name in the headline.












Ten Years of ECHR : 1998 - 2008 show need of Revival in 2009-2010 coinciding with 2009 EU Election

A threefold, coordinated move by new Top French Political actors in the 2009 EU Parliament Elections, expressed in Strasbourg a will to boost Europe's Political dimension close to Citizens' concerns, going from protection of Economy to defence of Human Rights.

The move met an exceptional ECHR's call for a "revival" of Human Rights' protection mechanism', in a Mega-Conference, early 2010.

Obviously focusing on June 2009 Elections to EU Parliament, it involved from the outset the recently nominated "dual" Head of French Governing Party (UMP) Michel BARNIER and Rachida DATI :





- "As President Sarkozy has clearly said, we (France) are in favor of a Strong, Sovereign and Independent, Political Europe, which protects its Citizens, and not for a large Super-Market, nor for a Europe under influence",

"This goes for everything, including Energy", added to "EuroFora" the experienced former EU Commissioner, Minister of Foreign affairs, currently of Agriculture and Sarkozy's new pick as Leader of the Governing party UMP to EU 2009 Election, Michel BARNIER .

- Human Rights are important because they are at the Heart of the Political Europe that we aspire for : I.e. a Europe able to act and protect its Citizens, stressed also the New French Minister for European affairs, Bruno LE MAIRE, while meeting Strasbourg's Journalists at his first visit to the CoE.

This is one of the main interests for CoE, which is also a natural place for cooperation between EU countries and Russia or Turkey, which was recently helpful at the Middle East crisis, he added.

The move gained momentum with French Minister of Justice, Rachida Dati's main observations at ECHR's 5Oth Anniversary :

- "While we are seeking Europe's Borders and Identity, you (ECHR) remind us also of its Values", Human Rights, Dati noted.

Citizens seek more and more often ECHR's help, and the tempo accelerates, Europa awaits a symbol, while national legal orders are not freezed

And she expressed "support" to ECHR President Jean-Paul Costa's call to satisfy the vital need to revigorate the PanEuropean Court by deciding big changes at a High-Level Conference open to a large audience, a kind of "Etats Generaux" of Human Rights, at the beginning of 2010.

It's not so much the recently growing number of applications for Russia or Ukraine etc, which seems to be Costa's main concern : In fact, the cases declared "admissible" are much fewer...

But rather the persistent violations of Human Rights, sometimes very grave (ie. murders, torture, abritrary deprivation of liberty, oppression of freedom of speech, destructions of homes/properties, etc), despite numerous, repeated condemnations by ECHR. So that CoE's Ministers, due to "supervise execution" of ECHR's judgements, are overloaded.

F.ex. most Media noted that Turkey still remains, even in 2008, the 1st among 47 CoE member States in the number of condemnations by ECHR : 257, compared to 233 for Russia, with a population more than the double..

The problem is that it's not the 1st time at all : During all the last Decade 1998-2008, Turkey was condemned by ECHR much more than any other State, and for particularly grave violations :

- 1.652 condemnations, compared to 605 for Russia, 548 for Poland, 494 for France, 476 for Ukraine, etc.

Italy's second place with 1.394 condemnations is a misleading false appearance : In fact, most of them (999) concern mere "procedural delays" in national courts. Same for France.

On the contrary, Turkey was condemned 180 times for Killings, 192 times for Torture or Inhuman/Degrading treatments, 340 times for arbitrary deprivation of Liberty, 528 times for "Unfair trial", and 169 times for oppression of Freedom of speech, (etc). And the latest, 2008 numbers, indicate no change in this trend, (See supra).

The current Spanish CoE Presidency (November 2008 - May 2009) has made of the implementation of ECHR's judgements its 1st Priority.

ECHR's President, Jean-Paul Costa, stressed in its 2009 Annual Press Conference, CoE Member States' obligation to implement the judgements, according to Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Moreover, if CoE's Committee of Ministers delays to ensure implementation, then, the repetition of violations in similar cases provokes a multiplication of complaints tabled to the Court, which overload the mecanism for the protection of Human Rights, denounced Costa.

A series of Debates on "the situation of Human Rights in Europe", focusing on the "need to fight against Impunity" of perpetrators of grave crimes, is currently prepared by CoE's Parliamentary Assembly for the session of June 2009.

The final Timing comes shortly AFTER the EU Elections, but the main Reports should have been adopted before.

Meanwhile, French President Sarkozy and German Chancelor Merkel's recent call "for a Political Europe" in 2009 EU Elections (See earlier "correspondence from Paris, Elysee Palace), seems more and more endorsed also by other EU Countries' Top MEPs :

Thus, f.ex., EU Parliament's 1st vice-President, Greek MEP Mrs Rodi KRATSA, speaking to "EuroFora", agreed that 2009 EU Election would be a "naturally good" opportunity to debate what really interests EU Citizens : "The Future of a Political Europe, able to face the Economic Crisis, with a Culture and identity which attracts the People"
Comic-Con International on July 21, 2019 in San Diego, California (Credit: Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)

The flagship Comic-Con in San Diego usually attracts more A-list stars and trailer premieres than you can shake a stick at.

Thousands of movie and comic fans cram into the hallowed 'Hall H', where the biggest panel events take place, for a chance to see their screen heroes in the flesh.

Read more: The best ever movie prosthetics

This year, due to the coronavirus lockdown, the event shifted its business online.

But according to stats on virtual attendance and interest published in Variety, things didn't go at all well.

Analytics firm ListenFirst recorded tweet mentions of the event down 95% from last year  93,681 compared to a staggering 1.7 million from last year.

David Harbour, O. T. Fagbenle, Rachel Weisz and Scarlett Johansson at the Black Widow panel on day three of Comic-Con International on July 20, 2019 (Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Meanwhile, tweets about the top five movie panels were down a massive 99% on last year, with TV panel chatter down 93%.

The event's YouTube viewership, its principal audience for the online-only event, attracted just 15,000 views on average per event.

Fans couldnt talk with creators, ListenFirst chief marketing officer Tracy David told Variety. [It] really deflated interest around the Comic-Con@Home experiment.

Read more: First tease for Justice League Snyder cut

The best performing panel was for the much-delayed Marvel movie The New Mutants, which logged 208,000 views, which came off the back of the Fox studio providing a first look of the film's opening scene.

The panel for The Walking Dead meanwhile drew 84,000 views.

Organisers cancelled the event for the first time in 50 years in mid-April, so had just a few months to arrange the online event.

Continuous monitoring of health advisories and recent statements by the Governor of California have made it clear that it would not be safe to move forward with plans for this year, organisers said in a statement at the time.

More than 135,000 people attended the event in 2019 at the San Diego Convention Center.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 06:13:35|Editor: huaxia

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BAGHDAD, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Two Iraqi officers and a border guard were killed on Tuesday in two attacks by the Islamic State (IS) militants in western Iraq, the Iraqi military said.

In one incident, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Lami, the commander of the Army's 29th Brigade of the 7th Infantry Division, was killed while chasing IS militants in Heet area, some 160 km west of Baghdad, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement.

Al-Lami led an force in chasing the IS militants, who were on the run after an attack on an army checkpoint that killed an officer and wounded two soldiers in Heet area, the JOC said.

In a separate incident, IS militants opened fire on an Iraqi border guard patrol near the Arar crossing point on the Iraq-Saudi Arabia border, killing a border guard and wounding four others before fleeing into the desert, a border guard officer told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The security situation in Iraq has been improving since Iraqi security forces fully defeated the IS militants across the country late in 2017.

However, IS remnants have since melted in urban areas or deserts and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians. Enditem
Washington:

Using heads-up display technology like Google Glass may slow down the brains response time, a new study has warned. That could pose issues for people driving, when a delay of a few seconds could mean the difference between life and death, researchers said.

Heads-up display technology offers lots of information to users in seconds, literally in front of their eyes.

Access to information is critical in todays fast-paced world, but the research at the University of Central Florida in the US indicates that the multitasking needed to process that readily available information may slow down the brains response time.

The idea here is to explore to what extent displayed secondary information might interfere with the primary task at hand, such as driving, said Mark Neider, a UCF psychology associate professor.

What our data suggests is secondary information presented on a heads-up display is likely to interfere, and if that happens while driving, it may be distracting and dangerous, said Neider.

Lewis had 363 UCF psychology student participants complete a primary task similar to Wheres Waldo? on a computer, while some wore Google Glass and others did not.

Participants were told to complete the primary task and were given secondary instructions based on which experiment they were in.

Some students were told to ignore the information that pops up on Google Glass, while others were told to try to remember the information.

In all the experiments, students wearing the Google Glass technology, which is worn like eyeglasses and displays a small screen over the users right eye, took longer to complete the primary task than those who were not.

Potential reasons behind these findings are that humans have a natural inclination to process language, and in this case two visual stimuli - the primary task and the secondary information from Google Glass - were competing for the visual-processing capabilities in the students brains, resulting in the slower pace to complete the primary task, Lewis said.

Although Google Glass currently is not a widespread product, the heads-up technology it uses is gaining popularity, researchers said. Some automobile manufacturers have introduced this technology into its vehicles by displaying speed on the windshield, among other scenarios.

Although the vehicles speed is related to the primary task of driving, the technology opens doors to the possibility of information not related to driving being displayed.

The goal here is to make the case that we should be careful, and just because we can [integrate heads-up display technology into everyday activities] doesnt mean we should, Lewis said. The findings were published in the journal Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications.

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By Barani Krishnan

Investing.com - Oil prices settled mixed Tuesday, with U.S. crude losing more than 1% on worries about a likely build in domestic crude stockpiles last week amid an explosion in new coronavirus cases in the United States and other world hotspots.

Analysts think the Energy Information Administration will report on Wednesday that U.S. crude balances rose by 357,000 barrels for the week ended July 24, adding to the previous weeks 4.9 million-barrel build.

This is despite expectations for a 733,000-barrel decline in gasoline inventories and a 267,000-barrel drop in distillate stockpiles, largely made up of diesel.

In the previous week, gasoline balances tumbled by 1.8 million barrels and distillates rose 1.07 million.

The EIA numbers will be preceded by industry group American Petroleum Institutes own data on inventories. APIs figures normally serve as precursor for the official data. On Tuesday, the API report said oil inventories fell 6.8 million barrels.

New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for U.S. crude futures, settled down 56 cents, or 1.3%, at $41.04 per barrel.

London-traded Brent, the bellwether for global crude prices, rose 19 cents, or 0.4%, to end the regular U.S. session at $43.22.

Oil prices are being weighed down on coronavirus resurgence in Europe and Asia, said Ed Moya, an analyst at New Yorks OANDA. Germany is concerned infections from a farm in Bavaria are spreading, while China sees the most local cases in at least four months as resurgences occur in the western and northeastern regions.

Germanys new number of daily Covid-19 cases, which dropped to around 500 a day in recent weeks, was back above 800 from Friday, data showed.

In China, 61 infections were reported Monday, the biggest flare-up since Beijing all but contained the epic flare-up in its Wuhan district in March.

The United States, meanwhile, edged closer to a single-day coronavirus infection record with more than 74,000 new cases Friday, approaching the mark set just one week ago.

Story continues

More than 1,000 Americans have died each day between Tuesday and Friday, the worst tally of human loss since late May. The total U.S. case count is approaching 4.5 million while deaths have crossed 151,000.

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When Fang Zeyu, a Chinese science fiction writer, looked up yet again at the red planet, a different emotion transpired within him.

As China's first Mars mission, Tianwen-1 (meaning Questions to Heaven), blasted off to success on July 23, marking the country's first step in planetary exploration of the solar system, it has induced inspiration for Chinese sci-fi writers and artists.

Yu Jun, an astrophotographer and astronomy blogger, said he has been following the human explorations of Mars extensively.

"It is these explorations that have brought us psychologically closer to Mars. Now we talk about things on Mars as if we were talking about a neighboring village," said Yu.

The exploration could help improve human ability to go deeper into space and provide first-hand data for significant scientific research such as the origin and evolution of the solar system and life.

Last month, Fang completed the first draft of a short story about Mars, but he is yet to revise it, as he thinks the draft lacks novel elements. He believes the successful launch of Tianwen-1 may elicit new materials and help yield different perspectives for his work.

"The advancement of science and technology can further broaden our horizons, and I'm looking forward to it. It is a brand-new start," Fang said.

The prospect of upcoming works inspired by the Mars mission has thrilled many Chinese sci-fi fans.

Yang Chenxi, 27, who has loved science fiction since childhood, thought the mission would increase public interest in Mars, leading to a surge in the creation of Mars-themed sci-fi works.

"I look forward to reading a story someday that the astronauts on Mars found key resources to save Earth when our planet is in danger," Yang said.

Unlike other planets in the universe, the environment of Mars has the closest resemblance to Earth in the solar system. Thus, the exploration of Mars emanates a sense of mission and responsibility in terms of finding a new home for future generations.

Due to this goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind, Chinese sci-fi writers and scholars believe that the implication of China's first journey to Mars will go beyond science itself.

Through the eyes of Zhang Xiaobei, director and screenwriter, many leaders in the commercial space industry, such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, spent their childhoods under the influence of the Apollo program, which made them set foot in the journey to space after growing up.

"I believe that the future of mankind would be in the space, and I hope our future generations could look up at the starry sky from their childhood," said Zhang. "These are the sparks. One day, maybe a few of these little sparks will have a chance to put a shine on human civilization."

Li Zhaoxin, a sci-fi critic and partner of the Future Affairs Administration, an incubator for sci-fi writers, said that stepping out of Earth and onto other planets is a crucial realistic topic for humankind.

"Everyone should be aware that we live in a fragile ecosystem. The more people realize it, and the more we understand it, the better the world will be," said Li.

As the world is facing unique challenges this year, the Mars mission reminds people that some major undertakings require the cooperation of all mankind.

Zheng Yongchun, a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, emphasized that no matter what the international situation may be, people should never give up international cooperation in space exploration, which is the hope of humanity.

"China's Mars exploration will also become a part of human space exploration. I hope that a new Cold War in any form doesn't dim the brilliance of the career," said Wu Yan, a sci-fi writer and professor with the Southern University of Science and Technology.




Madan Dilawar, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator, on Tuesday, filed two petitions in Rajasthan high court (HC), requesting disqualification of six Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lawmakers, who had merged with the ruling Congress government in the state last year.

The six BSP members of Rajasthan legislative assembly (MLAs) who had merged with the Ashok Gehlotled government are Sandeep Yadav, Tijara MLA, Wajib Ali (Nagar), Deepchand Kheria (Kishangarh Bas), LakhanMeena (Karauli), and Rajendra Gudha (Udaipurwati).

Assembly Speaker CP Joshi had dismissed our plea without hearing our line of argument. This prompted us to move the HC against the Speakers decision. We have prayed before the court to disqualify the membership of the six BSP MLAs and pass an order that upholds justice and equality, said Ashish Sharma, Dilawars counsel.

Also read: BSP to file plea in Rajasthan High Court tomorrow against merger of its MLAs with Congress

When Dilawar was asked why they had to file two petitions in the court, he said, initially a communication was conveyed to me from the assembly secretariat in which they had given me a two-line answer that your petition in front of the speaker has been rejected. Later in the day, the assembly secretariat sent us a detailed two-page reply on the disqualification petition filed by me hence we amended the petition and filed a revised petition, added Dilawar.

When Dilawar was asked on what grounds he had filed the petition of disqualification of six MLAs, he told that there has been no merger of the BSP into the Indian Nation Congress. Because even at present, the BSP is continuing as a recognized political party, both at the state as well as the national level.

The BSP never merged with the Congress, therefore its legislatures have no right to merge with Congress or with any other political party. The six MLAs have voluntarily given up the membership of the BSP on whose ticket they were elected and have joined the Congress in violation of the provisions of law. Hence, they are liable to be disqualified under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution of India, told Dilawar.

He further said that as per 10th Schedule of the Constitution, the condition of two-third MLAs accepting the merger is a second condition, not the first. The first is that the original political party of the legislature who are claiming merger should have merged with another political party. The six MLAs have no right to merge their original party with another political party.

Also, the BSP remains as a separate political party at the national level as well as state level. Therefore, these MLAs cannot drive any benefit of the provisions of the 10th Schedule, even if all of them decided to merge with any political party, Dilawar said.

Legal expert Akhil Chaudhary said, according to the law, the BSP legislature party is independent and is not subordinate to its national presence or leadership. The law also says two-thirds of the members of the legislature party are eligible to join another political party or form a separate party.

Therefore, there is no question over the merger of the political party at a regional or national level. In our Constitution scheme, Vidhan Sabha is not subordinate to Parliament or any other house. The federal structure makes it independent, irrespective of multiple party systems. The merger is totally legal, said Chaudhary.

The BSP will also file a petition on Wednesday that will challenge the merger of the six MLAs who had won Rajasthan assembly polls in 2018 on the partys symbol.

The merger of these six MLAs with Congress was unconstitutional. We are preparing a petition and will file a petition soon, said Bhagwan Singh Baba, BSPs Rajasthan president.

On Monday, the Rajasthan HC had disposed of the petition by Dilawar, who had questioned Speaker Joshis alleged inaction over the merger of six BSP MLAs with the Gehlot government last September.
Federal security forces during a demonstration in Portland: REUTERS

The UK government has given the green light for the export of British tear gas and rubber bullets to the US despite the continuing use of force against protesters  and warnings from the United Nations.

Whitehall officials secretly suspended the issue of new arms export licences to the US for a month at the height of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations so a review could be carried out amid concerns about police conduct, The Independent can reveal.

But the review, which the government has refused to make public or comment on, concluded that the violence did not amount to "internal repression".

US police have used gas and rubber bullets against peaceful protesters and also targeted journalists since the beginning of the protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.

Detention of protesters by unidentified federal officers in Portland, Oregon, sparked condemnation last week from Liz Throssell, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who warned the actions could give rise to human rights violations.

More than 70 journalists  including The Independent's Chief US Correspondent Andrew Buncombe  have also been arrested during the protests. The Independent has launched its Journalism Is Not A Crime campaign to highlight press freedom in the face of the crackdown in the US.

Commenting on the British decision to allow supply of tear gas and rubber bullets, Andrew Smith of Campaign Against the Arms Trade said: "Over recent months we have seen US police forces inflicting brutal and often indiscriminate violence against protesters. For the UK government to claim that this isn't repression is staggering. It is also hugely disrespectful of the rights of those that have been attacked with tear gas, rubber bullets and other weapons.

"These weapons can be deadly and should not have been sold in the first place, especially not to forces that have a long and shameful history of racism and violence. This decision is not just an endorsement of US policing, it is a sign of support for the brutal techniques that have been used."

Story continues

In private legal correspondence dating from 30 June, seen by The Independent, government lawyers said a review was underway and that "no pending or new licence applications for the export of crowd control equipment to the USA will be issued until the reassessment has been completed".

British arms companies currently have 23 open export licences for the export of riot equipment to US security forces, including tear gas, rubber bullets, and riot shields  prompting criticism that they are fuelling "brutal" violence by the police.

But the issuing of new licences resumed this weekend after the government gave arms exporters a clean bill of health. Government lawyers said in a second letter dated on Friday that it was "a matter of fact" that the use of riot equipment "has attracted criticism from some quarters".

"Given the broad list of end-users covered by the licences, the reassessment has assumed that it is possible that such equipment was and/or could be sold to and used by police forces involved in these or similar protests," the Government Legal Department said.

But they said a review found that "there is no clear risk under Criterion 2a of the Consolidated Criteria that such equipment might be used for internal repression; and not to suspend, amend or revoke existing licences; and to recommence the assessment of pending licence applications".

The same government department that reviewed the arms exports recently recommended the resumption of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, advising ministers that "possible" war crimes in Yemen were "isolated incidents" and should not disrupt the flow of arms. The government's own rules say arms should not be exported if they can be used for "internal repression".

The private letters were written by the Government's Legal Department in response to a legal challenge against the arms sales, to evidence the claim that the government was taking its responsibilities seriously.

The challenge, which is being crowd-funded by hundreds of small donors, will now go ahead and aim to stop the exports in the courts.

A cross-party group of MPs has previously called for an end to the sales, and the Scottish Parliament has endorsed a motion along similar lines. Human rights organisations like Amnesty have also joined the call.

Mr Smith added: "We hope that the case being pursued by [lawyers] Deighton Pierce Glynn and their client succeeds and that it helps in setting an important precedent and securing change."

A Department for International Trade spokesperson declined to answer question about the review and pausing of arms sales and said: The Government takes its export responsibilities seriously and assesses all export licences in accordance with strict licensing criteria. We will not issue any export licences where to do so would be inconsistent with these criteria.

Read more

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Popular Media personnel Toke Makinwa has discredited online media reports which claimed that her Ikoyi home been repossessed by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON.

Nigerian Twitter went agog today July 27th, after some users of the app claimed that her Banana Island property had been taken over by AMCON.

This evening the media personnels publicist, Andrea Manuela Giaccaglia, released a statement saying that Toke Makinwa is the sole owner of her Ikoyi property and that it has not been confiscated by AMCON. Also that legal action will be taken against the originators of the report that her house has been taken over by AMCON.

The statement reads

On behalf of Ms. Toke Makinwa, we would like to address the rumour circulating the internet that Ms. Toke Makinwas alleged house in Banana Island was taken over by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).Ms. Tokes is the sole owner of her residence in Ikoyi.Our lawyers have been contacted and legal action will be taken against the originators of this story.Kind RegardsToke Makinwas Management
Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill earlier this month authorizing the state to borrow as much as $9.9 billion to offset revenue losses amid the pandemic.

Now it may be local governments turn to borrow. .

The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved a bill allowing towns and counties to sell bonds backed by property taxes to help cover lost revenue from taxes and fees and unforeseen expenses related to the coronavirus.

The state Assembly passed the bill 57-20 with three abstentions in May.

Despite fairly stable May property tax collections, local government officials say theyre already hurting from lost parking, permitting, licensing and hotel occupancy fees and court fines. Theyve also warned they are bracing for bigger declines in August property tax collections, when escrow accounts may be running dry for homeowners who have skipped or missed mortgage payments.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

This is a priority for unprecedented times, said Michael Cerra, executive director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, said of the borrowing bill. This is an unprecedented and swift loss of revenues with the inability to recoup those revenues.

The bill (A3971) would allow counties and towns to borrow an amount equal to as much as 30% of the previous years budget with a repayment period of up to 10 years, though they could seek permission from the state to borrow more and with a longer repayment period.

State Sen. Declan OScanlon, R-Monmouth, said Tuesday he was pulling his support for the bill because of changes made by the Assembly that he said would shrink state government oversight and remove requirements local governments use borrowing as a last resort.

I was a co-sponsor of this concept, but the Assembly screwed it up, he told the budget committee. The amount as a percentage of budget that can be borrowed, they increased by 50% from 20% to 30% and theres virtually zero oversight. They also removed the obligation to exhaust all other possibilities before borrowing.

Earlier this month lawmakers and Murphy reached a deal authorizing the administration to borrow up to $9.9 billion on the public or private markets or from the Federal Reserves Municipal Liquidity Facility.

A previous version of that proposal would have authorized up to $14 billion on behalf of both the state and local governments that dont have access to the central banks facility on their own. Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, urged that provision be removed, arguing many towns and counties have higher credit ratings than the state and would be better off borrowing on their own.

Murphy has warned of mass layoffs of state and local public workers without the ability to borrow and without more stimulus cash from the federal government. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells latest proposal excludes any such new aid for states, counties and cities.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com.
How has a summer storm of ethics deluged a government which has worked competently to alleviate the agony caused by the unprecedented COVID-19 virus ? A lack of due diligence, a careless attitude to legislation, and surprising disclosures have combined to cause a governance quagmire and an ethical imbroglio.

Questions are legitimately being raised about the culture of connections between the prime minister, the finance minister and the massive contribution agreement originally announced between the government and the WE organization. Further revelations about paid speaking engagements by family members, and forgotten expenses have only added to the public bewilderment.

The agreement is now cancelled, mistakes have been admitted and apologies have been made. Yet, despite these efforts, Parliamentary committees continue to hold hearings and parallel investigations, while the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Commissioner has also begun an investigation which it notes takes on average about 7 months to complete.

Civil society has also been blind-sided. Students have been left in limbo. Charitable organizations, already facing unprecedented need from their clients, are waiting to hear next steps. Will some of the money earmarked for the WE organization be reallocated? If so, how and when?

To ratchet up the drama, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Chief of Staff Katie Telford will appear at the House of Commons finance committee, likely this week. Hopefully, they will be able to answer the fundamental question as to why recusal, a common enough governance tool, was not used by Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister Morneau at the cabinet meeting when the WE decision was approved.

A partial explanation may lie in competing messages contained within in each ministers mandate letter.

While discussing openness, effectiveness and transparency in government, the letter underscores the need for humility and continuing to acknowledge mistakes when we make them. Canadians do not expect us to be perfect; they expect us to be diligent, honest, open and sincere in our efforts to serve the public interest.

But the same letter equally contains the warning that as minister, you must ensure that you are aware of and fully compliant with the Conflict of Interest Act

Which of these messages takes precedence? Apologies can be healthy and healing but they must not be used as an escape hatch for multiple errors. Is there a limit to the number of apologies any one minister or prime minister can make? Do apologies lead to a lack of accountability?

Whatever the answers to these questions and whatever the results of the investigations, political considerations must also be weighed. The life of a minority government is always tenuous. If the government is to recalibrate its agenda, ethical clarity is needed now.

It is time for the government to acknowledge that the repercussions of repeated ethical mistakes are immense in scope, personally humiliating and can result in unintended consequences.

It is time that elected officials understand that conflict of interest legislation and respect for ethical guidelines must be taken seriously. They do not exist to punish public office holders; rather, they exist to protect elected officials from unwanted influence and to maintain the integrity of the parliamentary system. Politicians ignore those protections at their peril.

It is time for the government to refresh and renew their approach to ethical issues. Place it on top of the next agenda for cabinet, discuss the issues with caucus members and retrain political staff of ethical obligations.

Canadians expect that strong moral leadership will underpin our institutions and our government. While many of us are cynical about that expectation, having had our faith shattered before, we still cling to the assumption that rules and laws will be followed, that public figures will live up to the trust they have been given and that the principles of honesty, fairness and responsibility will prevail.

When that public trust is fractured, the quiet cocoon around ethics escalates rapidly to a noisy cacophony of headlines, accusations and denunciations, reflective of the current situation. The storm will only abate with strong leadership, transparent explanations and a renewed commitment to a positive attitude toward compliance.

Theres no time to waste. Lets get this done.
The store, which opened to the community in early May 2020 amidst the backdrop of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, is the latest dealership to join the established Mitsubishi Motors brand in the U.S. market. Due to the pandemic, Steve Landers Cowboy Mitsubishi is currently open for sales and service by appointment-only. To make an appointment to visit Steve Landers Cowboy Mitsubishi, please call (501) 213-0744, or make an appointment online at www.cowboymitsu.com/.

"Even in these uncertain times, we're extremely excited to be open for business and welcome our customers to the all-new Steve Landers Cowboy Mitsubishi," said Steve Landers Jr., dealer principal, Steve Landers Cowboy Mitsubishi. "We're eager to introduce our lineup of competitive and affordable Mitsubishi crossovers and small cars to our community and bring the Cowboy touch to greater Little Rock."

Early next year, Steve Landers Cowboy Mitsubishi plans to remodel the facility under Mitsubishi Motors' Visual Identity program. The Visual Identity program is intended to enhance the customer experience in a high-quality retail environment, working in concert with the brand's "Drive your Ambition" brand message to engage and inspire customers when shopping for a vehicle.

MMNA recently finalized the relocation of its U.S. headquarters to its new permanent home in Franklin, Tennessee. The relocation is the most tangible example of the ongoing reinvention of every aspect of the Mitsubishi Motors brand and business in the U.S., from corporate leadership to dealer partners to every touchpoint in a customer's relationship with their vehicle.

"We are committed to sustainably growing our dealership network and brand visibility across the United States, and the addition of Steve Landers Cowboy Mitsubishi is a critical step to helping us achieve that goal," said Steve Smidlein, director, central region, MMNA. "Now, more than ever, Mitsubishi Motors is committed to growing our dealer footprint as we prepare for all-new and significantly refreshed Mitsubishi vehicles to begin entering showrooms within the next 12 months."

Steve Landers Cowboy Mitsubishi is located at 15 Colonel Glenn Plaza Dr., Little Rock, Arkansas 72210.

For more information on Mitsubishi Motors U.S. dealer network, please visit www.mitsubishicars.com.

About Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc.

Through a network of approximately 350 dealer partners across the United States, Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. (MMNA), is responsible for the sales, research and development, marketing and customer service of Mitsubishi Motors vehicles in the U.S. 2019 marked the brand's seventh consecutive year of sales growth, and MMNA was the top-ranked Japanese brand in the J.D. Power 2020 Initial Quality Study, ranking sixth overall and experiencing the greatest year-over-year improvement of any brand.

Located in Franklin, Tennessee, MMNA is a part of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance. Mitsubishi continues to lead the way in the development of highly efficient, affordably priced new gasoline-powered automobiles, while using its industry-leading knowledge in battery-electric vehicles to develop future EV and PHEV models.

For more information on Mitsubishi vehicles, please contact the Mitsubishi Motors News Bureau at (615) 257-2698 or visit media.mitsubishicars.com.

Contacts

Lauren Ryan

Manager, Communications and Events

[email protected]

Mobile: 404-862-8286

Patrick LeBeau

The Brand Amp

[email protected]

Mobile: 708-768-1823

SOURCE Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc.

Related Links

www.mitsubishicars.com


"This is the worst."

"Our kids won't ever catch up."

"What do we do?"

Parents' text threads and mom's groups blew up as soon as the news was made official.

After months of speculation and worry, Oakland families received confirmation on July 10 that the 2020-21 school year would not be a normal year. The 40,000 students under the school district's jurisdiction would not be returning to in-class learning at the start of the coming semester.

The San Francisco Unified School District and others across the region soon made similar announcements.

As the issue of safely reopening schools in-person is being fiercely debated across the country, and politicized by the White House, many Bay Area parents have decided to take a do-it-yourself approach to learning by hiring a tutor and forming a 'learning pod.'

A term rarely used before a few weeks ago, a learning pod is a small group of students who gather regularly to learn in a shared space. The students may participate in the online instruction provided by their schools, or learn from hired tutors unaffiliated with of the district.

"If you are not a parent / in a moms group, you may not be aware that a kind of historic thing is going on right now," Berkeley resident J. Li wrote on a Facebook post shared over 10,000 times on July 17, as news of no in-class learning across Bay Area public schools spread.

"There has been a tipping point in Bay Area families looking to form homeschooling pods. Or maybe 'boiling point' might be a better term," Li wrote. "Within the span of the last 48 hrs or so, thousands of parents are scrambling through an absolute explosion of facebook groups, matchups, spreadsheets, etc. to form homeschooling pods."

The post went viral and reflected on what a lot of parents were seeing, while also making others feel like they were already behind the curve in assuring that their children wouldn't be left behind.

And this mad scramble is apparently happening across the country.

Like often-told anecdotes of mothers finding the abnormal strength to lift a car from a trapped child, the lightning-fast grass roots movement by panicked parents to create their own mini schools is impressive in many ways.

"I swear that in a decade they are going to study this because I have never seen an industry crop up and adapt so fast," Li wrote.

But the fear that this abrupt shift in schooling will only widen inequities and racial segregation within school districts immediately reverberated. When children eventually return to class, students whose parents have the means to participate in learning pods will most likely return to school academically ahead, as many low-income children have struggled at home without access to technology needed for online learning.

"The appeal of learning pods is immense. For parents who need to work and cant supervise their childrens learning, joining a pod may feel like the only way they can educate their kids and keep their jobs," Clara Green, a learning specialist, wrote in the New York Times last week.

Oakland School District has long battled with the perceived inequality in learning resources afforded to its students. While the less diverse, more moneyed schools in the hills often benefit from hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations a year from parents, the schools in the flats rarely see that help.

Last years' decision by OUSD to merge schools from two very different neighborhoods led to backlash and a fractious public debate.

While in the middle of unprecedented planning through parental surveys, focus groups, teacher training and union negotiations -- all amid confusing messaging on a national level -- Bay Area school districts have now been forced to address the issue of learning pods.

"Although we appreciate parent resourcefulness in creating small pandemic pods to help manage the demands of this time, we do have some concerns," read an email from OUSD to parents this week.

"We are asking those families involved with this podding to please be mindful that some families may not have the resources, be in a position or feel comfortable, or have not been invited to form a pod, and that this may cause feelings of exclusion, especially for kids who may see or hear of their peers congregating and learning together while they remain isolated," the statement read.

"We encourage families to be sensitive to these circumstances. In many ways, this idea of podding is a creative solution to an impossible situation. At the same time, the formation of these groups holds the risk of exacerbating educational inequities throughout our country."

Meanwhile, Edtech companies in Silicon Valley are capitalizing on the newfound need for organization around homeschooling.

Outschool, a marketplace of live online classes for K-12 learners provides "tools for in-person and virtual 'learning pods' that make it simple for groups of families to collaborate and schedule classes together."

CEO and co-founder Amir Nathoo told SFGATE: "We've seen 30X growth in enrollments so far this year, and we're preparing for yet more demand."

On the possibility of an opportunity gap between those who can afford the company's resources and those who can't, Nathoo said, "Our main concern is to make our live online classes accessible to low income families who are particularly impacted by the reduction in services offered by public schools. So we're focused on radically expanding the scope and funding available through our financial assistance program."

But as the country reckons with racial inequalities in all walks of life, the sudden growth of learning pods may be antithetical to the movement to narrow that divide.

"Based on what Ive seen online, the learning pod movement appears to be led by families with means, a large portion of whom are white. Paradoxically, at a time when the Black Lives Matter movement has prompted a national reckoning with white supremacy, white parents are again ignoring racial and class inequality when it comes to educating their children," Green wrote. "As a result, they are actively replicating the systems that many of them say they want to dismantle."

The OUSD concluded its statement by listing schools in the district, largely in the more wealthy hills of the city, that would "not be honoring requests to place students in classes together based on pandemic pods."

"None of us have any idea where this is going to go," Li concluded in her post.

Andrew Chamings is an editor at SFGATE. Email: Andrew.Chamings@sfgate.com | Twitter: @AndrewChamings
Google has announced a plan to build a new, 3,915-mile-long transatlantic subsea cable between the US, the UK and Spain to meet growing connectivity demands.

The fibre-optic link  which is expected to be completed in 2022  will be Google's first privately-owned connection between the US and the UK.

When operational, it will provide around 340350 Terabytes per second of capacity  the equivalent of some 17.5 million people all streaming 4K videos simultaneously.

The tech firm has named the cable after the American computer scientist and naval rear admiral Grace Hopper, who created one of the first so-called 'linker' programs.

Linkers are computer system programs that connect multiple object files, converting them into a library, executable or larger object file.

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Google has announced a plan to build a new, 3,915-mile-long transatlantic subsea cable between the US, the UK and Spain to meet growing connectivity demands

The fibre-optic link  which is expected to be completed in 2022  will be one of the firm's first to connect the US and the UK since 2003

When operational, the cable will provide around 340350 Terabytes per second of capacity  the equivalent of some 17.5 million people all streaming 4K videos simultaneously.

The Grace Hopper cable will increase network traffic capacity and help to drive many of Google's core services  including Gmail, Google Cloud and the relatively new video communications platform, Meet, which was launched in 2017.

The link will join Google's existing private cables  Curie, Dunant and Equiano  on the ocean floor, where 98 over cent of the world's internet traffic flows.

Curie runs along the US Pacific Coast from California to Chile, while Dunant links Virginia with France and Equiano will link Portugal with Nigeria and South Africa.

The Curie project will be the first time that Google has invested in a subsea cable route to Spain  a connection which is intended to more closely integrate the firm's upcoming cloud region in Madrid with its global infrastructure.

The cable  which will have end-points in New York, Bude in northeast Cornwall and Bilbao in northern Spain  will contain 16 fibre pairs, along with a novel optical fibre switching architecture to better move internet traffic around local outages.

The design is said will also enable lower latency and increased network resilience.

The addition, a Google spokesperson said, represents a 'significant upgrade to the internet infrastructure connecting the US with Europe.'

The tech firm has named the cable after the American computer scientist and naval rear admiral Grace Hopper, pictured, who created one of the first so-called 'linker' programs. Linkers are computer system programs that connect multiple object files, converting them into a library, executable or larger object file

The new connection is being laid, pictured, with the help of subsea cable provider SubCom, of Eatontown, New Jersey

'Private subsea cables allow us to plan effectively for the future capacity needs of our customers and users around the world,' said Google Global Network vice president Bikash Koley, noting they 'add a layer of security beyond whats available over the public internet'

'Private subsea cables allow us to plan effectively for the future capacity needs of our customers and users around the world,' said Google Global Network vice president Bikash Koley.

They also, he continued, 'add a layer of security beyond whats available over the public internet.'

The new connection is being laid with the help of subsea cable provider SubCom, of Eatontown, New Jersey.
Shame is the big killer of us, she told a conference in 2000. Shame and isolation, not our particular disability.

Wade was born in Vallejo, Calif., on March 4, 1948. Her mother was a bookkeeper, and her father was a salesman. Money was tight in their household, but her father was a bit of a raconteur, and she apparently learned that skill remarkably early.

My mother would always tell this story about my brothers first word and how it happened, she said in an oral history recorded in 2003 for the Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement Oral History Project in Berkeley. He was sitting at the table with my grandma, and he looked out the window and he pointed out and he said, bird. And that was his first word. And I would say, What was my first word? My mother would always say, You didnt have one. You just had a first monologue.

She had plenty of hardship as a child  her parents drank too much, she said, and she has mentioned often being sexually abused by her father. At 10, rheumatoid arthritis manifested itself intensely.

Big toe, thumbs, wrists, and then everywhere just started hurting, all the joints started hurting, she said. Wrists particularly, wrists and thumbs and knees.

By 16 she was using a wheelchair, first some of the time, but soon all of the time. She graduated from the high school at Stanford Childrens Hospital and tried attending the College of Marin, a community college in Marin County, Calif., but gave it up after a short while, weighed down by both physical and emotional difficulties. She entered what she described as a bleak period of isolation that lasted almost a decade.

But she fought through it, and when a doctor who had performed surgery on her knees introduced her to an electric wheelchair, that changed my life, as she put it. In 1974 she gave the College of Marin another try and found that there was now a community of students with disabilities there.
Stocks in Asia Pacific were mixed on Tuesday afternoon trade as gold prices dipped from their record levels.

Shares in South Korea led gains among the region's major markets, with the Kospi up 1.76% to close at 2,256.99 as shares of industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics soared 5.4%.

Mainland Chinese stocks were also higher on the day, with the Shanghai composite gaining 0.71% to around 3,227.96 while the Shenzhen component jumped 1.314% to about 13,147.35. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index added 0.69%, as of its final hour of trading.

Over in Japan, stocks lagged the overall region as the Nikkei 225 dipped 0.26% to close at 22,657.38 while the Topix index shed 0.48% to finish its trading day at 1,569.12. Shares of Fujifilm rose 3.1% after U.S. President Donald Trump announced Monday that the U.S. government awarded the firm a $265 million contract for coronavirus vaccine manufacturing.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.39% to close at 6,020.50. In India, the Nifty 50 was up 1.06% in afternoon trade.

Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index added 0.93%.

Gold prices dipped from record levels in the afternoon of Asian trading hours, with spot gold last trading at $1,937.2782 after rising to as high as $1,980.5662 earlier.

The situation surrounding the coronavirus pandemic likely continued to weigh on investor sentiment. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday unveiled the Republican coronavirus relief plan, which would include relief for jobless Americans, among other provisions. The U.S. currently has the most number of confirmed coronavirus infections and deaths globally, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Multiple firms also announced Monday the start of late-stage human trials as the race to find a coronavirus vaccine continues.

U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and German biotech firm BioNTech said they began their late-stage human trial for a potential coronavirus vaccine on Monday. That announcement by the firms came the same day biotech firm Moderna, also developing a leading vaccine candidate, said it began its late-stage coronavirus vaccine trial.
LONDON, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Redscan, the managed threat detection, incident response and penetration testing specialist, today released new research on the state of cyber security in the higher education sector. The study, based on an analysis of Freedom of Information requests, reveals that more than half of UK universities reported a data breach to the ICO in the last year. At the same time, 46% of all university staff received no security training and almost a quarter of institutions (24%) did not commission a penetration test from a third party.

According to the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), universities are targeted by criminals seeking financial gain, as well as by nation state attackers looking to steal intellectual property. The Redscan report underscores the degree to which universities are an attractive target. It also raises concerns that many may not be doing enough to defend against the latest threats, particularly at a time when institutions are embracing remote teaching en masse and conducting world-changing research in relation to COVID-19.

Defending against an incessant stream of phishing attacks remains a challenge of all universities. Several institutions reported receiving millions of spam/phishing emails each year, with one reporting a high of 130 million. Phishing attempts were described as being "endless" and one university disclosed that attacks had increased by 50% since 2019.

Other key findings from the report include:

54% of universities reported a data breach to the ICO in the last 12 months*

A quarter of universities haven't commissioned a pen test from an external provider in the last year

46% of all university staff in the UK received no security training in the last year. One top Russell Group university has trained only 12% of its staff

Universities spend an average of 7,529 per year on security training, with expenditure ranging from 0 to 49,000

Universities employ, on average, three qualified cyber security professionals

51% of universities are proactive in providing security training and information to students

12% of universities do not offer any kind of security guidance, support or training at all to students

66 out of 134 universities have Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essential Plus certification

Redscan CTO, Mark Nicholls, commented: "UK universities are among the most well-respected learning and research centres globally, yet our analysis highlights inconsistencies in the approach institutions are taking to protect their staff, students and intellectual property against the latest cyber threats.

"The fact that such a large number of universities don't deliver cyber security training to staff and students, nor commission independent penetration testing, is concerning. These are foundational elements of every security program and key to helping prevent data breaches.

"Even at this time of intense budgetary pressure, institutions need to ensure that their cyber security teams receive the support they need to defend against sophisticated adversaries. Breaches have the potential to seriously impact organisations' reputation and funding."

"The threat posed to universities by nation state attackers makes the need for improvements even more critical. The cost of failing to protect scientific research is immeasurable."

Notes for editors

FOI requests were made to 134 universities in the UK, from which 86 responded. While the timescale for a FOI response is normally 20 working days, this was relaxed by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) due to the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning that many responses took longer to obtain.

*It should be noted that not all data breaches are caused by cyber-attacks

About Redscan https://www.redscan.com

Redscan is an award-winning provider of managed security services, specialising in threat detection and incident response.

Possessing a deep knowledge of offensive security, Redscan's experts are among the most qualified in the industry, working as an extension of clients' in-house resources to expose and address vulnerabilities plus swiftly identify and shut down breaches. Services offered include CREST accredited Penetration Testing, Red Teaming and Managed Detection & Response.

By understanding how attackers operate, leveraging cutting-edge threat intelligence, and offering highly acclaimed service, Redscan's cyber security professionals can be trusted to provide the insight and support needed to successfully mitigate information security risk and achieve compliance standards.

SOURCE Redscan
By Akwaeke Emezi

Riverhead. 245 pp. $27

- - -

In 2018, Akwaeke Emezi's debut novel arrived like a revelation. With its incantatory prose, "Freshwater" disrupted conventional ways of thinking, pushing readers outside the dualistic frameworks of body and spirit, male and female, psychotic and sane. The story describes the harrowing experiences of a young Nigerian woman who contains several distinct selves. But for Emezi, a non-binary trans person, the disparate voices that deliver this story are not merely a sophisticated narrative technique. They're a literal representation of the interior voices that Emezi hears. "My brain works like this," Emezi once told me. "I don't consider it a mental illness. I consider it real."

Emezi's new novel continues the exploration of lives that fracture rigid attitudes about selfhood and sexuality. The whole story takes place in the penumbra of grief. Even the book's title, "The Death of Vivek Oji," leaves little room for optimism, and the first chapter - just a single sentence - reveals the time of death: "They burned down the market on the day Vivek Oji died." But over the course of the novel, Emezi constantly affirms and resists the inevitability of that tragedy. If only, if only, if only. ... Vivek's death is emphasized so often that it acquires an odd kind of mystery, like the blurry edges of a legend.

Although the presence of spiritual forces is muted in "The Death of Vivek Oji," the possibility of ancestral reincarnation frames the story in tantalizing ways. Vivek is born in Nigeria on the same day his grandmother dies. A starfish-shaped scar on one of the baby's feet resembles a similar scar on one of the old woman's feet. "Superstition," the boy's father insists. "It was a coincidence, the marks on their feet - and besides, Vivek was a boy and not a girl."

This is largely the story of a family that clings to a strict demarcation between boys and girls even as that distinction poisons their only child.

Emezi opposes such linear attitudes with the very structure of the novel. Rather than progress from beginning to end, "The Death of Vivek Oji" swirls around incidents, before and after Vivek's passing, not so much rising toward its climax as gradually accruing power. Again and again, we learn of events long before we understand their cause or significance. Such a presentation could easily become a muddle, but Emezi is a remarkably assured and graceful guide through this family's calamity of silence.

Vivek's adolescence passes quickly with alarming but only glancing references to his trance-like episodes and his temper "like gunpowder packed into a pipe." Soon his ambitious college plans in the United States are scrapped. He moves back home in 1998. He loses weight and grows his hair long. His father becomes impatient and drifts away. His mother dotes, nervously. "It's just hair! It doesn't mean anything," she says. "He's fine, really. He just needs some time." But later Emezi notes, "There was a tendril of shame unfurling into a leafy plant inside her." The atmosphere of depression and denial in their house grows toxic.

"I'm not what anyone thinks I am," Vivek says in one of the very short chapters he narrates himself. "I didn't have the mouth to put it into words, to say what was wrong, to change the things I felt I needed to change. And every day it was difficult, walking around and knowing that people saw me one way, knowing that they were wrong, so completely wrong, that the real me was invisible to them. It didn't even exist to them."

His parents may suspect what's happening to Vivek, but they won't allow themselves to acknowledge what he's going through. The truth is too frightening for them. After all, Nigeria is a viciously homophobic and transphobic nation. People who don't conform to traditional sexual roles are scorned, arrested, murdered. Vivek's parents can protect him up to a point, but neighbors gossip. His aunt, who holds on to her faith "with a stubborn kind of bitterness," subjects Vivek to a particularly brutal exorcism at her church. But the challenge is not just a culture of intolerance; it's a culture of ignorance that gives Vivek no way to understand himself. He knows that he wants people to stop trying to "fix" him, but he silently admits, "I couldn't figure out if something was wrong with me or if this was just my life."

If there's any hope, it resides among the younger generation. "They barely understood him themselves," Emezi writes, "but they loved him, and that had been enough." Vivek finds solace with a lesbian who adores him. But the person he needs most is his cousin, Osita, who vacillates between loving him and rejecting him, acknowledging his own homosexuality and denying it. They're all part of a savvy underground community. "Maybe," Osita says, "we were all pretending to be fine because the world gave us no other option." But that pragmatic tolerance of the threats they face can't work for Vivek, who finds remaining in the bubble of silence and invisibility intolerable.

"The Death of Vivek Oji" ends on a note of mystical happiness that can't help but sound faint after the ordeal of Vivek's life. There's just no way to finish this powerful novel and not feel more deeply than ever the ghastly consequences of intolerance. But in these intense pages of tightly coiled desire and dread, Emezi has once again encouraged us to embrace a fuller spectrum of human experience.

- - -

Charles writes about books for The Washington Post and hosts TotallyHipVideoBookReview.com.
Senator David Perdue (R-GA) posted a campaign ad featuring an image of his Jewish opponent, Jon Ossoff, digitally manipulated to have a larger nose. Once the timeworn antisemitic stereotype was noticed, he was forced to retract the ad, but Perdue is refusing to apologize for it. Matt Novak summarizes the imbroglio:

The photoshopped ad, first reported by Forward, featured photos of Ossoff along with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who's also Jewish, and included text that reads "Democrats are trying to buy Georgia!" along with "Schumer's SUPER PAC is spending $3 million in Georgia for Jon Ossoff!" The original unedited photo was taken for Reuters by photojournalist Chris Aluka Berry in 2017 after Ossoff lost an election for Georgia's 6th Congressional District. Perdue's campaign denied that the edit had been intentional and sought to distance itself from the unnamed designer who made the ad.

https://twitter.com/ossoff/status/1287907702660829186

Purdue claims it was an "accident" caused by a filter, but was unable to explain exactly how that happened.
HANOI -- Vietnam on Tuesday signed an agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to borrow 36.63 billion yen ($348.2 million) to build six patrol vessels, state media reported.

The vessels, to be delivered to the Vietnam Coast Guard by October 2025, would boost the countrys maritime capability, Nhan Dan newspaper reported. It did not provide details of the vessels to be built.

Vietnam and other Asian states have for years been locked in maritime disputes in the East Vietnam Sea.

China claims 90 percent of the potentially energy-rich waters but Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam also lay claim to parts.

The vessels are aimed at strengthening law enforcement and maritime rescue operations, ensuring security, maritime safety, and freedom of navigation in Vietnam," said the newspaper, an official outlet of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Australia last week joined the United States in stating that Chinas claims in the East Vietnam Sea do not comply with international law.

Last year, the United States announced it would provide Vietnam with another coast guard cutter for its growing fleet, in addition to at least 18 Metal Shark patrol boats it provided to Vietnam in the last three years.

The 40-year loan has a grace period of 10 years, Tuesdays report said, adding that the vessels would be built by a Japanese contractor.
Gurudwara Shahidi Asthan, where a Sikh man was executed in 1745, is now being said to be the site of Masjid Shahid Ganj

New Delhi: India on Monday lodged a strong protest with Pakistan High Commission over reports of attempts being made to convert a famous gurudwara at Naulakha Bazaar in Lahore into a mosque, a spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

"A strong protest was lodged with the Pakistan High Commission today on the reported incident whereby Gurdwara Shahidi Asthan, site of martyrdom of Bhai Taru Singh ji at Naulakha Bazaar in Lahore, Pakistan has been claimed as the place of Masjid Shahid Ganj and attempts are being made to convert it to a mosque," MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

He said India expressed its concerns, in strongest terms, on the incident and called upon Pakistan to investigate the matter and take immediate remedial measures.

"Pakistan was also called upon to look after the safety, security, well-being of its minority communities, including protection of their religious rights and cultural heritage," Srivastava said, responding to a query on the matter.

He said Gurdwara Shahidi Asthan Bhai Taru Ji is a historical gurdwara where Bhai Taru Ji made supreme sacrifice in 1745.

"The gurdwara is a place of reverence and considered sacred by the Sikh community. This incident has been viewed with grave concern in India. There have been calls for justice for the minority Sikh community in Pakistan," he added.
An opening keynote with Vertafores CEO and leadership team highlighting the companys new products for and investments in insurance distribution, channel management, and data and insights.

A summit for carrier heads of distribution in P&C, life, health and annuity, covering current distribution trends, advances in insurtech, and the impact of COVID-19 on the industry.

The Vertafore Connectivity Forum, a panel of carriers and brokers who will share their insights on current connectivity challenges.

Breakout sessions on connectivity, compensation, distribution management, data and analytics, and more.

For decades, NetVU has provided exceptional training and opportunities to connect with peers, and we know that everyone in our community, including carriers, look forward to the annual event, said Joe Clabaugh, 2021 Accelerate powered by NetVU chairman. Carrier Week provides professional development and relationship-building opportunities like an in-person event, and were excited about the new content designed just for carriers.

This years shift to a virtual Accelerate format has enabled us to bring the experience to a larger segment of the insurance distribution channel than ever before  with more than 10,000 agency participants to date and now a full slate of content just for the carrier community, said Cassidy Smirnow, chief customer officer for Vertafore. Now more than ever is the time for us to learn, innovate, and leverage technology and data as a differentiator to meet the evolving digital expectations within our industry.

More information about Carrier Week can be found at www.carrierweek.com.
LDRA, the leader in standards compliance, automated software verification, software code analysis, and test tools for embedded software for 40 years, celebrates the 10-year anniversary of LDRA South East Asia (SEA) this month. In 2010, the company opened the SEA office to help local and global companies comply with international safety and security process standards across industries such as aerospace & defence, nuclear, rail and education.

Over the 10 years, LDRA SEA has continued to grow and currently serves companies headquartered in 12 different countries. With customer count continuing to multiply, LDRA SEA has become a cornerstone of LDRAs growth.

South East Asia has proven to be our fastest growing market, with local and global companies alike realizing the benefits automating code analysis and software testing offers in their quest to comply with international standards, said Shinto Joseph, Director  SEA Operations, LDRA. Over the years, our vibrant, multi-cultural team has become even more passionate and committed to helping these companies meet the challenges they face in the fast-paced embedded technology environment. Its a true partnership that greatly contributes to our growth and theirs.

LDRA SEA extends company commitment to safe and secure software

From inception, the LDRA SEA office has extended LDRAs expertise of developing a culture of practicing safe and secure embedded software development from the concept phase to deployment. Backed by a strong technical workforce, products, and specialized services, LDRAs core value continues to exceed customer expectation.

During the last 10 years, LDRA SEA has expanded our core competencies by deepening our technological roots and driving new capabilities and innovations for customers and partners, said Ian Hennell, LDRA Operations Director. The teams efforts in developing additional security and safety features have strengthened our position as one of the most trusted technology companies and helped secure long-lasting relationships throughout the world.

LDRA launches virtual safety & security skills sessions; reschedules ESSS

To mark a decade of operations in India, LDRA will continue its focus on skill and ecosystem development programs with virtual activities centered on building safe and secure designs for industry, academia, government, MSMEs and start-ups.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the sixth edition of the Embedded Safety & Security Summit (ESSS) in Bengaluru has been postponed to July 2021. Organized by LDRA and partner organizations, this international summit is an initiative that sheds light on the growing significance of implementing safe and secure practices and technologies in embedded systems.

About LDRA

For more than 40 years, LDRA has developed and driven the market for software that automates code analysis and software testing for safety-, mission-, security-, and business-critical markets. Working with clients to achieve early error identification and elimination, and full compliance with industry standards, LDRA traces requirements through static and dynamic analysis to unit testing and verification for a wide variety of hardware and software platforms. Boasting a worldwide presence, LDRA has headquarters in the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, and India coupled with an extensive distributor network. For more information on the LDRA tool suite, please visit www.ldra.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200727005762/en/
They've been used as an educational toy for hundreds of years and are thought to develop skills such as hand-eye coordination and problem solving.

But little has been known about how children learn to do jigsaw puzzles.

Now, new research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) has put jigsaw puzzles to the test - and found that children only learn to do them once they have reached a certain stage of development.

The study, published today in the journal Child Development, reveals that three-year-olds use trial and error, but four-year olds are able to use information in the picture to complete the puzzles. The research team say this understanding is the foundation of drawing and painting.

Lead researcher Dr Martin Doherty, from UEA's School of Psychology, said: "We looked at children's ability to do jigsaw puzzles. Surprisingly, there's virtually no research on this, despite the common assumption these are good educational toys.

"We were interested in children's understanding of pictures as representations. Jigsaws require assembly of a picture, so if children understand how pictures work then they should be better at jigsaw puzzles."

The team, which includes researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh Napier, West of Scotland and Warwick, worked with 169 children aged between three and five, to see how they put together different types of puzzles at different ages.

Some of the children worked on traditional jigsaw puzzles with a picture, jigsaws with no picture, and picture-based puzzles made up of equal-sized rectangular pieces. Half of this group were given a picture guide showing what the completed image should look like.

The researchers recorded how long it took the children to complete the puzzles and the number of times they attempted to join puzzle pieces.

Another group of children were given a jigsaw puzzle with a piece missing, and different options to fill the gap.

The children were also tested on their level of representational understanding, including how well they understood other people's beliefs. The researchers argue that understanding the relationship between a belief and the part of the world it is about develops alongside understanding the relationship between a picture and what it is about.

Dr Doherty said: "This is the first investigation of how children do jigsaw puzzles, and we were particularly interested in how they use their understanding of pictures to complete them.

"We found that children who passed tests for representational understanding were able to complete picture jigsaws faster and more efficiently. In general, efficiency increased between the ages of three and five years.

"The really unique thing about this study is that we are showing the age and stage of development at which children gain a fundamental understanding of the nature of pictures.

"We think this lays a vital foundation for learning to draw and paint," he added.

###

'Piecing together the puzzle of pictorial representation: How jigsaw puzzles index metacognitive development' is published in the journal Child Development on July 29.
New York: Ghislaine Maxwell is trying to prevent naked photographs and "sexualised video" evidence from being unsealed ahead of her trial.

In a court appeal filed on Monday, US time, Maxwell's lawyers detailed the "highly confidential" material in a proposed protective order which, they argue, should be kept out of public view.

Ghislaine Maxwell has denied all charges against her. Credit:Getty Images

"Highly confidential information contains nude, partially nude, or otherwise sexualised images, videos, or other depictions of individuals," they said, which Maxwell did not wish to be "disseminated, transmitted, or otherwise copied".

The joint protective order is routine in sex abuse cases.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Karnataka on Monday crossed the one lakh-mark in its Covid-19 tally with the highest daily addition of 5,324 cases, pushing up the total to 1,01,465, making it only the fifth state in the country to cross the grim landmark after Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh. The state also stood second in the most number of active cases at 61,819 after Mahrashtra, which has 1,48,601 cases.

This is the fourth day in a row that Karnataka has added over 5,000 cases in a single day. While the states ever-increasing positivity rate now stands at 8.41 per cent, on the brighter side, the mortality rate is steadily coming down, resting at 1.92 per cent, after having remained above 2 per cent from July 16 to July 24. With 75 deaths on Monday, the toll went up to 1,953.

There was a slight dip in recoveries with 1,847 patients discharged on Monday after recording over 2,000 discharges on each of the last four days. The states recovery rate is now 37.14 per cent, but is still considered satisfactory despite dipping from 41.94 per cent on July 5 to 35.29 per cent on July 20. The total number of discharged patients stands at 37,685.

Bengaluru, which has been the main culprit in pushing up the states Covid tally by adding more than 2,000 cases every day over the last few days, saw 1,470 cases on Monday. The citys recovery rate at 25.97 per cent is also far below the states figures of 37.14 per cent. Bengaluru saw 784 discharges on Monday, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 12,189. The state capitals mortality rate at 1.95 per cent is slightly above that of the states at 1.92 per cent. On Monday, the city saw 26 deaths, taking the toll to 917. Bengaluru Urban, with 46,923 cases, continues to top the districts with the highest tally, followed by Ballari with 4,930, Dakshina Kannada 4,925, Kalaburagi 4,495, and Udupi 3,612.
(CNN)  HSBC's struggle to balance its global role with protecting its huge business in China is getting even more difficult.

The London-based bank was drawn this weekend into issuing a denial of renewed claims that it "framed" Huawei to help the US government. In a statement posted on Chinese social media platform WeChat, the company stressed that it does not harbor any "hostility" against the Chinese tech giant.

HSBC issued its statement this weekend after Chinese state media revived a longstanding allegation that HSBC had been "setting traps to ensnare Huawei" in its legal fight with the United States. The bank's decision to respond by appealing directly to the Chinese people shows just how much is at stake  it makes more than half its profits in China and Hong Kong.

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver, Canada, in late 2018 at the behest of the US government, which charged her and the company with bank fraud and evasion of sanctions against Iran. The United States alleges that Huawei and Meng misrepresented their relationship with the Iranian telecom firm Skycom to HSBC in order to circumvent those sanctions. A Canadian court is considering whether to extradite Meng to the United States to stand trial for the charges, which she and Huawei have denied.

Chinese state media has for the last year been hitting HSBC  which has its roots in Hong Kong and Shanghai  for its role in Meng's arrest.

Allegations that HSBC conspired with the US government resurfaced last week after new legal documents submitted by Meng's attorneys were made public. The attorneys are trying to prove that HSBC knew Huawei was operating in Iran and that Huawei and Skycom did business in the country.

Meng's lawyers accuse US authorities of cherry picking information from a Power Point presentation that Huawei gave to HSBC in 2013. The lawyers submitted the full presentation, which they say clearly demonstrates Huawei's relationship to Skycom and its business in Iran, according to the court filings. The presentation also stated that Huawei "operates in Iran in strict compliance with applicable laws, regulations and sanctions."

"HSBC thus knew Skycom and Huawei were operating together in Iran," according to the filings.

State-run newspaper China Daily on Friday labeled HSBC as an "accomplice" in the case. And the People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party, asserted that HSBC had "exaggerated data and hid facts."

In its response, HSBC said it was not involved in the US decision to charge Huawei or to request Meng's arrest in Canada.

"Recently, we noted some media updates which carried misinterpretation of the facts," HSBC said in its WeChat statement, which was provided to CNN Business. "The timeline in the Huawei case makes it absolutely clear that HSBC did not prompt the investigation of Huawei. US government scrutiny of Huawei began long before HSBC got caught up in the case in late 2016."

It went on: "HSBC does not have any hostility toward Huawei and did not 'frame' Huawei."

The bank also said that following "negative media coverage about Huawei's relationship with Skycom in December 2012 and January 2013, HSBC made standard enquiries of Huawei, which was part of the bank's normal ... process." It did not go into further detail.

Huawei declined to comment for this story, referring CNN Business to the legal documents made public last week.

Tensions between HSBC and China have been rising since Meng's arrest, putting HSBC in a tough spot. The bank, which began life as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, makes most of its money in Asia, even though its global headquarters is in the United Kingdom.

Chinese state media has previously suggested that the bank could appear on a long-rumored list of "unreliable" foreign companies that China could blacklist. And even though HSBC's Asia Pacific CEO publicly supported a controversial national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong, Chinese state media has continued to criticize the bank.

In its weekend statement, HSBC highlighted its decades-long support of China's economic and social development.

"We will continue investing in our business, services, talents and technology in China and contributing to the sustainable development of the country," the bank said.

But that didn't appear to quell criticisms in China. The Global Times called HSBC's defense of its actions "a deathbed struggle."

"The lender could face a dead end for conspiring with the US against Huawei," the publication wrote, citing Chinese analysts and observers.

This story was first published on CNN.com HSBC denies colluding with US to 'frame' Huawei as pressure from China mounts
TORONTO, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avalon Investment Holdings Ltd. ("Avalon"), the holder of an indirect 100% interest in the Omai Gold Mine in Guyana, is pleased to announce that it has completed a non-brokered private placement financing for aggregate proceeds of US$4,500,000. Under the terms of the financing, Avalon issued 30,000,000 common shares of Avalon to a subsidiary of Silvercorp Metals Inc. (TSX/NYSE American: SVM) (Silvercorp) at a price of US$0.15 per common share. In connection with the financing, Anconia Resources Corp. (TSXV:ARA) (Anconia) and Silvercorp entered into an investor rights agreement pursuant to which Silvercorp, as long as it owns at least 10% of the issued and outstanding shares of Anconia, has the right to participate in equity financings in order to maintain its pro rata interest in Anconia at the time of any such financing, and to nominate one individual to serve as a director of Anconia.



In a Press Release dated July 17, 2020, Anconia provided an update in connection with a proposed reverse take-over of Avalon (the Proposed Transaction). The Proposed Transaction is subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange to list the shares of the resulting entity (the Resulting Issuer) thereon. The Resulting Issuer will continue to carry on exploration and development, focused primarily on the exploration of Avalon's Omai Gold Mine project in Guyana.



Mario Stifano, incoming President and CEO of the Resulting Issuer commented, We are very pleased to have received the support of Silvercorp as we continue advancing the Omai Gold Mine. Omai has historically produced over 3.7 million ounces of gold and has the potential to again become a tier one gold asset in the Americas. With historic unmined intercepts of 12 metres of 23.8 gpt gold, 61 metres of 3.7 gpt gold, 15 metres of 13.6 gpt gold, and numerous high priority exploration targets, Avalon is well positioned to create significant shareholder value on completion of the RTO listing and to commence drilling this year.



Denis Clement, incoming Executive Director and founder of the Resulting Issuer commented, We are pleased to welcome Silvercorp as a strategic investor. Silvercorps investment further validates the significant potential of Omai to become the leading gold exploration company in Guyana. With Silvercorps investment, Avalon is fully financed to complete the RTO listing and to carry out its exploration plans over the coming year.



Upon closing of the Proposed Transaction, it is anticipated that Silvercorp will own 15.8% of the Resulting Issuer.



About Silvercorp Metals Inc.



Silvercorp is a profitable Canadian mining company producing silver, lead and zinc metals in concentrates from mines in China. The company's goal is to continuously create healthy returns to shareholders through efficient management, organic growth and the acquisition of profitable projects. Silvercorp balances profitability, social and environmental relationships, employees wellbeing, and sustainable development.



About Avalon



Avalon is a private gold exploration company focused on gold projects in Guyana, South America. The companys flagship gold project is the famous Omai Gold Mine which it acquired from the Government of Guyana in 2018. The management and technical operational team is Guyana focused and experienced in mining exploration, acquisition and corporate finance.



Brian H. Newton P.Geo is a qualified person pursuant to the requirements of National Instrument 43-101. He has reviewed and approved the technical information in this press release.



For further information, please see our website www.omaigoldmines.com or contact:



Mario Stifano

Incoming President and Chief Executive Officer

mstifano@omaigoldmines.com

416-453-8433

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the potential increase of the size of the Offering, the closing of additional financings and the completion of the proposed reverse take-over transaction. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; delay or failure to receive regulatory approvals; the price of gold and copper; social and economic impacts of COVID-19; and the results of current exploration. 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. Avalon and Anconia disclaim 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.



Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
A woman, wearing a mask to protect against the spread of coronavirus, gets her hair styled in a hairdresser shop in downtown Brussels on July 27, 2020. (Francisco Seco/AP)

Belgium Implements Drastic Plan to Avoid Another Lockdown

BRUSSELSBelgium on July 27 unveiled a set of drastic social distancing measures aimed at avoiding a new general lockdown amid a surge of COVID-19 infections.

Beginning Aug. 5, contacts outside family circles will be limited to the same five people over the next four weeks, Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes said. Belgian residents are currently allowed to meet with 15 different people; the measures dont apply to children under the age of 12.

Our aim is clearavoid another full lockdown, Wilmes said after a meeting of the national security council.

The new measureswhich also include lowering crowd limits at public events to 100 people indoors and 200 people outdoorscould be sufficient to avoid further restrictions and to ensure children can return to school en masse in September, after the summer break, Wilmes said.

She exhorted people to get back to working remotely when possible, one of the keys for a successful deconfinement, and added that shoppers should run errands alone for now, and limit time spent in stores to 30 minutes.

However, the most important approach is the individual one, she said. If we cannot contain the coronavirus, it will be a collective failure.

After a sharp decline of infections, Belgium has recorded a surge in the number of confirmed cases over the past three weeks. According to figures released on July 27, the number of confirmed cases rose 71 percent from July 17-23 compared to the previous 7 days, with 47 percent of the cases detected in Antwerp province.

The number of cases also increased greatly in the rest of the county, with an average of 279 new daily cases and a 30 percent rise in the number of people admitted to the hospital.

Wilmes called on local authorities to take strong additional measures if the health situation deteriorates in their cities.

The urgency of the situation in Antwerp demands and requires strong measures to be taken quickly, she said.

Meanwhile, Brussels Mayor Philippe Close announced the cancelation of the 140th edition of the citys annual summer funfair, saying it was impossible for the popular event to take place due to the latest sanitary guidelines.

Belgium, a country with 11.5 million inhabitants, has been particularly hard hit by the virus, with more than 66,000 cases and 9,821 deaths. The government had already tightened restrictions last week, making the use of face masks mandatory in crowded outdoor spaces while requiring bar and restaurant owners to register contact details of customers.

By Samuel Petrequin
In its meeting which took place on July 28, 2020, after the Annual General Meeting (AGM), Wavestone's Management Board decided the immediate implementation of the share buy-back program authorized by the AGM in application of L.225-209 and seq. of the French commercial code, articles 241-1 to 241-5 of the general regulations of the Autorite des Marches Financiers ("AMF" - French stock market regulator), and of Regulation no. 2273/2003 of the European Commission dated December 22, 2003.

This share buy-back program is detailed in the 2019/20 universal registration document, published on

July 23, 2020 on the company website (www.wavestone.com), on the "Investors" section.

About Wavestone

In a world where knowing how to drive transformation is the key to success, Wavestone's mission is to inform and guide large companies and organizations in their most critical transformations, with the ambition of a positive outcome for all stakeholders. That's what we call "The Positive Way."

Wavestone draws on some 3,000 employees across 8 countries. It is a leading independent player in the European consulting market.

Wavestone is listed on Euronext Paris and recognized as a Great Place to Work.

Wavestone

Pascal IMBERT

Chief Executive Officer

Tel.: +33 (0)1 49 03 20 00

Sarah LAMIGEON

Communications Director

Tel.: +33 (0)1 49 03 20 00 Actus

Financial news

Mathieu OMNES

Analyst & investor relations

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 92

Nicolas BOUCHEZ

Press relations

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 74

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Cicero, N.Y.  A man wanted for more than three weeks after police accused him of robbing the Jreck Subs in Cicero is now in jail, records show.

Christopher Gall, 45, was charged Friday with first-degree robbery, criminal use of a firearm, menacing, petit larceny and a parole violation, according to Onondaga County jail records.

Cicero police previously charged Kevin Abbott, 37, with first-degree robbery, criminal use of a firearm, conspiracy, menacing and petit larceny.

Police have said Abbott and Gall were involved in a July 2 armed robbery at the Jreck Subs restaurant, at 8097 Brewerton Road.

Abbott was the driver of a vehicle used in the robbery, Cicero police Lt. James Meyers has said.

Witnesses told police Gall entered the restaurant at about 5:45 p.m. July 2, displayed a handgun after picking up a sandwich, then fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.

After the robbery, Police said Abbott and Gall headed south on Brewerton Road, then drove west on Bear Road to an apartment complex.

Police spent three weeks looking for Gall. He is now at the Onondaga County Justice Center without bail, records show. Gall is scheduled to answer the charges on Thursday.

Abbott is no longer in jail, records show.

State prison records show Gall was previously convicted of third-degree burglary and fourth-degree grand larceny in April 2019.

Gall, who lived in Liverpool at the time, was accused of stealing a pack of cigarettes from the Kinney Drug store on Electronics Parkway in Salina, then stealing a Ford pickup truck after shoplifting Oct. 7, 2018, Onondaga County sheriffs deputies said at the time. Gall then crashed the truck into a utility pole on Old Liverpool Road  causing the road to shut down for hours on that Sunday afternoon, according to The Post-Standard | syracuse.com archives.

Gall ran from the crash scene before deputies arrived, but police set up a perimeter in the area and quickly arrested him in the 2018 case, records show.

Gall was granted a merit release to parole and released from state prison on Feb. 20, according to the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

It was not immediately clear where Gall had been the three weeks following the Jreck Subs robbery, but Syracuse police found him Friday in the city of Syracuse and arrested Gall on the Cicero Police Department arrest warrant, according to Cicero police.

Have a tip or a story idea? Contact Catie OToole: cotoole@syracuse.com | text/call 315-470-2134 | Twitter | Facebook
Huawei's chief financial officer is seeking a court order that would force the Canadian government to release documents that it is withholding on national security grounds.

Defence lawyers for Meng Wanzhou argued during a federal court hearing in Ottawa Monday that previous disclosures, which showed the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Canada's spy agency communicated prior to her 2018 arrest, were too heavily redacted.

"It is likely that there is further information under the redactions relevant to her abuse of process allegations," Ms Meng's defence team said in a court filing.

The defence is proposing that Anil Kapoor, a Toronto-based lawyer cleared by the government to conduct national security litigation, be allowed to review the evidence and represent Meng's interests in closed hearings set to begin on Thursday.

Ms Meng - the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei - is seeking to have a Canadian court dismiss a US extradition request, arguing that her arrest was conducted unlawfully.

She accuses Canada of "coordinated state misconduct", saying police, border officials and the FBI worked together in secret as authorities questioned her for hours and obtained passwords to her electronic devices before formally charging her.

She seeks additional documents from the spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, as well as more details on what role it and the FBI played during her December 2018 arrest at Vancouver International Airport on a US extradition request.

In its latest filing, the defence suggests Ms Meng's arrest was closely coordinated between the FBI and the Canadian agencies.

The FBI was likely monitoring Ms Meng before she boarded her flight in Hong Kong because it was able to provide a description of what she was wearing to Canadian police, the defence said.

Canada's spy agency also got detailed information on how her arrest was being planned and that it would involve a "multi-hour delay" during which border officials would detain, search and interrogate before arresting her, it said.

Huawei is at the centre of a battle between the US and China that have pitted the world's economic superpowers against each other.

Bloomberg
Ajay Kanth By

Express News Service

KOCHI: In the wake of the gold smuggling case bringing into renewed focus the issue of terror financing in Kerala, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the state police are revisiting all terror-related cases probed in the state so far. Through this, the agencies intend to connect the missing links of the sources of money that came from abroad to fund anti-national activities.

Intelligence officials said right from the probe into the 2010 palm chopping case  in which T J Joseph, a faculty member of Newman College, Thodupuzha, had been targeted by Islamist ultras  to the 2013 Narath arms training camp case and 2016 Kanakamala Islamic State (IS) case, there had been specific inputs on fund flow from abroad into the state.

Loknath Behera, state police chief, told TNIE that the ATS has been asked to draw up a list of terror-related cases in Kerala which will be scrutinised afresh to track the fund flow. As per the NIA chargesheet in the Narath case, bank transaction details of some of the accused were collected and international transactions on a massive scale were found in the accounts. Foreign account(a/c) details of Saneulla Shabandri, hailing from Bhatkal in Karnataka, was found in the house of an accused.

In almost all the terror-related cases probed in the state, there were links to sources of money mainly from the Middle East. We havent closed the probe in any of the cases though the court pronounced the verdict in a few of them and sentenced the accused. Despite plugging the channels -- normally used by these operators -- to stem the flow of money, they devised newer and newer methods to push in the funds for anti-national activities, said a New Delhi-based senior official.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told his Congolese counterpart Jean-Claude Gakosso that Egypt will not allow its national security to be jeopardised as a result of the developments in Libya, and that it will take all measures to protect its interests and national security, speaking to him in a phone call on Tuesday.

According to a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry, the phone call comes within the framework of consultation and coordination with the Republic of the Congo, the current president of the African Union's high-level committee on Libya.

Shoukry conveyed Egypt's keenness on assisting the Libyan people to move toward a comprehensive political solution that restores stability and leaves no room for terrorist groups to influence their country and its neighbours.

The ministers discussed the ideas presented in the international arena to push a political solution forward.

"Shoukry and Gakosso agreed to keep in touch with each other in the light of the significant role played by the African Union, with the aim of achieving the solution desired by all Libyans," the statement added.

Egypts parliament last week approved the deployment of the countrys armed forces abroad to the national security in the strategic western direction against the work of armed criminal militias and foreign terrorist elements.

The decision came days after President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi warned Egypt will not stand idle in the face of any attack on Libyas Sirte, which he earlier described as a red line for Egypts national security.

The oil-rich country has been split since 2014 between rival administrations in the east and west.

The eastern government is represented by the Tobruk-based House of Representatives allied with the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Khalifa Haftar, while the west is represented by the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA).

Turkey began earlier this year sending thousands of Syrian jihadists and mercenaries into Libya to back the GNA, and Turkey-backed forces moved earlier this week close to the central city of Sirte as they vowed to capture it from Haftars forces.

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First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Emine Dzheppar received the Head of Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Ukraine, Florence Gillette, on Monday.

During the meeting, they discussed, in particular, the provision of assistance to the population of occupied territories, the Foreign Ministrys press service reported.

"Emine Dzheppar expressed her gratitude for the support of Ukraine's humanitarian efforts and confirmed the readiness of the Ukrainian side to continue to provide the ICRC with the necessary assistance in helping the affected population in Donbas. Separately, the parties stressed the important role of the Committee in ensuring that the Russian Federation, as the occupying power, adheres to the norms of international humanitarian law in the temporarily occupied Crimea, where systemic violations continue, in particular restrictions on the freedom of movement of Ukrainian citizens," the report says.

They also discussed issues related to the planned visit of ICRC President Peter Maurer to Ukraine, access to persons in the temporarily occupied territories, and the search for missing persons.

The humanitarian operation in Donbas is the eighth largest operation of the Committee in the world. In 2014-2019, the ICRC spent more than USD 260 million for humanitarian aid to Ukraine. In 2020, the Committee plans to raise almost USD 73 million for this purpose.

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Ministers have defended a lack of information about what the new sea border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland will look like from next year.

Six months after Brexit the specifics of how goods moving between Northern Ireland and Great Britain will be treated have still not been agreed.

But Northern Ireland minister Robin Walker told a House of Lords committee on Tuesday that "we cannot necessarily provide all the detail that everyone would like on day one".

The implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol is subject to negotiation by a "joint committee" between the EU and UK.

The UK argues it should not have to apply some customs controls it agreed to as part of the agreement  such as exit summary declarations for goods moving across the Irish Sea.

The checks are included in the agreement because they are part of the EU's customs code, which Boris Johnson promised in writing to implement in exchange for a Brexit deal last year.

But during the ensuring election campaign Mr Johnson said would be no checks or exit summary declarations. The British government has since argued that imposing the letter of the agreement would not be a good idea.

The hold-up means that businesses on both sides of the Irish sea still have no detail about what will happen to the border in five months at the end of the year when the transition period ends.

"I absolutely recognise that business will always want as much detail as possible as early as possible and that this is a process where we cannot necessarily provide all the detail that everyone would like on day one," Mr Walker told the Lords EU committee.

"We do have to ensure that the voice of business is heard and fed into the process, and we also have to make sure we don't give any misleading information in terms of things that haven't been fully bottomed out and agreed.

"There are elements of the approach to the protocol which still require agreement at the joint committee and it would be wrong for us to imply that those were fully decided."

Mr Walker added that there would be "more guidance coming in the coming weeks" and that it would be "as detailed as possible.

But he added: "Crucially we have to make sure that the process of the joint committee deciding these things is able to move forward."

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

"With regard to the issue of exit declarations the approach we've set out is that we don't think exit declarations should be required for Northern Irish goods going into Great Britain because that is trade within the internal market and customs territory as protocol acknowledges. It also has no possible means of undermining the working of the single market so I think this is something that we need to ensure there's a discussion about that the joint committee."

The discussion about the Northern Ireland protocol is running in parallel to talks to sign a free trade agreement between the UK and EU by the end of the year.
The current health crisis has no doubt brought new worries to people's minds. A lot of information circulating on social media about the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can trigger anxiety and stress.

People of all ages, even children, may feel afraid or anxious about the COVID-19 pandemic. This just shows that our physical health is not the only one affected by the pandemic.

A new Public Policy Institute of California survey found that Latinos are much more anxious that they will become sick or affected financially by the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to other populations in California.

The poll showed that around 61 percent of Latino respondents were worried that they or their family members would be infected with COVID-19. Around 28 percent of Black and white Californians and around 37 percent of Asian American residents admitted experiencing the same.

Latinos in California are also more worried about being financially affected by the pandemic with 56 percent. This compared to 31 percent of Black and Asian American poll respondents, and 22 percent of white participants.

Latinos also said their lives have been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and that their mental health is suffering compared to other race groups.

However, their worries and fears may have basis. A Los Angeles County Department of Public Health report said Latino residents are most likely to become infected with the virus. Also, Latinos represent around 39 percent of California's residents, but make up 55 percent of its COVID-19 cases.

Latinos and COVID-19

A UCLA study released on Monday said Black and Latinos living in Los Angeles, including New York, are around twice as likely as white residents to die from COVID-19. The study called for more protections for essential workers and expanded economic assistance for communities with high-poverty,

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said there is growing evidence that some racial and ethnic minority groups are being hugely affected by COVID-19.

The CDC cited some factors that contribute to increased risk. These include lack of healthcare access and utilization.

"People from some racial and ethnic minority groups are more likely to be uninsured than non-Hispanic whites," according to the CDC site.

Access to healthcare might be limited due to lack of transportation, child care, or inability to take time off work. Communication and language barriers may also be a factor, as well as cultural differences between healthcare providers and patients.

Occupation can also play a role for having an increased risk for COVID-19. Many Latinos are working as essential workers in industries like healthcare, farms, factories, grocery stores, and public transportations. These jobs make them more exposed to the virus.

Housing can play a role too, as many racial minority groups live in crowded conditions that make it challenging for them to practice social distancing. It is common for Latinos to have multigenerational members live in one household.

"They have also contributed to higher rates of some medical conditions that increase one's risk of severe illness from COVID-19," the CDC was quoted.



Check these out:

Free COVID-19 Testing: Churches Serving African-Americans and Latinos

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Latinos Are at Higher Risk for COVID-19 Due to Cultural Practices
Kaley Cuoco is not having it when it comes to rumors of a rift with Margot Robbie.

The 34-year-old actress laughed off a report implicating problems - as she and Robbie have a common Hollywood bond as they both portray Harley Quinn in the DC Universe - with Cuoco voicing the character on the HBO Max animated show, while the Australian stunner, 30, has played the role in multiple films.

Cuoco, who played Penny on the top-rated CBS hit The Big Bang Theory for 12 years, responded with 'LOL' to a report on Instagram Stories from the Australian outlet Micky, citing Star, that implicated the tension between the stars was so thick, they were unable to work with one another for a a Comic-Con promotion.

The latest: Kaley Cuoco, 34, is not having it when it comes to rumors of a rift with Margot Robbie, 30. Cuoco laughed off a report she and Robbie have a common Hollywood bond as they both portray Harley Quinn in the DC Universe

'They each balked,' a source told Star, Micky reported. 'Not only is there professional jealousy, but they also just dont like each other.'

The report continued: 'No concrete pieces of evidence can confirm that these hearsays are correct as of this writing.'

Robbie, who has past played the role in The Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey, was rumored to be linked to the animated show, which showrunner Justin Halper, 39, acknowledged in a February chat with the GWW.

'We met with her, we pitched out a few episodes to her and our general arc and she was very thoughtful and kind and just listened and that was kind of it,' he told the outlet. 'It wasnt like she said no and then we went to Kaley, Margot just wanted to be informed.'

Shake it off: Cuoco responded with 'LOL' to a report on Instagram Stories from the Australian outlet

Trademark: Robbie, who has past played the role in Suicide Squad, The Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey

Halper, known for his S*** My Dad Says Twitter feed, said that executive producer Geoff Johns and the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood beauty had discusses the concept of a collaboration, but nothing panned out.

'Geoff was like 'Trust me, this is way way different tonally than what youre doing,' and that was that,' Halper said. 'And I have to imagine he was right. I havent seen [Birds of Prey], but Im guessing its not as overtly comedic as our show.'

Harley Quinn will being steaming on HBO Max next month; The Suicide Squad is slated to hit theaters August 6, 2021.
Rajasthan Cabinet discusses Governor's note, seeks assembly session from July 31

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Jaipur, July 28: The Rajasthan Cabinet on Tuesday discussed the points raised by Governor Kalraj Mishra for calling the state assembly session and said it is sticking to its demand for holding the session from July 31.

Transport Minister Pratap Singh said a discussion was held for the reply to be sent regarding the three points raised by the governor.

Rajasthan crisis: Congress is another name for Horse trading, says Kumaraswamy

"The Cabinet wants the assembly session from July 31. The proposal which was sent earlier for calling the session is our legal right and we are sending it again to the governor," he told reporters.

"The governor's questions are simple and we discussed their reply. He has no right to be raising queries yet we are giving the reply," he said.

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

Singh also said that the government wants no confrontation with the governor and hoped Mishra will now accept the cabinet proposal for calling the session.

"We want permission to call the assembly session which is our right. We do not want any confrontation with the governor. If he does not accept this now, then it is clear that there is no Constitution in the country," he said.

On the issue of 21-day notice required for calling the session, the minister said that 10 days have already passed and asked why did the governor not give a date if he is talking the notice. He said that if the governor rejects the proposals now, the further course of action will be decided. "We have no competition with the governor, he is the head of our family," Singh said.

When asked about the agenda of the session, he said that it is for the Business Advisory Committee of the assembly to decide. Regarding seating arrangement as per social distancing norms in the assembly, the minister said that it was for the speaker to look after. Targeting the BJP, the minister said that the party has made it a prestige issue. "They want to topple the state government and have made it a prestige issue," he said.

"The BJP stands exposed. They are changing their statements," he said. After Rajasthan, the minister said the party wants to target West Bengal, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. The Rajasthan governor has returned cabinet recommendations for calling the assembly session twice with some points.
WASHINGTON  Confronted by lawmakers multiple times with videos of Park Police officers advancing on protesters and beating reporters in Lafayette Square last month, Gregory T. Monahan, the forces acting chief, refused on Tuesday to acknowledge the violent clashes and testified that his officers acted with tremendous restraint.

Mr. Monahan and the Park Police are being scrutinized for their role in the June 1 crackdown on protests in front of the White House, during which mounted police officers and officers in riot gear advanced on demonstrators with flash grenades and tear gas just before President Trump marched across the area to stage a photo op.

An Army National Guard officer who also testified on Tuesday as part of the House Natural Resources Committees investigation of the clash said the Park Police subjected protesters to excessive use of force.

Mr. Monahan told lawmakers that his officers were met with severe violence from a large group of bad actors and that the response centered around public safety. But pressed repeatedly to square his remarks with evidence captured during the demonstrations that his officers attacked protesters, Mr. Monahan demurred.
About 1,000 demonstrators returned to downtown streets Monday for the 61st consecutive day after a weekend featuring the largest protest crowds in weeks and numerous clashes with federal police.

Monday again brought waves of tear gas from federal officials who labeled the gathering unlawful in response to repeated fireworks and a volley of trash thrown over a fence surrounding the federal courthouse.

Portland protesters have shown up every night for two straight months after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. Crowds have rallied against police brutality, anti-Black racism and, in recent weeks, the federal governments response to the citys protests.

Federal officials have repeatedly said officers who use tear gas and shoot riot munitions on protesters are embedded in the downtown courthouse to protect it. On Monday, officials placed concrete barriers on both sides of the fence surrounding the building to stabilize the structure.

Several people who attended Monday nights demonstrations called for protesters to stop focusing on the federal courthouse.

The evening began with dozens of people gathered in Lownsdale Square, a city park across the street from the courthouse. Rakeyah Issac, a stay at home mom, passed through the scene with her son. Her family lives near Portland State, several blocks from the protests.

We can smell the tear gas. But pretty much we are so used to it now. For the first month, it was burning our eyes. It goes through the air conditioner.

She said she believed the sounds of stun grenades and clouds of gas had gotten worse since the arrival of federal officers. The sounds have reminded her at times of past conflicts in Somalia, where she emigrated from in 2004.

I want people to get what they want, but theres more damage being done. When will people get what they want? When will it end?

Around 9 p.m., a couple of federal officers emerged from the courthouse and drew immediate boos from across the street. People shouted at them and walked toward the courthouse, then the officers immediately returned inside.

Shortly after, hundreds of marchers with parents and veterans groups arrived near the courthouse and gathered near the Justice Center next door. The crowd filled Third Avenue in front of the building. Together, the group chanted, I cant breathe!

Myke Tavarres, a former NFL player from Lake Oswego who often speaks at the demonstrations, rallied the crowd. He asked people to leave the federal courthouse alone, because targeting it would not deter federal officials.

Burning that building down does not help Black people, Tavarres said.

Minutes later, around 9:40 p.m., federal officials used a loudspeaker to tell people for the first time not to tamper with the fence at the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse.

This is the Federal Protective Service, the announcement said. Do not attempt to damage, remove, enter or climb the fence around the federal courthouse. Failure to do so may result in arrest or use of crowd control munitions.

The announcement galvanized the dozens gathered in front of the courthouse. At least one person sat atop the fence, after apparently getting a boost from the new concrete barricades in front of it. Immediate jeers met a second warning by federal officials not to damage the fence at 9:50 p.m.

The larger crowd continued to rally in front of the Justice Center.

By 10 p.m., some people had started to shift to the federal courthouse. Others continued to mill about in the nearby city parks or at a bonfire at the base of what, until recently, was an elk statue.

The Justice Center rally ended around 10:15 p.m. Elona Wilson asked the crowd to sit and reflect on their intentions. Wilson told people that the Montgomery Bus Boycotts lasted 382 days before the Supreme Court ruled segregation illegal. She told the crowd they had to be ready to turn up here for as long as it takes to make progress.

This needs to be the last Civil Rights movement, she later told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Tavarres closed out the rally by leading chants of Black lives matter! and encouraging people to go home for the night.

People remained at the courthouse next door.

Federal officials again told people to stop damaging the fence around 10:20 p.m. Several people hit the fence with their hands in response. Members of mothers and veterans groups stood nearby and prepared for the looming confrontation.

By 10:50 p.m., a few hundred people remained on Third Avenue in front of the courthouse, between Main and Salmon streets. At least one person set off fireworks that sometimes flashed past the fence. Some people on the front lines continued to bang on the fence.

A small pile of trash fire caught fire just beyond the fence around 11 p.m. The debris kept burning as federal officials issued another warning. It was unclear how the fire started.

People chanted, Feds go home! Several people stood on the concrete barricades in front of the fence. Many women in yellowmembers of the mothers group, the Wall of Momsremained nearby. Most of the action by protesters were concentrated at the north side of the courthouse.

Another Federal Protective Service warning around 11:25 p.m. energized the crowd to hit harder against the fence and rattle it more vigorously. The fire grew slightly after someone dropped a pallet inside.

Several federal officers emerged from the courthouse just after 11:30 p.m. and extinguished the fire. Officers set off some tear gas canisters. Protesters responded with leaf blowers to direct the gas away from the crowd. Officers retreated in the building within minutes.

By 11:40 p.m., the tension decreased on both sides. The crowd cheered Black lives matter, as a tambourine played to the beat.

Within five minutes, some people set off fireworks toward the courthouse, prompting another warning. Federal officials warned that if the fireworks did not stop, they would declare the gathering an unlawful assembly.

Some people threw bottles over the fence or set off fireworks that direction. Around midnight, federal officers opened a peephole cut into plywood around the front of the building. In response, some people shined lights toward it. Federal officers repeated their order to stop or else they would declare the gathering unlawful.

One firework flashed near the federal courthouse and started a small fire. Portland police later said it appeared to be a homemade device such as a Molotov cocktail.

Minutes later, just after 12:20 a.m., several officers streamed out of the building and shot riot munitions toward the crowd. They also set off more devices that released irritants into the air. The alarm inside the federal courthouse blared. It was not clear why.

Officers quickly retreated inside the courthouse, like the first time they emerged.

This time, though, officers soon re-emerged and set off more tear gas, as well as stun grenades. People kept throwing things, such as bottles, over the fence. Leaf blowers tried to limit the gas from spreading.

Some people left. Others regrouped behind homemade shields.

Just after 12:40 a.m., the Federal Protective Service declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and ordered people to immediately leave federal property. About 200 people were still in the area.

A line of federal officers emerged one block away on Third Avenue just before 1 a.m. Officers worked their way down Third past the courthouse, and at least one group of federal officers swept through Lownsdale Park across the street.

A Department of Homeland Security SUV drove slowly north on Third with its flashing lights on. When it became clear that it would not stop, protesters moved out of the way. The driver kept going, running over orange cones that demonstrators had placed in the street earlier.

The SUV then turned toward a crowd gathered on Salmon Street and forced people to move from there, as well.

At least three dozen officers moved by foot on the streets. They set off devices that release irritants such as tear gas, pepper spray and loud sounds. The officers formed lines at several points, including Salmon at Third and Fourth streets.

After minutes-long standoffs, officers retreated from Fourth and Salmon at 1:15 a.m. in clouds of tear gas. Other officers then left Third and Salmon, and Third and Main. As they went inside the courthouse fence, some officers shot at people nearby with pepper balls.

At least one person, who had been carrying a leaf blower, was detained by federal officers.

By 1:30 a.m., several dozen people had gathered back in the area. Most walked through the park and the streets nearby. A few people stood once more at the fence.

By 1:45 a.m., a bonfire drew attention from the federal courthouse to the other side of Third Avenue.

Hours before demonstrations began, Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty called for cease fire talks with Department of Homeland Security officials.

Demonstrations Monday and Sunday drew smaller crowds than the three previous days, when protesters could be counted in the multiple thousands.

The presence of federal agents in Portland has ratcheted up nightly protests that had been dying down. Federal officers have arrested people using unmarked vans, gaining national attention, and many protesters have been tear gassed and had munitions shot at them.

On Wednesday, Portland City Council issued an immediate ban for all Portland police employees to stop cooperating with federal law enforcement.

Portland police said they did not have any role in breaking up crowds or using gas on them during Mondays overnight demonstrations. Police said they arrested a child, whose age they did not provide, after they received reports that someone was throwing things at cars three blocks from the federal courthouse.

And that night, Wheeler stood among the front lines of protests outside the courthouse, where he and hundreds of other people were tear gassed repeatedly by federal officers.

Showings of solidarity with Portland after the deployment of federal officers  and the escalation in violence they have brought  happened elsewhere over the weekend. Demonstrations were held Saturday in Seattle, New York City, Vancouver, British Columbia and elsewhere.

Beth Nakamura, Jamie Hale and Mark Graves of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.

-- Eder Campuzano | 503-221-4344 | @edercampuzano | On Facebook

-- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015

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Broadband satellite networks and services giant Hughes is to join the UK government and Bharti Enterprises in the new OneWeb consortium.

Hughes Network Systems is to be part of the winning consortium that will acquire low earth orbit (LEO) satellite operator OneWeb out of bankruptcy. Hughes has agreed in principle to invest $50 million in the consortium which, the Indian press points out, is likely to translate into a stake of around five per cent in OneWeb, though actual stake size is still under discussion.

Additionally, Hughes will continue as a trusted technology and distribution partner to OneWeb, which had launched 74 satellites before filing for Chapter 11 protection in March.

Consummation of the consortium is contingent upon the execution and effectiveness of definitive agreements. Confirmation of OneWebs reorganization is contingent on certain conditions established by the Bankruptcy Court.

Earlier this month, Bharti and the UK government said they would each invest $500 million in OneWeb, which aims to provide high-speed, low-latency broadband services, especially in rural areas, and take on the likes of Elon Musks SpaceX Starlink and Jeff Bezoss Amazon-linked Project Kuiper. Indian press reports estimate that Bharti and the UK government are each likely to hold 45 percent in OneWeb, with Hughes and other existing investors retaining the ten percent balance.

Hughes Communications India (HCIL), the majority-owned Indian arm of Hughes Network Systems, and Bharti Airtel are also in the process of combining their satellite broadband operations in India. The merger, announced last year, is awaiting regulatory approvals.
In recent weeks, protesters in Portland have pointed laser beams, lobbed water bottles and trash bags and, in one case, according to the Portland Police Bureau, hurled an open pocketknife at the officers guarding the courthouse

Portland, Oregon: Minutes before midnight on Sunday, the first fireworks of the evening screeched low over the heads of protesters gathered in Portland, sprinkling them with white flecks of light and ricocheting into the courthouse that has become a symbol of an unwelcome federal incursion into a local outcry over police brutality.

Some ducked under makeshift shields to protect themselves from the falling sparks, while others cheered at the sight of the blazing projectile hurtling toward the courthouse and the federal law enforcement agents inside: This is what democracy looks like!

In recent weeks, protesters in Portland have pointed laser beams, lobbed water bottles and trash bags and, in one case, according to the Portland Police Bureau, hurled an open pocketknife at the officers guarding the courthouse; they have used power tools, crowbars and bolt cutters to yank down a fence. In Seattle, demonstrators over the weekend set fire to several construction trailers at a youth detention facility, and protests in Richmond, Virginia, Los Angeles and Oakland, California were also marked by fires.

Yet the nightly assault on the federal courthouse has been part of a much wider peaceful resistance  high school students, military veterans, off-duty lawyers, lines of mothers who call themselves the Wall of Moms  that began assembling nearly two months ago in the wake of George Floyds death at the hands of the Minneapolis police. The aim, as it has been in other cities, was to assemble for sweeping police reform and racial justice.

The raucous escalation in recent days, brought about by the deployment of federal law enforcement officers and the harsh tactics they have used against protesters, has prompted new debates among the protesters over their own tactics and goals.

Now battling nightly rounds of pepper spray and impact munitions fired by federal forces, some activists worry that the nightly clashes are distracting from their demands for defunding or reforming local police departments.

To see people standing in Portland destroying property and not actually doing the work of advocating for Black people was disturbing, said Rachelle Dixon, the vice chair of the Multnomah County Democrats and an organiser in the Black community. I think theyre a distraction from the everyday needs of people of colour, especially Black people. My life is not going to improve because you broke the glass at the Louis Vuitton store.

During the protests Sunday night in Portland, organisers tried to gently coax protesters away from the courthouse, calling them to the nearby Multnomah County Justice Centre to listen to speeches. Were family now, said one of the speakers, a local activist and artist who performs under the stage name Itchy Trigga. We cant allow the feds to break up our family.

But as the protest ticked closer to its 60th consecutive day, protesters regrouped in front of the courthouse. Federal agents responded to the fireworks from the crowd with tear gas, sending protesters reeling, and later began a pursuit through Portlands streets.

On Monday, the US attorney in Portland, Billy J Williams, appealed for an end to the nightly clashes. I ask all Portlanders to join us in working with community leaders, faith leaders and business leaders to find an end to this, he said. The violence is wearing this city out.

Mayor Ted Wheeler said in a statement that he and Jo Ann Hardesty, a city commissioner, wanted to discuss a cease-fire and removal of heightened federal forces with the Department of Homeland Security, including Chad F Wolf, its acting secretary.

Earlier in the day, federal authorities announced that they had identified 100 additional US Marshals Service personnel to send to Oregon if needed to relieve or supplement the current force protecting federal property there. We are also determined to reduce the violence aimed at the federal courthouse in Portland by violent extremists, Drew Wade, a spokesman for the Marshals Service, said in a statement.

Yet even some of the demonstrators who fear that the federal presence has distracted from the original Black Lives Matter message say it is important for the community to voice its opposition to the dispatching of federal agents to a city whose leaders have opposed the deployment. And protesting the militarised federal presence, they say, is not far off message from the long-running protests against the local police.

And some of those who are not engaged in the more aggressive tactics being employed find themselves sympathetic to those who are; the federal government, they say, is repeatedly shooting at protesters with tear gas, pepper balls and other exploding devices, tactics that have sent demonstrators to hospitals.

There may be people throwing water bottles at officers. Im not going to do that because I dont see the point, said Jennifer Kristiansen, a family-law attorney who joined the Wall of Moms last week and was later arrested by federal agents. But if people want to express their frustration in that way, Im not going to stop them.

There is room for chanting and dancing and joyful noises and there is also room for rage. We make that space for each other, she said.

That sentiment has been echoed by some of those in other cities who joined weekend protests that also opposed the deployment of federal agents in Portland.

Cat Brooks, a racial justice organiser in Oakland and the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project, said Black Lives Matter protests and the movement to oust federal forces from cities were one connected struggle.

The debate among organisers, she said, is the tactics that protesters should use. Her own view is that protesters cannot be blamed for responding forcefully when confronted with rubber bullets and pepper spray, as they have been in Portland.

I dont consider property destruction violence, she said. Violence is when you attack a person or another living, breathing creature on this planet. Windows dont cry and they cant die.

Organisers in Oakland, which has a long tradition of loud protests, are watching closely whether federal forces will be deployed there.

If the feds come to Oakland, its going to make Portland look like Disneyland, Brooks said.

She rejected the notion, put forward by Mayor Libby Schaaf of Oakland, among others, that violence and property destruction reinforce President Donald Trumps message that anarchists were taking over the countrys streets.

We could sit there and sing Kumbaya and suck lollipops between now and November, but if Donald Trump thinks it makes sense to hit Oakland and Detroit and some of the other cities with large Black populations  then thats what Donald Trump is going to do, Brooks said.

In Seattle on Saturday, as a large crowd marching through the city stopped in front of a new youth detention centre, some went and knocked over a nearby construction trailer while others lit fire to the construction buildings, drawing cheers from the crowd.

Further down the street, some in the crowd smashed the windows of buildings, including a Starbucks, where a fire was lit inside. As smoke came out of the broken windows, people on the street called up to the residents living above the coffee shop, suggesting that they evacuate.

Jamie Boudreau, who runs a bar a block away, and who described himself as a 100 percent supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, said he was texting his wife as the crowd went by. Someone confronted him, accusing him of taking a video of the crowd. He said it escalated until people were punching and spitting on him and an employee. His storefront windows were smashed.

I was like, Guys, you are totally targeting the wrong person right now, Boudreau said. Weve been on the marches. Its just so bizarre.

In Richmond, a burst of violence over the weekend took residents by surprise, and broke what Mayor Levar Stoney said had been 24 days of peaceful gatherings in Virginias capital.

The gathering began peacefully in Monroe Park on Saturday night. Several hundred protesters then left the park and began to march through the city. But when they reached the Police Department, some in the crowd became very aggressive verbally toward the officers there, the chief of police, Gerald M Smith, said at a news conference. He said the rioters in the crowd threw bricks, batteries and rocks at the police. He said the police took action to disperse them after some set a city dump truck on fire.

Stoney noted that bricks were lobbed at firefighters who were attempting to extinguish the blaze. He said he suspected that white supremacists were behind the violence.

We have identified some individuals who have been seen with the Boogaloo boys and some antifa groups around the area, Smith said.

People broke windows and spray-painted private property with hateful language, he said. Frankly, it was disgusting.

Kate Conger, Thomas Fuller and Mike Baker c.2020 The New York Times Company
A landmark inquiry into pension scams was launched by MPs yesterday after the Mail exposed how the 10billion fraud has destroyed tens of thousands of lives.

Campaigners said it was a major breakthrough in the battle against criminals who have been plundering retirement savings on an industrial scale with near impunity.

Army veterans, police officers, firefighters, paramedics, care workers and teachers are among those fleeced when using Government-sanctioned pension schemes. Many victims banked on the fact the investments were registered with Her Majestys Revenue and Customs. Announcing the inquiry, Stephen Timms said unscrupulous scammers had crippled dreams of a comfortable retirement.

Sue Flood, pictured, from Brentwood, Essex, lost 125,000 in a pension scam. The former marketing executive has battled for years for the government to take action against the fraudsters. She said: 'Im so pleased victims are finally being listened to and this is finally being properly looked into. The plans that youve made for your future and your future welfare are taken away. Its vital that MPs understand the criminal element and the organised crime that underlies this

The government liberalised the pensions market in 2015 which allowed fraudsters to target victims seeking a safe home for their retirement accounts, file photo

The chairman of the Commons work and pensions committee warned that the known losses might only be the tip of the iceberg. MPs will investigate the scams in the first strand of a three-part inquiry into the protection of savers and the pension freedoms introduced in 2015. The Mails investigation showed that scammers were able to move from one rogue scheme to another to continue to defraud victims.

A Serious Fraud Office detective investigating the problem told the Mail it was easier to steal a pension than steal a TV, because of lax regulations and lack of enforcement.

The inquiry will look into whether it is right that many scam victims are also now being targeted by HMRC because the bogus schemes they unwittingly signed up to broke tax laws.

The Financial Conduct Authority has warned there may be more than five million victims.

In most cases, the scammers took huge fees to transfer pensions, then repeatedly reinvested the savings in high-risk investments that paid them hefty commissions until the nest eggs were obliterated. Because many of the schemes destroyed or never kept records of members, it is feared some are unaware their pension has vanished. Andy Agathangelou, founder of the Transparency Task Force which also campaigned for the inquiry, said: This is a breakthrough moment in the ongoing saga of the pension scam pandemic that has been blighting British society for years.

This inquiry means that there is now a chance for a thorough investigation into why it has been so easy for pension scammers.

Mr Timms said: We know reported frauds could be just the tip of the iceberg, so the committee is keen to better understand the scale of the pension scam problem, as well as the types of scams in operation and the role of the pensions industry and public bodies. Among the victims is Sue Flood, a former marketing executive who has battled for years to get justice after being fleeced of 125,000.

The mother of two said: Im so pleased victims are finally being listened to and this is finally being properly looked into.

The plans that youve made for your future and your future welfare are taken away. Its vital that MPs understand the criminal element and the organised crime that underlies this.
SPRINGFIELD  Illinois seven-day rolling positivity rate for COVID-19 tests continued to rise through the weekend, reaching 3.8%  more than a full percentage point higher than it was at the beginning of the month.

The positivity rate for tests completed has increased for seven of the past eight days, ticking upward from 2.9% on July 19. Its the highest the rolling positivity rate has been since it was 4.2% on June 11.

That comes after one-day positivity rates of 3.7%, 3.8% and 4% on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, respectively. Over that three-day span, the state averaged about 1,399 new cases daily among an average of 36,537 tests completed over the same period.

Speaking Monday in Adams County, which is in the states warning territory for COVID-19 trends, Pritzker continued to urge Illinoisans to wear masks and avoid crowds. Those measures will likely be necessary though at least the end of 2020, he said.

Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, appeared alongside the governor at the Adams County Health Department in Quincy. She urged all residents to wear face coverings, which a number of studies have shown can help limit the spread of the virus. The senator called mask-wearing a minor inconvenience that is so well worth it to prevent spread of the lethal virus.

We learn new things about this virus every day. But one indisputable fact is that it's highly, highly contagious, she said. Even those that get very sick, and don't die, they have lingering health problems. Wearing a mask, I advocate (for), because it is such a simple thing to do.

On Friday, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported that LaSalle, Peoria and Randolph counties joined Adams County in warning territory according to state COVID-19 metrics that track new cases per 100,000 people; the number of COVID-19-related deaths; weekly test positivity; ICU availability; weekly emergency department visits for COVID-19-like-illness; weekly hospital admissions; the number of tests performed; and the percentage of COVID-19 cases associated with clusters or outbreaks.

If these trends continue in a negative direction, the state will need to take immediate action to impose additional mitigations to slow the spread and keep more people from getting sick. We are trying to bring down infection rates before it gets out of control, Pritzker said in Adams County.

The metrics are intended to be used for local level awareness to help local leaders, businesses, local health departments, and the public make informed decisions about personal and family gatherings, as well as what activities they choose to do, according to an IDPH news release.

We're counting on city and county health departments and leaders do what they know is right to protect their residents, Pritzker added, noting those efforts include ticketing or closing bars that flout masking and social distancing guidelines.

IDPH said the counties flashing warning indicators saw outbreaks associated with risky behavior.

Randolph County outbreaks were tied to congregate settings, numerous bars not complying with distancing and masking, and a large party with more than 200 people.

In Adams County, that includes larger social events, health care exposure, travel to hotspots including neighboring Missouri and Iowa, as well as outbreaks tied to places of worship and youth sports.

In LaSalle County, outbreaks were tied to large family and social gatherings, while there were increases in cases among people younger than 29 years, many of whom visited bars or attended larger social events. Inconsistencies with masking requirements played a role as well, according to IDPH.

Peoria County also saw increases in cases among people younger than 29 years old, while outbreaks were tied to large gatherings such as Fourth of July parties, and people traveling to Florida, Iowa, Texas and Wisconsin.

The IDPH website, which is updated weekly, was still showing warning indicators as of July 18 on Monday afternoon, and Sangamon, Champaign and Randolph counties were the only three flashing an orange warning indicator.

IDPH also reported 31 more COVID-19-related deaths over the past three days, bringing total fatalities since the pandemic began to 7,416 among 172,655 confirmed cases. There have been more than 2.5 million tests performed in the state and the recovery rate from the virus is 95 percent for those 42 days removed from a positive test, according to the IDPH.

Intensive care unit beds in use by COVID-19 patients increased to 350 at the end of Sunday as well, marking the highest that number has been since June 30 when there were 384 ICU beds in use by COVID-19 patients.

At the end of Sunday, there were 1,417 COVID-19-positive patients in hospital beds statewide, including 125 on ventilators. Both of those numbers were near their pandemic lows, although they were increases from the day prior.

While Pritzker said the state is doing a better job handling the virus than its neighbors and others in the South, it does not take long for cases to spike.

I can't tell you what's gonna happen Aug. 10 or any date in August yet, he said. What I can tell you is we've issued guidance for what we know right now, but we're all gonna have to keep watching.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
Schools Consider Corona

Multiple school boards Met Monday to discuss in-person classes OLATHE KS, (KCTV) -- School boards in Kansas are working to finalize reopening plans just a few weeks before the first day of class. There's a series of important school board meetings happening Monday night. Gardner-Edgerton, Piper, Shawnee Mission, Tonganoxie and De Soto schools will all discuss how to bring back students safely.

Dead-Tree Vs. Teachers???

The Star PPP-shames Kansas City Private and Charter Schools The government filings of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans have provided ideologically motivated journalists and advocates a treasure trove for scoring points against businesses and organizations they don't like. Call it PPP-shaming. For those who aren't aware, PPP was created by Congress to give forgivable loans to businesses and nonprofits affected by the coronavirus.

Show-Me Teacher Protest

Missouri teachers protest heading back to class at state capitol JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Dozens of teachers gathered outside the Capitol in Jefferson City today to protest against going back into the classroom. The teachers carried signs reading "online til cases decline" and "I can't teach if I'm dead". Organizers of the protest say they want Governor Parson and leaders to require all schools in the state to return virtually.

Schools In The Dotte Stay Shut

Wyandotte County health order prohibits public school buildings from opening to in-person classes until after Labor Day WYANDOTTE COUNTY, KS (KCTV) - A new health order will prohibit Wyandotte County public school buildings from opening to in-person classes until after Labor Day. "Dr. Allen Greiner, Wyandotte County's Chief Medical Officer, issued a new Health Order prohibiting public school buildings within the County from opening to in-person classes until after Labor Day, September 7, 2020 to ensure educators have sufficient time to prepare for school re-opening," a release stated on Monday.

KCK Tech Workaround

KCKPS delays school start, goes virtual for first 9 weeks KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools Board of Education has voted to delay the start of school until Sept. 9 and have only virtual classes for at least the first nine weeks. KCKPS Superintendent Charles Foust said in a news release that district staff have been working "diligently" on a reopening plan.

Show-Me Teachers Pushing Back

Missouri teachers push to start school year with virtual learning The idea of going back to school in person this Fall worries Kim Hanan-West. "We know that our classrooms are too small for social distancing, that our children are going to struggle with this," she said. Hanan-West teaches in St. Louis County which has the highest concentration of COVID-19 cases in Missouri.

KCPS Tech Trouble

KCPS district official gives tips to help students with technology fatigue KANSAS CITY, Mo. - In just a few weeks, a handful of school districts will be getting ready to reopen again, some starting out strictly online. With the continued method of virtual learning to decrease the spread of COVID-19, and the constant use of scrolling through social media, constant connection to the online world, can cause a disconnect to reality.

Heartfelt Police Support

KCK police attend graduation to support son of officer killed in 2016 CEREMONIES AT CHILDREN'S MERCY PARK. DE AND KANSAS CITY KANSAS POLICE TOOK TIME TO CELEBRATE THE GRADUATION OF DAVID MELTON FROM GARDNER EDGERTON HIGH SCHOOL THIS WEEKEND IF HIS NAME SOUNDS FAMILIAR, THAT'S BECAUSE HE'S THE SON OF THE LATE CAPTAIN DAVE MELTON WHO WAS KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY IN 2016.

JoCo Christian Conflict

Shawnee residents concerned over proposed private school project SHAWNEE, Kan. - Residents in a few Shawnee neighborhoods are concerned about a possible new private school next door. A 130,000 square-foot facility that will be a K-12 Maranatha Christian Academy is proposed to go on a 26-acre plot of land at the northeast corner of Silverheel and 71st Street.

Kangaroos Hop To Help

UMKC Student Emergency Fund assists nearly 100 students KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Gillian Campbell is a student at the University of Missouri- Kansas City. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, not only were her classes affected, but her job at a bar at the Power and Light District ended. "Literally right before everything shut down, Big 12 got cancelled and all of that," Campbell said.

Not so long ago,. And in that spirit we share these important news links on the topic of local education in the time of corona . . .Developing . . .
In 2017, he recorded long-distance, cross-country phone interviews with Bradley, who lived in New Jersey. She also passed along a notebook filled with family details. She died in 2018 at age 83.

Annette gave my life purpose, said Hocker, who shared the interviews with me. I also spoke with another aunt and uncle who still live in Richmond and who had memories of Lewis.

I was lost, and I possessed no clearly defined goals. It was as if I had writers block in deciding what to write for the next chapter in the story of my life. Since she spent the last year of her life telling me about Uncle Tom and our familys history, I believed that it was my obligation to keep this story that she kept alive until she passed away and passed it on to me.

And there was something larger in what Bradley did, Hocker said.

Slaves were punished for reading and writing, therefore many of our stories and history were passed on through oral tradition, and that is what my Aunt Annette did for me, he said. Without Annette, the lives of our ancestors would have been forgotten like many African American stories and histories have been.
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has commissioned the Nalerigu Water Supply Project, constructed under the Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project.



Speaking at the commissioning ceremony on Tuesday, 28th July 2020, President Akufo-Addo noted that the Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project has been implemented in eleven (11) out of the sixteen (16) regions of the country, and has been financed by a $47.5 million credit facility from the World Bank.



According to the President, in the North East and Northern Regions, one hundred and six thousand, eight hundred and forty-two people (106,842) are benefiting from the Project, whose implementation covers four (4) Municipal and District Assemblies, namely West Mamprusi, East Mamprusi and Chereponi, in the North East Region, and Saboba in the Northern Region.



The number of beneficiary communities are nine (9), and these are Nalerigu, Walewale, Wungu, Gbimsi, Gambaga, Naanori, Chereponi and Saboba. It is instructive to note that, out of the total amount of twenty-six million, eight hundred and fourty-eight thousand and seventy-five cedis (GH26,848,075) spent on the water project in the North East Region, the cost of the Nalerigu Water System was four million, nine hundred and thirty-two thousand and eighty-five cedis (GH4,932,085), he said.



The President continued, As co-Chair of the Group of Eminent Advocates for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, I am glad that the completion of this project will go towards the realisation of SDG No.6, which demands that we ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.



To residents of Nalerigu and beneficiary communities of the water project, he admonished them to help ensure the longevity of the treatment plant by protecting the water bodies by stopping activities such as galamsey, sand winning and farming along river banks, all of which lead to their pollution.



This, the President explained, would help guarantee improved water supply, in terms of quality, quantity and reliability, to the people of Nalerigu and surrounding communities, as water-borne diseases, such as guinea worm, cholera and dysentery, would also be eliminated.



President Akufo-Addo was expectant that the availability of potable water in this area, investors will take advantage of Governments Flagship Programmes such as One- District, One-Factory to establish small and medium scale factories to create employment opportunities for the youth of this community, and stimulate the growth and development of the local economy.



With the Community Water and Sanitation Agency, since 2017, engaging one thousand, one hundred and fifty-two (1,152) professionals, made up of engineers, hydrogeologists, water quality specialists, accountants, community relations officers and revenue staff, to ensure that the water systems are properly managed and maintained, the President encouraged inhabitants in the beneficiary communities, with requisite skills in water systems management, to take advantage of the employment opportunities created by the provision of the water systems.



I will continue to urge inhabitants of the beneficiary communities to help maintain this water infrastructure, so they can continue to have access to potable water and, through that, ensure the general well-being and health of all the respective communities, he added.









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.

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A San Francisco pastor wrote in a bulletin to his congregation that "news reports on COVID are largely unreal" and suggested without evidence that the media have inflated the severity of the pandemic to unseat President Donald Trump.

The Rev. Joseph Illo of Star of the Sea Catholic Church in the Inner Richmond said that working as a priest for 30 years, he knows thousands of people personally, but says only three of them have contracted the coronavirus.

He suggested without evidence that the intent of the media's coverage of the pandemic is to unseat Trump in the November election. "We cannot ignore the fact that the glaring discrepancy between hospital reports and media reports is taking place in an election year," he wrote."Note two facts: 1) Those who control the media have stated vitriolic opposition to our incumbent president. 2) A proven means of unseating an elected official is to induce fear among the incumbent's constituents."

Illo's comments mirror some of the remarks made by Trump, who has repeatedly downplayed the coronavirus pandemic. But for months, public health officials across the country have said the pandemic is real and serious. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations leading infectious disease expert, has said the virus meets all four criteria for a worst nightmare pandemic as its new, respiratory-borne, easily transmissible and causes a significant degree of illness and mortality.

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 16 million people worldwide since it was first identified at the end of last year in China. The United States accounts for a quarter of those cases. More than 657,000 people across the world have died of COVID-19, nearly 150,000 in the United States.

Star of the Sea and Illo did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the bulletin or whether the church is holding in-person services. The church's Facebook includes a schedule for live-stream masses.

Star of the Sea is among 90 parishes in Marin, San Mateo and San Francisco counties that are members of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Archdiocese spokesman Mike Brown explained each pastor "runs their own show" and "we really don't have an opinion on what each pastor writes."

Brown added the pandemic is a "huge issue of concern" for the archdiocese, and while it's not a "policing organization," it "instructs all pastors to follow public health guidelines."

Churches across the country have made statements about the COVID-19 pandemic as public health orders designed to curb the virus have limited their ability to hold services and events. In San Jose, several hundred members of Victory Outreach and other Christian congregations gathered at City Hall plaza Sunday, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Three churches in Fort Bragg, Ukiah and Oroville filed a federal lawsuit on July 16 against the state, claiming Gov. Gavin Newsoms order prohibiting singing and chanting in places of worship violates the churches constitutional rights. The suit argues Newsom has unfairly targeted church members while he supported protestors that chanted at rallies over George Floyds death and police brutality.

In California, churches are allowed to hold services with strict social-distancing measures in place, but indoor services are banned in counties on the state "watch list" with high rates of transmission. More than three dozen counties are on the list including San Francisco.

The county of San Francisco specifies in its health order that places of worship may hold services outside with up to 12 people.

Amy Graff is the news editor for SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.
The Venice Film Festival will put the accent on homegrown Italian cinema in September among its eclectic offering of international films, as the prestigious festival in its 77th year faces unprecedented challenges in the time of coronavirus. In a chaotic year that has seen the cancellation of rival competitions, shuttered film production and closed movie theatres across the globe, the festival in Italy's beloved canal city will proceed from September 2 to 12 with 18 films vying for the top award, the Golden Lion. Auteurs with films in the main competition hail from Mexico, Azerbaijan, Israel, Russia, Iran, Japan, and India, among other countries, organisers said on Tuesday. "Cinema has not been overwhelmed by the tsunami of the pandemic but retains an enviable vitality," said festival director Alberto Barbera. At the same time, he warned that some "spectacular titles" would be missing, still blocked by ongoing lockdowns around the world. Even so, "the heart of the festival is saved," Barbera said. - Paparazzi-free? - Four of the main competition films are Italian -- "Le Sorella Macaluso," from director Emma Dante, who made her Venice debut in 2012; Claudio Noce's "Padrenostro" about Italy's wave of terrorism in the 1970s seen through children's eyes; "Notturno" by 2013 Golden Lion winner Gianfranco Rosi, which was shot over two years in Syria, and "Miss Marx" by Susanna Nicchiarelli about Karl Marx's youngest daughter. The highest profile film in competition, which has already got some Oscar buzz, is US director Chloe Zhao's "Nomadland," starring two-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand and Academy Award "Best Actor" nominee David Strathairn. Opening the festival, but out of competition, will be Daniele Luchetti's "Lacci" (The Ties), a feature set in Naples about a marriage threatened by infidelity, the first time in over a decade that Venice's opening film has been Italian. The Biennale di Venezia, as it is called in Italian, has taken on outsized importance this year as film festivals across have the globe have been cancelled, including Venice's main competitor, the glamourous Cannes Film Festival on the Cote d'Azur, originally planned for May. Although familiar scenes of throngs of paparazzi snapping photographs of A-listers on the red carpet and screaming fans behind barricades hoping for autographs from their favourite stars may be unlikely, this year's festival promises to offer a wide range of film styles, including auteur, horror and gangster films, documentaries as well as comedies. - 'Sign of recovery' - Fifty countries are represented in the festival, and within the main competition eight out of the 18 films were directed by women, a figure Barbera called "extremely significant." The festival's president, Roberto Cicutto, told reporters that the 2020 offering "has not renounced quantity nor the number of movies in the official selection." "This is a sign of recovery... It's like a laboratory, a test of how such an important event can be organised," he said, adding that safety measures would include empty seats between moviegoers, temperatures taken at entrances and online-only tickets. Other festivals cancelled this year include the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, New York's Tribeca Film Festival and South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Cannes, the highest profile festival to cancel, will bestow a "Cannes 2020" label on selected films that would have been shown on the Croisette in May but which will now premiere at other festivals.
The Belgian Prime Minister with what sounded almost like John F. Kennedy, as she introduced on Monday a new measures against the resurgence of the Coronavirus. Each individual should ask themselves, "what can I do personally to fight against the Virus and to protect my loved one," said Sophie Wilmes. The urgent appeal was entitled: The Land is returned quickly and so much the norm that rules have hardly been considered yet. The result followed on the foot. Since the beginning of July the infection fast pay up. The reproduction rate of the Virus is at a value above one.

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, Nato and the Benelux countries, based in Brussels.

F. A. Z.

For Belgium was recorded by the EU-protection against infection authority in the first half of July 28 proven infections per 100,000 inhabitants. In Germany, in the same period, only eight, in Spain 35. Thus, the country is still far away from Luxembourg (219), which has reached, as the only Region in Central Europe, the highest alert level to "red". But Flanders is shipped to "orange". About half of the daily new infections was last in Antwerp, the metropolis, where a number of Restaurants and pubs to the welfare requirements kept, and in addition, quarantine rules were broken. Now Local need to close to 23 o'clock. Thereafter, the output starts to lock up six o'clock in the morning, so the local authorities have announced, after an eight-hour long crisis meeting on Monday evening. In the rest of the country, the citizens must restrict significantly.

The degree of freedom has become in the past few months, the "social bubble", "la bulle sociale". Most recently, she was so great, that hardly anyone took the limit at all seriously. Each Individual could have with 15 changing persons-per-week contacts, without a mouth, stand protection and social minimum. This is limited to five persons per household; by the end of August, it must always be the same. Thus, the country falls back to the first Phase of the relaxations in may. The approved number of participants of public events is halved: up to 200 people Outdoors, 100 indoors, each with a mask of duty.

crisis management confusion

"It is important to avoid General output restrictions and not to jeopardise the resumption of the operation of the School, starting in September," said the Prime Minister Wilmes to notice. She spoke of "very, very strong measures" the government "one-to-one" implementing the recommendations of virologists. The were last increased by public submissions and the pressure to Act. So similar it had been running previously with the protection masks: Only when more and more experts called in after that, fined the Federal government a General duty to wear such masks while shopping and on other occasions. Wilmes has been accused of, you have emphasized too much the regained freedom of the citizens, although they had always admonished to greater responsibility.

Updated Date: 28 July 2020, 11:19
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - While reporting financial results for the third quarter on Tuesday, Rockwell Automation, Inc. (ROK) raised its adjusted earnings and sales growth guidance for the full-year 2020. For fiscal 2020, the company now projects adjusted earnings in a range of $7.40 to $7.60 per share on reported sales decline of about 5.5 percent and organic sales drop of 8.0 percent. Previously, the company expects adjusted earnings in the range of $6.90 to $7.70 per share on reported sales decline of 6.5 to 3.0 percent and organic sales drop 9.5 to 6.5 percent. On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to earn $7.34 per share on a revenue decline of 5.9 percent to $6.30 billion for the year. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. Additionally, the company said it will operate with three operating segments - Intelligent Devices, Software & Control, and Lifecycle Services - beginning next fiscal year. These new segments will simplify its structure around essential offerings, leverage its sharpened industry focus, and add software talent, which will play a larger role in its future value, it added. Rockwell will begin to operate under the new segment structure effective from the first quarter of fiscal 2021. It expects to announce financial results for the fiscal first quarter in late January 2021 and will report financial performance based on these three operating segments. 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.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 28, 2020) - Orestone Mining Corp. (TSXV: ORS) (FSE:O2R1) (WKN: A2DWW7) (the "Company") is pleased to provide the following update on the Resguardo copper-gold porphyry/manto target drill program. Drilling of the first two holes to a target depth of 400 metres has been completed and Orestone is pleased to report the discovery of an additional mineralized zone where the third drill hole is nearing targeted depth.

Reverse circulation drill hole RE-20-1 was drilled to a depth of 402 metres approximately 500m southwest of the historic Candaleria oxide copper mine on the centre of the strongest portion of the IP anomaly on geophysical Section 4. The location is in a talus covered area just to the west of a strong NW trending linear. The hole collared in gray-green andesites interlayered with sedimentary sandstones and tuffs and intruded by diorite bodies. From 60m depth, the andesite/sedimentary units are weakly to moderately silicified with trace to 2% fine-grained pyrite, zones with 2% magnetite and trace chalcopyrite that and remain open to depth.

Reverse circulation drill hole RE-20-02 is located approximately 600m SW of hole RE-20-01 near the western end of the IP anomaly on geophysical section line 1 within a mapped area of quartz kaolinite-sericite alteration on a strong NW trending linear. The hole, collared in talus, intersected thick alternating sections of green coloured andesite flows and sedimentary sections of volcanogenic sandstone and dark gray to green coloured fine grained tuffs. The sequences are weakly silicified with trace to 1% fine-grained pyrite. The drill hole terminated in alternating sandstones and fine-grained tuffs at 400m and remains open to depth.

The recent discovery of an additional mineralized zone, the SW Anomaly has encouraged Orestone to alter the original drill plan. Reverse circulation drill hole RE-20-03 is located 80 metres west of IP section line 7 approximately 1500m west of main Resguardo IP anomaly. Prospecting has outlined a large area of strong quartz - sericite - tourmaline stockworks and breccias associated with hydrothermally altered granodiorite intrusive and volcanics with copper oxides and limonite on the surface. Mapping shows the zone to extend west of IP line 7 over a strike length of 700 metres by a width of over 260 metres remaining open in several directions. The SW Anomaly is located on the northern part of the geophysical section line 7 which indicated a moderate chargeability anomaly of up to 9.5 mV/V starting at a depth of 150m to 200m with a coincident resistivity anomaly of up to 4500 Ohm*m.

Story continues

"Hydrothermally altered quartz - tourmaline breccias are commonly associated with copper porphyries in central Chile. At Resguardo the occurrence of abundant tourmaline suggests the presence of a strong hydrothermal system in the area, which coupled with the presence of copper oxides and limonite in the breccias makes this a highly encouraging target Additional mapping and rock and silt sampling continues on the SW Zone although road construction further west in the SW Zone has been curtailed pending sample results. Drill samples from the first two holes are in process with ALS Chemex and assays are expected to begin to be received within two weeks," stated David Hottman, CEO of Orestone Mining Corp.

Additional information will be released as it becomes available.

All contractors and the Company are coordinating with Sernageomin, the government agency controlling mining and exploration in Chile, to design and implement protocols to ensure the safety and health, especially with respect to COVID-19, for all personnel of the Company and Contractors involved in the drilling program.

The Resguardo IP target is located immediately west of outcropping oxide copper mineralization grading 1 to 7% copper and 0.50 g/t gold that was mined historically in a series of pits and underground workings. Although this historic sampling is believed to have been competently carried out, it was not certified by a professional geologist, therefore the results are not NI 43-101 compliant and cannot be relied upon. The Resguardo project hosts copper-gold mineralization in mantos, skarns and breccia bodies (historic workings) accompanied by zones of strong hydrothermal alteration consisting of sericite-silica-clay with copper oxides at the junction of regional NNE trending low angle extensional faults with NW trending vertical faults in association with the large IP target.

The drill program is under the control of a registered professional geologist and will comply with standards and practices as established by the Association of Engineers and Geoscientists of the Province of British Columbia." Gary Nordin, P.Geo, a director of the Company, is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Mr. Nordin has reviewed and approved the technical information in this press release.

Resguardo is located 75 kilometres NE of the City of Copiapo, Region III Northern Chile. Access to the project is excellent along Highway 31 which serves as the main route to the La Coipa Mine and the northern Maricunga Gold Belt.

Resguardo in Chile, as well as Orestone's Captain project in BC, are located in structural corridors adjacent to large copper-gold deposits. In Chile Orestone's Resguardo project is located in a NNE trending structural corridor 80 kilometres to the south of the El Salvador Mine and the past producing Potrerillos Mine, both large copper-gold porphyries. In Canada, the100% percent owned Captain project is located 30 km south of the Mt. Milligan Mine, a large copper-gold porphyry. On both projects copper and gold mineralization in association with extensive hydrothermal alteration demonstrate the potential for discovery of large copper-gold deposits. For more information please visit: www.orestone.ca.

ON BEHALF OF ORESTONE MINING CORP.

David Hottman

CEO

For further information contact:



David Hottman at 604-629-1929

info@orestone.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 News Release. This news release has been prepared by management and no regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected including, but not limited to, market conditions, availability of financing, currency rate fluctuations, actual results of exploration and development activities, environmental risks, future prices of copper, gold, silver and other metals, operating risks, accidents, labor issues, delays in obtaining governmental or regulatory approvals and permits, and other risks in the mining industry. In addition, there is uncertainty about the spread of the COVID-19 virus and the impact it will have on the Company's operations, global supply chains and economic activity in general. All the forward-looking statements made in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements and those in our continuous disclosure filings available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances save as required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/60649
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- Maureen Waititu disclosed that in September 2019 she had given up on life and attempted suicide twice

- Asked if she was ready to date, the mother of two said she was trusting in God to lead her where he wants

- Waititu further disclosed she is human and has desires that need to be fulfilled, adding that she already knows what she wants

YouTuber Maureen Waititu has for the first time opened up on dating again one year after calling it quits with her baby daddy Frankie Kiarie.

The mother of two opened up less than a month after her ex-lover confirmed that he was expecting a child with socialite Corazon Kwamboka.

READ ALSO: Kenyans share hilarious memes after Uhuru Kenyatta ordered closure of bars

Maureen Waititu said she is ready for what God has planned for her a year after calling it quits with Frankie. Photo: Maureen Waititu.

Source: Instagram

READ ALSO: Dejan Lovren leaves Liverpool after 6 years

Speaking to Churchill Show comedian MC Jessy, the mother of two said she was ready to date and was trusting in God to lead her where he wants. The beauty said if God's plan is for her to meet someone else, she is ready.

"This is not my journey anymore. I am literally trusting God to take me where he is taking me. My work is to trust and obey and follow. If he has a plan for me to meet somebody who will," said Waititu.

READ ALSO: Mbunge Princess Kasune anayeishi na virusi vya Ukimwi apatwa na COVID-19

Waititu further disclosed she is human and has desires that need to be fulfilled, adding that she already knows what she wants.

The riveting beauty added in case she end up with someone, all she wants is to be happy.

"Trust me I have desires as a human being and I know what I want exactly in future, maybe I do not even know because my mindset keeps changing. Where He is taking me it is okay. If I end up with someone, if I do not, I just want to be happy. I want to be so happy, full of abundance and I want to be an amazing mother," she told Jessy.

READ ALSO: Maureen Waititu discloses ex-lover had an affair with Corazon Kwamboka while they were together

The mother of two revealed in September 2019 she had given up on life and attempted suicide twice.

"This one is an unknown fact. I was on antidepressants since September 2019. I was suicidal. I was gone. I attempted committing suicide twice," she said.

READ ALSO: Maureen Waititu says she is single mum after Corazon confirmed she's pregnant with Frank's baby

In other news, Waititu recently accused her ex-lover Frankie of having an affair with socialite Corazon Kwamboka while they were still engaged.

"Do not even think about coming at me without knowing the other side of the story. Ps, if by screwing around with a socialite who he was flirting with when we were still together and knocking her up is what you call getting a mate, I pity your kind of thinking," wrote Waititu.

The YouTuber raised claims after a fan attacked her in her inbox and accused her of lying about Frankie being a deadbeat dad.

She asked the fan to focus on her own issues and stop meddling on people's lives that she knew nothing about.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly.

I should be given a medal for finding Chris Msando's car - Moses Kuria: Part two | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
He added, Krissahs vision is to have The Post become the most diverse and inclusive newsroom in the country  a place that is recognized for fostering talent, where all people feel supported and challenged, and where our journalism fully benefits from the perspectives of staffers who come from a wide variety of backgrounds and life experiences.
HIDDENITE  The Hiddenite Arts & Heritage Center announces partial opening of the Lucas Mansion on Aug. 3 after months of closure due to COVID-19 restrictions.

In accordance with Gov. Roy Coopers Phase 2, the Hiddenite Center is taking measures to open safely while providing enriching classes at the Educational Complex and opening The Lucas Mansion Art Gallery featuring the outstanding Foothills Painters' "In Isolation" exhibit through Aug. 30.

Foothills Painters is a renowned group of Catawba Valley artists with a wide range of backgrounds, ages, skills and interests who have come together to express themselves through art. This exhibit explores many different styles of painting.

The Hiddenite Center is pleased to make this exciting new exhibit from Foothills Painters available for art lovers in our region to view and/or purchase, said Karen Walker, associate director. This exhibit features the exuberant and unique artistic expression that is synonymous with Foothills Painters. If you are looking for inspiration through art, this exhibit is for you. The public is encouraged to view the exhibit online on the Hiddenite Centers website at www.hiddenitearts.org.
The robbery happened at the BIDV Ngoc Khanh branch, which is located at 27 Huynh Thuc Khang street, Dong Da district, Hanoi at around 9:45 AM.

The two men who robbed the BIDV branch got away with almost VND1 billion ($43,480)

According to preliminary investigation data, cash damage was roughly estimated at around VND942 million ($41,000).

After the robbery, the branch was temporarily closed so that the police could collect evidence and track down the robbers.

One of the witnesses said, The masked robbers were carrying guns and threatened to shoot the staff if they so much as moved. Everyone was so scared.

According to Vnexpress, one of the two robbers went behind the counters and threw the stacks of money he could find to his accomplice who put them into a backpack.

The robbery happened at the BIDV Ngoc Khanh branch in Dong Da district, Hanoi

The man who collected the money also threw a black bag on the floor saying it was full of explosives and threatening to trigger them if anyone tried to fight back.

Then they took a plum-coloured motorcycle with the license plate 29X2-137 and drove towards Thang Long Boulevard.

At the moment, the two male suspects whose identities are unknown are sought by the local authorities.
The Bombay high court on Tuesday observed that there was risk of ostracising Covid-19 patients if their names were disclosed as demanded by two public interest litigants.

What purpose will be served by disclosing the names? This will lead to the risk of ostracisation, the bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Sarang Kotwal said during the hearing on the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by law student Vaishnavi Gholave and farmer Mahesh Gadekar.

The bench said it all depends on how careful the individual is. Try to avoid congregations, wear face mask and head shield... This is what is advocated to stay safe from the infection, it said.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage.

In the PIL filed through advocate Vinod Sangvikar, the two petitioners contended that on several occasions Covid-19 patients are unable to recognise and give complete information about the people, who had come into their contact, because of which contact tracing becomes an arduous task and many suspect cases fall through the cracks.

They have cited an example of a meat seller from Muraji Peth in Solapur who was found to be Covid-19 positive, and later it came to be known that about 1,000 people had unwittingly come in contact with him.

However, the meat-seller didnt know all his customers or their whereabouts, the plea stated.

It added that there are about 25 meat sellers in Muraji Peth and since the name of the infected meat seller was not disclosed, people did not know whether they had exposed themselves to SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease, and as a result, take precautionary measures.

The plea expressed serious concerns about the growing risk of community transmission and argued that it is necessary to disclose the names of Covid-19 patients in a bid to make contact tracing easier and also appropriate precautionary measures be taken such as self-isolation and early treatment for the viral infection.

The PIL cited that Maharashtra has been reporting a surge in Covid-19 positive cases even though the state government is maintaining that community transmission has not set in yet.

Arguing on behalf of the central government, additional solicitor general Anil Singh opposed the PIL. He pointed out that four high courts have dismissed petitions containing similar prayers, and therefore the HC should not entertain the PIL.

The bench, however, posted the PIL for further hearing on Friday after Sangvikar sought time to go through the judgments.
A hairdressing salon's unusual promotional sign has created a stir online.

The salon, believed to be located in Coventry Village Shopping Centre in Western Australia, has a sign informing customers of the services they offer.

'We cut girls, we cut men, we cut kids,' the sign reads, with an image of a woman, man and crying child illustrating each service.

'We cut girls, we cut men, we cut kids,' the sign read with an image of a woman, man and crying child next to each service

A photo of the sign was shared to Reddit and has received more than 42,000 upvotes and 679 comments.

'I cut them all. Not just the men, but the women and the children too,' one user joked.

It wasn't only the brief description of the services - which might have some customers wondering if it was their hair or something else about to be cut - but also the picture of an apparently distressed child.

'It looks like that kid is about to be stabbed,' one person wrote.

'That kid looks like he has a gun pointed at his head "Take the damn haircut if you want to see your parents again Jimmy!"' another joked.

Others took issue with the double-standard in referring to 'men' and 'girls'.

'Makes no sense. Why girls and kids? Aren't girls kids? Why men and girls? This is a strange sign,' someone commented.

'Ah yes, the three genders: girl, man and kid,' a response read.

'I thought it was to advertise different skills. Not everyone can cut kids hair and not everyone can cut women's hair,' someone else explained.


South Korea has reacted to North Korean claims that a man who fled the North was infected with the coronavirus when he returned to the country.

South Korean military officials said on Monday that border guards may not have seen the man before he apparently swam back to the North. Officials said guards found the mans belongings near a drainage ditch on the northeastern island of Ganghwa.

South Korean police had recently accused the 24-year-old of raping another defector, and media reports say police wanted to arrest him. The man had recently lost his job, the reports said.

But South Korean health officials said the man was not listed as a COVID-19 patient or as someone who had come in contact with infected individuals.

On Sunday, North Korean state media said a runaway suspected of carrying the virus returned to the North on July 19th. It accused the man of illegally crossing the demarcation line that separates the two Koreas.

It was the first time North Korea has said the country may have a possible coronavirus infection. North Korea has declared a state of emergency and ordered people around Kaesong City to obey new public health measures. Kaesong City is the border town where the re-defector was found.

Why admit it now?

Although 16 million coronavirus infections have been reported worldwide, North Korea had long claimed it was completely free of the virus. Many experts say that claim was highly unlikely because of the nature of the virus.

North Korea shares a 1,400-kilometer-long border with China, where the virus was discovered. Although the North officially closed its borders in February, much of its trade with China is unofficial and difficult to control.

Many experts said North Korea may be using the re-defection as one way to admit it has cases of coronavirus, even while blaming South Korea.

This would make for an extremely convenient way for the regime to admit the existence of COVID-19 in the country, wrote Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein. He is a North Korea specialist at the United States-based Foreign Policy Research Institute. He added that the message from North Korea is that its actions to avoid the coronavirus were perfect. Blaming the South removes any difficulties with China.

The move could also have a message for the North Korean people, says Go Myong-Hyun of the Seoul-based Asian Institute for Policy Studies. The message is: there is a lot of infection going on outside of North Korea, and that the regime is tryingto keep the country clean and efficient," he said.

Border security lapses

The defectors ability to return to North Korea raises concerns about security along the 250-kilometer border that separates North and South Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Saturday that he blamed North Korean guards at the border and promised severe punishment, state media reported.

When North Koreans flee their country, they usually do so along the border with China. The border between the two Koreas is one of the most heavily guarded in the world and, most believe, nearly impossible to cross illegally.

But somehow the defector at the center of North Koreas coronavirus appears to have crossed the inter-Korean border twice.

The defector, whose family name is Kim, detailed his 2017 escape from North Korea last month.

I decided to escape because of poverty, he said in a video published on YouTube.

The number of North Korean defectors reaching the South has fallen in recent years, as North Korea and China tighten border controls. The coronavirus has only made things more difficult. During the spring of 2020, the number of incoming defectors reached an all-time low. Only 12 North Koreans reached the South.

Im Susan Shand.

VOAs William Gallo reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

drainage ditch  n. a hole dug to move water and sewage

barbed wire  n. a wire fence with sharp points that holds people inside

estuary  n. the tidal mouth of a large river

runaway  n. someone who leaves home due to unhappiness

demarcation  adj. a line drawn between two sides

convenient  adj. easy to achieve

regime  n. a government, especially an authoritarian one
27.07.2020 LISTEN

Growing up as young boy, there was a radio program that my father liked listening to on GBC 2 radio Senior Citizens corner. There was this intro music by Ray Williams titled growing old. In the lyrics of this song was a portion that caught my attention and I have been thinking of it for ages, which says  I wish, I will never grow old, life is a misery in old age, what was the musician trying to portray?

Old age is believed to be a sign of blessings upon ones life. In Christianity, it is accepted that old age is a sign of Gods blessings and many are wishing to enjoy such blessings. In fact, after 70 years, it is believed that one has achieved his or her God given years and days after such years are sometimes termed as extra time in the field of life. Few are those who are fortunate to go beyond 70 years since the life expectancy rate of man keeps decreasing due to many factors.

Unfortunately, in Ghana and some other parts the world, old age is tagged with a certain omen. The moment you are blessed with certain age and cross the sixties or seventies, you are either a witch or wizard depending on your gender. You are seen to be the cause of every misfortune in your family or community. Nothing good is attributed to you. If you find yourself in places where poverty rate is high and there are no systems to cater for people in their old age as commonly found in Ghana, then you are doomed. The words in the song of Ray Williams comes to reality, you will die miserably.

Recently I watched a documentary by Joynews of a blind old woman whose dream was to sleep on a mattress before her death in a village in the Northern part of Ghana. There are many untold stories of such people who are going through worse situations but have not been caught by the cameras lenses. Many old aged people are going through hell unnoticed. There are no adequate policies to assist such people.

I could not watch the video of the 90 years old woman who was beaten by a mob including women after being accused of witchcraft by a soothsayer in Kafaba in the East Gonja municipality of the Savannah region. What an inhumane and barbaric act!! When did it became a norm to lynch people to death for being a witch or wizard? Instant justice and mob action in Ghana, which law justifies that? I know spiritual matters are dealt spiritually isnt it?

As a Christian, I know that the only commandment to man that comes with a reward is to  honor your father and mother, so that your days may be prolonged in the land in which the Lord your God gives you. If I may paraphrase it, respect the elderly so that you may live long. At that old age, because they are vulnerable, God is asking you the youth to take care of them today, because you shall also get to that state tomorrow. The things you are doing today, you cannot be doing them forever, age will be caught up with you.

Let us condemn what has caused the death of this 90 years old woman and all sorts of maltreatment melted out to the aged, let there be justice for her and an end to all practices that promote such situations. May the soul of this poor woman and those who have suffered similar situations find rest in the bosom of Abraham. Any religion or tradition that sees the aged as the cause of misfortunes is not worth existing and state institutions mandated must see to the eradication of such inhumane bodies and practices.

Many old men and women are living in abject situations in the country, what are we doing as a state, religious bodies, institutions and individuals to assist such people? I believe there are some state policies and social interventions that cater for some of them, but are they enough? The state should take a critical look at enhancing such policies to benefit all the aged and not some selected few. The aged have served the state in one way or the other, it is never a crime to be old. We should reward and take good care of them until they return to their maker. Lets not forget that, they were like us and we shall be like them.

By: Jonas Owusu Ohemeng

Development Communicator

Inspirational speaker

Security Analyst.

[email protected]
Lucknow, July 28 : The Yogi Adityanath government has handed over to the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate a case related to alleged ill-gotten assets acquired by Jai Bajpai, an aide of slain gangster Vikas Dubey.

According to a Home Department spokesperson, the case against Bajpai appeared to be prima facie true, hence, the state government decided to hand over the case to the Income Tax Department and the ED.

The Yogi government has urged the two agencies to apprise it of the action taken in the case.

Bajpai and Dubey's another aide, Prashant Shukla, were arrested after a raid at a hideout of Dubey's in Bikru village in Kanpur on July 3 led to the killing of eight police personnel.

"Vikas Dubey had called Bajpai on July 1, following which two accused met him the next day and offered Rs 2,00,000 and 25 revolvers. After the incident on July 3, they also helped him escape in three vehicles," said a police official.

However, due to the police presence, Dubey and his men did not travel in Bajpai's cars.

An FIR was been registered against them under multiple sections of the IPC, Criminal Law Amendment Act, and the Arms Act.
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A firefighter has been injured after crews from around San Francisco responded to a blaze that engulfed several buildings near a major highway on Tuesday morning.

Fire officials said the blaze began at around 6.30am, possibly at a building supply store on 14th Street. The fire quickly grew to other buildings and was soon enveloping an area of two-blocks near 13th Street and South Van Ness Avenue.

The fire was so fierce that it resulted in the closing of one lane of the nearby Central Freeway, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

One firefighter had minor injuries he suffered while fighting the blaze that started at around 6.30am near Central Freeway

 Slide me  The fire is believed to have started at Bartfeld Sales Co before burning to at least five other buildings. Bartsfeld Sales Co has been in business for almost 75 years

Approximately 100 workers were displaced by the fire as it grew on Tuesday

According to Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson, some 160 firefighters and 60 trucks and engines battled the devastating fire. The blaze left some 100 workers displaced and affected as many as six commercial buildings.

One firefighter had minor injuries he suffered while fighting the blaze. The crew member was identified as a chief who 'got knocked in the head a little bit,' Deputy Fire Chieg Victor Wyrsch said.

The firefighter was taken to the San Francisco General Hospital and is in 'an abundance of caution.'

The fire is believed to have started at Bartfeld Sales Co, a construction supply warehouse which has been in business for almost 75 years.

Brian Bartfeld, the owner's son, told KTVU that his father had arrived on Tuesday morning to find the building already completely in flames. He shared that his father had been the last one to close the shop, located at 140 14th Street, but everything had seemed fine on Monday.

'The whole building is gone,' he said.

There is a lot of flammable material inside the warehouse, including lumber, wooden palettes, cardboard boxes and building materials.

The entire fire covered an area of two-blocks near 13th Street and South Van Ness Avenue

Some 160 firefighters and 60 trucks and engines took on the devastating fire

Smoked blew onto the Central Highway and caused a southbound lane on Highway 101 to close

Power lines fell during the fire and crashed onto fire equipment, delaying the efforts by the crew members

More firefighters continue fighting the fire as it destroys Bartfeld Sales Co

People watch from a parking lot as a fire consumes buildings

This is Winston- he had to be evacuated from the VCA Veterinarian Hospital located near this mornings fire in San Francisco. pic.twitter.com/aw4NhMjEwl  Amy Hollyfield (@amyhollyfield) July 28, 2020

By 9am, the fire was 75 per cent contained but crews had to continue working against the fire to stop it from spreading. By 10.30am, the fire was 90 per cent contained.

'Our members have done a terrific job out there,' Nicholson said in a news briefing. 'But this is why we train.'

Black smoke could be seen as far as Bay Bridge

Wrysch arrived at the time of the second alarm, and said that the building supply warehouse was 'fully involved.' He said that the second building went ablaze within minutes.

Six commercials structures bounded by South Van Ness, Folsom, Erie and 14th Streets were likely affected by the fire, according to department spokesman Lt. Jonathan Baxter.

A southbound lane on Highway 101 has closed after smoke and flying embers began blowing heavily onto it and the ramps of the Central Freeway, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The Sheriff's Office was occupying one of the buildings at the time of the blaze, Wyrsch said. Most of the ammunition and equipment inside was moved by one deputy who happened to be inside at the time. Firefighters made it to the building and stopped the fire from penetrating.

A roofing supply company was also caught up in the fire. Some animals had to be evacuated from the VCA Veterinarian Hospital, ABC 7 reports.

Some 100 million gallons of water were used to help fight the flames, which became a 'huge problem' along the Erie side of the blaze. The efforts to fight the fire became difficult even more-so when a power line fell on fire equipment.

It is still unclear what started the fire but it is still under investigation.

Firefighters did eventually contain 90 per cent of the blaze by 10 am
By Akbar Mammadov

Turkish Armed Forces have arrived in Baku to take part in large-scale joint combat-fire and tactical-flight exercises to be held across Azerbaijan from July 29 to August 10, the press service of the Ministry of Defense reported on July 28.

The Land and Air forces of both countries will participate in the drills that will be held in line with the agreement on military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey, in accordance with the annual plan.

According to the plan, exercises involving the Land Forces will be held from August 1 to 5 in Baku and Nakhchivan, while exercises involving the Air Forces will be conducted from July 29 to August 10  in Baku, Nakhchivan, Ganja, Kurdamir and Yevlakh.

A solemn welcoming ceremony was held for the Turkish servicemen.

It should be noted that the personnel, armoured vehicles, artillery and mortars, combat and transport helicopters of the Air Forces, as well as air defence and anti-aircraft missile divisions of the two armies, will be involved in the military exercises.

Earlier, on 27 July, personnel and military equipment of the Turkish Armed Forces arrived in Nakhchivan. As part of preparations for the military exercises, a ceremony was held for exchange of the national flags of the two brotherly countries, and personnel and military equipment of the Turkish Armed Forces arrived in Nakhchivan.

In order to participate in the flag exchange ceremony, the flag platoon of the Combined Arms Army marched toward the Umid (red-hope) Bridge over the Araz River in the direction of the Sadarak border checkpoint from the city of Nakhchivan. At the same time, the Turkish flag platoon also marched from Dogubayazit city to the border checkpoint.

The flag exchange ceremony was held after the performance of the national anthems of the two countries.

After the completion of the ceremony, the personnel and military equipment of Turkish Armed Forces involved in the exercises moved to the training areas.

A solemn welcoming ceremony was held for the servicemen of the Turkish Armed Forces in the military unit of the Combined Arms Army. During the ceremony, the developing Azerbaijani-Turkish fraternal relations and military-technical cooperation were noted by the speakers.

After the ceremony, representatives of the Turkish Armed Forces involved in the military exercises were accommodated in the military unit.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / Galway Metals Inc. (TSXV:GWM) ("Galway Metals" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement dated July 27, 2020 (the "Agreement") with an arm's length third party royalty holder to buy back a one percent (1.0%) net smelter returns royalty (the "Royalty") covering certain mineral claims at the Company's Clarence Stream property in southwest New Brunswick (the "Property"). This is a separate royalty and is in addition to the royalty purchase announced on July 21, 2020. The mineral claims subject to the Royalty cover the Jubilee Zone, parts of the Richard Zone, the recently reported new discovery of 186.5 g/t Au over 0.6m located 950m SW of the Jubilee Zone and other prospective properties.

The original agreement allowed only for buyback of one-half percent (0.5%) of the royalty for $500,000. Galway was able to negotiate with the royalty holder to purchase the royalty in its entirety. Under terms of the Agreement, Galway Metals will pay a total purchase price of $580,000 comprised of a cash payment of $100,000 and 400,000 common shares in the capital of the Company at a deemed price of $480,000 ($1.20 per Share).

The transaction is subject to receipt of all necessary approvals, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Robert Hinchcliffe, President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, commented, "We are pleased to complete a second royalty acquisition at the Clarence Stream Project, and, just as with our first royalty buyback, will contribute meaningfully to further unlocking value of the Clarence Stream land package beyond what we have already accomplished. The royalty holder's willingness to receive the majority of payment as shares in Galway demonstrates belief in the property and in the Company's future."

Review by Qualified Person, Quality Control and Reports

Michael Sutton, P.Geo., Director and VP of Exploration for Galway Metals, is the Qualified Person who supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical disclosure in this news release on behalf of Galway Metals Inc. All core, chip/boulder samples, and soil samples are assayed by Activation Laboratories, 41 Bittern Street, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada, who have ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation. All core is under watch from the drill site to the core processing facility. All samples are assayed for gold by Fire Assay, with gravimetric finish, and other elements assayed using ICP. The Company's QA/QC program includes the regular insertion of blanks and standards into the sample shipments, as well as instructions for duplication. Standards, blanks and duplicates are inserted at one per 20 samples. Approximately five percent (5%) of the pulps and rejects are sent for check assaying at a second lab with the results averaged and intersections updated when received. Core recovery in the mineralized zones has averaged 99%.

About Galway Metals Inc.

Galway Metals is focused on two gold projects in Canada, Clarence Stream, an emerging gold district in New Brunswick, and Estrades, the former producing, high-grade VMS mine in Quebec. The Company began trading on January 4, 2013, after the successful spinout to existing shareholders from Galway Resources Ltd. following the completion of the US$340 million sale of that company. With substantially the same management team and Board of Directors, Galway Metals is keenly intent on creating similar value as it had with Galway Resources Ltd.

For further information, please visit www.galwaymetalsinc.com or contact:

Robert Hinchcliffe

President, Chief Executive Officer & Director

Telephone: 1 (800) 771-0680

Cautionary Statement

Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Toronto Stock Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

This News Release includes certain "forward-looking statements" which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Company's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", or "plan". Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to the Company, the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, completion of the Royalty buy back, objectives, goals or future plans. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to the risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, and those risks set out in the Company's public documents filed on SEDAR. 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, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.

SOURCE: Galway Metals Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/599249/Galway-Metals-Announces-Second-Royalty-Buy-Back-at-its-Clarence-Stream-Property
And the projection fit into the debate going on in Richmond about how to replace the Confederate statues that once stood all around the city, but which Stoney has mostly removed. For several weeks now, local artists have been projecting civil rights-related images onto the bases where the statues once stood.
Medical staffers work inside a COVID-19 isolation area at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. Medical teams from the Air Force arrived at the hospital, as well as Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, on Friday to offer support in critical care units. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Medical professionals from the military have arrived in Los Angeles County to reinforce the ranks of two hospitals.

The Department of Defense sent the Air Force teams last week to Los Angeles County-USC and Harbor-UCLA medical centers, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for the Governors Office of Emergency Services.

The move aims to shore up staff as the hospitals battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Ferguson said state authorities requested the support through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The teams were then directed to hospitals struggling with staffing, supplies and capacity, he said.

They may have medical personnel who themselves have tested positive, or they're short staffed. Some of our hospitals are facing scenarios where their staff numbers are depleted or theyre facing surges in the number of cases theyre treating, he said. It's basically to provide surge staffing to hospitals in need.

Ferguson declined to share specific information about the status of the two hospitals, but said the OES constantly monitors both facilities.

Six more hospitals across the state recently received military medical professionals: Adventist Health Lodi Memorial in Lodi, Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, Adventist Health Hanford in Hanford, Dameron Hospital in Stockton and Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno.

In total, Ferguson said, the deployment sent 190 medical professionals to California hospitals.

Spokespeople from Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and Harbor-UCLA confirmed the arrival of military teams through identical email statements. They wrote that the teams arrived Friday and will be used to support operation of hospital critical care units amidst growing COVID-19 hospitalizations.

The hospitals statements said the teams are typically deployed for 30 days. Ferguson said the state could submit an extension, if necessary.

He said the arrival of medical teams proves California has learned how to work with and benefit from federal emergency response authorities through the experience of wildfires and other critical situations.

Story continues

When we have gaps or needs, were able to get those filled by the federal government, Ferguson added.

This fill-in will help the states hard-stretched medical workers.

Allowing our doctors, nurses, other medical professionals to have additional support is an important part of the work that we're doing, Ferguson said.

Los Angeles County reported 2,011 new COVID-19 cases and 15 additional deaths Monday. Data released Sunday reported that 2,051 coronavirus patients were hospitalized across the county, 596 of which were said to be in intensive care. The county Department of Public Health described the data as incomplete due to delays in the state electronic lab reporting system, and said the numbers were probably underreported.
By Sangmi Cha

SEOUL, July 28 (Reuters) - North Korea introduced tougher prevention measures against the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, state media reported, after it locked down the border town of Kaesong to tackle what could be its first publicly confirmed case of the respiratory disease.

Strict quarantine measures and the screening of districts were in progress, and test kits, protective clothing, and medical equipment were being rapidly supplied, the North's KCNA state news agency said.

The measures come after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared an emergency on Sunday after a person suspected of being infected with the virus returned from South Korea.

North Korea had reported testing 1,211 people for the virus as of July 16 with all returning negative results, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement sent to Reuters on Monday. The report said 696 nationals were under quarantine.

Primers and probes for machines capable of facilitating 1,000 tests have arrived in North Korea, WHO said. There are 15 laboratories designated to test COVID-19 in the country.

North Korea has a limited healthcare system with hospitals that lack adequate electricity, medicine, and water. It has long depended on the WHO to procure drugs as sanctions against the country made imports difficult.

In the past months, it received test kits and protective gear from the WHO and countries including Russia, but some of these were held up at the border because of the country's own restrictions.

North Korea said earlier this month it has started early clinical trial on a vaccine for the virus, but experts are sceptical.

The country lacks the technology or laboratories to develop COVID-19 vaccines, said Choi Jung-hun, a former North Korean doctor who defected to the South in 2012.

"North Korea wasn't even capable of testing people just until three or four months ago," said Choi, now a researcher at Korea University. "It is groundless for them to claim they are enrolling participants for human trials of COVID-19 vaccines."

(Reporting by Sangmi Cha; Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Sam Holmes)
Two of the country's top infectious disease experts presented a sobering look at the battle still to come against Covid-19. Their message, conveyed during a recent CNBC event, was encapsulated in related views on how much of a difference a coronavirus vaccine can make and what reaching herd immunity in the U.S. population will mean for life across the nation. "Even with a vaccine, there is no going back to normal anytime soon," said Thomas Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaking at a CNBC Workforce Executive Council virtual event to human resources executives on July 23 about a safe return to the workplace. "Prepare for at least eight to 12 months of this situation," said Frieden, who now runs the Resolve to Save Lives disease prevention organization. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy at the University of Minnesota, said it is estimated that 7% to 9% of the total U.S. population has been infected with coronavirus, and that means the worst is yet to come. He said the best understanding in the medical field is that transmission will not slow down until 50% to 70% of the population is infected. "The pain, suffering, death and economic pain we've had to date  that's 7% to 9% of the U.S. population. We've got a long way to go," Osterholm said.

Covid is 'here to stay'

For businesses and the U.S. economy, that means there will be no "V-shaped" return to workplaces. "Most businesses in the country will be hard-pressed to operate in a way they want to schedule when we have 'houses on fire' in our communities," said Osterholm. "I understand the pain and economic suffering, but I don't see any way we get numbers down regionally. We've got to stop this virus activity or there will be fear we will see these peaks, but every time it goes down, it plateaus at a higher level and just comes back again. In many communities in this country, I see no way to operate as they once did." Cases have started to show some signs of slowing in recent hot spots across the U.S. South and Southwest, including Florida, Texas and Arizona. In fact, both experts believe Covid-19 is here to stay. "We will be dealing with this forever," Osterholm said. "Covid is here to stay," added Frieden.

It looks more likely than not that this virus keeps circulating even with a vaccine. Thomas Frieden former CDC director and head of disease prevention group Resolve to Save Lives

Frieden said one of the biggest issues is that the medical community still lacks good data on the disease, but he added, "Nothing we've seen suggests it will just go away." That's why the measures being advocated that may seem like "blunt" tools, from extreme physical distancing in the workplace to remote work as the norm, are the best options we have to stop the virus. Countries that moved quickly to rapid testing and tracing and quarantine were able to get Covid-19 under control more quickly, but the U.S. is too far behind on that more precise tool, "the box-it-in strategy," Frieden said. If a vaccine becomes available over the next six to 12 months and we can produce enough of the vaccine for the population, there are still big question marks about its effectiveness, Frieden said. This week the first vaccine to go into a large-scale Phase 3 trial, from Moderna Therapeutics, started toward its goal of enrolling 30,000 individuals. But the scientific community still does not know how long a vaccine will be effective for, and whether immunity within elderly individuals will last. It also is not known about any side effects, as well as the percentage of the population that may refuse to get the vaccine. "We have great vaccines and still 100,000 deaths a year from measles," Frieden said, speaking about Africa. "In the U.S. we still have hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations from flu each year with vaccines, and it looks more likely than not that this virus keeps circulating even with a vaccine." Osterholm, who has studied the coronavirus class of infectious diseases around the world, including MERS and SARS, said these viruses are "notoriously famous for not granting durable immunity." He added, "We will be revaccinating on an annual basis."

Much we don't know about face masks

One of the blunt tools the U.S. has been using with more frequency is a requirement to wear a face mask, including in workplaces. Research is starting to emerge showing the value of masks in protecting both wearers and those with whom they come into contact, but Osterholm said while wearing a mask is among the best advice we have today, there are problems. First, the masks where data has been strongest are the N95 masks that are used to protect health-care workers, and there is no way we can make those masks available to the general public. "We have to save those for health-care workers," Osterholm said, noting that in Minnesota intensive-care units for Covid-19, health-care workers are wearing N95 masks 10 days in a row." But he urged everyone to wear a covering. "Face-cloth covers are not surgical or N95, but wear 'em, wear 'em," Osterholm said, even though he added, "We don't know how well they work." The virus expert said distance is the most important protective measure, especially in indoor-air environments, and everything else, including masks, needs to be layered on after that. Osterholm chided current CDC director Robert Redfield for recently claiming that all we need is masks to drive Covid-19 into the ground in six weeks. "I thought it was irresponsible," Osterholm said of Redfield's claim.

Ford started resuming vehicle production in the U.S. on May 18, 2020 with new coronavirus safety protocols such as health assessments, personal protective equipment and facility modifications to increase social distancing. Ford

The infectious disease researcher noted that even in regions where citizens can be fined thousands of dollars for not wearing a mask, such as Hong Kong's public transportation system, we are still seeing problems with Covid-19. We don't want people to assume masks will make the difference," Osterholm said. Another factor, some field work in places like Philadelphia has shown that roughly one-quarter of everyone wearing face-cloth coverings are wearing them under the nose. Frieden said there is not a lot of data available on the effectiveness of full face shields, but the bottom line is that people need to be wearing some kind of face covering when they are in any indoor environment. There has been a lot of discussion about the need for updated HVAC systems to provide ventilation never considered necessary before Covid-19, but the former CDC director said becoming infected by touching a doorknob or elevator in a building is more probable than contracting the virus due to an AC system, which was the case with SARS. "One thing we need to do is know there is no one thing we need to do," Frieden said. "If anyone tells you they know this virus, don't trust them," he added.

Living in a '24/7 Covid world'
Hart, who also came down with covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, about the same time as his husband, said he had been in awe of Costas bravery during the pandemic. As the deadly virus spread, Costa continued to work on the front lines despite having a rare underlying autoimmune disorder. The disease had already sickened another physician and several staff members in the ICU before Costa fell ill in late June, Hart said.
The civic authority has received around 1,02,500 vials of remdesivir and 6,500 vials of tocilizumab so far

Mumbai: Several private hospitals in Mumbai are struggling to provide remdesivir and tocilizumab medicines to COVID-19 patients as the supply of both the drugs is less compared to the rising number of cases in the city.

The civic authority has received around 1,02,500 vials of remdesivir and 6,500 vials of tocilizumab so far and has supplied them to government hospitals across the state. Around 130 vials of remdesivir and tocilizumab were also provided to private hospitals.

A section of doctors claim only limited stocks of the drugs are available in the market, and there have been instances of dealers quoting high prices. In the past few days, relatives of patients and doctors at private hospitals have also been seen seeking help to get these drugs in different parts of the state.

State Surveillance Officer Dr Pradeep Awate says a few corporate hospitals have minimal stock of these drugs, while smaller hospitals do not have any.

Most of these hospitals manage with the available stock. They treat mild cases and refer severe cases to government hospitals. We have found that tocilizumab is effective and life-saving, while remdesivir is also good, he says.

He points out that black market sales are already happening, and the drugs are priced at double or triple their cost.

Dr Avinash Bondwe, president, Indian Medical Association, says it is becoming very difficult for private hospitals in many places to procure the drugs. Very limited stock is available in the market. Some dealers quoted high rates. For instance, dealers quoted a heavy price of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 for remdesivir, which is priced below Rs 5,000, he says.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces thwarted an attempt by Hezbollah to infiltrate across the Lebanon frontier on Monday, which the Iranian-backed Shia group denied.

"Hezbollah should know it is playing with fire," Netanyahu said in a televised address from Israel's defence ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv. He cautioned that any attacks from Lebanese territory would draw a powerful response.

Earlier, a Reuters witness in Lebanon counted dozens of Israeli shells hitting the disputed Shebaa Farms area along the frontier. Fires burned and smoke rose from the area, but no casualties were reported by Israel or Hezbollah.

Occupied by Israel, the Shebaa Farms is claimed by Lebanon. The United Nations regards it as part of Syrian territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israeli forces have been on alert along the northern border in anticipation of Hezbollah retaliation for the killing of one of its members a week ago in an alleged Israeli attack on the edge of the Syrian capital Damascus.

"A Hezbollah squad infiltrated Israeli territory," Netanyahu said. Saying that Lebanon had "paid a heavy price" for Hezbollah attacks on Israel in the past, Netanyahu cautioned the group's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, "not to repeat this mistake".

An Israeli military spokesman said between three and five Hezbollah militants had taken part in the operation and had crossed back into Lebanon.

Hezbollah, which last fought a war with Israel in 2006, denied that its forces tried to cross the frontier and said in a statement that the Shebaa Farms incident was "one-sided".

"There were no clashes or opening of fire from our side in today's events," Hezbollah said. "Our response to the martyrdom of Ali Kamel (Mohsen)... will surely come," it said, referring to the fighter who died in Syria.

A Lebanese source said Hezbollah had fired a guided missile at an Israeli tank. Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters he was unaware of any such incident.

After the killing of two Hezbollah members in Damascus last August, Nasrallah vowed to respond if Israel killed any more of its fighters in Syria. However the group's deputy leader on Sunday said an all-out war with Israel was unlikely.

Hezbollah fighters have deployed in Syria as part of Iranian-backed efforts to support President Bashar al-Assad. Israel sees the presence of Hezbollah and Iran in Syria as a strategic threat, and has mounted hundreds of raids on Iranian-linked targets there.

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Sapiens International Corporation, a global provider of software solutions for the insurance industry, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Delphi Technology Inc. (Delphi), a Boston, Mass.-headquartered vendor of software solutions for property and casualty carriers with a focus on the medical professional liability (MPL)/healthcare professional liability (HCPL) markets.

Delphi, founded in 1989, has more than 100 employees and approximately 40 insurance customers. The company offers core products for MPL, including policy administration, claims management and financial and risk management.

Sapiens will continue to support Delphis products and customers, who can now benefit from a variety of complimentary products and services. In addition, Sapiens will leverage Delphis expertise to further enhance its CoreSuite for property and casualty to provide a holistic, multi-line, comprehensive solution to the MPL market, according to a company press release. The acquisitions primary goal is expanding Sapiens presence in the MPL market, the release stated.

Source: Sapiens International Corporation

Topics Mergers Tech Medical Professional Liability
Editor's Note: Although the official Small Business Week has been postponed, we at Inc. feel it's always appropriate to recognize the teams and companies that serve the needs of their communities and help keep Main Street humming--and not just for one week!

Caut?ion plus creativity. For small businesses during the pandemic, that's a pretty good survival formula.

Andrew Dana is co-owner and founder of Call Your Mother Deli and Timber Pizza, in Washington, D.C., and a smaller offshoot of Timber and a bar in Arlington, Virginia. The businesses have an aggregate revenue of $8 million. Brick-and-mortar sales (Dana also does farmers markets and catering) are down just 10 percent. The company's 144 employees all remain on payroll.

The businesses are faring better than most in part because they are acclaimed and popular. But they've also benefited from Dana's cautious approach to budgeting. The company has always banked two or three payrolls in case of emergency.

The creativity piece is the 17 public-broadcasting-style incentives that in a few weeks brought in more than $75,000 from donors. Many involve post-social-distancing activities. For $15,000, you get a pizza and open-bar party for 75; $4,000 buys an empanada-making class for 18. There is also a yearlong "cut the line" pass at Call Your Mother for $2,000. "We're notorious for having a line that stretches down the block on weekends," Dana says. "So that one is pretty popular."

Every May, to coincide with National Small Business Week, Inc. honors the small, chiefly local companies that contribute jobs to our communities, vitality to our downtowns, and flavor to our lives. Companies that would rather be listed as Readers' Choice winners in city publications than be splashed across the covers of national ones. Companies like Call Your Mother Deli.

But this year the Small Business Administration postponed National Small Business Week, which was originally scheduled to begin May 3. (No new date has been announced.) That was probably the right decision. Many of the activities that make up the annual event require shared physical space. And given the mammoth economic relief effort currently heaped upon the SBA's plate, the agency does not need the distraction.

The sad reality, though, is that when Small Business Week does eventually happen, millions of companies now struggling through coronavirus-related closures and demand troughs will not be around to participate. Small businesses are uniquely vulnerable to crises because of their scant access to credit, meager cash reserves, and reliance--in the case of Main Street merchants--on pedestrians stopping in for an ice cream cone or to try on those sunglasses in the window.

Such businesses don't like their own odds. Forty-three percent expect to shut down permanently in less than six months if conditions don't improve, according to a study by Metlife and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Now, more than ever, small businesses deserve our attention, our appreciation, and our support. So Inc. decided not to put our own celebration of Small Business Week on hold. It is a challenging environment for hopeful stories, but we did find some out there, and not all are related to the manufacture of masks and hand sanitizer.

We found stories of local merchants supporting one another. Of small business owners rising above their own misery to raise the spirits of their communities. Of entrepreneurs rallying their peers around new distribution channels. And of innovative ideas that may help transform the shop-local ethos of Small Business Week and Small Business Saturday into a yearlong state of mind.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's eldest son Yair has apologised to Hindus after he faced flak from some Indians who found one of his tweets to be "quite offensive".





On Sunday, the 29-year-old Yair, who is very active on social media and often defends his father's policies, posted a picture of the Hindu goddess Durga, with the face of Liat Ben Ari, the prosecutor in his father's corruption cases, superimposed over the goddess' face.

Her many arms were also raised giving the middle finger.



"I've tweeted a meme from a satirical page, criticising political figures in Israel. I didn't realise the meme also portrayed an image connected to the majestic Hindu faith. As soon as I realised it from comments of our Indian friends, I have removed the tweet. I apologise," Yair said in a tweet.



Attorney General Avichai Mandelbit's face was superimposed over that of a tiger accompanying the goddess under a caption that said, "know your place you despicable people".



Twitter users were split in their reaction over the post with some Indians harshly criticising him for the offensive tweet while others giving him the benefit of doubt and attributing it to general ignorance about the Hindu faith in the West.



Yair, who has been at the centre of several controversies, was appreciated by some Israelis for "showing courage in apologising for his mistake", but was also condemned in equal measure by others for "being irresponsible".



Earlier this month, Yair issued an apology to journalist Dana Weiss for appearing to suggest the top news anchor had attained her position through sexual favours, according to a local media report.



Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's trial on charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes opened in May in a Jerusalem court.



He has said that the allegations are baseless and that he is a victim of a wide-ranging conspiracy.
Committed to the Cause: Working on the Frontline to End Human Trafficking

 UNODC



Non-governmental organization

Mutaawe Rogers,

Senior Program Manager, Uganda Youth Development Link (UYDEL)

As a local non-governmental organization, we provide advocacy, psychosocial support, and skills development to disadvantaged children and young people between the ages of 13 to 24 years.

Our Organization was established 27 years ago and since then we identify, rescue, rehabilitate, and reintegrate victims of trafficking, particularly children trafficked and exploited in commercial sex activities, labour and servitude, including domestic service.

I have joined UYDEL 17 years ago and supported over 1,000 child victims of trafficking.

My work also includes protection of trafficking victims. In this role I worked to identify and rescue over 100 victims in the past two years.

In my role as a Senior Program Manager, I feel proud when I can help to restore hope in victims, and to support them in becoming resilient and so able to rebuild their lives, despite their traumatic experiences.

The most challenging part of my job is insufficient funding for child trafficking interventions and the language barriers with foreign-born victims, as this delays conducting the case assessment and the provision of appropriate services during their rehabilitation.

My Organization provides temporary shelter to the victims, which also makes it difficult to establish trusting relationships needed for a victim to open up.

We have received financial support from UNODC for the past two years to help us with the implementation of our programmes.

With financial help from the UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking Uganda is implementing a two-year project where my Organization operates a residential facility for victims. So far we managed to provide support to 120 trafficking victims.

During the COVID-19 pandemic we designed a social protection programme through which we distributed food and other essential products to 70 trafficking victims to reduce their vulnerability to falling prey to trafficking again.

We also provided online counselling and life skills training, as well as e-learning sessions to help young people to have better access to the job market and to sustainable economic livelihoods.
After 16 new cases between Saturday and Monday, Manitoba reached 400 total COVID-19 cases since March.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/7/2020 (540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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After 16 new cases between Saturday and Monday, Manitoba reached 400 total COVID-19 cases since March.

Of those 16 cases, four were in the Prairie Mountain Health region, four were in the Southern Health region and four were in the Interlake-Eastern region.

Six of those cases were new as of Monday.

The five-day test positivity rate is 0.45 per cent, with 84,967 tests having been completed so far.

"Many of these cases are due to travel or close contact with known cases," chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said during his media briefing on Monday.

After a recent lull that included more than a week with no new cases, there are now 74 active cases with three people in hospital, two of whom are in intensive care.

Roussin said the recent spate of new cases underscores the importance of people staying home when theyre sick.

"This virus is transmitted by close, prolonged contact," he said. "Moreso by people who are symptomatic, so we really stress staying home when feeling ill."

With respiratory illness season approaching in the fall, Roussin advised businesses to plan for increased absenteeism likely happening then.

He said physical distancing and handwashing will be even more important when that time comes around and added that wearing a mask will help when physical distancing is not possible. With recent cases happening at close, crowded events like funerals, Roussin advised that sometimes the best plan might be leaving an event to avoid exposure.

Manitoba Health is advising people that possible exposure to the virus might have happened at the Sherwood Grocery Store in Gull Lake when someone symptomatic visited on July 19, 20 and 21.

During Mondays health briefing, Health Minister Cameron Friesen said that Roussins health briefings to the media will be only happening once a week after this week.

Recently there had been two media briefings per week, on Mondays and Thursdays. Despite the cutback, briefings may still be held if conditions require it. A daily total of new COVID-19 cases will continue to be provided by the province.

Friesen said that later this week, he and Roussin will be addressing the health guidelines for students return to the classroom. Earlier in the year, the provincial government said it would be choosing between three different plans for the resumption of school, each with a different balance of courses being taught in the classroom and over the internet.

 cslark@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @ColinSlark
The global satellite data services market is experiencing a significant growth, and will grow considerably in next few years. Satellite data services include the collection and distribution of data regarding weather, military, and agriculture. Satellite data services are preferred in various applications such as military and agriculture due to its features including accuracy, and efficiency. It helps defense department to monitor the activities at border also helps to the agriculture 
As we fight the pandemic up here, it's actually a lot worse in Latin America. This is from a report in the New York Times:

Coronavirus has infected more than three million people and killed about 160,000 in Latin America, according to official figures, making the region one of the worst-hit by the pandemic. And experts and statistical analyses indicate that the real toll is far higher, concealed by limited testing and medical resources, and by some governments resistance to publicly acknowledging the scope of the crisis.

So people are getting creative, hoping that they can find the solution.

Beyond the health issues, COVID-19 has blown up very fragile healthcare systems and shutting down economies has devastated employers.

Let me loosely translate what a man from down there said on a weekend TV report: My country's hospitals are full and everyone is scared because businesses can't stay closed too much longer.

So people are hoping for a natural solution or the magic potion that cures the ailment.

In Brazil, according to the article, people are taking ivermectin, or something that people take to treat intestinal worms. Apparently, one politician is taking it and it is having a positive effect. Over in Peru, they want to try it, but the WHO and our FDA are warning people against it because it is intended for farm animals and not humans.

Where is all of this going to end? I don't know, but people who can't work because the businesses are closed or can't get treatment because the hospitals are overwhelmed are bound to get desperate. It looks like many in the Third World are at that breaking point.

What are the geopolitical consequences of desperate populations? It can't be good.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
The mayor of Ontarios largest city applauded the announcement Monday that municipalities in the province will share $4 billion in funding to help cover budget shortfalls caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city of Toronto alone faces a shortfall of $1.35 billion by the end of this year after city staff identified opportunities for savings. Most of that budget hole  $700 million  is attributed to the TTC and declining ridership.

I am hopeful that we can get the entire $1.3 billion but I cant say that Im expecting it, Mayor John Tory told a news conference after the announcement of the provincial and federal funding plan for 440 cities and towns.

Earlier, the city outlined significant cuts to services that would be required if funding did not materialize, including to libraries and police.

Tory said they city does not have the breakdown for how much Toronto will get but called the announcement a very positive sign.

He encouraged the province to use up-to-date information such as transit ridership to determine how the money is shared between municipalities.

Premier Doug Ford said the money announced Monday will ease budget shortfalls, and that details will come in the next few weeks.

This funding will help restart our economy, he told a news conference at Queens Park, noting its part of a $19-billion deal negotiated by the provinces with the federal government last week.

Our municipalities have been hit hard by COVID-19.

There will be $2 billion for transit systems, split between Queens Park and the federal government, and $2 billion for municipalities, including $777 million from the feds and $1.22 billion from the province.

Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney said some transit systems have lost 90 per cent of their ridership and face higher costs for cleaning, making financial assistance crucial to keeping lines running for essential workers and others to get to their jobs.

The money was also applauded by municipal groups.

Its an important investment in communities in every part of our province, and in Ontarios economic recovery, said Jamie McGarvey, president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

Municipal and regional government leaders from the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area (GTHA) called the funding promise a positive sign in a joint statement after a meeting Monday.

The mayors and chairs look forward to receiving more details about how this substantial and much-needed funding will be allocated to that we can fully understand how it will help address our requirements, said the statement.

Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark said money wont be provided until the federal government releases it and calculations can be made to determine how much each municipality gets.

Opposition parties said municipalities need more funding, particularly for daycare and long-term-care homes.

Unless the government is willing to shore up child care with an immediate investment, there will be an exodus of working moms from the economy, warned Green Leader Mike Schreiner.

While the funding announced Monday might give some breathing room to municipalities hurting from pandemic costs, it still fall far short of what will be needed to protect jobs and public services over the long term, said New Democrat MPP Jeff Burch (Niagara Centre).

After the $19-billion deal was reached last week, the federal government said $4.5 billion would be for the purchase of personal protective equipment by Ottawa plus $3 billion to support provincial purchasing efforts; $4.28 billion will go to COVID-19 testing and contact tracing; $2 billion for municipalities; $1.8 billion for transit that the provinces must match; $1.1 billion for temporary income support for sick leave; $740 million to support vulnerable populations and long-term care; $700 million for health-care capacity plus $500 million for mental health; and $625 million for child care.

Jennifer Pagliaro is a Toronto-based reporter covering city hall and municipal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @jpags

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Actor Priyanka Chopra and her musician husband Nick Jonas have donated to Bihar flood relief, a day after the couple made donations for flood relief work in Assam. She also encouraged people to donate and shared links of some organisations who are doing relief and rehabilitation work in the state.

The monsoon in India have caused major devastation in many parts of the country. In the state of Bihar, which is where I was born, continuous heavy rains have caused major flooding, the actor wrote, adding, Much like Assam, millions of people have been affected and many have been displaced as their homes were washed away in the deluge. As they grapple with this devastation, they need all the help that we can provide. Nick and I have already donated to a few organisations whose teams are engaged in the active relief and rehabilitation work in the state. Now its your turn #BiharFloods. She shared a couple of organisations that one can make donations to such as Goonj and Zomato Feeding India.

A total of 2.4 million people have been hit by flood across 11 of 38 districts in Bihar, with Darbhanga being the worst-affected. The flood affected districts are: Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Supaul, Kishanganj, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, West Champaran, East Champaran, Khagaria and Saran. With met department forecasting more rains, the situation is expected to further deteriorate in the entire northern belt - from Gopalganj to Katihar.

On Monday, the actor had written, While we are all still dealing with the effects of the global pandemic, the Indian state of Assam has been grappling with another major crisis. It has been devastated by floods triggered by heavy monsoon showers affecting the lives of millions. The impact to life and land/property is unimaginable. The rapidly rising water level has also flooded the Kaziranga National Park, one of the finest wildlife sanctuaries in the world, wrote Priyanka in a tweet. They need our attention and support. Im sharing details of a few credible organizations that are doing some good work on the ground in Assam, and Nick and I have made a donation to each. Let us support them so they can continue to help those in need. #Assamfloods #PrayForAssam #AssamNeedsHelp @PRIYANKACHOPRA, she added.

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STUTTGART (dpa-AFX) - The Federal Trade Commission or FTC said that German carmakers Volkswagen and Porsche repaid more than $9.5 billion since 2016 to car buyers, who were deceived by 'clean diesel' ad campaign.



In a filing with federal court, the regulator said the payment was made under its orders following the companies' deceptive advertising of Volkswagens and Audis fitted with illegal emission defeat devices.



In March 2016, the FTC had filed a complaint in federal court, alleging that Volkswagen's seven-year ad campaign was based on false claims that the cars were low-emission, environmentally friendly, met emissions standards, and would maintain a high resale value. However, the cars were fitted with illegal emission defeat devices designed to mask high emissions during government tests.



The case was settled, and the companies were required to make payments to consumers that included compensation for their vehicles' full retail value, plus all other losses they suffered because of the deception.



In the largest consumer redress program in U.S. history, set up in 2016 and 2017, the companies were to compensate purchasers and lessees of more than 550,000 deceptively marketed 'clean diesel' VW and Audi cars.



The customers could choose to return their vehicle to VW or Porsche in exchange for compensation, or to get the car modified to comply with clean-air rules. More than 86 percent chose to return their car through a buyback or early lease termination, the FTC noted.



In May, a top court in Germany had ordered Volkswagen to buy back the diesel cars delivered to customers with faulty emission systems.



The emissions scandal, dating back to 2015, resulted in the ban of the diesel cars with the cheating software in the U.S. However, the company was allowed to update the software in Europe.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Berkeley County is suing a former supervisor and employee, alleging the two conducted a scheme where the boss could issue thousands of dollars in severance pay to his subordinate just as both men were about to leave their jobs.

Former County Supervisor William W. Peagler III and former Deputy Supervisor and Chief Financial Officer Timothy Callanan were named in the civil suit filed Monday in state court for taking part in an "illegal and bad faith scheme" before leaving their positions in 2018, the lawsuit claims.

Peagler served as supervisor from January 2015 through December 2018 and hired Callanan as his subordinate shortly after taking office.

On June 12, 2018, Peagler lost the Republican primary to Johnny Cribb, the current county supervisor and no Democrats filed to run, paving the way for Cribb to take over the following year.

Callanan "secretly approached Peagler following his defeat and the two concocted a scheme" to financially benefit the deputy supervisor on the eve of his departure from Berkeley County, the lawsuit states.

A Confidential Severance Agreement dated Nov. 8, 2018, would obligate the county to pay Callanan $49,900 in the form of an extra allowance to his salary. He was supposed to receive it within five days and then he would be on paid administrative leave until Dec. 3, allowing him to keep his various employee benefits through the end of the year.

Callanan was making $121,037 a year. While Peagler's exact salary isn't listed, the lawsuit stated he "boasted to his friends and made known that two of the main reasons he ran for the position of Berkeley County Supervisor were the six-figure pay and his intentions of claiming the Supervisor salary as his 'highest and best three years' to inflate his state-funded retirement."

Even though the $49,900 payment raised red flags for several Berkeley County officials, Peagler threatened to retaliate if other employees didn't authorize they payment. The county attorney was also never informed of the agreement, the lawsuit states.

After the check was issued, Callanan left the County office, took the check directly to the closest Wells Fargo and obtained a cashiers check so that he was certain to get the funds if the payment was canceled.

But five days later, the members of County Council were made aware of the payment and during an emergency meeting the group unanimously voted to terminate Callanan for misappropriation of funds.

Additionally, council voted to strip Peagler's power to spend unappropriated money through the remainder of his term.

After being fired, the former deputy supervisor still obtained nearly $35,000 in additional unauthorized funds, the lawsuit states. The county hopes to recoup those funds as well.

"Outgoing elected officials are not permitted to issue large 'severance payments' to their close, public-employee friends right before leaving elected office," the lawsuit states. "... to hold otherwise would wreak havoc on local governments and taxpayers."

Peagler and Callanan are being accused of breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment and conversion.The lawsuit seeks for unspecified financial damages and a jury trial.

Attorney Walker Humphrey, who is representing Berkeley County, declined to comment on the case. A State Law Enforcement Division probe into the scheme is still ongoing.

Callanan, who now serves as a county manager of Effingham County, Ga., did not return a phone call or email seeking comment. Multiple attempts to reach Peagler by phone were unsuccessful.
The regime has blocked Fares al-Shihabis efforts to produce Syrias first ventilator unit, with the businessmans recent criticism thought to be behind the decision write Shaam News.

Head of the Aleppo Chamber of Industry and a former member of the Clapping Council, (editors note: this is a sarcastic reference to the Peoples Council or Parliament) Fares al-Shihabi, had his commercial project, National Ventilator, rejected by the the regimes Ministry of Health.

The move seemed to be a retaliatory measure in response to Shihabis publishing of scandals that revealed how the regime rigged the Peoples Assembly elections and bought votes.

Tayseer Dirklet, who is the head of the technical team for National Ventilator  formerly known as Hope  revealed what he described as an impossible request by the health ministry, which decided that the new project should have the same specifications as its American competitor, Dragon.

In a press statement to a pro-regime radio station, Dirklet mentioned that

National Ventilator had promised to offer the health ministry the first national ventilator, which was welcomed by the regime.

He also expressed his fear that the decision to stand against the initiative might be for personal reasons, in a clear indication that the decision comes in response to the publications by Shihabi, which showed the regimes tribulations in Aleppo.

Perhaps the clearest indication that the latest decision came in revenge is that the regime has previously participated in the promotion of the same product as well as the approval of the health ministry of what it described as the optimal specifications that distinguish the ventilator, and indicated that the product was very close to hitting the market, which is not true anymore, knowing the new conditions set by the ministry.

The health ministrys change of heart comes on the heels of its previous decision to refuse to authorize National Ventilator to proceed with production, days after Shihabi made his Facebook post. Shihabi commented on his loss of membership of the Clapping Council as revenge and an attempt to weaken the overall industrial estate, accusing the Islamic State of being behind it.

Shihabi also referred to his reluctance to run in the elections, as, according to him, it seems clear from the beginning that the elections are being tampered with. However, he decided to take a risk and commit to being a modern civil model in the elections, which made him lose seat in the Clapping Council.

Shihabis posts ignited fiery responses from the regimes mouthpiece, Shadi Helwa, who is said to be close with the al-Qatirji militia.

It appears that Shihabi was in a hurry, working against a tight deadline to announce his commercial project to raise his chances ahead of the Clapping Council elections, which have already been postponed three times, until they ended up taking place on Jul. 19, 2020.

The Aleppo Chamber of Industry had previously promoted Shihabis product through publications by Shihabi, who had been talking about the production of the first national ventilator and calling it Hope. He also said that the device was going to be produced and sold according to the Aleppo Chamber of Industrys specifications.

Shihabi is considered one of the influential pro-regime figures. He is one of the most wealthy people in Aleppo and one of the loudest voices demanding the extermination of anti-regime Syrians.

This shows how the regime deals with its supporters, in a way that is redolent of Assads recent conflict with Rami Makhlouf.

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.
BROOKLYN, New York, Monday, July 27, 2020 - Fascinating opportunities are emerging from a new class of materials named two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors, which are only one atom thick. 2D materials are poised to have a bright future in the electronics and optoelectronics industry, as well as in Internet of Things devices. Any cell phone, computer, electronic device, and even solar cells, are all composed of the same basic electronic building block, the diode. Unfortunately, a major obstacle for the wide application of 2D materials in industry is the unsolved challenge of the scalable and robust nanofabrication of the core element of a diode, which is a "p-n junction".

Elisa Riedo, professor at the New York University (NYU) Tandon school of Engineering led an international team of investigators who demonstrated a novel approach based on thermal scanning probe lithography (t-SPL) to fabricate state-of-the-art "p-n junctions" on a single atomic layer of molybdeunum disulfide (MoS2) a transition metal dichalcogenide. The work, "Spatial defects nanoengineering for bipolar conductivity in MoS2," appears in Nature Communications.

To produce "p-n junctions", it is necessary to dope a semiconductor in such a way that part of it is n-doped (doped with an excess number of electrons) and another part is p-doped (doped with an excess number of positively-charged "holes"). Riedo and Davood Shahrjerdy, professor of electrical and computer engineering at NYU Tandon, showed that by combining t-SPL with defects nanoengineering was possible to obtain nanoscale-resolution bipolar doping of MoS2, yielding to both n-type and p-type conduction, which can be readily extended to other 2D semiconductors.

As part of the research, the team integrated t-SPL -- using a probe heated above 200 degrees Celsius -- with a flow-through reactive gas cell to achieve a unique nanoscale control of the local thermal activation of defects in monolayer MoS2. The defective patterns can give rise to either p- or n-type conductivity on demand, depending on the gasses used during the local heating process. Doping and defects formation mechanisms are elucidated at the molecular level by means of X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and density functional theory.

The international team included researchers from the City University of New York (CUNY), Politecnico di Milano, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Pennsylvania, and the National Research Council of Italy (CNR).

"In our previous research we showed that t-SPL outperforms electron beam lithography and other standard methods for fabricating metal electrodes on MoS2, an advance that could also decrease the cost of fabrication since t-SPL does not require markers or vacuum," said Riedo.

With this consecutive success in bipolar doping of 2D semiconductors, t-SPL is now able to offer both dopants patterning and chip manufacturing, which will rapidly advance the material science and chip design. "It is great to see how t-SPL is now taking up to enable the fabrication of functional transistor devices from 2D materials, including control of the doping levels" said Armin Knoll, from IBM Zurich, one of the pioneers together with Riedo of t-SPL.

###

This Research was funded by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the US Department of Energy.

About the New York University Tandon School of Engineering

The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly). A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention and entrepreneurship and dedicated to furthering technology in service to society. In addition to its main location in Brooklyn, NYU Tandon collaborates with other schools within NYU, one of the country's foremost private research universities, and is closely connected to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. It operates Future Labs focused on start-up businesses in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn and an award-winning online graduate program. For more information, visit engineering.nyu.edu.
The linking of a renowned and revered businessman as Capt. Hosa Okunbo to the humongous corruption allegations against former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke is nothing but a ploy by mischief makers to dent his hard earned reputation, a group has said.

Concerned Maritime Operators (CMO), said All the co-travellers of Diezani are either in exile or in court with her. It said their is no basis whatsoever to associate Capt. Okunbo with the alleged misappropriation of state funds by the former minister.

Recall, Capt. Okunbo had said I have never written a statement in the EFCC or any anti-corruption agency to date. If, indeed, I was with Dieziani, will I still be doing business in the NNPC where I am a champion for service delivery?

For the past four years, a patently false story had been circulating about his purported business dealings with the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke, especially as regards the controversial offshore processing agreements (OPAs) popularly known as oil swap involving the former minister and her cronies.

Captain Okunbo, a former commercial pilot, is the chairman of Ocean Marine Security Limited, an offshore asset protection company, rendering services to major oil companies in Nigeria, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC.

The former minister Alison-Madueke has been under investigations since the outset of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2015. The United States Department of Justice had list her and two other businessmen, Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore as persons of interest in a civil complaint filed at a District Court in Houston, Texas, detailing how the duo laundered millions of dollars on her behalf which were used in buying properties in the U.S. and the UK in return for oil contracts.

CMO Chairman, Mr. Tunde Hamzat said: No cowardly soul resides in the likeable billionaire businessman, Captain Hosa Okunbo, because he is no trembler in the worlds storm-troubled sphere. Cowardice and doubt disperse in the blaze of his scorching righteousness because his business and personal ethics are so firmly anchored on the steadfast rock of conscience and integrity.

The renowned and revered businessman would never use gilded words to mask deceit neither does he brandish fickle principles and statistics to conclude with a false truth. He is, indeed, unlike many rabble-rousers who flashes documents to lock down evidence but never real facts to back their proof, the group said in a statement that was issued yesterday.

There were reports that more names involved in the multi-billion dollar deal would be revealed as investigations continued.

Hamzat who said he expected the media to end such malicious reports, expressed displeasure on what he called sheer laziness and unprofessionalism on the side of some bloggers who have sustained the misrepresentation of the contract that formed the basis for the misleading publication.

According to him, the falsehood is being assisted with the ubiquity and freedom of social media and that it had become increasingly clear that maintaining silence further would be misconstrued for consent.

The group averred that neither he nor any of his business entities had ever been engaged in any deal requiring lifting the tiniest drop of oil, crude or refined. I am not a trader; I have never submitted nor participated in any Oil Swap deal, neither do I own a company trading in any petroleum products.

Hamzat said Capt. Okunbas over four decades in business spanning engineering and technology, energy, integrated service in the petroleum sector, maritime, security, agriculture and others, integrity has been his guiding principle and a core value with which he has been able to earn trust and confidence of companies and corporations of global repute.

He claimed that Okunbo has never stood before any administrative, judicial or legislative panels to answer any questions related to any shady deal.

He challenged anyone whether in the NNPC, the media or anywhere else to come forward with any evidence that can puncture his assertions while declaring, I implore cowards and mischief makers who are quick to broadcast unverified Whatsapp messages and the Nigerian media to be thorough, fair and objective in their journalistic responsibility.

Capt. Okunbo is a globally-certified Ambassador of Peace who has been decorated home and abroad as a Citizen of Humanity. Though his businesses, which have added immeasurable value to the Nigerian economy and philanthropy, Capt Okunbo makes history every hour and industriously adds page after page, volume after volume, as if nature were holding up a monument to his exploits.

One of the few blessed men who started from the scratch, kept their nose to the grindstone and turned seemingly insignificant ideas into behemoth industries, Capt Okunbo is a man that would be sent to Mars and still treat it as a stepping stone to Saturn  the quality of constant invention and self-improvement that has earned him worldwide acclaim and prosperity, he stressed.

Okunbo exudes the lustre of the proverbial leading light thus distinguishing his persona amid a range of middling men. He radiates compassion, ardour and acclaim that no lifes odd could tame. Having hacked his path to affluence in honest, industrious strides, he spreads out like a bastion of human aspiration even as his exploits become objects of the world affection. Everywhere he navigates, he exudes a spirit of humaneness and generosity that even the worlds finest and most daring philanthropists live in awe of.

No wonder he was, in 2019, bestowed with the prestigious Order of Lafayette award at the United Nations day for Global Peace. The Order of Lafayette is a patriotic, hereditary, nonpartisan, and fraternal organization established in New York City in 1958 by Colonel Hamilton Fish III (1888-1991), a former Congressman from New York and decorated veteran of the First World War.

Captain Okunbo was especially honoured for his distinguished role in encouraging, engendering and entrenching peace and harmony in Africa and the world at large. He was presented with his award by His Excellency, Robert Blum, chairman of the Order of Lafayette Awards. Present at the auspicious and exclusive awards presentation were diplomats and political and economic leaders from all over the world who had all come to celebrate with one of their own, Hamzat said.
Forward-looking: Sony is reportedly confident that the PlayStation 5 is going to be successful. So successful, in fact, that during its five-year lifespan, the machine is predicted to challenge the PS2 as the best-selling console ever. It's expected to ship 120 - 170 million unitsdouble those of the Xbox Series X.

According to a report from Digitimes, which cites Sonys backend supply chain in Taiwan, the life cycle of the next-gen consoles will be shortened to five years. For comparison, both the PS4 and Xbox One launched in 2013.

The publication states that PS5 shipments may reach 120  170 million units during its five years, beating the PS4s 110 million. That would put it close to, or even beat, the PS2, which sold over 155 million. The report adds that Microsoft is planning to ship around 60 million units of the Xbox Series X across its lifetime.

Its worth noting that Digitimes isnt always the most reliable sourceit claimed that Ryzen 4000 desktop chips wouldnt arrive this year, something AMD has since confirmed isn't true. However, we have heard that Sony is doubling production of the PS5 to 10 million units in 2020 due to increased demand caused by the pandemicit took two quarters for the PS4 to sell just 7.5 million units.

As for the Xbox Series X shipping 60 million units; the current-gen Xbox One has shifted around 50 million consoles, and the trend of Sony doubling its rivals figures does look likely to continue.

Demand for the PS5 is expected to be through the roof. The pandemic has seen more people prefer to stay home and game rather than go out and risk infection. As a result, spending on gaming is at its highest in a decade. Weve also heard that PS5 pre-orders are imminent, and Sony is limiting purchases to one per household. With Microsoft failing to impress at its recent Xbox Games Showcase, the future is looking bright for Sony.
According to* cybersecurity reporter Lucas Ropek, a report from cybersecurity vendor Check Point Research shows that COVID-themed phishing attacks increased globally across all sectors between February and late April, jumping from 5,000 per week to over 200,000 per week. These attacks occurred in almost all sectors, including "governments, industry, healthcare, service providers, critical infrastructure and consumers."For state and local governments, that has meant that hackers have increased their "focus on so-called 'soft targets'  local governments, public administration agencies, education, and even hospitals," reports vendor SonicWall in their 2020 mid-year report. Some states have been hit more heavily than others, with Maryland, Florida, Michigan, and Tennessee having some of the highest rates.Even fewer Americans thought the biometric tool should be used by advertisers or tech companies.Now, as calls to defund, divest or otherwise drastically alter police departments have escalated, a fairly hostile regulatory landscape is emerging for facial recognition, reportss Ropek. Some municipalities are considering outright bans and a number of potential laws threaten to drastically curtail the industry.To a large degree, the police protests have reset the legislative conversation. Previously, face recording moratoriums had been introduced in cities across the country, but almost all of these bills floundered , frequently after localized pressure from the tech lobby.Now, however, these regulations are seeing renewed interest. Much of this momentum has likely been engendered by the now heightened relevance of arguments long made by civil rights groups: that facial recognition inordinately targets marginalized communities and, in some cases, reinforces a "racist" system of policing But college and university leaders would be wise if they were just as vigilant about protecting their sensitive data from the cybercriminals who are becoming increasingly sophisticated about encrypting the colleges data and making the colleges pay a ransom to get it back.Such ransomware attacks on universities have become common . In 2019 alone, 89 U.S. universities, colleges and school districts became victims of such attacks, followed by at least 30 in the first five months of 2020.Along with the financial services industry, the education sector is one of the two most common targets of these attacks.Government TechnologyGoverning's
Bill Gordon Smith, one of the shapers of modern north Alabama, is being remembered after his death on Sunday. He was 81.

An Army veteran, Smith moved to Huntsville in 1962 to work in the space program. He would later serve 20 years in the Alabama Legislature as a representative and state senator from the area. In those roles, he helped bring a Super Computer to Huntsville, which brought technology industries to the area, and he helped block a dog track from being built near the city.

Thousands of current residents drive daily on Research Park Boulevard to and from Redstone Arsenal and booming northwest Madison County. Smith was instrumental in building a key part of the road they use to commute. He worked with former Gov. Jim Folsom to secure funding to extend the road from University Drive north to Alabama 53. His negotiations saved Huntsville several million dollars in the process.

Smith was also a businessman known for his role in starting multiple technology companies, a nursing home, a fiberglass company and Bank Alabama. He helped fund the U.S. Space & Rocket Center and served on its board and was active in Huntsville First United Methodist Church. He was married for 59 years to his wife, Betty, and was the father of three children. A graveside service will be held Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. at Maple Hill Cemetery.
CLARE, MI -- An eight-hour standoff Monday at a Clare hotel came to a peaceful end.

Clare County Central Dispatch received a call around 12:15 a.m. Monday, July 27 for a possible domestic disturbance at the Quality Inn, 10318 S. Clare Ave.

Officers were advised a subject involved in the incident - a 49-year-old man from the Big Rapids area - had a handgun.

Clare Police Chief Brian Gregory told MLive that the man was alone when police arrived, with the victim outside.

The man, whose name has not been released, came to the door when police arrived, confronted officers, and refused to put the weapon down, which led officers to retreat to safety.

Shots were fired by suspect into the parking lot where officers were standing, said Gregory. He was in his room and hallway of (the) hotel.

Hotel occupants were safely escorted from the scene.

Negotiations began with the man with assistance from the Northern Michigan Mutual Aid Emergency Response Team, Clare County Sheriffs Office, and Michigan State Police.

The man eventually peacefully surrendered to police after eight hours. He was taken to the Clare County Sheriffs Office and is being held pending arraignment.

Mobile Medical Response, Clare City Fire Department, and City of Clare Department of Public Works also assisted police at the scene.

The incident remains under investigation.
The pejorative expression is used to describe someone not respecting the general safety measures.

Regular visitors of the Luxembourg Online Dictionary will no doubt have noticed the recent addition of a Covid-19 glossary.

The centre for the Luxembourgish language has accumulated a list of terms and phrases related to the pandemic. When arriving at the letter "C", not far after the word "confinement", you can now seen an article for the term "Covidiot" (as well as the female "Covidiotin"). Rather self-explanatory, the word is used to describe a person not respecting the safety regulations of the pandemic. As an example: "My neighbour actually wanted to organise a party during confinement, what a covidiot!"

It can only be hoped that the term will not have to be used in its plural form too often in the future, and that events such as illegal "corona parties" remain a curiosity of the past.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 05:18:54|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his Congolese counterpart Jean-Claude Gakosso discussed on Tuesday the recent developments in war-torn Libya.

In a statement, the Egyptian foreign ministry said the phone discussions between the two ministers came in the framework of coordination with the Republic of the Congo, which chairs the African Union High Level Committee on Libya.

During the conversation, Shoukry reaffirmed Egypt's keenness to help Libyans reach a comprehensive political solution that would help restore stability and undermine the influence of terrorist organizations on Libya and its neighbors, the statement said.

The two ministers also discussed the proposals on the international arena for a political solution in Libya, the statement revealed.

Meanwhile, Shoukry stressed that Egypt would not allow its national security to be endangered by the developments in Libya, noting that Cairo would take all measures to protect its interests and national security.

Libya has been locked in a civil war since the ouster and killing of its former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The situation escalated in 2014, splitting power between two rival governments with warring forces, namely the UN-backed Government of National Accord based in the capital Tripoli and a government in the northeastern city of Tobruk allied with the Libyan National Army led by Khalifa Haftar. Enditem
ANN ARBOR, MI  More than $260,000 in donations have fueled the campaigns of 13 Democratic candidates seeking seats on City Council in the Aug. 4 primary.

Campaign finance reports show political alliances in the continued battle for control of Ann Arbors council.
COLUMBUS, Ohio  Even though the Ohio State Fair and its traditional butter cow is canceled this year, a DIY Butter Cow Challenge invites Ohioans to create their own mini-butter cows.

The challenge is sponsored by American Dairy Association Mideast, Ohios dairy farmer-funded marketing and promotion program, which regularly sponsors the Ohio State Fair butter cow display.

The Butter Cow Challenge starts Tuesday, July 28, and runs through Sunday, Aug. 9. DIY butter artists can post photos of their creations on the ADA Mideasts Facebook page, or tag their photo with the tag #BuildYourButterCow on ADA Mideasts Twitter or Instagram, during that time.

One winning DIY sculpture will be announced Monday, Aug. 10, via social media, and will receive a YETI cooler as a prize, ADA Mideast said in a statement.

Paul Brooke, the state fair Butter Cow lead sculptor, has created a video with instructions on how to create a mini-cow sculpture at home. Youll need a pair of latex gloves, a 12-by-6-inch wooden board, and at least 2 pounds of butter.

The annual Butter Cow display at the Ohio State Fair is one of the most popular features of the fair, ADA Mideast said. Past butter display themes have honored the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Ohio State University Buckeyes, high school athletes and A Christmas Story. The annual butter display also honors Ohios dairy farmers.

Last years Butter Cow sculpture depicted the Apollo 11 crew, including Ohio native Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the Moon. The life-size sculptures, crafted out of more than 2,200 pounds of butter, also showed Armstrong saluting the American flag on the lunar surface. To the right, the butter cow and calf gazed at the astronauts.

This years Ohio State Fair is canceled due to COVID-19.

The butter displays at the Ohio State Fair are created by a technical sculpting team that spends more than 400 hours carefully chiseling small details into 2,000 pounds of butter, while working in a 46-degree cooler, ADA Mideast said. The team has created increasingly elaborate designs, using tinted butter and colorful lights, to be part of the display.

Its something Im truly proud to be a part of and have been lucky enough to enjoy each year for a long time, Brooke said in a statement. It will be fun to share that feeling of accomplishment with everyone this year, and I cant wait to see how their mini butter cows come together.
She lost her 75% vision, her father lost his only business, her two brothers stopped studies due to financial constraints but she didnt lose hope to fulfill her dream.

She is Kirti Kushwaha from Satna, who secured 8th rank in commerce stream in class 12 exam, result of which was announced on Monday afternoon by Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE). She scored 94.4% marks i.e. 472 out of 500 marks.

The 17-year-old Kirti fought against all odds with high determination and now she became an inspiration for her whole family and school, said principal of her school Priyamvada Birla Higher Secondary School, Satna.

Kirtis mother Rashmi Kushwaha said, Kirti didnt have 50% vision since her birth and she gradually lost 25% vision in the another eye. But she continued her studies in a school for normal students. Two years ago, her father Kavi Shankar Kushawaha met with an accident and lost his small tent houses business.

Once we had no money to make our both ends meet. It had become impossible for us to pay school fees and bear other expenses on studies. Kirtis elder brother and younger brother decided to leave studies but Kirti refused to leave her studies, said Rashmi.

Kirti convinced some parents in nearby localities and started giving tuition to students of up to class 8. As she was a talented student, parents of students showed trust in her and started sending their kids for tuition to her. She continued her studies with money she earned by giving tuition, she added.

Her journey was not so easy as the doctor asked her not to study in the poor light in night due to her decreasing vision. The electricity department cut our connection as we didnt pay the bill last year in July. The connection was resumed recently but we cant afford good light system. But Kirti didnt raise any demand for more facilities. She managed her school, tuition and studies from 6 Am to 6 PM by counting every minute, her mother said.

She also inspired me to work to earn some money then I started stitching at home. I earn Rs 1500 to Rs 2000 per month but that is not enough to run the house, she added.

Kirti said, My mother and teachers supported me a lot. I expected good marks but didnt expect my name in merit list.

The school principal SK Pandey said, She is a bright student and made us proud with her achievement.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shruti Tomar She is a senior reporter based at Bhopal. She covers higher education, social issues, youth affairs, woman and child development related issues, sports and business & industries. ...view detail
Twitter, Facebook and Youtube have deleted a viral video shared by President Trump that peddled disinformation about COVID-19, including that masks are unnecessary and that hydroxychloroquine is a cure for the coronavirus.

Donald Trump Jr. called the video, which was viewed tens of millions of times on the three social media platforms, a must watch, while Donald Trump retweeted the video to his 84 million followers.

The video, which shows a press conference with a group of people  Americas Frontline Doctors  wearing white lab coats in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, was first posted by Breitbart on Facebook and Youtube, but has since been removed.

Twitter deleted posts featuring the video, saying it was in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy and temporarily restricted Donald Trump Jr.s account, barring him from tweeting for 12 hours.

Facebook said it was removed for sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19.

Lead by emergency medicine specialist Simone Gold, who has vocally opposed stay-at-home orders, the group features doctors, anti-vaxxers, lawyers and a social media coordinator and says it wants to empower Americans to stop living in fear.

The doctors claimed you dont need masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and that recent studies showing hydroxychloroquine is ineffective are just fake science sponsored by fake pharma companies.

One doctor, Houston GP Stella Immanuel, claimed she has successfully treated more than 350 people with coronavirus using hydroxychloroquine.

This virus has a cure, its called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax, Immanuel said. You dont need masks, there is a cure.

Immanuels credibility has come into question as her past claims about alien DNA and the physical effects of having sex with witches and demons in your dreams have resurfaced.

The coronavirus claims contrast what White House officials, public authorities and scientists have said about the virus: The New England Journal of Medicine reported in June that a study showed that hydroxychloroquine was no better than placebo pills at preventing illness from the coronavirus.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is no specific antiviral treatment recommended for COVID-19.

The antimalarial drug has been a source of debate for months as critics of the president have accused him of overselling an unproven treatment, while his supporters have accused social media companies of censorship.

In April, YouTube removed a viral video of two California doctors questioning the severity of the coronavirus.

More from National Review
Officials around the world reintroduced a raft of restrictions Monday -- from beach closures to quarantine measures -- to try to tamp down coronavirus hotspots as the official global death toll passed 650,000.

European countries trying to repair the economic damage caused by the earlier lockdowns struggled to balance keeping the lifeline of tourism open while guarding against new flare-ups of infection.

Spain's tourism industry faced fresh misery after British travelers -- and one major tour operator -- cancelled flights there following London's decision to reintroduce quarantine for travellers returning from the country.

Hong Kong mandated wearing masks in public in response to a new wave of infections.

Belgium tightened its social distancing measures to try to halt what one expert called a "worrying" surge in cases.

In Jerusalem, special measures have been put in place to ensure those praying at the Western Wall keep a safe distance from each other. By MENAHEM KAHANA (AFP)

In Washington, meanwhile, the White House announced that another senior administration figure, national security advisor Robert O'Brien, had contracted the virus.

As of Monday evening, the US, the worst-hit nation in the world, had added another 57,000 cases of infection and its recorded death toll stood at 147,588, said Johns Hopkins University.

Until Sunday, the number of US daily infections had exceeded 60,000 for 12 straight days, with some days notching more than 70,000 new cases.

But as the grim figures kept rolling in, the World Health Organization argued against a wholesale closing of borders.

This was "not necessarily a sustainable strategy for the world's economy, for the world's poor, or for anybody else," said WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan.

A "global one-size-fits-all policy" was impossible because outbreaks were developing differently in different countries, he added.

Hong Kong situation 'remarkably severe'

The WHO said its emergency committee would meet later this week to discuss the crisis, six months after the organization declared the pandemic an international public health emergency.

The global death toll from the pandemic passed 650,000 Monday, nearly a third of that number in Europe, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources at 1600 GMT.

Authorities in Hong Kong made it mandatory to wear masks in public from this week and unveiled the city's toughest social distancing measures yet. By Anthony WALLACE (AFP)

Since emerging in China late last year, the virus has killed a total of 650,011 people -- but more than 100,000 deaths have been recorded since July 9, and the global toll has doubled in just over two months.

China reported its highest number of coronavirus cases in three months, part of a worrying swell of infections hitting Asia and Europe.

Indonesia confirmed its 100,000th coronavirus case Monday, as the Red Cross warned that the crisis in the world's fourth most-populous country risked "spiralling out of control."

The annual hajj has been dramatically downscaled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. By Gal ROMA (AFP)

New infections have also surged in Hong Kong, which for weeks appeared to have infection rates under control.

Now, however, everyone in the densely populated territory must wear masks in public from this week.

"The epidemic situation in Hong Kong is remarkably severe," Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung said as he announced the measure, as well as a ban on more than two people gathering in public and restaurants restricted to serving takeaway meals.

Tourism hit hard

Spain, which has already paid a high cost in human lives and economic losses during the pandemic, suffered a further blow after tour operator TUI cancelled all British holidays to the Spanish mainland from Monday until August 9.

They were reacting to Britain's decision late Saturday to require travelers returning from Spain to quarantine for two weeks.

Travellers returning to Britain from Spain now face a two-week quarantine. By Anthony Devlin (AFP)

"There have already been cancellations and more are expected," said Emilio Gallego, secretary general of Spain's hotels association.

"Nobody is going to come here for a week's holiday and then spend 14 days shut away when they get back home."

Irish no-frills airline Ryanair said Monday that it had nosedived into the red in the first quarter, noting that the pandemic had grounded its fleet for nearly four months.

"The past quarter was the most challenging in Ryanair's 35-year history," said a company statement.

Fresh preventive measures

Other countries took a different approach to fears over rising infections.

Germany will make coronavirus tests mandatory for travelers returning from risk areas, Health Minister Jens Spahn said Monday.

France ordered nighttime curfews for beaches in the Brittany resort of Quiberon on the Atlantic coast, after a fast-spreading coronavirus cluster emerged there last week. By Fred TANNEAU (AFP)

"We must prevent returning travellers from infecting others unnoticed and thus triggering new chains of infection," Spahn wrote on Twitter.

Belgium announced that from Wednesday, people there would be allowed to see five people at most outside their family circle, reducing the permitted "social bubble" from 15.

The measures came after the country recorded 1,952 new cases over the past week, more than 70 percent up on the previous week.

France ordered night-time curfews for beaches in the Brittany resort of Quiberon on the Atlantic coast, after a fast-spreading COVID-19 cluster emerged there last week.

Tehran warned Iranians against wedding and funeral gatherings as the coronavirus outbreak showed no signs of abating in the Middle East's hardest-hit country.

And Britain launched a campaign against obesity, days after a Public Health England report found that the condition increased the risk of death from coronavirus by 40 percent.

US biotech company Moderna began a final phase of clinical trials for a potential COVID-19 vaccine on Monday -- the same day it emerged President Trump's national security advisor Robert O'Brien had contracted the virus.

O'Brien, the most senior US figure so far to come down with the virus, "has been self-isolating and working from a secure location off site," said a White House statement.
THE Project Balik Buhay (PBB) will be relaunched following the support of the Inter-Agency Task Force for Covid-19 in the Visayas.

This time, however, the PBB will focus on the private sector, by gradually re-opening the community, especially the businesses.

The PBB calls for the implementation of a calibrated, scientific, and evidence-based transition from the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) status to general community quarantine (GCQ).

Instead of attending the 5th State of the Nation Address (Sona) of President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday, July 27, IATF Cebu Overseer Secretary Roy Cimatu opted to meet with the business sector and the local chief executives of Cebu to talk about the proposed relaunching of the said project.

"I am encouraged by that (PBB) move, I support it. I (will) encourage that also to other government agencies. I'm very happy naman to be of help really. Totoo yan ha! na I opted to be here in this meeting with the business sector because this is really very necessary. The importance really is the indication of success here in Cebu City," said Sec. Cimatu during a private meeting in Cebu City.

He also observed that Cebuanos now are more compliant following the health protocols that are being imposed to minimize the rise of Covid-19 cases in the City, after it was tagged as the epicenter of the coronavirus disease 2019 in the Philippines.

Secretary Cimatu noted a decrease in the positivity rate in Cebu City. He explained that the citys positivity rate has dropped considerably, from 30 percent out of 100 Cebuanos tested for Covid-19 last June, down to 11 percent in July.

Cimatu described the decline of the positivity rate as a good indicator of the governments response in the fight against Covid-19.

Retired Maj. Gen. Melquiades Feliciano, deputy Chief Implementor for IATF in Cebu, also expressed his support to PBB for the private sectors.

Feliciano stated that the end-product of this program is to have an agreement between the private sector and the local chief executives in implementing the PBB.

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"There is no question that PBB is a good process and will work for all business establishments. The business sector has mentioned going through the process of having this plan being cascaded and disseminated to all the business establishments," said Feliciano.

Edmun Liu, chairman of PBB for the private sector, committed to IATF that they will update their plan within the week.

Liu said they will tap health experts to ensure that they will present a thorough plan which includes establishing workplace health standards and regular testing protocols for business establishments to adopt.

He added that the said meeting is very timely for the plan of downgrading Cebu from MECQ to GCQ coming August 1.

Liu explained during the meeting that the initial plan of PBB was to establish guidelines to reopen the economy gradually and safely.

"PBB wanted to find a way to balance the lives and livelihood of the people, while not making it difficult for businesses to reopen. What we would have wanted sana during that time (June 1, Cebu City was under GCQ) was that for PBB to work, kailangan everybody would be willing to do our part, sana before reopening and going back to work, ma-implement yung health standards in the workplace, at saka ma-test yung employees, kahit man lang hindi 100 percent, and kahit even through rapid anti-body test lang, not the rt-PCR test because back then, we didn't have enough machines," Liu said.

He then reiterated that it is the main responsibility of the businessmen or the owners/employers, to provide a safe environment in their businesses, "but still we have to remember when we go back to work, kailangan safe tayong lahat. It is the responsibility of each businessman to take care of their workers," Liu stressed.

"We are ready to work, and we are ready to do our part," said Liu on behalf of the business sector.

Secretary Cimatu also revealed that the efforts made in Cebu are the first in the country. These strategies will be put into a template and a manual so that other parts of the country or local government units can apply these integrated responses against COVID-19, he added.

The meeting was hosted by Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino, Presidential Assistant for the Visayas, who was also in attendance.

Also present during the said meeting are Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella, Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard "Ahong" Chan, Talisay City Mayor Samsam Gullas, and Minglanilla Mayor Elanito Pena.

The private sector was also represented by Regional Development Council (RDC) 7 Chair Kenneth Cobonpue, who is also the co-chair for PBB, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) president Felix Taguiam and Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) president Steven Yu, among others.

Regional directors and officials of the different government agencies were also present during the meeting.(PR)
A HALF-YEAR IMPACTED BY COVID-19

- Consolidated revenue: 557.3m (down 157.2m)

- EBITA: 84.4m (down 63.9m)

- Operating margin: 15.1% (20.7% in H1 2019)

Implementation of an exceptional savings programme, which offset 59% of the fall in revenue

Regulatory News:

M6 Metropole Television (Paris:MMT):

At its meeting held on 28 July 2020, the Supervisory Board reviewed the 2020 half-year financial statements approved by the Executive Board.

H1 ( millions) 2020 2019 change (m) change (%) Consolidated revenue1 557.3 714.6 -157.2 -22.0% Group advertising revenue 400.6 539.3 -138.7 -25.7% - of which TV advertising revenue 338.6 454.3 -115.7 -25.5% - of which other advertising revenue 62.0 85.0 -23.0 -27.0% Group non-advertising revenue 156.7 175.3 -18.5 -10.6% Consolidated profit from recurring operations (EBITA)2 84.4 148.3 -63.9 -43.1% Operating income and expenses related to business combinations (5.9) (6.5) +0.6 -9.0% Capital gains on disposals of equity investments 120.9 0.4 +120.5 n.a Operating profit (EBIT) from continuing operations 199.4 142.2 +57.2 +40.2% Net financial income/(expense) (2.4) (2.8) +0.4 -14.8% Share of profit/(loss) of equity-accounted entities (3.0) 3.1 -6.1 n.a Deferred and current tax (31.7) (53.8) +22.0 -41.0% Net profit/(loss) of operations sold held for sale 0.0 (0.3) +0.3 n.a Net profit 162.3 88.4 +73.9 +83.6% Net profit for the period Group share 162.3 88.4 +73.9 +83.6% Net profit before capital gains on disposals of equity investments 42.7 88.0 -45.3 -51.5%

The lockdown of the French population and the near total shutdown of the economy have severely impacted the Group's various activities, both in terms of multimedia advertising (down 138.7 million) and non-advertising activities (down 18.5 million). For the first six months, M6 Group posted consolidated revenue of 557.3 million, a decline of 157.2 million (down 22.0%).

Within this context, the Group successfully and rapidly adjusted its level of operating expenditure, making savings of 92.2 million, comprising 49.1 million across programmes and 43.1 million in other costs, thus successfully offsetting 59% of the decline in revenues through cost savings. Demonstrating once again its agility, the Group posted a consolidated profit from recurring operations (EBITA) of 84.4 million, compared with 148.3 million in the 1st half of 2019, representing a fall of 63.9 million and an operating margin of 15.1%.

Furthermore, over the course of this turbulent half-year, the Group completed two major transactions, with the combination of iGraal with Global Savings Group, which reinforces the Group's positioning in digital marketing by becoming the principal shareholder in the new structure, and the opening up of the share capital of its technology subsidiary Bedrock to RTL Group, in order to accelerate its innovation capacity in streaming for on-demand television. These two transactions generated capital gains of 119.6 million over the half-year. Net profit for the period thus stood at 162.3 million (up 83.6%)

Excluding capital gains, net profit totalled 42.7 million, down 45.3 million or 51.5%

In accordance with IFRS 8, the contribution of the Group's 4 operating segments to consolidated revenue and EBITA was as follows:

Q1 Q2 H1 ( millions) 2020 2019 2020 2019 2020 2019 TV 228.9 238.6 -4.1% 157.7 250.9 -37.1% 386.6 489.5 -21.0% Radio 31.5 35.5 -11.2% 28.4 46.8 -39.2% 59.9 82.3 -27.2% Production Audiovisual Rights 15.9 19.7 -19.5% 13.4 20.4 -34.2% 29.3 40.1 -26.9% Diversification 44.9 51.9 -13.5% 36.3 50.7 -28.4% 81.2 102.5 -20.9% Other revenue 0.2 0.1 n.a 0.2 0.1 n.a 0.4 0.2 n.a Consolidated revenue 321.3 345.7 -7.1% 236.0 368.8 -36.0% 557.3 714.6 -22.0% TV 66.2 113.5 -41.6% Radio (2.2) 12.0 n.a Production Audiovisual Rights 14.4 11.4 +26.9% Diversification 8.2 15.9 -48.5% Unallocated revenue (2.3) (4.5) n.a Consolidated profit from recurring operations (EBITA) 45.6 64.2 -29.0% 38.8 84.1 -53.9% 84.4 148.3 -43.1% Operating margin 14.2% 18.6% 16.4% 22.8% 15.1% 20.7%

The fall in revenue had an impact on both quarters, whilst the savings programme was primarily implemented in the second quarter, which explains the improvement in operating margin.

TELEVISION

The TV advertising market, which began 2020 on a relatively stable note, plummeted in March due to the introduction of lockdown measures, with the trend remaining extremely challenging until mid-May. The market then saw a gradual sequential improvement, with a recovery in consumer spending.

Within this unprecedented environment, TV advertising revenue fell 25.5% over the half-year (down 28.1% at constant scope), including a fall of 41.7% over the second quarter (down 43.6% at constant scope).

Conversely, TV viewing (live and on-demand) surged during the pandemic. Average Individual Viewing Time rose by 27 minutes year on year (up 13%) in the first half of 2020, standing at 3 hours 56 minutes, and even reaching 4 hours 34 minutes (up 56 minutes) over the entire lockdown period, representing its highest ever level3

Against this backdrop, the range of event-driven and family friendly programming broadcast by M6 Group's channels proved popular.

The M6 channel retained its position as the 2 nd largest national channel on the commercial target across the entire day with an audience share of 14.1%.

With an average of 2.9 million viewers, in the 1 st half of 2020 M6 delivered a solid performance in the strategic access prime time slot (7.45pm-10.30pm) with strong ratings amongst women under 50 responsible for purchases (18% audience share).

Some of its leading brands continued to grow, such as Top Chef (4.0 million viewers, its best ever season amongst the under 50s with a 26% audience share), Maries au premier regard (3.0 million viewers, its best ever season amongst WRP<50 with a 26% audience share) and Pekin Express (3.2 million viewers, its highest audience figures in eight years).

channel retained its position as the 2 largest national channel on the commercial target across the entire day with an audience share of 14.1%. With an average of 2.9 million viewers, in the 1 half of 2020 M6 delivered a solid performance in the strategic access prime time slot (7.45pm-10.30pm) with strong ratings amongst women under 50 responsible for purchases (18% audience share). Some of its leading brands continued to grow, such as (4.0 million viewers, its best ever season amongst the under 50s with a 26% audience share), (3.0 million viewers, its best ever season amongst WRP<50 with a 26% audience share) and (3.2 million viewers, its highest audience figures in eight years). W9 consolidated its ranking as the second largest DTT channel amongst WRP<50 throughout the entire day (3.9% audience share). The channel provides the most powerful reality TV range on television, attracting a wide and young access prime time audience every evening.

consolidated its ranking as the second largest DTT channel amongst WRP<50 throughout the entire day (3.9% audience share). The channel provides the most powerful reality TV range on television, attracting a wide and young access prime time audience every evening. 6ter , with its wide range of programmes for the entire family, consolidated its position as the fifth largest DTT channel for all generations combined on the commercial target (2.8% audience share).

, with its wide range of programmes for the entire family, consolidated its position as the fifth largest DTT channel for all generations combined on the commercial target (2.8% audience share). Gulli , the leading children's channel for both 4-10 year olds and 4-14 year olds, posted growth amongst WRP<50 (up 0.2 percentage points) and achieved a 1.7% audience share. This performance was a result of the initial content synergies with the Group's other channels.

, the leading children's channel for both 4-10 year olds and 4-14 year olds, posted growth amongst WRP<50 (up 0.2 percentage points) and achieved a 1.7% audience share. This performance was a result of the initial content synergies with the Group's other channels. 6play, showcasing the event-based line-up of the Group's channels, also benefited from a dedicated range of programmes enabling it to support the strong growth of its audience. During lockdown, the platform recorded an increase of 43% in the consumption of its content, with the number of videos viewed reaching 715 million (up 15%)4 over the first half-year as a whole.

Moreover, M6 Group's pay channels consolidated their positions amongst the leading channels in the pay-TV environment5: Paris Premiere confirmed its status as the most watched pay-TV channel (13 million viewers each month) and Teva regained its leadership amongst WRP<50.

Programming costs stood at 192.8 million compared with 241.9 million over the first half of 2019, representing savings of 49.1 million in response to the record slump of the advertising market. The Group quickly managed to adapt its range of programmes, notably drawing on its catalogues of films and launching new tailored programmes, such as the successful Tous en cuisine

The TV division thus contributed 66.2 million to consolidated EBITA, against 113.5 million for the six months to 30 June 2019. The margin from recurring operations for the Group's core business remained at a high level, at 17.1%.

RADIO

After experiencing slight growth at the start of the year, the radio advertising market fell sharply from March onwards due to the sudden decline in consumer spending following the introduction of the lockdown measures. Against this backdrop, Radio revenue stood at 59.9 million, a decline of 27.2% in relation to the 1st half of 2019.

The results of the two audience waves for the 1st half of 2020 confirmed the RTL Radio division as the leading private radio group in France6

Over the January to March wave, the division posted the strongest growth of all major industry players. In this way, its audience share amongst listeners aged 13 and above recorded year-on-year growth of 0.7 percentage points to 18.9%.

RTL , France's leading radio station (equal with France Inter), saw its audience share increase by 1.6 points to 13.4%. The station achieved its highest ever level across all waves combined.

, France's leading radio station (equal with France Inter), saw its audience share increase by 1.6 points to 13.4%. The station achieved its highest ever level across all waves combined. RTL2 , whose breakfast show Le Double Expresso posted record audience figures, maintained its audience share at 2.9% for the entire day.

, whose breakfast show posted record audience figures, maintained its audience share at 2.9% for the entire day. Fun Radio achieved an audience share of 2.6%, a year-on-year decline of 1 percentage point.

Over the atypical May-June wave (Mediametrie was unable to conduct its surveys during the lockdown), the RTL Radio division reached a high level with an audience share of 19.5%. RTL posted an audience share of 13.4% and retained sole leadership of the market with a 1 percentage point lead over France Inter.

Negative EBITA of 2.2 million was recorded, compared with positive EBITA of 12.0 million for the first six months of 2019, reflecting the sharp decline in advertising activity.

PRODUCTION AUDIOVISUAL RIGHTS

In the 1st half of 2020, revenue from Production and Audiovisual Rights operations totalled 29.3 million, down 26.9% year on year, primarily due to the closure of cinemas between 15 March and 21 June. Films distributed by SND only recorded 1.6 million admissions over the first half of 2020, compared with 4.7 million over the same period last year.

Conversely, the division's EBITA grew 3.1 million to 14.4 million, due to the very strong growth in sales of catalogue films, both to the Group and to its external customers.

DIVERSIFICATION

Over the first half of 2020, Diversification revenue totalled 81.2 million, a fall of 21.4 million, 18.9 million of which was due to negative base effects related to the deconsolidation of iGraal (9.5 million) and the termination of the M6 mobile by Orange contract (9.4 million).

Diversification EBITA was 8.2 million, compared with 15.9 million for the 1st half of 2019. This fall of 7.7 million was primarily due to the lack of contribution by the M6 mobile by Orange contract (9.4 million) and the recovery of the Ventadis division.

As a result, across the scope of continuing operations, revenues recorded a slight decline of 2.5 million, or 3.4%, while EBITA grew 3.4 million (up 93.8%).

Amongst Ventadis' operations, Home Shopping Service stood out due to its wide range of household products, which proved popular with larger numbers of viewers during the lockdown, while Best of TV suffered from the closure of its points of sale.

It should be noted that, in a longer term context, the Group has begun exclusive negotiations with the company Stars, the parent company of Teleshopping, with a view to the sale of its entire share capital in Home Shopping Service.

During the pandemic, M6 Digital Services saw significant increases in the traffic on its websites, such as CuisineAZ.com, now the second largest player in the Cooking and Recipe sector, with 12.5 million unique visitors each month (up 67% year on year)7. Nevertheless, digital advertising revenue suffered from the worsening economic situation.

FINANCIAL POSITION OUTLOOK

The Group had shareholders' equity of 941.2 million at 30 June 2020, compared with 772.9 million at 31 December 2019, an increase of 168.3 million, reflecting the performance of the 1st half of 2020 as well as no dividend payments being made in 2020 for 2019.

Over the course of the first half of 2020, the Group also drew down on its bank credit facilities and benefited from the contribution of the disposal of iGraal (35 million collected). Through strict control of its operating cash flows, at 30 June 2020 the Group had a net cash position of 1.9 million8 and has sufficient liquidity to withstand the fall in receipts that will impact the next quarter.

Within a context of fragile and uncertain economic recovery since the end of the lockdown, the Group will make every effort to capitalise on the potential continuation of the upturn in the advertising market in the autumn, thanks in particular to a competitive range of programmes. It will also continue its cost control efforts.

GOVERNANCE

At its meeting of 28 July 2020, M6 Group's Supervisory Board appointed Regis Ravanas as member of the Executive Board, responsible for the Radio Stations, Music and Events.

The Executive Board of M6 Group is now comprised of five members:

Nicolas de Tavernost , Chairman of the Executive Board,

, Chairman of the Executive Board, Thomas Valentin , Vice-Chairman of the Executive Board in charge of Programmes and Content,

, Vice-Chairman of the Executive Board in charge of Programmes and Content, Regis Ravanas , Member of the Executive Board in charge of the Radio Stations, Music and Events,

, Member of the Executive Board in charge of the Radio Stations, Music and Events, Jerome Lefebure , Member of the Executive Board in charge of Finance and Support Functions,

, Member of the Executive Board in charge of Finance and Support Functions, David Larramendy, Member of the Executive Board in charge of Sales Activities.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

Having mobilised its employees and shareholders in order to deal with the crisis, the Executive Board did not consider it fair to allocate any performance-based shares in respect of 2020, and, in response to the sector-specific state support introduced, it decided on the rapid launch of a significant recruitment programme for young graduates.

Neuilly-sur-Seine, 28 July 2020

A conference call will be held on 28 July 2020 at 6.30pm (CEST). A webcast will be broadcast on the site www.groupem6.fr (Finance section).

Details on how to access the conference call are available at the same address. Both the slideshow presentation and the consolidated half-year financial statements will be accessible online from 6.00 pm, it being specified that the Statutory Auditors have completed a limited review of the financial statements and issued an unqualified report.

Next release: Third quarter financial information on 27 October 2020 after close of trading

M6 Metropole Television is listed on Euronext Paris, Compartment A.

Ticker: MMT, ISIN Code: FR0000053225

1 The information provided is intended to highlight the breakdown of consolidated revenue between advertising and non-advertising revenue. Group advertising revenue includes TV advertising revenue (advertising revenue of free-to-air channels M6, W9, 6ter and Gulli, and the 6play and Gulli Replay platforms, as well as the share of advertising revenue from pay channels) and the advertising revenue of radio stations RTL, RTL2 and Fun, and the share of advertising revenue generated by diversification activities (mainly Internet).

2 Profit from recurring operations (EBITA) is defined as operating profit (EBIT) before amortisation and impairment of intangible assets (excluding audiovisual rights) related to acquisitions and capital gains and losses on the disposal of financial assets and subsidiaries.

3 Source: Mediametrie Mediamat

4 Source: Heartbeat

5 Source: Mediametrie Mediamat Thematik, wave 39 (January-June 2020)

6 Source: Mediametrie 126,000

7 Source: Mediametrie (May 2020)

8 The net cash position does not take into account rental liabilities resulting from the application of IFRS 16 Leases

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005748/en/

Contacts:

INVESTOR RELATIONS

Guillaume Couturie +33 (0)1 41 92 28 03 guillaume.couturie@m6.fr

PRESS

Paul Mennesson +33 (0)1 41 92 61 36 paul.mennesson@m6.fr
Detroit Police Department reports relentless work resulting in unprecedented numbers of illegal weapons: 537 illegal... Posted by Detroit Police Department on Monday, July 27, 2020

DETROIT  More than 500 illegal guns were removed from the streets of Detroit over a recent four-week period during which the city saw an uptick in violence.

"We have not seen the number of handguns that we're seeing now," Chief James Craig said during a news conference on Monday, July 27.

Detroit police seized 537 illegally possessed firearms from June 22-July 19, he said. From June 22-July 26, the department arrested 473 people for carrying concealed weapons, with 128 of those arrests occurring last week.

Its no secret that Detroit like so many other cities has seen an uptick in violence, Craig said.

Reasons for this could include low bail for crime suspects and the release of people from jail during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

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Earlier, Donetsk Regional State Administration criticized plans to hold local elections along the contact line in Donbas.

Chairman of Ukrainian-controlled Luhansk Regional State Administration Serhiy Haidai says it is not possible to hold local elections in the frontline zone in the east of Ukraine.

Read alsoUkraine reiterates conditions for holding elections in occupied Donbas

"I believe it is impossible to hold elections. In this case, I support the position of our neighbors [Donetsk region's authorities]. This is a matter of national security. A decision on where the elections are not to be held will be taken by lawmakers," he said at a briefing in the town of Severodonetsk, according to the Hromadske media outlet.

Haidai also promised a decision on the head of the military-civil administration in the town of Schastia, who faces bribery charges, but continues performing his duties.

Earlier, Donetsk Regional State Administration criticized plans to hold elections in the towns and villages that "are located in range of illegal armed groups' large-caliber cannon and rocket artillery."
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said antiviral medications and antibody therapies meant to counter Covid-19 will likely bring about a substantial death rate reduction by the end of this year.

There's a good chance we'll have substantial death rate reduction by the end of the year with the combination of those new tools, several of which are [for] when you start to have serious symptoms, and could be used to treat Covid-19 before a person needs to go into intensive care, Gates said in a CNBC interview broadcast on Tuesday.

The observed coronavirus case-fatality ratio in the 20 most infected countries ranges from 15.2 per cent in Britain to 1 per cent in Saudi Arabia, with most countries showing 4 per cent or below, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.

The antiviral drug remdesivir, produced by Gilead Sciences, is one that may be developed into a form patients can take closer to the onset of symptoms, Gates said.

An individual dose of a Covid-19 vaccine candidate. Photo: Handout via Reuters

Under an emergency use authorisation granted by the US Food and Drug Administration for the experimental antiviral medication in May, hospitals can administer remdesivir intravenously to patients on ventilators or requiring supplemental oxygen.

Gilead CEO Daniel ODay said last month that his company received FDA approval for human trials of an inhaled remdesivir formulation, which could potentially allow for easier administration outside the hospital, at earlier stages of disease.

Gates pointed to other therapeutics that could bring death rates down.

There are two other antivirals which are more likely to be oral instead of the IV fusion  So, before the end of the year those other two antivirals, or the reformulation [of them], could be figured out, he said, without identifying the two.

Monoclonal antibodies are probably the most promising class, and here you have people like Regeneron, Eli Lilly, also AstraZeneca, doing some pretty strong work. And those trials are much faster because you can see the therapeutic benefit faster than the protective benefit, Gates said.

Story continues

The US government signed a US$450 million contract with New York-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals to buy its potential Covid-19 antibody cocktail, which contains a manufactured antibody and another antibody isolated from recovered Covid-19 patients and can be injected.

Antibodies made externally and administered intravenously diminish the ability of viruses to escape treatment and also protect cells from being invaded by the virus, although patients usually need multiple injections.

Eli Lilly has partnered with Shanghai Junshi, which last month started a phase-one study in China on its neutralising antibody that was co-developed with Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Microbiology. US partner Eli Lilly will lead trials outside China.

AstraZeneca announced last month that it has licensed coronavirus-neutralising antibodies from Vanderbilt University and plans to bring two of them into clinical development as a potential combination therapy.

Dr George Diaz, an infectious disease specialist at Providence Regional Medical Centre in Everett, Washington, said a remdesivir study his group conducted has shown a mortality benefit.

Diaz, who treated the first Covid-19 patient in the US with remdesivir, said that the study was undergoing a peer review and that the results would be published.

All we can say is that we have also found a mortality benefit in people that are hospitalised with Covid versus those that don't receive remdesivir, he said.

Diazs patient zero, a 35-year-old man who arrived in Seattle on January 15 after visiting family in Wuhan, China  where the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 emerged  was given remdesivir soon after he was admitted, confirmed to have the disease and developed pneumonia.

He was able to breathe without supplemental oxygen within 24 hours of the first dose and was well enough to be discharged within five days, said Diaz, prompting the Providence hospital group to run clinical trials on other cases that began to proliferate in the US northwest.

Providence Regional also began enrolling patients in a clinical trial of Regenerons candidate therapy this month, a study that Diaz called very, very promising, based on positive results seen in the use of convalescent plasma.

We know that using antibodies for treatment of Covid seems to be working. The problem with the plasma is you have to get a blood donor  so there are risks, he said. Monoclonal antibodies don't have that risk of infection from somebody else because [the Regeneron antibodies] are generated in the lab, so conceptually we're pretty sure that these will work.

Gatess expectation that Covid-19 treatments will alter the course of the pandemic before vaccines aligns with the conclusion made by South Koreas top coronavirus expert in April.

Dr Kim Woo Joo, who led South Koreas response to Covid-19 and the outbreak of Mers in 2015, said the time frame for effective treatment may be much shorter than what is needed to develop a vaccine, and singled out remdesivir as a hopeful candidate.

Kim said that evidence about the effectiveness of remdesivir, an experimental antiviral developed to treat Ebola; AbbVies Kaletra, an anti-HIV drug; or other medicines would likely be possible sooner than a vaccine for the illness.

If everything goes well, I am hoping that the effectiveness of these drugs will be scientifically proven within three to four months, Kim, a professor of infectious diseases at Korea University Guro Hospital, said in an April 16 interview with the president of the Korea Society, Thomas Byrne.

China's healthcare sector was one of the best-performing equity classes globally in the first half of 2020. Get a comprehensive industry review and insights on Covid-19 induced market shifts with the China Healthcare Report, brought to you by SCMP Research. Sign up for our 50% early bird discount now. You will also receive access to 6 closed-door webinars led by China healthcares most influential C-suite executives. Offer Valid until August 10th 2020.

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The NHS could take over the responsibility of social care and get an extra 22billion in funding, it was claimed today.

The controversial move  which would take power away from councils in England  would see the health service's budget skyrocket to 150bn.

David Cameron's former policy chief Camilla Cavendish has been hired by Downing Street to help Boris Johnson 'fix the crisis in social care'.

If the plans, reported by The Guardian, go ahead, councils will be stripped of their social care responsibilities and funding.

Those in favour of the controversial merger believe it would offer those in a need a more streamlined service and Ms Cavendish revealed that she knew of one man who had been visited by 102 carers.

It comes after the Prime Minister yesterday dismissed reports that the Government is planning to force all over-40s to pay more tax to fund their social care.

The PM's official spokesman said it was 'not true that we are considering this policy'.

The NHS could reportedly take over the responsibility of social care and get an extra 22billion in funding that the Government is currently giving to councils (stock image)

He is under pressure to come forward with a solution to the issue he first pledged to 'fix once and for all' more than a year ago in the Conservative Party's 2019 manifesto.

The spokesman said the PM would 'take the time' to ensure the proposed overhaul is both 'fair' and 'sustainable' before setting out his proposals in public.

The Department of Health and Social Care has denied any plans to bring social care under the control of NHS England.

Some 1million elderly people have been deprived of the social care they would have been able to receive before 2010 because the service is beleaguered by a litany of problems.

The quality of care varies wildly from postcode to postcode and workforce shortages have led to a lack in services.

Local councils are expected to put up a fight against the merger because providing social care is a huge source of funding.

A health policy expert told The Guardian that if the NHS does take over social care, it would 'decimate local government finances'.

Ms Cavendish and the social care reform minister at the DHSC, Helen Whately, are allegedly discussing how social care services would be controlled by regional NHS bodies called integrated care systems (ICSs).

But ICSs, which bring together different NHS care providers, have no legal standing so legislation would be necessary if the alleged new plans were brought in.

Boris Johnson has previously promised to 'fix once and for all' the country's social care crisis

Over-40s could face higher taxes to help fund the cost of care - which is expected to soar by an extra 7billion a year All over-40s could be asked to pay more tax to help fund the cost of their care in later life under radical plans being discussed by ministers. Boris Johnson is examining a string of proposals for tackling Britains social care crisis, the cost of which is expected to soar by an extra 7billion a year. He has asked officials to devise a scheme that shares out the costs which fall on those who need expensive care, which can exceed 1,400 a week, with the wider population. Under one proposal, everyone over 40 could be asked to pay an additional levy, either through tax, national insurance or a private scheme in which they were compelled to insure themselves against the cost of care. Health Secretary Matt Hancock is promoting the idea, which is modelled on schemes in Japan and Germany, The Guardian reported last night. Advertisement

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has previously backed plans to see ICSs become legal entities.

Mr Johnson has said he wants to end the injustice in which thousands of older people are forced to sell their homes to cover the cost of their care because they are deemed too wealthy to qualify for council-funded care.

The PM was said to have asked officials to devise a scheme that shared out the costs which fall on those who need expensive care, which can exceed 1,400 a week, with the wider population.

Under one proposal, everyone over 40 could be asked to pay an additional levy, either through tax, national insurance or a private scheme in which they were compelled to insure themselves against the cost of care.

The Guardian said Health Secretary Matt Hancock was promoting the idea which is modelled on schemes in Japan and Germany but sources close to the Cabinet minister rejected the suggestion.

In Japan, people start paying an additional tax for social care at the age of 40.

In Germany people pay 1.5 per cent of their salary into a ring-fenced fund when they start work, with employers making matching contributions.

Mr Johnson is believed to be planning to take back significant control in the running of the NHS.

Those in favour of giving power to the NHS believe that it would let those in need receive more streamlined care.

Ms Cavendish has criticised a 'shocking' lack in continuity in social care and spoke of one man who was visited by 102 different carers.

The former Times and Sunday Times journalist has previously described social care as a 'system at breaking point'.

She was made a life peer in 2016 and is an expert on health and social care and has even written a book where she conducted a review of healthcare assistants for the government in 2013.

Ms Cavendish believes personal care should be free in England, as it is in Scotland, and she supports over-40s funding social care.

Mr Johnson has set up a taskforce to advise him on how to deliver on his promises, such as hiring another 50,000 nurses and building 40 new hospitals.

Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield NHS Trust, told The Guardian: 'We would have several concerns about a radical shift of powers away from local authorities to put the sector under the control of larger NHS bodies.

'These large areas [ICSs] might be a bit remote to really understand what's going on in social care.

'They also don't really exist as institutions yet, so giving them huge new powers as they start up would be a dramatic and potentially disruptive shift for both the NHS and councils.'

An associate director the IPPR thinktank, Harry Quilter-Pinner, said that if the merger would 'decimate local government finances'.

A DHSC spokesperson denied the claims.
WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans unveiled a $1 trillion coronavirus relief bill Monday that would not extend the suspension of federal student loan payments beyond September, drawing the ire of consumer advocates who are urging Congress to offer more help to the 43 million Americans holding $1.6 trillion in education debt.

"There is a pandemic still happening," said Persis Yu, a staff attorney and director of the National Consumer Law Center's Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project. "Workers are still unemployed. Schools and child care programs are still closed. It is not yet safe for our economy to fully function. This is not relief and fails the 43 million student loan borrowers counting on Congress to act."

The Trump administration in March gave federal student loan borrowers the option of postponing payments for at least 60 days as the pandemic leveled the economy. Congress extended the timeline through Sept. 30 and made the suspension automatic in the most recent stimulus package. While the move gave scores of borrowers more breathing room, it excluded millions of others whose federal loans are held by private companies or universities.

Consumer groups lobbied Congress for a more inclusive measure in the second round of relief and pressed lawmakers to cancel a portion of the debt held by borrowers. Congressional Democrats responded with legislation extending the moratorium by a year and proposing $10,000 in loan forgiveness for financially distressed borrowers.

Some advocacy groups criticized Democrats for limiting loan forgiveness, and others praised the effort and called on the Senate to act after the legislation passed the House. Despite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., refusing to take up the bill, a top Republican in the chamber offered an alternative plan to help borrowers.

Senate Education Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., last week proposed whittling down the nine repayment options to two: one requiring people to repay their loans within 10 years, the other limiting monthly payments to 10% of income after accounting for living expenses for up to 25 years.

Alexander said borrowers without income, excluding unemployment benefits, would not have to make payments on their federal student loans come Oct. 1 by relying on the latter plan. Critics say the proposal, which is featured in the GOP bill, is a misguided solution.

People enrolled in federal income-driven repayment plans have long been able to pay zero dollars a month if they earn less than about $19,000. And while simplifying repayment options is a laudable goal, it's a long-term move that does not deliver any additional relief during the pandemic, said James Kvaal, president of education nonprofit the Institute for College Access and Success.

"Millions of borrowers are struggling with large debts in the middle of a historic pandemic and recession," said Kvaal, who served in the Obama administration. "It is simply not feasible to establish a new repayment plan and require them all to enroll within two months."

Based on data from the Education Department, the Institute estimates that the payment suspension has saved 18 million borrowers more than $45 billion.
A hot potato: Few apps experience the same levels of popularity and controversy quite like TikTok. It's already been banned by several US agencies and branches of the military, and now Joe Biden's presidential campaign staff have been told to stop using the application on work and personal devices.

TikTok was already incredibly popular before lockdown, which boosted its userbase even higher. With over 1.5 billion downloads, it was the seventh most-downloaded app of the 2010s, and has over 800 million monthly average users.

Despite its success, TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, has been plagued with privacy issues, including a $5.7 million fine for illegally collecting the personal information of children. It's also been the subject of a US national security review, and banned by the Navy, Army, departments of State and Homeland Security, and the TSA. The White House is also considering a ban.

Now, former Vice President Biden's counsel, Dana Remus, has told staffers to "refrain from downloading and using TikTok on work and personal devices" due to concerns over security and data privacy. It comes after both the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee also warned staff to avoid using the app.

It appeared that Amazon had banned its employees from using TikTok earlier this month over "security risks," but it later said the email it sent out to workers was an error. The app has also been caught copying iOS users' clipboard contents, something it claims is an anti-spam feature.

In addition to being banned by an increasing number of organizations, TikTok recently found itself kicked out of its biggest market: India. As tensions between the country and China rise, the former has banned 59 Chinese-made apps over security concerns.

TikTok, of course, continues to insist that it has never been a tool of the Chinese government, and would never provide the party with user information if asked. It seems, however, that not everyone believes the company.
New Zealand's political leaders have offered conflicting answers when asked whether if it's ever okay for politicians to not tell the truth.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and opposition leader Judith Collins were quizzed on the topic in the wake of minister Iain Lees-Galloway's sacking over a 12-month affair with a former staffer.

Ms Ardern had no hesitation in replying with an emphatic 'No,' when she was put on the spot by a NewsHub reporter at a press conference this week who asked whether if it's ever okay for politicians to lie.

Nationals leader Judie Collins, who is nicknamed 'The Crusher', had a different view when asked the same curly question.

New Zealand opposition leader Judith 'Crusher' Collins (pictured) had a surprising response when asked if it's ever okay for politicians to lie

'It's occasionally going to be one of those things where you can't tell everything about something,' Ms Collins replied.

'We certainly have situations that we've seen over the years where sometimes we just have to hold back until the time is right.'

Kiwi voters surveyed in the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll agreed with Ms Ardern, where a whopping 86.3 per cent said it wasn't not okay for politicians to lie.

Even the majority of Ms Collins' own voters disagreed with her different views, where 85.4 per cent of Nationals voters said they don't want lying politicians.

New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern replied with an emphatic 'no' when asked the same question

It comes as Ms Ardern, who turned 40 this week, took Labour to the highest single-party result in the history of the Newshub-Reid Research poll with 60.9 per cent of support less than eight weeks out from September's election.

Almost four fifths (79.4 per cent) of voters said they trusted Ms Ardern, compared to 30.8 per cent for her rival.

Meanwhile, Ms Collins has accused Ms Ardern of being aware of the Mr Lees-Galloway's affair but wouldn't go far as saying the Prime Minister lied.

'I didn't know anything about it. I think she probably did,' Ms Collins said.

The question was raised following the sacking of minister Iain Lees-Galloway (pictured right with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern)

Ms Ardern refuted the claims and insists she had no idea the married minister had been in an inappropriate relationship until she was advised by Ms Collins last Tuesday.

'I was not aware of those rumours and allegations,' she told reporters last week.

She confronted Mr Lees-Galloway over the allegations and sacked him immediately when he confirmed he had a relationship with a former staffer, which has since ended
Health orders required San Franciscos Ferry Building to briefly close its main hall last week because the state considered it a mall. A speedy change in categorization from indoor shopping center to transit terminal allowed the Ferry Building to resume full operations, but it also led to confusion for other Bay Area food hall operators who are grappling with what such rulings mean for their own businesses, with little clarity from county officials.

After three consecutive days on the state watch list, counties must shut down shopping malls. The question is, what counts as a mall? And does it matter if the mall sells only food?

San Franciscos public health order defines an indoor shopping center as a large building or group of buildings where customer access to stores is possible only through indoor passageways or indoor common areas, and specifically cites the Ferry Building as an example.

By this definition, all of the Bay Areas food halls qualify as indoor shopping centers. At the Market in San Franciscos Twitter Building and Oaklands Swans Market, for example, customers navigate shared central spaces to reach individual restaurant kiosks.

The challenge in the definition is that theres a conflict between what is classified as an essential service versus what is classified as a shopping center, said Steve Carlin, founder of Oxbow Public Market in Napa, adding that the Ferry Buildings new categorization as a terminal doesnt help clear things up.

How do you shut down a shopping center when it is effectively providing these essential services?

Alameda County is home to the most food halls in the Bay Area, yet the countys health order doesnt define indoor shopping centers or address such marketplaces. The county health department did not respond to requests for comment. The states public health order also doesnt provide definitions.

But some East Bay food hall operators think there are big distinctions between their businesses and a mall  or the Ferry Building, for that matter. Public Market Emeryville, for example, is almost entirely made up of restaurants, not retail shops. That means there are few shoppers lingering at the site, which could be unsafe, said Mark Stefan, president of City Center Realty Partners, which owns the market.

Its not like a mall, where theres window shopping and such, he said.

Castro Valley Marketplace opened this month with ambitious long-term plans, including classrooms and event spaces. But for now, its just a grocery store, bakery and butcher shop. That puts president Donna Layburn at ease.

I think we are truly a grocery store atmosphere, unlike the Ferry Building, Layburn said. A Safeway that had a bank and a Starbucks and other stuff, would that also be a mall?

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

During the temporary Ferry Building closure, businesses with direct access outside were allowed to operate as usual. Thats why East Bay Asian Local Development Corp., the nonprofit that runs Swans Market, isnt concerned about a potential shutdown. Several Swans Market restaurants have their own entrances. And the central hall shared by businesses including Mexican cafe Cosecha and sweets destination Cupcakin features a series of doors that can be completely opened up like a garage.

But the more traditional food hall layout of Public Market Emeryville means only three restaurants have direct outdoor access  and a shutdown would impact beloved spots such as fried chicken specialist Minnie Bells and Palestinian kiosk Mama Lamees. Stefan had already been planning to set up outdoor tents for the interior businesses so that customers can order and pick up food without ever walking inside, and the Ferry Building developments made that even more important.

Oxbow has a similar layout for the restaurants, with outdoor dining and designated spots to grab takeout, while the retail shops remain indoors. If health orders deemed Oxbow a mall and forced a closure, Carlin said, he would set up curbside pickup locations around Oxbows parking lots.

The classification is gray, and I dont know if theres another way around it, he said. If the goal is to maintain the safest environment you can for essential services, I think thats being accomplished.

Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker
TORONTO, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On every front, the COVID-19 pandemic has eroded hard-fought gains to gender equity. From massive layoffs to increased unpaid work to the rise of domestic violence, women have been disproportionately impacted by the health and economic crisis of COVID-19.

Released today, the 'A Feminist Economic Recovery Plan for Canada: Making the Economy Work for Everyone' report co-authored by the Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE) at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and YWCA Canada offers an 8-point Plan to tackle systemic barriers and improve economic security for women, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people.

"The economic, health and social impacts of COVID-19 have been devastating for the communities we work with. From the loss of steady jobs to child care shortages to addressing discrimination, hate and violence in all its forms, we are seeing we can't go back to the old ways of doing things. We need a fresh approach that thinks about the economy and gender equity together. Our plan offers a roadmap and a starting point for action," says Maya Roy, CEO of YWCA Canada.

The Plan calls for specific attention to address the unique needs and experiences of Black, Indigenous, racialized communities, people with disabilities, 2SLGTBQAA+ communities, migrant workers, low-income populations, newcomers and other communities facing systemic barriers, marginalization and oppression.

"Some might think that equity and diversity issues are luxuries that we can't afford during a pandemic. Our analysis shows instead that considerations of gender, race, Indigeneity and other factors are essential for a robust recovery. This crisis has highlighted many underlying inequities in society, and building back better will lead to greater social and economic prosperity for Canada," says Prof. Sarah Kaplan, Director of the Institute for Gender and the Economy.

The Plan proposes 8 major recommendations to build Canada's economy back better, so that it becomes more inclusive and ultimately more resilient for future crises.

The eight pillars of the Plan's include:

Intersectionality: Understanding Power Addressing Root Causes of Systemic Racism Care Work is Essential Work Investing in Good Jobs Fighting the Shadow Pandemic Bolstering Small Businesses Strengthening Infrastructure for Recovery Diverse Voices in Decisions

The Plan begins with a recognition that systemic racism against Black and Indigenous communities must be the top priority for post-pandemic recovery, including implementation of the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Calls to Justice of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry Report and the Parliamentary Black Caucus' recommendations.

At the heart of the Plan is a focus on the care economy. Even before this crisis, access to affordable, accessible and high-quality child care was in short supply. The pandemic has shown that child care is an essential service. Without it, the rest of the economy can't re-start and we risk losing a whole generation of parents, mainly women, from the workforce.

As the recently released Federal fiscal update notes, Canada's GDP will shrink substantially with economic growth plummeting to Depression-era levels. To build back better, the Plan recommends that, starting immediately, Canada should invest at least 1% of its annual GDP in the early learning and child care sector. This will assure that the economy will recover more quickly by creating new jobs, investing in the next generation of workers and reducing the significant unpaid care burden women have taken on during this pandemic.

The Plan also recommends improvements in working conditions for precarious and migrant workers by calling for paid sick leave for all workers and Employment Insurance reform. The Plan also notes that immediate investments in critical infrastructure such as affordable housing, clean water and internet access will be essential for a stronger economic recovery for Canada.

To read the full plan and to sign up to learn more, visit: www.feministrecovery.ca

YWCA Canada is a leading voice for women, girls, Two-Spirit and gender diverse people. For 150 years, we've been at the forefront of a movement: to fight gender-based violence, build affordable housing and advocate for workplace equity. We work to advance gender equity by responding to urgent needs in communities, through national advocacy and grassroots initiatives. Local YWCAs invest over $258 million annually to support over 330,000 individuals across the nation. Today, we engage young leaders, diverse communities, and corporate partners to achieve our vision of a safe and equitable Canada for all.

The Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE) at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management promotes an understanding of gender inequalities and how they can be remediedby people of all gendersin the world of business and, more broadly, in the economy. At GATE, we are changing the conversation on gender equality by: using rigorous research to investigate the hidden mechanisms that propagate gender equality; funding, translating, and disseminating innovative, academic research; and engaging executives, policy makers, and students to create new solutions for achieving equality, advancing careers, and creating economic prosperity.

The Rotman School of Management is part of the University of Toronto, a global centre of research and teaching excellence at the heart of Canada's commercial capital. Rotman is a catalyst for transformative learning, insights and public engagement, bringing together diverse views and initiatives around a defining purpose: to create value for business and society. For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

SOURCE Rotman School of Management

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The Federal Government has declared Thursday and Friday 30 and 31 July, as public holiday to celebrate the Eid-el-Kabir.

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, made the declaration today in a statement signed by the Permanent Secretary, ministry of Interior, Georgina Ehuriah.

Aregbesola urged Muslims to use the occasion to pray for peace, unity, prosperity and the stability of the country, amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

He congratulated all Nigerians both at home and abroad on the occasion.



He also called on Muslims to continue to imbibe the spirit of love, peace, kindness and sacrifice, as exemplified by the Prophet Muhammad.

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By PTI

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Cabinet on Tuesday discussed the points raised by Governor Kalraj Mishra for calling the state assembly session and said it is sticking to its demand for holding the session from July 31.

Transport Minister Pratap Singh said a discussion was held for the reply to be sent regarding the three points raised by the governor.

"The Cabinet wants the assembly session from July 31. The proposal which was sent earlier for calling the session is our legal right and we are sending it again to the governor," he told reporters.

"The governor's questions are simple and we discussed their reply. He has no right to be raising queries yet we are giving the reply," he said.

Singh also said that the government wants no confrontation with the governor and hoped Mishra will now accept the cabinet proposal for calling the session.

"We want permission to call the assembly session which is our right. We do not want any confrontation with the governor. If he does not accept this now, then it is clear that there is no Constitution in the country," he said.

On the issue of 21-day notice required for calling the session, the minister said that 10 days have already passed and asked why did the governor not give a date if he is talking the notice.

ALSO READ | Twist in Rajasthan: Governor Kalraj Mishra now seeks 21-day notice before calling session

He said that if the governor rejects the proposals now, the further course of action will be decided.

"We have no competition with the governor, he is the head of our family," Singh said.

When asked about the agenda of the session, he said that it is for the Business Advisory Committee of the assembly to decide.

Regarding seating arrangement as per social distancing norms in the assembly, the minister said that it was for the speaker to look after.

Targeting the BJP, the minister said that the party has made it a prestige issue.

"They want to topple the state government and have made it a prestige issue," he said.

"The BJP stands exposed. They are changing their statements," he said.

After Rajasthan, the minister said the party wants to target West Bengal, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

The Rajasthan governor has returned cabinet recommendations for calling the assembly session twice with some points.
Tristan Jackson-Stankunas went into his local Rite Aid in Los Angeles, California one day and was shocked when he was told to get out by a store manager.

"And I'm, like, well, why do you want me to go? Or what do you... what about what did I do, you know? And he's like, 'well, you know, you can't be in here. You're a shoplifter.' I'm, like, a shoplifter?

Unbeknownst tohim, he was in a store where Rite Aid had installed facial recognition technology. He had been matched to a photo of someone who allegedly had stolen from the drug store chain in 2013. That photo was sent to the store managers phone.

"I asked him to show me the photo that he had in his phone of my face, you know, because he said that someone sent him a picture of me, and I request the photo, he said 'no.' I asked the other cashier to explain to him that I was who I said I was. I offered to show my driver's license and other photos in my phone of myself just so he'd know that that photo was not correct. And then at that point, he said, well, you know, he kind of flashed his phone at me and said, 'this is it'. The guy looked nothing like me."

Except for one thing- both are Black.

Over an eight-year period, Rite Aid quietly rolled-out facial recognition systems to 200 stores across the United States. And a Reuters analysis found that in the heart of two of America's biggest cities: New York and Los Angeles, in places where people of color made up the largest groups, stores were more than three times as likely to have the technology.

But not in every neighborhood.

This Rite Aid in the whiter, wealthier Upper West Side New York City neighborhood didnt have the facial recognition technology when Reuters went to check on July 9th, but this other store in the Black-majority neighborhood of Harlem did.

Rite Aid said in a statement that each location was picked based on crime data and other factors unrelated to race and overall - the technology helped it reduce violence and organized crime activity in its stores.

Story continues

Reuters also discovered something else:

Shoppers images for more than a year were being fed into a facial recognition system from DeepCam, a company with links to China and its authoritarian government. DeepCams co-founder is a Chinese native, with U.S. citizenship, whose name is Jingfeng Liu. He also runs a company in China with financial backing from a Communist Party government fund.

And for some U.S. politicians  thats too close for comfort.

Senator Marco Rubio, the Republican acting chair of the Senate intelligence committee told Reuters in a statement: The Chinese Communist Partys buildup of its Orwellian surveillance state is alarming, and Chinas efforts to export its surveillance state to collect data in America would be an unacceptable, serious threat.

Reuters found no evidence that Rite Aid data were sent to China. And when asked, Liu said he is no longer involved with the U.S. DeepCam business. Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs said concerns about China using that data to monitor Americans were based on unfounded smears and rumors.

But even if there is no China connection today, Rite Aids surveillance program still had a flaw  incorrect identification.

(JACKSON-STANKUNAS SPEAKING:) "The day when that happened in the store, we had neighbors in the store. You know, I had people that I knew, that I lived in the same building with in the store looking at me as if I were a thief. You know, I have a 13 year old child. My son's friends were in the store, and my son's friend's parents were in the store. So, it makes me look like I'm a thief. I mean, it feels horrible."

Jackson-Stankunas, who was not filmed by the DeepCam system, says Rite Aid never apologized.

As for Rite Aid, it said its practices ensured it didnt bother customers, but after presented with all of the findings from the Reuters investigation, the retailer said it stopped using facial recognition technology in any of its stores.
New deaths attributed by the authorities to COVID-19 are vanishingly low. In the data posted over the past three days, the numbers are five (7/25), three (7/26), and two (7/27). The two deaths tallied yesterday both occurred among residents of long-term care facilities, who now account for 76.6 percent of all deaths attributed to the epidemic. Hospitalizations also remain low.

It should be difficult for Governor Walz to continue one-man rule in Minnesota. It should be difficult to sustain the panic underlying his exercise of emergency authority.

However, new cases continue to accumulate among mostly younger demographic groups. We are apparently to be ruled as vassals so long as the disease is spreading. At yesterdays press briefing (audio below), not a single question even hints at a weighing of costs versus benefits.

Leading off the questions and answer, Pulitzer Prize-winning Star Tribune health care reporter Jeremy Olson sought the basis of the complaints submitted to the authorities in recent days. He turned the answer into his story today. At least he included the most entertaining part of the answer: The majority of the 80 or so complaints this weekend involved customers or workers not wearing masks, said Kris Ehresmann, state infectious disease director. One involved a worker wearing a Halloween mask rather than a protective face covering.

I would like to fabricate a cloth face mask for that noncompliant employee. It would feature the thumbnail photo of the governor I use for this series and the motto: Tear down this Walz!

Olsons story includes this previously omitted information regarding Walzs executive order mandating masks: Business owners could face $1,000 fines and misdemeanor charges that in extreme circumstances could result in 90 days in jail and $25,000 in civil fines as well as licensure actions. Malcolm said businesses have complied without the need for such penalties.

Are the penalty provisions of the order lawful? One Minnesota criminal defense attorney argues that they are not, and he has an interesting argument.

The tone of the press briefing is lugubrious and threatening. The level of the questions is low. When it comes to sustaining the panic, the press is fully compliant  as President Trump would say, that much I can tell you.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After reporting a substantial improvement in U.S. consumer confidence in the previous month, the Conference Board released a report on Tuesday showing consumer confidence deteriorated by more than expected in the month of July.



The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index slumped to 92.6 in July after jumping to an upwardly revised 98.3 in June.



Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to pull back to 95.7 from the 98.1 originally reported for the previous month.



The bigger than expected drop by the headline index came as consumers grew less optimistic about the short-term outlook for the economy, with the expectations index tumbling to 91.5 in July from 106.1 in June.



The percentage of consumers expecting business conditions will improve over the next six months fell to 31.6 percent from 42.4 percent, while those expecting conditions will worsen climbed to 19.3 percent from 15.2 percent.



Consumers also had a less favorable outlook for the labor market, as those expecting more jobs in the months ahead declined to 30.6 percent from 38.4 percent and those anticipating fewer jobs rose to 20.3 percent from 14.4 percent.



'Such uncertainty about the short-term future does not bode well for the recovery, nor for consumer spending,' said Lynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board.



Meanwhile, the Conference Board said consumers' assessment of present-day conditions improved in July, driving the present situation index up to 94.2 from 86.7 in the previous month.



The percentage of consumers claiming business conditions are 'good' was relatively unchanged at 17.3 percent, while those claiming conditions are 'bad' dipped to 39.1 percent from 42.5 percent.



Consumers' appraisal of the job market was also more favorable, as the percentage saying jobs are 'plentiful' edged up to 21.3 percent from 20.5 percent and those claiming jobs are 'hard to get' fell to 20.0 percent from 23.3 percent.



On Friday, the University of Michigan is scheduled to release its revised reading on consumer sentiment in the month of July.



The consumer sentiment index for July is expected to be downwardly revised to 73.0 from the preliminary reading of 73.2, which was down from 78.1 in June.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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DUBLIN, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ResearchAndMarkets.com published a new article on the computer industry "Intel Faces Growing Competition As Production of Next Generation Chips Delayed"

As a result of production delays, Intel's new 7 nanometer chip technology is behind schedule and in the future the company could consider outsourcing more work to other semiconductor manufacturers. Intel's Ponte Vecchio, a data center graphics chip may not be released until early 2022 and the first 7nm chips meant for personal computers and data centers may not arrive until early 2023. Analysts have predicted that the delay could result in competitor Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TMSC) remaining a generation of technology ahead of Intel in the coming years.



Intel is the top supplier of processors for PCs and data centers but has recently seen strong competition from companies like Advanced Micro Devices (ADM) and Nvidia Corp who outsource their manufacturing to TMSC. Nvidia has seen strong sales from the data center market while ADM plans to release its new Ryzen 4000 G Series of desktop processors this year. Meanwhile, Apple Inc has announced that it will transition away from using Intel chips in MAC computers after almost 15 years. The company intends to instead use chip technology from ARM Ltd.



To see the full article and a list of related reports on the market, visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/wcgs0a

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Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

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Despite talk of the cloud, the vast majority of connectivity comes from deep under the ocean (Google/PA)

Deep beneath the sea lays a vast network of hidden cables handling the majority of the globes internet activity.

These cables carry 99% of the worlds data, and in the age of social distancing, their role is more important than ever in keeping people connected.

As Google announced plans to install a new cable between the US, the UK and Spain, we dive into how global communication is handled, how it came to be and how it works.

 Where did it all start?

The Victorians are considered pioneers in submarine connectivity, having set a world first in 1850 with a telegraph cable across the English Channel between the UK and France.

By 1858, the first transatlantic submarine cable was laid between Ireland and Newfoundland, Canada.

Expand Close Queen Victorias message celebrated the great international work of which she had taken the deepest interest (PA) PA / Facebook

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Using a combination of methods, Queen Victoria and US President James Buchanan became the first heads of state to exchange greetings via the cable.

However, Victorias 99-word message is said to have taken 17 hours and 40 minutes to reach the president, and the cable failed within a few weeks.

Nevertheless, it paved the way for the levels of connectivity we use on a daily basis today.

Since 1986, submarine telecommunication cables have been made using fibre optics.

Some of the old huts where early cables were housed can still be found dotted around the UK, such as one on Aberbach beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales, which has been converted into a holiday home.

 How many of these cables feed into the UK?

There are hundreds of cables driving connectivity under the sea.

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According to submarinecablemap.com, there are 56 active cables running beneath the ocean around the UK.

Many from the US come into Cornwall and Ireland, while south east and eastern regions of England are plugged into mainland European neighbours.

Scotland is largely hooked up to Nordic countries, as well as its own smaller isles.

 How are the cables laid?

Cables are installed up to 8,000 metres below sea level.

Careful planning is needed to map the ocean bed, to reduce the environmental impact.

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Rolled into huge reels, the cables are sent off on to ships and in most cases buried in the ocean bed using a plough.

They can then be connected to data centres on either side.

 What if there is damage?

Undersea cables are damaged all the time by various incidents.

Seismic activity is one example  a 2006 earthquake in Taiwan damaged eight undersea cables, cutting off communication to Hong Kong, south-east Asia and most of China, but this type of damage is not a concern for the UK where serious earthquakes are unlikely.

Impact from commercial fishing trawlers or ships anchors are more likely in UK waters.

Fortunately, cable owners support each other if a neighbouring cable is damaged, meaning we never really notice a disruption to service.

Repair ships are deployed to scoop up damaged cables, fix the issue on board, and put the cable back under the ocean.

 Why not use satellites?

Underwater cables can transmit a lot more data than satellites and are cheaper to operate.

 Who owns them?

Many big private companies and groups now operate their own cables, largely to support their service needs.

Our latest subsea cable, named after the incredible Grace Hopper, is one of the first cables to connect the U.S. & U.K. since 2003, and the first investment by Google in a subsea cable route to Spain  https://t.co/dfE2L2jzEn #GoogleCloudNext pic.twitter.com/XqINfWLQRP  Google Cloud (@googlecloud) July 28, 2020

Google is the latest to announce plans of a new cable running between the US, the UK and Spain, which will help it maintain things like video communication platform Meets and Gmail.

Other tech giants are in on the act, including Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon.
YEREVAN.  The applicants who were not admitted to Armenias universities on Tuesday presented a Bible to Arayik Harutyunyan, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports.

"The minister has sent me to pick up the gift from the applicants," Gohar Mamikonyan, the minister's adviser, told the protesters, adding that the minister accepts this gift and, as a faithful, is very grateful.

And asked whether the minister would compromise on this issue, the adviser said that during the interview on Monday, the minister had reflected on these complaints in detail, and that the situation was very clear.

To note, the aforesaid applicants and their parents are protesting, complaining about the results of the university entrance exams and the new approach of the education department. Accordingly, numerous applicants with lower scores were accepted to universities, whereas many applicants with higher scores were not accepted, as the applicants selected profession was underscored this year, and therefore priority was given to those who selected a given profession as their first choice, rather than to those with high scores in any subject.
The Madison police chief apologized tonight for his now-canceled plan to award officers who were involved in the shooting death of Dana Fletcher, a Black man killed outside a gym last year.

Fletchers mother rejected the chiefs words, saying she believed the nixed award ceremony was intended to hurt the slain mans family.

After personal reflection, I understand the timing of this ceremony has caused pain to our community, Chief Dave Jernigan said at tonights City Council meeting. I sincerely apologize for this pain.

Jernigan was apologizing for his plans to award the Medal of Honor  the Madison Police Departments highest honor  to officers who were involved in the Oct. 27, 2019 shooting death of Fletcher.

In a departmental email sent earlier this month, the chief said the medals would be presented to the officers, whose names havent been released to the public, in a private ceremony at City Hall on July 28.

The chief and Mayor Paul Finley say they decided to halt the ceremony after AL.com obtained a screenshot of the chiefs email and asked about the event. AL.com published an article on July 19 about the plans for the ceremony, and the chief later that night announced the ceremony had been put on hold because the timing was not optimal amid nationwide protests against racism and police violence.

At tonights council meeting, Jernigan said he has decided to cancel the ceremony altogether.

Our goal has always been to build trust with our community through community policing, Jernigan said. The insensitivity of this ceremony divides us, and for that Im truly sorry. I continue to be very proud of our Madison Police Department, but I must be far more sensitive and aware of the different opinions that make up our community.

As police chief Ill strive to do better, to see and listen more thoroughly and intently in the future, he said.

A small group of demonstrators is shown protesting outside Madison City Hall shortly before the City Council meeting on July 27, 2019. Some protesters and community members spoke at the meeting in support of Dana Fletcher's family.

During the public comments portion of the City Council meeting  which at times became heated and emotional  nine people spoke in support of Fletchers family. The speakers questioned city leaders about the ceremony, called for more accountability for police officers and demanded that body camera footage be released or at least shown to Fletchers family.

The city has denied public records requests from AL.com seeking the video footage and has declined to show the footage to Fletchers family.

In her comments, Fletchers mother, Deborah, asked the City Council and mayor for their opinions on the ceremony. Neither the councilors nor the mayor responded.

Deborah Fletcher also took issue with some of the language the police chief used in his statement. The chief referred to her sons shooting death as an adversarial event with an armed subject.

That subject has a name, she said aloud as the chief spoke. His name is Dana Fletcher.

Dana Fletcher

Fletcher said she believes the city planned to hand out the medals in an effort to hurt her family. She also said she believes information about the ceremony was intentionally leaked to AL.com for that purpose.

But, she said, the news has only invigorated the familys fight for justice and an end to police violence.

As evidence of what she called a pattern of police brutality in Madison, Fletcher pointed to her sons case and the case of Sureshbai Patel, an Indian grandfather who was partially paralyzed after being slammed to the ground by a local police officer in 2015.

My son is dead because of police brutality, she said.

After Fletcher was killed, five officers  including two who fired their guns  were put on leave for the authorities to investigate. All of the officers were cleared to return to work after an internal investigation and a probe by the Madison County Sheriffs Office.

Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard said the officers were entirely justified after reviewing body camera footage, which appeared to show Fletcher holding a gun when he was pulled from his van by police. The district attorneys office said Fletcher pointed the gun toward officers. Broussard made a presentation about the case to news reporters, but the authorities have declined to release the full footage showing what happened.
In Tit-for-Tat, China Forces Closure of US Consulate in Chengdu

By John Xie July 27, 2020

The U.S. consulate in the Chinese city of Chengdu officially closed Monday as U.S.-China relations marked a new low point in more than 40 years.

China took over the premises after U.S. Marines in the southwestern city lowered the American flag that had been flying over the building.

Social media posts released by the U.S. embassy in Beijing and posted to Chinese microblogging giant Weibo and on Twitter noted that the consulate has been promoting the relations between the two peoples since 1985. "Today, we bid farewell to the US Consulate General in Chengdu. We will miss you forever."

The closure capped a dramatic escalation in recent weeks of tensions that began when China's Houston consulate was ordered to close and employees at the Chinese mission were seen burning documents in a courtyard. The United States accused the diplomatic facility of engaging in espionage and intellectual property theft.

In the decades since China and the U.S. established formal diplomatic relations, tensions have risen and fallen over a wide range of issues, and the world's two largest economies have even come dangerously close to outright confrontation. Yet some observers say Monday's event puts the current bilateral relationship under more stress than at any time in recent history.

Yun Sun, a senior associate at the Stimson Center research organization in Washington, said that closure of consulates has never happened since the two countries established diplomatic relations. "In this sense, the relationship between the two sides has indeed deteriorated to an unprecedented level," Yun told VOA in a telephone interview.

China took over the premises of the consulate after the closure in retaliation. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Monday that the shutdown was a justified and necessary response to what it called the unjustifiable behavior of the U.S.

"China's requirement conforms to the international law and basic norms governing international relations, as well as diplomatic conventions," spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

A State Department statement said the consulate "has stood at the center of our relations with the people in Western China, including Tibet, for 35 years."

Meanwhile, in an interview with CBS News' Face the Nation on Sunday, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned that more Chinese consulates "may well be closed" moving forward.

He said the consulate in Houston had been used as a base for spying there and throughout the Southwest.

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TRENTON, N.J. - Three more states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have been added to the list of states whose residents travelling to New Jersey must quarantine for two weeks because of COVID-19.

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday that Illinois, Kentucky and Minnesota, along with the capital and the Caribbean island bring the total list of affected states and territories to 36.

The travel advisory calls for travellers from those places to quarantine for 14 days and applies to states with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents, or those with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.

New Jerseys positivity rate has been hovering around 2% or lower and has seen new hospitalizations fall 40% from two weeks ago, according to the governors office. New hospitalizations since the viruss peak in April are down 97%. The state has 4.5 new cases per day per 100,000 residents, ranking 44th in the country, according to Murphys office.

The advisory applies to travellers from Alaska; Alabama; Arkansas; Arizona; California; Delaware; District of Columbia, Florida; Georgia; Illinois, Iowa; Idaho; Indiana; Kansas; Kentucky, Louisiana; Maryland; Minnesota, Missouri; Mississippi; Montana; North Carolina; North Dakota; Nebraska; New Mexico; Nevada; Ohio; Oklahoma; Puerto Rico; South Carolina; Tennessee; Texas; Utah; Virginia; Washington; and Wisconsin.

For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms. Older adults and people with existing health problems are at higher risk of more severe illness or death.

A look at other developments:

MORE MONEY FOR BUSINESSES

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday that $15 million in federal funding has been made available to small businesses struggling from the coronavirus outbreak.

Murphy said the funds stem from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and is in addition to more than $100 million in aid administered by the states Economic Development Authority.

So far, nearly 11,000 businesses have been approved for grants, according to the governor. The program is not currently accepting more applicants, he added.

COVID-19 is first and foremost a health crisis, but also a severe economic crisis, and nowhere is that more evident than in the states small business community, Murphy, a Democrat, said.

Murphy spoke Tuesday at A-List hair salon in North Brunswick, which got a $10,000 grant after being closed for three months because of the outbreak.

Co-owner April Scelsa said the salon used the funds to buy personal protective equipment and keep workers on payroll.

___

NEW FIGURES

Murphy also reported that since Monday, the state had added nearly 600 new positive cases, with 24 new deaths from the virus. Total cases now exceed 180,000. The death toll stands at 13,905, plus 1,902 deaths that health officials determined were likely caused by COVID-19.

The rate of transmission, which measures how many people one infected person passes the virus to, ticked up to 1.14 from 1.09, Murphy said.

New Jersey is in the middle of Stage 2, of three, of reopening. Murphy earlier paused reopening given outbreaks elsewhere in the country and a failure to follow social distancing guidelines in the state.

On Tuesday sounded a note of caution about the latest figures.

Its a mixed bag at best, he said. Were not out of the woods yet.
(Newser)  Oregon police officers were trying to arrest a suspect in a McDonald's parking lot early Sunday when he allegedly coughed and spit on a female officerwho must now quarantine, because the suspect was infected with the coronavirus. He knew of his diagnosis, police say. Miguel Hernandez-Cuesta, 24, was allegedly asleep in the Tigard fast food restaurant's drive-thru when officers arrived and attempted to arrest him on suspicion of driving under the influence, NBC News reports. Police believe he intentionally tried to infect the officer; the Portland Tribune reports he also at one point allegedly put his car into gear and nearly ran into a patrol car.

story continues below

"In the course of the arrest, while Tigard Police officers were searching the man for weapons or dangerous items, he began coughing profusely and stated he had COVID-19," per a department release. "An officer asked him to stop coughing on them, but he turned his face toward the officers and proceeded to cough and spit on one of their faces while standing less than a foot away." They were wearing masks and gloves at the time. Jail staff later confirmed the suspect's diagnosis. The man has also been charged with driving while suspended and felony aggravated harassment. (Read more coronavirus stories.)
Yves here. The Democrats dont want to admit that the Republicans are more ruthless and shameless than they are. Or else they only care about winning certain elections and they are confident in their ability to control them. The Democrats have been far more willing to play games in primaries.

Separately, I dont get how the Democrats dont get they may be in trouble despite Bidens big national poll lead. The Democrats have never taken voter registration seriously because they dont want lower income voters to have too much influence in the party, and low income voters are the most transient. Democratic party voters even more likely now due to Covid-19 financial stresses to have had an address change and need to re-register to vote. If you think vote-by-mail schemes that are already struggling to operate properly, even assuming good faith, will handle new registrants in their districts well, I have a bridge Id like to sell you.

By Thomas Neuburger. Originally published at DownWithTyrnanny!

The original Mayor Daley wasnt the first, but he was the best at election manipulation. Daley would have not supported verifiable elections for the obvious reason. Why dont todays Democrats support verifiable elections?

Everyone I know wants Trump to lose. Do you know anyone who actually wants Biden to win?

Howie Klein, here

Ive often contended that neither political party  not the Democrats, not the Republicans  wants free, open, verifiable and uncorrupted elections.

Both parties, of course, say they want fair elections. The Republicans use these pronouncements, though, as cover for creating obstacles to voting by Democratic-leaning citizens based on demographics like race and place of residence. That much is a given, and this hypocrisy is obvious to everyone, including Republicans.

But what about the Democratic Party? There the situation is more mixed, but its not unmixed. I cut my adult teeth in Chicago, the perfect model, if not ground zero, for election manipulation, and there are many Chicagos in the country.

There are also many approaches to stealing elections, but one of the most common is faked and manipulated vote totals, and for that, the solution is well known: hand-counted paper ballots. Given that fact, you have to ask yourself: If Democratic leaders really wanted uncorrupted elections  as opposed to just elections they could win  wouldnt they demand a national return to hand-counted paper ballots, the gold standard for honest elections?

And yet they dont. Year after year they keep the same corruptible voting systems in place, often expanding them, and focus their fire instead on Republican gerrymandering and voter list purges as evidence of the other partys evil and their own goodness.

Its likely theres a simple and obvious reason for Democratic leadership not seeking to secure our elections with hand-counted ballots, but its not a pretty one: Like the Republicans, Democratic leaders, many or most of whom hate progressives with a passion, also want the ability to fix elections when they wish to.

Ballot-Stuffing in Philadelphia

For example, consider this, from the Philly Voice:

South Philly judge of elections pleads guilty to stuffing ballot boxes, accepting bribes Prosecutors say Domenick DeMuro, 73, inflated results for Democratic primary candidates A former judge of elections in South Philadelphia pleaded guilty this week to fraudulently stuffing ballot boxes for Democratic candidates in recent primary elections, accepting bribes from a political consultant hired to help influence local election results. During the 2014, 2015 and 2016 primary elections, DeMuro admitted that he accepted bribes ranging from $300 to $5,000 per election. A political consultant hired by specific Democratic candidates gave DeMuro a cut of his fee to add votes for these candidates, who were running for judicial and various state, federal and local elected offices. DeMuro would ring up extras votes on machines at his polling station, add them to the totals and later falsely certify that the voting machine results were accurate, prosecutors said.

U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain said, DeMuro fraudulently stuffed the ballot box by literally standing in a voting booth and voting over and over, as fast as he could, while he thought the coast was clear.

This happens all the time and is rarely caught and punished. In this case, its likely the bribes from a political consultant hired by specific Democratic candidates were the only reason DeMoro was prosecuted. A number of hand-made videos during the 2016 primary showed similar corrupt certifications at the local level, all of them disadvantaging Bernie Sanders, yet none of these videos sparked an ounce of indignation from free election Democratic leaders  whose preferred candidate, it should be noted, Hillary Clinton, benefited every time.

Progressive Democrat Blocks Gerrymandering Reform in Nevada

Or consider this sordid tale from Nevada, in which the local League of Women Voters attempted to eliminate gerrymandering following a recent Supreme Court decision that returned gerrymandering lawsuits to the states to resolve.

From the Nevada Current (emphasis added):

Apparently some Democrats think gerrymandering is fine in blue states In June of 2019 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Rucho v. Common Cause that federal courts will no longer accept partisan gerrymandering cases. Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the majority that partisan gerrymandering is a political issue that must be resolved at the state level. In response, the League of Women Voters U.S. launched a People Powered Fair Maps plan to create barriers to partisan gerrymandering in each state. The League of Women Voters of Nevada adopted the plan and reached out to our democracy partners to form the Fair Maps Nevada coalition. On November 4, 2019, Fair Maps Nevada filed a constitutional amendment ballot initiative to create an independent redistricting commission. Nevadas constitution protects the right to circulate a ballot initiative as well as the right to vote on ballot questions.

So far, so good. But wait:

On November 27, 2019, Mr. Kevin Benson, a Carson City attorney, filed a lawsuit challenging the ballot questions summary of effect for a progressive Democrat. His client argued that the summary of the amendment that appears on each signature sheet was misleading. Fair Maps Nevada offered to edit the summary to clarify the amendments intent, but Mr. Benson refused. The Judge James Russell ultimately agreed with Mr. Bensons client and asked both parties to submit new versions of the summary to address the plaintiffs complaints.

Its suspicious that a self-proclaimed progressive Democrat would try to monkey-wrench the process, but still, so far, so good. However:

Fair Maps Nevada submitted a new summary, but Mr. Benson did not. Instead, he argued that the whole amendment was misleading and so should be blocked completely from moving forward.

In other words, the whole exercise was a sham to get the entire process thrown out by the local judge.

Essentially, Mr. Benson was asking Judge Russell to deny the Fair Maps Nevada coalition our constitutionally protected right to circulate a petition. Judge Russell accepted Fair Maps Nevadas new summary of the amendment and closed the case [in favor of Fair Maps Nevada].

Still, the issue didnt die there. Benson took his appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court, which allowed it to go ahead. Fair Maps Nevada eventually won, but not before they realized (wasnt it already obvious?) that this mystery litigants real goal was to run out the signature-gathering clock on the initiative. Further, the state Supreme Court failed to close the legal loophole that allowed the appeal in the first place, preparing the way for similar future challenges on the same spurious grounds.

Why would a Democrat, in Democratic-controlled Nevada, want to block gerrymandering reform, if not to continue to benefit from the unreformed system?

The Danger for Democrats

The danger for Democrats in tolerating and continuing their own vote corruption is great. When voters say both parties do it  theyre right. Perhaps Party leaders, national and local, think they can get away with these acts given that most of the mainstream media  busy peoples only source of news  protects listeners and viewers from information that supports the both are corrupt frame.

But that protection cant be effective forever. While most Sanders supporters, for example, will vote for Joe Biden, most wont give him money, under the assumption perhaps that his billionaires have that covered. And this is widely seen as a race that most want neither candidate to win  especially if you include non-voters  even though even more voters want Trump to lose.

The bottom line is this: While Democratic leaders may think the situation  their current and safe control of their share of power  is well managed, the nation may easily become so alienated by both parties, and by the peoples inability to vote outside the two-corrupt-parties framework, that they seek other avenues for change.

Ironically, a back to the normal Biden administration may be just the match Americans need to spark an active rebellion against the corruption of both political parties. One more round of mainstream Democrats in charge, may be the last straw for that national beast of burden, our suffering governed.

If thats the case, watch out. Democratic leaders are running out of time, as are we all. When a nation seeks other avenues for reform, that nations in trouble.

Labels: corrupt Democrats, Democratic Party leadership, election fraud, Gaius Publius, Mayor Daley, Thomas Neuburger
A popular Jersey Shore tiki bar was closed for deep cleaning after an employee tested positive for the coronavirus.

Captains Inn in Forked River temporarily closed after an employee tested positive, the bar said on Facebook and Instagram posts. The infection came from an outside influence, and the employee is not symptomatic, they said.

The bar plans to reopen on Tuesday after being closed on Sunday and Monday.

Its not clear when the last time the employee worked was. A manager did not return NJ Advance Medias request for comment.

Photos taken by the New York Post show a large crowd gathered outside on Sunday afternoon, with most patrons maskless and closer than six feet. An employee told the paper a bouncer was enforcing crowd limit sizes but said ensuring distancing was difficult.

The Ocean County Department of Health did not respond to NJ Advance Medias request for comment.

Masks are not required at outdoor restaurants while eating or drinking, or while sitting six feet apart, but are required if a distance of six feet cannot be maintained while not eating or drinking.

Employees are required to wear masks at all times.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
COAST Autonomous Deploys its Autonomous Delivery Vehicle (ADV)

COAST Autonomous selects LeddarTech's Leddar Pixell Cocoon LiDAR for the deployment of its autonomous delivery vehicle (ADV) at the Kinney County Railport (KCRP) near Brackettville, Texas.

COAST Autonomous selects LeddarTech's Leddar Pixell Cocoon LiDAR for the deployment of its autonomous delivery vehicle (ADV) at the Kinney County Railport (KCRP) near Brackettville, Texas.

QUEBEC CITY and PASADENA, Calif., July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LeddarTech, an industry leader in environmental sensing solutions for autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems, congratulates COAST Autonomous on the first deployment of the Leddar Pixell in an autonomous delivery vehicle (ADV) at the Kinney County Railport (KCRP) near Brackettville, Texas. KCRP is one of several railyards operated by Harbor Rail Services Company of California. COAST Autonomous selected LeddarTechs Leddar Pixell Cocoon LiDAR with its 360-degree vehicle coverage as a supplier for this project.

COAST Autonomous, founded by veterans of the self-driving industry, chose LeddarTechs technology because of its ability to deliver enhanced safety for COAST Autonomous vehicles. The robustness and reliability of LeddarTechs solid-state Flash LiDAR technology meet todays demanding mobility conditions and make it the technology of choice toward preventing collisions, especially in an industrial environment where pedestrian and vehicle traffic is less controlled than in an urban environment.

The COAST Autonomous electric ADVs operate CO 2 emission-free and enable Harbor Rail to operate and move equipment and supplies 24 hours a day in their industrial environment safely and efficiently. These electric vehicles are equipped with technology that enables autonomous driving with solid-state Flash LiDAR technology provided by LeddarTech. COAST Autonomous has developed self-driving vehicles that integrate several detection technologies, including LiDAR and camera. LeddarTechs Leddar Pixell provides full coverage with no dead zones within the entire perimeter of the vehicle, also referred to as the cocoon. This protects all workers on an industrial site, on foot or in another vehicle, who may approach the ADV in stop-and-go situations.

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It has been a great opportunity to deploy vehicles at KCRP. The railyard is the perfect environment to show how autonomous vehicles function, particularly in an industrial environment, keeping the workforce safer and improving efficiency by allowing them to focus on more highly skilled tasks, stated Pierre Lefevre, Chief Technology Officer at COAST Autonomous. Safety is our priority, and that is why we use the Leddar Pixell. With more than a decade of experience building LiDAR sensors, LeddarTech is the perfect partner for us and has consistently shown it could exceed our expectations.

We are honored that our Cocoon LiDAR solutions were selected and trusted by COAST Autonomous to be part of its autonomous Bigfoot delivery vehicle, stated Adrian Pierce, VP, Global Sales & Business Development at LeddarTech. COAST has an amazing track record, and it is exciting to see them launch a delivery service at a railyard. The first element of COASTs charter is safety, and the deployment of LeddarTechs Cocoon LiDAR supports that charter and the commitment COAST makes to their customers. Mr. Pierce concluded that making mobility applications safer is at the core of our DNA. Our technology offers the right balance of performance and cost-effectiveness and is ready for deployment today.

About COAST Autonomous

COAST Autonomous is a self-driving technology company providing mobility solutions to move people and goods at appropriate speeds in urban, campus, and industrial environments. COAST was established to build community by connecting people with mobility solutions that put pedestrians first and give cities back to people. However, COAST technology is also ideal for private sites. COAST has developed a proprietary 6-level Autonomous Vehicle (AV) system that includes mapping and localization, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI), fleet management, and supervision. COAST can provide a variety of AVs to offer Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) solutions to cities, theme parks, campuses, airports, rail yards, and other private sites. COAST can also provide Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions to vehicle manufacturers looking to offer autonomous fleets to their customers. COAST engineers work with the manufacturer to convert their vehicles to by-wire, install perception sensors and AV software, followed by a rigorous testing program. Located in California, Florida, France, the UK, and the Philippines, the COAST team is recognized for its experience and expertise in all aspects of implementing and operating AV fleets while prioritizing safety and the user experience. To learn how COAST Autonomous can help you power autonomous transportation in your environment, please visit www.coastautonomous.com .

Contact:

Aimie Nghiem, Director of Program Development, COAST Autonomous

Tel: + 1-626-838-2469 anghiem@coastautonomous.com

About LeddarTech

LeddarTech is a leader in environmental sensing solutions for autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems. Founded in 2007, LeddarTech has evolved to become a comprehensive end-to-end environmental sensing company by enabling customers to solve critical sensing and perception challenges across the entire value chain of the automotive and mobility market segments with its LeddarVision sensor-fusion and perception platform.

LeddarTech delivers a cost-effective, scalable, and versatile LiDAR development solution to Tier 1-2 automotive system integrators that enables them to develop automotive-grade solid-state LiDARs based on the foundation of the LeddarEngine.

LeddarTech has 14 generations of solid-state LiDARs based on the LeddarEngine platform operating 24/7 in harsh environments. This platform is actively deployed in autonomous shuttles, trucks, buses, delivery vehicles, smart cities/factories, and robotaxi applications.

The company is responsible for several innovations in cutting-edge automotive and mobility remote-sensing applications, with over 80 patented technologies (granted or pending) enhancing ADAS and autonomous driving capabilities.

Additional information about LeddarTech is accessible at www.leddartech.com and on LinkedIn , Twitter , Facebook , and YouTube .

Contact:

Daniel Aitken,

Vice President of Global Marketing and Communications, LeddarTech Inc.

Tel.: + 1-418-653-9000 ext. 232

daniel.aitken@leddartech.com

Leddar, LeddarTech, LeddarEngine, LeddarVision, LeddarSP, LeddarCore, VAYADrive, VayaVision, and related logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of LeddarTech Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other brands, product names, and marks are or may be trademarks or registered trademarks used to identify products or services of their respective owners.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cce3d3eb-b49c-4c38-a271-3175e4e2fdd9

A video accompanying this release is available at:

https://coastautonomous.com/videos/kcrp-autonomous-delivery-vehicle






W hether youre unlikely to face a full-time return to the office and want to move further out of town for more space, or are jumping at the chance to buy a home in London, youll be joining thousands of others trying to complete on a property before the stamp duty holiday ends next year.

Homes priced 500,000 and below are now exempt from the buyers tax until next March 31. With up to 15,000 savings on offer when buying a home in England and Wales, millions of potential home movers are rushing to get their search under way.

New listings of London homes on Rightmove increased by 14 per cent, or 1,402, in the fortnight after Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the stamp duty measure in his summer mini Budget on July 8.

It has encouraged people both to look and to sell, it was busy anyway but it has definitely upped the ante, says Robin Chatwin, head of south-west London at Savills, where viewings are up 127 per cent on this time last year.

Heres our guide to buying and selling in time to take full advantage of the stamp duty holiday  and vital tips for ensuring speedy completion.

Post-lockdown: time your home buy right to cash in on the tax break

In normal circumstances, it usually takes around eight weeks to find a home and a further 15-20 weeks for conveyancing.

Final, and sometimes lengthy, stages of conveyancing include signing and exchanging contracts before completing on the sale. In some cases it is possible to exchange contracts and complete on the same day. However, it isnt uncommon for sales involving chains to take six months.

A number of agents will not allow you to proceed with house viewings at the moment until you are in a position to proceed with the actual sale, says Mark Hayward, chief executive of estate agents group NAEA Propertymark. Timely house sales are especially important in the current market.

To ensure the stamp duty deadline can be met, Hayward says: A property must be put on the market no later than September 25.

Key points when viewing a home

Once youve decided to move home, it can be daunting but its also exciting.

When the sums finally add up and youre all set to be mortgaged to the hilt, it can be easy to forget how little time you might spend viewing a home before you are committed to owning it.

You can spend more time test driving a car than you spend in your future home, says Savills Robin Chatwin, who adds that there is no reason you cant get as good a sense of a property now as you could pre-coronavirus, even with social distancing measures in place. Were all wearing gloves, we can ask vendors to leave  or to leave particular cupboard doors open, for example.

At the viewing, if you immediately like a property, here are seven things to check while you are there:

Taps: is the water pressure good? Check the shower or bath, too. How long does the water take to run hot?

is the water pressure good? Check the shower or bath, too. How long does the water take to run hot? Storage: where is it - and is there enough of it?

where is it - and is there enough of it? Rooms: would you be able to fit a wardrobe and a bed in the bedroom, for instance? Are there any cracks in the walls or ceilings?

would you be able to fit a wardrobe and a bed in the bedroom, for instance? Are there any cracks in the walls or ceilings? Electrics: do the lights work? Where are the power sockets in key rooms  and are there enough of them?

do the lights work? Where are the power sockets in key rooms  and are there enough of them? Boiler: how old is it? Has it been serviced recently? Is there a guarantee in place?

how old is it? Has it been serviced recently? Is there a guarantee in place? Stairways and entrance: will it be awkward to get furniture in or out?

will it be awkward to get furniture in or out? Windows: do they open and close easily? Are you overlooked by neighbours?

Prove you are ready to buy

It can help to have evidence that youre in a position to buy, whether its with a mortgage in principle or funds in your account.

Show that youre ready to go straightaway. Otherwise, if the property has been popular, youre leaving yourself exposed, says Matthew Gilbert, associate director at Hamptons International in Richmond.

If youre using a mortgage, your lender may need a certain amount of time to transfer funds, so its worth finding out how long that time frame might be.

If the seller has received three offers, two with 45-day closing periods and yours with just 30 days to close, it puts you one step ahead of the competition, says Mark Hayward.

Look into the location

It is essential to visit the property in person, if you can, and walk around the local area. Check if there is noise from nearby roads, or if the home is under a flight path. It is also worth checking whether there are any restrictions on building in the local area.

Theres a house we took on the market which looked like it had a lot of potential to extend and modernise, says Gilbert. We did a bit of investigation and discovered that because of its location in a conservation area, any work would have to be a bit more modest. People can expect to double the size of their house, sometimes theres seemingly value to be added, but its important to understand the limitations.

You will also want to know what there is in the way of local restaurants, pubs and shops, as well as access to public transport.

Are there pubs nearby? Or Tubes running underneath the property? asks Chatwin.

Find your solicitor

If youve chosen a solicitor, make sure they are ready to be instructed.

When an offer gets accepted, it can be quite annoying waiting for a buyer to get quotes, agree terms, decide who they want to go with  that can all be two to three extra days, says Gilbert.

Property and building research: dont forget the roof

If theres a lease length and a service charge, make sure you know exactly what they are, advises Chatwin.

If the charges turn out to be disproportionately high, its better to know early on, as getting a mortgage could be problematic.

Consider what responsibilities come with ownership of the property. If youre buying a ground-floor flat, people sometimes forget to ask about the roof, says Chatwin.

Dont play it (too) cool

Being honest and transparent helps the agent identify who is serious, says Gilbert. Some buyers play it really cool, they can walk off down the road and you dont really know what theyre thinking.

Hayward concludes: The majority of house viewings happen in the first 20 to 30 days of the listing, with virtual viewings currently taking place even sooner. Dont risk being ruled out as a potential buyer by sitting on your decision for too long after this.
Unemployed Michigan residents have a new state website to explore  a site that has nothing to do with stop payment indicators or identify verification.

Michigan has launched a digital hub called Skills to Work with resources to help people train up on soft skills, explore career and degree options and find in-demand jobs. The site is live and can be found at Michigan.gov/SkillstoWork.

With the economic disruption caused by COVID-19, its more important than ever that we help Michiganders improve their skills, explore in-demand career opportunities and jump-start educational opportunities, said Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity Director Jeff Donofrio in a news release.

The hub was designed by LEO, the Michigan Community College Association, Michigan Works! agencies and other groups.

Michigan had a 14.8% unemployment rate in June  down from 21.3% in May but well above the pre-pandemic 4.2% rate from June 2019.

The website includes a variety of tools to teach new skills or help workers return to work. Among them are trainings on how to write resumes and master interviews, resources for exploration of career paths, a list of job postings in Michigan and links to where people can earn certificates or degrees to further their education.

The website supports a Gov. Gretchen Whitmer initiative to increase the percentage of working-age residents with a certificate or college degree to 60% by 2030. The current level is 48.9%, per a state news release.

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 executive orders requiring people to wear face coverings over their mouth and nose while in public indoor and crowded outdoor spaces. See an explanation of what that means here .

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus .

For more data on COVID-19 in Michigan, visit https://www.mlive.com/coronavirus/data/ .

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New York: The head of the United Nations will start meeting regularly with young climate activists, saying participation by youth on the front lines is critical to scaling up action to slow global warming.

A group of seven people, ages 18 to 28, from seven countries will sit down with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to advise him on global warming issues, he said in a video on Twitter.

"We have seen young people on the front lines of climate action, showing us what bold leadership looks like," Guterres said.

Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General, will meet regularly with the young group. Credit:AP

The youth advisory group is tasked with providing "perspectives, ideas and solutions that will help us scale up climate action," he said.
Commenting on the Company's performance, Stan Pavlovsky, the Company's Chief Executive Officer, said, "Shutterstock delivered a strong second quarter characterized by revenue that surpassed our expectations. Our margin expansion initiatives have begun to take hold, which has resulted in record adjusted EBITDA for the quarter. I am impressed by the resiliency of our business and our ability to deliver strong performance in the current operating environment. Based on a higher level of confidence we have in our business outlook, we are accelerating several targeted investments in our platform solutions offering and marketing and brand building to support growth in our subscriptions products.

Jarrod Yahes, the Company's Chief Financial Officer, said, "As our business evolves towards a primarily subscription-based model, we are now disclosing additional key operating metrics to the investor community. We expect the increase in subscriber revenues to result in greater operating leverage and allow us to consistently deliver incremental margin expansion over a sustained period of time. In order to highlight our market opportunity and business model, we have made a new interactive investor relations microsite available to investors this quarter."



Second Quarter 2020 highlights compared to Second Quarter 2019:

Key Operating Metrics

Subscribers increased 29%, to 223,000.

Subscriber revenue increased 8% to $62.7 million .

. Average revenue per customer, increased 0.2% to $326 .

. Paid downloads decreased 6% to 44.0 million.

Revenue per download increased by $0.17 to $3.61 .

to . Image collection expanded 21% to approximately 340 million images.

Footage collection expanded 27% to approximately 19 million clips.

Financial Highlights

Revenue decreased 2% to $159.2 million . On a constant currency basis, revenue decreased 1%.

. On a constant currency basis, revenue decreased 1%. Income from operations increased by $19.5 million to $22.5 million .

to . Net income increased by $15.7 million to $19.0 million .

to . Adjusted EBITDA increased by $11.9 million to $37.0 million .

to . Diluted EPS increased by $0.44 to $0.53 per share.

SHUTTERSTOCK INVESTOR RELATIONS MICRO SITE

Accessible at content.shutterstock.com/investor-report/index.html



SECOND QUARTER RESULTS

Revenue

Second quarter revenue of $159.2 million decreased $2.5 million or 2% as compared to 2019. Revenue generated through our E-commerce sales channel increased 1% as compared to the second quarter of 2019, to $98.2 million, and represented 62% of total revenue in the second quarter of 2020. Revenue from our Enterprise sales channel decreased 6% as compared to the second quarter of 2019, to $61.1 million, and represented 38% of second quarter revenue in 2020.

On a constant currency basis, revenue decreased 1% in the second quarter of 2020 as compared to the second quarter of 2019. On a constant currency basis, E-commerce revenue increased by 2.0% in the second quarter of 2020, as compared to the second quarter of 2019. On a constant currency basis, Enterprise revenue decreased by approximately 5% in the second quarter of 2020, as compared to the second quarter of 2019.

Net income and Income per diluted share

Net income of $19.0 million, increased $15.7 million as compared to $3.3 million for the second quarter in 2019. Net income per diluted share was $0.53, as compared to $0.09 for the same period in 2019. This increase is primarily due to our margin expansion initiatives which have resulted in lower operating expenses in the second quarter of 2020.

Adjusted net income per diluted share was $0.62 as compared to $0.33 for the second quarter of 2019, a increase of $0.29 per diluted share.

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA of $37.0 million for the second quarter of 2020 increased $11.9 million, or 48%, as compared to the second quarter of 2019, driven primarily by lower operating expenses resulting from our margin expansion. The adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 23.3% from 15.5% in the second quarter of 2019.



LIQUIDITY

Our cash and cash equivalents increased by $7.9 million to $311.2 million at June 30, 2020, as compared with $303.3 million at December 31, 2019. This increase was driven by $36.3 million of net cash provided by our operating activities, partially offset by $15.4 million used in investing activities and $14.9 million used in financing activities. Net cash provided by our operating activities was impacted by a one-time $7.8 million payment related to long-term incentives made in conjunction with our 2017 acquisition of Flashstock Technology, Inc. ("Flashstock"), in addition to unfavorable impacts due to changes in the timing of payments pertaining to operating expenses. Cash used in investing activities primarily consists of $14.0 million related to capital expenditures. Cash used in financing activities includes $12.1 million related to the payment of the quarterly cash dividend.

Free cash flow was $28.6 million for 2020, a decrease of $3.2 million from 2019. This change was primarily driven by lower cash flows from operating activities. Free cash flow for the six months ended June 30, 2020 is presented excluding a nonrecurring payment of $7.8 million with respect to long-term incentives related to our 2017 acquisition of Flashstock.

QUARTERLY CASH DIVIDEND

We declared and paid cash dividends of $0.34 per common share, or $12.1 million during the six months ended June 30, 2020.

On July 20, 2020, the Board of Directors declared a dividend of $0.17 per share of outstanding common stock, payable on September 17, 2020 to stockholders of record at the close of business on September 3, 2020.

KEY OPERATING METRICS





Three Months Ended June 30,



2020

2019





Subscribers (end of period)(1)

223,000



173,000

Subscriber revenue (in millions)(2)

$ 62.7



$ 57.9











Average revenue per customer (trailing twelve months)(3)

$ 326



$ 325

Paid downloads (in millions)(4)

44.0



46.6

Revenue per download (5)

$3.61



$3.44

Content in our collection (end of period, in millions)(6):







Images

340



280

Footage clips

19



15





(1) Subscribers is defined as those customers who purchase one or more of our monthly recurring products for a continuous period of at least three months, measured as of the end of the reporting period.

(2) Subscriber revenue is defined as the revenue generated from subscribers during the period.

(3) Average revenue per customer is calculated by dividing total revenue for the trailing twelve month period by customers. We define customers as total active, paying customers that contributed to total revenue over the trailing twelve month period.

(4) Paid downloads is the number of downloads that our customers make in a given period of our photographs, vectors, illustrations, footage or music tracks. Paid downloads exclude custom content and downloads of content that are offered to customers for no charge, including our free image of the week.

(5) Revenue per download is the amount of content-related revenue recognized in a given period divided by the number of paid downloads in that period excluding revenue from custom content and the impact of revenue that is not derived from or associated with content licenses.

(6) Represents approved images (photographs, vectors and illustrations) and footage (in number of clips) in our library on shutterstock.com at the end of the period. We exclude content from this collection metric that is not uploaded directly to our site but is available for license by our customers through an application program interface, custom content and certain content that may be licensed for editorial use only.



NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

To supplement Shutterstock's consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with the accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, or GAAP, Shutterstock's management considers certain financial measures that are not prepared in accordance with GAAP, collectively referred to as non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, revenue growth (including by distribution channel) on a constant currency basis, adjusted EBITDA margin, billings and free cash flow.

Shutterstock defines adjusted EBITDA as net income adjusted for depreciation and amortization, non-cash equity-based compensation, foreign currency transaction gains and losses, expenses related to long-term incentives and contingent consideration related to acquisitions, interest income and expense and income taxes; adjusted net income as net income adjusted for the impact of non-cash equity-based compensation, the amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, expenses related to long-term incentives and contingent consideration related to acquisitions and the estimated tax impact of such adjustments; revenue growth (including by distribution channel) on a constant currency basis as the increase in current period revenues over prior period revenues, utilizing fixed exchange rates for translating foreign currency revenues for all periods in the comparison; adjusted EBITDA margin as the ratio of adjusted EBITDA to revenue; billings as revenue adjusted for the change in deferred revenue during the period; and free cash flow as cash provided by operating activities, adjusted for capital expenditures, content acquisition, and, with respect to the three months ended March 31, 2020, a payment associated with long-term incentives related to our 2017 acquisition of Flashstock. These figures have not been calculated in accordance with GAAP and should be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, GAAP results. Shutterstock cautions investors that non-GAAP financial measures are not based on any standardized methodology prescribed by GAAP and are not necessarily comparable to similarly-titled measures presented by other companies.

Shutterstock's management believes that adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, revenue growth (including by distribution channel) on a constant currency basis, adjusted EBITDA margin, billings and free cash flow are useful to investors because these measures enable investors to analyze Shutterstock's operating results on the same basis as that used by management. Additionally, management believes that adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin and adjusted net income provide useful information to investors about the performance of the Company's overall business because such measures eliminate the effects of unusual or other infrequent charges that are not directly attributable to Shutterstock's underlying operating performance; and revenue growth (including by distribution channel) on a constant currency basis provides useful information to investors by eliminating the effect of foreign currency fluctuations that are not directly attributable to Shutterstock's operating performance. Management also believes that providing these non-GAAP financial measures enhances the comparability for investors in assessing Shutterstock's financial reporting. Shutterstock's management believes that free cash flow is useful for investors because it provides them with an important perspective on the cash available for strategic measures, after making necessary capital investments in property and equipment to support the Company's ongoing business operations and after excluding the impact of nonrecurring payments associated with long-term incentives related to our 2017 acquisition of Flashstock, and provides them with the same measures that management uses as the basis for making resource allocation decisions.

Shutterstock's management also uses the non-GAAP financial measures adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, revenue growth (including by distribution channel) on a constant currency basis, adjusted EBITDA margin, billings and free cash flow, in conjunction with GAAP financial measures, as an integral part of managing the business and to, among other things: (i) monitor and evaluate the performance of Shutterstock's business operations, financial performance and overall liquidity; (ii) facilitate management's internal comparisons of the historical operating performance of its business operations; (iii) facilitate management's external comparisons of the results of its overall business to the historical operating performance of other companies that may have different capital structures and debt levels; (iv) review and assess the operating performance of Shutterstock's management team and, together with other operational objectives, as a measure in evaluating employee compensation and bonuses; (v) analyze and evaluate financial and strategic planning decisions regarding future operating investments; and (vi) plan for and prepare future annual operating budgets and determine appropriate levels of operating investments.

Reconciliations of the differences between adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, billings, free cash flow, and the most comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP, are presented under the headings "Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Information to GAAP" and "Supplemental Financial Data" immediately following the Consolidated Balance Sheets.

EARNINGS TELECONFERENCE INFORMATION

The Company will discuss its second quarter and full year financial results during a teleconference today, July 28, 2020, at 8:30 AM ET. The conference call can be accessed in the U.S. at (844) 634-1442 or outside the U.S. at (615) 247-0239 with the conference ID# 2957776. A live audio webcast of the call will also be available simultaneously at http://investor.shutterstock.com.

Following completion of the call, a recorded replay of the webcast will be available in the investor relations section of Shutterstock's website. A telephone replay of the call will also be available until August 5, 2020 in the U.S. at (855) 859-2056 or outside the U.S. at (404) 537-3406 with the conference ID# 2957776.

Additional investor information can be accessed at http://investor.shutterstock.com.



ABOUT SHUTTERSTOCK

Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE: SSTK), directly and through its group subsidiaries, is a leading global provider of high-quality licensed photographs, vectors, illustrations, videos and music to businesses, marketing agencies and media organizations around the world. Working with its growing community of over 1 million contributors, Shutterstock adds hundreds of thousands of images each week, and currently has more than 340 million images and more than 19 million footage clips available.

Headquartered in New York City, Shutterstock has offices around the world and customers in more than 150 countries. The Company also owns Bigstock, a value-oriented stock media offering; Shutterstock Custom, a custom content creation platform; Offset, a high-end image collection; PremiumBeat, a curated royalty-free music library; and Shutterstock Editorial, a premier source of editorial images for the world's media.

For more information, please visit www.shutterstock.com and follow Shutterstock on Twitter and on Facebook.



FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding management's future business, future results of operations or financial condition, new or planned features, products or services, management strategies, Shutterstock's expectations regarding financial outlook and future growth and profitability and statements regarding anticipated improvements in operations. You can identify forward-looking statements by words such as "may," "will," "would," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend," "plan" and other similar expressions. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors including risks related to any changes to or the effects on liabilities, financial condition, future capital expenditures, revenue, expenses, net income or loss, synergies and future prospects; our inability to continue to attract and retain customers and contributors to our online marketplace for creative content; competitive factors; our inability to innovate technologically or develop, market and offer new products and services; costs related to litigation or infringement claims, indemnification claims and the inability to prevent misuse of our content; our inability to increase market awareness of Shutterstock and our products and services; our inability to effectively manage our growth; our inability to grow at historic growth rates or at all; technological interruptions that impair access to our websites; assertions by third parties of infringement of intellectual property rights by Shutterstock, our inability to effectively manage risks associated with operating internationally; our exposure to foreign exchange rate risk; our inability to address risks associated with sales to large corporate customers; government regulation of the internet; increasing regulation related to the handling of personal data; actions by governments to restrict access to our products and services; our inability to effectively expand our operations into new products, services and technologies; our inability to protect the confidential information of customers; increased tax liabilities associated with our worldwide operations, including our exposure to withholding, sales and transaction tax liabilities; the effect of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017; public health crises including the COVID-19 pandemic; general economic and political conditions worldwide, including disruption and volatility caused by COVID-19 and any resulting economic recession; our inability to successfully integrate acquisitions and the associated technology and achieve operational efficiencies; and other factors and risks discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as in other documents that we may file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result of such risks, uncertainties and factors, Shutterstock's actual results may differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements discussed in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made only as of this date and Shutterstock assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law.

Shutterstock, Inc.

Consolidated Statements of Operations

(In thousands, except for per share data)

(unaudited)





Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,



2020

2019

2020

2019

















Revenue

$ 159,230



$ 161,741



$ 320,515



$ 325,073



















Operating expenses:















Cost of revenue

63,811



68,526



132,934



137,744

Sales and marketing

35,557



44,488



78,217



88,934

Product development

12,485



13,594



25,554



28,580

General and administrative

24,832



32,063



55,484



58,646

Total operating expenses

136,685



158,671



292,189



313,904

Income from operations

22,545



3,070



28,326



11,169

Other income, net

149



584



662



1,480

Income before income taxes

22,694



3,654



28,988



12,649

Provision for income taxes

3,707



355



5,683



1,828

Net income

$ 18,987



$ 3,299



$ 23,305



$ 10,821



















Earnings per share















Basic

$ 0.53



$ 0.09



$ 0.65



$ 0.31

Diluted

$ 0.53



$ 0.09



$ 0.65



$ 0.30



















Weighted average common shares outstanding:















Basic

35,652



35,232



35,587



35,174

Diluted

35,906



35,504



35,894



35,499



Shutterstock, Inc.

Consolidated Balance Sheets

(In thousands, except par value amount)

(unaudited)





June 30, 2020

December 31, 2019









ASSETS







Current assets:







Cash and cash equivalents

$ 311,157



$ 303,261

Accounts receivable, net of allowance of $3,608 and $3,579

48,744



47,016

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

26,590



26,703

Total current assets

386,491



376,980

Property and equipment, net

54,240



58,834

Right-of-use assets

42,097



45,453

Intangibles assets, net

25,182



26,669

Goodwill

88,167



88,974

Deferred tax assets, net

13,727



14,387

Other assets

16,427



19,215

Total assets

$ 626,331



$ 630,512











LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY







Current liabilities:







Accounts payable

$ 4,504



$ 6,104

Accrued expenses

51,554



53,864

Contributor royalties payable

24,248



25,193

Deferred revenue

138,229



141,922

Other liabilities

10,347



18,811

Total current liabilities

228,882



245,894

Lease liabilities

44,280



47,313

Other non-current liabilities

9,669



9,160

Total liabilities

282,831



302,367

Commitment and contingencies







Stockholders' equity:







Common stock, $0.01 par value; 200,000 shares authorized; 38,245 and 38,055 shares

issued and 35,687 and 35,497 shares outstanding as of June 30, 2020 and

December 31, 2019, respectively

382



381

Treasury stock, at cost; 2,558 shares as of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019

(100,027)



(100,027)

Additional paid-in capital

319,412



312,824

Accumulated other comprehensive loss

(8,414)



(6,220)

Retained earnings

132,147



121,187

Total stockholders' equity

343,500



328,145

Total liabilities and stockholders' equity

$ 626,331



$ 630,512



Shutterstock, Inc.

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

(In thousands, except par value amount)

(unaudited)





Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,



2020

2019

2020

2019

















CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES















Net income

$ 18,987



$ 3,299



$ 23,305



$ 10,821

Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by

operating activities:















Depreciation and amortization

10,851



13,403



21,370



25,319

Deferred taxes

1,079



(2,011)



693



(1,312)

Non-cash equity-based compensation

3,636



7,751



9,396



12,375

Bad debt expense

428



(3)



1,086



(635)

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:















Accounts receivable

(3,952)



1,066



(3,279)



(2,746)

Prepaid expenses and other current and non-current assets

2,256



4,726



49



1,944

Accounts payable and other current and non-current liabilities

(1,759)



(95)



(4,045)



1,899

Long-term incentives related to acquisitions









(7,759)





Contributor royalties payable

(1,391)



(1,079)



(840)



1,059

Deferred revenue

(651)



(23)



(3,633)



(1,981)

Net cash provided by operating activities

$ 29,484



$ 27,034



$ 36,343



$ 46,743



















CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES















Capital expenditures

(6,247)



(6,473)



(13,966)



(13,726)

Proceeds from sale of Webdam, net













2,500

Acquisition of content

(854)



(732)



(1,577)



(1,277)

Security deposit release

74



25



105



25

Net cash used in investing activities

$ (7,027)



$ (7,180)



$ (15,438)



$ (12,478)



















CASH FLOWS FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES















Proceeds from exercise of stock options

629



4



629



218

Cash paid related to settlement of employee taxes related to RSU

vesting

(1,675)



(1,091)



(3,436)



(5,181)

Payment of cash dividend

(6,058)







(12,098)





Net cash used in financing activities

$ (7,104)



$ (1,087)



$ (14,905)



$ (4,963)



















Effect of foreign exchange rate changes on cash

93



161



(717)



(1,085)

Net increase in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

15,446



18,928



5,283



28,217



















Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, beginning of period

295,711



242,754



305,874



233,465

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, end of period

$ 311,157



$ 261,682



$ 311,157



$ 261,682



















Supplemental Disclosure of Cash Information:















Cash paid for income taxes

$ 433



$ 1,175



$ 927



$ 1,480



Shutterstock, Inc.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Information to GAAP

(In thousands, except per share information)

(unaudited)

Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, revenue growth (including by distribution channel) on a constant currency basis, billings and free cash flow are not financial measures prepared in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Such non-GAAP financial measures should not be construed as alternatives to any other measures of performance determined in accordance with GAAP. We caution investors that non-GAAP financial measures are not based on any standardized methodology prescribed by GAAP and are not necessarily comparable to similarly-titled measures presented by other companies.





Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,



2020

2019

2020

2019 Net income

$ 18,987



$ 3,299



$ 23,305



$ 10,821

Add / (less) Non-GAAP adjustments:















Depreciation and amortization

10,851



13,403



21,370



25,319

Non-cash equity-based compensation

3,636



7,751



9,396



12,375

Other adjustments, net (1)

(149)



298



(662)



305

Provision for income taxes

3,707



355



5,683



1,828

Adjusted EBITDA

$ 37,032



$ 25,106



$ 59,092



$ 50,648

Adjusted EBITDA margin

23.3 %

15.5 %

18.4 %

15.6 %





(1) Other adjustments, net includes foreign currency transaction gains and losses, expenses related to long-term incentives and contingent consideration related to acquisitions, and interest income and expense.





Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,



2020

2019

2020

2019 Net income

$ 18,987



$ 3,299



$ 23,305



$ 10,821

Add / (less) Non-GAAP adjustments:















Non-cash equity-based compensation

3,636



7,751



9,396



12,375

Tax effect of non-cash equity-based compensation (2)

(854)



(1,822)



(2,208)



(2,909)

Acquisition-related amortization expense

514



2,407



1,082



3,297

Tax effect of acquisition-related amortization expense (2)

(121)



(498)



(254)



(707)

Acquisition-related long-term incentives and contingent

consideration





882







1,786

Tax effect of acquisition-related long-term incentives and

contingent consideration (2)





(234)







(474)

Adjusted net income

$ 22,162



$ 11,785



$ 31,321



$ 24,189



















Net income per diluted share

$ 0.53



$ 0.09



$ 0.65



$ 0.30

Adjusted net income per diluted share

$ 0.62



$ 0.33



$ 0.87



$ 0.68

Weighted average diluted shares

35,906



35,504



35,894



35,499







(2) Tax effect reflects the estimated impact of the adjustment on the provision for income taxes.





Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,



2020

2019

2020

2019 Total Revenues

$ 159,230



$ 161,741



$ 320,515



$ 325,073



















Revenue growth

(2) %

3 %

(1) %

5 % Revenue growth on a constant currency basis

(1) %

5 %

(1) %

7 %

















E-commerce revenues

$ 98,164



$ 96,993



$ 197,900



$ 195,106

Revenue growth: E-commerce

1 %

6 %

1 %

8 % Revenue growth: E-commerce on a constant currency basis

2 %

7 %

2 %

10 %

















Enterprise revenues

$ 61,066



$ 64,748



$ 122,615



$ 129,967

Revenue growth: Enterprise

(6) %

0 %

(6) %

4 % Revenue growth: Enterprise on a constant currency basis

(5) %

2 %

(5) %

6 %





Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,



2020

2019

2020

2019 Net cash provided by operating activities

$ 29,484



$ 27,034



$ 36,343



$ 46,743

Capital expenditures

(6,247)



(6,473)



(13,966)



(13,726)

Content acquisition

(854)



(732)



(1,577)



(1,277)

Payments associated with long-term incentives related to

acquisitions









7,759





Free cash flow

$ 22,383



$ 19,829



$ 28,559



$ 31,740



Shutterstock, Inc.

Supplemental Financial Data

(unaudited)

Historical Operating Metrics



Three Months Ended



6/30/20

3/31/20

12/31/19

9/30/19

6/30/19

3/31/19

























Subscribers (end of period, in thousands) (1)

223



209



194



184



173



161

Subscriber revenue (in millions) (2)

$ 62.7



$ 63.9



$ 60.5



$ 60.1



$ 57.9



$ 58.0



























Average revenue per customer (trailing twelve months) (3)

$ 326



$ 329



$ 330



$ 327



$ 325



$ 323

Paid downloads (in millions) (4)

44.0



46.8



47.7



46.3



46.6



47.2

Revenue per download (5)

$ 3.61



$ 3.42



$ 3.44



$ 3.40



$ 3.44



$ 3.42

Content in our collection (end of period, in millions): (6)























Images

340



330



314



297



280



260

Footage clips

19



18



17



16



15



14



Revenue and Billings by Sales Channel(7)





Three Months Ended



6/30/20

3/31/20

12/31/19

9/30/19

6/30/19

3/31/19



(in millions) E-commerce revenue

$ 98.2



$ 99.7



$ 100.9



$ 96.2



$ 97.0



$ 98.1

Enterprise revenue

61.1



61.5



65.5



62.8



64.7



65.2

Total revenue

$ 159.2



$ 161.3



$ 166.4



$ 159.1



$ 161.7



$ 163.3



























Change in total deferred revenue

$ (0.7)



$ (3.0)



$ 4.4



$ 0.4



$ (0.2)



$ (2.2)

Total billings

$ 158.6



$ 158.2



$ 170.8



$ 159.5



$ 161.5



$ 161.1







(1) Subscribers is defined as those customers who purchase one or more of our monthly recurring products for a continuous period of at least three months, measured as of the end of the reporting period. (2) Subscriber revenue is defined as the revenue generated from subscribers during the period. (3) Average revenue per customer is calculated by dividing total revenue for the trailing twelve month period by customers. We define customers as total active, paying customers that contributed to total revenue over the trailing twelve month period. (4) Paid downloads is the number of downloads that our customers make in a given period of our photographs, vectors, illustrations, footage or music tracks. Paid downloads exclude custom content and downloads of content that are offered to customers for no charge, including our free image of the week. (5) Revenue per download is defined as the amount of revenue recognized in a given period divided by the number of paid downloads in that period excluding revenue from custom content and the impact of revenue that is not derived from or associated with content licenses. (6) Represents approved images (photographs, vectors and illustrations) and footage (in number of clips) in our library on shutterstock.com at the end of the period. We exclude content from this collection metric that is not uploaded directly to our site but is available for license by our customers through an application program interface, custom content and certain content that may be licensed for editorial use only. (7) Certain amounts in the table may not foot due to rounding.

SOURCE Shutterstock, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.shutterstock.com


Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - A total of 582 prisoners have been pardoned by the Libyan Supreme Judicial Council as part of a prison population decongestion programme to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic
Rajesh Kumar Thakur By

Express News Service

PATNA: A four-member team from Patna police reached Mumbai to investigate the death of Sushant Singh Rajput after his father, KK Singh, lodged an FIR against Rhea Chakraborty and others for allegedly abetting the Bollywood actor's suicide.

Alongside Rhea, the FIR has been lodged against Sandhya Chakraborty, Showik Chakraborty, Indrajit Chakraborty, Samual Miranda, Shruti Modi and others.

KK Singh has accused Rhea of extortion and making a transaction of Rs 15 crores from Sushant's bank account and demanded for a probe to ascertain the accounts into which the money was eventually credited to.

In the FIR, Singh mentioned that Rhea left with Sushant's residence with his credit card, cash, laptop, important documents and doctors' receipts on June 8, which incidentally happens to be the day Sushant's former manager Disha Salian died by suicide.

Later, Rhea blocked Sushants number on her cell and the actor feared that Rhea could have blamed him for Disha's death as she had threatened to frame him.

Singh added in the FIR that Rhea threatened Sushant about making his medical records public to prove him 'mad' after which the actor feared that no one would give him work.

Police sources added that Sushant's father, KK Singh had furnished all details known to him about his son's life in Mumbai.

The FIR was lodged with Rajivnagar PS in Patna and sources say that it was registered at the initiative of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.

According to IG Patna Sanjay Singh, the FIR (241-B/2020) under 341, (wrongful restraint) 420, (cheating) 306, (abetment of suicide), and 342 (wrongful confinement) sections of the IPC.

Singh refused to divulge further details since the matter is under investigation.

Meanwhile, Apoorva Mehta, CEO of Dharma Production, was questioned in the same case at Mumbai's Amboli police station on Tuesday after filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt was also summoned by the police a day prior.

So far, statements of 41 people have been recorded in this case.

Director Karan Johar is also likely to be grilled by both Patna and Mumbai police teams in the investigation.

After Sushants demise on June 14, there has been a continuous demand to CBI probe by fans and politicians including LJP chief Chirag Paswan, BJP leader Rameshwar Chaurasia, JAP leader Pappu Yadav among others.

Sushant was found hanging inside a room of his Bandra residence.

(With Online Desk inputs)
PUNE: Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has asked the state government to provide financial assistance for setting up jumbo medical facilities in the city.

Hemant Rasne, PMC standing committee chairman said, The civic body is facing a financial crisis. It has already spent Rs250 crore for Covid-related work. To ease the monetary strain, the Maharashtra government must provide funds to erect three jumbo Covid care centres in the city.

Pune district guardian minister Ajit Pawar has approved three jumbo Covid care centres with a combined capacity of 2,400 beds. The minister has asked the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal commissioners to set up these centres in the city as the number of critical patients is set to rise in the coming days as per the projected figures released by civic officials.

Though Pawar had given instructions to erect these centres, there is no clarity on who will bear the cost.

Bharatiya Janata Partys Rasne, said, The civic body is trying its best to control the virus spread, but the state government is also expected to help us financially.
Two business owners who oppose plans to pedestrianise Belfast's Ormeau Road on summer weekends have received "sinister letters" in the post which they see as an attempt to silence them.

Michael Goggin of Michel's Fresh Fruit & Vegetables, and Fergal McAdam of homeware store Neptune, have said the 'Open Ormeau' plan backed by the SDLP, Alliance and Green Party will destroy their trade.

However, both businessmen were sent bizarre correspondence - in the form of fake press releases to the media - which quotes them as supporting the initiative which would see restaurants and bars expand outdoors in a European cafe culture system.

The PSNI have been made aware of both letters. The one to Mr McAdam falsely quotes him as telling a newspaper: "At first I was opposed to the initiative. However, when I saw the preparation, the community backing, and some 170 volunteers, I thought I needed to revisit the idea."

The letter to Mr Goggin takes the form of a press release to all media outlets in Belfast. It falsely quotes him as expressing "delight" at supporting Open Ormeau.

It then goes on to quote two real-life disabled customers of his - a female wheelchair user and a partially sighted male - backing the initiative.

Mr Goggin said: "It's a sinister letter which I regard as an attempt to intimidate myself and my 10 staff and to undermine and discredit my position.

"All I am doing is trying to save the business I have worked hard to build up over 22 years.

"Whoever sent this letter may see me as a 'wee greengrocer' whom they can silence. They are wrong."

Mr McAdam said: "When I spoke out against Open Ormeau, I never expected anything like this. I believe this letter is designed to intimidate me from airing my views.

"Those behind it won't succeed, but I've a young family and the whole experience has left me very worried and stressed about the impact on them."

The hand-writing on both envelopes was different, and the letters inside were typed. From examining the correspondence, the businessmen believe that at least three people were involved.

DUP MLA Christopher Stalford said: "These are sinister letters. Michael and Fergal should not have to put up with action like this because they dared to express their concerns about potential dangers to their businesses. This is supposed to be a community conversation but it seems there are some people who aren't prepared to simply agree to disagree with others."

SDLP councillor Gary McKeown said: "I absolutely condemn any attempt by anyone to shut down the conversation and make people feel unable to share their views about the project.

"Anyone for or against must be able to comment freely. It is only through dialogue that we can reach common ground."

Open Ormeau initially hoped to close the road to traffic during every summer weekend. It has been strongly backed by local pubs and restaurants. But in light of opposition from many other businesses - worried about a fall in trade - the plans have been reduced to only some weekend days in August.

The new proposals will be discussed by Belfast City Council's strategic policy and resources committee on Friday. The DUP opposes the plan. If Sinn Fein also fails to back it, the initiative will fail.

Mr Goggin said he was so worried that the proposals would close his business that he has written to First Minister Arlene Foster and deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill. The Belfast Telegraph has contacted Open Ormeau for comment. Supporters of the initiative insist it has strong community support and was endorsed by two-thirds of almost 1,000 people who took part in an online survey.
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Even before Coronavirus had stopped in India during its world tour 2020, people had already come up with the most bizarre remedies and desi nuskas to cure the disease. Yes, I do mean cure.

Taking natural substances to boost your immune system and in turn giving yourself a better chance at fighting the virus in case you get infected is perfectly okay. The problem arises when people peddle these things as cure and put people's lives in danger. That was precisely what was wrong with Patanjali's Coronil.

Since Indians always want to stay ahead of the curve, and apparently even science, here's some stuff they claimed would cure COVID-19.

This year has been extremely shitty but honestly, I feel like the infamous Gaumutra Party that happened in March is still the worst thing to happen.

This is called getting pissed..and partying. https://t.co/S2uDEAbHRR  Saba Naqvi (@_sabanaqvi) March 13, 2020

Was it a BYOP - Bring Your Own Piss?

A few days before the lockdown began, Hindu Mahasabha organized a Gaumutra Party to "neutralize the effects of coronavirus". Why are some people so obsessed with cow urine? Just let the cows live in peace and for god's sake, stop drinking their piss.

Ah, the gem from last week.

Do you know apparently a papad was what was missing in the world's fight against COVID-19? Actually, not any papad, but Bhabhiji Papad. Yep, this is what 2020 has come to.



Basically BJP MP Arjun Ram Meghwal launched the hilariously named papad last week and claimed that it will help build antibodies that will fight coronavirus. Okay, I get that it might have some ingredients that help boost the immune system, but isn't claiming that it forms antibodies against coronavirus false advertisement?

I genuinely hope that Patanjali's Coronil works. India sells it to the world. Becomes a superpower. And China is forced to give Beijing in exchange for Coronil.



Wishful thinking but yeah  Sagar (@sagarcasm) June 23, 2020

What can I say about Coronil and Baba Ramdev that hasn't been said before? There's literally no problem with Patanjali selling Ayurvedic nuskas that will help your immune system but just don't advertise it as a cure. That's it, that was the entire problem with the Coronil fiasco.

4. Cow Dung and Spraying Cow Urine

And, we're back to cows, of course. Back in March, Assam BJP MLA Suman Haripriya had an insightful suggestion in fighting coronavirus -

We all know cow dung is very helpful. Likewise, when cow urine is sprayed, it purifies an area. I believe something similar could be done with cow urine, cow dung to cure #coronavirus: Assam BJP MLA Suman Haripriya  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) March 2, 2020

Who needs sanitizers when you can just spray cow urine?

5. Yoga and 'overcoming' mental illness

PM @narendramodi shld send UP CM @myogiadityanath to "China" to teach ppl how to cure "Coronavirus" thru Yoga



If a person overcomes mental illness, then he/she will not suffer from Coronavirus- Yogi Adityanath said while counting benefits of Yoga

https://t.co/RqFtpEN7B8  CITIZEN Kishan56  (@Kishan561) March 3, 2020

While speaking at the Yog Mahotsav event in Rishikesh, UP CM Yogi Adityanath claimed that coronavirus can be cured by overcoming 'mental illness'. He said, "The world needs to be free of illnesses of the body and mind. If one overcomes mental illness, then one can avoid diseases such as blood pressure, heart attack, kidney failure, liver issues, and even the coronavirus."

Yep, find the off switch for any mental health problems you have and you're safe. It's that simple.

Bonus - It's all because of non-vegetarian food

Another entry from the Hindu Mahasabha!

According to Swami Chakrapani, Xi Jinping should "create an idol of Corona and seek forgiveness" and all non vegetarian Chinese populace "pledge of not harming any innocent creatures in future" to placate the anger of Corona #Coronavirius https://t.co/S16EPiwi2G  Debasish Roy Chowdhury (@Planet_Deb) February 16, 2020

Swami Chakrapani, the National President of All India Hindu Mahasabha, said, "Corona is not a virus, but avatar for the protection of poor creatures. They have come to give the message of death and punishment to the one who eats them."

Wow, it's like a mythic creature that has come to take revenge. He even urged Chinese President Xi Jinping to "create an idol of Corona and seek forgiveness".

No offence, but sometimes you can't pray your problems away, and you obviously can't pray a pandemic away.
Premier Doug Ford suggested another drop in new cases of COVID-19 was a good omen as residents of Toronto and Peel Region await the green light to enter stage three, which would allow bars and restaurants to serve patrons indoors, and gyms, movie theatres and playgrounds to reopen.

When we have 14.5 million people, 111 cases, its great work, Ford said Tuesday after the Ministry of Health numbers from across the province were released.

Ford will announce Wednesday when Toronto, Peel and Windsor-Essex can join the rest of Ontario in easing more restrictions on businesses following deliberations from a panel of public health experts including chief medical officer Dr. David Williams.

The 111 new infections were down from 119 the previous day and the lowest since last Thursday. The number included just six new cases in Toronto, seven in Peel and 22 in Windsor-Essex, where outbreaks among migrant and domestic farm workers have been persistent and troublesome, prompting more testing this week.

We still have quite a few farms to make it to, Ford said, sending a message to farm workers that its absolutely critical that you get a test.

Despite a population of less than 500,000 people, the Windsor-Essex region has the highest number of active COVID-19 cases in Ontario at 355 while Toronto and Peel with vastly larger populations have 299 and 252 respectively.

Health officials have said leaving parts of Windsor and Essex in stage two is an option, as happened weeks ago when the Lake Erie north shore farming towns of Kingsville and Leamington remained in stage one longer than the rest of the county.

My heart breaks for those folks in Essex, Ford added at his daily news conference Tuesday. Theyre getting a tough time of it, but were going to help them try to move into stage three as quickly as possible.

A decision on moving the Toronto, Peel and Windsor-Essex area to stage three was expected Monday but health authorities asked for more time to assess data after some unexpected increases in cases last week.

But Health Minister Christine Elliott said Tuesday that cases remain low in most public health units (PHUs) across Ontario, according to her ministrys numbers based on data reported by health units at 4 p.m. the previous day.

Locally, 27 of the 34 PHUs are reporting five or fewer cases, with 16 of them reporting no new cases, she said on Twitter.

Ottawa, which moved to stage three earlier this month, reported the most new cases of any health unit in the province at 25. An increase in cases there recently has been blamed on house parties. Authorities are watching Peel closely after a house party that was broken up by police attracted more than 200 people on Saturday night.

The Ministry of Health said there were 96 people in hospital with COVID-19 across the province, with 31 requiring intensive care treatment and 18 of them on ventilators. That is down from 120 in hospital a week ago.

A Star compilation of data from health units at 5 p.m. Tuesday found 125 new confirmed and probable cases in the previous 24 hours, raising the tally to 40,998 since late January. Only one case was from Toronto and 11 were from Peel while 24 were from Windsor-Essex. There were five more deaths, lifting that total to 2,804; two were in Toronto, with the others in York Region, Ottawa and Windsor.

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When Victor Agunbiade was called to serve as the officer in charge of dispersing and money collection for the entire African region at...





know that the assignment was preparing him up for yet another feat that would bring him global recognition. When Victor Agunbiade was called to serve as the officer in charge of dispersing and money collection for the entire African region at the US navy Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, in October 2019, little did the Nigerian-born officerknow that the assignment was preparing him up for yet another feat that would bring him global recognition.





As a navy reserve supply officer, he had been serving at Camp Lemonnier  the primary base of operations for the US Africa command in the Horn of Africa and the only permanent US military base in Africa  until his latest role that saw him successfully manage the US navys largest cash disbursement office that involved $45 million.





In recognition of his feat and for also maintaining 100 percent accountability of $23 million across six rigorous inspections and independent audits with zero discrepancies, the US navy recently honoured Agunbiade with a navy and marine corps commendation medal.





presented him with a gold star certificate for his meritorious service while serving as disbursing officer. Kenneth Crowe, US Navy commanding officer, Camp Lemonnier,presented him with a gold star certificate for his meritorious service while serving as disbursing officer.





Presentation of certificate to Agunbiade

But Agunbiades rise to stardom did not start from there.





In 2017, he was named the US Navy Officer Recruiter of the Year, just about two years after becoming a recruiting officer.





He was honoured alongside 17 others in what the US navy said was a testament  for their talent acquisition expertise and positive impact in their local communities.





Agunbiade and other awardees were described as the best recruiters in the United States Navy who represent the finest recruiting has to offer.





FROM STOREKEEPER TO KEY PLAYER

as a storekeeper in the navy. Five years later, he was commissioned as an officer and would later join Camp Lemonnier where he now plays a key role in naval operations across Africa. Agunbiade left Nigeria for the US in 2007 and in 2008, enlistedas a storekeeper in the navy. Five years later, he was commissioned as an officer and would later join Camp Lemonnier where he now playsa key role in naval operations across Africa.





The cash disbursement officer he managed constituted nearly 70 per cent of the navys overseas disbursing volume, the agency said, while as the only permanent US base in Africa, the camp has about 4,000 joint and allied forces military and civilian personnel.





In his position, Agunbiade also plays an important role in Americas focus on rebuilding military readiness and sustaining US-Africa relationship.





Camp Lemonnier is also said to provide higher-level service in support of combat readiness and security of ships, aircraft, detachments and personnel for regional and combatant command requirements while also equipping operations in the Horn of Africa.





IN ALL YOU DO, GIVE IT YOUR BEST SHOT

Agunbiade in combat mode

Agunbiade is guided by two major principles in life: Treat people with respect (and) always give your best in what you domy dad taught me that.





In an interview with DVIDS, a defense information platform, he credited his successful career to the lessons he learnt as an immigrant in the US and while in Nigeria.





As the first child of his family, the officer hopes his first child will take after him and enlist in the US navy.





I pray my son chooses to join the Navy for three reasons. First, I hope he does it so he can appreciate what the country has given our family. Second, it will teach him respect for diversity, and third, I hope he does it because this uniform has changed my life and I know it can change him for the better, too, Agunbiade once said.





The best part about being in the Navy is the travel, especially when I was on a ship. Ive been able to visit 30 countries without paying anything out of pocket.





LOVER OF GOD, FAMILY AND ARSENAL

Agunbiade with wife and daughter in Arsenal jersey

Agunbiade is not just all about the US navy; he is also cherishes his family and relationship with God and, as evident in his social media posts. He has a passion for Arsenal FC.





Tweets about Arsenal littered his account including one which dates back to January 2016 in which he is seen wearing the clubs jersey, saying: Proud to be a gunner!





He also gives God credit for his successful career, saying in a post that God is in every story of my life and, in another where he shared a #throwback picture, said: Goodness of God! O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him(Psalm 34:8).





https://twitter.com/segunvictor73/status/1261372528154546184?s=20





https://twitter.com/segunvictor73/status/693617288197578752?s=20





He also shared many adorable pictures of his son who he identified in one of his tweets as Victor Olusegun Agunbiade and, in another, as the Prince of Minnesota.





https://twitter.com/segunvictor73/status/1136939764547018752?s=20





https://twitter.com/segunvictor73/status/1208681218516094977?s=20





No one seems to be prouder than the officer more than his wife, Caprice Agunbiabe, who commented on this in a Facebook post.





In a recent post in which she announced the husbands award, the wife, who is a youth programme co-director at The Salvation Army, Mankato, US, said he gives her great hope, recalling how his deployment to the camp was a difficult step for the family.





 during this trying time. She wrote: My husband I am so Proud of you!!!! BRAVO ZULU!!!! God has shinned his light on you once again. You give me great hope as you serve unselfishly for Our Nationduring this trying time.





currently dealing with a pandemic. Whew, but no matter what we both faced throughout our day we looked forward to FaceTime as we laugh together with Prince Victor while he entertain you with his big imagination. This particular deployment was very hard for us because this time you had to leave behind Prince Victor. Not to mention we arecurrently dealing with a pandemic. Whew, but no matter what we both faced throughout our day we looked forward to FaceTime as we laugh together with Prince Victor while he entertain you with his big imagination.




BRIDGEPORT  An embattled former nursing home operator must pay more than $3 million to health and retirement plans used by employees of two former nursing homes in the city, per a consent judgment issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Labor Department announced the order, which requires Bridgeport Health Care Center Inc. and the companys former officer Chaim Stern to pay $3,366,957 to the plans to resolve violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. BHCC runs the Bridgeport Health Care Center, 600 Bond St., and Bridgeport Manor, 540 Bond St. Bridgeport Manor closed in 2018 and Bridgeport Health Care Center was ordered closed this January.

The order follows investigations by the U.S. Department of Labors Employee Benefits Security Administration, which revealed Stern diverted more than $4.4 million of retirement plan assets to himself, BHCC, the New York charity Em Kol Chai and other entities.

In January, Stern plead guilty to embezzlement and tax charges, and agreed to make more than $4.1 million in restitution to the retirement plan. He is still awaiting sentencing on the charges.

Sterns actions caused deep suffering to hundreds of nursing home employees, said Sherrie Weller, president of AFSCME Local 1522, which represents most of the workers at Bridgeport Health Care Center. While this does not make up for any of the suffering anyone been through, the members can now receive some of the peace and security they have worked so hard for, Weller said.

She said shes spoken to some of the workers about the settlement and theyre cautiously optimistic.

I think they wont be comfortable and content until the money in their hands, Weller said.

Under the terms of the most recent consent judgment and order, the defendants will pay a total of $2,526,392 to the health plan to appoint a claims administrator and resolve numerous unpaid health claims. They are also ordered to pay $840,565 to the retirement plan, in addition to the $4.1 million Stern was already ordered to pay to the plan.

The labor department also will assess $490,057 in civil money penalties to Stern and he has agreed not to serve as a fiduciary of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act-covered plan in the future under penalty of contempt.

The defendants have a fiduciary duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to administer the plans and their assets solely in the interests of the participants and their beneficiaries. That includes proper and adequate funding of the plans and providing important, accurate and timely information to participants, Employee Benefits Security Administration Regional Director Carol Hamilton said in the release.

In a statement issued earlier this month, Stern said I am thankful that the Court has officially entered this Order and that the Claims Administrator can now establish a process to compensate our former employees. I apologize again to all my former employees for the hardships that my financial desperation and wrongful decisions caused.
By Tatiana Voronova

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Sberbank <SBER.MM> may be allowed to write off 150 billion roubles ($2 billion) in a subordinated loan from the central bank as part of the state's support for its biggest bank during the COVID-19 crisis.

Three sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the finance ministry had agreed that the loan, which was agreed a decade ago, could be upgraded to boost Sberbank's capital and may be even written off.

The sources include a banker close to Sberbank's supervisory board, a person close to the government and another source close to all sides involved in the discussions - the central bank, the finance ministry and Sberbank itself.

In a statement to Reuters, Sberbank confirmed 150 billion roubles could be included in Tier 1 capital and could be written off under certain conditions.

Sberbank, which is being used to deliver state cash to help individuals and businesses survive the impact of the pandemic, has not received direct financial support but, in common with its peers, has enjoyed a temporary relaxation of some supervision rules.

The upgrade would increase Sberbank's flexibility to absorb potential losses after a more than two-month-long, country-wide lockdown left many Russians and companies with reduced revenues or none at all, the sources said.

In April, the finance ministry bought a 50% stake in Sberbank from the central bank, meaning it has the right to claim back 150 billion roubles, which was part of a bigger subordinated loan the central bank has provided for Sberbank in the 2008-09 financial crisis.

Under the scheme, the loan is to be moved from the less secure Tier 2 to Sberbank's Tier 1 capital, a security net essential to allowing the bank to absorb bad loans and continue lending.

Provided the government and the central bank have no objections, Sberbank may even write the loan off, the sources said, replacing any potential need for a direct state cash injection to support the bank. Otherwise, the loan will mature after 2060.

The central bank declined to comment and the finance ministry did not reply to a Reuters request for a comment.

(Reporting by Tatiana Voronova; writing by Katya Golubkova; editing by Barbara Lewis)
The Facebook and Instagram accounts of grime star Wiley were finally removed today after he launched another inflammatory rant which appeared to contain anti-Semitic remarks.

The musician - real name Richard Cowie - had previously been suspended from Facebook and Instagram for seven days over the posts, which were made over the past 48 hours.

He had already been banned from Twitter over the weekend over anti-Semitic comments which are currently being probed by police.

However, his Twitter account has not yet been taken down.

Ahead of his ban today, Wiley took to his personal Facebook page to share a stream of provocative comments which appear to be aimed at the Jewish community.

In one post, Wiley claimed that 'certain people' viewed black people as 'below them' in society.

He wrote: 'Black people we have always been below them in their eyes this is what f****d me up in the head... Why do certain people from other races want us below them?'

Grime star Wiley was today blocked from Facebook as well as Twitter and Instagram after he launched another inflammatory rant which appeared to take aim at the Jewish community

Both Wiley's Facebook and Instagram accounts have now been removed following his tirades

However, the grime artist's Twitter page remains active, despite a ban following his comments

In another post, the grime star added: 'This is what they fear, that one day black people will be in control... So they keep doing everything to make sure that doesn't happen.'

He also mentioned BBC Radio 5 host Emma Barnett and Jewish comedian David Baddiel, demanding they both 'come and talk to my face' after they spoke out about his previous comments.

Barnett, whose Jewish grandmother escaped the Nazis in Austria, yesterday condemned Wiley's string of anti-Semitic posts to social media as 'deeply dispiriting', adding: 'Those words burn'.

A Facebook spokesperson said: 'There is no place for hate speech on Facebook and Instagram, and we don't want it on our platforms. After initially placing Wiley's accounts in a seven day block, we have now removed both his Facebook and Instagram accounts for repeated violations of our policies.'

It comes after Wiley launched a number of attacks on the Jewish community over the weekend, including posting a video on Friday telling Jews to 'crawl out from under your little rocks.'

He also shared a conspiracy theory to Instagram about Jews funding and creating the Klu-Klux Klan, which still appears on his page despite claims from the social media platform that they have deleted hate speech content from his account.

Ahead of his ban today, Wiley took to his personal Facebook page to share another stream of provocative comments which appear to be aimed at the Jewish community

Campaigners last week demanded Instagram shut down his account to prevent a 'further outpouring of anti-Jewish venom'.

Metropolitan Police are investigating comments made by Wiley on Twitter and Instagram, which prompted his management company to severe ties with him.

But despite being blocked from two social media platforms over the weekend, Wiley appeared to take to his personal Facebook account to continue making provocative remarks.

In one post, he referred to comments made by Israeli rabbi Sephardi Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef in 2018 - when he compared black people to monkeys during a sermon.

Wiley said: 'Any people who are quick to call police on black people are against us...

'Especially for speaking cos nobody called police for the rabbi who said black people look like monkeys.'

In one post from the past 48 hours, Wiley claimed that 'certain people' viewed black people as 'below them' in society

Wiley also took aim at Priti Patel during his two-day rant, after the Home Secretary described his anti-Semitic posts as 'abhorrent'

In another Facebook comment, he said: 'Certain people use black boys for financial gain... Then scream victim when the black boy catches them out.

'Ya know what's wrong with me, I know what certain people in all races think of black people so now I'm firing back... that's all.'

Wiley also took aim at Priti Patel during his two-day rant, after the Home Secretary described his anti-Semitic posts as 'abhorrent.'

'They should not have been able to remain on Twitter and Instagram for so long and I have asked them for a full explanation,' she said.

He also mentioned BBC Radio 5 host Emma Barnett (pictured), who condemned Wiley's string of anti-Semitic posts to social media as 'deeply dispiriting'

'Social media companies must act much faster to remove such appalling hatred from their platforms.'

Appearing to post in response, Wiley said: 'Priti Patel, you wanna see me?'

In other comments - which according to the Jewish Chronicle have since been deleted - Wiley reportedly claimed his sister's home had been visited by 12 police officers.

Another comment asked Jewish comedian David Baddiel to 'come and talk to my face'

'Listen Golders Green ring my sister and lets meet ASAP,' he said, appearing to refer to the Jewish community.

In other allegedly deleted posts, he added 'Golders Green yes see you soon. I will come on my own', and 'Who called the police? Are you from Golders Green? I am coming to sit with you in Golders Green...'

In his penultimate post, after sharing information about slavery in the US, Wiley claimed he doesn't want to argue: 'I wanna sit at the table and speak calmly... We need to come to the table and discuss this.'

Facebook today confirmed the musician has been banned from the platform, two days after the company made the decision to block his access to Instagram.

A spokesman said: 'There is no place for hate speech on any of our platforms, including attacks against Jews.

'We have deleted content that violates our policies from Wiley's Facebook and Instagram profiles and have blocked access to them for seven days.

'We're continuing to investigate the situation.'
Attendees look at a display of Remington shotguns during the NRA Annual Meeting & Exhibits at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center on May 5, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. The National Rifle Association's annual meeting and exhibit runs through Sunday.

Remington, which bills itself as America's oldest gun manufacturer, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in just over two years.

The filing comes just days after the apparent collapse of talks between the company and the Navajo Nation, which reportedly was considering purchasing Remington's assets in a prepackaged bankruptcy that would have allowed the company to shed its liabilities. It was unclear from the bankruptcy filing late Monday whether the company had found an alternative buyer.

Remington previously filed for bankruptcy in 2018, citing declining sales. It emerged two months later in control of its lenders including Franklin Resources and JPMorgan Chase. But sales apparently never sufficiently rebounded despite a surge of interest in guns due to the Covid-19 pandemic and nationwide social unrest this year.

The company has also been hobbled by product liability issues including lawsuits stemming from the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, as well as longstanding allegations  denied by the company  of product safety issues with its popular Model 700 rifle, which CNBC has been investigating since 2010.

The new filing, in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama, lists assets and liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million. It also lists a division of Schultze Asset Management, which specializes in distressed companies, as a major shareholder.
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

Indian Navy's clear message to Beijing following escalation of border tension "registered" by China: sources

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, July 28: The Indian Navy's clear message to Beijing through its aggressive deployment of almost all frontline warships and submarines in the Indian Ocean Region following escalation in the border row in eastern Ladakh has been "registered" by China, top defence sources said on Tuesday.

The Indian Navy deployed a range of its frontline warships and submarines in the Indian Ocean Region(IOR) to send a clear message to China when the border tension escalated manifold in the wake of the Galwan Valley clashes on June 15.

Donald Trump says India, China and Russia dont take care of their air

The sources told PTI that the government adopted a multi-pronged approach involving the Army, the Indian Air Force(IAF) and the Navy as well diplomacy and economic measures to send a clear signal to China that its misadventure in eastern Ladakh was not acceptable at all.

They said the three service chiefs are engaged in deliberations on almost a daily basis to ensure a coordinated approach in dealing with the situation as well as to make China understand about India's clear message.

Sushant's father files FIR against Rhea Chakraborty | Oneindia News

The sources said the three services are coordinating on the military response to the border row.

The Navy has significantly expanded its deployment in the IOR deploying a plethora of warships and submarines to create pressure points on China as the maritime space around the Malacca Strait is very critical for its supply chain through sea routes.

"Yes, our message has been registered by China," said a source without elaborating.

Asked whether China has responded to India's deployment, the sources said there was no visible increase in forays by Chinese ships in the IOR.

They said the reason could be the PLA Navy's excessive deployment of resources in the South China Sea following the strong opposition by the US to Beijing's expansive territorial claims in the region.

The US sent a number of its warships to the South China Sea to demonstrate freedom of navigation and rallying support to countries who have territorial disputes with China over the region.

The Indian Navy is also ramping up its operational cooperation with various friendly naval forces like the US Navy and Japan Maritime Self Defense Force in view of the fast evolving regional security landscape.

Following the Galwan Valley clashes, the IAF deployed almost all its frontline fighter jets like Sukhoi 30 MKI, Jaguar and Mirage 2000 aircraft in the key frontier air bases in eastern Ladakh and elsewhere along the Line of Actual Control(LAC).

The IAF has been carrying out night time combat air patrols over the eastern Ladakh region in an apparent message to China that it was ready to deal with any eventualities in the mountainous region.

The Army significantly enhanced deployment after the clashes in Galwan Valley that left 20 Indian soldiers dead.

The Chinese side also suffered casualties but it is yet to give out the details. According to an American intelligence report, the number of casualties on the Chinese side was 35.

Following the Galwan Valley incident, the government has given the armed forces "full freedom" to give a "befitting" response to any Chinese misadventure along the LAC.

After the last round of military talks, government sources said the Indian side conveyed a "very clear" message to the Chinese army that status quo ante must be restored in eastern Ladakh and it will have to follow all mutually agreed protocols for border management to bring back peace and tranquillity.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Tuesday he'll choose his running mate during "the first week in August"  next week.

"Im going to have a choice the first week in August and I promise Ill let you know when I do," Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Del., where he'd just unveiled his plan to combat racial inequality in the United States.

Asked if he was meeting with finalists, he said, "Im going to try to figure out how to trick you all so I can meet with them in person. You got crews outside my house."

The comments were in keeping with Biden's previously announced timeline  he's said he would make his selection before the Democratic National Convention, which starts on Aug. 17th in Milwaukee.

The decision is seen as an especially important one for Biden given his age. He turns 78 in November.

Biden has vowed to select a woman as his running mate. Among the contenders are two women who ran against him for the presidency, Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Others known to be under consideration are Rep. Karen Bass of California, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Rep. Val Demings of Florida, Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, former national security adviser Susan Rice and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Bass had some face time with Biden on Monday, when both paid their respects to the late Rep. John Lewis in the Capitol. We only talked about one subject, the most important subject today, and that was the life of Mr. Lewis," Bass told reporters afterwards.

Biden, who spent eight years as President Barack Obama's number two, has quipped, "The one thing I know a lot about is the vice presidency."

He's also said he's not looking for a yes-woman.

I'm not looking for someone to come in and genuflect in the White House, he told Iowans in January. You have to be able to be willing to have someone with you who will tell you the truth that they think you're wrong, and not be intimidated by the fact that you're the president sitting behind that desk.
An apartment building in Ashfield evacuated on Friday was identified by WestConnex builders as being at risk from ground movement during tunnelling of the M4 East toll road.

The episode has sparked calls for an independent investigation into cracking in homes near the WestConnex motorway in Sydney's inner west, despite the government reiterating that safety assessments on Friday had indicated that damage to the Ashfield building was not caused by the tunnels.

A government report in July 2016 warned that two buildings at the two-decades-old Green Trees apartment complex were at risk from the allowable ground movement of 20 millimetres being exceeded for a property of three or more storeys whilst tunnelling was under way below.

Firefighters at the Green Trees apartment complex on Friday. Credit:Kate Geraghty

About 10 residents were evacuated from a three-storey building at Green Trees, which is directly above the WestConnex tunnels, in the early hours of Friday morning, after about five floor tiles in a ground unit popped up, creating a noise. Minor cracking in a wall was also discovered.
Allentown, PA (18103)

Today

Cloudy with morning snow ending, then windy and turning colder with falling temps and some afternoon clearing. A coating to 1-2" of snow expected in the morning. .

Tonight

Partly cloudy, windy, and very cold. Wind chills near or below zero later at night.
Just like we enjoy a range of different possible modes of transportation on Earth, the potential of the space economy allows for many different types of vehicles and launch systems. Dawn Aerospace took the wrapper off one today, a suborbital space plane called the Dawn Mk-II Aurora that's smaller than a compact car and that will be capable of making multiple return trips to suborbital space per day.

The Mk-II is, as its name suggests, a second iteration of the concept created by Dawn. The Mk-I was actually built, and flew in May 2018, demonstrating its ability to fire up its rockets during flight after taking off horizontally from a traditional airstrip. One of the Mk-II's key capabilities is its ability to take off and land at conventional runways, obviating the need for specialized and expensive vertical launch compounds.

Dawn Aerospace was founded in Delft, in the Netherlands, with ties to the Technical University of Delft, and also operates out of New Zealand, which has a growing reputation in the New Space industry stemming from being the home of Rocket Lab, one of the most successful new companies operating commercial launch services. The company's entire mission is built around a sustainable space-based economy, and it also has a thriving business in CubeSat propulsion, building systems that use food-grade propellants for safe fuels that don't carry as much of an environmental cost.

Image Credits: Dawn Aerospace

The Mk-II Aurora approaches the goal of sustainable commercial spaceflight in a different way, promising flights to 60 miles and above for payloads of 3U, which is small but perfectly suitable for a range of scientific experiments. It'll be able to fly and return for multiple trips per day, at a cost of roughly $50,000 per flight, with real-time downlink communications capabilities.

Dawn has plans for an Mk-III iteration of its space plane that will be 60 feet long and be able to carry all the way to orbit payloads weighing between 110 and 220 lbs. Combined with its ability to do multiple daily flights and take off and land from conventional runways anywhere in the world, that would be a game-changer for the small satellite launch industry.
Pro-democracy activist Benny Tai (C) talks to reporters outside the High court, after being released on bail, in Hong Kong on Aug. 15, 2019. (Vincent Yu/AP Photo)

University of Hong Kong Sacks Veteran Pro-Democracy Activist Benny Tai

HONG KONGThe University of Hong Kong (HKU) on July 28 evening sacked veteran pro-democracy activist Benny Tai from his tenured position as an associate professor of law, in a move he called the end of academic freedom in the Chinese-ruled city.

Tai was a leading figure in Hong Kongs 2014 Umbrella Movement protests, which paralyzed the city for 79 days as demonstrators occupied main roads demanding greater democracy in city elections.

He was sentenced to 16 months in prison last year for two public nuisance offenses, but released on bail pending an appeala conviction which prompted HKU to begin reviewing his position more than half a year ago.

It marks the end of academic freedom in Hong Kong, Tai said on Facebook of the decision by the governing council, which reversed an earlier decision by the university senate that there were not enough grounds for a dismissal.

Academic institutions in Hong Kong cannot protect their members from internal and outside interferences.

Tai was also singled out by Beijing officials earlier this month for his role in helping to organize an unofficial primary vote for the opposition pro-democracy camp to select candidates for elections for the citys legislature this year.

Beijing said at the time Tais goal was to seize the ruling power of Hong Kong and  carry out a Hong Kong version of color revolution.' It also said the vote may have violated a new, sweeping national security law, which many fear will erode freedoms in the city, including those of the media and academia.

The new law, implemented by Beijing without going through the citys legislature, criminalizes individuals for any acts of subversion, secession, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces, with maximum penalties of life imprisonment.

HKU said in a statement that its council resolved a personnel issue concerning a teaching staff member following a lengthy, stringent, and impartial process, without naming Tai.

The university could not be reached for comment outside business hours.

The Chinese Communist Partys representative body in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong-Beijing Liaison Office, welcomed Tais removal, saying: The University of Hong Kongs decision to fire Benny Tai is a move that punishes evil and praises the virtuous.

By Marius Zaharia
SAN FRANCISCO, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global hard seltzer market size is expected to reach USD 14.5 billion by 2027, expanding at aCAGR of 16.2%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to experience substantial growth during the forecast period owing to the growing popularity of low content alcoholic beverages among the millennials in the developed economies including the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Furthermore, strong marketing campaigns by alcoholic drinks companies on such products is expected to have a positive impact on the industry.

Key suggestions from the report:

Hard seltzer with 1.0% to 4.9% ABV content is expected to register the fastest growth during the forecast years with a CAGR of 16.6% from 2020 to 2027. Low ABV content of such products is expected to attract health-conscious consumers over the next few years

On-trade is expected to register the fastest growth during forecast years with a CAGR of 16.5% from 2020 to 2027. An increasing number of consumers drinking hard seltzers in bars and restaurants is creating the rising opportunity

Asia Pacific is expected to register the fastest growth during forecast years with a CAGR of 17.0% from 2020 to 2027. A large number of manufacturers focusing on the Australian market is playing a crucial role in the growth of the market

North America dominated the market by contributing over 70.0% in the global revenue in 2019. The wide penetration of the product in the U.S., Canada , and Brazil is acting as a catalyst in creating dominance.

Read 80 page research report with ToC on "Hard Seltzer Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By ABV Content (1.0% To 4.9%, 5.0% To 6.9%), By Distribution Channel (On-trade, Off-trade), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/hard-seltzer-market

Products launched have played a crucial role in the growing penetration of hard seltzer. In June 2020, Tesco announced to launch dedicated hard seltzer. It will be distributed by Mark Anthony Brands. The launch makes a significant milestone for the category in the U.K. that has been turning into a hotspot for hard seltzer manufacturers. In November 2019, AB InBev's launched Mike's Hard Sparkling Water in the U.K. The increasing demand for the product in the country is attributed to the increasing demand for healthier products with low calorie and sugar and clean labels which are still luxurious.

Similarly, in June 2020, Smirnoff Seltzer also entered the U.K. through various off-trade channels. The product is available in two flavors in the country including Smirnoff Seltzer Orange and Grapefruit, and Smirnoff Seltzer Raspberry and Rhubarb. The product is available in 250ml cans with ABV content of 4.7% and is priced at GBP 1.8 per can.

Australia has been evolving as another major center for the industry. Along with White Claw, Carlton and United Breweries launched Actual Vodka Seltzer in the country in May 2020, in two flavors including pure and lime. The drink contains 4.2% ABV and 100.0% natural ingredients.

Grand View Research has segmented the global hard seltzer market on the basis of ABV content, distribution channel, and region:

Hard Seltzer ABV Content Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

1.0% to 4.9%



5.0% to 6.9%



Others

Hard Seltzer Distribution Channel Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

On-trade



Off-trade

Hard Seltzer Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

Americas



U.S.





Canada





Brazil



Europe , Middle East & Africa

, &

U.K.



Asia Pacific



China





Australia





South Korea

List of Key Players of Hard Seltzer Market

Anheuser-Busch InBev



Barefoot Cellars



Blue Marble



Boathouse Beverage Co.



Future Proof Brands LLC



CUTWATER SPIRITS



Ficks & Co.



HIGH NOON SPIRITS COMPANY



Kona Brewing Co,



Lift Bridge Brewing Co.

Find more research reports on Alcohol & Tobacco Industry, by Grand View Research:

Snus Market- The growing popularity of snus owing to the convenience of the application it offers to its consumers is a key factor driving the market.

Japanese Whisky Market- While product demand continues to remain strong in Japan , interest in this variant has been growing around the globe.

, interest in this variant has been growing around the globe. Honey Wine Market - Honey wine, which is also called as mead, is fermented using honey. It has high nutritional content and antimicrobial properties, which drive its demand across the globe.

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.

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Characteristic towns are innovative and entrepreneurial platforms that China has been striving to build in the recent years. Covering several square kilometers each, they are clusters of featured industries that advocate a combination of different lifestyles and eco-spaces. They are different from administrative townships and traditional industrial parks.

To better guide the development of characteristic towns, China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) recently issued a notice introducing the successful experiences of 36 exemplars across the country.

The 36 "benchmark" characteristic towns all have their respective pillar industries, including auto manufacturing, online communication, new materials, high-tech incubation, pharmaceutical research and development, cultural and art innovation, fragrance, rice farming culture and sports.

Having developed strong industries with distinctive features is something shared by all the 36 characteristic towns, the notice said.

The Tang West Market Culture and Tourism Town is one of the 36 exemplars. Located in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, it is built on the original site of the west market of Tang Dynasty (618 A.D.-907 A.D.) in the city of Changan (todays Xian).

"What's under our feet is the ruin of the west market that once prospered over 1,000 years ago. It was the start of the Silk Road during the Sui (581 A.D.618 A.D.) and Tang Dynasties," said Li Zhonghang, CEO of Tang West Market Group, adding that the scarce resource enabled the group to fully tap into the value of history and culture.

The unique cultural resource made the Tang culture and the Silk Road a bedrock for the characteristic town, attracting 20 million tourists each year and generating a revenue of around 3 billion yuan ($429 million).

Architectures featuring a style that combines traditional Tang expression and modern designing techniques now stand in the Tang West Market Culture and Tourism Town, presenting a historical look of the ancient Chang'an city.

At present, a cultural activity that showcases the charm of the ancient Chang'an city in 24 different hours of the day is being held in the characteristic town. Many young people are wearing Tang costumes there on weekends. As progress is being made in China's efforts to prevent and control COVID-19, the characteristic town with distinctive historical features has once again become a popular destination among tourists.

"Popularity drives consumption, and the operation of the shops here gradually got on track," said Li, referring to the impacts brought COVID-19 earlier.

The characteristic town adjusted its commercial structure according to the changes of the market, increasing the supplies of daily necessities, and it also made further exploration of the unique connotation of the cultural industry.

In this 1.5-square kilometer characteristic town, there is the Tang West Market Museum, a first-class museum focusing the Silk Road culture, Tang commercial culture and the history of the west market. Besides, the town is also home to a Silk Road cultural street and an international antique market. They both resurged the history and made the place a "must-go" destination.

"The last thing that a characteristic town wants to see is being in a rut, and we made clear from the very beginning that we want to present the cultural features of the Silk Road based on history and culture and relying on the cultural industry," Li told the People's Daily. According to him, the town has been selected as a starting point for many Chinese organizations to retrace the Silk Road, and it is also the final destination for foreigners who travel along the ancient trade route from the west.

Industry is vital but not all for a characteristic town. According to the definition of relevant department, characteristic towns shall offer space for production, living and ecology, and develop industries, culture, tourism and community as well. In general, they should combine production with lifestyles and be suitable for both business and residence.

At present, the phase-2 project of the Tang West Market Culture and Tourism Town is under construction, including office buildings, hotels and theaters. The town will also introduce areas for cultural and innovative experience, as well as cultural shows the next year in its phase-3 construction. Upon completion, the town is expected to attract over 10,000 entities and create nearly 100,000 jobs, generating 500 to 600 million yuan in tax revenue, according to Li.

A batch of distinctive and energetic characteristic towns that are suitable for both business and living have been developed in recent years, said an official with the NDRC. Some of the towns became new engines for the concentrated development of emerging industries, and some paved roads for the upgrading of traditional enterprises. Some blazed a trial in the relocation of rural population, and some became a new force in the integrated urban-rural development. Besides, some of them have built a new platform for the inheritance and protection of traditional culture. It is believed that more such towns are going to prosper.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said President Donald Trump would only want to engage with Kim if there were real prospects of progress. Kims sister and senior ruling party official, Kim Yo Jong, said a new summit would be unpractical for North Korea and that Pyongyang wont gift Trump a high-level meeting that he can boast as a foreign policy achievement.
A top police officer has told a court how he would have tackled the search for an elderly man who was found dead in a shopping mall stairwell despite a frantic three-week manhunt.

Tasmanian dementia sufferer Bernard Gore, 71, was reported missing on January 6, 2017 after he walked into the stairwell at Westfield Bondi Junction, Sydney, but couldn't get out.

Forensic analysis showed by the time he was found he had likely been dead for one to two weeks, meaning he had spent a week slowly dying in the locked stairwell.

The inquest into his death heard on Monday the under-resourced search to find him had been led by a junior constable with no missing persons experience.

As the inquest resumed on Tuesday, New South Wales Missing Persons Registry boss Detective Inspector Glen Brown said his 'immediate' reaction to the report of Mr Gore's disappearance would have been one of extreme concern.

The body of Tasmanian man Bernard Gore, 71, who had dementia, was found in a locked shopping mall stairwell three weeks after he went missing in January 2017

'I would be gravely concerned for that person and my immediate consideration would be to engage in a suitable search to try to gather together the proper resources to conduct that search,' he said.

Det Insp Brown said he had overhauled police investigations into missing persons in NSW following his appointment to his role in 2019.

'When I was given this position to build this missing persons registry it simply was the case I thought we needed a greater level of expertise within each command,' he said.

He said the process of investigating missing persons cases was now overseen by a co-ordinator who is normally a senior detective, news.com.au reported.

On Monday, Constable Rebecca Daniels, who led the search, broke down while reliving her fruitless search for the retiree.

She said the three-week investigation 'consumed' her and the entirety of the Rose Bay Police Station.

'Even if we were patrolling other areas for different jobs ... we still had Mr Gore in the back of our mind,' Const Daniels told the inquest.

'I was looking for him on my way to and from work.

Forensic analysis indicated he died at least one or two weeks before his body was found - meaning he slowly died in the stairwell (pictured) over the course of more than a week

'I would purposefully go out of my way and go to train stations on my way home from work, just to see if he was there, particularly since we had such a good description of him.

'I remember I had his name in the search field of my phone. I would constantly refresh it just to see if he'd been found.'

Const Daniels and Constable Ramon Gilarte attended the Westfield's security control room on January 9 in a bid to pin down his whereabouts.

'It was mentioned that they had reviewed the CCTV and hadn't found him ... attending the Westfield in the three or four days between Mr Gore being declared missing,' she said.

The two-officer team searched the centre for several hours and Const Daniels claims they asked guards to assist by checking the fire stairs which - unbeknownst to them - were up to 14km long.

'Looking back on it now, we should have done it ourselves,' Const Gilarte said.

'Rather than trusting their protocols.'

The inquest into Mr Gore's death heard on Monday the under-resourced search to find him had been led by a junior constable with no missing persons experience

The inquest has also previously heard a 'code grey' which would have triggered a full search of the centre was not activated by staff.

Mr Gore's daughter Melinda last year cried as CCTV of the moment he walked into the stairwell on January 6 was played at his inquest.

'There is no further CCTV footage of Bernard after the time Bernard entered the fire stairs,' counsel assisting the coroner Anna Mitchelmore SC told the NSW Coroners Court on Monday.

Hundreds of thousands of shoppers came and went as Mr Gore sat trapped inside, hearing their voices echoing down the stairs. More than 20 million people visit each year spending $1.1 billion.

Known as 'Butch' to his mates, Mr Gore was staying with his daughter at Ocean Street in Woollahra in the weeks before his disappearance.

He went missing carrying only $30 and his transport Opal card when he did not turn up to meet his family at the shopping centre on January 6.

The footage showed him walk inside the Westfield at 12.48pm, up to level four and through door L407 at 12.50pm.

The door could not be opened from the inside and though there was an exit downstairs and through a corridor, Mr Gore had not found it in time.

The next time anyone saw him was when a janitor found him in the fire escape near the level three access close to luxury stores like Scotch and Soda, Chanel, Jimmy Choo and Leona Edmiston.

Police are seen outside the fire stairwell at Bondi Junction where Bernard 'Butch' Gore's body was discovered

Mr Gore was found lying in a 'semi-kneeling position' in the stairwell.

His family spent weeks searching for him and Westfield faced questions about how Mr Gore's body went undiscovered for such a long time - in a time where temperatures skyrocketed to the mid-40s.

Records obtained from the shopping centre showed the exit door at the bottom of the stairwell was not opened in the three weeks between Mr Gore enering, and his body being discovered.

Mr Gore was taking medication for hypertension and a mild cognitive impairment at the time of his death and had gone missing in Hobart once before.

'He was a strong and resilient man,' said Bernard Gore's son Mark (pictured)

However, he had successfully made the journey between home and the shopping centre several times before and had a well-established routine.

In their search for Mr Gore, security officers and police only reviewed CCTV from certain Westfield pedestrian entrances and the area surrounding Woolworths, leading them to believe he never arrived.

The last CCTV videos recorded of Mr Gore entailing his entry to Westfield, his walk through the shopping centre and the moment he paused and turned into the fire stairwell were not examined by searchers.

'Our dad was not frail,' his son Mark Gore told Daily Mail Australia days after the body was found. 'He was a strong and resilient man.'

Mr Gore said reports his father - a barber who still cut his friends' hair to his last days - was 'confused' were not correct.

Detectives are seen here huddling outside the fire escape where Mr Gore's body was found, and blocking off the door as they investigate

The family said they were grieving and waiting for the results of the investigation before they pass judgement.

'We're just not there at the moment,' Mr Gore said.

'My father would not want to bother anyone if he was lost, and I think it's unlikely he'd approach a stranger for help,' Mark said at a press conference.

'I hope someone will notice him alone and ask if he needed help; he'd probably say he was fine but people need to contact police if they think it is him.'

Westfield's parent company, Scentre Group, offered their 'deepest condolences to the family of the man found today at Westfield Bondi Junction.'

'Investigations are still underway to determine exactly how these sad and tragic circumstances could have occurred, and Scentre Group will continue to work with police in their investigations,' it said at the time.

The inquest before deputy state coroner Derek Lee continues.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

By Eldar Janashvili - Trend:

Azerbaijani Azercosmos OJSC satellite operator has signed a cooperation agreement with Prime African Media Systems company, which operates in the field of telecommunications, providing satellite solutions and telecommunications services, Trend reports citing Azercosmos.

Under the agreement, Prime African Media Systems will broadcast ATN TV in the West African region using the capabilities of the Azerspace-2 satellite.

With the infrastructure capabilities of Prime African Media Systems, we will provide innovative satellite solutions for complex geographic locations in the African region," said Mark Guthrie, Commercial Director of Azercosmos.

"This is a great opportunity for us to project and present African stories from an African perspective. The opportunities for us are endless to educate, uplift and empower African generations with this satellite solution from Azercosmos," said Victory Khan, Chief Technology Officer of Prime African Media Systems.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @eldarjanashvili
Having a personal higher purpose promotes well-being, more happiness and even lower stress from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to findings from a new survey by two Washington University in St. Louis researchers from the Olin Business School.

And the effect was more substantial when people had written down their purpose statements.

Also, employees of organizations with higher-purpose statements are happier and prouder of their organizations than are employees at workplaces without a statement, the results show. Again, the effects were stronger when the purpose statement was written--and tied to society, employees and customers, rather than shareholders.

"As human beings, we are wired for purpose--to know why, to seek meaning in the things we do," said Stuart Bunderson, director of the Bauer Leadership Center and the George & Carol Bauer Professor of Organizational Ethics & Governance. "When we have clarity on what our purpose is, we are happier and more fulfilled."

Bunderson and Anjan Thakor surveyed 1,109 people in May to learn about their commitment to and perceived worth of a personal and organizational higher purpose.

Thakor is coauthor of the book The Economics of Higher Purpose: Eight Counterintuitive Steps for Creating a Purpose-Driven Organization, director of Olin's doctoral programs and the Center for Finance & Accounting Research, and the John E. Simon Professor of Finance.

Their findings echo the August 2019 announcement by the powerful corporate lobby group of U.S. leaders called the Business Roundtable, focusing the futures on purpose. Such evidence of a national shift dovetails nicely with one of Olin's key strategic pillars: values-based, data driven decision making -- the basis of a new course taught by Bunderson and Seethu Seetharaman, the W. Patrick McGinnis Professor of Marketing.

The professors' curiosity was piqued during a fall 2019 conference they organized on WashU's campus about personal and organizational higher purpose. Academic researchers, consultants and corporate leaders came together to share findings and experiences.

A presentation by Vic Strecher of the University of Michigan particularly struck Bunderson and Thakor, they write in their report June 2020 report "Personal and Organizational Higher Purpose: Survey Results."

Strecher noted that stress levels and dissatisfaction were rising, even as economic conditions were improving. He also mentioned that suicidal ideation had doubled on US college campuses in the past decade. Stretcher stressed the importance of a personal higher purpose in coping with the stresses, noting that someone who does not "repurpose their life" at retirement is 2.4 times more likely to have Alzheimer's than someone who adopts an authentic higher purpose.

Speaker Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry Wehmiller, emphasized the importance of organizational higher purpose. Some 65% of people would give up a salary increase if they could fire their boss, he said. And the person an employee reports to at work is more critical to an employee's health than the family doctor.

"These remarks and other discussions at the conference made us curious to know more," Bunderson and Thakor say in their report on their survey.

"What does personal higher purpose really do for people? How do individuals perceive the value of personal purpose in their lives? What is the role of an organization's higher purpose in the lives of its employees? Are there any connections between personal and organizational higher purpose?"

The 1,019 individuals they surveyed in May were employed and chosen as representative of the American population's gender, racial and geographic diversity.

"I was most surprised by the fact that when companies have written statements of higher purpose," Thakor said, "not only do the employees trust its leaders to make socially responsible decisions, but also better business decisions."

Bunderson said he was "very surprised at how much more powerful these effects are when the purpose statement is written down. It's like that old saying that a goal you don't write down is just a wish."

Here's what they found:

A majority of respondents had a personal higher purpose, but most had not written it down;

Having a written personal statement of purpose helped people in various ways, including coping with stress and finding happiness;

Those with a written higher purpose also reported higher levels of anxiety;

The incidence of written statements of higher purpose was higher among organizations than among individuals;

Employees at organizations with higher purpose statements were prouder of working for their organizations and happier than other employees;

Organizational higher purpose statements were more effective when written down and when they emphasized society, customers, employees and stakeholders other than shareholders;

Employees of organizations with higher purpose statements are more likely to have personal statements of higher purpose.

"We aren't exactly sure why that is the case, but it may be that employees who work for organizations with a higher purpose statement are inspired to develop one for their lives," Bunderson said. "This may be one way that good work practices can positively impact employees' personal lives."

The finding about higher levels of anxiety, he said, is "generally consistent with research suggesting that a sense of duty or stewardship toward something or someone can be both a burden and an important source of meaning."

Using the survey findings, Bunderson and Thakor have built a personal higher purpose index and an organizational higher purpose index.

"These will enable us to examine how personal and organizational higher purpose and their perceived outcomes change over time," Bunderson said.

Businesses have risen from ruins because of their ability to recognize and capitalize on purpose, Thakor has said in presentations. Those businesses have excelled and grown. But they don't do it at the expense of making a buck.

Thakor cites a couple of examples of organizational higher purpose in his working paper "Higher Purpose, Incentives and Economic Performance."

Detroit-based DTE Energy clarifies its higher purpose as being "a force for growth and prosperity." The company names four pillars through which its social impact is to manifest: people ("improving lives and creating opportunity"), places ("partners with communities for growth"), planet ("leadership toward cleaner energy and environmental stewardship") and progress ("powering a brighter tomorrow"). Tree T-PEE, based in Arcadia, Florida, offers water-containment systems for agribusiness. It articulates its higher purpose as helping farmers conserve water and energy in farming.

###
F acebook has taken further action against Wiley by permanently removing the grime rapper's personal Facebook and Instagram accounts for "repeated violations" of its policies.

Wiley was given a seven-day Twitter ban and dropped by his management company over accusations of anti-Semitism after posting a torrent of abusive comments on his Instagram and Twitter accounts.

The grime artist has since been posting on his personal Facebook page under his name Richard Kylea Cowie, the BBC reports.

The posts aimed abuse at Jewish celebrities who expressed dismay at Wiley's comments, including Lord Alan Sugar.

Facebook initially blocked access to Wiley's Facebook and Instagram profiles for seven days and deleted content which violates its policies.

Wiley reacts to news of management dropping him

But Facebook told the Evening Standard on Tuesday it has now removed Wiley's personal accounts.

There is no place for hate speech on Facebook and Instagram," a Facebook spokesperson said.

"After initially placing Wileys accounts in a seven day block, we have now removed both his Facebook and Instagram accounts for repeated violations of our policies.

According to the BBC, Wiley's posts mentioned Golders Green - an area in London with a large Jewish community.

Jo Stevens, shadow secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport said rapper Wiley spread 'vile' anti-Semitic abuse / PA

In one post, which appears to have been deleted, he reportedly said: "Who called the police? Are you from Golders Green? I am coming to sit down with you... Labyrinth you could come along as you have forgotten what colour you are."

The last post on his account says: "When you get money dont forget ya skin colour dont change even if they treat you nicely always remember they are looking at the money in you not really you as a human."

Home Secretary Priti Patel and Boris Johnson condemned Wiley's posts and questioned why it took Twitter so long to remove the posts.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said: "Social media companies need to go much further and faster in removing hateful content such as this.

"The message is clear: Twitter needs to do better on this.

He said Mr Johnson shared Ms Patel's view that the social media posts were "abhorrent".
Opposition leader who survived an attack in 2017 returns home three months before the country heads to the polls.

Prominent opposition leader and presidential hopeful Tundu Lissu has returned to Tanzania to a rousing welcome, three years after narrowly surviving an assassination attempt.

Chanting president, president, hundreds of cheering supporters gathered on Monday at an airport in Dar-es-Salaam to greet the 52-year-old, who had been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium.

Lissu fled the country after being shot 16 times by unknown gunmen outside his home in the administrative capital, Dodoma, in September 2017.

A fiery critic of Tanzanian President John Magufuli, Lissu had had a series of run-ins with the police in the months before the gun attack. He was arrested several times, accused of insulting the president  whom he had called a dictator over alleged assaults on the opposition and the media  and disturbing public order.

Following the assassination attempt, Magufuli expressed shock at the news and ordered an investigation. Three years on, the gunmen remain at large.

The government should ensure his safety given his shooting in 2017, Oryem Nyeko, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera following Lissus return to Tanzania.





Lissu, a member of the main opposition Chadema party, has declared his interest in running for president in Tanzanias highly anticipated election in October.

If picked by Chadema, he will run against Magufuli, of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party.

The president was plucked from the relative obscurity of the Ministry of Works to lead the CCM ticket in the last election thanks to his scrupulous reputation and a work ethic that earned him the nickname The Bulldozer. He won the hotly contested vote in 2015 on promises to root out corruption and improve infrastructure.

His time in office, however, has drawn criticism from the opposition and rights groups who accuse him of narrowing freedoms and repressing political dissent, including by stifling independent journalism and severely restricting the activities of NGOs. The government denies the allegations.

The space for government critics and political opposition in Tanzania has been shrinking dramatically since 2015, and we seem to be seeing a continuation of that as we get closer to the elections, Nyeko said, noting an increase in restrictions towards the opposition.

Last month, opposition leader Zitto Kabwe was freed on bail after he and several members of his Wazalendo Alliance for Transparency and Change (ACT Wazalendo) were arrested for holding an illegal assembly.

Earlier in June, Chadema leader Freeman Mbowe was allegedly beaten and hospitalised in what his party said was a politically motivated attack. Tanzanian police cast doubt on the allegations.

Meanwhile, authorities on June 23 revoked the licence of Tanzania Daima, an opposition-leaning daily, accusing it of spreading false information among others.

Three months before the vote, Nyeko called on the government to make sure that the environment for critics, the media, the opposition and NGOs is open.

He said: That means the government should refrain from arresting critics, suspending or closing media houses, or implanting the myriad of restrictive laws that it has in the past used to clamp down on people that have differing opinions.





For his part, Magufuli has promised a transparent vote.

I want to assure everyone that the elections will be free and fair, for all political parties, Magufuli told legislators as he dissolved Parliament in June.

But Kabwe criticised what he said was a lack of a level playing field and repeated calls for the formation of an independent electoral commission.

[The] CCM government under President Magufuli has narrowed the civic space for the last five years, he told Al Jazeera.

It is sad that Tanzanians are not free to air their views. Freedom of association and other fundamental freedoms are curtailed, and people are very angry.

The opposition has repeatedly questioned the governments handling of the pandemic, accusing it of failing to inform the public on its true extent. Authorities have not updated the countrys official number of COVID-19 infections in three months, while Magufuli has declared the disease defeated.

Besides voting for president, Tanzanians on October 28 will also head to the polls to elect members of parliament and local councillors. The election commission has said campaigning will run from August 26 to October 27.

I believe that if the opposition work together and form a strong coalition, CCM can be defeated, Kabwe said.

I hope we will be able to have a single presidential candidate and divide constituencies in a manner that the opposition will not divide their votes. The election is winnable, he added.
There are some great summer discounts in the DFS sale on at the moment. This green beauty, above, caught my eye. Im weak for velvet these days. This is the Botanical three-seater sofa in Forest Green  talk about bringing the outdoors in! Half price at 649 until September 2; www.dfs.ie

On the Kitchen Shelf this week we have a new range of salad dressing sprays from Heinz. We love the smart spray bottle, we love that its just one to two calories per serving, and most importantly, we love the taste. There are four flavours, our favourite is Raspberry Balsamic, theyre available nationwide in Dunnes and SuperValu stores, 2.39 for 200ml.

Check out Tweet Pete, a very socially active smartphone holder. Its snazzy, and it can hold your phone horizontally or vertically so if youre watching a video, screening a recipe or just want the damn thing out of your hand, Tweet Petes your only man. From www.animicausa.com for 13.

On the Bathroom Shelf this week, we have an Irish personal protective skincare, Airmedica. Theyve recently launched Cleanse handwash and Airmedica Protect hand cream. Made in Cork and Mayo, the range uses over 80% Irish ingredients, and we absolutely can recommend these, they are fab, the hand cream has been a skin saviour  and smells divine. The range is vegan and cruelty-free and since launching, Airmedica has donated over 10,000 units of hand sanitiser to local hospices, hospitals and charities, including Marymount Hospice, Crumlin Childrens Hospital, Mayo Roscommon Hospice, and Cork Penny Dinners. Full range is available online at www.airmedica.ie/shop

I spotted this Sloe Gin candle because my eye is trained for that kind of thing. Dont drink it, but get into the spirit of things with this cocktail-inspired Baylis & Harding two-wick candle. Its 16.60 from www.baylisandharding.com

For a candle made much closer to home, Ester Murrays creations are always a treat. The Cork lady handpours every one using 100% natural ingredients. We love this Pomegranate and Raspberry one, the smell is ridiculously good, it lasts for ages, and the kids reuse the gorgeous containers to pot little seedlings in. Candles are 17.99, they are available in various pharmacies. Check out

Your jobs a joke, youre broke, your love lifes DOA. But at least youve got somewhere cool to put your photo. This Friends-inspired frame is 5.40 from Pennyes nationwide.
After serving the Midland community in many ways for more than 50 years, the first woman to serve as president of the Midland Noon Rotary Club will be remembered by her family and many friends for her endless kindness and tireless ambition.

Ruby Teruko Iwamasa died on Friday after a long illness. She was 81.

When describing his mother, the words that instantly come to her son Andrew's mind are "kind, courageous and caring."

"She did so much to reach out to the community to make it a better place for everyone," Andrew Iwamasa said. "She was genuinely the most impressive person I've met in my entire life. Everyone that I've talked to says she always had a smile on her face, and whenever she talked to you, you always knew she was giving you 100% of herself."

Iwamasa was born on Feb. 24, 1939 in the rural farming area of Anaheim, California. In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, she and her family, the Shiotanis, were sent to the Poston Internment Camp for Japanese-Americans in Arizona, where they were kept from 1942 until 1944.

She received her A.A. degree from Hartnell Junior College in Salinas, California, and earned a B.A. in elementary education with a minor in speech correction from San Jose State University. Iwamasa worked as a teacher in California, Maryland and Michigan, moving to Midland in 1967 with her husband Robert Iwamasa.

On Aug. 5, Iwamasa would have celebrated 59 years of marriage with Robert.

"I really loved Ruby -- she was a wonderful person, she was very caring and was always thinking about people and how to help them," Robert Iwamasa said.

While raising her three sons in Midland, Iwamasa taught at St. Johns Episcopal Cooperative Nursery School and the Beehive Nursery School, also serving as a teacher-consultant to area Kinder-Kare Preschool Centers, and as president of the Mid-Michigan Council of Cooperative Nursery Schools and the Mid-Michigan Association for the Education of Young Children.

Iwamasa joined the Delta College staff in 1983, having previously worked as a volunteer at Delta's WUCM-TV Channel 19 since 1971, said Pam Clark, Delta College institutional advancement executive director. Iwamasa also worked as a producer on the public affairs program Day By Day with host Andy Rapp.

"This was back in the time where there wasn't expansive cable coverage or Netflix -- (Iwamasa) believed that everyone should have access to educational content, especially for children," Clark said. "That was her love, and what really connected her to our station."

Clark describes Iwamasa as the nicest person she has ever met, and someone who made friends easily.

"Anytime I'd be around her and (Robert), there would always be people that they knew -- we'd always run into random people that'd be like, 'Oh my God, Ruby,' said Andrew's daughter Hayden. "Everyone I talked to that somehow knew them thought she was just the sweetest person. They had friends everywhere they went."

In September of 2003, Ruby retired from Delta College Quality Public Broadcasting to prepare for her role as District 6310 Rotary Centennial Governor, which began July 1, 2004. Iwamasa was an active Rotarian for many years, serving on the board of directors and numerous committees. A Paul Harris fellow, she served as the first female president of the Midland Noon Rotary Club.

"It did not matter where you were from or who you were, she had a smile and willingness to listen to you and want to get to know you more," said Rhonda Iwamasa, Andrew's wife.

Iwamasa is survived by her husband Robert, their three sons: Kenneth, Jonathan (Kathryn), and Andrew (Rhonda); and grandchildren Justin, Hayden, Josef, Sofie and Hiro. She is also survived by her siblings Irene Roche, Har Shiotani, and Rich (Kitty) Shiotani as well as several nieces and nephews.

"She would want to be remembered as a grandmother, a mother and a wife, who was kind and someone who wanted to make a difference in the world, and did," Andrew Iwamasa said. "She was beautiful inside and out, and I don't know a single person who would ever disagree with that."
Turkey says it is ready to discuss with Greece as it temporarily suspends oil and gas exploration surveys.

Turkey has said it will suspend research for oil and gas exploration off a Greek island amid tensions in the eastern Mediterranean.

Greeces navy last week said it had deployed ships in the Aegean in heightened readiness after Turkey announced plans for energy exploration near the island of Kastellorizo.

In an interview with national broadcaster CNN Turk, spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Tuesday President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had requested that operations be put on hold.

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A Turkish vessel, the Oruc Reis, planned to search for hydrocarbons 180 kilometres (110 miles) from the island of Meis (Kastellorizo in Greek), Kalin said.

Despite this, our president said while the negotiations are continuing, lets be constructive and hold for a while, he said.

Kalin on Tuesday said Greece was an important neighbour to Turkey and added: We are ready to discuss with Greece without any conditions.

On Monday, Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas said Turkey was withdrawing navy vessels from the area, adding that Athens remained ready to enter negotiations with Turkey within the framework of international law and good neighbourly relations.

Heightened tensions

Long-standing tensions between the uneasy NATO allies escalated last week after Turkeys navy on Tuesday issued an advisory known as a Navtex for seismic surveys in waters between Cyprus and Crete.

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French President Emmanuel Macron called for Turkey to be sanctioned and accused Ankara of treading on the rights of Greece and Cyprus, as all three nations scramble to exploit recently discovered gas reserves.

Relations between the European Union and Ankara have deteriorated over multiple issues, despite Turkey still formally being a candidate for membership.

As well as drilling for oil and gas off Cyprus, and support for the opposite side in the crisis in Libya, Turkey infuriated Greece and the EU earlier this year when it stopped preventing refugees from leaving for Europe, causing a surge of tens of thousands of refugees at the Greek border.

Erdogans recent move to turn the iconic Hagia Sophia, originally built as a Byzantine cathedral, back into a mosque has been the latest matter of contention, with Greece calling the move a provocation to the civilised world.

Turkey has defended the reconversion of the Istanbul landmark and described foreign criticism as an attack on its sovereignty.
Concerns: Kenneth Dennedy, principal of Scoil Iosa, Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, says the Government reopening guidelines are not detailed enough. Photo: Keith Heneghan

Kenneth Dennedy is the principal of Scoil Iosa in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, a primary school with 360 pupils, 25 teachers, and four special needs assistants.

While welcoming parts of the new Government plan, he feels it lacks specific detail.

"The provision of extra personnel to help the mental health of kids that may have difficulties settling back into school is very welcome," said Mr Dennedy.

"And the amount of money, 376m, is a lot more than I expected. But it's not a situation that can be fixed by money alone.

"What I was hoping for was specific details that would help me formulate a plan to get all the children back to school safely.

"For example, I have 10 support teachers. There is no guidance in the plan to say I have the freedom to redeploy any of them to take the pressure off classes where we have large numbers."

Mr Dennedy says the social distancing requirements for older children lacks clarity.

"There is going to be no social distancing from junior infants right up to second class. And that is great.

"In my particular case, the problem I have in social distancing the older children is that we have class numbers, from third to sixth class of 36, 34, 33, and 33. In the classroom's physical space, even if we employ the pods of four to six kids, we are going to struggle for space.

"It's somewhat hazy whether the one metre is between the pods, or the kids within the pods.

"Social distancing will happen very naturally in some instances but not others.

"For example, there are three-teacher schools in the locality, and we have more children in one class than they have in the whole school.

"But we will be able to sort it out. It might mean having to change around classrooms or using up any bit of extra space you have.

"What I didn't see is a provision for a situation where we have to go back to online or blended learning.

"Will teachers be given emergency professional development to bring them up to speed technologically? It hasn't been outlined, and it is crucial.

"Looking at the whole online learning situation, with the best will in the world, we were reaching 60pc of the children in our school. And it became more difficult to sustain it as time went on.

"Kids are fantastic at gaming, but when it came down to using the basic ICT equipment, there was a knowledge gap. And parents struggled too."

Mr Dennedy feels the most significant challenge ahead will be the provision of substitute teachers.

"If I have a teacher in the school who has a cold, what do I do? When is a cough Covid?

"There needs to be clarity around how many schools the substitute panel will be covering, and how we prioritise what schools they go to.

"As a principal, the first thing I have to look at is how it will impact the staff, students, parents, and the wider school community.

"I understand it is an unprecedented situation, and it's hard to plan for the unknown. But I have absolute confidence in the board of management and the teachers. The will is there to make it work."
live bse live

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Dolat Capital's research report on Asian Paints

APLs Q1FY21 revenues, EBITDA and APAT came below our estimate due to delayed pick-up in demand compared to our expectation. Nevertheless, double digit volume growth (+14%) in June20, was a key positive. We believe overall volume de-growth in Domestic Decorative business was 38% in Q1FY21. IB posted mixed results as better performance in Africa and ME was offset by Covid led slowdown in Nepal and Bangladesh. Considering mixed impact of double digit exit rate for the quarter and lockdowns in few states in July, we believe that growth would normalize in H2FY21E. Consequently, we have maintained our EPS estimates for FY21E and FY22E at Rs 26.4 and Rs 33.5 respectively. We arrive at a TP of Rs 1,840 (55x FY22E EPS). Given rich valuations, we maintain our Reduce rating. Buy on dips. We believe that the volume growth in the decorative segment should remain high, especially in rural areas, given better crop production this season. Further, ongoing government investments in rural infrastructure, and house construction in rural areas should partially mitigate overall slowdown.

Outlook

In the long term, we remain optimistic about the paint industry, considering an expected shift from the unorganised to organised sector. APL, being a leader in the category, is likely to benefit the most from the shift.







For all recommendations report, click here

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  July 28, 2020  Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: D.R. Horton, Inc. DHI, Meritage Homes Corp. MTH, M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. MDC, TRI Pointe Group, Inc. TPH and Taylor Morrison Home Corp. TMHC.

Here are highlights from Mondays Analyst Blog:

New Home Sales Hit 13-Year High: 5 Must-Buy Stocks

Sales of new single family homes in the United States hit a 13-year high in June as the housing market outperformed the broader economy amid low mortgage rate and migration from densely populated urban centers to less-populated areas on fears of coronavirus. This is the second straight jump in newly built homes after two months of sales decline due of the coronavirus.

The new data comes just days after the United States witnessed an uptick in homebuilder sentiment in July. This means that both homebuilders and buyers have started showing confidence in the economy once again, signaling that the worst of the economic downturn is probably over.

New Home Sales Hit Record High

Sales of new homes rose a sharp 13.8% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 776,000 units, the highest level since July 2007, the Commerce Department reported on Jul 24. The increase follows a 19.4% jump in May. Also, Mays sales pace was revised upward to 682,000 units from the previously reported 676,000 units.

The back-to-back sales gain in May and June follows two months of steep decline in sales in March and April as much of the country went into lockdown and massive job losses prevented people from risking their money in new homes. New home sales have now recouped losses suffered when non-essential businesses were shuttered in mid-March to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Other Factors Helping Demand

Story continues

A lot of factors are pushing new home sales as states continue to relax stay-at-home restrictions. Homebuilder sentiment bounced back in July. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index climbed 14 points to 72. That is exactly where it was in March, before the pandemic hit the countrys economy. Anything above 50 is considered positive sentiment. Homebuilder sentiment had plummeted to a record low of 30 in April.

Coronavirus resulted in record job losses in April, and a collapse in manufacturing output and retail sales. People backed out from buying homes as they feared blocking their money by investing in property. However U.S. consumer confidence and consumer spending started improving since May, indicating that life is somewhat going back to normal.

A separate report last week showed sales of previously owned homes also surged 20.7% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.72 million. Moreover, home-buying activity is getting another boost from record-low mortgage rates, which have dropped below 3% for a 30-year-fixed rate mortgage for the first time in nearly 50 years.

Our Choices

The rise in new home sales is an indication that buyers are showing interest with the U.S. economy gradually reopening up and people going back to work. In this opportune time to invest in homebuilding, we suggest five stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) that are well poised for gains. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

D.R. Horton, Inc. is one of the leading national homebuilders, primarily engaged in the construction and sale of single-family houses both in the entry-level and move-up markets.

The companys expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 14.5%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 6.7% over the past 60 days.

Meritage Homes Corp. primarily engages in building and selling single-family homes for entry-level, first-time, move-up, luxury and active adult buyers in historically high-growth regions of the United States.

The companys expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 10.4%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 42.4% over the past 60 days.

M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. engages in homebuilding and financial service businesses in the United States. It is engaged in the construction, sale and related financing of residential housing, and the acquisition and development of land for use in the Denver, Phoenix, Maryland, Virginia, mid Atlantic region, Las Vegas, Dallas and California metropolitan areas.

The companys expected earnings growth rate for next year is 14.4%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 1% over the past 60 days.

TRI Pointe Group, Inc. is involved in the design, construction and sale of single-family homes. The company's operating portfolio includes Maracay Homes in Arizona; Pardee Homes in California and Nevada; Quadrant Homes in Washington; Trendmaker Homes in Texas; TRI Pointe Homes in California and Colorado; and Winchester Homes in Maryland and Virginia.

The companys expected earnings growth rate for next year is 9.3%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 21.7% over the past 60 days.

Taylor Morrison Home Corp. is a homebuilder and land developer engaged in building single-family detached and attached homes for first-time buyers.

The companys expected earnings growth rate for next year is 71.4%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 4.2% over the past 60 days.

Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2020

In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-hold tickers for the entirety of 2020?

Last year's 2019 Zacks Top 10 Stocks portfolio returned gains as high as +102.7%. Now a brand-new portfolio has been handpicked from over 4,000 companies covered by the Zacks Rank. Dont miss your chance to get in on these long-term buys.

Access Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2020 today >>

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.



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The Plainview/Hale County Health Department announced two more coronavirus-related deaths over the weekend.

A Plainview man 61 years or older became the 24th reported death for Hale County, according to Saturdays report. Information for the death reported Monday was not available.

On Saturday, Plainview was up to 19 reported deaths, Hale Center has had three and Petersburg has had two. The city of Plainview announced (with its daily snapshot report) on Monday that it will now release easier-to-read reports with a full report and case list expected to be released Tuesdays for the week. So its unclear where the latest death was reported.

The report released Monday, which shows data reported between Friday afternoon to 5 p.m. Sunday, also shows 18 new cases and 32 recoveries. No new details as to where those cases or recoveries were reported were made available by press time.

The report released Saturday, which reflects activity reported by 5 p.m. Friday, shows 24 new cases were confirmed mostly in Plainview. Twenty-two of the new cases are reflected in Plainviews numbers (which were up to 996) and two are included in Hale Centers numbers, which are up to 48 total.

The report released Monday shows there have been 1,103 confirmed cases in Hale County since the first was reported March 24. A majority of those cases have been diagnosed among Plainview residents.

Between Saturdays and Mondays reports, a total of 69 new recoveries have been reported between 5 p.m. Thursday and Sunday afternoon bringing the total overall recovery number up to 916.

Mondays report also shows 162 active cases. Of the active case counts, 156 are in recovery at home and six are in medical facilities.

The new report format also doesnt detail how many COVID-19 tests have been conducted.

Citizens continue to be encouraged to wash their hands frequently, avoid crowds, practice social distancing and wear masks in public.
NAB said about one in 10 of its customers in financial hardship engaged these operators, but the debt management firms' services could also be obtained for free through financial counsellors.

These are operators that charge an upfront fee to consumers, proposing to help them negotiate with lenders, repair their credit file, restructure debts, or arrange repayment plans.

National Australia Bank group executive Rachel Slade: "As more Australians seek help it is important that we no longer deal with unlicensed, fee-charging debt management providers."

As the number of borrowers in financial distress surges due to the coronavirus pandemic, NAB will on Wednesday announce a crackdown on unlicensed fee-charging debt management firms.

National Australia Bank has vowed to stop dealing with unlicensed debt management firms, which promise to help people in financial trouble but have been labelled "debt vultures" by consumer advocates.

With the number of consumers in hardship soaring as hundreds of thousands of people put their mortgage payments on hold, the bank said its action was aimed at protecting customers from potentially ending up in a worse situation.

NAB's group executive for personal banking, Rachel Slade, said customers were in vulnerable situations due to the pandemic and the bank was hearing "very difficult" stories from customers every day. We continue to check in with our customers who have requested payment deferrals due to the impact of COVID-19 and know many still need our support through this crisis," Ms Slade said in a statement.

However, we also understand that some customers wont be able to bounce straight back. As more Australians seek help it is important that we no longer deal with unlicensed, fee-charging debt management providers.

General manager of NAB Assist, Campbell Morrison, said the bank would continue dealing with licensed debt management firms on the basis of allowing customers choice. He said the bank dealt with about 500 debt management firms, of which about half were unlicensed, and about 2000 customers a year were engaging their services.

Consumer Action Law Centre chief executive Gerard Brody, who referred to debt management firms as "debt vultures," welcomed NAB's move and expressed hope other banks would take similar action. Even so, he said tighter regulation of the sector by government was ultimately needed. "I would like to see stronger regulation, to be honest," Mr Brody said.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday said that he has been washing clothes on his own, ever since he tested positive for Covid-19, and it has benefitted his hand. The chief minister said his hand was recently operated on. CM Chouhan said that after his surgery, he was not able to clench his fist and physiotherapy also didnt help much but washing clothes regularly healed his hand.

Chouhan, who tested positive for Covid-19 last week, conducted a state cabinet meeting on Tuesday via video conferencing.

#WATCH Since I am #COVID positive, I've been washing my clothes myself. This has benefitted me a lot. Even after several physiotherapy sessions, I wasn't able to clench my fist as my hand was recently operated on, but now it is perfectly fine: Madhya Pradesh CM SS Chouhan. pic.twitter.com/W1SEfxhQEq  ANI (@ANI) July 28, 2020

In a video, Chouhan said, since I am Covid-19 positive, Ive been washing my clothes myself. This has benefitted me a lot. Even after several physiotherapy sessions, I wasnt able to clench my fist as my hand was recently operated on, but now it is perfectly fine.

In a series of tweets on Monday, Chouhan urged people not to hide their symptoms for Covid-19 and come forward for testing.

If you have contracted the infection, there is no need to fear, if you show symptoms, do not hide them, report immediately so that the treatment can be started on time. Timely treatment will make you healthy, he tweeted.

He lauded health professionals for selflessly taking care of patients amid the pandemic crisis.

The dedication of #CoronaWarriors is commendable. I salute all the Corona warriors of the state serving the #COVID19 victims by risking their lives selflessly, he tweeted.

We should fight it with full confidence, he said, emphasising the importance of social distancing and other preventive measures like washing hands and wearing masks.
New Delhi, July 28 : Merchant payment and lending network company BharatPe has given its ESOP holders an option to sell back shares from their first vesting back to it.

In a statement, the company said that with the scheme titled 'ESOP Cheque Cash Karo', employees will be able to enjoy liquidity upfront which will establish ESOP as a valuable and liquid currency.

BharatPe has 6 per cent (over $25 million) of its overall equity allotted to the ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) pool. All employees are given the ESOP grant along with the appointment letter.

"ESOPs carry zero strike price. The vesting is front ended in favour of employees with 25 per cent vesting on year 1 and thereafter 2 per cent every month. The employees are not required to exercise the ESOPs on leaving and can time it with a liquidity event anytime up to 5 years," it said.

Ashneer Grover, Co-Founder & CEO, BharatPe, said: "In Indian ecosystem, ESOPs have been one of the most abused and misunderstood instruments. Verbal grants, back ended vesting and last-minute changes to even documented ESOP grants have eroded employee faith in ESOPs." BharatPe ESOP grant is like a cheque in the hands of employees, he added.

"We are encouraging our employees to bank their first ESOP cheque and enjoy the value they've created as cash in bank," Grover said.
Upon closing of the transaction, RWB's financials will all be consolidated under the Public Company umbrella

TORONTO, July 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Red White & Bloom Brands Inc. (CSE: RWB and OTC: RWBYF) (RWB or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has provided notice to PharmaCo, Inc.(PharmaCo), of its intent to exercise the Companys right to acquire 100% of PharmaCo.



RWB, through its wholly owned subsidiary MichiCann Medical Inc., has provided financing to PharmaCo since late 2018 and has had the right to exercise an option to acquire PharmaCo, which was negotiated as part of its financing. The Company, having now provided notice of its intent to exercise the right to acquire PharmaCo, submitted its change of ownership application with the Michigan Regulatory Agency (MRA) to take over ownership of PharmaCo.

PharmaCo has established significant market share within the state of Michigan. Now that we have completed our go public transaction, we felt that the time was right for us to take the next step of rolling our critical mass asset base together in what we believe is one of the top 3 most important cannabis states by market size and potential

This will simplify and streamline the structure of the Company, more easily evidencing the overall underlying value of RWB for our shareholders and stakeholders. PharmaCo has worked very hard on building out these assets for the last 2+ years and we believe it is time for us to enter this large and important market, taking advantage of PharmaCos early mover advantage. Once closed, both retail and institutional investors should benefit from this now straightforward structure, said Brad Rogers, CEO of RWB.

A Michigan State University recent report1 on the potential size of the Michigan cannabis market stated, It is estimated that the level of retail sales once it becomes widely available is approximately $3 billion with a total economic impact in excess of $7.8 billion.

Story continues

The all-share remuneration under the call option allows the Company to acquire PharmaCo in exchange for 37 million units (Units) (as defined below) of the Company, subject to certain adjustments and regulatory approvals.

Each Unit shall consist of one common share (each, a Common Share) and one series 2 convertible preferred share (each, a Series 2 Preferred Share and collectively, the Series 2 Preferred Shares) in the capital of the Company. Each Series 2 Preferred Share shall be convertible, in accordance with the formula as set out in the terms in the Companys articles, at any time or times on or after November 24, 2020 and before April 24, 2022. Any Series 2 Preferred Shares outstanding on April 24, 2022 shall automatically convert into fully paid and non-assessable Common Shares without requiring any further action.

About Red White & Bloom Brands Inc.

The Company is positioning itself to be one of the top three multi-state cannabis operators active in the U.S. legal cannabis and hemp sector. RWB is predominately focusing its investments on the major US markets, including Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts, California, and Florida with respect to cannabis, and the US and Internationally for hemp-based CBD products.

For more information about Red White & Bloom Brands Inc., please contact:

Tyler Troup, Managing Director

Circadian Group IR

IR@RedWhiteBloom.com

Visit us on the web: www.RedWhiteBloom.com

Follow us on social media

Twitter: @rwbbrands

Facebook: @redwhitebloombrands

Instagram: @redwhitebloombrands

Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION

This press release contains forward-looking statements and information that are based on the beliefs of management and reflect the Companys current expectations. When used in this press release, the words estimate, project, belief, anticipate, intend, expect, plan, predict, may or should and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. The forward-looking statements and information in this press release includes information relating to the implementation of Red White & Blooms business plan. Such statements and information reflect the current view of the Company with respect to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and information.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: risks associated with the implementation of Red White & Blooms business plan and matters relating thereto, risks associated with the cannabis industry, competition, regulatory change, the need for additional financing, reliance on key personnel, the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers or directors, and the volatility of the Companys common share price and volume. Forward-looking statements are made based on managements beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

There are a number of important factors that could cause the Companys actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by forward-looking statements and information. Such factors include, among others, risks related to Red White & Blooms proposed business, such as failure of the business strategy and government regulation; risks related to Red White & Blooms operations, such as additional financing requirements and access to capital, reliance on key and qualified personnel, insurance, competition, intellectual property and reliable supply chains; risks related to Red White & Bloom and its business generally. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of material factors is not exhaustive. When relying on the Companys forward-looking statements and information to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. The Company has assumed a certain progression, which may not be realized. It has also assumed that the material factors referred to in the previous paragraph will not cause such forward-looking statements and information to differ materially from actual results or events. However, the list of these factors is not exhaustive and is subject to change and there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. While the Company may elect to, it does not undertake to update this information at any particular time.

THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS PRESS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE COMPANY AS OF THE DATE OF THIS PRESS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE THE COMPANY MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAWS.

1 https://www.michigan.gov/documents/marijuana/Michigan_State_University_Product_Center_Food-Ag-Bio_Marijuana_Study_684840_7.pdf
New Mexico State Universitys STEM Outreach Center recently received $2.7 million from the New Mexico Public Education Department to fund out-of-school-time STEM programs in the Las Cruces and Gadsden school districts for one year.

The funding will allow the STEM Outreach Center, housed in the NMSU College of Education, to provide its programming to qualifying elementary and middle schools in each district in the 2020-21 academic year.

Another $250,000 was awarded for summer STEM programs for K-8th grade students. Those programs will be offered from June through August 2021.

NMSU College of Education interim Dean Susan Brown said the funding will help provide STEM programs to thousands of students.

I congratulate (STEM Outreach Center Director) Wanda Bulger-Tamez and (center co-director) Sara Morales for leading the team, Brown said. Because of their wonderful record providing the best program in the state, they will continue to provide professional development for our out-of-school-time teachers and provide over 6,500 K-8th grade students exciting, innovative, interactive STEM out-of-school-time programs for the academic year 2020-21.

We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to newsroom@abqjournal.com.
A study published in the journal Nature Communications has pinpointed a number of areas of the human genome that may help explain the neonatal origins of chronic immune and inflammatory diseases of later life, including type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and coeliac disease.

The research, led by scientists at the Cambridge Baker Systems Genomics Initiative, identified several genes that appear to drive disease risk at birth, and which could be targeted for therapeutic intervention to stop these diseases in their tracks, well before symptoms occur.

Dr Michael Inouye, Munz Chair of Cardiovascular Prediction and Prevention at the Baker Institute and Principal Researcher at Cambridge University, said chronic immune and inflammatory diseases of adulthood often originated in early childhood, with an individual's genetic make-up causing changes to the function of different genes involved in disease.

For this study, the team collected cord blood samples from more than 100 Australian newborns as part of the Childhood Asthma Study, and investigated the role of genetic variation in DNA in changing how genes are expressed in the two main arms of the immune system.

The neonatal immune cells were exposed to certain stimuli, to see how the cells responded and to identify genetic variants that changed these responses.

"We looked for overlap between these genetic signals and those that are known to be associated with diseases where we know the immune system plays a role," Dr Inouye said.

"We then used statistical analysis to search for possible links between the cell response in newborns and immune diseases in adulthood."

Chronic immune diseases - including type 1 diabetes, coeliac disease and multiple sclerosis - are caused by an overactive immune system and affect about 5 per cent of Australians. Allergies are immune-mediated too and affect one in five Australians, with hay fever, asthma, eczema, anaphylaxis and food allergies the most common. Inflammation and autoimmunity are also known to be driving factors in cardiovascular diseases, for example when an overactive immune system mistakenly attacks the heart.

Dr Qinqin Huang, lead author of the study and now a researcher at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, said the findings were unique in their scale, with thousands of genetic variants driving gene expression across different immune and inflammatory conditions, some of which had wide-ranging effects.

"Our study showed the potential roles of gene expression in disease development, which has helped us to better understand the link between DNA variation and disease risk," Dr Huang said.

"To date, similar studies have only been conducted in adult immune cells. Given the huge difference between neonatal and adult immunity, it is not surprising to see many signals that were unique to newborns."

The study is part of the Cambridge Baker Systems Genomics Initiative's wider work in developing polygenic risk scores to predict an individual's likelihood of developing particular chronic diseases. To date, the team have already developed potential methods to test for future risk of stroke and coronary artery disease.

"Disease is partly due to changes, both large and small, in our genome - the DNA that we're born with and which is a major driving force in all our cells. That means, genomics can be used to estimate disease risk from a very early age," Dr Inouye said.

"Common diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, tend to be polygenic - influenced by a large number of genetic variants scattered throughout the genome, which combine with environmental and lifestyle factors. By using new genomic technology and supercomputing capabilities, we can sift through this DNA data and piece together the puzzles that underlie each disease.

"With so many diseases sharing a root in the immune system and inflammation we can leverage this information to better understand where each disease has a molecular weak spot and to what extent these are shared among different diseases.

"We've shown this can be dissected using genetics and polygenic risk, hopefully leading to targeted preventative interventions for those who need them most, with the aim of keeping people living healthier for longer."

###
China censors film production with Christian content including miracles, healing

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China has issued strict new guidelines banning film and television programs including instances of miracles and healing  a move some fear will outlaw Christian content completely.

According to UCA News, the National Administration of Radio and Television, which controls the content on radio, film, and TV aired in China, recently passed new regulations banning 20 categories of content, including material promoting fabricated history, sacred relics, demonic possessions, and instances of faith and healing.

A filmmaker working with the church's film and television industry said the new guidelines almost entirely ban faith-based content.

The filmmaker, who identified himself as Joseph, told UCA News: If we film the life of Jesus, avoiding the content banned by the guidelines, we will only be presenting Jesus as an ordinary person, and this is unacceptable to Christians.

The guidelines also require filmmakers not to film the dark side of society but to film the good life of normal people and stipulate that historical dramas should be based on true history" rather than fabrication.

Father Yo from Shandong called the guidelines strange. How can people have a good life when they don't even have the natural right to freedom of religion? If we do not even have the most basic human rights, how can we be good?"

"What is true history? Is it the one fabricated by the Chinese Communist Party? Would it not lead to creating more fake television dramas in line with the party to brainwash the public?"

In 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping put the Communist Partys propaganda office in charge of regulating films. Earlier, Xi announced that all the work by the partys media must reflect the partys will, safeguard the partys authority, and safeguard the partys unity.

Zhang Lifan, a historian, told The New York Times that Xis attempts to impose total control over the media is a way for him to announce his absolute authority.

He doesnt feel effective and confident in dealing with problems, and he lacks a sense of security, Zhang said. He worries the Chinese Communist Party will lose political power, and he also worries that his peers will shove him from his position.

Last year, a former employee of one of Chinas largest tech firms monitors citizens mobile phones, blocking any words deemed sensitive to the state  such as Almighty God.

In 2018, China banned online retailers from selling the Bible in efforts to control the countrys growing religious scene.

China claims that it allows religious freedom; however, it has been carrying out a crackdown on underground churches and Christian activists for years.

A recent report from persecution watchdog International Christian Concern documents how the CCP targets Christians through its sinicization campaign, meaning, to make beliefs, including Christianity, fall in line with their interpretation of Communism.

Specifically, the report notes that the campaign seeks to diminish the effectiveness of Christian theology by removing Christian symbols at churches and replacing them with CCP symbols, rewriting portions of the Bible, observing major Christian holidays with a Communist twist, and indoctrinating state-sanctioned clergy and leaders with CCP dogma.

The Religious Affairs Bureau and the CCP have a single goal: to prevent religious influence from threatening their communist control, the report says.

The issue of international religious freedom is one that should be at the core of U.S. interests," it adds. "Both sides of the political debate agree that Chinas flagrant disregard for religious freedom must be stopped. It is only by coming together that effective policy will be passed and the U.S. will send a clear message to China that its persecution of religion is unacceptable.

Open Doors USA ranks China 23rd on its World Watch List of 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.

"A policy of 'sinicizing' the church is becoming increasingly influential because the Communist Party is relying strongly on Chinese cultural identity to stay in power," Open Doors explains. "The new restrictions on internet, social media and NGOsand the new regulations on religionare all seriously limiting freedom."
Some claimed over the weekend that the edge was beginning to go off Northern demand for heavy cattle at marts.

Yet others I spoke with disagreed citing very strong competition for heavy cattle from smaller Northern processors and bigger wholesalers. Im more inclined to think that as factory prices appear to be stabilising last week saw us reaching a plateau in relation to mart prices for beef.

A number of marts including Kilkenny and Mohill took the initiative last week and included special beef sections aimed at those in the slaughter or export sections of the business, as well as those who buy forward heavy stock for further feeding. Prices in general ranged from 2.00-2.30/kg for bullocks and heifers, with heavy cull cows ranging from 1.50-2.00/kg.

George Candler in Kilkenny commented that it was noticeable that while the number of potential sellers rose significantly because of their special sale, the number of cattle presented generally ranged from just one to three animals.

And it would appear from the Ringside returns from last week those who decided to encourage farmers to bring heavy cattle to the marts didnt do the trade any harm at all as overall average prices for both 600kg+ bullocks and heifers improved. Your 600kg+ bullock rose 3c/kg on average to 1.95/kg buoyed by a 7c/kg increase in the price of your better conformation animal to 2.28/kg. The average price of your 600kg+ heifer rose 11c/kg and finished out the week on 2.15/kg, with the better sorts averaging 13c/kg higher at 2.40/kg.

While the bigger movements on the price table were restricted to those heavier animals, everything else also moved positively - though not by as much. On the bullock table everything below 600kgs averaged from 1-3c/kg while on the heifer table the overall average improvement below 600kgs was in the 3-5c/kg range. While it would be tempting to speculate that the big surge in prices and numbers has passed, as we round the corner into August those ringside will watch developments in relation to factory prices very closely

There is good news on the live export side this week, with the resumption of the live shipping of bulls from Cork to Libya by Curzon Livestock. A mixed load ofaround 2,000 Friesians and Continental bulls is due to sail tomorrow, Wednesday. The Friesians are reported to be in 200-400kg range, with the continentals averaging from 400-600kgs. Speaking with a source close to the action I was told that it is hoped to have another shipment organised in four to six weeks.

So with factory prices appearing stable, demand from Northern factories and wholesalers helping to buoy the heavy trade, and with the likes of Curzon Livestock going about the business of live shipping quietly and efficiently, what can possibly go wrong?

In the know...

Kilkenny

As well as their normal Thursday sale, the mart team here put together a special section for heavy factory type stock.

This resulted in around two hundred heavier cattle going under the hammer.

Best of the bullocks was a 945kg Charolais that sold for 2.11/kg, while 585kg Limousin heifer suitable for breeding made 3.16/kg.

On the cull cow side, continental types sold for 1.35-2.23/kg, with Friesians making up to 1.85/kg. Among the lighter bullocks those under 500kgs sold to a top of 2.75/kg.





Mohill

This is another mart which decided to take the initiative and tap into the demand for heavier stock.

We had around 140 heavy bullocks and cows with your typical 700-740kg continental bullock making 2.20-2.25/kg, said Stephen Hannon.

Interestingly a share of 700kg 17-18 month old Charolais bulls saw their prices average 2.40/kg.

On the dry cow side, your 600kg Friesian made up to 1.55/kg, while continental types ranged from 1.80-2.00/kg.

Among the lighter 440-460kg bullocks, prices peaked at 2.60/kg.





New Ross

Northern buyers and Southern agents were also active here with beef bullocks selling from 630-1,010/hd over the 1/kg, while beef heifers averaged from 530-960 with their weight.

Heavy Friesian type bullocks sold from 385-640 with the 1/kg. On the store side continental bullocks made up to 800 with their weight, while Hereford and Angus types generally sold for 335-560 over the weight, while light Friesian types sold for 235-415 along with the 1/kg.

Continental beef cows sold from 335-800 over the 1/kg, with feeding cows selling for 145-350 over 1/kg.





Castlerea

Bullocks suitable for further feeding also saw some very keen interest here, while all other categories held firm.

Sample prices on the bullock side included a 435kg Charolais that sold for 1,180 while a 570kg Charolais made an impressive 1,530.

On the heifer side your choices included a 430kg Angus or Limousin both at 1,080/hd.

Among the weanling bulls was a 270kg Charolais that sold for 700, while was it possible that the buyer of the same weight Angus wasnt going to be found wanting the second time giving 710.





Blessington

All classes met a good trade with plenty of activity among beef and store buyers. Beef and forward store bullocks made from 585-940 over the 1/kg, with beef heifers selling from 530-830 over their weight.

Among the stores, continental-type bullocks averaged 440-750 with the 1/kg, with Hereford and Angus types making 360-480 over the weight. Continental store heifers sold from 385-645 over the 1/kg, with Hereford and Angus stock making 300-480 over. Beef cows sold from 280-600 over the 1/kg, with feeder types making from 140-280 over their weight.





Kanturk

This was another big sale. The trade has been very brisk over the last few weeks, and that was the case again with this latest sale. Three 471kg Hereford bullocks that are heading for grass averaged 940/hd, with a similar return recorded for six 350kg Angus at 770/hd. On the heifer side samples included four 632kg Limousins at 1,310/hd, six 360kg Angus at 760/hd and four 300kg Herefords at 665/hd.





Headford

A large entry for the time of year saw bullocks average from 1.32-2.80/kg. A 590kg Charolais was the outstanding sale at 1,500 or 2.54/kg. Heifer prices ranged from 1.49/kg to a top of 2.54/kg in the case of a 345kg Limousin. The strong demand for beef saw a 710kg Charolais sell for for 1,590. Bull weanlings sold from 1.77/kg to 3.08/kg.
HOLLADAY, Utah, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Swell, the growth platform for local business, announced today that it has been selected as the number one customer experience software product by GetApp, the premier online resource for businesses exploring software as a service (SaaS) products. Swell has also been selected as a Top 20 customer experience software product by Capterra, a free online service that helps organizations find the right software.

Swell and GetApp

"We're honored to be selected as top performers in our market," says Drew Sparks, CEO and founder of Swell. "We've always been committed to giving our customers the most effective, easy-to-use tools for growing their businesses using the power of customer experience. This acknowledgment is proof that our team's hard work is helping us achieve that goal for our customers."

Swell helps businesses identify ways to improve the experience they provide customers by giving them tools for soliciting feedback through surveys and online reviews. Reviews not only help them find ways to elevate the customer experience, they also help businesses improve their online reputation and rank higher in search. To power better customer engagement, Swell also includes a full suite of communication tools that let businesses communicate with customers over convenient channels like text message and online chat.

The latest version of Swell, newly released in June, adds two new capabilities to the platform, in addition to a full user interface upgrade:

Swell Pay makes it easy for a business to send payment requests via text message, so they can get paid sooner. Customers can pay through a variety of secure, compliant payment methods right on their smartphone.



Swell Schedule allows a business' website visitors to request an appointment time online, so businesses can book them for service.

Businesses interested in trying Swell can book a custom demo at www.swellcx.com.

About Swell

Swell is an automated growth platform that helps local businesses find new customers and turn their feedback into reviews, referrals, and a booming bottom line. It helps businesses get discovered in local searches, learn from customer feedback, and enhance their reputation through true customer sentiment. www.swellcx.com

Media Contact:

Justin Strong

Email: [email protected]

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Swell Chosen as GetApp Customer Experience Category Leader

Swell and GetApp

SOURCE Swell
Federal administration in disputed region ends requirement by forces to obtain a special certificate for acquiring land.

The Indian administration of Jammu and Kashmir has lifted a requirement set in place by a 1971 circular under which Indian security forces had to obtain a special certificate in order to acquire land in the disputed region.

The order allows Indian Army, Border Security Forces, paramilitary forces and similar organisations to acquire land without a no objection certificate (NOC) clearance from the regions home department, according to a report by the Anadolu Agency on Tuesday.

The order cites the extension of the 2013 Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act to the Jammu and Kashmir region after it was declared a federal territory in a controversial move by the Indian government in August last year.

In view of the federal laws extension, the circular requiring an NOC from the erstwhile states home department prior to acquisition or requisition of land by the security forces was withdrawn, according to the order.

The move came on the heels of the regional administration agreeing to legal changes to allow construction in the regions strategic areas by the Indian armed forces.

A Kashmiri woman crosses a bridge as men row their boats home after selling vegetables at the floating market on Dal Lake, Srinagar [Dar Yasin/AP]

Scrapped autonomy

On August 5 last year, India revoked Article 370 and related constitutional provisions, effectively scrapping the partial autonomy that Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir state had, splitting it into two federally administered territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

At the same time, New Delhi imposed a crippling security lockdown, detaining thousands, imposing restrictions on movement and enforcing a communications blackout.

In May this year, India passed a law allowing people from outside Kashmir to become permanent residents of the territory, sparking fears of a demographic change and non-locals getting priority in housing, jobs and education.

Khurram Pervez, a prominent human rights activist based in Srinagar, noted that residents of slums in Jammu and Kashmir are entitled to affordable housing, and that the domicile law could make tens of thousands of migrant labourers from other Indian states eligible for public housing as well

According to a census conducted in 2011, Muslims comprised 68.31 percent and Hindus 28.43 percent of the 12.5 million people in the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state.

Since May 18, more than 25,000 people have been granted domicile certificates, including refugees from Pakistan, Gurkha soldiers from Nepal who had served in the Indian army and marginalised groups such as sanitation workers from the state of Punjab.

Our distinct social and cultural identity, whether its our languages or traditions  everything is in danger, Haroon Reshi, a freelance journalist based in the main city of Srinagar, told Reuters news agency.





In another move, which officials said would generate jobs and boost development, the Indian administration on July 24 approved setting aside 488 hectares (1,205 acres) of state land to build industrial estates in about 35 locations across the region.

Raja Muzaffar Bhat, chairman of the J&K RTI Movement, an anti-corruption charity, described the decision as disastrous in a statement on Monday, saying the government should instead focus on establishing more agricultural land and creating green jobs.

The Himalayan region of Kashmir is held by India and Pakistan in part, but claimed by both in full. A small sliver of the region is also controlled by China.

Since India and Pakistan were partitioned in 1947, the two nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars  in 1948, 1965, and 1971  two of them over Kashmir.

Some Kashmiri groups have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or unification with Pakistan.

According to several human rights groups, thousands of people have been killed in the conflict since 1989.
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Rebekah Vardy was seen enjoying a day out at the beach in Ibiza with her husband Jamie Vardy, and their children Sofia, four, and Finlay, three, on Tuesday amid her WAG war with Coleen Rooney.

The WAG, 38, looked sensational in a black swimsuit that showed off her slender figure as she waded in the cool waters beside the Leicester City striker, 33, while their children frolicked in the ocean.

Becky is in the midst of a 1 million court battle with Coleen, 34, and revealed in court documents last week her 'extreme anguish' about being exposed 'to public ridicule and contempt' by Wayne Rooney's wife in the so-called Wagatha Christie case.

Time for a break: Rebekah Vardy looked sensational in a black swimsuit as she enjoyed a family break to Ibiza with husband Jamie and their children on Tuesday, amid her WAG war with Coleen Rooney

Despite the ongoing court case, Becky appeared to be in good spirits during her much-needed holiday as she smiled brightly at her little ones while they played, her and Jamie's seven-month-old daughter Olivia was not seen.

Her ensemble highlighted her slender legs and she accessorised with a pair of large cat-eye shades for the outing at the beach.

Becky's brunette locks were pulled into a side-swept braid and she used a light palette of make-up to accentuate her pretty features.

Later on, Becky was seen in a chic white summer dress that had a colourful floral design at the bottom, while Jamie donned a black T-shirt and mask.

Enjoying herself: Despite the ongoing court case, Becky appeared to be in good spirits during her much-needed holiday as she smiled brightly at her little ones while they played, her and Jamie's seven-month-old daughter Olivia was not seen

Looking good: Becky's ensemble highlighted her slender legs and she accessorised with a pair of large cat-eye shades for the outing at the beach

Sweet: Jamie followed son Finlay closely while he ran through the ocean happily in a life jacket

Chic: Becky's brunette locks were pulled into a side-swept braid and she used a light palette of make-up to accentuate her pretty features

Becky is caught up in the coronavirus chaos from the weekend as the government pulled its air bridge with the Spain following a spike in COVID-19 cases.

The government introduced a mandatory 14-day quarantine on anyone returning to Britain from Spain from Monday in a hastily announced change in the rules at the weekend.

The rules apply to all regions of Spain, including the Canary and Balearic islands - though politicians in the latter say they are trying to thrash out a regional air bridge.

Spain was one of the worst hit countries in Europe by the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 290,000 cases and over 28,000 deaths, however it imposed very strict lockdown measures to contain the spread, gradually easing them earlier in the summer.

Spain had been among of a number of 'air-bridge' countries considered to be safe for quarantine-free travel, promoting many stars to book getaways.

Casual: Jamie, meanwhile, showed off his toned abs while standing in a red swimsuit which had a quirky black-and-white print, and he also shielded his eyes with a pair of sunglasses

Travel restrictions: Becky is likely caught up in the coronavirus chaos at the weekend while in Ibiza as the government pulled its air bridge with the holiday hot spot following a spike in COVID-19 cases

New rules: The government introduced a mandatory 14-day quarantine on anyone returning to Britain from Spain from Monday in a hastily announced change in the rules at the weekend

Restrictions: The rules apply to all regions of Spain, including the Canary and Balearic islands - though politicians in the latter say they are trying to thrash out a regional air bridge

Shocking: Coleen was accused of leaking stories to the press by Rebekah earlier this month, after she told in a bombshell legal document how she had been left suicidal by the accusation that she had leaked stories about Coleen and her family

Coleen was accused of leaking stories to the press by Rebekah earlier this month, after she told in a bombshell legal document how she had been left suicidal by the accusation that she had leaked stories about Coleen and her family.

She also claimed in the document drawn up for her libel battle against Coleen that the stress of the scandal had left her fearful of losing her unborn baby and suffering panic attacks that made her too scared to leave her home.

The I'm A Celeb star complained of being made a 'scapegoat' by her rival seeking to blame her for stories appearing when in the past Coleen had approved of her friends leaking gossip about her.

The document says Rebekah believes she 'has deliberately been made a scapegoat (sic) by the Defendant (Coleen) for past 'leaked' stories.'

Candid: Becky also claimed in the document drawn up for her libel battle against Coleen that the stress of the scandal had left her fearful of losing her unborn baby and suffering panic attacks that made her too scared to leave her home

Her side: The I'm A Celeb star complained of being made a 'scapegoat' by her rival seeking to blame her for stories appearing when in the past Coleen had approved of her friends leaking gossip about her

Legal battle: The document says Rebekah believes she 'has deliberately been made a scapegoat (sic) by the Defendant (Coleen) for past 'leaked' stories'

With friends: Jamie was seen watching his son from the beach while standing by the family's pals

Playing with dad: Jamie held onto Finlay, who was wearing a blue lifejacket, in the water and threw him into the air at one point

All smiles: Rebekah grinned at her husband (middle) and son (left) before being splashed (right) while holding daughter Sofia

It points to previous stories about Coleen and Wayne with some 'in particular about their marriage, which have in fact come from the Defendant's friends, at times even with the Defendant's approval.'

The paper states that Sun journalist Dan Wootton had said on talkRADIO on October 19 last year that Coleen had 'manipulated the media to tell stories about her own life'.

Wootton added that he had 'written many, many stories' about her marriage and 'lots of other things around the Rooneys' that had come directly from friends of Coleen including some told 'with her (Coleen's) approval', says the document.

He went on to say on talkRADIO that nothing had ever come from 'any of the Vardys', it adds.

Defence: The document in Becky's case also points to previous stories about Coleen and Wayne with some 'in particular about their marriage, which have in fact come from the Defendant's friends, at times even with the Defendant's approval'

Struggle: Rebekah said that the widespread damage to her reputation was illustrated by research showing her name had become a more popular search term than 'Brexit' on Google in the UK on the day the scandal broke

Defamation: Rebekah describes in her document how Coleen's public denunciation of her on Instagram while she was seven months pregnant had 'gravely injured her reputation'

Doting mum: Rebekah appeared to be in good spirits as she splashed around with her children in the water

Taking a dip: She donned a pair of oversized gold sunglasses as she played with four-year-old Sofia during the day

Family time: Everyone appeared to be having fun during the day at the seaside

Taking a dip: The children seemed to be having lots of fun as their parents played with them in the water

Rebekah describes in her document how Coleen's public denunciation of her on Instagram while she was seven months pregnant had 'gravely injured her reputation'.

Detailing how Coleen had 'caused her enormous distress and very extreme embarrassment', she disclosed how she had been bombarded with abuse on social media.

Rebekah said that the widespread damage to her reputation was illustrated by research showing her name had become a more popular search term than 'Brexit' on Google in the UK on the day the scandal broke.

She also claimed that it led to her name appearing 276,822 times on Twitter on the same day, more than triple the number of mentions of Boris Johnson who had had his name published only 80,704 times.

Heading back: Later on, Becky was seen in a chic white summer dress that had a colourful floral design at the bottom

Staying hydrated: Jamie was seen sipping a cool drink as the family got ready to leave the beach

Adorable: Finlay kept a tight hold of his mother's hand as they left the beach together

Splashing around: The parents took a child each as they cooled off in the water

Up! Jamie carried Finlay as the family made their way out of the water, while big sister Sofia (left) also tried to get Rebekah to pick her up

Making memories: The trip comes after Rebekah and Jamie welcomed baby Olivia, who was not seen at the beach, seven months ago

Couple: Jamie and Rebekah managed to steal some time alone during the family outing

Coleen made headlines around the world last October when she made her devastating claim that Rebekah had been leaking stories about her and her family to the Sun newspaper.

She released the statement: 'It's been tough keeping it to myself and not making any comment at all, especially when the stories have been leaked, however I had to. Now I know for certain which account / individual it's come from.

'I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It's . Rebekah Vardy's account.'

Rebekah immediately denied the claims and has since been fighting to clear her name and demands Coleen withdraw the claims against her.

The full statement: Coleen made these shock claims on Instagram after discovering she had been betrayed by someone close to her and she concluded that it was Vardy's account

'I don't need the money': Rebekah denied all accusations against her minutes after the post and said she had nothing to gain and had no financial motivation

Supportive husband: Jamie has remained a nurturing presence for Becky amid the WAG war

Friends say Wayne Rooney has hoped Coleen's WAG war would not get to his stage but he is willing to back his wife in her quest to prove her claims and be vindicated.

A source said to The Sun: 'Wayne thinks it's gone too far already and dreads the thought of it reaching court.

'He fears it could be embarrassing to him and their family what may come out. But he knows how important this is to Coleen and will back her.'

Another source said: 'Coleen is becoming obsessed with it.'

MailOnline has contacted Coleen and Wayne Rooney's representatives for comment at the time of publication.

Concerned: Friends say Wayne Rooney has hoped Coleen's WAG war would not get to his stage but he is willing to back his wife in her quest to prove her claims and be vindicated
As the coronavirus pandemic hits home, people in Central Asian countries are lining up to keep healthy. But many are finding a lack of medicines at pharmacies, rising drug prices, and little help from their governments.



In some cases, criminal proceedings have been launched against pharmacies and other distributors of medicine accused of price gouging. In others, pledges to compensate medical workers are not being met. And in still others, officials appear to be scrambling to combat the spread of disease even as they deny the impact of the coronavirus.

Tajikistan: Rising Prices, Run On Supplies

Tajikistan's Anti-Monopoly Service, which has the authority to regulate prices on certain goods, has reported that the prices for some drugs, including antivirals, has risen tenfold since the country's first coronavirus infection was reported in late April.



Abdumajid Muminzod, the head of the service, told a press conference this month that more than 50 pharmacies had been fined for unjustifiably raising prices on essential medicines.

Prosecutor-General Yusuf Rahmon, meanwhile, has said that thousands of administrative and hundreds of criminal cases have been launched against more than 470 pharmacy employees.



Rahmon cited an example in which one unidentified drug that sold for 70 somonis ($6.80) before the coronavirus outbreak was selling for 600 to 700 somonis ($58 to $68).



One pharmacy owner, speaking to RFE/RL's Tajik Service on condition of anonymity, contended that pharmacies are not to blame and that demand is driving prices higher.



"Citizens themselves were afraid that shops and pharmacies would close as the coronavirus spreads, so they began to stock up. And everyone knows that if a good becomes scarce, then the price for it rises," the pharmacy owner said, without explaining whether the state or other suppliers were charging pharmacies more than before.



Tajik authorities have repeatedly stressed that treatment for the coronavirus is free, as is all medical care in the country, but citizens who spoke to RFE/RL this month have said that this is often not the case, with patients receiving free hospital stays but incurring costs for medicine and other supplies that can run into the equivalent of hundreds or even thousands of dollars.



The government earlier this month announced that is compiling a list of vulnerable members of the population -- including the elderly, low-income families, and the disabled -- who are eligible to receive a one-time payout to help alleviate costs associated with the coronavirus outbreak.



The payouts, to be distributed in early August, are expected to be about 400 soms ($40).



Tajikistan has the lowest average wage among all former Soviet republics and had recorded more than 7,200 coronavirus infections and 60 deaths as of July 28.



However, the numbers throughout Central Asia are believed to be higher than officially reported, and RFE/RL's Tajik Service has shown that several hundred people have died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Kazakhstan: Home Treatment Prescribed

Drug shortages and price hikes are also being reported in Kazakhstan, where people complained of difficulties in finding ordinary medicines like aspirin, as well as antibiotics, antivirals, and other prescription drugs.



RFE/RL's Kazakh Service filmed people lined up outside pharmacies earlier this month in cities across the country. In Almaty, customers at one pharmacy arrived to find long handwritten lists of all the medicines that were not available.

Some also described broader stresses to the country's health system.



Almaty resident Ernar Akmoldin said that he had been sent home from a hospital, where he was being treated for an undisclosed illness, but was told to "treat it at home, because there are no beds."



Akmoldin said that he simply stays at home because there "is no medicine and not enough doctors."



Kazakhstan has recorded more than 84,600 coronavirus infections and 585 deaths. However, on July 28, Health Minister Aleksei Tsoi said that the number of new cases was on the wane, and recommended that some restrictions be eased as of the beginning of August, allowing shopping malls, kindergartens, and beauty salons to reopen.

Uzbekistan -- Doctors Go Unpaid

In Uzbekistan, medics have accused the government of breaking promises to increase their salaries during the pandemic.



In an open letter to the authorities posted on Telegram this month, medical workers said that compensation promised by President Shavkat Mirziyoev has not been delivered, and that salaries are often delayed. The letter also said that testing for the coronavirus among medical workers is spotty, raising the risk that they could spread the virus themselves.



"After all, we are human beings and must be with our families," the letter read. "How long do we have to live in fear, anxiety, and suspicion?"



Another open letter posted on Telegram appealed to the head of Tashkent's ambulance service to pay salaries on time and to provide personal protective equipment (PPE), claiming that ambulance workers were washing and reusing PPE.



On July 27, the Telegram channel Doctors Of Uzbekistan reported that the Justice Ministry had acknowledged that 10 billion soms ($980,000) earmarked for medical workers had not been paid, and that measures were being taken to address the problem.



The same day, Mirziyoev appeared in public on July 27 wearing a face mask for the first time. Attending a meeting in Tashkent in which city authorities reported on the steps they are taking to combat the coronavirus, the president pledged more support and called on the officials to improve conditions for medical personnel.



Uzbekistan had reported 21,506 coronavirus infections and 122 related deaths as of July 28, and the government has announced that quarantine restrictions are being extended until August 15. The measures, which were scheduled to be lifted August 1, include the mandatory wearing of masks and a ban on large gatherings.

Kyrgyzstan: Country In Mourning

In Kyrgyzstan, the authorities announced that July 30 will be an official day of mourning to honor those killed by the coronavirus pandemic. Flags will fly at half-staff and events will be suspended in the country, which had recorded more than 33,700 coronavirus infections and 1,329 related deaths as of July 28.



Officials have recently announced the purchase of PPE worth 49 million soms ($640,000) for the capital and surrounding region and have reallocated funds to help subsidize medical workers' salaries.

However, the public has demanded more medical facilities, and Prime Minister Kbatbek Boronov announced this month that new 100-bed hospitals will be built in the capital, Bishkek, and the large southern city of Osh. Boronov also said that vacant buildings in other cities will be converted into medical facilities.



Civil activist Tilek Toktogaziev, however, told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service that the new measures "will not change anything."



Toktogaziev, who has traveled throughout the country in recent weeks to install oxygen supply systems at regional hospitals, said that the costs for the effort were borne by local businessmen, not the state.



And rural and district facilities, he added, have "practically no equipment."

Turkmenistan: The Unbelievable Outlier

The closeted state of Turkmenistan remains officially coronavirus-free, with no cases reported by the authorities, despite suspicions officials are not being transparent.



Yet despite the official narrative, correspondents for RFE/RL's Turkmen Service have reported that the number of patients at some hospitals have risen and that pharmacies in Lebap Province have been ordered to send antiviral medicine to the capital.

"Even commercial pharmacies have to ship their medicines to Ashgabat," one pharmacist said on condition of anonymity. "Pharmacy owners are in danger of losing their licenses if they do not comply."



Correspondents on the ground also report that citizens have expressed concerns about the spraying of disinfectants from the air, a measure that state-run media outlets have described as a "comprehensive decontamination campaign to prevent the spread of infectious diseases across the country."



Citizens have told RFE/RL that they are concerned that the disinfectant will damage crops, livestock, and people.

Written by RFE/RL senior correspondent Michael Scollon based on reporting by RFE/RL Tajik Service correspondents Sarvinoz Ruhulloh and Mirzonabi Holikzod; Kyrgyz Service correspondent Aibek Biybosunov; and with reporting by the Turkmen, Uzbek, and Kazakh services
NEW YORK, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Royce Global Value Trust, Inc. (NYSE: RGT) (the "Fund") today announced that its Special Meeting of Stockholders (the "Meeting") has been postponed in order to solicit additional stockholder votes. The Meeting, which was previously scheduled to be held on Tuesday, July 29, 2020 at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time, will now take place on Thursday, August 27, 2020 at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time. As previously announced, due to the continuing public health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to support the health and safety of the Fund's stockholders, the Meeting will be held in a virtual meeting format.

The Meeting is being held to approve a new investment advisory agreement with Royce Investment Partners ("Royce")1, the Fund's investment manager. The Board of Directors of the Fund recommends stockholders vote "FOR" to approve the relevant new agreement. Approval of the new agreement will enable Royce to continue to manage the Fund and execute the strategy that has delivered impressive relative performance for stockholders. The two leading proxy advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. ("ISS") and Glass Lewis & Co. ("Glass Lewis"), have also recognized the Fund's outperformance relative to its peers and the benefits of approving the new investment advisory agreement, and have therefore recommended stockholders vote "FOR" the approval of the new agreement. Each vote is important, regardless of the number of shares owned, and not voting has the same effect as voting against the new agreement.

The Meeting will be held at the following website: http://www.meetingcenter.io/249551845 . To participate in the Meeting for Royce Global Value Trust, Inc., Fund stockholders must enter the following password: RGVT2020. Stockholders of the Fund must also enter the control number that appears on the WHITE proxy card that they previously received from the Fund.

The website for the Meeting will be accessible to stockholders beginning at approximately 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time on August 26, 2020. Stockholders are encouraged to access the website beginning at this time and prior to the start of the Meeting to allow ample time to log into the Meeting webcast and test the computer system, and, if planning to vote at the Meeting, to vote using the stockholder ballot being hosted on the Meeting website. Such ballot will contain instructions on how to submit votes during the Meeting, including the email address to which the completed ballot and any legal proxies should be sent. For questions relating to participation at the Meeting by remote communication, please call Computershare Fund Services ("Computershare") toll-free at (800) 426-5523.

Stockholders who hold shares through an intermediary, such as a bank or broker, must register in advance to attend the Meeting. To register, stockholders must submit proof of their proxy power (legal proxy) reflecting their Fund holdings, along with their name and email address to Computershare. Stockholders may forward an email from their intermediary or send an image of their legal proxy to [email protected]. Requests for registration must be received no later than 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time on August 24, 2020. Stockholders will receive a confirmation email from Computershare of the stockholder's registration and a control number that will allow the stockholder to vote at the Meeting.

Stockholders are not required to attend the Meeting to vote on the relevant proposal. Whether or not stockholders plan to attend the Meeting, the Fund urges stockholders to authorize a proxy to vote their shares in advance of the Meeting by one of the methods described in the Proxy Statement.

As described in the Fund's proxy statement dated May 11, 2020 and in supplemental proxy materials previously distributed, the Board of Directors of the Fund has fixed the close of business on May 1, 2020 as the record date for determining those stockholders entitled to vote at the relevant Meeting (or any postponement or adjournment thereof).

Stockholders who need assistance voting may contact the Fund's proxy solicitor, Innisfree M&A Incorporated, by calling (877) 825-8906 (toll-free in North America). Banks and brokers may call collect at (212) 750-5833.

In connection with the Meeting, the Fund filed a definitive proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Stockholders are advised to read the Fund's Proxy Statement in full because it contains important information. The Proxy Statement is available on the Internet at http://www.ReadOurMaterials.com/rgt . The WHITE proxy card included with the proxy materials that were previously distributed to stockholders will not be updated to reflect the change in location, date, or time, but may continue to be used by stockholders to vote their shares in connection with the Meeting. The Proxy Statement and other documents filed by the Fund are also available for free on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov .

As previously announced, the Meeting is being held in connection with the pending "change of control" that will take effect upon completion of Franklin Resources, Inc.'s acquisition of Legg Mason Inc., Royce's current indirect corporate parent. The consummation of such transaction, which is currently expected to occur on July 31, 2020, will cause the Fund's current investment advisory agreement (referred to herein as the "Current Agreement") to terminate in accordance with its terms as required by applicable law. Because the Fund's stockholders will not yet have approved a new investment advisory agreement prior to the expected completion of the transaction, an interim investment advisory agreement between Royce and the Fund (the "Interim Agreement") will go into effect upon the closing of the transaction. The Interim Agreement, which was previously approved by the Board of Directors of the Fund (the "Board"), allows Royce to continue providing services to the Fund while stockholder approval of a new investment advisory agreement continues to be sought.

The terms and conditions of the Interim Agreement are substantially identical to those of the Current Agreement, except for the term and escrow provisions described below. The Interim Agreement will continue in effect for a term ending on the earlier of 150 days from the closing of the transaction (the "150-day period") or when the Fund's stockholders approve a new investment advisory agreement. Compensation earned by Royce under the Interim Agreement will be held in an interest-bearing escrow account. If the Fund's stockholders approve a new investment advisory agreement prior to the end of the 150-day period, the amount held in the escrow account under the Interim Agreement will be paid to Royce. If the Fund's stockholders do not approve a new investment advisory agreement prior to the end of the 150-day period, the Board will consider what further action to take consistent with its duties under applicable law, and Royce will be paid the lesser of its costs incurred in performing its services under the Interim Agreement or the total amount of the escrow account, plus interest earned. Thereafter, the Board would either negotiate a new investment advisory agreement with an advisory organization selected by the Board or make other appropriate arrangements.

Royce will continue to operate as an independent investment organization with its own brand after completion of the transaction. There are no changes planned to the management of the organization or investment teams at Royce as a result of the transaction.

About Royce Global Value Trust, Inc.

Royce Global Value Trust, Inc. is a closed-end diversified management investment company whose shares of Common Stock are listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The Fund invests in both U.S. and non-U.S. common stocks (generally market caps up to $10 billion).

For further information on The Royce Funds, please visit our web site at: www.royceinvest.com .

Forward Looking Statement

This press release is not an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to sell shares of the Fund. This letter may contain statements regarding plans and expectations for the future that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking and can sometimes be identified by the use of words such as "plan," "expect," "will," "should," "could," "anticipate," "intend," "project," "estimate," "guidance," "possible," "continue" and other similar terms and phrases, although not all forward-looking statements include these words. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and expectations of each Fund, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance and events to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Additionally, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Additional information concerning such risks and uncertainties are or will be contained in the Fund's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Fund's Annual Reports to Stockholders on Form N-CSR, for the year ended December 31, 2019, and subsequent filings with the Commission. These factors should be considered carefully and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The Fund does not undertake any responsibility to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statement.

Media Contact

Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher

Lucas Pers

212-355-4449

1 Royce & Associates, LP is a Delaware limited partnership that primarily conducts its business under the name Royce Investment Partners.

SOURCE Royce Global Value Trust, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.royceinvest.com


The Trump administration is sending more federal agents to Portland, Ore., already the site of aggressive policing tactics that activists and city officials across the country say are inspiring more-violent clashes and re-energizing protests.

The Trump administration has responded to protests and vandalism in Oregons largest city with a shock-and-awe strategy, using a sudden escalation in force by camouflage-clad federal agents. That may yet work as a campaign tactic, if it provides Trump a way to sell himself as a law-and-order candidate, the antidote to chaos that developed on his own watch.

But as a policing tactic, it has failed to suppress the protests. The escalation has been followed by larger, better-equipped and more-aggressive crowds, and  as the new reinforcements showed  it exhausted federal resources before it exhausted the protesters. (Washington Post)

Featured stories

Trumps national security adviser Robert OBrien tests positive for COVID-19, White House confirms (ABC News)

Chief of critical care at Baltimores Mercy Medical Center passes away due to COVID-19 complications (CNN)

Mask mandates continue to spark outrage as COVID-19 vaccine trials ramp up (CBS News)

Kentucky orders bars to close, restaurants to reduce indoor capacity (The Hill)

Senate Republicans move to cut $600 weekly jobless benefit by two-thirds (NBC News)

Research boosts evidence of masks utility, some experts say (New York Times)

National news

Barr plans to mount a defiant defense of Trump in showdown with House Democrats (Washington Post)

Trump administration petitions FCC on social media content rules (Reuters)

Washington bids farewell to civil rights icon John Lewis (Politico)

Sen. Tom Cotton under fire for comments on slavery, attacks on NYTs 1619 Project (USA Today)

People in several states mailed unsolicited packets of seeds that may be from China, officials say (USA Today)

Professor who announced retirement after racist and sexist tweets died by suicide (NBC News)

Woman killed in an apparent shark attack in Maine (CNN)

Hurricane Douglas skirts north of Hawaii; Texas cleans up from Hurricane Hanna (USA Today)

World news

Virus-linked hunger tied to 10,000 child deaths each month (Associated Press)

Coronavirus most severe health emergency WHO has faced (BBC)

Flag lowered at U.S. consulate in Chengdu as China takes control (The Guardian)

Beijing would prefer Trump be re-elected as it gives China an advantage internationally, analyst says (CNBC)

North Koreas Kim says there will be no more war thanks to nuclear weapons (Reuters)

New Zealand suspends Hong Kong extradition treaty (BBC)

Israel thwarts Hezbollah infiltration from Lebanon (BBC)
HERNDON, Va., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) awarded Illuminate Mission Solutions, an Illuminate Business Unit, in partnership with Infoscitex, a new contract replacing the AFRL's Sensor Data Management System (SDMS). Illuminate will provide ARFL's Sensing Effects Branch with a Discovery and Retrieval capability through a modular architecture that addresses end-to-end enterprise sensor data workflows and offers a sound foundation for next-generation analytic processes. "We understand the AFRL's Research Development Test and Evaluation programs require rapid data discovery, built-in resiliency, integration, and maximized scalability for global operations," said Mike Limcaco, Illuminate CTO. "Our solution will be interoperable with existing COTS/GOTS and include a hybrid cloud architecture leveraging on-prem hardware while remaining cloud agnostic." Illuminate will provide its big data software platform solution, Vigilance, to bring a new modern, scalable and modular Sensor Data as a Service (SDaaS) capability for AFRL users. Team Illuminate's deep knowledge of data management and cutting-edge work in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Deep Learning (DL) provide resilient sensing and actionable insight to our nation's Airmen.
Technavio has been monitoring the global edge computing market size and it is poised to grow by USD 9,143.40 million during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 32% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005645/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Edge Computing Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact

Frequently Asked Questions-

What was the value of the edge computing market in 2019?

A. Technavio says that the value of the market was USD 2,967.55 million in 2019 and it is projected to reach USD 12,110.95 million by 2024.

Technavio says that the value of the market was USD 2,967.55 million in 2019 and it is projected to reach USD 12,110.95 million by 2024. At what rate is the market projected to grow during the forecast period 2020-2024?

A. The market will grow at a CAGR of almost 32% during in the forecast period.

The market will grow at a CAGR of almost 32% during in the forecast period. What is the key factor driving the market?

A. The growing demand for decentralized computing is expected to drive the growth of the market in focus.

The growing demand for decentralized computing is expected to drive the growth of the market in focus. Who are the top players in the market?

A. Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., Huawei Investment Holding Co. Ltd., Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp., Nokia Corp., NVIDIA Corp., and Schneider Electric SE are some of the major market participants

Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., Huawei Investment Holding Co. Ltd., Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp., Nokia Corp., NVIDIA Corp., and Schneider Electric SE are some of the major market participants Which region is expected to hold the highest market share?

A. North America

North America What is the major market trend for edge computing market?

A. The advent of integrated Industry 4.0 with IoT is a major trend driving the growth of the market.

The advent of integrated Industry 4.0 with IoT is a major trend driving the growth of the market. Based on end-user segmentation, which segment is expected to witness the fastest growth in the global market?

A. The industrial manufacturing segment is expected to witness the fastest growth in the market during the forecast period.

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., Huawei Investment Holding Co. Ltd., Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp., Nokia Corp., NVIDIA Corp., and Schneider Electric SE are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

The increasing demand for decentralized computing has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, the competition from low-cost centralized and general-purpose computing infrastructure might hamper market growth.

Edge Computing Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Edge Computing Market is segmented as below:

End-user Industrial Manufacturing Telecom Mobility Government Retail Healthcare Finance Other End-users

Geography North America Europe APAC South America MEA



To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR41519

Edge Computing Market 2020-2024: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our edge computing market report covers the following areas:

Edge Computing Market size

Edge Computing Market trends

Edge Computing Market industry analysis

This study identifies the advent of integrated Industry 4.0 with IoT as one of the prime reasons driving the edge computing market growth during the next few years.

Edge Computing Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the edge computing market, including some of the vendors such as Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., Huawei Investment Holding Co. Ltd., Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp., Nokia Corp., NVIDIA Corp., and Schneider Electric SE. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the edge computing market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Edge Computing Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist edge computing market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the edge computing market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the edge computing market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of edge computing market vendors

Table of Contents:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2019

Market outlook: Forecast for 2019 2024

Five Forces Analysis

Five forces summary

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by End-user

Market segments

Comparison by End-user

Industrial manufacturing Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Telecom Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Mobility Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Government Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Retail Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Healthcare Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Finance Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Other end-users Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by End-user

Customer Landscape

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Key leading countries

Market opportunity by geography

Volume Driver Demand led growth

Market Challenges

Market Trends

Vendor Landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Cisco Systems Inc.

Dell Technologies Inc.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

Huawei Investment Holding Co. Ltd.

Intel Corp.

International Business Machines Corp.

Microsoft Corp.

Nokia Corp.

NVIDIA Corp.

Schneider Electric SE

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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South Koreans are estimated to spend 25 hours and 40 minutes on the video-sharing website YouTube every month.



South Koreans are estimated to spend 25 hours and 40 minutes on the video-sharing website YouTube every month, industry data showed Tuesday.



In total, local YouTube users spent a combined 864 million hours on the website in June, up 25.9 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to the data compiled by industry tracker WiseApp.



WiseApp said 33.66 million South Korean nationals used YouTube more than once last month, with their average time spent at 1,540 minutes.



Video-sharing platform TikTok came in second place with a combined 330 million hours, and video-streaming website Netflix was third with 290 million hours, the data showed.



The data was based on a survey on a total of 60,000 Android smartphone users. (Yonhap)
The Finance Ministry of Ukraine at the primary government domestic loan bond auctions on Tuesday was able to slightly increase the placement of hryvnia bonds  to UAH 7.07 billion from UAH 6.77 billion a week earlier, but reduced the sale of U.S. dollar-pegged securities to $130.5 million from $171.4 million.

According to the information on the ministry's website, the number of applications for hryvnia securities remained small  six instead of three a week ago, of which one application for the purchase of 11-month securities at 10% per annum was rejected by the Finance Ministry.

Like a week ago, more short-term securities were sold  140-day securities for UAH 4.92 billion at 7.1%, and 11-month securities for UAH 2.15 billion at 9.2% per annum.

As for the U.S. dollar government bonds, this time the Finance Ministry placed 10-month bonds and satisfied all 29 applications at the previous rate of 3.5% per annum.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 22:38:27|Editor: huaxia

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By Ronald Ssekandi

KAMPALA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- A strong coffee aroma engulfs as you approach Volcano Coffee kiosk at Forest Mall, a popular upmarket mall, housing supermarkets, banks and other offices.

The Volcano Coffee startup, run by Gerald Katabazi, focuses on specialty coffees especially Arabica coffee, grown on the volcanic Mount Elgon ranges in the eastern part of the country.

Coffee lovers from the different offices throng the kiosk to drink the beverage prepared in different forms. Some even carry it up to their offices as they work.

"I Am a lover of coffee, I cannot explain that feeling as to why I love coffee, I feel good every time I take it. I feel energized on days when I am down, a good cup of coffee will do," Sharon de Klonia-Isiagi, a social marketer told Xinhua.

Isiagi said on average she takes four cups of coffee a day, noting that she also uses coffee to do her facials and also in baking when she wants a coffee-flavored cake or cookies.

Besides Volcano Coffee, other local and international coffee shops are opening up especially in the capital Kampala, which has a growing middle class.

These coffee enthusiasts are among the population that consumes only 4-5 percent of the coffee produced in Uganda despite the country being the second largest producer of coffee in Africa after Ethiopia.

Uganda's less consumption of coffee is shrouded in a lot of mysteries among which include a colonial mentality that coffee was meant for export and the farmers only had to drink tea.

"That mindset was driven into different generations including ours. We have lived knowing that if we farm the coffee we are supposed to export it," Katabazi said.

"This is why we are saying, we must change the narrative. The consumption rate which is 4-5 percent is not healthy for the economy and the farmers," he added.

Volcano Coffee is using the coffee-kiosk-model to scale up the domestic consumption of coffee across the country. The startup set up an academy where it trains youths in the different value chains of coffee.

After graduating, the youths with support from the academy are encouraged to set up kiosks where they can sell coffee.

Katabazi said this model will create jobs in a country where majority of the youths who comprise 70 percent of the country's population are jobless.

"It is really picking up and it is one of the models we are telling our students here after graduating," Katabazi said, noting that this is one of the ways of getting young people into agriculture, which is the country's major economic activity.

He said one kilogram of coffee can produce 100 cups and if one cup of coffee costs 1 U.S. dollar that means one can earn 100 dollars.

"To a young person, this means money, that is why we are using the kiosk model to accelerate growth, targeting a certain age bracket in our society," he said.

Jackson Mugisha, a businessman and farmer told Xinhua that he grew up taking tea but had to change to coffee after discovering its advantage over tea.

"Without coffee, I don't think I would have that alertness the whole day because sometimes you can be worked out. When I started taking coffee, I discovered that it has benefits that I get that I cannot get from tea," he said.

"I think people should start taking coffee not only for the health benefit but also commercial because if we have many farmers who are into coffee farming, if we do not support them, if we don't become their market, then where are they going to sell their coffee. Why should we only look at exporting it when you have a big population here that can take coffee and you don't even need to export," he added.

Katabazi said that whereas Uganda is earning huge sums from coffee exports, the country also needs to develop its domestic market which is less likely to suffer from any global upsets like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Figures by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), a state-owned regulator of the sector, show that the country's exports for the last four financial years increased by 17 percent, to 4.17 million (60 kg) bags in financial year 2018-19 from 3.56 million bags in financial year 2015-16.

A government report released in May this year showed that the value of coffee exports increased by 18 percent to 416.2 million U.S. dollars in the financial year 2018-19 from 351.53 million U.S. dollars in the financial year 2015/16.

About 500,000 households in the country depend on coffee production, according to UCDA.

Beside the traditional coffee markets in Europe, Uganda is now looking at other markets for instance China to grow its export volumes. The east African country last year signed a cooperation agreement with China's Yunnan Coffee Exchange.

At the China International Specialty Coffee Expo that was scheduled in Yunnan Province in March this year, Uganda was supposed to be a portrait country where the country would highlight its coffee. The exposition, which was going to attract hundreds of exhibitors including coffee producers, equipment suppliers, roasters and financial services companies, was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Enditem
State Rep. Tom Craddick said President Donald Trump will unveil parts of a plan that will demonstrate commitment to a recovery in Texas and across all energy-producing markets.

In an opinion article that will appear in Wednesdays Reporter-Telegram, Craddick said that commitment includes incentivizing funding for energy producers. The president also will discuss cutting regulations and streamlining permits, Craddick wrote.

Each of these demonstrate his commitment to a recovery in Texas and across all energy producing markets, according to the former Texas speaker of the House. His commitment to ensuring the Permian Basin operators and producers are part of this energy recovery is unparalleled.

The president is set to visit West Texas on Wednesday for the first time during his presidency. His trip is expected to include a visit to a Double Eagle Energy in Midland and a tour of a rig. He also will travel to Odessa for a fundraiser, which includes a $2,800-a-plate luncheon.

What does this mean for West Texas? It means new jobs, old jobs coming back, increased wages, more money for health care and education, and so much more, Craddick wrote. President Trumps commitment to making West Texas a great place to live and work will be evident today when he opens the doors of energy business. He is committed to making sure we do not ever see a market swing like we experienced in March of this year. He is committed to making sure Texans and energy producers can spend their time doing what they know best, working. Most of all, he is committed to making sure the American dream is attainable by all Americans. Jobs in the energy industry are certainly a part of the American dream.
The veteran described pain from the drug withdrawal and said he could not sleep. He asked to be admitted to get help detoxifying from his drug addiction. But after the psychiatrist assessed him as being at moderate risk for suicide, he was sent back to the emergency room, where sloppy handoffs by doctors and physician assistants failed him, investigators found.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

The 5th annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) was held in the format of videoconference on July 28, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy told Trend on July 28.

The long-term trends and short-term macroeconomic changes in the development of the Asian region, the measures taken by AIIB in the fight against COVID-19 and other issues were discussed at a meeting entitled "AIIB approach to support the members in the medium and long term prospects until 2030".

While delivering a speech, the guest of honor of the annual meeting, President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping stressed that AIIB, uniting 102 participating countries, has become an international financial institution.

Jinping expressed satisfaction with AIIBs successful activity, the support rendered by the bank to the member-states during the coronavirus pandemic and made recommendations in connection with the upcoming activity of the bank.

While speaking at the event, AIIB Governor from Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov stressed that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the development of cooperation with AIIB and informed about the jointly implemented projects and the development of corporate policy during the next 10 years.

It was noted that TANAP project, supporting regional trade and energy security of Europe is one of the successful examples of cooperation with AIIB.

Stressing that Azerbaijan has an advantageous geographical position, the minister of economy pointed out that having created a modern infrastructure, Azerbaijan turned into an international transport hub. .

Despite all Azerbaijans efforts for regional development, Armenias aggressive policy creates big obstacles for the expansion of economic cooperation in the region and limits the full realization of the economic potential, the minister said.

Jabbarov informed the participants of the event that over the past three decades, 20 percent of the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan is under Armenias occupation and over a million people have become refugees and internally displaced people.

The Armenian armed forces have subjected the Azerbaijani positions, which were not on the front line zone, but on the border between the two countries, to the artillery fire since July 12, the minister added.

As a result, servicemen and civilians were killed and injured, Jabbarov said. Armenias provocation purposefully increases the tension around the conflict [the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict], the occupation policy of the neighbouring country poses a big threat to the energy and transport megaprojects in the region.

While speaking about the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jabbarov informed about the measures taken to eliminate the impact, stressed that a favorable business environment has been created in Azerbaijan and innovative reforms aimed at developing the private sector are being carried out.

It was noted that the work on the establishment of a branch of the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution of the World Economic Forum in Azerbaijan, designed to play the role of an important platform for the global multilateral cooperation, has been launched.

The economy minister spoke about Azerbaijans post-pandemic trends, stressed that the digital economy, ICT, agribusiness, construction, mining, petrochemical and tourism are the priority sectors.

Jabbarov also emphasized the possibilities of expanding the cooperation in these spheres.

AIIB President Jin Liqun informed about the bank's activity, the measures taken to stimulate the economic growth and infrastructure development in the Asian region.

The AIIB report for 2019 was presented at the event.
ALBANY, N.Y.  Albany County Executive Dan McCoy confirmed 12 new positive cases of COVID-19 in the county, Tuesday morning. McCoy also announced the cases linked to the July 4 Hudson Ave. party increased to 40.

McCoy spoke to the increase in the percentage of positive cases in the Capital Region and the rise in cases among the 20 to 29 age group.

There have been 451 positive COVID-19 cases encompassed within the 20 to 29 age group. In terms of severity of illness, 71.8% of COVID-related deaths have been associated with those 75 years of age or older. Those in the 50 to 74 year age range made up 26.6% of all COVID-related deaths in the county.

African Americans continue to be disproportionately affected by the virus in terms of hospital and ICU admissions, making up 26.2% and 30.4% of all admissions, respectively. As of July 26, 72,168 Albany County residents have been tested, with 2,453 having come back positive for the Coronavirus.

While the Capital Regions percent positive rate has been one of the highest in the State, Albany Countys continues its downward trend from 4.4% one month ago to 3.4% today. However, we continue monitor the 20 to 29 year old age group, which saw an increase of 51 cases in just the last week, and as we continue to respond to the spread of the virus from the Hudson Avenue party on the Fourth of July, McCoy said.

These last two weeks have continued to demonstrate that even though many people are tired of social distancing and wearing masks, COVID-19 is still a very real threat for the public health and our economy, McCoy added.

Albany County Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen emphasized the need to follow safety guidelines as schools attempt to figure out the best course forward in the fall.

We know this week the schools are getting in their plans to the Governors office for reopening. The thirty-first is the deadline, this Friday, for schools to get their plans in, Whalen said.

Weve been in contact with a lot of the school districts in Albany County. They are working very hard to try to adhere to the recommendations that the State Department of Health has given to ensure that children are protected and to develop models for children to be both in school and out of school. Its not an easy prospect. Its has been very difficult for the schools and they are working really hard, Whalen continued on how health and school officials are coordinating on instruction plans.

What we need to do as a community to protect those kids is to continue to follow the recommendations. If we lax in the recommendations, if we let our guard down, we will see numbers continue to increase. We will likely see more severity of illness and we will likely see more hospitalization and deaths, Whalen added on the importance of mitigating community spread of the virus.

Overall, McCoy confirmed there have been 2,241 positive cases of COVID-19 in Albany County to date. Plus, those under mandatory quarantine have decreased from 900 Monday to 854 Tuesday. The five-day average for new daily positive cases is down to 14.6 from 18 Monday. Albany County has 82 active cases, down from 87 the day prior.

Thus far, 7,081 people have completed quarantine, while 2,159 of them have tested positive and recovered, an increase of 17.

Presently, three people remain hospitalized, down from four Monday, and the hospitalization rate has decreased to 0.13% from 0.17%. There is still one patient in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Included in the new positive cases Tuesday are two with close contacts to positive cases, three who had reported traveling out of state, three who are healthcare workers and four did not have a clear source of transmission.

As mentioned above, one of the previously announced positives without a clear source of infection has been linked to those who either attended the Fourth of July party on Hudson Avenue in Albany or were with the same group of people on July 3 or July 5. The County Executive McCoy again urged those who attended the party to call the Albany County Department of Health at (518) 447-4640 to get expedited testing.
The much-awaited human clinical trial of indigenously developed Covaxin, a possible vaccine against novel coronavirus, began at an institute here on Monday, a senior official said. The human trial of BBV152 Covid-19 vaccine or Covaxin commenced at the Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS) and SUM Hospital, one of the 12 centres selected by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting phase one and two of the process, the official at the facility said.

Covaxin, which is being developed by Bharat Biotech, was administered to selected persons who had volunteered to be a part of the trial, E Venkat Rao, principal investigator of the trial process, told PTI. Those who were administered the vaccine have been kept under observation and all of them are "absolutely fine", he said.

Covaxin is the first indigenous vaccine developed by India against Covid-19 and is derived from a strain of SARS-CoV-2 isolated by ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune. ICMR and Bharat Biotech are jointly working for the preclinical as well as clinical development of this vaccine. It has already received the approval for phase one and two by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).

The selected volunteers will be given two doses within a gap of 14 days, Rao said. They underwent a rigorous screening procedure. Those chosen after a thorough screening were administered the vaccine strictly in accordance with the protocols laid down by the DCGI, he said. Rao, who is a professor in the hospital's department of community medicine, said there was a lot of enthusiasm among people who offered themselves to be volunteers for the trial.

The response from the people has been extremely encouraging. Many people are still coming forward to be part of the trial, he said. ICMR, which is collaborating with the pharma company for development of the vaccine, has chosen 12 medical institutes in the country where the trial would be conducted. IMS and SUM Hospital is the only institute in Odisha to be chosen for the purpose.

Stating that the process of screening is still on, Rao said those interested to volunteer for the project may contact the institute by registering online at ptctu.soa.ac.in. The volunteers need to be healthy and disease-free and can screen themselves through a simple questionnaire available at the same website, he said.

Healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 55 years having no comorbid conditions or Covid-19 history are eligible to participate in the clinical trials, he said. The Centre is going through the profiles and conducting a thorough screening to choose the suitable volunteers for the trial."We are screening the prospective volunteers and thoroughly evaluating their health condition before administering them the vaccine," he said.

The trial centre is conducting physical and laboratory tests in accordance with the ICMR protocol and is counseling the volunteers who meet all criteria about the possible risks. It is obtaining the volunteers' consent before initiating the process, Rao said. The trials are being conducted at a special laboratory-- Preventive and Therapeutic Clinical Trial Unit (PTCTU) -- at the institute, which is the first such "dedicated human trial unit" in Odisha, he said.

The PTCTU equipped with all modern amenities will focus on clinical trials involving preventive and therapeutic aspects such as vaccines, immunoglobulins, preventive practices, chemoprophylactic drugs, educational/behavioural interventions and interventional agents or drugs.

Also read: Coronavirus vaccine: Moderna, Pfizer kickstart final-stage trials, aim for year-end launches
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 07/28/2020



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ARIELA AND BINIYAM

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TIM AND MELYZA

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DEAVAN AND JIHOON

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KENNETH AND ARMANDO

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BRITTANY AND YAZAN

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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

: The Other Way featured Deavan Clegg and Jihoon Lee having an explosive misunderstanding, Ariela determining she'd like to give birth in Ethiopia, Melyza bringing up the past after Tim's arrival in Colombia, and Armando Rubio expressing discomfort over PDA with Kenneth Niedermeier during Monday night's Season 2 episode on TLC.: The Other Way follows American citizens moving to foreign countries for the sake of love and their future spouses, and they must marry within 90 days in order to stay.: The Other Way's second season features a total of six couples, including Season 1 returnees Jenny Slatten and fiance Sumit as well as Deavan and husband Jihoon. Jenny Slatten , a 61-year-old from Palm Springs, CA, is moving back to India for Sumit, a 32-year-old from New Delhi, India, once and for all after previously uprooting her life only to discover Sumit was married to another woman.And Deavan, a 23-year-old from Salt Lake City, UT, is officially moving to South Korea along with her two children to start a life with Jihoon, a 29-year-old from Seoul, South Korea.The four new couples starring on Season 2 of : The Other Way are Yazan Abo Horira, a 24-year-old from Amman, Jordan, and Brittany Banks, a 26-year-old from Palm Beach, FL; Ariela, a 28-year-old from Princeton, NJ, and Biniyam, a 29-year-old from Ethiopia; Kenneth, a 57-year-old from St. Petersburg, FL, and Armando, a 31-year-old from Mexico; and Tim, a 34-year-old from Dallas, TX, and Melyza, a 29-year-old from Colombia.Below is what was shown on Episode 8 of : The Other Way's second season.Ariela woke up to her second day in Ethiopia, and because she and her mother Janice found the two apartments Biniyam had showed them unacceptable, Ariela and Biniyam were invited to sleep in Janice's hotel room, which was a little awkward.Ariela said it was "very disappointing" not to be able to settle into a new home, but at the same time, she gushed about how much she really loved Biniyam.The most important thing for Ariela was to make sure she felt safe delivering her baby in an Ethiopian hospital. If the hospital didn't meet Ariela and Janice's expectations, Ariela would have to give birth in the United States and Biniyam wouldn't be able to be there.Janice advised Biniyam on the car ride over to the hospital to ask the doctors questions because he was going to be the child's father and have a 50/50 relationship with Ariela.Janice is a nurse and her husband is a doctor, so they had many concerns for Ariela.Ariela's mother was looking to see if the hospital was clean and they had good midwives. She also wanted to make sure Ariela would have a private room and there would be certain equipment and pain medications available to her daughter in the case of an emergency.Janice was surprised to learn the hospital has a neonatal ICU with a lot of good equipment. She was also shocked, in a positive way, by the hospital's cleanliness and how things flowed.The hospital also gave out security tags to newborn babies and a surgical ward was right near by.The doctors told Ariela they would start with a natural childbirth, like to induce labor, but they had all different types of medications to help with pain or stop with bleeding.Janice was impressed overall, and that gave Ariela "huge relief." The midwives assured Ariela that everything was going to be okay, and so Ariela determined she could see herself giving birth in that hospital.The Ethiopian hospital passed Janice's, but she almost wished the hospital was a disaster so she could take her daughter back home to America with her.Later on, Ariela, Biniyam and Janice enjoyed some local coffee and popcorn, and Janice fired away some questions at Biniyam, putting him on the spot to make sure he really loved Ariela and would care for her in Ethiopia.Janice asked Biniyam about his first wife and how she left him to go to America, and Biniyam insisted he was confused why the woman divorced him. The woman apparently found messages Biniyam had "from an old friend" and she wasn't happy with that.Biniyam apologized for everything to his first wife, but Janice thought Biniyam had done nothing wrong, so she was confused."I didn't do anything, but she left and then she blocked me," Biniyam told Janice. "There was no reason."Biniyam and Janice were having trouble communicating, and so Janice flat out asked Biniyam if his plan was to come to the United States since he got two American women pregnant.No, absolutely no," Biniyam responded.Biniyam said his plan was to rent a guest house and assured Janice he'd make enough money to support his family. Biniyam explained his job is dancing and he was about to start singing as well, which would bring enough money in for his wife and child.Ariela admittedly felt overwhelmed because she and Biniyam had not established themselves. Ariela also didn't want to rely or depend on her parents.Ariela feared the financial burden would fall mostly on her as a freelance writer and editor, and she noted this could potentially become a big problem."I'm still apprehensive about Biniyam's ability to understand everything that Ariela needs. I don't want to leave my baby here until I'm 100 percent," Janice told the cameras.Tim's plane touched down in Colombia and he had finally arrived to reunite with Melyza. Tim brought his cat with him, and it marked the first time Tim was going to see Melyza in seven months.Melyza had mixed emotions, saying she and Tim had "a really great relationship" before he cheated on her. Melyza said Tim helped her grow and open up more to people."I do feel real love for him, but obviously I am still very hurt and just scared to trust him again," Melyza told the cameras.Melyza was excited and also a little bit nervous to see Tim again. She anticipated her reunion with Tim would be a little bit "awkward," and Tim also worried how Melyza was going to receive him at the airport.However, Melyza gave Tim a huge hug when she saw him and was thrilled to see her cat that she loved. Melyza also brought her two dogs to the airport to greet and welcome Tim."It does look like he's gained a little weight, which I feel bad saying, but it is very evident. He looks so different," Melyza said.It was tough to squeeze a cat, two dogs, Tim, Melyza and all of Tim's luggage into Melyza's tiny car. It wasn't the most comfortable right back to Melyza's place, but Tim, at 6'4", was happy to rest in Melyza's bed and relax.Tim promised Melyza in the car that everything he told her was "genuine" and he knew he didn't even deserve the opportunity to be with her again."I definitely want to believe it's going to be different now that he's here, but I still have my guard up. I need someone I can completely rely on, and if he's not committed to it, I don't think we can make it," Melyza said in a confessional.Tim and Melyza later explored Melyza's city in Colombia together, and Tim was starting to process that this was going to be his new home. Tim called it a "pinch-me situation."While enjoying lunch, Melyza brought up the past and asked Tim about his affair.Tim explained he had hooked up with a woman he worked with. Tim said friendly conversation turned into flirting and texting back and forth, and then he invited the woman over to his place.Tim claimed he had no intention of crossing the line and didn't know what was going to happen with this girl, but Melyza wasn't buying that at all and called it "bullsh-t."Melyza knew Tim had intended to hook up with the woman when he invited her over, and Tim said, although he and Melyza were looking to get engaged at the time, he was focused on "satisfying [his] physical urges.""I don't know why. I got tired of the distance I guess," Tim told Melyza of why he was unfaithful. "I still wanted to be with you; I just didn't want to be thousands of miles apart."Melyza found out Tim had cheated by looking at his social media, and so she upset that he never actually came clean to her. Tim explained he had withheld information in fear Melyza would get angry at him or leave him, so Melyza called him "so selfish.""You keep telling me to be open and honest with you, but then every time I am, you just break up with me. So that prevented me from being open and honest with you," Tim said.Melyza complained Tim was trying to blame his mistakes on her when they weren't her fault, but Tim insisted he was just trying to make a point. Melyza admitted she was "extremely pissed off" and Tim was trying to be manipulative by making her feel bad about wanting to know the truth."This conversation puts doubts in my mind. It's been over a year, and I thought we discussed this at nauseam. The fact that she still feels like she needs to know the same things, I don't know if we're ever going to get past that," Tim told the cameras.Deavan had arrived in South Korea two nights prior, and she said the trip had been "an absolute nightmare." First, her apartment turned out to be a "disaster" and then Deavan found out Jihoon had been lying about his finances.Deavan's mother Elicia believed Deavan had made a huge mistake in moving her family to South Korea, and Deavan was beginning to think she was right.However, Deavan brought Elicia to a crazy and fun Korean market to show Elicia the cool culture, shops and food vendors. Deavan wanted to show her mother a positive side of South Korea.Deavan was proud of herself because she was able to order things in the market, including a dead fish for her curious daughter Drascilla. Drascilla was amazed by the octopus and seafood everywhere.Deavan, Elicia, Drascilla and Taeyang then ate a restaurant, but Deavan felt really overwhelmed because there were no pictures and she couldn't read the language. This was the first time Deavan had to navigate something like this without Jihoon by her side.Deavan attempted to order beef and rice but they received a big container of bugs and a dish with onions Elicia clearly didn't like. Elicia admitted she doesn't like exotic food and she appeared pretty grossed out.Deavan admitted to Elicia that Jihoon hadn't been saving any money and all of his money was being sent to his mother's bank account.Deavan considered using the rest of her money to return to America, but she wanted answers and figured the only way to do that would be to sit down with Jihoon's mother and have a talk about Jihoon's finances.Deavan acknowledged Jihoon's mother, however, didn't like her very much."If this conversation doesn't go well, I will leave and go back to America and never speak to [Jihoon] again," Deavan said."If I were to make the decision, we'd be on the plane right now," Elicia confessed.Deavan then met Jihoon and his parents at a restaurant to get to the bottom of what was going on. Jihoon told his parents that while not having money was a problem, his decision to lie to and disappoint Deavan again was the bigger issue.Jihoon wanted to make the situation better, but Deavan was essentially furious at him. Jihoon ignored Deavan at first at the restaurant, which Deavan couldn't believe, but Jihoon said he couldn't even face his wife because he felt so bad about his behavior.Deavan and Jihoon then communicated through a translator, and Jihoon admitted he was wrong and would work hard to provide money for his family. Deavan, however, said she had heard that before and Jihoon said the same exact thing four months ago.Jihoon apologized for being selfish and explained his money was in his mother's bank account for safekeeping, with Jihoon's father dubbed "a mistake" since his wife and baby needed money.Jihoon said his mother had his money because he was afraid of making another mistake, and the translator changed his words to, "I'll make another mistake. I'll waste that money again."Jihoon was so frustrated with the translator, and when he asked Deavan for another chance, the translator failed to relay that information.Jihoon grew furious and then he and his parents started shouting at each other about how to communicate with Deavan, but all Deavan could comprehend was that Jihoon was yelling."They seem like they're very angry at me," Deavan said.Jihoon wanted to explain that his mother had his money so he couldn't spend it on himself, but he was just shouting the words in Korean at Deavan and she couldn't understand.Deavan said it was "disgusting" how Jihoon had lost his temper, and she said, "You made me give up my life to come here. You scammed me; you tricked me. My life is ruined now."Jihoon's mother laughed, and then Deavan said in tears, "This isn't a joke. I don't want to do this. They think it's a joke. I want to end this. I don't want to do this anymore. I am uncomfortable."With that being said, Jihoon stormed away from the table and said Deavan was pissing him off."Am I a joke?" Jihoon vented. "I'm not a f-cking joke... I am really serious -- more than Deavan. F-ck this!""I don't want to be here right now," Deavan told the cameras.There was clearly a huge misunderstanding and the couple just couldn't communicate.Kenneth and Armando walked around and explored their town, and everything was totally different from what Kenneth was used to in the United States -- including the people and the surroundings.Kenneth said it was "surreal" to be with Armando, but Armando refused to hold Kenneth's hand while they were walking through the city streets and people were around."He does not like any kind of PDA, but I moved here and this is our life now. And I know I plan on asking him very soon to marry me. I would think he would be further along than what he is," Kenneth told the cameras.Kenneth also wanted to kiss Armando, but Armando wouldn't let him. Armando was afraid people were going to judge them for being affectionate and gay, but Kenneth insisted he didn't care at all.Armando was nervous and admitted to Kenneth it was going to take him some time to be comfortable with public displays of affection. Armando admitted Kenneth can be "pushy" and was more comfortable with his sexuality because he's been out since age 19.Kenneth is also much older than Armando, who hadn't been out for very long, so Armando thought Kenneth's expectations were a little high and unrealistic."I have to admit I am worried about our safety as a gay couple. Our culture is very mach-centric and people in Mexico are still homophobic... I'm afraid that we might get hurt," Armando told the cameras.Kenneth told Armando that coming out to his family should have been harder than holding a man's hand in public, but Armando said he had a lot of things to overcome and feared either of them getting hurt.Kenneth told Armando they couldn't live in fear, and Armando felt bad for allowing Kenneth to feel "rejected" and hurt. Armando asked Kenneth to be patient with him because people in Mexico barely accepted homosexuality and his culture was very different from Florida."I am where I am because of you, and that's the truth," Armando told his boyfriend."Well, I'm not going anywhere," Kenneth replied, adding that he hoped Armando's parents would see their relationship was going to be "forever" and it wasn't "a fling or a phase."Kenneth said he had "no doubts" he wanted to marry Armando and everything felt right, but he was worried about outside influences causing problems.Two days into Brittany's trip in Jordan, Brittany said her stay had been horrible thus far and she was definitely questioning her choice to move for Yazan. However, she still loved Yazan and was willing to fight for him and their relationship.Brittany and Yazan were then shown meeting with Yazan's uncle Ibrahim, who is apparently an educated guy Yazan looks up to and tends to have influence over Yazan's father's opinions.Brittany and Yazan hoped to convince Ibrahim to talk to Yazan's father and convince him that Yazan and Brittany needed more time to get to know each other before getting married.Brittany and Yazan simply needed more time before exchanging vows, and Yazan's parents didn't understand that or the concept of just dating somebody.Yazan hoped Ibrahim would understand him.Yazan explained his parents thought Brittany was trying to intentionally delay their wedding when she just wanted her father to be able to attend. Yazan said he needed time because Brittany wasn't ready to convert to Islam, and Ibrahim agreed you cannot force a person to convert to Islam."It is forbidden in our religion to force a person to convert to Islam against their will," Ibrahim said, adding that Yazan's father is conservative but it must be Brittany's own decision to convert.Ibrahim also warned Brittany there must be a lot she changes, such as her job and appearance, if she decided to follow their religion. Yazan also wasn't sure Brittany knew what she was getting into and whether she was prepared for the Islam religion.Yazan wanted Brittany to have the time to make up her own mind and feel confident in her decisions about whether to fully embrace his faith and culture.Ibrahim ultimately agreed to speak to Yazan's father on the couple's behalf, and Brittany said she was open to learning and had no malicious intent.Yazan wanted everyone to understand what he and Brittany were doing and how they truly loved each other. Brittany was just happy to have support from someone in Yazan's family.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
The national security law for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is "consistent with China's constitutional scheme which places supreme power in the central government, as befitting a unitary system," a renowned scholar has said recently.

"The best way to comprehend the constitutional-legal angle of the entire issue is to recognize that unlike the United States federation, China has a unitary system," James C. Hsiung, a professor of politics and international law at New York University, said in an interview with Xinhua via email.

"The concept may sound quaint to the American ear, but the fact is that out of the United Nations' 193 member states, 166 have a unitary system of government," he added.

In China with a unitary political system, supreme power is held by the central government, which duly devolves power upon lower-level governments, including special administrative regions, the expert said.

"The important thing in a unitary system, as different from a federal system, is that the central government, following the devolution procedures, may initiate laws, not just policies, for a lower-level government," he said.

Hence, the national security law for the HKSAR enacted by the National People's Congress (NPC) is "constitutional and consistent with well-established tradition," Hsiung said.

"And between the central and lower-level governments, there exists a relationship of superordination and subordination, not found in a federal system," he said.

According to the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong, Hong Kong will be "directly under the authority" of the Chinese central government after its return to China, the expert said.

Besides, the HKSAR will "enjoy a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign and defense affairs, which are the responsibilities of the central government," he added.

Stressing "the exception, from HKSAR's autonomy, of both foreign and defense affairs, under which security matters would naturally fall," Hsiung said "a later clause explicitly declares it is the central government's responsibility to protect Hong Kong's 'public order,' which is synonymous with public security."

Based on the HKSAR Basic Law, the NPC "authorizes the HKSAR to exercise a high degree of autonomy," and the NPC Standing Committee "may add to ... the list of the (national) laws" that are applicable to Hong Kong, the expert said.

"Should anyone challenge the NPC on its authority to enact a national law (security law included) for the HKSAR," he said, the Basic Law "is a direct, unequivocal answer."
Ministers were told to get a grip on summer holiday confusion after the Balearic and Canary islands were added to the list of places where only essential travel should take place.

Holiday firms and the opposition urged the Government to bring more clarity to the situation as travel companies cancelled flights.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advised against all non-essential travel to the Spanish holiday islands following a Covid-19 upsurge in some parts of mainland Spain.

The move brought the FCO advice into line with existing advice for mainland Spain and with the UK Goverments decision to impose a 14-day quarantine requirement on people arriving from the whole of the country.

But the quarantine policy has been criticised by Spains Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who described it as an error

Mr Sanchez pointed out that the upsurge in coronavirus cases is focused in two regions, Catalonia and Aragon, adding: In most of Spain, the incidence is very much inferior to even the numbers registered in the United Kingdom.

Britons make up over a fifth of foreign visitors to Spain, which relies heavily on tourism, and Madrid has said the UK government gave it no warning that the quarantine move was coming last weekend.

Travel firm TUI UK cancelled all holidays to the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands after the FCOs updated travel advice.

TUIs decision runs from Tuesday July 28 up to and including Friday July 31. Holidays to Spains mainland were were already cancelled from Sunday July 26 up to and including Sunday August 9.

All customers due to travel to Spanish destinations between Sunday July 26 and Sunday August 9 will be able to cancel or amend their holiday and will be able to receive a full refund or the option to rebook their holiday with a booking incentive, TUI UK said.

The company added: The UK Government must work closely with the travel industry as this level of uncertainty and confusion is damaging for business and disappointing for those looking forward to a well-deserved break.

Story continues

Jet2 also said that it was cancelling flights to a raft of destinations in Spain from Tuesday after the FCO announcement.

Rory Boland, Which? travel editor, said: This is the third announcement weve heard from the Government regarding travel to Spain in the last three days. Hundreds of thousands of UK holidaymakers in Spain or about to fly are utterly confused.

Labour said the Government must abandon its one-size-fits-all approach and introduce sectoral support for struggling businesses to ensure that public health measures like the change in quarantine rules for people returning from Spain do not lead to mass job losses.

Labours shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said: The Governments handling of this issue has been nothing short of chaotic. The airline industry and passengers need clarity.

(PA Graphics)

The Government must focus support on the sectors that desperately need it, like aviation, aerospace and its supply chain, which supports almost a quarter of a million jobs, with strict climate conditions and ensuring the gains are shared with the public.

The announcement of the Governments new Spanish travel warnings came after Prime Minister Boris Johnsons official spokesman said decisions on border measures and travel advice can be changed rapidly if necessary to help stop the spread of the disease.

He went on: Unfortunately no travel is risk-free during this pandemic and disruption is possible and so anyone travelling abroad should be aware that our travel advice and exemption list is under constant review as we monitor the international situation.

The announcement happened amid fears more European holidays could be thrown into disarray this summer with reports of potential new coronavirus lockdowns in France and Germany.

Meanwhile, the Government has refused to comment on reports that quarantine for people arriving from Spain or other countries with high coronavirus levels could be cut to ten days under plans being looked at by ministers.

Returned travellers would need to quarantine for eight days before being tested, and then only remain in quarantine for another two days should they test negative.

The paper reports the Government is also considering instructing everyone who has returned from Spain since July 23 to get tested.
Protesters are seen outside an Auto Zone that was set on fire Wednesday amid a second night of protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Jordon Strowder/Anadolu Agency via Getty

Minneapolis police suspect the infamous "Umbrella Man" who was seen smashing windows among peaceful protests is a white supremacist who was trying to incite riots.

The man is a member of the Hell's Angels biker gang who was seeking to escalate racial tensions in the aftermath of George Floyd's killing, police told the Star Tribune.

The man, who hasn't been identified, has not been charged with a crime.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Photos and videos taken on the night riots broke out in Minneapolis showed a gas-mask wearing person dressed in all black and carrying an umbrella smashing the windows of an Auto Zone with a hammer.

As videos of his actions went viral, many speculated that the person wasn't an anti-racism protester, but rather an outside agitator who intended to turn peaceful protests violent.

Two months later, Minneapolis police say they suspect that's the case.

The Star Tribune reported Tuesday that police have identified "Umbrella Man" as a white supremacist and Hell's Angels biker gang member who attended the protests in an effort to escalate racial tensions.

After smashing the windows at the Autozone, it was set on fire. Those actions "set off a chain reaction" that lead to dayslong looting a rioting that caused about $500 million in damages, police told the Star Tribune. Two people died during the riots.

Video: 15,000 protesters rallied in support of Black trans lives

"This was the first fire that set off a string of fires and looting throughout the precinct and the rest of the city," police arson investigator Erika Christensen wrote in a search warrant viewed by the Star Tribune. "Until the actions of the person your affiant has been calling 'Umbrella man,' the protests had been relatively peaceful. The actions of this person created an atmosphere of hostility and tension. Your affiant believes that this individual's sole aim was to incite violence."

Story continues

In videos from the scene, actual protestors can be heard trying to stop "Umbrella Man."

"Those cops will come for you if you're pulling that crap," Brad Svenson, a Minneapolis man said while recording one video. "That's garbage, pulling that s---."

Another video on social media shows a man in a pink T-shirt chasing the man away.

"Guy just came with a hammer and smashed the windows," said the woman who recorded the scene.

"Are you a f---ing cop?" someone can be heard asking the man.

There was some speculation online at the time that the man was a St. Paul, Minnesota, police officer, which the department was quick to reject.

Police were able to identify the 32-year-old suspect due to a tip that came by email last week, the Star Tribune reported.

He's associated with the Aryan Cowboy Brotherhood, a small white supremacist prison and street gang based in Minnesota and Kentucky, according to the local paper.

He's also been connected to an incident in Stillwater, Minnesota, where a Muslim woman was confronted by a group of men wearing white supremacist garb, according to the Star Tribune.

He has not yet been charged with a crime.

Read the original article on Insider
Viewers were left sobbing as they watched the life Anthony Walker could have had unfold on screen - had he not been brutally murdered.

Last night's BBC drama told the story of devout Christian Anthony Walker, a black teenager who was slain with an ice axe and killed in a racist attack on 29th July 2005 in the Huyton area of Merseyside aged 18, and how his life could have been.

His life was imagined in reverse chronology - and he was seen realising his dreams and enjoying the life he had a right to live, before fate - and hate - took it all away.

And those who tuned in were quick to take to Twitter to reveal how they had been reduced to tears by seeing the cruel attack play out.

Last night's BBC documentary Anthony told the story of Anthony Walker, a black teenager who was killed in a racist attack on 29th July 2005 in Huyton, Merseyside, and how his life could have been. Pictured, with the wife and child he never had the chance to have

Heartbreaking scenes showed the moment Anthony (pictured, played by Toheeb Jimoh) died in hospital surrounded by his family

Taking to Twitter, one viewer penned: 'Heart wrenching. A lovely ,kind, young, innocent lad with his whole life ahead of him taken in the most cruel way' (pictured)

'Crying my eyes out watching Jimmy McGoverns, #Anthony. Absolutely heartbreaking,' wrote one, while a second penned:

'Heart wrenching. A lovely ,kind, young, innocent lad with his whole life ahead of him taken in the most cruel way.'

During the episode, viewers saw a love story that Anthony, played by Toheeb Jimoh, never had the opportunity to have, the birth of his first child and a career in civil rights.

As he reached the age of 18, it imagined the racial tensions that he would likely have encountered - including an argument with a group of white men in a club.

Anthony's mother Gee rushed to Whiston Hospital to be with her son following the racist attack (pictured, in hospital)

Another person who tuned in commented: 'Rest in peace Anthony Walker. You deserved so much better than this' (pictured)

Then came the fatal night when he walked his girlfriend Louise to the bus stop with his cousin.

Who is Toheeb Jimoh? Toheeb Jimoh trained at the Guildhall School of Drama and graduated in 2018. He played Marcus in Amazon Original sci-fi The Feed, and later played Tunde in Amazon's The Power. Toheeb starred alongside Jason Sudeikis in Ted Lasso - where he played Sam. Toheeb stars as a Cadet Wes Anderson's upcoming film The French Dispatch, which features Willem Dafoe, Saoirse Ronan, and Timothee Chalamet. But Toheeb is best known for playing Anthony Walker in the BBC One drama Anthony. It tells the story of devout Christian Anthony Walker, a black teenager who was slain with an ice axe and killed in a racist attack on 29th July 2005 in the Huyton area of Merseyside, and how his life could have been. Advertisement

It wasn't long before the group encountered racial abuse, with one man shouting: 'We're coming after you, we're going to catch you.'

As the group were chased and then followed in a car by two men - Paul Taylor and Michael Barton - they ran to the park.

The men then exited the car, grabbed a pickaxe from the back seat and ambushed the group.

But while Louise and Marcus managed to escape, they captured Anthony and hit him in the head with the axe.

As Anthony's mother Gee rushed to Whiston Hospital to be with her son, Paul Taylor and Michael Barton run away. Later, Anthony died in hospital surrounded by his family.

Paul Taylor, 20, was sentenced to at least 23 years in jail - he is the cousin of Manchester City midfielder Joey Barton.

Michael Barton, the brother of Barton, was sentenced to 17 years and eight months for the murder.

Taking to Twitter, one viewer wrote; 'Bawling watching Anthony on BBC1. Heartbreaking watch.'

A second commented: 'Crying hysterically at the powerful Jimmy McGovern drama #Anthony. Rest in peace Anthony Walker. You deserved so much better than this,' while a third added: 'I am in absolute bits after watching that. So powerful.'

Meanwhile, a fourth agreed: 'Absolutely heartbreaking watching #jimmymcgoverns film #Anthony on BBC one which is based on a true story, it portrays how real racism is in the UK and is really insightful on how young black people go through struggles in life! People need to be educated.'
(TNS) - The Calhoun County Department of Public Health will host a COVID-19 test site Thursday morning at Alexandria Elementary School, another opportunity for free testing while positive cases continue to climb.COVID-19 testing will be held Thursday from 7-11 a.m. at Alexandria Elementary School, 2525 Alexandria-Wellington Road. No appointment is required, but those attending must meet Alabama Department of Public Health testing criteria. Call the Calhoun County Department of Public Health at 256-237-7523 for more information.With confirmed cases of the coronavirus rising in the county and state, demand for testing has also ramped up, with recent test sites administered by the city of Anniston and Regional Medical Center reaching record numbers. According to Michael Barton, director of the Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency, another 390 people were tested Thursday at Harvest Church of God, breaking for the third time the county record for tests at a single event, this time by 80 people.Early in the pandemic, supplying and and restocking testing supplies was a concern, with tests often reserved for those with clear symptoms of the virus. Now there are enough collection kits and people to withdraw specimens from would-be test subjects on pursuit of peace of mind, but theres still a bottleneck:Tests take time to run through a lab, and people may spend days wondering the outcome.Our goal at this point is to test at least 2 percent of the population each month, said Dr. Karen Landers, assistant health officer with the Alabama Department of Public Health. The challenge is that while more people need to be tested and want to be tested as we see more community transmission, manpower is an issue, not only for the state health department but commercial and clinical facilities.Testing has evolved over the months since March, when the pandemic began in the United States; some methods have been debunked and tossed aside. A finger-prick to check blood for antibodies has its uses, but Landers said its not useful at all for COVID-19 screenings.There are rapid-test machines, too, that can turn results around anywhere from a few hours to 15 minutes after collecting a specimen; some of those machines exist in Calhoun County. Landers mentioned two rapid tests, one for antigens and another checking PCRs, polymerase chain reactions. She said theyre helpful for specific situations, but may not be as sensitive to the virus as low-speed lab tests, and may result in more false negatives.I think there will be better tests coming out, Landers said, but we always have to be learning more, and looking at the science.Local clinics that offer COVID-19 testing seemed Monday to bear some strain due to testing. Southern Immediate Care, a walk-in clinic just north of Anniston, has for months offered tests for the coronavirus. Calling the clinics main number plays a recorded message about high call volume due to COVID-19, with instructions for scheduling a physician appointment to discuss testing.In most cases results are available the same day, the recording says, but tests in the afternoon or evening may be available the next day.On another menu, the recording indicates that results may take up to 24 hours to be processed.If it has been more than 24 hours, please accept our apology that you have not received it yet, the recording says.Attempts to reach representatives for Southern Immediate Care and other local clinics were unsuccessful Monday.Barton, the county EMA director, said that test result turnarounds vary from private and public labs. The state Health Department often has results ready in about five days; some of that time is spent transporting specimens and ensuring the test samples are correctly labeled and tracked. Testing machines, meanwhile, will only go as fast as they must to reach a true result.In the meantime, and especially before showing symptoms of the virus, people should prepare a COVID-19 plan for themselves and family members, Barton said. That includes preparing self-isolation supplies for up to 14 days to use while awaiting test results, or during self-quarantine if a test comes back positive; securing a support system, like family members or friends who can deliver essentials to the home; and thinking ahead about where to be tested if symptoms arise.Planning ahead is similar to preparing for a tornado and deciding on a safe place for family members to take shelter, or where they should meet after a house fire, he explained.Now that we have such great community spread, the likelihood has increased significantly now that you may need to be tested or could contract the virus, Barton said. Whats your COVID plan?Assistant Metro Editor Ben Nunnally: 256-235-3560.2020 The Anniston Star (Anniston, Ala.)Visit The Anniston Star (Anniston, Ala.) at www.annistonstar.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks in a video message to a ceremony commemorating the beginning of the assembly of the world's largest nuclear fusion reactor in Cadarache, France, Tuesday. The reactor, which has the potential to solve mankind's energy needs, is being developed by the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) consortium. Yonhap



South Korean President Moon Jae-in stated Tuesday that his country remains committed to full support for a historic international project that seeks to create an artificial sun through fusion technology.



He was speaking in a video message to a ceremony, held in Cadarache, France, to commemorate the beginning of the assembly of the world's largest nuclear fusion reactor, which has the potential to solve mankind's energy needs.



South Korea is a member of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) consortium, launched in late 2006, along with the European Union, the United States, Russia, China, Japan and India.



"Today, we have a cause to celebrate, as we embark on machine assembly for the ITER," Moon said in pre-taped remarks. "As the protection of climate and environment assumes even more importance in the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19, ITER and the member countries are presenting hope for the whole humanity."



He called the artificial sun an "energy source of dreams."



He also pointed out the power of international cooperation in the ITER program.



"We were able to overcome such hurdles and reach the stage of machine assembly because the seven member countries chose to pool their wisdom, with ITER playing a central role," the president noted. "It is a proud achievement made possible by solidarity and cooperation among the international community."



He highlighted South Korea's role in the process as the supplier of a massive tool, referred to as "giant," that is tasked with assembling the most critical vacuum vessel sector of the reactor.



"Korean industries developed such vacuum vessel sectors over the course of the past decade or so, and the first sector will soon arrive at the ITER construction site," he said. "Korea also led the way in international solidarity and cooperation through its unique brand of disease prevention measures and by sharing relevant equipment."



Moon pledged that South Korea will continue support for the ITER project, which is likely to face more challenges ahead throughout the assembly work.



He said his government would help "more talented scientists and engineers" to participate in it.



"We will work together with the international community to realize our common dream of creating a 'clean and safe fusion energy' by 2050," Moon stressed.



South Korea's science authorities also took note of the nation's role.



"With the giant subassembly tool weighing 900 tons and standing 23 meters tall in place, ITER has started making the reactor with the goal of conducting a 'first plasma' test in December 2025," the science ministry and the National Fusion Research Institute (NFRI) said.



NFRI chief Yoo Suk-jae said that at the assembly phase, South Korea is responsible for over 70 percent of the work, far exceeding its total share in the ITER project of 9 percent.



Besides the subassembly tool, the country is responsible for supplying the thermal shield, blanket modules for the vacuum chamber and the toroidal field coil that keeps the plasma field in place.



ITER uses deuterium and tritium as fuel, which is injected into a huge vacuum chamber and able to contain a super-hot plasma field.



The plasma field, reaching temperatures of 150 million degrees Celsius, triggers the energy-generating fusion reaction creating helium, neutron particles and heat.



If this process can be sustained, it can theoretically create an artificial sun on Earth that can provide mankind with a limitless supply of power.



Deuterium and tritium can be found in the ocean and in fresh water, with pineapple-size deuterium-tritium fuel having the same amount of energy as 10,000 tons of coal.



The ITER plant is designed for 500 megawatt output, which if connected to a power grid translates into 200 MW of electricity, enough to provide power to 200,000 households.



A scaled-up commercial version could generate 2,000 MW of electricity that can be used by 2 million households.



Proponents of ITER said the cost of building and operating a commercial nuclear fusion reactor will be similar to that of a conventional fission nuclear power unit, but it will be carbon-free and without the added expenses of waste disposal or fear of catastrophic radiation-related accidents. (Yonhap)


Financing co-led by seed investor Sofinnova Partners and incoming investor AbbVie, with additional investment from JDRF T1D Fund and several Italian investors

Largest international VC-backed Series A financing round for biotech in Italy to date and first ever venture investment in an Italian company by AbbVie

First successful spin-off from BiovelocITA, Italy's first biotech accelerator founded by Sofinnova Partners and serial entrepreneurs Silvano Spinelli and Gabriella Camboni

Proceeds to be used for clinical proof-of-concept for lead product Ent001 (IGFBP3/TMEM219 inhibitor) for type 1 diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases and progress pipeline assets

Enthera Pharmaceuticals ("Enthera"), a biotech company developing disease-modifying biologics to transform the therapeutic paradigm of specific autoimmune conditions by re-establishing stem cell capabilities in a non-traditional way, today announces the completion of a 28 million Series A financing round.

The Series A was co-led by seed investor Sofinnova Partners, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm based in Paris, London and Milan, and incoming investor AbbVie, with further investment from the JDRF T1D Fund (the venture capital fund of JDRF) and several Italian investors including a group coordinated by Banor SIM, a group coordinated by Banca Profilo through Arepo Fiduciaria and Indaco Venture Partners SGR. The 28 million raised is the largest VC-backed Series A funding round for an Italian biotechnology company to date.

The Series A marks AbbVie's first venture investment into an Italian company. Enthera was also the first European investment of the JDRF T1D fund, who previously invested in the Company during its 4 million seed extension funding round in 2018.

The proceeds from the Series A financing will be used to obtain clinical proof-of-concept through a first-in-human study of Ent001, Enthera's lead candidate. Ent001 is the only drug in development with the potential to restore the pancreatic beta cell compartment in type 1 diabetes as well as the original intestine structure in inflammatory bowel disease, in order to re-establish organ function. The funds will also be used to further develop Enthera's pipeline.

Commenting on the successful Series A financing, Giovanni Amabile, CEO of Enthera, said: "Having renowned investors Sofinnova Partners, AbbVie and JDRF T1D Fund choosing to support us on our journey is great validation of our company strategy and scientific method, and gives credit to the innovative science that is currently underway in Italy.

"We have a revolutionary approach that offers a new perspective for intractable diseases such as type 1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease, and the funds raised will enable us to accelerate our lead program Ent001 to clinical proof-of-concept. Through this and the development of our wider pipeline, we have the opportunity to bring real hope to patients in need and to provide effective and safe treatments."

Graziano Seghezzi, Managing Partner of Sofinnova Partners, who co-seeded the company, stated:

"Enthera's Series A financing is a fantastic milestone enabled by the leadership of Giovanni who, since his arrival in the company, has expanded its activities into novel therapeutic areas. This is also an opportunity for us to applaud BiovelocITA's role in transforming the breakthrough science originating from Paolo Fiorina and his team into a full-fledged enterprise. Enthera is a salient example of what can be achieved when the critical components of a biotech ecosystem are brought together to accelerate innovation in Italy: World-class science, experienced management, and dedicated financial capital."

Margarita Chavez, Managing Director of AbbVie Ventures and new addition to the Enthera Board of Directors, added: "AbbVie Ventures' investment in Enthera's Series A demonstrates our confidence in the team and their unique approach to treating underserved autoimmune disorders. I look forward to working with Giovanni and rest of the team as we drive the Company and its innovation forward."

Enthera was formed in 2016 on the basis of research by scientific founders Prof. Paolo Fiorina and Dr. Francesca D'Addio. The Company is the first spin-off of the Italian biotech accelerator BiovelocITA, founded by Sofinnova Partners, Silvano Spinelli and Gabriella Camboni, which provided the initial seed fund. A seed extension was financed in 2018 by Sofinnova Partners, JDRF T1D fund and the other existing investors.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

About Enthera

Enthera Srl is a biotech company developing first-in-class biologics to transform the treatment paradigm of specific autoimmune conditions by re-establishing stem cell capabilities in a non-traditional way. The Company's primary target indications are type 1 diabetes (T1D) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Enthera's pioneering approach capitalizes on the key discovery of the IGFBP3/TMEM219 pathway, which is involved in beta cell and stem cell apoptosis in pancreas and gut, respectively.

The Company is building a pipeline of inhibitory monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and fusion proteins targeting the pathway via multiple angles. Its lead program Ent001 is the only drug in development with the potential to restore the endogenous pancreatic stem cell compartment in T1D as well as the original intestine structure in IBD, in order to re-establish organ function.

Enthera is a private company headquartered in Milan, Italy and founded in 2016 by Prof Paolo Fiorina and Dr Francesca D'Addio at BiovelocITA, an Italian biotech accelerator. The Company is backed by Sofinnova Partners and JDRF T1D fund. Enthera's discovery engine and assets are protected by a broad portfolio of patents.

For more information, visit https://www.entherapharmaceuticals.com/

Connect with us on LinkedIn.

About Sofinnova Partners

Sofinnova Partners is a leading European venture capital firm specialized in Life Sciences. Based in Paris, France, with offices in London and Milan, the firm brings together a team of 40 professionals from all over Europe, the U.S. and Asia. The firm focuses on paradigm-shifting technologies alongside visionary entrepreneurs. Sofinnova Partners invests across the Life Sciences value chain as a lead or cornerstone investor, from very early-stage opportunities to late-stage/public companies. It has backed nearly 500 companies over more than 48 years, creating market leaders around the globe. Today, Sofinnova Partners has over 2 billion under management.

For more information, please visit: www.sofinnovapartners.com

About AbbVie Ventures

AbbVie Ventures is the corporate venture capital group of AbbVie. We are a strategic investor, investing exclusively in novel, potentially transformational science aligned with AbbVie's core R&D interests. We measure success primarily by the extent to which our investments foster innovation with potential to transform the lives of patients that AbbVie serves. AbbVie Ventures enables its portfolio companies with both funding as well as access to AbbVie's internal network of experts across all phases of drug development, from drug discovery through commercialization.

For more information, please visit www.abbvie.com/ventures

For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

About the JDRF T1D Fund

The JDRF T1D Fund is a venture philanthropy fund accelerating life-changing solutions to cure, prevent and treat type 1 diabetes (T1D) through catalytic equity investments. Through its investments in partnership with private capital, including venture capital, corporations and foundations, the T1D Fund seeks to attract the private investment necessary to advance therapeutics, devices, diagnostics and vaccines into the hands of those living with T1D. The T1D Fund invests in areas strategically aligned with JDRF, the leading global organization funding T1D research, with an exclusive focus on supporting the best commercial opportunities. The T1D Fund reinvests any realized gains into new investments to further its mission.

www.t1dfund.org

BiovelocITA

BiovelocITA S.r.l. is the first Italian accelerator dedicated to biotech. It was founded by Silvano Spinelli, Gabriella Camboni and Sofinnova Partners. Thanks to BiovelocITA, entrepreneurs, scientists and investors can work together to accelerate biotech projects with an international scope and reach the "proof of concept" that precedes the clinical phase. Set up to offer innovative solutions to the medical community and to patients, BiovelocITA supports the creation and development of innovative biotech companies in all therapeutic areas.

For more information, see: http://www.biovelocita.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005076/en/

Contacts:

For further information, please contact:

Enthera Pharmaceuticals

Giovanni Amabile, CEO

T: +39 (0)2 3456778

E: info@entherapharmaceuticals.com

Instinctif Partners (media enquiries)

Dr Christelle Kerouedan Siobhan Sanford Kiki Zaccagnini

Tel: +44 20 7457 2020

E: enthera@instinctif.com
Jill Duggar has been testing the waters of a less-strict lifestyle for few years now  and with one of her latest Instagram posts, she seems to be jumping into with two feet.

The 29-year-old former reality TV star shared a sponsored post for the modest swimwear brand ModLi on July 22, modeling several of the company's covered-up swimsuits herself.

In a series of photos, the mother-of-two  whose siblings have been known to swim in long dresses  showed off several swimming outfits, including skirts and figure-hugging tank tops.

Ooh-la-law! Jill Duggar showed off some new swimwear in a sponsored post for a modesty brand

Beach body! The 29-year-old modeled a few looks  all of which were quite covered up, but more pool-appropriate than the actual clothing her siblings wear

Jill showed off her haul of new swimwear on Instagram a week ago, going through the items in her stories and posting several photos after she tried them on.

'Are you spending a lot of extra time in the water this year?' she wrote. 'Pools might not be open yet, but we are enjoying lots of quality family time in the backyard with water play!

'I was so excited to find @modlifashion. All of their swimwear is UPF50 and they have so many cute swim & sport clothing options everyone will love!'

Her new swim outfits included a a tight blue swim T-shirt and matching skirt  which hit about mid-thigh, showing quite a lot of skin for a Duggar.

She also showed off a tight blue tank top and swim pants that look like leggings, and a pink tank top with swim shorts.

While her swimwear is certainly a far cry from a bikini  or even a one-piece, for that matter  it's also a huge departure from what she was brought up to believe was appropriate.

Gasp! Jill has broken away from some of the modesty standards preached by her parents, and is the only woman in her family to wear shorts

Next up, get this girl some sunglasses! Her siblings have been photographed in the ocean wearing normal street clothes

Her parents preach incredibly strict modesty standards, and the family generally avoids going to beaches and pools where women might be dressed 'immodestly.'

'We typically dont go to the beach in the summertime,' Michelle once told TLC. 'And in general we don't do a lot of swimming events where swimming suits are worn because it's just too hard for the guys to try to keep their eyes averted in those situations.'

Partly because of that, some of the Duggar children don't even know how to swim. In fact, in a recent episode of Counting On, Jinger, 26, admitted that she never learned.

On occasions the Duggars have gone to the beach and ventured into the water, they tend to be fully clothed. Photos taken of her younger sisters in the ocean show them in dresses that covered there shoulders and hit below their knees.

A widely-circulated photo of Jessa, 28, taken when she was pregnant with her son Spurgeon, shows her at a pool wearing an oversized T-shirt and what appear to bel long shorts.

The rules governing how much girls and women can show of their bodies were enacted after mom Michelle, 54, spent her teenage years in bikinis.

Very practical: Like most of the Duggar girls, if Jill's sister Jessa goes swimming, it's in a T-shirt and pants or a skirt

What a hussy! Michelle, 54, spent her teenage years in bikinis and shorts, but her children haven't been afforded similar freedoms

'I mowed the lawn in a bikini and had no idea what I was doing to my neighbors husband across the street. No wonder the woman hated our family  you know?' she told PopSugar in 2015.

'And, I think I had no clue as far as the responsibility I had in that the way I dressed caused men to have struggles.'

Jill hasn't quite made that leap to skimpy two-pieces, but she has been showing much more skin than she was raised to, and is frequently pictured in pants, shorts that hit mid-tight, and tank tops.

One can only guess how Michelle and dad Jim Bob feel about that, and only Jill's sisters Jana and Jessa liked her swimwear photos on Instagram.

But embracing swimsuit season is just one of many ways that Jill is breaking away from her family's uber-strict evangelical Christian teachings.

Earlier this month, she and her husband Derick Dillard, 31, stopped by Wellington's in Springdale, Arkansas, a whiskey and cigar lounge owned by her cousin Amy's husband Dillon King.

And while Jill wasn't actually photographed partaking in either vice, Derick did thank the other couple for treating them to 'good food, drinks, and company.'

Boozin' it up? Jill was pictured out at a whiskey and cigar lounge owned by her cousin Amy's husband Dillon King earlier this month

Snark city: Amy, 33, said their new favorite word was 'freedom' on Instagram  and Jill's husband Derick Dillard thanked them for 'good food, drinks, and company'

Jill, Derick, Amy, and Dillon all posed inside the lounge, Jill dressed in a jumpsuit she'd previously picked up from Amy's store.

Amy shared the photo on Instagram this weekend, taking a dig at Jill's parents and her restrictive upbringing in the caption.

'Our new favorite word: Freedom!' she wrote.

While Jill didn't comment on the snarky caption, Derick did chime in, writing: 'Thanks for treating us! We had a great time! Good food, drinks, and company (not necessarily in that order.)

Though the picture doesn't show Jill or Derick actually drinking  or smoking cigars for that matter  Jill did post some snaps of the cheese and charcuterie plate they enjoyed  which seems to be a perfect pairing for a glass of wine.

Visiting any type of bar is a major departure from Jill's upbringing in a strict evangelical Christian family, where she and her siblings were raised to stay away from alcohol.

For some fundamentalist Christians, even wine is off-limits  and they believe that references to wine in the Bible actually mean grape juice.

Yum! Though she wasn't pictured with alcohol, she did share a photo of a tasty cheese and charcuterie plate

No big deal! Her 'rebel' cousin Amy has no problem with alcohol, and seems to be supporting Jill while her relationship with the rest of her family is strained

Shop 'til you drop! Jill has stopped by Amy's clothing store quite a bit, and posts photos of clothes she picked up

Jill, however, has been stepping away from a lot of her parents' stricter teachings  and her husband has hinted before that they may not mind a drink here or there.

In 2018, when a Twitter user asked Derick why they didn't drink wine, he seemed to deny it.

'Where did you read that?' he said. 'I dont think weve ever said that.'

Jill has 'rebelled' against her parents' rules and teachings countless other ways, too, wearing pants and even shorts, cutting her once-long hair, planning to send her son Israel to public school, taking relatively openly about sex (within the confines of marriage, of course), piercing her nose, and  some fans speculate  using birth control (the couple has not confirmed this; though Derick did say that his own parents used birth control).

Unfortunately, some of this  and the couple's refusal to film for the family's TLC reality show anymore  has led to strained relationships with Jill's parents.

Derick has claimed on numerous occasions that Jill's father, Jim Bob, restricts her visits to their home  and that Jill has to ask permission to come over, especially if Jim Bob isn't there.

Jill even reportedly had to get permission from Jim Bob to go do her sister Jessa's house when she gave birth to daughter Ivy last year.

Down with the tyrant! Meanwhile, Derick has been calling out Jill's dad Jim Bob for restricting their access to the rest of the family

Enabler: Jim Bob reportedly restricts Jill's access to the family home, and she is unwelcome at some family gatherings  but Jill's abuser, sex pest Josh, is inexplicably welcome

Derick has had some truly scathing words for his father-in-law, who doesn't seem to place similar restrictions on older son Josh, who admitted molesting four of his younger sisters, including Jill, as well as a fourth child when he was a teenager.

Earlier this month, he even went so far as to compare Jim Bob, 55, to Jeffrey Epstein, accusing him of placing a higher importance on money than following Jesus.

'[Counting On is]s still under his control. And he will attack the victims if they threaten his show.

'We were humiliated and threatened when we first tried to not film,' he added.

'We have to break this culture, that cares more about money and ratings than protecting the most vulnerable.

'Jeff Epstein already showed us that if you have enough money, power, and influence, you can get away with anything. Sadly, it doesnt stop with him. There are many more stories in this world that are not too different, existing in a culture where it can still thrive.'

Meanwhile, cousin Amy has also been throwing shade at Jim Bob and company  though hers are much, much more subtle.

Shady lady! Amy seemed to throw some indirect criticism at her extended family on Instagram earlier this month while sharing a photo with her cousin Jill

Taste of freedom: She wrote that Jill 'smiles just a bit brighter these days,' which people have taken as an observation that she is happier since getting some distance from her parents

Rebel Duggar: Amy has been known to wear bikinis, and once made a snarky comment about swimming in clothing

Swimsuit time: She also shared photos of herself in a two-piece while pregnant with her son Dax

Earlier this month, Jill paid a visit to her clothing store, 3130 Clothing, where she did some light shopping with some help from her cousin.

The store was empty on the occasion, giving Jill and Amy a chance to walk around without masks and pick out clothes for Jill to take home. Jill also got to spend time with her aunt Deanna and Amy's son Dax.

Before leaving, Jill posed for a photo with Amy, with the two smiling wide for the camera.

'You smile just a bit brighter these days! So proud of you hippie chick!' Amy wrote.

Amy had long been considered the 'rebel' of the very conservative Christian family. While her uncle Jim Bob and aunt Michelle had incredibly strict rules for Jill and her siblings  governing their dating, their clothes, and how they spent their time  Amy grew up more secular.

She even admitted to having sex before marriage, while her cousins all save their first kiss for their wedding day.

She also likes wearing bikinis and has shared several photos of herself at the beach.

Someone to lean on: Jill stopped by Amy's store to shop and the pair appeared to have a great time. The cousins seem to be growing closer as Jill sees other family members less

They see it, too! Commenters agreed that Jill looks happier, and are glad to see she has Amy to turn to

Despite Jill's strained relationship with her parents, she appears to be thriving in a more lax environment  and one that doesn't include her childhood abuser, big brother Josh.

Her cousin Amy  and fans  have taken notice.

Several commented on Amy's post, with one writing: 'So proud of her and the hard work she is putting in to be authentic to herself and her husband and boys!'

'She looks so much happier,' observed another.

'It seems like she is doing well making a lot of crucial changes away from that life, its good to see,' said yet another.

On Reddit, commenters wondered at how Amy's 'post is clearly throwing shade at the Duggars,' with several pointing out that Jill's big sister Jana liked the post  seemingly missing the veiled criticism.

'Her smile is finally reaching her eyes!' wrote another. 'Unlike a meek Michelle smile, this one is real and were all here for it! Go Jill! Screw your toxic family!'
PHILADELPHIA, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaskela Law LLC announces that it is investigating CNX Midstream Partners LP ("CNX Midstream") (NYSE: CNXM) on behalf of the company's shareholders.

On July 27, 2020, CNX Midstream announced that it had agreed to be acquired by CNX Resources Corporation ("CNX Resources") in an all-stock transaction. According to the announcement, each outstanding common unit of CNX Midstream will be converted into 0.88 shares of CNX Resources common stock, representing implied per-unit merger consideration of $8.47 based upon the closing price of CNX Resources on July 24, 2020.

The firm's investigation seeks to determine whether CNX Midstream stockholders (i) are expected to receive adequate consideration for their shares and (ii) are receiving all material information in connection with the proposed acquisition by CNX Resources.

CNX Midstream shareholders are encouraged to contact Kaskela Law LLC (D. Seamus Kaskela, Esq.) at (484) 258  1585, or by email at [email protected], to discuss this investigation and their legal rights and options. Additional information may also be found at http://kaskelalaw.com/case/cnx-midstream-partners-lp/.

Kaskela Law LLC represents investors in securities fraud, corporate governance, and merger & acquisition litigation. For additional information about Kaskela Law LLC please visit www.kaskelalaw.com.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 01:14:33|Editor: huaxia

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HARARE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) announced on Monday that it had further increased its support towards the most vulnerable in Zimbabwe by providing an additional 14.2 million euros (about 16.63 million U.S. dollars) to help people in need cope with COVID-19, extreme weather conditions and other crises.

The additional support to Zimbabwe is part of a 64.7 million euros package that the EU's Department for Humanitarian Aid provides for countries in the southern Africa region.

Other countries that benefit including Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia and Zambia.

EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said the EU was helping to provide life-saving assistance to impoverished households suffering from crop and livestock losses due to drought.

"The aid package will also strengthen the preparation and response to the coronavirus pandemic for countries in the region. In parallel, the EU is helping communities better prepare for natural hazards and reduce their impact," he said.

The funding will provide food assistance to vulnerable households and help farmers in the affected areas restore their means of subsistence. It will also target COVID-19 prevention and preparedness actions to support local health systems and facilitate access to health care, protective equipment, sanitation and hygiene. Enditem
Dublin, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Research Report of the Imported Soybeans Industry in China 2020-2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



Soybeans are important raw materials of common edible oil and feed material of the breeding industry in China. China has a huge demand for Soybeans while the domestic supply could not meet consumption. In 2019, China's Soybean consumption was 106.50 million tons, domestic production was 18.10 million tons and import volume was 88.51 million tons, which showed a very high dependence on import soybeans. Thus, China allowed more countries, such as Bolivia, Russia, and Benin to export soybeans that meet the requirements.

According to the analyst, soybeans are mainly produced in the Northeast and North China regions. From 2015 to 2019, the sown area of soybeans in China increased from 6.83 million hectares to 9.34 million hectares, and the production of soybeans rose from 12.37 million tons in 2015 to 18.10 million tons in 2019. Import volume went up from 81.69 million tons in 2015 to 88.51 million tons in 2019. Import soybeans always have a competitive advantage, since the price of imported soybeans is always lower than that of domestic soybeans.

According to the analyst, imported soybeans in China include soybeans for cultivation, black soybeans, green soybeans, yellow soybeans, and other soybeans not for cultivation, most of them came from Brazil and the USA from 2017 to April 2020.

According to the analyst, as for major import sources of soybeans in the future, it is expected to be Brazil, the USA and Argentina. The demand for soybeans is estimated to be relatively low in 2020 because of COVID-19, and then reach 124 million tons by 2024. The gap between supply and demand could be around 94 million tons in 2024, worth the value that exceeds USD 40 million.



Readers may obtain the following information from this report:

Economic Environment of the Soybean Industry in China

Policies in Imported Soybeans in China

Analysis of Supply and Demand of Soybeans in China

Analysis of Imported Soybeans in China

Analysis of Major Sources of Soybeans in China

Price Trends of Imported Soybeans in China

Driving Forces and Opportunities of Imported Soybeans in China

Forecasts on Imported Soybeans in China 2020-2024

Key Topics Covered:



1 Analysis of Soybean Industry's Environment

1.1 Economy Environment

1.1.1 China's GDP and per capita Disposable Income of Residents

1.1.2 Grain Production in China

1.2 Policy Environment

1.3 About CRI



2 Analysis of China's Soybean Industry, 2015-2019

2.1 Planting of Soybeans in China

2.2 Demand and Supply of Soybeans in China

2.3 Price of Domestic Soybeans



3 Analysis of Soybean Imports in China, 2015-Apr.2020

3.1 Types of Imported Soybeans in China

3.2 Import Scale of Soybeans

3.3 Comparison of Import Price and Domestics Price, 2016-Apr. 2020



4 Major Sources of Soybean Imports in China, 2017-Apr. 2020

4.1 Major Sources of Soybean Imports in China, 2017

4.2 Major Sources of Soybean Imports in China, 2018

4.3 Major Sources of Soybean Imports in China, 2019

4.4 Major Sources of Soybean Imports in China, Jan. -Apr. 2020



5 Forecasts on China's Soybean Market, 2020-2024

5.1 SWOT Analysis

5.1.1 Driven Force and Market Chance

5.1.2 Threats and Challenges

5.2 Forecast on Demand and Supply of Soybeans in China, 2020-2024

5.2.1 Forecast on Demand

5.2.2 Forecast on Soybean Imports

5.2.3 Forecast on Major Sources of Soybean Imports



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/igbqun

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.
File photo: Russian Su-27 jet fighters and MIG 29 jet fighters fly over Red Square in Moscow, Russia, on May 9, 2016. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)

Russian Fighter Jet Intercepts US Surveillance Plane Over Black Sea

Russia on July 27 sent a Su-27 fighter jet to intercept a U.S. Navy plane over the neutral waters of the Black Sea, according to its defense ministry.

Russias defense ministry said in a statement on July 27 that the U.S. plane, identified as a P-8 Poseidon, was approaching the Russian border. The U.S. State Department has yet to comment on the claims.

An aerial target was picked up on a radar, and a Su-27 fighter jet took off from a coastal airfield to approach the Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft from a safe distance, it said.

On July 27, 2020, Russian airspace control means spotted an aerial target approaching the Russian state border over the Black Sea neutral waters, the statement said. A Su-27 fighter jet of the Southern Military Districts air defense forces was scrambled to intercept the target.

The P-8 Poseidon surveillance plane then changed course to move away from the Russian border, while the Russian fighter jet returned to base.

The Su-27 planes flight was performed in strict compliance with international rules of the use of airspace, the ministry added. The Russian border was not violated.

 -27   pic.twitter.com/FSCJ7eQ3fO    (@mod_russia) December 3, 2017

It followed two separate incidents last week, which saw the same fighter jet sent to intercept a Boeing P-8A Poseidon over the Black Sea, and escort it away from Russian airspace on Thursday and Friday.

There was no violation of the Russian border in these cases.

The entire flight of the Russian Su-27 plane proceeded in strict compliance with the international rules of using the airspace, the National Defense Control Center said at the time.

The P-8, based on Boeings 737-800 airframe, conducts anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and shipping interdiction, and also carries electronic support measures, torpedoes, Harpoon anti-ship missiles and other weapons.

The incident comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed arms control, and critical bilateral and global issues during a phone call.

President Trump reiterated his hope of avoiding an expensive three-way arms race between China, Russia, and the United States and looked forward to progress on upcoming arms control negotiations in Vienna, White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.

The Kremlins readout of the call said the parties reaffirmed the timeliness of bilateral consultations on arms control issues, including the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

The two leaders also expressed a mutual desire to develop trade and economic interaction between Russia and the United States, the Kremlin added.

Russia and the United States together possess more than 90 percent of the worlds total nuclear warheads in 2020, according to the Federation of American Scientists, which tallied 6,372 warheads for Russia and 5,800 for the United States. It counted China as having 320 nuclear warheads, although the actual number is unknown.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 2 endorsed Russias nuclear deterrent policy, which allows the country to use atomic weapons, not only in response to a nuclear attack but also to respond to conventional strikes targeting the nations critical government and military infrastructure.

Ella Kietlinska and Reuters contributed to this report.
An international team of volcanologists working on remote islands in the Galapagos Archipelago has found that volcanoes which reliably produce small basaltic lava eruptions hide chemically diverse magmas in their underground plumbing systems - including some with the potential to generate explosive activity.

Many volcanoes produce similar types of eruption over millions of years. For example, volcanoes in Iceland, Hawai'i and the Galapagos Islands consistently erupt lava flows - comprised of molten basaltic rock - which form long rivers of fire down their flanks. Although these lava flows are potentially damaging to houses close to the volcano, they generally move at a walking pace and do not pose the same risk to life as larger explosive eruptions, like those at Vesuvius or Mt. St. Helens. This long-term consistency in a volcano's eruptive behaviour informs hazard planning by local authorities.

The research team, led by Dr Michael Stock from Trinity College Dublin and comprising scientists from the US, UK and Ecuador, studied two Galapagos volcanoes, which have only erupted compositionally uniform basaltic lava flows at the Earth's surface for their entire lifetimes. By deciphering the compositions of microscopic crystals in the lavas, the team was able to reconstruct the chemical and physical characteristics of magmas stored underground beneath the volcanoes.

The results of the study show that - in contrast with the monotonous basaltic lavas erupted at the Earth's surface - magmas beneath the volcanoes are extremely diverse and include compositions similar to those erupted at Mt. St. Helens.

The team believes that volcanoes consistently erupt compositionally uniform basaltic lavas when the amount of magma flushing through the ground beneath the edifice is high enough to "overprint" any chemical diversity. This can occur when volcanoes are located close to a "hot spot" - a plume of hot magma rising towards the surface from deep within the Earth.

However, the chemically diverse magmas which the team discovered could become mobile and ascend towards the surface under certain circumstances. In this case, volcanoes that have reliably produced basaltic lava eruptions for millennia might undergo unexpected changes to more explosive activity in the future.

Dr Stock, from Trinity's School of Natural Sciences, and lead author on the paper, said:

"This was really unexpected. We started the study wanting to know why these volcanoes were so boring and what process caused the erupted lava compositions to remain constant over long timescales. Instead we found that they aren't boring at all - they just hide these secret magmas under the ground."

"Although there's no sign that these Galapagos volcanoes will undergo a transition in eruption style any time soon, our results show why other volcanoes might have changed their eruptive behaviour in the past. The study will also help us to better understand the risks posed by volcanoes in other parts of the world - just because they've always erupted a particular way in the past doesn't mean you can rely on them to continue doing the same thing indefinitely into the future."

Dr Benjamin Bernard, a volcanologist involved in monitoring Galapagos volcanoes at Instituto Geofisico and co-author on the paper, added:

"This discovery is a game-changer because it allows us to reconcile apparently divergent observations, such as the presence of explosive deposits at several Galapagos volcanoes. It also allows us to better understand the behaviour of these volcanoes, which is essential for volcano monitoring and hazard assessment."

###

This work was published in the leading international journal Nature Communications and was funded by the Charles Darwin and Galapagos Islands Fund at Christ's College, University of Cambridge. It was conducted with support from the Ecuadorian Instituto Geofisico, Galapagos National Park and Charles Darwin Foundation.
Director of Content and Operations

Spencer McKee is OutThere Colorado's Director of Content and Operations. In his spare time, Spencer loves to hike, rock climb, and trail run. He's on a mission to summit all 58 of Colorado's fourteeners and has already climbed more than half.
Former Malaysian leader Najib Razak was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in jail on corruption charges linked to the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal that led to the downfall of his government two years ago. The ex-prime minister was also fined almost $50 million after being convicted on all seven charges in the first of several trials related to the looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad sovereign wealth fund. The 67-year-old is challenging the verdict and will be allowed to remain free on continued bail until a lengthy appeals process is complete. Billions of dollars were stolen from Malaysia's main state investment vehicle and spent on everything from high-end real estate to pricey art. Investment bank Goldman Sachs also became embroiled in the scandal and faces a series of hefty fines in both the US and Malaysia as a result. Anger at the looting played a large part in the shock loss of Najib's long-ruling coalition at elections in 2018, and he was arrested and hit with dozens of charges following his defeat. The verdict was welcomed as a boost for Malaysia's rule of law and came despite Najib's political allies returning to power earlier this as part of a coalition. Judge Mohamad Nazlan Mohamad Ghazali at Kuala Lumpur's High Court found Najib guilty on seven charges regarding the transfer of 42 million ringgit ($9.9 million) from a former 1MDB unit to his bank accounts. The blue-blood politician, whose father and uncle were both former Malaysian prime ministers, had vehemently denied any wrongdoing and looked calm as the verdict was handed down. - 'Kleptocracy' - After finding him guilty on a range of charges including abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money-laundering, the judge sentenced Najib to between 10 and 12 years on each. The sentences will run concurrently, however, meaning he will remain behind bars for 12 years. Addressing the court before sentence was passed, Najib read a Koranic verse and defend his record during nine years as Malaysian premier. But prosecutor V. Sithambaram called for a heavy punishment, saying Najib was guilty of a "gross betrayal of trust". "This case has tarnished the country as a kleptocracy, and the people of Malaysia don't deserve that," he said. Outside the court, hundreds of angry supporters chanted "Long live Najib". The former leader had insisted he was ignorant of the transactions from the 1MDB unit, SRC International. The defence team portrayed him as a victim, and instead sought to paint financier Low Taek Jho -- a key figure in the scandal who has been charged in the US and Malaysia -- as the mastermind. Low, whose whereabouts are unknown, maintains his innocence. Najib's lawyers said he was tricked by Low into believing the money was a donation from Saudi royalty, but the judge dismissed the notion as "far-fetched". - Political turbulence - The return of Najib's party to power after the collapse of a reformist administration that replaced him, was quickly followed by prosecutors dropping charges against his stepson Riza Aziz, and raised concerns the ex-leader's own cases would be influenced. Riza allegedly also received huge sums from 1MDB, including to bankroll his Hollywood production company -- which made "The Wolf of Wall Street", starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Analysts said the conviction would boost confidence in the new government headed by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, whose legitimacy has been questioned since took power without an election. He will be seen as "putting country over politics, and gain support from those who wanted to see justice in case", Bridget Welsh, a Malaysia expert from the University of Nottingham, told AFP. Still, the political ramifications could be significant. The conviction could destabilise the ruling coalition, which has a razor-thin majority in parliament, if Najib and his backers withdraw support -- potentially prompting a snap election. The amounts involved in Najib's first case are small compared to those in his second and most significant trial, which centres on allegations he illicitly obtained more than $500 million. Malaysia had also charged Goldman Sachs, claiming large amounts were stolen when the bank arranged bond issues for 1MDB, but the two sides agreed to a $3.9 billion settlement last week. bur-sr/fox GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP
First Swiss deal proved Iran funds got round US sanctions: Businessman

Iran Press TV

Monday, 27 July 2020 5:35 PM

An Iranian businessman says a first deal with Iran under the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA) was a sign that funds provided by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) had reached Swiss authorities despite US sanctions limiting any use of such finances.

Sharif Nezam-Mafi, who chairs the Iran-Switzerland Joint Chamber of Commerce, said on Monday that Swiss authorities had managed to use CBI funds for a first time under a first SHTA deal announced earlier in the day.

"The operationalization of this channel is a good sign as it shows that the CBI money has been injected into this financial channel," said Nezam-Mafi.

The comments came hours after Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) issued a statement saying a first deal involving drug shipment to Iran had been successfully carried out under SHTA.

The statement came amid growing criticism that the SHTA had failed to process any meaningful transaction to help Iran receive desperately needed medicine and other humanitarian items amid a coronavirus pandemic that has led to thousands of deaths in the country.

Nezam-Mafi said the first official shipment under SHTA had involved cancer drugs related to patients using blood transfusion.

He said at least 50 high-grade companies based in Switzerland are now in line to use the SHTA to get involved in deals on food and medicine with Iran.

"That shows that Swiss companies are well aware that sanctions against Iran are temporary," he said in an interview with the news service of Iran's chamber of commerce (ICCIMA).

A first pilot deal under SHTA in January, processed by Geneva-based bank BCP, allowed Iran to take delivery of 2.3 million euros ($2.7 million) worth of drugs required for organ transplants bought from Swiss drugmaker Novartis.

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The Indian Navys clear message to Beijing through its aggressive deployment of almost all frontline warships and submarines in the Indian Ocean Region following escalation in the border row in eastern Ladakh has been registered by China, top defence sources said on Tuesday.

The Indian Navy deployed a range of its frontline warships and submarines in the Indian Ocean Region(IOR) to send a clear message to China when the border tension escalated manifold in the wake of the Galwan Valley clashes on June 15.

The sources told PTI that the government adopted a multi-pronged approach involving the Army, the Indian Air Force(IAF) and the Navy as well diplomacy and economic measures to send a clear signal to China that its misadventure in eastern Ladakh was not acceptable at all.

They said the three service chiefs are engaged in deliberations on almost a daily basis to ensure a coordinated approach in dealing with the situation as well as to make China understand about Indias clear message.

The sources said the three services are coordinating on the military response to the border row.

The Navy has significantly expanded its deployment in the IOR deploying a plethora of warships and submarines to create pressure points on China as the maritime space around the Malacca Strait is very critical for its supply chain through sea routes.

Yes, our message has been registered by China, said a source without elaborating.

Asked whether China has responded to Indias deployment, the sources said there was no visible increase in forays by Chinese ships in the IOR.

They said the reason could be the PLA Navys excessive deployment of resources in the South China Sea following the strong opposition by the US to Beijings expansive territorial claims in the region.

The US sent a number of its warships to the South China Sea to demonstrate freedom of navigation and rallying support to countries who have territorial disputes with China over the region.

The Indian Navy is also ramping up its operational cooperation with various friendly naval forces like the US Navy and Japan Maritime Self Defense Force in view of the fast evolving regional security landscape.

Following the Galwan Valley clashes, the IAF deployed almost all its frontline fighter jets like Sukhoi 30 MKI, Jaguar and Mirage 2000 aircraft in the key frontier air bases in eastern Ladakh and elsewhere along the Line of Actual Control(LAC).

The IAF has been carrying out night time combat air patrols over the eastern Ladakh region in an apparent message to China that it was ready to deal with any eventualities in the mountainous region.

The Army significantly enhanced deployment after the clashes in Galwan Valley that left 20 Indian soldiers dead.

The Chinese side also suffered casualties but it is yet to give out the details. According to an American intelligence report, the number of casualties on the Chinese side was 35.

Following the Galwan Valley incident, the government has given the armed forces full freedom to give a befitting response to any Chinese misadventure along the LAC.

After the last round of military talks, government sources said the Indian side conveyed a very clear message to the Chinese army that status quo ante must be restored in eastern Ladakh and it will have to follow all mutually agreed protocols for border management to bring back peace and tranquillity. PTI MPB GSN GSN
Pigheadedness explains Trumps attacks on scientists and public health professionals, UB health care policy expert says

UBs Nancy Nielsen, former AMA president, says the presidents behavior is bizarre

How hard is it to admit that earlier advice, given in good faith, has now been shown to require a change of direction? Why must mistakes be defended with falsehoods and mischaracterizations instead of learning from them? 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  The Trump administration has worked to discredit Anthony Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other officials who contradict the president on the COVID-19 pandemic.

For example, the White House recently issued statements to the media highlighting several mistakes and presumptions by Fauci and others.

These actions left many in the health science and research communities, including Nancy Nielsen, senior associate dean for health policy in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, shaking their heads in disbelief.

When the novel coronavirus first emerged as a pandemic threat to humanity, plenty of mistakes were made. But learning is the hallmark of the scientific method: observe, measure, test, modify. We acquire knowledge by questioning, not by assuming, said Nielsen, who is also a past-president of the American Medical Association. There were plenty of mistakes by CDC in the early days of testing for the virus. Theres little to be gained by dwelling on mistakes, but a great deal to be gained by learning from them. But persisting inflexibly in the face of clear evidence to the contrary  well, thats a character flaw.

When the outbreak began in the U.S., Fauci and other health care experts said the general public didnt need to wear masks. However, Fauci also said that it was too early to be definitive about that and other policies. Months ago, he changed his advice regarding masks.

We then we learned that 40% or more of people who contract COVID-19 are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic and yet can transmit the virus unknowingly to others. Masks have been shown in key natural experiments to halt virus transmission to others, said Nielsen. An infected traveler flew from Wuhan to the U.S. but wore a mask throughout the flight. No other passengers became infected. Two hair stylists in Missouri were ill with the disease but worked anyway, wearing masks, as did all their clients, and none of them became ill.

Nielsen continued: Never apologize, never explain may have been a good John Wayne line in the 1940s, but it is a really terrible maxim for any world leader who has to confront what no one fully understands yet. How hard is it to admit that earlier advice, given in good faith, has now been shown to require a change of direction? Why must mistakes be defended with falsehoods and mischaracterizations instead of learning from them?

According to Nielsen, bizarre is the right term to describe attacks on scientists and public health professionals by President Trump and White House officials.

The John Wayne line was actually a little longer: Never apologize, never explain. Its a sign of weakness. No, its pigheadedness and it has enormous consequences, Nielsen said.
A completely clear foundation that promises to control oil production and perfect skin complexion has divided beauty enthusiasts across the world.

US beauty brand Becca, has exclusively released its Zero No Pigment Virtual Foundation online at Cult Beauty after racking up a lengthy waiting list filled with eager shoppers.

Since sales began in the UK, the 29 foundation with a complex list of ingredients including Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Butylene Glycol, glycerin and hyaluronic acid, has divided beauty enthusiasts.

Coloured material pigment is commonly used in make-up products to disguise the appearance of imperfections such as redness and uneven skin tone, but the clear foundation is meant to suit any skin tone.

Fans say that it's perfect for blurring imperfections and leaving them with glowy skin, but critics claim it's no different to using a primer and moisturiser and isn't really a foundation.

US beauty brand Becca, has divided makeup enthusiasts with the launch of their Zero No Pigment Virtual Foundation (pictured)

Becca shared before (pictured left) and after (pictured right) photographs, revealing the clear foundation has the ability to control oil production and give skin a matte finish

Cult Beauty shared a selection of before and after photographs from people who've used Zero No Pigment Virtual Foundation to achieve an even skin tone.

One woman's skin appears visibly less shiny and although her freckles are still visible, they seem less defined than without the product.

Becca demonstrated the product on models of different skin colours to reveal the product's adaptability, describing it as 'a tall glass of cool water for skin that instantly cools skin on contact while controlling oil production that helps perfect skin with a transparent matte finish'.

The US brand claims the foundation helps you to embrace your natural complexion, while giving a 'glass skin finish'.

One impressed reviewer dubbed the innovative beauty product as perfect for summer.

The shopper wrote: 'I had decided to stop wearing foundation for the summer months as I felt like my skin couldn't breathe enough with foundation, when this product launched I decided to give it a try.

Another side-by-side photograph shows how the clear foundation is able to minimize the appearance of pores. Pictured left: Before. Pictured right: After

A number of reviews on Cult Beauty rated the product five stars, recommending that it's used for a refreshed look throughout summer

'I couldn't be more satisfied, it's super hydrating and it does blur imperfections and mattify. LOVE IT! Will be using it the entire summer!'

Posting a five star review, another added: 'Loved the finish of this product! Really different from anything I've ever tried before - the texture is super smooth and helps give my skin an even but slightly glassy finish.

'I've stripped down my make-up routine as a result of quarantine and this is actually perfect for a more minimal yet refreshed, dewy look.

'It helps wake up my complexion and is great for the summer when I don't want too much layered onto my skin.'

Excited by the reviews, a flood of Instagram users labelled the clear foundation the 'future' of makeup.

Becca recommends applying the clear foundation using fingertips, smoothing the product onto skin in a circular motion. Pictured left: The model's skin before. Pictured right: The model's skin after

A stream of Instagram users were impressed by the release and dubbed the clear foundation the 'future' of makeup

'Wow I actually really like this idea!! I'm so over having to wash my masks every other day because of makeup stains. Plus this would be nice for the gym!,' wrote one.

Another said: 'Now this is new and innovative in the makeup industry'

Cult Beauty recommends applying the foundation using your finger tips, smoothing over your face in a circular motion.

A number of social media users were unconvinced of the products potential to achieve their desired look and began comparing it to a primer.

One person wrote: 'So it's essentially a pore filling primer and a clear gloss that they are saying you can put on your face, just like any gloss.'

Another said: 'No pigment foundation! So basically a primer?'

A third added: 'Becca releasing what basically is a moisturizer and a face gloss and thinking they're reinventing the wheel.'
Catfish products saw the strongest decline among seafood exports in the first six months of the year. With weak demand, a gloomy year is anticipated for the industry.

Companies have been affected because of Covid-19's effects on major export markets, while farmers have suffered heavily as catfish prices have been low since 2019, now hovering around VND18,000-18,500 per kilogram. With this selling price, they incur a loss of VND3,500 per kilogram.





Catfish breeder (30 fish per kilogram) price is still at VND21,000-22,000 per kilogram, but the production cost is VND30,000 per kilogram.



Nguyen Van Dat in Can Tho City leases 1.5 hectares of ponds to produce catfish breeders. In general, the production process lasts three months, but Dat has been farming for nearly one year with moderate feeding, because the selling price was too low months ago and he hoped that prices would increase again. But he finally gave up and has sold breeders at a loss.



With 18 tons of fish, he took a loss of VND75 million.

Catfish products saw the strongest decline among seafood exports in the first six months of the year. With weak demand, a gloomy year is anticipated for the industry.

I have no other choice than to sell fish at a loss to get money to continue farming, while waiting for the prices to increase again, he said.



According to Vo Dong Duc, chair of Caseamex, the seafood industry fell into distress in 2020 because of unfavorable conditions which came at the same time.



Climate change, with drought and saline intrusion, has caused freshwater shortage, leading to difficulties in farming. The catfish price, after reaching its peak in 2018, has been sliding since 2019, causing big losses to farmers.



The situation has worsened since Covid-19, which caused demand to decrease dramatically. Duc of Caseamex said the company has had to postpone a lot of contracts and cannot contact partners because of measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.



According to Duong Nghia Quoc, chair of the Vietnam Pangasius Association, exports have been going very slowly, resulting in a decline in farming area and output.



Commercial catfish has been selling at below production cost for a long time, causing heavy losses. Meanwhile, export companies are struggling with bad debts and higher inventory levels.



The latest report of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) showed that Covid-19 continued to have a big impact on Vietnams seafood exports in Q2. The total seafood export turnover in H1 was $3.5 billion, down by 10.5 percent compared with the same period last year.



Most seafood products saw a decline in exports, while catfish saw the sharpest decline with $659 million worth of export turnover, a decrease of 31.5 percent.

Le Ha

Exporters worried as catfish exports to major markets drop Exporters are mulling plans on how to increase shipments to the US and China after Covid-19 ends.
Syed Geelani quit as chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference last month.

SRINAGAR: Pakistan's Senate on Monday evening unanimously passed a resolution recommending that Kashmirs separatist patriarch Syed Ali Shah Geelani be conferred the countrys highest civilian award Nishan-e-Pakistan' in recognition of his relentless struggle for freedom.

As the 91-year-old ailing leader is all set to receive the neighbouring countrys highest civilian honour, his supporters back home welcomed the passing of the resolution and said it was long-overdue. Corroborating the view, Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a former professor of law and international relations at the University of Kashmir, said Syed Geelani has all along been in favour of Kashmirs accession to Pakistan and has led the resistance movement back home on those lines only. I think it is in recognition of his services that he is being conferred Nishan-e-Pakistan. If you ask me he deserves more than that. It should not surprise anyone nor should it be objected to.

He pointed out that in 1990, former Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai was conferred with this honour for his friendly overtures to Pakistan so much so that he had turned down the suggestion from the erstwhile Soviet Union to attack Pakistan after its invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

Syed Geelani quit as chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference last month and many analysts and sections of the Indian media had seen it and his strongly worded letter to his colleagues in the amalgam faction as an indirect rebuff to Pakistan and its clique in the Kashmiri separatist politics. While some people have termed the resolution passed by Pakistan Parliaments Upper House as an effort to contain the fallout, Syed Geelanis supporters said it is a befitting reply to those trying to create a wedge between the two sides.

However, BJP J-K unit chief, Ravindra Raina, criticised the move and alleged that Pakistan is conferring the national award on its puppet and paid agent. He said, Geelani has along with Pakistan in the last over three decades played a noxious game in Jammu and Kashmir. It is now beyond any doubt that he is a Pakistani agent who with the ilk received money and weapons from its successive governments, the army and the ISI to kill innocent people in J&K. He is a murderer.

Several people took to social media platforms to criticise the move. One of them, Pratiba Kaul, a Kashmiri Pandit, tweeted, Pakistans rogue government conferred Nishan-e-Pakistan to Geelani for uprooting and killing Kashmiri Pandits, our valiant armed forces and thousands of innocent lives. Shame on Pakistan who supports terrorism without any regret.

An Army veteran Brigadier (retired) R.S. Pathania asked whether the Indian government would still appease the separatist leader by issuing him travel documents to visit Pakistan to receive the honour for fomenting terrorism in J-K or we are going to send him there permanently.

Another netizen Dr. Kapil Sharma tweeted, #Lahore Pak senate asking Nishan-e- Pakistan to Geelani. In that scenario the best candidate for Bharat Ratna should be Nawab Akbar Bugti, the Balochistan freedom fighter martyred in 2006. Gen. Musharraf is still under trial for his murder. Think over it.

Though the sexagenarian separatist leader has yet to react to him being recommended for Nishan-e-Pakistan, one of his aides said, Geelani Sahibs stature is above all worldly recognitions. Nevertheless, it is a welcome decision and those who are criticizing it are only venting their frustration.
Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Humza Yousaf - Getty Images Europe

The SNP's controversial hate crime law could lead to the policing of what Scots "think or feel" and criminalise private conversation, the organisation representing rank-and-file officers has warned.

The Scottish Police Federation (SPF) said the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill could mean officers "determining free speech", leading to a breakdown in relations with the public.

In damning submissions to two Holyrood inquiries, the SPF opposed a provision giving officers powers of search and entry by force if necessary and expressed concern the Bill undermined the right to a fair trial.

The Bill would replace criminal intent with "something altogether more nebulous", it said, with "some form of 'accidental effect'" being enough to secure a conviction.

The submissions also predicted the Bill would see a "significant increase in police workload and demand" and said the timing of its publication during the pandemic was "unfortunate at best."

Wow. This from the Scottish Police Federation is 



 Law could devastate legitimacy of the police service



 Bill sits uncomfortably with human rights law



 One day of training to cost at least 4 million



Statement from group in comments below https://t.co/7RmfWr5nS9  Free to Disagree (@_freetodisagree) July 28, 2020

The highly critical verdict of police officers further buttressed the groundswell of opposition to the Bill amid widepsread concern that Scots could be criminalised for expressing controversial views.

The proposed new law would make stirring up hatred against certain groups a criminal offence, even if a person making the remarks had not intended to do so or made them in private, and opponents fear the broadly-defined term could lead to an avalanche of police investigations.

Story continues

Those convicted face up to seven years in prison but the Law Society of Scotland has warned the legislation could limit freedom of expression, which it described as "one of the foundations of a democratic society".

Critics have cited the row over author JK Rowling's views on transgender issues as an example of the sort of comments that would result in a police inquiry under the Bill.

The SPF submission said the Bill risks stifling free speech on such controversial issues and claimed Scots could even face prosecution if they play a song that others deem offensive.

Humza Yousaf, the SNP Justice Secretary, has described the legislation as a "important milestone" in the fight against prejudice.

But Calum Steele, the SPF's general secretary, said: "We are firmly of the view this proposed legislation would see officers policing speech and would devastate the legitimacy of the police in the eyes of the public.

"That can never be an acceptable outcome  and we should never forget that the police in Scotland police only with the consent of the people."

He added: "Police officers are all too aware that there are individuals in society who believe that to feel insulted or offended is a police matter. The Bill would move even further from policing and criminalising of deeds and acts to the potential policing of what people think or feel, as well as the criminalisation of what is said in private."

Receiving more and more constituents letters urging opposition to the Hate Crime Bill, even from SNP supporters. With growing numbers opposing the new stirring up offences as an attack on free speech, @scotgov must think again.  Murdo Fraser (@murdo_fraser) July 27, 2020

Expressing concern at the removal of defences to current hate crimes, he warned that those charged under the legislation "will not have the opportunity to prove that they did not intend to stir up hatred or that they had no reason to suspect their conduct would do so."

Mr Steele said that racism and discrimination can be tackled using existing laws "and the cost to free speech of going further with this Bill is too high a price to pay for very little gain.

The SPF submission to Holyrood's justice and finance committees also warned of a "significant increase" in the number of officers called to court to give evidence "and the huge financial costs of that need to be understood."

It provided a "very conservative estimate" of between 3.5 million and 4 million for providing a day's training on the new Bill for all officers.

Liam Kerr, the Scottish Tories' Shadow Justice Secretary, said: "The SNP government must amend this bill to protect freedom of speech. Lawyers, police officers and a wide range of civic organisations have now expressed serious reservations about the scope and effect of this legislation.

"The Justice Secretarys response to these serious and reasonable concerns appears to be little more than name calling."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: The Bill does not seek to stifle criticism or rigorous debate in any way. People will still be able to express controversial, challenging or even offensive views as long as this is not done in a threatening or abusive way that is intended to stir up hatred or likely to stir up hatred.

The Bill includes provisions on freedom of expression to ensure the prohibition on stirring up hatred will not unduly restrict peoples right to express their faith, or to criticise religious beliefs or practices or sexual practices."
CALGARY, AB, July 27 2020 /PRNewswire/ - OBSIDIAN ENERGY LTD. (TSX: OBE) (OTCQX: OBELF) ("Obsidian Energy", the "Company", "we", "us" or "our") will hold its 2020 annual and special general meeting in person (the "Meeting") on Thursday, July 30, 2020 at 9:00 am (MDT). The Meeting will take place at the Company's head office located at 200  207 9th Avenue S.W., Calgary, Alberta. Additionally, the Company will release our second quarter 2020 results on July 30, 2020.

Annual and Special General Meeting

Due to restrictions on gatherings implemented by the Government of Alberta in response to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak, guidelines issued with respect to social distancing and out of concern for the wellbeing of all participants, we strongly recommend that registered shareholders not attend the meeting in-person. Any person attending the Meeting in person will be required to follow the Company's health and safety measures, which will include physical distancing, use of personal protective equipment (including facemasks) and completion of a health-assessment. The precautionary measures being taken by the Company are intended to reduce the potential risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, and they may be further updated as necessary to take into account evolving recommendations and directives of public health authorities.

Following the conclusion of the Meeting, our Interim President and CEO, Mr. Stephen Loukas, will host a webcast presentation. Please see further details below.

Shareholders can vote in advance of the meeting by mail, telephone or internet in the manner set out in the meeting materials that have been sent to shareholders, copies of which can be accessed on our website at www.obsidianenergy.com.

YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT - PLEASE VOTE TODAY

The Board of Directors recommend that Shareholders vote FOR the proposed resolutions.

Submit your vote in advance of the proxy deposit deadline of

9:00 a.m. (MDT) on Tuesday, July 28, 2020.

Webcast

Following the conclusion of the Meeting, our Interim President and CEO, Mr. Stephen Loukas will host a webcast presentation online on Thursday, July 30, 2020 at 10:30 am Mountain Time (12:30 pm Eastern Time).

This webcast presentation will also be broadcast live on the Internet and may be accessed directly at the following URL:https://produceredition.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1345300&tp_key=e31cae696f

Alternatively, to listen to the conference call, please call 416-764-8659 or 1-888-664-6392 (toll-free).

A question and answer session will be held following the presentation. If you wish to submit a question to the Company, participants can do so through the webcast portal, or by emailing questions ahead time to [email protected].

A recording will be available for replay two hours after the call's completion and will remain available until August 6, 2020. To listen to the replay, please dial 416-764-8677 or 1-888-390-0541 (toll-free) and enter replay code 047571, followed by the pound (#) key.

Second Quarter 2020 Results Date

Obsidian Energy is expected to release its second quarter 2020 financial and operational results before North American markets open on Thursday, July 30, 2020. In addition, the second quarter management's discussion and analysis and the unaudited consolidated financial statements will be available on our website at www.obsidianenergy.com, on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov on or about the same date.

SOURCE Obsidian Energy Ltd.

Related Links

https://www.obsidianenergy.com/


Ryanair is launching new direct flights from Dublin to the Greek islands of Mykonos and Corfu, due to what it says is "popular demand".

The routes, set to take off from August 17 and 20 respectively, follow a new direct service from Dublin to Santorini announced last week.

The airline will also increase frequencies from Dublin to Chania, it says.

"Go Green, Go Greece" is the headline on a press release advertising the flights, which passengers can now book from 29.99 each-way.

Greece is one of 15 countries on Ireland's 'green list' published a week ago - from which travellers do not need to restrict their movements for 14 days on return.

Contacted by the Irish Independent, Ryanair did not specify what "popular demand" meant in terms of bookings, but referred to an earlier statement, in which it called Ireland's 'green list' "bonkers".

A week on, that green list continues to stoke debate... and confusion.

Despite its publication, the Government has said "the safest thing to do is not to travel", while Nphet and several high-profile public health experts have made clear they would prefer people to holiday at home.

However, the Department of Foreign Affairs has downgraded its travel advice from "avoid non-essential travel" to "normal precautions" for green list countries.

It also now explicitly states that the 15 destinations are "exempted" from Ireland's general "non-essential travel" advisory.

In the past week, a small number of holidaymakers have voted with their feet.

Dublin Airport has reported a minor bump in passenger numbers, with an average of 13,500 people a day now passing through since July 21.

That compares to an average of almost 12,000 in the weeks beforehand, but is down a massive 88pc on last July's average of 112,000 passengers daily.

Aer Lingus said it did not have "specific information on booking numbers", but added that, of the countries on the 'green list', it is currently flying to three Italian cities - Rome, Verona and Venice.

The green list is more restrictive than in any country in Europe," it said.

Pat Dawson, CEO of the Irish Travel Agents' Association (ITAA), says he believes people can go to 'green list' countries as long as they proceeded with caution.

"It's obeying Government rules."

Like many in the industry, he has been frustrated by the mixed messaging surrounding overseas travel, but says ITAA members were starting to see a small "bump" in enquiries and bookings.

"There is certainly more life in it, that's for sure - but the problem is we saw what happened with the UK and Spain. People are still very nervous.... and [the bump] won't pay any travel agents' wages."

Along with Ryanair, a number of Irish travel agents have begun to sell holidays to green-list countries.

Sunway and Cassidy Travel are both advertising four-star weeks in Malta from 499pp this August, for example, while Project Travel, a Norway specialist, has re-opened following Norway's inclusion on the list.

"At Sunway, we understand and respect some peoples concern about overseas travel," the company told Independent.ie.

"However, we are fully in line with Government guidelines - we are offering great value to green-list destinations to enable people who want to travel, to do so. There is a pent-up demand for travel and we are facilitating that."

A spokesperson for Cassidy Travel said: "The lack of clarity surrounding foreign travel continues to be unsettling for holidaymakers and the industry alike. However, it is the convention in our business to rely on the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) as the ultimate arbitrar in such matters - while drawing our customers' attention to the risks involved in what is a fluid situation."

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The First Lady Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, has commiserated with the family of the late Madam Akua Denteh, who was tragically lynched at Kafaba, near Salaga in the Savannah Region after being accused of witchcraft.



Some community folks allegedly beat the nonagenarian to death on Thursday, July 23 after a fetish priest accused her of being a witch.



The lynching of ninety-year-old Madam Akua Denteh, is simply abhorrent. It is tragic that in this day and age, Ghanaians, especially women continue to suffer such barbaric and human right violations that undermine our quest for gender equality the First Lady lamented.



The First Ladys message was delivered by Hajia Safoa Mohammed, Savannah Regional Womens Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who led a delegation sent by Mrs Akufo-Addo to the bereaved family.



Madam Mohammed sent the first ladys deepest condolences to the bereaved family and also presented some items to the family.



I am encouraged by the various statements of condemnation by many well-meaning Ghanaians and groups. While the statements are commendable, we must take all necessary steps to bring justice to the family and completely abolish all such negative, abusive and violent practices against women in particular, she said.



Mrs Akufo-Addo also expressed her resolve to continue to work with interest groups to empower women and girls in various ways, including education and skills acquisition, as a means of insulating them from such barbaric practices.



The family of Madam Denteh, expressed appreciation to the First Lady and thanked Ghanaians for the sympathy and support.

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.

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"Leaseweb Cloud Connect provides businesses with an efficient way to build secure networks that interconnect Cloud infrastructures across Leaseweb and public clouds."

Leaseweb Global, a leading hosting and cloud services provider, today announced the launch of Leaseweb Cloud Connect. A hybrid cloud solution, Leaseweb Cloud Connect enables customers to seamlessly connect their Leaseweb-hosted infrastructure to their public cloud or hyperscaler environment and to allow sharing of data and applications between them. In partnership with Megaport, a leading Network as a Service provider, Leaseweb Cloud Connect will initially provide connectivity to AWS, with plans already in place to add other leading hyperscalers throughout the rest of the year.

Leaseweb Cloud Connect is designed for businesses that require the flexibility to move workloads between hyperscalers and Leaseweb's infrastructure in line with changing demands and budgets. Customers will be able to select different connectivity speeds between 100Mbps and 10Gbps, depending on individual project and budget requirements. The new offering provides an elegant, tailored and cost-effective solution to address the lack of customization that many businesses experience when they decide to scale their infrastructure, services, applications, and data within a public cloud environment.

Leaseweb Cloud Connect provides businesses with an efficient way to build secure networks that interconnect Cloud infrastructures across Leaseweb and public clouds, said Nikolaos Kolestsas, Product Manager, Leaseweb Global. The new offering delivers a hybrid cloud solution that allows businesses to use a public cloud for development, PaaS functions, one-off workloads, and big data platforms, all while leveraging Leaseweb for business-critical applications and associated data or specific production environments. Megaports Software Defined Network provides the scalable, secure connectivity to cloud onramps to ensure peak performance. This approach minimizes infrastructure costs and increases the speed at which organizations can bring new products and services to market.

By using Leaseweb Cloud Connect to create a hybrid cloud environment that leverages Leaseweb's secure and high-performance global network, coupled with a Megaport Connected solution, businesses can develop and distribute their services while gaining more control over their cloud-based infrastructure. Leaseweb Cloud Connect achieves this by providing a fast and secure connection to public cloud, which ensures dynamic and cost-effective allocation of resources across the hybrid cloud environment.

Part of Leasewebs Hybrid Connect Concept, Leaseweb Cloud Connect is a Megaport connected solution that is powered by Megaports Software Defined Networking technology and integrated with virtual public cloud interfaces and gateways. The Megaport Connected solution offers the broadest reach of cloud onramps across the globe with more than 170 cloud onramps. The collaboration provides Leaseweb with the opportunity to provide greater options to customers in connecting to public cloud infrastructure to design hybrid solutions that scale and perform.

We are delighted that Leaseweb has chosen our Network as a Service platform to power its new solution, said Eric Troyer, Chief Marketing Officer at Megaport. Leaseweb Cloud Connect reinforces Leasewebs position within the hybrid cloud provider space and allows Leaseweb to provide an extended Cloud access service to their SMB and start-up customers. We value the partnership with Leaseweb and are excited to be able to support the companys continued evolution as hybrid and multi-cloud demand continues to grow throughout Europe.

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Leaseweb is a leading Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider serving a worldwide portfolio of 18,000 customers ranging from SMBs to Enterprises. Services include Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Dedicated Servers, Colocation, Content Delivery Network, and Cyber Security Service s supported by exceptional customer service and technical support. With more than 80,000 servers under management, Leaseweb has provided infrastructure for mission-critical websites, Internet applications, email servers, security, and storage services since 1997. The company operates 20 data centers in locations across Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America, all of which are backed by a superior worldwide network with a total capacity of more than 10 Tbps. Leaseweb offers services through its various subsidiaries, which are Leaseweb Netherlands B.V. (Leaseweb Netherlands), Leaseweb USA, Inc. (Leaseweb USA), Leaseweb Asia Pacific PTE. LTD (Leaseweb Asia), Leaseweb CDN B.V. (Leaseweb CDN), Leaseweb Deutschland GmbH (Leaseweb Germany), Leaseweb Australia Ltd. (Leaseweb Australia) and Leaseweb UK Ltd (Leaseweb UK).

For more information visit: http://www.leaseweb.com.

About Megaport

Megaport is a global leading Network as a Service provider. Using Software Defined Networking (SDN), the Companys global platform enables customers to rapidly connect their network to other services across the Megaport Network. Services can be directly controlled by customers via mobile devices, their computer, or our open API. Megaport connects more than 1,700 customers in over 600 enabled data centres globally. Megaport is an Alibaba Cloud Technology Partner, AWS Technology Partner, AWS Networking Competency Partner, Google Cloud Interconnect Partner, IBM Direct Link Cloud Exchange provider, Microsoft Azure Express Route Partner, Nutanix Direct Connect Partner, Oracle Cloud Partner, Salesforce Express Connect Partner, and SAP PartnerEdge Open Ecosystem Partner. To learn more about Megaport, please visit: http://www.megaport.com.
Afropop/R&B musician Camidoh has revealed that he will never date or marry an industry person.

According to him, he would prefer being with someone who is not a public figure because he wouldnt want their issues to be out there for the world to see.



Two public figures in a relationship wont work for me. This is not to say that the industry ladies are not pretty but we face a lot of distractions and our private lives become public so if I cant have privacy at least my wife or girlfriend should have that.



"I wouldnt want to put everything of mine in the public eye especially when we have children, he told Graphic Showbiz recently.



Camidoh explained that if even he has a crush on an industry person he would try as much as possible to control his feelings.



There is something called self-control and I am very good at that. Just as some serious companies will not allow a man and woman to marry in the same institution I will also not marry or date an industry person and I know this decision will help me, he stated.



Having been in the music business for a decade, one thing Camidoh says is killing the music industry is disunity.



We are divided and that is not cool. There is no unity among us and it's about time we started supporting ourselves. I really admire the Nigerians when it comes to that.



"I expect our musicians to come together and help each other. The A-list artistes could help push the younger ones by promoting their works or even doing collaborations with them.



Can you imagine Sarkodie, Shatta Wale or Stonebwoy promoting a young talented young musician who is now starting his career? With their huge fanbase the new artiste will be known in no time, he said.



Camidoh, whose real name is Raphael Attachie Camidoh has songs such as For My Love, Audio Love, The Best, Maria, Find Love, Tiktok, Hot Pursuit, Good Vibes, The Way, Only One and Loyal.









Source: graphiconline.com









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Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

While working on a book about the peaceful succession of power, I came to realize that built into our system of presidential elections is a Chernobyl-like defect: placed under the right conditions of stress, the system is vulnerable to catastrophic breakdown. The risk of such an electoral meltdown ordinarily is rather small, but this November promises  in a manner last seen in 1876  to present a combination of stressors that could lead to epic failure.

The problem begins  but does not end  with Donald Trump, who, in his recent interview with Chris Wallace, once again reminded the nation that losing is not an option. He will reject any election that results in his loss, claiming it to be rigged. Alarming as this may be, Trump alone cannot crash the system. Instead, an unusual constellation of forces  the need to rely heavily on mail-in ballots because of the Covid-19 pandemic; the political divisions in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania; and a hyper-polarized Congress  all work together to turn Trumps defiance into a crisis of historic proportions.

Should Trump lose decisively  not only in the popular vote, but in electoral college, too  his capacity to engage in constitutional brinkmanship will be limited

Consider the following scenario: its 3 November 2020, election day. By midnight, its clear that former vice-president Biden enjoys a substantial lead in the national popular vote but the electoral college vote remains tight. With the races in 47 states and the District of Columbia called, Biden leads Trump in the electoral college vote 252 to 240, but neither candidate has secured the 270 votes necessary for victory. All eyes remain on Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and their 46 electoral college votes.

In each of these three states, Trump enjoys a slim lead, but the election-day returns do not include a huge number of mail-in ballots. Some states, such as Colorado, have been counting their mail-in votes from the day they arrived, but not Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. These states do not allow elections officials to begin the task of counting the mail-ins until election day itself. It will take days, even weeks, for the key swing states to finish their count. The election hangs in the balance.

Story continues

Only not for Trump. Based on his 3 November leads, Trump has already declared himself re-elected. His reliable megaphones in the rightwing media repeat and amplify his declaration, and urge Biden to concede. Biden says he will do no such thing. Biden knows that the bulk of the mail-in ballots have been cast in heavily populated urban areas, where voters were unwilling to expose themselves to the health risks of in-person voting. And he is keenly aware that urban voters vote overwhelmingly Democratic. Indeed, this phenomenon, in which mail-in and provisional ballots typically break Democratic, has been dubbed blue shift by election law experts.

The count of the mail-in ballots in the three swing states is plagued by delays. Overworked election officials, slowed by the need to maintain social distance, struggle to process the huge volume of votes. Trumps lawyers, aided by the Department of Justice, bring multiple suits insisting that tens of thousands of votes must be tossed out for having failed to arrive by the date specified by statute. All the same, as the count creeps forward, a clear pattern emerges. Trumps lead is shrinking  and then vanishes altogether. By the time the three states complete their canvass of votes nearly a month after the election, the nation faces an astonishing result. Biden now leads in all three. It appears he has been elected our next president.

Only Trump tweets bloody murder. All his most dire predictions have come to pass. The mail-in ballots are infected with fraud. The radical Democrats are trying to steal his victory. The election has been rigged, he says.

Now things take an ominous turn. Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania all share the same political profile: all three states are controlled by Republican legislatures faithful to Trump. And so Republican lawmakers in Lansing, Madison and Harrisburg take up the fight to declare Trump victorious in their state. Citing irregularities and unconscionable delays in the counting of the mail-in ballots, state Republicans award Trump their states electoral college votes.

Yet all three of our crucial swing states also have Democratic governors. Outraged by the actions of Republican lawmakers, the Democratic governors of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania announce that they will recognize Biden as having carried their state. They certify Biden as the winner, and send the certificate cast by his electors on to Congress.

It is now 6 January 2021, the day on which the joint session of Congress opens the states electoral certificates and officially tallies the votes. Normally this is a ceremonial function, but not today. Suddenly Congress is confronted with the astonishing reality that Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have each submitted conflicting electoral certificates  one awarding its electoral college votes to Trump; the other, to Biden. The election hangs in the balance.

Seems far-fetched? And yet the nation faced a nearly identical crisis in the notorious Hayes-Tilden election of 1876, when three separate states submitted conflicting electoral certificates. With neither Hayes nor Tilden enjoying an electoral college majority, a divided Congress  a Democratic House and a Republican Senate  fought bitterly over which certificates to recognize. Congress tried to resolve things by handing the problem to a one-off special electoral commission, but partisan rancor plagued the work of that body, too. Inauguration day neared and the nation had no president-elect or rather, it had two rivals both claiming victory. President Ulysses S Grant weighed declaring martial law.

Catastrophe was avoided only by a last second disastrous compromise between the parties: Republicans agreed to remove federal troops from the south, paving the way to Jim Crow, and in return, Samuel Tilden, the Democrats candidate, agreed to concede. Chastened by that experience, Congress passed a law the Electoral Count Act of 1887 (ECA) meant to guide Congress should a state ever again submit more than one electoral certificate. Since its passage, the provisions of the ECA have been triggered only once  that was back in 1969, and the issue was trivial, with no bearing on Nixons victory.

In January 2021, however, the nation finds itself in a true electoral crisis and lawmakers quickly realize that the 1887 law is glaringly deficient, failing to anticipate the most destabilizing contingencies.

And so Congress descends into acrimonious debate, with each side charging the other with attempting to steal the election. The chambers vote on which certificates to accept, the outcome foreordained. The Senate, which after the 2020 vote remains in Republican control, rejects the governors certificate and accepts the legislatures; the Democratically controlled House votes in precisely the opposite fashion.

Stalemate. Both parties appeal to the US supreme court, but the court  in sharp contrast to its intervention in 2000 in Bush v Gore  proves unable to solve the crisis. Experts insist that the court has no role to play in resolving an election dispute once it reaches Congress, a view that finds support in the ECA itself. With lawmakers in both party declaring that they would not abide by an unfavorable holding, the court chooses not to intervene.

Congress remains deadlocked, with neither party prepared to concede. As protests roil the country, Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, deploying the military to protect his victory. The nation finds itself in a full-blown crisis of succession from which there is no clear, peaceful exit.

Electoral Armageddon can be avoided. Should Trump lose decisively  not only in the popular vote, but in the electoral college, too his capacity to engage in constitutional brinkmanship will be limited. This is not to say that he wont claim the election was rigged, only that his claim will probably not trigger a larger constitutional crisis. But should Trumps defeat turn on the count of mail-in ballots in our crucial swing states, prepare for chaos. Our nation could witness dark times.
At long last the American press and the American public are demanding to know what the Defense Department knows about these strange craft and their strange operators, writes broadcaster and writer Frank Edwards. The day of the denouement cannot be far away.

This sentiment is shared by many who took note of the New York Times most recent report on the militarys tracking of unidentified flying objects. On Thursday, Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Keanwho in recent years have published a number of articles about the U.S. governments interest in UFOswrote that military authorities have not only been tracking reports of unidentified flying objects but will soon be revealing their findings. The article cites a U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report from June confirming that there exists an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force in the Office of Naval Intelligence. The task force is said to be involved in standardizing the collection and reporting on unidentified aerial phenomenon, any links they have to adversarial foreign governments, and the threat they pose to U.S. military assets and installations. Expressing concern that collaboration among intelligence officials about such unidentified phenomena has been inconsistent, the Senate committee has asked the director of national intelligence to submit a report in the next six months on unidentified aerial phenomena (also known as anomalous aerial vehicles).

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The report says nothing about spacecraft or possible alien visitors, and the expressed interest of the committee in these unidentified objects is about possible threats to national security, not extraterrestrial science. But the mention of UFOs in the headline of the article reflects what attracts most readers to stories like these, and Blumenthal and Kean do not disappoint on this count. The article quotes Eric W. Davis, an astrophysicist who has been investigating UFOs and other paranormal phenomena since the mid-1990s. Davis claims that examination of debris that has been retrieved from UFOs has led him to conclude, We couldnt make it ourselves. He also is quoted as saying that he has briefed officials several times in the past year about unexplained objects that are off-world vehicles not made on this Earth. Davis remarkable claims seemed to be substantiated by former Sen. Harry Reid, who the article said had acknowledged that UFO crashes had occurred and materials had been secretly recovered for decadesat least at first.

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In short order, a lengthy correction was appended:

An earlier version of this article inaccurately rendered remarks attributed to Harry Reid, the retired Senate majority leader from Nevada. Mr. Reid said he believed that crashes of objects of unknown origin may have occurred and that retrieved materials should be studied; he did not say that crashes had occurred and that retrieved materials had been studied secretly for decades. An earlier version also misstated the frequency with which the director of national intelligence is supposed to report on unidentified aerial phenomena. It is 180 days after enactment of the intelligence authorization act, not every six months.

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Soon after the article was published, Reid tweeted, I have no knowledgeand I have never suggestedthe federal government or any entity has unidentified flying objects or debris from other worlds. Some felt that the apparent overreach in the initial text reflected the motives of the authors, who in an interview on Saturday dodged the question of whether they believed the unidentified objects were the work of aliens. Journalist Keith Kloor, a vocal critic of the Times UFO coverage, tweeted, If UFOs were truly a national security threat, as NYT keeps suggesting, dont you think it would put a reporter with relevant experience on the story? Instead, it keeps assigning a freelancer who belongs to a UFO organization, referring to Keans membership in UFODATA. And blogger Christopher Bales and Politicos Bryan Bender have raised questions about Eric Davis, looking into whether he is in fact employed where he says hes employed, his close ties to UFO crusaders, and his seeming breach of protocol in publicly talking about apparently secret recovered debris.

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Yet articles like this one consistently connect with readers who are drawn to prospective government revelations about the extraterrestrial origins of UFOsa curiosity alternately encouraged and discouraged by co-author Ralph Blumenthal. One reader commented that The government, or people closely associated with it, have successfully conspired for decades to suppress evidence of alien visitation. In response, Blumenthal wrote that the statement may not be far off, and he was adamant that he and his colleagues have high regard for Eric Daviss credibility. That said, when comments were made referencing Davis belief that the recovered debris was not from Earth, Blumenthal insisted, He didnt say aliens and neither do we.

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Many UFO enthusiasts see these new developments as a sign that we are on the brink of full disclosure about visitors from outer space. They have been buoyed by the crusading efforts of a number of individuals with whom Blumenthal and Kean have consulted, including former intelligence officials Luis Elizondo and Christopher Mellon. The two have gone on to work at a for-profit company called To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences, which is committed to solving the riddle of UFOs. And last May, Elizondo, Mellon, and former Blink-182 band member Tom DeLonge all appeared in a new History Channel TV series in which they campaign for government transparency about UFOs.

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But a fair number of others have had another reaction: ho-hum. And its hard to disagree. Since 2017, Blumenthal and Kean, along with Elizondo and To the Stars, have promised much. Yet, they have delivered little more than evidence that some people in the military have been concerned about some pilots aerial encounters, and that when a U.S. senator and a billionaire aerospace entrepreneur with an interest in the paranormal set their minds to creating an office for studying UFOs, some in the Pentagon are willing to listen. Writing for the Cut, Bridget Read economically expresses the sentiment of many: [J]ust show us the aliens already.

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As a historian, Im used to seeing events as part of long, often barely noticeable, developments, and Im generally not given to surrendering to the car-chase pace of hype, copycat articles, and story corrections. And having been trained to have a critical mindset about sources, Im left dubious by this UFO story. The fact that a small number of names, all part of a network of individuals with shared business interests, keep popping up in these articles should at least give us pause. Moreover, in a story about supposedly innovative technologies and cutting-edge science, no prominent academic specialists are featured or quoted. And its curious that while many of the most prominent figures associated with this story clamor for disclosure, they persist in making cryptic references to secret evidence and privately funded research, far removed from the critical gaze of rigorous review and scholarly scrutiny.

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But maybe the biggest reason I remain unruffled is that its all so very familiar. Reports that definitive government revelations about the alien origins of UFOs are imminent are basically as old as flying saucer sightings themselves. And the hopeful have always been left disappointed. UFO debunker Philip J. Klasswho referred to himself as the monitor of cloudy crystal ballsbegan collecting such failed declarations in 1977. Writing for the Anomalist in 1998, Martin S. Kottmeyer flagged more than 200 such announcements by ufologists, alien contactees, and various paranormal researchers.

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This past May, one of the most respected historians and archivists of ufology, Isaac Koi, chronicled more than 40 prominent instances between 1950 and 2019 where writers or informants declared that official disclosure about extraterrestrial visitors was just around the corner. Koi has analyzed these claims and found a consistent repertoire of reasons given for such pronouncements: a perceived increase in the frequency of reports of UFOs, a perceived increase in media coverage of UFOs, a perceived increase in the release of official documents relating to UFOs, inside information released by government informants, and predictions by psychics.

This bait-and-switch game then is not so much an insincere distraction but rather an integral part of the UFO phenomenon. Thwarted demands for disclosure only add to the mystery surrounding unidentified flying objects. And after all, isnt the mystery the thing?

Oh, and that quote I started this piece with. Its not from last week. Its from Edwards book, Flying SaucersSerious Business, which was published in 1966.

So, well see. Or maybe not.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
DETROIT, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Detroit-based Rocket Companies, Inc. ("Rocket Companies"), today announced plans to commence the roadshow for its proposed IPO. Founded by Dan Gilbert, tech-driven Rocket Companies provides industry-leading real estate, mortgage and financial services, empowering consumers through entities including Rocket Homes, Rocket Auto and Rocket Mortgage, the nation's largest mortgage lender.

Rocket Companies has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") to offer 150,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock to the public. Rocket Companies also intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase additional shares of Class A common stock from Rocket Companies. The initial public offering price is expected to be between $20 and $22 per share. Rocket Companies has applied to list its Class A common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "RKT." The offering is subject to market conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether, or when, the offering may be completed or as to the actual size or terms of the offering.

The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus, which will be filed with the SEC and will be available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. A copy of the preliminary prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained from any of the following sources:

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, New York 10282, telephone: 1-212-902-1171, facsimile: 212-902-9316 or by emailing [email protected] ;

; Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014;

Credit Suisse Securities ( USA ) LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 6933 Louis Stephens Drive, Morrisville, North Carolina 27560, telephone: 1-800-221-1037 or by emailing [email protected] ;

) LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 6933 Louis Stephens Drive, 27560, telephone: 1-800-221-1037 or by emailing ; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, telephone: 1-866-803-9204, or by emailing at [email protected] ;

11717, telephone: 1-866-803-9204, or by emailing at ; RBC Capital Markets, Attention: Equity Syndicate, 200 Vesey Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10281-8098, by telephone at (877) 822-4089 or by email at [email protected] .

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the SEC but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective.

This release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About Rocket Companies

Rocket Companies is a Detroit-based holding company consisting of personal finance and consumer service brands including Rocket Mortgage, Rocket Homes, Rocket Loans, Rocket Auto, Rock Central, Amrock, Core Digital Media, Rock Connections, Lendesk and Edison Financial. Since 1985, Rocket Companies has been obsessed with helping its clients achieve the American dream of home ownership and financial freedom. Rocket Companies offers an industry-leading client experience powered by our simple, fast, and trusted digital solutions. Rocket Companies has 20,000 team members across the United States. Its flagship company, Rocket Mortgage, has been named to Fortune magazine's list of "100 Best Companies to Work For" for 17 consecutive years.

Rocket Companies, Inc.

1050 Woodward Ave

Detroit, MI 48226

Media Contacts:

Rocket Companies:

Aaron Emerson

[email protected]

Aaron Walker

[email protected]

Edelman for Rocket Companies:

[email protected]

Julia Sahin

(646) 301-2968

Ted McHugh

(201) 341-0211

SOURCE Rocket Companies
dozens of refugees have fled to Sicily from their Corona-quarantine in a crowded, windowless tent. According to newspaper reports, were in the for a hundred people lined tent in the Sicilian Porto Empedocle, about 500 refugees, which should serve a 14-day quarantine. On Sunday, nearly 200 migrants from another institution had fled.

The interior Ministry reported that most of the Fugitives had been found. In none of the Tested so far, the Coronavirus has been discovered. The mayor of Porto Empedocle, Ida Carmina denounced the inhumane conditions and urged the government and the European Commission to Act.

criticism from the Italian Minister of foreign Affairs

Minister of foreign Affairs, Luigi Di Maio criticized on Facebook for the breach of the Corona-quarantine. It was "inconceivable" that someone respects the quarantine rules. "Migrants or not," it was a matter of public health. "The Virus has not disappeared," he added. According to di Maio 125 of 184 on Sunday that broke out, refugees have been found by the police again.

The Italian interior Minister, Luciana Lamorgese, announced that the government would repurpose "in the next few days," a Navy ship to a quarantine facility for migrants.

At a Meeting with the Tunisian President, Kais Saied, and last week appointed a new head of government Hichem Mechichi, they also expressed the "strong Italian concern" about the rising Numbers of migrants from Tunisia. The Tunisian economy is hit by the Corona-measures, there is high unemployment and political turmoil. Of 11.191 refugees since the 24. July have arrived in Italy, started more than 5200 from Tunisia, almost 4,000 Tunisian citizens.

In Sicily has led to the increasing number of incoming migrants, recent protests, especially after some of them were positive in the Coronavirus tested.

Updated Date: 27 July 2020, 22:19
A horse owner faced charges in Naas District Court on July 16 of not caring for a horse.

Pat Joseph Hayes (37) of Maddenstown South, Kildoon, Nurney, was charged with Section 11, 12 and 13 of the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013.

Mr Hayes is also charged with having no horse passport for the thoroughbred gelding on February 24 last.

The court heard that gardai and a vet attended the scene after a complaint from a member of the public that a horse was in distress in a field.

Sgt Brian Jacob told the court that the horse had very poor body condition, was suffering from cardiac disease, was malnourished and had ribs protruding through its back.

There was also no bedding, water or food present, the court was told.

Judge Desmond Zaidan said: The alleged state of the injuries is appalling.

Judge Zaidan was told Horse Racing Ireland examined the rest of Mr Hayes yard and found all other horses were well cared for.

The matter was adjourned to September 24 for the service of a Book of Evidence.
The decision to hold a small, secretive independent review rather than a public inquiry into the massacre of 22 people in Portapique this year does to Nova Scotians what the killer failed to do: crush survivors dignity and spirit. Two levels of government are kicking citizens when theyre down.

The main function of government is to protect its citizens against violent death. As American attitudes about guns, violence, and male supremacy bleed into Canada, there will be more massacres, with police just as arrogant and unable to cope with a psychopathic killer as they were this year.

Nova Scotia needs a public inquiry where no one can refuse to appear or answer questions, presided over by people independent of the judiciary, government, and police, where every fragment of knowledge about a monster and his playground will be revealed. Transparency, a huge sheet of glass, is what Canadians  not just Nova Scotians  need.

The Atlantic provinces are not wealthy. They have notoriously poor policing and their citizens, especially women, are easily bullied by contemptuous male premiers. It remains extremely hard for women to get abortions. Treating these provinces as backwaters gives some premiers a mean kind of power.

I understand that Premier Stephen McNeil, one of the most mediocre premiers in a national crew thick with inadequates, might wish to set up a tepid panel of three people who have worked in courts, government, and policing  theyre part of the establishment that allowed this to happen  but Im surprised to see federal Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair join him in announcing this.

Blair has been very good on the gun control question, and hes a fair-minded man. A former cop, he oversees the RCMP, Canadas national police force, and has always understood criminals like mass killer Gabriel Wortman. You would think a star performer in the Liberal cabinet would know to say that this is not good enough. What a stumble for the governing Liberals.

Wortman, 51, was a monster, a madman, one of what have come to be known as injustice collectors, the type of man who nurtured minor slights for years and then killed the people he hated, especially women.

More recently in the U.S., Roy Den Hollander, 72, a U.S. woman-hater who had spent his life venting rage about female freedom and social advantages, killed the family of a female judge he hated. He had a kill list, mostly women. It could have been worse.

In 2018, Alek Minassian, 25, allegedly drove a van down crowded Yonge Street killing 10 people, eight of whom were women. He collected injustices too: he hated women because they found him repellent.

Just like Minassian, Faisal Hussain, 29, shot 13 people on the Danforth in 2018, killing a young woman and a girl. He had read misogynistic incel sites online, coaxing flames in the fire he was building to destroy women.

These killers are a type. A public inquiry would be able to delve deeply into the misogyny behind terrible killings like these, which is helpful because there will be more.

In Nova Scotia, if police had taken reports seriously and enforced gun rules, investigated rumours, searched buildings, arrested men for attacking women, and tracked the billowing local drug trade, the massacre might not have happened. But police everywhere are a force unto themselves.

A panel of three worthies that keeps witness testimony secret, cant compel anyone to appear, wont let the public watch hearings, and wants to wrap the mess up by next year isnt going to find anything new.

The RCMP protect themselves. This time they will be concealing ineptitude, cowardice, arrogance, stupidity, and slow-thinking, all of which left women who thought they were safe to go out for a nice walk, where they would encounter their worst nightmare: a psychopath.

It was a horror movie. It was femicide, as so many murders are.

There is a powerful voice calling out for justice in the Nova Scotia massacre, even if you cant hear it. The victims are asking from their graves: Who will speak for us?

Hush now, is what that review panel will say.

Heather Mallick is a Toronto-based columnist covering current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: is a Toronto-based columnist covering current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @HeatherMallick

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PHILADELPHIA, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- American Homebuilders of West Africa, the premier production home builder serving West Africans in the diaspora and those resident in the region, announced the successful first close of its convertible promissory note capital raise.



This expansion round, like the firm's previous two capital raises, attracted investment from both corporate investment vehicles and individuals. Most notably, it included the first former client of AHWA's to complete purchase of a home, repayment of the financed portion of the purchase, and investment in the company.



"We built this company to deliver value to West Africans, many of whom suffer both the denial of access to full engagement in the economies of the OECD countries where they work, and the difficulty of supporting friends and relatives living on the continent. To see someone who bought one of our homes and worked with us through financial qualification, turn around and say she believes in the business enough to invest in it is truly the vote of confidence that makes us feel like we are doing something right," said Jonathan Halloran, Co-Founder and CEO.



The new capital will be deployed for land acquisition and for additional investment in AHWA's team. Robert Hornsby, Co-Founder and CFO, said he was glad to have achieved this milestone and looks forward to the ongoing impact of this investment. "The past few months have been challenging around the world as individuals, businesses, and governments seek out the best responses to a global pandemic. Every little bit of good news that points the way to a brighter future is something to be celebrated. We launched this company in 2014 just as the Ebola epidemic was heating up in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone; we launched this most recent capital raise just as the first cases of COVID-19 were incubating in Wuhan. We know we haven't seen the last obstacle, but we are confident that our solution to this massive housing problem will remain compelling through multiple business cycles," Robert added.



The company's current investment round is structured as a Regulation D, 506(c) raise. It remains open to limited additional investment until the termination of the offering on September 30.



Media Contact:

Laura Prelle

[email protected]

+1-215-253-3691



Photos:

https://www.prlog.org/12831634



Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE American Homebuilders of West Africa
An artist's impression of the Ca Na steel project in the central province of Ninh Thuan. Photo courtesy of Ninh Thuan Province.

The Hoa Sen Group is backing off from a $10 billion steel complex in Ninh Thuan Province, saying it no longer fits its growth strategy.

The company, among the biggest steelmakers in Vietnam, said in a statement that it will sell two of six companies that are involved with the Ca Na Steel Project.

The two companies have a charter capital of VND50 billion ($2.2 million) each, and Hoa Sen will find buyers with deep pockets and experience. It will dissolve the four remaining subsidiaries.

Hoa Sen said the project no longer fits the initial vision it had when it proposed the project in 2016, aiming at a capacity of 16 million tonnes of steel a year.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade had included the project in the national steel production plan for 2025 with vision until 2035.

But in April 2016, Vietnam went through one of its worst environmental disasters caused by a unit of Taiwan conglomerate Formosa Plastics in central Vietnam.

Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, which ran a $11-billion steel plant, polluted more than 200 km (125 miles) of coastline in April, killing more than 100 tons of fish, devastating the environment and severely damaging the economies of four provinces.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in April 2017 demanded that Hoa Sens Ca Na steel project be suspended and asked the company and Ninh Thuan authorities to review it.

The Hoa Sen Group posted post-tax profits of over VND700 billion ($30.2 million) in the first nine months of the 2019-2020 financial year, up 153 percent year-on-year.
Representative image

The potential bidders attending the first pre-bid conference hosted by the Indian Railways (IR) last week had one pertinent question: how can the IR be an operator and also conduct the bidding for private parties to operate trains? A source privy to the details of the pre-bid meeting said that many participants in the conference wondered about such conflict of interest and some tough questions may be posed in writing by them, when the second such conference happens in August.

Uppermost in the minds of many potential bidders is getting the IR to establish a resolution mechanism for resolving future disputes on fares, service standards and other operational parameters, when it offers some of the trains to private operators. In other words, the bidders are seeking a clear regulatory mechanism before they come forward to place bids.

The need for a regulator has been discussed and debated for decades, even when the prospect of private operators was nowhere in the horizon. It has also been underlined for almost two decades by various committees. The first recommendation for an independent regulator was made in 2001 by the Rakesh Mohan committee, which wanted such a body to fix tariffs. This need was re-emphasized by several other panels, the latest being the Bibek Debroy Committee in 2015. In 2017, the Union Cabinet had approved the setting up of a regulator called the Rail Development Authority (RDA). But till date, it remains on paper.

Now, as the IR steams ahead with plans to offer about 5% of its network (151 trains) to private operators, the need for a regulator is being highlighted once again. The IR has initiated a two-stage bidding process to award 12 rail clusters to private operators. The bidder would be free to fix fares as per the concession agreement and levy other charges normally seen in air travel, such as those for preferred seats, luggage etc.

V K Yadav, chairman of the Railway Board, has also subsequently spoken of the need to establish a regulator but details - of the role of this proposed regulator and a timeframe within which it will be established -have not emerged. A spokesperson for the IR remained unavailable for comments.

Globally, rail networks perform efficiently because of independent regulation. Regulators function with different responsibilities across Europe. The ARAFER is the French railway regulator, which regulates fares besides ensuring fair access to the network by ruling on access charging disputes regarding infrastructure and station access. Germany had two separate regulators: 1) The Federal Network Agency BNetzA is responsible for ensuring non-discriminatory access and charges to operate on the network. This includes regulating the cost to operators to use the network (the Track Access Charges), reviewing principles for setting TACs and the allocation of network capacity. 2) The EBA is the regulator for technical and safety aspects.

In Japan, rail services are provided by around 200 companies. The Railway Bureau within the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport regulates the market through the control of fares (upper limit based on a margin on efficient costs); approving the introduction of new services (noting that new service introduction is a commercial decision by the Companies); and by providing some oversight on access charges. The MLIT is also the safety regulator.

In the Indian context, the approval for setting up of RDA came three years back when it was believed that the IR will continue to function wholly as a government owned entity. At the time, RDAs role was merely advisory. Its remit included advising the government on pricing of services commensurate with costs; ensuring quality of service; benchmarking of service standards against international norms and enforcing standards on quality, continuity and reliability of services. So will the IR now consider setting up an economic regulator like the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) or take up examples from other countries?

Manish Agarwal, Partner at PwC told Moneycontrol, A typical economic regulator like in power or airports sectors would be ideal but that will require significant reforms in the IR. For example, separation of operations (which will compete with the private operators) and infrastructure management (tracks, signaling etc) could significantly address investor concerns but such sector restructuring does not seem to be on the cards as of now. I think what investors need is an empowered third party which can enforce operational commitments in the agreement and is sensitive to commercial requirements of the investor-operators.

A stakeholder in the bidding process, who declined to be identified, said it was critical to have an independent regulator in place so that potential bidders feel confident of project viability. This kind of operation is based on performance of both parties involved (IR and private bidder). One party cannot alone ensure quality of service to passengers. IR is providing the infrastructure while the private operator is investing and bringing in trains etc. So the track and signaling must be in good condition  else train punctuality and therefore service standards would suffer. Who will decide which party was at fault? So regulator is definitely needed. This regulator should be empowered to sort out disputes on fares and service parameters.

Sindhu Bhattacharya is a journalist based in Delhi who writes on a range of topics in business and economy.

Ajay Shukla, retired Member (Traffic) of the Railway Board pointed out that only a minuscule number of trains were being offered to private operators, on conditions fixed by IR. So actually successful bidders may be called contractors working for the IR since performance criteria will be fixed before hand anyway. This includes fares. And if this is the model for bids, then a regulator may have little to do.
Resource nationalism is one of the key risks miners will face in the increasingly volatile macroeconomic environment, worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic, global law firm White & Case told Fastmarkets this week.

This is due to the stretched national budgets that governments are facing after supporting their economies through monetary and fiscal policies amid the Covid-19 outbreak, along with increased health-care spending.



Fiscally stretched governments that are looking for alternative sources of revenue amid high commodity prices may target foreign investors, which have already sunk large capital expenditure into major mining projects, John Tivey, a partner at the law firm, said.



This is especially so with commodity prices riding high on returning confidence in China and demand for haven assets, such as gold bullion.



In such an environment, it is easy to see why foreign investors are easy political targets for additional taxes or government share, Tivey said.



Resource nationalism is most likely to manifest in the forms of increased taxation, in-country beneficiation, contract renegotiations, forced equity transfers or restrictions on exports, according to a straw poll conducted by the New York-based firm, which formed part of its report on environmental, social and corporate governance amid the Covid-19 pandemic.



These methods can be utilized by host governments with limited risk of the source of the wealth, ie the mine, being lost. Any all-out nationalization of the asset may result in the mine being unprofitable, Tivey, one of the co-authors of the report, said.



In 2019, the government of Sierra Leone instituted an export ban and canceled the iron ore mining license of Gerald Metals subsidiary SL Mining for its Marampa iron ore mine.



It later detained five expatriate managers of SL Mining, alleging they had incited unrest that led to the destruction of property in the township of Lunsar. This followed a government-imposed suspension on SL Minings mine.



In the same year, the Indonesian government - after the re-election of President Joko Widodo - brought forward its a ban on nickel ore exports to 2020 from 2022 in an effort to boost its own nickel industry, including the development of processing facilities, and increase value across the domestic supply chain.



Governments are unlikely to make a decision to nationalize 100% of mines due to their exposure to the rights of mining companies under investment agreements and international treaties.



Risky regions

The risk of resource nationalization is especially high in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and Southeast Asia.



These regions can see the situation inflamed by lobbying by influential local groups that aim to exploit the perception that wealth from a mining project invested by a private company is not being shared sufficiently with stakeholders in the host jurisdiction, just so that they can further their own objectives, Tivey said.



Swiss trader Glencore remains in the midst of talks with the Zambian government regarding operations at subsidiary Mopani Copper Mines, it said in its first-quarter 2020 production report released in early June.



The Zambian government had threatened to revoke Glencore's mining license in April due to the miner closing a key mine as a result of falling copper prices and restrictions related to Covid-19.



The drive to nationalize natural resources is especially so with commodity prices riding high on returning confidence in China and demand for haven assets such as gold.



Investors are also seeing gold as a safe harbor, given the uncertainty in the global economy. Iron ore and copper prices are being driven by the Chinese recovery," Tivey said.



In iron ore, the impact of Covid-19 on iron ore production in Brazil is also driving up prices, as are copper prices edging higher on the back of the Chinese recovery, he added.



Iron ore prices have recovered steadily through the first half of the year, from when the Covid-19 pandemic set in, with Fastmarkets iron ore 62% Fe fines index increasing to a peak of $112.48 per tonne cfr Qingdao on July 14 from an intra-year low of $80.38 per tonne cfr Qingdao on February 3.



The iron ore 65% Fe Brazil-origin fines index has performed similarly well, climbing to a peak of $123.90 per tonne cfr Qingdao on July 15 from an intra-year low of $95.30 per tonne cfr Qingdao on February 3.



Fastmarkets assessment of the copper grade A cathode premium climbed to $95-120 per tonne cif Shanghai on May 15 from $33-48 per tonne on January 7, shrugging off the effects of the coronavirus pandemic almost entirely.



White & Case, in its report, also listed global market weakness, supply chain disruptions and commodity prices as the other key risks flagged by respondents to its poll.



Enforcement on environmental protection, sanctions

White & Case's straw poll also showed increasingly stringent government enforcement activity in the mining sectors on the key areas of environmental protection and sanctions.



The United States, China and Australia are expected to be the most active in bringing about these actions.



They have the most developed regulatory regimes and the associated regulatory agencies are adequately resourced. They are also supported by an independent and highly developed court system, Tivey said.



China has been stringently cutting excess capacity and drawing down the operations of steelmakers that are not able to meet national ultra-low emission air-pollution standards, requiring old blast furnaces to be shut and replaced by compliant, more environmentally friendly units or by electric-arc furnaces.



But White & Case believes that Africa, Latin America, East Asia (excluding China) and Russia will unlikely be able to bring about enforcement action due to an absence of adequately resourced government agencies and instances of parties not being able to access an independent judicial system that can review decisions effectively.
Researchers identify evolutionary origins of SARS-CoV-2

By reconstructing the evolutionary history of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, an international research team of Chinese, European and U.S. scientists has discovered that the lineage that gave rise to the virus has been circulating in bats for decades and likely includes other viruses with the ability to infect humans. The findings, which University of Glasgow scientists contributed to, have implications for the prevention of future pandemics stemming from this lineage.

Coronaviruses have genetic material that is highly recombinant, meaning different regions of the viruss genome can be derived from multiple sources, said Maciej Boni, associate professor of biology, Penn State. This has made it difficult to reconstruct SARS-CoV-2s origins. You have to identify all the regions that have been recombining and trace their histories. To do that, we put together a diverse team with expertise in recombination, phylogenetic dating, virus sampling, and molecular and viral evolution.

The team used three different bioinformatic approaches to identify and remove the recombinant regions within the SARS-CoV-2 genome. Next, they reconstructed phylogenetic histories for the non-recombinant regions and compared them to each other to see which specific viruses have been involved in recombination events in the past. They were able to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships between SARS-CoV-2 and its closest known bat and pangolin viruses. Their findings appear today in Nature Microbiology.

The researchers found that the lineage of viruses to which SARS-CoV-2 belongs diverged from other bat viruses about 40-70 years ago. Importantly, although SARS-CoV-2 is genetically similar (about 96%) to the RaTG13 coronavirus, which was sampled from a Rhinolophus affinis horseshoe bat in 2013 in Yunnan province, China, the team found that it diverged from RaTG13 a relatively long time ago, in 1969.

The ability to estimate divergence times after disentangling recombination histories, which is something we developed in this collaboration, may lead to insights into the origins of many different viral pathogens, said Philippe Lemey, principal investigator in the Department of Evolutionary and Computational Virology, KE Leuven.

The team found that one of the older traits that SARS-CoV-2 shares with its relatives is the receptor-binding domain (RBD) located on the Spike protein, which enables the virus to recognize and bind to receptors on the surfaces of human cells.

This means that other viruses that are capable of infecting humans are circulating in horseshoe bats in China, said David L. Robertson, professor of computational virology, MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research.

Will these viruses be capable of jumping directly from bats into humans or will an intermediate species be required to make the leap? According to Robertson, for SARS-CoV-2, other research groups incorrectly proposed that key evolutionary changes occurred in pangolins.

SARS-CoV-2s RBD sequence has so far only been found in a few pangolin viruses, said Robertson. Furthermore, the other key feature thought to be instrumental to SARS-CoV-2s ability to infect humans  a polybasic cleavage site insertion in the Spike protein  has not yet been seen in another close bat relative of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Yet, while it is possible that pangolins may have acted as an intermediate host facilitating transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans, no evidence exists to suggest that pangolin infection is a requirement for bat viruses to cross into humans. Instead, our research suggests that SARS-CoV-2 likely evolved the ability to replicate in the upper respiratory tract of both humans and pangolins.

The team concluded that preventing future pandemics will require better sampling within wild bats and the implementation of human disease surveillance systems that are able to identify novel pathogens in humans and respond in real time.

The key to successful surveillance, said Robertson, is knowing which viruses to look for and prioritizing those that can readily infect humans. We should have been better prepared for a second SARS virus.

Boni added, We were too late in responding to the initial SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, but this will not be our last coronavirus pandemic. A much more comprehensive and real-time surveillance system needs to be put in place to catch viruses like this when case numbers are still in the double digits.

Other authors on the paper include: Xiaowei Jiang, lecturer in bioinformatics, Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University; Tommy Tsan-Yuk Lam, assistant professor of public health, University of Hong Kong; Blair Perry, graduate student, University of Texas Arlington; and Todd Castoe, associate professor of biology, University of Texas Arlington; and Andrew Rambaut, professor of molecular evolution, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh.

Support for this research was provided by the European Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the Research Foundation  Flanders and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Enquiries: ali.howard@glasgow.ac.uk or elizabeth.mcmeekin@glasgow.ac.uk / 0141 330 6557 or 0141 330 4831
OPEC is trying to come to terms with the idea that the coronavirus crisis may have brought with it permanent changes in consumer behavior, stifling oil demand over the next two decades in stark contrast to the demand that the cartel had expected just a year ago.

Some officials at OPEC are admitting the possibility  unthinkable until just six months ago  that global oil demand may not recover to the pre-pandemic levels, ever, OPEC officials and industry sources close to the cartel told Reuters Alex Lawler.

In the wake of the demand destruction in the pandemic, OPEC now faces a new long-term conundrum on top of its short-term mission to manage oil supply during the crisis. This new problem for the cartel is how to make the most of its oil and get the most revenues for it in a world in which oil demand growth could be much slower than anticipated, or zero.

A key concern at OPEC is whether the COVID-19 crisis has significantly accelerated the timeline of peak oil demand, or whether we are already past that peak, according to OPEC officials and sources close to OPEC who spoke to Reuters.

Some of the top executives in the industry, including Shell and BPs CEOs, are not committing to predictions, but they admitted earlier this year that we dont know what lies beyond this crisis. They also admit that oil demand might have peaked.

[E]nergy demand and certainly mobility demand will be lower even when this crisis more or less [is] behind us. Will it mean that it will never recover? Its probably too early to say. But it will have a permanent knock for years, Shells chief executive Ben van Beurden told IHS Markit Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin in an interview earlier this month.

BPs chief executive Bernard Looney is not ruling out either that the oil demand crash and perhaps the subsequent lasting change in peoples lifestyle may have already brought about peak oil demand.

OPEC, as usual, is not publicly expressing any worries about peak oil demand. Yet, if there is a lasting change in demand patterns after the crisis, the cartel and its members  many of which rely heavily on oil revenues for budget income  may be in for many behind-closed-doors meetings and brainstorming sessions about what to do next.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Germany has become the latest country to impose new travel restrictions on Spain after foreign holidays were linked to a 'concerning' rise in cases in Germany.

Days after Britain ordered a two-week quarantine for people returning from Spain, Germany has now advised tourists to avoid the regions of Catalonia, Aragon and Navarre - but not the southern coast or the Spanish islands.

Berlin's top diseases expert said today that Germany's own rise in cases is of 'great concern' and could be the start of a second wave.

A rise of 3,897 new cases in the last week - compared to 2,970 in the previous seven days - has sparked fears of a resurgence in Germany, which has so far been praised for its handling of the pandemic.

Unlike in mid-June, when a previous spike in cases was largely traceable to a handful of local outbreaks including at the Toennies meat factory, the latest increase is taking place across Germany and has been linked to foreign holidays, workplaces, family reunions and leisure activities.

Today's figures showed 633 new cases in one of the highest single-day jumps in recent weeks, although the daily death toll remained very low at four.

Off limits: Germany has told its citizens not to travel to Catalonia (where people are pictured on the beach in Barcelona) and Spain's other Covid-19 hotspots

Germany has seen an increase in cases in recent days, prompting fears of a second wave in a country generally praised for its handling of the pandemic

Spain yesterday announced 6,361 new cases including those recorded over the weekend, up from 4,581 in last Monday's update and 2,045 the week before

Updated travel advice from the German foreign ministry says that non-essential travel to Aragon, Catalonia and Navarra is currently 'discouraged due to renewed high levels of infections and local lockdowns'.

Britain has gone further by advising against non-essential travel to all parts of Spain, including to the Balearic and Canary Islands which were added yesterday.

France has also advised against travel to Catalonia, while Norway has re-imposed quarantine rules for people returning from Spain.

Spain yesterday announced 6,361 new cases including those recorded over the weekend, up from 4,581 in last Monday's update and 2,045 the week before.

Millions of people in Catalonia have been told to stay at home while other parts of Spain have imposed their own restrictions.

In Germany, the rise has been less steep but the closely-watched R rate has been above the 1.0 threshold for much of the last two weeks, currently sitting at 1.28.

Lothar Wieler, the head of Germany's Robert Koch diseases institute (RKI), said today that 'we must prevent the virus from spreading rapidly and uncontrollably'.

'The latest developments in the number of Covid-19 cases is of great concern to me and all of us at the RKI,' he said.

'We don't know if this is the start of a second wave but it could be,' Wieler said, urging people to maintain social distancing rules and wear face masks.

The RKI warned in its daily report that the virus was reappearing in places which had previously gone a week or more without a new case.

Two weeks ago, there were 125 districts with no new cases in the last week but that number has now fallen by nearly a third to 88.

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia accounted for 269 of Germany's 633 new cases today, while Bavaria had 88 and neighbouring Baden-Wuerttemberg had 98.

'Nationwide, there are many smaller incidents in different administrative districts, which are connected in different ways, e.g. larger celebrations in the family settings, leisure activities, jobs, but also in community and health facilities,' the RKI said.

'In addition, Covid-19 cases are increasingly being identified among people returning from travels outside of Germany.

'The number of new cases reported daily had already increased in recent days. This development is very concerning and will continue to be monitored very closely by the RKI.

'A further worsening of the situation must be avoided at all costs. This will only succeed if the entire population continues to be committed, e.g. by consistently observing rules of distance and hygiene - also in outdoor settings, airing indoor areas and, where necessary, wearing a face mask correctly.'

Health workers collect samples at a makeshift coronavirus testing station in Bavaria yesterday, amid a 'concerning' rise in Covid-19 cases in Germany

Coronavirus deaths in Germany remain low with only four recorded in the last three days, although the number in the last seven days (32) is higher than in the previous week (22)

Germany has also differed from Britain by ordering mandatory coronavirus tests at airports for people returning from high-risk areas.

Some airports had already started installing testing facilities and the checks will become mandatory from next week.

'We must prevent returning travellers from infecting others unnoticed and thus triggering new chains of infection,' said health minister Jens Spahn.

'I will therefore order compulsory testing for travellers from risk areas,' he announced on Monday.

After a meeting with state officials on Monday, Angela Merkel's chief of staff Helge Braun said there was a 'great willingness to move closer to such mandatory tests'.

'From what we have experienced in the last few days, with over 800 cases a day in some cases, we must get back into a situation where we are well below 500,' Braun said.

Bavarian premier Markus Soeder had earlier joined a growing chorus of voices calling for tests to become compulsory for returning holidaymakers.

'We are preparing everything so that if the federal government gives the go-ahead, we can implement it immediately,' he said.

However, the move has also attracted criticism from those who believe too much reliance on tests could lead to complacency.

'One-off tests do not offer any security,' Ute Teichert, the head of a national doctors' association, said in an interview with the Funke media group. 'On the contrary: They can lead to a false sense of security.'

Passengers wait to be tested at a coronavirus screening station in Duesseldorf today after the state of North Rhine-Westphalia ordered screening to take place at three airports

In Bavaria, Soeder said the state will set up coronavirus test sites at its two biggest railway stations as well as key points on motorways.

On top of existing test centres at Bavarian airports, tests will now be offered at the Munich and Nuremberg train stations, as well as on three major motorway routes near the Austrian border.

'We cannot completely prevent corona, so the goal must be to detect it in time to stop it from spreading,' Soeder said.

Soeder said Bavaria will also be testing all seasonal agricultural workers in the state, following a mass coronavirus outbreak at a large farm.

Some 500 workers have been sent into quarantine over the outbreak, as at least 174 seasonal farmhands tested positive for the virus on the farm in the municipality of Mamming, most of them from Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine.

Workers wearing masks could be seen on Monday milling around on the steps of the containers used to house them at the isolated rural site.

Residents in the municipality of Mamming have been offered free coronavirus tests, with various improvised test centres set up in the area.

While cases have increased noticeably, deaths remain low with fewer than 10 fatalities being recorded on most days.

Nonetheless, the figure in the last seven days (32) is slightly higher than in the previous week (22).

Four new deaths today took the total to 9,122, a far lower figure than in Britain, Spain, Italy or France.
The Regional Meteorological Centre, Delhi, has issued heavy rain warning for Delhi on July 29 and 30 when disruption of traffic and water logging is likely.

The forecast says Delhi NCR is likely to experience moderate category rain with a few heavy spells (over 65 mm) during the evening on July 29 and 30.

Disruption of traffic, flooding on major roads, water-logging and disruption of municipal services like water and power is likely.

Currently the monsoon trough (line of low pressure) is running close to the Himalayan foothills. From July 28 evening monsoon trough will shift southwards and continue to pass very close to DelhiNCR. During this period, southwesterly winds from Arabian Sea and easterly winds from Bay of Bengal will reach Haryana, Delhi NCR, west UP and north east Rajasthan. Under the influence of these systems heavy to very heavy rain will occur in these areas, said Kuldeep Shrivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre. Presently Delhi has a rain deficit of 22%.
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New coronavirus cases across the United States have started to decline for the first time in five weeks and the average daily toll of 66,000 infections is now the lowest it has been in 10 days.

Infections have been surging since early June when COVID-19 started spreading rapidly throughout the Sunbelt states and the US recorded single daily highs of more than 77,000 infections.

The US is now showing early signs that surging case numbers may be leveling out with week-over-week tallies showing infections have dropped two percent for the first time after rising steadily for five weeks.

The seven-day average for daily infections this week is now just under 66,000.

There has now been more than 4.29 million infections recorded across the United States and nearly 148,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.

The downward trend in cases is prominent in the hotspot states of Florida, Texas, Arizona and California where governors and local officials rolled back reopenings to curb the infection rate.

But even as cases start to plateau in those hard-hit states, 22 other states are currently seeing an increase in new infections.

New coronavirus cases across the United States have started to decline for the first time in five weeks. The downward trend in cases is prominent in the hotspot states of Florida, Texas, Arizona and California. But even as cases start to plateau in those hard-hit states, 22 other states - mostly in the Midwest - are currently seeing an increase in new infections

The US is now showing early signs that surging case numbers may be leveling out. The seven-day average for daily infections this week is now just under 66,000

Deaths across the US have risen for the third straight week with 15 states reporting weekly increases in fatalities for at least two consecutive weeks. Deaths are a lagging indicator and can continue to rise weeks after new infections drop

Twenty states are seeing steady case numbers and eight states saw decreases in the number of infections in the last week.

Cases are mostly rising in the Midwest, which public health officials say is a sign the virus is spreading north from the Sunbelt states.

Infections also surged this week in some Northeastern states, like New Jersey, where infections fell after peaking in April.

The states that saw the highest increases compared to the previous week are Hawaii (87.6%), New Jersey (67%), Alaska (64%), Mississippi (52%), Connecticut (45.7%), Nebraska (44%) and Missouri (38.7%).

Meanwhile, deaths across the US have risen for the third straight week with 15 states reporting weekly increases in fatalities for at least two consecutive weeks, according to a Reuters tally of state and county reports.

In Texas, more than 1,000 people died in the last seven days, or 20 percent of the state's more than 5,000 total deaths.

Deaths increased in the last week in Georgia (89%), Missouri (85%), Kansas (80%), South Carolina (73%), Louisiana (73%), New Mexico (65%) and Nevada (61%).

Even those deaths are rising across the US, they remain well below levels seen in April when an average of 2,000 people a day were dying from the virus.

Health experts have indicated the death toll may not be as bad this time around possibly because a large share of the current cases are younger people, who are less likely to die, and because of advances in treatment and knowledge of the virus.

Deaths are a lagging indicator and can continue to rise weeks after new infections drop. A coronavirus death, when it occurs, typically comes several weeks after a person is first infected.

It comes as Dr Deborah Birx, the head of the White House COVID-19 taskforce, continued to urge states with rising infections to close bars, cut back on indoor dining and to mandate face masks in order to stop the spread of the virus.

She said the surge in cases that has plagued Sunbelt states since Memorial Day is now being seen elsewhere, which is a sign that the virus is now spreading North.

The states with rising cases should be closing bars, cutting back on indoor restaurant capacity and limiting social gatherings to 10 people, Dr Birx warned.

She also said all Americans should be wearing masks when out in public or around other people.

'We can see what is happening in the South moving North,' Dr Birx said. 'We do believe there are states that do need to close their bars.'

She warned last week that 11 major cities needed to take 'aggressive' steps to mitigate COVID-19 outbreaks.

The 11 cities she mentioned include: Baltimore, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and St Louis.

'Until you can see that explosion, it's hard for people to understand how deeply you have to clamp down,' Dr Birx said.

'That's why we called out the next set of cities where we see early-warning signs, because if you make changes now, you won't become a Phoenix.'

The number of new infections in Florida, Arizona and Texas now appear to be trending downwards for the first time since late May or early June. Deaths, however, are still rising in both Florida and Texas. While deaths have seen single daily highs in Arizona in the past week, average fatalities appear to show a leveling out

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said people 'stepping up to the plate' is the reason for some of the 'plateauing' in coronavirus cases being seen in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas.

In an interview Monday on Fox News' Fox and Friends, Azar said officials think 'it's due to the fact that people are actually wearing their masks.'

He said they're also social distancing and practicing good hygiene, and he complimented governors for closing bars, where it's difficult to be socially distant and wear a mask.

'So people are stepping up to the plate and doing what we're asking and what the governors are asking and we see it has an impact,' Azar said.

'While Dr Birx says we're seeing signs of plateauing, we're not out of the woods yet,' he said, adding that next few months would be crucial.

As the pandemic has spread from the original epicenter of New York to the South and West, officials have clashed over how to ease lockdowns.

The ordering of face coverings, a common practice around the world and recommended by the federal government's own health experts, has also become highly politicized, with some Republican governors particularly resistant.

Hostility to the idea now appears to be dwindling, including from President Donald Trump, who once dismissed mask-wearing as an effort to be politically correct.

Trump has long refused to wear a mask in public but last week encouraged Americans to do so.
ConBody's Coss Marte has hired over 40 formerly incarcerated people

The last time Coss Marte was locked up, he knew he never wanted to go back to prison. Now, hes back in his old neighborhood with a good kind of hustle: a no-equipment, high-intensity workout program.

Marte, 34, was born and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. When he was growing up, the neighborhood was marred with drugs, violence, and prostitution, before it became a trendy place to live. He vividly remembers the long lines of people on the block waiting to buy drugs.

It was a bit normalized for me growing up. It looked like everybody was doing it. Everybody was involved, and thats how it was, Marte said.

Prison Pushups

His mother emigrated from the Dominican Republic in 1985 while she was pregnant with him. He and his mother lived with his aunt for a while, before they moved into the small apartment next door with his father and all of his siblings. Martes parents slept on one mattress and the kids slept on another.

Marte recalls drug and criminal activity on every floor of his building. He saw his older cousins selling drugs on the corner, and envied the lifestyle. The drug game made an impression on him, and at age 13, he started selling drugs. Despite multiple arrests, he continued to sell.

I just got into that world where I felt like I was trapped, and it was hard to get out. There were very limited opportunities, and I didnt see any other opportunities out there for me except for that, Marte said.

His stature in the drug world rose quickly. By age 19, he was running a lucrative drug delivery business and was making about $2 million a year. He and his partner had moved from the old business model of selling cocaine and crack on the street corner to a delivery business that served an older, wealthier clientele. Marte and his partner even created business cards and wore suits and ties.

ConBody features bodyweight and cardiovascular exercises exclusively. (Courtesy of ConBody)

After Marte was arrested again in 2009 at age 23, the doctors in the prison system informed him that he suffered from severely high cholesterol and was in danger of having a heart attack while locked up. The doctors recommended exercise and healthy eating.

Marte began running in the yard every day and doing calisthenics. He did pushups, dips, jumping jacks, lunges, squats, and burpees in his cell. Within six months, he had lost 70 pounds, and his exercise routine caught the attention of other inmates. During his incarceration, he helped more than 20 inmates shed a combined 1,000 pounds.

I got my health back, Marte said. I just felt way better. I looked better.

Following an altercation with a guard, he decided he was never going back to prison. And during a stretch in solitary confinement, he decided to make more of his life, and the idea for a fitness business was conceived.

I wanted to do something with my life instead of selling drugs for the rest of my life, Marte said.

Building the Gym Business

Marte was released on March 29, 2013, at age 27, and returned to the Lower East Side, which had by then undergone a huge transformation. He had no money, no job, and struggled to provide for his family financially. He worked odd jobs off the books, but couldnt find steady employment, largely due to his criminal record.

That brought him back to his idea for a fitness business, featuring the same workouts he had done in prison: a routine comprised of bodyweight-only and cardio exercises in a 45-minute hardcore workout.

Marte started ConBody by approaching people he knew in the parkand also some he didnt knowasking if they would work out with him. Over time, he developed a regular crowd and began renting out studios and hosting pop-up events. Through a lot of hustling and hard work, he secured a permanent location for a gym in 2016.

Marte started ConBody to make a better life for himself, and also knew that he wanted to hire former inmates to teach the classes. From his own experience, he knew the difficulty of finding a job after prison and wanted to give them a second chance, as their talent and work ethic are often overlooked because of their past.

I felt the pain. I tried to find any type of job when I came home, and youd just see the body language once you hand over the application and the second line says, Have you ever committed a felony? and you check the box yes,' he said.

Coss Marte has hired over 40 formerly incarcerated people. (Courtesy of ConBody)

To date, Marte has employed more than 40 people who have come out of the prison system; ConBody has had a zero recidivism rate among its employees.

Changing Shape

The gyms slogan is Do the time, and the space itself features a prison theme. ConBody has trained more than 30,000 people to date, and the vast majority of his clients have responded enthusiastically to the fitness bootcamp concept.

Most recently, Marte started a nonprofit called Second Chance Studios to train former inmates for careers in digital media. Now, hes trying to raise $50,000 to secure the space above the ConBody facility for the nonprofit.

Since the pandemic, Marte has featured ConBody workouts via Zoom, and says hed like to open franchises around the countryand possibly around the world.

A lot of people depend on weights and machines to work out, but thats not the way at ConBody.

I feel like God gave us everything we needed. We dont need weights. We dont need anything around us. Everything we have is within us, Marte said.
WATERLOO  The city is moving forward with plans for free grab-and-go parking spots near downtown businesses.

The plan to create the 10- to 15-minute free parking zones was labeled by city leaders as a compromise for downtown business owners who say the current parking meter costs chase away their patrons.

Jessica Rucker, executive director of Main Street Waterloo, said the 27 grab-and-go spots would replace loading zones and would help the downtown businesses while City Council members discuss larger changes in downtown parking regulations.

This is going to be something unique to downtown Waterloo, Rucker said. We can put out an entire marketing campaign to encourage people to come down.

Its not just to pick up food, she added. Our retailers would be able to utilize this. The banks could utilize this.

Mayor Quentin Hart said his staff would prepare an ordinance soon for council members to approve.

The zones came up Monday during a work session on whether the city should remove some downtown parking meters or enforce two-hour free parking limits to encourage more visitors to downtown businesses and even lure more retail stores to locate in the central business district.

Several downtown business owners spoke in support of some level of free parking.

Parking is a huge issue and a huge cost to business owners, said Jenny Bagestos, owner of Heres Whats Poppin.

Mary Heller, owner of The Ivy Trellis, said businesses surveyed patrons last Christmas about what could improve their downtown shopping experience.

The two top things they had  were free parking and more retail, Heller said. That comes right from the horses mouth, so to speak.

If you want to continue to get more downtown retailers to come to Waterloo youre going to have to solve this situation, she added.

Heller and Lincoln Perk owner Gary Shoemaker both said customers always point out the free parking in neighboring downtown Cedar Falls, questioning why it cant happen in Waterloo.

Councilmen Pat Morrissey and Dave Boesen have both voiced support for at least two-hours of free parking in some parts of downtown.

But Councilwoman Sharon Juon noted Cedar Falls is actually moving toward systemwide paid parking to help pay for a new ramp and cautioned that Waterloo may not find free parking attractive based on an experiment decades ago.

When I worked downtown we tried free parking, she said. We just did it for one month on the west side of Fourth Street.

Within the month, merchants were asking us to put the meters back because what was happening was all of the downtown workers were using the space and leaving less space for visitors.

I dont think this is the solution that everybody thinks its going to be, Juon added. I think its going to be abused by people other than the downtown visitors.

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Biscolata chocolate snack sales are on the rise on Amazon as studies show cocoa products and dark chocolate may help relieve stress. People need simple pleasures like chocolate that bring joy to their day. Our chocolate sales hon Amazon ave been higher than ever, which we attribute to both our reputation for delicious snacks as well as statistics that show dark chocolate and cocoa products relieve stress.

Not surprisingly, the global pandemic is pushing peoples stress levels higher than seen in years. Yet findings from a recent study by the International Journal of Health Studies have given people a glimpse at a silver lining: Chocolate helps. That comes as no surprise to the team at SOLEN, maker of Biscolata chocolate snacks, which has seen sales on Amazon soar over the past four months.

In fact, according to Nielsen data, during the 17-week period that ended on June 27, U.S. consumers alone spent $3.7 billion on chocolate, up 6.3% from that time period last year.

Founded in 1989, SOLEN is a family-owned business that produces chocolate bars, cookies, crackers and cakes so delicious they earned the 54th spot on Candy Industry Magazines Global Top 100 List. Their assortment of elegant creamy and crunchy goodies includes mini dark chocolate wafer bars, chocolate cream-filled rolled wafers with coconut or hazelnut and tea biscuits covered in chocolate.

The brands especially popular Biscolata Duomax Milk Chocolate Wafer Bar Snack Cookies, Biscolata Duomax Hazelnut Chocolate Wafer Bar Snack Cookies, Biscolata Minis Dark Chocolate Wafer Bars and Biscolata Nirvana Rolled Wafers Snacks with Premium Chocolate Cream Filled  Hazelnut have all been selected as Amazons Choice products. Likewise, the treats have earned the top 5-Star rating from 94 percent of the thousands of customers who have purchased Biscolata products during the past year.

Over the past 30 years, we have stayed true to our core family traditions and values to elevate chocolate making to an art and ensure our products exceed our customers expectations time and again, said Erdogan Coban, General Manager, SOLEN.

With COVID-19, we take that responsibility even more seriously. People need simple pleasures like chocolate that bring joy to their day. Our sales have been higher than ever, which we attribute to both our reputation for delicious snacks as well as statistics that show dark chocolate and cocoa products relieve stress, he added.

Solen has grown to become one of the most innovative companies in its industry in Turkey and around the whole world. It employs approximately 2000 people and exports over 200 different products to 120 countries from the Maldives to Belgium, to the U.S.

For more information about Biscolata or to order, go to http://www.amazon.com and search chocolate.


Elon Musk is the first high-profile name mentioned in Amber Heard's alleged cheating scandal -- an accusation that the tech CEO has since denied.

Johnny Depp is involved in two ongoing legal battles against News Group Newspapers (NGN) and his former wife. Ever since he started the cross-examination though, the "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor has continuously mentioned Musk's name when discussing Heard's infidelity issues while they were still married.

Elon Musk At His Breaking Point

Now, the SpaceX mogul seemed to have reached his breaking point, as he is now challenging Depp to a cage fight over the more "salacious" parts of the trial.

The billionaire engineer has been mentioned repeatedly in Depp's defamation suit against The Sun's publisher, News Group Newspapers, and its executive editor, Dan Wootton. Depp filed the lawsuit after The Sun published a damaging article claiming that he's a wife-beater.

"If Johnny wants a cage fight, just let me know," Musk told The New York Times, albeit jokingly. He also denied many of the allegations in the trial that have mentioned his name.

Three-Way Affair

Depp's legal team accused Musk of having an affair with Heard. The actor also alleged that the "Aquaman" star had a three-way affair with Musk and Cara Delevingne.

"I definitely was not having an affair with Amber while she was married to Johnny, this is totally false," Musk said before denying that he ever had group sex with Heard and Delevingne.

"We did not have the threesome, you know," Musk insisted. "So I think people think these things are generally more salacious than they are."

The 49-year-old CEO also advised Depp and Heard to stop fighting one another and put an end to their roller coaster battle already. He recommended the two to "bury the hatchet" and move on from what happened in the past.

Musk Denies Rumors Previously

It was not the first time Elon Musk contradicted the claims surrounding his name.

In May 2020, he even caused a Twitter rage after he slammed several netizens for continuously bringing up his alleged affair with Heard in the past.

"This is false. JD's team put out 'video evidence,' but conveniently excluded the date stamp, as it was well after JD & AH had separated," the tech billionaire wrote in response.

Depp and his legal team proved their claims by releasing a footage wherein Heard and Musk can be seen hugging each other before stepping out of the private elevator at the actor's penthouse. In another shot, Musk wrapped his arms around Heard, who was only wearing a swimsuit and a towel at that time.

"There would be timestamped video if this were true," Musk reasoned out to disprove the video's validity.

Amber Heard and Elon Musk started dating in August 2016, a few months after the actress filed for divorce from Depp in May of the same year. For his part, Musk expressed how furious he was to see how badly Depp wanted to believe that he got cheated on when it never happened at all in the first place.

READ MORE: Amber Heard Cheated On Johnny Depp? 5 Hollywood Stars Amber Allegedly Had An Affair With
Google has announced plans to build a new undersea transatlantic data cable to connect the UK, US and Spain. As reported by the BBC, the network cable will end in the south-west of England in Cornwall.

It has been a busy few weeks for the big tech company. Firstly, it going to have to face antitrust hearing alongside other companies such as Amazon despite deals. Additionally, an Australian regulator has accused the company of mistrust over data privacy issues.

The company will, therefore, be happy to announce some more positive news in the form of this Grace Hopper cable. The plan is for the project to be completed in 2022.

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Transatlantic network cable to land in Cornwall

Undersea network cables are central to communications infrastructure. Google estimates suggest that these types of cable carry around 98% of the worlds data. Generally, they are built by a group of communications firms who pool their resources together. The companies then charge others to use them.

The name Grace Hopper was decided to honor an American computer scientist and naval rear admiral. It will hit Britain at Bude in Cornwall and become Googles fourth privately owned undersea cable.

The company claims that it needs an ever-increasing amount of transatlantic bandwidth in order to meet demand. Doing so privately allows them to chose routes that are most optimal for the company, rather than relying on outside sources. This network cable will also have an offshoot into Bilbao in Spain.

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Jayne Stowell, who oversees Googles underseas construction pointed out the need for these new cables as older models were going out of commission. She noted that these types of cables tend to have around a 25-year life span and therefore need to be replaced at some stage.

Undersea cable to meet a new wave of demand

Covid-19 has had a number of wide-ranging consequences and perhaps the most noticeable is the time we spend online. Since April, tech companies have seen a spike in internet use with a record number of adults spending a quarter of their day online.

This demand requires Google to respond with a cable such as this which they hope will help to meet the increased usage. Google is not alone in this desire to improve data infrastructure.

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Facebook and Microsoft are joint owners in a with telecoms company Telxius of the Marea cable, for example. Facebook also recently announced a 37,000km project to supply faster internet to 16 African companies.

Despite lagging behind the rest of the world Africa is an emerging market for tech companies. It has a large population and a growing internet uptake. Expect to see more projects such as this one over the company months and years as tech companies scramble to hit the demand placed upon them by consumers.
Los Angeles County Reimagines School Education System and Partner with School Districts to Create Plans for Resurgence

Monday, July 27 Los Angeles County Officials disclosed the latest news surrounding the coronavirus update. Throughout this month public officials emphasized the escalation in the positive cases, L.A. has been in Level Orange condition, on the cusp of changing to red. That would ignite a mandated order to stay at home. The L.A. Director of Public Health Dr. Barbara Ferrer shared updated numbers surrounding the community transmission and death rate.

Latest numbers surrounding coronavirus shared on July 27, reflected 17 additional deaths, seven of these individuals were over the age of 80, six of them with underlining health conditions. Seven people who died were between the ages of 65-69, six victims had preexisting health concerns. One person were between the ages of 50-64, with underling health conditions. Two people who passed were between the age of 30-49, with one of them having a medical condition. This brings the total COVID-19 related deaths in the L.A. County to 4,375.

The relationship between COVID-19 infection and ethnicity were provided. The racial background collected from 4,083 fatal cases shown 11% were African American, 15% were Asian, slightly less than 1% were Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 48% were LatinX, 25% were white, and 1% identified as a different race or ethnicity. 93% of those who died due to COVID-19 had preexisting health concerns.

Ferrer disclosed on Monday, there were 2,039 new COVID-19 reports. In summary, there is a total amount of 176,028 coronavirus cases in the Los Angeles region. 7,479 incidents were reported in the city of Long Beach and 1,897 cases in the city of Pasadena. Amid the unsheltered, there were 989 positive cases, 335 victims were temporarily housed in a shelter and have been properly isolated.

The Los Angeles Public Health department continues to monitor and stay in line with state orders throughout this pandemic, there has been concerning spikes in multiple measurements including hospitalization, community transmission, and death rates. Through case interviews and contact tracing, people who are exposed can react immediate with the information and properly isolate. There is a pilot program that will launch, it will offer $20 gift certificates as an incentive for full participation in the interview.

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Chairwoman of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors Kathryn Barger spoke about the school year that is vastly approaching, there is a social and economic out-turn during this pandemic. School closure has played a significant role in changing the role of education and family dynamics. California state Governor Newsom has acknowledged the customized approach that is needed for the future development of students and education.

Handling this public health crisis and its impact on its residents and businesses has taught us we need to be adaptable to meet the needs of our communities. Chairwoman Barger stated, she described a charter amendment that will bring a level of scrutiny to the countys budget. It will call for more community input into public policy.
Independence man charged in fatal shooting of his wife KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - An Independence man has been charged in the fatal shooting Sunday of his wife, Daina M. Smith, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced Monday. 41-year-old Ryan D. Smith faces second degree murder and armed criminal action charges.

A close glimpse at this suspected creeper staring down his jailers . . . Read more:
She has been working from home under lockdown.

But Jessica Alba ventured back into the office on Tuesday.

The actress and businesswoman, 39, was seen heading to The Honest Company in Los Angeles.

Business casual! Jessica Alba ventured back into The Honest Company offices in Los Angeles on Tuesday

Jessica didn't leave home without her protective face mask, ensuring she was keeping herself and others protected from COVID-19.

The Into The Blue star tapped into her feminine side with a pretty, floral print mask.

The face covering complimented her striped button down shirt, which was tucked into her stylish Capri pants.

Though loose-fitting, the trousers accentuated Jessica's slim waistline.

Flower power: She stayed protected with a pretty, floral print face mask which complimented her button down shirt

She means business: The actress looked like she had a lot to do, by the looks of the two bags she was carrying

Wearing a circular purse across her body and a larger backpack over her shoulder, Jessica looked like she was going to be pretty busy that day.

Luckily, she had a large bottle of water handy to quench her thirst.

Jessica has been selling an array of eco-friendly products - including diapers and makeup - ever since launching The Honest Company back in 2012.

Work from home: Alba has been running The Honest Company from home amid the coronavirus pandemic

Like so many others, Jessica has been running her business from the safety of her home these last few months.

Though she has been physically separated from her coworkers, seeing them virtually still brings a smile to her face.

'I'm fortunate enough to be able to work from home, so I spend a lot of time working with my team at Honest on Zoom meetings,' she recently told The Kit. 'Even though we can't all be physically together in the office during this time, seeing their faces virtually brings me joy.'

On top of running her company, Jessica is also busy raising three children with her husband Cash Warren.

The couple share daughters Honor, 12, Haven, eight, and son Hayes, two.
A federal judge overseeing thousands of opioid lawsuits declined on Monday to grant a demand by plaintiffs attorneys for fees that could be worth billions of dollars, a request drug company defendants had said would jeopardize settlement talks.

In February, a committee of plaintiffs attorneys requested that U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland order a 7% fee assessment against any settlement.

The request could amount to $3.3 billion, based on a $48 billion settlement proposal that five companies including Johnson & Johnson have been negotiating with various state attorneys general.

Polster said in Mondays order he expected any eventual resolution of the lawsuits to include a method for paying the attorneys, so a fee order was unnecessary at this time but he left open the possibility of revisiting the request.

Since the fee request was made, three distributors, McKesson Corp., AmerisourceBergen Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc,. have offered another $1.2 billion to the proposed settlement to cover attorneys fees.

The lawsuits consolidated before Polster accuse drugmakers, distributors and pharmacy chains of fueling an opioid crisis blamed for 400,000 U.S. overdose deaths since 1999.

The companies have denied the allegations, although the distributors and drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. reached a settlement with two Ohio counties last year to avoid a trial.

The lawsuits were filed by cities, counties and other local and tribal governments.

The committee of plaintiffs lawyers had argued that a default levy on settlement proceeds was needed in case the parties failed to agree on a method for paying attorneys fees.

The fee request was opposed by the defendants as well as state attorneys general, who brought their own opioid cases that are not before Polster. They also said the fee could disrupt settlement talks.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Nate Raymond in Boston Editing by Noeleen Walder and David Gregorio)

Topics Legislation
2 1 of 2 Constanza Hevia H. / Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press Show More Show Less



Federal mismanagement of the pandemic left state and local governments with little recourse but to shut down much of the economy to slow the coronavirus. California and other states have since proved that resuming commerce without sufficient control of the contagion does more for the virus than for the economy. Government assistance therefore has to keep many Americans afloat until its safe to reopen.

Its a cruel irony, then, that the White House appears singularly focused on cutting that lifeline even as the resurgent virus hobbles business in California and beyond. Two months after House Speaker Nancy Pelosis Democrats passed a $3 trillion relief bill and days before supplemental unemployment payments expire, the Trump administration and Senate Republicans are proposing a $1 trillion bill that would cut the federal joblessness cushion by two-thirds, from $600 to $200 a week. That reduction is meant to serve as a stopgap until overwhelmed state unemployment agencies can tailor payments to no more than 70% of recipients prior earnings.
Press Release

27 July 2020

Business line will serve as the parent-brand for RCI and portfolio of exchange and other membership travel groups to set the stage for business expansion

New products and services present travelers a whole new range of opportunities for travel experiences beyond their traditional timeshare ownership

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ORLANDO, Fla. - Wyndham Destinations (NYSE:WYND), the world's largest vacation ownership and exchange company, today announced the creation of Panorama, a new business line to manage the company's exchange, membership, and travel technology brands.

The new Panorama portfolio will have three areas of focus, including timeshare exchange companies RCI  the world's largest vacation exchange network  7Across (formerly known as DAE), and The Registry Collection ; travel and leisure businesses Love Home Swap , TripBeat, and Extra Holidays; and leading travel technology platforms @Work International and Alliance Reservations Network (ARN). Hospitality industry veteran Olivier Chavy, who joined Wyndham Destinations in 2019 to lead the company's Vacation Exchange businesses, was named president of Panorama.

"The creation of Panorama helps to reposition these businesses into a more holistic travel company squarely focused on profitable top-line growth by diversifying and expanding outside the exchange business, leveraging our strategic acquisition of ARN last year," said Michael D. Brown, president and CEO of Wyndham Destinations.

With more than 20 million timeshare and vacation club members globally, vacation ownership and exchange is a significant part of how the world enjoys vacation. Panorama aims to broaden the business, identify new capital efficient sources of supply, offer new and innovative products and develop new travel solutions in partnership with club affiliates in order to increase overall usage and satisfaction of club members. More than five million people vacationed using the company's exchange businesses last year.

"Our strategy is to expand beyond our core and legacy timeshare business into the broader travel market to become a leading travel membership provider," said Olivier Chavy, president of Panorama. "Our leading travel platforms powered by ARN will drive new business and open new opportunities for timeshare owners to use their exchange currency to travel all year with an abundance of new accommodation options."

In its first significant market expansion, Panorama is launching a new travel services business, Panorama Travel Solutions, to drive focused growth outside its core market. The group will offer customized global discount travel membership clubs and travel technology solutions to affinity partners including large employers, banks, retailers, trade associations and others in the U.S., Mexico, Asia, and Europe.

The first product is a new travel club product powered by ARN that can be custom-branded or co-branded and marketed to new membership organization customers not currently in the company's base.

All of the brands in the Panorama portfolio are being reimagined as part of the launch of the new company:

Next month, Panorama will launch a new brand identity for its flagship exchange company RCI, along with new products and services for its 3.9 million members and 4,200 affiliated resort properties. The company's acquisition of Alliance Reservations Network (ARN) in 2019 enables RCI to continue to evolve its offering through enhanced B2B products and services for affiliate partners.

Dial an Exchange (DAE) was acquired by the company in 2017 and is being relaunched globally this month as 7Across. The company offers a direct-to-member exchange model which has been popular in Australasia and Europe, and has significant growth opportunities in North and South America.

The Registry Collection is the premier luxury exchange network that is evolving to offer more luxury and full-service experiences for its members on a new, modernized technology platform powered by ARN.

Also acquired in 2017, Love Home Swap is a pioneering home sharing service allowing home owners to choose a property where they want to go, make the swap and then enjoy a hassle-free holiday in an outstanding property without a hefty accommodation bill. The Love Home Swap brand is being reimagined as it looks to accelerate growth outside its original European market.

"The creation of the Panorama business is a recognition that the companies acquired over the last 10 years have come together to create a powerful travel business that has the opportunity to grow and expand," Chavy said. "The rebranding work supports the reinvention of every part of our portfolio and sets us up for growth for the next 10 years and beyond."

About Panorama

Panorama delivers a broader perspective to the world of travel as part of Wyndham Destinations (NYSE:WYND). The travel businesses under the Panorama umbrella  RCI, 7Across (formerly DAE), The Registry Collection, Love Home Swap, TripBeat, Extra Holidays, @Work International, and Alliance Reservations Network (ARN)  provide services to travel providers and their millions of members around the world. Visit PanoramaCo.com for more information.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Forward-looking statements are any statements other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding our expectations, beliefs, hopes, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may," "will," "expects," "should," "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," "continue," "future" or other words of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results of Wyndham Destinations, Inc. ("Wyndham Destinations") to differ materially from those discussed in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release include statements related to Wyndham Destinations' current views and expectations with respect to its future performance and operations. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to, the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and our related contingency plans and cost and investment reductions on our business, vacation ownership interest (VOI) sales and tour flow and liquidity; general economic conditions, the performance of the financial and credit markets, the competition in and the economic environment for the timeshare industry, the impact of war, terrorist activity, political strife, severe weather events and other natural disasters, pandemics (including the COVID-19 pandemic) or threats of pandemics, operating risks associated with the vacation ownership and vacation exchange businesses, uncertainties related to our ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the spin-off of the hotel business ("spin-off") Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. ("Wyndham Hotels") or the divestiture of our North American and European vacation rentals businesses, or the acquisition of Alliance Reservations Network ("ARN"), unanticipated developments related to the impact of the spin-off, the divestiture of our North American and European vacation rentals businesses, the acquisition of ARN and related transactions, including any potential impact on our relationships with our customers, suppliers, employees and others with whom we have relationships, and possible disruption to our operations, our ability to execute on our strategy, the timing and amount of future dividends and share repurchases, if any, and those other factors disclosed as risks under "Risk Factors" in documents we have filed with the SEC, including in Part I, Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, filed with the SEC on February 26, 2020 and Part II, Item 1A of our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2020, filed with the SEC on May 6, 2020. We caution readers that any such statements are based on currently available operational, financial and competitive information, and they should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect management's opinion only as of the date on which they were made. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to review or update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances as they occur.
New NYC Policing Rules Will Get People Hurt, Cops and Experts Say

New restrictions the New York City government placed on its police, the NYPD, are so ill-conceived that theyll lead to more police brutality, not less, based on nearly a dozen interviews The Epoch Times conducted with current and former police officers, martial arts instructors, police tactics experts, and lawyers representing police officers or people alleging police brutality.

The new city law criminalizes several safe, nonviolent martial arts techniques used by police around the country and the world to subdue resisting subjects, according to experts.

Police will thus have to resort to other methods that are often more violent and put both the officers and the people they attempt to arrest in greater danger.

The problematic part of the bill, signed into law by Mayor Bill de Blasio on July 15, states that no person shall restrain an individual in a manner that restricts the flow of air or blood by  sitting, kneeling, or standing on the chest or back in a manner that compresses the diaphragm, in the course of effecting or attempting to effect an arrest.

Such positions are virtually unavoidable if the police are to arrest a resisting subject without using a baton, taser, or a gun, according to Rener Gracie, a martial arts instructor whos been teaching law enforcement nonviolent defensive techniques from Brazilian jiu-jitsu for more than 20 years.

Every single one of them [arrests] in which the police is successful  included momentary, at the very least, pressure on the diaphragm of the subject, said Gracie, who routinely analyzes use-of-force incidents and recommends how to handle them better.

Conversely, arrests that fail or escalate to higher levels of violence are usually those where the officers failed to pin the subject down, he said.

It was Gracies grandfather who co-founded the martial arts style of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. In the 1990s, the family was invited on a panel to help the LAPD update its defensive tactics curriculum after the Rodney King incident. They have been providing train-the-trainer courses to law enforcement since, and are currently certifying over a thousand law enforcement instructors a year.

Their curriculum, called Gracie Survival Tactics (GST), is the largest defensive tactics program period, Gracie told The Epoch Times in a phone call.

Several current and former police officers spoke highly of the art, particularly for teaching officers how to pacify suspects without harming them and how to keep ones cool during a fight.

Decades of progress achieved by Gracie and others in the field of police use of force tactics are now threatened to be undone if the NYC law is to spread to other jurisdictions.

In particular, mounting positions, where the officer momentarily sits on top of a subject, are heavily relied upon in GST, Gracie said. Based on an instruction video produced by the NYPD in response to the new rules, those positions are now prohibited by the city.

Its now going to make it impossible for police officers to overpower somebody without hurting them, said Robert Brown, former NYPD captain and now a criminal lawyer, in a phone call with The Epoch Times.

The law is worded so broadly as to make it illegal even when an officer ends up in one of the forbidden positions accidentally and the suspect suffers no injury. Brown thinks this may make it unconstitutional since it criminalizes unintentional conduct, which is OK in a civil case  but theyre applying it in a criminal realm.

The Staten Island district attorney also said the law may be unconstitutional and suggested in a statement that he was unlikely to charge officers for violating it.

But until they remove it from the books, its on the table, said Joe Giacalone, John Jay College adjunct professor and former NYPD detective sergeant.

Surge in Crime

The new law comes at a time the city is swept in a wave of violence unseen since the crack epidemic of the 1990s. More than 320 people were shot (fatally or nonfatally) in the four weeks ending July 19, up more than 200 percent from the same period last year. Murder is up 24 percent this year compared to last year.

Until they change this law, arrests will continue to plummet in New York City, which means the violence continues to surge, Giacalone said. Because theres zero repercussions for the politicians of New York City.

Officers are already weighing their options, according to an NYPD detective, who asked for his name to be withheld as he wasnt authorized to talk to the media.

Do I want to even stop this guy? Do I want to arrest this guy? Its not worth it. Its not worth my job or my livelihood, he described the thought process.

Patrol officers in his precinct will go to the job and do the basic amount of work, he said. Proactive policing has virtually ceased.

Meanwhile, hundreds of NYPD officers are filing for retirement, and the local police union reports the lowest morale in decades.

The new diaphragm law has frightened many, many police officers. Everybodys saying how can we possibly do our job? Brown said in a phone call. Anybody thats ever been a police officer, thats ever been in a fight with somebody, realizes theyve now made it impossible to do the job.

Indeed, officers should be frightened, Giacalone said.

When youre struggling with somebody who is uncooperative, anything can happen. And youre in a fight for your life, and to say that you cant do this and cant do that as youre rolling around with somebody, if the cop is thinking about it, is extremely dangerous to them, to their life, he said.

Gracie said hes been hearing from officers across the country who fear similar measures may come to their jurisdiction.

Thomas Mungeer, head of the New York State Troopers union, demanded in a July 15 statement that the troopers be removed from New York City and cease any law enforcement activities within that jurisdiction because of the criminalization of restraining a person during a lawful arrest in a manner that is consistent with their training and is legal throughout the rest of the state.

Heads of police from the counties surrounding New York City have directed their officers to not engage in law enforcement activity inside the city, at least not without an authorization, Fox News reported.

Meanwhile, one councilman in the upstate town of East Fishkill even issued a travel advisory for his constituents, saying that due to the rising rate of violence in New York City, area residents should exercise increased caution while traveling to hotspot areas.

NYPD, however, doesnt have the option to simply sit back and not arrest people, as was made clear by NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan, who got into a heated exchange with his deputy last week over the new rules, a video obtained by the New York Post shows.

We cant be afraid, he shouted during the July 23 internal meeting.

Escalation of Force

So what options do the officers have?

New York law still authorizes officers to use a necessary level of force to subdue a resisting subject. With many of the nonviolent measures now taken off the table, officers will have to resort to more violent methodsincluding batons, tasers, and even guns.

Good officers will become bad officers because policy doesnt allow good policing anymore, Gracie said.

Giacalone concurred.

Theres going to be a lot of use of pepper spray, batons, and other nonlethal weapons to get people under control, the former NYPD detective sergeant said.

What most civilians dont understand is that arresting a resisting person is never easy, even for a well-trained officer.

If somebody doesnt want to get arrested, I dont care how big or small they are, its nearly impossible to make that arrest unless theres some sort of overwhelming force against them, Giacalone said.

Sometimes it takes four or five officers to pacify a 100-pound woman who doesnt want to go to jail, he said.

Brown said, In real life, its not like a training video  it doesnt go cleanly.

As the NYPD detective put it, resistance is common.

Ninety-nine percent of people we arrest do not want to be arrested, he said. So theyre going to fight, which is the normal.

Moreover, the NYC law will encourage people to resist, said an NYPD lieutenant who asked for his name to be withheld as he wasnt authorized to talk to the media.

A law like this will empower people to resist, knowing that officers will be reluctant to go hands-on, he said in a phone call.

Even when the person isnt outright attacking the officers, but simply doesnt want to get handcuffed or is trying to slip out, it makes the arrest extremely difficult, said a police officer responsible for tactical training in a large metropolitan police department. The officer asked for his name to be withheld as he wasnt authorized to talk to the media.

His department has been using GST for many years. What NYC has done is taking away a very important tool to use humane, proportional force, he said in a phone call.

There are other methods, but those not only tend to be less advantageous, but also very inflammatory appearing, as he put it.

Police have long been trained, for instance, to use the brachial stun, where the officer hits a suspect to the side of the neck with his forearm, palm, or fist. The hit aims at the carotid arteries and can stun or even knock out the subject.

The strike is relatively safe the officer said, but it looks inflammatory for bystanders.

Its reasonable for them to assume the officers punching him out of anger, he said.

Some police departments have taught officers to use pressure points or other pain compliance methods. In theory, grabbing and pressing the points should put the subject in intolerable pain and force compliance. The problem is, the technique doesnt always work. Intoxicated people, people undergoing mental crises, or even those with a strong sense of determination can have very high pain resistance.

When the suspect is pulling away his arms and refuses to let the officer put the arms behind the back, police used to be commonly trained to strike the suspect in motor points around joints.

If the suspect persistently doesnt comply and tries to keep his hands under his body, officers used to be trained to just strike the subject continuously until forcing compliance.

For bystanders, that simply looks like a beatdown.

It looks like its overuse of force, the officer said.

Moreover, once the officer loses his cool, hes likely to have trouble recognizing when the subject stops resisting. And if the officer keeps hitting a person whos already compliant, the suspect is likely to panic.

Now you just have a recipe for disaster, the officer said.

Neurological research has shown that the human prefrontal cortex, which facilitates rational decision making, is sensitive to acute stress. Once inhibited, decisions are taken over by the amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for the more primitive responses, such as fear, anger, submissive behavior, and freezingthings the society does not want in a police officer, the officer noted.

When you get in that mode, there is no if-then calculation, rational calculations, Gracie explained.

Thats why GST methods place ultimate emphasis on the ability to keep calm during intense physical encounters, such as a street fight. The key, the officer said, is perception of control.

As long as the officer can maintain a sense of control over the situation, even if the control is not completely real, he can keep his senses.

Stripping police of GST tactics will have the opposite effect, he said. It degrades the perception of control.

This was just a pandering law as far as Im concerned, Giacalone said.

The mayors office as well as the offices for Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Councilman Rory Lancman, who introduced the bill, didnt respond to requests for comment.

Lack of Training

If police need something, its more hand-to-hand techniques to use, not less, Gracie and several officers said.

Police have always been grossly underprepared to handle unarmed combative subjects or assaultive subjects, Gracie said. They simply dont get the training.

The ridiculous truth that is accepted throughout law enforcement is that officers often get between 4-8 hours of hand-to-hand defense training every year or two, according to Gracie.

That is simply not enough. As Gracie and several current and former police officers confirmed, during a dangerous encounter, when the adrenaline starts to pump, the officer usually reverts to his baseline training, meaning only the part that has, through repetition, become instinctual.

Now, that lack of training is exacerbated by the fact that so many safe control holds have been stripped away from New York police officers, Gracie said.

In a recent video on his Youtube channel, he pointed to an incident in which a suspect caught an NYPD officer in a headlock. The officer only escaped because the subject released the grip and proceeded to punch the officer in the head before another person pulled the suspect away.

The suspect apparently had some martial arts training, according to Gracie. Had he not released the hold, within a few more seconds the officer could have lost consciousness. That is a situation that, according to NYPD policies, warrants deadly force, he said. That means the officer would have been in the right to pull a gun on the suspect.

There is a GST countermove for this situation, but it would end up with the officer mounting on top of the suspecta position now illegal for officers to assume.

It was hard enough to arrest someone before this bill, he said, while now its virtually impossible to arrest someone resistant.

Gracie would like to see officers getting several hours of training a week, though a more realistic goal would be at least an hour a week. Even that would make a world of difference, he said.

Everything would change in America, he said.

Paradoxically, the recent calls for defunding police would likely hit the training budget first. Departments are usually reluctant to cut personnel, already stretched thin in many cases. The only discretionary part of the budget is training and travel, where travel is usually associated with training, said Lance LoRusso, former police officer and now lawyer specializing on representing officers involved in shootings.

Indeed, NYCs new $1 billion budget cut to the NYPD hits significantly the police academy, which had its next class canceled.

Better training could also encourage officers to be more vocal about subpar individuals in their midst, Gracie opined.

Officers around the country know how undertrained they are so theyre very reluctant to speak out against the, I think, the manifestation of the undertraining that another officer receives, he said.

When officers see one of their peers handling a situation poorly, I think every officer looks at that and says, Yea, it could have been me. Because I, too, am not prepared to handle that, which is also why they dont speak out against it because they know they could be next, Gracie said.

Its also true that courts have come to the conclusion that law enforcement officers should be cut some slack. The Supreme Court ruled that use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight in the 1989 Graham v. Connor case.

The difference between a reasonable person and a reasonable officer makes a major difference, LoRusso explained, because police do think differently.

Cops start to realize just how quickly dangerous situations occur, just how fast deadly force encounters can erupt, he said.

What people may not realize is that police are always at a disadvantage in deadly force situations because they should never be the ones who shoot first. An armed suspect can get three shots out in less than a second before the officer manages to assess the situation and shoot back, according to LoRusso.

Action beats reaction every time, he said.

Thus, when a suspect doesnt drop his gun after repeated orders to do so, the officers may shoot the person, even if he doesnt actually point the gun at the officers.

In LoRussos view, its simply part of a citizens duty, living in a civilized society, to cooperate with law enforcement.

When youre told youre under arrest, you may believe you didnt do anything wrong, you may believe the officer has the wrong person, but the only lawful appropriate response is to submit to the officers authority, allow yourself to be taken into custody, and take the case to court, he said.

As long as governments have the right to enforce their laws, police have the authority to make arrests and the general rule is that the quicker the arrest goes, the safer. Resistance will be met with force.

When you start assaulting the officer, you start resisting the arrest, the officer does not have the luxury of trying to figure out whats going on inside your mind, LoRusso said.

Intelligent Reforms

The shame about NYC, Gracie said, is that much of the other policing reforms the city recently adopted were good.

The city, for instance, forbade officers from interfering with people recording them from a safe distance. Having a use-of-force incident on camera is the first thing cities need to ensure to reduce police brutality incidents, according to Brian Zeiger, lawyer who represents victims of police brutality in Philadelphia.

His first recommendation was that officers body cameras need to turn on automatically so they cant argue that the incident was occurring too quickly for them to switch on the camera manually. Ideally, officers should wear multiple smaller cameras, instead of one big camera, he said in a phone call. Also, there should be real punishment for officers whose cameras chronically malfunction right around the time they engage in alleged brutality.

Next, police shouldnt be able to search cars and frisk people on the thinnest of suspicions as the law now allows.

This actually seems to be the real point of friction between effective policing and community acceptance. Stopping people and cars is the most prominent proactive policing tactic. Its one of the most effective ways to stop criminals from walking around with an illegal gun and to pick up criminals evading arrest, multiple ex-officers confirmed.

The problem is, most of those stops dont result in an arrest.

The bulk of the proactive contacts involve people who didnt do anything wrong, which means they walk away from that encounter possibly and probably with not the best opinion of police officers, said Leonard Sipes, a former police officer and former communications specialist in the Justice Department.

People see such stops as unjust and, lacking an explanation from the police, they would supply their own.

The cop stopped me because of my race or the cop stopped me because Im wearing a yamaka  fill in the blank, he said.

But thats not necessarily the case.

I have been stopped unfairly by police officers throughout my career. It was not a pleasant experience but I understand what it is that they were doing, Sipes said.

On some occasions, after he identified himself to the officers, they explained to him why they actually stopped him and it made sense, he said.

Sometimes police are looking for a vehicle of a certain descriptionthat can lead to many inquisitive traffic stops of people who havent done anything wrong.

Explaining this kind of proactive policing would require an enormous amount of communication to the public, Sipes said.

I dont know how you can create a communications platform that conveys what proactive policing is, what it does, why its important, how its important, because all that person knows is  that they were abruptly stopped by a police officer.
New Zealand suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong on Tuesday in protest at a "deeply concerning" new security law China has imposed on the territory, joining its allies in sanctioning Beijing over the move.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters said the suspension, which risks the ire of Wellington's largest trading partner, was because "New Zealand can no longer trust that Hong Kong's criminal justice system is sufficiently independent from China".

He said New Zealand was also tightening restriction on military and dual-use exports to Hong Kong, as well as upgrading travel warnings to Kiwi citizens in the territory.

"China's passage of its new national security legislation has eroded rule-of-law principles, undermined the 'one country, two systems' framework that underpins Hong Kongs unique status, and gone against commitments China made to the international community," Peters said.

New Zealand's partners in the so-called "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance have taken similar action -- Canada, Britain and Australia have suspended extradition treaties and the United States has signalled it is preparing to do the same.

There was no immediate response from the Chinese embassy in Wellington, but it warned earlier this month that attempts to pressure Beijing on the security law would amount to "gross interference in China's internal affairs".

Critics have said the security law is an erosion of civil liberties and human rights in the financial hub, which has been semi-autonomous from China since its handover from Britain in 1997.

New Zealand's updated travel advice said the security law had led to an increased risk of arrest for activities such as protests, with the possibility of being removed to mainland China to face maximum penalties of life imprisonment.
A Texas-based doctor whose declarations about using hydroxychloroquine to cure COVID-19 were retweeted by Donald Trump has a long history of supporting conspiracy theories, it has emerged.

Dr Stella Immanuel, 55, shot to fame on Monday when the president retweeted a video featuring her appearing in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress.

In the video - which has since been removed by Facebook, YouTube and Twitter - she promotes the discredited coronavirus remedy, hydroxychloroquine.

She attacked 'fake doctors' who doubt the efficacy of the drug, and claimed it's a 'cure', adding 'you don't need a mask.'

'If some fake science comes out and says we've done studies and they found out that it doesn't work, I can tell you categorically it's fake science,' she said.

'I want to know who's conducted that study and who's behind it. Because there is no way I have treat 350 patients and counting and nobody is dead.'

She said she has treated patients with hydroxychloroquine along with zinc, and the antibiotic zithromax.

Donald Trump Jr was also impressed by her speech, noting on Twitter that it was 'a must-watch'.

Immanuel, who runs the Fire Power Ministries in a strip mall next door to her clinic in Houston, was born in Cameroon and did her medical training in Nigeria, The Daily Beast reported.

On her Facebook page she describes herself as: 'Physician, Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Deliverance Minister, God's battle axe and weapon of war.'

The church's 'beliefs' section on their website - which has now been taken down - says they are against 'unmarried couples living together, homosexuality, bestiality, polygamy, etc.,' Heavy reported.

Stella Immanuel has run the Fire Power Ministries in Houston, Texas, since 2002

One sentence in the profile reads: 'Her attitude toward demonic forces has been described as cut-throat, a warrior to the core.'

Immanuel is also a 'wealth transfer coach' and believes 'you can be saved, anointed, fire brand and wealthy too.'

A mother of three daughters, Immanuel reportedly studied medicine in Nigeria between 1984 and 1990.

In November 1998, Immanuel began working as a pediatrician in Alexandria, Louisiana.

She has been a physician at the Rehoboth Medical Center in Katy, just west of Houston, Texas, since October 2019.

She received a medical license in Texas eight months ago, in November, according to state records.

A Nigerian website, PM News, reported that Immanuel did a residency in pediatrics at Bronx-Lebanon in New York. It was unclear when.

She then interned under Dr. Babatunde Dosu, a Dallas-based Nigerian pediatrician.

It also stated that she holds medical licenses in Texas, Louisiana and Kentucky.

Immanuel founded the church in 2002 and has given sermons attacking progressive values and promoting conspiracy theories including 'the gay agenda, secular humanism, Illuminati and the demonic New World Order.'

She has claimed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches.

She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, saying: 'They're using all kinds of DNA, even alien DNA, to treat people.'

In a 2015 sermon she declared that the Illuminati are promoting a plan hatched by 'a witch' to destroy the world using abortion, gay marriage, and children's toys.

Immanuel claims the Magic 8-Ball toy is in fact a scheme to get children used to witchcraft. 'The 8-Ball was a psychic,' she said.

Immanuel describes herself on Facebook as: 'Physician, Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Deliverance Minister, God's battle axe and weapon of war.'

'There are people that are ruling this nation that are not even human,' Immanuel said, before launching into a conversation she had with a 'reptilian spirit' she described as 'half-human, half-ET.'

In another 2015 sermon she said scientists had plans to install microchips in people, and develop a 'vaccine' to make it impossible to become religious.

'They found the gene in somebody's mind that makes you religious, so they can vaccinate against it,' Immanuel said.

Immanuel warned that the Disney Channel show Hannah Montana was a gateway to evil, because its character had an 'alter ego.' She has claimed that schools teach children to meditate so they can 'meet with demons.'

She also urges that 'children need to be whipped'.

The doctor warned her flock that gay marriage meant that 'very soon people are going to be seeking to marry children'.

She accused gay Americans of practicing 'homosexual terrorism' and praised a father's decision to not love his transgender son after a gender transition.

'You know the crazy part?' Immanuel said.

'The little girl demands he must love her anyway. Really? You will not get it from me, I'd be like 'Little girl, when you come back to be a little girl again, but you talkfor now, I'm gone.''
Millions of Australians have had 'sensitive and private information' taken by Google without their consent, claims an Australian consumer watchdog.

Legal action, which could see the tech giant forced to pay out millions of dollars, has been launched by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Google is accused of using millions of users data without their consent, gathering it from other websites to use for lucrative targeted advertising.

The ACCC claims this occurred between June 2016 until at least December 2018, and had caused 'significant harm' to Australians using Google mail or app accounts.

The internet giant has denied any wrongdoing and intends to fight the allegations in the Federal Court.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleges Google took private information from users without their consent (file image)

ACCC chairman Rod Sims said the watchdog was seeking a multi-million dollar fine against Google alleging the tech giant misled consumers when it changed its data collection technology in 2016.

'We consider Google misled Australian consumers about what it planned to do with large amounts of their personal information, including internet activity on websites not connected to Google,' he said on Monday.

'Google significantly increased the scope of information it collected about consumers on a personally identifiable basis.

'This included potentially very sensitive and private information about their activities on third party websites.'

Before June 2016, Google only collected and used personally identifiable information about their account users' activities on its owned services and apps for advertising purposes.

But the new changes meant Google could combine this with more personal information from users on non-Google websites and apps.

This would then be used to give the user more targeted ads, generating higher profits for Google.

Google made changes to its data collection technology in 2016 but the ACCC says users would not have understood what this would mean for their private information

Google users were prompted with an 'I agree' pop up to consent to the changes but Mr Sims said there was no way Australians could have properly understood what this meant.

The pop up said: 'We've introduced some optional features for your account, giving you more control over the data Google collects and how it's used, while allowing Google to show you more relevant ads.'

But Mr Sims said Australians would not have agreed to this if they were properly informed.

'We believe that many consumers, if given an informed choice, may have refused Google permission to combine and use such a wide array of their personal information for Google's own financial benefit,' he said.

He also said the ACCC conducted surveys with results finding 80 per cent of surveys didn't want their web activity combined with their personal information, The Australian reported.

'Since we've been working on this, we've had more issues coming up,' he told the publication.

'And we'll make judgments about issues we see, either under competition law or consumer law, where we think there's real harm and where we think they matter. It's fair to say there'll be more.'

ACCC chairman Rod Sims says Google's changes in 2016 impacted millions of Australians as they seek to fine the tech giant millions of dollars

The ACCC alleges Google did not obtain explicit consent from consumers and profited from changing their data technology.

'The use of this new combined information allowed Google to increase significantly the value of its advertising products, from which it generated much higher profits,' Mr Sims added.

'The ACCC considers that consumers effectively pay for Google's services with their data, so this change introduced by Google increased the 'price' of Google's services, without consumers' knowledge.'

Google strongly disagrees with the allegations and will defend its position in court.

'The changes we made were optional and we asked users to consent via prominent and easy-to-understand notifications,' a spokesperson said.

'If a user did not consent, their experience of our products and services remained unchanged.'

Internet giant Google has denied any wrongdoing and plans to fight the allegations

Federal Labor's communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland said consumers deserved protection from invasive advertising.

'Anyone who has experienced that spooky feeling of being served targeted ads after browsing the internet should welcome moves by the ACCC to ensure that Australian law is being upheld,' she told AAP.

'Sometimes targeted advertising can be handy, but it can sometimes feel invasive. The main thing is that consumers understand and consent to how their data gets used.'

Google operates sites including Google Chrome, Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps and Google Play.
(NEW YORK) -- Here are today's In Crisis headlines:



Federal troops will remain in Portland until attacks end, says US attorney

Federal militarized officers will remain in Portland until attacks on the U.S. courthouse stop, U.S. Attorney Billy Williams said Monday, adding that more troops may be on the way. It is not a solution to tell federal officers to leave when there continues to be attacks on federal property and personnel, said Williams, whose office is inside the courthouse, despite declarations from local and state officials that the federal officers are unwelcome. The mayor of Portland and five other cities appealed Monday to Congress to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized federal agents to cities that don't want them. Portland has seen nightly protests for two months since the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. President Donald Trump said he sent federal agents to Portland to halt the unrest but state and local officials said they are making the situation worse, fanning the flames of the Black Lives Matter protest movement there, with thousands now protesting nightly.



Black Lives Matter protest set for Friday at NYC Trump Tower and Times Square

George Floyds brother, Terrence, will stand with family members of Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Sean Bell and Abner Louima in a Black Lives Matter protest happening on Friday, July 31 in New York City. New York-based civil rights leader Rev. Kevin McCall will lead demonstrators in a march from Times Square to Trump Tower, calling for police reform and increased transparency in the Floyd and Taylor cases. Floyd died May 25 in Minneapolis after a former police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes during his arrest, while Taylor was fatally shot in her bed on March 13 by Louisville, Kentucky police officers executing a no-knock search warrant. McCall says the protest will also call for an intervention to address the uptick in gun violence in New York City, as well as for the city to increase investments in social services and youth programs to help decrease crime rates amid the COVID-19 pandemic.



COVID-19 numbers

Here's the latest data on COVID-19 coronavirus infections and deaths.



Latest reported numbers globally per Johns Hopkins University

Global diagnosed cases: 16,495,309

Global deaths: 654,327. The United States has the most deaths of any single country, with 148,056.

Number of countries/regions: at least 188

Total patients recovered globally: 9,590,929



Latest reported numbers in the United States per Johns Hopkins University

There are at least 4,294,770 reported cases in 50 states + the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. This is more than in any other country.

U.S. deaths: at least 148,056. New York State has the greatest number of reported deaths in the U.S., with 32,645.

U.S. total patients recovered: 1,325,804

U.S. total people tested: 52,252,334



The greatest number of reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is in California, with 462,632 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 39.51 million. That is second only to Sao Paulo, Brazil, which has 487,654 cases, as the most reported cases of any single region in the world.



COVID-19 headlines

National security advisor tests positive for COVID-19

National Security Advisor Robert OBrien has tested positive for COVID-19, the White House confirmed Monday, making him the highest-ranking Trump administration official known to be infected with the virus. He has mild symptoms and has been self-isolating and working from a secure location off site, the White House said in a statement Monday, adding, There is no risk of exposure to the President or the Vice President. Its unclear how OBrien was exposed to the virus or how much, if any, in-person contact hes had with the president recently. Trump told reporters Monday, I havent seen him lately. Their last public appearance together was July 10, though OBrien was seen at the White House Thursday. At least 16 people with connections to the White House or the Trump reelection campaign are known to have tested positive for COVID-19 so far, including Donald Trump Jr.s girlfriend, attorney Kimberly Guilfoyle, two members of Vice President Mike Pences staff, Trumps personal valet, as well as various campaign staffers and Secret Service members.

United Nations says COVID-19-linked hunger killing 10,000 children per month

The COVID-19 pandemic is resulting in an estimated 10,000 children per month around the world dying of hunger, according to the United Nations. The deaths in part are the result of farms having no way to deliver produce to markets, while villages are increasingly more isolated from food and medical supplies. Furthermore, the U.N. says more than 550,000 additional children each month are being struck by what is called wasting, which manifests in spindly limbs and distended bellies. The U.N. warned that increasing malnutrition would have long-term consequences. The food security effects of the COVID crisis are going to reflect many years from now," said Francesco Branca, the World Health Organization's head of nutrition. "There is going to be a societal effect.

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Child care providers have overwhelmingly voted to be represented by a union in collective bargaining with the state over better pay and other benefits.

"We waited 17 years for this," Zoila Toma, a home child care provider from Signal Hill, said in a Zoom call celebrating the election results. "It's time to demand what we deserve, what our families deserve, what the people in California deserve."

About 43,000 providers were eligible to vote in the mail-in election between June 22 and July 22. Of the 9,340 returned ballots, 97% favored representation by Child Care Providers United, a partnership between labor groups SEIU and AFSCME.

The election was almost two decades in the making. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation in September 2019 that gave the right to collectively bargain to providers who care for children from low-income families on public assistance.

Wendy Moran shows the schedule she's shet up for the children at her 24 hour child care center. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

These providers, most of whom are women of color, rely on payments from the state to provide care and say the rates work out to lower than minimum wage for the hours they work. Many of the providers earn so little that they often qualify for public assistance themselves.

The election happened in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, which has highlighted both the challenges providers face in a system that's been underfunded for years, and child care's role in educating young children while allowing parents to work.

"This has always been the part that we've always played," said Inglewood home child care provider Sue Carrera. "And now we're going to get the acknowledgement that we deserve."

More than three-quarters of California child care providers say they're losing income with fewer families enrolled, and 80% say it costs more to buy the cleaning supplies and protective equipment needed to operate, according to a survey from UC Berkeley's Center for the Study of Child Care Employment.

Carrera's doorbell rang at 8 a.m. on Monday morning and she ushered the first six children of the day into her home. In between breakfast, lunch and reorganizing her den-turned-classroom, Carrera told LAist she was working on reframing how she thinks about the future for child care providers.

She says she wants to use a stronger word than hope.

"I'm trusting that, as a union, now we can organize ourselves in a way where our voices will be heard over-and-above a lot of other voices," Carrera said. "Please listen to us and please understand what work we do."

CHALLENGING NEGOTIATIONS AHEAD

The California Public Employment Board certified the election results. Child Care Providers United plans to survey members to determine what to prioritize in negotiations with the state, and then elect a bargaining committee.

The union will soon find out how many of the 43,000 eligible providers are willing to join and pay dues of $10 a month.

Dozens of California child care providers rallied in Sacramento before dropping off signatures calling for a union election Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020. (Screenshot from the Child Care Providers Union Facebook Page)

The Supreme County ruled in Janus v. AFSCME that public sector unions can't require workers to pay union dues or fees.

SEIU Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias outlined the vision of the union's goals: "A world-class early education system here in California, in which every child has access to the early excellent education, and everybody that works providing that education is valued as the professional that they are."

The road to higher wages for these providers will be challenging.

This year Gov. Newsom proposed reducing provider rates 10% as part of wider cuts to help close the state's $54 billion budget deficit. The existing reimbursement rates were ultimately preserved, but those rates are already based on an outdated survey of what California child care costs.

"It's a shame on us for not stepping up to our values and paying the proper rate to make these programs viable for providers and for families," Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) told LAist earlier this month. He has sponsored legislation that would overhaul the entire payment system.

GO DEEPER INTO LAIST'S COVERAGE OF THIS HISTORIC ELECTION
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State and local officials are forming a task force to address the development of Burleigh and Morton counties into a coronavirus hot spot, Gov. Doug Burgum announced Tuesday.

State health officials also announced the 100th confirmed coronavirus-related death in the state. The McKenzie County woman in her 20s is the youngest victim recorded so far.

The task force will be modeled after one created in early May in the Red River Valley after Cass County and Fargo bloomed into a hot spot. Cass has nearly half of the total cases in North Dakota and three-fourths of the coronavirus-related deaths, but the outbreak there has lessened in recent weeks -- active cases on Tuesday numbered 148, about half of Burleigh County's total.

"The goal of that task force when it was created was to get Cass County below the state average" positivity rate, Burgum said during a public briefing. "That's been accomplished, but at the same time we've seen Burleigh-Morton -- which for a long time back was way below the state average -- got above it, then it tracked evenly with Cass County for a period of time in terms of positivity rate, and then now in the last few weeks has shot ahead."

The situation in Cass County was complicated by its nearness to Minnesota, where cases also were high, and by outbreaks in long-term care facilities. Nursing home cases are on the rise again statewide, and in Bismarck-Mandan they total 31 in six facilities.

Cases overall in Burleigh-Morton have tripled this month, and 62 more were reported Tuesday. Burleigh now leads the state in active cases, at 289, and Morton is third, with 82. The two counties together have one-third of the state's total active cases.

"We're particularly concerned about what we're seeing in Burleigh-Morton," Burgum said, adding later that "we want to make sure that we're keeping a handle on it."

Task force

The task force "will strengthen what's already quite strong coordination between a number of players," Burgum said.

They include local public health and government officials, local hospitals and long-term care providers, K-12 and higher education officials, and representatives of large employers in the area including state government and the state corrections system.

The goal is to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 through measures including education, testing and contact tracing, and support for people in isolation or quarantine.

Weve got a great game plan to follow, one that worked in our collaboration between Cass and Clay (Minnesota) counties, Burgum said. Some people who were on that task force will take part in the new effort, he said without specifying. He also said the state was reaching out to "a number of leaders."

More information was to be released during a news conference on Wednesday. Members of the public can view that briefing live on Government Access Channels 2 & 602HD, listen on Radio Access 102.5 FM radio, or stream FreeTV.org or RadioAccess.org.

The state will support the task force through such means as supplying personnel and equipment for mass testing, as it is doing already, Burgum said. It wasn't immediately known if the state would specifically designate to the task force some of the $1.25 billion it has received in federal CARES Act coronavirus relief aid -- some of which already has gone to areas such as public health.

"We'll have to do an assessment first, get the task force formed, understand where the gaps are," Burgum said.

Milestone death

The McKenzie County woman who died had no underlying health conditions, the state Department of Health reported Tuesday. Only two other people in the state who died with COVID-19 have fallen into that category. In another case, health officials were not able to determine if there were underlying conditions.

It was the first coronavirus-related death in McKenzie County, a western oil patch county that's home to Watford City. It was the first death statewide of a person in his or her 20s. There has been one death in the 30s range. Most deaths have been of people in their 70s, 80s and 90s.

The state's tally includes deaths of people "who tested positive and died from any cause while infected with COVID-19." Coronavirus is listed as the official cause of death for 88 of the 100 victims. It wasn't immediately clear if a death certificate had been issued for the McKenzie County woman -- that can take up to 10 days under state law. Burgum said during his briefing that she was in the category of having died "with COVID," as opposed to due to the disease.

Daily data

Health officials on Tuesday reported a total of 157 new coronavirus cases in 30 counties, pushing the state past the 6,000 mark since the start of the pandemic, to 6,141. Active cases reached a new high, at 1,084, up 26 from the previous day.

Active cases in North Dakota have more than tripled since the start of the month, coinciding with the reopening of the economy and an increase in testing. However, "daily tests are growing, but active cases are growing faster," Burgum said.

The states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, along with the cities of Washington, D.C., and Chicago, have issued travel restrictions for North Dakota residents this month.

The number of people in North Dakota tested for coronavirus at least once is at 150,046 -- meaning one in five North Dakotans has received a test -- and total tests number 297,512. The state plans to increase the number of fixed testing sites around North Dakota from 19 to 28, boost the number of testing labs and reach 8,000 daily tests, Burgum said. The most done in one day is about 6,000.

There have been 343 hospitalizations and 4,957 recoveries. Thirty-five people remained hospitalized Tuesday, down eight from the previous day. Those patients take up less than 1% of hospital capacity in the state, according to Burgum.

For more information on coronavirus in North Dakota, go to health.nd.gov/coronavirus.

Reach Blake Nicholson at 701-250-8266 or blake.nicholson@bismarcktribune.com.

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(Photo : Higher Education Goes Sustainable, Paving the Way for Responsible Leadership)

If humanity is to survive the ecological consequences of industrialisation, sustainability must be tackled decisively. Strong, innovative leadership is key. The higher education space has an enormous role to play here, forming effective, knowledgeable leaders capable of bringing about the colossal changes needed in the coming years. Fortunately, universities around the world understand their importance and are developing necessary strategies and policies, paving the way for a sustainable future.

The need for sustainability leadership

It is now obvious that climate change is a clear and profound risk to society. In dealing with it, a measure of the appropriate urgency has been witnessed among young activists, vividly encapsulated in recent years through the totemic figure of Greta Thunberg. Equally, a shift in sentiment within the business and investment spaces has also surfaced.

"The broader zeitgeist now extends to major financial institutions looking to discover their social purpose," observe N. Craig Smith and Leena Lankowski in 'Balancing profit and social welfare: ten ways to do it'. The authors evidence BlackRock, the world's largest investment firm, as one example of a trend in which investors increasingly expect businesses to consider the needs of stakeholders, rather than the all-consuming primacy of shareholder interests.

According to Lankowski, who is a senior lecturer at Finland's Aalto University School of Business, the sustainable actions of a company start with leaders who are engaged on the topic and are aware of the necessary resources and perspectives.

"Sustainability is a competitive advantage socially, environmentally, and economically more now than ever before, and it is an important matter for senior executives and leaders in order to responsibly lead the company into the future while valuing company transparency and reputation," she says.

Tackling sustainability together

Naturally, the position of universities as leaders, change makers, and the schools from which many of the future's business leaders emerge - requires that they set strong and progressive examples themselves.

Isabela del Alcazar believes that to understand the complexity and interdisciplinarity of the concepts presented in the United Nations 2030 agenda we must acknowledge that everything is connected.

"There needs to be a behavioural change in our society, as a university we need to lead with example," she explains.

Isabela del Alcazar is Global Head of sustainability at IE University. This institution recently announced its new sustainability strategy, including the "10 Year Challenge" campaign which will focus on specific annual projects from 2020 to 2030. This year will focus on responsible consumption.

"We aim to place sustainability at the centre of all aspects of the institution. This involves rethinking the curriculum, campus operations, and organisational culture," Isabela del Alcazar says.

The university aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2030. Currently, it provides 1800 hours a year of teaching related to sustainability for its students, with the goal of doubling this by 2030. Additionally, IE Universitys students have the opportunity to develop social innovation impact projects as part of their studies. These can be aimed at making a positive impact on a company, community, or society.

For policies and movements to be effective, they need to encourage mobilisation and change in a concerted way. Ambitious, high-level objectives put in place at the top of a university can be a powerful way to underpin more immediate and concrete goals.

The University of Manchester takes its role in ecology seriously. The institution has set its own list of policies that directly bring about strategic objectives on sustainability practices.

These objectives include empowering people to make change and take action; prioritising processes and infrastructure that support positive environmental behaviour and decision-making; and ensuring that people are recognised for their contributions to sustainability objectives.

"[This] is a brilliant reflection of the work of our researchers, teachers, students, professional services and cultural institution staff, enhancing our global reputation as a leader on social responsibility and impact", says Julian Skyrme, who is director of social responsibility at the university.

Dispositional flexibility and true resilience

Alex Budak is faculty at the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley. He believes that what leaders need most of all is dispositional flexibility, and he suggests that many who promote change and encourage seeing the opportunity in challenges misunderstand the often-cited term resilience.

He believes that when it comes to approaches for leading positive change, a good place to start is on flexibility, because of how rapidly the world is changing right now. He points to the work of psychologist Steve Zaccaro, highlighting the notion of dispositional flexibility: the capacity to be optimistic and yet grounded in reality.

"Applying dispositional flexibility allows us to survive amidst ambiguity [...] It means taking the necessary precautions, while remembering that there is still lots of good in the world," Budak explains.

Given the enormous changes needed across society, practicing dispositional flexibility could be crucial. The years ahead will be challenging, but our goals must be ambitious - fundamentally, if people believe that substantial changes are possible then they will engage with sustainability targets more fully.

Another necessary mindset for positive changemakers is resilience, Budak adds. He believes this trait is all too often confused with the simple capacity for enduring discomfort and pain, however.

"Resilience is actually an intentional practice which includes endurance, yes, but which also elevates learning, growth, development, and leading with purpose," he says.

Space for positivity

Resilience is, of course, something that we have all had to demonstrate in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. Isabela del Alcazar of IE University offers an optimistic note, arguing that while this is an extremely challenging time for all of us, the outbreak and confinement periods also present us with valuable growth lessons.

First and foremost, the situation has shown that people are willing to set aside their own particular priorities "to contribute to the collective well-being."

This willingness to change our way of acting for the greater good, demonstrates that society is ready for action on climate change, she suggests.

"The time has come to reorient political, economic and social systems at all levels and to help our fellow citizens to start thinking and behaving in a way that promotes a more sustainable planet," she says.
The officials of the Trump administration suggested the potential short-circuiting free-ranging stimulus conversations with the Democrats on Sunday to quickly deal on legal business a bill that prioritizes the prolonged federal unemployment benefits, which will be expiring for millions of American this week.

Mark Meadow, chief of staff of the White House, uttered that he would want to witness lawmakers take action on the extension and alteration of the unemployment program, provide tax credits to businesses to ease costs of reopening, and grant new liability protections to employers this week, while a long list of other objectives including the priorities of the Democrats is being set aside. He added that after the bill will be passed then they will be able to work out on the rest of the bill in the upcoming weeks.

The proposal, which was repeated by Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary, on his Sunday interview, was the last-resort effort by the Republicans to avert the program from terminating as signs show that the economy of the state was once again declining amidst the increase in the number of the coronavirus cases.

However, as the Trump administration prepared to introduce their broader relief legislation on Monday, it resulted in a concession with the Republicans. The party has already been slowed by their internal divisions, were doubtful to step foot on a comprehensive relief package deal with the Democrats before millions begin to lose their $600-a-week jobless benefit that assisted in containing the economic crisis, The New York Times reported.

Read also : Trump, Optimistic That "Good Things" Are Coming With Second Stimulus Package

With Democrats already having a record on opposition to a tactical approach, a narrow fix by the Republicans is almost definitely dead on arrival. Republicans are aware that recommending their proposal on Sunday may to some extent be a negotiating tactic setting the groundwork to hold the opposition party responsible when the funds eventually expire.

Democrats have passed their $3 trillion worth proposal, which included money to bail out cities and states, entirely fund the $600 federal jobless benefit, and add billions more to the health care system of the state, in May and view the time pinch that has become a problem of Republicans making that only grants them extra power in adapting a final bill.

According to Star Tribune, on Sunday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi articulated during the CBS program "Face the Nation" that they have been anxious in negotiating for two months and 10 days, adding that the Congress could not leave the town for its yearly August recess until a deal was struck. She also noted that she spent her weekend waiting at what the other party would say and begin the talks.

Ms. Pelosi said that what is currently happening is an emergency and that she could not get what are the people from the other party are against working families in America to keep it going too long.

In addition to the divergence in the negotiation tactic, the two parties have very contrasting views on handling even the narrow set of issues recognized by the White House. Republicans were recommending to alter the jobless benefits program by replacing the $600 flat weekly payments with a plan that will replace around 70 percent of the lost wages of a worker, which is a change that is unlikely to be endorsed by the Democrats. And the Democrats have been strongly opposing an effort by the Republicans to grant employers new lawsuit protection from their workers, students, or patients.

Related article: Second Stimulus Check Verified in GOP Proposal

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A newly developed blood test for Alzheimers has diagnosed the disease as accurately as methods that are far more expensive or invasive, scientists reported on Tuesday, a significant step toward a longtime goal for patients, doctors and dementia researchers. The test has the potential to make diagnosis simpler, more affordable and widely available.

The test determined whether people with dementia had Alzheimers instead of another condition. And it identified signs of the degenerative, deadly disease 20 years before memory and thinking problems were expected in people with a genetic mutation that causes Alzheimers, according to research published in JAMA and presented at the Alzheimers Association International Conference.

Such a test could be available for clinical use in as little as two to three years, the researchers and other experts estimated, providing a readily accessible way to diagnose whether people with cognitive issues were experiencing Alzheimers, rather than another type of dementia that might require different treatment or have a different prognosis. A blood test like this might also eventually be used to predict whether someone with no symptoms would develop Alzheimers.

This blood test very, very accurately predicts whos got Alzheimers disease in their brain, including people who seem to be normal, said Dr. Michael Weiner, an Alzheimers disease researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study. Its not a cure, its not a treatment, but you cant treat the disease without being able to diagnose it. And accurate, low-cost diagnosis is really exciting, so its a breakthrough.
The Montgomery Independent School District wont welcome students back to the classroom in August during the novel coronavirus pandemic as instruction will be held online until at least Sept. 8.

Following an informational presentation during Tuesdays school board meeting, which officially named its new superintendent Heath Morrison, school officials announced that instruction will be held completely online until at least Sept. 8. After that date, parents will choose either in person or online learning.

The districts decision follows a guidance letter from the Montgomery County Public Health Authoritys Dr. Charles Sims and the Montgomery County Hospital District EMS Medical Director Dr. Richard Dickson, which advised the date for postponing opening schools for in-class instruction. Conroe ISD and Willis ISD have also elected to follow the guidance of the public health experts.

The letter states the advisement is due to the number of growing COVID-19 cases in Montgomery County, near capacity caseload of patients in all of the area hospitals, and concern for the spikes in cases that have been noted 10-14 days after holiday weekends earlier this summer.

This decision should give schools the best opportunity to open safely and while potentially reducing the risk of a forced closure later in the year, the letter stated.

Personal experience

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Montgomery County this week passed 5,290, with more than 2,500 active cases and more than 2,630 recovered cases. Among those who have recovered, includes Montgomery ISDs Lake Creek High School Principal, Phil Eaton.

Eaton battled and beat COVID-19 while hospitalized more than 50 days in intensive care at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center, where he continues to visit doctors for rehabilitation from the destructive virus that nearly claimed his life. As the numbers continue to climb around the world, he recalls believing nothing could get him as a kid and thinks of the late Broadway actor Nick Cordero, 41, who was healthy and in the same boat he was in but did not recover.

As he continues to wear a mask and avoid crowds, he says he is proud of the schools leadership and appreciates them for making a decision that may not be popular with everybody. He believes Texas will adopt its approach.

Theres not that many folks who have survived this in my situation, so every time I get down about anything my default is that I survived it and every single day is just a great blessing, Eaton said. One of the great blessings for every educator is working with kids, watching their growth and success. We know they are biting at the bit to get a normal routine going and that part is frustrating, but it takes us back to our number one thing and that is everyones safety right now.

I hope they can come up with something sooner than later that will help us, a vaccine that will support peoples health, Eaton continued. But in the meantime I trust our health officials and believe they have our best interest at heart.

Remote learning

The details for the plan for the new school year, which begins on Aug. 13, is posted on the Montgomery ISD website. It addresses both remote learning and in-person learning options, attendance requirements, special services, extracurricular activity and more.

The plan states that remote learning is expected to be more structured than it was in the spring semester and the district said grades will be given according to the same guidelines as traditional, in-person learning. Students will be subject to the 90 percent rule for attendance to gain credit. The district said truancy rules will apply and the attendance will be taken based on daily participation and progress on assignments in Seesaw.

All students will be given a schedule and will be expected to follow the schedule daily, the plan states.

In highlights posted on social media about the meeting by Montgomery ISD Board President Jim Dossey, which represents his opinion and not the opinion of the board as a whole, he said the goal of the plan is to design the learning environment to enable immediate and seamless transitions between online and in-person learning.

He stated all staff will wear and be provided with face coverings; students age 10 and up will wear masks and there will be a single sign-on for all instructional applications called ClassLink.

This was a major pain point for students in the spring, he stated.

Dossey shared secondary campuses, including Montgomery Junior High School, Oak Hill Junior High School, Montgomery High School and Lake Creek High School will go to an A/B schedule while all students participate in remote learning.

Online learning will not look like how it was done in the spring, he stated. Students will be expected to spend 240 minutes per day in class. Teachers will still take attendance and monitor participation.

Surveys and challenges

The district will send out a technology-oriented survey and another survey before Sept. 8 that will ask parents to make their decision about online or in-person learning. The district asks parents to complete the survey that is intended to determine the technology access in each household by July 29.

Montgomery ISDs plan for remote learning states students are permitted to participate in UIL and extra-curricular activities and are subject to the standard eligibility rules. They will also be subject to take all state and district assessments for accountability and progress monitoring purposes.

There are some challenges that the district is still working through, including after Sept. 8.

Transportation is still an issue and there is not a good solution at this point, Dossey stated. Most students will need to be brought to school by parents. The state continues to provide new guidance every day. This plan will certainly change as we learn more.

For detailed information on Montgomery ISD's plan for moving forward, visit: http://www.misd.org/page/dis.montgomerymovingforward

mellsworth@hcnonline.com
In an initiative to improve health care facilities in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh, on Tuesday, successfully conducted test landing of an air ambulance service in the premises of the hospital.

After getting permission from the director general of civil aviation (DGCA), a six-seater helicopter made a test landing at the hospital on Tuesday. Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat will soon inaugurate the facility in a formal launch.

This facility will help improve health care facilities in the state, as patients in serious condition in far-flung areas can be brought to the hospital through the air ambulance.

Professor Ravikant, director of AIIMS said that earlier, helipads of IDPL and at Jollygrant were used to bring patients from remote areas of the state to AIIMS. He added that with this initiative, AIIMS Rishikesh will become the first government health institute in the country with an air ambulance facility.

Also Read: Two dead, one missing after houses damaged in heavy rains in Uttarakhand

As part of the trial run, the hospital director along with Captain Deep Srivastava, the civil aviation advisor to the government of Uttarakhand flew from Jollygrant to AIIMS Rishikesh.

Dr. Madhur Uniyal, in-charge of aviation and air rescue services of AIIMS Rishikesh said, Our hospital stands completely with the state government to provide immediate treatment to the victims of disasters and road accidents in any part of the state. We are working with determination in this regard and for that, a helipad has been made on campus to save the lives of critical patients.

Also Read: Corbett has Indias largest tiger population among 50 reserves: report

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They have the largest economies in the world. They spend more than anyone else on their militaries. From high-tech chips to control of the high seas, their interests are closely intertwined. The ongoing sharp deterioration in US-China ties poses risks to both countries and the rest of the world. In the latest escalation, a US consulate in Chengdu in southwestern China shuttered Monday, ordered by China to close in retaliation for the US shutting down its consulate in Houston last week.

With the US presidential campaign heating up, all bets are that relations with China will only get worse. A look at what's at stake: TRADE. Both countries already have suffered heavy losses in a tariff war that erupted in 2018 over Beijing's technology ambitions and trade surplus. If talks on ending the dispute fail, the world could face downward pressure on trade at a time when the global economy is already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

The United States is China's biggest single-country export market, even after President Donald Trump imposed punitive tariffs on Chinese goods. And China is the No. 3 market for American exporters, as well as a huge market for goods and services produced in China by US companies ranging from General Motors Co. to Burger King.

Chinese purchases of American farm goods, semiconductors and other goods declined 11.4% last year but still exceeded dollar 100 billion. Exports to China support just under 1 million American jobs, according to the US-China Business Council, though that was down 10% from 2017's peak.

China is the biggest export market for Iowa and other American farm states, which were slammed when Beijing suspended imports of soybeans and raised tariffs on pork and other goods. That briefly boosted sales for soybean exporters in Brazil and Argentina, though China resumed buying lower-priced American beans under the Phase 1 trade truce signed in January.

But if the two can't resolve broader differences on trade, it will be a blow not only to their exporters but also to other Asian economies that supply China's factories with raw materials and components.

US and Chinese producers of telecom, computer, medical and other technology and their markets are tightly interwoven. Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and others rely on Chinese factories to assemble most of their smartphones, computers and other consumer electronics.

Those factories need processor chips and other components from the United States, Japan, Taiwan and Europe. The disruption caused by moves including the Trump administration's curbs on Chinese tech giant Huawei's access to US components and technology threatens to disrupt those flows and cost suppliers, including Silicon Valley companies, billions of dollars in lost revenue.

China is also a top market for Apple and other US tech brands, and is increasingly becoming a technology competitor with its own brands in smartphones, medical equipment and other fields. The United States often is the top market for China's highest-value-added goods. Beijing has been urging exporters to find other markets, but many say Asian and even European markets won't buy such high-value goods.

While the US has long been the predominant military power in the Pacific, China now has two operational aircraft carriers and an arsenal of missiles seen as a threat to US vessels and bases in the region. Military tensions have largely focused on the South China Sea, a crucial waterway that is the subject of overlapping territorial claims by China and several smaller Asian nations.

In 2018, a Chinese destroyer came perilously close to colliding with a U.S. destroyer, the USS Decatur, while executing what the Navy called an unsafe and unprofessional maneuver in the South China Sea. A Chinese fighter jet collided with a US Navy surveillance plane in international airspace over the South China Sea in 2001, leading to major diplomatic incident after the US plane made an emergency landing on a Chinese island.

Taiwan is another potential flashpoint. China claims the self-governing island as its territory, to be taken by force if necessary. The US is bound by its own law to ensure the island has a credible defense and has approved military sales to Taiwan under Trump. Taiwan's foreign minister said last week that Chinese military flights near the island have been taking place on a near-daily basis, more frequently than previously reported.

Washington upped the ante earlier this month by declaring that it did not recogniwe most of China's maritime claims in the South China Sea, a break with its previous policy of not taking a stance on the sovereignty disputes.

Also read: Auto parts, telecom items, glass: Govt plans import curbs on 371 Chinese goods
(Newser)  Amazon's bottom line has remained extremely healthy during the pandemicbut some of those profits might be coming from companies making dubious claims about their products' ability to fight viruses. NPR reports that searches for "coronavirus supplement" or "COVID supplement" return many pages of results from third-party sellers at Amazon, with the products including numerous kinds of herbal supplements and "immunity mushrooms." NPR notes that after it and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a public health watchdog, notified Amazon in June about products sold on its marketplace that do not explicitly claim to treat COVID but do make unsubstantiated claims about antiviral properties, it took weeks for the company to remove them from sale. Many others NPR subsequently identified remain available.

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CSPI president Dr. Peter Lurie says the products are not only a "waste of money," they may harm consumers "if they decide to opt for a supplement in favor of the things we know that actually help," including social distancing. "The underlying problem is how under-regulated these products are in the first place," says Lurie, a former FDA associated commissioner. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who fought for consumer protection during his 20 years as Connecticut's attorney general, is pushing for federal agencies to crack down on coronavirus scams, including supplements sold as virus protection. "Theres a whole cottage industry of scams based on COVID-19," the Democrat says, per the Connecticut Mirror. (Read more Amazon.com stories.)
Sebastian Vettel has mere days to decide if he wants to join the Racing Point team - set to become Aston Martin - in 2021.

That is the claim of Auto Bild correspondent Bianca Garloff, reiterating that the July 31 deadline ties in with a clause in Sergio Perez's current contract.

On July 31, Friday practice for Silverstone's back-to-back races kicks off.

"According to our information, Vettel only has to agree. Then he has the seat," Garloff claims.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who recently bought into Lawrence Stroll's new Aston Martin project, encourages the quadruple world champion to sign up.

"Sebastian is a four-time world champion with a lot of speed and technical experience," he said. "He would also be an important marketing tool for Aston Martin."

However, former F1 driver Nick Heidfeld thinks his fellow German is facing "a very difficult decision".

"He initially said that he only wanted to continue with a top team, but now he says he just wants a 'good package'," Heidfeld told Sky Deutschland.

"For me, this means he has opened the door to wanting to definitely stay in Formula 1."

Vettel would also get a 'pink Mercedes' to race next year, Heidfeld said, and "If you look at Ferrari's current performance, Aston Martin would be an improvement".

"I think it is a good medium term option for him," said Heidfeld. "The Mercedes engine is a good fit as well, but Sebastian would be a big help to the team.

"With his experience, Sebastian can undoubtedly make the difference for any team with serious ambitions."

(GMM)
The following items were taken from Lincolnshire Police Department reports and releases. An arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt.

DUI

Justin Navarro, 20, of the 800 block of Winchester Lane, Northbrook, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and consumption of liquor by a minor at 10:05 p.m. July 18 following a traffic stop on Milwaukee Avenue at Olde Half Day Road. Navarro was given an Aug. 28 court date.

Illegal consumption of alcohol

Henry S. Zaransky, 20, of the 2100 block of Walters Avenue, Northbrook, was charged with illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor at 10:37 p.m. July 18 following an incident on Milwaukee Avenue at Tower Parkway. Zaransky was given an Aug. 19 court date.

David R. Schulte, 20, of the 700 block of York Court, Northbrook, was charged with illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor at 10:30 p.m. July 18 following an incident on Milwaukee Avenue at Tower Parkway. Schulte was given an Aug. 12 court date.

Sean T. Merrigan, 20, of the 2800 block of Shannon Court, Northbrook, was charged with illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor at 10:30 p.m. July 18 following an incident on Milwaukee Avenue at Tower Parkway. Merrigan was given an Aug. 12 court date.

Alexander N. Rosenbloom, 20, of the 3000 block of Parkside Drive, Highland Park, was charged with illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor at 10:28 p.m. July 18 following an incident on Milwaukee Avenue at Tower Parkway. Rosenbloom was given an Aug. 19 court date

Moving violations

Jamaal D. Hawkins, 44, of the 500 block of Quincy Street, Maywood, was charged with driving while license suspended at 2 a.m. July 21 following a traffic stop on Half Day Road at Elm Road. Hawkins was given an Aug. 9 court date.

Genaro Davila-Ortega, 32, of the 2000 block of Chestnut Street, Waukegan, was charged with driving while license suspended and speeding at 1:10 a.m. July 21 following a traffic stop on Milwaukee Avenue at Marriott Drive. Davila-Ortega was given an Aug. 19 court date.

Dominguez F. Arriaga, 41, of the 18000 block of West Cottage Avenue, Lake Villa, was charged with driving while license suspended at 7:37 a.m. July 19 following a traffic stop on Milwaukee Avenue at Tower Parkway. Arriaga was given an Aug. 19 court date.

Derrell L. Jones, 36, of the 900 block of Lorraine Avenue, Waukegan, was charged with driving while license suspended and uninsured vehicle at 11:11 p.m. July 17 following a traffic stop on Milwaukee Avenue at Olde Half Day Road. Jones was given an Aug. 9 court date.

Speeding

Aleksandr Varshavsky, 37, of the 4300 block of Emerson Street, Skokie, was charged with speeding more than 26 miles per hour over the speed limit at 4:26 p.m. July 18 after allegedly being clocked driving 61 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone on Half Day Road at Riverwoods Road. Varshavsky was given an Aug. 19 court date.

Katherine Vasquez, 19, of the 600 block of Onwentsia Avenue, Highland Park, was charged with speeding more than 26 miles per hour over the speed limit at 2:10 p.m. July 18 after allegedly being clocked driving 65 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone on Half Day Road at Old Mill Road. Vasquez was given an Aug. 12 court date.

Mark R. Schneider, 72, of the 2100 block of North Ocean Bouleveard, Boca Raton, Fla., was charged with speeding more than 26 miles per hour over the speed limit at 1:40 p.m. July 18 after allegedly being clocked driving 65 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone. Schneider was given an Aug. 19 court date.

Cresencio T. Sanglap, 55, of the 2800 block of Glacier Way, Wauconda, was charged with speeding more than 26 miles per hour over the speed lmit at 7:57 a.m. July 18 after allegedly being clocked driving 65 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone. Sanglap was given an Aug. 19 court date.

Aquino E. Cano, 34, of the 21000 block of Olympian Way, Matteson, was charged with speeding more than 26 miles per hour over the speed limit at 6:34 a.m. July 18 after allegedly being clocked driving 61 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone on Half Day Road at Old Mill Road.

Jennifer J. Carillo-Castillo, 24, of the 100 block of Boulevard De France, Parris Island, South Carolina, was charged with speeding more than 35 miles per hour over the speed limit at 8:49 a.m. July 17 after allegedly being clocked driving 71 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone. Carillo-Castillo was given an Aug. 19 court date.

Youssef Ouifak, 30, of the 8000 block of West Foster Lane, Niles, was charged with speeding more than 26 miles per hour over the limit at 4:34 a.m. July 17 after allegedly being clocked driving 64 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone on Milwaukee Avenue at Route 45. Ouifak was given an Aug. 19 court date.
COLUMBIA, S.C.  South Carolina's Head Start programs have received nearly $11 million in federal funding through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security [CARES] Act.

The South Carolina Department of Social Services announced Monday that it had received $10.73 million in funding which it plans to use to provide services to Head Start eligible children under the age of 5 including summer learning virtual programs, technology and connectivity, telehealth programs and preparing classrooms and facilities for the new school year.

The South Carolina Head Start State Collaboration Office is located within the South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS), Division of Early Care and Education and works collaboratively with local Head Start programs.

The allocation to the state is part of a $750 million designation to Head Start programs nationally through the CARES Act.

That act was developed to provide economic stimulus and security for the country following the shutdowns enacted to prevent COVID-19 patients from overwhelming hospitals. The act was signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27.
WASHINGTON  Black representation in Congress has more than doubled since the late Rep. John Lewis was first elected in 1986 after years of fighting for equality.

While Congress is still less diverse than the electorate it represents, Lewis, D-Ga., helped clear the path for others to follow.

Lewis put his life on the line for future generations through sit-ins at lunch counters, voter registration drives and his walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965 that left him with a fractured skull. The walk, known as Bloody Sunday, helped galvanize support for the Voting Rights Act and the civil rights movement.

The group of candidates running for Congress in 2020 is the most diverse in recent memory, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

As of mid-June, 116 candidates who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) made it through nominating contests and will be on the fall ballot, according to the center. But because incumbents usually win congressional races, BIPOC candidates could be elected to seats currently held by white lawmakers in only a small share of contests, the center estimates.

'I love you, brother': Lawmakers remember Rep. John Lewis' friendship and advice

The hopefuls include up-and-coming leaders who may share Lewis' commitment to justice and equality but will be making their own mark.

"It's a new generation," said Wendy Davis, a member of the Democratic National Committee from Georgia. "And it's a generation that has new tools to face those obstacles."

Here's a look at four of the Black candidates favored to win their general election races who are already getting national attention.

Nikema Williams

Nikema Williams' great aunt was the first Black student admitted to the University of Atlanta.

Her husband was an aide to Lewis.

Their young son, Carter, is named after the 39th president.

She called herself "a student of the John Lewis school of politics."

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Williams, 41, the Georgia state senator picked by state Democrats as their nominee to succeed Lewis in Congress next year, has ties that run deep to the civil rights movement and Democratic Party.

She also has her own extensive record of activism and leadership.

The first Black woman to head the Georgia Democratic Party, Williams worked her way up the ranks while advocating for reproductive rights at the southeast chapter of Planned Parenthood and for the rights of workers in her current job. She is deputy political director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance and deputy director of the alliances advocacy and political arm.

Williams used the word fight or fighter more than once a minute as she made her candidacy pitch to the party committee that voted overwhelmingly, after Lewis death, to make her the replacement nominee for the fall ballot.

Williams addressed her fellow Democrats as her co-conspirators for justice.

Members of the committee described Williams as someone who would be able to hit the ground running in Washington and who has a winning combination of activism and legislative experience.

Williams is all but assured to win the general election in Lewis old district, one of the most heavily Democratic in the South.

Like Lewis, Williams grew up on a farm in Alabama, not far from the town in Georgia where she was born. Williams was raised by her grandparents in a home without indoor plumbing or running water.

Riding around in the back of her grandfathers pickup truck before elections, Williams distributed slate cards urging neighbors to vote for specific candidates. Her textbooks told the story of the integration of the University of Alabama by her great aunt, Autherine Lucy, in 1956.

This ingrained into me a sense of standing up to injustice and demanding equal and fair treatment, she said in her candidacy pitch.

In high school, Williams joined the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union while working as a cashier at Food World.

After graduating with a biology degree from Talladega College, a historically Black college where she was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, Williams moved to Atlanta in 2002 and quickly got involved in the Democratic Party.

For a while, the state party really didnt feel like a state party. It was centered around metropolitan areas," Georgia Democratic Party member Bobby Fuse said of the positive influence Williams had when she eventually rose to the top and increased party participation. "She has a great grasp of the entire state of Georgia.

In addition to her role at the state level, Williams also worked her way up to the executive committee of the national party. She was a fundraiser for Barack Obamas 2012 campaign and a convention delegate for both Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Nikema is someone who fights for the causes she believes in and doesn't hesitate to do the work, said Democratic National Committee member Davis, who has worked closely with Williams at the state party for years.

Davis said Williams is the most successful leader of the state party in the past three decades.

There are a lot of people who talk and there's some people who work behind the scenes, Davis said. She has this wonderful capacity to be both that person you're happy to be standing in front of a camera representing your party, and also the person who does the work.

Elected to the state Senate in 2017, Williams has battled Republicans on abortion and voting rights, school vouchers, health care and other issues.

After campaigning hard for gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in 2018, Williams was arrested in the Capitol building when she went to check on constituents who were protesting the outcome. The charges were later dropped.

Georgia state Sen. Nikema Williams is arrested Nov. 13, 2018, by Capitol Police. Dozens of demonstrators had filled the rotunda of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta to protest election ballot counts.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called Williams a protege of Abrams who has a knack for taking the fight to the GOP.

Noting that shes also been willing to work with Republicans, the paper quoted a congratulatory note to Williams from the top aide of Georgias lieutenant governor.

You have always been an honest broker, John Porter wrote, and I have no doubt youll continue to do the same in D.C.

Davis said Williams understands that there are some issues on which you dont waver and others where you work to find common ground.

And I think that's a quality she shares with Congressman Lewis, Davis said. I think people need to not underestimate her.

A trio of new lawmakers in New York

A new generation of Black leaders are likely to sweep into office in New York, among them two candidates who are likely to be the first two openly gay Black members of Congress.

Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres are succeeding longtime, retiring incumbents, and the third, Jamaal Bowman, a former middle-school principal from the Bronx, unseated Rep. Eliot Engel, the powerful chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

All three candidates will face only token opposition for the deep-blue districts in November.

And once they get to Washington, they all say they aim to make "good trouble."

Jamaal Bowman

Bowman's Justice Democrat-backed win over Engel in New York's 16th Congressional District in southern Westchester County and the northern Bronx was one of the largest upsets so far in the 2020 primary elections.

The politics of the primary election had pitted Lewis against Bowman, in some respects. Lewis and the Congressional Black Caucus had endorsed Engel over Bowman in the primary. Bowman, however, did not hold hard feelings.

"They didn't know who I was," Bowman said, noting the Congressional Black Caucus' longstanding ties with Engel. "I wouldn't want them to endorse me just because I'm a Black candidate."

Jamaal Bowman speaks to attendees during his primary-night party on June 23, 2020.

Regardless of the politics of the primary, Bowman said he was inspired by Lewis' legacy of nonviolent protest and continual agitation for change.

"John Lewis was arrested over 40 times. He was beaten mercilessly, multiple times, receiving a skull fracture and a concussion. And he kept going," Bowman said. "He didn't stop after the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law"

"As a Black man in America," Bowman explained, he looked up to Lewis, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and history "as a guide to how you're supposed to conduct yourself within a country of white supremacy."

And now, to look forward to walking the same halls as Lewis, it was a "surreal experience."

More: Congressional upsets: Progressives, candidates of color, and GOP outsiders net primary wins

Ritchie Torres

Torres and Jones would not have a chance as Black candidates if not for the example Lewis had set for young candidates, Torres said.

"He's one of the few heroes I see in American politics," Torres said. "He's larger than the office."

He said he and Mondaire Jones were "the beneficiaries of the progress that John Lewis fought for the rest of us. He risked his life so the rest of us could have a fighting chance."

Torres, a New York City councilman, is likely to succeed Rep. Jose Serrano in New York's 15th Congressional District in the Bronx.

"Good trouble" summed up the current national political mood as young people like him, inspired by Lewis, ran for office and won against older, more entrenched politicians, Torres said.

After all, Lewis was the youngest of the "Big Six" civil rights leaders, Torres noted.

Torres took on established rules in Congress even before arriving on Capitol Hill.

In a Washington Post op-ed and comments reported first by Newsweek, Torres said he wanted to join both the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus despite longstanding Black Caucus rules preventing members of Congress from being a member of both.

"Expecting Afro-Latinos like myself to be politically alienated from our own blackness  at a time when Black Lives Matter has become the rallying cry of a racially awakened nation  is the cruelest of ironies," Torres wrote in The Washington Post.

New York City Council Member Ritchie Torres addresses a news conference in New York on March 19, 2018.

Mondaire Jones

Jones, an attorney and a former Obama administration official, never thought he could run for elected office.

He ruled out elected office for most of his life, he said, because "I didn't think that I could be successful in electoral politics as an openly gay candidate."

Jones recalled meeting Lewis at a Congressional Black Caucus event in 2012, and being in "awe" at interacting with a "giant among men."

They talked about Jones' representative in Congress, who at the time was Eliot Engel, and Jones told Lewis he intended to go into politics one day.

Rest in Power, Congressman Lewis. This was in 2012. A few hours ago, I was just asking one of your colleagues how you were doing, & he offered to re-introduce us. I was so looking forward to serving with you & learning from you. We honor your memory when we make good trouble. pic.twitter.com/DfmNn6UluX  Mondaire Jones (@MondaireJones) July 18, 2020

Now, he and Ritchie Torres were "making history" as the first openly gay Black members of Congress. I think we need to qualify this because they haven't won yet.

"It is an awesome responsibility," he said. "One that I accept, with great humility."

In this December 2019 photo provided by Mondaire Jones for Congress, candidate Mondaire Jones poses for a photo in New York.

Jones, who was endorsed by progressives like Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, is set to succeed Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., the retiring chair of the House Appropriations Committee.

The fact he could win the district, New York's 17th, which includes the affluent New York suburbs in Westchester County, as a Black gay man and a progressive was a "sign of progress," he said.

"We don't have a large DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) chapter here," Jones noted.

More: Civil rights icon John Lewis remembered by fellow veterans: 'We had right on our side'

Jones said Lewis' legacy was one of "going up against the political establishment at the time." He noted how Lewis' speech at the March on Washington was a "radical first draft" and was changed at the last minute.

"It referred to the fact that Black people in America are constantly told to wait patiently for progress, but justice delayed is unacceptable in a civilized society, and he spoke with a sense of urgency," Jones said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: John Lewis: Who will carry the torch for him in Congress?
Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], July 28 (ANI/NewsVoir): Rebuffing the myth over parents' displeasure towards the schools on payment of fees, Ahmedabad based Association of Progressive Schools (AoPS) stormed the Twitter with their #SaveOurSchools campaign.

The digital campaign was designed to oppose Gujarat government's order to collect no fees from the parents till the schools open regularly. On Sunday, July 26, the campaign received tremendous support from Twitterati as the online campaign witnessed more than one lakh tweets, became number four trending nationally, number five in Mumbai/Bengaluru and number one in Gujarat Twitter.

The aim of the campaign was to create a massive voice for the concern towards school education and influence the state government to take a favorable decision that is suitable to all the sections of the education fraternity.

"We had received tremendous support from parents and other sections of the society backing the various initiatives taken by the self-financed schools for the betterment of students' education during COVID-19 pandemic. A large number of parents had shown their disagreement towards the government's GR on not to levy fees till normal classes resume. Buoyed by their support, we had launched a digital campaign #SaveOurSchools to further echo our voice and get further support nationally. This coming together for the sake of the education fraternity in Gujarat was an important step to stop what was shortsighted and will have deep consequences for everyone," said Manan Choksi, Past President and Member of AoPS, while speaking on this initiative.

"In 2017, a Fee Regulatory Committee (FRC) was set up by Gujarat government to regulate fee structure of schools in Gujarat. Despite submitting the genuine expenses approved by the auditors, the FRC drastically reduced the fees charged by private schools. Just like every other sector, the private schools also faced a big hit due to COVID-19 pandemic and it's after effects. Last week the state government had restricted all the schools not to collect fees from the parents till the schools resume normally. In such a situation, how the schools will pay the salaries of teaching staff? Such a decision is completely hogwash and our digital campaign proved that by getting support from the education fraternity," added Choksi.

The association had invited all the educators, teachers, parents, and students to come forward and join in the Tweet Storm. AoPS also arranged a short training session on Saturday, 25th July to understand how it works and what the participants can write about the campaign.

This was especially planned for the people who had not optimized the use of Twitter previously as the session could help them to understand the focus, the strategy, and the use of their Twitter account.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)

DISCLAIMER

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(CNN)  Google will let employees work from home until at least July 2021, a company spokesperson said on Monday.

The company had previously said most employees would be working remotely through the end of 2020, with some employees being allowed back into the office sooner.

But the decision to extend the remote work policy well into next year indicates that one of the world's largest tech companies is bracing for a long pandemic  and could prompt other businesses to follow suit.

In a memo to employees, a copy of which was obtained by CNN Business, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company has reopened 42 offices around the world.

"To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we'll be extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021 for roles that don't need to be in the office," Pichai wrote. "I hope this will offer the flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months."

The tech industry has led the charge on remote work during the coronavirus crisis, with companies including Twitter and Facebook saying they plan to allow some employees to continue working remotely indefinitely.

This story was first published on CNN.com Google will let employees work from home until at least next summer
I met Pierre (34)[1] in a northern Santiago neighbourhood during my ethnographic fieldwork early in 2018. He was one of the hundreds of Haitians who arrived in Chile, and particularly to this area of the city, following what some Latin American newspapers have called the Chilean Dream. This refers to the flow of Latin American and Caribbean migrants who came to Chile looking for new work opportunities and improvements to their quality of life in early 2010. Although Pierre and his family had partially fulfilled their Chilean dream by finding a job in the building sector and sending money to his parents and brothers in Haiti, several everyday obstacles have impacted them diversely in psychosocial terms. Pierre, as with other Haitians that I met in the neighbourhood, tended to manage their afflictions within family and community spaces, primarily through the Evangelical churches. From this, what attracted my attention was the central role placed among Pierres family members on the practice of telling and sharing dreams. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pierre and his familys dreams became central for the management of the malaise and uncertainty associated with the coronavirus disease, the economic crisis, and closure of borders, among others. For my research, the Haitians practice of telling dreams became crucial as it allowed me to interrogate the current relationship between migration, the global mental health (GMH) agenda, and subjectivity in the context of a post-dictatorship neoliberal Chile. In this short piece, I focus on how Haitians dream uses can interrogate the strategies of global mental health on the management of afflictions in a time of pandemic.

In the beginning of April 2020, a month after the first COVID-19 case in Chile[2], Pierre told me via the telephone: I have not slept well, and I have had many dreams with deceased relatives. Pierre attributed his insomnia to anxiety associated with the potential loss of his job in the coming weeks. Besides this, he was concerned and depressed about some expressions of racism towards the Haitian community associated with the coronavirus outbreak. Pierre added: The same thing happens to my wife. She dreamed that she was sick in a hospital, with many doctors. Their dreams showed how current social constraints entered into the oneiric life. Dreams related to deceased relatives, sickness, hospitals, and doctors revealed family concerns associated with the pandemic context. The content of these dreams demonstrated what several researchers have highlighted for more than a century, that is how the social penetrates dreams, providing them with daily characters, symbols, and spaces, among others (Freud, 2010 [1900]; Devereux, 1969). Sigmund Freud called this day residues, that is, memory traces caused by daily events and psychic processes associated with these events (Freud, 2010 [1900]). In line with this, different contributions have highlighted the relevance of everyday life in dreams, such as the studies of Charlotte Beradt (1966) on Nazism in Germany, and Roger Bastide (1972) on racism in Brazil, among others.

Nevertheless, Pierre and his familys dreams become analytically relevant not only by their content but also by their social and political place and uses. As several researchers have shown from cultural and psychoanalytic anthropology, the dreams social and political place changes depending on different societies. Similarly, as I noticed on several occasions during my fieldwork, dreams significantly influenced Pierre and his familys decision-making about their collective future. Dreams delineated decisions related to, for example, the familys migration process and everyday life. The social place of dreams in Haitian society can be understood from the role of Vodou worldview. Vodou is not only a religion through which subjects may or may not ascribe but is part of the foundation of the worldview of Haitian society (Hurbon, 2001; Price-Mars, 1990 [1928]; Vonarx, 2012; WHO/PAHO (2010). Far from a Cartesian worldview, the Vodou, through its interactions with other religions such as Catholicism and Protestantism, shapes complex dynamic representations of the universe, personhood, health/disease, and death, among others (Rey and Stepick, 2013; Woodson, 1993). Although anthropological research has not tended to focus on the dream life of the subjects in Haiti, Erika Bourguignon (1954), in her contributions on dreams and their interpretation in Haitian rural contexts, argued that Haitians tended to classify dreams as things I see at night or as supernatural visits. Besides this, she stressed that Haitians conceived dreams as an opportunity to meet with their ancestors and gods.

Moreover, the practice of sharing dreams appeased Pierre and his familys day-to-day concerns. While Pierre usually shared his oneiric life with his father, brothers, and wife in Haiti, he did it only with his wife in Chile. He told of his dreams because he considered them strange images or because they provided him with messages or advice from God about the future. Pierre reported that he felt that he could obtain a better understanding of different difficulties after recounting a dream, while feeling calm and hopeful. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pierre seemed to find a safe place in his oneiric life and, in turn, a space to think about the future with his family. He said: God has also told me in a dream that we must trust that when everything happens, it will be for the best () perhaps after this, there will be more work here, or we can return to Haiti. He added: God always wants the best for us and the best of us. As Bourguignon (1954) argued on her study in Haiti, by telling and sharing their dreams, Pierre and his family interpreted their oneiric life. Through this practice, they seemed to reaffirm a knowledge system and to validate a worldview.

Highlighting Pierre and his familys coping strategies becomes particularly relevant in the context of contemporary discussions in GMH (Bemme and Kirmayer, 2020; Lovell, Read, and Lang, 2019). The widespread context of the GMH agenda in different countries has shaped what Behague and MacLeish (2020) have recently called a global psyche. That means an available idiom through which subjects and communities represent their suffering and mental health based on knowledge, practices, and metrics of the global mental health agenda (Lovell, Read, and Lang, 2019). From this framework, rather than dreaming, what seems central in the current pandemic context is the increase of sleep disorders and anxiety/mood disorders and their consequences in daily life (e.g. performance, productivity, etc.). Within this scenario, biomedical and psychiatric approaches deploy psychopharmacological treatments that can disturb and reduce dreaming due to potential side effects (Gursky and Krahn, 2000). For its part, in this framework, dreaming becomes a neurobiological mechanism that allows the consolidation of memories through the REM phases. Thus, the empire of neurosciences reduces dream life to a neurobiological level, neglecting the relationships that different societies have with the oneiric life.

The gradual introduction of a GMH agenda in Chile over the last 30 years has invisibilised these kind of coping strategies. The implementation of mental health reforms since the 1990s (Araya, Alvarado and Minoletti, 2009), as well as the medicalisation and pharmacology of malaise and suffering (Cuthbertson, 2015; Crespo Suarez and Machin Suarez, 2020), has influenced how most Chileans understand themselves, and how they process their suffering and mental health in a neoliberal context (Han, 2012; Aceituno, Miranda, and Jimenez, 2012). Therefore, Pierre and his familys life invites reflection on the role and value of dream life, particularly in the uncertain times such as those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In other words, although sometimes coopted for medicalisation and pharmacologisation, dreaming can be understood as a space that has the potential to imagine alternative futures.



Gabriel Abarca-Brown is a PhD Candidate and Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Kings College London. His PhD thesis is entitled Becoming a (neuro)migrant: Culture, race, class and gender in Santiago, Chile. He is Co-founder of the Platform for Social Research on Mental Health in Latin America (PLASMA).

Footnotes

[1] Pseudonym.

[2] On April 5th, the number of COVID-19 cases reached 4,471 people while deaths confirmed were 34. On July 21st, the number of cases reached 334,683 people while deaths confirmed were 8,647.

Works Cited

Aceituno, R.; Miranda, G.; and Jimenez, A. (2012). Experiencias del desasosiego: salud mental y malestar en Chile. Anales de la Universidad de Chile, n36: 87-102.

Araya, R.; Alvarado, R. and Minoletti, A. (2009). Chile: an ongoing mental health revolution. The Lancet, 347(9690): 597-598.

Behague, D.; MacLeish, K. (2020). The Global Psyche: Experiments in the Ethics and Politics of Mental Life. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 34(1):5-20.

Bastide R. (1972). Le reve, la transe et la folie. Paris: Flammarion.

Bemme, D. and Kirmayer, L. (2020). Global Mental Health: Interdisciplinary challenges for a field in motion. Transcultural Psychiatry. Vol. 57(1):3-18.

Berardt, C. (1968). The Third Reich of Dreams. US: Quadrangle Books

Bourguignon, E. (1954). Dreams and Dream Interpretation in Haiti. American Anthropologist. 56: 262-268.

Cuthbertson, C. (2015). Pharmaceutical technologies and the management of biological citizens in Chile. In S. Bell and A. Figert (Eds.). Reimagining (Bio)Medicalization, Pharmaceuticals and Genetics: Old Critiques and New Engagements (pp. 137-159). New York: Routledge.

Crespo Suarez, J. and Machin Suarez, R. (2020). Medicalisation in public primary mental health care services in Chile. Social Theory & Health. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41285-020-00130-4

Deveraux, G. (1969). Reality and Dream: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian: USA: New York University Press.

Freud. S. (2010 [1900]). The Interpretation of Dreams. USA: Basic Books.

Gursky, JT and Krahn, LE. (2000). The effects of antidepressants on sleep: a review. Harv Rev Psychiatry, 8(6):298-306.

Han, C. (2012). Life in Debt: Times of Care and Violence in Neoliberal Chile. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Hurbon, L. (2001). Pentecostalism and transnationalism in the Caribbean. In Corten A, et al. (eds). Between Babel and Pentecost: Transnational Pentecostalism in Africa and Latin America (pp. 124-41). London: Hust & Co.

Lovell, A.; Read, U.M. and Lang, C. (2019). Genealogies and Anthropologies of Global Mental Health. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 43(4):519-547.

Price-Mars, J. (1990 [1928]). So spoke the uncle. Pueblo: Passeggiata Press.

Vonarx, N. (2012) Le Vodou haitien. Entre medicine, magie et religion. PUR: Rennes.

WHO/PAHO (2010). Culture and mental health in Haiti: A Literature review. Geneva.

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TRENTON  In an eleventh-hour Hail Mary, committee members Charles Geter and Margaret Nicol filed suit to halt Tuesday nights vote in a contested county chair showdown between incumbent Janice Mironov and challenger David Schroth.

Attorney Genova Burns said in the complaint filed late Monday that the Mercer County Democratic Committee never changed bylaws to allow for the reorganization meeting to be moved from the Tuesday after the primary.

The reorganization meeting is being held as a virtual town hall at 6 p.m. Voters will cast ballots by phone.

The lawsuit is before Assignment Judge Mary Jacobson.

The fatal defects in both timing and procedure that attend these actions will have the effect of stifling the full participation of members in the MCDCs business, Genova wrote, according to the New Jersey Globe. The totality of these actions illustrate a distressing lack of transparency on the part of Mironov, who as Chair is obligated pursuant to the Bylaws to carry out the goals and directives of the MCDC.

Genova said in the complaint he warned Mironov about going forward with the alleged illegal meeting.

Her response was to send out a notice four days before the reorganization meeting that attempted to quell the concerns of committee members regarding the process by which the meeting would be conducted.

Schroth, an attorney who is challenging Mironov, filed court papers looking to intervene in the case.

He said committee members are concerned their ballots, typically cast on paper, wont be kept secret.

Further, he alleged he had been excluded from procedures on how nominations will take place.

He alleged one of his supporters, Sen. Shirley Turner, was excluded from the nomination meetings.

I have been advised that at the Nominating Committee meetings they are rehearsing the nomination process of current Mironov including speeches, he wrote. I am being gravely and irreparably harmed and prejudiced by this one-sided, opaque process from which I have been totally excluded.  This smacks of a fixed process by any standard.

Attorneys for the Mercer County Democratic Committee told NJ Globe that more than 300 of the 450 eligible county committee members already registered for the virtual election.

Many other organizations use this platform, including neighboring Middlesex County Democratic Committee who used this meeting platform and voting process, for their reorganization meeting last week, Daniel Antonelli and Jarrid Kantor told the publication.

Antonelli and Kantor asked Jacobson not to hold argument Tuesday as it is clear the lateness of the filing and the delayed service of same was done specifically to prejudice the defendants ability to fully respond.

According to online court records, it did not appear Jacobson had issued on order scheduling a hearing.

Gov. Phil Murphy moved the election from July 2 to July 7 due to the conorovirus pandemic which forced voters to mostly cast vote-by-mail ballots.

Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes pushed for the Dems reorganization meeting to be put off for a year.

We are in the middle of a historic pandemic, the Democratic powerbroker told The Trentonian in a previous interview, and I dont see the reason for going about business as usual.

Mironov said she had a legal and moral mandate to push ahead with the meeting.
Wilmer Gibson, Tokyo Japan.

"The new office will have a very important key role in sustaining growth at Wilmer Gibson. Our team is very excited to be part of this dynamic and innovative developments, as we are setting foot in the great city of Tokyo" said Carver Yang, Wilmer Gibson's Chief Executive Officer.

"The new office will have a very important key role in sustaining growth at Wilmer Gibson. Our team is very excited to be part of this dynamic and innovative developments, as we are setting foot in the great city of Tokyo" said Carver Yang, Wilmer Gibson's Chief Executive Officer.

Tokyo, Japan, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wilmer Gibson, a leading financial services firm providing world-class wealth management services, has announced the opening of a new office in Tokyo, Japan. David Wu, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Wealth Management Sales, will lead the new office. Wilmer Gibson decision to open a new location will strengthen its positions outside Singapore and will bring it closer to its Asia Pacific region customers.



"The new office will have a very important key role in sustaining growth at Wilmer Gibson. Our team is very excited to be part of this dynamic and innovative developments, as we are setting foot in the great city of Tokyo" said Carver Yang, Wilmer Gibson's Chief Executive Officer.

The number of employees in the new location will initially be around 42, with the majority of new staff being hired. The technology area will be a focal point, but the office will also take care of the Global Wealth Management, Institutional Client Management, Marketing and other business areas, which should benefit from the knowledge of local experts.

"The Tokyo office delivers the opportunity to expand our customer relationships, hire new experts in the field with additional skills and knowledge, and expand our technology expertise and innovation across the Asia-Pacific region," said Mr. Yang.

"The fact that Wilmer Gibson, one of the leading financial services firm, has chosen Tokyo as a key element in its job creation and expansion strategy is a great insight into our firms intention," said Rick Toh, Wilmer Gibson Director. "This decision highlights the excellent work that we have done over the past years and that our firm is always in search of new possibilities to develop and bring its services in the region."

Story continues

Carver Yang added: "This office is one of the many movements Wilmer Gibson is making to take advantage of the opportunities in the global investment management industry, including expansion in the Asia Pacific region and the development of additional resources in many areas such as technology, marketing, global wealth management and institutional client management."

About Wilmer Gibson

Wilmer Gibson is a leading financial services firm providing a wide range of investment solutions, securities, investment management and wealth management services. Our team consists of industry-leading investment professionals deep in talent, ideas and experience  all dedicated to providing our clients with a world-class experience in the management of their wealth. Wilmer Gibson is committed to preserving customers capital, managing risk, and delivering strong long-term investment returns over differing economic and market cycles. Our success in developing long-term client relationships is founded on common values, a thorough understanding of our clients goals and a keen desire to earn and keep their trust and confidence.

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In his first public accounting of a flashpoint in nationwide street protests, the head of the U.S. Park Police denied Tuesday that his officers turned their clubs and chemical agents on protesters in front of the White House last month to clear the area for a staged photo event by President Donald Trump shortly afterward.

Gregory T. Monahan, acting chief of the Park Police, also denied in testimony to the House Natural Resources Committee that the order to clear the square about a half-hour before Trumps photo event on June 1 came from the White House, Attorney General William Barr or Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.

He said the ultimate order to abruptly drive protesters from Lafayette Square came from a Park Police incident commander whom he did not immediately identify.

The demonstrations outside the White House came at the height of this years nationwide protests over the killing of Black people at the hands of police. Democrats charged that the action at Lafayette Square, long one of the nations most prominent venues for demonstrations, was a test run for ongoing use of federal forces against protesters in Portland and elsewhere.

We did not clear that park for a photo op, Monahan said, under questioning. There is 100 percent, zero correlation between our operation and the presidents visit.

But Monahan also acknowledged under questioning from Democratic lawmakers that there was no recording of police radio traffic at the time. He said that was a mistake.

Rock- and brick-throwing and other assaults by protesters on Park Police in previous days warranted the violent clearing of the square, Monahan said. But he disclosed that the only injury to his force that day was a punch to the face that occurred as officers were routing the public from the square.

Law enforcement and security officers that night clubbed and punched protesters and used mounted officers and chemical agents against them in one of the most controversial confrontations at the height of this years nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.

The forceful clearing of Lafayette Square came just before Trump appeared in the area without notice, on his way to stage a photo event in front of a historic church nearby. Trump briefly raised a Bible in the air in front of nearby St. John's Church, in an appearance underscoring his law and order stance on the protests, and returned to the White House.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat and former Marine, said he saw nothing that justified the sudden brute force against what appeared to be a largely peaceful crowd in Lafayette Square at that time.

Your decision process should have been based by what was happening in the square at the time, Gallego said, after lawmakers watched a video of Park Police with batons advancing on protesters, who were retreating with their hands up. No one was injured, by the way, until you all advanced. If I had acted that way when I was in the Marine Corps, I probably would have been busted down a couple of ranks.

Rep. Jody Hice, a Georgia Republican, called the committees probe of the clearing of the square an act of political theater by Democrats. That somehow the U.S. Park Police attacked peaceful protesters is ludicrous, Hice said.

Monahan spoke before the scheduled testimony later Tuesday of a National Guard officer at the scene that day, Army National Guard Maj. Adam DeMarco. DeMarcos written testimony challenges the Trump administrations explanation that vicious attacks by protesters led federal forces to turn on the crowd.

The National Guard officer is expected to invoke the Military Whistleblower Protection Act, which in part says that no one can block a member of the armed forces from lawful communications with Congress.

Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, said Monday that from DeMarcos written testimony, its pretty obvious that at the highest levels the calls were being made, although the testimony does not give any explicit details of anyone giving orders. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Videos and the accounts of journalists and protesters who were present that night depict the crowd as largely peaceful before the rout.

Monahan and the Trump administration also said plans to build a fence to block protesters from the square was another factor leading authorities to clear the area.

The administration has previously denied that law enforcement and security forces cleared the square to make way for Trump's appearance before news cameras.

In his written testimony, DeMarco said the episode started shortly after Barr and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared in the square, where Barr appeared to confer with Park Police leaders.

From what I could observe, the demonstrators were behaving peacefully, when Park Police, the Secret Service and other, unidentified forces turned on the crowd, DeMarco wrote in his testimony.

The legally required warnings to demonstrators before clearing the square shortly after were barely audible from his position 20 yards away, DeMarco said. Protesters were gathered still farther away, and gave no sign of hearing the warnings, he said.

Park Police and other officers then began suddenly routing the crowd without warning to National Guard forces present, DeMarco said.

--The Associated Press
Even though ComEd has already paid a $200 million fine, its important to keep in mind that not a penny of that is going to ComEd ratepayers, said attorney Adam Levitt, who also represents the plaintiffs. The purpose of our lawsuit is to work toward seeking full and complete justice for ComEds ratepayers, to be made whole for what we believe will be shown as improper inflation of rates.
By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan is Italys main trade partner in the South Caucasus region as the two countries enjoyed a $2.6bn-trade turnover in the first half of 2020.

Italy topped the list of countries importing Azerbaijani goods with the value of exports to this country amounting to $2.4 billion in 2020, local media reported with the reference to the State Customs Committee on July 27.

Turkey and Russia were next in the list of countries importing Azerbaijani goods in the first half of 2020.

Thus, the trade turnover with Turkey was $2.2 billion and with Russia $1.2 billion in the reporting period.

Russia accounts to the largest amount of goods imported from Azerbaijan among CIS countries in the first six months of 2020 with the value of imports from Azerbaijan amounting to $380.5 million.

Additionally, during the reporting period, Turkey, Iran and Turkmenistan were the largest importers of Azerbaijani products from among the Organization of Islamic Cooperation countries. Among Spanish-speaking countries, the largest amount of goods were exported to Spain worth $129 million.

It should be noted that the volume of Azerbaijans trade operations amounted to $12.6 billion in the first half of 2020.

Earlier it was reported that between January-April 2020, Italy's share in Azerbaijan's foreign trade turnover was 26.36 percent (1st place), including 38.15 percent in exports (1st place) and 4.39 percent in imports (6th place).

Italy is one of Azerbaijans main trade partner and some 113 Italian companies, operating in various fields, are registered in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is one of Italys three main energy resources suppliers and the implementation of the Trans-Adriatic Gas Pipeline project will raise cooperation between two countries.

Last year, Azerbaijan was the largest supplier of crude oil to Italy. Azerbaijan accounts for 17 percent of crude oil consumption in Italy. Thus, mutual trade turnover amounted to $7 billion in 2019.

Italy has so far invested $770 million in Azerbaijans economy, while Azerbaijan has invested $1.7 billion in the Italian economy.

On February 20, 2020, during the official visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Italy, a various documents were signed, that would raise the bilateral relations between two countries. One of the documents that should be mention was Joint Declaration on Strengthening Multidimensional Strategic Partnership.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg plans to say the success of those properties under Facebook wasnt inevitable.

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is prepared with what he sees as a compelling argument for lawmakers ready to grill him on antitrust issues: hindering American technological innovation only helps China. Zuckerberg plans to portray his company as an American success story in a competitive and unpredictable market, now threatened by the rise of Chinese social media apps around the world -- and increasingly, at home, with the popularity of TikTok, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the CEOs remarks arent yet public.

The Facebook CEO is scheduled to testify at a hearing of the House antitrust subcommittee with CEOs from Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.s Google and Apple Inc. The hearing, postponed from Monday, has been rescheduled for July 29 at noon Washington time. Facebooks second-quarter earnings, which were scheduled for that day, have been pushed to Thursday, July 30.

Congressional investigators have collected thousands of internal Facebook documents to figure out the reasoning behind the companys acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp and understand Zuckerbergs thinking about competitors.

Zuckerberg plans to say the success of those properties under Facebook wasnt inevitable. Instagram, in particular, had only 13 employees and no revenue when Facebook acquired the company in 2012 -- though it was quickly becoming the most popular mobile photo-sharing app.

The broader argument the CEO plans to make is that any weakening of U.S. companies will cede territory to Chinese companies abroad, particularly in high-growth markets like India. Zuckerberg made a similar argument at a 2019 hearing about Libra, the now-renamed cryptocurrency. China is moving quickly to launch a similar idea in the coming months, he warned. If America doesnt innovate, our financial leadership is not guaranteed. Later that year, he said that it was important not to let China set the rules for the internet in the rest of the world, arguing that the countrys values arent democratic.

Zuckerberg tried for years to woo Chinas leaders so he could bring Facebook services to the country. After that failed, he embraced this line of thinking.

The argument may appeal to U.S. President Donald Trump, who has increased U.S. tensions with China through trade policy. Recently, Trump warned he may ban TikTok, a social media app owned by China-based ByteDance Ltd.

(Updates with new earnings date in third paragraph.)

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Barr, according to the statement, will take a defiant posture as he testifies before the panel for the first time since Democrats took control of it, alleging that they have attempted to discredit him since he vowed to investigate the 2016 FBI probe of possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, and the media has been unfair in covering unrest. He is expected to face critical questioning on his response to anti-police brutality protests across the nation, his controversial interventions in high-profile cases involving allies of Trump and many other matters.
Members of two communities clashed in Maharajpur village under Baghrai police station in Uttar Pradeshs Pratapgarh district late on Monday night. The clash is believed to be a fallout of a scuffle which took place during a dangal (a wresting event) held on Nag Panchami few days back, the police said.

Large number of dalits, including women, surrounded the Baghrai police station on Tuesday morning alleging that nine people were assaulted and injured by assailants in the scuffle. The protesters demanded immediate action against the accused. An FIR has been lodged and raids were being carried out to arrest the accused, Pratapgarh Superintendent of Police (SP) Abhishek Singh said.

Additional police force has been deployed in the area to avoid any untoward situation, he added.

According to reports, a wrestling event was organised in Maharajpur village on July 25. Locals claim that Ashiq Ali, Asgar Ali and some other people from village Ahladganj started interfering in the sport and even engaged in a schffle with the organisers. However, the elders had intervened and pacified both the groups then.

But on Monday night, a local Pintu Saroj was strolling on the main road of Maharajpur village when he was attacked by over a dozen youth from Ahladganj. Some other people who rushed to his rescue were also assaulted and injured by attackers who then fled when large number of villagers gathered.

Nine injured people were taken to district hospital where doctors referred four of them to SRN hospital in Prayagraj for treatment. Enraged over the incident, a large number of people belonging to dalit community surrounded the Baghrai police station on Tuesday morning. They demanded immediate arrest of all the accused.
ST. LOUIS, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) announced today its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2020, reporting diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.05 and Adjusted Diluted EPS of $2.40.

In summary, the 2020 second quarter results were as follows:

Total revenues (in millions) $ 27,712

Health benefits ratio 82.1 % SG&A expense ratio 8.8 % Adjusted SG&A expense ratio (1) 8.5 % GAAP diluted EPS $ 2.05

Adjusted Diluted EPS (1) $ 2.40

Total cash flow provided by operations (in millions) $ 3,714





(1) A full reconciliation of the Adjusted SG&A expense ratio and Adjusted Diluted EPS are shown on pages six and seven of this release.

The 2020 second quarter results benefited from lower medical utilization as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I am pleased with our solid second quarter performance, which came in line with our expectations. Our performance underscores the impact of shelter in place policies on our diversified platform in addition to our team's solid execution in what continues to be a challenging operating landscape," said Michael F. Neidorff, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Centene.

"Looking ahead, while we expect the national economic trajectory to remain choppy as we move through the second half of the year, we believe that the return of utilization by our members seeking treatments will be regionally driven. We continue to provide the highest quality of care to our members during this critical time and are well-positioned to respond quickly to evolving dynamics as we execute on our growth strategy. We are further supported by the strength of our balance sheet and solid financial position."

Second Quarter Highlights

June 30, 2020 managed care membership of 24.6 million, an increase of 9.6 million members, or 64%, over June 30, 2019 .

managed care membership of 24.6 million, an increase of 9.6 million members, or 64%, over . Total revenues of $27.7 billion for the second quarter of 2020, representing 51% growth compared to the second quarter of 2019.

for the second quarter of 2020, representing 51% growth compared to the second quarter of 2019. Health benefits ratio (HBR) of 82.1% for the second quarter of 2020, compared to 86.7% in the second quarter of 2019.

Selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expense ratio of 8.8% for the second quarter of 2020, compared to 9.1% for the second quarter of 2019.

Adjusted SG&A expense ratio of 8.5% for the second quarter of 2020, compared to 9.0% for the second quarter of 2019.

Diluted EPS for the second quarter of 2020 of $2.05 , compared to $1.18 for the second quarter of 2019.

, compared to for the second quarter of 2019. Adjusted Diluted EPS for the second quarter of 2020 of $2.40 , compared to $1.34 for the second quarter of 2019.

, compared to for the second quarter of 2019. Operating cash flow of $3.7 billion for the second quarter 2020, representing 3.1x net earnings.

Other Events

In July 2020 , Centene announced that it will establish an East Coast headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina . The Company expects to begin construction on the new campus in August and plans to create 3,200 new jobs, with eventual accommodations for up to 6,000 employees, and invest $1 billion in the Charlotte community over time.

, Centene announced that it will establish an East Coast headquarters in . The Company expects to begin construction on the new campus in August and plans to create 3,200 new jobs, with eventual accommodations for up to 6,000 employees, and invest in the community over time. In July 2020 , Centene's subsidiary, Meridian Health Plan of Illinois , Inc. (Meridian), began serving Medicaid members in Cook County, Illinois as a result of a Member Transfer Agreement under which Meridian was assigned 100% of NextLevel Health Partners, Inc.'s approximately 54,000 members who access benefits from the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services' HealthChoice Illinois Program.

, Centene's subsidiary, Meridian Health Plan of , Inc. (Meridian), began serving Medicaid members in as a result of a Member Transfer Agreement under which Meridian was assigned 100% of NextLevel Health Partners, Inc.'s approximately 54,000 members who access benefits from the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services' HealthChoice Illinois Program. In July 2020 , Centene's subsidiary, Centurion, commenced a two-year contract with the Kansas Department of Administration to provide healthcare services in the Department of Corrections' facilities.

, Centene's subsidiary, Centurion, commenced a two-year contract with the Kansas Department of Administration to provide healthcare services in the Department of Corrections' facilities. In June 2020 , Centene's subsidiary, WellCare of Kentucky , was selected by the state of Kentucky to continue serving the Commonwealth's Medicaid managed care program statewide. The new four-year contract is anticipated to begin on January 1, 2021 running through December 31, 2024 with the option for six, two-year renewal extensions.

Accreditations & Awards

In July 2020 , for the third consecutive year, Centene was recognized with a 100 percent score on the Disability Equality Index (DEI) as one of the Best Places to Work for People with Disabilities.

, for the third consecutive year, Centene was recognized with a 100 percent score on the Disability Equality Index (DEI) as one of the Best Places to Work for People with Disabilities. In July 2020 , Forbes announced Centene's position of #14 on its Corporate Responders list, which assesses how well the 100 largest publicly-held companies in the U.S. have responded to COVID-19.

, Forbes announced Centene's position of #14 on its Corporate Responders list, which assesses how well the 100 largest publicly-held companies in the U.S. have responded to COVID-19. In June 2020 , Centene's subsidiary, Envolve Dental, earned Accreditation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).

, Centene's subsidiary, Envolve Dental, earned Accreditation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). In May 2020 , FORTUNE announced Centene's position of #42 in its annual ranking of America's largest companies based on 2019 revenue.

, FORTUNE announced Centene's position of #42 in its annual ranking of America's largest companies based on 2019 revenue. In April 2020 , several Centene health plans earned Accreditation from NCQA, including Ambetter from Arkansas Health and Wellness, Sunflower Health Plan and QualChoice Health Insurance.

COVID-19 Pandemic

Beginning in March 2020, Centene announced a series of actions in support of various populations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. A detailed list of specific actions taken by the Company in response to the pandemic is shown on page 15 of this release.

Membership

The following table sets forth our membership by line of business:



June 30,

2020

2019 Medicaid:





TANF, CHIP & Foster Care 10,894,200



7,388,700

ABD & LTSS 1,496,000



997,900

Behavioral Health 173,900



68,800

Total Medicaid 12,564,100



8,455,400

Medicare PDP 4,443,100





Commercial 2,763,300



2,449,400

Medicare (1) 996,100



398,500

International 600,400



463,100

Correctional 166,000



153,900

Total at-risk membership 21,533,000



11,920,300

TRICARE eligibles 2,864,700



2,855,800

Non-risk membership 223,300



228,100

Total 24,621,000



15,004,200









(1) Membership includes Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplement, Special Needs Plans, and Medicare-Medicaid Plans (MMP).

The following table sets forth additional membership statistics, which are included in the membership information above:



June 30,

2020

2019 Dual-eligible (2) 969,700



600,800

Health Insurance Marketplace 2,245,600



1,910,700

Medicaid Expansion 1,931,600



1,290,200









(2) Membership includes dual-eligible ABD & LTSS and dual-eligible Medicare.

Revenues

The following table sets forth supplemental revenue information ($ in millions):



Three Months Ended June 30,

2020

2019

% Change Medicaid $ 18,129



$ 12,119



50 % Commercial 4,136



3,872



7 % Medicare (3) 3,538



1,465



142 % Medicare PDP 674







n.m.

Other 1,235



900



37 % Total Revenues $ 27,712



$ 18,356



51 %











(3) Medicare includes Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplement, Special Needs Plans, and MMP. n.m.: not meaningful

Statement of Operations: Three Months Ended June 30, 2020

For the second quarter of 2020, total revenues increased 51% to $27.7 billion from $18.4 billion in the comparable period in 2019. The increase over the prior year was due to the acquisition of WellCare, growth in the Health Insurance Marketplace business, expansions, new programs and growth in many of our states, particularly Iowa and Pennsylvania , and the reinstatement of the health insurer fee in 2020, partially offset by the divestiture of our Illinois health plan.

from in the comparable period in 2019. The increase over the prior year was due to the acquisition of WellCare, growth in the Health Insurance Marketplace business, expansions, new programs and growth in many of our states, particularly and , and the reinstatement of the health insurer fee in 2020, partially offset by the divestiture of our health plan. HBR of 82.1% for the second quarter of 2020 represents a decrease from 86.7% in the comparable period in 2019. The substantial decrease was attributable to lower medical utilization due to the COVID-19 pandemic, partially offset by the Health Insurance Marketplace business, where margins continue to normalize.

The SG&A expense ratio was 8.8% for the second quarter of 2020, compared to 9.1% in the second quarter of 2019. The decrease to the SG&A expense ratio was driven by the addition of the WellCare business, which operates at a lower SG&A ratio, and the leveraging of expenses over higher revenues. The decrease was partially offset by higher acquisition related expenses due to the recent closing of the WellCare acquisition and additional support provided to our Health Insurance Marketplace members through the extension of grace periods for member premiums for those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Adjusted SG&A expense ratio was 8.5% for the second quarter of 2020, compared to 9.0% in the second quarter of 2019. The Adjusted SG&A expense ratio benefited from the addition of the WellCare business, which operates at a lower SG&A ratio, and the leveraging of expenses over higher revenues. The decrease was partially offset by additional support provided to our Health Insurance Marketplace members through the extension of grace periods for member premiums for those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The effective tax rate was 38.2% for the second quarter of 2020, compared to 25.7% in the second quarter of 2019. The increase in the effective tax rate was driven by the reinstatement of the health insurer fee in 2020. For the second quarter of 2020, our effective tax rate on adjusted earnings was 36.1%.

Balance Sheet

At June 30, 2020, the Company had cash, investments and restricted deposits of $25.6 billion and maintained $1.1 billion of cash and cash equivalents held by unregulated entities. Medical claims liabilities totaled $11.4 billion. Total debt was $16.8 billion, which included $89 million of borrowings on our $2.0 billion revolving credit facility at quarter end. The debt to capitalization ratio was 39.7% at June 30, 2020, excluding $217 million of non-recourse debt. Our debt to capital ratio would have been 38.1% at June 30, 2020, when netting unregulated cash and cash equivalents with debt, and excluding non-recourse debt.

A reconciliation of the Company's change in days in claims payable from the immediately preceding quarter-end is presented below:

Days in claims payable, March 31, 2020(1) 47



Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic 4



Days in claims payable, June 30, 2020 51









(1) A pro-forma adjustment has been made to medical costs to include a full quarter of WellCare medical costs. Using actual medical costs, days in claims payable was 51.





The Company's days in claims payable was 51 days, an increase of four days over the pro-forma first quarter of 2020. The increase in days in claims payable is due to lower medical expense in April and May as a result of shelter-in-place orders resulting from COVID-19. A significant portion of the quarter end Medical Claims Liability includes June dates of service where claims were near normalized levels.

Outlook

The Company's annual guidance for 2020 is as follows:





Full Year 2020





Low

High

Total revenues (in billions)

$ 109.0



$ 111.4



GAAP diluted EPS

$ 3.04



$ 3.18



Adjusted Diluted EPS (1)

$ 4.76



$ 4.96



Diluted shares outstanding (in millions)

577.9



580.9





















(1) Adjusted Diluted EPS excludes estimated amortization of acquired intangible assets of $0.98 to $1.00 per diluted share, acquisition related expenses of $0.67 to $0.71 per diluted share, the gain on the sale of the Illinois health plan of approximately $0.10 per diluted share, debt extinguishment costs of approximately $0.07 per diluted share, and non-cash asset impairment of $0.10 per diluted share.

Conference Call

As previously announced, the Company will host a conference call Tuesday, July 28, 2020, at approximately 8:30 AM (Eastern Time) to review the financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2020. Michael Neidorff and Jeffrey Schwaneke will host the conference call.

Investors and other interested parties are invited to listen to the conference call by dialing 1-877-883-0383 in the U.S. and Canada; +1-412-902-6506 from abroad, including the following Elite Entry Number: 0580014 to expedite caller registration; or via a live, audio webcast on the Company's website at www.centene.com , under the Investors section.

A webcast replay will be available for on-demand listening shortly after the completion of the call for the next twelve months or until 11:59 PM (Eastern Time) on Tuesday, July 27, 2021, at the aforementioned URL. In addition, a digital audio playback will be available until 9:00 AM (Eastern Time) on Tuesday, August 4, 2020, by dialing 1-877-344-7529 in the U.S. and Canada, or +1-412-317-0088 from abroad, and entering access code 10145373.

Non-GAAP Financial Presentation

The Company is providing certain non-GAAP financial measures in this release as the Company believes that these figures are helpful in allowing investors to more accurately assess the ongoing nature of the Company's operations and measure the Company's performance more consistently across periods. The Company uses the presented non-GAAP financial measures internally to allow management to focus on period-to-period changes in the Company's core business operations. Therefore, the Company believes that this information is meaningful in addition to the information contained in the GAAP presentation of financial information. The presentation of this additional non-GAAP financial information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP.

Specifically, the Company believes the presentation of non-GAAP financial information that excludes amortization of acquired intangible assets and acquisition related expenses, as well as other items, allows investors to develop a more meaningful understanding of the Company's performance over time. The tables below provide reconciliations of non-GAAP items ($ in millions, except per share data):



Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,

2020

2019

2020

2019 GAAP net earnings attributable to Centene $ 1,206



$ 495



$ 1,252



$ 1,017

Amortization of acquired intangible assets 197



64



363



129

Acquisition related expenses 71



23



384



41

Other adjustments (1) (11)







12





Income tax effects of adjustments (2) (53)



(21)



(125)



(41)

Adjusted net earnings $ 1,410



$ 561



$ 1,886



$ 1,146







(1) Other adjustments for the three months ended June 30, 2020 include an adjustment to the gain related to the divestiture of certain products of our Illinois health plan of $11 million, or $0.00 per diluted share, net of income tax expense $0.02. Other adjustments include the following adjustments for the six months ended June 30, 2020: (a) divestiture gain of $104 million, or $0.11 per diluted share, (b) non-cash impairment of $72 million, or $0.10 per diluted share, and (c) debt extinguishment costs of $44 million, or $0.06 per diluted share. (2) The income tax effects of adjustments are based on the effective income tax rates applicable to each adjustment.



Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

Annual Guidance December 31, 2020

2020

2019

2020

2019

GAAP diluted EPS attributable to Centene $ 2.05



$ 1.18



$ 2.20



$ 2.42



$3.04 - $3.18 Amortization of acquired intangible assets (3) 0.25



0.12



0.48



0.24



$0.98 - $1.00 Acquisition related expenses (4) 0.10



0.04



0.58



0.07



$0.67 - $0.71 Other adjustments (5) 







0.05







$0.07 Adjusted Diluted EPS $ 2.40



$ 1.34



$ 3.31



$ 2.73



$4.76 - $4.96





(3) The amortization of acquired intangible assets per diluted share presented above is net of an income tax benefit of $0.09 and $0.04 for the three months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively, and $0.16 and $0.07 for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively, and an estimated $0.30 to $0.32 for the year ended December 31, 2020. (4) The acquisition related expenses per diluted share presented above are net of an income tax benefit of $0.02 and $0.01 for the three months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively, and $0.09 and $0.03 for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively, and an estimated $0.11 to $0.12 for the year ended December 31, 2020. (5) Other adjustments include the following items:

(1) gain related to the divestiture of certain products of the Company's Illinois health plan of $0.11 per diluted share, net of income tax expense of $0.08 for the six months ended June 30, 2020, and an estimated $0.10 per diluted share, net of income tax expense of $0.08 for the year ended December 31, 2020;

(2) non-cash impairment of our third party-care management software system of $0.10 per diluted share, net of an income tax benefit of $0.03 for the six months ended June 30, 2020, and an estimated $0.10 per diluted share, net of an income tax benefit of $0.03 for the year ended December 31, 2020; and

(3) debt extinguishment costs of $0.06 per diluted share, net of an income tax benefit of $0.02 for the six months ended June 30, 2020, and an estimated $0.07 per diluted share, net of an income tax benefit of $0.02 for the year ended December 31, 2020.



Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,

2020

2019

2020

2019 GAAP SG&A expenses $ 2,255



$ 1,574



$ 4,639



$ 3,183

Acquisition related expenses 70



21



365



38

Adjusted SG&A expenses $ 2,185



$ 1,553



$ 4,274



$ 3,145



To provide clarity on the way management defines certain key metrics and ratios, the Company is providing a description of how the metric or ratio is calculated as follows:

Health Benefits Ratio (HBR) (GAAP) = Medical costs divided by premium revenues.

= Medical costs divided by premium revenues. SG&A Expense Ratio (GAAP) = Selling, general and administrative expenses divided by premium and service revenues.

= Selling, general and administrative expenses divided by premium and service revenues. Adjusted SG&A Expenses (non-GAAP) = Selling, general and administrative expenses, less acquisition related expenses.

= Selling, general and administrative expenses, less acquisition related expenses. Adjusted SG&A Expense Ratio (non-GAAP) = Adjusted selling, general and administrative expenses divided by premium and service revenues.

= Adjusted selling, general and administrative expenses divided by premium and service revenues. Adjusted Net Earnings (non-GAAP ) = Net earnings less amortization of acquired intangible assets, less acquisition related expenses, as well as adjustments for other items, net of the income tax effect of the adjustments.

) = Net earnings less amortization of acquired intangible assets, less acquisition related expenses, as well as adjustments for other items, net of the income tax effect of the adjustments. Adjusted Diluted EPS (non-GAAP) = Adjusted net earnings divided by weighted average common shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis.

= Adjusted net earnings divided by weighted average common shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis. Debt to Capitalization Ratio (GAAP) = Total debt, divided by total debt plus total stockholder's equity.

= Total debt, divided by total debt plus total stockholder's equity. Debt to Capitalization Ratio Excluding Non-Recourse Debt (non-GAAP) = Total debt less non-recourse debt, divided by total debt less non-recourse debt plus total stockholder's equity.

= Total debt less non-recourse debt, divided by total debt less non-recourse debt plus total stockholder's equity. Average Medical Claims Expense (GAAP) = Medical costs for the period, divided by number of days in such period. Average Medical Claims Expense is most often calculated for the quarterly reporting period.

= Medical costs for the period, divided by number of days in such period. Average Medical Claims Expense is most often calculated for the quarterly reporting period. Days in Claims Payable (GAAP) = Medical claims liabilities, divided by average medical claims expense. Days in Claims Payable is most often calculated for the quarterly reporting period.

In addition, the following terms referenced in this press release and other Company filings are defined as follows:

State Directed Payments: Payments directed by a state that have minimal risk, but are administered as a premium adjustment. These payments are recorded as premium revenue and medical costs at close to a 100% HBR. The Company has little visibility to the timing of these payments until they are paid by a state.

Payments directed by a state that have minimal risk, but are administered as a premium adjustment. These payments are recorded as premium revenue and medical costs at close to a 100% HBR. The Company has little visibility to the timing of these payments until they are paid by a state. Pass Through Payments: Non-risk supplemental payments from a state that the Company is required to pass through to designated contracted providers. These payments are recorded as premium tax revenue and premium tax expense.

About Centene Corporation

Centene Corporation, a Fortune 50 company, is a leading multi-national healthcare enterprise that is committed to helping people live healthier lives. The Company takes a local approach  with local brands and local teams  to provide fully integrated, high-quality, and cost-effective services to government-sponsored and commercial healthcare programs, focusing on under-insured and uninsured individuals. Centene offers affordable and high-quality products to nearly 1 in 15 individuals across the nation, including Medicaid and Medicare members (including Medicare Prescription Drug Plans) as well as individuals and families served by the Health Insurance Marketplace, the TRICARE program, and individuals in correctional facilities. The Company also serves several international markets, and contracts with other healthcare and commercial organizations to provide a variety of specialty services focused on treating the whole person. Centene focuses on long-term growth and the development of its people, systems and capabilities so that it can better serve its members, providers, local communities, and government partners.

Centene uses its investor relations website to publish important information about the company, including information that may be deemed material to investors. Financial and other information about Centene is routinely posted and is accessible on Centene's investor relations website, http://www.centene.com/investors.

Forward-Looking Statements

All statements, other than statements of current or historical fact, contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, forward-looking statements often use words such as "believe," "anticipate," "plan," "expect," "estimate," "intend," "seek," "target," "goal," "may," "will," "would," "could," "should," "can," "continue" and other similar words or expressions (and the negative thereof). Centene (the Company, our, or we) intends such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe-harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and we are including this statement for purposes of complying with these safe-harbor provisions. In particular, these statements include, without limitation, statements about our future operating or financial performance, market opportunity, growth strategy, competition, expected activities in completed and future acquisitions, including statements about the impact of our recently completed acquisition (the WellCare Acquisition) of WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (WellCare), other recent and future acquisitions, investments and the adequacy of our available cash resources. These forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are based on numerous assumptions and assessments made by us in light of our experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, business strategies, operating environments, future developments and other factors we believe appropriate. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are subject to change because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future, including economic, regulatory, competitive and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based on information available to us on the date hereof. Except as may be otherwise required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date hereof. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, as actual results may differ materially from projections, estimates, or other forward-looking statements due to a variety of important factors, variables and events including but not limited to: the impact of COVID-19 on global markets, economic conditions, the healthcare industry and our results of operations, which is unknown, and the response by governments and other third parties; uncertainty as to our expected financial performance during the period of integration of the WellCare Acquisition; the possibility that the expected synergies and value creation from the WellCare Acquisition will not be realized, or will not be realized within the expected time period; the risk that unexpected costs will be incurred in connection with the integration of the WellCare Acquisition or that the integration of WellCare will be more difficult or time consuming than expected; unexpected costs, charges or expenses resulting from the WellCare Acquisition; the inability to retain key personnel; disruption from the integration of the WellCare Acquisition, including potential adverse reactions or changes to business relationships with customers, employees, suppliers or regulators, making it more difficult to maintain business and operational relationships; the risk that we may not be able to effectively manage our expanded operations; our ability to accurately predict and effectively manage health benefits and other operating expenses and reserves, including fluctuations in medical utilization rates due to the impact of COVID-19; competition; membership and revenue declines or unexpected trends; changes in healthcare practices, new technologies, and advances in medicine; increased healthcare costs; changes in economic, political or market conditions; changes in federal or state laws or regulations, including changes with respect to income tax reform or government healthcare programs as well as changes with respect to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act, collectively referred to as the ACA and any regulations enacted thereunder that may result from changing political conditions or judicial actions, including the ultimate outcome in "Texas v. United States of America" regarding the constitutionality of the ACA; rate cuts or other payment reductions or delays by governmental payors and other risks and uncertainties affecting our government businesses; our ability to adequately price products on the Health Insurance Marketplaces and other commercial and Medicare products; tax matters; disasters or major epidemics; the outcome of legal and regulatory proceedings; changes in expected contract start dates; provider, state, federal, foreign and other contract changes and timing of regulatory approval of contracts; the expiration, suspension, or termination of our contracts with federal or state governments (including but not limited to Medicaid, Medicare, TRICARE or other customers); the difficulty of predicting the timing or outcome of pending or future litigation or government investigations; challenges to our contract awards; cyber-attacks or other privacy or data security incidents; the possibility that the expected synergies and value creation from acquired businesses, including businesses we may acquire in the future, will not be realized, or will not be realized within the expected time period; the exertion of management's time and our resources, and other expenses incurred and business changes required in connection with complying with the undertakings in connection with any regulatory, governmental or third party consents or approvals for acquisitions; disruption caused by significant completed and pending acquisitions, including, among others, the WellCare Acquisition, making it more difficult to maintain business and operational relationships; the risk that unexpected costs will be incurred in connection with the completion and/or integration of acquisition transactions; changes in expected closing dates, estimated purchase price and accretion for acquisitions; the risk that acquired businesses will not be integrated successfully; restrictions and limitations in connection with our indebtedness; our ability to maintain or achieve improvement in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Star ratings and maintain or achieve improvement in other quality scores in each case that can impact revenue and future growth; availability of debt and equity financing, on terms that are favorable to us; inflation; foreign currency fluctuations and risks and uncertainties discussed in the reports that Centene has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This list of important factors is not intended to be exhaustive. We discuss certain of these matters more fully, as well as certain other factors that may affect our business operations, financial condition and results of operations, in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. Due to these important factors and risks, we cannot give assurances with respect to our future performance, including without limitation our ability to maintain adequate premium levels or our ability to control our future medical and selling, general and administrative costs.

[Tables Follow]

CENTENE CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (In millions, except shares in thousands and per share data in dollars)



June 30,

2020

December 31,

2019 ASSETS





Current assets:





Cash and cash equivalents $ 12,798



$ 12,123

Premium and trade receivables 10,339



6,247

Short-term investments 1,558



863

Other current assets 2,127



1,090

Total current assets 26,822



20,323

Long-term investments 10,231



7,717

Restricted deposits 1,050



658

Property, software and equipment, net 2,544



2,121

Goodwill 17,434



6,863

Intangible assets, net 8,702



2,063

Other long-term assets 1,564



1,249

Total assets $ 68,347



$ 40,994

LIABILITIES, REDEEMABLE NONCONTROLLING INTERESTS AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY





Current liabilities:





Medical claims liability $ 11,418



$ 7,473

Accounts payable and accrued expenses 8,704



4,164

Return of premium payable 1,242



824

Unearned revenue 448



383

Current portion of long-term debt 106



88

Total current liabilities 21,918



12,932

Long-term debt 16,708



13,638

Other long-term liabilities 4,516



1,732

Total liabilities 43,142



28,302

Commitments and contingencies





Redeemable noncontrolling interests 33



33

Stockholders' equity:





Preferred stock, $0.001 par value; authorized 10,000 shares; no shares issued or outstanding at June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019 





Common stock, $0.001 par value; authorized 800,000 shares; 595,160 issued and 579,345 outstanding at June 30, 2020, and 421,508 issued and 415,048 outstanding at December 31, 2019 





Additional paid-in capital 19,333



7,647

Accumulated other comprehensive earnings 245



134

Retained earnings 6,236



4,984

Treasury stock, at cost (15,815 and 6,460 shares, respectively) (758)



(214)

Total Centene stockholders' equity 25,056



12,551

Noncontrolling interest 116



108

Total stockholders' equity 25,172



12,659

Total liabilities, redeemable noncontrolling interests and stockholders' equity $ 68,347



$ 40,994



CENTENE CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (In millions, except shares in thousands and per share data in dollars) (Unaudited)



Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,

2020

2019

2020

2019 Revenues:













Premium $ 24,745



$ 16,554



$ 47,959



$ 32,757

Service 979



745



1,937



1,380

Premium and service revenues 25,724



17,299



49,896



34,137

Premium tax and health insurer fee 1,988



1,057



3,841



2,663

Total revenues 27,712



18,356



53,737



36,800

Expenses:













Medical costs 20,307



14,354



40,727



28,236

Cost of services 833



615



1,658



1,159

Selling, general and administrative expenses 2,255



1,574



4,639



3,183

Amortization of acquired intangible assets 197



64



363



129

Premium tax expense 1,723



1,106



3,348



2,765

Health insurer fee expense 379







724





Impairment 







72





Total operating expenses 25,694



17,713



51,531



35,472

Earnings from operations 2,018



643



2,206



1,328

Other income (expense):













Investment and other income 113



120



280



219

Debt extinguishment costs 







(44)





Interest expense (187)



(101)



(367)



(200)

Earnings from operations, before income tax expense 1,944



662



2,075



1,347

Income tax expense 742



170



827



336

Net earnings 1,202



492



1,248



1,011

Loss attributable to noncontrolling interests 4



3



4



6

Net earnings attributable to Centene Corporation $ 1,206



$ 495



$ 1,252



$ 1,017

















Net earnings per common share attributable to Centene Corporation: Basic earnings per common share $ 2.08



$ 1.20



$ 2.23



$ 2.46

Diluted earnings per common share $ 2.05



$ 1.18



$ 2.20



$ 2.42

















Weighted average number of common shares outstanding:











Basic 579,189



413,370



561,623



413,144

Diluted 587,498



419,671



569,559



419,707



CENTENE CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (In millions, unaudited)



Six Months Ended June 30,

2020

2019 Cash flows from operating activities:





Net earnings $ 1,248



$ 1,011

Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to net cash provided by operating activities Depreciation and amortization 618



313

Stock compensation expense 164



72

Impairment 72





Loss on debt extinguishment 44





Deferred income taxes 17



(10)

Gain on divestiture (104)





Other adjustments, net 2





Changes in assets and liabilities





Premium and trade receivables (1,159)



234

Other assets 202



(47)

Medical claims liabilities 146



558

Unearned revenue (127)



(138)

Accounts payable and accrued expenses 1,309



(616)

Other long-term liabilities 1,028



869

Other operating activities, net 14



(13)

Net cash provided by operating activities 3,474



2,233

Cash flows from investing activities:





Capital expenditures (412)



(336)

Purchases of investments (1,849)



(1,280)

Sales and maturities of investments 1,768



719

Acquisitions, net of cash acquired (3,000)



(32)

Divestiture proceeds, net of divested cash 466





Other investing activities, net (5)





Net cash used in investing activities (3,032)



(929)

Cash flows from financing activities:





Proceeds from long-term debt 2,630



5,617

Payments of long-term debt (1,598)



(5,353)

Common stock repurchases (561)



(37)

Payments for debt extinguishment (21)





Debt issuance costs (93)





Other financing activities, net 22



9

Net cash provided by financing activities 379



236

Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash 3



2

Net increase in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash and cash equivalents 824



1,542

Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 12,131



5,350

Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 12,955



$ 6,892

Supplemental disclosures of cash flow information:





Interest paid $ 360



$ 132

Income taxes paid $ 75



$ 381

Equity issued in connection with acquisitions $ 11,526



$ 









The following table provides a reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash and cash equivalents reported within the Consolidated Balance Sheets to the totals above:

June 30,

2020

2019 Cash and cash equivalents $ 12,798



$ 6,875

Restricted cash and cash equivalents, included in restricted deposits 157



17

Total cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash and cash equivalents $ 12,955



$ 6,892



CENTENE CORPORATION SUPPLEMENTAL FINANCIAL DATA



Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Q2

2020

2020

2019

2019

2019



















Medicaid:

















TANF, CHIP & Foster Care 10,894,200



10,259,700



7,528,700



7,623,400



7,388,700

ABD & LTSS 1,496,000



1,410,100



1,043,500



1,045,700



997,900

Behavioral Health 173,900



158,000



66,500



73,300



68,800

Total Medicaid 12,564,100



11,827,800



8,638,700



8,742,400



8,455,400

Medicare PDP 4,443,100



4,416,500













Commercial 2,763,300



2,728,200



2,331,100



2,388,500



2,449,400

Medicare (1) 996,100



976,700



404,500



404,500



398,500

International 600,400



599,900



599,800



462,400



463,100

Correctional 166,000



172,000



180,000



187,200



153,900

Total at-risk membership 21,533,000



20,721,100



12,154,100



12,185,000



11,920,300

TRICARE eligibles 2,864,700



2,864,800



2,860,700



2,860,700



2,855,800

Non-risk membership 223,300



216,200



227,000



227,800



228,100

Total 24,621,000



23,802,100



15,241,800



15,273,500



15,004,200





















(1) Membership includes Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplement, Special Needs Plans, and MMP.



















NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 71,800



69,700



56,600



53,600



52,000





















DAYS IN CLAIMS PAYABLE (2) 51



51



45



48



47

(2) Days in Claims Payable is a calculation of Medical Claims Liabilities at the end of the period divided by average claims expense per calendar day for such period. On a pro-forma basis, DCP for Q1 2020 was 47, reflecting adjusted medical costs to include a full quarter of WellCare operations.



















CASH, INVESTMENTS AND RESTRICTED DEPOSITS (in millions) Regulated $ 23,655



$ 19,358



$ 14,204



$ 14,734



$ 15,101

Unregulated 1,982



2,871



7,157



855



801

Total $ 25,637



$ 22,229



$ 21,361



$ 15,589



$ 15,902





















DEBT TO CAPITALIZATION 40.0 %

42.2 %

52.0 %

36.2 %

36.8 % DEBT TO CAPITALIZATION EXCLUDING NON-RECOURSE DEBT (3) 39.7 %

41.9 %

51.7 %

35.6 %

36.3 % (3) The non-recourse debt represents the Company's mortgage note payable ($52 million at June 30, 2020) and construction loan payable ($165 million at June 30, 2020). As of December 31, 2019, excluding non-recourse debt and the senior debt issued to fund the WellCare acquisition in advance of closing, our debt to capital was 34.3%. The non-recourse debt represents the Company's mortgage note payable ($54 million at December 31, 2019) and construction loan payable ($140 million at December 31, 2019). The WellCare related senior notes represent $6,921 million of long-term debt as of December 31, 2019.

OPERATING RATIOS



Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,

2020

2019

2020

2019 HBR 82.1 %

86.7 %

84.9 %

86.2 % SG&A expense ratio 8.8 %

9.1 %

9.3 %

9.3 % Adjusted SG&A expense ratio 8.5 %

9.0 %

8.6 %

9.2 %

MEDICAL CLAIMS LIABILITY

The changes in medical claims liability are summarized as follows (in millions):

Balance, June 30, 2019

$ 7,447

Less: reinsurance recoverable

19

Balance, June 30, 2019, net

7,428

Acquisitions and divestitures

3,744

Incurred related to:



Current period

71,919

Prior period

(566)

Total incurred

71,353

Paid related to:



Current period

64,761

Prior period

6,363

Total paid

71,124

Balance, June 30, 2020, net

11,401

Plus: reinsurance recoverable

17

Balance, June 30, 2020

$ 11,418









Centene's claims reserving process utilizes a consistent actuarial methodology to estimate Centene's ultimate liability. Any reduction in the "Incurred related to: Prior period" amount may be offset as Centene actuarially determines "Incurred related to: Current period." As such, only in the absence of a consistent reserving methodology would favorable development of prior period claims liability estimates reduce medical costs. Centene believes it has consistently applied its claims reserving methodology. Additionally, approximately $23 million was recorded as a decrease to premium revenues resulting from development within "Incurred related to: Prior period" due to minimum HBR and other return of premium programs.

The amount of the "Incurred related to: Prior period" above represents favorable development and includes the effects of reserving under moderately adverse conditions, new markets where we use a conservative approach in setting reserves during the initial periods of operations, receipts from other third party payors related to coordination of benefits and lower medical utilization and cost trends for dates of service June 30, 2019, and prior.

Our Response to COVID-19

Demonstrating our commitment to our members and the communities we serve, employees, and providers and government partners.

Members and Communities Waiving COVID-19 related prior authorizations and member cost sharing

for related screening, testing and treatment for all Medicare, Medicaid and Marketplace members. Delivering 50,000 gift cards, with $35 of value each, to be used to purchase essential

healthcare and educational items including diapers, over-the-counter medicines, cleaning supplies and books. Donating 1 million meals a month for 12 months to feed our neighbors in communities all over the country. Providing grants to Area Agencies on Aging to enable grocery and

meal deliveries for members with disabilities who are unable to access nutritious food. Matching funds in partnership with workforce development boards and other safety net organizations

to prepare them for a career in healthcare to support the direct care workforce and newly unemployed individuals. Investment in new technology and supplies to improve access to quality healthcare for the incarcerated population, including expanding PPE supplies in prisons and expanding the partnership with the Concordance Academy and other charitable agencies to enhance long-term outcomes for incarcerated individuals. Creation of Health Disparities Task Force, focused on studying the causes of healthcare disparities, recommending improvements in policies and practices and performing outreach to key leaders in impacted areas to increase education. Waiving all cost sharing for in-network primary care, behavioral health and telehealth costs for Medicare Advantage members for the remainder of 2020. In addition, offering our Community Connections Help Line, available to anyone in need of help beyond medical care, as well as expanded benefits including extended meal program benefits, over-the-counter (OTC) allowances, and annual wellness visit incentives to help members in need of extra support. Formed partnership with the National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) to study the impact of COVID on racial minorities and underserved communities. Expanded partnership with Quartet Health to help members quickly and easily access behavioral health care.

Employees 10 additional working days of paid leave to support employees Waiving prior authorizations and employee cost sharing for COVID-19 related screening, testing and treatment Encouraging employees to work from home, with approximately 90% working remotely Providing essential workers with a one-time payment of $750 in appreciation and recognition of their willingness to serve in their important office roles Scheduling essential workers to preserve social distancing, and enhancing health and safety protocols such as daily cleaning and disinfecting for essential workers Establishing a Medical Reserve Leave policy to support clinical staff paid leave and benefits for up to three months of volunteer COVID pandemic service Hiring continues across the country to fill nearly 2,000 open positions

Providers and Government Partners Expediting the rollout of FirstNet that will streamline access to affordable,

high-speed wireless broadband services for primary care providers in rural and underserved communities. Dedicating funds to the Medicaid Telehealth Partnership's efforts,

which will be used to purchase equipment and provide training and technical assistance to FQHCs. Expediting the distribution of approximately 2 million pieces of PPE

including safety goggles, facemasks, hand sanitizers and disaster kits. Extending grants to providers to assist with the upfront investment costs of new devices and equipment. Developing a new Provider Accessibility Initiative (PAI) COVID-19 Web Series to provide timely recommendations on how

providers and organizations can deliver disability-competent care during the pandemic and beyond. In partnership with Quest Diagnostics, distributing 25,000 COVID test kits each week to FQHCs in ten states or districts across the country. Investments in Mental Health Resources, including training and support to thousands of front-line providers, donations to local organizations with increased demand for 'warmline' call centers, and an investment in the National Council for Behavioral Health for a virtual training program. Donated $500,000 to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

SOURCE Centene Corporation

Related Links

http://www.centene.com


WATERLOO REGION  Emotional abuse shouldnt be brushed off as just name calling or being overly critical.

Such behaviour from a partner is not OK when its constant, and physical violence can eventually follow.

Over time, it tends to get worse. We dont often see that it just stops there, said Trish Sabourin, outreach manager at Womens Crisis Services of Waterloo Region.

Even if it did stop there, she added, thats not a healthy relationship  and not behaviour a person should accept.

Emotional abuse often goes unrecognized, partly because much of it happens behind closed doors.

Its in fact often the people you dont expect, Sabourin said. They may have one face in the public and then in private its different.

Emotional abuse and precursors to violence in the home are the focus of the first talk in a public-education series kicking off this week.

Preventing family violence is this years theme for the Porch Chats hosted by the Friends of Crime Prevention in partnership with the Keep Families Safe coalition  an initiative started by several agencies to raise awareness about the heightened risk of domestic violence due to the increased stress and isolation during the pandemic.

Registration for the virtual talk is limited to 25 to make it more interactive, but the plan is to record it for anyone to watch later.

Emotional abuse is more invisible than physical abuse, Sabourin said, and can include verbal abuse such as belittling, name calling, shaming and constant criticism to more subtle things such as intimidation, manipulation and refusal to ever be pleased.

Some women go from one unhealthy relationship to the next and over time can stop seeing emotional abuse, Sabourin said. Sometimes theres no recognition at all.

Social isolation can also be part of the emotional abuse, making the victim feel alone and that there isnt anyone who can or would want to help. Abuse can seem inescapable if its going on for a long time, and the woman is so isolated she cant reach out.

A lot of time women feel there are no other options, Sabourin said.

Women come to the agency in different stages of readiness for leaving a relationship. Help is tailored to their circumstances, but all get a risk assessment and a plan to stay safe.

On average, 272 women and 196 children stay in Womens Crisis Services two shelters each year, and its outreach program serves an average of 1,080 women annually. Waterloo Regional Police respond to 16 domestic violence calls on average each day, while the agency gets an average of nine calls a day from a woman in crisis.

RELATED STORIES Waterloo Region Agencies helping women, children at risk of violence seeing more reaching out for help

In Canada, a woman is killed every 3.5 days  most often by a partner or someone they know.

Emotional abuse is not uncommon, Sabourin said, and often it escalates and then moves beyond the psychological to physical.

It typically builds.

Reach Womens Crisis Services at 519-742-5894 in Kitchener-Waterloo and 519-653-2422 in Cambridge.
As local governments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continue to modify and update health and safety guidelines, Disney has also been updating its official policy on face coverings for guests and its cast members at Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort. The updates provide further clarification as to which types comply with and which are in violation of the rules, according to a report by Attractions Magazine.

As first reported by Scott Gustin on Twitter, a new clarification has been added to Disneys guidelines, specifying that face coverings containing valves, mesh material or holes of any kind are not acceptable face coverings.

NEW: Disney has clarified its policy for face coverings to officially ban masks with valves and/or holes:



At this time, neck gaiters, open-chin triangle bandanas, and face coverings containing valves, mesh material or holes of any kind are not acceptable face coverings. pic.twitter.com/FCydnkN5xe  Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) July 26, 2020

According to Attractions Magazine, the additional clarification follows last weeks policy update regarding the use of face mask coverings when eating and drinking, which clarified that guests may only remove face coverings while actively eating or drinking, but you should be stationary and maintain appropriate physical distancing.

This week, Universal Orlando Resort also updated their face covering guidelines banning masks with exhalation valves and mesh or holes of any kind, the report said.

Walt Disney Worlds four theme parks, since their reopening, have required all guests over the age of 2, including cast members, to wear face coverings at all times except when dining or swimming. The Downtown Disney District of Disneyland Resort, which began a phased reopening July 9, has been issued similar guidelines, according to the report.

Here are the guidelines as stated on the official Walt Disney World website:

Face coverings are required for all Guests (ages 2 and up) and Cast Members. Please bring your own face coverings and wear them at all times, except when dining or swimming. You may remove your face covering while actively eating or drinking, but you should be stationary and maintain appropriate physical distancing.All face coverings (whether disposable or reusable) must:

Be made with at least 2 layers of breathable material

Fully cover the nose and mouth and secure under the chin

Fit snugly but comfortably against the side of the face

Be secured with ties or ear loops and allow the Guest to remain hands-free

At this time, based on guidance from health authorities, neck gaiters, open-chin triangle bandanas and face coverings containing valves, mesh material or holes of any kind are not acceptable face coverings.

Costume masks are also not considered appropriate and are prohibited from being worn, in alignment with our existing rules.

The use of face coverings is not a substitute for physical distancing.

Check out the Know Before you Go site for more information.

READ MORE:

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MIDWAY, UT, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Chateau Recovery today announced its collaborative partnership with the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). Chateau Recovery, a behavioral healthcare facility in Midway, UT, will be a recommended and preferred treatment center for FOP members, police officers, and members of law enforcement suffering from PTSD, anxiety, depression, familial adversity, social stress, and substance abuse.

The partnership is intended to improve the mental, physical, and emotional health of FOP members, who often experience anxiety, depression, PTSD, chemical dependence, and substance abuse due to repeated exposure to trauma. Chateau Recoverys Trauma Behind the Badge First Responder Program provides specific treatment and professional transition support to police officers and other first responders, as well as their families.

The National Fraternal Order of Police Officer Wellness Committee is proud to endorse and partner with Chateau Recovery in offering wellness and recovery services to our members, said Sherri Martin, FOP National Director of Wellness Services. The quality of services at Chateau is among the best, and we recommend them as an FOP Approved Provider facility.

The goal of the Trauma Behind the Badge program is to build resiliency by addressing and treating the underlying issues of trauma, shame, guilt, and stress, which can result in physical and mental symptoms. Chateau Recovery provides a safe environment and holistic treatment for first responders and their families to learn how to process stress and cope with trauma. It is a nationally recognized PTSI/trauma facility and SUD provider.

Chateau Recovery is excited to not only formalize this relationship, but to be officially recognized by the FOP as a recommended and preferred treatment provider for chemical dependence and other behavioral health issues for their members, said Danny Warner, CEO of Chateau Recovery. We at Chateau Recovery are excited to work with the FOP to ensure that we are tailoring our program and get members the care and the help that they deserve.

ABOUT CHATEAU RECOVERY

Chateau Recovery is located in beautiful Midway, Utah, Chateau Recovery is a private Joint Commission-accredited behavioral healthcare organization. Chateau Recoverys unique, evidence-based approach focuses on delivering effective clinical care and treatment solutions that focus on not just changing the behavior at hand, but addressing and resolving those underlying issues that must be addressed before any lasting change can happen. With a strong emphasis on treating trauma, managing stress, building resilience, and changing ones mindset, Chateau Recovery helps individuals build the best version of themselves. Learn more about the First Responder Resiliency Program here: www.chateaurecovery.com/firstresponders.

ABOUT THE FOP

The Fraternal Order of Police is the largest law enforcement labor organization in the United States with more than 354,000 members.
Companies seeking to transfer data to the United States must revert to new arrangements with immediate effect after the Privacy Shield transatlantic pact was declared invalid last week, a European Union watchdog said on Friday.

The privacy watchdog said the lack of a grace period in the court ruling meant companies must use alternatives that carry greater risk and may be better advised to store and administer their data outside the United States.

Europes highest court last week cited concerns about U.S. surveillance for its ruling, disrupting thousands of companies that had depended on the four-year-old Privacy Shield to transfer Europeans personal data for payroll, finance and other uses.

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) said that companies that transfer data to the United States via standard contractual clauses would have to self-assess whether these have suitable safeguards and inform their national privacy enforcer.

Companies using a third tool known as binding corporate rules would have to do the same after the Luxembourg-based EU Court of Justice (CJEU) said that U.S. laws will also have primacy over this tool, the EDPB said.

It said other mechanisms and exemptions allowed under the blocs landmark privacy rules known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) require a strong level of protection for individuals data.

The EDPB, together with the European Commission, is now looking into ways to beef up standard contractual clauses and binding corporate rules that could be legal, technical or organizational.

The CJEU judgment followed a long-running dispute between Facebook and Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems, who has campaigned about the risk of U.S. intelligence agencies accessing data on Europeans.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee Editing by David Goodman)

Topics USA Europe
Duane Green Continues in Current Role as President and CEO of Franklin Templeton Canada

Andrew Ashton Expands his Current Role of Americas Ex-US Distribution Head

TORONTO and SAN MATEO, CA, July 27, 2020 /CNW/ - As the deal completion for its acquisition of Legg Mason approaches, expected for July 31, 2020, Franklin Templeton outlines new opportunities and reaffirms the go-forward leadership structure for its Canada business.

With this acquisition, differentiated capabilities will be added to Franklin Templeton's existing investment strategies, with modest overlap across multiple world-class specialist investment managers and distribution channels. The combined firm will bring added leadership and strength in core fixed income, active equities and alternativesas well as an expansion of multi-asset solutions capabilities, a key growth area for the firm amid increasing client demand for comprehensive, outcome-oriented investment solutions.

"The acquisition of Legg Mason will establish Franklin Templeton as one of the world's largest independent asset managers, with US$1.4 trillion in assets under management globally," said Jenny Johnson, President and CEO of Franklin Templeton.

A 16-year veteran of the firm, Duane Green will continue as President and CEO of Franklin Templeton Canada, with responsibility for all aspects of the Canada business. He will continue to report to Andrew Ashton, Head of Americas ex-US Distribution, which includes Canada, Latin America and Americas Offshore. Ashton will take on additional responsibility for marketing and product strategy across the region, and he will report to the newly announced EVP, Head of Global Distribution, Adam Spector.

Johnson added, "Andrew Ashton's demonstrated leadership in various country and regional roles in his more than two decades with our firmmost recently with Americas ex-US for the past four yearsuniquely positions him to continue to grow our Americas ex-US business, of which Canada is an integral part. Throughout their long tenure with our firm, both Andrew and Duane have maintained an unwavering focus on serving clients, which will continue to be crucial following this large-scale acquisition."

Ashton said, "With this acquisition, we will have an unmatched collection of specialist investment managers with deep investment expertise globally across asset classes for all types of clients. With Duane at the helm of our Canadian business for the last three years, a 'new' Franklin Templeton in Canada has emerged, with a clear focus on understanding clients' challenges and providing them with tools to help Canadian investors build portfolios and plan for their future financial security."

Green said, "We will continue to focus on building strong partnerships with plan sponsors, consultants, advisors and other key intermediaries, and providing them with better communication, thought leadership and education to help them build their business. Our firm also maintains a steadfast commitment to providing high-quality investment solutions at competitive fees to help Canadian investors meet their financial goals."

Green, who also continues to serve as President and CEO of Fiduciary Trust Company of Canada, a federally licenced trust company and private wealth boutique, joined Franklin Templeton Canada in 2004 and has held distribution leadership roles in Canada. He had previously served as Managing Director - Canada, with responsibility for Canada's retail, institutional and high net worth distribution business.

Ashton joined Franklin Templeton in 1997 and has held distribution leadership roles in Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) and Asia. Prior to his current role, he headed the firm's global financial institutions group, with responsibility for strategic partnerships with global investment consultants and financial institutions, covering key gatekeepers and investment research teams across the full spectrum of Franklin Templeton's client partnerships around the globe.



About Franklin Templeton

Franklin Templeton Investments Corp. (known as Franklin Templeton Canada) is a subsidiary of Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE:BEN], a global investment management organization operating, together with its subsidiaries, as Franklin Templeton. Franklin Templeton's goal is to deliver better outcomes by providing global and domestic investment management to retail, institutional and sovereign wealth clients in over 165 countries. Through specialized teams, the company has expertise across all asset classes, including equity, fixed income, alternatives and custom multi-asset solutions. The company's more than 600 investment professionals are supported by its integrated, worldwide team of risk management professionals and global trading desk network. With employees in over 30 countries, the California-based company has more than 70 years of investment experience and over US$622 billion (over C$845 billion) in assets under management as of June 30, 2020. For more information, please visit franklintempleton.ca .

Connect with Franklin Templeton Canada on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and read the Beyond Bulls & Bears blog featuring perspectives from Franklin Templeton investment professionals around the world.

Copyright  2020. Franklin Templeton. All rights reserved.

SOURCE Franklin Templeton Investments Corp.

For further information: Corporate Communications: Sarah Kingdon, 416.957.6191, [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.franklintempleton.ca


Health officials in Marshfield ordered a popular Chinese restaurant in the South Shore town to suspend its operations for a day after authorities reported more than 100 people gathering inside the business, violating guidelines aimed at staving off transmission of the coronavirus, officials said.

While conducting a check of The Ming Dynasty around 11 p.m. on July 17, a representative from the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission photographed several violations of state COVID-19 safety regulations, the ABCC said.

Ten to 15 people were reportedly standing outside The Ming Dynasty not wearing face coverings, and many customers were entering and exiting the restaurant without masks, according to the commission.

The bar area inside the business was also hosting 100 to 150 patrons, most of whom were not wearing face coverings, the Marshfield Mariner reported.

Restaurants, amid Phase 3 of Massachusetts coronavirus reopening plan, are prohibited from seating any customers at their bars and are required to distance parties by at least 6 feet. Patrons must also wear face coverings at all times, except when seated at a table.

Eat-in services to standing customers is prohibited, and topping bars, drink stations and other communal serving areas must remain closed as well.

According to authorities, food was not being served at The Ming Dynasty, though many patrons were standing around the bar drinking, as the restaurants bartender served alcoholic beverages, the Mariner reported.

All customers must be seated when being served drinks or food, according to state requirements.

The Ming Dynastys owners, Monica Lei Yan and James Tian, were apologetic about the incident, the Mariner reported. As part of the one-day suspension, they chose to close their restaurant on Saturday, Aug. 8.

The newspaper reported that after Tian was alerted by the ABCC on July 17 of the restaurants violations, he cleared out the bar, and when officials visited the next night, the issues had been resolved.

Im so sorry for what I did wrong, Yan said, according to the Mariners report. I know my difficulty is my difficulty, we dont want to bring our difficulties to the government, even though we make less money than those on unemployment.

Related Content:
Israel US Israel's outgoing ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in the central Israeli city of Ra'anana, Tuesday, July 28, 2020. Danon affirmed the countrys bond with the Trump administration, dismissing notions that Israel would pay a price for its tight ties to the divisive president should he be defeated in November. Danon said he was relieved that the more radical forces in the Democratic Party failed to win the partys nomination and that Israel could prosper with either Trump or Joe Biden in the White House. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

RAANANA, Israel (AP)  Israel's returning ambassador to the United Nations affirmed the country's bond with the Trump administration Tuesday, dismissing notions that Israel would pay a price for its tight ties to the divisive president should he be defeated in November.

In his first comprehensive interview since returning from the diplomatic posting, Danny Danon said he was relieved that the more progressive forces in the Democratic Party failed to secure the party's nomination and claimed that Israel could prosper with either Trump or Joe Biden in the White House. When it comes to Israel, he says the country's supporters in the U.S. put their domestic politics aside.

We have bipartisan support and we value and we cherish it, he said, at a temporary office near his home in central Israel. I spoke publicly against Mr. Bernie Sanders. But he wasnt elected. Mr. Biden is a friend of Israel and he proved it over the years. So, yes, we hear those voices, the radical voices, but theyre not the majority in the Democratic Party.

Dovish backers of Israel have accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of undermining traditional bipartisan support over the past decade. In 2012, he was seen as supporting Mitt Romney against then-President Barack Obama, and Netanyahu famously delivered a speech to Congress in 2015 railing against Obama's nuclear deal with Iran.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington that has close ties to the Democratic Party, said it would be a huge mistake for Israeli officials to expect that all of the clashes with Obama and cozying up to Trump will be forgotten if Biden is elected president.

The Netanyahu team chose a side in American partisan politics while pursuing policies that run counter to American values and interests, he said. In doing so, the right wing has done significant damage to the relationship and should not expect that a new Democratic administration is going to act as if the past decade never happened.

Story continues

In recent years, Netanyahu has emerged as one of Trump's strongest international allies, lavishing the American president with praise after openly clashing with Obama. He's been rewarded with what he considers to be a slew of diplomatic achievements, most notably recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and the moving of the American embassy there.

But it has come at the cost of alienating some of Israel's more liberal American allies, who despise Trump, turning Israel into more of a wedge issue. Opinion polls show Republicans to be far more supportive of Netanyahu's policies than Democrats, especially among younger voters.

Influential American commentator Peter Beinart recently sent shock waves through the Jewish establishment by breaking a long-standing taboo and endorsing the idea of a single democratic entity of Jews and Palestinians living with equal rights between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean rather than the long-time goal of creating two states for two peoples.

The Democratic Party recently unveiled its Middle East platform, which largely adhered to its traditional approach of supporting Israeli security while calling for a two-state solution. But the party's progressive wing, led by Sanders, has urged a harder line by suggesting that American military aid be conditioned on changes in Israeli policy toward the Palestinians, such as its controversial settlement construction.

Prior to his posting, the 49-year-old Danon was known as an ideological firebrand in the ruling Likud Party who was not afraid to challenge Netanyahu from the right.

Danon's maverick ways pushed Netanyahu to fire him from his position as deputy defense minister in 2014. But the following year Netanyahu appointed him as a minister in his government before dispatching him as ambassador the United Nations, a position that 30 years earlier launched Netanyahu's own political career.

Danon worked closely with his U.S. counterparts, including the former ambassador Nikki Haley, and said he forged close ties with Arab ambassadors, especially from Gulf states that do not have formal relations with Israel. He also took pride in becoming the first Israeli elected to head a permanent U.N. committee, despite what he called a hostile environment.

Armed with that new perspective after five years in New York, Danon said he is eager to get back into the Israeli political game and hinted that he considers himself a potential successor to Netanyahu.

Eventually, there will be another leader of the Likud, said the soft-spoken Danon, wearing a sharp suit. I support the prime minister. But at the same time, in the Likud party, I think we have to think about the future, about the next generation.

____

Follow Aron Heller on Twitter at www.twitter.com/aronhellerap
Jerrold Price, who lives in Midlothian, is hoping people in the local area will help search for his sister, who never showed up for the Fourth of July cookout at their mothers house.

Ridgeway resident Janeen Jamison Valentine, 58, visited her mother, Lucy Price Jamison, at her Axton home regularly, Jerrold Price said.

She would take her to the store, take her around to get groceries, spend time with her since my father died, he said.

Their father, George Jamison, died on Nov. 1, 2017  11 days after Jeneen Valentines husband, Jeffrey Valentine, died in a car accident, according to their obituaries in the Martinsville Bulletin.

The only immediate family she had in Martinsville was Jeneen, Price said.

On Friday, July 3, she had already been to see my mother and had gone home for the night, he said. She had gone home and told her she would be back on the fourth and have a cookout and cook steaks and stuff.

She never showed up.

Price learned about her absence the following Monday, during a telephone conversation with his mother.

By Tuesday, I had had a funny feeling, he said and he and his mother started talking about reporting her missing. However, my mother said it was too early.

Price said he filed a missing persons report on July 16, with Deputy Allen Jones as the investigating officer and a Sgt. Curtis working with him. He also filed a report with the Virginia State Police, he said.

His sister loved social media, he said, and now a lot of her Facebook friends are already posting, saying, Where are you, Jeneen? We havent heard from you on Facebook.

That includes Bishop Michael Penn of Galilean House of Worship, which Valentine attended with her mother. His post on Thursday was shared nearly 600 times, with 154 comments pondering her whereabouts.

She had a real strong belief in God, her brother said.

She always stayed positive, and on Facebook she never posted about politics or other divisive topics, he said. Hers was more about positivity, God and cooking. She had just grown a garden and started to show some of the food she had grown on Facebook.

His sister is a very well liked girl, he said. People always said she was like a big baby  shes Mamas girl.

Valentine was last seen on July 3 in Axton, driving a Silver 2002 Toyota Solara (Virginia tags ZC-3019). Anyone with information regarding her whereabouts should call the Henry County Sheriffs Department at 276-638-8751 (select Option 1 to talk with a dispatcher).

Holly Kozelsky is a writer for the Martinsville Bulletin; contact her at 276-638-8801 ext. 243.

Holly Kozelsky is a writer for the Martinsville Bulletin; contact her at 276-638-8801 ext. 243.

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A memorial for a Black Lives Matter advocate who was killed during a march in Austin over the weekend has been vandalized and coated with white paint.

Garrett Foster was shot dead on Saturday evening after he confronted a motorist who had driven his vehicle toward a hundred-strong crowd of protesters marching in the city center, blaring his horn.

The 28-year-old former Air Force mechanic, who was carrying an AK-47, was shot three times and later died. Prior to his death, Foster had marched alongside his wheelchair bound fiancee, Whitney Mitchell, in the city for more than 50 consecutive nights.

In the days since his death, several memorials have cropped up across the city in tribute to Foster. One of the memorials, located near to the intersection of 4th & Congress Avenue where he lost his life, was defaced by a man on Tuesday morning.

The individual was seen knocking over dozens of candles and flowers, ripping up cards, and dousing the white paint across the tribute.

The culprit, Don Gato, later identified himself on TikTok after uploading a number of videos to his page @homelesswithaniphone, which he operates under the pseudonym Whiter Liar.

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A memorial for a Black Lives Matter advocate who was killed during a march in Austin over the weekend has been vandalized and coated with white paint Tuesday

The culprit, Don, Gato (left) later identified himself on TikTok after uploading a number of videos to his page @homelesswithaniphone, which he operates under the pseudonym Whiter Liar. He later uploaded a number of videos calling Foster (right) a 'terrorist'

The memorial is located near to the intersection of 4th & Congress Avenue where Foster lost his life just before 10pm on Saturday evening

In several of the videos, Gato is seen bragging about his act of vandalism and calls Foster a terrorist who he says was rightfully and legally euthanized.

Earlier this week, Gato uploaded a short video showing several cans of white paint, asking his followers do you think this is enough paint to f*** up a Black Lives Matter mural in downtown Austin? Because Ive got more.

In a second video published Monday, Gato says he was in the downtown area when he came across the corner where Foster was rightfully and legally euthanized.

They had candles and a bunch of junk trying to martyr him, he said. On Monday morning  I plowed through that s*** and f***ed those candles  and Ill do it again.

Gato then uploaded a video of him returning to the site on Tuesday morning, ripping up bouquets of flowers left for Foster, and tearing down a number of signs  one reading Power to the People - at the memorial.

Text overlayed over the footage reads: Go Pro wasnt on when I tossed the paint. 10 gallons wasnt enough paint  sewage next time.

Towards the end of the clip, Gato is seen tipping the remnants of a bucket of white paint over a collection of candles and flowers.

Gato uploaded a video of him returning to the site on Tuesday morning, ripping up bouquets of flowers left for Foster, and tearing down a number of signs  one reading Power to the People - at the memorial

The culprit was seen knocking over dozens of candles and flowers, ripping up cards, and dousing the white paint across the tribute

Gato is seen tipping the remnants of a bucket of white paint over a collection of candles and flowers in his clip

Photographs and portraits of Foster are seen covering in specks of white paint, and petals and flower stems strewn across the sidewalk

Pictures captured at the scene by DailyMail.com show the extent of the damaged caused by Gato

Gato, meanwhile, has responded to a number of viewers of the clip in a series posts to Tik Tok, answering questions and points raised by those outraged by his actions

Pictures captured at the scene by DailyMail.com show the extent of the damaged caused by Gato. Photographs and portraits of Foster are seen covering in specks of white paint, and petals and flower stems strewn across the sidewalk.

A handful of Samaritans were seen cleaning up the memorial and loading damaged items into trash bags just before 2pm on Tuesday afternoon. They also began scrubbing the white paint off of the ground.

Gato, meanwhile, has responded to a number of viewers of the clip in a series posts to Tik Tok, answering questions and points raised by those outraged by his actions.

After one viewer called him really stupid, Gato responded by filming himself saying: Well I may be stupid but I cant be really stupid because I didnt point a gun at someone and get shot full of holes like a f***ing dumba**, appearing to mock Fosters death.

Responding to a second viewer who questioned if he was seriously destroying someones mural, Gato responded, Yeah I am. I joined Black Lives Matter and Im a card carrying Antifa member  and its okay. In fact [Foster] deserved it  just cause.

A spokesperson for the Austin Police Department told DailyMail.com that not investigation is being carried out, as the flowers, candles and signs left at the memorial are considered 'abandoned property', and therefore 'no crime has taken place.'

It's currently unclear whether Gato could be charged with vandalism for throwing paint on the sidewalk.

A spokesperson for the Austin Police Department told DailyMail.com that not investigation is being carried out, as the flowers, candles and signs left at the memorial are considered 'abandoned property', and therefore 'no crime has taken place'

Gato said in a video that he was in the downtown area when he came across the corner where Foster was rightfully and legally euthanized

A handful of Samaritans were seen cleaning up the memorial and loading damaged items into trash bags just before 2pm on Tuesday afternoon

They also began scrubbing the white paint off of the ground and returning the candles into a formations

A memorial for Garrett Foster, a BLM protestor killed in Austin, has been vandalized with white paint

In the hours since, several memorials have cropped up across the city in tribute to Foster. (pictured: People gather around a makeshift memorial lined with flowers and candle at a vigil for Garrett Foster on July 26)

Foster, 28, was shot dead on the evening of July 25 after he confronted the driver of a car who had driven his vehicle toward a hundred-strong crowd of protesters marching through the center of Austin.

He had been crossing 4th Street and Congress Avenue with his with his wheel-chair bound fiancee Whitney Mitchell, 28, in the moments prior, on what would prove to be the couples 50th and final night of protesting in the city.

Foster, who was carrying an AK-47, was shot three times by the driver who then fled the scene. The motorist later told police he fired his handgun at Foster after the activist pointed his assault rifle at his car.

A photograph obtained by DailyMail.com shows Foster standing at the driver's window moments before the fatal shots rang out. The barrel of his AK-47 appears to be pointing towards the floor, however he is leaning towards the car with right arm raised and his hand seemingly placed around the weapon's grip.

Police, who declined to identify the driver, have released the suspect as they continue their investigation.

Shelia Foster, Garrett's mother, said her son had previously served in the military and described him as a man committed to social justice, who had peacefully protested almost every night for the past 50 days with Mitchell

Witnesses, however, say that Foster never raised the barrel of his gun toward the driver and was not intimidating him. They say the car swerved towards them and Foster has jumped in front of Mitchell, a quadruple amputee, fearing she was a target.

Bystander James Sasinowski told CNN that the driver was not defending himself from violence when he shot Foster, and instead said he'd been the instigator of it.

Sasinowski said the driver intentionally and aggressively accelerated their vehicle into a crowd of people prior to the shots ringing out.

I want to be very clear that the driver incited the violence -- he accelerated into the crowd of people and he shot first, Sasinowski told the network.

Witnesses gave conflicting accounts of what happened in the moments before the shooting, including that the disturbance began when the vehicle started honking its horn, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said.

Witnesses also told police that Foster approached the car with an AK-47 assault-style rifle while others in the crowd began striking the vehicle.

Sasinowski said he couldnt be certain if Foster ever raised his weapon at the driver, adding that he hasnt heard any other witnesses saying that happened  contrary to the Austin PDs claims.

One thing Sasinowski says he was certain of, though, is that the driver initiated the encounter.

This was intentional. It was aggressive and he accelerated into a crowd of protesters, Sasinowski said. He could have waited for us to pass or he could have gone slowly. We would have allowed him to go through.

Police responded to the scene just after 9:50pm when the driver dialed 911 after fleeing, telling a dispatcher he had shot someone who had approached their drivers window and pointed a rifle at them.

Police declined to say why the driver was where he was and whether his intent was nefarious.

Foster, who did not fire his weapon, received first aid at the scene before being transported to Dell Seton Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead an hour later.

A newly surfaced photograph shows Garrett Foster at the driver's window. The barrel of the rifle is pointed towards the ground, while his right arm is high with his hand seemingly placed on the grip of the weapon

Foster had been crossing 4th Street on Congress Avenue with Mitchell and hundreds of other demonstrators when a motorist sped towards the crowd and began blaring its horn. Cell phone footage captured the moment the fatal shots rang out

Following the vigil, protesters continued to march on the Texas State Capitol to finish the demonstration which was cut short by Foster's death

The 28-year-old was originally from Plano but had been living with Mitchell in Austin for the last two years. His mother Sheila said her son had been participating in the Black Lives Matter protests for 50 days in support of Mitchell, who is African-American.

The couple began dating just over a decade ago, having first met in an online chat room and became engaged a year later.

The following month, Mitchell was struck down by a mysterious illness and later had to have all four of her limbs amputated following sepsis.

Foster had to leave for basic training two months later but was discharged from the Air Force, aged 19, to become her full time carer.

'That time when he was gone [for basic training] was so detrimental to both of them, because they were very much in love, and he had cared for her so well,' his aunt Karen Sourber told USA Today. 'Hes been her primary caretaker ever since. He just loved her unconditionally and took care of everything.'

Hundreds gathered at the scene of the shooting on Sunday evening to mourn Foster's death in a vigil led by Mitchell.

Whitney Mitchell, 28, led Black Lives Matter protesters in a vigil march for finace Garrett Foster, also 28, who was shot and killed during demonstrations in Austin, Texas, on Saturday night

Mitchell choked back tears as marchers held a moment of silence on the street where Foster was shot and killed as he approached the driver of a vehicle who opened fire

A woman clutching flowers breaks down in tears during a vigil for Garrett Foster in downtown Austin

Marchers carried signs reading 'Justice for Garrett' and laid them at the spot where he died along with candles and flower. Police have interviewed the man who shot Foster, but have released him pending further investigation

Shelia Foster said her son had been demonstrating for consecutive nights for nearly two months because he felt really strongly about justice and he was very heavily against police brutality.'

Crediting her late son as 'one of the best young men you would ever know', Shelia also tearfully recounted the unconditional love Foster had for Mitchell.

'I saw my son at 19 years old brush this girl's teeth, comb her hair. He would put her on the toilet and clean her up, and he would make sure that she got bathed and make sure that she was able to get dressed and took her everywhere that she needed to go. And he's been doing that ever since,' Sheila told GMA.

'On top of grieving for my son, I worry about Whitney. Because who's going to do that for her now?' she continued. 'She just lost the love of her life, because somebody just randomly fired shots and killed my son. And I don't mean to say that anybody else's life is less valuable. I don't believe that. But I don't know why it had to be my son.'

The couple were planning on getting married, but were waiting until Mitchell mastered her prosthetics before they walked down the aisle.

Mitchells mother, Patricia Kirven, told the Dallas Morning News she warned her daughter about going to the protests, because she was 'afraid something would happen.'

'She physically is OK, but mentally she is not. "Inconsolable" is the only word I can think of, because shell talk for a bit and then break down,' Kirven added.
Masks With Valves, Holes Banned at Disney World

Disney World is not allowing people to enter who are wearing masks with valves, holes, or mesh.

At this time, based on guidance from health authorities, neck gaiters, open-chin triangle bandanas and face coverings containing valves, mesh material or holes of any kind are not acceptable face coverings, Disney World tells prospective visitors on its website.

The change was made in recent days, according to WDWNT, a website that follows news of Disney Parks.

Disney World reopened in Orlando, Florida, on July 11, after shutting down in March because of restrictions imposed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Visitors to the park are required to make reservations, submit to temperature checks before entering, and wear masks.

Only babies under the age of 2 are exempt from the facial covering policy.

All coverings must be made with at least 2 layers of breathable material, fully fit over the nose and mouth and secure under the chin, fit snugly but comfortably against the side of the face, and be secured with ties or ear loops and allow the wearer to remain hands-free, according to Disneys website.

Tigger entertains guests wearing masks as required to attend the official reopening day of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., on July 11, 2020. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

Customers are still encouraged to social distance, or keep six feet of distance between themselves and non-household members. To further that goal, Disney curbed the number of people able to go on each ride at one time, along with limiting total park capacity.

Disneys Beach Club Resort and Disneys BoardWalk Inn will remain closed until further notice, the company said in its latest update.

Disneys Caribbean Beach Resort is slated to reopen on July 29, Disneys Yacht Club Resort is scheduled to resume operations on Aug. 24, and Disneys Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is supposed to reopen on Sept. 21.

Disneys Polynesian Village Resort, Disneys Coronado Springs Resort, and Disneys Art of Animation Resort are not slated to reopen until Oct. 4 or later.

Visitors to Disney facilities were told to stay in one place while eating, in another recent update to the Disney World website.

Please bring your own face coverings and wear them at all times, except when dining or swimming. You may remove your face covering while actively eating or drinking, but you should be stationary and maintain appropriate physical distancing, it says.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 21:45:05|Editor: huaxia

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RIGA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- In a bid to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus infection, all foreign nationals who come to work in Latvia will be required to take two consecutive COVID-19 tests, the Health Ministry stated on Tuesday, citing a new government regulation.

Until now, guest workers who had received work permits from the Latvian Investment and Development Agency, and persons in creative professions invited by the Culture Ministry, were exempted from the requirement to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival in Latvia, even if they came from countries with high COVID-19 incidence.

However, most recent epidemiological data show that COVID-19 cases related to incoming guest workers are on the rise in Latvia. The Baltic country's health authorities therefore have recommended taking preemptive action and testing the arriving workers before they could start infecting their colleagues.

The guest workers will be required to take the first test upon arriving in Latvia. They will not be allowed to start working and will have to remain in self-isolation until a negative test result confirms the absence of infection. Between the fifth and seventh day after arrival, they will have to take the second test. The new regulation is effective from Aug. 1.

The Latvian government will pay for the COVID-19 tests if the employer pays taxes for the guest worker. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 22:20:14|Editor: huaxia

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KIEV, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree temporarily allowing visa-free entry to Chinese citizens for tourism purposes, the president's press service said Tuesday.

"Decree No. 295/2020 was signed to develop friendly relations between Ukraine and China, enhancing bilateral cooperation in the tourism field," the service said in a statement.

The visa-free entry will apply from Aug. 1 through Jan. 31 next year, with Chinese tourists allowed to stay in Ukraine for up to 30 days within a six-month period. Enditem
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched missiles Tuesday targeting a mock aircraft carrier in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a drill that included such a barrage of fire the U.S. military temporarily put two regional bases in the Mideast on alert amid tensions between the two countries.

The drill  and the American response to it  underlined the lingering threat of military conflict between Iran and the U.S. after a series of escalating incidents last year led to an American drone strike killing a top Iranian general in Baghdad. Tehran responded to that strike by firing ballistic missiles that wounded dozens of American forces in Iraq.

While the coronavirus pandemic has engulfed both Iran and the U.S. for months, there has been a growing confrontation as America argues to extend a yearslong U.N. weapons embargo on Tehran that is due to expire in October. A recent incident over Syria involving an American jet fighter approaching an Iranian passenger plane also has renewed tensions.

Iranian commandos fast-roped down from a helicopter onto the replica in the footage aired Tuesday from the exercise called Great Prophet 14. Anti-aircraft guns opened fire on a target drone near the port city of Bandar Abbas.

State television footage also showed a variety of missiles being fired from fast boats, trucks, mobile launchers and a helicopter, some targeting the fake carrier. A commander said the Guard, a force answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, planned to fire long-range ballistic missiles as well during the drill that will continue Wednesday.

Ballistic missile fire detected from the drill resulted in American troops being put on alert at Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and Al-Udeid Air Base, the forward headquarters of the U.S. militarys Central Command in Qatar, the military said. Troops sought cover during that time.

The incident lasted for a matter of minutes and an all clear was declared after the threat ... had passed, said U.S. Army Maj. Beth Riordan, a Central Command spokeswoman.

Both bases are hundreds of kilometres (miles) away from where Iran put the replica aircraft carrier.

Al-Dhafra also is temporarily home to five French-built Rafale fighter jets on their way to India for that countrys air force.

Other footage from the exercise aired by state television showed fast boats encircling the mock-up, kicking up white waves in their wake. While Irans naval forces are dwarfed by the U.S. Navy, its commanders practice so-called swarm tactics aimed at overwhelming the U.S. carriers that pass through the strait on their way in and out of the Persian Gulf.

It wasnt immediately clear if all the footage was from Tuesday, as one overhead surveillance image that appeared to be shot by a drone bore Mondays date. The exercise had been expected as satellite photos released Monday showed the fake carrier being moved into place by a tugboat.

A black-and-white satellite photo taken Tuesday by Colorado-based firm Maxar Technologies showed damage to the replicas bow and several of its fake jet fighters.

Our policies to protect the vital interests of the dear nation of Iran are defensive, in the sense that we will not invade any country from the beginning, but we are completely aggressive in tactics and operations, Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of the Guard, was quoted as saying. What was shown today at this exercise at the level of aerospace and naval forces was all offensive.

State TV footage also showed Guard scuba forces underwater, followed by a cutaway to a blast hole just above the waterline on the replica carrier.

That appeared to be a not-so-subtle reminder of U.S. accusations last year that Iran planted limpet mines on passing oil tankers near the strait, which exploded on the vessels in the same area. Iran has repeatedly denied the actions, though footage captured by the American military showed Guard members remove an unexploded mine from one vessel.

The replica used in the drill resembles the Nimitz-class carriers that the U.S. Navy routinely sails into the Persian Gulf from the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the waterway through which 20% of all oil traded in the world passes. The USS Nimitz, the namesake of the class, just entered Mideast waters late last week from the Indian Ocean, likely to replace the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Arabian Sea.

It remains unclear when or if the Nimitz will pass through the Strait of Hormuz or not during its time in the Mideast. The USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed last year as tensions initially spiked, spent months in the Arabian Sea before heading through the strait. The Eisenhower came through the strait early last week.

To Iran, which shares the strait with Oman, the American naval presence is akin to Iranian forces sailing into the Gulf of Mexico near the coast of Florida. But the U.S. Navy stresses the strait is an international waterway crucial to global shipping and energy supplies. Even as America now relies less on Mideast oil, a major disruption in the region could see prices rapidly rise.

Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navys Bahrain-based 5th Fleet that patrols the Mideast, said officials were aware of an Iranian exercise she described as attempting to intimidate and coerce.

While we are always watchful of this type of irresponsible and reckless behaviour by Iran in the vicinity of busy international waterways, this exercise has not disrupted coalition operations in the area nor had any impacts to the free flow of commerce in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters, Rebarich said.

___

Associated Press journalists Amir Vahdat and Mohammad Nasiri in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
London: One of the worst things about coronavirus is the uncertainty. Uncertainty breeds fear and fear encourages us to contemplate the worst. As a second wave rolls over parts of Australia, people understandably wonder just how bad things are going to get.

Unfortunately there are few answers and no guarantees. What is clear is that the outbreak in Victoria is a setback for a country that has gone from being a global success story to an international warning sign about the dangers of complacency.

But there are also reasons to look through the uncertainty and feel reassured that the situation almost certainly won't morph into anything resembling the catastrophes in countries like Italy or the United Kingdom. At this point at least, a worst-case scenario in Australia also appears to be the most unlikely one.

Australia is tackling the outbreak with insights and resources that simply didn't exist when COVID-19 roared across Europe earlier this year. The virus hit northern Italy, Germany, France, Britain, Belgium and Spain with a force that to date has not been replicated in Australia.
A Washington, D.C., National Guard major who testified before Congress on Tuesday faced tough questions about his description of the June 1 "attack on peaceful protesters" -- an account that directly contradicted testimony from the chief of the U.S. Park Police.

Lawmakers from the House Committee on Natural Resources held the hearing to ask questions about the events surrounding the June 1 clearing operation, which involved Park Police launching tear gas and pepper balls at crowds of demonstrators roughly 25 minutes before a 7 p.m. curfew.

Read Next: TikTok Showing Soldier Pointing Loaded Pistol at Buddy Prompts Army Probe

Beginning May 29, crowds of demonstrators, protesting the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, turned violent in D.C.'s Lafayette Square and resorted to throwing projectiles at National Guard members and police as they threatened to push past barricades near the White House.

"Protesters were also physically combative with members of law enforcement," Gregory Monahan, acting chief of the Park Police, testified at the hearing. "These violent protesters caused injuries to over 50 officers of the United States Park Police. Of those, 11 officers were transported to the hospital, and three were ultimately admitted."

Monahan stated on several occasions during the hearing that Park Police were subjected to violence from the protesters on June 1 before the clearing operation began at roughly 6:35 p.m.

"On June 1st and throughout that operational period, we saw sustained violence from a number of bad actors in Lafayette Park and on H Street," Monahan said. He later added that only one Park Police officer was injured June 1, during the clearing operation.

D.C. National Guard Maj. Adam DeMarco, who served as a liaison between Guard forces and Park Police on June 1, testified that the demonstrators he saw that evening were peaceful and that the police clearing operation was an "unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force."

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, questioned DeMarco's statement that the Guard was on the ground to respect demonstrators' First Amendment rights.

"Was that the order that was given to you guys in the National Guard -- get out there and your job is to respect the demonstrators' First Amendment rights?" he asked. "Who gave that order?"

DeMarco replied that Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the statement to Guard troops that evening.

"[That] is the same chairman of the Joint Chiefs that went out and criticized the president of the United States. This is a different military than the one I served in," Gohmert said. "You felt the need to come and testify differently from what we have heard from people within the administration and others that were out there."

Many of the questions posed to DeMarco were political in nature, with Democrats opposing the Trump administration's justification of the clearing operation and Republicans supporting it.

Republicans also pointed out that DeMarco ran for Congress in 2018 on the Democratic ticket.

DeMarco testified that no National Guard personnel participated in the push or engaged in any other use of force against the demonstrators, but Rep. Deb Haaland, D-New Mexico, asked how watching the events of June 1 "affected you personally as an officer in the National Guard."

"In the days following June 1, I struggled to process exactly what happened ... to the point where I was sleeping very little," DeMarco answered. "I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what."

DeMarco said he confided in several officers in the D.C. Guard as well as other friends that he had served with, both on active duty and in the Guard, before writing his sworn statement of the events, which a fellow officer signed as well.

"It was shortly thereafter I started reaching out and seeing what could be done because I truly felt compelled that I had to say something," he added.

Park Police have come under criticism since the operation because it preceded President Donald Trump's public photo op and speech near St. John's Episcopal Church.

Monahan testified that, on the night of May 30 into the morning May 31, Park Police worked with the Secret Service to develop a plan to temporarily restrict access to Lafayette Park and the adjacent streets and sidewalks by ordering and installing no-scale fencing across the north side of the park.

Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-California, questioned Monahan on this point.

"Shortly after the clearing finished in a fast pace and rushed manner ... about 30 minutes later, the president was having his photo op at about 7:05 p.m.," Lowenthal said. "Now I need to understand -- either the clearing was for a photo op or that's an amazing coincidence, don't you think?"

Monahan testified that the clearing operation had nothing to do with Trump's speech.

"Our operation was solely centered around the clearing of H Street and the north end of Lafayette Park to de-escalate the sustained level of violence over the previous three days and then again on June 1.  In this case, the best avenue to do that was to install that anti-scale fencing," he said.

Rep. Jody Hice, R-Georgia, called the hearing "nothing more than political theater" to portray demonstrators' actions as peaceful on June 1.

"The evidence is abundant -- everything from arson to vandalism to 51 injured officers. This is anything but peaceful, and the reason it did not sustain that kind of momentum in Washington, D.C., is because the Park Police and others got involved to put a stop to it," he said.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona and former U.S. Marine, agreed with the need for the fence but said the timing was illogical.

"De-escalating the violence does not mean sending men swinging their batons and using pepper spray or CS gas ... 40 minutes prior to a curfew," said Gallego, who added that he has been trained in de-escalation and riot control. "The one thing you try to do is actually try to find the moments to de-escalate, so 7 p.m. when the curfew is about to hit ... would have been the most logical."

There was also disagreement over whether Park Police gave demonstrators adequate warning to clear the area.

DeMarco testified that police gave three warning announcements to demonstrators beginning at about 6:20 p.m., but the announcements were barely audible to the crowd.

Monahan said that police used a long-range acoustic device with a range of 600 meters and made the announcements about 45 meters from the demonstrators.

Hice questioned DeMarco on how he could have known the warnings were given if they were not audible. "So how, if you didn't hear them, were you aware that they took place?" he asked.

DeMarco said he was approximately 30 yards away and saw a Park Police officer speaking into a hand-held microphone, with a megaphone lying on a bench nearby.

"I was in a position of privilege, and I expected something to be coming from them," DeMarco said. "If I was standing up at the line, I would have had no idea what they were actually saying."

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.

Related: Excessive Force Used Against Protesters Outside White House, Guard Commander Claims
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 10:55:27|Editor: huaxia

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BUENOS AIRES, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese facial recognition technology has become an ally in Argentina's battle against COVID-19, helping promote social distancing and the use of face masks, and protecting public transit riders by checking commuters for fever before boarding.

Through state-owned company Trenes Argentinos Operaciones, Argentine Ministry of Transportation recently launched a two-week pilot program that saw new facilities equipped with such technoogy installed at turnstile entrances to Buenos Aires' main Mitre Line of commuter trains.

"This technology has the ability to detect if a person has symptoms of COVID-19, (such as) a temperature, and when the screen focuses on them, it can determine if they have a face mask on or not," Mitre Line's manager Ivan Kildoff told Xinhua.

"If their temperature isn't right, they won't be able to access the platform area to board the train," said Kildoff.

The technology supplied by Chinese company Hikvision uses a thermal camera that allows temperature readings from a distance of 1.8 meters and, through video analytics, determines whether the person is wearing a face mask.

In case of a fever or lack of a mask, the turnstiles won't open. In addition, the technology can alert a monitoring center if someone has a fever and send along their image, so cases can be tracked.

After the 15-day trial of the technology, officials aim to expand the system to other commuter lines.

"If it works well at this (station), which has a lot of passengers, it has to work at the others," said Kildoff.

The technology is part of a series of health and hygiene measures implemented by the capital city's public transit network, which is currently reserved for essential workers.

Hikvision operates in more than 150 countries and employs some 25,000 workers worldwide. The company saw its traditional business impacted by pandemic restrictions on mobility, but its sales rebounded as it adapted its technology to meet the challenges of the health crisis.

In its battle against COVID-19, Argentina has also deployed thermal imaging cameras made by Chinese firm Dahua Technology on buses in Buenos Aires.

Argentina has reported over 162,500 cases of COVID-19 infection, close to 3,000 deaths from the disease and nearly 50,000 recoveries. Enditem
A member representing Kirfi constituency in the Bauchi House of Assembly, Abdulkadir Dewu (PDP), on Tuesday donated a piece of land to his constituents for the expansion of their graveyard.

He also presented five new vehicles to party loyalists. The lawmaker said the donation of one hectare land to Guyama village was timely.

He said his decision to donate the plot of land was informed by the pressing need to expand the current graveyard in the area, which had almost filled up and lacked space for burial.

On the vehicles, Mr Dewu said the gesture was done in recognition of the loyalty and commitment of the beneficiaries to the party.

READ ALSO:

He described the beneficiaries as foot soldiers of the party in his constituency as they were always ready to promote and defend the interest of PDP in the area.

He assured that other party members who proved to be committed, would also be considered for similar gesture in future.

In his remarks at the occasion, chairman of PDP in the state, Hamza Akuyam, lauded the efforts of the lawmaker, especially at a time of hardship occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic.
On Twitter Monday, local TV host Tanjin Patton said the death of morning television icon Regis Philbin hit home for her. Philbin died Sunday the at age of 88.

Patton, who is the executive producer and host of "Goodtaste with Tanji" that airs on the San Antonio NBC affiliate WOAI-TV and in 14 other Texas TV markets, was being considered to replace Kathie Lee Gifford after she decided to step away as co-host of "Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee" in the summer of 2000.

At the time, Patton was the host of WOAI's "San Antonio Living" when she was asked to co-host with Philbin twice in front of millions of television viewers.

"Sitting in the co-host seat all the way from San Antonio, Texas  Tanji Patton," Philbin introduced her before a live studio audience on Sept. 27, 2000.

Patton was understandably nervous about being broadcast live nationally.

"I still remember this day like it was yesterday. I was nervous and he took my hand as we walked on the set...a true gentleman and a true TV giant of our time. Love and heartfelt condolences to his family," Patton tweeted about Philbin.

Philbin joined Gifford as the co-host of the nationally syndicated show in 1988 and remained until his retirement in 2011, when the show was then known as as "Live! with Regis and Kelly." Actress Kelly Ripa was eventually named as Philbin's co-host in 2001.

MORE SAN ANTONIO TV NEWS: San Antonio anchor Leslie Mouton parts ways with KSAT 12 after more than two decades

"San Antonio Living" aired locally after Philbin's talk show, which Patton credits as the reason her show was so successful.



"You know why it's a big hit right?" she asked Philbin when she was on air with him. "Because your show airs right before mine," she joked with the TV legend.

"That's right and don't you forget that!" Philbin joked back. "Tanji sits in the makeup room everyday in San Antonio and watches our show and she wondered 'am I ever going to get a chance to sit with the king?'"



Patton is an award-winning journalist and has held numerous positions within the TV news industry, including anchor, investigative reporter, producer and host.

Now with "Goodtaste with Tanji," she showcases chefs and restaurants from all over the state. She also produces a digital show at Goodtaste.tv.

Candice.Garcia@express-news.net | Twitter @_candicegarcia
(Reuters) - Drugmaker Pfizer Inc is in concurrent talks with the European Union as well as several of its member states to sell them the COVID-19 vaccine candidate it is developing, Chief Executive Albert Bourla said in an interview on Tuesday. 'We are negotiating with the EU because that would be much easier.

(Reuters) - Drugmaker Pfizer Inc is in concurrent talks with the European Union as well as several of its member states to sell them the COVID-19 vaccine candidate it is developing, Chief Executive Albert Bourla said in an interview on Tuesday.

"We are negotiating with the EU because that would be much easier. But also we are having extensive discussions with several member states, just in case we can't find agreement with the EU," Bourla said.

(Reporting by Michael Erman and Carl O'Donnell)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
The first batch of five Rafale fighter jets, on their way to India, were seen being re-fuelled mid-air from a French Air Force tanker, and the pictures taken at 30,000 feet were posted on Twitter by the Indian embassy in France.

Indian Air Force appreciates the support provided by French Air Force for our Rafale journey back home, tweeted Indian Air Force.

These five jets include 3 single-seater and 2 twin-seater aircraft.

WATCH | Rafale jets refuelled mid-air on their way from France to India

The two-leg flight involves the Rafales covering a distance of nearly 7,000 km. The five fighters landed safely at Al Dhafra after a seven-hour flight from France on Monday evening.

The French air force refuelled the Indian fighters using its Airbus A330 multi-role tanker transport (MRTT) aircraft on their way to Al Dhafra. Aerial refuelling support will be provided by the IAFs Russian Ilyushin-78 refuellers for the second leg of the journey from Al Dhafra to Ambala.

The jets are being flown by pilots who have undergone comprehensive training on the aircraft, the IAF said. The Rafales will be a part of the IAFs No. 17 Squadron, which is also known as the Golden Arrows.

India has taken a significant step in strengthening its air power and defence preparedness with the first five Rafale fighter jets, built by French aircraft maker Dassault Aviation, flying out from the Merignac airbase in Bordeaux, the Indian embassy in France said in a statement.

Real beauty and beast! Indian ambassador to France Jawed Ashraf said while the planes were being flagged off in Bordeaux. First five Rafale to India  swift, nimble, versatile, advanced and lethal, he added.

This also marks a new milestone in the strong and growing India-France defence cooperation, the Indian Embassy said in a statement.

The new fighters  the first imported jets to be inducted into the IAF in 23 years after the Russian Sukhoi-30 jets entered service in June 1997  will significantly enhance the offensive capabilities of IAF, which has for long planned to update its fighter jet force.

Acting on a special request by the IAF, France has accelerated the deliveries of Rafale fighters to India.

The first Rafales RB-001 tail number denotes the initials of the IAF chief: Rakesh Bhadauria. He led the complex negotiations for the Rafale deal.

France handed over to India its first Rafale fighter during a ceremony attended by defence minister Rajnath Singh and his French counterpart, Florence Parly, in Merignac on October 8 last year. Air and ground crews of the IAF have been in France for almost three years for the management of the Rafale programme.

India ordered 36 Rafale jets from France in a deal worth Rs 59,000 crore in September 2016 as an emergency purchase to plug gaps in the IAFs capabilities. The delivery of 36 fighters will be completed by the end of next year.
Hoang Thi Thom, 40, and Dinh Thi Tu, 37, residents of Loc Binh District in Lang Son, told the police that they were hired by a man to take eight Chinese into Vietnam via the land border near Chi Ma Border Gate in the province last Sunday. They were paid VND250,000 ($11) each.

The man contacted them via phone, they said.

The two women assigned tasks for themselves: Thom would leave first to give a heads up and Tu would follow later, bringing along the whole group of eight Chinese.

As Thom arrived at the border, Tu called her, telling her to pick up one more Chinese man waiting to be taken into Vietnam. It was agreed that the man would pay them VND330,000.

As the whole group, Thom, Tu and the nine Chinese met up eventually, they were caught by border guards.

Several cases of Chinese breaking into Vietnam illegally have been detected in Vietnam in recent days, prompting public worries about the implications including the spread of Covid-19.

On Tuesday, the Ho Chi Minh Citys Center for Disease Control and Prevention said eight Chinese and one Vietnamese found illegally entering Vietnam had been sent to a quarantine camp where they will have their health checked and samples taken for Covid-19 testing. From May until now, the city has detected 29 such illegal immigrants.

Authorities in Ha Tien Town of Kien Giang Province in southern Vietnam said the same day that they had detected six Vietnamese residents returning home illegally from Cambodia.

The six, including three children, are residents of southern Soc Trang Province. They had gone to Cambodia to visit family members and tried to get back home via Ha Tien without having to spend 14 days in quarantine as required of every person entering Vietnam from abroad.

On Monday, 10 Chinese citizens who entered Vietnam illegally were detained along with four Vietnamese accomplices in Lao Cai Province, which borders China.

Earlier this month, a criminal probe was launched into three Vietnamese for brokering illegal entry after they helped four Chinese nationals cross the border into Lao Cai Province.

Last Saturday, Vietnamese police arrested a Chinese man involved in a ring smuggling Chinese nationals into Da Nang and the neighboring Quang Nam Province. Authorities have found 73 Chinese nationals illegally entering Da Nang and Quang Nam via unofficial routes over the past few days.

To curb the spread of Covid-19, the country has banned entry by foreign nationals since March 22 with exceptions and conditions, including 14-day quarantining on arrival.
Alphabet Incs Google said on Monday it would allow employees, who do not need to be in the office, to work from home until the end of June 2021.

Google had said in May it would begin reopening more offices globally as early as June this year, but most Google employees would likely work from home until the end of this year.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, said Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai made the decision himself last week after debate among an internal group of top executives that he chairs.

Several other companies have also allowed most of their employees to work from home until the end of 2020 in a bid to safeguard them against the Covid-19 pandemic, with Twitter Inc proposing remote work for some of its employees indefinitely.

Australia watchdog: Google misled users

Australias consumer watchdog launched court action against Google on Monday alleging the technology giant misled account holders about its use of their personal data.

The commission alleges the California-based company misled millions of Australians to obtain their consent and expand the scope of personal information that Google collects about users internet activity to target advertising. Google countered the allegration saying its account holders had been asked to consent via prominent and easy-to-understand notifications.
Significant public discussion around the recent defection of Jyotiradatya Scindia and the proto-defection of Sachin Pilot, political dynasts who gained traction early in life primarily on the strength of their proximity to the command headquarters (owing to their lineage), has centred on the state of ennui that is said to envelop the Congress Partys top leadership.

If only Sonia or Rahul Gandhi had acted in time to soothe the fraying nerves of these young men who deserved greater rewards than those they had been bestowed, they would not hobnob with the BJP, runs the refrain.

This is a mistaken notion, for the woes of the Congress Party are traceable to complex causes, not Mills and Boon fantasies where dashing young men are meant to be romantically pursued.

In fact, arguments such as these are calculated to whittle the Nehru-Gandhi idea of constitutionalism rooted in rule of law precepts with a dose of welfarism.

It is interesting that these arguments are being advanced in an era in which the idea of the supremacy of a single religious community seeks to bulldoze policymaking by dismissing old-style constitutionalism rooted in the independence movement.

More, they condone the act of defection itself even when it is for no higher purpose than self-aggrandisement.

Even if Sachin Pilots venture does succeed on the heels of Scindias brazenness in backing the ideologues of the communal agenda, a mocking question will remain: Would there be high-profile turncoats if the Congress still ran the Centre even if it was organisationally hollow and the Gandhis were ditherers?

That said, it is evident -- and worrying -- that the most striking political feature of our day is the advancing of crypto-fascist majoritarian tendencies while the principal Opposition party is in an enervated state.

One is in fact not a result of the other, although some -- even in the Congress -- may believe this to be the case.

At the same time, it is also clear that the dominant current trend in which life, culture, politics and society are sought to be steamrollered and homogenised under a repressive one-party order seems impossible to challenge without the strengthening of the main Opposition party, which alone has nationwide recognition and spread.

Historically, the Congress decline owes to two key factors and not the ideological or political misconduct attributed to the present set of Gandhis, though they have been remote and sometimes high-handed in their style, and shown a sophomoric preference for individualism, even dilettantism, rather than collective endeavour.

The first of these is the coming of age by 1967 (when the Congress lost state polls widely across India) of the social forces that were enabled, in the first place, to come into their own through the progressive policies of earlier Congress governments and now sought to carve out separate political spaces for themselves on a regional basis.

Two, in the aftermath of the Emergency and the electoral rout of Indira Gandhi, the rank fecklessness and inability of the pro-class anti-Congress and ex-Congress elements led by Morarji Desai and Chandra Shekhar, the socialists (Jayaprakash Narayan, Madhu Limaye), and the freewheeling caste parties masquerading as peasant radicals (Charan Singh), in the ruling Janata Party combine to cohere and show the way -- in effect to be a somewhat right-of-centre replacement for the defeated Congress.

These factions, in fact, became jelly before an ideologically determined and crafty competitor, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (the BJPs forerunner), within the Janata Party fold, with the former Congress socialist Jayaprakash Narayan, who Nehru had sometime visualised as his successor, shockingly ending up as a mascot for the RSS-Jan Sangh, presenting anti-Congress politics in independent India its first defining moment.

These structural faultlines in the political space supplemented the earlier Bonapartist -- and patrician -- direction imparted to the Congress -- in the run-up to the Emergency (which also had other important causes) -- by the charismatic Indira Gandhi.

With her aura undiminished, she triumphantly returned as Prime Minister after the inglorious Janata interregnum, but by then, organisationally, there remained no Congress Party to speak of.

Indira was moulded through organisational, political and ideological struggles within the Congress, but those who carried her family name in politics can be said to be wholly devoid of that distinction.

Indiras Congress successors not just her son Rajiv but also others like Congress chief Sitaram Kesri and Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao -- showed no interest in building the Congress organisation, and undoubtedly lacked the capacity for the task.

In the later period, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi proved just as uninterested and inept, although the UPA government of Dr Manmohan Singh under Sonias stewardship of the Congress, recorded striking governmental successes unlike Narendra Modi, who has executed only disastrous policies that have harmed India. The 10 UPA years yielded an average annual growth rate of nearly eight per cent and pulled 275 million people out of poverty, according to the UN.

The intrinsic value of the Gandhis to the Congress is undeniable. The Congress and the Gandhis real ideological and political foe, the RSS-BJP, understands this better than anyone, and therefore the Narendra Modi government harasses and maligns them without pause.

And yet, its a counterfeit argument that the Gandhis must always be at the helm for voters to give the Congress a second look.

The Gandhis would in fact render real service to their party and the country if they, in calibrated fashion, midwifed the birth of a new leadership through an internal election process, and then with sincerity offered themselves for service under the new organisational umbrella.

Rahul Gandhi showed the perfect democratic instinct -- in copybook style -- when he stepped aside from the Congress presidents post last year, announcing that no one from his family will succeed him.

His fundamental mistake was that he didnt stay put to implement his plan. He now has a second chance. He can help float the Congress (much as economists speak of floating the rupee to let it find its level).

Since the Bihar Assembly polls are near, this cannot be done right away. However, the first step can be taken across India immediately to launch a massive enrolment drive.

This may put life in the party even in Bihar by creating some legitimate political excitement and dynamism and hope.

There is no other way to challenge the deeply communal project given the deceptive name of New India.
Sonu Sood Graces TKSS

Well, the rumours have turned out to be true as reportedly Sonu shot for an episode. A few pictures of the actor on the set of TKSS are doing the rounds on social media. The Bollywood actor, who is termed as messiah of migrants' amidst the COVID-19 lockdown, will be talking about his experience with the migrant workers. He will also be talking about an app that will ensure jobs for the workers.

It is also being said that for the first time on the show, people were in tears as Sonu spoke about the story of migrants.

There Were Tears In People's Eyes

Sonu Sood told Subhash K Jha, "The shooting was different. It is different from what we usually see on Kapil's show. For the first time, there were tears in people's eyes."

Kapil Praises Sonu

A few days ago, Kapil had praised Sonu on Twitter and wrote, "Sonu brother, the work you are doing for the needy right now, words will fall short if we decide to praise it. In your movies, you may play the role of an antagonist or a villain, but in real life, you are nothing less than a real hero, my friend. May God bless you with a long and happy life."

Sonus Good Work

Sonu has been helping migrant workers by sending them to their homes during the lockdown. He also donated 25,000 face shields to Maharashtra Police.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday sought the response of the Delhi government on a plea challenging the provisions that empower police officers, of the rank of sub-inspector rank or above, to impose fines on persons violating the Covid-19 regulations.

A bench of chief justice DN Patel and justice Prateek Jalan issued a notice to the government seeking its stand on the plea by advocate Sonia Rana, who has contended that imposing a fine is tantamount to the handing down of a punishment and that can only be done by a judge and not a police officer.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

Under the Delhi Epidemic Diseases (Management of Covid-19) Regulations of 2020, the Delhi Police officers have been empowered to impose a fine of 500 for a first time violation of a Covid-19 regulation -- offences include not maintaining social distancing, not wearing masks, spitting in public places and consumption of tobacco products in public places -- and a fine of 1,000 for a repeat violation.

The Delhi government empowered the police to impose the fine and collect the penalty on the spot in order to ensure that people follow the rules, which would help contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic

The bench, however, refused to issue any stay order on the enforced regulations even as advocate Dhananjay Singh Sehrawat contended that the provisions were against the principles of natural justice.

The plea said it was an established law that a complainant herself cannot be an investigation officer and in the present regulation, a police officer has de facto been labelled a judge. It said due to these provisions, punishment is being awarded by a police officer who is a complainant and an investigation officer, which is against the principles of natural justice.

In the primary legislation, the Motor Vehicle Act empowers an officer to collect the fine. However, in the Epidemic Act, there is no provision which allows this. The next date of hearing is on August 21.
Buoyed by higher-than-expected demand in China, global 5G subscriptions are set to reach 190 million by the end of this year, a new industry report said.



Though the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the rollout of 5G networks and slowed down 5G subscription growth in some markets, the fallouts were outweighed by other markets including China where 5G deployment is accelerating, according to the mobility report from Swedish telecom equipment giant Ericsson.

Nearly 89 percent of Chinese consumers who participated in the survey believe that 5G will play a larger role in the future, while 59 percent were willing to invest in 5G-related products and services, the report said.

Compared to the global average, Chinese consumers are more enthusiastic about new technologies. For instance, 79 percent of Chinese consumers said they are eager to embrace autonomous services, such as unmanned vending machines, automatic delivery vehicles and autonomous driving, compared with the global average of 55 percent.

With more time spent online, 80 percent of virtual reality users in China believe that the virtual economy is likely to see bigger potential in the future. The proportion is also higher than the global average of 71 percent, said the report which tracked responses from more than 11,000 consumers around the world.

Ericsson China President Zhao Juntao said Chinese consumers, businesses and government officials are more aware of 5G technologies compared with their counterparts in other countries. They also showed deeper commitment to the superfast wireless technology.

As an important means to revive economic growth, 5G has also been given high priority in China after the COVID-19 outbreak was brought under better control in the nation, Zhao said.

According to the report, as of June, there have been more than 75 5G commercial launches across the world. Initially, 5G networks have mainly been deployed in larger cities, with the most extensive coverage build-out in countries including the United States, China, South Korea and Switzerland.

Chinese telecom carriers are scheduled to start building standalone 5G networks in large scale this year after 3GPP, a global organization supervising the international standards on 5G technologies, finally ratified R16, or released 16 5G standards, earlier this month.

Zhao said: "The finalization of R16 is a milestone for the global telecom industry. It indicates that some technological obstacles in standalone 5G networks have been resolved, which will further accelerate the 5G deployment process."

There are two 5Gs, and that is by design. The architecture which purges the network of all radio and communications components and methods from the past while maintaining compatibility with older devices is called stand-alone 5G networks.

The other is non-stand-alone 5G networks which relies on existing 4G infrastructure to operate some functions.

Tang Hai, deputy head of the research institute at Chinese smartphone vendor Oppo, said R16 strengthens 5G's ability to serve industrial applications and improve its efficiency. Its improvements are chiefly mirrored in the industrial internet, connected cars and other industrial use scenarios.

The potential of 5G in the industrial internet dovetails with China's push to accelerate the integrated development of next-generation information technology and manufacturing to foster high-quality development.

According to the Ericsson Mobility Report, as manufacturers address modernization, automation and digitalization, private 5G networks, or dedicated 5G networks, offer a way to support multiple use cases, retain control of network resource allocation and ensure that critical data remain on-site.

To further promote industrial application of 5G, experts and company executives called for more efforts to build a better 5G ecosystem.

Wang Zhiqin, deputy head of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a government think tank, said China has a rich telecom ecosystem and vibrant industrial chain, with many pilot projects for industrial applications.

Zhao from Ericsson also highlighted the importance of coordinated efforts and simultaneous development of network construction, chips, telecom equipment, smartphones and industrial applications to fuel the deployment of 5G.




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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 15:58 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669f21cb 1 Entertainment one-ok-rock,coronavirus,COVID-19,Toru-Yamashita Free

The leader of Japanese rock band ONE OK ROCK, Toru Yamashita, 31, reportedly had contracted COVID-19.

As reported by oricon.co.jp, the guitarist was rushed to the hospital and subjected to a Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test after waking up with fever and chills on Monday morning. The day after, the bands agency, Amuse, announced that Toru had tested positive for the disease.

According to the report, Toru is currently being treated in a facility in Tokyo and is in stable condition.

None of the other ONE OK ROCK members have reportedly been in recent contact with Toru and are all healthy.

Read also: Semarang to host first drive-in concert on Wednesday

The band has enjoyed a stable career since its debut in Tokyo in 2005. Aside from Toru, the band consists of Takahiro Moriuchi (vocalist), Ryota Kohama (bassist) and Tomoya Kanki (drummer).

Throughout its career, the band has released nine studio albums, two EPs, 22 singles, eight video albums, six cover versions and 32 music videos. It has sold more than 3 million records worldwide.

ONE OK ROCK released its latest album Eye of the Storm last year and was set to embark on a world tour in 2020 to promote the album, which included Indonesia, but the shows were postponed until further notice in May. (gis/kes)

__________

Editor's note:

The title and first paragraph in this article have been corrected.
An ambulance sits outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, March 23, 2020, as the Senate continues negotiations on a relief package in response to the outbreak of COVID-19, known as the coronavirus. Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Senate Republicans' release of a coronavirus relief package Monday only started the thorny process of Congress crafting a bill to try to blunt the economic damage from the pandemic. Now, GOP leaders and White House officials have to bridge a gulf between their priorities and the goals of top Democrats during talks in the coming days. While Congress will rush to strike a deal, leaders are not giving firm deadlines for when they aim to agree to and pass legislation. Republicans will not try to approve their proposal in the Senate. Both the GOP-controlled Senate and Democratic-held House appear intent on waiting to vote until the parties draft a plan that can get through both chambers and become law. Negotiators started the process Monday evening, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., met with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Leaving the discussions, Meadows described a "very good meeting." The four officials will meet again at 4 p.m. ET Tuesday in Pelosi's office, according to an aide familiar with the plan.

After the discussion Monday, Democrats sounded less hopeful than Meadows did about where the bill stands. "Unfortunately, we're pretty far apart right now, although I'm optimistic we could have a good solution at the end," Schumer said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning." Asked if the sides could reach a deal before the end of next week, he said: "I hope so, and that's what we're working for. We'll sit down. We're going to sit down again today. We'll sit down 24/7." Congress faces pressure to approve more aid, as any delays will hold back assistance to jobless Americans after states stopped paying out the $600 per week federal unemployment benefit this week. A federal eviction moratorium expired, states are trying to process a flurry of Covid-19 tests during a nationwide surge and school districts are struggling to plan how to open safely in the fall. After previous coronavirus aid packages passed with overwhelming support in the spring, the developing bill looks likely to draw less support. Some GOP lawmakers have expressed concerns about more federal spending to buoy the economy after Congress allocated more than $2.5 trillion to combat the pandemic earlier this year. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., told CNBC that "Republicans are going to be divided on this one." Many GOP lawmakers oppose the plan as written now, and will resist concessions the White House makes to earn Pelosi's support. "I imagine it's probably another week or two," Toomey said Tuesday about when Congress could reach an agreement.

Points of contention

The core areas of dispute between Democrats and Republicans in the coming weeks will likely include jobless benefits, aid for state and local governments, liability protections for businesses, and rent, mortgage and food assistance. The Republican package, released Monday as a series of smaller bills, would cut the enhanced unemployment benefit from $600 to $200 per week (on top of what recipients get from states) through September. It would then set the assistance at 70% of a worker's previous wages, with a cap of $500 per week.

Democrats have warned outdated state unemployment systems cannot handle replacing a percentage of wages, which would delay critical assistance for the roughly 30 million people getting some form of unemployment insurance. They have called to extend the $600 per week benefit into next year and potentially phase it out as state unemployment rates fall. On top of the unemployment change, the GOP proposal would send another direct payment of up to $1,200 to individuals and $2,400 to couples. It includes an additional $500 for every dependent of any age. The Republican legislation includes liability protections for businesses, doctors and schools except for cases of "gross negligence" or "willful misconduct." Businesses with fewer than 300 employees who endured a revenue drop of more than 50% could apply for another Paycheck Protection Program loan. The plan would authorize $105 billion for schools, some of which would go only to districts that physically reopen. It would also put $26 billion toward the development of Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics, and send $16 billion to states to help them boost testing capacity.

Democratic pushback
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YEREVAN, JULY 28, ARMENPRESS. A peaceful protest took place in front of the United Nations Office in Geneva against the recent military offensive unleashed by Azerbaijan against Armenia on July 28. ARMENPRESS reports the purpose of the demonstration, initiated by a number of Armenian community organizations, was to draw the attention of the Swiss public and the international community to the shelling of Armenia's civilian population and infrastructure by Azerbaijan, accompanied by anti-Armenian hatred and xenophobia, as well as Turkey's actions towards the promotion of regional tensions. The main slogans were aimed at stopping the aggression against Armenia, condemning the destructive actions of Azerbaijan and Turkey, and urging to establish a peaceful and secure environment.

A number of public and political figures delivered speeches. Among them were Lisa Mazzone, States Councilor and Co-Chair of the Switzerland-Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group, Alain de Kalbermatten, head of the fraction of Christian-Democratic Party at the Geneva Municipal Council, Arnaud Moreillon, member of the Geneva Municipal Council from the Socialist Party, Sarkis Shahinian, Honorary President of the Switzerland-Armenia Association and Secretary General of the Switzerland-Armenia Friendship Group.

On this occasion a number of Armenian community organizations in Switzerland issued a joint press release that strongly condemned the military offensive of Azerbaijan against Armenia, and provided its detailed account. The Swiss-Armenians condemned the unequivocal support of Turkey to the aggression and its irresponsible and hostile attempts to jeopardize the fragile regional stability. They emphasized that the threats of Baku to launch a missile strike at the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant is an act of state sponsored terrorism.
Bharti Infratel declined 2.34% to Rs 190 after consolidated net profit dropped 20.7% to Rs 703.60 crore on 5.2% fall in net sales to Rs 1,635.40 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Profit before tax (PBT) skid 12.7% to Rs 839 crore in Q1 June 2020 as against Rs 961.10 crore in Q1 June 2019. Current tax expenses for the quarter tanked 39.7% at Rs 150.30 crore as against Rs 249.40 crore in Q1 June 2019. The result was announced post market hours yesterday, 27 July 2020.

Bharti Infratel has a total tower base of 95,801 with closing sharing factor of 1.82. Consolidated EBITDA slipped 7% to Rs 1,807 crore during Q1 June 2020 as against Q1 June 2019, representing an operating margin of 51.6%. The operating free cash flows rose 5% to Rs 1,267 crore during the quarter as compared to the corresponding quarter last year.

The Return on Equity pre-tax and post-tax increased to 29.9% and 23.8% as against 33.6% and 26.9% respectively on a Y-o-Y (year-on-year) basis. The Return on Capital Employed Pre-Tax stood at 23.8% in Q1 FY21 as against 26.1% in Q1 FY20.

Due to COVID-19 outbreak, the passive infrastructure as well as active telecom operations of the company's customers were covered under essential services. Hence, the telecom industry, as a whole, is among the businesses that are least impacted due to COVID-19. Bharti Infratel has stated that there has been no significant impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the financial position and performance of the company. Further, telecom major is not expecting any significant change in estimates as of now as the company is running its business and operations as usual without any major disruptions.

Speaking on the Q1 results, Akhil Gupta, the chairman of Bharti Infratel, said: "The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has emerged as a significant global public health challenge while bringing economic activity to a virtual standstill in many countries. India is also witnessing an unprecedented crisis on account of the same. During this time, the Indian Telecom industry has been providing much needed support in the form of connectivity to the public at large. It is a matter of satisfaction for all of us at Indus and Infratel to rise to the occasion in providing vital connectivity which has kept the country connected and businesses continuing despite a very large number of people working from home. My compliments to the entire team particularly those in the field for enabling us to perform this crucial national duty."

"The resilience shown by telecom industry as a vital service even in the wake of extreme exigencies like COVID-19, bears well for the future potential of our infrastructure industry. We remain fully prepared in maintaining and strengthening our leadership position going forward," he further added.

Further, the board declared an interim dividend of Rs 2.30 per equity share for the FY 2020-21.

Meanwhile, the board has appointed Pooja Jain as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the company with effective from 4 June 2020. The company accepted the resignation of D S Rawat as the managing director (MD) & chief executive officer (CEO) and as a director from the board effective from 3 August 2020.

Bharti Infratel is a provider of passive telecom infrastructure and it deploys, owns and manages telecom towers and communication structures, for various mobile operators.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Daniel Andrews said he would not want his mother to be in some of Victoria's coronavirus-ridden aged care homes.

The Victoria Premier was asked by a journalist if he would be happy for his 75-year-old mother Jan to be a resident in one of the 61 care homes that have suffered COVID-19 outbreaks in Victoria.

Mr Andrews replied: 'Well my mother is in her mid 70s, she has some underlying health conditions but she lives at home.

'Some of the stories we have seen are unacceptable and I wouldn't want my mum in some of those places,' he said, referring to reports that some residents have been left lying in soiled sheets and without enough food.

Daniel Andrews said he would not want his mother (pictured together after election victory in 2018) to be in some of Victoria's crisis-hit care homes

The Victoria Premier was asked by a journalist if he would be happy for his 75-year-old mother Jan (pictured together) to be a resident in one of the 61 care homes that have suffered outbreaks in Victoria

'I would not let my mum be in some of these places, I wouldn't.

'But that's not a decision I have to make at the moment because she's very happy to be at home and if she's watching this she'll be very angry that I'm even contemplating the notion of going into residential aged care,' he joked.

Victoria recorded 384 new coronavirus cases and six more deaths between Tuesday and Wednesday's daily updates.

There are 4,774 active cases, including 414 health workers. The state has suffered 83 deaths in total, only one less than the rest of country combined.

A total of 206 people are in hospital, with 45 in intensive care.

There are 769 active cases of coronavirus in care homes, including hundreds of staff who must isolate for two weeks, causing chronic shortages.

Premier Andrews said he had 'no confidence' that private care homes can look after residents and has cancelled non-urgent elective surgery to free up public health staff and draft them into homes to take care of the sick.

Two people in their 90s, three people in their 80s and one person in their 60s died in the 24 hours to Wednesday's update, taking the state's death toll to 83, with 22 deaths in the past three days.

This graph shows how Victoria's second wave sprang up in late June. The state recorded zero new cases on June 5

Ambulance officers remove a resident from the St Basil's Home for the Aged in the Melbourne suburb of Fawkner on Monday

A resident is taken away in an ambulance from Epping Gardens Aged Care Facility

The carehome with the most cases is St Basil's in Epping, which has suffered more than 80 cases.

'We have sent registered nurses in there to support the care and the wellbeing of those residents,' Premier Andrews said.

Nurses given paid pandemic leave Casual aged care workers will be eligible for paid pandemic leave after a Fair Work Commission decision to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The new rule will take effect from Wednesday for three months, allowing aged care staff to stay home without losing income, the commission said on Monday. The Fair Work Commission says the pandemic leave will: * apply to workers who are required by their employer or a government medical authority or on the advice of a medical practitioner to self-isolate because they display COVID-19 symptoms or have come into contact with a suspected case; * is limited to up to two weeks' paid leave on each occasion of self-isolation; * not be paid to workers who are able to work at home or remotely during self-isolation. Advertisement

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is visiting businesses on the Sunshine Coast, will return to Canberra to help deal with chronic staff shortages.

At 11pm on Monday one home in Melbourne had to call in Australian Defence Force troops to work through the night after nurses were sent home because they were ill.

'The standing-down, necessarily, of many in that workforce has had a very significant disruption to the provision of care in those facilities,' Mr Morrison said.

'Commonwealth has been working, including with other states, to ensure that we can plug those gaps wherever we possibly can.

'But I want to be up-front with you - it's very difficult and it's very hard to get people into those positions, particularly given the complexity and difficulty of the situations they're facing.'

'There is no effort being spared to ensure that we can get the people to the places they need to be.'

Meanwhile, federal Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck has been tasked with improving communication between age care homes and the families of patients.

Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles said for families with loved ones in aged care, the situation was the most terrifying moment of the pandemic.

'This is a catastrophe. This is a system which is in crisis,' he told reporters in Melbourne.

'This is a matter of heartbreak for families who are having to farewell loved ones - but not in person, in ICUs across the state.'

New South Wales on Tuesday recorded 14 new cases of the virus.

Six of the new cases were linked to the funeral gatherings cluster, four cases were associated with Thai Rock restaurant at Wetherill Park, and one case is associated with the Thai Rock restaurant at Potts Point. One case is a staff member at the Apollo restaurant in Potts Point.

On Monday Victoria suffered six deaths and a record 532 new cases.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said that figure could mark the peak of the crisis but The Australian Medical Association Victoria warned that if numbers do not come down then a Stage Four 'New Zealand-style lockdown' would soon be needed.

ADF staff are seen at Epping Gardens Aged Care Facility in Epping as six more deaths are recorded across Melborne

Masks are now compulsory in Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire. Pictured: a man walks through the Melbourne CBD on Monday in front of Australian Defence Force personnel on duty to help with the coronavirus response

Casual aged care workers will be eligible for paid pandemic leave (pictured, Estia Health in Ardeer, where there are 82 cases of coronavirus)

'What New Zealand did for a month is that they closed pretty much all businesses other than pharmacies, medical clinics, grocery stores, petrol stations and really curtailed a lot of retail shopping and a lot of businesses,' President Julian Rait told 3AW on Monday.

'That's the model that I would look to and clearly they were able to achieve elimination through that with a month of such measures.

'I am not suggesting that is necessarily possible now in Victoria with the number of cases but I would suggest that stronger measures for a shorter period might be a preferable strategy to months and months of what we have got at the moment.'

Professor Sutton said he hoped the numbers would continue to decrease.

'Modelling, with our effective reproduction number that I have seen most recently, suggests that today should be the peak,' he told reporters on Monday.

'I'm not going to sit back and say today is the peak. We have to see what happens in coming days.'

Premier Andrews said people who are going to work sick - including those who work at aged care facilities - are the 'biggest driver' of the state's second wave.

He warned the state's six-week lockdown, which started on July 8, would not end until people stop going to work with symptoms.

Mr Andrews even flagged the possibility some industries could be shut down.

'If we were to continue to see outbreaks, if we were to continue to see people quite obviously attending work when they shouldn't be, then every option becomes on the table,' he said.

Victoria is set to record fewer than 400 new coronavirus cases today. Pictured: the normally bustling DeGraves Street cafe district in Melbourne

Australian Defence Force personnel and Victoria police officers patrol the Royal Botanic Gardens on Sunday, ensuring everyone wears face masks

Many of the recent deaths in Victoria's second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic have been linked to outbreaks at aged care facilities (pictured, Epping Gardens Aged Care, where there have been 77 cases of COVID-19)

Monday's deaths included a woman in her 90s, a man and a woman in their 80s, a man and a woman in their 70s and a man in his 50s.

Five of the deaths linked to aged care outbreaks.

Victoria has reported 58 deaths in the past six weeks, taking the state's toll to 77 and the national figure to 161.

Mr Andrews on Monday night pleaded with young people to stay at home.

'This virus doesn't just affect older people,' he wrote on Facebook.

'Young, fit and otherwise healthy people are struggling to breathe.'

Victoria's Health Minister Jenny Mikakos echoed the premier's sentiments.

'This is not an older person's disease. A quarter of infections we are seeing are young people in their 20s,' she said.

'People in their 60s only represent six per cent.

'This is a highly contagious virus that can strike anyone in our community regardless of their age, regardless of their circumstances.'
WASHINGTON  Attorney General William Barr, facing a hotly anticipated appearance before a House panel Tuesday, offered a forceful defense of his actions as the nation's chief law enforcement officer, asserting that he has acted apart from the interests of the White House while "applying a standard of justice without partisan considerations."

Even before taking office in 2019, Barr said he became "deeply troubled by what I perceived as the increasing use of the criminal justice process as a political weapon and the emergence of two separate standards of justice."

"The Department had been drawn into the political maelstrom and was being buffeted on all sides," Barr said in an opening statement prepared for delivery Tuesday to the House Judiciary Committee.

When he was asked to consider returning for a second term as attorney general (following his service in the George H.W. Bush administration), Barr said he did so because "I revere the Department and believed my independence would allow me to help steer her back to her core mission of applying one standard of justice for everyone and enforcing the law even-handedly, without partisan considerations."

Attorney General William Barr is sworn in before giving his opening statement before the House Judiciary Committee hearing about special counsel Robert Muellers report and his handling of the investigation.

Of mounting questions about favorable decisions rendered in a series of cases involving President Donald Trump and his allies, Barr said that his actions "have been my own."

"And they have been made because I believed they were right under the law and principles of justice," according to Barr's statement.

Barr's long-sought testimony comes as part of House Democrats' investigation into allegations of political interference at Justice and claims that the attorney general has turned the department into a political annex of the Trump White House.

The hearing, billed as an oversight of the Justice Department, will touch on a year's worth of grievances, from the widely criticized roll-out of the special counsel's Russia report in 2019 to the deployment of federal agents to Portland.

Story continues

'What had happened was wrong': DOJ lawyers accuse agency leaders of abusing power in Roger Stone case, other probes

Unrest in Portland: Portland police detain two suspects after reported shooting near federal courthouse protest site

House Democrats are expected to lob questions from a long list of issues, including whether he mischaracterized the findings of former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, interference on the criminal prosecutions of Trump allies, the contentious ouster of Manhattan's former U.S. attorney, and the federal agents' use of force to clear Lafayette Square of protesters in Washington D.C. ahead of a presidential photo-op, according to the House committee's counsel.

In his opening statement, Barr referred to the Russia investigation as "bogus," and that he has paid a political price for his actions since.

"Ever since I made it clear that I was going to do everything I could to get to the bottom of the grave abuses involved in the bogus Russiagate scandal, many of the Democrats on this Committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that I am simply the Presidents factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions," he said. "Judging from the letter inviting me to this hearing, that appears to be your agenda today."

President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr in a 2019 photo.

Lawmakers also are expected to question Barr about recent federal officer deployments to quell rioting in Portland and in support of Operation Legend, a federal crime-fighting initiative that the Justice Department recently expanded to multiple cities amid resistance and skepticism from local officials.

The rioting and demonstrations against police brutality initially prompted by the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police have only grown more intense since the deployment of federal officers.

While Barr said that police abuses remain rare, he said Floyd's death and others like it "strike a deep chord in the black community because they are perceived as manifestation of the deeper, lingering concern that, in encounters with police, blacks will not be treated even-handedly; they will not be given the benefit of the doubt; they will be treated with greater suspicion than a white person would be in the same circumstances."

Former US Attorney Geoffrey Berman: AG Barr pressed him to resign to make way for favored candidate

Geoffrey Berman firing: AG Barr's glowing account of NY prosecutor's work further clouds dismissal

"I think these concerns are legitimate," Barr said in the statement, though he suggests that police shouldn't bear all of the blame.

"I think it would be an oversimplification to treat the problem as rooted in some deep-seated racism generally infecting our police departments," Barr said. "It seems far more likely that the problem stems from a complex mix of factors, which can be addressed with focused attention over time."

Republicans have cast the committee's investigation as a political stunt that distracts from more pressing issues, such as the coronavirus pandemic and racial unrest. They also have defended Barr, saying his actions at the Justice Department were meant to correct the wrongs of the previous administration.

The hearing, expected to be long and contentious, follows testimony from current and former Justice Department officials who accused the agency's leadership of impropriety.

Last month, a Justice Department prosecutor said the department's leadership gave Roger Stone, a longtime friend of the president, "unprecedentedly favorable treatment" by pushing for a more lenient prison sentence against the recommendation of career prosecutors. Aaron Zelinsky told lawmakers he and the other attorneys who prosecuted the GOP operative were pressured to "cut Stone a break," or they could be fired.

Around the same time, Barr and ousted Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman publicly clashed over control of one of the Justice Department's most prestigious offices that have investigated and prosecuted Trump's allies and former associates. During a chaotic weekend last month, Berman accused Barr of not being truthful after the Justice Department announced  prematurely, according to Berman  that he was leaving his post.

'What a disaster': Aggressive federal response in Portland raises legal questions

Federal deployments: Mayors see broken trust, political agenda in Trump's surge of federal officers to US cities

The weekend ended with Berman's firing.

Berman later testified that Barr repeatedly pressed him to resign to make way for Trump's desired nominee, telling him he would be fired if he refused to do so and even offering a high-ranking position within the Justice Department. During the closed-door testimony, Berman said he questioned why he was being asked to leave before a nominee is confirmed and was critical of Barr's decision to appoint an outsider as a temporary replacement, calling it "unprecedented, unnecessary and unexplained."

Berman declined to speculate on Barr's motives, but he said the attorney general's "irregular and unexplained actions" were problematic, according to a transcript of the testimony.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: AG Barr: DOJ drawn into 'political maelstrom'
It might be six months from now, or maybe a year. But there will come a day when one of the many researchers toiling in one of the many labs around the world will crack the code, and emerge with a vaccine that is at least somewhat effective against the coronavirus.

An official from the World Health Organization said last week that a handful of candidates are in late-stage trials, and the first one could be available by early 2021.

But what might feel like a happy ending after months of public health measures is really only the beginning of a staggering new logistical and ethical problem.

When a vaccine is developed, who will get it first, and who gets to decide?

With COVID-19 continuing to spread around the world, these are literally life and death decisions. Canada has seen a total of almost 114,600 cases, including 8,901 fatalities. Some 99,860 people have recovered.

Its fair to assume that, at least initially, we wont have enough vaccines to inoculate everyone on the planet, which will leave multiple jurisdictions jockeying for supplies, while public health authorities will be tasked with making tough decisions about who should be prioritized.

While the answer to that isnt yet clear, and probably wont be known until the vaccine is ready to go, conversations are already underway.

Daniel Ashlock, a professor in the department of mathematics and statistics at the University of Guelph, is part of a team spread across three Canadian universities that is trying to create an artificial intelligence program that will answer this question: When a coronavirus vaccine is developed, who gets it?

The teams hope is that a health authority will be able to set a specific goal, such as slowing the spread of infection in their area, or reducing the number of deaths, and the AI program will use a contact network from, say, a contact-tracing app, to generate advice about who should be vaccinated. The better the contact-tracing app, the more specific the advice will be, Ashlock says. It could mean the difference between a recommendation to vaccinate all health-care workers, or advice to vaccinate specific people.

The team, which also includes students and professors at Brock University and project leader and assistant professor James Hughes at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, has research funding that even allows for graduate students to help officials use it.

The AI, if successful, could help make sure vaccines are used efficiently, which will be crucial if supplies are scarce.

If we have enough vaccines for everybody, what were doing is useless, Ashlock says. But lets assume we dont at first. Well, then, who do we give it to? It turns out that there are about 600 opinions on that, and all of them are wrong. So what the AI is, is an attempt to stitch together parts of wrong answers into at least a good answer.

The system uses what are called heuristics, which are basically guiding principles for who might be good to vaccinate. Ideas such as, older people are more vulnerable than younger people, or health-care workers are more likely to be exposed to someone with COVID-19.

When you zoom out a level, and start trying to decide to put those questions in some sort of order  is someone more vulnerable if theyre older or a health-care worker?  or add in other factors, such as test availability, then youre talking what are called hyperheuristics.

Various versions of the program are tested by running simulations of fictional pandemics with the goal of minimizing new infections, Ashlock says. But a real life public health official may decide the goal will be to reduce the number of deaths instead, or slow the spread of the disease. Either might prompt the system to suggest a different vaccination strategy.

So every day you say, We have this many doses of vaccine. Where should we send them to? And it goes (Ashlock makes a robot-thinking noise) to these people.

They hope to have a free version they can post online by the end of the summer.

Despite the promise of state-of-the art technology, Ashlock and his team are already confronting an extreme version of the ethical quandaries health officials around the world will soon be facing. While AI has the potential to make sure a limited supply of vaccines is used effectively, it would do so unburdened by human morality.

Something the team is thinking about a lot, Ashlock says, is what to do if the program concludes it would be more efficient to not bother to protect the elderly; or walls off poorer, denser neighbourhoods it decides would be too hard to vaccinate.

Or, even worse, if the programs discriminate in subtler ways that might not be detected until later? Ashlock points to claims that algorithms used in parts of the United States to help decide whether a defendant should be granted bail ended up biased against Black people.

This is where Im going to see your moral ambiguity and raise you to screams of terror, he says.

While they dont have a solution yet, Ashlock says, its something theyre taking very seriously. Theyre also looking at how this has been handled in other situations. For example, he says, there are places in the U.S that are handing out remdesivir  an experimental antiviral medicine that has been given to some patients with COVID-19  using a weighted lottery. The team is considering using that method as both a performance and ethical baseline, though, of course, determining how people should be weighted presents ethical problems of its own.

Before we hand this over to anybody, were going to run it and look at the results a lot, and consult with our conscience about maybe needing to simply forbid it to do certain things, he says.

Many of the ethical issues raised by vaccine prioritization are a matter of scope.

While a well-vaccinated population is good for everyone, the decision to allow a needle in your arm is still very much a personal decision. Tension arises between the needs of the group and the health of the individual  particularly the most vulnerable.

Its a debate that is also set to play out on the international stage.

For the first time in history, countries around the world will all be clamouring for a vaccine, but the size of their outbreaks and depth of their pockets will vary wildly.

There are already allegations that hackers have targeted COVID-19 research efforts in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.

Right now, its a bit like playing the stock market, in that no one knows which vaccine will succeed first, so a lot of countries that can afford it, such as Canada, are backing multiple horses.

The Government of Canada is closely monitoring vaccine development efforts  domestically and internationally  and will work quickly to negotiate advanced purchase agreements with vaccine manufacturer(s) to secure supply for Canadians as soon as it is feasible, according to a statement from Health Canada.

But while the challenge will be historic, the level of international co-operation, particularly among the scientific community, is also unprecedented.

In part to prevent all the vaccine from going to the highest bidder, a group of global health organizations, governments, advocates and businesses, including the World Health Organization and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, launched the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, or ACT, back in late April.

ACT is billed as a groundbreaking global collaboration designed to speed up the development of COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines  and then make sure theyre distributed somewhat fairly.

We remember lessons from the past, which have shown that even when effective tools are available to the world, too often some are protected, while others are not, according to the initial WHO news release.

According to the statement from Health Canada, the federal government committed $120 million at the end of June to support ACT.

Part of the collaboration is whats called the COVAX Facility, which has been tasked with sorting out vaccines. Specifically, it allows partner countries to pool money and risk by investing in a wide range of vaccine candidates, so if any of them get regulatory approval, the facility can get its hands on them  fast.

Its designed to guarantee rapid, fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines to every country, in an attempt to slow the pandemic globally.

According to the WHOs website, 75 countries, including Canada, have expressed interest in signing up and helping pay for this. As many as 90 lower-income countries would be supported through donations.

The goal of the project  which is dependant on getting enough funding from partner governments  is to deliver two billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021 that have all either passed regulatory approval or been pre-qualified by WHO; each participating country would get a share proportional to their population. Health-care workers would get first priority, but eventually each country would get enough doses to give to 20 per cent of their population.

Further doses would be distributed based on need and COVID-19 threat, and the COVAX Facility would hold back a buffer of doses for emergency or humanitarian use.

Its pragmatic to not put all your eggs in one vaccine basket, says Alison Thompson, an associate professor in the faculty of pharmacy at the University of Toronto, who specializes in ethical issues.

Youre hedging your bets that one will actually be effective and safe ... whereas if you take a nationalistic approach to developing vaccines, where youre only interested in securing doses for your own country, your ability to fund a vaccine is much more limited.

It also makes ethical and pragmatic sense, in a world where some countries wont be able to pay, but were all buffeted by the same pandemic.

To just say that the ability to pay is going to be the basis by which we distribute the vaccine is really an inadequate world response as well as a scientific one, she says.

But being first in the vaccine lineup wont be an unmixed blessing, Thompson points out.

Theres no question that vaccines have been one of the great public health success stories of recent decades. Theyre the reason smallpox has been eradicated and polio is just about there. A century ago, infectious diseases were the leading cause of death worldwide, but according to the Canadian Public Health Association, they now account for less than 5 per cent of all deaths in Canada.

The coronavirus vaccine will be new, and it will be rolled out fast.

You dont just want to assume that right out of the gate, a vaccine is going to be a panacea, it could actually have some serious adverse consequences to it because of the rush to get it to market, Thompson says.

That might affect who should get it first, she says. Because, while you might want the most vulnerable to be vaccinated first, they may be less equipped to handle side effects. For example, there might be a push to send vaccines to the global south, where its been hard to do social distancing or shut down the economy.

But the optics of that may be really terrible as well, where youre saying, Lets let the most vulnerable people in the world test drive this vaccine and well see if its safe and effective, Thompson points out.

While Canada will be better equipped to monitor people who might react badly to a vaccine, its fair to expect some people will be wary, she says.

In an interview with the Financial Times published July 10, infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said the United States has already begun engaging with local communities to try to communicate why the vaccine is important, particularly among minority groups that may be more distrustful.

Weve got to do some serious reaching out, he is quoted as saying.

Here in Canada, Thompson says, it might be worth expanding the idea of vaccine compensation programs, an idea more common in the United States and Quebec.

For people to trust it, were going to need to think about things like compensating people who are injured from the vaccine as well, which we dont tend to do here, she says. But maybe its time we had another look at Vaccine Injury courts where these kinds of claims can be adjudicated.

Of course, once Canada has a supply of vaccine, and at least some people willing to take it, the question remains: Who first?

In June, the WHO floated a global allocation framework that would prioritize health-care workers, adults over 65 and other high-risk adults, which, when lumped together, are estimated to make up about 25 per cent of the worlds population.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. also has a preliminary plan that would see vaccines offered first to medical and national security officials, and then to other essential workers and people who are considered otherwise high risk. According to the New York Times, officials are also reportedly considering giving Black and Latino people, who have been disproportionally affected by COVID-19, higher priority  a move that would be controversial, say some medical experts.

Canadas plan is not yet known. According to Health Canada, guidance on the use of a vaccine  including who should be prioritized  will be provided by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI).

While they declined an interview request on how those decisions will be made, a provided statement says the organization is starting to review evidence with the objective of issuing prioritization advice.

These decisions will also be informed by data that are accumulated during clinical testing.

Regardless of how its decided, Thompson stresses its going to have to be very open about the process for people to get on board.

I think when you have something like vaccines that (we) know requires high levels of public trust for people to agree to get it, we cannot rely on a mechanism for allocation that is not transparent, she says.

We dont want to squander its efficacy by just allocating it completely devoid of any scientific reasoning, but it has to be tempered with some of these more value judgments about who should get it first.
American country star Dolly Parton is known for her platinum blonde locks, cowboy hat, and surgically-enhanced cleavage.

And Farmer Wants a Wife contestant Marnie has admitted that her whole look is inspired by the icon - except for one of her most famous physical attributes.

Speaking to Woman's Day, the 48-year-old confessed that unlike the Jolene songstress she hasn't gone under the knife to get breast implants.

Country queen: Farmer Wants a Wife contestant Marnie has admitted that her whole look is inspired by Dolly Parton - except for one of the icon's VERY famous physical attributes

Marnie proudly admitted: My boobs are real! They're good, don't worry about that. It runs in the family, we've all got them.'

The beauty - who is vying for the affection of farmer Nick - is more than happy to admit she copied Dolly's signature tumbling blonde locks and cowboy style.

Detailing her love affair with the 9 to 5 hitmaker, Marnie recalled: 'I grew up with my mum's best friend, and she used to play her music in the car all the time.'

'My boobs are real!' Speaking to Woman's Day, the 48-year-old confessed that unlike the Jolene songstress (pictured in 2011) she hasn't gone under the knife to get breast implants

Style icon: The beauty (far left) - who is vying for the affection of farmer Nick (centre) - is more than happy to admit she copied Dolly's signature tumbling blonde locks and cowboy style

Meanwhile, in a separate interview with the publication ahead of the show's debut on Sunday night, Marnie admitted that she was initially supposed to be a bride on the hit show Married At First Sight.

She explained: 'I thought I was confirmed for the show and I was preparing to get married.'

Marnie revealed she was left disappointed after eventually 'getting an email saying that she didn't make it through to the next stage' on MAFS.

Biggest fan: Detailing her love affair with the 9 to 5 hitmaker, Marnie recalled: 'I grew up with my mum's best friend, and she used to play her music in the car all the time'

Viewers are now watching her having a second crack at reality television thanks to Farmer Wants a Wife.

However, Marnie has admitted that a former MAFS groom, Steve Burley, sent her a direct message on Instagram.

She was quick to add: 'He's not my type, there's nothing going on.'
Supermarkets were facing a fresh challenge today after online giant Amazon announced that Prime customers can now get their food shop delivered for free.

Shoppers using the 1.17billion company's subscription service are now able to get groceries delivered straight to their door without leaving their sofas.

It replaces the previous system where Prime members - who already had to pay 7.99 - needed to pay an extra 2.99 for a food order.

Now, as long as customers are in London and the south-east - including Surrey, Hampshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire - and spend more than 40 on Fresh orders they will get their groceries delivered free.

How Amazon Fresh compares with other same-day or rapid delivery services on grocery orders of 40 or more. MailOnline compared prices on the same - or very similar - products to work out the best value for customers

A member of staff at one of the new Amazon Fresh fulfillment centres preparing a delivery

What is Amazon Fresh? Amazon Fresh is an Amazon Prime benefit available at no extra cost to existing Prime subscribers. Prime members in around 300 postcodes across Greater London and the South East (including London, Surrey, Hampshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire) can do their weekly shop on Amazon Fresh, with local produce, brands and artisan products, included in the cost of Prime membership. Amazon said delivery in two-hour windows is now free on orders over 40 and the minimum order value has been lowered from 40 to 15. Shops that come in under 40 will be charged a 3.99 delivery fee. Customers will be able to access between 12,000 and 15,000 products online including products from retailers and brands including Booths, Morrisons, Whole Foods Market, Pepsi, Danone, Arla, Warburtons and Britvic. Amazon Fresh customers will also be offered a selection of thousands of products from local producers including GAIL's Artisan Bakery, C.Lidgate and Paxton & Whitfield. Advertisement

The US e-commerce giant also plans to expand the free delivery to 'millions more' customers around the UK by the end of the year and speed up deliveries in a bid to capitalise on the booming online grocery industry.

It is understood that Prime customers in Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh will be among the first to benefit from the wider roll-out.

The huge push will see current warehouses - also called fulfillment centres - adapted and expanded to be able to safely store the food from suppliers before it is delivered to buyers,

It means suppliers, who include bakers and butchers, will have their goods transported to the hubs ready for Amazon to distribute themselves.

The same will happen with any supermarkets who decide to opt-in to the ambitious new system.

A spokesman for Amazon told MailOnline that Amazon Fresh will supply food from supermarkets Morrisons, Whole Foods Market, and Booths, as well as smaller suppliers including GAIL's Artisan Bakery, C.Lidgate and Paxton & Whitfield.

But food from 'nervous' supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda will not be supplied as the US retailer looks to 'capture a material slice' of the market.

Shops that come in under 40 will now be charged a 3.99 delivery fee. Customers will be able to access between 12,000 and 15,000 products online - compared to 40,000 products on Ocado.

Shoppers in 40 postcodes in Surrey and Berkshire can also book a one-hour slot for 3.99 or get same-day delivery.

MailOnline compared an online food order Amazon Fresh to similar products from Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose, and found the online giant to be cheaper by more than 4 to nearest rival Sainsbury's 'Chop Chop'

A worker at one of the new centres picks a pineapple to deliver on the new delivery service

The new Amazon Fresh fulfillment centres will be in retrofitted and expanded buildings

Retail analyst Richard Hyman called Amazon a 'voraciously ambitious business that wants to dominate every market that it trades in'.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he added that UK supermarkets will be 'rightly nervous' as Amazon wades into the grocery market.

'History shows that Amazon doesn't enter markets lightly, and it doesn't enter markets to be another player. This is a voraciously ambitious business that wants to dominate every market that it trades in,' Mr Hyman said.

Amazon says customers using the delivery network will be able to pick between 12,000 and 15,000 products from a special section found on its website

Who are Amazon Fresh's biggest rivals? Ocado Zoom and Ocado.com Ocado Zoom is Ocado's on-demand service stocking a wide selection of ocado.com's range. So if you want groceries delivered now, or later the same day, and you live in West London, then Ocado Zoom's for you. Zoom is only available to a limited number of postcodes from a small site in west London. They provide a choice of over 10,000 products with a minimum order 15 and a delivery charge that starts from 1.99. Sainsbury's Chop Chop customers can order up to 20 items via an app for delivery by bike within 60 minutes for a flat delivery fee of 4.99. There is a minimum spend of 15 and the service is available in selected areas of Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, and Reading. Tesco.com Tesco.com guarantees same-day delivery by 7pm if ordered by 1pm, with 'same day' plan. Waitrose 'Rapid' Customers can choose 25 items, delivery within two hours. There is a minimum 10 order with a 5 delivery fee in a select number of postcodes. Advertisement

'Now it's not going to dominate the UK grocery market any time soon because there's rather a lot of players in it already who are actually pretty good at what they do. But I think we shouldn't be under any doubt that they will capture a material slice of this market.

'It's certainly true that when someone with the pockets that are as deep as Amazon enters the market and their existing retail business model doesn't need to make any profit because they make their profit doing other things, that represents a potential challenge of significant dimensions.'

He added: 'One of the things we've all learned about Amazon over the years is that they are very unconventional and they're also extraordinarily secretive. So there's a lot about this that they've not told us.'

Amazon release their second quarter results on Thursday. Investors who have seen the share price rise by around 60 per cent this year will be hoping for more good news from the technology giant. The surge in Amazon shares saw founder Jeff Bezos add 10billion to his wealth in just one day last week.

Food delivery has doubled in size to more than 3million orders per week since the start of the pandemic as families avoid crowded spaces and learn to shop online.

Traditional supermarkets have already seen their market share undercut by German discounters, which hold more than 13 per cent of the UK market, and sellers such as Ocado and Amazon post a threat online.

Russell Jones, UK country manager for Amazon Fresh, said: 'It's a really obvious next step to take. Grocery delivery is one of the fastest growing businesses at Amazon and we think this will be one of the most-loved Prime benefits in the UK.'

Tom Brereton, an analyst at Global Data, said: 'It's a bold and ambitious move from Amazon.'
Washington: The Trump administration pressed its offensive against online companies it accuses of censoring conservatives, asking regulators to dilute a decades-old law that social media giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Google say is crucial to them.

The Commerce Department on Monday asked the Federal Communications Commission to write a regulation weakening protections laid out in Section 230, language in a 1996 law that protects online companies from legal liability for users' posts, and for decisions to remove material.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The White House has the social media sector in its cross hairs. Credit:Bloomberg

The request was called for in an executive order that President Donald Trump signed in May. Tech trade groups, civil liberties organisations and legal scholars have slammed the executive order, saying that it was unlikely to survive a court challenge.

But the petition renews attention on web companies ahead of an antitrust hearing in Congress on July 29 that is scheduled to include chief executives of Amazon.com, Facebook, Google parent Alphabet and Apple. The hearing concerns competition online, and it may also include discussion of web posting practices.
YEREVAN, JULY 28, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan had a telephone conversation with Lebanons Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Nassif Hitti, the Armenian MFA said.

The ministers exchanged views on the ways to further strengthen and expand the bilateral cooperation.

In the context of overcoming the socio-economic challenges caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic, both sides highlighted the role of international cooperation and mutual support.

The Armenian and Lebanese FMs also discussed a number of regional and international issues. FM Mnatsakanyan touched upon issues relating to the regional peace and security and introduced Armenias approaches on these matters to his Lebanese counterpart.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Joy Anna Duggar celebrated her impending arrival with a baby shower earlier this month, with her mom, sisters, sisters-in-law, and best friend Carlin Bates coming together for a not-so-socially-distanced party.

The 22-year-old is expecting her second child with her husband Austin Forsyth, 26, a year after she suffered a miscarriage at 20 weeks.

Now just weeks away from her August due date with a little girl, Joy came together with her loved ones to play games, open gifts, and pose for pictures  all without a mask in sight.

Excited: Joy Anna Duggar celebrated her impending arrival with a baby shower that was thrown earlier this month

The whole fam (almost): Pictured at the festivities is Joy Anna's mom Michelle, as well as her sisters Jana, Jill, Jessa, Johanna, Jennifer, Jordyn, and Josie

More girls: Her sisters-in-law Lauren and Anna (who is married to sex pest Josh) also came with their daughters

Look who got an invite! Her big sister Jill was also notably in attendance. Jill has been absent from quite a few family gatherings, due to some dubious rulings from her dad, Jim Bob

BFF: Her best friend Carlin Bates came to visit, too, and helped her open presents

Joy was 20 weeks into a pregnancy with another daughter last July when she suffered a miscarriage and delivered at a hospital. She and Austin named the baby Annabelle, and went on to bury her at his family's camp in Combs, Arkansas.

She is now expecting again  a little sister for their two-year-old son Gideon  and in early July celebrated with a baby shower.

Photos from social media show a room decorated with white, yellow, and rose gold balloons, which her family put up ahead of time.

The party appears to have included a rather large group given that the country is in the middle of a pandemic, with everyone gathered together indoors without masks or social distancing.

Pictured at the festivities is Joy Anna's mom Michelle, as well as her sisters Jana, Jessa, Johanna, Jennifer, Jordyn, and Josie.

Her big sister Jill was also notably in attendance. Jill has been absent from quite a few family gatherings, which her husband Derick Dillard has claimed on numerous occasions is because dad Jim Bob restricts her access to the rest of the family.

Big: The party appears to have included a rather large group given that the country is in the middle of a pandemic

World outside: COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Arkansas, where the Duggars live. The state currently has a total of 39,447 cases, with 734 new ones confirmed today

The struggle is real: They played some games, including one in which Joy Anna and Carlin competed to change a diaper while holding a phone between their faces and shoulders

Decorators: Jana, Jessa, and sister-in-law Lauren are pictured setting up for the shower

What pandemic? Other Instagram pictures show five other guests, bringing the total to at least 21 people

Sisters-in-law Lauren and Anna showed up, too, with Anna bringing along daughters Meredith, Mackynzie, and baby Maryella, and Lauren toting her baby, Bella.

Also there was Joy Anna's longtime friend and fellow reality star Carlin Bates, who had her own first child earlier this year.

Other Instagram pictures show five other guests, bringing the total to at least 21 people.

COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Arkansas, where the Duggars live. The state currently has a total of 39,447 cases, with 734 new ones confirmed today.

While the images don't show any masks or other precautions taken, the group did seem to play some games, including one in which Joy Anna and Carlin competed to change a diaper while holding a phone between their faces and shoulders.

Joy Anna, who is due August 19, also opened gifts, including diapers and dresses.

Pictures don't show any food, and it doesn't appear that Joy Anna had any sort of cake. Previously, after her sister-in-law Lauren miscarried at just five weeks, she had an entirely separate cake for 'Big Brother Asa' at her baby shower during her next pregnancy.

Another one on the way! They announced the pregnancy on Instagram in March

Family of four: The couple already has a two-year-old son named Gideon

Bumpin' around: Joy Anna has shared some bump photos on Instagram, and has also been updating fans on the progress of her pregnancy on YouTube

Stepping back: She and Austin have been largely absent from the new season of Counting On

Joy and Austin announced this pregnancy in March, waiting until it had progressed safely before making the news public.

'Yes... its true! [Austin] and I are PREGNANT again!' Joy Anna wrote on Instagram, confirming rumors that began to swirl a couple of weeks before when her sister Jinger visited from LA and all of the girls and women in the family were pictured together.

'Ahhh!!! Its been quite the crazy journey these last few months, but we are so thankful that mom and baby are healthy!'

She also posted a YouTube video, in which she caught fans up on her pregnancy journey.

It seems she has known she was pregnant since December 11, two days before Austin's birthday.

She'd been suspecting that she was expecting, but it was still too early to know, and she took several pregnancy tests that turned up negative.

It's positive! She was already quite far along, and shared a video on YouTube catching fans up on everything that had happened so far

Pee stick! She took several negative pregnancy tests before one turned up positive, and she gave it to Austin for his birthday

She said: 'I'm shocked. I'm not actually as scared as I thought I was gonna be after miscarrying at 20 weeks. It's just, I thought I was gonna be so nervous, but I'm really not. I'm excited'

Then, on the 11th, while enjoying a family night with her parents and siblings, she took another test  which also appeared to be negative, but she saw a faint second line.

'I told myself, okay, I'm not gonna take a test, I'm gonna wait to see if I miss my period or whatever, but... I took a test,' she said, showing off the results.

'I'm shocked. I'm not actually as scared as I thought I was gonna be after miscarrying at 20 weeks. It's just, I thought I was gonna be so nervous, but I'm really not. I'm excited.'

Joy Anna miscarried last July, four months before conceiving again.

She said that she planned to tell her best friend Carlin, her mother Michelle, and her oldest sister Jana first, even before she told Austin.

Later, she took another test which was clearly positive  wrapped it in a gift box for her husband to share the news.

But it wasn't all smooth sailing. Not long into her pregnancy, she started to experience spotting. She went to the doctor, who told her it might be a nonviable pregnancy.

Ups and downs: There have been scary times, though  after Joy Anna started spotting, a doctor told her the pregnancy might not be viable

It's OK! But more tests turned out good and they learned they are having a girl

After some anxious waiting, though, Joy Anna and Austin learned that that wasn't the case  and also found out they were having a daughter.

'We're having a girl! I could not believe it. I just started crying,' Joy Anna said. 'We're super excited, nervous, and thankful, all at the same time.'

'It's just a huge load lifted off our shoulders, knowing that the tests came back good, came back normally,' Austin added.

Finally, they finished off the video with the gender reveal they had for family, watching on from their yard as older brother John David dropped a bucked of pink confetti from a helicopter.

She and Austin have continued to offer updated on YouTube, with several videos that Joy Anna seems to be producing herself.

They have also been largely absent from this season of Counting On, and Jill's brother-in-law Derick Dillard revealed in an Instagram comment that they are no longer participating in the show.

Exciting: Joy Anna learned she was pregnant back in December and told her whole family soon after (but gave her mom, big sister Jana, and friend Carlin Bates the news first)

Woosh: They had a gender reveal, with big brother John David dropping confetti from a helicopter

It's possible that the couple chose to be more private due to the trauma of the Joy's miscarriage.

'We only had her for 20 weeks, Life is fragile and precious,' the couple wrote on Instagram at the time. 'So thankful the Lord gave her to us for that short time! She will be in our hearts forever!'

They added: 'Although we dont understand why, God has given us unexplainable peace and comfort during this very difficult time. Yes, it still hurts and we have cried countless tears, but we know that we can trust the Lord.

'We dont grieve as those who have no hope because we trust that we will see this little one again,' they wrote.

'Please pray for continued healing, not only physically but for our hearts as well.'

Devastating moment: Joy Anna and Austin were excitedly expecting a daughter last year when she tragically suffered a miscarriage

Tribute: 'We only had her for 20 weeks, Life is fragile and precious,' the couple wrote on Instagram at the time

Family ties: They posed several candid shots taken in the hospital after Joy Anna delivered

Upset: Joy Anna had her hair and makeup done for the shoot, and took the time to pay tribute to her best friend, fellow reality TV star Carlin Bates, for taking the time to help her with it

They posed for several candid shots taken in the hospital after Joy Anna delivered, with Joy Anna having her hair and makeup done for the only photos she got to take with the daughter she lost.

'Thank you, [Carlin Bates] for coming to town to be here for me and for doing my hair and makeup for pictures with our little girl!' Joy Anna wrote.

Carlin also shared well wishes at the time.

'Seeing her give birth to her little girl, Annabell Elise, and knowing that she would never be able to hold her again while on earth just brings tears to my eyes. Yet, through it all, she has been so strong and held on to Jesus, knowing that we will see her little baby in heaven one day,' she wrote.

'I know that Jesus doesnt promise that we will not face difficulties in this life, but He does promise to be by our side every step of the way. Im so grateful to have a friend as precious as Joy, and I know that she would covet prayers at this hard time.'

Joy Anna was also joined by her mother and older sister Jill at the hospital.

Memories: In their Instagram post, Joy Anna and Austin shared a photo of their daughter's footprints (left), which her best friend Carlin also posted on her own account
CLEVELAND, Ohio  It can take up to several months for curators to plan an exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But in an unprecedented reaction to current times, the museums latest display is here to fight the power.

Its Been Said All Along: Voices of Rage, Hope & Empowerment, an exhibit highlighting how legendary artists responded to social injustice, opened at the Rock Hall on July 25. The showcase arrives after just weeks of preparation.
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Last week, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York announced that the name of the organizations founder, Margaret Sanger, would be removed from its clinic. They also asked the city to rename a local street known as Margaret Sanger Square. Sanger is being canceled because of her advocacy of eugenics, a movement that began in the early 1900s and promoted the idea that the human race could be improved by selective breeding.

Proponents of eugenics, like Sanger, wanted wealthy, healthy and strong people to have more babies, and poor, sick, disabled and minority people to have fewer (or no) babies. In 1939, in fact, Sanger and Planned Parenthood launched something called the Negro Project, whose aim was to push birth control on black women.

Removing Margaret Sangers name from a building in New York only actually means something in a time like ours, of low-stakes, symbolic gestures like erasing a name or disinviting a controversial speaker to a university. Its the very definition of virtue signaling, a word I hate but which aptly describes what Planned Parenthood is doing here: canceling Margaret Sanger while still perpetuating the exact racist population control for which she is being canceled.

We should take this about as seriously as a southern state that removed a Confederate Statue but still allowed slavery and public lynchings. Erasing Margaret Sangers name from a lobby means nothing for Planned Parenthood. And it costs them nothing. If they truly wanted to help African American communities, Planned Parenthood would cancel themselves and shut down.

An estimated 62-million babies have been killed by abortion since Roe v. Wade. While African Americans make up about 13% of the U.S. population, black babies account for nearly 40% of the abortions committed each year. Black moms are somewhere between three and five times more likely to have an abortion than white moms. In New York City, there are thousands more black babies aborted than are actually born each year.

Since the death of George Floyd, the book How to be an Anti-Racist, by activist and professor Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, has hit The New York Times Bestseller list. Kendi, who has been interviewed by Oprah, Stephen Colbert, and Brene Brown, defines racism as anything that, quote, produces or sustains racial inequity, Intention, says Kendi doesnt matter. Only outcomes matter.

Kendis definition, though controversial, is widely accepted, especially among the more progressive voices of our society. In that case, is there a company or cultural institution more obviously and inherently racist than Planned Parenthood? Planned Parenthood was explicitly built upon and continues today to sustain racial inequity. There would be over 19 million more African American people in the world today if not for legalized abortion and Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthoods executives know that number. Their business model directly targets black and other minority women. In 2012, An organization called Protecting Black Life used U.S. Census Data to show that almost 80% of Planned Parenthoods existing abortion clinics that year were located within 2 miles of a majority black or Hispanic neighborhood. Apparently, Margaret Sangers legacy remains integral to Planned Parenthoods marketing strategy; that is, to kill the babies of poor, minority moms.

Of course, the women who walk into a Planned Parenthood dont have the luxury of caring whose name is on the clinics letterhead. They are likely not thinking about Margaret Sanger or politics. Theyre in crisis and looking for help. Too many are in poverty. Way too many are there because someone has pressured them into it. Too many face bleak healthcare outcomes, especially black mothers, who are still nearly three times as likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth as white mothers.

The women who enter a Planned Parenthood are often frightened and alone. The very last thing they need is help from a systemically racist corporation whose hundreds of millions of dollars in profit each year depend almost entirely on killing their babies. Whether or not the founders name is on the door doesnt make any difference at all.

Originally published at BreakPoint
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 14:04 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669e5bc1 1 Food coffee,coffee-culture,coffee-cups,coffee-farmers,Taiwan Free

The people of Taiwan are known for their longstanding affection for teas. However, in recent years, coffee culture has been making its mark in the island nation.

Amid a sea of bubble tea shops, the Taipei Economic and Trade Office (TETO) reported that there were over 15,000 coffee shops in Taiwan, including the worlds largest coffeehouse chain Starbucks, Taiwanese coffeehouse chains such as Louisa , 85C or Cama Cafe, as well as independent coffee shops and minimarkets.

TETO said in a statement that one person consumed more than 200 coffee cups per year and that coffee consumption continued to increase by 20 percent annually.

According to the Fair Trade Commissions annual survey on convenience store chains in 2017 as reported by The China Post, sales of fresh coffee rose 17 percent to NT$16 billion (US$520 million) at Taiwans five convenience store chains, namely 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Hi-Life, OK Mart and TSC Million.

There are 10,000 minimarket chains in Taiwan open for 24 hours, allowing coffee lovers to enjoy a freshly brewed cup of Java by only paying Rp 17,000 ($1.16). The low cost and accessibility factors of the beverage are considered the major driving forces in the expanding Taiwanese coffee market.

The Taiwanese people take their coffee seriously, with independent coffee shops offering specialty beans from abroad. Meanwhile, minimarkets also sell estate-grade coffees, making Taiwan the country with the highest consumption of premium coffee beans in the world.

Read also: Whipped Dalgona craze is perking up sales of instant coffee

As Taiwan is not a coffee producer, coffeehouses source beans from other countries, including Indonesia, Brazil and Ethiopia for unroasted beans and the United States, Japan and Malaysia for roasted beans.

TETO said that before 2015, Indonesia was one of the biggest unroasted coffee beans exporters to Taiwan by contributing 25 percent of the total imported coffee beans.

Unfortunately, the number continued to decrease. In 2019, only 12 percent of the total imported coffee beans in Taiwan came from Indonesia.

Amid the decreasing number, Luwak and Sumatran Mandheling varieties remain popular in Taiwan.

According to TETO, Indonesias climate and rich soils produce different types of coffee beans that are suitable for Taiwanese people, who love to try new things.

That being said, with good marketing and promotion strategies as well as good quality control, TETO felt certain that Indonesian coffee could make its way to Taiwanese coffeehouse chains and minimarkets. (jes/wng)
(Photo : REUTERS/Simon Dawson) A woman wears a protective mask next to a sign urging to wear face coverings at a store, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in London, Britain July 24, 2020. (Photo : REUTERS/Rafael Marchante) A tourist wearing a mask sits at Caes de Sodre, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Lisbon, Portugal July 13, 2020. `

Scientists in Portugal claimed to have created a mask that would kill the virus as it reaches the fabric.

If proven effective, this becomes a breakthrough in COVID-19 protection technology as the new face mask features a special coating that disables the coronavirus when it comes in contact with the material.

A virologist from the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Lisbon (IMM) Pedro Simas who worked on the mask said the coating reduces the infectious units of the virus by 99% within 30 minutes. The mask would continue to effectively protect even after 50 washes, making the mask highly reusable.

The IMM said in a statement that this mask uses an active ingredient that has already been tested by France's Institut Pasteur de Lille against the H1N1 virus and the rotavirus. The face-covering is OEKO-Tex certified, which proves that it is safe for human use as it does not contain any harmful substances.

However, Simas denies their creation is a breakthrough as masks are generally effective when combined with social distancing measures.

He explained that viruses spread through large respiratory droplets and any tool that stops these large droplets from getting into the respiratory system are highly effective.

"I think this is just another tool, another element on a mask, that in addition to a physical barrier, can now provide a chemical barrier," said Simas adding that he hopes more people will cover their mouths and noses throughout the pandemic, regardless if they use coated or just disposable masks.

However, as others refuse to wear masks because they feel uncomfortable doing so, Simas noted that mask is a very important protective gear, "a very small sacrifice to save lives."

Read also: MIT Engineers Created a Reusable Silicone Rubber Face Mask that is as Effective as N95

Portugal's reopening plan

The Portuguese government's reopening plan is currently in its third phase, which started in May. With over 50,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, the country has kept its deaths rate at 1,700 throughout the pandemic while its recovery is now more than 35,000.

While all necessary measures are being followed, the country has begun reopening the country and trying to revive its economy. Generally, wearing a mask is mandatory while everyone must adhere to social distancing measures, particularly in enclosed areas. Aside from these, the Directorate-General for Health has provided specific recommendations for various sectors, including taking hygiene and sanitization measures.

Meanwhile, Turismo de Portugal provides the "Clean & Safe" seal, so tourists may have greater confidence and security in using accommodation establishments as well as various tourist services and attractions. Also, the Madeira and the Azores archipelagos have enacted some specific measures in their areas.

Meanwhile, Portuguese coasts have opened up to the public since June 6. To avoid overcrowding, the government uses an occupancy status information system to help the public choose the beach to go. The information is updated in real-time on the "Info Praia" app, which is available for iOS and Android as well as on the Portuguese Environment Agency website. The green signage means low occupancy or one-third has been occupied, yellow for high occupancy, and red for full occupancy.

Read also: 3D-Printed Human Organs Can be a Possible Weapon Against COVID-19

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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GIS  28 July 2020 :The Mauritius Investment Corporation (MIC) has so far received applications from 40 companies and will shortly make its first disbursement to big corporates that are in financial distress following the Covid-19 crisis.

The Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Dr Renganaden Padayachy, made this announcement in a press statement following a meeting held yesterday, with various representatives including those of the Bank of Mauritius (BoM), the Economic Development Board of Mauritius, the MIC, and the State Investment Corporation. The meeting aimed at taking stock of the evolution of Covid-19 and the related measures and schemes announced before and during the 2020-2021 Budget.

The Minister expressed satisfaction as regards the progress of the works being carried out by the concerned institutions and highlighted that the meeting is closely monitoring the economic situation so as to address any challenges and bottlenecks, in particular for the SME sector.

We discussed those measures and schemes that do not require the finalisation of the Finance Bill 2020 and at the same time took stock of the state of matters in different institutions, he said.

Dr Renganaden Padayachy also pointed out that the Investment Committee of the BoM is looking forward to investing in Mauritius and is currently analysing the financial situation of companies in distress.

He underlined that the proactive and bold measures taken by the Government in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic have limited the ensuing social, economic damages and consequences on employment, that have enabled us to sustain our economy.

The Minister indicated that some Rs 500 million is disbursed each month for the assistance being provided to those working in sectors severely impacted by the pandemic, namely under the Wage Assistance Scheme and the Self-Employed Assistance Scheme.

He also announced that a one-stop shop will be set up for any related information, services and queries from the public regarding the series of measures and schemes being provided by the Government.
Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi along with other Congress leaders and workers on Monday staged a protest in Guwahati under the party's nationwide 'Save Democracy, Save Constitution' campaign. Congress staged nationwide protests in front of Raj Bhavans of various states with the slogan 'Save Democracy and Save Constitution' amid the political crisis in Rajasthan.

'Subversion of the Constitution'

Congress general secretary KC Venugopal alleged the BJP was using "money power and intimidation" in its bid to topple governments in states. The protesters demanded that the Rajasthan Governor convenes a session of the Assembly as advised by the state cabinet, it said.

However, there was no protest outside the Raj Bhawan in Rajasthan. Venugopal said Monday's protests were aimed at underlining the BJP's "subversion" of the Constitution and "murder" of democracy, especially at a time when the entire country is reeling under the onslaught of COVID-19 pandemic and unprecedented difficulties caused by an economic meltdown.

Countrywide protest held by Congress

"Unfortunate as it would have been at any other time, it was downright dastardly for the BJP to be going all out to unsettle democratically elected governments during such times," he said in a statement. Many sat on a dharna outside Raj Bhawans observing social distancing norms, he said, adding the protesting leaders spoke against the conduct of the Governor of Rajasthan.

READ | Bihar floods: Congress slams Nitish Kumar, says 'govt should wake up from sleep and work'

Social media handles of state Congress chiefs and leaders put up videos of such protests. Protests were held in front of the Raj Bhawans in Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Ranchi, Guwahati, Simla, Panchkula and many other state capitals. State Congress presidents, along with party workers, were arrested in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and many other places during the protests, Venugopal claimed in the statement.

READ | Congress touts majority with 102 MLAs, urges Pilot camp to 'apologise and return to party'

Earlier this month, Rajasthan plunged into a political crisis after differences between former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot came out in the open. Pilot was removed as the Deputy Chief Minister and the state unit chief of Congress. The Congress has accused BJP of indulging in horse-trading to bring down the Gehlot government. The BJP has rejected such allegations.

READ | Mayawati threatens to drag Rajasthan CM Gehlot to court if 6 BSP MLAs vote for Congress

READ | Tamil Nadu BJP slams Congress for flouting COVID norms in 'Speak for Democracy' protest

(With agency inputs)
The existing limited evidence suggests that wearing face coverings to protect against COVID-19 does not lead to a false sense of security, and is unlikely to increase the risk of infection through wearers foregoing other behaviours such as good hand hygiene.

The study led by researchers from the University of Cambridge and Kings College London. Was published in the journal BMJ Analysis,

Researchers say that the concept of risk compensation is itself the greater threat to public health as it may discourage policymakers from implementing potentially effective measures, such as wearing face coverings.

Wearing face coverings, particularly in shared indoor spaces, is now mandated or recommended in more than 160 countries to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Worn correctly, face coverings can reduce transmission of the virus as part of a set of protective measures, including maintaining physical distance from others and good hand hygiene.

While it is not clear how much of an effect face-covering have, scientists have urged policymakers to encourage the wearing of face coverings because the risks are minimal while the potential impact is important in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, early in the pandemic, the World Health Organization warned that wearing face coverings could create a false sense of security that can lead to neglecting other essential measures such as hand hygiene practices. This type of behaviour is known as risk compensation.

A team led by Professor Dame Theresa Marteau at the Behaviour and Health Research Unit, University of Cambridge, has examined the evidence for risk compensation to see whether concerns might be justified in the context of face coverings to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

The idea behind risk compensation is that people have a target level of risk they are comfortable with and they adjust their behaviour to maintain that level risk. At an individual level, risk compensation is commonplace: for example, people run for longer to offset an eagerly anticipated indulgent meal and a cyclist may wear a helmet to cycle at speed.

At a population level, evidence for risk compensation is less clear. A commonly-cited example is the mandated wearing of bike helmets purportedly leading to an increase in the number of bike injuries and fatalities. Another often-cited example is the introduction of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and HPV vaccination purportedly leading to an increase in unprotected sex.

Professor Marteau and colleagues say the results of the most recent systematic reviews - a technique that involves examining all available evidence on a topic - do not justify the concerns of risk compensation for either of these examples. In fact, for HPV vaccination, the opposite effect was found: those who were vaccinated were less likely to engage in unprotected sexual behaviour as measured by rates of sexually transmitted infection.

At least 22 systematic reviews have assessed the effect of wearing a mask on the transmission of respiratory virus infections. These include six experimental studies, involving over 2,000 households in total - conducted in community settings that also measured hand hygiene. While none of the studies was designed to assess risk compensation or looked at social distancing, their results suggest that wearing masks does not reduce the frequency of handwashing or hand sanitising. In fact, in two studies, self-reported rates of handwashing were higher in the groups allocated to wearing masks.

The team also found three observational studies that showed people tended to move away from those wearing a mask, suggesting that face coverings do not adversely affect physical distancing at least by those surrounding the wearer. However, they say that as none of these studies has been peer-reviewed, they should be treated with caution.

The concept of risk compensation, rather than risk compensation itself, seems the greater threat to public health through delaying potentially effective interventions that can help prevent the spread of disease, said Professor Marteau.

Many public health bodies are coming to the conclusion that wearing a face-covering might help reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, and the limited evidence available suggests their use doesnt have a negative effect on hand hygiene, added co-author Dr James Rubin from the Department of Psychological Medicine, Kings College London.

In their article, the team argue that it is time to lay risk compensation theory to rest. Professor Barry Pless from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, once described it as a dead horse that no longer needs to be beaten. The authors go further, saying this dead horse now needs burying to try to prevent the continued threat it poses to public health, from by slowing the adoption of more effective interventions.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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Those who are born into royalty know all too well what it is like to have absolutely no privacy. At times, it can be overwhelming, since as a family member, everything that you do is watched and often criticized.

Prince Harry knows this all too well, especially since he has been in the royal fishbowl since the day he was born. Photographers and the news media have pretty much followed Prince Harry throughout his entire life, constantly taking pictures and reporting on every important event.

Prince Harry had the added tragic experience of losing his beloved mother, Princess Diana, when he was only 12 years old, and the unfortunate fact is that being chased by paparazzi cost Diana her life. It is really no surprise that at this point, Prince Harry is ready to step out of the limelight and fade into the background a bit.

Ever since exiting the royal family, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, certainly has not slowed down. She has made several virtual appearances and is making sure to stay in touch with the public. Lets discuss how Prince Harry doesnt have a problem with Meghan stealing the spotlight.

Living life in the public eye

Being a member of the royal family sounds like a dream  that is until someone actually has to do it! It certainly isnt all glitz and glamour like fairy tale stories make it out to be and is probably one of the most difficult jobs that anyone could ever have.

There has never been a time in Prince Harrys life when he wasnt in the public eye, from the time he was born right up to his life as a husband and father. In fact, Harpers Bazaar reports that the prince actually made his feelings about royal life quite clear, saying during an interview that he did not want his son having the same experiences that he did.

As we know, Baby Archie doesnt have a royal title at this time, and he hasnt been in front of the cameras too much, which is exactly the way Meghan and Prince Harry want things to be.

Prince Harry has previously said in another interview when there was a time before he met Meghan when he wanted out of the royal family.

Meghan continues to keep busy

RELATED: Meghan Markle Has Had a Big Style Change Since Leaving Royal Life

Meghan may no longer be able to use the title Her Royal Highness, but that doesnt mean that she hasnt been keeping as busy as possible. The duchess has always been a human rights activist, taking a stand for womens rights, and doing extensive charity work for causes that she believes in.

Now that Megxit is official, she hasnt been carrying out royal duties, but her schedule is jam-packed with the work that she loves to do. Meghan promoted a Disney+ documentary to which she lent her voice, and also spoke about current events going on in the world, something that she never would have been permitted to do if she were still required to abide by royal rules.

Prince Harry doesnt have a problem with Meghan Markle stealing the spotlight

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

So, is Prince Harry upset that Meghan is keeping herself in the spotlight? Not at all! He definitely doesnt have a problem with what his wife is doing, and he is making that well-known.

According to Best Life, Prince Harry wants nothing more than for Meghan to be happy. He knows that as they get established in LA, she will do what she is comfortable with, and he encourages that.

Meghan is taking control, doing what she is best at, and although it means that her star is shining a little brighter these days, Prince Harry supports her all the way.
(TNS)  For decades there has been a push to bring high-speed Internet service to all of Minnesota, but today about one in five rural Minnesota households still lack access.Its criminal we dont have high-speed Internet in rural areas, said Wes Gilbert of Mankato Computer Technology.I know rural businesses that could have (tech) solutions during this (pandemic) but they dont have the Internet speed.Nathan Stolt of Tech Connect in Mankato said it is a world of haves and have nots when it comes to what has become a near necessity of life.I dont think people in Mankato or St. Peter know how good they have it. You have a lot of these small communities  and not that far away  that dont have good Internet. The St. Clair, Janesville, Elysian areas, there are a lot of dead areas. You may only have one provider and it might not be a great option.Stolt said even those who have Internet may not have enough band width to handle the several computers and streaming devices many families have today.Literally, you cant get anything done without Internet these days, he said.Bill Coleman of Mahtomedi-base Technology Advisors Corp. has for 20 years worked with counties, communities, schools and others to improve Internet access.Were chasing something thats running very fast in front of us, he said of getting universal access.He said poor Internet speed is especially highlighted as people try to upload data.The states definition of and goal for high-speed broadband has been a 25 megabits download speed and 3 megabits upload.There are a variety of maps of the state, often based on information given by Internet provider companies, that show who has high-speed Internet and who doesnt. Coleman said the maps are often inaccurate.Theyre done by census blocks, which are many miles across. If one home in that block is served, the provider can claim that whole census block is served.He said there are companies now able to better measure who really has high-speed Internet. A current speed test is being conducted in northeast Minnesota.Their mapping in a very sophisticated way and they can show where service is and isnt despite what providers say. In many cases the service providers say theyre providing doesnt really exist, Coleman said.A lot of providers say they deliver 25 megs but its actually maybe 5. Depending on how the service is being delivered, customers living farther away from certain equipment will have a slower speed than advertised, and if copper wires or other equipment isnt good, it weakens speeds.Coleman said Internet service that has data caps is also a hindrance to rural customers who can burn through their data limit relatively quickly, particularly during the current pandemic when people are doing a lot of Zoom meetings and other online work.The deficiencies in the system are becoming very apparent in many places.One federal program Coleman is hopeful could provide a boost is the Rural Development Opportunity Fund, funded through the FCC.There is a total of $20 billion available and the money is to be distributed across the country using a reverse auction. That means Internet providers who show they can provide the most broadband for the lowest cost will qualify for the grants.The lower the speed (providers) promise, they get penalized. So the FCC is incenting the higher speed.It will be interesting to see the strategy of providers and how they bid and who gets these dollars, Coleman said.The first round of providers getting funds will be announced in January and the companies then have several years to build out the system in underserved areas.
As Shaude Moody pulled into the driveway of his Rosemont home just before 8 p.m. on a Tuesday in May 2019, a pair of Orlando police officers in an unmarked car rolled in behind him.

In seconds, both officers had Moody at gunpoint as he sat with his hands up in his Chrysler sedan. They said he had rolled through a stop sign, prompting the traffic stop, then reached down with his hand as the officers approached  making them fear he was going for a gun. Moody later said he was grabbing for his wallet.

This is how police shootings happen, Officer Brandon Tabaczynski remarked as he searched Moodys car, body-worn camera footage showed.

At least eight officers eventually arrived, but no weapon was found. A baggie of cocaine in Moodys pocket landed him in jail on a felony charge, but a judge later determined the officers had no legal basis for the search. Prosecutors dropped the case.

The Orlando criminal defense attorney who represented Moody, Roger Weeden, said the case exemplifies some of the pitfalls of proactive policing, a tactic that involves police maintaining a continual presence in high-crime areas, rather than waiting to respond to crimes.

A new effort organized by Weeden and local activists  dubbed the Resistance City Coalition  plans to seek an end to proactive policing, which critics argue leads to the overly aggressive enforcement of low-level crimes in minority communities.

The group has launched a website that includes their demands, and Weeden has reached out to the State Attorneys Office and the Orlando Police Department for investigations into the officers involved in Moodys case. He said the coalition will also hold community forums to discuss the issues.

The group, which includes members of the ACLU of Florida, Orlando Dream Defenders, National Lawyers Guild and Young Black Abolitionists, also plans to target pre-textual traffic stops, in which officers use a traffic offense to justify investigating potential unrelated crimes.

Story continues

Thats where our initial main focus is: to get these proactive cops out of neighborhoods, stop the racial terrorism thats related to these proactive cops, get undercover cops out of the neighborhoods, Weeden said.

Asked whether the Orlando Police Department would consider re-evaluating its proactive policing or other practices the coalition mentions on its website, spokeswoman Autumn Jones said Friday the group hadnt reached out to the agency, so its difficult to comment on their proposals.

In an email, Orange County Sheriffs Office spokeswoman Michelle Guido described proactive patrolling as a powerful tool in crime prevention.

Last year alone, OCSO deputies took 1,100 illegal guns off the street, and many of those were discovered during traffic stops, she said. Policing that leads to selective enforcement of the law based on race, gender, color or other characteristics is unlawful and will not be tolerated.

This is day-to-day life'

The coalition argues the tactics its targeting  including proactive policing, pretextual stops and pull-overs by officers in unmarked cars  disproportionately impact low-income neighborhoods and lend themselves to racial profiling.

Weeden noted the fear on Moodys face while he was being pulled from his car, which was recorded by an officers body-worn camera was an incredibly clear documentation of racial terrorism from overpolicing in neighborhoods.

The coalition attributes the killings of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man who died after an officer knelt on his neck during an arrest on suspicion of passing a counterfeit note, and Eric Garner, who died in a chokehold after police accused him of selling loose cigarettes, to pre-textual stops gone wrong.

Their fateful encounters with law enforcement began as stops on suspicion of minor infractions, and ended with their untimely deaths, the groups website says.

Kira Calvaresi, who helped organize the coalition, said activists have been calling for these changes for some time, but law enforcement agencies have done little but issue platitudes.

This is policy that [Orange Sheriff John] Mina can enact immediately, that [OPD Chief Orlando] Rolon can enact immediately, Calvaresi said. These are things that can be done without waiting.

Calvaresi was one of roughly 100 people who were arrested last month during protests in Orlando. The large majority  including Calvaresi  have since had their cases dropped.

Following the protests, Orlando police officers were asked in a survey conducted by their union whether the current climate towards Police Officers had caused them to cut back on proactive policing. Nearly 93% of the officers who responded said it had, and roughly half of those said they no longer performed any proactive policing.

In a comments section of the survey, some officers said they felt proactive policing carried more risk that they would be accused of misconduct, and that the department wouldnt have their back if they were scrutinized.

I feel that the benefit to proactively patrolling is in decline, one officer wrote. It now feels as though youre playing a game with your life, your family life and your future in the event that a suspect may force your hand into a response to resistance that may have a bad look.

Guido said the Sheriffs Office is constantly evaluating best practices in law enforcement from across the nation, and our policies and procedures shift and change as needed. She noted the agencys Citizen Advisory Board is evaluating the agencys use of force policy now.

Saul Marin, an Orlando activist with the group Young Black Abolitionists, said arrests like Moodys are nothing new in communities on the west side of Orlando, which the coalition argues are overpoliced.

This is just the example of whats going on every day in these neighborhoods, Marin said. In Parramore, on Mercy Drive, this is not out of the ordinary. This is day-to-day life for people.

Group: Put cops on Brady list

Officer Shawn Shaouni wrote in his report that he and Tabaczynski, his partner, turned on their lights and siren after Moody rolled through the stop sign at North Lane and Watch Hill Road. Moody pulled into his driveway on Cherokee Rose Drive and was told to roll down his windows.

Shaouni wrote that he saw Moody look directly over his right shoulder at me. At the same time, I saw the [defendants] left hand move quickly down towards his left side.

The officers held Moody at gunpoint for a few minutes until several more officers arrived, then pulled him out of the car.

Moody later said he didnt see the officers until they were in his driveway and didnt hear the siren. His wallet was found in his back left pocket; the cocaine was in his front pocket on the same side.

During the search of his car, the officers combed in between seats and in consoles and searched under floor mats. When nothing notable was discovered, Tabaczynski told another cop that he thought there would be a zero, police code for a weapon.

In Shaounis report and in court testimony, he and Tabaczynski claimed to have smelled burnt marijuana as Tabaczynski pulled Moody from his car. Shaouni wrote that Tabaczynski observed several small pieces of cannabis shake on the floorboard during the search.

Circuit Judge Jenifer Harris rejected that justification in a February order, noting that the officers were never heard mentioning a smell in footage recorded by their body-worn cameras.

Law enforcement never find the remnants of any burnt cannabis. There was no testimony of a blunt, a roach, or a vape, she wrote. Nor is there any indication within the footage that they searched for any remnants.

Harris barred the state from using the cocaine as evidence at trial. Prosecutors dropped the case two weeks later. The existence of body camera video, Weeden said, made it possible for me to get his case dismissed.

The activist group is also asking State Attorney Aramis Ayala to put Shaouni and Tabaczynski on her recently revealed list of cops with documented credibility concerns.

Ayala released an initial version of the Brady list earlier this month. Most of the dozens of officers on it had made headlines for a wide array of misconduct, but many also had already been fired, resigned or retired from local law enforcement agencies.

In a statement, Ayala said [p]reventing recurring witnesses who have issues with credibility, honesty or integrity from testifying should be the ultimate goal for all who are on a quest for justice.

Bottom line, we are balancing the need for expediency with the need for accuracy, she said.

tsheets@orlandosentinel.com



2020 The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.)

Visit The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.) at www.OrlandoSentinel.com

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Melbourne, 09 November 2020 - Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony (Chairman Man Hee Lee) stated that they will conduct its third group plasma donation starting on the 16th of November for 3 weeks. About 4,000 Shincheonji members are expected to participate in this plasma donation. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) made a request to Shincheonji Church of Jesus last month for 
At Saica's recent Leadership in a time of crisis series, actuary and innovator Dean Furman spoke about how the greatest innovation is created in tough times.

Dean Furman

Real-life examples of innovation through chaos

How to innovate

Focus on the client

Challenge the way you do things

Explore the world around you.

We may be going through challenging times, but that doesnt mean we need to become deflated or paralysed with uncertainty. In fact, many of the greatest business success stories began their journey during recessions, depressions and moments of chaos.As part of Saicas Leadership in a Time of Crisis series, actuary and innovator Dean Furman spoke about how we can all use this crisis as a catapult for creation and innovation.I have seen two diametrically opposed responses to this crisis, says Furman. Most people have been frightened into inaction, but some companies have really taken a step back, reset and considered how to take their company to a new level.Where there is a crisis, there is always an opportunity. And while Furman is aware of the sensitivities around Covid-19, and the need for empathy during this time, he also stresses that this can, and should be, a time for growth. Even if you have been majorly hit by the crisis, you need to have a response, he says. Often when chaos happens we retreat into ourselves, but its important to reset and spend time thinking how we can use this as an opportunity for growth or inspiration, he reminds us. When 90% of your competitors are standing still, theres a real opportunity to take that next step forward.As proof of this, Furman takes us through a few incredible case studies of companies or products that were born in times of chaos or depression.In 1929, people were lining the streets of the USA for food parcels, yet Walt Disney, who had just a few years prior to the Depression began dabbling in cartoons, filed the patent for Mickey Mouse. Just three years later, he bought the rights to Technicolor technology. For two years they were the only company in the world able to offer colour film. Today Disney is worth $180 billion  because they used the time during the Great Depression to turn themselves around and bring light and fun to the lives of many.Fast forward to Japan in the 1940s. It was a terrible time, to say the least, with a World War raging, and two atomic bombs being dropped. Yet Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita, who had met during the war while working on a missile system together, found a small bombed out retail shop and started tinkering with electronics. Their first item was an electronic rice cooker, then a heated cushion, neither of which were hits. But they didnt give up and since then Sony has created a number of world firsts while creating jobs for many people.The next major downturn was the Dot-com bubble, where IT stocks dropped by 75% over an 18-month period. It was during this time that Apple created a world first with their iPod. Launched in 2001, just after the crash, Apple has since sold hundreds of millions of this physical item, which is unheard of, and the technology they developed was the foundation of future products such as the iPad, iPhone and so on.Both of these companies (as well as others such as Whatsapp, Slack, Pinterest and Square) were founded during the Great Recession of 2007/2008. While Uber and AirBNB didnt necessarily plan this, the timing worked in their favour. With so many people looking for extra revenue, it suddenly made sense to turn your car into a taxi on the way home, or to get some extra cash for renting out your spare room, ideas that may have seemed crazy just a few months or years before. They may not have timed it this way, but if they hadnt carried on working on their big dreams, their great success never would have happened.Furman reminds us that companies get paid to create value for individuals, and to make peoples lives better. People are willing to pay you money for solutions that cater to their needs.And that is precisely why a crisis offers so much opportunity. Peoples needs have changed in a major way, he says. Their priorities have shifted, the way they operate on a daily basis has changed and as such, there are many opportunities for individuals and companies around the world to offer new services and solutions, or to offer existing solutions in different ways that cater to new needs.In light of this, Furman believes that there are three elements you need to consider, if you really want to innovate.You need to solve a real need, says Furman. For him, its one thing getting media attention, or creating something people think is cool, but it is way harder to create something that is going to create revenue and profitability. People dont pay you to be creative, they pay you to make their lives better, he reminds us.Your customers greatest complaints are your biggest opportunities for learning, growth and innovation, he adds. Listen to them, and consider how you can solve their problems and make their lives better, even in a small way.So many of my clients are on a hamster wheel, they are working flat out, and even though much of the stuff they are doing is nonsensical, they dont have time to assess and decide on better ways of doing things, says Furman. This moment is making the whole world challenge the way we operate, even from basic things like working at home. Use it to charter a new path towards growth, as the same way of doing things wont achieve the same results in this new world.People, and especially executives and leaders, are way too busy to really explore the world and see what the new possibilities are. Im astounded at how few top leaders in big organisations are aware of the tools available to them to improve their business, says Furman. There are so many new, enabling technologies. Think of anything you want to do, and there exists a technology to do that. You should be spending ongoing time every week learning about whats possible, as if you dont, youll become obsolete.Challenging times are undoubtedly a good time for action, for getting things done. You need to decide if you are going to be a victim of the circumstances, or use this as an opportunity for success, says Furman. Just like a catapult, the more you get pulled back, the further and faster you can go forward. This is your time to move forward.To help address the challenges faced by many, Saica hosted a complimentary virtual leadership series called Leadership in a time of crisis. This series focused on various elements affecting individuals, businesses and the accounting profession as a whole during the Covid-19 pandemic. Sessions in this series have been recorded and can be viewed on Saicas events page
The highly awaited Jagame Thandhiram's first single 'Rakita Rakita Rakita' is finally out. The song featuring Dhanush has been dropped by the makers of the movie to mark the special occasion of the actor's 37th birthday. The lyrical video song begins with festive music and takes us to the lead hero driving his convertible car as he chants his mantra of life 'Enna Vena Nadakkatum Sandhoshama Irupen' (Whatever Happens, I Will Remain Happy).

Though it is a lyrical video, the makers have clearly not disappointed the fans and followers as the actor's iconic shoulder dance step has been shown, which is undoubtedly one of the major highlights of the song. One can see Dhanush clad in white shirt and dhoti enjoying the Dappankuthu beat. Interestingly, he is sporting a handlebar moustache in the dance number. The lyrics of the song is catchy yet meaningful, especially now when people are going through a lot during the lockdown period, and reminds them to stay happy no matter what!

The song has been crooned by Dhanush himself along with Santhosh Narayanan and Dheekshitha Venkadeshan, popularly known as Dhee. For the unversed, the actor and Dhee have earlier collaborated for the 2018 film Maari 2's track 'Rowdy Baby', which became a hit across the world with more than 907 million views on YouTube. The movie marks the third collaboration of music director Santhosh Narayanan and Dhanush after Vada Chennai (2018) and Kodi (2016). The lyrics for the Tamil and Telugu versions have been penned by Vivek and Bhaskarabhatla respectively.

Coming back to 'Rakita Rakita Rakita', the song is also released in Telugu and is sung by Ananthu and Susha.

Coming back to the movie, Jagame Thandhiram was slated to release on May 1, but was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Bankrolled by Y NOT Studios, the action-thriller will feature Game of Thrones actor James Cosmo, Kalaiyarasan, Joju George, Aishwarya Lekshmi and Sanchana Natarajan. Touted to be a gangster drama set in London, the movie has camera cranked by Santosh Narayanan.

Jagame Thandhiram First Single Rakita Rakita Rakita Featuring Dhanush To Be Out Tomorrow!

RUMOUR HAS IT! Dhanush's Jagame Thandhiram To Get An OTT Release?
People close to the process cited several factors they believe have extended the search. The logistics of Biden interviewing the candidates, including the decision of whether to do so in person or via videoconference, has been complicated by the spread of the coronavirus, prompting campaign officials to have to weigh the risks and benefits of arranging candidate meetings remotely or in person.
University Challenge viewers rejoiced yesterday as the Open University beat Linacre College, Oxford on the BBC Two show.

The team from the Open University, who had an average age of 52, beat the post-graduate Oxford college 210 to 140 leaving fans overjoyed at the underdogs' win.

Oxford University is ranked number one in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and is notoriously hard to get into.

Meanwhile, most Open University courses don't have entry requirements and are designed for students of any age - many of whom work full-time alongside their studies.

The team from the Open University, who had an average age of 52, beat the post-graduate Oxford college 210 to 140 leaving fans overjoyed at the underdog's win. Pictured is the final shot of the two teams before the OU scored an extra 10 points in the last second

On last night's episode, the OU team, lead by engineering student Jill Taylor from Riddlesden, Yorkshire, answered questions on literature, composers and chemistry to advance to the second round of the show.

And viewers at home were very excited about the win, saying they were routing for the inclusive institution, which has more than 174,000 students making it the UK's largest University.

What questions did the Open University students answer and beat Linacre College, Oxford? 1. STARTER FOR TEN: What plural noun appears in the titles of a novel by E Nesbit, concerning Roberta, Peter and Phyllis? BONUSES ON COMPOSERS BURIED IN VIENNA (five points each) Name the composer based on the title of their work Question 2: The Hungarian Dances and the Symphony No. 1 in C Minor , the latter premiered in 1876 Question 3: Operas including Orfeo ed Euridice, Alceste and Iphigenie en Tauride. The last of these premiered in 1779 Question 4: Symphonies including The Little C Major and No 9 in C Major, known as the great, he died in 1828 PICTURE ROUND 5. STARTER FOR TEN: Name this city on a map of Italy BONUSES ON BOTANICAL GARDENS (five points each) Name the city this University Botanical Garden founded in the 16th Century is in Question6 Question 7

Question 8 9. STARTER FOR TEN: The surname of which British scientist is used as an alternative to the AMU or atomic mass unit? BONUSES OF SURREALISM (five points each) 10. Cat's Paradise, Cat Lady and The Fern Cat are among the works of which surrealist born in Catalonia in 1908? She created most of her work in Mexico City 11. A close friend of Remedios Varo in Mexico, which Lancashire born artist's creations include The House Opposite, The Giantess and the novel The Hearing Trumpet? 12. Varo's Vegetarian Vampires depicts figures drinking liquid through long straws from red flesh plant foods including a rose, a tomato and which large, succulent fruit of the gourd factory? 13. STARTER FOR TEN: Which six-letter adjective links all of the following: Firstly a 1904 novel by Henry James, secondly a flagship of Sir Francis Drake, formerly named the Pelican? BONUSES ON CHEMISTRY (five points each) 14. Discovered in 1965, the C60 molecule or buckyball is named after which US engineer born in 1895? 15. What term denotes the two-dimensional form of crystalline carbon that compromises a hexagonal lattice? 16. When Graphene is rolled up into a cylinder, the fullerene can be called a buckytube. What other term is also used, abbreviated to CNT? 17. STARTER FOR TEN: Developed during the Middle Ages and mentioned, for example, in Milton's Poem L'Allergo, the rebec is generally held to be a forerunner of which modern musical instrument? BONUSES ON FINE ARTS AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS (five points each) 18. Firstly, what stringed instrument appears in painting by both Artemisia Gentileschi and Frans Hals, played by St Cecila and jester respectively? 19. Who painted the 1894 work, The Mozart Sonata, in which her daughter Julie Manet plays the violin? 20. Painted in about 1910, Violin and Palette and Piano and Mandola are works by which French cubist? Advertisement

'Watching the Open University beat Oxford on #UniversityChallenge has brought me so much joy tonight!' one Twitter user wrote.

'Superb win by Open University, well played Linacre College Oxford, thoroughly enjoyed watching, thank you Jezza,' added another, referring to the host Jeremy Paxman.

On last night's episode, the OU team lead by engineering student Jill Taylor (second right) from Riddlesden, Yorkshire, answered questions on literature, composers and chemistry to advance to the second round of the show

Viewers at home were very excited about the win, saying they were routing for the inclusive institution, which has more than 174,000 students making it the UK's largest University

'Nice to see the Open University smashing an Oxford College. There's no substitute for life experience,' commented a third.

'I love the Open University!' said another.

Others praised the programme for including mature students.

While the Open team had an average age of 52, the Linacre were also older than most students at an average age of 27.

Linacre, one of the newer Oxford colleges founded in 1962 is only for post-graduate students and has a student body of around 500.

'#UniversityChallenge Open doing it for the Mature student,' one wrote.

Another added: 'Once again urging everyone to remember that mature students are students too, and deserve their spot on #UniversityChallenge as much as anyone else!

While the Open team had an average age of 52, the Linacre were also older than most students at an average age of 27. The team was lead by James King (second right) from Hampshire who is studying for a PhD in Climate science

Many praised the programme for including mature students in its line-up, as the team's had an average age of 39.5 between them

'Fascinating episode of University Challenge on Monday. Despite an average age of over 50,' commented a third.

'Open University enjoyed a superb win!' wrote another.

The Open University was granted Royal charter in 1969 and was the brainchild of the social reformer Michael Young, who convinced Labour Prime Minster Harold Wilson that, through TV and radio state-sponsored correspondence courses, a brand new university would provide an opportunity for those, who, have not been able to take advantage of higher education.

Wilson made the OU his pet project, defended it from the doubters and was on hand for its first academic meeting in July 1969.
NEW YORK, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Financial advisors seeking nationally recognized fiduciary designations can now take required exams safely online via a new remote proctoring exam launched this month through Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.'s (NYSE: BR) Fi360 fiduciary education training and technology business. Partnering with ProctorU, an online 24/7 proctoring and identity management solution, Fi360 will administer remote proctoring exams for its Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF) and Professional Plan Consultant (PPC) Designations.

Given the recent implementation of Regulation Best Interest, Broadridge identified the need for technology-based solutions for financial professionals looking to receive proper designations while abiding by stay-at-home and social distancing mandates.

"The need for advisor designations and certification exams did not cease when we moved to a virtual world, forcing us to re-examine the proctoring process for clients," said Michael Muirhead, AIF, PPC, senior director, learning and development at Broadridge's Fi360. "Through remote proctoring, clients can now take the certification exams from the safety of their home and meet ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) standards for an independently accredited designation. We believe that online proctoring may become the new gold standard as we return to a new normal."

The remote proctoring solution seamlessly interfaces with Fi360's existing designation exam, creating an easy, intuitive user experience for each advisor. ProctorU has administered over five million proctor exams for over 1,000 clients through a human-technology hybrid solution, which combines live observation of the participant being proctored with sophisticated artificial intelligence capabilities and features.

For more information on this solution, as well as Fi360's other offerings and designations for fiduciary-minded advisors and financial professionals, please visit www.Fi360.com.

About Fi360

Fi360, a Broadridge Company, is a fiduciary education, training and technology company that helps financial intermediaries use prudent fiduciary practices to profitably gather, grow and protect investors' assets. Since 1999, the firm has provided financial professionals with the tools necessary to act as a fiduciary in their work with investors. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, Fi360 is the home of the Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF) designation, the Fiduciary Focus Toolkit and the Fi360 Fiduciary Score. Fi360 is also the parent company of CEFEX and was acquired by Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR), a global Fintech leader and part of the S&P 500 Index, in 2019. Learn more at www.Fi360.com , via Twitter or on LinkedIn .

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 percent of public companies and mutual funds globally, and processes on average more than U.S. $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 full-time associates in 18 countries. For more information about Broadridge, please visit www.broadridge.com .

About ProctorU

ProctorU provides a full suite of online proctoring and identity management solutions for education, professional development and credentialing organizations. With patented, 24/7 live proctoring and a fully automated platform, both backed by artificial intelligence, ProctorU offers a powerful, convenient and cost-effective alternative to physical test centers. ProctorU increases access to online learning while ensuring exam integrity and accountability for any test-taker. ProctorU.com

Media contact:

Matthew Luongo

Prosek Partners

+1 646-818-9279

[email protected]

SOURCE Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.broadridge.com


MADRID  Spains prime minister said Britain had made an error by imposing a quarantine on everyone arriving from his country, a decision that blindsided British holidaymakers and has dealt another serious blow to Spains crippled tourism industry.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, in an interview with the news outlet Telecinco on Monday night, also said that Britain should have taken into account the strong regional divergences in the uptick in Spains coronavirus cases, rather than instituting a blanket quarantine order. Since the infection rates in some regions of Spain are lower than that in Britain, he argued, it was safer for British tourists to visit those areas than it would have been to stay home.

More countries have begun issuing travel warnings for Spain. The German foreign ministry on Tuesday warned against travel to three northeastern regions  Aragon, Catalonia and Navarra  that have all seen upticks in Covid-19 cases. On Monday, the Dutch government urged its citizens to avoid nonessential travel to Barcelona, Spains second-largest city and the capital of Catalonia.

Simon Clarke, a junior minister in the British government, was quick to defend the quarantine rule.

We dont agree with that assessment, Mr. Clarke told Sky on Tuesday in response to Mr. Sanchezs comments, adding that Britains travel advice was guided by science. Obviously we continue to work very closely with the Spanish authorities and wish them every success in getting this situation under control as quickly as possible.
Regional Brands Will Now Have Access to SweeGen's Scalable Zero-calorie Rebs D, E, and M.

Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., July 28, 2020announced Food Standards Australia, New Zealandas a food additive, stated in Application A1183, published on July 28, 2020.

Under the Food Standards Code, FSANZ has approved a new specification for the steviol glycoside Rebaudioside E, produced by SweeGen's proprietary stevia leaf-based bioconversion process. This decision builds on previous approvals by FSANZ in 2019 for SweeGen's Bestevia Rebs D and M.

"The approval comes at a great time because brands want access to the best tasting non-GMO zero-calorie stevia sweeteners available to satisfy consumers without compromising taste. The region now joins North America in regulatory status, where SweeGen's Rebs D, E and M are highly sought-after scalable stevia sweeteners. The sensory performance and taste are dynamic, and classified in the industry as 'next generation' stevia sweeteners," said Lewis Tessarolo, senior director of business development, Asia-Pacific.

With this new approval, food and beverage manufacturers in the region now have greater access to SweeGen's Bestevia e+ Taste Solutions portfolio. This exclusive taste and sweetener platform offers sugar reduction solutions for applications across the spectrum, including beverages,dairy, confectionery, bakeryand sauces.Bestevia e+ Taste Solutions deliver one of the industry's most cost-efficient, great tasting, and complete solutions for reducing sugar.

"Achieving FSANZ approval for Rebaudioside E shows our clear commitment to delivering a wide range of sweetness and taste solutions for customers in the region," said Tessarolo. "With the growing health awareness among consumers, coupled with government health initiatives to curb obesity and diabetes, SweeGen can help brands obtain the sugar reduction they need."

SweeGen continues to focus on application technology, taste modulation expertiseand regional consumer trends in order to meet the high demand for unique sugar reduction solutions in the nature-based sweetener space.

Bestevia is a registered trademark of SweeGen Inc.

About SweeGen

SweeGen, Inc., is a sugar reduction solutions company dedicated to the development, production and distribution of zero-calorie stevia sweeteners for the food, flavor and beverage industries.

SweeGen's robust product pipeline, intellectual property portfolio, dedicated manufacturing capacity and R&D provide the foundation for innovation and delivery of high-quality sweeteners. For more information please contact info@sweegen.com and visit SweeGen's website, www.sweegen.com.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, among other statements, statements regarding the future prospects for Rebs, B, D, E and M stevia leaf sweeteners. These statements are based on current expectations, but are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and are beyond the control of SweeGen, Inc.

Relevant risks and uncertainties include those referenced in the historic filings of SweeGen, Inc. with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements, and therefore should be carefully considered. SweeGen, Inc. assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events or developments.

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Attachments
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One as he travels to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, at Morristown Municipal Airport, in Morristown, U.S., July 26, 2020.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration plans to allow so-called 'Dreamer' immigrants to renew deportation protections for a year while it reviews a Supreme Court ruling, a senior administration official said on Tuesday.

The administration is preparing a fresh attempt to end the program that shields from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the United States illegally after entering as children - a group often called 'Dreamers.'

The review follows the court ruling last month that found the administration had erred in the way that it had decided to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2017. DACA was put in place by former President Barack Obama and currently some 644,000 immigrants are enrolled.

The administration plans to continue its existing policy of not accepting new DACA applicants, a policy in place since 2017, the official told Reuters. But the administration will extend the eligibility by a year for those DACA immigrants whose protection from deportation was due to expire, as long as they do not have a criminal record, the official said.

"For anyone who refiles, if they are eligible and were set to expire, we will renew them on a case by case basis into the next year for an extension," the official said.

The decision means the program will remain in place through the Nov. 3 presidential election, in which Trump is fighting for a second term against Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump has made his hardline stance on both legal and illegal immigration a central platform of his presidency and his 2020 re-election campaign, but DACA is a complicated issue for him because of increasing public support of the program.

A February Reuters/Ipsos poll found 64% of U.S. adult respondents supported DACA's core tenets. A similar December 2014 poll found that 47% of U.S. adults supported DACA.

The Supreme Court left the door open for Trump to attempt again to rescind the program, ruling only that the administration had not met procedural requirements and its actions were "arbitrary and capricious" under a federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act.

The administration is due to file paperwork with the district court in Maryland on Tuesday clarifying its plan.

The decision to not accept new applications will likely face more legal challenges.

The official said the administration will conduct "an exhaustive review" of the memos that the administration initially used to justify the winding down of the program.

"We're going to review all of that and all the underlying communications that informed those documents, so that when the administration next acts on DACA, it will be anchored on this comprehensive review," the official said.

The official said it was unclear how long the review would take.

Trump, in an interview with Noticias Telemundo earlier this month, said he would soon unveil an immigration measure that he said would include some protections for DACA.

"We're working out the legal complexities right now, but I'm going to be signing a very major immigration bill as an executive order, which the Supreme Court now, because of the DACA decision, has given me the power to do that," Trump said.
Two members of MI6 staff made an "inappropriate" attempt to intervene in legal proceedings involving two human rights organisations based in Northern Ireland, the head of a specialist tribunal has said

Two members of MI6 staff made an "inappropriate" attempt to intervene in legal proceedings involving two human rights organisations based in Northern Ireland, the head of a specialist tribunal has said.

They called the secretary to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), which investigates complaints about Government intelligence agencies, and raised concern about reports provided to judges by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office (IPCO), which authorises the use of investigatory powers by intelligence agencies.

IPT president Lord Justice Singh described what happened as "inappropriate" said an MI6 official had written to apologise.

Detail of the call, and subsequent correspondence, emerged at an IPT hearing in London yesterday. Four human rights groups - the Belfast-based Committee on the Administration of Justice, the Pat Finucane Centre in Londonderry, Privacy International and Reprieve - are involved in litigation with the Foreign Office, Home Office, Government Communications Headquarters, MI5 and MI6.

Last year the four groups asked the IPT to rule that a policy which allows MI5 to authorise informants to commit serious criminal offences was unlawful.

In December, the IPT ruled against them, and the four groups are challenging that decision in the Court of Appeal.

They also want an IPT ruling on how the tribunal's requests for information from IPCO should be dealt with.

Two MI6 staff contacted the IPT secretary in March 2019, Lord Justice Singh said. They said "various inspection reports" given to the IPT by IPCO should not have been provided and added that MI6 had "concerns on relation to the material".

The IPT secretary wrote to MI6 saying it was "inappropriate" for MI6 to seek to intervene in ongoing legal proceedings in such a way, and an MI6 official had apologised for "any misunderstanding".

"The direct communication which took place with the tribunal was inappropriate," said Lord Justice Singh at yesterday's hearing. An apology was given and it was clearly recognised that nothing like this should happen in the future. Everyone now recognises that something had gone wrong."

Reprieve director Maya Foa said: "MI6 was right to apologise." Reprieve later released, with the approval of the IPT, redacted copies of letters exchanged between the IPT and MI6, which is also known as the Secret Intelligence Service.
Cape May County health officials reported five new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, including three that are non-county residents. To date, the county has reported 964 cases and 81 deaths.



Cape May County government is taking steps to reduce its expenditures during these unsure times, according to news released Tuesday by the Cape May County Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Those changes include a 10 percent reduction through the end of this budget year for operating expenses and capital budget items. All new bonding for capital projects has been tabled. There has also been a general moratorium on uncommenced hiring, the Freeholders said.

County government is taking these steps to ensure it continues in good financial footing. COVID-19 shut down many businesses in the state for months and forced many to make tough decisions, the Freeholders said.

Cape May County remains on solid financial footing currently.



Gov. Phil Murphy added three more states, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to the growing travel advisory list. All individuals traveling to New Jersey from the listed states, that are seeing a significant spread of COVID-19, should quarantine for 14 days. The three additional states include Illinois, Kentucky and Minnesota. The travel advisory is a partnership between New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. To see a full list of states, click here.



Two Hamilton Township men, a 57-year old and another of unknown age, are the latest fatalities attributed to complications of Covid-19, according to the Atlantic County Division of Public Health.

County health officials also reported 31 additional residents were confirmed positive for Covid-19 today, according to Atlantic County public health officials. They included 21 males, ages 11 months to 79 years, and 10 females, ages 1 year to 73 years.

Nine of the new cases were found in Pleasantville, seven in Atlantic City and three each in Egg Harbor Township, Galloway and Hammonton. The following towns each had one new case: Absecon, Buena Vista Township, Egg Harbor City, Hamilton Township, Linwood and Ventnor.

Todays cases bring the countywide total to 3,449 residents who have tested positive for Covid-19, with 1,911 who have been cleared as recovered and 231 who have died.

Atlantic County will continue to provide Covid-19 testing at its drive-thru facility in Northfield at Rt. 9 and Dolphin Avenue, behind the county public works yard. The test site is now available for both symptomatic and asymptomatic county residents with or without a doctors prescription. Residents must make an appointment for testing and provide proof of county residency and appointment confirmation.



The New Jersey Department of Corrections has launched Phase 2 of its universal COVID-19 testing initiative for inmates and staff who previously tested negative, according to a news release.

Approximately 10,600 FDA-approved Rutgers saliva tests are administered by Rutgers University Correctional Healthcare and the NJDOC Special Operations Group once weekly for an indefinite period of time for staff and a 28-day cycle for inmates, at which point testing will be re-evaluated, officials said.

Weve made great strides managing the virus with the implementation of the states largest testing initiative, in concert with the Departments virus mitigation strategies, that include, for example, masking, temperature checks and modifications to group activities, said Commissioner Marcus O. Hicks, Esq. Testing is a game-changer, with Phase 2 informing how and when we resume certain activities, such as visitation, classroom instruction, worship services and psychoeducational groups in a way thats safe for all involved.

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The Department has approximately 29,000 test results to date that includes about 5,700 retests of inmates with results informing the placement of positive cases within its system, officials said. At the height of the pandemic, there were more than 800 cases of COVID-19 across NJDOC facilities; today, there are less than 30.

Announcements on the resumption of select activities, such as visitation, will be made available on the agencys website, www.njdoc.gov.



Join Together Atlantic County and Atlantic Prevention Resources will be hosting two free 15-minute "Child Break" webinars via Zoom.

The webinars, in collaboration with Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey, will take place 7 p.m. Thursday and 2 p.m. Aug. 5, according to a news release.

They will be a one-hour interactive, multimedia webinar that will inform, encourage and empower you to effectively communicate with children about the danger of drugs and alcohol, officials said. Parents, grandparents, caregivers and those working with children are encouraged to participate.

"During the COVID-19 pandemic it's more important than ever to communicate with the children in our lives, and to empower those who have children," according to the release. "The webinar will cover underage drinking, marijuana use, opioids and prescription drugs, vaping trends, tips for effectively talking to children and teens about healthy decisions, helping children manage stress, and utilizing teachable moments."

Parents who talk to their children about their activities an average of 15 minutes a day have children who are 67% less likely to try marijuana," according to the release.

To register for Thursday's webinar, visit http://createsend.com/t/y-DADD561DFD9DC97C . To register for the August 5 webinar please visit http://createsend.com/t/y-A8F7F58BE2A5DE58.



Cape Regional Health System received a $1,500 donation from Bob Noel's State Farm Agency, located in Cape May Court House.

The donation has been designated for Cape Regional's COVID-19 Relief Fund established in early April to support the Health System's ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The outpouring of support by the Cape May County community has been such an inspiration to our team," said Tom Piratzky, Cape Regional Foundation's executive director. "We want to express our gratitude to Bob Noel and his team for their financial and community support during these unprecedented times."

For more information on the Cape Regional Foundation or how to support the Cape Regional COVID-19 Relief Fund, call Piratzky at 609-463-4042 or visit www.caperegional.com/foundation/covid19-fund



Gov. Phil Murphy is scheduled to make an announcement at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

The details of the announcement were not disclosed, but he is set to make it at A-List Hair Studio, 2140 US-130, North Brunswick.

So far, Atlantic County has reported 3,418 cases with 229 deaths and 1,911 cleared as recovered. Cape May County has reported 959 cases with 81 deaths and 723 designated off quarantine. Cumberland County has reported 2,675 cases with 144 deaths.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only 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.

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.
MBABANE- No liSwati has made the cut in the top 50 finalists of the 2020 Africas Business Heroes (ABH) Competition organised by the Jack Ma Foundations Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative (ANPI).

Jack Ma is a Chinese business magnate, investor and philanthropist.



In April this year, this publication reported that applications were open to African entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries including Eswatini, as well as every sector, age group, and gender.

The ABH prize competition and show is organised by the Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative (ANPI), which is the Jack Ma Foundations flagship philanthropic programme in the continent.



According to a correspondence copied to this publication yesterday, the 50 finalists were selected from over 22 000 applications all over Africa, representing 21 African countries. Half are female, and work in 18 sectors like agriculture, AI, e-commerce, fashion, healthcare, renewable energy, ICT, logistics, manufacturing, management services, retail and transportation.

The 2020 top 50 finalists come from Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote dIvoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.



The number of emaSwati who had shown interest could not be immediately ascertained but reports suggested there were local applications.

Eswatini and Lesotho are the only countries to miss out in the five-member Southern African Customs Union region comprising South Africa, Namibia and Botswana.

Finalists will advance to the next round of selection and will participate in an exclusive virtual boot camp today.



Journey



The selected entrepreneurs will continue their journey in the competition, for a chance to become one of the 10 entrepreneurs that will compete in the grand finale later this year.

The average age of the cohort is 37 with the youngest candidate aged 22 and the eldest aged 64. At least 50 per cent of the candidates are female  a 24 per cent increase from the debut competition last year, and 32 per cent are francophone, reflecting this years competition opening applications in French for the first time, reads the correspondence in part.

Over the past month, a panel of 140 highly skilled and experienced judges are said to have reviewed the submissions, evaluating applicants leadership and vision, their ability to translate their innovations and ideas into sustainable and robust business models, and their commitment to create positive impact to uplift their communities.

Judges, whose unrivalled knowledge and industry expertise has brought immense added value to the selection process, represented a variety of key sectors in Africa, such as agriculture, tech, retail and e-commerce, education, healthcare, finance, logistics, and tourism.



Before stepping into the second round of selection, which will determine the top 20 finalists, the 50 selected entrepreneurs will be invited to join an exclusive virtual boot camp hosted by the Africas Business Heroes team, further reads the correspondence.

Generation

ABH aims to identify, support and inspire the next generation of African entrepreneurs who are making a difference in their local communities, working to solve the most pressing problems, and building a more sustainable and inclusive economy for the future.



This year marks the second edition after a successful launch in 2019. Every year, 10 finalists will be selected to compete in a finale pitch competition show that will be broadcast online and across the continent.

According to the correspondence, at this years grand finale, all 10 finalists will share a prize pool of US$1.5 million (about E24.7 million in yesterdays exchange rate)

The selected countries: Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote dIvoire, DR Congo, Egypt,,Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia , Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.










Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 15:58:14|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- More than three million students in China will be pursuing their master's degree in 2020, a humongous rise from 629 in 1949.

China has established a subject system with 111 first-class disciplines and 47 professional degree categories, basically covering all fields of national economic and social development.

In 1990, only 19.6 percent of full-time teachers in China's colleges and universities had a master's degree, while the number has reached 64.1 percent in 2020.

In addition, the system of classified training for graduate students pursuing academic and professional degrees has rapidly improved, and the enrollment in master's degree courses has increased from less than 590,000 in 2012 to more than 1.1 million in 2020.

As of 2019, 52 countries and regions had signed agreements with China on mutual recognition of academic degrees. Enditem
A look at the shareholders of Mind Gym plc (LON:MIND) can tell us which group is most powerful. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies. Warren Buffett said that he likes "a business with enduring competitive advantages that is run by able and owner-oriented people." So it's nice to see some insider ownership, because it may suggest that management is owner-oriented.

With a market capitalization of UK95m, Mind Gym is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about Mind Gym.

Check out our latest analysis for Mind Gym

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Mind Gym?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Mind Gym. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Mind Gym's earnings history, below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Mind Gym. Our data suggests that Mark Bailey, who is also the company's President, holds the most number of shares at 9.1%. When an insider holds a sizeable amount of a company's stock, investors consider it as a positive sign because it suggests that insiders are willing to have their wealth tied up in the future of the company. With 7.4% and 6.7% of the shares outstanding respectively, Liontrust Investment Partners LLP and BlackRock, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders.

Story continues

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 21 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no one share holder has a majority.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of Mind Gym

The definition of company insiders can be subjective, and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

I can report that insiders do own shares in Mind Gym plc. In their own names, insiders own UK8.6m worth of stock in the UK95m company. This shows at least some alignment, but I usually like to see larger insider holdings. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, mostly retail investors, hold a substantial 58% stake in MIND, suggesting it is a fairly popular stock. This level of ownership gives retail investors the power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too.

I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow, for free.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

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.



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Antibodies specific to the Ebola virus were detected in the blood of survivors two years after they had contracted the illness

A group of French scientists has analyzed the aftereffects of the Ebola virus on survivors. Their research revealed heightened levels of immunitary and inflammatory markers in survivors' blood two years after contracting the illness.

West Africa was hit by an Ebola epidemic between 2013 to 2016, which brought about 28,000 infections and 11,000 deaths. The virus, which is principally transmitted bodily fluids, causes diarrhea, vomiting and hemorrhagic fevers.

While persistent clinical signs have been identified in former Ebola patients (generalized fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, vision problems), we still don't know much about the long-term health consequences for people who survived the virus.

In order to learn more, scientists at the Guinea's Center for Research in Infectious Diseases (CERFIG) brought together a cohort of 802 survivors ("PostEboGui") in collaboration with France's Inserm and Development and Research Institutes (IRD).

The new study, published in Nature Communications, was directed by researchers from Inserm and Paris-Est Creteil University. Blood samples from 35 patients from the PostEboGui group were examined to study their immuno-inflammatory profiles an average of two years after recovery.

Compared to the people in the control group, who had never been infected with Ebola, the formerly ill participants showed high levels of inflammatory markers, which can explain the persistence of certain symptoms. Another important finding was the presence of IgG antibodies specific to the Ebola virus, which suggests long-term immune activity.

While the Ebola epidemic has ended in West Africa, the virus is still ravaging the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a new cohort of survivors is currently being assembled. This group should help confirm the results relating to the immune profile of the survivors studied in the Inserm study.

The Ebola epidemic may have helped certain African nations affected by the virus to better prepare themselves for the covid-19 pandemic. Certain countries locked down their populations right in phase 1 of the epidemic; for instance, Uganda closed its airport two days after the first case of covid-19 was confirmed in its territory.
A number of New York & Company stores are closing.

New York & Company stores at the Harrisburg Mall in Swatara Township, the Capital City Mall in Lower Allen Township and at the Shoppes at Susquehanna Marketplace in Susquehanna Township are closing, according to signs at each of the three stores.

Signs at the store said STORE CLOSING, EVERYTHING ON SALE and EVERYTHING MUST GO!

New York & Companys parent company, RTW Retailwinds Inc. filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey on July 13.

Chapter 11 provides businesses or large investors with protection from creditors while they continue operating and develop a repayment plan. Both creditors and owners must agree on a reorganization plan, which ultimately must be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge.

The company said at this month it expected to close a significant portion, if not all, of its brick-and-mortar stores. Store employees at 10 stores told NJ.com that every New York & Company store is closing although a company spokesman declined to confirmed that to the website.

RTW Retailwinds operates approximately 378 retail and outlet locations in 32 states. The company owns New York & Company, Fashion to Figure, and Happy x Nature. There are 25 New York & Company stores in Pennsylvania, according to the company website.

New York & Company stores are also closing at the Park City Center in Lancaster and at The Shops @Rockvale in East Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, according to an LNP report.

New York & Company was founded in 1918 and sells womens clothing and accessories.

The store at the Capital City Mall is next to Embellas and Build-A-Bear and is on the same side of the mall as a Justice store that is also closing. Also at the mall, a Yankee Candle store is expect open on Friday, according to a sign at the store.

The store at the Harrisburg Mall is between Bath & Body Works and a vacant store space and is near Macys, which is closing.

The store at the Shoppes at Susquehanna is on the same side as Romanos Macaroni Grill. Elsewhere at the shopping center, Sephora and Pure Barre have recently opened.

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The Prime Minister (left) yesterday announced plans to scrap all Covid restrictions by the spring as the Omicron wave continued to recede, with Covid cases, deaths and hospitalisations all down on last week. While measures such as Covid passports and compulsory face masks are to be dropped from next Thursday, staff are being encouraged back to offices and other workplaces immediately. Within minutes of his announcement, civil servants were told via a Cabinet Office email that they should being to return to work, with other departments expected to communicate similar memos today. There are no plans for targets, however, on how many staff are back at desks and how many days a week they are expected to be in the office. The PM insisted the move was vital for younger workers in particular, who would struggle to build up the necessary skills, experience and networks from home. Mr Johnson said that 'across Whitehall, we need to show a lead and make sure that we get back to work, everybody gets back to work'.
A museum being dedicated to the history of the Jacksonville area is moving ahead, and developers hope to have a preview day this year in advance of a 2021 opening.

Jacksonville Area Museum board Chairman David Blanchette said volunteers have been working on the building  a historic former post office at 301 E. State St.  to clean and renovate it for exhibits.

Weve made remarkable progress, Blanchette said.

If state pandemic guidelines allow, the museum will be open Oct. 10 and will showcase three displays and two childrens activity exhibits.

The three displays will give people an idea of what the exhibits will look like, Blanchette said. My grandsons have tried the childrens station and I will say they are grandson-approved.

The museum eventually will showcase 10 to 12 exhibits at a time.

Blanchette said the board is negotiating with the MacMurray College Foundation to house the schools archival collection long term, though nothing has been finalized. The college closed at the end of the spring semester.

There is a lot of interest from both parties, but there is nothing official at this time, Blanchette said.

While the full opening is about a year off, Blanchette said the board is working with health officials and the Illinois Association of Museums to make sure the Jacksonville Area Museum follows all safety guidelines.

In addition to preparing the building, Blanchette said the board is in the process of establishing a not-for-profit organization that will take care of fund raising for the museum to help with future maintenance.

It will be the main way we sustain the museum, Blanchette said.
Indonesian police have charged four more people in connection with the alleged torturing to death of an Indonesian crew member found in a freezer aboard a Chinese fishing vessel, authorities said Monday. They were executives at Indonesian recruitment agencies which hire locals -- such as 20-year-old Hasan Apriadi, who died last month -- to work on Chinese ships, police said. A Chinese supervisor on the Lu Huang Yuan Yu 118 vessel has been charged in Apriadi's death and for assaulting other Indonesian crew. In all, six recruiting agency bosses are now facing human-trafficking charges, including allegations they lied to dozens of Indonesians placed aboard Chinese fishing vessels by saying that they would be working as waiters or staff in retail stores overseas, police said. "The suspects engaged in illegal recruitment and deceived the victims with false promises," said Arie Dharmanto, director of the general crimes unit for Indonesia's Riau Islands province. The suspects also face charges that they knowingly put the crew members at risk, and could be hit with a maximum life sentence if found guilty, according to police. Anti-trafficking experts say the fishing industry is riddled with forced labour and exploited workers face non-payment, overwork, violence and death. Southeast Asia is a major source of such labour and unscrupulous recruiters target the poor and uneducated with promises of good wages at sea. Earlier this month two Chinese boats were intercepted in the Malacca Strait, which separates Indonesia and Malaysia, after authorities received information that a crew member had died aboard one of the vessels. They later found Apriadi's frozen body on the vessel and arrested Chinese national Song Chuanyun. Authorities said that Song allegedly had forced the victim to work despite being ill. They said he tortured the Indonesian and deprived him of food or water for several days before he died in late June.
BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital in the city has reported a case of vertical transmission of Sars-Cov-2 virus which causes the Covid-19 infection, from a mother to her baby, which doctors claim is the first such case in the country.

The baby girl was delivered by the 22-year-old mother at the hospital on May 27.

Vertical transmission involves the passing of the virus from a female vector to her offspring, both males and females.

According to officials of the hospital, although the mother had tested negative for the virus in the RT-PCR test, the virus was detected in the babys nasopharyngeal swab, placenta and umbilical cord, which confirmed that the transmission was vertical.

Dr Aarti Kinikar, head, paediatric department, said, We had tested the mother for Sars-Cov-2 virus which causes the Covid-19 infection through RT-PCR and she had tested negative. The baby, however, started showing symptoms like fever, lethargy and other signs of Covid-19, along with abnormal blood tests suggesting severe inflammation. The baby required intensive care, but recovered completely over a period of three weeks.

The mother had a fever the day before the delivery and also signs of weakness which we presumed to be due to pregnancy, she said.

She further said, Although she tested negative for the virus, she did transmit the infection in the child. However, after four weeks when we did an antibodies test, there was evidence of Covid-19 infection by a strong antibody response. It is possible that she recovered on her own. This was a very challenging case for us.

Dr Kinikar added that such confirmed cases have been reported in some cases in China and one case in the UK.

Dr Murlidhar Tambe, dean, Sassoon General Hospital, said, This is the first case report of vertical transmission from India. I congratulate the faculty and team members from all the concerned departments who have worked hard to treat the baby and the mother.

In an official statement, the hospital stated that the impact of Covid-19 in pregnant women and babies is still not known to the full extent. Vertical infection is well documented in the Zika virus and HIV.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Bemoaning the killing, on Monday, of three migrants at the landing point of Khomes on the Libyan coast, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Tuesday called for an investigation into the killing
UN says nearly 1,300 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan since 2020 began

Iran Press TV

Monday, 27 July 2020 4:04 PM

Nearly 1,300 civilians, including a large group of children, have been killed in Afghanistan in the first six months of the year 2020, the United Nations says.

In a new report published on Monday, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said it had documented at least 1,282 civilian deaths from January to June, with another 2,176 people wounded in the same period.

The figures include 340 children killed and another 727 injured.

The report identified anti-government armed groups such as the Taliban and the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group as the main culprits, involved in 58 percent of the deaths.

Pro-government forces were responsible for the death or injury of 23 percent of civilians.

The UNAMA figures represent a 13-percent decline on the numbers of deaths and injuries reported during the same time period in 2019.

"The reality remains that Afghanistan continues to be one of the deadliest conflicts in the world for civilians," UNAMA said in its mid-year report.

The United Nations has warned of an alarming uptick in violence against civilians and a "striking deterioration" in upholding international humanitarian law in Afghanistan.

Violence has surged despite a deal between the Taliban and the United States. Official data shows that Taliban bombings and other assaults have increased 70 percent since the militant group signed the deal in February.

The Afghan government was a party neither to the negotiations nor to the deal, but it has been acting in accordance with its terms, including by agreeing to free Taliban prisoners.

However, the militants have not stopped attacking government targets and civilians.

The deal envisages a complete withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

The United States led a military coalition of its allies in 2001 to invade Afghanistan to topple a Taliban regime. Washington believed it was harboring the al-Qaeda terrorist group.

The militants now control or hold influence over more Afghan territory than at any point since that time and have carried out near-daily attacks against US-led foreign forces and Afghan military outposts throughout the country.

Over 100,000 people have been killed or injured since 2009, when the UN mission in Afghanistan began documenting casualties.

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ANN ARBOR, MI  Following a decision by the countys largest school district to begin the school year virtually, Washtenaw County teachers unions are urging their own local districts to do the same.

Education association presidents from all nine school districts in the county are asking their local districts to pause any potential plans for hybrid or in-person classes to begin the school year to allow time for federal and state governments to make school funding decisions, as well as give the state legislature time to answer the many unanswered questions posed to them.

We understand and appreciate that parents want their children to be in schools and taught by teachers, the letter signed by all nine education association presidents reads. We understand the economic insecurity that children being home creates, along with the challenges some learners face attempting to manage their lessons remotely. We too believe in-person, on-site teaching is best for most children.

Taking all these concerns together, however, teachers union representatives asked districts leaders and school board representatives to reflect on whether in-person instruction is worth the health risks imposed on the students, their families and school employees.

The union leadership laid out numerous unanswered questions regarding the coming school year, including how student learning hours will be defined if remote learning is implemented; whether seat waivers will be granted for students who opt to learn remotely and whether local districts will have enough money to fully implement safety guidelines from both the CDC and the governors office.

The letter also asks questions about how time off will be applied if a staff member is exposed to COVID-19 at school; how districts will implement student lunches in compliance with CDC guidelines and how buses will implement social distancing guidelines.

A lot of things really havent been articulated at this point, Saline Education Association President Brian Boze said. I think most districts are trying to evolve quickly, on the fly. Staff is just like the public  theres a lot of anxiousness about the whole process.

Ann Arbor Public Schools set the tone for the county and state last week when it announced plans to begin the year fully virtual.

A week earlier, Ann Arbor teachers expressed they did not yet feel safe enough returning to in-person classes, noting they would want to see 14 days with no new COVID-19 cases in the county before considering going back to face-to-face instruction.

With other districts in the county still collecting input from the community and working on Return to Learn Plans that are due Aug. 15, Boze said teachers believe the best path forward is to limit potential exposure risks while building off the foundation of remote learning that began this past spring.

Certainly, the experience in the spring was thrust on teachers with very little notice, Boze said. Every district has been doing a lot of professional development, streamlining their learning platforms so that parents can have a simpler time using those platforms for their children.

Our thought was to just wait and make a thoughtful choice, so that we can go into year with best foot forward.

Whitmore Lake Education Association President Patti Kobeck said teachers have a variety of concerns for the coming year, despite the relatively small number of COVID-19 cases that have been specific to the school district.

The majority of the districts teaching staff that have been surveyed are prepared to return to work during Phase 4 of the governors plan, but they are still anxious to see what the school district has planned for the coming year.

Teachers are worried specifically about their own health if we have people that have health concerns already, Kobeck said. They are also concerned about what they could bring home to their families.

READ MORE:

Starting the school year in virtual classrooms: Parents react to Ann Arbor Public Schools decision

Heres what virtual classes in Ann Arbor could look like for 2020-21 school year

Ann Arbor Public Schools plans fully virtual start to new school year

Jackson Public Schools approves hybrid plan that includes in-person classes
A Toronto Catholic District School Board trustee is calling on the board to suspend its participation in WE Charity events until it can conduct a review of its relationship with the embattled organization.

Markus de Domenico (Ward 2, Etobicoke) has drafted a motion asking the TCDSB, which represents more than 90,000 students in 196 schools across the city, to put its relationship with WE on hold until the board is reassured the current potential ethics issues with the charity are resolved.

The proposal, which will be debated at a TCDSB meeting Aug. 20, follows a similar push by a Toronto District School Board trustee to have that board, which is the largest in the country, review its relationship with WE.

In response to questions sent by the Star about the motions and its relationship with schools, WE Charity issued a statement saying that on July 24 it sent a letter to all its school board partners informing them it had decided to pro-actively pause the formal and public relationships between school boards and WE Charity.

According to the statement, the letter cited the unpredictable nature of media cycles and the undeterminable amount of time until this matter is fully addressed.

WE has come under intense public scrutiny after the Liberal government awarded it a sole-sourced contract to administer a $900-million student volunteer grant program. The organization would have earned a fee of up to $43.5 million through the contract, which has since been cancelled.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau have come under fire for failing to recuse themselves from the decision despite their families ties to the organization. The controversy is now the subject of a federal ethics probe and WEs founders, Craig and Marc Kielburger, were questioned about the contract at a parliamentary committee Tuesday.

In an interview, de Domenico said hes not concerned about the political controversy surrounding the charity, and instead his motion was prompted by media reports that have surfaced in the wake of the government controversy, such as those revealing valuable real estate holdings owned by WE and its affiliated organizations.

I think we have to show our families, our children and our parents, that if were going to in any way participate, partner, or endorse something, that were certain that it meets the standards of our Catholic board, he said.

We have to be very, very certain that were doing the right thing.

Craig Kielburger is a former student of the TCDSBs Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School in Scarborough.

WE listed the TCDSB as among its dozens of official educational partners on a section of its website that is no longer accessible. A spokesperson for the board didnt immediately respond to questions Tuesday about the nature of the TCDSBs relationship with WE, but de Domenico said he hoped his proposed review would shed light on the extent of the boards ties with the organization.

Students have long been central to the WE organizations activities. Through the WE Schools program, students who complete programs intended to tackle social injustice can earn a spot in the audience at WE Day, the charitys popular, celebrity-packed motivational events.

School boards arent the only organizations that are considering cutting ties with WE. On Tuesday the charity announced it had mutually agreed to end its corporate partnerships, after Royal Bank of Canada, Loblaw Companies Ltd., GoodLife Fitness and KPMG and others said they were severing links with the organization.

Ben Spurr is a Toronto-based reporter covering transportation for the Star. Reach him by email at bspurr@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurr
Police have arrested a 35-year-old woman in east Belfast after around 120k worth of drugs were discovered.

Detectives from the Paramilitary Crime Task Force carried out a search at a house in the Cregagh area on Tuesday.

The search followed the interception of a parcel by officers from Border Force.

Suspected cannabis with an estimated street value of approximately 120,000 was recovered as a result, police said.

The woman was arrested at the scene on suspicion of a number of offences including importation of a class B drug and possession of a class B drug and is currently in custody assisting police with their enquiries.

Detective Inspector Hamilton said: This is an excellent example of partnership working between the Police Service of Northern Ireland and our partners at Border Force.

"As a result of our collaboration we have removed a large quantity of illegal drugs from the streets and prevented untold damage being caused to individuals and the wider community.

"Drugs harm our communities and cause misery to those who take them and their wider family circle. We will continue to work with the public and our partner agencies to seize illegal drugs and to prosecute those responsible.



Anyone with information about any criminality linked to drugs should contact police on 101 or anonymously through the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111, which gives people the power to speak up and stop crime.
Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, said on Monday that the decision of the United Kingdom to advise against all non-essential trip to Spain was "unjust" from an epidemiological point of view. Sanchez has stressed that the Spanish government is in contact with the UK authorities in seeking a reconsideration.

"The decisions of the United Kingdom are being misaligned. Many territories (in Spain) have a cumulative incidence of contagion below the European average and also that of the UK."

The Spanish government is speaking with the UK government and wants the UK to reconsider this "unjust" decision from the point of view of epidemiological criteria, given a "very low" incidence in most of the country.

Sanchez emphasised the efforts made by the Spanish tourism industry in terms of health safety.
New Delhi, July 28 : Chief Justice S.A. Bobde on Tuesday came down heavily on the Uttar Pradesh administration saying the state has been suffering as someone with 64 cases was released on bail.

A bench comprising the Chief Justice, Justice A.S. Bopanna and Justice V. Ramasubramanian made this sharp observation refusing bail to man with 8 criminal cases.

The Chief Justice, citing the Vikas Dubey case, told the petitioner's counsel: "Your client is a dangerous man. We cannot release him on bail. See what happened in the other case." The petitioner sought bail on medical ground, as he was suffering from several diseases.

The prosecution pointed out there were 8 criminal cases against him at one police station, and contended before the bench that how a person with such a criminal background could be released from jail.

In the Vikas Dubey encounter case, the apex court had also asked the former apex court judge headed committee to examine how Dubey with so many cases was released on bail.

The UP government had informed the apex court that Dubey brutally massacred 8 policemen using 90 criminals of his gang and then mutilated their bodies. Dubey was serving a life sentence and he was out on parole when this massacre happened on July 2.

On July 20, the apex court had told the Uttar Pradesh government that it is appalled that Vikas Dubey was released on bail despite so many cases against him and this shows the failure of the institution to keep someone like him behind bars.

"If they have made certain statements and then something has followed, you should look into this," said the Chief Justice.

The bench said it is appalled at the fact that a person like Dubey was let out on bail, and this shows failure of an institution. "We want an accurate report of all the orders," added the Chief Justice.

The Chief Justice also added "What is at stake is not that one incident in UP. What is at stake is the whole system. Remember that." Senior advocate Harish Salve, representing UP police, had contended before the bench that "we can't demoralise the police force". Chief Justice Bobde said: "Strengthen the rule of law and police force won't ever be demoralised."
Ranvir's Tweets On July 22

Last week, the actor had tweeted, "I don't take any names cause I have no evidence to prove their complicity! But the reason I speak is, I went through the same professional & social isolation, bad-mouthing & lies in the press, and psychological trauma from 2003 to 2005 with the same people who are now involved. The despair I went through at the time was enough to break me, but I survived thanks to my family and a few friends. I even had to leave the country because of how toxic the environment got for me. Coincidence? No. Modus operandi? Yes."

Ranvir Reveals Details About The Public Fallout

Recalling the public fallout with the Bhatt family, Ranvir told Hindustan Times, "I went through a similar experience where I was professionally and socially isolated, equally pressured from all ends. Every chance and every platform they would get, they would be lying about me, saying I am an alcoholic and abuser. You feel so helpless and powerless because these people are so powerful that the press will just listen to them and not even bother calling you for your side of the story. You just feel so helpless and frustrated because you can't do anything about it. It got really toxic for me at the time and I had to leave the country for a while."

He added that nobody bothered to check the facts, "because a certain party is more powerful, famous and more friendly with the media. Only their version comes out. The facts and reality of the other person's story never comes out. The media is to blame for half of it." Ranvir revealed the fight for his place in the industry is still going on, when he came back he had to start from scratch. "I have done parts in films which thankfully got some attention and notice. But that is definitely no thanks to me being accepted by so-called mainstream biggies."

Ranvir On Sushant Singh Rajput

The actor also opened up about his Sonchiriya co-star Sushant Singh Rajput. He said, "Unfortunately, I don't know what was happening behind-the-scenes with him. But I do know that what has been mentioned, stuff like that can happen and does happen. I don't know if he was going through all this, that is for the investigators to find out."

Meanwhile, Mumbai police are currently investigating Sushant Singh Rajput's death by suicide and have recorded statements of over 35 people. According to reports, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt was also summoned to record his official statement and was snapped by the paparazzi earlier this week.
W e are finally making our way out of lockdown, and this time everyone hopes its for the last time.

While its an exciting prospect, faced with yet more changes and a touch back-to-the-office jitters, you might be feeling a little unsettled again.

In light of Mental Health Awareness Week this week, yogi Cat Meffan, founder of Soul Sanctuary, has shared some stress-soothing yin yoga poses to calm you down.

Yin yoga is a restorative practice which involves long-held stretches that allow the body to move deeper into each pose.

"It's a great way of checking in with yourself and engaging with your emotions, perfect for those days when we're feeling a little stressed or anxious," Meffan says.

Each pose is typically held for at least two minutes, though you can increase this to four minutes for more of a mental challenge. You can follow the below postures in any order but be sure to take time out to "rebound" in a neutral position - such as child's pose or savasana - for one minute in between each.

"We'll be working around the mandala (meaning circle) of the leg, checking in with the lower chakras," she explains. These are the muladhara (root chakra) which helps you feel grounded, safe, secure and supported; the svadishthana (sacral chakra) which is attached to the emotional body, relationships, sexuality, creativity and expression; and manipura (solar plexus chakra) which is connected to self-belief, personal power, confidence and self-esteem.

For best results try this 15-20 minute flow just before bed, you'll be zen'd out in no time.

Before you start

"I recommend lighting a candle, putting on a soothing playlist and remembering to enjoy these moments for yourself. Have some cushions and a block or two with you for this practice as it really helps to relax the body onto a support in certain postures, maybe even a blanket or bolster too.

"Start your practice by taking a few moments to arrive at and ground into your mat. This can be done in a simple seated position, roll the shoulders back, close your eyes, taking a big inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth."

Dangling Forward Fold

Photo courtesy of Cat Meffan

"This is one of the more active yin postures, so there will not only be energy flowing from a mental point of view, but your stabilising muscles will be working hard too. Allow gravity to do the work here, take hold of opposite elbows or just release the hands down onto the mat. Shift your weight towards the front of the feet, close your eyes and just breathe. It's as simple as that."

Shoelace

Photo courtesy of Cat Meffan

"Stack the knees on top of one another, with your bottom grounding into the mat. The closer the feet are to the body, the easier you'll find it. To challenge yourself more, wiggle the feet away from the body a little more. Either stay here, or take a forward fold and pop something under the forehead to rest on. This pose, like pigeon, can be triggering on the emotions. We're tapping into those lower three chakras throughout this whole practice. This is a good thing, I promise!"

Dragon

Photo courtesy of Cat Meffan

"This is another active yin pose as your stabilising muscles (core and glutes) will need to be switched on to keep you balanced. Come into a low lunge and then take the option of deepening the pose by bringing the back foot up towards the bum. From there if you're able to take it further, you can reach a hand around and take hold of the ankle to help draw the foot in further. If needed, pad under the supporting knee to make the experience more comfortable."

Frog

Photo courtesy of Cat Meffan

"This is my favourite hip opener, but one I know can be challenging for many people. Aim to find a 90 degree angle in the hips and knee and use as many props as you want underneath you so you can feel into a sense of restoration throughout your time here."
Recently, Kayleigh McEnany slams Hollywood for canceling 'Cops' and 'Live PD' in an attempt to wipe out cop shows. The White House press secretary expressed her disappointment in the cancellation of these cop-themed shows.

During a press conference on Friday, McEnany pointed out the growing liberalism of Hollywood that was felt when shows like Live PD and Cops were pulled off the air. She stressed in the press brief that US President Donald Trump seeks an end to the violent riots rocking parts of America.

"He's very keen on seeing the violence in our streets end. He wants to protect the people of this country when derelict Democrat mayors and governors do not. He's also appalled by cancel culture and cancel culture specifically as it pertains to cops," says McEnany, as quoted on Meaww.

McEnany added that all the violence threatening law-abiding citizens must end. She also addressed the cancel culture that repels Trump and the law enforcement officers who are merely doing their jobs. Cancel culture wrongly brands shows like Cops and Live PD, and even Lego's City Police Station is deemed unfit as a toy, so it's not sold according to Newsweek.

Furthermore, McEnany stressed that 63% of Americans disagrees for the call to defund police. The police force maintains law and order in the US, and many law-abiding citizens do not agree with the idea of defunding them.

This June, Cops got canceled by the Viacom CBS-owned Paramount Network, even if the show has been a success for the last three decades. A&E followed suit and ended Live PD, one show that has gotten consistently good ratings about real-time investigations in America. Even Nickelodeon's show Paw Patrol, a cartoon show, was targeted by forces against any portray of law enforcement.

Also read: Black Organizers Do Not Trust White Protestors in the Seattle Autonomous Zone

Hollywood and anti-cop attitudes

Regrettably, Hollywood is now following the misguided liberalism of the defund movement. Many celebrities have taken to support the mistaken agenda, including John Legend, Lizzo, Natalie Portman, and Susan Sarandon who were cajoled or misled to promote the slashing of police budgets all over America.

Breitbart had a story that celebs have been drawn in by the Breathe Act, this part of left-leaning organizations intent on defunding the police. They want the money to go to community projects instead.

In spite of this, some Hollywood actors are appealing to studios about this. Michael B. Jordan of Black Panther fame is collaborating with racial justice activist group Color of Change according to USA Today.

He made a speech at an organization espousing anti-police measures. Jordan said that all the connections to the brands, even to the whole system of film making, should cut ties to the police and reassess the business.

The actor suggested that private security is a better option for studios that are getting services from law enforcement.

'Insecure' fame Kendrick Sampson remarked to Variety that he got struck by a rubber bullet in a Los Angeles protest. He claimed after getting brutalized by police and other acts during a heated protest, he experienced trauma.

Related article: NYPD Cops Strike on July 4 to Let NYC Be 'Cop-Free' for Independence Day

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
China took over the premises after U.S. Marines in the southwestern city lowered the American flag that had been flying over the building.

Social media posts released by the U.S. embassy in Beijing and posted to Chinese microblogging giant Weibo and on Twitter noted that the consulate has been promoting the relations between the two peoples since 1985. "Today, we bid farewell to the US Consulate General in Chengdu. We will miss you forever."

The closure capped a dramatic escalation in recent weeks of tensions that began when China's Houston consulate was ordered to close and employees at the Chinese mission were seen burning documents in a courtyard. The United States accused the diplomatic facility of engaging in espionage and intellectual property theft.

In the decades since China and the U.S. established formal diplomatic relations, tensions have risen and fallen over a wide range of issues, and the worlds two largest economies have even come dangerously close to outright confrontation. Yet some observers say Monday's event puts the current bilateral relationship under more stress than at any time in recent history.

Yun Sun, a senior associate at the Stimson Center research organization in Washington, said that closure of consulates has never happened since the two countries established diplomatic relations. "In this sense, the relationship between the two sides has indeed deteriorated to an unprecedented level," Yun told VOA in a telephone interview.


Belgium is the latest country to add to the misery in Spain's Tourism Sector. The Belgian Government has recommended that its citizens do not visit Spain. The announcement comes hard on the heels of the British Government's 2 week mandatory quarantine on everyone arriving in the UK from Spain.

But Dr Fernando Simon, Director of the Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies, says theyre doing us all a favour.

"From a health point of view these decisions help us because it is a risk that they take away from us," he said.

He also pointed out that not all areas of Belgium or the UK are in the same situation regarding the transmission of coronavirus, nor are the different regions of Spain.

Around 100 imported Covid-19 cases are being detected every week and in the last two weeks 195 positive cases of coronavirus were registered in Spain from 140 flights.

Most of the 140 flights brought one infected person with them, but in some cases there were more. The flights that generated the most cases are those that came from the areas with the highest incidence of the virus, such as Latin America, the UK, Germany and France."

Dr Simon warned that coronavirus is still circulating around the World and in Europe, and that there are travellers who are boarding planes with symptoms.

"This can also happen with Spaniards who are travelling to other countries, so we call responsibility," he stressed.

Outbreaks

Dr Simon confirmed that there are currently 361 active coronavirus outbreaks in Spain, with 4,100 associated cases.

The outbreaks are occurring in several Autonomous Communities. The one in Castilla y Leon has produced other small clusters, but it is reported to be very much under control and there are currently no large Covid-19 outbreaks.

"There are outbreaks in all the Autonomous Communities and we must gradually control them," said Dr Simon, who warned that these clusters show that the virus is still circulating and we must not lower our guard."

He also said that the possibility of a second wave is being studied, but that what is being detected is different than in previous months and it is not possible to confirm whether a second wave of coronavirus has already begun.

"I don't think we are in a second wave, but it is difficult to assess," he admitted.
This year's Love Island winter contestant Shaughna Phillips has extended her holiday in Spain to get some extra sun and delay her 14-day quarantine, MailOnline has learned.

The reality TV star, 26, found herself caught up in the coronavirus chaos at the weekend while in the Costa del Sol as the government pulled its air bridge with the holiday hot spot following a spike in COVID-19 cases.

In an exclusive interview, the former democratic services officer expressed her concerns about the money worries and heartache the dramatic U-turn on isolation will cause tens of thousands of Britons.

EXCLUSIVE: 'Two-week quarantine? I'll get some extra sun!' Love Island's Shaughna Phillips has extended her holiday in Spain to get some extra sun and delay her 14-day quarantine

'Why can't people coming home from Spain be tested for the virus instead of locking them up for 14 days?', Shaughna told MailOnline.

The media personality added: 'For lots of people their holiday to Spain is the first they have been able to a break. But this has all been ruined by this abrupt change in the rules on travel.

'People's lives have been turned upside down and some are going to lose thousands of pounds in lost wages.'

The influencer, from south London, was on holiday with her mum Tracy in Marbella when she learned about the government rules requiring anyone returning from Spain to quarantine for 14 days.

The reality TV star, 26, found herself caught up in the coronavirus chaos at the weekend while in the Costa del Sol

Holiday fun: The media personality pictured with fellow Islanders (L-R) Amy Hart, Georgia Harrison, Rebecca Gormley and Biggs Chris at Olivia's La Cala in Malaga last week

She explained: 'I was due to return home on last Sunday [26th July]. But the night before, on Saturday, I started receiving messages from my aunt and my cousin about the new quarantine rules.

'I didn't hear anything from the airline, British Airways. There was nothing on their travel advice. The only information we were getting from the Daily Mail and Sky News.

Revealing her mother decided to return to the UK due to her pet, Shaughna elaborated: 'My mum had to go home because our dog  Dempsey, an Alapaha bulldog  was in kennels.

'But I only have only one face-to-face work commitment this week which has been postponed. And the rest of my work commitments can be done over the phone or via video link.

'People's lives have been turned upside down': In an exclusive interview, the democratic services officer expressed her concerns about issues the U-turn on isolation will cause

Separated: The influencer, from south London, was on holiday with her mum Tracy (pictured), who returned home as their dog was in kennels

'So I decided to stay for an extra week because I had nothing to rush back for. And so I thought if I have to quarantine for 14 days why not get a bit of extra sun.

'Sadly not everyone is as fortunate as me. Lots of people have cut their holidays short.

'And I want to question why we all have to go into quarantine when there are alternatives to keep the virus under control.'

The TV star urged the government to change their decision as she detailed: 'I've heard that it can take up to ten days for the symptoms to emerge. But the Spanish government have offered to give tourists a Covid test.

'If these tests are available just before you leave for home, it takes out the need for a 14-day quarantine.

'I want the government to rethink their hastily taken action': The TV star urged the government to change their decision

'I want the government to rethink their hastily taken action.'

Shaughna, who is currently appearing in the E4 show Celebs Go Virtual Dating, confirmed she will eventually be forced to endure 14 days quarantine when she returns home next week.

She said: 'I am obviously going to quarantine for 14 days when I get home.

'I can only imagine the stick I would get if I broke the quarantine rules and was spotted out. However, I'm definitely going to get a test when I get back.'

The government introduced a mandatory 14-day quarantine on anyone returning to Britain from Spain from Monday in a hastily announced change in the rules at the weekend.

Rule: The government pulled its air bridge with the holiday hot spot and introduced a 14-day quarantine following a spike in COVID-19 cases (Brits pictured in Mallorca on Monday)

The rules apply to all regions of Spain, including the Canary and Balearic islands - though politicians in the latter say they are trying to thrash out a regional air bridge.

Spain was one of the worst hit countries in Europe by the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 290,000 cases and over 28,000 deaths.

However, it imposed very strict lockdown measures to contain the spread, gradually easing them earlier in the summer.

Spain had been among of a number of 'air-bridge' countries considered to be safe for quarantine-free travel, promoting many stars to book getaways.

Fellow celebs Mark Wright and Michelle Keegan have also been forced to isolate after their fun-filled trip across the Balearic islands.




Those wishing Zimbabwe ill are twisting the recent arrest by police and subsequent remand of Hopewell Chinono and Jacob Ngarivhume for their own ends, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Sibusisi Moyo told Heads of African Diplomatic Missions in Zimbabwe yesterday.





The last few days have, once again, seen an inordinate amount of international diplomatic and media attention being focused on Zimbabwe, with waves of criticism and condemnation rolling in from the usual Western sources, subsequently joined by international pressure groups and the usual array of civil society formations which draw their funding and policy-orientation from those very same sources.





The origins of this latest onslaught of Western denigration lies, of course, in the recent arrest and remand of Hopewell Chinono and Jacob Ngarivhume  both of whom are facing serious allegations of incitement to violence and criminal abuse of social media platforms to actively encourage Zimbabweans to violently rise up against their democratically-elected Government in the form of a purported coordinated display of citizens anger over corruption, said the minister. In essence and notwithstanding the corruption angle propagated by these two individuals and their Western sponsors, the call-to-action campaign they have been fronting actually has nothing at all to do with corruption.





Theirs is a far more sinister agenda, orchestrated largely by external players deeply hostile to this Administration and who have found, in these two  and indeed others  willing puppets, prepared to provoke violent confrontation, to endanger lives, all in the name of undermining the credibility and legitimacy of this Government, subverting the peace and stability we all enjoy  our multiple challenges notwithstanding  and providing justification for yet further Western punishment and sanctions upon our already hard-pressed people.





Minister Moyo said July 31 had been chosen as the second anniversary of the 2018 election. Whatever happens in the streets of Harare on that date will reflect in the global media on August 1  the second anniversary of the tragic post-election violence, itself the direct consequence of reckless incitement to insurrection by an irresponsible, uncaring opposition.





The date was also meant to coincide with the oppositions extraordinary congress that was ordered by the Supreme Court.





The planned demo was a clear and deliberate manoeuvre by evidently desperate elements within the opposition and their Western sponsors, to subvert that democratic process. There were also a series of Sadc virtual meetings in the week from July 31, said the minister and noted that such activity was generally planned to coincide with international occasions to embarrass the Government and increase Western pressure and punishment. We have long been aware of their machinations and the extraordinary lengths they and those behind them are prepared to go to unseat our democratically-elected Government. They will never succeed.

Classifying the arrests as abductions and, with specific regard to Chinono, as the action of a vindictive Government seeking retribution against a courageous journalist for daring to expose high-level corruption within Zimbabwe, our Western critics have deliberately misrepresented the facts, and have sought to deflect attention away from the subversive and highly irresponsible activities of both Chinono and Ngarivhume.





The minister noted that neither man was abducted, both being lawfully detained by the police. Neither was arrested for exposing or focusing on corruption and the charges they face have nothing to do with their reporting of corruption.





The charges against both men, said the minister, derive from their wilful, relentless and highly irresponsible incitement to violent popular insurrection, from their cynical exhortation of the public to defy the Covid-19 lockdown regulations regardless of the very real dangers such a mass gathering would certainly present for any and all who might respond to their exhortations.





Chinono was neither the first nor the only Zimbabwean journalist to have focused attention on the scourge of corruption which, sadly, has entrenched itself within our society.





President Mnangagwa had already made it clear there was to be zero tolerance to corruption and had defined the Governments commitment to clean Government. His seriousness of intent has been amply demonstrated over the past several months with two serving Cabinet ministers arrested and charged, one former Cabinet minister in prison and a host of senior officials and State entity managers either already incarcerated or facing a variety of corruption-related charges.





Even a cursory review of our media over the past two years or so will confirm consistent, indeed persistent focus, by multiple investigative journalists and commentators, on the scourge of corruption.

The NSSA scandal  which cost Minister Mupfumira her job; the vehicle-scandal which cost Mr Tapfuma his job and liberty; the procurement scandal which cost former Minister Undenge his liberty; and the current Covid-related procurement scandal which has cost Minister Obadiah Moyo his job, have all been extensively reported upon, by State and private media alike. Not a single journalist has been arrested or charged for practising their profession in any one of these and, in fact, a multiplicity of other high-profile cases of evident or suspected criminality, said Minister Moyo.





There was nothing special about Chinonos reporting and he did not break the procurement scandal on Covid-19 material. Law enforcement and other agencies were already investigating clear indications of malfeasance in respect of the procurement of medical equipment and supplies to combat Covid-19.





International police and intelligence co-operation helped to unravel the insidious, conspiratorial nature of that malfeasance and the deliberate foreign-inspired machinations which lay at its root.





Wittingly or unwittingly, Chinono and Ngarivhume have lent themselves to that foreign agenda. They have been exposed and will now have to explain and account for their errant behaviour in a court of law.




Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday condemned attempts to convert a historic gurdwara into a mosque in Pakistans Lahore and called upon the Centre to communicate the states concerns to the neighbouring country.

Gurdwara Shahidi Asthan is a historical shrine built at the spot where Bhai Taru Singh was injured fatally in 1745.

Strongly condemn attempts being made to convert holy Gurdwara Sri Shahidi Asthan in Lahore, site of martyrdom of Bhai Taru Singh Ji, into mosque. Urge @DrSJaishankar to convey Punjabs concerns in strongest terms to Pakistan to safeguard all Sikh places of reverence, Singh tweeted.

India has already lodged a strong protest with Pakistan over the issue.

A strong protest was lodged with the Pakistan high commission today on the reported incident whereby Gurdwara Shahidi Asthan, site of martyrdom of Bhai Taru Singhji at Naulakha Bazaar in Lahore, Pakistan, has been claimed as the place of Masjid Shahid Ganj and attempts are being made to convert it to a mosque, Anurag Srivastava, said the external affairs ministrys spokesperson, said on Monday.

The gurdwara is a place of reverence and considered sacred by the Sikh community. This incident has been viewed with grave concern in India. There have been calls for justice for the minority Sikh community in Pakistan, Srivastava said.

He added that India had expressed its concerns in the strongest terms on this incident and called upon Pakistan to investigate the matter and take immediate remedial measures.

Pakistan was also asked to look after the safety, security and well-being of its minorities, including the protection of their religious rights and cultural heritage.

This was the latest in a string of protests made by India over the treatment of Pakistans minorities, especially Hindus and Sikhs.
KINGSTON, R.I., -- July 28, 2020 -- For decades, scientists have gathered ancient sediment samples from below the seafloor to better understand past climates, plate tectonics and the deep marine ecosystem. In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers reveal that given the right food in the right laboratory conditions, microbes collected from sediment as old as 100 million years can revive and multiply, even after laying dormant since large dinosaurs prowled the planet.

The research team behind the new study, from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), the URI Graduate School of Oceanography, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, the Kochi University and Marine Works Japan, gathered the ancient sediment samples ten years ago during an expedition to the South Pacific Gyre, the part of the ocean with the lowest productivity and fewest nutrients available to fuel the marine food web.

"Our main question was whether life could exist in such a nutrient-limited environment or if this was a lifeless zone," said the paper's lead author Yuki Morono, senior scientist at JAMSTEC. "And we wanted to know how long the microbes could sustain their life in a near-absence of food."

On the seafloor, there are layers of sediment consisting of marine snow (organic debris continually sourced from the sea surface), dust, and particles carried by the wind and ocean currents. Small life forms such as microbes become trapped in this sediment.

Aboard the research drillship JOIDES Resolution, the team drilled numerous sediment cores 100 meters below the seafloor and nearly 6,000 meters below the ocean's surface. The scientists found that oxygen was present in all of the cores, suggesting that if sediment accumulates slowly on the seafloor at a rate of no more than a meter or two every million years, oxygen will penetrate all the way from the seafloor to the basement. Such conditions make it possible for aerobic microorganisms--those that require oxygen to live--to survive for geological time scales of millions of years.

With fine-tuned laboratory procedures, the scientists, led by Morono, incubated the samples to coax their microbes to grow. The results demonstrated that rather than being fossilized remains of life, the microbes in the sediment had survived, and were capable of growing and dividing.

"We knew that there was life in deep sediment near the continents where there's a lot of buried organic matter," said URI Graduate School of Oceanography professor and co-author of the study Steven D'Hondt. "But what we found was that life extends in the deep ocean from the seafloor all the way to the underlying rocky basement."

Morono was initially taken aback by the results. "At first I was skeptical, but we found that up to 99.1% of the microbes in sediment deposited 101.5 million years ago were still alive and were ready to eat," he said.

With the newly developed ability to grow, manipulate and characterize ancient microorganisms, the research team is looking forward to applying a similar approach to other questions about the geological past. According to Morono, life for microbes in the subseafloor is very slow compared to life above it, and so the evolutionary speed of these microbes will be slower. "We want to understand how or if these ancient microbes evolved," he said. "This study shows that the subseafloor is an excellent location to explore the limits of life on Earth."

Before looking ahead to future research, D'Hondt took time to reflect on Morono's achievement. "What's most exciting about this study is that it shows that there are no limits to life in the old sediment of the world's ocean," said D'Hondt. "In the oldest sediment we've drilled, with the least amount of food, there are still living organisms, and they can wake up, grow and multiply."

This study was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), the Funding Program for Next Generation World-Leading Researchers, and the U.S. National Science Foundation. This study was conducted using core samples collected during Expedition 329, "South Pacific Gyre Subseafloor Life," of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program.

###
The UK government has given the green light for the export of British tear gas and rubber bullets to the US despite the continuing use of force against protesters and warnings from the United Nations.

Whitehall officials secretly suspended the issue of new arms export licences to the US for a month at the height of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations so a review could be carried out amid concerns about police conduct, The Independent can reveal.

But the review, which the government has refused to make public or comment on, concluded that the violence did not amount to "internal repression".

US police have used gas and rubber bullets against peaceful protesters and also targeted journalists since the beginning of the protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.

Detention of protesters by unidentified federal officers in Portland, Oregon, sparked condemnation last week from Liz Throssell, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who warned the actions could give rise to human rights violations.

More than 70 journalists  including The Independent's chief US correspondent Andrew Buncombe  have also been arrested during the protests. The Independent has launched its Journalism Is Not A Crime campaign to highlight press freedom in the face of the crackdown in the US.

Commenting on the British decision to allow supply of tear gas and rubber bullets, Andrew Smith of Campaign Against the Arms Trade, said: "Over recent months we have seen US police forces inflicting brutal and often indiscriminate violence against protesters. For the UK government to claim that this isn't repression is staggering. It is also hugely disrespectful of the rights of those that have been attacked with tear gas, rubber bullets and other weapons.

"These weapons can be deadly and should not have been sold in the first place, especially not to forces that have a long and shameful history of racism and violence. This decision is not just an endorsement of US policing, it is a sign of support for the brutal techniques that have been used."

In private legal correspondence dating from 30 June, seen by The Independent, government lawyers said a review was underway and that "no pending or new licence applications for the export of crowd control equipment to the USA will be issued until the reassessment has been completed".

British arms companies currently have 23 open export licences for the export of riot equipment to US security forces, including tear gas, rubber bullets, and riot shields, prompting criticism that they are fuelling "brutal" violence by the police.

But the issuing of new licences resumed this weekend after the government gave arms exporters a clean bill of health. Government lawyers said in a second letter dated on Friday that it was "a matter of fact" that the use of riot equipment "has attracted criticism from some quarters".

"Given the broad list of end-users covered by the licences, the reassessment has assumed that it is possible that such equipment was and/or could be sold to and used by police forces involved in these or similar protests," the Government Legal Department said.

But they said a review found that "there is no clear risk under Criterion 2a of the Consolidated Criteria that such equipment might be used for internal repression; and not to suspend, amend or revoke existing licences; and to recommence the assessment of pending licence applications".

The same government department that reviewed the arms exports recently recommended the resumption of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, advising ministers that "possible" war crimes in Yemen were "isolated incidents" and should not disrupt the flow of arms. The government's own rules say arms should not be exported if they can be used for "internal repression".

The private letters were written by the Government's Legal Department in response to a legal challenge against the arms sales, to evidence the claim that the government was taking its responsibilities seriously.

The challenge, which is being crowd-funded by hundreds of small donors, will now go ahead and aim to stop the exports in the courts.

Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Show all 13 1 /13 Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Portland activists gather People gather in a protest camp near the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse as the city prepares for another night of unrest on July 27, 2020 in Portland, Oregon. For over 57 straight nights, protesters have faced off in often violent clashes with the Portland Police Bureau and, more recently, federal officers. Getty Images Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Portland Moms join the protests The demonstrations began to honor the life of George Floyd and other black Americans killed by law enforcement and have intensified as the Trump administration called in the federal officers. Getty Images Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Federal officers detain activists Federal police make an arrest as they confront protesters in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland as the city experiences another night of unrest. Getty Images Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Demonstrators continue protesting at courthouse The federal government has meanwhile announced plans to send additional federal agents to the scene. Getty Images Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Portland protests continue A demonstrator holds his arms up in the air as federal officers launch tear gas during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. AP Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Federal officers deploy tear gas Federal officers deploy tear gas and crowd control munitions at demonstrators during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. AP Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Federal officers advance on demonstrators Federal officers advance of demonstrators during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. AP Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Military veterans participate in a Black Lives Matter protest Military veterans participate in a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. AP Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Federal police face off with protesters The officers once again clashed with protestors amid weeks of tense confrontations. Getty Images Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Protestors gather at courthouse People gather to protest in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland as the city experiences another night of unrest on July 27, 2020 in Portland, Oregon. Getty Images Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Protestors continue gathering The protests have continued for 57 days. Getty Images Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' A demonstrator holds a sign in front of a fire A demonstrator holds a sign in front of a fire during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. AP Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Demonstrators shield themselves from advancing federal officers Demonstrators shield themselves from advancing federal officers during a Black Lives Matter protest. AP

A cross-party group of MPs has previously called for an end to the sales, and the Scottish Parliament has endorsed a motion along similar lines. Human rights organisations like Amnesty have also joined the call.

Mr Smith added: "We hope that the case being pursued by [lawyers] Deighton Pierce Glynn and their client succeeds and that it helps in setting an important precedent and securing change."

Oliver Feeley-Sprague, Amnesty International UKs Military, Security and Police Programme Director, said: Weve seen these temporary suspensions and behind-closed-doors reviews before - and they always seem to end up with a full resumption of arms sales.

At the very least, officials should explain how theyve apparently reached the conclusion that UK-manufactured tear gas or rubber bullets can safely be sent to US police departments without the risk of them being used against peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters.

Coming after the scandal of UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia, this is another sign that the UKs arms export licensing system is unfit for purpose. We urgently need a root-and-branch overhaul of the entire arms export system, and meanwhile all policing and security equipment exports intended for US police forces should be stop immediately - with all existing licences cancelled.

A Department for International Trade spokesperson declined to answer question about the review and pausing of arms sales and said: The government takes its export responsibilities seriously and assesses all export licences in accordance with strict licensing criteria. We will not issue any export licences where to do so would be inconsistent with these criteria.
Washington :

US President Barack Obama has been on rampage to make his last stamp on criminal cases before he leaves his office in Janauary 2017.

Obama has reduced the sentence of 79 people in prison for non-violent drug crimes, taking the numbers of his granting commutations to more than 1,000.

Most of those who have received clemency are nonviolent drug offenders, though many were also convicted of firearms violations related to drug crimes. A significant portion had been serving life sentences.

"It makes no sense for a nonviolent drug offender to be serving decades, or sometimes life, in prison," Obama wrote in a Facebook post. "That's not serving taxpayers, and it's not serving the public safety."

Yet Obama's call for clemency has run into opposition from some corners, including from President-elect Donald Trump. Though Obama is expected to grant more commutations in his final weeks, officials acknowledged a large number of applications will be pending when Obama leaves office.

That means it will be up to Trump's administration to decide whether to grant or reject them, said Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.

Trump, during the campaign, warned Americans that their safety could be at risk because of Obama's move to set prisoners free ahead of schedule. That critique fits into Trump's broader call for restoring "law and order" in the US and cracking down on crime.

"Some of these people are bad dudes," Trump said in October after another batch of Obama commutations. He said those individuals were out "walking the streets," and added, "Sleep tight, folks."

Not all of those receiving commutations will be set freeright away. Some will see their sentences end in 2017 or 2018 long after Obama leaves office  and in some cases on the condition they participate in drug treatment programs.

Shauna Barry-Scott of Ohio said her experience of having her sentence shortened in 2015 was surreal. She described her initial reaction as "shock, overwhelming joy, fear of the unknown."

"I had to pinch myself," said Norman Brown, a Maryland man whose life sentence for cocaine distribution Obama commuted last year. He said after lawyers informed him of the decision, he sat speechless for three minutes as he absorbed what it would mean to have a second chance.

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Several firefighters were hospitalized Monday for heat exhaustion and other injuries after they were delayed responding to an electrical fire in Passaic County when residents tried to put out the blaze themselves, authorities said.

The apartment fire was reported to police about 2 p.m. on Passaic Street, according to Passaic Mayor Hector Lora.

The 911 call was made only after some of the 20 residents who lived there tried to extinguish the blaze themselves, Lora said.

The attempt delayed first-responders who arrived after the fire spread from the ground floor to the attic, fire officials said.

Firefighters brought the blaze under control, but only after it had spread and destroyed two nearby structures. Two other buildings sustained water and smoke damage, the mayor said.

The residents, which included a 3-year-old, teenagers and adults, were taken to Passaic City Hall and then assisted by the New Jersey Red Cross, Lora said.

The New Jersey Red Cross tweeted it was helping six families with temporary lodging, food and clothes.

No fatalities were reported. Officials said eight or more firefighters were injured  some due to smoke and others due to the heat, which soared about 90 degrees with high humidity on Monday.

Lora said six of the eight firefighters were from fire companies in Passaic County, while at least two others were from Bergen County.

ABC7ny.com reported two firefighters were hurt after falling and that several others were treated for heat exhaustion on the scene but did not go to the hospital.

The incident prompted Lora to implore residents to immediately call for help rather than try to douse the flames themselves.

I know that theres a natural reaction if you see fire to respond to it (yourself) but there are many things you dont see, especially with electrical fires, Lora said. Sometimes the fire is in the wall and you dont see it, so you think you have it under control.

Officials said the fire appeared to have been electrical and Lora noted that most residents had fans and air conditioners running on Monday to combat the heat.

If you encounter a fire, electrical or otherwise, (do) not try to control it yourself, Lora said. Your first step is to get out of the house, call 911.

Our Disaster Action Team responded to a #fire affecting multiple homes on Passaic Street in #Passaic today, helping 6 families (20 people) with Red Cross emergency assistance for temporary lodging, food and clothing needs. pic.twitter.com/Q1BlIVtQBc  Red Cross New Jersey (@NJRedCross) July 28, 2020

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Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
On July 27, celebrity announcer couple Park Ji Yoon and Choi Dong Suk suffered multiple injuries in the neck and arms due to a DUI (Drinking Under the Influence) driver on a highway in Gyeongbu.

The accident happened when a freight truck weighing not far from 2.5 tons lost control and swerved uncontrollably, causing it to hit a vehicle that was said to be a Volvo coming from a different direction. It happened at about 8:39 p.m. KST and was recently revealed that the man driving the truck was intoxicated with alcohol.

The Volvo included four people according to news sources. The Volvo passengers were celebrity couple Park Ji Yoon and Choi Dong Suk together with their two kids. The family said that they were on their way home from a family vacation in Busan. As they were on their way back to Seoul, the freighted truck crashed their car out of nowhere. The Volvo was said to be driven by announcer Choi Dong Suk.

Despite the family complaining about abdominal and finger pains, the couple fortunately only suffered minor injuries, including neck and wrist wounds. Their children, who were also in their car during the horrible accident, thankfully, only had small bruises and scratches. The family survived the accident with a few minor injuries and was directly sent to the hospital to get further treatment.

Police officers are currently investigating the driving accident against the drunk driver, who was seriously hurt in the accident. He suffered a broken leg and was immediately sent to the hospital for treatment.

According to sources, the drunk driver's blood had 0.08% alcohol content.

Several fans have wished a fast recovery for celebrity couple Park Ji Yoon and Choi Dong Suk and both of their children. As per the recent news, popular Korean rapper Cheetah reportedly announced that the Korean rapper was almost hit by the same drunk driver who hit Park Ji Yoon and Choi Dong Suk. Fortunately, she swerved to avoid bumping the truck and immediately reported it to the police.

The drunk driver is said to suffer consequences once the police finish investigating the reason as to why he was intoxicated with alcohol and driving a freight truck at the same time.
German biotech BioNTech and US drugmaker Pfizer said on Monday they are launching a pivotal global study to evaluate their lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

If the study is successful, the companies could submit the vaccine for regulatory approval as early as October, putting them on track to supply up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020 and 1.3 billion by the end of 2021.

Pfizer last year agreed to provide the US with 100 million doses of its potential coronavirus vaccine for $1.95 billion.

Patients are each given two doses of the drugmakers' vaccine to help boost immunity, so the first 100 million doses would vaccinate around 50 million people.

The study is expected to include about 120 sites globally and could include up to 30,000 participants. It will include regions heavily impacted by COVID-19.

'The initiation of the Phase 2/3 trial is a major step forward in our progress toward providing a potential vaccine to help fight the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,' said Kathrin Jansen, head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer.

Pfizer announced the launch of its phase 2/3 trial for its coronavirus vaccine late on Monday. The trial is set to enroll 30,000 people and put the shot's ability to prevent infection to the test

The trial homes in on Pfizer's most promising vaccine candidate, which it calls BNT162b2. Earlier studies filtered out other potential vaccines.

Shares for Pfizer rose nearly two percent following the announcement, which was made after the bell.

Pfizer has already has an agreement to sell 100 million doses of its vaccine to the US government and give it the option to buy 500 million more.

It is in talks with other governments, including the European Union, about similar deals.

The $1.95 billion deal will cover those first 100 million doses, but it's not clear what the unit price of the drug will be, or how much Pfizer will charge governments, including the US, after providing the products specified by their agreements.

AstraZeneca, the British drugmaker, which also has a nearly $2 billion contract to provide the US government with its potential vaccine has promised that it will sell its shot at a non-profit price.

The announcement came after trading closed for the day, but triggered a 1.81% rise in shares for Pfizer

Pfizer has made no such commitment, but its executives have stated that they believe a COVID-19 preventive shot should be free to the public (prices paid by governments or companies, ostensibly notwithstanding).

Over 150 vaccines are being developed against COVID-19, which has claimed nearly 650,000 lives globally and crippled economies.

Vaccines made by five companies - Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Merck - have been cherry picked by the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed initiative as the most promising candidates for the US.

Although they all aim to prevent coronavirus infection, the various vaccines employ different technologies to that end.

Pfizer's vaccine utilizes chemical messenger RNA to mimic the surface of the coronavirus and teach the immune system to recognize and neutralize it. Although the technology has been around for years, there has never been an approved messenger RNA (mRNA)vaccine.

Moderna also launched an advanced stage trial with 30,000 participants on Monday, with the first volunteers getting dosed at a handful of the trial's seven dozen sites, including Savannah, Georgia, and New York.

Co-founder and chairman of Moderna, Noubar Afeyan, said he thought they trial could reveal whether the shot is protective as early as the end of this year.

In terms of timeline, Moderna has been ahead of the pack of US firms since the pandemic's earliest days, trailing only AstraZeneca globally.

Johnson & Johnson is starting clinical trials this week. (Reporting by Vishwadha Chander in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel, Richard Chang and Aurora Ellis)
It was all very far removed from the sort of harsh, outback landscape with which Mr Drysdale has achieved fame. So I asked him why it was he chose to examine in paint the hard, red heart of Australia in the soft, green centre of Sydney's gracious-living belt. Mr Drysdale took a long pull at his beer. "I can camp anywhere," he said. This is, of course, undeniably true. Mr Drysdale is as much at home on horseback or at the wheel of a Land Rover on a bush track as he is at a captain's table. He has taken his swag to the uttermost corners of Australia. "Yet I do very little paintings on my trips," he said. "Sometimes I do not even make sketches. I like to have time to think about what I have seen before I begin to paint."

"Australia gives me a sense of freedom, of space. I feel elevated here." Credit:Frank Burke For a painter who has so powerfully conveyed the loneliness and the isolation as well as the timeless, twisted beauty of the outback, Mr Drysdale's beginnings were somewhat unlikely. He was born in the placid Sussex town of Bognor-Regis 53 years ago. And after leaving England with his parents as a child he grew up in that stronghold of the Australian Establishment, Geelong Grammar School. His early associations - between trips to Britain - were with Victoria. Why, then, did he choose to live in Sydney? "I have found the most congenial society in Australia here," he said. "I like to talk to people and to exchange ideas. There is no lack of talk or of ideas in this city." Mr Drysdale lit a cigarette and considered Melbourne as a possible alternative city in which to live. Quickly he rejected it.

"No," he said. "In the past I have found Melbourne to be a place of violent and bitter factions as far as artists are concerned. In Sydney one may not agree with other painters, but at least one can go and have a beer with them without any danger of getting a knife in one's back in a dark alley." Mr Drysdale padded into the kitchen and opened more beer. When he had refilled our glasses he said: "One needs talk and ideas and, of course, Sydney is now a city of the world rather than a provincial capital. It is adult and alive." Russell Drysdale's pioneering forbears founded a sugar and pastoral dynasty on the Burdekin River in Queensland. He loves the north. But he said: "I have found on my journeys through the northern bush towns there are generally only four subjects of male conversation. In Sydney one may not agree with other painters, but at least one can go and have a beer with them without any danger of getting a knife in one's back in a dark alley. Russell Drysdale "These are girls, rum and cattle or girls, rum and sugar - in that order. It is very good, but it is a bit limited."

When he returns from his trip to Britain, the Continent and America Mr Drysdale proposes to make the best possible compromise between Sydney, the city which he loves, and the country which attracts him. He has bought a farm a few miles from Gosford and is having a house built there. "I don't want to go too far away," he said. "I want to be able to come into Sydney when I feel like it." Not all of Mr Drysdale's paintings for his forthcoming exhibition are new. One he painted four years ago for a Chinese friend in Singapore who was recently killed in an air crash. Drysdale's 1949 painting 'Woman in a Landscape" Credit:AGNSW This painting, which depicts an Aboriginal with a bird and has not yet been seen in Australia, will be flown to London on loan.

Mr Drysdale stubbed out his cigarette and talked about his work. "I had some very great personal troubles some time ago," he said. "I thought perhaps I would never paint again." "But life goes on. I started to work after a time and now I am pleased with what I have done recently." Mr Drysdale now finds himself in the supremely happy position of an artist who has won world-wide acclaim while still in the full flush of his power. But, of course, there have been occasions in the past when his work has aroused violent dislike. I reminded him that one of his paintings, "Woman in a Landscape," had caused an uproar when it was exhibited in Adelaide and asked him how he felt about criticism. He laughed. "One develops scar tissue over old wounds," he said. "Anyway, I am concerned only about criticism from those whose knowledge I respect.
Popular Tamil actor Shaam along with 11 others have been booked by the police for alleged gambling activity at his apartment in Chennai. As per a report by NDTV, tokens used for gambling were recovered from the flat owned by Shaam.

Apparently, many other popular Tamil actors have been indulging in the illegal activity late nights in the lockdown. However, no other actor has been so far booked in any such activity.

The report further added that another actor who had lost a large sum while gambling at Shaams apartment had tipped off the police. Actor Shaam has been arrested along with 11 others. We are investigating the modus operandi over the use of tokens, a senior police officer was quoted in the report by NDTV.

Also read: Amitabh Bachchan says Aaradhya asked him not to cry and said youll be home soon, pens an open letter to haters

The police also said that a final-year undergraduate student recently killed himself after losing money in an online game. Shaam, who is popular in Tamil and Telugu industries, was last seen on screen in Tamil film Kaaviyan, which released last year.

In 2001, he made his acting debut via Tamil film 12B. Since then, he has starred in several popular Tamil and Telugu films such as Iyarkai, Kick, 6, Race Gurram and Kick 2 among others.

He has also starred in a few Kannada and Malayalam films.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop
A San Antonio mural dedicated to Vanessa Guillen will be completed on the citys West Side in the next month.

Like similar tributes to Guillen around the country, the depiction of the young Texas soldier will stand as a memorial and a reminder.

It will give San Antonians another place to pay their respects.

It also will stand as testament to a slaying and military sexual harassment case that might not have been exposed were it not for her family.

Guillens family never gave up, and over time that family has grown into an army.

The mural will remind San Antonio to keep pressuring the military and Washington to investigate what Fort Hood officials did and didnt do to find her after she went missing April 22 and to hold those who failed her accountable.

Stephanie Melchor and Tracy Talavera, the San Antonio women who raised money for the mural in just nine hours, see Guillen as everyones daughter, sister, friend and mija.

The Spanish endearment, short for mi hija or my daughter, is a beautiful word used not just to refer to a biological daughter but to girls and women we adore, admire, mentor and teach.

Steve Gonzales, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Melchor and Talavera, both 28, arent yet disclosing the location of the mural to give the two muralists  Adriana Garcia, a West Sider who studied at Carnegie Mellon University, and Ana Laura Hernandez, a Laredoan who studied at the University of Texas at San Antonio  time to prepare the space.

That the two highly accomplished artists are waiving their fees shows how much the project matters.

Its fundraisers and funders included women connected to the Latina Leadership Institute, a professional development program of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Among them were first lady Erika Prosper and educator Karla Duran.

Melchor and Talavera first pulled together a public altar to Guillen that drew hundreds of visitors. They mourned and stood with her family and, by extension, all the others whove experienced sexual harassment and violence.

For too long, these crimes have gone unacknowledged and unpunished. Like Hollywoods #MeToo movement, #JusticeForVanessaGuillen has galvanized Latino communities angered by the response from Fort Hood officials.

Billy Calzada, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

Without justice and transparency, the San Antonio online mural effort said, we in San Antonio, Texas, will not give up our daughters, nieces and sisters to the military so easily.

The altar outside Cafe Azteca on the citys South Side also inspired a motorcade. One vehicle showed a sign that said, We Are Her Army.

Melchor and Talavera went from a temporary altar project to a permanent mural, moved by the images and pleas from Guillens mother and sisters, they said.

Melchor, a communications analyst for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas, and Talavera, who works in public affairs for the city of San Antonio, said both projects are meant to serve as catalysts for larger conversations.

Steve Gonzales, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Theyre the kind were having now as the nation undergoes a pandemic, exposing the nations weaknesses, and social justice movements, exposing systemic racism. Meanwhile, federal agents look like fascist forces in front of protesters.

That Guillen didnt file an official complaint has become part of the conversation, too. Not filing such complaints is all too common, because such behavior is too common  and because doing so comes with the risk of being re-victimized in some way.

No woman has been exempt.

All of us have had to deal with this in some form, some way, some shape at some point in our lives, said U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in an extraordinary speech last week in Congress in response to a verbal attack by a fellow representative.

After money was raised for paint, scaffolding and other equipment, the mural project raised another $1,000 in 48 hours.

It will be donated to the Guillen family, whose members are most on the minds of Melchor and Talavera.

Steve Gonzales / Staff photographer

They lost someone they loved to an institution that didnt protect her, Talavera said.

We dont want that to get lost, Melchor added. Its our responsibility to keep the conversation going.

eayala@express-news.net
EDWARDSVILLE  As part of the response to the coronavirus pandemic much of Madison County government was forced to work remotely this spring.

At one time about 75 percent of county workers, not including groups like the sheriffs and highway departments, were working from home. Now about 10 percent of the countys workforce is.

Because that may be much more commonplace in the post-COVID new normal, county officials are taking a close look at the pros and cons of working from home, sometimes referred to as remote working or telework.

A study conducted for the county by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville graduate students recently was discussed at the Madison County Boards Personnel and Labor Relations Committee.

Were at the stage now where were talking about how to train both the workers and the managers, said Bruce Cooper, deputy county administrator.

Cooper said the SIUE students had been interns in a masters program who needed work hours, but lost opportunities at other places because of COVID. The county was asked if there were projects they could complete, and taking a closer look at remote work was one of those.

Cooper said it obviously became a big issue because of the pandemic, and he feels it may continue to be part of the new normal. Because of that, he said there is a need to take a closer look at workplace policy and how it would work for Madison County.

Much of that was benchmarking, or looking at other comparable agencies to see how they are doing it, and what kind of standards there are.

Theyve done the benchmarking by going to other counties in Illinois, across the country and the federal government, to understand what their policies were, Cooper said. They were doing excellent work.

Cooper said one finding is the need for good management.

Management cant just lean outside of its door now and say, Could you come into my office? Theres something Id like to have done, he said.

Instead, it has to be more organized and people working remotely need to feel part of the operation.

The study also showed that a successful program required daily communication, accountability, good equipment and information technology systems and a thorough telework policy.

One finding was that most of the agencies contact had provided little or no training, in part because of the sudden onset of the pandemic.

Some of the advantages of remote workplaces are that productivity can be maintained during emergencies, and service can continue. This was a major factor during the height of the pandemic.

It can also lower the demand for office space.

By allowing flexibility, it can lead to decreased employee turnover, absenteeism and burnout; and better performance and increased flexibility.

The research also showed that offering choices when possible is a better incentive than extra pay.

The study also noted that not all workers can participate in a remote workplace.

Generally, what were finding is that if you work with the public, you cant do it remotely, Cooper said. But there are other options and operations where you can do that.

Other factors include managing sensitive or classified material, such as certain legal documents or personal information; cyclical work such as elections or the processing of tax bills and other documents and some workers may not be suited for telework.

The study also gave a guideline for developing a policy and putting it into place, something Cooper said might take some time.

Were at the stage now where were talking about how to train both the workers and the managers, Cooper said. Its a learning exercise for a lot of people who have been doing things a certain way for a long time. Adopting change can be difficult.
Hyderabad, July 28 : The number of Covid-19 cases in Telangana crossed 57,000 on Tuesday as 1,610 new cases were reported while nine more deaths pushed the toll to 480.

Acting on the direction of the High Court, the Health Department released media bulletin in a new format, providing more details, including bed occupancy in government and private hospitals and containment zones.

The authorities had changed the format two days ago but the High Court on Monday expressed its dissatisfaction and observed that they were not implementing its orders.

According to the bulletin, 1,610 new cases were reported during the last 24 hours ending 8 p.m. on Monday. With this, the state's tally rose to 57,142.

Greater Hyderabad accounted for 531 new cases while adjoining districts Rangareddy and Medchal Malkajgiri reported 172 and 113 cases, respectively. Warangal Urban district registered 152 new infections.

The case fatality rate in the state is 0.84 per cent against national average of 2.26 per cent. With 803 new recoveries, the state's recovery rate improved to 75.1 per cent against the national recovery rate of 64 per cent.

There are 13,753 active cases including 8,479 who are under home or institutional isolation. More than 84 per cent of those under home isolation are asymptomatic.

The state conducted 15,839 tests during the day, taking the cumulative figure to 3,79,081. It also mentioned that the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark is 140 per million that is 5,600 tests per day. Test results of 809 samples were awaited.

The bulletin has also given age and gender wise details of Covidpositive cases. While 65.6 per cent of the cases were male, 34.4 per cent were female. It shows that 47.1 per cent of those tested positive were in the age group of 21-40 years while 33.3 per cent were in the 41-60 group.

Among the fatalities, while 46.13 per cent died of Covid-19, 53.87 per cent succumbed to comorbidities.

The bed status in 57 government-run Covid hospitals shows 14,839 out of 17,081 beds were still vacant. Among 2,242 patients undergoing treatment in these hospitals, 272 were on ICU beds and 1,383 on oxygen beds. The bulletin has also provided hospital wise bed occupancy details.

For the first time, the authorities have also come out with details of bed status in 55 private hospitals providing Covid treatment. This shows that 1,465 out of 4,497 beds are vacant.
Enthusiasm and passion have been a hallmark of political action over all of history. Stating something strongly and with conviction gets attention and almost forces people to listen. But the last three years have seen political passion turn into an explosion of hatred and anger like never before. Why is this?

Psychologists say that anger arises when we have an unmet demand. Some angry reactions are reasonable, such as objecting to bad service at an expensive restaurant, or protesting against an injustice, but others are irrational, such as shooting a gun at someone who just cut you off in traffic.

We use emotions such as anger to help us survive in difficult situations. Scientists have found that all emotions cause neuro-chemical changes in the brain and hate and anger have a larger impact.

Jean Kim, M.D., a psychiatrist and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at George Washington University, writes, Anger overrides all other moral and rational brakes in the brain because it originates from our primordial, original limbic system: the brain center of our most automatic emotions like fear and desire. While anger feels good in the moment, it is in fact deeply illogical and destructive; it overrides all other moral and rational brakes in the brain.

Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW writes, The neurotransmitter chemicals known as catecholamines are released causing a blast of kinetic energy that can last a few minutes. In a counterintuitive way, feeling bad sometimes feels good. Like any addiction, anger can induce discharge of dopamine epinephrine and norepinephrine. The adrenalin rush contributes to a sense of strength and invulnerability it creates a sense of aliveness.

Constant anger and hatred can easily become an addiction.

Excessive behaviors share many of the same characteristics as substance abuse and can easily become full-blown addictions -- behaviors you cant stop that lead to harmful consequences such as ruined relationships, loss of a job, or physical harm to yourself or others.

Liberals discussed the science behind an addiction to hate several years ago when talking about white supremacists and conservative talk shows turning normal people into hate-filled fanatics, but now its the liberals who are being transformed.

Dr. Kim explains,

Science agrees that we can get fixated on our own anger; the actual mechanism of this addiction is fascinatingly complex. Any perceived threat  physical, metaphysical, ideological, or imagined  causes the amygdalae, the two almond-shaped bundles of neurons in the medial temporal lobe, to alert the brain to prepare for a fight (or flight). This signal causes the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, as well as the stress hormones cortisol, adrenaline, and noradrenaline, which kick-start our sympathetic nervous system, causing oxygen levels in the blood and glucose levels in the brain to rise. Our heart rate, blood sugar levels, and blood pressure go up  energizing us for a fight. This rush of neurochemicals has a transformative effect on our behavior. We might yell, clench our fists, or fume, signaling to everyone around us that were ready to blow up. At the same time, more subtle changes are happening. Notably, the mix disrupts our ability to think logically and makes a mess of our short-term memories. Noradrenaline and cortisol in particular suppress function in the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain tasked with executive decision making.

So, our brains get a rush from hateful rhetoric and actions, and as we become addicted, we crave more and more.

Hatred is contagious.

Humans are social animals, so its easiest to get this reinforcement simply by interacting with like-minded people. Negative emotions are stronger, while calmer emotions are negated until the burst of neurochemicals diminishes. This is why its extremely difficult to reason with someone who is enraged.

Hatred has been characterized as its own kind of virus, because emotions are shared easily within groups. This makes evolutionary sense; in order to survive, we need to be able to work together in social settings. In the age of the internet, social media and mass communications travel at light speed, therefore hatred does as well.

Researchers from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania cataloged the most recirculated New York Times articles and found the only feeling that outpaced anger was awe. Anger is a high-arousal emotion, which drives people to take action, says Jonah Berger, the marketing professor who conducted the study. It makes you feel fired up, which makes you more likely to pass things on.

Media, social media and other internet entities take advantage of these emotions to fuel their economic engines. How often do you see an outrageous headline only to click the link and end up at a website full of ads for male enhancement drugs or beauty creams?

This also explains why a fire or murder leads the news, while stories with a much greater impact arent even covered. If it bleeds, it leads. Their ultimate goal is to sell advertising.

Anger is dangerous

Weve all heard the term seeing red. Crowds become angry and out of control. This is when rioting and beatings happen. People completely uninvolved with the issue at hand are assaulted or even killed, and stores and businesses that benefit the community are looted and burned to the ground.

But what we are discovering during current protests are agitators seeded into the crowds who fan the flames of anger and hatred. A different agitator will throw the first punch or break the first window, and the angry crowd follows.

This is why incitement to riot is a criminal offense.

Dr. Kim continues, The rush behind anger can be triggered by underlying feelings of weakness or insecurity, a way to feel powerful in the moment... It also helps people feel briefly in control of things they typically have no control over.

During the COVID 19 pandemic, people are scared and feel helpless to defend themselves against an unseen enemy. This has been a perfect opportunity for outside forces to stir up even more panic and direct anger and hatred toward the target of their choice, which happens to be the entire American society, including the police, our history, and our president.

The fear of having an angry mob being focused on you or your family is enough to get rational people to go along with the mobs agenda. Like victims of the Stockholm syndrome, they often end up believing the agenda themselves. This has carried into the business world where corporate leaders become believers, or simply make tactical statements or fire outspoken employees to keep the mobs from attacking their stores or starting a boycott.

This is how basic psychology can be used to overthrow the government of an entire country. History is replete with examples, from the Boston Tea Party and the French Revolution, to the Arab Spring.

If we dont quickly learn from history and how populations can be controlled through hate, and who is funding the agitators, we are likely to become the next victims.

Graphic credit: Flickr

Don Rosenberg is a conservative political consultant for groups and candidates who worked nationally on the Ben Carson for President campaign and currently the Reopen movement.
A Kerala police officer was accused of stealing an 'expensive' potted plant during a night patrol in Chempazhanthy area of Thiruvananthapuram on June 16. The incident came to light after the owners checked the footage of a CCTV camera installed nearby.

The accused Sub Inspector with the help of a fellow policeman stole the plant at around 4.50 am. In the visuals, the SI was seen stealing the plant while her colleague took quick surveillance of the surroundings before whisking her away.

Although the owner did not file an official complaint in the matter but it soon became a talk of the town. Taking cognizance of the rumours, the Intelligence Department launched a probe and handed over a report to the higher authorities. Further investigation in the matter is underway.
The COVID-19 shock is negatively affecting Egypt's external finances, GDP growth and fiscal performance, but, Egypts economic reforms have provided the country with a degree of flexibility to weather this shock

Fitch Ratings has affirmed Egypt's long-term foreign-currency issuer default Rating (IDR) at 'B+' with a Stable Outlook, supported by a recent track record of fiscal and economic reforms, policy commitment to furthering the reform programme and ready availability of fiscal and external financing amid the COVID-19 crisis.

The ratings are constrained by still large fiscal deficits, high general government debt/GDP and weak governance scores (as measured by the World Bank governance indicators), which underline political risks, Fitch said on Monday.

The COVID-19 shock is negatively affecting Egypt's external finances, GDP growth and fiscal performance, but, Egypts economic reforms have provided the country with a degree of flexibility to weather this shock at its current rating, according to Fitch.

Nonetheless, COVID-19 still places risks to Egypt's credit metrics depending on the duration of the global health crisis.

Fitch projected Egypts real GDP growth to record 2.5 percent in the current FY2020/2021, well below the average growth of 5.5 percent achieved in FY2018/2019 and FY2019/2020.

It also expects growth to recover to 5.5 percent in FY2021/2022 and to be maintained at just over 5 percent in the medium term, assuming tourism gradually returns, further growth in the energy and manufacturing sectors and gradual improvements in the business environment.

Fitch expects Egypts budget deficit, government debt and the current account balance to see improvements in 2021-2022 after the their deterioration in 2020.

The pandemic has hit Egypt's external finances, resulting in $18 billion (5 percent of GDP) of outflows from the local currency debt market, the loss of tourism revenues (which were $13 billion in 2019) and likely some decline in remittance inflows (which were close to $27 billion in 2019).

The worst of the portfolio outflows appears to be over, with some renewed inflows reported in July, according to Fitch.

The Central Bank of Egypt's (CBE) foreign reserves and the net foreign assets of the banking sector declined by a combined $18 billion (5 percent of GDP) between February and June 2020, despite net inflows of $8.6 billion (2.5 percent of GDP) from Eurobond issuance and IMF funds, Fitch said.

Fitch projects Egypts current account deficit (CAD) to widen to 5 percent of GDP in 2020, up from 3.1 percent in 2019, with a decline in imports partially offsetting slashed tourism revenue and an assumed 20 percent decline in remittances.

It also expected Egypts net foreign direct investment (FDI) will also decline.

Moreover, the CBE's official gross foreign reserves are expected to fall to $37 billion at end of 2020, slightly down from their current levels of $38 billion recorded by end of June, and from $44 billion at the end of 2019, while it will edge up in 2021-2022 in dollar terms, but to decline to around five months of current external payments, from close to six months in 2019.

Fitch said that the fiscal stimulus Egypt has extended to contain the COVID-19 implications has been limited so far, expecting Egypt to remain committed to its reform programme.

Since March, the government has announced fiscal stimulus totalling EGP180 billion (2.8 percent of GDP). At the same time, the government has increased a range of fees and is aiming to make some savings within the budget. The FY202/2021 budget was targeting a 2 percent of GDP budget sector primary surplus, while the government is now aiming for a surplus of 0.5 percent of GDP, said Fitch.

Yet, Fitch projects the small budget sector primary deficit of 0.4 percent of GDP and for the budget deficit to widen to 9.5 percent of GDP in current FY2020/2021, up from 8.8 percent in FY2019/2020, expecting a primary surplus to re-emerge in FY2021/2022 and for the overall deficit to narrow to around 8 percent.

The temporary widening of the deficit will interrupt the strong downward trend in general government (GG) debt/GDP, which we project to increase to 86 percent in FY2020/2021 and 88 percent in FY2021/2022 before resuming a downward path, Fitch said.

Fitch also said that public finances remain a core weakness of the rating, as government debt to GDP levels are significantly higher than the current 'B' median of 65 percent.

However, more than 50 percent of GG external debt is owed to multilateral institutions, with which Egypt has good relations, and the domestic banking sector provides considerable domestic financing flexibility, according to Fitch.

In May, Egypt received a one-time 2.4 billion tranche under the International Monetary Funds (IMF) rapid financing instrument and a first tranche (out of three tranches) worth $2 billion under the $5.2 billion 12-month stand-by arrangement agreed with the IMF in June.

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A man struck by a truck Friday night during a jam-packed Telegraph Cruise has died.

The Taylor Police Department has not released any information about the incident, which took place in the parking lot of a Chinese buffet located west of Telegraph, south of Champaign.

It allegedly involved a driver who did a burnout and lost control of the vehicle, striking the victim.

Tim Woolley, Taylor City Council chairman, posted on Facebook Monday that the victim, Alan Kennedy, died due to injuries he suffered.

He and Kennedy were both members of the Taylor Center High School class of 1988.

Al was a big part of our crew in high school, Woolley said. We hung out all the time. We had the same goofy sense of humor. He always had that smile/smirk on his face, and was always the guy at the party/club dancing with himself in the middle of the floor, and killing it!

Woolley said he recently spoke with Kennedy outside his house, where they immediately began reminiscing about the old days.

According to Woolley, Kennedy was an organ donor.

He will not only live on in our memories, but also inside of the people he is helping/saving, Woolley said. Farewell my friend, and RIP Big Al!

Facebook posts indicate Kennedy was the victim of a hit-and-run. At least one person reported the victim was picking up a Frisbee when the vehicle hit him.

A woman who identified herself as the sister of the driver posted that her sister did the right thing and turned herself in to police.

With or without sponsors, participants show up for the cruise on the fourth weekend of July where many vintage vehicles coast through Taylor, Dearborn Heights, Dearborn and Redford.

Those who regularly attend the annual event say that daytime crowds are dominated by classic car enthusiasts that cause very few problems, but that nighttime crowds can be considerably rowdier.

Despite our cautions about attending, the cruise was packed with numbers that many thought were higher than theyve seen in years, said Karl Ziomek, city of Taylor spokesman.
New Delhi, July 29 : BJP President JP Nadda held a virtual meeting with Chief Ministers of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled states on Monday that went on till late in the night.

Chief Ministers of all BJP ruled states were called to discuss the prevailing pandemic situation in their respective states and steps to deal with them.

Nadda also asked BJP's Chief Ministers to implement Centre's efforts in the interest of the poor, due to the Coronavirus-triggered crisis.

The meeting which was organised through videoconferencing was attended by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, Goa CM Pramod Sawant, Karnataka's BS Yediyurappa, Uttarakhand's Trivendra Singh Rawat among others.

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri was also present in the meeting.

Haryana CM Khattar, later said that not only 'decisive actions' to deal with Coronavirus was discussed in the meeting, but also ways to rejuvenate the economy was deliberated upon.

As of Monday, India has 4,96,988 active cases of Coronavirus. A total of 33,425 people have died due to the deadly virus, so far.
Three criminals were arrested by Delhi Police after an encounter in Patel Nagar on Monday (July 27). Police sources told Zee Media that the criminals opened fire at DCP Central Sanjay Bhatia after the cops surrounded a building in which the criminals were hiding. The criminals tried to escape from the spot after jumping off from the house in which they were hiding but they were arrested by the police team which was present near the building.

Earlier, the criminals had tried to rob a jewellery shop in Tilak Nagar. It is learnt that the criminals tried to rob the shop at 5:40 pm and they opened fire at a customer named Chand Chadha when the customers tried to stop them from looting the shop. The miscreants, however, failed to rob the jewellery shop and ran away from spot in an Hyudai i10 car.

Later at 6:20 PM the police received information that the criminals were present at Patel Nagar. At that time DCP Central Bhatia was taking briefing of cops at police station. As soon as DCP Bhatia received the information, he left for Patel Nagar with a team of policemen. Some policemen chased the criminals on motorcycles. Police said that the criminals hit the bike of one of the policemen who fell on the ground after the accident. The other policemen, however, reached the spot and immediately surrounded the car in which the criminals were travelling.

Police said that two criminals rushed out of the car and entered an old building in which some people were also residing. When DCP Bhatia reached near the building the criminals opened fire at him from inside the building. DCP Bhatia also opened fire at the criminals. Sensing that they have been surrounded by policemen, one of the criminals tried to escape from the building by jumping off from it but he was captured by three policemen who were already present outside the building. The police later arrested two more criminals from the building. The arrested criminals were identified as Shahzad, Anas and Sachin. Police have recovered a car and 2 pistols from the possession of these criminals.
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NuEyes, a leader in augmented reality (AR) smart glass solutions that empower those who suffer from severe vision loss, today announces a new pilot study in collaboration with the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind (MCB) and Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI). The pilot is being conducted as part of the 2020 MassChallenge HealthTech program, an effort to boost startups at the intersection of healthcare and technology, supported by the Massachusetts Digital Health Initiative.

e2+ Wearable Magnifier

This comprehensive pilot study will last 16 weeks and encompass 30 participants from across Massachusetts. During the study, a multitude of visually impaired focus groups will test five NuEyes head-worn devices that are slated for various commercial releases later this year and into the first part of 2021. The groups will be focused on daily tasks, mobility issues, connectivity issues, as well as how well the current and future products affect their visual acuity. Current form factors, resolution of cameras, and the displays of these low-vision, head-worn magnifiers will also be evaluated to ensure that all future products will meet the necessary requirements to enable the visually impaired in new ways.

"At NuEyes, we are extremely passionate about empowering those with severe vision loss in new and exciting ways. Comprehensive pilot studies like this are embedded into our DNA. From the first pilot study launched in 2013 to now we strive to bring the best augmented reality smart glass technology to market. Collaborating with two esteemed organizations like the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind and Massachusetts eHealth Institute is an absolute honor for us, and we feel that the result of these studies will further advance smart glass technology for the visually impaired," said Mark Greget Founder and CEO of NuEyes.

"Every day, we learn that Assistive Technology is a lifeline for some of the individuals we serve who are blind and visually impaired. We are committed to ensuring that this lifeline continues and improves by working with organizations and companies that are on the cutting edge of assistive technology in the Commonwealth. Our unique pilot program with NuEyes will allow a sample of our consumers to test new AT devices and provide direct feedback to the company as we work together to grow the best assistive technology for consumers to be successful at work and home," said MCB Commissioner David D'Arcangelo.

"Our parent agency, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, was founded upon a commitment to catalyze public, private, and academic collaboration to solve shared challenges," said Laurance Stuntz, Director of MeHI. "This project is a prime example of how our state's Digital Health Initiative is driving innovation through our state's Digital Health Initiative, by bringing together the MCB, a Massachusetts state agency, and NuEyes, an innovative California company to advance their cutting-edge products, while at the same time getting these assistive devices into the hands of Massachusetts residents. By supporting programs like MassChallenge Health Tech, we're also introducing innovative startups to the world-class healthcare and technology thought leaders that call Massachusetts home."

About NuEyes Technologies

NuEyes is a veteran-owned technology company based in Orange County, California, that was launched in January 2016 to empower those with eye conditions such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, and retinitis pigmentosa. Over the past four years, the company has seen extensive sales growth and has won awards at CES and obtained Federal, State and Insurance reimbursement for its smart glass devices. NuEyes is excited to bring such advanced smart glass products to market that will leapfrog the technology currently available for someone dealing with legal blindness. With the leadership of NuEyes having over 16 years of combined experience in this space, we understand what it takes to successfully bring a new product to market.

About Massachusetts Commission for the Blind

Massachusetts Commission for the Blind (MCB), founded in 1906, is one of the oldest state blindness agencies in the U.S. serving almost 26,000 individuals across the Commonwealth who are blind and visually impaired. One of 15 agencies in the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS), MCB specializes in Vocational and Social Rehabilitation services, with additional supporting programs that include Orientation & Mobility, Assistive Technology, Rehabilitation Teaching, Children's Services, Employment Services, and our Older-Independent Blind Program. Our team at MCB is driven by a mission to provide the highest quality rehabilitation and social services to consumers, leading to independence, employment, and community engagement. MCB takes pride in relationships with employer and community stakeholders to provide consumers with the best possible network for success in MA. For more information about programs and services at MCB, please visit our website at www.mass.gov/mcb, and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

About MeHI

MeHI, the Massachusetts eHealth Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, is the designated state agency for promoting Health IT innovation, technology and competitiveness to improve the safety, quality and efficiency of health care across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In 2016, MeHI was designated by Governor Charlie Baker as the lead agency for the supporting the Massachusetts Digital Health Initiative, a comprehensive public-private partnership. Through Mass Digital Health, entrepreneurs, healthcare organizations, government, and industry are working together to drive smart and secure healthcare data, a more connected statewide digital health ecosystem, and a more accessible and transparent digital health marketplace.

Media Contacts

Regina Chatman

VP of Sales and Marketing - NuEyes

[email protected]

P: 800-605-4033

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- OCPD Anthony Wafula had first complained of chest pains and later on developed breathing complications

- His colleagues rushed him to Bondo sub-county hospital at night but he was pronounced dead three hours after admission

- The deceased police officer had just returned from Nairobi where he had taken his children

An officer commanding Bondo police division has been confirmed dead moments after he was rushed to the hospital.

Anthony Wafula had complained of fever, chest pains and breathing difficulties after which he was taken to Bondo sub-county hospital on the night of Monday, July 27.

READ ALSO: Kenyans share hilarious memes after Uhuru Kenyatta ordered closure of bars

The late officer had returned from Nairobi when he became unwell. Photo: The Standard.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Kenyan newspapers review for July 28: Uhuru to meet Jubilee senators ahead of revenue vote

Siaya county police commander Francis Kooli confirmed Wafula passed on at around 1am, a few hours after his admission.

The deceased had been unwell for a week upon returning from Nairobi where he had taken his children.

Kooli said doctors managed to extract samples from Wafula's remains on suspicious he may have succumbed to COVID-19.

READ ALSO: My hubby remarried while I nursed my wounds in hospital - Embu woman cries

READ ALSO: Klopp says having breakfast with Sir Alex Ferguson felt like meeting the Pope

The samples were taken to the Kenya Medical Research Institute laboratories in Kisumu county for coronavirus test.

"We are doing this to establish if he had COVID-19 given the symptoms and going by the fact that he had recently travelled to Nairobi. I am going to Bondo to speak to colleagues he may have interacted with to advise them not to panic," the county police boss said.

The incident came barely a week after a police officer guarding Equity Bank in Makutano Junction in Meru county died after collapsing.

North Imenti sub-county police commander Robinson Mboloi said the officer had vomited before he collapsed at a toilet inside the bank.

The bank hall was cordoned off by the county COVID-19 surveillance team who picked the body after two hours due to precautions related to the spread of the virus.

The officer was on duty when he suddenly died at the bank. The cause of death is yet to be established and the body was removed to the Meru Level Five Hospital Mortuary, said Mboloi.

Kenya reportedly lost its first cop to COVID-19 on July 22. The police officer died at Kenyatta National Hospital where he was admitted after he tested positive for COVID-19.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

I did not sacrifice Ayeiya, family wants 21 million as compensation - Wakimani of Churchill Show -TUKO TV.

Source: TUKO.co.ke
The end is finally near for the cantankerous, rusty, delay-causing, 110-year old Portal Bridge.

NJ Transit officials approved an agreement Monday evening, leading to construction starting next spring.

NJ Transit and Amtrak riders, who endured delays as recently as last week, when the swing bridge swung open and refused to rotate closed, might be skeptical, having heard past statements that the old span was close to replacement.

But this time its for real.

NJ Transits board unanimously approved entering into an agreement with Amtrak at a Monday evening, the owner of the bridge that carries the busy Northeast Corridor line over the Hackensack River in Kearny.

That could mean breaking ground next spring for a replacement Portal North bridge, said Kevin Corbett, NJ Transit CEO and president. Bids for construction companies could be taken last this year or early next year, he said.

With the bad economy, it creates 7,900 direct jobs, its a good time to put it out to bid, Corbett said. This is essential infrastructure work weve been trying to get done for years. This is the right time to be doing it.

The project development contract to be negotiated with Amtrak is one of the critical agreements needed for a full funding agreement from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), said Nancy Snyder, an NJ Transit spokeswoman. The board voted unanimously to approve it.

This will allow NJ Transit and Amtrak to execute an agreement that addresses the ownership, operations, maintenance, and dispatching of the new Portal North Bridge and sets us on a path to construction, she said.

Last month, FTA officials announced the project graduated into the engineering phase, which is the second stage of the process to obtain a full federal grant agreement for part of the $1.81 billion project. In February, the FTA raised the bridges rating, clearing the path to obtaining up to $811 million in federal funding.

Under a potential grant funding, the federal governments grant would be capped at $766.5 million, meaning that NJ Transit and Amtrak would have to finance $1.65 billion, FTA officials said. In June 2018, New Jersey agreed to fund $600 million through state Economic Development Authority bonds for the states share.

The federal contribution is capped because the bridge is owned by and shared with Amtrak. The Federal Railroad Administration awarded another $55 million in federal funding to Amtrak for the project in February.

The aging bridge over the Hackensack River is a key choke point for NJ Transit and Amtrak trains heading from New Jersey to New Yorks Penn Station. More than 450 trains carrying nearly 200,000 passengers cross it every day.

The U.S. Coast Guard has banned the Portal Bridge from opening during the peak morning and afternoon commuting periods to avoid delaying commuters.

The state also will save money because this federal grant provides funding theyll up-front, instead of the state borrowing the money and being reimbursed, Corbett said.

We dont front the interest cost, so there is a savings to the state, he said.

Before NJ Transits board voted, members heard from supporters and critics of the project who contend a new two-track bridge wont move more people, because that is being done by multi-level rail cars NJ Transit uses or has ordered.

Increasing capacity is a criteria for being awarded a grant, said Joe Clift, a former Long Island Rail Road planning director and advocate.

The bridge increases capacity by zero. It is taking money from other services, he said. Portal Bridge hasnt been rebuilt in the last 25 years. NJ Transit pays Amtrak $85 million a year for Northeast Corridor maintenance. NJ Transit should just say spend it rebuilding Portal Bridge.

After the meeting, Corbett said if NJ Transit didnt meet the capacity criteria, the FTA wouldnt have let the project progress in the funding process.

Other speakers questioned if ridership would return to pre coronavirus levels, as employees continue to work from home and commute less. Corbett said that is an issue every transit system in the county is dealing with.

The project also had several supporters from Passengers United, a bi-state riders group

The bridge has had issues and theyre an example of why it needs replacement, said Matt Kamper, a Passengers United member. Im thrilled to see this project get done after many years.

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com.
Normally, which of course nothing is, the high drama in July of a Presidential election year centers on who the presumptive nominees will select as their Vice Presidential running mates. COVID-19 and civil unrest have instead dominated the national discourse, but with Democrats set to hold some variation of a nominating convention in about a month speculation is mounting on who Joe Biden will choose.

Should Biden be elected in November he will become the oldest person in American history to ascend to the presidency. That, coupled with growing concerns over his mental acuity, makes his Vice Presidential selection more meaningful that is typically the case.

Despite the obligatory bromides of having a running mate capable of becoming president on day one; Biden has chosen to play identity politics with his pick. Months ago he promised to select a woman. Such a selection would not be historic. Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman nominated for national office by a major party when she ran with Walter Mondale in 1984. And then Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was the first Republican woman when she ran with John McCain in 2008.

History is not on Joe Bidens mind, but checking the identity box is. Recent events have potentially narrowed that search to a Black female, although Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren remains a top contender as Biden attempts to pacify the ultra-Left wing of his party.

Not having ready from day one as the top criterion is deeply concerning given the very real possibility Biden may not be able to complete a full term. And, even if he does, he has already limited himself to one term making his pick the automatic front runner for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2024.

Ready from day one has often not been the foremost factor in Vice Presidential selections. The second slot has often been used to bind the party together after a hard-fought convention, as with the selection of Chester A. Arthur who was James A. Garfields running mate in 1880. The office has been used for electoral purposes, such as the selection of Texas Senator Lyndon B. Johnson who ran successfully with John F. Kennedy in 1960.

But Vice Presidents do, usually quite unexpectedly, become President. The first Vice President to be suddenly thrust into the chief executives role was John Tyler. William Henry Harrison had delivered a lengthy inaugural address in inclement March weather, became ill and died just one month into his term making his the shortest presidency in history.

The nations 12th president, Zachary Taylor succumbed to illness elevating Millard Fillmore to the presidency. Interestingly Taylor had never even met Fillmore until several days before their inauguration as they had been pared by delegates at the Whig national convention.

Of course, the first president to be assassinated was Abraham Lincoln. Lincolns first Vice President, Hannibal Hamlin, had been replaced on the 1864 ticket by Andrew Johnson. In historical retrospect that appears to have been a major mistake as Johnson became the first president to be impeached, escaping removal from office by just one vote.

Regrettably, other assassinations have followed. Just months into his term James A. Garfield was shot by a disgruntled office seeker. He lingered for several months before dying and passing the presidency to Arthur, who proved to be a capable if unremarkable replacement.

Likewise, William McKinley was felled by an assassins bullet in 1901 thus elevating Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency. Roosevelt became a major political force and is regarded as one of the nations better chief executives. Again in 1963 tragedy struck when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas and Lyndon B. Johnson finished the term and was then elected to one of his own.

Two other presidents passed away in office leaving the presidency to successors who are generally highly regarded. President Warren G. Harding died in August 1923 putting Calvin Coolidge in the White House. And, on April 12, 1945, just days into his fourth term, Franklin Roosevelt passed away, resulting in the presidency of Harry S. Truman.

The nation has been generally fortunate that accidental or unexpected presidencies have turned out reasonably well. Nobody can predict when again a Vice President will be called upon to lead the nation. Therefore identity, ideological, and even ticket-balancing politics should be set aside and ready from day one should be the penultimate criteria.

Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal and American Radio Journal. His e-mail address is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / After two and a half years of research, development, and testing, Vancouver based Horizontal Sleep is introducing a new, patented sleeping system that exceeds all other bed environmental and health standards. While almost beds are made with petroleum, polymers, plastics, chemicals, coils and carbon, HORIZONTAL is completely different. Its new bed/mattress is 99.8% biodegradable, made with replaceable parts, and designed to last a human lifetime. The change it heralds is certainly welcome.

THE NEED FOR CHANGE IS URGENT

The Bed and Mattress Industry is a major source of toxic pollution caused by near total reliance petroleum ingredients. In recent years, bed waste has exploded due to shorter product replacement cycles and marketing gimmicks. The Bed Industry, through the Better Sleep Council, the plethora of bed-in-a-box concepts, and large mattress chains, now makes beds intended to last less time than ever before. Product warranties are shorter and product returns have quadrupled. In the United States, nearly 10 billion pounds of mattress/bed waste is discarded every year. From 2010 to 2015 bed/mattress waste increased by 66% and it is accelerating. Western countries are now so overwhelmed, bed/mattress waste is surreptitiously exported worldwide by container to poor countries for dumping. The Bed Industry takes nearly no responsibility for the health and environmental catastrophe it has created.

Horizontal Sleep's breakthrough bed design directly addresses the alarming increase in toxic mattress and bed waste. If toxic beds can be eliminated, illness and environmental harm can be vastly reduced. Horizontal's positive impact will be felt well beyond the bedroom. Following Horizontal's lead, it will become possible to significantly reduce exposure to the petroleum based plastic products and the shadowy fire retardants that fill our homes and characterize our petroleum-soaked lifestyles.

HORIZONTAL REDEFINES WHAT IS ACCEPTABLE

By introducing Four Biophilic design standards to consumer product design, Horizontal redefines what is acceptable for human health and environmental safety in the bedroom.

Horizontal Sleep's founder Len Laycock says, "Design has to provide responsible solutions. It has to consider all the stakeholders. Horizontal provides a holistic solution for sleeping well in the time of Climate Breakdown." He explains that Horizontal innovates on four needed product attributes:

1. 99.8% BIODEGRADABLE

The presence of DNA in our materials confirms they are: 1) Created by biological processes. 2) Already a design approved by Nature. 3) Contain valuable nutrients for future life. 4) Safely biodegrade. 5) Are not toxic petrochemicals.

2. REPLACEABLE PARTS

Horizontal aims to end consumer 'throwawayism'. Would you throw away a bicycle because it had a flat tire? Of course not. Replaceable parts extend longevity and anticipate future innovations. The Right to Repair supports the economic and environmental security of all people. The company's eco-engineering and natural material choices make planned obsolescence, obsolete!

3. LASTS A LIFETIME

With Climate Breakdown upon us, all consumer products must be re-thought and re-conceived to reduce carbon and last longer. If consumption does not decrease, reducing carbon and methane emission will be impossible. We have to live with less, and live with better. A well-made bed that can be maintained and restored for all the days of your life means Horizontal may be the last bed you ever purchase.

4. ECO LUXURY

The Horizontal bed is so well made its comfort compares favorably too far more expensive beds like Duxiana, Hastens and Naturepedic. Unlike almost all beds, its design is lean, focused on optimal spine alignment and superior air flow from below. All materials are natural, carefully vetted, and there are no metal parts. Innovative bedding makes it easier to make the bed, with fitted sheets that simply and quickly button in place, and stay in place. Horizontal is a complete sleeping system that lowers the entry price for eco-luxury, and by virtue of its longevity, actually costs less than lower priced bed over a lifetime of enjoyment.

ABOUT HORIZONTAL SLEEP LTD

Horizontal is a consumer product technology startup dedicated to reducing consumption and solving problems caused by Climate Breakdown, of which sleep is one. The well-being, health and environmental safety of humans, their happiness, the protection of wild life and wild spaces, the integrity of Earth's air, water and soil are all paramount and interdependent, because in this 21st century, you can't sustain any one of these without the others. Accordingly, our business model considers all of these as our stakeholders.

The company has developed special expertise in the fields of natural material solutions, industrial design, manufacturing, marketing and sleep. The company has nurtured a network of technical resources to support its goals, including a successful association with University of British Columbia Wood Sciences Faculty and an international network extending to Europe, Asia and the United States. Horizontal Sleep Ltd was founded by Len Laycock, former Marketing Director of IKEA, entrepreneur, environmentalist and lover of good sleep.

Contact:

Len Laycock, Founder & CEO

Horizontal Sleep Ltd.

len@horizontal.eco

+1 604 657 9191

www.horizontal.eco

SOURCE: Horizontal Sleep

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/599107/Canadian-Company-Creates-Worlds-First-Biodegradable-Bed
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

Up to 300 members of the Azerbaijani community in the UK held a peaceful rally in London against the latest provocation by Armenia against Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

The action took place in front of the BBCs London office. Azerbaijanis, using loudspeakers, chanted the slogans "Enough!", "End of the Armenian aggression!" and sang the State Anthem of Azerbaijan.

Then the protesters walked along the Trafalgar Square, in front of the Prime Ministers Office of the UK, going to the parliament building chanting "We want peace!", "We want justice!", "Karabakh is ours, and it will be ours!" Peaceful demonstrators drew attention to acts of violence by Armenians against Azerbaijanis in Los Angeles, saying it is important to put an end to such violent provocations.

They held another action in front of the building of the UK Parliament, where, focusing on the Azerbaijani realities, they demanded an end to the aggression of Armenia. Then the participants of the action sang the Azerbaijani national "Sari Galin" song.

In order to ensure security, police officers and representatives of private security companies were brought into the territory. In front of the BBC Office, a group of no more than 50 people from the Armenian community of the UK tried to disrupt the action, but considering the numerical superiority of Azerbaijanis, as well as the security measures taken, they refrained from their intentions.
By Aanchal Aggarwal and Rajesh Sinha

As India continues to grapple with the unprecedented humanitarian crisis due to the pandemic COVID-19, Grameen Mittras, working as our front line workers have emerged victorious for their fellow community members in the Bhandara district of Maharashtra. These women have turned this moment of crisis into an opportunity and have exemplified unwavering spirit and determination by offering financial and non-financial service to their communities.

Recruited, trained and supervised by Grameen Foundation India (GFI), Grameen Mittras are social entrepreneurs, providing a range of valuable financial and non- financial services to the community, such as Goal Based Saving, Financial Capability, Digital Literacy, Bill Payment, Mobile & DTH Recharge, Government to Citizen services, Solar Products and Access to finance. There are 28 Grameen Mittras serving more than 2,000 households across the Bhandara district of Maharashtra. Due to their strenuous efforts, these women have been able to record a landmark

number of transactions (INR 2.2 million) in the months of April and May, 2020 proving further, how important their contribution has been towards their communities in this pandemic.

Asha Bisen works as Grameen Mittra in the Rengepar village of Sakoli block in Bhandara. In her own words, I wanted to be a Grameen Mittra to earn and financially support my household. In the process of being self sufficient, I also get to support the most vulnerable in this pandemic.

She recalls when an elderly woman from the community knocked at her door for the first time amidst COVID-19 and asked her if she could help her withdraw the funds from her PMJDY account. She was in dire-straits and needed to withdraw the money from her bank account but couldnt travel to city due to lockdown. People were anxious in the village and needed money stuck in their account but none of them could travel to the nearby bank due to the lockdown. It was that moment, I decided to recontinue my business. She ensured that everybody wore a mask,

maintained social distance and washed hands with soap prior to availing the services at her doorstep. Ashas case underscores the situation of many of the Grameen Mittras who had their moment of reckoning during this pandemic and were successful in winning over the communitys trust. Their timely support and role during this pandemic have made them a critical part of the communities ecosystem and it has added to their self-esteem, more than ever.

Facilitating Financial Services

Grameen Mittras have been the mainstay of the community for accessing the financial services during this pandemic. They have conducted close to 10,000 transactions during April  May 2020 and have served close to 3700 unique customers. A granular look at the pattern of usage of the services accessed through Grameen Mittras unveil that highly demanded services are - Withdrawal, Direct Money Transfer and Mobile or DTH recharge. The lockdown turned people towards Grameen Mittras for accessing financial services and women like Asha saw their businesses grow during this phase.

Asha Bisen shares how her business has evolved and more people have started coming to her doorstep to avail financial services. Earlier I was providing services to about 30 percent of the villagers but now I provides service to 70 percent of the village, said Asha. The pandemic has forced the rural communities gravitate towards Digital Financial Services.

The courageous act of Grameen Mittras of putting themselves in the centre-stage amidst this pandemic to serve people has helped them gain dignity within their household and community. Ashas husband aptly sums it, She is remarkable. She took best decision to become Grameen Mittra and now I am confident that she will guide our kids too to make the best of themselves.

Averting Crisis

Like the rest of the world, the pandemic threw the rural communities into an unchartered territory and the need of awareness about precautionary measures was more than ever. Concept of social distancing, wearing masks, regularly washing hands were alien to them. In such a scenario, Grameen Mittras played a pivotal role in delivering the behaviour change communication at the community level. Many of these Grameen Mittras used art as means to storytelling and drew Rangoli in their veranda or public places with messages on how to stay safe in these

times. Many of these Mittras also used the opportunity to help their communities further by stitching and selling masks, Mittras distributed masks for free to PWDs(Person with Disabilities) & senior citizens.

Asha Bisen offering services through her system set up in a field for peoples access

At a time, when the world is fighting COVID-19 and people are left tattered, when social distancing is a part of culture and banking is accelerated more towards digital modes, Grameen Mittras continue to be relevant for expanding the net of formal financial services and women economic empowerment.

(Aanchal Aggarwal is a Research Analyst and Rajesh Sinha is the Project Manager at Grameen Foundation India)
(miningmx.com) - Lucara Diamond Corporation has agreed to sell about 70% of its rough diamonds from its Karowe mine in Botswana to Antwerp-based manufacturer, HB Group, in an effort to cushion the impact of poor rough diamond prices. The deal is for exclusive supply of Karowes high value goods in excess of 10.8 carats which comprise the majority of recoveries from the mine. HB Group, co-founded by diamantaire, Oded Mansori, was Lucaras partner, along with Louis Vuitton, in a co-ownership of the Sewelo diamond, a significant discovery from Karowe akin in size to the mines totemic Lesedi la Rona diamond  one of the largest rough diamonds to have been recovered in the last 100 years.
Wavestone's closed Combined Ordinary and Extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting was held on Tuesday July 28, 2020 under the chairmanship of Michel Dancoisne, Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

The voting results for each resolution submitted to the Shareholders' Meeting for approval will be made available on the Company's website at www.wavestone.com (section Investors, Annual general meetings) within the statutory time frame.

Approval of the non-payment of dividends for 2019/20 fiscal year

Wavestone shareholders adopted the twenty resolutions submitted for their approval, notably concerning the annual and consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020 and the proposed appropriation of profits.

As a reminder, in view of the uncertainties related to the Covid-19 pandemic and the adoption of furlough measures, it was proposed not to distribute dividends for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020.

About Wavestone

In a world where knowing how to drive transformation is the key to success, Wavestone's mission is to inform and guide large companies and organizations in their most critical transformations, with the ambition of a positive outcome for all stakeholders. That's what we call "The Positive Way."

Wavestone draws on some 3,000 employees across 8 countries. It is a leading independent player in the European consulting market.

Wavestone is listed on Euronext Paris and recognized as a Great Place to Work.

Wavestone

Pascal IMBERT

Chief Executive Officer

Tel.: +33 (0)1 49 03 20 00

Sarah LAMIGEON

Communications Director

Tel.: +33 (0)1 49 03 20 00 Actus

Financial news

Mathieu OMNES

Analyst & investor relations

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 92

Nicolas BOUCHEZ

Press relations

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Materials scientists at Rice University and the University of Pennsylvania are calling for a collective, global effort to fast-track the mass production of 2D materials like graphene and molybdenum disulfide.

In a perspective article published online in Materials Today, journal editor-in-chief Jun Lou and colleagues make a case for a focused, collective effort to address the research challenges that could clear the way for large-scale mass production of 2D materials.

Lou and fellow Rice materials scientists Ming Tang, Jing Zhang and Fan Wang joined Penn's Vivek Shenoy in describing the potential transformation in 2D materials technology that could result from a systematic, communitywide effort to map the shapes of the 2D crystals that are being grown in labs worldwide via a process known as chemical vapor deposition (CVD).

"Like snowflakes in nature, 2D crystals exhibit a rich variety of morphologies under different growth conditions," they wrote.

Mapping these unique crystal patterns and compiling the maps in a global database, alongside the recipes for creating each pattern, could unlock a wealth of information "for understanding, diagnosing and controlling the CVD process and environment for 2D material growth," the researchers wrote.

CVD is a commonly used process for creating thin films, including commercially important materials in the semiconductor industry. In a typical CVD reaction, a flat sheet of material called a substrate is placed in a reaction chamber and gases are flowed through the chamber in such a way that they react and form a solid film atop the substrate.

One goal of the field is developing computer software that can accurately predict the properties of a thin film that will result from the mixing of specific reactant gases under specific conditions. Creating such models is complicated by both an incomplete understanding of the physical and chemical processes that take place during CVD and by the existence of dozens of CVD reactor formats.

Cataloging the shape of crystals produced by CVD experiments could provide materials scientists with important information about their synthesis, in much the same way that mineralogists retrieve valuable clues about the history of Earth based on examination of naturally occurring crystal structures, Lou and colleagues suggested.

"Take the beautiful snowflakes as an example," the authors wrote. "A perhaps surprising fact to many is that snow crystals can exhibit many different categories of shapes, which depend on the temperature and water supersaturation of the atmosphere in which they are formed."

The Japanese scientist Ukichiro Nakaya, through extensive observations of snowflakes in both nature and the laboratory, developed a figure known as the Nakaya diagram to help decipher the information in snowflakes. By examining the shapes in a snowflake, and seeing where those shapes lie on Nakaya's diagram, scientists can determine the exact atmospheric conditions that produced the snowflake, which Nakaya poetically referred to as "a letter from the sky."

Inspired by Nakaya's work, Lou and colleagues created a Nakaya-like diagram of 2D crystal patterns that have been produced via CVD and demonstrated how it and other morphology diagrams could be used to infer clues about process variables like gas flow rates and heating temperatures that produced each pattern.

Thanks to advances in real-time imaging and in automated systems that can produce large datasets of crystal structures, the authors said there is "real potential for morphology diagram development to become a common practice and serve as a cornerstone of crystal growth."
(Newser)  President Trump and Rep. John Lewis, the late civil rights icon, didn't exactly get along. So it's perhaps not surprising that the president revealed Monday he won't be paying respects to Lewis as he lies in state. "No, I won't be going, no," Trump told reporters regarding Lewis' memorial services, per USA Today. Lewis' body will remain at the Capitol for six days of funeral proceedings; VP Mike Pence and his wife attended Monday night's public viewing, reports People, which calls Trump "notably absent." Trump departed Washington on Monday to visit a North Carolina facility working on a coronavirus vaccine. Politico runs down Trump's history of paying respects to political opponents, including John McCain. (Read more President Trump stories.)
Honda Motor Southern Africa is donating high quality, reliable, mobile generators to support South African healthcare services during the Covid-19 pandemic.

L to R: Letitia Herold (Marketing & PR Manager, Honda Motor Southern Africa), Emily Thomas (Events Coordinator, Gift of the Givers Foundation), Dinesh Govender (General Manager, Automobiles and Corporate, Honda Motor Southern Africa), Clara Matanhu (Warehouse Manager, Gift of the Givers Foundation), Rayhaan Sooliman (Operations Director, Gift of the Givers Foundation)

The project, operated in partnership with the Gift of the Givers Foundation, will make generators available to clinics and hospitals as and when required, to alleviate the impact of power disruptions on the quality and availability of urgent medical care.The Gift of the Givers Foundation is a non-governmental disaster response organisations in Africa. Gift of the Givers will coordinate the logistics involved in moving the generators to health services locations in need.The generators are robust, low-weight and fully mobile, allowing for the provision of emergency generation capacity at comparatively short notice. Each generator can power a range of essential equipment for 5.8 hours of continuous operation.Dinesh Govender, general manager of Corporate and Automobiles at Honda Motor Southern Africa, has lauded Gift of the Givers for its assistance: "We understand that the world - and South Africa - faces unprecedented challenges as a result of the pandemic. We all have to do what we can to assist one another, especially when we're dealing with issues of life and death. Having emergency generating capacity available at the right time and place will save lives, and Honda is very grateful to be able to make a contribution."Gift of the Givers founder, Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman, emphasises the cumulative effect of individual contributions: "Hospitals are facing a serious surge in demand due to the impact of Covid-19.Having reliable electricity is absolutely critical. These generators supplied by Honda will allow us to respond to hospital requests as the need arises, multiplying the impact of the donation in terms of lives saved."
A Rwandan genocide victims' association has urged French authorities to arrest former military official Aloys Ntiwiragabo, accused of playing a key role in the 1994 genocide. Anti-terrorism prosecutors on Saturday decided to open a preliminary investigation after journalists tracked the 72-year-old down in the French city of Orleans.

Theo Englebert, author of the story published on the Mediapart website on Saturday, explained that former Rwandan military official Aloys Ntiwiragabo was found living in the suburbs of Orleans, a city 110 kilometres south of Paris.

Englebert told Rwanda's The New Times newspaper that Ntiwiragabo was traced through his wife, Catherine Nikuze, who was granted asylum in France in 1999 and later took the name Tibot, which appears on the intercom of Ntiwiragabo's apartment.

Head of military intelligence

Major-General Aloys Ntiwiragabo was Rwanda's head of military intelligence from June 1993 to July 1994 and a member of the group known as 'Akazu' which orchestrated the 1994 genocide.

In a list of accusations in 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) cited Ntiwiragabo as one of a group of eleven people who from "the end of 1990 until July 1994...made plans to exterminate Tutsis and eliminate members of the opposition in order to stay in power".

Mediapart suggests that the opening of an official inquiry into Ntiwiragabo's role in the genocide might lead to further questioning from French courts.

In a press release published on Friday, genocide victims support group Ibuka- France urged authorities in France to arrest Ntiwiragabo in what they describe is a long overdue case.

"Why was Ntiwiragabo able to get visas for France from the consulates in Niamey and Khartoum in 2001 when he was wanted by the ICTR at the time?" they ask.

Following the Rwandan genocide in which at least 800,000 people were killed in the space of three months, Ntiwiragabo fled to Zaire (now DR Congo) then to Kenya. He reportedly took refuge in South Sudan, before coming to France.

According to Mediapart, Ntiwiragabo founded the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a militia group still active across central Africa.

A book of secrets

In July 2019, Ntiwiragabo published a book (in French) recounting the events of the turbulent 1990s, based on his eye witness accounts and military documents.

Dozens of people connected to the genocide are believed to be living in France, with the knowledge of the authorities, according to the Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR), a rights group which has worked to bring genocide suspects to court for nearly two decades.

One of those suspects, the man accused of financing the genocide, is Felicien Kabuga, who was arrested in France in May.

The appeals court ruled in June that Kabuga could face the international court, but the case has now been transferred to the final appeals court in France, with a hearing set for 2 September.

Ibuka-France says they hope French President Emmanuel Macron will keep his word when it comes to taking legal steps against those suspected of genocide.

In his address during the ceremony marking Rwandan national day on 4 July, Macron reassured his counterpart Paul Kagame, that "all Rwandan genocide suspects would be brought to justice".


Former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Former J&K Chief Minister and National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah on Tuesday took to Twitter to say that he has not demanded statehood to be restored for Jammu and Kashmir, but said that having been the Chief Minister of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, he will not contest an Assembly election in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Omar dared journalists and commentators to show him where he had demanded restoration of statehood for J&K. In a series of tweets Omar said: "I have no problem being disagreed with for what I say or do but when you invent things and put words in my mouth to attack me, then that's more about you than about me. All you lazy journalists and commentators please show me where I have demanded statehood be restored." "I have simply said that having been CM of the state of J&K, I will not fight an assembly election to the assembly of the UT of J&K. That's it. No more no less! That's a far cry from saying I'm demanding statehood be restored," he said. In another tweet, Omar Abdullah said, "Haters will hate and nothing will change that. There are few people I expected better but disappointment is part of politics and one has learnt to live with it. Life goes on." Ive simply said that having been CM of the STATE of J&K I will not fight an assembly election to the assembly of the UT of J&K. Thats it. No more no less! Thats a far cry from saying Im demanding statehood be restored.  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) July 28, 2020

Ive simply said that having been CM of the STATE of J&K I will not fight an assembly election to the assembly of the UT of J&K. Thats it. No more no less! Thats a far cry from saying Im demanding statehood be restored.  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) July 28, 2020

Haters will hate & nothing will change that. There are a few people from whom I expected better but disappointment is part of politics & one has learnt to live with it. Life goes on.  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) July 28, 2020

The tweets came a day after Omar Abdullah broke his silence for the first time after the abrogation of Article 370 last year, by reportedly saying that he won't contest Assembly elections till statehood is restored and that there was no constitutional, legal or economic justification for what was done to J&K on August 5, 2019. Meanwhile, National Conference leader Ruhullah Mehdi has resigned from the post of chief spokesperson of the party. Mehdi said in a tweet: "I have sent across my resignation from the post of chief spokesperson of JKNC. From here on my statements should be considered as such."




Zareen Khan says people still assume Salman Khan helps her find work: "I cannot be a monkey on his back"
OKLAHOMA CITY -- By the time they turn 65, at least half of people suffer from osteoarthritis, a condition that impairs quality of life and cannot be slowed by medication.

Matlock Jeffries, M.D., an OU College of Medicine researcher and physician, recently received a $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to further his search for a biomarker that can aid in the early diagnosis of osteoarthritis and predict whether the condition will worsen quickly or slowly.

Many people view osteoarthritis as a "wear and tear" condition, but it is actually an inflammatory disease, Jeffries said. However, unlike other forms of arthritis, it cannot be diagnosed by a blood test, nor can anyone tell how quickly symptoms will worsen. By contrast, rheumatoid arthritis, which affects about 1% of the population, can be definitively diagnosed and treated by at least 20 disease-slowing biologic drugs.

"We need an earlier diagnostic test to help us determine whether a patient has osteoarthritis and, if they have early osteoarthritis, are they going to be among the one-third of people who will rapidly progress and need a joint replacement in the next couple of years? Or are they going to be part of the much larger group that is going to slowly worsen over time?" Jeffries said.

For this research project, Jeffries is focusing on osteoarthritis of the knee. His research is important not only because people need to be diagnosed earlier than they currently are, but his discoveries may significantly benefit the search for a treatment -- which could be given before a person reaches the point of needing a knee replacement.

Although several drugs are being investigated, clinical trials are difficult to conduct because osteoarthritis doesn't progress at the same rate in all people, Jeffries said. Some may come to the doctor with a lot of pain but no change in their X-rays, while others will have both pain and X-ray changes. Others will have pain but no X-ray changes for a decade. X-rays are effective for determining how much cartilage the knees have lost, but not for predicting how fast the disease will worsen, he said.

"Researchers have developed several drugs for osteoarthritis that need to be moved to clinical trials," he said. "The problem is, if you can't start the clinical trial with a group of patients you know are going to get worse relatively quickly, your trial is going to last for 20 years, which is far too long."

That's where Jeffries' research niche serves a crucial purpose. His laboratory largely focuses on osteoarthritis and epigenetics, the study of how genes are turned off and on over a long period of time. Epigenetic changes are one of the earliest signs that a disease is changing its features. In a preliminary study, Jeffries found that epigenetic patterns differed between people with osteoarthritis whose condition progressed quickly vs. those whose condition progressed slowly.

"That study backed up our hypothesis that you see epigenetic changes first, then you see other signs of the disease," he said. "It gives us a biomarker to predict how soon people will see a progression of their osteoarthritis,"

With his new grant, Jeffries will seek to confirm his findings in a much larger group of patients. If his research is successful, it will speed the search for an effective drug. Until that time, he would like the ability to tell his patients how quickly they can expect their condition to worsen.

Osteoarthritis in the No. 1 cause of disability in the United States, and it is rising as a disability cause in other parts of the world because people everywhere, as in the United States, are becoming more obese, Jeffries said.

"Many patients with osteoarthritis can't walk anymore and they have a variety of other conditions, like hypertension and diabetes," he said. "It's a catch-22 for osteoarthritis patients because their diabetes and hypertension would get better if they could exercise and lose weight, but they can't exercise and lose weight because they have osteoarthritis."

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OU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE

Founded in 1910, the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine trains the next generation of healthcare professionals. With campuses in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, the College of Medicine offers the state's only Doctor of Medicine degree program and a nationally competitive Physician Assistant program. For more information, visit oumedicine.com/collegeofmedicine.

OU MEDICINE

OU Medicine -- along with its academic partner, the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center -- is the state's only comprehensive academic health system of hospitals, clinics and centers of excellence. With 11,000 employees and more than 1,300 physicians and advanced practice providers, OU Medicine is home to Oklahoma's largest physician network with a complete range of specialty care. OU Medicine serves Oklahoma and the region with the state's only freestanding children's hospital, the only National Cancer Institute-Designated Stephenson Cancer Center and Oklahoma's flagship hospital, which serves as the state's only Level 1 trauma center. OU Medicine is the No. 1 ranked hospital system in Oklahoma, and its oncology program at Stephenson Cancer Center and OU Medical Center ranked in the Top 50 in the nation, in the 2019-2020 rankings released by U.S. News & World Report. OU Medicine was also ranked by U.S. News & World Report as high performing in four specialties: Ophthalmology in partnership with Dean McGee Eye Institute, Colon Surgery, COPD and Congestive Heart Failure. OU Medicine's mission is to lead healthcare in patient care, education and research. To learn more, visit oumedicine.com.
New Delhi:

Lok Sabha witnessed a virtual washout for the fifth consecutive day on Wednesday as government and opposition parties continued to clash over the demonetisation issue and the rule under which a debate should take place on it, with the former ruling out any provision of voting in the discussion.

Opposition members, including those from Congress, TMC, RJD, CPI(M) and BJD, besides SAD and Shiv Sena, both part of the ruling NDA, expressed their views in the House when it assembled at noon after one adjournment, with the Sena changing its stance on demonetisation and sparing the government of embarrassment by praising the move and supporting its stand that the debate be held under Rule 193, which does not entail voting.

Sena had been critical of the demonetisation move and its members even joined a TMC-led protest march to the President last week, but softened their stand after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.

The House saw continued protests by Opposition members soon after it assembled for the day, with Congress and TMC MPs trooping into the Well, forcing its adjournment first till noon and later for the day.

Speaking soon after the House was reconvened at noon, Mallikarjun Kharge (Cong) said they were ready for a discussion under Rule 56, which entails voting.

But a message has gone out that the opposition is not ready for discussion. People are distressed, people are at pain and we want to discuss their problems. What we want is that the Prime Minister should be present here. You (Speaker) should allow us the adjournment motion, he said.

Modi was present in the House briefly during Question Hour, during which only one question could be taken up amid the oppositions din which led to the first adjournment.

Taking a dig at the Prime Minister, Kharge said it is being told outside Parliament that a few people are supporting black money. But the fact is that ruling party is supporting black money and not allowing the discussion to take place in the House.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the government is willing to discuss the issue any time and it may not be a short duration debate but could go on for 1-2-3 days.

If the opposition offers any constructive suggestion, we will heed to it, implement it. We have launched a campaign against black money, fake currency and corruption and people of India are supporting Modi, Kumar said.

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University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has once again been recognized as the nations best cancer hospital by U.S. News & World Report, whose annual rankings also selected other Houston hospitals among the top in the state and nation.

The newly released rankings, which are based on pre-COVID data from nearly 5,000 medical centers across the country, also recognized TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospitals No. 3 ranking for rehabilitation, and MD Andersons No. 6 ranking for urology and No. 4 ranking for ear, nose and throat. The Menninger Clinic ranked No. 9 for psychiatry, a drop from 5th place last year.

Houston Methodist also held its placement on the national stage, coming in 20th in the publishing companys Honor Roll rankings, and still represents the only Texas Medical Center hospital to ever make that list since it began 31 years ago . Honor roll hospitals are considered medical facilities that deliver "exceptional care for complex cases across specialties, as well as recognizes hospitals by state, metro and regional areas for their work in 10 more widely performed procedures and conditions," according to the U.S. News and Health report.

Additionally, Texas Childrens Hospital ranked fourth on the childrens hospitals nationwide Honor Roll this year and ranked No. 1 in pediatric cardiology and heart surgery categories for the fourth consecutive year.

Despite its presence in the national rankings, the Menninger Clinic has continued to lose its footing on the psychiatry list falling from the No. 5 spot it held in 2018 and 2019, and the No. 3 spot in 2017. Changes in rank could reflect, in part, the actual changes or physicians perceived changes in the quality of an institution, among other considerations.

Yet, Menningers inclusion on the list still demonstrates its strength as a psychiatric treatment center, and it has continued to hold a position in the national top 10 rankings for three decades. Rankings fluctuate, said Ben Harder, managing editor and chief of health analysis at U.S. News. On the whole, I wouldnt want readers to make too much of the differences from year-to-year.

Harder also said any hospital that scores a ranking on this list is considered the cream of the crop.

As the only psychiatric hospital representing Texas and the South on the list, being ranked among the nations best reflects the quality of care that patients can expect from Menninger, the clinic said in an email.

For MD Anderson, the fight against cancer has continued for nearly 80 years, with physicians treating more rare cancers in a single day than most see in a lifetime, a news release from the hospital said. The hospital has spent 16 of the last 19 years in first place for cancer care in U.S. News yearly rankings  perhaps a product of its more than 1,360 clinical trials and 22,000 cancer experts.

We know cancer doesnt stop  even during a global pandemic, said Dr. Peter WT Pisters, MD Andersons president, in the news release. Our constant focus continues to be on advancing our efforts in cancer care, research, prevention and education.

When looking at statewide rankings, Houston medical centers also continue to have a strong showing on the Texas Top 20 List.

Houston Methodist Hospital ranked first in the state for the ninth consecutive year.

Baylor St. Lukes Medical Center ranked No. 3, Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center ranked No. 5, Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital ranked No. 6, and Memorial Hermann Greater Heights Hospital came in at No. 9.

Our showing on U.S. News rankings is tremendous to see, especially during a year that has been exceptionally difficult for health care workers, said Dr. Marc Boom, president and CEO of Houston Methodist, in a letter to staff.

Houston Methodist improved its national rankings from last year in pulmonology and lung surgery, going from No. 24 to No. 20, and in orthopedics, going from No. 14 to No. 13. The hospital ranked in 11 specialties this year, up from nine in 2019.

Its a little glimmer of good news, added Stefanie Asin, director of public relations for the hospital.

This is the 31st year that U.S. News has released their national and statewide hospital rankings, and while the rankings aim to help patients make important choices about where to receive care, they may also serve as a stronger marketing tool for hospitals than as choice indicators for consumers.

This year, the rankings did not take into account the COVID-19 pandemic, a news release from the organization said. U.S. News instead relied on data collected pre-COVID, and rankings were based on their typical methodologyrisk-adjusted survival and discharge-to-home rates, volume, and quality of nursing, among others.

Even though the pandemic has undoubtedly put pressure on many hospital systems across the nation, Harder suggested that the pandemics impact will likely not be reflected in the data until about 2022. Their calculations rely heavily on Medicare data, Harder said, and next years rankings will still be based on data through December 2019.

However, U.S. News has already begun to talk with hospitals and researchers about potential considerations and changes when assessing medical centers in the post-COVID years, Harder said.
BROOKFIELD  Students first day of school will now be Sept. 8, giving teachers and staff more time to train and prepare for the academic year during the coronavirus.

School officials recently went over a series of changes outlined in the districts reopening plan, including requiring face masks, having bagged lunches at desks and replacing tables with desks for learning. Technology and online resources will also play a much bigger role throughout the whole year.

We dont want to find ourselves put in a situation like we were last year where it was just like an amputation from school, said Assistant Superintendent Maureen Ruby.

The plan outlines all three models required by the state, which cover a full return to the classroom, remote learning and a hybrid of the two. The hybrid would only have half of the students on Mondays and Tuesdays, everyone remote learning on Wednesday and the other half in person on Thursdays and Fridays. Parents will be able to keep their children home regardless of the model in place.

Brookfield is expecting to offer synchronous learning using private Zoom links and Google classrooms, giving students the ability to do small group work together, whether they are home or in the physical classroom. They already invested in more devices so students can be connected.

If someone in the school tests positive for the coronavirus, the building will have to be shut for at least two to five days while the buildings are cleaned and to help with contact tracing. This will push everyone into the remote-learning model. Parents and staff will be immediately notified of a confirmed case, though who tested positive wont be shared.

About 81 percent of parents plan to send their children to school, with 19 percent planning to keep their children home, according to 1,700 or so parent survey responses the district received. About 59 percent said they would use the buses and the remainder said they would drive them.

The state is requiring buses be at full capacity, but encouraging parents to drive their own children. Buses will be cleaned between each run and loaded from back to front.

Were doing all of these good things and then putting them on buses where they cant be one foot apart, let alone three, said Debbie Brooks, a board member.

Parents will be sent another survey to see if they plan to send their children to school or use the bus to better help the district fine-tune the plan.

Were developing everything on those numbers, said Superintendent John Barile.

There will also be individual question and answer sessions set up for parents with each of the schools.

Keeping at least 3 to 6 feet between students and wearing masks are the key elements to preventing the spread of the coronavirus and keeping everyone safe during the school day. Families will provide masks for students and the district will provide three masks for staff  one to wear, one to wash and an extra. There will also be extras on hand in case people forget to bring one.

Additional hand sanitizer and dispensers have also already been purchased.

Brookfield is looking at spending more than $728,000 to be able to reopen in the fall. This includes hiring additional monitors for lunch and isolation rooms, getting additional custodians to meet the increased cleaning requirements, purchasing gloves for when materials have to be shared, buying partitions, additional white boards, materials, carts, webcams and a UV sanitizer.

It also includes desk shields, which would be used as an extra defense, not in place of face masks. Theyre for the lower grades where students will eat at lunch at their desks and have the quick mask breaks.

School and town officials are looking at how to cover these costs, as well as renting desks instead of purchasing them. Theyre already planning on renting instead of buying some things because its only for the current coronavirus needs.

Officials are still looking at ventilation and how to safely move students throughout the building at the high school.

Specials, such as art and music, will now be offered in clusters instead of throughout the year to minimize the contact those teachers have at one time.

In addition to the physical coroanavirus guidelines, the schools are also taking a different approach to learning at the beginning of the school year.

We are not going to bring children back into school and jump into the academic year the way we typically do, Ruby said. Students have been out of school. They have been isolated to varying degrees  separated from their friends, separated from their activities and separated from their schools.

This includes more of a focus on the social and emotional wellbeing of students and staff, as well as building relationships within classes. Ruby said these relationships will be even more important this year if learning has to go remote and with students remaining remote the whole year, regardless of which model is in place.

These relationships are especially true for kindergartners who are new to the school model and so classes will be split between afternoon and morning sessions to reduce the number, but still give them a chance to be in the classroom.

If there was ever a place where the relationships are critically important, its in kindergarten, Ruby said. It will be much more appropriate for our educators to be able to build strong, caring, nurturing relationships  albeit not with hugs with eight to 10 children in the classroom, as opposed to 20 children in the classroom.

kkoerting@newstimes.com
Bengaluru, July 28 : Karnataka has registered 5,536 new Covid positive cases, raising the state's tally to 1,07,001, even as 102 more patients succumbed to the virus with the toll breaching the 2,000 mark, said an official on Tuesday.

As many as 102 patients succumbed to the virus in the past 24 hours, increasing the southern state's toll to 2,055.

"New cases reported from Monday 5 p.m. to Tuesday 5 p.m., 5,536," said a health official.

Bengaluru Urban continues to be the epicentre of infections in the state, accounting for 1,898 new, resulting in the total number of cases rising to 48,821, out of which 35,102 are active.

Similarly, cases also spiked in Ballari with 452 infections.

Among the new cases in other places, Kalaburagi accounted for 283, followed by Belagavi (228), Mysuru (220), Tumkur (207), Kolar (174) and Dakshina Kannada (173) among others.

Meanwhile, a record number of 2,819 patients have been discharged, lifting the total number of discharges to 40,504.

Of the 1.07 lakh cases, 64,434 are active.
In recent months, the former Westlake facility had been designated as an alternate care site for COVID-19 patients if other hospitals ran out of room. But Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in April Westlake and several other sites had not been turned on yet because they werent needed.
Georgia has reported 8 new cases of the coronavirus today, which is the decrease in the number of cases compared to the last week.

Four of the eight new cases are imported (two of the four are truck drivers), one is a medical personnel, one is from Lilo open market in Tbilisi, one is from Gchiani settlement of Gardabani municipality (eastern Georgia), while the remaining one does not know how he contracted the virus.

As of today 202 people remain infected with COVID-19 in the country, 927 of the 1,145 patients have recovered, while 16 others have died.

Georgia has had 1,145 cases of the coronavirus since February 26, 2020, Agenda.ge reported.

Last week Georgia reported 24 new cases of the coronavirus which was the highest figure since June. However, the figures are going down again.



Kharajalari village in Gardabani municipality remains in lockdown. Vendors of Lilo open market, where many Gardabani inhabitants are employed, have been tested for the coronavirus. The government is monitoring all open markets around the country to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus.
Floridas state-run insurer Citizens Property Insurance Corp. will extend its moratorium on cancellations and nonrenewals until the end of 2020 despite saying earlier this month it would resume processing them on Aug. 15.

The decision comes after Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis urged the insurer not to cancel customer policies during hurricane season and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Hurricane season is just beginning to heat up and we are in the middle of an unprecedented health and economic crisis. This is not the time to cancel Citizens home insurance policies, Patronis said in a public statement released by his office, the Florida Department of Financial Services, on July 24.

The insurer originally announced in an agent bulletin July 9 that it would resume the processing of cancellations and nonrenewals beginning Aug. 15, 2020, after imposing a moratorium in March to address a significant uptick in the percentage of premiums not paid by the due date.

Citizens reported that figure has since fallen to pre-COVID-19 levels, and now stands at 7.5%.

Patronis noted that what policyholders owe must still be paid, but cancelling their policies during hurricane season should not be an option.

Faced with the uncertainty of COVID-19, Citizens in March took steps we believed were in the best financial interest of our policyholders. Likewise, the decision to end the temporary moratorium on August 15 was made with our policyholders best financial interests in mind, Gilway said on Friday in response to Patronis statement.

Gilway added that the insurer would work with its board and other stakeholders to do whats best for our customers in these challenging times, and on July 25 announced it would extend the moratorium on cancellations and nonrenewals until the end of 2020.

Citizens Board of Governors Chairman Bo Rivard said the rapidly changing Florida landscape warranted a re-evaluation of plans made in early July to end the moratorium August 15.

COVID-19 has been a moving target and I agree that at this time it makes good sense to extend the moratorium until the end of the year, Rivard said.

Gilway said since it enacted the moratorium, Citizens has put together special payment arrangements to assist customers still affected by COVID-19, including allowing policyholders who typically pay premiums on a quarterly or annual basis the option of breaking up payments into smaller installments.

Our top priority has been and will continue to be our policyholders, Gilway said. This extension will provide our customers with further assurances that we have their backs during hurricane season and beyond.

Topics Florida Hurricane
Bengaluru, July 28 : A couple from Delhi were among three persons arrested on the charge of running a prostitution racket in the city, run discreetly online for pimping and receiving payments, an official said on Tuesday.

"We have arrested the couple from Delhi, who shared pictures of women through WhatsApp and had made arrangements at a lodge in Arekere for customers to meet sex workers," Central Crime Branch Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Kuldeep Jain told IANS.

Henry Singh Solanki, 30, and Heena Singh Solanki, 28, were living in an apartment in Arekere on the Bannerghatta Road and soliciting customers through WhatsApp and online channels.

Incidentally, the couple was careful in circulating phone numbers with a clean call data record.

"Instead, they were only conversing through WhatsApp calls and messages to bypass any police surveillance. If someone called them directly, they would not pick those calls," he said.

Similarly, they were accepting money only through online mode.

"Sometimes, the women deputed by the couple were receiving the money transfers to re-route the same to them," said Jain.

Incidentally, police got a tip-off on the couple from a family members of a person who was trying to contact the couple for paid sex, and shared the two phone numbers.

"It took us some 12 days to slowly track the couple and arrest them on running the prostitution racket," said the DCP.

On Monday, police raided the Comfort lodge in Arekere and also arrested Annappa, 28, the lodge manager, on charge of colluding with the couple. Two young women were rescued, one from Punjab and another from Uttar Pradesh.

Police is investigating the number of women involved by the couple in the racket.

All three accused arrested under Section 370 of the IPC dealing with immoral trafficking will be produced in a court on Tuesday.
(CNN) - Air traffic will not return to 2019 levels until 2024, later than previously predicted, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in a news conference on Tuesday.

Despite a slight upturn, air travel in June was surprisingly weak and a much faster rebound had been expected, IATA said.

There was almost no recovery in Europe and passenger numbers remain at all-time lows. Traffic is not growing as quickly as airlines are adding capacity, leading to greater cash burn.

IATA expressed concern business travel levels will never return to pre-Covid-19 levels. New technologies and working from home could mean businesses cut back permanently on travel. Over the next couple of years, cargo could replace business travel as a major source of revenue.

Testing is one of IATA's preferred solutions to imposing quarantine, which it reiterated this week after the UK's sudden decision to reintroduce such measures for travelers arriving from Spain.

"We are in favor of introducing testing, especially between countries that have a different level of infection," Alexandre de Juniac, IATA's Director General and CEO, said. "But we do not see for the moment the testing system ready to accommodate the constraints of air travel."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Air traffic will not return to 2019 levels until 2024, air industry association says"
ALBANY  Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Tuesday warned that without federal aid New Yorkers could face property tax increases and fare hikes on subways, buses, trains and bridge tolls, in addition to painful budgetary cuts and stunted projects.

As deficits from the coronavirus deepen, state and local governments on the front lines of the public health crisis response are once again neglected in the latest U.S. Senate Republican stimulus bill.

Federal lawmakers late Monday unveiled the Help, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools Act, or HEALS Act, which does not allocate any additional aid to state and local governments - a request local elected leaders have been pushing for months - but ensures financial support for hospitals, health centers and coronavirus research, and also allocates another $100 billion to help schools and childcare facilities reopen.

Cuomo said the lack of federal aid would have a dramatic, practical effect on New Yorkers, and he contends that state and local government budgets are now in the hands of federal legislators.

This will determine your property taxes, your school aid, whether or not La Guardia and JFK (airports) are rebuilt, and will determine the fares on the Long Island Railroad, the New York City subway system and buses, and tolls on river and bridge crossings, he said.

Instead of additional aid, the GOP proposal amends a previous stimulus bill, the CARES Act, by allowing for the funding that was previously provided to some local governments for COVID-19 response costs to also be used to cover budget deficits due to the economic impact of the public health crisis.

New York State Association of Counties Executive Director Stephen J. Acquario said in order for state governments to use the funding to cover budget gaps, they will have to share 25 percent of the funds with downstream governments.

A total of about $7.5 billion in federal aid was allotted to New York and seven local governments (including New York City and populous counties like Westchester and Suffolk) in CARES funding, of which about $5.1 billion went to the state. Cuomo said the money has already been spent, and what state and local governments need is additional fiscal relief.

Acquario said that state and local governments comprise nearly 15 percent of the gross domestic product, and are an important economic driver for the nation. Without financial assistance, localities will be forced to make devastating cuts, he said.

Part of the economic recovery is investing in America's future. We are out of time  Congress must act to provide significant aid to states and counties and they must do it now, he said. Without federal assistance, counties will have no choice but to make layoffs permanent and eliminate local services  risking the health and well-being of our most vulnerable residents and jeopardizing the fragile economic recovery.

At the same time, NYSAC released an updated economic impact report showing total lost revenues for counties and New York City over the next two years could reach $13.5 billion, with New York City incurring an estimated $9 billion loss.

The report also notes that financial relief for localities is critical as they have been devastated by the virus, from lost sales tax revenue from business closures to reductions in gaming and hotel occupancy tax revenues and state payments for critical social services.

The GOP proposal also offers another round of $1,200 stimulus checks for individuals, more aid for families caring for adult dependents, funds a second Paycheck Protection Program for hard-hit businesses, and extends liability protections to businesses, schools and health care providers.

While there are elements of this plan that are laudable, it simply does not deliver for our residents who will face cuts to essential services, or for the essential workers who fought this pandemic on the front lines and now face layoffs, Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy said. As Congress continues negotiations, we will remain laser focused on fighting to ensure that the final bill includes unrestricted and flexible aid to allow states and local governments to offset expenses and significant revenue loss attributable to COVID-19 so our essential workers can continue providing essential services.

Albany County has already experienced significant loss in sales tax revenue, with $123.3 million collected in the first six months this year compared to $139.2 million during the same period last year.

Republicans also proposed temporarily cutting federal unemployment insurance from $600 to $200 until states can offer individuals 70 percent of their previous wages, with the federal government covering part of the cost. This change, Acquario said, could throw state unemployment systems into upheaval once again because the adjustments will require another overhaul of the application process.

Acquario remained optimistic that a bipartisan agreement including some type of fiscal relief for local and state governments could be reached. With the Republicans proposal, the Democrats Heroes Act, and the bipartisan State Municipal Assistance for Response and Transition, or SMART, Act all on the table, legislators will have to compromise, he said.

I think the fact that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has put a piece of legislation on the floor of the U.S. Senate is a positive step in the right direction. It certainly is needed to start the negotiations, Acquario said. When Florida has a massive hurricane, the states - through the United States - assist in the recovery. This is a massive natural disaster, and New York should be similarly assisted. Its the right thing to do fiscally for the state and for the country.






We started with the true net cost of each college, which measures how much students pay (including tuition, fees, books, supplies and other expenses) after subtracting scholarships and grants, for students from families making between $48,001 - $75,000, an income range established by the Department of Education. We chose to consider the net cost for this income bracket in order to represent the true cost of college for average Americans and to highlight schools that provide them generous support.

CNBC Make It set out to determine which colleges provide the best return on students' time and money. The result is our list of the U.S. Colleges That Pay Off the Most , a ranking that spotlights the 50 schools that provide students the highest average salaries for their tuition dollars.

The price of college can be difficult to estimate. Scholarships and grants can cut costs, while fees and housing can add to the total that students pay. At the same time, many students do not have the information they need to understand how much their degree will be worth after graduation.

Click to expand.

To determine average net cost for this demographic, we used data from Tuition Tracker, a tool produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. The Tuition Tracker compiles data provided by the U.S. Department of Education from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from 2008 to 2019 to project costs for the 2020-2021 school year.

We considered the top 250 colleges and universities included in PayScale's College Salary Report, which compiles data from an ongoing, online compensation survey of 3.5 million respondents, representing more than 4,000 colleges and universities across the U.S.

PayScale calculates the median salary for alumni with less than five years of experience and median salary for alumni with over 10 years of experience. For our 2020 ranking, we chose to only consider the average salary for alumni with more than 10 years of experience in order to capture the potential earnings growth among college graduates.

Only bachelor's degree-granting schools were considered, as opposed to community colleges, which award associate's degrees. We excluded military schools from the list, including tuition-free institutions like West Point and The Naval Academy, because the cost of post-college military service introduces an additional factor that's challenging to measure against other schools. We also excluded military colleges that require ROTC service.

And while the cost of attending college and what students can expect to earn in the future is essential information to have when making a decision about a school, students shouldn't make their college decisions based solely on potential earnings  or even our ranking.

"Information about earnings tied to a college education is one piece of data," Lydia Frank, vice president of content strategy at PayScale, tells CNBC Make It. "It's an important piece, because if you are funding your education through loans, it makes a ton of sense to understand your capacity for paying that off after graduation."

However, Frank says, as with all financial investments, there are many things to consider. Pay is "just one piece of information. There's a host of other factors that can help you best understand whether a college is a fit for you."

You can check out the full list of the U.S. colleges that pay off the most here.

Special thanks to the The Hechinger Report and PayScale for their contributions to this list. Thanks also to Akila Weerapana, associate professor of economics at Wellesley College; Christopher Hayes, quantitative analyst at CNBC; Jon Rork, professor of economics at Reed College; Thomas Bailey, economics professor and president of the Teachers College at Columbia University; and Hassan Enayati, economist and research associate at the Institute for Compensation Studies at Cornell University, for their insights.

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Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 29 2020

The majority of Indonesians want the government to reopen schools and colleges, a recent poll by Cyrus Network has suggested, despite the COVID-19 pandemic showing no signs of letting up anytime soon.

According to the survey, published on Monday, 80.2 percent of 1,230 respondents polled from July 16 to 20 were in favor or reopening schools, while 19.8 percent were opposed to it.

Cyrus Network CEO Eko Dafid Afianto said the average public approval score for the reopening of schools was 7.44, below the 7.89 average approval for government service offices reopening, the latter of which topped the list.

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At the just ended Technical Hygiene training for health and related workers organized by WaterAid Ghana in the Bongo District Assembly, participants expressed their readiness to champion the course of good sanitation and hygiene practices in their healthcare facilities and communities during outreach programmes.

The three days long intensive workshop was a preparatory step to equip the participants who would aid the clean community campaign under the Behaviour Change Campaign projects in the Upper East Region funded by DFID/Unilever and Global Affairs Canada. The Clean Community Campaign was initiated to bring behavioural changes to hygiene practices in communities.

The participants said they were happy to be part of the training and will do their best, using what they have learnt from the workshop in the roll out clean community campaigns in support of the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

They thanked the organizers and said the content of the training was well-drafted and equally beneficial to them. Some of them shared with Sanatu Zambang that there are several barriers in behaviour change project, but what they have learnt would stimulate a fruitful implementation of the campaign. There remarked the need for a collaborative work with traditional rulers and other opinion leaders who will serve as catalysts in changing the mindset of the people.

A public health nurse in Bongo stated that the programme came just when they needed it especially while we are facing the novel Coronavirus pandemic.

This programme has come to the district very timely as it will help us in the fight against COVID-19  Im happy about it. Just two months down the line, people are beginning to ignore the precautionary measures especially, hand washing practices, she stated.

Highlighting on the need to change the mind-set of people for life, a participant cited that despite the fact that we are in COVID-19, people are no longer taking the precautions as the fear of the disease is diminishing. Hence there is the need to rather let them have an idea of the results of bad sanitation instead of preaching fear.

The rate at which the hand washing was adhered to, has reduce as time goes. Even the veronica buckets, people are no longer filling them with water and people dont bother to ask others to follow the precautionary measures. It is only the banks and other big organisations who put notices at their entrances. This training will help us, using various media of communication, he added.

The overall impression of the participants was positive and there are hope that the Bongo edition of the clean community campaign would as well be phenomenal.
Fox News boss Roger Ailes always 'resented' Rupert Murdoch's sons, who eventually forced him out of the business amid a sexual abuse scandal, a new documentary has claimed.

Journalist Gabriel Sherman, whose book The Loudest Voice in the Room is the basis for Showtime's eight-part series, starring Russell Crowe as the now deceased Ailes, makes the claim in tonight's The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty on BBC2.

He said that Ailes and the Murdoch brothers never had an 'ounce of respect for each other', and that the late Fox boss begrudged 'dilettante' children James, then CEO of 21st Century Fox and Lachlan, who at the time was a senior executive, and accused them of profiting off his decisions.

However, Lachlan got revenge when he was the one to tell disgraced CEO Ailes he'd been 'severed and executed' from Fox News after sexual harassment allegations, by multiple women, detailed in The Loudest Voice - including Megyn Kelly and Laurie Luhn.

It comes after Donald Trump praised Roger Ailes for building a 'miracle' at Fox News in a new, glowing documentary, Man in the Arena, which was released on Amazon Prime on Friday and features favorable commentary from President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Mitch McConnell, Newt Gingrich and Ailes' widow, Elizabeth.

Fox News boss Roger Ailes (pictured) had wired his entire office with cameras and always 'resented' Rupert Murdoch's sons, who eventually forced him out of the business amid a sexual abuse scandal, a new documentary has claimed

The film claims Ailes begrudged Murdoch's 'dilettante' children and accused them of profiting off his decisions. Pictured, Rupert with sons James and Lachlan

It is narrated by Jon Voight and offers a far more complimentary view of Ailes than any of the films, series or documentaries that have previously been made about his life.

Speaking about Ailes' frosty relationship with the Murdoch brothers, Gabriel Sherman said: 'Ailes really resented Murdoch's children, he thought they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth, dilettante.

'He was the one making the money and they were making bonehead decisions to spend his money.

'There was just not an ounce of respect between Ailes and the Murdoch children.'

The writer also told how the executive would make remarks about James with his 'cronies' in his office.

He told: 'One day Ailes was in his office with his cronies and he spotted James having a cigarette and looked at the camera and said "Tell me that mouth hasn't sucked c***".

An author claimed t the 'Orwellian' executive would constantly monitor the actions of everyone in the building, as well as his wife Elizabeth, now 59, and their son Zachary

Megyn Kelly accused Ailes of sexually harassing her when she was a reporter

'That one moment, you saw everything Ailes thought about James on top of his own homophobia and that was the quintessential Ailes moment.'

New York Times journalist Ken Auletta said of the decision: 'Irony of ironies, who gave him the news he was severed, executed, gone? Lachlan Murdoch was in that room'.

Rupert Murdoch succeeded him as chairman, and as interim CEO until the naming of a permanent replacement.

Another defining charateristic, was Ailes' 'Orwellian' desire to constantly monitor his staff and even his family.

He was known for wiring his entire office with cameras and would 'toggle through screens anywhere in the NewsCorp building' as well as rigging his home with cameras to watch his wife Elizabeth and their young son.

'Ailes' office is on the second floor of the NewsCorp tower in midtown Manhattan,' said Gabriel. 'And he had the entire Fox News office wired with cameras.

'On his desk he kept a monitor where he could toggle through screens of anywhere in the NewsCorp building.

'What really freaked people out is he also wired his own home so he could be at work, click on his screen and watch his wife Beth and his young son whatever they were doing at the time, so it was really this Orwellian, Big Brother mindset he had.'

Trump with Ailes in July 2016, the month the allegations that he's sexually harassed women at Fox, first emerged

In the summer of 2016 Ailes was accused by Gretchen Carlson of sexual assault. Carson is pictured in New York City this year

In the summer of 2016 Ailes was accused by Gretchen Carlson of sexual assault.

Carlson had joined Fox News in 2005 and was a weekend substitute host for Fox & Friends before moving into a weekday slot.

In 2013, she moved to the 2pm slot to host her own one-hour show, The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson.

She filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes in July 2016, claiming she was fired for refusing his advances.

Carlson signed an NDA as part of her reported $20million out-of-court settlment with the network.

'That lawsuit opened the flood gate of allegations and dozens of women came forwrd to detail years of sexual abuse, horrific examples of misbehaviour on Ailes' part,' told Gabriel.

The Vanity Fair writer went on to share the story of Laurie Luhnj, another 'tragic example' of a woman who claimed to be sexually harassed by Ailes.

Luhnj received more than $3million in a separation agreement from the network after claiming she had been sexually harassed and pressured into performing sexual acts with the former CEO.

Luhn, 56, spoke in a TV interview in 2016, in which she detailed how Ailes allegedly required her to be ready for afternoon hotel romps at a moment's notice, and once made her engage in a sexual act with another woman while he took photographs.

Ailes resigned from Fox News, receiving $40 million from 21st Century Fox, the then-parent company of and Fox News, in an exit agreement, with Lachlan, pictured with his father, in the room during the decision

She previously told Sherman that Ailes mostly demanded that she perform oral sex on him, and that he used the photographs and recordings he took of her to make sure she kept quiet about their relationship.

Ailes resigned from Fox News, receiving $40 million from 21st Century Fox, the then-parent company of and Fox News, in an exit agreement.

However, a new film on Ailes' life entitled Man in the Arena, which was released last week, paints him as an underdog who was the driving force behind the election of Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush.

Unlike film Bombshell and TV series The Loudest Voice, both of which were highly critical of Ailes, the new film seeks to glorify his life and career - from ditch-digging to TV to political consulting.

Narrated by Oscar-winning actor John Voight, who was a close friend of Ailes, and in Ailes's own words, the film also tries to defend him against claims of sexual harrassment by 23 women which ultimately saw him forced from the network in 2016 - a year before he died.

Among those defending him are wife Elizabeth, who says: 'I believe in forgiveness. And I think the world has forgotten how to be compassionate.'

Filmmaker Michael Barnes, an attorney who met Ailes in 2011 when he was thinking about leaving Fox to found his own network, said he was inspired to make the movie after feeling that previous portrayals were unfair to Ailes.

Bombshell, which won an Oscar for best hair and makeup, depicted Ailes as a misogynist who insisted the desks at Fox News be clear so that viewers could see the female anchor's legs.

It also shows him harassing a fictional reporter named Kayla - played by Margot Robbie - by asking her to show him her underwear.

Miniseries The Loudest Voice also shows an Ailes who is dogged by harassment claims - which eventually bring him down and tarnish his legacy.

In real life, Ailes's accusers were led by Gretchen Carlson, a long-serving Fox anchor who came forward to accuse him of persistently harassing her during her time at the network, after she was dropped in 2016.

Carlson claimed that Ailes told her they 'should have had a sexual relationship', and consistently commented on her legs and posterior.

When she pushed back against Ailes and others at the network who were allegedly harassing her, Carlson claims the network boss sabotaged her career by underpaying her, giving her less-serious assignments, and ultimately firing her.

Carlson - who settled with Fox for $20million - opened the floodgates for other women at Fox to come forward and accused Ailes of similar treatment.

Among them was Megyn Kelly, then the network's rising star before defecting to NBC in 2018, and Laurie Luhn - who detailed what she called '20 years of psychological torture' at Alies's hands, which included sadomasochistic sex sessions.

Facing a total of 23 accusers, Ailes was forced to step down from the network he founded and shaped over the course of two decades.

He died the following year after falling and hitting his head in the bathroom of his home. He suffered from hemophilia, a condition which stops the blood from clotting, and which caused complications after his fall.

WHO ARE LACHLAN AND JAMES MURDOCH? Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, 89, currently married to Jerry Hall, has six children by three different women, with their ages ranging from 62 (his eldest daughter Prudence Murdoch by first wife, Patricia Booker) down to 17 (Chloe, Murdoch's youngest child with ex-wife Wendi Deng). However, in 2016, the obvious successors to his media throne are were middle-born children were Lachlan, 48, and James, 47. Both Lachlan and James worked with disgraced CEO of Fox News Channel Roger Ailes, who was forced to resigned in July of 2016 after allegations of sexual assault were made by 23 women. Ailes dubbed the pair 'dilettantes and boneheads', who profited off the hard work of others and grew up 'with a silver spoon in their mouth' - but it was the brothers who were eventually able to force him out of the company. Lachlan Murdoch Lachlan became the CEO of Fox News in a reshuffle after he had abruptly quit back in 2005, leaving Roger Ails to take position of acting CEO of News Corp's group of television stations The middle child in the three siblings, Lachlan has been dubbed 'charming' and was even called 'the Prince'. In 1989, Murdoch brought Lachlan, then 18, to Australia to spend three months training at The Daily Mirror in Sydney. At the age of 22, Lachlan was appointed general manager of Queensland Newspapers and soon after was appointed Deputy CEO of News Limited, one of Australia's largest media conglomerates. In 1999 Murdoch married British-born model/actress Sarah O'Hare. They have two sons, Kalan and Alexander, and one daughter, Aerin Elisabeth. A year later, he began working at News Corporation in New York, where he spent years working under his father and for the year 2001, he reportedly earned a salary of $2.59 million. In 1999 Murdoch married British-born model/actress Sarah O'Hare.They have two sons, Kalan Alexander,and one daughter, Aerin Elisabeth. The couple are pictured attending an Oscars after party in 2019 However after abruptly resigning in 2005 at the age of 33, Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News Channel, was named chairman of News Corp's group of television stations. Before Lachlan rejoined the family fold in 2014, his near-decade away from News Corp had both success and failure, with his purchase of DMG Radio a triumph, while his Australian channel, Network Ten went into voluntary administration in 2017. In March 2014 Lachlan returned to the family fold and was appointed as non-executive co-chairman of News Corp, however it was reported he had a rocky relationship with Ailes from the outset. The relationship between Lachlan and his father has run hot and cold over the years, but that all changed back in 2014 when Murdoch's older son returned to New York to work for News Corp. Lachlan became the CEO of Fox News in a reshuffle in 2018, and is now the Chairman and CEO of the Fox Corporation. James Murdoch Youngest son James, now 47, was considered one of the brightest of Murdoch's children growing up, but was considered to be somewhat of a rebel. He is pictured with his father in 2013 Younger son James, now 47, was considered one of the brightest of Murdoch's children growing up, but was considered to be somewhat of a rebel. This is best reflected perhaps by the start of his media career, running rap label Rawkus Records, a dominant label in the underground hip-hop scene , established by pals Brian Brater and Jarret Myer, with his father's financial backing. But his music career was short-lived, and in 1998, Rupert's News Corporation bought a majority of the record label and James was soon back in the fold. The youngest of the three siblings has arguably been the most loyal, staying by his father's side for decades after joining News Corp - shortly after he dropped out of Harvard. In recent years, the father-of-three, married to climate activist wife Kathryn, has been increasingly vocal against Fox News and other News Corporation outlets. The couple are pictured in New York in 2018 Following the surprise resignation of his brother from his executive positions at News Corporation in July 2005, James was widely viewed as his father's heir-apparent. James was the chairman and CEO of Sky PLC for Europe and Asia, where he oversaw assets such as The News of the World and in 2011, was forced to announce the closure of the paper in wake of a phone-hacking scandal. The 2012 Leveson Inquiry said that Murdoch 'showed wilful ignorance of the extent of phone-hacking' and found him 'guilty of an astonishing lack of curiosity' over the issue. The following February, the company said he would step down from NewsCorp's British Newspaper arm, but remain deputy chief operating officer and focus on the company's international TV business. Since his brother became CEO of Fox News in 2018 in a major reshuffle, James has worked at the helm of the investment fund Lupa Systems but retains a seat on the board of News Corp. Leaving Fox wasn't an entirely bad move though, he became $2 billion richer thanks to his shares in the company. In recent years, the father-of-three, married to climate activist wife Kathryn, has been increasingly vocal against Fox News and other News Corporation outlets including of coverage by the organisation on the Australian forest fires in 2019. Advertisement

The film plays out Ailes' path from a ditch-digger to landing his first major job on TV on the The Mike Douglas Show to running Fox News as CEO in 1996.

The modest $200,000-budget movie includes interviews with a slew of Ailes political links including President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Bill OReilly and family members.

In the trailer Trump says: 'What Roger Ailes did was create somewhat of a miracle, and that's called Fox News.

'Roger really opened up a world that nobody else was able to capture ... I'm not sure that I ever would have been standing at this very powerful, important, even sacred spot: the Rose Garden in front of the Oval Office at the White House if it wasn't for Roger,' he added.

Rise of The Murdoch Dynasty is set to air on BBC2 at 9pm and is available on BBC iPlayer






LONDON  Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has picked ousted Renault boss Thierry Bollore as its next chief executive, with a mission to return Britain's biggest carmaker to profit after a big hit from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bollore took over at Renault in January 2019 after the fall of Carlos Ghosn, but was always viewed as close to the French carmaker's longtime boss and was pushed out in October when the company was looking for a fresh start.

Bollore will take over at JLR on Sept. 10, replacing Ralf Speth, whose tenure ends after more than 10 years.

"It will be my privilege to lead this fantastic company through what continues to be the most testing time of our generation," Bollore said in a statement on Tuesday.

JLR was hit this year first by disruption to sales in China and then by lockdowns across Europe and North America as the COVID-19 outbreak spread around the globe.

In 2019, it cut jobs to address tumbling diesel sales, which helped it return to profit. But as the pandemic struck, it slumped to a pretax loss of 422 million pounds ($545 million) for the year ended March 31, 2020.

The company has already taken steps to tackle the crisis, including agreeing to a loan facility of around $700 million with lenders in China and further staff reductions.

JLR is also in talks with the British government over potential support, according to media reports.

Bollore takes over a business that built just over 500,000 cars in 2019/20. He faces a number of tasks, including how to handle the Jaguar brand, which underperforms the Land Rover marque, how quickly to electrify its lineup and a potential hit from Brexit if trade barriers are imposed.

JLR has a partnership with BMW on electrification, and parent company Tata Motors recently recommitted to the company.

"Tata Group recognizes and values Jaguar Land Rover's future potential highly," said JLR Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran earlier this month.

"That is why this company is central to our global automotive presence  a presence that we intend to develop for years to come."

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(Additional reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru and Gilles Guillaume in Paris; editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)
Three-day truce could signal start of peace talks after President Ghani said negotiations could start next week.

The Taliban has announced a three-day ceasefire in Afghanistan during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha starting on Friday.

The move, announced on Tuesday, could signal the start of the long-delayed peace talks after President Ashraf Ghani signalled negotiations with the Taliban could start next week.

The Taliban proposed the ceasefire after President Ghani described progress in a contentious prisoner exchange that has thrown up numerous hurdles to talks starting.

To demonstrate the governments commitment to peace, the Islamic Republic will soon complete the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners, Ghani told officials, referring to the number of inmates the government originally pledged to free under the US-Taliban deal in February.

With this action, we look forward to the start of direct negotiations with the Taliban in a weeks time, Ghani added.

The presidents spokesperson Sediq Sediqqi told the AFP news agency that Kabul would observe the ceasefire, but cautioned the temporary nature of it did not go far enough.

The people of Afghanistan demand a lasting ceasefire and the start of direct talks between the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan, Sediqqi said.

Afghan security officials patrol on a highway in Helmand, Afghanistan. While clashes between Afghan security forces and the Taliban fighters have continued in rural areas, attacks in cities had decreased [Watan Yar/EPA-EFE]

Kabuls readiness to start talks comes after the Taliban last week indicated they, too, are prepared to negotiate after the Eid holidays.

In a statement, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid ordered the groups fighters to refrain from carrying out any operation against the enemy during the three days and nights of Eid al-Adha so  our countrymen would spend the Eid with confidence and joy.

But any attack by the enemy would be met with force, he added.

The truce is only the third official respite in Afghanistans conflict since the war started in 2001, with other ceasefires in June 2018 and May this year to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

The ceasefires prompted widespread relief across Afghanistan but were short-lived, with the fighters returning to the battlefields straight afterwards to resume near-daily attacks.

US-Taliban deal

Under the deal signed by the US and the Taliban on February 29, all foreign forces are supposed to leave Afghanistan in the coming months in return for several security pledges from the Taliban.

The deal also stated the Taliban and the Afghan government should start direct peace talks on March 10, following the completion of the prisoner swap.

But that date passed amid political disarray in Kabul and disagreements over the prisoner exchange, with Afghan authorities saying some of the released Taliban inmates were returning to the battlefield.

Highlighting the toll on civilian and military forces in the months since the deal, Ghani said 3,560 Afghan troops had been killed.





He said 775 civilians had also been killed and another 1,609 wounded since the deal.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has blamed the Taliban for almost half of civilian casualties during the first half of 2020, with less than one-quarter blamed on Afghan forces.

Earlier on Tuesday, Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada slammed the US military for recent air raids against the fighters that were launched in response to the groups attacks.

He said frequent drone strikes, bombardments, raids and artillery attacks on unjustifiable grounds could create obstacles in ending the USs longest war.
The plight of millions of people across Assam due to the ongoing floods has not received the coverage it deserves.

Largely forgotten by the rest of India, millions of Assamese people who lost their loved ones, and life's saving and crops are struggling to survive in the thousands of flood relief camps across the state, not knowing if and when they will be able to go back and rebuild their lives.

AP

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lack of awareness about the grim situation in the state outside, people of Assam are largely left to themselves to help those in distress.

As the state tries to battle the natural calamity, Assamese people who live outside the state are also doing their bit to bring some relief to their loved ones.

A family in Bengaluru, who is originally from Guwahati and Shillong are doing their bit to raise funds to help the flood victims.

Nawab Dilaweez Hasan and his family have been running a crowdfunding campaign to help the flood victims and has so far raised more than Rs 3.5 lakh.

INDIATIMES

Speaking about the initiative, Hasan told Indiatimes that the family was devastated seeing the news reports on the situation in their home state and wanted to do something.

"Initially, we thought of donating some amount to the CMDRF, but later we felt that if we could help people directly it would be of more help. That is how we came across this NGO called Rapid Response India. It was the first time we have done anything like this so we had set a small target of just Rs 50,000 in 45 days. This was on July 17," he said.

But the response they got for their campaign, left the family overwhelmed. In a matter of less than 24 hours, they had exceeded their goal and had raised more than Rs 60,000.

"So we decided to continue with our campaign and revised the target to Rs 1 lakh. At this point, our campaign was still largely around our friends and family. And in the next 48 hours, the donations had crossed Rs 1 lakh. In the past seven days, we have crossed the target of Rs 3.5 lakhs," Hasan said.

With around 35 more days for the camping to end, the team has now set a target of raising Rs 5 lakhs.

"The money we raised through the campaign will help to provide dry ration and hygiene kits for around 2000 people for two weeks. The dry rations include basic stuff like cooking oil, daal, pulses, etc," he said.

AP

Another aspect their campaign focuses on is providing personal hygiene products for women and children in relief camps.

"Most of the relief camps are operating out of government schools and such buildings. Women and children are the worst affected due to this as there will just 1-2 toilets there. So we wanted to cater to that aspect also," Hasan said.

AFP

He also said that since floods are an annual occurrence in Assam, the focus should be on how to mitigate it.

"Our intention is to make people realize that the Assam floods are something that keeps happening. And every passing year, it is only getting worse and more lives are lost. Unlike what happened in Kerala, where communities have managed to make a comeback from the devastation, in Assam once flood victims start gathering their lives, there is another flood. The half-baked measures taken through the years have not helped the people. There should be proper research into this" Hasan said.

"Instead of blaming the government or pointing the fingers at someone, we wanted to see what we can do and make a little difference," he said.
SAN FRANCISCO, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Splice Machine, the only scale-out SQL database with native machine learning, today announced it has launched the Splice Machine Kubernetes Ops Center, deployed with Helm Charts. With its comprehensive data capabilities, Splice Machine supports extensive OLTP, OLAP, data science, and MLOps in a single open source platform, making it easy for developers to get what they need to do done, without stitching a huge number of disparate technologies together.

Ops Center is the easiest way to provision, manage, and operate a collection of Splice Machine scale-out SQL databases and machine learning platforms. Application and DevOps teams can now easily operate clouds of databases and ML platforms with the same tooling that the Splice Machine Cloud team uses, lowering operating costs, improving performance, and enabling more data science productivity, resulting in better business outcomes.

"Now, application teams throughout the enterprise can develop with the agility of having full control over their data platform and data science that would previously have required a centralized and specialized data organization," said Monte Zweben, co-founder and CEO, Splice Machine. "Ops Center brings DBOps and MLOps together at last. Now, developers can easily spin up and tear down sandboxes, shadows, dev, test, and production clusters in minutes to be agile and cost-efficient while retaining the control provided by having a single comprehensive software stack  a powerful combination that has direct results on business performance."

The adoption of the Splice Machine on Kubernetes protects against platform lock-in by providing a uniform operating stack across a variety of infrastructure architectures including on-premises, private clouds, and public clouds.

Splice Machine on Kubernetes will be available in three product offerings, including:

The Splice Machine Kubernetes Community Edition (single cluster)  Available for free on HelmHub, Artifact Hub, Rancher Catalog, and Splice Machine's github repository

The Splice Machine Kubernetes Enterprise Edition (single cluster)  Adds advanced security and backup functionality easily unlockable from the Community edition with a license key

The Splice Machine Kubernetes Ops Center  The Splice Machine Kubernetes Enterprise Edition plus Cloud Manager, instrumentation, and monitoring through ELK, Prometheus, Grafana and PagerDuty  requires a separate Helm chart and a license

"Ops Center empowers our joint clients to operate many Splice databases and ML platforms with small teams and high-availability," said Andreas Braun, Managing Director, EMEA Lead, Data Business Group and Applied Intelligence, Accenture. "Whether they use the Splice Machine Managed Service or operate instances with the Ops Center, they get the same instrumentation, self-healing, and alerting to delight the end-customer."

These editions of Splice Machine are delivered with Helm carts, a standard packaging format for Kubernetes that will allow Splice Machine to be deployed to certified Kubernetes distributions like Rancher. "It's exciting to see how easy the combination of Rancher and Ops Center makes deploying a sophisticated data platform to virtually any infrastructure," said Sheng Liang, CEO and co-founder, Rancher Lab.

"Traditionally, enterprises group DBOps and MLOps teams into separate organizations that are isolated from the application groups that need these services, creating silos, bottlenecks, latency and frustration," added Zweben. "With Ops Center, we are democratizing access to data and machine learning platforms, creating a new world of ML and IoT experimentation and complex problem solving."

For more information and resources on the Splice Machine Kubernetes Ops Center, visit www.splicemachine.com/opscenter .

About Splice Machine

Splice Machine is the only scale-out SQL database with native machine learning. Splice Machine slashes software, infrastructure and people costs by combining operational workloads (OLTP), analytical workloads (OLAP), and machine learning (MLOps) into one seamless Kubernetes-powered architecture. Enterprises build new intelligent applications on the Splice Machine RDBMS, extend existing applications with AI, and modernize their applications in the cloud with virtually no rewrites. Companies can offload data from more expensive RDBMS systems easily and get the most efficient path to operational AI. Splice Machine is available as a fully-managed cloud service on AWS, Azure, and GCP and is also available on-premise. Learn more at www.splicemachine.com .

Splice Machine is a trademark of Splice Machine, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective registered owners. Trademark use is for identification only and does not imply sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement.

SOURCE Splice Machine

Related Links

https://splicemachine.com


A leading member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Professor Kwesi Botchwey says the Vice President position is not preserved for only persons with a background in Economics.

The economist was responding to critics who claim the NDC running mate, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang is deficient in economics.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the outdooring of John Mahamas running mate, Professor Kwesi Botchwey said the Vice Presidential position requires someone who has a diverse background.

There is nothing in our laws and Constitution or anywhere that says that a Vice President must be an economist. What you need is to be just a good social analyst with the tools and ask the right questions and be focused on the business of national development. Thats all you need. Naana [Opoku-Agyemang] is a good manager. She has a proven track record. Shes led a public institution. She can do the job and she can debate any economist that we comfort her with, he insisted.

NDCs Flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, outdoored his running mate, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang yesterday, Monday, July 27.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang and the NDC have since come under intense criticism from many persons, including members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Some believe she will not be able to meet the standard as Vice President because of her gender and little political background.

Others also question her integrity and commitment during her tenure as Education Minister under the erstwhile Mahama-led administration, normally citing among other things, the cancellation of the teacher trainee allowance during her time.

However, the NDC believes it has made the best choice for Ghana in the selection of Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as the party's running mate going into the 2020 general elections.

We have made the best choice for Ghana We will work for the women of Ghana, we will work for the youth of Ghana, and we will work for the people of Ghana, John Mahama at yesterdays outdooring ceremony.

According to Mahama, the consideration of the former Education Minister goes beyond the fact that she is a woman and focuses on her competence and intellect.

---citinewsroom
LOS ANGELES, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Science 37, the industry leader in decentralized clinical trials, today announced a series of global investments, including an expanded European, Latin American and Asian nurse and investigator network, staffing in key European countries, and an operational center of excellence in Slovakia.

"By strengthening our global presence, we're enabling our sponsors to execute more decentralized clinical research without limitations," said David Coman, CEO of Science 37. "This is increasingly important, not only to maintain continuity and mitigate risk from COVID-19, but also to build a more patient-centric future where it's easier for anyone to participate in clinical trials from anywhere."

In addition to expanding global capacity, Science 37 continues to enhance its best-in-class technology platform, the industry's first and only platform purpose-built to support virtual trials. The platform will be deployed in more than 30 countries and is now available in more than 40 languagesensuring a seamless user experience for a myriad of international stakeholders.

"Science 37 is the only company with a proprietary technology platform and extensive operational capability to deliver fully decentralized trials worldwide," said Coman. "By doing so, we're truly delivering on our promise to make virtual the new reality for our sponsors."

Science 37 has conducted more fully decentralized, interventional clinical trials than any other organizationall the way from protocol design to database lock. Coupled with its telemedicine and home health network, Science 37 enables ubiquitous coverage virtually anywhere around the world.

About Science 37

Science 37 is making the promise of virtual trials the new reality. By engaging with patients from the comfort of their own home, we provide access to patients who can never be reached by traditional site-based models. We have proven to enroll faster, retain patients at a higher rate, and reach a more representative population. Science 37 has conducted more decentralized, interventional trials than any other company, using an expansive network of telemedicine investigators and home-health nurses, who are supported by the industry's most comprehensive, fully integrated, decentralized clinical trial platform. Learn more at Science 37 , and follow Science 37 on Twitter , LinkedIn , and Facebook .

SOURCE Science 37

Related Links

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 27)  State auditors want the Department of National Defense to explain why it spent over half a million pesos to install air-conditioning units and shower heaters in comfort rooms at its office.

In its 2019 report, the Commission on Audit flagged the expense as irregular and extravagant.

We recommend that management provide justification why the installation of shower and air-conditioning units is necessary in the common comfort rooms and be allowed in audit, the report released on July 24 read.

The DND supposedly allotted around 6.4 million for the renovation and repair of comfort rooms at the agencys south wing building, involving tile works, paintings, and other fixtures and accessories.

The project also includes the installation of air-conditioning units and shower heaters totalling 553,807.62.

In its reply to state auditors, DND management explained that toilets should be comfortable to encourage productivity and inspire creativity among employees.

But COA rejected this, insisting that public servants should not be spending on things which may be considered as luxuries.

Auditors said the DND should use its resources for more valuable projects related to its mandate.

If an employee is burdened with arduous tasks, that person could surely relax for a while in his desk, office, or outside of the same, but never in a comfort room, COA said.

Auditors expect the DND to submit a justification with legal basis for the facilities in question.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modis possible attendance at foundation stone laying ceremony of the Ayodhya Ram temple will amount to a violation of the constitutional oath taken when assuming office.

Owaisis comments follow a left leaders letter to the Centre disapproving the possible live telecast of the Bhumi Pujan ceremony in Ayodhya on August 5, calling it against the accepted norms of national integrity.

The foundation stone-laying ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on August 5 is likely to be broadcast live for the benefit of millions of devotees advised to pray at home and stay away from Ayodhya on the momentous occasion due to existing covid 19 restrictions .

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to perform prayers in the sanctum sanctorum of the earmarked Ram Temple site before laying its foundation stone at around 12:15 pm on the day. However, an official confirmation of the Prime Ministers programme for the day has not been released so far.

Also Watch | Ram Temple: Soil from Badrinath sent to Ayodhya, PM Modi likely to perform puja

Also Read: PM Modi likely to perform puja in Ayodhya on August 5

Attending Bhumi Pujan in official capacity will be a violation of @PMOIndias constitutional oath. Secularism is part of the Basic Structure of Constitution, We cant forget that for over 400 years Babri stood in Ayodhya & it was demolished by a criminal mob in 1992, Owaisi tweeted on Tuesday.

Several other prominent leaders including the proponents of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement are expected to attend the groundbreaking ceremony. Earlier a National Congress Party (NCP) leaders objections to Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackerays possible participation in the event, made on similar grounds, was rejected both by Shiv Sena and the NCP.

Apart from Thackeray, veteran BJP leaders LK Advani, MM Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat are also invited to the ceremony.

Ram Temple construction at Ayodhya was cleared by a 5-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, which handed over the disputed land to Hindu parties, finding legal merit in their claim to the site, considered to be the birthplace of Lord Ram. It put an end to the more than a century old dispute that had led to a communal rift in the Indian society.

Watch: Ram Temple: Soil from Badrinath sent to Ayodhya, PM Modi likely to perform puja

Most Muslim parties involved in the litigation have accepted the courts decision. The Central government has also maintained that the acceptance of the court delivered verdict on the Ram Temple demonstrates the strength of Indian democracy.

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath has described the August 5 ceremony as the culmination of 500 years of struggle for the Hindu community. Appeals have been made by Hindu organizations for recreation of Diwali like celebration on August 5 in symbolic recognition of Lord Rams return to Ayodhya, his hom, after spending several years in exile.

Around 200 people are likely to be invited for the ceremony. The list includes prominent industrialists, politicians as well as prominent religious leaders of Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist sects. A number of development, tourism and infrastructure projects for Ayodhya will also be announced on August 5, added a government statement. Three-day Vedic rituals will start at Ram Janmabhoomi on August 3 and continue till August 5.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fortuna Silver Mines, Inc. (NYSE: FSM) (TSX: FVI) is pleased to report that production activities resumed at the Caylloma Mine located in the Province of Arequipa, Peru.



On July 6, 2020, the Company decided to voluntarily suspend operations for a period of approximately two weeks at the Caylloma Mine. During this time, the Company has among other things, sanitized and disinfected the mine site (refer to Fortuna news release dated July 6, 2020 (https://fortunasilver.com/site/assets/files/5272/fortuna-reports-death-of-contractor-employee-at-the-cay.pdf)). The Company has in place and is operating under detailed and stringent health and safety protocols to safeguard the health and safety of our personnel and the local communities where we operate (refer to Fortuna news release dated April 27, 2020 (https://fortunasilver.com/investors/news/2020/fortuna-provides-an-update-on-its-operations-at-the-caylloma-mine-in-peru/)).

Mining and ore processing operations officially resumed at the Caylloma Mine on July 27, 2020 at nameplate capacity of 1,430 tonnes per day.

About Fortuna Silver Mines Inc.

Fortuna is a growth oriented, precious metals producer focused on mining opportunities in Latin America. Our primary assets are the Caylloma silver Mine in southern Peru, the San Jose silver-gold Mine in Mexico and the Lindero gold Project, currently under construction, in Argentina. The Company is selectively pursuing acquisition opportunities throughout the Americas and in select other areas. For more information, please visit our website at www.fortunasilver.com (http://www.fortunasilver.com) .

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Jorge A. Ganoza

President, CEO and Director

Fortuna Silver Mines Inc.

Trading symbols: NYSE: FSM | TSX: FVI

Investor Relations:

Carlos Baca

T (Peru): +51.1.616.6060, ext. 0

Forward-looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements which constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "Forward-looking Statements"). All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are Forward-looking Statements and are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the Forward-looking Statements. The Forward-looking Statements in this news release may include, without limitation, statements about the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on the Company's operations, its workforce and suppliers, the demand and price of silver and base metals, and the estimated tonnes to be produced per day at the Caylloma Mine. Often, but not always, these Forward-looking Statements can be identified by the use of words such as "estimated", "potential", "open", "future", "assumed", "projected", "scheduled", "used", "detailed", "has been", "gain", "planned", "reflecting", "will", "containing", "remaining", "to be", or statements that events, "could" or "should" occur or be achieved and similar expressions, including negative variations.

Forward-looking Statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward-looking Statements. Such uncertainties and factors include, among others, the worldwide economic and social impact of COVID-19, the duration and extent of COVID-19, changes in general economic conditions and financial markets; the re-imposition of government restrictions on business related to COVID-19; any positive cases of COVID-19 at the mine site which may cause a reduction or suspension in operations; changes in prices for silver and other metals; technological and operational hazards in Fortuna's mining and mine development activities; risks inherent in mineral exploration; uncertainties inherent in the estimation of mineral reserves, mineral resources, and metal recoveries; changes to current estimates of mineral reserves and resources; changes to production estimates; governmental and other approvals; changes in government, political unrest or instability in countries where Fortuna is active; labor relations issues; as well as those factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward-looking 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 based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management, including but not limited to the management of the worldwide economic and social impact of COVID-19, that the duration and extent of COVID-19 is not long-term, the expected trends in mineral prices and currency exchange rates; the accuracy of the Company's current mineral resource and reserve estimates; that the Company's activities will be in accordance with the Company's public statements and stated goals; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; that all required approvals will be obtained; that there will be no significant disruptions affecting operations and such other assumptions as set out herein. Forward-looking Statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company 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 law. There can be no assurance that that these Forward-looking Statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on Forward-looking Statements.
(TNS)  Worcester, Mass., city and town halls have traditionally served as important public meeting places, where residents have been able to gather to express their opinions on the issues of the day, as well as engage the leaders of their community face-to-face.But like many other communities in this state and across the country, that has not been the case in Worcester for a while now because of the COVID-19 pandemic.With City Hall closed since mid-March, the public has not been able to attend in person any City Council or School Committee meetings, or any board and commission meetings.A lot has certainly happened at the local level during the past four and a half months, with many important issues discussed and decisions made.But it has all happened without the public in attendance.That's not to say there has no public participation. The public has indeed been able to participate in all these meetings - and hundreds of people have - but it's all been done remotely through virtual meetings.While the virtual meetings have provided Worcester residents with a valuable link between the public and their city government, there have been glitches with the technology.There are times when it is difficult to hear what people are saying because the audio feed cuts out or becomes garbled. And there are times when users' unfamiliarity with the technology makes meetings a challenge to follow.The biggest glitch occurred during the July 21 City Council meeting, when a technical issue forced the council to recess the meeting for roughly 45 minutes.City Clerk Nikolin Vangjeli said an issue cropped up with the WebEx account in the Levi Lincoln chamber, where the council meeting was emanating from.When the problem could not be determined, the council meeting had to change WebEx rooms, so it moved to the Esther Howland Chamber at the other end of City Hall.After an investigation by the Technical Services Department, Vangjeli said, the problem seemed to have been caused by a Cisco WebEx outage. He said everything on the city side was operational, but the WebEx platform seemed to be overwhelmed.Also, there have been times when people have had difficulty getting through to the council meetings because the telephone conference lines have been overwhelmed by people wanting to speak.Ah, the problems of modern technology.All of which raises the question: When will the public be able to get back to old-fashioned, in-person attendance for meetings held at City Hall?That answer isn't an easy one.In an interview in May, City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. said one of the challenges was how to let the public back into those meetings.He said a big concern is meetings that could draw crowds that would put social distancing to a test.Not much has changed since then.The concerns the city manager had in May were underscored at the past several council meetings, when score upon score of people phoned in to testify on police issues. As a result, the potential for large crowds at future meetings remains a concern.And that concern isn't just with City Council or School Committee meetings. City Council subcommittee, or board and commission meetings that deal with neighborhood issues, have also been known to attract big crowds.Given all that, like it or not, in this world of COVID-19 it looks like virtual public meetings could be here for at least a while longer.But while the virtual meetings certainly fill an important void, it's just not the same as having the public being able to attend and participate in person.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin's Regular Press Conference on July 28, 2020

2020/07/28

Lately, Canada, Australia and the UK, citing the Law on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong SAR as an excuse, unilaterally suspended extradition agreements with the HKSAR. Such actions constitute gross interference in China's internal affairs and grave violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations. China firmly opposes that.

Under the framework of these agreements, the Hong Kong SAR, with the Central Government's assistance and mandate and in accordance with the Basic Law, has offered assistance to the Canadian, Australian and British sides. By wrongfully politicizing judicial cooperation with Hong Kong, the three countries have seriously damaged the foundation for such cooperation and deviated from its purpose of upholding justice and rule of law. Therefore, China has decided that the Hong Kong SAR will suspend its agreements on surrendering fugitive offenders with Canada, Australia and the UK. At the same time, China has decided that the Hong Kong SAR will suspend its agreements on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters with Canada, Australia and the UK.

CCTV: The US National Institutes of Health released initial results of an investigation into foreign influence in US research. According to the report, of the 189 scientists probed, only 4%, or seven scientists are found to be involved in potential intellectual property right issues, which have not yet been tested by court to meet the criteria for conviction. Head of the NIH called for more dialogue and cooperation with China, instead of creating a poisonous environment for researchers. I wonder if you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: For some time, certain people in the US have been stretching the national security concept and weaving charges like intellectual property theft to vilify and smear Chinese scientific personnel and students in the US. China has stated its solemn position on this multiple times. Now that the investigation results are out, perhaps you can ask the US side for a comment.

In our globalized era, the cross-border flow of talent has driven technological and economic progress all across the world. We hope the US side will heed the rational and objective voice from its scientific community, respect facts, follow universal rules and trend of the times in international scientific cooperation, and work to promote instead of disrupting China-US scientific exchange and cooperation.

Beijing Daily: On July 27, the World Bank issued a report titled "China's Doing Business Success: Drivers of Reforms and Opportunities for the Future". It says that China's reform measures in the past years can serve as experience for other economies to learn from, which will improve the global business environment. As the world economy is taking difficult steps toward recovery, how will China share its experience with the world to help the global economic recovery?

Wang Wenbin: The World Bank's report of "China's Doing Business Success" provides an accurate account of the outcomes China has achieved in advancing reform and opening up following the new development concept.

In recent years China has been fostering a stable, fair, transparent and predictable business environment ranking higher globally each year. The World Bank's Doing Business Report 2020 ranks China 31st, up from the 78th place two years ago. For two consecutive years China has been on the list of ten economies where business climates improved the most.

Despite the severe challenges brought by COVID-19, China is resuming work, production, business and markets in an orderly manner, helping our economy and society gradually come back to normal. In the second quarter, the Chinese economy achieved a growth rate of 3.2 percent, laying a solid foundation for sustained recovery in the second half of the year. We are the first major economy to achieve positive growth after having a negative growth rate earlier this year. Those working in the international economic and financial sectors are optimistic about the prospects of China's economy and its long-term growth. The US business community also see promising prospects for China's economy. They welcome more reform and opening-up measures rolled out by the Chinese government, and they would like to continue establishing and expanding business in China.

China will continue fostering a market-oriented and world-class business environment governed by a sound legal framework and implementing the Foreign Investment Law and the regulation on optimizing business environment. We welcome more foreign businesses to invest and operate in China. By contributing to a vibrant Chinese economy through facilitating unfettered flow of all elements, they will also inject new impetus into world economic recovery.

Bloomberg: This is in relation to an NHK report from Japan whereby a group on the Liberal Democratic Party has said that it wants to examine the risks associated with Chinese apps. This is coming amid concerns over data security and national security. What is your comment on this?

Wang Wenbin: I want to reiterate that the Chinese government consistently requires Chinese enterprises to observe international rules and local laws and regulations when conducting cooperation overseas. Foreign governments are also duty-bound to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of international investors, including Chinese enterprises, in accordance with market principles.

Meanwhile, I want to highlight that China's practical cooperation with other countries is for mutual benefit and win-win results. We hope such cooperation will not be hindered by non-market factors.

China Review News: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said in his annual State of the Nation Address on July 27 that the Philippines will continue upholding an independent foreign policy, will not pick sides between China and the US, will not agree to allow US troops back to military bases in the country, and will not confront China over the South China Sea. He also expressed hope for priority access once China successfully develops a COVID-19 vaccine. Do you have a comment?

Wang Wenbin: All countries are endowed with the right to uphold an independent foreign policy and to develop foreign relations based on its national interests. President Duterte's policy propositions are in keeping with the fundamental interests of the Philippines, the shared aspiration of regional countries, and the trend of the times for peace and development.

China's position on the South China Sea is consistent and clear. As has been proven, properly handling this issue is in the interests of both China and the Philippines and regional peace and stability. We appreciate President Duterte's remarks and stand ready to properly resolve maritime disputes with the Philippines through friendly consultations to jointly safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea and the entire region.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China and the Philippines have been standing together with mutual assistance, turning anti-epidemic cooperation into a new highlight in bilateral relations. The Philippines is a friendly close neighbor and we will give priority to its needs once we succeed in developing a vaccine.

Bloomberg: I'd like to ask about New Zealand's suspension of its extradition treaty with Hong Kong. As you know, New Zealand has suspended its agreement, and the foreign affairs minister Winston Peters said that the national security law for Hong Kong undermines the "one country, two systems" framework. Peters added that New Zealand can no longer trust that Hong Kong's criminal justice system is sufficiently independent from China. So I note the statement on the Chinese embassy in Wellington website. My question is what's the Foreign Ministry's response and do you have anything to add to the embassy's statement?

Wang Wenbin: New Zealand's comments and measures announced are based entirely on its wrong interpretation of China's Law on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong SAR. They are in serious violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations, and constitute gross interference in China's internal affairs. China strongly objects that and reserves the right to make further reactions.

I'd like to reiterate that the Chinese government is determined in safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests, as well as opposing foreign interference in Hong Kong affairs. Attempts to pressure China will never succeed. China urges New Zealand to immediately correct its mistake and stop interfering in China's Hong Kong affairs to avoid damage to bilateral relations.

Macau Monthly: According to reports, Meng Wanzhou's lawyers demanded at a court hearing on July 27 the release of unredacted Canadian intelligence service documents they say would provide proof of a plot between the US and Canadian authorities. Meng had been questioned for three hours by Canadian customs agents at Vancouver airport without knowing what she was accused of, before being formally arrested. She was misled and tricked. But the Canadian Attorney General's lawyer opposed the unredacted publication of the documents and denied any plot with the FBI. A Canadian foreign ministry official said in a statement to a court in July that the full disclosure of the documents could renew tensions between the two countries and put Canadians in danger. What's China's comment?

Wang Wenbin: We note relevant reports and express concern over the fact that the Canadian side refuses to disclose necessary case information to Ms. Meng Wanzhou's legal team. We have lodged solemn representations with the Canadian side over this. We wonder, does judicial justice in Canada mean interfering in judicial cases by concealing information?

All unbiased people can see clearly that the Meng Wanzhou incident is a serious political incident. Once again we urge the Canadian side to treat China's solemn position and concerns seriously, proceed from the merits of the incident itself and Canada's own interests, and properly resolve the matter as soon as possible.

CCTV: According to a July 24 statement from the US White House, the US no longer subjects drones that fly under 800 kilometers per hour to Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR)'s high export restrictions. It also says that the US looks forward to other nations including China joining it in adopting this new standard. What is your comment?

Wang Wenbin: We have noted relevant information. The US administration, in disregard of the concerns of other MTCR member states, unilaterally loosened its standards on Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) export control, which is a new example of its unilateral approach and lack of trustworthiness.

The US, as the world's top arms dealer, has been severely damaging global and regional peace and stability through dumping arms all over the world for many years. It even resorted to using arms deals to flagrantly interfere in other countries' internal affairs for its own gains. It went so far as to promote its domestic standards as international ones and judge and meddle in others' legitimate arms trade. I fail to see why anyone should join it in adopting this kind of behavior.

Shenzhen TV: US Secretary of State Pompeo tweeted that the South China Sea is not China's maritime empire, and that Beijing violates international law. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: Recently Pompeo has talked a lot about the South China Sea to smear and attack China. One cannot help but wonder: are some US politicians trying to stir up troubles in the South China Sea?

China's policy on the South China Sea remains consistent, stable and unchanged. China earnestly upholds international law including the UNCLOS. We never expanded our sovereign claims, and we are committed to negotiation and consultation to settle the territorial and maritime disputes with neighboring countries based on international law and the respect for historical facts. We have been honoring the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), and we are working with ASEAN countries to advance consultations on a Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea in the hope of an early conclusion.

Pompeo surely talked a lot about international law, but as is known to all, the US always seeks selfish gains under the pretext of upholding international law. Its all-time principle is to apply international law in a selective and utilitarian way. The US, having withdrawn from over 10 international treaties and organizations, is indeed the world's number one quitter. The wars and military operations it launched in countries including Iraq, Libya and Syria caused more than 800,000 deaths and left tens of millions displaced.

The fact is, the country that is militarizing and stoking tensions in the South China Sea is the US, not China. According to media reports, in the first half of this year, US military aircraft carried out over 2,000 missions in the South China Sea. Since July 15, US military aircraft have conducted close range reconnaissance in the South China Sea for 12 consecutive days. Recently the US also sent two aircraft carriers to these waters while calling on its allies and partners to send warships and join it in making waves in the South China Sea. This is bad news for regional peace and stability and doesn't serve the interests of littoral countries in the region. The US must unmask its hidden agenda.

The US is neither a party to the South China Sea issue nor a signatory to the UNCLOS. However, it insists on hyping up this issue in blatant breach of its commitment of not taking a position on the South China Sea. It aims to drive a wedge between China and ASEAN countries and stir up trouble so it has one more card to play to contain China.

We must tell Pompeo that the South China Sea is not Hawaii; the regional countries and all peace-loving people won't stand by if several US politicians attempt to muddy the waters.

Reuters: So may I ask you to reconfirm which countries Hong Kong has now suspended cooperation on criminal matters with?

Wang Wenbin: China has decided that the Hong Kong SAR will suspend its agreements on surrendering fugitive offenders with Canada, Australia and the UK and at the same time, suspend its agreements on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters with Canada, Australia and the UK.

Global Times: According to media reports, sources say amid ongoing diplomatic and military talks, Chinese and Indian troops have completed disengagement at three localities, namely, Galwan Valley, Hot Springs and Kongka Pass. The only area where disengagement is left to be implemented is along the Pangong Lake. Can you confirm this and share more information?

Wang Wenbin: Recently China and India have held frequent communication via diplomatic and military channels, with four rounds of commander-level talks and three meetings under the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on China-India Border Affairs. As border troops have disengaged in most localities, the situation on the ground is deescalating and the temperature is coming down. Currently the two sides are actively preparing for the fifth round of commander-level talks to resolve outstanding issues on the ground. We hope the Indian side will work towards the same goal with China, implement the two sides' consensus and jointly uphold peace and tranquility along the border.

Xinhua News Agency: On July 27, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted a video conference of foreign ministers of China, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal on COVID-19. Could you talk about the consensus reached?

Wang Wenbin: On July 27, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi chaired the video conference of foreign ministers of China, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal on COVID-19. It was the result of a Chinese proposal that has won strong support from the other three countries. The ministers held an in-depth exchange of views on strengthening anti-epidemic cooperation and boosting socioeconomic recovery and reached broad consensus.

They agree that as neighbors and partners, the four countries have shared information in a timely manner and achieved fruitful results in jointly fighting the virus. As we continue the fight on an ongoing basis, efforts should be made to enhance international cooperation in prevention and control, safeguard public health, boost resumption of work and production, facilitate the unfettered flow of cross-border trade and ensure livelihoods until a final victory is declared.

The ministers all agree that solidarity and cooperation is the most powerful weapon to defeat the virus. We should adhere to multilateralism, support WHO's leading role, uphold regional and global public health security, and strive to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

The four sides will enhance information-sharing and policy and action coordination, and step up exchange and cooperation in epidemic prevention and control. China is ready to strengthen cooperation with the other parties on testing, treatment, drugs and vaccines and help them with public health capacity building. China reiterated that once it develops a vaccine, it will be made a global public good. China will also help increase vaccine accessibility in the three countries. Foreign ministers of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal all appreciated this and expressed readiness to enhance anti-epidemic cooperation with China.

The four sides agree to work together to gradually resume cross-border flow where the conditions are ripe. A standard operating procedure will be formulated to cover notification, border management and control, quarantine and emergency response to block cross-border transmission of the virus. Discussion will also be held on establishing a fast lane for personnel and a logistics green lane.

It was also agreed that the four countries will continue BRI cooperation. The ministers stressed that responsible public information dissemination is vital. Science-based professional exchange on prevention and control should be held. In the process of fighting the pandemic, there must be no discrimination, stigmatization, racism or xenophobia of any form.

Reuters: The US Department of Agriculture warned US residents not to plant unsolicited packages of seeds that arrived from China because they could be invasive species that could threaten crops or livestock. Do you have any comment on this?

Wang Wenbin: I've noticed that the news has received some attention in the US and beyond.

I want to point out that plant seeds are articles prohibited as imports (or in transit) or admitted conditionally for UPU member countries. China Post strictly follows the UPU provisions and prohibits seeds from conveyance by post. USPS recently found some packages of seeds with address labels suggesting they were sent from China. After verification with China Post, those address labels turned out to be fake ones with erroneous layouts and entries. China Post has contacted USPS, asking it to send those fake packages to China for investigation.

Chosun Ilbo: Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea Kim Jong Un said in an article on July 27 that the DPRK has reliable nuclear deterrence to guarantee the country's permanent security and bright prospects. I wonder if you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: The main reason for the current stalemate in the process of Korean Peninsula peace talks is that the DPRK's legitimate concerns are not paid enough attention to or addressed. China calls on all sides to stick to dialogue and consultation, demonstrate flexibility on issues of mutual concern, and make concrete efforts toward denuclearization of the Peninsula and lasting peace of the Peninsula and the region.

AFP: The United States and Australia are currently holding high-level talks where they are expected to discuss China. How does China view these talks and do you have any expectations for how they will turn out?

Wang Wenbin: China holds a consistent position on the US-Australia consultations you mentioned. We take no position on the normal exchange and cooperation between regional countries. However, such cooperation should be conducive to regional peace, stability and mutual trust between regional countries. It should not target a third party or undermine its interests. As the US is doing everything possible to sabotage China-US relations, we hope the consultations you mentioned won't send any wrong signals.

PTI: You've said about the next commander-level talks. Do you have any date for these talks? When are they going to be held?

Wang Wenbin: Please stay tuned. If there's new information, we will release it in a timely manner.
23:40

The new National Education Policy evoked mixed reactions among academicians on Wednesday with some hailing it as a "groundbreaking" action plan that promotes holistic and multi-disciplinary learning and others arguing that it will pave the way for privatisation of education.

A single regulator for higher education institutions, multiple entry and exit options in degree courses, discontinuation of M.Phil programmes, low stakes board exams, common entrance exams for universities are among the highlights of the National Education Policy 2020 approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.

Former Delhi University vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh, who was an official reviewer of the document when it was being formulated, said the policy lays down the road map pretty nicely.

The policy has a good vision for school education, which is the foundation for higher education, he said.

"They have talked about experiential learning which is so useful. Unless you improve school education, you cannot improve higher education. The concept of transciplinarity, hands on experience, breaking down of barriers between subjects and connecting them to society are some of the key points in the policy. This is the best chance of universities to create curricula around the challenges of society, he said.

Elaborating with an example, he said there is a discipline in Mathematics called fluid dynamics but not one student in this country has any idea how to use fluid dynamics and computer science to create fighter jets and they are imported all the time.

"At last, we have found a document which at least gives us a chance, he added.

Singh also said that he has not been extremely enthused about regulators and feel they "are disabling you all the time".

"They make you do silly things. They are talking about having a single regulator because otherwise things are not working well. I believe it's good. They will need a lot of good people. I am hoping that it will restore the autonomy of the varsities. Hopefully they will not prescribe too much, he said.

Jamia Millia Islamia vice-chancellor Najma Akhtar called the NEP "groundbreaking" and said the higher education in India will now be holistic and multi-disciplinary with a shared focus on Science, Arts and Humanities.

"A single regulator for all higher educational institutions is a great idea as it will bring coherence of approach and purpose. It will realise the vision of education in India, she added.

The approval of new National Education Policy by the government is a positive step forward, said Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) VC M Jagadesh Kumar.

"NEP is the outcome of an extensive, highly participatory and inclusive consultation process. NEP aims at meeting the existing challenges in education and build the foundation of India''s promising future.We look forward to its implementation, he added.

Delhi University professor Rahul Yadav welcomed the policy, and said it talks about multiple entry and exit options and provides choices to students, and does not put any burden on them. He was also enthused about the fact that the policy seeks to promote a multi-disciplinary approach and does not seek to restrict students to just humanities or science.

Delhi University professor Naveen Gaur, however, said the policy has just "jazzier things" to say and even though it says that the Higher Education Commission of India will be a single regulator, it will have four verticals, which means that one vertical will be responsible for policy formulation and another for funding which is dangerous.

He also said that the policy paves the way for entry of foreign universities in India, without any regulations, which can be dangerous for the education sector. The professor argued that the policy will take away the autonomy of institutions rather than making them more autonomous.

Jamia Teachers' Association secretary Majid Jamil questioned the timing of bringing the policy.

"At a time when there is coronavirus pandemic, what was the need to hurry? The policy talks about online learning and virtual labs but there is no substitute to face-to-face learning. It also talks about four-year undergraduate programme, something which was implemented in Delhi University, but was met with opposition and was subsequently withdrawn. We do not agree with it," Jamil added.

Delhi University's Academics for Action and Development, a teachers' body, called the NEP a policy of "tall ends with little means''.

For instance, Indian has presently 18 per cent Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) and NEP sets the goal of 50 per cent GER by 2035, it said.

"How can this be achieved -- more than double of GER in next 15 years? NEP is also talking of internationalisation in the same vein and will only facilitate the entry of the foreign universities to tap the Indian educational market for their own benefits. This is a "return of Macaulay" -- building an education system in the interest of foreigners and wealthy ones," it said, referring to British officer Thomas Babington Macaulay. -- PTI
PARIS - A hugely ambitious project to replicate the energy of the sun is entering a critical phase, as scientists and technicians in southern France begin assembling giant parts of a nuclear fusion device, an international experiment aimed to develop the ultimate clean energy source.

World leaders involved in the project, or their representatives, on Tuesday appeared virtually at a ceremony for the start of the new stage of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, noting that work has proceeded despite the COVID-19 pandemic in many of the 35 contributing countries.

Clearly, the pandemic impacted the initial schedule, said ITERs director-general, Bernard Bigot, who led the ceremony at Saint-Paul-les-Durance, northeast of Marseille. He said none of the on-the-ground staff has contracted COVID-19.

Scientists have long sought to mimic the process of nuclear fusion that occurs inside the sun, arguing that it could provide an almost limitless source of cheap, safe and clean electricity. Unlike in existing fission reactors, which split plutonium or uranium atoms, theres no risk of an uncontrolled chain reaction with fusion and it doesnt produce long-lived radioactive waste.

The project seeks to create an artificial sun, said South Korean President Moon Jae-in. An artificial sun is an energy source of dreams.

Among other elements, Korea is manufacturing four sectors of a vacuum vessel, a hermetically sealed chamber in which plasma particles, derived from heated hydrogen gas, spiral without touching walls. European countries are building five other sectors.

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed ITER as a promise of peace because it brings together countries that decided to forego differences for the common good. China, the U.S., India, Russia, South Korea and nations of the European Union are taking part in the project.

There was no sign of the acute discord currently roiling ties between the U.S. and China, and India and China.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a statement read by the Indian ambassador to France, called international collaboration a perfect symbol of the age-old Indian belief ... (that) the world is one family.

Bigot compared the milestone phase getting under way to assembling a giant, three dimensional puzzle that must (have) the precision of a Swiss watch.

Billed as the worlds largest science project, ITER is gigantic. The circular device, called a tokamak, has a 30-meter circumference, stands 30 metres (100 feet) high, and is made up of more than a million parts constructed in numerous countries.

Some pieces transported to France weigh several hundred tons. Tools to put the reactor together match that size, with giant lifts that must transfer components over the walls and down into the pit. A key component being built by the U.S., the Central Solenoid, is the most powerful of ITERs numerous magnets. Together, they will be strong enough to lift an aircraft carrier.

The project begun in 2006 is far from over. The experimental reactor is to head for another landmark moment in five years, described as a trial run when scientists launch what is called First Plasma showing that the machine functions, including magnetic fields and other operations.

Bigot, the ITERs director-general, called fusion energy a miracle for our planet.

He said that smaller experiments are complementary to ITER. Bigot predicts a bright future for his international baby, saying he foresees a scaled-up ITER, perhaps twice as large, to provide power to the grid. But its viability and economic competitiveness must first be demonstrated, he said.

The projects estimated cost just for the EU was about 20 billion euros ($23.5 billion), Bigot told reporters. He said a full price tag was difficult to estimate because participating countries make their own contributions.
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Linkedin Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton (Reuters) London, United Kingdom  Tue, July 28, 2020 10:40 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669d336a 2 World UK,Britain,Germany,France,coronavirus,coronavirus-restrictions,COVID-19,COVID-19-quarantine,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus,Spain Free

Britain is closely watching rises in coronavirus cases in other European destinations such as France and Germany after slapping a 14-day quarantine on travellers from Spain at the height of the summer vacation season.

The imposition of a British quarantine on Spain is one of the starkest indications to date that Europe could face a second wave of economic turmoil as governments scramble to head off a rise in cases from the Mediterranean to the North Sea.

Shares in airlines and travel companies - already on their knees due to coronavirus lockdowns - tumbled while Spain pleaded for Britain to exclude the Balearic and Canary islands from the quarantine.

The British decision, leaked ahead of an official announcement on Saturday, upset the plans of hundreds of thousands of British tourists and raised the specter of limits on more countries.

"We have to keep the situation under review and I think that is what the public would expect us to do," junior health minister Helen Whately told Sky News when asked about Germany and France possibly being next to face quarantines.

"If we see rates going up in a country where at the moment there is no need to quarantine, if we see the rates going up, we would have to take action because we cannot take the risk of coronavirus being spread again across the UK," she said.

In Europe, Russia has reported 40,762 new cases in the past week, Spain has reported 12,166, France 5,858, the United Kingdom 4,662 and Germany 3,932, according to Johns Hopkins University.

As the coronavirus sows yet more economic chaos, a second wave of travel restrictions could destroy swathes of European tourism businesses.

Germany, France and the United Kingdom are by far the biggest European tourism spenders while there are 9,835 flights scheduled to leave the UK for Spain between July 26 and Aug. 31.

Airline and travel shares tumbled: EasyJet fell as much as 14%, the biggest one-day intraday percentage fall since March when the rapid spread of COVID-19 forced flying to a near standstill. British Airways' owner, IAG, fell 8% and the TUI travel company fell 11%.

Ryanair Group Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said the British quarantine was "a badly managed overreaction". Ryanair is not planning to reduce flying capacity to Spain.

"I have no doubt that we will see other localized outbreaks and we need to be flexible enough to deal with them as they arise over the next number of weeks and months," Chief Financial Officer Neil Sorahan told Reuters in an interview following the publication of quarterly financial results.

Islands too?

Spain, long a favorite of British sunseekers, said it was safe for tourists and was trying to convince London that it should exclude the Balearic and Canary islands from the quarantine measure.

"For some of the islands, the rates are indeed going up, also there is some movement of travel between the islands and the mainland, so we had to do a clear policy that would best protect the United Kingdom," Whately told the BBC.

But The Sun newspaper reported that British ministers were considering removing quarantine measures for those coming from the Canary Islands and the Balearics after an outcry from tourists and the travel sector.

TUI UK, part of the TUI holiday company, said it would cancel all holidays to mainland Spain up to Aug. 9, while maintaining flights to the Balearic and Canary islands.

"What we'd really like - and I think we are going to need this going forward as the world evolves - is a nuanced policy," TUI managing director Andrew Flintham told the BBC.
TO START A WAR

How the Bush Administration Took America Into Iraq

By Robert Draper

In April 2003, after he had launched the invasion of Iraq, George W. Bush stood in the Oval Office reception room and watched the televised liberation of Basra, which serves as the countrys main port. Next to him was Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had warned Bush about the dangers of ousting Saddam Hussein from power. Smoke rose from the intelligence service headquarters. The city prison had been opened. Looters were filching desks, chairs and water tanks from state buildings. As he looked at the pictures, Bush was perplexed. He asked, Why arent they cheering?

In To Start a War, which is filled with such telling scenes, Robert Draper carefully examines the Bush administrations illusions about Iraq. Draper is a writer at large for The New York Times Magazine and the author of Dead Certain, a study of the Bush administration that relied on numerous interviews with the president himself. Draper relates that Bush, who was apparently displeased with his depiction in Dead Certain, declined to be interviewed for this book. But Bush did not seek to hinder access to his former aides and Draper has performed prodigious research, including conducting interviews with several hundred former national security officials and scrutinizing recently declassified government documents. He does not provide any bold revelations, but offers the most comprehensive account of the administrations road to war, underscoring that Bush was indeed The Decider when it came to Iraq  there was never any debate about not overthrowing Hussein.

The basis for conflict, Draper reminds us, had already been prepared in the late 1990s by what might be called the military-intellectual complex in Washington. Two key events occurred in 1998: The first was when Congress passed, and Bill Clinton signed into law, the Iraq Liberation Act, which the Iraqi expatriate Ahmad Chalabi and his neoconservative allies like Paul Wolfowitz had championed, and that made it official American policy to topple Saddam Hussein. The second was the establishment by Congress of the Rumsfeld Commission. It provided the former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and other hawks with a high-profile platform to castigate the C.I.A. for its putative shortsightedness about the looming perils posed by North Korea, Iran and Iraq. In particular the commission focused on a variety of doomsday scenarios that might allow Iraq to obtain nuclear weapons and target America in a very short time.

In those days, none of this seemed to matter that much. But after 9/11, it did. Drawing on their years of warnings about threats from abroad, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz teamed up with Vice President Dick Cheney to push for war and isolate the reluctant Powell.
City of Laredo and Webb County officials have confirmed 260 additional cases of the novel coronavirus Tuesday, the highest amount of cases recorded during in a single day in Laredo.

Officials also confirmed four new deaths due to the virus.

The area now has 5,396 positives and 118 deaths overall through the pandemic. Since the start of July, 3,858 positives and 93 deaths have been recorded.

The 260 added positives set a record high for positive cases recorded in a single day. Previously, the mark stood at 242 cases on July 9 while the city had only ever eclipsed 200 on five occasions.

The uptick in cases changed the narrative from the prior two days which had a total of 94 positives combined. Those days broke the 17-day streak of triple-digit cases the city had been on.

Tuesdays record day pushed Laredo to above 4,000 active positives for the first time at 4,043. Its 16 times the 250 necessary to declare the area in the highest warning level of Red for the citys color-coded advisory system. Five weeks ago from Tuesday, the city had only 404 active cases. However, the city has reported a daily drop in active cases just once since June 2, and even that day cases dropped just one.

With four deaths, Laredo actually passed Nuevo Laredo briefly in overall deaths at 118 to 116 for the first time since May 30. However, the Sister City reported nine more later in the day as it jumped ahead again.

One of Laredos deaths recorded Tuesday dated back to July 23 when a male in his mid 50s died due to the virus.

A female in her mid 90s died on Sunday, as did a female in her mid 60s on Monday.

Finally, a female Webb County resident in her early 60s died Tuesday.

The city declared Monday that it would no longer identify where the individuals died or if they had underlying conditions in an attempted effort to streamline the reporting process due to the increased number of recent deaths.

A total of 185 persons are hospitalized in Laredo, a new high. Of those, 72 are in the intensive care unit.

As of noon Tuesday, 16,614 tests for the coronavirus have been administered while 10,252 have returned negative.

Laredos test positivity rate sits at 32.5%, up from 31.8% Monday.

A total of 966 are still pending, though 657 are presumed negative due to being over 30 days old.

There have been 1,235 considered recovered as they have passed their mandatory quarantine and have been cleared by city officials to return to the general public. Thats 59 new recoveries reported since Monday, more than the previous five days combined (51).

City-wide testing will resume in Laredo on Wednesday, with a free testing clinic set to open at Sames Auto Arena.

Testing will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is open to the general public. No appointment is necessary.

A limited supply of tests will be available to ensure a quick turnaround on results. Testing will continue daily at the arena until Aug. 1.
Bhushan was served a show cause notice on the contempt proceedings initiated against him for his 'derogatory tweets against the judiciary'

New Delhi: Over 130 dignitaries, including former apex court judge Justice MB Lokur and renowned writer Arundhati Roy, urged the Supreme Court on Monday to "reconsider" and "withdraw" its decision to "initiate suo-motu contempt proceedings" against activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

The top court had on 22 July issued show cause notice to Bhushan on the contempt proceedings initiated against him for his two allegedly derogatory tweets against the judiciary. It had also sought the assistance of Attorney General KK Venugopal in the case.

Former judges, retired senior government officials, politicians, former ambassadors and activists have issued a statement expressed solidarity with the activist-lawyer, saying that initiation of contempt proceedings against Bhushan who had articulated some concerns in his tweets, appears to be an attempt at stifling such criticism.

"In the interest of justice and fairness and to maintain the dignity of the Supreme Court of India, we urge the Court to reconsider its decision to initiate suo-motu contempt proceedings against Prashant Bhushan and to withdraw the same at the earliest," the statement said.

Besides Justice Lokur and Roy, the statement has been signed by the likes of former Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Ramdas, CPI General Secretary, D Raja, social activist Harsh Mander and journalist P Sainath.

It said that Bhushan has been a relentless crusader for the rights of the weakest sections of our society and has spent his career in pro bono legal service to those who do not have ready access to justice".

In the past few years, serious questions have been raised about the reluctance of the Supreme Court to play its constitutionally mandated role as a check on governmental excesses and violations of fundamental rights of people by the state.

These questions have been raised by all sections of society -- media, academics, civil society organisations, members of the legal fraternity and even by sitting and retired judges of the Supreme Court itself, the statement said.

It said that most recently, the apex court''s reluctance to intervene in a timely manner to avert the migrant crisis during the lockdown came under intense public scrutiny.

Concerns have also been raised regarding the decision of the court not to restart physical hearings, even in a limited manner, despite passage of five months since the onset of the COVID pandemic, it said.

The signatories urged the judges of the Supreme Court to take note of these concerns and engage with the public in an open and transparent manner.

The initiation of contempt proceedings against Bhushan who had articulated some of these concerns in his tweets, appears to be an attempt at stifling such criticism, not just by him but by all stakeholders in the Indian democratic and constitutional setup.

We believe the institution must address these genuine concerns, the statement said.

An institution as important as the Supreme Court of a country must be open to public discussion without the fear of retribution or action of criminal contempt, it said.

Indeed, criminal contempt as an offence has been circumscribed and made redundant in most functioning democracies, such as the USA and the UK, the signatories said.

The statement added that even in India, the principle that criticism of the judiciary should not be stifled by the indiscriminate use of the power of contempt has been recognized by the Supreme Court as well as by academics and advocates of repute...

While referring to recent tweets by Bhushan, the apex court on 22 July said these statements were prima facie capable of "undermining the dignity and authority" of the institution of the Supreme Court in general and the office of Chief Justice of India in particular, in the eyes of public at large.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra, which took suo motu (on its own) cognisance in the matter, also issued notice to Attorney General KK Venugopal seeking his assistance.

The bench referred to one of the tweets "made against the CJI". It also referred to another tweet by Bhushan on 27 June.

Bhushan has been raising issues pertaining to judiciary and recently he was critical of the way in which the top court handled the matters related to migrant workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Technavio has been monitoring the global automotive active suspension system market size and it is poised to grow by 1.27 million units during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 8% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005607/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Automotive Active Suspension System Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact

Frequently Asked Questions-

What was the value of the automotive active suspension system market in 2019?

A. Technavio says that the value of market was at 2.88 million units in 2019 and is projected to reach 4.15 million units by 2024.

Technavio says that the value of market was at 2.88 million units in 2019 and is projected to reach 4.15 million units by 2024. At what CAGR is the market projected to grow during the forecast period 2020-2024?

A. Growing at a CAGR of almost 8%, the market growth will accelerate in the forecast period of 2020-2024.

Growing at a CAGR of almost 8%, the market growth will accelerate in the forecast period of 2020-2024. What is the key factor driving the market?

A. The improved comfort and smoother driving experience with the use of the automotive active suspension system will drive the growth of the market.

The improved comfort and smoother driving experience with the use of the automotive active suspension system will drive the growth of the market. Who are the top players in the market?

A. Continental AG, Daimler AG, Hitachi Ltd., Hyundai Mobis Co. Ltd., Infineon Technologies AG, Marelli Holdings Co. Ltd., Parker Hannifin Corp., Tenneco Inc., thyssenkrupp AG, and ZF Friedrichshafen AG are some of the major market participants.

Continental AG, Daimler AG, Hitachi Ltd., Hyundai Mobis Co. Ltd., Infineon Technologies AG, Marelli Holdings Co. Ltd., Parker Hannifin Corp., Tenneco Inc., thyssenkrupp AG, and ZF Friedrichshafen AG are some of the major market participants. Which region is expected to hold the highest market share?

A. North America

North America What is a major trend in the automotive active suspension system market?

A. Incorporation of body control function into active suspension systems is a major trend driving the market growth.

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Continental AG, Daimler AG, Hitachi Ltd., Hyundai Mobis Co. Ltd., Infineon Technologies AG, Marelli Holdings Co. Ltd., Parker Hannifin Corp., Tenneco Inc., thyssenkrupp AG, and ZF Friedrichshafen AG are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Improved comfort with a smoother driving experience has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, the use of advanced technology that adds to the costs of manufacturers and end-users might hamper market growth.

Automotive Active Suspension System Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Automotive Active Suspension System Market is segmented as below:

Type Hydraulic Actuators Pneumatic Actuators Electromagnetic Actuators

Geographic Landscape Europe North America APAC South America MEA



To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR44248

Automotive Active Suspension System Market 2020-2024: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our automotive active suspension system market report covers the following areas:

Automotive Active Suspension System Market size

Automotive Active Suspension System Market trends

Automotive Active Suspension System Market industry analysis

This study identifies the incorporation of body control function into active suspension systems as one of the prime reasons driving the automotive active suspension system market growth during the next few years.

Automotive Active Suspension System Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the automotive active suspension system market, including some of the vendors such as Continental AG, Daimler AG, Hitachi Ltd., Hyundai Mobis Co. Ltd., Infineon Technologies AG, Marelli Holdings Co. Ltd., Parker Hannifin Corp., Tenneco Inc., thyssenkrupp AG, and ZF Friedrichshafen AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the Automotive Active Suspension System Market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Automotive Active Suspension System Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist automotive active suspension system market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the automotive active suspension system market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the automotive active suspension system market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of automotive active suspension system market vendors

Table of Contents:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2019

Market outlook: Forecast for 2019 2024

Five Forces Analysis

Five forces summary

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Type

Market segments

Comparison by Type

Hydraulic actuators Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Pneumatic actuators Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Electromagnetic actuators Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Type

Customer landscape

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Key leading countries

Market opportunity by geography

Market Drivers

Market Challenges

Market Trends

Vendor Landscape

Overview

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Continental AG

Daimler AG

Hitachi Ltd.

Hyundai Mobis Co. Ltd.

Infineon Technologies AG

Marelli Holdings Co. Ltd.

Parker Hannifin Corp.

Tenneco Inc.

thyssenkrupp AG

ZF Friedrichshafen AG

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

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New Delhi:

Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata on Tuesday praised the central government's move to demonetise high-value currency notes.

While supporting Narendra Modias decision, Tata claimed that it was a bold act capable of wiping out black money and corruption.

"Demonetisation of old currency notes by the Modi government is a bold act that will wipe out black money and corruption. It deserves our support," he said in a tweet.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a surprise move on November 8, had announced that legal tender character of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 stands withdrawn from the following day.

The move was aimed at curbing black money, check circulation of fake currency and terror funding.

Demonetisation of old currency notes by the Modi govt is a bold act that will wipe out black money and corruption. It deserves our support a Ratan N. Tata (@RNTata2000) November 22, 2016

Following the announcements, long queues have been seen outside banks for exchanging and depositing the old currency.

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The Bexar County Sheriff's Office arrested a 25-year-old man on suspicion of stalking and threatening to kill a woman and her family when she dismissed his advances.

Deputies said William Everett Brown met the victim at a plasma donation facility in September 2019. He gave her a letter that said he wanted to have sexual intercourse with her and knew where she lived, according to an arrest affidavit.

Brown then allegedly found the woman's place of employment and began to harass her, including sending unwanted, pornographic photos to her phone, the affidavit said. He also sent texts threatening to kill and sexually assault her and her family along with messages that included photos of assault rifles, according to the affidavit.

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Brown would also sit in his vehicle outside of the woman's house and order pizzas for her as he watched and would stand outside her father's residence and point and laugh, the affidavit continued.

The woman reported at least 13 cases of harassment to BCSO between September and April 2020. Brown even filed one case of harassment with the department, saying that the woman's father was following him and didn't approve of Brown because of his race, the affidavit said.

Brown was arrested Monday and charged with stalking, a third degree felony, and is being held on $10,000 bond.

Investigators believe he may have done this to other women. BCSO is asking anyone who may have been victimized by Brown to contact the department at 210-335-6000.

Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for MySA.com | taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd will pay between 240 billion and 270 billion rupees ($3.2-$3.6 billion) to buy the Indian retail chains owned by Future Group, Mint newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing two sources familiar with details of the deal.

Asia's richest man, Ambani has been buoyed by investments close to $20 billion from backers including Google and Facebook in his oil-to-telecoms conglomerate and is seeking to strengthen his hand in India's huge retail sector.

Reliance's existing retail operation already runs close to 12,000 stores, including a cash-and-carry wholesale business, in over 6,700 Indian towns and cities.

Owned by India's "father of modern retailing", Kishore Biyani, Future Group is home to supermarket chain Big Bazaar, upmarket food stores FoodHall, and bargain clothing chain Brand Factory.

A series of media reports have said the two were nearing agreement on the deal.

Ratings agency ICRA estimates total debt at Future Group's listed companies had risen to 127.78 billion rupees by September last year and the company has since faced widespread closures under India's coronavirus lockdowns.

Mint cited its sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, as saying the sale value included Future Group's liabilities.

Five listed entities, including Future Retail Ltd, will be merged into Future Enterprises Ltd (FEL) before the sale to one of the retail subsidiaries of Reliance, the paper added.

In May, Reliance launched JioMart, an online grocery service in a move aimed at rivalling Amazon.com's local unit and Walmart Inc's Flipkart in the huge Indian market. Ambani plans to list Reliance's digital and retail units over the next five years.

Future Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the deal value. A Reliance Industries spokesperson said the company evaluates various opportunities on an ongoing basis.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealand announced Tuesday that it will follow the lead of its intelligence allies by suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong.

The move comes in response to China passing a sweeping new security law for the semi-autonomous territory.

New Zealand is the final member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance to take such action after the U.S., Australia, Canada and Britain previously announced similar measures.

New Zealand relies on China as its largest trading partner and in the past has often tried to avoid direct political confrontation. China each year buys billions of dollars worth of New Zealands agricultural goods, including its lucrative milk powder, which is used in infant formula.

But Foreign Minister Winston Peters said the new law went against commitments China had made to the international community.

New Zealand can no longer trust that Hong Kongs criminal justice system is sufficiently independent from China, he said.

Peters said there would be other changes to the relationship. New Zealand will now treat military and technology exports to Hong Kong in the same way as it treats such exports to China, he said. New Zealand also has updated its travel advice to warn its citizens about the risks they face under the new law.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand was following its principles.

We do have a mature relationship with China, Ardern said. There have been occasions where we have taken different positions. This obviously will be one of them.

China says the new security law is needed to combat terrorism and separatism and prevent Hong Kong from becoming a base for undermining Chinese state power. In general, cases will be tried in Hong Kong, but the law allows for mainland jurisdiction in some circumstances.

Chinas embassy in Wellington, led by ambassador Wu Xi, said New Zealand should stop interfering.

The New Zealand governments decision is a serious violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations, the embassy said in a statement. It is a gross interference in Chinas internal affairs. The Chinese side has lodged its grave concern and strong opposition.

Peters said New Zealand had taken its stance independently of its Five Eyes partners and wasnt concerned about any impact on exports. We are surely entitled as a democracy to make our views known, he said.

He said New Zealand remains deeply concerned about the legislation and would monitor the situation in Hong Kong as the new law was enforced.
Popular OAP, Toke Makinwa has denied reports circulating the social media that her mansion located at the exclusive Banana Island area of Lagos State, has been seized by the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON).



Earlier Nigerian Twitter went wild after some users claimed Toke Makimwas house was taken over by AMCON due to her inability to pay an unserviced loan.

Some fans alleged that the mansion was bought for her by Festus Fadeyi, the Chairman, Pan Ocean Oil Corporation, an indigenous oil and gas company.

However, Toke Makinwa in a statement issued by her publicist, Andrea Manuela Giaccaglia, said she is the sole owner of her Ikoyi property and that it has not been confiscated by AMCON.

The media personality threatened to take legal action against the originators of the report that her house has been taken over by AMCON.

On behalf of Ms. Toke Makinwa, we would like to address the rumour circulating the internet that Ms. Toke Makinwas alleged house in Banana Island was taken over by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), part of the statement read. Ms. Tokes is the sole owner of her residence in Ikoyi. Our lawyers have been contacted and legal action will be taken against the originators of this story. Kind Regards, Toke Makinwas Management.

Below are some of the reactions tailing the report on Twitter:

So its Festus Fadeyi! Interesting. I remember his children called out Toke Makinwa few years ago to leave their father alone. That the man was spending a lot of money on her while being heavily indebted to Skye Bank. Kai. Men are Scum.  Sola (@Advsola) July 27, 2020

Toke Makinwa was out here last week telling us marriages should have expiry date and should be subject to renewal clause after a number of years not knowing her house on Banana Island has expiry date with AMCON but not subject to renewal clause.  Retired Sinner Boyfriend Dorathy #BBNaija (@R_Thobykov) July 27, 2020

When Festuss wife tries to ask him about Toke Makinwas house? pic.twitter.com/lJRumCj5L5  . (@LilMrSugar) July 27, 2020

Exactly 3 years ago, the children of Festus Fadeyi were fighting Toke Makinwa to leave their father alone, because the man was spending extravagantly on her while still indebted to Skye Bank. This man self get werey for head make we no lie   General Zee ?  #BBNaija (@heisTactic) July 27, 2020

Toke Makinwa was broke shaming people the other day while living in a house that was bought on credit by someones Dad. Now theyve collected the house and Sis have suddenly turned to a motivational speaker. Nothing in this life is eternal. Be humble!!!  Obi Of Onitsha?? (@Uncle_clique) July 27, 2020

If you actually believed Toke Makinwa bought a house in Banana Island, the joke really is on you. Do you know how much houses there cost? What business did she do to be able to afford it? When you ask these questions, youre termed a hater. No wahala  ChrisBest Oguguo (@chrisboguguo) July 27, 2020

This life dont envy people anyhow ooooooo Your mentor Toke Makinwa have been chased from Banana island ? to Cassava plantation ???? pic.twitter.com/mC3KRz3RuB  OLUWASEMILORE DSF (@DSFspeaks) July 27, 2020

AMCON: We are taking over the property kindly pack your bags and all your valuables and leave this premises immediately !



Toke Makinwa: *outside her house in Banana Island* pic.twitter.com/tCdCYND1xP  Nobel The Indaboski ?? (@vhic3adibe) July 27, 2020

Toke Makinwa see at Cele Express moving from Banana Island to Ikotun Egbe after AMCON took over her home. pic.twitter.com/vhpGX679bY  Ifeanyichukwu (@Afu_Dimkpa1) July 27, 2020

Toke Makinwa trying to check into the seized apartment to confirm the news.pic.twitter.com/qbDCiHqybV  Premier (@SodiqTade) July 27, 2020

#MercyEke #bbnaijialockdown After AMCON repossesses the house bought for Toke Makinwa by her BIG god. Journalist: Is this true Toke

Toke Makinwa: ??? pic.twitter.com/R7TOzlo176  Vanessa (@NESSAOFABJ) July 27, 2020

This is the part where all these Twitter feminists rally around Toke Makinwa to help buy her another house in Banana Island. Amen??  Omoniyi Israel (@__Omoissy) July 27, 2020

Toke Makinwa story should be another reason for anyone to pause and think a while, before shouting God when everytime! Isale oro ole gbin  Yakuza Of Ibadan ? (@UncleAbiodun) July 27, 2020

AMCON took over Toke Makinwas house? Baby girl should have put her name on the property yo?  Gift ? (@Giftama_) July 27, 2020

Landlords in Ikorodu when Toke Makinwa comes to price 1 room selfcon pic.twitter.com/cfxNW0sCVl  Neymar PR (@BagOfNuts_) July 27, 2020

Toke Makinwa loses new house to AMCON. I thought she said it is hardwork? Small Girl Big God!?  #Nigeria (@johnkinns) July 27, 2020

Toke Makinwa been dey motivate girls say she bought her first house at 35. Now she don cast.  HUGO (@CallMeUgo_) July 27, 2020

Our ladies that follow Toke Makinwa desire to acquire speech bumpers to bumpers, you can be a baby girl with your own money. Work smart!!!  Abimbola ICON ? | ILESA 1st SON (@pastuerade) July 27, 2020

Festus Fadeyi and Toke Makinwa go be gist for the day now ??  Bsa Bsika (@SayoIroko) July 27, 2020

KanyiDaily recalls that Toke Makinwa had advised women who get wooed often by married men to chop their money and run away.

She told single women that the next time they come by a man who is confident to reveal this marriage status while attempting to cheat, they should go ahead and enjoy his money before making an escape.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

At a time when the whole world has mobilized to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Armenia resorts to provocations and sabotage to exacerbate tensions, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said, Trend reports.

Bayramov made the remark at a webinar on the impact of the pandemic on regional cooperation in Asia

Armenia continues the policy of aggression against Azerbaijan, as a result of which about 20 percent of the Azerbaijani territory has been occupied, and more than one million Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their historical lands, becoming refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPS), said the minister. The four resolutions on the conflict adopted by the UN Security Council require an immediate, unconditional and complete withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Nevertheless, Armenia continues to ignore these resolutions and documents of other international organizations demanding an end to the aggression.

On July 12, 2020, the Armenian armed forces fired at the positions of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces located in the Tovuz district along the state border between Azerbaijan and Armenia. As a result of this provocation, 12 Azerbaijani servicemen were killed, including a major general of the Armed Forces, as well as one civilian, said Bayramov. This provocation by Armenia is aimed at disrupting the peace talks and continuing the aggression against Azerbaijan and the occupation. It also aims to divert attention from the increasingly aggravating internal problems in Armenia itself, caused by the incompetent activities of its leadership and the widespread of coronavirus infection in this country.

Touching upon international reaction to the provocation of Armenia, the minister noted that leading international organizations, such as the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking States (Turkic Council) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), made statements condemning the Armenian provocation.

In turn, with the support of 120 member states of the communique, which strongly condemns the provocation of the Armenian armed forces, adopted the Coordination Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), said Bayramov.

The Azerbaijani FM also expressed deep gratitude for solidarity of fraternal Turkey.
Duke University Medical Center in Durham. (Image: By Pete Kiehart  2020 The New York Times)

A college degree at 19. A medical school graduate with a Ph.D. at 27.

By the time he completed training in vascular surgery in 2014, Dr. Sapan Desai had cast himself as an ambitious physician, an entrepreneur with an MBA and a prolific researcher published in medical journals.

Then the novel coronavirus hit, and Desai seized the moment. With a Harvard professor, he produced two studies in May that almost instantly disrupted multiple clinical trials amid the pandemic.

One studys findings were particularly dramatic, reporting that anti-malaria drugs like hydroxychloroquine, which President Donald Trump promoted, were linked to increased deaths of COVID-19 patients. But that study and another were retracted in June by the renowned journals that had published them, weeks after researchers around the world suggested the data was dubious. Desai, who declined to share the raw information even with his co-authors, claimed it was culled from a massive trove acquired by Surgisphere, a business he started during his residency.

The now-tainted studies helped sow confusion and erode public confidence in scientific guidance when the United States was already deeply divided over how to respond to the pandemic. And the anti-malaria drugs cited in the papers have continued to generate controversy, as new research prompted some scientists to petition for expanding their use against the coronavirus, despite Food and Drug Administration warnings against them.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

While the journal debacle has shaken the broader scientific community, many people who have known Desai, 41, described him as a man in a hurry, a former whiz kid willing to cut corners, misrepresent information or embellish his credentials as he pursued his ambitions.

In interviews, more than a dozen doctors who worked with him during training and residency said they had often found him to be an unreliable physician who seemed less interested in patient care than in the medical journal he founded and his company, branded early on as a medical publishing business.

You couldnt trust what he said, said Dr. Vanessa Olcese, a former chief resident who worked with Desai at Duke University Medical Center. You would verify everything that he did and take everything he did with a grain of salt.

His performance there and during a later fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center raised questions about whether he would be permitted to move to the next level of training. In both instances, he was.

More recently, in February, Desai left his job at a community hospital in a Chicago suburb where he had worked as a surgeon since 2016. He was named as a defendant in three medical malpractice lawsuits last year, court records show. His spokeswoman said he deems any lawsuit naming him to be unfounded.

The New York Times interviewed more than two dozen people who have known Desai over the past two decades.

Desai, who declined to be interviewed for this article and did not respond to repeated requests for comment, has defended his companys data. In an interview in late May, he said it was his lifes work to build a company that could provide lifesaving clinical insights to make the world a better place.

We did this because it was an opportunity to help. Were not making any money from this, he said. This is why I went into medicine.

A Giant Roadblock

Desai was always a striver. During high school in the Chicago suburbs, he took 13 Advanced Placement classes, according to an article in The Daily Herald, a local newspaper. He acquired enough college credits to graduate from the University of Illinois at Chicago at 19.

His goal was to be the first person at UIC. that ever graduated college in one year, said Peter Okkema, a biology professor in whose lab the young undergraduate worked.

Desai seemed eager to impress people, the professor recalled, but never sought advice or guidance.

He entered a joint M.D.-Ph.D. program at the university; his doctoral adviser, professor Anna Lysakowski, remembers him as very bright, very quick. She also said he told her he was enrolled at John Marshall Law School. (The school has no record of him, a spokeswoman said, and the degree is not on his resume). Several doctors who knew Desai after he moved to Duke for his residency in 2006 recalled his saying he had a law degree and described his license plate listing his supposed credentials: M.D., J.D. and Ph.D.

Over the next five years, his performance and a pattern of behavior at the North Carolina hospital worried colleagues, according to physicians who worked with him there.

In interviews, Drs. Olcese, Mani Daneshmand, Dawn Elfenbein and 10 others  who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media or feared retribution from their employers or Duke  said there were broad concerns inside the surgery department about Desai.

The doctors, many of whom were also residents, said they could not trust information he provided about patients medical conditions or test results. Several doctors said it became standard practice to double check anything Desai said about a patient, such as how the person had fared overnight or whether a test had been ordered.

Several former colleagues said that often he did not follow through on directives about treating patients and that when he was questioned about it, he sometimes passed blame or offered implausible explanations.

In one instance, Desai did not respond to pages from nurses during an overnight shift while on call, recalled Olcese. When she asked about the missed pages, he said he had been resuscitating an infant by performing a rare, complicated procedure  an incident the charge nurse said never occurred, according to Olcese and another doctor present for Desais explanation.

He was essentially a giant roadblock that you had to work around, said Olcese, now a neurocritical care doctor at Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. You didnt want him to bring you down with him.

In 2008 or early 2009, Olcese and another chief resident shared concerns about Desai with their supervisors  senior physicians and faculty at Duke  during discussions about whether to promote him to the next year of residency. It is unclear what the faculty members discussed during their private deliberations, but ultimately, Desai was moved up. A Duke spokeswoman would confirm only his time there.

After his residency, Desai obtained an MBA in three months from Western Governors University, an online university based in Salt Lake City, the school confirmed. Then, after starting a vascular surgery fellowship at the University of Texas at Houston, he ran into trouble. He had so antagonized some supervisors that they asked the department chairman to expel him, said Dr. Hazim Safi, who was then in that role.

Some of the attending staff didnt like his behavior and didnt want him to graduate, Safi said in an interview.

While Safi said that Desai could be abrasive, he had worked on papers with the younger physician and was convinced the complaints were driven by personality differences and professional jealousy, not substantive deficiencies in surgical skill or patient care. Instead of failing him, he said, he gave Desai an opportunity to work on his professionalism and interpersonal skills.

I intervened, and he graduated, the former chairman said.

At Desais most recent post at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Illinois, he became involved in at least four medical malpractice cases that are still pending, including three filed in 2019.

Those suits include a claim that he failed to properly perform surgery to restore circulation to an accident victims leg, which later required partial amputation. Another alleges that negligent treatment by Desai and other doctors resulted in the removal of a substantial portion of a patients bowel.

The earlier case against the hospital contends that Desai performed surgery in 2016 to remove plaque buildup from a 60-year-old mans carotid artery, then failed to come to the hospital after he developed swelling in his neck that caused difficulty swallowing and breathing. The patient later died.

Big Data, Big Dreams

By the time Desai left the hospital earlier this year  a hospital spokeswoman said he voluntarily resigned for personal reasons  the novel coronavirus was raging in China and spreading to other countries.

For Desai, whose entrepreneurial projects had grown to include a health data analytics company, the crisis was an opportunity to fulfill his dream of using big data to study outcomes and improve care. The publics appetite for information was insatiable, and journals were publishing studies faster than ever.

Over the years, Surgisphere had developed a product called QuartzClinical that offered health centers a platform using data analytics to improve outcomes. Desai said the product had enabled Surgisphere to amass a giant registry with anonymized electronic health records from more than 1,200 hospitals and health centers, with data about more than 240 million patient encounters in 45 countries.

While the existence of the database has not been confirmed  Desai cited contractual obligations to keep confidential the identities of participating hospitals  he said he had been building it for a decade with fewer than a dozen employees. Few people were needed, he said, because hospitals could easily input anonymized patient data from disparate electronic health record systems, translating the information into a single, homogenized registry without technical assistance.

One former Surgisphere employee, Ariane Anderson, was surprised by Desais assertion, given the difficulties of combining information from disparate institutions with various electronic records systems.

Anderson, who was hired to market QuartzClinical to hospitals and other health centers in 2019, said in an interview that generating interest in the company had been an uphill battle and that entering data into Surgispheres system was laborious. When one hospital wanted to try out the system in July 2019, she said, she spent two days there extracting data from a sampling of 200 patients to put into a spreadsheet.

By the end of 2019, Anderson said, she knew of only one hospital that had signed a contract with QuartzClinical, declining to identify it.

The new coronavirus put the company on the map. One of Desais projects early this year was to develop a COVID-19 severity scoring tool using data he said came from tens of thousands of registry patients. He offered the tool free to a nonprofit based in Cape Town, South Africa, saying it could identify high-risk patients and help allocate scarce medical resources in remote areas. (The group, the African Federation for Emergency Medicine, rescinded its endorsement of the tool after the studies were retracted.)

Desai also teamed with Dr. Mandeep Mehra, a Harvard Medical School professor, and several others to turn out papers about COVID-19 that were ostensibly based on the patient registry. In May, he won the equivalent of academic medicines jackpot: publication in two of the worlds most prestigious journals.

The first paper, citing data from 8,910 COVID patients at 169 hospitals in Asia, North America and Europe, reported that cardiovascular disease increased the risk of bad outcomes but put to rest concerns that blood pressure medications were harmful (it even seemed to suggest a benefit). It was published May 1 in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The next paper, published May 22 in The Lancet, evaluated anti-malaria drugs that Trump has promoted as antidotes to the coronavirus. The researchers claimed to have analyzed the outcomes of nearly 100,000 COVID-19 patients from 671 hospitals on six continents. The results were sensational: Patients treated with chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine were up to five times as likely to have abnormal heart rhythms as other patients  and were at higher risk of dying.

Although it was an observational study, considered to provide relatively weak scientific evidence, the papers effect was felt around the world. A physician commenting on CNN called it the mother of all studies, and investigators including the World Health Organization halted clinical trials of the drugs. (Some have since resumed.)

The paper soon drew scrutiny from scientists who demanded to know more about the data and began questioning the New England Journal study too. Desais co-authors, conceding they had never seen the raw data, called for an independent review, but Desai balked, invoking confidentiality agreements. On June 4, both journals retracted the studies.

Surgispheres flashy website has been dismantled. Desai, who gave several interviews before the studies were retracted, has gone silent.

c.2020 The New York Times Company
U.S., Russia Discuss Space Security Ahead Of Nuclear Talks This Week

By RFE/RL July 27, 2020

U.S. and Russian officials are holding talks on space security after the United States and Britain last week accused Moscow of having launched an anti-satellite weapon.

The one-day dialogue, being held in Vienna on July 27, will focus on space security and had been planned months in advance. Those talks will be followed by three days of nuclear arms-control talks in the Austrian capital.

U.S. Assistant Secretary for International Security and Nonproliferation Christopher Ford said July 24 that "Moscow and Beijing have already turned space into a war-fighting domain."

The United States is proposing rules for responsible behavior in space, which would be modeled on existing rules of war that are based on the principles of proportionality and humanity.

"Our hope is that this meeting will allow us to explore ways to increase security and stability in outer space as well as to advance the cause of developing norms of responsible behavior," Ford told a press conference.

The last bilateral meeting between Russia and the United States on space security took place in 2013.

Russia and China have been backing a rival effort to ban weapons in outer space in an international treaty.

The United States and Britain accused Russia of having tested an anti-satellite weapon in space on July 15.

Moscow denied the accusation, describing the event as an inspection of one satellite by another.

"Russia has always been and remains a country that is committed to the aim of fully demilitarizing outer space and nondeployment of any kinds of arms in outer space," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on July 24 in comments carried by state news agency TASS.

The United States and Britain, however, said a Russian satellite fired a projectile that Ford described as the space equivalent of "a bullet."

Russia has now carried out such a test for the second time, Ford said. The first test took place in 2017.

With reporting by dpa and TASS

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-russia-discuss -space-security-ahead-of-nuclear- talks-this-week/30749500.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.

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Artist David Hockney has branded Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock 'bossy boots' over their attempts to cut obesity by cutting down on junk food, alcohol and smoking, saying 'you might live to 104... but call that living?'

In a letter published in today's Telegraph, the 83-year-old artist criticised the government's plans, which could see adverts for certain foods banned before 9pm, a ban on buy one get one free offers and calorie warning labels printed onto bottles of alcohol.

The Bradford-born artist wrote: 'Bossy-boots Hancock and bossy-boots Boris are suggesting if everybody loses five pounds it would save the National Health Service 100 million. I cant see how this could be measured; the NHS is what it says, a national service.

Artist David Hockney, pictured in 2015, has criticised the government's crackdown on obesity

If no one smokes, eats chocolate or butter, cheese and bacon, they might live to be 104. Call that living?'

Yesterday Mr Johnson said it was his own battle with Covid-19 in April that made him address his own weight problem.

The PM insisted the Government's 'better health strategy' will help people to 'bring their weight down' and better protect the NHS.

However, he insisted ministers will not be 'excessively bossy or nannying' in telling people what to do.

Boris Johnson revealed the government's plan to crack down on obesity levels across the UK on Monday

The Prime Minister's comments came as Health Secretary Matt Hancock said if overweight adults were to lose five pounds in weight it could save the NHS 100 million.

Mr Johnson said the 'number one' benefit of losing weight is that you 'feel much better' and feel 'more full of energy'.

Matt Hancock has been branded a 'bossy boots,' by artist David Hockney

He continued: 'The other thing obviously is if you can get your weight down a bit and protect your health you will also be protecting the NHS.

Writing in yesterday's edition of The Telegraph, Matt Hancock said: 'If everyone who is overweight lost five pounds it could save the NHS over 100 million over the next five years.

'And more importantly, given the link between obesity and coronavirus, losing weight could be lifesaving.'

Mr Hockney's letter added: 'Bossy-boots always want to take the sweet things out of life, and remember that the ultimate bossy-boots is a slave owner.

'The National Health Service will always have to deal with births and deaths, the final cause of death is birth. Love life.'

The UK is the second fattest country in Europe with two-thirds of adults above a healthy weight, according to Government data, and one in three children aged 10 to 11 are overweight or obese.

Mr Johnson added: 'What we are doing now with our better health strategy is just trying to help people a little bit to bring their weight down - not in an excessively bossy or nannying way, I hope.

'We want this one really to be sympathetic to people, to understand the difficulties that people face with their weight, the struggles that everybody faces, that many, many people face, to lose weight and just to be helpful.'
YEREVAN, JULY 28, ARMENPRESS. Germanys relevant authorities are conducting investigation to find out the people who deliberately set the official vehicle of the Armenian Embassy on fire, the Armenian Embassy in Germany said.

On July 23, at 00:12, the official vehicle of the Armenian Embassy in Germany was set on fire. The German Federal Foreign Office, the Berlin Police and respective police agencies have been officially notified about the incident. The possibility of arson was being considered. After the recent events on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, Azerbaijanis living in different countries are conducting provocations, attack Armenians and make attempts of damaging the property of Armenians.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
A medevac plane crash-landed after the pilot failed to notice a fuel shortage until it was too late, according to a Transportation Safety Board of Canada investigation.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/7/2020 (541 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The April 2019 Keewatin Air flight landed on the then-frozen Stephens Lake near Gillam Airport after declaring a fuel emergency while flying to Churchill. There were four people on board - two pilots and two flight paramedics. No injuries were reported. (Supplied / RCMP)

A medevac plane crash-landed after the pilot failed to notice a fuel shortage until it was too late, according to a Transportation Safety Board of Canada investigation.

A Keewatin Air LP Beechcraft B200 departed Winnipeg on April 24, 2019, for Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, with a stop scheduled in Churchill. The captain of the flight was receiving training from another pilot, and two flight nurses were also on the aircraft.

The flight was redirected to the Gillam Airport after a fuel emergency was declared. Both engines lost power and the aircraft was unable to reach the landing strip. Instead it landed on the then-frozen Stephens Lake, 750 feet away from the targeted runway. There were no injuries.

The safety board determined the fuel shortage could have been recognized and fixed on several occasions. The flight left Winnipeg without enough fuel to make it to Churchill.

"Before takeoff, when the captain asked if the aircraft was ready for flight, the first officer replied that it was, not recalling that the aircraft required fuel," a TSB news release states.

As the flight continued, the crew did not check the fuel gauges and were unaware of the situation until the left fuel pressure warning light lit up. The crew became "startled" and began a response that delayed the trip to Gillam Airport and made a runway landing impossible, the TSB said.

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"Still feeling the effect of the startled response, the captain quickly became task-saturated, which led to an unco-ordinated response by the flight crew, delaying the turn towards Gillam and extending the approach," the release states.

TSB investigator Allen Barrett said while many situations the board examines involve human contributory factors, this particular case had "more human factors related than most investigations" that the board completes.

"Theres always a certain amount of human factors involved in an investigation, some would argue that every one could be traced back to some level of human factor," he said.

Keewatin Air LP has carried out an internal investigation and followup, which included issuing a safety bulletin to pilots and flight co-ordinators on how to conduct a fuel quantity check and clarified what fuel status information crews must provide to flight co-ordinators.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_
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On Monday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released the HEALS ActSenate Republicans so-called COVID-19 relief package. Instead of protecting struggling Americans as COVID-19 cases spike and families face a nationwide wave of evictions, the GOPs legislation slashes unemployment assistance for over 30 million unemployed Americans, lets eviction protections expire, and guts safety and health protections for workers and consumers.

Senate Republicans know its incredibly risky to send people back to work in the midst of a pandemic. But their plan doesnt include the binding federal safety standard that labor unions are fighting for. In fact, its not designed to protect us at allits designed to protect corporate bottom lines.

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Republicans corporate immunity proposal, introduced in the Senate by Sen. John Cornyn as part of the HEALS package, would make it impossible for people to hold corporations accountable for cutting corners on safety precautions. The proposal would bar nearly any lawsuits related to COVID-19 exposure, with a narrow exception for intentional misconduct or gross negligencedefined at an extremely high standard plaintiffs could almost never meet.

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Corporate greed is already costing lives. At Walmartthe largest private employer of Black workers in Americajust one in 10 workers reported in April that masks are required and available in their stores. Workers at Amazon warehouses report that the company wont clean the freezer suits workers must wear between uses, and that the companys harsh quotas make it impossible for workers to socially distance. Airlines are already abandoning safety precautions adopted in the spring, packing planes full of people. The Republicans proposal takes away our last line of defense when corporate executives put profits ahead of our lives.

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Worker safety is public safety: If companies get a free pass to put workers lives at risk, workers exposed to COVID-19 on the job could then spread the virus to their communities, seeding new waves of the pandemic. Thats exactly what has happened after President Donald Trump forced meatpacking workers back to work in cramped plants, where workers were denied PPE, discouraged from taking paid sick leave, and unable to socially distance during long shifts. At least 24,000 COVID-19 cases are linked to meatpacking plants, where workers are overwhelmingly Black or immigrant people making minimum wage. But emails obtained by ProPublica revealed meatpacking executives were far more concerned about their profits than workers livesand waved away safety concerns by saying that social distancing is a nicety that makes sense only for people with laptops. Meatpacking workers across the country had to sue their employers after being denied PPE or being discouraged from taking paid sick leave. If Republicans strip workers of the power to hold bad employers accountable at the same time they make it impossible for workers to survive on unemployment insurance, they will be sending workers to their deaths.

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Corporate greed is already costing lives.

McConnell argues that his proposal simply creates a safe harbor for companies that are complying with COVID-19 guidance. But in practice, this corporate immunity proposal would cover a sweeping range of COVID-19-related claims, with a narrow exception for intentional misconduct and gross negligence that would be extraordinarily difficult for workers or consumers to prove. And their proposal is riddled with loopholes that bad actors could easily exploit.

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Republicans corporate immunity proposal would let corporations off the hook for COVID-19-related safety violations as long as they make reasonable efforts toward compliance (not, you know, actual compliance) with any applicable government standards and guidance. But there are currently no binding federal worker safety standards for the coronavirus pandemic, and the Republicans bill, unlike House Democrats Heroes Act, includes no plans to make one. Even the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions nonbinding guidance may leave workers out to dry. Just look at the CDCs guidance for meatpacking plants: To comply, plants just have to consider giving workers enough break time to wash or sanitize their hands, rather than actually providing that time, and consider consulting with a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning engineer, rather than actually installing safe ventilation.

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Worse still, the HEALS Act lets corporations pick and choose which rules they want to follow from federal, state, and local guidance. This risks creating a race to the bottom for states doing the least to protect their workers. Take Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp banned cities from issuing mask mandates. Even if the federal government issued a strong, science-based worker safety standard, if Georgia issued a lax standard that allows corporations to keep putting workers at risk, a Georgia-based corporation could simply opt to follow the weaker standardand use this proposal to escape accountability in court.

Republicans corporate immunity proposal would even strip workers of the power to enforce a wide range of labor and employment protections, including protections under anti-discrimination law and the Fair Labor Standards Act, which sets the federal minimum wage.* Corporations would be immune from lawsuits arising under these critical civil rights protections as long as the lawsuit relates to COVID-19 (with a narrow exception for intentional discrimination). That could mean that a college student whose school wont accommodate her disability during online learning wouldnt be able to sue under the Americans With Disabilities Act, or that a pregnant worker couldnt hold her employer accountable for a reopening plan that didnt accommodate her pregnancy.

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If Mitch McConnells latest proposal passes, by October, unemployment insurance will be covering just 70 percent of the wages workers earned before the crisis. After decades of stagnant wages, most American families simply cannot live on 70 percent of their prior wagesand they will have no choice but to try to go back to workplaces that Senate Republicans are turning into deathtraps. We could give workers the support they need to stay safe. Instead, Republicans are sending them out to die to protect a corporate bottom line.
New Delhi:

Pakistan has conveyed to India that its Prime Ministers Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz will be attending the Heart of Asia (HoA) conference in Amritsar on December 3 and 4.

We have received an official confirmation from Pakistan that Aziz would be attending the HoA conference on Afghanistan, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said on Wednesday.

The conference, which will be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, will see participation of over 40 countries.

This would be the first high-level visit from Pakistan after the announcement of Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue (CBD) in December last year which never took off in the wake of terror strikes, including the Pathankot airbase attack by Pakistan-based terror groups in January this year, and subsequent incidents which led to intense tension between the two countries.

Given that Aziz, while announcing his visit, had asserted that it could be a good opportunity to defuse the tension between India and Pakistan, it is in all probability that a bilateral meeting may be on the cards. However, there is no official confirmation in this regard.

While Indian officials are tight-lipped whether there would be a bilateral on the sidelines of the multilateral conference, it is understood that Pakistan is of the opinion that India should initiate such a proposal.

It also remains to be seen whether Azizs counterpart Sushma Swaraj will be travelling to Amritsar to attend the conference given that she is not well. That may result in either one of her junior ministers or some other cabinet ministers attending the conference.

In December last year, the meeting of the HoA process was hosted by Pakistan and Swaraj had attended it after which she had bilateral talks with Aziz and announced resumption of CBD.

India had recently boycotted the SAARC summit which was scheduled to be held in Islamabad. Citing continuous cross-border terrorism from Pakistan following the Uri attack, India had said that in the present circumstances it was unable to take part in the SAARC summit.

Aziz was quoted as saying that Unlike India, that had sabotaged SAARC summit in Pakistan by pulling out, Pakistan will respond by participating in the Heart of Asia (conference) being held in India. Its a good opportunity to defuse the tension.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A former state legislative candidate says he went to the FBI earlier this year with his concerns over the anonymously funded political ads that flooded the airwaves during his race, earning him a spot as a witness in the federal charging documents against Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and others that were unsealed last week.

Nick Owens, a Brown County Republican and member of the State Board of Education, says he is referenced in the 81-page affidavit as Individual 1. Individual 1 provided the FBI with information about Householders political operation relevant to the investigation, the affidavit says, including by detailing Householders secret control of a political group prosecutors said covertly received $60 million from FirstEnergy in exchange for Householders delivery of nuclear bailout legislation.

Owens, a former assistant county prosecutor, said he called the FBI tip line in mid-March. He said he was connected with Blane Wetzel, the FBI special agent who ended up writing the complaint.

Owens said he spoke with Wetzel multiple times through April. He said he figured Wetzel was interested in possible campaign-finance violations, but didnt get any indication he was working on a larger case.

He didnt hear anything until the charges were unsealed last week.

I certainly was surprised, Owens said in a Tuesday interview. I knew I had to be speaking to the right person when I saw the name of the person who filed the charges.

Householder and his top political aide, Jeff Longstreth, and three lobbyists  former Ohio Republican Party chairman Matt Borges, Neil Clark and Juan Cespedes  were arrested on federal racketeering charges last week.

U.S. Attorney David DeVillers and Chris Hoffman, the special agent in charge for the FBI field office in Cincinnati, said their case was assisted by people in Ohios political system who stepped forward and provided information. Only Owens and one other, Republican political consultant Tyler Fehrman, have publicly discussed their involvement as informants in the case.

News of Owens involvement in the investigation was first reported by WKRC, a Cincinnati TV station.

Owens and three other Republican legislative candidates  running in races for two neighboring house districts in Southwest Ohio  in March held a press conference condemning the pro-Householder dark money spent in their races. As previously reported by cleveland.com, a Householder-aligned Super PAC spent hundreds of thousands of attack ads supporting two Householder-backed candidates in the two races in the races final weeks. The candidates accused Householder of illegally coordinating with the group, called Growth and Opportunity PAC, and called for tougher disclosure requirements for spending on political ads.

The section in the federal complaint dealing with Individual 1 describes a November 2018 meeting during which Householder took credit for helping a different candidate win his race in that years election, thanks to a late infusion of $500,000 from a dark money group prosecutors have said Householder secretly controlled. Those attack ads allowed Householders preferred candidate, J. Todd Smith, win his race by just 87 votes in the November 2018 election.

Owens said he met with Householder and a few aides in downtown Columbus shortly after that election wrapped up while he screened for a possible Householder endorsement in the 2020 election.

Based on this discussion, Individual 1 says if he/she were selected, he/she would have Householders financial backing, the complaint reads.

Individual 1, the complaint reads, also provided other information relevant to the investigation that has been independently corroborated.

Householder ended up backing Allen Freeman, a different candidate in the race.

Owens ultimately placed second, finishing behind Adam Bird, the winning candidate, but ahead of Freeman. Jean Schmidt, a Householder-backed candidate, won the other race.

The charges against Householder didnt come until last week, nearly three months after Owens lost his race. But Owens said as a former county prosecutor, he understands that criminal investigations take time.

Did it suck that I had all this illegal dark money spent against me that ultimately I believe led to my defeat? Yes, he said. But my dad said a long time ago when I was a young boy, life isnt fair. Move on.
An Accra High Court has dismissed a suit filed by Mr Tony Lithur seeking the payment of some GH2,005,320 plus interest, from the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) as money owed to him for legal services he rendered to the cocoa authority.



The court said Mr Tony Lithur  who established himself as a prominent lawyer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), when he represented the party in the 2012 election petition hearing  had failed to provide sufficient evidence to establish his claims against COCOBOD.



This case is Mr Lithurs second failed attempt to retrieve the supposed legal fees. In the first instance, Mr Lithur used the name of his law firm, Lithur Brew & Co, to file a Writ of Summons against the COCOBOD. After months of litigation, the court dismissed his case for lack of capacity and on the basis that his Writ was incompetent in law. Mr. Tony Lithur, soon thereafter, filed his second suit, on 26th July 2018, at the High Court for the money.



In this second lawsuit, he filed the Writ of Summons in his name and not in the name of his law firm (as he did the first time) but maintained the exact same reliefs (requests) from the court.



ORAL AGREEMENT



Mr. Tony Lithur told the court that he had an oral agreement to represent COCOBOD in a case in 2014 and that he had done so vigorously and as such, was entitled to be paid his legal fees in full.



He asked the court, therefore, for the recovery of GH 2,005,320.00 being legal fees owed him; the payment of the interest amount which has accrued on the GH 2,005,320.00 since the 20th of February 2017 till date, as well as, any further reliefs which the court deemed fit to be given to him.



Mr. John Clottey-Sefa, the then Director of Legal Services at COCOBOD in his counter-argument in court said that the fees charged by Mr. Tony Lithur were excessive; given the quantum of work he did in 2014 for COCOBOD.



The legal fees, Mr. Clottey-Sefa asserted, were premised on the fact that Mr. Lithur was going to conduct the 2014 case from the stage of preparation of pleadings and witness statements, through trial, filing addresses and to final judgment, however, that turned out not to be the case. Instead, Mr. Lithur assumed control over the conduct of the case when an Entry of Appearance had already been entered by COCOBOD's in-house Counsel and a Statement of Defence had already been prepared.



Also very crucial, is the fact that Mr. Lithur had failed to submit a particularized bill to COCOBOD, when the legal fees were due payment. Such a bill would have stated in detail the services that he rendered for which he had to charge so much.



The court in its final ruling held that from the totality of the evidence adduced before it, Mr. Lithur had failed to establish or prove his case. Hence the court threw out the case; awarding Mr. Lithur nothing.



GENESIS OF LAWSUITS



The genesis of the attempts by Mr. Lithur to retrieve legal fees from COCOBOD lie in a controversial decision taken by COCOBODs Chief Executive in 2014 to engage an outside counsel to litigate a matter between COCOBOD and Strategic Security System International Limited.



COCOBODs in-house counsel advised that the matter should be settled out of court. However, the then Chief Executive, Dr Stephen Kwabena Opuni, had taken the view that the matter ought to be litigated. He was not amenable to an out-of-court settlement and acted against the advice of COCOBODs in-house counsel.



Mr. Lithur was then engaged to handle the litigation at the sum of GH 3,404,800.00, GH 10,000.00 and GH 575,840.00, respectively, as professional legal fees, out of pocket expenses and VAT charges; bringing the total amount to GH 4,010,640.00. His payment was, however, predicated on him taking the case through trial to final judgment.





Source: Peacefmonline.com









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July 28, 2020 Villar Welcomes President Duterte's SONA Call for the Utilization of Coco Levy Fund, Passage of Legislation to Set it in Motion Senator Cynthia Villar welcomes the call of President Rodrigo Duterte in his state of the nation of the address (SONA) to utilize the coconut levy fund "for the welfare of coconut farmers and the development of the coconut industry". Villar has also been pushing for the release and utilization of the coco levy since 2016. The coco levy refers to the taxes imposed on coconut farmers from 1971 to 1983. The amount collected is now estimated to be PhP105 billion. "Like the President, I believe that the the urgent utilization of the coconut levy fund will help uplift the lives of coconut farmers. It is long overdue, the monies of our coconut farmers, which they rightfully own, will also benefit the coconut industry, not only the 3.5 million coconut farmers," said Villar. In his 5th SONA, the President also urged "both Houses of Congress to pass a version of the bill establishing the Coconut Farmers Trust Fund". As chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, Villar has already sponsored the revised version of the bill on May 28, 2020, plenary discussion of the legislation has already started. "The bill was re-filed with some modifications, taking into consideration the inputs being suggested by the executive branch of government so it will not be vetoed again. We are confident that it will already be enacted into law, given the President's support," said Villar. To recall, the President vetoed the version approved during the 17th Congress in 2019, but since his SONA in 2016, he has vowed to pass a law for the utilization of the coco levy fund. In his SONA on Monday, he said will leave it up to Congress to "sort out" on "how best the money can be utilized". Villar-sponsored Senate Bill No. 1396 under Committee Report No. 65 or "An Act Creating the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund, Providing for Its Management and Utilization, Reconstituting for the Purpose the Philippine Coconut Authority Board, And for Other Purposes" is in substitution of Senate Bill Nos. 31, 266, 1052, and 1127 with herself and fellow Senators Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan, Ralph G. Recto, and Imee R. Marcos as authors. In the new bill, The Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund will be managed and disbursed in accordance with the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plan to be implemented by the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), as approved by the President of the Philippines. The Plan shall set how the coconut industry will be rehabilitated in the next ninety-nine (99) years, which is the suggested lifespan of the Trust Fund. The Plan shall include programs/activities/actions aimed at increasing farm productivity and incomes of coconut farmers; intensive effort on intercropping and livestock-raising, including dairy; the establishment of coconut-based enterprises; rehabilitation and modernization of the coconut industry towards global competitiveness; poverty alleviation and social equity, among several others. Immediately upon enactment into law, the Bureau of Treasury shall transfer PhP5 Billion to the Trust Fund and another PhP5 Billion shall be initially allocated to the PCA. The utilization of the Trust Fund shall be for provisions of the establishment of facilities essential to the industry, empowerment of coconut farmers' organizations and cooperatives, farm improvement to encourage self-sufficiency, scholarship program, and health and medical program for industry members. Villar added that the Trust Fund shall be separate and distinct from the regular fund of the PCA from the General Appropriations Act (GAA) or the national budget. The PCA, as the implementing agency of this proposed law, will also be strengthened, with increased presence of government department secretaries in the Board, and additional farmers' representation from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. To ensure the judicious use of the fund, the bill also creates the Trust Fund Management Committee comprised of representatives from the Department of Finance (DoF) as the Fund Manager, Department of Budget and Management (DBM), and Department of Justice (DoJ).
Rapper Kanye West has officially submitted the required paperwork to be on the ballot in Missouri for November's general election. According to Maura Browning, the spokesperson for Missouri's secretary of state, a representative for the rapper/producer filed the necessary paperwork just minutes before the state's deadline.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Tuesday demanded a high level inquiry and strict action against the culprits who forced the family members belonging to Dalit community to remove the dead body of a woman from the funeral pyre in a village located in Agra district.

In a series of tweets, Mayawati said, the people belonging to upper caste community forced the Dalit community family to remove the dead body off the funeral pyre, claiming that cremation ground was used by the upper caste people. The incident is shameful and it should be condemned. To check the repeat of such an abhorrent incident, the state government should order a high level inquiry and take strict action against the culprits, she said.

The matter relates to village Kakarpura where Pooja (25) had died on July 19th. Her husband complained that they were not allowed to cremate the body by upper caste members.

My wife Pooja died after prolonged illness on July 19 and was taken for cremation on July 20. There was no objection by those in the village, but half a dozen members of the upper caste community came and objected to cremation by us as we are Gujrati Nat, said Rahul Bajania, the husband of the deceased.

We had the pyre prepared but were forced to take the dead body away to village Nagla Lal Dass, about four kilometers away, where the cremation was undertaken finally, said Rahul, who claimed that police had reached the village but were helpless in front of upper caste members.

Superintendent of Police (West) Ravi Kumar said that no complaint was lodged in this regard. Later, the incident was highlighted by the local people on social media

We have not received any complaint but the Circle Officer for Achhnera circle has been assigned the task to find out more about the matter. Necessary action will follow on his finding, said SP West.

(With inputs from Hemendra Chaturvedi)
Major outbreaks of Covid-19 across the Republic should in future be met with a menu of either macro, meso or micro responses, according to the group of experts on the pandemic advising government.

Macro would involve national measures as has been the case up to now.

Meso responses would be based on regional areas or specific sectors of industry.

And micro measures would be implemented at local level.

Read More

The decision on whether to enforce national, regional or local measures would depend on the nature of the outbreak in an area and the status of the disease generally, according to newly published minutes of July meetings of the National Public Health Emergency Team.

It said a regional response would have to be taken on a cross-Government basis.

It must be practical and effective and feasible to implement.

This comes as no new coronavirus deaths were reported for the second day in a row.

In total there have been 1,764 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland.

There have been 40 new cases of coronavirus diagnosed, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre said today.

The Nphet meeting was also told the study of people in Dublin and Sligo chosen to test for antibodies  showing they had the virus previously  showed almost all had the antibodies 94 days post infection.

Antibodies may protect from reinfection although more investigation is needed before this can be proven.

The meeting on July 14 noted that 12pc of new cases diagnosed here in the previous fourteen days were travel related.

It referred to travel relation transmission of the virus in households and extended family.

There was concern about the number of large clusters of the virus which were happening here and the rise in infection abroad showing that the effectiveness of disease suppression following the easing of public health measures by countries is precarious.

It said it would be advising the government of a cautious approach to phase 4 of the roadmap for reopening the country.

This led to pubs selling alcohol only not being reopened.

In early July the group called that people arriving in Ireland who are suspected of having the virus be identified and offered timely testing for Covid-19 .
The Lincoln Memorial (L), Washington Monument (C) and U.S. Capitol (R) are seen on the National Mall in Washington on Oct. 17, 2012. (AFP/Saul Loeb/Getty Images)

House Votes in Favor of Establishing Smithsonian American Latino Museum

The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of legislation that will establish a Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino in Washington.

The bipartisan bill was introduced in the House by Reps. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) and Will Hurd (R-Texas). The legislation gained the support of 295 co-sponsors before it was voted on.

After nearly 20 years of work, the National Museum of the American Latino Act was finally considered and approved with overwhelming bipartisan support, said Serrano, the dean of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and chief sponsor of the bill.

The new Smithsonian would be constructed on the National Mall. The construction is projected to cost $700 million, half of which will need to be collected by the board of trustees through fundraising efforts, the other half will be allocated by the federal government.

Hurd said that almost 60 million Latino Americans call the United States their home and that that number is only increasing.

To fully understand American history, we have to understand all our history. With our actions today, we are one step closer to cementing the stories, history, and culture of the American Latino on the National Mall, said Hurd in a statement.

This long-overdue legislation will celebrate the contributions of generations of Latinos, acknowledging this truth: that Latino history is American history, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) also applauded the passage of the bipartisan legislation.

Latinos have been contributing to and making American history for the past 500 years. It is important we recognize the diversity of our country and celebrate Latino art, culture, history, and contributions to our national life with a museum within the Smithsonian Institution on the National Mall, said Hoyer.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said the Museum is will be vital in telling the nations Latino story.

From the first arrival of Spanish-speaking settlers in what is today Florida and the American Southwest to the essential workers keeping America fed and running during this COVID-19 pandemic, Latinos are a central thread in the fabric of our nation, said Castro.

It took an effort that began in 2003 by advocates and members of Congress to see H.R. 2420, the National Museum of the American Latino Act, passed in the House, the first step to seeing it become a law. Now, we call on our colleagues in the Senate to follow the Houses lead and finish the job by immediately considering H.R. 2420, said Serrano.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 21:26:45|Editor: huaxia

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VILNIUS, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania seeks to further strengthen its air defense capabilities and pays priority attention to this, President Gitanas Nauseda said Tuesday while visiting the Lithuanian Air Force's (LAF) base in Siauliai, Lithuania.

Nauseda met with soldiers of the Spanish Air Force, British Royal Air Force and German Air Force detachments conducting the current rotation of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Air Policing mission in the Baltic states, as well as soldiers from Lithuania and the U.S.

"Rotating contingents of soldiers from various countries ... demonstrate the inexhaustible commitment of the Allies to the protection of Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian airspace," Nauseda was quoted as saying in a statement released by his office.

To strengthen its air defense capabilities, Lithuania is in the process of purchasing and deploying the ground-based medium-range NASAMS air defense system by 2021. The system will be tested later this year.

NATO' Baltic Air Policing mission was launched in 2004 when Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia joined the military alliance. Enditem
Inside Hook

To say that independent music venues have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic is an understatement. They were among the first businesses to close when quarantine began, and theyll be the last to reopen  likely, in many cases, waiting until theres a vaccine available  and many are in danger of permanently closing as a result of the financial hardship. To help independent venues weather the storm, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas have introduced the Save Our Stages bill to provide six months of financial support to help keep venues afloat, pay employees, and preserve a critical economic sector for communities across America.

As Rolling Stone reports, if passed, the act would ensure that relief funds only go to small, independent venue operators, promoters, and talent reps. Those that receive grants would be able to use the money to cover costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as pay for rent, utilities, mortgages, personal protective equipment, maintenance, administrative costs, taxes, and expenses that would allow venues to meet local and federal social-distancing guidelines.
"We as Electoral Commission are satisfied that we have done a thorough job because we dont have any doubt that we have the best candidate for the party of NRM. We, therefore, hand over the candidate Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to the secretariatThe country Uganda doesnt have shortage of trees growing, it doesnt have a problem of grass growing. Since 1962 it has had a problem of leadership, I can write books, thesis on that," Tanga said.
(CNN)  Hong Kong will make wearing masks in public compulsory and limit gatherings to no more than two people as officials in the city grapple with a rising surge in coronavirus infections.

On Monday, Hong Kong's Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung announced that face masks would be mandatory in both indoor and outdoor public places from Wednesday, with offenders facing fines of up to 5,000 Hong Kong dollars ($645), although he didn't specify how the new measure would be enforced.

People with "reasonable excuses" such as medical conditions or children under the age of two will be exempt, he added.

Cheung also announced that the Chinese central government will help build a Wuhan-style makeshift hospital near Hong Kong's airport with a capacity of around 2,000 hospital beds.

"The epidemic situation is critical," Cheung said, adding that the next few weeks are extremely crucial for the city. "We are facing a high risk of community outbreak."

The restrictions come as the city faces a coronavirus outbreak dubbed locally as its "third wave," with the origin of many infections still unknown. Hong Kong had been lauded for its relative success in curbing the spread of the coronavirus. However, on Monday, Hong Kong authorities reported more than 100 new cases for the sixth straight day, bringing the city's total to more than 2,700.

Over the past two days, a 76-year-old woman and a 92-year-old man died of Covid-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus deaths in the city to 20.

Before Monday's numbers were announced, Cheung said that over the past 14 days, 1,163 new cases had been recorded -- and the origin of 492 of the infections could not be traced.

The new restrictions are the tightest rules yet introduced in Hong Kong, which had previously limited public gatherings to four people.

When asked why the city stopped short of imposing a complete lockdown -- as other places around the world have done -- Cheung said doing so would be too inconvenient, and said he thought the current measures were appropriate.

Sophia Chan, Hong Kong's health secretary, said that authorities were aiming to expand testing. They planned to test sellers at 300 markets and around 14,000 minibus drivers.

Though a majority of Hong Kong residents have willingly worn masks in public since the outbreak began earlier this year, face coverings remain a highly contentious and politicized issue in other parts of the world. In the United States and elsewhere, a number of senior politicians have appeared reluctant to endorse their usage despite evidence showing face masks protect both the wearer and others from Covid-19.

Hong Kong's outbreak

Despite Hong Kong's proximity to mainland China -- where the first cases of coronavirus were reported -- the city has managed to keep its case count relatively low.

That success has been attributed to tight border rules that prevent non-residents from entering the city, efficient contact tracing, and residents' willingness to practice good hygiene, wear masks and practice social distancing.

The situation has changed in recent weeks, with authorities warning of the potential for "exponential growth" in new cases following a sudden cluster of cases.

Earlier this month, authorities restricted gatherings to no more than four people, closed beaches, and required restaurants to close after 6 p.m., although take-out was allowed to continue.

On Sunday, Hong Kong's Department of Health imposed new measures requiring crew members on goods vessels entering Hong Kong to remain on board the vessel during ship's stay in Hong Kong waters.

Flight crews are also required to present a negative coronavirus test result 48 hours before boarding a flight to Hong Kong.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Not wearing a mask outside could mean a $645 fine in Hong Kong as city imposes strict Covid measures."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Not wearing a mask outside could mean a $645 fine in Hong Kong as city imposes strict Covid measures."
New York state lawmakers voted this week to ban facial recognition technology from the states schools until at least July 2022. The superintendent of a New York school district that currently uses facial recognition software is not pleased.

The legislation arrives a few weeks after the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the state education departments decision to approve the facial recognition system that has been operating since January at the Lockport school district .

Lockport Superintendent Michelle Bradley criticized the legislation in an email to the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal . The district does not believe that there is any valid basis on which it should be prevented from utilizing this available, approved and operating technology to enhance the safety and security of the districts students, staff and visitors, and to respond to real world threats, she wrote.

Facial recognition technology has been widely criticized for perpetuating racial bias and putting students privacy at risk. A sweeping study published last year found that facial recognition software misidentifies women and people of color far more frequently than it does white men.

The Association of Computer Machinery, which represents more than 100 computing professionals worldwide, has called for all existing facial recognition systems to be deactivated until they can meet stricter accountability standards .

Proponents say the technology can be a valuable tool for addressing security concerns, which have been heightened in recent years after a spate of school shootings. At least one school district is planning to use facial recognition software to assist with temperature checks when school buildings reopen later this year.

The New York bill would also require the state education department to commission a study of facial recognition tools and their potential pitfalls.

The bill was first introduced in the New York State Assembly last summer, but didnt come up for a vote in the state Senate. A few weeks ago, when lawmakers picked up where they left off, they confronted new circumstances: a pandemic that has crunched state budgets, and a nationwide reckoning of systemic racism.

The idea that wed spend millions of dollars on a technology thats potentially racially biased, that is expensive, that we dont know that much about, and that has potential implications that we might not like, raised awareness in a way over the past year that maybe wasnt there last year, Monica Wallace, the New York state assembly member who co-introduced the bill, told Education Week.

Bradley told the Buffalo News requirements for schools to keep doors and windows open this school year to help mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19 will present additional security risks. Students and teachers face masks wont make the technology less effective, she said, because the softwares database only includes individuals outside the school community who have been deemed a threat, like local sex offenders.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is currently reviewing the bill, a spokesperson confirmed to Education Week. He has 10 days to veto the bill before it becomes law. If he does veto it, lawmakers can overturn the veto with a two-thirds majority.

Image: E+/Getty
KAMPALA  The number of Ugandans who are still receiving treatment for COVID-19 on Tuesday July 28 increased to 153, after seven new cases were registered, the ministry of health has said in the latest update.

The ministry of health has confirmed that seven new cases were part of 1, 885 samples that were analysed on Monday July 27.

Ugandas cumulative coronavirus cases now stand at 1,128 infections.

Five are truck drivers who entered through the Malaba and Mutukula points of entry, while is an alert in Buikwe District. Meanwhile, another returnee from Saudi Arabia who was under quarantine at the time of test also tested positive for the coronavirus.

32 foreign truck drivers (26 Kenyans and 3 Tanzanians, 2 Congolese and one South Sudanese tested positive for coronavirus and were denied entry into Uganda.

With an increase in deaths and community cases, the health epidemiologists on the COVID-19 ministerial scientific taskforce now want government to concentrate testing in communities.

Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng will Thursday, July 30 deliver another comprehensive health address to the nation on the COVID-19 Response in Uganda.

The Ministry of Health said the address who time is yet to be determined will be live on all TVs via the National Broadcaster, UBC studios.

With evolving COVID-19 situation in the country, Jane Aceng the minister of health is expected to make a comprehensive address on Thursday this week via UBC and other TVs, the Ministry of Health said, adding that the time will be communicated accordingly.

Uganda reported a second COVID-19 death, the ministry of health said on Sunday.

The Ministry in a statement indicated that the victim was an 80-year-old female who was first admitted at a private hospital in the capital Kampala on Friday and later referred to a bigger hospital (Mengo Hospital in Kampala)

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A 19-year-old youth allegedly killed his younger brother who was a minor on suspicion that the latter stole his mobile phone memory card and sold it to someone in a village in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh, police said Tuesday.

The murder was committed on Sunday night and the accused was arrested on Monday, said police.

Surakhi police station in charge Anand Raj said the body of 16-year-old Lekhan Ahirwar from Gosra village was found on a cot in his house on Sunday night with deep injury marks on his neck.

The police team which reached there found that the deceaseds elder brother Madan Ahirwar was not present in the house and villagers told the team that the two brothers often used to have quarrels between them. A neighbour said he heard noise from the house on Sunday night but thought it was a usual quarrel between the two brothers, he said.

The police officer said the deceaseds parents were away in their agriculture field when the incident took place. The deceaseds younger sister who is mentally retarded was home. On getting information from some villagers that they had seen the elder brother near a hillock with an axe and some clothes in his hand the police team later detained him.

During interrogation Madan Ahirwar who is a school dropout confessed to have committed the crime. He told us that two to three days back his younger brother had stolen the memory card from his mobile phone and sold it to someone and despite repeated queries he didnt admit that he had stolen the memory card. On Sunday night too, he again questioned his younger brother and wanted to know whom he had sold the memory card. His younger brothers consistent denial of his alleged crime infuriated him and he hit him with the axe lying nearby that caused his death on the spot, Rai said.

The police officer said the accused was arrested under section 302 of Indian Penal Code. He was produced before a court from where he was sent to judicial custody.
A pair of 'penniless' English workers are facing months in a Guernsey jail after being fined 9,000 for breaking their self-isolation by going to the pub.

Georgie Phillips, 28, and Mark Paul Dillon, 31, pleaded guilty to flouting the island's mandatory two-week quarantine period for overseas travellers.

Phillips was fined 3,000 or 150 days in prison, while Dillon, who breached his quarantine twice, was fined 6,000 or 300 days locked up.

But the lockdown-busting men, of no fixed abode, have claimed they are too 'penniless and homeless' to stump up the hefty payment.

Judge Gary Perry threw out a request from their lawyer to amend the sentence to allow them to find work and slowly pay off the fine.

He instead scolded them for ignoring the rules, which were a condition of them coming to the Channel island during the pandemic.

Georgie Phillips, 28, and Mark Paul Dillon, 31, pleaded guilty to flouting the island's mandatory two-week quarantine period for overseas travellers (Guernsey Magistrate's pictured)

Phillips and Dillon, who struggled to find work in the UK, arrived on the island on July 10 to begin working at the Yacht Inn bar in St Peter Port, according to the BBC.

But on the very first day, Dillon left his accommodation to go to a shop, where he was spotted and ordered to leave.

And on July 16, both men were seen by their future manager at the Harbour Lights pub.

The manager again caught Dillon breaking quarantine - hiding behind a bus stop trying to avoid detection, Guernsey Magistrate's court heard.

Judge Perry said: 'We don't need people coming from outside the islands and stopping everyone's hard work.'

Guernsey, which has only had 252 Covid-19 cases and has now entirely extinguished infection, has adopted robust isolation rules to insulate the island from the virus.

The courts have not been hesitant in handing down the ,3,000 penalty for breaking the fortnight isolation.

Terence Jones, 56, was caught sinking his second pint at the Britannia pub in violation of quarantine (file photo)

Another drinker has also fallen foul of the quarantine rules for going to the pub and has been slapped with the fine.

Terence Jones, 56, returned to the Channel Island after visiting Southampton for medical treatment.

The court heard Jones, from St Peter Port, had arrived home on July 1 at about 3pm, and had promised the airport's customs officer he would obey the quarantine.

But at 5pm, the official saw Jones smoking outside the Britannia pub and later went inside to find the drinker sinking his second pint of beer.

In interview Jones said he had gone to the pub to get his flat key, but then had stopped for a drink. He had planned to pop to the shop before going home.

Defence advocate David Thompson said his client accepted he should have made alternative arrangements to get the key, but Judge Perry said: 'It beggars belief.'

Even more essential outings such as hairdressers are not exempt. Gareth Le Monnier, 37, was told to self-isolate for two weeks on July 3 after leaving his home in Jersey to see his wife in neighbouring Guernsey.

But just before his fortnight was up, he went to a salon as well as a toy shop and a Waitrose cafe, Guernsey Magistrates' Court heard. He admitted two breaches over two days and was fined 3,000 for each, totalling 6,000.

His breaches were uncovered by a welfare check which found he wasn't at his registered address on July 16.
Last week 93 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 22 members of the U.S. Senate supported amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have cut 10% of the funds for the Pentagon, designating those funds instead for use in poorer communities for education, health care, and other pressing human needs.

While I am grateful that Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey was one of the 22 senators supporting this amendment, I am deeply disappointed that none of our other local representatives supported the amendment  not Reps. Susan Wild, Brian Fitzpatrick, Matt Cartwright or Tom Malinowski, and not Sen. Pat Toomey.

At 74 years old, I am impatient that we are still refusing to even cut $74 billion from the bloated military budget of $740 billion.

That $740 billion supports bullying actions from our 800 military bases around the world. It is way past time to get to the important work of creative diplomacy to resolve international differences without violence.

Why are we always able to find infinite amounts of money for guns  whether personally at the gun store, or for local policing, or for the greedy war profiteers  while we plead no more money to defeat the virus and deal with its impacts, to provide housing, to enact a Green New Deal, for Medicare For All, for a living wage for all workers, for childcare and education, for food assistance?

Nancy Tate

Riegelsville




Haiti - Politic : Electric announcements from Prime Minister Jouthe





On Monday the Prime Minister, Joseph Jouthe paid a visit to the central headquarters of Electricite d'Haiti (EDH).



In addition, for the determination of the Moise / Jouthe administration to revitalize EDH, the Head of Government took the opportunity to announce several projects in progress, including negotiations well advanced with a Turkish company and the arrival of a floating power plant of 79 Mw for Port-au-Prince and 36 Mw for the city of Cap-Haitien, pending the construction of new plants and to temporarily overcome the black-out problems,



At the same time, the Head of Government announced that the parts necessary for the repair of several power plants, including those in Cap-Haitien, will arrive by next week.



He also confirmed the construction of an 80 MW power station at Carrefour and another of 180 MW at Varreux; while Artibonite and the North will be proud of an increase of 25 Mw in Gonaives and Cap-Haitien.



In order to lower the average cost of production, as part of the prepaid meter phase, two solar power plants will be installed in Port-au-Prince (50 Mw) and Gonaives (20 Mw). More details: https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31326-haiti-flash-moise-gives-details-on-his-project-to-electrify-the-country.html .



Jouthe clarified that in accordance with the public policies advocated by President Jovenel Moise, these projects also include the renovation of energy transport infrastructure, namely poles, pylons, substations and high voltage lines that supply the networks of the country.



Moreover, during his visit he took the opportunity to speak with Rosemonde Adrien, President of the Federation of Workers' Unions of EDH, who was delighted with this positive process of appeasement.



To be continued



HL/ Haitilibre


















Is there going to be a new Cold War with China? Probably not. Consider the case of Huawei.

Mike Pompeo swept into London on Tuesday like an overweight Darth Vader, while his local satrap, Boris Johnson, waited nervously in Downing Street for judgment. People swore they could hear Pompeos cloak swish as he strode through the door. But it was all good: the British prime minister had done enough to appease the overlord.

The subject at issue was Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications firm whose equipment has been selling to governments throughout the West because there are no comparable Western products available at a competitive price.

The U.S. response has therefore been political, not commercial. It demands that its allies ban Huawei on security grounds.

The first U.S. strike was in late 2018, when it got Canada to arrest Meng Wanzhou, Huaweis chief financial officer, as she was changing planes on her way to Mexico. She is still in Canada fighting extradition, while two Canadians are held in Chinese prisons effectively as hostages for her release. The initial U.S. charge was breaking sanctions against Iran, but shes now accused of stealing American trade secrets.

Britain had agreed to involve Huawei heavily in building its new 5G network well before Johnson became prime minister, but he stuck to the deal despite mounting U.S. pressure to cancel because he is taking Britain out of the European Union and into what is potentially a very grim future.

More than half Britains trade is with Europe, but a free trade deal after it has left looks increasingly unlikely. What countries could pick up at least part of the slack? Only the U.S. or China, so Johnson desperately wanted to keep both of those options open. Washington, of course, wanted him to foreclose the Chinese option.

Johnson stuck to his guns right down through the past year, reassured by Britains own security services that the Huawei technology posed no threat, but eventually the U.S. pressure became irresistible. Huawei was told that it would not be participating in Britains 5G phone network, and that all its technology in the 2G, 3G and 4G networks would have to come out by 2027.

Only days later, however, British officials whispered in Huaweis ear that all was not lost. Britain might reconsider its decision next year. Nobody said explicitly after the U.S. election, but obviously Britain would be keen to bring Huawei back on board if Donald Trump loses that election in November (as he now seems quite likely to).

Word about this reached Washington in microseconds. (When will they learn that in the modern communications environment, anything you say to anybody instantly becomes known to everybody?) So Johnson was understandably anxious as he awaited the arrival of the American viceroy. Sorry, secretary of state.

But it was all right with Pompeo. Johnson would only be disloyal if Trump loses, and Trump wont lose because hes going to start a new Cold War. Thats the plan  but it wont work.

It wont work because none of Americas allies, not even one as desperate as Johnson, believes that China is a threat grave enough to justify a 40-year military confrontation. Or even a five-year confrontation.

They are not naive about the current Chinese regimes flaws. It is a nasty, corrupt dictatorship, intolerant of dissent and oppressive toward its minorities. But it is not territorially expansionist except in its own immediate neighbourhood (Hong Kong, Taiwan, South China Sea), and it is not ideologically attractive even to its own citizens.

The only ideological tool available to Xi Jinping is nationalism. He would deploy it if necessary to defend his own power, just as Trump is doing now, but for a sustainable cold war there needs to be a more credible sense of threat than is currently available to either party.

The idea that China is the central threat of our times, as Pompeo put it on Tuesday, is laughable. Its a formidable competitor economically (although demographically speaking it has feet of clay), but its simply not interested in a classic military confrontation.

The other major powers, including the EU, are simply are not buying into the Trump-Pompeo vision of a world divided into two hostile and militarized blocs like 1945-89. Even Johnson, for all his sub-Churchillian pretensions, cant take the notion seriously and instantly hedges his bets after he has to give it lip-service.

Dont defend Trump  attack China! said the instructions sent to the Republican Partys senatorial candidates, but it doesnt work outside the United States. It probably wont work inside either.
BARKHAMSTED  A man and a juvenile were arrested and charged with stealing a car after they were caught in Barkhamsted early Monday.

According to the police report, Winchester police officers saw a car speeding on Elm Street in Winsted at about 1:30 a.m. and heading east on Main Street.

As the driver approached the traffic signal at Main Street and Case Avenue, the driver ran a red light, police said. Police tried to stop the car and gave chase, stopping their pursuit at the Barkhamsted line, according to the report. Connecticut State Police were notified.

At about 1:37 a.m., Winchester police were told by state police that the speeding car had been involved in a crash on Route 44 in Barkhamsted, and that three occupants in the car had fled the scene. State police asked Winchester for assistance. Police found two of the three suspects behind Kens Liquor Store on Route 44 in Barkhamsted, according to the report.

State police later learned that the car had been stolen from Seymour.

Police arrested Antonio Marrero-Wallen, 18, and a 16-year-old male. The third suspect has not been found, according to the report.

Marrero-Wallen is charged with second-degree larceny by possession, based on the value of the vehicle, which was $13,000, according to the report. He also was charged with interfering with a peace officer. Marrero-Wallen was arraigned in Torrington Superior Court later Monday and is free on bond,police said.

The juvenile was released to the custody of his parents and is charged with second-degree larceny by possession and interfering with a peace officer. He is scheduled to appear in juvenile court in Waterbury Aug. 17.

State police are handling the motor vehicle crash report.
BuzzFeed News published an article this month that described what it called a toxic work culture. In the article, former staff members said they faced racism, fear and intimidation and laid most of the blame on three of the shows executive producers, Ed Glavin, Mary Connelly and Andy Lassner.

Former employees said they were fired for taking time off for medical leave or bereavement. Black employees said they experienced racist comments. One said that one of the shows writers had told her, Im sorry, I only know the names of the white people who work here.

In a joint statement to BuzzFeed News, Mr. Glavin, Ms. Connelly and Mr. Lassner said: For the record, the day to day responsibility of the Ellen show is completely on us. We take all of this very seriously and we realize, as many in the world are learning, that we need to do better, are committed to do better, and we will do better.

Variety first reported on the WarnerMedia investigation.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the winner of dozens of Emmys, is now on summer hiatus. Warner Bros. has yet to announce how it will go on as the pandemic continues.
Thousands Continue Anti-Kremlin Protests In Russia's Khabarovsk

By Siberia Desk, RFE/RL's Russian Service July 27, 2020

KHABAROVSK, Russia -- Thousands of people have rallied in the central square of the Russian Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk to demand the release and return of the region's governor, Sergei Furgal.

Furgal is now in jail in Moscow on charges of attempted murder and ordering two contract killings some 15 years ago. Supporters say the charges are politically motivated. Furgal, who denies the allegations, defeated a pro-Kremlin candidate in an election nearly two years ago.

Demonstrators have rallied in the city of 600,000 people for more than two weeks. Their anger has grown to include calls for the resignation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On July 25, a crowd estimated at up to 50,000 turned out despite officials urging people to stay away due to concerns over the coronavirus.

On July 27, well-known rock musician Sergei Shnurov, who currently works as general producer at the RTVi television channel, joined the demonstrators, saying that he and his team were shooting a documentary about the protests.

The protesters met Shnurov with mixed reactions. Some took selfie photos with the celebrity, while others accused him of trying to assist the newly appointed acting governor of the region, Mikhail Degtyaryov, against whom the demonstrators have rallied.

A day earlier, Degtyaryov spoke to some of the protesters for the first time since his appointment to the post on July 20.

Degtyaryov is a member of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, as is Furgal, but he has never lived in Khabarovsk.

Also on July 27, the first participant in the ongoing pro-Furgal protests was fined.

The leader of the Libertarian Party's branch in Khabarovsk, Artyom Mozgov, told RFE/RL that the Central district court found him guilty of violating regulations on public gatherings and fined him 10,000 rubles ($140).

An anchor for opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's YouTube channel, Dmitry Nizovtsev, said on July 27 that police in Khabarovsk had launched a probe into his beating by unknown attackers last week.

Nizovtsev was attacked by three unknown men near his apartment on July 23 after he covered pro-Furgal rallies.

Such sustained demonstrations are unusual for Russia's regions, as is the fact that the authorities have not yet moved to break them up.

They follow on the heels of a controversial nationwide vote that set the stage for Putin to remain in power until 2036.

Khabarovsk region residents overwhelmingly voted for Furgal in the 2018 gubernatorial elections. His surprise victory was a blow to the ruling United Russia party.

Furgal, who was arrested in Khabarovsk city on July 9 and transferred to Moscow, is charged with attempted murder and ordering two murders in 2004-2005. He denies the allegations.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/thousands-continue -anti-kremlin-protests-in-russia-s -khabarovsk/30750759.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.

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New charges brought against ex-head of Komi Republic Gaizer  Investigative Committee

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

18:46 28/07/2020

MOSCOW, July 28 (RAPSI)  Russias Investigative Committee has presented its final version of office abuse charges brought against ex-head of Russias Komi Republic Vyacheslav Gaizer, who had been earlier found guilty of fraud, money laundering and corruption, according to the press service of the body.

Investigators claim that Gaizer, when holding his post in the Republic of Komi in 2013 through 2014 unlawfully instructed the head of Syktyvkar urban municipality Ivan Pozdeyev to allot plots of land for construction of apartment blocks without organizing a tender as required by law in order to benefit a company owned by an acquaintance of the defendant. The respective damages to the municipal budget are estimated to make about 8.7 million rubles ($121,000 at the current exchange rate).

In June 2019, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow found Gaizer guilty of fraud, money laundering and receiving bribes and sentenced him to 11 years in high security prison. In addition to the prison term, Gaizer was fined 160 million rubles (nearly $2.5 million) and banned from holding public posts for 5 years. In October, the Moscow City Court upheld the ruling.

However, the court acquitted Gaizer and some other defendants in the case of creation of a criminal community.

In the framework of the same case, Gaizers deputy in the Komi Republic was sentenced to 9 years in a penal colony and fined 160 million rubles; ex-senator Vladimir Toropov was sentenced to 6.5 years in a penal colony and fined 500,000 rubles; other defendants were imprisoned for terms from 5 to 8.5 years.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  The Cleveland nonprofit Walls of Love is creating its 500th wall next month in honor of Alianna DeFreeze, a 14-year-old girl who was abducted and killed in early 2017.

Aliannas father Damon DeFreeze and her stepmother WyTonya DeFreeze will attend the ceremony, which will take place at 10 a.m. Aug. 7 at the corner of East 105th Street and Cedar Avenue in Cleveland.

Everything on the wall will feature the color purple, which was Aliannas favorite color, Walls of Love said in a news release.

Walls of Love helps people who are homeless or otherwise in need by collecting basic necessities and displaying them on pop-up walls in communities. The walls are intended to be safe spaces where anyone who needs those items can come and take them.

Cleveland resident Holly Jackson, who was once homeless, founded Walls of Love in 2018. The nonprofit has helped an estimated 70,000 people since its inception, according to its website.

The nonprofit has created walls in Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, Maryland, Colorado, Arkansas and Alaska and plans to expand to New York, Florida and Texas in the coming weeks, the news release says. On Nov. 7, Walls of Love is planning to erect 50 walls on the same day in Ohio and across the U.S.

Alianna was on her way to school Jan. 26, 2017 when a man kidnapped her on Clevelands East Side. She was found dead three days later at an abandoned home in the Kinsman neighborhood. Christopher L. Whittaker, 47, has been sentenced to death for killing her.

Aliannas family started the Alianna DeFreeze Lets Make A Change Foundation in her memory. The foundations goals include providing safe transportation to children and pushing for the demolition of abandoned homes that may be unsafe.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28) Countries, including the Philippines, do not need to go to war to assert sovereign rights amid the maritime dispute with China, former and present officials told President Rodrigo Duterte.

Retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, reacting to Dutertes remarks during Mondays State of the Nation Address, said even neighboring nations have been standing up to the East Asian giant without resorting to arms.

A country does not need to go to war to assert its sovereign rights. There are lawful and peaceful means of asserting sovereign rights, Carpio, a vocal critic of the administrations stance on the maritime dispute, said in a statement. He noted that other countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia have been doing their part in their respective maritime zones.

War is not even option because the UN (United Nations) Charter outlaws resort to war to settle territorial or maritime disputes, he added.

In his penultimate SONA, Duterte again stressed he cannot afford to go to war against Beijing over the South China Sea dispute, calling himself "inutile" in that aspect. Duterte also claimed China is in possession of the property apparently referring to disputed sea features that China has transformed into artificial islands and currently occupies.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon echoed the sentiment, saying that if Vietnam can assert its rights, so can the Philippines.

I would like to think that a country like Vietnam whose stage of development is similar to ours is able to assert their right over the disputed South China Sea effectively without resorting to arms, Drilon said in an interview with CNN Philippines The Source.

I would like to think that given the geo-political situation, presenting our case before world opinion is something that we can do, he added.

A 2016 ruling an arbitral tribunal in The Hague invalidated China's sweeping claims to the South China Sea. It also recognized the Philippines' sovereign rights in areas within its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone where China has built artificial islands, prohibited Filipino fishermen from fishing, and interfered in petroleum exploration.

READ: DFA chief says PH arbitral win on West Philippine Sea non-negotiable, as country marks 4th year of Hague ruling

Despite the continuous pleas for the world giant to honor the award, China continues to reject the ruling, saying the tribunals decision favoring the Philippines is illegal and invalid.

Unacceptable?

Some of Drilons colleagues in the upper chamber also slammed Dutertes apparent surrender to China, as officials continue to push for the upholding of the country's sovereign rights.

The subservience and surrender to China is detestable, unacceptable. He does not speak for me and many other Filipinos who see in this defeatist attitude cowardice towards the aggressor, opposition Senator Kiko Pangilinan said.

Senator Ping Lacson, on the other hand, stressed that the Philippines is not inutile as a country.

Being weak is weakness enough but to let our adversary know how helpless we are will discourage even our allies to stand by our side, Lacson said.

CNN Philippines' Alyssa Rola and Eimor Santos contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 10:51:21|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Monday expressed deep concern over the latest political tensions in Mali and called for restraint.

In "press elements" released after a closed video teleconference on the situation in Mali, the members of the Security Council expressed their strong support for the mediation efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and took note of the recommendations endorsed by ECOWAS heads of state at Monday's extraordinary summit.

They urged the Malian parties to act on these recommendations without delay in order to resolve the tensions, to prioritize dialogue, and to refrain from any action likely to fuel further tensions and threaten the rule of law, according to the press elements read out in a virtual press encounter by Christoph Heusgen, the German UN ambassador, whose country holds the Security Council presidency for the month of July.

Mali has been in political turmoil since June 5, when massive protests first erupted in the capital city of Bamako. A coalition of opposition and civil society groups are calling for the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

The situation dramatically escalated when at least 11 protestors were killed and 150 people injured in Bamako between July 10 and 12. Enditem
Madrid, July 28 : Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday called the UK government's decision to impose a 14-day quarantine on everyone arriving from the European country was "unjust".

In an interview with the Telecinco TV network, Sanchez said his government was "talking with British authorities to try to get them to reconsider" the decision, the BBC reported.

The UK had made an "error" by considering the infection rate for the whole country, he said.

Sanchez added that "64.5 per cent of the new cases registered are in two territories" and in most of Spain the prevalence of COVID-19 was "very much inferior to the numbers registered in the UK".

The rate of infection in Spain is 35.1 cases per 100,000 people, while the UK is at 14.7, according to the latest figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

On July 25, the UK government announced that travellers arriving from Spain must now quarantine for 14 days, under new coronavirus travel rules following a spike in COVID-19 cases in the European country.

According to the rules, quarantine measures apply to those returning from mainland Spain, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, such as Majorca and Ibiza.

On Monday, the Foreign Office also extended its travel advice for Spain, now telling people to avoid non-essential journeys to the Canary and Balearic Islands, as well as mainland Spain.
SMITHTOWN, NY  The coronavirus outbreak has led to the cancellation of many events, including live performances and other shows. For actresses like Smithtown's Elena Faverio, it's been an extremely difficult time to find gigs. To keep herself occupied, Faverio, 26, launched a YouTube channel in March where she creates videos and short films.

"I wanted to find a way to stay creative during lockdown, so I created 'QuARTantine' where I made different kinds of art on social media for 14 days straight," Faverio told Patch via email.

Her projects include making a wedding dress out of household items, following makeup tutorials, writing a song, juggling and cooking souffle pancakes.

"I really enjoyed those two weeks but found it exhausting to create something everydayso I sat down and thought about more sustainable ways to generate art, and decided to launch my YouTube channel!," she wrote.

Faverio posts two videos a week  on Wednesday and Sunday mornings. In her Wednesday video, she takes a more relaxed, v-log style approach where she chats about certain topics; sometimes theater or art related, sometimes not. She may also document something fun she does during the day  "like cutting my own bangs! That was terrifying!," she said.

On Sundays, she attempts to make a more creative video. Short films, music videos; she wants to do a "little bit of everything."

"Honestly, I want my YouTube channel to be a place where people can come to relax and laugh and think and enjoy a little bit of art and silliness."

Her channel is her name: Elena Faverio. As of Tuesday, she has over 60 subscribers. Some of her videos include "I made Crumb Cake without a Recipe!," "Self Care in Quarantine," "A Brief History of Long Island," "My Experience in Drama School" and "Doing My Makeup with My Eyes Closed." Her videos typically run somewhere between 5 and 15 minutes, though there are exceptions: Both installments of her "Have You Met?" series ran over 20 minutes.

Story continues

Elena Faverio, 26, of Smithtown, launched a YouTube channel to stay creative during the coronavirus shutdowns, as it's currently difficult to find acting work, she said. (Credit: Elena Faverio)

Faverio, a self-described actor, activist, and general maker of artistic shenanigans, was born and raised in Smithtown. She earned her bachelor degree in theatre arts from Williams College in Massachusetts, studied clown and physical theatre in Tuscany, learned to devise and create theatre at The National Theatre Institute in Connecticut, and most recently, spent three years earning her Masters degree in acting at The Guildhall School in London.

She began acting at the age of 8. Her first production was a "kiddie version" of Mary Poppins at the Suffolk YJCC in Commack. Before heading to college, she performed almost exclusively in musicals at various theaters on Long Island, including Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts, CM, and Smithtown High School West. At college, she studied acting, physical theatre, clown, mime, devised performance, cabaret, songwriting and play-writing, and solo performance. Her college experience broadened her artistic horizons, she said. Currently, she's most often found in professional plays and developing her solo work on her YouTube.



As a jobbing actor, Faverio has held down many different gigs while auditioning and performing, including work as a server at a Vietnamese restaurant, an assistant teacher in a daycare, a secretary in a hospitals business office, and the assistant to the artistic director of a national arts conference. Most recently, she was working full-time as a professional actress, although the coronavirus outbreak has led to limited work for performers.

Faverio's full resume can be found on her website.

This article originally appeared on the Smithtown Patch
New research has called for urgent action after creating a map that identifies gaps in services for adults with ADHD across the UK, leaving vulnerable people struggling to access vital support and treatment.

Research led by the University of Exeter, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry Open, has led to the first national map of ADHD service provision, based on responses to a survey completed by more than 2,600 respondents. The NIHR-funded research found huge variation in available care, patchy provision of dedicated ADHD services, and variation in the reports of services between people with ADHD, service users and health workers. Now, researchers are calling for urgent action to address the inequalities in services that the map has revealed, amid concerns that people in some areas may struggle to access care. Of the 44 dedicated services identified, only 12 (27 per cent) provided the full range of services recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Previous research has found that without the right treatment and support, people with ADHD are at higher risk of poor health, unemployment, difficulties in education, going to prison, and being involved in a car accident. While children with ADHD are generally well supported in the NHS, provision is far more variable for adults, with earlier studies highlighting the risk of many slipping through the net during transition into adulthood.

Lead author Dr Anna Price, of the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "We know that getting the right support and medication is absolutely critical for people with ADHD to make the most of their lives, and to avoid complications that can really set them on a downward spiral. The NHS is meant to provide equal access to care - yet our research has revealed significant gaps in services across the UK. This is likely to hit the most vulnerable the hardest, who may be getting no support at all - we must address this as an urgent priority."

The researchers worked with colleagues at the Universities of Nottingham, Warwick and Kings College London as well as the UK Adult ADHD Network (UKAAN), AADD-UK, The Royal College of Psychiatrists, and the NIHR Clinical Research Network South West. They surveyed 2,686 people who were either affected by ADHD, worked in ADHD health care, or commissioned services. Respondents were asked to identify health services they knew of that support adults with ADHD. Of 294 unique services identified across the UK, 44 were dedicated ADHD services, and 99 were generic mental health services. The research revealed that there's disparity in how services are labelled. The best provision appeared to be from services specifically labelled as ADHD or neurodevelopmental services - yet only 12 of these dedicated services provided the full range of treatment recommended by NICE for adults with ADHD. Only half of the dedicated services (55%) and a minority of other services (7%) were reported by all groups surveyed, highlighting a lack of awareness surrounding available support, both among healthcare workers and service users.

Professor Tamsin Ford, who was involved in the study at the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "Our research has revealed significant knowledge gaps among both service users and healthcare workers including GPs, which must mean people are being let down. Our map is the first step in addressing that gap. Demand is clear - a pilot version of our map was viewed over 35,000 times, but much more needs to be done to provide people with the services to which they are entitled. It doesn't really matter whether a service is specialist, or treats many different types of mental health condition. What matters is prompt access to support and ongoing medication for adults with ADHD who need it."

The full paper is entitled: 'Mapping UK mental health services for adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder; survey findings, with an analysis of differences in reporting between stakeholder groups'

###
DALLAS, July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Work Shield and RSquared announced a strategic partnership combining their human and data-driven approaches as a complete solution to combat workplace harassment and discrimination. Work Shield's reporting, investigation and resolution services paired with RSquared's cloud-based artificial intelligence platform will allow for quicker identification, analysis, and resolution of toxicity and inappropriate workplace behavior. This means better companies and cultures, as RSquared identifies issues and Work Shield resolves them.

Work Shield

Work Shield is the only benefits-focused solution that utilizes specialized legal professionals and an innovative technology platform to investigate and resolve workplace harassment and discrimination issues. With Work Shield, employees have access to an immediate and impartial platform to safely voice harassment and discrimination incidents without fear of retaliation, and employers have peace of mind that issues are investigated and resolved efficiently, risk is mitigated, and company culture is protected.

Work Shield's solution can now be provided to all existing RSquared clients, and clients of Work Shield will have access to RSquared's artificial intelligence capabilities. RSquared utilizes artificial intelligence and natural language processing to provide secure monitoring and analysis of email, instant messaging and other digital communications, giving employers valuable insight on employee engagement, sentiment and attitude. The trends and data identified by RSquared's platform will allow Work Shield-certified legal professionals to analyze the activity of individuals involved in investigations and determine patterns of toxic behavior.

With diversity and inclusion more important than ever, this partnership is the first of its kind to provide employers with valuable metrics and data surrounding employee satisfaction while demonstrating employer proactivity and heightened security for employees.

"We have data proving that no matter how dedicated an employer is to prevention and training, or how tight their culture is, no company is immune to harassment or discrimination," said Jared Pope, founder and CEO of Work Shield. "The analytics and trends provided by RSquared will be monumental in both the prevention and investigation processes, giving employers a comprehensive plan to make their company inclusive and safe for employees."

"By combining forces with Work Shield, we are giving our clients assurance that once our platform is implemented and data collection identifies trends and toxic behavior, they will have a trusted partner to take the next step to investigate the issue and ensure workplace cultures are protected," said Dan Udoutch, co-founder and CEO of RSquared, "This full-service solution will give employers and employees peace of mind that they are being protected and that action is being taken to ensure their safety."

About Work Shield

Work Shield is the only solution that partners with employers to efficiently manage reporting, investigation and resolution of workplace harassment and discrimination issues in their entirety. For the first time, employees have access to an immediate and impartial platform to safely voice harassment and discrimination incidents, while employers are ensured peace of mind that issues are investigated and resolved by Work Shield-certified legal professionals. The Work Shield solution fosters a more positive and open workplace culture comprised of integrity and trust. Learn more at https://workshield.com.

About RSquared

RSquared is a pioneer in the nascent Workforce Intelligence market, which replaces the time-consuming and costly manual surveying of employees with real-time analysis of employee digital communications. RSquared is a cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) platform that assesses the state and health of an organization's culture by delivering immediate, actionable insights via a secure online executive dashboard. Learn more at https://rsquared.ai.

CONTACT:

Bolt Public Relations

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 23:52:44|Editor: huaxia

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RAMALLAH/GAZA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- After a five-month closure following the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Palestinian territories, schools in Palestine will reopen in September, a senior Palestinian official said on Tuesday.

Marwan Awartani, the Palestinian Minister of Education, told a news briefing in Ramallah that schools in Palestine will restart on Sept. 6, "unless something urgent breaks out amid coronavirus crisis."

He added that the coronavirus crisis had influenced education at schools and obliged all educational institutions to carry out online learning for the safety of Palestinian students.

"The plan of the return to schools goes in harmony with a comprehensive health protocol based on certain conditions that all schools, universities, and other education institutions must abide by," said the minister.

Awartani clarified the protocol includes physical distancing, wearing facemasks and gloves, and sterilization.

However, the education ministry in the Gaza Strip, the enclave that the Islamic Hamas movement rules, has announced that schools there would reopen in the first week of August. Enditem
Attorney General William Barr testified before Congress on Tuesday that "violent rioters and anarchists" have "hijacked" the protests over George Floyd's death "to wreak senseless havoc and destruction on innocent victims." In prepared remarks, Barr also offered a full-throated defense of his much-criticized conduct in the federal probe of Russian election interference, slamming the "bogus 'Russiagate' scandal" and asserting President Donald Trump has not acted inappropriately. Barr delivered an abridged version of that statement before the House Judiciary Committee, where he faced a hostile audience in the panel's Democratic majority. "Your tenure is marked by a persistent war against the department's professional core in an apparent effort to secure favors for the president," Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in his own opening remarks. "In your time at the department, you have aided and abetted the worst failings of this president." The hearing comes more than a month after Nadler threatened to subpoena Barr to testify after the firing of Geoffrey Berman as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. In June, Barr announced that Berman was "stepping down." Berman's office at the time was reportedly engaged in an investigation into Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani. Berman initially refused to leave, saying he would only do so when his replacement was confirmed by the Senate. Barr then told Berman in a letter that Trump had fired him. Barr's spokeswoman announced on June 24 that the attorney general had accepted an invitation for a "general oversight hearing." The hearing marks Barr's first-ever appearance before the House Judiciary panel during his tenure in the Trump administration and his first session before Congress in more than a year.

The hearing was originally set for 10 a.m. ET, but was delayed until around 11 a.m. following a "minor accident," a spokesman for the committee told CNBC. Nadler added at the hearing that he was involved in a "minor car accident." Rep. Jim Jordan, the committee's top Republican, launched into his opening statement by decrying the Russia probe as a coordinated effort by Democrats to undermine Trump. "Spying. That one word, that's why they're after you," Jordan said to Barr. The ranking Republican then showed a lengthy video comprising dozens of clips of violence and property destruction apparently carried out during the recent spate of riots.

Trump's reelection 'comes up' in Cabinet discussions, Barr says

Nadler in his opening line of questions grilled Barr on whether he had discussed Trump's reelection efforts with the president or his surrogates. "I'm not going to get into my discussions with the president," Barr initially said. Pressed to give a yes or no response, Barr said he had not discussed the reelection campaign with regard to Operation Legend, a law enforcement program recently initiated to provide aid to local authorities. "I didn't ask that," Nadler said, to which Barr replied: "I'm a member of the Cabinet, and there's an election going on. Obviously the topic comes up." "So the answer's yes?" Nadler asked. "Well, the topic comes up in Cabinet meetings and other things," Barr said. "It shouldn't be a surprise that the topic of the election comes up."

Rep. Steve Cohen grills Barr over DOJ's role in Lafayette Square clearing

The hearing intensified as Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., grilled Barr over his handling of the June 1 incident in which protesters were forcibly cleared from Lafayette Square following a Trump Rose Garden address. Once the square across from the White House was cleared, Trump, along with other members of the administration  including Barr, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the nation's highest-ranking military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley  participated in a photo-op in front of historic St. John's Church. Cohen slammed Barr for orchestrating the clearance of the peaceful protesters, calling it "an affront to the Constitution and the American people." "You said get it done, you said get it done," Cohen shouted at Barr, who was cut off before he could address the claim. Cohen went on to address the escalating violence in Portland, Oregon, saying that Barr's "secret police were poorly trained." "Just like your Bureau of Prisons guards, were poorly trained and allowed the most notorious inmate in our nation's last several years, Jeffrey Epstein, to conveniently commit suicide."

Barr defends DOJ reducing Roger Stone's sentencing recommendation

Barr denied that he was doing what Trump wanted when the Justice Department reduced its recommended sentence for Roger Stone, a longtime ally of Trump's who had been convicted on charges of lying to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering. "Do you think it is fair for a 67-year-old man to be sent to prison for seven to nine years?" Barr asked in a fiery exchange with Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga. Prosecutors had recommended in February that a federal judge deliver that sentence for Stone, saying it mirrored federal guidelines. But Trump blasted the move, calling it "a horrible and very unfair situation." A day after that sentencing memo was made public, the DOJ sent the judge a revised recommendation, saying Stone deserved "far less" time in prison than what the four prosecutors on the case had proposed. Those prosecutors then dramatically quit Stone's case. The original recommended sentence "was within the guidelines," Barr said Tuesday, "but it was not within Justice Department policy in my view." Barr told Johnson at the hearing he had not discussed his sentencing recommendation with "anyone at the White House or anyone outside the department." Stone was ultimately sentenced to a 40-month prison term. But Trump in July commuted Stone's sentence just four days before the GOP operative was set to be incarcerated.

Barr's prepared remarks
Instead of organizing protests, local Democratic Party leaders said they are holding events to offer productive alternatives to President Donald Trumps visit to the Permian Basin this week, including a voter registration drive and a parade to distribute Democratic signage.

The Ector County Democratic Party is hosting a voter registration drive at their headquarters on Wednesday afternoon, the day Trump will visit a rig in Midland and attend a luncheon in Odessa, according to Chair-elect Hannah Horick.

The goal really is to offer something productive for folks, something where they can show up and accomplish something by being there, she said.

They opted not to organize a protest because of coronavirus concerns, she said, adding that Donald Trump is not worth getting sick over.

Residents of both Ector and Midland counties will be able to register during the event, which will be socially distanced, Horick said.

Midland County Democrats will be holding a parade to distribute yard signs for presidential nominee Joe Biden and District 11 congressional candidate Jon Mark Hogg, according to Chair Cathy Broadrick.

The parade will take place Tuesday night, beginning at the Midland County Democratic Headquarters and passing by Washington Park and several residential streets, she said. She said its meant to counter-balance Trumps visit.

Horick said she felt it was in poor taste for the president to fundraise in Odessa while the unemployment rate is at 13 percent, the highest in Texas.

Frankly, were seeing people lose jobs in the energy industry and inservice industries. Our restaurants are struggling and people across the board are trying to navigate what to do with their children when school comes back next month. And the presidents coming and having a fundraising luncheon to make money off of the Permian Basin, and I think its gross, she said.

Broadrick said she hopes Trump will use the visit to address the ongoing oil downturn and coronavirus pandemic and offer solutions.

I would like for him to speak to how actually hes going to help us, she said. Oil is so cheap right now and that impacts all of us. It impacts me.

Abhi Rahman, communications director for the Texas Democratic Party, said it was dangerous for Trump to hold events in Texas while coronavirus cases continue to spike, but its not surprising.

Its completely reckless, he said. It shows where Donald Trumps priorities lie.

Rahman speculated Trump is visiting West Texas because of fear hes losing ground amid frustrations surrounding the pandemic, in a state that supported U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz during the 2016 primaries.

Texans dont like Donald Trump; they never have, he said. Trump knows hes vulnerable here and thats why hes visited Texas the second-most out of any state in the country.

More information on the Ector County and Midland County Democratic Party events can be found on both groups Facebook pages.

___

Ector County Democratic Party Registration Drive

Party Headquarters

4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Midland County Democratic Party Sign Parade

Begins at party headquarters

6:30 p.m.
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"The death rate of this disease is much higher than the novel coronavirus. The country's health departments are conducting comparative research into the pneumonia virus, but have yet to identify the virus," the embassy was quoted as saying to the South China Morning Post.While the Chinese embassy described the illness as 'unknown pneumonia', Kazakhstani officials and media have only said it is pneumonia.The embassy's website, citing local media reports, said the provinces of Atyrau and Aktobe and the city of Shymkent have reported significant spikes in pneumonia cases since the middle of June."The Chinese embassy in Kazakhstan reminds Chinese nationals here to be aware of the situation and step up a prevention to lower the infection risks," the embassy said."Some 300 people diagnosed with pneumonia are being hospitalised every day," Saule Kisikova, the health care department chief in the capital Nur-Sultan, was quoted as saying to the local media.It was also not known if the WHO had been informed about the 'unknown pneumonia'.Source: IANS
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If a song title was to best sum up the reaction to the Governments roadmap to reopening schools, Elton Johns classic It Aint Gonna Be Easy would be a top contender.

Some aspects of the plan, such as the introduction of hand-sanitising stations and assigned seating on school buses, will be easy to implement, according to teachers and principals.

Read More

But further clarity is needed in a lot of areas, too.

Here are eight hurdles the Government will need to help schools overcome if theyre to open at the end of August.

Will there be enough time to carry out building works?

Some schools will need to undergo alterations to ensure they can implement physical distancing in classrooms. The Government allocated 75 million to allow for minor works. But principals have voiced concerns as they fear they will struggle to get tradespeople to do the work in the next four weeks. Many builders have returned to construction sites and the Covid crisis has seen a significant delay in the granting of planning permissions. Rachel O'Connor, principal of Ramsgrange Community School in Co Wexford, has struggled to find available workers in the area. She said "it just isn't achievable" to create the space needed in the time-frame given.

Substitute teachers providing sick cover

The plan said an additional 1,080 post-primary teachers will be made available to provide sick cover. Teaching unions have raised concerns about substitute teachers moving from school to school as it could risk spreading the virus. Education Minister Norma Foley said this will be on a very limited basis and she doesnt think it will be an issue. However, opposition TDs say they fear there wont be enough teachers available if Ireland experiences a second surge of coronavirus.

Garda vetting required for hundreds of teachers

Minister Foley pledged that absolutely nobody would be allowed to work with children if they are not Garda vetted. Those on placements from teaching colleges, teachers from abroad and retired pedagogues will be brought in to provide cover, which means hundreds will require garda vetting. The Garda National Vetting Bureau (GNVB) said the current turnaround for applications is up to four days and it is liaising with the Department of Education. A spokesperson told Independent.ie: The GNVB is ready, willing and confident, that it will process the expected increase in vetting applications from the education sector at short notice.

Will insurance cover off-campus classrooms?

The roadmap alludes to parish halls and other off-campus locations being used to deal with classroom overflow, which raises questions about insurance cover. Irelands insurance crisis is well-documented and the Government will need to provide clarity on how this will work. Minister Foley said it hasnt been raised as an issue yet, but with many activity centres for children struggling to get cover at the moment, it doesnt bode well.

How will after-school care work?

The plan brings students from their doors at home to the gates of the school, but it doesnt offer clear guidance on after-school care. Students will be given assigned seats on school buses and be divided into class bubbles, but what happens after school? Will students be allowed to mingle with people from other schools and classes? One of the largest childcare providers on the capital's northside, West Wood Gym in Clontarf, has already announced it is closing its after-school service ahead of schools reopening. If this becomes a trend across the country, working parents will be faced with a serious conundrum.

Lack of space

Some schools simply just do not have the space to enable social distancing. Ireland has among the largest class sizes in Europe and schools were struggling for room before Covid came along. Some principals have indicated they will ask students to wear facemasks in class as they wont be able to introduce one metre distancing.

Principals being bogged down in administrative work

The task facing school principals is an enormous one. Drawing up new timetables and plans for reopening will be extremely time-consuming, not to mention the extra paperwork that will be required to deal with Covid-19 issues. While the plan gives them a release day to deal with administrative work, realistically for most this will be on the weekends.

Parents forced to stay at home with a sniffling child

The plan states that children should not come to school if they, or anyone in their household, is displaying Covid-19 symptoms. This means parents will potentially have to stay at home with their kids whenever they have a runny nose. This could have serious implications for parents who will potentially have to take time off work.
Authorities said a woman was killed Monday by a great white shark in Maine, a state that researchers say has recorded only one confirmed unprovoked attack in nearly 200 years.

The Maine Marine Patrol said in a statement that the woman was attacked while swimming near Bailey Island, northeast of Portland. She was identified Tuesday as Julie Dimperio Holowach, 63, of New York City.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The patrol said an eyewitness reported seeing the attack. Kayakers brought Holowach to shore, the statement said.

Holowach, who was wearing a wetsuit, may have attracted the shark because her attire mimicked the appearance of a seal, officials said Tuesday.

She was swimming with her daughter, who was not injured. Citing a witness, NBC affiliate WCSH reported seeing two people in the water at the time of the attack. One was thrown into the air and suffered serious injuries, the witness said.

Authorities were able to use a fragment of a tooth to identify the shark as a great white. Great white sharks are the world's largest predatory fish and are dwindling in numbers due to hunting, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

According to researchers at the Florida Museum of Natural History, which tracks shark attacks in the United States and around the world, the state has recorded only one attack since 1837. Its unclear if that attack was fatal.

Attacks in the northeast are generally rare, with New York State and Massachusetts logging 18 between them, according to the database.

Florida has recorded 852 attacks, the most in the world, according to the database.
The coronavirus vaccine race is entering its last legs as Monday marked the beginning of the first large study that tests the safety and effectiveness of the treatment in the United States. A collaboration between the National Institutes of Health and Moderna, a biotech company, revealed the news.

Late-stage trials

According to The New York Times, during a news briefing, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, Dr Anthony Fauci, said the first shot of the trial vaccine was given to a volunteer in Savannah, Georgia.

The Phase 3 clinical trial study aims to enroll at least 30,000 health individuals from 89 different areas across the country for the summer tests. Half of the subjects will be given two shots of the vaccine 28 days apart, and the other half will be shot with two sets of saltwater placebo.

The volunteers and medical staff giving the shots will not know which of the injections contain the real vaccine. The researchers will continue to monitor the subjects after the trials to see if any side effects arise.

The main objective of the tests will be to see if there are fewer infections among the individuals who were vaccinated to determine its effectiveness in battling against the disease. They also aim to see if the vaccines prevent severe cases of COVID-19 and death.

Pfizer, another contender for the first coronavirus vaccine, announced on Monday that it was also in its late-stage testing for an effective treatment. The pharmaceutical company has been working together with BioNTech, a German company, to develop a vaccine for the virus.

The study by Pfizer will similarly enroll 30,000 subjects from 39 different states across the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and Germany. The University of Rochester hosted the first subjects being injected with the first shots of the vaccine on Monday.

Also Read: Study Suggest Humans Weakening COVID-19 Virus by Mutation, But Virus is Fighting Back

Curing the world

The United States government previously agreed to purchase almost $2 billion worth of coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech that would give them 100 million doses of the experimental treatments. The US will provide the vaccines to its citizens for free, and Pfizer is looking to roll-out its application for emergency use authorization in October, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Despite several vaccines in the works, none have proven to safely work against the coronavirus as many treatments developed for other pathogens have failed during testing trials, especially in Phase 3 tests.

On Monday, US officials stated the development of the new experimental vaccine was the quickest among its predecessors to reach Phase 3 trials from its initial design.

Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, said during a conference call on Monday that while they were working quickly with the vaccine's development, they did not compromise the safety or effectiveness of the treatments.

The beginning of the late-stage trials by Moderna mark the start of the final phases of the coronavirus vaccine testing that suggests the use of the treatment could come before the end of the year if results prove to be positive.

Related Article: COVID-19 Immunity: T-Cells Take Over after Studies Show COVID-19 Antibodies Wane Fast

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Cadarache : , July 28 (IANS) A ceremony to celebrate the official beginning of plasma-based fusion reactor ITER's assembly was held in southern France on Tuesday with President Emmanuel Macron saying it is a promise of peace and a particular moment in history.

"There are moments when the nations of the world choose to overcome their differences to meet a particular moment in history. The decision to launch ITER, in the mid-2000s, was one of these moments," he said in a virtual address to mark the start-of-assembly ceremony.

"ITER is a promise of peace," he added.

Besides Macron, leaders from the European Union, China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the US declared the start of a new energy era with the official start of the assembly of the world's largest fusion device at ITER.

The ITER machine, the world's largest science project, is being assembled to replicate the fusion power of the sun that provides light and warmth and enables life on earth.

The launch of ITER assembly phase is made possible by the arrival of components from all over the world in recent months.

It demonstrates the willingness of the 35 partner countries of the ITER international research project to join together in an enduring way in their common fight against climate change.

"I heartily congratulate the ITER Project," said Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan.

"I believe disruptive innovation will play a key role in addressing global issues, including climate change and realizing a sustainable carbon-free society." Fusion provides clean, reliable energy without carbon emissions.

Fusion is safe, with minute amounts of fuel and no physical possibility of a run-away accident with meltdown.

In a statement by Chinese President Xi Jinping read by Minister Wang Zhigang said: "The ITER project -- one of the most important international scientific collaborations -- embodies the human desire for the peaceful use of fusion energy." The fuel for fusion is found in seawater and lithium. It is abundant enough to supply humanity for millions of years. A pineapple-sized amount of this fuel is the equivalent of 10,000 tons of coal.

The cost of building and operating a fusion plant is expected to be similar to the cost of a nuclear fission plant, but without the large costs and long-term legacy of waste disposal.

When ITER is finished, it is expected that it will demonstrate that fusion power can be generated sustainably on a commercial scale.

In recent months, in preparation for the machine assembly, gigantic first-of-a-kind components have begun to arrive in France, in many cases weighing several hundred tons each and more than 15 meters long.

The parts are the culmination of more than five years of fabrication in factories, universities and national laboratories all over the world.

The tokamak components must meet very strict specifications. They must arrive in France on time, according to an intricate schedule.

"Constructing the machine piece by piece will be like assembling a three-dimensional puzzle on an intricate timeline," said ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot.

"Every aspect of project management, systems engineering, risk management, and logistics of the machine assembly must perform together with the precision of a Swiss watch.

"We have a complicated script to follow over the next few years," he said.

At end of this period, in December 2025, ITER scientists and engineers will launch "First Plasma", the initial event demonstrating machine functionality.

The plant at ITER will produce about 500 megawatts of thermal power. If operated continuously and connected to the electric grid, that would translate to about 200 megawatts of electric power, enough for about 200,000 homes.

A commercial fusion plant will be designed with a slightly larger plasma chamber, for 10-15 times more electrical power.

A 2,000 megawatt fusion power plant, for example, would supply electricity to two million homes.

Fusion power plants are carbon-free; they release no CO2. But the benefit of fusion for the fight against climate change depends on how quickly these fusion plants are installed.

More than 70 per cent of carbon emissions come from energy use; and more than 80 per cent of energy consumption comes from fossil fuels.

"If fusion power becomes universal in complement to renewable energies, the use of electricity could be expanded greatly, to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, buildings and industry," an optimistic Bigot said.

"Enabling the exclusive use of clean energy will be a miracle for our planet," he added.
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Octavi Royo, Agora's CEO & co-founder, said: 'Nature surrounds us and protects us. The #Landscape2020 photos will pass through your eyes to impact directly into your heart.'

Scroll down to see the amazing shots - you'll find the winning image at the bottom...

Crop a load of that: An incredible shot of Vietnam's Chu Dang Ya volcano - which is now fertile ground for arable farmers - shot by Vietnamese photographer Hoa Carol. He said: 'This extinct volcano is one of the most beautiful destinations in central Vietnam'

This stunning image of a lone futuristic skyscraper in the city of Saint Petersburg was taken by Russian photographer Sergei Poletaev. He said: 'There are no other high-rising buildings in the area, just the water and one or two-storey suburban houses. This is why this tower looks more like a sculpture or an artwork rather than an office skyscraper'

Ilaria Ronchi, who is Italian but lives in the Netherlands, took this breathtaking image in the Namib Desert. She said: 'This photo is really precious to me. I just remember how overwhelming it was to be surrounded by perfect natural sand creations'

Filippo Bellisola, from Italy, captured this stunning shot at Iceland's Haifoss waterfall. He explained: 'It was my very first day in Iceland. At this moment I realised how incredible our earth is and how many other beautiful places I was about to see during the trip'

This jaw-dropping shot of Australia's Whitsunday Islands was taken by Belgian photographer Johan Vandenhecke. He said: 'This place is so pure! It's only accessible by boat, so we slept on a boat in a neighbouring bay in order to get here in the morning'

On the left is an incredible scene snapped in the Italian Dolomites by French photographer Ghislain Fave. He said: 'I was amazed by the location of that little church, just in front of the peaks of Tre Cime di Lavaredo.' On the right is another shot of the Italian Dolomites, this time taken by Dutch photographer Michelle Wandering. She said: 'Visiting the Dolomites last year was such a crazy experience. I loved every single view and moment of it, even though it was freezing and Im not a fan of cold weather!'

Photographer Subhash Panikar, who lives in Waterloo, Canada, captured this shot in Thailand. He called the image 'Ship in a Storm'

On the left is a drone shot by British photographer Matthew Perks of Padstow in Cornwall. He said: 'It is hard to believe places like this exist in the UK. I had to sit and wait for almost three hours for the tide to go out, which was no way a negative thing! But I think the pay-off was certainly worth it.' On the right is a scene snapped in Iceland by Joel Friend from the UK. He took the image on the last stop of a road trip around the country. He said: 'This place felt like another planet!'

Dutch photographer Tom de Waart came across this mesmerising landscape in the US state of Utah. He said: 'This is probably one of the most underrated viewpoints in the state. We hiked here early morning to find ourselves looking over this incredible canyon'

This beautiful image of Mount Bromo, a 7,847ft (2,329-metre) high active volcano in East Java, Indonesia, was snapped by Indonesian photographer Wahyu Teguh Setiawan

On the left is an image by Lee Mumford, from Hong Kong, which shows the stunning Shiprock rock formation in New Mexico. To the right is the breathtaking '99 Domes Mosque' in Sulawesi, Indonesia, captured by Indonesian photographer Reski Sandi

German photographer Jorg Petermann is behind this dramatic image showing lightning ripping through the night sky over Bayern in Germany. He said: 'It was my first time photographing a thunderstorm, but definitely not the last time!'

This jaw-dropping image of Mont Saint-Michel in France was snapped by French photographer Pascal Biomez. He said: 'When I took this picture, I was surrounded by sheep. I wanted to take a different picture to show the Mont's silhouette in a unique way'

Dutch photographer Nick de Jonge captured this misty image in Alkmaar in the Netherlands. He said: 'Some tulips, fog and a windmill. I dont think it can be anymore Dutch than this'

On the left is an image by Italian photographer Ester Turri shot during a sunrise in the Alpe di Siusi alpine meadow in the Dolomites. She waited for a long time to capture this shot and explained: 'Our patience was rewarded when the first sun rays appeared behind the peaks, a thick fog rolled in and in just a few minutes this breathtaking scenery appeared in front of our eyes.' On the right is an image by Czech photographers 'Maky and Matt' that was taken in Indonesia

This incredible aerial shot, by Artem Pikalov, from Russia, shows Sigiriya, an ancient rock fortress in Sri Lanka. He said: 'The landscape was magnificent and I captured it without hesitation'

Photographer Olivier Vandeginste, who lives in Belgium, captured this eye-popping scene in Zeebrugge. He said: 'I went to the beach to photograph a fireworks festival but a thunderstorm took all of the attention away. On the left side, you can see Zeebrugge Harbour with its many wind turbines and in the background, you can see nature producing electricity'

American photographer Chad Torkelsen stumbled upon this magnificent waterfall while hiking in central Oregon and immediately got out his camera. He explained: 'We missed the turnoff for the trail and walked an extra two miles. After we backtracked and went down the correct trail, we were greeted by this monster waterfall, one of the most spectacular places Ive seen in Oregon'

On the left is an image by British photographer Matt Cannon of a solitary lighthouse in Iceland. He said: 'This lighthouse stands guard day and night through storms and through beautiful sunsets. I wanted to capture it standing strong and braving all elements.' On the right is a stunning shot of Hong Kong that was snapped by John Huang, who lives in the city. He said: 'The red boat passing by helps to set the human scale and to reinforce the idea of the urban landscape'

Pamela Plaza, from Mexico, is behind this incredible image of the Tutoko Glacier in New Zealand. She said: 'The solitary figure amidst the vast and majestic landscape symbolises how insignificant we humans are on this planet, and yet, how much influence we have over its survival'

This stunning sunset image of the Kirkjufell mountain in Iceland was snapped by Italian photographer Samuele Miccoli. He said: 'We were looking for the best sunset and we eventually found it at Kirkjufell, the iconic Icelandic mountain. I didnt have my tripod, and I couldnt get a long exposure. I was trying to find the best angle for that reflex to get the shot right'

On the left is an otherworldly image snapped by British photographer James Theo in Utah. He called the photo 'Life on Mars'. He said: 'These colourful mud mounds I came across while in Utah were like something from Mars. This location blew me away and I had never seen anything like this before.' On the right is a dramatic landscape in Iceland captured by Alvaro Valiente, from Spain. He asked: 'Can you spot my car? It's the tiny white dot! The scale there is incredible'

This magical sunrise scene over Los Picachos de Ola in Panama was captured by a French photographer known as @followmypath. He explained: 'This was definitely my favourite hike in Panama. The landscape was out of this world... and we had an amazing sunrise that day as well'

This mesmerising sunset picture was captured by Austrian snapper Sebastian Burziwal at Manarola in Italy's Cinque Terre area. He described it as 'one of the most magical sunsets ever'

The overall winning image - by Australian photographer Luke Simpson. He snapped it in Goblin Valley State Park in Utah. He said: 'It was a totally unplanned shot on our American road trip.' For winning the contest, he scoops $1,000 in prize money

For more on Agora visit agoraimages.prowly.com.
Dogs are also shown to be able to detect various diseases including cancer, malaria, and various kinds of bacterial and viral infections.

Early detection followed by isolation is one of the best ways to stop the spread of COVID-19. However, the asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission of the disease poses a big challenge here. Since the virus can spread easily in a crowded setting, such people can unknowingly lead to local outbreaks.

Now, a group of researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany, claim that dogs can sniff out coronavirus patients in a crowd with high precision.

Previously Col PK Chug, Consulting director, at the police K9 cell at the Ministry of Home Affairs has claimed that dogs can sniff out coronavirus patients from their body odour -- if they are trained to do so that is. However, the screening would only be effective if they have more than a 90 percent success rate.

The latest study published in the peer-reviewed journal BMC Infectious Diseases suggests a 94 percent detection rate. Based on their findings, the researchers say that we can use trained dogs to find coronavirus patients in public areas like airports and mass gatherings and reduce the spread of the disease.

Findings of the study

For the latest study, the researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover trained eight dogs for one week to identify the saliva and or respiratory secretions of confirmed COVID-19 patients.

About 100 L of samples were put on a cotton pad and the pad was put in a 4 mL glass tube for identification. The samples were put along with known negative samples in such a way that the dog is not directly exposed to it but can sniff it out through a grid.

A total of 1,012 samples were randomised and presented to the dogs. Out of these, the dogs had an average detection rate of 94 percent with 157 positives, 792 negatives, 33 false positives and 30 false negatives. The testing specificity was 96.34 percent and sensitivity was 82.63 percent.

Test sensitivity refers to the ability to correctly identify true positives and specificity refers to the ability to correctly identify true negatives. As per the study, an RT-PCR has a false positive rate of 2.3-6.9 percent.

Strong sense of smell

Dogs are known for their strong sense of smell. Humans have been training and using dogs to identify and differentiate odours such as various drugs, blood and other things for many years. The olfactory sense of a dog is said to be about 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than humans. They can even detect a substance at a concentration of one part per trillion -- meaning the size of one droplet of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Dogs are also shown to be able to detect various diseases including cancer, malaria, and various kinds of bacterial and viral infections. It is suggested that in all of these conditions, the infectious microbe or the human body produces certain substances that a dog can sniff out and can be trained to recognise.

Things to consider

One of the important things that the study suggested was the possibility of dogs becoming the spreader of the infection. It is not known whether dogs can transmit the infection to humans although human to animal transmission has been seen. Also, there is concern about the effect of the virus on a dogs sense of smell. If a dog does get the disease and it somehow affects its sense of smell, the whole practice may be useless.

Hence, more studies are needed to find answers to all these questions before dogs can be considered to find COVID-19 positive people in crowds.

For more information, read our article on Contact tracing: what is it and how does it help.

Health articles in Firstpost are written by myUpchar.com, Indias first and biggest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to bring you information on all things health.
India and Indonesia agree to further enhance bilateral defence cooperation in Defence Ministers' Dialogue today

India - Press Information Bureau

Ministry of Defence

Posted On: 27 JUL 2020 5:09PM by PIB Delhi

Defence Ministers' Dialogue between India and Republic of Indonesia was held here today. Indian delegation was headed by Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh while the Indonesian delegation was led by its Defence Minister General Prabowo Subianto, who is in India for strengthening the ties between the two maritime neighbours.

During the talks, Raksha Mantri reiterated the long history of mutually beneficial interactions between the two countries with a tradition of close political dialogue, economic and trade linkages as well as cultural and people to people interactions.

Conveying satisfaction on the military to military interactions, Shri Rajnath Singh indicated that the defence cooperation between India and Indonesia has witnessed an upswing in the recent years, which is in consonance with the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two sides. Both the Ministers agreed to further enhance the bilateral defence cooperation in mutually agreed areas.

Potential areas of cooperation in the field of defence industries and defence technology were also identified by the two countries. Both the Ministers committed themselves to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in these areas and take them to the next level of deliverables.

The meeting ended on a positive note with a commitment to further strengthen and widen the scope of the bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

Chief of Defence Staff & Secretary Department of Military Affairs General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Army Staff General M M Naravane, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria and Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar and other senior civil and military officials also took part in the bilateral meeting.

General Subianto was given ceremonial Guard of Honour on the lawns of South Block when he arrived for the Dialogue. He was personally received by Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh at the venue. Earlier, General Subianto visited the National War Memorial and laid a wreath as a mark of respect to the fallen heroes.

ABB/Nampi/KA/DK/Savvy/ADA

(Release ID: 1641523)

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The Bombay high court on Tuesday said if a person takes all necessary precautions, then he or she need not worry about contracting COVID-19, and asked what purpose would be served by disclosing the names of persons who tested positive for the disease.

IMAGE: Health workers check the temperature and pulse of residents during a check up campaign for the coronavirus disease in Mumbai. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Sarang Kotwal was hearing a public interest litigation filed by two persons, seeking disclosure of names of COVID-19 patientsto enable contact tracing and to save others from being infected.

The PIL, filed by law student Vaishnavi Gholave and Solapur-based farmer Mahesh Gadekar, claimed the fundamental right to life and the right to lead a healthy life stand above the fundamental right to privacy in the present situation where public interest and morality are important.

The high court, however, asked what purpose would be served by disclosing the names of COVID-19 patients.

"There is always a risk of ostracisation, Chief Justice Datta pointed out.

"Everything depends on each person... if a person takes necessary precautions like avoiding congregations, washing hands, using head shields and sanitisers, then the person is at a lesser risk of being infected, he said.



The court further said when people come in contact with a person who they know has later tested positive for COVID-19, then they know that they should also get themselves tested or look out for symptoms.

But then there are persons who are asymptomatic or are silent carriers of coronavirus. With such persons, people tend to get a bit complacent and meet them and talk to them without masks, the court said.

Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the Union government, told the court that there are judgments passed by high courts of Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Madras and Orissa dismissing similar pleas seeking disclosure of the

names of COVID-19 patients.

The bench directed the petitioners advocate Yashodeep Deshmukh to peruse those judgments and posted the matter for further hearing next week.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Revival Sash, a leading Custom Window & Door manufacturer has appointed Jim Sztuk to head up its newly launched West Palm Beach office. Jim brings 45 years of direct industry experience in South Florida to the organization. Jim lead a team to draft the first national impact testing requirements for the International Building Code (IBC) and worked with AL Farooq Engineers to implement the Dade County Impact Code and Protocols.

"Having worked with Jim Sztuk previously at Zeluck Windows, I know he is uniquely suited to head one of our two most important markets. He is quite simply the right man, in the right market at the perfect time. We look forward to re-introducing the Revival Sash team to leading architects and contractors and to a long and collaborative presence in South Florida." said Mike Canizales, CEO of Revival Sash. Jim added "Being given the opportunity to reunite with former co-workers including Peter Manning and Brian Trager along with the craftsmen with centuries of woodworking experience, is quite simply, like coming home. The impact product line that has been developed and HVHZ tested by Revival is better than any I have had the pleasure of representing for 45 years.

Sequel, South Florida's premier residential window and door installer, has recently merged into Revival Holdings. Brian Ramsey will remain President of Sequel and the Company will place a renewed focus on installation and service for the top manufacturers, contractors and architects in the Florida market. "Amanda and I are thrilled to be able to continue to focus on providing impeccable service to the finest residences in Florida. This backing by a blue-chip investment fund is timely and welcome, and allows our clients and employees to bank on our long-term viability," said Brian Ramsey.

Sachs Capital is a patient, sophisticated financial partner that offers flexible, non-control, long term capital to successful entrepreneurs. With over 40 years of experience working with entrepreneurs, its core philosophy is to align Sachs' interests with ownership through a non-control capital position. Sachs Capital is not limited by the typical requirements of institutional investors and is able to invest for the long term, with no forced exit or maturity event. Sachs Capital has invested over $160 million into 19 companies for over a decade and is currently investing out of Sachs Capital Fund II, LLC, a $65 million committed capital fund. Sachs has a keen interest in the building products space with investments in Ducky Johnson (www.duckyjohnson.com); Revival Holdings; and Link Electric company (www.link-electric.com), among others. Sachs Capital invested in Revival Holdings in May of 2019.

Revival Holdings owns three premier window and door companies: Revival Sash, Bright Window Specialists and Sequel.

Sequel (www.sequelglass.com) is a full-service window sales and installation company with 33 years of experience installing windows and doors in coastal Florida and across the nation for luxury residences. The company has worked on countless projects in the Florida Area with focus on Jupiter and Palm Bach Islands.

Revival Sash Custom Windows & Doors (www.revivalsash.com) is a manufacturer servicing the most discerning architects and general contractors in the nation. Many members of the multi-generational Revival family have worked together for decades and produced over $250M worth of handcrafted American made products. The state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and showroom is in Springfield, New Jersey, 30 minutes from New York City, and the West Palm Beach office is at 1601 Belvedere Road, West Palm Beach, Florida. The company offers wood, steel, aluminum and clad products across several brand and price points which meet the most rigorous AAMA, Florida Building Code & HVHZ standards.

Bright Window Specialists (www.brightwindows.com) is a window and door sales and installation company based in New Jersey, offering high-end services to the greater New York region. Whether looking for a contemporary design or something more traditional, the Bright team ensures a finished product that surpasses expectations. Bright Window Specialists has been a trusted Leader since 1991.

Contact: Mike Canizales +1 212 731 9337 [email protected]

SOURCE Revival Holdings
The late U.S. congressman John Lewis returned to Washington on Monday, taking a final journey past several civil rights landmarks before his casket was taken to the Capitol, where it will lie in state for officials and the public to pay their last respects

After being flown into Joint Base Andrews in Maryland outside Washington, Lewis's casket was loaded into a hearse and taken into the city via motorcade led by motorcycle police.

The motorcade took a circuitous route through the city, with a slow pass by the Lincoln Memorial where, in 1963, Lewis had been the youngest speaker during the Martin Luther King-led March on Washington. The motorcade then drove by the memorial honoring King, on the tidal basin just off the National Mall.

Next, the motorcade wound across the Mall, past the White House and onto the newly minted Black Lives Matter Plaza, where the civil rights icon made his last public appearance in early June. Lewis, who was diagnosed in late December with pancreatic cancer, died July 17.

From there, the motorcade worked its way back to the Mall for a pass by the African American Museum, where Lewis is remembered among other civil rights activists.

From there, the motorcade eventually arrived at the Capitol where Lewis' casket was greeted by a host of high-profile political leaders for an arrival ceremony in the Capitol's Rotunda.

Inside the capitol, public officials, including presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, are expected to pay their respects.

The general public has been prohibited from entering the Capitol complex since mid-March, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so Lewis' casket will be positioned at the top of the center steps of the Capitol, just outside the Rotunda.

Later Monday, people would be able to walk up to the bottom of those steps to pay tribute to Lewis, with social distancing and mask-wearing requirements in place.

The public will be able to pay their respects to Lewis all day Tuesday, before his body is flown to Atlanta to lie in state Wednesday in the Georgia Capitol. A funeral will be held at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the historically black church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached.


Pakistani spy agency ISI is planning to carry out a terrorist attack in Ram Janmabhoomi in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya on August 15, sources in Intelligence agencies revealed on Tuesday (July 28).

According to intelligence agency R&AW, the ISI was training Lashkar and Jaish terrorists in Afghanistan to launch the attack.

The Pakistani agency had planned to send three to five groups of terrorists in Ayodhya for the attack.

Indian intelligence agency revealed that Pakistan wants the terrorist group to carry out separate attacks and in such a way that it appears as an internal attack within India.

The intelligence agency has also found that the VVIPs will remain on the target of the terrorists so that the impact of this attack is felt at large. Meanwhile, the security system has been tightened to keep a check on the activities in Delhi, Ayodhya, and Kashmir.

On August 5, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya. Notably, this is also the same day when section 370 was removed from Kashmir in the year 2019.
Traffic along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington streaks past the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters building. Read more

WASHINGTON  The Senates top Republican says he opposes a push by President Donald Trump to include in a new coronavirus aid package nearly $1.8 billion to rebuild the FBI headquarters on its current site in downtown Washington.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters he opposes inclusion of the FBI money and all other measures not related to the government's response to the virus.

When we get to the end of the process I would hope all of the non-COVID related measures are out,'' McConnell said Tuesday. "No matter what bills they were in at the start.

McConnell's comments came after Democrats accused Trump of self-dealing with his push on the FBI building, which sits across the street from a downtown hotel that Trump owns on Pennsylvania Avenue, blocks from the White House. The Trump International Hotel could face competition if the FBI moves from the site and another hotel is developed on the property.

Before running for office, Trump expressed interest in redeveloping the FBI property himself, and he has taken a strong personal interest in the effort to rebuild the headquarters.

They dont have money for food stamps, but they have money for an FBI building just so that they can diminish competition for the presidents hotel, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday night .

More than 150,000 Americans have died from coronavirus, millions are unemployed ... and Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump are more concerned about protecting Trump Hotel. That is shameful,'' said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va.

A White House spokesman defended the spending request. "As President Trump has said, the FBI desperately needs a new building and this measure provides critical funding for this project that would keep the building responsibly near the Department of Justice,'' spokesman Judd Deere said Tuesday.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby said the administration requested money for the FBI building, adding: "The reason is, it is needed.''

Shelby, an Alabama Republican, acknowledged that the plan might have trouble getting through Congress. "Some of the Virginia people want to build in Virginia and Maryland Democrats want the new FBI building built there,'' he said Tuesday before McConnell spoke, citing an earlier, failed proposal to move the FBI building from downtown Washington.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham said he did not know why money for the FBI building was included in the virus relief bill. That makes no sense to me,'' Graham told reporters Tuesday. Id be fine, okay with stripping it out of the bill.

Asked why the administration asked for the FBI money in the virus aid bill, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said, "Well, its just a pressing need, so whether its this bill or (another spending bill) later, it's just a pressing need.

The current J. Edgar Hoover building, built in 1974, is crumbling badly. The space is not big enough to consolidate all FBI personnel, and advocates of a suburban location say it would be less expensive and more efficient to rebuild outside the city.

The Justice Departments inspector general is investigating the cancellation of the original plan. That investigation remains ongoing more than a year later.

Democrats said they only found out about the FBI plan after the GOP bill was released.

They managed to have enough money for $2 billion for the FBI headquarters that benefits Trump hotel, and they say they have no money for food assistance. What the heck is going on? said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

Trump said last week that a new FBI building is needed, and that it should be near the Justice Department headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The site they have now is better'' than any alternative, Trump said Thursday. Sites in Maryland or Virginia "wouldve been too far away,'' he said.

The government faces a choice, Trump said: You can renovate the existing building  but its not a good building  or you could take it down and build a great building for the FBI for 100 years and have it be incredible.''

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said lawmakers agree with Trump that the FBI needs a new headquarters, but to suddenly slip this ill-suited and unworkable downtown proposal as part of a COVID-19 relief package is the height of absurdity.
The Prime Minister has agreed to resume air transportation between Vietnam and China, and has assigned relevant ministries to work with their Chinese counterparts on the frequency and conditions for passenger transport.

The Prime Minister has also assigned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and agencies to work with other countries on increasing rescue flights and opening commercial flights between Vietnam and other countries.





However, this doesnt mean that international tourism markets will reopen soon because the pandemic has not been completely contained. Meanwhile, the vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 is still under preparation.



Travel firms are waiting with eagerness, but the government still has not granted tourism visas. It is highly possible that in the immediate time, Vietnam would only grant entry visas to specialists and their relatives, because ensuring safety is the top priority, said Cao Tri Dung, chair of Viet Nam TravelMart.



Other travel firms shared the same view, saying that though they are not sure about the possibility of reopening the market soon, the Prime Ministers instructions on preparing for the resumption of air routes with other countries has brought hope.



According to Hoang Thi Phong Thu, head of Pegas Misr Travel Vietnam, the EU has opened to many countries since early July, while Russia has put Vietnam on the list of 13 countries it may resume air routes with.



A representative of a HCM City-based travel firm said it is still unclear when travel firms can receive foreign travelers, but the firm is making hectic preparations for D-day, when travelers return.

The Prime Minister has agreed to resume air transportation between Vietnam and China, and has assigned relevant ministries to work with their Chinese counterparts on the frequency and conditions for passenger transport.

The bad news is that there is still no positive sign from the US and European markets and cruise ship travelers. Meanwhile, the good news is that travel firms can see potential from Russia and Northeast Asia.

Foreign travelers are keeping a close watch over Vietnams actions on border openings, air links and visa policies to prepare their business plans. Some tourism agency partners in Northeast Asia have committed to bring tourists soon after Vietnam allows entry of foreign travelers.



Thu of Pegas Misr Travel Vietnam said the partner of the firm, Pegas Touristik, which specialises in serving tourists on chartered flights, wants Vietnam to resume air routes for Russian tourists.

A local newspaper quoted a source as saying that Vietnam could welcome 6-8 million foreign travelers this year if Covid-19 could be contained soon and international tourism could be resumed in Q3.

Kim Chi

Vietnam makes hectic preparations to welcome foreign travelers back The reopening of the tourism market may be near as resumption of air routes may occur to areas where COVID-19 is well controlled and to some countries which want to open safe corridors with Vietnam.
The Supreme Courts recent controversial verdict on the Ranjan Koirala v. Government of Nepal case not only raises questions over the competence of the Chief Justice or the justices involved but also the entire judicial system has come under question. However, with another bench of the court deciding to rehear it in response to a government appeal for revision, the court has an opportunity to correct its mistake.

Due to such a verdict, Nepalis have lost their faith in the judiciary. Various previous acts of the government, legislature, and even the judiciary have already made Nepalis feel inferior, and this case has been the next item on the list. The existence of democracy and transparency has come under doubt. Specifically, this verdict has made every citizen realise that the apex court of the country is establishing a wrong precedent and now the judiciary is no more independent and transparent.

The fair judiciary is the citizens last resort and the criticism of court is a grave issue. The protest against the verdict by the citizens means that citizens lost faith in the judiciary and the whole society is disturbed by the verdict. In this case, the Kathmandu District court had found Ranjan Koirala (Appellant in Supreme court) guilty of the premeditated murder of his wife in January 2012 and sentenced him for life imprisonment with confiscation of his property. Later, the then Patan Appellate Court had also upheld this verdict. Thereafter, Koirala had filed an appeal at the Supreme court, in response to which the court reduced the sentence to eight and a half years. Indeed, the Supreme Court agreed with the finding of the lower court that Ranjan Koirala had murdered his wife and burned her body to destroy all evidence, cut the sentence short by using the discretionary power under No. 188 of the then Muluki Ain, Chapter on Court Procedure. The justices argued that Ranjan Koirala should be release to take care of his children and the life imprisonment punishment would be rigorous and could cause an adverse effect on his children.

The question here is whether the discretionary power should be used by the justices to reduce the punishment for a murderer, who even struggled hard to destroy all the evidence to save himself, who helped neither the court nor investigation officers in the investigation. We need to ask whether the ground argued by the justices in the decision, by victimising the children is satisfactory.

The discretion used by the authorities shall be according to the rules of reason and justice. The discretion must be exercised within the limit in which the rational decision should be taken and must be legal and regular.

In the criminal justice system, sentencing is very crucial as it revolves around balancing the interest of the society and the accused. There is always a social goal behind sentencing for any case. While applying discretionary power, the judges have to balance the personality of the offender with the circumstances in which the offense has been committed and the gravity of the crime.

But, in the present case, the offender was himself a senior police officer and was familiar with the law very well. Apart from this, the gravity of the crime was heinous. The murder of the wife is premediated and after that, the offender burned the body to destroy the evidence and never accepted that he killed his wife. Similarly, the ground of children presenting them as victims seems flawed as the children are already above 20 years of age now; it is a misuse of discretionary power by judges. Nowhere in the law, there is such a provision that this sentence could be shortened.

Indeed, the justices violated the prevailing law and precedents, while using the discretionary power. In a previous case (Government of Nepal vs Sher Bahadur Basnet), the court had held that basic principles of sentencing could not be taken lightly by judges while using their discretionary power and the use of discretionary power should not be prejudicial to the lawful intent.

This verdict, a wrong precedent, in itself presents a wrong image of the judiciary in society. The court, while delivering the judgment, needs to foresee the effect of the decision in society. The discretionary power must be rational, legal, and regular. Hopefully, the court would correct its mistake when it hears the case again as decided in response to the governments appeal for revision to the verdict.

Nayak is a student at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru.
A former barrister who now lives in Spain has recently published his first novel, Tilting at Windmills: a Spanish Year Chasing a Novel Dream.

Henry Murphy came to live in Spain in 2014 and, like the main character in his new novel, he has always had a desire to write. The novel is set in the town that the author now calls home, Canillas de Albaida, a 'pueblo blanco' nestled in the mountains of the Axarquia region of Malaga.

Born in Dublin in 1949, Henry had an interesting life prior to arriving in Spain: as well as working as a teacher in Calcutta during the Indo-Pakistan War, the keen rugby player toured Argentina with the Irish rugby squad at the beginning of the 1970s. He enjoyed a distinguished career at the bar for more than 40 years; after which, he headed to Spain to do something he had always dreamed about: write a novel.

Established author

The mild-mannered author is well-established as a writer, a career he embarked on shortly before retiring from the bar. He is the author of the Dermot McNamara courtroom series, a set of short-stories based on a young Irish barrister who treads his way through the halls of justice of Ireland.

"I qualified as a barrister before I went to India. When I returned, I entered the Law Library in Dublin. Between work and family there wasn't time for anything else. However, I had always had a bit of a hankering after writing. In the '90s, when I was in my forties, I made a bit of time to try short stories," Henry explains to SUR in English.

The title of his new book is a reference to Don Quijote, which Henry declares to "have never read". The novel focuses on a barrister who decides to take a year out and head off to Spain. The story-line follows him through a year in Andalucia, pursuing his ambition at the same time as coming to terms with his changed environment. His new neighbours, both Spanish and expatriate, and life in an old village which preserves its traditional ways despite times of change, are all observed and described with humorous understanding.

"After the short stories, my publisher said he wanted a novel. My wife was all on. We discussed it and eventually she went online and found us a house to rent in a village in the mountains of Andalucia. We had never lived in a village so everything was new, including Spanish," the author says.

Henry's original idea was rejected by his publisher, so he decided to concentrate on his surroundings as a theme for the novel.

"I had no idea what I was going to write about. Eventually I came up with a sort of year in Canillas, which was rejected. I went back to the drawing board and eventually produced Tilting at Windmills," the humble Irishman declares.

At first, Henry wondered if the idea of the book was "just pie in the sky", but he was soon spending hours alone in his writing room creating the story of a man who goes to Spain to write a novel: a novel that certainly seems to be a reflection of Henry's own life.

The book, which is receiving five-star reviews on Amazon, has been praised as 'a novel that stands out as being something refreshingly different.'

He is currently busy promoting his new novel, but he longs to get back to his writing.

"When the dust settles, I would like to return to my collection of short stories involving Dermot McNamara, which is nearly ready to go," Henry concludes.
28.07.2020 LISTEN

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) represents a major opportunity for countries to boost growth, reduce poverty, and broaden economic inclusion, a new World Bank report has found. If implemented fully, the trade pact could boost regional income by 7% or $450 billion, speed up wage growth for women, and lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty by 2035.

The report suggests that achieving these gains will be particularly important given the economic damage caused by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, which is expected to cause up to $79 billion in output losses in Africa in 2020. The pandemic has already caused major disruptions to trade across the continent, including in critical goods such as medical supplies and food.

Most of AfCFTAs income gains are likely to come from measures that cut red tape and simplify customs procedures. Tariff liberalization accompanied by a reduction in non-tariff barrierssuch as quotas and rules of originwould boost income by 2.4 percent, or about $153 billion.

The remainder$292 billionwould come from trade-facilitation measures that reduce red tape, lower compliance costs for businesses engaged in trade and make it easier for African businesses to integrate into global supply chains.

Successful implementation of AfCFTA would help cushion the negative effects of COVID-19 on economic growth by supporting regional trade and value chains through the reduction of trade costs.

In the longer term, AfCFTA would provide a path for integration and growth-enhancing reforms for African countries. By replacing the patchwork of regional agreements, streamlining border procedures, and prioritizing trade reforms, AfCFTA could help African countries increase their resiliency in the face of future economic shocks.

The African Continental Free Trade Area has the potential to increase employment opportunities and incomes, helping to expand opportunities for all Africans, said Albert Zeufack, the World Banks Chief Economist for Africa. The AfCFTA is expected to lift around 68 million people out of moderate poverty and make African countries more competitive. But successful implementation will be key, including careful monitoring of impacts on all workers women and men, skilled and unskilledacross all countries and sectors, ensuring the agreements full benefit.

According to the report, the agreement would reshape markets and economies across the region, leading to the creation of new industries and the expansion of key sectors. Overall economic gains would vary, with the largest gains going to countries that currently have high trade costs. Cote dIvoire and Zimbabwewhere trade costs are among the regions highestwould see the biggest gains, with each increasing income by 14 percent. AfCFTA would also significantly boost African trade, particularly intraregional trade in manufacturing. Intra-continental exports would increase by 81 percent while the increase to non-African countries would be 19 percent.

Implementation of the agreement would also spur larger wage gains for women (an increase of 10.5 percent by 2035) than for men (9.9 percent). It would also boost wages for skilled and unskilled workers alike10.3 percent for unskilled workers, and 9.8 percent for skilled workers.

This report is designed to help countries implement policies that can maximize the agreements potential gains while minimizing risks. Creating a continent-wide market will require a determined effort to reduce all trade costs. This will require legislation to enable goods, capital, and information to flow freely and at easily across borders. Countries that do so will be able to attract foreign investment and increase competition that can increase productivity and innovation by domestic firms. Governments will also need to prepare their workforces to take advantage of new opportunities with new policies designed to reduce the costs of job-switching.

World Bank Group COVID-19 Response

The World Bank Group, one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries, is taking broad, fast action to help developing countries strengthen their pandemic response. We are supporting public health interventions, working to ensure the flow of critical supplies and equipment, and helping the private sector continue to operate and sustain jobs. We will be deploying up to $160 billion in financial support over 15 months to help more than 100 countries protect the poor and vulnerable, support businesses, and bolster economic recovery. This includes $50 billion of new IDA resources through grants and highly concessional loans.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

By Ilhama Isabalayeva  Trend:

Azerbaijan Airlines CJSC (AZAL) continues to hold the negotiations on special flights with a number of countries, including Russia, President of AZAL Jahangir Asgarov said, Trend reports on July 28.

The civil aviation and tourism sectors are going through a very difficult period due to the coronavirus pandemic and the closure of borders between the countries, Asgarov said. "Since March 15 up till now, AZAL and its partners have carried out 239 international flights, through which more than 23,000 of our compatriots were brought to Azerbaijan.

AZAL continues to operate charter flights to evacuate our compatriots to Azerbaijan in accordance with the schedule of the Operational Headquarters of the Cabinet of Ministers," AZAL president said.

After the approval of new temporary air transportation rules during the pandemic, AZAL and some foreign airlines began to operate special international flights to the most popular destinations such as Istanbul, London, Berlin, Dubai and Minsk, Asgarov said. At the same time, there is a 30-percent-discount on air tickets for Azerbaijani students wishing to return to Azerbaijan via AZAL flights.

All airports in Azerbaijan have been closed for making regular passenger flights due to the extension of the quarantine regime and the closure of borders until August 31, 2020, Asgarov added.

"Taking into account the wishes of travel companies, voiced recently at a video conference, AZAL will open offline sale for its direct agents in Azerbaijan through the Global Distribution System (GDS) from August 1, AZAL president said.

At the same time, it is necessary to understand that not only the sale of air tickets, but the sale of ready-made tour packages, as is practiced all over the world, must be the main source of income of tour operators, AZAL president said.

Proceeding from the experience of other countries, first of all, it will be necessary to focus on the development of domestic tourism during the post-pandemic period, Asgarov added. AZAL will make Azerbaijan even more accessible for foreign tourists."
Eric Young, the Leonard P. Kinnicutt Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at WPI.

A Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) chemical engineer has received four separate grants totaling more than $2 million to support his research into using yeast and fungi to take on significant genetic engineering challenges. Through his research in synthetic biology, Eric Young, the Leonard P. Kinnicutt Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at WPI, aims to engineer organisms to make it easier to develop numerous products, like medicines, biofuels, and plastics, and increase security by developing a new method to detect hidden underground explosives.

I am thrilled, said Young, These grants mean we can really push the boundaries of genetic design. They point to the promise of using yeast and fungi, already essential components of civilization, in new and creative ways to solve some of the toughest problems facing us today.

NSF CAREER Award

Young recently received the National Science Foundations (NSF) prestigious CAREER award, which recognizes early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. The five-year $512,591 grant supports his research on using Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous, usually referred to as red yeast, as a new synthetic biology host, which is a base organism scientists begin the genetic engineering process with. Generally, only two organismsbakers yeast and E. coliare used as hosts. That slows down or inhibits the creation of many products that are based on organic compounds that arent easily created by these two organisms.

Synthetic biologists are able to use bakers yeast or E. coli to produce biofuels, medicines, nutrients, and renewable plastics, but they may not be able to produce enough of it or produce it fast enough to scale the process to make it commercially available. While Young's research with red yeast will create fragrances and flavors, and not specific medications, he will do the foundational research into how to use red yeast in synthetic biology so other scientists will be positioned to use it to make medicines.

Red yeast will make creating certain products easier and faster because of its natural metabolism, said Young. The synthetic biology field has largely been focused on E. coli and bakers yeast, but that hasnt resulted in really good production hosts. Our big idea is to use red yeast as our host because it naturally produces terpenoids, a type of chemical found in many products but difficult to create with E. coli and bakers yeast. By using synthetic biology, we can engineer red yeast to more easily produce what we need. But there is no foundation in place for synthetic biology of red yeast, so Im going to create one. When we make the engineering easier, its ultimately possible to make more kinds of products and to mass produce them.

Developing Underground Surveillance: Using Fungi to Detect Explosives

Young also has received a two-year $719,994 grant to support his research using fungi as sensors to create a new method for detecting buried explosives. The grant is part of a $1.8 million grant awarded to Raytheon BBN Technologies by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the emerging technology development arm of the U.S. military. Natalie Farny, assistant professor of biology, is collaborating on the project.

The researchers will help develop a prototype for a bioreporter that will act as a subterranean surveillance system. They also are developing a system to test the bioreporter.

Young will use natural filamentous fungi to facilitate communication between two bacterial strains, engineered to detect bombs, to monitor underground areas for explosive materials, such as TNT. Fungi grow in the soil in continuous root-like networks that create paths through the soil called fungal highways. The first bacterial strain being developed will follow that fungal highway into the ground where it can detect the presence or absence of explosive materials. If the strain detects explosives, it will send a signal along the fungi to travel up to the surface, which will cause the second bacterial strain to produce a glowing light. Remote cameras or unmanned aerial vehicles can be used to survey large areas for the warning fluorescence. Using fungi and bacteria to detect underground explosives is thinking out of the box, said Young. Using these fungal highways could be a game changer.

These bacterial interactions with fungi are only just beginning to be studied, said Young. These fungal highways are amazing examples of these interesting interactions because they allow bacteria to travel through the soil. Its really a fascinating process that we think we can use for long-range signal transmission.

Creating a Knowledge System for Synthetic Biology Research

Young also received a two-year grant to work with a consortium of universities funded by the NSF to build a database of information from articles and repositories on successful synthetic biology experiments so scientists formulating new experiments can see what worked for other researchers. He received a $204,148 portion of the overall $1.2 million NSF grant and will work with biological engineers, machine learning experts, data scientists, library scientists, and social scientists from the University of Utah; the University of California, San Diego; the University of Illinois; and the University of Chicago.

The interdisciplinary team will use machine learning and natural language processing tools to automatically create connections between data repositories and to extract information from publications.

The quantity of data and the publications generated in synthetic biology are growing but the data is not readily accessible to scientists, said Young. Were creating a knowledge base with a single interface that will transform the way researchers access needed information. It will save researchers valuable time, accelerating discovery and innovation by enabling researchers to learn from others past experiences and make better synthetic biology designs, especially in the new synthetic biology hosts we are working with in our other projects.

Revolutionizing Genome Editing

Young received his fourth recent granta two-year award for $580,500from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center to collaborate with Intellia Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Mass., to revolutionize the production of a component essential for genome editing approaches. For new genome editing technologies, scientists often use recombinant adeno-associated virus, or rAAV, which are small viral vectors that can be used to deliver the therapeutic gene sequences. One of the problems with rAAV is that production is slow and costly, creating a bottleneck for biomanufacturing of the virus.

The WPI researcher is working to produce rAAV with engineered yeast, which is faster and easier to grow than standard rAAV production cells, speeding the process and potentially reducing costs for future genome editing treatments.

The bottleneck is a significant barrier to growth and progress, an unacceptable delay for potentially lifesaving treatments, as well as a damper on the economic potential of genome editing approaches, said Young. It is essential that manufacturing processes are improved, in order to speed the development of treatments for people with life-threatening genetic diseases. Increasing the production speed of rAAV with synthetic biology has the potential to also reduce cost and production times while increasing supply.

About Worcester Polytechnic Institute

WPI, the global leader in project-based learning, is a distinctive, top-tier technological university founded in 1865 on the principle that students learn most effectively by applying the theory learned in the classroom to the practice of solving real-world problems. Recognized by the National Academy of Engineering with the 2016 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education, WPIs pioneering project-based curriculum engages undergraduates in solving important scientific, technological, and societal problems throughout their education and at more than 50 project centers around the world. WPI offers more than 50 bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree programs across 14 academic departments in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts. Its faculty and students pursue groundbreaking research to meet ongoing challenges in health and biotechnology; robotics and the internet of things; advanced materials and manufacturing; cyber, data, and security systems; learning science; and more. http://www.wpi.edu


EDMONTON, Alberta, July 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Radient Technologies Inc. (Radient or the Company) (TSX Venture: RTI; OTCQX: RDDTF), announces that the Company will be relying on the temporary 45 day extension to the filing deadline of its annual financial statements and managements discussion and analysis (MD&A) for the year ended March 31, 2020 granted by the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) in response to unprecedented challenges resulting from COVID-19. The notice released states that securities regulators will be providing coordinated relief consisting of a 45-day extension for certain periodic filings required to be made on or prior to August 31, 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As per National Instrument 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations, the Company was to file its annual financial statements and MD&A by July 29, 2020. Relying on ASC Blanket Order 51-519, which provides the Company with an additional 45 days from the deadline to file, the Company expects to file its annual financial statements and MD&A on or before September 14, 2020.

All material business developments since the date of the Companys filing of its interim financial statements and MD&A for the period ended December 31, 2019 have been disclosed.

The Company acknowledges that management and other insiders are subject to an insider trading black-out policy, that reflects the principles in section 9 of National Policy 11-207 Failure-to-File Cease Trade Orders and Revocations in Multiple Jurisdictions, until the second trading day after the Annual Filings have been disclosed.

About Radient

Radient Technologies is a commercial manufacturer of high quality cannabinoid based formulations, ingredients and products. Utilizing a proprietary extraction and downstream processing platform that recovers up to 99% of cannabinoids from the cannabis plant, Radient develops specialty products and ingredients that contain a broad range of cannabinoid and terpene profiles while meeting the highest standards of quality and safety. Please visit www.radientinc.com for more information.

SOURCE: Radient Technologies Inc.

For further information please contact:

Radient - Investor Relations, ir@radientinc.com

Forward Looking Information:

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, statements regarding Companys reliance on ASC Blanket Order 51-519; and the Companys annual financial statements and MD&A. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Radient, as the case may be, to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Although Radient has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Radient does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with 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.
Many cities are working to reduce light pollution. In Idaho, where dark skies are a major draw for tourists, cities have dark sky ordinances, laws that require light fixtures that direct light to the ground rather than toward the sky. They also require that outdoor lights be warmer colors on the lower part of the color spectrum instead of much brighter blue-hued lights, such as those in some car LED headlights. Not only do these blue lights block out the stars, they also disturb animals sleeping patterns.
Rahul Gandhi held a virtual meeting with senior functionaries of the Bihar Congress earlier this month assuring his full time in the campaigning for the Bihar assembly elections and assertively avowed to fight the elections and form the government in Bihar.

Rahuls declaration has brought into sharp focus the pivotal role the Congress is likely to play in the opposition camp in the upcoming state assembly elections. He exhorted senior party leaders to take all the crucial decisions regarding polls, start working for elections and strive to build a new government in Bihar.

His assertions gave ample indication that Rahul, who was hitherto reluctant in even giving appointments to senior leaders, is now engaging himself and even making strategies for the party.

The upshot of his efforts will be seen in the run up to polls but the Congresss strategic move towards prominence as an independent party and important ally of the Grand Alliance is indeed a matter of debate among the Congress and political circles in Bihar.

The Congress, which ruled the state for over 40 years since independence, stands sidelined, fractured and out of power today whereas the political parties which were floated after 1990 have been in power in Bihar for the past three decades.

The Congress has remained out of power in Bihar ever since the last Congress chief minister late Jagannath Mishra handed over the reins of Bihar to Lalu Prasad Yadav on March 10, 1990 after a crushing defeat in the 1990 state assembly elections.

In between, the grand-old party has been in power independently or as coalition leader at the Centre as well as in some states but in the Hindi heartland of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which used to be its citadel once, it has never assumed power in the past three decades.

The reason behind such decline is the fact that it had opted to play second fiddle to the regional satraps like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav and never tried to stand on its own feet and come out of the shadows of the regional leaders.

In Bihar, despite its poor electoral performance after 1990, the Congress has remained in power for brief periods as part of the alliance governments under Rabri Devi and later under Nitish Kumar but they were fortuitous stints not achieved on its own through hard work and with peoples support to the party as such.

Ironically, the Congress had to serve under chief ministers like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar, who were byproducts of the JP movement, which derived its ideological sustenance then on the basic philosophy of anti-Congressism.

The electoral performance of the Congress has been awfully poor since 1989 Lok Sabha elections mainly due to its alleged failure in containing the infamous Bhagalpur riots and its misconceived opposition to quota politics after implementation of the Mandal Commission report after 1990.

While the Muslims, which were solidly behind it, deserted it after the Bhagalpur riots in 1988-89, the Backward Castes and the Dalit community abandoned the Congress due to unwarranted opposition by a section of its leaders to the reservation policy for the Backward Castes announced by the then V P Singh government.

The violent strife between the Maoists and armies of landlords in South-Central Bihar fanned by people in power in the post-1990 period led to sharp division of castes with upper castes facing the brunt at the hands of the intermediary castes and the Dalit community.

Gradually, the upper castes shifted their loyalties towards the BJP, which served as a political platform with its carefully crafted strategy of balancing quota politics with anti-Laluism.

With sharp fall in its vote base due to direction-less politics of the then party leaders handling the affairs of Bihar, the Congress turned politically insignificant as its electoral performance touched the lowest ebb after 1990.

After independence when the first general elections were held in 1951-52, the Congress had secured 239 assembly seats  the highest ever - out of 322 seats it contested in the 330-member then Bihar assembly. Shri Krishna Singh became the first Chief Minister and Anugrah Narayan Singh became the Deputy Chief Minister.

The Congress had won 72.42 per cent of total seats and garnered 41.38 per cent votes whereas the opposition Socialist Party could win only 23 assembly seats out of 266 seats it had contested with 18.11 per cent votes.

The area of Bihar was reduced slightly by transfer of minor territories to West Bengal in 1956 under States Reorganisation Act, 1956. Therefore, the number of assembly constituencies in Bihar was reduced from 330 in 1951 to 318 in 1957 elections.

The Congress maintained its sway albeit with gradual and minor falls in its tally every time till the 1967 assembly elections. In 1957, it contested 312 out of the total 318 assembly seats and won 210 seats with 42.09 per cent votes. The opposition Praja Socialist Party (PSP) contested 222 seats but won only 31 seats securing 16.01 per cent votes.

In 1962 polls, the Congress won 185 assembly seats with 41.35 per cent votes. Its tally declined further as the party won 128 seats with 33.09 per cent votes in the 1967 assembly elections, which also witnessed the gradual growth of the Socialists as the Sangathan Socialist Party won 68 assembly seats.

In the 1972 assembly elections, the Congress gained a bit winning 167 seats and the Communist Party of India becoming the runners up for the first time even with a meagre 35 assembly seats.

The period between 1972 and 1977 was tumultuous for the Congress as it witnessed three chief ministers in a row reflecting upon the power struggle within the party. After Congress electoral victory, Kedar Pandey was sworn in as the Chief Minister but he was replaced by Abdul Ghafoor, who faced the JP movement in 1974.

Thereafter, Jagannath Mishra became the Chief Minister and it was under his rule that internal Emergency was clamped on June 25, 1975 in the country only to be lifted in 1977 when elections were announced.

The period after JP movement and Emergency saw the emergence of Socialists under the banner of Janata Party, which threw the Congress out of power in the country as well as in Bihar. The Janata Party won 214 out of 311 seats it contested while Congress won only 57 seats losing 110 seats in Bihar.

The Janata Party, however, could not retain power for a full five-year term forcing elections in 1980. The Congress then led by Indira Gandhi, technically called Congress-I, bounced back with 169 assembly seats and Jagannath Mishra became the Chief Minister once again. He continued on the post till August 1983 and was replaced by Chandrashekhar Singh.

The Congress continued its electoral sway in the 1985 assembly elections with 196 assembly seats and 39.30 per cent votes. But the power struggle within the party saw frequent changes of chief ministers as Bindeshwari Dubey was replaced by Bhagwat Jha Azad followed by Satyendra Narayan Sinha and Jagannath Mishra.

It was during this period that the infamous Bhagalpur riots broke out when Satyendra Narayan Sinha was the Chief Minister. The riots coupled with Bofors scandal, Punjab terrorism and LTTE goof-up had its deleterious impact on Congress performance in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections as it could win only four out of 54 Lok Sabha seats giving way to Janata Dal, which formed the government with V P Singh as the Prime Minister.

The Congress also suffered substantial loss in the subsequent assembly elections in 1990 with its tally sliding from 196 seats to 71 seats. The Janata Dal won 122 of the 324-member assembly heralding the emergence of Lalu Prasad Yadav on the electoral firmament of Bihar.

The slide that began in 1989 and 1990 elections still continues. The Congress won 29 seats out of the 320 it contested in 1995 assembly polls and 23 out of 324 seats it contested in 2000 assembly elections.

In the February 2005 assembly elections, the Congress had to substantially cut the number of seats it contested to 84 as it has reached electoral alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). It won only 10 seats garnering only 5 per cent votes. In the 2005 October-November assembly elections, it again contested in alliance with RJD on 51 seats and won only nine seats with 6.09 per cent votes.

In 2010 Assembly polls, the party once again contested from all the 243 constituencies but it could win only 4 seats with 8.38 per cent votes. In 2015, it contested from 41 seats and won 27 seats in alliance with RJD and JD(U).

For Rahul Gandhi, turning around the Bihar Congress and regaining its presence seems to be a daunting task as it lacks a charismatic leader who could match the stature of Lalu Prasad or Nitish Kumar. It needs to look beyond the erstwhile Upper Caste-Dalit-Muslim formula and evolve a social formula wherein each caste is represented proportionately instead of piggyback Lalus vote bank.
Black Lives Matters organizers brought the spirit of downtown Portlands activism to Nikes suburban campus this week, leading protests over the companys minority hiring practices.

About 30 demonstrators gathered Monday on Southwest Jenkins Road, just south of Nikes headquarters near Beaverton, returning for a second straight day of protests. Seneca Cayson, an organizer of the volatile downtown demonstrations, said it was time to bring the Black Lives Matter movement to the suburbs. He called on Nike to close the gap between what it says publicly about racial justice and how things actually play out inside the company.

The early afternoon protests will continue indefinitely and remain nonviolent, Cayson vowed.

Though demonstrators didnt know at Mondays protest, one of their groups top goals had already been accomplished. As first reported by The Financial Times, Kellie Leonard, Nikes chief diversity officer, is leaving the company.

Protesters had demanded the departure of both Leonard and the companys top human resources executive.

Nike spokesman Greg Rossiter said Leonards departure had nothing to do with the protests. Nike announced a new diversity officer, former Tesla executive Felicia Mayo, in conjunction with Leonards exit. That suggests it was a plan long in the works.

Issues of race and equity are touchy for Nike. Black athletes and Black culture have helped make it a $40-billion-a-year operation. And yet protesters and a handful of insiders claim the corporate culture is not fair to people of color.

John Donahoe, Nikes new CEO, has said hes not satisfied with Nikes position on racial equity. The company said in June that it will devote $40 million over four years to programs that promoted social justice and equal opportunity.

"Systemic racism and the events that have unfolded across America over the past few weeks serve as an urgent reminder of the continued change needed in our society," Donahoe said in a June statement. "We know Black Lives Matter. We must educate ourselves more deeply on the issues faced by Black communities and understand the enormous suffering and senseless tragedy racial bigotry creates. The NIKE, Inc. family can always do more but will never stop striving to role model how a diverse company acts."

Forty-million dollars over four years is a significant commitment. But as newly filed regulatory documents show, its actually significantly less than Donahoes compensation in the just the 2019-20 fiscal year. Between his salary, stock and cash bonuses, Nike puts the value of Donahoes total compensation at nearly $54 million.

A few of Mondays protesters were Nike employees. One, a young Black woman who asked that her name not be printed, said she sees both the good and the bad at the company. She said she was shocked at the relatively few Black employees she saw in her first couple years there. On the other hand, she said Nike deserves some credit for tackling the issue.

I do think Nike is on the right side, she said. However they need to change internally, to change their hiring process.

James Zormeir, a white sneaker designer, also attended the protest. He and a co-worker wore masks emblazoned with the Swoosh.

Zormeir agreed to have his name to be printed, though he conceded it was a risk. Given the escalation of the downtown protests and the controversial involvement of federal law enforcement agencies, he said its not the time to play it safe.

There are worse things that can happen than me losing my job, he said.

As his fellow demonstrators chanted the names of police brutality victims George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Zormeir called on Nike to live by its own marketing jargon.

Their whole thing is being the outsider, the rebel, the irreverent spirit, he said. What could be more rebellious and irreverent than this?

In reaction to the demonstrations, company officials said Nikes aspiration is to be a leader in building a diverse and inclusive team and culture. It has assembled a task force to accelerate the process of creating that culture throughout the company.
Nasc, the migrant and refugee rights centre, says that refugee families who have been reunited here have a high risk of homelessness and have issues accessing healthcare.

In its latest report, Nasc, which is based in Cork, found that access to housing is a problem for such refugee families. It is not possible for refugees to apply for social housing support, such as housing assistance payment, in advance of their family members arriving in Ireland.

This delays their search for housing and increases their risk of homelessness.

Applications for social protection payments cannot be made until after family members have arrived, so there is a delay in receiving financial support. This impacts unaccompanied minors' education, as they feel obliged to work to support their family.

The report also highlights access to healthcare and mental health supports, and the lack of projects to integrate refugees. Some also spoke about racism and exclusion.

The report makes 36 recommendations, including the amendment of the International Protection Act 2015, to provide for greater family reunification rights, and the extension of the time limit for applications, which is one year. The report also said free legal aid should be extended to those applying for family reunification.

It also recommends the provision of integration support and of intercultural workers to help reunified families after their arrival in Ireland, as well as the upskilling of mental health and service providers to ensure that they understand the unique experience of reunified families.

The report also said provision of English-language classes should be expanded, and reunified families should receive the same support as refugees who come to Ireland as part of international programmes.

Nasc CEO, Fiona Finn, said refugees who have survived persecution spend years living in direct provision. "[They] were left entirely without support when their family members arrived in Ireland," Ms Finn said. "The stress of finding housing, employment, medical care, and schools for children often places huge financial and emotional burden on families trying to overcome years of separation and trauma.

"With the enactment of the International Protection Act 2015, which significantly restricted family reunification rights for refugees, Nasc began to see more and more refugee families struggling to cope with the reality of a permanent separation from their family members," she said.

"Every week, our legal service has to tell a refugee that their parent, their 19-year-old child, or their minor sibling is not considered eligible to apply for family reunification. This has a devastating impact on families."

One of the research participants spoke about discovering that their family reunification application had been refused: "So, its a big, big shock when peoples applications are declined.

"I remember when mine, the first one I had made, was declined I was very angry ... And it was all dark. My life was not good at all. ...I feel very, very sad for those whose applications are not successful, because they just get so desperate.

"And that trauma that they already have starts to impact them physically. ... And I know a devastated family here in Ireland, because their applications have been declined twice."
Until Oregon sees a statewide positive coronavirus testing rate at or below 5% for three consecutive weeks, none of the states students will be allowed to reenter classrooms for in-person instruction, Gov. Kate Brown announced Tuesday.

The state hasnt met that benchmark in July but did so in April and May, state officials said. The statewide positive testing rate was 5% in the most recent week but 6% in each of the previous two weeks.

We are not where we need to be to safely reopen schools, State Epidemiologist Dean Sidelinger said. Our current case rates are higher than they need to be and higher than they were in other countries that began to reopen schools.

Within hours of Browns announcement, leaders of many of the states largest districts, including Portland, Beaverton, North Clackamas, Tigard-Tualatin and Salem-Keizer, announced they will offer only distance learning with no in-person options for any students through early to mid-November.

That was true even though Clackamas County meets the virus-related metrics Browns team laid out as necessary for safe school reopenings and Washington County is on the verge of doing so.

Brown and Oregon health officials also announced metrics they are requiring for schools in any given county to reopen, including scenarios under which children from kindergarten to third grade would receive in-person instruction while older students learn from home.

The metrics apply to both public and private schools.

Closing schools in the spring was one of the most difficult decisions I have made in the pandemic. As COVID-19 continues to impact both our urban and rural communities, its been clear that this school year will not look like any other school year, Brown said.

To open for full- or part-time in-person learning in all grades, schools in each county would have to meet these metrics for three weeks in a row:

 The state testing rate must remain at or below 5%.

 The county must have 10 or fewer new cases per 100,000 residents over seven days.

 The countywide test positivity rate must be 5% or less over that same time period.

The most recent statistics available, for tests given on July 12 through July 18, and for the previous two weeks show that 19 of Oregons 36 counties had a positive testing results above the 5% threshold in at least one of those weeks. They include Multnomah, Washington, Marion and Deschutes counties as well as less populous counties such as Malheur and Sherman.

But Clackamas, Yamhill, Lane and 14 other counties have remained at or below Browns desired threshold.

Sidelinger said, without naming them, that Oregon has 13 counties that currently have low enough case counts and testing rates to allow students to return for in-person learning if the state is able to get its positive testing rate down to 5% or lower. Officials indicated Multnomah County is not among them.

State schools chief Colt Gill said the guidelines are meant to ensure students are not agents of further spread.

Browns announcement came the day after hundreds of educators flocked to the Capitol demanding she keep schools closed unless the state records no new coronavirus cases for 14 consecutive days.

All but one of Oregons 36 counties  Wheeler County  have had a new coronavirus case identified in the past two weeks. Fewer than 200 students in Wheeler County attend brick-and-mortar schools.

Earlier in the day, the second largest teachers union in the country said it would support any of its members should they choose to strike against unsafe working conditions set by their districts. The American Federation of Teachers, which represents some community college instructors and education workers in Oregon but not public school teachers, said strikes should only be used as a last resort.

Oregons largest district on Tuesday announced its students will not physically return to classrooms until at least Nov. 5.

Students will log in for the first day of classes Sept. 2. Theyll spend the following eight school days adjusting to the districts distance learning system, which theyll then use for seven weeks.

Beaverton officials said schools in their district will operate exclusively online until at least Nov. 13. They wont begin distance learning programming until Sept. 14 to give teachers time to prepare. Tigard-Tualatin officials similarly said that classes will begin Sept. 14, will be exclusively online and will continue that way for at least nine weeks.

As educators, we are painfully aware of the importance of in-person instruction and relationship building, and all of us cannot wait for the day when we can welcome our students back into our buildings, Tigard-Tualatin Superintendent Sue Rieke-Smith said in a statement. This decision was made by weighing evidence-based data from our county and state health officials alongside my obligation to protect the safety and well-being of each of all of our students, teachers, and staff.

North Clackamas officials also announced Tuesday that schools will only offer instruction through distance learning through at least some point in November.

John Larson, president of the Oregon Education Association, said it was critical for districts to work with teachers unions to ensure educators have enough personal protective equipment and that schools lay out their processes for contact tracing and sanitization.

Nobody wants a return to face-to-face instruction more than Oregon educators, but we cannot allow large numbers of students to physically return to classrooms until their health, and the health of educators, can be protected, Larsen said.

Jim Green, executive director of the Oregon School Board Association, said he recognized state leaders needed to put forth metrics for school closings and that rural and urban districts would have different considerations to make.

Predictability is not part of this pandemic, he said. While its extremely disappointing to weigh not reopening schools this September in some areas, we have to make hard decisions based on protecting the health of our students, our staffs and our communities.

Brown had told reporters in early July that she did not have a bright red line to draw in order to call for another statewide school closure. But she said last week she would spell out concrete metrics to guide the reopening  or not  of Oregon schools.

Her initial statewide school closure order came in mid-March amid pressure from superintendents for the states largest districts who said their teaching and substitute corps were hesitant to work in close contact with children, who at the time were widely seen as tiny vectors of infection for the novel coronavirus.

We need to be cautious so schools do not become places where the virus spreads, Brown said.

Subsequent studies have found that, while children ages 10 to 19 do spread the virus at substantial levels, spread by children younger than 10 is very rare.

Districts across the state have begun to roll out their tentative plans for fall, and very few have announced they plan to have students physically attend class full-time.

The rural Umatilla School District is so far the only one to submit its final reopening blueprints to the Oregon Department of Education, which detail the process for students to enter school buildings and how theyll be isolated should faculty or staff suspect a child has COVID-19.

The neighboring Hermiston district last week announced its students will engage in distance learning full-time.

Meanwhile, most larger districts including those in Eugene, Beaverton and Portland are setting up virtual learning programs in case they must pivot to full-time distance learning at the drop of a hat. Those districts currently plan to have students alternate between in-person instruction and distance learning.

Brown said districts will have access to $28 million in CARES Act funding to purchase hotspots for students who may not internet access at home and to develop online curriculum.

As for when students can expect to play football, basketball or soccer again, officials were not optimistic in offering a timeline for families eager to get out on the field.

Itll be some time before we write guidance for youth to return to contact sports, Sidelinger said.

Ted Sickinger of The Oregonian/OregonLive staff contributed to this report.

--Eder Campuzano | 503-221-4344 | @edercampuzano | Eder on Facebook

Are you a student, parent or teacher? How do you feel about your districts reopening plans for fall? Wed love to hear from you. Email Eder at ecampuzano@oregonian.com or message either of the social accounts above.

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Indian and Chinese frontline troops have completed disengagement at most locations at the border, China said on Tuesday, adding that preparation is on to hold the next round of military-level talks to settle the remaining issues.

The Chinese foreign ministry was seemingly giving an update on the disengagement of border troops following last Fridays three-hour-long meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on border affairs, which had met to review the situation in the border areas and the disengagement process in the western sector of the Line of Actual Control or LAC.

Also Read: In Chinas troop movements in Ladakhs depth areas, a hint about its real plan

Differences between India and China on the disengagement process emerged after New Delhi asked Beijing to sincerely implement the understanding on troop withdrawals reached by senior military commanders of the two sides.

Also Watch | Amid China tension, India & US Navy conduct joint exercise in Indian Ocean

On Tuesday, responding to a specific query on whether Indian and Chinese soldiers had completed disengagement at Galwan Valley, Hot Springs and Gogra areas, spokesperson, Wang Wenbin said disengagement was completed in most areas.

Recently, China and India have conducted intensive communication through military and diplomatic channels. We have held four rounds of commander-level talks and three meetings of WMCC, Wang added.

Also Read: Disengagement is complex, our aim is status quo ante, says Army

Now the frontline border troops have completed disengagement in most locations and the situation on the ground is easing, he said.

Now we are preparing for the fifth round of commander-level talks to study the settlement of the remaining issue. We hope India will work with China to implement our consensus and uphold peace and stability along our border areas, Wang added.

Following last Fridays WMCC meeting, a statement from the external affairs ministry had said that the two sides agreed it was necessary for both sides to sincerely implement the understandings reached between senior (military) commanders in their meetings till date.

At the WMCC meeting, India focused on the need for China to completely withdraw its forces from key friction points in East Ladakh in keeping with commitments made at the meetings of the corps commanders and the July 5 phone conversation between the two Special Representatives on the border issue, people aware of the developments had told Hindustan Times in New Delhi.

It is still not clear whether Beijing is looking at the disengagement of troops in the same way.

The Chinese statement on the same WMCC meeting, issued in Beijing in Mandarin, referred to positive progress made by the frontline border defence forces of the two countries to disengage and ease the situation on the ground.
Investors to get a preview of what could become a bigger campaign against Big Tech under Democrats

Published Tue, Jul 28 2020 2:06 PM EDT
North Korea had reported testing 1211 people for the virus as of July 16 with all returning negative results, the World Health Organisation said in a statement. The report said 696 nationals were under quarantine. Pakistan Islamabad: Pakistans daily COVID-19 infections has dropped below 1000 for the first time in three months. The country on Tuesday counted 936 new cases reported in the last 24 hours throughout the country of 220 million people. Dr Zafar Mirza, special assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan, tweeted praise for Khan urging Pakistanis to wear masks as the "most effective practice to reduce the transmission of the disease".

Khan on national television Monday demonstrated the proper use of masks and explaining that shutdowns will result if the disease spikes again. Medical professionals and Khans political opponents have criticised him for reopening the economy. He has said a total shutdown would hurt the poorest and instead pursued what he called "smart" lockdowns narrowly targeted at the hot spots of infection. Still Mirza warned there was no room for complacency particularly as Pakistan readies to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al Adha at the end of the month. Vietnam Hanoi: Vietnam has locked down its third-largest city for two weeks after 15 cases of COVID-19 were found in a hospital.

Public transport into and out of the central city of Da Nang was cancelled. Over the weekend, thousands of mostly Vietnamese tourists had to end their summer holidays in the popular beach destination. Authorities estimated several thousand people would be stranded by the transportation shutdown and asked hotels to shelter them. Women wearing face masks stand on a beach in Vung Tau city, Vietnam. Credit:AP The government on Sunday had ordered social distancing and closing non-essential businesses in the city of 1.1 million people. The outbreak was detected in patients and health workers at Da Nang hospital.

Germany Berlin: Negligence is behind a steady rise in new coronavirus infections in Germany, the head of the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases said on Tuesday, adding that it was unclear if the country was experiencing a second wave. "The new developments in Germany make me very worried," Lothar Wieler said during his first news conference in weeks. "The rise has to do with the fact that we have become negligent." The number of daily new cases almost doubled on Tuesday to 633, and the institute linked the increase to increased social contact at parties and in the workplace. It urged people not to flout social distancing rules.

Taiwan Taipei: Taiwan on Tuesday was investigating its first possible local coronavirus infection in more than a month, a Thai man who tested positive last week, as the island also faces a rise in cases brought from overseas. Taiwan's early response was effective in keeping the pandemic at bay, with just 467 infections and seven deaths. Most of the cases have been imported and have recovered. Until the Thai man's positive test, the island had not seen a local case of coronavirus infection since June 24. Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Centre said it was probing where and how the man contracted the virus. The migrant worker arrived on the island in January and tested positive on July 25, shortly after returning to Thailand.

More than 180 people who had contact with him in Taiwan have undergone health screenings, the centre said. China Beijing: New coronavirus cases continue to rise in Chinas north-western region of Xinjiang, with 57 reported on Tuesday. The capital Beijing also reported its first case of domestic transmission in more than two weeks, while the northeastern province of Liaoning added another six cases in its local outbreak. Another four cases were found among Chinese travellers arriving from outside the country, bringing the daily total over the past 24 hours to 68. Despite the new clusters, China appears to have largely contained the virus and the death toll remains at 4634 among 83,959 cases. Hospitals are treating 391 people for COVID-19, with another 307 being monitored in isolation for showing signs of infection or for having tested positive for the virus without displaying symptoms.
Bhubaneswar: The Board of Secondary Education, Odisha is likely to release BSE Odisha 10th result 2020 on Wednesday (July 29, 2020). The result will be released on BSE Odisha's official websites - bseodisha.nic.in, orissaresults.nic.in.

This will end the long wait for thousands of the candidates who appeared for the Odisha board Class 10 matriculation examination 2020 and had been waiting for their results.

BSE president Ramashis Hazra had earlier said the board is most likely to announce the result by the end of July.

A total of 5.6 lakh students appeared in class 10 Odisha BSE board examinations this year. The exams had ended on March 2 this year.

Though the examination was not affected by the COVID-19 lockdown, the evaluation had to be postponed, he said. The evaluation of the answer sheets was stopped midway as Odisha announced lockdown to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

In 2019, around 6 lakh students appeared for the Odisha BSE exams. The overall passing percentage in Odisha 10th result was 70.78%.
A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in July 2020 reveals the crucial nature of time as a factor in controlling the mortality rate in the current COVID-19 pandemic. The background to the paper is the Swiss outbreak, in which about 30,000 people were infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and over 1,800 died from late February to early May 2020. The study suggests that the quick introduction of NPIs in March 2020 prevented thousands of virus-related deaths in Switzerland.

Study: Time is of the essence: containment of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Switzerland from February to May 2020. Image Credit: Roger Gantner / Shutterstock

The Course of the Outbreak in Switzerland

The first case in this country came from a region adjoining an affected region of Italy, but the disease rapidly spread over the small nation. In response to the outbreak, a sequence of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) was rapidly introduced, including the closure of primary schools, stores selling non-essential goods, and restaurants, as well as limiting the gathering of over five people on March 20, 2020.

The epidemic showed a decline after the introduction of these measures in March. By May 10, 2020, the restrictions were lifted. The paper by researchers at the University of Bern is aimed at showing how the time of implementation of NPIs affects the course of the epidemic and its outcome.

Modeled number of new infections, hospitalized patients, intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy, and deaths during the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Switzerland. The solid lines show the maximum likelihood estimate of the model and the shaded areas correspond to the 95% prediction intervals. The model was fitted to the data shown as white circles. Reported number of infections (gray squares) are shown for comparison. The vertical dashed line indicates the strengthening of social distancing on 17 March 2020.

Potential Effects of Earlier or Later NPIs

The researchers used modeling to estimate the effect of different scenarios on the Swiss epidemic. Namely, if the NPIs had been put in place a week earlier or a week later, how would the infection incidence, the number of hospitalized cases, and the mortality, have changed?

The research was based on population-based transmission models and included the stepwise introduction of NPIs. Earlier research showed that these led to a steep reduction of the effective reproduction number (R e ) in Switzerland.

Reduction of the effective reproduction number Re during the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Switzerland. The solid line shows the maximum likelihood estimate of the model and the shaded area corresponds to the 95% compatibility interval. We assumed that the sequential introduction of NPIs resulted in a sigmoid reduction of the transmission rate over a period of around 2 weeks. The vertical dashed line indicates the strengthening of social distancing on 17 March 2020.

Using public data on the daily number of confirmed cases, hospitalizations, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and deaths related to the virus, the researchers found that initially, the infections went up exponentially.

The researchers also estimated that the total number of infections was about tenfold the number of diagnosed and confirmed cases initially. Later, the diagnosed cases amounted to about 20% of the total, but finally, after all NPIs were in place, fell again to about 10% of the total. The estimated total, therefore, amounted to about 264,000 cases.

Using simulations of earlier introduction of NPIs, the model showed that about 2,000 deaths would have occurred if NPIs continued to affect the number of deaths after May 10 negatively. If they had been implemented a week earlier, the model concludes that the peak number of hospitalizations would have been much lower, at ~ 440, as would have been the peak ICU occupancy and mortality, at ~88 and 400 respectively.

If NPIs had been introduced a week later, these numbers would have gone up substantially, with a peak hospitalization number of about 10,200, peak ICU occupancy of 1,900, and mortality of over 8,000, respectively.

Doubling Time Triples with NPIs

The current study showed that the effective reproduction number (R e ) fell from about 2.6 at the beginning to 0.64, which corresponds to a doubling time of about 3 days and 9 days at the beginning of the epidemic and the post-lockdown phase, respectively. This underlines the urgency of early NPIs in containing the spread of the virus.

The researchers comment, One week of exponential increase in new infections during the early epidemic spread required 3.1 weeks of lockdown to reduce the number of infections to the same level.

Implications of the Study

This is the first study to analyze the possible effects of counterfactual scenarios concerning alterations in the timing of NPI implementations. The findings are partly supported by the lower mortality in Austria, which reported its first few cases at the same time as Switzerland, and which was also the victim of spread from adjoining Lombardy, in Italy. However, the early and strict introduction of NPIs within a week of the first case led to a reduced number of deaths.

Moreover, the researchers point out that the high peak ICU occupancy rate of almost 2,000 that could potentially have resulted from a single weeks delay in NPIs would probably have overwhelmed the national healthcare system, since the effective capacity of ICUs in Switzerland was only about 1,275 in April 2020.

In short, the study concludes, Our study illustrates that time is of the essence when it comes to outbreak response. We showed that while an earlier implementation of NPIs in Switzerland would have resulted in considerably lower numbers of hospitalized cases and deaths, the measures that were taken successfully prevented a much higher burden of SARS-CoV-2-related morbidity and mortality.

Since one week of exponential virus spread requires three weeks of lockdown to bring the number of daily cases back to the original level again, delay not only boosts the number of deaths but prolongs the period of lockdown. An earlier imposition of strict NPIs would, therefore, reduce the social and economic burden of these measures. Secondly, there are significant differences in the number of infections in different cantons, and this may indicate that new local outbreaks are probably going to be confined to separate regions.

*Important Notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Axelle/FilmMagic Elsa Pataky and Chris Hemsworth

A few days of rain in Byron Bay, Australia left Elsa Pataky rather stuck  literally.

Pataky, married to fellow actor Chris Hemsworth, documented her experience getting caught in a flood while driving Monday. The actress, 44, was trapped in her car and ended up having to escape through her window, she explained on her Instagram Story.

"I got stuck, yes. Awesome. Oh god, oh god, what am I doing?" Pataky said in one clip, according to a fan account that reposted the actress' stories.

"A bit too optimistic? I was so sure I could cross!" she captioned it, adding, "What two days of rain can do!"

As she showed the water rising around her, the Fast and Furious star remained optimistic. She teased herself in the next slide, writing great job, Elsa.

RELATED: Chris Hemsworth Says It's 'Refreshing' to Live in Australia: 'You Lose Perspective' in Hollywood

Story continues

Then, Pataky showed her triumphant escape, climbing out of the window and wading through the water towards two of her children, who were standing on an area of the road that was not yet flooded.

"My only option... through the window!!" she captioned the video.

Despite the recent flooding, Pataky, who shares daughter India Rose, 7, and twin sons Sasha and Tristan, 5, with Hemsworth, recently opened up to Vogue Australia about why the family of five loves living in the relatively remote Byron Bay.

My daughter started to get scared of photos, actually, she explained of their decision to relocate from Los Angeles to Hemsworths native Australia. So we realized this is not a way to live, because you just become enclosed in a house. I love nature and I love to be outside, and I wanted my kids to have that freedom, so we decided to leave.

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Elsa Pataky and Chris Hemsworth

RELATED: Elsa Pataky and Chris Hemsworth's Daughter, 7, and Twin Sons, 5, Make Vogue Debut with Their Mom

My goal was always, when I have kids, to be in a place thats not the city. I want them to grow up in nature, because I crave that, she added. But that step did take me away from one of my big passions in life: acting, and it was a big change. But I changed my life to be a mum, which I think is just the most amazing thing in the world.

Though she left Hollywood, Pataky told the magazine shes now realized her dream of living close to nature with her children and Hemsworth.

My dream was always to have a farm and horses. When we were trying to find a property, I had to have a place where I could have horses and my kids could be with them and enjoy that, too, she said. I feel privileged. If life has given you great things, just enjoy it as much as you can, because you never know whats going to happen next. So at least in those moments of having what I want, I try to make the best of it.
A day after the governor told the public that 81 percent of public school teachers intend to return to in-class learning in the fall, a new teacher survey says most educators prefer a mixture of in-person and online learning.

We need to listen to the concerns of our educators, parents, community members, and health experts during a life-threatening pandemic, said Jeff Leake, president of the Connecticut Education Association, the states largest teachers union.

The union polled around 16,000 members last week and found nearly three-quarters oppose a state push to fully reopen schools without what they consider the necessary protections for students and educators.

Lamont and Commissioner of Education Miguel Cardona directed school districts to plan for a full reopening of school in the fall along with two alternative options based on the states COVID-19 infection rate at the time school resumes.

Many school superintendents have expressed concern that a full return to school may be impractical given space and social-distancing requirements. On Monday, both Lamont and Cardona seemed to acknowledge that many schools may have to open with a blend of in-person and at-home learning, at least to start.

Lamont, however, citing preliminary results of a Connecticut re-open survey said three quarters of students and 81 percent of staff were expected to attend.

That statistic left many teachers, Leake included, confused.

Our teachers want to go back, but for us it is all about safety, Leake said.

State officials on Tuesday would not say how the 192 school superintendents completing the states survey reached the conclusion that four out of five teachers are expected in the classroom in the fall.

The CEA survey found that as of now, 16 percent of teachers would prefer to return to school in the fall, 39 percent support a so-called hybrid approach, which includes a combination of in-school and distance learning, and 46 percent favor continued distance learning.

We cant expect to reopen our schools in a usual fashion, Leake said. Especially as new evidence demonstrates that school-age children 10 years and older spread the virus as readily as adults.

After the state issued a 50-page reopening guideline for districts to follow in late June, the CEA countered with a plan of its own that called for schools to stay closed until public health and safety requirements can be met, all COVID-related expenses are covered and weekly COVID testing is conducted of students, teachers and staff.

Teachers surveyed want schools to have the options of a mixture of in-school and distance learning, or full-time remote learning depending on COVID infection rates.

A number of the more than 200 district plans submitted to the state on July 24, favor schedules that rotate students into school. Others would seem to require teachers to instruct students both in school and at home simultaneously.

Leake said 15,882 of some 40,000 CEA members completed the survey  a strong indication of the importance of the issue.

Of those responding, 97 percent want students and educators to be able to physically 6 six feet apart in classrooms, gyms and school buses.

Some 96 percent want everyone to wear masks, even though most suspect it will be difficult for students to keep masks on all day.

Ninty-five percent want there to be COVID-19 testing protocols at each school and nine in 10 want bus monitors hired to help enforce social distancing rules on school buses. The vast majority of teachers say school buses should run at half capacity.

Nearly two out of three teachers worry that their schools ventilation system is not adequate.

Most teachers see distance learning as somewhat effective so far. All had to pivot to online learning without warning when in-person classes came to an abrupt halt in mid-March.

We have to do a better job at distance learning than we did in March, Leake said. I think most districts are ready to do a better job but it all comes down do we have the devices out to the kids. We are still concerned.

Nearly 30 percent of educators who answered the survey say the pandemic has made them consider leaving the profession.

On Thursday, the CEA is organizing car caravans through their local affiliates for teachers to drive through town in an attempt to urge the governor and state Department of Education to change their plans for the fall.

lclambeck@ctpost.com; twitter/lclambeck
The Government heaped further agony on holidaymakers tonight as they officially advised Britons not to visit Spanish islands including Ibiza, Majorca, Tenerife and Lanzarote.

The Foreign Office updated its travel advice for the Balearic and Canary Islands, advising against all 'non-essential' travel in line with rules on the Spanish mainland.

But there had been confusion because the islands were already alongside mainland Spain in having arrivals from them subjected to 14-day quarantine in the UK because a spike in coronavirus cases.

Spain had been pushing for the islands not to be included on the quarantine list because they have a lower rate of infection than the mainland.

But tonight a Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We have considered the overall situation for British nationals travelling to and from the Balearic and Canary Islands, including the impact of the requirement to self-isolate on return to the UK, and concluded that we should advise British nationals against all non-essential travel to the whole of Spain.'

The decision affects islands including Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, El Hierro and La Graciosa in the Canary islands, plus and the Balearic Islands of Majorca, Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera.

Downing Street said British holidaymakers who miss out on work due to the newly-imposed quarantine period may be eligible for Universal Credit or employment support allowance of up to 74.35 a week, but not statutory sick pay.

But employers are under no obligation to pay staff while they are in quarantine, self-employed workers will be forced to give up jobs and some people could even face the sack if they have to isolate when returning home.

The Government also warned 'no travel is risk-free' - and said workers who lose their jobs because they are quarantining after returning from Spain could appeal to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas).

Individual airlines appear to have differing policies on flights to Spain that have already been booked.

Ryanair and BA will continue to run their flights to Spanish airports.

Travellers may be offered a voucher to the value of the ticket or a chance to re-book if they wish to cancel - but customers should check the policy with their own airlines.

EasyJet will operate its full schedule of flights. Those who don't want to travel can transfer their flight with no admin fee or can get a credit voucher for the cost of their booking.

What compensation will holidaymakers planning on travelling to Spain receive now there is a 14-day quarantine on landing? Support from the government: British holidaymakers who miss out on work due to the newly-imposed quarantine period may be eligible for Universal Credit or employment support allowance of up to 74.35 a week, but not statutory sick pay. Workers who lose their jobs because they are quarantining after returning from Spain could appeal to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas). Ryanair and British Airways: Flights are still operating but travellers may be offered a voucher to the value of the ticket or a chance to re-book if they wish to cancel - but customers should check the policy with the airlines. EasyJet: Flights are still running. Those who don't want to travel can transfer their flight with no admin fee or can get a credit voucher for the cost of their booking. Jet2: Flights to Spanish mainland and Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza are not running. The airline has previously offered the option to rebook with no admin fee or a refund cancelled flights. Tui: Cancelled all holidays to the Spanish mainland between July 26 and August 9. They have also cancelled all holidays to the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands from July 28 up to and including July 31. All customers due to travel to Spanish destinations between July 26 and August 9 will be able to cancel or amend their holiday and will be able to receive a full refund or the option to rebook their holiday with a booking incentive. Customers with holidays to Balearic Islands and Canary Islands from August 1 and mainland Spain from August 10 will be updated on Friday 31st July. Advertisement

A Jet2 spokesperson said: 'Following the latest government advice regarding travel to the Balearic and Canary Islands from the UK, we are advising customers who are due to travel to the following destinations (Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza) not to go to the airport tomorrow (Tuesday 28th July) as we are not operating flights to these destinations. This advice also applies to customers travelling to any of our destinations in Mainland Spain.

'We will be operating our scheduled programme of flights back to the UK from these destinations tomorrow.'

Tui has cancelled all holidays to the Spanish mainland from July 26 up to and including August 9.

They have also cancelled all holidays to the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands from July 28 up to and including July 31.

All customers due to travel to Spanish destinations between July 26 and August 9 will be able to cancel or amend their holiday and will be able to receive a full refund or the option to rebook their holiday with a booking incentive.

Customers with holidays to Balearic Islands and Canary Islands from August 1 and mainland Spain from August 10 will be updated on Friday 31st July.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: The FCO is not advising those already travelling in Spain to leave at this time. Travellers should follow the advice of the local authorities on how best to protect themselves and others, including any measures that they bring in to control the virus.

If you are returning from Spain you will be required to self-isolate on your return to the UK, but the FCO is not advising you to cut short your visit. You should contact your tour operator or airline if you have any questions about your return journey.

It had been claimed that the UK Government was deeply divided on how to proceed amid criticism that the previous Spanish travel advice was confusing.

Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, was reportedly in favour of establishing an air bridge to the islands to allow for quarantine free travel, according to The Sun.

But Number 10 is said to be against the move on the grounds that applying different rules to different parts of the country could cause chaos - and it appears to have won the argument and hardened the rules still further.

The Spanish government and Britain's travel industry trade body, the Association of British Travel Agents, argue it is not necessary for the Canaries and Balearics to be included in the quarantine, pointing out that infection rates on these islands are low.

Abta has told the Government to 'consider' changing the rules, while Spain's Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya is trying to convince Britain to exclude the Balearics and Canaries, saying: 'Spain is safe, it is safe for Spaniards, it is safe for tourists.'

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the airline industry's main global body, also said the British decision 'does not accurately reflect the risk of a regional spike in one corner of the country'.

But one British tourist tested positive for Covid-19 in Lanzarote last week, and the UK Government fears that if the islands were exempt this could allow a loophole in the system.

Holidaymakers including British tourists on the beach in Santa Eulalia in Ibiza yesterday

In theory, someone on holiday in Spain could fly home via Majorca and avoid quarantine.

A Whitehall source close to discussions on whether to give the Canaries and Balearics an exemption told The Sun today: 'They are considering an exemption to the Balearic and Canary Islands. Their rates are lower so it may be on the cards.

'But the announcement may not come until the weekly review. There has been some debate as to whether they should be included as there is a lot of traffic between the mainland and the islands, and that's where the issue is.'

Weekly Covid-19 figures for the Balearics and Canaries show cases have remained reasonably low Weekly Covid-19 case figures for the last four weeks show there have been reasonably low numbers in both the Balearics and Canaries, although more of an upward trend in the latter: New cases in previous seven days (week up to Friday, July 24): Balearic Islands: 40

Canary Islands: 95

Spain total: 10,990 Week to Friday, July 17: Balearics: 39

Canaries: 30

Spain total: 5,695 Week to Friday, July 10: Balearics: 17

Canaries: 13

Spain total: 2,944 Week to Friday, July 3: Balearics: 37

Canaries: 11

Spain total: 2,028 All-time cases (as of Friday, July 24) Balearics: 2,343

Canaries: 2,578

Spain total: 272,421 Advertisement

British holidaymaker Tom Beckett, with his daughter Elaina, recorded a video from Lanzarote yesterday showing how quiet it is and the safety measures put in place.

He told Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the video: 'I don't think you've looked at the map, because (Lanzarote) is 1,000km from Spain. It is like an infection in the Isle of Wight and isolating people in Iceland. It doesn't make any sense.

'It's four hours away from home, not an issue. Anyway I thought it would be handy to show the Government, because they have obviously been locked in Number 10 for quite some time, that this is a pretty safe place.'

Tourism leaders in Ibiza say hotels will be forced to close as a result of the UK government's quarantine decision.

The British market is number one for the island which had already been hit by the lack of bookings during the coronavirus crisis and the closure of all its big clubs due to health regulations imposed by the Balearic government.

Ibiza's tourist director, Juan Miguel Costa, said the need for Britons to quarantine on their return if they decided to holiday in Spain would make it 'unfeasible' for them to choose the island.

He told island newspaper Diario de Ibiza: 'With the dependence that we have on the British in different parts of the island, it is a blow to our entire waterline, it is a blow to the sector in full force.'

'The island is already registering cancellations of British tourists, which will cause many hotels dedicated to British tourism to end up closing. They cannot survive.'

Ibiza is now pinning its hopes on the governments of Spain and the UK reaching an agreement to create a 'safe corridor' between the Balearics, as well as the Canaries, so that British tourists are exempt from the quarantine requirement.

Mr Costa said he felt the Balearic Islands 'are being penalised' by the second wave of Covid-19 infections mainly on the Spanish mainland.

'In the end, state policy is made and everything is put in the same bag, but the incidence in the Balearic Islands is low,' he said.

A spokesman for Abta said: 'Abta has said consistently that protecting public health must be the priority at this time, and it is vital to base decisions about travel on the best health and scientific advice.

Ibiza's tourist director said the need for Britons to quarantine on their return if they decided to holiday in Spain would make it 'unfeasible' for them to choose the island (pictured yesterday)

'We suggest the Government considers lifting the quarantine rules for flights to and from certain regions with lower infection rates, or to places such as the Balearic Islands or the Canaries - which are geographically distinct from mainland Spain - to avoid further damage to the UK inbound and outbound tourism industries.'

How many coronavirus cases have been recorded on the Canary and Balearic Islands? Mallorca 2,102

2,102 Ibiza 215

215 Menorca 98

98 Formentera 16

16 Tenerife 1,555

1,555 Fuerteventura 142

142 Gran Canaria 643

643 La Palma 107

107 Lanzarote 91

91 La Gomera 8

8 El Hierro 3 Advertisement

One tourist who is currently in Ibiza told MailOnline today that the UK's blanket approach 'fails UK holidaymakers who were advised and encouraged to travel'.

The tourist, who asked not to be named, said: 'UK authorities need to buck up their track and trace to be able to distinguish between mainland Spain travellers and the island travellers.

'Now we come back to sheer inconvenience because my government can't be asked to take a little bit of a harder look and allow us to prove our whereabouts.

'The Balearic Islands have a better rate in all [indicators] we monitor so if looked at logically they are telling us to come back to areas of the UK who are in a worse position that the islands, just does not make sense.

'They should listen and work with the island authorities to be able to mitigate people trying to use them as a gateway from mainland Spain to try and bypass the quarantine, a simple stamp in those travellers' passports can distinguish them from people who have been in the islands the entire time.

'The sheer fact that the islands are still okay to travel to shows the holes in their blanket approach.

'Just another example of poor planning being masked as 'swift action', not all action because 'swift' is correct. Instead of swift it should be labelled as 'hastily'.'

Air passengers heading to Manchester queue up at check-in at Lanzarote Airport yesterday

As this morning, more than 50,000 people had signed a petition addressed to Mr Johnson demanding that the islands be exempted.

Spanish hotel chiefs offer British tourists Covid-19 tests when their holidays end Desperate Spanish hotel chiefs are offering British tourists Covid-19 tests when their holidays end. The offer was made today by the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (Cehat) less than 48 hours after it was announced British holidaymakers returning to the UK from Spain would have to self-isolate for 14 days. The move has left Spain, which normally receives 18 million British holidaymakers every year, in a state of shock. The Spanish government is urgently trying to get at least the Balearic Island and Canary Islands exempted from the quarantine measure through the establishment of 'safe' air corridors to and from the UK. A Cehat spokesman said today: 'Measures have to be taken urgently at European level and tests carried out in visitors' home countries and abroad, so reciprocity exists and tourists and workers and residents in holiday areas are guaranteed maximum security. 'Spanish hoteliers are taking a step forward and are offering to carry out those tests on Spanish tourists when they leave their holiday accommodation, so they can offer clients maximum security.' Saying it was 'surprised' and disappointed at the UK quarantine decision, it added: 'With the surprise imposition of a UK quarantine, there is now the risk that other governments adopt similar ill-thought-out measures which don't take into account the reality that exists in Spain, especially in mainland holiday areas and the Balearic and Canary Islands.' Cehat president Jorge Marichal added: 'Decisions have to be adopted on the basis of objective criteria. 'We have to hold people accountable for ill-considered measures that can have serious consequences for tourism including hoteliers who are following the strictest protocols in Europe.' Spanish government vice-president Carmen Calvo admitted today she had been 'surprised' by the UK government quarantine decision. She insisted: 'We have moved away from the most difficult moments when our health system was facing overload. 'We've put behind us the most painful peak, but we've always said we were in a situation of pandemia and we will continue to be so and there's bound to be new outbreaks. 'In terms of statistics Spain is far from being in a worse condition than other European countries.' Advertisement

'Holidaymakers returning from the islands have expressed that they felt safer during their stay on the islands than at home in the UK,' said petition organiser Lee Sparrow.

'They have also expressed how everybody is adhering to the rules of social distancing and mask wearing.'

One holidaymaker in Mallorca who signed the petition, Helen Locking, said the island was 'very safe' and urged the government to 'at least honour the people here to get home'.

'I came here because there was no quarantine and now my four-year-old is going to be stuck at home for two weeks unnecessarily,' she said.

Annette Dawson, who has been in Mallorca for ten days, said it was 'not fair' that the islands are treated the same as mainland Spain.

'We have been in Majorca for ten days and have no experience or contact with anyone with symptoms, hygiene has been stepped up and the wearing of masks policed,' she said.

The UK Government has introduced travel and quarantine controls for Spain following a spike in cases around Barcelona, Zaragoza and Madrid.

Some 1,904 new cases were reported last Friday, which was the highest since late April.

Meanwhile Catalonia regional leader Quim Torra said today that the area may take stricter measures to limit coronavirus contagion if the situation does not improve in the next ten days.

Mr Torra warned that in many parts of Catalonia the data was similar to the situation before Spain declared a national lockdown in March. He added his administration's goal was to avoid taking as strict measures as the ones that were taken back then.

Catalan authorities on July 17 advised some four million people to remain home and leave only for essential trips, banned gatherings of more than ten people and limited the occupancy of bars and restaurants as the number of cases in the region is rising faster than in the rest of the country.

There are fears more European holidays could be thrown into disarray during 'uncertainty' this summer after holidaymakers in Spain were left fuming at being told they must quarantine when they return home.

The Government has stood by its decision to strike Spain off the UK's list of safe destinations after it saw a spike in the number of coronavirus cases.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the Government 'can't make apologies' for the decision made on Saturday - announced less than five hours before coming into force - that arrivals from Spain and its islands would have to self-isolate for 14 days.

Mr Raab, speaking to Sky News' Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme yesterday, also refused to rule out rescinding further so-called travel corridors.

The Telegraph reported that officials in both France and Germany have warned of possible new lockdowns as parts of Europe braced for a second wave of Covid-19 infections.

French health authorities said at the weekend that the country's R-rate was up to 1.3 and that daily new infections on Friday had risen to 1,130 - indicators resembling those seen in May, when France was coming out of its strict two-month lockdown.

A British tourist waits to check in before departing for the UK at Tenerife Airport yesterday

The decision to reimpose restrictions on Spain left holidaymakers frustrated, with some saying they would not have travelled if they knew they would have to spend a fortnight self-isolating afterwards.

Close to 1.8 million holidays were likely to have been thrown into chaos by the move, according to travel company The PC Agency, which analysed the number of seats booked on flights leaving the UK for Spain between July 26 and August 31.

According to The Times, trips to France, Italy and Greece were being cancelled in 'large numbers' following the ruling by ministers on Spain, a development likely to heap further pressure on an already under-strain travel sector.

Tour operator Tui said that, due to the change in the Government's travel advice, it was cancelling all holidays to mainland Spain up to and including August 9.

Ibiza (pictured yesterday) is now pinning its hopes on the governments of Spain and the UK reaching an agreement to create a 'safe corridor' between the Balearics

Tourism leaders in Ibiza (pictured yesterday) say hotels will be forced to close as a result of the quarantine decision

Labour shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth criticised the Government's handling of the affair, labelling it 'frankly shambolic', and called for financial support for those now forced to shut themselves away after their arrival home.

Ryanair said today it would continue its flights in and out of Spain, with chief financial officer Neil Sorahan telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'As things stand, the market remains open, the schedules remain in place and we continue to operate in and out of Spain as normal.'

However he added that the airline's entire operation was 'under consideration' as it rebuilds the route network after lockdown restrictions were lifted.

The International Air Transport Association trade group said the UK's decision to remove Spain from the safe travel list was 'disproportionate' and 'falls short' of required cooperation.

** Are you now in quarantine in Britain after returning from Spain? Please email: mark.duell@mailonline.co.uk or tips@dailymail.com **

Benidorm mayor aims to ensure resort gets 'safe' air corridor status so British holidaymakers don't have to quarantine

Benidorm mayor Toni Perez says his objective in the 'next few hours' is to make sure the famous Costa Blanca resort is given 'safe' air corridor status so British holidaymakers don't have to quarantine.

The town hall chief insisted Alicante-Elche airport should be given a 'green light' ranking so Brit tourists can continue to holiday in the area without having to self-isolate afterwards for 14 days.

He urged the Spanish government to put as much effort into defending the Costa Blanca as the Balearic Islands and the Canaries, which are the focus of current 'air corridor' negotiations between Madrid and the UK government.

British holidaymakers enjoy a drink at Alex's bar in Benidorm yesterday

And he insisted Benidorm had 'worked hard and well' to minimise Covid-19 risks and make it a 'safe' destination.

Measures put in place by town hall chiefs include a pioneering beach safety system which involves the marking out of thousands of squares on the sand to ensure social distancing for sun seekers.

Tourists and locals wanting to use the resort's Levante beach have to pre-book their spot on the sand.

Mr Perez said: 'Benidorm has worked very hard since minute one of this current situation to develop protocols and security measures for residents and tourists.

'That work is yielding excellent results and reinforcing the security component which Benidorm has always offered.'

He added: 'British tourists are fundamental for the recovery and maintenance of tourist activity which is going to plan in Benidorm, given the fact that the rate of reservations was increasing.'

In a clear reference to the ongoing government talks about a Balearic Islands and Canaries quarantine exemption, he called on Madrid to ensure 'some tourist areas' were not given favourable treatment.

British holidaymakers in Benidorm yesterday after the quarantine announcement

He added: 'I urge the Spanish government to avoid declarations of intent 'which favour island destinations over mainland holiday resorts.'

He insisted: 'Cancelling the restrictions which mean British holidaymakers have to self-isolate when they return home and creating a safe air corridor from Alicante-Elche airport is Benidorm's objective in the next few hours.

'We continue to work towards generating confidence in our resort and offering a safe destination.'

Karen Maling Cowles, president of the Benidorm British Businesses Association, said of Saturday's shock quarantine decision: 'It's quite devastating for the town really, all of us here.

'I personally was looking forward in two and a half weeks to seeing my son and family who I haven't seen since Christmas.

'They won't be able to come now because of the quarantine as the children have school when they get back, my son has work and the same with his wife.

'It will affect many like myself who were looking forward to enjoying time with their families.

'Not only that, but it will affect businesses here and the economy here. It's a huge setback for us all.

Britons enjoy a drink at Tiki bar in Benidorm yesterday following the announcement

'It will affect the little tourism that we do have coming to Benidorm this year massively.'

Mr Perez reacted to the UK quarantine decision by admitting late Saturday: 'We very much regret it. In Benidorm we've worked a lot to minimise the risks and we haven't got any problems here at the moment.

'It's a very safe destination with beaches which are very well organised and businesses which have established protocols and are applying them.

'The problem in Spain is in certain areas, but in the end this decision affects us all and especially resorts like ours whose main market is British.

'We are going to continue working along the lines we have been up to now, knowing that what we've been doing has been done well and that we offer a safe destination thanks to the hard work of everyone here.'

He added: 'These questions of quarantine are something we can't control but Benidorm will continue to welcome those who want to come here and will continue to offer visitors including foreign tourists maximum health security.'

Toni Mayor, president of the Benidorm and Costa Blanca hotel association Hosbec, described the shock UK move as a 'hammer blow.'

He said: 'It couldn't have come at a worse time. It was looking pretty good from August 1.

'Bookings were up including family bookings and around 85 per cent of our hotels were going to be open and we were looking forward to having at least something of a normal summer.

'This announcement is going to bring everything crashing down.

'The British tourists who are already here have got no other option but to stay and self-isolate when they return.

'But I fear a lot of those who were going to come are now going to cancel.

'There's got to be a question mark over how many tour operators are going to carry on operating as planned.

'It's not just places like Benidorm that's going to suffer, other popular holiday destinations like the Canaries and Majorca are going to be hard hit too.

'The UK is 18 million holidaymakers every year and the British are Spain's number one holiday market.'

He added: 'There were hotels in Benidorm which were going to open on August 1 with the increased number of British arrivals that will end up staying closed now, and others that had opened but could shut following this announcement.

'There's bound to be question marks now about whether the Spanish government should have allowed discos and pubs to open so quickly.

'But the reality here is this pandemia has been a learning experience for all of us.

'It's a very complicated situation. I think we can wave goodbye to any hopes of a normal summer now with this announcement.

'I'm obviously very concerned about the outlook for the future.'

Ximo Puig, President of the Valencian Community which includes the provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Castellon, called yesterday/on Sunday for his region and especially the Costa Blanca which includes resorts like Benidorm to be given a UK quarantine exemption.

Andalucia is also fighting to be included in an air corridor scheme.

Francisco Salado, President of the Provincial Council of Malaga and the Costa del Sol tourist board, has claimed the whole of Spain is suffering the 'tremendous injustice' of the 'failure' of the pro-independence Catalan government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Catalonia is battling two of Spain's worst three coronavirus outbreaks at the moment - in Barcelona and Lleida.

Catalan president Quim Torra warned this morning/yesterday morning (MON) he may put the entire region of 7.5 million inhabitants under a draconian home lockdown in 10 days time unless the health situation there improves.

Summer 2020 is turning into a chilling one

COMMENTARY BY MARK PALMER, TRAVEL EDITOR FOR THE DAILY MAIL

That's it for holidays abroad this summer.

The sorry truth is that the Government's decision to advise against all non-essential travel to mainland Spain  and re-impose a two-week quarantine  will have a dramatic knock-on effect, as millions of families rethink their travel plans. And all this just when it seemed like overseas travel was finally struggling back onto its feet.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab made clear yesterday that other countries could be next.

Refusing to apologise, he said he and his Cabinet colleagues 'must be able to take swift, decisive action'. Yet such swift action was sadly lacking back in April, when people were still pouring into Britain from all over the world, bringing the virus with them, without going into quarantine.

Since then, there's been hardly any 'action' at all on testing arrivals at airports.

Instead, we now have a blanket rule for Spain  the most popular destination for British tourists  which could affect up to two million people in the coming months. The decision was taken late on Saturday after ministers discussed rates of infection in Spain. But the data was available on Friday, meaning the announcement could have been made more than 24 hours earlier, before thousands had set off for the airport, and giving those in Spain time to change their plans.

True 'decisive action' surely would have made a clear distinction between mainland Spain, which has seen a surge in infections, and the Canary Islands, Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza, where there have been fewer cases.

Yes, the Foreign Office has said that we can visit the Canaries and Balearics. But we will still have to quarantine for 14 days on our return. It's increasingly difficult to track and trace the Government's thinking on travel, whether it's the 'air bridges' debacle, which cruises to avoid, the continued red-listing of Portugal and now a blanket ban on travel to mainland Spain with hardly any warning.

Thousands will now have to start the grim process of seeking refunds from holiday companies and airlines, or accept vouchers, while travel firms who had hoped to claw back some money in August will find themselves plunged back into crisis. The summer of 2020 is turning out to be a chilling one.
WASHINGTON - Attorney General William Barr defended the aggressive federal law enforcement response to civil unrest in America as he testified for the first time before the House Judiciary Committee, pushing back against angry, skeptical Democrats who said President Donald Trumps administration is unconstitutionally suppressing dissent.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/7/2020 (540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Attorney General William Barr listens during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the oversight of the Department of Justice on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, July 28, 2020 in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Pool via AP)

WASHINGTON - Attorney General William Barr defended the aggressive federal law enforcement response to civil unrest in America as he testified for the first time before the House Judiciary Committee, pushing back against angry, skeptical Democrats who said President Donald Trumps administration is unconstitutionally suppressing dissent.

The hearing, held Tuesday as the late civil rights icon John Lewis lay in state steps away outside the Capitol, highlighted the wide election-year gulf between the two parties on police brutality and systemic racism in law enforcement. Massive protests have sparked unrest across the nation following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, and calls for police reform are growing louder.

But Barr said "violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests" and argued the violence taking place in Portland, Oregon, and other cities is disconnected from Floyds killing, which he called a "horrible" event that prompted a necessary national reckoning on the relationship between the Black community and law enforcement. But he also said there was no systemic racism in law enforcement.

"Largely absent from these scenes of destruction are even superficial attempts by the rioters to connect their actions to George Floyds death or any legitimate call for reform," Barr said of the Portland protests.

The hearing marks Barrs first appearance before the committee after 18 months in office, bringing him face-to-face with the panel that voted last year to hold him in contempt and is holding hearings on what Democrats say is politicization of the Justice Department under his watch. But little new ground was uncovered; fuming Democrats often used their five minutes to lay out their frustrations and cut Barr off as he attempted to answer questions.

The hearing comes during a tumultuous stretch in which Barr has taken actions cheered by President Donald Trump but condemned by Democrats and other critics. Among them: the Justice Departments decision to drop the prosecution of former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn and Barrs urging for a more lenient sentence for Trump ally Roger Stone, a move that prompted the entire trial teams departure. Trump later commuted the sentence entirely.

Republicans were ready to back Barr up, with the top Republican on the panel, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, using his opening statement to show an eight-minute video that spliced together images of violence by protesters around the country.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, gives an opening statement at the hearing where Attorney General William Barr will testify before the House Judiciary Committee, Tuesday, July 28, 2020, at the Capitol in Washington. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)

Democrats retorted with a video of their own of more peaceful protesters, shown by Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline.

"We fought for democracy, for the right to speak freely and you are attempting to take that away," Cicilline told Barr. "Whats worse, youre doing it for the sole purpose of furthering the presidents political agenda and generating footage for Trump campaign commercials."

Opening the hearing, committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said the Trump administration had "twisted the Department of Justice into a shadow of its former self," serving the powerful before average Americans. He said the committee has a responsibility to protect Americans "from that kind of corruption."

Nadler said Barr had "aided and abetted" Trumps worst impulses and excoriated him and the Justice Department for turning a blind eye to necessary reforms to police departments, for dismissing Black Lives Matter protests and for flooding streets with federal agents to stop protesters.

Under combative questioning, Barr acerbically defended himself but revealed little new information about his motivations or the Justice Department's recent actions on policing or otherwise.

"Many of the Democrats on this Committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that I am simply the Presidents factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions," Barr said in his opening statement. "Judging from the letter inviting me to this hearing, that appears to be your agenda today."

On policing, Barr's testimony underscored his department's ongoing effort to differentiate between increasing violence in some cities and Floyd's death, which has led to state charges against four officers and is under investigation by federal authorities. Massive but peaceful demonstrations followed Floyd's death in May.

The attorney general acknowledged to lawmakers Floyds death struck a chord in the Black community because it reinforced concerns Black people are treated differently by police. But he condemned Americans who he says have responded inappropriately to Floyd's death through what he said was rioting and anarchy.

"As elected officials of the federal government, every member of this committee  regardless of your political views or your feelings about the Trump administration  should condemn violence against federal officers and destruction of federal property," Barr said. "So should state and local leaders who have a responsibility to keep their communities safe."

Civil unrest escalated in Portland after federal agents were accused of whisking people away in unmarked cars without probable cause; the people were detained and later released. And in Washington, D.C., peaceful protesters were violently cleared from the streets by federal officers using smoke bombs and pepper balls last month before a photo op by Trump in front of St. John's church, where Barr had accompanied him.

He defended the broad use of law enforcement power to deal with the situation, noting that protesters had earlier set fire to the church and "it was total consensus that you couldnt allow that to happen so close to the White House." The departments internal watchdog has opened investigations into use of force and other tactics by agents in Washington and Portland.

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He also said the force was used because the protesters would not disperse from the area when law enforcement officials were trying to move back the security perimeter, a decision made the night before. When pressed on details, he pointed to the investigations.

The use of pepper spray was warranted, even if peaceful protesters were also harmed, he said.

Beyond the federal response to the demonstrations, Barr was pressed in detail about his intervention in the Flynn and Stone cases, both of which arose from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Democrats criticized him for partly taking into account Stone's health and age, 67, and said those standards haven't been used in other similar cases.

Barr said he told the acting U.S. attorney that "we are going to leave it up to the judge" and that he ordered the revised recommendation to be filed when the line prosecutors submitted an initial recommendation calling for a sentence of seven to nine years.

"And even though I knew I would get a lot of criticism for doing that, I think at the end of the day my obligation is to be fair to the individual," Barr said.

As Republicans quizzed Barr about his efforts to untangle the origins of the Russia investigation, Democrats scolded him for downplaying the gravity of Muellers findings in a summary letter that he released before the public had even seen the report. Justice officials are now investigating the previous Justice Department's decisions as it started investigating Trump's ties to Russia during the Obama administration and Barr has been sharply critical of his predecessors.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

By Elnur Baghishov  Trend:

As many as 2,667 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, 235 more people have died from the coronavirus over the past day.

Sadat Lari added that the condition of 3,902 people is critical.

The official said that Iran's Tehran, Mazandaran, Fars, East Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Isfahan, Razavi Khorasan, Alborz, Lorestan, Golestan, Kerman, Semnan, Hormozgan, North Khorasan and Ilam provinces are red zones.

So far, more than 2.38 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 296,200 people have been infected and 16,147 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 257,000 have reportedly recovered from the disease.

The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease.

The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19.

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.
SACRAMENTO  Months after advocates warned that the coronavirus pandemic could take a severe toll on LGBTQ people, Gov. Gavin Newsoms administration is telling health professionals to track the diseases impact on the community.

The California Department of Public Health released regulations Tuesday requiring counties and health providers to ask each COVID-19s patient their sexual orientation and gender identity. The agencys order also covers dozens of other diseases that the state tracks by demographic group.

Data show that the coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately harmed Latinos and Black people, who have been infected and died at far higher rates than other groups. But California hasnt collected data on how the pandemic is harming LGBTQ people, who advocates say are vulnerable because of underlying health problems in the community.

Those problems include a higher prevalence of HIV, some cancers and respiratory problems from smoking. Seventeen percent of LGBTQ people dont have health insurance, according to a survey by the Human Rights Campaign.

LGBTQ people, especially younger members of the community, are more likely to be homeless than the general population, potentially putting them at greater risk of catching the virus. Community members could also be in more danger because a larger portion work in the service industry and interact directly with customers, the Human Rights Campaign said.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill in May calling for California to collect data about the pandemics effect on LGBTQ people. He said Tuesday that the states move is better late than never and a step toward understanding the pandemics uneven toll.

Wiener said the government has long failed to track health problems among LGBTQ people, and that the delay in gathering coronavirus data evoked painful memories of early inaction during the 1980s AIDS crisis.

The history of the LGBTQ community is a history of fighting against invisibility and erasure, Wiener said. That is absolutely the case in the health care system.

He has introduced a bill to make the data reporting permanent and require all counties and health providers to ask identical LGBTQ demographic questions and share their data.

LGBTQ leaders say that if the state knows how the coronavirus is spreading in a demographic group, health officials can better identify outbreaks and tailor messages to reach the community.

Wiener amended his SB932 this week to require providers to collect LGBTQ patient data for about 90 communicable diseases reported to state public health officials. The state already gathers data on patient race, age and gender for those diseases.

The problems that COVID has shed a spotlight on are problems that are not unique to COVID, he said. COVID has put a huge spotlight on pre-existing health inequities.

Mark Ghaly, Californias health and human services secretary, said at a news conference Tuesday that the LGBTQ data gathering effort would extend to those diseases. He said the state has been working for months, updating its database and training staff, to prepare to gather data about LGBTQ patients.

We have certainly been working on it for quite some time, Ghaly said.The last thing we wanted was to be saddled with a whole stack of data that we werent able to turn into actionable information.

Some counties, including Los Angeles, have attempted to collect data on LGBTQ people during the coronavirus pandemic, but the results have been patchy.

Wiener said California is in line to be the first state to track the impact of all reportable diseases on LGBTQ people.

Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California, an LGBTQ advocacy group, said the state must move rapidly because every day the questions arent asked, California is losing valuable data. He said the new regulations would help identify hot spots of outbreaks in real time.

From the beginning of this crisis, we have been clear: If LGBTQ+ people are left out of COVID-19 data, we will be left out of Californias data-driven response, Zbur said.

Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. , July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The digital training and career mentoring program Digital Works (DW) today marked a major milestone1,000 job placements. The 1000th job placement was filled by an Army veteran.

Connected Nation (CN), the national nonprofit that founded DW, is hosting a virtual celebration on Thursday, Aug. 6, to celebrate the milestone, those who made it possible, and the graduates of the program. CN will also announce future plans for DW, including how communities can bring it to their area.

"The significance of this milestone cannot be overstated. That number represents young adults, military spouses and veterans, people with physical disabilities, senior citizens, individuals living in rural areas with few job opportunities, and so many others who just needed an opportunity to change their lives in positive ways," said Tom Ferree, Chairman & CEO, CN. "Digital Works focuses on remote work opportunities which can be leveraged by people with all kinds of backgrounds who are living anywhere in the country. It's one reason we have had a high rate of success helping military spousesthese jobs can move with them."

Military spouses have some of the highest unemployment rates in the country simply because they must move with their spouse when he or she is deployed. Thanks to funding from the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet and Kentucky Veterans Program Trust Fund, DW launched classes in the Fort Campbell area in February aimed at helping military spouses and veterans.

"Every time someone gets a job you can feel the excitement. We all celebrate together," said Tammy Spring, Operations Manager, DW. "We've always limited our class size in an effort to establish community. Smaller classes provide better opportunities for bonds to be formed and relationships to be built. I'm still in contact with graduates from our very first classes and love following their careers. In addition, many of our alumni assist with mentoring new graduates."

In response to the pandemic, the Fort Campbell location expanded beyond its brick-and-mortar classes in March, offering virtual classes to military spouses, veterans, and spouses of veterans across Kentucky.

"The shutdowns that began to happen due to the pandemic have only emphasized the need for and importance of programs such as Digital Works," said Chris Pedersen, VP of Planning and Development, CN. "Many employees were suddenly having to work from home, and businesses had this unexpected need for people who were trained in online work skills. As a result, we've seen the opportunities for telework grow at a staggering rate, and these new positions are likely here to stay. That means there are new opportunities for those who can provide the skillsets needed."

DW leverages a network of more than 70 companies nationwide. Staff works with employers to address the skillsets they're looking for in new hires and apply that to the classroom setting. To attend the virtual celebration head to https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Hp0q-QPqSbW6IURB0O4MRw.

SOURCE Connected Nation
The Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has appealed to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to pay the allowances, tuition fees and other incentives of students on its scholarship schemes.

In a statement signed by the spokesperson of NIDCOM, Gabriel Odu, Mrs Dabiri-Erewa said NDDC should intervene by promptly paying other incentives of students on their scholarship scheme to guarantee their stay and education in the UK.

According to her, she had in a letter to the Minister of the Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio, in June, drew the attention of NDDC to the plight of the students that are under its scholarships scheme.

The commission counts on the ministers assurances that all outstanding payments to affected students will be made.

At the moment, there have been persistent calls by the students for urgent intervention.

The deadline for payment of the fees of some of the students have expired or about to expire, non-payment of their allowances have turned many of them to virtually beggars, she said.

The NiDCOM chairman once again appealed to the Niger Delta Ministry and the NDDC to intervene urgently and promptly too. (NAN)
Sushmitha Ramakrishnan By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: As the number of fresh COVID-19 cases surge daily, an increasing number of people have been concerned about whether the virus is airborne.

After a long global debate, the World Health Organisation (WHO), earlier this month acknowledged the possibility that the novel coronavirus can be spread through short-range aerosol transmission. It has created panic among the public. But what does this mean?

This simply means that under certain circumstances, the virus can be spread through air.

Dr Anantha Subramanian, a consultant pulmonologist, Kauvery Hospital, who has been treating COVID patients said that he strongly suspects that some of his patients contracted the disease through airborne transmissions.

"Droplet transmission is the most common source of the virus. But in some patients, that logic does not work. It seems like they took all precautions to prevent droplet transmission; especially the frontline workers (who got infected)," he said.

Kumaran (name changed), a senior doctor working at a government hospital in the city, on condition of anonymity, said airborne transmission is the only explanation why some frontline workers wearing protective equipment still ended up contracting the disease.

ALSO READ | Can you get the coronavirus twice? It's unlikely, believe scientists

He said the chance of the virus becoming airborne is much higher in severely ill patients.

"The release of viral-loaded aerosols is very common when a patient is either put on or weaned off a ventilator. Coughs that come after high-pressure formation in the lungs also lead to production of aerosols," he said.

Referring to several recent studies across the world, the WHO has said that some outbreaks that have occurred in crowded indoor spaces suggest "the possibility of aerosol transmission." Such situations have arisen "during choir practice, in restaurants or in fitness classes," it said.

The organisation however added the caveat that the spread is although "combined with droplet transmission". Ultimately what people are concerned about is which air is safe to breathe and which is not.

Droplet and aerosol transmission:

One can visualise the difference between a droplet and aerosol is by seeing droplets as big drops and aerosols as small drops.

In the first case, droplets coming from a sick person's mouth or nose are heavy, and fall to the ground before they can get much further than six feet. This explains why the government has been insisting on people maintaining over 1.5 metres distance between each other. Aerosols, which are much smaller, can travel longer before landing.

Sivarama Krishnan, an assistant professor of Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras told The New Indian Express that aerosols can be imagined to be somewhat like a drunk person walking in a poorly-lit street at night.

"He takes incoherent steps, often back and forth, before finally converging slowly to a seat or a lamp-post. The smaller the particle the more intoxicated it is and more stochastic (unpredictable) its travel," he explained.

Risk indoors:

In a poorly ventilated room - a room where the flow is stagnant, small aerosol particles can circulate the room until they find their 'lamp-post', said Krishnan. The smallest droplets and particles (diameter < 5 m10 m) may remain suspended in the air indefinitely, until they are carried away by a light breeze or ventilation airflow. This could be a wall, furniture or a person's body thus successfully infecting people. The lifetime of a virus that falls on a surface could be anywhere between a few minutes to a few hours.

A recent study published in the journal Nature about two hospitals in Wuhan, it was found that the most infected area was a 1 meter-squared mobile toilet in the patient area. Dr P Kuganantham, senior epidemiologist and Member of the State Special Task Force against COVID-19 says that he has suspected several cases of airborne transmission.

"The risk is the highest in air-conditioned rooms, particularly cabins or cage-like rooms. Which is why I am strongly against the idea of opening malls or cinema theatres. One asymptomatic person with COVID-19 is enough to infect all persons in an airconditioned room," he said.

Open the windows and wear your masks

Spacious well-ventilated rooms, on the other hand, bear a lesser risk of transmission. This means that an outdoor vegetable market is safer than a supermarket and a supermarket is safer than a small departmental store; this assumes that people maintain physical distancing norms though. So if you are indoors, open the windows to ensure maximum ventilation.

ALSO SEE:
On Saturday, despite knowing for weeks that there was a resurgence of cases in Spain, a new batch of reported cases led the Johnson government to convene an emergency cabinet meeting and change its air bridge policy in relation to British holiday makers traveling to the country. With just four hours notice, 600,000 people were told they would now have to self-isolate themselves for two weeks on returning from Spain.

Passengers wearing face masks arrive at Son Sant Joan airport on the Spanish Balearic Island of Mallorca, Spain, Monday, July 27, 2020. Britain has put Spain back on its unsafe list and announced Saturday that travelers arriving in the U.K. from Spain must now quarantine for 14 days. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu)

The data revealed that cases in Spain had tripled in a fortnight, from 8.8 cases per 100,000 to 27.4. Spain, along with Italy, was one of the main epicentres of the disease as it ravaged Europe. As of this week 28,432 people have died in Spain with almost 320,000 infected. It has suffered 608 deaths per 1 million of population. But the UK and Belgium have recorded higher ratios.

Spain is the main holiday destination for British people travelling abroad, with millions visiting each year. Britons made up more than 20 percent of all foreign visitors to Spain last year.

Spain was taken off the governments safe-travel list after being put on it just weeks earlier. The UKs Department for Transport not only ruled that from midnight on Saturday people returning from Spain to the UK must enter a 14-day self-isolation period, but that from July 26 only essential travel to Spain was permittedimpacting on many more who have booked holidays. All had followed government advice in doing so.

Thousands attempted to get flights back to the UK Saturday to avoid being put into quarantine, without success. Moreover, the change in advice immediately invalided the travel insurance of holiday makers. After midnight, 17 flights from Spain arrived in the UK with their passengers instructed to enter self-isolation.

The UK government took the decision after Norway re-imposed a 10-day quarantine requirement for people arriving from Spain from Friday.

The maniacal push by ruling elites across Europe to fling open the economy, enforce a mass return to work and allow virtually unrestricted cross-border travel has resulted in massive crisis, jeopardising the health and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands.

Encouraging millions to go on holiday abroad to save the summer was central to this policy. It has contributed to the continued spread of the virus with thousands of new cases reported since lockdown measures were ended, as the official death toll passed 200,000 across Europe. Spains Canary and Balearic Islands, which have low infection rates, have been included in the travel ban despite appeals from the Spanish authorities.

The recklessness of government policy is epitomised by the fact that Transport Secretary Grant Shapps was in the midst of a two-week holiday in Spain as the travel advice was changed. Shapps was described by the Times as one of the strongest proponent of easing [lockdown] restrictions. London and small business minister Paul Scully is also in Spain. Scully tweeted, Best turn to gin. Ill still be able to work. Just no shopping or running I guess #quarantine.

The situation is no laughing matter for workers. Many will not be allowed the time off work if they are forced into-self isolation and unless tested as positive for COVID-19 will not even receive paltry Statutory Sick Pay of 95 a week.

The Johnson government tried unsuccessfully to play down the crisis, with Dominic Raab stating that those forced into self-isolation cant have penalties taken against them for following the rules. But there is nothing in law to prevent employers from going as far as even sacking workers for not returning to work.

Raab was challenged by employment barrister, Grahame Anderson, who warned, If you come back from Spain today [Sunday] and your boss says you have to be in work on Monday, theres not a great deal you can do if they say well if you don't come in Im not going to pay you. And if you haven't been there for two years, [due to employment law] youve got very little protection against being dismissed as well.

Speaking to Sky News, Pippa Stickler, who was due to fly home yesterday, said she and her partner could not get 14 days off work on their return. My partner is in a hands-on job with only four days holiday remaining, so it has to be unpaid, and I cant work from home so cannot be off. This news is awful and is too last minute  As if we werent in financial difficulty enough!

Raab claimed the government took swift, decisive action to protect the UK because weve made such progress getting the virus down, and to prevent the virus from retaking hold in the UK.

This is nauseating in the extreme. Upon ending the national lockdown, Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed that all that was required was intervening to deal with localised increase of COVID-19. As the series of localised outbreaks in Britain in recent weeks has increased, aside from the city of Leicester being placed under lockdown (which may be lifted this week) virtually nothing else has been implemented in terms of safeguarding public safety.

On Sunday, a caravan park site was forced to close near Craven Arms in Shropshire after 21 people tested positive for coronavirus. The cases were confirmed after 41 people at the residential site were tested, meaning a contracted rate of over 50 percent of those tested. Craven Arms is a small town with a population of 3,000 people. According to Shropshire Councils director of public health, Rachel Robinson, the cases were linked to an outbreak in the nearby Welsh town of Welshpooljust 25 miles away.

Workplaces continue to record infections among staff. Last week, after testing 476 employees, eight cases of COVID-19 associated with the Zorba Delicacies Ltd food processing plant in Ebbw Vale, Wales were confirmed. Despite this the plant was not closed.

Yesterday, after 20 staff tested positive for COVID-19 at Balfour Beattys concrete manufacturing site in Avonmouth, Bristol, the site was closed for a deep clean. The plant is a strategically important facilitypurpose-built to manufacture concrete segments for use at the Hinkley Point C nuclear power facility being constructed in nearby Somerset.

Avonmouth is situated just a few miles from the main city of Bristol and is itself the location for many major corporations who run warehousing and distribution operations including Amazon, which employs more than 1,000 workers.

A Royal Mail office in Swindon has just reopened after several postal workers tested positive for COVID-19. This followed an outbreak of COVID-19 at a Royal Mail delivery office in Chester at the beginning of July. In total 14 delivery offices have reported coronavirus cases.

As the first wave of the coronavirus is in resurgence across the continent, its governments are systematically lying in order to enforce their back-to-work plans and ensure the profits start rolling back in to the corporations. On Monday, Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya claimed that outbreaks in the country were perfectly controlled and Spain is safe for Spaniards and for tourists.
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa  who has his back to the wall battling the pandemic  is in the centre of political chatter as attempts are said to be underway to dethrone him, with his ambitious deputy Laxman Savadi camping in Delhi to meet the BJP top brass to set the ball rolling.

Though Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar dismissed the talk, another BJP leader said, "There is no smoke without fire."

Savadi landed in Delhi on Monday when Yediyurappa celebrated one year in office, and has been meeting party senior leaders to impress upon the need to replace the CM. He is not alone in the race as Union Minister Pralhad Joshi also met party leaders and huddled with over 45 north Karnataka MLAs at Hubballi recently, sources said.

Savadi  who is said to have the backing of BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh, Yediyurappas bete noire  has claimed to have the support of a sizable number of MLAs. That Savadi, who lost the 2018 assembly polls, was made deputy CM was seen as the party trying to nurse him as its Lingayat face to succeed Yediyurappa.

Indeed the party top brass here also caught by surprise when Yediyurappa to appointed 24 MLAs as chairpersons for boards and corporations on Monday.

One faction of north Karnataka MLAs, who are miffed with the administration, is said to be pushing for Joshi, a Brahmin, as a consensus candidate for the top post. However, the caste equation is still under scrutiny, especially if it is to rub Yediyurappa the wrong way.

Yediyurappa, who sensed possible attempt by Laxman Savadi to dislodge him, appointed MLAs to key posts who are not loyal to him. "By appointing some of MLAs, who are not loyal to him, the CM tried to keep legislators in good book," said a leader in the BJP.

While Joshi was not available for comment, Savadi, the transport minister, claimed that he came to meet union ministers to get various pending projects cleared.

There is also speculation that the party might ask Yediyurappa to step down as the CM in exchange for a gubernatorial position and a key post for his younger son B Y Vijayendra.

It was to preempt any possible coup that Yediyurappa appointed 20 legislators to various boards and corporations, hoping to keep them in good books. "No smoke without fire. There is a talk of change in leadership," said a leader from Yediyurappas camp.

Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar, who also figures in speculation as a CM contender, ruled out the possibility of any such development. "The post of chief minister is not vacant," said Shettar, a Lingayat and a former CM. He added that social media messages projecting Savadi as the next CM should not be taken seriously. He also played down the disgruntlement over boards/corporations appointments.

Sources say that though the central leadership is keen on changing the CM, removing Yediyurappa is tricky. Doing so especially in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic will send a wrong message, a senior leader said.

Some manoeuvring to placate disgruntled leaders will be likely during the impending Cabinet rejig  some ministers might be dropped to make way for others.

Eight-time MLA Umesh Katti, who led the rebellion threat over the past year, is expected to find a place in the Cabinet.

Though 77-year-old Yediyurappa crossed 75- year age limit fixed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold any administrative post in central or state governments, the party top brass earlier said there will be some exceptions.

When Yediyurapa appointed as Chief Minister last year July after toppling JD (S)-Congress coalition government, the party top leaders indeed said Lingayat leader will continue to complete his entire term as the CM.

Even Yediyurappa during his interaction with media on completion of one year on Monday also insisted that he will continue as the CM till his term ends.
Customers are advised to look for the "Eat Out to Help Out" logo

A new scheme rolled out by the UK government is offering customers in Northern Ireland up to 50% off on food and drink in restaurants, cafes and bars.

More than 53,000 outlets across the UK have so far signed up to the UK Governments "Eat Out to Help Out" scheme which aims to restore the economy after Covid-19.

Customers in Northern Ireland who want to take advantage of the scheme are advised to look out for the "Eat Out to Help Out" stickers and posters which have started to appear in the windows of restaurants, cafes, bars and other establishments.

The logo means diners that eat-in will benefit from a 50% discount, up to a maximum of 10 per person, on food and non-alcoholic drinks, any Monday to Wednesday in August  and no voucher is required. Diners can take advantage of the offer as many times as they like during the month.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said that restaurants, cafes and bars play a vital role in our economy and have been hit hard by coronavirus.

Our Eat Out to Help Out scheme is designed to get more customers through the door  protecting jobs by giving businesses the confidence to retain and hire staff. More than 53,000 businesses across the country have already signed up, and from today youll be able to find one near you with the online finder.

To find out if a restaurant is participating in the Eat Out to Help Out scheme you can use the online restaurant finder now live on GOV.UK here. Simply enter your postcode, or one near to where you want to eat out, to get a list of participating outlets within a five-mile radius.

You can also get in touch with your local restaurant to see if theyre taking part or check their website.

Participating outlets must wait seven days from registration to make their first claim with all eligible claims being paid within five working days. Claims can be submitted weekly and businesses are encouraged to register before the 3 August to benefit for the entire month in which the scheme runs.
The Times of India, July 24, 2020

by Shubhranshu Choudhary

Dear Vasu

Heard your voice after a long time when you sent an oral press note opposing our Peace initiative. Same voice, same passiona

It was good to know that you are now an official spokesperson for the Maoist party.

I recall our first meeting, in a coffee house in Raipur Chhattisgarh, now more than 30 years ago when you told me that you do politics for people. Center of gravity of your politics is the good of the common people. People, only the good of people, you had told me with sparks in your eyes and I was impressed. Your party was then called Peopleas war.

But now your same politics is harming the same poor people more my friend, hope you agree.

aFor a better futurea you are regularly killing people after calling them ainformersa . For example in one of your stronghold districts In Chhattisgarh called Bijapur according to official data your party has killed 294 people as ainformersa in the last 14 years. The total number of people killed by your party in the same period is 602. I am told that these numbers are only the tip of the iceberg as many people from interior areas do not report to police about atrocities by the party at all. Donat you feel bad destroying so many families?

Your party has also put out a press note saying police have killed 24 ainnocent peoplea in the same period in that region.

In the last 40 years you have created thousands of commanders in Bastar but you donat have a single local adivasi in your politbureau today. Some of your leaders justified it by saying that there is no reservation policy here. We tried but we could not make second rung political leaders. Politics is complex and these Adivasis do not understand it, they told me. They also told me that you came to Dandakaranya to hide and not to do politics. There was a clear instruction that Adivasis do not have political consciousness so you should only concentrate in making the forest a safe haven for the party. But you started doing politics here when places where revolution was to happen like in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal dried up for the party.

Leaders like you, who came from states like Andhra Pradesh and Telangana must be aging now. You have also created a good system for procuring arms and monetary resources but once you are gone will the same commanders not turn against each other as we see in places like Jharkhand and Afghanistan? Is this the legacy you want to leave behind?

You left your homes more than 40 years ago to build a better world. I get tired after spending a few weeks with you guys. We salute your commitment. But your politics has no future, my friend.

Your senior leaders had told me during those trips that you are fighting for a New Democratic Revolution. The conditions in India are not ripe for even socialism yet and the fight for communism may come after, they told me.

All of us want a better democracy. Outside the jungles we have been almost a failure so far but maybe we should join hands. It is much bigger a battle than running away after killing a few policemen.

It is impossible to have a revolution with guns today. Mao has also not said that a few hundred leaders with a few thousand supporters can bring any meaningful change and especially in a big country like India.

Like experiments in Bodo areas in North East may be it is time to talk for a Dandakaranya Autonomous Council. You have made people of Bastar a fighter. Please help them a bit more to make a better Bastar for their future generations before you leave

Shubhranshu Choudhary is a former journalist with BBC. From last 15 years he is working on an experiment to create a model of democratic media in media dark zones in the forests of Central India. He has written a book called Letas call him Vasu: With Maoists in Chhattisgarh. He is recipient of Google Digital Activism award
A secret oil deal between China and Iran at the heart of the One belt One Road project will change the geopolitical balance of power in the Middle East. The manufacturing products created by utilizing cheap Iranian resources will be used to crack the western markets through the China-Iran axis along with unrestricted access to Iranian military bases. As always Indian policymakers have been caught in this changing dynamics leaning heavily on one player after other without a clear vision of its own.





The Secret China Iran Deal

In 2016 an agreement was signed to signify the 25-year China-Iran strategic partnership. So to take this forward, last August, Irans Foreign Minister, Mohammad Zarif, paid a visit to his Chinese counterpart, Wang Li, to present a roadmap.

Though the information in the updated agreement was not revealed, last week former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a clear hint to some secret parts of this deal. He stated that:

It is not valid to enter into a secret agreement with foreign parties without considering the will of the Iranian nation and against the interests of the country and the nation, and the Iranian nation will not recognize it.

EXCLUSIVE The Galwan Valley standoff is a Chinese pre-emptive measure in response to Indias DarbukShyokDBO Road infrastructure project in Ladakh. The DBO road project is seen by the Chinese as a tool to offset the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.https://t.co/XkqUVkKN8h  GreatGameIndia (@GreatGameIndia) June 17, 2020

The 12% Discount

This deal, signed just last year states that China will invest US $280 billion in expanding Irans oil, gas, and petrochemicals sectors. This amount being given by China will be front-loaded into the first five-year period of the new 25-year deal, and further investments will be available in each subsequent five year period, provided that both parties agree.

Another US $120 billion of investment will be for upgrading Irans transport and manufacturing infrastructure, this amount will increase in each subsequent period, should both parties agree.

Just to begin with, Chinese companies will bid on any stalled or uncompleted  oil, gas, and petrochemicals projects in Iran. China is granted the offer to buy any and all oil, gas, and petchems products at a minimum guaranteed discount of 12 per cent.

One Belt One Road

The 25-year deal outlines that China will help in the build-out of Irans core infrastructure, which will be in alignment with Chinas key geopolitical multi-generational project, One Belt, One Road (OBOR).

EXCLUSIVE US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that the US is deploying troops from Germany to India One of the reason Pompeo gave for reducing American troop presence in Europe was the recent clash between India and China at Galwan Valleyhttps://t.co/XK6bFXEvfm  GreatGameIndia (@GreatGameIndia) June 26, 2020

China aims to utilize the cheap labour available in Iran to build factories with master infrastructure. These will be financed, designed, and overseen by big Chinese manufacturing companies. The final manufactured products will then go to the Western markets through new transport links, also planned, financed, and managed by China.

There are also plans to establish a Tehran-Qom-Isfahan high-speed train line.

The Military Element

Now, though, another element that will change the entire balance of geopolitical power in the Middle East has been added to the deal. If the aerial and naval military elements work in co-operation between Iran and China, with Russia also playing an integral role then this deal will be extended to include even new military elements that are proposed by senior figures in the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and the intelligence services.

There is a meeting scheduled in the second week of August between the same Iranian group, and their Chinese and Russian counterparts, that will agree the remaining details but, provided that goes as planned, then as of 9 November, Sino-Russian bombers, fighters, and transport planes will have unrestricted access to Iranian air bases, he said.

EXCLUSIVE Iranian Naval Forces to establish Naval Base in Indian Ocean by March 2021 to counter Anglo-American Diego Garcia Base  the key launchpad for western powers in case of an attack on Iran that is beyond the range of Iranian ballistic missiles.https://t.co/R8UamtBbtX  GreatGameIndia (@GreatGameIndia) June 23, 2020

This process will begin with purpose-built dual-use facilities next to the existing airports at Hamedan, Bandar Abbas, Chabhar, and Abadan.

Iranian Sanctions & JCPOA

What Iran hopes to receive in return for its co-operation with China, and Russia, is conveyed in this statement that came last week when Zhang Jun, Chinas permanent United Nations (U.N.) representative, told the U.S.:

To stop its illegal unilateral sanctions on Iran The root cause of the current crisis is the U.S.s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and the re-imposition of unilateral sanctions against Iran.

He also opposed the U.S.s push for the extension of the U.N. arms embargo on Iran, which expires in October. This has again undermined the joint efforts to preserve the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action], Zhang said, and added: The [JCPOA] agreement was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council [UNSC] and is legally binding.

EXCLUSIVE China has occupied Rui village of #Nepal and removed the boundary pillars to legitimise its annexation. China has gradually made inroads into strategic lands at 11 places across Nepal with around 36 hectares of land in four districts.https://t.co/5aGacItx96  GreatGameIndia (@GreatGameIndia) June 23, 2020

He concluded, We urge the U.S. to stop its illegal unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction, and return to the right track of observing the JCPOA and Resolution 2231 [of the UNSC].

This partnership was a way to secure Chinas support and it is speculated that the real reason is included in the secret part of the deal. Talking of Russia, including China these two countries have two-fifths of the total Permanent Member votes on the UNSC, plus there is the US$400 billion+ of investments promised by China to Iran. China guarantees that it will continue to take all of the oil, gas, and petchems that Iran requires.

Indian Energy Dependence

Meanwhile, Trump administrations hostility towards Iran resulted in an ultimatum to bring down import of Iranian oil to zero. This was dutifully followed by Indian policymakers. And now in a big blow to the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, India is planning to store its Oil in US Reserves. Although the move will create further energy-dependency for India in the event of supply-chain disruption or price-spikes, the policy is being projected as a strategic masterstroke by the Oil Minister.

In big blow to #AatmaNirbharBharat, India to store its Oil in US Reserves. Although it will create further energy-dependency for India in event of supply disruption or price-spikes, the policy is being projected as strategic masterstroke by Oil Minister.https://t.co/eBUI3PJyN2  GreatGameIndia (@GreatGameIndia) July 21, 2020

India has always been looking to expand the storage capacity. But instead of building storage infrastructure and protecting our strategic reserves within India, the Oil Ministry is hiring storage in the US and projecting it as a feasible option for India. These reserved stocks if within India can be used in times of extreme price volatility or supply disruption. The same becomes a tool of geopolitical influence if located at any foreign location.

So, here is a question for the strategic experts of India: What route do you think the Chinese will carry oil from Iran into mainland China?

Send in your tips and submissions by filling out this form or write to us directly at the email provided. Join us on WhatsApp for more intel and updates.

GreatGameIndia is a journal on Geopolitics and International Relations. Get to know the Geopolitical threats India is facing in our exclusive book India in Cognitive Dissonance. Past magazine issues can be accessed from the Archives section.
Russia and Turkey may begin their cooperation in the space sector with elaborating fair mechanisms to regulate joint use of outer space, Russian Ambassador to Turkey Alexei Yerkhov said in an article published in the Daily Sabah newspaper.



The Russian diplomat pointed to the fact that some states "practically point out as a fait accompli that outer space must become an arena of confrontation and even combat." "They act on the presumption that states have a right to use space not only for defensive goals but attack as well. The "hawks" would like to plan a wide range of space operations in case of conflict; create and update rules enabling their use of force and design proactive military systems," he noted. "The second camp of "optimists," which includes Russia, would prefer to see space as a "peaceful harbor" for scientific research and future progress. They believe that an arms race in space could have a disastrous impact on international security and stability, thus try to create a legally binding international framework to prevent it."



"I feel it is crucial that the Turkish public is made fully aware of all these nuances. Turkey has now launched its space program, opened a national space center (welcome to the club, guys!) and no doubt will be one day a space state contributing to the worlds efforts with its own thorough and proactive programs in space research. So I believe Russia and Turkey can cooperate in this area, starting with discussions on relative U.N. resolutions aimed at producing fair-regulating mechanisms for joint use of outer space," Yerkhov stressed.



According to the Russian ambassador, the legal that is being established today "will allow people to one day explore space together, using joint resources and strength". "So, when we finally discover a "Solaris," we hope very much that it does not host a military base but a scientific station in orbit to explore the galaxy. Let us create a bright future for our posterity," he emphasized.



Russia has been condemning the United States plans to deploy weapons in outer space. Thus, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the Disarmament Conference on February 25 that NATOs plans to deploy weapons in outer space were becoming more real and called for preventing confrontation in outer space until it is too late by means of elaborating common rules of behavior.



The Russian top diplomat stressed that the Russian-Chinese draft treaty on non-placement of weapons in outer space, non-use of force or a threat of force against space objects was the only constructive initiative to prevent an arms race.
In 2014, he secured $17 million from Mrs. ODonnell to create the institute of art history. In 2017, UTD partnered with the late Margaret McDermott to create the Richard Brettell Award in the Arts, which, every other year, bestows $150,000 upon an artist whose body of work demonstrates a lifetime of achievement in their field.  Dallas Morning News
A county corrections officer charged with murder in the shooting death of an employee at a medical facility in Mount Laurel on Friday confronted the victim at a COVID-19 screening station at the office, fired a single round into her chest and picked up the shell casing before leaving, according to police.

Bruce W. Gomola Jr., 51, of Burlington Township, is charged with murder in the shooting death of Stephanie A. Horton, 44, of Willingboro, who worked as a patient services representative.

Shortly after leaving the scene, Gomola returned and surrendered to a detective.

Gomola had taken his father to Delaware Valley Urology on Midatlantic Drive for an appointment shortly before 1 p.m. when he got into an argument with Horton in a hallway outside of the office where the screening station was located.

Authorities previously said Gomola was upset about an appointment for his father. A witness told Mount Laurel Police Detective Aaron Harty that Gomola was unhappy with the current treatment provided to his father and got into a verbal altercation with Horton, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

The argument escalated and Gomola pulled out a gun and fired. The bullet passed through Hortons back and struck a patient in the knee. Another patient told Harty that he heard one gunshot, then saw Gomola reach down and pick up the shell casing.

Video surveillance from the hallway where the shooting occurred shows the argument, and shows Mr. Gomola walk towards Ms. Horton, pushing her back out of view of the camera.

Gomola is then seen reaching under his shirt and unholstering his gun. He then advances toward Horton with gun in hand and disappears from camera range. He is then seen picking up something from the floor and walking out of the building.

An exterior camera shows him walking, then running to his silver SUV and leaving the area.

Staff provided the detective with information on Gomola from their database.

As Harty stood outside speaking with a witness, Gomola walked up and told the detective I am the one who shot her, according to the affidavit.

Gomola was taken into custody and found with a Smith and Wesson .40-caliber handgun holstered on his right hip and a Burlington County Corrections Officer badge clipped on the front of his belt. He was not wearing a uniform. In his pants pocket, police found a spent .40-caliber shell casing and a .40-caliber hollow-point round. The gun was registered to Gomola and is his personal firearm, officials confirmed.

Gomola told police something to the effect of, he should have never left and indicated his father was still inside his parked vehicle nearby, according to the affidavit.

The elder Gomola was taken to a hospital for evaluation.

Horton was pronounced dead at Cooper University Hospital at 4:18 p.m.

Gomola was placed in Camden County Jail pending a detention hearing. In addition to murder, hes charged with two counts of aggravated assault and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

A spokesman for the prosecutors office said his detention hearing, originally scheduled for Wednesday, is expected to be postponed until next week.

A GoFundMe campaign created by a friend to benefit Hortons family described her as a selfless hero who courageously put herself in harms way to protect those around her.

Her obituary described her as a history-buff and avid reader who put all others before herself.

Stephanie was devoted to family, friends and her faith, and will be remembered fondly for being herself, the obituary said. Funeral services are scheduled for Saturday.

In a Facebook post, her partner, Michael Cryan, asked friends to share a photograph of Horton and a memory of her, instead of news articles that show Gomolas photograph. He also said hate messages about the killing are not what she would have wanted.

If you have hate inside change it dont waste any more time on the other person. Take the time to go hug a loved one [or] take that time to reach out to that person you havent seen or talked to in a while. Post pictures of Steph say something nice about Steph a memory, he wrote in the post.

These are what matter not this other person. Dont think you will get to it tomorrow, he wrote. Those that know me know that my tomorrow is now gone.

Staff Writer Rebecca Everett contributed to this story.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com.
Superintendents announce their districts reopening plans, taking the inevitable slings and arrows no matter what they decide.

Teachers rally at school board meetings or organize highly visible social media campaigns to propel their sentiment and opinions into the public domain. Parents do as well.

But principalsthe men and women who must actually operationalize any reopening scenario handed down to themhave been the least heard players in the divisive and complex debate over how to open schools this fall.

A recent poll of school leaders found that just 35 percent of elementary school principals had been consulted a lot on their districts reopening planning process. Nine percent said they knew nothing about their districts plans, according to the poll from the National Association of Elementary School Principals.

Its a glaring oversight of a critical player, argues the NAESP.

The success of any reopening plan hinges on the extent to which those implementing the plan believe in it, had a hand in shaping it, and feel empowered to carry it out, the NAESP wrote in a brief highlighting how districts can tap into school leaders expertise at a pivotal moment.

Indeed, as the K-12 leader closest to staff, students, and families, principals are likely to bear the brunt of pressure, worry, and dissatisfaction from parents and teachers as another unprecedented school year gets under way. They are the ones who will know whats working and whats not.

We are the known quantity, said Derrick Lawson, the principal of Indio High School in the Desert Sands Unified district in Indio, Calif. We are the face of the district to them.

Lawson said he channels his input on reopening plans through another high school principal who serves on the districts reopening taskforce. And his district holds weekly meetings with principals to provide updates.

Daniel Richards, the principal of Georgetown Middle/High School in Georgetown, Mass., agreed that without the principals perspective some reopening requirements could be completely unworkable.

You need the persons who are involved in operations on a day-to-day basis to be part of those [reopening] decisions, said Richards, who is involved in reopening discussions in his district and with other principals in the region.

One example? The recommendation from state officials advising schools to keep students in the same cohorts. That, Richards said, is much more complicated for high school students than it is for elementary. I would be able to provide the voice that says, yes, at the elementary level, you can do cohorts easily as the kids move through the building and keep in a cluster. When you get to the high school level, some kids move to English class, some are now moving on to AP science, art class, gym classits impossible to keep that cohort together... .

Principals are also grappling with the big responsibilities they feel for keeping teachers, staff, and students safeand how they can pay for everything that it will take to safeguard health and well-being.

Parents Are Reaching Out to Principals

The reopening committee in the Desert Sands school district, where Lawson is principal, includes principal and teacher representatives. He also feels that the teachers, three of whom serve on the teachers union executive committee, are able have their say in the reopening through regular meetings with the teachers associations president.

I feel like I have a voice, whether or not I have a particular parent or staff member on those task forces, he said. I have ways to be represented.

The district conducted a survey to gather input from parents to help guide their reopening decisions and has used live broadcasts on Facebook and YouTube to communicate with parents, Lawson said. (In the end, with coronavirus cases rising in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered schools in areas with high infection rates to start the school year online. The district will transition to a hybrid format when conditions change, though parents can choose to stick with remote learning for the entire school year, according to the district.)

But even with those opportunities to participate on the district level, parents have reached out to Lawson with their concerns, including questions about how schedules could accomodate families with children in different grades and whether school meals would be provided to kids on days when theyre scheduled to work at home.

My families rely on that for survival, said Lawson, whose school, where 91 percent of students qualify for free and reduced-priiced meals, is the districts largest food distribution site. We have families right now that are in survival mode. And that is going to continue to be critical for them because they work either in the service industry or settings that have been closed that makes it really difficult.

Principals are also juggling the needs of staff members, who may be in at-risk categories or have family members who are.

They are eager to teach their kids, Lawson said. They are dedicated, but at the same time they are worried themselves about whether there will be enough PPE. Will there be enough sanitizer? What are the plans for sanitizing and keeping me COVID-free because I have to go home at night to take care of a parent or a medically-fragile parent or a medically-fragile child?

Focus on Trauma and Equity

Knowing principals are juggling a lot of demands, the National Association of Secondary School Principals launched a re-entry committee to create a kind of clearinghouse for resources to help principals as they get ready for the new yea rand also get support and resources on whats working from peers.

The group has settled on some key areas of focus after getting feedback from school leaders across country: trauma, equity, students learning and mental health needs, and resources on how to communicate effectively with their communities.

Equity, including ensuring that not only teachers and students have computer and internet access, but also guaranteeing that teachers are trained in the digital tools to deliver high-quality instruction, are critically important for the group, Lawson said. And the conversation around equity must also take into account the gap in access between urban and rural students, not just race and income, he said.

Although Lawsons district provided Chromebooks and Mi-Fi to students, the Mi-Fi didnt work in some cases for children who live in rural areas and in other cases, the internet connection was so spotty students were not able to watch videos or participate in live sessions.

We walked into closures back in March, said Lawson, who is on the NASSP re-entry committee. Every school across the country had to turn on a dime. When we go back into the fall, we want to make sure we are creating those checklists and protocols as things come up to make sure we are not leaving something out.

Even still, principals cant assume that everyone has been affected the same way, and must create nuanced approaches to help their students. And with the best laid plans, theres still anxiety about the uncertain future.

Were all in this together, but at the same time we are all on a different journey, Richards said. Some people have had very traumatic experiences in their personal lives; some have just been inconvenienced. But we all come in with some sort of fear. If I can relax that fear with students and adults, then people are going to teach, students are going to learn. My job is to reduce that fear for students and adults.

Image: Getty

If you have questions that could use some expert perspective, send them to The Principal Is In , bi-monthly advice column written by two seasoned school leaders. Send it to AskAPrincipal@educationweek.org , and check back to see if it appears in an upcoming column.

You can also sign up for EdWeeks weekly newsletter for school leaders, The Savvy Principal .
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday he had had the coronavirus without any symptoms and had already recovered from it, the BELTA news agency quoted him as saying.

"Today you are meeting a man who managed to survive the coronavirus on his feet. Doctors came to such a conclusion yesterday. Asymptomatic," Lukashenko said during a meeting with the military.

The 65-year-old leader has resisted calls to impose lockdown measures or close the borders to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the eastern European country.

He has previously dismissed fears about the pandemic as a "psychosis" and suggested remedies such as drinking vodka or taking saunas to battle the coronavirus.

As of Tuesday, 67,366 cases of coronavirus were registered in Belarus, a country of 9.5 million people, with 543 deaths, according to the health ministry.

Frustration over his handling of the pandemic has fuelled opposition protests against Lukashenko ahead of an election on August 9.
The former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has been found guilty on all seven corruption charges in his first trial over the multi-billion dollar scandal involving the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state fund.

Accused of extensive misappropriation from the state fund which he founded, Najibs corruption trial marked a stunning fall from grace for a politician who led his country for almost 10 years until 2018.

A judge at the Kuala Lumpur Hight Court sentenced Najib to serve 12 years on one count of abuse of power, and 10 years each on six other charges including money laundering. The sentences are to be served concurrently, meaning he faces up to 12 years behind bars.

Najib becomes the first leader in Malaysia's modern history to be convicted of a crime. Judge Mohamad Nazlan Ghazali concluded that the sentencing was "appropriate and proportionate" taking into account that Najib had committed the crime from a "position of trust" as prime minister, his final plea and the need to deter others from committing the same crime.

The trial was the first of five Najib faces, and analysts said the successful prosecution boosts the chances of him being found guilty in the remaining proceedings. In total he faces 42 charges, some of which could still carry jail terms of up to 20 years.

Najib has consistently denied all charges. He has said he was misled by rogue bankers and that the case against him is political.

He has promised to appeal, and on Monday night appeared to pre-empt Tuesdays verdict, writing on Facebook: From day one, I have said this is the chance for me to clear my name. After this, we will go to the Court of Appeal. I am ready.

Outrage over the 1MDB scandal contributed significantly to Najibs defeat in a 2018 general election that saw the return of 92-year-old former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. It was the first time Najibs Barisan Nasional (BN) party had lost control of parliament since the founding of independent Malaysia in 1957.

Mahathir was himself ousted in a snap election in February this year, returning BN to power, and Najibs trial has been seen as a test of the countrys commitment to rooting out corruption.

Allegations of corruption over 1MDB have hung over Najib for more than five years, though charges were only brought once he had been defeated at the ballot box in 2018.

The fund was set up in 2009 not long after Najib, whose father and uncle were Malaysias second and third prime ministers, took office. It was ostensibly designed to accelerate Malaysias economic development.

But the fund accumulated billions in debt, and US investigators have alleged that at least $4.5bn (3.5bn) was stolen from it and laundered by Najibs associates to finance Hollywood films and buy hotels, a luxury yacht, artwork, jewellery and other extravagances.

Prosecutors allege that more than $1bn of the state fund made its way into the prime ministers personal accounts. His wife and several officials from his party and previous government have also been charged with graft.

The current trial involved a charge of abuse of power, three charges of criminal breach of trust and three money laundering charges.

The judge said Najib failed to raise reasonable doubt and that prosecutors had established beyond reasonable doubt that Najib misappropriated money for his own use.

The courts decision comes just days after Malaysia reached a $3.9bn (3bn) deal with Goldman Sachs over its role in helping 1MDB raise money.

It could have major ramifications for the current government. Analysts say it will likely boost the reputation of the current prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, who was fired as Najibs deputy (five years ago to the date of Tuesdays verdict) for speaking out over the 1MDB scandal.

But Muhyiddin now relies on Najibs party, as the largest in the current ruling BN alliance, to prop up his government. If it withdraws its support over the guilty verdict, it could trigger another snap election.
I went and begged, I lowered myself at their feet, so my sweet daughter could come back to me alive. They told me You are old, we respect you, but dont come again. 

MARIAM AKBARI, a 70-year-old Afghan woman who begged the local Taliban to release her daughter, a prison guard who was captured and later killed.
By Bay City News

A criminal complaint was filed Monday charging a Gilroy woman with wire fraud to secure donations from individuals for cancer treatments she never needed or received, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Between October 2012 and February 2016, Amanda Riley falsely claimed to have Hodgkin's lymphoma and that she was receiving treatments at various hospitals like Kaiser Permanente, City of Hope National Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Columbia University Hospital, and UCSF Medical Center, according to the complaint.

She also started her own blog that she shared on different social media platforms in order to solicit donations for her medical expenses.

On her blog, Riley started a donation page in 2013, https://www.supportamanda.com, enabling people to donate online. She also posted pictures depicting her receiving cancer treatment, her medical medicines, gifts from supporters and even friends and family wearing "Team Amanda" bracelets she was gifted.

Riley also claimed that she had to travel to New York to receive treatment and asked supporters to help her cover travel costs. To conceal her scheme, she altered a doctor's note to say that she was "in treatment for cancer" in April 2016.

Riley's messaging was very effective. From her online support page alone, she raised 447 donations totaling to $60,272.43 and after paying fees pocketed $58,256.86 between Sept. 13, 2013, and March 15, 2016, according to the complaint.

Friends, family and members of her church also donated in the form of checks. Others who came across Riley's campaign also organized their own fundraisers on her behalf like a Facebook challenge; a CrossFit fundraiser; a Christmas ornament sale fundraiser; a quilt raffle; a Chili's Grill & Bar fundraiser; and the auction on eBay of various items, including an electric guitar autographed by American country music artists such as John Michael Montgomery and LeAnn Rimes, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Riley is scheduled to appear in court before Judge Susan van Keulen on Aug. 27. If convicted, Riley faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain from her plot.

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.
As the Director of Pro Bono Services, Claud will report to the Chief Program Officer, working closely with the Director of Public Interest & Litigation and staff at all levels to develop and implement a strategic plan that aims to strengthen and expand pro bono support from lawyers, non-lawyers, private law firms, corporations, and other partners. This highly visible role will create, guide and supervise the direction of CLSMF's pro bono and volunteer programs, oversee pro bono and volunteer management system, including database, and establish protocols for case/volunteer recruitment, retention, status reports and feedback from clients and pro bono partners.

Prior to joining CLSMF, Claud was the Pro Bono Program Director at The Florida Bar Foundation where he fostered pro bono relationships and collaborations with bar associations, law firms, courts, law schools, legal aid organizations and other groups. In this role, Claud served as a resource for low-income Floridians, pro bono lawyers, and more than 30 civil legal aid organizations. Claud presented locally and nationally on the importance of pro bono work and ease of access to pro bono cases.

Claud has served as an assistant district attorney in Boston, Massachusetts, and as an assistant state attorney in Florida's 7th judicial circuit. He also practiced civil law in Central Florida with an active case load primarily consisting of family law, estate planning, and landlord tenant disputes.

Claud holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration and finance from the University of Florida and attended Northeastern University School of Law, where he earned his juris doctorate.

CLSMF Chief Executive Officer Jeff Harvey said, "We are excited to have Claud oversee our Pro Bono Services division. His extensive statewide experience in pro bono, as well as his exemplary track record in bringing together collaborators, will only further the impact we can have on the many clients we serve."

About CLSMF

Since 1966, CLSMF assists the area's low-to moderate-income residents obtain and maintain the necessities of life: food, shelter, healthcare, safety, and education by offering legal assistance and advocacy at no cost.

Contact:

Michelle Wargo

407-841-7777

[email protected]

SOURCE Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida Inc.

Related Links

https://www.clsmf.org


Vietnam became the seventh member of the Association of Southeast Asian Association of Nations (ASEAN) on July 28, 1995, marking a milestone in the countrys integration into regional affairs as well as in regional co-operation.

Over the past 25 years, Vietnam has demonstrated its goodwill, efforts, dynamism and responsibility and contributed to ASEANs achievements.

With the third largest population, fourth largest area among ASEAN countries and an important geographic and economic position in Southeast Asia, Vietnam has an important role in ASEAN.

Vietnam also plays a pivotal role in determining the goals, directions for development and formation of major ASEAN policies, such as the ASEAN Vision 2020 and plans to implement the vision, ASEAN Charter, roadmap for building the ASEAN Community 2015 and many other important agreements, including those on connecting and narrowing the development gaps.

Vietnam has also been involved in building the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, with the goal of deepening ASEAN connectivity and making its role in the region more important.

According to Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung, the clearest illustration of Vietnam's active participation is that the country is always among the member nations with the highest enforcement rate of the ASEAN Communitys master plans.

Vietnam has fulfilled its responsibilities as a member country by hosting many major conferences.

Vietnam held the sixth ASEAN Summit in Hanoi in December 1998 with important outcomes, including the launch of the Hanoi Action Program, contributing to the orientation of the blocs development, helping ASEAN overcome the regional financial crisis at the time.

Vietnamese ministries, sectors, as well as the National Assembly and civil organisations have also hosted many important ASEAN activities at various levels and sectors.

Vietnam fulfilled the role of ASEAN Chair in 2010 with practical results, promoting the establishment of the ASEAN Community 2015 and enhancing the role of ASEAN.

In recent years, Vietnam has acted as a co-ordinator in partnerships with major and important ASEAN partners such as China, the EU, India and Japan.

Economic links

Vietnam has participated in and promoted intra-regional economic links, especially in services and investment through the completion of negotiations on ASEAN Trade in Services Agreement (ATISA); built a roadmap for cutting barriers, reducing tariffs and promoted negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

According to the Vietnamese General Department of Customs, total trade turnover between Vietnam and ASEAN reached US$57 billion last year, a 10-fold increased compared to 25 years ago.

ASEAN is the fourth largest export market of Vietnam, behind only the EU, the US and China.

In 2019, the total export turnover of Vietnamese enterprises to ASEAN hit nearly $25 billion, up by 1.3 per cent compared to 2018 and 30 per cent compared to 2016.

In the first five months of 2020, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam's exports to ASEAN countries only reached $9.8 billion. However, according to businesses, besides difficulties, COVID-19 has also created opportunities for Vietnamese agricultural products to conquer the markets of Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

According to Vietnams Trade Office in Singapore, the office has connected with industry associations to boost the export of agricultural products and other food to Singapore. In March, the office made connections and recorded more than 20 agricultural product orders.

From the beginning of this year, vegetable and fruit exports from Vietnam to Thailand increased sharply. In the first four months, the figure reached nearly $58 million, up by more than 244 per cent over the same period last year.

According to the Multilateral Trade Policy Department under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, before 2010, Vietnams export products to ASEAN were mainly traditional ones such as crude oil and rice. Now the export products have been diversified with phones, computers, electronic products, components, steel, machinery, tools and spare parts.

Cohesive and responsive

2020 marks an important milestone when Vietnam has assumed the rotating Chair of ASEAN. This role is even more important when the world faces COVID-19 pandemic.

Vietnam started to prepare for the ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020 from last year when the COVID-19 pandemic had not begun.

Therefore, everything Vietnam prepared has turned upside down. However, Vietnam has quickly and promptly shifted the programme and focus of ASEAN 2020 to COVID-19, which has been applauded by member nations.

As a Chair of ASEAN 2020 themed 'Cohesive and Responsive', Vietnam has been active in leading and co-ordinating ASEAN's efforts and co-operating with partners to control and prevent the spread of COVID-19 as well as minimise the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic.

Vietnam worked with other countries to issue the Chairman's Statement on ASEAN collective response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 on February 14. The statement gave a warning over the pandemic and affirmed the commitment of ASEAN countries to regional and national co-operation.

Vietnam also held a special ASEAN summit and a special ASEAN+3 summit on COVID-19 response and organised meetings with partners such as China, the EU, the US and international organisations to together push back and control the pandemic.

Vietnam promoted holding two online meetings of the ASEAN Co-ordinating Council Working Group on Public Health Emergencies on March 31 and June 22 to discuss solutions to cope with COVID-19 and improve prevention capacity to respond more effectively to emergency medical situations in the future. In the context of a complex pandemic, Vietnam has held virtual meetings, demonstrating flexibility and relevance, helping ASEAN respond promptly to the pandemic.

On June 26, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired the 36th ASEAN Summit in an online format, the first official summit in the ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (centre) chairs the opening ceremony of the 36th ASEAN Summit on June 26, 2020. This was the first virtual ASEAN summit held in the history of ASEAN.  VNA/VNS Photo

At the summit, Vietnam and other ASEAN members discussed measures to build the ASEAN Community, consolidate solidarity, unity, and strengthen similarities and foster co-operation, looking towards the implementation of priorities and initiatives in 2020, enhancing ASEAN's initiatives in the face of current regional and international challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not only gaining success in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and being recognised globally, Vietnam was praised by leaders of other countries for offering assistance and sharing COVID-19 fighting experience.

Vietnam provided Laos and Cambodia with medical equipment, protective gear and testing kits worth VND7 billion, donated US$50,000 for disease prevention in Myanmar and provided hundreds of thousands of made-in-Vietnam masks to many other countries.

Dato Lim Jock Hoi, Secretary-General of ASEAN, recognised the achievements of Vietnam's Chairmanship this year while tackling the challenges of COVID-19.

Vietnam has demonstrated strong leadership in spearheading a collective regional response to COVID-19. Its Chairmanship theme of building a cohesive and responsive ASEAN is very relevant given the situation we find ourselves in. ASEANs strong response is in large part due to Vietnams leadership in encouraging our continued dialogue and collaboration, he said.

In terms of economic co-operation, Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said as the ASEAN Chair in 2020, Vietnam is responsible for taking the lead and working with partner countries to recover the regional economy through the issuance of joint statements to enhance co-operation and limit the impact of COVID-19.

ASEAN now has six free trade agreements with partners. These are huge co-operation frameworks that can strongly impact the structure of global trade.

The RCEP agreement Vietnam, ASEAN and partners are expected to sign in 2020 will certainly bring a new perspective to regional and global trade, he said.

This year Vietnam will have 16 to 17 initiatives to be implemented, covering economic and trade sectors as well as investment, technology, including accomplishing institutions, building infrastructure systems and strengthening intra-regional connectivity within ASEAN, he said.

Vietnam and ASEAN nations will together promote the central role of ASEAN in collaborating regional economic activities and in building sustainable co-operation frameworks.

As the chair of ASEAN in 2020, Vietnam will work with ASEAN countries to promote the adjustment of co-operation programmes in accordance with the new situation, especially the mid-term evaluation of the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community Master Plan until 2025, he said. VNS

Vietnam enjoys great benefit from ASEAN membership: Deputy FM Becoming a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has brought about great benefits to Vietnam in various fields, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung.
Back in June our beloved Seattle City Council passed Ordinance 119805 that forbad the Seattle Police Department from using pepper spray on mostly peaceful protesters as of July 26, 2020. So the Chief of Police put out a letter to business owners and residents on July 24 that, sorry Charlie, the legislation gives officers NO ability to safely intercede to preserve property in the midst of a large, violent crowd. But no worries, a federal judge just blocked the ordinance for two weeks so, on Saturday night when mostly peaceful protesters rioted in Seattle, the police department was able to use less lethal tools to disperse the crowd.

But imagine if the mostly peaceful leftie protesters were white nationalists marching to protest in the face of woke Seattle that Blue Lives Matter. I dont think that the Seattle City Council would be forbidding the use of tear gas or the less harmful pepper spray. Imagine the outrage among the media and the Twitterati and the bellowing call for the police to regain control of our streets. We know this to be true because of the elites positive reaction to Antifa types breaking up the tiki-torchers in Charlottesville in 2017.

I believe that our liberal friends have absolutely no idea how the flat-out riots, courtesy of Antifa and BLM, are playing to ordinary middle-class Commoners in America. How would they have any idea, since ordinary middle-class Commoners are not allowed a public voice in America right now?

And its not just that; liberals also have a crazed idea about the structure of American society. Last week Matt Taibbi wrote about how, for the cancel culturati, there are three groups in America.

It sees the human being as locked into one of three categories: members of oppressed groups, allies, and white oppressors.

So, they are proposing a three-layer model of America. On the bottom are the victim oppressed groups; in the middle are the progressive allies; and the overclass is the white oppressors.

Notice the difference between this and Curtis Yarvins Three-Layer model. He has Clients that map to oppressed groups. Presumably his Commoners are the allies. And his Gentry are the white oppressors.

Do you see the staggering lie in that analysis? That white oppressors, the supposed upper class, have any power, any influence in America? What planet do you lefties live on? I dont know how oppressed the oppressed peoples really are, but their allies are not helpless peaceful protesters but the ruling class of America, from education to media to the Democratic Party to woke capitalism. Just where does that leave room for white oppressors, pal? Other than white liberal oppressors.

In fact, the way to understand America is to say that the upper class, the educated Gentry, the real white oppressors, -- hello Nancy, Chuck, Joe, and all the corporate BLM yes-men -- are making war on the ordinary middle class, using their Clients, the supposed oppressed peoples, as cats paws with which to scratch and humiliate the ordinary middle-class Commoners. And the Gentry self-congratulate themselves for their specialness by virtue-signaling with Black Lives Matter yard-signs outside their gentrified houses in their high-caste gentrified close-in suburbs, and by reporting as mostly peaceful protests the flat-out riots that are turning major Democratic cities into hellholes.

There is a word for what you woke Gentry in education, media, and corporations are doing. It is called injustice. What you are doing is a monstrous injustice on ordinary Commoner Americans.

And to me the best way to understand what is happening is my maxim, there is no such thing as justice, only injustice.

Anyone fighting for justice is, in fact, fighting to remove a felt injustice. Okay, the day arrives when Congress has written a new law and staffed a new bureaucracy. But how does anyone know how this new justice will affect other people? They dont, and they dont care. All they care about is justice for themselves and staffing the new bureaucracy with their political friends.

So I say that woke politics is really cool for Gentry and their oppressed people Clients. But it is hell for ordinary American Commoners and it is going to get worse.

One fine day ordinary American Commoners will decide that they are going to fight the injustice meted out by the educated Gentry, because they have nothing left to lose. Maybe they already have. But youd never know, because 62 percent of Americans are afraid to express their political beliefs. For conservatives, its 77 percent.

One fine day, white liberal oppressors will realize that their rage for justice is just a rage for political power, and all that political power ever creates is injustice.

This is not news, liberals. A while back some notorious white slave owners decided that it would be a good thing to limit political and government power. I wonder whatever happened to their statues?

Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also get his American Manifesto and his Road to the Middle Class.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against attempts to further heighten tensions in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone when he spoke with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan by telephone on Monday.

The two men discussed the recent deadly clashes on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan during the phone conversation which the Kremlin said took place at the initiative of the Turkish side.

Vladimir Putin stressed the importance of preventing any steps that could cause an escalation in tensions, the Kremlin reported in a statement.

Both presidents spoke in favor of resolving the conflict through peaceful means, through talks.They expressed their readiness to coordinate efforts to stabilize the region, it said.

Erdogans office also said the two leaders talked about the Armenia-Azerbaijan tension but gave no details.

Turkey has blamed Armenia for the hostilities on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border which broke out on April 12 and continued for several days, leaving at least 17 soldiers from both sides dead. It has pledged to continue to strongly support Azerbaijan in the Karabakh conflict, including with military assistance.

Meeting with senior Azerbaijani military officials on July 16, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar vowed that Armenia will be brought to account and will be drowned under this plot. Erdogans National Security Council said afterwards that Ankara will support any decision by Azerbaijan.

Armenia has condemned these unusually strongly-worded statements that raised the possibility of Turkish intervention in the Karabakh conflict. It has branded Turkey a security threat to Armenia and the region.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Ankara to exercise restraint in its reaction to the Armenian-Azerbaijani skirmishes in a July 23 phone call with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Russia is allied to Armenia and has thousands of troops stationed in the South Caucasus state. By contrast, Turkey has close ties with Azerbaijan cemented by ethnic and cultural affinities between the two Turkic nations.

Erdogan phoned Putin hours after it was announced that the Azerbaijani and Turkish armies will begin on Wednesday joint military exercises in various parts of Azerbaijan. A short video released by the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry showed a convoy of Turkish military trucks carrying soldiers and heavy weapons entering Azerbaijans Nakhichevan region in advance of the drills.
Madhya Pradesh has registered as many as 14,207 new patients of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in July till Sunday, which is more than the cumulative figure of 13,593 reported between March 20 and June 30.

The death toll in the state is equally worrying as more than nine patients of the coronavirus disease died every day in July on average, a figure that was more than five till June 30, according to the health departments bulletins.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

The situation has gone from bad to worse in the state from lockdown to Unlock period with 132 new Covid-19 patients being identified every day on average till June 30 from March 20 when the first four patients were identified in Jabalpur.

This number shot up to more than 546 patients every day in July on average or an increase of 313.63% patients daily.

Till June 30, the number of Covid-19 patients who died was more than five per day on an average, 5.55 to be precise. It rose to more than nine patients in July every day or an increase of 65.58% daily.

The week-wise toll in July also suggests an aggravating situation with an average of seven deaths per day in the first week. In the second week, the average was almost the same but in the third week, the figure shot up to 12 deaths per day and in the past eight days, it was 13 deaths daily on average.

Based on data from March 20 to July 26, the death rate has come down to 3.19% as of Sunday night against 4.20% as on June 30 but this is primarily because the number of Covid-19 patients has been increasing alarmingly.

At the same time, the recovery rate has come down to 68.82% as of Sunday night from 76.47% as was registered on June 30. Similarly, the active cases which stood at 2,626 on June 30 night alarmingly rose to 7,857 on Sunday night.

The grim situation drove the state government to announce a 10-day long lockdown in the state capital of Bhopal, where it has gone from bad to worse, while authorities in Gwalior and Morena clamped curfew in the cities.

What is worrisome is the fact that the number of deaths has alarmingly gone up in July despite more and more awareness in public about the disease as compared to the first couple of months when the state government cited late arrival of patients in hospitals for the death rate being on a higher side, Amulya Nidhi, a public health expert, said.

This is when the states like West Bengal, Gujarat and not to say of Kerala have shown marked improvement in their situation, he added.

He also pointed out that the government claims to have ramped up its testing facilities in the past four months or so and upgraded its health facilities and even launched a Kill Corona campaign in July for a door to door survey across the state.

This situation demands the immediate intervention of the central government to look into the problem areas in the entire state from the state government to the grassroots level.

SR Azad, another public health expert, said lockdown or curfew will be of no help unless the state government chalks down a comprehensive plan and implements it strictly and honestly from the state level to the ward and village level.

At the same time, the community participation in the governments plan is a must which is lacking so far. It is all bureaucratic approach with which the government is working, Azad said.

Dr Prabhuram Chaudhary, the states health minister, said the governments priority is to control the spread of coronavirus disease in every district.

We have increased the number of Covid tests significantly. Coupled with this the fever clinics have also helped. Now, more and more people are being identified and treated, Chaudhary said.

We are reviewing the situation of each and every district under the leadership of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. My appeal to all the people is to follow social distancing norms and other safety norms, the minister said.
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has announced that 303 of its vehicles have been damaged since the death of George Floyd on 25 May.

On Monday, the department announced that the cost of the damage to police vehicles totalled nearly $1m, (773,835), according to the Associated Press.

The department claims that of the 303 vehicles, 14 have been written off due to fire damage, seven are still being repaired and the rest are back in use.

Protests that broke out last month in Minneapolis quickly spread to the every state across the US following Mr Floyds death on 25 May while in the custody of a then Minneapolis police officer.

Demonstrators clashed with police during the protests in opposition to police brutality against African Americans in the first few weeks and several cars were damaged and set alight, while multiple officers were filmed using excessive force.

Some protesters in late May and early June were arrested for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at NYPD police cars and their cases are still pending in federal court.

One of those demonstrators, 31-year-old lawyer Urooj Rahman, has been accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail into a police car on 30 May, but is currently on bail pending trial.

The protests have been relatively peaceful recently, but last week, the NYPDs chief of department Terence Monahan and several other officers were injured during anti-police and pro-police demonstrations on Brooklyn Bridge.

In response to the incident, officers cleared an encampment in front of New Yorks City Hall, which began as a protest spot against police brutality, that the department claimed had recently turned into a place for homeless people to gather, according to the New York Times.

Vehicles are still being damaged in the city and in Manhattan on Saturday a man used a protest sign to bash in the window of a police car, while another person wrote graffiti on a department van.

Three vehicles in total were damaged during the incidents, but the department confirmed that no officers were injured.
The man accused of murdering Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe could be found guilty of manslaughter if the jury finds that he killed the garda but only intended to fire a warning shot, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

Aaron Brady's barrister Michael O'Higgins SC told the jury that his client did not shoot Det Gda Donohoe and was not involved in the robbery that led to his death. But counsel also told them that if they believe the prosecution case that Mr Brady was the gunman, they should consider that, "if a shot is fired as a warning that might be reprehensible and results in an unlawful killing, but not murder."Presiding judge Mr Justice Michael White, beginning his charge to the jury, said that a manslaughter verdict is possible but would be "unusual" given the circumstances. He said that is just his opinion and it is open to the jury to find that the gun was fired as a warning or accidentally and to bring a verdict of manslaughter.

Aaron Brady (29) from New Road, Crossmaglen, Co Armagh has pleaded not guilty to the capital murder of Det Gda Adrian Donohoe who was then a member of An Garda Siochana on active duty on January 25, 2013 at Lordship Credit Union, Bellurgan, Co Louth. Mr Brady has also pleaded not guilty to a charge of robbing approximately e7,000 in cash and assorted cheques on the same date and at the same location.



Mr O'Higgins finished his closing speech today, telling the jury that there are multiple possible verdicts open to them. The prosecution case is that Mr Brady is guilty of robbery and capital murder but a verdict of guilty of robbery and ordinary murder is also possible. Mr Brady could be guilty of robbery and manslaughter or guilty of robbery only. If he is not guilty of robbery, Mr O'Higgins said, then it would follow that he is not guilty of anything in relation to the death of Det Gda Donohoe.

Counsel said he has put the case as strongly as he could that Mr Brady was not involved in the robbery or the shooting of Det Gda Donohoe. But if the jury finds Mr Brady was involved in the robbery Mr O'Higgins asked them to consider the evidence of Detective Garda Joe Ryan who was at the scene and described the shooter as being six feet one inch tall. Mr Brady has been measured at different times at five feet seven inches to five feet nine inches.

To be convicted of capital murder the jury must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Brady was the shooter and that he knew he was shooting a garda who was acting in the course of his duty or was reckless as to whether he was a garda. Mr O'Higgins reminded the jury they had heard evidence that the raiders who approached gardai shouted "Give me the money, give us the money," and "give us the keys, give us the money." Counsel asked the jury: "Is that consistent with knowing that these people were guards?"Mr O'Higgins also questioned the evidence of prosecution witness Det Gda Seamus O'Donnell who said that he believed the shooter was six feet away from Det Gda Donohoe when the shot was fired. Mr O'Higgins said CCTV footage suggests it was "more like nine or ten feet" using the length of the garda car as a guide. He also pointed out that the shooter's reaction to the recoil of the gun suggests that the shooter was inexperienced with a firearm.



Mr O'Higgins also criticized the garda investigation, asking the jury why they had not investigated his client's links to diesel laundering on the night Det Gda Donohoe was shot. He accused the prosecution of coming to court with a "sculpted case" that is selective and highly editorialised. Evidence relating to fuel laundering, counsel said, was only available to the jury because the defence had presented it. He criticized retired former detective inspector Mr Pat Marry, who he said had failed to follow up on evidence that Mr Brady was laundering diesel in south Armagh at the relevant time because he "believed" Mr Brady was at Lordship Credit Union.

Counsel said: "That's the antithesis of investigation, the polar opposite. Imagine a solicitor taking a case for a client based on what he believes happened." He added: "It is beyond comprehension that facts that were significant were not checked because the Senior Investigating Officer didn't believe he was there."

Mr O'Higgins also criticized gardai who investigated a report of a rumour that Mr Brady was laundering diesel that night with another known diesel launderer. Counsel said the garda came back with a report but didn't find out where the information had come from or whether it was a reliable source or whether it was second, third or fourth hand information. Mr O'Higgins read from Mr Marry's own book in which the former inspector detailed the importance of closing off every angle in an investigation, even if it seems far-fetched. Counsel asked the jury to consider if such high standards were applied in this investigation.

Mr O'Higgins referred to his client's comment during cross examination that he is a "victim", which counsel said "got a lot of traction and was the subject of a lot of comment." Mr O'Higgins said his client is entitled to the presumption of innocence and that all he was doing was, "having the temerity to say, I not only have the presumption of innocence but I am actually innocent." Mr O'Higgins suggested that the cross examination of Mr Brady was carried out to create "a set of circumstances where you might be inclined to dislike him. I ask you not to go down that road because it's not profitable in terms of the task before you."

Mr O'Higgins also defended the decision not to serve a notice of alibi until last September when the trial was originally due to begin in October. He said the defence was still waiting on disclosure from the prosecution and described as "hideous" the idea that they should advise their client to rely on a notice of alibi without knowing the prosecution's case.

Counsel told the jury that they should not be swayed by the "black moral cloud" hanging over the case. He reminded them that the prosecution must prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and asked them to be sure of their verdict. A time will come, he said, when they are reading a paper or walking the dog, and they will look back on the time they spent in the Central Criminal Court. He added: "You have got to say to yourself when that moment comes, 'I dont have a niggling doubt that I didnt do the right thing.'" Every juror, he said, has a voice and should use it. In conclusion, Mr O'Higgins described the circumstantial evidence put forward by the prosecution as "smoke and mirrors. There's smoke, but where's the fire? Is the centre of the fire where the prosecution says or is it somewhere else?"

He asked the jury to stress test the prosecution case and say : "Has the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt? In my respectful submission, it has not."

Mr Justice White will continue his charge to the six men and seven women of the jury tomorrow.
The British government has extended its advice against non-essential travel to mainland Spain to include the Canary and Balearic Islands due to the risk posed by the coronavirus outbreaks in the country.

This advice is based on evidence of increases in cases of Covid-19 in several regions, but particularly in Aragon, Navarre and Catalonia (which include the cities of Zaragoza, Pamplona and Barcelona), the British Foreign Office said in a statement published Monday evening.

In the statement, the Foreign Office said it is not advising those already traveling in Spain to leave at this time. Travelers should follow the advice of the local authorities on how best to protect themselves and others, including any measures that they bring in to control the virus.

German travel advisory On Tuesday, Germany advised against non-essential travel to three Spanish regions grappling with a surge in coronavirus cases: Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre. The news delivers a fresh blow to Spains tourism sector, which is already reeling from Britains weekend decision to reintroduce a 14-day quarantine for anyone traveling from Spain.

On Saturday, the United Kingdom updated its travel recommendations to advise against non-essential travel to mainland Spain, but excluded Spains holiday islands. It also reimposed a 14-day quarantine for travelers from the country, a requirement several Spanish regions, including the Balearic and Canary islands, were hoping to be exempt from.

The British government added that anyone who returns to the United Kingdom from Spain will have to self-isolate for two weeks, but reiterated that it was not advising visitors to cut short their visits.

The Spanish government and the regional authorities in the two archipelagos confirmed on Monday that they were negotiating the creation of a safe travel corridor with the UK for the Canary and Balearic Islands, where the coronavirus incidence is much lower than in mainland Spain and lower than Britains. But the Foreign Offices decision to extend the travel warning to all of Spain on Monday is likely to complicate these efforts.

Passengers waiting to check into a flight to the UK in Tenerife a day after the quarantine announcement. Ramon de la Rocha (EFE)

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has defended the safety of Spains tourism industry in the face of the UKs quarantine requirement. In an interview Monday night with the television network Telecinco, the leader of Spains Socialist Party (PSOE) said that the sector has exercised responsibility with regard to the health emergency. Sanchez confirmed that the British government did not inform Spain of its decision to reimpose a quarantine before it made the announcement, and said the Spanish government was continuing to negotiate to lift the measure.

We are talking with British authorities to try to get them to reconsider a measure that, in our opinion, is not well adjusted if we consider the epidemiological criteria of Spain, particularly in some tourist destinations in our country, said Sanchez.

The Foreign Offices statement comes on the heels of a video released by the UK Ambassador to Spain, Hugh Elliot explaining that the self-isolation policy applies for the whole country.

A Foriegn Office spokesperson said: We have considered the overall situation for British nationals traveling to and from the Balearic and Canary islands, including the impact of the requirement to self-isolate on return to the UK, and concluded that we should advise British nationals against all non-essential travel to the whole of Spain.

According to July 25 figures from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the 14-day cumulative incidence of the virus in the Canary and Balearic islands is 5.8 cases and eight cases per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively. This is significantly lower than the incidence in the UK which is at 14.7 cases.

The decision to extend the recommendation against non-essential travel to all of the country, including the Balearic and Canary islands, is expected to lead to thousands of more holiday cancellations to Spain and devastate Spains already ailing tourism industry.

English version by Melissa Kitson.
The idea of having someone poke around your mouth might be panic-inducing when we now know that COVID-19 spreads through droplets in the air, but dental offices in Ontario have been allowed to see patients again since June 1.

I myself went to see my dentist over the weekend after my appointment to get a filling was delayed for three months (I also had to fix an exposed nerve at the back of my mouth that made flossing and eating not fun at all). As someone who still isnt ready to dine at a patio, let along dine inside a restaurant whenever Toronto moves into Phase 3, I actually felt quite safe the whole time I was there  mouth agape and all.

Dentists guidelines for infection control were updated as recently as three years ago, so we already had strict protocols in place, says Dr. Lesli Hapak, president of the Ontario Dental Association and a Windsor-based periodontist. She adds: Throughout the pandemic, we enhanced these protocols.

She and the ODA have been trying to get the word out to the public on what returning patients can expect at the dental office (theres a COVID-19 question and answer page on the ODA site for patients).

Hapak explains some of the protocols now in place (my dentist in Markham followed the same steps she outlined). They include a pre-screen call asking whether the patient has travelled recently or are experiencing flu-like symptoms; staggered appointments to limit the number of patients gathered in the reception area; fewer patients daily to allow more time for cleaning (Hapak says shes been going through a backlog of patients whose appointments were postponed since March); no more magazines or toys in the waiting area; masks are mandatory upon entering the office; Plexiglas barriers at the reception; and, if the waiting room is small, patients are told to wait outside or in their cars until their appointment. The receptionist at my dentist also took my temperature upon entering.

My procedures, plus a regular cleaning, took about an hour altogether which isnt that different from before. The only thing that was different was that I had to rinse my mouth with mouthwash at the beginning.

Hapak says that a pre-procedural rinse helps minimize bacteria in the mouth. Many dentists are now using a hydrogen peroxide-based rinse, which is thought to also help with viruses.

Since I couldnt wear a mask in the dental chair, my dentist and her assistants wore a disposable mask over a respirator mask, a disposable gown, as well as a plastic shield to protect their eyes. Hapak says the biggest challenge for dentists right now is procuring enough Personal Protective Equipment, as much of it is being prioritized towards going to people working in hospitals, meat processing plants and long-term-care facilities.

Some practices in the province have been charging patients with a PPE fee to help pay for the equipment. The ODAs site says the fees can range from $8 to $18, and its up to the individual clinics to decide whether to charge anything (mine didnt).

I definitely felt safe and everyone around me when my mask was off was wearing much more PPE than anyone else Ive come across during my limited outings since March. Still, Hapak says its up to the patients to decide if theyre ready to come back.

Many of the patients that are coming in are happy to get back in. Theyve made comments that theyve been waiting to get their teeth cleaned for several months and can feel the buildup. But some of my patients are immunocompromised and are a bit apprehensive about going anywhere, including the supermarket, so you have to appreciate that. You inform them but they have to feel comfortable about coming in.
New Delhi: The Rajasthan government on Tuesday (July 28) forwarded a revised proposal to Governor Kalraj Mishra seeking to convene assembly session from 31st July. The fresh proposal includes the government's reply to the three conditions that the Governor had earlier raised in case the session is convened, according to sources.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot today chaired the Cabinet meeting to discuss the points raised by the Governor. The revised note has been forwarded to the Raj Bhawan today after approval from the Cabinet, a PTI report said citing official sources.

The government note is learned to have not mentioned if it wants to seek a vote of confidence in the assembly session.

On the issue of 21-day notice required for calling the session, Rajasthan Transport Minister Pratap Singh said that 10 days have already passed and asked why did the governor not give a date if he is talking the notice.

Speaking to reporters in Jaipur, the minister said that it is for the Business Advisory Committee of the assembly to decide when asked about the agenda of the session.

Regarding seating arrangement as per social distancing norms in the assembly, he said that it was for the Speaker to look after.

Criticising the BJP, the minister said that the party has made it a prestige issue, adding that the BJP stands exposed.

In a related development, BJP leader Madan Dilawar today filed another petition before the Rajasthan High Court against the merger of six Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs in the state with Congress party. This is the third petition against the merger.

Earlier in the day, Dilawar had filed a second petition in the Rajasthan High Court challenging the merger of MLAs.

Dilawar told ANI that the petition seeks cancellation of the membership of the six BSP MLAs from the state legislative Assembly, adding "Rajasthan High Court had dismissed my petition observing that it did not include a copy of the Legislative Assembly Speaker`s order for the merger of the BSP MLAs. He (Speaker) deliberately did not give me a copy of the order."

Notably, Dilawar had also sat on a protest in the office of the Vidhan Sabha Secretary yesterday demanding a copy of the order given by Rajasthan Speaker on the merger.

In a relief for Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot-led government, the High Court on Monday dismissed Dilawar`s plea against the merger.

Dilawar moved the petition in the High Court seeking directions to quash the merger of six BSP MLAs with the Congress party, which had helped the ruling party in retaining a majority in the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly.
Officials reported slight improvements Monday to weekly measures tracking the spread of coronavirus in San Antonio, but they cautioned that the areas outbreak still is far from under control.

Bexar County recorded 355 new coronavirus cases, bringing the local total to 36,438. For the first time in nearly a month, there were no new deaths related to COVID-19.

The positivity rate, or percentage of tests that come back positive, was 17.7 percent, down from 22 percent the previous week. The rate improved for the second week in a row.

The time it takes cases to double has risen to 18 days, a sign of progress over the previous week, indicating that the virus spread has slowed.

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 have been slowly declining since mid-July, but they remain high. As of Monday, 1,073 patients were in area hospitals, up 29 from Sunday. There were 431 patients who were critically ill, 294 of whom were breathing with the support of a ventilator. Both were slight increases from the previous day.

On ExpressNews.com: Towards the fire: Still filled with COVID-19 patients, San Antonio hospitals dance on the edge of disaster

We are starting to trend in the right direction, but this is going to be a slow decline, said Mayor Ron Nirenberg during the daily coronavirus briefing.

Officials are aiming for a positivity rate under 5 percent, which would indicate that efforts to contain the virus were working. Before coronavirus cases began surging in San Antonio last month, the local rate was about 3.5 percent.

They also are striving to lower the daily number of reported cases, which consistently is in the hundreds and has exceeded 1,000 several times since early June.

We still have a long way to go, said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff.

He added that the area was entering a critical period for curtailing the spread of the virus, with the approach of flu season and the potential restart of in-person instruction in schools after Labor Day.

Infection rates remain high among children and young adults.

At about 1 in 5 cases, people in their 20s account for the largest proportion of cases. Children now account for 12 percent of cases in San Antonio. Five percent of people who have died after contracting the virus are under the age of 40, and more people from that age group have become critically ill than during the early months of the pandemic.

Young people, you are not immune from this virus, Nirenberg said.

On ExpressNews.com: Were all fearful of what could happen: COVID deaths rise in San Antonio as hospitals are pushed to capacity

Until Monday, San Antonio had been recording high numbers of daily deaths from COVID-related complications, reporting 66 deaths in the last week alone.

State raises death count

The Texas Department of State Health Services on Monday said it was changing the way it records COVID-related fatalities. Instead of tallying deaths based on reports from individual counties, moving forward state metrics will rely on death certificates, which must be submitted within 10 days of a persons demise.

Using those parameters, Texas health officials identified nearly 700 unreported COVID-19 deaths statewide, including twice as many than were previously recorded for June. More than 1,300 people died that month alone, according to the new data.

DSHS said it is not including deaths of people who had COVID but died from an unrelated cause. COVID can be listed as a cause of death whether or not the person had tested positive for it.

The federal government has recommended the use of death certificates to track fatalities from the pandemic since April.

The state also raised the number of coronavirus deaths in Bexar County to 480, far higher than the 323 deaths that had been reported locally as of Monday.

Anita Kurian, head of the communicable disease division at the Metropolitan Health District, said during the briefing Monday evening that she had not seen the state counts and could not explain the discrepancy.

She said Metro Health has tracked all COVID-related deaths reported by hospitals and the county medical examiners office.

Staff writers Jeremy Blackman and Jeremy Wallace contributed reporting. | Lauren Caruba covers health care and medicine in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Lauren, become a subscriber. lcaruba@express-news.net | Twitter: @LaurenCaruba
10 Chinese people have been arrested while trying to get into Lao Cai Province on July 27.

10 Chinese people have been arrested while trying to get into Lao Cai Province on July 27.







Chinese men arrested for illegally entering Vietnam

At 1 am on July 27, the police in Lao Cai found five Chinese people entering Vietnam illegally. They crossed the border river into Lao Cai Province and continued to be carried on a motorbike by Duong Dinh Quyen and Nguyen Thanh Cuong to Hanoi before going to HCM City.



Quyen and Cuong admitted to being hired by a person in Khanh Hoa Province and another hired man had left Lao Cai with the Chinese customers on his car not long ago. The car carrying five Chinese people was later found by the traffic police on Noi Bai-Lao Cai Highway at around 4-5 am.



The Chinese men admitted that they were from Guizhou Province, China, and travelled by boat for four hours to Lao Cai.



On July 1, the police in Lao Cai City also arrested three people and busted a ring that transferred Chinese people illegally into Vietnam via the border river at Ban Vuoc Village. The case has been transferred to the police in Lao Cai Province. VOV/Dtinews
An appellate court sitting in Lagos has upheld the 60-year sentence of a former supervisor of Chrisland School, Adegboyega Adenekan, who was convicted of defiling a two-year and 11-month-old pupil of the school in 2016.

Justice Sybil Nwaka had, on October 24, 2019, convicted Adenekan after finding him guilty of defilement filed against him by the state government.

Dissatisfied with the judgement, Adenekans counsel, Mr Olatunde Adejuyigbe (SAN), proceeded to the appellate court to challenge the decision of the lower court.

Delivering judgement yesterday, the three-man panel, led by Justice Mohammad Garba, dismissed the appeal for lack of merit.
UNICEF warns that about 6,800 more maternal deaths could occur in Nigeria in six months as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts routine services

With an estimated 6.4 million babies to be born in Nigeria during the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many expectant women who should be glad at the figure have rather become apprehensive.

The figure released by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) shows that the babies will be born up to 40 weeks from March 11, when COVID-19 was recognised as a pandemic.

Although, the World Health Organisation (WHO) maintains that, at present, there is no evidence that pregnant women are at higher risk of severe illness than the general population, pregnant women in Nigeria are bothered about bringing life during a pandemic, considering the associated risks, strained healthcare and fear of infection.

Before the outbreak of COVID-19, high-quality and timely maternal healthcare services were deficient, inaccessible or unaffordable for thousands of women in Nigeria, a factor that contributes to maternal mortality in the country.

To exacerbate trepidation, reports of pregnant COVID-19 patients who died in Ekiti, Jigawa and Ogun states went viral on social media and the mainstream media.

UNICEF warns that about 6,800 more maternal deaths could occur in Nigeria in six months as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts routine services and threatens to weaken the health system.

We have made steady progress in reducing preventable child and maternal deaths in Nigeria over the last 20 years.

It would be devastating  if that progress is lost or reversed  for Nigerian families, communities and the country as a whole, Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Country Representative in Nigeria, says.

Nigeria's maternal mortality ratio of 512 per 100,000 live births, as contained in the National Demographic and Health Survey 2018 Report, shows no major reduction from the 545 per 100,000 live births in the NDHS 2013 Report.

With this, it becomes important to provide lifesaving support to pregnant women, especially COVID-19 positive ones.

Among those who have taken up the challenge of giving hope to pregnant women, who tested positive for COVID-19, is a multidisciplinary team of obstetricians, anaesthetists, neonatologists, nurses, psychiatrists and infectious disease control experts at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba.

The team of specialists has delivered five COVID-19 pregnant women of babies, including a set of twins.

Prof. Chinyere Ezeaka of the Neonatology Unit, Department of Paediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, believes that COVID-19 infection is not a death sentence even for pregnant women.

Ezeaka, a member of the team of LUTH specialists, however, regrets that many pregnant women, because of fear of stigmatisation, are avoiding antenatal care and child delivery in hospitals.

Some are delivering in their houses, calling nurses to come and treat them at home, while some use traditional and religious centres for delivery.

I am using this opportunity to appeal to pregnant women to stop devising various means of avoiding hospitals.

They should attend antenatal clinics and come to hospital to deliver babies with the help of skilled birth attendants, Ezeaka urges.

Affirming that being pregnant and positive for COVID-19 is not the end of the world, or a reason to despair, she notes that medical practitioners have successfully delivered pregnant COVID-19 patients of their babies.

Highlighting measures that will assist Nigeria to achieve safe delivery for pregnant COVID-19 patients, Ezeaka advises that every state should have a designated centre for treating and delivering pregnant COVID-19 patients.

The professor says a dedicated centre for pregnant COVID-19 patients is the best practice globally, arguing that not all COVID-19 treatment centres can take deliveries.

COVID-19 will be a threat for a while. I would advise proper planning, coordination and communication at the national, state and local levels to ensure effective response.

There must be the full protocol for antenatal, pre-delivery care; centres for birth should be well equipped with full monitoring, theatre and diagnostic equipment for mothers and babies.

There should be plans for where the stable babies with symptomatic mothers will be, and also plans for babies that might test positive; designated and isolated areas should be created, she urges.

On the pregnant COVID-19 patients at LUTH, Dr Christian Makwe, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, discloses that four of them were asymptomatic.

According to Makwe, their COVID-19 status was detected based on their exposure and contact with people who tested positive for the virus.

Makwe, Delivery Coordinator, Pregnant COVID-19 Patients, LUTH, says, however, that the fifth patient exhibited symptoms of COVID-19: coughing, fever and breathlessness.

On whether all pregnant COVID-19 patients should be restricted to Caesarean Section (CS) for delivery, Makwe says the delivery option should be individualised.

One of the patients had done two Caesarean Sections; automatically she doesn't qualify for vaginal delivery. Another patient had done a fibroid surgery.

For the multiple birth, the first baby was breech, and was blocking the birth canal, definitely such a delivery has to be CS, he says.

According to the obstetrician, one of the patients requested for CS, saying she didn't want to go through the stress of vaginal delivery.

For the fifth patient, her symptoms were worsening and we felt it might compromise the baby's status; we had to conduct the delivery preterm  37th week  to save her and the baby.

Makwe says vaginal delivery will be done for COVID-19 patients who request for it, and whose medical conditions are deemed clinically satisfactory.

All the babies delivered tested negative and their clinical status stable, Makwe adds.

According to him, LUTH Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department is committed to eliminating maternal morbidity and mortality.

He, however, says, that the department needs better facilities to function more effectively.

He urges governments to invest more in maternal and child care, noting that maternal health, neonatal morbidity and mortality are indices used to measure a country's health status.

The healthcare team is willing and has demonstrated the capacity; we just need the support.

Provide us with more PPE, equipment, and make everything standard, and we will see more people join the fight against COVID-19, he adds.

According to one of the five pregnant COVID-19 positive women, each patient's experience differs.

I was not sick throughout and I tested negative to the virus in less than two weeks. The medical personnel were very kind, understanding and supportive.

However, facilities in the hospital are very poor. Imagine being in a room without air conditioners, and the doctors performing surgery dripping with sweat in their PPE.

It is not a good experience, the hospital management and government should improve facilities in LUTH, she urges.

The survivor also calls for improvement in the way patients' COVID-19 status is being relayed to them.

According to her, she was traumatised at the news until medical personnel at an isolation centre counselled and encouraged her.

Dr Olutola Olatosi, Consultant Anaesthetist, is, however, confident that the medical team establishes rapport with patients and allays their fears.

He adds that patients are monitored through telemedicine to provide psychosocial support and ensure their wellbeing.

On the anaesthetic techniques deployed for surgery for pregnant COVID-19 patients, Olatosi reveals that regional -based techniques are used.

According to him, the techniques have better post operation outcomes and rapid recovery among patients.

He calls for an urgent increase in the number of anaesthetists in the country,

as a strategy to reduce maternal mortality.

He notes that there are about 200 specialist anaesthetists serving Nigeria and about 600 undergoing training.

It is important that we grow the number if we are to reduce the rate of maternal mortality, because most patients with complications will require surgical interventions and safe anaesthesia.

We have to address that with emphasis on manpower development because some patients will present with COVID-19 and other co-existing medical problems.

It is an existential challenge for us to provide critical care, he adds.

He appeals to the Federal Government to support LUTH with more critical care equipment options that will enable it to function efficiently toward saving more lives.

Prof. Wasiu Adeyemo, Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, LUTH, points out that oxygen is critical in the management and survival of patients with severe cases of COVID-19.

Adeyemo emphasises that oxygen saves lives, adding that its provision is a critical component for emergency respiratory resuscitation globally.

Mr Rotimi Dada, Head of Theatre Nurses, is of the opinion that implementation of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) and other safety measures for healthcare workers and patients is of great importance to the team.

Dada urges that the hospital's IPC Committee should map out the dedicated theatre and delivery area, and decide on work flows for a unidirectional area.

Corroborating, Makwe says proper training of every member of the team on IPC, wearing and removal of PPE, and emphasis on hygiene are done constantly to reduce exposure of health workers and patients to infections.

We have a dedicated operating space and we streamline the number of operational staffs in the operating room to reduce the number of people that might be exposed to infection.

We place a priority on IPC because it is key. We know that if we have a member of the team infected, it will demoralise other members and affect our capacity to function effectively, he argues.

On the role of the pharmacy department in supporting delivery of pregnant COVID-19 patients, Mrs Olabisi Opanuga,

Head of Pharmacy Department, LUTH, says the department must always be on ground to ensure the medical team gets all the required supplies for a successful operation.

We give the patients medications depending on their comorbidities.

She is, however, worried at the challenge in getting Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health workers on the frontline of the fight against COVID-19.

She notes that PPEs are scarce and expensive.

The procedure itself for normal Cesarean Section is N65,000, but the PPE to be worn by health workers is over N300, 000, she says.

Opanuga appeals to the Federal Government to intervene through adequate funding.

Local production of PPE should be explored and encouraged, with the government providing financial support.

Nigerians are ingenious, we should be able to produce standard PPE which will help to reduce cost, she urges.

Dr Tunji Akintade, Chairman, Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria, is optimistic that concerted efforts will save more pregnant COVID-19 patients and their babies.

Akintade advises that advocacy and awareness should be sustained to enlighten pregnant women and the general public on the preventive measures against the virus pending discovery of a vaccine.

Analysts hail Nigeria's giant steps in the fight against COVID-19 particularly in giving hope to pregnant patients.

They urge more support for health workers and institutions to achieve a stronger response. (END)
Mr Donaghue suggested with around 1600 travellers in hotel quarantine and  prior to the border clamp-down with Victoria  around 3300 people arriving from interstate each week, WA was willing to accept some risk the virus could return, and asked whether that risk would be increased by opening to other COVID-19 free areas. While everybody recognises the reintroduction of COVID-19 in Western Australia would be a serious thing, the reality of the matter is that even with the border direction, that risk exists in an appreciable way, he said. WA's Chief Health Officer Andrew Robertson. Credit:Lauren Pilat A probability table created by epidemiologist Tony Blakely estimated the chances of a person from NSW flying into Perth with COVID-19 and causing an outbreak in any given month was four per cent, which then reduced to 0.18 per cent if quarantine and testing measures were put in place. The figures were based on 41,000 travellers arriving each month, which represented 50 per cent of pre-COVID travel levels.

Dr Robertson did not agree with some of the assumptions made in the scenario, however WA had no comparable modelling. Fellow expert witness, Associate Professor Kamalini Lokuge, said modelling in this scenario was unhelpful due to the evolving nature of the disease. Asked if it would be more appropriate to ban travel into WA from coronavirus hotspots, rather than a blanket ban, Dr Robertson said the five to seven day lag to understand how the virus was spreading created an unknown risk. "The reservation with hotspots is they are reflective of what's been happening with the disease five to seven days previously," he said. "We're looking backwards in time, so to get ahead of it, if you just concentrate on hotspots you are well behind where the actual epidemic is and we've seen that illustrated very clearly in Victoria where the number of new hotspots was being added to daily."

Dr Robertson said the risk of the disease returning could never be fully removed, adding the state was considering stricter measures for truck drivers entering WA to have to wear masks and get COVID-19 tests, given the cohort was one of few exempt from border and quarantine requirements. He said hotel quarantine procedures had also been reviewed in light of three guards becoming infected since March. Loading We have whole flights that come in with nobody being infected and we have flights coming in with 20 or 30 people on board that become infected, he said. Other public health experts giving evidence during the trial including Professor Blakely, Professor Peter Collignon, Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake and Associate Professor Lokuge, said the risk of COVID-19 being re-introduced in WA would remain extremely low if the border was reopened to other eliminated states, and if surveillance and testing systems remained strong.

Professor Lokuge said a one per cent risk was still too great from a public health perspective, but that the risk would not be increased if WA opened its borders to other elimination states, as long as the the other border rules were the same as in the west. "While you have the risk of importation [of coronavirus] it's only border measures that will prevent that. Other measures are, to different degrees, only effective in preventing spread if importation occurs," she said. Each expert agreed all borders should remain closed to Victoria. WA has been guided by a precautionary principle to the virus, however Professor Lokuge said she believed the approach was inconsistent given authorities were allowing 4000 people into the state each week, and 30,000 people to gather at Optus Stadium. "I personally would not [allow fans at the stadium]," she said.

Queensland-based Mr Palmer, who was denied access to WA in May, claims the closure is unconstitutional as it restricts the rights of Australians to move freely between states. Section 92 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act states, "On the imposition of uniform duties of customs, trade, commerce, and intercourse among the States, whether by means of internal carriage or ocean navigation, shall be absolutely free". That movement can be restricted in the event of a public health emergency. Judge Darryl Rangiah said his task would be to determine whether the border closure was reasonably needed to contain the spread of coronavirus, and what the consequences of reopening it would be, including a potential outbreak in WA.
A devastating mudslide in Co Leitrim on June 28 has revived memories of a similar but more tragic runaway bog in east Kerry on December 28, 1896.

The incident at Drumkeeran in Leitrim followed a period of good weather. Bog on the mountain had dried out, leaving behind cracks on the land.

These filled with water during subsequent heavy rain which swept thousands of tonnes of peat down Shass Mountain for up to 8km. Two homes were evacuated and around 12 farms were impacted.

The Dawn of Hope Bridge after a mudslide near Drumkeeran, Co Leitrim. Picture: Joe Dunne

Con Donnelly, 44, his wife, Johanna, 38, and six of their seven children, ranging in age from 18 months to 16 years, were swept away when their thatched cottage was submerged in the bog flow. The sole survivor was 15-year old Katie, who was away from home and staying with relatives.

Poor drainage and an accumulation of water were later listed among the main reasons for the disaster which occurred without warning in the early hours of the morning following heavy rain. Some of the debris was later found 14 miles away in one of the Killarney lakes.

Journalist and author Donal Hickey, wrote in the Journal of Cumann Luachra in 1996 that the calamity caused deeply felt sadness, which continued for generations. Anyone who witnessed the immediate aftermath of the bog flow carried the bitter memory with them all their days.

There are many similarities between the moving bog in Kerry and the landslide in north Leitrim. But there is one significant difference.

The former happened in the middle of the night when the Donnelly family were asleep while the latter occurred in the evening after local people heard a roaring thunder-like noise from the ground. Gardai received the initial reports at 11.30pm.

Former agriculture minister Barry Cowen along with other ministers, politicians, farm leaders, state agency and local authority officials have visited the site in Leitrim to see for themselves the damage caused.

A multi-agency group led by the Department of Heritage has been set up to oversee the response to the mudslide and to deal with its aftermath.

Senior officials from Leitrim County Council, the Department of Agriculture, Inland Fisheries Ireland, and the National Parks and Wildlife Service attended the first meeting.

All agencies present stated their commitment to finding a multi-agency response to address the emergency, including farmer and community needs, and to investigate solutions to the longer-term stabilisation challenges now evident.

Heritage Minister Malcolm Noonan said afterwards he was shocked when he viewed the damage first- hand with junior minister Frank Feighan.

He praised the local farmers, the wider community the local authority officials for their reactions to the emergency.

Mr Noonan said there was much work to be done on the issue and the new committee would meet again in the very near future.

Deputy Marian Harkin earlier told the Dail the aftermath of the incident was an incredible sight. An estimated 300,000 or 400,000 cubic metres of peat and bog had moved down the mountain for several miles.

Mary McVeigh, whose land was destroyed, and her son, Gerard, walk the mud-covered road near her home outside Drumkeeran, Co Leitrim. Picture: Joe Dunne

Vast swathes of land were destroyed. The only thing holding back half the mountainside was the Dawn of Hope Bridge, built in the late 1800s.

It is absolutely astonishing that this bridge is still standing and holding back thousands of tonnes of trees and bog. We are facing an emergency and there are real fears that the bridge will not hold.

Urgent action must be taken to reinforce it and try to stabilise the bog slide. That is the immediate need, she said, adding that people in the area, especially those whose homes are in danger and those whose land is being destroyed, need to know that they have not been forgotten.

Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice said funds must be given to Leitrim County Council to ensure it can cater for the works that need doing. The bog is sliding down the steep mountain, spreading out and destroying farmers land.

These are small family farms whose owners are working in the difficult conditions that naturally arise in bog land areas. They deserve help in this emergency, he said.

Mr Fitzmaurice said people who live in this area were frightened that if the bridge at the top of the mountain collapses, nothing will stop the bog from coming down.

Local knowledge suggests that a lake that disappeared years ago was located where the trees started moving.

Mr Noonan, whose remit includes the National Parks and Wildlife Service, said the mountain comprises an extensive upland plateau situated to the north of Lough Allen and is dominated by active blanket bog and wet heath.

NPWS officials have been to the site to investigate the extent of damage to the SAC. Initial findings indicate the bog slide originated along the southern flank of a forestry plantation. That land is deemed to be very unstable and there are fears further slippages may occur.

Mr Noonan said Leitrim County Council is currently the lead agency dealing with the incident. The Office of Public Works is in contact with engineers in the Council and providing advice as required.

In addition, the forestry inspectorate of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Coillte have been on site since the event and have examined it in detail.

Meanwhile, local community group, Save Leitrim, which is campaigning against the widespread afforestation of non-native Sitka trees, said the mudslides prove the need for further environmental protection.

It claimed during a protest outside the Dail last year that communities were being displaced and the environment harmed as a result of forestry policy.
AMES, Iowa - New research shows that selecting a targeted retirement fund that ends in a zero could negatively impact your retirement savings.

The study, published online in the Journal of Consumer Research, identified a "zero" bias or tendency for individuals to select retirement funds ending in zero as compared to funds ending in five. This zero bias affects the amount people contribute to retirement savings and leads to an investment portfolio with an incompatible level of risk, which can significantly lower total wealth at retirement, the findings show.

Wei Zhang, Kingland Faculty Fellow in Business Analytics and associate professor of marketing in Iowa State University's Ivy College of Business, and co-authors Ajay Kalra, Rice University; and Xiao Liu, New York University, analyzed data from a global financial investment firm that included 84,600 individual accounts - nearly half of the sample invested in targeted funds. The researchers found investors born in years ending in eight or nine tend to select targeted funds that mature earlier than they intend to retire.

According to the results, approximately 34% of people born in years ending with eight or nine select early retirement funds and all of them end up worse off financially. About 29% of people born in years ending in zero through two select fund dates that are later than they plan to retire and end up better off, except for those who are risk-averse.

One benefit of a targeted retirement fund is that it automatically rebalances the portfolio over time, decreasing the percentage invested in stocks and increasing the percentage invested in bonds. This reduces the risk as the investor nears retirement.

"Targeted funds offer a 'set it and forget it' approach to investing, which is popular for consumers who don't want to navigate financial decision-making," Zhang said. "However, that initial decision of selecting a targeted plan has implications."

The researchers also looked at several demographic factors where the likelihood of "zero bias" was stronger. They found men, older people and those with higher incomes are more likely to demonstrate the bias. Investors who participated in a 30-minute financial planning program were less likely to exhibit the zero bias tendency, Zhang said.

Wealth implications

In the paper, the researchers explained how the zero bias affects accumulated wealth:

Investors contribute less if they select a later-date retirement fund compared to the matching targeted fund.

Zero bias exposes investors to different risk-return trade-offs: Selecting a non-matching targeted fund exposes investors to risk that may be incompatible with their stage of life.

The extent of losses incurred by not choosing a matching targeted fund can be quite large depending on birth year.

Mitigating the bias

The findings indicate that the bias is a result of imprecise math, specifically rounding up or down to estimate retirement age. By understanding this bias and how it relates to birth years, financial advisers can better inform investors of their choices.

"Given that many individuals are choosing targeted retirement funds for their retirement portfolio, the insights from our paper will help financial service companies and consumers to improve investors' financial well-being," Zhang said.

###
Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc launched two 30,000-subject trials of Covid-19 vaccines that could clear the way for regulatory approval and widespread use by the end of this year, the companies said on Monday.

The trials, both announced on Monday, are the first late-stage studies supported by the Trump administrations effort to speed development of measures against the novel coronavirus, adding to hope that an effective vaccine will help end the pandemic.

Follow latest updates on coronavirus here

Moderna stock rose 9%. Pfizer shares rose 1.6% in afterhours trade and its partner BioNTech, which developed the vaccine, rose 4.2%.

Both vaccine candidates rely on a new technology that allows for faster development and manufacturing than traditional vaccine production methods but does not have an extensive track record.

So-called mRNA, or synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA), teaches the immune system to recognize and neutralize the coronavirus by mimicking its surface.

Also read: Donald Trump to announce good things on Covid-19 therapeutics in 2 weeks

Moderna, which has never brought a vaccine to market, has received nearly $1 billion from the US government, which is helping bankroll several vaccine candidates under its Operation Warp Speed program.

Pfizer has an agreement to sell vaccines for 50 million people to the US government for around $2 billion, if the vaccine is effective.

Click here for complete coronavirus coverage

More than 150 coronavirus vaccine candidates are in various stages of development, with some two dozen prospects already conducting human testing.

Johnson and Johnson is launching clinical trials in the US this week and could start a larger, late-stage trial as early as September. British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc said it will begin large-scale US trials this summer of its vaccine under development with Oxford University researchers.

Having a safe and effective vaccine distributed by the end of 2020 is a stretch goal, but its the right goal for the American people, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins said in a release announcing the start of Modernas large Phase III trial.

Manufacturers are ramping up production while testing is underway in order to respond as soon as possible to virus, which is still spreading rapidly around the world. Covid-19 has killed nearly 650,000 people worldwide and battered economies.

Moderna could have tens of millions of doses ready when and if the vaccine is deemed safe and effective, Collins told reporters on a call.

Pfizer said that if the trial was successful, it could seek regulatory approval as soon as October and supply vaccines for 50 million patients, at two doses each, by the end of the year.

Pfizer aims for about 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021, and Moderna aims for 500 million-1 billion doses a year, beginning 2021, Moderna chief executive Stephane Bancel said on the call.

The late-stage trials are designed to evaluate the safety of vaccines and determine if they can prevent symptomatic Covid-19.

Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease official, said a readout from the Moderna trial could come by November or even earlier. Fauci said he was not particularly concerned about the vaccines safety after seeing data from earlier, smaller trials. He also said he had briefed President Donald Trump about the trial the Oval Office on Monday.

As other companies ready inoculations, the Covid-19 Prevention Network, a US government-funded program formed by the NIH, said it plans to roll out a large-scale clinical trial of a Covid-19 vaccine candidate with at least 30,000 participants each month through fall.
Kochi : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) will question M. Sivasankar again, who is the former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, in connection with its probe into the smuggling of gold into the country via air cargo shipments addressed to the consulate of the United Arab Emirates here.

The NIA sleuths had grilled Mr Sivasankar last day over nine hours.

So far, there is no evidence of Sivasankar's direct involvement in the gold smuggling. There were also reports that he will be turned into key witness in the case.
It is a sad sign of these strange times that for months Americans have been seriously debating whether or not their country is headed for another civil war. You read that correctly: civil war; in America.

The notion may seem fantastic, a far-too-elastic stretch of anyones imagination and a total impossibility considering that the United States is not just the richest country in the world, it has by far the most powerful military, which could be called on to maintain order if needed.

But if an actual, second American Civil War remains highly unlikely, the violent protests in some of the nations biggest cities over this past weekend drove home how angry, deeply divided and bitterly confrontational the U.S. has become.

The catalyst for the latest chaos was the weeks of violent clashes in Portland, Ore., between disparate groups of protesters and not only city police but more recently federal agents. For 60 nights in a row, protesters have gathered in that city, largely to denounce the killing of George Floyd in May  and the police responsible for it.

Rather than tamp down those fiery protests, Trumps inane decision to order in federal agents  despite the objections of the citys mayor and state governor  only inflamed the situation and ignited new protests across the country.

Not every protester was content with issuing a peaceful statement, either.

The most destructive outbursts came in Seattle where storefront windows were smashed, a coffee shop and several construction trailers were torched and an eight-inch hole was blown through a police building. Police responded with pepper spray and flash grenades. Similar protests erupted in New York City, Omaha, Oakland, Los Angeles and Aurora, Colo. In Austin, Texas, someone shot a man dead. In Richmond, Va., riot police fired chemical agents at hundreds of protesters.

Many Canadians will witness this pandemonium with a mixture of sadness that the U.S.  our closest neighbour and ally  has so suddenly run off the rails, and relief that, for all the tensions here, we are managing to move forward peacefully.

Certainly there have been protests across Canada since a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd. And no wonder. Canada is not immune to incidents of police brutality. Blacks, Indigenous and other racialized people in this country have also suffered from systemic racism that should be denounced.

Yet Canadians are having necessary conversations and undertaking essential action to root out social injustice without seeing their cities shaken by the violence thats becoming ubiquitous in the U.S.

One reason for this is that, despite the deeply-felt and often sharp political differences between Canadians, they have not allowed their political system or public discourse to become as toxically polarized as they are in the U.S. Nor are Canadas political leaders trying to score cheap political points through fear-mongering.

Trump has taken the opposite approach. Trailing badly in public opinion polls with less than four months to go before the next presidential election, hes rallying his base of Republican supporters by demanding law and order, demonizing the protesters and blaming the Democrats  whose mayors are in charge of some of the riot-torn cities  for much of the unrest.

If this is the American way, they can keep it. In the midst of a pandemic, unresolved issues of racism and economic inequality have resulted in the most violent and widespread protests in the U.S. in more than half a century.

They do not indicate a country on the path to another civil war. They are symptomatic, however, of a profound and highly dangerous civil malaise sickening the entire American nation.
A 13-month-old baby has been rescued from a hot car after accidentally locking himself inside.

Shae Geritz was packing shopping into her vehicle at the Sunshine Plaza, in Maroochydore, QLD, on Tuesday when her son Noah signalled from his car seat that he wanted to play with her keys.

'We were just at Kmart shopping and I was putting everything in the car,' she told the Sunshine Coast Daily.

Noah Geritz locked himself inside the car while playing with his mother's keys as she packed away the shopping (stock)

'He wanted the keys so I just gave him the keys and I was shutting the doors when all of a sudden I heard something click and I realised he had locked the car.'

Ms Geritz immediately rang emergencies services who arrived in the car park five minutes later, at 12.55pm.

The worried mother tapped on the window closest to Noah as firefighters and paramedics worked to break in.

It only took a few minutes before Noah was freed and back in the arms of his mum.

Firefighters and paramedics arrived at the Maroochydore shopping centre (pictured) within five minutes of being called

Ms Geritz said Noah was doing ok after the scare.

'The firefighters just said always make sure you have a spare key,' she said.

Maroochydore, 105km north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast, hit a high of 19C on Tuesday.

Cars parked outside on hot days can reach deadly temperatures within a short time.

In February, a three-year-old girl was found dead inside a hot car in Morwell, Victoria.

Weeks earlier, a 14-month-old baby boy was left fighting for life after being pulled from a car in 38C degree heat in Melbourne.
Read the overview of news from Slovakia from Tuesday, July 28, 2020.

The former police officer and member of the Military Intelligence, Lukas Kyselica, has decided to step down as the state secretary at the Interior Ministry. (Source: Sme)

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Interior Ministry's deputy minister resigns

Lukas Kyselica has stepped down as the state secretary of the Interior Ministry, following the reports on his work for the military secret service, PM Igor Matovic wrote on Facebook. He is leaving of his own will.

The former police officer joined the Military Intelligence Service in October 2019 and worked for them during the entire pre-election campaign, until he became an MP for the now senior ruling party OLaNO in March 2020.

While OLaNO ministers, Jaroslav Nad (defence) and Roman Mikulec (interior), trust Kyselica, some coalition MPs, as well as the representatives of the major opposition party Smer had called on him to resign.

Nonetheless, it is questionable whether he breached any law.

Read more:

Read more: Deputy interior minister resigns after reports on his secret service work Read more

Novocky appointed a European prosecutor

The Council of European Union has appointed 22 European prosecutors of the new European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), who will supervise investigations into financial criminal activities and prosecutions as of late 2020.

Slovakia will be represented by Juraj Novocky, working at the Special Prosecutor's Office since 2008. He, among others, supervised the investigation of the Jan Kuciak murder.

Read more:

Read more: Prosecutor supervising the Kuciak murder case will serve in the EU prosecutor's office Read more

Embargo on a drug trafficking case

It did not take long for customs officers in Nitra, who discovered the largest illegal amount of drugs from Mexico in Slovakia's history several weeks ago, to post pictures on Facebook.

However, the police and a regional prosecutor's office have gone quiet about the case.

"I dare ask you for maximum reticence, with regard to the ongoing actions and the possible endangering of the investigation results, or even the lives of specific persons," a regional prosecutor said.

Legal enforcement authorities did not even explain why the police failed to apply the institute of so-called controlled supply to track the real recipients of the drugs.

Related article

Related article Questions over the biggest drug delivery case Read more

In other news:

As many as 23 people were positively diagnosed with the coronavirus disease in Slovakia on July 27. Check out more detailed statistics here.

in Slovakia on July 27. Check out more detailed statistics here. The Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMU) has issued weather warnings against storms and heat for July 29 and 30.

for July 29 and 30. As many as 56 people collapsed on July 27 due to high temperatures , with the Kosice Region reporting the highest number of people fainting (10) and the Nitra Region the least (3).

, with the Kosice Region reporting the highest number of people fainting (10) and the Nitra Region the least (3). Thw Airbus A319 from Kenya landed in Bratislava on July 27, with a total of 40 homecomers from 11 countries, including seven Slovaks, the Interior Ministry informed on Facebook. The ministrys plane then carried Slovak humanitarian aid, including COVID-19 tests, respirators, and clothing, to Kenya .

on July 27, with a total of 40 homecomers from 11 countries, including seven Slovaks, the Interior Ministry informed on Facebook. The ministrys plane then carried Slovak humanitarian aid, including COVID-19 tests, respirators, and clothing, . The Defence Ministry may use $50 million from the United States to buy Black Hawk helicopters and additional equipment for the helicopters that Slovakia already owns, Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad said. Alternatively, lighter helicopters could be purchased.

and additional equipment for the helicopters that Slovakia already owns, Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad said. Alternatively, lighter helicopters could be purchased. Bratislava police officers are investigating the robbery of a casino at the Berg border crossing , which occurred early Tuesday morning. Two robbers stole 66,000, nobody was injured, the police informed on Facebook.

, which occurred early Tuesday morning. Two robbers stole 66,000, nobody was injured, the police informed on Facebook. Slovaks invested significantly less assets in their firms year-on-year, only 355 million, even though entrepreneurs set up more companies in 2019 than the year before, according to the Bisnode consulting company.

We stand with Index.hu: Nincs masik Read more

Short guide to Slovak grape varieties Read more


The worlds biggest COVID-19 vaccine study started on Monday. A total of 30,000 planned volunteers will help test the effectiveness and safety of a shot developed by the National Institutes of Health and drug maker Moderna.

The volunteers will each receive two doses of a shot. They will not know whether they are getting the real vaccine or a false version. Scientists will then closely follow the volunteers as they go about their daily activities. They want to see which group experiences a higher rate of infections, especially in areas where the virus still is spreading unchecked.

There is still no guarantee that the experimental vaccine will offer protection. The study hopes to answer that question.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is the nation's top infectious disease expert with NIH. He told the Associated Press, Unfortunately for the United States of America, we have plenty of infections right now to help get that answer.

Volunteers from more than 80 test areas across the country will take part in the study. Moderna said the first vaccines were given Monday morning in Savannah, Georgia.

Several other vaccine candidates made by China and Britains Oxford University started later-stage studies earlier this month. Those studies involved fewer volunteers than the U.S. ones. They are being carried out in Brazil and other hard-hit countries.



The U.S. government requires its own tests of any vaccine that might be used in the country. The aim is not just to test if a vaccine works. It is also to check if it is safe.

Through the government-funded COVID-19 Prevention Network, the U.S. plans a new study for vaccine candidates each month through autumn. Each will involve 30,000 newly chosen volunteers. The hope is that, by using the same rules for each study, scientists will be easily able to compare the vaccines.

In August, the U.S. will carry out its final stages of Oxford Universitys vaccine candidate. The study of Johnson & Johnsons vaccine will start in September and the one from Novavax in October. Drug maker Pfizer also plans to carry out its own 30,000-person study this summer.

That is a lot of volunteers needed to test possible vaccines. But in recent weeks, more than 150,000 Americans have registered to volunteer for the studies, says Dr. Larry Corey. He is with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute in Seattle, Washington.

These trials need to reflect the diversity of the United States population, Corey said at a vaccine meeting last week.

He said it is important that the studies include people from different age groups and from populations that have been hit especially hard by COVID-19, including Blacks and Hispanics.

It normally takes years to create a new vaccine from start to finish. But this time, scientists are setting speed records. They believe vaccination is the worlds best hope against the virus.

The new coronavirus was not even known to exist before late December. Vaccine makers got to work on January 10, when China shared the virus genetic sequence.



Just 65 days later, U.S. researchers gave the first test vaccine made by the NIH and Moderna to Jennifer Haller, a volunteer in Seattle, Washington. Haller is urging others to volunteer now.

She told the AP, We all feel so helpless right now. Theres very little that we can do to combat this virus. And being able to participate in this trial has given me a sense of, that Im doing something.

That early study included Haller and 44 others. It showed the experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced antibodies in a small group of healthy people. It caused some minor side effects such as a brief fever, chills and pain at the injection area. Early tests of other leading vaccine candidates have had similarly promising results.

It will take several months for the first data to come in from the 30,000-volunteer test from Moderna, followed by the one from Oxford.

Until then, Haller will continue to wear a face covering in public. She is still following the same physical distancing advised for everyone. I dont know what the chances are that this is the exact right vaccine, she said. But thank goodness that there are so many others out there battling this right now.

I'm Ashley Thompson.

Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English from an Associated Press news report. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

Quiz - COVID-19 Vaccine Starts Final Test with 30,000 Volunteers Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

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Words in This Story

dose - n. the amount of medicine that is taken at one time

stage - n. a particular period in the development of something

reflect - v. to show something

fever - n. a body temperature that is higher than normal

chill - n. a cold feeling
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Economists urge continued extra aid for unemployed Americans, more funding for state and local governments, and more grants for struggling small companies.



By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON  As Congress and the White House resume their efforts to agree on a new economic aid package, evidence is growing that the U.S. economy is faltering. And so is concern that the government may not take the steps needed to support hiring and growth.

We're in a pretty fragile state again, warned Nancy Vanden Houten, lead economist at Oxford Economics, a consulting firm. The economy needs another shot in the arm.





. . .
As reimagined by BKSK, 44 Union Square commands attention - its former life as the last headquarters for the political machine, Tammany Hall, inspired a daring, iconic design that remembers New York City history while anchoring the Park with a proud monumental structure. The building's owner Reading International (RDI), purchased the building eighteen years ago, and advanced the current project thanks to a $57.5 million construction loan secured from Bank of Ozarks and Fisher Brothers. Supported by Edifice Real Estate Partners , BKSK and RDI have positioned the building to serve multiple tenants, or to become a single flagship location.

The origins of the Tammany organization include its namesake Chief Tamanend  once leader of the Lenape People  who signed a treaty of peaceful coexistence with William Penn in 1680. Using symbolism from the Lenape creation story, a glass dome inspired by the form of a rising turtle shell has been added to the building bringing an additional 30,000 sf to the interior. The contemporary dome is meant to symbolize Tammany Hall's long-forgotten background as a populist social club, promoting a voice for all.

The new design which turns the original hipped roofscape into a glass dome is respectful, intriguing, and meant to draw interest to the building and its historic past. The restoration and expansion of the building includes sensitively preserving two facades, new bronze storefronts in the likeness of the original 1928 design, and the 3-story rooftop addition, composed of a self-supporting free form shell grid dome atop a reconstructed hipped roof of steel-and-glass with dappled gray terra cotta sunshades. The hipped roof mitigates the dramatic profile of the dome which becomes less visible as the building is approached. Rigorous research was conducted by BKSK to select the glass for the dome which provides climate and light control while offering clear views from inside to the Park and beyond. To maximize useful sunlight while protecting against glare and unwanted solar heat gain, BKSK Architects led the analysis of insulating glass and solar illumination  along with studies of precedents in glass domes  to create an equally sustainable and memorable solution.

In 2013, Tammany Hall was designated an individual landmark for possessing "a special character, special historical and aesthetic interest, and value as part of the development, heritage, and cultural characteristics of New York City." Such recognition bestows the building protection from demolition and inappropriate alterations.

According to Partner Todd Poisson, the project's lead design architect, "BKSK welcomes the opportunity to develop a visual, meaningful dialogue between contemporary and historic architecture. We believe that many structures, Tammany Hall among them, can accommodate change and vertical expansion without a loss of integrity. Rather, this manner of unexpected juxtaposition can heighten the public's perception of a building's significance. Our goal is to make the northeast corner of Union Square come alive in a way that it never was, but perhaps always hoped to be."

The creative process began with the relationship between BKSK and the Lenape Center. Founding members of the organization which "has the mission of continuing Lenapehoking, the Lenape homeland through community, culture and the arts", were consultants to the architects in creating a design which honors and fully represents the influence of Chief Tamanend and the Lenape People on the evolution of New York. In a recent interview by Urban Omnibus, Hadrien Coumans, a co-founder of the Lenape Center was quoted as saying:

"Tammany Hall is an example of how an architectural firm has, from the beginning, done everything in the best way to bring out a sense of recognition and place of honoring the original people. I credit Todd Poisson for having led the most thoughtful effort to include the Lenape every step of the way. We're very happy with the glass turtle dome roof, and it's rare to have an example in the city of thorough consultation that resulted in something that is really a new landmark.

"Tammany Hall, as a political organization, did not care for the well-being of the Lenape, and was using a romanticized notion of a chief. It's exciting to have an architectural firm realize the misappropriation of this name historically, but also see that there is an opportunity to bring in authentic, legitimate voice and representation into the story. That's more exciting than a monument  that's actually creating change."

BKSK Architects was honored to create a new inspiring building for the Union Square neighborhood, new commercial and retail space to invigorate the street experience at this corner, and to have that building stand as a monument to the Lenape and their homeland.

SOURCE BKSK Architects

Related Links

https://bksk.com




New Rector for Bradwell church

St Nicholas Church in Bradwell has a new rector, Revd Stephen Deall, who has now moved into the rectory with his family.

Revd Deall was collated by The Rt Revd Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich, on Thursday July 16 via video link, and immediately began his ministry in the Bradwell benefice, near Great Yarmouth, which has been without a rector since September 2018.



He tells us a bit about his life and how he came to ministry:



"The picture above shows Sara, my wife of 30 years; our daughter Charlotte with her fiance Matt; and Christopher our son who is just about to go off to university in Plymouth, if things go well over the summer.



"I grew up in the county town of Stafford and left school when I was 16. I did a short time in the army, then had a variety of jobs to make ends meet before joining the police in 1993. In the police force I did a variety of roles including a beat bobby, a detective working on major incidents, and a family liaison officer, but my passion was cars.



"I spent time as a traffic policeman, a motorway patrol officer and, having been promoted, I ended my service in charge of the forensic collision investigation unit. Our department was responsible for attending all fatal and life-threatening collisions and gathering evidence and photographing the scene and then preparing a full reconstruction of the mechanics of what had happened for presentation in court.



"I became a Christian in my early thirties through an Alpha course in our local Baptist church, and I have to say it changed my life; God had given me a second chance. My last role with the police was the job I thought I was made for; it was the fulfilment of my professional ambition and I loved it!



"So, you could imagine my surprise when I felt God calling me into ministry. I tried my best to hide from God, perhaps a bit like Jonah (but no fish!) I even wrote down 20 reasons why I could not go into ministry! But, to cut a long story short, God won, and I now couldnt be happier.



"When I was selected for training, Sara, Christopher, and I packed up and sojourned in North London where I studied at Oakhill Theological college. We tried to make the most of our time there, and even managed to take a photo at every one of the monopoly board properties, but we are not city people and were delighted when we were asked to take our curacy within a small group of semi-rural parishes back in Staffordshire.



"We have had a good three years back in Staffordshire and, while we were sad to leave the good friends we have made, we are very excited about moving to St Nicholas in Bradwell. We moved into the rectory on Wednesday 1 July and Bishop Graham collated me on Thursday 16 via the wonders of Zoom. The welcome we received was simply wonderful, bunting, cards, and even a hamper of goodies. I am looking forward very much to exploring the local area, becoming part of the community, and living and sharing the love of Jesus"





This article first appeared on the Diocese of Norwich e-news bulletin, and has also appeared on Network Yarmouth . The photo above is courtesy of the Diocese of Norwich.

Do you have a news story or forthcoming event relating to Christians or a church in East Norfolk?
With the start of the school year just weeks awayand many districts plans for whether or how to reopen still uncertainteachers describe a gnawing sense of anxiety, dread, and fear.

In interviews, teachers say the unknowns of the upcoming school year are keeping them up at night. Theyre having stress dreams. Some are taking what would have once seemed like extraordinary precautions before the start of a school yearincluding drafting wills and buying scrubs or other personal protective equipment.

Across the country, districts are still shaping their reopening plans based on state guidance and the coronavirus trends in their area. Ten of the 15 largest school districts in the country have opted to begin the school year remotely, according to Education Weeks tracker . Others are planning to have students return to school buildings for some or all days of the week.

Still, in many places, teachers are preparing to head back into classrooms without any guarantee that they will stay healthy. They have a broad array of concerns, many of which boil down to a few major questions with no clear answers: How will their districts ensure their safety? And if they do get COVID-19 on the job, how will their districts take care of them?

It was just unanswered question after unanswered question, said Heidi Hisrich of her Richmond, Ind., school districts reopening plan. District officials, she added, would ask teachers to trust that they would be kept safe, despite schools resuming in-person instruction: Well, thats not enough for me.

Hisrich, 42, ultimately made the difficult decision to resign from a teaching job she had for 13 years and intended to stay in until she retired. Shes one of nearly 20 percent of teachers who say they are unwilling to go into school buildings this fall, according to the EdWeek Research Center .

Meanwhile, state and national polls have found that many parentsespecially those in Black and Hispanic communities, which have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirusare hesitant to send their children back to school during the pandemic. Still, other parents, along with some doctors and politicians, do want children back in schools, leading some teachers to feel pressured into going back.

Theres a lot of public opinion suddenly that says teachers signed up for thisat no point did we discuss PPE, taking temperatures, and mask guidance in any of my teacher education programs, said Sarah Mulhern Gross, 37 and a high school English teacher in Neptune Township, N.J.

Preparing Wills

About 18 percent of teachers are older than 55, putting them at higher risk for severe illness due to COVID-19. Teachers who are immunocompromised, obese, or have Type II diabetes are also at increased risk for severe illnessand the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that people with conditions like asthma, pregnancy, or high blood pressure may be at increased risk, too .

Forty-three percent of teachers say they personally have a high-risk condition, and nearly half say they live with someone who is at risk for serious illness due to COVID-19, according to an EdWeek Research Center survey.

To protect themselves and their families, some teachers are planning to retire early, take an unpaid leave of absence, or quit teaching altogether.

For those who decide to stay, some are stocking up on cleaning supplies or PPE for their classrooms, while simultaneously making sure their affairs are in order in case they get sick and die. Teachers are preparing to stop seeing their elderly parents or grandparents for the fall semester or the entire school year, afraid of spreading the virus to them. Others are wracked with worry about how they can protect their own children, some of whom have underlying medical conditions.

Alison Grinter Allen, a lawyer in Dallas, posted on Twitter an offer to draft a will pro bono for any teacher who needed one, expecting one or two to take her up on the offer. Instead, more than 20 teachers reached out for help. Some were worried about who would get custody of their children if they died. One teacher said she wasnt married and didnt have kidsbut she wanted to make sure her pets would be taken care of.

I just cant imagine having this be your vocation and your love and wanting to be there and provide for these kidsbut also knowing that having them in the same room could hurt you or your family, or hurt them or their family, said Allen, who was once a 4th grade teacher in Houston.

Given the demand, Allen has partnered with a community group, which will tap law students and other volunteers to offer simple wills, free of charge, for any teacher or school worker in Dallas County. Other law firms across the country have also offered to prepare wills for teachers at no cost.

Growing Concerns

More than three-fourths of teachers are very or somewhat concerned about the health implications of resuming in-person instruction in the fall, according to a nationally representative survey conducted by the Edweek Research Center July 22-23. Those concerns have increased over the summer, past surveys show.

And teachers are about three times as likely as other workers to say they are very concerned about being exposed to the coronavirus in their workplace, a Gallup survey found . Teachers are also more likely than other workers64 percent compared to 51to say the coronavirus outbreak is getting a lot worse.

In interviews, frustrated teachers said case numbers in their areas are now higher than they were when school buildings closed in the spring. While a body of research is starting to emerge about how the coronavirus is spread, much is still unclear, especially about childrens role in transmission.

A recent large study out of South Korea found that children aged 10 and older can spread the coronavirus as effectively as adults. Children younger than 10 seem to transmit the virus much less often, but the risk is not zero.

Also, adult-to-adult transmission in schools is a big concern. In Arizona, three teachers who were sharing a classroom while teaching online during summer school contracted the coronavirus, despite following social distancing protocols. One of themKimberley Chavez Lopez Byrd, a nearly 40-year veteran teacherdied at age 61 . She had underlying health conditions, including diabetes and asthma, according to CNN.

Even so, the American Academy of Pediatrics argues that its critical to reopen schools for the health and safety of children, who appear to be less likely to contract COVID-19, and, if they do, are more likely to experience mild symptoms or none at all. Schools provide social-emotional support, socialization opportunities, wellness checks, and meals to vulnerable students. Also, remote learning hasnt worked well for all students, particularly young learners, those with special needs, or children from low-income families.

Some teachersespecially those in areas with low infection ratesagree. Theyre ready to get back in the classroom, and they feel comfortable doing so.

I feel resolved to get back to schoolI just think its the right thing to do, said Bob Sikes, 61 and a high school science teacher in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. While his state has among the highest and fastest growing COVID-19 infection rates in the country, less than 1 percent of cases there are from his county, which has recorded 20 deaths due to the virus. We need to try.  The kids need school badly.

Some Teachers Will Leave

Meanwhile, other teachers are deciding their job isnt worth the risk to their health and that of their families. In Indiana, Hisrich resigned from her beloved job of teaching high school biomedical science because she couldnt justify the risks. Shes healthy, but her parents are in their 60s, and her father has diabetes and recently underwent a triple bypass surgery.

I want to be able to hug my dad, she said. That was a sacrifice I was unwilling to make.

Hisrich has since accepted a job teaching the same biomedical science program and curriculum remotely, in an Arkansas school 800 miles away. Still, shes grieving the loss of her school community and students, and worried about her colleagues who also dont feel comfortable returning to school.

It really breaks my heart that I have colleagues who feel trapped between choosing to keep their families safe and choosing to keep an income, she said. Thats a heart-wrenching choice.

In Ohio, Madeleine Todt, 25, had left her teaching job at the end of last school year and was interviewing for anotherbut she decided to stop her job search when it became clear that schools might reopen even as case numbers continue to grow.

As things progressed with the country and the state, I just became more and more uncomfortable with how things were looking and became more and more worried about my health and safety, she said. What if I were to get it? Of course, Id have health insurance through my school, but what would be covered? Would [my district] pay for the time off? It became very worrisome to me.

Instead, she will be a nanny this school year, helping teach children whose parents opted to keep them home from school. This kind of arrangement is gaining traction among many families who can afford it.

Jennifer Gent, the president of the Teachers Association of Washington Local Schools in Toledo, Ohio, said her members are very scared and unsettled about the upcoming school year. The Washington Local district has pushed back its start date and hopes to have students in grades K-2 come to school for in-person learning every day, and students in grades 3-12 split their time between in-person and remote instruction. (The board will decide the final plan in August. The district is turning some interventionists into K-2 classroom teachers so social distancing measures can be in place despite the full schedule for those grades.)

A married pair of teachers in the district both decided to retire early, despite the financial hit they would incur, because their adult children were worried about their safety. One teacher who recently had a baby applied for a leave of absence. The school board rejected her request, and the teacher ended up resigning from her position altogether, unwilling to risk exposing her baby, Gent said.

Washington Local Superintendent Kadee Anstadt said that while she cant comment on specific personnel cases, nobody has formally cited health concerns in their request for a leave of absence. Some teachers have expressed concerns about returning to school buildings, she said, but many have also said they appreciate the districts phased reopening plan and the precautions being taken.

Im not going to tell you anybodys doing cartwheels about coming back, but on the other hand, they really hated being remoteso I think were all looking for a solution to do this as safely as possible, she said, adding that there will be numerous safety measures in place, including mask requirements, physical distancing, additional cleaning, and temperature screenings. As the days go on and we get closer to the start, I think most of them will find some comfort.

After all, she said, stores and restaurants are open for business and are not checking peoples temperatures before they enter the building. When teachers see how controlled the school environment will be, Anstadt said, they might realize that this is not much different than going to the grocery store.

A Call to Action

Onlookers fear that teacher shortages will emergeor in many places worsenacross the country. Anders Miller, a former high school teacher and third-year law student, is so concerned about the possible effects on students that hes considering going back into the classroom this school year.

Hes 28 and healthy, so he emailed the dean of student affairs at the Ohio State Universitys law school about potentially rearranging his class schedule so he can work in a school building during the day or, as a last resort, taking a leave of absence. He said its the least he can do for his former colleagues, many of whom are older and have kids or high-risk relatives.

I cant imagine them having to make a decision between their personal health, their teaching health, and their students health, Miller said. I see [going back to the classroom] as a responsibility for me with my skill set. If theres a call to action, if theres a need for me, who am I to say this isnt a good time for me? It isnt a good time for anyone.

Even so, most teachers cant afford to leave their jobsespecially in the midst of an economic crisis. Instead, many teachers in hard-hit areas are now urging their districts to keep school buildings closed. There have been teacher protests across Arizona and Florida and in cities like Chicago in hopes that district leaders will reconsider their reopening plans.

Notably, the 188,000-student Fairfax County district in Virginia reversed course and is going fully remote after teachers balked at an earlier plan that was a mix of in-person and remote learning. And just this week, the 112,000-student Shelby County district in Memphis, Tenn., announced it would start the school year virtually after several teacher-led protests.

My big rallying cry in all this is, what good is an education when youre dead? said Will Kelley, 38 and a high school social studies teacher who had been protesting against Shelby Countys reopening plan. What good is [having] a teacher in person when that teacher has one foot in a grave and is on a ventilator?
Hard numbers are hard to come by because most deals tend to be bilateral transactions with little disclosure, but data compiled by the European Banking Authority show synthetic deals are already more popular than traditional securitizations. They had a total value of about 126 billion euros ($148 billion) as of last year. These deals tend to be most popular among the larger banks and attract a narrow group of buyers, according to the EBA. Deutsche Bank AG reportedly cut its risk to the now bankrupt Wirecard AG with one such transaction.
After 132 grueling days working as a pandemic neonatologist in a safety-net hospital, I woke up last week to an article asserting that the COVID pandemic had eradicated preterm birth in some European countries. This sounds like good news, but my mind turned to anger recalling the patients and parents and protests of the last few months because I know there is truth in the space between the neonatal intensive care units in this article and my own in North Philadelphia.

The truth is that prematurity was not eradicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic shined a light on structural and racial inequalities around the world, and the preterm birth rate is no exception as a health metric with inequitable outcomes. Affecting one in 10 pregnancies in the United States, its frequency has numbed us to this adverse outcome. In the absence of alarm, and the presence of success stories abroad, part of the narrative remains untold.

I spent the last four months working as a Band-Aid for rampant preterm birth. Fearful days attending high-risk births with N95s as lifesaving filters against COVID. Solemn evenings sitting brokenhearted with new mothers as they wept over newborn separation. Terrified middle-of-the-night calls wheeling specialized equipment across the hospital lobby and into the sacred halls of the adult COVID intensive care unit, where I was tasked with saving sick babies born to sick mothers and resolved to do just that. Grief-stricken early mornings, the sky still dark, kneeling with my eyes closed, my breath held, as I listened for the absent heartbeat of newly dead babies. Yes, babies.

Every anecdote I share belongs to a woman who hoped to have a healthy pregnancy. Each preterm birth is a neonatal intensive care unit admission and a catalyst for maternal trauma, which affects the mothers and babies long after discharge. These mothers grieve regardless of their country or continent, skin color, or language. Their heart-wrenching stories are not captured by data.

The data, however, is concrete. At my hospital, Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia, 11% of babies are born premature between April and June each year, even though my colleagues maintain the lowest rate of serious maternal complications of any hospital in Philadelphia. This rate did not decrease during the pandemic. In the United States, rates of preterm birth in 2018 were 14% for Black women compared with 9% for white women. Systemic racism is responsible for this increased rate of preterm birth in Black women.

European women, and a select group of privileged women in the United States, are shielded from some of the most pernicious stressors during the pandemic. Work-from-home jobs, unemployment checks, access to child care, and health insurance protect some pregnant women, while stressors such as poverty, unemployment, or physically demanding jobs increase the likelihood of preterm birth for others. Just as more Black and Latinx women contract COVID while pregnant, the pandemic compounds and creates stressors for women already at high risk of preterm birth.

The news of diminished preterm birth rates celebrates progress for white, European women. The news is simultaneously silent about the women of North Philadelphia.

Preterm birth is a disparate pandemic tale. It is the tale of essential workers and societal stressors impacting some pregnant women while others shelter-in-place. It is the tale of my pregnant neighbor disinfecting FedEx boxes on her porch. It is also a tale of parents visiting their babies, my patients, in the neonatal intensive care unit wearing FedEx uniforms. These tales are interconnected in their parallel truths, and both must be told.

 HELP US REPORT: Are you a health-care worker, medical provider, government worker, patient, frontline worker, or other expert? We want to hear from you.

Rachel Fleishman is an attending neonatologist at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia.
FILE PHOTO: A cow is seen near the AngloAmerican sign board outside the Mogalakwena platinum mine in Mokopane

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) <AMSJ.J> reported on Monday a 7% fall in half-year profit, hurt by the impact of the new coronavirus on output and the temporary shutdown of its processing facilities.

The Johannesburg-listed miner, one of the world's largest platinum producers, said headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the six months to June 30 fell to 26.27 rand per share compared with 28.15 rand a year earlier.

HEPS is the main profit measure used in South Africa that strips out certain once-off items.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose to 13.1 billion rand (618.26 million pounds) from 12.4 billion rand in the year ago period, driven by higher metals prices.

The precious metals producer said it expected output to improve in the second half of the year despite production of platinum group metals (PGM) down 25% year-on-year to 1.6 million ounces due to shutdowns in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

"We expect to see a stronger production performance in H2 2020, but caution that significant headwinds still exist, said Amplats CEO Natascha Viljoen.

Viljoen, who was appointed CEO in April, said output capacity levels were around 80% by the end of June and expected it to increase to above 95% by the end of the year boosted by open-pit and mechanised mines.

"We expect a recovery in 2021, though ongoing social-distancing measures and the possibility of further COVID-19-related shutdowns means output is unlikely to return to its previous level, particularly from underground operations," the company said.

Mining companies in South Africa are anxious about managing COVID-19 and preventing outbreaks at mine sites where workers are in close quarters and confined spaces.

(Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Alex Richardson and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Scott Morrison and Daniel Andrews could not hide their friction on Tuesday after the Prime Minister had to press the Victorian Premier to take new measures to relieve the deadly crisis in aged care.

Morrison was impatient with Andrews for taking too long to suspend elective surgery at hospitals in order to release nurses for urgent work in aged care homes.

The tensions between Dan Andrews and Scott Morrison have implications for all Australians. Credit:Justin Mcmanus

But the frustration cut both ways. Andrews wanted voters to know he was only taking this step because the federal government needed his help.

The frayed nerves suggested a crumbling in national cooperation - with implications for Australians in every state and territory - at the very time both leaders claimed they were "all in this together".
YEREVAN, JULY 28, ARMENPRESS. The ruling My Step faction of the Armenian Parliament will most likely hold a meeting with Vahram Avetisyan, who has been nominated for the position of the Constitutional Court judge by the government, in the coming days, faction MP Sisak Gabrielyan told a press conference in Armenpres.

I think that the other political forces will also meet with him. There will be meetings with the factions, and maybe, our positions will be more understandable, he said.

Asked how unexpected the nomination of this candidate by the government was, given that names of other peoples were being mentioned, the lawmaker said: It was unexpected for me because I am not a subject nominating a candidate. Let me avoid commenting on the candidate, especially when he has been my lecturer. I know him, he is a very good specialist. The rest will be clear after the voting by the ruling and the other factions, the lawmaker said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Africa is now edging towards a million cases of coronavirus, but experts warn far worse lies ahead in a continent struggling with fragile health systems and slender economic resources. Countries across Africa have recorded more than 850,000 infections and at least 18,000 deaths, according to an AFP tally as of Tuesday. The toll took a while to move into higher gear thanks to early restrictions on contact and movement, Dr Mary Stephens, an expert at the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa office, told AFP. "We haven't seen the peak yet," she warned. "All countries in Africa are at risk because our health systems are relatively weak." Here is an overview of key countries: - South Africa - The continent's most industrialised economy has notched up more than 450,000 infections -- the highest number in Africa and the fifth biggest in the world. It has recorded more than 7,000 deaths, although there is concern that fatalities are being under-reported. Last week, the respected Medical Research Council noted anearly 60-percent jump in "natural" deaths for this time of the year compared with the historical trend. "The peak will come in July, August and September," Health Minister Zweli Mkhize predicted on Sunday. South Africa imposed one of the world's toughest lockdowns in March. Measures included the closure of schools, factories, non-essential shops and a ban on sale of alcohol and cigarettes. The restrictions were lifted in June, but some were reinstituted this month. Schools shut again and the alcohol ban returned. The country also has more than 13,000 infected health workers, a record. - Nigeria - Africa's most populous nation has registered 41,000 cases, the second highest tally south of the Sahara, with numbers rising by between 500-700 each day. But prevalence could be far higher, given the lack of testing. About 3,000 tests are carried per day on average in a country of around 200 million people -- just a tenth of the number conducted in South Africa which has about a quarter of the population. "For every one case, there are a handful of cases that we are missing because we are not able to test everybody," Sani Aliyu, the head of Nigeria's virus taskforce, admitted. The epicentre is Lagos, the densely-populated commercial hub, which is also Africa?s largest city with a population of 20 million. Health officials in the crowded city are worried by the availability of space to isolate those found positive. "Through our modelling, we know we are going to exceed our isolation capacity sooner than later," Lagos State health commissioner Akin Abayomi told AFP. Despite the swelling numbers, Nigeria is having a hard time convincing sceptics that the threat is for real. "We should not wait for such a time when we start picking bodies on the streets before we do what is necessary," Nigerian Medical Association's Innocent Ujah told AFP. - Kenya - Kenya has seen cases triple to 17,975 in the past month. However, as a percentage of its population of 47 million, the numbers remain low. Earlier this month government lifted restrictions that had cordoned off Nairobi and other hard-hit cities, while announcing that international flights will resume on August 1. But on Monday President Uhuru Kenyatta banned the sale of alcohol in restaurants after noting an "aggressive surge" among young people who were socialising "particularly in environments serving alcohol". The country has declared the 2020 school year lost. - Cameroon - Cameroon is central Africa's most affected country with 16,708 cases. Only about 145,000 tests have been carried out among the 25 million population. Cameroon is past its first peak, which "occurred between the end of June and early July," according to Professor Yap Boum of Epicenter Africa, the epidemiology branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders). But "this does not mean that the pandemic is over," he warned. Cameroon did not impose strict lockdown measures as other countries have done. Although the wearing of masks is compulsory in public places, very few people bother to do so. - Djibouti - Tiny Djibouti, with a population of around one million, has the second highest case rate in East Africa, with more than 5,000 infections. Government attributes this to aggressive contact tracing and the highest testing rate in Africa with more than five percent of the population having been tested. "I think we have passed the peak," Dr Bouh Abdi Khareih, co-ordinator of Djibouti's COVID response, told AFP. - Madagascar - President Andry Rajoelina has been vigorously touting an infusion derived from artemisia -- a plant with proven anti-malarial properties -- as a homegrown cure for COVID-19. But Madagascar has seen a surge in infections in recent weeks to more than 9,600 cases and nearly 100 deaths, and hospitals in the capital Antananarivo have said they are running out of beds. Last week, Health Minister Ahmad Ahmad made an "urgent appeal" to development agencies -- his ministry is seeking oxygen bottles, face masks, gloves and medical blouses. Ahmad was reprimanded by the government for taking what it called a "personal initiative" without consultation. - Tanzania - Tanzania has downplayed any threat from COVID-19 and stopped releasing official figures. The last tally -- issued in April -- stood at 509. By comparison, neighbours such as Kenya and DR Congo have recorded nearly 18,000 and 9,000 cases respectively. "That's why we are all not wearing face masks here. You think we don't fear dying? It's because there is no COVID-19," President John Magufuli declared on Monday. - Least-affected countries - Figures from a number of African countries suggest they have so far escaped the full wrath of the coronavirus. Least-affected countries include the island nations of the Seychelles (114 cases) and Mauritius, with 344. Eritrea has 263 cases and Lesotho 505. burs-sn/ri/bp An undertaker wears a protective suit for a funeral in Johannesburg. South Africa has the highest numbers of diagnosed infections in Africa An aerial picture of funerals being conducted last week at at the Olifantsvlei Cemetery in the Johannesburg suburb of Soweto Coronavirus testing at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital in northern Nigeria Kenya has allowed places of worship to reopen under strict guidelines to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus Protection: A teacher wears a face shield at the Nkol-Bisson Technical High School in Yaounde Social distancing: Muslim worshippers in Djibouti, offering prayers at Eid al-Fitr in May to mark the end of Ramadan Madagascan President Andry Rajoelina launches 'Covid Organics,' a touted remedy for coronavirus, on April 20. Experts warn that claims for the drink have not been supported by science. Masks and distancing not required: A market in Dar es Salaam in mid-April
New Delhi, July 28 : Global air passenger traffic will not return to pre-Covid-19 levels until 2024, a year later than previously projected, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Tuesday.

The updated global passenger forecast, released by IATA on Tuesday, showed that the recovery in traffic has been slower than had been expected.

"In the base case scenario: Global passenger traffic will not return to pre-Covid-19 levels until 2024, a year later than previously projected," the association said in a statement.

"The recovery in short haul travel is still expected to happen faster than for long haul travel. As a result, passenger numbers will recover faster than traffic measured in RPKs. Recovery to pre-Covid-19 levels, however, will also slide by a year from 2022 to 2023." As per IATA's forecast, for 2020, global passenger numbers are expected to decline by 55 per cent compared to 2019, worsening from the April forecast of 46 per cent.

"June 2020 passenger traffic foreshadowed the slower-than-expected recovery," the statement said.

"Traffic, measured in RPK, fell 86.5 per cent compared to the year-ago period. That is only slightly improved from a 91 per cent contraction in May. This was driven by rising demand in domestic markets, particularly China. The June load factor set an all-time low for the month at 57.6 per cent." IATA cited slow virus containment in the US and developing economies, reduced corporate travel and weak consumer confidence.

"Owing to these factors, IATA's revised baseline forecast is for global enplanements to fall 55 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019," the statement said.

"Passenger numbers are expected to rise 62 per cent in 2021 off the depressed 2020 base, but still will be down almost 30 per cent compared to 2019. A full recovery to 2019 levels is not expected until 2023, one year later than previously forecast."
New Delhi:

With the Opposition seeking Narendra Modis participation in the debate in Parliament over demonetisation, Union minister Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday said the Prime Minister will intervene in the issue as and when required and appealed to rival parties to resume the discussion.

Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha were adjourned for the day as the Opposition locked horns with Treasury benches over demonetisation and demanded Modis presence during the discussion on the issue.

Some of the Opposition parties are making issues out of non-issues. The Prime Minister is very much there in Parliament. He will come to the Houses and intervene as and when required, Naidu said.

The Opposition initiated the debate, but they soon realised they had to escape it. They then brought the Prime Minister into it, unnecessarily, he alleged.

The minister appealed to the rival parties to allow the debate on the issue in Parliament, saying that disruption will ultimately hit the common man.

I hope that our friends in the Opposition allow resumption of the debate in the House. Please debate, discuss and decide. Do not disrupt because the sufferers of disruption will be the common man, he said.

The Prime Minister is very keen that debates take place in the House, he said and urged the Opposition not to spoil the positive narratives which ultimately benefit the people.

Meanwhile, CPI(M) has sought legal opinion on moving a contempt notice against Modi for announcing policy matters like demonetisation outside Parliament, but not coming to the House to explain it to them.

If the Prime Minister makes a major policy announcement outside Parliament, particularly when it has been summoned by the President, it is incumbent that he comes to both the Houses to explain the issue. This has not been done, party General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said.

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Nippon Life India Asset Management (NAM India) advanced 3.28% to Rs 279.05 after consolidated net profit rose 24.3% to Rs 156.12 crore on 6.7% decrease in total income to Rs 336.18 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Consolidated profit before tax (PBT) jumped 10.6% to Rs 199.67 crore in Q1 June 2020 as against Rs 180.54 crore in Q1 June 2019. Current tax expenses for the quarter tanked 39.8% at Rs 35.54 crore as against Rs 59.01 crore in Q1 June 2019. The company's operating expense fell 24% to Rs 137 crore during the quarter. The result was declared after trading hours yesterday, 27 July 2020.

Nippon Life India Asset Management (NAM India) is an asset manager of Nippon India Mutual Fund (NIMF). As on 30 June 2020, NAM India's assets under management was Rs 2,73,701 crore. For the quarter ended 30 June 2020, NIMF's average assets under management was Rs 1,80,061 crore. For the quarter ended 30 June 2020, equity assets contributed 38% to NIMF's AUM.

As on 30 June 2020, Nippon India AIF offers Category II and Category III Alternative Investment Funds and has a total commitment of over Rs 3,350 crore across various schemes. As on 30 June 2020, NIMF has geographical presence at approximately 290 locations pan India, and is amongst the highest in the industry.

Commenting on the Q1 performance, Sundeep Sikka, the executive director (ED) and chief executive officer (CEO) of NAM India, has stated that: "Even as business activity in most economies gradually resumes, we, at NAM India, have fully adapted to the New Normal, and have seamlessly executed our operations in the last few months. Post the Covid-related events in March and April, NIMF saw improvement in investor flows and growth in AUMs, in line with the industry. Q1 FY21 saw a rise of 25% in profits, driven by better investor stickiness, strength in the retail segment, and cost efficiencies."

"In these turbulent times, I am happy to state that, post transition, our business recovery continues as planned. We have onboarded over 370 institutional investors in the last nine months, and have attracted fresh flows from several HNIs / family offices. We are garnering rich dividends from our investments in creating a superior digital ecosystem. Over 75 per cent of our overall transactions are being executed on various Zero Touch avenues. As one of the earliest entrants in the ETF business, we have the largest share in investor folios and our volumes far outpace the rest of the industry. Our Gold Fund continues to show tremendous growth and crossed Rs. 4,200 crore in AUM," he added.

Nippon Life India Asset Management is one of the largest asset managers in India, managing (directly & indirectly) assets across mutual funds, managed accounts, alternative investments and offshore funds. NAM India is the asset manager of Nippon India Mutual Fund's schemes.The company also acts as an advisor for India focused Equity and Fixed Income funds in Japan (launched by Nissay Asset Management), and in Thailand (launched by BBL Asset Management). It also manages offshore funds through its subsidiaries in Singapore and Mauritius and,also has representative office in Dubai thereby catering to investors across Asia, Middle East, UK, US, and Europe.

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By Nafis Haider, TwoCircles.net

Bihar: On 11 July 1996, Bathani Tola was painted red with the blood of Dalits and poor farmers which included women, children, and aged people. Swords and axes were used to chop the heads of Dalits, their wives and daughters were raped and their breasts were chopped and children were killed in cold blood. The assailants did not even spare a pregnant lady who was raped and her womb slit open and killed. A total of 21 Dalits died in what came to be known as the Bathani Tola massacre. The attackers were members of an upper-caste armed group called Ranvir Sena.

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Established in 1993 and gaining momentum in 1994, Ranvir Sena is the most feared in the long list of upper caste armed groups who had established a de facto monopoly over the rural areas of Bihar from the 1990s up till 2012. The rise of Ranvir Sena can be seen as a reaction to the growth of self-respect and freedom against feudal mindset in the Dalit population through the awareness programs of CPI(ML) Liberation, especially Dipankar Bhattacharya, the youngest general secretary of the party.

Ranvir Sena has openly claimed responsibility for numerous massacres and killings, which include Nadhi (Bhojpur) killing in 1996, Lakshmanpur-Bathe massacre of 1997, Shankarbigha (Jehanabad) massacre in 1999. Presently, though large scale massacres do not occur, daily exploitation and skirmishes continue. Local from Bathani Tolda talk about the murder of a Dalit at the hands of an upper-caste landlord, which caused tension between Dalits and Ranvir Sena in the area.

An old veteran of Ranvir Sena spoke to TwoCircles.net about the need to maintain fear. He said, If we do not keep the labourers in check, they will rise against us which will only cause violence and anarchy. It is necessary to use violence in order to protect dharma and societal norms. When asked about the Bathani Tola massacre, he said, We cannot see the events in singularity. Dalits were the first to attack us. We just responded to protect ourselves and the dharma.

Decades have passed but the hegemony of Ranvir Sena still holds centre stage in power relations, especially in Bhojpur, and adjacent districts. The locals told TwoCircles.net that each year on the anniversary of the Bathani Tola massacre, the members of Ranvir Sena staged a show to display their power and invoke the Dalits who marked 11 July as a day of mourning. The day becomes so intense that Police have to create a barricade between the upper caste dominated Barki Khadawon and the Dalit majority area of Bathani Tola to prevent violence and bloodshed.

Locals said that though the private militia of Ranvir Sena does not have a direct affiliation with any particular party, they do share close connections with members of BJP and RSS.

The links with politicians help them gain immunity from the police and maintain their power in the area. Politicians do not intervene since nobody wants to lose upper caste support, locals said. This symbiotic relation helps to maintain the structure of feudalism in the state with Dalits as the oppressed.

After the election of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Dalits found visibility but even then Ranvir Sena was able to maintain their hegemony since they hold the money and influence. The current Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar, who earlier found it difficult to build a strong base in Bhojpur district by being a lower caste, now has strong support among the Bhumihar and Rajput community after his coalition with BJP, who are supported by Ranvir Sena in Bihar.

Krishna (name changed), a lower caste resident of Bhojpur district said that the charm of violence and the feudal tendency still occupy the mind of Bhumihars and Rajputs in Bhojpur. After the death of Brahmeshwar Singh, and the decline of CPI (ML) Liberation in the politics of Bihar, the atrocities from both sides in terms of massacres have seen a decline but the tension still exists, revitalized by the continuous struggle against suppression by the Dalits.

A Delhi University student Aditya said that, Sena says they are protecting us from the violence of CPI (ML) Liberation who still occupy many Sarkari (government) lands and want to turn the labourers against us.

Aditya added that anyone, even from the upper caste who speaks ill of the Sena is treated as a communist and socially isolated. Thats why no one ever speaks about their atrocities. Everyone has accepted their actions as necessary, he said.

In 2012, the Patna High Court acquitted all the 23 accused in the massacre, citing lack of evidence. Following the verdict, CPI (ML) Liberation called for a Bihar Band and staged protests for the state government to take the case to Supreme Court.

Nitish Kumar subsequently filed a petition in the Supreme Court where the case still awaits notice of hearing. The victims still have not received any substantial compensation and the area continues to be neglected in terms of development. The poverty among the Dalits and illiteracy bars them from outgrowing their traditional livelihood and they depend on the fields of the upper caste landlords which breed the cycle of suppression and domination along caste lines.

Even after more than two decades, Ranvir Sena still roams with pride and maintains the hegemony on the land. The Dalits still fear their suppression and the victims of Bathani Tola still await justice.
After almost 100 days without a new local patient, Vietnamese had all but claimed victory over the novel coronavirus. They were packing beaches in Danang, hitting Ho Chi Minh Citys nightclubs and shedding masks. Now the masks are back on as the government scrambles to contain a sudden and unexpected flare-up in community infections after officials reported 15 new cases in three days from the central coast region.

The startling news, which began on Friday with a suspected case and carried over into the weekend with four new virus patients, underscored the unrelenting nature of the virus. Vietnam is joining a number of other regions, from South Korea to Germany, combating new clusters of unknown origins to head off raging outbreaks.

The Southeast Asian country is throwing every weapon in its arsenal at its effort to contain the new spread in Danang. Authorities announced 11 more cases Monday night, all of them tied to a Danang hospital where other cases have been treated. Four of the 11 are medical staff, while the rest are patients who have been treated at the hospital.

Vietnams first case since April 16 was perhaps the most unnerving: a 57-year-old grandfather who had been in Danang city for about a month and hadnt travelled to other provinces. The latest wave triggered concerns among government officials that Vietnam, which has now reported 431 infections, may be vulnerable to imported virus cases from people crossing the border illegally into the country. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc ordered tighter border and immigration controls and police have made a number of arrests of Vietnamese and Chinese charged with shepherding people into the country illegally.

Still, Vietnamese health officials, like their counterparts in other countries, are puzzling over where the new infections came from. Hong Kong, for instance, had enjoyed three months of normal life before a surprise July resurgence that could be its worst wave ever. Infections of unknown origins have surged to half of all new local cases.

So Vietnamese leaders are doing what has succeeded in the past: deploying swift and blunt lockdown-like actions to try to contain the virus.

Danangs authorities shut down two hospitals where two victims visited and ordered their patients, medical staff, caregivers and family members -- about 7,000 people in total -- to be quarantined for 14 days, local media reported. A third city hospital was also locked down, VnExpress reported.

Phuc issued a stay-at-home order for parts of Danang, a city of 1.1 million people who are being urged to suspend non-urgent activities while public transportation is halted except for the transporting of materials for production, workers, experts, and people ordered into quarantine, the government said in a statement Monday.

Furthermore, operations of private vehicles are being restricted and festivals, religious ceremonies and operations of beauty spas, bars, massage parlours and dancing halls are temporarily suspended. Meanwhile, some 80,000 travellers clamoured to get out of the city as domestic airlines increased flights to ferry them home.

And in Hanoi, some 790 kilometers to the north of Danang, officials were re-issuing anti-virus mandates -- including the wearing of masks in public areas.
#MensajeALaNacion del presidente @MartinVizcarraC por el 199. aniversario de la independencia del Peru, con los protocolos de seguridad establecidos para prevenir el COVID-19. En vivo: https://t.co/Y1DdhbwPgV pic.twitter.com/hB42vsc0wt
Young people and Niagara Falls are becoming where the local heart of the COVID-19 pandemic resides, according to public health.

Niagara has seen 40 new cases in the past six days, said Niagaras acting medical officer of health, and of those, 23 are Niagara Falls residents.

Also, of that total, 23 are people 30 years of age or younger. Not all of them are from Niagara Falls.

So what we are seeing is that Niagara Falls and younger people really are the focus of the virus spread, Dr. Mustafa Hirji said Tuesday  a day when Niagara had 21 new confirmed cases, the largest single-day jump in cases since June 1, when the Pioneer Flower Farms outbreak in St. Catharines happened.

Prior to that outbreak, a single-day increase of 20 or more cases happened on April 20 as Niagaras COVID-19 number were slowly starting to fall. Now, however, they have been climbing steadily for two weeks.

This could just be a spike, said Hirji. Something that may be slightly optimistic is that with all the attention around large gatherings in Niagara Falls that people are taking mild symptoms seriously and as a result we are catching more cases.

But there is no question we are seeing more spread of the virus now. COVID-19 is definitely back in Niagara.

Of Tuesdays 21 cases, eight of them are connected to eight outbreaks in the Niagara region. Five of those outbreaks are at medical institutions  the Hotel Dieu Shaver Health and Rehabilitation Centre and four long-term care homes.

The other outbreaks are tied to a congregate living home and two uncontrolled outbreaks linked to recent social gatherings.

The remaining 13 cases are the result of community spread of the novel coronavirus. Public health has been able to positively identify the source of the infection in only four of those cases. At least one of them had been to Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls recently where there were large gatherings of people who were not staying physically distanced nor wearing masks.

Of the 21 cases confirmed Tuesday, 11 involve people 30 years old or younger.

Niagara Falls earned a reputation recently as a potential location for increased virus spread because of the large crowds in the tourist district, including Clifton Hill. There was also a huge gathering of people along the parkway by the falls on Colombian Independence Day when people were not staying two metres apart and masks were a rarity.

Niagara public health data shows that due to the recent surge in cases in Niagara Falls, the city is on the cusp of having more COVID-19 cases among its residents than any other Niagara municipality, with 214 total infections.

Welland has 215 cases, but most of those were the result of large outbreaks at long-term care homes in the city in the spring.

In response to the growing number of cases, Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati announced that volunteers in yellow T-shirts would be dispatched with hand sanitizer and masks to his citys tourist district to remind visitors to stay distanced and cover their faces.

While Hirji said the volunteer effort is helpful, it likely wont be enough to dissuade large gatherings in Niagara Falls or slow the spread of the virus.

One particular thing is not going to be enough, Hirji said. It is going to take a combined effort to get this under control because it would be devastating for Niagara Falls if restrictions had to be put back in place.

Hirji said increased bylaw officer and police patrols in the tourist areas are warranted and said local business owners need to do their part by ensuring lineups are properly spaced out and infection control measures are being followed in their shops.

He also said people need to rededicate themselves to COVID-19 prevention before the infection gets out of hand.

These things can really snowball, he said. One case leads to another, and another and then several more. We all have to do our part.

It is unclear if, or when, the provincial government could reimpose restrictions on a region with a rising infection rate. Both Ottawa and Windsor-Essex are experiencing an increase in cases, but the province has so far declined to take action.

The province has refused to disclose how it makes COVID-19 related decisions, with the Health Ministry declining to stay what data it uses and how it assesses that information when deciding if a region can reopen or needs to step back.

I do not know how they are making those decisions, but it seems clear that if the infection rate continues to climb, the province could reimpose restrictions, which is something we all want to avoid, said Hirji, who again urged Niagara residents to ensure they are physically distanced, practise good hand hygiene and wear face coverings.
Despite the nationwide lockdown and just 45 operational days in April-June quarter this year, as many as 2.9 million PCs were shipped in the channel. These include desktops, notebooks, tablets and workstations, according to research firm Canalys. However, the shipment of PCs declined by 33 per cent year-on-year in the said quarter.

"The top-line numbers don't tell the whole story. This was actually a strong quarter for PCs. Given that the quarter had just 45 operational days, that is an incredible feat," says Canalys Research Analyst Varun Kannan.

As notebooks are preferred over desktops, this category including workstations underperformed the most as the shipments halved at 4,40,000 units as compared to 8,84,000 units in Q2 2019. The shipments of notebooks (including mobile workstations) amounted to 18,00,000 million units in just 45 days, versus 26,00,000 million units in 90 days during the said quarter last year. This category shrunk by 32 per cent year-on-year, given an unusually strong Q2 in 2019 Discounting Lenovo's ELCOT deal in Q2 2019 with the Tamil Nadu government, notebooks have actually grown 15 per cent compared with the same period last year. 7,40,000 tablets were shipped in the same period as compared to 8,11,000 in 2019 Q2. Even though tablets shipment also went down by 9 per cent amounting, it still performed better than the other categories.

"With most of India under lockdown, IT companies such as TCS, HCL, Infosys and Wipro have all announced arrangements for employees to work from home for the foreseeable future. The COVID-19 pandemic forced most IT companies in India to forego their strict office-based working policies in favour of adopting new hybrid working arrangements to ensure business continuity during the lockdown. This led to panic-buying of PCs and accessories, cleaning out inventories almost everywhere in the country. The days of writing off inventory with markdowns and discounts have vanished," avers Kannan.

Lenovo was the market leader with 818,000 PCs. Also a prominent player in the tablet segment, it helped the company have an edge over the competition, accounting for 29 per cent of its total shipments this quarter. HP with 629,000 units shipment was at the second spot. It, however, led the individual categories of desktops and notebooks with shipments of 572,000 and 119,000 units, respectively. At the third spot, Dell witnessed a year-on-year dip of 20 per cent. On the back of the tablet numbers, Samsung registered fourth place with 173,000 units. With 168,000 units, Acer's shipments decreased by 46 per cent. Of the top five vendors, Samsung has been the only company, on the back of commendable tablet numbers, and was the only vendor in the top five to grow its shipments.

However, in comparison to the April-June quarter last year, Lenovo's market share fell from 44.2 per cent to 27.4 per cent, HP's market share increased from 17.3 per cent to 23.2 per cent, Dell also gained some market share from 10.0 per cent to 12.7 per cent and Acer's market share came down to 5.6 per cent from 7.1 per cent. Samsung more than doubled its market share to 5.8 per cent from 2.4 per cent last year.

"A slow return to normal will prompt many companies to reduce spending or even downsize, which will have a rollover effect on IT expenditure. But online learning will remain a bright spot in the coming quarters, driven by government and private technology companies' initiatives, and PC hardware vendors should follow up quickly to capture the opportunities arising in this segment," adds Kannan.

The PC industry has been on a decline for the last few years. This recent boost in PC sales may not be enough to change the industry dynamics, say industry experts.

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Human rights has become an issue of paramount importance. These include right to life, the right to a decent living as well as the right to development to build a better future for the generation of today and tomorrow. There is a wide disparity between the quality of life and uneven development between people living in the South, i.e. the Third World countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America as compared to people living in the North, i.e., Europe and North America. Despite this disparity, it is a fact that Asian countries, generally, and China, in particular, have combated COVID-19 more successfully and more effectively, rather than, say, most Western countries, particularly the United States and some European states too.

COVID-19 has widened the already existing economic disparities between the developing and the developed world. Economies have shrunk and millions are unemployed. For instance, a study by the British charity, OXFAM, in 2017 stated that 8 of the worlds richest men had more wealth than half of the worlds poorest population, meaning, about 3.5 billion people. According to a recent survey of the US magazine, FORBES, super rich, the worlds 25 richest billionaires, have gained in wealth a whopping $255 billion within the last two months alone! This uneven quality of life is reflected, not only between regions, countries and societies, as well as classes and social groups, but this is also a reality of the 21st Century. What is disturbing is that human rights has also become an instrument of geopolitics, used by some in the West as a political weapon to stigmatize and demonize and to interfere in internal affairs of other countries.

The politics of human rights, therefore, needs to be separated from the right to development and the right to pursue development choices best suited to each country. Let me give you the example of my country, Pakistan, which is a neighbor and good friend of China. We in Pakistan feel that Chinas landmark Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) is an important step to achieve this right of development. The BRI is undoubtedly the most significant diplomatic and developmental initiative of the 21st Century. It now includes 137 countries who are being linked through corridors of commerce and culture, driven by economy, energy, ports and pipelines, roads and railways.

For Pakistan, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has significance since it is promoting the right of development for the 220 million people of Pakistan as this corridor extends to areas like energy, infrastructure, industrial development, socio-economic betterment, Gwadar Port to promote regional trade connectivity and Special Economic Zones. It has already alleviated Pakistans chronic energy crisis, providing 33% of Pakistans energy needs, CPEC has given gainful employment to 75,000 Pakistanis, the Gwadar Port is becoming a hub of regional connectivity and infrastructure projects have facilitated faster connectivity within Pakistan, while 28,000 Pakistanis now study in China.

The right to development is an integrated component of the quest to build a better tomorrow and like the North-South divide, even within these countries and societies, development can be uneven. Therefore, in this context, CPEC is helping to promote a more balanced, inclusive and all-around development, especially in those areas and geographical regions of Pakistan which are either neglected or left behind in the past, so this right to development is helping to a great extent by promoting connectivity, either through roads, rails and other means of transportation but also through trade and commerce.

Therefore, in todays world, while facing a global pandemic, breaking barriers is the answer, not building walls of fear. In this regard, the BRI is the biggest promoter of globalization, as China fuels 30% of global growth. In pushing for BRI, an important ingredient of win-win cooperation is the need to break down barriers of protectionism, or walls of fear and xenophobia and promote not just the free and fair exchange of goods and services but of knowledge, learning and ideas as well.

The demonization of BRI is therefore counterproductive. In his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2017, President Xi Jinping said that those who support protectionism are like locking oneself in a dark room with eyes shut and a closed mind, an attitude, like the Cold War mentality of the 20th Century, which has no place in the 21st Century.

Second, the issue of COVID-19, its ramifications and what we have learnt so far from a crisis that has shaken, indeed, transformed the world. Three lessons are instructive.

First, coronavirus is a borderless enemy, with no nationality, race, religion or class, hence it is a common challenge that needs to be met collectively through global cooperation, led by the UN and the WHO. Any attempt to stigmatize or demonize any one country or community or nationality is wrong and counterproductive, as it stems from bigotry and racism, which are unacceptable.

Second, Asian countries have performed better than most countries of the West, and this is an indication of how leadership, quality of healthcare governance, clarity of policies and an inclusive, people-centric approach can deliver results. China, South Korea, Singapore, are some good examples of success stories in combating COVID-19.

Third, the time has come for countries to reset their priorities and policies and redefine the notion of national security, making human security as their top priority, focusing on healthcare, education, human resource development, environment and climate change, with Green Development as the way forward, eschewing reliance on fossil fuels, and building on renewable energy. Its about saving Planet Earth and protecting our people. Let us be very clear: Coronavirus, which struck suddenly, has been a humbling experience as we now realize that there are forces which are beyond the control of even the most advanced states and there are still things which even the most developed medical science and high technology have yet to figure out. Mankind tries to tame nature, but nobody can truly tame and transform nature for their own purposes, as the power of nature is paramount. We are still looking for a vaccine, for a cure, for COVID-19, as right now, prevention is the cure.

Given this context, it is sad and unfortunate that some in the West, notably, the United States, seem keen to weaponize the pandemic for political pursuits of China-bashing, as they do on human rights as well. On May 24, 2020, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi rightly retorted that some political forces in the US are taking Pakistan-China relations hostage and pushing our two countries to the brink of a new Cold War, underlining that the US seems to be infected by a political virus!

This view is corroborated by a recent article by author Fareed Zakaria in the prestigious American journal, Foreign Affairs, January-February 2020 issue, in which the influential writer states: a new consensus in Washington holds that China is now a vital threat to the United States, both economically and strategically, although the writer adds in his own words that embarking on this course the US is setting itself up for an expensive failure! Some political hawks and US military establishment are looking for a new enemy as the powerful military-industrial-complex seeks a new justification for financial and political support for its overseas presence and operations.

The challenge of COVID-19 is so huge that no one country or continent alone can meet it on their own. Upholding the inalienable right of all for a disease-free future, erected on the twin pillars of the right to a peaceful and prosperous life, all countries must collectively combat the common enemy of COVID-19, with the UN and WHO in the lead, so the crisis can be overcome in the shortest possible time through global cooperation. That is the only way forward for suffering humanity.

Senator Mushahid Hussain is Chairman of Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and Chairman of Pakistan-China Institute
Googles extension of its work-from-home policy this week sent a chill down the spine of optimists hoping to wake up soon from the coronavirus nightmare.

On Monday, the company e-mailed employees to inform them of the policy change that extends the remote-work option until July 2021.

To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we are extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021 for roles that dont need to be in the office, wrote Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Google parent company Alphabet.

The move rippled across the tech and mainstream press, largely because its the longest extension of a work-from-home policy from a tech company of Googles size and influence. But the search giant is not the first to accept that the pandemic is not going anywhere anytime soon. The announcement wasnt even the boldest such move by a tech company, either. Previously Facebook, Twitter, Square and Slack have all put their offices on ice and employees on remote-work status indefinitely. Google is just the latest to join the fray.

Still, the revelation sent shockwaves across the web, and the momentum suggests that this new work-from-home culture is no mere blip, but a longer-term trend.

The aggregate workforce of the companies mentioned exceeds that of some towns and cities, with more than 175,000 full-time employees total. Thats more than the entire populations of Berkeley, Calif.; New Haven, Conn.; Savannah, Ga., and other midsize cities. Add part-timers, freelancers and contract workers to the mix, and the number swells.

Google accounts for a vast majority of that group, with its 119,000 full-time workers, 100,000 of whom are located in North America.

The e-commerce segment of the tech industry isnt immune, either. In May, Shopify ceo Tobi Lutke tweeted that his companys offices will remain closed until 2021, to allow for reworking those physical spaces. But the change will hit most of its 5,000 employees permanently.

Story continues

As of today, Shopify is a digital by default company. We will keep our offices closed until 2021 so that we can rework them for this new reality. And after that, most will permanently work remotely. Office centricity is over.  Tobi Lutke  (@tobi) May 21, 2020

Apple hasnt solidified any such plans, but U.S. staffers arent expected to physically return to the campuses before the end of the year. Offices in Europe and Asia plan to reopen in the coming months, or at least they did before the latest coronavirus resurgence.

In the meantime, the iPhone maker is reworking its retail operations. Store employees will be expected to serve customers remotely, following the closures of more than 90 of its U.S. stores.

Deirdre OBrien, senior vice president of retail and people at Apple, addressed Apple Store employees via video.

If your store is closed, please sign up for Retail at Home, please talk to your manager, because we really need to make sure that we shift our teams to greet our customers remotely in this time, OBrien was reportedly recorded saying in the video. We may need to be working remotely for some period of time.

Apple employs some 137,000 people across retail, corporate, engineering and other departments. The companys hugely popular consumer electronics business may make remote collaboration difficult. So it might make sense if its not exactly enthusiastic about long-term work-from-home policies.

Notably, some viewers wonder if this point of view snuck into its latest ad. Either way, it perfectly captures some of the challenges of a distributed workforce.

Tech companies are not alone in issuing work-from-home mandates, of course, but their influence is hard to deny. Hot, in-demand employers like Google, Apple, Facebook and others  with their long lists of employee perks and big salaries  can each draw millions of job applicants per year, and theyve long shaped broader workplace cultures.

Now that they are untethered to their campuses, some permanently, it amounts to a reckoning with a new normal that has, and will likely continue to have, dramatic effects on retail. Especially fashion.

Already, its very clear that various categories are experiencing very, very different pandemic periods.

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton put a finer point on the suffering of the luxury market, having recently reported a plunge in net profit of 84 percent in the first half of the year. In another part of the fashion spectrum, denim sales fell off a cliff, as brands like Lucky go bankrupt while Levis revenue bottoms out. Meanwhile, couch-friendly categories like loungewear and ath-leisure remain strong.

It all leads to a few questions: In a stay-at-home world, what need is there for suits, heels and other workplace attire? Do special occasion outfits have a place in a COVID-19 world? As people fight to keep kids quiet during Zoom conference calls or other stresses, what room is there for extravagance or even whimsy?

The answers may amount to an existential crisis for some brands. But for others, it could be an opportunity for reinvention.

At the very least, its ironic that hoodie-clad tech companies and their policies have become a sign of turbulent times rocking the fashion business.

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The Bahamas has announced a two-week lockdown of the island of Grand Bahama. The islands are also re-instituting a travel ban against commercial flights from the United States beginning Wednesday.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28)  Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri said hospitals and government laboratories need the right machines to support medical experts in the country.

Zubiri said this on Tuesday during his privilege speech, wherein he also said he tested negative for the virus after a confirmatory test on Monday through the Philippine Red Cross.

I will put a premium on the test conducted by the Philippine Red Cross. Not only because I have utmost trust and confidence in our Chairman, Sen. Richard Gordon, but because Red Cross is using state-of-the-art machines, he said.

He added that this is not to discount the capabilities and professionalism of our medical experts in our hospitals and government laboratories, but their skills will be wasted if they will not be supported by the right and necessary machines.

Zubiri, who recovered from the virus in April, and seven other people who were supposed to attend yesterdays State of the Nation Address tested positive for COVID-19 after undergoing a test in the weekend as required before entering the plenary hall of the Batasang Pambansa Complex.

The senator also said that a certain level of expertise should have already been achieved in terms of testing given that the country is already more than four months into the pandemic.

If our testing protocols are not accurate or suited to the conditions of patients, whether they are new infections or recovered patients, we may not be presenting a clear picture of the number of COVID cases, he said. It could be higher, or it could even be lower than the current figures, due to false-positive or false-negative cases.

For the case of Zubiri, Health Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said him testing positive again could be due to remaining residues of the virus in his system. There is still no evidence of reinfection, she noted.

Vergeire said if ever an evidence will be discovered the he will be counted twice in the total number of infections, but for now, Zubiris case will still be considered as one.

According to the World Health Organization, there is still no proof that a recovered COVID-19 patient is protected from re-infection.
The COVID-19 tally in Maharashtra rose to 3,91,440 on Tuesday with addition of 7,717 new cases while the death toll mounted by 282, including 121 fatalities in Mumbai region, to 14,165, Health Minister Rajesh Tope said.

A total of 10,333 patients were discharged in the day, taking the number of recovered cases in the state to 2,32,277, he said.

The count of active cases dropped from 1,47,592 on Monday to 1,44,694 on Tuesday, the health minister said.

A total of 19,68,559 people have been tested so far in the state, Tope said.

After a long time, Mumbai, which has been steadily reporting more than 1,000 cases every day, added 700 cases to its tally in the day, taking the cumulative count to 1,10,882.

With 55 people succumbing to the infection, the death toll in the metropolis mounted to 6,187.

Mumbai now has 19,990 active cases, the minister said.

However, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) continues to report higher number of cases.

On Tuesday, the MMR tally rose to 2,29,599 with addition of 2,223 cases. With 121 fatalities, the toll mounted to 9,275.

The number of cases mounted by 1,182 in Pune city while the neighbouring Pimpri Chinchwad added 673 fresh cases. The twin cities reported 12 deaths each during the day.

The number of cases sin Pune division rose to 91,977 with 2,477 deaths.

Nashik division now has 29,987 cases with 1,111 deaths, while Kolhapur division''s tally of cases stood at 7,675 with 206 fatalities.

The case count and fatalities in Aurangabad division stood at 15,637 and 554, respectively, while Latur division has 4,433 cases and 190 deaths, the health department said.

Akola division case tally stood at 6,644 with 232 deaths.

In Nagpur division, the number of cases has reached 5,136 while 73 patients have succumbed to the infection.

The number of people in home quarantine across the state came down from 9,22,637 as on Monday to 8,85,545 on Tuesday.

Similarly, the number of people admitted in institutional quarantine also declined from 44,136 to 42,733, Tope said.

Maharashtra''s COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 3,91,440, deaths 14,165, recoveries 2,32,277, active cases 1,44,694, people tested so far 19,68,559.
New Zealand's Foreign Minister Peters arrives at a news conference in Istanbul

By Praveen Menon

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand has suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and made a number of other changes following China's decision to pass a national security law for the territory, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said on Tuesday.

"New Zealand can no longer trust that Hong Kong's criminal justice system is sufficiently independent from China," Peters said in a statement.

"If China in future shows adherence to the 'one country, two systems' framework then we could reconsider this decision."

Beijing imposed new legislation on the former British colony earlier this month despite the protests of Hong Kong residents and Western nations, setting the financial hub on a more authoritarian track.

Australia, Canada and Britain all suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong earlier this month. U.S. President Donald Trump has ended preferential economic treatment for Hong Kong.

Peters said New Zealand will treat military and dual-use goods and technology exports to Hong Kong in the same way as it treats such exports to China as part of a review of its overall relationship with Hong Kong.

Travel advice has been updated to alert New Zealanders to the risks presented by the new security law, he added.

In a website statement, the Chinese embassy in New Zealand called the decision a violation of international law and gross interference in China's internal affairs.

"The Chinese side has lodged its grave concern and strong opposition," an embassy representative said in the statement.

China reserves the right to make a further response, said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at a daily news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

China is New Zealand's largest trading partner, with annual two-way trade recently exceeding NZ$32 billion ($21 billion).

New Zealand's ties with China have frayed recently after the Pacific nation backed Taiwan's participation at the World Health Organization (WHO).

(Editing by Sam Holmes and Clarence Fernandez)
It's really been one month-long narrative of negativity for the Government. Many members of the public are questioning its competence and whether it has something of the haplessness and sheer bad luck that infected the last administration that linked up Fianna Fail and the Greens.

It started strangely, in a socially-distanced Dail because of the continued Covid crisis. Micheal Martin was duly elected Taoiseach but Billy Kelleher MEP came back from Brussels to witness his leader's elevation and failed to self-isolate. Bad start.

Micheal, proud as punch, then had one job - to announce a Cabinet of all the talents for these terrible times. He only had a few jobs to get right, since Fine Gael and the Greens had the call on the rest. But he managed to mess up, no matter which way you look at it.

CABINET COMPLAINTS

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Many were miffed, as they were bound to be, because there weren't enough pork-barrel appointments to go round. But it was still unedifying for the public to hear pronounced squealing from some piglets about how their constituents, indeed their whole region, was being disrespected by the failure to elevate them as individuals to the Cabinet or even its second rank.

The fact that a junior minister was worth nearly an extra 40,000 on top of a TDs salary of 96,000, and a senior role an extra 79,500 on top, had of course nothing to do with the case.

Everyone in the west complained that the west was being ignored, with former FG minister Michael Ring leading the expressions of regret. Meanwhile, Michael Moynihan of FF felt rebuffed and humiliated down in Cork.

But there was genuine mystery at the oddity of a new Taoiseach ignoring his own deputy leader when it came to Cabinet had Dara Calleary been guilty of drink-driving or something?

This, of course, is rhetorical irony: Daras done nothing of the sort. But hes now belatedly the Minister for Agriculture because someone else committed that crime  and unforgivably kept quiet about it. The Taoiseach wasnt told.

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THE COWEN DEBACLE

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Barry Cowen's alcohol intake at an All-Ireland final, knowing he had to drive home, was deeply unwise. Not only did he then drive, but he gave someone a lift. The Irish Independents exclusive story sent a torpedo into the coalition.

The new Minister for Agriculture gave what some saw as an abject Dail apology laced with some snarky self-pity about parking fines and suchlike. Then the Sunday Times revealed that a Garda Pulse account varied with his. Cowen issued a statement disputing the Garda account, denying any suggestion that he made any attempt to evade Gardai and invoking lawyers.

There was now a reflection on the Gardai. But he also refused a demand from the Taoiseach that he deal with the unanswered questions again in the Dail, pleading legal advice to remain schtum. Micheal couldn't accept that, and the first ministerial head rolled in record time.

COURT IMBROGLIO AND CAB

Another law-and-order issue engulfed Fianna Fail when the Irish Independent revealed a TD had written a letter to a court praising three "hardworking" brothers whose homes were raided by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) and who received suspended sentences over a horror incident in which an 18-year-old sustained knife wounds.

Longford-Westmeath TD Joe OFlaherty said it was an "error of judgement". It didn't cut any ice with former Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, who felt he should have known better than to try to influence a judicial decision - and said so in public.

Politically it was a Fine Gael cut at Fianna Fail, and subsequent offhand comments by the Tanaiste, Leo Varadkar, would have people asking who was the real Taoiseach.

MINISTERIAL PAY AND DISALLOWING PUP

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Meanwhile, just one month in, the new Taoiseach has been forced to answer whether it was a case of Do as I say, not as I do with the pay-rise and PUP-cut paradox.

The Government was heavily criticised last week for pushing ahead with a 16,000 increase for three super junior ministers.

"Whats different? Whats different is that there are new snouts in the trough, said Richard Boyd Barrett in the Dail in a put-down that had ringing overtones of truth.

TDs lined up to say they were disgusted, outraged and nauseated. But the Government attempted to claim a need for equity between ministers, and when that didn't work, even claimed credit for trying to prevent a gender imbalance with the treatment of Pippa Hackett, a Green super junior plucked from the obscurity of the Seanad.

But worse came at the weekend with the revelation that ordinary people at the airport were being challenged when going on their holidays - and were having their Pandemic Unemployment Payments ended because they were not resident in the State and looking for work. Flimsy justifications were offered, but the contrast was stark.

Micheal Martin acted on Monday to smother the controversy with a fire blanket, suddenly announcing a 10pc ministerial pay cut. Which now turns out to be an increase on what his predecessor and his minions took home

And if it is really true that someone dreamt up a pay cut for all ministers three weeks ago, as the Taoiseach suggests, then the incompetence of the new Government really is laid bare for all to see.

They could have shown they were leading by example. Cuts all round would have defused, or at least substantially depressed the subsequent row over super-pay for superjuniors and then some extra on top.

Instead, the ministerial marginal trim looks like a greasy, grumbling and even minimal response to public outrage over political pay-padding and the cruel cutting of the PUP for ordinary folk.

Micheal Martin has been forced to admit that it might all have been handled better. And that's quite an understatement.

MORE BUSYBODIES, LESS EFFICIENCY

These debacles - and the clumsy reactions to them - come despite there being squadrons of Spads (Special Advisers) and assorted others seemingly crammed into State jobs just so they can be on the State payroll.

It started with the provision of aides-de-camp, State cars and Garda drivers where they had never been before.

This when all other enterprises have laid people off and furloughed staff. Yet the new coalition has stuffed an unprecedented number of extra PR staff into every available crevice in the woodwork. Too many cooks

At this rate, with new depths of bungling, one might even expect this administration to proudly announce that it had managed to organise (someone somewhere misunderstood the memo) a bishop in a brewery.

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Certainly all the advisers in the world didn't prevent new Education Minister Norma Foley from failing to tell the Dail that the Leaving Cert results would be delayed until September.

There is little doubt that three heads are not better than one when it comes to leading the nation. The new troika has plumbed fresh depths of incompetence while simultaneously proving tone-deaf to the public mood. Meanwhile, Eamon Ryan was falling asleep - when hes supposed to be the watchdog.

When the recess comes, and they do nothing at all, things can only get better.
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - UK retail sales grew in July after three months of sharp declines due to the restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the monthly Distributive Trades Survey data from the Confederation of British Industry showed Monday. The retail sales balance rose to +4 percent in July from -37 percent in June. Economists had forecast the balance to improve moderately to -25 percent. However, a net 5 percent expects sales to fall next month. Alongside higher grocery volumes, sales of hardware & DIY products and other normal goods returned to growth in the year to July. 'The re-opening of non-essential retail was a vital step towards recovery but isn't a cure-all,' Rain Newton-Smith, CBI chief economist, said. 'The Government has provided critical support for firms and jobs throughout the crisis. But ongoing financial pressures are a major challenge for some retailers, and additional direct support to shore up cash flow, such as extension of business rates relief, should be considered,' the economist said. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
The running mate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman has condemned the instances of violence and lawlessness during the voter registration exercise.

In an address during her outdooring as running mate, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said the needless violence was unbefitting of Ghanas democracy.

She also noted that the violence was also adding to a process that had been made tricky by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As if this is not bad enough, the level of violence, brute force, blood-letting and sheer breakdown of law and order in an otherwise straightforward act of registering to vote is unbefitting of this nation that was until recently, a fulcrum of democracy in our region.

Most notably, the MP for Awutu Senya East, Mavis Hawa Koomson faced calls for her resignation after she discharged a firearm at a voter registration centre in her constituency during a scuffle.

A man was also stabbed to death during a clash at a voter registration centre in Banda following an altercation between some New Patriotic Party (NPP) and NDC supporters.

Also, a point of concern during the process as been the undue prominence at some registration centres, which the Electoral Commission has warned against.

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), for example, advised political parties to check the conduct of its party agents and members at the registration centres.

In her remarks, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said Ghanas politics needed to deviate from this unproductive path of injustice and non-peace.

Ghana does not belong to any select few. We The People, all of us, are the protectors and owners of this country for our collective good and for that of generations unborn.

---citinewsroom
While the coronavirus has made Newark Liberty Airport a ghost town for travel, inside the new Terminal One, the pace is just the opposite as lots of work continues to progress since the final piece of steel was lowered in place last October.

The $2.7 billion replacement for the aging Terminal A is on-time and on-budget, and heading for a planned phase 1 opening in the last quarter of 2021, said Kevin OToole, the chairman of the board at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Health experts have revealed five key reasons why the second coronavirus lockdown in Victoria is not working.

The state saw a record 532 new COVID-19 cases on Monday despite Metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire spending almost three weeks in lockdown.

Victoria recorded 384 new coronavirus cases and six deaths on Tuesday amid calls for the state to enter a New Zealand-style stage four lockdown.

Experts say the numbers have been so high due to people's behaviour, pressure to go to work forcing many to show up even when they're sick, and the full effect of mandatory mask laws not being felt yet.

Bad luck and not beginning the lockdown early enough have also helped drive the second wave.

Health experts have revealed the key reasons why Melbourne's second coronavirus lockdown (pictured) isn't working after Victoria reported a record 532 cases on Monday

Many Victorians feel pressured to go to work and are attending their jobs even if they are sick (pictured: a man leaving a Melbourne train station on July 23 while wearing a mask)

Melbourne residents must abide by stage three restrictions and can only leave the house for four essential reasons - to shop for essential goods, provide care, exercise and study or work.

It also became mandatory to wear a face covering in public last Thursday and those who do not comply risk a $200 fine.

Hassan Vally, an epidemiologist at LaTrobe University, said wearing masks has not been mandatory long enough for the benefits to be reflected in daily cases.

'There's always a delay in seeing the effect of a public health intervention and you really need five to ten days to see the effect of mask wearing on numbers.

FIVE REASONS WHY VICTORIA'S SECOND LOCKDOWN ISN'T WORKING People's changing behaviour Pressure to go to work Not yet seeing the effects of masks Bad luck Late lockdown Advertisement

'Hopefully by the end of this week we'll be able to see a fall in numbers,' Dr Vally told Daily Mail Australia.

He also said the second wave in Melbourne could be attributed to a case of bad luck.

'This virus is going to exploit any weakness and any vulnerabilities you have in your society. This could happen anywhere else,' Dr Vally explained.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews also warned that 'far too many people' were going to work while sick.

'It's not the only issue but it is the biggest driver of transmission.

'The lockdown will not end until people do not go to work with symptoms and instead go and get tested,' he said on Monday.

Professor Julie Leask, a social scientist who specialises in risk communication and nursing at the University of Sydney, said economic pressure had a big impact.

'There will always be a group of people who feel a pressure to work because of unsteady employment situations, like a casual worker who might not get a shift for another week.

It will also take between five and ten days to see the full effect of Melbourne's mandatory mask rule (mask-wearers on St Kilda beach pictured) introduced last Thursday

'They might be more likely to rationalise it [symptoms of coronavirus] as a little cold,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

Australasian College of Infection Prevention and Control president Philip Russo said behavioural changes were also influencing the case numbers.

'Clearly people aren't following the guidelines and perhaps there's a sense that they're not going to be bothered too much if they do get the infection,' Dr Russo told ABC News.

He condemned Victorians for flouting the rules and said people may have a new false sense of confidence and leave their homes more with a mask on.

'Although we're all wearing masks now we still need to continue to only go out for the four reasons,' he explained.

Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, an epidemiologist and World Health Organisation member, said a stricter lockdown was needed earlier to prevent a second wave.

'It's simple, the ring-fencing wasn't done properly. If you lock down people you actually have to keep them there, you don't let them leave,' she explained.

Professor McLaws said hotspots should have been sent into a full-scale lockdown, similar to those implemented in some Melbourne public housing towers, weeks ago.

She explained residents should have been prevented from going to work or at least have been forced to wear masks far earlier.
SEATTLE, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jones Soda Co. (the Company) (OTCQB: JSDA), the original craft soda known for its unconventional flavors and user-generated label artwork, will hold a conference call on Thursday, August 6, 2020, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time to discuss its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2020. The financial results will be reported in a press release prior to the conference call.



Jones Soda management will host the conference call, followed by a question and answer period. Investors and analysts are encouraged to submit questions they would like management to address during the discussion via email to JSDA@gatewayir.com by Wednesday, August 5, 2020, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. During the question and answer period, management will respond to appropriate and common themes submitted online.

Date: Thursday, August 6, 2020

Time: 4:30 p.m. Eastern time (1:30 p.m. Pacific time)

Toll-free dial-in number: 1-866-269-4266

International dial-in number: 1-323-347-3282

Conference ID: 6338661

Please call the conference telephone number 5-10 minutes prior to the start time. An operator will register your name and organization. If you have any difficulty connecting with the conference call, please contact Gateway Investor Relations at 1-949-574-3860.

The conference call will be broadcast live and available for replay here and via the investor relations section of the Companys website at www.jonessoda.com .

A replay of the conference call will be available after 7:30 p.m. Eastern time on the same day through August 13, 2020.

Toll-free replay number: 1-844-512-2921

International replay number: 1-412-317-6671

Replay ID: 6338661

About Jones Soda Co.

Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Jones Soda Co. (OTCQB: JSDA) markets and distributes premium beverages under the Jones Soda and Lemoncocco brands. A leader in the premium soda category, Jones Soda is made with pure cane sugar and other high-quality ingredients, and is known for packaging that incorporates ever-changing photos sent in from its consumers. Jones diverse product line offers something for everyone  pure cane sugar soda, zero-calorie soda and Lemoncocco non-carbonated premium refreshment. Jones is sold across North America in glass bottles, cans and on fountain through traditional beverage outlets, restaurants and alternative accounts. For more information, visit www.jonessoda.com or www.myjones.com or www.drinklemoncocco.com .




Senior lawyer Simplisius Julius Chihambakwe has appeared at the Harare Magistrates Courts facing allegations of failing to declare his interests to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) where he was a board member when his law firm started collecting money owed to the authority.





Chihambakwe, of Chihambakwe, Mutizwa and Partners, appeared before Harare regional magistrate Mr Trynos Utahwashe yesterday charged with corruptly concealing an interest from a principal.





While collecting Zesa debts, the law firm earned US$3 098 248 commission.





Chihambakwe was not asked to plead to the charges and was remanded to 21 August for routine remand on $10 000 bail.





The State led by Ms Sheila Mupindu alleges that in January 2016, Chihambakwe, Mutizwa and Partners started collecting debts on behalf of Zesas distribution arm, ZETDC, without signing a contract.





At the time, Chihambakwe was a board member of Zesa and he allegedly failed to disclose his interests.





On 31 May 2016, the law firm is said to have received US$5 000 as debt collection disbursement from ZESA Holdings.





The court heard that the matter was raised during the Zesa Holdings 36th board of directors committee meeting held on May 26, 2016.





Chihambakwe is said to have later declared his interests as a senior partner in the law firm.





It is alleged that Chihambakwe later signed the contract for debt collection on 3 June 2016 but that there was no Zesa board resolution then and none until the end of the boards term.




Good Morning America

On the eve of the one-year anniversary of his inauguration, President Joe Biden held a formal news conference at the White House Wednesday, answering reporter questions on his handling of the pandemic, the economy and legislative agenda, characterizing the country as unified -- but not as much as it could be -- and raised eyebrows by saying Russia was likely to invade Ukraine. "It's been a year of challenges, but it's also many years of enormous progress," Biden said to begin, ticking through his administration's successes before fielding questions from reporters. With Biden facing the limits of what he can accomplish with an evenly-divided Senate, unable to get either his signature social spending package or major voting rights reform through Congress in recent weeks, and with the pandemic still raging well into its second, his approval rating in polls has hit an all-time low.
The acting chief of the U.S. Park Police defended the way his officers cleared Black Lives Matter demonstrators from near the White House last month, shortly before President Donald Trump's walk to a historic church.

Gregory Monahan, testifying before the House Natural Resources Committee Tuesday, also claimed the White House did not give the order to clear the protesters from Lafayette Square, and that the action wasn't related to Trump's church visit, despite the timing. Trump arrived at the church within a half hour after police began pushing the protesters back.

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. Park of the church was set on fire during protests on Sunday night. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Monahan's testimony claiming officers followed all rules in a volatile situation paints a far different image than the prepared testimony from a major in the D.C. National Guard who later told the panel the protestors' removal was deeply disturbing and appeared to be an infringement of their First Amendment rights.

Monahan, offering the Trump administrations perspective under oath for the first time, testified that no one at the White House  including Attorney General Bill Barr, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt  ordered the U.S. Park Police to clear Lafayette Square.

At a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee that also took place Tuesday, Barr was pressed on his role in orchestrating the clearing of the square and participation in Trump's subsequent photo opportunity.

The attorney general testified that he "learned sometime in the afternoon" of June 1 that the president "might come out of the White House, and then later in the afternoon I heard that he might go over to the church."

But facing sustained criticism from Democratic lawmakers, Barr offered scant additional detail about the machinations behind the operation.

Monahan committed to providing documentation to the committee chronicling what he called a "sustained level of violence," and said the days of demonstrations were one of the most violent protests hed experienced over the course of his decades-long career.

Story continues

He acknowledged the police faced a significant amount of criticism but said the installation of fencing near Lafayette Squre was a key tactic that ultimately successfully led to the reduction of violence. He testified officers complied with all requirements by providing three audible warnings prior to advancing on the crowd and did not remove the demonstrators so Trump could visit a church.

We did not clear the park for a photo op, Monahan said.

Officers did not use tear gas in response to the protestors, Monahan testified, though he said they did have authorization to use pepper balls, stinger balls and smoke canisters. The Secret Service has said previously it used pepper spray in the course of clearing the area.

Monahan also conceded that there aren't any recordings of the radio traffic between officers during the incident, describing that lapse as an error that has since been remedied and would not happen again. He repeatedly struggled to justify why the clearing had to occur 30 minutes before a city-wide curfew that evening.

Democrats were highly skeptical of his claims.

I heard you in your introduction say that this was tremendous restraint used by your officers and I just find that hard to believe, Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) said.

That skepticism is sure to be bolstered by forthcoming testimony from Adam DeMarco, a major in the D.C. National Guard there for the protests, who said in prepared written testimony that the actions of U.S. Park Police were deeply disturbing and involved the use of tear gas. He also noted that while audio warnings for protesters to disperse were issued, they were barely audible.

From my observation, those demonstrators  our fellow American citizens  were engaged in the peaceful expression of their First Amendment rights, DeMarco said. Yet they were subjected to an unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force.

Several involved in the incident, including an Australian journalist and Black Lives Matter demonstrator, detailed aggressive U.S. Park Police tactics to suddenly and violently disperse the participants during a committee hearing at the end of June. Monahan said the violence against the Australian journalist is being investigated and declined to comment on footage of that assault despite being pressed.

DeMarcos prepared testimony said he served as the liaison for the D.C. National Guard and the Park Police on June 1 and was one of the D.C. National Guard officers in the area. (He also unsuccessfully challenged Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) in the Democratic primary in 2018.)

He wrote that he briefed Joint Chiefs Chair Mark Milley, who has since expressed regret for participating in the event with Trump, in Lafayette Square around 6:05 p.m. DeMarco said he estimated the number of protestors at around 2,000 and that Milley urged him to ensure National Guard personnel remained calm, adding that we were there to respect the demonstrators First Amendment rights.

Some Republicans intimated DeMarco was testifying for political reasons, noting the widespread media attention his testimony had already received.

It looks liked this is going to serve you well with the Democratic Party, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said to DeMarco, a veteran of the Iraq War who is now a major in the D.C. National Guard.

Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.), who acted as the top Republican at the hearing, called it allegations ludicrous that the Park Police used excessive force against protestors but acknowledged important questions surrounding the events.

The true culprits responsible for thwarting peaceful protestors are the vandals and the rioters. Bad actors have hijacked an important national conversation to push their agenda of destruction and disorder, Hice said.

Natural Resources Chair Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) rejected the administrations characterization of the protests and vowed the hearing wouldnt be the end of the panels efforts to get answers on the incident.

I firmly believe that what happened in Lafayette Square was a consequence to creating a photo opportunity and a campaign theme for President Trump, and that Attorney General Barr was making the calls all the way along the line, he said. And well continue to seek information and pursue that.

Quint Forgey contributed to this report.
The government has altered the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms allowing non-resident Indians (NRIs) to acquire up to a 100 per cent stake in Air India.

The Finance Ministry notified the changes in FDI policy that will permit foreign investment in the national carrier at par with other scheduled airline operators.

As per the notification by the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) that comes under the Finance Ministry, foreign investments in Air India, comprising that of foreign airlines shall not exceed 49 per cent.

It further stated that the said investment limit cannot be breached either directly or indirectly, except in case of those NRIs, who are Indian nationals, where foreign investments are allowed up to 100 per cent under automatic route.

Also Read: Air India says no layoffs, justifies allowance cut

"Substantial ownership and effective control of M/s Air India Limited shall continue to be vested in Indian Nationals as stipulated in Aircraft Rules, 1937," DEA said in the notification.

Changes in FDI rules permitting NRIs to bid for a 100 per cent stake in the debt-laden national carrier were approved by the Union Cabinet in March this year. The (FDI) norms were altered to make the government's disinvestment process more attractive since earlier attempts to draw buyers failed.

The government has put its entire stake in Air India up for sale. Earlier, NRIs could own up to 49 per cent in the airline.

The Centre had in June extended the deadline to bid for Air India by two months till August 31 as the COVID-19 fallout disrupted economic activity globally.

Also Read: Air India forms committee to identify employees for leave without pay scheme

After its unsuccessful bid to sell Air India in 2018, the government in January 2020 restarted the divestment process and invited bids to sell 100 per cent equity in the state-owned airline, including Air India's 100 per cent shareholding in AI Express Ltd and 50 per cent stake in Air India SATS Airport Services Private Ltd.

While issuing the Expression of Interest (EoI) in January, the last date for bids was kept on March 17, which was later extended till April 30. This was further extended to June 30, and subsequently till August 31.

In 2018, the government had offered to sell 76 per cent stake in the airline.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have disrupted economic activities globally.

The aviation sector has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with airlines cancelling flights and announcing pay cuts for employees.
Actress facing

new sentencing

A former Melrose Place actress who has already served a sentence for a fatal drunken driving crash could go back to prison.

The complicated legal history of the case against Amy Locane includes three sentences imposed by two judges, as well as numerous appeals. It stems from a crash in March 2010 that killed Helene Seeman and seriously injured her husband, Fred, as they turned into their driveway in Montgomery Township in central New Jersey.

Locanes case has bounced around the New Jersey court system for several years as prosecutors have sought a longer sentence than the one initially imposed by a judge in 2013.

An appeals court ruled that a different judge incorrectly resentenced her last year, and sent the case back for another sentencing.

The ruling also rejected Locanes argument that sentencing her again violates double jeopardy protections since shes already completed her sentence and parole term.

James Wronko, Locanes attorney, said he would appeal to the state Supreme Court, a process that could take several months to play out.

The actress contended the crash was an accident and that a third motorist, whose car Locane had bumped into at a traffic light minutes earlier, distracted her by honking at her and chasing her.

The indictment didnt mention intoxication, but a state expert testified Locanes blood alcohol level was likely about three times the legal limit and that she was driving roughly 53 mph in a 35-mph zone at the time of the crash.

She was convicted on several counts including vehicular manslaughter, and faced a sentencing range of five to 10 years on the most serious count. The state sought a seven-year sentence, but the trial judge sentenced her to three years. An appeals court ruled he misapplied the law, but at a resentencing, the same judge declined to give Locane additional time.

Police investigate

grime artist tweets

Londons police are investigating after a stream of anti-Semitic comments were posted on British grime artist Wileys social media accounts.

Twitter banned the rapper for seven days after rants. He was also dropped by his management company after he shared the comments, which called Jews cowards and snakes, among other things.

Londons Metropolitan Police said they had received a number of complaints.

The Met takes all reports of anti-Semitism extremely seriously, police said. The relevant material is being assessed.

The 41-year-old artist, whose real name is Richard Cowie, is known as the Godfather of Grime. He received an MBE award for services to music in 2018.

Wileys manager, John Woolf, said the A-List Management group had cut all ties with the musician following posts on Twitter and Instagram.

 Associated Press
Syracuse, N.Y.  A third person has died from this past weekend of gun violence in Syracuse.

Luis Ramos-Rodriguez, 27, who had been in critical condition after he was shot in the head Sunday, has died, Syracuse police said Tuesday. He was shot shortly after 11:08 p.m. Sunday in the 700 block of Oswego Street on the citys West Side.

There were 13 confirmed reports of gunfire from Friday to early Monday in Syracuse, with three people killed and seven people wounded, according to the Syracuse police.

Police on Tuesday also released the names of two other people who were fatally shot Sunday:

Draquon McDonald, 24, was pronounced dead at Upstate University Hospital after he was shot in the back on Park Street near Washington Square Park on the citys North Side at around 6:09 p.m. Sunday.

Erskine C. Dodson, 42, died after being taken to Upstate in a private vehicle just before midnight Sunday. Police were unsure of specific details of where Dodson was shot and havent yet released a location.

Nolan Weidner is a reporter for the Syracuse Post-Standard and syracuse.com. Got a comment or idea for a story? He can be reached via email at nweidner@syracuse.com.
COLUMBUS, OhioFollowing his arrest last Tuesday, Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder has said he wont resign from office, despite numerous calls for him to do so.

That raises some questions: How can he be forced out as speaker? And how would his successor be selected?

The most straightforward way for Householder to be kicked out of the House is if hes convicted of conspiracy to commit racketeering, the charge hes facing for his involvement in what authorities say is a $60 million bribery scheme to pass the states $1.3 billion nuclear bailout law. Under state law, no one can hold public office in Ohio who is a convicted felon or has been convicted of bribery.

But if Householder isnt convicted, there are other possible ways for his fellow House members to remove him from office.

Attorney General Dave Yost suggested on Twitter earlier last week that legislators could expel Householder from the House using Article II, section 6 of the Ohio Constitution, which allows the House to punish its members for disorderly conduct by a two-thirds majority vote.

But then theres the Houses backup list of rules -- Masons Manual of Legislative Procedure, which is the guiding manual for anything House rules dont cover.

Under Masons rules, a legislative body may expel a member upon a majority vote of all the members elected  in this case, 50 of 99 representatives.

If House members wish to simply remove Householder as speaker without expelling him from the chamber entirely, they simply have to elect a new speaker  a move that would effectively unselect the previous speaker automatically, according to a memo sent to House Democrats by Andy Di Palma and Sarah Cherry, the House Dems deputy chief of staff and legal counsel, respectively.

According to Di Palma and Cherrys memo, Speaker Pro Tempore Jim Butler, a Dayton-area Republican, would preside over a vote for a new speaker. Such a vote can be called for via a floor motion made by any lawmaker during a formal House voting session, after which legislators can nominate candidates for speaker.

Under state law, whoever gets a majority of votes cast becomes the new speaker. If no member receives a majority, lawmakers then keep voting until someone can get a majority  or, if no one can get a majority even after 10 votes are held, the candidate on the 11th ballot who receives the most number of votes becomes speaker.

This was the same system used by members to elect Ryan Smith speaker in 2018, following the resignation of Cliff Rosenberger after he was investigated by the FBI for possible ethics violations. Because neither Smith nor anyone else could get a majority, lawmakers held a series of votes that lasted more than two hours before Smith won by getting the highest number of votes on the 11th ballot.

Read more Larry Householder stories:

FirstEnergy connections are widespread in Gov. Mike DeWines administration

Federal investigators seek records for nuclear bills introduced before Larry Householder became Ohio House speaker

Are you just learning about Larry Householder following his arrest? Those in Ohio political circles know all about him.

Lawyer for lobbyist said HB6 efforts detailed in federal racketeering case were reviewed by counsel

Meet the man who helped the FBI expose Ohio House Speaker Larry Householders alleged $60M bribery scheme
With a chaotic and largely unsuccessful spring semester behind it, the country is getting ready for a school year unlike any other--and teachers, staff, and parents will need all the help they can get.

Many of the country's largest school districts, including New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, are starting the year remotely or with a "hybrid" model, and even those that plan to reopen in person are offering remote options. Accordingly, schools and families are looking for ways to keep kids engaged, up to speed, and out of their caregivers' hair while they learn from home. Startups--some born virtual, others pivoting to meet the moment--are putting forth solutions.

Subject-specific supplemental tools

Education technology companies are well positioned to capitalize on the shift to remote learning. Edna Martinson and Clarence Tan launched Boddle Learning, which makes online math games for kindergarten through sixth grade, in late 2019 as a classroom tool to help bring students up to grade level and track their progress. But when schools shut down, the company saw signups spike--and a third of new users are parents.

Recognizing an opportunity to get the word out, and flush with grant money from an AT&T fund for distance-learning companies, the Kansas City, Missouri-based startup offered its product for free through the spring and summer. Boddle also added a portal for parents to track their children's progress. In the fall, it plans to charge individual users $5 to $7 for a monthly subscription, Martinson says. Schools will be able to use a free pilot program for one semester before they're charged. With 40,000 users and counting, Boddle's next step will be rolling out a mobile app to reach students who don't have computers or a steady internet connection.

More reliable Wi-Fi

One of distance learning's biggest challenges is ensuring all students have equal access to online tools. The FCC estimated that 21 million Americans lack access to high-speed internet; another report put that number at 42 million. Schools are scrambling to source and distribute portable Wi-Fi hot spots, laptops, and tablets, and some districts have turned parking lots and even school buses into internet access points by working with businesses such as Shawnee, Kansas-based Transportant. The startup, founded in 2017, decks out school buses with "smart" technology, including high-definition surveillance cameras, driver navigation tools, onboard Wi-Fi, and an app that alerts parents when their children get on and off the bus. Transportant had been on the brink of a growth surge when Covid-19 hit, co-founder John Styers says, but without students riding buses, it quickly had to find new uses for its technology. By modifying software and using each bus's metal casing to amplify an antenna's signal, he says, "we were able to convert our buses into rolling hot spots" with a range of 200 to 300 feet.

Transportant also repurposed existing tech to help make deliveries to students who rely on school-provided meals. Using tools for creating bus routes, schools are able to select students who qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches and create new routes for drivers to drop off lunches at their homes.

With $3.5 million in funding and contracts with districts across the Midwest, Transportant is drumming up new customers in anticipation of school buildings reopening. It's also adding features, like tools to create cleaning checklists and monitor the number of students on each bus to enforce social distancing. "'Pivot' is kind of an overused word in startups, but you look for opportunities where your technology can help solve the new problems," Styers says.

New solutions for special education

For students with disabilities, interruptions of in-person education and therapy can be particularly disruptive. Emily Smith, a speech-language pathologist and founder of Chicago-based startup TeleTeachers, was already betting on the virtual future of special education. Founded in 2019, the company initially focused on bringing speech therapists to overtaxed special-ed programs via videoconference. Because of the pandemic, the company expanded its services to include other kinds of teletherapy and instruction, as well as tools to help school staffs manage caseloads and measure students' progress from a distance.

The company raised $2.7 million in Series A funding in July, and is racing to hire more staff and therapists to meet demand across the country. Special-ed employees are facing "an almost impossible task" right now, Smith says, but "one of the silver linings of this time is that some educators are just finding their niche in delivering services and instruction online."

When all else fails: e-babysitting

When the virtual school day ends, many caregivers are still working and need ways to keep their kids occupied, without planting them in front of the television. Hiring an in-person babysitter is fraught with virus concerns, and busy parents often need a sitter on short notice and for a short period--the length of a conference call, for instance.

Enter SitterStream, an on-demand service based in Brookline, Massachusetts, that matches families with virtual babysitters and tutors. If a child needs help with Spanish homework, or a parent needs their toddler supervised while they do a half-hour workout in the next room, a SitterStream staffer will find an appropriate match, who then sends a text to the client within a few minutes, and engages the kids via video call.

Clients pay a $19.99 monthly membership fee to access the company's booking system. Then they pay for each 30-, 60-, or 90-minute session--booked as soon as an hour in advance. There's no extra charge if more than one child participates. Babysitting rates start at $13 for 30 minutes; tutoring starts at $20. Each of SitterStream's 350-plus sitters and tutors is vetted and trained--many are retired teachers or out-of-work child care professionals, says founder Stephanie Africk. They are paid by the company as independent contractors rather than by parents.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to Attorney General KK Venugopal and advocate Prashant Bhushan on the contempt proceedings it has initiated against the activist-lawyer for his alleged derogatory tweets against the judiciary.

The apex court directed that Twitter INC be made a party, instead of Twitter India, to the contempt proceedings it has initiated suo motu (on its own) and asked the US-based firm to file a response in the matter.

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra was told by Twitter's counsel that if the top court directs, then the firm would disable the alleged contemptuous tweets of Bhushan. The bench, which asked the Attorney General to assist in the matter, posted the case for hearing on August 5.

The allegedly contemptuous tweets were critical of the top court and posted by Bhushan on Twitter on June 27 and June 29. Senior advocate Sajan Poovayya, appearing for Twitter, told the bench that Twitter India has wrongly been made a party in the matter and it should have been Twitter INC.

The bench, while noting that the correct party in the matter should be Twitter INC and not Twitter India, permitted the company to file an appropriate application in this regard. The bench also observed that initially the contempt issue was placed before the administrative side of the apex court but it was directed to be listed on the judicial side.

Bhushan has been raising issues pertaining to judiciary and recently he was very critical of the way in which the top court handled the matters related to migrant workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier also, the apex court in November 2009, had issued contempt notice to Bhushan for allegedly casting aspersions on some sitting and former top court judges in an interview to a news magazine.

The matter which was not heard by the apex court as per the record available on the top court's website since May 2012 is now listed for hearing on July 24. It is schedule to be heard by a bench headed by Justice Mishra on Friday as per the list of business of July 24, uploaded on the apex court website.
Three men were charged with murder in a shooting that left one man dead and another wounded last month during a gathering at a home in Englewood, authorities said Monday.

Dejuan Stokes, 23, of Randallstown, Maryland, and Jamal Robinson, 44, of Englewood, were arrested Friday and also charged with attempted murder and weapons offenses, according to the Bergen County Prosecutors Office.

The third suspect, Dwayne Redd Jr., 22, of Baltimore, Maryland remained at large.

The attack occurred shortly after 1 a.m. June 20 at a residence on 2nd, near 4th street, authorities said. Police rushed to calls of gunfire in the area and found two men shot lying in the street.

One of the men, 43-year-old Douglas Perry, of Newark, died from his wounds at an area hospital while the second man, a 29-year-old Englewood resident, survived, according to the prosecutors office.

Investigators recovered multiple shell casings and found vehicles as well as a residence were also struck by rounds.

Robinson faces additional charges of robbery and felony murder while Redd Jr. was also charged with attempted murder and weapons offenses.

Police did not release more details about the shooting or comment on a possible motive.

The prosecutors office asked anyone with information to call Englewood police at 201-568-2711.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com.
The fact is that, by and large, the government and citizens of the USA have liberal attitude and have been welcoming the immigrants and treating them on par.





by N.S.Venkataraman





The recent decision of US President Trump to restrict the entry of immigrants to USA has caused considerable protest in different countries.









It is reported that one million foreign students are studying in the USA and a number of them stay in USA and do online courses. The argument of President Trump that such students studying online courses need not stay in the USA is logically correct though that does not appeal to the immigrants.





As a rich country in the world offering growth opportunities in multiple ways and business and trade prospects, people from across the world, particularly from developing countries like India, Sri Lanka, , Pakistan, Bangladesh and others ,aspire to go to the USA and if possible become the citizens of USA. As a matter of fact, in the case of many immigrants to the USA, becoming the US citizens appear to be lifelong ambition. Some succeed and some do not. Many people outside the U S A seem to think that the immigrants getting US citizenship are privileged lot.





The immigrants in the USA and those aspiring to become immigrants argue that the USA is essentially a country of migrants and the immigrants from across the world have contributed to the prosperity and growth of the USA. Therefore, they argue that the US government restricting the flow of immigrants is ethically incorrect.





The fact is that, by and large, the government and citizens of the USA have liberal attitude and have been welcoming the immigrants and treating them on par.





The recent incident of the murder of black man George Floyd by white policeman have revived the debate as to whom the US belong , in a scenario, where every citizen in U S A is a migrant and some of them could have migrated a few years back ,some a few decades back and some a few centuries back. There are African Americans, Indian Americans , Chinese Americans and so on and a number of U S citizens of all these races hold pivotal positions in the USA ,both in the government and business enterprises. In view of such a diversified background,all religions have places of worship in U S A .





The recent Black Lives Matter  movement appears to be based on the controversial question as to whether the USA belongs to blacks or whites and whether the whites are denying the legitimate rights to the blacks, all of whom are citizens of U S A .





This is a historical issue and appears to be an unending debate. The ground reality in the USA today is that the country does not belong to any single race but multiple races that have descended on the USA as immigrants over a few centuries.





The controversy being created as to whether the USA belongs to blacks or whites and white black conflict exists in U S A is mischievous . The fact that could effectively disprove this mischievous campaign is that a black could become a US President and remain in the post for two terms and is popular with most sections of the country men.





It is particularly interesting to note that the Black Lives Matter movement has participation by both the blacks and whites and at the same time, large number of blacks and whites in the USA who think that this protest movement is unreal and a wasteful exercise kept themselves away from the protest.





If the white policeman has murdered a black man ,the fact is that there have been a number of occasions when the blacks have also murdered the whites. Then, why no movement was started under the title White Lives Matter".





While the black President Barack Obama having been the US President for eight long years has not solved the so called discrimination of blacks, why no one is accusing Obama for this wasted opportunity? President Trump is being accused and protests are organized to defend the rights of blacks, which appears to be virtually aimed at unseating President Trump in the forthcoming election.





The USA is not a troubled country as it is made to look before the Presidential election by some people with anti Trump feelings. Cross section of people in the USA are living together for several decades with understanding and amity. They will continue to do so.





In every country in the world , one section or other amongst the people complain about discrimination based on the caste, colour or race. Such grievances also exist in the USA which is not an abnormal condition and Trump cannot be held responsible in any way for such prevailing conditions.





It appears that the Blacks Lives Matter movement will end for the present after the conclusion of the forthcoming Presidential poll in the USA and whether President Trump would get reelected or not, it would be a non issue after the Presidential election, as it is an unreal or exaggerated issue.
The owner of a Brampton home where a big bash was shut down over COVID-19 distancing violations Saturday night could be facing fines into the tens of thousands of dollars, even as officials say the homeowner was not the organizer of the event attended by more than 200 people.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown on Monday said the case  which has drawn widespread scorn from politicians and the public alike  could prompt a serious penalty, because it was so egregious.

Its only the serious cases that get referred to the courts, Brown said. When you have 200 people, when youre only allowed 10, I dont know what they could say that would ever get them out of this jam.

City officials said both the homeowner and the organizer can be held to account under the public nuisance bylaw for the party where bylaw officers dispersed more than 200 people Saturday night, although the homeowner has not yet been charged.

We have to finish the investigation and issue the summons, said JP Maurice, Bramptons manager of bylaw enforcement.

A court date will be set once the owner of the Countryside Drive home is located and the summons is issued, he said. The summons leaves the door open for the court to levy a fine ranging from a minimum of $500 to up to $100,000, Maurice said.

Even though it does not appear they organized the event, the homeowner is still being held responsible for not taking reasonable steps to ensure nothing gets out of control, he said, adding: Were putting the onus on them.

The organizer of the event, who was issued an $880 fine at the scene for failure to comply with an emergency order, also faces a summons and a possible fine up to $100,000, he said.

Brown said Peel police will have officers available for a blitz on large social gatherings over the upcoming long weekend.

Were a little bit nervous about the long weekend and what that could mean for social gatherings, he said.

At his daily news conference, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the full extent of the law needs to be thrown at these people, suggesting that the media should name and shame the organizer.

Naming people charged with a bylaw offence is not city practice, Maurice said.

Peel Region remains in Stage 2 of the provinces reopening plan, which limits gatherings to a maximum of 10 people who must follow physical distancing protocols.

When people hold parties like the Saturday event, theyre disrespecting other people and breaking the trust in our community, said Dr. Tushar Mehta, an emergency physician at Brampton Civic hospital who has also worked at the citys COVID-19 testing centre.

I want people to really take this seriously, he said, warning that people may start feeling like if other people dont care then why should I care.

While patients over the age of 60 bore the brunt of the infections at the beginning of the pandemic, cases reported in the last week in the region have been predominantly among younger patients

Overall, people under the age of 40 account for roughly 1,837 of the 3,688 cases seen in Brampton, according to Peel public health.

They may not appreciate the severity of this virus, but theyre putting their parents, grandparents, loved ones and neighbours at risks, Brown said.

Brampton has accounted for more than half of the 6,724 COVID-19 cases reported in Peel Region so far, including 90 of the regions 316 deaths.

Just over 6,000 of the regions cases have since recovered, according to the Peel Region dashboard.
Two neighbouring countries, Niger and Benin, currently owe Nigeria a total of N1.2 billion for electricity supplied, the presidency has said.

Garba Shehu, President Muhammadu Buharis spokesperson, said this in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES.

Mr Shehu said Niger owes only USD 16 million and Benin, USD 4 million, adding up to the Naira equivalent of about N1.2bn.

The spokesperson was reacting to a report by Punch newspaper whose figure, he said, was inaccurate.

He said the latest figure was arrived at after the countries paid most of their debts.

As of the last review in 2019, the amount of indebtedness to all three customers stood at $69 million, subsequent upon which several payments were made to NBET. Much of this has been repaid by the debtor nations, he said.

In his statement, Mr Shehu also tried to explain why Nigeria was supplying electricity to its neighbouring countries.

Power exported to Niger, Benin and Togo based on Multilateral Energy Sales Agreement with the Government of Nigeria is on the basis that they would not dam the waters that feed our major power plants in Kainji, Shiroro and Jebba.

Many Nigerians have criticised the export of electricity by Nigeria that is not able to meet the electricity needs of its population, with millions living in darkness daily.

Read Mr Shehus full statement below.

It is most disappointing that sensationalism has dominated the thinking and ethos of institutions that citizens look up to with trust, confidence and reliability. Monday edition of the Punch checks all the boxes in terms of an abject failure to honour these time-tested traditions with its news piece: NIGERIA EXPORTS USD81.48bn ELECTRICITY ON CREDIT AS COUNTRYS BLACKOUT PERSISTS, is to say the least, hyperbolic and terribly misleading.

Apart from the fact that the figure quoted is far from accurate, out-dated and therefore not reflective of the current reality, the overall cost of power generated and sold by Nigeria in the period covered by report is not anywhere close to what was mentioned by the paper.

The actual cost of electricity generated within the said timeframe (2018-2019) by all the electricity generation companies in Nigeria was about N1.2 trillion ($4 billion).

Over 90% of the electricity generated was distributed and consumed by consumers across the 11 electricity distribution companies in the country.

Power exported to Niger, Benin and Togo based on Multilateral Energy Sales Agreement with the Government of Nigeria is on the basis that they would not dam the waters that feed our major power plants in Kainji, Shiroro and Jebba.

As of the last review in 2019, the amount of indebtedness to all three customers stood at $69 million, subsequent upon which several payments were made to NBET. Much of this has been repaid by the debtor nations.

As of today, Niger owes only USD 16 million and Benin, USD 4 million, adding up to the Naira equivalent of about N1.2bn.

The essence of said bilateral agreements, by which we give them power and they do not build dams on the River Niger means that Nigeria and her brotherly neighbours had avoided the unfolding situation of the Nile River between the sovereign states of Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.

In the future, we advise the newspaper to seek clarity from the market operator which is the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN. This process of fact checking only improves your standing in the public arena.
Unsolicited seed packet and packaging delivered in Vermont. State and federal agricultural agencies are asking residents who receive these packages in the mail not to plant the seeds but inform their appropriate agency.

Massachusetts Residents Asked to Report Receipt of Unsolicited Seeds



These seeds arrived in Washington State apparently from China. BOSTON  Random packages of seeds that appear to be from China and other countries have been appearing in mailboxes across the country. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and numerous agricultural agencies across the nation are warning people not to plant what could be an invasive species.

The state Department of Agricultural Resources has been notified that several Massachusetts residents have received these unsolicited packages that appear to have originated in a foreign country and contain seeds.

While the exact types of seeds in the packages are unknown, the seeds are thought to be invasive plant species, and not believed to be harmful to humans or pets but could pose a significant risk to agriculture or the environment.

MDAR encourages residents who receive or have received an unsolicited package of seeds to not plant the seeds and immediately complete a form on MDAR's website to provide important information to state plant regulatory officials.

Residents who receive a package should hold on to the seeds and all packaging, including the mailing label. A representative from the U.S. Department of Agriculture or MDAR will be in contact with instructions regarding the collection or disposal of the seeds.

Invasive plant species can threaten the integrity of local ecosystems and displace native plants, including rare and endangered species. The most effective approach to mitigating the risk of invasive plant infestation is to take steps to ensure they are not planted.

Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets is also asking Vermont residents to report any strange seed packages in the mail. Again, keep the seeds and packaging and fill out the contact form here.
A new leak has revealed the price tags for the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series, and they are on the high side. A release date for India has been leaked too, as has pricing for the Galaxy Buds Live.

Working For Notebookcheck Are you a techie who knows how to write? Then join our Team! English native speakers welcome! News Writer (AUS/NZL based) - Details here

The Galaxy Note 20 series is almost here, with Samsung having teased that it will announce the Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra on August 5 at a virtual Galaxy Unpacked event. However, the August 5 announcement will not be a global one for the Galaxy Note 20 series. According to Ishan Agarwal, the Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra will arrive in India on August 28. He states that this is a tentative release date, but we imagine that Samsung is planning a separate launch event. As we have already reported, the Note 20 Ultra may cost up to INR 105,999 (~US$1418) in India, with the regular Note 20 model coming in at INR 77,990 (~US$1,043).

Now, Agarwal has published details about the prices of the Galaxy Note 20 series and the Galaxy Buds Live in Europe. The renowned leaker stresses that these prices include VAT, so they do not reflect how much Samsung will charge for the devices in the US. However, if past prices are any indication, then Samsung will probably switch  for $ and call it a day. According to Agarwal, the Galaxy Buds Live will retail for 189, which would make them about 25 more expensive than Samsung currently charges for the Galaxy Buds+ in Germany.

By contrast, the Note 20 will apparently start at 999 for the 4G and 256 GB model. If you want 5G connectivity, then that will cost you 1,099. There will be no 4G version of the Note 20 Ultra, so the entry-level model will have 5G connectivity and 256 GB of storage. According to Agarwal, this version will retail for 1,349, while stepping up to 512 GB will leave a 1,449 hole in your pocket. To recap, the Note 20 series may be priced as follows:

Note 20 4G/256 GB storage - 999/US$999

Note 20 5G/256 GB storage - 1,099/US$1,099

Note 20 Ultra 5G/256 GB storage - 1,349/US$1,349

Note 20 Ultra 5G/512 GB storage - 1,449/US$1,449

Agarwal was correct in his predictions for the prices of the Galaxy S20 series, so we would not rule out the same applying here. In short, these prices would make the Galaxy Note 20 series considerably more expensive than last year's models across all SKUs. The same applies when comparing the Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra to the Galaxy S20 series, too.
*Update 11:32 a.m.: This story has been updated to include comments from University of Texas at Austin officials.

Two white applicants have sued the University of Texas at Austin saying they were denied admission and discriminated against because they arent Black or Hispanic.

Students for Fair Admissions, described in court documents as a nonprofit that fights racial discrimination within higher education admissions, filed the suit July 20 on behalf of the applicants. Both were denied admissions to UT-Austin for the 2018 and 2019 entering classes due to discriminatory admissions policies where race or ethnicity is considered a defining feature of the applicant, according to the lawsuit.

The applicants, who now attend other universities in Texas, have been injured by UTs unfair denial of their admissions and opportunity to compete on equal footing with other applicants, the lawsuit says, but they are ready to apply to transfer to UT-Austin when it stops discriminating against applicants on the basis of race and ethnicity.

UT spokesman J.B. Bird said in a written statement that the university is still reviewing the lawsuit.

"We agreed with the judge's decision to dismiss SFFA's previous lawsuit, and we remain confident in the lawfulness and constitutionality of UT Austins holistic admissions policy," Bird wrote.

The lawsuit comes after UT officials announced earlier this month several initiatives to help make its campus more inclusive, including honoring pioneering African-American students with statues and monuments, recognizing some of the colleges racist roots, and investing more in the recruitment of Black students and faculty. Black students currently make up around 5 percent of the student body, according to UT Interim President Jay Hartzell.

On HoustonChronicle.com: UT-Austin to create monuments to pioneering Black students, improve diversity

The lawsuit, which lists several UT officials as defendants, including Hartzell, UT System Chancellor James B. Milliken, and the board of regents, also asserts that the university has adopted a race preference system that could account for the decision to admit certain African-American and Hispanic applicants and deny admission to certain white and Asian-American applicants.

Students for Fair Admissions has more than 20,000 members, including students and parents who believe that racial classifications and preferences in college admissions are unfair, unnecessary and unconstitutional, the lawsuit states.

This is not the first time UT has been sued by the group for its admissions policies.

The organization, which also unsuccessfully sued Harvard University last year for allegedly limiting the number of Asian American students accepted to preserve racial balance on campus, also filed a lawsuit against UT in 2018 for alleged discriminatory admissions practices against rejected students. That lawsuit was dropped earlier this month.

In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled with a 4-3 vote in the landmark case Fisher vs. The University of Texas that UTs race-based admissions policies, implemented in 2008, were lawful under the Equal Protection Clause. The court suggested that Abigail Fisher, the white plaintiff from Sugar Land who was denied admissions, might have had a better shot at getting into UT if the university used race as a factor for picking its entire student body. Thats because UT used the states Top 10 percent law during admissions.

Implemented in 1997, the Top 10 percent law guaranteed automatic admission to Texas students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their class. The law, which now admits 6 percent of students at the top of their classes, is used at UT to admit about 75 percent of its student body. For the remainder of applicants, race and ethnicity are considered.

Edward Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions, said in a written statement that UT should overrule its current policies to restore racial neutrality.

The Supreme Court did not give the University of Texas a blank check to use race-based preferences in perpetuity, and the university has failed its obligation to re-examine its policies, Blum said.

On HoustonChronicle.com: U.S. Supreme Court upholds University of Texas use of race in admissions

As of fall 2019, UTs student body was roughly 40 percent white, 21.7 percent Hispanic, 19.5 percent Asian, 5 percent Black, 3 percent two or more races, and less than 2 percent unknown, American Indian or Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, according to the UT website. The remain percentages of race and ethnicity are listed as foreign.

Hartzell, UTs interim president, said in a statement earlier this month that UT-Austin will seek to improve the climate at the campus for Black students, emphasizing that despite the number of African-American students increasing by 9 percent over the past five years, more than 1,900 who were admitted through the campus automatic admissions process chose to go elsewhere.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

brittany.britto@chron.com
Pope Francis sends a message through Cardinal Michael Czerny praising the efforts of the Sem Terra Movement in the fight against hunger amid the Covid-19 crisis in Brazil.

By Vatican News

As the world continues to battle challenges caused by the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, the Sem Terra Movement (MST)  a movement of landless workers in Brazil - is helping vulnerable people fight the scourge of hunger. So far, the movement has distributed 2,500 tons of food.

In a message sent on 25 July, the Day of Rural Workers in Brazil, Cardinal Michael Czerny SJ, Under-secretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, expressed Pope Franciss appreciation for the solidarity initiative amid these trying times.

On behalf of Pope Francis, and also on my part, we wish to express our joy at the kind gesture of food distribution being done by the families of the Agrarian Reform in Brazil, reads the message.

Sharing of the produce of the land to help needy families on the peripheries of cities is a sign of the kingdom of God that brings about solidarity and fraternal communion.

Sharing brings life

Cardinal Czerny recalled that when Jesus saw the hungry crowds, he was filled with compassion and multiplied the loaves to feed them. The people ate and there were still leftovers (Mk 6:34  44).

Sharing produces life, creates fraternal bonds, transforms society, he said.

We hope that this gesture of yours will multiply and encourage other groups to do the same, he added, because God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:7).

Blessings

Concluding the message, Cardinal Czerny invoked Gods blessings and protection on the people amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.

May the Holy Spirit protect you from the Covid-19 virus, and give you courage and hope in this time of social isolation! he prayed.

And on this day of those who till the land, may our good Lord protect and bless all the families who work the land and struggle for the distribution of land and care for our common home!

Sem Terra Movement

The Landless Workers Movement (MST) was started in the 1980s to create access to land for poor workers through land reform in southern Brazil.

Today MST is present in 24 of the countrys 26 states, and caters to about 370,000 settled families and about 100,000 displaced families. It also involves 100 cooperatives, 96 industries and 1900 associations.
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Siblings don't necessarily need to be married in order of age -- for instance if there is a brother and a sister who is younger, the sister is the one whom parents would like to get married off first. But there is a nice symmetry to siblings getting married by age, isn't there?
Key equity indices further extended gains and hit fresh intraday high in mid-afternoon trade. Buying was broad based with auto and metal stocks at the fore. At 14:22 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rallied 433.56 points or 1.14% at 38,368.80. The Nifty 50 index added 127.85 points or 1.15% at 11,259.

Global stock market were mildly higher as a closely followed gauge of the US dollar lost ground to major rivals on Monday. The US Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was currently up 0.26% at 93.91.

In broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.66% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index advanced 0.47%.

The market breadth favored the sellers. On the BSE, 1257 shares rose and 1301 shares fell. A total of 146 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 16,426,919 with 653,353 deaths. India reported 4,96,988 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 33,425 deaths while 9,52,743 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Sebi Regulations:

Market regulator Sebi on Monday extended relaxation in procedural requirements for listed entities with respect to open and buyback offers till December 31 amid coronavirus pandemic. The regulator, in May, had granted one-time relaxations from strict enforcement of SAST (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations and norms for buyback of securities through open and buyback tender offers opening till July 31.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index rose 1.65% to 17,917.70, extending gains to third trading session. The index is up 5.12% in three days.

TCS (up 3.74%), Mphasis (up 1.98%), Wipro (up 1.8%) and Info Edge (up 1.08%) were top gainers in IT segment.

Hexaware Technologies up 0.69% will announce it quarterly results today.

Tech Mahindra jumped 4.95% to Rs 696.95 after the IT major's consolidated net profit jumped 20.9% to Rs 972 crore on 4% fall in revenue to Rs 9,106 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q4 March 2020. Sequentially, EBITDA declined 3.5% to Rs 1,301 crore while its EBITDA margin expanded by 10 bps to 14.3% during the first quarter. In dollar terms, the company's consolidated revenue came in at $1,207.5 million in the April-June period, down 6.7% on a sequential basis. Profit after tax (PAT) jumped 18.2% to $128.8 million in Q1 FY21 over Q4 FY20.

Numbers to Track:

The yield on 10-year benchmark federal paper fell to 5.853% compared with previous closing of 5.859% in the previous trading session.

In the foreign exchange market, the partially convertible rupee edged lower to 74.85 compared with its previous closing 74.835.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for September 2020 settlement rose 4 cents to $43.45 a barrel. The contract rose 0.16% to end at $43.41 in the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 5 August 2020 settlement fell 0.69% to Rs 51,739.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services spurted 4.81% to Rs 135.05 as the company's Rs 3088.82 crore rights issue opened today, 28 July 2020. The company will issue 61,77,64,960 fully paid-up equity shares of face value of Rs 2 each for cash at a price of Rs 50 per equity share aggregating to Rs 30,88,82,48,000 on a rights basis to eligible equity shareholders in the ratio of one equity share for every one fully paid-up equity share held on the record date, that is 23 July 2020. The issue opened today, 28 July 2020, and it will close on 11 August 2020.

Manappuram Finance rose 1.15% to Rs 184.50 after the NBFC's board approved raising upto Rs 500 crore through non-convertible debentures. A special committee of the board of directors of Manappuram Finance on 28 July 2020 approved the issuance of the private placement of rated, secured, redeemable non-convertible debentures having face value of Rs 10 lakh each for the amount of Rs 150 crore, with an option to retain over subscription up to Rs 350 crore, aggregating to Rs 500 crore.

Adani Enterprises gained 3.47%. The company on Monday said that it signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Tamil Nadu for exploring possibilities of setting up hyperscale data center facility in the state. The announcement was in response to the clarification sought by the BSE on a news report that Tamil Nadu has inked 16 pacts for Rs 5,137 crore investment.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PHOENIX, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bluetail ( bluetail.aero) , a modern business and general aviation software company, announced its latest software release today, aimed at amplifying aircraft records management.

"We knew that with this next release, our goal was to connect aircraft records for our users in even more efficient and visual ways," said Roberto Guerrieri, Co-founder of Bluetail. "The newest version of Bluetail gives our customers the ability to do even more in just a few clicks, find records faster and download entire logbooks in seconds."

Bluetail new software release

Bluetail's new software update adds a number of new features , including:

Back-to-birth visual timeline filters that allow you to view aircraft logbook entries, maintenance records, FAA forms/guidance and supporting documents by date.

"Relate" functionality that allows users to select records and tie them together. For example, an FAA Form 8130-3 could be linked to the related Work Order.

The ability to transition all records from the previous aircraft owners to the new owners on-demand via "Activate" and "Deactivate" functionality.

Checklist and form creator that can easily generate aircraft logbook entries, lists, and more. Easily add e-signatures or upload a file/record per line item.

Download and print any combination of logbooks or related records, in seconds. Select the order of records by chronological or alphabetical order.

Bluetail's Customer Success team can now upload your documents to specific aircraft logbooks or categories, utilizing our latest internal upload feature.

Bluetail's updates were launched in tandem with constant aircraft owner conversations and research.

"We continually listen to our customers and hope that, with these latest improvements, we will make keeping track of aircraft records much easier than before," said Stuart Illian, Bluetail's other Co-founder. "We can't wait to see the saved time and frustrations that some of these new features will alleviate, making the lives of our Bluetail family even easier."

For more information about Bluetail and their platform, visit www.bluetail.aero .

About Bluetail

Bluetail is a modern, visual content curation platform, built specifically for business and general aviation aircraft owners. Through its powerful platform that allows owners to store, search and share data, Bluetail helps owners and their staff to maintain any and all aircraft records and logbooks in one secure, collaborative platform. The solution helps aircraft owners and flight departments to easily build and categorize logbooks, timelines, manuals, legal documents, and even privately share records. For more information, visit www.bluetail.aero .

CONTACT: Roberto Guerrieri

PHONE: 480-326-5283

EMAIL: [email protected]

SOURCE Bluetail, Inc.
Midland parents have just 10 days left to decide which district-provided format their children will use to return to school in the fall, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Whichever option they choose will be a semester-long commitment.

Midland Public School District announced the Aug. 7 deadline was implemented that instructors could be staffed appropriately.

There are three options for MPS-provided education, with the first being five days a week in-school instruction with face-to-face learning model. Though closest to a normal school experience, many things about returning to school will look different to adhere to social distancing and safety requirements.

For example, desks will have transparent shields, all staff and kids in grades 6-12 will wear facemasks, and playgrounds will be divided into sections with each classroom restricted to one section. The district communicated that social distancing 6-feet apart will not be possible in all situations, such as on school buses.

Another option is MPS Virtual Academy, which is completely remote. The district is working to have a MPS teacher provide this instruction with the newly-adopted learning management system, CANVAS.

Depending on the demand and MPS teacher interest, MPS will use MPS-trained teaching staff members with a proven and successful virtual learning program to provide the instruction for the MPS Virtual Academy, states information the district released last week. The blend of MPS teachers and Edgenuity courseware will be used if we are not able to provide an MPS teacher course or elementary grade level.

Parents can enroll virtually here: https://forms.gle/WgNey3xJ2VA4JdTLA

The third option, only available to middle and high school students, is a hybrid option that combines remote learning with face-to-face opportunities, such as participating in the Greater Michigan Construction Academy. The staffing and course catalogs for this option are being developed and further details will be released in early August.

Whichever option parents and their children choose, all students must adhere to the Michigan Department of Educations requirement of 180 days/1,098 hours of instruction for the year.

The district has until Aug. 16 to have its multiple back-to-school plans approved by the Board of Education. The district must have a plan in place for each state-designated phase that corresponds with the coronavirus pandemic.

Currently, Midland is in phase four, which allows in-school learning.

Parents lean away from in-school option

Though the district addressed several questions, some parents still feel there arent enough details to decide, or at least to choose the in-school option.

Jennifer Vannette, a mother of two children in middle and high school, said she is leaning toward a non-district provided option for her two children who are in middle and high school. She said it's a heartbreaking decision to possibly leave the district for a year, since her kids love the music program, however, she doesn't feel comfortable otherwise.

(The district) attempted to address several components of (the parents) questions, but at the same time, I feel like theres not enough detail, she said. ... From a safety perspective going in person, its provided details; its clear that theyre trying to think about what types of things need to be implemented, but at the same time, there is not enough detail to give me a lot of confidence as a parent.

Earlier in the month, Vannette and a small group of other parents created and published a community survey in which 202 parents representing 395 MPS students shared their concerns about the districts plans.

One of the lead parents, Christen Tarrant, said the district-provided FAQ raised more confusion and questions for her, however, she was glad it addressed quarantine procedures for students and teachers found to be COVID-19-positive.

They did introduce the hybrid option, so (the district) is listening a little bit on that front, she said.

However, Tarrant said she wasnt comfortable with choosing the in-school option based on the information that was provided. She said she is choosing the virtual option for her elementary-aged children.

I just feel like the options are not that great and I wish that they were better, she said.

Superintendent Michael Sharrow previously told the Daily News that no back-to-school option will be perfect.

There is no perfect plan for resuming school and parents will need to make a tough choice as they see best, he said. We simply hope to provide them with choices and attempt to answer all parents' questions with the information available.
The Northern Regional Minister, Salifu Sa-eed, has made a fervent appeal to the people of his region to ensure discipline by observing all the COVID-19 safety protocols.

This, he said, would help people in the Northern Region in particular, and the country as a whole, to minimise the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic in the country.

I want to make a passionate appeal to the citizens of Northern Region in particular, and Ghanaians in general, to self-imprison COVID-19 by wearing nose mask, practising social distancing and staying at home when we do not have any essential thing to do in town, he advised.

The northern regional minister made the appeal when he launched the second phase of the markets, lorry parks, public toilets disinfection, fumigation and cleaning exercise in his region at the Jubilee Park, Tamale, Northern Region, on Sunday, (July 26, 2020).

The exercise  a collaboration between the ministry of local government and rural development (MLGRD)  was aimed at curbing the spread of the new coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19).

According to Hon Salifi Sa-eed, ensuring self-discipline by observing the COVID-19 preventive protocols was very key in the fight against the virus. He described as sad the notion that many were still doubting the reality of COVID-19.

Let me re-emphasise that the novel virus [COVID-19] is real and that the doubting Thomases must have a rethink and follow the protocols, he urged.

He used the chance to commend various institutions that have been playing crucial roles in the regions fight against the epidemic.

These, he mentioned, included health workers, security agencies [comprising the military, police, and fire service], media and Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

Speaking to the media, the General Manager (GM), Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Northern Region, Mr. Peter Dawuni, said, his outfit started the exercise at exactly 4:00 a.m., which involved the use of equipment including foggers, mechanised sweepers, atomisers and Knapsack sprayers.

In total, we are disinfecting and cleaning 365 markets, 400 public toilets respectively in addition to chiefs places, mosques, and lorry parks, he disclosed.

The exercise, he said, would be completed on Monday, [July 27, 2020] with a huge clean-up exercise in all the disinfected markets and public places.

While stating that the first phase of the exercise was good, he stressed that there was a need for his company to improve upon its operations.

Again, Mr. Dawuni reiterated the need for the country to do periodic disinfection, especially of public places, to help contain the virus.

Tamale Central Market and Lorry Park, Aboabo Market, Savelugu Market and Lorry Park, Damongo Market, and Yapei Market were some of the facilities that benefited from the exercise.

The team also disinfected chiefs palaces, public toilets, and other public places along the line.
The report, issued by a 15-member task force that was appointed by the Smithsonians secretary himself, cited how few Hispanics had roles in the Smithsonians top management or were featured in the notable Americans section of the National Portrait Gallery.

Three years later, the Smithsonian Latino Center was created to ensure that the contributions of the demographic were represented throughout the museum system.

But despite calls for a museum dedicated entirely to Latino Americans, it wasnt until 2008 that Congress passed legislation authorizing a commission to plot out the specifics.

At the time, the National Museum of the American Indian had recently opened and the National Museum of African American History and Culture was in the works, contributing to an unwillingness in Washington to offer the same level of federal funding to another new museum.

The report by the commission, released in 2011, proposed a 310,000-square-foot building, roughly the same size as the African-American museum, that would be situated prominently on the National Mall. It assured legislators that the museum would need no federal appropriations in the first six years after it was established, relying instead on private funding. The report estimated that the project would cost $600 million and set a private fund-raising goal of $300 million. The commission identified possible locations on the National Mall where the museum could be constructed, but nothing has been finalized.
The coronavirus continues to spread across Japan. Nearly 1,000 cases were reported on Tuesday with several prefectures recording new daily records.

Osaka Governor Yoshimura Hirofumi said, "We have confirmed 155 infections. The number shows that the virus is spreading through community transmission."

To try and curb the spread, Osaka officials are asking residents and businesses to refrain from holding parties of more than five people for most of next month.

The central prefecture of Aichi reported 110 infections -- the highest daily figure since the pandemic began. The governor described the development as shocking.

Aichi Governor Omura Hideaki said, "We urge residents to realize that the situation is extremely severe. We are asking them to change their daily routines and avoid infection risks."

Kyoto, Gifu, and Okinawa prefectures also confirmed a record number of cases on Tuesday.

Tokyo continues to be the biggest hot spot with 266 cases on Tuesday. Its governor is calling on residents to stay home as much as possible during the coming summer vacation season.

Nearly 33,000 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the country. More than 1,000 people have died.
The NSW Nationals are seeking greater control of major agricultural policies, setting up a likely collision course with Liberal MPs within the Berejiklian government.

Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall plans to push for the removal of so-called concurrence rights which give Liberal Environment Minister Matt Kean final say on policies such as native-vegetation controls.

Land is cleared on a property near Moree in August 2017 after biodiversity laws were weakened. Credit:Nick Moir

The rollback of other environment checks, such as for water-sharing plans, dams and marine parks may follow if vegetation concurrence is changed, environmentalists say.

Mr Kean said, "I am not going to comment on cabinet matters," while Mr Marshall declined to provide a statement.
Expeditors International of Washington EXPD is scheduled to report second-quarter 2020 results on Aug 4.

The company has an impressive record with respect to earnings per share. Its bottom line outshined the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters, the average being 4.5%.

Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. Quote

Moreover, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter earnings has remained stable at 66 cents in the past 60 days.

Against this backdrop, lets take a look at the factors that might have impacted the companys June-quarter performance.

The impact of coronavirus-induced supply-chain disruptions is expected to have been more severe in the June quarter than it was in the March quarter. This is because the entire second quarter (April-June months) bore the brunt of this unprecedented crisis as opposed to only a single month in the last reported quarter.

Low shipment volumes are likely to get reflected in revenue results at Airfreight Services, its primary unit. Evidently, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Airfreight Services revenues indicates a 16.5% decline from the sequential quarters reported figure.

Although the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Ocean Freight and Ocean Services revenues suggests a marginal rise from the number reported sequentially, the same for Customs Brokerage and Other Services revenues implies a 2.4% dip from the March quarters reported figure. However, low fuel costs are likely to have aided the bottom line.

What Does the Zacks Model Say?

The proven Zacks model predicts an earnings beat for Expeditors this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an earnings beat as elaborated below. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Story continues

Earnings ESP: Expeditors has an Earnings ESP of +6.87% as the Most Accurate Estimate is pegged at 70 cents, 4 cents above the Zacks Consensus Estimate. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Expeditors carries a Zacks Rank #3, currently.

Highlights of Q1 Earnings

Expeditors' earnings of 71 cents per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3 cents. However, the bottom line decreased 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. Further, total revenues of $1,901.9 marginally missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1,902.7 and also declined 5.9% year over year.

Other Stocks to Consider

Investors interested in the broader Transportation sector may check out a few other stocks worth considering like Allegiant Travel Company ALGT, Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings AAWW and Copa Holdings CPA as these too possess the perfect combination of elements to beat estimates this earnings season.

Allegiant Travel has an Earnings ESP of +23.25% and a Zacks Rank of 3, currently. This company is set to release second-quarter financial numbers on Jul 29.

Atlas Air presently has an Earnings ESP of +19.81% and is a #2 Ranked player. The company will release second-quarter 2020 results on Aug 6.

Copa Holdings has an Earnings ESP of +19.18% and is Zacks #3 Ranked at present. The company will release second-quarter 2020 results on Aug 5.

These Stocks Are Poised to Soar Past the Pandemic

The COVID-19 outbreak has shifted consumer behavior dramatically, and a handful of high-tech companies have stepped up to keep America running. Right now, investors in these companies have a shot at serious profits. For example, Zoom jumped 108.5% in less than 4 months while most other stocks were sinking.



Our research shows that 5 cutting-edge stocks could skyrocket from the exponential increase in demand for stay at home technologies. This could be one of the biggest buying opportunities of this decade, especially for those who get in early.



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
'Jonas Brothers' fame musician Joe Jonas and wife and 'Game of Thrones' actress Sophie Turner have announced the birth of baby girl, Willa, on July 22 at an LA hospital one year after exchanging rings.

Sophie Turner and husband Joe Jonas have welcomed their first child recently  a baby girl.

According to Fox News, Jonas representative confirmed the news in a statement to People magazine on Monday.

Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas are delighted to announce the birth of their baby, it read.

The Game of Thrones star, and the musician, reportedly had a baby girl named Willa on Wednesday, July 22, at a Los Angeles-area hospital, according to TMZ, who first broke the news.

Also read: Sushant Singh Rajput case: Karan Johar summoned by Mumbai Police

Also read: #20in2020: Priyanka Chopra recalls her Miss India crowning moment

Joe and Sophie wed just last summer in a lavish ceremony in France after getting engaged in 2017. Before heading to Europe, Turner and Jonas eloped in Las Vegas after the Billboard Music Awards in May 2019. They exchanged Ring Pops in front of an Elvis Presley impersonator.

Turner previously gushed about her hubby to Glamour magazine back in 2019.

A lot of [my happiness now] is to do with being with a person Ive fallen in love with, who loves me more than he loves himself, and who wants to see me find my own happiness. That was probably the biggest thing that pushed me to find who I am  and find my happiness in things other than acting.

This isnt the first baby girl in the Jonas family. Joes older brother Kevin has two daughters  3-year-old Valentina Angelina, and 6-year-old Alena Rose with wife Danielle.

As for younger brother Nick Jonas, he and wife Priyanka Chopra also want kids. She told Vogue India in September 2019, Buying a home and having a baby are on my to-do list.

Also read: Gully Boy to be screened at the prestigious Busan International Film Festival

For all the latest Entertainment News, download NewsX App
LISBON (Reuters) - Wearing masks in public at all times will be compulsory on the popular Portuguese island of Madeira from Aug. 1, the local government announced on Tuesday, making it the first region in the country to adopt such measure against COVID-19.

LISBON (Reuters) - Wearing masks in public at all times will be compulsory on the popular Portuguese island of Madeira from Aug. 1, the local government announced on Tuesday, making it the first region in the country to adopt such measure against COVID-19.

The Madeira island, popular with tourists for its wine and green landscape, has managed to keep its tally of coronavirus cases low since the pandemic started. So far it has only reported 105 infections, with no new cases since Saturday.

(Reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
100 Christian pastors, pro-life advocates urge Democrats to end 'abortion extremism' in party platform

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More than 100 Christian pastors and pro-life academics and advocates have called on the Democratic National Committee to recognize the inviolable human dignity of the child, before and after birth, and adopt a party platform thats friendlier to those who are pro-life.

Some of us are registered Democrats and some of us are not, but we appreciate the Democratic Partys stated commitment to human rights, equality, and fairness, they wrote in a letter to the Democratic Platform Committee, organized by the pro-life group Democrats for Life.

Accordingly, we urge the Democratic Party to embrace policies that protect both women and children: legal protection for pre-born children, improved prenatal care for women in need, especially women of color, alternatives to abortion, and a comprehensive culture of life free from violence, poverty and racism, the letter adds.

The letter notes that the U.S. is just one of seven countries, alongside North Korea, to allow the horrific practice of elective late-term abortion after 20 weeks.

The signatories urged the Democratic Platform Committee to reject a litmus test on pro-life people of faith seeking office in the Democratic Party. Crucially, we urge you to end the explicit support in your platform for abortion extremism, such as taxpayer-funded abortion in America and overseas, opposed by 60% and 76% of voters.

Last year, Joe Biden, the partys presumptive presidential nominee, reversed his decades-long support for restricting federal funding of abortions, according to The Associated Press, which quoted him as saying at the time, Just as Ive never attempted to impose my views on anyone else as to when life begins, I have never attempted to impose my view on who should pay for it.

Steven Krueger, president of the nonprofit Catholic Democrats, warned at the time that the far left wing of the party has had influence on a number of issues, particularly on the issue of abortion, that is not going to serve candidates well once theyre in the general election.

And the problem is, its very difficult to kind of tack back to the middle once you take a stand on something as black and white as whether or not you want to repeal the restrictions on federal abortion funding, he added.

In February, activists from Democrats for Life held a press conference in Charleston, South Carolina, ahead of the states primary to voice their disgust with the Democratic candidates stances on abortion as nearly all of them opposed bans on late-term abortion and safety regulations on the abortion industry.

Democrats for Life Executive Director Kristen Day said at the time that in her 18-year career, she had not seen such extremism in the Democratic Party on abortion. Since 2010, she warned, Democrats had lost their political advantages in southern states, including Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana that had all flipped from blue to red.

The Democratic Party, she added, had moved away from safe, legal and rare abortion to supporting abortion up to nine months for any reason.
CHICO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / AmeraMex International, Inc. (OTCQB:AMMX), a provider of heavy equipment for logistics companies, infrastructure construction and forestry conservation, announced that it has received an order totaling $200,000.

The order is for a refurbished Caterpillar forklift with 92,000-pound capacity. The equipment is in inventory and will ship in early August to a logistics company located Northern California.

About AmeraMex International

AmeraMex International sells, leases and rents heavy equipment to companies within multiple industries including construction, logistics, mining, and lumber. AmeraMex, with a US and international customer base, has over 30 years of experience in heavy equipment sales and service. Follow AmeraMex on Twitter @ammx_intl and visit the AmeraMex website, www.AMMX.net or www.hamreequipment.com for additional corporate information, online heavy equipment inventory/ pricing and videos.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release are forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "potential," "continue" or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, and there are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Investors are encouraged to review the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects the Company's current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

Investor and Media Relations

McCloud Communications, LLC

Marty Tullio, Managing Member

Office: 949.632.1900 or Marty@McCloudCommunications.com

SOURCE: AmeraMex International, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/599171/AmeraMex-International-Receives-200000-Equipment-Order
Juhi Chawla made a donation of 1,000 trees on her son Arjun's birthday, to the Cauvery Calling movement which was launched by Sadhguru, the founder of Isha Foundation. Juhi called the gift, 'the best life insurance plan' for her son as the Cauvery Calling movement is aimed at revitalizing Cauvery, a major river in southern India which has depleted drastically in the last few decades.

Announcing the contribution and calling it a 'gift of clean air and water', Juhi tweeted, "For my son, Arjun, a 1,000 trees on his birthday, in the Cauvery Calling project. A gift of clean air and water, the best life insurance plan. Can anything be better?"

Her thoughtful contribution intended to create a secure future for her child was lauded by Sadhguru.

"Namaskaram Juhi, your unwavering commitment towards ensuring an abundant planet for future generations is inspiring. Congratulations and blessings to you, and a very happy birthday to Arjun," he wrote on Twitter.

Namaskaram Juhi, your unwavering commitment towards ensuring an abundant planet for future generations is inspiring. Congratulations & Blessings to you, and a very Happy Birthday to Arjun. Sg #CauveryCalling https://t.co/tLAcopPb8v  Sadhguru (@SadhguruJV) July 28, 2020

Juhi has been an active supporter of Cauvery Calling project by pledging trees as gifts for many personalities such as Akshay Kumar, Asha Bhonsle, Lata Mangeshkar Ayushmann Khurrana, Anil Kapoor and others, on their birthdays. Last September, she donated 1,000 trees in the memory of her late brother, Bobby Chawla.

ALSO READ: Akshay Kumar Is Overwhelmed By Juhi Chawla's Gesture On His Birthday; Calls It 'The Best Gift'

Not only Juhi, but other celebrities from the Hindi film industry such as Dia Mirza, Kangana Ranaut, Shah Rukh Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Anupam Kher have also voiced their support towards Cauvery Calling.

Cauvery Calling aims to empower 50 lakh farmers to plant 242 crore trees on their farmlands, in one-third of the Cauvery river basin. The project was launched in September 2019, with a 12-year vision to promote tree-based agriculture, which will significantly improve economic gains for farmers and simultaneously restore green cover in the denuded Cauvery basin.

The project is being implemented by Isha Outreach, which is a member of the world's foremost conservation body, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It will positively impact food and water security of 84 million people in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Senate Republicans unveiled plans Monday to slash federal supplemental unemployment compensation by $400 a week, a two-thirds reduction, in a savage attack on the lifeline that 20 million workers across the United States have relied on to survive for the past four months.

The $600-a-week benefit for workers laid off because of the coronavirus crisis was established in the CARES Act passed in March. It has an official expiration date of July 31, but effectively ended this weekend, given how state-run unemployment compensation systems calculate the benefit week.

Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, outlining the unemployment compensation plan, denounced the $600-a-week benefit as an incentive for idleness that had caused many people to refuse jobs. Weve learned a tough lesson, he said. If you pay people not to work, what do you expect? He went on to hail the bill for providing further tax relief for businesses to encourage hiring and rehiring.

The Republican bill is a political provocation against the working class. In the CARES Act, the Democrats and Republicans combined limited subsidies to the unemployed with trillions for corporations and banks, using the increased unemployment compensation as a screen to disguise the real nature of the CARES Act as a handout to the multimillionaires.

The legislation unveiled Monday would strip away the disguise, combining further subsidies for the wealthy and corporate America with a $400-a-week cut in benefits for millions who have only barely been able to pay urgent and pressing bills. Even with the federal extended benefits, some 12 million people failed to make rent payments due by July 1, and 23 million said they feared missing rent payments due August 1.

Recipients line up for food at the Giving Hope Food Pantry during a food giveaway, in New Orleans, Tuesday, July 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

White House officials had hinted on the weekend that the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures of properties that are insured or otherwise underwritten by federal agencies, which has just expired, would be renewed and extended, perhaps through the end of the year. But the Senate Republicans made no mention of evictions and seemed willing to allow them to resume at top speed, or else hold those facing eviction, now more than 20 million, as hostages for further concessions from the Democrats in the ongoing talks.

They have little need for such additional leverage, since the Democratic leaders have already indicated their willingness to compromise, which means accept a far lower level of federal supplemental benefits, as well as cave in to other demands from McConnell and the White House. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are interested in posturing as defenders of the unemployed and low-paid workers for electoral purposes, but they defend the same class interests as the Republicans: Wall Street and the financial aristocracy.

The Republicans portrayed even the $200-a-week pittance for the unemployed as a generous concession, made unavoidable because state unemployment compensation systems would be unable, for technical reasons, to quickly implement the policy really advocated by McConnell & Co.--to establish a ceiling of 70 percent of previous salary for any worker collecting unemployment benefits, from both state and federal sources combined.

This limit was aimed at preventing the abominationas the millionaire senators see itof low-paid workers getting more money from unemployment compensation than from their jobs in fast-food restaurants, warehouses, sweatshop factories and retail outlets.

Or, as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin put it, It just wouldnt be fair to use taxpayer dollars to pay people more to sit home than they would working and get a job. Mnuchin, of course, sees nothing wrong with handing out billions in federal subsidies to millionaire CEOs, bankers and hedge fund bosses who already make more in a day than the workers they exploit make in many years.

As it is, there are states like Tennessee where the average state unemployment compensation payment is only $144. The additional federal $200 would bring the total to $344 a week, about $8.50 an hour, less than the minimum wage in many cities and states.

Other provisions in the package outlined by a group of Republican senators on Monday afternoon include:

 A $1,200-per-person one-time economic stimulus check, sent out by the Treasury to every worker, plus $500 for each dependent. A family unit of two adults and two children would get $3,400, the same amount paid out under the CARES Act in March and April. The total cost is estimated at $300 billion.

 $105 billion in funding for schools, of which $35 billion goes to colleges and $70 billion for K-12 education, under a formula that reserves two thirds of the money for schools that resume in-person classes for at least half the school week.

 Nearly $200 billion in subsidies for businesses, both large and small, although the second category has been rigged to allow corporations to apply for small business loans and grants for any facility or subsidiary employing fewer than 500 workers.

 A five-year liability shield for businesses, nonprofits, schools and other employers, exempting them from lawsuits by workers who contract COVID-19 as a result of going back to work, unless workers can show that the employer violated the public health guidelines in effect in their locality.

 Various specific outlays, including $16 billion for expanded coronavirus testing, a drop in the bucket; $26 billion to develop and distribute vaccines and therapeutics; $20 billion for farmers and ranchers; $30 billion to help US military contractors retain key skilled workers; and an unspecified but fairly small sum to defer student loan payments for those left without income by the coronavirus crisis.

Even in a best-case scenario, there will be a gap of several weeks between the ending of the $600-a-week supplement and the resumption of benefits at whatever level is ultimately negotiated between the Republican-controlled US Senate and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested that there would be a deal by the time of Congresss August recess, now set for August 7.

This means that every worker receiving federal supplemental benefits will lose at least two weeks of benefits, or $1,200an amount exactly equal to the economic stimulus checkbefore benefits resume at a lower level. In other words, by delaying action on an extension and creating a gap of at least two weeks, McConnell has contrived to rob tens of millions of workers of even this tiny subsidy.

One of the most ominous features of the Republican plan is its embrace of the Trust Act, legislation sponsored in the Senate by Republican Mitt Romney, the 2012 presidential candidate, and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the most right-wing member of the Democratic caucus. This bill would set up a fast-track process for the handling of legislation next year that would gut Social Security and Medicare.

The bill requires the Treasury to provide a review of the solvency of both the Social Security and Medicare trust funds within 45 days of the new Congress assembling in January 2021. Congress would establish a rescue committee for each trust fund to propose legislation that restores solvency. Any bill would have to have the support of members of both parties, meaning it would exclude tax increases on the wealthy and would stabilize fund finances entirely through cuts in benefits and eligibility. The legislation proposed by the committee would receive expedited review with no amendments being permitted.

Five Democratic senators have already backed the bill: Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Doug Jones of Alabama, Angus King of Maine and Mark Warner of Virginia, along with Manchin. In the House of Representatives, a group of 60 members, 30 Republicans and 30 Democrats, has sent a joint letter to the congressional leadership urging the incorporation of the Trust Act into the latest coronavirus relief package.

Even while the attacks on the working class stemming from the COVID-19 crisis are still in full flood, the representatives of big business in both parties are preparing for the next round. This demonstrates that the incoming Democratic administration, should Biden replace Trump in the White House, would be committed to austerity policies far more severe than anything Trump and the Republicans were able to accomplish.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its school safety guidelines in a major push for in-person instruction that has teachers unions calling the change a political move spearheaded by the Trump administration that ultimately puts lives at risk.

The new guidelines stress for face-to-face instruction in communities not considered COVID-19 hotspots, which CDC Director Robert Redfield described in a Friday telebriefing as areas where the COVID-19 test positivity rate is greater than five percent. Texas' current positivity rate is hovering at around 13 percent.

It is critically important for our public health to open schools this fall, Redfield said. "I know this has been a difficult time for our nations families. School closures have disrupted normal ways of life for children and parents, and they have had negative health consequences on our youth. CDC is prepared to work with K-12 schools to safely reopen while protecting the most vulnerable.

NEED TO KNOW: Hidalgo, health officials order Harris County schools to start school year virtually

The new guidelines reverse course on a few of the organization's previous guidelines and include not screening all students for symptoms, not closing down entire schools if one person tests positive and offer more guidance on the use of face masks in the classroom setting. The guidelines also provide new information on decision-making tools and checklists for parents and an FAQ for administrators.

CDC officials and officials with the U.S. Department of Education said the guidelines take into account the risks the virus poses to children and evidence that at-home learning can have detrimental effects on children's education and their mental and emotional well-being. According to the CDC, COVID-19 poses "relatively low risks" to school-aged children compared to adults. As of July 17, children under 18 years old account for under seven percent of COVID-19 cases and less than .1 percent of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., per the CDC.

"The research and the science continue to suggest that it is safer, healthier and better for students to be in school full time," Dr. Mitchell Zais, Deputy Secretary of Education said during the Friday briefing. "Too many government schools already failed their students this past spring. It can't happen again this fall."

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Thousands of Houston-area students lose contact with schools during pandemic shutdown

The pivot toward pro-in-person instruction comes after President Donald Trump earlier this month publicly criticized the CDC's previous recommendations, calling them "tough and expensive guidelines" that are "are asking schools to do very impractical things."

The Texas ATF, the state affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, responded to the new guidelines by calling them "a public relations pitch to get as many kids back into the classrooms as soon as possible" and said the CDC is "basing its push on an agenda from the White House and dubious assertions on how kids are at minimum risk, both for themselves and their teachers and families."

"Amazing, isnt it, how in two-weeks time the CDC can go from an internal document noting the high risk of school reopenings to now saying its perfectly safe to push millions of kids back into classrooms," Texas AFT President Zeph Capo said in a news release. "These guidelines have gone to the White House gift wrapper and are now an insulting, politically-packaged campaign piece.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in a statement responding to the guidelines that the CDC changed its tone to "accommodate President Trumps whims" and added that schools cannot safely reopen until more is done to contain the virus.

"The CDC could really help parents and educators by issuing a clear set of protocols and making it easier to navigate, instead of offering endless checklists that send people searching for answers," Weingarten said in the statement.

After the Texas Education Agency extended the transition period for schools to start the year virtually from three weeks to eight weeks, several Houston-area districts opted to start the year virtually, including Houston ISD, the largest school district in Texas. Shortly after the TEA extended its timeline, Harris County and Houston-area health authorities mandated that all county schools must delay in-person instruction for the first eight weeks of the 2020-21 school year.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday released a statement announcing local health authorities may not issue sweeping orders for closing schools to prevent COVID-19 spread.



While local health authorities may possess some authority to close schools in limited circumstances, they may not issue blanket orders closing all schools on a purely preventative basis," Paxton said in the statement. That decision rightfully remains with school system leaders.

From Sunday to Monday, the Houston region added 1,571 new COVID-19 cases and is now at 94,438 cases total. Harris County saw an increase of 846 new cases and is at 66,195 cases total. During that same one-day period, Texas added 4,331 new cases and is now at 395,338 new cases total, according to a Houston Chronicle data analysis.

rebecca.hennes@chron.com
Madhur Singhal and Ashish Agarwal

With about 15 million infected cases globally within eight months, COVID-19 could be deemed as the fastest and largest blow to life and economy in modern history. The world is waiting with bated breath for the release of an effective vaccine to end this pandemic.

India is one of the largest vaccine manufacturers globally by volume and provides 70 percent of UNICEFs requirement. The largest supplier is Serum Institute of India (SII), followed by other companies such as Biological E, Panacea Biotech, Bharat Biotech and Shantha Biotech.

The high reproductive number of the virus causes experts to estimate that about 60 percent of the worlds population needs to vaccinate for herd immunity. This translates to the gargantuan requirement of about 4.7 billion vaccine doses.

To ensure speedy approval, manufacturing, distribution and administration, multiple vaccine candidates are being trialled on an unimaginable fast-track globally.

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

Various Indian players are at the forefront of the COVID-19 vaccine development. Notable examples are: Bharat Biotech, which has partnered with the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR); Zydus Cadila which has developed the DNA based and life attenuated vaccines in-house, and is currently in Phase I and II; and, the SII which has signed a licensing agreement with Astra Zeneca for the supply of 1 billion doses of the vaccine being developed along with Oxford University to middle- and low-income countries. The other notable progresses are the Indian Immunologicals Limited which is in partnership with Griffith University, and Panacea Biotech, which is partnering with US-based vaccine developer Refana.

India is also attractive for clinical trials due to the incidence of myriad diseases, cheaper healthcare services, and favourable regulations. This completes Indias bouquet of offerings for vaccine developers and manufacturers.

A question thats being often asked is whether India is ahead of the world in efforts to end COVID-19? Possibly, but certain nuances are critical to Indias fight to end the pandemic.

Vaccine Nationalism

During the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak, Australia and Canada restricted access to the locally-developed vaccines by banning exports and stockpiling. The United States promised to donate its stock to developing countries, but waited until the stabilisation of pandemic to do so. Hence, the nationality of vaccine discovered is significant.

Around the world, about 25 vaccines have entered the clinical trial phase; among this, only two vaccines (Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila) are from Indian companies. In absence of an Indian vaccine, it is possible that innovator and affluent countries stockpile, and India gets supplied quite late on the pandemic damage curve.

To avoid this possibility, organisations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and Oslo-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) have been proactive. Notable measures by Gavi is the Covax AMC (Advanced Market Commitment) for countries to pre-book vaccines assuring manufacturers of sufficient volumes as well as ensuring access for developing countries. AstraZeneca, which is a leading player in the vaccine development race, has promised 400 million doses to Covax AMC in partnership with the SII. India is also well-positioned strategically at the WHO with Health Minister Harsh Vardhan as chairman of the executive board, and Soumya Swaminathan as chief scientist.

Priority Population

Even with India possessing the world's largest manufacturing facilities, the facility type would be clear only post a full-fledged approval of the vaccine. With a variety of innovative technologies for vaccine production, the current processes could be rendered unsuitable  and this is a risk preventing Indian players from investing in any current technology. This is exactly the kind of risk Covax AMC seeks to incentivise, though fund flow to Indian manufacturers looks quite limited for now.

Nevertheless, Indias vast capacities would ensure the eventual incoming of manufacturing volumes  if not by Covax AMC, then by trade partnerships.

Vaccine manufacturers make larger revenues from exports, and hence a significant supply volume is expected to be funnelled overseas  a practice the Government of India would neither want to nor could disrupt.

With limited vaccine stock at hand, the frontline healthcare workers would be the top priority for vaccination, followed by geriatric population. Indias large migrant population pool would also need immunisation to avoid newer outbreaks.

The logistics could further complicate if recent reports turn out to be validated and multiple doses are required for a complete protection against the virus. This could increase the burden on payers, manufacturers, and distributors.

Overall, a global vaccination would not be possible without India playing a key role. To quote Bill Gates: India's pharmaceutical industry will be able to produce COVID-19 vaccines not just for the country, but also for the entire world.
Senate Republicans unveiled the details of their latest $1 trillion coronavirus relief package Monday night, which includes $70 billion in funding for elementary, middle and high schools nationwide.

Overall, Republicans earmarked $105 billion for education in the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act, which includes:

$70 billion allocated directly to K-12 school districts and private schools

$29 billion for higher education, including colleges and universities

$1 billion for the Bureau of Indian Education and outlying areas

$5 billion for a flexible Governors Emergency Education Relief Fund, which could be used for early childhood education, K-12 education or higher education, based on the needs of the state

When it comes to distributing the $70 billion in K-12 funds, a majority of the money is earmarked for schools who elect to reopen with at least some in-person instruction this fall. Of the $70 billion allocated to the country's 135,000 public and private elementary, middle and high schools, only one-third, or about $23.3 billion, will be available immediately.

Two-thirds of the funding, about $46.6 billion, will be available to schools reopening for in-person instruction to help with the additional costs of accommodating social distancing and safety guidance advice from the Centers for Disease Control. This funding will be awarded based on certain minimum opening requirements and other criteria established by states.

To receive funding, schools will have to submit reopening plans for the 2020-2021 academic year to their state, according to the proposed legislation. Schools that provide in-person instruction for at least half of their students where children physically attend school no less than 50% of each school week will be automatically approved for funding.

Schools that are reopening fully remote will not be eligible for any additional funding outside the initial $23.3 billion. Schools that provide some in-person instruction, but less than the 50% mandate, will "have its allocation reduced on a pro rata basis as determined by the [state] governor," the bill text says.

Roughly 50 school districts nationwide  including some of the nation's largest like New York City  that combined have over 2 million children enrolled, have announced they'll be using a blend of remote learning and part-time classroom instruction heading into the fall semester, according to Education Week, which has been tracking school reopening plans from districts as they are announced. As of July 28, Education Week sourced plans for roughly 330 school districts so far out of 13,000 nationwide. About 90 districts have opted to return full-time and nearly 140 say they'll be completely remote. Just over 50 districts remain undecided as of July 28.

"Two-thirds of the money would go to schools that are opening with students physically present to help pay for the extra costs of providing that instruction in a safe environment," Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions, said on the floor Monday. The $70 billion in total funding for K-12 schools breaks down to about $1,200 per student, Alexander said.

The GOP's stipulations on school funding come after President Trump has repeatedly voiced support for schools to fully return to in-person schedules this fall. Earlier this month, the president stated he may withhold federal funding from schools that do not reopen with in-class learning and vowed to pressure state governors to support his stance.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1280209946085339136?s=20

Monday's proposed coronavirus relief package from Republicans allocates more to elementary and secondary education than the Democrats' HEROES Act. The $3 trillion legislative package earmarked $100 billion for education, with $58 billion designated for K-12 schools. The HEROES Act passed the House of Representatives in May, but remains stalled in the Senate.

In addition to the HEROES Act, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) introduced the Coronavirus Child Care and Education Relief Act in June, which provides $175 billion in stabilization aid for K-12 schools, as well as an additional $12.9 billion for services to K-12 students in communities disproportionately affected by the pandemic. The bill has not yet been sent to committee.

Although the Republican HEALS Act currently calls for $70 billion in funding for K-12 schools, the legislation still needs to gain enough Democratic support to pass both the House and Senate, so there could be changes to the amount and the ways in which this funding is allocated. Last week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC he wants to finalize the next relief package by July 31.
Within days of his inauguration, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that suspended immigration rights for Syrian refugees and prohibited citizens from seven mostly Middle Eastern countries from entering the United States.

What became known as the "Muslim ban" would be one of the most defining and notorious watersheds of the Trump administration. And its rollback is rivetingly portrayed in "The Fight," an artfully crafted and improbably entertaining documentary about the American Civil Liberties Union. Viewers expecting a plodding and self-righteous tutorial on American jurisprudence are instead invited to witness, firsthand, the litigation of four hallmark cases in which ACLU attorneys attempt to preserve immigration rights, reproductive freedom, the ability of transgender individuals to serve in the military and voting rights - in one case, all the way to a young lawyer's first appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Although the Muslim ban episode kicks off "The Fight" and skillfully establishes context and highly pitched emotional stakes, it is not the film's primary focus. Instead, the filmmakers proceed to follow ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, a rumpled veteran who is battling Trump's family separation policy, which for the despondent woman he's representing means she hasn't seen her young daughter in months. Brigitte Amiri, deputy director at the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project, has taken on the case of a teenager from Central America who has been barred from receiving an abortion in Texas. Chase Strangio and Joshua Block are challenging Trump's attempt to ban trans people from serving in the military. And Dale Ho is trying to remove the citizenship question on the upcoming U.S. census.

Gracefully toggling between these disparate but related cases, "The Fight" portrays its protagonists as superheroic Davids doing battle with a looming, largely unseen Goliath. Afforded unprecedented access to the ACLU's offices and inner workings, the filmmakers have created a portrait of idealism and hard work that might be mistaken for a promo piece for the organization's 100-year anniversary, which it's celebrating this year. Still, directors Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman and Eli B. Despres (who made the equally engrossing 2016 documentary "Weiner") have found real-life characters who are every bit as pluralistic and paradoxical as the American citizens they represent. What's more, they are on the scene when the ACLU decides to advocate for the white supremacists marching in Charlottesville in 2017, a move that's met with outraged dissent within the ranks.

If "The Fight" gives short shrift to the contradictions embedded within the ACLU's mission - defending the Constitution at its most distasteful, offensive and reprehensible edges - the film is exceedingly well-made, making arcane legal theory legible and comprehensible, maintaining a swift and engrossing pace and getting inside inaccessible courtrooms by way of stunning animations directed by Arvid Steen.

Most impressively, Steinberg, Kriegman and Despres follow just the right people to give the audience a candid and often amusing glimpse of the workaday life of an ACLU attorney, whether it's Amiri celebrating a victory with "train wine" on Amtrak (where she seems to live half her life) or Ho tensely rehearsing for and then nervously awaiting the results from an argument at the Supreme Court. The unintended star of "The Fight" might just be Gelernt, whose hilarious bouts of technophobia punctuate what is easily the film's most heartbreaking case. In this engrossing and ultimately inspiring examination of ideals in action, the team behind "The Fight" wind up illustrating a cardinal rule of nonfiction filmmaking: When it comes to humanizing even the loftiest principles, a documentary lives or dies by its principals.

- - -

Three and one-half stars. Rated PG-13. Available on demand at various streaming platforms. Contains strong language, mature thematic material and brief violence. 96 minutes.

Ratings Guide: Four stars masterpiece, three stars very good, two stars OK, one star poor, no stars waste of time.
Punjab Police

Chandigarh: Responding to Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singhs appeal, as many as 40 police personnel, recently recovered from Covid-19 infection, have offered to donate their blood plasma to save the lives of others infected with the deadly Coronavirus.

The majority of these are from Jalandhar Rural, with SSP Navjot Singh Mahal himself leading the way after recovering from the infection, according to Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta, who has been personally reached out to his convalescent officers and men to donate plasma after their mandatory 2-week recovery period ends, subject to fulfilling other conditions for such donation.

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DGP Dinkar GuptaGupta disclosed that within 24 hours of the SSP Jalandhar Rural coming forward to commit to plasma donation, 40 other police personnel had also volunteered, followed by more.

The blood plasma of two cops ASI Ram Lal and PHG Lakhwinder Singh  had already been taken.

All the 33 personnel recovered from Covid-19 in Jalandhar Rural had committed to plasma donation, said the DGP, adding that an increasing number of plasma donors were also coming in from the police department in other districts too.

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In Batala too, both the cops who have recovered have volunteered to donate plasma while in Gurdaspur, of the two personnel infected, one has recovered and has offered to give his plasma.

Punjab PoliceKapurthala has seen 10 of the 14 infected cops recovered and three of them are listed as volunteers while the remaining 7 had to be excluded as they were found to have co-morbid conditions. Jalandhar Rural currently has 7 active cases and Batala has 4.

A special link has been created by the Punjab Police for volunteers to donate plasma to help out other patients who were struggling with the disease, according to the DGP.

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Gupta said a special campaign had been launched to create awareness among the cured police personnel to come out for this noble cause.

The DGP lauded the Punjab Police corona warriors for their dedication to duty and service to humanity.

With most of the volunteers asymptomatic, their inherent immunity was higher, according to experts.

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Punjab PoliceThe DGP said with many other cops still under treatment for Covid-19, he expected to see more donors coming forward over the next few days.

As of July 28, a total of 831 Punjab Police personnel had tested Covid positive, of whom 336 had recovered.

Of these 303 had recovered till about two weeks ago, indicating that the number of plasma donors could go up significantly in the next few days.

Currently, the department has 495 active cases and as more and more cops get cured, the number of volunteers was expected to see a sharp rise, said Gupta.

Punjab PoliceThe Punjab Police has in place an elaborate mechanism to test its personnel on frontline duty to ensure early diagnosis, isolation and treatment.

The state government has set up one Plasma Bank in Patiala and is preparing to operationalize two more to strengthen its Covid treatment and care network.
A Hampton Inn is shown July 21, 2020, in Phoenix. An Associated Press report alleges the Trump administration is detaining immigrant children as young as 1 in hotels before deporting them to their home countries.

PHOENIX  Legal advocacy groups have sued the U.S. government to try to stop the expulsion of children believed to be detained in Arizona and Texas hotel rooms by the Trump administration under an emergency declaration citing the novel coronavirus.

An Associated Press report published last week described three Hampton Inn & Suites hotels where a federal contractor has held unaccompanied minors awaiting deportation, which has been fast-tracked amid the global pandemic.

The report described children as young as 1 being held for days at a time in hotels before being deported, a service provided by federal transportation contractor MVM Inc. Records showed hotels had been used nearly 200 times in Phoenix, El Paso and McAllen, Texas.

The owners of the Hampton Inn & Suites in McAllen, Texas, said on Friday night that they had ended any reservations on rooms used to detain minors.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that all children had been taken away from the McAllen hotel, two days after the Associated Press report.

Managers of a Hampton Inn in Phoenix told The Arizona Republic of the USA TODAY Network the hotel could not comment, citing guest privacy.

ICE repeatedly refused to answer questions about where contractors have taken the children, citing a potential security risk.

The Trump administration is holding children in secret in hotels, refusing to give lawyers access to them so it can expel them back to danger without even a chance for the children to show they warrant asylum, said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed suit on behalf of the Texas Civil Rights Project.

Gelernt said suing on behalf of unnamed children was necessary because the government is refusing to provide any information about the children. The lawsuit was filed in Washington federal court, and Gelernt said he would seek to include any minors detained at the hotel as of Thursday.

John Lewis: She was 13 when a beaten Lewis arrived at her Alabama family's home, seeking refuge

Story continues

Whether held by shelter operators long term or transportation contractors, immigrant children in federal custody fall into a separate legal realm from state systems that handle foster care and other custody issues.

That reality means federal handling of migrant children often eludes real scrutiny, some advocates say.

As Leecia Welch, an attorney at the nonprofit National Center for Youth Law, told the AP: "Theyve created a shadow system in which theres no accountability for expelling very young children."

Arizona State Rep. Kelli Butler, who raised concerns two years ago about oversight of the federal shelters for immigrant children, said the latest report is far more disturbing.

"What are they doing in hotel rooms with babies and teenage girls?" the Paradise Valley Democrat asked. "The thoughts are unimaginable."

At least the federal shelters have a level of state oversight, and the workers are backgrounded, Butler said. But that's not the case for the hotel arrangement, done through a contract overseen by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she said.

"We don't know what they're doing with the kids," she said of MVM and ICE. "Are they deporting them? Are they being trafficked? It's so open-ended."

Coronavirus live updates: Moderna could provide 1 billion vaccine doses in 2021

Who gets the kids?

The federal custody of immigrant children begins when they arrive at the border. Some may arrive on their own, as happened in a wave of so-called unaccompanied minors in 2014.

In other cases, children are separated from their parents. This was particularly at issue in 2018, under a short-lived U.S. "zero-tolerance" policy. That policy mandated that everyone caught entering the country illegally was being referred for criminal prosecution, even parents arriving with children. Because a court ruling bars the government from holding children in jail, thousands of children were then separated from their parents at the border and placed in government custody in shelters.

Arizona's Department of Child Safety says it does not have jurisdiction over the children who show up at the border.

The federal government runs a separate system through the Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS contracts with private companies to shelter immigrant children. Southwest Key operates many of those shelters across seven states. During zero-tolerance, separated children flooded into shelters run by Southwest Key and others.

However, with the onset of the new coronavirus pandemic, the federal government has moved to more quickly deport illegal border crossers. That duty falls to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which in turn has contracted with MVM Inc., a defense contractor, to care for the children until they can be shipped out of the country.

That care, according to the documents obtained by the AP, included housing the children in hotels, even as shelters meant for their care sat empty.

Reported Portland shooting: Portland police detain two suspects after reported shooting near federal courthouse protest site

Who cares for the kids?

When DCS takes a child into state custody, the child is either placed with other family members or with a licensed foster home. Group homes are a last resort, but those, too, are licensed.

Foster parents and group-home managers must undergo training and meet state standards before they can have a child in their home.

Southwest Key staffs its shelters with people who have been trained in child care and have to pass background checks based on a valid fingerprint clearance card.

During the pandemic, shelter populations are low because of the rapid-deportation policy. With many staffers working from home due to safety concerns, Southwest Key has used the time to provide online training in such things as the latest behavioral-health techniques and child care, said Neil Nowlin, a Southwest Key spokesman.

In contrast, MVM Inc. is a defense contractor that specializes in transportation. In the AP report, ICE officials would not comment on whether MVM staffers were trained in child care or had to undergo FBI background checks.

Two years ago, MVM admitted it had "occasionally" housed immigrant children overnight in a central Phoenix office building, even though it previously had said it used the building only for short stopovers. It then canceled its lease on the building.

Who's checking things out?

As noted above, DCS licenses foster and group homes. That gives the state control over a placement if it suspects there are health or safety concerns.

Although Southwest Key operates as a federal contractor, the state has some regulatory control. The state Department of Health Services licenses the shelters as child-care facilities. That oversight extends to the physical premises, not to allegations of abuse and neglect, which are referred to local police.

MVM is not licensed by the state or the federal government as a child-care facility.

Two years ago, Southwest Key shelters came under intense public scrutiny during the Trump administration's zero-tolerance police.

An Arizona Republic investigation at the time revealed video of workers dragging and shoving some migrant children.

State health authorities also threatened to revoke the licenses of all 13 Southwest Key shelters operating in the state after the company didn't provide proof its employees had provided valid fingerprint cards, as required.

A settlement led to Southwest permanently closing two shelters and paying a $73,000 fine. The company also had to get state approval before admitting any more children, agree to unannounced inspections, hire on-site inspectors at each of its locations and hire an outside consultant to help it improve its health and safety standards. It was later cleared to house more children.

Today, the shift to a rapid deportation policy has cut the number of children in federal shelters.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement did not return inquiries about how many immigrant children are housed in Arizona shelters. But the contracts continue, along with the added contract that ICE issued to MVM.

Butler questioned whether it's a good use of taxpayer dollars to pay two different contractors to deal with immigrant children  especially when one of them has fewer residents and the other has no apparent oversight.

"It sounds like an undercover operation," she said.

Contributing: Arizona Republic staff; Associated Press

Follow reporter Mary Jo Pitzl on Twitter @maryjpitzl

Check your couch cushions: One Chick-fil-A offers free food voucher if you exchange coins

Want to be a doctor? A lawyer? COVID-19 cases are rising, but these high-stakes exams are in-person only

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: US sued after report of detained migrant kids at Hampton Inn hotels
By PTI

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday permitted family members of poet Varavara Rao to meet him at Mumbai's Nanavati Hospital where the 81-year-old is undergoing treatment for COVID-19.

A bench of Justices RD Dhanuka and VG Bisht granted permission adding the meeting would be subject to hospital protocol on granting access to relatives of COVID-19 victims.

Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Koregaon Bhima case, tested positive for coronavirus on July 16 and has been undergoing treatment at the Nanavati Hospital.

The HC granted permission after Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, counsel for National Investigation Agency (NIA) told court the agency had no objection to Rao's family being permitted to meet him, or to his family being informed of his health condition, subject to hospital protocols.

Rao filed a plea earlier this month through his lawyer Sudeep Pasbola seeking bail.

Advocate Pasbola also urged the court to let the poet meet his family saying the latter was "almost on his death bed".

On Tuesday, both the state government and the NIA told HC they had no objection to Rao's family seeing him, or to them receiving an update on his health condition.

ALSO READ | Elgar Parishad case: NIA opposes activist Sudha Bharadwaj's bail plea

The bench accepted their submission and said, "In view of the statement made by the learned Additional Solicitor General, family members of the petitioner are permitted to visit the petitioner who is admitted in Nanavati Super Specialty Hospital, however, subject to hospital protocol and in accordance with government norms in respect to COVID-19 patients."

Earlier during the day, the court directed Nanavati Hospital to submit a report in court on Rao's health condition and the nature of medical treatment being provided to him.

The court had said once it went through the hospital's report, it will decide on the plea filed by Rao's family seeking a copy of such report.

ALSO READ | Bombay HC rejects medical bail plea of former DU professor GN Saibaba

The court will also hear arguments on Rao's bail plea after the hospital submits its report.

It directed hospital authorities to submit the report on Rao's health and treatment within three days from the time that they receive communication on the court's order.

HC is likely to hear the matter further on August 7 this year.
Vietnam added seven local COVID-19 infections to its tally on Tuesday, including a health worker.

Four of the cases are citizens of Da Nang, a touristy city on the central coast, while the others hail from neighboring Quang Nam Province, the Ministry of Health said.

One of the new patients is a health worker at Da Nang Hospital, to which at least 16 cases have been traced since the weekend.

The hospital is now locked down alongside Da Nang C Hospital and Da Nang Orthopedics and Rehabilitation Hospital, as infected patients have been there.

Vietnam has confirmed 22 community-based cases since Saturday, ending a streak of 99 days without any local transmission of the virus.

Eighteen of the patients, including three critical cases, are in Da Nang, three in Quang Nam, and one in Quang Ngai Province.

Relevant government agencies are conducting aggressive contact tracing to prevent the virus from spreading further.

Da Nang started enforcing citywide social distancing on Tuesday that will be in effect for at least 15 days.

Authorities have banned public gatherings of more than two people, closed non-essential services, required citizens to wear face masks whenever outdoors, and asked them not to leave their home unless for essential trips while maintaining a two-meter distance in social interactions.

Flights to and from the beach city began to be suspended for 15 days on Tuesday.

Health workers will test about 10,000 people in Da Nang for COVID-19, a source told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Vietnam has detected 438 coronavirus patients as of Tuesday evening, with 276 imported cases quarantined upon arrival, according to the health ministry.

The nation has confirmed 369 recoveries and zero fatalities.

More than 15,000 people who had close contact with patients or entered Vietnam from outbreak-hit regions are being quarantined in the Southeast Asian country at the time of writing.

Vietnamese borders are still closed to foreigners but foreign experts and skilled workers are allowed in, subject to government approval and compulsory quarantine on arrival.

The government has sent aircraft to other nations to repatriate Vietnamese citizens, also quarantined upon landing.

Officials in Da Nang, Quang Nam, as well as other provinces and cities have detected dozens of Chinese illegally entering Vietnam and staying in local lodging facilities this month.

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As the Ram Mandir Bhumi Pujan day is approaching, donations for building a grand temple at Lord Rams birthplace at Ayodhya are also coming in. The construction of the temple will begin after the laying of the foundation stone at Ram Janmabhoomi, most likely by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 5.

Renowned spiritual guru and Katha vachak Morari Bapu has announced a donation of Rs 5 crore from his Vyaspeeth to Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirath Kshetra Trust for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

Morari Bapu had announced the donation during an online spiritual talk on Monday saying his ashram in Chitrakoot will send Rs 5 crore for the construction of Ram Mandir while also asking devotees to contribute voluntarily.

A Hindu seer also announced that the Ram Temple trust was not averse to taking donations from Muslims.

Watch: Ram Temple: Time capsule to be placed in foundation? Official clarifies

The Trust is not averse to taking donations from Muslims, if they are willing to donate, said Mahant Kamal Nayan Das.

Kamal Nayan is successor designate of chairman of Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirath Kshetra Trust Mahant Nritya Gopal Das.

Politicians have also started donating money for the Ram Mandir.

Deputy chief minister in Uttar Prasad government, Keshav Prasad Maurya went to Ayodhya along with his wife on Tuesday.

Also Read: Owaisi alleges PM Modi will violate constitutional oath by attending Ram Temple ceremony

Maurya donated Rs 6.60 lakh to the Trust on behalf of late Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) president Ashok Singhal, his late guru Gurujan Singh and family members.

Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya met chairman of the Trust, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das and handed over cheques to him. He donated Rs 6.60 lakh for construction of Ram Mandir, said Sharad Sharma, regional spokesperson, VHP, who operates from Karsevakpuram.

Earlier on March 25, chief minister Yogi Adityanath had donated Rs 11 lakh to the Trust for the construction of Ram Mandir.

Adityanath had donated money during the shifting of the idol of Ram Lalla from makeshift temple to a pre-fabricated temple at Ram Janmabhoomi.

The Mahavir Mandir Trust of Patna has also announced a donation of Rs 10 crore for the cause with installments of Rs two crore to be paid every year as per the instructions of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirath Kshetra Trust. First installment has been paid.

Apart from cash, devotees are also donating gold and silver to the Trust.

Hyderabad based jeweler K Srinivas has donated one kg gold brick and a five kg silver brick to the Trust.

Watch: After UP CM Yogi, his deputy visits Ayodhya to take stock of Ram Temple prep

Ajay Rastogi, state president of Bullion Jewellers Association, Lucknow, and members of his association, have donated 33 kg silver bricks to the Trust.

Through online donations in the past four months, the Trust has received around Rs 6 crore in its two bank accounts in State Bank of India, main branch, Ayodhya. The Trust is also sending acknowledgement receipt of donations along with thanks letter by post to donors.

The Trust is hopeful that there will be no shortfall of money for the construction of Ram Mandir.

The VHP has planned to connect with 10 crore families across the country and collect donations ranging from Rs 1 to Rs 10 from each family for the Ram Mandir.
A three-month analysis on the possible impact of COVID-19 on the data breach landscape has shed light on an increasing number of threat actors worrying cyber-security specialists. The Verizon Business study reviewed 474 data breach incidents from March  June 2020 based on contributor data, publicly disclosed incidents and Verizons own observations drawn from its collective years of experience. It focuses on 36 confirmed data breaches which were identified as being related directly to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 In view of the COVID19 pandemic, many large and small organisations have adopted new technologies such as software- as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, increased cloud-based storage and the use of third-party vendors in record time to continue to support their customers. While the SaaS solutions mentioned above, or the cloud itself, are not inherently less secure, however the concern arises from the fact that due to the conditions the pandemic has created, most organizations are adopting them in a hurried fashion, and they are often forced to do so while relying on fewer resources in terms of both personnel and revenue thereby multiplying the risk..  said Prashant Gupta, Head of Solutions, Verizon Business.

The analysis has thrown up an increasing number of commonly seen threat actors, which include:

Increase in Error  The Verizon Business 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) outlined that almost a quarter of all breaches were due to human error and this trend continues during the pandemic. This is due in part to organizations operating with a reduced number of staff due to illness, redundancies and/or with staff who have limitations due to their remote status. At the same time, these organizations are often experiencing unusually heavy workloads with a much higher reliance on new and unfamiliar solutions that need to be deployed quickly.

Stolen credential-related hacking  The DBIR shows that over 80 percent of breaches within the hacking category are caused by stolen or brute forced credentials. During the pandemic, this is now being exacerbated by the large number of employees working from home and the maintaining external workstations for remote access, leaning on SaaS platforms. Business IT departments are being challenged to secure company assets on the corporate network while the majority of the workforce is out of the office.

Phishing  In order to utilize stolen credentials, an attacker must first be able to obtain them and phishing remains one of the most commonly used methods. Prior to COVID-19 the 2020 DBIR flagged that credential theft and social attacks such as phishing and business email compromises were at the root of the majority of breaches (over 67 percent) and this trend has continued. Specific terms in combination with COVID or CORONAVIRUS, such as masks, test, quarantine and vaccine were found to be widely used within the time period. In March, a phishing simulation, conducted by a DBIR contributor, performed on approximately 16,000 people found that almost three times as many people not only clicked through a phishing link, but also provided their credentials to the simulated login page.

Businesses need to start taking far greater responsibility in protecting their technology infrastructure. From deploying more robust security protocols to ensuring timely data breach disclosure policies. Once you lose public confidence, gaining that credibility back can often be an uphill task, said Dr Zaki Qureshy, Founding Father, Hyderabad Security Cluster.

Verizon Business 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report

The Verizon Business 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report, analysed 32,002 security incidents, of which 3,950 were confirmed breaches; almost double the 2,013 breaches analysed last year. These cases came from 81 global contributors from 81 countries including the Gover
TDT | Manama

Speaker Fawzia bint Abdullah Zainal chaired the coordination meeting of the Parliamentary Division delegation, to discuss the participation in the fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments and the 13th Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament, which will be held in Vienna in August.

The Speaker confirmed the importance of parliamentary diplomacy to highlight national efforts and achievements, under the leadership of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, which will build and strengthen relations with world parliaments, as well as open up opportunities to cooperate with regional and international countries in many fields, including in the economic and investment sectors.

The Speaker added that the conferences are of the most important parliamentary events, which constitute an opportunity to exchange legislative experiences between countries, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. She noted that the Representatives Council is keen to participate in such international meetings in order to affirm Bahrains position in supporting global efforts to achieve peace, development, prosperity, and noble values for all humanity
KIT developed a temperature-controlled safety housing that is equipped with a sensing system for testing lithium-ion cells under critical conditions. (Photo: Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT)

For the development of innovative battery systems, reliable real-world safety tests of the lithium-ion cells in use are required. In the ProLIB research project, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) now collaborates with testing and standardization institutes and partners from industry in order to develop improved standards that are intended to ensure greater safety but also more flexibility in battery design. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy funds this research with more than 1.2 million euros.

If you can't remember the last time you found your notebook pierced by a nail, rest assured that this indeed happens very rarely. Nevertheless, this is precisely the procedure commonly used today for safety testing of lithium-ion batteries: In order to perform certain tests, the cells must first be massively mistreated, says Dr. Anna Smith from the Institute for Applied Materials (IAM) of KIT. The objective of these efforts is to trigger assumed worst-case defects inside the cells in order to observe what will happen inside the battery." Besides piercing the cell cells with nails, it is also common practice to subject the cells to extreme overcharging or overheating.

The discrepancy existing between these test methods and a realistic load does have its consequences: The actual error behavior is not the subject of the tests, and thus, manufacturing defects of cells of inferior quality and their risks remain undetected, while actually safe cells are underrated. If battery systems are designed for unrealistic worst-case scenarios, they will not become safer but bulkier, heavier, less sustainable and also more expensive than necessary, states Anna Smith. Her team at the Battery Technical Center of KIT collaborates with its partners, AVL Deutschland GmbH, CTC advanced GmbH, and TUV Rheinland LGA Products GmbH as well as with the associated partners ads-tec Energy GmbH, Intilion GmbH, Jungheinrich Norderstedt AG & Co. KG, Solarwatt Innovation GmbH, VARTA Storage GmbH, and VDE|DKE (Deutsche Kommission Elektrotechnik Elektronik Informationstechnik in DIN und VDE) within the scope of a project that is funded with more than 1.2 million euros by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The project is called Entwicklung eines Propagations-Prufverfahrens fur Lithium-Ionen-Zellen in Batteriesystemen (ProLIB, development of a propagation test method for lithium-ion cells in battery systems) and it is aimed at developing more realistic safety standards and tests.

More safety through more realistic test methods

In principle, the concerns about dangerous defects in lithium-ion cells are not unjustified as dendrites, i.e. spiky lithium deposits, can form on the anode. The probability that these will then trigger short circuits, and thus ultimately cause a thermal runaway (this is an exothermic reaction with a fast, self-accelerating heat build-up), is particularly high in cells that contain lower-quality components. The propagation of this fault to neighboring cells results, in the worst case, in a chain reaction. This, in turn, might cause the battery to catch fire. Any increase in energy density, for example, to extend the cruise range of an all-electric car or to improve sustainability by employing less raw materials, is impaired by the use of test methods that are way too coarse. There is far too little focus on the resistance of the lithium-ion cell to really dangerous defects, which can vary greatly between manufacturers due to the cell design or the cell components, for example. Starting with the thermal runaway criterion is like measuring the safety of a household lighter solely by its explosion behavior, says Anna Smith.

Research is currently underway worldwide to improve propagation tests. In other research projects, however, the focus is on triggering a thermal runaway in a manner that is easier to reproduce (e.g. with a laser)  regardless of whether a cell would actually experience it in practice. ProLIB is so far the only research project where real-world and cell-specific faults are investigated. Now, an improved test method for new standards on lithium-ion batteries in stationary and mobile applications will be developed in order to close the existing gaps in the standards with regard to realistic evaluation criteria for the safety and quality of lithium-ion batteries. The new standards will enable a fairer competition, help reduce raw material input, development and product costs by avoiding over-design, and improve the operational safety of lithium-ion batteries.

Read more about the Battery Technical Center: https://www.batterietechnikum.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 9,600 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 23,300 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.
YEREVAN.  We propose to extend for three more years a number of privileges given to the residents of border settlements. Sisak Gabrielyan, a member of the majority My Step faction in Armenias parliament, told journalists about this Tuesday.

Accordingly, it is proposed that the state reimburse 50 percent of the cost of electricity, natural gas, and irrigation water for about 36 settlements.

In addition, it is proposed that textbooks be provided free of charge, or at a 50-percent discount, to the schoolchildren of border settlements.

"In addition, we specify by the force of law that the state will completely restore the houses damaged by the shelling by Azerbaijan; naturally, we are talking about the houses where people live. We also specify by law that if the animals are injured or die as a result of hostilities, the state will provide compensation in this case as well. The draft proposes to completely exempt residents from land tax and property tax for another three yearsuntil January 1, 2024.

If a resident of the border settlements is injured as a result of the adversary's actions and acquires a disability status, his medical care will not only be free, but that person will also receive 1-3 million drams in connection with the disability status. And if we have a casualty, the family will be provided with a lump sum of 5 million drams, as well as the state will reimburse the costs of burial and cemetery," said Gabrielyan, emphasizing that these privileges shall apply to the border communities in Ararat, Gegharkunik, Vayots Dzor, and Tavush Provinces.

The MP noted that in addition to these changes, they are looking for ways to fully reimburse tuition fees for university students and kindergartens of border villages.
HALIFAX - Nearly three months after a helicopter crash claimed the lives of six crew members, HMCS Fredericton returned to its home port of Halifax Tuesday.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/7/2020 (540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HMCS Fredericton is returning home today, nearly three months after a deadly helicopter crash that claimed the lives of six crew members. The homecoming motorcade procession for the return of Capt. Brenden MacDonald, Capt. Maxime Miron-Morin and Master Cpl. Matthew Cousins, drives through 12 Wing Shearwater near Dartmouth, N.S. on Thursday, June 25, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

HALIFAX - Nearly three months after a helicopter crash claimed the lives of six crew members, HMCS Fredericton returned to its home port of Halifax Tuesday.

After a six-month deployment, the Royal Canadian Navy frigate sailed into port accompanied by Nova Scotia's fabled schooner Bluenose II and the navy's training sailing vessel HMCS Oriole.

A navy band played military music and a line of Air Force personnel stood dockside holding cardboard letters spelling out: "Welcome Home!"

But in remarks to the crew and gathered dignitaries, the vessel's commanding officer, Cmdr. Blair Brown, referred to the tragedy that coloured the mission.

"When we departed in January, none of us knew the challenges that we would be facing overseas on Operation Reassurance," Brown said.

The mission was rocked when the frigate's CH-148 Cyclone helicopter  known as Stalker 22  crashed into the Ionian Sea off the coast of Greece on April 29 while returning from a NATO training mission. That crash caused the worst single-day loss of life for the Canadian Armed Forces since six soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan on July 4, 2007.

The Halifax-class frigate HMCS Fredericton returns to Halifax on Tuesday, July 28, 2020 after completing a six-month deployment in the Mediterranean Sea. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

"The loss of our shipmates in the crash of Stalker had a profound impact on all of us," Brown said, as family members of two crash victims, Sub-Lt. Abbigail Cowbrough and Sub-Lt. Matthew Pyke, looked on clutching bouquets of flowers.

Capt. Brenden Ian MacDonald, Capt. Kevin Hagen, Capt. Maxime Miron-Morin and Master Cpl. Matthew Cousins were also killed in the April crash.

"The loss of this outstanding group of sailors and aviators was felt by every single one of us on board every day and has left a space in our hearts that will remain there for all of our days," Brown said.

The ship was docked in Italy for two weeks following the fatal incident and resumed its mission in the Mediterranean Sea in mid-May.

Brown said the decision to continue the mission may have been hard for some to understand, but it was an important part of Canada's commitment to its allies.

"Our role in Operation Reassurance was vital, and our ship's company displayed tremendous resilience, a positive attitude and commitment to that mission," he said.

He then thanked the Canadian public for its support following the tragedy, saying it was vital in helping the crew complete its task.

"We received so many care packages, cards from across our nation that they covered the bulkheads  the walls  in the ship," Brown said.

A Royal Canadian Air Force flight safety investigation into the circumstances of the crash is ongoing. The investigation is focused on aircraft systems and human factors as possible causes of the crash.

Brown addressed his crew before they were allowed to leave the ship.

"Despite immense challenges, both physical and mental, your resilience and commitment was steadfast, and you got it done," he said. "Enjoy your reunion with your families."

Earlier, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Gen. Jonathan Vance, chief of the defence staff, had boarded the frigate before it reached land and sailed into port with the crew. The ship was officially welcomed by Nova Scotia Lt.-Gov. Arthur LeBlanc.

The Halifax-class frigate arrived amid COVID-19 measures, which drastically changed normal return protocols. Everyone on the dock was wearing a mask, and the sailors were transported by bus to reunite with family at a separate part of the base.

Brown said that prior to docking, the ship's company had been in isolation for 14 days and showed no signs of COVID-19 infection.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2020.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the crash was the worst single-day loss of life for the Canadian Forces since Easter Sunday 2007. There was a more recent incident involving six deaths on July 4, 2007.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Military personnel of the US Commandment in Africa (AFRICOM) Tuesday rescued 131 illegal migrants stranded in the Mediterranean Sea off the Libyan coasts after hearing their distress signal
That's all for us on the blog this evening. Let's take a brief look back on the day that was:

This is Rachael Dexter signing off. We'll be back on Thursday morning with more live, free coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

As always, if you appreciate our COVID-19 coverage and are an avid reader of the blog, please consider taking out a subscription to The Age or The Sydney Morning Herald to support independent news.

Stay safe and goodnight.
State Rep. Debra Conrad said Tuesday that she plans to resign from the legislature, effective at 5 p.m. Friday.

The Republican legislator from Forsyth County said Nov. 25 she would not seek a fifth term for House District 74.

At that time, Conrad said she planned to finish her current term.

Conrad did not cite a reason for resigning in her letter to House speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland.

Conrad told the Journal her decision is not health related.

Instead, resigning on Friday allows Conrad, who owns a marketing firm in Winston-Salem, to begin a six-month cooling-off period  as required by state law  before being able to register as a lobbyist.

Lobbying is one of the exciting opportunities I am considering, as I have too much energy and passion for politics to retire, Conrad said. I look forward to being back in Raleigh in a new role next year.

I wish to express sincere appreciation for the constant support I have received from the citizens of Forsyth County over the past 26 years, both as a county commissioner and for four terms in the NC House.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered some 500 law enforcement officers to constantly guard the Hagia Sophia building, which is currently undergoing reconstruction following its conversion to a mosque.



"As we earlier announced, Hagia Sophia will remain open 24 hours a day. Now it will also be constantly guarded by the 500 law enforcement officers thanks to our interior minister [Suleyman Soylu]", Sputnik cited Erdogan as saying.



The decision comes after the Turkish Council of State's decision to convert the museum back to a mosque was met with criticism from Christian communities and protest taking place outside of the religious site. The council's ruling reversed a 1934 decision made by the first Turkish president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, to turn the mosque and former major Christian church into a museum. The iconic structure was later chosen to be a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
A former University of Southern California campus gynecologist accused of sexually assaulting 21 patients pleaded not guilty Friday to six new charges.

George Tyndall, 73, entered pleas to five counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious person and one count of sexual battery by fraud.

The charges involve five women who say they were assaulted by Tyndall while he was working at the USC health center between 2011 and 2015. He previously pleaded not guilty to criminal charges involving 16 women.

All 21 victims went to the campus facility for annual exams or for other treatment dating back to 2009, prosecutors said.

Tyndall resigned in 2017 after working at USC for nearly 30 years. Allegations against him became public in 2018 through a Los Angeles Times investigation.

If convicted as charged, Tyndall now faces a possible maximum sentence of 64 years in state prison.

In February, the U.S. Department of Education said it found systemic failures in USCs treatment of allegations of sexual abuse by Tyndall and ordered the school to overhaul its procedures for preventing sex discrimination and to conduct a formal review of how employees responded. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos called it a total and complete failure to protect students.

USCs new president, Carol L. Folt, pledged to protect the safety of students, faculty and staff and to restore trust in the university.

A federal judge in January approved a $215 million class-action settlement between USC and about 18,000 women who saw Tyndall at the university. Payments would range from $2,500 to $250,000, with specific sums decided by a panel of experts.

Hundreds of women have opted out of the federal court settlement and many are pursuing separate lawsuits in state court.

Tyndall and USC have also been sued in state court by about 600 alleged victims.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Abuse Molestation
The US consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu officially shut down on Monday morning, within 72 hours of Beijing ordering its closure as a tit-for-tat move against shutting of its Houston consulate.

The US flag at the consulate was lowered at dawn. A large number of police personnel were deployed around the mission with the roads leading to it cordoned off. The Chinese foreign ministry said the Chengdu consulate closed at 10am local time. Chinas competent authorities then entered through the front entrance and took over the premises, it said.

The shutting of the US Chengdu consulate was in retaliation against Washingtons unexpected closure of Chinas consulate in Houston, Texas, claiming the mission had been involved in espionage efforts.

China had given the Americans the same time frame of 72 hours to shut down Chengdu mission, the same deadline US had given it on Houston.

The USs Chengdu consulate was the nearest to the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). The shutting of it will now make it more difficult for the US to monitor the situation in TAR where the entry of diplomats and foreign journalists is banned.

Opened in 1985, the US Chengdu consular districts jurisdiction included provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou, as well as the Tibet Autonomous Region and Chongqing City Municipality.

At midday on Monday, police removed a roadblock that had restricted access to the Chengdu facility, and dozens of passersby stopped to take photos and videos. One man stood across the street and played the Chinese national anthem from his phone.

We feel very sad about the breaking down of the relationship between China and U., said a bystander outside the facility who said his surname was Li. He said he was worried about the impact of deteriorating relations on Chinese citizens who want to travel or study in the US.

The US embassy said in a video in Chinese on Twitter: The US consulate in Chengdu has been proudly promoting the mutual understanding between Americans and the people in Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan and Tibet since 1985. We will forever miss you.
Transport unions in Ho are appealing to stakeholders to provide thermometer guns to assess the temperature of passengers before they board.



Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) following the ease of loading restrictions, the unions, who welcomed Governments decision to allow full loading capacity, said thermometer guns were a necessity, in sieving out infected persons.



Mr Oliver Osei, Treasurer of the Ho Cooperative Drivers Union, said the Unions leadership had suggested the use of the thermometer guns in the wake of the outbreak.



He said drivers had been directed to enforce the use of masks on their buses, and added that with the support of the Ho Municipal Assembly and the Member of Parliament, some handwashing stations had been installed at the loading points.



Mr Osei noted that operators of commercial vehicles felt the brunt of the lockdown and restrictions on activities, with some car owners recalling their vehicles from commercial service.



He said the Union gave out free face masks to passengers who had none, in a bid to protect all on board.



The Ghana Private Road Transport Union station also had handwashing tubs installed through the help of the Assembly, and was mandating passengers to wear masks.



Mr Richard Aleve, a commercial driver running Ho to Accra, and who supported the call for thermometer guns, also suggested that vehicles be banned from running air conditioners to prevent the transmission of viral pathogens.



Desmond, who operates a hiring car from Ho to Kpando, said passengers who refused to sanitise their hands and mask up were not allowed on board.



James Gbadegbe, Point Officer at the Ho Metro Mass Transit station, said passengers cooperated on the preventive protocols, and also advocated for the use of thermometer guns.



Few passengers who spoke to the GNA said the full capacity loading returned with its usual cramming and discomfort, and appealed to stakeholders to consider spacing to suit the new normal.

Source: GNA









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Featured Video
Joe Rogan is moving to Texas in search of "a little bit more freedom."

Rogan announced the news of his relocation from Los Angeles to Texas Friday on his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.

The move likely comes as little surprise to Rogan's fans, given that the popular comedian and commentator has previously hinted at relocating to the Lone Star State, according to The Hill.

JUST BUSINESS: This Texas biz owner will sell you a mask, but won't wear one

Rogan cited overpopulation, traffic, economic despair and his need for "a little bit more freedom" among the reasons for his decision.

The 52-year-old, who also is a UFC commentator, reportedly stands to save millions of dollars in taxes due to the move.

Rogan signed a deal in May with Spotify for more than $100 million to air his podcast exclusively on the streaming service beginning this September, according to The Wall Street Journal.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Texas Gov. Greg Abbotts election postponement leads to confusion

While the deal would be subject to a 13.3 percent income tax rate in California, Texas forgoes individual income taxes, resulting in $13 million in tax breaks, Newsweek reported.

Rogan retains ownership and editorial control of The Joe Rogan Experience, which reportedly brought in $30 million in revenue in 2019 on YouTube, according to Newsweek.

Rogan has not revealed where he will be based in Texas.
New Patriotic Party (NPP) Bantama MP, Hon. Okyeam Aboagye says the selection of Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang as Vice Presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is no threat to the electoral fortunes of the NPP.



Our campaign is focusing on candidate Mahama, not his running mate, he said.



Speaking on UTV Late News, Okyeam Aboagye ridiculed the composition of the Mahama and his Running Mate ticket saying; negative 1 plus positive 1 is equal to zero, thus the same old incompetent and corruptible Mahama.



2020 contest is the battle of what Mahama did in four years of his regime and what Nana Akufo-Addo has also done within the same period. As for NPP our message is very simple, it is not about our sister but about MahamaHe is the one we are talking about; the man that causes dumsor for four years, responsible for collapsing banks, taking Ghana into IMF. Under his watch, we had an unemployment association. So it is not about her (Naana) but it is about him, JDM, he stressed.





Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/[email protected]









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Local senator Erin McGreehan says she welcomes confirmation that primary and second level students will return to school this September.

Senator McGreehan commented: It is very welcome that Minister Foley and her Department have produced this package of supports worth 377m to enable the return of 1m students and 100k staff back to school.

This will be welcomed by families across the country. Having such a prolonged break in education ran risks for the development of students who have been home from school since early March. Remote learning has been difficult on students and their parents.

The funding will allow for adjusting the physical arrangements and layout of classrooms as necessary, implement enhanced cleaning and hygiene measures in line with public health requirements in all schools, and recruit additional staffing resources to support the safe and sustained reopening of schools in a Covid-19 context.

Funding will also provide for psychologists to help vulnerable children re-adjust to school life and additional guidance counsellors in schools.

I also welcome the Return to School guidance issued by the Minister to schools which will facilitate the safe return of students to their classrooms.

Many students and parents will be eager to return to school following the unprecedented changes brought about by COVID-19. The comprehensive package from government today will allow this to safely happen, concluded Senator McGreehan.
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks rose on Tuesday as investors watched progress in U.S. stimulus efforts and awaited clues from a Federal Reserve meeting. The benchmark FTSE 100 rose 25 points, or 0.4 percent, to 6,129 after declining 0.3 percent the previous day. Housebuilders rallied on the back of reports that U.K. ministers are drawing up plans to extend the Help to Buy property support scheme beyond its December deadline. Barratt Developments surged 4.8 percent, Berkeley Group Holdings gained 4.3 percent, Persimmon advanced 3 percent and Taylor Wimpey added 2.9 percent. Education publisher Pearson jumped 5.3 percent after falling sharply in the previous session on downbeat broker notes. Greencore soared 7 percent after the Irish convenience food group announced the sale of its molasses business. TalkTalk Telecom Group rose 1.2 percent on a Sky News report that it rejected a takeover bid from major investor Toscafund Asset Management in 2019. Bakery chain Greggs tumbled 3.6 percent after it swung to a 62m first half loss. 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.
US Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group Practices Live Fire Exercises in Mediterranean, Navy Says

Sputnik News

16:37 GMT 27.07.2020

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike group is carrying out live-fire exercises with its accompanying strike group in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the Navy News Service (NNS) said in a report on Monday.

"Naval aircraft from Carrier Air Wing Three (CVW-3) conducted day and night precision-guided munition and live ordnance strikes on the Greek Karavia Range in the Mediterranean Sea, July 25-26", the report said. "The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group is conducting operations in 6th fleet area of operations in support of US national security interests in Europe and Africa".

The exercises included F/A-18 Super-Hornet jets firing unguided and guided missiles, laser training rounds and other ordnance on the Karavia Range and joint air-to-air combat manoeuvres and tactical training with Greek Navy F-16 jets, the report said.

"Being able to practice air-to-air combat with a foreign partner and then immediately transition to an air-to-ground weapons release is what flying the F/A-18 is all about", a Carrier Air Wing Three representative said in the report.

The training allowed pilots to gain tactical proficiency and be ready with credible force to assure NATO allies and partners defend US national security interests in the region's complex security environment, the report said.

 Sputnik

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

Despite all efforts of Azerbaijan for ensuring regional development, Armenias aggressive policy creates big obstacles for the expansion of economic cooperation in the region and limits the full realization of the economic potential, Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov said.

Jabbarov made the remark at the 5th annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Trend reports on July 28.

Stressing that Azerbaijan has an advantageous geographical position, the minister of economy informed the participants that having created a modern infrastructure, Azerbaijan turned into an international transport hub.

Jabbarov informed the participants of the event that over the past three decades, 20 percent of the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan is under Armenias occupation and over a million people have become refugees and internally displaced persons.

The Armenian armed forces have subjected the Azerbaijani positions, which were not on the front line zone, but on the border between the two countries, to the artillery fire since July 12, the minister added.

As a result, servicemen and civilians were killed and injured, Jabbarov said. Armenias provocation purposefully increases the tension around the conflict [the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict], the occupation policy of the neighbouring country poses a big threat to the energy and transport megaprojects in the region.
Malaysia's former prime minister Najib Razak was found guilty today in the first of five trials over the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal and sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined 38 million.

Najib was convicted on all charges in the case related to the looting of sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

However, it is expected he will appeal the sentence, and he may not be sent to jail immediately, writing on Facebook 'I am ready' to take the decision to the Court of Appeals.

The Judge sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail on one count of abuse of power, 10 years each for three counts of criminal breach of trust, and 10 years each for three counts of money laundering, as well as a fine of 210 million ringgit (38 million).

However, Judge Mohamad Nazlan Ghazali ordered the sentences to run concurrently, meaning Najib will face up to 12 years in jail.

Ghazali said the sentence was 'appropriate and proportionate' taking into account that Najib had committed the crime from a 'position of trust' as prime minister, his final plea and the need to deter others from committing the same crime.

The 67-year-old has so far been convicted of illegally receiving nearly $10million from the fund, but faces further charges relating to more than $500million.

Billions of dollars were stolen from the fund in total and spent on everything from high-end property to a private jet, a luxury yacht and artworks by Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh, while Goldman Sachs also became embroiled in the scandal.

Anger at the looting contributed to Najib's shock defeat at a general election in 2018, and he was arrested and hit with dozens of charges following his defeat.

Malaysia's former PM Najib Razak (centre) arrives at the Kuala Lumpur High Court complex in the Malaysian capital today where he was found guilty of all seven charges in a fraud case

Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor wave outside the prime minister's office in Kuala Lumpur in 2009. Rosmah is also facing criminal charges over the scandal

Police load confiscated items into a truck in Kuala Lumpur in 2018, when the investigation into Najib Razak was re-opened after he lost power at a general election

Timeline of Malaysia's 1MDB scandal April 2009: Najib is sworn in as Malaysia's sixth prime minister. 1MDB is formed in July with Najib as advisory board chairman. July 2015: A report by The Wall Street Journal alleges that nearly $700million of 1MDB money has been channeled into Najib's personal bank accounts. Najib denies the allegations. A whistle-blowing website is blocked and two newspapers are suspended over their reporting on the scandal. January 2016: Attorney General Apandi Ali clears Najib of any wrongdoing, saying the money in his bank accounts was a donation from Saudi Arabia's royal family. July 2016: The U.S. Justice Department initiates moves to recover more than $1billion that investigators say was stolen from 1MDB by associates of Najib and used to buy assets. May 2018: Najib's National Front coalition, which had ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957, loses in a general election. May-June 2018: Najib and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, are banned from leaving Malaysia, and the new government reopens the 1MDB probe. Police seize cash and thousands of luxury items, from jewelry to handbags, from premises linked to Najib, worth up to 200million. July 2018: Najib is charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust and one count of abusing his power. August-September 2018: Najib pleads not guilty to three more counts of money laundering and asks for a trial. Many more charges follow, including tax evasion and tampering with an official report into 1MDB. October 2018: Najib's wife, Rosmah, pleads not guilty to money-laundering and tax evasion charges. December 2018: Malaysia files criminal charges against Goldman Sachs and two former executives over bond sales it organized for 1MDB. April 2019: Najib's first graft trial starts. July 2019: Riza Aziz, Najib's stepson and producer of 'The Wolf of Wall Street' film, pleads not guilty to charges of laundering money belonging to 1MDB. Charges are later dropped. February 2020: The graft trial of Najib's wife starts. March 2020: A new government is sworn in, including Najib's party, after the previous ruling alliance falls apart. July 2020: Najib is found guilty in his first corruption trial, days after a court orders him to pay 1.69billion ringgit (310 million) in unpaid taxes. Separately, the government reaches a $3.9 billion settlement with Goldman Sachs in exchange for dropping all charges and claims against the U.S. investment bank. Advertisement

In this first trial, Najib faced seven charges of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of power for allegedly illegally receiving nearly $10million from former 1MDB unit SRC International.

The counts of abuse of power and criminal breach of trust are punishable by up to 20 years in jail each, while the money-laundering charges are punishable by up to 15 years each.

The amounts involved in Najib's first case are small compared to those in his second and most significant trial, which centres on allegations he illicitly obtained more than $500million. That trial began in August last year.

His wife Rosmah Mansor also faces charges of money laundering and tax evasion, to which she has pleaded not guilty.

About 16 months after it began, the Kuala Lumpur High Court delivered the verdict in Najib's first trial, which centred on the transfer of money from a former 1MDB unit, SRC International, into his accounts.

Najib had vehemently denied wrongdoing.

But Judge Mohamad Nazlan Mohamad Ghazali took apart all the arguments put forward by his defence, and found him guilty on the seven charges he faced.

'In conclusion, after considering all the evidence in this trial, I find the prosecution has successfully proven the case,' the judge told the court.

The US Justice Department launched its own probe after claims that stolen Malaysian public money was laundered through the US financial system, and has filed lawsuits seeking some $1.8billion in assets allegedly purchased with the cash.

The department said more than $4.5billion was stolen from 1MDB between 2009 and 2015 by high-level officials at the fund and their associates.

Tens of millions of dollars were used in 2012 by Najib's stepson Riza Aziz, an aspiring film producer, to fund the Hollywood film The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Hundreds of millions were also used to purchase high-end real estate in Beverly Hills, New York and London.

A Monet painting bought for $58million, a Van Gogh for $5.5million, a $35million Bombardier jet, a $100million stake in EMI Music Publishing, and a $250million yacht were also ticked off the shopping list.

Whistleblowers say Low Taek Jho, a jet-setting Malaysian financier close to Najib but with no official position, helped set up 1MDB and made key financial decisions, while the fund was also closely overseen by Najib himself.

Protests erupted in Kuala Lumpur when the scandal first emerged in 2015. But Malaysia's attorney general initially cleared Najib of wrongdoing, saying the money in his account was a donation from Saudi Arabia.

However, a new government re-opened the investigation after Najib's shock election defeat in 2018, and items were loaded into a truck after police searched the former PM's home in Kuala Lumpur.

Dozens of charges were announced in 2018 and 2019, with the first of the verdicts announced today.

The 67-year-old will likely appeal the 12-year jail sentence and he may not be sent to jail immediately.

If his conviction is upheld, he will also be barred from political office for several years.

A $35million Bombardier jet linked to alleged mastermind Jho Low was among the purchases made with money misappropriated from Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund

Another of the purchases linked to ill-gotten gains from the Malaysian investment fund was this 300ft yacht Equanimity, later renamed Tranquility, purchased for $250million

This Beverly Hills mansion was purchased for $39million with what US prosecutors say were 'funds traceable to diverted 1MDB funds'

Diverted 1MDB funds were used to buy a stake in the Park Lane Hotel in New York City (seen here on the left of 59th Street), according to US investigators

Money traceable to a $700million wire transfer from the 1MDB fund was allegedly used to buy a penthouse at Stratton House in London (pictured)

The Vincent van Gogh painting 'La Maison de Vincent a Arles' (Vincent's House in Arles) was sold for $5.5million and the invoice sent to Malaysian financier Jho Low, prosecutors say

This painting by Claude Monet, entitled Nympheas, was allegedly purchased for around $58million by Najib's associate Jho Low

Jho Low: The Malaysian 'fraudster' who rubbed shoulders with DiCaprio and partied with Paris Hilton Jho Low is said to be the mastermind behind the 1MDB fraud, which saw him allegedly steal over 2.3 billion while working with former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. The Malaysian financier, 38, was able to fool the rich and famous into believing he was himself one of the richest men in the world. During his years living the high-life, he rubbed shoulders with Leonardo DiCaprio, partied with Lindsay Lohan and was sprayed by Paris Hilton with bottles of expensive champagne, among many other exploits. Many of Hollywood's stars were attracted to his $250million superyacht, famous parties and lavish lifestyle. In addition to his yacht, Low bought a 27million private jet and paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Monet and van Gogh. He even offered DiCaprio $400 to find to help finance 2013 Blockbuster, 'The Wolf of Wall Street', and was known to drop hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of pounds on parties. Among the items allegedly bought from the state fund by Jho Low was a $250million yacht called the Equanimity that was custom-built and included a movie theatre and a helicopter pad. The FBI seized it in Bali last year Paris Hilton Paris Hilton - the American socialite - began spending time with Low in 2009, the same year that 1MDB was formed as a state fund. That year, Low took Hilton on a leased private jet to Whistler mountain - a Canadian Ski resort - having spent his college years in Wharton fantasising about her. He reportedly payed her around $100,000 (78,000) for each event of Low's she attended. Low, who is now in hiding, reportedly splashed out 1.8m for a' bottle parade' in St Tropez, south of France when partying with Paris Hilton (pictured) A book about Low suggests the two became friends of sorts. On her 29th birthday in 2010, at a party in Las Vegas, Low presented her with a Cartier watch (worth multiple thousands of pounds) and gave her $250,000 (186,000) so they could gamble together. The same year in Saint-Tropez, at the Les Caves du Roy nightclub famous for being covered in gold, Low won a bidding war for a bottle of expensive champagne, paying 2 million euros (1.8 million) for a bottle, only for Hilton to spray it over Low to celebrate. Financier Low Taek Jho is alleged to have stolen from a Malaysian state fund. The tycoon helped finance the The Wolf of Wall Street starring Leonardo DiCaprio (pictured with the star) Leonardo DiCaprio The 2013 Hollywood blockbuster, 'Wolf of Wall street' - starring Leonardo DiCaprio, directed by Martin Scorses and based on the life Jordan Belfort, the famed fraudster - was financed by a brand-new production company, Red Granite Pictures. One of the founders of this production company was Riza Aziz, the stepson of then-Prime Minister Najib Razak. Aziz was arrested in July 2019 in Malaysia. The other was a man named Joey McFarland, who had attended some of the same parties as Low. Low and DiCaprio had become connected around the same time as Low had met Hilton. For DiCaprio's 38th Birthday party in 2012, just as The Wolf of Wall Street was starting to create a buzz, Low gifted him with Marlon Brandos best actor Oscar statuette for the 1954 movie, 'On the Waterfront'. Low had purchased this from a Hollywood memorabilia dealer for $600,000 (465,000), after it had gone missing from Brandos home years earlier. DiCaprio has said that the fact the film made possible by 1MDB's financial fraud 'is an indictment of Wall Street. But its an indictment about something thats in our culture.' It all came crashing down when Low was accused of helping run a multi-billion-dollar money laundering scheme with his own prime minister. Low, who is currently in hiding, is facing eight charges of money laundering and a warrant has been issued for his arrest. Authorities are especially interested in Low's ties to Najib Razak, who ruled the country for a decade. Investigations into 1MDB were reopened after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad returned to power in a stunning election victory in May, ending Najib's reign. Advertisement

Najib, who became PM in 2009 and was in power during the investigation into missing flight MH370, had insisted he was ignorant of the transactions.

The defence team portrayed Najib as a victim and instead sought to paint Low, a key figure in the scandal who has been charged in the US and Malaysia, as the mastermind.

Najib testified he assumed the money was part of an Arab donation arranged by Low as a guise to keep Najib from being suspicious of his plundering of the 1MDB fund.

But judge Ghazali said the idea that Low had tricked Najib was 'far-fetched', and also dismissed the argument the ex-leader believed the money in his account was a donation from Saudi royalty.

Low, whose whereabouts are unknown, maintains his innocence.

Prosecutors insisted Najib was in control of the 1MDB unit SRC International.

'The conviction sends a strong message that leaders will be held accountable for wrongdoings in office,' opposition lawmaker Charles Santiago said. 'He can't steal people's money and expect to walk free.'

Dozens of Najib supporters, gathered outside the courthouse for hours, called for the former premier to be freed and were seen offering prayers.

'I want justice. I want to clear my name,' he wrote on Facebook late Monday. 'After this, we will go to the Court of Appeal. I am ready.'

Najib's party had to power as part of a coalition in March following the collapse of Mahathir Mohamad's reformist administration.

There were concerns that this could impact Najib's trials - particularly after 1MDB-linked charges against Riza were unexpectedly dropped in May.

Prosecutors also dropped dozens of charges against Najib ally Musa Aman, the former leader of Sabah state.

Malaysia had charged Goldman Sachs and some current and former staff, claiming large amounts were stolen when the bank arranged bond issues for 1MDB.

But the two sides agreed to a $3.9 billion settlement last week in exchange for charges being dropped.

Tens of millions of dollars were used in 2012 by Najib's stepson Riza Aziz, an aspiring film producer, to fund the Hollywood film The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio (pictured in the movie)

Items were piled high in shopping trolleys after police seized them during the investigation into Najib Razak in 2018

Supporters of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak wait outside the Kuala Lumpur High Court complex today. The 67-year-old politician had claimed his innocence

Malaysia's former prime minister Najib Razak (pictured at a news conference announcing the findings of the MH370 investigation in 2015) was found guilty today in the first of two trials over the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal
Most cities in Texas  from Galveston to Lubbock  moved their May elections to November under a pandemic-era decree by Gov. Greg Abbott.

But the choices facing voters will remain limited to candidates who filed for office months ago  at least for now.

State Rep. Mayes Middleton, a Galveston County Republican, wants to reopen the filing period for candidates to lead cities and other political jurisdictions, including school boards. He believes voters may have soured on incumbents facing little or no competition.

Middleton is asking Attorney General Ken Paxton whether the state should give candidates who want to run in a postponed local election until mid-August to file for a spot on the ballot.

I think its also only fair that this occur because there are a lot of people that have been frankly unhappy with how some of the decisions have been made in local government during this pandemic, Middleton said.

The legal rub: Abbotts March 18 order was silent on the filing deadline. But Abbotts secretary of state, Ruth Hughs, wrote local officials that the postponement does not have the effect of reopening candidate filings.

Middleton believes that guidance is not supported by election law and Abbotts order. Middleton, who chairs the arch-conservative Texas Freedom Caucus, contends in his July 2 letter to Paxton that Texas law clearly states that if the election day is changed or moved, the filing period rolls forward with it.

He said the ripple effects of a legal opinion by Paxton go well beyond proving greater scrutiny for elected officials who have issued shutdown orders or mask requirements, which have drawn the ire of many conservatives. Some local officials believe that tax rates adopted by cities for the coming fiscal year could greatly exceed what voters have the appetite for amid curtailed local tax revenues due to the pandemic.

Mass chaos concerns

Under the Texas Election Code, the filing period for a November election closes 78 days prior to that date. Middleton believes this means candidates should be able to file to get on the ballot for local elections up until Aug. 17.

The Secretary of States office told me that they believe there would be some election administrators and county clerks and city clerks that would just approve applications to be on the ballot, Middleton said.

The Texas Municipal League, which represents the interests of cities, said the overwhelming majority of the 1,210 cities in the state hold May elections. And the leagues executive director, Bennett Sandlin, said he knew of no cities with May elections this year that did not either cancel or move them.

In the Houston area, Richmond, Pearland, Sugar Land, Galveston, and Friendswood are among the cities that have postponed local elections until Nov. 3.

Cities with no contested races were allowed to cancel their elections, Sandlin said. In addition, many candidates with no opponents have already been sworn in. So the league is arguing that allowing candidates back on the ballot could create mass chaos in local elections that have already been entirely or partially canceled.

The city of Round Rock, just north of Austin, actually moved its election to May of next year  meaning the incumbents will all get an extra year in office

without voter approval.

Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said the move smacked of political opportunism, noting that it was a de facto extension of the terms of incumbents who normally would have to leave office.

Any movement beyond November would seem to me taking advantage, undue advantage, of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its both unethical as well as at least (a violation of ) the spirit of the law in what Gov. Abbott was trying to do, Jones said.

Jones also said that holding May elections  as opposed to in November, when a presidential election will draw far higher turnout  is more likely to benefit the existing officeholders.

Round Rock Mayor Craig Morgan, who is unopposed, said the city wanted to hold its elections last May but was unable to because Williamson and Travis counties canceled plans to hold the election after Abbotts decree. The city tried to get Abbott to approve an August election but never got a written response from his office, Morgan said.

He said it would be unfair to the current candidates to reopen the candidate filing period and that people who want to run for city office will be able to throw their hat in the ring for at least two council seats that will be on the ballot next May. Morgan also noted that Abbotts order already extended their terms by six months regardless.

I know theres some concern that people are getting an extra year of power, the mayor said. Thats just not an accurate statement.

Curbing tax collections

Republican Cheryl Johnson, the Galveston County tax assessor, wrote Paxton in support of Middletons position. She said the pandemic has opened the eyes of Texans to potential government overreach, namely local tax rates that could soar as cities try to bridge budget shortfalls. Johnson wants officials considering tax hikes to feel the pressure of a campaign challenge.

Johnson noted that Senate Bill 2, signed into law by Abbott during the 2019 legislative session, requires cities to receive voter approval before levying taxes that would result in collections 3.5 percent higher than the previous year. But the bill contains a disaster provision that permits a city to collect more than twice as much for at least two years if any part of the city is declared a disaster area during the current tax year.

State and local officials are at odds over whether the coronavirus pandemic qualifies as a disaster to trigger this provision.

Im of the opinion that COVID-19 is not the type of disaster that would warrant the disaster provision of Senate Bill 2, she said.

The Texas Municipal League says it conducted a survey of cities recently and found the vast majority plan to keep increased collections below the 3.5 percent threshold allowed by Senate Bill 2.

Johnson would like to see May local elections eliminated altogether in favor of a uniform November election for local, statewide and federal races. Voters often pay little attention to issues that pop up on a May ballot, she said, which leads to low turnout and complacency among incumbent elected officials who dont fear a challenge.

This would also hopefully cause some of those districts to think twice about what theyre putting on that ballot, because they could not only face losing a ballot proposition, but they could also face an opponent, she said.

nick.powell@chron.com

jay.root@chron.com
This was the first deadly incident in months at Tahrir Square, symbol of anti-government protests. The two men were hit in the head and neck with tear gas canisters. More than 26 protesters were wounded. Witnesses said security forces fired live ammunition to disperse the crowd. the Prime Minister ordered an investigation.

Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Clashes between Iraqi protesters and security forces in central Baghdad have left at least two protesters dead, security and medical sources said on Monday.

This was the first deadly incident in months at Tahrir Square, which became a symbol of anti-government protests during months-long mass unrest last year.

Medics at two hospitals in Baghdad said two men were hit in the head and neck with tear gas canisters and died of their injuries. More than 26 protesters were wounded and several members of the security forces suffered minor injuries, police said.

Since early October, an increasingly wider protest movement has developed across the country against the government and the authorities. Police have cracked down hard on demonstrations, but in the end Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi had to resign. Protestors, irrespective of ethnic or religious affiliation, want to see the fall of the whole political class.

In late November repression intensified when the Iranian consulate in Najaf was attacked twice, followed by the death of more than 450 dead and 20,000 wounded.

The protesters on Monday had begun marching from Tahrir Square to nearby Tayaran Square chanting about worsening power cuts during a heat wave that sent temperatures soaring above 50 degrees Celsius.

Security forces tried to contain the march firing tear gas, according to police, medics and protesters. The protesters threw stones and petrol bombs, a security source said.

Two protesters who were at the demonstration, and Ali Bayati, a member of Iraqs semi-official High Commission for Human Rights, said that security forces fired live ammunition to disperse the crowd.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said in a televised speech later on Monday that the protests are a legitimate right and the security forces do not have the permission to fire even one bullet in the direction of the protesters.

He said he had opened an investigation and demanded results within 72 hours.

Military spokesman Yehia Rasool said in a statement that security forces had been given strict instructions not to use force against protesters unless necessary.
Chinese aggression in Ladakh has been analysed and commented on in India as a democratic country with freedom of expression.

From this how India broadly sees the Chinese challenge can be reasonably gauged. However, Chinas calculations and insights into why it has provoked this crisis remain opaque because of its closed system. In their writings, South Asia experts abroad have essentially piggy-backed on commentaries in India, without offering any insights of their own, as they too have no direct access to Chinese thinking. Speculative and misleading reasons being touted to explain Chinas aggression only give advantage to its propaganda.

China would be foolish to think that it can place limits on India-US ties by creating border tensions intermittently as a dissuasive strategy. (Photo: Reuters)

That through this aggression China wants to pressure India to remain nonaligned between it and the US is an absurd view. Indias ties with the US and China cannot be equated. Unlike China, the US is not claiming Indian territory. It is today supplying advanced defence equipment to India as a major defence partner.

Synergy with the US

We conduct major military exercises with the US, especially naval. We are partners in the Quad and in the Indo-Pacific. The people to people ties with the US are deep, with a 3 million diaspora in the US and well over 200,000 Indian students in US universities. The US is now our biggest economic partner, including in goods, and, what is more, unlike in Chinas case, we have a trade surplus with it.

China would be foolish to think that it can place limits on India-US ties by creating border tensions intermittently as a dissuasive strategy. Actually, this belligerence builds greater public support for closer ties with the US. Besides, if China wants India to be more non-aligned between it and the US as its adversary, it needs to be more non-aligned between India and Pakistan, our implacable adversary.

To underline the absurdity of bringing in the US factor, did the Tibet issue arise between India and China because of our closeness to the US?

Beijings old agenda

Did the Dalai Lama flee to India for this reason? Did the Chinese occupy Aksai China to counter the US and was 1962 a part of this? Does China make offensive territorial claims on Arunachal Pradesh, and on Tawang in particular, because of our US connection? China transferred nuclear and missile technology in the 1980s to Pakistan when India was under severe non-proliferation sanctions by the US.

Did the US provoke the Doklam stand-off, and has China made the latest claim on eastern Bhutan with Tawang in mind because of the US factor?

Leftist lobbies in India use the argument of our increasing strategic closeness US to make Chinas purported case, forgetting that the most intense partnership in the last couple of decades or so has been the US-China one. There may be independent, non-ideological reasons for Indian caution about over-reliance on the US.

We have to meet the land threat from China (which includes Pakistan) essentially on our own, with at best diplomatic and intelligence support from US and others, unlike in the maritime domain where US-India cooperation along with Japan and Australia can act as a deterrence against China. US policy towards Afghanistan and the Taliban, which shields Pakistan from the kind of pressure US puts on Iran, not to mention the huge economic ties that the US, Australia and Japan have with China, should be properly assessed by us to determine the scope of our future options. American analysts should not mix the logic of stronger India-US defence ties to scotch Indias so-called non-aligned inclinations, and, more importantly, reliance on Russian defence supplies.

Our longstanding defence ties with Russia cannot be jettisoned, more so in the context of Russias increasing strategic closeness to China pushed by US/European policies.

The US, Australia, Japan and Europe, not having territorial contiguity with China have security concerns that differ from ours. (They, unlike us, also have cold ties with Russia). Not facing a territorial threat from China, will they be ready to actively intervene in territorial issues between India and China? However, should the border situation escalate militarily, stepped up US pressure on China in the western Pacific can present China with a two-front situation, tie-down its forces in the east and force it to relieve pressure on India as a result.

The US would have an interest, even independently of Indias concerns, to expose this Chinese vulnerability and contain its muscle-flexing, which is becoming an international problem. India can, on its part, strengthen the Quad, give it a military dimension by including Australia in the Malabar Exercise.

Take ASEAN along

India should convince ASEAN that Quad and the Indo-Pacific concept are the second line of defence against Chinas mounting threat in the South China Sea and that it supplements, not dilutes, ASEANs critical role in evolving Asian security architecture. Such an architecture will either not emerge because of Chinas unbridled conduct or it will be China-centric. As long as China resorts to bullying individual ASEAN countries, fractures ASEAN unity does not disown the nine-dash line and believes that its economic and financial clout limits the scope of retaliation by others, China will pursue its hegemonic policies in Asia.

(Courtesy of Mail Today)

Also read: How Ladakh row could speed up Indo-US intel sharing
CHICAGO, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NewLake Capital Partners, Inc. ("NewLake" or the "Company"), an independent investment vehicle focused on acquiring a diversified real estate portfolio of industrial and retail properties in the cannabis industry, today announced its tenant PharmaCann Inc., one of the nation's largest privately-held cannabis companies, is opening its newest Verilife dispensary in Massachusetts. NewLake recently completed funding of tenant improvements for this dispensary pursuant to a sale leaseback transaction announced in February 2020. Verilife Shrewsbury is the company's second retail location in the state.

"We congratulate the PharmaCann team on the opening of their second location in Massachusetts," commented Anthony Coniglio, Chief Executive Officer of NewLake. "The PharmaCann team has done a great job creating a warm and inviting facility to serve the Shrewsbury community and we believe this location has great potential in this rapidly growing industry."

"We are pleased to expand and serve customers more broadly in Massachusetts with the addition of our new Shrewsbury location," said Brett Novey, CEO of PharmaCann. "We welcome the opportunity to become an active member of the community, and we look forward to bringing new jobs to the state and providing high-quality products and service to the residents of Shrewsbury and the surrounding area."

"Our highly-trained team is excited to be part of the Shrewsbury community and serve as a resource to our customers," said Shelley Stormo, East Coast District Manager of PharmaCann. "We strive to provide the most diverse menu of products in the state and offer a consultative approach to our customers in an effort to help guide them in making an ideal selection to meet their needs."

About NewLake Capital Partners, Inc.

NewLake is an independent investment vehicle focused on acquiring a diversified real estate portfolio of industrial and retail properties in the cannabis industry to be leased to state-licensed operators in limited license states. NewLake has acquired a portfolio from coast-to-coast with tenants across the supply chain including cultivation, manufacturing and retail. NewLake intends to elect to be taxed as a real estate investment trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes once it meets all applicable criteria. For more information please visit www.newlake.com.

About Verilife

PharmaCann Inc. operates its dispensaries under the name Verilife. Verilife is committed to helping people feel better and live better by dispelling outdated perceptions associated with cannabis and encouraging a new appreciation of its many benefits. For more information, please visit www.verilife.com .

About PharmaCann

PharmaCann Inc. is one of the nation's largest, privately-held, vertically-integrated cannabis companies, providing safe, reliable, and high-quality cannabis products to people in both the medical and adult-use markets. PharmaCann currently operates in six states and holds licenses to operate up to five cultivation centers and 26 dispensaries within its geographic footprint. For more information about PharmaCann, please visit www.pharmacann.com .

Contact Information:

Anthony Coniglio, CEO

[email protected]

Media Contact:

KCSA Strategic Communications

Valter Pinto, Managing Director

(212) 896-1254

[email protected]

SOURCE NewLake Capital Partners, Inc.

Related Links

www.newlake.com


The main aim of July 28, World Hepatitis Day, is to sensitize and encourage people on how to prevent, diagnose, and treat viral hepatitis infections.

It pains me when patients who received blood transfusion in the past later come down with hepatitis B or C infection and the cause is traceable to no other source except the past blood transfusion.

In view of this, our hospitals should upgrade to the use of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) in screening blood samples ( especially those units of blood from donors with questionable lifestyles) .This is because the current tests used in detecting the viral infections in many hospitals in developing countries are targeted at detecting the antigen or antibody to the infecting viral particles in the serum hence it takes some time ( the incubation period etc ) before the current tests in many developing countries can detect the antigen/antibody in a newly infected individual .PCR can detect the infection at each stage of the disease .

We cannot forget in a hurry the 2006 incident at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) where baby Oyinkansola Eniola was transfused with a HIV positive blood in a tertiary hospital where the highest form of medical treatment was expected in line with international best practices . It is crime and unethical to transfuse a unit of blood without first screening it for HIV 1 & 2, Hepatitis B and C and VDRL among other preliminary tests.

The question in that case in LUTH is ,was the blood screened before the ill-fated transfusion? Believe you me ,the answer will be in the affirmative ,then why didn't the screening pick up the HIV in the donor's blood? The Window period of HIV infection cannot easily be ruled out at the time of screening that blood hence screening with PCR remains the only trusted test at all stages of the infection .If that was possible with HIV ,it is still possible with some of the viral hepatitis, especially hepatitis B and C .

THEME FOR 2020 CELEBRATION : There are two themes for this years World Hepatitis day.

The theme recognized by World Health Organization is Hepatitis-free future while World Hepatitis Alliance believes that the theme for this years celebration is Finding the missing millions

BRIEF HISTORY

Initially, the World Hepatitis Day was celebrated on May 19th of each year but in 2010 the World Health Assembly changed the date to July 28th in honour of the birthday of the noble laureate Professor Baruch Samuel Blumberg, who discovered Hepatitis B.

INTRODUCTION:

More than 23 million Nigerians are infected with Hepatitis B, making Nigeria one of the countries with the highest Hepatitis infection in the world since more than 500 million people in the world are living with either Hepatitis B or C while about 325 million people are living with both B and C globally . It is pathetic that many people worry more about contracting AIDS and Corona virus than Viral Hepatitis, even when in reality in each year about 1.4 million people worldwide die due to these viral hepatitis infections and more become infected. Hepatitis B contributes about 900,000 out of the 1.4 million deaths annually .

At times ,infected people die faster with viral hepatitis than they would with AIDS. Remember that globally, HIV-AIDS currently kills about 1.6 million people yearly. And more unfortunate is the fact that just only Hepatitis B virus is about 50 to 100 times more infectious than HIV. Despite this mind-boggling data, viral hepatitis has attracted very little attention from both the governments and the people.

WHO believes that the number of deaths due to HIV/AIDS has really changed and expanded access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and a declining incidence of HIV infections have led to a steep fall globally in the number of adults and children dying from HIV-related causes. The estimated 770 000 [570 0001 100 000] people dying from HIV globally in 2018 were 56% fewer than in 2004 (the peak) and 33% fewer than in 2010 in spite of a period of substantial population growth in many high burden countries.

Nevertheless, there is no room for complacency. Countries need to live up to their commitment to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030 -- a target included in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. The immediate challenge is to reach the Fast-Track targets for 2020, as HIV-related deaths are still unacceptably high.

The 2020 targets include reducing the number of people dying from HIV-related causes to fewer than 500 000. Based on current estimates, this provides an opportunity to prevent almost 300 000 deaths per year.

The drop in HIV-related mortality is especially evident in the regions with the greatest burden of HIV infection, including the WHO African Region, home to over 61% of people dying from HIV-related causes in 2018. An estimated 470 000 [340 000630 000] people died in the African Region from HIV-related causes in 2018, which indicates that mortality has dropped by almost 40% since 2010.

World Hepatitis Alliance (WHA) maintains that globally there are about 290 million people living with viral hepatitis unaware and without finding the undiagnosed and linking them to care, millions will continue to suffer, and lives will be lost. This is why the theme recognized by WHA for this years celebration is Finding the missing millions.

However, World Health Organization (WHO) currently maintains that 325 million people are living with viral hepatitis B and C; 900,000 deaths per year are caused by hepatitis B virus infection ; 10% of people are living with hepatitis B and 19% of the people who are living with hepatitis C know their hepatitis status; 42% of children, globally, have access to the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine

Coming to data available in Nigeria, Dr Chukwuma Anyaike,a Community Health physician , few years ago argued that about 20 million Nigerians are infected with Hepatitis B and C .The said physician who was then the Head, Prevention, Department of Public Health at the Federal Ministry of Health stated this at a one-day stakeholders advocacy workshop on Viral Hepatitis awareness organised by the Yakubu Gowon Foundation in Abuja.He further pointed out that ,''Viral Hepatitis is a very big public health issue in Nigeria. By the work Federal Ministry of Health has done, we have 20 million Nigerians living with Hepatitis B and C and they are at the risk of developing cirrhosis of the liver and cancer of the liver. Most importantly, these ones are living in the communities and they are not aware of it and in the same process, they are transferring the infection to other people in the community.

In the occasion, it was further revealed that approximately 20 million of Nigerias 170 million population that are infected by the virus, 25 percent of them go on to develop chronic liver disease and between 500,000 to 700,000 result in deaths annually.

From the survey (2000-2013), Kano had the highest number of people infected with the B variant of the virus while Kwara state had the highest number of people with Hepatitis C.

However , Nigeria HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey(NAIIS) report currently shows that Nigeria, with an estimated population of 190 million people, has a Hepatitis B prevalence of 8.1% and Hepatitis C at 1.1%

DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION:

Hepatitis is a health condition characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissues of the liver.It can be self-limiting(healing on its own) or can simply progress to fibrosis(scarring),Cirrhosis, liver failure or liver cancer. Hepatitis can be acute when it lasts for less than six months or chronic when it lasts for more than six months.

Viral hepatitis is mainly classified into five groups: Hepatitis A, B, C, D and E. There are other classifications of hepatitis such as autoimmune, alcoholic hepatitis etc., but the main aim of the World Hepatitis Day is to sensitize and encourage people on how to prevent, diagnose and treat these five VIRAL hepatitis infections.

Hepatitis A:

Caused by Hepatitis A virus and it occurs when an uninfected person ingests food or water contaminated with the faeces of an infected person. It can also be contracted through close physical contact with an infectious person, although casual contact among people does not spread the virus. There are about 1.4 million cases each year worldwide. Unlike Hepatitis B & C, it does not run a chronic course but can lead to debilitating symptoms and fulminant hepatitis(acute liver failure), which has a very high mortality rate.

WHO maintains that that :

Hepatitis A is a viral liver disease that can cause mild to severe illness.

Hepatitis B:

It is a potentially life threatening disease of the liver caused by Hepatitis B virus and it is contracted by contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person. It is commonly spread from mother to child at birth,or from person to person in early childhood. In the rural settings, it can be contracted by sexual transmission (when no barrier protective measure is used) and the use of contaminated sharp objects like needles, razor blades etc., and inadequately sterilized hospital equipment. It runs both acute and chronic courses and about 240 million individuals globally have chronic Hepatitis B infection whereas in each year, about 780,000 people die globally from acute and chronic Hepatitis B infections. It is an important occupational hazards for health care professionals, members of the Federal Road Safety Corps,commercial sex workers,long distance drivers etc.

WHO still believes that : Hepatitis B is a viral infection that attacks the liver and can cause both acute and chronic disease.
A former South Whitehall Township police officer was sued Monday in federal court for fatally shooting an unarmed man outside Dorney Park in 2018.

The lawsuit accuses former police officer Jonathan Roselle of using excessive force when he fatally shot Joseph Santos on July 28, 2018. Roselle was found not guilty of voluntary manslaughter after a trial in March.

Roselle was among the police officers called to a disturbance by Santos, a Bergen County man who was walking in and out of traffic and behaving erratically.

Roselle shot Santos five times as he staggered toward him. The former officer repeatedly told him to stop and get on the ground, and he refused, defense attorney Gavin Holihan said during the trial. Lehigh County Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Dimmig argued Roselle had alternatives to shooting Santos, including de-escalation, pepper spray, a baton or stun gun.

The lawsuit names South Whitehall Township as a defendant along with Roselle. It blames the township for failing to properly train him on the use of force. He had been on the job for five months prior to the shooting.

Roselle was an ill-trained police officer who unconstitutionally took the life of a father of three children, the lawsuit says. It also accuses Roselle of failing to provide medical aid to Santos.

An email sent to South Whitehall Township solicitor Joseph Zator and township manager Renee Bickel wasnt returned.

Holihan said he does not represent Roselle in the civil action. He relayed a message to Roselle offering him the opportunity to comment for the story. Roselle did not return that message.

The lawsuit was filed by Allentown attorney Joshua Karoly on behalf of Juliana Valenzuela, who is handling Santos estate. She lives in Hasbrouck Heights, Bergen County, New Jersey.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to Lehighvalleylive.com.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
Environmentalists and the Ecuadorian government have expressed alarm over a huge Chinese fishing fleet of around 260 vessels positioned just on the edge of the Galapagos Islands waters. There are fears the fishers could cause damage to the unique marine ecosystem of the World Heritage site.

Ecuador said it is monitoring a large fleet of around 260 fishing vessels, many of them Chinese, some 200 miles off the Galapagos Islands and has increased patrolling to ensure the ships do not enter its territorial waters.

The discovery has sparked fears for the protected regions diverse ecosystem and delicate marine life which inspired Charles Darwins theory of evolution.

The eastern Pacific Ocean islands and nearby seas are listed as a Unesco World Heritage site for their unique biodiversity. The Galapagos marine reserve has one of the world's greatest concentrations of shark species, including endangered whale and hammerhead varieties.

The fishing fleet was spotted via satellite imaging on the borders of the Galapagos Protection Zone. The ships are currently in international waters just outside a 188-mile wide exclusive economic zone around the island.

"There is a corridor that is international waters, that's where the fleet is located," said Defence Minister Oswaldo Jarrin.

He added that none had attempted to enter the exclusive economic zone.

Read more:

The fishing fleet is positioned in an area which serves as a major migration route for sea creatures, including many endangered species.

Environmental organisations have voiced concern that overfishing will cause the oceans ecosystem to collapse and harm protected marine wildlife. We are watching the destruction of the ocean in real time, said the Blue Planet Society, which campaigns for ocean preservation, on Twitter.

Chinese fishing vessels appear each year near the Galapagos, attracted by marine species such as the hammerhead shark, which is in danger of extinction.

Story continues

A Chinese vessel in 2017 was captured in the Galapagos Marine Reserve carrying 300 tons of illegally caught marine wildlife, including sharks. Shark fin is still considered a prized delicacy in some Chinese restaurants.

"We are on alert, (conducting) surveillance, patrolling to avoid an incident such as what happened in 2017," said Jarrin.

(with agencies)
The number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. surpassed 4 million in late July. Certain parts of the country have been hit particularly hard this month, including California and North Carolina, both places where I've recently spent time.

After flying back to Los Angeles, where I currently live, from Charlotte, North Carolina, where my family lives, I decided to get tested for the virus earlier this month. More than two weeks later, I'm still waiting for my results.

There are two types of tests for Covid-19: a viral test, which tells you if you have a current infection, and an antibody test, which might tell you if you've had a past infection. An antibody test might not show if you have a current infection, "because it can take one to three weeks after infection for your body to make antibodies," the CDC site notes. Having antibodies to the virus that causes Covid-19 may protect you from getting infected with the virus again, but if it does, "we do not know how much protection the antibodies might provide or how long this protection might last," says the CDC.

An antibody test involves drawing blood, whereas a viral test requires either a nasal swab or a saliva sample. I did a viral test at a "drive-thru" location in L.A.

Testing may look different depending on where you're located. The CDC encourages you to look at your state or local health department's website to find the latest information on testing in your area. After a quick Google search, I found a list free testing sites in L.A. County.

There were over 50 locations to choose from, including "drive up" and "walk up" testing sites. On a Thursday night (July 9), I found a site about 30 minutes from my apartment that had appointments available for the next Monday (July 13). There were locations closer to my apartment, but they didn't have availability until later in the week.

I filled out a brief survey that asked if I'd been in contact with anyone who had tested positive for the virus and whether I had certain symptoms. I also provided my insurance information. Testing is supposed to be free (even if you're uninsured, thanks to legislation signed in March), but mix-ups have left some people who got tested with big bills, CBS reports.

On Monday morning, testing day, I received an email reminding me of my 8:30 a.m. appointment. It included the testing site address, my reference ID and a list of what I needed to bring, including my confirmation email (on paper or on my phone) with my reference ID and a photo ID with my name and birth date. It also asked me to show up 15 minutes before my appointment.

I arrived at the testing site, located in a large parking lot, at 8:15 a.m. It was easy to spot, thanks to an abundance of signs and orange cones.
Its hard to know exactly what the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards show will look like, as the coronavirus has thrown conventional TV production into turmoil. With everything going on in the world, the prospect of a traditional glitzy extravaganza, complete with jewelry-sporting stars clutching trophies, seems fairly ridiculous. But that isnt stopping the show from going on, as this mornings announcement of the 72nd Emmy Awards nominations demonstrates.

As usual, the nominations speak to how streaming services like Netflix  which scored the most nominations, with a total of 160  are leaving broadcast networks in the dust at awards time. But more relevant is how the 2020 nominations acknowledge the contributions by creators and performers of color, an overdue reflection of how the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement have brought issues of systemic racism to the forefront of the culture.

The 2020 primetime Emmy nominations recognize a wide range of work by Black artists, including Watchmen, the HBO limited series that takes off from the original graphic novel to explore crimes against Black Americans, and which scored the most nods of any program this year, with a total of 26.

Hulus Ramy is the first Muslim American comedy show to earn Emmy recognition, including a nod for co-creator and star Ramy Youssef as outstanding lead actor in a comedy.

Related: Dystopian series Watchmen leads all Emmy nominees with 26

The supporting actor in a comedy series category is another notable example of the sheer abundance of gifted performers of color. The nominees are William Jackson Harper, earning his first Emmy nomination for the final season of The Good Place; Sterling K. Brown, a previous winner for This Is Us (hes nominated for that again this year), nominated for his role in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; Andre Braugher for Brooklyn Nine-Nine; Kenan Thompson for Saturday Night Live; Mahershala Ali in Ramy; and, in another example of inclusion, Daniel Levy for Schitts Creek, in which Levy -- who is gay -- made the relationship between his character and his male beau into a key part of the show. Other nominees include Alan Arkin in The Kominsky Method, and Tony Shalhoub in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

(See a complete list of all the 2020 Emmy nominees at emmys.com)

While much is different this year, theres one Emmy tradition we cant ignore  namely, second-guessing Emmy voters. What did they get right? Where did they goof? Who got snubbed? And did any locals get recognized? Heres an overview.

What Emmy voters got right

The Watchmen love: If ever a series was the right show at the right time, the HBO limited series was. Though there were some strange storytelling choices, Damon Lindelofs update of the classic graphic novel about superheroes and society took a big swing into Americas history of racism. The series not only boasted an epic performance by star Regina King as a superhero with a soul, it helped inform viewers who may have had no knowledge of the 1921 massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in which whites attacked and killed Black residents of an affluent community known as Black Wall Street. At times uneven, or hard to take, Watchmen was bold, timely and ultimately emerged as the program of the year.

And while were applauding, heres an ovation for Succession, the superbly written HBO drama-with-dark-comedy, that earned a whopping 18 nominations, including one for best drama series. Among the totally deserving actors who earned recognition are Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong, both included in the best lead actor in a drama category, and a big crowd in the supporting actor in a drama category, including Nicholas Braun, Kieran Culkin and Matthew Macfadyen. Sarah Snook is also nominated in the supporting actress in a drama category. Will they cancel each other out? Maybe. But its nice to see good work be honored.

What Emmy voters got wrong

Mystifying snubs: After what was without a doubt its best season yet, Better Call Saul stars Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn werent nominated. Sure, the Breaking Bad spinoff earned other nods, including a best drama series nomination, but come on. Seehorn in particular has been overlooked for so long, its maddening.

While were ranting, where was the nomination for Merritt Wever, one of the stars of the fine Netflix drama, Unbelievable? The show earned other nods, but Wever was essential, and her subtle, unshowy work anchored Unbelievable.

Emmy 2020 surprises

Shows and stars that were recognized, and others who werent: Emmy voters seem to have a surprisingly ardent affection for The Kominsky Method, the Netflix comedy that earned mildly puzzling nominations, including best comedy series and nods for Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin.

That affection was missing, however, for Reese Witherspoon, who wasnt nominated for her work in Big Little Lies Season 2, The Morning Show Season 2 or Little Fires Everywhere, even though several of her costars were. Was it something she said?

Speaking of The Morning Show, the series snagged some awards attention for Apple TV Plus, with a deserving lead actress in a drama nomination for Jennifer Aniston. But the series wasnt nominated as best drama. And it was a surprise to, well, lots of people, to see Steve Carell nominated in the best lead actor in a drama category for playing a disgraced TV host in The Morning Show. For one thing, it didnt seem like a lead role. For another, it was unevenly written, which didnt help Carells performance.

In another somewhat unexpected big day for a new streaming service, the Star Wars-inspired series, The Mandalorian, did surprisingly well for Disney Plus. The series earned 15 nominations, including one in the best drama series category.

Brad Pitt, comedy star! Well, maybe, or maybe not, but Emmy voters clearly got a kick out of Pitts brief turn as Dr. Anthony Fauci in a cold-open bit on the second Saturday Night Live show that was produced remotely. Pitt earned a nomination in the guest actor in a comedy series category for his work as Fauci.

Tiger King? Really? Sure, the Netflix documentary about Joe Exotic and his supposed big cat attraction became an obsession early in the coronavirus stay-home period. But the docuseries earned six Emmy nominations, which seems a bit excessive.

Lets bask in some local nominees (well, sort of local)

Oregon represents: Kaitlin Olson, the Portland native and University of Oregon grad whos one of the stars of the long-running Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, earned a nomination in the outstanding actress in a short form comedy or drama series for her role in the Quibi comedy, Flipped. Its good to see Olson, whos always good, earn a nomination. Quibi? Well, for good for them.

Award-winning Portland-based filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky is again in the Emmy mix with her documentary, Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements, which focuses on Jonah, Brodskys son, who is deaf, and his drive to play Beethovens Moonlight Sonata on the piano, while also exploring how Brodskys parents, who are also deaf and received cochlear implants in their 60s (Brodskys film Hear and Now follows that process), are coping with aging. Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Acts is nominated in the Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking category.

While DArcy Carden isnt from Oregon, and doesnt live here, well go ahead and do some basking. After all, she did major in theater at Ashlands Southern Oregon University. And its great to see Cardens clever work as Janet recognized for The Good Place final season. Carden earned a nomination in the supporting actress in a comedy series category.

The 72nd Emmy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will be broadcast at 5 p.m. PT Sept. 20 on ABC.

More of our coverage:

-- Kristi Turnquist

kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
The United Kingdom and India are deepening their existing scientific research collaboration with five new projects worth eight million pounds to tackle anti-microbial resistance (AMR) that could lead to important advances in the global fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria and genes.

The funding awards were announced by Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth, ahead of a virtual visit to India on July 28, according to a statement from British High Commission here.

India is a major producer of antimicrobials in the pharmaceutical industry global supply chain, and the research projects aim to develop a better understanding of how waste from antimicrobial manufacturing could be inadvertently fuelling AMR.

Subject to clearances, the five projects are planned for September this year. The UK is contributing four million pounds from the UK Research and Innovation Fund for International Collaboration, and India is matching this with its own resources. In total, eight million pounds will be used to fund the research, said the statement.

Ahmad said, The UK has already partnered with Indias Serum Institute to manufacture the vaccine for COVID-19, if clinical trials are successful, with plans to distribute to a billion people across the developing world. But there is more we can do together to tackle urgent global health issues in the world. Our thriving research and innovation partnerships will benefit people in the UK and India, and beyond.

Sir Philip Barton, High Commissioner to India, said, The UK is Indias second-biggest research partner, with joint research expected to be worth 400 million pounds by next year. This huge investment enables us to work closely together on global health challenges such as the search for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Todays announcement is another demonstration of our excellent research relationship and will strengthen the important fight against anti-microbial resistance, he added.

Ahmad will chair a virtual roundtable with senior Indian and UK-based stakeholders on cold-chain technologies that are critical for the effective transport of vaccines, ensuring they successfully reach their final destination, according to the statement.

Other elements of the ministers visit include meeting with Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs, V Muraleedharan, to discuss a number of subjects including multilateral cooperation, a meeting with Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, discussions with regional governments and others on opportunities in wind power and a virtual tour of a UK funded solar plant in Rajasthan.
Amid reports of community spread of COVID-19 in some pockets of West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Tuesday that the lockdown in containment zones will continue till August 31 as also the biweekly restrictions in place to contain the pandemic.

However, later in the evening, the government withdrew total lockdown on August 2 and 9. In a statement, the government said the decision was taken after receiving request and appeal from different quarters not to observe state-wide lockdown on certain dates coinciding with festivals and important community occasions.

Respecting the sentiments of the people we are withdrawing complete lockdown announcement for 2 August and 9 August(2/2) HOME DEPARTMENT - GOVT. OF WEST BENGAL (@HomeBengal) July 28, 2020

Earlier in the day, addressing a press conference, Banerjee said schools and colleges will remain closed till August 31 and a decision on their reopening will be taken in September.

"The lockdown in containment zones will continue till August 31. The biweekly total lockdown across the state will also remain in place till the end of next month," Banerjee said.

The total lockdown will be imposed on July 29 (Wednesday), while in August, the dates of complete lockdown would be 5 (Wednesday), 8 (Saturday), 16 (Sunday), 17 (Monday), 23 (Sunday), 24 (Monday), and 31 (Monday).

"The biweekly lockdown will be implemented mostly on Saturdays and Sundays. But since festivals like Eid as well as Independence Day are on Saturdays, lockdown will be enforced on some other day," she said.

The decision to enforce biweekly lockdown was taken earlier this month amid suspected community transmission in some parts of the state.

Banerjee said, We are targeting 25,000 COVID-19 and two lakh antigen tests by August 15. We have formed eight separate teams for effective coordination on all issues related to COVID-19 which includes infrastructural augmentation, testing/laboratory teams, safe homes, body disposal/cremation/COVID management, tele-services, date management and COVID Clubs.

Senior officers will work as nodal officers for coordination in five high-risk districts, including Kolkata, South 24-Parganas, North 24-Parganas and Howrah.

A multi-purpose COVID helpline number - 1800313444222 for 24x7 telemedicine facility has also been set up. The state government has also launched online monitoring of nearly 1,400 patients in different government and private hospitals by experts at 'Swasthya Bhawan'. Their medical report will be directly uploaded on the health portal.

The government also allowed last rites of people without waiting for COVID test report as per ICMR guidelines. The state had reported over 60,000 COVID-19 cases till Monday.

(With inputs from PTI)
Azercell Telecom LLC is pleased to launch a new campaign within the confines of #Digital Days. Always focused on the convenience of its subscribers, this time the leading mobile operator offers its customers 4G WiFi modem.

The new modem provides access to the internet to 32 devices at the same time, ensuring high-speed mobile data services and a fixed signal to all devices that can connect to the wireless internet such as mobile phones, tablets, TV, computers and so on. The device has a remarkable coverage radius of 150-200 meters, which in turn allows you to connect to the internet even from the remote distance.

In the framework of the campaign, subscribers will receive 4G WiFi device, a prepaid number on Data tariff and 50 GB internet traffic for a month. New 4G WiFi devices are available at all Azercell Dealer Offices for just 129 AZN.

It should be mentioned that, the campaign is intended only for individual subscribers.

For more information, please head to: https://www.azercell.com/en/personal/devices/wifi_modem_50gb1/

For more information, please contact [email protected]

The leader of the mobile communication industry, the largest taxpayer and the biggest investor of the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996. Currently, 5 million subscribers choose Azercell services. Mobile operator controls 49% of market share; while its geographical coverage constitutes 99.2% (excluding the occupied territories); and population coverage 99.8%. Azercell was the pioneering mobile operator to introduce a number of innovations in Azerbaijan, including GSM technology, advance payment system, mobile internet services, 24/7 call center service (*1111), 7/7 Front Office service, Azercell Express offices, M2M services, 4G technology, mobile and online customer care services and customer services through social media, mobile e-signature service ASAN Imza etc. Azercell tested 5G pilot network for the first time in the country in the frame of Bakutel 2019 exhibition. Rapidly increasing 4G network of Azercell covers nearly 60 regions of the country, including Baku and Absheron peninsula. According to the results of mobile network quality and wireless coverage mapping surveys by international systems, Azercells 4G network demonstrated the best results among the mobile operators of Azerbaijan. Azercell is the only company in Azerbaijan and CIS region which has been awarded Gold Certificate of International Investors in People Standard.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Ann OConnor with one of the pigs living at Secret Valley Wildlife Park

Secret Valley Wildlife Park (SVWP) has appeared on RTE's Nationwide as it continues its campaign to remain open following the coronavirus pandemic.

Home to 35 species of wild animals, including rescue animals from the pet trade and research laboratories, owner of SVWP Ann O'Connor has made a desperate call for public support to maintain its conservation facility.

'Secret Valley has no Government funding, and despite fundraising efforts through animal sponsorships and pre-selling tickets, we urgently need support to care for the animals and carry out essential enclosure maintenance and repairs,' Ann said.

The park has over 100 animals to feed and care for daily, ranging from domestic animals to llamas and alpacas, meerkats and otters.

Closed for over three months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 14-acre wildlife park, which relied on income from entrance fees, school tours and education workshops, has now run out of funds.

Even though they have reopened, they still need to make up the shortfall in income from March to July.

Ann has launched an emergency appeal on GoFundMe and now has launched a crowdfunding campaign with perks for contributors in order to buy animal feed and maintain the habitats.

Since it opened 14 years ago, Secret Valley Wildlife Park has worked with a European exotic animal rescue organisation to provide a permanent home for exploited and neglected exotic animals.

The facility currently has four species of rescued primates, including capuchin monkeys and cotton-top tamarins, rescued from the pet trade. A recent addition is four Rhesus Macaques which were saved from a Dutch Laboratory. Having been used for neurological research, it is hoped Bassie, Adriaan, Puyi and Tchang can live out the rest of their lives in peace at Secret Valley.

The Wexford wildlife facility is an award-winning tourist attraction where the animal keepers work tirelessly on conservation and school educational programmes, according to Ann, who says that having to close the gates for good would be heart-breaking for everyone concerned.

'Secret Valley is a weather dependent seasonal attraction, where we take in 80 per cent of our income from March until the end of August. It costs over 100,000 to run for a year and, while we are open again since June 29, we will still at best have only half the visitors, and the same costs, with the restrictions that are in place.'

To date, almost 6,000 of the wildlife park's 50,000 fundraising target has been achieved, and people are asked to contribute whatever they can to help save the Wexford wildlife sanctuary. Contributions can be made on www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-secret-valley-wildlife-park#/

People who contribute to the park's fundraising efforts can avail of perks such as a discounted annual family pass for 80 instead of 137.

'Over the past 14 years, Secret Valley Wildlife Park has educated visitors on the plight of animals in the wild, and some in captivity, and the conservation and rescue efforts that go on. Ironically, we now need to protect our rescued animals more than ever, and keep them in our care,' Ann said of the fundraising appeal.

Opened initially as an adventure farm in 2007, Secret Valley invested and expanded to a wildlife park in 2012, working hard to meet the high standards required for a zoo licence. The facility was accepted as full members of BIAZA (British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums) in 2018.

TV features over the years, including 'Higher Ground', The Holiday Show, Nick Junior, CBeebies and the Brennan brothers 'At your Service' programme have encouraged thousands of visitors to the scenic park.

Last Friday's episode of Nationwide is now available to view on the RTE Player.
Bank of Nova Scotia is planning to keep most of its headquarters employees working from home for the rest of the year amid efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Scotiabank will let a small number of head-office employees return earlier, mostly in its capital-markets division and those in critical roles at the Toronto-based bank, according to people with knowledge of the plans, citing directives from an internal memo. The remainder wouldnt be expected back until next year.

Our head-office employees that are currently working remotely have been informed that the majority of them will continue to do so until 2021, Scotiabank spokesman Clancy Zeifman said Tuesday in an emailed statement. We continue to assess the situation and are committed to providing our employees with ample notice should that timeline change.

Scotiabank was among two dozen major employers that agreed in May to keep most of their downtown Toronto office staff at home until at least September to help fight the pandemic. The agreement came at the request of Toronto Mayor John Tory, who was concerned about a potential COVID-19 flare-up if too many people flood the downtown core as restrictions are lifted.

Scotiabank has the most employees of Canadas biggest banks, with roughly 97,400 workers across about 30 countries.
The HeroZona Foundation is excited to announce part three of its Bridge Forum Time for Change series, which will take place on Tuesday, August 11 from 8 to 11 a.m. at the Sheraton Mesa Hotel at Wrigleyville West (860 N. Riverview) in Mesa. The event is an addition to the Foundations initial two-part series discussing systemic racism in America and what actions can be taken to achieve equality. The invitation-only event is a collaborative effort between law enforcement, Arizona government, businesses and community leaders with support from City of Mesa, Mesa Chamber of Commerce, the Mesa Police Department and Sheraton Mesa Hotel at Wrigleyville West. The forum will also be live streamed to the public on TheBridgeForum.com.

"Over the past two months, we have successfully had two productive and synergistic discussions with change-makers in various Arizona communities who came together in light of the death of George Floyd, says HeroZona Foundation Founder and U.S. Army Desert Storm Veteran, Alan AP Powell. The addition of a third part was a no-brainer because we want to bring as many different perspectives to the table to ensure that we are breaking these issues down from all angles.

The Bridge Forum: Time for Change forum part one occurred on Tuesday, June 23 at the Travis L. Williams American Legion Post 65 and focused on current events within the black community and law enforcement to examine how communities can work together with police to create equality in the nation. The series second segment took place on Tuesday, July 14 at the W Scottsdale, focusing on similar topics in a different community.

The event in August will be moderated for the third time by the President & CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, National Director of the Million Man March, and Assistant to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. Dr. Chavis first received international recognition in 1971 as the leader of the Wilmington Ten, he was wrongfully convicted of committing arson and received the longest sentence before winning his appeal in 1980.

The upcoming event will include a mix of panelists from prominent community members to policy and policing experts. This includes National Forum for Black Public Administrators Central Arizona Chapter President Travis L. Cutright, Anti-Defamation League Assistant Regional Director Keisha McKinnor, Progressive Baptist Church Pastor Dr. Juan M. Brown Sr., Mesa Community College Interim President Dr. Lori M. Berquam, Mesa Unified School District Assistant Superintendent Dr. James Driscoll, Arizona Youth & College NAACP President Armonee D. Jackson, Arizona State Representative for District 25 and Speaker of the House Russell Rusty Bowers, Arizona Senator for District 18 Sean Bowie, City of Mesa Police Chief Ken Cost, Arizona Police Association Executive Director Joe Cluer, Mesa Municipal Court Judge Valerye Boyer-Wells, and Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police President Terry Young.

The forum is supported by City of Mesa Mayor John Giles, Maricopa Country District 1 Supervisor Jack Sellers, and Mesa Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Sally Harrison.

The Bridge Forum Time for Change parts one and two included panelists such as Superintendent for the Roosevelt School District No. 66 Quintin Boyce, Arizona State Representative from District 27, Reginald Bolding, Founder of Lo-Los Chicken & Waffles Larry White, Police Chief of the City of Scottsdale Alan G. Rodbell, Chief Special Agent of Attorney General Arizona Reggie Grigsby, President of East Valley NAACP Roy M. Tatem Jr., President and CEO of the Phoenix Suns Jason Rowley, and many other notable leaders.

The Time for Change Bridge Forum will be the 11th edition by the HeroZona Foundation. Previous forums have included both high school and college aged participants in 2017 from South Mountain High School, and in November 2018 included participation from law enforcement and community leaders who discussed ways to better support veterans with recruitment, hiring, opportunities in service, veterans in crisis and support systems.

In January 2018, the Scottsdale Police Department implemented 29 new initiatives from the Scottsdale Bridge Forum 2017, which included establishing sufficient resources for police personnel dealing with trauma, establishing dialogue opportunities with under-served communities, enhancing engagement with the communitys youth and identifying ways to address the needs of the community related to behavioral health.

For more information about the Bridge Forum and to stream its upcoming event on Tuesday, August 11, visit thebridgeforum.com.

About the HeroZona Foundation

The HeroZona Foundation is a non-profit organization that empowers Heroes in the community through entrepreneurship, employment, and education. The group works with veterans, first responders and those that bring social good to future generations and under-served communities. The foundations mission is to create opportunities for the brave men and women who serve their country, and community, every day. For more information, please visit HeroZona.org.

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TORONTO, July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Canada Nickel Company Inc. (TSX-V: CNC) ("Canada Nickel" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has created a wholly-owned subsidiary, NetZero Metals, to begin the research and development of a processing facility that would be located in the Timmins, Ontario region with the goal of utilizing existing technologies to produce zero-carbon nickel, cobalt and iron products.

The Company has applied for trademarks for the terms NetZero NickelTM, NetZero CobaltTM, and NetZero IronTM in U.S., Canada, and other jurisdictions related to zero-carbon production of nickel, cobalt, and iron products.

"The electric vehicle industry and many other consumer sectors needs zero-carbon metal this decade  not in a nebulous 2050 timeframe contemplated by many other resource companies," said Mark Selby, Chair & CEO of Canada Nickel.

"As a result of the unique advantages of the Timmins region with its close proximity to zero-carbon hydroelectricity and our Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide project, comprised largely of serpentine rock that naturally absorbs CO 2 when exposed to air, Canada Nickel has the potential to develop zero-carbon products that our customers are expecting from the mining sector. With nickel as a preferred metal to power the clean energy revolution, our commitment to net zero-carbon production is the right step to take for the environment, for consumers, and for our investors."

Serpentine rock, the host rock comprising more than 90 per cent of the mass of the resource at the Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project1, has had numerous studies completed that note that the rock naturally absorbs carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) when exposed to air through a naturally occurring process of spontaneous mineral carbonation.

The nickel industry faces a number of challenges as the current processing approach of laterite and sulphide ores generate a significant environmental footprint in the form of SO 2 and CO 2 emissions. These environmental challenges will only worsen given the industry supply profile with the bulk of recent nickel supply growth and the main source of future production growth being nickel pig iron production in Indonesia, which, according to industry sources, uses 25-30 tonnes of coal to produce each tonne of nickel, which when combined with other sources of CO 2, generates nearly approximately 90 tonnes of Scope 1 and Scope 2 CO 2 emissions per tonne of nickel produced. (see Figure 1).

For an electric vehicle battery pack that contained 50kg of nickel from this source, it would represent approximately 4 tonnes of CO 2. emissions for that vehicle. Other sources of nickel supply growth that have additional environmental footprint issues are HPAL projects in Indonesia that are considering technologies such as deep-sea discharge of tailings which would result in ocean discharge of approximately 100 tonnes of material per tonne of nickel.

Key Technologies Being Explored to Develop a Zero-Carbon Footprint Operation

Canada Nickel will explore the use of various alternatives to achieve its NetZero objectives in each stage of the mining process: Mining, Milling and Processing.

Mining

The biggest single technology to reduce the carbon footprint of mining activities is the utilization of electric rope shovels and trolley trucks which utilize electricity, rather than diesel fuel, as a power source wherever possible. Given the close proximity to zero carbon hydroelectric generating capacity, electricity use in place of diesel fuel has the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions.

The deposition of waste rock and tailings during the mining process will also expose the serpentine rock to air which provides the potential for this material to absorb CO 2 through natural mineral carbonation and offsetting any CO 2 emissions from the project. The exact amount and rate at which CO 2 can be absorbed from materials mined at Crawford will be analyzed during upcoming phases of work.

Milling

Traditionally, large scale processing of lower grade sulphide ores utilizes a significant amount of electricity. Again, the local proximity to hydroelectricity provide the potential to minimize carbon emissions for this stage of production.

NetZero Metals - Nickel-Cobalt Concentrate Processing

Existing processes for processing nickel-cobalt concentrates to remove sulphur, iron, and other impurities have resulted in the generation of significant quantities of CO 2 , SO 2 , and other impurities for a number of producers worldwide.

Canada Nickel will explore the potential for producing nickel and cobalt products from existing pyrometallurgical processes such as roasting, sulphation roasting, and reduction using electric arc furnaces (utilizing natural gas rather coke or coal as a reductant) with the offgases captured and re-routed to allow the CO 2 be captured by the waste rock and tailings from the Crawford nickel-cobalt sulphide project1 The Company will also look at existing hydrometallurgical processes to produce nickel and cobalt products such as the Albion or other similar processes, which generate minimal off-gases to produce nickel and cobalt products. The off-gases will again be captured and treated to ensure CO2 and SO2 emissions are minimized.

NetZero Metals - Magnetite Concentrate Processing

The Company will explore the potential for the production of iron products utilizing existing direct reduced iron (DRI) processes or reduction in electric arc furnaces utilizing natural gas and then re-routed to allow the CO 2 to be captured by the waste rock and tailings from the deposit.

Next Steps

The Company will announce some key leadership changes at the Board level to help guide the Company in this important endeavour. The NetZero approach will be incorporated into the work done for the engineering for the Preliminary Economic Assessment which has been previously announced and currently underway. Specific studies to analyze the quantity and timing of CO 2 absorption by the host rock at Crawford and process design for downstream processing of nickel and cobalt materials and magnetite concentrate will be announced and get underway through the remainder of the year.

1 The Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project is an early stage exploration and development project. There is no guarantee that the project will reach advanced development or production stage. The economic viability and technical feasibility of the Company's Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project has not been established at any level of confidence supported by a PEA, PFS or FS, and as such there is currently no evidence to support that the project would result in a "net zero-carbon" footprint. The Company is currently planning to complete a PEA by year-end 2020.

About Canada Nickel Company

Canada Nickel Company Inc. is advancing the next generation of nickel-cobalt sulphide projects to deliver nickel and cobalt required to feed the high growth electric vehicle and stainless steel markets. Canada Nickel Company has applied in multiple jurisdictions to trademark the terms NetZero NickelTM, NetZero CobaltTM, NetZero IronTM and is pursuing the development of processes to allow the production of net zero carbon nickel, cobalt, and iron products. Canada Nickel provides investors with leverage to nickel and cobalt in low political risk jurisdictions. Canada Nickel is currently anchored by its 100% owned flagship Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project in the heart of the prolific Timmins-Cochrane mining camp.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain information that may constitute "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward looking information includes, but is not limited to, drill results relating to the Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project, timing of economic studies, the potential of the Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project, the potential development of zero-carbon production of nickel, cobalt and iron, strategic plans, including future exploration and development results, and corporate and technical objectives. Forward-looking information is necessarily based upon a number of 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 information. Factors that could affect the outcome include, among others: future prices and the supply of metals, the future demand for metals, the results of drilling, inability to raise the money necessary to incur the expenditures required to retain and advance the property, environmental liabilities (known and unknown), general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties, results of exploration programs, timing of the updated resource estimate, risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, and failure to obtain regulatory or shareholder approvals. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. All forward-looking information contained in this press release is given as of the date hereof and is based upon the opinions and estimates of management and information available to management as at the date hereof. Canada Nickel disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Mark Selby, Chair and CEO, Phone: +1 647-256-1954, Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Canada Nickel Company Inc.
Ginger growers in West Bengals northern districts are reaping profits even as the local economy is hit by the lockdown with people buying more driven by the belief that the plant increases immunity against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

In places like Siliguri, the biggest city in north Bengal, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Cooch Behar and other parts, the sale of ginger has gone up over the last two months, with prices in wholesale and retail markets increasing rapidly.

In the retail markets of Siliguri town, ginger price ranged between Rs 145 and Rs 160 a kg on Monday.

The price I got from wholesalers in Siliguri regulated market in the last one week ranged between Rs 68 to Rs 70 a kg, Jabardan Rai, a ginger farmer from Peshok, said.

The wholesale price in Siliguri would have crossed Rs 100 a kg had there been no restriction on movement of people. The big buyers from Delhi and Mumbai are not coming, Rai said.

Raju Saha, a retail vegetable seller at Siliguris Champasari market, said his sales have more than doubled in recent weeks.

The demand has been on the rise and will rise further along with the price. At least 60,000 kg is sold every day, Haridwar Singh, a commission agent at the regulated market, said.

Sunita Agarwal, a homemaker, said she used to buy 400 grams of ginger a month but now she gets 2.5kg of the spice.

All members of my family are having ginger, lemon and turmeric water twice a day to boost immunity, Agarwal said.

West Bengal was the third-largest producer of ginger in 2018. Most of the states ginger is produced in the hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong which come under the jurisdiction of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA).

The horticulture department of GTA said the annual production in 2019 was 29,400 metric tonnes grown over an area of about 2,000 hectares.

Darjeeling and Kalimpong hills produce a better quality of ginger and more than 60% are sent to other states, Mahadev Chhetri, senior scientific officer with the Research and Development Centre for Horticulture, said.

It is good news that farmers are getting high price at a time when everything has come to a standstill because of the pandemic, SP Singh, the district horticulture officer, said.
The basic celestial happening, such as the sunrise and sunset, can look amazing and breathtaking, given someone provides an unseen glimpse of it. Recently, Bob Behnken, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientist, who went to space aboard SpaceXs Crew Dragon, shared a glimpse of sunrise from the International Space Station (ISS).

The shared images show the sun spreading its light gradually as it rises in the morning. "First moments of sunrise from @Space_Station," read the tweet.

The post, which has received more than 57,000 likes, has been appreciated by the netizens, who were caught in awe of the pictures.

A user wrote, "Love these images you see from Space! Here on earth I always try to visualise it during sunset/rise in how I see it & Astronauts seeing that pale blue line Sun with rays  10yr old Hayden, Ireland."

Love these images you see from Space! Here on earth I always try to visualise it during sunset/rise in how I see it & Astronauts seeing that pale blue line  10yr old Hayden, Ireland  pic.twitter.com/ckR4VVZ5HQ Hayden Geraghty - Planetary Defence Ambassador  (@carolineGx8) July 27, 2020

Another one asked, "What is nicer to see, Sunrise or Sunset?"

what is nicer to see, Sunrise or Sunset? Claire Cowan (@clairec007) July 27, 2020

Replying to it, a user wrote, "From an Earthling point of view, sunrise. If you've ever trekked out at 4 am in spring, out into the countryside, you'll know there's nothing more glorious than seeing the sun slowly rise and feeling the warmth creep over you after two hours of the cold and dark twilight."

From an Earthling point of view, sunrise. If you've ever trekked out at 4 am in spring, out into the countryside, you'll know there's nothing more glorious than seeing the sun slowly rise and feeling the warmth creep over you after two hours of the cold and dark twilight. Adam K Dean (@imdsm) July 27, 2020

A Twitterati aligned, cropped and scaled all the images to produce a gif from the pictures.

When earth smiles back at youNote : Original images aligned, cropped, scaled pic.twitter.com/aYNCsbJwUG Anna Williams (@AnnaProgw) July 27, 2020

ALSO READ : You Can Visit International Space Station From Home With a Little Help from Google

Heres what other had to say about the view:

You guys have some pretty good WiFi for space Eric Celio (@ochocelio) July 27, 2020

WOW. Now that is AWESOME ! cnunezimages (@cnunezimages) July 27, 2020

Totally awesome and better than my view. On earth. I would say stay as long as you can to see Gods great big world but I know the family and team members on earth are missing you; so, safe flight back and thanks for sharing science and Gods world. E. Smith (@Erv461) July 28, 2020

Good morning @Space_Station! We watched & marvelled at the dot of light as it flew over YYC last night - immensely cool. Wishing a safe return to @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug (4ever Bob & Doug for us )! Candarm (@candarm) July 27, 2020

Bob, I think you should stay up there for a very long time and send us amazing picture like these. You are truly a gifted photographer on top of everything else you do up there. We appreciate you. Kouros (@KourosMohit) July 27, 2020

In another news, one of the latest studies seems to be changing our perception about the sun being the center of our solar system. James ODonoghue, a planetary scientist at the Japanese space agency, JAXA, has made an animation video to explain how the sun, along with other planets and terrestrial objects, orbit around the solar system center of mass.
Farmers in England will no longer need to comply with the EU greening requirement from 2021, the government has announced.

Defra has unveiled plans to reduce red tape for farmers as it begins to focus on transitioning to the new post-Brexit Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme.

The European Commissions greening requirements for Direct Payments have required farmers to carry out specified practices in order to qualify for additional payments.

Farmers in the bloc have to dedicate 5% of arable land to areas beneficial for biodiversity: Ecological Focus Areas (EFA), for example trees, hedges or land left fallow that improves biodiversity.

However, according to Defra, these requirements have 'delivered little' for the environment. It pointed to the findings of the European Court of Auditors 2017 Special Report on greening as evidence.

Defra said these changes would not affect the overall payment received by each farmer as the money would instead be added to farmers entitlements under the Basic Payment Scheme.

The agricultural transition period will last for seven years and see Direct Payments to farmers in England phased out and replaced with the ELM scheme, expected to be rolled out in late 2024.

Defra Secretary George Eustice said farmers would benefit from this 'reduced bureaucratic burden' in 2021.

"We will be setting out more detail in the autumn on how we will ensure a smooth transition for our farmers, as they move towards our new, fairer agricultural system," he said.

The planned phasing out of Direct Payments will take place gradually to give farmers the time to adapt to the changes, Defra said.

It added that in the majority of cases, the gradual reduction in these payments will be offset by alternative support being made available to help farmers transition into the ELM scheme.

Farmers will also continue to be able to apply to Countryside Stewardship schemes until the future scheme is rolled out.

The national conversation around the ELM scheme is open until 31 July, with farmers invited to share their views on a policy discussion document available on CitizenSpace.

The government said further details on plans for the agricultural transition period would be set out in Autumn 2020.
Across Michigan, people are getting unsolicited packages of seeds from China in the mail, state officials say.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is warning people who receive these packages not to open, discard or plant the seeds. The packages people are getting are usually white, displaying Chinese lettering and the words China Post.

This problem isnt isolated to Michigan, states across the country are reporting getting these packages of seeds, said Jennifer Holton, MDARDs communication director.

The New York Times found that more than 27 states have reported residents complaining of getting unsolicited packages of seeds from China. Complainants said they didnt order anything and that the packages were labeled as jewelry, earbuds or socks.

The United States Department of Agricultures Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is investigating the situation alongside the Department of Homeland Securitys Customs and Border Patrol, according to USDA press release.

While its uncertain why people are getting these packages, Holton said it could be part of a brushing fraud. A brushing scam is an exploit by a vendor used to bolster product ratings and increase visibility online by shipping an inexpensive product to an unwitting receiver and then submitting positive reviews on the receivers behalf under the guise of a verified owner, the state says.

People who received these packages should hold on to them and report the delivery to the Department of Rural Development. Mike Philip, director of the departments Pesticide and Plant Pest Management Division, is urging residents to refrain from opening the packages or planting the seeds. The department is uncertain how many Michigan residents have received seeds.

We dont know what type of seeds are in the packages, but we do know they come in a variety of sizes and colors, with some reported to be very tiny, Philip said. These unsolicited seeds could be invasive, introduce diseases to local plants, or be harmful to livestock.

Philip said if planted, the unknown and potentially invasive species could impact Michigans environment.

USDA is currently collecting seed packages from recipients and will test their contents and determine if they contain anything that could be of concern to U.S. agriculture or the environment.

If you receive an unsolicited package of seeds from China, hold on to the seeds, packaging and mailing label, and contact MDARDs Customer Service Center, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.  5 p.m., at 800-292-3939 or via MDA-Info@michigan.gov.
Inside Edition Tony Green

Fourteen members of the same family in Texas have reportedly tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), and one has died.

Dallas resident Tony Green, 43, who tested positive for the contagious respiratory virus and has since recovered, appeared on Inside Edition last week, sharing his emotions about how his family has been impacted by COVID-19.

"Hurt, pain, hopelessness," he said. "We're praying."

In an interview with NBC News, Green said that he and his partner of nine years hosted their parents for a small gathering on June 13. Nobody wore a mask at the event, and the following day Green fell ill.

Two days later, Green said that his parents and his partner were also sick.

RELATED: 20 Teens Test Positive for Coronavirus After House Party in New Jersey

"We just felt the worst was behind the country because everything was easy, things were reopening and none of us were experiencing any symptoms," he told NBC News.

Green's partner's parents became ill in June, too, after they traveled from Dallas to Austin for another family gathering to celebrate a birth. Following that get-together, even more family members fell ill with the virus. The ages of the family members who tested positive were not reported, and it was not clear whether they had any underlying health conditions.

His partner's grandmother ended up contracting COVID-19 as well and died on July 2 in the hospital room right next to her sons, NBC News reported.

Now that so many close to him have contracted COVID-19, Green told NBC News that he regrets holding a get-together for his and his partners' parents.

RELATED: 26-Day-Old Baby Tested Positive for Coronavirus in Autopsy After Her Death

"I cannot help but feel responsible for convincing our families it was safe to have a get-together," he said. "There's a lot of things that I would have done differently."

Green told NBC News that 12 of the 14 family members have either recovered or are currently recovering, the outlet reported.

Texas had more than 4,000 positive cases on Monday alone, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. There have been at least 385,923 cases reported in the state, and 5,713 deaths related to the virus. Nationwide, there have been more than 4.2 million positive cases.

As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments. PEOPLE has partnered with GoFundMe to raise money for the COVID-19 Relief Fund, a GoFundMe.org fundraiser to support everything from frontline responders to families in need, as well as organizations helping communities. For more information or to donate, click here.
Federal police make an arrest as they confront rioters in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland on July 26, 2020. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

22 Arrested During Weekend Riots in Portland

Twenty-two people are facing federal charges after a weekend of violent riots in Portland, Oregon, the Department of Justice announced on Monday night.

Sixteen people were charged with assaulting federal officers and four with failing to obey lawful orders. A Canadian national was arrested for doxing federal employees. Another man was charged with operating a drone in restricted airspace.

The riots in Portland entered their second month this weekend, marked with nightly vandalism, looting, violence and arson. The rioters have focused their attention on the Hatfield Federal Courthouse, forcing face-offs with federal officers tasked with protecting the property.

Federal agents erected a fence to de-escalate the confrontations with the rioters, only to see the agitators return with power tools to cut down the barricade.

The fence was put up so the peaceful protesters could focus on Black Lives Matter and racial justice. When the agitators, Ill call them, seek to break through the fence with those saws and power tools, then theyre seeking to come into the building and create the kind of destruction and danger that they did before the fence was up, Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel told reporters on Saturday.

According to DOJ spokeswoman Kerri Kupec, 74 people have been arrested since the beginning of the unrest in the city. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request to clarify if the 22 arrests announced after Kupecs update are part of the tally.

Agents from Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested Ronald Bernard Hickey, 44, a Canadian national, for using his Twitter account to release the personal information of federal employees deployed in Portland, an intimidation practice commonly known as doxing.

Richard Lindstet, 33, was charged with operating a drone in restricted airspace.

Sixteen people are facing charges of assaulting a federal officers: Carly Anne Ballard, 34, David Michael Bouchard, 36, Rebecca Gonzales-Mota, 37, Stephen ODonnell, 65, Thomas Johnson, 33, Nathan Oderdonk-Snow, 21, Joshua Webb, 22, Pablo Avvacato, 26, Doug Dean, 34, Michael Stephenson, 23, Caleb Willis, 29, Noelle Mandolfo, 30, Travis Williams, 27, Patrick Stanford, Coree Jefree and Tyler Gabriel, 22.

On a daily basis in Portland, peaceful protests begin during daytime and dissipate, only to be replaced with violent agitators. The two distinct events continue to generate controversy with media outlets conflating federal response to the violent rioters as having targeted peaceful protesters.

Its the very few of the crowd who come, not intent on doing anything with their voice, but intent on destruction and intent on confrontation, unfortunately, with federal police, Gabriel said.

Federal authorities have said they will not leave the courthouse unprotected. Officers stationed at the property have said they see it as a symbol of justice for all people. The riots in Portland and elsewhere were triggered by the police-custody death of George Floyd on May 25.

It ends when the community demands that it ends. And by that, I mean the violence. Were not talking about ending peaceful protest, and people exercising their First Amendment rights, and the demands for systematic addressing of racial injustice within the criminal justice system, within the economic system. Those voices are being heard and have been heard since the murder of Mr. Floyd, Gabriel said.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
There's "mania" in the stock market as investors fear missing out on returns, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman.

In a CNBC interview, Krugman said some traders have yet to grasp the extent of the economic harm from the Covid-19 pandemic as the U.S. has failed to stop the spread of the virus.

"It's very hard to escape the sense that there's mania now, that this is a FOMO [fear of missing out] market," he said. "When you look at the way that people have piled into the stocks of bankrupt companies like Hertz there's clearly something, a bit of mania going on."

The S&P 500 has gained more than 4% this month despite a growing number of coronavirus cases across the country. Brokerage firms have reported a spike in new accounts in recent months as retail investors try to capitalize on the stock market's gains.

Krugman said some investors see no alternative to stocks since bond yields are at near record-low levels. He added big technology stocks that derive large parts of their revenues overseas have also contributed to the run-up in markets.

"They're riding on the prospects of economic recovery in Asia and Europe even as the U.S. completely mucks things up," he said.

Krugman defended the Federal Reserve's aggressive stimulus response to the pandemic, such as the central bank's purchases of corporate bond ETFs, which many analysts say have helped inflate stocks.

"I don't see what else the Fed could have done," he said. "They could not have stood by and allowed a financial crisis on top of the viral crisis, so this is what had to happen, and if there's some mania in the markets, well that's what happens."

The New York Times columnist said the conditions for a quick economic recovery are in place if policymakers would focus on getting the virus under control instead of reopening businesses like bars. He added that the economy could suffer long-term damage from school closures and the expiration of fiscal aid such as extended unemployment benefits.

Krugman said additional stimulus checks or a universal basic income would not be as helpful as targeted benefits when it comes to boosting the economic recovery.

"What we need in this circumstance is a lot of money to a selected group of people," he said.

A big infrastructure program should be a "no-brainer" for lawmakers, Krugman said, adding the national debt isn't a concern yet.

"At this point with everything else going on, the great danger is that we spend too little, not too much," he said.
U.S. and Russian officials have opened three days of nuclear arms-control talks in Vienna less than a year before a treaty covering about 90 percent of the world's atomic weapons expires.

During a first round of talks last month in the Austrian capital, the United States and Russia discussed their last remaining nuclear arms-control agreement, the 2010 New Strategic Arms Treaty (New START), which caps the number of deployed long-range nuclear warheads each can have and which expires in February.

Under a new format agreed last month by U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, technical working groups will deal with military doctrines and potentials, transparency and verification, as well as with security in space, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The nuclear talks come after a one-day dialogue on space security on July 27, the first on the topic held by the two countries since 2013.

The United States has proposed rules for responsible behavior in space, which would be modeled on existing rules of war that are based on the principles of proportionality and humanity.

Russia and China have been backing a rival effort to ban weapons in outer space in an international treaty.

No statement was issued after the one-day session.

U.S. Assistant Secretary for International Security and Nonproliferation Christophe Ford told a press conference on July 24 that the United States hoped the meeting would allow the sides to "explore ways to increase security and stability in outer space as well as to advance the cause of developing norms of responsible behavior."

He also said that Moscow and Beijing have already turned space into a "war-fighting domain."

The United States and Britain accuse Russia of having tested an anti-satellite weapon in space on July 15.

Moscow denied the accusation, describing the event as an inspection of one satellite by another.

"Russia has always been and remains a country that is committed to the aim of fully demilitarizing outer space and nondeployment of any kinds of arms in outer space," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on July 24 in comments carried by state news agency TASS.

The United States and Britain, however, said a Russian satellite fired a projectile that Ford described as the space equivalent of "a bullet."

Russia has now carried out such a test for the second time, Ford said. The first test took place in 2017.

With reporting by dpa and TASS
Sinovac: China

Beijing-based pharmaceutical and biotech firm Sinovac signed a deal with Brazillian counterpart Instituto Butantan last week, to develop a vaccine and conduct further tests in the South American nation. As the global race intensifies to come up with a viable COVID-19 vaccine, China is fighting tooth-and-nail to be the first one to develop a working vaccine in the fight against the novel Coronavirus.

On Wednesday, July 22, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, announced that China will loan $1 billion to South America and the Caribbean islands for COVID-19 vaccine access, despite a working product nowhere close to being ready.

In a virtual gathering attended by leaders from Central and Latin America, the Mexican Foreign Ministry noted in its statement that Sinovac's vaccine developed in China will have "universal access" and that China is "dedicated to supporting access to the vaccine for Latin America".

Read | Largest COVID-19 vaccine study under way in US

Oxford Clinical trials: AstraZeneca (UK)

As Oxford vaccine made by UK's AstraZeneca enters the final phase of COVID-19 trials in Brazil, over 5,000 volunteers signed up to be a part of it. The ChAdOx1 vaccine is currently being developed by Oxford University in collaboration with biopharma company AstraZeneca.

Notably, at the end of May, World Health Organisation's lead scientist Soumya Swaminathan, called ChAdOx1 the "most advanced COVID-19 vaccine candidate," and the drug has since been the subject of a lot of media attention.

Phases one and two of the clinical trial took place in April in England. Over 1,000 test subjects who volunteered were administered the drug and their immune responses were gauged for vital signs of improvement.

The third and final development phase was shifted to Brazil in coordination with Federal University of Sao Paulo's Reference Center for Special Immunobiologicals

Read | Human clinical trial of COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin begins in Odisha

Moderna, Pfizer's mRNA COVID vaccine run (US)

The US has roped in two pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna to work on arranging a clinical trial for their COVID-19 vaccine mRNA. The trial is presumed to be the largest compared to its competitors, as it has recruited 30,000 volunteers from 89 different sites across Brazil to test the vaccine's effectiveness. This will be the first time a drug with a test capacity as large as this will be approved for trails by the National Institutes of Health.

News agency AP reported five days ago that Pfizer cut a deal with the US government for $1.95 billion to develop 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine in the country. The report, based on a press release announced that company planned to conduct phase 3 trials by the end of July and also hoped that the FDA approval and licensing will be awarded by October if the trials are successful.

Read | Emergent inks $174 million deal with AstraZeneca to produce COVID-19 vaccine candidate

Operation Warp Speed

Brazil is an important ground for COVID-19 vaccines as the three largest players in the world speed up their process to get approval from regulatory bodies at home. Latin America has suffered enormously since it became the epicentre of the global pandemic in late May. With over 2.2 million people affected in Brazil alone, it currently stands as the second worst-hit country after the US. As such, once the vaccine is ready and approved, both Sinovac and Instituto Butantan will start the trial phase with 9,000 people.

While scientists across the world are toiling to find a cure in record time, Trump administration and the Communist Party of China is sinking in more money in the race to be the first country to develop a vaccine that will not only be made universally available but also be able to reap the financial benefits at a critical time such as this.

Read | Worlds biggest coronavirus vaccine trial gets underway in US
The Trump administration announced on Monday that it agreed not to expel a group of immigrant children it detained at a south Texas hotel.

Under an emergency declaration, the Trump administration cited the coronavirus pandemic and will instead allow them to seek to remain in the United States.

The decision came following reports that the government was secretly detaining unaccompanied children in hotels before deporting them during the pandemic.

The U.S. government held the children in custody for nearly 200 times for two months in three Hampton Inn & Suites hotels in Arizona, and two of the same hotel in Texas border cities.

Cases Filed

Attorneys filed a lawsuit on July 24 to stop the immediate expulsion of a group of migrant children that were previously detained in a south Texas hotel.

The latest legal action was to challenge the government's policy that has banned most border-crossers, regardless of their age, from seeking asylum in the United States.

The lawsuit was filed before the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., representing the unknown number of children in U.S. government custody that was previously detained at a hotel in McAllen, Texas last week.

Immigration officials did not say how many children were being held at the McAllen hotel as of Thursday. They also did not provide their names.

The lawyers are asking the federal court in Washington to mandate the Department of Homeland Security to allow the children to talk to lawyers.

Meanwhile, Hilton confirmed on July 24 that the independently owned and managed Hampton Inn & Suites in McAllen, Texas has accepted reservations from a private contractor on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Hilton noted that this is not an activity that they want to support.

"The ownership of the Hampton Inn & Suites in McAllen has tonight confirmed that they have cancelled this business and that the minors and chaperones are no longer at the hotel. They have also confirmed that their property will not accept similar reservations in the future," according to Hilton's statement.

Previous Reports of Detainment

The U.S. government has been detaining children as young as one in hotels before deporting them to their home countries, according to an Aljazeera report.

A Texas Civil Rights Project representative has confirmed the claims and a lawyer with the organization has visited the hotel, where the children were being detained.

Lawyers and advocates said detaining unaccompanied migrant children in hotels exposes them to the risk of trauma. They added that it is not a place designed to hold them and cared for by contractors with unknown credentials.

Leecia Welch, a lawyer at the nonprofit National Center for Youth Law said they have created a shadow system in which "there's no accountability for expelling very young children."

Welch said there are no words to describe how disgraceful it is to sacrifice children to "advance heartless immigration policies." ICE declined to comment.

The immigration authorities said the contractors were transportation specialists. It added that they are non-law enforcement members trained to work with minors.

The immigration officials further noted that the contractors ensure that all aspects of transport or stay are following the court statement.

Check these out:

Undocumented Immigrant Children 'Entitled Equal Access' to Public Education, Says DOE

Hillary Clinton on Immigration: Vows Not to Deport Immigrant Children During Her Presidency

Immigration News Today: Unaccompanied Undocumented Children Entering US At Lower Rate in 2015
BETHALTO  I teach tiny humans. Whats your superpower?

That statement is on the front of a shirt worn by Mollie Lavezzi, referring to her job as a preschool teacher at Zion Lutheran School in Bethalto. Joining her on the early childhood ministry team is her sister, Katie Ray.

I have the pleasure of working with these dedicated women every day, said Sarah Koch, Preschool and Summer Camp director. It is a joy to see them share the love of Jesus with children.

Katie and Mollie are a blessing to so many children because of the investment of teachers and staff at Zion and Metro-East Lutheran High School, Koch said. Lutheran School communities really do change lives one child at a time.

As preschoolers, the two daughters of Ken and Marla Ray of Bethalto attended Zions Preschool and continued at Zion through Grade 8.

I still remember the scavenger hunt on my first day at Zion, said Lavezzi.

One of the most important lessons I learned at Zion was how to care for others, she said. We learned how to get along with one another. I made lifelong friends during those days.

Ray said school was an extension of the girls home.

We learned the same values of faith and family wherever we were, she said. Our Zion teachers taught us how to deal with life from our early years.

Both girls said they value their teachers investment in their lives  academically, spiritually and socially. Because our classes were small, our teachers really knew us, Ray said. And our families were very involved in our school. Zion students still have these benefits today.

Strong relationships and important life lessons from Zion stayed with the girls as they went on to graduate from Metro-East Lutheran High School in Edwardsville. Ray began her higher education at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey and then graduated from Liberty University. Lavezzi graduated from Southeast Missouri State University.

Today, as Zion teachers, they said they value the opportunities they have to bring God into everything they do with their students.

We make faith in God more than Sunday sound bites, Lavezzi said. We live our faith, and we teach our students and their families how to live with Gods help.

Our Preschool lessons about love and hope go home with our students, she said. Parents are learning more about Gods kindness and compassion from their children. That helps everyone.

Children have so much uncertainty in their lives right now, Ray said. We cant fix that. But we can reassure them that God is always with them and always loves them. Thats what is certain in their lives.

For more information about Zion Lutheran School visit http://zlsbethalto.org, call 618-377-5507 or email schooloffice@zionbethalto.org.
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Linkedin Im Eun-byel (The Korea Herald/Asia News Network) Taean, South Korea  Tue, July 28, 2020 07:07 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669b9d5b 2 Destinations South-Korea,travel,destination,Taean Free

Though COVID-19 has yet to be contained, summer is here, and so is the vacation season.

Taean is a popular tourist town on the west coast of Korea, about a three-hour drive from Seoul. The small seaside county was the site of the worst oil spill in Korea in 2007, when a crane-barge collision led to the leaking of 11 million gallons of oil into the ocean. Workers, residents and volunteers from across the nation gathered in Taean to clean the blackened beaches.

This year, Taean is bracing against virus infiltration. To closely monitor the incoming flock of tourists, Taean County has deployed volunteer workers at county entrances to check the body temperatures of each visitor.

After a short checkup, visitors are given colorful wristbands by the county, signaling they have been checked. The volunteer workers have called them safety bands that ensure the safety of both residents and visitors.

Exotic sand dune

Sinduri Coastal Dune touts itself as the only major sand dune in Korea. The sand dune is 3.4 kilometers long, and ranges from about half to 1.3 kilometers wide. In 2001 it was designated a natural monument.

Though billed as a sand dune, strong winds from the west have been blowing the sand away, decreasing its size. Weeds are also sprouting and covering the sand dune, making it more of a dry field. The wind marks, however, often seen at deserts can be observed.

Sinduri Coastal Dune Center offers detailed information on the history of the sand dune and its ecosystem. Visitors can enjoy sand art and virtual reality activities at the center.

For those who opt for a greener view, Duwung Wetland is an option. Situated just behind the sand dune, the 65,000-square-meter-wide wetland is an area protected by the Ramsar Convention, as a home to diverse animals and plants.

Read also: South Korea may start charging passengers arriving with COVID-19

Picturesque beaches

Kkotji Beach is iconic. The 3.2-kilometer beach is famous for its sunset views. Though it is on the west coast -- usually underappreciated by Koreans due to its murkier water -- the water is clear and low, perfect for a dip. When the tide is low, a tidal flat opens up, allowing visitors to catch small crabs and clams.

For those who would opt for a less densely populated beach, Wansando Beach provides a perfectly secluded sea bathing experience. Wansando was connected to the mainland in 2019 by the Wonsan Anmyeon Bridge, making the island a 30-minute drive from the county center area of Taean.

Less known by tourists, Wansando Beach spreads across 1.8 kilometers. Like Kkotji Beach, the water is low and clear with little for waves, making it perfect for sea bathing. The beach looks out into the seas to the west, offering a spectacular sunset view, too.

Island Resom

Run by local resort chain Resom, Island Resom is situated on Kkotji Beach. After a complete renovation, Island Resom reopened on July 10, fully equipped with new facilities.

After Taean County tore down the coastal road in front of the hotel, the beach became directly connected to the hotel, offering its 248 rooms full access to the beach.

The resort complex is separated into two areas: the hotel-style building Ocean Tower and more private Ocean Villas. Oasis Sunset Spa is a water park that uses seawater brought from the bedrock 420 meters underground. There is also the bar area Island 57, which offers cocktails and beers with an ocean view outside.

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This article appeared on The Korea Herald newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
NEW YORK, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aluminum Extrusion Market Research Report by Type (Anodized, Mill-finished, and Powder Coated), by End-User (Aerospace, Automotive, Building & Construction, and Machinery & Equipment) - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19





Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913159/?utm_source=PRN





The Global Aluminum Extrusion Market is expected to grow from USD 66,085.17 Million in 2019 to USD 86,230.62 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 4.53%.



Market Segmentation & Coverage:

This research report categorizes the Aluminum Extrusion to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:



On the basis of Type, the Aluminum Extrusion Market is studied across Anodized, Mill-finished, and Powder Coated.



On the basis of End-User, the Aluminum Extrusion Market is studied across Aerospace, Automotive, Building & Construction, and Machinery & Equipment.



On the basis of Geography, the Aluminum Extrusion 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 Aluminum Extrusion Market including Alcoa Corporation, Aluminium Products Company (ALUPCO), Bahrain Aluminium Extrusion Co, BHP Billiton Ltd., China Zhongwang Holdings Limited, Constellium SE, Guangdong Fenglu Aluminium Co. Ltd., Hindalco Industries Limited, Norsk Hydro ASA, and Tajik Aluminum Company.



FPNV Positioning Matrix:

The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Aluminum Extrusion 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 Aluminum Extrusion Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Aluminum Extrusion Market during the forecast period?

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4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Aluminum Extrusion Market?

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6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Aluminum Extrusion Market?



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913159/?utm_source=PRN



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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.





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28.07.2020 LISTEN

Members of the Council of Elders of our great party,

The National Chairman, General Secretary and all members of the National Executive Committee

The Campaign Manager and Members of the National Campaign Team

Professor Naana Jane Opoku- Agyemang,

The good people of Ghana

Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you very much for making the time to join us, from all over our beautiful country, and across the world.

Today, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is taking our country, Ghana, on yet another positive and progressive journey.

Two weeks ago, in compliance with the constitution of the NDC, I announced to the Council of Elders and the National Executive Committee, my choice of Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as Running Mate for the December 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.

With Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, I can say confidently that we have made the best choice for Ghana.

I have  partnering with me, by the Grace of God, a Vice Presidential aspirant who complements and will ensure that we present to the people of Ghana, a winning, credible and an experienced ticket.

Today's momentous occasion is not only for our great party, the NDC. It is also for every single Ghanaian who cares about Ghana and is interested in seeing our nation reach the optimal level of progress, shared opportunities and prosperity that we are capable of attaining.

Professor Opoku-Agyemang is the first female to be selected by one of the two major political parties that have won all elections in our country since the start of the 4th Republic in 1992.

Indeed, the NDC remains the most successful political party in the history of Ghana. We have won four out of the seven Presidential elections since the days of President Jerry John Rawlings in 1992.

With the support of the Ghanaian people and by the grace of God, we will win our 5th election in December 2020 to bring development to all our citizens in every corner of Ghana to advance social justice.

The choice of Professor Opoku-Agyemang is over and above affirmative action because she is more than qualified to serve as Vice President.

She is a woman who has contributed to shattering the many glass ceilings that have held women down for generations, by becoming the first female to lead and manage a public university in Ghana.

As I described her in my statement following the announcement, she is God-fearing, a distinguished scholar, a conscientious public servant and a role model.

The NDC has a lot to show when it comes to putting women at the forefront of leadership. Females constitute about 50% of Ghana's population and women form the majority of Ghana's human resource. They must lead to advance our nation's progress.

And we have been vindicated at every turn by the sterling output of these highfliers.

It was the NDC that presented Ghana's first female Speaker of Parliament, the first female Foreign Minister, the first female Attorney General, the first female Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, the first female Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education and the first female Chairperson of the Council of State.

There are a host of other key positions where our women distinguished themselves and elevated the name and image of Ghana with their first-rate performance.

Unlike the NPP, we in the NDC, recognise and appreciate the knowledge, industry, passion, creativity and problem-solving skills of our women.

With Professor Opoku-Agyemang, the NDC has once again stayed with our true course, and advanced a step further in our established philosophy of inclusivity by boldly presenting one of our best in intellect and character, as our party's Running Mate.

Together with Naana Jane, we will work with you, each and every Ghanaian, to place our country back on the track of progress, opportunities for all and shared prosperity.

This, we will build on the foundation of social justice, self-belief, unity, integrity, transparency and accountability.

Working together with Naana Jane, a brilliant and accomplished woman, I have no doubt that God's grace will shine on us in the elections of December 2020.

I am convinced that with her zeal for service and her unquestionable integrity, she will greatly impact the developmental focus of our activities as a Party and Government.

She has already begun her policy briefing sessions as incoming Vice President, ready and willing to work hard for Ghanaians.

Naana's impeccable record is endless and her reach across various sectors is overwhelmingly impressive.

For example, I was glad when one of her sterling contributions to academia and health care as my Minister for Education sequenced the genome of the virus, which causes Coronavirus disease. I am referring to the establishment of the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens.

Leading the transformation of the educational sector as our Minister for Education, our Running Mate supervised the achievement of many great feats that make me proud to be working with her.

She converted Polytechnics into fully-fledged Technical Universities, supervised the upgrading of the Colleges of Education into tertiary institutions and led the negotiations that secured the World Bank funding for the flagship Secondary Education Improvement Project (SEIP) that saw the major upgrading of facilities in Senior High Schools and the construction of 23 Community Day Senior High Schools.

Furthermore, facilities in 50 less endowed Senior High Schools and 75 under-performing Senior High Schools were upgraded.

Working with the educational unions and traditional authorities, teacher absenteeism was reduced during her tenure from 27% to 7%. Naana Jane also improved the quality of basic education which resulted in Ghanas all-time best BECE performance, introduced the private BECE, and recruited 2,400 mathematics and science teachers as a special intervention to improve teaching and learning at the Senior Secondary level.

She also achieved Ghanas overall best performing WASSCE nation award by WAEC for four consecutive years when she served as Minister.

During the period of her tenure, the Ministry of Education engaged more than 40,000 newly recruited teachers.

As you will all recall, we abolished the quota system at the Colleges of Education, leading to an increase in enrolment from 9,000 to 15,400, creating more teaching opportunities for our youth.

It was under Professor Opoku-Agyemang that teachers were automatically posted without National Service and Licensure Examinations.

My brothers and sisters, having worked closely with Naana, what I salute about her, and the world acknowledges and equally celebrates as true, is the fact that she is an achiever of unquestionable integrity, a resourceful and results-driven leader.

It is regrettable that following my announcement of her as my running mate, several key leaders of the NPP Administration and the party launched a barrage of misogynistic attacks at her just on the basis of her gender. These attacks are unacceptable and most unfortunate. This is not what the severely distressed people of Ghana deserve at this time.

We surely can do better.

Our politics has devolved into one of insults, intimidation and unfortunately in many cases has become increasingly violent.

This is an anathema to the sustainability of the health and wealth of our Republic, fought for and won through the blood and toils of our forebears.

As servant-leaders, we pledge to abide by the ethics of a clean campaign devoid of insults. We shall present our message to the people of Ghana in a clear and succinct manner.

We also pledge that our promises would be a sacred social contract that will be honoured and not betrayed. This pledge is to all, including our compatriots, who have lost interest, faith and hope in our politics.

We will change the face of our politics so that no one will be considered less Ghanaian or more Ghanaian than the other on the basis of ownership of a political party card.

Let's face it! There are many Ghanaians who do not belong to the NPP, the NDC or any recognisable political party. They detest the persistent acrimony associated with our politics. They do not have a party card and yet they contribute significantly to build our country.

Today, we are witnessing a course of action never before seen in our history. So there is hope for them.

Indeed, the selection of Professor Opoku-Agyemang as our Running Mate is a demonstration of the many bold and progressive changes the next NDC Administration, that I will lead, will embark upon.

The involvement of women in the decision-making process will not end at the level of Vice President. We will work towards the attainment of a minimum of 30% of all appointments going to women.

We have an opportunity in this election, as Ghanaians, to fully give meaning to gender equality and also to have a highly educated and disciplined woman placed in a critical position to influence policy and shape the nation's destiny.

We will implement a set of robust health policies and plans aimed at aggressively tackling and reducing maternal mortality by half from the current 319 per 100,000 live births.

We shall ensure female socio-economic empowerment, enact the Spousal Rights Law, establish exclusive and secured shelters for abused women and children, and provide opportunities for all.

Ladies and gentlemen, as a Social Democratic Party, we seek to harness the best qualities in all our people to transform the destiny of our nation.

In that direction, and as the fulcrum around which our Health Policy will evolve, we will before the end of 2021, introduce and begin the implementation of a Free Primary Health Care Plan.

This will make the provision of primary health care to all Ghanaians, young and elderly, FREE. Our free health care plan will guarantee a healthy people and provide the healthy workforce needed to accelerate our development.

My brothers and sisters, the 2020 election will be a referendum on the four years of Nana Akufo-Addo's presidency  four years of nepotism, corruption, stagnation, deliberate abandoning of badly needed social infrastructure, dehumanisation, disenfranchising Ghanaians, stripping Ghanaians of their citizenship, deliberate collapse of indigenous Ghanaian businesses, massive job losses and the attendant socio-economic hardship.

This will be a referendum on the term of a president who has no real solutions for Ghana, a president, hell-bent on doing whatever it takes to stay in power  including, against sound advice, replacing the very voters register, which brought him into office.

My heart goes out to the many who have been affected by this Government's unjustifiable collapse of Ghanaian-owned financial institutions.

It is heart-wrenching to hear Government officials justify the huge amounts it is spending to manage the impact of the collapse, now put at 21 billion Ghana Cedis.

I weep for the many who have lost their jobs, the many who have lost their businesses, the many who have lost their livelihood among others.

I pledge on behalf of the NDC that we shall pay within one year all who have funds locked up with the collapsed financial institutions. Within one year. I promise!

We shall not put up any long-term payment plans that will further worsen the living conditions of the victims.

As has been introduced in other economies, the next NDC Administration will establish a Financial Services Authority that will be responsible for ensuring that consumer financial markets work for consumers, providers and the economy as a whole.

The Authority will oversee all financial products and services that are offered to consumers, and will effectively and efficiently prevent and stop the challenges that have confronted customers of Menzgold, DKM among others.

We will restore Ghanaian indigenous investment in the banking and financial sector through a tiered banking structure in order to restore viable credit sources for Ghanaian SMEs. We will make amends for those whose businesses were collapsed due to political victimization.

We will send all contractors with valid contracts who have been sitting at home for 4 years without being paid for legitimate work done for the government back to site.

We will make immediate arrangements to pay them their hard-earned monies deliberately withheld by the Nana Addo administration due to politics.

Ladies and gentlemen, weak infrastructure does not propel growth and improvements in the quality of lives of a people.

This is precisely why, during my Presidency, I took aggressive steps to develop and consolidate our healthcare infrastructure, our educational infrastructure, our transport infrastructure and our digital infrastructure.

This is how to build a resilient nation.

Without creating and consolidating a developed infrastructure, no nation can resist global shocks. Just imagine for a second, how Ghana would have been without the University of Ghana Medical Centre and the Ga East District Hospital as the number of COVID-19 cases keep rising.

The speed of building and consolidating our infrastructure has slowed down because the current government is largely ignoring the infrastructural buffers that build resilience in the face of misfortune.

The NDC believes in Ghana's future and will address the issues that affect you, each and every one of us.

We will build a peaceful, secure and strong economy that provides sustainable jobs through a transformed, industrialised and digital economy.

We will reinforce the independence of state institutions such as the Electoral Commission, Auditor General's Department, EOCO and CHRAJ.

Single sourced procurement  sole sourcing  will be an exception not the rule.

In pursuance of social justice, I will vigorously push through a constitutional review that creates a fairer and just emoluments system and removes the distortions between Article 71 Office-holders and other public sector employees.

We will as part of an Integrity for Development action plan, launch Operation Sting. Operation Sting is an anti-corruption crusade, which under my watch will involve massive, far reaching and practical governmental reforms. It will be ruthless against all corrupt political appointees and public sector workers.

It will be a requirement for all who serve in my Government to publish their assets declaration and have the same audited by the Auditor General.

Of course, the elephantine-size government of 125 ministers we have been burdened with for four years will be reduced drastically. The savings made from emoluments of a reduced number of ministers and the privileges they enjoy will be channelled towards paying Assembly Members to perform the function of collecting accurate births and deaths information in their various electoral areas.

My brothers and sisters, tonight is for my Running Mate. I will leave the rest for my Policy Dialogue Sessions, and the launch of our Manifesto in August, during which we will discuss and debate the NDC's solutions and plans for our country.

Our plans include an aggressive job and entrepreneurial programme in the public and private sector; that will deliver a minimum 250,000 jobs every year. A total of 1,000,000 jobs across the country by the end of my term in office in 2024. We will put Ghanaians to work to earn a decent living.

Congratulations Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang  the first female Vice-Chancellor of a Public University in Ghana  on your selection and acceptance as our party's Running Mate. Together, we have made the best choice for Ghana!

You have my fullest support, the support of the NDC and the support of millions of Ghanaians, including young people whom you have either directly trained in your long career as an educationist of repute or those you have inspired by your stellar achievements.

We cannot fail them!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang. By the Grace of God, and the will of the Ghanaian people, the next Vice President of the Republic of Ghana.

Thank you.
There is no clear legal basis for rules which see pandemic unemployment payment sanctioned if they travel abroad, according to a legal rights organisation.

Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC) said that there is "no clear legal basis" to sanction Covid-19 payment recipients.

Under the new rule, the payment is "not payable for any period spent outside of Ireland". The payment is also cut off for recipients, who have to reapply on return to Ireland.

"You will also not be paid for the 14 days that you are required to self-isolate when you return from abroad," the Government's website states.

In a letter viewed by Independent.ie, Chief Executive of legal rights organisation FLAC, Eilis Barry, wrote to the Minister for Social Protection, Community, Rural Development and the Islands, Heather Humphries, to outline that there is no clear legal basis to sanction Covid Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) claimants holidaying abroad.

In recent days, FLAC have been contacted by a number of individuals and NGOs concerning the reported sanctioning of people in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP), who took holidays abroad," Ms Barry said.

"Recipients of PUP the Covid Payment had their supports cut after travelling abroad based on a Departmental Circular which purports to allow the suspension of certain social welfare payments in circumstances where a claimant leaves the state.

Our legal team lead by FLACs Managing Solicitor, Sinead Lucey has examined the relevant legislative provisions, and our assessment of the Departments policy, based on the Circular, is that while legislation may allow for this suspension in relation to Jobseekers Benefit, it does not go so far as to allow the Department sweeping powers to suspend or close other payments that people may receive - including Covid PUP."

According to FLAC, the primary legislation in relation to Jobseekers Allowance and Supplementary Welfare Allowance, allows claimants to remain in payment provided that they remain normally resident in the State but it does not empower a Minister to make further regulations in relation to eligibility for the payment in circumstances where claimants are absent from the State.

Any decision on behalf of the Department to suspend those payments where claimants, who are residents of Ireland, take holidays abroad would be open to challenge on this basis," Sinead Lucey added.

FLAC said that the Departments policy also implies that those who are advised to self-isolate following their return from travel abroad are not entitled to payments where there is an obligation to be available for work during the advisory self-isolation period.

"Firstly, no such obligation exists in the context of Supplementary Welfare Allowance and it is questionable whether such an obligation exists in relation to the Covid PUP," they said.

"Secondly, it is doubtful that all social welfare claimants who follow the advice to self-isolate for a period can be automatically deemed to be unavailable for work or to be not genuinely seeking work.

FLAC are requesting that the Minister withdraw Circular 35/20, immediately suspend this policy and ensure that claimants are not sanctioned financially in respect of holidays outside of the State. Further, any claimant who has been penalised by this rule, must have their claim reinstated and backdated as a matter of urgency.
Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (KOSDAQ 046890), a leading global compound semiconductor, announced that its SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs have been adopted by KOIZUMI Lighting Technology Corp. ("Koizumi"), a traditional Japanese lighting company, for use in lights for children's rooms and living rooms. SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs are optimized to support healthy circadian rhythms based on natural sunlight, under which all animals and plants on the earth have evolved over 3.9 billion years.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200727005877/en/

Fig. 1. SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs adopted by Koizumi for children's room lighting (Photo: Business Wire)

In designing their children's room lighting systems, Koizumi has adopted the SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs, which have been recognized as an innovative technology that produces light that closely matches the spectrum of natural sunlight by a total of ten global lighting awards held in Korea, Europe, China, and the US. The SunLike Series LEDs have three beneficial effects in contrast to conventional LEDs: Eye Better protection from myopia in children; Study Better support for students' learning and concentration; and Sleep Better improvement in sleep quality.

Based on the results of a comprehensive sleep study conducted by Professor Christian Cajochen and his colleagues at the University of Basel in Switzerland, LED light sources with the same measured intensity and correlated color temperature (CCT), but different spectral output, can have different effects on human behavior and physiology. The study, published in the Journal of Lighting Research Technology on March 24, 2019, found "evidence that daylight [natural spectrum] LED solution has beneficial effects on visual comfort, daytime alertness, mood, and sleep intensity in healthy volunteers."

According to the results of a study done by the Bio-Information Laboratory of Seoul National University Hospital in July of 2018, SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs have been shown to reduce eye discomfort and improve sleep patterns.

In addition, Michael W. Young, Jeffrey C. Hall, and Michael Rosbash, the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2017, discovered the molecular mechanism of circadian rhythm, which governs biological clock based on a 24-hour cycle that regulates sleep, eating behavior, and metabolism.

Improved sleep has recently become more important in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Various studies show that high sleep quality can boost immunity, enhancing the ability to resist a particular infection or toxin.

"Our SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs are an advanced technology that has achieved the highest level of eye safety certification from the International Commission on Illumination as a safe light source with no photo-biological risks. In particular, it helps improve eye comfort and concentration for children," said a representative at Seoul Semiconductor.

Introduced in June 2017, the SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs are an advanced light source that combines the latest optical and compound semiconductor technology of Seoul Semiconductor with Toshiba Materials' TRI-R technology. TRI-R, supported by Toshiba Materials, finds in the definition "The light closest to the sun for human well-being" as its original concept. The sunlight spectrum is developed by the same company and can be reproduced by a white LED light source technology. TRI-R is a registered trademark by the Toshiba Materials Co., LTD.

SunLike Recognitions

Date Awards Location 1 2018 Mar. Product of the Year Award 2018 from Elektronik Magazine EU 2 Apr. The Top 10 MUST SEE Products at 2018 Edison Award US 3 Aug. Industry Recognition in 2018 IES Progress Report US 4 Sep. Best Application Technology at LpS Award 2018 EU 5 Oct. Top 15 Engineering Technology by the National Academy of Engineering of Korea KR 6 Nov. The Most Creative LED Technology Award in OFweek China LED Lighting Awards 2018 CN 7 Nov. 2019 "Top 10 Product" for Sustainable Construction from BuildingGreen US 8 Nov. Enabling Technology of the Year at Lux Award 2018 EU 9 2019 May A Winner of the Lighting Solution at German Innovation Award 2019 EU 10 Jun. Korean President's Award at International LED EXPO 2019 KR

About Seoul Semiconductor

Seoul Semiconductor develops and commercializes LEDs for automotive, general illumination, specialty lighting, and backlighting markets. As the second-largest LED manufacturer globally excluding the captive market, Seoul Semiconductor holds more than 10,000 patents, offers a wide range of technologies, and mass produces innovative LED products such as SunLike delivering the world's best light quality in a next-generation LED enabling human-centric lighting optimized for circadian rhythms; WICOP a simpler structured package-free LED which provides market leading color uniformity and cost savings at the fixture level, providing high lumen density and design flexibility; NanoDriver Series the world's smallest 24W DC LED drivers; Acrich, the world's first high-voltage AC-driven LED technology developed in 2005, including all AC LED-related technologies from chip to module and circuit fabrication, and nPola, a new LED product based on GaN-substrate technology that achieves more than ten times the output of conventional LEDs. UCD constitutes a high color gamut display which delivers more than 90% NTSC. For more information, please visit www.seoulsemicon.com/en.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200727005877/en/

Contacts:

Seoul Semiconductor Inc.

North America

Andrew Smith

Tel: +1 (901) 831-6614

Email: andrew.smith@seoulsemicon.com

Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

Jeonghee Kim

Tel: +82-70-4391-8311

Email: jeonghee.kim@seoulsemicon.com
The security agencies in Bangladesh have received an intelligence input that terror outfit neo-JMB, followers of the ISIS ideology, are planning to carry out terror attacks on the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha. The terror attacks are allegedly schemed to mark the announcement of a new wing of ISISBengal Ulayat in Bangladesh.

The police headquarters have received inputs that this new wing of ISIS could target police establishments, government establishments, and foreign missions or embassies in the country ahead of Eid-al-Adha scheduled to be held on August 1, 2020.

Following the input, several security units such as the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC), Anti-Terrorism Unit and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has been put on highest alert and instructed to take necessary actions to prevent subversive activities planned by the terrorists.

The declaration of a new wing of a terror outfit is generally accompanied by subversive activities, the instructions in a letter issued by Police Headquarters said while citing the data on terror activities at home and abroad.

Acting on the input and the past data, Bangladesh police have stepped up the measures to avert any untoward terror attack on its soil.

All units have been asked to increase surveillance of extremists and their organisations, maintain personal security for all police, not leave any police vehicle abandoned or empty, ensure security and identity while entering police buildings, stepping up surveillance of school-college-university students. It has also instructed the police units to intensify the searches at the check posts, search bags and bodies in case of suspicion and carry out block raids in suspected areas.

History reveals heightened activity from terrorists around August

Citing previous terror activities, the PHQ Additional Deputy Inspector General (intelligence and special affairs) Haider Ali Khan told Dhaka Tribune that terrorists have been particularly active in the month of August in the past.

Last year in September, a bomb exploded at an Awami League office in Khulna city. Before that, a people, including a female police officer, were injured in a bomb explosion near a police pickup in Dhakas Malibagh intersection on May 26. The police had then claimed that all the attacks were carried out by Neo JMB.

Last week, there was a bomb explosion in the capitals Purana Paltan area around 8:45 pm. There was no casualty in the incident. However, the police have launched an investigation to determine who were the miscreants who planted the bomb and their affiliation with any terror outfit.

JMBs long-standing goal is to convert Bangladesh into an Islamic caliphate like ISIS

Neo-JMB is an ultra-radical offshoot of the proscribed terror outfit Jamaat ul Mujahideen Bangladesh and followers of the ISIS ideology. JMB has a slated goal of supplanting the democratic government in Bangladesh with the Islamic state based on Sharia law. The plan to carry out targeted attacks, assassinations, bombing and other forms of attacks come on the heels of Bangladesh security agencies intensified clampdown against the terror activities in the country.

The Shaikh Hasina-led Bangladesh government has been particularly unsparing against the JMB, forcing many of its terrorists to flee Bangladesh through its porous borders with India. In the last few months, a bevvy of JMB terrorists has been nabbed in India and Bangladesh, chipping away at the outfits terror network in the two countries. With the announcement of a new wing of ISIS, the JMB possibly hopes to revitalise and mobilise its disillusioned and demoralised cadres towards its long-standing goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate in Bangladesh.
Our society is in crisis: even before the Covid-19 pandemic, racism was already unleashed around the world, rising seas were already flooding communities, pollution was choking cities, the AI revolution was creating major dislocations as jobs are replaced with virtual robots, progress toward gender equality has been stagnating or reversing.

All the while, society is putting larger demands on companies to be at the forefront of creating solutions. Black Lives Matter protests are causing companies to rename brands and review their inclusion strategies; clicktivists are creating social media storms about company missteps; consumers are boycotting irresponsible firms; the famous Millennial workers walk away from companies that dont behave responsibly. Even investors are demanding adherence to ESG (environmental, social and governance) standards.

As Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, wrote in a recent Letter to CEOs: We  see many governments failing to prepare for the future, on issues ranging from retirement and infrastructure to automation and worker retraining. As a result, society increasingly is turning to the private sector and asking that companies respond to broader societal challenges. Indeed, the public expectations of your company have never been greater. Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose. According to the latest Edelman Trust Barometer, fully 92% of people think that CEOs speak out on these issues, but many think todays leaders dont do enough.

TIME FOR B-SCHOOLS TO STEP UP

Now, some corporate executives are beginning to step up. The Business Roundtable has now repudiated the primacy of the shareholder and says that corporate leaders should deliver value to all stakeholders.

So far, though, business schools  the place where many future leaders are trained  are failing to respond meaningfully. Some schools are revamping their ethics courses or adding a social entrepreneurship track in their program. But we would be hard-pressed to find any school really reinventing itself to face up to the social crises and the appropriately increased expectations of leaders.

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Potential students are recognizing this gap. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, more than 50% of global full-time MBA programs report declines in application volumes. Fearful of the loss of students, many schools are launching alternative, shorter and more narrowly skills-based programs such as Masters in Management Analytics or Masters of Finance. These only exacerbate the problem, as the time devoted to leadership, ethics, or complex social problem-solving is even smaller than in a traditional MBA program.

Why so slow? Well, its creative destruction all over again. Incentives, processes, and mindsets are simply not aligned with change. To be fair, the governance process in universities makes it nearly impossible to drive radical change: even a small curriculum reform requires a multi-year process of horse-trading among various departments, a faculty-wide vote, and university-level approval. Ive witnessed many of these attempts, and they all come down to embarrassingly little change in the end.

FEAR OF CHANGE AT THE TOP

Business schools are also constrained by ranking systems that rest on outdated notions of what impact should be. Those ranking systems entrench a small number of schools at the top, and these elite schools are the most likely to engage in window dressing for fear of upsetting their status by engaging in transformational change.

As a result, business schools are mainly rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. This means that such programs will become increasingly less salient  but it also means that we as educators are failing society just when society needs us most to come up with innovative responses to global crises.

On the other hand, given the overnight shift from in-person to online education at the start of the pandemic, we know that under certain circumstances, real change is possible.

Most leaders, and most business schools, fail to recognize that every single business decision has trade-offs across stakeholders embedded in it. We teach business students as if accounting decisions are accounting decisions, strategy decisions are strategy decisions, and finance decisions are finance decisions. But this mindset neglects the fact that selling a T-shirt for $15 means that workers in Bangladesh may be operating in underpaid or unsafe conditions; that creating algorithms to streamline medical decision-making may penalize underserved Black, Latinx, and indigenous communities; that the convenience of bottled water means that whales are dying from ingesting plastic; that AI developed for facial recognition may be used by police to suppress democratic freedoms; that next-day delivery increases pollution, fuel use, and city congestion.

B-SCHOOLS ONLY PREPARED FOR INCREMENTAL FIXES

So whats the solution? In my own experiments, I have used my class to dwell in these trade-offs: looking at them face-on rather than compartmentalizing them, exploring innovative remedies, experiencing the discomfort of what might appear to be irreconcilable tensions. I work to co-create solutions with my students where the traditional MBA subjects such as strategy, operations, finance, accounting, marketing or HR are tools they pick up when they need them in their efforts. It is emotional work. Some students struggle because they want more structure. But, I tell them that the real world wont give them more structure than my classroom. In fact, it will give them less. Most students describe it as an emotional roller coaster, one that transforms how they think about who they want to be as leaders.

Today, as the Black Lives Matter movement raises consciousness about racial discrimination globally, faculty in MBA programs are not well-equipped to rectify racial imbalances or discuss race in the classroom.

Yet students crave this kind of learning. Society demands it. Our business leaders need it. Unfortunately, faculty members are generally unprepared to have these kinds of conversations because they have worked in system that doesnt reward them for thinking beyond their subject area. And business schools have not yet mobilized their resources to move beyond incremental fixes that will surely be inadequate to the challenges we face.

Sarah Kaplan is distinguished professor and director of the Institute for Gender and the Economy at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. She is the author of

The 360 Corporation: From Stakeholder Trade-offs to Transformation, which appeared in 2019.

The post Deck Chairs On The Titanic: The Impoverished B-School Response To A Changing World appeared first on Poets&Quants.
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More than a few of us can say weve relied on cocktails as we hunkered down during the pandemic lockdown.

Luke and Marci Hidalgo get it. The couple own Hambone, a haven of contemporary Southern comfort food in Old Mandeville.

When the governor ordered restaurants to shut down for takeout only, we pivoted to the point our backs hurt, Marci Hidalgo says.

Hambone's new approach to serving their customers was two-fold: package family meals to go five nights a week and offer batched seasonal cocktails in half-gallon Mason jars to take home.

Global South serves vegan dishes at Sneaky Pickle during July Aiji Daste and Indigo Soul Martin are proud to wear their politics on their plates.

Family meals have been popular with their core customer base  busy younger families with kids. Offered for pick-up between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, the menu showcases chef Luke Hidalgos penchant for well-executed, crowd-pleasing dishes, with nothing too far off the culinary rails.

Portioned to feed four to six, with leftovers, a typical week might include chicken and dumplings, but in this case the dumplings are cheddar gougeres topped with smothered chicken and served with charred broccoli and English peas. Each meal also comes with a family-sized salad. Another special is home-style lasagna with an upgrade of pork and Creole tomato ragout and fresh mozzarella, ricotta and shaved pecorino cheeses. For a bit of Southern comfort, fried pork chops are served with white beans studded with chunks of ham, accompanied by local popcorn rice and cornbread. Most meals fall between $36 and $42.

Regulars also can get their fix of a la carte menu favorites, including the Double Royale with cheese burger served on a Hawaiian roll with American cheese, bread-and-butter pickles, special sauce and potatoes. Hidalgos gumbo has a dark roux with shrimp, ham hocks and collards topped with a scoop of creamy potato salad. The restaurant has plenty of outdoor seating, along with a newly added ping pong table.

Queen Trini Lisa serves Trinidadian food at Portside Lounge Of all the island-kissed home-style food Lisa Queen Trini Nelson makes  now at the kitchen of the reopened Portside Lounge  shes especial

Besides offering family meals to go, Luke Hidalgo got creative with Mason jar batch cocktails. He created jarred versions of blood orange hurricanes, blueberry mojitos and other concoctions, generally for $42 to $48 for a half-gallon. They sold so well the Hidalgos couldnt keep jars in stock.

We started offering $2 off when folks brought back the jars, which helped a little bit, Marci Hidalgo says.

The cocktail jars also are available at the restaurants inside and outdoor tables.

The success of the cocktails and the option for family meals made quarantine easier for their customers, Marci Hidalgo says. The restaurant has been able to keep its full staff during the pandemic, though Marci Hidalgo manages it remotely from home.

Its the latest adjustment for the couple. Luke Hidalgo was thriving professionally as executive sous chef at Commanders Palace five years ago and had no intention of leaving. But after their home was burglarized at Christmastime, they moved to the Northshore. He tried to commute to New Orleans but it wasnt sustainable, and he worked for a while at Palmettos on the Bayou in Slidell.

The Hidalgos opened Hambone in January 2018. The homespun eatery occupies a 1940s-vintage red-roofed cottage three blocks from their home. The place was a resounding success, a small-town eatery powered by a creative chef with the know-how and chops to make the place special.

We opened this restaurant to make our life what we wanted it to be, the chef says.

The abbreviated hours have had an unexpected benefit, allowing the Hidalgos and their 5-year-old son to enjoy their own family meals together at home  a rarity for many chefs. I guess weve tried to use this time to take a breath and step back, make some adjustments, Marci Hidalgo says.

Hambone

544 Girod St., Mandeville, (985) 778-0531

Dine-in: lunch Tue.-Sat., dinner Fri.-Sat.

Takeout: lunch Tue.-Sun., dinner Tue.-Sat.

Dine-in and outdoor seating available
An extensive international study led by Prof. Illana Gozes of Tel Aviv University's Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry found deposits of the tau protein typically found in Alzheimer's patients in tissues taken from the postmortem brain of a 7-year-old autistic child.

The child suffered from the ADNP syndrome, a mutation that causes a deficiency/malfunctioning of the ADNP protein essential for brain development. In light of these findings, the researchers tested an experimental drug called NAP, originally developed for Alzheimer's disease, on nerve cells in a model of ADNP syndrome with the mutation that induced Alzheimer's-like symptoms. The experiment was a success, with the damaged nerve-like cells returning to normal function.

The study was conducted in close collaboration with researchers from TAU's Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Sheba Medical Center, and a variety of research institutions across Europe, including the biotechnology institute BIOCEV in the Czech Republic, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, the University of Antwerp in Belgium, and the University Hospital Centre in Zagreb, Croatia. The study was published on July 13 in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

Prof. Gozes explains that the current study is based on tissues taken from the brain of a 7-year-old boy with ADNP syndrome who died in Croatia. "When we compared the postmortem ADNP syndrome brain tissues to tissue from the brain of a young person without ADNP syndrome, we found deposits of the tau protein in the ADNP child, a pathology that characterizes Alzheimer's disease," Prof. Gozes says.

The researchers then "treated" damaged nerve-like cells carrying an ADNP mutation similar to the deceased child's mutation with a drug candidate called NAP. NAP was developed in Prof. Gozes's laboratory and was originally intended to be used to help treat Alzheimer's disease. "NAP is actually a short active fragment of the normal ADNP protein," says Prof. Gozes. "When we added NAP to the nerve cells carrying an ADNP mutation, the tau protein bound to the nerve cell skeleton properly, and the cells returned to normal function.

The fact that NAP treatment has been successful in restoring the normal function of neuronal-like cell models with impaired ADNP raises hopes that it may be used as a remedy for ADNP syndrome and its severe implications, including autism. Moreover, because other genetic disorders related to autism are characterized by tau pathologies in the brain, we hope that those suffering from these syndromes will also be able to benefit from NAP treatment in the future." Prof. Illana Gozes, Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Tel Aviv University

NAP (also called CP201) has been classified as an "orphan drug" by the US Food and Drug Administration and is currently in the preparatory stages of a clinical trial in children with ADNP syndrome through the company Coronis Neurosciences.

In another phase of the study, the researchers sought to broaden their understanding of the effects of the mutation that causes ADNP syndrome. To do this, they extracted the genetic material mRNA (messenger RNA) from the tissues of the deceased child and performed an expression analysis of about 40 proteins in the same child, encoded by the mRNA. Full genetic sequencing was also performed to determine protein expression in white blood cells taken from three other children with ADNP syndrome.

An in-depth study was carried out on all of the data obtained in the genetic sequencing using advanced bioinformatics computational tools. The data were compared to online databases of protein expression data from healthy individuals, revealing a variety of characteristics that were common to the children with the syndrome but very different from the normal appearance of these proteins.

Prof. Gozes concludes that "the significance of these findings is that the mutation that causes ADNP syndrome damages a wide range of essential proteins, some of which bind to the tau protein, among other things, and impair its function as well. This creates various pathological effects in the brains and other tissues of children with ADNP syndrome, one of which is the formation of tau deposits, known to be a characteristic of Alzheimer's disease.

"The vast and in-depth knowledge we have accumulated through the present study opens the door to further extensive and diverse research. We hope and believe that we will ultimately reach the goal of developing a drug or drugs that will help children with autism resulting from genetic mutations."
After a long wait and several changes in the release date, it has now been officially announced that Christopher Nolans highly anticipated film, Tenet will open in theatres on August 26 and it will release in over 70 countries around the world. The film will be released in selective cities in the USA, the next week, on September 3 for the Labour Day Weekend. This might be a welcoming news for the worldwide theatre owners who are waiting for the business to resume like before. Majority of the theatres in USA have been shut and we can hope them to reopen in another month for Tenet.

However, the situation still looks unclear as far as the Indian market is concerned, as we do not know when the theatres in India will reopen. Though there have been reports saying that the Government might allow the theatres to reopen from the first week of August, an official announcement is awaited. If the theatres do not reopen for Tenets release, the Indian audience will have to wait for the right time. Earlier, the makers of Tenet waited for the USA and Indian markets to reopen for the fact that they are some of the major sources of revenue.

However, with an uncertainty towards the situation, it looks like the makers have decided to go forward with the release. Let us hope that the Indian theatres are allowed to reopen before the release of Tenet. Delayed release in Indian theatres will also pave way for piracy and it is indeed going to be a challenging task ahead for the team of Tenet. The ardent fans of Christopher Nolan and people who would want the theatrical viewing experience will wait for the theatres to reopen, but a section of people might opt for pirated download. Let us keep our fingers crossed and wait for the developments to unfold in the coming days.

Below is the release plan of Tenet in various countries around the world. Check Out:

AUGUST 26, WEDNESDAY - Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

AUGUST 27, THURSDAY - Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Israel, Lebanon, Malaysia, Middle East, New Zealand, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates

AUGUST 28, FRIDAY - East Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Vietnam

SEPTEMBER 3, THURSDAY - United States, Kuwait and Qatar

SEPTEMBER 10, THURSDAY - Azerbaijan, CIS Others, Kazakhstan, Russia

SEPTEMBER 17, THURSDAY - Cyprus

SEPTEMBER 18, FRIDAY - Japan

YET TO BE ANNOUNCED - India, China, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela.
An 18-year-old Philadelphia man is facing charges that include first-degree murder after authorities say he stabbed his ex-girlfriend more than 30 times at a train station in Montgomery County.

Gilbert Newton III was arrested in connection with the Monday-morning stabbing death of 18-year-old Morgan Darlyn McCaffery, of Abington Township, according to the Montgomery County District Attorneys Office.

Authorities say Abington Township police were called to the Meadowbrook Train Station around 8:15 a.m. Monday and found McCaffery lying in the parking lot next to her running car. She was covered in blood with apparent stab and cut wounds to her neck and stomach.

Witnesses say they saw a white Jeep driving away from the scene.

According to the DAs office, the investigation soon revealed McCaffery had broken off a yearlong relationship with Newton a month prior and was going to meet Newton at the train station that morning to discuss their relationship.

Then around 10 a.m., Philadelphia police got a 911 call that sent them to Newtons home in the city, where they found him sitting on a couch, wearing bloody clothing, investigators say, adding a white Jeep Patriot was parked on the street in front of his home.

An autopsy revealed McCaffery died from more than 30 slash and stab wounds, investigators say.

A young woman with her whole life ahead of her, just graduated from high school, was brutally stabbed to death, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said in a press release. This murder is a tragedy for her family, her friends and everyone who loved her. Sadly, we are seeing relationship violence and domestic violence far too often during this pandemic.

Newton has been charged with first-degree murder, third-degree murder and possessing an instrument of crime. He is set for a preliminary hearing Aug. 4.

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School closures in Malawi due to the coronavirus pandemic have led to an alarming increase in child marriages and early pregnancies, child rights activists and government officials warned on Monday.

The Malawian government announced the closure of all schools on March 20, even before a single coronavirus case had been reported in the landlocked country.

However, over the past four months, infections have surged with a total of 3,664 cases registered so far, including 99 deaths.

Civil Society Coalition on Education director Benedicto Kondowe told AFP that the coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally changed the course of young women's lives.

He pointed out that before the pandemic struck, Malawi already had one of the highest rates of child marriages in the world.

But now "COVID-19 has led to a surge in underage unions", Kondowe said.

"Ever since schools closed to help combat the spread of COVID-19, remote areas have reported an increase in child marriages," he said.

Kondowe's organisation has reported 5,000 cases of teenage pregnancies in the southern Phalombe district, while over 500 girls have entered into early marriages since the onset of the pandemic.

"What the figures show is that girls lack the needed protection as they get plunged into the margin of life," Kondowe said, adding that increases in gender-based violence, exploitation and other forms of abuse against adolescent girls had also been noted.

In an interview with local radio station Capital Radio, the district education officer for the southern town of Nsanje, Gleston Alindiamawo, said Monday that over 300 girls in the district were nursing unwanted pregnancies since schools closed.

Alindiamawo blamed parents and guardians for failing to provide proper guidance to their children during the period in which they have been out of school.

In the eastern district of Mangochi, meanwhile, at least 7,274 teenage girls have become pregnant from January to June this year.

The figure is 1,039 more compared with those who became pregnant during the same period last year, the district's youth health services coordinator Peter Malipa said.

That figure included 166 girls aged between 10 to 14 years old.

Habiba Osman, a United Nations Women specialist for the elimination of violence against women and girls, told AFP that the long period of idleness as a result of coronavirus restrictions was resulting in pregnancies and child marriages across Malawi.

Osman called on community leaders to monitor and assist young people from engaging in "risky behaviours".
David Isaac, who is set to step down as chairman of the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission next week, made the claim as he called for a coherent race strategy to be implemented.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Isaac said he does not believe the issue has been made a top priority.

There are lots of people, particularly of colour, who need to be supported, and for that reason a coherent race strategy is a top priority and I call upon the Government to act urgently, he said.

I do believe that they are dragging their feet. They seek to understand it, theyre clearly talking to lots of people with lived experience and thats important, but are they taking action and is this a top priority? I dont believe so.

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Mr Isaac also said he believes that further reviews are not the answer, with several inquiries into racial inequality, including the Lammy Review, having been published with a series of recommendations since 2017.

The time for more recommendations, in my view, is over. We know what needs to be done. Let's get on with it

There are lots of quick wins  implementing the ethnicity pay gap, for example  so reporting on that, I believe, would shine a light on some of the disparities that we see in relation to income.

Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch told BBC Radio 4s Today programme that Mr Isaac had never raised his concerns with her and insisted that tackling racism is a top priority.

Its just simply not true that the Government is dragging its heels on this issue and I absolutely refute that, she said.

Ms Badenoch also said the Government has implemented 16 of the Lammy Reviews recommendations.

She added: And yet people act as if none of this work is happening.
JPMorgan Chase is ditching plastic for some of its credit cards.

The Wall Street giant's commercial cards team is partnering with Bay Area start-up Marqeta to launch digital-only credit cards. The new function will allow JPMorgan corporate cards to work in mobile wallets such as Apple Pay or Samsung Pay immediately  without having to wait for a physical version in the mail.

"This is another way of getting virtual company cards into the hands of those who need them very quickly," John Skinner, head of commercial cards at JPMorgan, told CNBC in a phone interview. "We know there's a need for this product  what Covid has taught us is that there's more use cases for this than we imagined."

This type of immediate, "virtual" card has historically been used for gig-economy, or contract workers who may need to pay expenses but wouldn't qualify for a corporate card. The digital version can also put certain spending parameters and per Diem totals, as well as restrictions on where an employee can spend.

But as many Americans work from home during the pandemic, Skinner said it might also help those who don't have access to their offices, or primary address where a corporate card might normally arrive. Plus, the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital payments and contactless payments, upping the appeal for digital cards.

Skinner said the feature will be available in early 2021, and only for commercial cards. He did not say if the bank has plans to expand to its Chase, consumer side.

Marqeta provides the same technology for DoorDash and Instacart, which issue virtual cards to delivery workers to pay for groceries or takeout orders in person. Square also uses Marqeta for a virtual and physical debit card launched through Square Cash, and for a plastic business debit card it unveiled in January 2019.

JPMorgan has a history of partnering with, and buying up fintech companies. It acquired Silicon Valley-based start-up WePay in December 2017. In this case, Marqeta chief revenue officer Omri Dahan said it would have taken years for the Wall Street giant to build a similar product in-house.

"These big financial institutions are tied to the legacy systems that they've built on top of for years, it's hard for them to access modern technology," Dahan told CNBC. "We are able to give them access to that, without a massive lift on their part."

Marqeta makes money in a similar way to incumbents Mastercard and Visa  by taking a percentage cut of every transaction from customers, and some software fees. The company would not comment on the financial details of the JPMorgan agreement.

Marqeta recently raised $150 million from an undisclosed investor in May, doubling its valuation to $4.3 billion in just a few months. Other high-profile backers include Goldman Sachs, Visa Ventures, and PayPal alumni Max Levchin, according to PitchBook. The card company is reportedly seeking to hire investment bankers to advise on an IPO, Reuters reported earlier in July. A spokesperson for Marqeta declined to comment on plans to go public.
"Over this last year we have been working with the Megalabs team to plan this entrance into the Latin America markets," said Jay Hartenbach, CEO of Medterra. "Our success to date has always been centered around strategic partners and we believe Megalabs is exactly the team we need to be successful in these countries. To bring high-quality CBD to those that need it has been our singular goal since Medterra's inception and this marks a significant step in reaching that goal."

"With this agreement, Megalabs is strengthening its wide ranging portfolio and entering a new therapeutic field with CBD in areas like pain and anxiety," said Gianclaudio Broggi, CEO of Megalabs. "This cooperation unites Megalabs and Medterra in the pursuit of innovation, the quest for growth and the possibility of delivering to patients alternative treatment options," adds Broggi.

According to the agreement signed last June, Megalabs will have exclusive rights to commercialize Medterra products in Brasil, Mexico and Argentina.

"This is going to be good for everyone, especially for the people that will have more access to quality CBD," relayed Hartenbach. "We are always hopeful to be able to utilize our passion for this plant and its potential for the good of all who may need it."

About Megalabs

Megalabs is a leading, branded specialty, Latin American pharmaceutical company, committed to healthcare and strategically oriented towards innovation and affordable therapeutic solutions.

Currently present in 18 countries with more than 7,700 employees including a highly professional sales force of more than 3,000 sales representatives, it holds an excellent reputation within the medical communities of the continent. 24% of doctors in Latin America prescribe its products and 42,000 Megalabs products are prescribed every day by health professionals. Its continuous growth is supported by 17 owned production sites, a highly diversified portfolio with more than 1,800 products and 6 R&D centers where more than 80 projects are carried out per year. Megalabs is a future-oriented company holding a consolidated reputation as one of the key Pharma players in Latin America.

About Medterra

As a global leader in CBD products, Medterra has helped lead the CBD industry forward with its wide ranging distribution and its dedication to quality. By working with well-vetted professionals, physicians and innovators, Medterra has successfully maneuvered through the strict and evolving guidelines of the American Hemp industry to be considered one of the top brands in North America.

SOURCE Medterra CBD

Related Links

https://medterracbd.com


New Delhi, July 28 : Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday wrote to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, asserting that the law and order in the state is in shambles due to increase in the kidnapping incidents. She, in her letter, also raised the issue of alleged kidnapping of businessman Vikram Tyagi from Ghaziabad.

In the letter, priyanka Gandhi, who is also the party's general secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, said, "Kidnapping incidents are increasing in Uttar Pradesh. Law and order situation is deteriorating. Please set in place the law and order situation. The public is worried." The Congress leader sought the UP CM's attention to the issue of an alleged kidnapping incident in Ghaziabad, where a man named Vikram Tyagi is missing for the last one month.

"The family members doubt that he has been kidnapped. Despite repeated requests, no proper action has been taken by the police. Few days ago, a party member went to meet them. They are worried," she said.

Priyanka Gandhi also requested the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister to lend a helping hand to the family and also strictly direct the police officers to do the same.
Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong has said that a private Doctor was contracted to treat him when he tested positive for coronavirus.



Days after his 60th birthday celebrations, the vociferous MP contracted the virus and had to self-isolate for days.



In an interview with Asempa FM, Kennedy Agyapong expressed profound gratitude to Effutu MP, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin for footing the cost of his treatment.



Kennedy Agyapong revealed that his colleague MP recruited the service of a Doctor who gave him first-class treatment.



He mentioned GHC200,000 as the amount Afenyo-Markin spent on his treatment and thanked him for being a wonderful friend.



He (Afenyo-Markin) did very well. He is such a wonderful friend. He paid for my bills and brought the Doctor. He paid GHC 200,000 as my treatment bill. This virus, if you have cash you get care. The doctor saw me as his VIP so he treated me very well, he said.



Kennedy Agyapong urged Ghanaians to obey the preventive protocols since the virus is deadly.



Coronavirus is real. You dont have to joke with it because if you do, it will kill you, he said.



He is one of many high-profile Ghanaians who have contracted the virus. Yaw Osafo Maafo, Carlos Ahenkorah, Kwaku Agyeman Manu are some politicians who have fought and won the battle against the virus.



Unfortunately for Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie who was the CEO of the Forestry Commission, his time on earth was terminated by the coronavirus.

Source: Ghanaweb.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.

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Burma Myanmar's Western Commander Appointed Deputy Minister at Military-Controlled Border Affairs Ministry

Major General Phone Myat was appointed deputy home affairs minister. / Thiha Lwin / The Irrawaddy

Naypyitaw  Major General Phone Myat, the outgoing chief of Myanmar militarys Western Command which oversees Rakhine State, has been appointed deputy minister at the military-controlled Border Affairs Ministry.

President U Win Myint announced on Monday that Maj-Gen Phone Myat will replace Maj-Gen Than Htut as the deputy border affairs minister, and the latter will return to his military duties.

Under the military-drafted 2008 Constitution, ministers and deputy ministers of the home, defense and border affairs ministries are nominated by the commander-in-chief of the defense services and then appointed with presidential approval.

Western Command chief Maj-Gen Phone Myat was appointed deputy border affairs minister out of necessity. The deputy home affairs minister, Maj-Gen Aung Thu, was replaced for the same reason, said Myanmars military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun.

Maj-Gen Htin Latt Oo, the current commandant of the Defense Services Academy, will replace Maj-Gen Phone Myat as the Western Command chief.

In May 2019, Maj-Gen Phone Myat, who was then the chief of Northwestern Command swapped with Maj-Gen Soe Tint Naing, who was the Western Command chief overseeing clashes with the Arakan Army.

Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun said at the time the reshuffle was made in response to military requirements.

Maj-Gen Phone Myat, who is thought to be 56, served as the chief of the Northeastern Command in 2017 and Northwestern Command in 2019 before becoming the Western commander.

There were over 150 graduates from his intake at the Officer Training School. A fellow graduate was the current Northern Command chief, Maj-Gen Tay Zar Kyaw.

Of the three ministers and three deputy ministries at the ministries controlled by the military, only Defense Minister Lieutenant General Sein Win, Deputy Defense Minister Maj-Gen Myint Nwe and Border Affairs Minister Lt-Gen Ye Aung have not recently changed positions.

In May 2018, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Maj-Gen Aung Soe returned to military duties as commander of the Bureau of Special Operations, being promoted to lieutenant general.

He earlier served as 33 Brigade commander and the Northeastern Command chief. He became deputy home affairs minister in the U Thein Sein administration and held the position when the National League for Democracy took office in 2016.

Maj-Gen Aung Thu succeeded him as deputy home affairs minister. He returned to his military duties in May and Maj-Gen Soe Tint Naing replaced him.

Lt-Gen Kyaw Swe, who has close ties with State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, retired in early 2020 and joined the militarys auxiliary forces. He recently retired from the military.

Chief of Military Security Affairs Lt-Gen Soe Htut became the new home affairs minister in February.

The military recently made structural reforms, creating commanding officer positions in all the 14 commands, who all hold the rank of brigadier general. It said the positions would boost operational and reconnaissance capability.

Since the Revolutionary Council [of military dictator General Ne Win in the 1960s], there was the position of chief divisional commanding officer. The position was recreated to carry out this work, Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun told The Irrawaddy.

As part of the appointment, Yangon Region Security and Border Affairs Minister Colonel Aung Soe Moe was appointed as the commanding officer of Yangon Command.

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will appear before a parliamentary panel on Thursday to face questions in a probe relating to the grant of a nearly billion dollar contract to a charity with links to him and his family. Trudeau has suffered a double-digit dive in his popularity in the country since the controversy erupted.

Trudeau will face questioning from the finance committee of the House of Commons on Thursday for an hour. His Chief of Staff Katie Telford will be grilled after that. There is still no word from the Prime Ministers Office whether he will also appear before the House of Commons ethics committee which is also investigating the matter of the CA $912 million contract to WE Charity to administer a summer youth volunteer programme. The contract was cancelled after the uproar over Trudeaus personal connection to the organisation, with his mother, brother and wife being paid fees at various times. Canadas Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner is also looking into the issue.

Trudeau is already paying a political price for the contract even after he apologised for not recusing himself when the cabinet decided on the contract. According to a new survey from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute or ARI, Trudeaus approval ratings have dropped from 55 per cent in May to 44 per cent now, with more citizens holding a negative view of him.

More troublingly, half of Canadians (53%) say that their opinion of the Prime Minister has worsened in the past month or so, ARI noted in a release. Trudeaus approval numbers had rebounded due to the perception of effective handling of the health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, those gains have vanished courtesy the WE charity controversy.

ARI pointed out that a plurality of 43 per cent said the Trudeau government knowingly committed an unethical act, while another 37 per cent felt its decisions constitute a possibly criminal act that warrants investigation by police. Just 12 per cent were willing to accept it as a error in judgement. The countrys finance minister Bill Morneau is also the subject of probes related to his own links to the charity. He has already appeared before the finance committee.

However, this also does not mean that Canadians believe that the Liberal Party government will collapse as more revelations come. In fact, 56 per cent think the government will survive the scandal, though with Trudeaus image badly battered.
Why, asks an old friend, does the British media not care what happens here? Ian Acheson was writing in The Critic about the decision of Fermanagh and Omagh District council to debate a motion opposing the extradition of Liam Campbell to Lithuania.

Liam Campbell was convicted in a civil hearing of the murder of 29 people in the Omagh bomb of 1998.

Why would the council of an area that had been attacked in such a brutal way seek to spare the bomber from criminal prosecution in another country? It is not as if the other country is one with uncivilised standards of justice like China or the United States. Lithuania is a member of the European Union.

Ian's explanation for the media silence about this obvious hot story was that the media is generally wary of jeopardising the peace process and then being responsible for a return to violence.

I don't really think that is the explanation.

There have been many discussions down the years about British media neglect, even during the worst of the Troubles.

The IRA discovered that a small bomb in London made a greater stir than a big one at home. And some theorised that this was evidence of a colonial mindset, a sense that the Irish are of less value and interest than the English, intrinsically.

But actually, the media prioritise the local. A murder 10 miles away from a newspaper office is a bigger story than one 500 miles away.

This isn't always true. If a British minster was assassinated in a far-off country it would still be a big story. If another young black man is stabbed in London it might not even warrant a mention.

The frequency of events dulls interest in them and deaths in the Troubles quickly became as boring as street killings of young people, especially black young people because the media assumed that these things were just background noise to ordinary life.

Add to that an exasperated sense that nothing can be done to change the routine of killing and people prefer not to be reminded of the futility of their thinking about these things. A great story is one that is dramatic and new, that triggers a wave of commentary and analysis.

But once everything that can be said has been said and still nothing has changed, the story slides down the list of most interesting things and then disappears altogether, only to be revived when new circumstances make it topical.

So, we all heard about the Chinese incarceration of Uighur Muslims and were appalled. But the media can't feed us daily updates from the camps and we have no solutions to offer anyway, so the story dies.

We similarly ignore wars in the Middle East, including the ones we profit from.

Then the story changes. China becomes a cold war enemy so politicians throw what dirt they can and the Uighurs become a story again.

The question then is whether and how the oddities of life in Northern Ireland, such as would ordinarily make a Brit choke on a chop, can ever make it into the media there, and into animated public discourse.

The only way that will happen is with events here impacting on Westminster. Before the DUP made a confidence and supply agreement with the Tories the British media knew so little about the party that one paper depicted unionists as bog paddies slurping Guinness.

Even the peace process was of no particular interest in itself apart from the fact that it was linked to the fortunes of Tony Blair and the Labour Party.

The sky would have fallen if Nicola Sturgeon had broken her own social distancing rules to attend the funeral of a Scottish nationalist terrorist. She is the leader of a large party that sits in Westminster and she would have made that party vulnerable to criticism by such behaviour. So political enemies of the SNP would have waded in with most of the media behind them.

If a Labour council voted to oppose the extradition of an Islamist bomber to an EU country, the media in Britain would go berserk. And that is because there would be political advantage for other parties to gain from Labour having let itself down so badly.

Look at the fuss over anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

What if there was some sniff of racism among members of Sinn Fein or the DUP? Why bother, when nothing would change and no one else's political interests would be advanced or damaged by such an exposure? No one there really cared about homophobia in the DUP, or anyone's sectarianism for that matter.

Imagine if the Liverpool Fire Service had every year to hose down houses evacuated by residents of city estates to enable English nationalists to build higher and higher bonfires. The media outrage would be so great that no government would tolerate that, even if it had to send in the army.

England is accused of being 'exceptionalist', that is, imagining itself to be special in history and entitled to go its own way in a globalising world. But Northern Ireland is the biggest exception.

Even the kind of restraints that work on Donald Trump don't apply to our politicians. He could not attend a rally of the Ku Klux Klan to thank white supremacists for their support. But would that be worse than Michelle O'Neill honouring the IRA which was responsible for hundreds of murders? In the eyes of a lot of people it wouldn't.

Or others honouring the Parachute regiment which wilfully murdered people on the streets?

Or the UVF. Last week a member of a political party linked to the UVF objected to the presence of a legitimately elected Westminster MP at a protest in his own constituency. Why wasn't that on the front pages of the British dailies?

It would have been if it had happened in Hull or Carlisle. Of course, the MP, Sinn Fein's John Finucane wasn't in the House to complain about that abuse the way Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez unforgettably complained about harassment by a fellow Congressman.

There is another way of stating this problem. We are of no consequence at the centre where decisions are made and where politics is real. The media pays no attention to us because we are the poor relation, the irresponsible cousin who will never grow up. The London tabloids wouldn't even be interested in a sex scandal here if any of our dullards could rouse themselves to generating one.
By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijani writer Kamran Nazirli has been nominated for London Literature Award in the category Best Writer in 2015-2019.

Alexander Grichenko, chairman of the Moscow-based International Writers' Union, and Oleg Kolesnikov, chairman of the Union of Fiction and Cinematographers, signed the certificate, Azertag reported.

According to the accepted standards, all nominees for this award also receive the title of "Best Writer of the Year". Azerbaijani writer has been also accepted as a full member of the International Writers' Organization.

It should be noted that the organization has 293 full members, including writers from different countries.

Founded in 1954, the International Union of Writers, Poets, Playwrights and Journalists is one of the world's largest professional writers' organizations. Until 2010, the organization was headquartered in Paris. Today, its main office is in Moscow. The organization unites writers' unions from 40 countries and protects the social and professional rights of writers and journalists. The president of this international organization is the American writer Michael Swanwick.

Kamran Nazirli is a member of the Writers' Unions of Azerbaijan and Belarus. He is the author of short stories, novels and various publicist books. "The Man in a Coma," "The Devil's Light," "The Fourth Seal," "Between Natives," "The White House, "Fathers Don't Tell Tales," Society is a Mirror of Politics," are among his famous works.

He was also awarded a special prize by the US Embassy for his translation of Herman Melville's novel "Moby-Dick" into Azerbaijani.

The author's works on Karabakh - "Old Child", "Let me die", "Second breath", "Dark thieves", "War", "White shadow", "Memories of a dead child" and "Guardians of Lydia Ivanovna" - are included in the anthology, to be published next year in Moscow. These works will be translated into Russian, English and French.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
NEW HAVEN  A Nevada-based energy company says it wants to buy the defunct English Station power plant on Grand Avenue and return it to an electric generation station.

But Phoenix Energy has yet to contact the current owners owner of the power plant property. An executive with the privately-held company, Michael Dooley, made Phoenix Energys intentions known to officials with The United Illuminating Co. in an email over the weekend.

UI hasnt owned the plant since 2001. The Orange-based utility is, however, paying for an environmental cleanup of the property as part of a deal its corporate parent, Spanish energy giant Iberdrola, made with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection in 2015.

Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media

Phoenix Energy wants to restart English Station so that it can sell electric energy into to New York states power grid, he said. The company hopes to bid in an energy procurement process for which the deadline for interested power providers to provide price quotes is Sept. 14, according to Dooley.

Part of what makes English Station attractive to Phoenix Energy, he said, is that there already is a power plant there.

We can repurpose 70 to 80 percent of whats already there, Dooley said, But we dont need to get any special permits or any major approvals because its something the site has already been used for.

Mayor Justin Elicker called the English Station site an eyesore and said the completion of the clean up is significantly behind schedule.

The City of New Haven would welcome any sensible development here, Elicker said. The City has had no conversations about another power plant being located at the site. Were not interested in going back in time.

Most of the power plant site sits on eight acres of Ball Island, located in the middle of the Mill River. The owners of the site are two limited liability companies: Haven River Properties, a Queens, N.Y.-based company that owns the part of the site closest to Grand Avenue, and Paramount View Millennium.

Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media

Steve Fontana, deputy director of New Havens economic development office, said city officials recently met with Gedalia Peterseil, a principal in GMP Real Estate Solutions, a Jericho, N.Y., company. Fontana said Peterseil claims to represent the interests of the owners, and recently showed city officials an artists rendering of plans for the site that include street-level retail space and residential units on multiple floors above that.

Before that can happen, a much more stringent cleanup of the site would need to occur, he said. UIs current agreement with DEEP calls for the property to be cleaned up to a level where only commercial and industrial uses would be permitted.

That bar is well below what youd need for mixed use, Fontana said. And its definitely a bleak setting right now, not the first place youd think of when discussing mixed-use development in New Haven.

Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media

Ed Crowder, a UI spokesman, declined to comment on the companys negotiations with DEEP or provide a timetable for completion of the project. Crowder also declined to say how much has been spent on the cleanup to date.

As part of its agreement with DEEP, UI has committed to spending up to $30 million on the environmental cleanup.

If the cost comes in under $30 million, the state would receive whatever amount is left over. But if it ends up costing more, UIs orginal consent agreement with DEEP does not specifically state the utility would be prohibited from recovering any overage from ratepayers.

Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media

The privately-held companys most high-profile effort came in 2016 when it was one of the interested bidders for an unfinished Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear power plant in northeastern Alabama. The plant ultimately was auctioned to Franklin Haney, a Tennessee real estate developer, but that deal to buy the mothballed Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant has since fallen through.

Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com
UN Security Council concern over political crisis in Mali

United Nations, Jul 28 (UNI) The Security Council on Monday expressed deep concern over the latest political tensions in Mali and called for restraint.



In a statement released after a closed video teleconference on the situation in Mali, the members of the Security Council expressed their strong support for the mediation efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and took note of the recommendations endorsed by ECOWAS heads of state at Monday's extraordinary summit.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 22:01:33|Editor: huaxia

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LUSAKA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Zambia on Tuesday launched an emergency COVID-19 social cash transfer scheme to help vulnerable communities affected by the pandemic.

Kampamba Mulenga, Minister of Community Development, said the emergency social cash transfer will help mitigate the impact of the pandemic in vulnerable homes of the elderly, women and their children.

She said during a press briefing that the disbursement to beneficiaries will commence before the end of this week, adding that the initiative was being supported by cooperating partners.

The beneficiaries will be given money as well as food hampers for a period of six months, she added.

George Okutho, International Labor Organization (ILO) Director for Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique said during the same press briefing that the pandemic has placed challenges of loss of employment in many sectors, adding that the emergency social cash transfer will help address social protection.

World Food Programme Country Director Jayoung Lee said the United Nations (UN) agency will work with the government to distribute food across the country in vulnerable homes. Enditem
India's grim situation COVID-19 was underlined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann ki Baat speech on Sunday, when he said, 'COVID-19 is as fatal as it was in the beginning.'

It's been eight days since India reported a single-day spike of over 40,000 new coronavirus cases, and the spread of the pandemic has shown no signs of slowing down despite ramped up testing and precautionary measures, along with a fourth-month-long lockdown.

This grim situation was underlined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann ki Baat speech on Sunday, when he said, "COVID-19 is as fatal as it was in the beginning."

According to Union health ministry data on Monday, a record number of 49,931 new cases were reported, taking the total number to 14,35,453. On the other hand, the number of recoveries rose to 9,17,567, the ministry said.

On Sunday, Modi warned the public against relaxing precautions against the threat of the virus and reiterated the importance of wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.

"At many places, the virus is spreading fast. We need to be extra vigilant. We have to bear in mind that the virus is as fatal today as it was in the beginning. Which is why we have to be cautious," Modi said.

Modi also advised those feeling discomfort while wearing the masks to remember the burden and sacrifice of those in the front lines of the battle against the virus.

"There are times when masks cause inconvenience," Modi said. "When one feels like removing them from the face, especially during a conversation. When a mask is required the most, we tend to remove it. At such times when you feel your mask is bothering you and you want to remove it, remember our coronavirus warriors. Remember the doctors and nurses."

India overtook Russia to become the third-worst hit nation by the pandemic on 5 July and the infection has spread exponentially since then.

Evolution of COVID-19 testing in India

While experts advise stringent precautionary measures like social distancing, wearing masks, and washing hands meticulously, many had also pointed out that India's range of testing for coronavirus was lacking vis-a-vis its population.

The Centre has since consistently increased the scale of testing.

In March, the Centre opted for a reserved approach to testing, in a bid to "avoid indiscriminate testing and reducing panic and optimally utilise the resources of the country and scale up facilities for testing".

Testing was prescribed only for three groups of symptomatic people  international arrivals, contacts of a COVID-19-positive person, and health care workers.

In the initial stages of the pandemic in India, private companies hadn't been brought in to conduct testing and the ICMR was working to expand the network of labs conducting the tests.

"At the end of March, it gradually expanded testing to include hospitalised patients with severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) as well as asymptomatic contacts of cases. The new focus ran alongside the agencys first surveillance method  testing SARI patients to see if any were positive for COVID-19," The Indian Express reported.

In May, the testing was significantly increased with one lakh tests being conducted per day. On 6 July, over one crore tests had been conducted in total

As of 6 July, ICMR has approved about 1,105 COVID-19 testing labs in both the public (788) and private (317) sectors. This includes RT-PCR labs (592); TrueNat Labs (421) and CBNAAT Labs (92).

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, introduced an unprecedented testing strategy on 7 July to curb the rising cases of coronavirus in the densely-populated city.

In revised testing guidelines, the municipal body did away with the requirement of a prescription to get tested for COVID-19. "Home swab collections for COVID-19 testing (only RT-PCR) are allowed and no prescription is required for the same, the advisory said.

It also said that no self-declaration is required for COVID-19 testing for symptomatic or asymptomatic individuals.

"Laboratories are free to conduct RT-PCR test for any individual in accordance with the ICMR guidelines. However, no prescription or self-declaration is required for COVID-19 testing of symptomatic or asymptomatic individuals," The Hindu quoted the BMC as saying.

"Rapid point-of-care (PoC) antigen detection test for diagnosis along with RT-PCR can be used in containment areas or hospital settings as per ICMR guidelines," the report added.

Specifically, the relatively quick curbing of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mumbai's Dharavi area has been hailed by experts, including the World Health Organisation (WHO).

One of Asia's largest slums, Dharavi became a point of concern for authorities after it reported its first case on 2 April and subsequently became a hotspot.

In July, the daily spike of new cases has been restricted to single-digit figures, and on 26 July, only two cases were reported in the area.

NDTV quoted authorities as saying that "they relied on four Ts  tracing, tracking, testing and treating".

Experts warn of long battle ahead for India

However, despite pockets of success against the pandemic, experts in India and around the world are anticipating a long battle in the coming months for the country.

Both, the Centre and state governments are facing a set of obstacles before the curve flattens: the uneven distribution of cases across the country, issues with coordination between governments, and the drawbacks caused due to the initial lag in testing.

When the 'Janata Curfew' was imposed on 22 March and the nationwide lockdown on 24 March, only 6,500 samples had been tested. Additionally, the testing capacity at this time was 1,400 samples.

Business Standard quoted experts as saying that a "wave of peaks" is more likely than one nationwide peak.

"While most epidemiologists have predicted a peak of infection in late July-August, many feel the concept of a national peak is nebulous. The three states  Maharashtra, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu  with highest case-counts are slowing down, but infections in eastern and southern states are surging," the report said.

"I do not see a national peak soon, but I see a wave of peaks cascading through the nation in the next two months. It simply depends on how we behave and how policies are implemented," Business Standard quoted Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor at the Michigan University as saying.

The Union health ministry has said that over 80 percent of the total COVID-19 cases in the country have been detected in only 10 states, hence it is an "uneven spread".

The report also said that it is "not possible to predict the total of number of cases that India will witness in its first peak and consequently whether it will achieve any herd immunity by then".

Meanwhile, The New Indian Express quoted experts as saying that "contact tracing, clear treatment protocol are key" in the fight against the virus.

With inputs from agencies
An Australian university lecturer serving a 10-year sentence for espionage in Iran has been transferred to a notorious remote prison in the desert, the Australian government has confirmed.

Cambridge-educated Kylie Moore-Gilbert had been held in Evin Prison in the capital, Tehran, for nearly two years but she was suddenly moved about three days ago to Qarchak women's prison.

Melbourne University academic Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert is being held in Iran.

Qarchak is in the desert east of Tehran. It holds political prisoners, serious drug offenders and murderers and has been described as overcrowded. There are concerns over whether there are enough beds for all inmates.

There have been reports of coronavirus cases in the prison.
Reedsburg officials expressed no interest in issuing a law requiring citizens to wear masks and will step up precautions in all public buildings to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Signage is placed at the door of Reedsburg City Hall recommending all visitors social distance and wear face coverings and the lobby is set up for more appropriate social distancing. Chairpersons of boards, committees and commissions will discuss with each of its members how to implement mask wearing and if it wants to conduct virtual meetings through Zoom, in person with social distancing or a combination of both. The items were authorized by Mayor David Estes at the July 27 council meeting.

Separated by Plexiglass, a new item not seen at the last meeting two weeks ago, council members discussed how to implement protective measures going forward as numbers of COVID-19 cases rise throughout the state and nation. Fourth District Council Member Dave Knudsen attended the meeting through Zoom and Third District Council Member Phil Peterson was absent.

Estes was cautious about requiring a mask mandate in Reedsburg due to the legal question if municipalities have such authority.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  Federal agents who have clashed with protesters in Portland, Oregon, will begin a phased withdrawal from the city, Gov. Kate Brown said Wednesday.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement the plan negotiated with Brown over the last 24 hours includes a robust presence of Oregon State Police in the downtown of the state's largest city.

"State and local law enforcement will begin securing properties and streets, especially those surrounding federal properties, that have been under nightly attack for the past two months, Wolf said.

Agents with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will begin leaving the citys downtown area on Thursday, Brown said. Federal Protective Service agents  who are always posted at the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse  will work alongside state police to guard the exterior of the courthouse and a limited number of other federal agents will remain inside the courthouse, she said.

Wolf said that although federal agents will leave the downtown area, they will maintain a presence in Portland until we are assured that the Hatfield Federal Courthouse and other federal properties will no longer be attacked and that the seat of justice in Portland will remain secure. If conditions in Portland improve significantly, then the U.S. government will reassess its staffing levels in the city, he said.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler applauded the end of what he called an illegal occupation in a lengthy Twitter post, saying the news came on the same day that the City Council would vote on whether to refer a major police reform initiative to voters in November.

The federal occupation of our community has brought a new kind of fear to our streets. Federal agents nearly killed a demonstrator, and their presence has led to increased violence and vandalism in our downtown core, he said. The work of reform deserves our communitys full and complete attention, and I know that Portlanders will stay engaged.

Story continues

Before departing Wednesday for a trip to Texas, President Donald Trump insisted federal troops would not leave Portland until local authorities secured their city.

Either theyre gonna clean up Portland soon, or the federal government is going up, and were gonna do it for them, he said.

The announcement was an abrupt about-face from just two days earlier, when the U.S. government said it might send more federal agents to Portland instead.

The U.S. Marshals Service and Department of Homeland Security had been weighing this week whether to send in more agents. The marshals were taking steps to identify up to 100 additional personnel who could go in case they were needed to relieve or supplement the deputy marshals who work in Oregon, spokesman Drew Wade said.

Brown, who worked with Vice President Mike Pence on the withdrawal, cautioned Wednesday that the departure of the Border Protection and immigration agents may not immediately resolve the conflict at the courthouse. Protests have roiled Portland for more than two months since the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after being pinned at the neck by a white Minneapolis police officer.

Like many other protests nationwide, they sought to highlight and call for an end to racial injustice, but they had increasingly focused on federal property even before the U.S. agents arrived.

I have grown increasingly concerned at the nightly confrontation between local community members and federal officers. We need to recognize that the protests in Portland are not solely about the federal presence," Brown said.

Many protesters want to see the Portland Police Bureau defunded and are angry that officers used tear gas on protesters multiple times before the federal government arrived and tensions escalated further. Brown said the departure of the federal agents was a chance to address that anger and begin to make improvements in community policing.

I will work with community leaders and elected officials to take bolder action to reform our police practices  including those of the Portland Police Bureau. We need to get this right, she said.

The nightly Portland protests often spiral into violence as demonstrators target the U.S. courthouse with rocks, fireworks and laser pointers. Federal agents respond with tear gas, so-called less-lethal ammunition and arrests.

Protesters have tried almost every night to tear down a fence erected to protect the building, set fires in the street and hurled fireworks, Molotov cocktails and bricks, rocks and bottles at the agents inside. Authorities this week reinforced the fence by putting concrete highway barriers around it.

Demonstrators near the courthouse Wednesday were met before dawn with tear gas, pepper balls and impact munitions fired by agents, the Oregonian newspaper reported.

___

Lemire reported from Washington.

___

Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus and Andrew Selsky at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky.
WASHINGTON  The lack of funding for the federal Indian Health Service is a function of the failure to honor treaty obligations never more evident than in the disproportionate and extreme impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in Indian country, according to testimony offered to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on July 17.

National Indian Health Board (NIHB) Acting Chair William Smith from the Valdez Native Tribe of Alaska testified before the commission in a virtual public briefing, entitled: Covid-19 in Indian Country: The Impact of Federal Broken Promises on Native Americans.

The indigenous experience with Covid-19 affirms that colonization continues to function according to its design, Smith said. The most obvious problem is the underfunding of the Indian Health Service, which is the only federal healthcare system created as the result of treaty obligations and is the most chronically underfunded federal healthcare system.

Chief Smith @NIHB1 pointed out: how do we follow CDC guidelines if we do not have running water? #BrokenPromises #USCCRbriefings pic.twitter.com/muX0moXY1V  Chair Catherine E. Lhamon, USCCR (@ChairLhamon) July 17, 2020

Smith spoke on a panel including Geoffrey Blackwell, Chief Strategy Officer, AMERINDRisk; Chief Lynn Malerba, Secretary, United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc.; Jonathan Nez, President, Navajo Nation Office of the President and Vice President; Fawn Sharp, President, National Congress of American Indians, and Francys Crevier, Executive Director, National Council of Urban Indian Health. He did not limit his criticism to IHS funding shortages, but also discussed the governments, paternalistic reluctance to expand self-determination and self-governance policies across the spectrum of federal agencies.

This coronavirus disease continues to disproportionately ravage the disempowered among us and Indian country is right at its center. But to understand what is happening to tribes, America must first insist on an honest reckoning of history, for what we are seeing today, is indeed, the offspring of colonization, Smith said.

The United States must revolutionize its approach to tribal nations and break new ground by truly honoring its trust and treaty obligations. A good first step is making massive and sustained investment in rebuilding tribal communities and health systems in its response to Covid-19, he said.

The U.S. healthcare system spends about $9,409 per year for one Americans health  unless that American be native. The system spends just $3,779 per year for one American Indian or Alaska Native persons health, he noted.

According to the Government Accountability Office, from 2013 to 2017, the IHS annual spending increased by roughly 18 percent, while spending under Medicare and Medicaid increased by 22 percent and 31 percent, respectively.

Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com

Copyright permission Native Sun News Today

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The founders of the United States, said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, changed the course of history when they established a nation built on the premise that government exists not to diminish or cancel the individuals rights at the whim of those in power, but to secure them.

On July 8, 2019, Secretary Pompeo commissioned a group of scholars and activists to furnish advice on human rights grounded in [Americas] founding principles and the principles of the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights. This endeavor, known as the Commission on Unalienable Rights, recently issued a draft report.

Welcoming the release of the commissions draft report, Secretary Pompeo confirmed that the United States was founded on certain unalienable rights without which our efforts to protect and promote human rights is unmoored, and therefore, destined to fail:

Americas founders didnt invent unalienable rights, but stated very clearly in the Declaration of Independence that they are held as self-evident that human beings were created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. . .among [those] are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Secretary Pompeo went to say:

No one can enjoy the pursuit of happiness if you cannot own the fruits of your own labor, and no society can retain its legitimacy or a virtuous character without religious freedom."

It is clear that unalienable rights are central to who we are as Americans, and so they too, must underpin our foreign policy, said Secretary Pompeo:

If we truly believe that rights are unalienable, inviolate, enduring, indeed, universal, just as the founders did, then defending them ought to be the bedrock of our every diplomatic endeavor.

Indeed, Americas commitment to unalienable rights at home has proved a beacon of hope for men and women abroad pursuing their own liberties. One such example is Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky. When he heard of President Ronald Reagans Evil Empire speech while imprisoned, he said it was a ray of hope in the darkness of his punishment cell.

I am confident, said Secretary Pompeo, that the American star will shine across the heavens, so long as we keep a proper understanding of unalienable rights at the center of our unending quest to secure freedom for our own people and all of mankind.
Tyra Banks has some very big shoes to fill when she hosts season 29 of Dancing With The Stars after veterans Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews were let go.

The 46-year-old Vogue supermodel will be on her own as she does not have a co-host to bounce jokes off of. And this week the beauty admitted to UsWeekly that she is certainly feeling the 'pressure.'

This comes just as DailyMail.com has heard that DWTS producers have reached out to Derek Hough, who stars on Jennifer Lopez's Emmy nominated World Of Dance, to come back to the show.

She has to nail it: Tyra Banks has some very big shoes to fill when she hosts season 29 of Dancing With The Stars after veterans Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews were let go. And this week the beauty admitted to UsWeekly that she is certainly feeling the 'pressure.' Seen in 2016

Tyra said to Us: 'My goal is for a 12-year-old to be sitting on the couch with their parents and grandparents and everybody can relate personally to what they see on that screen.

'That's a hint. Not giving up the goods. You'll have to tune in!'

The former Victoria's Secret model said in a statement, 'I've been a fan of DWTS since its beginning 

'The fun mixed with raw emotion, seeing celebrities push past their comfort zones, the sizzling dance performances.

'Let's just keep this real, it's gonna be so next level,' Tyra teased about season 29 on GMA. 'We're doing all this crazy stuff, taking it to the next level, but still keeping the stuff America loves'

'It's always transported me to my days of turning it up 10 notches on the catwalk. Tom has set a powerful stage, and I'm excited to continue the legacy and put on my executive producer and hosting hats.'

Banks also said she was 'excited' to step into the role of both host and executive producer and thrilled to 'break down' barriers by becoming the show's first solo black female host.

While she couldn't divulge too many details, Tyra hinted that she and the show's other executive producer are working together to make some changes on the celebrity dance series.

'Let's just keep this real, it's gonna be so next level,' she teased. 'We're doing all this crazy stuff, taking it to the next level, but still keeping the stuff America loves.'

Replaced: Bergeron recently tweeted that the show would be 'continuing without' him; ABC later confirmed in a statement that not only was Bergeron out, but his co-host Andrews wouldn't return as well

Adding: 'But you need to get ready because it's gonna be different.'

As far as 35-year-old Hough coming back, sources have told DailyMail.com that he has been approached.

'Derek has already been asked if he is interested in coming back to Dancing With The Stars,' a source told DailyMail.com.

'They have always liked working with him because he is very professional and really talented plus just an overall nice guy. The celebrities trust him.

'And it does not hurt that he has a huge following and fans want him back.

Will he go back? As far as 35-year-old Hough coming back, sources have told DailyMail.com that he has been approached. 'Derek has already been asked if he is interested in coming back to Dancing With The Stars,' a source told DailyMail.com

'But he has been working with J-Lo on World Of Dance for two seasons. So it's hard to tell what he will decide.'

The Cha-Cha expert was on DWTS from 2007 until 2016. In 2017 he joined World Of Dance. He has also worked as an actor on Jane The Virgin, Nashville and Hairspray Live!

He also told Bevy Smith during an episode of Bevelations on SiriusXM's Radio Andy that he was 'pretty shocked' that Bergeron was asked to leave the show.

'I think Tom Bergeron is such a staple of Dancing with the Stars, and he's a good friend of mine. He's a good man,' said the professional dancer.

'He's been there from the beginning, and you know he's just a great guy.' But he knows that nothing is for certain in show business. 'You know, there's always efforts to sort of switch things up, and you look at that, and it's also understandable.'

Will he stick with Jenny From The Block? He has been working with J-Lo and NeYo on World Of Dance for two seasons. 'It's hard to tell what he will decide,' said a source

Also on Tuesday, ET claimed DWTS is set to resume production in September.

The strategy for how to safely and successfully film the competition dance series is reportedly in flux, however, with the timeline subject to change due to a growing number of COVID-19 cases.

The DWTS team is 'getting creative' about how to safely resume production as diagnosed cases of COVID-19 are on the rise, ET reported.

Production for season 29 is scheduled to begin in September but because of the pandemic but 'it's possible that the date could be moved around if new issues arise or safety protocols change in Los Angeles.'

Last week, California averaged 9,558 new coronavirus cases, making the total number of confirmed cases in the Golden State over 467K.

Making it work: The DWTS team is 'getting creative' about how to safely resume production as diagnosed cases of COVID-19 are on the rise and the September date is subject to change, ET reported

Details about how the show will safely film, particularly with the dancers needing to be in such close contact, haven't been revealed at this time.

Aside from the safety concerns causing some production changes, the show will have a different feel from the previous 15 years with a new host at the helm.

Casting for season 29 hasn't been unveiled with the exception of Bachelorette star Kaitlyn Bristowe who was announced in June.

'I'll be happy with whoever they partner me with. I just feel like they're all incredible,' Bristowe told ET after her big reveal. 'They have to be to be on that show!'

Last season, fellow Bachelor Nation star Hannah Brown took home the coveted mirror ball trophy with her partner Alan Bersten.
Over the last three weeks of graphic testimony, the actor admitted to years of drug abuse but denied beating ex-wife.

Actor Johnny Depps libel lawsuit has wrapped up after three weeks of graphic testimony in which the star admitted to years of drug abuse but denied beating ex-wife, Amber Heard.

The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise hero is suing the publisher and executive editor of the United Kingdoms The Sun tabloid in Londons High Court over a 2018 story calling him a wife-beater.

The 57-year-old rejects accusations of repeatedly hurting the 34-year-old actress over a three-year span that ended with Heards 2016 decision to get a restraining order and file for divorce.

Depps American former fiance Winona Ryder and long-term French partner Vanessa Paradis both testified on his behalf.

But The Suns lawyer called Depp a Jekyll and Hyde character who was controlling and physically abusive towards Ms Heard  especially when he was using drugs.

Some legal experts say Depp will have a hard time rebuilding his reputation [File: Peter Nicholls/Reuters]

The defendants have established that many more than one incident of wife-beating took place over the course of the relationship, defence lawyer Sasha Wass said in her closing submission on Monday.

In a closing speech on Tuesday, Depps lawyer David Sherborne said Heard changed her story and relied on unreliable witnesses to back up false claims.

While Depp had been open about his use of drugs and alcohol, Sherborne said, Heard had changed her story and played down her own use of drugs and alcohol as well as her issues with anger and jealousy.

She is the abuser, not Mr Depp. He is no wife beater, Sherborne told the court, adding her lack of credibility had been proven in the evidence she had given.

A tape recording of Heard and Depp was played to the court where Depp tells Heard she is lying when she says she did not punch him, which Sherborne said demonstrated Heards propensity to violence.

Dont tell me what it feels like to be punched, Depp said in the recording, before Heard retorts: I hit you like this. But I did not punch you.

Sherborne said that such an admission that Heard hit her partner would have caused a furore if roles were reversed.

If it was Mr Depp  can you imagine what consternation there would be? he said.

Judge Andrew Nicol is expected to take some days poring over 12 volumes of evidence submitted in a case that was born at the height of the #MeToo movement.

The damage is done

Some legal experts say Depps reputation will have trouble recovering, even if The Sun is forced to retract its claim.

I think the damage is done, said London PR agent and crisis consultant Mark Borkowski. Even if he wins, its going to be a Pyrrhic victory.

The odds favour Depp because Englands strict libel laws put the burden of proof on the media.

The Suns defeat could also imperil Heards Hollywood career [John Sibley/Reuters]

That puts one of the UKs most popular newspapers in danger of having to cover huge court expenses and pay damages in the middle of a media industry crisis made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Suns defeat could also imperil Heards Hollywood career.

If The Sun wins, Heard will likely be viewed as a brave crusader in the domestic violence and #MeToo arena. said defamation case lawyer Emily Cox.

If The Sun loses, Heard could well find herself ostracised by those movements and by Hollywood.

Judge Nicol is at liberty to set the figure for any damages to be awarded in what UK media have dubbed the biggest English libel trial of the 21st century.
Craziness now exits on an industrial scale but among all foolish ideas, none is stupider than trying to defund police departments, particularly where poor people, disproportionately African Americans, depend on policing. Yet, just when it seems that this insanity cannot get worse, it does, and the latest madness concerns extending defunding demands to include school police. The Klans Imperial Wizard must be thrilled by a policy that will further undermine the education of African Americans. Do anti-cop crusaders honestly embrace the Rousseauian fantasy that children naturally soak up knowledge if only left on their own?

This defunding effort is not as preposterous as it might initially appear. Milwaukee schools have already terminated their relationships with the citys police department while Portland. OR schools removed armed police officers from schools. Denver, Co has likewise banned police from its schools, a policy also enacted by Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN. The LA school district cut $25 million in policing funds from its budget while in Berkeley the cut was 50%. Declining municipal budgets may encourage yet more reductions especially if justified by racial justice.

To understand this crusade, consider an article in Colorlines, a radical black magazine. Black and Brown Students Are Organizing to Remove Police From Their Schools outlines the campaign and notes this to be an ongoing quest. To quote:

Law enforcement has had a brief yet abusive relationship with American public schools, spurring the terrorization of Black and Brown students and increased interaction with law enforcement at a young age. The rationale behind police in schools has always been for the safety of children. Yet, since police have shown up, the school to prison pipeline has strengthened, putting young children into the legal system and criminalizing their oftentimes normal behavior. (Italics added) In resistance, youth and student organizers have taken to school board meetings and the streets to fight for the removal of police from schools in line with the national call to defund the police,,,

In other words, no rational reason exists for this policing since, allegedly, African Americans behave themselves, so policing just unfairly criminalizes innocent people of color, an argument identical to what Black Lives Matter activists insist -- inherently racist cops routinely murder blameless blacks.

Statistics tell a different story about American schools -- many are truly dangerous. According to one national study in 2017, about 16 percent of students in grades 9-12 reported that they had carried a weapon such as a gun, knife, or club anywhere at least one day during the previous 30 days, and 4 percent reported carrying a weapon on school property at least one day during the previous 30 days. Another study found that during the 2017-18 school year, an estimated 962,300 violent incidents and 476,100 nonviolent incidents occurred in U.S. public schools nationwide. In New York City during the 2017-18 school year with its 1.1 million students, there were 17,991 reported violent incidents, a rate of 16.8 per thousand students, the highest rate in the state, and am admitted under-count given disincentives for accurate reporting.

Tellingly, countless statistical compilations shows that African-American youngsters are far more likely to be involved in disciplinary measures, often at three or four times beyond proportionality and despite all the talk of reforming the justice system, the proportion of blacks arrested, expelled and so on seems to be increasing. This over-representation parallels adult statistics where outcomes reflect strict legal proceedings, not the whims of school cops. Even where prohibited, when corporal punishment is administered, black are disproportionately punished.

Rampant school violence is also reflected resource allocation since, after all, why spend money for a nonexistent problem? In New York City's overwhelmingly minority public schools, for example, the Division of School Safety employs approximately 5000 school-safety agents and 200 police officers. Moreover, there are tough requirements to become a school-safety officer -- drug screening, a character and background check and medical standards, among others. Hardly surprising given levels of school mayhem, this workforce exceeds the total number of police officers in Houston, Texas. These agents resemble regular police in their uniforms, possess legal authority of make warrantless arrests, carry handcuffs and can use physical and deadly force.

It is thus preposterous to insist that despite all the evidence of criminality and the resources committed to combat the lawlessness, school police, as per Colorlines' essay, exists only to criminalize innocent young blacks and push them into the school-to-prison pipeline. Moreover, it lacks credibility to suggest that a bunch of screaming schoolkids can force Los Angeles or Minneapolis to cut school police budgets. There is more to this defunding campaign than a bunch of unruly youngsters.

These activists are useful idiots who advance an agenda benefiting others, not themselves. Money undoubtedly plays a role given that American K-12 education financially rewards failure, especially when the failure involves predominantly black and Hispanic schools. Fewer police mean more out-of-control classrooms, which, in turn, brings lower test scores and dreadful test scores brings yet more investing in Americas future. American education hardly embraces the business model of refusing to fund failure; its just the opposite.

Since K-12 education is highly labor intensive, increased funding begets newly hired armies of assistant principals, curriculum coordinators, social workers, therapists and classroom assistants along with experts in conflict resolution, school-based community outreach, and mental health specialists in anger management. Alas, lacking the necessary coercive power, these bureaucrats are powerless to impose order. How might social workers react if students bring guns to school? Counsel the miscreants? Meanwhile, teacher unions will also welcome depolicing since it brings yet more dues-paying members and while inadequate security may put teachers at risk, surely -- it will be alleged -- a larger staff can handle that problem,

More violent schools will exacerbate yet more racial segregation in American education as white and Asian parents refuse to put junior at risk. Physical safety is non-negotiable, and unless these parents can afford expensive private schools or safe charter academies, the massive tax-destroying white flight of the 1950s and 60s will return. Middle-class blacks and Hispanics will also join the exodus rather than deal with schools overrun with bullies, drug dealers, and gangbangers.

Increased race-related school violence will, however, be a new-found economic windfall for many blacks, whether minimum-wage teacher aides or highly paid school superintendents. For one, few whites (especially young women) will risk working in unsafe conditions and, two, it will be widely assumed that blacks themselves can best navigate this violence (cultural competence). Racial segregation will also reduce litigation -- cant sue a school district for racial discrimination if entirely run by African Americans.

Finally, abolishing school police guarantees expanding the school-to-prison pipeline all the while encouraging yet more black-on-black violence. Absent policing, minor school disputes will escalate, guns will replace fists, and those who might have learned restraint early on will go unpunished until they encounter real police, not the more tolerant school version. Prison will replace suspension and with nobody able to impose peace, gang membership or packing heat are the only prudent alternatives. Meanwhile, those who really do desire an education will be lucky to just survive in this Hobbesian world. Score yet one more victory for stupidity under the guise of bringing justice.
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Kensington, the worldwide leader of desktop computing and mobility solutions for IT, business, and home office professionals and The Professionals Choice, enhances the mobility and functionality of Microsoft Surface Pro and Surface Go devices with the BlackBelt Rugged Cases with Integrated CAC Readers. Ideal for military and government workers, the cases deliver an all-in-one solution that provides military-grade drop protection and eliminates the need to carry a separate CAC reader to access protected networks.

Protection and Access for Maximum Mobility

The TAA-compliant BlackBelt Rugged Case with Integrated CAC Reader for Surface Pro (compatible with Surface Pro 7, 6, 5 and 4) and BlackBelt Rugged Case with Integrated CAC Reader for Surface Go and Surface Go 2 incorporate FIPS 201-compliant smart card readers that support class A, B and C for secure access to the device and protected networks. Read-Only Memory (ROM) ensures that data is never stored, so it cannot be compromised. The BlackBelt cases, which provide access to all ports so there is no need to remove the case for everyday use, meet the MIL-STD-810G specification to provide shock protection for all device surfaces.

Designed for Convenience and Ease-of-Use

The BlackBelt Rugged Cases feature a pen holder and tether to conveniently secure and store the Surface Pen, and the device easily can be secured with a Kensington cable lock when left unattended. A rear camera cover allows for use of the camera and keeps the lens protected when not in use. A self-adjusting hand strap provides users with a firm grip when the device is in use and stows flat when not in use allowing the device to lie flat and stable. The BlackBelt case features a kickstand opening to allow full use of the integrated Surface kickstand and includes a keyboard holder to secure the Surface keyboard when in use.

The CAC card is the key to providing secure access to government computer networks and systems for our government workers and military members around the world, explained Louie Yao, Director of Global Product Management at Kensington. Individual CAC readers can provide users required connectivity on their mobile devices, but can easily be misplaced resulting in loss of productivity or worse in a mission-critical situation. Our BlackBelt Rugged Cases are the ideal solution for these users by combining an integrated CAC reader, robust shock protection and tethered storage for the Surface Pen, greatly enhancing the mobility of the Surface device and ensuring that they have access to critical systems anytime, anywhere they need it.

Pricing and Availability

The Kensington BlackBelt Rugged Cases with Integrated CAC Reader for Surface Pro, Surface Go and Surface Go 2 ($149.99 MRSP) are covered by a two-year limited warranty and are available now through Amazon.



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About Kensington

Kensington is a leading provider of desktop and mobile device accessories, trusted by IT, educators, business, and home office professionals around the world for more than 35 years. Kensington strives to anticipate the needs and challenges of the ever-evolving workplace and craft professional-tier award-winning solutions for organizations committed to providing peak professionals the tools they need to thrive. The company prides itself as The Professionals Choice, and on its core values surrounding design, quality, and support.

In office and mobile environments, Kensingtons extensive portfolio of award-winning products provides trusted security, desktop productivity innovations, and ergonomic well-being.

Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Kensington is the inventor and worldwide leader in laptop security locks. Kensington is a division of ACCO Brands (NYSE: ACCO), one of the worlds largest designers, marketers, and manufacturers of branded business, academic, and consumer products, sold in more than 100 countries across the globe.

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Postcard from the mighty river at Great Falls

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Great Falls is more than just a quick stopover on a summer road trip across Big Sky Country.

As a destination, Montanas third-largest city punches well above its weight, thanks to the big-city feel of its downtown, a couple of notable museums and a landscape that remains beautiful despite being partially covered up by the progress of industry.

Great Falls, as its name implies, is situated at the great falls of the Missouri River. Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame called the falls  some 900 feet wide and 80 feet tall  the grandest sight he ever saw.

Dams and power plants changed much of the scenery, though a small stretch of the river at the aptly named Rivers Edge Trail in Giant Springs State Park offers a vista from the past.

Fittingly, this is also where the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center is located. The two-story museum, run by U.S. Forest Service in partnership with a nonprofit foundation, gives visitors a crash course in the history of the Corps of Discoverys 8,000-mile expedition in the aftermath of the Louisiana Purchase.

Beyond the history of this important chapter in the story of America, there is the art found in the citys two art museums.

The C.M. Russell Museum has 16 galleries devoted to its namesake, Charles M. Russell. The artist, who called Great Falls home, distinctively depicted all things Old West around the turn of the last century.

Less than a mile away is the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art. The contemporary collection by artists from Montana and across the region is housed in a stately Richardsonian Romanesque former high school.

No visit would be complete without a stop at an old church.

The Church of the Incarnation (built in 1907) wins the prize for best church architecture, notwithstanding the Episcopal congregations hideous parish hall. The tower with its north porch is a perfectly executed example of Gothic Revival architecture. In fact, if you didnt know better you would mistake the tower for a medieval church somewhere in the English countryside.

Where to stay and eat

Stay at the Springhill Suites overlooking the Missouri River. The relatively new hotel  it opened in 2018  has rooms with balconies. An alternative option is downtown at the Hotel Avron, next to the popular Celtic Cowboy Pub and Restaurant.

How to get there

Arriving by car makes the most sense, especially since two of the best national parks are within driving distance.

Spires and Crosses is a weekly travel column. Follow @dennislennox on Twitter and Instagram.
Hundreds gathered July 10 for the weekly Saturate OC worship event held north of the pier in Huntington Beach. (Raul Roa / Los Angeles Times)

With the coronavirus continuing to surge in California, officials imposed limits on indoor church services in many areas.

But now, there are concerns about several large church services being held on beaches. It started with a series of large gatherings in Huntington Beach. Then this weekend, there was another one at Cardiff State Beach in San Diego County.

For the most part, religious institutions have followed the COVID-19 restrictions. But a few have filed lawsuits, arguing the restrictions violate their constitutional rights. The latest lawsuit was filed earlier this month, with three churches in Northern California claiming that a ban on singing in places of worship violates their 1st Amendment rights.

Here is what we know about the beach services:

Cardiff

A large beach gathering Sunday with most in attendance worshiping shoulder-to-shoulder without masks drew concern from a top public health official Monday.

Asked for her reaction to the gathering, estimated to have drawn more than 1,000 participants to Cardiff State Beach in the late afternoon and early evening, Dr. Wilma Wooten, San Diego County's public health officer, said she had seen images of the peaceful event.

In the photos that I saw, it really was a massive group of people gathering together without social distancing and without wearing facial coverings, so we will continue to address these egregious violations as we have others that have come to our attention, Wooten said.

She did not, however, say more about what actions the county might take.

The event was organized by worship leader Sean Feucht, who recently received coverage in faith-focused media for an ongoing tour of outdoor gospel events in California cities, including Redding, Pasadena, Bakersfield and Fresno. Feucht did not respond to a request for an interview made through his website Monday evening.

Sgt. Jake Pflepsen, a state park peace officer supervisor and lifeguard assigned to Cardiff, said Monday evening that while no permit was issued for the gathering, no tickets were issued. Saying only that state parks' main enforcement goal is public safety, he deferred further questions about the states citation policies to headquarters in Sacramento, which was unavailable to comment Monday evening.

Story continues

Huntington Beach

Huntington Beach officials have expressed concern about Saturate OC, a religious workshop being held on the sand. Its organizers estimate that as many as 1,800 people attended for nearly two hours of musical performances, baptisms and prayers.

The city of Huntington Beach said in a statement that it firmly supports the right of any religious group to worship, but that they must follow permitting and safety protocols. Unfortunately, the Saturate OC event promoters have not instituted safety protocols prescribed by the state and county, and they have refused to obtain a permit for their event, the city said.

The events directors told The Times on Saturday they thought they were being singled out because of their religion.

I think its more of a political statement than anything at this point, for people to actually shut down a worship service when theres mass protests with hundreds of thousands of people in L.A. and then were getting highlighted in the news for spreading the virus, said Parker Green, 34, who organized the recurring event with his wife Jessi, 35.

On Friday, the Greens provided participants with hand sanitizer and gave out hundreds of masks, they said, but they estimated at least 60% of people chose not to wear them.

Suicide rates have shot up since COVID, and we have people crying on the beach because theyre getting set free from suicidal thoughts, and theyre saying this is the thing that theyve needed, Jessi Green said. And I think thats why theres so many people coming to the beach.

Sisson writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
A man has denied plotting to burgle Tamara Ecclestone's London home.

Emil-Bogdan Savastru, 29, appeared at Isleworth crown court accused of conspiracy to burgle following a raid in the heiress's property in Kensington, west London, last December.

He was also charged with attempting to remove criminal property on January 30 this year and having custody or control of counterfeit currency.

Savastru, of Bethnal Green, east London, pleaded not guilty to all charges via video-link from Wormwood Scrubs prison.

His mother Maria Mester has also been charged over the crime. She listened to today's proceedings from HMP Bronzefield using an Italian interpreter.

The family's gated Kensington mansion

At a previous hearing she pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and a charge of concealing criminal property.

Police were called to Ms Ecclestones address near Kensington Palace by security on December 13.

A 300,000 pair of diamond earrings and a Louis Vuitton bag were stolen in the raid. The haul also included currency and watches, with the stolen items estimated to be worth a total of 50 million. Most of the items have never been recovered.

The burglary happened after Ms Ecclestone, the daughter of former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, left the country for a Christmas holiday with her husband Jay Rutland and their daughter Sophia.

Judge Simon Davis told Savastru and Mester they are next due at the same court on August 6.
The global logistics market is expected to grow by USD 95.42 billion as per Technavio. This marks a significant market slow down compared to the 2019 growth estimates due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020. However, steady growth is expected to continue throughout the forecast period, and the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of almost 2%.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005734/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Logistics Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

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Read the 120-page report with TOC on "Logistics Market Analysis Report by End-user (Consumer goods, Automotive, Food and beverage, Healthcare, and Others), Geography (APAC, North America, Europe, MEA, and South America), and the Segment Forecasts, 2020-2024".

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The market is driven by increasing cross-border trade. In addition, the use of blockchain with logistics is anticipated to boost the growth of the logistics market.

Many countries across the world are focusing on increasing their cross-border trade to boost the economy. This has increased the number of trade corridors across the world. For instance, in February 2019, India signed MoU with Russia to fast-track the development of the International North-South Transport Corridor to facilitate smoother connectivity to the region via Iran. The increase in the number of such economic corridors is allowing enterprises to transport products such as apparel, electronics, vegetables, and fruits across borders and expand their business both in terms of geography and demographics. These factors have increased the demand for logistics services, which is driving the growth of the market.

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Major Five Logistics Companies:

C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. operates its business through segments such as North American Surface Transportation, Global Forwarding, and All Other and Corporate. The company offers logistics services such as ocean shipping, air freight, and truckload.

Deutsche Bahn AG

Deutsche Bahn AG operates its business through segments such as DB Long-Distance, DB Regional, DB Arriva, DB Cargo, DB Schenker, DB Netze Track, DB Netze Stations, DB Netze Energy, and Other. The company offers logistics services such as land transport, air freight, and ocean freight through Schenker AG.

Deutsche Post DHL Group

Deutsche Post DHL Group operates its business through segments such as Post Parcel Germany, Express, Global Forwarding, Freight, Supply chain, and eCommerce Parcel. The company offers freight shipping via air, ocean, road, and rail.

DSV Panalpina A/S

DSV Panalpina A/S operates its business through segments such as Air Sea, Road, and Solutions. The company offers logistics services such as air freight, sea freight, and road transport.

FedEx Corp.

FedEx Corp. operates its business through segments such as FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, and FedEx Services. The company offers logistics services such as truckload.

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Logistics Market End-user Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2020-2024)

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Automotive

Food and beverage

Healthcare

Others

Logistics Market Geography Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2020-2024)

APAC

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MEA

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Related Reports on Industrials Include:

Global E-Commerce Logistics Market Global e-commerce logistics market by service (transportation, warehousing, and others) and geography (APAC, Europe, MEA, North America, and South America).

Global Defense Logistics Market Global defense logistics market by solution (military infrastructure, military logistics services, and military FMS) and geography (APAC, Europe, MEA, North America, and South America).

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William Barr swung into the office of the Attorney General like a wrecking ball of shameless authoritarianism, breaking every democratic norm in his way and smashing the fickle wall of independence between the presidency and the Justice Department. Today, he defiantly defended his tenure with a gaslighting blend of misdirection and, in some cases, outright lies.

Barr just testified before the House Judiciary Committee for the first time. His misconduct could fill countless scrolls, but here's the shortlist: Barr misrepresented the Mueller report; refused to pursue the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community's Trump-Ukraine criminal referral; interfered in the criminal cases of President Trump's allies; fired the US Attorney at the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman; ordered the brutal clearing of peaceful protestors at Lafayette Square for Trump's bible-holding photo op; and made some controversial remarks about racism in America.

In today's hearing, the usually calm Barr repeatedly lost his cool under the pressure of tough questioning. The AG became visibly rattled and raised his voice on a number of occasions  even as Republicans loudly defended his actions, from unleashing federal forces in Portland to the commutation of Roger Stone's sentence.

In Barrs written opening statement, he falsely called the "Russiagate" scandal "bogus," falsely claimed President Trump has never interfered in his work (Trump has done so publicly), defended unleashing brutality on protestors, and denied systemic racism in policing. As Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) would later say in this hearing, the statement "read like it was written by Alex Jones or Roger Stone.

A lot happened in this hearing, but there were three main themes that were covered: the use of federal police forces to suppress protests; Barr's role as Trump's fixer; and Barr's denial of systemic racism. Let's start with the first one, given how worrying the images we've seen out of Portland have been.

One of the first notable moments of the hearing came after House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler's (D-NY) opening statement. Once Ranking Member Jim Jordan's (R-OH) Obamagate screed was over with, he played an extremely misleading propagandist video of violence and looting. Luckily, later in the hearing, Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) played a video to counter Jordan's, this time showing peaceful protests.

When pressed about what's happening in Portland, Barr generalized all the protestors as rioters laying siege to federal property but didn't acknowledge the peaceful veterans and moms who have been gassed and beaten by federal officers. He then went on to claim that forces in Portland are in a defensive mode around the courthouse and are fending off attacks, despite the fact that footage confirms the forces have cleared the streets and also attacked peaceful protesters. Barr also refused to condemn the use of chemical irritants against demonstrators.

Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) took Barr to task over the double standard where armed anti-lockdown protestors occupied the Michigan Capitol and no federal forces were deployed (in fact, their cause was supported through a DOJ-backed lawsuit.) In response, he simply repeated that the June 1 violent clearing of peaceful protestors in DC was done in order to move the perimeter and not for Trumps photo-op. It was one of many bizarre excuses Barr deployed.

Perhaps the most effective line of questioning on Barr's corrupt protection of Trump's cronies came from Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). Swalwell came out swinging, immediately asking the Attorney General if he has ever recommended a reduced sentence for people who weren't President Trump's friends (predictably, Barr couldnt think of a single instance). Swalwell followed this up by asking why the DOJ asked Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen to sign an agreement to not write his book or speak to the media before they re-imprisoned him. Barr didn't have an answer for this either. It was a tense but telling moment.

Then came the racial justice questions, which were the strongest of all. When asked by Rep. Jackson Lee (D-TX), Barr denied the existence of systemic racism in policing and opposed the end of qualified immunity for police. Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) asked about the double standard of use of force, the case of Elijah McClain, and the DOJs policies around chokeholds. Before pointing out that black people were three to five more times (depending on the study) likely to be killed by police than white people, Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-CA) told Barr the DOJ should keep the name of John Lewis out of its mouth.

There were two loose threads from this hearing that raised numerous questions. Barr casually revealed there is another ongoing probe  separate from the Durham's review of the Mueller probe  going on in Texas by US Attorney John Bash, which concerns unmasking. Even Jim Jordan didnt know about it. How many other probes do we not know about?

In another moment that raised a lot of eyebrows at the time but isn't getting much attention outside the room, Cicilline asked if it is ever appropriate for a president to accept or solicit foreign assistance in an election. First, Barr said it "depends" on what the assistance is. Cicilline asked again and rephrased saying foreign assistance of any kind. Barr then said no.

Not that we needed any more clarification, but it has never been clearer where Attorney General William Barr stands: on the wrong side of history, and oftentimes on the wrong side of the law. Specifically, Barr stands against equal justice under the law and on the side of cronyism and corruption. He stands against democracy and behind a president who is willing to erode it for personal gain. One thing is for sure: history will not be kind to William Barr  and neither will the voters on November 3rd.
India and Britain will deepen scientific research collaboration with five new projects to tackle anti-microbial resistance (AMR) that could lead to advances in the global fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria and genes.

The five projects are planned to start in September once they receive the appropriate clearances. Britain is contributing 4 million from the UK Research and Innovation Fund for International Collaboration, and India will match this with an equal amount. The Indian side will be represented by the department of biotechnology.

The funding awards by the UK were announced by Tariq Ahmad, minister of state for South Asia and the Commonwealth, ahead of a virtual visit to India on Tuesday.

India is a key producer of antimicrobial for the global pharmaceutical supply chain, and the research projects aim to develop a better understanding of how waste from antimicrobial manufacturing could be inadvertently fuelling AMR.

A statement from the British high commission quoted Ahmad as saying: The UK has already partnered with Indias Serum Institute to manufacture the vaccine for Covid-19, if clinical trials are successful, with plans to distribute to a billion people across the developing world.

But there is more we can do together to tackle urgent global health issues in the world. Our thriving research and innovation partnerships will benefit people in the UK and India, and beyond.

British high commissioner Philip Barton said the UK is Indias second biggest research partner, with joint projects expected to be worth 400 million by 2021. This huge investment enables us to work closely together on global health challenges such as the search for a Covid-19 vaccine, he said.

During the virtual visit to India, Ahmad will chair a roundtable via video conference with Indian and UK-based stakeholders on cold chain technologies that are critical for the transport of vaccines.

He will also have a virtual meeting with minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan to discuss a range of issues, including multilateral cooperation, and a virtual meeting with Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani. There will also be discussions with regional governments and others on opportunities in wind power.

Among the five projects to tackle AMR is SELECTAR, which involves representatives from the University of Birmingham, Aligarh Muslim University, Panjab University, CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Indian Institute of Technology and Jamia Millia Islamia University investigating the impact of waste release on microbial ecosystems.

The Advanced Metagenomics, Sensors and Photocatalysis for Antimicrobial Resistance Elimination (AMSPARE) proposal brings together experts on sensor technologies, water treatment and remediation from India with experts on policy and industrial regulatory processes from the UK to research AMR proliferation in the environment.

Another project involving experts from Puducherry and Chennai and the Imperial College London relates to advancement of knowledge for addressing antimicrobial resistance in the environment. Experiments, mathematical modelling and risk analysis by representatives from Birmingham University, Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad and Indian Institute Technology-Gandhinagar will contribute to risk assessment and setting evidence-based environmental standards.

Representatives from the University of Warwick, PGIMER, CSIR-NEERI, Aligarh Muslim University, Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi and Banaras Hindu University will come together to inform policymakers and industry experts and managers on the impact of inappropriate waste disposal.
260 Chinese fishing ships have been discovered near the Galapagos Islands sparking concerns that they will damage the marine eco-system in the area.

Ecuador's president Lenin Moreno had been tweeting over the weekend to boast about the security in place to protect the area surrounding the islands which he said is 'a hotbed of life for the entire planet'.

However, the Ecuadorian Navy has confirmed that around 260 fishing vessels have been spotted 200 miles from the islands' shores.

The Ecuadorian Navy has confirmed that around 260 fishing vessels have been spotted 200 miles from the Galapagos Islands

Blue Planet Society spokesperson John Hourston told Sky News that the Chinese vessels were sucking the life from the 'biodiversity jewel'. Pictured: A Chinese lighting vessel operating in North Korean waters on July 22, 2020

Now, volunteer pressure group Blue Planet Society have voiced their concern that the ocean is being destroyed in real time, the Scottish Sun reports.

Spokesperson John Hourston told Sky News: 'The threat that the industrial Chinese fishing fleet poses to the unique and spectacular marine life of the Galapagos archipelago cannot be overstated.'

He also said the vessels were 'sucking the life from this biodiversity jewel'.

'Marine life doesn't recognise lines on a map. Unless the high seas are given protection, the ocean is in danger of becoming become a lifeless desert.'

In response to the fishing fleet a Protection Strategy has been put in place by former Mayor of Quito Roque Sevilla and ex-environment minister Yolanda Kakabadse, alongside a team of specialists.

The islands are home to a large number of different aquatic species such as giant turtles, flamingos and albatrosses and inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution

Ecuador has now increased its naval patrols around the Galapagos Islands.

The islands are home to a large number of different aquatic species such as giant turtles, flamingos and albatrosses and inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Chinese fishing ships have strayed near the Galapagos previously and in 2017 one vessel was captured in 2017 in the Marine Reserve carrying 300 tons of wildlife.

Defence minister Oswaldo Jarrin said that the fleet is currently located in a corridor in international waters but that it is being kept under surveillance.
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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.
There have been mixed messages, inconsistencies and confusion over holidays abroad this summer.

Not any more. Despite the likelihood of thousands of holidaymakers having their travel plans ruined, the Prime Minister is, to borrow a phrase from one of his predecessors, not for turning.

Lets be absolutely clear about whats happening in Europe, amongst some of our European friends, Boris Johnson said yesterday as he defended the reintroduction of a 14-day quarantine on travellers from Spain.

Im afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic.

For airlines and travel companies, the cost of Covid-19 has already been horrendous.

And so the PM is desperate to avoid a second crippling wave  even if the reintroduction of quarantine raises more questions than answers...

So, whats changed?

At least 11 European countries have experienced a sudden increase in Covid-19 infections, some reaching higher numbers than in the UK. Spain, to where more than 18 million Britons go on holiday each year, has seen a spike in 15 of its 19 regions. All of which means that, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Spains rate of infection is 35.1 cases per 100,000 people  more than twice that of the UKs 14.7

The UK government has imposed an immediate two-week quarantine for anyone travelling to Spain and islands such as Malaga, above

Why was the advice altered about the Balearic islands?

Thats the question Spain is asking with growing impatience. Its government has accused Britain of overreacting.

But Covid cases in Spain rose by 75 per cent in just 48 hours last week.

And since many British tourists flip between the mainland and the Balearic islands, pulling the plug on the latter now was deemed the wise thing to do.

Can I travel anyway?

If youre willing to self-isolate at home for a couple of weeks afterwards, then yes. But before you go, you might as well tear up your travel insurance. Jet off against government advice and youll have to take full responsibility, including paying hospital bills. Not worth the risk.

Can I skip quarantine by returning via France?

It might work if youre happy to lie to UK Border Control about where youve been  i.e. not Spain  but it would be going against the latest advice, both technically and in spirit.

Your neighbours might not be too happy about it, either.

Will other countries be put on the no-go list?

Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, who himself was holidaying in Spain when the rules changed, is returning today amid fears that holidays could be axed in, among others, Germany, Croatia, Belgium and France  all of which have seen a rise in infections.

Lets just hope there will be more warning than there was over the Spain announcement, which has left more than 600,000 British tourists stranded and others in a state of flux.

What does quarantine really mean? On returning from a country on the Governments quarantine list, youll need to fill out a form and state where you will spend the next two weeks. You must then go straight home  although you are allowed to travel by public transport, which critics of the Government see as a glaring loophole.

Your 14-day period of self-isolation starts from the day after you arrive. You cannot leave home except for medical assistance, to attend court or go to a funeral. You can only shop for essentials if no one else can do it for you.

What if I break it?

You will be liable for a 1,000 fine. (But given only one man has been fined for breaching quarantine since the rules were first implemented in May, one suspects the police have better things to do.)

What about going outside Europe?

Youll be spoilt for choice, as it happens.

Most of the Caribbean is open for business and theres no need to quarantine on returning home. Its possible to fly direct one-way to Barbados in August (on the 25th) with BA from 280, while you can get direct return flights to Barbados in August from 562.

Other sunny countries deemed safe for travel include Mauritius, the Seychelles, Fiji and Vietnam.

If you really want to get away from it all then the Falkland Islands awaits, where there has not been one single death.
By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL, July 28 (Reuters) - North Korean women detained in prison camps suffered from torture, rape and other forms of "multiple and serious" violence by security and police officials, a U.N. human rights report said on Tuesday, citing accounts from over 100 women.

The women, detained between 2009 and 2019 after failing to flee the country, recounted in interviews with U.N. investigators in Seoul after their release, how they were deprived of food, sleep, daylight and fresh air while in the detention centres and prison camps.

Many also said in the report titled "I Still Feel The Pain" that they were subjected to torture, invasive body searches, forced abortions and even rape by authorities there. All of the women eventually managed to defect to South Korea.

"I did not sleep and worked because I did not want to be beaten. It was excruciating to a level that I even attempted to commit suicide," one woman was quoted as saying.

North Korea did not immediately react to the report but it has previously called criticism over its human rights record a "plot to overthrow" its regime.

Another woman recalled one of her first nights in detention in 2010 when she was raped by an officer.

"He threatened that ... I would be humiliated if I rejected him. He even told me he could help me to be released sooner if I did as he said," she said.

Gathering information in isolated North Korea is notoriously difficult, and the report acknowledged the lack of access to the country limited the agency's ability to verify the interviewees' accounts.

Daniel Collinge, a U.N. human rights officer who co-authored the report, said the project was aimed at putting pressure on Pyongyang to improve the situation, while urging other countries not to deport defectors who risk their lives to achieve freedom and prosperity.

South Korea's Moon Jae-in government, which is trying to improve ties with the North, recently came under criticism after revoking the licenses of defector groups and banning their campaigns to send anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border. (Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
A U.S. Marine prepares to pull down a billboard of Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein is 2003, after an invasion based on false intelligence. (Chris Hondros / Getty Images)

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After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a blue-ribbon commission and congressional committees uniformly blamed the U.S. national security apparatus for failing to "connect the dots" of evidence that might have exposed Osama bin Laden's plot.

Less than two years later, President George W. Bush launched a ruinous war in Iraq based on a far greater intelligence failure, one that saw the CIA, Pentagon and other agencies effectively make up the evidence that the White House sought to justify invading a country that had not attacked  or even threatened to attack  the United States.

The serial mistruths, mistakes and misperceptions about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction and alleged support for Al Qaeda are laid out in devastating detail in Robert Draper's authoritative new book, "To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America Into Iraq."

This is well-trod history, but Draper mines newly declassified documents and tracks down previously unavailable CIA and Defense officials to flesh out the sordid story of the run-up to the March 2003 invasion, the start of a grinding conflict that would last eight years and claim nearly 4,500 American lives.

Why now? Two decades on, there are no new headlines to be pulled from the toxic personal and policy disputes of the Bush era. But Draper has written a compelling narrative of just how calamitous an ideology-first approach to fact-finding can be in the White House, and why Americans were so badly deluded.

Unlike President Trump, who utters falsehoods daily, Bush was a true believer  which is exactly what made him impervious to conflicting evidence or doubts about the supposed Iraqi threat.

That folly has given Americans just cause to question U.S. intelligence estimates and, perhaps worse, has gifted Trump with a regular foil for jabs at experts and specialists even in his own administration. The erosion of trust that fueled his base is just one of the many poisonous after-effects of the war.

Story continues

The road to that war began a few days after the 2001 attacks, when Vice President Dick Cheney led his aides to CIA headquarters in Virginia. The nation's top spy agency was frantically searching for a follow-up assault by bin Laden, who was based in Afghanistan.

But Cheney insisted the CIA needed to focus on Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, despite the CIA briefer's conviction that there was no evidence of Iraqi involvement in the attacks. As one later said, it was like asking, "Did Belgium do this?"

Over the next year, Cheney and other ideologues would push their bogus theory, as well as increasingly dire but equally false claims that Hussein had secretly produced and stockpiled an arsenal of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

President George W. Bush, left, with his key advisers on the Iraq War: Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers. (Stephen Jaffe / AFP/Getty Images)

The Pentagon created its own so-called intelligence shop to funnel unsubstantiated reports to Cheney and Bush, many from informants with little credibility. Led by a deferential George Tenet, the CIA quickly fell in line, repeatedly strengthening its cautious assessments of the Iraqi threat to help the White House convince the public of an urgent danger.

Bush needed little convincing: he had ordered up Iraq war plans only two months after the Sept. 11 attacks. As Draper writes, the rush to war was driven by fear, not hard intelligence, and "by imagination, not facts." It was thus difficult for critics to push back when Bush warned, in October 2002, that "we cannot wait for the final proof  the smoking gun  that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."

Yet Iraq had no nuclear program, no poison gases, no shells filled with deadly viruses. U.N. inspectors had scoured the country for months, but their failure to find illicit weapons was viewed in Washington only as proof that Iraq had cleverly hidden them.

Was Iraq in league with bin Laden, as Cheney claimed? An Al Qaeda operative confessed under torture by Egyptian officials that "he had heard from an unnamed associate" of such a link. The coerced, third-hand and uncorroborated claim was enough for the White House, even though it was later deemed false.

The White House also embraced a single-source report from an unnamed informant who told Czech intelligence that he was "70% sure" that Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers, had met with an Iraqi diplomat in Prague in April 2001.

FBI records showed that Atta was stateside during the alleged meeting, and the Iraqi diplomat was not in Prague. But White House demands for details on Atta's whereabouts led one exhausted CIA analyst to respond tersely, "He's still dead."

Intelligence collection is a vast maw, and as one former CIA official told Draper, "You can always find what you want somewhere" amid the conflicting statements, unverified sightings, ambiguous imagery and likely falsehoods. That was especially true of the ultimate justification for the war  Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction. Warnings were dismissed, supportive evidence barely examined, careful analysis cast aside.

A Pentagon memo to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in mid-2002 warned that U.S. intelligence on Iraq's WMD programs was perhaps 90% "incomplete," for example. He shelved the memo.

Administration claims that Iraq sought to buy yellowcake uranium from the African nation of Niger were laughably easy to disprove: A quick check on Google showed that the supposed letter of agreement was a fraud.

But the White House was not deterred. Most famously, the CIA championed an Iraqi engineer code-named Curveball who told German intelligence that Saddam could churn out anthrax, smallpox and other deadly biological agents on trucks. No wonder spies couldn't find them!

The Germans warned that Curveball was unreliable and that no evidence backed up his claim; the CIA wasn't allowed to interview him. But his imaginary mobile germ factories became a linchpin of the tissue-thin U.S. case for war. A year after the invasion, the CIA determined that Curveball was a fabricator, just as the Germans had claimed since 2001. (Full disclosure: Draper interviewed me and cites my book on the Curveball case.)

And on it went. The errors and deceit multiplied, as did rosy predictions of being greeted by the Iraqis as liberators. U.S. intelligence agents flooded into Iraq after the invasion to hunt for WMD  and found nothing.

It got worse. The Pentagon pushed the State Department aside in planning for the postwar period and then stood back as Iraq erupted in violence. A U.S. order to disband the Iraqi army planted the seeds of the insurgency and civil war that followed.

Bush ultimately bears the blame. He relied on a national security team who believed they should support his judgments, not question them. Congress embraced the faith-based intelligence, and so did a cheerleading media.

Draper has written the most comprehensive account yet of that smoldering wreck of foreign policy, one that haunts us today.

Bob Drogin, the Washington deputy bureau chief for The Times, is the author of "Curveball: Spies, Lies and the Con Man Who Caused a War."
ED summons Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlots brother for questioning in money laundering case

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, July 28: The Enforcement Directorate has issued summons to Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot's brother Agrasain Gehlot asking him to appear before it in Delhi on Wednesday, in an alleged money laundering case linked to the fertiliser export scam that took place in 2007-2009.

Agrasen Gehlot is the promoter of seeds and fertiliser company named Anupam Krishi.

Rajasthan Crisis: Gehlot sends revised proposal to Governor, wants session from August 14

The summons comes at a time when CM Ashok Gehlot is battling to keep his government intact in Rajasthan after his former deputy, Sachin Pilot, rebelled along with 18 other MLAs.

On July 22, the Enforcement Directorate had searched his properties in connection with the case. The central probe agency had also conducted raids at 13 places spread across Rajasthan, West Bengal, Gujarat and Delhi, news agency PTI reported.

The ED has filed a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on a Customs department complaint and chargesheet in the alleged fertiliser scam case.

Sushant's father files FIR against Rhea Chakraborty | Oneindia News

The raids happened after the agency filed an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED equivalent of a police FIR, in the 2007-09 Customs department case registered for alleged irregularities in the procurement and export of subsidised Muriate of Potash (MOP) meant for farmers and investigation, in this case, was finalised in 2013.

The ED took cognisance of the Customs FIR and a July 13 charge sheet to press money-laundering charges to probe a "smuggling syndicate" allegedly run by Agrasain Gehlot, his firm Anupam Krishi and others, officials said.

The agency said the case pertains to fraudulent export of MOP in the guise of industrial salts to buyers based in Malaysia and Taiwan. The MOP is a restricted commodity for exports so that it is easily available to farmers in the country.

The raids happened at a time when a political slugfest was on between CM Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot. Pilot, a former Union minister, was sacked as Rajasthan deputy CM and PCC chief recently.

Responding to the raids, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala told reporters in Jaipur, "Prime Minister Modi has created 'raid raj' in the country but we are not going to be scared." When the Centre's "gimmicks" failed to topple the Congress government in Rajasthan, ED raids started at the premises of Gehlot's elder brother, he had said.

Agrasain Gehlot and his firm were slapped with over Rs 60 crore penalty by the Customs department for these alleged export irregularities in 2013. It is alleged that Gehlot's company "diverted" 35,000 metric tonnes of MOP that had a value of Rs 130 crore in the international market.

The ED alleged Agrasain Gehlot, in his capacity as a dealer, was the custodian of the MOP and was "solely responsible" for its proper distribution to farmers, and his alleged connivance with the company Saraf Impex Pvt Ltd and others resulted in the diversion of MOP that was imported by Indian Potash Limited at a concessional rate of duty.
A top Obama administration health official has said the United States could virtually eliminate the coronavirus any time we decide to if the country were to take universal steps in controlling the virus.

Andy Slavitt, the former acting administrator of the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Barack Obama, shared a 38-tweet thread about what the country could be doing during the pandemic.

We can virtually eliminate the virus any time we decide to, Mr Slavitt wrote. We can be back to a reasonably normal existence: schools, travel, job growth, safer nursing homes & other settings. And we could do it in a matter of weeks. If we want to.

Charts from other countries were then shared by the health official to show how other places were able to control the spread of the novel virus.

He used the examples of Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and Spain to show how each country has given the US tools against the pandemic.

Dont tell me the US cant take action if we want to, he wrote.

A six-step kitchen sink plan was recommended by the health official. If the US implemented the six steps immediately, Mr Slavitt said it could be with the goal of being open for business in October  meaning schools, in person voting, sports, everything.

The plan would involve a 90 per cent lockdown instead of a 50 per cent lockdown, which is what the country implemented in March into April. It was only 50 per cent lockdown because not all states shut down and there were still a lot of essential employees going to work that would instead stay home.

Other steps involved universal mask wearing, prohibiting interstate travel, prohibiting travel between countries, keeping all hot spot locations closed like bars and restaurants, and using hotels to house people with Covid-19 symptoms away from their families.

Mr Slavitt admitted this plan would mean the economy would take a several week hit and extended unemployment insurance would be necessary to address how many Americans would lose their jobs.

But the plan would still allow for people to go outside and gather safely with friends.

So what would happen? At first, absolutely nothing, Mr Slavitt wrote, Cases would still grow from the prior weeks & the incubation period. Hospitals would still be full. We would still see people die.

He added: The COVID truthers would have a field day, tweeting every day the same routine.

By the end of the eight weeks, Mr Slavitt said the US would not be at zero cases, but instead there would be embers of the virus left behind. These embers, though, would be controllable by health officials in every area, as they would be able to quickly test, isolate, and trace the virus in each individual impacted.

It also would give healthcare professionals a chance to catch their breath, and create an excess of ventilators and PPE for people to use.

Whether we do this or not, lets not pretend this isnt an option, Mr Slavitt said.

We will do this. There is no other way. The question is when. The question is who will convince us. The question is the leadership it takes, he added at the end of his thread. But theres not much question if we should.

More than 4.2 million people have tested positive for the coronavirus and the US was nearing the 150,000 death toll mark with 147,253 deaths as of Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

At his first coronavirus press briefings in weeks, Mr Trump appeared to change tones by admitting the problem would get worse before it got better. He even cancelled the in-person Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Florida, for a virtual option in North Carolina.

But the Trump administration has not indicated if it would consider a kitchen sink plan that would shut down a majority of the country.
Brad Pitt has scored an Emmy Award nomination for his guest appearance on sketch show Saturday Night Live (Jennifer Graylock/PA)

Brad Pitt has scored an Emmy Award nomination for his guest appearance on sketch show Saturday Night Live.

The Hollywood star  who won an Oscar earlier this year  has been recognised by the TV academy for his portrayal of Dr Anthony Fauci, who has become the face of Americas fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Pitt took the role after Dr Fauci jokingly suggested he should play him.

Expand Close Brad Pitt has earned an Emmy nomination for his guest appearance on Saturday Night Live (David Parry/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Brad Pitt has earned an Emmy nomination for his guest appearance on Saturday Night Live (David Parry/PA)

Pitt, 56, is nominated in the guest actor in a comedy series category alongside British actor Dev Patel for Modern Love and Adam Driver and Eddie Murphy, both for SNL.

Luke Kirby for The Marvellous Mrs Maisel and the late Fred Willard for Modern Family complete the list of nominees.

Pitt played Dr Fauci in an April episode of SNL, which was produced remotely due to the pandemic.

The leading immunologist later praised the portrayal and said: I think he did great. I mean, Im a great fan of Brad Pitt, and thats the reason why when people ask me whod I like to play me I mention Brad Pitt because hes one of my favourite actors. I think he did a great job.

During the sketch, Pitt broke character to send a message to frontline workers who had risked their lives during the health crisis.

And to the real Dr Fauci, thank you for your calm and your clarity in this unnerving time, Pitt said. And thank you to the medical workers, first responders and their families for being on the front line.
India Deploys T-90 Tanks in Ladakh as Satellite Images Show Massive Military Build-up by China

Sputnik News

07:06 GMT 27.07.2020

New Delhi (Sputnik): Satellite images have captured an additional build-up of troops and equipment by the Chinese People's Liberation Army in the Aksai Chin area. The Indian government has expedited weapons and troop deployment after making an assessment that PLA troops are preparing for a long and harsh winter in the Himalayas.

India has started deploying a squadron (12) of T-90 missile-firing tanks, armoured personnel carriers, and a full troop brigade (4,000 men) to Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) to prevent any possible Chinese incursion from the Shaksgam-Karakoram pass axis in the Ladakh region, as per military commanders quoted by the Indian news daily Hindustan Times.

The move has reportedly come after disengagement talks failed to topple the Chinese military build-up, wherein the People's Liberation Army (PLA) deployed close to 50,000 troops in Aksai Chin.

Since the bridges on the Darbuk-Shyok-DBO road cannot handle the weight of a 46-tonne T-90 tank, the missile firing tanks were deployed by fording the rivers and rivulets using specialised equipment. The army has also deployed infantry combat vehicles, US-made M-777 155mm howitzers, and 130 mm guns at multiple locations in eastern Ladakh which include DBO, Galwan, and Pangong Tso.

The satellite images have shown large concentrations of troops in the Tibet Autonomous Region and the use of possible tunnels to amass equipment, Indian news website ThePrint has claimed. The assessment of a new build-up has suggested that the People's Liberation Army appears to be getting ready for a long and harsh winter.

Satellite images from 21 July by @detresfa shows a PLA build-up in Shiquanhe, Tibet. The fresh build-up includes about 5,000 troops and equipment. Helipads have also come up in the area, and fresh construction is going on.

Since the disengagement talks are nowhere near over, the Indian Army is matching the troop strength while keeping an eye on the PLA's movement along the Line of Actual Control.

The military and diplomatic level talks since the violent face-off on 15 June, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed, has resulted in disengagement only in the Galwan Valley. Indian Army sources said that Beijing has not yet withdrawn its troops from either Pangong Tso or the Depsang Valley.

Chinese troops are almost 8 kilometres inside Indian territory in the Depsang Valley, as per government sources. India and China are in one of the longest border standoffs, which began in the last week of April after Beijing raised objections over infrastructure development by New Delhi along the loosely demarcated border.

A Sputnik

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An Essex County woman who lost her hospital job after photos of her surfaced at an anti-Black Lives Matter rally  appearing to throw a Nazi salute  is planning to sue her employer, the womans attorney said Tuesday.

Valerie Pastore, 62, of Nutley, was dismissed from Hackensack Meridian Health after photos of her in a MAGA hat attending a rally were posted to Twitter, according to attorney Joseph Tripodi.

But Pastore was neither supporting the opposition of the Black Lives Matter movement nor throwing a Nazi salute, Tripodi told NJ Advance Media on Tuesday. She heard protesters were going to pull down a Christopher Columbus statue and she wanted to voice her opposition to that action, Tripodi said.

She just wanted to protect the statue, thats the essence of it, Tripodi said. She wasnt doing a Nazi salute, shes not a Nazi sympathizer  thats absurd.

The counterprotest took place June 26 near a statue of the famous Italian explorer at Chestunt Street and Kennedy Drive in Nutley. Pastore lives nearby and heard protesters were going to take down the statue, her lawyer said.

After a tense standoff, the other group began departing (without removing the statue). As they were departing, Valerie began waving goodbye to them, Tripodi said, adding that the moment was captured on video.

In the video, which was posted online by TAPInto Nutley, Pastore extends her arms and waves at the protesters. Its a gesture that Tripodi says shows his client very clearly waving.

After the rally, still photos of Pastore appeared on social media, including the one where her hand is raised. Soon after, Pastore lost her job as director of physician recruitment for Hackensack Meridian Health at Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair, Tripodi said.

Prejudice and hate of any kind has no place in our hospital. This matter is being reviewed and addressed by our leadership team. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.  Hackensack Meridian (@HMHNewJersey) June 30, 2020

In a letter on Monday to Pastores employers, Tripodi accuses the organization of bowing to a Twitter mob that demanded the termination and reputational lynching of Valerie.

Tripodi said Hackensack Meridian Health and Mountainside conducted a sham investigation into the deliberately false, reprehensible, outrageous accusation that Valerie had given a Nazi salute during a recent demonstration.

The day after the photo appeared on Twitter, Hackensack Meridian Health tied a veritable cyber noose around Valeries neck by proudly tweeting to the mob that our client had been terminated, implying despicably that there was truth to mobs heinous accusations, Tripodi said in the letter.

In a series of tweets and retweets from July 2 through July 9, the company rebroadcast its implicit conclusion that Valerie is a Nazi sympathizer  all in cowardly attempts to shield itself from the Twitter lynch mob, the letter said.

A spokeswoman for Hackensack Meridian Health did not respond Tuesday to requests for comment.

@HMHNewJersey Is Valerie Pastore the type of employee that represents your organization? pic.twitter.com/sd4eqjbkuf  Katie Newcomb (@NewcombHome) July 4, 2020

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. This individual is no longer an employee at our organization.  Hackensack Meridian (@HMHNewJersey) July 2, 2020

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Vodafone is a serial disappointment to investors, in spite of its habit of tossing out a big cash bone as when it sold its hugely valuable stake in Verizon Wireless.

An unimpressive board, headed by a sub-octane chairman Gerard Kleisterlee, is choosing to float what it describes as 'Europe's leading tower company' in Frankfurt rather than the UK.

Its rationale for doing so is that it has established a corporate headquarters for Vantage Towers in Dusseldorf, and a large part of the enterprise will be on the Continent. This ignores facts on the ground which are that more than 14,000 major mast sites are in the UK and Vodafone, from its earliest days, has been a wholly British creation.

Signing off: Vodafone has an unimpressive board, headed by a sub-octane chairman Gerard Kleisterlee

As a spin-off from the late Ernest Harrison's Racal, Vodafone used its London-quoted equity and the City's global debt market capacity to conquer the world.

This included what, at the time, was the world's biggest takeover when it bought Mannesmann of Germany for 125billion in 2000. UK investors placed their faith in the then chief executive Sir Christopher Gent to create the first global mobile telecoms provider of the digital era. There have many moments of tension between Voda and long-term investors. Generally they have been supportive and Vodafone has used the flexibility of a London quote to become among the most renowned dealmakers in Britain. It was only a year ago that it landed control of Liberty Global.

Under the proposed arrangements, Vantage Towers will be partially floated in Frankfurt with Vodafone retaining a majority stake. As the initial public offering is likely to be the largest in Europe next year, the decision to choose Germany is a major snub to the City. Contrast this with the dowager of British insurance, the Prudential. When it split its international operations in Asia and the US from its domestic operations in Britain, it made a deliberate decision to keep the global side, bearing the Prudential name, in London, which allowed it to bridge different time zones and to have access to the financial skills of the City.

If Vodafone were better advised, and had a board which better understood UK investment culture, it would have looked at the precedents. Unilever received a bloody nose when its weighted Dutch board sought to switch domicile from London to Rotterdam. Plumbing group Ferguson and medical devices champion Smith & Nephew both reversed course on switching domicile to the US after the intervention of UK long investors unable to hold overseas shares.

A Frankfurt quote for Vantage Towers would create significant problems and punish loyalty. Chief executive Nick Read should think again rather than risk a bitter struggle with the company's reputation and share price the losers.

Pharmacy makeover

Ownership of the world's largest pharmacy and medicine supply chain in a pandemic might appear a licence to print money. It hasn't worked like that for Stefano Pessina, the 79-year-old chief executive and biggest shareholder in Walgreens Boots who is stepping down as chief executive without naming a successor.

Pessina achieved much of his ambition to be a global leader in pharma, starting with wholesale pharmacy and distribution in Continental Europe before capturing the imagination with a series of audacious retail takeovers including Boots in the UK and Walgreens in the US. There was no shortage of ambition, with Pessina promising to bring the magic of Boots Number 7 to the Americans via Walgreens. It hasn't quite worked like that.

American retail is very different from Europe, and firing up Walgreens has been a Herculean task. Saddled with a debt mountain in lockdown, neither Walgreens or Boots were able to cash in as consumers chose to buy their beauty products and Panadol online rather than on the High Street. Pessina now takes on the title of executive chairman and plans to think strategically.

Among the more obvious moves would be to break up the empire he created, re-floating Boots and the Continental enterprises  but not in Frankfurt!

Rolls rescue
An orca who carried her dead calf with her for 17 days and more than 1,000 miles back in 2018 is pregnant again, drone images have revealed.

Dubbed Tahlequah, or J35, the orca  or 'killer whale'  touched hearts around the world when news of her grieving process spread.

Researchers studying the southern resident killer whale populations in Puget Sound noted three pregnancies among the so-called J, K and L pods  one of which was Tahlequah, who is around 21 years old, the Seattle Times reported.

Although pregnancies in themselves are not uncommon, Tahlequah's carries special meaning in the wake of her past loss.

An orca who carried her dead calf with her for 17 days and more than 1,000 miles back in 2018 is pregnant again, drone images (pictured: last year left and this month, right) have revealed

Population ecologist John Durban of Southall Environmental Associates and marine mammal expert Holly Fearnbach from SR3 (Sealife Response + Rehab + Research) have been undertaking long-term studies of the orcas visiting Puget Sound.

The use of remote-controlled drone surveillance from 100 feet up the air has allowed the researchers to assess the body conditions of the whales non-invasively.

Unfortunately, the southern resident whales in the Pacific  of which there are currently only 72  are endangered, meaning that new births are vital.

Tahlequah's calf was the first to be born among the group in three years  as some two-thirds of their pregnancies typically fail  although two more calves have been born and survived since.

Although Tahlequah gave birth to one calf in 2010 that survives to this day  'J47', also known as 'Notch'  the outlook for her current pregnancy is sadly grim.

Having miscarried a calf in mid-2010, before losing the one born in 2018, experts fear she will likely also lose the one that she is currently carrying. Her gestation period will last some 18 months.

'We are concerned if she has a calf, will she be able to look after herself and the calf and J47 [her existing, alive calf], too?' Dr Durban told the Seattle Times.

'There has been a lot of talk I am not sure a lot has changed for the whales.'

According to experts, a lack of salmon  and resulting stress from hunger  has been linked to the southern resident whale's poor reproductive circumstances.

They are also threatened by pollution and underwater noise  with the latter disrupting the orca's sound-based hunting ability.

The researchers are concerned that a number of the juveniles in the three pods are looking thin  including Tahlequah's living calf, J47.

'There are stressed whales out there, critically stressed,' Dr Fearnbach told the Seattle Times, adding that the drone study has shown the whales to be spread out in small groups.

This, she explained, is a sign that they are working hard to find food  and spending correspondingly less time socialising.

Dubbed Tahlequah, or J35, the around 21-year-old orca  or 'killer whale'  touched hearts around the world when news of her grieving process spread. Tahlequah carried her dead calf with her, balanced on her forehead, for 17 days before letting it go

Both the researchers said that while conducting their field studies this year they observed a considerable amount of boat traffic in the area that the whales frequent  much of it travelling far too fast, which also creates more underwater noise.

'People need to appreciate these are special whales in a special place at a vulnerable time,' Dr Durban told the Seattle Times, adding that boats should give the animals the space and the quiet that they need to survive.

He concluded: 'These whales deserve a chance.'
By Akbar Mammadov

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev signed the Order on additional measures to ensure the efficient use of water resources, the presidential website has reported.

The new order was signed in a bid to increase water resources in the country, to improve the supply of drinking water and irrigation water to consumers.

In this regard, the president approved the "Action Plan for 2020-2022 on ensuring efficient use of water resources".

In line with the order, the Cabinet of Ministers has been instructed to approve every year the water balance of the country for the last three years on the basis of the actual, expected and forecast indicators of the current year.

Furthermore, the Cabinet of Ministers has been ordered to approve the rules of paid water use in coordination with the President of Azerbaijan within two months and ensure the organization of accounting for paid water use among economic entities in accordance with these rules and with the Water Code of Azerbaijan.

Additionally, the commission established by the Presidential Order (dated April 15 2020) "On measures to ensure the efficient use of water resources", will coordinate the activities of state bodies (institutions) during the implementation of the Action Plan and provide regular information to the president on the results of the work done.

The Commission will also ensure the cooperation with scientific institutions (organizations), specialists, non-governmental organizations, international experts and international financial institutions in order to ensure efficient and economical use of water resources in the fields of irrigation, drinking water supply, energy and industry.

According to the order, the Ministry of Economy will provide submission of relevant information on the state cadastre of lands and the state register of real estate to Azmelsutasarrufat OJSC and Azersu OJSC in connection with the implementation of the envisaged measures in the Action Plan.

Furthermore, jointly with the Ministry of Finance, the ministry will submit proposals to the president on the financial resources required for the implementation of the measures provided for in this Order in line with the terms of implementation of these measures.

Moreover, Azercosmos OJSC has been instructed to provide the necessary support to the Commission's activities related to the assessment of water resources and ensuring their efficient use via satellite services.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
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Installing overhead charging cables to power fleets of electric lorries would almost entirely eliminate UK road freight transport emissions by the late 2030s, according to a new government-funded report published this month.

The Centre for Sustainable Road Freight's white paper on 'e-highways' said they would cost an estimated 19.3billion to implement the overhead lines, similar to those used on the rail network, but the savings from the technology would pay back the investment within 15 years.

It's the latest measure being considered by government to reduce motorway pollution as part of a wider Clean Air plan.

Other proposals, which include changes to the 70mph speed limit, emission-capturing tunnels and barriers, and huge electric-car charging forecourts, would - if given the green light - drastically change the look of the country's fastest-moving roads.

Could e-highways be coming to the UK? Overhead lines on motorways could help all but eliminate road freight pollution, a new report claims

The overhead lines are similar to those used on the rail network and lorries would be able to connect to them using rigs attached to the roof of the cab

1. E-highways: What are they and how would they work?

The SRF has looked into the eco benefits of introducing catenary cables in lane one of 4,300 miles of the UK's busiest motorways for freight.

The charging lines link to lorries fitted with extendable rigs known as a pantographs, which would be mounted to the cabs of electric trucks.

The energy from the cables would be able to power the lorry's electric motor en route but also recharge an onboard battery so the vehicle could reach their final destinations away from an e-highway while still using electric power.

The report says the Government could tax the electricity used by electrified lorries, enabling it to recover not just the costs of the installation but also the revenues lost from taxation of diesel fuel.

The overhead catenary system is described in the paper as a 'safe technology' that's commonplace in the railway sector.

They can be built into motorways using overhead structures that holds two catenary cable systems.

These wires supply the positive and negative electrical circuit that is picked up through a pantograph collector on the roof of the HGV.

A lorry would be free to leave the wires to overtake or complete its journey away from the catenary using a separate on-board battery, which would be approximately the size of an electric car battery, also providing zero tailpipe emissions at all times.

Rigs on top of electric or hybrid HGVs would be able to link to the charging cables to not only power the electric motors in the lorries but also charge their batteries so they can continue on journeys away from e-highways while still using electric power

The overhead catenary system is described in the paper as a 'safe technology' that's commonplace in the railway sector

The SRF report claims that the initial phase of installing e-highway technology on the busiest freight roads would take two years, cost 5.6billion and electrify the major routes that account for almost a third of all HGV use in the UK.

Two more phases will follow to expand an electrified network for the next generation of low-emission freight lorries.

The overhead lines would be powered by the national electricity grid, which is likely to set alarm bells ringing as concerns continue to mount about an increase in demand and eventual strain that will be caused when more drivers switch to electric vehicles that will commonly be charging overnight.

That said, the UK National Grid has also this week released a report looking into making its future sustainable, highlighting intentions for it to be carbon emissions negative by 2033 as it switches to renewable energy supplies.

E-highways are already being developed and tested at makeshift sites in Germany, Sweden and the US by tech firm Siemens and HGV-maker Scania.

This image shows a track with electric overhead contact wire for hybrid trucks on e-Highway in Luebeck, Germany

The Guardian reports that officials from the UK's Department for Transport were scheduled to visit a test sites in Germany in March, but the trip was suspended due to the restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic.

Academics at SRF said a near-20billion investment in the technology in the UK would put all but the remotest parts of the country within reach of electric trucks by the late 2030s.

The centre is backed by government research grants and industry partners, including major freight businesses such as John Lewis, Sainsbury's and Tesco.

While the thought over overhead lines above a motorway might sound like an extreme measure, the government is coming under increasing pressure to find ways of reducing pollution levels on major roads.

Officials from the UK's Department for Transport were scheduled to visit the test sites in Germany in March, but the trip was suspended due to the restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic

The road freight sector is widely known to be a significant contributor to the climate crisis, accounting for five per cent of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions in 2018, according to government figures.

Last week, This is Money reported on Highways England's failure to spend a 75million fund aimed at reducing motorway-related emissions over the last five years.

Other significant changes to motorways we might see

Motorists are already having to get their heads around the concept of 'smart motorways', which includes overhead gantries that provide speed-limit and lane-closure information, and four-lane routes without a hard shoulder.

But, along with e-highways, there are plenty of other suggestions being put forward for the adaptations of major trunk roads to curb harmful-emissions levels.

This is Money has outlined four additional measures being mulled to reduce air pollution and promote electric-car ownership that could entirely change the landscape of the motorways we know...

The Government has already toyed with the concept of installing emission tunnels on UK motorways to stop harmful pollutants spreading to nearby communities

2. Use of 'pollution tunnels' to contain emissions

Highways England in 2017 confirmed it was considering covering stretches of motorway in 'emission tunnels' to protect locals from dangerous levels of pollution.

The agency said in an air quality strategy that it is exploring the possibility of building physical canopies around main roads to soak up car fumes.

In its report, Highways England says it is 'investigating if we can reduce the costs to construct a canopy, which is a tunnel-like structure designed to prevent vehicle emissions reaching our neighbours'.

A scheme in the Netherlands was seen as the litmus test, which uses cantilevered canopies built over the most polluted sections of motorways to trap damaging pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), which have been closely linked to causing thousands of premature deaths each year.

Highways England is already trialling the use of air quality barriers that also shield nearby towns and cities from the harmful pollutants emitted by cars, vans and HGVs

3. More emissions barriers to block pollutants escaping into nearby towns

Highways England is already trialling 'air quality barriers' around the country, with the first erected on the M62 near Simister, Greater Manchester in 2015, costing 2.5million.

These were four-metre-high structures running along either side of a 100-metre long stretch of the road, which were later increased to a height of six metres in 2016.

Further trials, which use a barrier coated in a mineral polymer material to absorb nitrogen dioxide, have also been put in place at various locations.

According to Highways England, the barriers, which have been tested in other European countries work by 'dispersing emissions and can act as an effective safeguard to communities near busy roads'.

A review of NOx emissions levels at motorways in England could see some having speed limits reduced from next year, though the Transport Secretary is also believed to be considering an increase to the national speed limit on motorways for the future when most will be driving EVs

4. Lower speed limits to cut NOx outputs from petrol and diesel vehicles - then increase it to reduce journey times when electric cars are mainstream

Highways England, the Department for Transport and the Joint Air Quality Unit have reviewed 101 sections of the strategic road network and assessed their compliance with legal limits for NOx.

However, the result of this review will not be published until next year, when the company will name which motorways requiring mitigation - and this could mean lowered speed limits.

There are already speed limit reduction trials in place on four section of UK motorway that have been identified among the sections where NOx levels are illegally high.

These are parts of the M32 near Bristol, the A1 at Blaydon, Tyneside, the M4 around Harlington, London, and the M621 in close proximity to Leeds, with most of these sections being cut by 10mph to 60mph.

Highways England suggested more trials were due to go ahead before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

However, there is a counter argument for the surge in electric cars on British roads to pave the way for the limit to be increased by 10mph rather than reduced to cut journey times without impacting on pollution.

Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, told a debate at the Conservative party conference last year: 'On 80mph speed limits, I've been thinking about this issue and maybe even sought advice on the subject of late.

'I think there is an argument for looking at our speed limits, both in terms of higher speed limits and actually lower limits  20mph outside of schools.

'When it was last looked at in 2011, reviewing the last submission to ministers on the subject, it was thought the carbon emission addition would be too great.'

Mr Shapps said being the owner of an electric car made him reconsider whether the emissions impact of an increased motorway speed limit would 'still be the case'.

Specially-created electric forecourts are being built around the country to supply rapid charging solutions for plug-in car owners who are using their low-emission cars for long journeys

5. Arrival of new supercharging forecourts for electric vehicles

The first of a 1billion nationwide network of more than 100 custom-built electric forecourts opens this summer near Braintree in Essex, close to the M11 motorway.

The company behind the network, Gridserve, says it will charge 24 electric vehicles at once with superchargers that can deliver up to 350kW of charging power that will allow motorists to charge their vehicles within 20 to 30 minutes while they grab a coffee or do a bit of shopping, and much faster in the future as battery technologies mature.

It aims to have a full UK-wide network operational within five years on busy routes and near powerful grid connections close to towns, cities and major transport hubs.

The project has been backed by a 4.9million grant from Innovate UK and could see more pop up around busy motorways to supplement EV owners on extended journeys using the network.
NEW YORK, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM), operator of financial markets for 10,000 U.S. and global securities, today introduced Bank Holding Company corporate data, commonly referred to as "Y9" data, to its otcmarkets.com website. This latest enhancement provides more robust, comprehensive financial reports for the vast majority of the 550 U.S. community banks trading on the OTCQX, OTCQB, and Pink markets.

Banks and bank holding companies are required by law to submit this data to the Federal Reserve. Bank Holding Company data was originally intended to provide federal regulators with their examination and offsite supervision duties. However, by making this data publicly available, regulators are also providing the investor community with a consolidated level of financial disclosure for publicly traded bank holding companies and their subsidiary commercial bank and non-bank entities. This data can prove valuable to investors, as it often contains details of corporate-level financing activity that are not directly attributed to an operating subsidiary.

"As we continue to integrate Qaravan and OTC data sets, we recognize the need to provide a more detailed, holistic representations of publicly traded banks beyond their corporate structure," said Matthew Fuchs, Executive Vice President of Market Data and Strategy at OTC Markets Group. "Broadening the scope and availability of our community bank data sets provides investors with additional disclosures and context to provide a greater level of transparency for our OTCQX, OTCQB and Pink markets."

Following the introduction of Corporate Structure data and optimization of Call Reports with interactive historical data trend charts, Bank Holding Company (Y9) reports are the latest data set to be integrated into the otcmarkets.com website. Five years of historical bank holding company reports are now accessible through the security's individual quote page, under the "Filings and Disclosure" information tab. This data will also be made available through Canari, OTC Markets Groups' web-based compliance interface.

About Qaravan Inc.

Qaravan is part of OTC Market Group's comprehensive Market Data offerings specifically designed to provide intuitive risk & performance analytics tailored to banking and finance industry professionals. Designed to provide bank management, boards of directors and regulators with an enhanced portfolio of research, reporting, metrics and analytics, Qaravan's data platform includes modules that are relevant across the entire banking ecosystem.

For more information about Qaravan, please visit www.qaravan.com or contact Chris Grant at [email protected]. To learn more about Canari from OTC Markets Group, please visit https://canari.otcmarkets.com.

To learn more about the products and services OTC Markets Group provides for community banks, please contact Laura Hamilton at [email protected].

About OTC Markets Group Inc.

https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/OTCM/overview?utm_source=Press%20release&utm_medium=Press%20release&utm_campaign=Qaravan&utm_term=Qaravan OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates the OTCQX Best Market, the OTCQB Venture Market and the Pink Open Market for 10,000 U.S. and global securities. Through OTC Link ATS and OTC Link ECN, we connect a diverse network of broker-dealers that provide liquidity and execution services. We enable investors to easily trade through the broker of their choice and empower companies to improve the quality of information available for investors.

To learn more about how we create better informed and more efficient markets, visit www.otcmarkets.com.

OTC Link ATS and OTC Link ECN are SEC regulated ATSs, operated by OTC Link LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.

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Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden's search for a running mate for the Nov. 3 election is drawing to a close.

Biden has vowed to choose a woman as his potential vice president. Here are the contenders likely under final consideration, according to people familiar with the process that is expected to wrap up by early August.

Senator Kamala Harris

Following widespread protests over racial injustice and police brutality, pressure increased on Biden to choose a woman of color. Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian parents, fits the bill.

Harris, 55, is widely viewed as a favorite to run alongside Biden. She is a battle-tested former presidential candidate and ex-prosecutor who has shown an ability to go on the attack - a valued asset for a running mate. A first-term senator from California, she has already been heavily vetted by the media and rival campaigns.

Harris endorsed Biden after dropping out of the race. But her criticism of him during a Democratic primary debate about his opposition to school busing rankled some people close to Biden, who worry about her ambition and loyalty.

Former national security adviser Susan Rice

Rice, 55, served as President Barack Obama's national security adviser during his second term, where she worked hand in hand on foreign policy matters with Biden, who was Obama's vice president.

Prior to that, Rice served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Obama and has advised several other Democratic presidential candidates on national security.

A Black woman, Rice could help drive the African-American vote, the Democratic Partys most loyal constituency. But she has never run for public office, which means she would be untested on the campaign trail. Her involvement in the controversy over the 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, could revive that incident as a campaign issue.

Representative Val Demings

Biden has said Demings, 63, an African-American congresswoman from the election battleground state of Florida, is on the shortlist for running mate.

The former Orlando police chief served as one of the managers of the House of Representatives' impeachment proceedings against Republican President Donald Trump but has a lower profile among voters nationally.

Demings' background in law enforcement and her relatively unvetted past as police chief could be viewed as risk factors to a Biden campaign that wants to appeal to progressive voters.

Representative Karen Bass

A late addition to Biden's shortlist, Bass, a congresswoman from Southern California and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, would add a progressive voice to the ticket.

Bass has an extensive background in police reform efforts and has spearheaded the legislative response in the House to the killing of George Floyd by police in May. But at 66, she may not offer the prospect of generational transition that Biden wants to show.

Senator Tammy Duckworth

Duckworth, 52, has a compelling personal story and would help bolster the campaign's national security credentials.

The senator from Illinois is a combat veteran who lost her legs when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004. She went on to become the first woman with a disability and the first Thai-American elected to Congress. Duckworth, however, has not been on the forefront of civil justice issues like Harris, Bass and others on Biden's list.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms

Bottoms, 50, is the first-term mayor of a city that has been riven by protests over Floyd's death and the shooting of another Black man, Rayshard Brooks, by Atlanta police in June. Atlanta also has been a hot spot in the coronavirus pandemic, putting Bottoms on the front lines of the country's two largest challenges of the moment.

While Bottoms was an early supporter of Biden, her lack of experience on the federal level may doom her chances. Biden, who would be the oldest U.S. president, has insisted his No. 2 be ready to assume the presidency at any time.

Senator Elizabeth Warren

Warren, 71, has spoken with Biden regularly since dropping out of the Democratic nominating race and endorsing him. The senator from Massachusetts is seen by Biden advisers as a bridge between the former vice president and people skeptical of his commitment to progressive policy priorities.

The selection of Warren, however, could fuel allegations by the Trump campaign that Biden favors an overly leftist agenda, while potentially alienating moderate voters in battleground states that Biden is cultivating.

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham

Lujan Grisham, 60, became the first Latina Democratic governor of a state in 2018, after serving six years in Congress. Biden's campaign has been pushed by allies to consider a running mate who could boost his support among Latino voters, potentially the largest minority voting bloc in the November election.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer

Whitmer, 48, raised her profile as the governor of a battleground state hit hard by the coronavirus. But she came under fire earlier this year from some Michigan residents for a stay-at-home order that they viewed as too onerous.

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He recently returned to EastEnders after filming was suspended in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

And Jake Wood, 48, proved he's finding ingenious ways to adapt to his new routine as he arrived on set in his red convertible Mini on Tuesday.

The actor, who plays Max Branning, made sure he could sail through the checks by keeping the roof down and having his temperature read from the driver's seat.

New normal: Jake Wood, 48, arrived in style for EastEnders filming on Tuesday and made getting his coronavirus temperature check easy as he left his Mini's roof down

Jake appeared to be in good spirits as he approached the gate and moved his head slightly towards a man wearing a face guard.

He made sure to put on a stylish display as he drove to work in his car, which is worth around 20,000, donning a green hoodie and pair of sunglasses.

Filming of EastEnders was halted for a few months because of the pandemic but actors are now getting back to Albert Square to continue recording.

Although recording resumed at the beginning of July it is unclear when exactly new episodes will air.

Back to work: The actor, who plays Max Branning, appeared to be in good spirits as he chatted to the man on the gate

Helping out: Jake tilted his head towards the man, leaning in for the temperature check

However a sneak peak from Stacey Dooley's spin-off Secrets From The Square had Jake revealing that his character will have a major storyline, reports The Sun.

He said: 'Max has got himself embroiled in a very unpleasant situation when we come back. It's something completely different for him, it's very surprising and unexpected.'

Stalwarts including Danny, Adam Woodyatt and Jake have been seen adhering to social distancing guidelines while filming their scenes.

All good: The star did a thumbs up as he drove through the gate and got to filming

Taking precautions: As well as the temperature checks, the cast of EastEnders have to stay distanced while on set and many scenes will be CGI

According to Jake CGI is being used in almost every shot for the new episodes.

The star spoke to Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain after his first day back on set earlier in July.

He said: 'It's going to take a bit of getting used to. We're all socially distant so everyone is two metres apart. It's quite extraordinary the way were shooting it, the way we're filming it.'

'They've been there for weeks working out the way to do it. We've seen some of the stuff they've shot, it's very very clever. You're not going to notice a difference as a viewer. Almost every shot has got CGI in it.'

Back at it: Adam Woodyatt (Ian Beale), Clay Milner Russell (Bobby Beale) and Jake (Max Branning) are seen practicing social distancing guidelines while filming new episodes

Those on set now have to follow new social distancing guidelines in accordance with government regulation so that they are able to return safely amid the crisis.

The programme aired its final episode earlier this month after running out of episodes due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The hit BBC One soap is keeping 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 possible.

Distancing: Another scene from the upcoming episodes shows Adam [Ian Beale] dressed to impress in a suit as he films scenes outside Kathy's cafe with Milly Zero [Dotty Cotton]

The programme is set to return to the BBC with 20-minute episodes, four days a week.

Until now, only two pre-filmed EastEnders episodes have aired a week to make them last as long as possible.

Until the new episodes air, the show is plugging the gap with classic EastEnders episodes and a spin-off show featuring presenter Stacey Dooley.
Enhanced unemployment benefits that the US Congress authorised early in the coronavirus pandemic are due to expire at the end of July and thus far lawmakers have been unable to agree on a measure to extend them. Economists warn that could make it harder for jobless people to cover their expenses, potentially slowing the economic recovery. WHAT IS UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE? Unemployment benefits to help laid-off Americans cover their bills as they look for work. They typically cover only a fraction of a worker's prior earnings. Benefits are administered at the state level ...
After an 18-page draft agreement of an economic and security partnership between Iran and China was leaked earlier this month, there has been wide speculation on what the deal  if realized  would mean for the region. One country that has the potential to be significantly impacted is Pakistan.

As various reports about the deal fed the media hype and prompted domestic criticism in Iran, Mahmoud Vaezi, the chief of staff for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, said a final agreement could be reached by the end of the current Iranian year in March 2021.

It is unclear why the draft was leaked prematurely, unless Tehran intended to convey the message that it has other options available. However, it is safe to assume that the trade deal would likely resemble agreements China has with 15 other countries in the region as well as Pakistan.

Since Iran and Pakistan are neighbors, any partnership between the former and China is bound to have an impact on Islamabad, and some projects could even become trilateral. In the event that an China-Iran deal is finalized with the terms that have been leaked, here are some of the main implications and benefits for Pakistan:

First, according to the draft agreement, China could be spending a sum of $400 billion in Iran. This figure dwarfs the $46 billion Beijing had set out to invest in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Even though Beijing would be spending this sum in Iran over a period of 25 years, the sheer scale of the investments would lend Iran more importance than Pakistan. However, going by the slow rate at which Pakistans CPEC has moved ahead, the development in Iran may take a lot more time than planned.

According to a brief by Jonathan Hillman and Maesea McCalpin at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the CPEC has underperformed so far. Five years later, a quarter of announced projects have been completed, energy projects dominate and industrialization efforts are lagging, they wrote.

Despite its slow pace for the last two years, the CPEC has picked up some speed this month as it enters its second phase with a couple of new hydro-projects worth $3.9 billion and a $7.2 billion plan to revamp the railway system. With these new deals, the cumulative value of CPEC projects is currently $70 billion and it is the first of the BRIs six corridors to be approaching completion.

The actual progress on long-term plans can be very erratic. It is possible that Tehran will negotiate even better terms and conditions, but according to reports, Iranian oil and gas supplies will be committed to Beijing for the agreement period of 25 years.

Second, China developing the Chahbahar port  which is located 72 kilometers (45 miles) west of Pakistans Gwadar port  could be beneficial to both port cities. Since Chahbahars inauguration in 2017, Iran has had an MoU with Pakistan to coordinate activities between the sister ports and plans to export electricity to Gwadar.

However, Beijing has plans to develop several more ports in Iran. Bandar-e-Jask port, around 350 kilometers (217 miles) from Chahbahar, is the most important as it is situated outside the Gulf of Hormuz, through which most of the worlds oil transits.

Therefore, Gwadar could lose its special status as the main port of the BRIs flagship corridor in the long run.

Third, from a security point of view, involving Iran in the BRI would help to secure CPEC as Baluchistan  the province through which the corridor mainly runs  has suffered attacks from across the Iranian border for several months. Both Gwadar and Chahbahar ports have often faced instability in their home provinces of Baluchistan and Sistan-Baluchistan due to cross-border attacks.

Neutralizing this security threat, which has been a major impediment for the success of CPEC, would be beneficial for Pakistans economic outlook.

Fourth, Chinese investments in clean energy are also reportedly being planned in the desert region of Iran. Since this area is adjacent to the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, these projects could support Islamabads recent move toward green energy sources.

According to the draft agreement, the energy produced would be exported to neighboring countries. Any plans for a Pakistan-Iran-China oil and gas pipeline could also help secure energy reserves. In addition, the transport routes being planned within Iran could also link up with CPEC and enhance connectivity.

Iran has expressed the wish to join CPEC several times. Iranian envoy to Pakistan Mehdi Honardoost recently said, We are ready to be a part of CPEC with all our capabilities and resources, adding, Maybe without the energy and transit support of Iran, the multi-billion dollar project will not reach its final stage.

Finally, since most of the basic points in the leaked Iranian draft are a lot like projects already in progress under the CPEC, the Chinese development projects in Iran could complement ongoing projects in Pakistan.

Notably, the draft also mentions that China and Iran will upgrade bilateral and regional engagement with neighboring countries and there would be cooperation in developing industrial/service/technology centers in ports and islands, chosen with the aim of joint production and export of services and goods to regional countries. Thus, some of the projects should work out to Pakistans benefit if the strategic partnership under discussion with China does materialize.

Realistically, Iran is under intense pressure as it faces an economic crisis due to sanctions on its oil exports along with the coronavirus pandemic. A partial embargo by the UN Security Council is due to expire in October this year, but Washington is trying to get it extended.

Beijing's silence speaks volumes

In fact, former Chinese Ambassador to Iran Hua Liming recently told the Straits Times that criticism of the deal as unfair to Iran is something that has been stirred up by the Iranians and turned into a political problem, stressing that terms of the trade deal being debated by critics go against the spirit of Chinese diplomacy.

From a practical aspect, China is expected to be mindful of US sanctions, as it has drastically decreased its oil imports from Iran in the past year. The deal could be dead on arrival, as it would also bring about a conflict of interest with Washington.

Replying to questions about the China-Iran deal, a State Department spokesperson reminded Beijing, The United States will continue to impose costs on Chinese companies that aid Iran and added, By allowing or encouraging Chinese companies to conduct sanctionable activities with the Iranian regime, the Chinese government is undermining its own stated goal of promoting stability and peace.

For added perspective, just a week after the news emerged that a deal with China was in the works, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made overtures toward Russia. Visiting Moscow for the third time in six months, Zarif discussed the renewal of a 20-year deal between Iran and Russia that may include nuclear cooperation.

Therefore, it looks like Iran may be looking for support from UNSC members to avoid economic sanctions rather than merely looking east.
BUNKER HILL  Central Illinois communities will see more than $509 million in funding for road and bridge projects over the next six years as part of the Illinois Department of Transportations latest Multi-Year Plan under Rebuild Illinois, according to state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill.

Transportation infrastructure is indispensable to a strong economic future, and the unprecedented health crisis were facing makes the timing of the Rebuild Illinois plan all the more significant, Manar said. The plan will help our economy rebound by creating thousands of jobs for families set back by COVID-19, while supporting the work and safety of professional truck drivers who are the unsung heroes of our fight against COVID-19.
Authored by Victoria Taft via PJMedia.com,

Democrats have fully pivoted on the nightly Portland riots. Theyve gone all-in on blaming the riots on President Trump thus allying themselves with the antifa and Black Lives Matter anarchist and communist mobs. Instead of black bloc balaclavas or masks, the politicians have donned the cloak of civil libertarianism. In doing so, they make a mockery of it.

Democrats, so far as I can find, have never denounced the violent mobs, though New York Governor Andrew Cuomo once wagged a finger at George Floyd rioters while simultaneously explaining that it wasnt really their fault because income inequality led to violence. Indeed, the only remonstrance issued was over people burning down black-owned businesses  their own house as he put it, because burning your own stuff never makes sense. As denunciations go, it was a rambling nothing-burger. Atlantas mayor voiced similar disgust with the arsonists and looters.

In fact, mayors, governors, and prosecutors have fallen all over themselves to support the violent mobs in Seattle, New York, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and, of course, Portland, often conflating the mostly peaceful protesters upset with the killing of George Floyd  remember him?  with the ones looting Louis Vuitton, tearing down statues of George Washington, and trying to burn down federal buildings.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan ceded a section of the fancy Capitol Hill neighborhood to the mob. She handed over a police precinct to the mob. Two murders, gunshot wounds, assaults, and rapes took place at her pet mobs little summer of love squat. Shes never apologized.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey gave over a police precinct to the mob. Police officers inside thought theyd die that night and if theyd stayed they would have. When rioters werent boosting free stuff from the Target, looters and rioters were spectating the conflagration theyd started at the precinct with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. The mayor later asked President Trump for money to help rebuild it. Trump said hell no.

But this is an election year and time is short. The mobs are deployed to cause chaos and misdirection, as they were in Portland and elsewhere in the months leading up and after the 2016 presidential election. They are cracking heads and cold-cocking Trump rally-goers who dare bring a contra-narrative to one of their riots.

Far from denouncing the violent and destructive nightly arsons and assaults, Democrats embrace the riots to denounce President Trump. They point to the mobs of concerned citizens who have been impelled, catapulted from their spot at the tattoo parlor to join the mob in the streets because how-dare-Trump-send-police-to-defend-a-federal-building that the left is obsessed with bringing down.

Its a real-time exercise in psy-ops. Its gaslighting writ large. But they believe youre dumb enough to believe it.

Instead, follow along on these ten big lies the Left wants you to believe about the Portland riots and learn something.

Lie 1: The Riots Are Committed by Mostly Peaceful Protesters

Everyone knows the riots are a disgraceful dumpster fire of venom and vinegar with green lasers and IEDs thrown at cops to give them that special something. Those of us covering the Portland Professional Protester scene for years have seen most of this behavior before.

The fire rises pic.twitter.com/puQfv48MNm  Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) July 23, 2020

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler allowed the riots to go on in a section of downtown for six weeks before the Trump administration came in to protect its own buildings and roll up the bad guys attacking them.

Acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Ken Cuccinelli, says bringing weapons, gas masks and shields are preparations for violence. Peaceful protester? I dont think so.

Here is a shield and a couple of gas masks from a rioter arrested in Portland. Not a sign with a slogan that someone expressing their first amendment rights might carry, but preparations for violence. Peaceful protester? I dont think so. pic.twitter.com/0Re1V129ge  Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli (@HomelandKen) July 23, 2020

Wheelers strategy, if you can call it that, of letting the rioters riot and ruin part of downtown, leaves Oregonians feeling unsafe, police outraged, and the rule of law in tatters. Now Wheeler says Trumps defense of the federal buildings is somehow breaking the law. The entire Leftist monoculture has coalesced around this absurd assertion.

So certain is Wheeler that the rioters should be viewed as misunderstood arsonists and predators that the mayor/police commissioner took an armed five-person plainclothes police detail with him on his listening session photo op to show everyone how safe it was during a Portland antifa and Black Lives Matter street riot.

Over the weekend, there were multiple shootings and stabbings at these mostly peaceful protests, or, as the news media likes to dub them, rowdy rioters.

Wheeler may be a lot of things, but heroic isnt one. He took a team of men with guns to protect him from the rowdy rioters.

Lie 2: Tear-Gassed Mayor Says It Was a Total Surprise

On his listening session at the riots last Wednesday night, Mayor Ted Wheeler stood at the fence line protecting the federal courthouse, which hes now trying to remove because its in the way of a bike lane (side note: theres only one group of people more beloved than antifa in Portland and thats bicyclists).

As he stood there staring intently at the IED-pocked, scorched, and graffitied building, there was an unprovoked gassing of the protesters. Wheeler was overcome by the fumes, his COVID-19 mask not being enough to keep out the smell. He later pronounced that the feds had no provocation for gassing the crowdsthat he had seen nothing which could possibly, remotely, ever, ever cause cops to shoot tear gas canisters.

As protest-watcher Andy Ngo pointed out, the building had been set on fire and rioters were throwing explosives.

.@tedwheeler says, I saw nothing that provoked this response when asked about his thoughts on federal law enforcement deploying tear gas.



The building had been set on fire and rioters were throwing explosives. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/M21iOcDfLa  Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) July 23, 2020

It turns out that the mayor missed a few thingssuch as the bags of burning garbage, IEDs, assorted other fireworks, and green lasers being shot into the eyes of law enforcement. In fact, this Christian Broadcast Network reporter, who was standing near the mayor, says rioters were given several warnings to get out or theyd be pushed back with crowd-control devices  tear gas. The mayor knew this. The reporter from CBN called the mayor a liar for alleging that the federal police response was unprovoked. He thinks Wheeler did it for a photo op.

Lie 3: Moms Bravely Leave Childrens Sides to Attend Riots

After Democrats issued the new talking points that federal cops were Trumps secret police, women, some of them known antifa members, took off their black balaclavas to refashion themselves into moms. Somehow these individually acting, concerned mothers all knew to get a yellow shirt, riot helmet, and hey, hey, ho, ho chant to drive away those bad federal officers.

Incredible scene in Portland right now. A group of Moms are chanting, Feds stay clear! Moms are here! at the federal courthouse.



pic.twitter.com/gexQJJM6ck  Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) July 19, 2020

Ngo writes of these moms, I recognize a lot of the so-called moms as the same antifa women who dressed in black as recent as a couple days ago. They just put on a yellow shirt now for optics. Most of these people arent mothers & many dont even identify as female. #PortlandRiots

If you hadnt figured it out yet, its Portlands version of Pallywood. These are merely actors playing a role.

Lie 4: These Dads With Leaf Blowers Showed Up Out of Thin Air!

Then the dads showed up at the riots. Of course, to get dads to show up with leaf blowers, which youll come to learn are dead-useful at a riot, you must put out a casting call  and bring your gas masks and bring your leaf blower.

The casting calls for Portlands Professional Protesters have been going on forever. This ones from Occupy Portland that occurred in 2011-12.

Is #OPDX #OccupyPDX HIRING ACTOR to pretend they're apologetic captains of industry to rile up their mobs? http://t.co/27n9SiaZ #5vtshow  Victoria Taft (@VictoriaTaft) March 1, 2012

A quick look at these grassroots dads on Twitter reveals theyve been around  hold on a second  since July of 2020. Just in time for the riots!

The Dads, who look oddly like the rioters from the night before, came with the leaf blowers to blow back at federal officers all the CS or tear gas theyve deployed, while their comrades  yes, they call them comrades, lobbed IEDs. Another set of dads were armed with umbrellas to keep the gas out of the faces of the rioters so they could continue to ready their munitions to throw at the federal building.

Protest dad, using a skateboard as a shield pic.twitter.com/dzU5onfsq5  Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) July 23, 2020

As you may have wondered, yes, Portland has a leaf blower ordinance ( Leaf Blower Regulations  18.10.035) banning the use of them in the city after 7 p.m. But, Governor Kate Brown has COVID restrictions on large gatherings too. The duplicitous politicians have agreed that the law doesnt apply to the Democrats pet protesters. Look for more shutdowns after Oregon experiences another spike in COVID cases in the next few weeks from the riots. Theyll cancel church, but not the riots.

Lie 5: Rioters Are Patriotic, Flag-Waving American Veterans!

Youve heard the saying that dissent is patriotic and it is. Riots, however, are not protected speech. They necessarily conflict with other peoples rights to be left the hell alone and in peace to go about their lives.

People watching Portlands antifa/Black Lives Matter riots have been appalled by the violence, lawbreaking and head-cracking. The stated goal of both antifa and Black Lives Matter is the destruction of the country of which the flag is a symbol. But now, the same people who spit on, poop on, stomp on, beat up people with, and set fire to American flags are recasting themselves as patriots.

Thats why all of a sudden youve seen rioters holding American flags.

The flag waving is a propaganda move for the cameras. They are discussing on Reddit & other places new ways to change public perception on the riots. This is a group that beats people carrying flags, burns US flags, & chants for abolishment of the US. pic.twitter.com/FipxGJUxNS  Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) July 22, 2020

These are people who want to burn down America. Because so many people know they want to burn down the countrys institutions, the Left has formulated another sub-group culled from Central Casting just for these riots.

You thought the Great White Way was closed for COVID? Welcome to Portland, with its white protesters cast for their newly announced production, the Wall of Vets, a collection of protesters who now call themselves military veterans. Some of them may be military vets. The idea is to show that rioting to bring down the country and serving to protect this country are totally the same thing. Totally.

Team Joe member, Jon Cooper, the Draft Joe Biden for President 2016 finance chair and former chair of The Democratic Coalition, points to the veteran street theater as a moving event in a cheap attempt to whitewash antifa and BLMs anti-Americanism.

Wall of Vets' joins Black Lives Matter protests in Portland https://t.co/8rMM0NsXJt  Jon Cooper  (@joncoopertweets) July 25, 2020

If you see a media outlet or politico selling this Broadway production-pap, theyve been had and you need to re-think your news sources.

Lie 6: Portland Antifa Says, Hey, It Aint Us Doing These Riots!

Of all the whoppers, Portlands antifa is stating explicitly that they have nothing to do with the riots in their own city and, in fact, it must be the right-wing doing this.

Weve said this before, but to re-iterate: we are not organizing, leading, or otherwise behind the local protests. We are FULLY supportive, but defer to the leadership of the Black organizers who have dedicated themselves to fighting for Black liberation & against state violence.

We've said this before, but to re-iterate: we are not organizing, leading, or otherwise behind the local protests. We are FULLY supportive, but defer to the leadership of the Black organizers who have dedicated themselves to fighting for Black liberation & against state violence.  Always Antifascist (@RoseCityAntifa) July 22, 2020

Antifa welcomes new rioters coming to town like a host city for a convention. You could argue that this is the Democratic Partys in-person convention. As my Facebook Friend Kathleen Worman wrote in response to a contest of sorts Im having to come up with clever names for the riots and rioters, the Oregon woman pronounced them Demtifa. Another friend dubs the riots as Commie-Con. True that.

Rose City Antifa writes in a tweet: since we see a lot of new folks coming out to the local protests (welcome!), wed like to remind everyone of the importance of good cybersecurity

A later Rose City Antifa tweet vowed: weve never been more prepared to fight for what we believe in and what is right.

Rose City Antifa is being sued by Andy Ngo for death threats and attacks and hes asking for damages. Theyve recently been outed by James OKeefe and Project Veritas and are most certainly under scrutiny by the feds. Consider their statement their official legal disclaimer, even as they help put together IEDs and source green lasers for rioters.

If theyre not outright organizing it with their Lisa Fithian-like trainers around the country, theyre in it.

Lie 7: Riot Groups Are Not Organized

The media and Leftists, but I repeat myself, often point to the fact that federal charging documents against rioters do not include the word antifa. They say its proof the group doesnt exist as an organization.

As my points about the riotous wall of ____ (insert moms, dads, vets) groups should point out, there is organization. On cue, protests to support Portland from Trumps secret police are popping up in cities across America.

Lights! Camera! Action! Quick! Get down to the Justice Center for more mayhem.

Stories abound about how you can help the organized riots are ubiquitous. Besides bringing your leaf blower and wearing your yellow shirt, you can bring food and water.

So what can we do? Here's a masterpost from early June, which I just discovered today, and which still seems to roughly apply (but check before donating to anything that the org in question still wants donations).https://t.co/bwWRBTbEQ4  Peter Garnett (@number_one_twit) July 26, 2020

Antifa even has its own food cart in downtown Portland. Now that the antifa hard cider hang out Cider Riot! is out of business, you can help out the organized Riot Ribs food cart to make food for hungry rioters. Oh, and theyd like your money to buy a mobile food truck to be called Riot Kitchen in a Seattle expansion.

Gee, Im sensing a theme here.

Hey Twitter family, lets try and get @riotkitchen206 their food truck! Theyre so close. Theyve been helping us a ton! Donate to their GoFundMe!  RIOT RIBS  (@riotribs) July 26, 2020

Not organized? Getouttahere.

Lie 8: The City Isnt Under Siege

Local and national press argue that only downtown Portlanders are inconvenienced by the riots  as if thats somehow OK  and that the riots dont affect anyone else.

I just want to emphasize for the zillionth time that these protests happen in a very tiny part of Portland. I park several blocks away, and often find myself walking by people getting off work or going on a date. Im wearing chest plates and feel like an absolute alien.  Tuck Woodstock (@tuckwoodstock) July 26, 2020

Heres another from the local Oregonian newspaper, whose reporters should know better, that said the rest of downtown is just fine. Until its not.

Feds, right-wing media paint Portland as city under siege. A tour of town shows otherwise https://t.co/bhwZ4ttGkx pic.twitter.com/vYH1D0jwNa  The Oregonian (@Oregonian) July 18, 2020

Portlanders know that mobs historically migrate from downtown to the northwest, southeast, northeast, and north sections of town. They know theyre not safe from the rabble.

They direct traffic, block freeways, block bridges, block ingress to the airport, barricade doors of police precincts, and set the building on fire and burn police union halls. People who talk about violence are prosecuted and those who commit acts of violence are not.

This is not downtown Portland.

Whose streets? Their streets. Whose freeways? Their freeways. Thats because the political class of like-minded public servants agree with them and let them do it.

Lie 9: What Lasers?

A few days ago federal authorities acknowledged that three police officers defending the federal courthouse may have sustained permanent damage to their eyesight because rioters shone lasers in their eyes. This is the stuff of terrorists and its real, as Acting Department of Homeland Security Deputy Ken Cuccinelli says.

These can, and are intended to, cause serious eye damage to law enforcement officers. https://t.co/RGBj2ElQmG  Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli (@HomelandKen) July 26, 2020

This was widely scoffed at. But heres video of the dads at the riot providing cover for the laser operators.

As the deputy chief of PPB calls them light mage pic.twitter.com/Gee6hskQFZ  Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) July 23, 2020

Lie 10: They Want Liberty

Antifa and their BLM brethren seek to destroy American institutions because they claim those institutions are somehow racist and oppressive.

They want to riot, burn, loot, and command and control with impunity and they want to use their comrades to do it for the good of the collective.

Like this: Every city, every town, burn those precincts to the ground.

Black Lives Matter and Antifa in Portland chant: Every precinct, every town, burn the precincts to the ground.



The Portland Police Association building was broken into and fires were set shortly after. pic.twitter.com/blPZIUA1M1  Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 19, 2020

Black Lives Matter was formed after Trayvon Martin was killed by a neighborhood watch guy who fought back with a gun.

BLM demanded that the institutional racism they alleged occurred at the local Ferguson cop shop was why Michael Brown, he of the phony hands up, dont shoot big lie, was killed. Three investigations, including one by Obama Attorney General Eric Holder, showed that wasnt true. At all.

But BLM has soldiered on, recasting the group as being in support of black lives, when its only blacks killed in connection with a law-enforcement action that they care about.

And, as PJMedia colleague Stacey Lennox reported, BLM has intentionally adopted a more decentralized antifa model, muted their own well-known founders, and are now a much more political organization.

The group and antifa are connected at the hip.

They both want to tear down law enforcement and defund police because of high-profile cop killings that bring in big money from Democrats online fundraising tool Act Blue.

The only freedom they want is freedom from the laws that make a civil society work. That means they cant take over streets that other people use, commit violent acts against others, and tear down, burn and loot other peoples property.

Democrats, like this democratic strategist, cheer them on.

If you are looking for a way to help Portland and arent in the area please check this out and spread the word: https://t.co/kwU4vmx9mM https://t.co/JyLeoDm3lm  Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) July 23, 2020

They claim to practice empathy, but theyre not about black people whose lives have been snuffed out by abortion, black-on-black crime, or during riots.

Respected Milwaukee community figure, Bernell Trammell, Trump and Black Lives Matter supporter, fatally shot in front of own store. pic.twitter.com/XNLdPWRJUr  Rish (@aqbelsarafl) July 25, 2020

They believe theres no normal, no family, and this is liberation. If you dont agree, you dont matter and will be canceled By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). See Lies #1 and #8.

After their enemies are vanquished and they get a few more socialists and communists like AOC in place, theyll be in charge. Thats why these riots are taking place right before the November election.

Its about powerthe power of the collective against the rights of the individual, which is the fundamental precept upon which this country was built.
HALIFAXThe federal and Nova Scotia governments have bowed to intense public pressure and set the stage for an inquiry that will publicly investigate the motivations and actions of the man responsible for Canadas worst mass killing  and the efforts of law enforcement before, during and after the massacre.

On Tuesday, the two levels of government backtracked from a widely panned decision to hold a restricted review of a gunmans April rampage that left 22 victims dead.

The review had been criticized as needlessly secretive.

We have heard calls from families, survivors, advocates and Nova Scotia members of Parliament for more transparency, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said in a statement.

The government of Canada is now proceeding with a full public inquiry.

The inquiry is expected to adopt much of the same mandate as the previously announced review  without the latters restrictions.

Federal and provincial officials stirred controversy last week when they announced a formal review that fell short of a full public inquiry. The review would not have been able to compel witnesses to testify. Because of its restorative justice approach, testimony from the victims families would have been confidential.

Unlike a review, the inquiry will be able to summon witnesses and require them to give public evidence under oath and to produce documents.

I have heard from family members and many Nova Scotians who are opposed to a joint review of the tragic events of April 18 and 19 and would prefer a joint public inquiry, Nova Scotia Justice Minister Mark Furey said in a statement Tuesday.

If the federal government agrees to a joint public inquiry where federal agencies including the RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, Criminal Intelligence Services Canada, Canadian Firearms Registry and the Public Alert Ready System will participate and offer testimony, I will support that and so will our government.

A short time later, the federal governments confirmation emerged.

Families of victims will be grateful that they have been heard, said Sandra McCulloch, a lawyer who is representing families in a lawsuit against the RCMP.

The public inquiry will ensure that the people who need to speak will speak, that the documents that need to be seen will be seen, and that a full and complete understanding about what happened, and how it can be avoided in the future, will be achieved.

The inquiry will keep the panel that had been tasked with the review last week  former Nova Scotia chief justice J. Michael MacDonald; former federal cabinet minister Anne McLellan and former Fredericton police chief Leanne Fitch  and turn them into commissioners for the inquiry.

The original review panels mandate offers a probable template of the inquiry that will now unfold in the public eye.

In the original terms of reference, areas to be investigated could broadly divided into three categories:

 the actions and motivations of the shooter, Gabriel Wortman;

 the actions, policies and communications of police; and

 the impact on the families of the victims, and other affected people.

One of the areas to be examined is the contributing factors to the rampage, including the involvement of gender-based and intimate partner violence. Since the tragedy, a picture has emerged of Wortman as a man with a history of domestic violence.

This last item is an area of expertise for one of the inquirys three commissioners  Fitch, who is a published author on the subject.

The panel had also been instructed to examine how Wortman managed to acquire his stockpile of weapons, and any relationship he had with the RCMP and/or social services, including mental health services.

On the RCMP side, many questions have been asked post-Portapique about the Mounties decision to use social media to inform residents that a gunman was on the loose, instead of the provincial emergency alert system. That decision has been roundly criticized, and its rationale was to be examined under the review boards mandate.

RCMP also turned down aid offered by the nearby Truro police force; those communications and other exchanges between the Mounties and various involved agencies were to be examined.

The panel had also been asked to investigate police policies with respect to the disposal of their equipment, including cars, clothing and assorted kit. Wortman was able to purchase four former police vehicles, one of which he outfitted to replicate an RCMP car. It was this car that he drove while on his rampage, dressed in a Mountie uniform.

The panel was also tasked to investigate the information and support provided to the families of victims, affected citizens, police personnel and the community at large.

Wayne MacKay, professor emeritus at Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in Halifax, welcomed Tuesdays decision to proceed with a proper inquiry.

This is outstanding and a victory for the families affected and a testimony to the value and importance of public protest in a democracy, MacKay said.

He was one of 34 members of the law-school faculty who had written to the premier urging a full inquiry. More than 30 senators had taken up the same call in a public letter. Two demonstrations have been held by the families of victims calling for an inquiry and another had been scheduled for Wednesday.

I do think that the growing and constant chorus of criticism was registering, said MacKay, pointing to, the range of different sources of people who were very unhappy with it, from academics to senators to persons in the street to store owners to  most importantly  the families themselves and affected parties.
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Linkedin (Kyodo News) New York, United States  Tue, July 28, 2020 09:13 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669c7709 2 Science & Tech Google,work-from-home,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free

Google LLC will allow its employees around the world to work from home until July 2021, altering an earlier plan to resume office work from next January amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, US media said Monday.

Most of the nearly 200,000 workers across Google's parent company Alphabet Inc., including both full-time and temporary employees, will reportedly be affected by the move.

Among US IT giants, Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. are planning to have their workers return to offices in January. Twitter Inc., on the other hand, has said it will allow employees to work from home permanently if they like.

The number of coronavirus infections worldwide has topped 15 million with the United States being the hardest-hit country with over 4 million cases, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.




Bobrisky

Nigerian cross dresser, Bobrisky has been embarrassed by a popular bleaching brand for breaching a contract.

The company, pamper glow accused him of failing to fulfill terms after receiving the sum of 2million Naira to influence the brand.

Pamper glow via Instagram revealed how tired the brand is due to inconsistencies and lies Bobrisky told to avoid his responsibilities and is threatening to take legal actions.

According to the post, Pamper glow wrote;

Dear Bobrisky, we are putting this out here because we are tired of the stories and lies you told just to secure this deal.

From saying, your partnership with other brand s was ending in about 7 days, to eventually seeing that after almost two months, the deal still runs, to say you dont do mobile bank transfers, to saying you would refund and till date, we have not seen our money and numerous others.

You received the sum of 2 million naira as part payment to influence our brand about two months ago.

Since you received this money, it has been difficult reaching you as against how you frequently called even in the midnight before this payment was made. And when you finally responded, it was another story.

Having found out all these, we asked for a refund and we expected to receive the payment immediately but you said you dont do mobile transfers and you gave us a date, the date came and passed with no sign of the money.

Calls and messages sent to you were ignored. Took you many days to come up with another story. We are tired and no brand deserves this.
Major air barrier manufacturers remain invested in new product launches and superior functionality to keep up in a highly competitive market through the covid-19 crisis.

DUBAI, UAE / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / Future Market Insights: The air barrier market is expected to display a moderate growth rate throughout the projection period between 2019 and 2029. The coronavirus pandemic will generate major challenges for air barrier market players as the construction and infrastructure sectors have been severely impacted by the contagion. Suspension activities in these industries in multiple countries has reduced demand for air barriers.

"The growing demand for green energy efficient buildings, and the popularity of smart city projects have put greater focus on temperature control costs. Consequently, these factors will remain essential to market recovery and growth following the conclusion of the outbreak," says the FMI analyst.

Request a sample of the Report to gain in-depth Market Insights at https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-10868

Air Barrier Market - Key Takeaways

Fluid-applied air barriers are witnessing high demand owing to cheap and fast installation, and the lack of need for fastener components.

Permeable variants of air barriers are gaining traction, owing to better results in building energy efficiency.

North America will remain a leading air barrier market, aided by strict building codes, urbanization, and frequent cold climate.

Air Barrier Market - Driving Factors

Importance of corrosion and chemical resistant components in buildings and infrastructure supports demand.

Extensive investments of public and private sector players in energy efficiency and temperature control functionality in buildings and infrastructure.

Air Barrier Market - Key Constraints

Lack of awareness about air barrier products, particularly in developing economies is holding back adoption rates.

Air barrier performance can be substantially impacted by even minor material and application imperfections, which is a key challenge to market players.

The Anticipated Impact of Coronavirus

The global construction and infrastructure industries are going through a shortage of labor and material resources owing to the coronavirus outbreak. Numerous projects have been delayed as lockdown measures have suspended the construction and manufacturing activities. However, steady recovery of the air barrier industry is likely as governments ease restrictions to re-stimulate the economy.

Explore the global air barriers market report with 194 illustrative figures, 108 data tables and the table of contents. You can also find market segmentation on https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-10868

Competition Landscape

Major manufacturers in the air barriers market include but are not limited to GAF Corp., Owens Corning, DuPont, Soprema Inc., Huber Engineered Woods, Certain Teed, GCP Technologies, and Atlas Roofing.

Manufacturers are increasingly investing in strategic collaborations with end user organizations to aid production and sales. For instance, Saint Gobain has partnered with YouthBuild Schenectady for the renovation of gut rehab homes including supplies of air barriers. Similarly, GCP Applied Technologies has collaborated with the Florida's Weitz Construction Academy for educational supply needs. DuPont has collaborated with Habitat for Humanity for construction solutions including air barrier products.

More About the Report

The FMI's market research report offers detailed insights on air barriers market. The market is scrutinized on the basis of product (gypsum board, drywall, plywood, OSB, spray foam, fiberglass, rockwool, cellulose, and others), type (membranes, coatings, and stacking & filing) site (external and internal) and end use (residential, commercial, industrial facilities, car parks & underground, military buildings, and green-houses) across seven key regions (North America, Latin America, Europe, South Asia, East Asia, Oceania, and Middle East and Africa).

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Explore Extensive Coverage of FMI's Chemicals and Materials Landscape

APAC Flexible Glass Market: Find insights on the APAC flexible glass market with segment analysis, statistics, influencing factors, and business strategies for a 6-year period.

Bio-Plastics Market: FMI's report on the bio-plastics market offers details on the market set for 2014-2020. The study includes impacting forces, sources of revenue, market leaders, and important strategies.

BRIC Automotive Plastics Market: Get an analysis on the BRIC automotive plastics market with insights on growth factors, opportunities, regulatory policies, restraints, regional markets and market leaders.

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View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/599194/Fluid-Applied-Options-are-Making-Key-Inroads-in-the-Air-Barriers-Market-Aided-by-Easy-Installations-and-Competitive-Costs-States-Future-Market-Insights
Fairfield  A demonstration hosted by police and government officials questioning the proposed police reform bill was cut short Monday after competing protesters arrived on the scene and chanted over the scheduled speakers.

The demonstration was called by Fairfield County police leadership and elected officials to share their concerns about H.B. No. 6004, which was passed by the House of Representatives last week and has moved to the Senate.

The legislation came after months of protests over the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died when a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. The death sparked demonstrations around the country over police brutality, specifically toward people of color.

More than 50 people assembled in front of the Fairfield police headquarters Monday to show their support. A list of scheduled speakers included local elected officials and the police chiefs of Fairfield, Trumbull, Greenwich and Darien.

Fairfield First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said officers in the Fairfield Police Department expressed serious concerns with some of the language included in the bill, adding that they felt it would affect their ability to do their jobs and protect the community.

Kupchick said she supported the sections regarding additional training, education, mental health screenings and accountability for law enforcement. She said her primary concern was the impact the bill would have on public safety.

As the first selectwoman started to discuss the elimination of qualified immunity, a doctrine that protects government officials from lawsuits, a man in the crowd shouted an allegation that the Fairfield police did not follow up on a hit-and-run involving his friend. People in the audience began to shout at the man, and Kupchick asked for people to save their questions and comments until the end of the event.

Kupchick said the removal of qualified immunity would make it hard to recruit and retain police officers, adding that it could put a large financial restraint on Fairfield. She asked that the state Senate pause the bill until the legislature reconvenes for a special session in September.

There is no rush to vote, she said. Considering the qualified immunity piece doesnt even go into effect until July 2021, we have time to get this right. A bill of this magnitude, with such broad implications, should not be rushed through in a three-week process and voted on in the middle of the night  literally.

Toward the end of her statement, a group of about 50 protesters who showed up after the beginning of the 4 p.m. event began shouting Black lives matter, arrest killer cops and no justice, no peace.

Emma Bella Bass-Lawrence, a Fairfield resident and Black Lives Matter protester who was at the event, said police need to be held accountable, adding that police brutality and racism are an epidemic in the United States. She said ending qualified immunity would hold police officers to the same standards as all public servants.

This bill is what Connecticut needs to have: a good police system that serves the community, Bass-Lawrence said.

Another attendee asked Bass-Lawrence what she would do when the bill made it so police did not respond to calls for service. Bass-Lawrence responded that the legislation would not result in that, but the woman turned and walked away. Bass-Lawrence said there was a lot of misinformation surrounding the issue.

I think its just important to listen to legislators, actually read the content of the bill... and figure out whats actually going on, she said.

Fairfield Police Chief Christopher Lyddy said the bill, if enacted, would have immediate and lasting impacts on the communitys safety. He said his department agrees that systemic change in the criminal justice system are needed to make it more equitable for everyone.

But this type of reform does not come in two weeks, Lyddy said, referencing the short period of time in which the bill was constructed. Major reforms to the criminal justice system should not be happening overnight, and should not be rushed by legislative bodies without diligent collaboration between them and the police.

Lyddy also said the bill could impact police application and retention rates, and could result in early retirements without enough qualified personnel to replace those leaving. He also said the wording in the legislation would add restrictions that would hinder police investigations and shift policing from proactive to reactive.

Byron Bigelow, a Bridgeport resident and one of the Black Lives Matter protesters, said while the legislation was very important to him, he did not support it because he felt there were too many loopholes in it.

It went from qualified immunity to good faith to governmental immunity, Bigelow said. Thats change of ownership to me. Theyre not abolishing qualified immunity, which is allowing a lot of cops to get away with murder. All they have to say is: In my good faith, I killed that man. Its the same thing as my life is in danger. Nothing has changed, just the lingo.

By the time the fifth of 11 scheduled speakers finished, those on the podium could not be heard over the protesters. Fairfield police Capt. Robert Kalamaras took to the podium to say the event was over.

Bigelow said that was their problem.

Yall got a mic. We have a bullhorn, he said. Turn your volume up.

Editors note: A previous version of this story said speakers included the police chiefs of Newtown, Fairfield, Trumbull, Greenwich and Darien. It has been updated to clarify they were on a list of scheduled speakers provided by the Fairfield Police Department as the event was cut short due to protests. In addition, Newtown Police Chief James Viadero said while he was invited, he did not attend due to other commitments and said he did not know why he was on the agenda.
The incidence rate is 1.6 times higher than the EU's indicators.

The European Union is not ready to reopen its borders for Ukrainians because of Ukraine's high COVID-19 incidence.

The epidemiological situation in Ukraine does not meet the EU's requirements for non-essential travel, the press service of the country's National Security and Defense Council told the Obozrevatel media outlet.

Read alsoUkraine's Health Ministry: One in four or five COVID-19 PCR tests could be false negative

The number of new confirmed cases of the coronavirus per 100,000 population in Ukraine is 1.6 times higher than the EU's indicators, while there should be 16 cases per 100,000 people for the border-crossing limitations to be lifted.

Also, Ukraine has the lowest rate of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, which is 23,200 tests per million people. For example, this rate in Liechtenstein is 23,600 per million people.

At the same time, the curve of new COVID-19 cases in Ukraine is seeing a stabilization trend. Over the past 28 days, the growth rate of new confirmed cases has decreased from 9% to 5%.
Media practitioners have been urged to take active in creating awareness about the concept of plea bargain and monitoring its application in the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria.

Dr. Akeem Olajide Bello of the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, made the call during a one-day training organized for media practitioners in Anambra State.

Tagged 'Training of Judicial Correspondents on Plea Bargain and Sentencing Practices', the training, which held in Awka, the state capital, was organised by the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Programme (RoLAC), funded by the European Union and implemented by the British Council.

Speaking via video conferencing, the facilitator, Dr. Bello who is also a RoLAC Consultant described plea bargain as a negotiated agreement between a prosecutor and a defendant, whereby the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser offence or to one of multiple charges in exchange for some concession by the prosecutor, usually, a more lenient sentence, or a dismissal of the other charges.

According to him, plea bargain is not illegal but is provided for in the constitution, and is aimed at addressing some of the problems facing the administration of criminal justice in the country, such as problem of delay, high cost of prosecution, prison congestion, problem of inefficiency among others.

He said, "Nigeria as the biggest country in Africa has no single functional federal forensic laboratory to use for criminal cases, except the one recently established by the Lagos State Government, which does not even run the full complement of all the forensic tests analyses that are available. And I'm aware they usually travel abroad to do some of the forensic testings that would have been done in the country, which is very expensive.

"So in the light of all these challenges facing the administration of Criminal Justice in the country, if the defendant agrees to plea guilty to an offense, then he will be given a lesser sentence.

"Plea bargain does not mean that the offender is not going to be punished anymore; no, he is still going to be punished, but will be given a lesser punishment. With this therefore, all the delay, high cost, and inefficiencies associated with the prolonged trial and prosecution will be avoided; and prisons will equally be decongested."

Dr. Bello further cleared the doubt as to whether the application of plea bargain in the administration of the criminal justice has the tendency of increasing crime rates in the society, or awarding incommensurate sentences to serious crime offenders, or even get misused by the Attorney Generals of the states or that of the federation, who alone possess the exclusive power to initiate plea bargaining, according to the Nigerian Constitution. He hence urged journalists to join voice in advocating the concept and evaluating its application in the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL).

Contributing, the Anambra State Coordinator of RoLAC, Mrs Josephine Onah said media practitioners should start by conscientizing and pre-informing the public of existence of plea bargain and its operation which is gradually taking to stage in the country.

This, she said, should be done vis-a-vis with the fact that RoLAC has supported the review of the ACJL 2010, and that there's going to be an ACJL 2019.

"By so doing, the media lend their voices, to ask the state to please expedite actions and facilitate the legislative processes, so that we can get this law on board, which is an enabling framework for plea bargain manual and sentencing practices," she added.

The workshop had been done in Lagos and Edo states, with Anambra being the next privileged state to have witnessed it.
28.07.2020 LISTEN

The world is witnessing modern slavery with international smuggling and trafficking of humans to the Western part of the world, particularly from Africa. Well, that is not the only pressing transnational issue. Less attention has been given to the predicament of migrant women in the Middle Eastern countries such as Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, etcetera engaged in maidservant paid outfits. After several years of advocating for better conditions for these domestic workers trapped in their system of neo- slavery Kafala system, the practice still goes on. We continue to receive increasing reports from these areas about servants masters abusing migrant women terribly, most of which are lethal. As usual, when bitter experiences are spilt, African citizens can never be out of the picture. Most, if not all are desperate African womenrobbed off their rights in exchange for income. Sadly, the COVID-19 has worsened their plights. Slave masters that are unable to accommodate these women further end up ejecting them unto the streets of nowhere to wander in misery.

What have countries done about this? What happened to the general clauses on social protection? Where is the legislation for womens rights? Can stricter international laws be implemented to safeguard the rights of our women who travel to such countries? Can restrictions be imposed or possibly a ban on migrating women to these regions for domestic work? Ghana has taken the pre-eminent initiative to organise mass evacuation for such victims, which is commendable. However, the main issue is yet to be tackled. We need concrete policies that would translate to a concrete agenda; governments must change

attitudes and policies towards women like womens right, opportunities, health, and status of women and girls around the world. However, this seems a long-term target whose immediate effect is highly improbable. For now, effective interim policies can be implemented to save women from encountering this situation. Poverty should not be a prison term.

Womens International League for Peace and Freedom, Ghana (WILPF) have executed projects on feminist peace and used our social media platform to advocate against abuse of women, trafficking and other human rights violations. As feminist right advocates, we believe that if the countries involved in these unscrupulous acts are not ready to treat their foreign workforce with the deference due them, then they should as well be made to use their local workforce. We cannot compromise to risk the lives of our women to satisfy the folly of agents and foreigners.

As the lockdown is gradually being lifted, countries, especially in Africa, must incorporate these needs into their COVID-19 recovery programmes.

Give credence to womens economic rights Extend anti-smuggling policies to capture this issue (if not done already) and dealt with indiscriminatingly. Ban the migration of women to these areas for domestic services Make provisions to keep track of and protect the few women locked up in these territories.

As we operate in Ghana, we urge the president to take cognisance of the essence of incorporating womens economic needs into the national agenda.

By: Womens International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Ghana Communication Manager, Diaspora
DOHA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th July, 2020) Saudi Arabia will maintain coordination with Algeria with regards to the settlement of the Libyan crisis, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said on Tuesday following talks with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

The Saudi foreign minister visited Algiers earlier in the day, as part of the succession of visits to North African countries, including Egypt on Monday, where he also vowed bilateral coordination in tackling the regional challenges.

"We have discussed the situation in the region and found a convergence of views between Saudi Arabia and Algeria, especially with regard to challenges facing the region, primarily the Libyan crisis. We share the opinion that the solution must be intra-Libyan so that the peace process can end the conflict and protects Libya from terrorism and foreign interference. It is very important to continue the coordination between Algeria and Saudi Arabia toward reaching a peaceful solution," Prince Faisal said following the meeting, as quoted by the Al-Hadath broadcaster.

According to the Saudi foreign minister, countries neighboring Libya have a key role to play in the peace process.

The almost decade-long Libyan conflict has escalated over the past few months around the power struggle between the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), in control of the country's west, and the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) and the House of Representatives.

Since last April, the confrontation turned openly military as the LNA forces attempted an offensive on the GNA-held Libyan capital of Tripoli and prompted a massive counteroffensive.

An international conference on Libya was held in Berlin in January, where participating countries have agreed to an arms embargo as a measure of non-interference in the Libyan civil conflict. Yet, the warring parties have accused each other of collusion with foreign governments, including those which have agreed to the pact.

Turkey, in particular, has been providing extensive military support to the GNA since the latter formally requested assistance in late 2019. The Libyan House of Representatives, in the meantime, has requested deployment of troops from Egypt, whose parliament promptly greenlighted the potential intervention.
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said that the Turkish leadership is pursuing a neo-expansionist policy, and religious leaders are seeking to return to the days of the Ottoman Empire. Dendias criticized the Turkish leadership after talks in Athens with Spanish FM Arancha Gonzalez Laya, RIA Novosti reported.

The minister mentioned the first prayer in the Hagia Sophia converted into a mosque in Istanbul, at which the head of the Turkish department of religious affairs, Ali Erbas, led the divine service with a sword in his hands and mentioned 1453 when Constantinople was captured by the Turks.

Europe, which condemns Turkey's neo-expansionist policies to the detriment of all its neighbors, also condemns all actions that undermine peace and stability in the eastern Mediterranean, the minister noted.

According to him, if Turkey decides to ignore the norms of international law, it should have a clear idea of the borders of this, and Europe should be united when the sovereignty of it and any member state is violated.

Dendias also said Turkey's decision to suspend seismic exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean is a positive development. The Greek government has always said and continues to say that a necessary condition for dialogue is de-escalation by Turkey, he noted.

According to him, they believe that their disagreement with Turkey concerns the issue of the continental shelf in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean and adjacent sea areas.
The people in power don't want you to talk. Sometimes, this is because you're in the library and everyone needs silence to concentrate. But other times, it's because your words have the ability to destroy them. (In these cases, your powerful opponent reaches for the red button on their desk and makes sure they destroy you first.)

5 Reporters Investigated Facebook's Child Abuse Photos; Facebook Reported Them For Child Abuse Photos

Right now, the big controversy over at Facebook is how the site should deal with hate speech. There's still debate about this because we're talking here about content that's legal, content that no one has the right to stop you from sticking in a book or something. But what then about stuff there's no debate about because everyone agrees it's unacceptable? You know, the worst stuff. Kiddie stuff.

Yeah, there are photos of child abuse and child exploitation on Facebook, and if you report seeing them, Facebook says they'll remove those images right away. But do Facebook remove them right away? Or do their moderators leave it, possibly because they have instructions to err on the side of encouraging every possible kind of engagement? The BBC stepped forward to investigate, and reporters found and reported a bunch of images and then sat back to see what came next. Usually (over 80% of the time) it seemed the reported images stayed up.

The BBC's Angus Crawford confronted Facebook about this. Their site was being used by pedophiles -- or as they're known overseas, paedophiles -- and why weren't they doing anything? The site's director of policy, Simon Milner, agreed to give an interview on the subject, but Crawford would have to first bring examples of the problem images to back up their claims. Crawford did so. And so Facebook filed a report against the BBC with the UK's National Crime Agency. The grounds? BBC was distributing child-exploiting images.
NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central constituency, Kennedy Agyapong has asked Ghanaians to blame former President John Dramani Mahama and his party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for most problems the country is facing in recent times.



The outspoken lawmaker believes the banking sector which has faced tremendous tsunami over the years was due to Mahamas bad leadership as President.



"They (NDC) messed up the banks completely . . ." he said.



According to him the greatest acheivement of the Akufo-Addo government is the consilidation of the banks.



" . . Because the backbone of every economy are the banks . . . if the banks collapse everything collapses, it was a timely intervention that he cleaned up the banking system, that is why we have a stable economy," he added.



He said the country has been able to handle the Coronavirus pandemic effectively because we have a very stable economy through the banking sector clean up.



Listen to the interview below . . .







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.

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Raymond Moore on Sunday with one his children preparing for the march. The protesters walked all the way from UNO Park to Mohawk Forest. Protesters wait at UNO Park. Rema Loeb of Plainfield walking with her daughter. The marchers lead a line of cars up East Main Street. Eugene Lee spells Moore on the bullhorn to talk about systemic racism, such as sentencing differences between white and Black defendants. PreviousNext

Black Lives Matter North Adams Urges Speaking Out Against Hate



The march was largely peaceful with the exception of one man at UNO Park yelling and a neighborhood in Mohawk Forest that had no interest in hearing the protesters. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The local Black Lives Matter group wants residents to know that they should not fear speaking up about hate speech and threats.

"We've got your back," said group leader Raymond Moore on Sunday afternoon as dozens of protesters marched through the downtown and two housing developments. "We're not scared. Tell us your story. Hate is not allowed no more in this town. ... If you respect me, I respect you. ... Black Lives Matter of North Adams is here to stay, we're not going nowhere. This is our community, let's take it back."

He said he's heard from people that their jobs or living situations have been threatened for supporting the movement or marching.

Moore's been involved with or led several marches and events in the city since the Black Lives Matter movement came to the fore after the killing of George Floyd in police custody in May. The decentralized nonprofit, grassroots organization was created in 2013 after the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's killer. The movement has spotlighted the use of police brutality, racism and the needs of the LGBTQ, disabled and undocumented communities, and sought to counter it with nonviolent protest.

It currently seeks to "defund" police by redirecting public safety funding toward addressing the societal ills that lead to crime, such as mental health and addiction, and investing in communities, particularly Black communities.

Marches had been planned the last two Sundays but this latest one called out Robert Moulton Jr. for remarks he made on a public access show. The former city councilor called BLM a terrorist organization and said he didn't understand systemic racism. The issue was further inflamed after an incident at Moore's home on Saturday night. He and neighbors heard what they believed was gunfire; police are still investigating.

"My job as an activist is to hold him responsible. We are not a terrorist group, we are a family," said Moore. "We're here to let them know bigotry and hate is not accepted in North County, it's not any longer."

At several stops, he explained he was marching for his children, for science, and to open people's eyes to racism and injustice. People with hate in their hearts needed to be brought into the light, he said.

The group had planned to protest at City Hall on Tuesday to call for the resignation of Moulton, but he stepped down from his seat on the council and the School Committee on Monday morning. He had already been forced to resign his presidency of the North Adams Ambulance Service because of the BLM remarks and for downplaying the COVID-19 pandemic as well.

The marches have had the support of city government and the North Adams Police Department. Sunday's march included Mayor Thomas Bernard, City Council President Paul Hopkins and Councilors Keith Bona, Marie T. Harpin and Benjamin Lamb.

"We want North Adams to be known as a place that is inclusive, that is a place that is diverse, that is a place that is welcoming and that a place that will respond to injustice with strong rebuke, that will respond to it with action, with activism, with peaceful protest," Bernard said on Sunday. "I want the city to be known that if people are injured, people are hurt, if people feel attacked, that they going to gather, they're going to say that it's not acceptable."

Moore was emphatic that march was not against police in general and thanked the North Adams officers there to protect the marchers. "We are not anti-cop," he said, turning it into a chant. "We are anti-bad cop."

He urged the marchers to not engage any counterprotesters  there had been rumblings of a rally to either support Moulton or against the BLM marchers on social media but it didn't materialize.

"Let the police do their job. They're good at it. That's what they're here for," Moore said. "I respect this town. I respect the mayor. I respect the council. So let them do their part. We have the right to speak, we have freedom of speech."

Several dozen marchers and a dozen cars set out from UNO Park about 3 p.m. with a police escort. They walked through the neighborhoods on the north side, then to Main Street in the 90-degree heat, then up steep East Main Street to Berkshire Landings and on to Mohawk Forest. By that point, at least half the marchers had peeled off.

Rema Loeb of Plainfield marched and then rode for a good portion. She's no stranger to protests, having been arrested at the age of 84 for disrupting the pipeline project at Otis State Forest a few years ago. Now she stands out every Friday in her little town and most recently went to the People's Climate Change March in New York City.

"I care about all this. I happen to personally have black grandchildren, and native grandchildren," she said. "So, this is a fight that I've seen for a long time. ...

"My husband and I were active when we lived in New York City many, many years ago, in the Civil Rights Movement."

When the Vietnam War came along, she and her husband took turns watching their children and protesting. "I'll do civil rights, you do peace," she joked her husband said.

While most of the march and stops to speak had been treated with horn tooting, waving and applause or just indifference, one section of Mohawk Forest greeted the rally with angry chants of "all lives matter" and yells to go away. Black Lives Matter is racist said one woman, holding an "enough is enough" sign. (The term "Black lives matter" is meant to reflect the reality that for hundreds of years, Black lives didn't seem to matter  or didn't matter as much as white lives.)

"We're not racist," one woman yelled. "Take it elsewhere."

The heated encounter, which led to some shoving, resulted in the arrival of more police who stepped between the groups. When Moore moved on to the next parking area, with people sitting outside, he asked if they were going to yell at him.

One woman raised her hand and said, "all lives matter." Moore nodded, "we know all lives matter. We just went through that."

Then they quietly listened to him.
US consulate in Chengdu closes

Global Times

By Cui Meng in Chengdu, Chen Qingqing and Yang Sheng in Beijing Source: Global Times Published: 2020/7/27 21:56:53

Shutdown provides lessons on crisis handling amid growing tensions

The US Consulate General in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province officially closed on Monday, following a decision the Chinese government was forced to make, as the Chinese consulate in Houston was abruptly demanded by the US to close down last week.

The procedure was carried out in a decent and legitimate manner, showing respect on the diplomatic level and providing a lesson on crisis-handling even as US-China relations have been quickly spiraling downward in recent days, experts said.

In retaliation for the US order to close China's consulate in Houston on July 21, the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday morning ordered the US to shut down its consulate in Chengdu, giving its staff 72 hours to leave. Consulate staff left, while workers removed the official US seal in front of the consulate during the weekend, and cleaners were seen carting black bags from the premises, with one appearing to have contained shredded paper, media reported.

On Monday at 6:18 am, the American flag was lowered at the consulate, video footage showed. The Global Times reporter saw cranes hoisting containers inside the main entrance of the US consulate, while crowds gathered to witness the "historic" moment, taking photos and videos. In fact, since Saturday, people and vehicles were frequently seen going in and out of the consulate, and a crowd quietly gathered behind the police cordon in front of the consulate's main entrance.

The premises were officially closed at 10 am on Monday. That's when Chinese authorities took over the premises, the Foreign Ministry said.

The process of closing the consulate and withdrawing personnel was in keeping with China's requirements, which was also carried out in a legitimate and decent manner despite rising tensions between the US and China in recent months, some observers said.

The Chinese public has demonstrated mixed feelings about the closure of the US consulate. The topic gained much attention in recent days, and has also been widely discussed. While some netizens cheered the shutdown and considered it as a strong retaliation to US long-term bullying and coercion tactics on China-related affairs, some expressed their thanks to the US diplomats who have contributed to mutual understanding between the two countries. Such diverse reactions amid growing China-US tensions also reflected an increasingly mature and comprehensive understanding of the US today, observers said.

'Necessary and legitimate'

China's decision to demand the closure of the US consulate in Chengdu is a legitimate and necessary response to the unreasonable move of the US to abruptly close China's consulate in Houston, and to forcibly enter it, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry, told a press conference on Monday.

What China did is in consistence with international law, and the basic norms of international relations and diplomatic practices, Wang said.

The shutdowns could provide a lesson for the two sides on how to manage a crisis, particularly when there's little communication between them, Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Monday.

"If the two countries continue to encounter conflicts in other aspects, for example, on the Taiwan question or the South China Sea affairs, hopefully, this crisis management approach could help prevent them from further escalating," Li said.

As a consulate compound is a diplomatic and consular premise, the receiving country has the duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the buildings against any intrusion or damage, according to the Vienna Convention. However, China condemned US law enforcement's forcible entry into the Chinese consulate in Houston on Friday, with Hua Chunying, the ministry's spokesperson, describing it as "no different from burglary."

"How to handle the premises depends on whether it's rented or owned," Ma Chengyuan, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Monday.

Though the buildings are no longer diplomatic premises, if China owns the building in Houston, the US must protect it, Ma noted.

The Global Times learned that China's consulate premises in Houston are owned by China, while the US consulate in Chengdu was rented.

Shutdown's aftermath

Ordering another country to close a consulate within US territory is unusual. The first under the Trump administration took place in September 2017, when the US ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco to retaliate for Russia's decision on July 2, 2017 to expel 755 US diplomats, after the US Congress passed a bill sanctioning Russia on the Crimea issue.

But in March 2018, the US expelled 60 Russian diplomats and ordered Russia to close its consulate in Seattle for the alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the UK, which the West claimed Moscow was responsible for. Russia retaliated by closing the US consulate in St. Petersburg, and expelled the same number of US diplomats.

After this, the US also launched sanctions against Russian individuals and firms, which caused further damage to Russia's economy and stock market. The closed consulates have never reopened.

Chinese observers said that the US is likely to close more Chinese consulates or arrest Chinese nationals and expel Chinese diplomats in the US, as tensions could not be fixed before the US election in November. The Trump administration needs to use Sinophobia to distract from its domestic pressure to save Donald Trump's falling approval ratings.

After the presidential election, no matter who wins, if the US finds it necessary to fix ties with China to save its economy or solve the pandemic problem, then the consulates could be reopened. But this depends entirely on the US, they noted.

"Whether there will be further escalation and more shutdowns of consulates depends on how the US acts," Li said, noting that if Trump would create a positive environment for trade delegations from both sides, which are reportedly scheduled to meet in August, Washington may stop closing more consulates.

A farewell message that the US Embassy in China posted on social media on Monday and addressed to its consulate in Chengdu was followed by comments from Chinese netizens with mixed feelings.

"Today, we say goodbye to the US Consulate General in Chengdu. We'll miss you forever," said a post published by the US Embassy in China on China's Twitter-like Weibo, along with a short video showing the history of the consulate in Chengdu.

"We don't miss you at all because you are too hypocritical!" a Chinese netizen said in a message left below the US embassy's original post.

"It is you who have initiated the diplomatic conflicts!!" a netizen said, in addition to a number of posts with the "R.I.P." signs.

Some observers saw a flood of messages on the US Embassy's Weibo as the Chinese people's way to express their feelings, as the Chinese public is very familiar with US-style propaganda and showing-off, or the intention of seeking a color revolution in China. But some feel pity for American hawks like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who are ruining the future of bilateral relations.

Jim Mullinax, the US Consul General in Chengdu, said in a WeChat post that "it was a sad day." Though the current situation is amidst a complete darkness, it's believed that we'll find a new way to establish the friendship between the two sides,Jim said in the post, according to media reports, according to media reports, citing the post.

Some Chinese netizens also expressed their thanks for the US consulate for serving as a bridge for better understanding the US, and enhancing communication with Americans. "We thank you!" "Pompeo screw it up" read messages on Weibo.

In the past few years, whenever there have been major ups and downs or problems in China-US relations, Chinese people often expressed their feelings in a sad way, and some even resorted to more emotional expressions, Zhang Yiwu, a Peking University professor, told the Global Times on Monday.

But this time, the Chinese public showed a calm attitude, and even some sense of humor, he noted.

"The change in the public mentality is remarkable, as the calm stems from a much clearer view of the world, with a rational attitude in the face of growing challenges," Zhang said.

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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) London, United Kingdom  Tue, July 28, 2020 08:10 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669bdcb9 2 World pet-cat,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-infection,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

A pet cat has tested positive in England for the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the government said on Monday in the first confirmed case of an animal being infected with the virus in Britain.

The British environment ministry said "all available evidence" suggested the cat had contracted the coronavirus from its owners, who had both tested positive for COVID-19.

Both the cat and the humans made a full recovery and there was no transmission to any other animals or people in the household, the ministry said without identifying the individuals involved.

"This is the first case of a domestic cat testing positive for COVID-19 in the UK but should not be a cause for alarm," said Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England.

"The investigation into this case suggests that the infection was spread from humans to animal, and not the other way round," Doyle added.

The government said the infection was confirmed in lab tests on Wednesday, adding there was no evidence that cats could transmit the virus to humans.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said cats are the most susceptible animal species to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and are able to transmit it to other cats.

"Tests conducted by the Animal and Plant Health Agency have confirmed that the virus responsible for COVID-19 has been detected in a pet cat in England," Chief Veterinary Officer Christine Middlemiss said.

"This is a very rare event with infected animals detected to date only showing mild clinical signs and recovering within a few days."

The WHO has said it will investigate the possibility of cat-to-human infection, but its chief scientist has said there is "very little risk" from domestic animals.
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 27, 2020) - Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Inc. (TSXV: DWS) (the "Company" or "Diamond Estates") (http://www.diamondestates.ca), today announced that, effective July 24, 2020, the Company has entered into an amendment (the "Amendment") to its credit facilities agreement (the "Facilities Agreement") with Bank of Montreal (the "Lender") made as of September 29, 2017, as amended.

Under the Facilities Agreement, the Lender provides Diamond Estates and its subsidiaries with a total of up to $23 million, including a $13.0 million revolving credit facility (the "Revolver") and a $10.0 million non-revolving term loan.

The Amendment provides for an extension on maturity of the indebtedness under the Facilities Agreement to July 1, 2022, certain Fixed Charge Coverage Ratio relief in the second and third quarters of the Company's Fiscal year 2021, and deferral of principal payment obligations in the same such quarters.

As consideration for providing the Amendment, the Lender has been issued on the date of the Amendment, 750,000 non-transferable bonus warrants of the Company ("Bonus Warrants") pursuant to TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.1 - Loans, Loan Bonuses, Finder's Fees and Commissions. Each Bonus Warrant is exercisable into one common share of the Company (a "Bonus Share") at an exercise price of CDN$0.16 per Bonus Share. The Bonus Warrants expire on July 1, 2022 and the Bonus Shares are be subject to an initial four month plus one day hold period from the date of issuance of the Bonus Warrants.

About Diamond Estates Wines and Spirits Inc.

Diamond Estates Wines and Spirits Inc. is a producer of high quality wines and a sales agent for over 120 beverage alcohol brands across Canada. The Company operates two wineries, one in Ontario and one in British Columbia, that produce predominantly VQA wines under such well-known brand names as 20 Bees, EastDell, Lakeview Cellars, Dan Aykroyd, Fresh, McMichael Collection, Benchmark, Seasons, Serenity, and Backyard Vineyards. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Trajectory Beverage Partners, the Company is the sales agent for many leading international brands in all regions of the country as well as being a distributor in the western provinces. These recognizable brands include Josh wines from California, Fat Bastard and Andre Lurton wines from France, Kaiken wines from Argentina, Felix Solis wines from Spain, Blue Nun wines from Germany, Francois Lurton wines from France and Argentina, Waterloo Brewing and Amsterdam Brewery, both from Canada, Landshark Lager from the USA, Marston's beers from England, Social Lite vodka sodas from Canada, Edinburgh Gin from Scotland, Tamdhu, Glengoyne and Smokehead single-malt Scotch whiskies, Barcelo Rum from the Dominican Republic, C.K. Mondavi & Family wines including Charles Krug from Napa, Bols Vodka from Amsterdam, Koyle Family Wines from Chile, Pearse Lyons whiskies and gins from Ireland, Niagara Craft Distillers' beverages from Ontario, Fontana di Papa wines from Italy, and certain Heineken International beer brands, including Red Stripe and Dragon Stout from Jamaica, Tiger from Singapore and Gosser and Kaiser from Austria.

Story continues

For more information, please contact:

J. Murray Souter

President & CEO

Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Inc.

jmurraysouter@diamondwines.com

905.641.1042 Ext 234

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/60534
Some churches in Kasoa, within the Awutu Senya East Constituency have grown wild at the Chairman of the National Peace Council, Rev Prof Emmanuel Asante for asking the MP for the area, Mavis Hawa Koomson, who is also the Minister of Special Development Initiatives to resign for firing warning shots at a polling station a week ago.

The lawmaker admitted pulling the trigger at a registration centre, claiming her life was under threat from some members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the area.

Rev Asante told Benjamin Akakpo in an interview on Class91.3FMs Executive Breakfast Show that the minister must resign.

Speaking in his personal capacity rather than for the National Peace Council, which he chairs, Prof Asante described the incident as very very very worrying.

I saw this very late last night before I slept and really, I was disturbed about the whole thing, he told Benjamin Akakpo on Tuesday, 21 July 2020.

Why? For the simple reason that we have an honourable minister, an honourable member of parliament also, and I believe that shes also the NPPs parliamentary candidate for Awutu Senya East Constituency. We would expect that such honourable people would provide leadership, no matter the provocation, he explained.

And, for her to have said that she felt threatened, so, she pulled a gun and fired it and created chaos in that place; what if, in pulling the gun, others, whoever the detractors may be, even if they were around, ... also pulled a gun? What would have happened? he asked.

Prof Asante wondered if pulling a gun was the only option the minister and MP had under the circumstances.

Even if her bodyguard was not around, couldnt she have gone to the police station to inform the police about what was happening? As far as Im concerned, it cannot be justified in any sense, he said.

She should do the honourable thing, and for me, resign, Prof Asante demanded.

Apart from that, he said the police must also investigate the matter and let the law take its course for that matter, especially, the context within which this was done  in a situation where tension is rising and were doing all we can, people from different angles are doing all they can to ensure that there would be peace and tranquility in what we are doing; we will not expect our leaders, honourable people to do things of this nature.

We expect our honourable people to do honourable things, not dishonourable things, he added.

If Im an honourable person and Ive done a thing of this nature, then I need to sit back and consider what I have to do. As for her being a minister, can she still maintain that dignity of an office? This is the thing.

Beyond asking for her resignation and the police taking her on, Prof Asante said Parliament must also sanction the MP for her dishonorable action.

Parliament must also have a say on such matters. Parliament cannot sit down and think that parliamentarians can do whatever they like and there will be no sanctions whatsoever. I would think that parliament, the executives, the speakers and all the leadership of parliament, will have something to say to this person because she brings the name of parliament into disrepute by her action. I mean, so, in any panicky situation, you pull a gun and shoot it? If an ordinary citizen does that, what is going to happen?

However, the Kasoa Ofankor Local Council of Churches in the Awutu Senya municipality, at a press conference, said it wishes to call on the National Peace Council of Ghana to refrain from calling for the resignation of the Mavis Hawa Koomson.

Our call is based on the law of natural principles solidly grounded in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. The MP, we local members of the clergy, know her as not of a violent character. She has, for several years, remained a very calm and solemn political figure worthy of emulation in our society, the Councils spokesperson said.

The Council said: The fact of the matter is that she was caught up in the midst of thugs who were wielding weapons and without the presence of her personal bodyguard.

Supposed her personal bodyguard was even around, she, the MP and minister, also has the sole responsibility over her life and possesses every right to defend herself, the Council argued.

---classfmonline
KITCHENER  Meat loaf and mashed potatoes, a tried-and-true combination that many enjoy during cold winter months. But on the barbecue in nearly 30-degree weather?

Its a barbecue and most people like meat and potatoes, said chef and cookbook author Ted Reader. Its a twist on the burger.

His version of meat loaf and mashed potatoes is personal, with each person getting an ice cream scoop of meat loaf and potatoes. In a time of COVID-19, when we are highly aware of sharing utensils, serving individualized portions to guests at a barbecue is optimal, Reader said.

On Tuesday, Reader kicked off a fundraiser for Grand River Hospital. Grand Grill begins Aug. 1 and ends Sept. 7.

The hospitals foundation is encouraging local residents to hold barbecues, either with family, friends or neighbours, sharing a meal while maintaining social distancing measures and donating money to the hospital.

The hospitals first summer grill fundraiser aims to collect $300,000. So far, almost $40,000 of the goal has been reached.

You gather, you grill and you give, foundation CEO Paul McIntyre Royston told a group gathered in the hospitals courtyard Tuesday as Reader prepared the meat loaf balls.

Its about cooking. Everybody eats and everybody cooks, he said.

The hospital has seen a boon in donations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since March 13, the foundation has collected $6.64 million in donations, including $823,000 worth of personal protective equipment and $138,000 of donated food for frontline workers.

The community has stepped up in a big way, said McIntyre Royston. The fundraising is surpassing last years best year ever of $8 million collected in donations, he said.

On Tuesday, about 1,100 meals were distributed to staff at Grand River and Freeport hospitals. The meals of hotdogs, sausages and coleslaw were donated by Bingemans and Schneiders.

McIntyre Royston said its important to remember that despite a pandemic, babies were born, cancer was treated and patients continued to receive dialysis.

If we want the best health care in the world right here, we have to be a part of it, he said.

McIntyre Royston encourages residents to hold barbecues within their circle and to take precautions. He plans a barbecue with family and will hold a street barbecue, serving up to 100 hotdogs in his downtown Kitchener neighbourhood.

Money raised can be designated to areas such as cancer, kidney care or seniors care at Freeport. McIntyre Royston is donating his money to emergency and critical care.

Karl Nieva has already raised $2,000 for the cause. He collected the money within 24 hours of posting it on his social media feed. His 14-year-old son Kaleb, who has Down syndrome and a heart condition, has been in and out of the hospital.

Every single time, he is cared for by such loving people, said the Waterloo father of two. We want to give back. We want to show our kids that giving back is part of our social responsibility.

Reader will come to the home of the local resident who raises the most money and barbecue a meal.

I will bring myself and cook a dinner, a menu based on the owners requirements, said Reader, former executive chef at the Skydome Hotel at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. For five years, he was also the executive chef of Presidents Choice, developing jerk wings and thick and cheesy burgers.

Reader knows his burgers. The chef and cookbook author hit a world record with his largest hamburger, which weighed in at 268 kilograms.

Reader, who opened a barbecue joint during COVID in Brooklin, Ont., said the virus has impacted everyones life, one way or another. He jumped at the opportunity to help others cook and raise money for the hospital which has been central to fighting the pandemic.

Ive been cooking my entire life, he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 05:28:03|Editor: huaxia

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BAGHDAD, July 27 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi army's helicopter was damaged by an attack of three Katyusha rockets on Monday evening on a military base housing U.S. forces near Iraq's capital Baghdad, the Iraqi military said.

The three rockets, which landed on al-Taji Camp, some 20 km north of Baghdad, were fired from the nearby Sabaa al-Bour area, as one of them hit the army's 15th Squadron of helicopter gunships and caused great damage to a helicopter, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement.

A second rocket landed on the artillery and weapons repair factory, causing material damage, while a third landed in the army's 2nd Squadron of helicopters but did not explode, according to the statement.

"The Iraqi security forces will continue to pursue those involved in these attacks to bring them to justice," the statement noted.

Earlier in the evening, an Interior Ministry source said three rockets landed in al-Taji Camp, but the casualties are still unclear.

Al-Taji Camp is a huge military base containing an air base where some U.S. troops are stationed.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, but the Iraqi military bases housing U.S. troops across Iraq and the U.S. embassy in the Green Zone have been frequently targeted by mortar and rocket attacks.

The Iraqi-U.S. relations have witnessed a tension since Jan. 3 when a U.S. drone struck a convoy at Baghdad airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.

The U.S. airstrike prompted the Iraqi parliament on Jan. 5 to pass a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in the country.

More than 5,000 U.S. troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces in the battles against the Islamic State militants, mainly for training and advisory purposes. Enditem
I recently bought a new face. It cost $12.95, then another $3.99 for shipping. OK, so technically speaking, it wasnt an actual face, but it was something almost as creepy: It was a face mask with a photo of my own face printed on it.

Made a mask out of a photo of my face printed on cotton & I gotta say its... exactly as disturbing as I thought it would be pic.twitter.com/h8QN4Nh2rD  Christopher Miller (@chrizmillr) May 27, 2020

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Blame filmmaker Christopher Miller. A few months ago, Miller posted a tweet that included a picture of his attempt to make a mask that covered the bottom half of his face with a simulacrum of itself, and I have not known peace since. This mask got, uh, under my skin. It made no sensewhy!and yet so much senseyes! I wanted to look away, but I also wanted to look only at it. It was hilarious; it was grotesque; its hilarity and grotesquerie were in conversation with each other, inasmuch as you can be in conversation with/about a thing whose mouth literally doesnt move. Since I first glimpsed Millers joke, variations on the Mask of Your Own Face, or the MOYOFa mask of Kerry Washingtons mouth, or Liz Lemon mouth-masking in the 30 Rock reunion, or another guy trying it out on Twitterhave started to pop up, compounding my curiosity. I was Kevin Garnett in Uncut Gems, and the selfie mask was my opal. I had to know more. I had to understand why. And eventuallyone cannot argue with fateI had to make my own MOYOF. This is my journey.

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They were going to a wedding and she didnt want to stand out. So I was like,  OK . I mean, I think theyll stand out.  Bunny Giuliani

A representative of Millers declined to speak to me about where he got his MOYOF made. (What if he actually said yes, but he was wearing the mask, so his rep didnt see his lips move and missed it? Possible.) But an online search yielded many print on-demand websites and the mother lode, on the craft marketplace Etsy. I hastened to speak with these entrepreneurs about their entree into the burgeoning MOYOF space.

Bunny Giuliani, who lives in Pittsburgh, told me that originally she objected to mask mandates but not for political reasons. It was more that it was just so depressing. Whenever youd walk into a store, she said, nobody even looked at each other; they just looked down. Everybodys wearing a mask. It was just sad. I was like, Oh my gosh, I cant bear to go to the grocery store. 

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Thats what got Giuliani thinking about a way to inject a little joy into compulsory mask-wearing. I took pictures of some of my family and some of my friends and I started printing them on masks and wearing them out to the store. Id wear my dads beard, stuff like that. It was a big hit. Before the coronavirus, Giulianis Etsy shop specialized in personalized and custom-printed gifts, like monogrammed mouse pads and wine bags. When the virus hit, sales slowed, so a pivot to masks has helped out her bottom line. Shes sold thousands.

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In addition to MOYOFs, Giuliani sells a lot of masks featuring generic noses and mouths. Except theyre not actually generic. They belong to her friends and family. I have a friend who smokes and has a beard, she said. Im like, Let me take some pictures of you, because that would be a really good mask. People love that. Another one of her masks, this one picturing her daughters boyfriends face, went viral on TikTok. The attention and success has resulted in her friends and family taking interest in her business like never before. Were all involved in getting the masks out and seeing whose face sells the best. Giuliani thinks her top seller is a mask of her 26-year-old daughters face, because of her nice teeth. Giuliani is fine with that. Paid for those braces, she said.

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Daniel Cozzolinos shop also did a face mask about-face. Before all this, he mainly sold T-shirts, but after his father had the idea to make a MOYOF, he thought he might be able to pull that off. The first mask didnt come out too great. It was a little oversized, Cozzolino, who is based in Long Island, said. His nose and his mouth were ear to ear. So he made his fathers face smaller, and then even smaller, until he got it right. Its perfect. He wears glasses as well, so the glasses cover the top of the mask. It looks like hes not wearing anything. Its kind of creepy. Now Cozzolino, too, sells custom masks on Etsy alongside his other offerings.

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Different sellers have different techniques for making the masks. Parijat Devarshy sells not only masks but neck gaiters, those stretchy tubes that you wear around your neck and then pull up over your nose and mouth. His Etsy shop asks MOYOF and NGOYOF shoppers to send the standard front-facing photo but also side and back views. Then we take all those photographs into Photoshop and we combine them to create a cylindrical map of the human face, Devarshy said, resulting in a product that, he said, looks good from any angle, not just the front.

Where Devarshy goes for max realism, others lean into the comedy. I leave the white part up there, Giuliani said of her masks edges and straps. Some people dont, but I do, because it is a mask. Im not trying to hide that its a mask. Thats part of the fun of it.

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Going for the laugh makes sense; levity is what buyers are often looking for. Everyone sold a lot of MOYOFs for Fathers Day, for example. One group of employees from a dentists office, Giuliani said, bought the bottom half of the dentists face and they all wore it whenever they were cleaning teeth, to just be funny. Humor is also often the goal when people opt for masks of celebrities instead of themselvesCozzolino is fond of his Post Malone mask, which showcases the rappers numerous face tattoos. Cozzolino said he purposely picked a photo where Postys mouth was open: If I have an opportunity to have grills, then Im going to take it, he said.

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Giuliani said that sometimes the reasons customers give for wanting the masks surprise her. She said one customer wanted them for next weekend, for her and her husband, because they were going to a wedding and she didnt want to stand out. So I was like, OK. I mean, I think theyll stand out.

But I understood that misbegotten couple, because the masks were also asserting an inexorable pull on me. They were uncanny and terrible, and I wanted one, bad. When it was finally time to acquire my own MOYOF, all the sites made it easy to order: I took some selfies, chose the ones I thought had the best lighting and resolution, and dragged them into a series of templates. Two of the sites I tried out never came through, Im guessing due to pandemic-related shipping bottlenecks. The set of masks I received from one print-on-demand site featured, in addition to a quilted texture that was not optional, comically oversized noses and mouths. (I still have a few of these, if anyone, uh  never mind.)

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Immediately, I could feel my real face, under my fake face, turning red.

A neck gaiter I ordered from a different print on-demand site was creepily accurate, though. I could tell how accurate it was because I instantly regretted slapping a pretty below-average selfie on it. I hadnt worn makeup. I had tried for a neutral expression, but I looked kind of sad or mad. You could see a shadow next to my nose, as well as, faintly, the shadow of my hand holding up the phone to take the selfie.

Nonetheless, this second skin compelled me. My skin crawled, but I still wanted to put on this other skin. Why? I asked some scientists specializing in facial recognition research what made these masks so fascinating.

Just the phrase Im going to wear my own face as a mask, thats nightmare-inducing, said Ben Balas, a psychology professor at North Dakota State University who has studied facial perception. If I take off my scientist hat for a minute. I mean, fair enough.

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Peter Hancock, a psychology professor at the University of Stirling in Scotland who studies the perception of faces, said that the masks are particularly disconcerting to us because humans are very sensitive to things being wrong in the face. Of someone wearing a MOYOF, It looks a bit like when youve seen someone whos had too much Botox, he said.

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Pawan Sinha, a professor of visual and computational neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, pointed to a few principles he said might help explain the horrors and delights of the MOYOF. One of these is the composite face effect: When we look at a person wearing [this type of] mask, Sinha said, even though we cognitively can see the top half is real, the bottom half is just an image, we somehow are compelled, from our natural processing strategies, to view this whole thing as a full face. Theres also the still face effect at work: Its something that we have deeply ingrained in our visual system and our cognition that we want and expect another face to be dynamic. So when the masks expression doesnt change, that unmovingness is part of what makes it so creepy.

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During my interviews with many of these researchers, I usually chose about the halfway point to reveal that I already had created a MOYOF. When possible, I tried it on for the person I was speaking with. For some reason, none of them were as enamored with the concept as I was. Erez Freud of York Universitys Centre for Vision Research in Toronto said he didnt think MOYOFs would catch on: As a tool to enhance our face perception in the era of COVID-19, Im not sure that this is the right tool. Can you believe he said that to my face, and my other face?

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It was one thing to wear my MOYOF on a Skype call. But what Id been dreaming of for weeks was wearing it out in the world. Now was the time. I slid the neck gaiter on, pulled my face up over my face, took a deep breath through both my mouths, and walked out into my neighborhood. Immediately I could feel my real face, under my fake face, turning red. Im sure Im like a lot of people in that I dont have an uncomplicated relationship with my face, which is to say, sometimes I hate my stupid face. As an introvert, I had been enjoying hiding under a mask. Had I copied my face to spite my face? Under normal circumstances you dont have a choice what your face looks like, but with a MOYOF, wasnt I kind of declaring, as if in a political ad, Heather Schwedel approves this face? And I dont want anyone to think that! Or think not that!

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These were the kinds of things running through my head as I walked around wearing my Heather Schwedel neck gator, expecting everyone in my sightline to stare or gasp. But no one really did. One guy yelled at me to wear shoes, but I was wearing shoes, so he probably wasnt someone to take advice from. After one of my first times trying the thing out at the grocery store and getting no reaction, I pulled out a compact to check myself out and saw that Id been wearing it upside down. This made zero difference. Eventually, a few people said things like, Nice mask! or pointed me out to the person they were sitting with and laughed. I couldnt smile or laugh back; I could only look kind of sad or mad at them as I said thanks.

For the most part, no one cared. No one ever cares! It was both devastating and freeing. Even so, I will be putting the mask away now. Its powers are too strong for everyday wear. Sometimes your face needs to get out of your face.
Croatia is recording one of the lowest declines in the number of operated flights in Europe this summer when compared to last year and the lowest in the former Yugoslavia, according to Eurocontrol. In the week ending July 26, the Croatian market registered a 52% decline in traffic with some 279 flights. It was behind only Albania, which is recording the lowest decline in Europe, then Norway, Luxembourg, Lithuania, France and Belgium. On the other hand, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro have registered a 63% drop in traffic, while Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia have registered a 65% and 66% decline respectively. Moldova, Georgia and Armenia have seen the steepest decrease in traffic on the continent.





Aiding Croatian airports is the relative openness of the market this summer to tourists from Western Europe, with those on the coast generating the recovery. Over the past weekend, Split Airport registered 135 arriving and departing flights, carrying some 23.000 passengers. Although this figure represents just 30% of last years traffic, it was the busiest so far this year. Considering the coronavirus pandemic, we are delighted by these numbers, Split Airports Operations Director, Mate Melvan, said. He added, We expect for the busiest part of the year to be on the first and second weekend of August when we anticipate around 30.000 passengers each. The head of the Croatian Tourist Board, Kristjan Sanicic, noted, We are conducting an intensive promotional campaign on our most important near-by markets to communicate that Croatia is a safe destination for tourists. These figures, given the circumstances, are an excellent indication for August, during which we expect for the positive trend to continue.





Recovery in markets including Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia has been slowed by ongoing flight bans, as well as travel and entry restrictions for nationals from these countries. Based on Eurocontrols Network Operations Recovery Plan, most will see a small increase in traffic during August. While the entry of nationals from the abovementioned countries is currently restricted to most other nations in Europe, there is also a total ban on flights to Italy and Austria, the latter generating considerable traffic during the summer months from all markets. While the bans are to be reviewed in the coming days, there is no indication they will be lifted, although Austria is likely to green-light the resumption of flights after introducing new entry measures for arrivals from these markets.




Nadia Sawalha has told how a bout of depression she went through during the menopause made her husband fearful for the future of their marriage.

The London-born actress and presenter, 55, told how her memory also became so bad during the period that she feared she was getting early onset Alzheimer's.

Speaking in the latest edition of Platinum magazine, Nadia said she'd never suffered from depression before, but menopause took her to a 'dark place mentally'.

It also saw her husband of 18 years, television producer Mark Adderley, with whom she has daughters Maddie, 17, and Kiki, 12, worry for the first time that they may not come through it together.

Nadia Sawalha has told how a bout of depression she went through during the menopause made her husband Mark Adderley fearful for the future of their marriage

'It was horrible,' she said. 'My husband said that it was the only time he ever thought, for maybe a few minutes, about whether our marriage would survive.'

She added: 'I think the most frightening thing for me was that my memory just became so bad.

'I thought I was getting early onset Alzheimer's, but it was the change in hormones.

'Because of my experience, we ended up talking about menopause on Loose Women, which I'm really proud of, because at the time nobody was having that conversation.'

Nadia said while being able to say something nice about yourself, to yourself, can be 'challenging', it's a 'good thing to practise'.

The London-born actress and presenter, 55, pictured, told how her memory also became so bad during the period that she feared she was getting early onset Alzheimer's

The presenter previously told Mail Online she feels a sense of 'survivor's guilt' having overcome struggles with her mental health in the past.

She admitted that lockdown has seen her suffer quite badly with anxiety, but speaking out about her struggles has helped her overcome it.

'I think when you share something and somebody shares back, there is nothing more powerful,' Nadia told Platinum.

The latest edition of Platinum magazine will be available to buy from July 29

'Recently, and on those days where Ive welled up and somebody has gone, "Nadia, I feel exactly the same way," its made me feel so much better.

'No one's life is perfect, and for me, it feels cathartic to talk.'

In January, Nadia's husband Mark bravely discussed his own battle with depression and alcohol during an appearance on Loose Women.

Mark opened up about his issues during the launch of their new male mental health campaign, Stand By Your Men - part of the show's Lighten the Load initiative.

He revealed to the panel that he once called his wife from a prison cell after being arrested for drink-driving during the height of his battle with the booze.

Speaking candidly about his issues, Mark added: 'I think talking about it is the only way you can normalise it, sort of make it part of everyday conversation.'

He continued: 'When I car crashed my life through addiction, a number of people didn't realise I had such a problem.

'Half of the stress with mental health is hiding it, concealing it, and concealing it is where I think addition comes in, because people conceal it to drink, through drugs, through all sorts of compulsive behaviour.

'So yeah... when we talk about it, it is sort of like sharing and hopefully someone somewhere finds something that connects with them.'

Meanwhile, the television producer went on to discuss his mental health battle and alcohol addiction, in which he revealed all on his run-in with the law.

Candid: Mark Adderley opened on his issues amid the launch of their new male mental health campaign, Stand By Your Men, which is part of the show's Lighten the Load initiative

He said: 'The diagnosis [with depression] was about four years ago. And it's funny because when you live a life of excess but at the same time I was functioning in my world... friends didn't realise that I was spiralling out of control in my private life and so they were surprised.

'There were stages - I was done for drink driving. When you phone your wife from a cell, you're not thinking about depression, you're thinking about behaviour - 'My behaviour's wrong' and then as you move through life you move away from those distractions and those co-dependencies and then suddenly you're left with yourself and you think, 'Hang on, I don't feel any better.'

'You feel as vulnerable, as raw, as depressed and as stressed and anxious.'

The latest edition of Platinum magazine will be available to buy from July 29.
Jean Castex, the new Prime Minister of France and former mayor of Prades, has recently warned French people (and my understanding is that he was mainly addressing the people of French Catalonia) against travelling south of the border due to the coronavirus. Journalist Henry de Laguerie mentioned Castexs warning on Twitter, which prompted an answer from Manuel Valls, the sorely missed former French PM and mayoral candidate for Barcelona city.

In his message, Valls replied to Castex, Emmanuel Macron and Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez (Valls holds nothing back). His message, originally in French, read: A gentle but firm reminder to Jean Castex: Catalonia is not a country. I suppose he was referring to Spain.

It gets me all pumped up and I find it wondrous that my much-admired Manuel Valls should prefer to screw a whole EU member state (Spain) rather than admit that Catalonia is a country, something which the new French PM is quite happy to acknowledge. Castex asked his fellow countrymen to refrain from travelling to Barcelona, Lleida, Viladecavalls or Sant Kevin de Vallfosca. However, Valls also asked them not to travel to Toledo, Murcia, Villaconejos and Granada. In order to deny what the French casually refer to as Le pays catalan, the so-called politician screws over all of Spain. Lets avoid perverse nationalism by being integrated ultra-nationalists.

This is not just a Barcelona councillor who should be concerned about calls made in neighbouring countries not to visit the city that pays his wages, but actually doesnt give a toss about it. You see, if public health authorities warned against travelling to, say, Burgundy (that would be tragic) then if we followed Valls reasoning we should infer that the ban applies to the whole of France. Ill go and fetch my white dress, as Im going to a wedding tomorrow. I wont say where because the virus knows no borders.
Every country spies. And many countries  including the U.S.  use their diplomatic outposts to do it. But for years, China has used its embassies and consulates to do far more than that.

Why it matters: The Trump administration's recent hardline stance against China's illicit consular activities is a public acknowledgment of real problems, but it comes at a time when U.S.-China relations are already dangerously tense.

Driving the news: Last week, the U.S. demanded that China close its Houston consulate in order to "protect American intellectual property and Americans' private information," White House National Security Council spokesperson John Ullyot said in a statement.

In response, the Chinese government ordered the closure of the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, a facility nestled in China's more remote inland region that served primarily as a visa-issuing office for Chinese hoping to visit the U.S., and was not a major hub for U.S. intelligence activity.

Yes, but: The Houston consulate wasn't China's most important espionage hub.

"San Francisco is the real gem but the U.S. wont close it," a former U.S. intelligence official told Axios.

It indicates the Trump administration is likely making an example of the Houston consulate in a bid to achieve its goal of a reduction in Chinese espionage activities without taking an even harsher measure, such as closing the San Francisco or New York consulates.

The Chinese government has long used its embassy and consulates in the U.S. to exert control over student groups, collect information on Uighurs and Chinese dissident groups, and coordinate local and state level political influence activities.

Surveilling Uighurs: Leaked classified Chinese government documents have revealed that Chinese embassies and consulates are complicit in the ongoing cultural and demographic genocide against Uighurs.

The CCP has sought to track down Uighurs who have left China and force them to return, with orders to place them in mass internment camps the moment they cross the border."

China's embassies and consulates have also collected information on Uighurs abroad and submitted that information to Xinjiang police.

Consular officials have frequently refused to renew Uighur passports, telling them they must return to China in order to obtain new documents  only to be disappeared into camps as soon as they do.

Controlling Chinese students: The Chinese embassy and consulates keep close tabs on Chinese students in the U.S., occasionally sending them political directives and quietly organizing demonstrations.

The Chinese embassy and consulates have paid students to demonstrate in support of visiting Chinese leaders, instructing them to crowd out anti-CCP protesters. They have also asked Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSA) presidents to hold study sessions on party thought and to send back photos of the sessions to ensure compliance.

I feel like the tendency is that the consulate tries to control CSSAs more and more, one CSSA president told me in 2018.

Supporting United Front organizations: Chinese diplomatic officials regularly meet with leaders of U.S.-based organizations tied to the United Front Work Department, the political influence arm of the CCP, and preside over the ceremonies and banquets held by these organizations.

One such organization, the National Association for Chinas Peaceful Unification, has branches in more than 30 U.S. cities. Its members issue statements in support of China's official foreign policy positions, and the Chinese embassy and consular officials encourage them to engage in local U.S. politics.

The bottom line: Dealing with bad behavior by diplomats is a highly sensitive geopolitical issue that can easily result in damaged relations.

Go deeper ... Mapped: Where U.S. and Chinese embassies and consulates are located
Fast-rising sugar-free beverage brand Beijing Genki Forest Beverage Co Ltd has built its first factory in Chuzhou, Anhui province, producing its milk teas, carbonated water and functional drinks. The factory's first phase has three production lines, with a maximum production capacity of 450 million mainly 500-milliliter bottles per year. Construction on the first phase was completed last month and products have already come off the assembly line in June. The company, since its founding in 2016, quickly gained attention from consumers, with a presence in 53,286 convenience stores across China and the support of 131,375 offline retailers while expanding to more than 11 overseas markets. It plans to start production at two overseas original equipment manufacturers in the near future, the company said. Bing Qian, chief quality officer of Genki Forest, said they would continue to adopt high quality ingredients and advocate healthy lifestyles through their products. Meanwhile, accurately understanding consumer preferences and transferring such knowledge into innovation and production capacityas well as making products available at places convenient for consumersare key for the company to grow quickly, Bing said. Kantar Worldpanel China said the beverage sector has marched into the sugar-free era, with sales of low-sugar and sugar-free drinks up 13 percent last year. The overall beverage sector grew only at 0.6 percent in terms of sales. Jason Yu, managing director of Kantar Worldpanel China, said self-owned manufacturing capacity will afford more control and reduce logistics costs as well as improve efficiency. The brand has been focusing on the convenience store channel, leveraging the expansion of this channel in first and second-tier cities. Its penetration to social networking platforms and recommendations from online influencers have further expanded access to younger consumers, Yu said. The rapid surge of Genki Forest in the beverage sector is mainly driven by the proper positioning of its bottled carbonated water products, said Li Chen, deputy director of the food and beverage sector at Mintel, a United Kingdom-based research firm. "Genki Forest products have unleashed a strong desire for sugar and calorie-free carbonated water among younger consumers," Li said. "Genki availability within retail channels and its easy-to-carry package have brought it closer to young people," Li added. Genki case has illustrated that, despite strong dominance by established brands, a new disrupter is able to rise, boosted by quick innovation and accurate positioning to constantly attract consumers and adapt to market changes, she said.


A charity providing residential care for vulnerable young people would be insolvent if it had to immediately pay approximately 500,000 owed to its former chief executive, a HSE audit has found.

It revealed that Don Bosco Care, a Dublin charity that provides residential care homes for vulnerable young people, had used money earmarked for the CEO's salary for alternative purposes.

The audit carried out by the HSE on behalf of Tusla found that an annual sum of 100,000 provided by a donor to fund the CEO's salary was spent instead on fundraising.

As a consequence it said Don Bosco Care did not have the resources to pay the salary of its former chief executive, Brian Hogan.

The audit noted that the Department of Children and the board of management at Oberstown Children Detention Campus only approved the role of the chief executive on condition the cost of his salary would not be met from public monies.

Don Bosco Care said a donor only agreed to fund the post to the annual amount of 100,000 until the cost could be met by fundraising income.

Don Bosco Care, which operates as a company limited by guarantee, manages six houses which provide residential care to 12- to 19-year-olds, as well as providing aftercare and outreach services.

It currently has a staff of 53.

Approximately 2.8m of its total income of over 3.2m in 2018 was provided by Tusla.

The company said it had unsuccessfully made repeated attempts to get invoices from Oberstown in 2015 for the chief executive's post.

All of the money was reallocated after two years to seed funding for its fundraising division. It said the donor had not paid the last non-contractual contribution of 100,000 towards Mr Hogan's salary.

The audit said Don Bosco Care was in negotiations over the payment of the amount due to Mr Hogan at the time of its completion last November. It observed that no chief executive was in place at the time with the board's chairperson, Tony McPoland, effectively taking on the role.

The audit also recommended management should ensure monies were not spent on alcohol after it found that Mr Hogan, who is deputy director at Oberstown, had spent 582 in 2017 and 482 in 2018 on alcohol, including four purchases of whiskey at Dublin Airport.

Mr Hogan told auditors the expenditure was on "relatively small amounts to bring a gift to people who were usually hosting accommodation or food and transport for myself and my colleagues".

The audit also found that Mr Hogan's trip to Malta in November 2018 for a European monitoring programme for young people in care was paid for by the charity though his contract of employment had expired at the time. He said the trip was booked in August 2018 before he knew he was leaving.

Meanwhile, an organisation that is publicly funded to promote dental health spent 120 on alcohol at a Christmas lunch, another HSE audit revealed.

The audit also expressed serious concern about oversight of the Dental Health Foundation (DHF), and how some of its funding was spent.

It promotes oral health and is predominantly funded by the State to the tune of over 522,323 in 2017, including 308,023 from the HSE.

The audit found there were no formal service agreements with the HSE. It spent 473 on a trustee Christmas lunch, including 120 on alcohol. The audit also found it paid 100 for a One4All voucher. The audit found 1,884 paid for "car journeys with no justification".

A spokeswoman for the organisation said yesterday it was fulfilling all of the auditor's recommendations.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican, this week accused Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of making false statements before Congress in 2018.

AP

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on Monday accused Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of lying to Congress during two hearings in 2018 and asked Attorney General William Barr to investigate the matter.

Gaetz alleged that Zuckerberg made false statements by "repeatedly and categorically [denying] any bias against conservative speech, persons, policies, or politics" on Facebook.

The Florida congressman cited a recent sting operation by the dubious right-wing activist group Project Veritas to support his allegations against Zuckerberg.

President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers frequently accuse Facebook and Zuckerberg of harboring anti-conservative bias.

But journalists have pointed out that many of the top-performing posts on Facebook are from right-wing pages, and that Zuckerberg has held several off-the-record dinners with influential conservative figures.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on Monday accused Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of lying to Congress in 2018 and asked the Justice Department to investigate the matter.

In a letter to Attorney General William Barr, Gaetz alleged that Zuckerberg made false statements to Congress about Facebook's content moderation during two hearings two years ago.

"On both occasions, members of Congress asked Mr. Zuckerberg about allegations that Facebook censored and suppressed content supportive of President Donald Trump and other conservatives," Gaetz wrote.

Related: Facebook's scandals aren't enough for people to stop using it

"In his responses, Mr. Zuckerberg repeatedly and categorically denied any bias against conservative speech, persons, policies, or politics," he added. "Mr. Zuckerberg also dismissed the suggestion that Facebook exercises any form of editorial manipulation."

Here's what Zuckerberg said in 2018 when he was asked about whether Facebook harbors anti-conservative bias:

"First, I understand where that concern is coming from because Facebook and the tech industry are located in Silicon Valley, which is an extremely left-leaning place. And this is actually a concern that I have and that I try to root out in the company is making sure that we don't have any bias in the work that we do, and I think it is a fair concern that people would at least wonder about."

Story continues

In his letter to Barr, Gaetz said that "recent reports from Project Veritas, featuring whistleblowers who worked as Facebook's 'content moderators,' have shown ample evidence" of Facebook's purported "bias and manipulation" against conservative speech.

Project Veritas is a right-wing activist group that frequently traffics in misinformation and propaganda. The organization is known for its sting operations against mainstream-media outlets and for deceptively editing videos.

Last month, Project Veritas published hidden-camera footage that appeared to show Facebook content moderators saying they delete posts that are pro-Trump or express conservative views.

"According to the Veritas report and undercover footage, the adjudicators were outspoken about their political bias against Republicans, and actively chose to eliminate otherwise-allowable content from the platform and from public view simply due to its political orientation," Gaetz wrote to Barr.

"This arbitrary and capricious behavior is not done in good faith and falls outside of the express intent of 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which affords Facebook liability protection as long as the platform moderates content in 'good faith.'"

The Florida congressman added that Project Veritas' investigation also found that Facebook labeled "a great deal of 'political speech' supporting the President" as hate speech in violation of the company's policies.

"At the same time," Gaetz said, "speech promoting violence against the President and his supporters was labeled as merely 'political,' and was thus allowed to stay on the platform.

"These facts are in direct contrast to Mr. Zuckerberg's testimony before Congress where he stated under oath that Facebook is a politically-neutral platform, and that he personally is working to root out any employees who are restricting speech based on Silicon Valley's overwhelmingly leftist culture," he added. "Such misrepresentations are not only unfair, they are potentially illegal and fraudulent. I hope you will give this referral full and proper consideration."

Trump, conservative lawmakers, and right-wing media figures have repeatedly accused Zuckerberg and Facebook of anti-conservative bias.

But journalists have said that many of the top-performing posts on Facebook come from right-wing pages and media outlets. The social-media giant has also been sharply criticized for allowing politicians to publish ads that aren't subject to third-party fact-checking. And last year Politico reported that Zuckerberg has held several off-the-record dinners with influential conservative figures including the Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Attorney General William Barr listens during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the oversight of the Department of Justice as a video plays in the background Tuesday. Read more

WASHINGTON  Attorney General William Barr defended the aggressive federal law enforcement response to civil unrest in America as he testified for the first time before the House Judiciary Committee, pushing back against angry, skeptical Democrats who said President Donald Trumps administration is unconstitutionally suppressing dissent.

The hearing, held Tuesday as the late civil rights icon John Lewis lay in state steps away outside the Capitol, highlighted the wide election-year gulf between the two parties on police brutality and systemic racism in law enforcement. Massive protests have sparked unrest across the nation following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, and calls for police reform are growing louder.

But Barr said violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests and argued the violence taking place in Portland, Oregon, and other cities is disconnected from Floyds killing, which he called a horrible event that prompted a necessary national reckoning on the relationship between the Black community and law enforcement. But he also said there was no systemic racism in law enforcement.

Largely absent from these scenes of destruction are even superficial attempts by the rioters to connect their actions to George Floyds death or any legitimate call for reform, Barr said of the Portland protests.

 READ MORE: Feds will stay in Portland until attacks on federal property and personnel end, U.S. Attorney says

The hearing marks Barrs first appearance before the committee after 18 months in office, bringing him face-to-face with the panel that voted last year to hold him in contempt and is holding hearings on what Democrats say is politicization of the Justice Department under his watch. But little new ground was uncovered; fuming Democrats often used their five minutes to lay out their frustrations and cut Barr off as he attempted to answer questions.

The hearing comes during a tumultuous stretch in which Barr has taken actions cheered by President Donald Trump but condemned by Democrats and other critics. Among them: the Justice Departments decision to drop the prosecution of former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn and Barrs urging for a more lenient sentence for Trump ally Roger Stone, a move that prompted the entire trial teams departure. Trump later commuted the sentence entirely.

The top Republican on the panel, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, used his opening statement to show an eight-minute video that spliced together images of violence by protesters around the country.

Democrats retorted with a video of their own of more peaceful protesters, shown by Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline.

We fought for democracy, for the right to speak freely and you are attempting to take that away, Cicilline told Barr. Whats worse, youre doing it for the sole purpose of furthering the presidents political agenda and generating footage for Trump campaign commercials.

Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said the Trump administration had twisted the Department of Justice into a shadow of its former self, serving the powerful before average Americans.

Nadler said Barr had aided and abetted Trumps worst impulses and excoriated him and the Justice Department for turning a blind eye to necessary reforms to police departments, for dismissing Black Lives Matter protests and for flooding streets with federal agents to stop protesters.

Under combative questioning, Barr acerbically defended himself but revealed little new information about his motivations or the Justice Department's recent actions on policing or otherwise.

His testimony underscored his department's ongoing effort to differentiate between increasing violence in some cities and Floyd's death, which has led to state charges against four officers and is under investigation by federal authorities. Massive but peaceful demonstrations followed Floyd's death in May.

The attorney general acknowledged that Floyds death struck a chord in the Black community because it reinforced concerns Black people are treated differently by police. But he condemned Americans who he says have responded inappropriately to Floyds death.

As elected officials of the federal government, every member of this committee  regardless of your political views or your feelings about the Trump administration  should condemn violence against federal officers and destruction of federal property, Barr said.

Civil unrest escalated in Portland after federal agents were accused of whisking people away in unmarked cars without probable cause; the people were detained and later released. And in Washington, D.C., peaceful protesters were violently cleared from the streets by federal officers using smoke bombs and pepper balls last month before a photo op by Trump in front of St. John's church.

Barr defended the broad use of law enforcement power to deal with the situation, noting that protesters had earlier set fire to the church and it was total consensus that you couldnt allow that to happen so close to the White House. The departments internal watchdog has opened investigations into use of force and other tactics by agents in Washington and Portland.

He also said the force was used because the protesters would not disperse from the area when law enforcement officials were trying to move back the security perimeter, a decision made the night before. When pressed on details, he pointed to the investigations.

The use of pepper spray was warranted, even if peaceful protesters were also harmed, he said.

Beyond the federal response to the demonstrations, Barr was pressed in detail about his intervention in the Flynn and Stone cases, both of which arose from special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Democrats criticized him for partly taking into account Stones health and age, 67, and said those standards havent been used in other similar cases.

Barr said he told the acting U.S. attorney that we are going to leave it up to the judge and that he ordered the revised recommendation to be filed when the prosecutors submitted an initial recommendation calling for a sentence of seven to nine years.

And even though I knew I would get a lot of criticism for doing that, I think at the end of the day my obligation is to be fair to the individual, Barr said.

Barr also addressed Trumps assertions on Twitter that the 2020 presidential election will be rigged. Asked by Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond if that could be the case, Barr said I have no reason to think it will be. Barr also said he agrees with the nations intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, despite Trumps reluctance to embrace that point.
Richard Blair knows what spotted lanternflies do to vineyards. He lost eight acres of grapevines to the invasive critters in 2017, three years after he first noticed them on his Setter Ridge Vineyards in Berks County. We were at ground zero, so to speak, Blair said.

Now he is fighting back as the voracious bugs move in on the new vines he just replanted after giving those eight acres time to recover.

Insecticides are our main weapons at this point, he said. Blair has plenty of company, as grape-growing peers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey try to beat back the wingless nymphs in midsummer before they become hungry adults in the fall.

Pennsylvania alone is home to more than 14,000 acres of vineyards and more than 300 wineries, which produce two million gallons of wine a year. Wineries in the state generate more than $475 million in tourism revenue every year. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 10,000 people worked at vineyards and wineries in the state.

But spotted lanternflies, invaders from Southeast Asia, particularly enjoy feeding on grapevines. As they pierce their targets to get at the plant sap, the bugs secrete whats called honeydew, a sugary water substance that can lead to a plant-damaging mold. Theyve so far made their way through 26 of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania.

Heather Leach, an associate at Penn State Extension, the expert program for winemakers and farmers, has been working for two years with growers to help them deal with the spotted lanternflies.

Often, Leachs work includes insecticide trials or finding other methods of killing spotted lanternflies. But she also has to spend a lot of time collecting basic data about their biology and behavior. The spotted lanternfly is a type of plant hopper, a group of insects that Leach says has been studied for evolution and genomics, but not really anything to do with managing it as a pest.

Leach has noticed patterns in the spotted lanternflys behavior that give her hope for some treatments. Most tend to congregate within the first 50 feet from the edge of a vineyard and prefer hanging out with other spotted lanternflies over being alone. If you start to get predictability of behavior, then you can start to think about ways to exploit that, Leach said.

One way of doing that is to concentrate insecticides at the edge of vineyards, rather than spray the whole area. Another might be to use exclusion netting to keep them off the vines entirely, though this is a pricier option. What shes most excited about is a combination of the two: insecticide-impregnated netting. Its been a really hot research item, she said. We utilize this insecticide-treated netting at the edge of the field to kind of pull those bugs in and take that toxic dose without putting broadcast insecticide down.

Kari Skrip, a co-owner of Clover Hill Vineyards & Winery in Lehigh County, owns six vineyards in the region, all of which have seen more lanternflies since 2017. Its really frightening when your whole business is based on an agricultural beginning, she said.

So far, shes used the EPA-approved insecticides but notes that many kill only the bugs that are sprayed directly. So after spraying, you can wake up the next day and see a whole new population out there. She worries about what this fall will bring, when the lanternflies are fully grown and able to feed on the vines. We were and sort of still are in a helpless situation.

Va La Vineyards owner Anthony Vietri first saw a spotted lanternfly on his property in Avondale last September and found egg sacs as he was pruning in January  a sign that hell likely see a lot more adult lanternflies this fall. Yet, no matter how vigilant he is, he can still get more of them migrating from areas around his vineyard. If I kill them all, its not going to solve our problem because theyre just going to come from another place, he said.

Vietri hopes, instead, that he can target insecticides on the egg sacs in the winter and spring, and the wingless nymphs in midsummer to limit the adult population in the fall. But he would prefer natural treatments over insecticides. Theres talk of parasitic wasps and some bacterias that might be able to kill them, he said. Im really waiting to have those come online so we can get the populations to a manageable level.

Larry Coia of Coia Vineyards hasnt seen the spotted lanternflies yet on his property in Vineland, N.J., but he knows theyre coming, and hopes for biological predators to be ready soon. Im hoping that within a couple of years, when I might have that significant pressure from the spotted lanternflies, that these treatments might be available, he said.

Previous invasive species, such as Japanese beetle, were lesser threats than this current one because it can kill the vine, said Coia. Instead of losing only one year of fruit, growers would have to start over and replant. Coia notes that new vines and trellises would cost him anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000 just to start, and take as long as seven years to be profitable again.

For Blair and Setter Ridge, starting over was worth it to continue his family business through his daughter. This is what you do, he said. I may not be here for a long time, but I have my daughter, and shes got a long time to go with this as her business.
Press Release

July 28, 2020 Transcript of Interview of Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III

on ANC's Headstart with Karen Davila On the State of the Nation Address Q: What struck you most about the President's SONA? SP Sotto: The fifteen or more bills that he wants us to legislate. Quite a task for the second regular session of the 18th Congress which will probably last for about 7 to 8 months, maximum 9 so that will be tough. There are other points that perhaps stand out but as I said, as a legislator and head of the Senate, I was quite amazed at the number of bills that he wanted passed right away. Q: Before the SONA you came out with a statement and you said "I hope to hear the exact state of the nation months after the Coronavirus pandemic entered the Philippines and I hope that the report will include verified figures on the Covid-19 situation in the country as well as how the administration spent the funds that Congress allocated for the programs," and none of those were actually in the report. Were you disappointed? SP Sotto: Not exactly. You see, I did say that, but then again when we were there already and the President was speaking, of course you must remember the formal speech is not one of the strengths of the President. He us more effective when he is speaking extemporaneously, but t dawned on me that what I was expecting will be given by the IATF and the DOH in a separate venue or probably a hearing or a report which they usually do on a daily basis. But as I said we were expecting the figures, but he did not mention it. Perhaps the length of the SONA or he thought that the IATF would be giving it out anyway so he concentrated on the other highlights of the state of the nation address which he listed 20 points or so. So, he is the President. Q: You were not disappointed with the speech? SP Sotto: Not exactly, no. I was not. I understood where he was coming from. I tried to remain in a neutral perspective. Q: Sen. Recto came out with a statement and he described the SONA as low on inspiration. SP Sotto: That is his opinion. He might be right on some points but then again if you listen and listed the points closely, the highlights that he mentioned, there were some expectations that were satisfied. Q: How would you describe the speech then? What was the strongest message to you? SP Sotto: It was not the typical SONA that many expected. Some expected more but what I was thinking was that what could he say when about 5 months of the year, of that particular year, bale the first regular session of the 18th Congress, what could he say more? The country was crippled, is crippled from February to the present. As I said I tried to remain neutral in my perspective. I know that some others, some countrymen of ours expected more but I was trying to understand the situation of the government. Q: But what about the alleged clarity when it cones to the economic recovery. You have not just senators but also businessmen waiting on specific plans, a comprehensive picture on how the President plans to revive the economy. Do you believe that the President was able to give that in his speech? SP Sotto: Yes, he did mention it. He mentioned it. First of all, when he said Bayanihan 2 he did not have to ho into the details but I could give you the details of Bayanihan 2 which is more or less already towards that goal of an economic recovery program. And then to follow after Bayanihan 2 which we will approve on third reading later, would be the ARISE which is the Acceleration Recovery and Investment Stimulus of the Economy. He also mentioned CREATE, that included the other stimulus packages of government. The thing is he did not go into the details of these and that is probably what disappoints others. Q: With Bayanihan 2 for example, in the Senate version which is exactly the budget that the Executive wanted, you are drafting a P140 billion budget for Bayanihan 2 is that correct? SP Sotto: Yes, that is correct but that is only a small part of Bayanihan 2. The important thing is that in the law or the bill, we (unclear) the necessary flexibility to the Executive Department to realign the budgets, and it would probably not be confined to just the P140 billion if necessary towards the recovery or continued response. Then there are emergency subsidies for low income households, an additional subsidy. We will continue the wage subsidy programs and make sure that the freelancers, self-employed, those from the informal sector, also the OFWs or the repatriated Filipinos and the workers in the various industries is all incorporated in Bayanihan 2 for tourism, construction, public transportation, trades, films, audio-visual workers, and others from the creative industry are all included, also the assistance to the teachers and the public schools. Landbank, DBP and SSS, GSIS will provide loans, subsidies, it is a whole package already for Bayanihan 2 itself. But then again there is the economic stimulus package that follows. Perhaps the problem with the SONA, the President did not go into the details but it is there and those of us who know that it is there and it is ready, as I said, (unclear) rather neutral in our perspective instead of saying that there was a lack in the presentation of the address of the President. Q: Yes, because no less than the President said "I hope that we can get some or the same treatment of clarity, purpose and the fastness to support the passage of the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act which will supplement funds for recovery". So it seemed to those listening that the President himself wanted clarity on it instead of providing it to those listening. SP Sotto: Correct. I am glad you pointed that out Karen because he himself know that the version of the Senate and the version of the House are still to be ironed out and that is why he probably sought the clarity point because we have passed it on second reading already. What we will be doing is passing it on third reading. The House version has a different approach and a different tack. As a matter of fact their version includes already the economic stimulus package that is forthcoming. So what will happen this afternoon is that we approve on third reading, we will create a bicameral conference committee, and I have already talked to the Speaker last night, we will go into a bicameral conference to strengthen and clarify it so that perhaps even the President and the Executive Department will probably clarify thereafter. Q: But then the whole mood of the speech... clearly you are giving me details. You are essentially telling me that yes, Karen, both Houses are acting on the stimulus package but the whole mood of the SONA when it comes to the country. Number one, you have criticisms that there was no clear plan that was essentially expressed in the SONA. Number two, there were threats made to telcos and threats to a possible government takeover or even reverting to a monopoly if services don't improve by December. What do you make of this in terms of the business climate? SP Sotto: To each his own. We will just have to accept the fact that that is the style of the President. As I said, formal speeches are not his strengths. He goes extemporaneous. As a matter of fact those things that you mentioned earlier I think were not included in the speech itself, in the written speech. It came out extemporaneously, and he probably kept it at the back of his mind. But I will support the call for the telcos to shapeup by December or government can take over. Q: Can government really take over? SP Sotto: Yes, that is possible. No, I the franchise (unclear). Government can remove those franchises anytime with another bill or with another law. The President can do that. There are ways of skinning the cat so to speak. Q: But what message are we sending frankly in a post-Covid world to foreign investors? You have ABS-CBN that is already shut down, talks earlier of a take over on the ABS-CBN property which you said, not so fast, and then now after the ABS-CBN shutdown, is even just the thought of taking over Globe Telecom. This is the 21st century in a democracy, in a post-Covid world, where business is even hard to come by. What are we telling foreign investors? SP Sotto: I don't think it was intended directly towards the foreign investors. It's really a point directly headed towards these telcos that, let me ask you, are you satisfied with the way the telcos are giving us their signals, the way they are putting up their network? I don't think we should relate that with the ABS-CBN problem because as far as the ABS-CBN take over is concerned, that is just the fruit of the mind of a few legislators and it is not possible. I already said that is not possible, it is just a statement. So you know, I will brush it aside. The ABS-CBN issue is completely different from what the President mentioned as far as telcos is concerned. Ito talaga, I feel, he is so disappointed, and he has had people telling him that a lot of people are disappointed with the way it is happening so that you should shapeup. Why? Because of the situation that we are in. It is not only the Philippines; the world is on fire as I said in my speech earlier. Therefor, what we do about it? There is this distance learning, we have to improve our internet, our networks, and therefor you must shapeup. That is the only way, otherwise we will have difficulty coping with the situation of the Covid-19. We do not know when this will end. Q: You said that it is possible for the government to take over telco. It is possible, that is what you said. SP Sotto: Yes, it is possible. There are ways of doing it, like the franchise, there are ways of going about it. I don't know if you will recall in the 60s, there is the government telephone service. It can be run by government. Q: Is that something you would advise the President to do for the country? Would that be good for the Philippines? SP Sotto: I will advice the telcos to shapeup, that is what I will say. They should seriously take up what the President said. Q: Does government also have a role in this? I just opened Twitter and Globe came out with a statement on just how much capex they are putting out for investment in the coming year, but they have challenges in terms of permits, red tape. We know that the Philippines up isn't the easiest country to put up infrastructure or businesses in. We are not a Singapore where it takes one permit or two permits. What is government's role in this? SP Sotto: We have passed a law entitled Ease of Doing Business. We have practically removed the red tape already. There are very few signatures that are necessary now so if they are saying that they still have difficulty, let government know. Let us know, let the President know. As a matter of fact, let the Senate know and we will go after these people who are giving you a hard time because we already passed a law removing all these red tape. So I don't think they should say that. Instead of saying that, tell us where is the red tape. Sino ang nanghihingi ng lagay? I think that should be the way they should do it because like for example, let's just go to the towers. In Indonesia, the population of Indonesia is what, 200 million? The cell sites in Indonesia area bout a 100,000 I think. Here the cell sites are bout 17,000 and they are shared by both Smart and Globe. Bakit hindi magdagdag? Bakit hindi damihan, and the type of equipment that you use, is it the high-grade quality ones? Why is it in Singapore, the signals are so good? In Indonesia, as a matter of fact, and other parts of Southeast Asia. Yun ang nakakarating sa Pangulo at yun ang sinusumbong sa kanya, kaya yan ang sinasabi niya. I think that is what is happening because in the Senate, we have been discussing this for some time already and in fact we were glad that there was going to be a third company, the third telco which right now I think is in limbo, I do not know what happened. It would have been a good competitor for them and they would really shapeup but because of the situation that we are in now we need not only because of distance learning but because of the digital landscape that has to be improved in the entire country, the telcos have to shapeup and I do understand where the President is coming from when he says that. Q: There were several points that stood out in the speech of the President. Other than threatening telcos was the return of the death penalty by lethal injection. You at one point were an advocate of the death penalty then after you were not sure about it anymore and you thought that there was another way. What will you do now, you are the author of Senate Bill No. 9165? SP Sotto: Just to set the record straight, I am not proud to say that I was the principal author of the death penalty in the 9th and 10th Congress for drug trafficking only. Except that when we passed the law, may mga amendments, napasok na yung kung ano-anong mga crimes. Now it was repealed in the 13th Congress if I am not mistaken and therefor is no longer in our statutes. Now I was kind of changing my mind to a certain point already as far as the death penalty is concerned. As a matter of fact I have proposed an alternative. You are right, we did talk about that. The alternative is to remove these drug lords or high-level drug traffickers from the main NBP or the main penitentiary. The connection is this: I will agree and I have file din the last Congress, I filed a bill re-imposing the death penalty but only for high-level drug trafficking. The reason is that all the other crimes that could be meted with the death penalty I do believe that those who are against the death penalty are correct and that is what I told you before. Medyo maraming tama. For example, anti-poor. Anti-poor yung death penalty. Makakakuha ng magagaling na abogado yung mayayaman, at yung mahirap ay hindi. Those who will be meted with the death penalty would be the poor ones, so those are the other crimes, but when it comes to high-level drug trafficking, it does not work. The anti-poor cliques does not work because there are no poor drug lords. There are no high-level drug traffickers that are poor. So that is the reason that I agree and I said if the President pushes for a death penalty or lethal injection for death penalty, it stands a better chance if it is confined to high-level drug trafficking. And when he said crimes in the, or is that (unclear) the word he used, confined to the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act which I was the principal author of, and in that law, it's the death penalty for high-level drug trafficking, non-bailable offense. The comment that I said last night was that yes, it stands a better chance if it is only confined to that. But offhand I could say that I will have difficulty counting who will be in favor as far as the Senate is concerned. Right now, siguro 50-50 ang chance but then again may I repeat, I have already filed an alternative and hopefully if I will get the chance to be able to explain to my colleagues and perhaps the Executive Department, this might work. This might be a better option. Remove them, the high-level drug traffickers, or even crimes on drugs, remove them from the national penitentiaries and proceed with the regional penitentiaries and then confine these guys in a separate establishment or penitentiary. That is the proposal. Para na ring death penalty yun dahl nakahiwalay na sila, and it will have the same effect. They will not be contaminating the other PDLs. Q: You actually compared it to an Alcatraz-like penitentiary. Do you feel that this would actually help with what is happening I BuCor right now? SP Sotto: Problems like that would definitely be diminished if we indeed approve the bill that I filed wherein you separate the high-level drug traffickers and then create a regional penitentiary. W can start with Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao instead of just regional or one for each region which would take some time, but Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao is possible. And one of the main reasons for this is because of the research that we have had before which says that if a person or a convict or a PDL is no longer being visited by his relatives, he starts to become loco. That's when he starts to join the gangs, diyan na nasisira, nagiging salbahe. So, how can a family from Sultan Kudarat or Negros or Mindanao visit somebody in Muntinlupa if they do not have the means? Perhaps they could not even visit once a year, but if it is regional, if you are from Luzon, you are confined in Luzon, if you are in Visayas and Mindanao, you are confined there, it is easier and it will be better for government. And it is possible already because Nueva Ecija for Luzon is possible. The camp in Capis is possible and the Davao penal colony can be upgraded and updated. Q: Does this mean that you will be reintroducing this on the floor? SP Sotto: it is already in the committee. As a matter of fact, when the BuCor controversy that you mentioned will come in the Senate and the committee on accountability of public offices, the Blue Ribbon committee will conducting that or the committee on justice will be hearing, I will insist that the committee come up with that committee report. Which includes already the regional penitentiaries. Sen Gordon agrees, I assure you he has agreed already. In principle he has already told me that he agrees with the suggestion. Q: But in principle would you support the President's call to revive the death penalty for illegal drugs? Let's say it's drug traffickers, would you outright support that? SP Sotto: Only for high-level drug traffickers, perhaps I will support. Not just the regular drug trafficker. Maraming mahihirap na kung sino-sino lang, nagbenta ng limang stick ng marijuana lang, drug trafficking yun even if it is just five sticks, or let's say 20 grams of shabu which is not part of the 200 gram limit pero he is selling it, he is a drug trafficker. Hindi naman dapat kasama yun. Ang kasama, I will support high-level drug trafficking only. But then again if my bill is approved and supported by government, we do not need the death penalty. Q: Bringing up the death penalty in the SONA, some critics have said this is a deflection to focus on the government's performance on Covid and in a post-Covid scenario. Would you agree with that? SP Sotto: Hindi naman siguro. (unclear) 2016. There are 15 other issues that he wanted. He wanted the Department of OFW, he wanted the death penalty, the national housing development bill, the national (unclear) subsidy, the professional development act, the nursing education act, the national disease prevention and management authority, unified system on separation (unclear) retirement and pension, the modernization of the Bureau of Fire, the creation of the department of disaster, the national land use act, a very controversial one, the coco levy, the Boracay Island Authority, (unclear) but the death penalty stands out. We discuss it, and people discuss it kasi yun ang controversial but it is just part of the rest of what he wants like the internet transaction act, which is again very important because of the landscape that we are in right now. Q: 2022. What will make you run for higher office? SP Sotto: We say in Tagalog mahirap magsalita ng tapos, but my priority, my first option is to retire. I have been in government for almost 30 years, I started as a vice mayor in 1988 and then 1992 as senator. I will be 24 years in the Senate when I when 2022 comes. It's not really that easy to think about coming up with or running for a higher office. And then I have my political party to reckon with. We are somehow a bit crippled because of the demise of Ambassador Danding Cojuangco. We have to meet, we plan to meet after 40 days and see the plans of the party. I do not have any personal intentions of running for higher office at the moment. We would probably help with just being a supporter. Depende, tingnan natin, I cannot say yes, I cannot say no at this point. Probably I could borrow the line of a good friend of mine, when they said you should run for president. Ang magandang sagot doon "ha, eh kung manalo ako?" Q: But you have track record, that was a colleague of yours who actually had no experience, so the analogy...? SP Sotto: He said it in jest. Q: I mean the possibility with you is not far off, right? SP Sotto: Well, as I said there are many things to consider and that is the reason that I could not and I want to say no, but I could not directly say no it's because of the other things that I have to consider, like my political party that I have been with for quite a long time. It is not that easy to just turn your back on them but again I could probably work with them in another capacity. We'll see.
There is something very wrong with a president who uses excessive force against his own citizens, yet, withholds aid needed by those same people.

President Donald Trump and Republican senators are waging war against cities. This is proved by the violent use of federal agents to stop mostly peaceful protests for racial justice, coupled with the resistance of Republicans to give sufficient taxpayer funds needed to fight the pandemic and economic collapse.

A majority of residents in many cities are people of color and white progressives who would not likely vote for a Republican. The GOP wants a divided country. So, they withhold aid when requested by cities, and send federal agents  as punishment  when cities dont request them.

Trump uses the excuse of rising crime for this. But despite some recent uptick, statistics show that overall crime rates remain near all-time lows. It is an old trick for leaders of countries to start wars when it looks like they will be defeated on Election Day. But waging war inside our own citizens is horrific.

The people of this country must remember just what we fought for and against in World War II. We remember that it took a unified country and New Deal programs to defeat both fascism and the Great Depression.

We must clean out the Trump swamp in November. Our countrys future is at stake.

Ralph Palladino, Bradley Beach

Not friendly to fire at worried teachers

I enjoy the Friendly Fire column because it reminds me of a better time when both political parties could discuss their ideas and improve them together.

However, (Republican insider) Mike DuHaimes comparison of teachers and health care workers in the most recent column is seriously flawed. He stated that, despite their worries about exposure to COVID-19, health care workers bravely showed up day after day in April, suggesting that teachers who are worried must do the same in September.

The facilities, equipment and protocols of hospitals, and the years of professional training of their personnel are expressly designed to protect their employees from disease. Tragically, despite all of this, many became ill with the virus and some died.

Schools do not have the same design, equipment, nor protocols, and teachers do not have the same knowledge, training nor authority to deal with health crises. Comparing the two groups is unfair and irresponsible.

Victoria Nguyen, Branchburg

They ought to call them death guards'

I just finished the reading the article 24 LBI lifeguards test positive for coronavirus after attending social gatherings.

These lifeguards are from Harvey Cedars and Surf City. These 24 should be called death guards.

During a pandemic, when people are trying to survive and take care of one another, I had to read about irresponsible, selfish people who care more about a having a good time than they do about other peoples lives.

The cavalier attitude and arrogance of these 24 is a poor reflection on lifeguards in general, who truly care about saving lives. With the mindset this group has, I would find it hard to put my life in their hands.

Jan Marie Sethman, Linden

Masks are vital, but not to IRS

Given the advice from Dr. Anthony Fauci and other professional experts that wearing face masks can cut down dramatically on COVID-19 spread, can he please inform the IRS of this fact, and also inform the agency that mask purchases should, indeed, be acceptable to deduct as medical expenses?

My medical Flexible Spending Account account denies reimbursement for mask purchases because the IRS says they are not an acceptable claim.

Huh?

Debby Waldman, Monroe Township (Middlesex County)

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Boris Johnson fears a second wave of coronavirus could start within a fortnight.

A senior government source told the Mail the Prime Minister was 'extremely concerned' by outbreaks 'bubbling up', both at home and abroad.

Although the number of UK cases is relatively low, rises were recorded each day last week for the first time since the April peak.

The seven-day average stands at almost 700  28 per cent up on three weeks ago.

Ministers have been warning of a potential second wave of the pandemic this winter but now fear it could come sooner.

On a visit to Nottingham yesterday, Mr Johnson said Britons must not drop their guard.

He added: 'The most important thing is for everybody in all communities to heed the advice, to follow the advice, not to be spreading it accidentally and get it right down and we'll be able to ease the restrictions across the country.

'But clearly we now face, I'm afraid, the threat of a second wave in other parts of Europe and we just have to be vigilant.'

Boris Johnson pictured on a visit to Nottingham on Tuesday where he expressed fears over a second Covid-19 onslaught

Mr Johnson is said to have been spooked by the resurgence of the virus in parts of the United States and Europe following the easing of lockdown.

Cases in Spain doubled last week while the Belgian government warned of a second 'complete lockdown' unless outbreaks come under control.

The head of Germany's public health agency yesterday said he was 'very concerned' by rising infection levels.

A Downing Street source said: 'The PM is extremely concerned by what he's seeing abroad and fears we could be seeing the same thing here in a fortnight.

'People have got to realise we are still in the middle of a pandemic. He wants to go further on opening things up and getting people back to work, but he knows it'll be his head on the block if things go wrong.'

As a report from MPs condemned the Government's 'reckless and appalling error' in allowing 25,000 pensioners to be discharged to care homes without testing:

Spain reacted angrily to the UK's decision to warn tourists against travelling to the country, with prime minister Pedro Sanchez saying it was 'unjust';

A deal is expected this morning for the purchase of millions of doses of another promising vaccine candidate;

Ministers will meet tomorrow to decide whether to extend travel restrictions further, with Belgium, Luxembourg and Croatia all said to be sources of concern;

Oldham became the latest town to impose local restrictions to halt the spread of the virus;

Another 119 Covid-related deaths were recorded in the UK;

The quarantine period may be cut from 14 days to ten to ease the pressure on the economy and individuals.

Whitehall sources yesterday confirmed that Mr Johnson's caution showed itself in the controversial decision to extend the travel ban on Spain to the country's Balearic and Canary islands, where case numbers are lower.

The decision has sparked a diplomatic clash with Spain, with Mr Sanchez saying tourists in most regions would be safer than they are in the UK.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab are both said to have opposed the move to extend the travel ban to the Spanish islands, only to be overruled by the Prime Minister on Monday.

The most up to date figures show the number of new cases is rocketing upwards in Spain. It announced 6,361 new cases over the weekend, up from 4,581 the previous weekend. France announced 2,551 new coronavirus cases on Monday

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has claimed that tourists are safer in his country than the UK. These are the worst coronavirus hotspots in each country and the number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 people

OLDHAM BECOMES LATEST TOWN TO FACE TIGHTER COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS Oldham today became the latest place to introduce tighter coronavirus restrictions after a 240 per cent surge in cases in the past week. Official NHS statistics show 119 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in the Greater Manchester town in the week up to July 25. This equates to a rate of 50.5 cases per 100,000 people  the third highest rate in the country, behind only Blackburn with Darwen and Leicester. Council bosses have now urged all of the borough's 235,000 residents to not let any visitors into their home for at least two weeks. They are keen 'to prevent a strict local lockdown being put in place' like that seen in Leicester, which has yet to be freed from the draconian restrictions. It puts Oldham at odds with the rest of England, after lockdown rules were relaxed earlier this month to let people to stay overnight with loved ones. Everyone living in the Greater Manchester borough has also been asked to keep two metres apart from friends and family when seeing them outside. Current government advice for the rest of the nation recommends a one metre-plus rule  but people should keep two metres apart where possible. Advertisement

A Whitehall source said: 'The PM was determined to make sure we have a clear and consistent message on Spain, regardless of the situation in individual regions.

'That's fair enough, but you can see why Spain is upset because it treats the whole country as if it was as bad as the worst region.

'If other countries did that to us they would be judging the whole country on the situation in Leicester.'

Figures released yesterday showed the rolling seven-day average of cases has continued to rise through the month, from 546 cases on July 5 to 697 on July 25  an increase of 28 per cent.

Downing Street last night acknowledged that the PM was concerned about the situation abroad but played down the idea there was an imminent risk of an upsurge in the UK.

There are no immediate plans to reimpose restrictions on a nationwide basis.

A No 10 source said: 'We have not seen a sharp uptick yet, but we are concerned. We don't want to experience what some other countries are experiencing and it would be remiss of us if we were not looking at steps to prevent that.

'That means we need to make sure we are not importing cases from abroad. But it also means people need to be vigilant here and maintain the social distancing.

The virus has not migrated for the summer and we have always said we will put the handbrake back on if we need to.'

Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty is said to be concerned about the risk of the virus being 'seeded' by holidaymakers returning from abroad, particularly as many people who get the virus display no symptoms.

He is also monitoring a dozen or so boroughs which have been placed on a 'watchlist' due to high or fast-rising infection rates, including Peterborough, Northampton, Luton, Leicester, Rochdale and Bradford.

Covid-19 cases rise AGAIN: Daily infections in the UK shoot up 30% in a week as Britain records 119 more deaths and figures show fatalities are rising in the South West and South East

By Vanessa Chalmers and Stephen Matthews for MailOnline

Covid-19 cases are still on the rise across the UK as the average daily number of infections has shot up to almost 700  the highest toll for more than three weeks.

Government statistics today revealed 581 more Brits have tested positive for the life-threatening disease, 30 per cent higher than the 445 cases diagnosed last Tuesday.

It means the rolling average number of new infections, which takes into account figures recorded over the past seven days and has been on the up since July 8, is now 697  up from 678 yesterday.

Despite cases already being on an upward trajectory after the relaxation of strict lockdown rules, the UK's death curve has barely changed in the past eleven days amid fears of a resurgence.

Covid-19 deaths dropped to another low across England and Wales since the lockdown. Figures show nearly five times as many people are now dying from the flu and pneumonia than coronavirus

While Covid-19 deaths decreased or remained the same across all English regions, the South East and South West have seen an increase of 57 and 11 per cent, respectively, in one week

Britain today recorded another 119 deaths, slightly up on the 110 posted this time last week. It means 65 people are succumbing to the illness each day, on average, up from 64 yesterday.

Separate government figures today revealed Covid-19 deaths have dropped again to 17-week low in England and Wales  but are on the rise in the South East and South West.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) report also showed deaths from all causes were below average for the fifth week in a row and that the overall number of confirmed or suspected victims is around 56,000.

Department of Health officials say the laboratory-confirmed death toll  which only includes victims who have tested positive for the disease  stands at 45,878.

Department of Health figures today showed almost 100,000 tests were carried out or posted the day before. The number includes antibody tests for frontline NHS and care workers.

Statistics show the number of fatalities from all causes has been below the five-year average for the past five weeks in a row

But bosses again refused to say how many people were tested, meaning the exact number of Brits who have been swabbed for the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been a mystery for a month  since May 22.

Health chiefs reported 581 more cases of Covid-19. Government statistics show the official size of the UK's outbreak now stands at 300,692 cases, less than 12 weeks after they tipped 200,000.

But the actual size of the outbreak, which began to spiral out of control in March, is estimated to be in the millions, based on antibody testing data.

It means the rolling average of daily cases stands at 697  10 per cent higher than the 635 average cases figure recorded last Tuesday.

The daily death data does not represent how many Covid-19 patients died within the last 24 hours  it is only how many fatalities have been reported and registered with the authorities.

The data does not always match updates provided by the home nations. Department of Health officials work off a different time cut-off, meaning daily updates from Scotland as well as Northern Ireland are always out of sync.

And the count announced by NHS England every afternoon  which only takes into account deaths in hospitals  does not match up with the DH figures because they work off a different recording system.

For instance, some deaths announced by NHS England bosses will have already been counted by the Department of Health, which records fatalities 'as soon as they are available'.

NHS England today recorded 12 deaths in hospitals across the country. No deaths were recorded in any setting in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

More than 1,000 infected Brits died each day during the darkest days of the crisis in mid-April but the number of victims had been dropping by around 20 to 30 per cent week-on-week since the start of May.

Sixty-five Britons are dying with Covid-19 each day, on average  exactly the same as the figure recorded last Tuesday.
Washington: Australia and the United States have vowed to beef up their joint military efforts in Darwin, boost naval exercises in the South China Sea and investigate the development of missile and hypersonic defence technologies to counter an increasingly assertive China.

Tensions with China dominated the annual Australia-US Ministerial (AUSMIN) consultations between Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds and US counterparts Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Mike Esper on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST).

Shared values but independent thinking: (From left) Defence Minister Linda Reynolds, Foreign Minister Marise Payne and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Credit:DFAT

While celebrating Australia's long-standing strategic alliance with the US, Senator Payne stressed that Australia would seek to promote its own national interests and notably declined to echo Mr Pompeo's strident rhetoric against the Chinese Communist Party.

Senator Payne said that although Australia and the US were close allies, they "dont agree on everything though  and thats part of a respectful relationship".
The National Investigation Agency on Tuesday arrested an associate professor of Delhi University in connection with the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case, an official said.

Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil, 54, a resident of Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, is an associate professor in the Department of English, a spokesperson of the NIA said.

The case relates to an Elgar Parishad event of December 31, 2017, organised by the Kabir Kala Manch at Shaniwarwada in Pune, where alleged provocative speeches were made, promoting enmity between various caste groups and leading to violence resulting in loss of life and property and statewide agitation in Maharashtra, the official said.

During investigation, it was revealed that senior leaders of the CPI (Maoist), a banned organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, were in contact with the organisers of Elgar Parishad as well as the accused arrested in the case to spread the ideology of Maoism/Naxalism and encourage unlawful activities, the official of the premier investigation agency said.

The Pune police filed a charge sheet and a supplementary charge sheet in the case on November 15, 2018 and February 21, 2019 respectively.

The NIA took up the investigation of the case on January 24 this year and arrested Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha on April 14, the official said.

During further investigation, it was revealed that Hany Babu was propagating Naxal activities and Maoist ideology and was a "co-conspirator" with the other arrested accused, the NIA official said.

He will be produced before a special NIA court in Mumbai on Wednesday and his police custody will be sought for custodial interrogation, he said, adding that further investigation in the case was underway.

A section of the Delhi University fraternity and some student outfits condemned the arrest of professor Hany Babu, saying it was "a blatant attempt to silence dissent".

The news of his arrest was "shocking", said Abha Dev Habib, a professor at Miranda House college where Hany Babu's wife Jenny Rowena also teaches.

"He has risen as the voice of marginalised students and is a pro-democracy activist. If you put anyone in jail now (amid the COVID-19 pandemic), it is like giving death sentence.... We will continue to protest for his release," she said.

According to a professor, Rowena was attending a college meeting online when she got the news of the arrest and immediately left it.

Another professor, requesting anonymity, said Babu had applied for leave a few days ago to go to Maharashtra for some personal work. The news of his arrest is very "disturbing", he added.

Nalini, a student of Delhi University's English Department, said, "Ambedkarite intellectual and anti-caste activist Hany Babu's arrest is yet another draconian attack on the democratic ethos of India and a blatant attempt to silence dissent by the Modi government. This attack upon intellectuals should alarm all progressive voices in the country."

"He is a much better person than he is being made out to be. We all know what is happening in the current time and how there has been a witch-hunt of activists," said a final-year student of English (Hons), requesting anonymity.

The final-year student said Hany Babu was his linguistics professor in third semester.

Kawalpreet Kaur, the Delhi unit president of the All India Students'' Union, tweeted, "The news has hit home. Delhi University professor, Hany Babu has been arrested by NIA in Bhima Koregaon case. Everyone in academic fraternity must oppose this arbitrary use of power and give unflinching support to professor. This witch-hunting against democratic voices must end."

The Left-backed AISA said, "Fabricated charges and lies have been the modus operandi of NIA and investigative agencies. The arrest of Prof. Hany Babu proves the Modi government wants to silence and harass pro-democracy forces."

In September last year, officers of the Pune police, which was earlier probing the case, conducted searches at the residence of Hany Babu in Noida and seized his laptop and mobile phone.

From anti-Citizenship Amendment Act activists to pro-democracy activists, intellectuals and academics, the BJP government is sparing none in its attempt to weaken democracy, the AISA said and demanded Hany Babu's immediate release.

The Campaign Against State Repression, an umbrella body of student outfits and civil society organisations, called his arrest "blatant harassment and intimidation of persons who question the State and struggle for the rights of the marginalised and oppressed castes, classes and communities".

Hany Babu has been an anti-caste activist who has been consistently fighting for social justice within and outside the university space, it said.

CASR demanded immediate release of all activists and intellectuals arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Former Malaysian leader Najib Razak was found guilty Tuesday of corruption over the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal that cost him his government, and could face decades in jail.

The ex-prime minister was convicted on all charges in his first trial related to the looting of sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

Billions of dollars were stolen from the investment vehicle and spent on everything from high-end real estate to pricey art, while investment bank Goldman Sachs also became embroiled in the scandal.

Anger at the looting played a large part in the shock loss of Najib's long-ruling coalition in elections in 2018, and he was arrested and hit with dozens of charges following his defeat.

The verdict was a test of Malaysia's rule of law. It came about five months after Najib's scandal-plagued party returned to power as part of a coalition, which observers had feared could affect the outcome.

Najib is facing several 1MDB-linked trials and the first, which began almost 16 months ago, centred on the transfer of 42 million ringgit ($9.9 million) from a former unit of the fund into his bank accounts.

The 67-year-old had vehemently denied wrongdoing.

But Judge Mohamad Nazlan Mohamad Ghazali took apart all the arguments put forward by his defence, and found him guilty on the seven charges he faced.

"In conclusion, after considering all the evidence in this trial, I find the prosecution has successfully proven the case," the judge told the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

Najib looked calm and bowed his head after the verdict was read. Outside court, hundreds of angry supporters chanted "Long life".

Abuse of power

The charges were one of abuse of power, three of criminal breach of trust and three of money-laundering.

The counts of abuse of power and criminal breach of trust are punishable by up to 20 years in jail each, while the money-laundering charges are punishable by up to 15 years each.

It was not immediately clear whether sentence would be passed later Tuesday or at a later date. The 67-year-old will likely appeal and he may not be sent to jail immediately.

Najib had insisted he was ignorant of the transactions from the 1MDB unit, SRC International.

The defence team portrayed Najib as a victim and instead sought to paint financier Low Taek Jho, a key figure in the scandal who has been charged in the US and Malaysia, as the mastermind.

Low, whose whereabouts are unknown, maintains his innocence.

The judge however ruled that the idea Low had tricked Najib was "far-fetched", and also dismissed the argument the ex-leader believed the money in his account was a donation from Saudi royalty.

The return of Najib's party to power as part of a coalition in March followed the collapse of Mahathir Mohamad's reformist administration.

Since then, 1MDB-linked charges were unexpectedly dropped against the ex-leader's stepson Riza Aziz in exchange for him agreeing to return assets to Malaysia.

Money stolen from the investment fund was allegedly used to bankroll Riza's Hollywood production company and fund the hit movie "The Wolf of Wall Street", which starred Leonardo DiCaprio.

Prosecutors also dropped dozens of charges against Najib ally Musa Aman, the former leader of Sabah state.

But analysts said the conviction against Najib would boost confidence in the new government, headed by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, and in the justice system.

Muhyiddin will be "seen as putting country over politics, and gain support from those who wanted to see justice in case," Bridget Welsh, a Malaysia expert from the University of Nottingham, told AFP.

There has been speculation a guilty verdict could destabilise the ruling coalition, which has a razor-thin majority in parliament, if Najib subsequently decides to withdraw the backing of those who still support him.

The amounts involved in Najib's first case are small compared to those in his second and most significant trial, which centres on allegations he illicitly obtained more than $500 million.

Malaysia had charged Goldman Sachs and some current and former staff, claiming large amounts were stolen when the bank arranged bond issues for 1MDB.

But the two sides agreed to a $3.9 billion settlement last week in exchange for charges being dropped.
HEYBURN  The city wastewater plant overflowed Monday, causing about 5,000 gallons of partially treated sewage to reach the Snake River.

The city reported the incident to the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.

Heyburn Councilwoman Joanne Justesen said the problem occurred when a clarifier at the citys wastewater plant was unable to push the sludge around and spilled over.

The same clarifier overflowed last year as well.

What spilled was not bad stuff, it still had to go through the UV process, Justesen said. But there was nothing raw and it had gone through some of the cleaning process.

Resident Marlene Kelly owns property about 400 yards from the discharge area.

Her house guest Sam Logan, of California, was one of the first people to notice the spill, which looked like a brown froth on the water, and went to investigate where it was coming from.

I didnt like the looks of it, Logan said.

Logan took pictures and video of the incident and reported it to the city.

I was worried when I found out it was coming from the plant. Even if it was just the bacteria, it was still contaminated, Kelly said.

Kelly said families who live downstream have children and she has grandchildren who often visit.

The spillage contained the biological bugs that break down the waste, city officials said. Staff were able to contain enough biological material at the ultra-violet station that the biological material will be replenished and there will not be a cost to city to replace it.

But, Justesen said, the city may face a Department of Environmental Quality fine from the spill.

Justesen said the city is a few months out from getting a new clarifier online that is part of the citys sewer upgrade project.

A $12.4 million bond for sewer work was approved through judicial confirmation in 2018 after the city faced fines of $53,000 a day for being out of compliance. The project ultimately did not cost that much due to the city combining the bond money with grants, saving taxpayer dollars.

Citizens will only have to pay back a little more than $5.5 million of the costs due to grants.

This really puts an exclamation point on the fact that this project should have been done years ago, Justesen said. This upgrade is so needed.

Kelly said city employees were going door-to-door on Tuesday morning telling residents along the river about the spill.

Justesen said it is her understanding that the biological bugs will not harm anything and will just continue to break down bacteria in the river like they do at the plant.

Justesen said shes asked that a new policy be placed on the Aug. 12 council meeting agenda to implement procedures to notify residents when incidents like this occurs.

We want to be transparent, she said. Citizens need to know and have the right to know whats going on in the city.

Love 2 Funny 2 Wow 3 Sad 2 Angry 14
Mumbai, July 28 : Actor Ranvir Shorey says the pandemic-infused shutdown and the inability to release films might be frustrating Bollywood bigwigs, though the feeling is a constant in the life of an independent artiste.

"I imagine this #lockdown must be making even the biggest #Bollywood stars and banners feel frustrated at not being able to release their films in theatres. This is the feeling most independent filmmakers and actors live with all the time," Ranvir tweeted.

The actor also expressed his views on gang power in Bollywood with a string of tweets.

He wrote: "'The Gang' is essentially a mutually beneficial alliance of a few powerful, corrupt, crafty old men, and a few second generation younger producers who have inherited film empires. Their objective is to have control over the top of the pyramid and have pliable stars. #Bollywood."

"I've had a run in with one of them 15 years ago. This is the man who fancies himself as the holy-moly Dronacharya of the gang, except when it comes to covering up the indiscretions and crimes of his own offsprings. A product of a damaged mind and faux spirituality. The modus operandi is that when you're vulnerable, like the death or loss of a close one, you're professionally & socially ostracised by spreading lies and rumours, through the media, as well as the grapevine, leaving you disoriented and hopeless with a sense of doom," he added.

I imagine this #lockdown must be making even the biggest #Bollywood stars and banners feel frustrated at not being able to release their films in theatres. This is the feeling most independent filmmakers and actors live with all the time.  Ranvir Shorey (@RanvirShorey) July 28, 2020

On the work front, Ranvir will next be seen in the heist comedy "Lootcase", directed by Rajesh Krishnan. The film also features Kunal Kemmu, Gajraj Rao, Rasika Dugal and Vijay Raaz.

-- Syndicated from IANS
The United States' terrible COVID-19 performance, sadly, is in a league only with Brazil. As is now fairly widely known, all the major European country have bent the COVID curve much more effectively than we have.

This significantly reflects a failure of our political leadership at the top. But we need to realize that it also reflects a problem at the bottom, in our culture.

Americans are famously individualistic. This is an attractive feature of our culture, which undergirds our commitment to freedom and propels us to achieve.

But the COVID crisis also reminds of the dark side of American individualism, similar to the way one-time British Mrime Minister Edward Heath referred to some egregious business behavior as the unacceptable face of capitalism. That dark side is a greater acceptance in the U.S. of a selfish disregard for others. It is a lower sense of social responsibility.

We have observed this throughout the crisis in the demonstrations against mask wearing, and more recently in the shocking COVID parties, where young people -- one of whom is infected -- get together compete to see who else present can become infected first. It has been common in the U.S. for some people to defend their right not to wear a mask. Last week a 30-year old who had attended such a party died of COVID.

The dark side of American individualism also translates into less responsible behavior -- not only fewer masks but less discipline about social distancing.

We have seen similar responses outside the U.S. only in rare instances. There have been occasional examples of people in the United Kingdom and Germany griping that mask orders violate individual liberty, but these expressions have been extremely unusual and almost never involved organized protests. To my knowledge, no country outside the U.S. has had COVID parties. Friends in China, including critics of the Chinese government, have asked me incredulously why there are people in the U.S. who object to wearing masks

The unacceptable face of individualism has also appeared at the top of our system, in the behavior of leaders. The last president who specifically talked about the social responsibility of individuals was George H.W. Bush, with his thousand points of light initiative praising volunteerism. But in 2018, before COVID, Trump stated, "Thousand points of light, I never quite got that one. What the hell is that? Make America Great Again we understand. Putting America first we understand."

Certainly it is understandable that people became frustrated by being cooped up at home. So we want to avoid any kind of hectoring tone toward our people of the kind that got Jimmy Carter into trouble with his malaise speech. But our political leaders should call out egregious examples of reckless disregard such as the COVID parties or defiant refusal to wear a mask in stores where it is now required.

We certainly have had leaders at the national level who gave that message. Famously John F. Kennedy said, Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. That was a message about prioritizing social responsibility over selfishness. Many Americans responded to that call by joining the Peace Corps or participating in civil rights protests.

The good news is that social responsibility is also a part of our culture, just like selfishness. I see frequent memes and comments on my Facebook page from people who want to spread the message that wearing a mask reflects an elementary concern for others. Many have gone out of their way to volunteer and help COVID victims.

If social responsibility were not part of our culture at all, it would be much harder to get it rooted. However, when these kinds of conflicting messages exist in a culture, the job of leaders becomes to put a thumb on the side of the constructive messages and by doing that help them to take a larger role in the culture.

Thats what we need now. A president who calls on Americans to join Americacorps or any of the non-profits or religious organizations that encourage concern for others. Mayors and local leaders who are seen in public wearing masks  or who show up on a regular basis at soup kitchens or homeless shelters and help, and join in on local walks for hunger or for breast cancer. Leaders who consciously try to be role models.

Lets bring back a thousand points of light. We need that now.
Steven C. Bilt We believe we have an important role to play in making each office a place of diligence, care, and respect for all.

Smile Brands Inc. and CEO Steven C. Bilt were recognized for leadership across multiple categories in Comparablys Best of 2020 awards last week. One of the nations leading dental support organizations (DSO) providing business support services to approximately 450 affiliated offices across 18 states, Smile Brands has over 5,000 staff and affiliated providers. The organization was honored as a place where leaders inspire, encourage, and support diverse voices and contributions. Bilt was singled out as a Top Large Company CEO for Diversity and Women and the organization was honored for professional development and leadership.

Large Company Category Rank

Best CEOs for Diversity #6

Best CEOs for Women #11

Best Company for Professional Development #25

Best Company for Leadership Team #39

To determine the list, Comparably analyzed anonymous survey feedback from employees working across 60,000 U.S. companies large and small. The ranking is based solely on sentiment ratings given by these employees, from how they rate their CEOs to other workplace culture factors that inspire trust in their employers.

Smile Brands is a culture-driven organization that has been honored as a Glassdoor Best Places to Work for the past three years. The company prides itself on creating an environment where everyone can thrive.

Dentistry is and always will be about people, explains Bilt, At Smile Brands, that starts with developing our team and our culture. When we get that right, it naturally extends to the patient and our broader communities. It is particularly gratifying to receive this recognition now as we are striving to help our people cope with added safety concerns from the pandemic and elevated stress and social tensions. We believe we have an important role to play in making each office a place of diligence, care, and respect for all.

The company recently codified its Safe.Smile.Space. platform which creates a framework for making each office a protective tent or model community for infection control, inclusivity, tolerance, and civil discourse.

Key principles of Safe. Smile. Space. include:

1. We adhere to the strictest safety protocols to protect ourselves and our patients from infection.

2. We do not adjust our protocols for patients unwilling to do their part to ensure their safety and ours.

3. We support each other and patients with kindness, understanding, and empathy.

4. We do not tolerate discrimination, harassment, or racism. This includes violence and hateful or hurtful language, including micro-aggressions.

5. We are attuned to each others needs and seek to uplift each others spirits when needed.

This is the third year in a row Comparably has compiled its annual Best CEOs list to shine a spotlight on leaders and organizations who create cultures for all. This year the topic of diversity and inclusion has gained even greater significance, and it has never been more important to reflect the positive workplace experiences of those who are underrepresented.

About Smile Brands Inc.

Based in Irvine California, Smile Brands Inc. is one of the largest providers of support services to dental groups in the United States. The organizations award-winning culture has made it the only dental support organization on Glassdoors Best Places to Work for the past three years. Smile Brands affiliated dentists benefit from industry-leading business support services, so they can spend more time caring for patients and less time on the administrative, marketing, and financial aspects of operating a dental practice. The organization supports over 440 affiliated practices and 60 brands across 18 states, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, Oregon, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Smile Brands is a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors, a leading middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit http://www.smilebrands.com.
Raise your hand if you know of a woman who deserves to be nominated for the ATHENA Award.

It shouldnt be hard.

Everyone knows at least one woman in their life, who displays a great amount of leadership or serves to mentor the people around her, be it children, students or other women. These are individuals who walk among us. They are friends and neighbors, partners and co-workers, women who demonstrate excellence, creativity and initiative in their business or profession. They are people who provide valuable service by devoting their time and energy to improve the quality of life for others.

And they are recognized each year as ATHENA Award nominees.

Those who wish to nominate an individual still have time, as nominations will be accepted until Friday, July 31 at 5 p.m. These can be submitted to Mary Ann at maryann@macombcountychamber.com

Only one nominee receives the award.

However, everyone nominated will be honored during the luncheon, which for the first time in 20 years is being held outdoors. In addition lunch and a wonderful award presentation, there will be shopping, silent auctions and the opportunity for social networking, catching up with old friends or meeting new ones.

The Macomb Foundation works closely with business, civic and nonprofit organizations to explore, plan and implement programs designed to expand the role this area plays in Michigans overall economy. As explained by organizers of the event the international ATHENA Award is inspired by Athena, dynamic goddess of Greek Mythology, who had the deity of resolute courage and wisdom, and was guided and enlightened by reason. The ATHENA Award is just a part of an international nonprofit organization working to empower women in a leadership environment. They support and assist women, and those who inspire them through specific, powerful programs that positively impact and develop the leader within them. By recognizing those talents within a woman, the organization is able to strengthen them through leadership training, and prepare them to take on the world in the future.

Tickets for the luncheon and program including the awards ceremony are $75 for chamber members and guests of nominees, and $85 for not-yet-members.

Sponsors for the event include: Ascension Macomb-Oakland, Beaumont, DTE, First State, NECA Contractors/IBEW Local 58 and General Dynamics. Sponsorship & Vendor opportunities available! Call Mary Ann Bauman at (586) 493-7600

For more information visit: https://macombcountychamber.com/ The Italian American Cultural Society and Banquet Center is at 43843 Romeo Plank Road in Clinton Township.
Shares of Japan's Mitsubishi Motors Corp plunged more than 10% to an all-time low on Tuesday after the automaker posted dismal sales in its key Southeast Asian market and forecast a huge loss for this financial year. A day earlier, Mitsubishi Motors, a junior member of the auto alliance of Nissan Motor and Renault SA, projected an operating loss of 140 billion yen ($1.33 billion) for the year ending on March 31, 2021, due in part to the coronavirus pandemic.

It would be the automaker's biggest loss in at least 18 years, according to records dating back to 2002. Mitsubishi Motors' results were "shocking", said analyst Mio Kato of LightStream Research, who publishes on the Smartkarma platform, noting that Southeast Asia was particularly concerning.

"ASEAN was meant to be its growth driver and was even positioned as its key attractive point to the Renault-Nissan Alliance. ASEAN sales have collapsed and it is now generating losses," Kato said in a note to clients, referring to the Southeast Asian region. Mitsubishi's shares fell more than 10% to 240 yen, marking a lifetime low since their 1988 listing.

The coronavirus crisis has exacerbated struggles at the company, which had already been battling falling sales in China and Southeast Asia, a major market that accounts for a quarter of its sales.

Announcing a restructuring plan on Monday, Mitsubishi Motors said it would stop making the Pajero SUV crossover model next year, and close the plant in Japan that makes it. It also said it would reduce its presence in Europe and North America and focus on growing in Asia.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 03:22:57|Editor: huaxia

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PRAGUE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Czech Republic is creating a "Health Risk Board" to oversee the country's "smart quarantine" system, which intends to contact trace COVID-19 infections, officials said after a government meeting on Monday.

Health Minister Adam Vojtech, who has dismissed claims that his ministry had botched the implementation of the "smart quarantine" system, described the new board as a "supervisory body where we will all be at the same table."

On Sunday, Interior Minister Jan Hamacek said that the so-called "smart quarantine" system was not working properly and called on the army to be more involved.

The new board will be headed by Prime Minister Andrej Babis, and the Czech Army and the Ministry of Health will both be heavily involved, officials said at the press conference.

In addition, the Ministry of Health is introducing a new four-tiered system to rate the extent of infections in specific regions. From the lowest to the highest, the color codes for the tiers are white, green, yellow and red.

This so-called traffic light system will inform citizens of anti-epidemic measures they should expect to follow in their daily routines and will provide regional health officials with recommendations on how to manage their local epidemiological situation. Enditem
The pandemic has upended businesses across the world, but it has been very good for Amazon. Every lockdown click to purchase nudged the company a little further toward utter domination of online shopping as total e-commerce sales nearly doubled in May. But if bigger was better for everyone, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos would not be appearing before Congress on Wednesday for an antitrust hearing.

Charlene Anderson, and sellers like her, are one reason why hell be there. Anderson is among the many merchants who sell goods on Amazon  and who together account for more than half of sales on the site. But they pay, too: Amazon charges Anderson a $39.99 monthly fee to post her knitting and craft supplies on its site, and it takes a cut of about 30 percent on each item she sells. Andersons seller experience has worsened during the pandemic as Amazon exercised the power of what she calls dictatorship over the vast internal marketplace it alone controls.

In mid-March, for example, Amazon notified sellers that during the pandemic, its warehouses would accept only household staples, medical supplies and other high-demand products, but it failed to explain how it determined what it would accept. Anderson could still send some colors of knitting bags to Amazon warehouses, but not others; she could send one size of knitting needles, but not another. Some sellers saw their sales evaporate; others paid USPS or other services to ship orders to customers, while still paying Amazons monthly fees.

Even after Amazon lifted that order, boxes of goods that Anderson ships to a warehouse still sit on loading docks for weeks, she says, and when Amazon unpacks them, it miscounts the items, an error that takes Anderson days to remedy. The company sends customers the wrong items, then allows them to leave negative feedback on her seller page despite the error being Amazons, says Anderson, who is 63 and lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In the Facebook group she runs, Anderson says some sellers worry that the raft of problems will lower their internal scores on Amazon so much that the company will kick them off the site.

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But where else can they go? What are we going to do, protest and not sell on Amazon? Anderson asks. Right, Im just going to kill my whole business. They have you and they know they have youif you go, theyll just find someone else to sell those products.

Consumer spending on Amazon between May and July was up 60% from the same time frame last year, according to the financial data firm Facteus. The companys extraordinary power  it has 38% of the e-commerce market, trailed by Walmart with 6%  was under scrutiny well before COVID-19. But the lockdown that boosted the companys dominance also threw into higher relief its consequences for other businesses.

Thats increased interest in updating federal laws written more than a century ago to correct the distortions of monopolies on an economy. Bezos is appearing before a Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, part of an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee into online platforms and market power. The hearings are asking: in the age of Big Tech, how big is too big? New York University marketing professor Scott Galloway, a longtime critic of Amazon, says its helpful to think of Amazons Prime membership service as the kind of massive competitive advantage once enjoyed by railroad barons. With its extensive logistics and delivery network, Amazon not only has the eyeballs of millions of households, it is the company that ships, packs, and delivers what they buy.

Amazon already owns the rails into 115 million households in America, says Galloway. Do we really want one company to be the arbiter of all commerce?

Charlene Anderson, who has sold items on Amazon for 20 years, says relations with the online giant have suffered as its power grows. | Ron Davison

Economic crises have a way of creating winners and losers. Procter & Gamble thrived during the Great Depression by doubling down on advertising; Target expanded after the 2001 recession and saw profits grow 50%. Before the pandemic, Amazon represented around 4% of total U.S. retail sales. But with the new habits formed during the pandemic, UBS predicts that by 2025, e-commerce will make up one-quarter of total retail sales, up from 15% last year. The firm also estimates that 100,000 brick and mortar retail outlets will close in the next five years. Consumers are increasingly shifting towards online shopping, analysts wrote. Many of these shoppers may not get back to in-store shopping when the current state is over.

Amazon, which refused to make an executive available to comment on this article, casts itself as a friendly giant in its ubiquitous messages to consumers; it spent nearly $7 billion advertising itself in 2019 (more than double what Walmart spent). According to Ad Age, that made the company the biggest ad spender in the U.S. last year. But Amazon also sells advertising  $3.9 billion worth in the first quarter of 2020, up about 44% from a year earlier. The ads appear on Kindle, on Amazon Prime TV and on Amazon.com, some of them purchased by the same small sellers already paying to be listed on Amazon but afraid of getting lost on the site without additional promotion.

Because of the way e-commerce works, advertising on Amazon is essential for just about anyone selling on the site. According to marketing surveys, when online shoppers are thinking of buying an item, about half go straight to Amazon and search for the item, rather than Googling it or visiting another website. Most dont scroll beyond the first page of results, so for sellers, its essential to be featured on that first page. They can hope that positive reviews lead Amazons algorithm to put them there, or they can buy ads.

Amazon is now the third-biggest digital ad seller in the United States, following Facebook and Google. And as it consolidates its grip on e-commerce, it can charge more for ads on its site. Buyers now compete with each other in an auction for keywords related to their products; the more people that are competing, the higher prices go. Revenues from advertising in the first three months of this year were up 43.8% from the previous year and 359% since 2017, according to company earnings reports.It begins to feel like theyre playing chess, and theyre thinking three to four steps ahead, says Andrew Lipsman, a retail analyst at market research firm eMarketer. The more I think about Amazon, the more I marvel at it.

So do investors, who saw its stock as a haven in a treacherous equity market. Amazon has gained half a trillion dollars in market value just this year, and shares should climb even higher when earnings are reported on July 30 if, as analysts at Goldman Sachs predicted, company revenues in North America show a jump of nearly 50% from the previous year. Bezos, already the richest person in the world with a net worth of $178 billion, could become the worlds first trillionaire by 2026.

That kind of concentrated wealth invites the stark comparisons embodied by people like Susan Bengel. One of the 175,000 employees Amazon hired during a pandemic that cost 40 million American jobs, Bengel, 62, had been living in her car before she started working at an Amazon warehouse in Pennsylvania in late March. She told me she recently got an offer from UPS, but she stayed with Amazon despite difficult conditions that include being on her feet for entire night shifts. UPS couldnt match the pay or benefits she gets at Amazon, Bengel says. Its a monopoly, but they provide well, she told me after one shift, in which each worker received a Chick-fil-A boxed dinner and bottle of hand sanitizer courtesy of Amazon. As stores close in her hometown of Wayne, Pa., she turned to Amazon to buy what she needs, including new shoes and back braces to get her through her shifts.

People wearing masks outside the Amazon campus in Seattle, Wash., on April 30, 2020. | Lindsey WassonGetty Images

For Amazon shoppers, theres not much not to like, apart from the unease at feeding a behemoth that competitors say is gobbling up their customers. Amazon argues that its not a monopoly, since it competes with brick and mortar stores for sales. Theres a single retail market of which online is one channel. People do not shop exclusively online, an Amazon spokesman said in a statement. But stores without Amazons logistics network are finding it impossible to compete. While Amazon was hiring tens of thousands of new workers, Jeff Curtis was running around his Maine bookshop, Shermans, scrambling to fulfill online orders much as Bezos had done in the mid-90s during Amazons early days selling only books online. But Curtis was by himself, because his store was closed to comply with stay-at-home orders. He says the state denied his request for special dispensation to bring in workers to help, even as Amazon was allowed to have on-site employees fulfill its own rush of online orders. Curtis has already decided to permanently close one of six branches of his store and is worried he may have to close another. It is the way of the world Amazon has built. Kathy Gonzalez, who runs two retail stores in northwest Florida, says shes tried to offer shipping for furniture and other items she sells, but the cost is so high that people turn to Amazon, where shipping is free.

If you want to be able to reach customers online, youre essentially compelled to be on Amazons platform, but Amazons platform is not a place that you can succeed, says Stacy Mitchell, the co-director at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. With this sudden surge in online shopping, all of that has been magnified.

Its mammoth size gives Amazon advantages available only to itself: One of its companies, Amazon Web Services (AWS), is a cloud computing platform that lets companies rent space on a network of servers. Its $35 billion in sales in 2019 (up 36% from the previous year) provided a financial cushion that let Amazon subsidize grocery delivery, expand its network of warehouses, and dare to offer one-day shipping without worrying about huge losses. The company now has 1,223 buildings covering 278 million square feet in its global logistics network, up 82% since 2016, according to MWPVL International, a supply chain and logistics consulting firm, and its still expanding at an unprecedented pace, says Marc Wulfraat, founder and president of MWPVL. It built or announced plans to build 49 million square feet of logistics space in the U.S. between March and July alone, he says.

Amazons deep pockets are also ensuring the companys ability to operate during the coronavirus in a way no other company can. Bezos said in late April that Amazon was investing $4 billion in coronavirus-protection efforts, including personal protective equipment for workers, enhanced cleaning at facilities, and development of its own COVID-19 testing capabilities. Galloway calls this the first vaccinated supply chain, and says it will help Amazon further dominate competitors as more people choose to buy and sell products through a service that has invested in being virus-free.

Amazon also continues to invest in technologies that will further consolidate its grip on e-commerce. In June, the company said it would spend $1.2 billion to acquire Zoox, a startup that makes self-driving vehicles, which could help in its delivery services. Amazon is expanding its fleet of cargo planes as other airlines lease them for cheap, the better to lessen its reliance on FedEx and UPS. It invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Rivian, an electric car company, and ordered 100,000 electric vans from the startup. In July, Amazon said it would open more cashier-less Amazon Go stores.

Some peopleand Im one of themonly buy something if its on Amazon says Brandon Fishman, CEO of VitaCup, which sells vitamin-infused coffee and tea both in retail stores and online and which saw a 35% increase in its Amazon sales in March and April. Fishman says its cheaper for him to sell his products in brick and mortar stores than to sell them on Amazon, because of the cut Amazon takes for packing and shipping. But he doesnt want to miss out on e-commerce customers, who are his most loyal. More than half the people who buy VitaCup products on Amazon return to the site to buy more.

Third party sellers would say its a deal with the devil, says Galloway, the NYU professor. Amazon brings us a lot of revenue, and we become addicted to it, but every year our economics get worse.

In April, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon had been using data from third-party sellers to determine which items were selling well, then making private-label versions of the same products to compete with the sellers products. (Amazon said such a practice would violate its policies, and it vowed to investigate.) Other sellers have alleged that Amazon does not take down counterfeit versions of items sold on its site; they suspect that the company does not want to lose the fees it collects from both legitimate and non-legitimate sellers. (Amazon says it invests heavily in prohibiting the sale of counterfeit products, using automated systems to help ferret out counterfeits, and that 99.9% of all pages visited by customers did not receive a notice of potential counterfeit infringement.)

During the pandemic, sellers say, communication has worsened and Amazon has slowed its response to flagrant problems on the site. Charlene Anderson says she cant sell a knitting gauge because the picture is inaccurate on Amazons catalog page; she has been trying the problem fixed for three months. In July, Anderson says, Amazon told sellers it was going to restrict how many products they could keep in warehouses based on a performance metric. The ups and downs of the pandemic have meant that while Andersons sales were down in the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, theyre up about 3% now. But some sellers in the Facebook group she runs report their sales are down more than 50%. Most frustrating for all of them is the inconsistency; they have no idea when Amazon will change the rules again. We hate having to deal with all of this, but to build our business, we have to, Anderson says.

Amazon says its platform allows anybody to make an income in an otherwise challenging pandemic economy, and that it is working to help sellers while meeting increased demand from consumers. Our commitment to our selling partners has never been more steadfast, an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. In the twelve months ending May 31, 2020, small and medium-sized businesses sold 3.4 billion products, up 25% from the same time the previous year, according to a report Amazon released July 21. Amazon says the average American small and medium-sized seller had more than $160,000 in sales during that time, though it did not provide averages for how much these sellers took home after expenses.

Amazon is now valued by the stock market at $1.5 trillion, a figure that dwarfs the GDP of Saudi Arabia. The very thing that has made it so successful during the pandemicits size and the many layers of its businessesis what has given it so much leverage over sellers, workers and governments. Existing antitrust laws are designed to protect the consumer from predatory pricing. That orientation has shielded Amazon, because the company in many cases saves consumers money, but it is being questioned by scholars, and now lawmakers.

Critics say that regulating or breaking up Amazon will be better for merchants on its site and also, in the long term, for the economy. The rate of start-up creation in the United States has been falling for years; there is some evidence that this is because big companies like Amazon use their size to force smaller competitors out of business, or prevent them from being created in the first place. If small manufacturers and retailers had a fighting chance in competing with Amazon, they might help reverse the decline in start-up creation. New businesses in America are much of what drives the countrys productivity and economic growth, raising its standard of living and spreading wealth and jobs.

Historically, antitrust enforcement has helped upstarts; Companies like Google arose in part because of government antitrust action against Microsoft in the 1990s; the breakup of AT&T in the 1980s helped launch a technology renaissance.

A key component of our success as a society is this very basic notion of checks and balances, says Galloway, of NYU. Weve tried to avoid dictatorships, we try to avoid monopolies. We dont have a judge, we have a judge and jury. And we believe in the wisdom of crowds.

Charlene Anderson agrees. She says she and other sellers dont want Amazon to disappear. If that happened, they would lose their income source and their access to millions of shoppers. They just want better communication with Amazon, more democracy, less dictatorship. Amazon is not transparent at all, she says. Amazon will not tell you anything.

Wednesdays hearing before the House subcommittee on antitrust law will test that allegation, and more, as Congress peaks behind the curtain of one of Americas most successful companies. The next question is whether it has the tools to do anything about what it sees.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28)  The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) expressed support for President Rodrigo Duterte's recent push for the revival of death penalty by lethal injection, but said it should zero in on big-time drug traffickers.

PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva on Tuesday said Duterte's renewed call for the return of capital punishment will scare away high-profile drug peddlers. But he said death penalty should be limited to those arrested with high quantities of illegal drugs.

"Execution by lethal injection is for big-time drug traffickers, and not for the street-level pushers," Villanueva said in a statement. "I strongly suggest that seized drugs weighing one kilogram or more should be the threshold amount."

The Duterte administration's war on illegal drugs has been criticized by human rights advocates for being anti-poor, with majority of deaths coming from impoverished families.

The PDEA chief added that drug protectors and coddlers who were found guilty of manufacturing, trafficking, and pushing prohibited drugs should also be covered by the law.

In his second to the last State of the Nation Address on Monday, Duterte pushed for the reimposition of capital punishment, specifying the method of lethal injection, for heinous crimes related to illegal drugs.

The President, who has waged a violent drug war since he came into office in 2016, said executions will help lower crime rates in the country.

Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa, who was the captain of Duterte's drug war for almost two years, backed violent punishment for drug traffickers.

"Dapat talagang bitayin yang mga drug lord na yan... Kaya tayo binabaha ng droga dito sa Pilipinas," dela Rosa said. "Walang takot itong mga drug lord maghakot ng droga dito sa ating bansa dahil wala tayong death penalty."

[Translation: Drug lords should be killed by hanging. We are flooded with illegal drugs because drug lords are confident because the Philippines doesn't have death penalty.]
New Delhi:

US President-elect Donald Trump made three prominent shifts from key issues including on world climate accords. He said he has an open mind about pulling out of world climate accords while talking to a panel of New York Times journalists.

Here are three key issues from his stand changed

Climate Change

Pre-election tweet: The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive." - 2012 tweet. "Global warming is an expensive hoax!" - January 2014 tweet.

Post-election tweet: "I think there is some connectivity. Some, something. It depends on how much." - On the link between human activity and climate change. "I'm looking at it very closely. I have an open mind to it." - On whether he will withdraw from climate change accords.

Prosecuting Clinton

Pre-election October 9 debate: "If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation because there has never been so many lies, so much deception."

Post-Election: "It's just not something that I feel very strongly about...think it would be very, very divisive for the country." - On pursuing criminal charges against the Clintons.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

Pre-election: "He will go down as one of the worst presidents in the history of our country." - July 27 interview with NBC.

Post-Election: Recalling their Oval Office meeting, "I really liked him a lot."

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Saudis take madrassa-building spree to Afghanistan: Report

Iran Press TV

Monday, 27 July 2020 7:49 AM

Saudi Arabia is to build as many as 600 madrassas in Afghanistan following its experience in neighboring Pakistan where such schools have become synonymous with creating terrorists through extremist Takfiri teachings.

The schools would be constructed by the rural development communities instead of private sectors, English-language Afghanistan Times Daily reported Sunday, citing the Afghan embassy in Riyadh.

Earlier, chairman of the Afghan senate Fazal Hadi Muslimyar said Saudi Ambassador to Kabul Jassim bin Mohammed al-Khalidi had supported building 100 madrassas and one "college" in the Nangarhar province.

The plan has been met with widespread reaction across social media, with users asking whether the centers will be presided over by the Afghan Education Ministry instead of having their curricula and procedures dictated by Riyadh.

Afghanistan Times Daily said the schools, to be propped up across Afghanistan, would be "monitored by an independent watchdog organization," suggesting they would not be answerable to the education ministry.

'Nurseries of extremism'

The madrassas, blamed for preaching hatred against various religions and sects among their pupils, have earned notoriety for being "nurseries of extremism."

Last year, Pakistan agreed to start reforming its roughly 30,000 radical centers, mostly funded by Saudi Arabia, which are the target of global outcry for their role in training future terrorists.

Saudi Arabia is widely known for exporting its extremist ideology of Wahhabism worldwide through the so-called educational centers.

Wahhabism forms the mindset of Takfiri terrorist groups across the world, which consider subscribers of other faiths to be worthy of nothing but death.

The most violent of those groups to date that ran amok across Iraq and Syria from 2014 to late 2017 is the Daesh terrorist outfit.

The Saudi envoy's expression of support for the creation of a "college" in Nangarhar is curious because the province is hosting the largest number of Daesh terrorists who have fled Syria, Iraq and other countries.

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This recap contains spoilers from Episode 11 of DCs Stargirl (which premieres new episodes Monday on DC Universe and Tuesday on The CW).

This week on DCs Stargirl, a blast from Courtneys past threatened to derail her superheroic future. Plus, Brainwave orders Icicle to ice [Spoiler].

More from TVLine

Coming off of last weeks deadly clash with Dragon King and Brainwave, Pat urged Barbara to pack up Courtney (and Mike, while shes at it) and get out of Dodge. Barb, though, declined to, partly because Henry King Jr.s death suggests that the ISA will spare no one. If everyone is going to stay put, Pat says, they all need to act normal and none the wiser, lest they become primary targets for Brainwave, Icicle et al.

The doorbell then rings, and its none other than Sam Kurtis (played by Enlisteds Geoff Stults) responding to his exs email with an in-person appearance. Though Pat makes nice meeting his predecessor, an unimpressed Courtney dismisses Sam as being not my father. Sam acknowledges he has been out of the picture for a while, but when he realized that Barbara had returned to Blue Valley (of all places), and upon getting her email, he had to see whats what. Sam shows Court that he has a locket just like hers, noting that he gave her hers back in the day  but Courtney isnt convinced. She then pulls Pat aside to wonder what she has been doing this whole time, as Stargirl, if she isnt in fact Starmans daughter. Like, why would the Cosmic Staff have chosen her? Meanwhile downstairs, Barbara grills Sam about his return, given how he vanished that Christmas Eve a decade ago and hasnt been heard from since. He admits that his true purpose is to get to know his daughter. And to that end, Court agrees to grab breakfast with Sam, before heading to school.

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Stargirl Luke Wilson Interview

Pat swings by the auto shop to update Rick (who is still poring over his dads coded journal, though no one seems to care) and Beth on the Courtney sitch, when who strolls in but Justin the high school janitor (who at the top of the episode was seen looking for his steed at an unamused farmers ranch). Justin is clearly disoriented/in some fugue state, because he mistakes Pat and the kids for Dragon King and two minions, and thus brandishes Excalibur! Pat manages to snap Justin out of it for a bit, at which point the Seven Soldiers of Victory alum breaks down sobbing. Nudged to recall his story from the time of knights and dragons, Justin says, I was a lowly yet loyal page, cleaning the stables, when King Arthur on his deathbed bestowed him with the sword: He told me heroes can come from anywhere. But how did he wind up in Blue Valley? All of you soldiers were scattered and gone, but the dragon still needed slaying, Justin recalled. Alas, he was captured, after which they stole my identity from me. And theyll do it to us all! Pat brings Justin home, telling Barbara that he suspects the ISA planning a mass brainwashing.

Henry Sr. pays Jordan a visit, affirming that Dr. Ito restored his memory, and he thus knows who Stargirl is  Courtney Whitmore aka stepdaughter of Pat Dugan fka Stripesy  and now he intends to kill them both. Jordan asks him not to, saying that the loss would devastate Barbara. Henry notes that he has sacrificed both his wife and son in the name of their project, which is more attainable than ever now that he has absorbed dead Juniors own power. When Henry offers to erase Barbaras memory of her husband and daughter (perhaps as he once did with Justin?), Jordan reminds him that no one is ever the same after that process. Growing impatient, Henry urges Jordan to make up his mind.

Stargirl 1x11 Sam

Breakfasting at the diner, Sam tells Courtney that after bailing on her and Barb, he traveled a lot, looking for work, chasing leads and business opportunities that never panned out (or that he screwed up). Maybe she can visit him in California sometime, and they can get to know one another better? But when Sam brings Courtney back home (seriously, how late for school will she be?), he pauses to ham-handedly point out that their lockets are quite valuable, having been made by an old-time jeweler to the stars. And if Courtney give him hers, he can sell them both and put a deposit down on his own place, for her to visit. Courtney responds exactly as Jason Robards did in the Parenthood movie when Tom Hulce asked for one final loan  with a defeated nod. Afterward, Pat invites Court to take out her frustrations on him; instead, she runs into his arms, sobbing. Off of that, Pat catches up to Sam, asking, What the hell were you thinking? before warning, Dont ever come back here. When Sam quips about how good Barbara still looks (though not as good as when he had her), Pat decks the lout, and then points out, Youre lucky Im busy. Indeed.

Back at the house, Barbara tells Court that she is struggling over their next move, realizing that families in Blue Valley need protecting. And yet, If I let you stay and fight, you might die. When Courtney opens the crate and the staff doesnt respond to her, she laments, I dont think it matters, Mom. Its not meant for me anymore. Courtney finally makes her way to school, to alert the rest of the team that her dad was not Starman but just some jerk. Yolanda and Beth try to brush off the importance of legacy, but Court points out that the staff isnt working for her anymore. And that with Joey and now Junior both dead, I cant have anyone else get hurt because I thought I was someone Im not. Later, at a school gathering about Juniors death, Sr. addresses the crowd  but gets into Courtneys head specifically, making clear that he blames her for his sons death.

Panicked, Courtney returns home to the crate, though for naught. Pat assures her that while he doesnt know much about staff, it always knew your dad wasnt Starman. Instead, it chose her because it believed in her, and now its waiting for you to believe in yourself again. (Remember, Heroes can come from anywhere.) With Pat and Barbara both at her side, Courtney gives the staff one more go, and as wind from an unknown source flits through her mane of beach waves, the staff glows anew  popping a few basement lights in the process. Court stands up and beams as brightly as the staff, as Barbara and Pat look on as does houseguest Justin. Our queen has risen! he marvels.

Stargirl powered back up just in time, seeing as Jordan  after hacking into Barbaras computer to see she had Googled a Starman Murdered by Icicle news story  is now on board with Henry doing whatever is necessary, as the Project New America countdown clock shows about 12-1/2 days hours until launch. Well take care of Stargirl, her sidekick, and her mother, Henry affirms. At which point Jordan interjects, and the boy, too. Mike. After all, you cant leave a legacy running around.

What did you think of the episode Shining Knight?

Want scoop on Stargirl, or for any other show? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matts Inside Line.

Best of TVLine
By Carl O'Donnell

July 27 (Reuters) - Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc launched two 30,000-subject trials of COVID-19 vaccines that could clear the way for regulatory approval and widespread use by the end of this year, the companies said on Monday.

The trials, both announced on Monday, are the first late-stage studies supported by the Trump administration's effort to speed development of measures against the novel coronavirus, adding to hope that an effective vaccine will help end the pandemic.

Moderna stock rose 9%. Pfizer shares rose 1.6% in afterhours trade and its partner BioNTech, which developed the vaccine, rose 4.2%.

Both vaccine candidates rely on a new technology that allows for faster development and manufacturing than traditional vaccine production methods but does not have an extensive track record.

So-called mRNA, or synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA), teaches the immune system to recognize and neutralize the coronavirus by mimicking its surface.

Moderna, which has never brought a vaccine to market, has received nearly $1 billion from the U.S. government, which is helping bankroll several vaccine candidates under its Operation Warp Speed program.

Pfizer has an agreement to sell vaccines for 50 million people to the U.S. government for around $2 billion, if the vaccine is effective.

More than 150 coronavirus vaccine candidates are in various stages of development, with some two dozen prospects already conducting human testing.

Johnson and Johnson is launching clinical trials in the U.S. this week and could start a larger, late-stage trial as early as September. British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc said it will begin large-scale U.S. trials this summer of its vaccine under development with Oxford University researchers.

"Having a safe and effective vaccine distributed by the end of 2020 is a stretch goal, but it's the right goal for the American people," National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins said in a release announcing the start of Moderna's large Phase III trial.

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Manufacturers are ramping up production while testing is underway in order to respond as soon as possible to virus, which is still spreading rapidly around the world. COVID-19 has killed nearly 650,000 people worldwide and battered economies.

Moderna could have tens of millions of doses ready when and if the vaccine is deemed safe and effective, Collins told reporters on a call.

Pfizer said that if the trial was successful, it could seek regulatory approval as soon as October and supply vaccines for 50 million patients, at two doses each, by the end of the year.

Pfizer aims for about 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021, and Moderna aims for 500 million-1 billion doses a year, beginning 2021, Moderna Chief Executive Stephane Bancel said on the call.

The late-stage trials are designed to evaluate the safety of vaccines and determine if they can prevent symptomatic COVID-19.

Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease official, said a readout from the Moderna trial could come by November or even earlier. Fauci said he was "not particularly concerned" about the vaccine's safety after seeing data from earlier, smaller trials. He also said he had briefed President Donald Trump about the trial the Oval Office on Monday.

As other companies ready inoculations, the COVID-19 Prevention Network, a U.S. government-funded program formed by the NIH, said it plans to roll out a large-scale clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate with at least 30,000 participants each month through fall.

(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla, Ankur Banerjee and Vishwadha Chander in Bengaluru and Carl O'Donnell in New York; additional reporting by Phillip Stewart in Washington; Editing by Peter Henderson and Aurora Ellis)
A woman who was kidnapped and held captive for days in 1976 when she was 16 by a man who shot and killed her husband has teamed up with fellow survivor Elizabeth Smart for a true crime documentary.

Candra Torres was 16 when Thomas Browne shot and killed her husband Jose, who was also known as Julio, and held her captive for three days in Mount Hood, Oregon, in July 1976.

It was her first wedding anniversary with Julio, 21, and the pair had gone hiking with their dog to celebrate. Browne killed the dog, Rusty, too.

When she and him emerged from the woods three days after Julio was killed, Browne had convinced her to lie to the police for him and say Julio's death was an accident.

It took several days for her to tell police that he'd not only murdered her husband but also held her against her will and sexually attacked her.

Now, in Elizabeth Smart: Finding Justice, the pair revisit the spot where Torres was snatched. The episode, which is one of a series, will air on August 2 after a TV-movie about the incident, A Murder to Remember.

In a preview clip of the Smart series that was shared exclusively with DailyMail.com, she is seen encouraging Torres at the site where her husband was killed more than 40 years ago.

Scroll down for video

Candra Torres (left) was kidnapped when she was just 16 (right) and held for three days by a captor who shot and killed her husband Julio while the pair were hiking in the woods

Torres with Elizabeth Smart in an upcoming series for Lifetime that will air on Sunday August 2 at 10pm

Candra with her husband Julio who was 21 when he was killed. They'd been married for only one year

'This is my first time coming back. The stress of coming back here was a little much. I think it's normal to have feelings when it comes to something so traumatic happening. You shouldn't feel good about it,' she told Smart.

Thomas Browne, the woman's captor, was jailed for life

'I hope this ends up being an empowering experience,' said Smart, who was kidnapped at the age of 14 in 2002 and was held for nine months by Wandaa Barzee and her husband, street preacher Brian David Mitchell in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Torres also recalled watching her husband being killed by Browne, who remains in prison.

'He had his gun with him, I just felt uneasy the entire time,' she said of Browne, who'd told the pair he was going deer stalking despite it being illegal at the time of year.

'I was at the campsite cooking the breakfast and then I heard a shot. My first thought was to run, take the dog and run as fast as you can and get away.

'And then I thought that's crazy, it would be stupid to run, my husband would be looking for me, I'd get lost in the woods, that's silly.

'But Thomas Browne came up by himself said, "we shot a deer and he's down there cleaning it." I knew that wasn't the case because Julio was not a hunter so I ran down the path to where I'd seen them go and I heard another shot and at that point, my beautiful dog fell to the ground, blood all over his head.

'I looked at him and said: "You shot my dog!"

'He had a big smile on his face and he said, "I shot your husband too," she recalled.

Smart was just 14 when she was snatched from her Utah home in 2002

Browne then held her captive to rape her. He then spent two days convincing her that he'd killed Julio by mistake so that she would corroborate the story when they spoke to the authorities.

'I remember praying, "God don't let me get killed." We spent one more night in that part of the mountains. I think he thought I was totally under his control which I was.

'He told me the story of how Julio was accidentally shot so it was well ingrained in my mind. At that point you're almost grateful to this evil person because you're alive.

'You're going to be back to civilization,' she said.

A newspaper article from the time describes how she tearfully nodded along as Browne told police once they'd left the forest that the gun went off by mistake between him and Julio.

She eventually told police the truth days later and Browne was charged.
TikTok influencer Josh Richards speaks at trade show CES in January. Richards along with other TikTok creators are planning to leave the platform for rival app Triller. (Tina Fekula)

When Josh Richards first began posting lip-syncing videos as a high school freshman four years ago, he never imagined he would one day become a huge TikTok star. Since then, Richards, 18, has amassed more than 20 million followers on the popular video streaming app.

But now Richards has decided to leave the platform that made him a star, citing growing concerns about TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance and how it manages user data.

The Studio City influencer, along with other TikTok creators, announced Tuesday they are moving to a rival app, L.A.-based Triller, and will encourage their millions of fans to join them there.

"After seeing the U.S. and other countries governments concerns over TikTok  and given my responsibility to protect and lead my followers and other influencers  I followed my instincts as an entrepreneur and made it my mission to find a solution," Richards said.

The actor and performer has been hired to be chief strategy officer at L.A.-based Triller, a music video app that counts rappers such as Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne as investors. Fellow TikTok creators Griffin Johnson, Noah Beck and Anthony Reeves are also signing on as Triller advisors and are equity shareholders. They declined to disclose their investment level.

The move is significant because it is one of the first organized U.S. efforts among prominent TikTok influencers to get people off the platform. Combined, the four TikTok influencers have an audience of nearly 47 million followers.

The announcement comes at a delicate time for TikTok, which is facing growing scrutiny from the U.S. government and how it manages customer data. Some Trump administration officials said they are considering banning the app amid a growing U.S.-China trade war. Some analysts believe such heated rhetoric suggests that TikTok has become a pawn in a political game between the countries.

TikTok has experienced exploding popularity, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic as people look for ways to entertain themselves at home. The app has become an accepted way for musicians and celebrities to reach fans through songs and dance performances.

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Whether fans will follow their favorite influencers and ditch TikTok, remains to be seen. TikTok was the most installed app globally as of last week and ranked second after Zoom in the U.S., according to San Francisco mobile research firm Sensor Tower. So far, its downloads haven't been negatively disrupted by concerns raised by U.S. Secretary of State Mike R. Pompeo.

TikTok has distanced itself from its Chinese roots. The company recently named former Disney executive Kevin Mayer as its chief executive and said U.S. user data are stored in the U.S. and Singapore.

"Protecting the privacy of our users' data is of the utmost importance to TikTok," the company said in a statement last week. "We have not, and would not, give it to the Chinese government."

Although TikTok's parent company, ByteDance is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, it was founded in China and is based there. TikTok says it plans on growing its staff of roughly 1,400 people in the U.S. by an additional 10,000 people over the next three years.

But ByteDance's ties to China remain an area of concern because the Chinese government's ability to compel companies to give it data when it relates to national security.

In May, TikTok was accused of suppressing Black Lives Matter-related content in the U.S. TikTok said that it was a technical glitch that made posts uploaded with #BlackLives Matter and #GeorgeFloyd appear as if they had no views.

The political backlash against TikTok has benefited other social apps such as Triller, which specializes in sharing music videos and has licensing deals with music companies including Universal Music Group.

Although Triller does not consider TikTok a direct competitor because its users tend to be older, that could change as more digital creators move to its app.

Founded as a music video editing tool in 2015, Triller has also grown exponentially, drawing about 64 million active users a month, up from just 2 million three years ago, company executives said.

"It's been a tremendous growth," Triller CEO Mike Lu said. "This notion of social streaming is something that's very unique to us and it speaks to the identity of Triller."

Triller's majority owner is Proxima Media, whose founder is Ryan Kavanaugh, the once high-flying mogul behind Relativity Media, the mini-major studio that filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and struggled to stage a comeback.

Some influencers who plan to defect from TikTok said they would continue posting on the app but over time it will be less frequently. Johnson said he posts usually two to three times a day on TikTok and that will probably drop to once a day and eventually every couple of days.

"We will be posting but a lot of our posts will be more trying to move them off of that platform onto Triller," Johnson said.

Still Triller's user base is vastly smaller than TikTok's. Triller estimates it has about 130 million downloads. That's compared with the nearly 2.3 billion global downloads of TikTok, according to Sensor Tower.

Triller makes money through brand partnerships, sponsorships and other initiatives. The company stores its user data in the U.S. and Britain. The company has worked with artists such as Eminem to promote his music.
PC Andrew Harper's mother has said she is 'utterly and bitterly disgusted' that his killers have been cleared of murder.

Debbie Adlam slammed the manslaughter convictions given to Henry Long, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole.

She hit out at the ruling in a petition to 'overturn a miscarriage of justice', which has over 190,000 signatures so far.

PC Harper had tried to stop the three thieves from stealing a quad bike in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in August last year.

The 28-year-old's ankles were lassoed by a trailing loading strap from their car as the teenagers tried to escape.

He was towed helplessly for over a mile behind the Seat Toledo as it reached speeds of 60mph.

Long, 19, and 18-year-olds Bowers and Cole hugged as they were convicted of manslaughter via videolink from HMP Belmarsh in London on Friday.

Debbie Adlam (pictured with her son) said she was 'disgusted' Henry Long, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole did not get locked up for murder

Albert Bowers (left) and Jessie Cole (centre) leaving Reading Magistrates' Court on September 19, 2019

Lissie, the widow of PC Harper, is pictured outside the Old Bailey in central London on Friday

Mrs Adlam said she was 'utterly and bitterly disgusted with the outcome', which she said had 'let down' PC Harper

Mrs Adlam said she was 'utterly and bitterly disgusted with the outcome', which she said had 'let down' PC Harper.

She wrote: 'Andrew James Harper is my son. I am disgusted that he has been let down.

'When they crossed the junction on A4 there's no way they did not know he was there being thrown against the pavements.

How jury was protected amid fears of intimidation - and one was dismissed after mouthing 'Bye boys' to the defendants The PC Andrew Harper case was dogged by alleged attempts to 'frustrate' the investigation and fears over jury nobbling, it can now be reported. Detectives quickly tracked down the car which dragged PC Harper to his death in Berkshire to the Four Houses Corner travellers' site. But the investigation was hampered by family and friends of the occupants, who were all said to have close ties to the site. Thames Valley Police Detective Superintendent Stuart Blaik said: 'A decision was taken very early on to arrest all the males on the site that night. While we were frustrated by family and friends, we have been able to work through that and establish exactly what happened and who was involved.' Supporters of the teenagers - Henry Long, 19, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, both 18 - had crowded into the public gallery of the Old Bailey as the case got under way in March. But no sooner had it started, Mr Justice Edis brought the trial to a halt over an alleged potential plot to intimidate jurors. An unidentified person in the public gallery overlooking the courtroom was seen pointing at jurors. Defence barrister Timothy Raggatt QC dismissed the incident as 'a touch oversensitive'. In the absence of the jury, he said: 'In the circumstances, someone could be pointing for all sorts of reasons. Take, for example, there appear to be a lot of ladies in this court.' But Mr Justice Edis ordered extra security measures to protect the jury. Without divulging details, he said police had received information 'that an attempt is being considered by associates of the defendants to intimidate the jury'. The jury was provided with a private room, and anyone entering the public gallery was asked to provide proof of their identity. A third measure was kept secret. On the day the nation went into lockdown, the original jury was discharged. When the case returned for retrial in June, social distancing in court was introduced to combat the risk of Covid-19 and security was further stepped up. Jurors were referred to by number rather than their name to be sworn in. And uniformed police were out in force during a jury visit to rural Berkshire. Officers lined the narrow country roads as the jury viewed the spot where PC Harper was killed. A police drone buzzed overhead as detectives jump-started the defendants' battered old Seat Toledo as the jury moved on. With the end of the retrial in sight, fears for its integrity surfaced on July 20. An overly friendly juror was seen by a prison officer to mouth 'Bye boys' to the defendants in the dock. On being alerted to the incident, Mr Justice Edis said: 'She must have been compelled by some strong motive to have behaved as she did in this court under the observation of so many. It was both overt and covert at the time, which is remarkable behaviour.' The female juror was discharged just a day before the remaining 11 men and women began deliberating on their verdicts. Advertisement

'Utterly and bitterly disgusted with the outcome. Andrew went to work to serve us all. And this is how he was repaid.'

Others agreed, with Suzanne Webb saying: 'This is not justice. This is a joke.' Peter Jones-Ward wrote: 'How can deliberately dragging someone behind a vehicle not be murder?'

And Joseph Huitson added: 'The lack of remorse shown and their callous attitude towards the grief stricken family. How can anyone cheer when someone has lost their life in such a way?'

PC Harper had married Lissie just four weeks before he was flayed alive by the surface of Admoor Lane and the obstacles at the side of it.

Parts of his body including his face were destroyed and the details of the opening of the trial were so terrible his family asked the media not to report them.

When the body was discovered by his colleagues after he had fallen away from the sling he was completely naked except for his socks.

A snaking trail of blood behind him marked the course his body had taken down the lane.

Lissie was joined in court by his parents Phil Harper and Mrs Adlam and his brother Sean.

Long admitted manslaughter but was acquitted of murder. Bowers and Cole were convicted of manslaughter after the jury deliberated for 12 hours and 22 minutes.

The verdict left Lissie 'immensely disappointed' and sparked fury from his friends and colleagues.

Family friend Andy Ledbury, who employed PC Harper at a roofing business when he was 18, said: 'To say I'm shocked and disappointed would be a huge understatement.'

He further said the trio 'knew exactly what they were doing' as they dragged the constable to his death.

Mr Ledbury told BBC Radio Four's Today Programme: 'For me it was never a question of whether it would be murder or manslaughter it was a question of how many of them would be prosecuted for murder.

'The more evidence you hear, the more it's clear they knew exactly what they were doing and they were just preoccupied with their escape at all costs.'

Despite the verdict, he made clear his view that: 'This was murder and will not in any way take away the pain of what's happened, it's about justice and for those that committed the crime.

'As it stands at the moment it's not showing much in the way of support for our police force which need it now more than ever.'

Jurors who were visibly shocked by the details of the case had been offered counselling before the trial began.

All the police officers involved in the discovery of his body were also advised to seek help to deal with the trauma of the case.

When he was arrested at the Four Houses Corner travellers site in Ufton Nervet, Berkshire, Long claimed he had been watching a Fast and Furious DVD at the time of the killing.

He complained police were unfairly targeting travellers and said: 'I don't give a f*** about any of this,' when he was charged.

Long, Bowers and Cole, spent most of their time chasing rabbits and hares with their lurcher dogs and scratched a living by burglary and theft.

They had spotted the Honda TRX500 quad bike at the home of Peter Wallis, near Cock Lane, in the village of Bradfield Southend, earlier on August 15 and returned at around 11pm to steal it.

All of them were wearing balaclavas and gloves and they had taped over the car's number plate and disabled the rear lights.

The killers were armed with an axe, crowbars and a length of pipe to use against anyone who tried to stop them.

Mr Wallis called the police saw them taking the bike and hitching the handlebars to the back of the car with the sling.

Long drove off with Bowers in the passenger seat and Cole riding the bike.

PC Harper was in an unmarked BMW with PC Andrew Shaw and was due to finish his shift at 7pm.

The officers were on duty that night in the Reading area and were heading back to their base station at Abingdon when they heard of the incident on the radio and responded to the call. It was a decision that was to cost PC Harper his life.

PC Andrew Harper and his wife Lissie celebrating their wedding at Ardington House in Oxfordshire in summer 2019

Police mugshots of (left to right), driver Henry Long, 19, and his passengers Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, both 18

When they drove down Admoor Lane they came nose to nose with the Seat going the other way.

The travellers quickly realised it was a police car and Cole unhitched the bike and tried to get to the Seat as it rounded the police car to drive away.

PC Harper jumped out to try and stop Cole getting into the car but he managed to dive in through the passenger side window.

As the car sped away dragging the sling, PC Harper's feet became entangled. Mercifully, he was likely to have been rendered unconscious almost immediately.

PC Shaw had no idea what had happened to his colleague and expected to find him further up the road. But as he reversed up the lane he found PC Harper's shredded and bloodied stab vest lying in the road.

The court was told Long must have known he was dragging the officer and with the music blaring and his friends screaming at him, it was said he tried to free PC Harper by zig zagging along the lane.

By the time the officer fell away from the car at the end of Ufton Lane his body was a 'bloodied mess'.

The Seat Toledo with tow rope and the police car in a similar position at the site of the meeting of the vehicles during the Old Bailey jury site visit to the scene in Sulhamstead on July 1

A police officer who saw the incident thought PC Harper's body was a deer carcass.

The Seat sped away to the travellers site causing other road users to drive into the verge to avoid a collision.

It was tracked by a police helicopter and the travellers were arrested at the site.

Long, Bowers and Cole all admitted conspiracy to steal a quad bike and Long admitted manslaughter.

They insisted they had no idea that PC Harper was trapped behind the car but a macabre re-enactment of the incident with a mannequin showed they must have known the officer was being dragged to his death.

During the trial Long, Bowers and Cole smirked and laughed as details of PC Harper's horrific death were read to the jury.

It can now be reported Long had previously threatened to 'ram' a police officer as he chatted with a police community support officer (PCSO).

In the conversation in July 2018, ruled inadmissible during the trial, Long said: 'You can't touch me now 'cos I've passed my driving test and if police try to stop me I will ram them.'

Long and Bowers, both of Mortimer, Reading, and Cole, of Bramley, Hampshire, each denied murder and were acquitted.

They will be sentenced next Friday. Thomas King, 21, of Bramley, earlier admitted conspiring to steal the quad bike.
The document says "Defendant Shall Not Attend Protests."

In Portland, getting out of jail now means relinquishing constitutionally protected rights.

"This is what it looks like when you're released from jail on federal chargeson the condition that you stop showing up to protest," writes Dara Lind at ProPublica.

A dozen protesters facing federal charges are barred from going to "public gatherings" as a condition of release from jail  a tactic one expert describes in Dara's reporting as "sort of hilariously unconstitutional."

This is what it looks like when you're released from jail on federal chargeson the condition that you stop showing up to protests. https://t.co/PZ1d4pr7x5 pic.twitter.com/6oi4LggnLD  Dara Lind (@DLind) July 28, 2020

Alternatively: This is what it looks like when the magistrate judge _handwrites an addition to your conditions of release_ so that you can't attend protests. pic.twitter.com/tEyi1HLcVi  Dara Lind (@DLind) July 28, 2020

Excerpt:

Federal authorities are using a new tactic in their battle against protesters in Portland, Oregon: arrest them on offenses as minor as "failing to obey" an order to get off a sidewalk on federal property  and then tell them they can't protest anymore as a condition for release from jail. Legal experts describe the move as a blatant violation of the constitutional right to free assembly, but at least 12 protesters arrested in recent weeks have been specifically barred from attending protests or demonstrations as they await trials on federal misdemeanor charges. "Defendant may not attend any other protests, rallies, assemblies or public gathering in the state of Oregon," states one "Order Setting Conditions of Release" for an accused protester, alongside other conditions such as appearing for court dates. The orders are signed by federal magistrate judges. For other defendants, the restricted area is limited to Portland, where clashes between protesters and federal troops have grown increasingly violent in recent weeks. In at least two cases, there are no geographic restrictions; one release document instructs, "Do not participate in any protests, demonstrations, rallies, assemblies while this case is pending." Protesters who have agreed to stay away from further demonstrations say they felt forced to accept those terms to get out of jail.

That's not scary at all.

Read more:"Defendant Shall Not Attend Protests": In Portland, Getting Out of Jail Requires Relinquishing Constitutional Rights
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 21:53:09|Editor: huaxia

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JUBA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- At least 17 people have been killed and nine others injured following clashes in South Sudan's Jonglei state, the police said on Tuesday.

Joseph Mayen Akoon, Jonglei state police commissioner, told Xinhua on the phone in Juba that armed bandits launched an attack on Makol-Cuei village in Bor county on Monday, during which three children were abducted, houses burned and an unconfirmed number of cattle raided.

"According to the report from the ground, 17 people have been killed and nine others wounded. The injured are undertaking medical treatment at Bor teaching hospital," Akoon said.

Akoon revealed that the raiders are believed to have come from the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA), adding that the incident has left massive destruction in the area as the deceased include women, elderly, and children.

He said the regional authorities have sent security reinforcement to patrol the areas affected and stop the further killing of civilians.

"There are no sufficient weapons for the police, but we are trying our best to dispatch the law enforcement agents to the area as soon as possible to deter further clashes," he said.

However, independent sources reported that about 28 people have so far been killed, 10 children abducted and 19 others wounded when heavily armed men from Murle attacked the village.

In June, President Salva Kiir constituted a high-level committee to probe and find a solution to the region prone to deadly cattle rustling incidents between the Nuer, Murle and Dinka tribes who often carry out retaliatory attacks against each other.

The Jonglei region bordering Ethiopia to the east has long been plagued by ethnic fighting over cattle grazing grounds and access to water. Enditem
TOPEKA - Republican Kris Kobach says he won't be counting on a last-minute endorsement from President Donald Trump to bolster his campaign to capture the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. Trump's decision to embrace Kobach rather than Gov. Jeff Colyer in the August 2018 gubernatorial primary proved influential in that contest narrowly won by Kobach.
LIMA, Peru - On July 28, 1821, a rapt crowd packed a Lima plaza to hear liberator Jose de San Martin declare that Peru was free from colonial power Spain. On Tuesday, the 199th anniversary of independence, there were no crowds because of the pandemic, but plenty of sombre warnings that Peru faces some of the biggest challenges in its modern history.

Flanked by security guards on foot, a car slowly ferried President Martin Vizcarra, wearing a mask and red-and-white ceremonial sash, through nearly empty streets to Perus congress building. There, he tried in a televised speech to galvanize a country battered, like so many others around the world, by economic calamity and mass death from the new coronavirus.

We must be clear that Peru has always moved forward, and this time wont be any different, said Vizcarra, who was a political novice when he became president in 2018. But he acknowledged that the coronavirus has brought Peru a crisis greater than those we have faced in the past.

Peru, whose population of 33 million is scattered from the Pacific coast to the Andes to the Amazon, is accustomed to crises.

In a test of democratic structures last year, Vizcarra dissolved the opposition-controlled congress, which had objected to his plans for anti-corruption reforms. The top court backed the president.

The Latin American country also remains haunted by the brutal insurgency of Maoist Shining Path guerrillas. A truth commission found that between 1980 and 2000, fighting among rebel groups, the government and self-defence patrols killed up to 70,000 people.

Peru has reported about 18,500 deaths from COVID-19 and 390,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, making it one of the worlds hardest hit countries. The actual numbers are likely much higher. The pandemic exposed weaknesses in Perus poorly funded health system.

A strict lockdown imposed by the government March 16 drained an economy whose growth in the decade after the end of armed conflict had reduced poverty. The economy was down 32.75% in May from the same month in 2019, though that was an improvement on the 40.5% drop in April as Peru slowly reopens the economy, according to INEI, the state statistics agency.

In his speech, which lasted nearly two hours, Vizcarra said the strict lockdown, which included arrests and fines for violating social distancing regulations, had averted a death toll in the hundreds of thousands. He promised more spending on health resources and said his administration had implemented robust subsidies for people struggling economically even before the onslaught of the virus.

Peruvians know Im one of the few presidents who has reported daily about actions, data, results and all the details, said Vizcarra, an engineer by training whose most significant political experience had been four years as governor of a sparsely populated region in southern Peru.

Many of his presidential predecessors have been discredited by corruption allegations, deepening skepticism of Peruvians toward the pronouncements of their leaders.

The public defenders office said in a July report that Peru was a vulnerable country even before the pandemic. It said numerous social conflicts, some involving Indigenous groups and the expansion of the mining industry into community land, would likely emerge again as the country slowly reopens.

The office also warned that elections scheduled for April 11 could be compromised by the pandemic. The electoral calendar will unfold partly or totally in conditions of contagion risk or amid the effects of the pandemic, its report said.

So, despite Vizcarras meticulous, data-heavy speech, more uncertainty and hardship await in Peru. That was also Perus future 199 years ago, when San Martin declared independence and, according to historical accounts, bells tolled, artillery boomed in salute and crowds spilled into side streets.

The fight for independence went on for years after that euphoric day.

___

Associated Press Writer Franklin Briceno reported this story in Lima and AP writer Christopher Torchia reported from Mexico City.
Kavala has been in jail since November 2017. He was initially accused of financing nationwide protests in 2013, but he was acquitted on those charges in February and was ordered to be released

The United States and Europe called on Turkey to release jailed businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala, who on Monday marked his 1,000th day in prison without a conviction and despite an acquittal from a previous case.

Kavala has been in jail since November 2017. He was initially accused of financing nationwide protests in 2013, but he was acquitted on those charges in February and was ordered to be released.

Hours after the acquittal, however, he was ordered to be detained for another case related to a failed 2016 coup attempt and later formally arrested again. The charge on the same case was changed in March to espionage but an indictment has not been prepared.

Kavala denies all charges.

U.S. State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Cale Brown called for Kavala's release given he has not been convicted.

"We call upon Turkey to comply with its own commitment to justice and rule of law and to release Osman Kavala from detention, while pursuing a just, transparent, and speedy resolution to his case," Brown said in a statement late on Monday.

Nacho Sanchez Amor, the European Parliament's Turkey rapporteur, said Kavala had become a test for Turkey's sincerity with regards to human rights.

"We are pushing and pushing again for real justice in Turkey," he said.

Critics say the independence of Turkey's judiciary from politics has been badly eroded in recent years. President Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK Party say the judiciary makes its decisions independently.

In a statement marking his 1,000 days in detention, Kavala said: "A parallel law enforcement system has been set in motion, which enables to keep in prison the persons who 'needed' to be punished, regardless of the established facts and concrete information about their activities."

The European Court of Human Rights has also called for Kavala's release due to insufficient evidence related to both the abortive 2016 coup and 2013 protests.

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A pair of new statues in South Korea symbolising the victims of sexual slavery at the hands of Japans Second World War military sparked a diplomatic incident when officials in Tokyo questioned the resemblance of one the statues to prime minister Shinzo Abe.

The statues are on display at a botanical garden in the rural town of Pyeongchang and depict one of the comfort women, who were forced to work in Japans wartime brothels, and a man kneeling and bowing before her, who appears to resemble the Japanese leader.

Yoshihide Suga, Japans chief cabinet secretary, said that if reports on the statue were accurate "there would be a decisive impact on Japan-Korea relations.

"I think such a thing is unforgivable under international courtesy," Mr Suga told a press conference on Tuesday.

Kim Chang-ryeol, owner of the botanic garden, said the statues were his idea but that he did not specifically intend the male figure to look like Mr Abe.

Recommended Japan criticised for launching tourism campaign amid coronavirus surge

The man could be Abe and also couldn't be Abe, he said. The man represents anyone in a position of responsibility who could sincerely apologise to the victims of sexual slavery, now or in the future. It could even be the girl's father ... That's why the statues were named 'Eternal Atonement. 

The statues also drew criticism among some South Koreans, who described them as tacky or excessively provocative on social media. Mr Chang-ryeol defended the statues, saying they reflect his wish for the countries to resolve their conflicts over history.

Statues are on display at the Korea Botanical Garden in Pyeongchang (AP)

Mr Abe, who has led Japan since 2012, has previously demanded that South Korea remove similar statues symbolising sexual slavery victims from in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul and other sites.

Disputes over sex slaves are a legacy of Japan's colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945. Historians say tens of thousands of women from around Asia, many of them Korean, were sent to front-line military brothels to provide sex to Japanese soldiers during the Second World War.

Relations between South Korea and Japan sank to their lowest point in decades last year as they allowed their decades-long dispute over wartime history to spill over into issues related to trade and military cooperation.

Kim In-chul, South Korea's foreign ministry spokesperson, said that countries should consider courtesy in regard to foreign heads of state, but did not provide a clear answer when asked whether private citizens should be asked to follow such practices.

Additional reporting by agencies
Hong Kong: HK suspends legal pacts

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, in accordance with the instruction of the Central Peoples Government, today issued notices to the Canadian, Australian and UK consulates to suspend the agreements on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters with these countries.

In a statement, the Hong Kong SAR Government said it is an international practice to safeguard national security through the enactment of laws.

It pointed out that Canada, Australia and the UK have respectively put in place legislation and enforcement mechanisms to safeguard their national security and sovereignty.

However, these countries have unilaterally suspended the agreements on surrender of fugitive offenders with the Hong Kong SAR using the enactment of the National Security Law in Hong Kong as an excuse, it said.

This smacks of political manipulation and double standards.

It is also a gross interference in Chinas internal affairs and a grave violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations, the Hong Kong SAR Government said.

The Hong Kong SAR Government strongly objects to their moves, adding that their wrongful acts in politicising juridical co-operation have seriously damaged the basis of such co-operation between the city and the three countries.

All along, with the authorisation and assistance of the Central Peoples Government, the Hong Kong SAR Government has conducted close and effective law enforcement co-operation with Canada, Australia and the UK under the legal framework of surrender of fugitive offenders and mutual legal assistance in criminal matters agreements based on the principle of mutual assistance and reciprocity.

The Hong Kong SAR Government will, as always, uphold the principle of mutual assistance and reciprocity and carry out law enforcement co-operation with other members of the international community in accordance with the law.

This story has been published on: 2020-07-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
A n Australian outback pub has banned two emus for bad behaviour after the pair created havoc inside.

Yaraka Hotel, in Queensland, has now erected barriers after the flightless birds learnt how to climb up the front stairs.

Locals and tourists had previously been amused by the antics of the emus eager to steal food from people in the region, which has a permanent population of 18.

But things took a turn last week when two of the birds, which have been named Carol and Kevin, walked in and bumped "into everything", publican Chris Gimblett said.

Theyve learnt to walk up the front steps of the hotel, which has been causing just a few issues, he said added, referring to the amount of waste they produce.

"When emus get a fright, they head in a forward direction but are normally looking behind so they cant see where theyre going and this is where chaos can happen.

They bump into everything.

Mr Gimblett said he solved the problem by stringing a rope across the top of the stairs. The inquisitive emus are not yet clever enough to duck under the rope to get inside the pub.

While Australian pubs occasionally have a parrot in the bar, emus are not indoor birds.

Visitors staying at the Yaraka trailer park have been surprised by the lengths emus will go to steal food, including pecking a fried egg off a barbecue plate.

They will lean through the (trailer) door with their long necks and pluck toast out of the toaster, the publican said.

If youve got a mug of coffee on the little table by the door, they will drink all the coffee, without spilling it I might add. You just discover that your mugs empty. Theyre just eating machines, he added.

There used to be eight emus in Yaraka.

A resident rescued eggs from an abandoned nest in 2018 and hatched them with the help of an electric blanket.

But all except Carol and Kevin have moved on, apparently in search of mates.

Were in lockdown mode, Mr Gimblett said of his barricaded pub.

At least its emus and not coronavirus.
More than 400 hospitality workers at the Hilton Americas-Houston hotel will receive health care coverage through the end of September, Mayor Sylvester Turner announced Tuesday, a day after the employees union released a report that found the citys convention agency had ample funds to extend the expiring benefits.

Health insurance for the hotel employees was set to lapse at the end of July, according to a Turner spokeswoman. Many have failed to accumulate the hours needed to qualify for health benefits since being furloughed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement issued by Unite Here Local 23, secretary-treasurer Willy Gonzalez said the extension would cover 450 workers during a critical moment in this global pandemic.

Today is an important victory for hospitality workers at the hotel owned by Houston First Corporation, Gonzalez said. We are deeply thankful to Mayor Turner and the members of Houston City Council who have been willing to stand with these workers during this public health and economic crisis."

Turners announcement came near the start of a Houston city council meeting reserved for comments from the public. Some 75 people, the vast majority of whom are Hilton employees, were signed up to voice concerns about the expiring health coverage; many instead thanked Turner for the extension.

Nearly all the public speakers were Latino, the group hit harder by the COVID-19 pandemic than any other racial or ethnic group in Houston.

Bill Guillen, a communications operator at the Hilton, was one of dozens of employees to thank Turner and council members for the extended coverage. Guillen uses his benefits to pay for diabetes medication and other medical costs.

This pandemic has been hard on all the hospitality workers that work at the Hilton, he said. Weve been laid off for over four months now, and its been very hard to worry about your insurance possibly going to end at the end of this month.

Unite Here Local 23, which represents Houston hospitality workers, released a study Monday that found health care costs for Houston First hotel employees totaled $1.09 million during the first quarter of the year, a fraction of the $46 million in cash reserves Houston First officials said the agency maintained as of mid-June.

The report also found that 19 of the top 30 earners at Houston First are white, compared to six Latinos and two African Americans. There are 34 white employees at the agency who make an annual salary of more than $100,000 per year, the study found, while only 10 Latino and four Black employees make six figures.

Hilton employees are covered under a contract that renews every 30 days on a rolling basis, unless either side revokes the contract, according to a Unite Here spokesman.

Houston First officials were not immediately available for comment Tuesday.

The agency has come under scrutiny several times this year, beginning with an audit commissioned by the city controllers office that raised questions about the way Houston First awards contracts and makes purchases for the facilities it oversees. The agency failed in recent years to inform some companies how their contract bids would be evaluated and at one point awarded a deal for more than $400,000 without seeking any competitive bids, the auditors found.

In late March, Houston First announced it would furlough more than half its 200-plus employees due to an abrupt drop in revenue from canceled events.

Near the end of June, workers at the Hilton and adjoining George R. Brown Convention Center began expressing unease about the Texas Republican Partys convention, which was scheduled for mid-July at the George R. Brown. The party moved its convention online after Turner ordered Houston First to cancel the event and the party mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge to the mayor and the agency.

Brenda Bazan, the president and chief executive of the agency, announced last week she is retiring in August.

jasper.scherer@chron.com
Earlier, the Rajasthan governor had not heeded to the request of the Congress government to urgently convene an Assembly session

Jaipur (Rajasthan): Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra has sought clarification from the state government regarding the proposal of convening the Assembly Session, said sources on Monday.

"Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra has sought clarification from the state government over the proposal on the convening of the Assembly Session. Mishra has asked the government 'Do you want to move Motion of Confidence? It is not mentioned in the proposal but you have been speaking about it in media'," a source told ANI.

According to sources, Mishra also said it will be difficult to call all the MLAs for the Assembly Session in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Can you consider giving a 21-day notice over the convening of Assembly Session?," the Governor asked the Rajasthan government, according to sources.

Earlier in the day, the sources have said no decision has been taken yet on the Assembly session.

The power struggle in Rajasthan had taken a new turn when the Governor had not heeded the request of the Congress government to convene a session of the state Assembly urgently.

Earlier, Rajasthan Governor's Secretariat had said the state government had presented a proposal to convene the session of the Assembly at very short notice on the night of 23 July. The paper was analysed and legal experts were consulted over it, it said.

It said 21-day notice is required for the session to be called according to the normal procedures.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday said the Congress party will approach the President and if required, will also stage a protest outside the Prime Minister's residence in connection with the ongoing situation in Rajasthan.

Rajasthan Congress is in turmoil after simmering differences between former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot came out in the open. Pilot was removed from the post and the state unit chief of Congress.

The Congress has accused the BJP of indulging in horse-trading to bring down the Gehlot government. The BJP has rejected the allegations.
Justice Sanjay Gupta, a sitting judge of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, died late on Monday due to an illness. He was 59.

Justice Gupta is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

Born in 1961, Justice Gupta did his matriculation from Jammus Oriental Academy in 1976, graduated from GGM Science College in 1982 and had a bachelor of law degree from University of Jammu.

Justice Gupta enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Delhi in 1986, joined the Jammu bar in the chamber of senior advocate SS Lehar and practised in all fields including criminal, civil, revenue, Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) etc in subordinate courts and before the joining the high court.

He was selected as a direct recruit in higher judicial service as district and sessions judge in 2004 and was posted as the additional district and sessions judge in Doda.

He served as the district and sessions judge in various courts in Jammu, including as the 1st additional, 2nd additional, 3rd additional, additional district and sessions judge and principal district and sessions judge Jammu.

Justice Gupta also remained posted as the 3rd and 4th additional district and sessions judge Srinagar as well as a judicial member of the special tribunal, J-K, in Jammu.

He was also the part of the one-man forest tribunal of Jammu and Kashmir, principal district and sessions judge in Leh and principal district and sessions judge in Rajouri.

Justice Gupta was posted as Jammus principal district and sessions judge and was then elevated as a permanent judge of Jammu and Kashmir High Court in June 2017.
Rafale to S-400 air defence systems all set to add more firepower to Indian Air Force

Rafale jet specifications, top speed, price: Here's the lowdown

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, July 28: The first batch of five Rafale fighter jets to be inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) on July 29. The Rafale fighter jet will be the most advanced fighter aircraft in the IAF's fleet.

Rafale is a twin-jet combat aircraft manufactured by Dassault Aviation. The aircraft is intended to perform air supremacy, interdiction, aerial reconnaissance, ground support, in-depth strike, anti-ship strike and nuclear deterrence missions.

The aircraft is capable of carrying a range of potent weapons. European missile maker MBDA''s Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile and Scalp cruise missile will be the mainstay of the weapons package of the Rafale jets.

As Rafales get set to fly into Ambala, India ups diplomatic game

Meteor is the next generation of BVR air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) designed to revolutionise air-to-air combat. The weapon has been developed by MBDA to combat common threats facing the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Sweden

Besides the missile systems, the Rafale jets will come with various India-specific modifications, including Israeli helmet-mounted displays, radar warning receivers, low-band jammers, 10-hour flight data recording, infra-red search and tracking systems among others

Here's everything you need to know about Rafale Jets, Specifications, top speed, price, features, cockpit

Cockpit

The Rafale cockpit houses a hands-on throttle and stick control (HOTAS). The cockpit also has a wide-angle display and the avionics are supplied by Thales Avionique which provides necessary data regarding aircraft control and firing cues.

The fighter pilot gets a helmet-mounted sight. And there is a camera and on-board recorder that records the display while the mission is being carried out.

The engines

The Rafale has twin M88-2 engines each capable of providing up to 50 kilonewtons (11,000 pounds-force) of dry thrust and 75 kN (17,000 pounds-force) with afterburners. It also has the facility for a buddy-buddy refuelling that allows one fighter aircraft to lend its fuel to another while still in fight. Some of the cutting edge technology that they've used includes single-piece bladed compressor disks and single-crystal turbine blades as well as ceramic coatings which is why it's so popular. The engines push the Rafale to attain a high speed of 1.8 Mach (1912 kmph) and a range of more than 3700 km with 3 drop tanks.

The weapons

The Rafale (Air Force version) is known to carry payloads of more than 9t. And the naval version can carry 13t. The weapons are across the range of Sidewinder, Apache, Harpoon, ALARM, PGM100, Magic and Mica. It can carry anti-ship and air-to-air missiles and the SCALP missile can shoot targets on land over 300 kms away. It can even aim at eight different targets at the same time. It's got a twin gun pod as well as a 30mm cannon which can fire over 2500 rounds in a minute. The bird is also equipped with technology that enables laser guidance for missiles.

Cost:

India had signed an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore.

Specifications:

Dimensions:

Wing span: 10.90 m

Length: 15.30 m

Heigh: t5.30 m

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

Performances:

Max. thrust: 2 x 7.5 t

Limit load factors: -3.2 g / +9 g

Max. speed: M = 1.8 / 750 knots

Approach speed: less than 120 knots

Landing ground run: 450 m (1,500 ft) without drag-chute

Service ceiling: 50,000 ft

Weight:

Overall empty weight: 10 t (22,000 lbs) class

Max. take-off weight: 24.5 t (54,000 lbs)

Fuel:(internal): 4.7 t (10,300 lbs)

Fuel (external): up to 6.7 t (14,700 lbs)

External load: 9.5 t (21,000 lbs)
The government is fast-tracking measures to cut down on Chinese imports. The commerce ministry has identified more than 300 items ranging from auto parts, telecom items, rubber articles, glass, among others that would be brought under the mandatory Indian Standards (IS) regime by March 2021.

With this, the government will put a curb on the import of sub-standard goods, which largely come from China. The commerce ministry prepared the list of these items last year. Now, officials have begun the process under the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat initiative to increase export and reduce imports.

The government is framing mandatory standards expeditiously to put a curb on 371 imported tariff lines, including Chinese products, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Director Pramod Kumar Tiwari told the Times of India, adding that the BIS was also improving the enforcement at government-owned ports.

In addition to this, Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan launched BIS website and mobile app (BIS-Care) to check the authenticity of ISI and hallmark products. The ministry has approached BIS to make mandatory standards. The BIS chief said the norms will be in place by December for most of the products and the rest by next year in March.

Meanwhile, BIS officials have also ramped up surveillance of products by visiting factories and markets. Paswan directed BIS to carry out stringent market surveillance to examine packaging standards - like country of origin, MRPs, manufacturing dates, expiry date, among others.

Also read: China's crude oil imports from Saudi rise 15% in June to 8.88 million tonnes

Also read: TikTok Lite, Helo Lite, SHAREit and others: 47 more Chinese apps now banned
NICK WAGNER, MBR / TNS

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday released guidance on reopening schools during the pandemic that says local health authorities cannot issue orders that close schools in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Harris County and Houston-area health authorities on Friday ordered all public and non-religious private county schools to delay in-person instruction for the first eight weeks of the 2020-21 school year. The order requires all school-sponsored events to also not take place in-person and requires districts to submit a written plan outlining health procedures for when in-person instruction can safely resume.
Health Minister of the Syrian opposition-led interim government Maram al-Sheikh announced July 9 the first coronavirus case in northern Syria.

Sheikh said in a tweet, Today, we regret to announce the first coronavirus case contracted by a health worker in one of Idlibs hospitals. The hospital and its living quarters have been closed, and those who had been in contact with the patient have been swabbed and isolated, and the crisis cell is to hold an emergency meeting to activate its contingency plan.

Consequently, the Early Warning Alert and Response Network (EWARN) started increased coronavirus testing in areas held by the Syrian opposition on a daily basis.

In this regard, the Response Coordination Group in Syria issued a warning July 15 in the wake of an increase in the number of cases in Idlib and the northern countryside of Aleppo.

The absence of urgent humanitarian measures in the northern Aleppo countryside and northwestern Syria would lead to devastating scenarios, the group said in a statement.

It called on the concerned international bodies to put an urgent intervention plan in place in order to stem the spread of the virus in the said areas.

The group added that while the virus poses a major threat to countries that enjoy strong health systems, such a threat is much greater in northwestern Syria where the health system has collapsed and dozens of medical facilities have gone out of service.

It strongly warned against the spread of the coronavirus in prisons and camps erected for the displaced in the region, and said the results would be devastating in the absence of urgent measures.

The epidemiological surveillance laboratory of EWARN, with the Support Coordination Unit, recorded July 21 three new cases in the city of al-Bab after they came into contact with the first case of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases to 22.

The patients were from the cities of Azaz, al-Bab, Bab al-Hawa, Sarmada, Atme, al-Dana and Idlib.

The laboratory said that 74 people took the test July 21, bringing the total number of tests performed to date to 3,071, of which 22 were positive and 3,049 negative.

Two recoveries have been recorded so far, according to the laboratory.

In this regard, Sheikh told Al-Monitor there are 22 cases confirmed as of July 22 but from several clusters (meaning several sources not linked to the first positive case), and this is a dangerous indication of a potential explosive increase in the number of cases over the next few weeks.

The minister added, "So far, the only laboratory available is the EWARN laboratory in the city of Idlib. The plan is to open three additional laboratories in Jarablus, Azaz and Afrin, as the health of our people is what matters most to us," he continued.

We fear for the elderly and chronic disease patients, as they are the most vulnerable, and camps remain the most dangerous environment due to overcrowding, the lack of clean water sources and poverty, Sheikh said.

He added, What we also fear is the accelerated increase in cases because the health system cannot afford such a scenario, and this would increase the death risk due to the lack of available hospital beds.

Sheikh noted that the health sector in the north is already fragile as a large number of health facilities were bombed and medical personnel targeted, and there are no sufficient financial and human resources or equipment.

He said a response plan has been developed in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) to increase the capacity of hospitals in the region, provide testing kits, activate a special referral system, and launch awareness campaigns and infection control measures.

He added, There are no more than 200 ICU beds equipped with ventilators, and not all of them can be dedicated to coronavirus patients. Ninety ventilators with ICU beds have been requested, and test kits have been provided to the laboratory. About 10,000 pieces of surgical gloves have been supplied along with medical masks for the health personnel. A sewing workshop has been recently held by the civil defense to manufacture cloth masks for residents with a production capacity of 1 million masks per month. The plan includes three main isolation hospitals and three backup hospitals with about 60 ventilators with an ICU bed, three of which were activated in total. As for the community isolation centers, the plan is to create 30 community isolation centers for light and medium cases not requiring ventilators. Quarantine centers near border crossings and internal crossings remain a major challenge because they need expensive infrastructure and require a large capacity. Therefore, crossings must remain closed.

Sheikh said international support is limited and slow due to global difficulties, and the most important supporting organizations are the WHO and the Syria Recovery Trust Fund.

Ubaida Dandoush, response coordinator at the Syria Relief & Development organization, told Al-Monitor their role was to train some hospitals on how to take PCR samples and refer suspected cases.

We have trained hundreds of cadres to deal with this pandemic and spread awareness among civilians. We have set up 25 awareness teams, and we are cooperating with the director of health in Idlib and with the WHO, Dandoush said.

Ehab al-Bakour, an activist residing in Idlib, told Al-Monitor, The difficulties facing the health sector in Idlib are primarily exemplified by people who refuse to take the coronavirus seriously. Add to this the lack of logistics to deal with this pandemic, such as ventilators and isolation beds, and the lack of specialized hospitals equipped to receive large numbers of cases.

He stressed that international support is not at the level required for such a poor region that has been devastated due to war, hunger and overpopulation. If developed countries faced great difficulties in facing the epidemic, he asked rhetorically, what is expected of Idlib?
The National Defense Forces have announced that they were able to shoot down an Israeli spy balloon and collect the electronic parts that fell from it, reports Al-Masdar.

The National Defense Forces (NDF) shot down an Israeli spy balloon that entered the southwestern countryside of Damascus Governorate from the occupied Golan Heights.

According to reports, the spy balloon was flying over the village of Darbal, when the National Defense Forces shot down the device, which they said came from the occupied Golan Heights region.

The reports said that electronic parts had fallen out of the balloon when they shot it down; they later collected the debris and turned it into the Syrian Armed Forces.

This latest incident comes a week after the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched a heavy attack on southern Damascus that killed one member of Hezbollah and wounded seven soldiers from the Syrian Armed Forces.

The IDF attack on Jul. 20, 2020, was followed by helicopter strikes on the Syrian armys positions later in the week.

The IDF said the helicopter strikes were carried out in response to artillery shells landing in the occupied Golan Heights.

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.
Washington  Spectrum has asked federal regulators to lift some conditions of its 2016 merger deal with Timer Warner Cable, allowing the company to impose data caps and raise prices next year on some broadband customers.

Spectrums parent company, Charter Communications, said it should no longer be prohibited from limiting the amount of data consumers can use, or charging internet customers based on their data usage.

Spectrum and Charter  New Yorks biggest cable company  also asked the Federal Communications Commission to lift a merger condition that prevents the company from charging streaming video providers such as Netflix to access its system.

In a petition to the FCC, Spectrum Charter last month asked for regulators to lift those merger conditions two years early, on May 18, 2021.

U.S. Rep. Anthony Brindisi is among those asking the FCC to reject the companys petition and keep the merger conditions in place under the original agreement for seven years, until 2023.

Brindisi, D-Utica, warned in a letter last week to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai that the changes would be bad for consumers and would reward a company that has failed to live up to the promises of its merger agreement.

With millions of Americans working from home, and countless K-12 and college students participating in distance learning, it would be disastrous to allow Charter to institute data caps on their customers as early as next year, Brindisi wrote in the letter.

No worker should have their internet access crawl to a stop because they hit their data cap, and no family should be put in the position of having to pay their internet service provider more so their 8-year-old can participate in their third-grade class, Brindisi said.

Spectrum said its not considering data caps on its customers and has no plan to do so in the future. The company said it filed the petition with the FCC because its part of an industry that changes and grows quickly, and it wants the flexibility to adapt.

But Brindisi told the FCC the company has a poor track record of living up to its promises in New York.

In July 2018, the New York Public Service Commission took the unprecedented step of revoking its approval of the merger between Charter and Time Warner Cable. The move effectively ordered the company out of the state.

The PSC said the company failed to meet requirements of the deal, including a condition that it expand its high-speed internet service to 145,000 premises in underserved and unserved areas of New York. The investment was expected to cost about $600 million.

Charter reached a settlement with the PSC in July 2019, agreeing to expand Spectrums network and meet other goals.

The company says it exceeded the states requirement to expand high-speed broadband service in Upstate New York. Spectrum said its cable network reached 109,100 homes and businesses as of May 31 in Upstate New York, about 10,000 more than its initial target.

The FCCs initial 30-day public comment period on Charters petition expired July 22. The agency has not yet said if it will extend the period.

MORE ON SPECTRUM

Spectrum to raise cable TV rates

Brindisi: Feds should halt Spectrum internet price hikes during pandemic

Spectrum says its beating broadband build-out requirement in Upstate New York

Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Mark Weiner anytime by: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751
Apps banned in India

The Indian government last month banned 59 Chinese apps including WeChat and TikTok. According to reports, the Ministry of Home Affairs has now drawn up a list of another 275 Chinese apps which may be banned on grounds of national security violations. As India considers this move, China has delivered a strongly worded message.

Deliberate interference in such cooperation will not serve the interests of the Indian side. China will also take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies, said Ji Rong, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi.

According to media reports, the Ministry of Home Affairs is considering banning popular apps like PubG, Zili, AliExpress, Resso, and ULike. The government is scrutinising these applications for national security violations and data privacy concerns. The move comes at a time when disengagement talks have hit a roadblock due to differences over Pangong Tso and Gogra. Troops of both sides remain deployed in substantial numbers on both sides of the LAC.

Referring to the ban on 59 Chinese apps including WeChat, the Chinese embassy spokesperson said the move has severely damaged legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies. The Chinese side has lodged solemn representation to the Indian side and asked the Indian side to correct its wrongdoings, said the spokesperson.

Also Read | India bans 47 more Chinese apps

The Chinese embassy further said that Chinese companies have been abiding by local laws and it is the responsibility of the Indian government to protect the rights of international investors. Practical cooperation between China and India is mutually beneficial, said the statement.

However, the Ministry of Home Affairs has so far not commented on reports suggesting that more Chinese applications could be banned soon. India and China held the 17th round of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs to discuss the border stand-off. Another meeting of top military commanders is expected soon.
WASHINGTON  John Lewis will lie in state in the Capitol for a second day Tuesday, giving the public time to pay respects to the civil rights icon and longtime lawmaker before he's laid to rest in Georgia.

Public viewing will continue from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m.

Lewis will lie in state in Georgia's capitol rotunda Wednesday before his funeral in Atlanta on Thursday.

After a service in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda Monday, Lewis' casket was taken to the East Front Portico for public viewing.

Biden remembers Lewis

Former Vice President Joe Biden recalled Tuesday his final conversation with Lewis, who was eager to chat while lying on his deathbed.

Instead of answering my concerns about him, he asked about me. He asked about us, Biden said during a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, about his proposals for economic equity for racial minorities. He asked that we stay focused on the work left undone, to heal this nation. To remain undaunted by the public health crisis and the economic crisis that have taken the blinders off in this crisis and showed the systemic racism for what it is that plagues this nation.

Biden said he walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where Lewis was beaten while fighting for civil rights. He recalled wondering at the crest of the bridge what courage it took for Lewis to descend toward authorities wielding clubs and riding horses.

He once said, Freedom is not a state, its an act," Biden said.

Biden and his wife, Jill, visited the Capitol on Monday to pay their final respects to Lewis.

In his remarks Tuesday, Biden urged Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act with legislation renamed Monday for Lewis.

If they dont, its one of the first things Ill do as president, if elected, Biden said.

Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, and wife Jill Biden, pay their respects to the flag-draped casket of the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., as he lies in state at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., on July 27, 2020.

Standing in line for Lewis

Reta Cosby, a 68-year-old from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was the first in the line of hundreds who came to pay their respects. She had arrived by noon Monday, when the sun was beaming and the temperature was in the 90s. Still, Cosby said she'd woken up that morning and felt in her spirit that she had to come. By around 6:30 p.m., she led the line and walked up to the building to view the casket atop the steps.

Story continues

You dont have the opportunity to see these icons, said Cosby, who years ago joined civil rights marches in Oklahoma. I just felt this kindred bond.  It was important for me to be here.

Reta Cosby, a 68-year-old from Upper Marlboro, Md., was the first in the line of hundreds who came to pay their respects to John Lewis.

Because of cautions about the coronavirus, visitors could only walk up to the bottom of the Capitol's East Front steps to say their goodbyes. There were people of all ages and races. Some pushed walkers. Some came in suits.

Terrence Jones, 37, a Birmingham native, said he met Lewis years ago in Atlanta and appreciated that they both had roots in the South.

He was a very gracious guy, said Jones, adding that the visit was a historic moment.

Others like Anise Jenkins, Joyce Robinson-Paul and Emma P. Ward appreciated Lewis support for D.C. statehood so they came to pay their respects.

If he could have, he would have gotten us statehood, said Robinson-Paul.

Supporters of statehood for Washington, D.C., wait in line to say farewell to John Lewis as he lay in state in the U.S. Capitol.

Lawmakers try to continue Lewis' work

As the public services continue, Black lawmakers are calling on Congress to honor Lewis' legacy by supporting legislation that would restore a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., said a bipartisan group of lawmakers should be designated to negotiate details.

If you want to honor his legacy, pick a `gang of eight' and lets go to work, said Richmond, former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. If theyre serious. My gut tells me theyre not.

The casket of Rep. John Lewis carried by military honor guard up the steps of the U.S. Capitol on July 27, 2020 in Washington.

In December, with Lewis presiding over the vote, the Democratic-led House passed voting rights legislation that has not been taken up by the Republican-controlled Senate.

The bill, which the House agreed Monday to name after Lewis, would amend the 1965 law to create a new way of measuring if states require oversight for violating minority voting rights.

In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that law's original formula was unconstitutional.

Some Republicans have argued that oversight is no longer needed.

Democrats have made voting rights a priority. One of the first measures they passed after taking control of the House in the 2018 election would expand voting rights.

Rep. Marcia Fudge, the Ohio Democrat who heads a House subcommittee on elections, is holding a hearing Tuesday on voting rights in the U.S. territories.

She said lawmakers who are praising Lewis, need to "to put up or shut up."

"They cant continue to give lip service and not support what somebody like John stood for," she said.

More: Activists working in John Lewis' shadow warn about voter suppression ahead of November vote

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: John Lewis: A final day of tribute in Washington
A LIMERICK publican who closed his bar following a visit from the gardai last week, has reopened his business - but this time hes serving food!

Gearoid Whelan, who opened his premises Whelans Bar in Newcastle West in defiance of public health guidelines, received a visit from two uniformed officers last Monday lunchtime to request him to close.

He had reopened his familys business on Maiden Street at 11am on July 20 for the first time since mid-March. But no sooner had the pints started flowing when he had to turn off the taps and shut up shop.

His actions went against public health guidelines which required pubs not serving food to remain closed until August 10.

After being closed for a number of days, the pub which has received national headlines over the past week, reopened at the weekend.

We are open, said Mr Whelan. "We are now taking bookings. All food guidelines will be met, so like every other restaurant/pub you are required to have 9 of food if having an alcoholic beverage for your two-hour window.

Walk ins also accepted if there is a table free. Advisable to book though. Thanks.






Mike Schickerowski was never supposed to drive, let alone go flat-out in a V8-powered car. The 44-year old Alberta resident was born with an eye condition that made him legally blind and disqualified him from driving. He got his sight back after undergoing an experimental surgery  then chose a Chevrolet Corvette as his first car.

Schickerowski told Canada's Global News that he was born with nystagmus, a condition that "involves involuntary movement of your eyes." Although he could see, objects were always out of focus. "If you've ever taken a photo with your camera and moved it slightly, or the object moved and it's a blur, it's the exact same symptoms. My brain would never interpret the image as a steady picture  it was always a blur," he said.

For years, curing nystagmus was considered impossible. Schickerowski nonetheless underwent an experimental surgery at a clinic in California, and the procedure gave him his eyesight back. So he started the process of applying for a driver's license and purchasing his first car, a seventh-generation Corvette.

Global News added Schickerowski bought his Corvette without seeing it, and before he took his driver's test. He passed the test on his first try in July 2020, and has been enjoying his yellow coupe ever since.

"Some people said, 'Oh, it's Alberta, you need a truck,' and sure, I like trucks. They're nice, but everybody's got a truck," he told the publication. Although driving a Corvette is an unforgettable experience, Schickerowski said the best part of getting his vision back is being able to do things with his family, like taking his son fishing and taking his daughter out for ice cream. "I was never able to do that before on my own."
The amount of revenue lost between January and May is "more than three times the loss during the Global Financial Crisis of 2009," the Madrid-based World Tourism Organization said in a statement

The coronavirus crisis cost the global tourism sector $320 billion in lost revenue during the first five months of 2020, threatening the livelihoods of millions of people, the UN said Tuesday.

The amount of revenue lost between January and May is "more than three times the loss during the Global Financial Crisis of 2009," the Madrid-based World Tourism Organization said in a statement.

International tourist arrivals fell by 300 million during the period, or 56 percent, as lockdown restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19 hammered the travel sector, it added.

"This latest data makes clear the importance of restarting tourism as soon as it is safe to do so. The dramatic fall in international tourism places many millions of livelihoods at risk," the body's secretary general, Zurab Pololikashvili, said.

While tourism is slowly returning in some destinations, the UN body warned the sector faced serious "downside risks" such as a resurgence of the virus that could trigger new lockdowns, travel restrictions and border shutdowns in "most destinations".

The United States and China, both major sources of international tourists, are still "at standstill" it added.

The UN body forecast in May that international tourist arrivals could plunge by 60 to 80 percent in 2020 owing to the coronavirus.

International tourism arrivals rose by four percent in 2019 to 1.5 billion, with France the world's most visited country, followed by Spain and the United States.

The last time international tourist arrivals posted an annual decline was in 2009 when the global economic crisis led to a four percent drop.

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Lightning struck and killed a Nevada man while he was on a jet ski during a weekend outing on Stampede Reservoir in Sierra County.

The mans son, who was in the water next to the personal watercraft, was knocked unconscious and "severely burned" by the blast of electricity, according to an eyewitness.

Shelley Brewster Bryant, who witnessed the incident from her familys boat, about 30 feet from the jet ski, wrote on Facebook that several other people were injured by the lightning strike. She called it a "horrific tragedy."

We had some minor damage to our boat ... our sonar was fried from the strike and it knocked the wind out of our 9-year-old. She has some minor chest pain today but is doing well, Bryant said in the post.

The dead man was identified as Eugene Arao, 47. Bryant said rescuers performed CPR on his son before paramedics arrived.

The son, who is a minor, was reportedly recovering in Truckee Hospital, but his condition was not immediately known. Divers later found Araos submerged body about 20 yards from the shoreline.

Cal Fire/Sierra County spokeswoman Laura Brown said the storm hit swiftly and may have caught Arao and several other boaters near the reservoir's dock and boat ramp by surprise. She said thunderstorms have been occurring in area almost every day.

Lightning fatalities are relatively rare in California. From 1959 to 2016, there were 34 deaths in the state, compared to 491 in Florida, the deadliest state for lightning strikes over the period.

KTVU Fox 2 reported Saturdays death was the first lightning fatality in California since July 18, 2015, according to John Jensenius, a lightning safety specialist at the National Lightning Safety Council.



Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Coastal Development Authority (CODA), Lawyer Jerry Ahmed Shaib has inspected ongoing construction of constituency specific projects being undertaken by the Authority in the Western Region under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP).

The inspection is part of the CEOs tour of the six regions that make up the Coastal Development Zone to acquaint himself, at first hand, with the progress of ongoing projects and to lead the Authoritys public education campaign and distribution of facemasks and hand sanitizers to help end the spread of coronavirus.

Sekondi Constituency

On Friday, 24th July, 2020 the CEO was joined by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sekondi Constituency, Hon. Andrew Egyapa Mercer to visit the site of ongoing construction of a community centre at Ekuase. At Nkontompo they visited the site of ongoing construction of a community centre and a ten-seater water closet toilet facility.

The CEO and MP also distributed facemasks and hand sanitisers to registrants and electoral officials at voter registration centres and to residents in some communities while they educated them on COVID-19 safety protocols.

Ellembelle Constituency

On Saturday 25th July, 2020, at Ellembelle Constituency, the District Chief Executive for the Ellembelle District Assembly, Hon. Kwasi Bonzoh joined the CEO to inspect ongoing construction of a market at Esiama. which will have 40 lockable shops, 40 open seater shops, a creche, paved ground and a recreational centre for the community. They also visited Anyinase to inspect the construction of a small market.

There was also public education and distribution of masks to residents and stakeholders in the ongoing voter registration exercise.

Jomoro Constituency

On Sunday, 26th July, 2020, Lawyer Jerry Ahmed Shaib and Hon. Paul Essien, MP for Jomoro Constituency were at the site of construction of the Benyin Market. They also visited the site of the ongoing construction of the Twenen Community Center as well as the site of the construction of the Twenen Circuit Supervisors Bungalow. At Aluwole the CEO and MP inspected the ongoing construction of a community centre with a sitting capacity of 1,000 fully fitted with changing rooms and disability friendly facilities. At Tikobonu Number 1, the two leaders visited the Tikobonu Number 1 Health Center where construction is ongoing for an Admission Ward. They also visited the Tikobonu Number 1 Market which is set to be transformed into a modern market with lockable shops, paved grounds and a creche.

There was also public education on coronavirus and distribution of facemasks and hand sanitisers at some registration centres and communities.

Takoradi Constituency

The final stop of the CEOs tour was the Takoradi Constituency on Sunday, 26th July, 2020 where he was joined by the Western Regional Minister and MP for Takoradi Constituency, Hon Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah to educate the public and distribute facemasks and hand sanitisers in some communities and some registration centres.

One million dollars per constituency

Under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) of the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives (MSDI), each constituency is allocated an equivalent of one million dollars to undertake special projects aimed at accelerating the economic and social development of Ghana. IPEP is implemented through the Development Authorities who carry out their mandate through intensive public engagement and stakeholder consultation to build consensus for projects.
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Linkedin Tri Indah Oktavianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 15:20 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669efadb 1 National National-Police,djoko-tjandra,Bareskrim Free

A police general faces multiple charges after being named a suspect for allegedly assisting graft convict and fugitive Djoko Soegiarto Tjandra and issuing letters that allowed him to travel within the country.

Brig. Gen. Prasetyo Utomo, the former head of the Civil Servant Investigator Supervisory and Coordination Bureau at the National Police's Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim), had been accused of helping a criminal on the run and neglecting his duty as a law enforcer, Bareskrim chief Comr. Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo said.

The police have charged Prasetyo under Article 263 in conjunction with Article 55 of the Criminal Code on document forgery for creating and issuing forged travel letters for the convict, who recently returned to Indonesia after being at large for more than a decade.

Authorities had found and confiscated as evidence two travel letters, a COVID-19-free medical certificate and a health recommendation letter issued for Djoko, Listyo said.

Prasetyo -- in his former capacity at Bareskrim -- had allegedly ordered his subordinates to issue the letters, which were subsequently used by Djoko and his lawyer Anita Kolopaking to travel within the country, he added.

The one-rank police general was removed from his position after an investigation by the police's Internal Affairs Division (Propam) found that he had issued the travel letter for the graft suspect on his own initiative.

Read also: Prosecutors demand court deny fugitive Djoko Tjandras case review plea

Listyo went on to say that Prasetyo had also been charged under Article 221 of the Criminal Code for allegedly obstructing the investigation and tampering with evidence.

As a police officer, the suspect ordered Comr. Joni Andriyanto to burn the letters that had been used by Djoko and Anita for their travel, Listyo said as quoted by kompas.com.

Prasetyo also faced a charge under Article 426 of the Criminal Code for allegedly assisting a criminal.

With the multiple charges against him, the police general could be sentenced to six years of imprisonment.

"We have questioned approximately 20 people as witnesses [in the case] to date," Listyo said.

The police investigators had been tracking down more people possible involved in the matter, he said, adding that more suspects might be named soon.

Read also: Fugitive Djoko Tjandra skips another hearing, reportedly residing in Malaysia

The fiasco surrounding Djoko's sudden return to Indonesia has also implicated two other high-ranking police generals, who were removed last week, namely the international relations division head, Insp. Gen. Napoleon Bonaparte, and the secretary of the National Central Bureau (NCB) Interpol Indonesia, Brig. Gen. Nugroho Wibowo, for their alleged role in helping Djoko travel within the country.

Djoko was convicted in 2009 for his role in the 1998 Bank Bali corruption case. The Supreme Court sentenced him to two years in prison and ordered him to pay Rp 546 billion (US$54 million), but he fled the country a day before his conviction and remained at large for years.

The fugitive reportedly returned to Indonesia undetected and filed a case review plea with the South Jakarta District court to challenge his guilty verdict, though he had always been absent from his case hearings. His whereabouts today remain unclear, though reports suggest he might have taken up residence in Kuala Lumpur.
Phuket makes merit for HM Kings Birthday

PHUKET: Merit making to honour His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun on his 68th birthday today (July 28) began at Phuket Provincial Hall this morning and continued with a full ceremony at Phuket Rajabhat University.

culture

By The Phuket News

Tuesday 28 July 2020, 12:29PM

The merit making to honour His Majestys birthday today began with ceremonies at Phuket Provincial Hall. Photo: Phuket City Municipality

The merit making to honour His Majestys birthday today began with ceremonies at Phuket Provincial Hall. Photo: Phuket City Municipality

The merit making to honour His Majestys birthday today began with ceremonies at Phuket Provincial Hall. Photo: Phuket City Municipality

The merit making to honour His Majestys birthday today began with ceremonies at Phuket Provincial Hall. Photo: Phuket City Municipality

The merit making to honour His Majestys birthday today began with ceremonies at Phuket Provincial Hall. Photo: Phuket City Municipality

The merit making to honour His Majestys birthday today began with ceremonies at Phuket Provincial Hall. Photo: Phuket City Municipality

The merit making to honour His Majestys birthday today began with ceremonies at Phuket Provincial Hall. Photo: PR Phuket

The merit making to honour His Majestys birthday today began with ceremonies at Phuket Provincial Hall. Photo: PR Phuket

The merit making to honour His Majestys birthday today began with ceremonies at Phuket Provincial Hall. Photo: PR Phuket

The merit making to honour His Majestys birthday today began with ceremonies at Phuket Provincial Hall. Photo: PR Phuket

The merit making to honour His Majestys birthday today began with ceremonies at Phuket Provincial Hall. Photo: PR Phuket

The merit making to honour His Majestys birthday today began with ceremonies at Phuket Provincial Hall. Photo: PR Phuket

The merit making to honour His Majestys birthday today began with ceremonies at Phuket Provincial Hall. Photo: PR Phuket

The merit making to honour His Majestys birthday today began with ceremonies at Phuket Provincial Hall. Photo: PR Phuket

The days festivities began with a merit-making ceremony of giving aims to 69 monks in front of Phuket Provincial Hall at 7am.

At 7:30am, Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew joined a mass ceremony to honour HM The King.

Joining the Governor were the entire host of the islands top-ranking officials, as well as leading business and community figures along with local residents and students.

The merit making also included offerings to monks and the signing of an official book of birthday wishes for HM The King.

Activities and ceremonies to honour HM The King on his birthday today will continue across the island.
EDMONTON - Alberta municipalities that have been economically thrashed by the COVID-19 pandemic are receiving more than $1 billion in support from other levels of government.

The funds include $500 million in provincial money for shovel-ready infrastructure projects starting this year  part of Albertas multibillion-dollar recovery plan.

Municipalities and Metis settlements can start applying for funding to build roads, bridges and other infrastructure that would not have been built otherwise this year or next.

Alberta and Ottawa are also together contributing more than $600 million for municipal and transit operating costs under the federal-provincial Safe Restart Agreement.

Premier Jason Kenney says he knows these are eye-popping numbers that represent a lot of borrowed money.

He says this years provincial budget deficit is expected to exceed $20 billion.

All of this will lead to a great fiscal reckoning. But right now, in the face of the deepest jobs crisis in nearly a century, we must prudently leverage the provinces balance sheet to diversify and to create jobs, to build and to ensure a strong economic future, Kenney said Tuesday.

Because if we dont get people back to work, if we dont restore investor confidence and get our economy growing again, the fiscal challenge will become insurmountable. So jobs and the economy must come first.

A fiscal update is expected in about a month, Kenney said.

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson said his city is expected to take a $172-million hit this year from rising costs and plummeting revenues, and has had to make deep service and staff cuts.

This relief announcement is a validation of what mayors have been saying for months: That economic recovery itself is at risk in our communities without financial support for municipalities, he said.

A quick and complete recovery for our province depends immensely on the ability of our cities and towns and our counties to recover confidently and continue, especially in the big cities, to provide services like transit at service levels that reduce crowding.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said hes always been proud that his city hasnt needed outside support for its operating budget until now.

But he said Calgary is looking at a $400-million deficit this year and that it, too, has resorted to mass layoffs and service cuts.

Ridership on Calgarys light-rail transit system was down as much as 90 per cent during the pandemic, Nenshi noted.

This pandemic has been terrible. It has been terrible for so many of us ... and it will be terrible in ways that we havent yet realized, he said.

But todays announcement gives citizens the confidence that the three orders of government are working together, because we get through this the way we always get through things  and that is together.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 28, 2020.

 By Lauren Krugel in Calgary

Read more about:
FORT PIERCE, FL / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / Twin Vee PowerCats, Inc. (OTC PINK:TVPC), one of the largest production-based dual hull boat companies in the United States, will be featured in the August 2020 issue of the magazine Rudow's Fishtalk. Rudow's Fishtalk is a magazine that has served Chesapeake area fishing enthusiasts since 2017. "Rudow's Fishtalk will, among other things, include a stellar review of our 240 CC," Joseph Visconti, president of Twin Vee Powercats, Inc. said, "The team at Twin Vee is so honored to be included in a publication that celebrates the fishing lifestyle that we all love and, in part, design our boats around."

According to their website, Rudow's Fishtalk is a magazine that focuses in on Chesapeake Bay and Mid-Atlantic-based anglers and provides a "source for accurate, timely, how-to, where-to, local fishing knowledge..." The magazine offers fishers in the Mid-Atlantic region a publication that is "100-percent dedicated to fishing and fishing alone. One that's dedicated to bringing them timely information on how to catch more and bigger fish." Published by the SpinSheet Publishing Company, Rudow's Fishtalk is helmed by Lenny Rudow, a 20-plus year veteran writer specializing in fishing, boating, and marine electronics. In its August issue, the magazine examined a couple of new fishboats, including the 240 CC Powercat.

240 CC Powercat

Rudow's Fishtalk Reviews the 240 CC Powercat

A few years ago, Twin Vee Powercats, Inc. began work on designing and manufacturing new boat models that would appeal to a wider consumer base and allow more potential boat buyers the opportunity to experience the kind of smooth ride Twin Vee has become known for. Twin Vee launched the 24-foot center console power catamaran in 2019, which has been received very well by customers and critics alike. The Rudow's Fishtalk article showcases the boat in its review.

Touting the 240 CC Powercat's features in his article, Lenny Rudow goes over the best-in-class amenities onboard. Everything from the 240 CC's wide 8 foot and 8 inch-wide beam, the abundant seating throughout the deck, and the twin Suzuki outboard motors (115s, 140s, or 150s) that can be affixed on 12-inch Atlas jack plates. Moreover, Rudow states in his article that he loves "that six flush-mount gunwale rodholders come standard instead of the usual four, the transom livewell holds a whopping 40 gallons . . . When you put those goodies to use we have no doubt you'll do your best to fill the in-deck macerated fishboxes flanking the console..."

Visconti adds that the 240 CC Powercat was designed and built with an all-composite body that offers superior stability to v-shaped hulls. "The amenities that were featured in the article, as well as the others not mentioned, all come together to create a unique and extraordinary boat that exemplifies the great strides our company has taken in recent years," explains Visconti.



240 CC Powercat featured in Rudow's Fishtalk August 2020 Issue

The Rudow's Fishtalk article encourages its readers to test drive a 240 CC, especially if all they've owned were V-shaped hulled boats, stating "Just wait for a day with 20-knot gusts, and take one for a sea trial. Your aching back will thank you for it." Preston Yarborough, Director of Product Development and Vice President for Twin Vee, believes that when customers get behind the wheel of a 240 CC, they will see for themselves that it delivers a stable ride (even in turbulent waters), regardless of one's familiarity with operating a twin-hull boat. "Power cats are incredibly simple to operate. Once you learn the basics of keeping a proper trim, you will be well on your way to becoming an expert," stated Yarborough. "In fact, experienced boaters will tell you that learning to drive a catamaran was easy and they'll never go back to a monohull because of the benefits of owning a power cat," Yarborough adds.

240 CC Powercat heading out to sea

The 240 CC Powercat Life

In addition to the attention from the Rudow's Fishtalk article, Twin Vee's 240 CC was also featured in Center Console Life Magazine and Florida Sportsman Magazine in 2019. Visconti and the Twin Vee team are delighted to see the 240 CC get recognized by authorities in the recreational boating world as well as customers who have rode in and purchased one. "The 240 CC is just one example of Twin Vee's commitment to designing and manufacturing innovative and best-in-class boats. We want to constantly push the boundaries and improve the way our customers live, work, and play on the water," explains Visconti.

Those interested in reading Rudow's Fishtalk's review of Twin Vee's 240 CC Powercat will be able to find it here when it is released. You can also read more about Rudow's Fishtalk, including their back issues, at fishtalkmag.com.

More information on the 240 CC Powercat can be found on Twin Vee's website here.

About Twin Vee PowerCats, Inc.

Headed by CEO Joseph Visconti, originally founded in 1994, the company designs, manufactures, and sells recreational and commercial twin-hull power boats under the Twin Vee brand name. Over the past 26 years, the company has concentrated on perfecting the high-speed twin-displacement hull design, also known as a "catamaran powerboat." For more information, go to www.twinvee.com or visit Twin Vee Powercats, Inc.'s Facebook page.

Contact:

Joseph Visconti

info@twinvee.com

(772) 429-2525

SOURCE: Twin Vee PowerCats, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/599102/Twin-Vee-240-Center-Console-Featured-in-August-Issue-of-Rudows-Fishtalk-Magazine
He also warned that violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests to wreak senseless havoc and destruction in places like Portland, Ore.

In his prepared statement, which he did not fully read aloud, Mr. Barr said, We should all be able to agree that there is no place in this country for armed mobs that seek to establish autonomous zones beyond government control, or tear down statues and monuments that law-abiding communities chose to erect, or to destroy the property and livelihoods of innocent business owners.

His comments were the latest attempt by federal officials to draw more attention to vandals nightly bids to damage federal buildings in Portland, accusing the local police of doing little to stop them. City officials have accused federal agents of being heavy-handed and said their presence reinvigorated tensions that had been subsiding.

The attorney general appears to have played a primary role in using federal agents last month to violently clear protesters from Lafayette Square near the White House before a photo opportunity for Mr. Trump in front of a church. Though the White House initially said Mr. Barr had ordered the clearance, he later said he had not given a tactical order. Either way, Democrats were livid over his presence and have come to see Mr. Barr as a key impediment to overhauls of policing that enjoy broad public support.

More recently, he has become a face of the Trump administrations pledge to surge federal agents into Democratic-led cities like Portland, Ore., Chicago, and Kansas City, Mo. where, the White House says, violence has increased, both during protests and elsewhere. The federal intervention  the details of which remain hazy  is quickly becoming another flash point in the monthslong cultural upheaval over systemic racism, and it appears to be a critical campaign strategy by Mr. Trump who is trying to stoke a sense that Democrats are leading the country into chaos.
Billionaire Tilman Fertitta told CNBC on Tuesday that ending the $600-per-week federal unemployment supplement will impair the U.S. economy's recovery from coronavirus-induced damage.

"You're going to see this economy go backwards when we cut out this $600 a week," Fertitta, chairman and CEO of restaurant giant Landry's, said on "Power Lunch."

Fertitta, who also owns the NBA's Houston Rockets, said the weekly check  which comes on top of state-level benefits  has been a major catalyst for consumer spending during the nation's Covid-19 outbreak. And that spending has in turn created additional jobs, Fertitta argued.

"You don't need as many employees to run this business if you're not getting that $600 because they're not out there spending it," said Fertitta, adding it applies to "all these retail stores, all these restaurants, any business out there, even automotive and home repair."

The unemployment supplement  established as part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act passed in March  is set to be in place until Friday. However, due to a technicality with state unemployment programs, millions of Americans likely already received their final $600 weekly check.

Senate Republicans have proposed a reduced benefit of $200 a week through September. Then in October, the GOP plan proposes to replace it with a different formula that would cap total state and federal unemployment benefits at 70% of lost wages.

Democrats in Washington have expressed opposition to the Republican plan, contending a more generous benefit is needed for the more than 30 million Americans who were receiving jobless benefits as of early July. The Democratic-led House passed a $3 trillion coronavirus relief package in May that extended the $600 weekly benefit through January.

In advocating for a lower benefit, some Republicans say the $600-per-week supplement has created a disincentive for people to return to work and impeded the U.S. economic recovery as a result. Some people, particularly low-wage workers, may have made more on unemployment with the $600 weekly check than they did while employed.

"We don't want to make it more profitable to stay home than to go back to work," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday on CNBC's "Power Lunch." "That's not what unemployment insurance is about."

Fertitta, whose business empire includes Golden Nugget casinos and more than 600 restaurants, said he does not believe the federal unemployment supplement has been a major barrier to rehiring workers.

"We might have 20 or 30 people out of 50,000 that are taking advantage of us. Maybe 100," he said. "But when you take this $600 out of these 25 million people's hands, it is going to affect your economy."
Imagine you are stopped by a police officer while driving. You roll down your window. The officer asks to see your driver's license, vehicle registration and proof of insurance. It can be a moment of consternation as you fumble in the glove compartments for documents. For some drivers, especially Black drivers, the moment can be fraught with fear of violence.

David Price, an 18-year-old Loyola University sophomore, has come up with an invention that he hopes will make such moments less difficult and dangerous. Hes invented the Safety Pouch, a way to streamline interactions with officers at a traffic stop. The bright orange pouch has four card-sized sleeves to store documents. It clips onto a vehicles sun visor when not in use.

During a traffic stop, its easy to grab it off of the sun visor, snap it on the window and keep your hands in sight, Price said.

Price has already pre-sold 1,200 Safety Pouches, which are being manufactured in China and are expected to arrive at his New Orleans East home in August. They will sell for $19.99.

Price said the impetus for producing the pouches was an Introduction to Entrepreneurship class in the fall of 2019, where professor Kate Yoo McCrery challenged students to envision a product that might somehow bring about societal change.

But the inspiration for the invention came much earlier, when Price was a beginning driver. Price said his parents gave him the talk about how to behave when interacting with the police.

They told me what to do at a traffic stop, to announce all of my movements, to be respectful and if possibly arrested, to go peacefully, Price said.

Davids mom, Katina Price, a social worker, said she felt the need to warn him of the potential danger because of his age, because he didn't see things through the same lens that I saw things through.

You may mistakenly grab something, like Oh, I forgot to get something, she told her son, and the police can misread your actions and take it for something else, and react in a different way that you might not be prepared to deal with.

Cases of routine traffic stops resulting in the killing of unarmed Black men, such as Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015 and Samuel DuBose in Cincinnati that same year, were relatively recent national scandals at the time Prices parents issued their warnings to their son.

Immediately, Price began imagining some sort of device to efficiently present police officers with drivers information. Later, in entrepreneurship class, he remembered the idea.

When I met David, I was immediately impressed that he had been thinking about his concept for the last three years, since he was 15 years old, said McCrery. He just needed help in getting it off the ground, which I was thrilled to do.

Price participated in the inaugural Wolf Pack Pitch, a competition hosted by the Loyola Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, winning the first-place prize of $1,500 in seed funding. Prices parents contributed the $800 necessary to patent the invention. He called on a professional product designer to create the Safety Pouch prototype. Price said he helped pay for the first batch of Safety Pouches with hustle jobs, like mowing lawns.

Price grew up in New Orleans, swam at Holy Cross School and loves to hunt deer and fish at Grand Isle with his dad. He said he likes music with some meaning behind it by artist/activists such as Kendrick Lamar and Erykah Badu. Though hes made a splash in the Loyola business school, his major is political science.

Of course, he said, the Safety Pouch is more than a practicality; its a social commentary.

It tells you the extent that we, as African-American people, have to go through just to keep us safe during simple traffic stops, he said.

The Safety Pouch was conceived before George Floyds death at the hands of Minneapolis police, which kindled Black Lives Matter protests across the country this spring, and before the coronavirus pandemic, which has necessitated social distancing. Yet it seems to resonate with both. Celebrities including Mike Colter, Tina Knowles and Badu have lauded the product and its ingenuity on social media.

Its a damn shame he had to invent this, Badu wrote in a comment.

Price said hes never been pulled over by a police officer, but he spoke to two or three for advice as he developed the product.

The New Orleans Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on Prices invention, but former NOPD superintendent Ronal Serpas, who is now professor of practice of criminology and justice at Loyola, said that he thinks the Safety Pouch is generally a great idea.

Police officers would probably see any effort to conduct a traffic stop more efficiently as a good thing, Serpas said.

If he pulled someone over with such a pouch, Serpas said, I would probably say to myself, Good, theyve gotten everything together.

Serpas added that officers are traditionally trained to communicate verbally with drivers about why they were stopped, and anything about it that interrupts the explaining might work against it.

As a result, he said, hanging the pouch on the window at some level that leaves the window open for ease of communication between the officer and driver is important as well."
A college degree at 19. A medical school graduate with a Ph.D. at 27. By the time he completed training in vascular surgery in 2014, Dr. Sapan Desai had cast himself as an ambitious physician, an entrepreneur with an M.B.A. and a prolific researcher published in medical journals. Then the novel coronavirus hit and Dr. Desai seized the moment. With a Harvard professor, he produced two studies in May that almost instantly disrupted multiple clinical trials amid the pandemic. One studys findings were particularly dramatic, reporting that anti-malaria drugs like ...
JK Rowling: Gender-transitioning minors is 'medical scandal' about to 'erupt'

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Harry Potter series author J.K. Rowling is continuing to speak to gender identity issues, stating that the experimental practices related to gender-transitioning constitute a medical scandal that is likely to erupt soon.

In a series of tweets Saturday, the beloved children's author weighed in again on transgender issues, linking to a Cambridge Core journal article scrutinizing psychiatric treatments and medical interventions pertaining to gender transition, which likened them to what is known as "conversion therapy."

"It feels as though were on the brink of a medical scandal," Rowling said.

"Since speaking up about gender identity theory, Ive received thousands of emails  more than Ive ever had on a single subject. Many have come from professionals working in medicine, education and social work. All are concerned about the effects on vulnerable young people."

Citing a letter two whistleblowers from the London-based Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service wrote outlining their concerns about troubling internal clinical practices, the author continued that the "bleak truth is that if and when the scandal does erupt, nobody currently cheering this movement on will be able to credibly claim we couldnt have known."

Her latest words come on the heels of growing scrutiny of the controversial practices in the United Kingdom. U.K. Trade Minister Liz Truss announced earlier this year that restrictions on the medical practices would soon be established. Last month, the National Health Service removed its previous claim that the experimental drugs prescribed to transgender-identifying youth are "fully reversible." The updated guidance now says the effects of such short-term and long-term effects of such drugs are unknown.

Grown adults should be able to make decisions, to have agency to live life as they see fit, Truss said in April.

But before the age of 18, when people are still developing their decision-making capabilities, they should be protected from making decisions that are irreversible about their bodies that they could possibly regret in the future.

In June, Rowling published a lengthy essay where she articulated her concerns about how transgender ideology undermines and threatens women and their rights. In response to her commentary on this issue, Rowling has been pilloried by transgender activists and "Harry Potter" film stars Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe.

Earlier this month, Rowling explained in a separate Twitter thread that she considers modern gender-transitioning to be a form of gay conversion therapy, noting that the procedures yield infertility and loss of full sexual function and that a recent BBC documentary investigated the Tavistock center where concerned clinicians spoke about how gender-transitions were being fueled in part by homophobic parents.

"The long-term health risks of cross-sex hormones have now been tracked over a lengthy period. These side-effects are often minimized or denied by trans activists," Rowling said, highlighting a February 2019 News-Medical.net article about an American Heart Association study on hormone use that revealed an elevated risk of cardiac problems such as heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots.

The Tavistock clinic is presently facing a lawsuit in which detransitioner (a formerly trans-identified person) Keira Bell is a claimant. The suit alleges that gender-confused youth were being rushed into hormonal and surgical transitions without an adequate explanation of the permanent effects on their bodies.
Bermuda-based PartnerRe Ltd. announced it has appointed industry veteran Jacques Bonneau as its president and chief executive officer effective immediately.

Bonneau, who will be based in the companys headquarter in Bermuda, succeeds Emmanuel Clarke, who is leaving the company after four years as CEO by mutual agreement to pursue other opportunities outside the group, the company said.

The company also reported its second quarter results.

Bonneau has been a member of the PartnerRe board of directors since February 2019, having served on the companys audit committee and as the chairman of its underwriting and risk committee. He is a former CEO of Ace/Chubb Tempest Re Group and former group chief underwriting officer of Chubb.

PartnerRe is owned by Exor, the holding firm of Italys Agnelli family.

A CEO Needs to Be Authentic, Optimistic and Resilient: PartnerRes Clarke

The change in leadership comes following the collapse of the sale of PartneRe. In May, French insurer Covea walked away from its planned $9 billion purchase of PartnerRe, saying it could no longer buy due to the current unprecedented conditions and significant uncertainties threatening the global economic outlook.

However, Exor said that Covea, while trying to renegotiate the deals agreed terms, never indicated there were any material adverse changes, including any related to pandemic risk, that would explain its pulling out the deal. Exor said it believes that no such basis existed and that PartnerRe is not expected to be significantly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Bonnrau Career

Bonneau began his reinsurance career at General Reinsurance Corp. in casualty facultative operations in 1981. Since then, he has worked as the senior vice president at Trenwick America Group and was the chief underwriting officer and a member of the board of directors at Chartwell Re Corp. from 1990 to 1999. Bonneau held various roles with Chubb (previously ACE Group). He was the CEO of Chubb Tempest Re USA from 1999 to 2005 followed by the CEO of the Chubb Tempest Re Group from 2005 to 2014. Most recently, he was the group chief underwriting officer at Chubb from 2015 to 2017, when he retired.

Brian Dowd, independent chairman of the PartnerRe board of directors, praised Bonneaus strong track record in reinsurance underwriting and deep knowledge of our clients and brokers.

Clarke was named president of PartnerRe in 2015 as its acquisition by Exor was in progress. He added CEO to his responsibilities in 2016. Clarke first joined PartnerRe as an underwriter in 1997 with the acquisition of SAFR, and was appointed head of Credit and Surety, Global in 2001, becoming deputy head of Specialty Lines, Global in 2002, head of Property and Casualty, Global in 2006 and head of Specialty Lines, Global in 2008.

Dowd expressed the companys gratitude and appreciation to Clarke for his leadership that enabled PartnerRe to smoothly transition under EXOR ownership and strengthen the companys business and strategic positioning.

In prepared remarks, Clarke said he is proud of advancing the companys strategic goals. He cited progress with the non-life portfolio, building the life and health platform, and the organizations talent base.

Q2 Results

On the same day, PartnerRe reported its second quarter results that showed $229 million in net income, versus $285 million in the 2019 second quarter. Investments helped, with the company booking $588 million in net investment gains during the quarter, a large improvement over Q1 when the fast-growing coronavirus pandemic rattled the financial markets.

P/C net premiums written dropped 30 percent in Q2 and in the 2020 first half compared to the same periods in 2019 due to the economic downturn and ongoing efforts to optimize the underwriting portfolio, the company said.

Non-life underwriting losses reached $260 million in Q2 with a 121.3 combined ratio, along with a $306 million underwriting loss and 112.6 combined ratio in the 2020 first half. In 2019, non-life underwriting profit hit $95 million, with a 92.8 combined ratio for the 2019 first quarter. The 2019 first half produced a $119 million underwriting profit and 95 combined ratio.

PartnerRe reported $338 million in pre-tax catastrophe losses, net of retrocession and reinsurance premiums, for the 2020 first half due to COVID-19. Losses stemmed from business interruption and event cancellation coverages, financial risk lines credit exposures and life and health business claims.

Topics Mergers Underwriting Reinsurance Chubb
A policeman has left a sharp message to a Black Lives Matter protester who defiantly ripped up his $1,000 fine.

Six people were arrested at the illegal Black Lives Matter march in The Domain in Sydney on Tuesday, with five of them issued with infringement notices.

One of the fined protesters in an orange shirt tore up his notice in front of reporters and pledged to challenge the fine in the Supreme Court.

'Garbage, this is going in the bin,' he said. 'That's all it's worth. Because that's what they are doing to the Native Title Act.'

A Black Lives Matter protester (pictured) ripped up his $1,000 fine at the illegal Sydney rally on Tuesday

The man was one of six people who were arrested at the event. He pledged to challenge the fine in the Supreme Court

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing had a brilliant response to the outspoken protester when quizzed about the incident by reporters this afternoon.

'Well, best of luck to you at court,' he said.

Commissioner Willing said the police response at the rally was to keep the community safe from COVID-19.

'As we said all along, we are not anti-the right to protest,' he said. 'This is about public safety.

'At the end of the day, we are in the middle of a pandemic. The Supreme Court judge himself described the current situation in NSW as being on a knife's edge.'

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing said the police response at the rally was to keep the community safe from COVID-19 and wished the man who tore up his fine luck in court

Protest organiser Paddy Gibson is pictured being dragged away from the rally by police on Tuesday

Among those arrested at the rally were event organiser Paddy Gibson, who was filmed being forcibly removed from The Domain and dragged into a police car.

'Leave now, don't come near me, don't come near me,' Mr Gibson was heard yelling as he was taken away.

'Tell the people to cancel the rally, leave The Domain, don't come near me.'

He was detained and fined before he was later seen heading into nearby NSW state parliament.

Three men, aged 40, 37 and 22, and two women aged 50 and 23, were arrested at the Domain

A third woman, aged 25, was arrested and issued a Criminal Infringement Notice for offensive language.

This middle-aged protester was among six attendees arrested and issued with $1000 fines

The protest was due to start at midday Tuesday, despite being declared illegal by the NSW Supreme Court, which later dismissed an appeal by Mr Gibson.

Up to 5,000 protesters had registered on Facebook to attend the rally but was shut down by police before shortly before it was due to start.

The NSW Supreme Court ruled on Sunday it was too risky for the protest to go ahead due to a fresh outbreak of coronavirus cases across Sydney, with 14 new infections detected on Tuesday.

'The NSW Police Force is reminding the community that a number of ministerial directions remain in place covering returned overseas travellers, diagnosed persons, mass gatherings and movement, spitting and coughing, residential aged care facilities, border control measures and compliance requirements for NSW businesses, funerals, places of worship, weddings and corporate events,' a police statement released on Tuesday states.

The protester is guided through the media crowd by police after being arrested at the Black Lives Matter rally

Protesters wearing face masks pose on College Street in Sydney after the demonstrators were moved from The Domain

The protest was organised for the family of Aboriginal man David Dungay Jnr, who died in Long Bay Jail in December 2015.

A small group of protesters who remained in The Domain were ordered by the heavy presence of police officers to leave the area or risk being arrested.

They relocated to the forecourt at State Parliament, where Mr Dungay's mother Leetona presented two boxes filled with nearly 100,000 signatures calling for more inquiries into her son's death.

'We're still going to rally and were going to rally until we get charges. I will rest after that,' Ms Dungay said on Monday.

'I'm going to walk strong and tall until the day I get justice.'
Aircraft of Vietnamese airlines (Illustrative photo: VNA)

Hanoi  Domestic airlines have announced adjustment of flights from/to the central city of Da Nang in accordance with new developments of the COVID-19 pandemic and an order by the Ministry of Transport.

National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines will halt all flights from/to Da Nang on July 28 while other domestic flights will be operated as usual.

Budget carrier Vietjet Air will suspend its flights on the Da Nang route from the day until August 11.

The airline will provide support for passengers of affected flights.

On July 27, the Ministry of Transport ordered the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam and relevant agencies to stop all passenger flights from/to Da Nang for a 15-day period starting at the stroke of July 28.

Accordingly, the authority and agencies were asked to maximise number of flights taking tourists out of the central city by the designated time.

The restriction, however, does not apply to non-passenger flights.

Road passenger transport of the city has been halted in the period, except for official purposes and the supply of food and necessities, along with vehicles picking up workers and experts and carrying materials and products.

Services at the Da Nang railway station will also be temporary closed. The Hanoi - HCM City train link will continue, but not receive or drop passengers off in Da Nang.

Social distancing measures have been applied from 0:00am on July 28 in six districts of Da Nang, namely Hai Chau, Thanh Khe, Son Tra, Ngu Hanh Son, Cam Le and Lien Chieu, and the lockdown measure has been in place for the C Hospital, the Da Nang Orthopaedics and Rehabiliation Hospital, and the Da Nang Hospital, as part of efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Editor's note: This story contains explicit video.

The Austin Police Department on Monday released video footage of the fatal police shooting of Mike Ramos, an unarmed Black and Latino man who was killed as he pulled out of a parking space in April after officers first shot him with "less-lethal" munition.

Ramos name has become a rallying cry in Texas during the ongoing protests against police brutality and racial injustice that followed George Floyds death in Minneapolis. The videos show Ramos pulling out of the parking spot before turning right and stopping as officers follow the car, pointing their rifles toward the driver's side of the vehicle.

An attorney for Ramos mother and Austin-area activists say the videos show the shooting was not justified.

The first thing that stuck out to me is what I did not see and that was any justification for the shooting. That is glaringly absent from the video, attorney Scott Hendler told KUT 90.5 News. Whats clear is that theres nothing Mike Ramos did to justify Officer [Christopher] Taylor opening fire and killing him.

Attorneys for Christopher Taylor, the officer who shot and killed Ramos, said that based on their perceptions of the officers reactions, law enforcement was "in fear that Mr. Ramos vehicle was going to put them in danger. An Austin Police Department report said Ramos intended to use the moving vehicle as a deadly weapon and Taylor was justified in shooting him as a result.

At the moment Mr. Ramos sort of drives forward shows that we believe they believed they were in fear of serious bodily injury or death or something along those lines, said Ken Ervin, one of Taylor's attorneys.

Ramos' death brought out tensions that have long plagued the state's capital, a place that is recognized for its moments of progressivism yet has deep-rooted racial biases.

The release of the videos depicting his death comes two days after the death of Garrett Foster, an armed white demonstrator who was protesting police brutality in downtown Austin when an unnamed, armed driver shot and killed him, according to The New York Times. The shooter in that incident has cooperated with police and was released, according to the Austin American-Statesman. Austin police did not answer The Texas Tribune's questions about that shooting Monday.

Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore announced last week that she will not bring Ramos case in front of a grand jury during her term, which is set to end after she lost her reelection bid to Democratic primary challenger Jose Garza. Moores decision, which also affects the case of Javier Ambler  an unarmed Black man killed by law enforcement last year  effectively delays criminal charges against any officers involved in either shooting.

Austin residents in the past few months have pushed for reforms to police conduct and cuts to the department's budget. The City Council in June asked for some police budget cuts, banned the use of less lethal munitions by law enforcement at protests and limited officers' use of deadly force.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Austinites called in to a City Council meeting Thursday to advocate for significant police department budget cuts that exceed the proposed $11.3 million reduction. Some callers proposed cutting the budget in half and others said the department should eliminate its firearms, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

The five videos released Monday, which include a version in Spanish, depict officers' encounter with Ramos. One begins with a 911 caller alleging that Ramos and a woman were using drugs inside a car in an apartment complex parking lot. The caller first says Ramos is pointing a gun at the woman, and later says he is holding up the gun. The caller also describes Ramos as wearing a white shirt. But Ramos is shown to be wearing a red shirt. The Austin Police Department confirmed in May that no gun was found in Ramoss possession, according to the Statesman.

Prior to confronting Ramos, eight police officers are shown on video convening to discuss a strategy. They mention there is one entrance to the parking lot that they plan to block off with their vehicles.

Dont try to pin [Ramos and the woman] in, one of the officers says. If they got a gun, I dont want to do that.

The officers also mention that the car is one they have been dealing with and actually looking for. Austin police on Monday did not respond to questions about what the officers meant by that statement.

During the encounter, police officers approach Ramos, who is inside the car, and demand that he step outside and put his hands up. Once he does, an officer tells him to lift his shirt up, turn around and walk towards the officer.

Youre gonna get impacted if you dont listen, the officer says. Walk towards me.

Ramos complies with those demands, but the officer continues to tell him to comply as Ramos repeatedly asks what he did.

I cant explain it now, Michael, Ill explain it in a second, but you need to turn around, the officer says.

Ramos tells the officers he aint got no fucking gun, dog and asks them to not shoot before Officer Mitchell Pieper fires a lead pellet-filled bag, known as an impact munition considered less lethal by police, a few seconds later. After the shot is fired, Ramos re-enters the car with the woman and proceeds to drive. Another officer, Christopher Taylor, fires three rounds at the moving vehicle, killing Ramos.

Taylor has been placed on administrative leave and is the subject of parallel administrative and criminal investigations by the Austin Police Department.

Ervin and Doug OConnell, Taylors attorneys, declined to comment on Taylors case specifically, and said that the department has prohibited them from interviewing the other officers involved in the incident. They also said they were disappointed that the police department released the videos before a grand jury has been empaneled or a judge has ruled on the admissibility of the videos as evidence.

I think this is because [the government wants] to dribble out evidence and control what the community is able to see in order to get some sort of strategic advantage, OConnell said.

They referred to another video released Thursday that shows the incident from the dashboard camera of Valerie Tavarez, another officer at the scene.

While that video does not show the car Ramos was driving, OConnell said it depicts officers scrambling to get out of the way of Mr. Ramos's car.

They're running for cover behind police vehicles and one officer jumps into the police vehicle, OConnell said.

But the Austin Justice Coalition said the video released by the police department Monday validates Ramos and shows he was never an aggressive man.

It's frustrating and it's sad to see this, said Chas Moore, the groups founder and executive director. How senseless. This shouldn't even be something that we're talking about. If they just would have took a second to try to de-escalate the situation because [in the video] they asked him to raise up his shirt and all this type of stuff and he kept saying I don't have a gun. So this is very frustrating.

KUT 90.5 and The New York Times have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
Donald Trump has refiled a lawsuit aimed at blocking Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance from obtaining his tax returns, with his lawyers saying the prosecutor's subpoena was issued in "bad faith".

The filing by the president's personal legal team comes a few weeks after the Supreme Court ruled Mr Vance could continue his pursuit of Mr Trump's financial records. Democratic lawmakers have tried to pry them loose for years, but the president claims he is under audit by the Internal Revenue Service, and therefore cannot make them public; the IRS has declined comment.

The high court rejected the Trump team's argument that Mr Vance could not be investigated by New York state officials while he occupies the Office of the President. But the justices said Mr Trump could challenge the subpoena on other grounds of his choosing.

"The District Attorney issued a grand-jury subpoena he knew was overbroad and sought irrelevant records," Mr Trump's lawyers wrote in their suit.

"That the District Attorney dubiously claims he did this for 'efficiency' reasons does not save the subpoena from invalidation," according to team Trump. "It confirms that he lacked a goodfaith basis and that the subpoena amounts to harassment of the President."

Mr Vance reportedly is looking into cash payments Mr Trump made paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels after an alleged sexual relationship she said was consensual.
BEIJING - Antagonisms between the United States and China are rattling governments around the world, prompting a German official to warn of Cold War 2.0 and Kenyas president to appeal for unity to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Global trade already was depressed by the 2-year-old tariff war between the worlds two biggest economies. That rancour has spread to include Hong Kong, Chinese Muslims, spying accusations and control of the South China Sea.

Caught in the middle, other governments are trying to defend their own interests.

GERMANY:

Chancellor Angela Merkels government wants to preserve trade and co-operation on global warming but says a security law tightening Beijings control over Hong Kong is a difficult issue.

The Hong Kong security laws potential disruption of the autonomy Beijing promised to the former British colony is no reason to stop talking but is a worrying development, Merkel said.

Europes biggest economy has yet to take a final position on Chinese tech giant Huawei despite U.S. pressure to exclude its equipment from next-generation telecom networks as a possible security risk.

China is an important partner for us but also a competitor, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement after a videoconference Friday with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.

Peter Beyer, the governments co-ordinator for trans-Atlantic co-operation, expressed alarm in an interview with the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland newspaper group.

We are experiencing the beginning of a Cold War 2.0, Beyer said. He criticized both sides but said, the U.S. is our most important partner outside the EU, and that is how it will stay.

FRANCE:

President Emmanuel Macron calls President Donald Trump my friend but is trying to avoid riling Beijing.

France has not echoed Trumps criticism of Beijings handling of the coronavirus, but legislators applauded Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian last week when he condemned abuses of minority Uighurs in Chinas northwest.

Le Drian mentioned mass arrests, disappearances, forced labour, forced sterilizations, the destruction of Uighur cultural heritage. He said France has asked that the camps be closed.

All these practices are unacceptable, the minister said. We condemn them.

Trumps ambivalence toward U.S. allies and flouting of diplomatic norms has alarmed France.

Sino-American tensions dont benefit France, said Valerie Niquet of the Foundation for Strategic Research, a think-tank . We share the same interests as the United States towards China, we adopt more or less the same positions, so it doesnt bring us any positive element.

EUROPE:

Europes strategic relations with China will be an issue for the European Union while Germany holds the rotating presidency of the 27-nation bloc, Merkel said this month.

EU foreign ministers have not managed to agree on a common position on China.

Regarding Hong Kong, options include closer scrutiny of exports of sensitive technology to the territory and changing visa policies for its residents. But there is no talk of economic sanctions or targeting Chinese officials with penalties.

The message is that the recent actions change the rules, said the top EU foreign policy official, Josep Borrell. This will require a revision of our approach and will clearly have an impact on our relations.

SOUTH KOREA:

South Korea is squeezed between its main military ally and its biggest trading partner.

In 2016, Beijing destroyed supermarket operator Lottes business in China after the conglomerate sold a plot of land in South Korea to the government for an anti-missile system over Chinese objections.

Washington is unhappy with South Koreas desire to ease sanctions on North Korea to encourage disarmament and uneasy about its use of Huawei technology.

Trump complains about the cost of stationing 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea to protect against North Korean threats. A cost-sharing agreement expired in 2019 without a replacement.

The U.S.-Chinese row has thrown a question to South Korea about which side to choose, the newspaper Dong-A Ilbo said in an editorial Monday.

Sooner or later we will be forced to provide an answer, no matter how hard we tried to avoid it, the newspaper said.

INDIA:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to embrace both Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump, but the pandemic and a border clash that killed at least 20 Indian soldiers have fueled anti-Chinese sentiment.

Protesters have called for boycotts of Chinese goods and burned Chinese flags. They applauded the governments ban on the popular Chinese video-sharing app TikTok and some other Chinese apps.

Washington wants stronger ties with India and supported its controversial move a year ago to split its only Muslim-majority state, restive Jammu and Kashmir, into two federally controlled territories. This month, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said the United States would stand up to China on the Indian border dispute.

For India it is opportune that the U.S. is applying more pressure on China, and if it can get it to behave, that would be welcomed by the entire neighbourhood, said Jayadev Ranade, president of the Center for China Analysis think-tank in New Delhi.

AFRICA:

China-U.S. tensions are taking a toll: The African Development Bank said last year trade disruption due to the tariff war could lead to a 2.5% drop in economic output for some African countries.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said political disputes should be set aside to better fight the coronavirus.

Lets not be sucked back into isolationism or unilateralism. We need each other today more than ever, Kenyatta said an Atlantic Council event last month. Were not going to fight coronavirus if one country fails and another succeeds.

SOUTHEAST ASIA:

The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations has avoided taking steps that would alienate Washington or Beijing, both important trading partners.

The great powers, as they escalate their rivalry, will woo us into their side, said Harry Roque, a spokesman for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. We will advance our national interest.

The regions most sensitive conflict  over control of the South China Sea  escalated when the Trump administration publicly rejected most of Beijings claims to one of the worlds busiest waterways.

We are making clear: Beijings claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a July 13 statement.

The Philippines and Vietnam, among the most vocal critics of Chinese assertiveness, could benefit from that stance but will move cautiously, said Greg Poling of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

They arent going to stick their necks in a noose until they see real follow-through from Washington, Poling said.

___

Associated Press writers Geir Moulson and Frank Jordans in Berlin, Cara Anna in Johannesburg, Arno Pedram and John Leicester in Paris, Raf Casert in Brussels, Jim Gomez in Manila, Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, and Emily Schmall in New Delhi contributed to this report.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. (Photo/The Guardian)

By Chen Yang

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on July 23, the Australia's permanent mission to the United Nations rejected China's territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea, declaring that there was "no legal basis" for China's such claims. On July 27, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed resolute opposition, saying that Australia's statement ignores the facts and violates the international law and basic norms of international relations.

From suspending its extradition treaty with China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on July 9 to conducting the joint exercise with the U.S. Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in the South China Sea on July 21, and then to opposing China's claims to the South China Sea, it seems that Australia has walked farther and farther along the road to a pawn of the U.S. in containing China.

In recent years, Australia's stance towards the South China Sea issue has shifted from "sitting on the fence" to "cautious intervention" and then to "active intervention." During the periods of the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard administrations, Australia showed a relatively restrained, neutral attitude towards the South China Sea issue.

After Tony Abbott took power, Australia gradually abandoned its neutral stance, and began to intervene in the South China Sea affairs as a stakeholder. Since the Malcolm Turnbull administration, Australia's South China Sea policy shifted from "cautious intervention" to "active intervention". From then on, the Australian government often implicitly or openly opposed China's claims and moves related to the South China Sea, and its attitude towards China tends to be tough.

Liu Feng, a researcher at the Institute of Maritime Silk Road of Hainan Normal University, noted that the Australian government's shift in its South China Sea policy, especially the strongly-worded statement by the Scott Morrison administration, to a large extent reflects Australia voluntarily following and collaborating with the U.S.' relevant policies and stances. Australia is a typical country outside the South China Sea region, which determines that Australia cannot make big waves no matter how hard it tries.

This time, the Morris administration disrupted peace in the South China Sea for complicated reasons.

As a country in Oceania, Australia has no right to intervene in the South China Sea affairs. Considering the massive population and great economic potential in the South China Sea region, especially the gloomy domestic economic prospect after the COVID-19 epidemic, Australia hopes to enhance its economic and trade connections with the region and highlight its presence in Asia-Pacific affairs through interfering in the South China Sea issue.

Moreover, through taking moves and making remarks that the U.S. is inconvenient to do, Australia attempts to show its "loyalty" to the U.S. and earn greater trust from the U.S.

However, Liu believes that it isn't wise for Australia to follow the pace of the U.S. in the South China Sea issue. After all, from the perspective of China-Australia economic and trade relations, Australia is heavily relied on China economically. Australia's move would only worsen its relations with China. To show itself a loyal ally of the U.S., Australia is risking its own national interests.

Australia's unlawful intervention in the South China Sea issue will not only disrupt regional peace and stability, but also make the South China Sea issue more complicated. In the past few years, the South China Sea situation generally turns towards stability and peace, indicating that countries in the region have the wisdom, ability and methods to solve disputes through peaceful consultations.

China and Australia have neither fundamental conflict in terms of national interests nor maritime disputes. For them, opportunities for cooperation and exchange overweigh the challenges they are facing. The two countries should strengthen cooperation in the field of regional security, actively expand shared interests, respect each others core interests and key concerns, and walk together in the same direction, so as to form a win-win strategic landscape.

Disclaimer: This article is originally published on haiwainet.cn, which is the website of Overseas Edition of the People's Daily. The article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
Indian American attorney Paul Joseph and his family, who were vacationing at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, were questioned by police after a white neighbor called to report suspicious behavior. Rehoboth Beach is an expensive, mostly-white community. Joseph told India-West that the police officer who came out to investigate told him we got a report that you dont belong here and demanded to see the agreement for the $7,000 per week vacation rental. Joseph (second from right) is pictured at Rehoboth Beach with his family: wife Karen Williams, and sons William and Nate. (photo courtesy of Paul Joseph)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Tuesday Israel had violated his country's sovereignty with a "dangerous military escalation" along the frontier on Monday and urged caution after a rise in border tensions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would do "everything necessary" to defend itself, a day after saying Israeli forces had thwarted an attempt by Hezbollah to infiltrate across the frontier. The Iranian-backed Shi'ite group denied this.

A Reuters witness in Lebanon counted dozens of Israeli shells hitting the disputed Shebaa Farms area on Monday. No casualties were reported on either side of the frontier.

"I call for caution in coming days because I fear the situation will deteriorate in light of heightened tensions on our border," Diab said on Twitter.

Israel was trying to "change the rules of engagement," he said.

Lebanon's government tasked the foreign minister with filing a complaint about the "Israeli assault on the south" to the U.N. Security Council.

Israeli forces have been on alert along the border in anticipation of Hezbollah retaliation for the killing of one of its members a week ago in an alleged Israeli attack on the edge of the Syrian capital Damascus.

Visiting Israel's northern military headquarters on Tuesday, Netanyahu said Israeli forces would continue to take action "to prevent Iranian military entrenchment in the region".

His comment suggested that attacks in Syria, where Hezbollah fighters are deployed to support President Bashar al-Assad, would continue.

"We will do everything necessary to defend ourselves and I suggest to Hezbollah that it take that simple fact into account. Israel is prepared for any scenario," Netanyahu's office quoted him as saying.

Israel sees the presence of Hezbollah and Iran in Syria as a strategic threat, and has mounted raids on Iranian-linked targets there.

After two Hezbollah members were killed in Damascus last August, the group's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, vowed to respond if Israel killed any of its fighters in Syria. But Hezbollah's deputy leader said on Sunday all-out war with Israel was unlikely.

(Reporting by Ghaida Ghantous in Beirut, Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Ed Osmond)
Md. hospital revises COVID-19 visitor policy after denying patient's request to see priest

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The University of Maryland Medical System has amended its COVID-19 visitor policy to allow clergy visitation after one of its hospitals denied access to a Catholic priest who was asked to administer sacraments to a trauma patient injured in a car accident.

UMMS has revised its visitor policy to adhere to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' guidelines at all 13 hospitals in its medical system, including Prince Georges Hospital Center, which was at the center of a religious discrimination complaint due to its restrictive visitation policies in response to the coronavirus pandemic. CMS guidelines stipulate that hospitals must ensure patients have adequate and lawful access to chaplains or clergy.

The changes come after a complaint was filed with the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C.

Sidney and Susanna Marcus were admitted to Prince Georges Hospital Center of the University of Maryland Medical System after a severe car accident in May. Sidney Marcus, who sustained life-threatening injuries, was moved to the intensive care unit as his conditions declined.

His wife, Susanna, requested that a priest provide the Catholic religious sacraments of Holy Communion and Anointing of the Sick for Sidney, the HHS said in a press release. The hospital denied the request, however, which prompted Susana Marcus to file a complaint.

Despite being willing to wear any necessary personal protective equipment, the priest was turned away by the hospital based on a visitor exclusion policy it had adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the HHS said.

After the complaint, Sidney Marcus was allowed to have a priest visit him in the ICU.

The Trump Administration has made it a priority to defend Americans right to practice their faith, at all times and especially during this pandemic, said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. As our work with the University of Maryland Medical System shows, we can deliver healthcare, combat COVID-19, and protect religious freedom all at the same time.

Other patients have also benefited Susanna Marcus' religious discrimination complaint that led the UMMS to amended its visitation policy.

Children at a UMMS hospital can now have two parents or guardians visit during hospital visiting hours, with one adult being allowed to stay overnight. Patients at the end of life can have up to two visitors at the same time, but only for one hour. And patients with disabilities or those being treated for COVID-19 can have two visitors during hospital visiting hours and one overnight visitor.

Too many people have died alone during this crisis, but this resolution shows that hospitals can practice compassion and safety without sacrificing either, said Roger Severino, director of OCR, in repose to UMMS' revised accommodations for patients.

Though restrictions have been loosened at UMMS facilities, visitors must adhere to a list of guidelines, including the wearing of a facemask upon entering the hospital, and additional screening if exhibiting a fever or "flu-like symptoms."
U.S. Border Patrol and the Webb County Sheriffs Office shutdown a human stash house in east Laredo, authorities said.

Deputies requested assistance on Friday afternoon from Border Patrol regarding a possible stash house in the 3900 block of Santa Isabel Avenue.

Agents conducted immigration inspections on 26 people discovered at the residence. All were determined to be in the country illegally. They were from Mexico, authorities said.

Despite the ongoing international pandemic, smugglers continue to place people in stash houses without any (personal protective equipment), little to no personal hygiene considerations and no way of social distancing. These conditions increase the risk to those being smuggled, our agents and the community. Laredo Sector agents will continue to diligently do their part to slow the spread of COVID-19, Border Patrol said.

To report suspicious activity such as human or drug smuggling, download the USBP Laredo Sector app or contact the Laredo Sector Border Patrol toll-free at 1-800-343-1994.
Mali's presidency tasked a stripped-down cabinet on Monday with working to form a unity government in the crisis-stricken nation, after pressure from other West African leaders.

The presidency said the new ministers would negotiate with "concerned parties", adding that it was acting on the wishes of regional grouping ECOWAS, which had proposed a unity government earlier this month and reaffirmed the plan during a summit held by videolink on Monday.

However, a protest movement has caused ructions after it rallied crowds in demanding the removal of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. The group has also previously rejected the ECOWAS plan.

Keita, in power since 2013, faces huge challenges -- not least an eight-year jihadist revolt and a slumping economy.

Mali /  AFP

But the current protests were sparked in April, when the Constitutional Court tossed out the results from 31 constituencies in an earlier parliamentary election -- a ruling that benefitted Keita's party.

Tensions then ratcheted up into a full-blown crisis on July 10 when an anti-Keita rally organised by the June 5 Movement, a loose coalition of opposition groups and religious leaders, turned bloody.

Eleven people died in clashes with security forces over several days -- the worst bout of political unrest Mali has seen in years.

- Opposition rejection -

The heads of the 15-nation ECOWAS earlier said they supported Ketia and called for opposition leaders to join the unity government, threatening sanctions on anyone who stood in the way of resolving the crisis.

A man painted in the colours of Malian flag at a demonstration last month in Independence Square in Bamako /  AFP

The UN Security Council endorsed the effort of ECOWAS and voiced "deep concern" over the crisis.

Security Council powers "urged the Malian parties to act on these recommendations without delay in order to resolve the tensions," a statement said.

According to the presidency's announcement, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse will keep his job and oversee a government including six ministries.

One member of the new cabinet -- economy minister Abdoulaye Daffe -- is considered to be close to imam Mahmoud Dicko, the figurehead of the protest coalition.

But Saudi-trained Dicko has already dismissed the ECOWAS plan, saying last week: "I would prefer to die as a martyr rather than die as a traitor.

"The young people who lost their lives (in the protests) did not lose them for nothing."

- Dialogue plea -

Addressing the disputed election, Monday's ECOWAS summit called for the immediate resignation of the 31 MPs and demanded new by-elections in their constituencies.

The protest movement has coalesced around a conservative Saudi-trained imam, Mahmoud Dicko /  AFP

President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger, who also currently heads ECOWAS, urged Malians to reject violence and to continue speaking.

ECOWAS urged the June 5 Movement -- leading the protests -- to participate in the talks, in a "spirit of patriotism".

Successive rallies against Keita since last month rattled the 75-year-old's grip on power, as he was already facing increasing pressure to end Mali's jihadist conflict.

On July 10, the third major demonstration turned into three days of deadly unrest in Bamako, leaving at least 11 people dead in the worst civil unrest in the capital since 2012.

The June 5 movement said a truce would hold until July 31, but some younger members of the disparate union announced they would resume protests after August 3 -- once again calling for Mali's leader to resign.

The impoverished nation of 20 million has lost thousands of lives, and hundreds of thousands of people have been driven from their homes, despite the presence of French and UN troops.

And violence continues outside of the capital, with the death on Thursday of a French soldier during an anti-jihadist operation.

Mali is a member of ECOWAS, which has intervened in several crises in West Africa, including in The Gambia, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Sushant Singh Rajput's father on June 28 filed an FIR against the actor's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and six others for abetment to suicide, Patna Police has said.

The late actor's father K K Singh lodged an FIR with Rajiv Nagar police station under various sections of IPC including 306 (abetment of suicide) on July 25, Additional SHO Jogendra Kumar told PTI.

A four-member team of Patna police is in Mumbai for investigation.

Mumbai police is already probing the alleged suicide case, and has questioned several Bollywood bigwigs including filmmakers Mahesh Bhatt and Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

Rhea Chakraborty has also recorded her statement.

The case has been lodged under various sections of IPC including 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 380 (theft in dwelling house), 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 306 (abetment of suicide).

The 34-year-old actor was found hanging from the ceiling of his apartment in suburban Bandra in Mumbai on June 14.

Several political leaders and film personalities have also demanded a CBI probe into his death.

Rajput's suspected death by suicide has also triggered a debate on alleged nepotism and favouritism in the Hindi film industry.

Several top production houses had allegedly boycotted the Patna-born actor, causing him distress and compelling him to end his life.

With inputs from PTI
SAN FRANCISCO, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Let's face it, the #MeToo movementthat is, accusing someone of a sexual crime on social mediahas transformed into what may reasonably be considered as a moral decline of society.

This pervasive cultural movement is often abused, while 'internet-justice' is rendered immediately with a lack of interest towards the truthfulness or veracity of those allegations. More disturbing, however, is the trend of anonymizing someone else's purported accusation and disseminating it through social media platforms with the sole purpose to harass and shame the alleged wrong-doer.

Defamation Attorney Rohit Chhabra reminds the public that there are serious consequences of fabricating allegations of sexual crimes. "Defamation generally occurs when a false statement about another is published and the publication causes harm. However, in situations involving a false accusation of a sexual crime, the accusation by and in itself is legally considered to have caused harm. Thus, the writer/poster subjects themselves to defamation of character proceedings by the act of spreading false accusations," Chhabra continues.

If you have been falsely accused of a sexual crime on social-media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), you are invited to contact Rohit Chhabra to protect your rights and dignity.

About the Firm:

Chhabra Law Firm, PC is a San Francisco, California, based law firm that assists both plaintiffs and defendants in defamation related matters. Chhabra Law was established in 2015 as an alternative to large law firms. Clients of the Firm receive the same quality of services offered by large law firms while, at an average, saving around 40% in their overall legal expenses.

Media Contact:

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SOURCE Chhabra Law Firm, PC
The Ladakh stand-off with China has catalysed Indias efforts to strengthen its military presence at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI). New Delhi recently moved to expedite plans for basing additional military forces, including facilities for additional warships, aircraft, missile batteries and infantry soldiers at the strategically-located Andaman Islands. Naval air stations INS Kohassa in Shibpur and INS Baaz in Campbell Bay are reportedly having their runways extended to support operations by large aircraft, even as a 10-year infrastructure development roll-on plan  pegged at Rs 5,000 crores  is on the fast-track. Indian strategic commentators are even urging New Delhi to permit friendly foreign navies access to the ANIs military bases.

The idea of militarising the Andaman Islands isnt new. Since the 1980s, Indian commentators have advocated building strategic muscle at the ANI. What has often seemed like a straightforward choice for Indian policymakers, however, has never been an easy decision to make. On the matter of the strategic development of the Andamans, Indias defence and foreign policy establishments have not always been on the same page. A section of Indias diplomatic community has opposed militarising the ANI, arguing that turning the islands into a strategic-military garrison would militarise the littorals  an outcome that would not sit well with countries in South and Southeast Asia.

When India first began developing the ANI in the mid-1980s, observers say Malaysia and Indonesia had been wary. Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur feared that India would use its military facilities in the ANI to dominate its region, and project power east of Malacca. In time, New Delhis willingness to keep its security presence at the strategic islands to a minimum assured many in Asia that its motives were benign. Today, amid growing threats from China, New Delhi seems open to the idea of militarising the islands. But, many say opening up the ANIs military facilities to foreign navies could still spook regional states.

There is also an ecological aspect to militarising the ANI. Since 2015, when the government had first announced its intention to transform the islands into a maritime hub  allocating Rs 10,000 crores for the purpose  efforts to promote tourism and port development have hugely expanded. To improve tourism and trade potential, Niti Aayog has a plan to construct hotels, resorts and a trans-shipment hub at Campbell Bay. The flurry of recent infrastructure projects, environmentalists warn, could devastate the fragile ecology of the Andaman. Already many islands are facing significant damage from the climate crisis.

The proponents of the Andamans militarisation point to a different kind of asymmetry: The apparent lack of reciprocity in Indias bilateral logistics agreements. The Indian navys plans to offer logistical support to partner navies does not, ostensibly, include its ANI facilities. Four years after signing a logistics pact with the United States (US), its navy ships still have no access the ANI. France, Singapore and Australia  Indias other logistics partners  too havent had their warships repaired or replenished at Indian island facilities. With New Delhi unwilling to open up its island bases to foreign warships, observers say Indias logistics arrangements havent performed to potential. To counter Chinas expanding footprint in Indias sphere of maritime interest, militarisation advocates aver New Delhi must permit Japan, Australia and France and the US to build strategic capabilities at the ANI.

In the past, Indian policymakers have considered cooperative avenues with Indo-Pacific partners. In 2016, New Delhi and Tokyo discussed a joint project to upgrade infrastructure in the ANI, including a proposal to install a sound surveillance sensors (SOSUS) chain to improve Indias underwater domain awareness. The plan was to integrate Indias undersea sensor chain with the existing US-Japan Fish Hook SOSUS network meant specifically to monitor Peoples Liberation Army-Navy(PLAN) submarine activity in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean Rim.

But, notwithstanding its utility in detecting Chinese submarines, a region-wide undersea chain of sensors has implications that call for a degree of caution. In particular, Delhi needs to consider the possibility that operating sensitive equipment with foreign partners might involve sharing of critical undersea data with foreign collaborators. The Japan-US SOSUS provides some useful pointers. While the Japanese Maritime Self -Defence Force (JMSDF) and US Navy personnel jointly manage the JMSDF Oceanographic Observation Centre in Okinawa, the information is available to the US Pacific Command, and the facility is controlled by the US Navy. Needless to say, an Indo-Japanese-US project in the Andaman Sea might require a level of informational access that the Indian Navy may not be comfortable with.

While Chinas presence in the Indian Ocean is growing, Beijing hasnt so far militarised key Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) outposts in the Bay of Bengal (Hambantota, Chittagong and Kyaukpyu). In recent weeks, as Indian warships have held exercises with the US and Japanese navy in the Indian Ocean, New Delhis resolve to counter China in its maritime backyard has been amply evident. If New Delhi pushes for greater military presence in the ANI, Beijing could well seek military access in friendly Bay countries.

This isnt to suggest that inviting foreign navies to the ANI or joint military projects in the Andaman sea is a bad idea. Strengthening collaboration with Indo-Pacific partners at the ANI is very much an option for Indian decision-makers to consider. But New Delhi must also take into account the downsides of offering foreign navies access to its island facilities. The final decision should be based on a dispassionate weighing of costs and benefits.

Abhijit Singh is a senior fellow and head of Maritime Policy Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation and a retired naval officer

The views expressed are personal
Rare footage of previously unidentified tigers prowling the Thai jungle has been lauded by conservationists as evidence of a recovery for the endangered animal. The zoologists said Southeast Asia is a key battleground in the fight to save the big cats, whose numbers globally have plummeted from about 100,000 a century ago to fewer than 4,000 today. Demand for their striking pelts and body parts in China and Vietnam, which fuels poaching, is largely to blame. To mark Global Tiger Day on Wednesday, conservation groups working in Thailand released rare photos and videos, the first in four years to capture previously unrecorded individuals in the country. In the video footage, several tigers slink past the camera traps, but one spots a hidden lens and approaches to investigate, sniffing the device. Describing the footage as "very exciting", John Goodrich, chief scientist with conservation group Panthera, said: "It's a good indicator that what were doing is working. Were starting to see the recovery of tiger numbers in the area." Thailand has boosted its conservation efforts over the last decade and is now believed to be home to up to 200 tigers. The kingdom's western jungles -- where the new images came from -- host the largest remaining breeding population of the Indochinese sub-species. Its rangers will now monitor whether the newcomers establish territory in the area. "In more than 20 years of fieldwork, it's some of the best (footage) Ive seen," said Eileen Larney, the Zoological Society of London's country manager for Thailand. "To witness apex predators, like tigers, returning to forests means the ecosystem is recovering, which is good for all wildlife." The recent success is partly down to specially designed "PoacherCams", Goodrich said. The cameras automatically distinguish between people and animals, sending pictures of potential poachers to local police in real time. But the future of the big cat is still precarious. Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam have all lost their native populations, while Myanmar is thought to have just 23 individuals left in the wild. "The focus right now needs to be on Southeast Asia, where tigers are in the most trouble," Goodrich told AFP. However, "if you dont have government support, it doesn't work", he added, pointing to India and Russia, where political backing for conservation programmes means numbers are stable or slowly rebounding. Alongside poaching, other key threats are habitat loss and fragmentation, when roads or other developments isolate small populations, leading to inbreeding and a lack of genetic diversity.
The market of both offshore and onshore wind energy systems in China is welcoming "large capacity turbine units and digital transformation ," and Shanghai Electric is "building a test and verification platform for 10 megawatt-plus offshore wind turbines and an integrated system for renewable energy," said Pengju Kang, chief digital officer and engineering general manager at Shanghai Electric Wind Power Group (SEWPG) in an interview with Bloomberg NEF.

Speaking of the significance of this landmark project during the interview, Mr. Kang said that Shanghai Electric is riding on the growing momentum of China's offshore turbine market, which is expected to see the grid-connected wind power surging to 26GW by the end of 2025, to accelerate R&D and deliver the world-leading renewable energy solutions.

"Currently, we are building a test and verification platform for 10 megawatt-plus offshore wind turbines and exploring 5G and industrial internet of things to establish an integrated system for renewable energy combining wind, solar power and energy storage," said Pengju Kang.

"There will be a strong demand for floating units in the far-reaching and deep-sea market in China, as these areas account for more than 80% of total offshore wind resources. We are exploring how to break through technical challenges such as the lower limit of water depth for the application of floating turbines and the marine environment of far-reaching sea area and strong typhoons," he added.

SEWPG is also expending global footprints, with customized special units based on 2.5MW and 4MW product platforms for overseas onshore wind energy markets. The company is now developing models suitable for the 60Hz power grid overseas to meet the regional demand in countries such as Japan, the US and Canada.

As the global supply chains have closely integrated into China's wind power ecosystem, Shanghai Electric, a service provider in the whole lifecycle of wind power systems, has built strategic partnerships with international companies in almost every segment of the value chain including generators, gearboxes, bearings, digital tools and platforms for R&D and design.

Shanghai Electric has recorded the sharpest revenue increase from renewables in recent years, with a 51% year-on-year growth from 2018 to 2019, in contrast to only 8.4% from its thermal power during the same period. In late June, the company announced the plan for an initial public offering (IPO) of its wind power division Shanghai Electric Wind Power Group.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1219707/Shanghai_Electric_8MW_offshore_wind_turbine.jpg

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Related Links

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SOURCE Shanghai Electric
India said the Gurudwara is a place of reverence and considered sacred by the Sikh community

India on Monday lodged a strong protest with Pakistan against attempts allegedly being made to convert a historic Sikh Gurudwara into a Mosque at the Naulakha bazaar in Lahore. New Delhi expressed its concerns in the strongest terms over an incident where an attempt was allegedly made to convert the Gurudwara Shahidi Asthan-- the site of the "martyrdom of Bhai Taru Singh ji" in 1745 -- into the Masjid Shahid Ganj in Lahore.

India said the Gurudwara is a place of reverence and considered sacred by the Sikh community and that the incident has been viewed with grave concern in India.

In a statement, India said, A strong protest was lodged with the Pakistan High Commission today on the reported incident whereby Gurudwara Shahidi Asthan, site of martyrdom of Bhai Taru Singh ji at Naulakha Bazaar in Lahore, Pakistan has been claimed as the place of Masjid Shahid Ganj and attempts are being made to convert it to a mosque.

New Delhi added, "Gurudwara Shahidi Asthan Bhai Taru Ji is a historical gurudwara where Bhai Taru Ji made supreme sacrifice in 1745. The Gurdwara is a place of reverence and considered sacred by the Sikh community. This incident has been viewed with grave concern in India. There have been calls for justice for the minority Sikh community in Pakistan.

The MEA called upon Pakistan to investigate the matter and take immediate remedial measures. Pakistan was urged to look after the safety, security, well-being of its minority communities, including protection of their religious rights and cultural heritage.

Meanwhile, a Pakistani Government official of the Evacuee Trust Property Board there has apparently submitted a complaint to Pakistan Police authorities in Lahore to take action against a local resident of Lahore for trying to instigate people there against the Pakistani local Sikh community.
The Running Mate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the 2020 general election, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang in her maiden address has assured the leadership and rank and file of her party to be a team player.



Expressing her gratitude to the founder of NDC, former President Rawlings, the Council of Elders, members of the National Executive Committee and the entire rank and file of the NDC for her selection as Running Mate, Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang called for support and guidance, claiming she belongs to all and sundry in the party.



I wish to express sincere gratitude to the Founder, H.E. J. J. Rawlings, the Council of Elders, members of the National Executive Committee, the Functional Executive Committee, the entire rank and file of the NDC and the general public for their incredible support and many, many words of encouragement, those pronounced publicly and those spoken in private.



We are all aware that this is the first time in our history that a major party has nominated a woman on its ticket to become Vice President. I assure the leadership and rank and file of the party that I come to this position with the mindset of a team player. I belong to you all and will always count on your support and guidance.



To her, former John Mahamas singular decision to select her as his Running Mate shows his respect for women; asserting that women of Ghana including the youth will not forget as generations to come will commit his decision to memory and make it a reference point.



She, however, assured former President John Mahama and the NDC that the best way to respond to the recognition given to women is to partner with men and the youth as they have always done to work hard to achieve peace in the country.



Your Excellency John Mahama, your singular decision to select me as your running mate has generated a whole web of responses and debates. But importantly, it is a new focal point for girls and women; you have respected women; the women of Ghana will not forget; the youth will remember; generations to come will commit your decision to memory and make it a reference point; we will partner with our men and youth, as we have always done, and work hard to achieve peace in our land, because that is the best way to respond to this high recognition, she said in her speech.



Making clear the responsibility of the John and Jane administration for the next four years if Ghanaians give them their mandate, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang said the NDC will not open doors of opportunities for themselves but those behind and create other avenues for Ghanaians to actualize their potentials.



Making history is gratifying; but what really matters is not to be first through the door. What matters is to hold the door open for those behind us and create other avenues for self actualization for many more. That is the work of the next four years.



Many are those who are now more energized to vote, thanks to the momentous decision of JM. I urge them to do just that. We do not intend to disappoint you. My Boss JM, by your choice, you have turned the struggles of so many women who have come before this moment into a probability. We- men, women, our youth and children- we all have a chance to finally make real our dreams of serving this country at high levels, of removing doubts and proving once again that we are capable.



Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang has however accepted her nomination to be the Running Mate of the Presidential Candidate of the NDC after serious reflection, consultations, prayers and encouragement; acknowledging the fact that the position comes with huge responsibilities and expectations.



She therefore charged all members to translate their excitement into action for the benefit of the good people of Ghana.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]il.com









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Smartphones could soon be able to fully recharge in under 15 minutes after a new fast-charging standard was introduced.

Qualcomms Quick Charge 5 will also allow phones to charge from 0 to 50 per cent in just five minutes, as well as introduce new safety features to prevent overheating.

The worlds fastest commercial charging solution will be up to four-times faster than current charging technologies, according to Qualcomm, and will find its way into commercial devices before the end of the year.

It will be compatible with more than 250 smartphones, though it is not a feature that Apple supports. This means that only Androids, not iPhones, will benefit from the technology.

Apples equivalent fast charging technology currently allows iPhones to achieve a 50 per cent charge in 30 minutes.

Compatible phones for Quick Charge 5 include the Samsung Galaxy S20 5G, LG V30 and Nokia 8.

Backwards compatibility will also mean that older Quick Charge devices will also work with the new charging system

Quick Charge 5, our fastest and most versatile charging solution, will enable consumers to enjoy their devices for longer periods of time, without worrying about the time required to recharge, said Ev Roach, VP of product management at Qualcomm.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

Previous battery charging breakthroughs have slashed charging times to similar levels, however they are yet to make it out of the laboratory.

Zhang Lei, general manager at Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, added: The latest generation of Quick Charge 5 not only provides superior charging capabilities but helps intelligently extend a devices battery life and reduce thermal output.
Texas, Midland-based driller Endeavor Energy Resources has applied for permits for 11 new wells, the Houston Chronicles Sergio Chapa reports, adding that the permit applications are for the Spraberry oil field in Midland County.

Last year, Endeavor, which is property of billionaire wildcatter Autry Stephens, was among the most active oil drillers in the region, applying for five to six drilling permits every week.

This year it all changed for most drillers, especially in the shale patch, with many going under because of the persistently week oil prices. Only a small minority of shale drillers could survive and break even at $40 per barrel, and they tend to be the most prominent players in the field, such as Exxon and Chevron.

The crisis has exposed as vulnerable anyone smaller than the supermajors after years of burning cash and amassing millionsand often billionsin debt to fund a production growth spree that eventually became one of the reasons for the price slump.

In the first six months of the year alone, as many as 20 oil and gas companies amassing more than $50 million in liabilities have filed for bankruptcy, and analysts expect more to follow. In June alone, seven oil and gas companies filed for Chapter 11, matching the record from the monthly peak in bankruptcy filings set in April 2016. The biggest victim of this crisis so far was Chesapeake Energy, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late June.

In this context, news of companies planning to increase their production of oil or gas is a rarity, particularly after Reuters reported, citing analysts and industry executives, that new drilling has virtually ground to a halt. Instead, companies plan to gradually restart shut-in wells that removed about 2 million bpd in production in May.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The chevrons on his uniform sleeve indicated that the man was a police corporal. The gooey drips of ice cream running down his hand as he crouched next to a small child in the middle of a sea of downtown diners indicated that he was a dad.

Policing and parenting met pandemic in a brief, idyllic scene that city officials and stakeholders couldnt possibly have scripted even if theyd tried in the first downtown Streatery event.

And for a few blissful moments at least, all was well.

Were back to work, and were excited for the street seating because were going to be close to our sale before, McKena Thomas, the general manager of Jeffrey Adams restaurant, told a reporter Saturday afternoon just before showtime.

But before planners had the opportunity to declare the experiment a success, a double shot of pandemic reality tossed a measure of cold water into the mix.

Protests Saturday evening and the bleak news that city pools would have to be shut down due to an outbreak certainly were cause for concern.

All is not well
Chinas closing on Monday of the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, a move taken in retaliation for Washingtons shutdown last week of a Chinese consulate in Houston, will now hamper U.S. efforts to gather data on human rights violations in Tibet and other Tibetan-populated areas of western China, sources said.

Beijings consulate in Houston was ordered closed following allegations that the facility was being used as a base for Chinese spyinga claim that Chinas foreign ministry has denied, while making similar claims about the activities of U.S. personnel based in Chengdu.

Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province, whose mountainous western portion was part of the historic Tibetan region of Kham. Diplomats in the U.S. consulate in the city of 16 million had monitored Tibetan issues in Sichuan and in the vast Tibet Autonomous Region to the west.

The loss of the Chengdu consulate will now slow U.S. ability to collect information on the human rights situation in Tibet and in northwestern Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Sophie RichardsonChina director at the New York-based group Human Rights Watchtold RFAs Tibetan Service.

From the perspective of gathering good information about whats going on in relation to Tibetan areas and Uyghur areas, this is a real problem, Richardson said.



That consulate has really been an important post for years in collecting first-hand information, and its not clear whether or when the State Department will be able to resume that operation in particular, she said.

Focus for US criticism



China targeted the Chengdu consulate for closure because Tibet and Xinjiang are the main focus for U.S. criticism of Chinas human rights record in ethnic minority areas, said Tenzin Lhadon, a researcher at the Dharamsala, India-based Tibet Policy Institute.



China regards the Chengdu consulate as a conduit for U.S. intelligence gathering on the real situation in Xinjiang and Tibet, Lhadon said, adding, Therefore, China has switched off this light that shone on [these places] in a tit-for-tat measure of retaliation.



The United States this month imposed sanctions on top Chinese Communist Party officials in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) deemed responsible for a vast network of internment camps, where authorities are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities since April 2017.

'Free rein in Tibet'



There is already hardly any space to discuss the human rights situation in Tibet, Tsering Tsomo, executive director of the Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, said, also speaking to RFA.



And now, with the forced closing of the Chengdu consulate, even the little hope there was for human rights protections and Chinas accountability in Tibet is gone. Now, China will have free rein in Tibet, and will make things go from bad to worse, she said.



Even before the consulate in Chengdu was closed, American diplomats had very little access to Tibetan areas, said Matteo Mecacci, president of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet advocacy group.



This was made clear by the report of the State Department on the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act, Mecacci said, adding that the earlier U.S. Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 requires the U.S. administration to continue to monitor the situation in Tibet.



And so whether the Chengdu consulate is there or not, we are confident that the State Department will continue to work to fulfill this requirement.



Reported by RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.
South Africa: Minister congratulates Master KG on hit song

The Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, has congratulated Master KG and Nomcebo Zikode on their global success for the hit song 'Jerusalema'.

The song, with more than 50 million views on YouTube, has people from all over the world dancing to it on social media with the hashtag #JerusalemaDanceChallenge.

We are happy that you have put our country on the global map. You have used song and dance to unite the whole world. We note the collaboration with Burna Boy, a move that augers very well with the governments programme of strengthening our ties on the continent, the Minister said.

Master KG also did a remix to the song with Burna Boy, a Nigerian musician.

The Minister on Tuesday hosted a virtual meeting with Master KG and Zikode to celebrate the success of the song.

Master KG said he was surprised when the song, released in December, reached one million views on YouTube after one week.

I believe in my music, which I started way back in Tzaneen, Limpopo. Thats where I started to make beats and producing music. Weve been getting a lot of international calls from people who want us to perform the song. We need our government to help us to make this possible, he said.

Zikode said shes been trying to get a breakthrough in the music industry for the past 15 years.

Things were not happening. God blessed me with this song. I had goosebumps when I listened to it, she said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-07-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
By Carey L. Biron

WASHINGTON, July 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Cough medicine, snacks, baking ingredients: Kelly Passek has shopping delivered weekly to her yard in Christiansburg, Virginia - by a drone.

The flying vehicle comes with little fuss, hovering briefly over her yard and letting down its package. "It's very fast  even the noise you hear is no more than 30 seconds," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The service is a pilot project by Google parent Alphabet Inc's drone delivery business Wing, which is operating similar projects in Finland and Australia.

In Christiansburg, residents who sign up can get drone delivery from a locally owned businesses, a national pharmacy and FedEx.

As with other autonomous delivery services, both airborne and terrestrial, Wing has seen a major uptick in interest amid the coronavirus pandemic, as emergency regulations keep people at home and complicate many of the simplest tasks.

"For a while, they (Wing) were the only one with toilet paper. It turned from being a novelty to being a service that's used because it's necessary," said Passek, whose first drone delivery was in October.

The pandemic also got Passek, a public school librarian, thinking beyond the confines of her home, as her school system changed to distance learning in March, raising concerns about how students would get required resources - including books.

After talks with Wing, a book delivery service began for county students in June.

"This is a perfect way to get our students the resources they need and also keep with our social distancing," she said, adding the programme is likely to continue as county officials figure out how to re-open schools in the fall.

More than 140,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, a toll that experts warn will likely surge following recent record spikes in case numbers and an alarming rise in hospitalizations in many states.

The pandemic-era rise in focus on autonomous delivery is also prompting local officials and others to think about how these services use public space in their cities.

Story continues

"Cities aren't necessarily built for robots roaming around," said Christopher Bruno, economic development director with Fairfax City, Virginia, which recently helped start a robot delivery service. "That's something we're monitoring."

RISING DEMAND

Wing was formed in 2012, and last year it became the first drone company to be approved as an air carrier by the federal government.

Within its three-mile Christiansburg delivery area, residents can sign up for the service and get deliveries within about 10 minutes.

The project had been operating for only four months when it became clear that the coronavirus pandemic was accelerating.

In response to customer feedback, the company started to expand its product offerings, said Keith Heyde, head of Virginia operations for the company, including toys and "more food that could be readily prepared".

They also brought in more local businesses, providing an economic lifeline for some: about a quarter of sales at a local cafe now come from drone delivery, Heyde said, while a coffee shop is selling twice as much cold brew as pre-pandemic.

Heyde confirmed that toilet paper became a major seller, as did sidewalk chalk.

Globally, the company saw demand increase 350% month over month in signups for service from February to April, he said.

ECONOMIC LIFELINE

That prospect of economic stimulus has been a draw for some pandemic-hit cities.

About 250 miles northeast of Christiansburg, Fairfax City officials struck an agreement with an autonomous delivery service of an entirely different kind: small, cube-shaped robots that slowly trundle down sidewalks and across streets.

"All of these businesses were closed and forced to social distance, so none of them could connect with their customers," Bruno recalled thinking as the pandemic took hold.

Bruno had heard about delivery robots on the campus of a nearby university, operated by a company called Starship Technologies.

Eventually, a tie-up was born: Starship would operate a fleet of delivery robots, while the city provided a $10,000 grant so that local businesses would not initially have to pay commission.

About 15 businesses are participating - restaurants, a grocery store, and even a hair salon - within 1.5 miles of the city's core, Bruno said.

Demand has been good enough that Starship increased the robot fleet from 15 to 20, he added.

For Jinson Chan, the service not only proved a lifeline but increased his customer base, he said - especially when Chan, whose High Side restaurant focuses on rare craft beers - asked if Starship could deliver alcohol.

"People went crazy," Chan said. Even the robots' limited delivery range proved important: "People who would never try us now say, 'It's only a mile away, so we could walk there.' That helps grow our business."

The pandemic has made for a "very busy" few months, said Ryan Tuohy, Starship's senior vice president for business development, noting that "people were looking for contactless delivery options while also wanting to support local businesses."

The company, which operates in five countries, has gained another 180,000 customers this year, he said.

A food-delivery initiative with Starship on the campus of Bowling Green State University, in Ohio, started in March and "really helped students in the early part of the stay-at-home order", said Jon Zachrich, communications director for the school's dining programme.

"We were trying to find creative ways for those who didn't feel comfortable leaving their rooms or had pre-existing (medical) conditions to get access to what they needed."

Due to popular demand, the service was eventually expanded off campus, covering about four square miles, Zachrich said.

Now, plans for re-opening the school include the robots.

'START WITH PACKAGES'

The pandemic-era interest in package delivery has drawn attention from another key part of the autonomous industry: those developing self-driving vehicles for human use.

That was what happened with Optimus Ride, which since 2015 had focused on developing self-driving technology to move people, with limited ventures into package delivery, said co-founder and chief executive Ryan Chin.

"When the pandemic hit, what can we do? Flip it around - start with packages, groceries, prepared foods," Chin said of how he approached a major new project at a Washington, D.C. mixed-use development called the Yards.

Optimus Ride develops large self-driving vehicles capable of seating multiple passengers - or packages.

At a housing estate for senior citizens in Fairfield, California, for instance, the company is delivering three meals a day as well as any packages that arrive via mail to the homes of a "very vulnerable population", Chin said.

At the Yards, the company operates five days a week, delivering to residents of the development or within a 1.5-mile radius.

Every Wednesday is devoted to philanthropic work farther afield, delivering hot meals to low-income students who no longer have access to their schools, for instance, as well as bringing meal boxes with a week's worth of food to families in insecure housing.

The programme has been "a lifeline for our most vulnerable neighbors", said Christy Respress, executive director of the non-profit Pathways to Housing DC, which partners on the initiative.

For Chin, the increased use of autonomous vehicles will show local leaders what may have to change in urban areas to ease use of these services in future - around curb access, for instance.

"These vehicles have the power to change the streetscape in a very fundamental way - it will take some time, though." (Reporting by Carey L. Biron @clbtea, Editing by Zoe Tabary. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)
The sister of one of Australia's leading jockeys stormed into the house of a friend who is battling heart and pancreatic cancer before she assaulted and robbed him.

Kristy Avdulla, 27, the sister of Brenton Avdulla, tied up her friend Richard Della Grazia in April last year at his home in Frankston in south-east Melbourne.

Avdulla, who had been released from jail just three weeks before the attack, arrived at Mr Della Grazia's home with masked accomplices.

She was aware her friend's bank account had recently jumped to $150,000 after he received a large inheritance, the County Court heard on Monday.

Avdulla pleaded guilty to charges including false imprisonment, causing injury intentionally and obtaining a financial advantage by deception.

Kristy Avdulla, 27, along with accomplices, tied up her friend, Richard Della Grazia, in April last year at his home in Frankston in south-east Melbourne

Mr Della Grazia opened the door to see Avdulla and a masked man beside her.

'What do you want?' Mr Della Grazia asked, the Herald Sun reported.

'You,' the accomplice said.

The masked man then smashed Mr Della Grazia's head into the floor.

He struggled to breathe as she begged for Avdulla to help but she just stood watching, the court heard.

Mr Della Grazia's hands were then cable tied while duct tape was put over his eyes, mouth and around his ankles.

His house was ransacked and he was forced to put his fingerprint into his phone so the thieves could open his bank account.

Another unknown accomplice then kicked the man in his stomach and pulled him into the bathroom.

The 27-year-old who's older brother is famed jockey Brenton Avdulla (pictured centre) pleaded guilty to several charges following the home invasion

The group then fled the home, armed with Mr Della Grazia's wallet, and $5,000 worth of phones and computers.

It was an hour before a friend arrived at the home to find Mr Della Grazia tied on the floor.

After spending 20 minutes cutting him free, the cancer patient was taken to hospital where he spent the next four days receiving treatment for serious head wounds.

The thieves then began transferring $80,000 from Mr Della Grazia's bank account onto his credit cards.

Avdulla withdrew $4,000 in cash, transferred $30,000 to her own bank accounts and another $20,000 into Mr Della Grazia's betting account which she had access to.

The 27-year-old, who was pregnant at the time, also bought a $12,999 gold chain from Michael Hill jewellers but the order was later cancelled.

She was arrested in June after police found her in a stolen car and her DNA on the duct tape linked her to the home invasion.

Judge Susan Pullen said the act on the man was 'cowardly'.

'I regard the behaviour of (Avdulla) particularly callous and cowardly,' Judge Pullen said.

'A bit of cunningness about all of this.'

Avdulla's father, Peter Avdulla, gave his daugher a reference for Monday's court hearing but her brother was not present.

She will be sentenced on August 12.

Brenton Avdulla is fifth in the Sydney jockeys' annual premiership which finishes on Wednesday, having ridden 61 metropolitan winners over the past 12 months.
Advanced Sensors Technology C4A Series Strain Gages

Now with Advanced Sensors Technology: Expanded C4A Series strain gages enabling easy, no-solder installation for improved simulation and analysis for structure design verification, real-time condition monitoring of critical structures, as well as medical applications for patient outcome and safety.

Now with Advanced Sensors Technology: Expanded C4A Series strain gages enabling easy, no-solder installation for improved simulation and analysis for structure design verification, real-time condition monitoring of critical structures, as well as medical applications for patient outcome and safety.

MALVERN, Pa., July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Micro-Measurements, a Vishay Precision Group, Inc. (NYSE:VPG) brand, today announced the expansion of its C4A Series stress analysis strain gage sensors in Advanced Sensors Technology. The C4A series enables for improved simulation and analysis for structure design verification, real-time condition monitoring of critical structures, such as bridges, dams, ships, and wind turbines, as well as medical applications for patient outcome and safety.



Saving time and installation costs, the C4A Series features pre-attached leadwires to eliminate soldering and ensures dependable installations particularly in harsh field conditions. Other features and benefits of the C4A Series strain gages include: RoHS compliance, lead-free solder, strain gage grid protection with polyimide encapsulation, and direct connection to test instrumentation for faster gage installation.

Ron Zukerman, Sr. Manager of Sales & Marketing for Micro-Measurements Advanced Sensors, said: The C4A series represents an enhancement to our family of strain gages that are already proven as best-in-class in terms of reliability robustness, and repeatability.

Built with Advanced Sensors Technology, a revolutionary enhancement in strain gage manufacturing, the C4A Series is manufactured with tighter tolerances and improved gage-to-gage consistency. Advanced Sensors Technology applies tangible specification and manufacturing process improvements, along with industry-exclusive strain gage sensor design techniques, for direct customer benefit. The innovation behind Advanced Sensors Technology reflects many decades of Micro-Measurements R&D experience, gained across a global portfolio of thousands of successful applications, with other refinements achieved via ongoing customer feedback.

Story continues

Visually identical to conventional strain gages, many patterns of the C4A Series can be used as a 1:1 replacement for familiar and commonly-used gages. The C4A Series are available for purchase through the Micro-Measurement online shop:

https://shop.micro-measurements.com

For more information about the C4A Series and Micro-Measurements other strain gages, as well as technical support, see us at www.micro-measurements.com , or follow Micro-Measurements at www.strainblog.com or on twitter @strain_gage .

About Micro-Measurements

Micro-Measurements, a Vishay Precision Group, Inc. (VPG) brand, is dedicated to the development, manufacture, and marketing of resistive-foil sensors for high-precision strain measurement. Micro-Measurements offers a full complement of strain gages, PhotoStress equipment and coatings, data acquisition systems, and supplies necessary to obtain accurate, reliable stress data. Our products are used throughout the industrialized world  both in the practice of stress measurements analysis and as the sensing elements in a wide variety of transducers for measuring physical variables (weight, force, torque, pressure, etc.).

About VPG

Vishay Precision Group, Inc. is an internationally recognized designer, manufacturer and marketer of: components based on its resistive foil technology; sensors; and sensor-based measurement systems specializing in the growing markets of stress, force, weight, pressure, and current measurements. VPG is a market leader of foil technology products, providing ongoing technology innovations in precision foil resistors and foil strain gages, which are the foundation of the companys force sensors products and its weighing and control systems. The product portfolio consists of a variety of well-established brand names recognized for precision and quality in the marketplace. To learn more, visit VPG at www.vpgsensors.com .

Micro-Measurements and PhotoStress are registered trademarks of VPG

MORE INFORMATION

Contact:

Yuval Hernik

Vishay Precision Group

Email: info@vpgsensors.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2ed01ef2-ec50-4445-a82c-8416ddc63009




Advertisement

Director of New Work Consulting Julissa Shrewsbury talked about Australia's politicians and their personal branding

Australian state premiers, ministers, health officials, and even the PM himself have radically transformed their hair, makeup and dress sense since first appearing on TV screens to share coronavirus news in February.

Before the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Australia on January 25, 2020, the nation's leaders and top officials were only required to front press conferences on the odd occasion.

But since then some of them - particularly state premiers - have been broadcast into millions of lounge rooms every day to give eagerly anticipated updates on the crisis.

And with those more frequent appearances there has been a noticeable transformation in the way they present themselves, with personal branding experts describing the changes as 'purposeful'.

Scroll down for video

NSW PREMIER GLADYS BEREJIKLIAN

With her signature dark brunette bob and love of a colourful blazer, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian, 49, has made some small but refined touches to her aesthetic over the past five months.

She has been a fixture on television screens since the beginning of the pandemic, and continues to update her state on daily case numbers as New South Wales tries to avoid a 'second wave' like the one being experienced in neighbouring Victoria.

On March 30 Premier Berejiklian sported a stoney-faced expression as she appeared before the media, wearing a pale pink dress, pearl earrings and red lipstick that had left an accidental smudge on the edge of her nose. Her hair was tucked behind her ears.

In contrast, her bright red blazer, bronzed skin and matching lipstick on July 17 lifted her complexion considerably, with the colour said to evoke action, confidence and courage. Her hair was straighter - blow-dried - and covered more of her ears to soften the face.

What a difference! Gladys pictured left at a press conference on March 30 and right on July 17. She has opted for bolder colours, more jewellery and has blow dried her hair for the occasion

Director of New Work Consulting Julissa Shrewsbury told FEMAIL that Australian politicians have increased their use of 'power-dressing' to impress the public since February.

'This includes the use of high-contrast block colours in bold shades, structured suits and neat and crisp hair styling for both men and women, as well as bold, classic-style makeup for women,' she said.

'A big trend is shorter, smoothed-out hairstyles, both in men and women. Gladys Berejiklian has opted for one colour rather than a softer look combining different hair tones. The overall look is "together": confident, polished, intelligent and in-charge.'

On July 14 (pictured) Premier Berejiklian was seen wearing a very fashionable green blazer, as she grew more comfortable in front of the constant stream of cameras

NSW CHIEF HEALTH OFFICER DR KERRY CHANT

Dr Kerry Chant has been charged with helping the public understand the signs and symptoms of coronavirus, and regularly explains how hospitals and medical staff are responding to the pandemic.

On July 27 Dr Chant debuted a brand new haircut during a press conference in Sydney, turning her wispy blonde hair - which sometimes obscured her face - into a bob cut.

She followed this on July 28 by matching her hair with a red blazer, a glowing complexion and her eyebrows more groomed than usual. She was also wearing contact lenses.

The change has given her a sleek new look and highlighted her cheekbones. On March 20 her hair was longer, she sported a pair of thick black glasses and next to no colour on her face or in her clothing.

'It is no coincidence that so many of our leaders are moving to this hairstyle right now, and in fact it is an important move because with non-verbal cues make up over 90 per cent of how we communicate, so leaders need to ensure they appear strong, decisive and capable in order for the public to feel they can trust our leaders in frightening times,' Shrewsbury said.

On July 27 (right) Dr Chant debuted an incredibly different haircut during a press conference in Sydney, turning her whispy blonde hair - which sometimes obscured her view - into a bob cut (left: March 20)

In addition she started a Twitter account on July 27, saying she wanted to give her followers 'access to accurate, timely healthcare information' during the pandemic.

'I'm looking forward to sharing important health updates with you here and complementing NSW Health.'

Personal branding expert Suzie Lightfoot told FEMAIL she thought Dr Kerry Chant had undergone the most rigorous physical changes.

'Her new haircut is chic, short, and modern, giving her a fresher, more youthful appearance. She has matched it with a simple lick of lipstick, which is understated and classic,' she said.

'She looks super comfortable and confident with her new look, and it shows in her energy and presence. I'd love to go shopping with her though to buy a new pair of statement eyeglasses to complete the look.'

On May 11 Dr Chant chose a houndstooth blazer to wear to a press conference, pictured here with her hair much longer

QUEENSLAND PREMIER ANNASTACIA PALASZCZUK

Annastacia Palaszczuk, 51, was forced to defend her decision in May and June to keep Queensland's borders closed to Australia's other eastern states, but has since re-opened them to select regions in NSW - although Victorians are still barred.

She has allowed her hair to grow longer since the coronavirus pandemic began, blow-drying it on July 15 to address parliament in Brisbane. Normally it is flat against the back of her head.

Like her New South Wales counterpart, Ms Palaszczuk has stopped tucking her hair behind her ears as often as she did in March, and has even been trialling a chic low ponytail.

Premier Palaszczuk, 51, was forced to defend her decision in May and June to keep Queensland's borders closed to Australia's other eastern states (pictured left: March 30, right: July 15)

She is keeping her blazer and coloured shirt look on heavy rotation but is choosing more complimentary colours to go together - like black and pale blue, or hot pink and black.

'Annastacia Palaszczuk is making use of bold colour beyond the red jacket she wears on her official Twitter page,' Shrewsbury said.

'She has worn a structured white-on-white outfit as well as contrasting a pink blouse with a black jacket. The structure and contrasting, block colours, rather than soft cuts or printed fabrics, give her the "power" look.'

Like Gladys, Premier Palaszczuk has stopped tucking her hair behind her ears as often as she did in March, and has even been trialling a chic low ponytail (pictured July 13)

HOW TO DRESS TO IMPRESS LIKE A POLITICIAN: 1. Hair seems to be noticed whether that is the viewer or presenter. A 'tired' appearance is noticed but is easily fixed with the use of flattering colour near the face and the right make up whether it is simply concealer (men and women) or more lip colour. 2. Dark colours tend to be more authoritative, black, navy, charcoal, with high contrast like red or white. Block colours, little to no pattern or print. Particularly with politicians or people in the news as they don't want to detract too much from their message. The 'image' is the support not the main item. 3. For men and women keep hair trimmed regularly (or tied back). Could even keep some hairspray or gel handy for those more spontaneous camera appearances. Women should wear lipstick and use makeup. Same with men, a bit of powder is fine, and if you are wearing a tie make sure it is knotted properly. All should have a change of shirt/jacket on hand if they need to avoid the crumpled look. Source: Sue Currie for FEMAIL Advertisement

VICTORIA CHIEF HEALTH MINISTER JENNY MIKAKOS

Victoria's Chief Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, 51, has a premium role to play in the spotlight now that the state is experiencing its second wave of the coronavirus.

But despite the extreme pressure she is under, Ms Mikakos hasn't allowed that to impact her style, and has been accessorising with bold necklaces and scarves in recent weeks.

Before her regular TV appearances Ms Mikakos was keeping jewellery to a minimum and wearing a lot more black.

'Jenny Mikakos balances prints with structured jackets and bold eyewear. She appears smiling broadly in many images, which gives her a friendly, caring and approachable look that doesn't take away from the impression of authority,' Shrewsbury said.

'Jenny Mikakos balances prints with structured jackets and bold eyewear. She appears smiling broadly in many images, which gives her a friendly, caring and approachable look that doesn't take away from the impression of authority,' Shrewsbury said (left: February 27, right: July 18)

According to Shrewsbury only seven per cent of what we communicate is in what we say, while 38 per cent comes from how we sound and a huge 55 per cent is visual.

So it's natural that when people start working in the limelight, they also start to think about their visual appearance.

'I have also seen a recent increase in this concern with the increase in our communication online, such as video calls and meetings. It's not about looking "perfect"; it's about being the best version of you, and ensuring the way you look helps people hear your message,' she said.

Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos (left), Northern Territory Health Minister Natasha Fyles, Australian Government Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy and Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt speaking to the media on February 28

VICTORIA PREMIER DANIEL ANDREWS

More eyes have been on Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, 48, than ever before, with his state recording 384 new COVID-19 cases and six deaths in the past 24 hours.

And while he may have started his COVID-19 addresses with an air of trepidation, there is no mistaking the confidence he has gained in just five months.

He has upgraded his striped business shirts for block colours and opts for a navy suit now, replacing his signature black attire.

Premier Andrews has also been wearing less of his famed North Face black jacket - which he used to wear over his shirt when he was cold. All of this is a sign of 'power-dressing', Shrewsbury said.

And while he may have started his COVID-19 addresses with an air of trepidation, there is no mistaking the confidence he has gained in the past five months (pictured left: March, right July 23)

'Power dressing is very effective in giving your audience the impression that you are an expert or a trusted professional,' she said.

'The most important thing is that you project confidence through direct eye contact, a straight posture and a smile.

'Beyond that, it's helpful to demonstrate that you take pride in yourself and that you pay attention to detail, by polishing up your appearance and choosing classic, structured clothing in strong, block colours, with minimal fuss when it comes to jewellery and accessories.

'Ensure the clothing you choose suits your body type and is well-made - it doesn't have to be designer, but it needs to fit you well if you want to appear and feel confident.'

Lightfoot said Premier Andrews needs to be seen as both a compassionate and reliable leader to get through the second wave of the COVID breakout in Melbourne.

'Opting for a suit over just a business shirt shows he means business and is not casually tackling the crisis,' she said.

Premier Andrews has also been wearing less of his famed North Face black jacket - which he used to wear over his suit when he was cold (pictured July 15)

MINISTER FOR HEALTH GREG HUNT

With the nation's health having been talked about on a near-constant basis since February, our Minister for Health Greg Hunt, 54, has been appearing on all manner of media to talk about how prepared Australia is for the after effects of COVID-19.

On February 29 Minister Hunt was snapped with ruffled hair, but that had been replaced by a well-groomed mop of locks by July.

'Greg Hunt has upped the use of a bit of product in his hair by the look of things, and it's not a bad result,' Lightfoot said.

'He has a good head of hair for a man his age! He's also wearing a tie more often, again giving the perception that he means business.'

With the nation's health having been talked about on a near-constant basis since February, our Minister for Health Greg Hunt has been appearing on all manner of media to talk about how prepared Australia is for the after effects of COVID-19 (pictured left: February 29, right: July)

PRIME MINISTER SCOTT MORRISON

Australia's prime minister has done more than keep the country afloat during a raging bushfire season and global pandemic - Scott Morrison, 52, also appears to have grown his hair out.

The Liberal leader has regrown the top of his hair, but continues to sport his treasured navy blue suit.

'Scott Morrison's best asset is his authentic leadership presence,' Lightfoot said. 'He is very consistent with his wardrobe and chooses the right accent colours for his ties for all the right occasions to add another dimension to his leadership presence.

'Leaders at this level are usually all over it as they have people advising on their wardrobe choices. But I think it's his natural energy and presence that sets him apart.'
(Newser)  Hospitalizations among Florida children infected with the novel coronavirus jumped by more than 20% over eight days this month. Data shows 303 minors were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of July 24, compared to 246 children as of July 16a 23% increase, per the Hill. During the same period, cases among those below the age of 18 increased 34%, from 23,170 to 31,150, according to the Florida Health Department. A 9-year-old girl from Putnam County became the youngest person in the state to die of COVID-19 on July 17. Kimora Lynum was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection on July 11 after arriving at a hospital with a fever of 103 degrees. Less than a week later, she didn't wake up from a nap, per WBTV. She had no known pre-existing conditions or contact with an infected person.

story continues below

The test positivity rate among children also rose from 13.4% to 14.4% between July 16 and 24. These figures "directly contradict" Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos' July 16 claim that children don't get infected, per CNN. "More and more studies show that kids are actually stoppers of the disease and they don't get it and transmit it themselves so  the default should be getting back to school kids in person, in the classroom," DeVos said, per the Washington Post. Public and charter schools in Florida must open for at least five days each week starting in August under an order from Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration, per the Hill. The American Federation of Teachers and its local affiliate are suing to block the order, noting the state constitution requires "safe" and "secure" public education. (Read more coronavirus stories.)
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - L Brands, Inc. (LB) said it expects to deliver approximately $400 million in annualized cost reductions through profit improvement plan for Victoria's Secret and actions to decentralize and streamline shared corporate and other functions. Approximately $175 million of savings are expected to be achieved in fiscal 2020. The plan includes a reduction of its home office headcount by approximately 15%, or about 850 associates. In the second quarter of fiscal 2020, the company expects to record pre-tax severance costs of approximately $75 million related to the headcount reductions. Andrew Meslow, CEO of L Brands, said, 'The Board and management remain committed to separating the Bath & Body Works and Victoria's Secret businesses, as well as improving the profitability of the Victoria's Secret business.' L Brands reported that most Bath & Body Works and Victoria's Secret stores in North America have now reopened. Sales at both businesses have exceeded the company's expectations. Total company net sales for the second quarter are projected to be down approximately 20% compared to last year, including an increase of roughly 10% at Bath & Body Works and an approximate 40% decline at Victoria's Secret. The company's cash balance, as of July 24, was more than $2.5 billion, with no amounts drawn under its $1 billion asset-backed loan facility. 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.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty announced Monday that they want to meet with acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and other agency leaders immediately to talk about how to remove federal officers from the city.

A one-sentence joint statement from the city officials calls for meeting in Portland and discussing a cease-fire in addition to the removal of officers. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The sought-after end to federal occupation comes after federal officers have been deployed to Portland on orders from President Donald Trump to stop protesters from graffitiing downtown federal buildings during demonstrations, including the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse. It also comes two weeks after Wolf visited Portland to survey the damage to the building and Wheeler said he wouldnt meet the DHS secretary if asked.

When asked what caused Wheeler to change his mind, a mayors office spokesperson said, He wants to put an end to the violence and destruction.

Together, Wheeler and Hardesty oversee Portlands first responder bureaus. Wheeler is the police commissioner and Hardesty manages the citys fire, 911 and emergency preparedness agencies.

Portland has seen nightly demonstrations for two months calling for police reforms and an end to systemic racism since the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis in late May. Portland police and, in recent weeks, federal officers have repeatedly come under scrutiny for their use of tear gas and other force on hundreds of protesters in response to a few who throw rocks, water bottles and fireworks at officers and graffiti private and public property.

The actions of federal officers have included tear gassing crowds with little warning, and severely injuring protesters by firing less-lethal munitions at them, detaining people with little explanation and whisking away at least two people in unmarked minivans.

In recent weeks, City Council members have called for armed federal agents to stop responding to nightly Portland protests and have been met with resistance from Trump and other federal authorities, along with threats of more deployments.

The local and federal law enforcement responses to protesters appeared to cause a rift between Wheeler and Hardesty.

Wheeler said the city didnt know what federal officers were doing or why. But Portland police officials said publicly that the bureau regularly communicated with federal authorities during downtown protests to be aware of what the other was doing and that a member of the Federal Protective Service was stationed in the Portland police command post. Police leaders said neither agency has direct control over the others operations and the police bureau later announced it had removed the federal representative from the city command post.

This, along with federal officers deploying tear gas soon after Hardesty left a recent vigil she organized while members of her staff were still there, led Hardesty to demand on Twitter that Wheeler take a stronger stance banning city officers from cooperating with federal authorities during protests or appoint her as police commissioner. She later ordered the fire bureau to prevent any law enforcement employees from using city fire stations as a base for tactical operations.

Wheeler last week declined to give up his role as police commissioner and Hardesty had to publicly apologize after accusing undercover police officers of setting fire to their own union office during a recent demonstration in North Portland. She admitted that she had no physical evidence to support the claim.

Wheeler sent a letter to Hardesty on Thursday saying city, and possibly state, investigations had to be launched due to her comments, according to Willamette Week. Hardesty revealed the same day during a news conference that Wheeler temporarily wasnt speaking to her, but she said she planned to reconnect with him during the weekend.

Wolf during an interview Sunday on Fox News urged city and state leaders to work with federal law enforcement to end violent crimes during protests, saying demonstrators aim to destroy that courthouse and injure law enforcement officers.

He cited at least two federal officers whove been injured by having lasers shined into their eyes.

All I need is the City of Portland to step up and do their job, Wolf said. These individuals are on city streets, theyre in city parks arming themselves every night and the city simply does nothing about it. Absolutely nothing.

The city passed new policies last week banning all police bureau members from cooperating with federal law enforcement and intentionally using force on or arresting journalists and legal observers. The city has also ordered the federal government to remove the fence surrounding the Mark O. Hatfield courthouse or risk fines because it was placed in a bike lane without approved permits.

-- Everton Bailey Jr; ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 | @EvertonBailey

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Attorney General William Barr testified for the first time in his tenure in front of a critical congressional audience - a House Judiciary Committee with a Democratic majority - as the Justice Department faces questions from critics who say it is helping President Donald Trump politically in ways ranging from policing and protests to intervening in criminal investigations of Trump allies.

"In your time at the department," Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in his opening statement, "you have aided and abetted the worst failings of this president."

Barr came ready to defend himself from such accusations, an opportunity Republicans on the committee repeatedly gave him.

Here are five takeaways from Barr's testimony.

1. He is all in as a partisan player

By now, Barr has established himself as a loyal defender of Trump, willing to make decisions that at the very least give the appearance that Barr is doing Trump's personal bidding. Barr denies politics play a role in his decisions while leading the Justice Department.

But on Tuesday, he did little to dissuade the criticism that Trump's personal desires influence him. In his efforts to defend himself, Barr painted Trump as the consummate professional president, giving Barr "complete freedom" to do what he needs. "From my experience, the president has played a role properly and traditionally played by presidents," Barr testified.

We don't know what happens behind closed doors between Trump and Barr, but Barr's projection of the president is just not consistent with the president's public comments on law enforcement, which he regularly attacks when investigations don't go his way.

In his written opening statement, Barr accused Democrats in Congress of trying to "discredit" him. And he echoed Trump's words about the nationwide protests against racial injustice. He downplayed the central theme of Black Lives Matter - police brutality. "The threat to black lives posed by crime on the streets is massively greater than any threat posed by police misconduct," his statement read.

And Barr asserted that his repeated efforts to change the direction of investigations of Trump allies were influenced only by the rule of law.

"I am supposedly punishing the president's enemies and helping his friends," Barr said. He challenged his critics to point to one enemy he has unfairly indicted.

On the friends front, Barr said, "The president's friends don't deserve special breaks, but they also don't deserve to be treated more harshly than other people."

He referred to two recent controversies:

- Reducing Roger Stone's prison sentence, an act that led all four federal prosecutors on the case to resign from the case in protest. One testified to Congress last month that the Justice Department reduced the sentence for "political reasons." (Stone got the lower sentence, then Trump commuted that sentence altogether. Barr has implied he doesn't agree with the commutation.) "Do you think it's fair for a 67-year-old man to be sentenced to prison for seven to nine years?" Barr said.

- Doing an about-face on former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, dropping charges that Flynn had previously pleaded guilty to. "There was no basis to investigate Flynn," Barr said of the FBI. (Justice Department officials involved in the investigation at the time disagree.)

But his opening statement moved neither side. "Your opening statement reads like it was written by Alex Jones or Roger Stone," Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., told Barr, referring to two combative Trump allies.

2. Under increased scrutiny, Barr is not backing down from sending federal agents into cities

There is a chasm between how Barr, Trump and their Republican defenders in Congress view federal police presence in U.S. cities and how Democrats and many protesters see it.

Barr is arguing that Portland, Ore., officials abdicated their duty to keep the peace and that federal officials had to take over to protect the federal courthouse.

"What unfolds nightly around the courthouse cannot reasonably be called a protest; it is, by any objective measure, an assault on the government of the United States," Barr said in his opening statement.

Democrats argue that Trump is co-opting federal law enforcement for his political benefit, mainly to scare suburban voters into voting for him and to distract from his failure to keep the coronavirus in check. And they accuse Barr of being a willing ally.

"The president wants footage for his campaign ads, and you appear to be serving it up to him as ordered," Nadler said. (One of the Trump campaign's most recent ads was filled with fiery scenes of urban unrest and contained this warning: "You won't be safe in Joe Biden's America.")

The protests across the country in the wake of George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis in May had been fizzling - until Barr sent federal agents to Portland, where there were still some nightly clashes between protesters and police. That has stirred up more protests across the nation.

Now the Justice Department inspector general's office is investigating federal police actions against protesters in Portland, where demonstrators report being clubbed and thrown into unmarked vans. The inspector general's office will also look at what happened in D.C., where in June federal agents fired chemical agents at peaceful protesters, clearing a park across from the White House before Trump stood for a photo opportunity in front of a damaged church.

Barr is also sending federal police to other cities as part of what he says is a separate project to help fight violent crime, not quell protests. Some mayors, including in Chicago and Kansas City, Mo., have said they'll cautiously welcome the help as long as it's not targeted at stirring up trouble on the streets.

"Understandably, Americans are very suspicious of your motives here," Nadler said.

3. Barr doesn't think police have a racism problem

On the major topic of the day - police brutality and what the Justice Department can do about it - Barr was willing to acknowledge some racial inequities in how police treat black Americans. But he referred to it as a past issue in his opening statement: "Given our history, it's understandable that among black Americans, there's some ambivalence and often distrust toward the police. Until just the last 50 years ago or so, our laws and our institutions were explicitly racist, explicitly discriminatory."

More often than not, under questioning, Barr was not willing to say there is systemic racism among police in the United States. He tried to cite statistics that show the opposite. Barr said he's seen studies that said "police are less likely to shoot at a black suspect, a little more likely to shoot at a white suspect."

He also cited Washington Post tallies of police shootings that show eight unarmed black men have been fatally shot by police in 2020, compared with 11 unarmed white people. What Barr did not mention was that white people make up much more of the U.S. population than black people, and when you look at the data in a more representative way, black people are unequivocally shot by police at a higher rate than white people.

Senate Republicans, seeing that even white Americans support the Black Lives Matter protests drawing attention to this cause, have been willing to acknowledge that police target black people at a higher rate. They quickly put together a police reform bill, which failed.

Barr and Trump have disagreed with them.

4. Barr doubled down on raising fears about voting by mail

Barr has said multiple times that he's worried about foreign actors manipulating voting by mail at a large scale in November. He repeated that Tuesday.

But Barr has no evidence to back up that concern, and election officials say what he's warning about is unlikely.

Here's the deal: Among the five states that vote by mail statewide and the thousands of absentee ballots cast every year, there is no evidence that voting by mail leads to substantial voter fraud.

A number of states have practices to confirm absentee ballots, making them difficult to impossible to duplicate on a massive scale. To do so, bad actors would have to know a person's personal signature and correct address. They would have to mail ballots in the same envelopes that the state is using in a way that doesn't attract election officials' attention by duplicating ballots among those who have voted. All of this from a foreign country.

What some election experts warn is more likely than widespread fraud is that Barr and Trump's comments lead to widespread suspicion about the outcome of the race.

If Trump were to clearly lose and not leave office, claiming fraud, there would be nothing clear in the rule book for what to do then.

At the least, Barr responded under questioning that if a president clearly loses an election, the president has no remedy with which to contest it.

5. Barr hesitates to say a president shouldn't accept foreign help to get elected

In probably one of the most stunning exchanges of the day, Barr at first did not denounce clearly illegal behavior. The question was prompted by Rep. David N. Cicilline, D-R.I..

Cicilline: Is it ever appropriate, sir, for the president to solicit or accept foreign assistance in an election?

Barr: It depends what kind of assistance.

Cicilline: Is it ever appropriate for the president or presidential candidate to accept or solicit foreign assistance of any kind in his or her election?

Barr: No, it's not appropriate.

Foreign help in an election is absolutely illegal, of any kind. Trump was impeached by the House in late 2019 for trying to get Ukraine to make former vice president Joe Biden, now his 2020 opponent, look bad.
Technavio has been monitoring the pocket lighter market and it is poised to grow by USD 871.14 million during 2019-2023, progressing at a CAGR of 3% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005622/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Pocket Lighter Market 2019-2023 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report of 2020-2024 on COVID-19 Impact

The market is fairly fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. BIC, FLAMAGAS (Clipper), Swedish Match, TOKAI, and Zippo Manufacturing are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

The availability of various pocket lighters has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Pocket Lighter Market 2019-2023: Segmentation

Pocket Lighter Market is segmented as below:

Product Flint Pocket Lighters Electronic Pocket Lighters

Geographic Landscape MEA APAC Europe North America South America



To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download latest free sample report of 2020-2024: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR30788

Pocket Lighter Market 2019-2023: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our pocket lighter market report covers the following areas:

Pocket Lighter Market size

Pocket Lighter Market trends

Pocket Lighter Market analysis

This study identifies the rising popularity of pocket lighter accessories as one of the prime reasons driving the pocket lighter market growth during the next few years.

Pocket Lighter Market 2019-2023: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the pocket lighter market, including some of the vendors such as BIC, FLAMAGAS (Clipper), Swedish Match, TOKAI, and Zippo Manufacturing. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the pocket lighter market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Pocket Lighter Market 2019-2023: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2019-2023

Detailed information on factors that will assist pocket lighter market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the pocket lighter market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the pocket lighter market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of pocket lighter market vendors

Table Of Contents:

PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT

2.1 Preface

2.2 Preface

2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE

Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

Market segmentation analysis

PART 04: MARKET SIZING

Market definition

Market sizing 2018

Market size and forecast 2018-2023

PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY PRODUCT

Market segmentation by product

Comparison by product

Flint pocket lighters Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Electronic pocket lighters Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Market opportunity by product

PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

APAC Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Europe Market size and forecast 2018-2023

North America Market size and forecast 2018-2023

South America Market size and forecast 2018-2023

MEA Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Key leading countries

Market opportunity

PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 11: MARKET TRENDS

Increasing online presence of branded pocket lighters

Personalization and virtual customization

Rising popularity of pocket lighter accessories

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

BIC

FLAMAGAS (Clipper)

Swedish Match

TOKAI

Zippo Manufacturing

PART 14: APPENDIX

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses 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.

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President Donald Trump's National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien has tested positive for the coronavirus - making him the highest-ranking official to test positive so far. That's according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss it by name.

The White House confirmed that O'Brien has mild symptoms and "has been self-isolating and working from a secure location off site," adding that: "There is no risk of exposure to the President or the Vice President" and that the "work of the National Security Council continues uninterrupted." The news was first reported by Bloomberg News, which said O'Brien came down with the virus after a family event.

A personal valet to the president and the vice president's press secretary previously tested positive for the virus, which has now infected more than 4 million people nationwide. Senior White House staff and anyone who comes into close contact with the president and vice president are tested for the virus every day.

Also read: Six sectors likely to be the worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic
Fourteen people tested positive for Covid-19 in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday, taking the states coronavirus count to 2,284 of which 1,031 are active cases.

Of the new cases, seven are from Chamba district, three, including a police personnel, from Bilaspur and two each from Mandi and Shimla district.

A 20-year-old army jawan with a travel history to Leh tested positive at Lahru in Chamba district while another 21-year-old soldier from Bari Kihar village has also tested positive. He had also returned from Leh.

A 20-year-old man from Churah who travelled to Bangalore tested positive after returning while a 25-year-old man from Lahru back from Mumbai has also contracted the infection. He was in institutional quarantine. A 25-year-old resident of Barla village back from Mumbai is also among the new cases and is in institutional quarantine.

A 29-year-old resident of Dughar village who travelled back from Gurugram recently has tested positive, while a 45-year-old resident of Kathalu village is also infected. He had returned from Mumbai and was in institutional quarantine.

A 62-year-old diabetic woman and a 32-year-old woman in Shimlas Jakhu area are among the new cases. Both have a travel history to Delhi and were in home quarantine, deputy commissioner Amit Kashyap said.

In Bilaspur, a 30-year-old police personnel of the 3rd Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB), who is a resident of Sheri village in Karsog in Mandi district, has tested positive. A 45-year-old man and a 32-year-old man, who worked as labourers, are also among the fresh cases and were shifted to the Covid care centre at Chandpur.

Special secretary, health, Nipun Jindal said 12 Covid deaths have been reported in state so far and 1,224 patients have recovered, while 15 patients have migrated out of the state.

With 563 cases, Solan is the worst hit district in the state followed by Kangra with 426 cases. Hamirpur has 300 cases, Sirmaur 273, Una 190, Shimla 150, Mandi 124, Chamba 103, Bilaspur 87, Kinnaur 41, and Kullu has 24 cases. With four Covid-19 cases till date, Lahaul and Spiti is the least affected district.

Tourists banned in Shimlas Tanu Jubbar area

Amid fear of spread of virus, Shimla district administration on Tuesday implemented a complete ban on entry of tourists at Tanu Jubbar, 70km from Shimla, till further orders.

Sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Kumarsain Gunjeet Singh Cheema said it is mandatory to implement immediate preventive and precautionary measures to avoid further spread of virus and ensure safety of people.

He said anyone who violates these orders will be punished under Section 188, 269, 270 and 271 of the Indian Penal Code. He has also urged police to ensure strict enforcement of the order.

Situated in Kotgarh valley, Tanu Jubbar is a popular tourist destination and attracts domestic as well as foriegn tourists throughout the year. Tanu Jubbar has a temple of local deity along with a lake and is surrounded by thick forest of pine trees as well as apple orchards.

Recently, a 25-year-old Punjab resident who had come to Kotgarh valley with two others had tested positive in Jarol village. During interrogation, he had identified a few places he visited in the area. He was shifted to a Dedicated Covid Care Centre (DCCC) in Mashobra while his two friends had tested negative and are under institutional quarantine. A woman had also tested positive in Batari village in Kotgarh.
COVID-19 Pandemic Reinforces the Importance of Digital Transformation by Utilizing Linedata's Lending Leasing Solutions

Linedata (Euronext Paris: LIN), global provider of credit and asset management technology, data and services, helps to ensure resilience for Canada's second largest credit union, Meridian, despite industry challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since 2017, Meridian has been utilizing Linedata's technology in its business model to support the needs of its Members. Specifically, Meridian leverages Linedata Capitalstream, a credit origination and risk management platform putting financial institutions at the forefront of digital transformation and growth. By implementing this tool pre-COVID-19, it enabled Meridian to offer seamless and efficient service to Members during the most uncertain times and swiftly transition its employees to the "new normal" of remote-working.

To elaborate on the mutually beneficial relationship, Paul Stanczak, VP of Account Management for Canada at Linedata asks John Trivieri, VP of Credit Management at Meridian, a few questions about their partnership, and the ever-growing need for an always-on digital solution especially during a pandemic.

Q: How does Meridian utilize Linedata Capitalstream to help credit union Members while strengthening its own capabilities?

A: Capitalstream digitizes and streamlines Meridian's commercial and small business lending processes. Many financial institutions still originate business loans by using paper-based, manual systems, which are significantly slower and less secure than software and digital systems. The platform allows us to move loan applications forward swiftly in digital form, ensuring that Members get funding faster. Capitalstream also provides us with on-going risk monitoring tools that are configured to our parameters and needs and significantly lower our total cost of ownership.

At Meridian, we've integrated Capitalstream to help us operate our business by way of a dual-lens, focused on business banking Members. Before we integrated the product into our business model, we were using traditional methods that were not digitized (i.e. paper-based and email-based). To properly keep up with the industry and fast-paced needs of our Members, it was pivotal to go digital.

Additionally, Capitalstream helps us from a risk management standpoint as it relates to loans. The software gathers and analyzes key data inputs that allow credit analysts to make prudent lending decisions so we can provide quick responses to loan applicants while maintaining an acceptable level of credit risk.

Q: How has your partnership with Linedata benefited business before and throughout the pandemic?

A: Before the pandemic, Meridian appreciated the flexibility of Capitalstream. The system is robust and highly configurable, allowing us to enhance our Member's lives by providing them with first-in-class products and services.

Additionally, Linedata's staff that supports our partnership are very knowledgeable, helpful and always willing to listen to our needs and provide us with tailored solutions.

Throughout the pandemic, and especially at the beginning of remote work, our partnership with Linedata has allowed us to run business as usual. Despite the challenges that were presented with the stay-at-home orders, we were able to remain self-sufficient and provide our Members with uninterrupted service. The infrastructure and tools already in place were built to sustain a digital-forward business, making it an overall seamless transition.

Q: As our industry collectively works to recover from the pandemic-driven fallout, what is the most important lesson Meridian has learned?

A: It might seem cliche, but one of the biggest lessons learned is to expect the unexpected in other words, we were able to successfully serve our Members during this time because we had preemptively covered our risks by (1) investing in technology early, and often and (2) establishing a relationship with Linedata as more than a provider, but a partner. The pandemic showed us that everything can change on a dime, but if you've planned ahead and implemented protocols that might seem ahead of their time to the rest of the industry, you've done right by your company and those it serves.

Additionally, the partnership helped us, as a company, to enhance our internal knowledge and capabilities to best manage and configure the platforms necessary for success. By doing so, we were able to quickly respond to the unexpected and support growth during the most challenging of times.

Throughout the pandemic, Meridian was able to take care of its Members by utilizing Capitalstream and other digital-forward tools to their fullest extent. Many of our commercial and small business Members are counting on us as they adjust their plans post-pandemic and we're proud to be solid ground for them, thanks to our investments in technology.

ABOUT MERIDIAN

With more than 75 years of banking history, Meridian is Ontario's largest credit union and the second largest in Canada, helping to grow the lives of 370,000 Members and customers. Meridian has $26 billion in assets under management (as at June 30, 2020) and delivers a full range of financial services online, by phone, by mobile and through a network of 92 branches across Ontario, and business banking services in 15 locations. Meridian Members also have access to THE EXCHANGE Network, with 3,700 no-fee ABMs across Canada and 500,000 ABMs in the United States. For more information, please visit: www.meridiancu.ca, follow us on Twitter @MeridianCU or see our Facebook site.

ABOUT LINEDATA

With 20 years' experience and 700+ clients in 50 countries, Linedata's 1300 employees in 20 offices provide global humanized technology solutions and services for the asset management and credit industries that help its clients to evolve and to operate at the highest levels. Headquartered in France, Linedata achieved revenues of EUR 169.7 million in 2019 and is listed on Euronext Paris compartment B FR0004156297-LIN Reuters LDSV.PA Bloomberg LIN:FP. linedata.com

To learn more about how Linedata Capitalstream can benefit your business, visit Linedata.com/lending-and-leasing or getinfo@linedata.com.

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A group of 94 migrants rescued by the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) landed in Malta on Monday evening, local media Times of Malta reported.

Most of the migrants were men and five were women, including a young girl and one child around a year old. Details about their nationalities are not yet known.

The migrants were in distress in Malta's search and rescue area over the weekend. Alarm Phone,the hotline support for people crossing the Mediterranean Sea to the European Union, received calls from them and alerted the relevant authorities, kickstarting the rescue operation.

According to Alarm Phone, the dinghy the migrants were on was floating and had started taking in water early on Sunday. The boat was overcrowded and repeated requests were relayed to the Maltese and Italian authorities.

The NGO hotline said the Maltese authorities had asked a vessel that was close by to monitor the migrants and render assistance if needed. The monitoring continued until an AFM vessel rescued the migrants.

The last group to arrive in Malta was about a week ago. Malta has received around 1,800 migrants since the beginning of the year.
Raipur, July 28 : Chhattisgarh's Covid-19 tally crossed the 8,000 mark on Tuesday with 277 fresh cases reported from across the state, officials said.

Also, 267 patients were discharged from hospitals after their recovery on Tuesday.

The 8,000 plus number came as a fresh classification of red, orange and green zones put 128 blocks in all 28 districts of the state in the red zone.

Last week, 112 blocks in 24 districts were in the red zone. This week, the entire state is in the red zone.

Officials said a 63-year-old woman from Durg district who was suffering from stomach cancer for past two years and was receiving chemotherapy, was admitted in AIIMS Raipur on July 26 after testing Covid positive and died on Tuesday. This is the 47th death due to Covid-19 in Chhattisgarh.

Raipur continues to be a hotspot as 138 of the latest 277 positive cases were found in the capital city.

Apart from Raipur, Rajnandgaon accounted for 20, Durg 19, Bilaspur and Bastar 18 each, Narayanpur 11, Raigarh and Balodbazar eight each, Surguja and Gariaband six each, Kabirdham five, Korba and Mungeli four each, Balrampur, Jashpur and Dantewada three each, Kanker two and Janjgir-Champa reported one case.

Raipur also saw the highest number of patients discharged from a district on Tuesday, with 120 of the 267 discharges.

Currently, there are 2,772 active Covid cases in the state while 8,257 persons have been found Covid positive in the state so far. Also, 5,439 patients have recovered.
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The first time my family moved to Kenya and I experienced interacting with street kids in Nairobi, I was 10-years-old. It was a year of intense learning for me. I learned what it meant to be a minority and to be treated very differently because of my white skin. I also learned that I was wealthy, by comparative measures.

I still recall the first time a young Kenyan boy, about the same age as me, came up to me and asked for money. And, although I was only ten, and didnt have a job, I did have some spending money in my pocket and I had a choice to make. In my developing understanding of the world around me, I began to realize that capital has influence.

I suppose that moment in Nairobi could have been the starting point for my now decades-long quest to connect money with meaning, and capital with positive impact. You might expect me to tell you next that I also was called into overseas missions, like my parents before me, or started a micro-lending organization to help women in Africa start cottage industries. But God has called me into the financial services industry instead, to serve as a professional advisor to the wealthy, and to do what only a few advisors are willing to do for the affluent: tell them the truth about the connection between their investing and their values.

It is with that unique viewpoint of one who has had a front row seat to both extreme poverty and expansive wealth that I humbly ask for your attention on a widely overlooked opportunity.

Its estimated that Christians manage over 150 trillion dollars, more than half the worlds wealth. Thats 200 to 300 times greater than what is given philanthropically each year.

Capital has influence, yet many of us have been content to let others determine our investment strategy, or to broadly invest in indexes, not even knowing what companies we own in our investment portfolios. Even worse, if we are passive in this area, we are most certainly (unwittingly) giving capital companies that advance causes we oppose like gambling and pornography.

This is a problem. But I encourage you not to think of it merely in terms of breaking Christian rules of morality. Yes, I believe that when we invest unintentionally, we are not being wise stewards with The Masters talents while he is away and we are probably investing in the campaigns of hisenemy, unknowingly buying funds full of companies that steal, kill, and destroy in one way or anotherall neatly hidden inside of a pleasant-sounding mutual fund wrapper: The XYZ Growth and Income Fund. But even more than being passive participants in bad business, were missing an enormous kingdom opportunity.

Faith-Driven Investors website sums it up nicely, We arent owners, we are stewards of the resources that God has given us. This knowledge should radically change the how, where, and why behind our investment strategies. Imagine the impact that would occur when all Christ-following investors  from the rich young ruler to the widow and her mite  use investment capital to deliver community impact, spiritual integration, and financial return. We can take what God has given and put it back into the work He is doing on earth by promoting products and services that further human flourishing. Its already happening.

Ive worked with hundreds of Christian investors over my 18-year career in financial services. Ive seen inspiring dedication to charitable giving from many of them, even sacrificing their own needs and wants to participate in Kingdom-advancing work around the globe. Some of them have homeschooled their kids for the sake of building Christian values and character into the next generation. Others have taken lower-paying jobs or scaled back their businesses in order to honor God and the priorities of family and Sabbath rest that stem from their sincere faith. Several of them have participated in a company boycott or letter-writing to political leaders. But Ive had only a small handful of prospective investors seek me out because of their desire to align their investments with their Christian values, and that is the area of expertise for which Ive become known.

I think most Christian investors share a couple of significant concerns with this idea and Id like to address the biggest one briefly here.

The top concern is usually performance.

Lets answer the question, What will it cost me (in the form of a lower rate of return) to align my investments with my Christian values? Many Christian investors worry that if they really want to invest with their integrity in-tact, by eliminating companies and industries that do harm (like pornography, gambling, tobacco, etc.) and intentionally seek companies that are creating valuable, positive goods and services that promote human flourishing, there wont be many attractive investments from which to choose.

To address the effect of exclusionary screening (taking out the negative stuff) on performance, I think the 2019 study from the BRI Institute does a great job of presenting data in an unbiased manner (which is difficult to find in a world where nearly every academic study is tied to an agenda). It also uses a conservative interpretation of Christian values (meaning more companies would have been removed from this sample than many other faith-based investment companies would remove with their less restrictive approaches). So, this may give us a worst-case scenario of sorts, where we are excluding a larger number of potentially profitable companies, purely for ethical reasons.

In the study, which examined performance from 1/1/2000 to 12/31/2019, a 20-year time period, both the BRI Screened Portfolio and the S&P 500 benchmark have an identical 6.19% annualized return. While there were shorter time periods where one or the other outperformed, by the end of the sample 20-year period, they were literally neck and neck.

Note: this does not account for the potential positive impact on performance that could stem from trying to identify positive impact companies, whom we might logically conclude should be more inclined to experience a tailwind in business by way of customer loyalty, positive reviews, referrals, etc.

As a Certified Financial Planner professional and a Certified Kingdom Advisor, I have a duty to act in a fiduciary capacity with my clients and to put their interests ahead of my own. And, while I cannot make specific investment recommendations for you here, in my professional opinion, I believe this style of investing has merit as an investment strategy, in addition to the benefits of contentment, joy and sense of wholeness one might achieve from alignment with ones values.

A World Shaped by Intentional Christians

I want to encourage you to think of something thats perhaps more powerful than getting a good return on your investment. Imagine with me what might be possible, and how much positive influence we might achieve together if every believer invested intentionally, acting in unity.

What if every one of those 150 Trillion Christian-managed dollars, invested by people just like you and me, was pulled out of the addiction-profiting, cancer-causing tobacco industry and was instead directed into biotech companies searching for a cure for cancer. Maybe the free cigarettes being routinely handed out to children at sporting events and concerts in Indonesia would dry up. We have the power to change it.





What if every one of those 150 Trillion Christian-managed dollars thats currently invested in companies that disproportionately contribute to the pollution crisis was redirected to clean water and clean energy technologies? According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 4.2 million premature deaths globally are linked to ambient air pollution, mainly from heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and acute respiratory infections in children. If you think pollution is only important to those who are left-leaning politically, Id encourage you to note that this statistic is about human suffering. We have the power to change it.

Just like I was before my first trip to Kenya, most Americans are very sheltered from the difficult daily realities in other parts of the world. But American Christians hold the lions share of Christian-managed investment capital. Its our retirement funds and education savings accounts that cumulatively comprise a big slice of the total investment capital in the world. We may not always feel wealthy, but we are.

Investors, and the businesses they supply capital to, must step forward with redemptive solutions to the problems that cannot be solved by governments and charities. We have the power to create change by aligning our investments with our values.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:

Azerbaijani travel companies cannot sell air tickets to clients yet, spokesman for Azerbaijans Association of Tourist Agencies Orkhan Badalov told Trend on July 28.

According to him, based on the appeal of Turkish Airlines to the travel companies, they can sell tickets to tourists only after August 1.

"Therefore, at present, the travel companies dont operate in the sale of air tickets. However, clients can individually buy tickets online and travel to Turkey," said Badalov.
A secondary school teacher has brought High Court challenge against the Teaching Council's refusal to recognise her as being a qualified post primary teacher.

The action has been brought by Fiona Roche from Thomastown, Caragh, Naas, Co Kildare who has taught at several post primary and primary schools since 2002 and registered with the council since 2006.

She is currently working at Colasite Iosagain Post Primary in Portarlington. She teaches religion and CSPE, as well as providing guidance hours, and vocational preparation to students.

She also gives the 'Minding Me' wellbeing module classes to pupils.

In 2018 the school's board of management were instructed by the Department of Education that her position would have to be vacated and re-advertised.

She applied for the job.

However, in April 2019 was informed by the Teaching Council that she was "not to be accredited as a registered qualified teacher for the purposes of recognition and employment within the post-primary school system."

The teaching council, which regulates of the teaching profession in Ireland, also held that she did not meet the qualifications required for subject matter recognition as a secondary school teacher in the subjects she submitted, Religion and CSPE.

The council further held that she did not meet the criteria required for a professional qualification as a post primary school teacher and lacked sufficient experience teaching within the sector.

She disputes the decision which she appealed. However the appeal was not unsuccessful. As a result she has brought High Court judicial review proceedings against the council aimed at quashing the decision.

At the High Court James Lawless Bl, for Ms Roche said that it their case that the decision making process regarding his client was flawed, and there was a failure by the council to proper regard to relevant considerations.

Counsel said his client qualified as a Montessori Teacher in the 1990s, and also holds several third level graduate and post graduate qualifications.

These include a degree in Behavioural Science- Psychology from the American University in Dublin, a Graduate Diploma in Guidance Counselling from the University of Limerick, and Higher Diplomas in Further Education and Theological Studies from NUI Maynoth.

Counsel said that arising out of the council's decision his client, who worked at several schools in Co Kildare, now fears for her livelihood.

She also seeks declarations that the council's decision was entirely without legal basis, is invalid, irrational and flies in the face of common sense.

She further seeks an order allowing her to challenge to be brought outside the time permitted to bring such actions. Counsel said there had been delays due to factors including data access requests and his client's health.

The application came before Mr Justice Charles Meenan, who directed that the application for permission to bring the action be made in the presence of the Teaching Council.

The judge agreed to put a temporary stay on the decision from coming into effect, until further order of the court. The matter was adjourned to a date in October.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 16:17:23|Editor: huaxia

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JAKARTA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian President Joko Widodo Tuesday said his country's economy would to be among the fastest to recover after being affected badly by the COVID-19 pandemic, citing predictions by several international financial institutions.

"The IMF projected that the world economy would grow by 5.4 percent, the World Bank predicted it would grow by 4.2 percent and OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) expected it would grow by 2.8-5.2 percent. I think if the predictions are right, our economic growth should be higher than that of the world economy," the president told a video cabinet meeting.

Widodo also reminded of uncertain global economic condition as a number of international financial institutions have been revising their predictions on the world economic growth both in 2020 and 2021.

"We should also ensure that some measures get priorities in 2021 including the expected widening of the state budget deficit aiming at financing efforts to accelerate the economic recovery," he said.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said after a limited cabinet meeting on Tuesday that the president is planning to propose widening of the country's 2021 budget deficit to 5.2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to support the economy against possible recession due to coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier, the government and the House of Representatives agreed to settle the 2021 state budget deficit at 4.7 percent of the GDP. Enditem
Foyle Pride has appealed for anyone who witnessed a 'homophobic attack' in Derry at the weekend to come forward with information.

A post on the Foyle Pride Facebook page says a Derry man and his partner were attacked in and outside a Chinese takeaway in the early hours of Sunday morning during which they were subjected to a 'torrent of homophobic abuse'.

A spokesperson said: It is with sadness that Foyle Pride once again have to condemn a homophobic attack in Derry City Centre.

"The attack on a Derry man and his partner visiting from Liverpool for a weekend with family occurred in and outside of the Great Fortune Chinese takeaway at lower William Street at approximately 1.15am on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

"One of the men defending a female customer from a verbal assault was hit on the head and suffered injuries to the eye area as well as a broken nose. His partner who was waiting outside, entered the takeaway on hearing the homophobic language directed at his partner and he too was set upon. Dragged outside he was left on the ground with injuries to the head and body.

"As well as the physical attack the two men and a female friend were subjected to a torrent of homophobic abuse.

Foyle Pride would like to hear from anyone in the area who witnessed this vicious attack and may have any information. All information received will be treated with the strictest confidence.

"We wish them both a speedy recovery from this despicable attack on members of our community!"
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 22:30:12|Editor: huaxia

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FUZHOU, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Eastern China's Fuzhou has demanded a "wartime" preparedness after an asymptomatic COVID-19 case from Dalian, where new clusters have been reported, reportedly visited several crowded venues in the city.

The city's COVID-19 prevention and control authorities said on Tuesday they had ordered all districts and counties to be prepared like in wartime, and to defend local communities with "the most decisive measures."

The capital city of Fujian Province on Saturday reported one asymptomatic case -- a 43-year-old man who arrived from Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

The man had used public transportation to visit a number of parks, eateries and a shopping mall between his arrival on July 18 and his visit to a hospital on July 25, according to the city's health commission.

Local health authorities have been tracing the asymptomatic carrier's contacts and collecting samples from places he visited. Members of the public have been advised to stay at home if their travel routes coincided with those of the man.

The city of Dalian reported six new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 12 new asymptomatic cases on Monday. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 19:37:37|Editor: huaxia

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KUNMING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- A total of 205 Chinese peacekeepers Tuesday left Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, for Lebanon on a one-year United Nations peacekeeping mission.

The team is the first batch of China's 19th group of peacekeepers sent to Lebanon. The second batch of 205 peacekeepers will leave for the Middle Eastern country on August 18. The 410-member peacekeeping task force will consist of a multifunction sapper unit, a construction sapper unit and a medical unit. They will perform duties including mine clearance, construction and humanitarian rescue.

The peacekeepers, who are carrying anti-epidemic materials, will first finish a 14-day quarantine in Lebanon before starting duty.

Before departure, the peacekeepers underwent professional and language training, studied courses on preventing COVID-19, finished nucleic acid testing, and studied Lebanese laws and customs. Enditem
SPRINGFIELD  Four new cases have been identified in a COVID-19 outbreak at Baystate Medical Center involving more than three dozen employees and patients, Baystate Health President and CEO Dr. Mark Keroack said Tuesday.

The new cases bring the total as of Tuesday afternoon to 40. There have been 26 employees and 14 patients infected, said Keroack, who first disclosed the outbreak during the citys weekly coronavirus update on Monday.

None of the employees are hospitalized. Seven of the 14 patients are still hospitalized; most are inpatients who were at the hospital for other conditions.

The outbreak appears related to an employee returning to work at Baystate Medical Center after visiting another state identified as a hot spot for the virus, Keroack said. The hospitals review traced the spread to employees  including the worker who traveled out of state  who gathered in break rooms and had removed their masks.

This is something that is disappointing to us, Keroack said. We take it very seriously. I think its important for us rather than blaming certain individuals who were simply being human at making a mistake, weve taken the opportunity to re-examine our policies and procedures and actually charge our team members with coming together.

Before the outbreak, the hospital had issued some guidance to employees about avoiding travel  but it was pretty soft, Keroack said.

The new requirement is for employees returning to work from states, except in New England, New York and Hawaii, to quarantine for 14 days or produce a negative COVID-19 test. Last week, Gov. Charlie Baker issued a travel order setting similar conditions for visitors to Massachusetts, beginning Aug. 1.

Keorack declined again on Tuesday to identify the area of the hospital where the outbreak occurred, but said all employees and patients who might have been exposed have been contacted. The hospital, which is conducting contact tracing, has also extended the testing to anyone, such as the patients family and friends, who may have been exposed, he said.

The outbreak occurred in a 37-bed unit. Hospital representatives have contacted all 117 patients treated in the unit between July 15 and 23 by phone, Keroack said.

Approximately 90 employees worked in the unit, and 100 more visited the unit for more than 15 minutes during the same time period. All have been tested, he said, and most of the test results have come back.

I think there is a lesson, Keroack said. You hate to be the cautionary tale, but in fact, I hope what everyone could learn from this is that nobody should think ever that there is any kind of place where people congregate where this virus couldnt be passed around.

Officials with the hospital and Baystate Health are working with the state Department of Public Health and local boards of health in responding to the outbreak.

DPH is in close contact with Baystate Health in Springfield and collaborating with local health officials to identify possible cases and contacts associated with the outbreak, said Ann Scales, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health. The Department will continue to support and provide guidance to local health officials in these communities.

Keroack said he has been very proud of the extraordinary work done by the Baystate Health team in response to the pandemic.

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By PTI

SRINAGAR: The People's Democratic Party said Tuesday that it was committed to the restoration of honour and dignity of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and termed August 5 as the "black day" in the history of the erstwhile state.

"August 5 marks a black day in the constitutional history of J&K, when solemn commitments made by the same Parliament and in the Constitution of India were annulled for a majoritarian goal of bulldozing the country into one saffron colour," the party said in a statement attributed to its "senior leaders".

However, no leader was named in the press release issued by the PDP to mark its 21st foundation day as party president Mehbooba Mufti is a week short of completing one year under detention.

Referring to the move to withdraw the special status of J&K, the party alleged that this was in violation of all the commitments made to the people of the erstwhile state.

The PDP said the "unconstitutional measures" have had an impact on J&K worse than that of the worst natural calamity.

"The state was dismembered, downgraded, humiliated and stripped of its dignity.

This has not just devastated the foundations of the trust people of J&K had put in the Constitution of India but also created ripples all around," it alleged.
Lawyers acting for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said they were "kept in the dark" over a new indictment drawn up by US authorities, a court has heard.

The indictment, published by the US Department of Justice last month, includes fresh allegations which US prosecutors said show how Mr Assange sought to obtain and release classified information.

The 48-year-old still faces 17 charges under the Espionage Act and conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. No additional charges have been added.

US prosecutors now allege Mr Assange sought to recruit hackers at conferences and also conspired with the leader of hacking group LulzSec, asking to be provided with documents and databases.

The details of the new indictment have yet to be served as part of his extradition hearing. Prosecutor Joel Smith told Westminster Magistrates' Court he was unable to commit to any timetable for its presentation.

The full hearing, originally set for May, was postponed as a result of lockdown measures and will take place on September 7 at the Old Bailey.

Judge Vanessa Baraitser set another administrative hearing for August 14.

The move to alter the allegations has been criticised by supporters of Mr Assange, who say that it will delay the trial further.

Edward Fitzgerald, representing Mr Assange, told the court the defence had been "kept in the dark" about the new charges.

"This is the first time that the US has indicated that they intend to bring a fresh request," he said.

"(With) the new request we have been kept in the dark. We have had it sprung on us."

Mr Fitzgerald said there were concerns that the new charges would postpone the trial until after the US election in November, adding that President Donald Trump had referred to Mr Assange's defence as "a plot by the Democrats".

"We are concerned about a fresh request at this stage with the potential consequences to derail the proceedings and that the US attorney general (is) doing this for political reason," he said.

Mr Assange attended the short hearing via video link from Belmarsh, having previously been absent due to medical reasons.

Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, said that the new indictment was "wasting the court's time".

"What the US is doing is truly unprecedented. A new indictment is being introduced halfway into extradition proceedings, which have been a year in the making," he said.
Almere, The Netherlands

July 28, 2020, 6 p.m. CET

ASM International N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: ASM) today reports its second quarter 2020 operating results (unaudited) in accordance with IFRS.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

EUR million Q2 2019 Q1 2020 Q2 2020 New orders 373.1 333.5 298.0 Net sales 363.3 325.1 341.8 Gross profit margin % 59.0 44.5 48.3 Operating result 150.2 78.1 87.6 Result from investments (excluding amortization intangible assets resulting from the sale of ASMPT stake in 2013) 2.0 0.7 10.7 Amortization intangible assets (resulting from the sale of ASMPT stake in 2013) (3.4) (3.5) (3.3) Net earnings 121.6 74.1 74.1 Normalized net earnings (excluding amortization intangible assets resulting from the sale of ASMPT stake in 2013 and result from sale of ASMPT shares) 125.0 77.6 77.4

New orders were 298 million.

Net sales for the second quarter 2020 were 342 million and increased 5% compared to the previous quarter.

Gross profit margin was 48.3% in Q2 2020 compared to 44.5% in the previous quarter, due to an exceptionally strong mix. As a consequence operating result was 88 million compared to 78 million in the previous quarter.

Normalized net earnings for the second quarter 2020 decreased slightly to 77 million compared to Q1 2020. Results from investments increased to 11 million. Net earnings were impacted by currency translation results which changed from 12 million positive in Q1 to 6 million negative in Q2.

Note that the Q2 2019 results included the patent litigation settlement of 103 million with Kokusai which positively impacted the results and new orders.

COMMENT

"Having joined as new CEO following the AGM on May 18, I'm pleased to report that ASM continued to deliver strong results in Q2," said Benjamin Loh, President and Chief Executive Officer of ASM International. "I'm impressed by the way all our employees responded to the pandemic. While prioritizing health and safety, our team showed strong commitment and creativity to make sure we continue to serve our customers in the best possible way. Supply chain and logistical conditions resulted in operating challenges during Q2, but started to improve towards the end of the quarter as lockdown measures and transport restrictions have gradually been lifted in especially Asia Pacific and Europe. In Q2 we realized sales of 342 million, at the high end of the guidance of 300-350 million, up 5% from the level in Q1 and 32% above the level in Q2 of last year (excluding the proceeds of the patent litigation settlement in that period). The sales level was driven by continuous high demand in the logic/foundry segment. Our Q2 order intake, at 298 million, was slightly higher than the midpoint of our guidance of 280-310 million. Supported by an exceptionally strong mix in the quarter, our gross margin increased, for the first time in history, to a level of 48%."

OUTLOOK

For Q3, on a currency comparable level, we expect sales of 300-320 million. Q3 bookings, on a currency comparable level, are expected to be in the range of 280-300 million. Based upon the current market developments we expect the wafer fab equipment (WFE) market to grow with a mid- to high single digit percentage in 2020. Our Q4 sales are expected to be at least at the same level as in Q3, hence we expect to outgrow the WFE market in 2020.

SHARE BUYBACK PROGRAM

The execution on the 100 million share buyback program, announced on February 25, 2020, has started on June 2, 2020, and will end as soon as the aggregate purchase price of the common shares acquired by ASMI has reached 100 million, but ultimately on November 17, 2021. On June 30, 2020, 6.9% of the program was completed at an average share price of 119.16.

ASMI further announces that the withdrawal of 1.5 million treasury shares, as earlier approved by the AGM 2020, has become effective as of July 21, 2020. As of that date, the number of issued shares is 49,797,394.

About ASM International

ASM International NV, headquartered in Almere, the Netherlands, its subsidiaries and participations design and manufacture equipment and materials used to produce semiconductor devices. ASM International, its subsidiaries and participations provide production solutions for wafer processing (Front-end segment) as well as for assembly & packaging and surface mount technology (Back-end segment) through facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. ASM International's common stock trades on the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange (symbol ASM). For more information, visit ASMI's website at www.asm.com .

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: All matters discussed in this press release, except for any historical data, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to, economic conditions and trends in the semiconductor industry generally and the timing of the industry cycles specifically, currency fluctuations, corporate transactions, financing and liquidity matters, the success of restructurings, the timing of significant orders, market acceptance of new products, competitive factors, litigation involving intellectual property, shareholders or other issues, commercial and economic disruption due to natural disasters, terrorist activity, armed conflict or political instability, epidemics and other risks indicated in the Company's reports and financial statements. The Company assumes no obligation nor intends to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future developments or circumstances.

This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.



ASM International N.V will host an investor conference call and webcast on Wednesday, July 29, 2020, at 15:00p.m. Continental European Time (9:00 a.m. - US Eastern Time).

The teleconference dial-in numbers are as follows:

United States: +1 646 7413 167

International: +44 (0) 2071 928 338

The Netherlands: +31 (0) 20 79 566 14

Access Code: 4275144

A simultaneous audio webcast and replay will be accessible at www.asm.com .

CONTACT

Investor and media contact:

Victor Bareno

T: +31 88 100 8500

E: victor.bareno@asm.com

Attachment
When you're in the space-tourism business, spacious windows are essential. As are ample "astronaut float zones" coupled with a bevy of cameras to supply one's social media accounts-the better to impress friends.

Virgin Galactic has all these covered in the cabin of its VSS Unity, which it unveiled in a virtual media tour designed to evoke the same upscale aesthetic Virgin Group has pursued for its commercial airlines, airport lounges, hotels and planned cruise line.

Richard Branson's company has said it intends to fly its first customers into space later this year. Credit:PA

Virgin Galactic calls its spacecraft cabin the "centrepiece" of the experience it's selling for those able to afford tickets that cost upward of $US250,000 ($349,000). The interior space offers each customer "safety without distraction, quietly absorbing periods of sensory intensity and offering each astronaut a level of intimacy required for personal discovery and transformation."

The company has said it intends to fly its first customers into space later this year. Ahead of that milestone, Virgin Galactic last week installed a Disney customer-experience veteran as its new chief executive and has gradually ramped up marketing efforts to tout space joyrides as the ultimate journey for rich adventure seekers.
The federal government has declared Thursday and Friday, July 30 and 31, 2020 as public holidays to mark this years Eid-el-Kabir celebration.

This was disclosed in a statement signed by the ministrys Permanent Secretary, Georgina Ehuriah, on Tuesday.

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, while making the declaration on behalf of the federal government, congratulated Muslim faithful and all Nigerians  both at home and abroad  on the occasion.

He called on the Muslims to continue to imbibe the spirit of love, peace, kindness and sacrifice, as exemplified by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) and to also use the period to pray for peace, unity, prosperity and the stability of the country especially as the world is witnessing global health challenges caused by COVID-19 pandemic, the statement said.

According to the statement, Mr Aregbosola assured that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is fully committed to battling the scourge with the cooperation of all Nigerians. He emphasized that government would continue to foster peaceful coexistence, national cohesion and stability in its march towards actualizing the full potentials of the country.

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He called on all Nigerians to join hands with the administration of Mr Buhari, in its avowed determination to build a peaceful, harmonious and prosperous country, where the rights of citizens are protected and guaranteed, as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Mr Aregbesola advised Nigerians to take responsibility against the spread of the COVID-19 virus and also to stay safe by observing physical and social distancing, personal and respiratory hygiene, as well as other regulations issued by relevant authorities.

He wished all Muslims a happy Eid- el- Kabir Celebration.
PARIS  France will ban heaters used by cafes and restaurants on outdoor terraces as part of a package of measures aimed at reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption, the French ecology minister said on Monday.

The French governments announcement came at a difficult time for cafe and restaurant owners hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with many largely relying on outdoor dining to comply with social distancing rules.

In an attempt to give businesses time to continue in their recovery and adapt to the new law, the ban will not go into effect this winter, when many experts expect a resurgence of the virus.

In a country famous for its terrace culture, heat lamps running on electricity or gas have flooded outdoor terraces for over a decade, making sitting outside in cold weather not only possible but comfortable. In Paris alone, some 70 percent of cafe terraces are estimated to have heating devices.
Another concern voiced by the EU is "the latest restrictions of the freedom of movement for Ukrainian citizens to and from the Crimean peninsula".

Continued efforts by the Russian Federation to undermine Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, with further attempts to forcibly integrate the illegally-annexed Crimea and Sevastopol into Russia, represent a violation of international law, says EU Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

"The recent keel-laying ceremony of two assault ships in Kerch is yet another clear step in the ongoing militarisation of the peninsula, with a considerable negative impact on regional security in the Black Sea," reads the statement available to UNIAN.

Another concern voiced by the EU is "the latest restrictions of the freedom of movement for Ukrainian citizens to and from the Crimean peninsula".

Access to mainland Ukraine and the right to return to the place of residence has to be granted unconditionally and should not require a Russian passport, the statement reads.

Read alsoUkraine's NSDC warns Russian army drills in Crimea may turn into "active phase of hostilities"

The European Union continues to expect that Russia "stop all violations of international law in the Crimean peninsula", adding that the bloc remains "unwavering in its support for Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders".

As UNIAN reported earlier, on July 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Zaliv Shipyard in Crimea's Kerch, where he took part in a video conference with other shipbuilding companies  Sevmash and Severnaya Verf  where construction of new navy ships had also started.

On July 22, Russian border guards began to fine Crimean residents for crossing the de-facto border with mainland Ukraine using a Ukrainian passport. The FSB claims the Ukrainian passport is invalid for crossing in and out of the occupied peninsula.
New Delhi: The next round of spectrum auction of 4G spectrum may get a green signal soon, highly placed sources told Zee Media.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has prepared a cabinet note. The dates for the auctions will be fixed after the necessary approvals come in, sources said adding that the 4G spectrum auctions will be made in 7 bands and 22 circles. The government plans to auction radiowaves in 700Mhz, 800Mhz, 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz, 2100 Mhz, 2300 Mhz and 2500 Mhz bands.

The government is planning to hold the next round of spectrum auction in which it would sell around 7,000 megahertz of radio waves across the above mentioned bands at a base price of Rs 6,568 crore.

Trai had in August 2018 recommended auction of about 8,644 MHz of spectrum across bands at an estimated total base price of Rs 4.9 lakh crore. However the industry found that the proposed prices were unaffordable and exorbitant. In the 5G band in the 3300-3600 MHz (5G), prices had been given for the first time at Rs 492 crore per MHz, for a pan-India minimum block of 20 MHz. For this operators would have to shell out Rs 9,840 crore, which is seen as steep, which telcos found uncompetitive.
Every year, the Unicode Consortium releases an update to the list of emoji for that year, the latest being Unicode 13.0, that was released in January 2020. They have now announced a minor emoji release, called the Unicode 13.1, will be released later this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the release of Unicode 14.0.

Since it is only a minor release, Unicode 13.1 will contain very few new emoji. The list includes:

Face Exhaling

Mending Heart

Heart on Fire

Face with Spiral Eyes

Face in Clouds.

Along with these new emoji, there will be new gender options and skin tone options for the bearded person emoji too.

Typically, the Unicode Consortium will approve and release a new list of emoji at the start of the year. After this, companies and vendors such as Apple and Google will usually modify some of these emoji and release them on their platforms is the later half of the year.

With Unicode 13.1 expected to release in late 2020, we can expect to see these new emoji arrive sometime early next year, which would be a departure from the usual emoji release schedule. Major vendors like Apple, Google, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. will have to make changes in their software development to release the emoji in the first half of the year instead of second.

Source
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Forty Acres Soul Kitchen is gradually getting back to business after a four-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The restaurant, located at 1059 Wealthy St. SE, specializes in southern-style soul food. Several vegan sides are also offered on the growing menu.

Co-owners Darel Ross and Lewis Williams opened the restaurant in April 2018 with the intention of bringing some missing flavor to the bustling Wealthy Street Business District.

The pair met through LINC UP, a community nonprofit, in which they are still actively involved.

Ross and Williams hoped the restaurant would allow them to show ownership and leadership within a community that was once viewed as being crime-riddled and unsafe, according to Williams.

We wanted to create an ambiance and do soul food, the food we were raised on, in a nice atmosphere, Williams recalled.

He said they chose the name Forty Acres to reflect the broken promise to those who were enslaved following the Civil War.

The promise of 40 acres and a mule to help former slaves never came to fruition. A few months after President Abraham Lincolns assassination in April 1865, President Andrew Johnson ordered that the land seized from Southern whites be returned to them.

We were supposed to get forty acres and a mule, so this is what comes out of the forty acres when you work hard and you create something yourself, Williams explained. You can overcome a lot of things.

The staff at the restaurant is still trying to recover from the closure following Gov. Gretchen Whitmers March executive order to slow the spread of COVID-19. Michigan bars and restaurants were allowed to reopen June 8 with restrictions, including operating at 50% capacity and maintaining social distancing of at least 6 feet of separation.

On July 4, Forty Acres reopened for curbside takeout only.

While many restaurants in the area have reopened their dining rooms to customers, Williams and Ross have decided to slowly reopen as they focus on safety for staff and the community.

Before we say lets just jump back in and open lets really make sure the staff feels safe and comfortable in doing so, said Williams. Were all in this together.

Customers can currently place orders online to be picked up through low-contact curbside service. The next phase in the restaurants reopening plan will be outdoor dining.

Updates regarding when the restaurant will resume dine-in service will become available on their website.

At that time, Ross and Williams said their staff will continue to monitor their temperatures and wear masks and gloves throughout their shifts.

Customers will also be subject to wearing masks and social distancing when dining both indoors and outdoors.

The team has taken their dedication to social responsibility a step further by showing an outpouring of support for the Black Lives Matter movement with T-shirts and vinyl graphics outside of the restaurant.

Forty Acres has become an opportunity for people to expand both their palette and their mind in a modern space where many cultures collide, according to Williams.

He describes the Forty Acres experience as being educational and inclusive.

Williams said the staff, which reflects the diversity of the surrounding community, prides themselves in educating guests as they offer new foods in a welcoming environment.

On a typical day, the restaurant plays old school music and classics from R&B artists such as Teddy Pendergrass.

The soul food spot also has a full bar with brands that are true to the culture. The bar features Black-owned wines as well as signature cognac cocktails such as Bad, a punch, and Boujee, a sangria.

Weve always been able to build a level of comfortability here and we still want people to feel like that, said Williams as he imagined what reopening will look like.

The Forty Acres team is evaluating their reopening plan on an ongoing basis and will make announcements on their website.

The restaurant is open Thursday through Saturday from 12 to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m. To place an order call 616-723-9770 or order online at fortyacresgr.com.

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Marathon fined over rotten odors, soot emissions at Detroit refinery

Michigan reports 488 new cases of coronavirus for Monday, July 27

Michigan auto insurance companies give drivers $95 million in state-ordered coronavirus refunds
Iran Papers React To Democratic Party's 'No Regime Change, Return To JCPOA' Policy

Behrouz Turani July 27, 2020

A conservative newspaper in Tehran has observed in its July 27 issue on Monday that there is a rising interest evident in a part of the Iranian media about the U.S. presidential elections that take place in November.

Farhikhtegan [The Learned] newspaper, affiliated with the hardliner, conservative-dominated Islamic Azad University, dedicated its front page on Monday to the matter and also wrote on its Twitter page that "Less than 100 days before the U.S. presidential elections, some Iranian political groups are advocating the illusion of a good America."

The daily added that there seems to be "a task force in Tehran formed of those who support presidential candidate Joe Biden."

Farhikhtegan carried a picture of four other daily newspapers in Tehran; the pro-reform Omid-e Javan [Hope of the Youths], the centrist pro-reform Sazandegi [Construction] which is the mouthpiece of the Executives of Construction Party, the pro-Rouhani Donya-ye Eqtessad [The World of Economy] and yet another pro-administration daily Jahan-e San'at [The World of Industry] with pictures and banner headlines that welcome the latest draft of the U.S. Democratic party's platform statement.

The statement released last week, among other things. called for abandoning regime change in Iran as a policy option and introduced the idea of the United States returning to the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran which President Donald Trump withdrew from in May 2018.

Interestingly, both policy statements made by the Democratic party are about matters the Iranian government has been emphasizing as its conditions to return to the negotiating table with the United States.

The headline on Omid-e Javan's frontpage explains the two ideas as "Iran's dream for November 2020". The paper envisages a scenario that includes four key elements: "Trump's defeat, Rouhani congratulating Biden over the phone, a decline in the rate of exchange for the U.S. dollar in the Iranian market and the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, also called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The daily added: "Our hope is not about Biden's victory. It is about Trump's defeat." Omid-e Javan adds that "Trump's exit from the White House and the revival of the JCPOA can have a positive impact on Iran's economy."

As far as Sazandegi is concerned, the most important thing is "Doing away with regime change" in Iran. Nevertheless, the IRGC-linked news agency Fars has accused Sazandegi of "beautifying Biden."

The agency called the newspaper "the Democrats' agent" and said: "They have published a propaganda picture of Biden as if they are the mouthpiece of the U.S. Democratic party in Iran." Fars also accused Sazandegi of promising on behalf of Biden that the U.S. will forget about regime change in Iran and will return to the JCPOA.

Jahan-e San'at in its frontpage story opined that Biden's victory in the election will revive Obama's legacy.

The article in Donya'e Eqtesad focused on the economy and quoted a Wall Street analyst as having said that "Biden's victory can leave a negative impact on the price of oil in the international market, although he will take a milder position vis-a-vis Iran. He will lift the sanctions on Iran and will pave the way for pouring millions of barrels of Iranian oil into the world market."

However, the daily predicted that the fall of the oil price will be more or less controlled thanks to Saudi Arabia's cooperation. It also quoted Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh as having called for a boost to Iran's oil production as he believes "Sanctions won't last long. We should boost our output and return to the market powerfully and claim Iran's share of the oil market."

Farhikhtegan criticized all of these welcoming reactions to the Democratic party's platform statement and quoted former diplomat and current political analyst Jalal Sadatian as saying: "There is no difference between the Democrats and Republicans" as far as Iran is concerned, adding that "in their foreign policy, both of them serve the overall interests of the United States."

Farhikhtegan accused the four dailies of acting based on a hasty judgment.

Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran-papers-react -to-democratic-party-s-no-regime-change-return- to-jcpoa-policy/30749661.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.

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The Hill reports on a new Harvard CAPS/Harris poll in which 77 percent of respondents said they are concerned that crime is rising in the nations cities. 46 percent of respondents said they are concerned about rising crime in their own communities. Although reported by The Hill, the poll apparently has not yet been posted.

Mark Penn, Harvard CAPS/Harris polling director, noted that respondents are concerned that prosecutors are not prosecuting crimes. However, they place blame for the increase mainly on protests and high unemployment.

Although crime and violence may not actually have increased in Americas cities so far this year, homicide is surging. In 25 large cities, it is up 16.1 percent compared to 2019. New Yorks homicide rate for the first half of 2020 is up 23 percent over 2019, according to the citys police department. In June, it was 130.3 percent higher than in June 2019. In addition, its likely that the publics concern about crime in cities is also fueled by the anarchy it sees in the streets of Seattle and Portland, for example.

The surge in homicides cant be explained by unemployment. Burglaries maybe, but not homicides. Weve had high unemployment rates at other times in modern history without a surge in murders.

Protests dont explain the surge in homicides, either, at least not directly. There has been a massive amount of property damage during riots, but not many killings.

The surge in murders is due, I believe, to (1) the failure to keep criminals off the street and (2) the decrease in policing. The first of these problems results mainly from the release of prisoners during the coronavirus pandemic and the abolition of bail. The second factor stems from the war on policing being staged by BLM and Democratic mayors and prosecutors.

If deaths in the U.S. from the Wuhan coronavirus decrease significantly, crime in our cities might become a winning issue for President Trump. Joe Biden has not taken a tough line on crime. He seems unwilling to do so for fear of alienating the left. Like the Democratic Party as a whole, Biden is out of step with public opinion, as reflected in the new Harvard CAPS/Harris poll.

If Biden becomes president, the issue of crime in the streets is likely to plague his administration, the way it plagued Democrats in the 1970s and 1980s  until politicians like Joe Biden finally began to take the issue seriously, rather than as a dog whistle for racism.

In the case of Joe Biden, its proving difficult to teach an old dog an old trick.
Twitter has temporarily locked Donald Trump Jr.s account. The company said he violated its policy on spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19, but argued that this was not a suspension.

This account has not been permanently suspended. Per the screenshot, the Tweet requires deletion because it violates our rules (sharing misinformation on COVID-19), and the account will have limited functionality for 12 hours. More in our rules: https://t.co/0wHWVV5QS4 https://t.co/0gq7rlaNw7  Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) July 28, 2020

Republican strategist Andrew Surabian shared a screenshot of a message Trump received from Twitter (via Vice). It states that until he removed the tweet in question, Trump couldnt tweet, retweet, follow anyone or like any tweets. He could still use Direct Messages. The company said that the action would apply to his account for 12 hours, or until he removed the tweet the company says violated his policies.

Trump also had the option of appealing the lockout, but it appears the tweet has been deleted. It linked to a video that included false information about COVID-19. It shows several people wearing white lab coats who claim to be "America's Frontline Doctors as they hold a press conference in front of the Supreme Court.

"This virus has a cure, it's called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax," said Dr. Stella Immanuel in the video. "You don't need masks, there is a cure." Multiple studies have debunked those claims, which also run contrary to advice from public health officials. Dr. Immanuel has a long history of promoting dangerous medical claims. She has, for instance, suggested alien DNA is used in some treatments and that microchips are being implanted in people via vaccines.

On Monday, Breitbart published the video on Facebook, where it had more than 14 million views and hundreds of thousands of shares. Facebook later removed the video, which it says shared false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19. Versions of the video popped up on YouTube and Twitter, both of which deleted it too in line with their COVID-19 misinformation policies. Dr. Immanuel suggested that if Facebook didnt restore the video of her Supreme Court speech, Jesus Christ would crash the companys servers.

Trumps father, President Donald Trump, also shared the video on Twitter on Monday. Those tweets have since been removed, but Twitter did not otherwise suspend or lock the presidents account.
Two of County Wexford's TDs have highlighted concerns they have over ongoing issues in relation to the theft of animals across the county and nationally.

Fianna Fail TD, Deputy James Browne, has called for the setting up of a new criminal offence based around the theft of companion pets while Deputy Johnny Mythen, of Sinn Fein, also spoke to this newspaper about the issue.

The two TDs have raised their concerns in the wake of a recent incident that saw the Doyle family, from Enniscorthy, suffer the theft of their pet Springer Spaniel, Daisy, and seven of her seven-week-old pups.

An appeal by the family notched up over 14,000 shares on social media and thankfully Daisy was reunited with her owners after being found in Dublin. Unfortunately, the pups haven't been recovered to-date.

Deputy Browne is proposing that such a new offence should be called 'the theft of a companion animal'.

Highlighting that Irish law considers dogs and other family pets as 'mere property' he said things needs to change.

'Irish law considers dogs and other family pets to be mere property,' said Deputy Browne.

'This means that if someone steals a family pet, such as a dog, it is punished in the same way as if someone steals any non-living object, such as a mobile phone or a power tool,' he added.

Deputy Browne, who is his party's spokesperson on mental health, said the current law as it stands doesn't reflect the emotional harm that can be caused to victims of pet theft.

'The penalty for pet theft should be more severe than for the theft of a non-living property,' he said.

'Currently, there is no specific code on the Garda PULSE system to record theft of animals,' he added.

'The same code is used for all types of theft and therefore it is not possible to know the level of animal theft in Ireland [and] I am proposing the creation of a new offence called the theft of a companion animal.'

It's well known that many people form close emotional relationships with their pets and rely on them for companionship and emotional support.

'We know pets can have a positive impact on their owners and can improve psychological well-being [as well as] reduce risks of depression and loneliness,' said Deputy Browne.

'Pets can also act as therapy dogs including reducing anxiety in children such as children with autism spectrum disorder,' he added.

'The potential strength of the bond between a dog and its owner is likely to cause in emotional trauma when this bond is broken.'

He said the law should reflect society's recognition that companion pets are not considered mere property by their owners but are viewed as part of the family.

'The punishment for those who are stealing companion pets should be reflected in a more serious offence,' he said.

'Therefore, I'm calling for a new legal status for animals which distinguishes them from mere property.'

Deputy Mythen said he has spoken to many constituents who outlined to him 'a serious increase in the organised theft of domestic pets'.

'I have been working for the last several weeks on the issue and plan to seek further measures urgently to solve the problem,' he said.

'I have submitted parliamentary questions to establish the extent of the issue, and how it is currently being dealt with,' he added.

He has also urged the Minister for Justice to take action on the matter.

He has also asked that a new pulse code for 'possession of a stolen animal' be set up.

'The theft of household pets is an extremely distressing crime and we need to ensure that the Justice system is adequately set up to deal with this effectively,' he said.

'Imagine a situation where a young child or family member walks outside to find their beloved family pet suddenly missing, your heart goes out to them,' he added.

Deputy Mythen is urging his constituents to ensure their pets are microchipped and to be cautious of any unusual markings outside their house.

'I have heard reports that criminals are now marking out houses to target for theft of certain breeds of dogs in particular,' he said.

'I would advise people to be aware of the threat and to report any suspected theft to authorities without delay,' he added.

'I am working hard on this and I hope we will see improvements and a plan directed from the Department of Justice.'
On Monday 27, July 2020,, the Cape Coaster,, whose parents are from Komenda---the holy city in the Central Region of Ghana was unveiled as the vice-presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman's investiture took place at the auditorium of University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) in Accra. With the historic event now in their rear view mirror, I wouldn't be wrong to say that the 2020 presidential campaign has possibly taken a full gear .

The incumbents-- President Akufo-Addo and his vice-presidential candidate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia are on the right side in the ring. While team JM (former President John Mahama) and his newly- outdoored running mate Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman are on the left side of the aisle.

At the inauguration event, Prof Opku-Agyemang underscored that she is a woman and she also understands the challenges that lie ahead of her.

This, obviously,, renews the attention to playing the gender card. Of course, her selection as the Umbrella's presumptive vice presidential nominee was predicated on that factor. Throughout her speech, the former education minister recounted the enormity of the task ahead. However, the academic also assured Ghanaians that she and her boss can do the job if they're given the mandate come the December 7th general elections.

As I pointed out earlier it looks like all is set now.

But let me remind all the candidates, particularly Jane Naana that this years electoral exercise could be messier. So be reminded, being on a spotlight as a female vice-presidential candidate, you'll have mud thrown at you. But you've got to be you. Be focused. Be bold and be who you have always been.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang casts herself as a unifier, drawing the Ewe connection between herself and some relatives who she said live in Kpando in the Volta Region.

Her speech touched on sanitation, education, health, unity and diversity, youth, the ongoing registration exercise COVID-19, and issues concerning women and children.

So, what would she do differently?

"I assure the leadership and rank and file of the party that I come to this position with the mindset of a team player. I belong to you all and will always count on your support and guidance."

According to her making history is gratifying, but what really matters is not to be first through the door.

"What matters is to hold the door open for those behind us and create other avenues for self-actualization for many more. That is the work of the next four years," she noted.

"My Boss JM, by your choice, you have turned the struggles of so many women who have come before this moment into a probability. We- men, women, our youth and children- we all have a chance to finally make real our dreams of serving this country at high levels, of removing doubts and proving once again that we are capable.

The Selection

She said: "After serious reflection, consultations, prayers, and encouragement of colleagues, friends, and family, I am happy to have accepted the nomination to be the running mate of the presidential candidate of the great national Democratic Congress. This is an act of faith I do not take lightly, at all. I do not underrate the huge responsibilities and expectations that come with the call. I call on us all to translate our excitement into action for the benefit of the good people of our beloved country."

So why did she accept the nomination?

Professor Opoku-Agyemang said she did so because it is an opportunity to serve her country once again, albeit at a higher level. "In God do I continue to trust, that I may never be confounded. The Methodists know where this line is coming from."

She believes that together, they [Mahama &Opoku-Agyemang)can strategise to solve long-standing problems of needless and unproductive discrimination, and thrive as valued citizens.

"I want you, all of us in whatever demographic category to know, that I will carry your voices forward. Together, we can make it happen.This, I pledge to you. I wish we could meet again in same fashion as we did in the process of framing our manifesto, and listen to your concerns, challenges and hopes for the future."

Who is Jane Naana?

"I am Naana Jane. I was born in Cape Coast, a town with rich and intriguing connections to the Ghanaian story. My parents come from the holy city of Komenda. Kofi Nyame nna Aba Atta- you blessed the earth, and are blessed of God and man forever. One of my beloved mothers, biological mother of my oldest sibling, and a great friend comes from Alavanyo, but she spent a great deal of her life in Kpando. Mama Rose, hede nyuiee," she told the gathering.

Growing up as a little girl, I didnt dream of standing in this position; not that I knew it even existed. However, what I knew and believed then was that if I studied and focused enough, that if my actions benefited others before they benefited me; there was nothing impossible to achieve in our great country. I still believe in these values, that others matter, too.

Becoming the first female Vice-Chancellor of a Ghanaian university was - for me - the most tangible testament to this fact. And here let me once again congratulate Prof. Rita Dickson, recently appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Congratulations as well to Dr. Koryoe Anim-Wright, who becomes the first female Registrar of UPSA, where this event is taking place."

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Please read below excerpt of her speech

This country has given me the opportunity to live out that promise and to aspire to the limits of my own potential. It has continuously rewarded a life of hard work and offered me the privilege to give back through service.

It is precisely because of where my story began, that I know what is possible in this country and what the individual can achieve. These are the same lessons I passed on to my students, and of course to my own children and grandchildren - the joys of my life.

But it is also because of where my story began that I know it takes more than just good grades or good work ethic. I had good opportunities too. That made a difference in my life because my origins and upbringing are not unique.

Villages and towns across our country are full of stories like mine.

They are full of parents making untold sacrifices for the sake of their children and their futures. They are full of market women, fisherwomen and farmers toiling in the sun to feed the children on their backs and those they have left behind at home. They are full of young mothers and fathers who are balancing family life, work obligations, and entrepreneurial ambitions: the young mother and yes, the young father who often has to manage family life, employment or entrepreneurship seamlessly. We are a people who jump over many hurdles.

Walking that road is an act of courage. That experience is a forge of character.

Villages and towns across our country are full of brilliant young people with great ambitions and boundless energy. They are full of young people who rightly aspire to a better life than their parents had, and to bring their own children into a better Ghana than their parents did.

Throughout the years, I have been blessed to meet and interact with numerous Ghanaians in every region of our country whose experiences echo mine. I have taught and mentored thousands of youth from all walks of life over the course of my career. And I have always been inspired by their passion, by their positivity, and by their desire to succeed.

But without good, meaningful opportunities, all of that toil and resilience and determination sum up to nothing but frustration and all of that youthful energy amounts to yet more wasted potential. Far too often in this country, that is how the story ends.

And so clearing the hurdles in their path; giving them a hand up and not just a hand out, and offering them plans and not just promises - these must be the immediate priorities of our national agenda.

In todays turbulent political and economic climate, there are four crucial factors to consider in tackling issues relating to youth and gender.

First, we must be mindful of the fact that 60% of our population will be under the age of 30 in a few years. That is why it is so critical that we systematically reform all our systems to effectively address the aspirations of our youth and country.

Second, we need meaningful, quality and comprehensive education that goes beyond access and responds to the future we can actualize.

Third, we must leverage on vocational and technical training to equip many into meaningful and fulfilling work.

Fourth, we must provide opportunities that transcend political patronage, connection and the practice of whom- you- know. Equal and fair opportunities based on merit are an imperative for sustainable economic growth. The time for that shift is now.

Truth be told, despite all our challenges, Ghana remains a special place where any dream is possible, where every aspiration matters, and where anyone - be it a little boy from Bole or a little girl from Komenda - can grow up to be anything they want to be. Even President. Even Vice President. This is why we love this country so much. We must continue to make it a place we cherish and are proud to belong to, and a place of opportunities.

In the past and more so very recently, I have had extensive discussions with H.E. John Mahama about issues confronting our country and his vision for the coming years. These have been broad, passionate and engaging. In John Mahama you find a person who is thoughtful, visionary, makes no claim to perfection and admits to mistakes or missteps and valuable lessons learnt. Our society will be better served with such down-to-earth, considerate and reflective leadership.

We have chosen the path of peace, inclusiveness, self-reliance and belief in ourselves. It is an important avenue through which to turn our current circumstances into opportunities that yield great dividends for us all. And us includes generations unborn. Their lives also matter.

It is clear that with the right direction and resolve, with all of us being part of the forward march, our country is destined for greatness. We can and must right the course of our country. We all admit that we can put our country on a firmer, more sustainable path, a path of peace, in order to move forth in ways that are meaningful and clear.

At this time, may I say to the SHS students who are in school taking your final exams: I have children your age in same situation too, even if not biological. I understand the difficult situation you are going through and, especially, the anxiety that you have as some of your colleagues and staff got infected by COVID-19. There are also, sadly, reports of deaths of students. The partisan nature of our politics today makes it difficult to even ask the most basic questions about the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic without triggering a political brawl. This is unhelpful.

All the same, my condolences to the families; many of us share in your loss.

I ask all of us to be very disciplined about following the World Health Organization Guidelines and the Government Directives and taking good care of yourselves. Some of you will understand these protocols better than others; share the knowledge; lets save lives, regardless.

Countrymen and women,

All we are doing right now is what has always been a very simple exercise of registration. What is not so simple this time is that the exercise is taking place in a time of a dreadful pandemic that is still evolving, and our case numbers still rising.

As if this is not bad enough, the level of violence, brute force, blood-letting and sheer breakdown of law and order in an otherwise straightforward act of registering to vote is unbefitting of this nation that was until recently, a fulcrum of democracy in our region.

How did we descend into this situation?

The answer is simple: when there appears to be selective justice; when some offenders are not even placed on the hook but are hailed and promoted for being nasty and violent, the logical outcome is what we see. This situation of people dying, being harassed because they have decided to register to vote, is not a story we can tell any child in the future, especially when the curriculum is hinged on tolerance. What will be our response if they pose their favourite question: Why or if they add a few words and ask the storyteller: So what did you do? Or,  and what did you say to that? 

We need to show up and vote come December 7th. Each one of us must jealously guard our sacred right to vote and reject the attempts by some to disenfranchise millions of voters. We are all Ghanaians, and we love this country deeply. Do not let anyone make you feel otherwise.

The choice we have in this election is clear: we can either build a Ghana where every citizen regardless of background is afforded equal opportunity to become their best selves. Or we can continue on a path where a few people attempt to control and dictate the destiny of the people who have given them the privilege to govern.

Let our politics deviate from this unproductive path of injustice and non-peace. Ghana does not belong to any select few. We The People, all of us, are the protectors and owners of this country for our collective good and for that of generations unborn.

What makes Ghana so special is that - despite our various ethnic groups, religions, and diverse backgrounds - we all come together as one people under one flag, inspired by the sacrifices of our ancestors to create a great country. And everyones ancestor has been a worthy contributor to this space now called Ghana, whose artificial borders, sadly, we seek to make even more artificial, as if our continent has not suffered enough from the initial assault. Everyone matters. We have come too far as a nation to still cling to our primordial tribal bigotries.

Diversity is a source of great strength. Whether you are GA, MFANTSE, SISALI, EWE, GONJA, ASANTE, NZEMA, MAMPRUSI, or any other ethnic group, you are valued as a Ghanaian. You have every right to walk with confidence, with a high resolve to make huge contributions to this nation. Let nobody, let no one question your identity or patriotism. It is time to put all these needless, unproductive and backward distractions behind us and get on with the serious business of nation-building. The time is now.

The 21st century is nearly 20% over. We shouldnt be here, as a country, living with inexcusable unsanitary conditions, with our babies still dying of malaria; our women delivering on the bare floor, our youth bewildered and unable to see their way ahead, parents confused about the future their children face and the quality of education they are getting. If we choose to be anywhere as a country, the destination should not include a place where a 90-year-old woman, Akua Denteh, is stoned to death because someone has decided that she is a witch. I call on our security agencies to convince us that she has not died in vain.

As indicated, the 21st Century is nearly 20% gone and we shouldnt be here, the very foundations of our democracy is so threatened by unimaginable levels of arrogance, intolerance and violence; humans playing God; our economy is struggling; our tongues tied to the roof of our mouths; our citizens feeling unsafe; our farmers unsure of when to plant crops due to climate change; our environments under severe threats; our youth perishing on their way to find better lives; our institutions to which we should run for succour rapidly losing credibility; children who should be in school becoming unwitting brides, when we all know that marriage is not a childs business.

At a time of a growing number of cases and deaths arising from the pandemic of COVID-19, with their attendant fears and uncertainties; at a time when some of our children are leaving school not any more literate than when they entered; others graduating into unemployment; the vulnerable uncared for, none of us should be here, behaving as if the best antidote to all of these is to flex muscles, turn aspects of our protective institutions into agents of intimidation; and arrogate to ourselves the right to alienate people who have always lived on this part of our continent, long before some did, and who have served our country with distinction.

We can spend all those resources on ways to confront our artificial borders and work towards the inclusion that solidifies our continent.

Let me assure our youth, that we have not always been like this. I have had endless conversations with many of you, and I can understand your frustrations and sense of despair. But, as I keep assuring you, we have not always been like this. No, as you also know, Ghana has not always been like this.

Giving up is not an option.

Stay the course. As a people, we have survived many unspeakable atrocities. Read and know your true history. We just celebrated the Year of Return. Read that history, very, very carefully. It has not been a nice cup of sobolo.

This is a bad phase; it will only pass with our collective determination, plain honest, hard work and willingness to put in practice those values of integrity, meritocracy and inclusiveness. Lets re-ignite the Ghanaian spirit of caring, sharing, of kind hospitality and sincerity. We know we can, all minds linked; God our helper.

I wish to assure our Muslim brothers and sisters that as our Leader, John Dramani Mahama has consistently done in the past, going forward, there will be none of the unwarranted discrimination directed at you, and indeed no Ghanaian will feel alienated due to religion or ethnicity.

This coming Thursday is the great day of Arafa, and as the Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon Him) admonished you to fast, please remember to pray for us, especially for the peace of this country and for Allahs bountiful blessings. I wish you all Eid Mubarak in advance.

To all the little girls and boys across our country, always dream big; remain focused. You can grow to become anything you want to be. Believe that only you can stop yourselves. It is not going to be about your parents, rich or poor; not the region you come from and whether it is endowed with resources or not. Remember that natural endowment is what it is; it did not come from the effort of anyone. It is nature that placed those resources there. That is why we call them natural resources. It is rather about a system that works; a functioning country that respects all its citizens and provides opportunity to all, regardless. The time is ripe for change.

The time is now.

To my daughters and sisters: We are in this together; you know as I do that it has not been and will not be an easy walk; but, as we all know, it is possible; actually it is probable; we can do it.

I know too well and have also lived some of the unspoken and unspeakable weight of responsibilities and concerns we bear as women  much more so, at these incredibly difficult times. What we have always shown however is that when we have the opportunity, many choose to bring on our best game. We earn our seat at the table and we excel. Our results transform our families, communities and country; and sometimes, go beyond our borders, porous or otherwise.

Our democracy has come a long way. Yet it remains fragile. It calls on all of us to exercise our civic duty against any obstacles and machinations. I urge each of us to show up and participate in the ongoing voter registration exercise, but please observe all the necessary health protocols. Please look out for each other. Politely remind people to use their face masks correctly, offer your hand sanitizer to someone in need. If you see a disabled person or an elderly person or pregnant woman, offer help. For THAT is the Ghanaian spirit.

I extend a hand to everyone, no matter how disappointed you have become; no matter the depth of your frustration, your anger, your despair. Come! Lets chart a path for our country built on the values of integrity, merit, trust, responsible citizenship, caring, putting others first, simple polite language.

Come let us link effort and thoughts, to re-build our institutions; lets build a truly independent, inclusive nation that is not afraid to respect views that differ from ours; a country confident enough to accept other ways of seeing; of respecting everyone, regardless.

Come, men, women, our youth, our children- together, let us build the Ghana we can have which must belong to us all, and which must pay special, working and workable attention to the vulnerable.

We must bring back the proverbial Ghanaian hospitality that seems locked down if not quarantined. We must ease restrictions on the Ghana we know that respects, tolerates, liberates.

By Gordon Offin-Amaniampong
OMAHA  A proposed order that could require Omahans to wear masks in indoor public places as early as Aug. 3 got the backing Monday of the Douglas County Board of Health.

The five members of the nine-member board who were present all voted in favor of the resolution. It signaled to County Health Director Adi Pour that the board supports her exercising her power to implement a mask mandate to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Pour said her office will work with Omaha city attorneys to draft language of an order for Omaha. County officials will be doing the same for the rest of the county. An order in Omaha could be ready by the end of the week and go into effect early next week.

Chris Rodgers, president of the county health board, stressed that the boards resolution comes in support of Pour issuing a mask order. Pour has the authority under city code to take the step on her own within Omahas city limits.

The health director is not going rogue, he said.

A Monday morning public hearing on the resolution attracted several opponents. Some said theyre happy to wear masks in certain settings but that a mandate by the government to do so would be a step too far.
A 23-year-old protester has been arrested for allegedly shooting two fellow demonstrators during the Black Lives Matter freeway protest near Denver that turned chaotic when an SUV came charging through the crowd.

Samuel Young was taken into custody Monday night at his home after a judge signed arrests warrants on four counts of attempted homicide, police said.

Young is suspected of opening fire with a handgun on Interstate 225 in Aurora on Saturday night when a Jeep drove through the large demonstration, nearly striking protesters, police said. Bullets believed to have been fired by Young grazed the head of one protester and hit another in the leg, according to the Aurora Police Department.

The gunfire broke out as demonstrators took to the freeway to demand justice in the 2019 police-involved death in Aurora of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black violinist.

I not only find great concern with someone making the decision to drive their vehicle toward protesters on the interstate but that someone in the protester group opened fire, recklessly shooting two people," Aurora Interim Police Chief Vanessa Wilson said in a statement.

Police said Young is the "person of interest" they had been seeking to interview and released images of him wearing a holstered handgun on his right hip while walking with protesters on the freeway. With the help of tips from witnesses and the community, police said they were able to identify Young as the curly-haired white man wearing glasses in the photos.

Officer Matthew Longshore, a spokesman for the Aurora Police Department, told ABC News that investigators made contact with Young earlier Monday and that he agreed to speak to them with his lawyer present.

But when Young failed to show up at the police department to tell his side of the story, prosecutors from the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office sought warrants for his arrest "based on the facts and probable cause provided" by the police, authorities said in a statement.

Story continues

PHOTO: Police in Aurora, Colo. have shared this image of a person of interest in a shooting involving protesters on highway I-225, July 25, 2020. (Aurora Police Department via Twitter)

The shooting was one of several that occurred at protests across the country over the weekend, including one in Austin, Texas, that left a Black Lives Matter protester dead. The shooting also came three weeks after a driver barreled into a Black Lives Matter protest on a closed Seattle freeway, killing one demonstrator and leaving another seriously injured.

The Aurora episode unfolded around 7 p.m. on Saturday as protesters marched onto Interstate 225 in support of McClain, who died after Aurora police stopped him on a street and ended up putting him in a chokehold. McClain was listening to music and walking home after buying iced tea at a corner store on Aug. 24, 2019, when someone reported him as a suspicious person wearing a ski mask and waving his hands, authorities said.

PHOTO: Police in Aurora, Colo. have shared this image of a person of interest in a shooting involving protesters on highway I-225, July 25, 2020. (Aurora Police Department via Twitter)

The officers involved in McClain's death were cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the district attorney for Colorado's 17th Judicial District.

Earlier this month, Chief Wilson fired four Aurora police officers and a fifth resigned after photos surfaced of them mimicking the chokehold death near a memorial for McClain. One of the fire officers was involved in McClain's death.

Police said protesters were walking northbound on Interstate 225 when a turquoise-colored Jeep drove toward the demonstration around 7 p.m.

"While the Jeep was being driven through the crowd, multiple shots were fired by a protester," police in a statement.

PHOTO: People run to get out of the way as a Jeep speeds through a crowd of people protesting the death of Elijah McClain on I-225 on July 25, 2020 in Aurora, Colorado. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

Police said a protester in a car tried to prevent the driver from hitting demonstrators by ramming the side of the Jeep.

The Jeep continued to head north on Interstate 225 and the driver was stopped by police when he exited the freeway, officials said.

MORE: Police declare riots as protests turn violent in cities nationwide; 1 demonstrator dead in Austin

"During preliminary interviews with the Jeep driver, he advised officers that while on I-225, his vehicle began to be surrounded by protesters who were yelling and striking his vehicle," police said in a statement. "He also claims that a white pickup truck struck the front of his vehicle. He claims that the reason that he drove towards the protesters is because he was scared and trying to get away."

Investigators plan to present a case to the local district attorney, who will decide whether criminal charges will be filed against the driver, whose name was not released.

PHOTO: A man shoots at a Jeep speeding through a crowd of people protesting the death of Elijah McClain on I-225 on July 25, 2020 in Aurora, Colorado. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

MORE: Colorado police officers fired for recreating chokehold in photos at Elijah McClain memorial

Police officials urged witnesses to come forward with video and photographs of the incident that could help them identify the person or persons responsible for the shooting. A $2,000 reward is also being offered by Crime Stoppers for information leading to an arrest.

Meanwhile, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said a preliminary investigation of the fatal shooting of protester Garrett Foster, 28, during a Black Lives Matter demonstration in downtown Austin on Saturday night indicates that Foster may have pointed an assault rifle at the driver of a vehicle before he was shot.

PHOTO: People help a man who was shot after a car sped through a crowd of protestors marching on I-225 to protest the death of Elijah McClain on July 25, 2020 in Aurora, Colorado. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

MORE: Federal officers clash with protesters in Portland as US attorney calls for investigation

"Gunshots were fired from inside the vehicle at Foster," Manley said in a statement issued Sunday night. "Someone else in the crowd opened fire on the car as it drove off.

Manley said both people who fired guns have been questioned and released pending further investigation. He said both people had concealed handgun licenses.

Foster's mother disputed the police account of the shooting during an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Sheila Foster said her son was pushing his fiancee's wheelchair when he was gunned down.

"And this gentleman got out of his car and started firing shots, and my son was shot three times," she said.

Protester arrested in shooting of 2 at Black Live Matter freeway demonstration for Elijah McClain originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Close to 20 years' worth of economic growth have been lost over the past number of months.

While such economic havoc that Covid-19 has wreaked in a short period does bring significant challenge and hardship, these will always pale in significance in comparison to the human tragedy brought about by the virus.

Hopefully we are through the worst of the human tragedy and we can quickly find a way to live with the virus, and even eradicate it.

The type of economy we are emerging into is one teetering on the brink of a deep and lasting decline or a sharp decline and recovery.

While a deep and lasting decline seems more likely at this point, the government do appear alert to the risks and seem prepared to make significant interventions to boost the economy.

Where the mantra was once that there is no 'magic money tree', it seems that Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, knew differently and has shaken it at will since the start of the Covid crisis.

Between April and June, the government's net cash requirement - the deficit of tax receipts over public spending - was 174bn.

To put this in context, during the same period a year ago the figure was 20bn and the previous record (during the height of the global financial crash) was 77bn.

We know that the Chancellor turned the spending taps on in dramatic fashion, with the furlough scheme and other supports, but there has also been a collapse in tax receipts as VAT deferrals and fewer national insurance and PAYE receipts impact.

In the months ahead, the aim is to prevent the roughly nine million jobs that have been furloughed from becoming permanently redundant and leading to mass unemployment (in Northern Ireland, there are over 200,000 who have been temporarily laid off).

Hence the various initiatives to get us spending again, and spending in sectors that have been particularly severely hit by the Covid closures coupled with job retention and job creation schemes.

While governments are making significant emergency financial injections into the economy, the outcome from these interventions remains exceptionally uncertain and the economy is expected to decline significantly in 2020.

HM Treasury's useful collation of independent forecasts for the UK economy shows a range of guesses for where the economy is heading, 21 of which have been released this month so reflect as up to date a view as is possible. The average of these new forecasts is that the UK economy will contract by just over 9% in 2020 before posting growth of 6.6% in 2021.

There is no consensus around these rates of growth and they range from -12% to -6.6% this year and 1.5% to 10.3% next year.

Locally, Danske Bank have taken a view that the economy here will contract by 11% this year and grow by 7% in 2021.

It is worth noting that this dire prediction for Northern Ireland assumes a free trade agreement which keeps trade between the UK and the EU largely tariff-free will be reached.

If, and it remains a real risk, there is no deal between the EU and UK, the economic prospects for Northern Ireland will become more challenging.

With such a difficult time ahead, where are we looking for growth?

The Department for the Economy, in a paper on rebuilding a stronger economy, is honing in on sectors which can address the long standing challenge of having too few high paying jobs in our economy.

These sectors are:

Advanced manufacturing: The advanced manufacturing sector accounts for just shy of 10% of our economy and across 2,200 firms approximately 46,000 people are employed.

The sector is also one of our biggest exporters, selling several billions of pounds worth of products across the world.

There is no doubt the sector is facing big challenges over the Covid and Brexit period but given the importance to our economy, it offers a route to higher paying jobs.

Life and health sciences: We have a vibrant cluster of 250+ companies here employing at least 10,000 people and a very strong research base in our two universities. With the recent health crises, building capacity in this sector is a vital part of ensuring we can respond well to future demands.

Clean energy: One glimmer of positivity from the Covid-19 lockdown has been the reduction in CO2 emissions.

This is amplifying calls for economic recovery plans and 'build back better' initiatives to major on climate action. Again, we are well placed to act here.

About half our electricity now comes from renewable sources such as wind and solar and innovative schemes under way like the Girona 'micro grid' project in the Coleraine area will combine renewables, energy storage and smart grid technology to deliver cleaner and lower cost energy. It's all to play for, in creating economic opportunity from a need to become net carbon neutral by 2050.

Digital: Northern Ireland has had outstanding success in developing a digital/tech sector which is now estimated to be worth a billion pounds and which employs close to 30,000 people.

We can now claim to be a global leader in cyber security and a leading destination for new software development inward investment.

This global reputation is not just built on inward investment but also on a dynamic start up community.

Both will stand us in good stead when seeking new opportunities to grow the sector.

While these sectors potentially offer a route to economic recovery, there are a range of sectors such as retail, hospitality and the creative sector that serve Northern Ireland exceptionally well with respect to providing jobs and incomes.

In thinking about these types of sectors, I was reminded of research I was involved with a couple of years ago that articulated the economic and social value of an oft overlooked sector - adult social care.

While this sector, which supports approximately 45,000 jobs, will rarely feature in growth wish lists of policy makers, its importance over the past six months has brought its significance into sharp focus.

Given that demand for care will naturally increase as our population ages, and given what we have come through as a society this year, it might be time to think about how that sector can support our economic ambitions.
Federal agents disperse demonstrators who used fencing to block entrances and exits to the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse, in Portland, Ore., on July 20, 2020. (Noah Berger/AP Photo)

Colorado Meteorologist Leaves TV Station After Allegedly Comparing Federal Troops to Nazis

Meteorologist Marty Coniglio has left the Colorado outlet 9News after allegedly posting a tweet, since deleted, comparing U.S. federal troops to Nazi soldiers, local media reported.

The Twitter post at the heart of the controversy, dated July 23, features a photo of World War II-era German paramilitary police, posing in uniform with a large swastika in the background and what looks to be Adolf Hitler in the center. Federal police in cities  now where have I seen that before? reads the caption. The tweet features Marty Coniglios name, profile photo, and Twitter handle @martyconiglio.

Asked about the authenticity of the tweet, Coniglio told The Epoch Times in an email: I believe what you are talking about is an authentic photo of a group of Sturmbteilung, also known as the SA, or Brown Shirts, who were a paramilitary nationalized police force in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s.

He added that I am not familiar with any retweets or interpretations of the photo or any post beyond the historical fact that the group existed.

9News did not immediately return a request for comment.

The tweet was screenshot before being deleted, with Rep. Ken Buck, Colorados Republican Party chairman, later sharing it, adding the message: Comparing the brave men and women of our law enforcement community to Nazis is absolutely reprehensible.

Mark Cornetta, president and general manager of 9News, confirmed to Westword that an internal email was distributed to station staff at 9 p.m. on July 24, stating that Coniglio was no longer an employee of the outlet. Coniglios bio is no longer featured on the 9News staff page.

I want to share that Marty Coniglio is no longer an employee of 9News, the email stated, according to the report. We thank him for his many years of service.

Coniglio confirmed to The Denver Post that he left 9News but said he would not be able to talk about the situation for at least a week or so.

In a statement to Westword, Coniglio said, I am moving along with the next opportunities coming up in my life. I dont really have anything to say about past events.

Coniglio pinned a tweet on July 25 with the Latin phrase ET STABIT IN VERITATE, which roughly translated means standing firm in truth, and the words, Nowon to the next adventure!

The Colorado Republican Party commented on Coniglios alleged tweet with a statement on Twitter: Republicans know that the press leans to the left, but are fellow reporters okay with this type of radical hate against law enforcement from employees at local news stations?

The reference to media bias in the GOP tweet in context of deployment of federal troops to quell protest violence may refer to reports that some outlets have downplayed or ignored rioting during protests including destruction of property or setting federal government buildings on fire.

Seattle police on Sunday released bodycam footage that shows some of the street violence that left dozens of officers injured the night before. The footage shows an explosive device thrown at officers, who back away as it explodes. It also shows unspecified objects thrown at officers as they face off against rioters.

Crowd continuing to throw large rocks, bottles, fireworks and other explosives at officers, the Seattle Police Department wrote in a tweet.

Crowd continuing to throw large rocks, bottles, fireworks and other explosives at officers. pic.twitter.com/3gTGJUonUt  Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) July 26, 2020

In yesterdays protests, at least 3 set fires occurred in Capitol Hill & First Hill, the Seattle Fire Department said in a statement. We want to remind individuals that fires can have unintended consequences including property damage and in a worst case scenarioloss of life. Do not intentionally ignite fires.

Mike Solan, president of the Seattle police union, shared an article on his Twitter feed about officers getting injured by rioters.

This is clearly domestic terrorism, he said in a social media post.

Meanwhile, six Democrat mayors have sent a letter to congressional leaders asking for legislation that would bar the Trump administration from sending federal agents to their cities.

Calling the use of federal troops an egregious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities, the mayors complained about recent reports of federal agents detaining rioters in Portland.

We live in a democratic republic, not an authoritarian police state. We must block this type of dangerous and undemocratic exercise of power once and for all, they wrote.

Responding to a situation in which demonstrations have, in places, devolved into street violence, the Trump administration has taken the unusual step of sending in federal troops to protect federal buildings and federal officers that have been under nightly attacks for nearly two months.

President Donald Trump, in remarks on July 22, said that a radical movement to defund, dismantle, and dissolve our police departments in recent weeks has led to a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders, and heinous crimes of violence.

He then announced a surge of federal law enforcement into communities impacted by violent crime.

Well work every single day to restore public safety, protect our nations children, and bring violent perpetrators to justice, he said.

This bloodshed must end. This bloodshed will end, Trump said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 11:27:42|Editor: huaxia

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MOSCOW, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke in favor of resolving the Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions through peaceful means during a phone conversation Monday.

During the call at the initiative of the Turkish side, Putin stressed the importance of preventing any steps that could cause an escalation in the tensions, the Kremlin said in a press release.

Putin and Erdogan expressed their interest in coordinating efforts to achieve stabilization in the region, according to the Kremlin.

The two leaders also underlined the lack of alternatives to a political or diplomatic settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of international law and in the interests of both the Armenian and Azerbaijani people.

Armed clashes, which erupted earlier this month in the region between the two countries, have caused multiple deaths.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at loggerheads over the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh since 1988. Peace talks have been held since 1994 when a ceasefire was reached, but there have been occasional minor clashes along the borders. Enditem
New South Wales has recorded another 14 new cases of coronavirus, including six more linked to a funeral cluster.

The state has now recorded a total of 3,510 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

Six of the new cases are linked to a cluster which began at a funeral, while a further four are connected to Thai Rock at Wetherill Park in Sydney's west.

One of the new cases has been linked to the cluster at the Thai Rock restaurant in Potts Point, while another staff member at the nearby Apollo restaurant also tested positive to the deadly respiratory infection.

New South Wales Health announced on Monday night night everyone who attended The Apollo restaurant at Potts Point from Thursday 23 to Saturday 25 July should self isolate for 14 days from the date of their visit

In addition, one case was acquired in Victoria and is currently in isolation, and one is a returned traveller in hotel quarantine.

New South Wales Health announced on Monday night night everyone who attended The Apollo restaurant at Potts Point from Thursday 23 to Saturday 25 July should self isolate for 14 days from the date of their visit.

Any patrons who develop symptoms are urged to get tested, while any residents in the Potts Point region are also urged to seek testing.

There are now 75 cases associated with Thai Rock Wetherill Park, 56 cases associated with the Crossroads Hotel cluster, eight cases associated with Batemans Bay Soldiers Club, and 15 associated with the funerals.

New South Wales has recorded another 14 new cases of coronavirus , including six more linked to a funeral cluster. Pictured: NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian

Six of the new cases are linked to a cluster which began at a funeral, while a further four are connected to Thai Rock at Wetherill Park in Sydney's west, Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant revealed

Three cases have been linked to Thai Rock in Potts Point.

Mounties on Meadows Road and the Pritchard's Hotel, both in Mount Pritchard, have also closed after a customer went to both venues while infected.

There are currently 101 patients who are seeking treatment for COVID-19, according to New South Wales Health.

Five of those patients are in intensive care, and one is on a ventilator.

More to come.
Indian industry on Tuesday pointed to some encouraging signs of recovery on the back of a resurgent rural economy, but feared for stressed sectors such as aviation, hotels and commercial vehicles, and said that companies have little appetite for loans due to their inability to service debt.

These points were made in two separate statements from two apex associations.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said economic uncertainties were hampering the industrys ability to plan for future, while the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said companies were hesitant to take credit risk in these circumstances.

Reeling under debt-ridden balance sheets and economic uncertainties in the face of the Covid-19 crisis, Indian industry is left with little appetite for anymore loans, with the result that most of bank deposits are either being parked with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or used by the central bank to fund ever-increasing government borrowings, Assocham said in its statement.

Barring a few, most of the sectors witnessed de-growth in credit deployment with construction witnessing 3.7% contraction, gems and jewellery (-3.7%), and leather and leather products (-4.4%), it added.

CII pointed to the difference between the current downturn facing India --4.5% contraction in FY-21 as projected by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-- as compared to other such slowdowns. It is pertinent to note that the recession staring at us in the current year is different from the previous recorded episodes of recession which were all triggered by a monsoon failure. This year, the agricultural sector has emerged as the beacon of hope for Indias economy, the CII statement said.

On the services side, IT sector is expected to grow at about 0-5% in FY 21. Companies in this sector are well capitalised with no layoffs expected. While the growth in hospitals is likely to be flat, the crisis has expedited digital health servicing which otherwise would have taken a few years to actualise, it added.

Deepak Sood, secretary general of Assocham, said the main issue at hand is capability to service a debt rather than the availability of loans. With a large number of industries still operating at less than half the capacity, leveraging their balance sheets further would be counterproductive, he said.

Even after meeting the increased requirement of the government borrowings, the system is flush with liquidity with virtually no takers, Sood said, adding that RBIs Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) should brainstorm on this difficult situation, when it meets for the credit policy review, scheduled next month.

He also said he was expecting a one-time loan restructuring.

In a virtual conference between RBI governor Shaltikanta Das and CII members on Monday, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh and Kotak Mahindra Bank vice-chairman and managing director Uday Kotak also proposed a one-time loan restructuring scheme to ease stress on both businesses and lenders because of disruptions due to Covid-19 pandemic. Governor Das said that the suggestion was noted.

A one-time restructuring permits lenders to extend the tenure of loan tenures or change payment terms to save the account from becoming a non-performing asset (NPS). The central bank is, however, opposed to the idea because in the past loan restructuring led to evergreening of loans rather than recognising them as bad loans.

Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of CII, said there are early signs of recovery, but it is critical to build on these, by deploying all the policy levers.

He said there are promising signs pointing towards a V-shaped recovery in the immediate aftermath of the lockdown.

In order to nurture the nascent signs of recovery, it is important to mitigate the uncertainties that are currently prevailing regarding the restrictions. Corporates are unable to plan beyond a horizon of a few weeks, affecting all operations, he added.

He said business activities must be allowed to function, by removing the uncertainties associated with imposing mini-lockdowns. Although it is not possible to predict the course of the pandemic, a dashboard approach, triggering predictable responses based on the progression of infections, can reduce uncertainty and boost both consumer and industry confidence, he added.
The US has raised questions in a committee of the World Trade Organisation on certain schemes of India, the body said in a communication on Tuesday.

The questions were posed by the US in WTO's Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM), it said.

On Puducherry's 50 per cent subsidy for the purchase of FRP catamaran, the US has asked, "can India explain whether the programme might increase India's overall fishing capacity?"



Similarly, it has posed questions on Marine Products Export Development Authority's (MPEDA) culture fisheries schemes like financial assistance for new farm development and medium-scale hatcheries.

For these programmes, "please explain if the fisheries must export their production in order to receive financial assistance from the Government of India? if so, please explain how these programmes are consistent with India's SCM obligations," the US has asked.

(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.)
By PTI

GANGTOK: Sikkim's ruling SKM has attacked the opposition for "hitting below the belt" and "manipulating words" while accusing Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang of failing to handle the COVID-19 situation in the state.

A political slugfest erupted after opposition Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) slammed the chief minister "for blaming the public" for the spread of the coronavirus in the Himalayan state.

Tamang, also the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) supremo, had on Monday said the sudden surge in COVID-19 cases was due to gross violations of lockdown guidelines by people, and asked the police to take action against the transgressors.

"Having nothing much to criticise the SKM Govt for its handling of Covid-19 crisis, Opposition take to manipulation of words and accuses Chief Minister PS Golay of blaming the people for his failures," the SKM tweeted late on Monday.

"Shame on those who choose to hit below the belt just for the sake of criticism," it added.

The ruling party's reaction came hours after SDF tagged a PTI tweet on Facebook to assail the chief minister for "mishandling the COVID-19 outbreak".

"The SDF party from the beginning has been vocal about how the state government has lagged behind in preparing for the threat that the virus poses.

After blatant lapses on the part of the state government to handle COVID-19 battle thus far, the chief minister goes on to blame the public for the spread of the virus! "Does the government and Mr Golay not have any responsibility in this at all? Such a statement coming from the chief minister is nothing short of shameful," the SDF said in a statement.

The SDF had tagged the PTI tweet which quoted Tamang, also known as Prem Singh Golay, as saying, "Surge in #COVID19 cases in state is due to gross violations of lockdown guidelines by people".

He had made the remark on Monday while presiding over a high-level meeting of the state task force to review the management of COVID-19 outbreak in the state.
So keen was the government to travel to Washington for AUSMIN that the ministers severely curtailed their usual retinues. Accompanying the ministers are Chief of the Defence Force General Angus Campbell, DFAT secretary Frances Adamson and Defence secretary Greg Moriarty, as well as one adviser for each minister. CBD wonders if the Yanks would have been happier to Zoom the whole thing, but our government decided the special relationship dictated that social distancing in person was the only way to go. DESIGN, INTERRUPTED North Sydney councillor MaryAnn Beregi is one of the most outspoken opponents of the proposed $60 million upgrade of North Sydney Olympic Pool, which is mired in delays after heritage consultants found its first set of plans could not be supported. Swimmers at North Sydney Pool in September. Credit:James Alcock

To be fair, there are plenty of reasons to complain about the proposed revamp. Independent consultants ruled that landmark qualities would be lost under the first plans submitted. And its never dull when the committee leading the project include a mother and daughter - mayor Jilly Gibson and Alanya Drummond, also a councillor - as well as the wealthy restaurateur who runs the food facilities at the site. Of course nothing is straightforward in North Sydney. In June, Beregis two school-aged sons submitted their own, identical, and curiously sophisticated objections to the councils pool plans. Beregi, for her part, claimed to have nothing to do with it. But it turns out the pool is not the only grand design not supported. Beregi and her husband Thomas Beregi, who leads debt recovery agency Credit Corp, have just wrapped up action against North Sydney Council - yep, her employer - in the Land and Environment Court after multimillion-dollar plans to renovate their waterfront home were knocked back. The pair tapped prominent architect Michael Morgan of NettletonTribe to design the $3.7 million upgrade, which included making the homes interiors bigger, as well as a proposal to excavate a pool, build a cabana and new boat shed.

Council planners refused the application in October last year. The pair appealed the decision, which then pushed the case into the states Land and Environment Court. At the last meeting on June 24, the pair opted to discontinue the action. A speed-hump for the grand design, rather than a stop sign, presumably. Its hard to know what the neighbours thought of the plans given the council keeps community feedback under lock and key, citing privacy reasons. But its interesting to note that 11 neighbours in the tiny Kurraba Point street felt compelled to share their thoughts. STAYING AFLOAT JobKeeper really does bring home the bacon in places we least expected. Take Newports Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. The genteel club on the Pittwater waterfront, whose members include Blackmores founder Marcus Blackmore, delivered a surplus of more than $350,000 in financial accounts released this week. This compared to just over $255,000 last year. And what made the difference? The major contributing factors of the surplus have been government grants for COVID-19 (being $50,000 Cash Flow Stimulus Boost and $153,000 JobKeeper of which $53,593 was paid to stood down casuals), vice commodore Ron Palmer wrote in his finance director's report in company accounts released this week. Other factors to bump up the result in a tough period included a reduction in repairs and maintenance overall of $152,761. An insurance claim payout of $51,555 also helped.

Negotiating the pandemic presented its challenges, Palmer noted, noting the difficulty of navigating changing government packages and the early days of JobKeeper. The clubs financial position remains strong, he said, but its crucial to get back on the water. To maintain the clubs facilities, we need to increase participation in all areas from  when we are able to return to having FUN! Hear, hear. Belvoir St Theatre artistic director Eamon Flack. Credit:Janie Barrett READ THE ROOM Belvoir St has a reputation as one of Australias most innovative and acclaimed theatres and one sensitive to all things diversity. But the theatre, headed by artistic director Eamon Flack and executive director Sue Donnelly, is not above taking a crack at those south of the border, even during the coronavirus pandemic. With other organisations such as the State Theatre Company South Australia announcing it will raise the curtain in September, the news for the Sydney institution is less positive. This week Belvoir St said it had cancelled one production, Summerfolk, and moved another, My Brilliant Career, from September to November. Then it added a cheap jibe in a note to ticket holders: Of course the situation has changed (as they say about the Spice Girls, Victoria spoiled it for everyone) but we are still making theatre.
I am writing in regard to the article in Saturdays paper where Mayor Diane Therrien accuses Coun. Henry Clarke of pulling a cheap stunt in trying show some leadership in freezing council salaries for 2021.

Therrien wrote that she and others on council privately make donations to charities without expectation of public applause. As does Coun. Clarke, and if the mayor took the time to research Coun. Clarkes record she would have noted a commitment, financially and otherwise, to community causes such as housing, dating back long before her arrival in town.

These sort of cheap stunts devalue the work that Council and staff do every day exactly at a time when we should be pulling together.

Pulling together? Council cant pick a number between 2 and 3. No one knows better than Coun. Clarke what impact the small amount of money he is foregoing will have on the COVID-19 deficit, but the leadership the gesture shows has certainly been missed and/or misrepresented by councillors.

Unfortunately in reading the coverage on this topic (council salaries) and Coun. Clarkes attempts to bring the issue before council, it is apparent that to a number of members of council that being a councillor is not so much a calling to serve the community for them as it is simply a job.

The really cheap stunt was how the mayor treated Coun. Clarke after the election. As a neophyte in local government compared to Coun. Clarkes experience the mayor did not show great leadership by not giving the hardest working, longest serving member of council, a former deputy mayor and long serving chair of finance, and a councillor with the highest integrity, a chairmanship of any committee.

You would have thought a wise person would have taken advantage of that experience and impeccable record rather than be vindictive and cast it to the side. I am sure seeing the mayor appoint her former wardmate chair of finance and a first-time councillor as deputy mayor added insult to injury, but Coun, Clarke being the gentleman he is has carried on serving the community as he has for many years.

A reporter once asked the celebrated orchestra conductor Leonard Bernstein what was the most difficult instrument to play. Bernstein replied without any hesitation whatever: Second fiddle! I can always get plenty of first violinists, but to find one who plays second violin with as much enthusiasm, now thats a problem. And yet if no one plays second, we have no harmony.

The ability to play second fiddle is a noble role in life. An organizations success will invariably be built upon the back of many who are willing to play the second fiddle well. Unsung heroes who do their work without complaining, who find joy in others success, who are willing to remain in the shadows or retreat from the spotlight so that others might shine.

Council cant pick a number between 2 per cent and 3 per cent , how is that for harmony? Maybe we have too many first violinists

Bernsteins description of a second fiddle pretty much describes Coun. Clarke as I see it having served on council with him for a number of years.

As deputy mayor he was loyal, we did not always agree, and in my absence he stepped in to fill my role and when I returned he seamlessly assumed his former role. Not one I would suspect of pulling a cheap stunt where the Peterborough community is involved.
Photo: Gov't of Canada

Businesses across Western Canada are expected to get a shot in the arm today as the federal government spreads $95 million in relief funding across more than 1,760 companies.

Most of the funding, in the form of interest-free loans up to $40,000, and up to $1 million in funding to cope with financial hardship resulting from COVID-19, will support businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

Businesses in Western Canada have felt the impact of COVID-19 first-hand. This is why we are working with entrepreneurs to rebuild our economy and help get Canadians back to work, said Minister of Economic Development Melanie Joly.

In a statement, Joly said the measures will result in 6,800 jobs being protected between Victoria and Winnipeg.

Our message is clear: were been here for you with immediate measures, were here for you now as our economy reopens and well get through this, together, she said. Were working with you to support good, local jobs and help Western Canadas economy come back strong.

The money, supplied by Western Economic Diversification Canada, is part of the $962-million Regional Relief and Recovery Fund. Launched in May, the fund was designed to support businesses who were unable to access any other federal pandemic relief measures and were in danger of falling through the cracks.

Burnaby-based Acuva Technologies, which specializes in water-disinfection technology, will use the funding it received to research new products for air and surface disinfection.

The companys chief executive, Manoj Singh, contracted COVID-19 and has since recovered.

It is reassuring to see the government of Canada providing such amazing support to businesses, including ours, said Singh. The funding helped Acuva to not only maintain operations but also to expand them, including the opening of our very first international office in Germany.

Joly is also expected to announce today a $2.95-million boost for B.C.s high-tech sector. She suggested the fund could help as many as 2,500 tech businesses in the province and help maintain 1,000 jobs.

The money will support companies through the B.C. Technology Sector Resiliency Program, developed by Innovate B.C., by expanding advisory services and resources across the province.

This federal funding will enable Innovate B.C. and our network of provincial partners to provide direct support to local businesses that are dealing with the economic fallout of COVID-19, said Raghwa Gopal, chief executive of Innovate B.C. Through this program, B.C. businesses will get access to training, mentorship, and advisory services that will maintain jobs and ensure that companies across the province are set up for resiliency and success.

The money will also expand the Digital Economic Response program developed by the Innovation Island Technology Association in Nanaimo.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said the National Art Theatre in Lagos will be revamped with creative hubs of four clusters  film, music, fashion and IT- in 22 months.

The Minister gave the assurance on Tuesday on NTA live Programme, Good Morning Nigeria monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

Mohammed said that as part of the efforts to reposition the creative industry, the Federal Government recently handed over the National Theatre to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to renovate.

He said the CBN and its partner, the Bankers Committee would commit about N25 billion on the project out of which N7 billion would be used to renovate the National Theatre edifice and put it back to its glory days.



He said N18 billion would be committed to building the creative hubs and other infrastructure on the 142 hectares of land lying fallow around the edifice.

Mohammed clarified that the ministry was not giving out the National Theatre edifice to the CBN, it would be returned to government after the renovation.

We are not giving them the National Theatre, they are returning the edifice to us  the main bowl, the cinema halls, the banquet hall the restaurants, the bar -.

They will revamp the facilities and hand over to us a brand new National Theatre.

 For more than 40 years every attempt to renovate the National Theatre has failed; so when we saw the opportunity of public-private partnership where the CBN and Bankers Committee intervened we went for it.

In return for revamping the National Theatre, we gave them the fallow land around the edifice where they will develop.

The 142 hectares of fallow land around the edifice will be converted to creative hubs of four clusters in the film, music, fashion and IT sectors.

The space will be curated for soft and hard landscape spaces, artificial lake will be created and the entire environment will be transformed, he said.

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Cummins Inc. (CMI), while reporting weak profit and revenues in its second quarter, said it currently expects third quarter revenues to improve from second quarter levels. In pre-market activity on the NYSE, Cummins shares were trading at $198.05, up 3.7 percent. The manufacturer of power solutions added that there remains significant uncertainty around how COVID-19 will impact end market demand as well as customer and supplier operations. Due to this uncertainty, the company is not providing full year revenue or profitability guidance for 2020. Chairman and CEO Tom Linebarger said, 'While customer demand did improve in some regions as the quarter progressed, significant uncertainty around the pace of recovery in our markets remains, requiring a continued strong focus on managing expenses and cash flow.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
The Military High Command on Tuesday warned officers and soldiers of the Armed Forces of Nigeria against mutiny, reminding them of their oath of allegiance to be totally loyal to the civil authority and protect the constitution.

The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, John Enenche, a major general, gave the warning in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.

The warning came a day after the State Security Service (SSS) said it had uncovered plans by some persons and groups to destabilise the country.

Mr Enenche said the warning was in response to a statement credited to the National Chairman of National Democratic Party (NDP), Chidi Chukwuanyi, calling for the Ghanaian experience under Rawlings in Nigeria.

He said while the Defence Headquarters does not wish to join issues in any way, it is instructive to observe that this unguarded utterance targeted at the Nigerian Military is inciting.

What Chidi Chukwuanyi is calling for is a combination of unpopular acts of insurrection and mutiny, which cannot be taken for granted by the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

Consequently, I am directed by the High Command of the Nigerian Military to let the general public know and remind personnel of the Armed Forces of Nigeria that all officers and men of the Nigerian Military swore an oath of allegiance.

This translates to unalloyed loyalty to the President, Commander-in-Chief and full subordination to the civil authorities of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

That all officers and men of the Armed Forces of Nigeria are to continue to abide by the constitutional provision, in Section 217 sub section 2 (c) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended,

To suppress insurrection and act in aid of civil authorities to restore order.

Any act to the contrary is unconstitutional.

That all officers and men of the Nigerian Military are further reminded of offences contained in Armed Forces Act CAP A 20, The laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, which include among others; Mutiny in Sections 52 and 53, which if committed are punishable.

I am further directed to state clearly and unequivocally that the Nigerian Military is a force that is in consonance with all global best practices and cannot be misguided by any individual or group.

And for the avoidance of doubt, the Armed Forces of Nigeria is totally loyal to the President, Commander-in-Chief and fully subordinated to the civil authorities of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he said.

On Monday, the SSS, in a statement by its spokesperson, Peter Afunanya, said some prominent personalities and socio-cultural groups had resorted to divisive acts through inciting statements aimed at pitting individuals, groups and ethnic nationalities against another.

It said it was aware of the plans and those sponsoring them.

(NAN)






EV manufacturer Fisker has committed to Extreme E, the company confirmed Monday, and is in "advanced talks" to become a series partner and potentially field a factory team.

The Extreme E series is the brain child of Formula E mastermind Alejandro Agag. It will feature purpose-built 4x4s EVs racing in remote, spectator-free venues with coverage provided by drones. The series will visit remote regions of Nepal and Saudi Arabia, among other locales, and teams will be transported from one leg to the next via ship. Extreme E is refitting a 7,716-ton former Royal Mail Ship, the RMS St. Helena, to serve as transportation and floating paddock. There will be five races in the 2021 season  if all goes to plan.

The series' remote nature will make it less accessible to fans, but the choice of such locales was intended to highlight "[...] the impact of climate change and human interference in some of the worlds most remote locations and promotes the adoption of electric vehicles to help preserve the environment and protect the planet," the series announcement said.

"Alejandro brought electric vehicle racing into the mainstream with Formula E and I fully support his vision to reinvent off-road racing at the same time as creating an education platform for the threats posed by climate change. Extreme E and Fisker Inc. are completely aligned in our mission and values," said CEO Henrik Fisker.

Extreme E will use a spec chassis. Dubbed the Odyssey 21, it will be built by French company Spark and powered by batteries designed by the Williams Formula One team. Spark says the Odyssey 21 can do 0-62 mph in 4.5 seconds and with a range of 200km in non-racing conditions. The top speed is around 200 kph (or approximately 120 mph).

While the chassis and battery pack will be provided, manufacturer teams will be tasked with developing their own electric motor and inverter. They will also have leeway in designing certain body panels, allowing them to make the Odyssey 21 look more like their own production models.

Story continues

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MANZINI  Retrenchments are imminent for some of the 14 048 employees on unpaid layoffs due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.



This follows that some employers have advanced an argument that they were no longer able to sustain their businessess, as they have had minimal activity since the national emergency was announced by the Prime Minister, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini. The national emergency was announced on March 17, 2020, due to the relentless spread of the coronavirus across the world.



Given this state of affairs, some entrepreneurs in the various economic sectors, said they feared that they would not to be able to pay out their employees should the opportunity to retrench arise.



Extension



This, they said, was due to the consistent extension of the national emergency as it has been extended twice with a month apiece following the initial two-month period.

The Labour Commissioner, Mthunzi Shabangus office, reported that the cumulative figure of unpaid layoffs was 14 048 and it was derived from 105 approved requests of different companies.



One of the partners, who shall be present during the Labour Advisory Board (LAB) discussions on Friday, said they were seeking to propose the implementation of retrenchments.

Looking at the current scenario and the manner in which the operations are ongoing, there is no alternative but to terminate the employment of some of the employees, he said. He said this was necessitated by the fact that most of the employers were barely coping with their basic overheads while the cost of retaining the employees was unsustainable anymore.



The business community representative said during the meeting, they would advocate for permission to retrench. This, he said, shall be for employers who had followed the laid-down guidelines from inception, such as documenting their mitigation means in dealing with the repercussions of the coronavirus; such as short time, rotational shifts and the worst being unpaid layoffs.

The layoffs were set to be for the period of two months as per the dictates of the ministry (of Labour and Social Security) announced by the minister, following the advice of the LAB, he said.

Making an example, the industry player said employers had also raised concerns that delaying the retrenchments would surmount the payment of packages.



Supported



This assertion was supported by the Federation of the Eswatini Business Community (FESBC). The Deputy President of FESBC, Hezekiel Mabuza, said the retrenchments were imminent given that most employers were no longer capable of remunerating their employees.

Retrenchments are the only option as the coronavirus persists. We should rather be able to pay out those the employees now than to delay and accumulate unnecessary expenditure while there are no available resources already.

Mabuza said this was a subject that was still to be engaged on, but the financial challenges were the motivating factor for many. He said such entrepreneurs could not access bridging finance to assist them sustain their businesses in such a frustrating time. Due to this, he said the only option they had was to minimise staff.



The only solution is to get rid of the human resource and when you do that, there are trickle-down effects as many people depended on your operations.

Mabuza said this was a tough call, but it needed to be dealt with in order to free the employees and let them have their terminal benefits so that they could use them in the interim while the economy was recovering from the pandemic.

On the other hand, the Chief Executive of Business Eswatini, Nathi Dlamini, in a previous interview, supported the idea of retrenchments. He said their members had been facing challenges given that their personnel had been on unpaid layoffs.



Activity



He said the tourism sector had minimal activity due to the fact that the ports of entry, which led to the flow of tourists into the country, were inactive.

Dlamini said government had already started groundwork to look post COVID-19 as means to mitigate the calamities; however, the challenge was the immediate. Also, the Chief Executive Officer of the Eswatini Tourism Authority (ETA), Linda Nxumalo, last month said the issue of retrenchments had been brought forth by players in the industry.
PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):--- The Fire Department/Office of Disaster Management (ODM) Fire Chief Clive Richardson is calling on the community to closely monitor the progress of a developing weather system that is located approximately 1000 miles east-southeast of Sint Maarten.



According to the Meteorological Department of Sint Maarten (MDS), the low-pressure system could form into a tropical depression or tropical storm within the next couple of days.



The system is forecast to begin affecting portions of the Lesser Antilles on Wednesday or Wednesday night.



MDS stated on Monday that due to the high likelihood of cyclone formation, a tropical storm watch could be issued for Sint Maarten.



A tropical storm watch is issued when a tropical cyclone poses a possible threat, generally within 48 hours. These winds may be accompanied by storm surge and coastal flooding.



The remaining storm names for the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season are: Isaias, Josephine, Kyle, Laura, Marco, Nana, Omar, Paulette, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky, and Wilfred.



A small craft advisory, flash flood advisory and a severe wind advisory could go into effect for Sint Maarten from Wednesday morning.



For those who would like to learn more about hurricane hazards and how to prepare for a storm/hurricane strike, you can visit the Government website: www.sintmaartengov.org/hurricane where you will be able to download your Hurricane Season Readiness Guide and Hurricane Tracking Chart.



In addition, you can also download the Disasterprep Sint Maarten app for Android and Apple phones by going to the Google and Apple stores.



ODM reminds residents and business owners to have plans in place for quick action when the need arises  storm ready!



Listen to the Government Radio station  107.9FM - for official information and news before, during and after a hurricane.



For official weather-related information, check out the website of the Meteorological Department of St. Maarten (MDS): www.meteosxm.com



Remember, it only takes one hurricane to make it a bad season. Are You Ready? Be prepared this hurricane season!
(Getty)

The COVID-19 pandemic has helped cool Torontos condo market to levels not seen since the Great Recession.

According to a new report by Urbanation 1,385 units changed hands in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) during the second quarter of 2020. Thats the fewest since the first quarter of 2009 when only 885 units were sold.

New condo sales plunged 85 per cent year-over-year. Only six projects were launched for pre-sale compared to 40 in the second quarter of 2019.

David Fleming, broker at Toronto Realty Group, says he typically sells around ten condos a year to investors.

I have not sold a condo to an investor since pre-COVID, the phone just stopped ringing, said Fleming last week during the virtual Toronto Real Estate Summit, hosted by Realosophy Realty.

The cool down is in contrast to the semi-detached and detached market, especially in the GTAs suburbs. If those types of homes are included, recent Toronto Regional Real Estate Board data show sales are only down 1.4 per cent compared to last year, but up 89 per cent month-over-month, pushing the average selling price of all home types to $930,869.

If it was me right now, Id probably look to buy a semi-detached house in Leaside and keep it for 25 years because for $1.2 million to $1.3 million, I think in 25 years only the citys absolute rich will own freehold houses, said Flemming.

Condo prices have held up, despite the drop in sales activity.

As a whole, average selling prices for units in actively marketed new condo projects in development across the GTA averaged a record high $867 per square foot (psf), edging up from $864 psf in Q1-2020 and rising 8 per cent year-over-year, reflecting broad-based increases in selling prices, read Urbanations report.

For unsold units remaining in Q2-2020, prices increased from $1,080 psf in Q1-2020 and were up 9 per cent year-over-year to a record high $1,087 psf.

There are factors at play that could continue to put downward pressure on the condo market. Rents have trended lower since the pandemic started. Recent restrictions and a steep decline in tourism and immigration means condos are less attractive for Airbnb use.

Story continues

A new report by Zoocasa looked at 10 Airbnb buildings and found new listings for sale grew 108 per cent in June 2020 year-over-year. New listings for rentals jumped 257 per cent.

Brian Persaud, broker of record at Re/Max Realtron Real Experts Realty, specializes in pre-construction condos. He says its more important to consider the specific building youre thinking about buying versus numbers on a spreadsheet.

With these projects Im working on right now, for 28 Eastern I had almost 300 people reach out to me on some forum, saying they were interested, said Persaud during the Toronto Real Estate Summit.

Ill probably get less than four units.

Jessy Bains is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jessysbains.

Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.
OTTAWAThe co-founders of WE Charity argued Tuesday the organization wasnt plucked to run a student-volunteer program because of any close ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, laying out details about how much the endeavour would likely cost and why the charity used a seemingly complicated structure to manage it all.

Brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger opened four hours of testimony at the House of Commons finance committee by saying they regret not realizing how the deal to have WE run the Canada Student Service Grant would be perceived given Trudeaus ties to the group.

They testified side-by-side before a webcam in a wood-panelled room, faces unnaturally white thanks to the cameras colour balance, peppered by questions from committee members scattered across the country.

As the afternoon wore on, the back-and-forth turned rocky with opposition MPs and the brothers talking over each other, and the Kielburgers slamming what they called inaccuracies meant to drag their organization over the coals for political purposes.

The brothers said WE would have never agreed to take part in the federal program had they known it could jeopardize their 25 years of work.

The duo were highly sought by opposition parties as part of a parliamentary probe into a volunteer program budgeted at $912 million, but which federal officials believed would cost $543 million  and that WE believed would actually cost much less.

WE Charity backed out of administering the program in early July amid a controversy over the Liberal governments decision to award the organization a sole-sourced contract.

Trudeau and his top aide, chief of staff Katie Telford, are scheduled to testify Thursday about the program and the deal with WE.

The Kielburgers said they havent spoken with Trudeau or his office about the program.

The federal ethics commissioner has begun investigating Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau over their involvement in cabinet decisions on the project  Trudeau because of some $300,000 in speaking expenses covered for his family members, and Morneaus daughter being a WE employee.

Morneau also admitted last week that he repaid the organization more than $41,000 in travel expenses for WE-sponsored trips he and his family in 2017.

The image that youre giving here is that youre getting influence by the kind of power that you have so when you call, man, they call you, New Democrat Charlie Angus told the Kielburgers at one point in their testimony.

Craig Kielburger said he spoke with Morneau in late April, but the student grant program didnt come up  echoing Morneaus testimony last week.

What did come up was a separate proposal WE submitted to Small Business Minister Mary Ng, Morneau and Youth Minister Bardish Chagger to help some 8,000 youth open small businesses at a cost of up to $14 million.

Craig Kielburger said WE was less interested in the volunteer program and was trying to advance our own proposal that it had on the table for two years.

Opposition MPs looked to portray the group as having inside track on running the program because of perceived financial difficulties linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Liberal MPs asked about WEs involvement with politicians of other political stripes, and funding from the previous Conservative government.

The volunteer program is supposed to provide grants of $1,000 for every 100 hours of volunteering, up to a maximum of $5,000 to help defray the cost of school in the fall.

WE was to connect young people with service opportunities through an online platform and disburse grants. WE would have received $43.5 million if the program reached its full potential.

Government officials told WE it could incur eligible expenses before being awarded the agreement. The brothers said they did so to get the program off the ground quickly, knowing they could lose money if cabinet didnt approve the deal.

WE has lost $5 million over the aborted deal, MPs heard.

We did this to be of service to the government, not for the government to help us and it is incredibly unfortunate the fallout that has occurred, Craig Kielburger said.

A copy of the funding agreement filed with the committee this week showed the government only planned to spend $500 million in grants, even though the Liberals had described the program as having a $912-million budget.

Employment and Social Development Canada, the federal department overseeing the program, said the $543 million in the agreement was what officials estimated it would cost to administer and pay grants to up to 100,000 eligible students or recent graduates  the expected uptake of the program. There was extra money available if the demand was higher.

During testimony, Marc Kielburger said WE expected the majority of students to volunteer between 100 and 300 hours, making the true cost of the program to be between $200 million and $300 million.

WE was paid its first fees of $19.5 million on June 30  seven days after one of its arms, WE Charity Foundation, signed the federal deal on June 23.

Former board chair Michelle Douglas told the committee earlier that the foundation didnt appear to have a purpose outside of holding real estate, nor did the board receive a satisfactory explanation for its existence.

The foundation didnt operate or hold any assets before the volunteer program, having been set up originally to limit liability to the charitys assets, the committee heard.

Marc Kielburger cited unspecified expert advice that WE use the foundation to oversee the program because the government expected WE to assume full liability during a health crisis for youth volunteers and partner non-profits. He said ESDC was aware of how WE planned to use its various structures.

On July 3, WE backed out of the agreement. It has promised to repay every dollar it received, about $30 million, but was still sorting out details.

At the time, WE said a program structure was largely in place for the federal public service to manage. It handed everything to the government hoping to save the program, but problems with what WE put in place have since emerged. The government has yet to open applications.
Omjasvin MD By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: With a high daily discharge rate in July, recoveries from COVID-19 in Chennai have hit 84.3 percent, while active cases have come down to a new low of just 13.6 percent now.

Out of the 95,857 people infected in the city, 80,761 have been discharged, while 13,064 are still undergoing treatment. Between July 18 and 27, 13,683 people have been discharged, which is higher than the 12,329 new positive cases recorded in the same period.

Some erstwhile hotspots like Tondiarpet just have 6 percent active cases, while Royapuram has just 8 percent active cases.

However, some areas like Ambattur, Kodambakkam, Valsaravakkam, Alandur and Adyar are posing a challenge for officials as the active case rate is close to 20 percent, due to continuous daily spikes.

While Chennais overall case growth rate is now at minus 0.5, zones like Ambattur, Adyar, Valsaravakkam and Sholinganallur pose a challenge with a high growth rate of above 3 percent.

A closer look shows that for the past few days, Ambattur and Adyar have been recording more than 100 cases daily. Ambattur also has active cases at 21 percent.

It is hard to identify the source of spread anymore. If a person is positive, we barricade their houses and ask primary contacts to be in isolation, an official with the Ambattur corporation zone said.

Officials of the civic bodys public health department said that they have ramped up testing in south Chennai. We cant really say why theres a rise. People travel between zones for work. Contact tracing is still rigorous so the spike will come down soon, the official said.

Currently, six Corporation zones have active cases of more than 1,000 and of them, Kodambakkam has 1970, the highest. Out of the 15 zones, eight show a recovery of over 80 percent while more than 90 percent people have recovered at Tondiarpet and Royapuram.

City hospitals get a breather

On the brighter side, due to the downslide in active cases in Chennai, hospitals are becoming less burdened. Health Minister C Vijayabaskar in a recent press meet had said that currently only 50-60 percent of beds are occupied in government hospitals.

The New Indian Express also confirmed this with officials at Stanley, Omandurar and KMC, who said that there has been a slight decline in admissions. However, occupancy is still high at the citys main hospital, RGGGH.

Occupancies at main hospitals are now slightly less because of COVID care centres. They only send critical patients to hospitals now, an official with Stanley said.

Private hospitals too have most beds vacant. A look at the governments www.stopcorona.tn website shows that almost 80 of the 86 hospitals listed for treating COVID-19 have vacant beds.
" " This vehicle has the VIN on the inside of the driver's side door. Image courtesy Ed Grabianowski

Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) are unique identification sequences on every car manufactured in the United States and many other countries. These numbers are sort of like a fingerprint for a car. They help to keep track of problems, ownership changes, and deter theft. In this article, we'll find out where to find your car's VIN, what the numbers mean and how you can use VINs to help prevent theft or learn about the history of a used car.

A VIN is a 17-character sequence containing both numbers and letters. It is affixed to every car, truck or trailer made in the United States after 1981. No two cars built within 30 years of each other can have the same VIN. The Motor Vehicle Records database tracks information on a VIN, such as when the car was inspected, when it changed ownership and if it was involved in a serious crash, rollover or flood.

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In 1987, the Department of Transportation's Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention Standard required manufacturers to also put the VIN on the major parts (like engines, hoods and fenders) of certain vehicles if the car is considered "high theft" [ref].

On most cars, you can find the VIN on the dashboard on the driver's side, and it's visible through the windshield from outside the car. It is usually on a sticker or plate on the inside of the driver's side door or on the frame sill where the door closes. The VIN is sometimes printed inside the glove compartment, and it's usually on the car's title and/or on insurance documents.

The United States Department of Transportation created a consistent, unified VIN system in 1981. Specifically, it included the VIN system in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 49, Chapter V, Part 565 [ref]. Prior to 1981, auto manufacturers used their own numbering system to stamp cars with unique IDs. The VIN system conforms to a standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization in 1977: ISO 3779. Manufacturers use all letters and numbers, with the exception of the letters I, O and Q.

Each character in a VIN has a specific meaning, and the VIN is broken up into sections. The first section identifies the manufacturer of the vehicle, and uses the first three digits:

The first digit identifies the nation of origin. If the car was assembled from parts produced in different countries, this digit reflects the nation where the car was assembled. Some larger nations are split into regions. For example, cars built in Japan are assigned a J in the first digit. But cars made in the U.S. can have a 1, 4 or 5, depending on the region of its assembly.

The second digit identifies the manufacturer of the vehicle. In the United States, the Society for Automotive Engineers issues manufacturer codes.

The third digit identifies a division within the manufacturer or a general vehicle type. For example, the code for an American-made Ford is 1F, and depending on the type of vehicle, it may be a 1FA, 1FB and so on. A U.S. General Motors vehicle is a 1G. Chevrolet is a division of GM, so the first three digits for a Chevrolet are 1GC.

The next five digits, four through eight, describe the vehicle. The specific use of these digits differs from one manufacturer to another. Here is an example that includes common code elements:

The fourth digit might contain a code that represents the vehicle's weight, horsepower or both.

The fifth digit often identifies the platform of the vehicle, such as van, pickup truck, trailer, sedan, et cetera.

The sixth digit can be a special code used by the manufacturer, or it might identify the specific model of the vehicle, such as Corvette, Durango or Mustang.

The seventh digit can be used to identify body type, such as four-door, two-door, hatchback or convertible.

The eighth digit is used for information about the engine, such as number of cylinders and engine displacement.

Digits four through eight might also be coded for information on the transmission used, the grade of the car (i.e., Accord LX, DX, Si), or other features such as safety belts and air bags.

The next three digits are consistent among all manufacturers:

The ninth digit is always a check digit . The other digits in the VIN go through a series of calculations to obtain the correct check digit. This allows computers to tell immediately if there is an error in the VIN, which often happens when someone transcribes a VIN or enters it into a computer.

The model year digit is the tenth digit. Each year has a code character. From the 1980s until 2000, each year had a letter code, with 2000 assigned Y. 2001 was given code 1, 2002 is code 2, and so forth.

The eleventh digit is the plant code, representing the factory where the car was assembled.

The last six digits, 12 through 17, are production sequence numbers, although small manufacturers that make fewer than 500 cars per year use the 12th, 13th and 14th digits as additional manufacturer identification codes. Production sequence numbers identify the vehicle itself, sort of like a serial number.

Since each manufacturer has a different code, and each car produced by the same factory has its own production sequence number, every car produced in a given year has a unique VIN.

The European Union has a similar regulation for VINs, but it is less stringent than the North American rule. European VINs are not required to include year, factory or vehicle attribute data. However, the two systems are compatible. While most countries have some form of VIN system that is compatible with the North American system, cars that are imported must have their VIN number entered into the MVR database along with enough information to explain what the codes are if the original VIN system differs from the ISO 3779 standard.

Calculating the Check Digit The check digit for a VIN is obtained through a number of mathematical steps. Each letter used in a VIN has a corresponding number value, while numbers stay the same. Therefore, the VIN becomes a string of 17 numbers (with a space in the ninth position, where the check digit goes). Each position in the VIN has a weight -- the number of times that digit is multiplied. For example, the weight of position one is eight. A computer multiplies the number in position one is by 8. Then it multiplies all 16 numbers by the appropriate weight for their position in the VIN, adds the results together and divides that result by 11. The remainder becomes the check digit. If the remainder is 10, the check digit is X. Read More
In yet another conspiracy against India, the Special Service Group (SSG) of the Pakistani Army has trained 20 Taliban terrorists in Jalalabad to launch an attack in Jammu and Kashmir. The Pakistan spy agency ISI is also planning an attack in India through a group comprising Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Taliban trained by the Pakistan Army.

To facilitate such an attack, Pakistan is trying to infiltrate a group of 20-25 terrorists from the International Border (IB) and Line of Control (LoC) and another group of five to six terrorists from the Indo-Nepal border.

Pakistan also aims to target VVIPs in India for which it is planning to infiltrate a group of three to five terrorists. On the report of security agencies input, the vigil at the IB and LoC has been increased.

Sources in the intelligence agencies revealed on Tuesday that Pakistani spy agency ISI is planning to carry out a terrorist attack in Ram Janmabhoomi in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya on August 15. According to intelligence agency R&AW, the ISI was training Lashkar and Jaish terrorists in Afghanistan to launch the attack.

The Pakistani agency had planned to send three to five groups of terrorists in Ayodhya for the attack. Indian intelligence agency revealed that Pakistan wants the terrorist group to carry out separate attacks and in such a way that it appears as an internal attack within India.

The intelligence agency has also found that the VVIPs will remain on the target of the terrorists so that the impact of this attack is felt at large. Meanwhile, the security system has been tightened to keep a check on the activities in Delhi, Ayodhya, and Kashmir.

On August 5, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya. Notably, this is also the same day when section 370 was removed from Kashmir in the year 2019.
Together, Dalton and VIDO-InterVac are strengthening Canadas role in responding to infectious diseases.

Dalton Pharma Services, a leading North American pharmaceutical cGMP CDMO, is pleased to announce a partnership with the University of Saskatchewans Vaccine and Infectious Disease OrganizationInternational Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac), a global leader in human and animal infectious disease research and vaccine development, in their effort to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. Under the terms of the partnership, Dalton will be responsible for the formulation and fill/finish of VIDO-InterVacs innovative COVID-19 vaccine, to be used in early Phase clinical trials, in Dalton's State-of-the-Art cGMP, Health Canada approved biopharmaceutical facility in Toronto, Canada.

On April 23rd, the Canadian Federal government announced a $1.1B strategy to support COVID-19 vaccine research and clinical trials. VIDO-InterVac has made significant progress in their COVID-19 vaccine development with funding from both the federal government and Government of Saskatchewan, and hope to initiate clinical trials of their vaccine in Q4 2020.

Dalton is pleased to apply its expertise in aseptic formulation and sterile fill/finish towards developing this leading-edge therapy. We look forward to working with VIDO-InterVac in support of their efforts to develop an effective vaccine for COVID-19, said Peter Pekos, CEO of Dalton Pharma Services.

Dr. Volker Gerdts, Director and CEO of VIDO-InterVac, stated, The development of an effective COVID-19 vaccine is of utmost urgency and VIDO-InterVac is excited to have Dalton as a trusted partner as we work together on this critical initiative.

About VIDO-InterVac:

To strengthen Canadas role in responding to infectious diseases, the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) works with international partners to study human and animal pathogens and develop solutions. With 160 interdisciplinary personnel, over $200 million in containment infrastructure, and more than four decades of experience, VIDO-InterVac develops vaccines and technologies that protect health. VIDO-InterVac receives operating support from the Government of Canada, and Government of Saskatchewan. Visit: http://www.vido.org

About Dalton Pharma Services:

Dalton Pharma Services is a leading North American cGMP pharmaceutical organization providing integrated drug discovery, development and manufacturing services. We are FDA registered, Health Canada approved and bring over 30 years of experience to every project. We deliver fully integrated solutions with an emphasis on speed, flexibility and quality. Our integrated services (drug discovery, formulation and process development, custom synthesis, cGMP sterile fill/finish of liquids and powders, cGMP API manufacturing and/or dosage form manufacturing and Accelerated Stability Testing) all at one location helps us to be adaptable, flexible and cost-effective.

To learn more about our history and capabilities, please visit http://www.dalton.com. Please click the link below to view Daltons COVID-19 response: https://www.dalton.com/blog/2020/04/03/covid-19

Peter Pekos

CEO

Dalton Pharma Services

349 Wildcat Road

Toronto, Ontario

Tel: 416-661-2102
CNBC's "College Voices 2020" is a series written by CNBC summer interns from universities across the country about coming of age, launching new careers and job hunting during a global pandemic. They're finding their voices during a time of great social change and hope for a better future. What money issues are they facing? How are they navigating their student loans? How are they getting work experience, networking and applying for jobs when so many opportunities have been canceled or postponed? How important is diversity and a company's values to Gen Z job seekers? Many young people dream of going to college to set themselves on a path to success  that takes on even more meaning for students who are the first in their family to go to college. However, going to college can put financial stress on these families and that stress has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. To start, 27% of first-generation college students come from households with an income of $20,000 or less, compared with only 6% of students who were not the first in their household to go to college, according to a survey by the Institute of Education Sciences, the non-partisan research arm of the Department of Education. And the current pandemic has only worsened their financial needs. When Rutgers University told their students to remain home for the rest of the spring semester, Natalia Leguizamon a neuroscience and behavior major at the Newark campus, had no idea what she would have to go through for the next four months. Before quarantine, Leguizamon, who is the first in her family to attend a four-year college, used to work up to 40 hours a week as a bartender to pay for school tuition and other crucial expenses. Leguizamon was able to finish her spring semester from home, but she does not know whether she will enroll back for the fall. Her workplace just recently opened but her hours have been cut down. Her mother, who works in childcare, is currently unemployed and so is her brother, who also works in the hospitality industry, which has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Only Leguizamon's father is currently employed, and he must provide for her family.

Natalia Leguizamon at her home in Ridgefield, NJ. Source: Mateo Garces Jimenez

"I need to be open to any possible outcome," Leguizamon says. "I want to go back in the fall, but it may represent a financial challenge for me and my family. Right now, they need me, and I want to be able to help them. I am still not sure what I will do for the fall, but one thing I do know is that I will get my degree no matter what, because I deserve it, and my parents deserve it." First-generation students have been more gravely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home orders because many don't have the resources to leave campus and go back home, many don't have adequate tools to do their course work effectively or they have other family obligations like caring for  and educating  younger siblings, says Sarah Whitley, senior director of the Center for First-generation Student Success. You see so many students doing work "from their cellphones or doing it in their cars because you can go and park at McDonald's or someplace that has Wi-Fi," Whitley said. Or, they're "sitting in elementary school parking lots to get internet and educate their younger siblings," she added. More From Invest in You:

It's a tough outlook for graduates in the Class of 2020

Many college graduates are relying on unemployment to pay the bills

When you're the first financial success in a family of immigrants, here's what you can do to help out Some first-generation students might be afraid to ask or don't know how to access help that is available to them, Whitley said. Before the pandemic, only 55% of first-generation students met with an academic advisor during the first two years of college compared to 70% students who weren't the first in their family to go to college, according to the Center for First-generation Student Success. And, the pandemic has only added to stress and responsibilities, so many may not think to reach out for help. The Center for First-generation Student Success has created a response for those students in need affected by COVID-19. Whitley also encourages any students who are struggling to contact their schools  many have specific programs for them as well as scholarships and academic rewards that might be able to help. "If you really are having financial hardship or you need to stay closer to home, go and talk to the people at your institution to learn about what your options are. Just about every institution has a financial aid office and they often have a scholarship expert. They can help you do scholarship search" to help you through this financially, she said. At the University of Portland, for example, where an estimated 20% of the student population is first-generation college students, there is an organization called FGEN to help provide resources and assistance to students to guide them through things they and their families may be unfamiliar with. Whether it's language, forms that need to be filled out or financial assistance  anything they need to help guide them to success and a college degree. Kendra Dickey, 20, and Devonna Begay, 21, are rising seniors at the University of Portland and student ambassadors of the FGEN program. They have both faced financial struggles amid the pandemic since the moment they were asked to leave their dorms to go back home.

Kendra Dickey exploring Portland, OR Source: Kendra Dickey

"We got an email on Thursday -- it was March 12th -- we had to be out by Sunday," said Dickey, which only left her a few days to search for a new place to stay for the next months. She also needed to find a job to help her pay rent. That wasn't an easy task as many employers have laid off employees, frozen hiring or temporarily closed. Luckily, she found a job in the food industry, which provided some financial relief. Begay, originally from the Navajo Nation of Arizona, knew that going back home was not an option. There, she would not have access to internet to continue her studies and there was also the risk of getting her family members infected with Covid-19, so she stayed at her boyfriend's house in Portland. "The last four months have been a challenge for me. Both of my parents lost their jobs because of Covid-19. The Navajo Nation has been hit pretty hard and there have been times when I felt hopeless for not being able to support them," Begay said. She was on planning to join the U.S. Army next year but changed her mind, given other priorities in her life right now.

Devonna Begay hiking at Zion National Park in Utah. Source: Tonena Begay
IRISH retailers could benefit from out of town warehouses and an online shopping levy to increase homegrown online shopping - due to a drop in shoppers on the street.

Richard Guiney, CEO of Dublin Town, a retail group in the city, told Newstalk Breakfast there had been a substantial drop in shoppers in the city and in cities across the country in the wake of Covid-19

Retail sales fell 30pc during lockdown while online shopping grew 200pc - the fastest increase ever recorded.

However Mr Guiney said 70pc of online shopping leaves the country.

We are looking at this as an international phenomenon, where is this going post-Covid, on trends building up since 2012? Mr Guiney told Newstalk.

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He explained shoppers had been spending less in Irish cities and towns since 2012 and spending more online.

Shoppers had also been putting their hand in their pockets more for so called experience consuming - otherwise known as the craic economy.

Mr Guiney said a levy for online sales, which is an option being explored in the UK, could be something that might benefit Ireland.

We should look at it, he said.

70pc of what people spend goes abroad, there were 200,000 jobs in retail, he added.

There is, he added, an advantage of having a big warehouse, to reduce costs in the town centre, to level the playing field, to give Irish retailers the opportunity, he said.

We do need to look at that as a town centre policy.

Cities and town centres are much quieter, according to retail experts because there has been a huge increase of people working from home during the pandemic.

And Google has just announced workers will be allowed to stay in their home offices until 2021.

Almost all of the employees and contractors globally will continue to work from home until at least next summer.

The company employs 8000 in Ireland.
France on Monday announced it will provide India with 120 ventilators and 50,000 test kits to counter the Covid-19 pandemic. The move coincided with the first five of 36 Rafale combat jets, ordered by New Delhi, flying out from a French airbase for the country.

A team of French personnel, who are experts in inter-hospital transfers by military means, is also being sent to India. A French Air Force aircraft will fly in the equipment and personnel on Tuesday. The Airbus A330 MRTT aircraft is equipped with a Morpheus kit that enables the transport of critically-ill patients.

The donation of the medical equipment and provision of technical expertise is in line with a recent announcement by President Emmanuel Macron, the French embassy said in a statement.

The medical assistance package includes 50 Osiris-3 ventilators, which are portable and easy to use, and 70 Yuwell 830 ventilators with bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP mode), which are non-invasive hospital ventilators for mild Covid-19 patients.

The Osiris ventilators are useful for emergency transport, intra-hospital transfer and recovery, and have different modes, including non-invasive ventilation. The Yuwell 830 ventilators use BiPAP to supply oxygen to lungs without intubation.

France will also donate 50,000 high-quality serological IgG/IgM test kits and 50,000 nose and throat swabs and modes of medical transport. As longstanding strategic partners, France and India are working together closely on the international response to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as providing reciprocal assistance according to the needs of the two countries, the statement said.

In a letter dated July 24, Macron thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Indias support to France with medical supplies earlier this year.

Macron wrote: When France was going through a critical phase of this public health crisis earlier this spring, India was by our side. It played a very important role with regard to medicines. I wish to thank you once again for having authorised the export of medicines essential for the treatment of critically ill patients. This gesture reflected the exceptional nature of the partnership between our two countries.

He added, India, in turn, is going through a difficult phase of the crisis. In these painful times for your nation, I desired France to stand fully by your side. To this end, I directed that we be able to respond to the needs identified by your administration by extending aid that is exceptional in its scope and modalities.

I believe that it is during tough times that historic ties are forged and strengthened between nations.

The announcement of the medical assistance coincided with the five Rafale jets leaving a French airbase for the 7,000-km journey to India with air-to-air refuelling and a stop en route in the United Arab Emirates. They are scheduled to reach India on July 29. France has completed the delivery of 10 jets on schedule, and five will stay back for a training mission. The delivery of all 36 jets will be completed by the end of 2021.

French ambassador Emmanuel Lenain will hand over the medical equipment to RK Jain, secretary general of the Indian Red Cross Society, on Tuesday.

France had earlier extended financial support of 200 million euros to India through the French Development Agency (AFD) to boost social welfare systems and protect vulnerable people. The credit financing agreement was signed on June 22, with the programme designed by the World Bank already being rolled out.

French companies have contributed more than six million euros (48 crore) to Indias national relief funds as part of their Covid-19 crisis response. Several companies have also supplied essential medical equipment and others are providing help to vulnerable sections of society.
Hamiltons medical officer of health has cancelled the heat warning.

The warning issued Sunday afternoon was cancelled after a cold front moved through southern Ontario overnight.

Relief from the extreme heat and humidity is expected to remain through the rest of the week but you can still expect lots of enjoyable summer weather.

The cooler weather came into the area like a lamb as the threat of severe thunderstorms never materialized in the Hamilton area. Environment Canada warned Monday that the cold front passing through southern Ontario could bring unsettled weather.

On Tuesday morning, fog patches will dissipate as we see a mix of sun and cloud with 30 per cent chance of showers in the afternoon. The high for the day is 28 C, feeling like 33 C with the humidex, according to Environment Canada.

Pack an umbrella on Wednesday  the weather service is calling for 60 per cent chance of showers and a risk of thunderstorms in the afternoon.

The rest of the week is expected to be sunny and pleasant, with daytime high temperatures in the high 20s and nighttime low temperatures in the mid- to high-teens through to the weekend.

With all this sun and heat and little rain, Hamilton Conservation Authority is asking for reduced water use within the areas watershed.

On Monday, the HCA declared a Level 1 low-water condition for the watershed that includes Spencer Creek, Chedoke Creek, Redhill Creek, Stoney Creek and Battlefield Creek, Stoney Creek Numbered Watercourses, as well as all of their tributaries and other minor watercourses.

Reducing the use of surface and groundwater sources at this critical time will avoid more serious shortages in the watershed, and lessen the impact of reduced water availability on our environment, the authority said in a news release on Monday.
Hotel du Palais in the summer of 1901 / Robert Neff Collection

By Robert Neff







At the dawn of the 20th century, Seoul was one of the most modern cities in Asia. Streetcars conveyed passengers from one end of the city to the other, shops were filled with imported goods, and the luxuries of telephones and electricity were slowly but surely being introduced. In September 1899, a railroad connected the capital with Jemulpo (modern-day Incheon) and, as a result, more tourists began to visit Seoul.







Despite its many Western modernizations, Seoul was not ready for Western tourism; the only accommodations available to tourists were in the homes of the expat community, their respective legations, Japanese or Chinese inns or at Emberley's Boarding House  a small establishment operated by an English couple.







Realizing the opportunity, Friedrich A. Kalitzky, a Polish merchant, contemplated establishing a small hotel near Deoksu Palace, and an American firm toyed with the idea of building a "summer hotel" along the Han River but  for unknown reasons  these schemes were soon abandoned.







The Emberleys expanded their boarding house into a small but very successful hotel near Seodaemun Station, appropriately named Station Hotel. Their hotel monopoly was soon broken in May 1901 when Rondon, a French merchant, established the Hotel du Palais. By the end of the month, both hotels were in fierce competition with one another.







The Americans and English preferred to stay at the Station Hotel which advertised itself as being "far from the blare of military display" with excellent accommodations at moderate prices. In the summer of 1901, Burton Holmes, an American traveloguer, described the hotel as "a series of small Korean houses [] under the motherly care of Mrs. Emberley." The proprietress was "noted throughout the East for setting a first class table."







Station Hotel and jinrikisha in the summer of 1901 / Robert Neff Collection





Continental Europeans preferred to patronize the Hotel du Palais. The two-story-brick building had been built specifically as a hotel and, according to its ads, was "the only first class hotel in Seoul. Situated in the center of the city opposite the palace, cuisine under the supervision of an experienced French chef. Well ventilated and furnished throughout." It was located approximately where a Dunkin Donuts stands today outside the front gate of Deoksu Palace.







The reviews of the French hotel are mixed. Shortly after it opened, Henry James Whigham, a Scotsman, described the hotel as "a diminutive house of two storeys" located "just opposite of the walls of the new palace [Deoksu Palace], in the very lowest part of the city." Despite describing the hotel as being "better than nothing," he was pleased with its central location (close to the foreign legations), access to local gossip and clean new rooms. Two days later, however, his satisfaction soured when he suffered a bad attack of malaria  caused by the hotel's location "in the very bottom of the city". At least he was not bothered by the infestation of bedbugs that apparently plagued the area. He was rescued from his dire straits by the British legation.







The following year, Count Vay de Vaya and Luskod  a Hungarian  stayed at the hotel and seemed fairly pleased with its staff and cleanliness. He described it as being "fairly well maintained" by the proprietor, Lucien Martin (a former employee of Rondon), and his Korean staff "dressed in white, and wearing a pigtail twisted up in a knot." Its location, however, was not conducive for sleeping in late.







Early in the morning he was "aroused by the sound of drums and trumpets." He wondered if they were the instruments of ghosts and if so, what had provoked such an awful uproar. His questions were answered when he looked out his window and found "the long street, the square, every inch of ground, occupied by soldiers" in black and red uniforms and armed with rifles and bayonets. They marched up and down the street. The Hungarian only stayed one night before he moved to the British legation as a guest.







Over the next couple of years, both hotels continued to prosper. Business was so good that the Emberleys purchased a foreign house and converted it into a hotel which they named the Grand Hotel. It was found in front of where the Agriculture Museum stands today, according to historian Suk Ji-hoon. An ad described it as "the best hotel in Korea" with "fine airy rooms" in a "handsome new building."







But fate is fickle. Just after midnight on Feb. 2, 1905, the Hotel du Palais was destroyed by fire. According to the Korea Review, "almost nothing was saved from the building; all the furnishings were burned, and only the blackened brick walls of the building were left standing." The building was destroyed so quickly that some of the guests were "scantily dressed" as they escaped.







Surprisingly, a month later, The Korea Review announced that the Emberleys had sold their hotel and were returning to England. The buyer was Lucien Martin. And, in another twist, the Hotel du Palais was rebuilt within a year by another Frenchman and became Martin's chief rival  but that is a story for another time.







Robert Neff is a historian and columnist for The Korea Times. He can be reached at robertneff04@gmail.com.
(ANSA) - ROME, 28 LUG - Health Minister Roberto Speranza on Tuesday reiterated that the government's top priority is making sure Italy's schools are ready to reopen in safety at the start of the new academic year in September.

The nation's schools closed in the early stages of the coronavirus emergency in March and stayed shut until the end of the 2019-20 school year.

He said the CTS expert panel will give its final assessment on the measures schools need to apply to limit the risk of contagion at the end of August.

"The reopening of schools in some countries caused the (contagion) curve to go back up," Speranza said.

"Utmost caution is needed".

Random coronavirus serological tests will be regularly conducted on pupils after Italy's schools reopen in September, according to a draft education ministry protocol.

It said these tests would be be free and done on a voluntary basis at surgeries, not at the schools.

The draft of the protocol said all school personnel should be subjected to serological tests when lessons resume. It said all schools should also find a doctor to conduct health surveillance.

Education Minister Lucia Azzolina, meanwhile, has dismissed talk of Italy not being ready to reopen its schools as planned on September 14.

"I respond to all those who are expressing doubts - it should be clear that pupils will go back to school on September 14," she said. (ANSA).


PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Jaguar Land Rover has named Thierry Bollore as its new chief executive officer, succeeding Ralf Speth. The executive change comes as Britain's biggest carmaker strives to return to profitability after being hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Jaguar Land Rover is owned by India's Tata Motors. Bollore will take over as the CEO of Jaguar Land Rover on September 10, 2020. Speth will take up the previously announced position of non-executive vice chairman of Jaguar Land Rover. Bollore, an auto industry veteran, most recently served as CEO of French carmaker Groupe Renault and previously in senior positions at global automotive supplier Faurecia. Bollore was named CEO of Renault in January 2019 after the arrest of Carlos Ghosn, but was ousted in October as the French carmaker looked to make a fresh start. Bollore's appointment at Jaguar Land Rover comes as the automaker struggles with weak sales due to the coronavirus pandemic and the slow adoption of electric vehicle technology. In early July, Jaguar Land Rover said that its June retail sales were 35,334 vehicles, down 24.9 percent year-on-year. The company noted that its retail sales for the three-month period to June 30, 2020 were also significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Jaguar Land Rover implemented job cuts in 2019 to reflect weaker market conditions primarily relating to falling diesel sales. The company reported loss before tax of 422 million pounds for fiscal 2019-20. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Photo credit: SEAN LITCHFIELD

From House Beautiful

Finding an affordable pre-war brownstone a stone's throw from Manhattan is, in itself, a near-impossible task; finding one that also happens to be in immaculate shape requires nothing short of a miracle. So when a pair of prospective homebuyers struck out in their search for the ideal Brooklyn townhouse, she decided to broaden their parametersand ended up with a dream house on the opposite side of Manhattan.

Located in Jersey City, the 1837 building was in excellent shape. Owned by the same family for generations, its 12-foot tall ceilings, original parquet oak flooring, and impressive crown moldings were still fully intact. It's rare to see townhouses like that that are so well-preserved and with that much light. We were sold as soon as we walked through the entryway, says the homeowner.

As beautiful as the details were, though, the house was in need of some updates to make it more accessible for its new inhabitants, including two young children, now aged 3 and 6. To guide the process, the owners hired Ana Claudia Schultz, a designer based in New York's Hudson Valley. Read on to see how she turned the living room of this historic home into an eclectic, family-friendly space.

Splurge on Custom Built-Ins

While the architectural elements were intact, the furniture was less so. "The living room had cabinets that looked like they were going to fall on you," says Schultz of the uber-traditional space. So she removed them entirely, replacing them with custom floor-to-ceiling walnut built-ins, which were carefully installed by Jamie Ladd of JTL Woodworks in Red Hook. The wall-spanning height accentuates the room's tall ceilings and adds structure; bespoke touches like slatted wood panels hide a stereo system.



Soften Angles With Curved Furniture

With the mid-century-inspired built-ins in place, Schultz added a pair of curved sofas in a lush green velvet. Even though the space had beautiful architectural detail, the room was rectangular, the mantle was rectangular, and there needed to be some balance," she explains. "Curved furniture softens the space." The shape also allowed the designer to fit in a bit of extra seating without taking up as much visual space as an L-shaped sectional would require.

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Embrace Juxtaposition

With its dark millwork and rich gem tones, the formal living room strikes a decidedly moodier tone than the adjacent family room, which is separated by a pair of Victorian pocket doors that are often left open. While Schultz embraced the differentiation, she also used recurring elements and colors to tie them together: Matching glass Roll and Hill chandeliers and black marble fireplaces create visual symmetry, while an eclectic collection of global goodsa sculpture from China, a rug and painting purchased in Pakistanis scattered throughout both spaces.

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Ryan McCoy, Norton Rose Fulbright

Ryan McCoy, Norton Rose Fulbright

Los Angeles, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright today announced that employment and labor lawyer Ryan McCoy has rejoined its Los Angeles office as a partner. Part of Norton Rose Fulbrights dispute resolution and litigation practice from 2005-13, McCoy split the last seven years between Alston & Bird and Baute Crochetiere Hartley & Velkei.

McCoy focuses on wage and hour class actions, discrimination suits, wrongful termination and retaliation, commercial litigation, and complex insurance coverage. He represents clients from an array of industries, including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, transport, warehousing, retail and insurance.

Additionally, McCoy has an active arbitration practice, defending before the American Arbitration Association in wage and hour violations, sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, disability discrimination as well as meal and rest period disputes.

McCoy is the sixth lateral partner to join Norton Rose Fulbright in California in the last 10 months. Another employment litigator, Josh Henderson, joined the firms Los Angeles and San Francisco offices in March.

Jeff Cody, Norton Rose Fulbrights US Managing Partner, said:

Starting his legal career at Norton Rose Fulbright, Ryan is deeply familiar with collaborative culture and client service focus. Ryan is an excellent lawyer and with his arrival, we continue to strengthen our capabilities to serve clients in California, the US and around the world.

Shauna Clark, Norton Rose Fulbrights US Head of Employment and Labor, commented:

Ryan impressed us as a young lawyer, and we are thrilled to have him return in his prime. The client demand for employment and labor law seems to be at an all-time high during this unusual time for businesses.

McCoy, who provided pro bono support to homeless citizens issued quality of life citations in Los Angeles skid row area, said:

I am delighted to return to Norton Rose Fulbright and collaborate once again with these talented lawyers. The firms unmatched global reach and wide range of offerings will benefit my clients significantly.

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Licensed to practice in California, McCoy earned his JD at Loyola Law School and his BS in microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Notes for editors:

Norton Rose Fulbright

Norton Rose Fulbright is a global law firm providing the worlds preeminent corporations and financial institutions with a full business law service. The firm has more than 4,000 lawyers and other legal staff based in Europe, the United States, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East.

Recognized for its industry focus, Norton Rose Fulbright is strong across all the key industry sectors: financial institutions; energy; infrastructure, mining and commodities; transport; technology and innovation; and life sciences and healthcare. Through its global risk advisory group, the firm leverages its industry experience with its knowledge of legal, regulatory, compliance and governance issues to provide clients with practical solutions to the legal and regulatory risks facing their businesses.

Norton Rose Fulbright operates in accordance with its global business principles of quality, unity and integrity, aiming to provide the highest possible standard of legal service in each of its offices and to maintain that level of quality at every point of contact.

Norton Rose Fulbright Verein, a Swiss verein, helps coordinate the activities of Norton Rose Fulbright members but does not itself provide legal services to clients. Norton Rose Fulbright has offices in more than 50 cities worldwide, including London, Houston, New York, Toronto, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Sydney and Johannesburg. For more information, see nortonrosefulbright.com/legal-notices.

Law around the world

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CONTACT: Andrew J. Ferraro Norton Rose Fulbright +1 713 651 5235 andrew.ferraro@nortonrosefulbright.com




Chief Medical Officer points to community transmission in Wrexham  Minister says that appears to be the case

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jul 28th, 2020

Welsh Government are still looking to UK Government to offer some form of economic support for people in Wrexham who may be faced with a perverse choice between getting tested and suffering economic impact, or not being tested and potentially causing wider community harm.

A week ago we asked the Health Minister about the situation in Wrexham and he said there was an issue within some of the community that works within Rowan Foods, and that it is a relatively closed community, and that was why we hadnt not seen sustained transmission in Wrexham.

A week later there area community testing facilities being setup tomorrow in Caia and Hightown, and Chief Medical Officer Dr Frank Atherton speaking of community transmission in Wrexham.

For clarity at todays regular Tuesday briefing we asked the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd, Rebecca Evans MS, if Welsh Government also labelled this as wider community transmission in Wrexham, and if Wrexham is the only area in Wales where they are aware of such community transmission taking place?

Ms Evans replied: We have a small number of outbreaks in Wales, so those outbreaks are at Wrexham Maelor and in Rowan Foods as well.

Were looking to see through those two outbreak control teams to what extent that there is a link between those two.

I think its really important that we are doing more testing in the area because of course the more you test, and the more opportunity that you have to find Coronavirus and take those those steps then to find those contacts with those individuals as well.

Its too early to say whether theres a definitive link between the two. But inevitably the work thats going on in terms of tracking those movements of people and the contacts that theyve had will shed some light on this.

Yesterday the Chief Medical Officer Dr Atherton said it believed that the community transmission is related to the Wrexham Maelor and Rowan Foods outbreaks and overlap (around 1hr 19mins on this BBC Radio Wales interview).

He also reiterated there was some transmission in the community. We noted those comments to Ms Evans and pointed out the question was specific on the community transmission wording.

She replied: Well, it appears if the individuals who were in Wrexham hospital werent working at Rowan Foods then potentially they would have had that contact within the community having come across somebody working at Rowan Foods, and not knowing.

S, yes, that appears to be the case, which is why its so important that we do focus on that testing and tracking of those individuals who might come into contact with with people who have been affected by the coronavirus so that we can find them as quickly as possible, provide those tests and ensure that they they take the necessary precautions themselves not to spread it any further.

A Public Health Wales expert explained to Wrexham.com on Monday that the mobile testing facilities in Wrexham are being put in place to overcome some barriers people face to get tested, for example not being able to travel to existing testing facilities, which can be a financial decision.

Yesterday the Chief Medical Officer also noted the testing facilities were in disadvantaged areas.

Previously we have asked Ministers about situations where people may not wish to take a test knowing that a positive result could have economic impacts not just to them, but fellow housemates or friends and family.

That situation had been described as perverse by the First Minister at a previous briefing, and we had been told communications had been sent to UK Government on the topic to no avail.

Locally that financial barrier to testing by individuals having to take time off work to isolate had been mentioned again to us this week, and appears to be a current issue for people in Wrexham.

We noted the Ministers answer to a question relating to those returning from holidays and into a quarantine period who encounter a similar issue, where she said talks were ongoing and Welsh Government do not have the resources to fund a solution.

We asked at what point Welsh Government will step in, as this is a public health issue in Wrexham.

The Minister replied: It is a public health issue, but its not just in Wrexham I have to say, youll see these outbreaks right across the UK and calls for the UK Government to step in and provide that support, economic support, to those individuals who are affected and who have to self isolate in communities elsewhere in Wales as well.

When we are talking about welfare support essentially or employment related benefits, then these are matters which are quite rightly for the UK Government and its important that we continue to have those discussions with them.

Obviously, were relying at the moment in some significant part with people being able to have have supportive employers, but clearly, people who are self employed face a much more difficult situation, which is why its important that the sick pay available from the UK Government kicks in very quickly and is there to support people in this particular kind of situation as well.

BBC Wales opened the briefing today by also asking for clarification on the extent of community transmission in Wrexham and whether there is the support in the area needed to stamp it out.

The Minister said: There are two particular areas of outbreak in Wrexham, with which youll be very familiar the first being at Rowan Foods, and we know that there have been few new cases now related to that outbreak, but also the outbreak centred at Wrexham Maelor hospital. In both cases, we have set up outbreak control teams, which will ensure that those chains of transmission are followed up, and any additional infection control measures are put in place.

Clearly were working very closely with people on the ground there and having daily and more frequently than that in fact, reports from the area.

WalesOnline posed a question around this story they have run, asking: We spoke to one woman whose mother died after catching the virus in a hospital in Wrexham, with plenty of PPE and a huge excess in daily testing capacity.

How is it possible that people are regularly catching Covid in hospitals? And can you tell us what measures the Welsh Government are bringing in to deal with this? And why werent these measures in place the entire time?

Ms Evans said: Welsh Government has been working very closely with Wrexham Maelor hospital particularly and has put in place now the hospital outbreak control team.

And that outbreak control team now is there to ensure that we break the chain of transmission, that we understand all of the contacts who might have come across people with coronavirus.

This is a new and a different step in terms of the way in which were tackling the Coronavirus here in Wales, weve moved from these Wales wide measures to more localised measures to try and to bear down on the virus when it does take place in that very localised way.

So therell be even more additional focus on infection prevention control measures at the hospital as a result of this, but as I say, Welsh Government is in very regular contact with the outbreak control team. The team there actually has been linked up now with the Rowan Foods control team to explore whether there are any interdependence.

You can view the full briefing and Q&A section in the below video:
The government of a Caribbean island has a tantalizing suggestion for quarantine-weary Canadians: Working from home is a lot more palatable when you're doing it remotely from a tropical paradise.

The island nation of Barbados has launched something it's calling a Barbados Welcome Stamp, a one-year remote working visa that gives foreigners the right to live and work remotely in Barbados while they ride out the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starting now, applicants can send in their personal information at a portal website. The application will be processed within 72 hours, at which point they may be approved to come live and work remotely in Barbados.

There are a few stipulations, namely that you have to make $50,000 US a year and there's a non-refundable fee of $2,000 US for an individual and $3,000 US for families, but once that's paid, a successful applicant is all set.

"You don't need to work in Europe, or the U.S or Latin America if you can come here and work for a couple months at a time, go back and come back," Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said when she first suggested the idea earlier this month.

The government of Bermuda has floated a similar idea for a six-month permit, but has yet to formally launch their program.

The appeal of living on a tropical island may be obvious under normal circumstances, but a spokesperson for the government running the initiative said it makes even more sense during the current unprecedented situation with COVID-19.

Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Barbados ahead of crisis so far

Barbados has recorded 106 official cases of COVID-19, and seven deaths at last count, said Peter Mayers, the Canadian director for Barbados's tourism and marketing organization.

The country's health-care system has been able to stay well ahead of the crisis so far, he said in an interview, as officials have set up two facilities dedicated solely to COVID-19 patients to keep them out of hospitals. The two isolation wards are capable of housing more than 200 people.

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"When persons start to consider looking for travel options in jurisdictions that have managed the COVID crisis well, Barbados must be on the radar," he said.

There are ample schooling and daycare options, none of which are currently closed or limited in any capacity, he said, adding the island also boasts the fastest fibre internet and mobile services in the Caribbean.

Housing suitable for a family can be found for about $1,000 US a month, which is why the program is hoping to appeal to families and not necessarily just individuals.

"It's a unique opportunity to remedy cabin fever and at the same time help our tourism industry," Mayers said.

Canadians advised against 'non-essential' travel

While Barbados may be welcoming Canadians with open arms the Canadian government still advises against all "non-essential" travel to Barbados, just as it does with many other countries.

Strictly speaking, there's nothing stopping a Canadian from going to Barbados, but problems could arise while a Canadian is there, or possibly when they attempt to return.

"The governments of those destinations that have opened their borders to tourists could impose strict travel restrictions suddenly, should they experience an increase in cases of COVID-19," the Canadian government's travel advisory page for Barbados reads.

"International transportation options could be reduced significantly, making it difficult for you to return to Canada. There are no plans to offer additional repatriation flights."

Ottawa also warns about a number of local Barbadian laws that Canadians could run afoul of, including harsh penalties for drug possession, a ban on wearing camouflage clothing and some of the most regressive rules in the region for LGBTQ travellers, because sex acts between members of the same sex are illegal in the country.

Those laws are one obvious downside, as is the possibility of getting stuck there should there be an outbreak, but at least one prominent Canadian seems fine with taking that risk.

Drake surfaces in Barbados

Barbados officially reopened its borders on July 12. Within days, musician and entrepreneur Drake surfaced all over social media on what seems to be a Barbadian vacation.

The government of Barbados outlines the protocols that visitors must adhere to here. Currently, it deems Canada to be of "medium risk" for COVID-19, which means visitors must pass or show proof of having recently tested negative for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

But once on the island, there are relatively few restrictions on daily life, beyond the usual physical distancing, mask wearing and hand washing requirements that are in place just about everywhere.

Remus/Twitter

The program has only been formally open for a few days, but Mayers said there have already been a significant number of applicants from Quebec and Alberta.

And strictly speaking, it's not limited to Canadians, although Mayers said he suspects the idea of being housebound in a place where the average winter temperature is 20 degrees Celsius above zero, not below, may have particular appeal for Canadians.

"In very much the same way that COVID-19 does not discriminate, neither do we," he quipped.
(Newser)  A development in the Johnny Depp trial in London that both sides might welcome: It's over, meaning no more testimony about his volatile relationship with ex-wife Amber Heard. Closing arguments wrapped up Tuesday, with Depp's attorney stating, "He has never hit a woman in his entire lifeperiod, full stop, nada." Now the judge will consider all the evidence and issue his ruling in a few weeks, reports the AP. The 57-year-old actor is suing a British tabloid for calling him a "wife-beater." Heard testified that he fit that label, but Depp attorney David Sherborne called her a liar on Tuesday, per the Guardian. From the big points to the small points, Ms. Heard has proved herself to be a wholly unreliable witness, and, frankly, a compulsive liar, and I dont say that lightly, he told the court.

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Heard gave a statement of her own outside the courthouse. It has been incredibly painful to relive the breakup of my relationship, to have my motives and my truth questioned, and the most traumatic and intimate details of my life with Johnny shared in court and broadcast to the entire world," the 34-year-old actress said. I stand by my testimony and I now place my faith in British justice. Despite the end of the trial, this actually might not be the end of the public airing of their relationship details. Another trial is scheduled to begin next year in Virginia, where Depp has sued Heard for $50 million over a newspaper story in which she accused him of domestic violence. (Read more Johnny Depp stories.)
Beijing, Jul 28 (AP) They have the largest economies in the world. They spend more than anyone else on their militaries. From high-tech chips to control of the high seas, their interests are closely intertwined.

The ongoing sharp deterioration in US-China ties poses risks to both countries and the rest of the world. In the latest escalation, a US consulate in Chengdu in southwestern China shuttered Monday, ordered by China to close in retaliation for the US shutting down its consulate in Houston last week.

With the US presidential campaign heating up, all bets are that relations with China will only get worse. A look at what's at stake: TRADE Both countries already have suffered heavy losses in a tariff war that erupted in 2018 over Beijing's technology ambitions and trade surplus. If talks on ending the dispute fail, the world could face downward pressure on trade at a time when the global economy is already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

The United States is China's biggest single-country export market, even after President Donald Trump imposed punitive tariffs on Chinese goods. And China is the No. 3 market for American exporters, as well as a huge market for goods and services produced in China by US companies ranging from General Motors Co. to Burger King.

Chinese purchases of American farm goods, semiconductors and other goods declined 11.4% last year but still exceeded dollar 100 billion. Exports to China support just under 1 million American jobs, according to the US-China Business Council, though that was down 10% from 2017's peak.

China is the biggest export market for Iowa and other American farm states, which were slammed when Beijing suspended imports of soybeans and raised tariffs on pork and other goods.

That briefly boosted sales for soybean exporters in Brazil and Argentina, though China resumed buying lower-priced American beans under the Phase 1 trade truce signed in January.

But if the two can't resolve broader differences on trade, it will be a blow not only to their exporters but also to other Asian economies that supply China's factories with raw materials and components.

US and Chinese producers of telecom, computer, medical and other technology and their markets are tightly interwoven. Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and others rely on Chinese factories to assemble most of their smartphones, computers and other consumer electronics.

Those factories need processor chips and other components from the United States, Japan, Taiwan and Europe.

The disruption caused by moves including the Trump administration's curbs on Chinese tech giant Huawei's access to US components and technology threatens to disrupt those flows and cost suppliers, including Silicon Valley companies, billions of dollars in lost revenue.

China is also a top market for Apple and other US tech brands, and is increasingly becoming a technology competitor with its own brands in smartphones, medical equipment and other fields.

The United States often is the top market for China's highest-value-added goods. Beijing has been urging exporters to find other markets, but many say Asian and even European markets won't buy such high-value goods.

While the US has long been the predominant military power in the Pacific, China now has two operational aircraft carriers and an arsenal of missiles seen as a threat to US vessels and bases in the region.

Military tensions have largely focused on the South China Sea, a crucial waterway that is the subject of overlapping territorial claims by China and several smaller Asian nations.

In 2018, a Chinese destroyer came perilously close to colliding with a U.S. destroyer, the USS Decatur, while executing what the Navy called an unsafe and unprofessional maneuver in the South China Sea.

A Chinese fighter jet collided with a US Navy surveillance plane in international airspace over the South China Sea in 2001, leading to major diplomatic incident after the US plane made an emergency landing on a Chinese island.

Taiwan is another potential flashpoint. China claims the self-governing island as its territory, to be taken by force if necessary. The US is bound by its own law to ensure the island has a credible defense and has approved military sales to Taiwan under Trump.

Taiwan's foreign minister said last week that Chinese military flights near the island have been taking place on a near-daily basis, more frequently than previously reported.

Washington upped the ante earlier this month by declaring that it did not recogniwe most of China's maritime claims in the South China Sea, a break with its previous policy of not taking a stance on the sovereignty disputes. (AP) RDK RDK
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th July, 2020) The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has urged the international community to make greater efforts to reduce the deadly risks for displaced people posed by landmines and improvised explosive devices in Africa's Sahel and Lake Chad basin regions, which have been the site of ongoing conflicts, according to a press release issued on Tuesday.

"UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is calling for stronger efforts to mitigate the risks for refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) posed by landmines and improvised explosive devices in Africa's conflict-ridden Sahel and Lake Chad basin regions. Since the beginning of 2020, there has been a growing number of fatal incidents involving forcibly displaced populations," the press release said.

According to the UN agency, mines, unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices that numerous anti-government and non-state armed groups widely use to target security forces are killing and injuring an increasing number of civilians.

Among the most affected countries in this regard are Sahel's Chad and Nigeria, the agency added. In a recent incident, four refugee minors were killed and three others injured in a refugee camp in eastern Chad after picking up an unexploded device and trying to open it.

Since the beginning of 2020, more than 15 of such incidents have been reported.

"Our teams on the ground also witness a rising trend in the Sahel. In Niger, five incidents have killed at least five refugees and displaced people while injuring many others since the start of the year," the press release said.

The region is currently facing one of the fastest growing displacement crises in the world, with a million people having fled attacks by armed groups against civilians and state institutions, including schools and health facilities, the agency said, adding that the presence of explosive devices is also affecting the delivery of humanitarian aid and development activities.

"Urgent efforts are needed to address the dangers and legacy of landmines and to heighten awareness of the horrifying threat from mines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices. There is a vital need for governments, humanitarian organizations and parties to conflict to expand mine action work as civilians pay a heavy price," the UNHCR said.

The UN agency also noted the need to provide broad and comprehensive assistance to all mine victims, involving data collection, medical care, physical and other rehabilitation, including psycho-social care.
The Georgia Department of Public Health and University System of Georgia institutions will share some contact tracing responsibilities, according to a July 21 document on the DPHs COVID-19 guidance for USG.

This contradicts the universitys previous statement that contact tracing would remain the responsibility of the DPH, which UGA spokesperson Greg Trevor said in an email on July 13.

The University of Georgia announced on July 22 it plans to test 300 student, faculty and staff volunteers daily to identify virus transmission trends, and the University Health Center will test symptomatic students. The university will report all tests it conducts to DPH, according to the guidance document.

The university said in its announcement symptomatic faculty and staff should contact their primary care provider for testing options.

COVID-19 positive or sick people may not return to campus until they meet the DPHs return to school guidance, according to the document. The institutions COVID-19 point of contact should notify their health districts point of contact.

Dr. Garth Russo will serve as UGAs COVID-19 point of contact, while Olivia Echols and Robert Hamilton serve as the local health districts points of contact, according to the document. They will coordinate contact tracing and guidance.

Russo will report any cases to the DPH and conduct an initial case interview of the person who tested positive or is presumed positive. He will notify any close contacts they had close contact with a person diagnosed with COVID-19 and they should stay home or in designated quarantine living quarters and self-monitor for symptoms, according to the guidance document. This includes anyone living in the same household, caring for a sick person with COVID-19, being within 6 feet of anyone with COVID-19 for about 15 minutes or coming in direct contact with secretions from someone with COVID-19.

When he contacts DPH, Russo will include a list of classes attended within two days of showing symptoms or a positive test result and a list of attendees in those classes, according to the document. If the person worked on campus, Russo will include supervisor information and a list of employees who worked physically close with the person or shared the same space.

The DPH will conduct a more thorough case interview and investigation. If public health receives notification of a case from outside UGA, the DPH will contact Russo, according to the document.

UGA hasnt announced they will require students to test negative before coming back to campus this fall. Yet the DPH recommends students traveling from a country with widespread transmission as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should be quarantined for 14 days and follow the same guidance as if they had close contact with someone who tested positive for the virus, according to the document.

Its unclear how international students will quarantine if they live in dorms because the earliest residence hall move-in date is Aug. 14 and classes start Aug. 20.
JUNEAU, Alaska - Hikers in Alaskas wilderness at certain times may encounter a federal government operation involving a helicopter and two ground crews.

But rather than the sort of clandestine scene found in spy thrillers, the U.S. Forest Service airlift in Tongass National Forest is a facilities management project to remove material left behind when campers answer the call of nature.

The agency maintains trails and public cabin facilities, including outhouses for dwellings that are rented year-round, KTOO-FM reported Saturday.

Brad Orr, supervisor of the Juneau Ranger District, said the forest service oversees a group of cabins in Juneau that receive numerous visitors who leave behind more than footprints.

The agency hires contractors to pump sewage into barrels to be hauled away. But the outhouse along the popular Windfall Lake Trail is several miles from the road and cannot be reached by septic trucks.

Instead, the agency hires a helicopter to fly the waste away, with the ground crews providing support.

They have it down to a pretty good science, Orr said. But there is aircraft in the air. And, you know, we like to alert the public that thats going on  not that theres any particular hazard associated with it.

The ground crews remain in the area for about two weeks, assisting with the outhouse operation while also cleaning and conducting necessary maintenance. Every forest service cabin is serviced at least once a year, weather permitting, the agency said.

Cabin user fees cover the cost of helicopter operations, propane for heat, renovation materials and payments to work crews, Orr said.

People entering the area are warned on a trail sign about the operation, which Roald Simonson encountered earlier this month while hiking Windfall Lake Trail.

Simonson said he came across an orange traffic cone supporting a stick with a laminated sheet of paper telling saying there was pumping occurring with an advisory that said: Hike at your own risk.

The sign had a warning, and nothing to tell you exactly what is going on, Simonson said.

Recreation Programs Manager Ed Grossman said there was a good reason the warning placard focused on waste pumping rather than the presence of an aircraft.

It didnt mention helicopters because people are attracted to the show, Grossman said. If its a pumping-human-waste event, that usually doesnt draw a crowd.
Correction: This story originally incorrectly reported when students would be at school and when they would be participating in remote learning. The story has been corrected.

The Bixby school board unanimously voted for a complex three-week plan during a special meeting Monday in the hope that it will yield insight into the feasibility of in-person teaching and learning amid a pandemic.

The three-week plan will split the student body into two groups. Each half will take a one-week turn at instruction, with the first four days of the week at school and Friday in remote learning, and everyone will spend the third week in a virtual classroom to provide a built-in quarantine time.

The new start date for the first half of the student body is Aug. 17, and for the other half, Aug. 24.

The plan will come to a fork in the road at the end of the three weeks, Superintendent Rob Miller said. Then school officials will have to decide whether they can continue with in-person instruction or whether virtual learning will be necessary.
President Donald Trump wants to know why his approval ratings on the coronavirus response aren't as high as the administration's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

"He's got a very good approval rating," Trump said of Fauci on Tuesday during a White House press briefing on the pandemic. "And I like that, it's good, because remember, he's working for this administration."

"And he's got this high approval rating," Trump said, "So why don't I have a high approval rating with respect -- and the administration, with respect to the virus?"

The president had been asked about Twitter posts he retweeted on Monday evening accusing Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, of misleading Americans.

"I don't even know what his stance is on it," Trump said when asked how Fauci was allegedly misleading Americans about hyroxychloroquine, the malaria drug that is unproven to be an effective treatment for Covid-19.

The posts have since been removed. But Trump has long been an advocate for hydroxychloroquine, and had even taken it himself as a prophylactic measure.

Fauci, however, has been more dismissive of the drug's effectiveness against the coronavirus.

Fauci said on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Tuesday that clinical trials have overwhelmingly shown hydroxychloroquine "is not effective" in treating Covid-19.

"I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances," Fauci added.

Despite being a part of the Trump administration, Fauci has recently been the target of criticism from within the White House. Trump's trade advisor Peter Navarro penned an op-ed blasting Fauci for being "wrong about everything I have interacted with him on." And a White House official even circulated a list of Fauci's alleged missteps that resembled an opposition research-type document used in political campaigns.

Still, Fauci continues to enjoy high approval ratings from public polls on his efforts against the pandemic. Nearly two -thirds of the country has faith in Fauci, according to a Quinnipiac poll released earlier this month.

Just over one-third of voters approve of Trump's handling of the virus, that poll showed.

"We could have gotten other people, we could have gotten somebody else, it didn't have to be Dr. Fauci," Trump said at the presser on Tuesday evening. "He's working with our administration, and for the most part, we've done pretty much what he and others, Dr. [Deborah] Birx and others, who are terrific, recommended."

"It sort of is curious. A man works for us, with us, very closely, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx, also highly thought of, and yet they're highly thought of but nobody likes me," Trump said.

"It can only be my personality. That's all," he added.

More than 4.3 million people in the U.S. have contracted Covid-19 and at least 148,298 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The company that owns Peterboroughs newest hotel is part of a class-action lawsuit over denied insurance coverage for business income lost because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The six-storey, 100-room Hampton Inn and Suites by Hilton opened next to the Shorelines Casino Peterborough on Crawford Drive in October.

The casino had to temporarily close its doors in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While gaming halls and casinos can now reopen in most parts of Ontario, they are limited to 50 people inside at a time, so the casino has yet to reopen.

In a statement of claim, Lerners LLP alleged that Aviva Insurance Company of Canada was in breach of contract when it denied the hotels loss of business income coverage after the federal and provincial governments declared states of emergency, restricting their business due to the outbreak of novel coronavirus.

It is seeking $150 million including loss of business income and the accountants fees. Each hotel in the class action lawsuit has up to $500,000 of coverage.

We are still quantifying the specific loss for the representative plaintiff and putative class members, but the losses are expected to be significant, said a Lerners spokesperson.

The claim said hotels paid premiums for loss of business income insurance with the expectation that Aviva would act in good faith.

However, the insurance company notified hotel customers that the coverage applies only to outbreaks that occurred at or within the applicable area of the insured premises.

We know these are challenging times for everyone. And like many, the hospitality industry has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Aviva said in a statement.

Unfortunately in this instance there is no coverage for provincial wide shutdown orders as a result of a worldwide pandemic. As this matter is in litigation, it wouldnt be appropriate for us to comment further.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Roshan Holdings Inc., which owns and operates two hotels, the Hampton Inn in Peterborough and a Home 2 by Hilton located in Milton.

The Ontario government declared a provincial state of emergency on March 17 to help contain the spread of the pandemic. Other provinces ordered the mandatory closure of all places of non-essential business.

Although the hotels were not completely closed, their operations were significantly restricted, said the claim. The hotels could not offer food and beverage service, and all of the amenities including the pool and gym were mandated to close under the closure orders due to COVID-19.

No one rented rooms as Canadians were told to stay home and international borders were closed to tourists.

The class action, which could involve hundreds of hotels, needs to be approved by a judge.

Multiple class action lawsuits have been filed in Canada against insurance companies, airlines, a meat-packaging company, retirement homes, Correctional Service Canada and others resulting from COVID-19.

 with Examiner files
Antagonisms between the United States and China are rattling governments around the world, prompting a German official to warn of Cold War 2.0 and Kenyas president to appeal for unity to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Global trade already was depressed by the 2-year-old tariff war between the worlds two biggest economies. That rancor has spread to include Hong Kong, Chinese Muslims, spying accusations and control of the South China Sea.

Caught in the middle, other governments are trying to defend their own interests.

GERMANY:

Chancellor Angela Merkels government wants to preserve trade and cooperation on global warming but says a security law tightening Beijings control over Hong Kong is a difficult issue.

The Hong Kong security laws potential disruption of the autonomy Beijing promised to the former British colony is no reason to stop talking but is a worrying development, Merkel said.

Europes biggest economy has yet to take a final position on Chinese tech giant Huawei despite U.S. pressure to exclude its equipment from next-generation telecom networks as a possible security risk.

China is an important partner for us but also a competitor, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement after a videoconference Friday with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.

Peter Beyer, the governments coordinator for trans-Atlantic cooperation, expressed alarm in an interview with the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland newspaper group.

We are experiencing the beginning of a Cold War 2.0, Beyer said. He criticized both sides but said, the U.S. is our most important partner outside the EU, and that is how it will stay.

FRANCE:

President Emmanuel Macron calls President Donald Trump my friend but is trying to avoid riling Beijing.

France has not echoed Trumps criticism of Beijings handling of the coronavirus, but legislators applauded Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian last week when he condemned abuses of minority Uighurs in Chinas northwest.

Le Drian mentioned mass arrests, disappearances, forced labor, forced sterilizations, the destruction of Uighur cultural heritage. He said France has asked that the camps be closed.

All these practices are unacceptable, the minister said. We condemn them.

Trumps ambivalence toward U.S. allies and flouting of diplomatic norms has alarmed France.

Sino-American tensions dont benefit France, said Valerie Niquet of the Foundation for Strategic Research, a think tank. We share the same interests as the United States towards China, we adopt more or less the same positions, so it doesnt bring us any positive element.

EUROPE:

Europes strategic relations with China will be an issue for the European Union while Germany holds the rotating presidency of the 27-nation bloc, Merkel said this month.

EU foreign ministers have not managed to agree on a common position on China.

Regarding Hong Kong, options include closer scrutiny of exports of sensitive technology to the territory and changing visa policies for its residents. But there is no talk of economic sanctions or targeting Chinese officials with penalties.

The message is that the recent actions change the rules, said the top EU foreign policy official, Josep Borrell. This will require a revision of our approach and will clearly have an impact on our relations.

SOUTH KOREA:

South Korea is squeezed between its main military ally and its biggest trading partner.

In 2016, Beijing destroyed supermarket operator Lottes business in China after the conglomerate sold a plot of land in South Korea to the government for an anti-missile system over Chinese objections.

Washington is unhappy with South Koreas desire to ease sanctions on North Korea to encourage disarmament and uneasy about its use of Huawei technology.

Trump complains about the cost of stationing 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea to protect against North Korean threats. A cost-sharing agreement expired in 2019 without a replacement.

The U.S.-Chinese row has thrown a question to South Korea about which side to choose, the newspaper Dong-A Ilbo said in an editorial Monday.

Sooner or later we will be forced to provide an answer, no matter how hard we tried to avoid it, the newspaper said.

INDIA:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to embrace both Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump, but the pandemic and a border clash that killed at least 20 Indian soldiers have fueled anti-Chinese sentiment.

Protesters have called for boycotts of Chinese goods and burned Chinese flags. They applauded the governments ban on the popular Chinese video-sharing app TikTok and some other Chinese apps.

Washington wants stronger ties with India and supported its controversial move a year ago to split its only Muslim-majority state, restive Jammu and Kashmir, into two federally controlled territories. This month, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said the United States would stand up to China on the Indian border dispute.

For India it is opportune that the U.S. is applying more pressure on China, and if it can get it to behave, that would be welcomed by the entire neighborhood, said Jayadev Ranade, president of the Center for China Analysis think tank in New Delhi.

AFRICA:

China-U.S. tensions are taking a toll: The African Development Bank said last year trade disruption due to the tariff war could lead to a 2.5% drop in economic output for some African countries.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said political disputes should be set aside to better fight the coronavirus.

Lets not be sucked back into isolationism or unilateralism. We need each other today more than ever, Kenyatta said an Atlantic Council event last month. Were not going to fight coronavirus if one country fails and another succeeds.

SOUTHEAST ASIA:

The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations has avoided taking steps that would alienate Washington or Beijing, both important trading partners.

The great powers, as they escalate their rivalry, will woo us into their side, said Harry Roque, a spokesman for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. We will advance our national interest.

The regions most sensitive conflict  over control of the South China Sea  escalated when the Trump administration publicly rejected most of Beijings claims to one of the worlds busiest waterways.

We are making clear: Beijings claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a July 13 statement.

The Philippines and Vietnam, among the most vocal critics of Chinese assertiveness, could benefit from that stance but will move cautiously, said Greg Poling of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

They arent going to stick their necks in a noose until they see real follow-through from Washington, Poling said.
VICTORIADrivers in British Columbia with out-of-province licence plates, especially those from the United States, should consider taking transit or riding a bicycle if they feel harassed by local residents, says Premier John Horgan.

Horgan also suggested Monday that drivers switch to B.C. plates to avoid pointed questions from residents who are concerned about the spread of COVID-19.

I would suggest, perhaps, public transit, he said at a news conference. I would suggest that they get their plates changed. I would suggest they ride a bike.

Horgan and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry have said interprovincial travel is allowed and both have stressed that a vehicles licence plate does not mean the driver is from outside B.C.

The border between Canada and the United States remains closed to non-essential travel until at least Aug. 21, when the issue will be reconsidered by the Canadian and American governments.

Henry said there are many reasons why people are driving vehicles with out-of-province licence plates and those drivers should be treated with respect.

We do not know everybodys story, and I think we need to pay attention to the fact that we all are in this together, whether our licence plate is from somewhere else, whether its from Alberta or whether its from California, she said.

Henry reported that 81 new COVID-19 cases have been detected in B.C. since Friday, and two more residents of long-term care homes have died.

B.C. now has a total of 3,500 COVID-19 cases and 193 deaths. Henry said 3,043 people have recovered from the illness.

She said a berry packing plant near Abbotsford in the Fraser Valley is the location of the most recent COVID-19 outbreak in the province with 15 positive cases.

The outbreak on the remote island of Haida Gwaii has increased to include 14 confirmed cases of COVID-19, up from 13 cases reported Friday, said Henry.

A recent jump of infections in B.C. has been linked to larger gatherings where officials say physical distancing protocols may not have been followed.

Henry said Monday that modifications to the rules around gatherings will now limit the number of people in short-term vacation rentals, including hotel rooms and houseboats, to the capacity of the unit plus five visitors.

Gatherings in B.C. remain limited to 50 people or less.

Police around the province have reported disputes that arose when residents questioned drivers about their out-of-province licence plates.

Horgan said he cant tell people how to respond when seeing different licence plates, but judging people by where their vehicle is registered does not often tell a complete story.

We dont know why they would continue to have plates that are not consistent with B.C. and we should act accordingly, he said.

Drivers with out-of-province plates should also be aware that B.C. has embraced numerous health restrictions in the effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19, the premier said.

What I can tell these individuals is theres a high degree of certainty in B.C. that we want to keep our borders closed until neighbouring jurisdictions get a better handle on COVID-19, he said. Those who are overtly declaring by their licence plates that theyre from somewhere else should be mindful of that.

Horgan said British Columbia residents should also consider the individual circumstances of other people before making judgments based on their licence plates.

I ask people to walk a mile in other peoples shoes and try and live those experiences before youre judgmental, he said.

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This news release is not for distribution or dissemination in the United States of America

TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / GreenBank Capital Inc. (CSE:GBC and OTC PINK:GRNBF and FRA: 2TL) ("GreenBank or the Company") is very pleased to announce the restoration of trading in its shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange, and considerable progress in formulating and implementing its Merchant Banking strategy to reflect the opportunities provided by its investment in Staminier Limited.

On March 11th, 2020 GreenBank acquired a 19% stake in Staminier Ltd. In addition, it received a six-month option to purchase the remaining 81% of Staminier, and at GreenBank's Annual General Meeting held on April 8th, 2020, an overwhelming 99.9% of the votes cast approved the exercise of this option in the future.

The transaction also provides for a $480,000 CAD funding line from Staminier to GreenBank for working capital purposes which by itself will enable GreenBank to fund ongoing operations well into 2021. It is likely that the Company will, however, in due course need to raise additional debt or equity finance to be able to capitalize on all of its existing or anticipated opportunities.

Staminier Ltd

Staminier Ltd is a UK-based investment company with a portfolio of public and private investments including 3,500 Berkshire Hathaway B shares, EcoSpace 41 (a low-cost housing company), and an option to acquire 13 acres of land adjacent to London's Gatwick Airport (for which it is intended to apply for planning permission for car parking and logistics development). Staminier has audited net assets of approximately $3.9 million CAD.

Staminier's strategic focus is across four areas:

Property Investment and Planning Gain,

Capital Markets,

Acquisition of Established Companies Deemed to be Undervalued, and

Acquisition of Stakes in Scalable Fast-Growing Companies.

There is a pipeline of potential transactions which Staminier is considering. The company has a strong shareholder base of approximately 150 investors who it is believed will be supportive of the GreenBank strategy going forward including the acquisition of other important investments.

GreenBank Capital Inc.

GreenBank's intends to offer merchant banking services primarily focused on the North American markets. Investment opportunities are originated through a combination of proprietary research, inbound requests from entrepreneurs and referrals from bankers, broker-dealers and other professional networks.

The market for merchant banking services focused on fast growing small to mid-cap companies in North America is fragmented with only a small number of boutique merchant bankers. This market opportunity is significant for a well-structured and well-capitalized merchant bank. In the past, GreenBank was able to achieve an increasing market value by completing a series of investments that capitalized on this market opportunity, until the untimely death of its founder, Danny Wettreich. Since that time, the existing management team has demonstrated its execution capabilities by rebuilding the data infrastructure of the Company, selling one of its portfolio companies, KYC Technology Inc., which completed a successful public listing on the CSE and now has a market value exceeding $150m CAD, and executing other exits and transactions over the past year. Together with the Staminier team, GreenBank is now positioned to return to its path of building market cap growth by capitalizing on this merchant banking market opportunity.

GreenBank has a multi-sector, multi-stage investment thesis with a global remit. GreenBank's investment approach is to identify companies with the capacity for rapid growth with a strong management team, in market niches with high potential but perhaps under-exploited market niches, that can be scaled and prepared for a public listing over a period of 6-24 months.

The focus of GreenBank has to date centered around three industries, Financial Services, Technology and Mineral Exploration. Today the Company holds equity investments in eleven portfolio companies as identified at the end of this press release.

Merchant Banking Strategy

In the coming months, , GreenBank Capital will work with the Staminier team and implement the Company's Merchant Banking Strategy as the two companies build out their respective Global Merchant Banking businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Board believes that the market in Merchant Banking services for fast growth high potential small and mid-cap companies is currently poorly served, and the opportunity for GreenBank Capital to deliver these services is significant. The Board believe that competition is fragmented. GreenBank and Staminier will take the best of both their merchant banking strategies and implement their merchant banking services in both North America and Europe. The focus will be on investing in undervalued and high growth companies in their respective focus sectors..

The Board of Directors of GreenBank Capital is comprised of seven experienced and talented individuals who will lead the Company forward in executing its strategy intelligently, which will provide stability and confidence for the investment community. The leadership team in place has already proved its ability to bring GreenBank successfully through turbulent times.

Finally, it is appropriate to thank our investors, and it is now time for them to see GreenBank Capital execute consistently, succeed, and with that success, deliver exceptional returns to its shareholders

About GreenBank

GreenBank is a merchant banking business listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (trading symbols CSE: GBC and OTCMKTS: GRNBF and FRA: 2TL). GreenBank's 100% subsidiary GreenBank Financial Inc. is a merchant bank. GreenBank's portfolio companies comprise equity investments in 11 small cap businesses, namely; 19% of Staminier Limited, a UK-based venture capital and merchant banking business; 52.5% of Blockchain Evolution Inc, owners of the world's first identification based blockchain, and developers of Xbook a user permissioned and revenue sharing social media platform; 22.3% of Ubique Minerals Limited, a zinc exploration company in Newfoundland, Canada; 47.5% of GBC Grand Exploration Inc, a gold exploration company in Newfoundland, Canada; 59.5% of Kabaddi Games Inc, developers of a mobile application game based on the sport of Kabaddi; 19% of Inside Bay Street Corporation, a financial news communications company; 34.8% of Gander Exploration Inc, a minerals exploration company in Newfoundland, Canada; 10% of Reliable Stock Transfer Inc, a Canadian small cap transfer agency; 25.2% of Buchans Wileys Exploration Inc, a minerals exploration company; 10% of The Lonsdale Group LLC, a USA based private equity company focused on small cap investments; and 11.2% of Minfocus Exploration Corp (TSXV: MFX), a mineral exploration company.

For more information please see https://www.GreenBankCapitalinc.com or contact Mark Wettreich at (647) 693 9411 or by email mark@GreenBankCapitalinc.com

Forward-Looking Information: This press release may include forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business and trading in the common stock of GreenBank Capital Inc., the raising of additional capital and the future development of the businesses comprising GreenBank's investment portfolio. The forward-looking information is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the company's management. Although the company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because GreenBank can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and GreenBank disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: GreenBank Capital Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/599185/Greenbank-Capital-Announces-Its-Merchant-Banking-Strategy
SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to increase the number of bilingual allied healthcare workers in California, Futuro Health is recruiting 1,000 Spanish speakers from across the state for a tuition-free, industry-specific online English course.

There are more than 200 languages spoken in California , and 44% of California households speak a language other than English. Of those, 28% report Spanish as their primary language. Additionally, nearly 7 million Californians report they speak English "less than very well."

Allied health roles include a wide range of clinical, administrative and support functions, such as medical assistants, certified nursing assistants, respiratory therapists, radiology technicians, care coordinators, health IT specialists, licensed vocational nurses and others. In California alone, there is a demand for an estimated 500,000 new allied healthcare workers between now and 2024.

"There are healthcare employers who would prefer that more bilingual candidates knock on their door," Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan said. "For the future of care to be equitable, we need the workforce to reflect the communities being served  especially as California grows and greys."

To help boost the number of allied healthcare workers who speak English well, Futuro Health and its partner Voxy , which provides online task-based English-language learning courses, have teamed up to offer the English for Allied Health course . This course equips students with the English vocabulary they will need to work in allied healthcare roles.

"The pandemic has shed light on health disparities," explained Executive Vice President, UNITE-LA, Alma Salazar. "Part of the solution is to have those who live locally serve their community. This training is an example of how to open up access for more to consider healthcare roles."

The course is open to native Spanish speakers who want to improve their English in order to perform better in their current care-related role or to prepare for an allied healthcare program of study. Course topics include introduction to allied healthcare, scheduling and billing, medical history, basic nursing skills and much more.

Both the tuition and the registration fees are waived for 2020. Students will only pay $20 per month for their education and training membership. Students may sign up for the English for Allied Health course at any time and create a profile on the Futuro Health website to register for these fall 2020 start dates: August 10, August 24, September 7, October 5, November 2 and December 7.

"Monolingual Spanish-speaking patients, especially elders, are often hesitant to freely express their concerns during medical visits. Through this program at Futuro Health, we can build and strengthen the English language skills that Latinx healthcare workers need to provide empathy and care for patients navigating the English-speaking healthcare environment," said Hortencia Armendariz, board member for Futuro Health and leader of the Healthcare Justice Division of SEIU-UHW.

Futuro Health's goal is to graduate 10,000 new licensed and/or credentialed allied healthcare workers by 2024 to meet the growing need.

"Because of our commitment to fully serve our diverse client base, we have a great need for good vocational English programming, and we're delighted to find Futuro Health already partnered with the same provider we would have chosen," said Blake Konczal, executive director of the Fresno Regional Workforce Development Board. "In many instances, industry-driven vocational training is de facto inaccessible to many clients because such offerings are not coordinated with appropriate Vocational English as a Second Language Program classes."

About



Futuro Health improves the health and wealth of communities by growing the largest network of credentialed allied health workers in the nation starting in California. We believe investing in education and skills training and retraining results in better-paying jobs for workers, better service for patients and better workers for employers to hire. Kaiser Permanente and Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) partnered to establish Futuro Health in January 2020 with a $130 million commitment.

Contact: Celina Shands | 858-735-2883

[email protected]

SOURCE Futuro Health
Karnataka has dropped a chapter on controversial former Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan in the Class 7 syllabus as a part of its exercise to cut around 30 percent content due to delayed reopening of schools because of the ongoing pandemic. The revised syllabus from class 1 to 10 for the state board schools has been uploaded to the Department of State Education Research and Training website which reflects this change.

However, a chapter on the controversial ruler has been retained in Class 6 and Class 10 syllabus. Defending the move Karnataka Textbook Society Director Made Gowda said  Too much should not be read into the rationalizing of the syllabus. It has been done keeping in view that the number of academic days has reduced from 220 to 120 days this year due to the delayed opening of schools. Anyway, Tipu Sultan continues to be taught in Class 6 and Class 10.

The Mysore ruler who lived from 1750-1799 is considered controversial as while one section believes him to be the Tiger of Mysore who took on the British for Indias independence, right-wing elements say that he was responsible for aggressive proselytization and massacre of a large number of the majority Hindu community.

Immediately after assuming power last year, the BS Yediyurappa led BJP government in the state had dropped celebrating the annual Tipu Jayanti - the birth anniversary - which the previous Congress government headed by Siddaramaiah had introduced in 2015.

Congress immediately lashed out at the decision of the state government to drop the chapter on Tipu Sultan. KPCC President D K Shivakumar said Tipu does not belong to one caste or religion. he is a part of our national history. BJP for its political ends is trying to twist history. Even President Kovind when he came to Karnataka had praised Tipus contribution. We will study the issue and not allow the government to rewrite and falsify history.

However, the move was welcomed by BJP MLA Appachu Ranjan who in October last year had written to the state government asking that references to Tipu Sultan be removed from textbooks. He is a tyrant who was responsible for the massacre of Kodavas. In spite of doing so many bad things he was needlessly praised. I am happy that at least in one textbook he has been removed.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 27) President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday took a swipe at Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon for defending the embattled Lopez family following the shutdown of media giant ABS-CBN.

At the beginning of his fifth State of the Nation Address at the Batasang Pambansa, Duterte called out parties supposedly taking advantage of a preoccupied government amid the COVID-19 pandemic, naming Drilon in the process.

It is sad that while government focuses its attention, resources to battle the coronavirus, there are those who take advantage of a preoccupied government, Duterte said in the first part of his address.

One of them is Senator Frank Drilon. In an interview, he arrogantly mentioned among others that oligarchs need not be rich. Then he linked the anti-dynasty system with oligarchy, and the topic was my daughter and son Obviously, he was defending the Lopezes, that they are not oligarchs, he added.

The Lopezes are majority owners of the publicly-listed media company.

Drilon earlier called for the passage of an anti-dynasty law, noting that political dynasties have allowed oligarchs to thrive.

The President, however, hurled strong words against the senator.

You are a hypocrite. You know that you cannot pass an anti-dynasty law. Ikaw nandiyan sa Congress, ikaw mauna (youre the one whos in Congress). But to take it against me for protecting my country is something which I really resent, Duterte said.

Apart from the ABS-CBN issue, the President also questioned Drilons supposed ties with the ACCRA law firm when the governments water contract with the Ayalas was being drafted.

Defending press freedom, not the Lopezes

In response, Drilon clarified the reasons for his actions.

I was defending freedom of the press, not the Lopezes. The closure of the ABS-CBN sent a chilling effect, Drilon said in a statement.

I aired my support for the renewal of franchise of ABS-CBN because undeniably the network complements other stations in providing timely and accurate reportage even in the farthest locality unreachable to others, even to the government I was defending the 11,000 people and their families who would lose jobs amid the pandemic, not the Lopezes, he said.

Drilons colleague Sen. Richard Gordon echoed the Senate minority leaders statement that he is arguing on the issue of press freedom in his critique of the governments action towards the non-renewal of ABS-CBN franchise.

The President took it personal. The President should know better than that, Gordon told CNN Philippines Rico Hizon on Monday.

A number of ABS-CBN workers are set to be laid off by August 31 after the network failed to obtain a fresh congressional franchise. The media company did not say how many employees will be affected, but noted they will be given separation pay and retirement benefits.

Duterte a casualty of Lopezes?

Aside from Drilon, Duterte also called out the Lopez family.

He said he was a casualty of the Lopez influence in the 2016 election.

Media is a powerful tool in the hands of oligarchs like the Lopezes who use their media outlets in their battles with political figures, Duterte said.

Duterte in previous speeches has repeatedly slammed ABS-CBN his remarks reportedly stemming from the network's alleged failure to run his campaign advertisements during the 2016 elections.

The chief executive has since accepted the companys apology.

Reforming the old and new oligarchy

Political expert Julio Teehankee emphasized that all kinds of oligarchs, whether old like the Lopezes or the new ones, should be targeted by the government fairly.

If you start targeting one or two big corporations and precisely if you concentrate all your political resource to bringing down the biggest broadcasting corporation in the Philippines and then you ignore the other corporations that have similarly transgressed rules and regulations then that is not actually a reform of the oligarchy. That is simply partisan politics, Teehankee said.

Teehankee reiterated that it was Dutertes campaign promise to dismantle the oligarchy, but noted that new oligarchs are rising under his administration.

If you look at the fortune list of billionaires, the Lopezes are not even part of that, he added.

The political analyst said the Duterte administrations handling of oligarchs may also affect investor confidence to those who want to put businesses in the country.
The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum in Norwalk will reopen for guided tours on Wednesday, July 29.

The mansions first floor Period Rooms will be open Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays for two 45-minute tours at noon and 2 p.m. Tours will be limited to five visitors, with new safety guidelines in place, including social distancing and mask requirements. Those with a medical condition that prevents wearing a mask are asked to return when it is deemed safe for visitors not to wear a mask.

Tickets, at $10, must be reserved ahead of time at lockwoodmathewsmansion.com.

The Connecticut Humanities has awarded a $10,000 grant to support of the reopening. The grant funding comes from The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act economic stabilization plan.

Scott Wands, Manager of Grants, CT Humanities, said in a news release The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is not only a Victorian-era architectural masterpiece, but it also is one of the most important museums in the state for examining and interpreting life in Connecticut at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the 20th century. CT Humanities is pleased to provide CARES Act funding so that their work can continue during the unprecedented disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Patsy R. Brescia, LMMM Chairman of the Board of Trustees said, We are truly grateful to Connecticut Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities for funding the implementation of our reopening plans. We thank these invaluable organizations as well as all our state and federal legislators for championing this cherished institution and its reopening efforts.

While opening its galleries to visitors, LMMM is planning to maintain online programming throughout the year to engage its virtual audience.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 01:33:00|Editor: huaxia

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KABUL, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said on Tuesday that the government will release 600 Taliban inmates to pave the way for the long-delayed intra-Afghan peace talks, the Presidential Palace confirmed on Twitter.

"To demonstrate the government's commitment to peace, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan will soon complete the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners as part of the exchange with Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) prisoners," the place quoted Ghani as saying during the fourth Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) held earlier in the day in Kabul.

"With this action, we look forward to the start of direct negotiations with the Taliban in a week's time. We call on the Taliban to join us at the negotiating table and to concluding promptly a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire," he said, adding that "commitment to a ceasefire during the coming Eid festival will be an indication of things to come."

The exchange of prisoners is part of a peace deal agreement signed between the United States and Taliban in Qatar in February.

So far, over 4,400 Taliban prisoners and 845 soldiers have been freed by the two sides, but the Afghan government suspended the release of the last batch of Taliban inmates over their involvement in serious crimes.

Hours after the Ghani's announcement, the Taliban outfit announced a three-day ceasefire during the upcoming Eid al-Adha starting from Friday, a Taliban spokesman said.

Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that they declared the ceasefire so that Afghans may spend the Eid al-Adha festival with security and joy.

Mujahid said Taliban fighters are not allowed to go to regions under the control of the government and the government security forces must not come to Taliban areas.

Afghan President Ghani welcomed the ceasefire and instructed the security forces to comply with the three-day truce.

Eid al-Adha, the annual religious Festival of Sacrifice, is to be observed from Friday to Sunday. Enditem
The streets of Amman, Jordan's capital, during the nation's coronavirus curfew in March 2020. (Raad Adayleh / Associated Press)

Ahlam dashed out screaming into the street, her father close behind. Bleeding from her neck, she begged her mother, the neighbors  anyone  to intervene.

That was when her father picked up a concrete block and smashed his 40-year-old daughters skull in. Then he sat down next to her body with a cigarette in one hand and a cup of tea in the other as he calmly waited for authorities to arrive, according to witness, police and local media accounts.

The brutal public slaying July 17 in a suburb near Jordan's capital, Amman, was the latest in a string of honor killings to hit the Middle Eastern kingdom. It might have gone unnoticed, like so many others before it, except that it was caught on video and widely seen on social media. The video of Ahlam's cries ignited a furious nationwide debate not only over the myriad ways Jordan's legal system has failed to protect women, but also over how theyre viewed in the deeply conservative society.

Ahlam, whose last name has not been publicly released, wasnt the first woman to have lost her life in an honor killing in Jordan this year; activists estimate at least nine such slayings so far but believe many more have gone unreported. Human Rights Watch says Jordan suffers anywhere from 15 to 20 such crimes a year. For the countrys defenders of womens rights, Ahlams death was a breaking point.

Jordanian women leading the protest in today in jordan, demanding legal protection for women and an end to domestic violence and murder #_ #_ pic.twitter.com/3EQV2YKhjn  Samar Saeed/  (@Samarsaeed) July 22, 2020

Weve had enough. This crime, it made it too hard, too difficult for us to wait any longer, said Rose Mahmoud, a Jordanian activist, in a phone interview. She joined a handful of others to organize a protest last Wednesday demanding a change to laws they say afford perpetrators of femicide reduced sentences under the guise of restoring family honor.

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Theres no deterrent if you hand the criminal half the sentence or other reductions to the punishment. When a criminal hears this, he thinks Yalla, its just a few years and then Ill come out, Mahmoud said.

As long as we give half-sentences to such crimes, nothing will change. Nothing will change.

The protest, held amid coronavirus restrictions in Amman, drew more than 500 people, organizers say. Online, thousands joined hashtag campaigns like #Screams_of_Ahlam, #Blood_Does_Not_Become_Tea and #Stop_Killing_Women. Many recounted other instances where women were attacked or killed by male relatives in response to some perceived breach of societal norms.

Hala Ahed, a lawyer and human rights defender, cited a case in which a father beat his daughter with a stick and poured gasoline on her and burned her to death. Her sin? Being out in public by eating on the roof of the house till sundown. Others recalled a November incident in which a man took a knife to his wife for arguing with him, locking her in a room and gouging out her eyes in front of her children. Or the brother who killed his 14-year-old sister when she created a Facebook account, for what he assumed were for shameful purposes.

Honor killings are not exclusive to Jordan or the Middle East. Southeast Asian nations, Mediterranean countries and Europe have all seen violence inspired by a supposed honor code usually defined by men. More generally, violence against women, which already affected about 243 million women and girls worldwide in the 12 months before the COVID-19 crisis, according to figures from U.N. Women, has skyrocketed during lockdown; United Nations officials call it a shadow pandemic.

Despite decades of initiatives from the government and activist groups to stop gender-related crimes, Jordan saw nearly 11,000 cases of domestic violence last year and has one of the highest rates of honor killings in the world. Such slayings are viewed with approval by major segments of Jordanian society, where tribal codes often take precedence over the official legal system and conduct considered unchaste can bring a deep sense of shame to the entire family.

For decades, the laws reflected that stance, allowing killers to get off scot-free. Judges, officials and police officers  the vast majority of them men  often were sympathetic to the perpetrator's views. Rights groups seeking change were accused of being Western-influenced provocateurs intent on spreading moral degradation.

Still, there have been some victories. In 1997, the government created within its police force the Family Protection Department, which is tasked with investigating and addressing domestic violence and sexual assault cases against women and children.

In 2016, the governments Religious Endowments department issued a fatwa saying honor killings are not compatible with Islam.

And despite opposition from conservatives, rights groups have won numerous amendments to the penal code, including one in 2017 that closed a loophole allowing severe anger as a mitigating circumstance for men killing women. That same year brought another change to Article 340, a section taken from the French colonial penal code, which exempted a man from punishment for killing or injuring his wife or a female relative discovered committing adultery or in an unlawful bed.

Yet activists say the changes have not gone far enough. Article 340 still considers adultery a mitigating, if not exculpatory, factor in a woman's slaying. Another law allows for sentences to be halved if the victims family members drop their personal right for a harsher sentence  a probable outcome since the family members are themselves often involved in the death. Though the government opened safe houses in 2018, dozens of women in danger of being killed by their families are still kept in so-called protective custody by police, with some of them spending decades behind bars, purportedly for their own safety.

The fact that the penal code gives excuses or reasons to reduce the sentence, its as if theres justification for the crime. And society is affected by this, said Eva Abu Halaweh, head of Mizan Law, a legal charity.

That leniency has pushed attackers to use honor as a defense, activists say, even when the victim was killed or attacked for other motives, including share of an inheritance, money or jealousy.

In many ways, Ahlams life and her killing exemplify the social-service system's shortcomings.

She was divorced and living with her parents. Local media reported she had been engaged in a love affair, a taboo in Jordan. She went to a safe house and stayed for two days before her father came and signed a pledge that no harm would come to her.

A few weeks later, according to several rights activists  who spoke on condition of anonymity after the Jordanian government issued a gag order banning discussion of the case two weeks ago  it became apparent that a marriage to her lover would not happen, making her affair illegitimate and, in the eyes of many, bringing shame to her family. Ahlam had an argument with her father, and he then killed her.

For Abu Halaweh, Ahlams trajectory could have been different had there been more robust services from the outset.

Domestic abuse requires more protection and interventions because you have a private relationship between the aggressor and the [victim]; its easy to commit a crime since its in private; and families can trick the system by signing a pledge [not to harm the victim] but then do so anyway, Abu Halaweh said.

The states procedures for dealing with domestic abuse, she added, focus primarily on the victim's immediate safety, with little effort at furthering reconciliation with the family.

Families are also victims here, because they dont know how to deal with the problem. We need guidance programs on how they can move on from the problem, she said.

Civil society groups have taken on some of that task, said Salma Nims, who heads Jordans National Commission for Women, a semi-governmental organization that advocates for and promotes womens issues. But there are too few to meet the scale of the problem, and the government often restricts their funding, even if it isnt coming from the state.

For most activists, the biggest issue in Ahlam's killing was the support for her father's murderous act. Some of that reaction could be seen on social media in the days after Ahlams killing, with comments saying she deserved to die and harassing protesters and womens rights activists.

Its a society that is ready to find the justification even before it rejects the crime, Nims said. Any crime that enters public debate always goes back to questioning the behavior of the woman and whether it justifies what happens to her.

Jordanian Princess Basma bint Talal, who helped establish the National Commission for Women, said, A radical shift in approach at all levels needs to signal the fact that conditions for violence, domestic or otherwise, will no longer be tolerated or even condoned.

There is no honor in honor killing, she wrote in a Facebook post last week.

We can no longer look away.
Locals wave to tourists at a resort in Lunang Township, Nyingchi, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, July 26, 2020. Lunang is described as an oxygen bar with alpine beauty comparable to that of Switzerland. Tourists flock to the township to escape from the summer heat and enjoy the natural beauty here. (Xinhua/Zhang Rufeng)
The Armenian military said on Tuesday that it will closely watch joint Turkish-Azerbaijani war games that will start on Wednesday two weeks after deadly fighting on Armenias border with Azerbaijan.

Armenias Defense Ministry and Armed Forces will be very attentively monitoring the course of and trends in joint Azerbaijani-Turkish military exercises scheduled for July 29 to August 10, the ministry spokeswoman, Shushan Stepanian, told RFE/RLs Armenian service.

Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan told the Russian ambassador in Yerevan, Sergei Kopyrkin, later in the day that Armenian army units as well as a Russian-Armenian military contingent are continuing to constantly monitor and analyze Turkish-Azerbaijani military activities with all reconnaissance means at their disposal. They remain prepared for any development of the situation, Tonoyan said, according to his press office.

The exercises will reportedly involve heavy artillery, warplanes and helicopter gunships and take place in various parts of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani and Turkish militaries have not specified the number of participating troops.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on Monday that ground forces of the two states will simulate joint operations in Baku and Azerbaijans Nakhichevan exclave from August 1-5. It said separate drills involving the Turkish and Azerbaijani air forces will be held in these and three other locations from July 29 through August 10.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry expressed concern over the drills. A ministry spokeswoman said they are part of Bakus provocative actions aimed at obstructing international mediators efforts to de-escalate the situation at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and kick-start talks on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

At least 12 Azerbaijani servicemen, including a general, and five Armenian soldiers were killed during several days of heavy fighting that broke out at a western section of the volatile frontier on July 12.

Turkey has blamed Armenia for the flare-up and vowed to boost its military and diplomatic support for Azerbaijan. Yerevan has responded by accusing Ankara of trying to destabilize the region.

Hours after the announcement of the Turkish-Azerbaijani exercises, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan telephoned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss the Armenian-Azerbaijani border clashes. According to the Kremlin, Putin stressed the importance of preventing any steps that could cause an escalation in tensions in the Karabakh conflict zone.

Arkady Dubnov, an independent Russian political analyst, said on Tuesday that Russia continues to regard the region as its geopolitical backyard and would therefore not tolerate Turkish military intervention in the long-running conflict.

Erdogan certainly realizes that this would be simply unacceptable to Moscow, Dubnov told RFE/RLs Armenian service.

Dubnov suggested that Erdogan assured Putin on Monday that the upcoming exercises are not a prelude to Turkish military presence in Azerbaijan and will not degenerate into a Turkish-Azerbaijani offensive against Armenia. The war games are first and foremost a publicity stunt designed to cement Erdogans self-image as the supreme Islamic leader of the world, speculated the pundit.

Russia is allied to Armenia and has thousands of troops stationed in the South Caucasus state. The current and former Armenian governments have regarded the Russian military presence as a vital safeguard against possible Turkish aggression.

Turkey refused to establish diplomatic relations and open its border with Armenia at the start of the 1991-1994 war in Karabakh. Erdogan and his predecessors have made the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations conditional on a Karabakh settlement sought by Baku. Yerevan has always rejected this precondition.
INDIANAPOLIS, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A new study on Lilly's blood test for Alzheimer's disease (AD), P-tau217 (phosphorylated tau at threonine-217), was published today in JAMA . The results showed that P-tau217 distinguished AD from other neurodegenerative diseases significantly better than other blood-based biomarkers or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These data will also be presented at the upcoming 2020 Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) . Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) and Avid Radiopharmaceuticals Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Lilly, are studying P-tau217 as a biomarker of AD pathology.

The cross-sectional three-cohort study included patients from an Arizona-based neuropathology cohort, the Swedish BioFINDER-2 cohort and a cohort of Colombian autosomal-dominant AD relatives. The study findings showed that P-tau217 accurately identified AD from other neurodegenerative diseases in both an Arizona-based neuropathology cohort and in the Swedish BioFINDER-2 study. In the third Colombian cohort, P-tau217 in mutation carriers' blood was elevated about 20 years before anticipated symptom onset and was associated with memory performance. The collaborative study was led by Oskar Hansson, M.D., Professor of Neurology at Lund University and Consultant Neurologist at Skane University Hospital, with support from Eric Reiman, M.D., CEO of Banner Research and Executive Director of Banner Alzheimer's Institute, and was co-authored by Shorena Janelidze, Ph.D. and Sebastian Palmqvist, M.D., of Lund University.

"Blood tests like P-tau217 have the potential to revolutionize Alzheimer's research, treatment and prevention trials, and clinical care," said Eric Reiman, M.D., a co-senior author who supported the research on the Colombian cohort. "While there's more work to do, I anticipate that their impact in both the research and clinical setting will become readily apparent within the next two years."

The JAMA publication provides strong support that P-tau217, measured in plasma, could be used to improve the differential diagnosis of patients with cognitive impairment. The analysis also showed the test did not perform significantly different than cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)- or positron emission tomography (PET)-based tau biomarkers. A timely and accurate diagnosis of patients with cognitive impairment requires an approach which combines a variety of diagnostic tests.

"Differentiating AD pathology from other kinds of cognitive impairment is an important step in advancing our understanding of how the disease is impacting those living with it," said Jeffrey Dage, Ph.D., senior research advisor, Lilly, and co-author of the study. "As research progresses and we are able to identify AD earlier, we hope to tailor future treatment advances to the right patients at the right time. Lilly and Avid remain committed to conducting robust research in AD, from diagnostic tools through treatment opportunities."

"Today the majority of individuals with Alzheimer's disease around the world do not get a timely diagnosis, which results in suboptimal symptomatic treatment and care," said Oskar Hansson, M.D. "With rising prevalence of Alzheimer's disease, more patients will be evaluated in primary care and other clinics where CSF and PET biomarkers are not available. Blood-based biomarkers, like plasma P-tau217, together with digital tools for checking memory performance, such as smartphone-based apps, can considerably improve the diagnostic work-up of Alzheimer's disease patients in such clinics."

Lilly will continue to optimize the assay and determine its potential role in clinical care. The reliability and efficacy of P-tau217 has not been established and it is not approved by any regulatory authority worldwide. More data on P-tau217 will be presented at upcoming scientific meetings, including AAIC  (July 27-31) and the Clinical Trials in Alzheimer's Disease Conference, CTAD, (November 4-7).

For more than 30 years, Lilly has been engaged in bringing innovative Alzheimer's disease therapies and diagnostics to patients and continues to lead the field in research, which also includes identifying biomarkers to support early detection of the disease.

About Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease is a fatal illness that causes progressive decline in memory and other aspects of cognition. Dementia due to Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of all cases1. There are currently over 50 million people living with dementia around the world, with numbers expected to increase to nearly 152 million by 20502. Almost 10 million new cases of dementia are diagnosed each year worldwide, implying one new case every 3 seconds, and a significant increase in the caregiving burden placed on society and families. In the US alone, there was an increase of 8 million new caregivers from 2015 to 20203. The current annual societal and economic cost of dementia is estimated at $1 trillion, an amount that is expected to double by 2030 unless we find a way to slow the disease.

About Avid Radiopharmaceuticals

The mission of Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lilly, is to discover and develop radiopharmaceuticals and imaging methods that improve global health by accelerating the development of new medicines and enabling a tailored approach to healthcare.

About Eli Lilly and Company

Lilly is a global health care leader that unites caring with discovery to create medicines that make life better for people around the world. We were founded more than a century ago by a man committed to creating high-quality medicines that meet real needs, and today we remain true to that mission in all our work. Across the globe, Lilly employees work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. To learn more about Lilly, please visit us at lilly.com and lilly.com/newsroom. P-LLY

This press release contains forward-looking statements (as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) about P-tau217 as a potential diagnostic tool for adult patients with cognitive impairment who are being evaluated for Alzheimer's disease and reflects Lilly's current belief. However, as with any pharmaceutical product, there are substantial risks and uncertainties in the process of development and commercialization. Among other things, there can be no guarantee that future study results will be consistent with the results to date or that P-tau217 will achieve its primary study endpoints or receive regulatory approvals. For further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, see Lilly's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Lilly undertakes no duty to update forward-looking statements.

1 https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/facts-figures

2 https://www.alz.co.uk/research/WorldAlzheimerReport2019.pdf

3 https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/ppi/2020/05/full-report-caregiving-in-the-united-states.doi.10.26419-2Fppi.00103.001.pdf

SOURCE Eli Lilly and Company

Related Links

http://www.lilly.com


SUNNYVALE, Calif. and BANGALORE, India, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, today announced that it has selected Google Cloud as the cloud provider for its enterprise-wide SAP footprint.

The engagement will bring SAP applications and workloads to the cloud to support Wipro's 180,000-plus employees. This latest collaboration solidifies the strategic relationship between the companies as they roll out two major initiatives across Wipro's global organization.

Transforming to an Intelligent Enterprise with SAP S/4HANA and Google Cloud

Wipro will modernize and transform its core ERP system to SAP's flagship S/4HANA and migrate the SAP workloads onto Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Wipro will leverage the advanced intelligent ERP from SAP, along with the flexibility and scalability of GCP, for hosting SAP Workloads.

"As a provider of digital transformation services to some of the world's most impactful businesses, it is critical that our own core systems and technologies are running on intelligent and modern platforms that encompass the needs of the future," said Bhanumurthy B.M, President and Chief Operating Officer, Wipro Limited. "This transformation program will help us to run our most business-critical workloads and applications with speed and agility, and to support our customers more effectively."

"Wipro is embracing digital transformation at speed and scale. By modernizing their core systems and technologies with Google Cloud, they have a powerful and scalable foundation to accelerate their strategic enterprise priorities and build for the future," said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud.

Transforming the employee experience with G Suite

Wipro will also roll out G Suite for some of its employees as a workplace productivity platform. Factors that led the company to integrate the intuitive, cloud-native solution included G Suite's strong interoperability and security controls, and features that enable real-time collaboration even in remote-work environments.

Extending a long-term relationship

Wipro and Google Cloud have a strong track record of success working together to help enterprises achieve greater operational efficiency, innovation, and risk mitigation along their cloud journeys. Wipro's industry-focused solutions, with Google Cloud technologies embedded at their core, enable enterprises to future-proof their IT investments.

Wipro's dedicated Google Cloud practice also powers business and technology transformation for joint enterprise customers. This includes differentiated services like application modernization, data analytics, artificial intelligence, SAP workload migration, and industrialized cloud migrations at scale. Wipro has also integrated Anthos , Google's open platform for managing applications in a multi-cloud world, into its services offerings to enable hybrid cloud deployments for customers.

About Wipro Limited

Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) is a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. We harness the power of cognitive computing, hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics and emerging technologies to help our clients adapt to the digital world and make them successful. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, strong commitment to sustainability and good corporate citizenship, we have over 175180,000 dedicated employees serving clients across six continents. Together, we discover ideas and connect the dots to build a better and a bold new future.

About Google Cloud

Google Cloud provides organizations with leading infrastructure, platform capabilities and industry solutions. We deliver enterprise-grade cloud solutions that leverage Google's cutting-edge technology to help companies operate more efficiently and adapt to changing needs, giving customers a foundation for the future. Customers in more than 150 countries turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to solve their most critical business problems.

Forward-looking and Cautionary Statements

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in our earnings, revenue and profits, our ability to generate and manage growth, intense competition in IT services, our ability to maintain our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which we make strategic investments, withdrawal of fiscal governmental incentives, political instability, war, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property, and general economic conditions affecting our business and industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available at www.sec.gov . We may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf.

SOURCE Google Cloud
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump returned to the briefing room Tuesday to tout his administration's deal with camera company Kodak to manufacture pharmaceuticals and dismissed Senate Republicans' economic stimulus proposal as "semi-irrelevant."

The administration plans to give Eastman Kodak Co. a $765 million loan to launch a pharmaceuticals division. The loan from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation is the first of its kind under the Defense Production Act.

"It's a breakthrough in bringing pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the United States," Trump told reporters, adding that members of his administration are in Rochester, New York, where the camera company is based, to "finalize this groundbreaking deal."

Trump said it was the 33rd time his administration had used the Korean War-era law to spur production of medical equipment needed to combat the virus. Trump said that in many instances, the White House used the DPA as a "threat" to pressure companies to voluntarily increase production for ventilators, masks and other items.

As the president spoke, congressional leaders wrapped up talks on Capitol Hill on the latest economic relief package to help Americans grapple with the economic fallout caused by the pandemic.

Trump panned the $1 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill unveiled by Senate Republicans, telling reporters there are some provisions in the proposal he doesn't support.

"It's sort of semi-irrelevant because the Democrats come with their needs and asks and the Republicans go with theirs," he said. "We'll be talking about it."

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, the two White House officials tasked with negotiations, have spent the last week meeting with congressional leaders to hash out the details of the GOP plan to ensure it addresses the president's demands.

The Health, Economic Assistance, Liability protection, and Schools Act, or HEALS Act, includes another round of direct checks to Americans, more help for small businesses and money to help encourage schools to return to the classroom in the fall  a top priority for the administration. House Democrats in May approved their own version of a relief package with a price tag of $3 trillion.

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Mnuchin and Meadows appeared to make little progress in their meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The four are due to meet again on Wednesday, according to Pelosi.

Congress is under mounting pressure to pass a bill quickly as federal unemployment insurance expires this week for millions of Americans made jobless by the pandemic. Democrats want to extend the weekly $600 federal unemployment bonus through January while Republicans have settled on capping assistance at 70% of workers' pay.

When asked what he thought of the president's comments calling the Senate GOP plan "semi-irrelevant," Meadows said: "I think everybody recognizes there's a long way between $1 trillion and $3 trillion and to suggest that there's room for negotiation, it actually is going to be built from the ground up."

Asked if both sides were any closer to a stimulus deal following the meeting, Meadows told reporters: "I don't know if I would characterize it as getting closer."

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House, July 22, 2020, in Washington.

Trump also reiterated his support for using hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus a day after Twitter removed a post the president retweeted in which a group called "America's Frontline Doctors" said "there is a cure" for the coronavirus without citing any evidence.

Twitter said Trump's tweet "was in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy."

Trump told reporters that "many doctors think it is extremely successful."

"I took it for a 14-day period, and I'm here. Right? I'm here," he said of the antimalarial drug, noting that he took it earlier this year. "I don't think you lose anything by doing it, other than politically. It doesn't seem to be too popular you know why? Because I recommend it."

The president has continued to promote hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment, despite warnings from his own medical experts.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, stressed the drug is "not effective" in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America."

"The overwhelming, prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease," he said.

Fauci's interview came hours after Trump retweeted a post that said Fauci had "misled the American public" on the drug, among other things. When asked if he believed that Fauci misled the public, Trump dismissed the accusation before praising Fauci's approval rating.

"He's got this high approval rating, so why don't I have a high approval rating with respect  and the administration  with respect to the virus?" he asked.

"It sort of is curious  a man works for us, with us very closely, Dr. Fauci and Dr. (Deborah) Birx, also highly thought of  and yet they're highly thought of, but nobody likes me. It can only be my personality," he added.

Contributing: Nicholas Wu, Ledyard King

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Trump touts Kodak, calls GOP stimulus 'semi-irrelevant'
MONTEVIDEO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th July, 2020) Russian Ambassador to Uruguay Nikolai Sofinsky met with the country's Defense Minister Javier Garcia to discuss military cooperation, according to statements from both sides.

"Defense Minister Javier Garcia met with Russian Ambassador Nikolai Sofinsky, the parties discussed international relations in the sphere of defense," the Uruguayan Defense Ministry said in a statement on Twitter.

In turn, a spokesman for the Russian embassy told Sputnik that the meeting had been organized at the initiative of the Russian side.

"It was a courtesy visit, during which prospects of defense industry cooperation for the benefit of both countries were discussed," the diplomatic mission said.
More than 6,000 tenants in Ontario could get evicted soon due to unpaid rent over the last few months.

The provinces Landlord and Tenant Board reported that from March 17 to July 19, it handled 6,083 applications for tenant eviction due to non-payment and for collection of unpaid dues. The board also processed another 481 applications for enforcement of missed payments during the same time frame.

Eviction hearings in Ontario have significantly slowed down for the duration of the pandemic, with 282 such proceedings conducted between April and June.
Overall, the numbers mark a decrease in civilian deaths and injuries when compared with the same period last year, but U.S. and Afghan government officials say the levels of violence remain too high. Following the signing of the peace deal with the Taliban, U.S. officials said they expected violence across the country to remain low. A week of reduced violence preceded the signing, prompting many to hope decades of deadly conflict had turned a corner.
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A woman was killed in an apparent shark attack off the coast of the northeastern US state of Maine.

A witness saw the woman swimming off the shore of Bailey Island on Monday afternoon when she was injured in what appeared to be an unprovoked attack by a shark.

Two kayakers helped the person get to shore and an ambulance provided further assistance, but she was pronounced dead at the scene, Marine Marine Patrol said.

The authorities, have not named the victim, continue to investigate the death. No other information is available at this time and the investigation into the incident is continuing, said Maine Department of Marine Resources.

The states marine patrol is urging swimmers and boaters to use caution near Bailey Island and to avoid swimming near schooling fish or seals.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

There has only been one recorded unprovoked shark attack in Maine, according to New England shark expert James Sulikowski.

Mr Sulikowski, a researcher at Arizona State University told the Portland Press Herald it was possible the shark mistook the person for food. We can easily be mistaken for a seal  as a sharks dinner, he said.

The International Shark Attack File, an international database, has only listed one unprovoked attack in the state. The 2010 incident reportedly saw an commercial diver attacked by a porbeagle shark but escape unharmed.

Earlier this month, a woman believed to have been making a documentary about sharks was bitten by one off the coast off Queensland, Australia.

She declared, I still love sharks  sharks are beautiful, as she was taken to hospital for treatment.
BALTIMORE, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sheppard Pratt was named one of the nation's top five psychiatric hospitals by U.S. News & World Report in its 2020-2021 Best Hospitals rankings. Sheppard Pratt, which was ranked number five nationallyup from number seven last yearhas been consistently ranked among the top hospitals in the country for psychiatry for 30 years.

"Now more than ever, there is a need for trusted resources to provide critical mental and behavioral health," said Harsh K. Trivedi, MD, MBA, president and CEO of Sheppard Pratt. "While there is much uncertainty in the world today, those in need of care can be confident in Sheppard Pratt. A top five U.S. News & World Report ranking illustrates our commitment to not just the high-quality care we provide, but also the depth and breadth of our services to ensure we meet the needs of everyone who walks through our doors."

Sheppard Pratt recently launched its Virtual Crisis Walk-In Clinic to provide an online mental health assessment and triage to those in crisis, reducing a key barrier to those seeking treatment. The Virtual Crisis Walk-In Clinic offers an alternative for those seeking emergency mental health care in these uncertain times.

As a local, regional, and national resource serving people from 42 states and 19 countries, Sheppard Pratt will further expand access to world-class care and services with the completion of its new 50-acre hospital campus in the capital region in 2021. The new hospital in Howard County, Maryland, will provide another access point for mental health, addiction services, and outpatient care.

Sheppard Pratt is a growing network of behavioral health resources that provides the most comprehensive continuum of services in the nationserving more than 80,000 people annually, through more than 160 programs, and across more than 380 sites of services.

The Best Hospitals specialty rankings assess performance in 16 specialties. Rankings for the psychiatry specialty are based solely on expert opinion surveys by board-certified physicians on a hospital's ability to develop and sustain a system that delivers high-quality care.

For the 2020-2021 rankings, U.S. News evaluated more than 4,500 medical centers nationwide. In the 16 specialty areas,134 hospitals were ranked in at least one specialty. For more information, visit the Best Hospitals list and its methodology.

About Sheppard Pratt

Sheppard Pratt is the largest private, nonprofit provider of mental health, substance use, developmental disability, special education, and social services in the country. A nationwide resource, Sheppard Pratt provides services across a comprehensive continuum of care, spanning both hospital- and community-based resources. Since its founding in 1853, Sheppard Pratt has been innovating the field through research, best practice implementation, and a focus on improving the quality of mental health care on a global level. Sheppard Pratt has been consistently ranked as a top national psychiatric hospital by U.S. News & World Report for 30 years.

SOURCE Sheppard Pratt
Photo: The Canadian Press Jesse Wente poses for a photograph in Toronto on December 10, 2018.

Jesse Wente, a prominent advocate for an increased presence of Indigenous voices in Canada's cultural landscape, has been appointed chairperson of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Wente, an Anishinaabe writer, broadcaster and speaker, has held high-profile roles in Canada's arts communities, including executive director of the industry-led Indigenous Screen Office.

Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault says Wente is the first Indigenous chairperson of an organization within his federal portfolio.

The Canada Council for the Arts distributes millions in federal arts funding annually and oversees some of Canada's most prestigious arts awards.

Wente takes over as chairperson a time of great flux for artists in Canada, as they struggle to find new ways to present their works, and earn a living, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Simon Brault, director and chief executive officer for the council, called the appointment a bold decision and fantastic news for the council.
Almost seven months after the January 3 American military operation that killed Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, its worth remembering that the operation prompted prominent Democrats and members of the press to breathlessly warn that the United States was on the brink of war with Iran.

A Washington Post piece published on the day of Soleimanis death as analysis rather than opinion asserted in its lede that war was imminent. Representative Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.) tweeted that President Trump is leading us to the brink of war because he believes it will help his re-election. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), then a candidate for president, initially tempered her alarm at Trumps reckless decision with the admission that Soleimani was a murderer. After receiving criticism for this from the left, she condemned the operation as the assassination of a high ranking government official and opined that it would increase the likelihood of war.

The New York Times, meanwhile, published a number of articles in the days after Soleimanis death that fretted about, rather than considered, its implications. Among these implications, according to the Times, was the solidification of the Iranian publics support of the current regime. Ever since the 2009 Green Revolution, the popular movement sparked when the Iranian government rigged a presidential election against genuine reformer Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Iranians have frequently taken to the streets to protest the social and economic devastation wrought by Supreme Leader Ali Khameneis regime. Yet the Times insisted that Soleimanis death had united Young and old. Rich and poor. Hard-liner and reformer  just a week before Iranians once again erupted in righteous anger at their leadership class and the government responded with a crackdown that killed hundreds.

Another concern of reporters at the Times was that U.S. troops would be expelled from Iraq because the operation that ended Soleimanis death occurred on Iraqi soil. The Iraqi parliament voted for such an expulsion. The country would take whatever legal actions were necessary to compel a United States departure over the coming months, the Times breathlessly reported. Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi drafted the language and submitted the bill approved by Parliament on Sunday, leaving little doubt about his support. Unmentioned was the fact that Mahdi was a lame duck at the time; he had announced plans to resign after fall 2019 protests against both him and his party for acting as stooges of Soleimani and the Iranians.

Story continues

Needless to say, seven months later, American troops remain in Iraq, and no war between the U.S. and Iran has materialized. It should have been obvious to anyone paying attention at the time that a war was in neither Trumps nor Khameneis interest, and in fact would have been politically suicidal for both.

So why were so many invested in depicting the Soleimani killing as a cataclysmic mistake? To answer, well have to recall how the Obama administration sold the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), popularly known as the Iran nuclear deal, to the public.

The JCPOA returned more than $100 billion in frozen assets to the Iranians and lifted a comprehensive slate of American economic sanctions. In return, the Iranians pledged to adhere to certain limits on the number of centrifuges they would install for uranium enrichment, and the amount of enriched uranium they could hold on to. Critics of the deal pointed out that the sunset provisions on the Iranians obligations would at best delay Irans efforts to develop a successful nuclear-weapons program, and that to sign on to a subpar deal while relieving the regime of the economic pressure imposed by sanctions would be to forfeit significant leverage.

The Obama administration responded to these critiques by establishing several narratives and creating an echo chamber in the media to push them. In July 2015, President Obama, speaking of the problem of Irans nuclear-weapons pursuit, bluntly told reporters that either its resolved diplomatically through negotiations, or its resolved through force, through war. This was a false choice even at the time, but it quickly became part of the administrations message. A month later, Obama again claimed that the choice we face is ultimately between diplomacy and some form of war  maybe not tomorrow, maybe not three months from now, but soon. His fans in the media took the hint. Nicholas Kristof defended the argument by nonsensically pointing to the Iraq War in his New York Times column, while the Times Editorial Board issued an endorsement of the JCPOA entitled An Iran Nuclear Deal That Reduces the Chance of War. To justify the considerable concessions of the JCPOA, the Obama administration needed to present a scary, stark alternative, and chose the scariest, starkest one possible: war.

Trump did not withdraw from the deal immediately upon taking office, but he did send strong signals that his administration would be much less conciliatory toward the Iranian regime, and by mid 2018 he was ready to take the leap and exit the deal. This meant the reimposition of myriad sanctions and a much more aggressive posture toward Iranian initiatives across the Middle East, culminating in the operation that eliminated Soleimani, which presented a test of Obamas claim: Was the choice before the American people really either the JCPOA or war? Surely, if war was inevitable, the assassination of a high ranking government official would be enough to light the powder keg. But of course, war wasnt inevitable. Killing Soleimani merely made the Quds Force less effective and sent Iran a message that terrorist attacks perpetrated against U.S. forces would not go unanswered.

That partisans will push their preferred narratives is a given. That the press has an investment in partisans with a D next to their name should surprise no one. But the extent of bias present in supposedly straight reporting on Iran over the past five years or so merits special attention. The press did not stop at propagating President Obamas false choice; it carried the logic forward years later at the expense of providing the public with an accurate picture of what was happening in the aftermath of a monumental U.S. military operation. It would be nice to believe that the public would hold the media accountable for this malpractice, but I wouldnt hold my breath if I were you.

More from National Review
When the Japanese Empire surrendered in August 1945, it accepted the Allied demand that stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners. The top Japanese leadership  including the militaristic Tojo, who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor  faced an international Allied war crimes tribunal in Tokyo, while lower-ranking suspects accused of conventional war crimes or crimes against humanity were hauled in front of numerous special courts set up by various Allied countries. Paradiss book tells how four Japanese officers held responsible for the killing of the Doolittle airmen were tried as suspected war criminals by a United States military commission in postwar Shanghai.

Last Mission to Tokyo is as concerned with the machinations of prosecution and defense lawyers as with the Doolittle fliers themselves. Paradis, himself a Pentagon lawyer who defends detainees held by the American military at Guantanamo Bay, has a keen sense of the injustices, vagaries and ironies of war crimes trials. His books authority is the result of substantial archival research. He gives a chilling account of Japans scramble to find legal grounds for executing the American prisoners. When the Japanese War Ministrys legal department concluded that it would be illegal to execute prisoners of war, they were informed that the execution would take place regardless of the legality. If necessary, the Kempeitai, the notorious military police, would falsify the records to make it appear that the helpless Americans had resisted capture.

Paradiss account points blame less at the four Japanese defendants facing the military commission than at the senior Japanese leaders who launched the war, including Tojo and other powerful militarists. An idealistic young Japanese defense lawyer believed that the Japanese defendants, like the Doolittle airmen and the rest of Japan, were victims of the militarists, who had left millions dead for nothing. As for Emperor Hirohito, by pardoning five of the American prisoners, he had demonstrated his formal authority and thus implicated himself in the executions of the other three. Yet while Tojo was convicted and hanged as a Class A war criminal by the Allied tribunal at Tokyo, the emperor was never prosecuted, his authority seen by the Truman administration as crucial for ending the war and then for legitimating the postwar American occupation of Japan.

In March and April 1946, shortly before the American military commission rendered its verdict in the Doolittle case, Hirohito  facing public calls for his abdication or trial  gave a series of self-exonerating monologues to his aides behind closed doors at the Imperial Palace. (In a richly researched book, this is a rare piece of evidence that Paradis overlooked, although it only enriches his story.) The emperor himself, who feared the militarists and almost never defied them, judged the three executed Americans as innocent: In fact there seem to have been antiaircraft guns and antiaircraft machine guns at the place attacked by the aircraft, so I think the three men also were not responsible.

The war in the Pacific, which the great historian John W. Dower has described as a merciless clash fueled by racist hatreds, offers painful opportunities for self-reflection. While Paradis avoids lazy moral equivalences, his book, like any true war story, has something to disquiet nationalists of all stripes. For Japanese right-wingers who denounce the Allies trials of war criminals as victors justice, it is telling to see the crude proceedings  lasting perhaps an hour  that the Japanese Empire used to condemn the three Doolittle airmen. For American patriots, the book carries disturbing reminders about the many civilians killed in the American bombing campaigns that razed Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe and other Japanese cities and towns.
Job Title: Call for proposals for

consultancy to conduct a baseline survey in the three countries of South Sudan,

Kenya and Uganda

Organisation: Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe

e.V.

Project Name:

Baseline survey of the project Enhance access to and quality of health,

nutrition and WASH services for people affected by the South Sudan crisis in

South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda.

Duty Station: South

Sudan, Kenya and Uganda

Download Terms of

Reference (TOR), Click

Here

About US:

Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe

e.V. (www.thejohanniter.org) is a German Christian non-governmental organ-isation,

dedicated to excellence in the field of first aid, ambulance service, social

service programmes and other projects in the medical and social field. The

Federal Headquarters are based in Berlin, Germany. Johanniter International

Assistance is the operational unit for humanitarian aid, develop-ment

co-operation and emergency relief, implementing and supporting mostly health

projects world-wide.

Background and Rationale

The refugee crisis

in South Sudan currently remains the fastest growing and largest refugee

situation on the African continent and the third largest refugee crisis in the

world. More than a third of the estimated 12 million inhabitants of South Sudan

have been displaced and more than half of the population is affected by the

crisis . Within the country, there are nearly two million IDPs in urgent

humanitarian need, while outside the country there are now nearly 2.4 million

South Sudanese refugees, with Uganda still the largest receiving country,

followed by Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the

Central African Republic

Purpose, Objectives and Use

The purpose of this

consultancy is to conduct the baseline data collection as defined hereunder of

the project. It is expected that this baseline data collection and review will

interrogate the implementation methodologies geared towards establishing the

following:



Improved

utilization of health, nutrition and WASH services by pregnant and lactating

women, children and other vulnerable people in South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda by

2023.



The

Baseline will seek to collect baseline data on the indicators which will guide

achieving the above mentioned specific goal of the project, as defined in the

project proposal (will



be made

available to consultant).

Key data to be collected for the baseline include:

Data related to the

below indicators will be collected/ included in the baseline.

Outcome level:



Number

of health consultations provided for beneficiaries



Proportion

of children under 5 years presenting with malaria who have received effective

malaria treatment within 24 hours of onset of their symptoms.



Proportion

of children exclusively breastfed until 6 months of age in the target area.



Prevalence

rate GAM (MAM and SAM) in children under 5.



Prevalence

of diarrhea in children under 5



Output

level:



% of

identified GBV survivors referred to treatment Centers for medical and

psychosocial care



Number

of health referrals (from community to health facilities)



Number

of healthcare consultations



Number

of women who attended ANC visits (New and re-visits)



% of HH

in the target area with basic knowledge on gender based violence



% of

persons identified with mental illnesses receiving psychosocial care

(counselling and play/sport activities)



% of

<5 attaining="" children="" mam="" normal="" o:p="" weight="" with="">5>



Cure

rate (%) of children with severe acute malnutrition with medical complications

admitted at the Stabilization Center



% of

malnourished children (SAM) who have recovered following treatment.



Proportion

mothers who are aware about new-born early initiation of breastfeeding



% of

households in the target area with access to safe, clean and sufficient

quantity of water



% HH

with 2 water containers (as per SPHERE Standard)



% of

households in the target area who know at least three critical times for hand

washing



Number

of staff trained

The above baseline

data should be sub aggregated into host community data and refugees data,

disaggregated by sex, age and disability and should allow for comparison with

the end line report data.

The purpose of this

baseline study will be to provide an information base against which to monitor

and assess an interventions progress and effectiveness during implementation

and after it is completed. The data collected will form a basis against which

the degree and quality of change during an interventions implementation will

be measured. Therefore some data might be available from the secondary sources

but will be included in the baseline to form the baseline against which the end

line will be measured/ compared.

Scope of Work: The baseline study will take a sample of community members and other

stakeholders from the above-mentioned locations. The assignment shall generally

be divided in the following summary steps;



Developing

data collection tools based on the indicators and information needed.



Defining

the sample size households and individuals from the population targeted on this

data collection



Oversee

remotely (no travel in-countries possible/ planned) the pre-testing and overall

data collection



Consolidate

and analyze the data collected



Produce

draft and final reports for this assignment

Duration of the baseline: The baseline study shall be undertaken in the months of August and

September 2020.

Methodology: The

consultant is expected to propose scientifically, culturally and socially

appropriate approaches that will be used to answer the questions raised in this

ToR.

Mainly quantitative

approach should be used as well as primary and secondary data in analysing the

baseline survey findings. Additional propositions to be determined by the

consultant and discussed before contracting to form part of this ToR. The

consultant must demonstrate ability to remotely manage the survey by providing

details of the process including the tools to be developed, formats and method

Therefore to achieve

this the consultant is expected to:



Develop

the primary and secondary data collection tools that will be used to collect

information related to the above indicators



Clarify

the population(households/ individuals) sample for each indicator from which

the sampling shall be done to ensure statistical representative of the results



Provide

oversight of the data collection process to the teams in the field in all three

countries via remote management.



Undertake

data analysis from the three countries



Validation

and sharing workshop. The baseline findings should be validated through

workshop among key staff of the JOHANNITER, partner NGO staff, and any other

stakeholder.



Make a

draft report based on findings and final report writing based on the feedbacks

from JOHANNITER team.

Process:

The baseline

evaluation study shall be conducted in August ending September 2020. However,

due to COVID-19 restrictions some activities will be done simultaneously as

data collection may happen concurrently in all the three countries, as the

consultant will be based possibly in one of the countries or elsewhere but

guiding the activity remotely. Each country will have a team locally at project

sites led by in country M&E officers who will do the selection of enumerators,

training and data collection. Note that there is a possibility that the

assignment shall be conducted simultaneously for Uganda and Kenya, while the

data collection process in South Sudan will happen slightly later. But in

either scenario data from the three countries will form one final report.

The assignment is

expected to include:



Inception

meeting



Secondary

data collection and review of desk documents.



Data

collection tools, methodology and sampling development.



Remotely

pre-test through the country teams



Oversee

remotely the data collection



Consolidate

and analyse data



Produce

final report

The consultant is

responsible to define the numbers of days required for the whole exercise in

his/her proposal and possibly discussed later with Johanniter.

Each country M&E

team will be in-charge of running the pre-testing and eventual data collection

with guidance of the consultant as explained above.

In Kenya, the tools,

once developed, need to be approved by UNHCR, which may take 2 weeks. This

implies that there might be some days break in-between the various phases of

the assignment. Also final questionnaire will incorporate the feedback from

UNHCR in Kakuma after their reviews especially on data related to Kenyan

indicators. But changes shall be integrated possibly for all 3 countries to

maintain uniformity for common indicators.

The baseline study

shall be undertaken within the following phases.



An

inception meeting with the consultant with the JOHANNITER and possibly partners

to familiarize the parties with each other.



Submission

of inception report



Tools

development; the consultant shall prepare the necessary tools for the study and

submit them to the JOHANNITER and partners for review.



Secondary

data collection of relevant data through physical or online reviewing of the

respective resources by the consultant



Primary

data collection by the data collection teams in the three countries with online

consultant guide / support to fields teams in South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda.

This shall focus on the refugees, host communities, government authorities and

JOHANNITER/partner staff.



Analysis

of data and report writing by the consultant.



Submission

of the draft report to JOHANNITER and partners by the consultant for reviews

and feedback.



Final

report submission to JOHANNITER and partners by the consultant.

Outputs and Deliverables

The deliverables

shall include;



Inception

report



Data

collection tools, methodology and sampling



Report

on the pre-testing



Data set

of all data collected



Final

report in English language



The

consultant will provide the electronic version of the draft report, the

electronic version of the final report and annexes in Word Format soft copy and

four hard copies to JOHANNITER.

Expert Profile of the Evaluation Team

The independent

consultant/consultancy firm must demonstrate its experience and expertise on:



Experience

in Monitoring and Evaluation.



Over 7

years proven experience of undertaking project data collection and analysis

for baselines/end-lines with technically sound understanding of WASH, health

and nutrition data.



Experience

with Germany Government -funded projects is an advantage.



Understanding

of political, social and cultural context in South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda is

essential.



Have an

eye for details.



Experience

in Nutrition and Health in emergency and development interventions especially

in Project Cycle Management/ Monitoring and Evaluation.



Sectoral

expertise, contextual knowledge of Western Bahr el Ghazal, Wau and Jur River

Counties in South Sudan, Kalobeyei and in Turkana Kenyaand Palorinya and Rhino

camp Refugee Settlements in North-Western Uganda is an added advantage.



Have

skills to remotely manage a data collection team, which he/she will constitute,

avail and shall be responsible for analysis.

Tentative Timetable, Download

Detailed TOR

Management of the Evaluation



JOHANNITER-Uganda

shall prepare a contract that the consultant shall sign to commit him/herself;

the consultant shall be answerable to the JOHANNITER team. The Head of Mission

in Uganda shall represent JOHANNITER.



The

consultant shall be responsible for execution of the data collection analysis,

report generation and submission.



The

consultant shall work closely with the JOHANNITER/partners who will constitute

a data collection team.



JOHANNITER

and partners shall be responsible for the day-to-day field management and all

field costs associated with the exercise. All field costs shall not be included

in consultants bid.



The

JOHANNITER/partners will provide that the logistical arrangements related to

the baseline study. These include vehicle for transport in the field,

JOHANNITER/Partners will facilitate access to all required homes/sites and

government officials for any requested data/ information by the consultant.



All

supervision and oversight of the baseline exercise shall be done remotely by

the consultant



Documents

available upon request



Introductory

project documents



Structure

of the baseline study report



The

project Log-frame



Indicator

sheets

How to Apply:

If interested submit

the following to the email contact; hr.uganda@thejohanniter.org and the

deadline for submission is 15th August 2020.



A

technical proposal



A

financial proposal,



The

detailed CV of the consultant(s) who will be involved on the baseline



Profile

of the consultancy firm if its not an individual consultant.

Deadline: 15th August 2020

For more of the

latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or

find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline






Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has urged Nigerians to wear face masks as precautionary measures in...

Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has urged Nigerians to wear face masks as precautionary measures in curbing the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director General, NCDC, said this on Monday in Abuja at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing. Ihekweazu said most Nigerians lament that using face masks was stressful.The DG, however, noted that wearing face masks was less cumbersome when compared to being on a ventilator.Wearing a mask may seem very cumbersome but I promise you that it is less cumbersome than being on a ventilator.Over the last few weeks, many of you may have heard stories of survivors but there are many stories that could have been told that you have not heard, stories of those that have passed away, he said. He also advised Nigerians on the need to take responsibility by ensuring safety to ensure that their lives and those of their loved ones were preserved.He commended frontline health workers for their commitment to the Federal Governments fight against the virus. According to him, the COVID-19 pandemic involves the efforts of everyone, not just the government alone. The DG also asked Nigerians not to throw caution in the wind amid the rising cases of the infection in the country.
People jump through the broken window at Walgreens at Broad and Chestnut streets in Center City Philadelphia, Saturday, May 30, 2020. Thieves stole filled prescriptions and paper records with health information from Walgreens stores nationwide between May 26 and June 5, the company disclosed. Read more

Walgreens customers in Philadelphia may have had their prescription information stolen during the widespread looting that took place in May, the retailer disclosed in a letter last week.

Thieves stole filled prescriptions and paper records with health information from about 180 Walgreens stores nationwide between May 26 and June 5, the company wrote in a July 24 letter. The potentially exposed data  from paperwork attached to prescriptions awaiting pickup  includes customer names and ages, their medication names and dosages, prescription numbers and prescriber names, health plan names and group numbers, vaccination information, and their addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses, according to the letter.

Credit card numbers, banking information, and Social Security numbers were not compromised, the company wrote. In the letter, Walgreens said it closed out and re-entered affected prescriptions in its system to prevent fraud. Insurance claims were also reversed for any stolen filled prescriptions that had already been billed to health plans.

A Philadelphia resident who contacted The Inquirer got a letter informing him that your preferred Walgreens was among those broken into. The customer, who requested anonymity because he is considering a lawsuit, said he got his prescriptions filled at the Walgreens at 1809 E. Allegheny Ave.

A Philadelphia police spokesperson confirmed that the store was burglarized on May 31, and that the departments East Detectives Division is investigating.

Walgreens spokesperson Jim Cohn declined to say how many stores were looted and which Philadelphia outlets were affected. About 180 of the companys 9,200 locations were affected by the potential data breach, he said.

Like many retailers, pharmacies and local businesses across the country, we recently had a number of stores sustain varying degrees of damage as a result of vandalism and theft, Cohn said in a statement. As part of a comprehensive investigation and review of the damage, we learned there was also limited unauthorized access to certain patient information at some of these damaged locations.

Walgreens has worked with law enforcement and is evaluating the safeguards it uses, he added.

Owners of the Walgreens chain told investors in July that they lost $75 million in uninsured store damage and inventory losses as a result of looting in the U.S. during May 2020, The Inquirer reported. Rival chains CVS and Rite Aid suffered damage, too.

Walgreens has advised customers to monitor their prescription and medical records, such as by reviewing their benefits statements from health insurance companies. Although financial information was not stolen, Walgreens told customers how to obtain free credit reports.

Pharmacies are subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and must maintain physical security to keep health information confidential, said Anthony Vance, the director for the Center for Cybersecurity at Temple Universitys Fox School of Business. Pharmacies must also conduct a risk analysis that considers the ways such data could be taken, he added.

I havent seen the risk analysis, but it probably did not take into account the possibility of riots, Vance said. So it doesnt mean that theyre being negligent. It just may well be that they didnt take into account that someone could storm a store.

The Walgreens case is still an information security breach in Vances book, even if its a low-tech one dealing with stolen paper.

Its just that most people, when they think of information security, they think of computers and networks, he said. Its easy to forget that information security also applies to paper and to trash. And in this case, the physical packaging.
A Black family in Florida decorated the outside of their home with posters of their twin daughters to celebrate their graduating high school.

Xanah and Xarah Sproul graduated from high school in Yulee, Florida. (Courtesy Niah Sproul)

On Thursday, the family found an anonymous racist letter in their mailbox demanding the posters be taken down.

"Don't you think enough is enough? It's time to take those hideous posters of that ugly fat black girl down off your house," the letter read. "What a disgrace to the neighborhood. In fact, your entire brood is a disgrace to the neighborhood. Consider moving to a 'hood' of your kind. Your neighbors are watching you!"

The father, David Sproul, told NBC News in a phone interview Tuesday that he was shocked by the letter.

The Sproul family decorated to celebrate their twin daughters' graduations. (Courtesy Niah Sproul)

"I would say that was coldblooded because it was directed about kids. Even if it wasn't about race, to do something like that to a child, say something like that to children is terrible," he said.

Sproul said he and his family, including twin daughters Xanah and Xarah, have lived in the Timber Creek Plantation neighborhood in Yulee, about 25 miles north of Jacksonville, for five years and have never experienced anything similar.

Sproul's wife, Toya, shared the letter on her Facebook page calling the anonymous writer a "coward."

"Racism is alive but we ain't scared!!!! This showed up in my mailbox today," she wrote in a post on Thursday.

Sproul said he let his daughters read the letter when they got home later that day, and the girls "didn't let it bother them."

"They realized that the person who wrote it didn't even know them, so they kind of disregarded it instantly," he said.

The family filed a police report with the Nassau County Sheriff's Office. A spokeswoman for the department said the incident is being investigated.

We at the Nassau County Sheriffs Office do not tolerate racism and hate crimes in our county," Undersheriff Roy Henderson said in a statement. "This is out of character for Nassau County and we will continue to investigate this incident. We are proud of the Sproul twins accomplishments and hope to get to the bottom of this soon.

Story continues

The family isn't letting the letter dampen their pride in the twins' achievements.

Xanah and Xarah, who both want to be doctors, will be attending Saint Leo University in Florida for the pre-med program, Sproul said, adding that they have both received scholarships from a local program they were involved with.

"Although they are very accomplished young ladies and they do work very hard ... at the same time, this didn't happen to two accomplished young women. This happened to two young Black women," Sproul said. "The person who did this didn't know that they had any accomplishments, didn't know their work ethic in any way. This happened to two humans, and it shouldn't have happened at all."

A drive-by parade is planned for Xanah and Xarah on Thursday, according to a Facebook event page that has drawn over 360 responses. And Sproul said the family has received supportive messages from people all over the world, including in the Netherlands, Ireland and New Zealand.

"The positivity that came out of something so negative is really good to see," he said.

This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday handed over to the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate a case of alleged ill-gotten assets acquired by Jai Kant Bajpai, an aide of slain gangster Vikas Dubey.

A Home Department spokesperson said the case against Bajpai regarding his illegal assets appeared to be prima facie true, hence the state government decided to hand over the case to the I-T Department and the ED. The state government urged the two agencies to apprise it of the action taken in the case.

Bajpai and Dubey's another aide Prashant Shukla were arrested after a failed raid at a hideout of Dubey in Kanpur led to the killing of eight police personnel.

"Vikas Dubey had called Bajpai on July 1, following which two accused met him the next day and offered Rs 2,00,000 and 25 revolvers. After the incident on July 3, they also helped him escape in three vehicles. However, due to police alertness, they decided to leave the vehicle on July 4," the police had claimed in a press release.

An FIR was been registered against them under multiple sections of the IPC, Criminal Law Amendment Act, and the Arms Act.
Airlines have touted how much-dedicated cargo flying they're doing with transformed passenger planes, but United Airlines is the only major U.S. carrier where cargo is boosting the bottom line during the COVID pandemic.

United's second-quarter earnings last week included an eye-popping 36.3% increase in cargo revenue to $402 million. Cargo-ton-miles were up 40.3% to 496 million. Even more impressive is the fact that cargo revenue represented 27.3% of the company's total operating revenue compared to 2.6% in the same period last year. Half-year results showed cargo revenue grew 14.6% to $666 million.

The Chicago-based company quickly launched cargo-only services, involved the cargo team in operations planning, and leveraged its hub locations and strong relations with freight forwarders to fill the flights, according to company officials and industry specialists.

At Delta Air Lines, cargo revenue during the quarter plunged 42% to $108 million and fell 31% in the first six months of the year. American Airlines recorded a 41% quarterly drop in cargo revenue to $130 million and a 73% reduction in cargo-ton-miles (176 million), with first-half revenue down 37%. Delta didn't report any figures for transported volume.

Southwest Airlines, the third-largest domestic carrier by market share, doesn't have much of an international network and doesn't fly widebody jets that attract the most cargo volume, so comparisons are somewhat unfair. Still, the Dallas-based company said second-quarter cargo revenue fell 13.6% to $38 million.

During follow-up calls with analysts, United executives were eager to brag about the cargo division's performance. At Delta, American, and Southwest, cargo never came up.

"Our commercial team has done a better job, I think than any airline in the entire world recognizing what the pandemic has meant for demand and taking advantage of opportunities where they present themselves," CEO Scott Kirby boasted. "Our cargo team, led by Jan Krems, [generated a] 36% increase in cargo. I mean, who would have ever thought we could do something like that?"

Story continues

Experts and logistics partners say United Airlines made cargo a focal point in March when the novel coronavirus forced countries to close borders and airlines to suspend most passenger operations. The airline aggressively turned idle planes and their lower-deck holds into mini-freighters, offering dedicated charter flights and cargo-only scheduled routes when freight intermediaries were desperate to replace the lost passenger capacity. After receiving approval from U.S. aviation authorities, United also operated "ghost" flights with mail and lightweight freight in the seats and storage areas of the cabin normally occupied by travelers and their carry-on bags.

United officials say they have flown more than 4,000 passenger freighters and 130 million pounds of cargo, since March 19. Delta and American Airlines have operated 1,100 and 1,224 "preighters" so far, respectively, according to spokespersons at both companies.

Southwest retreated from offering cargo-only charters because aircraft were needed to meet rising demand from the passenger side of the business and fewer forwarders were interested in booking entire aircraft for large domestic shipments, spokesman Dan Landson said.

Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella said United's cargo throughput also got a boost because the airline maintained passenger service throughout the crisis to Australia, Japan, Brazil, and multiple points in Europe, despite restrictive border policies.

Cargo Man In Charge

Observers say United benefits from having someone whose career is built on cargo running the Cargo division. Krems has been United Cargo's president since 2014 and held a series of management positions at Air France/KLM Cargo for 15 years, cultivating relations with logistics providers who book most of the freight with airlines.

"Krems was able to convince them to fly the planes," said an industry source who asked not to be named because of close business ties with all the major airlines.

Jan Krems (Photo: United Airlines)

By contrast, Rick Elieson headed cargo at American Airlines for three years before moving on this month to lead the airline's loyalty program. Previously, he was in charge of marketing, customer service, web development, and the vacation package business. American promoted Jessica Tyler to the president of cargo after two years as Elieson's deputy. Prior to that, she worked in business process re-engineering for American and a management consulting firm.

At Delta, Shawn Cole has been vice president of cargo for three years. In his previous nine years at Delta, and before that at Coca-Cola, he focused on finance, strategic planning, and budgeting.

While other airlines treat cargo as a steppingstone for executives on the leadership track, "Jan will still be there," the industry insider said.

Krems has generated loyalty from top freight forwarders through handshake agreements in which United essentially agrees not to charge the highest possible rate during a seller's market, as currently exists, in exchange for forwarders not chasing the lowest price when there is surplus capacity and times are leaner for airlines, said the well-connected air cargo representative.

"Cargo needs to have a seat at the boardroom table in order to truly optimize its revenue streams. We're seeing which airlines took that to heart as the second-quarter results are coming in," Neel Jones Shah, the global head of air carrier relationships at forwarder Flexport, told FreightWaves. "United really reacted very quickly to the COVID-19 crisis and was one of the first airlines in the world to institute passenger freighters. They very quickly built a global cargo-only flight network and had great support from the freight forwarding community."

United recently said on its company blog, for example, that it has partnered with DSV/Panalpina, a global logistics powerhouse based in Europe, to transport frozen blood plasma and other pharmaceutical materials during the COVID crisis. Every week, DSV delivers 20 temperature-controlled shipping containers holding more than 1,750 pounds of plasma for carriage on a Boeing 787-9 temporary freighter.

It also partnered with Los Angeles-based Commodity Forwarders Inc. to transport nearly 190,000 pounds of fresh produce to food banks in Guam for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Coronavirus Farm Assistance Program. The new program was created to provide support to consumers impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.

CFI repacked the fruit in 10-pound cases at its facility near Los Angeles International Airport and delivered it to United for delivery to Guam on a Boeing 777 using a newly opened cargo route.

Fortress Chicago

United also has a built-in advantage with its hub at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, which is centrally located and ringed by warehouses of major forwarders that have extensive road feeder networks across the country. United also has the most international flights originating from Newark, N.J., Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Washington Dulles connecting to many European destinations. Houston is a key gateway to Latin America.

"Cargo tends to go to and from our hubs. We have a well-established network with our people and our distributors, and that just was really humming," United's Nocella said. "Our cargo revenue in the second quarter and the first month was actually kind of flattish. So you can just imagine what May and June looked like. They were just really off the charts."

Delta's network is built around smaller hub cities such as Minneapolis and Detroit, although it also has conducted dedicated cargo operations out of Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York.

Nocella predicted cargo will perform well during the third quarter too.

"As long as the global fleet of widebodies is not flying like it normally is industrywide, we think cargo is going to be pretty strong in terms of the yield production which gives us the ability to do cargo-only charters," he said. "Whether it's at the levels of Q2, I think it's a little bit early to tell, but it definitely will outperform year-over-year based on what we're seeing here in July already."

Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.

RELATED NEWS:

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Photo by Pascal Renet from Pexels.

See more from Benzinga

 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's elder brother for questioning in a money-laundering case linked to alleged financial irregularities in exporting fertiliser, officials said Tuesday.

IMAGE: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot addresses the media after visiting the State Governor at his residence, in Jaipur. Photograph: PTI Photo

Agrasain Gehlot has been asked to depose before the investigating officer on Wednesday in Delhi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, they said.

On July 22, the central agency raided Agrasain Gehlot's premises in Jodhpur and a few other places in connection with the case filed under the criminal charges of PMLA.

Officials said the agency seized a number of documents during the raids and Agrasain Gehlot will be confronted with these during his questioning. Some other people involved in the case are also understood to have been summoned by the probe agency.

The raids happened after the agency filed an Enforcement Case Information Report, the ED equivalent of a police FIR, in the 2007-09 Customs department case registered for alleged irregularities in the procurement and export of subsidised Muriate of Potash meant for farmers and investigation in this case was finalised in 2013.

The ED took cognisance of the Customs FIR and a July 13 charge sheet to press money-laundering charges to probe a "smuggling syndicate" allegedly run by Agrasain Gehlot, his firm Anupam Krishi and others, officials said.

The agency said the case pertains to fraudulent export of MOP in the guise of industrial salts to buyers based in Malaysia and Taiwan.

The MOP is a restricted commodity for exports so that it is easily available to farmers in the country.

The raids happened at a time when a political slugfest was on between CM Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot.

Pilot, a former Union minister, was sacked as Rajasthan deputy CM and PCC chief recently.

Responding to the raids, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala told reporters in Jaipur, "Prime Minister Modi has created 'raid raj' in the country but we are not going to be scared."

When the Centre's "gimmicks" failed to topple the Congress government in Rajasthan, ED raids started at the premises of Gehlot's elder brother, he had said.

Agency sources had said Agrasain Gehlot and his firm were slapped with over Rs 60 crore penalty by the Customs department for these alleged export irregularities in 2013.

It is alleged that Gehlot's company "diverted" 35,000 metric tonnes of MOP that had a value of Rs 130 crore in the international market.

The ED alleged Agrasain Gehlot, in his capacity as a dealer, was the custodian of the MOP and was "solely responsible" for its proper distribution to farmers, and his alleged connivance with the company Saraf Impex Pvt Ltd and others resulted in the diversion of MOP that was imported by Indian Potash Limited at a concessional rate of duty.
Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou is demanding fuller access to redacted spy-service documents about her arrest that her lawyers say Canadian authorities are trying to "cover up" on spurious national security grounds, as she challenges a US attempt to have her extradited from Vancouver.

In a federal court application being heard in Ottawa on Monday, Meng's lawyers claimed that the documents have likely been the subject of "excessive redactions [and] overly broad claims of privilege", and are likely relevant to Meng's claims that she was the victim of an abuse of process in her arrest. They say her ongoing extradition hearing in the British Columbia Supreme Court should be thrown out because of this.

The lawyers want access to material provided on Meng's case to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) by "human sources", as well as the role of the CSIS officers in Meng's December 1, 2018 arrest at Vancouver's airport.

But CSIS says the material could identify its secret sources and cannot be revealed as a matter of national security.

"What happened, who was involved, the communications between the parties ... these are highly relevant facts," to the abuse claims, Meng's lawyer Scott Fenton told Justice Catherine Kane in the federal court.

The case has upended China's relations with Canada and the United States. US authorities, who want Meng to face trial in New York, accuse her of bank fraud in relation to Huawei's business dealings in Iran, while her lawyers and Beijing say she was arrested as a bargaining chip in US trade negotiations with China.

"National security privilege should not be used to cover up the abuse," Meng's lawyers said in a memo supporting their case. "Additionally, national security privilege should not be used to protect government enforcement officials from being embarrassed."

Fenton said Meng was subjected to a "shocking disregard" of the terms of her arrest warrant, issued by a Canadian judge after a request from US prosecutors, which said she should be arrested "immediately".

Story continues

Fenton said Canadian federal police delayed the arrest for three hours after Meng got off her flight, while Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers conducted a "covert" investigation of her on behalf of US authorities, seizing her electronic devices and their passwords and interrogating her.

"The CBSA used its extraordinary powers ... to gather evidence for the FBI on Ms Meng" that was unrelated to their mandate as border officers, Fenton said.

He said that instead of being a routine border inspection, as lawyers for Canada's attorney general had claimed, "it was improper and an abuse to use CBSA powers to advance a foreign criminal investigation".

By failing to inform Meng of the true reasons for her three-hour detention, and that her arrest was impending, the CBSA officers and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had "tricked" her.

Fenton said Meng's legal team wanted the identities of RCMP officers who were apparently liaising with CSIS and seemed to know "what was about to go down" ahead of the arrest.

He said Meng's lawyers did not necessarily need to know the names of CSIS officers. But the legal memo said that "if, however, the role of a particular CSIS employee emerges ... such information should be disclosed."

Canadian government lawyer Robert Frater, representing US interests in the case, said his team did not accept that there had been a "conspiracy", nor that there had been a violation of Meng's rights or the terms of the arrest warrant.

He said his team had not conceded the relevance of the material being sought, and that Kane was being asked by Meng's lawyers "to draw fanciful inferences from anodyne statements and documents".

The public portion of the federal court hearing on Monday was adjourned. However it will continue in the form of a special closed hearing on Thursday, when Frater's team will make their submissions as the material sought by Meng is regarded by the government as secret.

Not even she or her lawyers will be allowed to attend discussions that reveal it. Instead, a lawyer with national security clearance, known as an amicus curiae, has been appointed to advise the court in addition to the government's lawyers.

The amicus, Anil Kapoor, is paid by Meng, but does not technically represent her, acting instead as an adviser to the court.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
The UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade recently held a virtual meeting with the British Minister for International Trade, to discuss the frameworks of bilateral trade and economic partnerships.



The virtual meeting between Dr Thani Bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi and Ranil Jayawardena also discussed new opportunities to expand the scope of the existing partnerships in accordance with the priorities of the coming stage, in order to serve the strategic and development aspirations and visions of the two friendly countries.



The meeting followed up on some files related to bilateral cooperation efforts, which included coordination with regard to the convening of the sixth UAE-UK Joint Economic Committee. These include a review of investment opportunities and incentives in priority sectors, renewable energy, health care, food security and advanced technology services, as well as a number among the requirements for the restoration of tourism activity between the markets of the two countries.



Additionally, the meeting discussed the ongoing efforts to initiate discussion on a free trade agreement between the GCC and the UK.



During the meeting, Dr Al Zeyoudi underscored the UAEs strong commitment to enhance bilateral cooperation with the UK in all fields of interest, especially in the area of trade and investments. He pointed out that the current stage demands joint dialogue more than ever, to explore the opportunities presented by the recent shifts in the global economic landscape brought about by the pandemic and Brexit. This period could mark the beginning of an era of intensified, diversified and more prosperous economic cooperation between the two countries, he added.



He further reviewed some of the measures and procedures implemented by the UAE to ensure business continuity in the face of Covid-19 crisis. He pointed out the countrys success in maintaining the operations of supply chains and the movement of maritime and air freight movement without disruptions to serve not only the countrys markets but also other global markets that form part of the network. These achievements confirm the efficiency of the countrys transport and logistics infrastructure and once again establishes the UAEs distinguished position in the global trade landscape.



He also touched upon the flexibility of the UAEs business and investment environment and the continuous efforts to enhance its competitiveness and attractiveness to foreign investments. He highlighted the issuance of the new Foreign Direct Investment Law, which provides more incentives and privileges to investors in areas that support the countrys efforts to transfer and localization of advanced technology and establish a diversified and sustainable knowledge economy.



Meanwhile, Jayawardena highlighted the distinguished relations that bind the two countries and the shared aspirations to continue strengthening the bonds of friendship and explore more opportunities to expand the horizons of cooperation, especially in fields that serve the agenda of economic diversification and other priority sectors.



The British Minister said that the UAE is Britains major trading partner in the region in addition to the vital trade prospects it represents and plays an integral role in facilitating trade and investments in the region.



The UAE is the largest market for the UKs exports in the region, and the fourth in the world outside the European Union. It also accounts for 40 per cent of the total volume of trade exchange between GCC countries and the UK. The volume of non-oil foreign trade between the two countries recorded around $10 billion in 2019. Direct investments by the UK in the UAEs markets exceeded the $20 billion, while Emirati direct investments in the UK amounted to more than $16 billion.  TradeArabia News Service
Vote Now in the 2020 Streaming Media European Readers' Choice Awards

The nominations are in and voting is now open in the 2020 Streaming Media European Readers' Choice Awards. It's the only awards programme in the online video industry in which you, the readers, have your say by selecting the products and services that have most impressed you over the past year.

Nominees were submitted by Streaming Media readers over the past month. Voting is open until 13 August. The top 3 finalists in each category will be announced on our website in mid-August, and the winners will be announced in the Autumn issue of Streaming Media's European magazine, on StreamingMediaGlobal.com, and published in StreamingMedia Europe Xtra newsletter in early September.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE

Note that the European awards only honour companies with headquarters in Europe. The U.S. edition of Streaming Media will also run a Readers' Choice Awards later this year. Email readerschoice@streamingmedia.com if you have any questions or if you feel your company should be listed among the nominees.

You can take a look at last year's winners here.

Here are this year's categories.

 Analytics/Quality of Service Platform  Best Streaming Innovation  Cloud Encoding/Transcoding Service  Content Delivery Network  Content Protection (DRM, Watermarking, Access Control)  Corporate Video Platform/Service  Encoding/Transcoding Service  Hardware/Software Server  Live Streaming Platform/Service  Media Asset Management Solution  Mobile Video App or Solution  OTT Video Platform  Streaming Services Provider  Video Advertising Solution  Video Player Solution/SDK

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LEUVEN, Belgium, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ExeVir Bio announces today a first closing of a EUR23 million Series A financing led by Fund+, with the participation of VIB, UCB Ventures, the Belgian Federal Government via SFPI-FPIM, V-Bio Ventures and several Belgian family offices. ExeVir Bio has been established by Belgian partners combining world class science, antibody engineering, manufacturing, blue-chip venture capital investment and Flemish Government financing, which have joined forces in a unique collaboration to boost the development of new therapies to combat COVID-19.

ExeVir Bio, a spin out of VIB, the world-leading Belgium-based life sciences research institute, is harnessing its Llama-derived antibody (VHH) technology platform to generate robust antiviral therapies providing broad protection against coronaviruses. After early pre-financing by the Flemish Government, UCB, a multinational biopharmaceutical company, assisted in the generation of the lead candidate and is producing the GMP batches for clinical trials. Fund+, a leading Life Sciences-focused investment firm in Belgium, led the financing and was instrumental in setting up ExeVir Bio.

ExeVir Bio is using a highly innovative and clinically validated VHH technology to develop treatments for viral infections that may pose a significant global threat. Lead asset VHH72-Fc binds to a unique epitope that is conserved in SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 viruses and this binding prevents these viruses from entering the cell. The importance of this approach is that it could be used both as a therapeutic and prophylactic. Therapeutic use could help slow viral replication in the lungs, reduce inflammation, and give patients valuable time to raise their own productive immune response. Prophylactic use could support the ringfencing of an outbreak, protect healthcare workers, and support those at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19.

Torsten Mummenbrauer, CEO of ExeVir Bio, said: "We are committed to the international effort against COVID-19 to support healthcare systems and to offer global access to our new treatment. With this Series A financing we can rapidly advance the development of our lead compound into clinical studies by the end of the year. We are confident our Llama-derived antibodies hold a key to saving the lives of patients who can become seriously ill with coronavirus."

The technology platform was developed by VIB-UGent scientists, Professors Xavier Saelens and Nico Callewaert with the help of VIB's drug discovery team at VIB Discovery Sciences, and national and international scientific collaborators. The team has shown that Llama-derived single-domain antibodies can neutralize SARS-CoV-2 in preclinical studies and SARS-CoV-1 in in vitro assays. As Llama antibodies are smaller than human antibodies, they can attach to parts of the coronavirus that would otherwise be inaccessible. The antibodies were derived from a Llama called 'Winter'. A paper on the platform was published on 28 May 2020 in the journal Cell, on 'Structural Basis for Potent Neutralization of Betacoronaviruses by Single-Domain Camelid Antibodies' by Wrapp et al. https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30494-3.

Philippe Monteyne, Partner at Fund+, said: "Our mission is to contribute to Belgium's leadership position in the Life Sciences sector and to generate a tangible, beneficial impact on society. ExeVir Bio fits both of these goals; it has been founded on world class science, with an excellent management team, a global pharmaceutical partner to develop the clinical trial material, and financing to accelerate the development of this promising therapeutic approach to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The ExeVir Bio team will focus on ultra-fast implementation of this promising research to develop novel treatments with broad protection against coronaviruses. We are confident that they will be the leader in antibody-derived therapies against a broad range of viral infections."

Jerome Van Biervliet, Managing Director, VIB, said: "VIB-UGent scientists, Xavier Saelens and Nico Callewaert and their team members, and our early drug discovery capability at VIB Discovery Sciences, have been leading a massive effort to identify safe and effective new treatments in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. This is a great example of how the top science and entrepreneurial approach at VIB makes a significant societal contribution in partnership with companies and dedicated investors."

Dhaval Patel, Chief Science Officer, UCB said: "UCB is focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions. We are proud to be part of this great example of science, industry and finance collaborating at a very fast pace to develop a novel treatment for COVID-19."

Minister Crevits, Deputy Prime Minister of the Flemish Government and Flemish Minister for Science and Innovation, said: "Belgium is at the fore-front of cutting edge research, innovation and science, with a highly developed life sciences industry and a deep pool of capital that is available to develop promising, potentially life-saving treatments. At the early stage of this crisis, we quickly decided to support VIB in its search for a treatment for COVID-19. As a result, an important first step has now been taken to develop this treatment on a worldwide scale. We are very proud to support VIB and our researchers in their efforts against COVID-19."

Koenraad van Loo, Managing Director of FPIM, said: "The Federal Holding and Investment Company is excited to participate in this unique antibody concept for potential treatment and prevention of COVID-19. As public investor, we very much care about the health, well-being and job security of our citizens. Therefore, together with our Life Sciences funds, Fund+ and V-Bio, we are committed to play an active role in managing the current health care crisis. FPIM is convinced that ExeVir's powerful platform technology based on camelid antibodies deserves a special place among the numerous initiatives taken and can lay the foundations for a successful therapy to combat future pandemics."

Torsten Mummenbrauer, CEO of ExeVir Bio, Philippe Monteyne, Partner at Fund+, Erica Whittaker, Head of UCB Ventures, Jerome Van Biervliet, Managing Director, VIB and Katja Rosenkranz, Partner at V-Bio (observer) will join the Board of ExeVir Bio. Further board appointments will be announced in the future.

For more information contact :

ExeVir Bio

Fiona du Monceau, COO

Email: [email protected]

Optimum Strategic Communications

Mary Clark, Shabnam Bashir, Manel Mateus

Tel: +44 (0) 203 174 1789

Email: [email protected]

About ExeVir Bio

ExeVir Bio is harnessing its VHH technology platform to generate robust antiviral therapies providing broad protection against viral infections, including coronaviruses. It is a spin out from VIB, the world class Belgium-based life sciences research institute, based on the work of Professor Drs Xavier Saelens and Nico Callewaert from VIB in collaboration with: Laboratory of Jason McLellan  University of Texas at Austin; Laboratory of Barney Graham  NIAID (Vaccine Research Center); Laboratory of Johan Neyts  KU Leuven (Rega Institute). ExeVir Bio is led by a team of experts that combines international biotech and pharma experience with a successful track record of developing and bringing products to market. It is backed by blue chip investors led by Fund+, VIB, UCB Ventures, FPIM, V-Bio and Several Belgian Family Offices.

About Fund+

Fund+ is a Belgian venture capital firm that invests in innovative European Life Sciences companies developing drugs, medical devices and diagnostics, with a strong focus on patient-centric approaches and major unmet medical needs. With over 200M in assets under management, Fund+ has built a strong track record since 2015, investing in 13 portfolio companies with two major exits. The fund is managed by a specialist team of seasoned life sciences professionals with healthcare industry, corporate finance and strategy consulting experience, supporting companies throughout their growth cycle. The company aims to maintain a leading position in the Life Sciences sector, creating sustainable value for its shareholders and a tangible impact on society. www.fundplus.be

About VIB

VIB is an entrepreneurial non-profit research institute, with a clear focus on ground breaking strategic basic research in life sciences and operates in close partnership with the five universities in Flanders  Ghent University, KU Leuven, University of Antwerp, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Hasselt University.

VIB scientists study the molecular mechanisms that regulate the functions of the human body, plants and microorganisms. Such mechanistic research leads to innovative insights into the normal and abnormal/pathological life processes, with the potential to use these insights to develop novel therapeutics, diagnostics, agricultural applications and technologies. Thanks to the hard work of many people over a period of almost 25 years and the support of a sustained investment by the government of Flanders, VIB is widely recognized as an established and world-leading knowledge center in life sciences and biotechnology with an excellent reputation in technology transfer. The unique combination of strategic basic research and a clear focus on innovation & business is one of the major contributors to its success. VIB is highly committed to being the driving force behind the growth of the dynamic life sciences cluster in Flanders.

About UCB

UCB, Brussels, Belgium (www.ucb.com), is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases of the immune system or of the central nervous system. With more than 7,500 people in approximately 40 countries, the company generated revenue of  4.9 billion in 2019. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB). Follow us on Twitter: @UCB_news

About UCB Ventures

UCB Ventures is a 150 million strategic corporate venture fund established in 2017 to further strengthen UCB's ability to create value from novel insights and technologies that can transform the lives of patients suffering from severe diseases. UCB Ventures invests in innovative therapeutics and technology platforms that are early stage and higher risk, in areas adjacent to or even beyond UCB's therapeutic focus on neurology/neurodegenerative diseases, immunology and muscular skeletal/bone health. UCB Ventures takes an active role in its portfolio companies, contributing expertise in drug discovery, development and operations. Visit www.UCBVentures.com to learn more.

About FPIM

The Belgian Federal Holding and Investment company (Societe Federale de Participations et d'Investissement /Federale Participatie- en Investeringsmaatschappij; SFPI/FPIM), created on November 1th, 2006, is the sovereign wealth fund of Belgium, driving long-term and sustainable economic and social prosperity. SFPI/FPIM, with the Belgian Government as its sole shareholder, acts as a trusted partner in helping Belgian companies to become a reference in their industry by providing smart capital solutions. In addition, SFPI/FPIM safeguards the long-term stability of the Belgian economy by contributing to the anchoring of strategic assets in both promising and established companies. SFPI/FPIM has about 14 bln EUR in assets under management for the Federal State. http://www.sfpi-fpim.be/en

About V-Bio Ventures

V-Bio Ventures (www.v-bio.ventures) is an independent venture capital firm specialized in building and financing young, innovative life science companies. V-Bio Ventures was established in 2015 and works closely with Belgium-based VIB, one of the world's premier life science institutes. The fund invests throughout Europe in start-up and early-stage companies with high growth potential focusing on technologies that provide transformational improvements in the biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, diagnostics and agricultural sectors.

SOURCE ExeVir Bio
OPINION: The debate over when it's safest to open schools is raging in Arizona, and it's spilling over into this edition of Letters to the Editor. Check out what our letter writers think!
For teachers, online classes as a result of the pandemic was a process of trial and errorand sometimes going the extra mileas they determined how best to work with each family's needs. (Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock)

When Teaching Takes a Turn: The Challenges of Online Learning

When the pandemic lockdown began back in March, educators were left scrambling to adapt to teaching online and had to quickly figure out how to create as efficient and engaging a learning environment as possible.

Kevin White, who teaches Grade 8 at Morning Star Middle School in Mississauga, Ont., says it felt like his class had been ripped apart because the change was so sudden and dramatic.

Im with my homeroom of 25 kids one day, and then I dont see them again for the rest of the year. That was tough for them and for me, White said in an interview.

Students too, had to get used to the idea of online learning. White says many of his students were resistant at first.

They were like, whoa this is crazy. Some didnt trust it, some didnt take to it, and some didnt think it was real. They thought this is not school.

Gail Jones, who works in the Intensive Support Program of a Toronto District School Board secondary school teaching special needs students, experienced this as well but on a more acute level.

I work with students that are highly autistic and some are non-verbal or selective verbal. Theyre used to that structure and once that structure is broken and they are in their home, the association with me and school is removed.

With the traditional learning environment no longer in place, everyone involved had to cope with the new reality.

To be honest, parents, teachers, and students were just all in survival mode, says Jones.

Patrice White, Kevin Whites sister, agrees. She teaches Grade 7 at Herbert H. Carnegie Public School in Maple, Ont. We were counselling parents, we were reassuring students, and honestly, if we got to the teaching part that was a bonus.

There also had to be co-operation from the parents, which sometimes proved to be a challenge in itselfparticularly in her brothers case. He says many of his students live with extended family and are often looked after in the daytime by their grandparents, most of whom dont speak English well.

It was hard communicating with any kind of adult for 85 percent of my class, he says, adding that some of the parents do shift work, which proved to be another barrier.

If the parents arent there because theyre working two or three jobs and theyre shift jobs, it was really hard to get some of these kids to buy in.

To bridge the gap, White made daily calls to parents, even waiting until one parent finished their 12-hour shift at work to connect. Other teachers were assigned to make house calls when parents couldnt be reached by phone or when families were having a hard time coping with the rigours of the pandemic and the advent of distance learning.

Over the weeks, what helped his students immensely with their learning were the videos he produced, he says. While a 10-minute video might have to be edited multiple times just to get it right, it was worth it.

Video instruction was incredibly important. You had some teachers who just scanned the page and sent it as a PDF to the kids, and that just didnt work, he says.

To supplement the change for her students and their parents, Jones says it was important to provide a variety of lesson choices to ease the stress of an already difficult situation.

Working with my students is extremely hands on. Youre more working on life skills. So the remote learning platform is not as equitable as it might be with another student who is in a mainstream setting.

Patrice White holds up a sign during a school-wide video initiative. (Courtesy of Patrice White)

Patrice White says that once her students had transitioned to online learning, she used video messages to help orient them. But to keep them engaged, she threw in trivia or make a meme activities as an incentive for extra marks.

It worked. They were on and they were listening and then they were competing to be the first one to reply so they could get their bonus mark, she says. All of a sudden, like they were the keyboard warriors.  I saw a lot of those kids shining.

Her brother said he would use Google Meet twice a week where the whole class could simply chat together, and it had a very positive effect.

The kids had missed that interaction, so that was huge. They looked forward to their Google Meet twice a week, and it helped their mental health too because they just wanted to be a part, they just wanted to connect.

At one stage, teachers at Whites school organized a drive-by visit which involved the teachers driving to the neighbourhoods of all their students over a four-hour period.

We honked our horns. We waved. We said hi, he says. They came out and ran to meet us, but we still social-distanced. They were incredibly happy to see us and it was amazing to see them. That was pretty memorable.

Schools will be reopening across the country come September, albeit with various new health measures and precautions in place depending on the province.
Jailer from Vadodara Central Jail file complaints against seven inmates for jumping 60-day parole

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

Vadodara, July 28: Authorities from the Vadodara Central Jail have lodged police complaints against seven inmates lodged in the prison for jumping the 60-day parole that was granted to them in March this year. This came as part of the government's policy decision to decongest prisons for the novel coronavirus precautions. Three of the accused are being tried for heinous crimes such as rape and murder.

It is reportedly said that jailer Narendra Rathod filed the complaints against six inmates who have jumped parole, with the Raopura police station.

Oxford COVID-19 vaccine: Human trials to be conducted in these 5 sites in India

Of the absconding inmates, one is an accused in a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder; two inmates are accused of murder and one is an accused in a rape case filed in Anand district.

The others are accused in cases of assault and theft, belonging to different districts. Police Inspector JH Chaudhary of Raopura police station said, "We have received two complaints from the jail authorities and have duly transferred them to the home districts, where the police will launch a probe to ascertain the whereabouts of the prisoners."

China holds first foreign ministers meeting with Pak, Nepal, Afghanistan on COVID-19

Earlier, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani allocated Rs 244 crore from the CM's Relief Fund for control and treatment of coronavirus in the state. Of this, Rs 200 crore has been allocated specifically to the health department and the municipal corporation areas for drugs, injections and treatment facilities.

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

As many as 1,052 fresh COVID-19 cases were reported on Monday, taking the state tally to 57,051. Death toll stood at 2,367 with 22 more succumbing to the virus in a day.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, July 28, 2020, 10:07 [IST]
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Owing to a complete halt in construction activity during lockdown, the demand for cement saw a steep fall in the June quarter which will be reflected in the Q1FY21 cement sales volume of UltraTech Cement.

The company will release its June quarter numbers on July 28 in which management commentary on the outlook of cement volume is likely to be in focus.

Brokerage firm IDBI Capital Markets & Securities (a wholly-owned subsidiary of IDBI Bank) expects UltraTech to report a 43 percent year-on-year (YoY) volume decline and 4 percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) increase in realisation.

"Led by operating leverage, we expect opex to increase 15 percent QoQ to Rs 4,657/t and EBITDA / t to decline to Rs 789 against Rs 1,190 QoQ," IDBI Capital said.

The brokerage expects UltraTech's revenue to see a 44.6 percent YoY and 41.2 percent QoQ fall while net profit may plunge 109.8 percent YoY or 103.9 percent QoQ.

The estimates of Motilal Oswal Financial Services show that UltraTech's cement volumes may show a decline of 34 percent YoY while realisations is expected to increase 5.6 percent QoQ.

Net sales may fall 33.1 percent YoY while adjusted PAT may drop 59.3 percent YoY.

Kotak Institutional Equities estimates UltraTech's volumes of 13.3 mn tons (35 percent down YoY and 35 percent down QoQ) for the India operations in Q1FY21, factoring the impact of COVID-19.

"We expect blended realisations to increase by 4.9 percent QoQ, led by sharp price hikes in all key markets in May 2020, followed by a partial roll-back in June 2020," Kotak said.

Kotak expects energy cost to decline sequentially on consumption basis due to a fall in petcoke prices in the previous quarter.

"We estimate cement EBITDA/ton to increase to Rs 1,179/ton (up 2 percent QoQ, down 8 percent YoY) led by the higher realisation and lower variable costs offset by higher fixed cost with lower volumes.

The above report is compiled from information available on public platforms. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
What is a second wave?

Its a term thats been thrown around since the early days of the pandemic, often in reference to the Spanish Flu, where a second spike of cases in the fall of 1918 was deadlier than the first, estimated to have killed tens of millions across the globe.

Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto, explains that contagious diseases tend to sweep in, spread through a population, and fade away before rising again in a new population.

So, the concept of a second wave really reflects that contagious diseases do tend to come and go, Furness said. And for all kinds of possible different reasons, whether its seasonality or a mutation, it comes again.

Dr. Susy Hota, the medical director of infection prevention and control at University Health Network in Toronto, said Ontario currently finds itself in a valley of cases after weathering the spike earlier in the year.

But if we lift restrictions too quickly and people are not sustaining the protocols around physical distancing and masks, it might be difficult to control once we see a steep rise in cases.

She said the province finds itself in a situation where it is trying to balance keeping people safe and staving off the collapse of the economy  not an easy problem to manage.

Reopening is an economic business, lets be frank about it, she said. Were trying get people comfortable with living with the virus, and in order to do that, you have to maintain other measures and hope theyre enough to keep people safe.

That will become harder as the cold weather approaches, forcing people inside to interact in smaller, enclosed spaces.

Viruses also tend to thrive in cold, dry weather, said Furness.

We should expect that there is going to be a big uptick of cases in the fall and its not unreasonable to call that a second wave, he said.

But what about the possibility of mutation?

One bright spot in the fight against COVID-19 is that it appears to be mutating slowly, said Furness.

Thats very unusual, and its one of the few pieces of good news weve had.

A typical RNA virus  such as the viruses that cause COVID-19, the flu and the common cold  tends to mutate quickly and often makes mistakes.

Instead, Furness said COVID-19 is acting like a DNA virus, such as the herpes virus or pox virus, which features slower mutation processes that include proofreading systems to check for errors  and I have no idea how it has managed to do that.

For a virus, this is a bad evolutionary move. Viruses that mutate the most tend to survive the most.

So, in the context of a second wave in Ontario, he said it is unlikely it will be caused by a new, deadlier mutation.

Instead, he said a spike would likely be the result of seasonal changes and larger outbreaks among susceptible populations.

And with COVID-19, a startlingly high percentage of the population remains vulnerable to infection.

University of Waterloo professor Shannon Majowicz references modelling from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, which estimates only one per cent of that province has been infected by the virus.

With such a large proportion of the population still susceptible, she said it is very reasonable to expect additional spread.

The virus is still present, and its going to move through the population to the extent we let it, she said. And the ways we respond to the number of cases we see will determine what that spread looks like.

Governments have seen that when they open everything, it leads to bad results.

To do it right, Furness said governments should be getting people outside, and stopping all activities where people are inside sharing air.

Shopping should only be done by one person per family, bars and restaurants should remain closed, and people should not be going on airplanes and flying around the world, he said.

If we just did those things, and wore masks, we could probably do almost everything else normally. But I cant think of a region or country that is making those decisions.

He points to Europes decision to reopen air travel, with some countries even going so far as to offer incentives and subsidies on flight and hotel stays.

Europe has pretty much explicitly said, We would like a second wave, please. 

But even if governments can make the right choices, the question then is whether the population will be willing to continue following the rules.

My sense of it is that if enough people wear masks and enough people are sensible, it will probably compensate for those that arent reasonable.

When asked to look into the crystal ball, he predicts a long hangover of outbreaks in Ontario, an opening and then closing of schools, a reclosing of restaurants and a tweaking of policy to get through the cold weather without facing serious capacity issues in the health-care system.

But thats all just speculation, he said.
New moderate income housing program could be on the way to Long Beach
Africa is now edging towards a million cases of coronavirus, but experts warn far worse lies ahead in a continent struggling with fragile health systems and slender economic resources.

Countries across Africa have recorded more than 850,000 infections and at least 18,000 deaths, according to an AFP tally as of Tuesday.

The toll took a while to move into higher gear thanks to early restrictions on contact and movement, Dr Mary Stephens, an expert at the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa office, told AFP.

"We haven't seen the peak yet," she warned. "All countries in Africa are at risk because our health systems are relatively weak."

Here is an overview of key countries:

- South Africa -

An aerial picture of funerals being conducted last week at at the Olifantsvlei Cemetery in the Johannesburg suburb of Soweto /  AFP

The continent's most industrialised economy has notched up more than 450,000 infections -- the highest number in Africa and the fifth biggest in the world.

It has recorded more than 7,000 deaths, although there is concern that fatalities are being under-reported.

Last week, the respected Medical Research Council noted anearly 60-percent jump in "natural" deaths for this time of the year compared with the historical trend.

"The peak will come in July, August and September," Health Minister Zweli Mkhize predicted on Sunday.

South Africa imposed one of the world's toughest lockdowns in March.

Measures included the closure of schools, factories, non-essential shops and a ban on sale of alcohol and cigarettes.

The restrictions were lifted in June, but some were reinstituted this month. Schools shut again and the alcohol ban returned.

The country also has more than 13,000 infected health workers, a record.

- Nigeria -

Coronavirus testing at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital in northern Nigeria /  AFP

Africa's most populous nation has registered 41,000 cases, the second highest tally south of the Sahara, with numbers rising by between 500-700 each day.

But prevalence could be far higher, given the lack of testing.

About 3,000 tests are carried per day on average in a country of around 200 million people -- just a tenth of the number conducted in South Africa which has about a quarter of the population.

"For every one case, there are a handful of cases that we are missing because we are not able to test everybody," Sani Aliyu, the head of Nigeria's virus taskforce, admitted.

The epicentre is Lagos, the densely-populated commercial hub, which is also Africas largest city with a population of 20 million.

Health officials in the crowded city are worried by the availability of space to isolate those found positive.

"Through our modelling, we know we are going to exceed our isolation capacity sooner than later," Lagos State health commissioner Akin Abayomi told AFP.

Despite the swelling numbers, Nigeria is having a hard time convincing sceptics that the threat is for real.

"We should not wait for such a time when we start picking bodies on the streets before we do what is necessary," Nigerian Medical Association's Innocent Ujah told AFP.

- Kenya -

Kenya has allowed places of worship to reopen under strict guidelines to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus /  AFP

Kenya has seen cases triple to 17,975 in the past month. However, as a percentage of its population of 47 million, the numbers remain low.

Earlier this month government lifted restrictions that had cordoned off Nairobi and other hard-hit cities, while announcing that international flights will resume on August 1.

But on Monday President Uhuru Kenyatta banned the sale of alcohol in restaurants after noting an "aggressive surge" among young people who were socialising "particularly in environments serving alcohol".

The country has declared the 2020 school year lost.

- Cameroon -

Protection: A teacher wears a face shield at the Nkol-Bisson Technical High School in Yaounde /  AFP

Cameroon is central Africa's most affected country with 16,708 cases. Only about 145,000 tests have been carried out among the 25 million population.

Cameroon is past its first peak, which "occurred between the end of June and early July," according to Professor Yap Boum of Epicenter Africa, the epidemiology branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders).

But "this does not mean that the pandemic is over," he warned.

Cameroon did not impose strict lockdown measures as other countries have done. Although the wearing of masks is compulsory in public places, very few people bother to do so.

- Djibouti -

Social distancing: Muslim worshippers in Djibouti, offering prayers at Eid al-Fitr in May to mark the end of Ramadan /  AFP

Tiny Djibouti, with a population of around one million, has the second highest case rate in East Africa, with more than 5,000 infections.

Government attributes this to aggressive contact tracing and the highest testing rate in Africa with more than five percent of the population having been tested.

"I think we have passed the peak," Dr Bouh Abdi Khareih, co-ordinator of Djibouti's COVID response, told AFP.

- Madagascar -

Madagascan President Andry Rajoelina launches 'Covid Organics,' a touted remedy for coronavirus, on April 20. Experts warn that claims for the drink have not been supported by science. /  AFP

President Andry Rajoelina has been vigorously touting an infusion derived from artemisia -- a plant with proven anti-malarial properties -- as a homegrown cure for COVID-19.

But Madagascar has seen a surge in infections in recent weeks to more than 9,600 cases and nearly 100 deaths, and hospitals in the capital Antananarivo have said they are running out of beds.

Last week, Health Minister Ahmad Ahmad made an "urgent appeal" to development agencies -- his ministry is seeking oxygen bottles, face masks, gloves and medical blouses.

Ahmad was reprimanded by the government for taking what it called a "personal initiative" without consultation.

- Tanzania -

Masks and distancing not required: A market in Dar es Salaam in mid-April /  AFP

Tanzania has downplayed any threat from COVID-19 and stopped releasing official figures.

The last tally -- issued in April -- stood at 509. By comparison, neighbours such as Kenya and DR Congo have recorded nearly 18,000 and 9,000 cases respectively.

"That's why we are all not wearing face masks here. You think we don't fear dying? It's because there is no COVID-19," President John Magufuli declared on Monday.

- Least-affected countries -

Figures from a number of African countries suggest they have so far escaped the full wrath of the coronavirus.

Least-affected countries include the island nations of the Seychelles (114 cases) and Mauritius, with 344.

Eritrea has 263 cases and Lesotho 505.

burs-sn/ri/bp
By Jeffrey Dastin

(Reuters) - Over about eight years, the American drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp quietly added facial recognition systems to 200 stores across the United States, in one of the largest rollouts of such technology among retailers in the country, a Reuters investigation found.

In the hearts of New York and metro Los Angeles, Rite Aid deployed the technology in largely lower-income, non-white neighborhoods, according to a Reuters analysis. And for more than a year, the retailer used state-of-the-art facial recognition technology from a company with links to China and its authoritarian government.

In telephone and email exchanges with Reuters since February, Rite Aid confirmed the existence and breadth of its facial recognition program. The retailer defended the technologys use, saying it had nothing to do with race and was intended to deter theft and protect staff and customers from violence. Reuters found no evidence that Rite Aids data was sent to China.

Last week, however, after Reuters sent its findings to the retailer, Rite Aid said it had quit using its facial recognition software. It later said all the cameras had been turned off.

"This decision was in part based on a larger industry conversation, the company told Reuters in a statement, adding that other large technology companies seem to be scaling back or rethinking their efforts around facial recognition given increasing uncertainty around the technologys utility.

Reuters pieced together how the companys initiative evolved, how the software has been used and how a recent vendor was linked to China, drawing on thousands of pages of internal documents from Rite Aid and its suppliers, as well as direct observations during store visits by Reuters journalists and interviews with more than 40 people familiar with the systems deployment. Most current and former employees spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they feared jeopardizing their careers.

Story continues

While Rite Aid declined to disclose which locations used the technology, Reuters found facial recognition cameras at 33 of the 75 Rite Aid shops in Manhattan and the central Los Angeles metropolitan area during one or more visits from October through July.

The cameras were easily recognizable, hanging from the ceiling on poles near store entrances and in cosmetics aisles. Most were about half a foot long, rectangular and labeled either by their model, iHD23, or by a serial number including the vendors initials, DC. In a few stores, security personnel  known as loss prevention or asset protection agents  showed Reuters how they worked.

The cameras matched facial images of customers entering a store to those of people Rite Aid previously observed engaging in potential criminal activity, causing an alert to be sent to security agents smartphones. Agents then reviewed the match for accuracy and could tell the customer to leave.

Rite Aid told Reuters in a February statement that customers had been apprised of the technology through signage at the shops, as well as in a written policy posted this year on its website. Reporters found no notice of the surveillance in more than a third of the stores they visited with the facial recognition cameras.

Among the 75 stores Reuters visited, those in areas that were poorer or less white were much more likely to have the equipment, the news agencys statistical analysis found.

Stores in more impoverished areas were nearly three times as likely as those in richer areas to have facial recognition cameras. Seventeen of 25 stores in poorer areas had the systems. In wealthier areas, it was 10 of 40. (Ten of the stores were in areas whose wealth status was not clear. Six of those stores had the equipment.)

In areas where people of color, including Black or Latino residents, made up the largest racial or ethnic group, Reuters found that stores were more than three times as likely to have the technology.

Reuters findings illustrate the dire need for a national conversation about privacy, consumer education, transparency, and the need to safeguard the Constitutional rights of Americans, said Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic chairwoman of the House oversight committee, which has held hearings on the use of facial recognition technology.

Rite Aid said the rollout was data-driven, based on stores theft histories, local and national crime data and site infrastructure.

Cathy Langley, Rite Aids vice president of asset protection, said earlier this year that facial recognition  which she referred to as feature matching  resulted in less violence and organized crime in the companys stores. Last week, however, Rite Aid said its new leadership team was reviewing practices across the company, and this was one of a number of programs that was terminated.

'ORWELLIAN SURVEILLANCE'

Facial recognition technology has become highly controversial in the United States as its use has expanded in both the public and private sectors, including by law enforcement and retailers. Civil liberties advocates warn it can lead to harassment of innocent individuals, arbitrary and discriminatory arrests, infringements of privacy rights and chilled personal expression.

Adding to these concerns, recent research by a U.S. government institute showed that algorithms that underpin the technology erred more often https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-crime-face/u-s-government-study-finds-racial-bias-in-facial-recognition-tools-idUSKBN1YN2V1 when subjects had darker skin tones.

Facial recognition systems are largely unregulated in the United States, despite disclosure or consent requirements, or limits on government use, in several states, including California, Washington, Texas and Illinois. Some cities, including San Francisco, ban municipal officials from using them. In general, the technology makes photos and videos more readily searchable, allowing retailers almost instantaneous facial comparisons within and across stores.

Among the systems used by Rite Aid was one from DeepCam LLC, which worked with a firm in China whose largest outside investor is a Chinese government fund. Some security experts said any program with connections to China was troubling because it could open the door to aggressive surveillance in the United States more typical of an autocratic state.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican and acting chair of the U.S. Senates intelligence committee, told Reuters in a statement that the Rite Aid systems potential link to China was outrageous. The Chinese Communist Partys buildup of its Orwellian surveillance state is alarming, and Chinas efforts to export its surveillance state to collect data in America would be an unacceptable, serious threat, he said.

The security specialists expressed concern that information gathered by a China-linked company could ultimately land in that governments hands, helping Beijing to refine its facial recognition technology globally and monitor people in ways that violate American standards of privacy.

If it goes back to China, there are no rules, said James Lewis, the Technology Policy Program director at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Asked for comment, Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: These are unfounded smears and rumors.

'A PROMISING NEW TOOL'

Rite Aid, afflicted with financial losses in recent years, is not the only retailer to adopt or explore facial recognition technology.

Two years ago, the Loss Prevention Research Council, a coalition founded by retailers to test anti-crime techniques, called facial recognition a promising new tool worthy of evaluation.

There are a handful of retailers that have made the decision, Look, we need to leverage tech to sell more and lose less, said council director Read Hayes. Rite Aids program was one of the largest, if not the largest, in retail, Hayes said. The Camp Hill, Pennsylvania-based company operates about 2,400 stores around the country.

The Home Depot Inc said it had been testing facial recognition to reduce shoplifting in at least one of its stores but stopped the trial this year. A smaller rival, Menards, piloted systems in at least 10 locations as of early 2019, a person familiar with that effort said.

Walmart Inc has also tried out facial recognition in a handful of stores, said two sources with knowledge of the tests. Walmart and Menards had no comment.

Using facial recognition to approach people who previously have committed dishonest acts in a store before they do so again is less dangerous for staff, said Rite Aids former vice president of asset protection, Bob Oberosler, who made the decision to deploy an early facial recognition system at Rite Aid. That way, there was significantly less need for law enforcement involvement, he said.

'TOUGHER' NEIGHBORHOODS

In interviews, 10 current and former Rite Aid loss prevention agents told Reuters that the system they initially used in stores was from a company called FaceFirst, which has been backed by U.S. investment firms.

It regularly misidentified people, all 10 of them said.

It doesnt pick up Black people well, one loss prevention staffer said last year while using FaceFirst at a Rite Aid in an African-American neighborhood of Detroit. If your eyes are the same way, or if youre wearing your headband like another person is wearing a headband, youre going to get a hit.

FaceFirsts chief executive, Peter Trepp, said facial recognition generally works well irrespective of skin tone, an issue he said the industry addressed years ago. He declined to talk about Rite Aid, saying he would not discuss any possible clients.

Rite Aid originally piloted FaceFirst at its store on West 3rd Street and South Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles, a largely Asian and Latino neighborhood, around 2012.

Of the 65 stores the retailer targeted in its first big rollout, 52 were in areas where the largest group was Black or Latino, according to Reuters analysis of a Rite Aid planning document from 2013 that was read aloud to a reporter by someone with access to it. Reuters confirmed that some of these stores later deployed the technology but did not confirm its presence at every location on the list.

Separately, two former Rite Aid managers and a third source familiar with the FaceFirst rollout said the systems were concentrated, respectively, in the tougher, toughest or worst areas.

Reuters reviewed a 2016 spreadsheet from the companys asset protection unit in which Rite Aid rated 20 higher-earning Manhattan stores as having equal risk of loss  labeled MedHigh. Two of 10 stores where whites were the largest racial group had facial recognition technology when Reuters visited this year, whereas eight of the 10 in non-white areas had the systems.

One spot ranked "MedHigh" was a store at 741 Columbus Avenue in New Yorks whiter, wealthier Upper West Side. Another was the pharmacys West 125th Street store in nearby Harlem, a majority African-American neighborhood. The Harlem store got facial recognition technology; the Upper West Side one did not, as of July 9.

(See graphics here https://tmsnrt.rs/2EpMRhF?losangeles=true and here https://tmsnrt.rs/2EpMRhF?manhattan=true and here https://tmsnrt.rs/2EpMRhF?scatter=true)

'LOOKS NOTHING LIKE ME

Starting in 2013, as Rite Aid deployed FaceFirsts technology in Philadelphia, Baltimore and beyond, some serious drawbacks emerged, current and former security agents and managers told Reuters.

For instance, the system would generate 500 hits in an hour all across the United States when photos in the system were blurry or taken at an odd angle, one of the people familiar with FaceFirsts operations said.

FaceFirsts Trepp said the company has high accuracy rates while running over 12 trillion comparisons per day without any known complaints to date.

During that earlier period, Tristan Jackson-Stankunas said Rite Aid wrongly fingered him as a shoplifter in a Los Angeles store based on someone elses photo. While Reuters could not confirm the method Rite Aid used to identify him, the store had FaceFirst technology by that time, according to a Rite Aid security agent and a Foursquare review photo showing the camera.

According to a complaint Jackson-Stankunas filed with the California Department of Consumer Affairs a week after the incident, he was looking for air freshener in September 2016 when a manager ordered him to leave the store. The manager said he had received a security image of Jackson-Stankunas taken at another Rite Aid in 2013 from which he allegedly had stolen goods, according to the complaint.

When Jackson-Stankunas viewed the photo on the managers phone, he told Reuters, he saw nothing in common with the person except their race: Both are Black.

The guy looks nothing like me, said Jackson-Stankunas, 34, who ultimately was allowed to make his purchase and leave the store. Rite Aid only identified me because I was a person of color. Thats it.

The California department told him his complaint fell outside its purview, directing him to another state office, email records show. Instead, he said he decided to write the store a bad review on Yelp.

Rite Aid and the manager who allegedly was involved declined to comment on Jackson-Stankunas account.

At one store Reuters visited, a security agent scrolled through FaceFirst alerts showing a number of cases in which faces were obviously mismatched, including a Black man mixed up with someone who was Asian. Reuters could not determine whether the incorrect matches resulted in confrontations with customers.

FaceFirst CEO Trepp said that his company takes racial bias seriously and would not work with any business that disregarded civil rights. We cannot stand for racial injustice of any kind, including in our technology, he said.

Generally, Trepp said, Reuters findings about his company contained extensive factual inaccuracies and are not based upon information from credible sources.

A NEW SYSTEM

Early in 2018, Rite Aid began installing technology from DeepCam LLC, ultimately phasing out FaceFirst in stores around the country, interviews with Rite Aid loss prevention agents and internal vendor documents indicate.

Six security staffers who used both systems said DeepCams matches were more accurate  sometimes to a fault. The technology picked up faces from ads on buses or pictures on T-shirts, three said. One famous face captured in DeepCam was Marilyn Monroes, one of the agents said.

At least until 2017, FaceFirst had employed an older method of biometric identification that compared maps of subjects faces, two people familiar with its system said. Only later did it move over to software based on artificial intelligence like DeepCams. Though the data and algorithms differ by brand, these systems draw upon potentially millions of samples to learn how to match faces.

DeepCam cameras photographed and took live video of every person entering a Rite Aid store, aiming to create a unique facial profile, Rite Aid agents said. If the customer walked in front of another DeepCam facial recognition camera at a Rite Aid shop, new images were added to the persons existing profile. Two agents said they lost access to the images after 10 days unless the person landed on a watch list based on their behavior in stores.

When agents saw someone commit a crime  or just do something suspicious, one said  they scrolled through profiles on their smartphone to search for the individual, only adding the person to the watch list with a managers approval. The next time the shopper walked into a Rite Aid that had the technology, agents received a phone alert and checked the match for accuracy. Then they could order the person to leave, agents told Reuters.

Rite Aid said adding customers to the watch list was based on multiple layers of meaningful human review. The company told Reuters its procedures ensured customers were not confronted unnecessarily.

If a person was found to be engaging in criminal behavior, Rite Aid said, we retain the data as a matter of policy to cooperate in pending or potential criminal investigations.

Other U.S. retail stores have tried DeepCam. Independent 7-Eleven franchise owners in Virginia told Reuters they conducted trials of the software starting in 2018 and later dropped it. They said they largely found the system accurate but not user friendly and too expensive to maintain. The system was advertised online as costing $99 a month.

7-Eleven Inc did not answer requests for comment.

THE CHINA CONNECTION

The two founding owners of U.S.-based DeepCam LLC were Don Knasel and Jingfeng Liu, who set up the firm in Longmont, Colorado, in 2017, state records show. Lius residential address in Longmont was listed as its headquarters.

A Chinese native with U.S. citizenship and a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University, Liu had the skills to do business in both the United States and China.

According to Chinas official business registration records, he is chairman of another facial recognition firm in China called Shenzhen Shenmu Information Technology Co Ltd, whose website is DeepCam.com.

For a time, the U.S.-based DeepCam LLC and Shenzhen Shenmu were closely connected: In addition to Lius role in both companies, they shared the same website and email accounts, according to internal records seen by Reuters.

Internal correspondence reviewed by Reuters suggests that DeepCam reached a deal with Rite Aid by March 2018, when a colleague emailed Knasel to congratulate him. Internal records also indicated that China-based Shenzhen Shenmu helped its American counterpart with product development and that Liu was expected to pay at least some of the bills. That same month, a U.S. executive wrote: Hi Jingfeng- Thanks for the credit card. Here is the receipt for the Indianapolis Trade Show.

In an interview, Liu confirmed the financing, saying of Knasel: Whenever he needed money, I give him some money. Liu said Knasel told him about the Rite Aid project but left him in the dark about the business. Knasel never let data cross between the two countries, Liu said.

As the Rite Aid rollout proceeded in 2018, correspondence among DeepCam staff, seen by Reuters, expressed concerns about publicly revealing any links to China, as well as using the term facial recognition in the U.S. market for fear of attracting the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Days after the ACLU wrote a March 2018 blog post https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/are-stores-you-shop-secretly-using-face critical of retailers suspected use of the technology, including Rite Aids, Knasel emailed staff: It looks like the ACLU may be starting to stick its head up....We need to tone down facial recognition, which I have tried to do....If they come after us, we are dead....so we have to avoid. The punctuation in the message is Knasels.

Today, both Liu and Knasel say no ties exist between the U.S. and Chinese businesses.

We never do any business in USA, Liu wrote in a brief email to Reuters in March. We focus in China market.

More recently, in an interview and an email, Liu said he had not spoken with Knasel for more than a year and, to his disappointment, had not benefited from the U.S. venture.

In a statement to Reuters, Knasel sought to distance himself from Liu, Shenzhen Shenmu and DeepCam.

He did not address questions about DeepCams deal with Rite Aid. DeepCam, he said, is winding up its operations and now has no assets. He added that DeepCam never supplied China-based Shenzhen Shenmu with any data.

In February, Rite Aid told Reuters that DeepCam had been re-branded as pdActive. PdActive is a facial recognition company run by Knasel, who said it is not a rebranding of DeepCam but a different company that has no owners who are Chinese citizens.

Knasel remained connected to DeepCam through another company he runs, dcAnalytics, which Knasel said licensed DeepCams technology until November 2019. Since then, Knasel said, U.S.-based dcAnalytics has been using proprietary technology, as well as facial recognition cameras purchased from DeepCam.

Knasel said dcAnalytics is committed to upholding the highest standards possible to make sure facial recognition technology is used fairly, properly and responsibly.

SENSITIVE QUESTIONS

Steve Dickinson, a Seattle attorney who practiced law in China for more than a decade and writes about cybersecurity, said geopolitical tensions have added sensitivity to any work Chinese surveillance firms do in the United States.

Last year, the U.S. government blacklisted several Chinese companies  including Hikvision, one of the biggest surveillance camera manufacturers globally  alleging involvement in human rights abuses. China has deployed facial recognition cameras widely within its borders, providing a level of monitoring unfathomable to many Americans.

At the time, a U.S. Hikvision spokesman said the firm strongly opposes the decision and that punishing Hikvision would harm its U.S. business partners and discourage global companies from communicating with the U.S. government.

Liu described his company as nothing like the Chinese video surveillance giants. With about 20 employees, he said, it is a tiny company pretending to be big, struggling unsuccessfully to get government contracts and nearly bankrupt.

Reuters found that he and his company have financial and other ties to the Chinese government, however.

Most notably, Shenzhen Shenmus largest outside investor, holding about 20% of its registered capital, is a strategic fund set up by the government of China. Called the SME Development Fund (Shenzhen Limited Partnership), it has built a 6 million yuan ($855,000) stake in Shenzhen Shenmu since early 2018, Chinese public business records show.

A person with the same name as a Shenzhen Shenmu board director has also worked for the venture firm managing the SME fund, according to the records and the investment firms website.

The fund acknowledged investing in Shenzhen Shenmu and said it "does not participate in the daily operation and management of the enterprise."

Liu is a member of Chinas Thousand Talents program, according to a local government website. That program was started by Beijing as a way to bring top academics working in important fields abroad back to China. According to allegations https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/harvard-university-professor-and-two-chinese-nationals-charged-three-separate-china-related by the U.S. Justice Department, the program aimed to steal foreign technology.

In a statement, Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs described such allegations as false and as stigmatization by the United States.

Liu told Reuters he tried to get into the program but does not know if he is. The achievement was reported in an article on Shenzhen Shenmu's website, but Liu said he only wanted to use the distinction to help him sell products. Reuters was unable to confirm with Chinas government whether Liu was a member.

Another website, that of a Shenzhen Shenmu subsidiary, Magicision, claims its technology has helped officials arrest fugitives and suspected criminals in China.

Liu was vague about the firms public security work, saying his company has tried unsuccessfully to get contracts with Chinese law enforcement. He called the websites information bullshit marketing.

About the Chinese governments interest in his companys data, however, he was clear.

The China government never care about us, he said. We are too small.

I know (the) China threat is a hot, eyeball-attractive topic. But what you have in mind is totally untrue.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in Los Angeles and New York; Data analysis by Ryan McNeill in London; Additional reporting by Cate Cadell and Yingzhi Yang in Beijing; Engen Tham and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Farah Master in Hong Kong; the Beijing and Shanghai newsrooms; Lucas Jackson, Aleksandra Michalska and Samuel Hart in New York; Paresh Dave in Oakland; and Tom Bergin in London; Editing by Julie Marquis and Simon Robinson)
Russian Su-27 Scrambled to Intercept US Plane Over Black Sea, Defence Ministry Says

Sputnik News

17:56 GMT 27.07.2020(updated 18:15 GMT 27.07.2020)

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  A Russian Su-27 fighter jet was scrambled to intercept a US Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft over neutral waters in the Black Sea, the Russian Defence Ministry's National Defence Control Centre (NDCC) said on Monday.

"To intercept the target, an Su-27 fighter from the Air Defence Forces of the Southern Military District was scrambled", the statement says.

After the US Navy reconnaissance aircraft turned away from Russia's border, the Russian fighter returned to its home airfield.

Earlier in the day, Russian airspace control devices detected an air target approaching Russia's state border over neutral waters in the Black Sea.

The entire flight of the Russian aircraft was conducted in strict accordance with international rules for the use of airspace. Violations of the Russian state border were not allowed, the NDCC added.

The US-Ukraine co-hosted Sea Breeze-2020 multinational military exercises, which started on 20 July, were completed on Monday in the Black Sea after all the planned manoeuvre tasks were fulfilled, according to the Ukrainian Defence Ministry.

About 2,000 servicemen from nine countries, more than 20 warships, as well as aircraft and helicopters, participated in the naval drills. This year, the event also included Bulgaria, France, Georgia, Norway, Romania, Spain, and Turkey.

A Sputnik

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Khadi Commissions files against woman for selling fake masks

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 28: Taking strict note of "fake" masks being sold in the name of khadi and advertised on the social media, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) on Monday lodged a complaint with the police against a Chandigarh resident.

In its complaint filed with the Senior Superintendent of Police in Chandigarh, KVIC alleged that a woman, Khushboo, was "unauthorisedly" selling face masks branding them as khadi and using the prime minister's photograph on packets.

The masks being sold by the woman also had logos of khadi and the central government's 'Make in India' and 'Vocal for Local' initiatives, besides the prime minister's photograph to create a "false impression" that her portal has the authorisation of selling khadi products, it said.

Masks do not prevent coronavirus spread: Centre's waring against using N-95 masks

Speaking about the complaint, KVIC chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said, "We will not spare any individual or private firms that are misusing khadi's name or unauthorisedly using the photograph of the prime minister on products or advertisements. This is a serious violation and a criminal act. Even in the past we have taken strict legal action against such violators."

He said KVIC has also formed a team of legal experts to keep a strict watch over any such misuse of khadi's brand name anywhere across the online marketing platforms as well as in markets to protect the interest of khadi artisans.

The complaint filed by KVIC said, "This not only created a wrong impression of khadi in public opinion but also misled the online customers looking for genuine khadi masks being sold exclusively by KVIC through its e-portal."

The complaint further said it has come to the knowledge of KVIC that the Chandigarh woman indulged in the sale of masks in the name of "khadi mask" without any authority and without permission from KVIC.

It is further noticed that she is selling the mask by using the registered Word Mark "Khadi" and its formative mark and widely advertising it, the complaint said.

"Further, she is also using the photograph of the prime minister... in the advertising materials and it is not known whether the permission/ authorisation of the central government required under Section 3 of the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act,1950, is obtained by her or not," it further read.

Mr Saxena said it is pertinent to mention that KVIC has acted tough against any misuse of its brand name "Khadi India" and infringement into its trademark.

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

He said so far KVIC has issued legal notices to over 1,000 private firms, including Fabindia, for misusing its brand name and selling products under the name of khadi.

KVIC has also sought damages from these firms for causing harm to its reputation and loss of wages to khadi artisans due to sale of "fake" khadi fabric.

The KVIC in the complaint has requested the Chandigarh police to initiate criminal proceeding against the woman that includes seizing and confiscating of goods and all advertisement products, hoardings, promotional material, brochures, stationery, websites, social media handles, etc.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, July 28, 2020, 10:48 [IST]
South Africa: Minister Mchunu to give details on SA APRM Council

Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu, in his capacity as the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Focal Point for South Africa, is expected to brief media on the Charter of the South African APRM National Governing Council.

The Minister will speak on this at a media briefing scheduled for 11.30am this morning.

At the briefing, which will be held at the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) head office in Pretoria, the Minister will also announce the appointment of the Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the South African Peer Review Mechanism National Governing Council (NGC).

Minister Mchunu will brief members of the media on the Charter of the South African APRM National Governing Council as well as what is to follow in terms of the NGCs activities, said the Ministry of Public Service and Administration ahead of Tuesdays briefing.

Cabinet approved the formation of the NGC which comprises key stakeholder groups from government, civil society and the private sector, in line with the APRM principle of broad-based participation.

Through a virtual meeting which was held on 22 July 2020, the NGC elected its Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson, and also adopted the Charter of the South African APRM National Governing Council.

Thulani Tshefuta was appointed as Chairperson while Magdalene Moonsamy was appointed as Deputy Chairperson.

The formation of the NGC paved the way for the preparation of the countrys 2nd Generation Review that the country is expected to undertake. The structure will be expected to lead this process of country self-assessment, ensures its credibility; and ultimately produces the Country Self- Assessment Report (CSAR) that will later be submitted to the continental body, APRM.

The NGC structure is at the core of the functioning and success of the countrys APRM, as its key role is to mobilise and ensure participation of all stakeholders and citizens in general to the APRM processes.

Minister Mchunu will brief the media on what is to follow in terms of the NGCs activities.

The APRM is a mutually agreed instrument voluntarily acceded to by African Union (AU) Member States as an African self-monitoring mechanism to foster good governance in the continent through a systematic peer learning and self-assessment mechanism.

South Africa is currently the Chairperson of the Committee of Focal Points of the APRM programme, a continental ministerial platform for all 40 APRM participating member states, which it took over early this year from the Republic of Chad.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-07-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
TEL AVIV, July 28 (Reuters) - Enlight Renewable Energy Ltd said on Tuesday it has secured financing for a wind farm project in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights that will produce 189 megawatts of electricity from 39 turbines.

The project is estimated to cost 1.25 billion shekels ($366 million).

A consortium of banks and financial institutions led by Bank Hapoalim will provide 1.05 billion shekels in non-recourse project financing and the remainder will be funded by Enlight and its partner.

The wind farm will provide electricity to 60,000 households in northern Israel and is expected to generate revenue of 140-160 million shekels annually for 20 years.

The company said it has secured building approvals for the project and construction will begin upon receiving approval from state-owned utility Israel Electric Corp. It will take 24-36 months to complete the project, Enlight said.

It has signed an agreement with General Electric Co to supply the turbines and provide maintenance for 20 years.

($1 = 3.4167 shekels) (Reporting by Tova Cohen Editing by Steven Scheer)
Although we cant directly compare the figures because of recent methodological changes on the governments database, we can say its one of the lowest proportions ever recorded, Daniel Duque, the studys author, said by phone from Rio de Janeiro. He used the World Bank standard that classifies anyone earning less than $1.90 a day to be in extreme poverty.
Religious leaders in Ghana have been urged to stand up against mounting corrupt practices and indiscipline crushing the society, to pave way for sustainable development and improved socioeconomic livelihoods of the masses.



The Clergy are encouraged to advocate for the poor and the needy in society for the improvement in their socioeconomic wellbeing as was the practice in the days of Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed.



We as believers today must defy injustice, negligence and ungodliness. We must make the right choice now irrespective of our political affiliations, Rev Lenin KB Trotsky, a Political Scientist said in an interview, to promote the kingdom of God in Ghana.



He noted that many men and women professed to be propagating the Word of God had failed to live up to the expectation on their divine role of defending the rights of the poor.



This, he stated, has impoverished many Ghanaians, and led to unchecked bribery and corruption in every facet of the economy and dissipation of state resources.



He was worried over increased indiscipline, borrowing without accountability and failure by political leaders to redeem their promises espoused in their manifestoes, which serve as social contracts with the people.



According to him, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parties are to blame for the rot and joblessness occasioned by collapsed state enterprises and excessive borrowing from International Monetary Fund (IMF).



Citing monumental failures by NDC and NPP to grow Ghanas economy, he noted: Nana Akufo-Addo and John Mahama are known to have gone for numerous IMF loans with little to show.



Both regimes have taken huge loans with no proper accountability to Ghanaians and plunging the country into perpetual indebtedness and for generations to come, he added.



Ghanas public debt stock had surged to GH255,727.1 billion (US$45,486.1 billion) by June 2020, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta told Parliament last Thursday during a presentation of the 2020 mid-year budget review.



The Minister requested the 275 house of parliament to approve GH11.8bn supplementary budget to support the governments expenditure for the remaining months of 2020.



Drawing on stories from the Bible, Rev Trotsky, referred several stories of advocacy throughout the holy book, saying: think of Moses, Daniel, and Esther. To secure the Israelites freedom, Moses used his connection to Pharaoh to speak for the people.



Also quoting extensively from both the Bible and Quran, encouraged the clergy to act firmly like Amos, Mohamed, Isaiah, King David, King Jehoshaphat, Noah and many prophets and servants of God, who advocated, spoke up and judged fairly in defence of the rights of the oppressed of their time.



He equally took a swipe at outspoken preachers like Bishop Duncan Williams, Pastor Mensa Otabil, Rev Owusu Bempah and other religious leaders for keeping mute on fundamental national issues while political leaders toyed with the governance of Ghana.



He urged other religious leaders to emulate Bishop Charles Agyinasare of Perez Chapel International, and Rev Christian Kwabena Andrews (Osofo Kyiriabosom), Flagbearer of GUM, and some journalists who often rise to condemn the rot.



In particular, he described Rev Andrews as an extraordinary advocate for the poor and vulnerable, and an outstanding personality committed to liberating Ghanaians from political and economic oppression when voted as president of Ghana.



Rev Trotsky called on like Bishop Nicholas Duncan Williams, Dag Heward Mills, Sam Korankye Ankrah, Emmanuel Badu Kobi, Joseph Eastwood Annaba and others, who were once vocal on critical national issues to rise and condemn the wrongs.



We are calling on you to advocate like the prophet of old, we are sounding the church bells to you and your members, the congregation to defy everything injustice in this country, just like the servant of God Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the book of Daniel in the bible, he added.



While urging Ghanaians to participate in the ongoing voter registration, he also asked the clergy to follow Esthers footprints who was willing to risk everything to save her people, saying: I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish. (Esther 4:14).

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
You've seen the videos: armored police shooting objects into crowds in Portland, teargassing the city's mayor and beating protesters who stand in the way of their tactical advances. But why are federal officers in Portland, and have they fueled violence as critics and city officials claim?

How did Portland become the epicenter of protests against police violence?

Portland had seen nearly 40 consecutive nights of protests against police violence and systemic racism after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, but city officials say the nightly demonstrations were dwindling when the Department of Homeland Security decided on July 4 to increase its presence around Portland's federal courthouse.

What happened at the federal courthouse?

On the night of July 3, a small group of people shattered a glass door at the federal building, which is within a block of both the Multnomah County Justice Center  home to a local jail  and a city police precinct, both of which had been earlier focuses of anti-police violence protests. Prosecutors later accused the group of attempting to set a fire.

The incident prompted the Department of Homeland Security to act on an executive order issued a week earlier by President Trump, authorizing the agency to prioritize enforcement against the "vandalism of government property." In the weeks since, the federal presence  dubbed "Operation Diligent Valor"  has ballooned to include at least 114 federal officers not usually stationed at the courthouse.

As local officials decried the federal government's dramatic response to vandalism, blaming it for reigniting protests, dozens have been arrested at the nightly demonstrations, and at least one man claims to have been pulled by unidentified federal agents into an unmarked minivan while walking blocks away. He said he was released without charges.

Dozens more protesters, journalists and federal agents have been injured  one protester holding a stereo over his head suffered a fractured skull after being shot by a U.S. Marshal in the head with a so-called less than lethal projectiles. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler was among those tear-gassed, and in a viral video, Christopher David, a 53-year-old Navy veteran, was shown being beaten by federal officers. In court documents, federal officials said at least 28 officers have been injured.

Story continues

How much damage has been done to the courthouse?

Officials have estimated at least $50,000 in costs to clean up graffiti, broken glass and fix security equipment.

Are Portland police and federal officers working together?

The Portland City Council on July 23 voted to bar city police from working with federal law enforcement. They had previously coordinated responses to the protests.

Federal police confront protesters in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland as the city experiences another night of unrest on July 26, 2020. / Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty

Who are the federal police stationed at the Portland courthouse?

Though courthouse protection is typically the purview of the Federal Protective Service and the U.S. Marshals, "Operation Diligent Valor" includes agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), according to a federal court declaration by Gabriel Russell, who is commanding the operation. The group includes members of an elite unit called the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, according to officials.

Why is Border Patrol allowed to patrol a Portland courthouse?

Portland, like most of the United States' major cities, falls within the so-called "100-mile zone" that defines CBP's jurisdiction, according to the University of Illinois Springfield professor Deborah Anthony, who has studied the agency's expanding operations in that corridor. She said CBP is free to operate within 100 miles of any border or coastline, a swath of land that's home to roughly two-thirds of the country's population.

"It's based on a statute from the 1940s that says border agents can search the border for aliens within a reasonable distance of the border or an external boundary. In 1953, a (Department of Justice) regulation determined that that was a hundred miles. Nobody seems to really know why they came up with a hundred miles, but that's essentially been the rule ever since," Anthony said.

At the time there were about 1,000 border agents nationwide, compared with roughly 21,000 today.

Can they really detain anyone inside the 100-mile zone?

No, Anthony said. "What they are supposed to be doing within that 100 miles is very limited. The charge of customs and border protection is facilitating trade customs and immigration law. And so they really are not supposed to be doing other types of operations, crime control, things like that, even within the 100 miles."

She said the agency's involvement in an operation like "Operation Diligent Valor" in Portland is unusual. "It's the first I'm aware of because as far as I'm aware, it has nothing to do with immigration."

Why is the attorney general sending federal officials to Chicago, Kansas City and Albuquerque?

While President Trump appeared to have conflated the two operations on July 20, they are not exactly the same. His executive order and the Portland operation are ultimately focused on enforcement of federal law, on federal property. Attorney General William Barr's July 22 announcement pertained to officials with the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, DEA, and ATF potentially assisting local police in the enforcement of local laws, with an effort toward curbing crime in those cities.

Can federal officials go to cities and enforce local laws?

Only if they're invited, according to Ohio State University law professor Peter Shane. "There's no kind of overarching statutory authority for federal agencies, in general, to send federal officers to assist in local law enforcement," Shane said. "If there is a request for federal help, the federal government can provide that help, but there has to be a request."

Have the cities requested federal help?

No, the mayors of all three cities were among 14 to sign a letter condemning Homeland Security's role in Portland, and the mayors of Albuquerque and Kansas City have explicitly said they are not asking for federal cooperation in local law enforcement. The U.S. Attorneys in both cities have said federal agents will be focused on violent federal crimes. Chicago's mayor, Lori Lightfoot, said federal agents will be allowed to "work in partnership" with Chicago detectives investigating gun homicides.

Congress debates stimulus package while unemployment benefits in limbo

Protesters continue to clash with federal agents in Portland

Moderna coronavirus vaccine begins phase 3 trial with 30,000 participants
Christopher Nolans Tenet has two new release dates after multiple delays tied to the coronavirus pandemic.

The film was originally scheduled to come out in July but ended up being pulled indefinitely.

According to Variety, it will now be released internationally on 26 August, before debuting in select US cinemas on 3 September.

International markets that are part of the August release include the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Japan, Korea, and Russia.

It is unclear which US cities will be included in the September release.

Tenet is one of several high-profile films which had their release plans amended after the coronavirus pandemic shut down cinemas across the world.

A Quiet Place II, a live-action version of Mulan, and the upcoming James Bond film No Time to Die have all had to make new arrangements.

The French Dispatch, Bill & Ted Face the Music, The Matrix 4 and Top Gun: Maverick are in the same situation.

To view a list of which movies have been delayed  and make a note of their new release dates  you can click here.


Quarterly Report

Melbourne, July 28, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Bluechiip Limited ( ASX:BCT ) today released its quarterly cash flow report for the quarter ended 30 June 2020.- Subsequent to 30 June 2020 quarter, Bluechiip announced that it had received a notice of purported termination from Labcon North America (Labcon), a major customer, to the chip supply agreement. Bluechiip has responded by pursuing its rights and remedies as provided under the agreement (Please refer to the full announcement on 16 July 2020).- The Company is financially well positioned with cash of $7.9m as at 30 June 2020, with no borrowings.- The Company received financial support from Federal Government incentives through Cashflow Boost and JobKeeper Payment.- The Company also received a refund of prior month's payroll tax made (pre-COVID-19) and benefited from the deferral of payroll tax payments for 6 months of Financial Year 2021.- Following the decision made in the prior quarter, the Company continues with its resources reallocation to previously identified research and development (R&D) for more tax effective operation.- Implementation of Quality Systems to meet ISO 9001 compliance is on track.To view the quarterly report, please visit:About Bluechiip Limited

Bluechiip Ltd (ASX:BCT) understands that every sample - stem cells, blood, eggs, sperm and other biospecimens - is critical, so our objective is to manage each one with optimal quality in the most efficient way. Bluechiip's advanced management solution is the only one that provides sample temperature with ID in cryogenic environments to. Most importantly, this delivers confidence in every sample.

Bluechiip's unique patented technology is a MEMS-based wireless tracking solution that contains no electronics. It represents a generational change from current tracking methods such as labels (hand-written and pre-printed), barcodes (linear and 2D), and Radio Frequency Identification. Bluechiip tags are either embedded or manufactured into storage products such as vials or bags. Each product can be easily identified, and critical information such as sample temperature, is detected by readers and stored in the Bluechiip software. In addition to functioning in extreme temperatures, the Bluechiip(R) Advanced Sample management solution can survive autoclaving, gamma irradiation sterilization, humidification, centrifuging, cryogenic storage and frosting.

Bluechiip's technology has applications in healthcare, including in cryogenic storage facilities (biobanks and biorepositories), pathology, clinical trials and forensics. Other key markets include cold-chain logistics/supply chain, security/defence, industrial/manufacturing and aerospace/aviation.

Bluechiip: Delivering confidence in every sample.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 27) - President Rodrigo Duterte urges Congress to pass the second version of the Bayanihan Law to speed up the countrys recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

In his fifth State of the Nation Address on Monday, Duterte thanked lawmakers of both chambers for the immediate passage of Bayanihan 1 or the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act which gave him special powers to realign the national budget in response to the pandemic.

The President is now asking Congress to give Bayanihan 2 or Bayanihan to Recover as One Act the same treatment and priority as the first law.

This health emergency stretched the governments resources to its limits, said Duterte. I hope that they can [give] the same treatment of clarity, purpose, and the fastness to support the passage of Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, which are supplement funds for recovery and response against the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.

Bayanihan 2 would earmark P140 billion for various socioeconomic and health programs as part of the governments recovery plan amid the pandemic.

The Senate already assured recently that it would approve Bayanihan 2 on third and final reading after Dutertes SONA.

Moreover, Duterte also asked lawmakers to fast-track the passage of economic measures such as the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act and the Financial Institution Strategic Transfer (FIST) Act to help provide aid to the economy.

CREATE Act, formerly known as Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act (CITIRA), reduces the corporate income tax rate from the current 30 percent to 25 percent.

Meanwhile, FIST allows banks and other financial institutions to transfer bad loans to asset management companies.

In an interview with CNN Philippines Rico Hizon on Monday, Senator Richard Gordon guaranteed there will be enough funds allocated for the Bayanihan 2 Bill.

The problem is in the implementation. Are people receiving the money? said Gordon, implying the social amelioration program should be given to those in the vulnerable sector who truly deserve such emergency aid.

Gordon added he hopes the Bayanihan 2 Bill will be clearer in implementing the governments response to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as equal distribution of test kits and priority for those who needed to be tested of the virus.

Its kind a hazy right now, the senator noted how the government acts on the pandemic.
Bangladesh: Ilish flooding Chandpur fish markets

July 28,2020 | Source: Dhaka Tribune

Huge amounts of Ilish netted from the Bay and the Meghna estuary have flooded the biggest wholesale fish market of the country at Chandpur Boro Station in the town. During a visit at the market on Monday morning, this correspondent found a large number of fishing trawlers and pickup vans had arrived at the Fisheries Ghat carrying Ilish netted from the coastal areas of Bhola, Char Fashion, Ramgati, Swandwip and the adjacent areas.



More than a thousand workers and fish traders were seen busy handling Ilish at various fisheries in Chandpur. Most of the fishermen prefer carrying their catches in pickup vans as it takes less time than carrying in boats. Another reason to avoid the waterways is that the fishermen have to pay tolls at different points to extortionists, said some fishermen.



Asked about the market condition, Rahman Shikdar, a tea stall owner, said: "We're now getting a greater number of customers because of big catches." Ali Hossain, a thermal box trader, said: "We're getting more customers who want to send the fish to Dhaka and other places for their relatives."



With constant smiles on their faces, some labourers said they have been passing very busy time in handling Ilish as plenty of the delicious fish is being netted. Fish trader Imam Hossain said everyday some 800 maunds of Ilish are being traded at Boro Station market currently. "In the last couple of days, we've sent thousands of cartons of fish to different markets of the country, including Dhaka's Kawran Bazar, Abdullahpur, Bypailas well as Kishoreganj, Mymensingh, Sylhet, Jamalpur, Narayanganj and some other places of northern districts," he said.



lish prices in Chandpur fish markets are still high, despite the booming supply, said a few customers. Al Amin, who went to Chandpur from Comilla to buy the fish said, We thought that wed get it at less price, but its really expensive. Dhaka resident Abu Tahir reiterated that he expected the fish to be cheaper, and added, Since its really expensive, I bought only five kilograms, each kilo for Tk2,000. A worker at the fishing warehouse, Mofiz Uddin said, Good quality fishes are expensive and the price is always high. Ilish weighing 200-500 grams are selling for Tk18,000-20,000 per maund. The ones weighing 700-800 grams are selling for Tk32,000 per maund, and the 1kg to 1200 grams Ilish costs Tk45,000-50,000 per maund, and when sold individually, costs up to Tk1,200 per kilogram. The price for per kilo of a 1.5 kg Ilish is Tk2,000.



Local Ilish from Chandpur isnt really much available. The ones that are available are quite expensive. Even a few days ago, I sold a two-kilogram fish at the rate of Tk130,000 per maund, said Nadim Hossain, a fish trader. Contacted, researcher D Anisur Rahman of Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute, said: "As this year's fresh environment due to Covid-19 and ban on fishing jatka has been successful, we're hopeful of getting greater catches this time than that of the last year's."
Investors cheered a promising sign that this year's dividend downswing could be about to turn a corner.

Dozens of Britain's biggest listed companies have cancelled, deferred or delayed payouts after the pandemic threw their businesses into disorder, striking a blow to pensioners and savers who rely on them for income.

But software firm Kainos and oil and gas group Cairn Energy were rewarded handsomely for their decisions to hand money back to shareholders. Belfast-based Kainos rocketed 25.3 per cent, or 209p, to 1036p after it pledged to pay a one-off dividend or 6.7p per share  around 8.1m in total.

It said trading boomed so much in the first four months of its financial year that it will bump up annual turnover and profits. The group, whose customers include a number of NHS trusts and government departments, also said it will now go back to its original dividend schedule.

And things are going so well that it will give back furlough funding. Cairn, meanwhile, struck a deal to sell its entire interest in a contract area in Senegal to Russia's Lukoil for up to 310m.

It will return at least 195m as a special dividend afterwards.

Cairn has never paid a regular dividend  its model relies on investing in projects, selling them and handing the money back to shareholders in one-off payments.

But netting a sale during a time of extreme turmoil and lower prices in the oil market will be music to energy shareholders' ears. Cairn shares rose 6.3 per cent, or 7.8p, to 132.3p.

Talktalk shares will be in focus today after it emerged the budget broadband provider rejected a takeover bid valuing it at double its current price. The firm was approached by top shareholder Toscafund last year with a go-private bid.

It would have valued Talktalk at 135p per share, or 1.5billion, compared to its share price of 74.8p yesterday (down 3.9 per cent, or 3p), valuing it at 857m.

But Toscafund's advance was spurned because it 'failed to provide sufficient value for shareholders', according to Sky News.

Both the FTSE100 and FTSE250 started the week lower as dives in holiday and travel-related stocks failed to be offset by gains from precious metal mining shares, which rallied as gold prices reached a record high.

Overall, the blue-chip index fell 0.3 per cent, or 18.94 points, to 6104.88, while the FTSE250 fell 0.6 per cent, or 106.9 points, to 17157.94.

Shares in Chile-focused copper miner Antofagasta rose 3.7 per cent, or 37.5p, to 1066.5p after reports that the union of workers at one of its mines had reached a contract deal with the company, averting the risk of strikes. On the mid-cap index, Ascential swung to a 78m loss after the pandemic forced it to cancel or rearrange a swathe of major events such as the Cannes Lions marketing festival.

Interest in digital versions of some of its events couldn't stop it falling prey to the same difficulties that have plagued rival firms that also organise corporate shindigs, such as Relx (up 0.6 per cent, or 10.5p, to 1681.5p) and Informa (down 2.3 per cent, or 9.4p, to 391.5p). Shares fell 8.8 per cent, or 26.2p, to 272p.

Elsewhere, struggling guarantor lender Amigo was granted more time to sort out its borrowings. The extension was due to the Financial Conduct Authority extending Covid forbearance measures. The company has been through a tough period plagued with investigations, complaints and a boardroom row.
Weekend GO train service between Niagara and Toronto will resume Saturday.

New schedules with four trips to and from Niagara Falls and St. Catharines each Saturday, Sunday and holiday will provide more service than ever before, and enable convenient day or overnight trips, either in Niagara or Toronto.

The announcement was made Tuesday morning at the Via Rail/GO train station in downtown Niagara Falls by Lisa MacLeod, Ontarios minister of heritage, sport, tourism and culture.

GO Transits partnership with Niagara Parks Commission connects Wego bus service with GO trains in Niagara Falls, seamlessly bringing travellers to their final Niagara Falls destinations with no taxis or parking needed.

This has been a very challenging time for the tourism sector, but today marks another step in Niagara regions recovery, said MacLeod.

She said the resumption of weekend GO train service will make it easier for people to safely visit one of the most attractive destinations in Ontario.

With the world-famous falls, parks, wineries and unique local businesses and attractions, the Niagara region truly demonstrates how Ontario offers the world in one province.

MacLeod said the announcement is part of the Ontario governments plan to slowly and gradually reopen the provinces economy in the COVID-19 era.

Niagara Falls was able to move into Stage 3 and it couldnt have come at a better time for the people of this community, she said.

Our No. 1 tourism destination is Niagara Falls. Over 40,000 people in this community call tourism and hospitality their livelihood, and that was obviously impacted significantly on the 12th of March (when the pandemic began), straight through to even today.

MacLeod said the announcement also displays confidence in the health and safety of Ontarians, and I think it displays confidence in our economy slowly reopening.

We have confidence in Metrolinx and we have confidence in the people of Ontario to start arriving safely back to Niagara Falls.

Niagara Region Chair Jim Bradley said the announcement is good news for the peninsula, which has been through some very difficult times during the pandemic.

Those of us who travel on the highways know that on a weekend, particularly, its bumper-to-bumper traffic on the QEW, he said.

When you provide people with an opportunity to access the Niagara region using a train, its much better for them, and theyre more inclined to come here.

Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati described Niagara GO train service as like an umbilical cord linking us to the GTA.

He said the announcement will be matched by about $4 million worth of upgrades to the area around the Bridge Street station, including streetscape improvements, new GO platforms and more parking across the street.

Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff said the timing of the announcement couldnt have been better, as it leads into the long weekend.

With trips scheduled every four hours, it offers consistent and flexible options for your trip with no traffic delays, so Niagara residents can now visit family and friends in Toronto on the weekend or safely visit other destinations, he said.

Mark Childs, chief marketing officer with Metrolinx, said the weekend service will get riders to Niagara by about 11 a.m. and they can leave as late as 11:15 p.m.

Were pretty convinced after a full day in the region, with everything that the region has to offer, the quiet zone wont just be on the upstairs level, it will be throughout the train, he said.

Childs said the return of weekend Niagara GO service signals Metrolinxs confidence that it is safe for riders to return to transit, and for people to travel within the province.

The health and safety of transit workers and our passengers is a top priority and wed like to take this opportunity to thank all of the front-line staff for their commitment to health and safety throughout every step of the journey and to our customers for wearing a face covering and to protect each other.

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A Romanian bartender has denied plotting to steal 50million of property from the 70million London mansion of heiress Tamara Ecclestone.

Emil-Bogdan Savastru, 29, was allegedly found by police in possession of a Louis Vuitton bag similar to one taken in the raid and was planning to fly to Japan.

He appeared at Isleworth Crown Court accused of conspiracy to burgle between November 30 last year and February this year, and having custody or control of counterfeit currency, as well as attempting to remove criminal property in January.

Savastru, of Bethnal Green, east London pleaded not guilty to all charges via video-link from Wormwood Scrubs prison.

It follows a 50million raid on the home of Ms Ecclestone, daughter of ex-Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone, on 'Billionaires' Row' in Palace Green, Kensington, west London in December just before last Christmas.

Emil-Bogdan Savastru, 29, appeared at Isleworth Crown Court accused of conspiracy to burgle between November 30 and this February, and having custody or control of counterfeit currency. He appeared in court alongside his mother Maria Mester, who has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and a charge of concealing criminal property

It follows a 50million raid on the home of Ms Ecclestone, daughter of ex-Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone, on 'Billionaires' Row' in Palace Green, Kensington, west London in December just before last Christmas. A 300,000 pair of diamond earrings and a Louis Vuitton bag were among the haul, which also included currency, jewellery and watches, with the stolen items estimated to be worth a total of 50million

Savastru appeared in court alongside his mother, Maria Mester, who heard proceedings from HMP Bronzefield using an Italian interpreter.

Romanian cleaner Mester, 47, has previously pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and a charge of concealing criminal property.

Police were called to Ms Ecclestone's address by security on December 13.

A 300,000 pair of diamond earrings and a Louis Vuitton bag were among the haul, which also included currency, jewellery and watches, with the stolen items estimated to be worth a total of 50million.

Mester was allegedly wearing 300,000 18-carat diamond jewels identical to those stolen from the 36-year-old heiress when police swooped as she flew into Stansted Airport on January 31 from Italy, where she lives.

Most of the 50million of stolen property has never been recovered.

Mester allegedly stole jewellery from Ms Ecclestone, pictured with husband Jay Rutland

Judge Simon Davis told Savastru and Mester they are next due in court on August 6.

The burglary happened as Ms Ecclestone, the daughter of former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, left the country for her Christmas holiday with her husband Jay Rutland and their daughter Sophia.

Ms Ecclestone was said to have been left 'shaken' by the raid on her hidden safes at the 55-room property near Hyde Park, where neighbours include Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and the Sultan of Brunei.

The Duke and Duchess's Kensington Palace residence is one road from Ms Ecclestone's mansion.

Ms Ecclestone, her husband Jay and daughter have shared photos of the luxury mansion on social media in the past, and featured it on their ITVbe reality show.
Weather Alert

...Spotty Black Ice Tonight... Slick spots on area roads may persist overnight as temperatures continue to fall. Snow will linger across west Kentucky through about midnight then diminish. Untreated roads and bridges are most likely to see black ice development. Motorists should use caution if driving overnight.
Up NEPA! about a dozen teenagers playing within the verandah of the three-storey building housing Bola Kareems shop screamed. Bola is not a teenager, but he joined in the cacophonous jubilation nevertheless. The 32-year-old embroiderer explained that the neighborhoods electricity had just been restored after two weeks of blackout.

I have too many clothes that I intend to deliver to my clients, with strict deadlines, he began, grinning. I have lost too many jobs in the last few weeks because there was no electricity.

Mr Kareem, a resident of Igando, Lagos, explained further that the generating set provided an alternative source of power for his embroidery business. However, the alternative came at a huge cost.

The use of generator was a fair alternative but it affected our overall earning, he said. Usually, for a single embroidery job, I charge my clients between N1,500 and N3,000. Yet, to complete this job, I have to power my generator with fuel of about N500, depending on the design. Some designs can be very problematic and time-consuming, which means I have to run my generator for a longer period, sometimes with as high as N1,000. If you burn fuel of N1,000 on a job of N1,500, how do you survive as a business and pay (other) bills?

Mr Kareems experience is similar to that of Saheed, a cobbler based in Sango, Ogun State. In the first week of June, Saheed said he had to reject numerous offers in the middle of the Covid-19 lockdown because there was no electricity in his neighborhood.

I have no gen, Saheed mutters in Yoruba, I am just planning to buy another generator because electricity supply in this neighborhood is poor.

Since the lockdown was relaxed during the week and we started operations, light has not been stable. Many of my clients had to come pick up their uncompleted materials last weekend. Others simply cancelled business agreements we had in the past, because I had no electricity to operate my machine and deliver as planned. Its pathetic.

Aside from the epileptic nature of electricity in their neighborhoods, both Mr Kareem and Saheed are irked by the outrageous estimated bills electricity companies serve them monthly.

Dark recesses of Saheeds Shop

Its really crazy, Bola said of the tariff, adding that the situation is more pathetic because he barely enjoys regular supply of electricity. We only pay for estimated darkness. Power problem is a major reason why small and medium businesses dont survive in Nigeria.

Electricity stifling SMEs growth

According to the World Bank, the economic cost of power shortages in Nigeria is estimated at around $29 billion. The figure is equivalent to two per cent of Nigerias Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Bank says that about 47 per cent of Nigerians do not have access to grid electricity and those who do have access, face regular power cuts.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report published in June revealed that electricity accounts for the biggest costs to daily operations for many small and medium scale businesses in Nigeria. The report, titled PwCs MSME Survey 2020  Building to last, stated that Nigerias power sector is overwhelmed by a myriad of challenges ranging from operational inefficiencies to infrastructure deficiencies. These challenges have resulted in inadequate electricity supply that has had an adverse impact on the business environment in Nigeria.

According to the 2020 Doing Business report, getting access to electricity ranks as one of the major constraints for the private sector in Nigeria. While big companies operating on big budgets and debt financing can afford to seek alternative means of power through off-grid energy sources, small businesses operating on shoe-string budgets are left at the mercy of Nigerian electricity operators.

With its ballooning population, now estimated at around 200 million people, Nigeria has witnessed rapid increase in commercial and industrial activities in the last decade. A significant portion of these economic activities depends essentially on electricity supply. According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), as of 2018, 5.7 million households, 51,000 industries and over 770,000 commercial ventures were consumers of power in Nigeria.

In its analysis of the economic factor intensity as a result of the shortfall of low electricity supply, PwC said that approximately 1 out of every 7 firm exits the Nigerian economy because of power concerns.

According to the United Nations, for its population of about 200 million people, Nigerias energy need is 170,000MW. But data obtained from the websites of the Ministry of Power and the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) showed that the country presently boasts of 7500 megawatts (MW) of available electricity generation, with an installed capacity of about 13,000MW. The transmission wheeling capacity is estimated to be about 5000MW but due to technical constraints, distribution to homes and businesses is less than 4000MW.

Hence, over the years, demand for electricity has outpaced generation, transmission and distribution capacity, throwing small and medium enterprises out of business. It has equally prevented small businesses from innovating and creating jobs.

The lack of reliable power has stifled economic activity and private investment and job creation, which is ultimately what is needed to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, says Shubham Chaudhuri, World Bank Country Director for Nigeria.

Last month, as parts of efforts to improve the countrys power situation, the World Bank Board of Directors approved the Power Sector Recovery Operation (PSRO) of $750 million in International Development Association (IDA) credit. The initiative is meant to improve the reliability of electricity supply, achieve financial and fiscal sustainability, and enhance accountability in the power sector in Nigeria.

In May, President Muhammadu Buhari kicked off the next phase of a deal with Siemens, to upgrade the nations dilapidated power infrastructure. Nigeria and the German engineering firm signed an agreement last year to rehabilitate and expand the countrys electricity grid. The partnership with Siemens is expected to enlarge power networks across the country until Nigeria can produce and distribute 25,000 megawatts.

The expectation is that the partnership will propel Nigerias economy to prosperity, and put an end to its long, bumpy journey to darkness.

Long road to darkness

In 2006, as part of Vision 20:2020, the Olusegun Obasanjo administration said that Nigeria would be generating 10,000 megawatts of electricity by 2007 and 35,000mw by 2020, making it one of the 20 biggest economies in the world.

By 2009, the Umaru YarAdua administration modified the projections, placing installed capacity growth at 6,000mw to 20,000mw by 2015.

In 2013, during the tenure of Goodluck Jonathan, a privatisation exercise took place with the mandate to increase power generation and provide stable supply of electricity to Nigerians at affordable cost. The PHCN was unbundled and broken into six generation companies (GenCos) and 11 distribution (DisCos) companies, handled by private investors, with the Nigerian government taking charge of the transmission.

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But many years after all of these steps were taken by successive administrations, Nigerians are yet to enjoy stable electricity. Businesses that rely essentially on power have had to exit the economy, with attendant negative effects on job creation and economic opportunities.

PwC in its report in June said liquidity crunch is the biggest challenge of the Nigerian power sector, caused by low collection, distribution losses and the inability of Discos to meet their payment obligations to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET). Other limitations include absence of cost-reflective tariff, gas shortages, poor transmission, energy theft, estimated billing and metering challenges.

For small business owners who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES, estimated billing and opaque metering system are two major concerns killing their businesses, almost literally.

Crazy Bills, Opaque metering

In March, Chiddy Chemicals disconnected from the Ibadan Electric power source, opting to operate solely on generator. The small firm, operating from two shops in Apete area of Ibadan, Oyo State, said estimated bills have made a mess of its revenue.

Victoria, an office assistant at the shop, told PREMIUM TIMES that her boss made the decision after years of settling crazy bills without enjoying commensurate value in electricity supply.

Its been frustrating, she began, fuming.For instance, in December, they brought an estimated bill of N18, 000, and N21,000 in January. We were so shocked because we barely enjoy electricity here. The maximum we get daily is, maybe, 5 hours. We could go for days without electricity. That was when my boss said he had had enough of the extortion and we opted out to operate solely with our generator.

Small business owners who operate with generators are susceptible to environmental and health hazards, in addition to the environmental concern around noise pollution. For many small businesses struggling to break even, the cost of operating solely on generating set can be a threat to continued survival.

Victoria explained that since they switched to alternative supply through generator, their operating cost has gone quite high.

We now spend an average of N30, 000 on fuel monthly, she said. This affects our balance sheet, but we have no option. Our shop employs over 10 boys but we now have six, due to high operation cost. But even at that, the amount is minimal compared to when we paid for estimated bills and still bought fuel of about N20, 000 monthly.

Between March and June, Kayode Ajaikaye did not open for business at his water factory in Orile-Agege area of Lagos. There was a lockdown, occasioned by Covid-19 pandemic, and he had to shut down operations. But when he resumed work in the last week of June, he was served an estimated bill of N35,000. He could not hide his anger when he spoke to PREMIUM TIMES.

Water factory running on generator

This is barefaced robbery, he said, flipping through copies of the electricity bills. If I pay this huge, how do I pay taxes, settle wages and salaries, and keep the factory running?

Although the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has a regulation in place which caps arbitrary charges on estimated billing, an official of the agency who declined to have his name in print told PREMIUM TIMES compliance has been problematic due to poor monitoring.

Mr Ajaikaye said he requested pre-paid meter over a year ago, but his efforts have been frustrated as the metre is yet to be delivered. So we pay huge amount to power our generating sets and still pay crazy amount per estimated billing. Its double jeopardy, he said.

Two other SME operators who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES in Lagos complained about the estimated billing and the worrisome conduct of Distribution Companies (Discos) who frustrate consumers attempts to obtain meters.

Efficient delivery of electricity is guaranteed by the meter, as it allows consumers to pay for only what they consume, and the DISCOs to charge for only what they supply. But many SMEs struggle at the mercy of the DISCOs who subject them to outrageous estimated billing.

Last year, Babatunde Fashola, immediate past minister of power, accused the DISCOs of sabotaging the countrys economy by refusing to carry out directives aimed at resolving key constraints to performance, including metering of consumers. But in a swift reaction, Sunday Oduntan, Executive Director on Research and Advocacy for the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors ANED, accused the Nigerian government of reneging on agreements reached in 2013.

In January, NERC announced that there would be an increase in electricity tariff across the country from April 1. The new tarriff showed price increases would have ranged from 60 to 100 per cent in some places. Except consumers in the Residential (R1) category, who will continue to pay N4 per kWh, all other categories of consumers, namely commercial, industrial and special, were expected to pay higher tariffs.

The Discos have however agreed to suspend the planned increase, amid outcry.

In the midst of the kerfuffle among stakeholders, SMEs continue to groan and die in the dark, silently, while unemployment rate skyrockets.

Nigerias unemployment rate stood at 23.1 percent of the work force in the third quarter of 2018, up from 18.1 percent in 2017, according to data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics.

Finding solutions to electricity challenge is key to SMEs growth and employment generation, Biola Ajoke, an Abeokuta-based fashion entrepreneur, said. She explained that Nigerian young people are job creators and can excel in businesses and entrepreneurship, if offered the enabling environment.

Way Out?

A major concern among Discos is the absence of cost-reflective tariff, linked to failure to deploy meters. In the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) included in the Performance Agreement (PA) for the DisCos, the NERC, through the EPSRA Act of 2005, states that power utility companies are charged with the responsibility of metering consumers.

But a quarterly report on the operations of the countrys electricity market for the third quarter of 2018 by NERC showed that out of a total of 8, 310, 408 registered active electricity customers, only 3, 704, 302 (44.6 per cent) have been metered. By implication, about 55.4 per cent of consumers are still on estimated billing, fuelling suspicion that the DisCos are reluctant to deploy metres so as to continue to extort consumers.

James Adamson, a stylist at Rozay Dee Beauty Salon, argued that as value creators, Nigerian SMEs are ready and willing to pay for electricity used, once supply is stable and the cost is reasonable. The inability to deploy metre also accounts for the shortfall in tariff revenue, he added.

Rozay Dee Salon, running on generator.

The Discos are only ready to promote estimated billing, noted Akinbodunse Shadrack of the Utilities Consumers Rights Initiative of Nigeria, based in Ibadan. NERCs order on CAPPING of estimated billing failed from inception as the level of compliance is very poor and electricity consumers have not seen any effect of the order.

In Abuja, Joseph Peters said he operates a hair salon on the outskirts of the city and didnt open for operation in most part of May.

But to my surprise, I was served a bill of about N15,000 when we resumed weeks ago, Mr Peters said. He makes roughly N35,000 monthly, after paying municipal taxes and other bills, adding that he had had to lay off one of his assistants due to declining patronage and huge operating cost.

PwC in its report noted that for the Nigerian power sector to achieve about 6.5 times increase in annual per capita consumption by 2025, stakeholders needed to accelerate growth in power generation capacity, improve utilization, and scale up efficient power distribution capabilities.

The audit firm noted that to achieve this, solution lies in expansion of the on-grid generation capacity by improving gas supply to eliminate non-operational capacity, replacement of the obsolete equipment at power plants to restore unavailable capacity, investment in the development of new power plants, as well as the expansion of existing plants. It added that power generated and delivered through the value chain must be recovered at full monetary value.

The new partnership between Nigeria and Siemens is expected to modernise and enlarge the nations existing power network, provide stable power, and open up opportunities in the economy for SMEs to thrive and grow.

In May, Mr Buhari directed his power and finance ministers to commence the pre-engineering and concessionary financing aspects of the project.

But for Ms Ajoke, the Siemens deal notwithstanding, its still a long way to redemption. In June, the entrepreneur laid off three support staff and shut down a fashion shop on the outskirt of Abeokuta, due to huge operating cost.

Lets hope that there will be light at the end of this dark, dark tunnel, she said, her voice a melange of hope and despair.
MENLO PARK, Calif., July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Global consulting firm Protiviti has been named a finalist of the Social Impact 2020 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award for its work with AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks) to help recovered COVID-19 patients donate convalescent plasma to save lives. Protiviti was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.

"In these times of unprecedented global health challenges, we're extremely pleased to have enabled AABB to connect recovered COVID-19 patients with plasma donation locations to help others suffering from the coronavirus," said Cory Gunderson, executive vice president, global solutions, Protiviti. "AABB knew they could count on Protiviti because of our decade-long relationship during which time our team of Microsoft specialists built  and continue to support  their SharePoint ecosystem."

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions during the past year. Awards were classified in several categories, with honorees chosen from a set of more than 3,300 submitted nominations from more than 100 countries. Protiviti was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services in the Social Impact category.

AABB, an international not-for-profit association dedicated to advancing transfusion medicine and biotherapies, came to Protiviti on April 6, 2020 with an urgent request. They needed a public-facing form on their Microsoft SharePoint website that would allow recovered COVID-19 patients to find donation sites to donate convalescent plasma  which contains COVID-19 antibodies  to patients currently fighting coronavirus infection. Up to that time, there was no centralized source of this vital information. Protiviti's On Demand Services team  a team of certified Microsoft experts available to clients on an as-needed basis  got to work immediately. They created and expanded the AABB web form's capabilities so users could search donation centers with a check of a box. The Protiviti team worked with AABB's database administrators to determine indicators and pulled the data from their CMS system to track which blood banks accept the convalescent plasma donations. The project was customized and implemented in three days and immediately available to the public. The online solution continues to assist people in donating their plasma to aid in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It is an honor to recognize the winners and finalists of the 2020 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards," said Gavriella Schuster, corporate vice president, One Commercial Partner, Microsoft. "These partners go above and beyond, delivering timely solutions that solve the complex challenges that businesses around the world face  from communicating and collaborating virtually to helping customers realize their full potential with Azure cloud services, and beyond. I am proud to honor and congratulate each winner and finalist."

For more information about the awards, please click here.

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 and managed 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 photo available on request

SOURCE Protiviti

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CINCINNATI, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Union Institute & University has announced that grants totaling nearly $10,000 have been distributed to students who faced emergency financial needs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The grants were made possible through the COVID-19 Student Emergency Fund, which was established by Union's International Alumni Association Board. The university has also taken measures designed to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus at its brick-and-mortar locations.

COVID-19 Student Emergency Fund

Union Institute & University's International Alumni Association Board created the COVID-19 Emergency Fund to help students who need assistance due to the pandemic. The fund provides one-time grants to students who face urgent financial needs after being laid off or furloughed because of COVID-19 restrictions. Union faculty and staff have also contributed to the fund. Grants may be made to help students cover expenses such as housing, health care, auto repairs or computer repairs.

Union President Karen Schuster Webb explained, "This is a unique and unprecedented time for the world, and for Union. We are already hearing of how Union students and alumni are working in their communities to overcome the crisis. This fund helps our students persist, graduate, and go out into the world to make a difference."

Anyone can donate. To make a contribution, visit https://myunion.edu/alumni/giving/giving-back. Click the "Ways to Donate" button, scroll down the payment information page to the "Choose Your Designation" box and select COVID-19 Student Emergency Fund.

Protecting students, employees and alumni

Union offers bachelor's, master's, doctoral and certificate programs in a variety of majors. Because most of Union's courses are delivered 100 percent online, the university has been ideally situated to continue delivering high-quality education to its students  with minimal disruptions.

To protect students, faculty and staff, the May Master's Residency and the July Ph.D. Residency were changed to a virtual format. Beginning in March, Union made accommodations to enable faculty and staff who work at its brick-and-mortar locations to work from home. Plans are in place for those employees to return in August, with a staggered schedule to help maintain social distancing. Protective face masks have been ordered for students, faculty and staff to use once normal operations resume. Face masks, with the Union logo, will also be provided to the first 200 Union alumni who request them.

With no immediate end in sight for the COVID-19 pandemic, the university will monitor the situation and take appropriate measures for the safety of its students, faculty, staff and all members of the Union Community. Dr. Webb added, "From the very beginning of this crisis, we, in higher education, have appreciated the support and guidance of Governor Mike DeWine and Chancellor Randy Gardner. Their support has been  and will continue to be  a valued resource to Ohio's colleges and universities."

About Union Institute & University

Union Institute & University offers educational programs for those who wish to achieve their professional goals and pursue a lifetime of learning, service and social responsibility. Since its founding in 1964, Union has been a leader in the development and delivery of high-quality undergraduate, master's and doctoral degree programs designed for busy adults. Students can choose to complete their studies online, in the classroom, or through a blend of the two, depending on the program and location.

A private nonprofit institution, Union is a Higher Leadership Commission regionally accredited international university with academic centers located in Ohio, Florida and California.

To learn more about Union Institute & University, visit www.myunion.edu or call 1-800-861-6400.

SOURCE Union Institute & University

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Regulatory News:

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) ("PSH") today announced that it has purchased, through PSH's agent, Jefferies International Limited ("Jefferies"), the following number of PSH's Public Shares of no par value (ISIN Code: GG00BPFJTF46) (the "Shares"):

Trading Venue: London Stock Exchange Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 28 July 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 26,602 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 1,936 pence 25.03 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 1,922 pence 24.85 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 1,928 pence 24.92 USD Ticker: PSHD Date of Purchase: 28 July 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 8,028 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 24.85 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 24.80 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 24.83 USD Trading Venue: Euronext Amsterdam Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 28 July 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 28,299 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 25.00 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 24.80 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 24.83 USD

PSH will hold these Public Shares in Treasury. The net asset value per Public Share related to this buyback is 36.08 USD 28.33 GBP which was calculated as of 21 July 2020 (the "Relevant NAV"). After giving effect to the above buyback, PSH has 194,484,643 Public Shares outstanding, or 200,457,034 Public Shares calculated on a fully diluted basis (assuming that all Management Shares had been converted into Public Shares at the Relevant NAV). Excluded from the shares outstanding are 16,472,107 Public Shares held in Treasury. The prices per Public Share were calculated by Jefferies.

The number of PSH Management Shares and the one special voting share (held by PS Holdings

Independent Voting Company Limited) have not been affected.

About Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd.

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) is an investment holding company structured as a closed-ended fund that makes concentrated investments principally in North American companies.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005934/en/

Contacts:

Media

Camarco

Ed Gascoigne-Pees Hazel Stevenson +44 020 3757 4989, media-pershingsquareholdings@camarco.co.uk
Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has urged Ghanaians to join hands with her and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to chart a new path for progress and development in Ghana.

In her inaugural speech as running mate to former President John Mahama on Monday, 27 July 2020, the former Minister of Education said: To all the little girls and boys across our country, always dream big; remain focused. You can grow to become anything you want to be.

Believe that only you can stop yourselves. It is not going to be about your parents, rich or poor; not the region you come from and whether it is endowed with resources or not, Ghanas first-ever female Vice-Chancellor of a public university encouraged.

She continued: Remember that natural endowment is what it is; it did not come from the effort of anyone. It is nature that placed those resources there. That is why we call them natural resources. It is rather about a system that works; a functioning country that respects all its citizens and provides opportunity to all, regardless. The time is ripe for change.

She noted that the time is now.

She also encouraged girls to aspire to the best of their abilities.

To my daughters and sisters: We are in this together; you know as I do that it has not been and will not be an easy walk; but, as we all know, it is possible; actually it is probable; we can do it.

I know too well and have also lived some of the unspoken and unspeakable weight of responsibilities and concerns we bear as women  much more so, at these incredibly difficult times.

What we have always shown however is that when we have the opportunity, many choose to bring on our best game.

We earn our seat at the table and we excel. Our results transform our families, communities and country; and sometimes, go beyond our borders, porous or otherwise, she said.

Prof Opoku-Agyemang acknowledged that Ghanas democracy has come a long way, yet it remains fragile. It calls on all of us to exercise our civic duty against any obstacles and machinations.

I urge each of us to show up and participate in the ongoing voter registration exercise, but please observe all the necessary health protocols. Please look out for each other.

Politely remind people to use their face masks correctly, offer your hand sanitiser to someone in need. If you see a disabled person or an elderly person or pregnant woman, offer help. For that is the Ghanaian spirit, she urged.

She said: I extend a hand to everyone, no matter how disappointed you have become; no matter the depth of your frustration, your anger, your despair. Come! Lets chart a path for our country built on the values of integrity, merit, trust, responsible citizenship, caring, putting others first, simple polite language.

Come let us link effort and thoughts, to re-build our institutions; lets build a truly independent, inclusive nation that is not afraid to respect views that differ from ours; a country confident enough to accept other ways of seeing; of respecting everyone, regardless.

Come, men, women, our youth, our children- together, let us build the Ghana we can have which must belong to us all, and which must pay special, working and workable attention to the vulnerable.

We must bring back the proverbial Ghanaian hospitality that seems locked down if not quarantined. We must ease restrictions on the Ghana we know that respects, tolerates, liberates. The time is now.

As a country, Ghana has been poised for far too long. Ghana must be in full flight towards sustainable development, to a destination of peace, inclusion, self-confidence, plain honesty and where good old hard work matters. We call on all our countrywomen and men who believe that our country can once again travel the path of hope to come join us. The time is now. Forth in the name of our country we will go, she said.

---classfmonline
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates told CNBC it's important for young students to return to school for in-person learning, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

"I'm a big believer that for young children, the benefits in almost every location  particularly if you can protect the teachers well  the benefits outweigh the costs," he said in an interview that aired Tuesday on "Squawk Box."

However, the back-to-school picture gets more complicated as the students get older, the Microsoft co-founder said.

"As you get up to age, like, 13 and higher, then you'll have to look at your locale to decide what you'll do with high schools," he said. "And if they're not in, then you have to put massive effort into trying to get there to be continued learning online."

Gates' charitable foundation has contributed millions to coronavirus vaccine research. The tech mogul said the organization also has changed the focus of its educational efforts in response to the public health crisis.

"Our foundation has revamped our education work to really jump in and help ... get those online capabilities up," he said. "Make sure that minority students and low-income students aren't suffering the most throughout all of this."

Gates' comments come as school districts across the U.S. prepare plans for fall classes despite the threat of the Covid-19 outbreak. The Trump administration has lately increased its calls for schools to fully reopen for in-person class, emphasizing the social and emotional costs of not doing so.

The nation's largest public school system in New York City has said it intends for most students to attend in-person class two or three days per week in the fall. On the other days, students will have remote instruction. New York City school officials said that limited in-person instruction is needed to allow for social distancing within the buildings.

California's two largest school systems  in Los Angeles and San Diego  now plan to begin the fall academic period completely online after the state's coronavirus outbreak worsened in recent weeks.

Younger people without underlying medical conditions face less risk of becoming severely ill from Covid-19. But central to the return-to-school debate is how likely students are to become infected by the coronavirus, as well as their role in transmitting the virus to other people, particularly school staff and their families.

A recent study in South Korea offered some insight, finding that children over the age of 10 presented a higher risk of household transmission of the coronavirus than children under 10.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner under President Donald Trump, has said he believes it is possible for schools to reopen safely in the fall. However, he told CNBC last week that the most important thing communities can do to reopen their schools is to get local spread of the coronavirus under control first.

Like Gates, Gottlieb said Friday on "Squawk Box" that districts may find it easier to have younger students return to in-person class five days per week compared to older students. Social distancing may be more challenging in high schools, and older students may also be better suited to handle online learning through a hybrid model of instruction, Gottlieb said.

"I think there are things you can do across the district where you handle different ages different, as well, in order to make sure children remain safe in different environments," Gottlieb said.

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and a member of the boards of Pfizer, genetic-testing start-up Tempus and biotech company Illumina.
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Linkedin Dado Ruvic (Reuters) Mostar, Bosnia  Tue, July 28, 2020 09:02 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669c568b 2 News Bosnia,divers,Mostar,travel Free

Divers hurled themselves from a 24-meter high Ottoman-era bridge in the Bosnian town of Mostar on Sunday, staging a centuries-old contest even though the COVID-19 pandemic prevented many visitors from coming.

The picturesque southern town is famous for the high-dive competition at its Old Bridge, which was rebuilt in 2004 after it was destroyed by Bosnian Croat artillery during the Bosnian war in the 1990s, and has become a symbol of reconciliation.

The annual contest - which is thought to date back to the 15th century - is a big tourist attraction. The plunge from the bridge is also a traditional rite of passage for local youths.

Lorens Listo, organizer of the diving competition and a 13-time winner, said the number of competitors had not dropped significantly because many people were "craving" to compete.

Read also: In Bosnia, 'master' blacksmith had to shoe an egg

"But the audience shrunk and there are no tourists in the city," he told Reuters, pointing to empty streets that in previous years were packed with thousands of tourists who flocked to the town to watch the contest.

Under measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, only 100 people were allowed to watch the contest, from a fenced platform just bellow the white bridge which arches over the Neretva River.

A few hundred more spectators watched from further away, observing social-distancing guidelines.

After a strict lockdown, Bosnia has seen a spike in infections since the easing of restrictions at the end of June and the reopening of borders with neighboring countries.

On Sunday, Bosnia reported 10,334 cases of the coronavirus, of these nearly 5,000 in the past three weeks, and 287 deaths.

Harun Bojagoric, 17, a native of Mostar, was among 32 competitors in the diving contest. It was his first time, and nerves were jangling as he prepared to take the plunge.

"I hope to get to the second round," he said. "But there is always anxiety."

Topics : Bosnia divers Mostar travel
South Africa: Sisulu, Plato seek lasting solutions to Cape Town land invasions

Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, is expected to meet with the City of Cape Town Executive Mayor, Dan Plato, today to consolidate a plan aimed at addressing the housing challenges currently facing the city.

The meeting follows a meeting held on Monday, where Sisulu met with Police Minister Bheki Cele, Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza, and Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille, to devise a plan to address the challenges facing people in the city.

The meeting also comes just few days after the Ministers meeting with community leaders in Khayelitsha and surrounding areas to understand the causes of the recent unrest in the City of Cape Town.

Since this meeting, Sisulu has been consulting with various stakeholders in order to address the causes of invasions and evictions.

In a statement on Tuesday, Sisulu emphasised that they will, together, have to find the lasting solutions to the problems.

We have a responsibility to address lawlessness and restore order in the City of Cape Town. Violence will never be an answer to any unfortunate situation we find ourselves in presently. We equally have a responsibility to be proactive in addressing landlessness, Sisulu said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-07-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
DENVER, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) recently won a contract with the State of Arizona to provide network connectivity and managed IT services that will support all state government agencies and transform how the state delivers services to residents.

The company will be providing local and wide area network management, WiFi, security, unified voice communications, contact center communications, IT management, data center and cloud-based services to the state under the new AZNet contract.

CenturyLink is delivering the next generation of AZNet to Grand Canyon state residents.

"The State of Arizona placed its trust in CenturyLink again to deliver a next-generation version of its mission-critical network known as AZNet," said Sonia Ramsey, CenturyLink vice president for the state and local government and education market. "This is a great example of how we're helping government agencies of all sizes capitalize on the latest technologies to upgrade their networks and transform the delivery of vital services to citizens."

Having won the previous AZNet contract, CenturyLink recently won an expanded version that emphasizes modern, cloud-based integrated security, automation and orchestration services. The new contract has a five-year term and two one-year options.

The company already has more than 27,000 fiber route miles and nearly 13,000 on-net buildings in Arizona that help it deliver the latest network technologies around the state.

Additional Resources

Learn more about the Texas Department of Information Resources awarding a managed services contract to CenturyLink: https://news.centurylink.com/2018-03-01-Texas-Department-of-Information-Resources-awards-managed-services-contract-to-CenturyLink

Learn more about CenturyLink being selected as network provider for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania : https://news.centurylink.com/2017-12-11-CenturyLink-selected-as-network-provider-for-the-Commonwealth-of-Pennsylvania

About CenturyLink

CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is a technology leader delivering hybrid networking, cloud connectivity, and security solutions to customers around the world. Through its extensive global fiber network, CenturyLink provides secure and reliable services to meet the growing digital demands of businesses and consumers. CenturyLink strives to be the trusted connection to the networked world and is focused on delivering technology that enhances the customer experience. Learn more at http://news.centurylink.com/

SOURCE CenturyLink, Inc.

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Here is a quick guide on forex brokers in Nigeria to consider.

1. Alpari International

Alpari International is a popular choice for traders around the globe and serves more than 2 million traders. It was founded in 1998 and though the years it has proven itself to ne a reliable and reputable broker.

The broker offers excellent customer support, and the brokers support team consists of experts available to answer a range of questions by phone, email and live chat. The brokers offices are situated globally to offer specialised help, advice and guidance in order to ensure consistent and vital support.

Alpari allows its clients to engage in flexible trading by choosing independent trading or joining Alpari Invest and following strategies from experienced traders.

With the brokers Loyalty Cashback program, clients also have the opportunity to get back part of their funds on different types of commission.

Alpari International is authorised and regulated in Mauritius by the FSC. Through its choice of powerful trading platforms, traders have access to over 250 trading instruments such as forex and CFDs.

Alpari International uses MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, both of which offer great flexibility, charting tools and an easy-to-use interface.

For higher volumes, the broker also provides the Alpari International Direct platform which offers enhanced features for advanced investors.

2. IG Markets

IG Markets provides more than 17 000 financial markets to nearly 180 thousand traders across the globe. These markets include a wide range of indices, forex, shares, commodities and cryptocurrencies through the MetaTrader 4 and ProRealTime platforms.

IG Markets is one of the oldest forex brokers, allowing traders to benefit from the companys 45 years of experience.

Trading at IG Markets is powered by an execution speed of approximately 0.014 seconds, which was provided to 86 million traders during the 2019 fiscal year alone.

IG Markets was awarded at the ADVFN International Financial Awards 2020 and Professional Trader Awards 2019, and continues to maintain a strong reputation in the industry for excellence.



3. HotForex

HotForex is a leading forex broker which differentiates itself by offering a competitive trading environment, with spreads starting from as low as 0.1 pips which can be traded using high leverage ratios.

This multi-award-winning company is accessible to a range of traders with various experience levels and trading strategies, offering a low minimum deposit of just 1 USD.

HotForex has also become a trusted trading partner, as the broker is known for its transparency, best trading conditions and excellent customer support.

Added to this, the broker also offers Negative Balance Support, so that clients will never have to suffer losses which exceed their investments.

HotForex offers traders access to a range of asset classes, which include such popular options as forex, cryptocurrencies, precious metals, commodities and many more.

It offers several promotions such as a 100% Supercharged Bonus and Instant Rebates, 100% Credit Bonus and a 30% Rescue Bonus. With more than 2 million live accounts and 35 prestigious awards, its easy to see why HotForex is ranked as one of the best brokers.

4. eToro

eToro offers is an excellent option for beginner and professional traders alike, offering low minimum deposits that start at 50 USD, with accounts that are powered by fast order execution, complemented by and efficient variety of deposit and withdrawal options.

Clients of eToro have access to trade almost 2000 financial instruments in a secure trading environment which is regulated by the Cypress Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and ASIC in Australia.

Clients of eToro can invest in a large variety of stocks without paying any markups, ticketing or management fees. Added to this, traders will not be limited by trading volumes.

Clients can also connect with other traders, discuss trading strategies, and are provided access to the brokers patented CopyTrader technology.

This advanced technology allows users to automatically copy other successful traders portfolios for an enhanced investment experience, providing a compelling incentive to join eToro.



5. AvaTrade

AvaTrade is authorised and regulated in South Africa, Europe, Japan, British Virgin Islands and Australia.

First established in 2006, the broker was created as a combined effort of financial professionals and experts in web-commerce with the goal of perfecting the online experience for retail traders.

The broker provides traders with access to three different trading platforms, namely MetaTrader 4 and 5, as well as AvaTradeGO, through which traders can choose more than 250 financial instruments.

AvaTrade provides clients with access to forex, stocks, indices, commodities and cryptocurrencies.

The broker provides a range of different accounts which can be funded for as low as 100 USD, and which offer several added benefits such as swap-free options, competitive spreads and EA compatibility.

AvaTrade has collected numerous awards during the years, its trading websites are available in more than 20 languages and it provides a wide selection of training and educational tools.

6. CM Trading

CM Trading, the largest forex broker is South Africa, is well regulated and offers a safe trading environment for all traders.

CM Trading provides clients with access to forex, commodities and indices, which can be traded for a variety of different experience levels and trading strategies.

AS such, clients of CM Trading will enjoy the brokers variety of tailored account types, with spreads that start as low as 0.9 pips, and come with webinar access as well as swap-free options for Islamic clients.

As part of the brokers commitment to empowering investors, the Avatrade team works to create a reliable and secure trading environment, complemented by innovation and best in class service.

7. Markets.com

Markets.com offers traders access to a wide selection of currency pairs, indices, ETFs, commodities, cryptocurrencies and shares.

This wide variety of asset it classes offered through a number of advanced trading platforms, including Marketsx,Marketsi, as well as the highly popular MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 options.

Traders can open a live trading account at Markets.com with a minimum deposit of 100 USD, and trade on high leverage, while enjoying a variety of efficient and secure deposit and withdrawal options.

Get started now and OPEN A FREE XM account here
NO fewer than 30 members of the House of Representatives are expected to appear before the House of Representatives Committee on Ethic...

Representatives Committee on Ethics and Privileges over the allegations bordering on the execution of over N100 billion in the controversial 2018 emergency projects awarded by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). NO fewer than 30 members of the House of Representatives are expected to appear before the House ofRepresentatives Committee on Ethics and Privileges over the allegations bordering on the execution of over N100 billion in the controversial 2018 emergency projects awarded by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).





Gbajabiamila, during Thursdays plenary, who referred the letter sent by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, to the House Committee on Ethics and Privileges for further investigation. This was in compliance with the directive issued by the speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable FemiGbajabiamila, during Thursdays plenary, who referred the letter sent by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, SenatorGodswill Akpabio, to the House Committee on Ethics and Privileges for further investigation.





23rd July 2020 and entitled Some Niger Delta Development Commission contracts allegedly given to some members of the National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives), Akpabio alleged that the investigating committee on NDDC refused and/or neglected to give him the opportunity to explain the reference to most NDDC contracts yearly being awarded since 2001 from the records allegedly to members of the National Assembly in both chambers. Some of the members listed in the controversial letter are from Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Imo states as well as unnamed Caucus in the House of Representatives. In the three-page letter with Ref No: MNDA/HM/041/ IV/158 dated23rd July 2020 and entitled Some NigerDelta Development Commission contracts allegedly given to some members of the National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives), Akpabio alleged that the investigating committee on NDDC refused and/or neglected to give him the opportunity to explain the reference to most NDDC contracts yearly being awarded since 2001 from the records allegedly to members of the National Assembly in both chambers.





unusual influence to the exclusion of committee members and even the management of NDDC in appropriating funds to details embellished in the budget after the passage of the line items at the plenaries. However, the two chairmen of the Committee on NDDC had adequate knowledge, he said. The minister further added that: It has always been known that the two chairmen of the Committees on NDDC in both chambers yearly exhibitedunusual influence to the exclusion of committee members and even the management of NDDC in appropriating funds todetails embellished in the budget after the passage of the line items at the plenaries.





While justifying his position, Senator Akpabio stated that: To show you some typical examples, herewith attached are documents showing nature of contracts, amount of such contracts (in some cases), date of awards and beneficiaries.





forensic auditors could not sift through the thousands of files in their possession to provide more. Some were awarded to the two chairmen of both Committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate respectively, serving at the period of the awards (Annexures B, C, and D). However, due to the 48 hours notice theforensic auditors could not sift through the thousands of files in their possession to provide more.




Christians are among five Nigerian men to have been executed in Nigeria by Islamist extremists.

The deaths were recorded in a 35-second video posted to YouTube by Eons Intelligence before being removed.

It showed the men blindfolded and kneeling in front of five militants standing behind them holding AK-47 rifles.

One of the executioners then spoke to the camera before the executions were carried out to warn other Christians that they would be next if they did not stop sharing the Gospel and convert to Islam.

"This is a message to all those being used by infidels to convert Muslims to Christianity," one of the executioners said, according to Morning Star News.

"We want you out there to understand that those of you being used to convert Muslims to Christianity are only being used for selfish purposes.

"And that is the reason whenever we capture you, they don't care to rescue you or work towards securing your release from us; and this is because they don't need you or value your lives. We therefore, call on you to return to Allah by becoming Muslims. We shall continue to block all routes [highways] you travel.

"If you don't heed our warning, the fate of these five individuals will be your fate."

After he finished his message, the five men were shot dead.

A Borno resident told Morning Star News that the three Christians were: Ishaku Yakubu, an aid worker from Chibok with Action Against Hunger who was a member of the Church of the Brethren (EYN); Luka Filibus, an aid worker from Monguno with the International Rescue Committee and also an EYN member; and Joseph Prince, a private security firm worker who was a member of the Redeemed Christian Church in Maiduguri.

The perpetrators have been identified as members of Boko Haram splinter group the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP).

The other two victims in the execution are believed to have been Muslim.

ISWAP had reportedly requested $500,000 for their release.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide's Chief Operating Officer Scot Bower said the military must be strengthened to protect Christians and others in northern Nigeria.

"CSW extends its deepest condolences to the families of Abdulrahman Babagana, Darman Dungus, Joseph Prince, Ishaku Yakubu, and Luka Filibus. These cowardly executions constitute a gross violation of international law, and we condemn them in the strongest terms," he said.

"Once again a death cult that goes to the most appalling lengths to extort money and garner headlines has deprived the world of dedicated, courageous individuals who worked selflessly to assist vulnerable communities in a dangerous area.

"We urge the Nigerian government to adequately resource the military units serving in the north east of the country, enabling them to address the terrorist threat decisively, and to offer adequate protection for civilians."

Republished with permission from Christian Today
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-27 23:43:14|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- China's central government will provide all necessary support for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to fight the COVID-19 epidemic, a spokesperson said Monday.

The central government pays high attention to the recent resurgence of COVID-19 cases in HKSAR and is highly concerned about the health and safety of Hong Kong residents, said a spokesperson for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council.

The central government will continue to fully support the HKSAR in the fight against COVID-19, particularly in improving the nucleic acid testing capability and speeding up the construction of temporary centers for quarantine and medical treatment, so as to help it control the epidemic as soon as possible, the spokesperson said.

Noting that a few people made absurd remarks and even spread rumors and slander out of political bias and political manipulation attempts, the spokesperson said these acts should be condemned by the whole society.

Curbing the spread of the epidemic is an overwhelming task for the HKSAR at the moment, the spokesperson said, expressing the hope that people of Hong Kong from all walks of life fully support the HKSAR government on measures for epidemic prevention and control.

"With the vigorous support of the central government, and selfless help from the mainland, Hong Kong will surely win a victory against the epidemic," the spokesperson said. Enditem
C oronavirus is going to be "one big wave" rather than follow seasonal trends, the World Health Organisation has warned.

The health authority warned against complacency about coronavirus transmission in the summer, saying that Covid-19 does not behave like flu which tends to follow seasonal trends.

"People are still thinking about seasons," Dr Margaret Harris said during a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. "What we all need to get our heads around is this is a new virus and...this one is behaving differently."

She urged people to be vigilant to help slow the transmission among mass gatherings.

Dr Harris also warned against thinking in terms of virus waves, saying: "It's going to be one big wave. It's going to go up and down a bit.

"The best thing is to flatten it and turn it into just something lapping at your feet."

It comes as Boris Johnson said the UK must be "vigilant" of the threat of a "second wave" of coronavirus.

Speaking on a visit to Nottingham on Tuesday, the Prime Minister said the most important thing is for people in all communities to "heed the advice" before restrictions can be eased across the country.

"The most important thing is for everybody in all communities to heed the advice, to follow the advice, not to be spreading it accidentally and get it right down and well be able to ease the restrictions across the country," he said.

"But clearly we now face, Im afraid, the threat of a second wave in other parts of Europe and we just have to be vigilant and we have to be very mindful."

Coronavirus: Face coverings become mandatory in shops 1 /14 Coronavirus: Face coverings become mandatory in shops A shopper wearing a face mask in Marks and Spencer on Oxford Street, London, as face coverings become mandatory in shops and supermarkets in England PA A shopper wearing a face mask in a supermarket in East London as face coverings become mandatory in shops and supermarkets in England PA A shopper wearing a face mask in a supermarket in East London as face coverings become mandatory in shops and supermarkets in England PA Shoppers wearing a face masks in Selfridges on Oxford Street, London, as face coverings become mandatory in shops and supermarkets in England PA Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn PA PA Jeremy Selwyn

Mr Johnson also stressed the importance of looking at the "big picture" in easing local lockdown restrictions.

"I have every sympathy for local leaders who want their area out of lockdown, I can understand their instincts," he said.

"But we have to look at the big picture, we have to look at the national situation and, of course, we need to look at the health of the people of Leicester as well.

"Theyve been making a great effort to get the incidents down, the review is going on in the course of the next few days as you know, lets hope we can make progress there."

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The Prime Minister said the priority "has got to be peoples health and getting the disease under control".

"Particularly now as we can see whats happening amongst some of our European friends, where theyve got it starting to bubble up again," he said.
ONE Gas Inc (NYSE:OGS)

Q2 2020 Earnings Call

, 11:00 a.m. ET

Contents:

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the ONE Gas Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded.

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Brandon Lohse. Please go ahead, sir.

Brandon Lohse -- Director of Investor Relations

Good morning. And thank you for joining us on our second quarter 2020 earnings conference call. This call is being webcast live and a replay will be made available later today. After our prepared remarks, we will be happy to take your questions.

A reminder that statements made during this call that might include ONE Gas expectations or predictions should be considered forward-looking statements and are covered by the Safe Harbor provision of the Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements, and include, among others, statements about the length and severity of a pandemic or other health crisis, such as the outbreak of COVID-19. For a discussion of factors that could cause actual results to differ, please refer to our SEC filings.

Joining us on the call this morning are Pierce Norton, President and Chief Executive Officer; Caron Lawhorn, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Curtis Dinan, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer; and Sid McAnnally, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

And now, I'll turn the call over to Caron.

Caron A. Lawhorn -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Brandon. Good morning, everyone. Yesterday, we announced that we have reaffirmed our 2020 earnings guidance, which was originally issued on January the 21st, 2020 with net income expected to be $186 million to $198 million, with a midpoint of $192 million, and diluted earnings per share of $3.44 to $3.68 at a midpoint of $3.56. I will elaborate on that in a moment, but we will first review highlights from the quarter.

Net income for the second quarter was $25.3 million or $0.48 per diluted share compared with $24.5 million or $0.46 per diluted share in the same period 2019. Our second quarter results reflect an increase in net margin of $2.8 million over the same period last year, which includes new rates in Kansas and Texas, and a net increase in the number of residential customers. The increase in net margin includes a reduction of $1.9 million due to the lower late payment, reconnect and collection fees primarily related to the moratoriums on disconnects for non-payment due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Operating costs for the second quarter were $2.7 million higher than the same period last year. Expenses related to COVID are the main driver of the increase, which includes a $3.2 million increase in bad debt expense and a $2.2 million increase due to costs related to our response to COVID-19. Offsetting a portion of those cost increases is a reduction in expenses of $1.7 million for travel due to restrictions put in place because of the pandemic, and a $1.1 million decrease in employee-related costs.

As you may recall, our non-qualified employee benefit plans impacts both operating costs, which reflect the expense associated with planned liabilities, as well as other income or expense, which reflects the increase or decrease in the value of the associated investments. We've experienced quarter-to-quarter swings in the net income impact of these plans in 2020 that was primarily driven by volatility in the financial markets. However, on a year-to-date basis, the impact is not material.

We now have COVID-related accounting orders for all jurisdictions, but as of June the 30th, we have not recorded any regulatory assets for financial reporting purposes. Although there are nuances among the states, these orders generally allow us to defer for regulatory accounting purposes, net incremental expenses and certain lost revenues due to COVID-19. In order to record a regulatory asset for financial accounting purposes, we must identify and quantify amounts that qualify for regulatory treatment in accordance with the accounting order. In addition, we must conclude that such amounts are probable of recovery. This evaluation is ongoing.

Our capital expenditures and asset removal costs increased $16.4 million this quarter compared with the same quarter last year, due to the system integrity activities including government relocation projects and extension of service to new areas. Authorized rate base, reflecting our recent regulatory activity, is approximately $3.71 billion as of June the 30th. Authorized rate base is defined as the rate base reflected and completed regulatory proceedings, including full rate cases and interim rate filings.

We project that for 2020, our estimated average rate base, which is defined as authorized rate base plus additional investments in our system and other changes in the components of our rate base that are not yet reflected in approved regulatory filings, will be approximately $3.91 billion with 42% of that in Oklahoma, 29% in Kansas, and 29% in Texas.

In April, we issued $300 million of senior notes due 2030 at a coupon of 2%. The proceeds from the issuance were used primarily to reduce our outstanding commercial paper balance. We ended the quarter with adequate liquidity, which includes nearly $470 million of capacity in our commercial paper program, and all of the capacity under our $250 million 364-day credit facility. The ONE Gas Board of Directors declared a dividend on July 20th of $0.54 per share, which is unchanged from the previous quarter. This dividend is consistent with our guidance for 2020.

Moving on to financial guidance, you'll recall that last quarter we indicated we could be below the midpoint of our earnings guidance range. At that time, we were still in the early stages of dealing with the pandemic. Three months later, we have an additional quarter of actual results behind us, as well as more insight into how the pandemic is impacting ONE Gas, both financially and operationally, as well as our customers.

Although there is still uncertainty, we believe we are on track to achieve results in line with our original guidance for 2020. Our reaffirmed earnings guidance does not assume that we will record any regulatory assets for financial reporting purposes, pursuant to the accounting orders we have received addressing the impacts of COVID-19. We are also updating our expectation for capital expenditures including asset removal costs. We are increasing our estimated capital outlay for 2020 to a range of $500 million to $525 million, up from our original guidance of $475 million. This increase is primarily due to extensions of service to new customers in Texas and Oklahoma above the levels we had anticipated.

Now, I'll turn it over to Curtis for the commercial update.

Curtis L. Dinan -- Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

Thank you, Caron, and good morning, everyone. First, I'll provide an update or an overview of recent regulatory activity, and then provide an update on the impact of COVID-19 on our commercial activities. Oklahoma Natural Gas filed a performance-based rate change filing in February, requesting an increase in base rates of $11.8 million. A unanimous settlement was reached and a joint stipulation was filed in June that included a base rate increase of $9.7 million. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission issued an order approving the joint stipulation and new rates became effective in June.

Texas Gas Service made a GRIP filing in March for all customers in the West Texas service area for an increase in rates of $4.7 million, and new rates became effective in June. Texas Gas Service also filed a rate case in December for all customers in the Central Texas and Gulf Coast service areas, seeking a rate increase of $15.6 million and requesting to consolidate the two service areas.

In July, the Administrative Law Judge issued a proposal for decision and recommended that the Railroad Commission approve all terms of a $10.3 million unanimous settlement based on an authorized return on equity of 9.5% and a capital structure with 59% equity. The ALJ also recommended approval of TGS' request to consolidate the two jurisdictions into a new Central Gulf service area, which the cities have opposed. If approved, new rates are expected to become effective in the third quarter of 2020 and our jurisdictions in Texas will be reduced to five from six.

Kansas Gas Service will file a Gas System Reliability Surcharge or GSRS in August for the period covering July 2019 through June 2020. This filing will represent our first filing under the revised GSRS statute that will include 12 months of capital expenditures. Moving on to our commercial activities, we have approximately 12,000 transport customers on our system that represented $114 million or 12% of our net margin in 2019. Our 40 largest transport customers accounted for $28 million or 25% of our 2019 transport revenues.

I mentioned during our first quarter Analyst Call that two of these customers, one in the automotive industry and one in the residential shingle business had temporarily suspended operations. During the second quarter, both of those businesses resumed operations, and in June had transportation volumes comparable to the same period last year. Outside of our 40 largest transport customers, we have approximately 30 other businesses that have reduced operations or temporarily or permanently suspended operations.

Based on their current level of business activity, we are experiencing a negative impact of transport revenues of less than $50,000 per month, which is an improvement from the $100,000 per month impact I described during our first quarter earnings call. Year-to-date, we have averaged approximately 21,000 more sales customers than the same period last year, which is partially the result of the moratoriums on disconnects.

During the second quarter, the moratoriums expired in Oklahoma and Kansas, and we resumed our normal collection activities including disconnecting delinquent accounts for non-payment. The moratorium on disconnects in Texas has been extended until August 10. In all three states, we have continued our customer outreach programs to offer customers with delinquent bills, alternative payment arrangements, if they are not able to bring their accounts current. We have also been working with various social service agencies to help our eligible customers receive financial assistance.

Finally, construction activity with our builders and developers has remained robust through the first six months of 2020, including single and multifamily construction as well as commercial developments. The positive trend in growth capital spending to support our builder and developer network resulted in an increase in capital expenditures for the first half of 2020, and is the primary driver behind our increase in full year capital spending that Caron described.

And now, I'll turn it over to Sid.

Sid McAnnally -- Senior Vice President of Operations

Thanks, Curtis. Operationally, we continued to adapt and adjust our work as needed to continue the reliable service our customers expect, while keeping our employees and customers safe during the pandemic. Thanks to the focus of our team in the field and the support provided by our employees across the company. We are currently on target or ahead of target in meeting our performance goals for maintenance and compliance work.

While we continue to monitor workforce availability, to date we have not seen levels of absenteeism that impact our ability to execute work plans. We credit this performance in part to the success of the protocols we established in consultation with our third-party medical consultant that allow any employee who has concerns about a potential exposure or is experiencing COVID like symptoms to quickly access guidance for medical screenings, keeping potentially impacted employees quarantined to protect them and their families, and to avoid spread in our work groups.

The success of this program to date is in the numbers. Of our 3,640 employees, 42 have tested positive through June 30th. Of these positive tests, approximately 50% were employees working in the field. Our supply chain has also functioned smoothly, and we've not seen any disruptions in our ability to procure materials. Our supply of PPE remains at target levels and we maintain open supply channels in the event of an unforeseen increase in demand.

As you saw in the earnings release, our capital spend is ahead of last year, both for system integrity and growth. Projects have been shovel-ready due to the work of our engineers and designers and the work executed by third-party contractors has also gone uninterrupted. Our 24-month system integrity planning process allows our organization to accelerate or decelerate the capital workload from month-to-month by flexing scheduling as necessary.

As a reminder, we continue to see a 20-plus year runway for replacement of vintage material. Thanks to the work of our health and safety and IT teams. We are alert to COVID-19 related changes in our service territory and have created a structure that relies on the most recent medical information to determine the appropriate level of customer-facing service work and elective construction activity in the field. This approach allows us to quickly react to changing circumstances, scaling work up or down as we assess the best path to execute our work in a way that provides a safe environment for our employees, our customers and the public.

And now, I'll turn it over to Pierce.

Pierce H. Norton II -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Sid. In closing today, as we all continue to adapt to the changing environment brought down by COVID-19 pandemic, I want to highlight the resilience and incredible work ethic of our employees and what they've shown. We're taking advantage of our previously deployed technology and new technology at an exceptional rate. We continue to monitor trends and a variety of data points to make choices on how best to keep our employees and customers safe. And we're looking ahead and planning what could happen and how we'll handle it.

In the midst of adversity, our employees continue to show their dedication to our core values and mission every day. As a natural gas utility, we have an important role in serving our communities. We're working to help ensure all of our customers have a choice to access affordable, reliable and environmentally friendly natural gas.

Finally, I'd like to thank our ONE Gas employees for staying vigilant in our safety protocols. Our shared commitment has allowed us to continue to operate with minimal disruptions from our customers. I'm extremely proud to work alongside our team, and want to send a special thank you to every employee for the tremendous work being done to meet the demands of working differently during the pandemic.

Thank you for joining us this morning. Operator, we're now ready for questions.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Yes, sir. Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And we will take our first question from Shar Pourreza with Guggenheim Partners.

Shar Pourreza -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst

Hey, good morning, guys.

Pierce H. Norton II -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Shar.

Shar Pourreza -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst

Just a couple of quick easy ones. First, the capex increase in 2020 for customer growth speak some pretty good volumes on your fundamentals. Should there be a direct read through to '21, and how does the increase in customer count help create some of that headroom for build on existing customers? Is that a potential to flex in '21 as well as 2020? So how do we look at the fundamental today, the higher numbers, the higher capex and try to correlate it for next year?

Curtis L. Dinan -- Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

Shar, this is Curtis. Great question. We have been over the last, really 18 months to two years, been seeing a little bit stronger customer growth across our system. The capital that we have been spending has been extending service lines into new areas as our builders and developers have been very active. And so part of what we're seeing here in 2020 is the build out of a lot of those subdivisions, and we continue to see future build out in those subdivisions as well. So again, we have been seeing an upward trend in our numbers of new customers.

Shar Pourreza -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst

So, we could see a similar capex flex next year just given sort of the demographics and the growth in the customer base?

Curtis L. Dinan -- Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

Yeah. We haven't given -- updated that guidance yet, but keep in mind, even the guidance that we've just updated, it's an increase of about $20 million to $25 million on a $475 million base. So it is a little bit of an uptick but not a major trend mover, I guess I'd put it in that perspective.

Shar Pourreza -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst

Got it. And then just lastly, given the weak HDDs year-to-date, what level of cost deferral and cost savings are being contemplated for 2020? And how does that bridge to your reaffirmed guidance?

Caron A. Lawhorn -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Hi, Shar. This is Caron. It seems like you're talking about how we're looking at the COVID impact on 2020. We have, as we mentioned -- yeah, we have not assumed that we will be able to establish for financial accounting purposes any regulatory assets. So we don't have any offset anticipated in 2020, and we laid out what we have experienced so far through 2020 in our highlights for the quarter.

So as we think about going forward, we do have some uncertainty still. Curtis described the impacts on our transportation customers, being a little bit less than we had anticipated, I think in the first quarter. We've talked about the growth capital. We've been managing our expenses. So all those things have been taken into consideration as we think about our 2020 expected results and our guidance.

Shar Pourreza -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst

Got it. That's all the questions I had. Thank you very much.

Pierce H. Norton II -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Shar.

Operator

And we will now take our next question from Chris Sighinolfi with Jefferies.

Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Hey, everyone. Thanks for the...

Pierce H. Norton II -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Chris.

Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Hey, thanks for the added color today and for taking my questions. I guess to follow-up maybe on that last point, clearly Caron you had detailed the fact that the headwinds anticipated maybe three months ago on the financial performance are now not viewed to be as problematic. And you mentioned having additional quarter under your belt, Curtis mentioned some of the drivers of resumed activity in your service territory.

But I'm just wondering if you could expand a little bit, is it just a confluence of various small things that, in aggregate, make the situation less problematic or was there any particular sort of single item that you've been fearing that maybe is tracking much better? Just I guess, a little bit of better appreciation from my perspective on what's causing the improved outlook?

Caron A. Lawhorn -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Sure, Chris. So I think the main items we thought about were our regulatory filings. We were concerned at the end of the first quarter that those procedural schedules may not stay on track. They largely did stay on track. Those are -- a couple of more have been concluded the -- we're still waiting on the approval of the Railroad Commission on the Central Texas and Gulf Coast rate cases. But that has largely gone on the path consistent with our expectations.

We've already talked about the transportation revenues that impact. The work in the field has continued with minimal disruptions, both for capital work and for O&M work. We've had no significant supply chain or workforce disruptions. We've already talked about our growth capital a bit. We had some concerns at the end of the first quarter about whether we might see some slowdowns in permitting that might impact that work that has not materialized.

Also, the economic impact of the pandemic has not adversely impacted customer interest in new connections. So that's remained strong. And then we've also had -- at the first quarter, we had an adverse impact from our non-qualified plans due to market activity, that has reversed itself. So relative to last year, the impact is not material. Those are kind of the big drivers. And then as you mentioned, there are a number of smaller puts and takes that we've also considered as we thought about guidance for 2020.

Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst

That is a great rundown. Thank you for that, Caron. And I guess on a related note, you've mentioned no expectation to record any COVID-related regulatory assets. I guess can you remind me, obviously, at the time of your first quarter call, you didn't yet have procedures planned in place or rate filing, rate approvals in all the jurisdictions. But did you assume at that point you would make some? And if there has been a change there, I guess, what's the drive as bad debt less than you expected. You mentioned some of the economic impact on your service territory, maybe less than maybe you had been concerned about? Or are you better able to offset with costs? I'm just curious, if it was a change and if it was, what was maybe driving that?

Caron A. Lawhorn -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

So, at the end of the first quarter, yes, you're right, we only had one of the states regulatory orders in hand. We now have all three of them. But they are still -- they're not clear cuts. So there's still some judgment that has to be applied in terms of when you identify and measure those incremental costs, making sure that that's consistent with the expectations of the order, and then again that's got to be probable of recovery. So our thinking about that hasn't changed. It's not that we think that bad debt expense is going to be less than we thought, it's just that it's the requirements to be able to record those regulatory assets. We haven't met that hurdle yet. So it's a timing issue.

Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Okay.

Pierce H. Norton II -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Chris, this is Pierce. So, Chris, this is Pierce. The only thing I'd add to that is if you basically kind of look at the cost that COVID has kind of gone into the operating expenses and you look at what you would normally do in an operating environment where you had transportation across our territories, that's pretty much been shutdown due to COVID-19. Those pretty much offset one another. And so then you're really focusing on your bad debt, and it's not that we don't think we will eventually have some accounting accrual. It's just that you need more clarity before you can take it.

Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Okay. Yeah, and clearly, Pierce, like we've talked about the fact that there has been a lot of stimulus put in people's hands thus far this year with regard to late filing of tax returns for those that owed or the stimulus checks or the unemployment benefits and the Federal gross-up on top of that. So I'm just kind of curious if you just haven't maybe seen impacts that you'll see later on if some of those support programs peter out. And if that was sort of part of your calculus or not, it sounds like it might be but it's still a -- the current plan is a timing issue, wait and see, and then there is specifics to the regulatory orders that need to be ironed out, I guess, in you treatment. Is that a correct understanding from my perspective?

Pierce H. Norton II -- President and Chief Executive Officer

That's correct, Chris. It really -- you said it well, it's a timing issue.

Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Yeah, OK. Okay, that's helpful. And then I guess final question for me is just with regard to the exemption in KGS, we'll have from Kansas state income taxes next year, and I guess, all utilities in Kansas. How that might affect the operating cash flow. I'm just remembering that with Tax Cuts and Jobs Act at the Federal level, we did see some modest headwind because you're collecting at a statutory rate, but on a cash line, it wasn't the full statutory rates. I'm just -- at the state level, is there any such lag or delta, we should be mindful of in our modeling?

Caron A. Lawhorn -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

This is Caron, again. We don't expect a significant impact at all. We expect that the Commission will order a reduction in rates beginning in January for that, but then our tax expense will go down. We should not have an impact. We will be refunding the excess EBIT. We recorded $81.5 million of excess EBIT but that won't start until our next Kansas rate case.

Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Okay, wonderful. Thank you guys very much for all the color [indecipherable]. I'd appreciate it.

Pierce H. Norton II -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Chris. Stay safe.

Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst

You too.

Operator

We'll now take our next question from Gabe Moreen with Mizuho.

Gabe Moreen -- Mizuho -- Analyst

Hey. Good morning, everyone. If I could just maybe turn to kind of lost revenues, and I know you talked about the transportation revenues from several of your industrial customers. Can you talk about which states are potentially granting you recovery for lost revenues? And going forward, anything on the residential side that we ought to look for maybe in terms of, I don't know, excessive conservation going forward during the winter heating season that you'll still be looking out for and potentially recovering in the future?

Curtis L. Dinan -- Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

So, Gabe, this is Curtis. A few questions there, and I'll try to hit each of them. But if I forget one, pull me back in. The first one on the lost revenues in the different states and which of these allow us to recognize that. We have some disclosures in the press release about the impact that it had on us in the first quarter. In the State of Kansas, lost revenue related to these different items is included, and in some degree waived fees, either late payments or reconnect fees are covered in all of the states. So, again, I think this falls into the category of what Caron was describing earlier as it relates to -- we're tracking those items. But it's really a timing issue as to whether those items would get recognized or not.

As it relates to your last question around conservation, and whether we might see that we have a very high level of fixed fees. So outside of our transport customers, we're not as volumetric sensitive as we have been in the last several years. We're about 72% fixed fee on our sales customers. So there is not a large exposure to that and in the environment that we're in, in a very low gas price environment. I don't know that we would necessarily forecast a high conservation impact that would impact -- that would have an impact on those variable fees. Lastly, I know you had a, I think a third question in there -- help me with that one.

Gabe Moreen -- Mizuho -- Analyst

No, I think you got all, Curtis. Thank you. And maybe if I could just follow-up in terms of the kind of process here for the, if and when you decide to record some regulatory assets. What each state is telling you as a sort of separate track here in terms of being able to recover some of these expenses. And is it going to be rolled into a rate case, at some point. Just curious what the process and timing is on that?

Curtis L. Dinan -- Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

Gabe, this is Curtis. We were having a little bit of hard time hearing your question. Could you ask that again?

Gabe Moreen -- Mizuho -- Analyst

Sure. Can you better now?

Curtis L. Dinan -- Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

Yes.

Gabe Moreen -- Mizuho -- Analyst

Great. So I was just asking just in -- for the if and when you're going to establish regulatory assets, just the process and the timing from what you're hearing from various commissions about how that's going to take place? Is it a full blown rate case or are there separate tracks here where you might be able to just kind of take care of the COVID-related stuff on specific line -- specific items, specifically?

Curtis L. Dinan -- Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

Okay. A couple of things. First off, we're filing in Oklahoma next year. We're required to -- under our PBR mechanism to file a full rate case, so that will be the first one that where we address it. It is at 100% prescriptive in the other two states, there is some flexibility for consideration outside of a full rate case, but it remains until we start having further discussions with our regulators about that and I think that will be dependent more upon how we see the pandemic unfolding, and -- like in the environment that we are in today, we are not going to be in front of those commissions asking them to start that process right now, nor would I expect -- they would expect us to do that.

So, it will still be a little while before those processes start and that will give us better clarity that will not only answer the questions you were asking but also earlier in terms of the accounting treatment that how we'll recognize those will get better clarity as this -- as this goes along.

Gabe Moreen -- Mizuho -- Analyst

Thanks, Curtis.

Operator

We'll now take our next question from Richard Ciciarelli with Bank of America.

Harry -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Hey, this is Harry [indecipherable] on for Richard Ciciarelli. Two quick ones. The incremental capex for 2020 mostly accountable in the first half of the year, what is kind of the timing of the recovery on this flowing through the bottom line? And is there any change to the previous guidance around 70% of the capex in privy to system integrity and replacement?

Curtis L. Dinan -- Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

So a couple of points and Caron can provide some more color on your 70% question. But -- so it depends on the type of capital it is. When it's connecting new customers, and those customers began to service, then our revenues are impacted at that point in time. All the other capital, as well as that capital to go into rate base, it has to be an interim rate filing, like a GRIP or a GSRS or a PBR, or has to go through a full rate case. So I think it's kind of a combination of those things. The growth capital is when that customer starts their service, and then the others go through the full rate case. So then Caron can talk about how that impacts our total capital spend.

Caron A. Lawhorn -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

So we've indicated that about 90% of our annual capital spend in a given year is covered in a regulatory filing. That is unchanged. With this increase in growth capital guidance for 2020, it's largely capital related to Texas and Oklahoma, which will get covered in an annual filing. If it were Kansas, there would be a delay until it got covered in a rate case, but most of this growth capital increase is coming from the other two states.

Harry -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Got it. That's helpful. And just one more, can you talk about your long-term growth costs outside of natural gas, which is RNG and hydrogen. We've heard a couple of your peers began to make some progress on this, and just wanted to hear your thoughts or any updates there?

Caron A. Lawhorn -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Growth capital of RNG.

Curtis L. Dinan -- Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

So we do on the RNG front -- this is Curtis, again. On the RNG front, we do -- are continuing to pursue different projects around that. I wouldn't say that any of those projects are in a spot where we're prepared to give capital guidance or financial impact of any of those at this point. But there are a number of discussions going on with various parties in our service territories.

Harry -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Got it. Thanks. And if I could just sneak one more in, you could talk about your thoughts on M&A. There's been an Australian company that has put some interest in gas assets that's regulated in the US. Can we get your comment latest on your thoughts on M&A?

Pierce H. Norton II -- President and Chief Executive Officer

This is Pierce. So I'll take that one. The -- our thoughts on M&A really haven't changed. We continue to execute on the five-year plan that we have and what's in front of us and we continue to think that that's probably the best thing for our shareholders. So as far as those comments, we don't have anything else to say but we are executing on our plan.

Harry -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Awesome. Thanks so much guys.

Pierce H. Norton II -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

Our next question will come from Agnieszka Zmigrodzka with UBS.

Agnieszka Zmigrodzka -- UBS -- Analyst

Good morning.

Pierce H. Norton II -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Aga.

Agnieszka Zmigrodzka -- UBS -- Analyst

I have a follow-up question on bad debt. What was the historical bad debt as percent of revenues, and what was that in 2Q and what you're seeing in July? Do you have any metrics that you are tracking and how they are shaking out?

Caron A. Lawhorn -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Good morning, Aga. This is Caron. I don't have a number at my fingertips, but all the information to calculate that is provided in our information. You can get our provision for doubtful accounts on the cash flow statement. We are up about -- you'll see, we're up about $4 million relative to last year -- or excuse me $3.2 million from last year and then our revenues obviously are on the financials as well. When we look at it, we're focused on the past due accounts and the performance of those accounts and that sort of thing as we think about what our allowance should be.

Agnieszka Zmigrodzka -- UBS -- Analyst

Perfect. Have you seen any pressure on ROEs from low interest rates? And as you go through the process of your filings, the beta for the group has increased in the past few months, could that help offset the negative impact from lower rates? What are your thoughts on that?

Curtis L. Dinan -- Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

Aga, this is Curtis. And the one I would point to is our most recent general rate case in the Central Texas and Gulf Coast service areas, where we had the unanimous consent with the 9.5% allowed ROE and the 59% cap structure in that filing. That's our most recent data point.

Agnieszka Zmigrodzka -- UBS -- Analyst

Perfect. And last one, it's really on timing of equity issuances. Is there any update there? Are you still planning to issue anything on ATM this year?

Caron A. Lawhorn -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Aga, this is Caron. I don't have any updates on to the guidance that we provided. You saw that we issued a few shares in the second quarter, but we don't have any updates. We're not deviating from our -- the parameters of our original guidance.

Agnieszka Zmigrodzka -- UBS -- Analyst

Thank you.

Pierce H. Norton II -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Aga.

Operator

We will take our next question from Brian Russo with Sidoti.

Brian Russo -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst

Hi, good morning.

Pierce H. Norton II -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Brian.

Brian Russo -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst

Hey, just a follow-up on the equity. It's all under the ATM. And so you still forecasting $43 million per year through that program.

Caron A. Lawhorn -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

So, Brian, this is Caron. The guidance that we provided was how much equity we expect to issue through 2024. We haven't provided guidance on any level for any particular year other than what we factored into our guidance for outstanding diluted shares in 2020.

Brian Russo -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst

Okay. Got it. Understood. And then just curious the -- how much additional investments are you able to capture in the Kansas GSRS filing now that it's extended to encompass 12 months of investment?

Curtis L. Dinan -- Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

Brian, this is Curtis. We will be making that filing next month. So we're in the process of the final reviews on that and pulling all that data together. So I'm not -- don't have a filed number yet to give you, but there are additional items that qualify that did not previously. So certain things like physical and cyber security cost and then expanded definition of safety-related expenditures all roll into that, as well as an increase and the impact that it could have on the customers' monthly bills.

So all of those are -- well, and you saw some of that impact last year when we had a partial year filing and the impact of that. So I think we'll -- again we will be prepared to share more of that once we make that filing in August.

Brian Russo -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst

Okay. So just to clarify, before the statute, how many months of investment did you capture in your annual GSRS filing or was there any timing lag? Just wanted to get a sense of how much this could help improve the inherent structural lag that you have Kansas relative to Oklahoma and Texas?

Curtis L. Dinan -- Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

So it is a -- it covers a period of 12 months and so the filing we will make in August will be capital spent through June 30th of 2020. This will be the first one that covers a full 12 months. Last year's partial year filing covered all capital that went through to June 30 of 2019. I think if you're trying to look more broadly as Caron made the point earlier that 90% of all of the capital we spend is now subject to an annual filing and previous to the GSRS amendment that number was about 80%. So we've seen about 10% more of our capital qualified for an annual program as a result of that legislation.

Brian Russo -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst

Very helpful. Thank you very much.

Curtis L. Dinan -- Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

Thanks, Brian.

Pierce H. Norton II -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Brian.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And it appears, there are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the conference back over to our presenters for any additional or closing remarks.

Brandon Lohse -- Director of Investor Relations

Thank you all again for your interest in ONE Gas. Our quiet period for the third quarter starts when we close our books at the end of September and extends until we release earnings in early November. We will provide details on the conference call at a later day. Have a great day.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks]

Duration: 42 minutes

Call participants:

Brandon Lohse -- Director of Investor Relations

Caron A. Lawhorn -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Curtis L. Dinan -- Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

Sid McAnnally -- Senior Vice President of Operations

Pierce H. Norton II -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Shar Pourreza -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst

Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Gabe Moreen -- Mizuho -- Analyst

Harry -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Agnieszka Zmigrodzka -- UBS -- Analyst

Brian Russo -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst

More OGS analysis

All earnings call transcripts
Several rounds of testing and strict isolation are some of the new rules that are likely to become operational for medical tourists seeking treatment in the city, if a new set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) are approved by the Central government.

The medical value travel (MVT) companies, which promote medical tourism in Gurugram, along with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), have submitted a set of comprehensive SOPs to the union ministries of commerce, civil aviation and health and family welfare that are supposed be followed by international patients, who come to India for surgeries and cancer treatments, which are offered at relatively cheaper prices.

As international flights become incrementally operational, medical tourism companies are now working on the protocols to reopen the sector, which generates nearly Rs400 crore monthly in Delhi-NCR region, as per industry experts.

A set of SOPs have been prepared in consultation with the MVT companies and hospitals. The safety of people is of utmost importance in a pandemic situation but at the same time economic activity has to be resumed. FICCI has come out with the policy recommendations for medical tourism as many countries have started opening up their air services. However, the Central government will have to take the final call on the resumption of international flights and entry of foreign medical patients into the country, said a senior representative of FICCI, privy to the matter.

TESTING AND ISOLATION

According to the SOPs, hospitals will have to carefully select patients, especially avoiding those with serious co-morbidity issues. Both patients and the attendants will have to take the RT-PCR tests 48 hours prior to their scheduled flight. Only Covid-19 negative patients will be allowed to enter the country.

On arrival, the patient will be reviewed for influenza-like illness (ILI) and respiratory infections at the airport. They will have to undergo RT-PCR and Covid-19 antibody tests, following which they will be quarantined. If found symptomatic, the patient will be directly shifted to the isolation ward of the hospital where he/she had to be admitted for the surgery or treatment. Hospitals will conduct the RT-PCR and if found negative then the patient will still have to wait for five to seven days, after which the antibody test will be conducted. If both the tests are negative by day 10, then the patient will be taken up for the planned health procedure, as per the SOPs.

In case the patient is Covid-19 positive but asymptomatic, then they will have to be shifted to isolation units set up by hospitals in nearby hotels/guest houses. The final planned treatment of the patient can start once 14 days from the date of arrival is complete. Considering the international patient can be in a carrier state even after being tested Covid-19 negative during the course of treatment, a final antibody test upon discharge would be conducted.

THE COST FACTOR

Testing and isolation facilities will add up to the overall costs of medical treatment for such patients, said Amit Sharma, founder and CEO, Expedise Healthcare, an MVT company. There is over 30% hike in the price package for surgeries and oncology treatment for foreign patients. The testing and isolation bed costs have also been added to the overall cost of the treatment. It is being communicated to the patients that the cost would go up due to pandemic, said Sharma, who has got queries from 36 patients in Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates. Sharma is hopeful that by September, at least 100 international patients can fly down to Gurugram, if the Central government approves.

Vidit Bahri, managing director, Sukoon Health  a part of Fortis Healthcare that deals with medical tourists requiring psychiatric treatment  said that there is still an uncertainty till international flights are fully operational. In Delhi-NCR medical tourism generates almost 400 crore per month. It is important to gain the confidence and trust of the patients that they can be safely treated. Before Covid-19, 15-20 patients approached the centre per month but now there is a dip of at least 70%. Of late, we have received the request of only five to six patients. Approximately, two-and-a-half to three months are needed build up the demand, said Bahri.

Agreeing with Bahri, Dilip Chopra, president, Foundation for Health and Wellness Promotion, an association of MVT companies, said, There is a lack of clarity, as many states are still under lockdown. In these states, how will the patients be transferred, how different hospitals will handle the patients are still unknown. Some of these questions will have to be addressed before the sector can open up, said Chopra.

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SIOUX CITY -- Buy-in from the city of South Sioux City could help push the possibility of a pedestrian bridge spanning the Missouri River further toward fruition.

Sioux City Parks and Recreation Department director Matt Salvatore said South Sioux City officials are supportive of the project, which could be a boon to it finally landing after recent years of discussion.

For four years, the committee system of Sioux City has sought ways to renovate the Missouri Riverfront to provide for more recreation for local residents and as a means to draw tourists. Some pieces are moving ahead, and recent discussions showed the pedestrian bridge would begin at Chris Larsen Park Road, be elevated so as not to interfere with boating on the river and serve as an iconic landmark to draw visitors off Interstate 29.

The Sioux City Council in recent months had split on whether to approve a $59,000 consulting agreement with Smith-Group, Inc. of Madison, Wisconsin, for design and engineering services for a bridge.

The possibility of hiring Smith-Group had been tabled by Sioux City Council members on May 18, June 8 and July 6. A July 8 meeting of the Riverfront Steering Committee resulted in members voting to endorse the project only if two things happened -- a pinpointing of how to pay for the bridge and obtaining a commitment from South Sioux City government officials to financially support the bridge.

At no cost to the city of Sioux City, Smith-Group agreed to lead a meeting with officials from both cities on July 15, when South Sioux gave full support for the pedestrian bridge, Salvatore said. The South Sioux City officials also agreed to direct an unspecified amount of money to the project, via seeking governmental grants and other sources.

Another outcome was to nix moving forward with the Smith-Group bridge concept, but rather for the city to undertake more research into how to develop the bridge. The Sioux City Council on a 5-0 Monday meeting vote approved deleting the proposed $59,000 agreement with Smith-Group.

Some projections have said the pedestrian bridge could cost $10 million. For the broader riverfront project, $6 million in revenues have been pinpointed, with $3.5 million from the long-term Capital Improvement Program of the city budget, $500,000 in grants and fundraising and $2 million from tax increment financing in fiscal year 2021-22.

Nearly two months ago, Councilman Pete Groetken said he had perceived no wide community buy-in for the bridge, so spending money on a consultant would be ill-advised, he said. Groetken argued that without such plump outside funding, any community fundraising effort likely would not pan out.

Earlier this summer, Councilwoman Julie Schoenherr said she spoke with South Sioux City Mayor Rod Koch and South Sioux City business leaders, who she said were in "100 percent support of the pedestrian bridge."

Editor's note: The initial version of this story incorrectly said the $6 million in revenues for the broader riverfront project was the full cost of the bridge.

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Kingspan has agreed an 85m cash deal to buy Romanian construction materials supplierTeraPlast's insulated panels division with operations in eastern Europe and the Balkans.

The sale was announced by Bucharest stock exchange- listed TeraPlast, whose main business is the manufacture of pvc products and joinery for construction.

The Romanian company's shares surged 18pc yesterday after it announced late on Friday it had agreed the sale of assets by its Terasteel unit. The business lines being sold are operated by Terasteel, Terasteel DOO in Serbia and Wetterbest.

The firms make and sell insulated sandwich panels, metallic roof tiles and other accessories.

The deal is subject to competition approval and a TeraPlast shareholder vote at an extraordinary general meeting.

The total consideration will be paid in cash and will be determined based on the headline price of 410 million Romanian leu (85m), which may be adjusted downwards depending on factors including working capital and cash in the units sold.

In March, Kingspan CEO Gene Murtagh took aggressive action to cut costs and warned that the coronavirus crisis would be a "monumental test" for the Irish insulation giant.

The company slashed pay for senior managers by 50pc for April and May, and all other staff saw their pay packets slashed by 40pc.

A final dividend in respect of 2019, which would have amounted to about 60m, was also cancelled.

However, in May, Davy Stockbrokers analyst Flor O'Donoghue said Kingspan's balance sheet left it well placed if the wider pandemic crisis threw up investment opportunities.

Cavan-headquartered Kingspan employs more than 15,000 people at 159 locations globally.

"The business remains in fundamentally good health as is evident in its financial position. With crisis comes opportunity and, in this regard, Kingspan is well placed," said Mr O'Donoghue after a trading update in which it said global sales had decreased by almost 35pc in April compared to the same period last year as construction sites temporarily shut.

After announcing the April numbers, Mr Murtagh said that any deals the company was looking at in the area of mergers and acquisitions would be "bolt-on to medium-size and very absorbable".

The primary focus of deal- making would be consolidating in the panels and insulated boards markets, he added.

Kingspan is due to publish a half-year financial update on August 21 which will include the impact of hit to the business from the worst months of the pandemic lockdown, when the building sites across Europe and North America that are its biggest customers were shut.
Matter Communications has been named agency of record for influencer marketing software platform GRIN. Matter will spearhead a comprehensive PR program, including media relations and thought leadership, to amplify GRINs brand awareness while highlighting the platform and its relationship-based approach. GRIN helps brands find and engage with high-quality influencers, automate email outreach, activate campaigns, develop authentic relationships within a private CRM, and provide an in-depth reporting suite to analyze the success of influencer campaigns. We now have a strategic partner with the expertise and experience to not only underscore our unique value in the influencer marketplace with key media targets but disrupt the status quo and support future ventures into diverse marketing offerings, said GRIN vice president of marketing Sharon Thompson.

rbb Communications has been named agency of record for Denver-based cannabis brand Binske. The agency will lead the development and implementation of strategic communications campaigns focused on enhancing brand awareness and engagement. rbb will also work to refine Binskes social assets around a unified strategy, driven by enhanced design, content development and experiential connections. Binske serves over 83 million consumers in North America, across 12 U.S. states and Canada. rbbs work is touching on all of the different facets we needed from creative/strategy/social/media/PR, and more, said Binske executive vice president Alex Pasternack.

Uproar PR has been chosen as agency of record for U.S. Waterproofing, which provides basement waterproofing for buildings in the Chicago area, and NetBlaze, a digital marketing software company designed for small businesses. Both clients will be working with Uproar PRs Chicago office. U.S. Waterproofing has tasked the agency with generating interest in local media and assisting in the launch of its newest business, U.S. Remediation, a disinfectant and decontamination company. Uproar PR is also providing digital strategy for the company that includes content creation and organic posting on owned media channels like Facebook, as well as community management and responding to Yelp reviews. NetBlaze, which serves as a one-stop-shop for business owners to manage all their digital marketing, came to Uproar PR to help generate awareness of its services and showcase the work it does for businesses nationally.

Workhouse has been selected as agency of record for the documentary feature Charlie Chaplin: A Man of the World. Carmen Chaplin, Charlie Chaplins granddaughter, directed and co-wrote the film, which focuses on his Romany gypsy roots. This is the first film on Chaplin made by members of his family, and several of his children will participate. Workhouse will develop integrated promotional campaigns that synchronize communication efforts, including international endeavors, and will execute a comprehensive public relations plan on behalf of the project.
In a speech delivered at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library on July 23, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo maliciously attacked the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the social system of China, criticized Chinas internal and foreign policy for no reason, and once again hyped the political lies about China recently fabricated by some senior U.S. officials.

The ridiculous accusations against China made by Pompeo and other U.S. officials ignored the facts and distorted the truth and are filled with Cold War mentality and ideological bias. In fact, the more they are obsessed with wicked deeds that violate international rules and justice, the clearer the international community is learning about the truth.

Pompeo and some other U.S. politicians claimed that the original intention of the U.S. to develop relations with China was to induce change to China. As they are disappointed that they havent achieved the goal, they have no choice but to impose a series of constraints on China.

This is a bald-faced hegemonic mindset, absurd logic coined by some American politicians out of personal political ambitions as well as rude infringement on the basic norms of international relationssomething the international society should be highly alert to.

A copy of the Joint Communique of the United States of America and the Peoples Republic of China issued on February 28, 1972, is now collected at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library.

The communique specified that There are essential differences between China and the United States in their social systems and foreign policies. However, the two sides agreed that countries, regardless of their social systems, should conduct their relations on the principles of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, non-aggression against other states, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.

Pompeo deliberately chose to spread a political virus that twists history and instigates confrontation, which was not only a flagrant provocation against China, but a disrespect to many U.S. politicians that have contributed to the normalization of China-U.S. relations, including former U.S. President Richard Nixon.

Chief diplomat of the U.S. as he is, Pompeo seems highly skilled at putting on ugly dramas that help nothing but only damage the international reputation and image of the U.S.

When it comes to social systems, it could never be said enough that China has no intention to change the U.S. and America could never change that about China.

The leadership of the CPC is the greatest advantage of socialism with Chinese characteristics in China.

Since the Peoples Republic of China was founded 71 years ago, the Chinese people, under the leadership of the CPC, have embarked on a development path suitable for Chinas national conditions and made great achievements that have attracted worldwide attention.

History and facts have fully proved that the development path chosen by China is completely correct and has found favor with and been firmly supported by the Chinese people.

More than 93 percent of Chinese people support and are satisfied with the rule of the government under the leadership of the CPC, reaching an unprecedentedly high, according to a recent report released by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School.

The Chinese people will continue to unswervingly advance along the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics under the strong leadership of the CPC. Any attempt of the U.S. officials to block and undermine the efforts of the CPC to unite and lead the Chinese people to advance is doomed to end in complete despair.

By repeatedly slandering and suppressing China, the U.S. politicians just want to divert attention of the American public, escape the unprecedented political pressure brought by a series of domestic problems and thus maximize their personal gains in the presidential election.

Such a clumsy trick of them is called disturbing mission creep by the international media.

Faced with problems such as inability to contain the COVID-19 epidemic and racial conflicts, the U.S. now hopes to shift the contradiction abroad, said Mexican expert Raquel Leon de la Rosa, adding that U.S. diplomacy has become a tool of domestic elections.

The U.S. has become an extreme example of hegemonic panic, as British scholar Martin Jacques bluntly put it.

Those who lie and slander others will only label themselves as being untrustworthy and unashamed. It is really disgusting and contemptible that these U.S. politicians have deliberately incited ideological opposition, openly intimidated other countries to choose sides, and made an enemy of China to satisfy their own interests.

Every State has an inalienable right to choose its political, economic, social and cultural systems without interference in any form by another State, according to the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

Such a principle is universally recognized and adopted by members of the international community and any country with a conscience and independent spirit will not choose to side with the U.S. that seeks an exception.

A just cause enjoys abundant support while an unjust cause finds little. History will make it perfectly clear eventually that all attempts that go against the desire of the Chinese and American people to strengthen exchanges and cooperation and insist on reversing the trend of history will never succeed.

The U.S. politicians should abandon the Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice, take a correct view of China and China-U.S. relations, stop harmful remarks and deeds, and create conditions for bilateral relations to return to normal.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by Peoples Daily to express its views on foreign policy.)
Britains biggest car-maker Jaguar Land Rover has signalled its electric future  and created sparks of its own - by choosing ousted Renault boss Thierry Bollore as its next chief executive.

Seen by many as a surprise and unexpected choice, it marks an incredible bounce-back for Bollore who will take over at JLR  owned by Indian conglomerate Tata - on September 10.

Announcing his arrival, the 57 year old pledged to lead the UK manufacturer through the most testing time of our generation'.

JLR's new French boss: Britains biggest car-maker has signalled its electric future  and created sparks of its own - by choosing ousted Renault boss Thierry Bollore as its next chief executive

Bollore hails from Brittany in France and studied for an MBA at Paris Dauphine University.

Among the most pressing items in his in-tray are the challenge to return Britain's biggest car maker to profit after a big hit from the Covid-19 pandemic and a concern about sales in one of its biggest markets  China  at a time of international tension.

But Bollores experience of electric powered cars, charging networks, and changing patterns of mobility  where future generations may use vehicles but may not own them  gleaned at Renault and through family links is likely to have been a strong suit in his appointment against a strong line up of rival external and internal candidates.

He also has a track record of working in the automotive industry in China where, in the current political climate, JLR may feel exposed.

He also has a proven track record for quality control of outputs, with the British brand infamous for making less-than-reliable motors, which tend to prop-up the dependability standings in owners surveys.

Bollore is a cousin of French billionaire Vincent Bollore, whose family owned investment firm Bollore, has big interests in electric car and charging networks, including providing those for the UK capital, though its Bluecity car-share scheme in London ended in January after poor take-up.

His wide ranging international experience on many Continents  but particularly China - should stand him in good stead.

Among the most pressing items in his in-tray are the challenge to return Britain's biggest car maker to profit after a big hit from the Covid-19 pandemic and a concern about sales in one of its biggest markets  China  at a time of international tension

Bollores experience of electric powered cars, charging networks, and changing patterns of mobility gleaned at Renault and should help JLR progress with its electrification plans

In the wake of its award-wining battery powered I-Pace SUV, Jaguar has an all-electric flagship XJ saloon is in the pipeline and Jaguar Land Rover is set to accelerate electrification across its entire range of vehicles including 4X4s.

There are also plans for a crossover RoadRover  a hybrid between a coupe and an SUV based around a Land Rover.

JLR has a partnership with BMW on electrification and parent company Tata Motors recently recommitted to the company.

Bollore replaces outgoing CEO Dr Sir Ralf Speth, an anglophile German former BMW executive who took UK citizenship, whose tenure ends after more than a decade and who takes up the previously announced position of non-executive vice chairman.

Bounce-back Bollore: He was CEO at Renault for just 8 months before being ousted when Carlos Ghosn, who presided over the global alliance between Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, went on the run

Bollore replaces outgoing CEO Dr Sir Ralf Speth, an anglophile German former BMW executive who took UK citizenship

The appointment does mark a remarkable come-back and second-chance for Bollore took over at Renault in January 2019 but was ousted after just eight months in the job following the fall of now fugitive car boss Carlos Ghosn  who fled from Japan to the Lebanon in a spectacular escape to evade criminal corruption charges there.

He was always viewed as close to the French carmaker's long-time boss Ghosn  hailed as having turned around ailing Nissan as part of an alliance with Renault - and was pushed out in October when it looked for a fresh start after the Ghosn scandal.

He had joined Renault in 2012 as executive vice-president for manufacturing and rapidly climbed the corporate ladder.

That followed a seven year stint from 2005 with car parts manufacturer Faurecia, much of it spent in China.

He started his career in 1990 with French tyre giant Michelin and gained rapid promotions, latterly from 2002 Vice President in charge of industry for Michelin Aircraft Business worldwide, joining Renault in 2005.

Bollore has a track record of working in the automotive industry in China where, in the current political climate, JLR may feel exposed

In the wake of its award-wining battery powered I-Pace SUV (pictured), Jaguar has an all-electric flagship XJ saloon is in the pipeline and Jaguar Land Rover is set to accelerate electrification across its entire range of vehicles including 4X4s

In a statement issued by JLR, Bolore said: It will be my privilege to lead this fantastic company through what continues to be the most testing time of our generation.'

He added: Renowned for their passion and spirit, the people of Jaguar Land Rover are the driving force behind its success. I couldn't be more excited to join the team continuing to shape the future of this iconic company.

JLR was hit this year first by disruption to sales in China and then by lockdowns across Europe and North America as the coronavirus outbreak spread around the globe.

Electric Jaguar XJ put on hold as JLR puts clamp on spending JLR has already been forced to delay production of its new flagship electric XJ model as the firm stopped all no-essential spending as it burned through its cash reserves. It is now unlikely the battery-powered XJ will be launched before October 2021 as it focuses on keeping afloat. It is set to be built at its Castle Bromwich factory in Birmingham, which also builds the sluggishly selling XE and XF saloons, which are likely themselves to be reborn as electric crossovers. In the midst of production slow-downs and factory closures caused by the Corona virus, JLR is currently prioritising production of its most lucrative models - new Land Rover Defender and Range Rovers  to help boost cash flow. Although it has been talking to government ministers about securing a cash bailout from the Project Birch fund, insiders have suggested that the terms  including tough targets on emissions - may be too onerous at a time when firms are simply trying to survive.

In 2019, it cut jobs to address tumbling diesel sales, which helped it return to profit. But as the pandemic struck, it slumped to a pre-tax loss of 422million pounds for the year ended March 31, 2020.

The company has already taken steps to tackle the crisis, including agreeing a loan facility of around 700 millionwith lenders in China and further staff reductions.

It is also in talks with the British government over potential support.

Bollore takes over a business that built just over 500,000 cars in 2019/20. He faces a number of tasks, including how to handle the Jaguar brand, which under-performs the Land Rover marque, how quickly to electrify its line-up and any potential hit from Brexit if trade barriers are imposed.

Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons, Tata Motors and Jaguar Land Rover PLC said of departing CEO Dr Sir Ralf Speth: I want to thank Ralf for a decade of outstanding vision and leadership for Jaguar Land Rover and welcome him to his new Non-Executive position in addition to his existing role on the board of Tata Sons.

Earlier this month he said: Tata Group recognises and values Jaguar Land Rover's future potential highly. That is why this company is central to our global automotive presence - a presence that we intend to develop for years to come.
After Bollywood actor Sonu Sood gifted a tractor to help a farmer from Chittoor district, the family expressed their gratitude towards the actor saying that he is no less than god to them.

He might play a villain in films but he is a hero in real life. When we heard the reports of him helping thousands of migrant workers to reach their native states, we thought he is a real hero. We experienced it now. He is no less than a God to us, said Nageswara Rao, the farmer who received the tractor from the actor.

He said Sonu Sood recognised our poverty and helped us immediately.

Nageswara Raos daughter Vennela said, We too wanted to do some agricultural work. But we had no money. So all our family members are striving to do farm work. The matter went viral through media and social media. And Sonu Sood ji came to know about our plight. We thank him from our the bottom of our hearts.

Earlier, a video of the two girls tilling a farm went viral on internet. The girls - Vennela and Chandana - took the yoke on their shoulders to till the land as the family could not hire a tractor or oxen to plough the land. Seeing their plight, Sood had stepped forward with the promise to provide a tractor to that family.

Their father Nageswara Rao, who used to run a tea stall in Madanapalle Mandal for the past 20 years, was left with no source of income after the lockdown and he decided to return to his native village Rajuvaripalle to do farming.

Taking to Twitter, Sood said the girls should be allowed to focus on their education and he will provide the family with a tractor.
(Newser)  Safe to say an Airbnb party broken up by New Jersey police Sunday night violated the state's executive order regarding gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic. By the time police got there, more than 700 guests were in attendance, with more continuing to arrive, NJ.com reports. The home's owner plus two 20-something women, who allegedly rented the 3,700-square-foot Jackson Township mansion on Airbnb and organized the party, were all issued summonses for violating the governor's executive order, which limits outdoor gatherings to 500 people and indoor gatherings to 100 or 25% of a room's capacity, whichever is lower. Elsewhere in the county last Monday, a party with more than 400 guests was broken up.

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A state police spokesperson suggested the state's restrictions could be driving the situation. "I do think the fact that bars and restaurants are closed then create this underground situation which is certainly not one we want because ... young people, even if asymptomatic and youre positive, the fact that you can transmit that to your family members is certainly one that concerns us," he said. Airbnb deactivated the mansion's listing amid an investigation. KVOA reports the company is cracking down on "party houses" in Arizona as well, removing dozens of local listings under its temporary "party ban," which bars Airbnb rentals from being used for parties or events. (Read more coronavirus stories.)
Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua on Monday urged efforts to implement the provincial governor responsibility system for grain security.

The governments at the provincial level should shoulder the primary responsibility for safeguarding food security and effectively strengthen grain production by expanding the sown areas and increasing grain output, Hu said at a video conference.

He also stressed comprehensively enhancing the protection of cultivated land and the control of its use, while resolutely preserving the country's "rice bowl".

More efforts will be made in grain reserves and circulation, grain purchasing, local grain reserves, and improving the capacity for emergency supply, Hu said.

Evaluation of the provincial governors' performance must be strictly implemented and the problems found should be rectified to fully ensure food security, he said.
Chirag Paswan speaks to Thackeray, seeks CBI probe into Sushant Singh Rajput case

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, July 28: Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan said on Tuesday that he has urged Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to order a CBI probe into the alleged suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Paswan said he spoke to the Shiv Sena chief on Monday. He tweeted that Thackeray told him that the Mumbai Police is questioning everyone whose name has cropped up in the case and that those found guilty will not be spared.

ED writes to Bihar Police seeking FIR against actress in Sushant Singh Rajput case

Sushant's father files FIR against Rhea Chakraborty | Oneindia News

"I asked the chief minister to order a CBI probe. He assured me that the Mumbai Police is probing the case with all seriousness and he will order a CBI probe if it is felt that this is required," Paswan said.

The 34-year-old actor was found hanging at his apartment in Mumbai on June 14.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jul. 28

By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:

The value of trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Ukraine amounted to $312.3 million over first five months of 2020, compared to $565.8 million during the same period of 2019, Trend reports with reference to Kazakhstans Statistics Committee.

The share of Ukraine in total value of Kazakhstans trade turnover was 0.9 percent during the reporting period of 2020 which is compared to 1.5 percent during the same period of 2019.

Kazakhstans export to Ukraine amounted to $168.5 million over the period from January through May 2020 compared to $424.7 million during the same period of 2019.

Ukraines share in total volume of Kazakhstans export amounted to 0.8 percent during the reporting period of 2020 compared to 1.8 percent during the same period of 2019.

In turn, Kazakhstans import from Ukraine amounted to $143.7 million over the reporting period compared to $141.07 million during the same period of 2019.

Ukraines total share in Kazakhstans import was 1.1 percent during the reporting period of 2020 which is flat year-on-year compared to 1 percent during the same period of 2019.

The total volume of Kazakhstans trade turnover amounted to $34.9 billion over the period from Jan. through May 2020 which indicates a decrease from $37.5 billion during the same period of 2019.

Kazakhstans export amounted to $22.3 billion during the reporting period of 2020 ($23.6 billion in the same period of 2019), whereas import amounted to $12.6 billion ($13.9 billion).

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Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh
The former Fox Studio City Theatre, now a bookstore, is found along one of the routes in "10,000 Steps a Day in L.A." (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

The COVID-19 pandemic has made urban walkers of us all. With gyms, yoga studios and many pools closed temporarily, people have found solace in walking around L.A. It's an easy way to log a couple thousand steps and unwind from the work-at-home grind.

Paul Haddad hopes we all keep it up  and invites us to go farther.

The native Angeleno and documentary producer-director created 57 mostly flat walking routes that dive deep into the city, one neighborhood at a time, in the second edition of "10,000 Steps a Day in L.A." The guidebook couldn't be better timed. Routes offer close-to-home places to explore, mixing up gritty streets with leafy open spaces  ideal for something new to do during the pandemic pause.

Each walk includes a map, directions, bits of history and cool things to see along the way. Even if you think you know the city, Haddad surprises you with twists that sharpen the eye-level focus that walking provides.

That's what happened when he recently took me on a ramble in the western part of Elysian Park (Walk 7) to landmarks new to me. The first stop was the Elysian Park Arboretum, a tree-proud space planted in the late 19th century with 140 species, now a scraggly hillside.

A dusty half-hour later, with city views to the east, we arrived at the Victory Memorial Grove, a century-old World War I stone monument and plaque. And the grove of trees meant to stand forever? It's "mostly reduced to a small army of steadfast eucalyptus," Haddad writes in the book.

We finished at the Barlow Respiratory Hospital, winding through a warren of old buildings and passing a stone sundial dated 1902. Haddad later reminded me that the site, still a respiratory hospital, treated influenza patients in the last pandemic.

"Its important to have a treasure hunt aspect to the walks," he said as we parted. He's right. Books such as his, as well as Charles Fleming's "Secret Stairs," are written by people passionate about seeing the city on foot and sharing their remarkable finds. The real treasure is making us all more well-rounded Angelenos, pandemic or not.





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Sample walks

"10,000 Steps" divides the city into six areas: Central L.A. and the Eastside; Hollywood and Mid-City; West San Gabriel Valley; San Fernando Valley; the Westside; and the South Bay. If you're a serious daily stepper, these will cover your first 10,000. Routes are good for beginners and families with kids as well as anyone tired of walking in the same ol' neighborhood. (Remember, social distancing and wearing masks applies outdoors.)

Haddad describes some of his favorite routes below; details are in the book. You can buy the book ($16.95 to $19.95 on Amazon) at paulhaddadbooks.com or at your favorite bricks-and-mortar bookstore, such as Vroman's bookstores in Pasadena.

Studio City: Walk 35

The Rattlesnake Wall along the Los Angeles River Greenway. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

"This is a perfect sampler for the San Fernando Valley. It's representative of many of the walks: Take a place many people are familiar with, then peel back the layers to reveal obscure features that can only be discovered on foot. Plus, it has that formula of combining nature (in this case, the L.A. River) with residential and business districts, to really capture the flavor of a place."

The walk starts at Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Moorpark Street and takes you to L.A. River Greenway, where you'll see the Great Toad Gate and a Rattlesnake Wall, the vintage Fox Studio City Theatre and a history of L.A. mural by Millard Sheets.

Boyle Heights/Lincoln Heights: Walk 4

A walking route in Boyle Heights begins at Mariachi Plaza. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

"Statues have been in the news a lot. Lincoln Park has more outdoor statues than any other region, and they reflect its Mexican heritage." The walk starts at Mariachi Plaza at Boyle Avenue and 1st Street and winds past storefronts and rail yards to El Parque de Mexico and Eastlake Park, the site of the city's first zoo.

Hancock Park: Walk 22

This walk is called the Platinum Square for its "generous lawns, concealed creeks and a little bit of magic." It starts at Larchmont Village and takes you past the Getty House, the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, and homes where Nat King Cole and Howard Hughes once lived. "Its nice and flat, quiet, good sidewalks, and there's something relaxing about strolling by its architecturally diverse manors with broad, well-manicured lawns."

La Canada-Flintridge: Walk 26

"Much of it is alongside a stream, and the shade from the trees makes for a good summer stroll." The walk starts on Chevy Chase Drive and takes you into Hahamongna Watershed Park, under the 210 Freeway and on to Memorial Park.

Marina del Rey: Walk 45

Marina del Rey can be confusing for walkers. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

"This route provides a road map on how to tackle Marina del Rey, which is confusing to navigate for most people. I also like the soothing aspect of walking by the boat slips, looking out onto the water." The route is straightforward, passing by Mother's Beach, Burton Chace Park and "The Helmsman" sculpture, which once stood at Helms Bakery and Fisherman's Village.

El Segundo: Walk 53

The book offers a route that touches on popular landmarks in El Segundo. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

"It is a great sampler, a cross-section of everything ... residential areas, the quaint business district, parks, beach and nature, and some good history." The walk starts in Library Park and continues past El Segundo High School, the LAX plane-spotter park, Old Town Music Hall and a refinery or two.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Three more Rafale jets to land in India from France in non-stop flight

6 Rafale fighters to be flagged off by IAF chief from France

IAF Chief Bhadauria to receive 5 Rafale jets at Ambala airbase on Wednesday

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, July 28: Chief of Air Staff RKS Bhadauria will receive the five Rafale fighter jets at Ambala on Wednesday afternoon when the fleet arrives at the strategically key airbase, officials said.

Rafale jets delivered to India| 5 facts about the Rafale jets | Oneindia News

The Rafale jets are India''s first major acquisition of fighter planes in over two decades, and they are expected to significantly boost the Indian Air Force''s combat capabilities.

Specifications and performance data of Rafale fighter jets

India had inked a Rs 59,000-crore deal on September 23, 2016 to procure 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation.

Six Rafale trainer aircraft will carry RB series tail numbers which stand for Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria, who played a key role as lead negotiator for the mega deal.

The first batch of five jets took off from the Merignac airbase in French port city of Bordeaux on Monday, and will be arriving in Ambala on Wednesday afternoon after covering a distance of nearly 7,000 km.

The fleet, comprising three single seater and two twin seater aircraft, will be inducted into the IAF as part of its No 17 Squadron, also known as the ''Golden Arrows'' on Wednesday afternoon, they said.

However, a formal induction ceremony will be held around mid-August which is expected to be attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and top military brass of the country.

The fleet landed at Al Dhafra airbase in the UAE after flying for over seven hours. It was the only stopover by the jets while flying from France to India.

The jets were also refulled mid-air from a French tanker at a height of 30,000 feet, according to the Indian Embassy in France.

The first Rafale jet was handed over to the IAF in October last year during a visit to France by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

While the first squadron of the Rafale jets will be stationed at Ambala airbase, the second one will based at Hasimara base in West Bengal.

The Ambala base is considered one of the most strategically located bases of the IAF as the Indo-Pak border is around 220 km from it.

Currently, the base has two squadrons of the Jaguar combat aircraft and one squadron of the MiG-21 Bison.

Marshal of the IAF Arjan Singh was the first commander of the Ambala base in independent India.

The IAF spent around Rs 400 crore to develop required infrastructure like shelters, hangars and maintenance facilities at the two bases

Out of 36 Rafale jets, 30 will be fighter jets and six will be trainers. The trainer jets will be twin-seater and they will have almost all the features of the fighter jets.
MIAMI  Vice President Mike Pence visited Florida on Monday to tout the University of Miamis role in coronavirus vaccine testing, even as professors there have expressed concerns about being forced to return to classes in person amid surging numbers of cases in the state.

Pence participated in a roundtable and press briefing to discuss the beginning of the first phase III trials for a U.S. coronavirus vaccine developed by Massachusetts-based biotechnology company Moderna. The trial will consist of 89 sites, including the University of Miami, with more than 30,000 participants.

The roundtable, held at the universitys Miller School of Medicine, featured Pence, FDA Commissioner Steven Hahn and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who used his time to tout the effectiveness of the states response to the rise in COVID-19 cases, even though he has been widely blamed for that surge by moving forward too quickly with reopening the state.

Vice President Mike Pence, with Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, left, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (Wilfredo Lee/AP)

Yet even with cases in the state still at record highs, the debate in Florida over when and how to reopen is still playing out, including at the University of Miami. The university is at the center of a public dispute between its administration, that is arguing for in-person teaching, and faculty and staff who say they are being forced to return to the classroom without regard to risk.

Yolanda Martinez-San Miguel, chair of the modern languages and literature department at the university, told Yahoo News that the universitys involvement in the Moderna trials is indeed an important development, but emphasized that it is important to keep in the news the fact that the UM administration is planning to open the campus for face-to-face teaching in less than a month, and has decided to do so without taking the faculty into consideration.

During their appearance on Monday, Pence and DeSantis didnt address the issues at the university, but were asked about students returning to public schools in the fall. Both men emphasized their belief that the risk of coronavirus to young children is low, and Pence claimed that the cost to students education from remote classes is too steep to ignore.

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One thing we know for sure is that the risk of the coronavirus to healthy kids is very low, Pence said. The other we know for sure is there are real costs to children for not being in the classroom.

Mike Pence, right, with Ron DeSantis. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

At the university, however, the question is not over children, but young adults, among whom cases are spiking and are regarded as major spreaders. Despite these trends, the University of Miami is moving forward with plans to require faculty to teach in-person.

There is no shared process of consultation and decision making, and the administration has characterized the concerns of the faculty as putting individual concerns ahead of the collective good, Martinez-San Miguel said. The end result of these meetings is that the administration explains why UM is opening in the fall to teach face-to-face, and the fears and concerns of the faculty are dismissed because supposedly they are not based on data and evidence.

Martinez-San Miguel noted the fact that K-12 schools may not open in Miami-Dade County due to the recent rise in cases, and warned that the university has no clear plan [for] employees who are parents and need to take care of the children who would be home.

While promoting the universitys work in vaccine development is commendable, she said, the concerns of faculty and staff about their safety shouldnt be ignored.

It would be a great irony, Martinez-San Miguel claims, that the same university that gets this visibility with its participation in trials for a vaccine that could offer immunity against COVID would end up becoming one of the campuses with an outbreak this fall.

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Read more from Yahoo News:
First grade teacher Yolanda Vasquez stands in protest along with other teachers and counselors in front of the Hillsborough County Schools District Office on July 16, 2020 in Tampa, Florida.

Octavio Jones/Getty Images

Representatives for teacher unions in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas told Insider they're concerned that schools could be opening too quickly.

In Arkansas, for example, 90% of educators said they were concerned about student health, and 98% concerned about social distancing in school buildings.

Union leaders told Insider that they're calling for a delayed start for in-person classes.

They also want federal and state governments to issue guidelines and offer funding that could help protect students and staff from COVID-19.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Schools across the United States are gearing for classes to start back up again this fall, but teacher unions are hotly debating the wisdom behind holding in-person lessons.

In many states, the decision behind reopening public schools has largely been left up to individual school districts. President Donald Trump has urged schools to reopen in the fall, and even threatened to withhold federal funding if they don't.

But the reactions from states have been mixed.

As of last week, Texas decided to allow virtual classrooms to continue across the state. Georgia and Kansas's boards of education aren't delaying school openings, and are letting districts to figure out how to keep students and teachers safe.

Still, teacher unions are concerned with what could happen if students and staff returned to physical classrooms  and they want state and local governments to help prepare. In an ideal world, teachers would have access to PPE, space in their classrooms to social distance, and funds that could help alleviate issues with online learning if it's needed. But current plans are falling short.

Clay Robison, the spokesman for Texas State Teachers Association, and Doug Folks, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Education Association, told Insider that they would not hold statewide teacher strikes if schools do reopen. They said strikes are illegal in their states and are often left up to districts themselves, where teachers can better assess their risks and work with local governments to gauge their overall protections.

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Still, there have been protests in multiple states, including Iowa, Arizona, Alabama, Florida, and Illinois in which teachers called for in-person school to be delayed. Teachers told New York Magazine earlier this month that they would consider striking in some states.

Robison said the idea of going back to school building "frightens" teachers, especially those with underlying health conditions. The state is dealing with one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the country.

"One reason Texas is a hotspot now is because Gov. [Greg] Abbott reopened restaurants, hair salons, gyms, and other businesses too early in the spring," Robinson told Insider. "We cannot afford for that to happen in our schools."

Teachers are trying to figure out how to keep everyone safe

It remains unclear how opening schools  with social distancing measures put in place  could impact communities.

Some studies have found that children are at lower risk than adults of contracting the virus, as well as less likely to transmit it to others, while other studies show that children spread the virus more often than adults within households. Research on the subject is still ongoing.

According to Science Magazine, more than 20 countries around the world have reopened schools in recent weeks, including Finland, South Africa, and Israel. Most of the programs are keeping children in small groups, requiring masks, and urging social distancing.

Florida teachers, whose unions are against their members returning to school, hold a car parade protest in front of the Pasco County School district office in Land O' Lakes, Florida, U.S. July 21, 2020.

REUTERS/Octavio Jones

But spokespeople for several teacher unions in the US told Insider that they're concerned they won't have space to socially distance and worry there won't be easy access to PPE for students and staff.

The Arkansas Education Association (AEA) recently conducted a survey that found 90% of respondents  which represented all state counties  were concerned about student health, and 98% were concerned about social distancing in school buildings.

More than 40% of teachers said they were retiring early or changing professions because of the coronavirus pandemic. Some teachers are even preparing wills.

Ben Linas, an infectious disease doctor at Boston University School of Medicine, told Insider that it's "theoretically possible" for schools to be open in some places in the US, but schools in COVID-19 hotspots should be careful.

"It goes without saying that all teachers those have the PPE they need at all times at every school in America," he said. "The same way that we would flip out if our hospitals ran out of PPE and we were asking healthcare workers to go in and take care of patients."

Florida's teacher union filed a lawsuit over the state's decision to reopen in-person classrooms on August 31

Some unions have taken legal action over school reopening plans. On Monday, the Florida Education Association filed a lawsuit to push against the state's plans to start in-person classes at the end of August. The association's president told NBC's "Today" show that he's concerned classrooms could become a "Petri dish" for America.

"We need a survival kit. We need our state government to lead in our issues," he said.

AEA Executive Director Tracey-Ann Nelson said in a statement on July 10 that delaying in-person classes is a "step in the right direction."

The AEA said it has formed a "Return to Learn" committee, in which educators across Arkansas have gathered to discuss what guidelines need to be in place and what expectations need to be met before students can return to class.

Florida teachers, whose unions are against their members returning to school, hold a car parade protest in front of the Pasco County School district office in Land O' Lakes, Florida, U.S. July 21, 2020.

REUTERS/Octavio Jones

She's now calling on state officials to provide funding to districts so they can ensure cleaning standards will be up to par and PPE will be available to staff and students when school does start in-person.

"While some decisions may be more appropriately made at a local level, this virus does not know school district boundaries," she said. "There must be a detailed statewide plan that anticipates a number of scenarios to ensure student and school employee health and safety."

Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and medicine and the director of ICAP at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, said schools should be screening for illnesses among students and staff, lower classroom densities, space out desks, and require face masks if they want to accurately adhere to public health measures.

But before that, she told Insider, they must evaluate the status of COVID-19 in their community and determine whether or not it would be a risk to reopen schools.

"The risk is dependent on transmission risk in the community and transmission risk in the school," El-Sadr said. "Schools have to take into account the situation in their communities as they decide what to do."

Teacher unions say they need more direction from state and local governments

On Thursday, Trump requested $70 billion in education funding as part of the next coronavirus relief bill, in hopes of assisting the reopening of in-person classes, according to a press release seen by Insider.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, too, recently urged schools to re-open, citing a "spectrum of benefits and risks of both in-person and virtual learning options."

But teacher unions say there needs to be more direction.

Business education teacher Malikah Armbrister stands in protest along with her colleagues in front of the Hillsborough County Schools District Office on July 16, 2020 in Tampa, Florida.

Octavio Jones/Getty Images

Alicia Priest, a middle school teacher in Yukon, Oklahoma, who's also the president of the Oklahoma Education Association, said members of her teacher's union feel "extremely fearful" about returning to in-person classes in August.

"Most of our schools don't have the resources to open safely, so until we see that our schools have all the Personal Protective Equipment, cleaning supplies they need, we have no business thinking about in-person schools," she told Insider. "Those supplies should not be purchased by educators, but supplied through a guaranteed and reliable, state-funded supply chain, and protocols put in place to keep our students and staff safe."

Priest told Insider that distance-learning is likely the best option for many school districts in Oklahoma, and teachers have been preparing to do so by learning new technology and taking trainings on new education methods.

Teacher Andrew Van Herik protests outside Chicago Public Schools headquarters on Wednesday, July 22, 2020.

Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

But if schools do open, Priest has called on the state to develop state-wide policies for all schools when it comes to COVID-19 protocols.

"We need to be ready for an up-and-down year," she told Insider. "We truly hope we don't see schools bouncing back and forth between in-person to distance learning. And we expect schools to follow safety and health protocols like wearing masks, having plenty of cleaning and sanitizing equipment. It will be key in mitigating the back and forth for students and staff members to stay home if they have been exposed or if they feeling a little under the weather."

Linas told Insider that school districts, state governments, and the federal government need to work together to fund classrooms and create equity among all schools.

"I feel like when people say, 'Well it's up to the districts, or 'It's up to the states,' it's very often basically a euphemism for 'We don't want to find resources and we don't want to provide a plan,'" he said.

Read the original article on Insider
A witch and self-proclaimed exorcist has been caught out after an Instagram post of her wearing a PPE mask and urging people to be safe surfaced online.

Elizabeth 'Lizzy' Rose' was being interviewed on the Today show on Tuesday about her controversial push to stop people wearing government-mandated masks in Melbourne after a surge in coronavirus cases.

Australian co-hosts, Allison Langdon and Karl Stefanovic asked if she thought wearing a mask was a breach of her human rights, and she replied 'I do'.

In her Instagram post from April, Ms Rose told people not to listen to the government while wearing a mask wasn't compulsory.

'I urge everyone, the minute you step outside please wear a mask and gloves and don't listen to the government.'

Elizabeth Rose (pictured) told the Today show that being forced to wear a mask was a breach of her human rights, despite urging people to wear them in April.

Elizabeth Rose (pictured) is now telling an army of conspiracy theorists who have held meetings in a gym in Melbourne, that wearing a mask is 'a breach of human rights'

In just a few months, the self-proclaimed witch has made an abrupt turn, telling people on social media they should refuse to wear a mask, despite the rise in Melbourne's coronavirus cases and the government's mandate to wear them.

After the interview, Ms Rose posted on her Facebook page that 'Karl couldn't handle the truth' during the explosive interview.

'So Karl clearly couldn't handle the truth and the law and in turn acted like a spoilt, childish brat and shut me down whilst interviewing me this morning, an Interview that HE requested not me.'

She went on to say that clearly her medical exemption (for not wearing a mask) 'from Karl's own words is also meaningless, just like the managers comments from Bunnings'.

Ms Rose has also drawn attention for encouraging a group of conspiracy theorists, who meet at a Melbourne gym, to spread the message about not wearing masks.

Ms Rose told the Today show that COVID-19 statistics aren't true and the 'level and effect' reported of COVID-19 was also false.

'This is my voice. It is about an agenda. It is not only about a virus. Despite the virus in my opinion, being very real. I have never said it was real. It was orchestrated.'

She defended her decision to wear a mask recently to 'get her eyelashes done' and for 'about four hours a few months ago'.

'The recent mask was a choice. It was a choice. This is my point. I did that to prove a point. It is about choice. If you want a mask that is up to you.'

Elizabeth Rose (pictured) said she only wore a mask to 'get her eyelashes done' and 'for about four hours' a few months ago

'That's not a Mask This is a Mask' reads a post from Lizzy Rose (pictured) on her Facebook page

Dubbed a 'Bunnings Karen', Ms Rose has previously shared footage of herself abusing staff members at the hardware store who told her to wear a mask due to government guidelines.

Today she explained her argument by saying Florida released information that 90 per cent of cases were misdiagnosed and reduced their total down to 11,000 cases.

'That is just one example. You had somebody on 'A Current Affair' last night saying that they had a positive, then negative and then positive, then negative and then positive test.'

Ms Rose also said she believes the virus is 'being bio chemically engineered intentionally'.

Before the explosive interview was cut short, Ms Rose claimed she used to be a medic but clarified she wasn't a doctor or a medic.

Ordained pagan minister Elizabeth Rose (left) has been getting about Melbourne without a mask and proudly filming herself as she breaks the law

The group of troublemakers linked to Ms Rose are all believed to be members of 'The Illuminating Army' - a group of like-minded conspiracy theorists who believe COVID-19 is a scam and 5G networks are the work of the devil.

Ms Rose, who has been contacted by Daily Mail Australia, claims to be the leader of the army.
The General Assembly of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) on Tuesday inaugurated a seven-member Interim Management Committee (IMC), headed by Abdullahi Maje, to pilot the affairs of the association for the next six months.

The General Assembly, which is the highest decision organ of ALGON, had on May 30, during its extra-ordinary virtual meeting, resolved to set up the interim management committee.

It approved the constitution of the committee, because national leadership of the association had been in comatose and conflicts for the past eight months.

Other members of the IMC are: Ige Emmanuel- Deputy President from South West; Kingsley Innaji (South-East); Philip Okparaji (South-South); Jingi Rufai (North-East); Shehu Jaga (North-West) and Niyi Adeagbo as Public Relations Officer.

In his inaugural speech, Mr Maje, who is the Chairman, Suleja Local Government in Niger, said the committees mandate was to set up an ALGON Electoral Committee to conduct elections into the offices of president and National Executive Council.

He sought for the cooperation of the associations permanent members and stakeholders to support the committee to reposition the association.

I want to assure every member and stakeholders that we shall henceforth run ALGON in accordance with our Constitution and the Rules of Law, he said.

(NAN)
The beleaguered leader of the African Bank of Development (AfDB), Mr. Akinwumi Adesina, has been cleared of corruption allegations.

An independent panel of experts, headed by former Irish President Mary Robinson cleared Mr. Adesina of all the charges.

Mr. Adesina, 60, a charismatic speaker known for his elegant suits and bow ties, became the first Nigerian to helm the AfDB in 2015.

But a 15-page report earlier this year claimed that under his watch the bank had been tarred by poor governance, impunity, personal enrichment and favouritism.

The charges alleged by whistleblowers was led by panel of three experts, led by Robinson alongside Gambias Chief Justice Hassan Jallow and the World Banks integrity vice president Leonard McCarthy.

The Panel concurs with the Committee in its findings in respect of all the allegations against the President and finds that they were properly considered and dismissed by the Committee, Mondays report concluded.

BREAKINGTIMES reports that the African banking institution and Mr. Adesina, who is the sole candidate for the banks Augusts presidential elections, had been in the limelight since April over allegations of impropriety levelled against him by some whistleblowers.

Mr. Adesina had always stated he was innocent of the charges.

Robinson, who led Ireland from 1990 to 1997 before serving as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights until 2002, dismissed the 16 whistleblower allegations against him.
NSW Health is now urging anyone who visited The Apollo restaurant on Wednesday July 22 to self-isolate and get tested for COVID-19 immediately, regardless of symptoms.

The plea comes after three new cases on Tuesday were linked to the Greek eatery in Potts Point.

Two of the new cases visited the restaurant on Wednesday 22 July, then the Cruising Yacht Club Australia in Rushcutters Bay on subsequent nights.

The Apollo restaurant which has been closed due to a coronavirus outbreak in Potts Point. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

The yacht club has closed for deep cleaning. The two cases dined at both the Thai Rock Potts Point restaurant and The Apollo restaurant and NSW Health now believes this links the two outbreaks.

The third new case is a staff member at The Apollo.

The new advice comes in addition to yesterdays announcement that the restaurant had closed for two weeks, and that anyone anyone who visited between Thursday July 23 and Saturday July 25 to self-isolate until 14 days after their visit.

To combat the outbreaks, two new testing clinics are being set up by NSW Health. A pop-up at the main entrance of the Albion Centre in Surry Hills opened on Tuesday, and a clinic at Rushcutters Bay Park will open on Wednesday  neither requires bookings in advance.

"With the growing number of cases in the area, NSW Health is again asking all people who live in or have visited the Potts Point area in the past two weeks to get tested if they have any symptoms of COVID-19 at all, even the mildest of symptoms such as a runny nose or scratchy throat," a statement from NSW Health read.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28)  President Rodrigo Duterte's fifth State of the Nation Address got nearly top marks from his spokesperson.

When asked how he would rate Duterte's SONA, Roque said, "Sa akin po, nine out of ten ang grado ng Presidente."

[Translation: For me, the President gets nine out of ten marks.]

When asked to explain what he found lacking in the President's speech that prevented him from giving him the top score, Roque said, "Sa akin naman po...yung pagsulat ng speech, number one, mahaba... Pangalawa po...yung mga quotable quotes. Kung ako nagsulat niyan, mas marami akong ilalagay na quotable quotes sa simula at ending ng speech."

[Translation: For me, the speech was too long..Second, the quotable quotes. If I had written it, I would have put more quotable quotes at the beginning and end of the speech.]

Roque said he had worked as a speechwriter when he was still a student.

Meanwhile, in an interview with CNN Philippines on Tuesday, University of the Philippines professor and political analyst Ranjit Singh Rye rated Dutertes SONA from "five to seven points."

"Yung tema ng kaligtasan, kalusugan, kabuhayan at kaunlaran very resonant sa speech, bagama't yung messaging medyo nawala dahil yung style ng President very controversial and colorful," he said.

[Translation: The themes of safety, health, livelihood and progress were very resonant in the speech, although the messaging got a little lost because the President's style is very controversial and colorful.]

Rye said he found the speech lacking when it came to plans on COVID-19, as well as livelihood for people who were severely affected by the crisis.

He did, however, say there were more detailed discussions in the three pre-SONA forums held weeks before.

"By and large, the SONA can always be better as far as I'm concerned. For this round, I think the message, significant aspects of his message were delivered naman," he said.

In his remaining years in office, Rye said President Duterte should focus on his legacy.
The UN mission in Afghanistan has documented attacks by Islamic militants on the Sikh community and other religious minorities in the country and said there were over 3,400 civilian casualties in the war-torn nation in the first half of 2020.

The Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict mid-year report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said the first half of 2020 witnessed fluctuating levels of violence impacting civilians in Afghanistan, with the United Nations documenting 3,458 civilian casualties -- 1,282 killed and 2,176 injured.

"UNAMA also continued to document attacks from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan Province (ISIL-KP) on religious minorities in Afghanistan, including the Sikh community and the Shi'a Muslim population, most of whom also belong to the Hazara ethnic group," the report said.

The report noted that while the civilian casualty figures of 3,458 represent a 13 per cent decrease as compared to the first six months of 2019, Afghanistan "remains one of the deadliest conflicts in the world for civilians".

In March, heavily armed gunmen and suicide bombers attacked a Sikh gurdwara in the Shor Bazar area in the heart of Afghanistan's capital Kabul, killing at least 25 worshippers and wounding 8 others, in one of the deadliest attacks on the minority community in the country. Authorities said 80 people, including women and children, were rescued from the gurdwara.

ISIL-K chief Aslam Farooqi, a Pakistani national, was the mastermind behind the deadly attack on the prominent gurudwara. In April and May, Afghan special forces conducted a series of countrywide operations that led to the arrest of leaders of the terror group, including Farooqi and his predecessor Zia ul-Haq and other senior members.

The report said there has been no reduction in civilian casualties caused by the Taliban and Afghan national security forces and the main reason for the lower number of civilian casualties is due to a reduction in operations by international military forces and the ISIL-K Province.

"At a time when the Government of Afghanistan and the Taliban have a historic opportunity to come together at the negotiating table for peace talks, the tragic reality is that the fighting continues inflicting terrible harm to civilians every day," the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan and the head of UNAMA Deborah Lyons said.

Lyons urged the parties to pause, to reflect on the chilling incidents and the harm that they are causing to the Afghan people as documented in the report, and to take decisive action to stop the carnage and get to the negotiating table.

Anti-Government Elements (AGEs) continued to be responsible for the majority of civilian casualties, with UNAMA documenting a disturbing increase in civilian casualties attributed to the Taliban from pressure-plate improvised explosive devices, as well as from abductions that led to ill-treatment and summary executions.

A total of 58% civilian casualties were caused by AGE's, with the Taliban responsible for 1,473 (580 killed and 893 injured), representing 43% of the total civilian casualties in the January 1-June 30, 2020 period.

The report noted that civilian casualties attributed to Afghan national security forces increased by 9%, mainly due to airstrikes and the use of indirect fire during ground engagements. Civilian casualties from airstrikes by the Afghan Air Force during the first six months of 2020 have tripled as compared to the same time period in 2019.

Afghan national security forces were responsible for 23% of the total civilian casualties (789 people -- 281 killed and 508 injured) in the first half of the year. UNAMA did not document any civilian casualties attributed to international military forces from active hostilities during the second quarter of 2020.

It said ground engagements remained the leading cause of civilian casualties with two-thirds caused by the use of indirect fire, particularly in civilian-populated areas. The use of IEDs was the second leading cause of civilian casualties, followed by targeted killings.

Women and children continue to be disproportionately affected by the direct and indirect impacts of the armed conflict, comprising more than 40% of the total civilian casualties. During the first six months of the year, the armed conflict caused 397 women casualties (138 killed and 259 injured) and 1,067 child casualties (340 killed and 727 injured).

The report notes that children in Afghanistan are especially vulnerable to recruitment and use by parties to the conflict, including for combat functions, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report also underscores the lasting impact of the armed conflict on civilians. New monitoring by UNAMA shows that victims suffer incalculable harm weeks and months after an incident occurs, including physically, emotionally and psychologically, financially and otherwise, affecting their ability to enjoy a broad range of human rights.

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically reduced the ability of victims to recover, making it even more imperative for the parties to the conflict to reduce the violence now and acknowledge and address the needs and rights of the victims.

"The experiences, rights and needs of individuals and communities who have been affected by violence must be a central consideration in the upcoming peace talks," said Fiona Frazer, the Chief of Human Rights at UNAMA.
Public land advocates call for nomination hearings to highlight acting BLM directors agenda.

Montana Free Press

A day after Montana Gov. Steve Bullock sued to remove acting Bureau of Land Management Director William Perry Pendley from his post , public lands advocates and Montanas Democratic senator are calling for hearings on Pendleys nomination to lead a federal agency responsible for managing millions of acres of public lands, saying he is unfit for the position.

Democratic Montana U.S. Sen. Jon Tester on July 21 joined Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., a former Montana tribal leader and other public land advocates to call for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to quickly hold confirmation hearings for Pendley so he has to answer questions about what they say are beliefs hostile to public lands and in favor of selling western public lands owned by the federal government.

I think the key is to get his record out there so everybody can see it. Not everybody is that familiar with it, Tester said last Tuesday. His extremism is out of touch with the American people who value their public lands and want to see them preserved for our kids and our grandkids. He has no business running the Bureau of Land Management.

William Perry Pendley takes part in a electronic bike ride in Moab, Utah. Photo: Eric Coulter / Bureau of Land Management

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt named Pendley to the BLM post one year ago and has continued to reappoint him to serve in the acting role. President Donald Trump formally nominated Pendley for the job last month.

Bullock, in his lawsuit, said Monday he hopes to have Pendley barred from leading the bureau while his nomination is pending, claiming that federal law under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act prohibits acting directors from serving while their nomination is pending.

Im taking this action today not just to block William Perry Pendleys further illegitimate oversight of the Bureau, but also to ensure that this unconstitutional abuse of executive powers does not become commonplace under any administration in the future, Bullock said in a Monday news release. Americans and Montanans deserve a Bureau of Land Management director who values the publics role in managing our public lands. During Pendleys unlawful tenure, the BLM has interfered with Montanas collaborative efforts and public access priorities. This decision-making by unconfirmed federal officials stands to create long-lasting and irreversible injury to our states lands, economy, and wildlife.

Montanas Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, who is running against Bullock to keep his seat, sits on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which would review Pendleys nomination. Daines office didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

BLM spokesman Derrick Henry said Pendley looks forward to a Senate confirmation hearing, noting that the agency has acquired more than 25,000 acres and expanded recreational access on BLM land under Pendleys leadership. Pendley has vigorously championed BLMs diverse portfolio of land uses, whether recreational, commercial or conservation, Henry said.

Mr. Pendley brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Department and is committed to carrying out the Administrations priorities and achieving the BLMs multiple-use mission for the betterment of the American people, Henry said.

William Perry Pendley has mocked Native Americans & advocated selling our #publiclands to the highest bidder. His appointment as BLM Director is on point with Trump's pattern of hiring people whose careers have been spent undermining the the agencies they are hired to lead. https://t.co/irN9E1Tueq  Rep. Deb Haaland (@RepDebHaaland) June 26, 2020

Public lands account for about 30% of Montanas 94.1 million acre land base. The Bureau of Land Management manages more than 8 million of those acres, according to the Montana Wilderness Association . Montanas public lands help support more than 70,000 jobs and $7 billion in economic opportunity yearly in the state, Tester said.

Bullock, Tester and other public lands advocates said that Pendleys record is clear. Pendley as an attorney helped defend an energy developers attempt to drill for oil in the Badger-Two Medicine region, which the Blackfeet Tribe considers important. A federal court last month ruled against the developer. They also pointed to a 2016 article written by Pendley calling for the federal government to sell its public land in the West.

Bullock and those at last Tuesday's meeting also said the agency under Pendley has abandoned collaboration with western states. For example, they said, the agency quit a bipartisan agreement with western governors that prioritized oil and gas leasing outside of sage grouse habitat to protect the species. They also alleged that Pendley has encouraged armed insurgents during standoffs against BLM employees , like one in 2014 between federal officials and Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy.

William Perry Pendley has been serving as a deputy director of the Bureau of Land Management since June 2019. Since the director's post is vacant, he has effectively led the agency without being confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Photo: U.S. Department of the Interior

Official confirmation hearings, they said, would force Pendley to publicly answer tough questions about his agenda and stances on public lands.

The idea that Mr. Pendley was put in this position in the first place is really a slap in the face to all public landowners. The fox has really been given the keys to the henhouse, said Land Tawney, president and CEO of the Montana-based Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. And our membership has been calling for a formal nomination ever since he was put in this acting position. We dont think hell be able to pass the scrutiny of the Senate, and we look forward to that process.

Chris Aadland covers tribal affairs in Montana as a Report for America corps member based in Billings. Before moving to Montana he covered the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming for the Casper Star-Tribune, and has also reported for the Wisconsin State Journal. Contact Chris at caadland@montanafreepress.org and follow @cjaadland on Twitter

This story originally appeared on Montana Free Press on July 21, 2020. It is published under a Creative Commons license

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Linkedin Andrew Marszal (Agence France-Presse) Los Angeles, United States  Tue, July 28, 2020 14:00 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669e3f80 2 Art & Culture Donald-Trump,documentary,The-Fight,lawyer,rights-lawyers Free

Immigrant families separated, battles over abortion, voter suppression, and a transgender military ban: the Trump administration has been a frantically busy period for US rights lawyers, a new documentary shows.

To be released July 31 as Donald Trump gears up his bid for re-election, "The Fight" follows five lawyers behind-the-scenes as they contend with some of the US president's most controversial policies.

The feature-length movie shot over three years depicts a classic David-and-Goliath battle between the federal government and the frontline civil rights organization ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union.)

"We're like, two-and-a-half floors of a building in New York, right?" says ACLU voting rights director Dale Ho in the movie, referring to the headquarter offices where much of the footage is shot.

"Against the power of the federal government and this massive political movement, we're not going to solve it," said Ho.

But as the film itself shows, the ACLU is no minnow and has scored a number of significant victories -- including Ho's own success in the Supreme Court opposing a question about citizenship being added to this year's US census.

In a major blow to Trump, Ho argued that the question's presence was intended to suppress participation by immigrant communities.

The movie shows Ho's meticulous and nervous preparation in front of a hotel room mirror the night before court -- and his office's jubilant ovation after the ruling. But the lawyer is wary of dwelling on these wins.

"Most of what we've been doing over the last three years has been playing defense, right?" Ho told journalists at a virtual press conference this month.

"I'm trying to prevent, stop, mitigate these human rights and civil rights atrocities that have been committed by this administration and others."

Read also: Joaquin Phoenix documentary helps end Ukraine hostage standoff

'Still in the fight'

The movie is directed by Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman and Eli Despres, the filmmaking trio behind a 2016 Oscar-nominated fly-on-the-wall documentary about disgraced New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner.

Like "Weiner," "The Fight" drew positive reviews after premiering at the Sundance festival in January, and emphasizes its subjects' personal quirks -- hot-shot lawyers who struggle to charge a cellphone, and toast victory on the way home from court with a glass of "train wine."

While the ACLU has filed well over 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration, the film focuses on just four.

Other shocking cases include a 17-year-old immigrant at a US detention center prevented from aborting a baby conceived from rape, and the notorious separation of young children from their parents after crossing the southern border.

It also touches on some of the ACLU's own controversies -- not least its defense of white supremacists' right to protest in Charlottesville in 2017, which ended in a counter-protester's murder.

And not all of the ACLU battles in the movie end in success, underlining the ongoing fight.

For Lee Gelernt, the senior ACLU lawyer who won an initial block on Trump's "Muslim ban" seven days into office and later campaigned against child separation, the fight will go on beyond November's vote -- regardless of who wins.

"I think there's probably a misimpression that if Biden wins the election, so many of these issues are going to disappear," he said. "And it's just not true -- no Democratic president is going to do everything we believe should be done."

Still, the Trump administration is the film's clear nemesis, with Ho at one point admitting that "if I'm not going to be a civil rights lawyer now, in this moment, then when?"

"I wish that we weren't still in the fight -- I wish that all of our press about this film was postscript, about a time that once was," said producer Kerry Washington ("Scandal.")

"But we're still deeply, deeply in the battle that is being revealed and exposed in this film."
Australians have always had a cynical streak about their bosses and during the pandemic is no exception.

Depending on who you ask, middle managers are either functionally redundant while white-collar workers are at home or working harder than ever in a challenging and changing environment.

This years lockdowns and related debates about what makes an "essential worker" essential have exposed the fact that many of us  managers and underlings alike  are engaged in "bullshit jobs".

Essential workers have to carry a document to prove their status. Credit:Nick Moir

In his 2018 book Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, David Graeber, a professor at the London School of Economics, distinguishes between the jobs suggested in the title and "shit jobs". The former are often highly respected and pay well but are completely pointless and unnecessary, and the people doing them know this deep down. The latter are jobs that are not enjoyable or well paid but are necessary and useful.
(CNN)  Amazon has started offering free grocery deliveries to Prime members in London and the surrounding area as it seeks to cash in on Britain's coronavirus-induced online shopping boom and take on stores such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and Ocado.

Amazon Fresh, the company's grocery delivery service, will offer same-day delivery in most areas on orders over 40 ($51.51) placed before 9 p.m. The minimum order value has also been lowered to 15 ($19.32).

Prime members in Greater London and parts of the southeast of England can get free delivery in two-hour windows on all orders over 40 ($51.51), or pay 3.99 ($5) for delivery in a one-hour slot.

The launch follows a move in October to eliminate fees on grocery deliveries for Prime members in the United States. Membership costs 79 ($101.7) a year or 7.99 ($102.9) a month in Britain. Amazon plans to expand the grocery delivery service across the United Kingdom by the end of 2020.

Online grocery sales have soared in the United Kingdom since coronavirus lockdowns were introduced in March, as people stayed home and sought to avoid crowds. And shoppers that have made the leap do not appear to be reverting to their old ways.

Average weekly online spending on groceries reached 390 million ($502.3 million) in June, more than double the amount recorded in January, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Supermarket chains such as Tesco and Sainsbury's have added hundreds of thousands of weekly delivery slots to cope with the surge in demand and are enhancing their online offerings, suggesting that Amazon Fresh will face fierce competition.

Sainsbury's is trialing a virtual queuing app and has expanded its one-hour grocery delivery service Chop Chop to 15 cities. The company said online sales grew by 87% year-on-year for the four months to June.

Tesco reported an almost 50% jump in UK online sales for the 13 weeks to May 30 compared with the same period last year. It invested 4 million ($5 million) into its online channel during the quarter.

UK online retailer Ocado, which at the height of panic buying placed shoppers in virtual queues with wait times of more than two hours in some cases, reported a 27% increase in sales in the first half of its fiscal year due to "unprecedented demand."

Amazon said Prime customers can buy "seafood, produce, snacks and household essentials  everything needed for a weekly shop" from brands such as Pepsi, Danone and Warburtons, which makes bread and bagels.

Products from upmarket grocers Booths and Whole Foods Market will also be available, as will premium goods from GAIL's Artisan Bakery, butcher C.Lidgate and cheesemakers Paxton & Whitfield. Amazon bought Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Amazon takes on the UK's biggest supermarkets with free food delivery."
The central government on Tuesday submitted before the Supreme Court that it will verify the media reports of Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu suggesting the restoration of internet in the Union Territory.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, senior lawyer for the central government, told a bench headed by Justice NV Ramana, that it will verify the reported statements of LG Murmu.

Mehta said that he has received a rejoinder by the petitioner, Foundation for Media Professionals, (FMP), on a counter-affidavit filed by the Centre.

Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for the petitioner, said that they had received the Counter very recently and pointed out that the Lt Governor has reportedly said that internet should be restored in

ALSO READ: Jammu and Kashmir LG Murmu dedicates 49 electricity projects to public

Huzefa said that BJP leader Ram Madhav has also argued for the restoration of internet. "I am only requesting the SG to look into this," Huzefa said, to which Attorney General KK Venugopal said that he will have to verify this as well.

The administration submitted that it will examine and file a rejoinder, following which the apex court listed the matter for further hearing on August 7.

The central government, in its counter-affidavit, said that 4G internet curbs have been reviewed by the special committee.

The top court was hearing the FMP's contempt petition which claimed that those government officials responsible for this non-constitution of this high-powered committee directed by the apex court should be prosecuted for contempt of court.
Litter and parking woes also are evidence of the large crowds, but Labovitz said a meeting in June was scheduled with state, county and other law enforcement officials, as well as representatives from the parks, to come up with a plan for tackling the challenges brought by heavy crowds day in and day out.
The firm, a subsidiary of German holding company PCC SE, had already shut one of its two furnaces in April. Each furnace has capacity for 16,000 tonnes per year of silicon metal, with the plant making both 4-4-1 and 5-53 grade silicon metal.Global production of silicon metal was estimated at around 3.1 million tonnes in 2019, according to data from the US Geological Survey.PCC SE owns an 86.5% share in PCC BakkiSilicon, while domestic pension funds and national banker Islandsbanki own the remaining 13.5% through investment company Bakkastakk.The plant will cease all silicon production this week for an indefinite period, chief executive officer Runar Sigurpalsson told Fastmarkets.The reason for the shutdown is weak market prices in both Europe and the United States, which will have to increase considerably before our production is restarted, he said.He declined to specify the level to which silicon market prices would have to rise before PCC BakkiSilicon would decide to restart production.Around 80% of PCC BakkiSilicons metal output was sold in Europe, with delivery contracts to customers in Germany, while the rest was sold into North America via a deal with CCMA, a US metal and alloy raw materials trader.European spot prices for silicon metal assessed by Fastmarkets have been dropping steadily since March, with European countries imposing lockdowns to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.Heavy industry was consequently affected because end-user demand in sectors such as aerospace, automotive manufacture and construction slumped when economic activity fell, taking metals consumption down with it.Fastmarkets assessment of the spot-market price for silicon grade 5-5-3, 98.5% Si min, in-whs Rotterdam , was 1,520-1,600 ($1,783-1,876) per tonne on July 24, down by 17% from a year-to-date high of 1,870-1,920 per tonne on February 28.The corresponding assessment of the spot price for silicon grade 4-4-1, 99% Si min, in-whs Rotterdam , was 1,550-1,650 per tonne on Friday, down by 18% from a year-to-date high of 1,925-1,980 per tonne on March 6.According to market sources, PCC BakkiSilicons decision was symptomatic of the deteriorating conditions which were forcing producers to leave the market, putting into question the profitability of the metal at current levels.[The production cut from BakkiSilicon] could be well be significant, a European trader said. A few producers are feeling the pain at these prices, and I think we will see supply cuts forcing a bit more tightness.The global direction of the silicon metal market will be also determined by the results of a new anti-dumping case brought by the two dominant silicon metal producers in the United States, against silicon producers in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Iceland, Malaysia and Kazakhstan.The US market has also been in decline. The price assessment for silicon, ddp US , was $0.91-0.96 per lb on July 23, down from a year-to-date high of $0.93-0.98 per lb in May. The market has been falling steadily from a multi-year high of $1.43-1.45 per lb reached in May 2018.The US anti-dumping case is something we are paying close attention to, because it will affect a significant part of our sales in the event of any restart to production, Sigurpalsson said.Market participants were awaiting the final decision in this case before taking big positions.[Any market trend] will depend on geography, especially with the dumping case in the US, the European trader said. If the US producers are successful, there could be a surplus of material looking for a home in Europe.PCC BakkiSilicon has also been struggling with high energy prices in the North Atlantic island nation, something that is threatening the viability of Rio Tinto Iceland , which Sigurpalsson reckons consumes 15-16% of the islands energy each year.The countrys minister of finance and economic affairs, Bjarni Benediktsson, said on Friday that the decision to idle PCC BakkiSilicon was a major blow to the national economy, adding that the position of companies in energy-intensive industries in Iceland was a general worry at present.Silicon production is energy-intensive, and energy costs typically rise in line with consumption in winter.Silicon has a high resistance to heat, and about 40% of silicon metal produced is used as a strengthener and alloying agent in the production of aluminium. The metal is also used as a semi-conductor in electronic equipment and in the chemicals sector.The German parent company had recently provided PCC BakkiSilicon with around $40 million in the form of a shareholder loan to increase cash liquidity at the plant and secure its operating basis.Construction of PCC BakkiSilicon started in 2015, with a planned total investment of around 265 million ($311 million). This was mostly funded by a loan from KfW IPEX-Bank, while around one-quarter of the capital requirement was provided by Icelandic pension funds and Islandsbanki, according to the PCC SE website.The Icelandic government also supported the silicon metal project, providing financial assistance as well as long-term tax concessions.In 2013, the Icelandic parliament passed several laws to allow the development of the Bakki industrial park in which the plant was built. Power contracts were also in place for all the plants production requirements.
TORONTO - WE Charity says it has mutually agreed to suspend its partnerships after a flood of companies announced they were dropping their support for the embattled organization whose founders faced parliamentary hearings on Tuesday.

We regret that the disruptive political conversations and inquiry have impacted our stakeholders, WE Charity said in a statement Tuesday that did not specify which partnerships were being suspended.

We do not want any of the individuals or organizations who participate in or support our programs to be adversely impacted by the challenges our organization is dealing with.

WEs remarks came after several companies, including Royal Bank of Canada, Loblaw Companies Ltd., GoodLife Fitness and KPMG said Tuesday they are ending their partnerships with the charity. WestJet and DHL said they are still deciding what to do about WE.

Companies are backing away from WE amid an ongoing controversy over a federal government deal to run a $900-million student volunteer program meant to help youths during the COVID-19 pandemic.

WE  a Toronto-based charity formed by brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger in 1995 was awarded the contract, before stepping away from administering the program.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose mother and brother received money for speaking at WE events, and Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who has travelled on WEs dime and has a daughter who works for the organization, face ethics probes after failing to recuse themselves from discussions about the contract.

Morneau has since paid back the more than $41,000 his WE travels cost, while Trudeau has apologized.

Meanwhile, WE has laid off 450 contract workers and said it is eyeing a restructuring. The Kielburger brothers are testifying Tuesday at a House of Commons committee looking into the student volunteer programs agreement with the government.

WEs statement Tuesday also noted that the organization had also provided notice to all our school board partners that we are suspending formal agreements at this time.

The charity previously worked with schools to bring students to We Days, a series of star-studded, stadium events held across Canada to drum up awareness around the charity.

RBC chief executive Dave McKay served as co-chairman of last years We Day, but his company has since decided to end its ties to WE.

After reviewing our partnership, RBC and WE Charity have reached a mutual agreement to end all sponsorship and donation programming, said spokeswoman Gillian McArdle in an email to The Canadian Press, days after WE sponsor Virgin Atlantic Airways dropped the organization.

WEs Global Learning Centre was brought to life with fundraising from a group of well-known philanthropists, including RBC executive Jennifer Tory, who mentions the charity in her online bank bio.

Loblaw also decided to end its relationship with WE after previously involvement with WE Day and school activities focused on the subject of childhood nutrition.

We have no plans for future activities at this time, spokesperson Catherine Thomas said in an email.

GoodLife Fitness, a chain of exercise facilities, also edged away from WE, whose staff it had given free gym memberships and Ford Canada said it was pausing all sponsored activations with WE Charity.

KPMG, which provided the charity with pro bono business advisory and financial strategy services, also confirmed on Tuesday that it decided to suspend its relationship with WE.

WestJet, which has provided free flights for kids in remote areas and staff to get to WE Day events since 2014, was taking a different approach.

With WE Days suspended for 2020, we will work towards understanding the situation in greater detail before making any determinations, WestJet spokeswoman Morgan Bell said in an email to The Canadian Press.

Delivery company DHLs involvement with WE is also still up in the air.

In Canada, our contract with WE ended in March and we did not immediately renew due to COVID19-related impacts on the partnership. We have not yet made a decision on any future partnerships, a company spokesperson said in an email.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:RY, TSX:WJA, TSX:L)
By Akbar Mammadov

Armenia attempts to strengthen the status-quo based on the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva said on July 28.

The policy and contradictory statements of the Armenian leadership aimed at deliberately violating the format and essence of the negotiation process clearly show that the country is trying to strengthen the status quo based on occupation, Abdullayeva said.

She described as unacceptable the attempts of the aggressor Armenia to impose any conditions on the talks and to change the format of the negotiations.

We reiterate that the current status quo in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is unacceptable, as it poses a serious threat to regional peace and security, Abdullayeva said.

The spokesperson emphasized that in order to change the status quo, Armenian troops must be withdrawn from all occupied territories of Azerbaijan in accordance with the requirements of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

With its aggressive and annexation policy and military provocations, targeting civilians, as well as violating the international humanitarian law and ceasefire in various directions of the frontline on a daily basis, being directly responsibly for escalation of tensions in the region, Armenia has no right to speak about the observance of the ceasefire or refraining from provocative actions, Abdullayeva noted.

Speaking about the military provocation committed by the Armenian armed forces in the direction of the Tovuz district of Azerbaijan on July 12, the spokesperson underlined that it was another pre-planned act of aggression.

The entire responsibility for the attempt to use this force lies with the political and military leadership of Armenia, she said.

The cross-border fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan started on July 12 with Armenia's firing artillery at Azerbaijan's positions in the direction of Tovuz region. Azerbaijani army lost 12 servicemen as a result of Armenian attacks. One civilian was killed as a result of artillery fire by the Armenian armed forces.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Groups efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

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Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Women and equalities committee chair Caroline Nokes has said Boris Johnson and his government don't take women seriously.

Female voices do not even enter Boris Johnsons consciousness, a leading Conservative backbench MP has said.

Caroline Nokes, chair of the House of Commons women and equalities committee, said the coronavirus pandemic has shown the prime minister does not take womens issues seriously.

He doesnt even think about it, she said.

In an interview with Yahoo News UK, Nokes accuses the Johnson government of:

failing to address key issues affecting women during the pandemic

designing its coronavirus recovery plan for men

being guilty of institutional thoughtlessness towards women

In May, Nokes quizzed Johnson about the lack of female voices in the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The PM laughed at the question.

Watch the clip below

Not that Nokes was particularly surprised by the reaction.

I think [his laughing was] a nervous reaction, she says. I think thats what he does when he feels uncomfortable. When he knows hes on the ropes, the PM laughs. Its a way to deflect it.

I think its fair to say that he doesnt take it seriously. He doesnt even think about it. It doesnt cross his consciousness.

This is one of the huge challenges when men go to school with other men. Hes had an all-male education, didnt encounter girls until he went to university.

This is a common problem that you find in Parliament. Because its so wildly outside their experience, they dont stop and think about it.

I think the PM laughs when he knows damn well hes on the ropes and hes trying to deflect attention from the fact he doesnt have a decent answer.

Nokes then points to chancellor Rishi Sunaks big omission of childcare in this months plan for jobs, the governments economic recovery strategy.

Prof Abi Adams-Prassl, an economist from the University of Oxford who has been researching inequality relating to the pandemic, has identified disrupted childcare as a key factor as to why it is affecting women more than men.

She said furloughed women with children questioned in her survey were significantly more apprehensive about going back to work.

Story continues

Nokes says: If you cannot access childcare, then it is incredibly hard for all parents to go back to work. There will be difficult choices made in families about who is the higher earner, and whether it will be the mother or father who goes back to work and who picks up the childcare responsibilities.

Read more: Three ways the coronavirus pandemic is affecting women more than men

You needed people around the cabinet table who would have the instinct to think: Hang on, how can women go back to work when their kids are not in school yet?

Secondary schools dont go back until September. You cannot leave an 11/12/13-year-old in the house alone all day while you go back to work.

Thats self-evident to anyone who has ever tried it and seen the chaos that ensues. You might do it one day, but you sure as hell dont do it for weeks and weeks.

Nokes also says she expected Sunak to announce measures helping female employment, following job losses in female-dominated sectors such as retail and hospitality.

Caroline Nokes tells Yahoo News UK the government's coronavirus recovery was 'designed by men for men'.

Instead, a key part of the statement was 5.8bn for shovel-ready construction projects. Construction is an industry where 85% of jobs are held by men.

I dont think this is intentional sexism, she says. I dont think it is a deliberate attempt to marginalise women.

I think its just institutional thoughtlessness and a lack of regard for the need for a variety of voices feeding into the discussion.

The recovery was designed by men for men. If you look at the quad who were in charge when Boris was in hospital: all men. If you look at the senior positions around the cabinet table with the exception of the home secretary: all men.

Just six of the 26-member cabinet are women.

Boris Johnson's cabinet consists mainly of men. (Matt Dunham/pool/Getty Images)

Even then, Nokes  a former government colleague of Johnson who was sacked as immigration minister when he became PM in July last year  says those six women have been marginalised during the pandemic.

I would use, as an example, the work and pensions secretary [Therese Coffey]. Shes a woman. We know Universal Credit has seen its biggest ever increase in applicants. We have seen unemployment rising dramatically.

Yet in those daily press conferences we heard from [Coffey] not once.

Meanwhile, of those 92 daily press conferences, just three were led by a woman: home secretary Priti Patel.

Nokes goes on: If you dont have women in the room, then the views of women wont be included. That is a really stark reality.

Women and equalities committee chair Caroline Nokes. (Steve Taylor/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The Nokes-led women and equalities committee is currently carrying out three probes into the unequal impact of the pandemic, based on ethnicity, disability and gender.

The Romsey and Southampton North MP admits she was shocked at the impact of COVID-19 on black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, which became really apparent from the moment you saw photographs of the healthcare workers who died.

An analysis by PA in mid-June found 17% of UK healthcare deaths were people of Filipino heritage. In the 2011 census, people born in the Philippines accounted for 0.2% of the population in England and Wales.

Four of the Filipino health and care workers who have died during the pandemic. Clockwise from top left: Resy Manalo, Elma Cavalida, Norman Austria and Eleuterio Gibela. (PA)

Meanwhile, a Public Health England report found that people of Bangladeshi heritage had about twice the risk of death when compared with people of white British ethnicity.

In addition, people of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, other Asian, Caribbean and other black ethnicities had between a 10% and 50% higher risk of death when compared to white British people.

Nokes says: There has been no single clear reason available to us so far. You can see very clearly that it is impacting BAME communities more. What we are still struggling to identify is why.

The committee is very keen that what we come up with is [asking the government] what are you going to do about this. What measures can the government put in place to safeguard BAME people from being exposed to the worst risks of COVID.

Reports on the probes are set to be published in the autumn.
The first batch of five French Rafale fighter jets, out of the total 36 purchased by India in a multi-billion dollar deal, will land in Ambala on Wednesday afternoon after covering a distance of 7,000 km to join the Indian Air Force fleet. The timing of their arrival couldnt be more critical given that India is locked in a tense standoff with China in several areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Added to the Chinese threat is a very real possibility of Pakistan simultaneously opening another front against India, thereby pulling India into a two-front war.

Military aviation experts say Rafales addition to Indias fighter fleet would significantly enhance the Air Forces overall operational capability to counter the Chinese threat, and it would also provide effective deterrence against Pakistani aggression.

Rafales induction will change the technological imbalance India had in air vis-a-vis Pakistans US-supplied F16 aircrafts with superior radar and missile system as well as China-supplied Chengdu JF-17, which is at the centre of Pakistani Air Forces fleet modernisation plans.

So how does Dassault-made Rafale fare against the China-made JF-17 fighter jets used by the Pakistans Air Force? And what would be the outcome of any encounter between Rafale and stealth Chengdu J-20s that is used by the People's Liberation Army Air Force.

The comparison becomes all the more important because IAF fighters are most likely to encounter these machines in the sky in case there is a full-blown confrontation.

Let us begin by comparing the basics first. Both Chinese JF-17 currently used by PAF and Chengdu J-20 used by China are multi-role combat fighter aircraft (MRCA) meaning aircraft intended to perform various day/night roles during combat. China claims JF-17 Thunder is a fourth-generation aircraft and the J-20 is a fifth-generation machine.

The task assigned to these aircraft could be multiple, including air-to-air attack, air-to-surface attack, aerial reconnaissance, interception, suppression of enemy air defence, anti-ship strikes and nuclear deterrence.

Dassaults Rafale, due to its state-of-the-art technology, has been classified as a 4.5 generation aircraft. It is claimed to be an "omnirole" fighter, a tag that points to the aircrafts abilities to go beyond the needs of each type of mission.

According to the company, When the Rafale programme was launched, the French Air Force and French Navy published a joint requirement for an omnirole aircraft that would have to replace the seven types of combat aircraft then in operation.

While Rafale and JF-17 is available in both single-seat and double seat configurations, the Chengdu J-20 only has a single-seat arrangement. According to the deal, India will get 28 single-seat aircraft and eight twin-seaters for training purpose.

Of the three, Chinese J-20 is the heaviest with empty weight of over 19,000 kg and maximum take-off weight of 37,013 kg, according to open source information. The empty weight of Rafale ranges from 9900 kg to 10600 kg depending on the variant and a maximum take-off weight of 24500 kg. JF-17 on the other hand is much lighter, weighing around 6,411kg with maximum take-off weight of 12,474 kg. This means both Rafale and J-20 are capable of carrying more fuel and weapons per flight compared to JF-17.

China's Chengdu J-20 is a stealth, fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

The 15.30 metre nose-to-tail long Rafale with a wing span of 10.9 metres each and a height of 5.3 meters is sleekest of the three. Compared to it, Chengdu J-20 is quite bulky with 20.3-20.5 metres of length and wingspan of 12.88-13.50 metres. The JF-17 is 14.93 metre long with a wingspan of 9.48 metre and a height of 4.77 meters.

According to Dassault, the maker of Rafale, the aircraft also possesses close-coupled canards / delta wing configuration. The wing design, according to the company, makes it far superior and is a key to its combat performance even at high angle-of-attack.

While Rafale can attain a maximum speed of Mach 1.8/750 kt (2,222.6 km per hour), the J-20s top speed is estimated to be around Mach 2.0 or 2,400 km per hour. JF-17 Thunder can hit a top speed of 1.6 Mach or 1975.68 km/ hour. The service ceiling, important during dogfights and for dodging the surface-to-air defence, of both Rafale and JF-17 fighters are in close range as Rafale can climb up to 50,000 ft, while JF-17 Thunder is enabled with a service ceiling of little over 54,000 ft. The J-20 has a definitive edge here, as it could climb as high as 65,620 feet, according to data published by GlobalSecurity.org.

When it comes to operational range (max distance the aircraft can travel from the operating base) Rafale is far superior to both J-20 and JF-17 Thunder. The French aircraft can fly up to a spectacular range of 3,700 km, which could be further increased by refuelling it mid-air. The other two, according to GlobalSecurity.org, have a maximum ferry range of 2,000 km and 2,037 km respectively. Accordingly, Rafale could cover more of enemys area during a pitched contest. Also, despite claims of J-20s being stealth, radars mounted on Indian SU-30 MKIs have reportedly spotted their movement in the past.

China-supplied Chengdu JF-17 is at the centre of Pakistani Air Forces fleet modernisation plans.

However, being a smart flying machine doesnt matter much if it isnt backed by equally smart weaponry and radar system. As per military experts, the Rafale can carry some of the most advanced weapons available on the planet, including MICA air-to-air Beyond Visual Range (BVR) interception, combat and self-defense missiles. The METEOR very long-range air-to-air missile on board would be a game changer of sort in the South-Asian skies. These missiles would not let enemy aircraft come near the machine or cross its path.

Another addition is the SCALP long-range air-to-land missile, which is a deadly deep strike weapon. Beside these, Rafale could integrate the AM39 EXOCET anti-ship missile, non-guided as well as laser-guided bombs with different warheads from 500lbs to 2,000 lbs.

Dassault also claims that Rafale has best of its class Active Electronically Scanned Array radar system. It further says that the Rafale is the first operational  and so far, the only  European combat aircraft to use an electronic scanning radar. Compared to mechanical scanning radars with conventional antennas, electronic radars are more effective in detection and could track multiple targets simultaneously.

Also, with more than 30,000 flight hours in operations, Rafale has proven its worth in combat in Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, Iraq and Syria. On the other hand, both JF-17 and Chengdu J-20 are yet to be tested in battles or war-like situations.

The Rate of Climb is another critical factor in testing aircrafts agility during dogfight. While Rafale, according to reports, could climb around 60,000 feet per minute, the Chendu J-20 can climb at the rate of 304m/s or 59842.52 feet per minute, as per airforce-technology.com. The JF-17 Thunder is slightly behind the both with a climb rate of 59,000 feet per minute.
Kate Garraway suffered 'all sorts of drama' on Tuesday morning as the Good Morning Britain studio 'descended into chaos'.

The presenter, 53, revealed that the daily morning show suffered a power cut at 6AM - when it is due to go on air - and nearly had to be cancelled.

Kate and co-anchor Ben Shephard explained the drama to viewers, with Kate joking that she is 'at her limit' with the drama in her life, as her husband Derek Draper continues to battle COVID-19 in hospital.

Chaos! Kate Garraway suffered 'all sorts of drama' on Tuesday morning as the Good Morning Britain studio 'descended into chaos'

'We are here by the skin of our teeth. We had a massive power cut at Good Morning Britain and it's been all sorts of drama,' Kate explained. 'They couldn't print off any stories, give us any briefs and they had no lights because the air conditioner went off and the server shut down.'

She then informed viewers that her producer was laughing at her off-camera for using technical lingo.

Ben was sure to thank the crew for getting the show back up and running.

'Just a big shout out to the team that got us on. To Daniel and your team, because it really was touch and go,' he said.

Drama! Kate and co-anchor Ben Shephard explained the drama to viewers, with Kate joking that she is 'at her limit' with the drama in her life, as her husband Derek Draper continues to battle COVID-19 in hospital

Close call! The presenter, 53, revealed that the daily morning show suffered a power cut at 6AM - when it is due to go on air - and nearly had to be cancelled

'We hope it lasts until 9, there is a bit of gaffer tape over everything! Chaos at Good Morning Britain this morning. Glad to have the lights back on!' Kate added.

At this point, the lights went out, plunging the set into darkness - but this was merely a joke by the team to make light of the situation.

Kate begged the universe for 'no more bad luck' as she spoke for the first time about the 'utterly terrifying' moment her tyre blew while she was driving with her family over the weekend.

Into darkness! 'We are here by the skin of our teeth. We had a massive power cut at Good Morning Britain and it's been all sorts of drama,' Kate explained

Blackout! Ben was sure to thank the crew for getting the show back up and running. 'Just a big shout out to the team that got us on. To Daniel and your team, because it really was touch and go,' he said

Prank! At this point, the lights went out, plunging the set into darkness - but this was merely a joke by the team to make light of the situation

The Good Morning Britain presenter was left shaken following the incident, which occurred as she hurried back to see ailing husband Derek at the hospital.

Speaking to co-host Ben on Monday morning, Kate said: 'We were rushing back because we were conscious of getting back to London to check on Derek, and my mum and dad were coming for their first visit.

'You know people say God and the universe doesn't send you what you can't deal with. I would like to put a message out, I am at my limit, I am at my absolute limit now. If the universe could just give me a calm Monday!'

Opening up: Kate has spoken for the first time about the 'utterly terrifying' moment her tyre blew out while she was driving on the motorway.

Referring to the accident, which happened while children Darcey, 14, and Billy, 11, were in the car, she added: 'It was the first time that I had been out with the kids in the car...

'Leaving London, going to meet some friends in Kent, in a socially distanced way at lovely Port Lympne Safari Park.

'On the way back we suddenly exploded. It's that moment where you think I cant control the car."

'All weird steering, bits of rubber flying everywhere. I dont know if it was smoke but looked like smoke  it could be burning rubber.

'I managed to pull over but it just happened to be on the section of the motorway where there wasnt a hard shoulder, there was a feeder road going off so I was nervous about people going on the inside.'

Kate later admitted she had chosen to stay close to London for the sake of Derek, who remains in a critical condition at a local hospital.

Terrifying! The Good Morning Britain presenter was left shaken following the incident, which occurred during her first family trip without husband Derek Draper

She said: 'We've been talking about travel plans all morning and the problems people are facing going to Spain and having to quarantine, but I made baby steps.

'This was the first time I was taking the kids out of London. Obviously wanting to stay local to Derek and taking it step by step. This is something we do annually every year with some friends in Kent. All socially distanced.

'Everything went well. Driving back in to town, thinking "that went OK" - you should never think that, should you?'

Praising her children, she added: 'Bill and Darcey were brilliant but yeah, really shaken up, it's nerve wracking.

'We're all well and actually, for once, my parking was applauded by the police. They said you did really well, you did the best you could, and I've never had a compliment for my parking.'

Plea: Speaking on Monday morning's show, the presenter begged the universe for 'no more bad luck' following the incident, which happened while her children Darcey and Billy were in the car

Addressing Instagram followers on Sunday, Kate shared a photograph of herself standing with the police officers who'd rescued her - as well as her two children.

She wrote: 'Thanks to our amazing saviours Liz & Mark from @kentpoliceuk who rescued me after a full tyre blow out on the motorway!!! Never had one before - utterly terrifying.

'Managed to keep control of car but couldn't get off motorway as no hard shoulder & when the AA said they couldn't come for an hour, then rang after half an hour to say might still be an hour had no choice but to call the police.

'They were so brilliant and got us to safety and we are now on way home in taxi, shaken but safe, tow truck on way to car.

'It's first time have taken kids out without Derek too, but we are safe and will update you fully on @gmb with @benshephardofficial tomorrow from 6 a.m.'

Shortly after sharing her post, Kate's fellow ITV presenter Eamonn Holmes shared a sweet message of support as he wrote: 'Nothing as stupid as a Smart Motorway.'

Disintegrated: Kate unveiled the alarming damage to the wheel, which had been left in tatters

Thankful: The GMB host took to Instagram on Sunday to thank police for coming to the rescue and branded the experience 'utterly terrifying'

Back home! The presenter was later photographed returning home after updating fans about the terrifying ordeal during the taxi ride back to her house

A smart motorway is a section of motorway that uses traffic management methods to increase capacity and reduce congestion, according to RAC. This includes using the usual hard shoulder as an actual lane.

MailOnline has contacted Kate Garraway's representatives for comment.

The presenter was later photographed returning home after updating fans about the terrifying ordeal during the taxi ride back to her house.

Clad in a pretty butterfly print maxi skirt and a long sleeved white top, the mother-of-two was seen carrying bags of belongings into her home.

While clutching onto a takeaway coffee, Kate walked back and fourth to ensure nothing was left in the taxi.

Despite the arduous circumstances, the TV host managed to smile as she looked back over her shoulder to thank the driver.

The horrifying incident comes after Kate revealed nurses told her that her stricken husband Derek looked 'focused and engaged' when they put Good Morning Britain on for him.

Time to fix the damage: Kate's Volvo was eventually seen to by the AA who replaced the wheel

Getting things sorted: Clad in a pretty butterfly print maxi skirt and a long sleeved white top, Kate kept her head down as she focused on the task at hand while caught in the rain

Speaking on July 21st, the presenter gave the promising update about the former Blair lobbyist, who was admitted to hospital in March after being diagnosed with coronavirus.

The TV host recently returned to GMB after taking time off while her husband was in intensive care and had told viewers that nurses had put the show on for him to try to stimulate a response.

Kate said: 'He is stable and actually yesterday I spoke to the nurses and they said they had put Good Morning Britain on.

'And they felt he looked, because his eyes are open, he looked focused... He looked focused and engaged on it.'

The presenter also joked with co-host Ben: 'They didn't say whether it was me or you', and admitted she found the news 'very emotional'.

Family outing: Kate revealed that her children Darcey, 14, and Billy, 11, were with her during the incident, which took place on their first family outing without Derek (Pictured December 2019)

She said: 'We don't know whether it's the movement of the light, or whether it's the familiar voice. So, good morning, Derek, if you are watching.

'We're all sending you lots of love, everyone here is sending you lots of love. So there you go, your own personal Good Morning Britain.'

Kate said Derek, who she married in 2005, had endured a 'tough week' following 'big falls' in his blood pressure and swelling in his legs.

Hours before the show hit screens, Kate teased the update as she admitted she'd had an 'emotional few days' as she took to Instagram to re-share snaps of herself and co-host Ben larking about on set.

Earlier this month Kate revealed in an emotional GMB interview that Derek ha'almost died six times,' during his battle with coronavirus.

She told Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid: 'It is a very desperate situation, it's very very difficult, of course there's fantastic hope he's still alive, the doctors do keep saying it's a miracle he's still alive.

REVEALED: HOW THE CRUEL LEGACY OF COVID MAY LAST A LIFETIME Covid-19 could leave survivors with debilitating illnesses that last for years, doctors have warned since the outbreak spiralled out of control. One leading medic called it 'this generation's polio' - a disease that killed thousands and left a generation with life-long mobility issues. Patients who spend weeks fighting the disease can suffer from long-term complications caused by permanent damage to their lungs and liver, but serious problems can also blight people who only have a minor illness. SCARRING AND LONG-TERM LUNG DAMAGE Several recent studies have highlighted proof Covid-19 causes fibrosis - scarring of the lung tissue - that makes it harder for the organs to work. A research paper published in a Chinese journal in March said 'pulmonary fibrosis may be one of the major [long-term] complications in Covid-19 patients'. A build-up of scar tissue in the lungs can reduce their capacity to absorb air, leaving a patient with breathing difficulties, shortness of breath or a cough. Insufficient oxygen also has knock-on effects on the other vital organs, which rely on the chemical to work. Without it, they cannot work as efficiently and may start to fail or work less efficiently. Failing kidneys may result in a patient needing long-term medication or dialysis, while a severely damaged liver could require a transplant to treat. IMMUNE SYSTEM OVER-REACTION CAN DAMAGE HEART, LIVER & KIDNEYS Evidence is also emerging that the virus may affect the the liver, kidneys, heart and blood vessels because of the way it can force the immune system to attack healthy parts of the body. As well as the potential of immediate death in the case of kidney failure, a heart attack or a stroke, any damage to these vital organs can cause lifelong disability and dramatically increase the risk of dying young. A paper in the journal JAMA Cardiology in March reported a fifth of patients in a group of 416 who were hospitalised in Wuhan, China, had suffered heart damage. Another study in Wuhan found that 16 out of 36 intensive care patients developed irregular heartbeats, called arrhythmia, which can weaken the heart's ability to pump blood. Coronavirus can also cause blood clots, scientists say, which raise the risk of stroke or heart attack. The heart problems are thought to occur as a result of the virus triggering a 'cytokine storm', where the immune system overreacts to the infection. GROWING EVIDENCE OF BRAIN DAMAGE AND NEUROLOGICAL EFFECTS Long-term brain damage may also be a consequence of Covid-19 infection, according to emerging research of patients who caught it. Doctors around the world say they are seeing growing numbers of people with neurological symptoms such as headaches, loss of smell and taste, tingling sensations, losing the ability to speak and even seizures and strokes, the BBC reported. Dr Elissa Fory, from the Henry Ford Foundation in Detroit, said: 'We don't know yet if the encephalopathy [brain damage] is more severe with Covid-19 than with other viruses, but I can tell you we've been seeing quite a lot of it.' Symptoms affecting the brain are harder to measure and track - it took months for officials in the UK to admit a lost sense of smell was a symptom of coronavirus - but they can be permanent. HOSPITAL STAYS AND TREATMENT CAN BE DEBILITATING As well as damage caused by the virus itself, patients who are seriously ill with Covid-19 - particularly those in intensive care - will suffer long-term health problems just from being in hospital. Physiotherapists warn patients muscles start to waste away quickly when they are in hospital beds, which can leave them with mobility problems for a long time - especially if they are already elderly, which many coronavirus patients are. People's lungs can also be irreparably damaged by ventilators, the intensive care machines which help people to breathe when they cannot do it alone. The machines work by blowing air into the lungs through a tube inserted directly down the throat and into the airways. The pressure of the air being forced into the lungs can tear and split the delicate tissue inside the lungs and leave them permanently damaged. This is a trade-off: the machines are usually a last resort for people who can't breathe on their own and would die without the ventilator. People who get seriously ill are also at a risk of developing depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) because of their ordeal after the initial infection has gone. EVEN MILD ILLNESS CAN DRAG ON FOR MONTHS There is growing evidence that even mild Covid-19 can have long-lasting consequences and the UK Government last weekend launched a study into the after-effects of the illness. Experts on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) warned that Covid-19 patients could be left with 'extreme tiredness and shortness of breath for several months' even if they were not hospitalised. Concerns about the lasting effects of the illness were discussed in a SAGE meeting which took place on May 7. Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS, revealed some patients need psychological treatment for 'post-intensive care syndrome'. And another scientific advisor to the Government told The Telegraph that 'a very high proportion' of Covid-19 survivors 'cannot get back to a normal life'. Advertisement

'I was speaking to a doctor yesterday who said he's sick as anyone I've ever seen in 35 years of medicine, and some of those people who were as sick as him aren't here.

'Six times they said he's not going to make it, and obviously you couldn't visit. So he's been very very sick, but it's a new disease, there's no data, so what they can say is it's great he's here.

'There's flickers of hope, his lungs are starting to recover, his kidneys are doing better, his liver, but they don't know how much better he can get.'

Asked whether there had been any explanation for why Derek had been so badly affected by the virus, Kate admitted doctors are still unsure.

She said: 'There isn't, he was a little bit overweight, I'm a bit of a feeder! Zero underlying conditions, he's young comparatively, he's 52, so there is no explanation.

'I think what's happened is at every stage they've been learning.

Sad: Kate's husband Derek remains hospitalised while recovering from COVID-19, almost four months after being admitted (pictured in 2019)

'One of the wonderful things is that they've changed medical practices, they've changed pathways because of Derek.

'I keep telling him on the Facetime he would be very pleased about that.'

Now that Derek has been declared COVID-free, Kate admitted she fears for the long-term damage the virus may have done, and whether that will affect Derek in his recovery.

'When he went into hospital, I got some texts saying ''oh I'm definitely not gonna die, tell the children I'm doing great,'' but there was a feeling of terror because he had COVID and suddenly it escalated.

A timeline of Derek's coronavirus battle MARCH Kate revealed she and Prince Charles had got 'relatively close' at the Prince's Trust Awards on March 11 - Charles was diagnosed with coronavirus in mid-March. She said: 'Around the 29/30 March, I came home came in and said [to Derek] 'god you look ill.' 'He said he had a headache, numbness in his right hand, and was struggling to breathe, 'I rang Dr Hilary (Jones) and tried to get through, he talked to Derek. He said put me back on, I think you need to call an ambulance' Derek, 52, was taken into hospital on March 30 and remained in an unresponsive condition. APRIL Kate and her children isolated at home after she displayed 'mild symptoms'. Kate said: 'Derek remains in intensive care and is still very ill. I'm afraid it remains an excruciatingly worrying time. 'I'm afraid he is still in a deeply critical condition, but he is still here, which means there is hope.' MAY Kate said: 'The journey for me and my family seems to be far from over as every day my heart sinks as I learn new and devastating ways this virus has more battles for Derek to fight. 'But he is still HERE & so there is still hope.' That month, Kate and her family took part in the final clap for carers She said: 'I'll never give up on that because Derek's the love of my life but at the same time I have absolute uncertainty' JUNE On June 5, Kate revealed Derek is now free from coronavirus but continues to fight against the damage inflicted on his body JULY On July 5, Kate revealed Derek has woken from his coma but he remains in a serious yet critical condition. On July 8, she announced she would be returning to GMB, after being urged by doctors to 'get on with life' during Derek's recovery. She added that Derek had 'opened his eyes' after waking from his coma, but has been told his recovery could take years. On July 13, Kate returned to GMB for the first time since Derek was hospitalised. Advertisement

'And then suddenly it became everything, and each stage has been sort of a new terror and just when I thought we were moving forward suddenly it can now affect your body everywhere.

'There's a huge post-viral syndrome, damage done in ways we didn't know. I was sitting with Dr Hilary and he said it's the lungs, it's respiratory you're fearing from COVID.'

Kate also reiterated that doctors had urged her to 'get on with life' while Derek continues to recover, insisting she had to be present for their two children Darcey, 14, and Billy, 10.

'I have had moments, you know when you get abs gripped with fear and everything was going so well, but it's happened to the world it's happened to everybody, in this time you've seen people, I know people, you know people who have been watching this show who have been diagnosed with terrible illnesses,' Kate added.

'The doctors are saying to me now, ''You've got to get on, you've got to get on with life''. For Darcey and Billy effectively right now, they've lost their dad, they haven't, he's there.. he's not a presence as he should be in their lives.'

Kate's husband has been in hospital since March, and while Kate sparked hope earlier this month by revealing he has awoken from a coma, the star has been told his recovery could take years.

She told Hello! 'The doctors have been urging me not to put my life on pause. They've told me that I need to go back to work and create a routine in our lives again.

'The children and Derek are all I've thought about and they're the most important people in my life, but I must create structure and normality for the children, to clean the bath, put the plates in the dishwasher and tidy the house.

'I also need to get back to work so that I can provide for the children and we can do things together, to make them feel that the light hasn't gone out of their lives, that there's hope for the future.'

During an appearance on GMB last month, Kate spoke about the start of Derek's devastating illness, saying: 'Derek had a painful shoulder for a couple months, and had been taking medication and having scans

'He was due to have a steroid injection, he felt unwell and was home tutoring the kids. I got back and said ''you don't you look right babe, I think it's the painkillers.''

'I just had this weird feeling, asked if he had a cough. He didn't, he said 'I think I've got weird sinusitis.'' I rang the doctor, I said 'you don't look great, no real feeling that it's COVID, he had none of those symptoms.'

'Around the 29/30 March, I came home came in and said 'god you look ill. He said he had a headache, numbness in his right hand, and was struggling to breathe,

'I rang Dr Hilary (Jones) and tried to get through, he talked to Derek. He said put me back on, I think you need to call an ambulance. I said 'I can't believe I'm calling an ambulance', I was very scared.'

Derek has previously credited Kate for saving him from depression which started during his career as a political advisor and led to a nervous breakdown and a stint in The Priory in the late 1990s.

After moving to Los Angeles for three years and retraining as a therapist, his friend GMTV's political correspondent, Gloria De Piero, offered to set him up with her friend and colleague Kate.

Kate and Derek have been married since 2005, with the former lobbyist cheering his wife on for the duration of her stint on I'm A Celebrity last year.

Following her stint on I'm A Celebrity, the couple were planning to renew their vows in the coming months after Kate revealed Derek had proposed for a second time.
STEM

Apple HBCU Coding Program Adds 10 Colleges

Photo: Apple/Mikki K. Harris

Apple recently said it would be adding 10 more historically Black colleges and universities to a program that aims to make HBCUs "learn-to-code hubs" for students.

The effort is part of the company's "Community Education Initiative," which was launched last year to provide "coding, creativity and workforce development opportunities" to learners of all ages. That project will now reach 24 locations around the country. Twelve of those are HBCUs and 21 serve student bodies where Black and Brown students are the majority. The programs use Apple's "Everyone Can Code" and "Everyone Can Create" courses.

Apple has been working with Tennessee State University for the last two years to grow the school's "HBCU C2" program. Part of the institution's National Center for SMART Technology Innovations, C2 serves as a national hub for training educators and supporting its peer institutions as they deliver coding and creativity (C2) to their own communities.

A recent virtual C2 summit brought together almost 300 educators from across the HBCU network to share best practices and hear from colleagues about workforce development and connecting with their communities through partnerships with local K-12 schools and other organizations.

The 10 additional HBCUs, all of which have been working alongside Apple and Tennessee State for the past year, will now become hubs to promote coding in their broader communities. Those are: Arkansas Baptist College, Central State University, Claflin University, Dillard University, Fisk University, Lawson State Community College, Morehouse College, Prairie View A&M University, Southern University at Shreveport and Tougaloo College.

For example, Southern University at Shreveport in Louisiana gradually introduced the program to students, faculty, staff and community members. "Our students are blossoming," said Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Institutional Priorities Sharron Herron-Williams, in a statement. "We invited community business leaders to our coding academy and they saw the work we were doing. One food truck owner asked the students to design him an app to help track his trucks. This fall, our team is going to start working with him to make that app a reality."

"In two years, I want all HBCUs to be coding and creating," said Robbie Melton, Tennessee State's associate vice president of the SMART Global Technology Innovation Center and dean of Graduate and Professional Studies. "In two years, you're going to see many more people of color entering the STEM workforce  and in two years we're going to double the number of Black women in technology through this program."

"Apple is committed to working alongside communities of color to advance educational equity," added Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives. "We see this expansion of our Community Education Initiative and partnership with HBCUs as another step toward helping Black students realize their dreams and solve the problems of tomorrow."

Later this month, educators from the 10 HBCUs will be part of a group of almost 500 teachers and community leaders taking part in a virtual coding academy that Apple is hosting for all initiative partners. Educators will learn the building blocks of coding with Apple's Swift coding language. Then participants will work in teams to design prototypes to address real community challenges. After completing the coding academy, educators will begin to integrate the coding and creativity lessons into their own communities by launching coding clubs and courses at their schools, hosting community coding events and setting up workforce development opportunities for adult learners.
Ghanaian economist, Bernard Mensah, has joined U.S .Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo and other dignitaries to hold discussions on post-COVID-19 economic recovery effort and other matters.



UK Minister, Dominic Raab and other high ranking officials of the UK and the US governments were at also at the high table.



The discussion also centered on secure 5G telecommunications, and continuing negotiations on a U.S.-UK free trade agreement.



Mr Mensah who is President of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and co-head of Global Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC) Trading at Bank of America Merrill Lynch was instrumental in most of the discussions.



The younger brother of president of the Ghana Rugby Association, Herbert Mensah, based in London has jointly led the firms FICC Trading business globally since 2015 and assumed additional leadership responsibilities as the firms regional president in April 2018.



In his role as President of EMEA, Bernard is responsible for the execution and development of the banks strategy, business activities and support functions in the EMEA region.



These span corporate, commercial and investment banking, treasury services and sales and trading.



Mr Mensah is also responsible for ensuring the effective delivery of the broad Bank of America Merrill Lynch franchise to its corporate and institutional clients across the region.



He chairs the firms EMEA Executive Committee and is a member of the Global Banking and Markets Committee.



Mr Mensah has more than 20 years global trading and investing experience. He joined the firm in 2010 from Goldman Sachs in London, where he was a partner and global head of Bank Loan and Distressed Trading, and prior to that run the banks Asia Credit and Convertibles business, based in Hong Kong and Tokyo.



Before joining Goldman Sachs in 2000, Bernard worked as a Fixed Income Trader for Credit Suisse Financial Products in Europe and Asia, and for PricewaterhouseCoopers in audit and corporate finance.



Bernard received his BA in Social Sciences at the Joint School of Philosophy and Economics at the University of Bristol in 1989.



He is a qualified chartered accountant and became a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales in 1992. Bernard sits on the Development Committee of the Royal Opera House.

Source: Ghana Web









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Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/27/2020 -- Latest released the research study on Global Healthcare Artificial Intelligence Market, offers a detailed overview of the factors influencing the global business scope. Healthcare Artificial Intelligence Market research report shows the latest market insights, current situation analysis with upcoming trends and breakdown of the products and services. The report provides key statistics on the market status, size, share, growth factors of the Healthcare Artificial Intelligence The study covers emerging player's data, including: competitive landscape, sales, revenue and global market share of top manufacturers are IBM (United States), Microsoft (United States), Siemens Healthineers (Germany), Micron Technology (United States), General Electric (United States), Medtronic (Ireland), AiCure (United States), APIXIO, Inc. (United States), Atomwise, Inc. (United States) and Butterfly Network, Inc, (United States)



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Artificial intelligence in healthcare uses the complex algorithms for the analysis of complicated medical data. With Artificial Intelligence the conclusions can be approximated without human intervention. It provides well defines output, and enhances the ability to gain information. In addition to this, AI recognises the patterns and makes own logic out of it. Artificial Intelligence is used in diagnosis, treatment development, drug development, personalised medicine, patient monitoring and care. It has various benefits such as cost reduction, and patient satisfaction.



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Country Level Break-Up: United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, South Africa, Nigeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Germany, United Kingdom (UK), the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Turkey, Russia, France, Poland, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, India, Australia and New Zealand etc.



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The White House Coronavirus Task Force has for weeks recommended Louisiana take more drastic steps to stem the rise of the coronavirus, including rolling back indoor dining rules, closing gyms and limiting gatherings to 10 people.

The recommendations, outlined in state reports sent weekly by the White House that were obtained through a public records request, show federal officials have backed stringent rules to tamp down Louisianas latest surge in cases and hospitalizations.

While the state has largely followed the White Houses lead on coronavirus restrictions since the outset of the pandemic, Gov. John Bel Edwards has recently kept many of the states rules in place despite stricter recommendations from the task force.

For instance, on July 14, the task force recommended mask mandates and the closure of bars and gyms in hot spots, in a report that came days after Edwards shuttered bars and mandated masks statewide.

But in that report, and in documents dated July 20 and July 26, the task force also recommended moving to outdoor dining and limiting indoor dining to less than 25% of normal capacity, as well as limiting gathering sizes to 10. Currently indoor dining is allowed at 50% capacity in Louisiana and the gathering limit is 50.

Christina Stephens, a spokeswoman for Edwards, said the governor received the recommendations to roll back indoor dining just days after announcing the mask mandate and bar closure. Edwards wants to see if those moves will make an impact on coronavirus trends before issuing new restrictions, she said.

Watch: Gov. John Bel Edwards addresses coronavirus in Louisiana in live press conference Gov. John Bel Edwards is schedule to give his latest update on the fight against coronavirus in Louisiana on Tuesday afternoon.

Unfortunately it takes 14 days to see in the data if were having an impact on the policies we have in place, Stephens said. If youre putting so many restrictions in place every couple of days you might not give them enough time to work.

Read the White House recommendations here:

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

Before the most recent restrictions, the White House recommendations led to new rules in Louisiana, with officials following the task forces lead.

+2 The White House thinks Louisiana needs more coronavirus restrictions. John Bel Edwards doesn't -- yet. Gov. John Bel Edwards said Thursday while he will consider new White House guidelines that call for the closure of gyms and rolling back indoo

On June 29, the task force started recommending that the state consider mandating mask use and closing bars if cases continue to rise in Baton Rouge; a few days later, Mayor Sharon Weston Broome issued a mask mandate for the city and parts of the parish.

On July 5, the Task Force recommended Louisiana require cloth mask usage in highly affected areas experiencing increases in cases. Less than a week later, Edwards mandated masks and closed bars statewide.

Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the task force, backed Edwards decision to mandate masks and close bars when he visited LSU earlier this month to insist that schools reopen. Louisiana is currently in the midst of a surge in cases and hospitalizations that has put a strain on several hospitals.

Jeff Landry blasts coronavirus mask mandate from his quarantine, says it can't be enforced Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican who is quarantined after testing positive for the coronavirus, released an opinion Wednes

Edwards is slated to hold his latest coronavirus press briefing at 4 p.m.

Check back for more.
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KERRY was left reeling by the news that major electrical firm BorgWarner is to axe their Tralee plant with the loss of 210 jobs.

The US firm confirmed it is to commence the phased shutdown of their Tralee facility after blaming market conditions and declining customer demand.

The Tralee plant, which was established over 30 years ago, makes specialised air heaters.

BorgWarner ranks as one of the world's leading automotive supply firms and is headquartered in Michigan.

The firm confirmed the shutdown of the entire Tralee plant.

Today is a difficult day for everyone at BorgWarner Tralee, managing director Anton Diaz said.

This facility has been part of this community for over 30 years and the leadership team is very grateful to all BorgWarner Tralee

employees for their dedication and contribution.

BorgWarner said it was left with no alternative because of declining customer demand for the air heaters produced in Tralee.

Customer demand no longer supports the need for a standalone manufacturing facility.

"The proposed closure is part of a series of market-driven adjustments by BorgWarner to adapt its cost structure in order to remain

competitive in the current environment."

"The adjustments under consideration include restructuring, closure, or consolidation of manufacturing and/or technical centres in all

major regions."

BorgWarner will now enter into a consultation process with employee representatives at the site.

"The commencement of the consultation period will follow todays announcement.

The US firm said it sincerely regretted this development and, in the event of redundancies, will endeavour to provide a financial package and support to the 210 impacted employees which recognises their service and commitment to BorgWarner Tralee.

Politicians and business leaders in Tralee and Kerry expressed shock at the news with the US firm ranking as one of the most prized of

local employers.
WASHINGTON  The Pentagon has admitted for the third time that its bombing campaign against terrorist groups in Somalia, which has been underway for more than a decade, had caused civilian casualties there, a military report said on Tuesday.

The announcement, by United States Africa Command, substantiated reports by Amnesty International that a U.S. airstrike on Feb. 2 in the Somali town of Jilib killed Nurto Kusow Omar Abukar, 18, and injured her two younger sisters and grandmother. The strike was targeting members of the Shabab, an extremist group linked to Al Qaeda.

Our goal is to always minimize impact to civilians, Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, the commander of Africa Command, said in the report. Unfortunately, we believe our operations caused the inadvertent death of one person and injury to three others who we did not intend to target.

As is common with almost every U.S. airstrike in Somalia, a military statement released after the Jilib bombing said an initial assessment concluded the airstrike killed one (1) terrorist. We currently assess no civilians were injured or killed as a result of this airstrike.
An Amber Alert was issued Monday night in Delaware for a 2-year-old boy who was reported missing by his cousin over the weekend, police said.

The alert was issued by the Georgetown Police Department, who has been searching for the boy identified as Cristobal L. Lopez after he was reportedly taken by his mother in violation of a court order.

The toddler boy was last seen July 25 night near South Front Street in Georgetown, Delaware State Police said in a statement. He has been in the custody of his cousin because his mother, 26-year-old Angelina L. Lopez, has an active court order indicating that the boy is to remain in the custody of his cousin.

Details surrounding the active court order were not immediately made available by authorities.

Angelina made arrangements with the cousin, who was not identified by authorities, to come and visit her son July 25 evening. The court order prevents Angelina from having unsupervised visits or unlawful contact with Cristobal, the statement reads.

The morning after, around 5:00 a.m. on July 26, the cousin noticed that Cristobal was missing and possibly taken by Angelina and reported the incident to authorities. Cristobals car seat had also been taken from the cousins home. A description of the vehicle Angelina may have used to flee with was not provided in the Amber Alert.

Detectives believe the child may be in imminent danger, Delaware State Police said.

A felony warrant for breach of release has been issued against the mother and additional charges are pending, according to the police statement.

Police described Cristobal as a Hispanic boy with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing blues shoes and a yellow t-shirt.

Angelina was described as Hispanic woman with brown hair and brown eyes as well. She is reportedly 5 feet tall and weighs around 150 pounds. She was last seen wearing a long-sleeve black shirt and blue pants.

The department urged anyone with information regarding their whereabouts to call 911 or Georgetown police at 302-856-6613.
Chinese newspapers are seen at a news stand in Beijing on July 24, 2019. (WANG ZHAO/AFP via Getty Images)

How One Chinese Media Outlet Subtly Spreads Propaganda in US and Beyond

China News Service (CNS) is among the nine Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-controlled media outlets recently designated by the U.S. State Department as foreign missions. In addition to spreading the CCPs rhetoric, CNS plays an essential role in propping up a large number of Chinese-language pro-Beijing media outlets outside of China.

Party-owned media must. . . embody the partys will, safeguard the partys authority  their actions must be highly consistent with the party. These words of Chinese leader Xi Jinping were quoted by the U.S. State Department in a June 22 statement announcing the administrations designation of four additional CCP-owned media outlets as foreign missions.

Along with five outlets designated back in February, the nine media outlets are beholden to the CCP, rather than to the truth, the state department said.

Some of the designated media, such as CCTV, CGTN, China Daily, and Global Times, have been prominent vehicles in spreading Chinese propaganda on international social media platforms.

But a lesser-known outlet, China News Service, has also plays a significant role in the CCPs propaganda apparatus.

Targeting Overseas Chinese, Directed by United Front Work Department

The China News Service website went online in 1995 in Hong Kong. It claims to be among the earliest online news services in Asia. Today, China News Service employs more than 2,000 people worldwide, with 46 bureaus. In the United States, the media outlet has offices in New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

On its official website, China News Service says that compatriots from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, overseas Chinese, and related foreigners are its main audience. As a state-run news organization, CNS maintains close ties to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office within Chinas cabinet, the State Council. On the Overseas Chinese Affairs Offices website, one of its eight functional departments is a propaganda department, which manages directly affiliated news agencies. Although it does not name CNS as a directly affiliated agency, Chinese news reports often introduce CNS as such.

The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office is part of the CCPs United Front Work Department, which is charged with spreading Beijings agenda domestically and abroad. For example, the deputy director and Party secretary of the United Front Work Department, Xu Yousheng, is also the head of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office.

Main Content Provider for Chinese-Language Outlets

CNS provides content, free of charge, to partner mediamostly Chinese-language outlets based outside China. Such outlets range from media companies with many international offices, like Phoenix TV, to small local Chinese newspapers, such as the San Diego Chinese Tribune.

A November 2018 investigation by the Financial Times found that party-affiliated outlets were reprinting or broadcasting content by CNS and another state media outlet, Xinhua, in at least 200 nominally independent Chinese-language publications around the world.

A 2018 report by the California-based think tank Hoover Institute explained how these pro-Beijing outlets promote the regimes agenda internationally: The Party directed its media outlets in their overseas work to support socialism with Chinese characteristics, push the policies of reform and opening up, and oppose hegemonism, or, in other words, fight against Western ideological control.

Promoting Ideological Consistency Among Chinese-Language Media

CNS also hosts a bi-annual conference for Chinese media outlets around the world. Since 2001, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office and CNS have been hosting the Forum on the Global Chinese Language Media. The conference is attended by representatives from hundreds of Chinese-language periodicals around the world.

In the first conference held in 2001, then-president of CNS Guo Zhaojin said that a key goal of the meeting was to persuade participating overseas Chinese media to use reports from China News Service instead of taking them from competing Chinese-language news services from Taiwan or from the West, according to the Hoover Institute report.

The report also pointed out that the conference appears to serve as a platform for Beijing to convince critics to modify their tone and to ensure that overseas Chinese-language newspapers follow the Partys line. Essays released during the conferences praised the CCPs censorship of viewpoints that are different from Beijing and stressed the necessity of properly telling Chinas story, echoing Chinese leader Xi Jinpings instructions.

The 10th conference was held in October 2019. Over 400 Chinese-language media executives from 61 countries attended.

From the United States alone, over 60 outlets attended, such as Phoenix TV, Zhong Guo Daily News, Washington Chinese Daily News, AATTV, World Journal, The Washington Chinese Post, AACNTV, East West Forum, Erie Chinese Journal, Hawaii Chinese TV, HTTV US, Chicago China News & Digest, China Times, San Diego Chinese Tribune, Southern Chinese Daily News, and USA-SINO News.
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AUSTRALIA OR JAPAN

Basel, Switzerland, July 28, 2020

Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. ("Basilea" or the "Company") announces today that it completed the repurchase of CHF 47,085,000 in nominal value of outstanding convertible bonds due 2022 (ISIN: CH0305398148; SSN: 30'539'814) ("Existing Bonds") within its partial repurchase offer and the issuance of CHF 97,085,000 new convertible bonds due 2027 (ISIN: CH0554992062; SSN: 55'499'206) ("New Bonds").

By repurchasing CHF 47.085 million of its CHF 200 million Existing Bonds and by issuing CHF 97.085 million New Bonds, the Company managed to make a substantial step in its goal to improve the maturity structure of its debt. Basilea has also earmarked the major part of the net proceeds from the issuance of the New Bonds not used in the repurchase of the Existing Bonds, to further optimize the debt maturity structure.

About Basilea

Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focused on the development of products that address the medical challenges in the therapeutic areas of oncology and infectious diseases. With two commercialized drugs, the company is committed to discovering, developing and commercializing innovative pharmaceutical products to meet the medical needs of patients with serious and life-threatening conditions. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

Disclaimer

This announcement regarding the Repurchase Offer does not constitute an offer or an invitation to participate in the Repurchase Offer or the Offering in any jurisdiction in which, or to any person to or from which, it is unlawful to make such invitation or for there to be such participation under applicable securities laws. The distribution of this press release in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession this press release comes are required to inform themselves about, and to observe, any such restrictions.

No action has been or will be taken in any jurisdiction in relation to the Repurchase Offer that would permit a public offering of securities in any such jurisdiction.

United States

The Repurchase Offer is not being made, and will not be made, directly or indirectly, in or into, or by use of the mail of, or by any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce of or of any facilities of a national securities exchange of, the United States or to or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons as defined in Regulation S of the Securities Act (each a "U.S. person"). This includes, but is not limited to, facsimile transmission, electronic mail, telex, telephone and the internet and other forms of electronic communication. The Bonds may not be tendered for purchase pursuant to the Repurchase Offer by any such use, means, instrumentality or facility from or within the United States or by any persons located or resident in the United States as defined in Regulation S of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") or to U.S. persons. Accordingly, copies of the Repurchase Offer Notice and any other documents or materials relating to the Repurchase Offer are not being, and must not be, directly or indirectly, mailed or otherwise transmitted, distributed or forwarded (including, without limitation, by custodians, nominees or trustees) in or into the United States or to persons located or resident in the United States or to U.S. persons. Any purported offers to tender Bonds pursuant to the Repurchase Offer resulting, directly or indirectly, from a violation of these restrictions will be invalid, and any purported tender of Bonds made by a U.S. person, a person located or resident in the United States or from within the United States or from any agent, fiduciary or other intermediary acting on a non-discretionary basis for a principal giving instructions from within the United States or any U.S. person will not be accepted.

Each Bondholder participating in the Repurchase Offer will represent to the Offeror, the Joint Dealer Managers and the Tender Agent that it is not located or resident in the United States and is not a U.S. person and is not giving an order to participate in the Repurchase Offer from within the United States or on behalf of a U.S. person.

United Kingdom

The communication of the Repurchase Offer Notice and any other documents or materials relating to the Repurchase Offer is not being made and such documents and/or materials have not been approved by an authorised person for the purposes of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, as amended. Accordingly, such documents and/or materials are not being distributed to, are not directed at and must not be passed on to, the general public in the United Kingdom. The communication of such documents and/or materials as a financial promotion is only being made to persons within the United Kingdom falling within the definition of investment professionals (as defined in Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order")) or falling within Article 43(2) of the Order, or to other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated (together "relevant persons"). The investment activity to which this document relates will only be engaged in with relevant persons and persons who are not relevant persons should not rely on it.

European Economic Area

In any Member State of the European Economic Area (the "EEA") or in the United Kingdom (each, a "Relevant State"), the Repurchase Offer is only addressed to, and is only directed at, qualified investors in that Relevant State within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 (the "Prospectus Regulation"). Each person in a Relevant State who receives any communication in respect of the Repurchase Offer contemplated in the Repurchase Offer Notice will be deemed to have represented, warranted and agreed to and with the Joint Dealer Managers, the Tender Agent and the Company that it is a qualified investor within the meaning of the Prospectus Regulation. The Bonds have not been admitted to trading on a regulated market in the European Economic Area or in the United Kingdom.

Switzerland and General

This document and the Repurchase Offer Notice neither constitute a prospectus within the meaning of Articles 652a and 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations (as in effect immediately prior to the entry into force of the FinSA) nor a prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange, a prospectus within the meaning of the FinSA or under any other applicable laws.

For further information, please contact:

Peer Nils Schroder, PhD



Head of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations Phone +41 61 606 1102 E-mail media_relations@basilea.com (mailto:media_relations@basilea.com)

investor_relations@basilea.com (mailto:investor_relations@basilea.com)

This press release can be downloaded from www.basilea.com.

Attachment
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to reconsider its decision to conduct the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) 2020 on July 30 and 31, considering the situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice HP Sandesh passed the order directing the state to reconsider its decision and place the same on record at 2.30 pm on Wednesday.

The bench said that the situation has undergone a drastic change after the notification was issued on May 13, 2020 to conduct the CET on July 30 and 31. In the last two weeks, more than 5,000 COVID cases are detected in the state per day and more than 2,000 cases in Bengaluru which has more more than 5,000 containment zones, apart from containment zones in other cities, the bench added.

The bench also pointed out that, as per the SOP issued by MoH, no one is allowed to go out from containment zones. Also, public transport is not available and some students are coming from other states to appear for the CET. Considering all these issues, the state should reconsider the decision to hold the CET, the bench said in the order.

This was after hearing two separate PILs filed by Eric E Stephenes, Secretary of NSUI from Thiruvananthapuram and others, and Andulla Mannan Khan from Mysuru seeking directions to the state to defer the CET.

On May 13, 2020, the state government announced the dates of KCET which will help students planning for admission into engineering colleges across the state which have about 62,000 seats.
Lieutenant Governor dedicated 49 electricity projects to public for augmenting infrastructure in the union territory.

He also laid the foundation stone for seven new sub-stations in the union territory.

The inaugurated projects primarily include capacity addition at 33/11 KV level by way of construction of new 33/11 KV sub-stations and capacity enhancement of existing sub-stations.

"...the Lt Governor dedicated to public the underground cabling work at Patnitop tourist spot yesterday. The e-inauguration of the project was done from Raj Bhawan and simultaneously at Patnitop in presence of Deputy Commissioner Udhampur," an official spokesman said.

The project will improve power supply to the tourist spot, the spokesman said.

Murmu also dedicated to public a new sub-station constructed at Birpur for industrial complex Bari Brahmna which will benefit industrial units.

As many as 10 additional power transformers of different capacities at 10 locations of Kartholi, Greater Kailash, Bari Brahmna, Sidhra, Sunderpur, New Secretariat, Suhagpur, Jourian, Mareen and Katra were also inaugurated and dedicated to the public by the Lt Governor.

These additional transformers will benefit about 1,80,000 people in Jammu, Kathua and Reasi districts, the spokesman said.

The Lt Governor also dedicated to public projets for capacity enhancement of 37 sub-stations by replacing them with higher capacity transformers at a cost of Rs 130.2 crore.

Further, the Lt Governor laid the foundation stone for construction of seven new sub-stations inRajouri, Poonch and Jammu.

These seven sub-stations are being executed at a cost of Rs 17.3 crore and will add 38.9 MVA at 33/11 KV level and benefit about 6,500 domestic and commercial installations, the spokesman said.

"Overall, 49 completed projects were inaugurated at the cost of Rs 81.15 cr. There shall be a capacity addition of 250 MW and improved power supply to 31,000 domestic, commercial consumers, 300 industrial units, 40 villages, 200 commercial hotels, 60 government establishments and various tourist spots", the spokesman said.

He said the projects, for which the foundation stone was laid, will be completed over a period of six months.

(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.)
(CNN) A cat has become the first animal in the UK to test positive for COVID-19, according to the UK's Chief Veterinary Officer. But there's good news the animal and its owners have now made a full recovery.

The feline's infection was confirmed following tests at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) laboratory in Weybridge, England, on July 22, according to a press release from the UK government.

The government said the cat was "the first confirmed case of an animal infection with the coronavirus strain in the UK." It said there was no evidence the cat had transmitted the virus to its owners.

"All available evidence suggests that the cat contracted the coronavirus from its owners who had previously tested positive for Covid-19," the press release added.

The cat was initially diagnosed by a private vet with feline herpes virus -- a common respiratory infection among cats -- but was also tested for SARS-CoV-2 as part of a research program. Follow-up testing at the APHA laboratory confirmed the cat had SARS-CoV-2, which manifests as COVID-19 in humans.

'Rare event'

Chief Veterinary Officer Christine Middlemiss called it a "very rare event" with "infected animals detected to date only showing mild clinical signs and recovering within in a few days."

Yvonne Doyle, the medical director for Public Health England, said it was "not a cause for alarm," adding that there was "no evidence that pets can transmit the disease to humans."

That's a view shared by other animal health experts.

"It has been clear for a while that cats are susceptible to infection, but there is no evidence that they can go on to infect humans," said James Wood, head of the department of veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge, adding that only a handful of pets "have been found to be infected around the world."

"The data overall continue to suggest that cats may become infected by their owners if their owners have Covid-19, but there is no suggestion that they may transmit it to owners. This reflects the advice that if possible, when infected, owners should keep their cats inside," he said.

There have been reports of pet cats and dogs testing positive for coronavirus in New York, Hong Kong and the Netherlands.

COVID-19 was found in three of the eleven cats living on a mink farm in the Netherlands.

Eight big cats also tested positive for the virus at New York's Bronx Zoo.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Cat becomes first animal in UK to test positive for Covid-19."
MOUNTAIN VIEW (dpa-AFX) - Google Cloud, part of search engine giant Google, announced Tuesday a strategic partnership with French telecom major Orange in data, artificial intelligence or AI and edge computing services. The deal would accelerate the transformation of Orange's IT infrastructure and the development of future cloud services, mainly edge computing. Under the agreement, the companies will develop new advanced cloud, edge computing and cybersecurity services that will open up business opportunities for both Google Cloud and Orange. In the partnership, Google will provide its know-how in cutting-edge cloud technologies, analytics and AI tools, digital transformation methodology and dedicated resources. Orange will contribute its deep expertise in information and communication technology services and its multi-national network infrastructure. Orange plans to build a next-generation data analytics and machine-learning platform with Google technologies. The partnership is also expected to benefit consumers and businesses across Europe by bringing powerful cloud-computing capabilities to the edge of the network, such as in retail, gaming, and other industries. Orange and Google Cloud also agreed to jointly create an Innovation Lab and a Center of Excellence that will both foster innovation and growth. 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.
LONDON, July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EY today releases findings from a global survey finding significant differences in how the public and private sectors view the future of ethics, governance, privacy, policy and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. According to the Bridging AI's trust gaps report, developed in collaboration with The Future Society, AI discrepancies exist in four key areas: fairness and avoiding bias, innovation, data access and privacy and data rights.

In the survey of 71 policymakers and more than 280 global organizations, respondents ranked ethical principles by importance for 12 different AI use cases, and sentiment was measured around the risk and regulation of AI.

Policymakers align around specific priorities, while private sector lacks consensus

Policymakers' responses show widespread agreement on the ethical principles most relevant for different applications of AI. For example, on the use of AI for facial recognition policymakers rated "fairness and avoiding bias" and "privacy and data rights" as the two top concerns by a wide margin. Yet private sector priorities on the same question were relatively undifferentiated. In fact, the private sector responses across use cases and principles were more evenly distributed, with narrow margins defining the top choices. And the private sector's top choices were principles prioritized by existing regulations, such as GDPR, rather than emerging issues such as fairness and non-discrimination.

Disagreement about the future direction of governance poses risks

While both policymakers and companies agree a multi-stakeholder approach is needed to guide the direction of AI governance, results show disagreement on what form it will take: thirty-eight percent of organizations surveyed expect the private sector to lead a multi-stakeholder framework, and only 6% of policymakers agree. This disconnect poses potential challenges for both groups in driving governance forward, and it also presents market and regulatory risks for companies developing AI products while governance approaches are still under discussion.

Overcoming differences through collaboration

The survey results found that each stakeholder group has blind spots when it comes to the implementation of ethical AI, with 69% of companies agreeing that regulators understand the complexities of AI technologies and business challenges, while 66% of policymakers disagreed.

These findings suggest greater collaboration between both groups will be critical to overcome knowledge gaps. Policymakers should take a consultative and deliberate approach with input from the private sector, particularly on technical and business complexities for which policymakers lack expertise. Similarly, the private sector should work to reach consensus around AI governance principles, so the regulation requirements of both parties are taken into account.

Nigel Duffy, EY Global Artificial Intelligence Leader, says:

"As AI transforms business and industries, poor alignment diminishes public trust in AI and slows the adoption of critical applications. For efforts to be fruitful, companies and policymakers need to be aligned. Coordination between both sets of stakeholders is critical to developing pragmatic policy and governance approaches that are informed by constraints and realities on the ground."

Gil Forer, EY Global Markets Digital and Business Disruption Leader, says:

"As AI scales up in new applications, policymakers and companies must work together to mitigate new market and legal risks. Cross-collaboration will help these groups understand how emerging ethical principles will influence AI regulations and will aid policymakers in enacting decisions that are nuanced and realistic."

To access the Bridging AI's trust gaps report, click here.

Note to editors

About the report

The EY web-based survey was conducted between 2019 and early 2020. It obtained responses from 71 policymakers and 284 companies across 55 countries.

About EY

EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation is available via ey.com/privacy . For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com .

This news release has been issued by EYGM Limited, a member of the global EY organization that also does not provide any services to clients.

About The Future Society

The Future Society is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit think-and-do tank. Specializing in questions of impact and governance, their mission is to help advance the responsible adoption of AI and other emerging technologies for the benefit of humanity. The Future Society leverages a global, multidisciplinary network of experts, practitioners, and institutional partners and tackles a broad, but carefully selected, range of short-term and longer-term issues in AI governance.

Kailyn Smigelski Suraj Mashru EY Global Media Relations EY Global Media Relations +1 973 715 3624 +44 (0)207 783 0733 [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE EY

Related Links

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A MOTHER accused of murdering her three young children at their Dublin home has been sent forward for trial.

Deirdre Morley (44) was charged after the bodies of her sons Conor (9) and Darragh (7) and daughter Carla (3) McGinley were discovered in the family home earlier this year.

A book of evidence was served on her when she appeared in Dublin District Court today.

Judge Marie Quirke sent her for trial to the Central Criminal Court.

Ms Morley is charged with murdering her children at their home at Parsons Court in Newcastle, west Dublin on January 24. She first appeared in court when she was charged that month but had been too unwell to attend subsequent hearings.

Today, Ms Morley was present and a state solicitor said the book of evidence was ready.

The book was served on the accused and the state solicitor said the DPP was consenting to her being returned for trial on the three charges to the next sittings of the Central Criminal Court.

Ms Morley, wearing a face mask and dressed in a black and gold patterned top and black trousers stood as the judge gave her the formal notice that she had 14 days to provide any alibi details to the prosecution.

At the request of defence solicitor Jonathan Dunphy, the judge granted free legal aid, to cover both junior and senior counsel at trial.

Mr Dunphy also asked the judge to direct continued psychiatric care for his client. Judge Quirke agreed after hearing that this had also been directed previously.

Ms Morley remained silent throughout the proceedings.

On previous court dates, sick notes were presented to the court when the accused was absent and being treated in hospital. At her first appearance, Detective Sergeant Dara Kenny, of Clondalkin garda station said when the charge was put to Ms Morley, she made no reply after caution.

The accused, who has worked as a nurse at Our Ladys Childrens Hospital, Crumlin, was found by a taxi driver near her home shortly before her childrens bodies were discovered. She was treated for several days at Tallaght University Hospital.

The childrens father, Andrew McGinley, arrived home at the same time gardai and paramedics reached the house. When they went inside they found the three children dead.

Some 1,000 mourners attended a funeral for the McGinley children in Rathcoole on January 31.
This is the sweet moment a couple in Kentucky surprised two doting grandparents by revealing they had recently welcomed not one but two babies.

In a video clip shared by the newborns' father Tom Shircliff, Martha James Hall drops her jaw in shock as he reveals a second baby was born on June 13 when they were not allowed to visit the mother in hospital due to the coronavirus.

The babies' mother, Brianne Shircliff is heard laughing behind the camera as the shocked grandmother reacts to realizing little girl Brinkley - who is sleeping in front of her - has a twin brother named Ace Leo.

'That's a real baby!' she says with her eyes widened. 'Are you kidding? Does anyone know this? Oh my goodness!'

Video footage from July 10 shows the moment a couple surprised the newborns' grandparents who knew about granddaughter Brinkley (bottom left) but not the little boy (top right)

Brinkley had a tight knot in her umbilical cord and Ace was breech, their father said in a Facebook post

The surprised grandmother moves away from Tom as he tries to hand over the child for her to hold, prompting the couple to laugh.

In a July 10 Facebook post Tom shared the news of their little miracles, adding that the babies were born premature, which kept them in the NICU for multiple weeks.

'Our little girl had a tight knot in her umbilical cord that stunned the doctors, so it might have been a blessing in disguise that the birth was premature. Our little boy was breech, and there were multiple obstacles throughout his entire delivery,' Tom wrote online.

'There were 13 nurses/doctors in the delivery room in preparation for an emergency delivery. All of the nurses/doctors were amazing.'

In the same post from the same they were finally able to bring the children home, Tom shared how the couple had lost a baby son last year while Brianne was five months pregnant.

After that Tom hoped to have twins.

The children's father Tom Shircliff laughs as the grandparents are surprised by the news

Tom is already a father to four-year-old boy Gavin, and three-year-old Briella Rose (pictured)

Brianne Shircliff gave birth to the twins prematurely and no one was able to visit them in hospital

'While that was the worst day of our lives, we never gave up 'hope' of continuously trying to expand our family' Tom explained. 'I have no doubt that our baby boy in Heaven has been watching over us each day & played a part in blessing us this year with twins!'

Tom  who is already a father to four-year-old boy Gavin, and three-year-old Briella Rose, said that his dream came true after sharing his wish out loud.

'For many years, I have continuously told family & friends that I wished for twins one day in the future. Last year on my birthday, I openly proclaimed my wish for twins prior to blowing out the candles.'

Brinkley was given the middle name 'Hope' in honor of the child they lost.

But the grandparents were not the only loved ones who were surprised to hear the twin news.

The couple only told family and friends during visitations at their house or via video chats.

'Reactions were priceless to say the least,' Tom said.

Tom said on his next birthday he's hoping for triplets.

The grandparents were not the only loved ones who were surprised to hear the twin news
New Delhi/Srinagar, July 28 : In 1988, just before Kashmir erupted with Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, a young man from Anantnag, a small town in the Valley, was commissioned in the Indian Air Force.

Thirty-two years later, as Pakistan's ally China is locked in a military faceoff with India, that young Kashmiri officer, now Wing Commander Hilal Ahmed Rather, is the first pilot to fly the premier fighter jet Rafale that India bought from France.

The first five of a batch of French Rafale fighter aircraft are arriving in India on Wednesday for rapid deployment amid China's aggression against India along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh.

Built by Dassault Aviation, Rafale fighter jets are being flown in by Indian Air Force pilots to the Ambala air base, which is close to both frontiers bordering Pakistan and China. The Indian Air Force received the first Rafale fighter jet in October 2019. Five of the jets had stayed back in France for training. India will receive all the 36 aircraft, which have been ordered, on schedule by the end of 2021.

Wing commander Rather, who is presently Indian Defence Attache in Paris, is a product of Sainik Schoola -- a chain of schools established and run under the Union Ministry of Defence in India.

Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said that Rather was instrumental in ensuring quick delivery and weaponisation of the Rafale fighter jets as per Indian conditions.

Referred to as an 'omnirole' fighter, Rafale is equipped with a wide range of weapons which can do preventive tactical bombing and attack ground targets against the enemy, even strike at ships and perform nuclear deterrence missions.

A resident of Bakhshiabad in Anantnag, Rather studied in the town's Montessori school before moving to Sainik School Nagrota in Jammu. An officer with extraordinary accomplishments, Rather won the National Defense Academy's (NDA) Sword of Honour. The award is given to the officer who achieves overall best performance during his or her entire training period at the academy.

Since the day, the officer has not looked back, sources in the Air Force said. "He is presently one of finest fighter pilots of India," his seniors told IANS.

Rather was commissioned in the IAF as a fighter pilot in the Flying branch on December 17, 1988. He was promoted as Flight Lieutenant in 1993, Wing Commander in 2004, Group Captain in 2010 and Air Commodore in 2016.

"Kashmir, which is usually in news for all the wrong reasons like Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, rioting, political blackmail etc., has shown through Hilal Rather that it has a positive side too. He is indeed a progressive icon and it is a matter of pride that he is from my hometown," Sualeh Keen, a cultural critic from Rather's hometown, Anantnag, told IANS.

"South Kashmir got a bad name because of terrorists who were influenced by ISIS and al Qaeda, like Burhan Wani, Zakir Musa and others. But the fact is that the majority among the youth in Kashmir have always looked up to icons like Rather. They still will," Keen added.

A displaced Kashmiri Pandit, Vijay Zutshi from Anantnag, said, "I really feel proud to know all about Commodore Rather. Being a man from our mohalla and town, I had the honor to be in the same school as him. I wish him all the success and health in his future journey." On social media, thousands of other Indians hailed the Wing Commander's services to the nation and celebrated his accomplishments as victory of India's equality, pluralism and progress.
If youve lived in Berkeley long enough, youve seen Hale Zukas. He makes an unforgettable impression. He zooms through the streets of town, wearing a helmet, and attached to his helmet is a long pointer that he uses in conjunction with a letter board to spell out words. Hes a permanent fixture at local concerts, lectures, and other events. At 74, Hale has had cerebral palsy since birth, and this is the manner in which he chooses to communicate. He has had this particular helmet for over 27 years, and although its worn, it does it does its intended job beautifully.

What many people may not know, however, is that Hale is one of the countrys premiere disability pioneers and that Berkeley is the birthplace of the modern disability rights movement. He was a math major at UC Berkeley, and is fluent in Russian. At the height of the Free Speech movement, Hale was taking classes while Joan Baez was playing in Sproul Plaza. Ed Roberts had made great headway for the lives of disabled students on campus, and when Hale came along a few years later, the needs of students with disabilities on Berkeleys campus became more demanding. Hale was one of the founders of the Center for Independent Living, a groundbreaking group founded by disabled people for disabled people. The organizations model for Independent Living has been reproduced and circulated worldwide, thanks to that early work of Hale, along with Ed Roberts and Judy Heumann.

Years before the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) , there was Hale and a dedicated group of men and women who refused to let the status quo define and limit their possibilities. Whats so remarkable is that the world we live in and take for granted today, from ramps to curb cuts to the way we construct buildings, can be traced to the work of this group. Today, Hale is still advocating for the rights of others by serving on transit accessibility boards throughout the Bay Area. Hale had direct input into the design of the buttons for BART, which is a transit system that is modeled worldwide for accessibility. Hale essentially helped build the infrastructure and world we live in today, and is now enjoying the fruits of that decades long labor.

Tremendous challenges lie ahead to achieve equal access. Far too many places in day-to-day life are inaccessible, and issues like health care loom large and uncertain for millions of Americans. Issues of intersectionality in the disability community are also crucial topics in need of discussion. This places an increasing importance on the awareness and understanding of the impact that this early disability history has on our society today, in order to address the challenges we still face.

At 15, my father was driving from an overnight shift at work when he was hit head-on by a tractor trailer. Thankfully, he survived, but that morning changed my life and that of my family forever. Disability affects everyone, and is coined by some activists as the largest minority in the world. According to the World Health Organization, 15% of the worlds population lives with some form of disability. In some way, it touches all of us, with no regard to your race, sexuality, gender or national origin. We have to find a way to increase the dialogue around this issue.

My film Hale, which was my documentary thesis at UC Berkeley, touches on this early disability history, and also shows a spotlight on a hero that has always been with us. Before I was even born, Hale was zooming through the streets of Berkeley laying down asphalt to make curb cuts where there none existed, and drafting policy papers for the California Legislature to help pass a bill that would allow people to hire or fire their own caretakers.

He was instrumental in the 504 Movement of 1977. In that movement, disabled people staged sit-ins nationwide to demand federal protections that were promised, but not delivered. Today, it is still considered the longest sit-in in a federal building in American history. As the other sit-ins nationwide started to dismantle, the San Francisco protest stayed intact. Hale was one of the leaders of that protest, and went with Heumann and other activists to Washington to confront national politicians on the issue. As a result, the group finally won those long overdue rights, and set the stage for the ADA Act of 1990. If the San Francisco group would have also caved in, who knows how different our world would be today.

My particular challenge in this film was finding a way to show the brilliance, wittiness and insight of a man who cant verbally communicate. I learned to sit down and to be able to listen to every single letter he was pointing to and understand what he was communicating to me. This process took hours in one sitting. In many ways, I went through my own transformation process while filming with Hale, and my goal was to show in a 20-minute film what I went through in six months. We affixed a camera to his wheelchair so the audience can see the world as he sees it. Hale is a lesson in the power of sheer will, and a powerful lesson that if you can open your eyes in the morning and you have life in you, you can tackle whatever challenge that you face. There are millions of Americans who wake up like Hale, every morning, with their primary goal to live their lives as independently as they can.

There are many forgotten heroes that live among us daily. I urge you to find these people in your own communities and to reach out to them, and most importantly, to listen to what they have to say, in whatever medium they choose to communicate it. As a filmmaker, I realized an urgent need to convey the story of Hale and how he changed the world, with his helmet and pointer, one letter at a time.

Brad Bailey is a recent graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Journalism and Columbia University with a Masters in Oral History. His film Hale was his documentary thesis from UC Berkeley and won the Student Academy Awards in 2017.
Authorities in Da Nang have locked down three local hospitals and four streets from July 28 until at least August 11 as these areas are linked to the locally-transmitted COVID-19 cases recently recorded in the city.

The lockdown was applied to Da Nang Hospital, Da Nang C Hospital, and Da Nang Orthopedics and Rehabilitation Hospital.

Parts of four local streets, including Quang Trung, Hai Phong, Ong Ich Khiem, and Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, were also fenced off.

The lockdown started at 0:00 on July 28 and will last until the end of August 11 and authorities say it may be further extended.

These areas are where recently-recorded COVID-19 patients had been prior to their diagnosis.

Many businesses and residents were seen evacuating their possessions from the areas on Monday night before the lockdown was enforced.

Vietnam has logged 15 locally transmitted infections since Saturday, ending the previous 99-day streak with no community transmissions.

Fourteen patients are being treated in Da Nang while one is in medical care in Quang Ngai Province, about 160 kilometers south of Da Nang.

Hai Phong Street is fenced off in Da Nang City, Vietnam, July 28, 2020. Photo: Tan Luc / Tuoi Tre

The government has decided to reinstate enhanced social distancing in Da Nang for at least 15 days from Tuesday, similar to measures enforced nationwide in early April, when Vietnam was at the peak of the pandemic.

Authorities in the coastal city have banned crowded events, shuttered non-essential services, and stopped receiving domestic tourists to prevent the virus from spreading.

Vietnams COVID-19 tally was at 431, with 365 having recovered as of Tuesday morning, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said Monday the virus strain detected in the new wave of patients had not been identified in Vietnam before.

Police officers seal off a street in Da Nang City, Vietnam, July 28, 2020. Photo: Tan Luc / Tuoi Tre

The headquarters of Thach Trang Ward is located inside the lockdown area in Da Nang City, Vietnam. Photo: Tan Luc / Tuoi Tre

Da Nang Hospital is on lockdown in Da Nang City, Vietnam, July 28, 2020. Photo: Tan Luc / Tuoi Tre

A vendor decides to stay inside the lockdown area in Da Nang City, Vietnam, July 28, 2020. Photo: Tan Luc / Tuoi Tre

A street is fenced off in Da Nang City, Vietnam, July 28, 2020. Photo: Tan Luc / Tuoi Tre

Da Nang C Hospital is on lockdown in Da Nang City, Vietnam, July 28, 2020. Photo: Tan Luc / Tuoi Tre

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MISSISSAUGA, ON, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Maple Leaf Foods Inc., (TSX: MFI) today announced that it has completed the previously announced sale of its poultry plant in Drummondville, Quebec, including the associated supply, to Giannone Poultry of St. Cuthbert, Quebec.

In connection with the sale, Maple Leaf Foods and Giannone have entered into a three-year supply agreement that will allow Maple Leaf Foods to maintain its supply of fresh chicken. The completion of this transaction is part of Maple Leaf Foods' overall network optimization strategy.

About Maple Leaf Foods

Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is a producer of food products under leading brands including Maple Leaf, Maple Leaf Prime, Maple Leaf Natural Selections, Schneiders, Schneiders Country Naturals, Mina, Greenfield Natural Meat Co., Lightlife, Field Roast Grain Meat Co. and Swift. Maple Leaf employs approximately 13,000 people and does business in Canada, the U.S. and Asia. The Company is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario and its shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MFI.

SOURCE Maple Leaf Foods Inc.

Related Links

http://www.mapleleaf.ca


As the days count down to the end of summer, public school parents in New Jersey have a big choice to make: Are you sending your kids back to school? Or are you signing up for all-remote learning?

Gov. Phil Murphy said last week that every public school district in New Jersey will offer an all-remote option for families that want their children to stay home to do their schoolwork instead of returning to school for in-person classes during the coronavirus pandemic.
Associated Press

The widow and two sisters of a U.S. Marine killed in Afghanistan are suing Alec Baldwin, alleging the actor exposed them to a flood of social media hatred by claiming on Instagram that one sister was an insurrectionist for attending former President Donald Trump's Washington, D.C., rally on Jan. 6 last year. The sister, Roice McCollum, protested peacefully and legally; was not among those who stormed the U.S. Capitol that day and, after being interviewed by the FBI, was never detained, arrested, accused of or charged with any crime, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne. The lawsuit comes as Baldwin is immersed in an ongoing investigation into the death of a cinematographer and the wounding of a director last fall after a prop gun the actor was holding on a movie set went off.
Kainantu life of mine plan lateral and vertical development (looking West)

Mineable Shape Optimiser (MSO) shapes at 5.5g/t AuEq cut-off long-section (looking West)

1.0Mtpa Process Plant Flowsheet

Plan View of Standalone and Existing Processing Plants

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- K92 Mining Inc. (K92 or the Company) (TSX-V: KNT; OTCQX: KNTNF) is pleased to announce the results of the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on its Kora gold deposit (Kora), which together with its Irumafimpa gold deposit (Irumafimpa) comprise the Kainantu Gold Mine Project (the Kainantu Project) in Papua New Guinea. Based on the results of the study, the Company is proceeding to a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for the Kora Stage 3 Expansion.



Stage 3 Expansion PEA Study Highlights

After-tax NPV5% of US$1.5 billion at US$1,500 per ounce gold, increasing to an after-tax NPV5% of US$2.0 billion at US$1,900 per ounce gold.

Average annual expansion run-rate production of 318,000 ounces gold equivalent (AuEq)(1) per annum at 1.0Mtpa, commencing in late-2023, representing a 165% increase from Stage 2 Expansion Life of Mine (LOM) average annual production.

LOM average cash costs of US$353 per AuEq ounce and AISC(2) of US$489 per AuEq ounce.

Low cash costs of US$202 per gold ounce and AISC costs of US$362 per gold ounce net of by-product credits.

Initial pre-expansion capital cost of US$125 million and life of mine sustaining capital cost of US$341 million with all capital costs fully funded by existing Stage 2 Kainantu mine cash flow.

Mine life of 12 years, including ~3 years of Stage 2 production (2021 to late-2023).

AuEq  calculated on the following metal prices: Au  US$1,500/oz, Ag  US$18.00/oz, Cu  US$3.00/lb. Note that gold equivalence factors for the production estimates are different to those used for reporting the Mineral Resource estimate. AISC  All-In Sustaining Costs include cash costs plus estimated corporate G&A, sustaining costs and accretion.

The PEA is preliminary in nature and 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. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

Story continues

John Lewins, K92 Chief Executive Officer and Director, stated, Over the past three years, Kainantu has delivered tremendous production and exploration growth and we are very pleased to report the results for the next major growth plan - Stage 3 Expansion. The PEA economics are robust, with run-rate production of ~318,000 oz AuEq per annum; low average all-in sustaining costs net of by-product credits of $362/oz gold which benefitted from higher copper grades and economies of scale, and; an after-tax NPV5% of US$1.5 billion at US$1,500/oz. Importantly, the Stage 3 Expansion is a low capital intensity project and within our ability to self-fund from scheduled mine cash flow.

As a result, we are initiating a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for Stage 3, targeting mid-2021. Work on the new twin incline is underway and we currently have four diamond drill rigs operational underground focused on upgrading the resource for the DFS and expanding the known resource to the south and at depth. Surface exploration is also rapidly expanding, from the current 3 diamond drill rigs to 5 drill rigs by year-end, adding even greater focus on resource growth near-mine and regionally.

PEA Overview

The Kora Stage 3 Expansion PEA considers an expansion to underground mining with on-site treatment of mine material by conventional milling, gravity and flotation recovery through a standalone 1-million-tonne-per annum (Mtpa) process plant. The PEA is derived from the Companys Mineral Resource Estimate for Kora (effective date of April 2, 2020) and does not incorporate post resource drilling results.

An updated technical report prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101), titled, NI 43-101 Independent Technical Report and Preliminary Economic Assessment for Expansion of the Kainantu Project to treat 1 Mtpa from the Kora Gold Deposit, Kainantu, Papua New Guinea, which will include the results of the PEA discussed in this news release together with an updated Mineral Resource Estimate for the Kora Deposit, will be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the Companys profile by July 31, 2020.

Table 1: Kainantu Stage 3 Expansion - Preliminary Economic Assessment Highlights

US Dollars unless otherwise stated Life of Mine

(starting January 2021) Post Stage 3 Completion

(2024 onwards) Production Mine life (years) 12 years Total mill feed (000s tonnes) 9,788 Average mill throughput (tonnes per annum) 816 ktpa 1.0 Mtpa (run-rate)(1) Total Metal Production AuEq (000s ounces) 3,096 2,639 Gold (000s ounces) 2,642 2,229 Copper (mlbs) 195 177 Silver (000s ounces) 4,248 3,833 Average Annual Metal Production AuEq (000s ounces per annum) 258 318 (run-rate)(1) Gold (000s ounces per annum) 220 270 (run-rate)(1) Copper (mlbs per annum) 16 21 (run-rate)(1) Silver (000s ounces per annum) 354 450 (run-rate)(1) Average Grade AuEq grade (g/t) 10.4 g/t Gold grade (g/t) 8.84 g/t Copper grade (%) 1.0% Silver grade (g/t) 18 g/t Average Recovery Gold Recovery (%) 95% Copper Recovery (%) 95% Silver Recovery (%) 77% Costs Mining cost per tonne (US$/t) $41.41 $40.18 Processing cost per tonne (US$/t) $25.20 $24.77 G&A cost per tonne (US$/t) $27.01 $23.84 Total operating cost per tonne of mill feed (US$/t) $93.62 $88.79 Sustaining capital per tonne of mill feed (US$/t) $34.63 $24.84 Total cost per tonne of mill feed (US$/t) $128.26 $113.63 Initial pre-expansion capital expenditure ($m) $125 Sustaining capital expenditure ($m) $341 Total capital expenditure ($m) $466 Cash cost per ounce AuEq ($/oz)(2)

All-in sustaining cost per ounce AuEq ($/oz)(3)

Cash cost per ounce gold ($/oz)(2) $353

$489

$202 $341

$445

$177 All-in sustaining cost per ounce gold ($/oz)(3) $362 $301 Base Case Economic Analysis at US$1,500/oz Gold, US$3.00/lb Copper and US$18.00/oz Silver After-tax NPV0% $2.0 billion After-tax NPV5% $1.5 billion IRR (%) and Payback Period (years) N/A (Self-Funded) Economic Analysis at $1,900/oz Gold, US$3.00/lb Copper and US$18.00/oz Silver After-tax NPV0% $2.7 billion After-tax NPV5% $2.0 billion IRR (%) and Payback Period (years) N/A (Self-Funded)

Run-rate excludes the final partial calendar year of production Cash costs are net of by-product credits and are inclusive of mining costs, processing costs, site G&A and refining charges and royalties. AISC includes cash costs plus estimated corporate G&A, sustaining costs and accretion.

Kora Mineral Resource Estimate

The Companys current Mineral Resource Estimate for Kora (effective date of April 2, 2020) was completed by H & S Consultants Pty. Ltd. (Table 2). The Kora resource estimate provides the resource base for the PEA, while the Irumafimpa deposit was not included in the PEA.

Table 2  Global Kora Mineral Resource (Effective Date April 2, 2020, 1 g/t gold cut-off)

Tonnes Gold Copper Copper AuEq (Mt) (g/t) (Moz) (g/t) (Moz) (%) (kt) (g/t) (Moz) Measured 0.66 13.34 0.28 11.6 0.25 0.51 3.4 14.14 0.3 Indicated 2.47 8.44 0.67 16.3 1.29 0.63 15.6 9.46 0.8 Total M&I 3.13 9.47 0.95 15.3 1.54 0.61 19 10.45 1.1 Inferred 12.67 7.32 2.98 19.9 8.11 1.1 139.4 9.01 3.7

The Independent and Qualified Person responsible for the Mineral Resource Estimate is Simon Tear, P.Geo. of H & S Consultants Pty. Ltd., Sydney, Australia.

Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability.

Resources were compiled at 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10 g/t gold cut-off grades.

Density (t/m3) is on a per zone basis, K1 and Kora Link: 2.84 t/m3; K2: 2.93 t/m3; Waste: 2.8 t/m3.

Reported tonnage and grade figures are rounded from raw estimates to reflect the order of accuracy of the estimate.

Minor variations may occur during the addition of rounded numbers.

Calculations used metric units (metres, tonnes and g/t).

Gold equivalents are calculated as AuEq = Au g/t + ((0.923 x Cu%)*1.38)+ ((0.77 x Ag g/t*0.0115). Gold price US$1,400/oz; Silver US$16.05/oz; Copper US$3.05/lb. Metal payabilities and recoveries are incorporated into the AuEq formula. Recoveries of 92.3% for copper and 77% for silver.

Note that these gold equivalence factors for resource reporting are different to those applied for the mine plan and production estimates.

Mining Operations

The Company engaged Australian Mine and Development Pty. Ltd. (AMDAD) to undertake the PEA mine plan for Kora, which involved:

Applying financial and processing parameters to determine cut-off grades for stope design.

Generating three-dimensional stope shapes and mining inventory using the CAE Mineable Shape Optimiser (MSO) program.

Creating a conceptual development layout to suit the MSO inventory.

Producing a project cash-flow model based on a mining schedule prepared by a third party consultant engaged by K92.

The Stage 3 Expansion mine plan is designed as an incline access operation with a series of ore passes for efficient gravity material movement amongst sublevels and ultimately to the twin incline for material transport to surface. Life of mine tonnage from the PEA mine plan is approximately 80% from long hole open stoping and 20% from cut and fill mining methods. Both mining methods have already been successfully applied at the Kora deposit, with long hole stoping utilizing the AVOCA and modified AVOCA methods. The AVOCA methods involve backfilling from the overcut sublevel while the long hole stope is advanced from the undercut sublevel to limit the strike length of the open stope. By limiting the strike length of the open stope the method is designed to maintain stability of the stope walls and backs and increase the ultimate strike length extracted. The application of cut and fill mining is greatest during the earlier parts of the mine plan until the paste fill plant is constructed in 2022. Prior to the implementation of the paste fill plant, fill is exclusively unconsolidated waste backfill. Once the paste fill plant is commissioned, the AVOCA method will be replaced by longhole stoping with cemented fill.

Stopes were identified for the mine plan based on the CAE Mineable Shape Optimiser (MSO) program at an elevated cut-off grade of 5.5 g/t AuEq. An elevated cut-off grade was selected as this provided the greatest discounted cash flow while resulting in only a moderate reduction in gold equivalent ounces produced. Stope shapes with uneconomic development access were excluded. Dilution was estimated based on a 0.5m dilution skin for both the footwall and hanging wall using the MSO program for a minimum stope width of 3.0 metres. An additional dilution factor of 8% (12% for K1) was then applied to account for external dilution from backfill and additional falloff. The overall dilution range is 21% to 41%, with K1 and K2 averaging 31% and 26% dilution, respectively. A simple mining recovery factor of 90% was applied. The life of mine average head grade is 8.84 g/t Au, 1.0 % Cu and 18 g/t Ag or 10.4 g/t AuEq.

The mine plan involves operating at the Stage 2 400,000-tonnes-per-annum throughput rate until late-2023 when the Stage 3 Expansion is online. In 2024 to the end of the mine life, the designed throughput rate is 1 Mtpa. See Table 5 for a material movement summary as part of the simplified economic model.

See Figure 1 for a long-section of the life of mine plan lateral and vertical development.

See Figure 2 for the Mineable Shape Optimiser (MSO) shapes at 5.5g/t AuEq cut-off long-section.

Mineral Processing, Tailings and Infrastructure

K92 engaged Mincore Pty. Ltd. to complete the PEA for the expansion of Kainantu through the design of a standalone 1 Mtpa processing plant and supporting infrastructure. The new plant is adjacent to the existing process plant, which has a designed throughput of 400,000 tonnes per annum. The existing plant will be placed on care and maintenance upon the ramp-up of the Stage 3 Process Plant.

Run-of-mine (ROM) material is trucked ~6km from the 800 Portal to the Kainantu Process Plant, where it is either stockpiled or direct tipped. The 1 Mtpa processing plant design flowsheet incorporates a conventional single stage jaw crushing (200tph) with direct feed SAG milling circuit (125tph), mill that includes flash flotation and a gravity circuit to capture free gold to produce gold dore, followed by conventional sulphide flotation, thickening, filtering and drying for concentrate. This circuit is based on simple conventional technology, with the flow-sheet largely similar to the existing Kainantu processing circuit. The key differences being the Stage 3 Process Plant implementing one-stage crush circuit (vs two-stage crushing circuit) and SAG milling (vs ball milling).

Tailings management upgrades are part of the Stage 3 Expansion, through the construction of a paste fill plant to mitigate surface tailings deposition. Thickened tailings at the process plant are designed to be pumped to the paste fill plant at the 800 Portal, with the final paste fill product pumped underground to void stopes for fill. Residual thickened tailings report to the tailings impoundment on surface. To support the increased processing capacity and implementation of the paste fill plant, a new 13MW centralized standby power station will be constructed, in addition to 22kV switchyard and 11kV substation, 11kV power reticulation and 11kV overhead power line to the 800 Portal.

See Figure 3 for the 1.0Mtpa Process Plant Flowsheet.

See Figure 4 for the location of the 1.0Mtpa Standalone Processing Plant.

Capital and Operating Costs

The initial capital cost estimate includes an overall 25% contingency and the major items are outlined in Table 3.

Table 3: Capital Cost Estimates

US Dollars unless otherwise stated Camp Upgrade $4.1m Process Plant 1Mtpa $46.3m Power Station $16.0m Office Facilities $0.8m Mining Fleet $25.9m Paste fill Plant & Electricals $20.3m Freight $11.3m Initial Pre-Expansion Capital $124.6m Total Life of Mine Sustaining Capital $341.3m

Totals may differ due to rounding

Table 4: Operating Cost Estimates (Life of Mine Average)

US Dollars unless otherwise stated Mining Cost ($/t) $41.41 Processing Cost ($/t) $25.20 G&A Cost ($/t) $27.01 Total Cost Per Tonne Processed ($/t) $93.62 Totals may differ due to rounding

Economic Analysis



In addition to preparation of mine plan schedules, AMDAD prepared a pre-tax conceptual cashflow and discounted cashflow derived from the schedule. Tax calculations for the after-tax cashflow and discounted cashflow were prepared by K92. A summary is shown in Table 5 and a sensitivity analysis to gold price is shown in Table 6.

Table 5: Simplified Financial Model at US$1,500/oz Au, US$3.00/lb Cu, US$18.00/oz Ag

Year 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 Mill Throughput (ktpa) 396 401 542 872 985 1,002 1,004 992 1,001 1,000 1,000 593 Gold Grade 10.97 10.77 9.02 7.38 9.50 9.12 10.17 9.24 8.57 9.20 8.65 3.71 Copper Grade 0.56% 0.57% 0.78% 0.91% 0.93% 0.85% 0.82% 1.17% 1.15% 1.16% 1.06% 0.89% Silver Grade 11.4 12.0 13.8 13.7 17.7 17.4 16.3 18.1 23.9 20.5 19.9 15.8 AuEq Grade 11.88 11.71 10.28 8.80 10.99 10.50 11.50 11.08 10.43 11.03 10.33 5.10 Gold Production (000s oz) 133 132 149 197 286 279 312 280 262 281 264 67 Copper Production (m lbs) 4.6 4.8 8.9 16.6 19.2 17.8 17.2 24.4 24.0 24.3 22.2 11.0 Silver Production (000s oz) 111 119 185 296 433 432 405 445 592 507 493 232 AuEq Production (000s oz) 144 143 170 234 331 321 353 336 319 337 315 92 Net Revenue (US$m)(1) $198 $198 $233 $320 $454 $441 $485 $458 $434 $460 $432 $124 Total OPEX (US$m)(1) $50 $54 $62 $82 $88 $90 $90 $86 $87 $90 $87 $50 Growth Capital (US$m) $18 $39 $54 $11 $3 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 Sustaining Capital (US$m) $44 $43 $42 $32 $34 $38 $27 $25 $24 $14 $10 $6 Pre-Tax Net Cashflow (US$m) $86 $62 $76 $196 $329 $313 $367 $348 $323 $356 $334 $68 After-tax Net Cashflow (US$m) $54 $35 $45 $144 $238 $222 $261 $247 $229 $254 $238 $52 1. Net revenue in summary model includes the impact of royalty payments.

Table 6: After-Tax NPV5% Sensitivity to Gold Price



Gold Price After-Tax NPV5% (US$B) $1,400 $1.3 billion $1,500 $1.5 billion $1,600 $1.6 billion $1,700 $1.7 billion $1,800 $1.8 billion $1,900 $2.0 billion

Conference Call and Webcast to Present Results

K92 will host a conference call and webcast to present the Stage 3 Kainantu Expansion PEA at 8:30 am (EDT) on Tuesday, July 28, 2020.

Listeners may access the conference call by dialing toll-free to 1-800-319-4610 within North America or +1-604-638-5340 from international locations.

 The conference call will also be broadcast live (webcast) and may be accessed via the following link: http://services.choruscall.ca/links/k92mining20200728.html

Qualified Person

K92 Mine Geology Manager and Mine Exploration Manager, Mr. Andrew Kohler, PGeo, a Qualified Person under the meaning of NI 43-101 has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release. Data verification by Mr. Kohler includes significant time onsite reviewing drill core, face sampling, underground workings and discussing work programs and results with geology and mining personnel.

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.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In this press release, we use the terms cash costs" and "all-in sustaining costs ". These should be considered as non-GAAP financial measures as defined in applicable Canadian securities laws and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Cash costs per ounce is a non-GAAP term typically used by gold mining companies to assess the level of gross margin available to the Company by subtracting these costs from the unit price realized during the period. This non-GAAP term is also used to assess the ability of a mining company to generate cash flow from operations. Cash costs per ounce includes mining and processing costs plus applicable royalties, and net of by-product revenue and net realizable value adjustments. Total cash costs per ounce is exclusive of exploration costs.

Cash costs per ounce is intended to provide additional information only and does not have any standardized meaning under IFRS and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other mining companies. It should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. The measure is not necessarily indicative of cash flow from operations under IFRS or operating costs presented under IFRS.

The Company adopted an "all-in sustaining costs per ounce" non-GAAP performance measure in accordance with the World Gold Council published in June 2013. The Company believes the measure more fully defines the total costs associated with producing gold; however, this performance measure has no standardized meaning. Accordingly, there may be some variation in the method of computation of "all-in sustaining costs " as determined by the Company compared with other mining companies. In this context, "all-in sustaining costs" for the consolidated Company reflects total mining and processing costs, corporate and administrative costs, exploration costs, sustaining capital, and other operating costs.

All-in sustaining costs per gold ounce is intended to provide additional information only and does not have any standardized meaning under IFRS and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other mining companies. It should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS.

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 Project, expectations of future cash flows, the planned plant expansion, production results, cost of sales, sales of production, potential expansion of resources 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, mitigation of the Covid-19 pandemic, continuation of the lifted state of emergency, 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.

Figure 1  Kainantu life of mine plan lateral and vertical development (looking West) is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cc583aad-e763-4835-b8be-c8c8239c91ec

Note: RAR: Return Airway, FAR: Fresh Airway; OP: Ore Pass

Figure 2  Mineable Shape Optimiser (MSO) shapes at 5.5g/t AuEq cut-off long-section (looking West) is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cb64fe62-8887-4c8f-b0e6-5e47af9b9c0f

Figure 3  1.0Mtpa Process Plant Flowsheet is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4b377027-9f1a-498e-9e0f-a20d1887ebf3

Figure 4  Plan View of Standalone and Existing Processing Plants is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8196abf4-71d8-40b3-855a-f181b3b060de
Google has told its 200,000 staff around the world - including more than 8,000 in Dublin - they can work from home until next summer as the pandemic keeps its offices partly shut for the next year.

Sundar Pichai, the technology giant's chief executive, said all of its employees would have the option to stay at home until next July. It is the longest time frame for a full office reopening laid out by any company of its size.

Google was one of the first big employers to send staff home in mid-March, meaning some employees will have been working from home for more than 15 months under the company's current reopening plans.

The company, which is Dublin's largest multinational tech employer, had told the majority of its 8,000 workers to work from home for two days in early March after an employee was suspected of having coronavirus. However, later in the month, Google Dublin shut its offices again and staff began to work remotely.

Mr Pichai told staff that Google had reopened offices in 42 countries and hoped to reopen more, but said he wanted employees to know when they would have to return, allowing them the option to relocate to cheaper cities.

"I hope this will offer the flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months," he said.

California, where Google has its headquarters, is fighting an uphill battle with coronavirus and has begun to shut down services for a second time, becoming the worst-affected state in the US.

All of Google's US offices remain closed. The firm had previously told staff to return by January.

The prolonged lockdown of Google's offices could influence other major employers to take similar precautions, given that the technology industry has been at the forefront of the shift to remote work that has been triggered by the spread of the coronavirus

Tech companies including Facebook and Twitter said they would let employees work from home indefinitely and that in the long term at least half the workforce would not have to come to an office every day.

Google had originally planned to allow a significant number of employees to begin returning to its Mountain View, California, headquarters and other offices during the summer. But the pandemic's ongoing spread prompted Google to push back the reopening until January and now it has prompted yet another delay.

"I hope this will offer the flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months," Pichai wrote.

The decision affects more than 123,000 employees on the payroll of Google and that of its parent, Alphabet, as well as 80,000 contractors that normally work on the companies' campuses. ( Daily Telegraph, London)
With the increased tensions between the United States and China, observers are questioning if the relationship has reached a turning point.

Last week, China ordered U.S. diplomats to leave the consulate in the city of Chengdu. The move followed the U.S. order to close the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas.

In addition, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized Chinas Communist Party leaders as untrustworthy during a speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in California.

He said, The kind of engagement we have been pursuing has not brought the kind of change in China that President Nixon hoped to induce.

Nixons visit in 1972 opened the way for normalization of relations between the U.S. and mainland China. Before that time, the U.S. recognized Chiang Kai-sheks government in Taiwan as the true government of China.



Trade dispute

Since 2018, China and the United States have been involved in a major trade dispute. It has resulted in both governments increasing taxes on imports from the other side. The U.S. is Chinas single biggest export market  even with import taxes in place. China is the third largest market for American exporters.

The countries continue negotiations, but experts say, if they fail, the disagreement could place pressure on the world economy at a time when it is weak because of the coronavirus crisis.

Technology interdependence

U.S. and Chinese producers of telecommunications, computer, medical and other technology are closely linked. U.S. companies like Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and many others depend on Chinese factories to build smartphones, computers and other electronics. Those Chinese factories need processors and other parts from the United States, Japan, Taiwan and Europe.

U.S. government moves to cut off some supplies to the Chinese company Huawei have disrupted the flow of parts among many technology companies.



Security issues

China claims almost all of the South China Sea as its territory. It has also developed manmade islands built up with military equipment in the area. As a result, China has territorial disputes with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam over the waterway.

Last week, the U.S. rejected Chinas claims to most of the South China Sea. In a statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the claims are completely unlawful. Pompeo added the U.S. would consider protecting other countries in the area against China through legal means. And a State Department official suggested that economic measures could be placed on Chinese officials over the issue.



Human rights

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has denounced China for its treatment of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet. As a result, the U.S. Commerce Department placed restrictions on 11 Chinese companies over human rights abuses.

As China established a new security law over Hong Kong, the U.S. said it would no longer treat Hong Kong as an autonomous territory from the mainland government. It said Hong Kong could face visa limits and economic measures similar to China.

Blaming China for the coronavirus

President Trump has also blamed China for failing to control the spread of the new coronavirus. By July 27, Johns Hopkins Universitys Coronavirus Resource Center estimated that more than 16 million people have been infected with about 650,000 deaths around the world.

Many countries, including the U.S. and China, are researching to find an effective vaccine against the virus. Last week, the U.S. Justice Department charged two Chinese citizens with stealing intellectual property and targeting American companies working on coronavirus vaccine, testing devices and antiviral drugs.



Policy or politics?

Some experts suggest that the administration of President Donald Trump is raising tensions with China because he is seeking reelection in November. However, the competitive differences between the countries remain.

Chu Yin is a professor at the University of International Relations in Beijing. He said Americans who supported closer ties with China have been disappointed. He said Chinas economic growth and development of a middle class has helped the ruling Communist Party rather than democratic change.

Steve Tsang is director of the China Institute at Londons School of Oriental and African Studies. He said, We are looking at a structural change in the relationship, which will continue even if Trump does not get a second term.

Im Mario Ritter, Jr.

Mario Ritter Jr. adapted this story for VOA Learning English with additional reporting from the Associated Press. Hai Do was the editor.

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Words in This Story

engagement n. the process of being involved with something

disrupt v. to cause something to be unable to continue in the usual way

pursue v. trying to carry out, seeking to realize

induce v. to cause to happen, to bring about

autonomous adj. able to govern oneself, able to operate independently
Every skilled nursing home in Pennsylvania has met the July 24 deadline for testing all residents and employees for COVID-19, the state said Tuesday.

Completing that round of tests is a key part of the plan for allowing in-person visits to nursing homes  something that hasnt happened in Pennsylvania since early March, and which experts say has grave medical consequences of its own. But even with all of them meeting the deadline, visitation is still weeks if not months away.

If a facility has zero infections among residents and staff, it can move into the first stage of a three-stage plan for resuming visits. It takes one or more additional two-week periods of no infections before the facility can allow visitors.

Even then, visits can only take place if the facility also feels it has sufficient supplies of things such as protective equipment to prevent spread of COVID-19. And the visits take place only by appointment and facilities can impose additional controls.

Beyond that, it takes only one infection to send a facility back to stage one, resulting in another multi-week wait before it can allow visitors again.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said Tuesday that, with all the variables, she couldnt provide a firm estimate of when a facility with zero infections as of July 24 would be able to accept visitors.

She advised people who have a family member in a nursing home to call the facility to find out when visits will resume.

The July 24 deadline applies only to skilled nursing facilities. Personal care and assisted living facilities have until August 31 to complete testing of residents and staff. However, they can carry out the testing sooner and, if they have zero infections, can move into stage one of the plan for resuming visitation, Levine said.

The health department on Tuesday couldnt provide details on how many nursing homes registered zero infections, a spokesman said.

The main purpose of the so-called universal testing is to keep COVID out of long term care facilities and identify employees who are carrying it but have no symptoms, which experts say it the main way COVID gets into the facilities.

In Pennsylvania, COVID has killed more than 4,800 people in nursing, assisted living or personal care facilities  nearly 70% of the states death toll. However, the death toll has slowed greatly as facilities have overcome things like protective equipment shortages and developed better policies for controlling infections.

However, the ban on visitors and the resulting isolation has its own serious heath toll, experts say, with the isolation contributing to ills including depression.

Some advocates argue the consequences of the isolation have become dangerously high  group dining and activities also are on hold  and the state and facilities have had enough time to resume visits while keeping residents safe from COVID. Moreover, COVID is denying countless long term care residents and their loved one of the opportunity to enjoy the residents final months together, with facilities typically allowing only end-of-life visits.

Pennsylvania has about 45,000 people living in about 1,200 personal care and assisted living facilities, about 80,000 living in 693 skilled nursing facilities.

Meanwhile, Levine and other experts have stressed that the prevalence of infections inside long term care facilities is a product of the level of infections in the surrounding, and strict controls are the only way to keep them out.

I know that its a really difficult balance, but we cannot introduce COVID-19 into the facility, Levine said.

Facilities will have to periodically re-test all residents and staff. The frequency will depend on things including the prevalence of COVID infections in the county where its located.
Actor Richa Chadha, who recently wrote a 3900-word blog in the aftermath of Sushant Singh Rajputs death, in an interview has spoken about the ongoing insider-outsider debate in Bollywood, among other things.

Richa clarified in an interview to India Today that she had been approached to speak on the subject, and not the other way around. She said that she is making this clarification at the onset because actors are often maligned for seeking publicity. Where I stand on this insider-outsider debate is that, like in the rest of the world, the death of nuance is being played. I am an outsider and I was hired for my first films by outsiders. I was never favoured by any insider club. I also dont seek their validation because our ideas of cinema are so different, she said.

Also read: Richa Chadha reveals what she was paid for Gangs of Wasseypur, cites examples of actors who were left destitute in final years

Richa said that several people who shared her blog are tone-deaf because they didnt realise that she had written about them. If you are a producer who hasnt cleared somebodys payment, my blog is about you. If you are a magazine editor who is promoting such culture, my blog is about you, she said.

In her blog, she noted that several filmmakers who shared condolence messages a month ago (after Sushants death) are the same people who have run down movies of their peers pre-release, have replaced actresses who refused to sleep with them at the last minute and several have in fact repeatedly forecasted iska kuch nahi hoga.

Also read: Richa Chadha says same directors who posted condolence messages have replaced actresses who refused to sleep with them

Richa wondered if people really are serious about change, or whether it has all come down to ego, where people have been forced to pick sides. When tragic events occur, instead of name-calling, or sitting back with a bag of popcorn and watching... I wasnt raised like that, Im not going to get dragged into this.

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U.S. Attorney General William Barr speaks during a roundtable discussion on "America's seniors" hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington on June 15, 2020. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

Barr to Condemn Rioting, Highlight Russiagate Scandal in Congressional Testimony

Attorney General William Barr plans to condemn rioting and denounce the Russiagate scandal while testifying to Congress on Tuesday, according to his leaked opening statement.

Barr said its important to distinguish between peaceful protesters and people who commit crimes.

To state what should be obvious, peaceful protesters do not throw explosives into federal courthouses, tear down plywood with crowbars, or launch fecal matter at federal officers. Such acts are in fact federal crimes under statutes enacted by this Congress, Barr wrote.

Two hundred and thirty-eight people face federal charges related to the unrest seen across the country since the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis man, in police custody on Memorial Day, the Department of Justice said Monday.

Efforts to reform institutions in the last 50 years or so have been increasingly successful, pointing to police forces becoming more diverse and the fact that police shootings of unarmed persons are rare, with just 19 taking place so far this year, according to Barr.

Nevertheless, every instance of excessive force is unacceptable and must be addressed, as is happening now in Minneapolis, he will tell lawmakers.

Green lines cast by rioters laser pointers cross the darkened lobby of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse as federal officers wait, in Portland, Ore., on July 24, 2020. (Noah Berger/AP Photo)

Barr warned against demonizing the police and efforts to defund police departments. That will only lead to spikes in crime, which is already happening in most major cities in the United States in the past months.

When the police are attacked, when they are defunded, when they are driven out of urban communities, it is black lives that will suffer most from their absence, Barr wrote.

The federal government this month surged assets to Portland to deal with violent anarchists there who continue assaulting a U.S. courthouse and has sent extra officers and agents to Seattle, Chicago, and Albuquerque, N.M., to deal with rising crime rates.

Barr is also prepared to insist that he is not simply following orders from Republican President Donald Trump in probing the origins of the investigation into alleged links between Trump or his campaign and Russian actors.

Ever since I made it clear that I was going to do everything I could to get to the bottom of the grave abuses involved in the bogus Russiagate scandal, many of the Democrats on this Committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that I am simply the Presidents factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions. Judging from the letter inviting me to this hearing, that appears to be your agenda today, Barr said.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) speaks to reporters in Washington on July 9, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Trump has not interfered in Barrs decisions, the attorney general said. On the contrary, the president told him to do whatever he thinks is right. And, based on Barrs experience in governmenthe was also attorney general during the George H. W. Bush administrationTrump has played a role properly and traditionally played by governments.

Barr recounted being retired and enjoying time with his family, with no desire to return to government.

But as an outsider I became deeply troubled by what I perceived as the increasing use of the criminal justice process as a political weapon and the emergence of two separate standards of justice. The Department had been drawn into the political maelstrom and was being buffeted on all sides, Barr wrote.

When asked to consider returning, I did so because I revere the Department and believed my independence would allow me to help steer her back to her core mission of applying one standard of justice for everyone and enforcing the law even-handedly, without partisan considerations. Since returning to the Department, I have done precisely that.

The opening statement was leaked to news outlets. The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.

Barr is scheduled to testify to the House Judiciary Committee in Washington at 10 a.m. He agreed to appear after Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) threatened a subpoena if he didnt.

Barr was originally scheduled to voluntarily testify at the end of March, but the CCP virus pandemic forced the House to call off committee proceedings.

The testimony was rescheduled for early June but the DOJ said Barr was not able to participate, citing a May 29 White House guidance restricting cabinet-level officials from participating in congressional hearings in June during the pandemic. Barr has not appeared before Congress since last year.

President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., on July 26, 2020. (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo)

Nadler and other Democrats have repeatedly condemned Barr for what they see as improper actions.

The Attorney Generals behavior is unacceptable. He continues to undermine his career staff in a flailing effort to erase the findings of the Mueller investigation. He refuses to answer questions about actions taken by the Department during the coronavirus epidemic. He told the Committee that he could not find the time to testify because of that epidemicbut took the time to tour the peaceful protests at Lafayette Park just minutes before riot police fired tear gas into the crowd, Nadler said in a statement last month.

Mr. Barr has thoroughly corrupted the integrity of the criminal justice system, he has shown contempt for Congress, and the Committee has an obligation to hold him to account.

The hearing comes after Nadler declined to disavow the violence in Portland and said the notion that Antifa, a far-left, anarcho-communist group, is behind the violence is a myth.

The claim earned ire from some, including colleagues in Congress.

Portland is burning, law enforcement officers are being assaulted, and Jerry Nadlers response is that its just a myth? Absolutely shameful, Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) said on social media.

Ivan Pentchoukov and Janita Kan contributed to this report.
Citing the constitutional mandate to count the whole number of persons in the census, California and the cities of Los Angeles and Oakland joined the wave of lawsuits Tuesday challenging President Trumps order to exclude undocumented immigrants from the 2020 census.

The suit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, said Trump is defying the law in order to strip House seats from California and other immigrant-rich states and discourage overall participation in the census.

While at least five more suits have been filed since Trump issued his order last Tuesday, including one by 20 states, no state, no area of the country will be hit harder, hit faster by this than California, Attorney General Xavier Becerra said at a news conference.

He cited Trumps statement last week that California could lose two or three of its 53 House seats, and an equal number of Electoral College votes, if undocumented immigrants were excluded from the population total used to determine the number of congressional districts in each state for the next decade.

Becerra said the president is also trying to lower census turnout in states like California  potentially cutting billions of dollars in federal funding as well as congressional representation  by making immigrant households fearful of participating.

That strategy appears to be working, because responses to the census are down dramatically, said Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, another participant in the news conference. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit also include Long Beach and the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Another suit challenging Trumps order was filed in the same court Tuesday by the city of San Jose, Mayor Sam Liccardo, local governments in Washington state and Virginia, and civil rights advocates.

The Trump administration initially tried to ask census participants whether they were U.S. citizens, a question last included in the census 70 years ago, but was rebuffed by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2019. Chief Justice John Roberts said the Commerce Departments explanation  that the question would aid in enforcement of voting-rights laws  appeared to be contrived.

The current effort to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census count would require courts to reverse their longstanding interpretation of constitutional language requiring an actual enumeration of the population every 10 years. In addition, the 14th Amendment, enacted after the Civil War, specifies that representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state.

Among other rulings, the states lawsuit quoted a 1980 decision by a federal court in Washington, D.C., that said, While illegal aliens were not a component of the population at the time the Constitution was adopted, they are clearly persons to be included in the population count.

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.

But Trumps memo to the Commerce Department last week said the whole number of persons in each state actually refers to inhabitants, excluding tourists, visitors and  at the presidents discretion  undocumented immigrants.

Asked about the issue at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Attorney General William Barr contended that Congress has delegated that power to the Commerce secretary to define inhabitants for census purposes.

But the lawsuit said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had testified to Congress in March 2019 that the constitutional mandate ... for the census is to try to count every person in the U.S. Ross now supports Trumps order to count only citizens and legal residents.

You cant be a law-and-order president if you keep breaking the law, Becerra said at the news conference. Not even the president of the United States can sidestep the U.S. Constitution.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
RESTON, Va., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ace Info Solutions, LLC (AceInfo), a Dovel company, announced today that it has been awarded a prime position on the Department of Agriculture (USDA) IT Support Services (DAITSS) Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA). This $450M BPA provides a broad range of IT service delivery support to the United States Forest Service as well as all agencies and offices within the USDA over the next five years. This support includes Enabling Delivery Services, Strategic IT Management, Hosting/Cloud, Website/Applications, Software/Hardware, IT Security, and Compliance.

"As a long-time USDA partner, we are excited to be part of their acceleration of IT Support Services modernization and implementation efforts," said Mike Cosgrave, AceInfo's Chief Operating Officer (COO). "As the only mid-size company awarded a prime position, we bring a unique combination of entrepreneurial spirit, customer focus, and an outcomes-based approach to support USDA's mission."

AceInfo uses leading-edge technologies to develop flexible, agile processes that allow for rapid prototyping and innovative solution development. They implement these methodologies in their work with government customers to help improve operations, foster innovation, and implement best practices for mission critical programs.

"We are privileged to further our relationship with USDA and to continue supporting its important mission through AceInfo," said Damon Griggs, Dovel's Chief Executive Officer (CEO). "Our team looks forward to bringing our advanced technologies and domain expertise to support this contract."

About Ace Info Solutions (AceInfo)

AceInfo, a Dovel company, is a trusted partner to Federal agencies in developing and supporting applications and systems that keep citizens safe. AceInfo has proven experience in providing full life cycle support  integrating, developing, implementing, operating, and sustaining critical systems used for federal missions. Together, AceInfo and Dovel further customer missions by blending deep domain expertise and advanced technologies to deliver solutions that improve, protect, and save lives.

SOURCE Ace Info Solutions

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More than 500 self-care kits will be distributed to Ukrainian seniors in the province, thanks to the efforts of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Manitoba branch.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/7/2020 (541 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than 500 self-care kits will be distributed to Ukrainian seniors in the province, thanks to the efforts of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Manitoba branch.

Project Care is a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The packages contain various hygiene and personal-care items  masks that were made in Ukraine, for instance  and were assembled at the Ukrainian National Federation Hall on Main Street, where project organizers presented the kits to community stakeholders on July 20.

"The project is to assist the vulnerable people in our community," Roman Yereniuk, a UCC board member, said.

Project co-ordinators worked with organizations within the Ukrainian community to determine the recipients of the packages.

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"And this kit will bring that joy of knowing that somebody cares so much, and theyve been acknowledged as an individual who is loved, appreciated and cared for, and that these things will keep them strong and healthy," added Maryka Chabluk, a volunteer.

Since some seniors may not be as informed on the pandemic and health guidelines, depending on their access to technology, organizers said, the packages aim to provide education and awareness.

"And I think for the seniors its the educational component because they need to be reminded: wash, distance, stay healthy, stay safe, wear your mask," Joanne Lewandosky, president of UCC Manitoba, said.

Project Care packages cost around $10,000. Yereniuk said with additional funding that is still pending, they could assemble and distribute another 150 to 200 kits.

"Our community played an important role in putting these kits together," Yereniuk said. "About a quarter of the cost of these kits was contributed by dentists and people in the community, and people that make masks, (for example). And they did this as a voluntary gift of love to our UCC, so that we can put these kits together."

Contributions to the project can be arranged by calling 204-470-4095.
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak (C) is escorted by police to a courthouse in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 25, 2018.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Tuesday was sentenced to 12 years in jail and handed a fine of 210 million ringgits ($49.3 million) over his involvement in the now infamous 1MDB scandal.

The 67-year-old was found guilty of all seven charges in the first of his five trials linked to the multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB. Najib's lawyers have asked for a stay of execution for the jail sentence.

Questions around the missing money from 1MDB helped contribute to the defeat of the political coalition he led in the 2018 general elections. Najib had allegedly illegally received funds in his personal bank accounts that can be traced to 1MDB.

On Tuesday, the former prime minister was convicted by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on three counts of money laundering, three counts of criminal breach of trust and one count of abuse of power. He had allegedly received nearly $10 million illegally from SRC International  a unit under 1MDB.

High Court judge Mohamad Nazlan Mohamad Ghazali said the prosecution "has successfully proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt."

The court on Tuesday evening announced 10-year jail sentences for each of Najib's three counts of criminal breach of trust as well as the three counts of money laundering, but the judge ordered that they should be served concurrently.
Taliban seek to control aid agencies, private companies in Afghanistan

Iran Press TV

Monday, 27 July 2020 6:06 PM

The Taliban militant group wants national and international organizations operating in Afghanistan to register with it, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says.

He said on Wednesday that Taliban officials had been informed that certain companies and NGOs were pursuing activities the Taliban deemed to be against the national interest.

"We will not allow any agency to work against the interest of our beloved Afghanistan, Islam... so we want to register all of them to have information about their activities," he said.

Meanwhile, Dawa Khan Minapal, the deputy spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, said the Taliban were making desperate attempts to assert control over the apparatus of government.

"Taliban is a terrorist group. They have no right to force companies, NGOs to register themselves with them."

More than 2,200 NGOs operate in the war-ravaged country. They provide education, health and financial support to the needy.

Last year, the Taliban briefly banned the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) from operating in Afghanistan, accusing them of conducting "suspicious" activities during vaccination campaigns.

In recent months, a series of bloody attacks across Afghanistan has been claimed by the Taliban or the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

In May, a hospital in the capital Kabul operated by the Geneva-based Doctors Without Borders came under attack by gunmen.

Official data shows that bombings and other assaults by the Taliban have surged 70 percent since the militant group signed a deal with the United States in February.

The Afghan government was a party neither to the negotiations nor to the deal, but it has been acting in accordance with its terms, including by agreeing to free Taliban prisoners.

However, the militants have not stopped attacking government targets and civilians.

The deal envisages a complete withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Clashes between Iraqi protesters and security forces in central Baghdad killed at least two demonstrators overnight, security and medical sources said on Monday. It was the first such deadly incident for months at Tahrir Square, which became a symbol of anti-government protests during months of mass unrest last year

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Clashes between Iraqi protesters and security forces in central Baghdad killed at least two demonstrators overnight, security and medical sources said on Monday.

It was the first such deadly incident for months at Tahrir Square, which became a symbol of anti-government protests during months of mass unrest last year.

The protesters had begun marching from Tahrir to nearby Tayaran Square chanting about worsening power cuts during a heat wave that has sent temperatures soaring above 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).

Security forces tried to contain the march and fired tear gas, according to police, medics and protesters. The protesters threw stones and petrol bombs, a security source said.

Two protesters who were at the demonstration, and Ali Bayati, a member of Iraqs semi-official High Commission for Human Rights, said security forces had fired live ammunition to disperse the crowd.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said in a televised speech later on Monday that the protests "are a legitimate right and the security forces do not have the permission to fire even one bullet in the direction of the protesters".

He said he had opened an investigation and demanded results within 72 hours.

Military spokesman Yehia Rasool said in a statement that security forces had been given strict instructions not to use force against protesters unless necessary.

Medics at two hospitals in Baghdad said two men had been hit in the head and neck with tear gas canisters and died of their injuries. More than 26 protesters were wounded and several members of the security forces suffered minor injuries, police said.

Iraq's biggest anti-government protests in decades broke out last October and continued for several months with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis demanding jobs, services and the removal of the ruling elite, which they said was corrupt. Nearly 500 people were killed.

The protests caused the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who was replaced in May by Kadhimi, a former intelligence chief.

Sporadic demonstrations have resumed in recent weeks in several Iraqi provinces, most recently over lack of electricity.

Clashes between security forces and protesters erupted again later on Monday in Baghdad and in other provinces.

A protester named Hussein described the death of one demonstrator in the overnight clashes.

"When Latif was martyred, he was holding only the flag. He didn't drop the flag until he was shot at by the police," he said.

"He was just like any other young man at Tahrir Square, demanding rights for his family, for the people and for his children's future."

On Monday night, three rockets hit Iraq's Taji military base that houses U.S.-led coalition troops, but no casualties were reported, the military said in a statement.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

(Reporting by Amina Ismail, Maher Nazih and Baghdad newsroom; writing by Amina Ismail; Editing by John Davison, Kevin Liffey and Marguerita Choy)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
UNION GROVE  Like their counterparts in other municipalities in southeast Wisconsin, Union Grove officials are concerned with the availability and affordability of housing.

The Granary, a newly-created 73-unit housing complex located along Main Street, has already hit capacity.

More options are needed for the village.

At its June 16 meeting, the villages Community Development Authority discussed conducting a study or review of housing affordability issues for Union Grove. Last week, the CDA dug in on the issue.

Two area Realtors attended the July 21 meeting and provided information about what theyve seen in housing trends lately.

The CDA is also discussing bringing in business representatives, mortgage brokers and representatives from schools to give an outside perspective.

The information officials collect will become part of the villages land-use plan.

I think we all probably have some anecdotal (information), Village Administrator Mike Hawes said, addressing the CDA. We know of somebody or maybe weve looked ourselves in the area and maybe weve seen certain things. We just want to kind of get the 360 degree view of this issue.

The land-use plan is a guide for future development and redevelopment activities in the community, which the village is in the process of updating.

The final draft of the 2050 Land Use Plan is scheduled to be shown to the Plan Commission for consideration on Aug. 3. It will later be considered by the Village Board for adoption.

Once the plan is adopted, village officials will develop strategies for implementing the plan in a way that addresses the different needs of the community, including the workforce housing shortage in the region.

Jeff Braun of Union Grove-based Jeff Braun Realty LLC said a recent trend hes seen is a shortage of listings, and home values are going up.

Braun has been a realtor for 40 years in the Union Grove area and mostly focuses on residential properties, over commercial.

Right now is the busiest hes been since 2005, Braun said.

Sandra Carlson of Shorewest Realtors said theres definitely been a shortage of homes less than $350,000 across southeast Wisconsin.

Carlson has been an agent for 17 years with Shorewest and resides in Yorkville; she also focuses on residential properties.

Location a big hindrance

As far as a target buying price, $250,000 is the on fire house price for the area, Braun said, which is most popular with first-time home buyers. Most people will stop looking at homes costing higher than $350,000.

A lot of what brings them to this area is the school system and school ratings, so most of them want three bedrooms at least, Carlson said.

CDA members mentioned school ratings might be something to look into. A low crime index is also favorable, several members said.

In the past year, several Racine County municipalities saw home-sale prices increase; Union Grove, Norway, Raymond and Burlington did not. Union Grove home sale prices went down about $8,000 on average in the past year. These numbers were from Multiple Listing Service and not any one particular Realtor.

Some of the hindrances keeping home buyers from purchasing is the condition of some of the homes and the shopping opportunities, Braun said.

I think Union Grove is a great location. Its a great place to live, it would be a great place to work, Braun said. However, the fact that Burlington and Racine are not far away and thats where residents can find more places to shop is a negative aspect. Unfortunately, I think our location is just a big hindrance.

The taxes in Union Grove are a lot better than Racine and some other municipalities in the county, so taxes are not an issue, and people tend to not look for any particular subdivision because requests for homes are all over the board, Braun said.

Overall, Braun doesnt think theres any major reasons buyers wouldnt want to come to Union Grove.

Once people decide that theyre going to move to Union Grove, they do. It might take a while, but they do.

Retirement, single living

Something the community may need is assisted or independent living to cover the retirement community, Braun said. Other CDA members had similar comments.

We would like to see our tenured residents be able to stay in their home community because of family and their kids, and everything, is here, Village President Mike Aimone said. Thats why I think we should identify that as a real shortfall.

Empty nester housing in the area seems to be a problem. Carlson said empty nesters sometimes move away, dont like it and then come back to the Union Grove area. But Braun said the area doesnt have favorable housing stock for empty nesters to come back to.

The ideal stock for this target group would be ranch condos with a two-car garage, master suite and no stairs unless they go to the basement.

A lot of home buyers in general are pretty marginal, Carlson said. Some people have issues with credit score, which causes them to not buy a house. Additionally, so many people are trying to live single now-a-days, Carlson said. Youre seeing more and more single people living on their own.

A lot of people like the mobile homes, Carlson said. These homes appeal to those who get a divorce and never want to buy a house again.

I think a tiny house area would be good, Braun agreed.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 18:20:20|Editor: huaxia

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ISTANBUL, July 28 (Xinhua) -- A grandmother and her grandchild were killed after a fire erupted at an apartment in central Istanbul on Tuesday, local media reported.

The fire broke out on the basement floor of a building in the Esenyurt district on the European side of the city, the NTV broadcaster reported.

Several citizens saw the smoke coming out of the windows of the apartment early in the morning and informed the fire brigade and police teams, it said.

The residents were rescued from the building while some of them, who were badly affected by the smoke, were rushed to hospitals, according to the broadcaster.

It is believed that some electrical faults were the cause of the fire, press reports noted. Enditem
Chennai, July 28 : At a time when retired Chief Secretaries and Additional Chief Secretaries are drawing a monthly pension of about Rs 1.2 lakh per month and are also receiving retirement benefits, it is wrong in principle to take Rs 10,000 per month towards servant allowance, said a retired bureaucrat.

He was referring to Tamil Nadu government's recent order whereby retired Chief Secretaries and Additional Chief Secretaries can draw Rs 10,000 per month or Rs 1,20,000 per year as servant allowance.

"Chief Secretaries and Additional Chief Secretaries will be drawing a pension of about Rs 1.2 lakh per month. They would have also got a sizeable kitty as retirement benefits - provident fund, gratuity. By the time they retire they would have got their own home. Post retirement they may also be getting some consulting income," M.G. Devashayam, retired IAS officer and social activist told IANS.

He also pointed out that there are thousands of people without job security and assured monthly salary in the country.

"Already people do not have a good opinion about the bureaucracy. India is not a rich country," Devashayam added.

The 'servant allowance' order was issued by Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam last month at a time the government is implementing several cost cutting measures including curtailing some employee benefits.

Shanmugam is set to retire in couple of months time after his extension.

"While the number of retired Chief Secretaries may be small whereas the number of retired Additional Chief Secretaries will be high," Devashayam pointed out.

The government order also mentions the names of several retired IAS officers who had sent a letter in this regard.

According to the order, former President of Tamil Nadu IAS Officers Association and other retired Additional Chief Secretaries had requested the state government to extend the post-retirement benefits to them which have been extended by neighbouring states like Karnataka.

The government order citing the similar arrangements made for retired judges of the Madras High Court has decided to permit retired Chief Secretaries and Additional Chief Secretaries to appoint one 'Nominal Muster Roll' at wages of Rs 10,000.

This is in addition to the telephone and medical reimbursement allowances. When contacted for reaction, senior retired IAS officials declined to comment.
Western Sydney arts organisations have warned of a looming "cultural emergency" brought on by pandemic-led restrictions to public gatherings.

The region's struggling arts companies said the $840 million Parramatta Powerhouse should only be the start of government investment in arts and culture in western Sydney, while warning of an impending cash crisis.

Craig Donarski is the director of the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre in Sydney. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Many are pinning hopes on winning long-term funding  soon to be announced by the Arts Minister Don Harwin  to develop shows, exhibitions and workshops to reach vulnerable communities.

In the first round of government arts agency Create NSW's new funding model, $2.7 million of the $7.2 million allocated to arts organisations and festivals went to those in regional NSW, and $1.4 million to those in western Sydney.
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Fingrid Oyj

Stock Exchange release 28 July at 11:30 EET





FINGRID GROUPS HALF-YEAR REPORT 1 JANUARY - 30 JUNE 2020

Fingrids consolidated financial statements have been drawn up in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This half-year report has been drawn up in accordance with the IAS 34 Interim Financial Reporting standard and complies with the same accounting principles as those presented in the Groups financial statements for 2019. This half-year report is unaudited. Unless otherwise indicated, the figures in parentheses refer to the same period of the previous year. The graphs and clarifying texts of the half-year report are available in the attached PDF file.

Turnover fell due to the decline in electricity consumption caused by the warm winter, which directly impacts grid service income, and due to the lower price of imbalance power resulting from the lower electricity price. The latter can be seen also in the lower imbalance power costs.

Consolidated operating profit excluding the change in the fair value of derivatives decreased due to falling grid service income and to the increased cost of reserves. Profit for the period was also affected by the negative change in the fair value of electricity derivatives hedging the loss power procurement as well as the positive impact on financing items attributable to the sale of the Nord Pool shares.

The impacts of the corona pandemic on business have so far been very limited.

Finlands electricity consumption during the period amounted to 41.4 (44.6) terawatt hours.

A total of 34.3 (34.8) terawatt hours of electricity was transmitted in Fingrids grid, representing 76.3 (74.3) per cent of the total transmission volume in Finland (consumption and inter-TSO).

KEY FIGURES 1-6/20 1-6/19 change % 1-12/19 Turnover MEUR 343.4 415.2 -17.3 789.4 Capital expenditure, gross MEUR 70.3 59.0 19.1 126.9 - of turnover % 20.5 14.2 16.1 Personnel costs MEUR 16.3 16.0 1.8 26.4 Operating profit excluding the change in the fair value of derivatives MEUR 70.9 89.0 -20.3 142.1 - of turnover % 20.6 21.4 18.0 Operating profit MEUR 55.2 66.8 -17.3 115.5 - of turnover % 16.1 16.1 14.6 Profit before taxes MEUR 58.5 69.0 -15.2 105.8 - of turnover % 17.0 16.6 13.4 Profit for the period MEUR 48.2 55.9 -13.7 84.6 Comprehensive income for the period MEUR 49.3 55.9 -11.9 84.7 Net cash flow from operations, after capital expenditure MEUR 101.7 94.4 7.8 263.1 Equity ratio at the end of the review period % 28.0 33.9 32.0 Interest-bearing net borrowings at the end of the review period MEUR 1,035.8 1,036.1 0.0 1,037.2 Net gearing at end of period 1.6 1.5 1.5 Earnings per share  14,500.57 16,808.26 -13.7 25,452.50 Dividend, Series A shares  58,500.00 Dividend, Series B shares  21,400.00 Equity per share  190,921.32 212,874.71 -10.3 206,213.21 Dividend payout ratio, A shares % 234.9 Dividend payout ratio, B shares % 86.0 Number of shares  Series A shares qty 2,078 2,078 2,078  Series B shares qty 1,247 1,247 1,247 Total qty 3,325 3,325 3,325

President and CEO Jukka Ruusunen: Weather conditions played the main role in the Nordic electricity markets

Conventionally, the electricity system and electricity markets are heavily dependent on weather conditions. The weather played the main role in the Nordic electricity markets in the first half of this year: an exceptionally mild winter and the resulting substantial decrease in electricity consumption, heavy rains and the consequent good availability of hydropower, hard winds and high production of wind power as well as, specifically for Finland, scarcity of balancing power due to spring floods in the north of the country. The winters peak consumption in Finland did not exceed 12,400 MWh/h, which is the lowest peak demand this millennium.

The exceptional weather conditions have resulted in very low electricity market prices and large area price differences in the Nordics. Finland has imported electricity from Sweden, using the full transmission capacity between the countries, but the existing transmission capacity has failed to meet the actual market needs. We have put substantial effort into ensuring the reliability of cross-border connections and Fingrids cross-border links worked extremely well throughout the first six months of the year. Our goal is to make the entire transmission capacity allowable in terms of the system security of the electricity system available to the electricity markets each day and we have successfully achieved this goal.

Fingrids financial development during the first half of the year was weaker than in the previous year. Due to the decrease in electricity consumption, the grid service income fell year-on-year. The market conditions also resulted in a decrease of the cross-border transmission income for the Russian transmission. The exceptionally intensive spring floods increased the prices for the reserves required for balancing consumption and production for several weeks, resulting in increased costs for the company.

The corona pandemic has not had a major impact on electricity consumption in Finland, and Finlands electricity system has functioned normally. During the pandemic, our focus has been on the continuity of operations while we have simultaneously strived to maintain the stability of our business in other respects as well. Our transmission reliability has been very high. Our capex projects have proceeded according to the planned schedules despite the exceptional circumstances. As regards major transmission projects, the Forest Line and the third AC connection to Sweden constitute a part of the electricity network infrastructure that Finland needs to become carbon-neutral. Connecting wind power to the main grid means a lot of work for us and more wind power projects are underway than ever before in Fingrids history.

Today and tomorrow, our success relies on competent people and on our unique corporate culture. As testimony of this, Fingrid came in 7th in the mid-sized companies category of the Great Place to Work Finland surveyan excellent achievement. Fingrids top score in ITOMS (The International Transmission Operations & Maintenance Study) bears witness to our world-class quality and cost-effectiveness. We were the only TSO to achieve a Top Performer nomination both in the transmission line and substation maintenance categories.

Financial result

The Groups turnover in JanuaryJune was EUR 343.4 (415.2) million. Grid service income declined to EUR 199.8 (209.3) million during the first half of the year due to unseasonably warm weather, which resulted in decreased electricity consumption. Electricity consumption in Finland totalled 41.4 (44.6) terawatt hours in JanuaryJune. Imbalance power sales revenue decreased to EUR 120.9 (175.2) million, as a result of the lower imbalance power prices. Cross-border transmission income from the connection between Finland and Russia decreased from the previous years level, to EUR 1.5 (5.4) million, due to the reduced transmission volume. Other operating income totalled EUR 0.4 (0.6) million.

Costs during JanuaryJune totalled EUR 273.0 (326.9) million. Due to the lower imbalance power price, imbalance power costs decreased from the previous years level, to EUR 106.2 (162.5) million. Loss power costs amounted to EUR 24.5 (25.7) million. At the end of June, approximately 98 (96) per cent of Fingrids projected loss power procurement for the remainder of 2020 was, in terms of system price, hedged at an average price of EUR 25.4 (27.2) per megawatt hour. In terms of the Finnish area price difference, roughly 100 (100) per cent of loss power procurement was hedged at an average price of EUR 4.6 (5.3) per megawatt hour. The cost of reserves to safeguard the grids system security increased to EUR 33.4 (26.6) million, as a result of the high prices during the flood season.

Depreciation for the review period totalled EUR 49.0 (48.7) million. Grid maintenance costs grew to EUR 10.6 (7.9) million as a result of increased maintenance expenditure in DC connections and voltage compensation equipment. Personnel costs amounted to EUR 16.3 (16.0) million.

The Groups operating profit for the first six months of the year was EUR 55.2 (66.8) million. Profit before taxes was EUR 58.5 (69.0) million. The differences from the corresponding period of the previous year are mainly explained by the decrease in grid service income and cross-border transmission income (EUR -13.4 million). Profit for the review period amounted to EUR 48.2 (55.9) million and comprehensive income to EUR 49.3 (55.9) million.

Financing

The Groups net cash flow from operating activities, with net capital expenditure deducted, was EUR 101.7 (94.4) million for the review period. The equity ratio was 28.0 (33.9) per cent at the end of the review period. The impact of the IFRS 16 standard reduced the share of equity by 0.4 percentage points.

The consolidated net financial costs between January and June were EUR 4.3 (1.7) million positive, including the positive change of EUR 4.7 million (EUR 9.7 million positive) in the fair value of derivatives. The change in the fair value of financial assets was EUR 0.4 million negative (EUR 0.3 million positive). The Groups finance income increased during the review period, including an EUR 8.4 million dividend attributable to the sale of the Nord Pool shares. The net financial costs included EUR 0.3 million (0.3) in interest expenses on the lease liabilities entered into the balance sheet, due to the introduction of the IFRS 16 standard in 2019.

Interest-bearing borrowings totalled EUR 1,261.3 (1,133.3) million, of which non-current borrowings accounted for EUR 1,044.1 (898.6) million and current borrowings for EUR 217.2 (234.6) million. On the reporting date, the liabilities included a total of EUR 31.7 million (34.0) in lease borrowings in accordance with IFRS 16, consisting of EUR 2.4 million (3.0) in short-term liabilities, with a maturity date within one year, and EUR 29.3 million (31.0) in long-term liabilities, with a maturity date after more than a year.

The Groups liquidity remained good. Cash assets and financial assets at the end of the review period amounted to EUR 225.5 (96.6) million. The increase was due to the significant growth of the congestion income, included in the cash flow, and new long-term financing arrangements implemented to minimise refinancing risks resulting from the crisis on the money markets during the first half of the year. The Groups liquidity is additionally bolstered by an undrawn revolving credit facility of EUR 300 million and a total of EUR 225 million in uncommitted overdraft facilities consisting of binding and non-binding bilateral arrangements with banks.

Ensuring transmission capacity

As regards major electricity transmission projects, the Forest Line and the third AC connection to Sweden constitute a part of the electricity network infrastructure that Finland needs to become carbon-neutral.

The Forest Line will substantially increase the NorthSouth transmission capacity necessary for the Finnish electricity system. The roughly 300 kilometres long, 400-kilovolt transmission link is being built in place of or next to the current power lines, running from Petajavesi through Haapavesi and to Muhos. The work has progressed well, with roughly half of all the transmission line foundations completed. The related modifications to the Petajavesi and Toivila substations are also underway.

Fingrid is preparing, in co-operation with the Swedish TSO Svenska kraftnat, a new transmission connection from Pyhanselka at Muhos via Keminmaa to Messaure in Sweden. Due for completion in 2025, the transmission line will even out the price differences between the countries and improve the availability of electricity in Finland. Fingrids and Svenska kraftnats joint project has been included in the European Commissions list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI). In March, the Finnish and Swedish energy authorities decided on the cost-sharing principles to be applied to this capex project. The estimated capital expenditure is EUR 250 to 300 million, with Connecting Europe Facility funding to be applied for half of this total investment cost. The funding will be decided on by the EUs Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA).

The transmission line being built in the municipality of Kontiolahti and the city of Joensuu to reinforce the grid in North Karelia is proceeding as planned. Work on the transmission line is currently underway and the project will be completed in the spring of 2022.





A total of 29 substation projects is currently in the implementation stage. Nine out of these will be completed in 2020, 11 in 2021 and the remaining nine substations in 2022. While the new substation projects are located evenly throughout Finland, the focus is on the Forest Line and Coastal Line connections.

Fingrid decided on several new capital expenditure projects during the review period. Connecting up wind power to the grid has particularly increased the capex needs.

New wind power plants with a total capacity of roughly 4,000 megawatts are planned in the area between Kristinestad, Vaasa and Seinajoki. Haapajarvi and the neighbouring municipalities, in central Finland, are planning new wind power projects totalling more than 1,000 megawatts. Fingrid has made investment decisions to build a substation at Pysayspera in the municipality of Haapajarvi and another substation at Karppio in the municipality of Teuva. The total capital expenditure will be roughly EUR 55 million. The investments encompass substations as well as modifications to the surrounding transmission lines necessary for linking the transmission lines with the new substations. The planned commissioning dates for the substations are in the summer of 2022.



A 400/110-kilovolt substation will be modernised at Tammisto in Vantaa. The investment will improve the system security of electricity supply in the Helsinki region. The Tammisto substation is one of the stations supplying electricity to the capital region and a key node of the grid. The construction work on this project will start in June 2021. The new substation will be commissioned in late 2022.



The 110-kilovolt Luukkala substation will be modernised in Lappeenranta. The Luukkala substation plays an important role for electricity transmission in the South Karelia and Lappeenranta area: it is the starting point of several grid ring connections and also supplies the city of Lappeenranta as well as local industries with electricity. The project will be completed in the autumn of 2023.



The Jylkka substation, located in Kalajoki, will be expanded and fitted out with a third transformer, making the substation Finlands most important connection point for wind power. The project will be completed during 2022.

Fingrid scored top results in ITOMS (The International Transmission Operations & Maintenance Study) and was the only TSO to achieve a Top Performer nomination both in the transmission line and substation maintenance categories in March. ITOMS looks into the effectiveness of maintenance based on criteria such as maintenance costs and disturbance statistics.

Fingrid will carry out aerial photography of all the transmission lines included in the grid during the summer of 2020. This means approximately 12,000 kilometres of power lines, making it the most extensive imaging project of Finlands grid system ever completed. The previously created images cover 2,000 kilometres of grid transmission lines. The aerial photography will bring the documentation of the grid up to date, while also helping to assess the condition of the grid and enable planning of future maintenance work.

Management of system security





In JanuaryJune, Finlands electricity consumption amounted to 41.4 (44.6) terawatt hours. Inter-TSO transmission in the same period amounted to 3.5 (2.2) terawatt hours. The total electricity transmission in Finland was 44.9 (46.8) terawatt hours. Fingrid transmitted a total of 34.3 (34.8) terawatt hours in its grid, representing 76.3 (74.3) per cent of the total electricity transmission in Finland. During this period, the electricity Fingrid transmitted to its customers amounted to 30.7 (32.5) terawatt hours, which represented 74.1 (72.9) per cent of Finlands total consumption.

The electricity consumption in Finland peaked this year on 28 February, rising close to 12,400 megawatts. The peak consumption figure is the lowest this century, a result of the exceptionally mild weather as well as various industrial conflicts and the consequent plant closures.The peak consumption was met with 9,849 megawatts of domestic production and 2,539 megawatts of net imports. The electricity supply was not in jeopardy in the winter of 20192020.

Through January to June, the system security of Fingrids grid system was at a very good level and there were no significant grid disturbances. Finlands electricity system retained its normal functionality in its entirety during the review period, despite the corona pandemic. The exceptionally intensive spring floods increased the prices for the reserves required for balancing consumption and production for several weeks.

From January through June, 9.3 (7.2) terawatt hours of electricity were imported from Sweden to Finland, and 0.1 (0.4) terawatt hours were exported from Finland to Sweden. The transmission capacity between Sweden and Finland was fully available during the review period, expect for short maintenance breaks.

In JanuaryJune, 3.3 (1.7) terawatt hours of electricity were exported to Estonia. Only very small amounts of electricity were imported from Estonia to Finland during the review period. The transmission capacity between the two countries functioned reliably, even if EstLink1 was subjected to some planned restrictions during a period of automation testing in March and during annual maintenance in June.

Electricity imports from Russia to Finland between January and June amounted to 1.2 (4.2) terawatt hours of electricity. The reason for the decreased imports was the low price of electricity in the Nordics. Transmission capacity from Russia to Finland was fully available during the review period. The electricity imports from Russia were clearly lower in the first half of 2020 than in the previous review period in 2019. Electricity was exported from Finland to Russia several times over February through June. However, the volumes of electricity transmitted to Russia remained very low. The reason for these exports was the low price of electricity in the Nordics. Major intraday variations in import volumes still persist.

Electricity market

In JanuaryJune, the average Nordic price on the day-ahead market was EUR 10.53 (41.22) per megawatt hour, and the area price for Finland was EUR 23.23 (42.42) per megawatt hour.

Due to constraints on the transmission connections between the countries, total congestion income increased compared to the corresponding period last year. Congestion income between Finland and Sweden in JanuaryJune increased to EUR 104.0 (30.0) million. The increase in congestion income resulted from the increased disparity between Finnish and Swedish area prices, due to weather conditions. The mild winter and high water levels resulted in a major decrease in wholesale price of electricity and in Sweden, the price of electricity decreased more than in Finland, as a result of the larger share of hydropower in the Swedish and Norwegian electricity systems. Congestion income between Finland and Estonia grew in JanuaryJune to EUR 20.7 (11.0) million. Even in Estonia, the area price decreased due to the mild weather and the lower Nordic prices, but the Estonian prices still persisted higher than the Finnish rates. In accordance with the regulation on congestion income, Fingrid will use the congestion income received for capital expenditure to improve the functioning of the electricity markets.

The availability and reliability of Fingrids DC connections have been high, expect for some short-term disturbances. At the turn of the year, the Estlink 2 connection had a technically challenging malfunction, as a result of which the connection was down for several days in early January. Generally, troubleshooting and fault elimination measures were highly successful, and the connections were quickly made available to the markets again. The countertrade costs resulting from the disturbances that occurred over the review period were low in comparison to the previous year.

Fingrid is currently implementing electricity market development projects to increase the flexibility of the electricity markets and to enable the participation of consumers and the producers of weather-dependent renewables.

The Nordic Balancing Model and the related project to implement a 15-minute imbalance settlement period (ISP) will revamp the Nordic balancing power and reserve power marketplaces, modify the balancing model and adopt the 15-min ISP. Once the ISP is contracted to 15 minutes, the market time unit (MTU) in the electricity markets can be 15 minutes as well, instead of the current one hour. The 15-min ISP and 15-min MTU will have a major impact on the electricity systems imbalance settlement procedures and also on the operations of the market operators. Finland will switch to the 15-min ISP at the same time as the other Nordic countries. One aspect of the new imbalance settlement model is the adoption of a single balance model, where the production, consumption and trade of electricity are all processed in a single balance.

In May, the Steering Group for the Nordic Balancing Model confirmed the Nordic TSOs joint position on the timing of the implementation of the 15-min ISP in Q2 2023. A derogation period extending to 22 May 2023 has been applied for the adoption of the 15-min ISP in all the Nordic countries. Fingrid sent a request for derogation to the Finnish regulation authority in early June.

In June, the Nordic TSOs communicated their estimation that the timeline for implementing the single balance model (Single Price Single Position) may be delayed by roughly six months, which would mean a go-live date in Q4-2021.

Competitive trading between the Nordic electricity exchanges started in early June. Once competitive trading has gone live, several electricity market operators approved by the authorities can operate in the day-ahead markets of the 12 Nordic bidding zones. The start of competitive trading will increase the options available to the market operators in acquiring trading services, deepen the integration of European electricity markets and also benefit the Nordic markets. The Nordic countries are the second area in Europe to implement competition between the electricity exchanges.

Fingrid is building a centralised information exchange system for electricity retail markets, Datahub, which is the companys biggest investment in ICT systems. The Datahub will contain data from about 3.7 million electricity metering points. The implementation of the system will proceed in stages, according to specific milestones, in co-operation with the industry players. Some of the distribution system operators (DSOs) and retail sellers still face challenges in implementing the necessary changes in their own customer management and metering data management systems according to the target schedule. The Datahub will go live in February 2022.

Personnel

The total number of personnel employed by the Group averaged 390 (383) with an average of 344 (331) in a permanent employment relationship. Personnel costs amounted to EUR 16.3 (16.0) million. Wages and salaries amounted to EUR 14.0 (13.3) million, which equals 4.1 (3.2) per cent of the turnover.

Fingrid is well prepared for exceptional circumstances. The company was able to continue its business operations in a nearly normal manner, despite the exceptional circumstances resulting from the corona pandemic, by resorting heavily to remote work.

Fingrid came in 7th in the mid-sized companies category of the Great Place to Work Finland survey in February. The Great Place to Work Finland award annually recognises organisations with excellent workplace cultures, based on both employees opinions and an HR assessment. This was already the fifth time Fingrid participated in this survey, coming in tenth place in the previous survey in 2018.

Fingrid continued its traditional participation in the annual Responsible Summer Job competition, the aim of which is to challenge employers to offer young people more high-quality summer jobs and positive experiences. Despite the corona pandemic, our company employs around forty people in various summer jobs throughout Finland.

Other matters

On 20 March 2020, Fingrid Oyjs Annual General Meeting approved the financial statements for 2019 and decided on the dividend payment. The first instalment of the dividend, totalling EUR 100,100,150.00, was paid on 25 March 2020. In compliance with the AGMs decision, Juhani Jarvi continues as Chair of the Board of Directors and Paivi Nerg continues as Vice Chair of the Board. The other Board members are Sanna Syri and Esko Torsti and, as a new Board member, Hannu Linna.

On 5 December 2019, Fingrid Oyj announced that it had, together with the other owners of Nord Pool Holding AS, entered into a binding agreement to sell 66% of the company's shares to Euronext. The transaction was finalised on 15 January 2020.

Legal proceedings and proceedings by authorities

An accident took place on a work site in Laukaa, Finland, on 25 August 2017, where an employee of Revilla y Garcia S.L. died after having fallen from a power line tower. A civil court case, as well as proceedings concerning social-security-based damages, have been initiated in Spain for damages against Fingrid (the client linked with the accident), the main contractor, Technolines S.R.L. filial i Finland, and its sub-contractor, Revilla y Garcia S.L. Fingrid does not believe the claim against it is likely to succeed and, in Fingrids view, the legal proceedings or their outcome are not likely to have a substantial impact on the companys earnings or financial position.

On 30 June 2020, the Market Court received an appeal on the companys decision to exclude a bidder from a competitive tender for 400-MVA transformers in 20222025. The company decided to discontinue the tendering process on 14 July 2020. According to the companys view, the discontinued tendering process does not have a substantial impact on the companys financial result or financial position.

Events after the review period and outlook for the rest of the year

On 28 July 2020, the Board of Directors decided, in compliance with the authorisation granted by the AGM, that the second instalment of dividends shall be paid after the Board has approved the half-year report and assessed the company's solvency, financial position and financial performance. Based on the Boards authorisation from the AGM, the second instalment of EUR 19,000.00 for each Series A share and EUR 6,950.00 for each Series B share, totalling EUR 48,148,650.00 in dividends, will be paid on 31 July 2020.

In accordance with the earlier earnings guidance, Fingrid Groups profit for the 2020 financial period, excluding changes in the fair value of derivatives and before taxes, is expected to slightly decline from the previous year. The companys own estimates indicate the result according to the regulatory model that governs grid operations to show a deficit for 2020. The companys debt service capacity is expected to remain stable.

Results forecasts for the financial year are complicated especially by the uncertainty related to grid income, ITC income and cross-border transmission income, and to reserve and loss power costs. The income and costs are dependent on the outside temperatures, wind conditions, rainfall and changes in the hydrological conditions in the Nordic countries. These have an impact on the electricity production and consumption and consequently on the transmission and prices of electricity in Finland and in the surrounding areas.

Further information:

Jukka Ruusunen, President & CEO, tel. +358 30 395 5140 or +358 40 593 8428

Jan Montell, Chief Financial Officer, tel. +358 30 395 5213 or +358 40 592 4419

Attachments
Folding@home and Rosetta@home can now run on billions of Android smartphones, Raspberry Pi devices and ARM-based servers. The distributed computing projects, which give citizen scientists a way to contribute their devices computing power to the development of new cures for diseases, now support ARM64. Thats the ARM architecture behind processors such as Qualcomm Snapdragon and Samsung Exynos, which power most modern smartphones today.

Dr. Lloyd Watts, founder and CEO of Neocortix, which worked with Folding@home to add ARM64 support, said they built Folding@home and Rosetta@home for ARM-based devices to enable billions of high-performance mobile devices to work on the search for a COVID-19 vaccine. Both projects are assisting researchers around the world developing medicine and vaccines for the coronavirus, and they previously issued a call asking more people to lend them their devices computing power. However, neither @home project could run on ARM-based devices in the past.

With this development, the projects can harness all the computing power laying dormant in our pockets. Our phones have become more and more powerful in recent years, after all, and its high time for both Folding@home and Rosetta@home to give people the option to contribute to scientific research using their mobile devices.

Folding@home director Dr. Greg Bowman said in a statement:
Westpac is bracing for a potential widening of a blockbuster anti-money laundering lawsuit against it, after it failed to report tens of thousands of large cash transactions to the financial crimes watchdog.

In response to an AUSTRAC request, the bank on Tuesday revealed 175,000 transactions that it failed to report to the regulator and a further 365,000 reports that may have included incomplete or inaccurate information.

Westpac said breaches that it had previously disclosed in May this year were in fact more numerous than it had estimated. Credit:James Alcock

Westpac was thrown into crisis last year, after AUSTRAC accused it of breaching anti-money laundering laws 23 million times, including failures to properly vet payments potentially linked to paedophilia.

The bank has admitted to the vast bulk of those breaches but is contesting parts of the case, and meanwhile AUSTRAC continues to investigate and has also required the bank to conduct further probes.
French Ecology Minister Barbara Pompili said on July 27, Monday that the country has planned to ban heaters used by the restaurants and cafes on outdoor surfaces from early 2021 as it triggers to move to a low-carbon economy. Pompili reportedly said that heating or air conditioning means "ecological aberration". She added that the ban will come into force after the winters as the restaurants have been badly hit by COVID-19. The government reportedly said that All heated or air-conditioned buildings open to the public will have to keep their doors shut to avoid wasting of energy.

READ: NCPOR Study Notes Dramatic Decline In Arctic Sea Ice As Global Warming Takes Toll

France to lower carbon emissions

Pompili reportedly said that the officials would coordinate with the restaurateurs and help them on implementing the ban successfully. According to the reports, plenty of cities in France have already banned heated terraces. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo had refused and said that the businesses are hard hit and stand to lose a huge chunk of their revenues.

France is one of the European nations which is seeking to ensure adequate measures are being taken to tackle the economic crisis caused by the novel coronavirus and also stepping up its bid to a lower-carbon economy. French President Emmanuel Macron pledged 15 billion ($17.63 billion) in new funding for green proposals in June.

READ: To Reduce Global Warming, Climate-friendly Cooling Must Be Made Essential Post Pandemic

United Nations report

Earlier, the United Nations and International Energy Agency have said that due to the rising temperatures all over the world, cooling mechanisms and technologies will be required to protect people from severe heatwaves. The UN body also added that it will help keep vaccines and food fresh. The climate-friendly cooling could help reduce 0.4C of global warming by 2100, according to the reports.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and International Energy Agency (IEA) has emphasized that about 14 billion cooling appliances could be needed by 2050 all over the world as a result of global warming. Both the environment bodies added that countries must follow energy-efficient and climate-friendly cooling as part of their post-pandemic recovery plans.

READ: American Charged With Aggravated Murder Of Wife In France

READ: France Health Minister Olivier Veran Makes COVID-19 Tests Free Amid Rising Cases

Image: Pixabay
Jerry Horkan, a Reedsburg resident, attended the event with his family, including his wife, Amber, his son Dane, 9, daughter Kendal, 4, along with cousins Ian Powell, 9, and Asher Powell, 4, to show support for local law enforcement.

They need the community support to show we back them up and we think they are necessary, Horkan said.

Reedsburg resident Jed Seidl, a retired police officer, also attended the rally. Seidl served for 34 years, including with the Wisconsin Dells Police Department. He believes law enforcement needs support now more than ever with the lack of respect agencies are receiving.

Theres just a very false narrative about all cops being bad and thats unfortunate because thats so not true, he said. Theres so many things that entail what law enforcement does. In fact, arrests are a very small part of what they do.

He said law enforcement needs to do a better job at eliminating police officers who dont follow policies. But, he added it should be a lesson for change and better training policies for enhancement rather than putting a label that all police officers are bad and should be abolished all together.
Staffers of the presidential campaign of Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, have been instructed reportedly to delete TikTok, the Chinese app in the crosshairs of governments around the world after it was banned by India, from their personal and work phones.

Citing security and privacy concerns, Biden campaign general counsel Dana Remus, wrote to staffers to refrain from downloading and using TikTok on work and personal devices, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

The Biden campaign stricture came as US congress was on the verge passing a bill forbidding federal employees from using TikTok on their phones. The Trump administration is also weighing an outright ban on the app and other Chinese applications.

Also read: Donald Trump bets on Covid-19 vaccine for political shot in arm

Its something were looking at, President Donald Trump has said of his administrations plans for TikTok.

In the days after India banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps amidst tensions with China over Galwan clashes late June, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not only welcomed it but indicated the US may have played an assist role in it, and signalled Trump administrations intentions to follow suit.

The Biden campaigns ban on TikTok for its staffers was being seen by India watchers as an important signal of shared concern about China, in view of the absence thus far of explicit expression of support from the Biden campaign for India in the ongoing India-China dispute, in sharp contrast to the outpouring of backing from the Trump administration

Democrats individually and as a body had expressed their support for India in this conflict, and most notably by passing a bill last week, as a part of the defence spending bill for 2021, expressing concern with Chinas underlying motivation to redraw long-standing settled boundaries.

But the Biden campaign hadnt uttered a word yet on the India-China border conflict, an Indian American Democratic operative said requesting anonymity. The TikTok ban, the person added, coming ahead of Trump administration and congresss actions showed an uncoordinated similarity of purpose.

Democrats are looking at Indian American voters as a key component of their strategy to flip the three swing states  Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania  that gave Trump the White House in an upset victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The Indian American vote  the AAPI more broadly  can be an absolute difference maker, Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said at a power-packed pitch to them at a virtual town-hall recently, of the swing states.

We know that there are important sectors of the Indian American community throughout our country, throughout our battleground states, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, a senior adviser to the Biden campaign, had added in her pitch to the community. And we want to make sure we were engaging and connecting directly with them, their key leaders in these battleground states. And the key radio stations, newspapers, whatever else outlet it is that are speaking to them.

There are an estimated 4 million people of Indian origin in the United States, but only about a third are eligible to vote  1.3 million, according to a report by an organization of Democrats focussed on mobilization of Asian American voters to ensure the victory of Asian American candidates running for city-level public offices to those at the centre.
At Kettering, we pride ourselves on delivering a high-quality education that meets employer needs today but with a constant eye on what the future may require, Dr. Christine M. Wallace, Vice President Kettering Global, said.

Kettering University, a renowned institute of higher education offering a wide array of both on-campus and online degrees and programs, is proud to announce that it was ranked the No. 1 Best Value Online Engineering Masters for 2020 by Value Colleges.

Known for its STEM programs that empower students to propel their careers to senior-level administration, Kettering was acknowledged by the news source as providing students the necessary skills to perform specific tasks, such as updating software, integrating networks and systems, and managing IT teams in a fast-paced, competitive work environment. It also noted that, Kettering University offers one of the best online engineering Masters programs in the country for students who arent able to attend school on campus.

At Kettering, we pride ourselves on delivering a high-quality education that meets employer needs today but with a constant eye on what the future may require, Dr. Christine M. Wallace, Vice President Kettering Global, said. We prepare students to excel in the STEM field by providing practical applications of material and tools that go directly to workplace. This is how you create tomorrows innovators, by providing a solid foundation paired with practiced critical analysis. The result is the next generation of individuals poised to change industry, business and society.

Value Colleges is a news and information source that informs students on cost, return on investment and school rankings, among many other sources of information.

The MSE Electrical and Computer  Advanced Mobility Focus is a one-of-a-kind, highly innovative program that allows engineers to advance their skills and knowledge to be the key innovators in the automotive industry that is moving solidly toward electric and autonomous vehicles. This program includes a focus on artificial intelligence, robotics and digital systems.

About Kettering University Online

Kettering University Online is dedicated to helping STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) professionals achieve the extraordinary through technological innovation, leadership and service. Its programs link transformative experiential learning opportunities to rigorous academic programs in MS Engineering-ECE-Advanced Mobility Focus, Engineering Management, Lean Manufacturing, Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, an MBA, as well as its new Data Science program. Kettering University Online also has consistently earned top-seated national recognition year over year for its degree programs by U.S. News & World Report. For more information, go to online.kettering.edu.

About Kettering University

Kettering University, formerly known as GMI, is a Flint, Michigan-based private, nonprofit university recognized as one of the nations premier science, technology, engineering and business leaders in higher education. Dedicated to offering a curriculum that uniquely integrates classroom learning with experiential co-operative opportunities, Kettering consistently ranks in U.S. News & World Reports listing for elite specialty schools. The University has more than 27,000 square feet of lab and research space used by faculty, students and industry collaborators, and boasts the only ABET-accredited applied physics program in the world. It also houses the first and only FIRST Robotics Community Center on a college campus in the United States. According to a 2019 analysis of federal data ranking 4,500 schools nationwide, Kettering University degree holders have the highest lifetime return on investment (ROI) in the state of Michigan. The University celebrated its centennial year in 2019. For more information, go to kettering.edu.


The new rules will be effective from August 1, 2020.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed an order to introduce a temporary visa-free regime for tourists from China.

The new rules are stipulated in presidential decree No. 295/2020, the Office of the President of Ukraine said in an announcement on the official website.

Read alsoUkraine, Egypt start talks to resume tourism cooperation amid COVID-19 pandemic

The measure is designed to facilitate the development of friendly relations between Ukraine and China, as well as enhancing cooperation in the tourism sector.

The document provides for the introduction of a visa-free regime for entry into Ukraine and transit travel through Ukrainian territory for citizens of China entering with a tourist purpose if their stay in Ukraine does not exceed 30 days within 180 days.

The new regime will be in effect for the period from August 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021.

Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers was instructed to take measures in line with the presidential order.

The document comes into force on the day of its publication.
KBS nightly news anchor Lee So-jung / Korea Times file



More internet users back the news anchor



By Kang Hyun-kyung



KBS nightly news anchor Lee So-jung drew the ire of supporters of the late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon over her final words on the mayor and his alleged sexual harassment of his former secretary.



At the end of a news broadcast on July 16, Lee quoted a line from Jung Se-rang's fiction novel "From Siseon," which reads: "A certain suicide constitutes violence, an ultimate form of violence." She said the line means someone's death could cause deep pain for others who have to live with it.



"The fact that this line has been shared so many times on social media (after Park's death) could mean many people share this view. Now the victim is shouldering the heavy burden of truth because of secondary victimization (by Park's supporters)," she said in her closing lines.



"One TV personality caused a stir for her careless remarks that she was curious why Park's secretary kept silent for the past four years and then abruptly broke her silence. A female prosecutor, meanwhile, mocked the victim's plea, saying she didn't know holding arms constitutes sexual harassment. Finding the truth while sharing the pain that grips the victim  I think this is what we should do now."



Lee referred to Park's former secretary who accused her boss of sexual harassment. She took the case to the police on July 8 and Park was found dead early July 10. Police are investigating her accusation.



The KBS anchor's closing lines have caused a belated stir among some Park supporters.



On Tuesday, an internet user filed an online petition to the presidential office, urging President Moon Jae-in to take measures for KBS to fire her over her "inappropriate" remarks.



The petitioner said KBS is a public broadcasting company run by taxpayer money and accordingly is expected to be operated fairly in the best interest of the public. What Lee said during the KBS nightly news on July 16 violated neutrality, the person said.



With her assertive remarks, the petitioner claimed, Lee has misled viewers to believe the late Seoul mayor was guilty.



"She made her own hasty judgment on the case, although the investigation is still underway. By doing this, she gravely defamed the late Seoul mayor," the petition reads.



As of 4 p.m. on Tuesday, over 15,000 people had signed the petition.



Public opinion on the internet, however, is predominantly in favor of the KBS anchor.

An article about the presidential petition has drawn 246 likes and 3,771 dislikes.



One internet user wrote that Park's supporters "are biased and they criticize people who say what they don't like."



Another wrote "I didn't know KBS had such a great anchor."


Chennai: The Tamil Nadu's Directorate of Government Examinations (DGE) is expected to release Tamil Nadu SSLC results 2020 anytime soon. Although an official confirmation on the release date of results is awaited, it is being speculated that the board would release the SSLC class 10th results before July 31.

Once declared, students will be able to check their Class 10 results on Tamil Nadu's Directorate of Government Examination (DGE) official websites - dge.tn.gov.in, dge1.tn.nic.in, tnresults.nic.in.

Over 9 lakh students appeared for Tamil Nadu Class 10 exam in 2020. The exams were scheduled from March 27 to April 13.

List of official websites to check Tamil Nadu SSLC results:

dge.tn.gov.in

dge2.tn.nic.in

manabadi.co.in

dge1.tn.nic.in

tnresults.nic.in

schools9.com

The DGE would announce the online on official websites and the students can check their score by filling required credentials asked on the website. The Tamil Nadu Class 10 exam in 2020were scheduled from March 27 to April 13.

Under the present circumstances, the Tamil Nadu Higher Secondary results 2020 will be made available in online mode only.

Here's how to check Tamil Nadu SSLC Class 10 results 2020 online:

1. Visit the official website- tnresults.nic.in

2. Click on the link of 'SSLC Exam - March 2020 Results'

3. Enter the registration number and date-of-birth

4. The result will appear on the screen. Check for any discrepancy

5. Save and download the result

6. Take a print copy of the same and secure it for future

Students can also access the Tamil Nadu SSLC Result 2020 via the app. They will need to download the TN SSLC Result app on their smartphone. To check their scorecard, visit the Results link in the app and enter credentials like Date of Birth and registration number and submit details. The Tamil Nadu class 10th SSLC Results 2020 will appear on the screen.

While 80% weightage will be given to marks in quarterly and half-yearly assessment tests, 20% weightage will be given to attendance. It is to be noted that DGE had released Tamil Nadu Board Class 12 Results 2020 on July 16.
The Robert T. Matsui United States Courthouse (Eastern District of California) in Sacramento, Calif., on July 27, 2020. (Rui Xu/The Epoch Times)

Fugitive Chinese Researcher Makes Initial Appearance in Federal Court

Juan Tang, a former researcher at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), made her initial appearance in the United States District Court in Sacramento, California, on July 27.

According to Heiko Coppola, attorney for the prosecutor, the government is moving for detention at this time.

An initial appearance is a hearing in front of a judge that is conducted within 24 hours of the defendant being taken into custody in a criminal case.

Tang, a Chinese national, took refuge at the San Francisco Chinese Consulate and was arrested on July 23.

The complaint against her was filed by FBI agent Steven Dilland on June 26 for fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents.

Tangs lawyer, Lexi Negin, said she needs to prepare a lot of information to prepare a bond package for the court. Due to the COVID-19 situation, Negin was not able to prepare the package in time for the initial appearance, but hopes to get it as soon as possible.

Given the lack of information about Tangs criminal history, the court ruled that there will be no restraint issued.

A hearing has been set for Aug. 10 at 2 p.m. before magistrate judge Edmund Brennan for a preliminary investigation.

If Tang is found guilty, she could face 10 years in federal prison or a fine of $250,000.

The Sacramento County Jail in Sacramento, Calif., where Chinese fugitive Juan Tang is being held, on July 27, 2020. (Ted Lin/The Epoch Times)
Yuen Kwok-yung (C) at a laboratory of Hong Kong University's Department of Microbiology at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong, on March 11, 2013. (Philippe Lopez /AFP via Getty Images)

Chinese Regime Destroyed Evidence About Initial Virus Outbreak: Hong Kong Scientist

A well-known Hong Kong microbiologist is the latest to reveal information on how Beijing initially covered up Chinas outbreak of the CCP virus, adding to a pile of evidence about authorities mismanagement of the pandemic crisis.

Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, an infectious disease expert at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), was among a team of experts headed by Chinas top respiratory specialist Zhong Nanshan dispatched on a fact-finding mission to Wuhan, where the virus first broke out, on Jan. 19.

Now, more than 6 months later, Yuen told the BBC in an interview on July 27 that Chinese local authorities were slow to respond to the outbreak and had destroyed physical evidence about the outbreak.

I do suspect that they have been doing some coverup locally at Wuhan. The local officials who are supposed to immediately relay the information have not allowed this to be done as readily as it should, Yuen said.

He recalled his visit to the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan in January and said there was nothing to see because the market was clean already.

Wuhan authorities initially claimed that the virus likely originated from the market, though studies have since shown that some of Wuhans first patients had no link to the market.

He added: You may say that the crime scene is already disturbed because the supermarket was cleared. We cannot identify any host which is giving the virus to humans.

Beijings initial coverup of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, has been well-documented. In late December, authorities silenced eight doctors, among them ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, after they posted on Chinese social media about a new form of pneumonia that was spreading in the city of Wuhan.

In early July, the World Health Organization backtracked from its initial claim that Beijing reported the virus outbreak late last year to the world health bodyinstead saying that the agency found out about the outbreak through a media statement on the Wuhan health commissions website.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California on July 23, commented on how the pandemic could have been contained, had the Chinese regime been transparent about the outbreak.

Just think how much better off the world would benot to mention the people inside of Chinaif we had been able to hear from the doctors in Wuhan and theyd been allowed to raise the alarm about the outbreak of a new and novel virus, Pompeo said.

This is not the first time that Yuen has openly questioned Beijings narratives about the virus outbreak. On March 18, Yuen and fellow microbiologist David Lung, an honorary assistant professor at HKU, co-wrote an online op-ed published in the local newspaper Ming Pao.

The article disputed online claims that the CCP virus originated from the United States. They said these claims were without any evidence and should not be spread.

The op-ed was published less than a week after Chinas foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijun accused the United States army of bringing the virus to Wuhan in a Twitter post.

In early June, Yuen and his team published a research paper on The Lancet Microbe, an open-access journal in the Lancet family of scientific journals. They took blood samples from 452 Hong Kong residents, who were among 469 Hongkongers evacuated from central Chinas Hubei Province in early March, where Wuhan is located.

The researchers said they found that 17 of the 452 (3.8 percent) were seropositive, meaning that they carried antibodies against COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus.

Using that percentage and the total population in Hubei, 59 million, the researchers estimated that 2.2 million people in Hubei could have been infected by early March.

The paper pointed to how Hubeis health commission reported only 67,802 COVID-19 cases as of March 31.

Yuens paper drew an angry response from Chinese hawkish state-run media Global Times. In an article published on June 15, Global Times accused Yuen of cooperating with the United States to strike down China.
DASHOGUZ, Turkmenistan -- A crowd of people lining up at the foreign-transfer desk is a familiar scene at Dashoguzs state-run Senagat Bank, one of the few places locals can use to send money to their relatives abroad.

"The bank is making it increasingly difficult for us to send money to our children studying abroad," says a woman waiting in line. "It deliberately delays the process using all kinds of pretexts, sending us back to provide more and more documents."

The woman -- who asks to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal from state officials -- says it takes several trips to banks to finally meet the endless new requirements and transfer money to her daughter, who is studying in Russia.

The documents required for a bank transfer include a confirmation-of-study letter from the foreign university and proof of an "adequate" income from the parents place(s) of employment.

The families are not allowed to send their children more than $200 a month, a limit introduced by the authoritarian government in Turkmenistan, which strictly controls all aspects of people's lives.

Money transfers abroad in the Central Asian country of some 5.8 million are primarily carried out by Western Union shops located inside official bank premises, which operate under strict government control.

Hundreds of Turkmen, including students and those who have gone abroad for medical treatment, have been stranded in foreign countries as international flights were canceled and the borders closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Amid the pandemic, the government raised the money-transfer limit to $500 for those citizens who are stuck abroad. But the increase doesnt apply to students, except for a few unspecified exceptions, according to state media.

The closure of many businesses across the world due to the pandemic caused the majority of Turkmen students abroad to lose the jobs many of them had to pay their rent, food, and other bills, along with  in many cases -- the money they got from home. Most of the jobs used to earn extra cash included waiting tables, cleaning, or babysitting.

Our children are stuck in Russia with no money even for the most basic things, because there are so many artificial obstacles preventing us from sending them enough money in time, says a man waiting in line at the Senagat Bank.

Clients say heated arguments often break out between bank workers and clients frustrated over "endless requirement and delays."

Several clients told RFE/RL correspondents that similar problems exist at the Turkmenbashi Bank in Dashoguz, a city of some 200,000 people.

Some people noted that the situation was much better in the citys branch of the Turkmen-Turkish commercial bank, which doesnt ask for any additional documents beyond the existing list of required papers.

RFE/RL tried to contact Senagat Bank, Turkmenbashi Bank, and government officials in Dashoguz and the capital, Ashgabat, but has been unable to get a comment from anyone.

Correspondents have reported similar issues existing for people trying to transfer money in other parts of the country as well.

Double-Edged Sword

In Ashgabat, some parents were told that their children studying abroad can write a letter to Turkmen embassies and ask for financial help.

That, however, would effectively end their studies abroad once the students return home for a holiday, the authorities have warned.

A letter I got [from the Foreign Ministry] said the students should write to the embassy saying they need financial assistance, but at the same time the letter warned that anyone who applies for such assistance wont be allowed to go back to the foreign country once they come home for a holiday, an Ashgabat resident told RFE/RL.

The man said he was among many people who asked the Foreign Ministry and State Migration Agency to allow them to transfer $500 via Western Union to their children abroad after the pandemic began.

The officials say, 'If the parents dont have enough money, then why did they send their children to study abroad? the man told RFE/RL.

The Ashgabat resident said he was extremely angered by the situation: unable to send the money he has, which is adequate to support his son, while at the same time being accused of not being able to afford his sons studies.

RFE/RL has contacted several Turkmen embassies for comment but did not receive any responses.

It remains unclear if the restrictions and the alleged deliberate delays and impediments on sending money to Turkmen students abroad is aimed at pressuring students to return home or is caused by the countrys ongoing financial crisis -- or if it's a case of both.

No Money, Not Even 'For Bread'

Turkmen students abroad can also use debit cards from Turkmen banks, but a strict limit has also been put on their cards.

Several students told RFE/RL that even if they have enough money in their bank accounts in Turkmenistan, the cards freeze after they withdraw a small amount of cash from ATMs or use the cards to purchase something while abroad.

RFE/RL has received comments from Turkmen students struggling with financial hardship in Russia, Kazakhstan, and other Central Asian countries, where there are many thousands of students studying.

I dont have any money left to pay the rent or even to just buy bread, one Turkmen student in Kazakhstan said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"My parents -- in Turkmenistans Mary Province -- go to different banks every day, stand in lines trying to send me money," the student says. "Ive sent them all the documents and letters the banks required, but the banks still refuse to transfer the money."

Meanwhile, several Ashgabat residents claim there is not a $200 limit for the wealthy and the well-connected, such as government officials who want to send money to their relatives abroad.

RFE/RL cannot independently confirm the claim, but corruption and nepotism are widespread in Turkmenistan, which has been under the despotic rule of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov since 2006.

In Freedom House's 2019 Global Freedom rankings, Turkmenistan was ranked 207 out of 210 countries and territories that were graded.

Written by Farangis Najibullah in Prague with reporting by RFE/RL Turkmen Service correspondents
DUBLIN, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Electrophysiology Market by Product (Lab Devices (3D Mapping, Recording), Ablation Catheters (Cryoablation, RF), Diagnostic Catheters (Conventional, Advanced, Ultrasound)), Indication (AF, AVNRT, WPW), End User (Hospitals, ASCs) - Global Forecasts to 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global electrophysiology market is projected to reach USD 10.61 billion by 2025 from USD 6.87 billion in 2020, growing at a CAGR of 9.1% from 2020 to 2025.



This report studies the breast biopsy market based on product, indication, end-user and region. The report also studies factors (such as drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges) affecting the market growth. It analyzes the opportunities and challenges in the market and provides details of the competitive landscape for market leaders. Furthermore, the report analyzes micromarkets with respect to their individual growth trends and forecasts the revenue of the market segments with respect to five main regions (and the respective countries in these regions).

Technological advancements and increasing incidence of target diseases to support market growth

Factors driving the growth of the market are technological advancements; new entrants in the market; growing investments, funds, and grants; and increasing incidence of target diseases and procedures. Emerging markets are also expected to offer high growth opportunities for players operating in this market. However, factors such as high cost of electrophysiology products and inadequate reimbursement, unfavorable healthcare reforms in the US, and the cost-intensive requirement for clinical data for new product launches along with the availability of alternative technologies are expected to restrain the growth of this market in the coming years. The reuse and reprocessing of devices and lack of skilled and experienced electrophysiologists are some of the challenges in this market. The growth of the market is also expected to slow temporarily during the forecast period due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

3D Mapping Systems: The largest segment of EP laboratory devices market

Based on type of product, the EP laboratory devices market is segmented into 3D mapping systems, EP recording systems, RF ablation systems, intra-cardiac echocardiography (ICE) ultrasound imaging systems, EP X-ray systems, and other electrophysiology laboratory devices (MRI systems and EP remote magnetic and robotic navigation systems). 3D mapping systems accounted for the largest share of the global EP laboratory devices market in 2019. Driven by its high growth potential, markets players are increasingly focusing on the launch of new technologically advanced devices. For instance, in August 2018, BioSig Technologies received the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for the PURE EP System.

Cryoablation EP Catheters: The largest segment of EP ablation catheters market

The EP ablation catheters market is further segmented into cryoablation EP catheters, radiofrequency ablation catheters, laser ablation systems, and microwave ablation systems. Cryoablation EP catheters accounted for the largest share of the global EP ablation catheters market in 2019. The therapeutic advantages of cryoablation over other ablation modalities such as radiofrequency ablation are driving the growth of this market. In addition, various market players are taking initiatives to increase their market presence and strengthen product portfolio; they are also engaging in clinical studies to evaluate the safety of their products. Such initiatives are further supporting market growth. In May 2019, Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands) entered into a partnership with Medtronic (Ireland). Philips' KODEX-EPD dielectric imaging and navigation system, dielectric imaging sensors, clinical software and services were expected to be leveraged to support cryoablation procedures performed using the Medtronic Arctic Front Advance cryoablation technology.

Conventional EP Diagnostic Catheters: The largest segment of EP diagnostic catheters market

On the basis of type, the EP diagnostic catheters market is segmented into conventional EP diagnostic catheters, advanced EP diagnostic catheters, and ultrasound EP diagnostic catheters. The conventional EP diagnostic catheters segment accounted for the largest share of the global EP diagnostic catheters market in 2019. This can be attributed to the development of technologically advanced fixed and steerable diagnostic catheters, rising prevalence of cardiac arrhythmias across the globe, and increasing demand for these lower-priced devices in emerging markets.

Atrial Fibrillation: The dominating indication segment of the electrophysiology market

Based on indication, the electrophysiology market is segmented into atrial fibrillation, atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia (AVNRT), Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome, atrial flutter, and other indications.

Atrial fibrillation segment commanded the largest share of the electrophysiology market in 2019; this segment is also expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period. The rapid growth in the aging population across the globe, increasing prevalence of atrial fibrillation, a growing number of ablation procedures related to atrial fibrillation, and the development of advanced electrophysiology products for early diagnosis of atrial fibrillation are expected to drive the growth of this market segment in the coming years.

Hospitals & Cardiac Centers: The largest sub-segment of the electrophysiology segment

Based on end-user, the global electrophysiology market has been segmented into hospitals & cardiac centers and ambulatory surgery centers. The hospitals & cardiac centers segment accounted for the largest share in 2019 due to the increasing ablation procedures, the presence of big cath labs and electrophysiology labs in hospitals, and rising prevalence of CVDs. Technological advancements, coupled with government funding, are also encouraging the installation of new tools and devices in hospitals.

North America: The largest share contributing regional segment of the global electrophysiology market in 2019

The electrophysiology market is segmented into five major regions, namely, North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. North America accounted for a major share of the electrophysiology market in 2019. Factors such as the high burden of CVDs, an increasing number of clinical trials validating electrophysiology devices, the growing number of approvals for electrophysiology devices, and the presence of key players in this region are driving the growth of the electrophysiology market in the US. Moreover, the growing focus of government organizations on providing funding for research, the rising geriatric population, and the high incidence of cardiac diseases are the major factors driving the electrophysiology market in Canada.

Market Dynamics



Drivers



Technological Advancements

New Entrants in the Market

Growing Investments, Funds, and Grants

Increasing Incidence of Target Diseases and Procedures

Restraints

High Cost of Electrophysiology Products and Inadequate Reimbursement

Unfavorable Healthcare Reforms in the US

Cost-Intensive Requirement for Clinical Data for New Product Launches along with Availability of Alternative Technologies

Opportunities

Emerging Markets

Challenges

Reuse and Reprocessing of Devices

Lack of Skilled and Experienced Electrophysiologists

Companies Mentioned



Abbott Laboratories

Acutus Medical

APN Health, LLC

Baylis Medical

Biotronik

Boston Scientific Corporation

Cardiofocus

Cathrx Ltd.

Cathvision

Cook Medical

EP Solutions SA

EPMap-System

GE Healthcare

Imricor Medical Systems

Japan Lifeline

Johnson & Johnson

Koninklijke Philips N.V.

Lepu Medical

Medtronic PLC

Merit Medical Systems

Microport Scientific Corporation

Osypka

Schwarzer Cardiotek

Stereotaxis

Teleflex

TZ Medical

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/9loxlg

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By Andrew Ujifusa and Evie Blad

Two-thirds of K-12 emergency funding in the new coronavirus relief bill from Senate Republicans would be reserved for schools that plan to physically reopen and provide some kind of in-person instruction.

That proposal was included in a suite of GOP proposals introduced Monday that will start difficult negotiations with Democrats in the Senate. It would provide $70 billion to K-12 public and private schools , along with $5 billion in funds for governors to use on K-12 and higher education.

Of that $70 billion pot, a third would go to all schools regardless of their plans for the next year. The remaining two-thirds would be directed to schools with a physical reopening plan that is approved by the governor after consultation with the state education department. The bill sets down criteria for what constitutes physical reopening, but leaves the door open for so-called hybrid plans or partial reopenings when it comes to which schools could qualify for that money.

Senate Republicans labeled the package of policy and funding proposals the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, and Schools (HEALS) Act.



Under the GOP proposal, private schools would get a prescribed portion of the funding. However, while a separate bill in the suite of proposals authorizes emergency education freedom grants to support one-time private school costs and other expenses, they are not provided federal funding in the HEALS Act package. (That proposal was previewed by two GOP senators last week.)

There is also no additional budget aid provided to state and local governments, which could be a key factor in how much officials at those levels ending up cutting their education budgets in the near future. And a provision of the bill would allow states receiving the aid to cut their education funding in fiscal 2020 and 2021, if they kept the spending the same percentage of their overall budget on schools as in fiscal 2019.

Also under the HEALS Act, schools would get protections from legal liability , a measure that is aimed at discouraging insubstantial lawsuits relating to COVID-19 while preserving the ability of individuals and businesses that have suffered real injury to obtain complete relief.

Opening Bid

The bill is the GOPs opening pitch in negotiations with Democrats, who have a very different vision for the next relief package. It comes more than two months after the Democratically controlled House passed the HEROES Act, and after weeks of negotiations by congressional Republicans with the White House over its policy priorities.

Like the HEROES Act, the Republican proposal is not likely to become law. But ahead of negotiations over a final package, it does represent key priorities of Senate Republicans as well as the Trump administration, which has pushed hard for schools to resume in-person classes in recent weeks.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate education committee, said on the Senate floor Monday that the two-thirds share of K-12 grants acknowledges the additional health and related costs schools that plan to resume in-person classes face: Those schools need help paying for that.

And Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the chairman of the Senate appropriations committee, stressed the desire by President Donald Trump and other officials for schools to physically reopen: The [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] emphasizes the importance of getting kids back in schools.

The push comes after Trump and some administration officials conceded last week that schools in coronavirus hot spots may have to rethink physical reopenings.

Hybrid Models In Play for School Aid

States would receive HEALS Act money based proportionally on how much money they received in the most recent fiscal year under Title I, the federal education program intended to help students from low-income households. (Thats not a universally popular way for distributing coronavirus emergency aid.) The education secretary would have to distribute money to states within 15 days of the bill becoming law, a nod to the fact that the start of the academic year is just a few weeks away for some schools.

States would have to set aside money from the bills $70 billion fund in proportion to the percentage of students enrolled in private schools before the pandemic. After that and other small set-asides, states would direct one-third of the $70 billion to local school districts in general, regardless of whether they plan to reopen remotely, in-person, or using some hybrid model.

Meanwhile, two-thirds would go to schools that have plans to physically reopen. Governors would sign off on which schools would receive money from this pot, based on plans submitted by districts. The following requirements for this money would apply.



For districts reopening plans submitted to governors, districts would have to provide a timeline for when they plan to provide in-person classes, how many days of in-person classes they plan to provide each week, and a promise to provide as much face-to-face instruction as is safe and practicable.

A district that submits a plan that allows at least 50 percent of its students to be on campus at least 50 percent of the time would automatically qualify for the funding.

A plans that calls for in-person learning for fewer students would have its funding allotment reduced on a pro rata basis as determined by the Governor.

Schools that dont plan any in-person instruction would not be eligible to get money from the pot of money for physical reopening.

Schools that do receive HEALS money to help them physically reopen could spend it on personal protective equipment, sanitizing and cleaning resources, education technology, and to help districts prepare for and respond to the virus, in coordination with local health departments, among other things.

Private schools receiving the money through the set-aside would have similar but not identical requirements with respect to their reopening plans.

Private schools that plan to provide in-person instruction for at least 50 percent of their students where the students physically attend school no less than 50 percent of each school-week would be eligible for the full amount of aid per student. But private schools that didnt provide any in-person instruction would only be only eligible for one-third of the full per-student aid available.

The spending language in HEALS does not say theres a requirement for public school districts to provide equitable services to private school students. For more on that fight, go here .

Separately, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos would have some flexibility to grant waivers from a requirement that school districts maintain the same level of local funding from year to year. She would also have power to waive narrow sections of federal special education law, but not the core provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, as well as a limit on district spending on education technology for Title IV grants of the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Schools and Democrats Push Back

Ever since the CARES Act, signed into law in late March, provided $13 billion in direct aid for K-12 districts, education groups and officials have been clamoring for a substantially larger coronavirus relief package to help them address reopening needs for the 2020-21 school year during an unprecedented upheaval for teachers, administrators, parents, and students.

Trump and DeVos, meanwhile, have said that schools that do not physically reopen should not receive their full share of federal aid, and that parents should be able to take a portion of that funding to spend on their childrens education as they see fit. Theyve also backed support for private school choice and relief for private schools in a new COVID-19 aid bill.

On Monday, education groups criticized the way the HEALS Act made the majority of the K-12 aid contingent on physically reopening.

The Council of Chief State Schools Officers Executive Director Carissa Moffat Miller said she appreciated the $70 billion in aid but was deeply concerned about how two-thirds of the K-12 education money was contingent on in-person classes.

It is important to know that nearly all schools will reopen in some way this fall, whether in person, remotely, or a combination of both, Miller said in a statement. Additional federal resources are critical to serve students in every learning environment, from necessary PPE and health and safety protocols for safe in-person instruction to broadband and connectivity in the home for successful remote learning.

And the National Association of Elementary School Principals said the $70 billion aid falls well short of the $175 billion in direct K-12 aid it and other education groups have sought from Congress.

Withholding funds from schools and districts that have made the difficult decision to not resume in-person classes due to current coronavirus-related risks in their community is flat-out wrong, NAESP Executive Director L. Earl Franks said in a statement on Tuesday. NAESP opposes this carrot approach that incentivizes schools to disregard public health experts recommendations, which could put the lives of educators and students at risk.

As general elements of the Senate GOP-White House plan became public over the last several days, Democrats and others have tried to preemptively push back on what they see as an irresponsible and insufficient Republican aid proposal for schools.

On July 21, for example, Senate Democrats stressed the unprecedented costs educators face in trying to make schools safe. Schools and child-care facilities need significant resources in order to take the necessary precautions to make families feel safe, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on a conference call with reporters. And they decried the idea of a relief package benefiting private schools and conditioning money on schools resuming in-person classes.

The thought of using student safety as a bargaining chip is truly appalling, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the ranking member of the Senate education committee, said on the same call. Any attempt to condition funds on physical reopening is a non-starter for Democrats.

That rhetorical pushback from Democrats continued into Monday, when Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said on a call with reporters that, We need to make sure that we have more resources for public education, not to funnel away resources from public education.

Perez also said the original sin of the Trump administration was not taking sufficient action to halt the spread of the virus at the end of last year and the start of 2020.

Follow us on Twitter @PoliticsK12 . And follow the Politics K-12 reporters @EvieBlad @Daarel and @AndrewUjifusa .
Ukraine, Poland agree on further steps to prevent Russia's Nord Stream 2

11:10, 28.07.20 4157

The issue was on the agenda of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba's visit to Warsaw.
John David Washington and Robert Pattinson in Tenet. (Warner Bros. Entertainment)

Christopher Nolans blockbuster Tenet is set to be released in the UK on 26 August, Warner Bros has announced.

The film, which stars John David Washington and Robert Pattinson, had originally been scheduled to launch in July before the pandemic intervened.

Tenet was delayed several times amid spikes in coronavirus cases that kept cinemas closed and last week Warner Bros removed it from the release schedule.

However, the studio revealed on Monday Tenet will open in more than 70 countries around the world on Wednesday, 26 August, including in the UK.

Just in: Shot with IMAX Cameras, Christopher Nolans highly anticipated @TENETFilm coming to IMAX theatres worldwide starting August 26. #IMAX tickets on sale soon. pic.twitter.com/l9VcfWHGtO  IMAX (@IMAX) July 27, 2020

The film will then arrive in the US, the worlds biggest box office market, over Labor Day weekend in select cities, Warner Bros said.

Labor Day is Monday, 7 September. Warner Bros did not say which US cities it was planning on releasing the film in.

IMAX has also launched a new poster for the film, extolling the virtues of seeing it on the largest screen possible.

The IMAX poster for Tenet. (Warner Bros.)

Tenets plot remains largely under wraps. Set in the world of international espionage, it is set to be one of the biggest films of the year and boasts a star-studded cast including John David Washington, Robert Pattinson and Nolan regular Sir Michael Caine.

Read more: Run time for Tenet revealed

News of the films release will be warmly received by the cinema industry, which is desperate for blockbuster films to entice customers back inside theatres after months of being closed.
Gerard (Gerry) Kelly, Straffan / Artane, Dublin

July 24. Suddenly at James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Blanchardstown. Deeply regretted by his loving son Conor, daughter Clodagh, brothers Brendan, Martin and Andrew, sisters Sheila, Teresa, Liz, Carmel, Maria, Bernie and Rita, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, relatives and friends. In line with government advice regarding public gatherings, a funeral mass for family and close friends will take place. Reposing at Reilly's Funeral Home, Woods House, Clane, Co. Kildare on Tuesday from 6pm to 8pm. Removal on Wednesday at 10:30am to St.Brigid's Church, Straffan arriving for 11:00am Funeral Mass, followed by burial in Straffan cemetery. Those who would like to attend the funeral but due to current restrictions cannot, please leave your personal message by selecting condolences below. Gerard's Funeral Mass can be viewed on Wednesday at 11am at www.celstra.ie.

John Martin, Ard Mhuire, Rathangan, Kildare

July 27. Peacefully surrounded by his loving family at the Regional Hospital Tullamore. Deeply regretted by his loving wife Charlotte (Dotie), family Ronald, Glynis, Lucinda, John, Nigel and Mervyn, brother, sisters, grandchildren, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews extended family, neighbours and friends. You can leave your condolences on the Online Condolence Book below. The family would like to thank you for your help and understanding at this sad and difficult time. Donations If Desired To The Respiratory Unit Peamount Hospital. House strictly private pleasevFuneral Arrangements Later

John Wilson, Broadfield View, Naas, Kildare / Dublin 12

Formerly of Kilworth Road, Drimnagh and St. Patrick's Road, Greenhills. After a short illness in the tender care of the staff of the Maple Ward in Tallaght Hospital. Beloved husband of Breda and father of Elaine, Tanya, Stephen and Emma. Sadly missed by his loving wife and family, son-in-law Marc, daughter-in-law Julie, grandchildren Liam, Sean, Caoimhe, James, Olivia and Kate, brother Paddy, sisters Marie, Bernie and Rita, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, relatives and friends. In accordance with government directives and in the interest of public health a private family funeral will take place. Those who would like to attend the funeral but cannot due to the current restrictions on gatherings are invited to leave a message on the condolence page below. For those that wish to view John's Funeral Mass it will be streamed live on Thursday at 10 am via the webcam on the Naas Parish website at www.naasparish.ie Family flowers only please. Donations, if desired, to the Tallaght University Hospital Foundation at https://www.tuhf.ie/pages/donate
Secretary of Health Rachel Levine (seen here at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center on June 24, 2020) said transphobic remarks and actions hurt all LGBTQ Pennsylvanians. Read more

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HARRISBURG  Pennsylvanias top health official on Tuesday denounced a recent series of transphobic attacks against her, saying she felt compelled to personally address the discrimination.

While these individuals may think that they are only expressing their displeasure with me, they are in fact hurting the thousands of LGBTQ Pennsylvanians who suffer directly from these current demonstrations of harassment, Health Secretary Rachel Levine said at a news briefing.

I have no room in my heart for hatred, she said. And frankly, I do not have time for intolerance.

The remarks were unusual for Levine, who despite facing numerous personal attacks has tended to stick to business during her public appearances to discuss COVID-19.

But the harassment has grown more public and unabashed. A Tioga County restaurant printed a menu featuring a transphobic item description that targeted the health secretary, and the Bloomsburg Fair apologized after it called a man who wore a dress and wig in a dunk tank for a fundraiser Dr. Levine.

In her remarks, Levine expressed the need for Pennsylvanians to work towards a spirit of not just tolerance, but a spirit of acceptance and welcoming, and told LGBTQ youth, It is OK to be you.

Our children are watching, she said. They are watching what we do. And they are watching how we act.

Levine is one of only a handful of high-profile transgender public officials in the United States, and she is the first transgender person to lead a Pennsylvania state agency. She has worked in Gov. Tom Wolfs administration for more than five years, first as physician general, then as acting secretary of health. She was confirmed to the position in March 2018.

As the face of the states coronavirus response, Levine has been criticized for the Health Departments handling of the disease inside nursing homes and for its approach to data transparency.

But Levine has also been subjected to a barrage of personal attacks on social media, by public officials, and by a member of the press. On a phone call with reporters in May, a Pittsburgh radio host repeatedly misgendered Levine, prompting her to correct him.

Last week, Wolf released a statement in support of Levine.

Dr. Levine is a distinguished and accomplished public servant. She is committed to keeping Pennsylvanians safe and healthy, even those who direct hate-fueled attacks at her, the statement said. Hate has no place in Pennsylvania.

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.
She welcomed her first child, daughter Frankie Violet, in October.

And Jennifer Hawkins has revealed she is planning her transition to wean her baby off breastfeeding in the coming months.

'I currently breastfeed Frankie, but will move to toddler milk after her first birthday,' Jennifer, 36, told Daily Mail Australia.

Scroll down for video

Changes: Jennifer Hawkins (left) has revealed her plans to move on from breastfeeding her nine-month-old daughter Frankie Violet (right) in October when the adorable bub turns one

In her first brand partnership as a new mother, Jennifer has signed on to be the new face of Bubs Australia, which was founded by fellow Sydney mum, Kristy Carr.

The Australian icon is officially the first-ever global face of Bubs.

'As a new mother it was a huge decision what brand to choose and trust when I was introducing solids to Frankie,' Jennifer explained.

The former Myer ambassador said she had already been using the brand's organic puree pouches and rusks with Frankie before being approached by the company to be their global ambassador.

New role: In her first brand partnership as a new mother, Jennifer has signed on to be the new face of Bubs Australia , which was founded by fellow Sydney mum, Kristy Carr

'The Bubs ethos of healthy nutrition and well-being perfectly aligns with my own values': Jennifer initially discovered Bubs whilst researching the benefits of rice cereal

Jennifer said she initially discovered Bubs whilst researching the benefits of rice cereal and has been a fan of the brand's organic range ever since.

'The Bubs ethos of healthy nutrition and well-being perfectly aligns with my own values, which is why I am so happy and excited to take on this role!' she added.

While her daughter is only nine-months-old now, she aims to start her on the brand's organic toddler milk when she has her first birthday in October.

Family life: Jennifer expressed her desire to start a family in September 2018, and welcomed baby Frankie in October 2019. Pictured with husband Jake Wall

Jennifer expressed her desire to start a family in September 2018, following her departure from Myer after 12 years as the department store's ambassador.

Speaking at her final runway show for the retailer, she told the Herald Sun: 'I'd love to have a family, it's taking the time to look ahead. I want to have the time to be able to do that.'

Jennifer married property developer Jake in Bali, Indonesia in 2013, after eight years of dating.

The pair broke with tradition and gave their daughter both her mother's maiden name, Hawkins, and her father's surname, Wall.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 20:13:29|Editor: huaxia

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KUWAIT CITY, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait Airways is prepared for the resumption of commercial flights at the Kuwait International Airport, Kamil Al-Awadhi, CEO of the company said Tuesday.

Kuwait Airways is working in a "serious and professional manner" in terms of training and qualifying its crews on how to deal with travelers in accordance with new international procedures and standards, Al-Awadhi said in a statement.

He indicated that the company spares no effort to ensure the safety and health of passengers.

The company has trained the plane crews to follow appropriate safety measures where they are obligated to wear fully protective masks and sterilizers, he added.

After the arrival of the aircraft, the plane will be sterilized and sprayed in a way that ensures that the aircraft is free of any viruses and ready to receive passengers again, the CEO noted.

In addition, the company is expected to operate 30 flights per day in the first stage, and the pace will rise according to the variables.

On March 13, Kuwait suspended all commercial flights as part of the efforts to curb the rapid rise of coronavirus cases.

Kuwait will resume commercial flights at Kuwait International Airport from Aug. 1.

According to Tareq Al-Mezrem, the Kuwaiti government spokesman, the government has approved a three-stage plan to resume commercial flights to and from Kuwait International Airport. The operation of the first stage will be at a maximum of 30 percent capacity. Enditem
LINN COUNTY SHERIFF

Water rescue  About 8:41 p.m. Sunday, deputies assisted Harrisburg Fire with a water rescue at the boat launch. Two stranded floaters were stuck on an island in the Willamette River. All safe and no injuries.

SWEET HOME POLICE

Injury transfer  About 12:30 p.m. Sunday, officer assisted as medics responded to the railroad trestle at Foster to pick up a 5-year-old child injured at Yellow Bottom Campground area.

CORVALLIS POLICE

Reckless endangering  7:48 p.m. Saturday, 1300 block of Southwest E Avenue. Logan Bennett, 27, of Corvallis, said he was instructing someone on how to load and unload a rifle in his apartment when the rifle discharged, firing a bullet through the ceiling and into two other apartments. No one was injured despite both those apartments being occupied at the time. Bennett was cited for reckless endangering and second-degree criminal mischief and the firearm was seized.

Drug arrest  1:10 a.m. Sunday, 100 block of Southwest B Avenue. Douglas Firoved, 57, was arrested for felony possession of methamphetamine.

Fire  10:21 p.m. Sunday, vicinity of Michaels Landing boat ramp. A caller reported a tent on fire. The fire burned a nearby tree and shrubs. The fire department put out the fire and no injuries were reported. The camps owner was not identified.

Child neglect  8:49 a.m. Monday, 900 block of Northwest Hobart Avenue. Judit Ramos, 24, was arrested for second-degree child neglect after a 2-year-old boy was left unattended outside for more than 10 minutes.

LINN COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT

Sex crimes trial rescheduled  From July 16. The trial of Demitreus Garcia of Lebanon, originally scheduled for July 21-22, was rescheduled to July 9-10. Garcia is charged with second-degree sex abuse and third-degree sex abuse.

Assault case plea and sentencing set  From July 22. Cheryl Hansen, 55, of Lebanon, was scheduled for a plea and sentence hearing on Wednesday. Hansen is charged with second-degree assault, failure to perform the duties of a driver to an injured person and tampering with a witness for an incident in which she allegedly struck her husband with an automobile in Lebanon.

Harassment  From Monday afternoon. Rebeka Ann Parker, 34, of Harrisburg, was charged with two counts of aggravated harassment. The charging document alleges that Parker propelled saliva at two public officials. The crimes allegedly occurred July 15. Parker is currently lodged in the Linn County Jail and is also charged with two counts of first-degree robbery and other crimes for incidents involving scissors at convenience stores in Albany and Harrisburg.

Strangulation  From Monday afternoon. Gary Dale Henderson of Albany was charged with strangulation, fourth-degree assault and menacing. All of the charges were labeled as domestic violence. The crimes allegedly occurred on Friday and the Albany Police Department investigated the case.
After nearly two weeks of nerve-wracking vote counting and canvassing, it all came down to Winkler County (pop. 7,700) in a far corner of the Permian Basin oil patch.

On Monday afternoon, local Republican officials there finally reported their canvass results, the last of the 29 counties in the 23rd Congressional District to do so.

And oft-ignored Winkler provided the final election surprise, as Tony Gonzaless narrow 10-vote lead over Raul Reyes jumped to 46 votes.

The early votes were added in twice. We caught it right after the election. It was taken care of in the canvas, explained County Clerk Pam Greene.

With that, Navy veteran Gonzales emerged as the apparent winner of the Republican primary for a key swing district that stretches from San Antonio to El Paso.

Official final results have not yet been posted by the Secretary of State, but according to Gonzales campaign staff, the final tally was 12,342 votes for Gonzales and 12,296 for his opponent, Raul Reyes.

Its been exciting. Welcome to District 23. Its as tough as it gets, Gonzales said hoarsely after declaring victory.

Expressing hopes that the party would unify around him for the upcoming general election, Gonzales, 38, said he is already focusing on his Democratic opponent, Gina Ortiz Jones of San Antonio.

There is no rest, no stop. We win this district by running full throttle, he added.

Reyes, 49, a former Air Force officer from Castroville, had earlier indicated he might challenge a close result.

I think it warrants a recount. You have folks talking about irregularities. We need to make sure that all the votes were counted, said Frank Lopez, his campaign manager.

Both Republican primary candidates ran aggressive races with high-profile party endorsements: Gonzales by President Donald Trump and Reyes from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

While Reyes led in early returns on election night, the next morning Gonzales held a seven-vote lead among almost 25,000 cast.

Scattered absentee, military and provisional votes remained to be counted in the vast district, and as the days passed, Gonzales slim lead rose and fell.

Bexar County was one of the last to provide a final tally to state Republican Party officials in Austin.

Cynthia Brehm, the Republican Partys outgoing Bexar County chairperson who lost her bid for reelection, refused to sign canvassing documents, claiming the election had been severely compromised. But Allen West, the Republican Partys new state chair, appointed another local Republican, Marian Stanko, to do the honors Monday afternoon and keep the process moving.

Gonzales victory will become official when its certified by state party officials.

The winner will replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, who has represented the sprawling district since 2015. Two years ago, Ortiz Jones, an Iraq War veteran, came within 1,000 votes of defeating Hurd.

With $3 million in her war chest, she has far more money on hand than Gonzales who reported about $400,000 in the bank a month ago.

Two years ago, the National Republican Congressional Committee alone pumped $2.1 million into the race to bolster Hurd. In all, campaigns and outside groups spent more than $20 million on that race.

John MacCormack is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from John, become a subscriber. JMacCormack@express-news.net | Twitter: @JohnMacCormack
SPRING LAKE, MI -- A West Michigan ice cream shop is defending its staff for requiring masks in store after customers got so unruly that police were called on Saturday, July 25.

The owner of the ice cream store Front Porch in Spring Lake took to social media to demand respect for her employees, especially as they work during the coronavirus pandemic. Kelly Larson, the owner, said the post has reached more than 80,000 people.

The post came after customers were rude to staff on multiple occasions over the weekend.

The business, which does not have drive-thru or walk-up window service, enforces the governors order requiring masks indoors. In the post, Larson admitted they dont like to wear masks either, but objections should be directed in a different fashion.

In an interview with MLive, Larson said that this far into the pandemic she expected people to comply with the mask mandate and, at the very least, show respect to the employees working on the front lines.

Given that most of her staff are teenagers at their first job, Larson said she felt even more protective over them when customers were getting aggressive.

I had to use my voice, she said. Ive got to speak up not only for my kids but all of these kids, thats who our frontline workers are in Grand Haven. They need a lot more respect and love from us than theyve been getting.

During the Saturday night rush one group of customers were so defiant that Front Porch employees called the police, Larson said. When police arrived the customers peacefully left.

My message is complain to the right people, Larson said. Im not political one way or another, Im a retail store owner we dont do that. But I have to stay in business. Thats my number one job is to protect my employees and protect my business. If we allow people who come in without masks then the health department will shut us down.

So here's a little secret: we don't like masks either. However we have to wear them and you must wear them when you... Posted by The Front Porch on Sunday, July 26, 2020

Front Porch is one of four ice cream shops Larson owns in the Grand Haven area but the only one without a drive-thru option. Front Porch is offering curbside delivery for those who cant comply with the mask mandate, Larson said.

Most of us are quiet because weve been taught not to rock the boat, she said. Were retailers, I have to make everyone happy. Thats my training and thats my training to my staff so this is so different for us to actually have to tell people no and not go out of our way to make them happy.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a stricter mask mandate on July 17 which stated businesses cant assume people coming in without masks are medically exempt. The order tightened Michigans mask rule, which requires people to wear masks in all public indoor and crowded outdoor spaces.

Whitmer added outdoor spaces to the list and put penalties in place -- up to a $500 misdemeanor -- for individuals violating the mask order. Businesses that dont enforce the mask order are subject to having their licenses suspended.

Related: Overly aggressive Michigan mask mandate leaves retailers concerned about enforcement

Two weeks ago, Pronto Pup owner Carl Nelson posted a 1,200 word rant on the business Facebook page railing against the mask mandate among other hot topics. The post also denounced the Black Lives Matter movement, expressed support for the Michigan Militia, compared journalists to Adolf Hitler, called for a scaling back of police funding, and, bizarrely, claimed to have seen a presumed-murdered Muskegon woman years after her death.

The next day a protest and counter-protest crowded the Grand Haven corn dog hut. Speaking to MLive, Nelson would not share whether his business has improved, but said he was glad for the incident, because it sparked conversation.

As of Monday morning, Front Porchs post had almost 400 comments mostly in support of the business stance. Larson said customers have come by with flowers and offered to buy the staff pizza in response to the post.

More on MLive:

Pronto Pups owner issues social media rant against coronavirus masks and Black Lives Matter

Protesters, counter-protesters descend on Pronto Pup after owners rant against Black Live Matters, masks

We are not the mask police, officers, state at odds over enforcing Michigan governors orders

Masks can be powerful tool in keeping coronavirus low in Kalamazoo County, medical director says
By Alexandra Alper

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of top Republican U.S. senators on Tuesday ramped up pressure on TikTok, asking the Trump administration to assess the threat that the popular Chinese-owned video sharing app might meddle in U.S. elections.

In a letter dated Tuesday, Senators Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton and other lawmakers cited alleged censorship by TikTok of sensitive content, including a video critical of China's treatment of Uighur minorities, as well as alleged attempts by Beijing to manipulate political discussions on social media apps.

"We are greatly concerned that the (Chinese Communist Party) could use its control over TikTok to distort or manipulate (political) conversations to sow discord among Americans and to achieve its preferred political outcomes," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and the director of the FBI.

A company representative said that TikTok, though not a "go-to" for political news, was "proactively investing to safeguard our app," and taking cues from the experience of peers during the last election.

"TikTok already has a strict policy against disinformation, and we don't accept political ads," the representative said, adding that content and moderation policies are led by a California-based team and aren't "influenced by any foreign government."

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment while an ODNI official confirmed receipt of the letter and said "we will respond accordingly."

The FBI also confirmed receipt of the letter and flagged recent comments by FBI Director Christopher Wray, arguing that China "is going to continue to try to misappropriate our ideas, influence our policymakers, manipulate our public opinion, and steal our data. They will use an all-tools and all-sectors approach  and that demands our own all-tools and all-sectors approach in response," he added.

Story continues

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Wednesday that TikTok was under a national security review and that his agency would make a recommendation to the president this week.The lawmakers, joined by Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Joni Ernst Thom Tillis, Kevin Cramer and Rick Scott, asked the officials to say whether Beijing could amplify certain political views and conduct influence operations through the popular app, which is owned by Beijing ByteDance Technology Co.

"If evidence emerges of CCP electoral interference via TikTok, would ByteDance be eligible for sanctions?" under an executive order on foreign electoral influence, the lawmakers asked.

TikTok is in the crosshairs of the Trump administration as U.S.-China ties have soured over the pandemic and Beijings move to curb freedoms in Hong Kong. This month, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said action was imminent to address national security risks posed by TikTok.

Trump's poll numbers have been sagging as he prepares to face Democrat Joe Biden in the November election. In 2019, special prosecutor Robert Mueller's report found extensive cases of Russian meddling that benefited the Trump campaign in the 2016 election.

(Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Editing by David Gregorio and Jonathan Oatis)
Now, tiger lovers from around the globe have a reason to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Global Tiger Day with even greater zeal. Astounding photos and footage of wild tigers have been captured by conservationists in a region of Western Thailand for the first time in four years. Given the precarious condition of tigers in Southeast Asia, this new discovery is a harbinger of hope.

The images were captured with the help of remote camera traps as part of a joint wildlife monitoring program by Thailands Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP), Panthera (the global wild cat conservation organization) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

According to Dr. Saksit Simcharoen, Chief of the Wildlife Research Division for DNP, These sightings are extremely encouraging for the future of tigers in our country and beyond."

New Hope, Tougher Challenges

T1 - An endangered tiger in western Thailand caught on camera. Image credit: DNP-PANTHERA-ZSL-RCU

With tigers being regarded as an umbrella species, wild tiger conservation is usually equated to the protection of the vast landscapes where these big cats roam. Other species inhabiting such landscapes receive protection in the process. Unfortunately, however, while tigers act as the guardians of their forest, they themselves continue to be severely threatened by habitat destruction and poaching.

Today, wild tigers number only around 3,900 with over 70% of the population residing in India. Once ranging across much of Asia, they have completely disappeared from southern China, much of Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Lao PDR. In Thailand, tiger populations struggle to survive. Poaching still remains the most ominous threat to tigers in China and the Southeast Asian countries. The multi-billion-dollar illegal wildlife trade supports the rampant killing of these majestic predators for their body parts like skin and bone to feed the demand of the traditional medicine market. Thailand's tigers have not been spared as well. Only 160 tigers are estimated to remain in the country. The discovery of the new tigers thus throws up new challenges for conservationists to protect them as explained by Alex Godfrey, Thailand Country Program Manager for Panthera.

"There are a number of threats that will affect the survival of tigers in Western Thailand in the coming years. Although the Western Forest Complex (WEFCOM) is a large and relatively contiguous landscape, with a stable breeding population of tigers at its core (the ThungYai - Huai Kha Khaeng World Heritage Site), the southern portion of the landscape still faces significant anthropogenic pressure," he said.

"While in recent years, the DNP has strongly cracked down on illegal encroachment, poaching of tigers and their prey remain significant threats to the former's long term survival. Although tiger poaching in the WEFCOM is arguably still relatively rare, recent (unconfirmed) reports of tiger poaching gangs targeting the southern WEFCOM landscape are concerning. The presence of tigers in the landscape is now open knowledge on a national/international level. Thus, it can be expected that the motivation for tiger poaching will increase with time. Given the low numbers, the loss of even a single tiger from the landscape can have a devastating effect on the recovery of the tiger population in the area," he continued.

While tiger poaching is definitely a cause of worry in the WEFCOM of Thailand, what is happening to the prey base of these tigers that are so vital to their survival? Is tiger prey also susceptible to poaching? Again, we look to Godfrey for answers:

"Poaching of tiger prey remains an issue across the landscape, involving multiple groups and a variety of modus operandi. Based on current information and previous arrests in the landscape, ungulate poaching activities can be split into three main categories: subsistence poaching, order-based, organized poaching, and tourism poaching. All three types involve local community members to varying degrees with order-based and tourism poaching also involving networks, middlemen, and supply chains. The proliferation of private groups on social media platforms (Facebook, Line) has significantly facilitated communications between suppliers and middlemen or buyers. While this allows for orders to easily be communicated to poachers, it also allows opportunistic poachers to advertise their catch and rapidly find a buyer. This system, therefore, appears to be driven both by the supply of opportunistically poached ungulates as well as the demand for specific types and amounts of wildlife meat," he informed.

T2 - An endangered tiger in western Thailand caught on camera. Image credit: DNP-Panthera-ZSL-USFWS-AsECF

But it is not just poaching that threatens these tigers of Western Thailand as further explained by Godfrey. Large-scale infrastructure developments including proposed road expansion and irrigation pipelines also threaten the ecological integrity of the region. If approved, these infrastructural facilities will create barriers to successful dispersal of tigers from the source site to other key parts of the landscape.

"There has not yet been any evidence of tigers breeding in southern WEFCOM so continued dispersal of mature tigers from the core of the WEFCOM is crucial to establish a breeding population in the south. The challenge in the coming years will be to balance the development and livelihood needs of local populations while ensuring that the southern WEFCOM remains ecologically connected to the core of the WEFCOM, allowing tigers to settle and move across the whole landscape," he stated.

Mitigation Plans Already In Action

T0 - An endangered tiger in western Thailand caught on camera. Image credit: DNP-PANTHERA-ZSL-RCU

World leaders have set the target of doubling the global wild tiger population by 2022 as part of the Global Tiger Recovery Programme. While countries like India and Nepal have certainly made great strides in this direction, tiger populations have not fared too well in many other tiger-range countries.

In an effort to aid Thailand in achieving its 2022 goal, Panthera in partnership with DNP and ZSL is trying to protect the tiger population of the country over the past decade as part of its Tigers Forever program in western Thailand. Some of the key activities of this program include monitoring the population of tiger and prey, antipoaching ranger training, supporting DNP in wildlife crime investigations, and the use of Panthera PoacherCams and patrol management software SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool).

Godfrey explained the use of PoacherCams and SMART in detail:

"Using signs of illegal activities recorded during ranger patrols and recorded in SMART as well as information from local communities, Panthera and local wildlife conservation agencies deploy PoacherCams at strategic access points into the protected area. These cameras are fully concealed and can be used either independently to monitor access to the park over time and gain a better understanding of the nature and temporal patterns of illegal activities or as a connect system, linked to local GSM networks to act as a near-real-time warning system, alerting law enforcement officers of illegal activity in the protected area. This has proven particularly useful in parks with limited resources, where constant surveillance and human presence at all access points is not possible. By better understanding the temporal patterns of access to the protected areas, patrol schedules can be adapted and optimized as necessary," he stated.

"Furthermore, camera trap evidence is admissible in a court of law in Thailand so PoacherCam images of known repeat offending poachers entering or leaving the protected areas can be charged, regardless of whether or not they were intercepted at the time of the event. PantheraCams are providing another line of defense and an invaluable tool for rangers to better protect wildlife," he continued.

Given all the above mitigation measures implemented to protect Western Thailand's vulnerable tiger population, it appears that tigers in the region are in safe hands. The discovery of the new tigers provides evidence of the same as mentioned by Panthera Chief Scientist and Tiger Program Director, Dr. John Goodrich:

In a sea of news that is casting doubt on the future of our planets wildlife, this development is a welcome sign of hope and potential turning of the tide for the Endangered tiger in Thailand.
Ethnic Rakhine students and other youths stage a protest against the government's internet service shutdown, in Sittwe, western Myanmar's Rakhine state, Feb. 22, 2020.

A government ban on internet service in western Myanmars war-torn Rakhine state  criticized as harmful by rights groups and relief workers  keeps troop movements offline and secret while dampening speech that incites ethnic tensions, a spokesman for the countrys military said Monday.

The militarys justification for the 13-month shutdown follows renewed calls to end the denial of internet service to townships where Myanmar forces have been fighting the rebel Arakan Army (AA), a policy which has hampered aid workers helping war refugees and left people uninformed about the coronavirus pandemic.

The internet service ban, which comes up for renewal on Aug. 1, has brought two benefits, Myanmar military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told RFA on Monday.

First, it has reduced the content posted by the AA and its supporters that incite the ethnic tensions between the Rakhine and Bamar people, he said.

Both mostly Buddhists, the Bamars are the majority in Myanmar, while the Rakhines are the largest group in the Bay of Bengal state of the same name.

Second, it has reduced the sharing of military-related news and classified information on the internet, Zaw Min Tun said.

In June 2019, the government ordered mobile network operators in the country to cut off service to eight townships in northern Rakhine state and to adjacent Paletwa township in Chin state. The government temporarily lifted the restrictions in some of the Rakhine townships in September 2019, but reimposed them last February.

In May, the government removed restrictions only in Rakhines Maungdaw township. In the other eight townships, the government allows access to 2G networks for only text messages and voice calls.

Great harm to locals

Rights groups, including New York-based Human Rights Watch (HWR), say the shutdown has stymied the coordination of relief work and the collection of accurate information in the war zones. It also has hampered the monitoring of rights abuses and the sharing of information about the COVID-19 pandemic.

Quite clearly, the government is not interested in having information get into Rakhine state or to have reports about human rights abuses come out of Rakhine, Phil Robertson, HRWs deputy Asia director, told RFA during an interview on Monday. Thats the main reason they are banning the internet.

Its causing great harm to local people, he added. And it is very sad that the civilian government is continuing to go along with this policy. This really is originating from the Tatmadaw [Myanmar military].

At the time of the original shutdown, the Myanmar military said it did not play a part in the decision to suspend internet service.

HRW issued a statement on Monday calling again for the government to immediately lift internet restrictions in Rakhine and Chin states that have put civilians at added risk.

The rights group also rejected an assertion made by Myanmars Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 30, when it told the United Nations Human Rights Council that the blackout was needed in part to prevent the AA from exploiting mobile internet technologies to detonate IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and landmines.

Robertson said, however, that anybody with any knowledge about IEDs knows that is not the case.

The reality is that there are much easier ways to set up IEDs with a normal mobile phone [or] shortwave radio devices, he said.

The AA has acknowledged using landmines and other explosive devices and technology to carefully control their use, but has denied using mobile internet technologies to detonate them remotely, HRWs statement noted.

It seems to me that the Myanmar government is just trying to make up reasons to continue justifying what is the deprivation of over a million peoples internet access because of that internet ban, Robertson said.

Conflict has escalated

Pe Than, a lawmaker from Rakhines Myebon township, one of the areas affected by the internet service ban, said the shutdown has not stopped the two armed forces from intensifying their 19-month-long conflict.

The conflict has escalated, [and] the number of causalities has been rising on both sides, he told RFA. The internet shutdown is not beneficial to anyone, neither the government nor civilians, so the government should look into alternatives.

About 200 civilians have been killed since the conflict erupted at the end of 2018, while about 200,000 others have been displaced, according to a tally by the Rakhine Ethnics Congress, a local NGO.

Ann Thar Gyi, chairman of the local civil society organization Thingaha Kanlat Rakhita Aid Association, said his groups activities have nearly stopped because of the internet shutdown.

After internet access was banned, we couldnt perform relief work effectively in the areas where it was shut down, so we could not learn the latest news from those areas, he said.

We missed lots of opportunities to help people who were in need, he said.

Soe Thein, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, said at a news conference on June 10 that the government will reconsider lifting the ban only when fighting tapers down in the region.

At a weekend press conference in the capital Naypyidaw, military spokesman Zaw Min Tun said that the armed forces in Rakhine not only face ambushes by ethnic armies, including the AA, but also diatribes by the media.

We are facing double attacks from both the enemy and the media, he said. We are not just ambushed by enemy troops, but also by the media.

Zaw Min Tun did not specify how the media have attacked the military, which has tried to prosecute journalists who interviewed AA members after the government declared the ethnic army an illegal, terrorist organization in March.

Maung Maung Soe, an ethnic and military affairs analyst, said that most of the conflict zone has been off limits to the media.

It is certain that they dont have the opportunity to cover the news in the conflict area openly or to report the news freely, he told RFA.

Most of the news media have tried to objectively report narratives from both sides. I dont see the media as being biased.

Reported by Phyu Phyu Khine, Moe Myint, and Aung Theinkha for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
By Tom Polansek CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture is warning Americans not to plant unsolicited packages of seeds that appear to be arriving from China

By Tom Polansek

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture is warning Americans not to plant unsolicited packages of seeds that appear to be arriving from China.

States stretching from Washington to Virginia have also told residents not to put the seeds in the ground, after they arrived in the mailboxes of people who did not order them. Officials said the seeds could grow invasive species that threaten crops or livestock.

The USDA said on Tuesday it was collecting the seeds and would test them to determine if they were a concern to agriculture or the environment. The agency is working with states and the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection to investigate the packages, according to a statement.

The USDA said it had no evidence the shipments are something other than a "brushing scam," in which people receive unsolicited items from a seller who then posts false customer reviews to boost sales.

The packages "appear to be coming from China," according to the USDA. On Monday, the agency said it was "aware that people across the country have received unsolicited packages of seed from China."

Relations between Washington and Beijing have deteriorated this year to what experts say is their lowest level in decades over issues ranging from trade and technology to the coronavirus pandemic.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday China's postal service strictly abides by restrictions on sending seeds.

Records on the packages appear to have been falsified, according to checks by China's postal service, which has asked for them to be sent to China for investigation, he said at a daily news briefing.

U.S. states, including Washington and Alabama, labeled the shipments as "agricultural smuggling." Photos distributed by state agriculture departments show seeds of different sizes, shapes and colors in white or yellow envelopes.

State officials said some packages were labeled as jewelry and may have contained Chinese writing. They asked recipients to keep the seeds in sealed plastic bags until authorities collect them.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Dan Grebler and Bernadette Baum)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
The Massachusetts House and Senate unanimously approved a three-month interim budget Tuesday afternoon, sending another short-term spending bill to Gov. Charlie Bakers desk during the coronavirus pandemic.

The $16.53 billion bill, which covers the commonwealths costs through Oct. 31, was released from the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday morning. In less than 12 hours, both chambers had engrossed and enacted the bill.

Both the Senate and House budget chiefs said they want to pass a full-year budget for fiscal 2021, which began July 1, but that too many questions remain unresolved. Budget writers are waiting on a possible relief package from the federal government and need to determine how much Massachusetts would receive. They are also waiting to see how much the state made in tax revenue by Tax Day, which was pushed back to July 15 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

If we were to pass a full-year budget without this critical information, we would be forced to make challenging and painful decisions without knowing the full extent of our resources, Sen. Michael Rodrigues, a Westport Democrat and chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said during session Tuesday afternoon.

Massachusetts started the fiscal year with a $5.25 billion budget to cover the states expenses in June.

Baker filed a $5.5 billion interim budget last week to cover costs for August. At the time, the Baker administration suggested an announcement with the Legislature would be coming soon on local aid and education funding for fiscal 2021. That announcement hasnt happened yet.

The $16.53 spending bill keeps funding for most state services level over the next three months, giving lawmakers until the fall to pass a budget plan for the rest of the year.

The Legislature often face a pile of pending bills as formal session ends, but lawmakers have yet to see a drafted budget proposal for fiscal 2021, one month after the start of the fiscal year and three days from the end of formal session.

We are committed to finalizing a full-year budget that is fiscally responsible and responsive to the needs of our state, but key to developing that budget is further clarity around potential federal action, our economic recovery and continued trajectory of COVID-19, House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz, a Boston Democrat, and Rodrigues said in a statement issued Tuesday morning.

House and Senate leaders, however, have suggested that they will have to extend session past July 31 to make up for time lost because of the coronavirus pandemic. At the very least, they will to finalize the budget.

Material from the State House News Service was used in this report

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Artem Kokhanevich, CEO GigaCloud

As often happens in Ukraine, another important law was gracefully carried past the market. On July 1, the president signed a document, in fact, canceling the compliance of the CSIP demands for the government agencies. Or rather, suggesting to use the ISMS standards adopted in Europe instead of the outdated national data security standard.

We were taught that "international" is often better than "domestic". But it is not always true.

Ukraine has its own cybersecurity standard - a certificate of compliance with Complex System for Information Protection. And its main plus is that it even exists. Indeed, some of its standards are outdated, but in general the need to comply with this standard forces companies to build full-fledged security systems.

In turn, instead of CSIP we are offered (allegedly - there is no explicit indication in the new law!) ISO/IEC 27001 - one of the most famous standards in the area of information security management systems. In fact, this is just a set of policies and procedures according to which a company would protect its data assets from deliberate or accidental misuse, loss or damage.

The ISO's approach to standardization is based on the principle that no system can always be in perfect condition. Therefore, where there are clear working patterns in the CSIP, the ISO contains just recommendations. To obtain ISO/IEC 27001, its not necessary to comply with all the requirements of the specified standard even at the time of certification itself, - it is enough to undertake obligations to complete everything necessary within a year.

And to clarify the difference, CSIP is a set of organizational, engineering and technical measures that are aimed at ensuring the data protection from disclosure, leakage and unauthorized access. ISO/IEC 27001 is a certificate of compliance of an enterprise's business processes with some specific standard. The first one is about systems, the second is about people. These are essences that complement each other but cannot replace each other.

Why kill an ugly duckling if he's a potential swan?

In the explanatory note to the document the authors indicate directly that its purpose is to create an opportunity for the market not to use the CSIP. Either they are not very well versed in the issue, or they are fulfilling the task set by someone to bury the CSIP, misleading those who understand even less.

In fact, the problem with the CSIS is that it is not easy to obtain this certificate. It lays down a number of requirements, including the placement of physical infrastructure on the territory of Ukraine, which is not always convenient for some players in the IT market. The owners of information systems are interested in canceling this certification - it requires considerable work to be done. And since data security is still being done not for yourself, but for the box - the easier it is for them, the better. But they forget (or do not know yet ) that an ISMS conforming to ISO/IEC 27001 must regularly go through the logged improvement stages, annual statutory audits and periodic recertifications, monitor incidents and make changes to processes and documents. Therefore, it is unlikely that it will be possible to significantly save time and money - if you approach the task correctly, you will need even more resources to maintain the system in a working state.

Perhaps, instead of creating workarounds, it would be worthwhile to modify and update the existing standard, train specialists and create a fully functional certification? Allowing only the companies that are able to build a full-fledged security system to work with critical information and infrastructure?

Maybe. But theres nothing to talk about if the already adopted law was initially formulated incorrectly? The remarks by the Main Legal Department and the Rada Committees note the lack of clear wording, inconsistency with the text of interrelated laws, definitions that are absent in the legislative field of Ukraine 

 One of such conditions (paragraph two of this part) is the confirmation of compliance of the information security management system based on the results of the procedure for assessing compliance with the national standards of Ukraine regarding the information security management system. At the same time, the concept of "information security management system" is not defined by law, which will make it impossible to legally correct use of the provisions of the Law regarding information processing in the "system" without the use of a comprehensive data protection system " conclusion of the Main Legal Department of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

I have already said that Ukraine needs a deep reform of the state IT industry. In the most innovative economic branch of our country there are still no unified work standards, there is no understanding of the need to "dash for it for staying put." Ukrainian government agencies are struggling to oppose innovation, looking for the simplest possible ways to solve their problems - and the IT sector is no exception.

We do not need to be led by lobbyists and abolish national standards. Yes, the elimination of CSIP and strict requirements for cybersecurity are convenient, for example, for international cloud operators, since they do not have infrastructure in Ukraine. However, the supporters of such an approach forget that in the same USA there is a huge set of requirements for companies working with the public sector. And even for such a big player as Amazon, only a few sites meet these requirements. And certification for the ability to provide cloud services for the US public sector is much stricter than the Ukrainian CSIP.
San Francisco, July 28 : Instagram is reportedly offering financial incentives to some popular TikTok creators in a bid to make them use Reels, a video-music remix feature that the Facebook-owned platform plans to unveil next month in the US, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Some of the top creators could receive offers worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to use Reels which offers TikTok-like functionalities, said the report, citing sources.

The development comes at a time when the Donald Trump administration is considering a ban on TikTok, a popular short video-sharing platform owned by Chinese unicorn ByteDance.

Scrutiny on TikTok increased after India decided to ban it along with 58 Chinese apps in June.

Instagram acted fast to fill the vacuum created due to the TikTok ban in India. Earlier this month, it announced the extension of the testing of Reels which allows users to record, edit and share short multi-clip videos, to India.

India became the fourth country, after Brazil, Germany and France, to have this new format when this announcement was made.

According to a report in TechCrunch, Instagram is now aiming to bring Reels first in the US and followed by 50 other markets in early August.

TikTok is also making some efforts to keep its creators on the platform.

Last week, the platform launched a $200 million fund to offer financial support to top creators in the US.

Called the TikTok Creator Fund, it will encourage those who "dream of using their voices and creativity to spark inspirational careers".

"The US fund will start with $200 million to help support ambitious creators who are seeking opportunities to foster a livelihood through their innovative content," Vanessa Pappas, General Manager, TikTok US, said in a blog post.
Cemex sales decline by 10% in 2Q20

28 July 2020

Cemex reported significant disruption from COVID-19 in 2Q20. Sales declined by 10 per cent YoY and EBITDA fell by six per cent to US$554m. These decreases were attributed to lockdown measures.



The decline in quarterly consolidated net sales was due to lower volumes for the company's three core products in almost all regions. The USA was the one exception with cement volumes growing six per cent.



Net operating earnings before other expenses decreased 17 per cent to US$279m on a like-for-like (LfL) basis. Controlling interest net loss reached US$44m, compared a net income of US$155m in the same quarter of 2019.



Despite the unprecedented conditions in which we are operating due to the pandemic, I am pleased with our second quarter performance and our quick reaction to implement cost containment measures across all geographies. In the quarter, we saw a rapid V-shaped volume recovery in our core products from trough levels in April, reaching slightly below pre COVID-19 volumes in June, said Fernando A Gonzalez, CEO of Cemex.



Regional performances

Net sales in Mexico decreased 10 per cent on a LfL basis to US$568m. Operating EBITDA, on a LfL basis, decreased 10 per cent to US$183m in the quarter, versus the same period of the previous year.



Cemexs operations in the USA reported net sales of US$1bn, an increase of one per cent from the same period in 2019. Operating EBITDA increased by 16 per cent to US$198m in the 2Q19.



In the Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia region, net sales decreased by 13 per cent on a LfL basis, compared with the same period of the previous year, reaching US$987m. Operating EBITDA was US$147m for the quarter, LfL 20 per cent lower than the same period last year.



Cemex's operations in the company's South, Central America and the Caribbean region, reported net sales of US$279m, a decline of 30 per cent on a LfL basis to the 2Q19. Operating EBITDA decreased by 25 per cent LfL to US$66m in in the 2Q20, compared to the 2Q19.

Published under
CLINTON  Daily temperature checks, an earlier end to the school day, face masks and a choice between in-person or remote learning are among the differences students in Clinton Unit 15 school district will see when school resumes

Online registration is under way for Clinton students and in-school registration will take place on Aug. 6. Parents will need to choose between in-person or remote learning, according to documents the district distributed Monday and posted on its website.

The district said online registration is the preferred method. For those who want to register in person, that can be done from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. at Lincoln Elementary School, 407 S. Jackson St.; Douglas Elementary School, 905 E. Main St.; Clinton Elementary School, 680 Illini Drive; Clinton Junior High School, 701 Illini Drive; and Clinton High School, 1200 State Route 54 West.

As directed by the state, face coverings will be required, with some exceptions, and social distancing measures will be followed, including limits of no more than 50 people in one space, including buses.

School start times will remain the same, but the school day will end at 1:30 p.m. That may change, depending on state directives.

The districts reopening plan was put together with help from a 35-member Opening Strategy Team that considered directives and suggestions from the Illinois State Board of Education, Illinois Department of Public Health, the governors office, DeWitt/Piatt Bi-County Health Department and surveys of parents and staff.

The hope is that it can be amended with fewer restrictions as health trends move in a positive direction, the district said in a statement on its website. The district will become less restrictive as the state becomes less restrictive. The district will become more restrictive as the state becomes more restrictive.

The district plans to limit hallway traffic, locker use and student movement from room to room as much as possible.

School personnel will check students temperatures when they arrive at school each day.

In addition, parents will be expected to check for symptoms other than fever and keep children home who are experiencing symptoms such as cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, headache or sore throat. School

Although remote learning is not recommended by the district, it is being offered for those who choose not to send their students to school.

Families who select this option should plan on remote learning for the entire first semester. However, the district may end remote learning if it deems such action to be appropriate based on health trends and other safety measures.

Families considering remote learning who have concerns about internet access should contact their school principal as soon as possible.

The district emphasized that remote learning this fall will be different than the remote learning instituted on an emergency basis in spring. This fall, students learning remotely will be expected to be engaged daily, turn in assignments on time and be graded.

10 ways Illinois schools could look different this fall

Contact Lenore Sobota at (309) 820-3240. Follow her on Twitter: @Pg_Sobota
Triple Fault Gold Project

William Brook Property

William Brook Property

RIMOUSKI, Quebec, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Puma Exploration Inc., PUMA-TSXV, (Puma) has increased its land package at the Triple Fault Gold Project in New Brunswick, Atlantic Province of Canada. Puma added, by staking, six (6) additional claim blocks comprising 180 new claim units for a total of 3,590 hectares, all located contiguous to the initial Williams Brook Gold property boundary. The claims were selected following a newly discovered cluster of rusty quartz boulders found during the initial ongoing reconnaissance program. Altered felsic volcanic floats were also found in this area. The Williams Brook Gold property now covers more than 26,000 hectares and Puma is the biggest landholder in the area.



It is very encouraging to see the abundance of rusty quartz boulders occurring along an inferred mineralized trend over a length now of approximately 3.8 km. Open ground approximately 1 km northeast along the mineralized trend from the cluster of the rusty quartz boulders found were staked and we decided to increase the property to secure the highly prospective trend, but also over the entire land package, notes Marcel Robillard, President, CEO of Puma Exploration.

PUMA EXPLORATION ARRANGES $450,000 PRIVATE PLACEMENT

Puma is undertaking a non-brokered private placement of units, for a maximum of $450,000. Pursuant to the placement, Puma is offering a maximum of 4.5 million units at a price of 10 cents per unit. Each Unit is comprised of one (1) flow-through common share (a Flow-Through Common Share) and one half (1/2) common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a Warrant), each Warrant entitling the holder to purchase an additional common share (a Warrant Share) at an exercise price of $0.15 per Warrant Share for a period of twenty-four (24) months following the Closing Date.

The company will use the proceeds of the offering for the exploration program currently in progress on the Triple Fault Gold Project. The shares and warrants issued under the offering will be subject to a holding period of four (4) months and one day following the closing.

Story continues

TRIPLE FAULT GOLD AREA

Puma is currently focusing its field work on its flagship TRIPLE FAULT GOLD PROJECT in New Brunswick. The initial phase of the program incorporates large detailed prospecting, mapping, trenching, and stripping focused over the entire Williams Brook Gold property of the Triple Fault Gold Project.

The Triple Fault Gold Project includes four (4) properties named Williams Brook Gold, Jonpol Gold, Rocky Brook, and Portage Lake and controls more than 25,000ha of favorable gold exploration. There are many gold occurrences and float with up-to 50.8 g/t Au, 40 g/t Au, 28 g/t Au, 17 g/t Au and previous holes intersected 11.2 g/t over 2.8m, 8.02 g/t Au over 1.0m, 1.0 g/t over 23.0m, 3.46 g/t Au over 2.0m. There has been very limited drilling and exploration in the area with excellent access by the paved Route 180 close to the mining camp infrastructure. The Dunnage Zone hosts major gold deposits and gold occurrences in siluro-devonian host rocks with the emergence of many companies in Eastern Canada for gold exploration and development.

QUALIFIED PERSONS

Marcel Robillard, PGeo, qualified person as defined by Canadian National Instrument 43-101 standards, has reviewed and approved the geological information reported in this news release. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

ABOUT PUMA EXPLORATION

Puma Exploration is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company with precious and base metals projects in early to advanced stages located in the Famous Bathurst Mining Camp (BMC) in New Brunswick, Canada. Great efforts will be made by the Company in the coming years to deploy its DEAR strategy (Development, Exploration, Acquisition and Royalties) in order to generate maximum value for shareholders with low shares dilution.

You can visit us on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn

Learn more by consulting www.pumaexploration.com for further information on Puma.

Marcel Robillard, President

(418) 724-0901

president@explorationpuma.com

Forward-Looking Statements: This press release may contain forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Puma to be materially different from actual future results and achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date the statements were made, except as required by law. Puma undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are described in the quarterly and annual reports and in the documents submitted to the securities administration.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1a198fce-9b7a-460c-a2ec-cc98911c251e




NEW YORK, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Garland Technology, a leading provider of network test access point (TAP), packet broker and cloud visibility solutions, today announced the release of the EdgeLens and EdgeLens FocusTM Inline Security Packet Brokers. Developed to manage inline security tools, the EdgeLens is set to revolutionize the way modern networks secure the network's edge.

EdgeLens Inline Security Packet Broker

"The network edge is becoming increasingly complex with critical inline security appliances. Managing these devices, while maintaining network uptime, is a constant challenge for IT teams," states Jerry Dillard, Chief Technical Officer, Garland Technology. "Garland solves this with the new EdgeLens series, allowing you to now manage multiple inline and out-of-band tools, while providing the reliability of a bypass TAP and the functionality of a packer broker in a single device."

SUMMARY AND HIGHLIGHTS OF PRODUCT

EdgeLens Inline Security Packet Broker  is a bypass TAP, network packet broker hybrid, purpose-built to provide the ultimate failsafe traffic management device to future proof your network. The EdgeLens is a high density 1U appliance with four 1G/10G bypass TAPs, 32 1G/10G and four 40G monitoring ports.

EdgeLens FocusTM Inline Security Packet Broker  The EdgeLens Focus is a smaller  rack appliance with one 1G/10G bypass TAP and ten 1G/10G monitoring ports. This bypass TAP, network packet broker hybrid, is purpose-built to provide failsafe traffic management, and designed to bring enterprise functionality to remote locations.

Both EdgeLens and EdgeLens Focus provide Garland Technology's full bypass and failsafe technology, as well as packet broker features like advanced filtering, aggregation and load balancing. Applications include first-to-market hardware base tool chaining, High Availability (HA) redundancy, policy verification, "Historical Look Back" forensics, "Before and after optimization & validation," speed translation and more.

The EdgeLens allows you to eliminate single points of failure, reduce network downtime, cut deployment time, without compromising the network. Complete lifecycle management of inline tools like Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW), Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) and Web Application Firewalls (WAF) is possible with the EdgeLens, while sending traffic to out-of-band network monitoring and analyzer tools from the same appliance.

"Designed to simplify modern security stacks, the EdgeLens is the industry's most advanced device purpose-built for the network edge," states Chris Bihary, Chief Executive Officer, Garland Technology. "The EdgeLens Focus now brings cost effective bypass and advanced features to remote locations."

The continuous release of new products reflects the ongoing momentum Garland Technology is delivering to their customers worldwide. Garland Technology now delivers enterprise data center level functionality for the edge, with the first integrated bypass TAP family that can handle your entire security stack - from remote sites, data center and enterprise, and from 1G to 100G.

EdgeLens Resources

EdgeLens product information:

https://www.garlandtechnology.com/products/edgelens-inline-security-network-packet-broker

EdgeLens Focus product information: https://www.garlandtechnology.com/products/edgelens-focus-inline-security-network-packet-broker

Historical Look Back case study: https://www.garlandtechnology.com/case-study-security-financial-services

High Availability (HA) case study: https://www.garlandtechnology.com/case-study-security-financial-banking

ABOUT GARLAND TECHNOLOGY:

Garland Technology is an industry leader delivering network products and solutions for enterprise, service providers, and government agencies worldwide. Since 2011, Garland Technology has developed the industry's most reliable test access points (TAPs) and network packet brokers (NPB), and Cloud visibility solutions enabling data centers to address IT challenges and gain complete network visibility. For help identifying the right NPB solution for projects large and small, or to learn more about the inventor of the first bypass technology, visit GarlandTechnology.com or @GarlandTech .

Media Contact:

Mark Lennon

716.242.8500

[email protected]

SOURCE Garland Technology

Related Links

https://www.garlandtechnology.com


Prominent Civil Rights Advocacy group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA ) has received with shock and absolute disappointment the trending news on the corruption list of some National Assembly members and a serving judges of the federal high court of Nigeria to be among the alleged failed contractors that ruined NDDC.

We think that this should be the beginning of a cleansing exercise of the NDDC, that is if the President is committed to achieving such a laudable agenda. The corruption in the NDDC since inception is exactly the reason for some of the worst kinds of criminal negligence and extreme marginalization of the crude oil rich Niger Delta communities.

We are by this brief media Statement challenging Mr President not to downplay the very essence and the seriousness of these spectacular allegations made against these so called privileged politically exposed Nigerians and even judge of the Federal High court .

We are delighted that the list of this corrupt Nigerians who collectively destroyed The NDDC has emerged but at the same time we are unhappy that the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs Mr. Godswill Akpabio had kept all this information to himself until he was prodded by the investigating panel of the National Assembly to so release them either directly or through alleged leakage to the media.

This is to show that the minister participated in a cover up scheme for this privileged Nigerians so he has to resign or be dismissed with immediate effect.

We are calling for the arrest of those Nigerians listed to have failed in delivering their contractual agreements to the NDDC. We think that the NJC should suspend justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the federal high court of Nigeria Abuja division until he is proven not guilty

HURIWA recalled that the names of Nigerians who allegedly got Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) contracts have emerged.

The list is reportedly different from the one sent to the House of Representatives Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, by the Minister for Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio.

The new names published by SaharaReporters include a judge, former governors, All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwarts, government officials, Police, Army officers, EFCC officials and monarchs.

The fresh list contains project descriptions, local government areas, proposed contractors, contact details (including phone numbers), project sources and dates of award.

The alleged beneficiaries are TC/COP Villa/MD, who got several contracts for undisclosed amounts; AIG Operations, Abuja, got contracts worth N186,771,348..75, while DIG/Ochei got contract worth N349,976,919.86; CSO/CNC got contract worth N150,342,858.75.

Others are Godwin Udoidiong for undisclosed amount; George Moghalu National Auditor/EDP also got contracts worth N198,397,145.63; EDP/Giadom contract worth N663,155,999.63; while Justice Nnamdi Dimgha of the FHC got contract worth N249,555,206.25.

Dozens of House members would soon appear before the Committee on Ethics and Privileges probing their purported involvement in the N100bn projects awarded by the NDDC in 2018.

Gbajabiamila directed the committee to commence probe of those Akpabio indicted.

Meanwhile, Akpabios rejoinder was contained in letter to the Clerk of the House with ref no. MNDA/HM/04/IV/158.

He said the investigating Committee on NDDC refused to give him the opportunity to explain that reference to most NDDC contracts yearly being awarded since 2001 from the records allegedly to members of the National Assembty in both Chambers were done without the knowledge of the alleged beneficiaries.

The two Chairmen of the Committees in both Chambers had adequate knowledge. The 2019 budget passed in February and harmonised between the 4th and 5th of March 2020 was received by the Commission in the middle of April, 2020, when same was designated to expire on the 31st of May, 2020.

He stated that the Clerk of the National Assembly forwarded a letter Ref. NASS/CNA/115/VOL.38/1175, dated 20th March, 2020, without attaching the budget details indicating that the 2020 budget of the NDDC passed into Law was being fonlvarded (copy of the letter is attached as Annexure A).

Akpabio recalled that the anomaly was brought to the attention of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee investigating a purported financial recklessness by the management of the commission in July 2020.

It has always been known that the two chairmen of the committees on NDDC in both chambers yearly exhibit unusual influence to the exclusion of committee members and even the management of the NDDC in appropriating funds to details embellished in the budget after passage of line items at the plenaries.

Akpabio attached documents showing nature of contracts, amounts (in some cases), dates, and beneficiaries, including the ones awarded to the NDDC committees chairmen in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Scott Adkins has managed to keep action fans thrilled during the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown. Thankfully, he works so prolifically that he had several movies in the can before the virus forced productions to suspend. With no big studio action spectacles on the horizon, Adkins fills the void first with Debt Collectors, and now Legacy of Lies.

Scott Adkins | Igor Dashevskiy/Lionsgate

Hopefully, viewers starving for action will discover what loyal fans have known all along. Adkins continues to deliver thrilling showcases on par or exceeding Hollywoods offerings, with far fewer resources, and available to fans for less than bloated studio fare. Legacy of Lies is now availble on VOD.

Scott Adkins in Legacy of Lies

12 years go in Kyiv, Ukraine, Martin (Adkins) was involved in a mission gone bad. A sniper took out his contact in a warehouse meet, and Martin was involved in a shootout. Back in the present, Martin has a daughter, Lisa (Honor Kneafsey) who gambles on his underground MMA fights.

Scott Adkins and Honor Kneafsey | Igor Dashevskiy/Lionsgate

RELATED: No One But Scott Adkins Will Play Boyka, Even on TV says Adkins

Trevor (Martin McDougall), Martins old MI6 boss, pulls him back in. Plus, Sacha (Yuiia Sobol) comes to him for help and they get shot at. Theyre all looking for files the Russians got 12 years ago, that could reveal who betrayed Martin in Kyiv. Oh yeah, and that contact killed in action was Lisas mother. Lisa doesnt look 12 yet, but Kneafsey is 16 so she could have been born before that tragic mission.

The names Adkins, Scott Adkins

Legacy of Lies has a solid foundation to set up the action like big studio movies used to deliver. They used to call in James Bond for international intrigue, but Martin goes on the case this time. When people dont cooperate, he has to fight all their henchmen. Trevors guys also have Lisa, so hes got to save her.

Scott Adkins | Lionsgate

RELATED: Scott Adkins Wishes Debt Collectors Was Just Called The Debt Collector 2

Russia may be less exotic than James Bond since weve seen so many direct to video movies in Eastern Europe, but its still globe trotting. It has a safety deposit box, and they needcodes to get in. These are the maguffins but thats what maguffins are for, to get the hero into action so we can see them save the day.

Legacy of Lies doesnt overthink it. The bad guys put Martin in a bind, so he decides to do the right thing to help Sacha. This is great stuff.

Scott Adkins in action, again

Writer/director Adrian Bol is new to Adkins work but he gets it as well as Adkins usual directors Jesse V. Johnson and Isaac Florentine do. That first sniper shootout in the Kiyiv warehouse is well done with clear geography. You understand where everyone is and how theyre shooting at each other.

Legacy of Lies MMA fight | Lionsgate

RELATED: Ip Man 4: The Finale Villain Scott Adkins Reveals One Big Change in His Fight with Donnie Yen

Bol gets dynamic camera angles in close quarters in the octagon MMA fight. Martins encounters in Russia are more innovative and engaging than The Old Guard which had $70 mil with 87eleven team. Fight choreographer Tim Man created bigger thrills by keeping it simple and letting Adkins perform it in long takes.

Yuiia Sobol | Igor Dashevskiy/Lionsgate

This is how you use an action hero. You put Adkins in the vehicle and he elevates it to his personal standards. You may not be invested in the Russian files, but you definitely want to see Martin save his daughter, and Sacha becomes an endearing character who youll want to persevere too.
Footfall figures across the UK's high streets slowly crept up last week but the threat to the retail sector in the wake of lockdown is still visible by the shuttered fronts of many retail outlets still to reopen here.

Last week, footfall in NI grew at a quicker rate than elsewhere in the UK, with growth of 9.8% compared to the previous week. It signalled promising shoots of recovery for the sector. But there remains concern with some retailers yet to reopen following lockdown, particularly in smaller towns.

In Belfast, some high street brands have bowed out under pressure with Tesco announcing at the weekend that it is to close its Metro store on Royal Avenue within the next year.

Meanwhile the future for Debenhams, on the same street, also looks bleak as the company seeks a new buyer in a last ditch attempt to avoid going into liquidation.

The demise of stationery giant Eason's Northern Ireland stores in recent weeks will leave a total of seven empty spaces around the province and a particularly prominent gap on Donegall Place - not far from Tesco Metro's soon-to-be-vacated unit.

Some promiment voices in the sector have argued that if face masks become compulsory in shops here, it could make matters worse. Glyn Roberts of Retail NI said the move "could threaten our very fragile high street recovery, and drive people into the arms of Amazon". The Executive is to consider making face coverings compulsory in shops from August 20, if voluntary take-up of them by then is not strong enough.

In Ballymena, newsagent Eugene Diamond said he's concerned about the town's shop vacancy rate. "I've noticed a number of national stores have not reopened in Ballymena including Peacocks, Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Greggs and two Carphone Warehouse stores. It's not looking good this far into the reopening of normality.

"Nobody seems to have noticed and these are high profile businesses that, prior to lockdown, were trading successfully so why are they waiting it out?"

Mr Diamond urged Ballymena Chamber to "use its voice" to revive the town. "We hear city chambers speaking out loud, but what about those smaller towns? We need a voice locally and recognition that every town centre needs help."

SDLP councillor Eugene Reid, also president of Ballymena Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said it was doing "everything in our power". "Our council is leading a town centre recovery group, which was set up early on in the crisis to ensure we could give our full support to our retailers and traders across Mid and East Antrim. Our strong relationships with our businesses means they are shaping the local recovery and our pathway back to normality."

Aodhan Connolly, director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, said it was too early to deduce that unopened shops will remain permanently closed. He said the focus should now be on growing footfall to the high street, which will be helped by the Executive's announcement of an 11m Covid High Street Revitalisation Fund yesterday.

"Some retailers haven't reopened because they're waiting for footfall to increase," said Mr Connolly. "The public aren't coming back in their numbers and retailers are being somewhat cautious about opening all the stores in their estates and that's something we're going to have to work very hard on over the next while, to get consumers onto the high street to make reopening profitable."

Mr Connolly said the 11m fund from the Department of Communities (10m), with 1m from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), was a "good progressive start" but warned more could be needed.

"What is needed is directly proportionate to the need to encourage people back. "If we're not up to better levels of footfall, or increased spend, we will need more money and if we do see consumers voting with their feet, less will be needed but right now it's a start a good progressive start."

In Belfast, new Belfast Chamber president Michael Stewart has urged the Executive to meet stakeholders to form a taskforce to plot the recovery of Belfast city centre, and other centres around NI.

Colm Shannon, chief executive of Newry Chamber of Commerce and Trade, said Halloween and Christmas will be the real tests for when the extent of recovery can be assessed.

He said: "Clearly Covid-19 has had a direct impact on the level of trade. The majority of our businesses have reopened. The impact on trade has been mixed. While some have traded close to last year's figures, the average is around 70% of last year's turn over. The autumn and the run up to Christmas will be vital for many retailers and we hope that confidence will return to the High Street."

Mr Connolly added: "There is a time frame and we need those stores that haven't opened to be open by October, because that's the beginning of our golden quarter, when we do the majority of our business."
AURORA, Colo. (July 28, 2020) - Researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have discovered a protein in fruit fly embryos, dubbed Marie Kondo, that destroys maternal proteins. Much like namesake, author and clutter consultant Marie Kondo, this gene removes unnecessary molecules, keeping embryos organized.

Fertilized egg cells are loaded with maternal molecules that control the earliest steps of embryonic development. A critical stage of development is when the embryo destroys these inherited molecules and begins to make its own. These molecules include proteins and messenger RNAs (which encode instructions for making proteins). Existing research had identified how messenger RNAs are destroyed, but how maternal proteins are discarded, however, has been unknown.

According to the study, published in the journal eLife, researchers discovered the presence of the Marie Kondo protein by screening ~150 possible enzymes using a trick where destruction of maternal proteins could be seen with fluorescent microscopy. After months of work, they identified the enzyme and gave it the name "Marie Kondo."

"Ordinarily, when we talk about getting rid of maternal gene products, we tend to focus on mRNA, or the coded information for making a protein," says Olivia Rissland, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and study co-author. "However, we don't often talk about destruction of the proteins themselves. One implication of our study is that, during early stages of development, destruction of maternal proteins might be more tightly controlled than we had thought."

Rissland says this discovery opens the door to more research into embryonic protein destruction. "The reason why we started looking at these proteins is because they control RNA. Now, we want to see what other proteins are destroyed and how protein destruction affects early development, not just in fruit flies, but in other animals too."

###

About the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is a world-class medical destination at the forefront of transformative science, medicine, education, and patient care. The campus encompasses the University of Colorado health professional schools, more than 60 centers and institutes, and two nationally ranked independent hospitals that treat more than two million adult and pediatric patients each year. Innovative, interconnected and highly collaborative, together we deliver life-changing treatments, patient care, professional training, and conduct world-renowned research. For more information, visit http://www.cuanschutz.edu.
SEOUL, South Korea  The South Korean government said on Tuesday that it would begin work on launching its own military surveillance satellites to monitor North Korea, after negotiating a loosening in an agreement with the United States that limits the kind of rockets it is permitted to develop.

South Korea and the United States have just finished negotiations to revise their so-called missile guidelines, first signed in 1979, under which Washington maintained tight restrictions on what type of missiles and rockets Seoul could develop, Kim Hyun-jong, a senior national security aide to President Moon Jae-in, said in a news briefing on Tuesday.

Mr. Kim denied that the easing of the missile guidelines had been part of negotiations over how much South Korea should pay annually to help cover the cost of keeping 28,500 American troops in the South. President Trump has insisted on a sharp increase from this years 1.04 trillion won ($866 million), accusing South Korea of not spending enough for its own defense.

Under the revised guidelines, Mr. Kim said, Washington has removed the limit on how powerful solid-fuel rockets South Korea can build to launch space vehicles. Solid-fuel rockets are much easier to store and handle than their liquid-fuel counterparts, making them ideal for missile engines.
While the figures across the county range from 7 to 17 in every 100 people catching the virus, the McLean County Health Department says there is one universal principal regarding the spread of COVID cases: It can happen anywhere, no matter how large or small a community is.
Markelo joins FC Twente on season-long loan

Tuesday, 28 July, 2020



Under-23s midfielder Nathangelo Markelo has joined FC Twente on a season-long loan for the upcoming 2020-21 season in Holland.

Markelo recently signed a new 2-year contract with Everton earlier this month, and the understanding was that a loan to the Dutch league would be arranged.

Everton signed Markelo from FC Volendam in 2017 and the youth player has become a key player for David Unsworth's Under-23s, playing in almost all of their games last season before the PL2 campaign was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer

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Former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, has been released from Kuje Correctional Centre nine months after his detention, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has confirmed.

Mr Maina, who was arraigned before the Federal High Court, Abuja, presided over by Okon Abang, on October 25, 2019, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alongside his son, Faisal, and firm, Common Input Property and Investment Ltd., had been in detention since the period.

However, Mr Mainas Lawyer, Adeola Adedipe, in a telephone interview with NAN on Tuesday, said the ex-PRTT boss was finally released on Monday evening after completing the necessary documents for his freedom.

Mr Adedipe, who is from the chamber of Lawyer Ahmed Raji, SAN, said though Mr Maina should have been released July 24, it was delayed till this week due to administrative procedures.

It was already late last week Friday so they now have a new timeline shifted at 6 O clock.

We went there and everything was done, he said.

On why Mr Maina had been kept in detention after Mr Abang further varied his bail conditions on June 29, the lawyer said: It was also administrative. There were lapses here and there; transmission of processes from one department of government to another.

He, however, said the development had nothing to do with an act of vindictiveness on the part of the government officials.

Mr Adedipe, who expressed happiness over the release, said the action would not only afford his client to have adequate medical attention but would also afford him time to prepare for his defence.

We can only thank God and this is good for us because we will now have time to prepare for his defence; we will now have goof conferencing on the matter.

We will have a better perspective of what the case is all about. And this will also allow him to treat himself knowing he has been very ill in order to stand the trial, he said.

Another counsel to Mr Maina, Afam Osigwe, also confirmed that his client had been released from the correctional centre.

Yes, Maina came out yesterday (Monday). We have met all the bail conditions but they did not release him until yesterday, he said.

Mr Osigwe said he was happy Mr Maina had been released on bail and that the development would allow him to attend to his health challenge and continue his trial.

The ex-Pension Reform boss, through his lawyer, Joe Gadzama, SAN, had, on June 23, informed the court that Ali Ndume, the senator representing Borno South, had decided to stand as surety for him.

Mr Ndume, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, had, in a statement on June 24, had also admitted standing as surety for Mr Maina.

He revealed that it took him six months of painful consideration to agree to be a surety for the ex-Pension boss, and that it was part of the cross he had to carry as Mr Mainas elected senator.

The lawmaker said, It was a hard decision I had to make because I have a duty to represent the good, the bad and the ugly of Borno South.

Mr Abang had, on January 28, varied Mr Mainas bail conditions, following his inability to meet the bail terms granted him on November 26, 2019.

Mr Abang reduced Mr Mainas bail condition from N1 billion to N500 million with a surety in the like sum who must be a serving senator as opposed to the earlier order of producing two serving senators.

The judge ruled that the surety, who should not have a criminal case pending in any court, must have a landed property fully developed in Maitama, Asokoro, Wuse II, Katampe or Central Business Districts of Abuja, with Certificate of Occupancy attached as evidence.

Mr Abang also ruled that the senator would always come to the court at every adjourned date, the lawmaker only needed to come and sign a court register that would be opened at the registry, among other terms.

However, Mr Maina had been unable to get a senator as surety for his release until Mr Ndume decided to do so.

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Mr Abang, who had, on June 29, considered the arguments of parties, said it was within the courts jurisdiction to either grant bail by vacating the existing conditions or grant new conditions.

Although Mr Maina is charged with 12-counts bordering on money laundering, he, however, pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

(NAN)
MUMBAI : AirAsia India customers will now be able get support services through WhatsApp following the budget carrier making available its virtual assistant, AirAsia Virtual Allstar (AVA) on the Facebook-run messaging platform, a release said on Tuesday.

AVA, which is a chatbot, already handles millions of cases annually across other platforms such as Facebook and the airline's web portal as well as its mobile app, it said.

AirAsia India is the first domestic airline to offer customer support through WhatsApp in the country, the release said.

India is the biggest market for WhatsApp globally, with over 400 million active users across the country. For 96 per cent of smartphone users in India, WhatsApp is the primary messaging platform for daily communication, AirAsia India said.

As a progressive, digitally-led organisation, AVA offers a high standard of customer service powered by artificial intelligence. With AVA's availability on WhatsApp, we are taking another step towards delivering happiness to our guests, helping them reach us at the click of a button in the most convenient way possible,"Ankur Garg, Chief Commercial Officer at AirAsia India, said at the launch of the facility.

Earlier this month, WhatsApp had said it has over 50 million users of its business app globally, of which more than 15 million are in India.

AVA answers queries from customers instantly in 11 languages, including English, Hindi, Bahasa Malaysia, Thai, Bahasa Indonesia, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, among others, as per the release.

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T he leader of the countrys barristers has admitted that she is ashamed by her professions failure to improve the number of black lawyers at the Bar.

Amanda Pinto QC said that barristers should not be glossing over the fact that there were not enough black people among their number and that not enough had been done to attract and retain the undoubted talent that they possessed.

She suggested that stereotypes and the unfair allocation of work were among the factors inhibiting black barristers from progressing.

Ms Pintos comments came as she announced that a new race working group had been set up by the Bar Council to improve diversity.

She said that action was necessary because only 3.2 per cent of barristers were from a black British background, while only 8.1 per cent of QCs were from a black, Asian or other ethnic minorities. She said that was a poor statistic when 14.4 per cent of the working population identify as BAME but that black barristers in particular were not faring as well as they should.

She added: We shouldnt be glossing over the fact that we havent managed to attract and retain the undoubted talent that there is among the black community.

If people feel that they cannot progress in the same way that their white colleagues are doing thats very undermining.

Ms Pinto added: What we want to be able to do is look at factors that are hindering access, retention, progression and work out what we need to do to address that and put that in place. Every part of the chain needs to be addressed.

Examples included not having stereotypes of who might do what work and making a positive effort to make sure that everybody is on a level playing field when cases were being assigned.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are now living in Los Angeles, but they continue to captivate the world. Its been four years since Meghan and Harry went on a blind date and two since their royal wedding.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry visit Canada House | DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS  WPA Pool/Getty Images

But thanks to Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Family, the forthcoming book by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, there are new details to discuss regarding the couples romance.

Keep reading to learn more about their relationship and why Meghan had a bittersweet reaction to their relationship going public.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle met in the summer of 2016

As Harry and Meghan said in their 2017 engagement interview with BBC, a mutual friend set them up on a date. They met for dinner at Soho Houses Dean Street Townhouse in London during the summer of 2016.

The two hit it off immediately at their initial meeting. Per ET, an excerpt from Finding Freedom says Meghan and Harry spent three hours talking.

RELATED: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Must Reportedly Be Very Careful About What They Say Because Buckingham Palace Is Watching Very Closely

As Meghan explained in their engagement interview, she and Harry bonded over charity work and their shared desire to change the world. In fact, she said thats led to a second date.

The pair didnt have to wait long to see each other again. Their second date reportedly happened the next night at the same place.

Meghan Markle reportedly felt bittersweet when the relationship went public

After months of quietly dating, Meghan and Harrys relationship went public. According to Finding Freedom, the future Duchess of Sussex had a bittersweet reaction.

On the one hand, she was disappointed that their secret was out. It was no longer just the two of them, the book states. She knew that keeping things quiet meant that they could get to know each other without pressure or further worries that came from reporters covering and commenting on their burgeoning romance.

But keeping the relationship a secret did supposedly take a toll on Meghan. When she no longer had to worry about letting something slip, she felt like a little lighter, the book says.

But there was also a part of her that was relieved, the book states. She had struggled to keep the secret from friends and colleagues and didnt like lying about the purpose of her trips to London.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry visit a youth center in Sussex | Chris Jackson/Getty Images

RELATED: Did Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Lie During Their Engagement Interview? They Got Secretly Engaged Months Earlier, Book Claims

While Meghan and Harry released a statement saying they had no involvement in Finding Freedom, it seems entirely possible that its exhausting keeping such a high-profile romance hidden.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle dated in secret for nearly 6 months

After two dates in London and a trip to Botswana serving as their third date, Meghan and Harrys relationship became serious pretty fast. They supposedly talked about their future together from early on.

Despite the Atlantic Ocean being between them, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made long-distance work. They didnt go more than two weeks without seeing each other while also managing to keep their relationship a secret.

We had a good five, six months almost with just privacy, which was amazing, Meghan said.

Now the couples living in Meghans hometown of LA and mapping out their new lives since stepping down as senior royals in early 2020.

Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Family makes its debut on August 11, 2020.

RELATED: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry: 6 of Their Earliest Photos Together
Victoria has recorded another 384 new cases of coronavirus and six more people have died in the past day, four of them in aged care.

Victoria will now move to free up hospital beds, equipment and staff so hospitals can provide a haven for aged care residents as the sector deals with a series of worsening outbreaks, Premier Daniel Andrews has announced.

The Premier said he did not have confidence that the private aged care sector was able to keep residents safe and that he wouldn't want his mother to live in some of the facilities hit by COVID-19 outbreaks.

"My mother is in her mid-70s, with underlying health issues but she lives at home. Some of the stories we've seen are unacceptable and I wouldn't want my mum in some of those places," Mr Andrews said.
Kennett Square, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/28/2020 -- The experienced personal injury lawyers at Perna & Abracht, LLC handle all types of accident cases, from motor vehicle crashes to product liability claims. The Kennett Square full-service law firm is dedicated to making things right for accident victims who have been injured due to no fault of their own. Whether a client has been hurt in a slip and fall incident or another type of mishap, their compassionate, professional accident lawyers help victims and their families recover the maximum compensation to which they may be entitled.



"Our caring legal team knows how devastating being injured in an accident can be," says Jennifer Abracht, Partner at Perna & Abracht, LLC. "Going up against insurance companies can be daunting, especially when someone is injured and trying to heal. Our lawyers are familiar with the tactics insurers often employ to try and minimize or deny claims. We help clients understand their rights and act as their staunch advocates to make things right for them."



The majority of personal injury claims involve motor vehicle collisions, which can result in serious injuries such as head, neck and spinal injuries, broken or crushed bones, and traumatic brain injury. The car accident lawyers at Perna & Abracht, LLC understand how to accurately value these types of claims to ensure injured victims get the care and compensation they need to protect their health and their financial future.



About Perna & Abracht, LLC

Established by Frank M. Perna in 1947, Perna & Abracht, LLC is a full-service Chester County law firm serving a wide array of new and longstanding individual and corporate clients. Our experienced team understands that no legal solution fits every client. Our attorneys are committed to anticipating our clients' legal needs at all stages and helping them find pragmatic, real-world solutions to complex problems. Attorney Michael R. Perna is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania, Texas and Colorado; attorney Jennifer Abracht is licensed to practice law in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
"I worked 48 years for the fair for the Fine Arts Building, and I enjoyed that very much, too," Cilek said, adding she misses it.

Over the years, Cilek has watched the city transform and recalled when she used to pick tomatoes in the field where Burns Funeral Home stands today.

A caring, humble woman

Trisha Gill, one of Cilek's granddaughters, said she is blessed to have Cilek in her life, as well as her children's lives.

"She's really a sweet, kind-hearted person, and she would do anything for anybody," Gill said.

When she was a child, Gill said she would look forward to sleepovers at Cilek's home, as the pair would often work on a sewing project together.

Granddaughter Debbie Lula said Cilek is dependable, caring and humble; someone who would do whatever they could to help another.

"What I love the most is she's very comforting. I don't care whether it's a big problem, a little problem ... I remember her saying, 'It's going to be OK,'" Lula said. "She makes you feel like there's hope."
Nurse Kathe Olmstead, right, gives volunteer Melissa Harting, of Harpersville, N.Y., an injection as the world's biggest study of a possible COVID-19 vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., gets underway Monday, July 27, 2020, in Binghamton, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)



Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc launched two 30,000-subject trials of COVID-19 vaccines that could clear the way for regulatory approval and widespread use by the end of this year, the companies said on Monday.



The trials, both announced on Monday, are the first late-stage studies supported by the Trump administration's effort to speed development of measures against the novel coronavirus, adding to hope that an effective vaccine will help end the pandemic.



Moderna stock rose 9%. Pfizer shares rose 1.6% in afterhours trade and its partner BioNTech, which developed the vaccine, rose 4.2%.



Both vaccine candidates rely on a new technology that allows for faster development and manufacturing than traditional vaccine production methods but does not have an extensive track record.



So-called mRNA, or synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA), teaches the immune system to recognize and neutralize the coronavirus by mimicking its surface.



Moderna, which has never brought a vaccine to market, has received nearly $1 billion from the U.S. government, which is helping bankroll several vaccine candidates under its Operation Warp Speed program.





Calls mounting for toughening entry rules for foreigners Up to $40 a shot? Price negotiation for COVID-19 vaccine kicks off Experimental COVID-19 vaccine is put to its biggest test Pfizer has an agreement to sell vaccines for 50 million people to the U.S. government for around $2 billion, if the vaccine is effective. More than 150 coronavirus vaccine candidates are in various stages of development, with some two dozen prospects already conducting human testing.



Johnson and Johnson is launching clinical trials in the U.S. this week and could start a larger, late-stage trial as early as September. British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc said it will begin large-scale U.S. trials this summer of its vaccine under development with Oxford University researchers.



"Having a safe and effective vaccine distributed by the end of 2020 is a stretch goal, but it's the right goal for the American people," National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins said in a release announcing the start of Moderna's large Phase III trial.



Manufacturers are ramping up production while testing is underway in order to respond as soon as possible to virus, which is still spreading rapidly around the world. COVID-19 has killed nearly 650,000 people worldwide and battered economies.



Moderna could have tens of millions of doses ready when and if the vaccine is deemed safe and effective, Collins told reporters on a call.



Pfizer said that if the trial was successful, it could seek regulatory approval as soon as October and supply vaccines for 50 million patients, at two doses each, by the end of the year.



Pfizer aims for about 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021, and Moderna aims for 500 million-1 billion doses a year, beginning 2021, Moderna Chief Executive Stephane Bancel said on the call.



The late-stage trials are designed to evaluate the safety of vaccines and determine if they can prevent symptomatic COVID-19.



Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease official, said a readout from the Moderna trial could come by November or even earlier. Fauci said he was "not particularly concerned" about the vaccine's safety after seeing data from earlier, smaller trials. He also said he had briefed President Donald Trump about the trial the Oval Office on Monday.




BOSTON, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (Blue Cross) has introduced several innovative programs to support Dental Blue members' oral health care needs, as Massachusetts dental practices begin to reopen after a temporary closure for non-emergency services during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Dental Blue members now have access to:

Three months of free use of the Toothpic teledentistry app

Special access to select Philips Sonicare oral health products for use at home

In-person preventive services such as cleanings and exams twice in a calendar year instead of once every six months

In late March, Blue Cross began covering dental consultations via phone or video with in-network providers for dental members with non-emergency dental concerns to ensure members had access to necessary care during the pandemic.

"We know oral health is an important component of overall health and is especially important for the management of chronic health conditions like diabetes and heart disease," said Blue Cross Executive Director of Professional Services Dr. Bob Lewando, a periodontist. "Since many of our dental members have not been able to access dental care in person during much of the COVID-19 crisis, we designed a suite of programs and benefits to ensure they can still get the oral health care they need during this time of social distancing."

Toothpic's online teledentistry platform provides members with a convenient way to get clinical recommendations from a licensed dentist. After registering and downloading the Toothpic app, members are asked to provide a written description of their dental issue along with photos of the problem area. Members will receive a personalized report with treatment options and estimated costs, in as little as six hours. In-person services, such as cleanings and exams, are not supported by the Toothpic platform.

"We're proud to support the innovative Blue Cross efforts to provide convenient access to dental care," said Toothpic CEO Mark Moore. "The Toothpic platform facilitates clinical guidance by licensed dentists to members in just a few hours when they cannot or prefer not to attend a physical dental office. Blue Cross and Toothpic share a belief that maintaining good oral health supports positive overall health, and this initiative will further reduce barriers to necessary care at a critical time for those who need it."

In partnership with Philips Sonicare, Blue Cross is offering Dental Blue members special access to select oral care products, including power toothbrushes, replacement brush heads and subscription packages. Philips Sonicare power toothbrushes are designed to decrease plaque and gingivitis more effectively than manual toothbrushes in everyday use.

"Philips Sonicare offers a range of clinically proven products that help people feel confident they are taking the best care of their oral health in between dental visits," said Marci El-Deiry, senior marketing director of Philips Oral Healthcare. "Preventing dental issues starts at home. We are incredibly excited to partner with Blue Cross on this initiative  together, we are ensuring that members have the tools they need to maintain a healthy routine."

Blue Cross is also offering more flexibility for preventive services, allowing dental members to receive routine cleanings, periodic exams and fluoride treatments twice in a calendar year instead of once every six months.

"We hope this change will enable members to use all their preventive benefits when their dental practice reopens," Blue Cross Vice President of Specialty Benefits Rich Greenhalgh said. "However, members who have non-emergency dental concerns can have a phone or video visit with their dentist at any time, and it will be covered the same way as an in-person visit."

Blue Cross' Dental Blue plan is the fastest-growing dental plan in the state, approaching 1 million members, the majority of whom also have BCBSMA medical coverage.

About Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts ( bluecrossma.com ) is a community-focused, tax-paying, not-for-profit health plan headquartered in Boston. We are committed to the relentless pursuit of quality, affordable health care with an unparalleled consumer experience. Consistent with our promise to always put our members first, we are rated among the nation's best health plans for member satisfaction and quality. Connect with us on Facebook , Twitter , YouTube, and LinkedIn . We offer additional benefits including dental, vision, life and disability through our Specialty Benefits area, which includes Indigo Insurance Services and Blue Benefit Administrators, our third-party medical claims administrator.

About Toothpic

Toothpic is a leading dental technology company on a mission to improve the oral health of 1 billion people globally by 2030. Toothpic partners with ambitious organizations including health plans, dental providers and oral care companies to expand access to care, increase quality and improve oral health outcomes for individuals. Since 2012, when Toothpic created the consumer teledentistry category, the company has leveraged the power of technologies such as smartphone imagery, artificial intelligence and data-driven insights to complement its deep clinical expertise and rapidly growing teledentistry network of over 1,600 providers. Today, Toothpic is made available to millions of individuals through our partners. These partners are the largest and most progressive oral health companies globally, helping define and build a future of dental care that is integrated, accessible and designed to achieve improved outcomes and higher-quality care at a lower cost for all. More information about Toothpic can be found at www.toothpic.com/oralhealthma.

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's 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 .

SOURCE Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Related Links

http://www.bluecrossma.com


There is a lot of chatter about David Solomons D.J. gig at a packed Hamptons concert over the weekend, where a seeming lack of social distancing has led to an investigation by the New York health authorities. For the Goldman Sachs chief, eyebrows are being raised about his judgment, along with a healthy dose of schadenfreude. More below. (Want this delivered to your inbox each morning? Sign up here.)

Getting ready for a grilling

Four tech moguls are scheduled to testify before Congress tomorrow to defend their companies against accusations of monopolistic behavior. They will be spending today doing intense prep with advisers, because they have a tough task ahead.

Expect lawmakers to hammer the four C.E.O.s  Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Googles parent company Alphabet  over whether their companies are stifling rivals and harming consumers. (It has the feeling of techs Big Tobacco moment, a former F.C.C. adviser, told The Times.) The virtual hearing, to be held by the Houses judiciary antitrust subcommittee, could provide fodder for various investigations into the companies.

 Mr. Bezos could be in for a rough ride. The Amazon chief, who hasnt testified before Congress before, had been hoping to avoid the political fray that his counterparts have been dragged into before. Instead, his company has drawn criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike over a variety of issues, from its competitive practices to its treatment of warehouse workers.
Government says it is looking forward to funding its recently announced GHS100 billion Ghana CARES programme and other new initiatives through Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and Public-Private Partnerships.

The efforts are aimed at supporting businesses affected by the impact of COVID-19.

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta in presenting the 2020 Mid-year budget review last week, announced the setting up of the Ghana Coronavirus Alleviation Revitalization of Enterprises Support (CARES) Program over a three and a half year period to support local businesses.

Speaking on Citi TV's Point of View, Mr. Ofori-Atta said,I think we are looking more at PPPs and FDIs directly into that. We certainly will then determine each of these transactions, whether government will have to do something with tax waivers or others he said.

The Finance Minister says government is seeking to introduce a policy that will ensure that funds are first sourced locally for domestic projects before external sources are considered.

Government now in cabinet has agreed on a policy of local sourcing as a first act before people look outside. But if you look at agenda 111, previously 88, what the president has said and cabinet is agreeing is that all the construction will be done by local contractors he assured.

Among other things, the Minister announced new measures such as a reduction in the Communication Service tax from 9 to 6 percent and the extension of free water supply to Ghanaians for the next three months and free electricity supply to lifeline consumers for the rest of the year.

There is also the establishment of a GH2 billion Guarantee Facility to support all sectors of business and job retention, establishment of an Unemployment Insurance Scheme, the creation of a GH100 Million Fund for Labour and Faith-based organizations for retraining and skills development, and an increase the CapBuss Programme by GH150 million to, among other things facilitate credit of GH50 million to support the Creative Arts, the Media and the Conference of Independent Universities.

---citinewsroom
The Bihar Police, through the Central Selection Board of Constable (CSBC) in Patna, has called for online applications from eligible and interested individuals (Male and Female) for filling 236 vacancies to the post of Forester through direct recruitment on a fulltime basis to be posted across the state of Bihar in India. The registration-cum-application process towards the same started on July 27, 2020 and closes on September 10, 2020.

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Forester Organisation Central Selection Board of Constable (CSBC) Educational Qualification 10+2/Class 12/Intermediate or equivalent Experience Freshers can apply Job Responsibilities null Skills Required Physical and Medical Fitness Job Location Patna Salary Scale Rs. 29,200 to Rs. 92,300 per month Industry Bihar Police Application Start Date July 27, 2020 Application End Date September 10, 2020

Age Criteria And Fees

Candidates interested in applying for Forester post through Bihar CSBC Forester Recruitment 2020 must have completed 18 years of age and not be more than 25 years, with relaxation (upper age limit) for OBC/EBC and SC/ST candidates as specified in the notification.

Candidates must remit a prescribed amount of Rs. 450 and (Gen/UR, OBC, EBC and EWS) and Rs. 112 (/SC/ST candidates) as application processing fee through online (net-banking/credit/debit) mode or any other mode as applicable.

Bihar Police Recruitment 2020 For 484 Forest Guard Posts, Earn Up To Rs. 70,000 A Month. Apply Here

Educational Criteria And Eligibility

Candidates applying for Forester post through Bihar CSBC Forester Recruitment 2020 must have passed 10+2/Class 12/Intermediate or equivalent from a recognised Board/Institute as specified in the notification.

Selection And Pay Scale

The selection of candidates as Forester through Bihar CSBC Forester Recruitment 2020 will be done through a Written Test (OMR - objective type), Physical Efficiency Test (PET) and Merit.

Candidates selected as Forester through Bihar CSBC Forester Recruitment 2020 will be paid emolument in the scale of Rs. 29,200 to Rs. 92,300 per month.

MPPEB Jobs 2020 For Jail Prahari Posts, Apply Online For 282 Vacancies Before August 10

How To Apply

Candidates applying for Forester through Bihar CSBC Forester Recruitment 2020 must register online on official CSBC website at https://apply-csbc.com/V3/applicationIndex and submit their applications on or before September 10, 2020.

Read the detailed advertisement about Bihar CSBC Forester Recruitment 2020 for Forester post here http://csbc.bih.nic.in/Advt/EFC/Advt-04-2020-Forester.pdf
There are no certainties when it comes to the pandemic, but the Premier couldnt have been clearer on the possibility of a second wave of COVID-19 in Western Australia when talking to reporters last week: "Chances are, the virus will come back."

Mark McGowan was at pains to say this was the experience around the world, but argued the state was ready.

Premier Mark McGowan says there are contingency plans in place if there is a second wave of COVID-19 in WA. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

"That's why we have all the contingency plans in place to deal with it if that eventuality arrives," he said.

But what does this mean? Does it mean WA should ready itself for a Melbourne-style lockdown? Not only has the outbreak in Victoria cost the nations economy more than $3 billion, lives are being lost. On Monday, the state posted a record 532 new infections and six deaths.
Cooperation with renowned specialty logistics service provider for the transport of sensitive products

Seamless monitoring of global transport conditions

Improved service for customers from the pharmaceutical industry

Cooperation to be formalized and expanded after first successful deliveries

c-LEcta, a global biotechnology company with technology leadership in enzyme engineering and bioprocess development has started working with World Courier, an AmerisourceBergen company. With a presence in 50+ countries, World Courier is driven by a commitment to excellence, and provides customized solutions with global reach to increase access to care; making them a highly trusted specialty logistics company for c-LEcta's customers in the pharmaceutical industry.

The cooperation focuses on the transport of time-critical and temperature-sensitive products. Transport is carried out in specialized packaging that allows for a secure cold chain and continuous temperature tracking of the valuable enzymes. "The cooperation with World Courier is the right step to further strengthen and expand our logistics chain, particularly in view of our sensitive and valuable products. We not only minimize the risk of transport damages and delays but also enable our customers to check the transport conditions without any gaps. This means we meet even the highest demands of our customers in the pharmaceutical industry with regard to quality and reliability of deliveries," explains Carsten Fietz, Head of Finance Administration at c-LEcta. Many audits by renowned international customers from the pharmaceutical industry, all of which have been successfully completed, confirm the importance of a high-quality supply chain.

World Courier specializes in the transport of time and temperature sensitive products for the biopharmaceutical industry, such as the DENARASE product family, for c-LEcta. These products are primarily used in the field of gene and cell therapy, but are also put to use in the production of vaccines. In the general context of the COVID-19 crisis, c-LEcta has seen a significant increase in shipments. "Especially in this difficult time for all of us, the relationship has proven to be very successful and stable. World Courier was able to maintain the international cold chains that are very important for us at all times. Thus, even during the Coronavirus crisis, we were able to deliver our products to our customers worldwide on time," said Carsten Fietz.

World Courier's strengths in full-service handling are particularly evident in temperature-controlled deliveries over longer distances and thus over extended periods of time. The collaboration currently focuses on the North American and Asian regions.

About c-LEcta

c-LEcta is a world-leading biotechnology company with a focus on enzyme engineering and application in regulated markets like the food and pharma industries. The company is based in Leipzig, Germany, and has established itself as a leading player in the realization of high-value biotech products, either in the form of in-house developments or in close cooperation with industry. The company currently employs more than 80 people.

c-LEcta delivers cost-efficient and sustainable production processes which open new markets and allow for better penetration of existing markets. The company is characterized by fast and efficient development of best-in-class biotech solutions and a rapid and successful market introduction and commercialization of the resulting products. This enables c-LEcta to leverage the unique potential of its core technologies. c-LEcta has a proven track record of more than ten successfully commercialized high-value industrial biotech products.

About World Courier

World Courier provides unparalleled specialty logistics services to drive the commercial success of our partners around the globe. For 50 years, we've delivered peace of mind through world-class supply chain programs, transportation services, storage of time- and temperature-sensitive products, and innovative, cutting-edge medicines including cell and gene therapies. Through our daily work and powered by our nearly 3,000 associates we are united in our responsibility to create healthier futures. With a presence in 50+ countries, World Courier is driven by a commitment to excellence, and provides customized solutions with global reach to increase access to care; making us the most trusted specialty logistics company in the world. Learn more at worldcourier.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005051/en/

Contacts:

cometis AG

Matthias Kunz

Phone: +49 (0) 611 205855 64

Fax: +49 (0) 611 205855 66

e-mail: kunz@cometis.de
Thiruvananthapuram, July 28 : Kerala's capital district has turned into a coronavirus hotspot, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced on Tuesday.

Of the 1,167 Covid cases on Tuesday in the state, Thiruvananthapuram accounted for 227 of them.

Of the 300 people who underwent tests at the KINFRA park here, 88 of them turned to be positive, he said.

Noting that while the national average of the test positivity ratio stands at 12:1, or that out of every 12 tested, one turning out positive, Vijayan said that in Kerala, it stands at 36:1, while in Thiruvananthapuram, it is 18:1. "The first cluster in the district was registered on July 5 and by the 15th, there were more," he added.

The share of local infectees has been going up in the recent days and has reached 888 cases, of which the source of infection of 55 people has not been ascertained.

At present, the state has 10,091 positive cases, with the total number of cases, starting from the first case registered on January 30, is 20,896.

Rejecting claims about the veracity of the state's Covid toll, Vijayan said: "There are WHO guidelines to register a death of a Covid patient and that are being followed. It must be noted that all deaths are not Covid deaths and also even if a Covid positive patient dies, it need not be registered under death due to Covid. We are following the proper guidelines." He also warned that the Kerala Police is now watching the social media and anyone who puts out wrong and baseless posts about Covid would be strongly dealt under the various sections.
Barr faces criticism over his actions, which Democrats say have politicised the Justice Department to support Trump.

Attorney General William Barr defended the aggressive federal law enforcement response to civil unrest in the United States, saying that violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests sparked by George Floyds death at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Barr told members of the House Judiciary Committee at a much-anticipated hearing on Tuesday that the violence taking place in Portland, Oregon and other cities is disconnected from the death of Floyd, which he described as a horrible event that prompted a necessary national reckoning on the relationship between the Black community and law enforcement.

Largely absent from these scenes of destruction are even superficial attempts by the rioters to connect their actions to George Floyds death or any legitimate call for reform, Barr said of the Portland protests.

The Trump administration has singled out anarchists and Antifa, a loose grouping of anti-fascist activists, some of whom are anarchists, to blame for much of the unrest. Trump even threatened to label Antifa a terrorist organisation, though there appears to be no cause or legal justification to do so.

Barr also touched on other controversies that have shadowed his tenure, including his handling of the investigation into Trump campaign ties to Russia, which he derisively refers to as the bogus Russiagate scandal.

The testimony underscores the Justice Departments continuing effort to differentiate between increasing violence in some cities and the death of Floyd, which civil rights prosecutors are investigating as a potential crime. Enormous but peaceful demonstrations had followed Floyds death in May.

The attorney general, speaking as Congress and the public pay respects to the late Representative John Lewis, acknowledged to legislators that Floyds death struck a chord in the Black community because it reinforced concerns that Black people are treated differently by police.

US Attorney General William Barr has long advocated for law and order solutions, and he blames state and local leaders for condoning destruction, mayors and governors say federal troops have amplified violence [Evan Vucci/The Associated Press]

But he also condemned Americans who he says have responded inappropriately to Floyds death through what he said was rioting and anarchy.

As elected officials of the federal government, every Member of this Committee  regardless of your political views or your feelings about the Trump Administration  should condemn violence against federal officers and destruction of federal property, Barr said. So should state and local leaders who have a responsibility to keep their communities safe. To tacitly condone destruction and anarchy is to abandon the basic rule-of-law principles that should unite us even in a politically divisive time.

Civil unrest escalated in Portland after federal agents were accused of whisking people away in unmarked cars without probable cause; they were detained and later released.

And in Washington, DC, peaceful protesters were violently cleared from the streets by federal officers using smoke bombs and pepper balls before a photo op by Trump in front of a church, on June 1 where Barr had accompanied him.

In separate testimony on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Army National Guard Major Adam DeMarco said that Barr spoke to Park Police before they launched their assault. DeMarco said the legally required warnings to demonstrators were barely audible and apparently not heard by protesters.

The attorney general said DeMarco was not present when the decision was made to clear the square and has defended as necessary the broad use of law enforcement power to deal with the situation, but the departments internal watchdog has opened investigations into the use of force and other tactics by agents in both cities.

The hearing on Tuesday marks Barrs first appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, bringing him face-to-face with a panel that voted last year to hold him in contempt and is holding hearings on what Democrats allege is politicisation of the Justice Department under his watch.

It comes during a tumultuous stretch in which Barr has taken a series of actions cheered by President Donald Trump but condemned by Democrats and other critics.

Barr made reference to that antagonistic relationship, saying that many of the Democrats on this Committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that I am simply the Presidents factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions.

Judging from the letter inviting me to this hearing, that appears to be your agenda today.

Russiagate

Beyond the federal response to the demonstrations, Barr was pressed about his intervention in criminal cases arising from special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. The hearing provided Barr with a forum to offer his most detailed account to date for his actions in the criminal cases, which he has said were taken in the interests of justice and without political pressure.

Those include the Justice Departments decision to drop the prosecution of former Trump administration National Security Adviser Michael Flynn  a request now tied up in court  and his firing last month of the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, whose office oversaw investigations into allies of the president.





Barr also pushed for a more lenient sentence for another Trump ally, Roger Stone, prompting the entire trial teams departure.

That decision was at the centre of a separate hearing before the same committee last month, when one of the prosecutors alleged that politics from Justice Department leadership had influenced the handling of the sentence.

On Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on MSNBC that Democrats want to question Barr about how Trump is undermining the Constitution of the United States. Barr previously rebuffed the House committee and Pelosi said that we hope that he will show up.

In the past, Barr has said Flynn, who pleaded guilty as part of Muellers probe to lying to the FBI, should never have been charged and that the original sentencing recommendation for Stone  also charged in the Mueller investigation  was excessive.

Barrs opening statement does not delve into the details of the case, though he will insist Tuesday that Trump has not attempted to interfere in those decisions and has played a role properly and traditionally played by President.

Republican legislators have been overwhelmingly supportive of Barrs performance and are likely Tuesday to help him push back against some of the Democratic criticism. Even among the GOP members, though, Barr faces pressure to deliver results soon on an investigation that he initiated into the origins of the Russia probe.

It is not clear when or how that investigation, being led by US Attorney John Durham of Connecticut, will end, but Barr has said he hopes to have results in the coming months.
Analyses of lung fluid cells from COVID-19 patients conducted on the nation's fastest supercomputer point to gene expression patterns that may explain the runaway symptoms produced by the body's response to SARS-CoV-2.

A team led by Dan Jacobson of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory used the Summit supercomputer at ORNL to analyze genes from cells in the lung fluid of nine COVID-19 patients compared with 40 control patients.

The computational analyses suggest that genes related to one of the body's systems responsible for lowering blood pressure -- the bradykinin system -- appear to be excessively "turned on" in the lung fluid cells of those with the virus. The results were published in eLife.

Based on their analyses, the team posits that bradykinin -- the compound that dilates blood vessels and makes them permeable -- is overproduced in the body of COVID-19 patients; related systems either contribute to overproduction or cannot slow the process. Excessive bradykinin leads to leaky blood vessels, allowing fluid to build up in the body's soft tissues.

Much attention has focused on what's known as the cytokine storm, a severe reaction in which the body releases an excess of cytokines, a variety of small proteins that help regulate the immune system. Jacobson's team thinks a bradykinin storm may instead be to blame for much of the viral pathogenesis. If the team's disease mechanism model is accurate and substantiated by experimental analysis, it may mean that existing medicines could be repurposed to slow the pathogenesis of COVID-19. This would require extensive clinical trials of drugs currently used to treat other bradykinin-related conditions.

"If we can block this pathogenesis in severe patients, we can keep the human response from going overboard and give their immune system time to fight off the virus so they can recover," Jacobson said.

The bradykinin storm could explain the wide variety of symptoms experienced by COVID-19 patients, such as muscle pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, and decreased cognitive function. Similar symptoms are also experienced by patients with other bradykinin-related conditions such as hereditary angioedema, a genetic condition that is characterized by episodes of severe swelling throughout the body.

"This is one of those rare times where you can really tie everything back to a eureka moment," said Jacobson, staff scientist in ORNL's Biosciences Division. "I was looking at data, and I suddenly saw some very distinct patterns happening in the pathways of the renin-angiotensin and bradykinin systems. That led us to do a deep dive of the gene families of the blood pressure regulatory system." The renin-angiotensin system, or RAS, and bradykinin pathway regulate blood pressure and fluid balance in the body.

Using the Summit and Rhea supercomputers at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, the team compared the genes of COVID-19 patients against a control group and analyzed population-scale gene expression data -- 17,000 samples from uninfected individuals -- to see which genes were normally co-expressed, or turned on or off at the same time.

Summit is currently the nation's most powerful supercomputer, with a theoretical peak performance of 200 petaflops, or 200 quadrillion calculations per second. Jacobson and his colleagues required the power of Summit to run 2.5 billion correlation calculations that helped them understand the normal regulatory circuits and relationships for the genes of interest. With Summit, the team completed the calculations in one week rather than spending months doing them on a desktop computer.

Researchers found an increased expression of enzymes that can trigger the production of bradykinin and a decreased expression of enzymes that would break down bradykinin -- the perfect storm. The team also uncovered that an enzyme that forestalls the bradykinin cascade -- the angiotensin-converting enzyme, known as ACE -- was less expressed in COVID-19 patients. At least ten existing drugs are known to act on the specific pathways Jacobson's team studied, but large-scale clinical trials are needed to determine whether they might be effective at treating COVID-19.

"We believe that when you take the inhibition at the top of this pathway off, you end up with an out-of-control cascade that leads to an opening up of the blood vessels, causing them to leak," Jacobson said. "If that happens in the lung, that's not good. Immune cells that are normally contained in the blood vessels flood into the surrounding infected tissue, causing inflammation."

The lungs of COVID-19 patients are known to have an increased amount of hyaluronic acid, a gooey substance found in connective tissues that can trap around 1,000 times its own weight in water to form a hydrogel. The team also found that genes in the cells of COVID-19 patients increased the production of the substance and decreased its breakdown. The findings suggest that further experimental study of drug compounds known to slow the synthesis of hyaluronic acid and the mechanisms involved in the process is warranted.

"When the lungs end up with an excess of hyaluronic acid in them, it's like trying to breathe through Jell-O," Jacobson said. "It reaches a point where regardless of how much oxygen you pump in, it doesn't matter, because the alveoli in the lungs are filled with this hydrogel. With this excess of hyaluronic acid, any water leaking out of the blood vessels due to bradykinin will soak up this structure and the lungs become like a water balloon."

The team also used the Compute and Data Environment for Science, or CADES, at ORNL to determine which genes in the RAS-bradykinin pathways have vitamin D binding sites. The results of their analyses might help scientists determine through experimentation which parts of these pathways could potentially be influenced by vitamin D. Because vitamin D helps regulate the RAS and vitamin D deficiencies have already been associated with more severe illness in COVID-19 patients, Jacobson said it's another molecule worth further study.

###

The research team included colleagues from ORNL, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the Yale School of Medicine, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Versiti Blood Research Institute, the University of Kentucky and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

The OLCF is a DOE Office of Science user facility located at ORNL.

The team's research was supported by ORNL's Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program; the DOE Office of Science through the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory, a consortium of DOE national laboratories focused on response to COVID-19, with funding provided by the Coronavirus CARES Act; and the National Institutes of Health.

UT-Battelle manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory for DOE's Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE's Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science. -- Rachel Harken
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The President of the Presidential Council of the Government of National Accord, Fayez al-Sarraj, has stressed the need for the security arrangements, which will be concluded under the Joint Military Commission, under the auspices of the United Nations, to eliminate any threat against strategic cities and sites in Libya
A window cleaner who says he gave away his dead brother's fortune to the poor in gold coins faces a 250,000 bill after a judge ordered him to repay his family.

Peter Ivory, 58, from Hendon, London, claims he 'did the right thing' by following tube driver Mick's wishes not to let the rest of the family access the 414,000.

He said Mick disapproved of much of them and was adamant on his death bed his money should instead go to the 'hard-working poor and homeless'.

After receiving Mick's 414,000 fortune, Ivory says he converted most of the 367,000 left after expenses into gold coins.

He said he handed them out to the poor on the streets of Cambridge, the Isle of Wight and Scotland.

But because Mick had died without making a will, the cash should legally have been split with other members of the family, the High Court in London heard.

Ivory has been told he committed a 'monumental breach' of his duty as administrator of Mick's estate and has to stump up the cash he owes his relatives.

Peter Ivory (pictured with wife Jackie), 58, from Hendon, London, claims he 'did the right thing' by following tube driver Mick's wishes not to let the rest of the family access the 414,000

After receiving Mick's (centre) 414,000 fortune, Ivory says he converted most of the 367,000 left after expenses into gold coins

Judge Timothy Bowles said: 'You may think you took a moral position but what you have actually done is deprive other people of money that is actually theirs, and that is not a moral position.'

It means Ivory will have to hand over about 100,000 to his brother Alan, 95,000 to another brother John and 50,000 to his nephew Michael.

The court heard Mick died without making a will aged 61 in November 2018 and Ivory handled his affairs and arranged the sale of his home in Wallington, Surrey.

The estate included the sale of the house, his Lurcher dog Lady and a collection of rare Osmond Family memorabilia, bought by his wife Pat who died in 2014.

Under normal intestacy laws - which apply when someone dies without making a will - Alan, John and Michael expected to share the money with Ivory.

Ivory said Mick disapproved of much of the family (pictured, nephew Michael) and was adamant on his death bed his money should instead go to the 'hard-working poor and homeless'

Ivory will have to hand over about 100,000 to his brother Alan (left), 95,000 to another brother John (right) and 50,000 to his nephew, Michael

But Ivory told the court he had been holding his brother's hand as he lay dying in hospital and Mick had been adamant his money should go to the poor.

He said: 'Mick told me to keep it all and, if I couldn't keep it, to give it away. His whole plan was to make sure they didn't get it.'

He said he passed on the memorabilia to the Osmonds fan club, took in the dog, handed out a few small gifts to others and converted most of the rest to gold coins and handed out the fortune across the country.

The case ended up in court after a claim was made by brothers Alan and John and nephew Michael to their share of the estate.

When the dispute first blew up, Ivory wrote to his brother Alan, saying Mick 'made me promise not to give his well-earned money [to] the rest of the family'.

The court heard Mick (left, with wife Pat) died without making a will aged 61 in November 2018 and Ivory handled his affairs and arranged the sale of his home in Wallington, Surrey

Mick's estate included the sale of his house, his Lurcher dog Lady and rare Osmond Family (pictured, Pat with Jimmy Osmond) memorabilia, bought by his wife Pat who died in 2014

In court, Ivory accepted what he did was against the law but insisted considered the rest of the family were 'entitled to nothing' morally.

He said: 'Mick worked his whole life, 40 years on the underground, for that money. I couldn't give them his money.

'They didn't sit holding his hand as he was dying. They didn't hear what he said to me.

'He told me what he wanted to do. I thought my responsibility was to follow my dying brother's wishes. I made a mistake, but I didn't make a mistake as far as my brother is concerned.'

Ordering he hand over the cash to Alan, John and Michael, the judge told Ivory he had committed a 'monumental breach of his duty as administrator'.

He said: 'You knew that they had legal entitlements, but you decided that, because your brother had expressed certain wishes, you weren't going to comply with the law.

'What you have done - and have decided to do - is think ''I don't think much of the people legally entitled to this money and so I am going to give it to someone else''.'

As well as ordering him to hand over 245,000 to the other family members, the judge ordered Ivory to pay their lawyers' bills - estimated at about 10,000.

He said: 'This entire litigation has been caused by Mr Ivory's decision to do what he did.

'Legally speaking, it was completely wrong from beginning to end. None of this would be happening were it not for that election that he made.

'Everything which has had to be done has been done consequent upon his behaviour, and ergo he must pay the costs.'
Survey results: Having a higher purpose promotes happiness, lowers stress

Having a personal higher purpose promotes well-being, more happiness and even lower stress from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to findings from a new survey by two Washington University in St. Louis researchers from the Olin Business School.

And the effect was more substantial when people had written down their purpose statements.

Also, employees of organizations with higher-purpose statements are happier and prouder of their organizations than are employees at workplaces without a statement, the results show. Again, the effects were stronger when the purpose statement was written--and tied to society, employees and customers, rather than shareholders.

"As human beings, we are wired for purpose--to know why, to seek meaning in the things we do," said Stuart Bunderson, director of the Bauer Leadership Center and the George & Carol Bauer Professor of Organizational Ethics & Governance. "When we have clarity on what our purpose is, we are happier and more fulfilled."

Bunderson and Anjan Thakor surveyed 1,109 people in May to learn about their commitment to and perceived worth of a personal and organizational higher purpose.

Thakor is coauthor of the book The Economics of Higher Purpose: Eight Counterintuitive Steps for Creating a Purpose-Driven Organization, director of Olin's doctoral programs and the Center for Finance & Accounting Research, and the John E. Simon Professor of Finance.

Their findings echo the August 2019 announcement by the powerful corporate lobby group of U.S. leaders called the Business Roundtable, focusing the futures on purpose. Such evidence of a national shift dovetails nicely with one of Olin's key strategic pillars: values-based, data driven decision making -- the basis of a new course taught by Bunderson and Seethu Seetharaman, the W. Patrick McGinnis Professor of Marketing.

The professors' curiosity was piqued during a fall 2019 conference they organized on WashU's campus about personal and organizational higher purpose. Academic researchers, consultants and corporate leaders came together to share findings and experiences.

A presentation by Vic Strecher of the University of Michigan particularly struck Bunderson and Thakor, they write in their report June 2020 report "Personal and Organizational Higher Purpose: Survey Results."

Strecher noted that stress levels and dissatisfaction were rising, even as economic conditions were improving. He also mentioned that suicidal ideation had doubled on US college campuses in the past decade. Stretcher stressed the importance of a personal higher purpose in coping with the stresses, noting that someone who does not "repurpose their life" at retirement is 2.4 times more likely to have Alzheimer's than someone who adopts an authentic higher purpose.

Speaker Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry Wehmiller, emphasized the importance of organizational higher purpose. Some 65% of people would give up a salary increase if they could fire their boss, he said. And the person an employee reports to at work is more critical to an employee's health than the family doctor.

"These remarks and other discussions at the conference made us curious to know more," Bunderson and Thakor say in their report on their survey.

"What does personal higher purpose really do for people? How do individuals perceive the value of personal purpose in their lives? What is the role of an organization's higher purpose in the lives of its employees? Are there any connections between personal and organizational higher purpose?"

The 1,019 individuals they surveyed in May were employed and chosen as representative of the American population's gender, racial and geographic diversity.

"I was most surprised by the fact that when companies have written statements of higher purpose," Thakor said, "not only do the employees trust its leaders to make socially responsible decisions, but also better business decisions."

Bunderson said he was "very surprised at how much more powerful these effects are when the purpose statement is written down. It's like that old saying that a goal you don't write down is just a wish."

Here's what they found:

A majority of respondents had a personal higher purpose, but most had not written it down;

Having a written personal statement of purpose helped people in various ways, including coping with stress and finding happiness;

Those with a written higher purpose also reported higher levels of anxiety;

The incidence of written statements of higher purpose was higher among organizations than among individuals;

Employees at organizations with higher purpose statements were prouder of working for their organizations and happier than other employees;

Organizational higher purpose statements were more effective when written down and when they emphasized society, customers, employees and stakeholders other than shareholders;

Employees of organizations with higher purpose statements are more likely to have personal statements of higher purpose.

"We aren't exactly sure why that is the case, but it may be that employees who work for organizations with a higher purpose statement are inspired to develop one for their lives," Bunderson said. "This may be one way that good work practices can positively impact employees' personal lives."

The finding about higher levels of anxiety, he said, is "generally consistent with research suggesting that a sense of duty or stewardship toward something or someone can be both a burden and an important source of meaning."

Using the survey findings, Bunderson and Thakor have built a personal higher purpose index and an organizational higher purpose index.

"These will enable us to examine how personal and organizational higher purpose and their perceived outcomes change over time," Bunderson said.

Businesses have risen from ruins because of their ability to recognize and capitalize on purpose, Thakor has said in presentations. Those businesses have excelled and grown. But they don't do it at the expense of making a buck.

Thakor cites a couple of examples of organizational higher purpose in his working paper "Higher Purpose, Incentives and Economic Performance."

Detroit-based DTE Energy clarifies its higher purpose as being "a force for growth and prosperity." The company names four pillars through which its social impact is to manifest: people ("improving lives and creating opportunity"), places ("partners with communities for growth"), planet ("leadership toward cleaner energy and environmental stewardship") and progress ("powering a brighter tomorrow"). Tree T-PEE, based in Arcadia, Florida, offers water-containment systems for agribusiness. It articulates its higher purpose as helping farmers conserve water and energy in farming.

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This story has been published on: 2020-07-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Uttarakhands Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) has reported the highest tiger density among Indias 50 reserves with 14 tigers per 100 sq km, followed by Kaziranga, Nagarhole and Orang tiger reserves, according to the 656-page report Status of Tigers Co-predators and Prey in India, released by Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday on the eve of Global Tiger Day.

According to the report, CTR has the highest tiger numbers with 231 inside the reserve and 266 using the reserve. CTR is followed by Nagarhole tiger reserve in Karnataka with 127 tigers, Bandipur Tiger Reserve (Karnataka) with 126 tigers and Bandhavgarh and Kaziranga tiger reserves with 104 tigers each.

On Corbett Tiger Reserve, the report states, A total of 5,004 tiger images were obtained from which 231 tigers were identified with tiger density estimated at 14 tigers per 100 km. Tiger population using the tiger reserve was 266, while the number of tigers present only in the tiger reserve were 231.

Dhananjai Mohan, Director Wildlife Institute of India (WII) said Corbett Tiger Reserve has maintained its top spot when it comes to tiger population among all the 50 tiger reserves in the country. Last time in 2014 also, Corbett had recorded the highest tiger population for any tiger reserve in the country, he said.

According to the 2014 tiger census, Uttarakhand had 340 tigers including 215 in Corbett and 16 in Rajaji Tiger Reserves.

On reasons for Corbett recording such a high number of tigers, senior scientist at WII Qamar Qureshi said that for a good tiger population you need a good prey base. In the survey of the prey base in Corbett, we not only found it was good and one of the best in the country, it was also evenly distributed across the Corbett landscape. This has sustained a good population of tigers in Corbett, he said

According to the latest report, Corbett has a total of 32 species of ungulates, carnivores, omnivores, with chital, sambar and barking deer the most common species

The tiger population inside the Rajaji tiger reserve is 38 while the number of tigers using the reserve is 52, says the report. Rajaji Tiger Reserve is spread over three districts including Haridwar, Dehradun and Pauri Garhwal over an area of nearly 1,150 sq km

There are 442 tigers in Uttarakhand according to All India Tiger Estimation Report 2018 released by PM Narendra Modi in July last year in July. The tiger population in the Himalayan state has risen from 178 in 2006, 227 in 2010, 340 in 2014 and 442 in 2018.

Parag Madhukar Dhakate, chief conservator of forests (CCF) Uttarakhand said a small Himalayan state recording such good tiger numbers, especially in Corbett is primarily due to good forest cover that harbours good prey base and focus on better conservation and protection strategies.

The combination of these factors has led to the thriving of tigers and their highest density tiger in the country, he said.

NTCA in collaboration with state forest departments, NGOs and coordinated by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), conducts national assessment for the Status of Tigers, Co-predators, Prey and their Habitat every four years since 2006.

The latest report assesses the status of tigers in terms of spatial occupancy and the density of individual populations across India. The report compares information obtained from the earlier three tiger censuses (2006, 2010, and 2014) with data obtained from the 2018 tiger census to estimate population trends at the country and landscape level.
Press Release

28 July 2020

The enormous toll of COVID-19 on international tourism has now become clear, with World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) data showing the cost up to May was already three times that of the 2009 Global Economic Crisis. As the situation continues to evolve, the United Nations specialized agency has provided the first comprehensive insight into the impact of the pandemic, both in tourist numbers and lost revenues, ahead of the upcoming release of up-to-date information on travel restrictions worldwide.

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The latest edition of the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer shows that the near-complete lockdown imposed in response to the pandemic led to a 98 percent fall in international tourist numbers in May when compared to 2019. The Barometer also shows a 56% year-on-year drop in tourist arrivals between January and May. This translates into a fall of 300 million tourists and US$320 billion lost in international tourism receipts - more than three times the loss during the Global Economic Crisis of 2009.

UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said: "This latest data makes clear the importance of restarting tourism as soon as it is safe to do so. The dramatic fall in international tourism places many millions of livelihoods at risk, including in developing countries. Governments in every world region have a dual responsibility: to prioritize public health while also protecting jobs and businesses. They also need to maintain the spirit of cooperation and solidarity that has defined our response to this shared challenge and refrain from making unilateral decisions that may undermine the trust and confidence we have been working so hard to build."

Restart underway but confidence low

At the same time, UNWTO also notes signs of a gradual and cautious change in trend, most notably in the Northern Hemisphere and particularly following the opening of borders across the Schengen Zone of the European Union on 1 July.

While tourism is slowly returning in some destinations, the UNWTO Confidence Index has dropped to record lows, both for the evaluation of the period January-April 2020, and the prospects for May-August. Most members of the UNWTO Panel of Tourism Experts expect international tourism to recover by the second half of 2021, followed by those who expect a rebound in the first part of next year.

The group of global experts points to a series of downside risks such as travel restrictions and border shutdowns still in place in most destinations, major outbound markets such as the United States and China being at standstill, safety concerns associated with travel, the resurgence of the virus and risks of new lockdowns or curfews. Furthermore, concerns over a lack of reliable information and a deteriorating economic environment are indicated as factors weighing on consumer confidence.
DALLAS and NOTTINGHAM, England, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A new global association has been founded to unite and support small, independent Destination Experience Operators (DEOs) from around the world. These include providers of local tours (such as food, wine and city tours), venues, activities, and other experiences in a destination. Group Tour Professionals (GTP) will provide education, professional development and networking opportunities, resources and exposure for these operators.

Group Tour Professionals was founded by the same people who successfully launched and have grown the International Association of Tour Directors and Guides (IATDG), an association that primarily serves tour managers/directors and guides, into one of the largest professional associations of its kind.

Like IATDG, GTP promises to be completely free until it can prove its value to members, which boasts serving its membership with free resources and one the most affordable conferences in the industry. "We wouldn't dream of charging operators for membership for a new association. As operators ourselves, we know we wouldn't pay for something until we knew there were benefits. Right now, operators need more support, not more invoices," says Adam Connolly, Director of Development.

The association will offer benefits such as:

A 100% free directory to match potential customers with operators;

Group insurance benefits;

Mentoring opportunities for new and struggling DEOs;

An affordable annual conference focused on business and professional development;

Promotion assistance for members;

The TourTrap videocast, focused on addressing business issues operators face;

And much more.

GTP is also offering a startup scholarship to provide one aspiring entrepreneur with regular mentoring, a place on a business startup course, and $500 (USD) towards starting their business. The purpose is to highlight the journey of the new entrepreneur, so other businesses can learn along the way. The program will also offer a cash stipend to established DEOs to assist in mentoring these startups.

Applications are open at Group Tour Professionals. The deadline is Aug. 15, 2020. Inquiries to [email protected]

The World Travel and Tourism council predict there will be $197.5 million in tourism job losses in 2020. "We have seen some larger operators close their doors during this crisis. In the 'new world' of travel, with the right support, I believe these local experience operators will play a far more significant role. We'd love to help them come out of this pandemic thriving and in great shape to tackle 2021," Connolly said.

About Group Tour Professionals

Group Tour Professionals is an association representing Destination Experience Operators (DEOs) globally, with the goal to unite as many providers as possible to help them achieve their business goals.

Our mission is to support independent Tour Operators and DEOs with education, professional development and networking opportunities, resources and exposure. We aim to set the highest standard for service and delivery in the tour experience industry.

Media Contacts:

Von Harden  [email protected]

Tel: (+1) 248.910.6493

Adam Connolly  [email protected]

Tel: +44 7902 867 364

SOURCE Group Tour Professionals

Related Links

https://tourpros.org


I am writing with my burnt hand about the nature of fire, the novelist Ingeborg Bachmann once wrote. With Li too, there is that feeling  her books are documents of survival but they bear wounds as a body might.

Must I Go is less immediately autobiographical, although there are little hints scattered throughout: The echoes of Lis own name in Lilia, to say nothing of the characters unfortunate, heavy-handed last name: Imbody. Her lover Rolands middle name belongs to Lis son. They are small sparks of continuity and connection in an expansive plot  or so it first seems.

Lilia has led a full life. She married three times and outlived all three husbands. She bore five children, buried one (Lucy) and raised Lucys child, Katherine, as her own. When we meet Lilia, she is readying a version of Rolands diaries to present to Katherine (Roland was Lucys father), accompanied by a crippling amount of life advice. Much of the action of the book is just this: Lilia repetitively, even compulsively explaining to Katherine, and by extension the reader, her philosophy of survival, a harsh and doughty stoicism.

Little happens, but Ive always found the openness, the near shapelessness of Lis work to be part of its beauty. Her characters are never coerced; they are patiently observed, they are allowed to live, allowed to disappoint.

The core of Must I Go is the same as that of Where Reasons End: Again, we see a mother desperately trying to prolong her conversation with the dead, to keep her child close. The new book is bloated and unwieldy, however; it lacks the blunt power of its predecessor, which was stark and swift, flensed of artifice. There is a strange feeling of watching Li retreating into a form and narrative structure she has outgrown and outpaced.

There is an image that has always haunted me from Lis early work. In the short story Kindness, a young girl buys a small chick from the market. It gets sick and dies. The girl cannot accept its death. She goes to the kitchen, cracks open an egg and drains it. She tries to squash the dead chick into the empty shell. Begin again, begin again, I imagine her thinking. Lets start again. So too in these narratives, we feel these desperate resurrections, this attempt to return to the beginning. What did I miss with you? Where did I go wrong? the mothers wonder. Its worth noting that the title of this new novel is taken from Rolands diaries; its the one question the mothers dont ask. They sermonize and theorize, lecture and filibuster. Dont go just yet; lets start again. Lilia talks and talks  to Lucy, to Katherine. And then, one day, as an old woman, she hears someone suddenly mention her daughters name  Lucy? Isnt she dead? She opens her mouth and no words come.
By Rozanna Latiff

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's former leader, Najib Razak, was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 12 years in jail on Tuesday in the first trial over a multi-billion-dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB that stretched to the Gulf states and Hollywood.

In a case widely seen as a test of the nation's resolve to stamp out corruption and which could have major political implications, high court judge Mohamad Nazlan Mohamad Ghazali sentenced Najib to 12 years and a fine of 210 million ringgit ($49 million) for abuse of power.

Najib, 67, also received 10 years in jail on each of three charges of criminal breach of trust and three charges of money laundering for illegally receiving nearly $10 million from SRC International, a former unit of the state fund.

"After considering all evidence in this trial, I find that the prosecution has successfully proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt," Mohamad Nazlan said.

He ordered the jail terms to run concurrently.

The judge allowed a request by Najib's lawyers to delay the jail sentence and the fine, but asked Najib to post additional bail and report to a police station twice a month.

Najib had pleaded not guilty, and said he would appeal the verdict in Malaysia's Federal Court if convicted. The verdict could potentially be partially or fully overturned, though that could take years.

The nearly $10 million in the SRC case is a fraction of the funds Najib is alleged to have misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the state fund.

Prosecutors say more than $1 billion of 1MDB funds made its way into Najib's personal accounts, over which he faces a total of 42 criminal charges.

U.S. and Malaysian authorities say $4.5 billion is believed to have been stolen from 1MDB, a fund Najib founded to promote economic development, and used by his associates to buy art, a superyacht and fund the "Wolf of Wall Street" movie.

Story continues

PINK DIAMONDS

Prosecutors have also said $27 million was used to buy a pink diamond necklace for Najib's wife, Rosmah Mansor, and some of the money went into warchests for Najib's election campaigns.

Former U.S. attorney-general Jeff Sessions described the scandal as kleptocracy at its worst.

Allegations of corruption over 1MDB have hung over Najib for more than five years. But the criminal charges came only after his election defeat in 2018 when his successor Mahathir Mohamad reopened investigations.

Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow with Singapore's Institute of International Affairs, said the verdict was "the first time a prime minister has been convicted of essentially corruption- related charges and it testifies to the level of corruption in Malaysia".

Politicians and others who had raised concerns about 1MDB years ago welcomed the verdict.

"All the heartbreaks were well worth it today. Well done Malaysia," said Rafizi Ramli, a former opposition lawmaker and 1MDB whistleblower.

COALITION STRAINS

Najib's lawyers had said he was misled by Malaysian financier Jho Low and other 1MDB officials into believing that the funds banked in his accounts were donated by the Saudi royal family. Low has denied wrongdoing.

Judge Mohamad Nazlan said it was "far-fetched" to believe Najib could have been misled by Low and asked why he never questioned Low's claim that the money was a donation.

Before sentencing, Najib told the court he never demanded or planned for the 42 million ringgit in his account. "There has been no evidence or witnesses to say so," he said.

Najib can remain a lawmaker but will be disqualified if his conviction stands after all legal avenues have been exhausted.

Najib's party returned to power in February as part of an alliance led by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who on Tuesday said the government respected the verdict and was committed to the rule of law.

Sources said this week a guilty verdict could prompt Najib's camp to withdraw support for the government, which has a razor-thin majority.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Additional reporting by Joseph Sipalan and Liz Lee; Writing by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Clarence Fernandez and Giles Elgood)
A security man in his 60s, Moses Buer, was on Sunday July 26, found dead at the Wabco Gas filing station by unknown assailants at Sege, Ada West District, Greater Accra Region.

According to the Police, he was found lying facedown with his hands tied to his back as well as his legs as his mouth was sealed and taped.

The Sege District Police Commander DSP George Aboagye told the GNA that the local Police received a distressed call on that fateful day at about 5:30am that a body was lying on the premises of the filling station.

"We inspected the body, took photographs and we lifted the body for preservation".

A preliminary investigation revealed that the unknown assailants broke into the premises and murdered the man who happened to be the security man of the place and took away GH15000.00," he said.

He said, their investigations led to the arrest of four suspects.

We have arrested the manager and his assistant, Solomon Sebbie 20 and Emmanuel Vehe 23.

We also picked up Emmanuel Sorgbordjor 20, a pump attendant at the filling station and Buer Joseph, a taxi driver and a former worker who was sacked for mismanagement.

The body has since been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue.

---GNA
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard fired a missile from a helicopter targeting a replica aircraft carrier in the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, state television reported, an exercise aimed at threatening the U.S. amid tensions between Tehran and Washington.

Iranian commandos also fast-roped down from a helicopter onto the replica in the footage from an exercise called Great Prophet 14." Other footage showed a helicopter firing a missile at the replica, complete with 16 fake fighter jets on board, while fast boats encircled the vessel, kicking up white wave in their wake.

Iranian troops also fired anti-aircraft batteries as a drone target in the exercise from a location state television described as being near the port city of Bandar Abbas.

The replica resembles the Nimitz-class carriers that the US Navy routinely sails into the Persian Gulf from the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the waterway. The USS Nimitz, the namesake of the class, just entered Mideast waters late last week from the Indian Ocean, likely to replace the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Arabian Sea.

It remains unclear when or if the Nimitz will pass through the Strait of Hormuz or not during its time in the Mideast. The USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed last year as tensions initially spiked, spent months in the Arabian Sea before heading through the strait. The Eisenhower came through the strait early last week.

The U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, on Monday a spokeswoman said the Navy remains confident in our naval forces ability to defend themselves against any maritime threat after satellite photos showed the fake carrier being moved into place.

We cannot speak to what Iran hopes to gain by building this mockup, or what tactical value they would hope to gain by using such a mock-up in a training or exercise scenario, Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich told The Associated Press then. We do not seek conflict, but remain ready to defend U.S. forces and interests from maritime threats in the region.
The question no one asks about God and Hell

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I was listening to a Q&A podcast the other day at the gym and one of the questions was the familiar, Why would a loving God send people to Hell?

Sometimes this question is asked by a person who is genuinely struggling to reconcile God and eternal punishment. Sometimes the question is posed by a hatetheist who has no interest in a real answer but is rather more concerned with throwing out a gotcha question whose answer (hopefully) helps solidify their already-decided position of non-belief.

As I listened to the podcast, it occurred to me that in all the years Ive heard the question asked and answered, Ive never heard anyone ask it in this way:

Why would a just and righteous God send people to Hell?

Allow me to take a stab at an explanation as to why that is.

Gods attributes  all or nothing

When you study theology, youll come to a field called theology proper, which is a deep-dive into the attributes of God. Sometimes youll see attribute called a characteristic, perfection or excellency, but whatever term is used, it refers to a descriptor or essential trait of Gods nature. Literally every doctrine of Christianity can be traced back to one or more attributes of God, so this is an important area of study.

One attribute of God is love, something reiterated many times in Scripture such as in 1 John 4:16, which says, God is love.

Other attributes include His holiness, justice and righteousness, which are repeated throughout the Bible such as in Psalm 11:7  For the Lord is righteous.

Gods attributes are holistic with respect to His nature. That is, God is not more righteous than He is loving or more loving than He is holy. Moreover, His attributes qualify each other and go together so, for example, His justice is a holy justice and His love is a righteous love. Psalm 89:14 says, Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; lovingkindness and truth go before You.

All this to say that God does not jettison or depress one attribute (justice) for another (love); its all or nothing. This is important to understand especially when it comes to topics like eternal punishment.

Love and justice

Everyone loves the idea of love, but justice and righteousness, well, their popularity is very dependent on the circumstance. We welcome the latter two if we personally benefit from them, but we arent such fans when justice comes knocking at our door to demand payment.

Today, more than ever, we believe punishment is something thats for other people, but not us. This is because weve become exceedingly proficient at both maximizing the badness we believe exists in others and the goodness we think we possess.

The truth of the matter is everyone commits wrong, large or small, and because of that, the Bible places us all in the same boat thats been christened Lost.

Judicially speaking, Scripture says every sin matters to a Holy God, and each offense causes us to fall short of His glory and disqualifies us from spending eternity in His presence. The French dramatist, Moliner may have said, It is a public scandal that gives offense, it is no sin to sin in secret, but whether public or private, our wrongdoings bring the potential for great penalty in the next life.

On that fact, people tell me all the time that God assigning us to Hell for sin is not fair and overkill. But the truth of the matter is, God has done more for us than we deserve, and His justice is more in line with what we believe on the matter than we want to admit.

Right thinking on God and Hell

People who picture God as an evil ogre in the matter of judgment would do well to understand Gods antecedent and consequent wills. Thomas Aquinas explains it like this: Hence it may be said of a just judge, that antecedently he wills all men to live; but consequently wills the murderer to be hanged. In the same way God antecedently wills all men to be saved, but consequently wills some to be damned, as His justice exacts.[1]

The antecedent will of God has resulted in Him graciously providing the means to escape eternal punishment through Jesus work on the cross to any who will accept it. If its love you want to see expressed by God, well then, Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

Moreover, the elegance and beauty with which God expresses His love and justice in rescuing people from eternal punishment is mind blowing. In Islam, for example, Allah capriciously grants eternal life to some and punishment to others. In this way, Allah provides love at the expenseof his justice, and thus justice is left wanting.

But Christianity is markedly different in that God provides love through His justice. Gods justice is satisfied because Christ paid the penalty for all believers sins. But at the same time, His love is greatly poured out on those being saved by Christ. Perfect love and perfect justice are meted out in unison.

Back to our question

I doubt anyone would ask why a good judge would punish a guilty person; in fact, we would think the judge unjust if they didnt. But when it comes to God and us, we dont think anyone (well, maybe Hitler) has done anything worthy of such an over-the-top punishment like Hell, especially us.

But transgressions against an eternal God demand an eternal reprimand. Threaten my life and nothing will likely happen to you. But make a realistic threat against the Presidents life and youre going to federal prison. The severity of a punishment oftentimes takes into consideration the party wronged.

A just and righteous God has every right to sentence those committing transgressions against Him to a God-less eternity. But that same loving God has provided a way for those wrongs to be placed on His Son who has willingly paid the price for them, resulting in a verdict of not guilty for anyone trusting in Christ.

The doors to Hell, as C. S. Lewis said in his book The Great Divorce, are locked on the inside.[2] Anyone who doesnt pop that lock with the gift our loving, righteous and just God has given them to avoid eternal punishment has only themselves to blame.

[1]https://tinyurl.com/yaa2z969

[2]https://tinyurl.com/y9khcqko
Australian warships could soon join US forces carrying out elite naval operations in the South China Sea, with high-level bilateral talks in Washington set to outline a strategy for 'concrete cooperation'.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds landed in the US capital on Monday and will meet with President Donald Trump's top diplomat Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Tuesday evening.

Soaring tensions with China are expected to be at the top of the agenda for the 30th AustraliaUS Ministerial Consultations meeting, as the rift between Beijing and the rest of the world grows.

Australian warships (pictured in Sydney Harbour) could soon join US forces carrying out elite naval operations in the South China Sea

Foreign Minister Marise Payne (pictured, left) and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds (right) landed in Washington on Monday for the 30th AustraliaUS Ministerial Consultations

An American official has confirmed that Secretaries Pompeo and Esper are looking for ways the US can enhance and increase 'concrete cooperation' with Australia on operations in the South China Sea.

'We (the US) do regular freedom of navigation operations,' the official told The Australian.

'There have been examples where Australia has supported those operations or worked alongside them, even if they haven't done strictly defined freedom of navigation operations by going within 12 nautical miles of a feature or asserting a right of operation or free passage consistent with international law.

'So we will be looking to enhance that sort of cooperation.'

The US has previously sought Australia's support conducting the operations, but Canberra has been wary of angering Beijing.

With relations between China and Australia already at a new low, Scott Morrison's government are looking to push back against the authoritarian state.

President Donald Trump (pictured, right) and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (left) shake hands during a meeting in the Oval Office on September 20, 2019

People's Liberation Army soldiers take part in a performance during an open day at Stonecutters Island naval base in Hong Kong (pictured on June 30)

Beijing claims most of the South China Sea - an area rich in fishing and natural gas reserves - as its own based on the 'nine-dash line', a vague delineation which dates back to the 1940s.

But last week Australia filed a declaration to the United Nations in New York rejecting China's claim over the territory.

The declaration said Australia does not accept the assertion made by Beijing, who believes it claim to islands and parts of the South China Sea are recognised by the international community.

'There is no legal basis for China to draw straight baselines connecting the outermost points of maritime features or ''island groups'' in the South China Sea, including around the ''Four Sha'' or ''continental'' or ''outlying'' archipelagos.

'Australia rejects any claims to internal waters, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf based on such straight baselines.'

Beijing claims most of the South China Sea - an area rich in fishing and natural gas reserves - based on the 'nine-dash line', a vague delineation which dates back to the 1940s (pictured, US and UK naval ships in the area)

Last week Australia filed a declaration to the United Nations in New York rejecting China's claims over the South China Sea. Pictured: Woody Island in the South China Sea

Australia said China cannot change the classification of a feature in the South China Sea under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Tensions between Canberra and Beijing have escalated significantly since Mr Morrison called for an independent international inquiry into the origins of the coronvirus pandemic.

Since then, China has brought in harsh trade tariffs which hit Australian farmers, including an 80 per cent tariff on barley and threatened further boycotts of Australian products.

The dispute heightened last week when Chinese Navy and Australian warships were engaged in a stand-off.

The Australian vessels were sailing close to the Spratly Islands - which are claimed by Beijing as well as the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam - when the incident happened, the ABC reported.

Australian warships - including HMAS Canberra, HMAS Hobart, HMAS Stuart, HMAS Arunta and HMAS Sirius - are on exercise in the region ahead of military war games off Hawaii with the US and Japan.

A Chinese soldier salutes in front of a drone during a parade to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China at Tiananmen Square

On Saturday, Senator Payne and Senator Reynolds wrote about the importance of working with the US to counter the rising threat of China in the Indo-Pacific.

'Never has it been more important that we, as allies, sit down together and find every possible way to advance our shared interests,' the Senators wrote in The Weekend Australian.

'Sweeping and vague ''national security'' legislation imposed on Hong Kong has undermined the rights, freedoms and futures of millions of people.

'Coercive actions in the South China Sea, such as the escalation of disputes and militarisation of disputed features, continue to create tension that destabilise the region.

'Cyber attacks are on the rise, while authoritarian governments imperil hopes for an open, interoperable, reliable and secure internet.'

Other issues set to be discussed at the meeting include the development of defence technologies, the strengthen of supply chains, disinformation by 'malicious actors' and infrastructure development projects to aid economic the economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (right) meets with Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne (left) at the State Department in Washington July 27, 2020
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Hosting the first debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden isnt something the city of Cleveland sought out in the coronavirus pandemic era.

In a brief statement released Tuesday, Mayor Frank Jacksons administration said the city was informed ahead of time that efforts were underway to bring the debate to Cleveland.
TAV served 11.4m passengers in 1H 2020. Image: Sani Sener, CEO, TAV.

The consolidated revenue of the company during the same period was EUR 141.9 million.

TAV Airports Holding Executive Board Member & CEO Sani Sener said: The second quarter of 2020 was marked all over the world by the Covid-19 pandemic related lock downs and travel restrictions. These travel restrictions affected the aviation sector very dramatically as international passenger traffic dropped to nearly zero all around the world. Due to these restrictions, there were unprecedented drops in the number of passengers we served in the second quarter of 2020. With the effect of the second quarter, the number of passengers we served unfortunately decreased 70% compared to last year during the first six months of 2020.

Our airports have now mostly reopened to international traffic. We expect Georgia, which is partially open now, to fully open in September. Medinah has opened to domestic traffic and the restart of international traffic is still to be announced.

What really matters for a rebound in international traffic are the bilateral agreements between countries to open their borders mutually. As the countries reopen their borders with each other, we have started to see some rebound in the number of passengers served. Two of our key markets which are UK and Russia have opened to regular commercial traffic with Turkey. Turkey has handled the Covd-19 outbreak very well and is ready to welcome tourists from the EU as well. Reopening of the borders between EU and Turkey will speed up the recovery in international traffic.

We have responded to this global crisis very decisively with regards to our operational expenses and have reduced monthly operational expenses from 36m to 16m in the second quarter of 2020. With this reduction, we have achieved a savings of 32% in the first half. I would like to extend my gratitude especially to our employees and sub-contractors for making this possible. During times of crisis, the chief task for management is to take the necessary cost cutting actions fairly between stakeholders, shareholders, investors and employees. We have done our best with regards to this balance.

We have also made the necessary applications to the aviation authorities in each country that we operate for all our airports to be compensated for our losses of revenue based on the pandemic clauses of Force Majeure definitions in our contracts. Depending on the content of each contract, this compensation could be in the form of time extension, rent postponement or other methods to compensate our losses.

We are also about to complete the Almaty transaction which we had announced before the pandemic. We are planning to finalise the Almaty transaction in the third quarter of 2020. Almaty had significant cargo traffic during the second quarter and has proved to have defensive characteristics in earnings quality. As a perpetuity with no renewal risk, it will be a valuable addition to our portfolio. Almaty Airport is clearly destined to be a fast air cargo hub on the New Silk Road. We also expect the 6.5 million passengers currently served to increase significantly after our investments. We expect Almaty to have a positive effect on the valuation multiples of TAV Airports once the transaction closes and traffic normalizes back to 2019 levels.
Snakebite envenoming is a common problem in many parts of the world, but little is known about its magnitude in the Arab countries of the Middle East, where cases are not widely reported.

The aim is to halve the number of deaths and cases of disability due to snakebite envenoming over the next 12 years through a program that targets affected communities and their health systems, and by ensuring access to safe, effective treatment through increased cooperation, collaboration and partnership at all levels.

An interdisciplinary group of zoologists and snakebite experts recently reviewed existing English and Arabic literature on terrestrial venomous snakes and snake bites in Arab countries of the Middle East providing an up to date and comprehensive view of the situation in the region.

With a wide range of habitats, the review found that the region hosts 19 species of terrestrial venomous snakes of varying medical importance. These include 14 viperids (excluding a very dubious record of Montivipera xanthina in Syria) (Photo 1), 3 elapids (Photo 2) and 2 atractaspidines.

D.A. Warrell / Oman saw-scaled viper (Echis omanensis) specimen from Rustaq, Oman

The review shows that available scientific literature is heterogeneous across the region, and that epidemiological and clinical data on snakebite are generally limited or even absent from some countries.

Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen report the largest numbers of snakebite cases (for example, a study in Saudi Arabia described 1,019 snakebite cases for the period 2005-2010), with common epidemiological patterns: males being predominantly bitten outdoors on their feet. On the other hand, only two snakebite case reports were found from Kuwait and no information was available from Qatar.

Countries in this region should be encouraged to make snake bites and scorpion stings notifiable diseases, and to record associated mortality and morbidity, so that the public health importance of these conditions can be more reliably assessed." David Warrell, Study Coordinating Author and Professor, University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Antivenoms

There are only two antivenom producers in this region. The Scientific Studies & Research Centre SYRIA now manufactures only scorpion antivenom. Their "Polyvalent Anti snake Venom sera" is no longer obtainable.

National Antivenom & Vaccine Production Center (NAVPC), National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, manufactures bivalent Naja/Walterinnesia Snake Antivenom, polyvalent Snake Antivenom, and polyvalent Scorpion Antivenom.

Imported Indian Vins "Snake Venom Antitoxin (Biosnake)" is claimed to neutralize Naja haje, Naja nigricollis and Cerastes cerastes venoms, but the geographical origin of these venoms and the clinical effectiveness of the antivenom for snakebites in Arab countries is unproven.

"Current political turbulence in the region is jeopardizing local production, and importation from adjacent Middle Eastern countries. It also makes the development of a coordinated regional initiative to overcome this deficiency far more difficult. Responsible international producers outside the region should consider developing appropriate antivenoms to meet the humanitarian need and marketing opportunity."

"However, new regional antivenoms must be designed based on sound knowledge of the species known to be of the greatest medical importance and raised using venoms obtained from snakes in Arab countries" said Professor Zuhair S. Amr, lead author, Jordan University for Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan.

Adequate prevention and increased awareness of this public health problem in the region should also be promoted, particularly among farmers and other groups in rural areas, and exposed to encounters with snakes in their everyday life.
The Members of the Dagbon Forum have vehemently condemned the ethnocentric and insensitive tribal comments by Bishop Charles Agyin Asare of Perez Chapel, which suggest that some Ewes were targeted and gruesomely murdered during the tragic events of Konkomba-Dagomba conflict in the 1990s.

According to the group, they are highly appalled by a video recording making the rounds on social media in which Bishop Agyin Asare was seen making such false and unsubstantiated statement.

A statement issued in Tamale and signed by Dr Sulemana Abudulai, National President of the Dagbon Forum condemned in no uncertain terms, the Bishops attempt to take Ghanaians back to those unfortunate days in history.

"There is absolutely no grain of truth that people were attacked on the basis of being Ewes. At no point during that dark period did Dagombas attack or kill Ewes in Tamale," it said.

The statement said in that period of uncertainty and insecurity, the conflict did not involve any other tribes or groups beyond the Dagombas and their Konkomba brothers and sisters.

The Dagbon Forum statement described the content of the video as "malicious, vicious, wicked and total fabrication" from a supposed respected Minister of the Gospel.

Bishop Charles Agyin Asare was heard in the viral video as saying "I left Tamale during Konkomba- Nanumba war. It spilled over into Tamale because Nanumbas, Mamprusis and Dagombas come from one father; and if you touch one you touch all. Some people rumoured in Tamale that Rawlings was supporting the Konkombas and so in Tamale the rumour was that the Ewes had sided with Konkombas. So they started attacking Ewes. They killed two Ewes and put their heads on sticks, and paraded the streets of Tamale".

According to the group, it is not their style to attack any personality but it was equally prudent to correct the dire impression being created by Bishop Agyin Asare.

His comments, the group said, had the tendency to create enmity between Ewes and Dagombas who had lived peacefully together over the years.

"Ewe, Ashanti, Fanti, Ga, and other southern groups have lived with Dagombas for centuries amicably and made huge investments in social and economic development. There has never been any hostilities between these peoples and Dagombas. In fact, a key source of Dagbon history is the seminal work of Forster Tamakloe, an Ewe man, entitled, A brief history of the Dagbamba People. This well researched book emerged from years of spending his working life in Dagbon during the colonial era," the statement added.

It said: "One of the Tamale Senior Secondary School Dormitories is named after Mr Forster Tamakloe (Ewe) for his contribution towards the development of Dagbon".

The statement said although it was a difficult time for everyone during the conflict, there is no iota of truth that Ewes were targeted for attack.

The group passionately appealed to all Ewes across the world to disregard the false publication by Bishop Charles Agyin Asare and join all Dagombas to condemn the content of the video in no uncertain terms.
A U.S. Navy soldier participates during an exercise in Okinawa, Japan, on April 26, 2017. (Xinhua/Lcpl. Juan C. Bustos/U.S. Marine Corps/ZUMAPRESS)

By Du Wenlong

A cluster of COVID-19 cases occurred at US military bases in Japan recently. According to reports, the outbreak in the US military bases in Okinawa Prefecture in Japan is relatively serious and local governments in Okinawa Prefecture have launched a joint protest against this. At the same time, people in the US military bases in Yamaguchi and Aomori have also reported cases. So why did US military bases in Japan become a big loophole in Japan's pandemic prevention? Why is the Japanese government helpless in the face of this situation?

The Japanese government has imposed entry restrictions on more than 120 countries and regions including the US after the global outbreak of COVID-19. However, according to the USJapan Status of Forces Agreement signed in 1960, the US military is not restricted by such policies and they can still enter Japan. In other words, the USJapan Status of Forces Agreement puts Japan in a subordinate position, and Japanese law does not restrict the US military in any way. Since the outbreak, the US troops stationed in Japan and related personnel can enter and exit Japan freely. They do not need to be tested for the virus by the Japanese side, and the pandemic prevention measures adopted by the US military are not under Japanese control. This is the main reason for the outbreak of COVID-19 at US military bases in Japan.

The natural psychological advantage allows the US military and related personnel to have no scruples because Japanese law does not restrict them at all. Due to the impact of the pandemic, the US service members need to outrun the current boring life in the base. The so-called health level in this state is not their focus at all, let alone the safety of the Japanese people, so the government's warnings are very pale.

Denny Tamaki, governor of Okinawa Prefecture, requested the Japanese government to stop the US from sending military personnel to Okinawa and provide timely information on the actions of infected persons. He also called for a complete revision of the USJapan Status of Forces Agreement, including the application of Japanese domestic law to the quarantine work of the US military. However, under the framework of the Agreement, Japan has no choice but to accept the behavior of the US troops stationed in Japan.

From a deeper perspective, the imbalance between Japan and the US is caused by Japan's unfinished normalization. The Japanese military's remote control and strike capabilities rely heavily on the US. Japan also relies heavily on the US in terms of various high-end technologies, nuclear protections, and other strategic protections. Even if Japan's economy continues to move forward, it is still a "dwarf" in terms of capability. Under the oppression of the entire USJapan Status of Forces Agreement, Japan can only say yes.

The US military power is almost all over the world. US troops stationed overseas enjoy the so-called "extraterritoriality." The domineering and unscrupulous actions of US troops stationed overseas have brought extremely bad effects on local social security and people's lives, not only in Japan, but also in South Korea and Europe. The so-called extraterritoriality is a kind of protection for the US military. No matter what kind of bad incidents by the US troops, local laws do not have any restrictive function on them.

Therefore, the various actions of the US military overseas have no scruples. This situation is very common in its overseas bases and it also makes the local government and people have great dissatisfaction and resentment towards the existence of US troops, since the so-called protection and damage are almost the two sides of a coin.

With growing number of troops stationed overseas, the more frequent operations the US takes, the greater harm it will make to the local area. Therefore, this protection has become a burden. After the end of the Cold War, there was no war threat of large-scale operations and full-scale operations in various places, however, the US is still unwilling to leave. Essentially, the US is seeking for its own global interests, rather than providing so-called protection.
In Britain, as in the United States, the anti-racism protests that have erupted since the police killing of George Floyd in late May have reinvigorated campaigns for reparations for slavery. Having only recently acknowledged their historical links to slavery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade, British universities and London financial institutions are facing calls to make amends for past injustices and pay reparations to the descendants of enslaved people.

But one institution has remained silent: the British monarchy. Still, its no secret that the history of the British royal family is intertwined with slavery.

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The slave-trading initiatives endorsed by the English monarchy began with Queen Elizabeth Is enthusiastic support of John Hawkins slaving expeditions in the 1560s. In three separate voyages backed by government officials, London merchants, and the queen, Hawkins raided African settlements on the West African coast and seized hundreds of enslaved captives from Portuguese ships. In defiance of Portugals dominance over the European slave trade in Africans, Hawkins sold his cargo of African captives in the Spanish Caribbean. After his profitable second voyage, the queen honored Hawkins with a coat of arms and crest featuring a nude African bound with rope.

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During the reign of King Charles II, from 1660 to 1685, the Crown and members of the royal family invested heavily in the African slave trade. Seeking to bolster the wealth and power of the restored monarchy and to supplant the Dutch in the Atlantic trading system, Charles granted a charter to the Company of Royal Adventurers Into Africa, a private joint-stock company, less than six months after ascending the throne. The charter gave the Royal Adventurers a 1,000-year monopoly over trade, land, and adjacent islands along the west coast of Africa stretching from what was then known as Cape Blanco (western Sahara) in the north to the Cape of Good Hope in the south. The king lent the company a number of royal ships, including a vessel called the Blackamoor, and reserved for himself the right to two-thirds of the value of any gold mines discovered. Controlling English trade with West Africain gold, hides, ivory, redwood, and, ultimately, slavesoffered the prospect of a revenue stream that would enable the Crown to gain financial independence from Parliament.

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The companys intimacy with the royal family proved attractive to investors seeking to profit from the sale and exploitation of African men, women, and children.

From its founding, the Royal Adventurers benefited from royal connections and the Crowns political and financial backing. More than half of the original beneficiaries of the first charter were peers or members of the royal family, including the king himself. The companys intimacy with the royal family proved particularly attractive to investors seeking to profit from a trading monopoly with West Africa and the sale and exploitation of African men, women, and children.

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In 1663, the Royal Adventurers received a new charter explicitly granting the company an exclusive right among English traders to purchase enslaved captives on the West African coast and transport them to the English colonies in the Americas. Sponsored by the kings inner circle and politicians and courtiers expecting to use the African trade for personal profit, the fledgling company set out to deliver thousands of African captives to the English Caribbean. Upon disembarking, Africans who survived the horrors of the middle passage were sold to English buyers or to foreign traders looking to acquire slaves for transshipment to Spanish America. By March 1664, the company had delivered more than 3,000 enslaved men, women, and children to Barbados and 780 African captives to Jamaica.

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In England, new coins minted from African gold, known as guineas, entered circulation, stamped with an elephantthe distinctive emblem of the Royal Adventurersunder the monarchs head. The message to the public was clear: The king had successfully expanded English interests in Africa, enriching the mother country and strengthening its Atlantic empire.

The companys initial success was short-lived, however. In 1665, the Royal Adventurers ran into financial difficulties resulting from mounting unpaid debts owed by colonial planters who had purchased African captives from the company on credit. The arrival of a Dutch naval force intent on retaking forts on Africas Gold Coast further eroded the companys tenuous position. Commercial rivalries with Holland over control of the African trade sparked the Second Anglo-Dutch War from 1665 to 1667. With the companys finances in tatters and its business disrupted, competing English merchants moved in, helping to sustain the supply of enslaved Africans to Englands plantation colonies. Faced with insolvency, the Royal Adventurers was dissolved in 1671 in favor of a new monopoly trading company.

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By the time King Charles II granted a charter to the reorganized Royal African Company of England in 1672, the demand for slave labor in the Americas had intensified. Ensuring a steady supply of African captives to Englands Caribbean and North American colonies promised not only to generate profits for shareholders and the Crown but also to expand Englands imperial footprint in the Atlantic world.

As English planters in the Atlantic colonies clamored for more enslaved Africans, English enslavers profited and the African slave trade expanded. The Royal African Company of England, notes historian William Pettigrew, shipped more enslaved African women, men, and children to the Americas than any other single institution during the entire period of the transatlantic slave trade. The companys seal captures how English enslavers, with Crown encouragement, eagerly harnessed the lives and bodies of Africans to generate commercial wealth and build an overseas empire. The seal shows an elephant bearing a castle, flanked by two enslaved African men. Surrounding the figures is the companys motto: Regio floret patrocinio commercium, commercioque regnum (By royal patronage commerce flourishes, by commerce the realm).

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From its founding in 1672 to 1688, James, the Duke of York (the future King James II), served as the governor of the Royal African Company and its largest shareholder. James also held the position of Lord High Admiral, which enabled him to exercise punitive power over anyone who challenged the companys monopoly in West Africa or the English colonies. So intimately intertwined was the English monarchy with the slave trade that the company left a permanent mark of royal ownership on the bodies of the enslaved: Before their departure for the Americas, African captives were branded on the right shoulder or breast with the letters D.Y., for the Duke of York, or R.A.C.E., for the Royal African Company of England.

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The Glorious Revolution of 168889 dethroned King James II and undermined the privileged position of the Royal African Company. With the companys royal patron out of the picture, English merchants seeking access to West African markets and colonial planters demanding greater numbers of enslaved Africans at lower prices eroded the companys attempt to maintain a monopoly. In 1698, Parliament opened the slave trade to all English traders; independent traders were required to pay a 10 percent duty to the Royal African Company to help maintain its African forts. When this act expired in 1712, an official era of free trade began. Millions of Africans were captured, torn from their families, forcibly transported across the Atlantic, sold to the highest bidders, and subjected to physical, psychological, and sexual violence by their enslavers.

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During the peak years of the Atlantic slave trade, between 1690 and 1807, European enslavers carried approximately 6 million enslaved Africans to the Americas; almost half of these captives arrived in British or Anglo-American ships. Protected by the Crown and Parliament, the slave trade became one of Britains most profitable industries. The production of popular, labor-intensive agricultural products such as sugar, tobacco, cotton, and coffee in the Atlantic colonies hinged on the regular supply of African captives. The vast majority of enslaved African men, women, and children were destined for the sugar fields of Brazil and the Caribbean islands.

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As the British Atlantic empire became more reliant on the labor of enslaved Africans, critics of the slave trade and colonial slavery were marginalized or dismissed as radicals. Meanwhile, enslaved men and women took matters into their own hands, struggling against slavery and racist colonial regimes from below. By running away, refusing to work, feigning illness, and rebelling collectively, over and over again, enslaved Africans and their descendants made it clear that their lives mattered. Some people of African descent who gained their liberty joined the transnational abolitionist movement and made both anti-slavery and anti-racism central to their mission.

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During the lengthy reign of King George III, from 1760 to 1820, Atlantic slave uprisings and a multiracial coalition of abolitionists transformed the British publics view of the slave trade at the same time the Crown supported its continuation. The pro-slavery views of the king and his sons bolstered the efforts of the London Society of West India Planters and Merchants to delay the abolition of the British slave trade for nearly two decades. Georges third son, Prince William (the future King William IV), served in the Royal Navy as a teenager and was the first member of the royal family to visit Britains North American and Caribbean colonies. While stationed in Jamaica, William witnessed colonial slavery firsthand and approved of what he saw. In 1799, William, now the Duke of Clarence, delivered his maiden speech in the House of Lords against the abolition of the slave trade. Printed by the pro-slavery lobby and widely circulated, his speech was viewed by many Britons as representative of the attitudes of the royal family.

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But not all members of the royal family supported the slave trade. Georges nephew and son-in-law Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, allied with the abolitionists in Parliament and became a vocal anti-slavery supporter. After the British Parliament outlawed the slave trade in 1807, Frederick served as the first president of the African Institution, an abolitionist organization founded to enforce the Abolition Act and promote civilization and improvement in Africa. William Frederick worked closely with leading English abolitionists such as Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce to influence the major European powers to follow Britains lead and abolish slave trading.

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Although the Slave Trade Act of 1807 had made it illegal for British subjects to buy or sell African captives, demand for slaves remained high in the Caribbean, Brazil, the Spanish colonies, and the United States. After 1808, as the illegal slave trade flourished, European enslavers transported millions of enslaved Africans to the Americas, many in ships built, financed, or outfitted in Britain.

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In the decades after the abolition of the British slave trade, enslaved and free people of African descent petitioned the Crown repeatedly, seeking royal intervention on their behalf in their quest for liberty and civil rights. These petitions largely fell on deaf ears. Even after Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, which ended slavery in the British Caribbean, Mauritius, and the Cape Colony (South Africa), enslaved people did not immediately receive their freedom. The negotiated settlement required enslaved men and women to continue to labor for their former masters as unpaid apprentices and also granted 20 million pounds in compensation to Britons with financial interests in slavery. Formerly enslaved people and their descendants received nothing, other than recognition of their status as free subjects of the British sovereign.

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After 1838, with both slavery and the apprenticeship system at an end in Britains Atlantic empire, the British monarchy publicly supported the anti-slavery cause for the first time. In May 1840, Prince Albert, Queen Victorias husband, accepted an invitation to serve as the president of the Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade and for the Civilization of Africa. A month later, he delivered a brief opening speech at the first international anti-slavery convention held in London. According to eyewitness accounts, when the prince appeared onstage, the crowd of 5,000 or 6,000 people cheered wildly; his remarks could barely be heard above the tumult. Everyone seemed to link with his presence and feelings, those of her Amiable Majesty the Queen, Thomas Clarkson later recalled, and received him as tho (independent of his own professions) he was conveying the feelings and sympathies of her much loved Majesty to her loyal and humane subjects.

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Victoria and Albert acquired an international reputation as humanitarian reformers yet simultaneously oversaw an expanding empire rooted in the racial subjugation and exploitation of subaltern populations in the Americas, India, Africa, and Asia and throughout the Pacific. A self-proclaimed anti-racist, Victoria became the patron of Sarah Forbes Bonetta (born Aina), an orphaned child of Yoruba descent and a princess of the Egbado clan in West Africa. After her parents were killed by King Ghezo of Dahomey, Aina was kept as a state prisoner until a Capt. Frederick E. Forbes arrived on board the Bonetta in June 1850 to advocate for the suppression of the slave trade. Forbes negotiated for Ainas release as a gift for the queen and transported her to England; there Aina was stripped of her Yoruba name and christened Sarah Forbes Bonetta. Later on in Victorias life, her close friendship with Abdul Karim, her Indian secretary, led to friction in the royal family and scandalized the nation.

Victorias relationships with Sarah and Abdulromanticized, respectively, in the PBS series Victoria and the film Victoria & Abduloffer examples of how, since the 19th century, the British Crown has sought to rehabilitate its reputation by distancing itself from slavery and racial prejudicea rehabilitation that Prince Harrys marriage to the Black American actress Meghan Markle in 2018 has since tested. In recent days, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have argued that, in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, its time for Britain to address its uncomfortable past. But the British monarchy continues to refuse to recognize its historic ties to the slave trade and racial oppression.

Officially acknowledging that the royal family both fostered and profited from the enslavement of millions, and affirming a commitment to reparatory justice as the Caribbean Community has urged the governments of Britain and Europe to do, is the very least the present-day British monarchy owes to the descendants of enslaved people.

The Crowns act of willful forgetting demonstrates how easy it was to overlookthen and nowthe pivotal role played by the royal family in accelerating Englands involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the development of an Atlantic empire built on the backs and blood of African and Indigenous people.
Technavio has been monitoring the intelligent parking systems market and it is poised to grow by 5.2 bn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 22% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005530/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Intelligent Parking Systems Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. 3M Co., Conduent Inc., Flowbird SAS, International Business Machines Corp., IPS Group Inc., Kapsch TrafficCom AG, Libelium Comunicaciones Distribuidas SL, Nedap NV, Siemens AG, and SKIDATA AG are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

The increasing use of telematics for car parking has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, high deployment costs might hamper market growth.

Intelligent Parking Systems Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Intelligent Parking Systems Market is segmented as below:

Type On-street Parking Off-street Parking

Geography North America Europe APAC South America MEA



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Intelligent Parking Systems Market 2020-2024: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our intelligent parking systems market report covers the following areas:

Intelligent Parking Systems Market size

Intelligent Parking Systems Market trends

Intelligent Parking Systems Market industry analysis

This study identifies rising sales of passenger vehicles such as sedans and hatchbacks as one of the prime reasons driving the intelligent parking systems market growth during the next few years.

Intelligent Parking Systems Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the intelligent parking systems market, including some of the vendors such as 3M Co., Conduent Inc., Flowbird SAS, International Business Machines Corp., IPS Group Inc., Kapsch TrafficCom AG, Libelium Comunicaciones Distribuidas SL, Nedap NV, Siemens AG, and SKIDATA AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the Intelligent Parking Systems Market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Intelligent Parking Systems Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist intelligent parking systems market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the intelligent parking systems market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the intelligent parking systems market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of intelligent parking systems market vendors

Table Of Contents :

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2019

Market outlook: Forecast for 2019 2024

Five Forces Analysis

Five forces summary

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Type

Market segments

Comparison by Type

Off-street parking Market size and forecast 2019-2024

On-street parking Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Type

Customer Landscape

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Key leading countries

Market opportunity by geography

Volume Driver Demand led growth

Market Challenges

Market Trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

3M Co.

Conduent Inc.

Flowbird SAS

International Business Machines Corp.

IPS Group Inc.

Kapsch TrafficCom AG

Libelium Comunicaciones Distribuidas SL

Nedap NV

Siemens AG

SKIDATA AG

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

About Us

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China today announced the suspension of Hong Kong's extradition treaties with Canada, Australia and Britain in a tit-for-tat move following similar decisions by those countries over a controversial new security law.

Beijing's spokesperson also urged New Zealand to correct its 'mistakes' immediately after Wellington on Tuesday stood up to Beijing and suspended its extradition agreement with the Asian financial hub.

Western nations have angered Beijing with their responses to the law imposed on Hong Kong, which they see as an erosion of the civil liberties and human rights the city has enjoyed since its handover from Britain in 1997.

China has accused the countries of interfering in its internal affairs and defended the security law as crucial for Hong Kong following a wave of pro-democracy protests marred by violence

The United States has decided to rescind Hong Kong's special trading privileges.

Washington has also signalled that it was preparing to do the same with its Hong Kong extradition treaty as its 'Five Eyes' intelligence partners.

China has accused the countries of interfering in its internal affairs and defended the security law as crucial to restore order in Hong Kong following a wave of pro-democracy protests marred by violence.

'The wrong action of Canada, Australia and the UK in politicising judicial cooperation with Hong Kong has seriously hurt the basis of judicial cooperation,' said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at a regular press briefing on Tuesday.

'China has decided to suspend extradition treaties between Hong Kong and Canada, Australia and the UK, as well as criminal justice cooperation agreements.'

Wang accused the countries of having used the national security law as 'an excuse to unilaterally announce the suspension of extradition treaties' with Hong Kong.

'The wrong action of Canada, Australia and the UK in politicising judicial cooperation with Hong Kong has seriously hurt the basis of judicial cooperation,' said Wang Wenbin, the spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a regular press briefing on Tuesday

Britain suspended its extradition treaty last week, following moves by Australia and Canada, saying the security law had 'significantly changed key assumptions' including a provision to try certain cases in mainland China.

London and Canberra have also angered Beijing by offering pathways to citizenship or residency to Hong Kongers looking to leave because of the new law.

New Zealand's updated travel advice said the security law had led to an increased risk of arrest for activities such as protests, with the possibility of being removed to mainland China to face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

New Zealand halted its extradition treaty with Hong Kong on Tuesday. 'New Zealand can no longer trust that Hong Kong's criminal justice system is sufficiently independent from China,' said the country's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters in a move that has infuriated Beijing

Wang warned on Tuesday that China reserved the right to respond after New Zealand halted its extradition treaty with Hong Kong.

'New Zealand can no longer trust that Hong Kong's criminal justice system is sufficiently independent from China,' Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.

'If China in future shows adherence to the "one country, two systems" framework then we could reconsider this decision.'

'We do have a mature relationship with China,' New Zealand's PM Ardern said. 'There have been occasions where we have taken different positions. This obviously will be one of them'

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the country was following its principles.

'We do have a mature relationship with China,' Ardern said. 'There have been occasions where we have taken different positions. This obviously will be one of them.'

China's embassy in New Zealand on Tuesday slammed Wellington's decision as 'seriously violating International Law and Fundamental Principles of International Relation'.

In Beijing, China's foreign affairs spokesperson Wang said the country resolutely opposed to foreign forces' intervention in Hong Kong affairs.

'Any schemes to suppress China will never prevail,' Wang said.

'China urges New Zealand to immediately redress its mistake, and stop all forms of interference in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs, to avoid harming China-New Zealand relations.'
| By Mary Therese Phelan

A champion for racial equity, diversity, and inclusion. A robust supporter of interprofessional education. A strong proponent of community engagement. Flexible. Focused. Innovative.

Such is the list of ideal characteristics faculty, staff, students, and community members are seeking in the next president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), based on input received over the course of two virtual town hall sessions.

Former UMB President Jay A. Perman, MD, announced in November 2019 that he would be leaving his position to become chancellor of the University System of Maryland (USM) and UMB Provost Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, was subsequently named to serve as interim president while an expedited national search conducted by Boston-based search firm Isaacson, Miller got underway.

William T. "Bill" Wood

Thank you for taking the time today to meet with us, said USM Regent William T. Wood, JD, chairman of the UMB Presidential Search Committee as he introduced himself to viewers. Wood has served nine years on the UMB Foundation Board of Trustees and is a graduate of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. I feel like I'm back home again when I'm talking to people that are interested in the presidency at UMB.

The meetings, held July 17 and July 20 via the Webex video conferencing platform, provided members of the UMB community an opportunity to weigh in before the USM Board of Regents votes on a candidate this fall.

The search team has met with key individuals and groups from around the University, pouring what theyve learned into a working draft of a Presidential Position Profile, explained Philip Jaeger, a partner at Isaacson, Miller. He helped to facilitate the town halls along with Kristy Novak, MS, assistant director, graduate clinical placements, University of Maryland School of Nursing, and president of the UMB Staff Senate; and Joshua M. Abzug, MD, associate professor, University of Maryland School of Medicine and president of the UMB Faculty Senate.

On July 22, UMB launched its Presidential Search website featuring information about the search process; Isaacson, Miller; and the members of the search committee.

The topic of a future presidents commitment to racial equity, diversity, and inclusion was on the minds of several viewers.

Up until now, we've had a lot of leadership that does not necessarily feel equipped to address these issues, and so I noticed there's a whole section in the presidential profile about these issues but, who on the search committee is actually equipped to determine whether or not the candidates are conversant on these issues of race and oppression? one participant asked.

Ideally it does not fall on one person to speak to this topic, Jaeger responded. When the candidates meet with the search committee, we explicitly and deliberately create questions that get to understanding the candidates experience, and where they've used their political and professional capital to advance diversity. So, we're hearing from the candidates. And again, it's not falling on one committee members shoulders, as it were, to own this topic.

Joann Boughman, PhD, senior vice chancellor, academic and student affairs at USM, who is on the search committee and helped to answer questions during the virtual town halls, said the consultants from Isaacson, Miller have made it clear to the committee, this is not just words being said, that this is a set of values deeply felt and deeply believed in and of extreme importance.

When Chancellor Perman put together this committee, I think he was very seriously engaged in these issues, and challenged us with them, she continued. But we hear this comment, this is exactly one of the reasons that we have these interactions. I think you've stated it succinctly and clearly and believe me, this will be taken back to the committee as a whole.

Wood also noted that the search committee itself is comprised of a very diverse group of people with different perspectives, who bring collectively a very strong understanding of the importance of diversity.

A faculty member added that while the search firm says it will consider a diverse pool of applicants, since there is traditionally a lack of diversity in high-level positions of academia these diverse applicants wont make it into the pool to begin with.

That embracing of diversity with the new leader for UMB would need to be shown in actions to how those diverse populations, staff, faculty, and others on campus, are actually nurtured to become a leader, she said. And that would be very important because when we talk diversity, we cannot only consider a straightforward path to leadership because diverse populations have had to go around all the glass ceilings, possibly to get to a point and possibly not.

In Baltimore, African Americans make up more than 60 percent of the population, another participant pointed out.

I really don't think that we can have a president in today's day and age without that person having an active understanding of intersectional justice, she said.

The search committee was selected by Perman, Boughman noted. And I think we all know that he has a sincere interest in the matters we're talking about.

Another participant noted the draft presidential profile lacked a position on the LGBTQ Plus community at UMB.

We do have a significant population of LGBTQ students at UMB and there are several groups on campus, the participant said. And I think that it's very important that our leadership going forward is thinking about these issues and making sure that their students, at a variety of intersections, are safe to learn and grow in this community.

Town hall participants also said they wanted Permans successor to be a staunch supporter of interprofessional education (IPE). Perman created the Center for IPE Education at UMB and was an avid proponent of the team-based approach to health care.

As we move forward it would be really important to highlight in the document how much progress has been made in interprofessional education and also challenging and really looking for the president to help us lead through that transformation more into the practice realm between the schools, said a faculty member. And having faculty have some latitude and additional headway to move into the community and all the other areas where we could practice together and use all those great skills, and also research.

Perman, through his creation of UMBs Community Engagement Center (CEC), was a major advocate for fostering relationships and opportunities between the University and its surrounding neighborhoods. Town hall participants said that kind of engagement must continue. I think the campus has tremendous potential to benefit Baltimore, one participant said.

Community engagement has been a common theme in interviews and other listening sessions, Jaeger replied. The CEC is featured in the Presidential Position Profile. Well make certain that whoever does come in, continues those initiatives, outreach throughout the city of Baltimore. The president has to value that.

Many participants said an ideal new president would also help all seven schools at UMB to collaborate more rather than operating in silos, which Yaeger said was a common theme in the search firms conversations with UMB community members.

Other desired qualifications included being a proponent of staff development to teach people from different backgrounds on how to work more effectively; of mentorship opportunities for faculty and staff; and of being forward thinking, especially in times of a pandemic.

What type of innovations will this person bring to the table and what do they see in the next five or 10 years from an academic institution perspective? one viewer mentioned as an important question for the search team to consider in selecting candidates. With the entire university being impacted by the pandemic, how can this leader lead us to a new era beyond the COVID? the participant asked.

It's a very good point, said Jaeger. COVID is transforming what leadership is as a university president.

The USM Board of Regents bylaws require the board make an appointment of a president after a thorough search. Wood noted that Interim President Jarrell is a candidate for the permanent position, but stressed that it is critical to the integrity of the search process to avoid any perception that this is a search in name only. We must be sensitive to other qualified candidates. And we must make sure that all qualified candidates get a full, genuine, and fair consideration, he said.

The search must also move quickly, due to a need to manage the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the campus, throughout the university system and because of the important role UMB and the president play in the systemwide management of campus issues involving COVID-19, the development of a vaccine, and the continuing unrest that we see all over the country, Wood said.

Input from the town halls will be incorporated into an updated Presidential Position Profile and then the search will go quiet, Jaeger said. The search team will begin weeks of recruiting and networking across the country to assemble what he described as an excellent and diverse pool of candidates.

By Sept. 15, the search committee will make a recommendation of a number of candidates to the Board of Regents, who will interview each candidate. The full board will vote and make the final decision.

Members of the UMB community will not have an opportunity to question candidates, primarily due to sensibilities about confidentiality, Jaeger said.

The candidates we are going to be talking to will be sitting presidents, deans of schools, and their exposure presents a lot of risk, he said. If candidates are listed as one of several in a search, that is often a deal-breaker, he added.

Members of the UMB community are encouraged to submit their input, as well as their own nominations, to the search email box at presidentialsearch@umaryland.edu or to Isaacson, Miller at this webpage or via mail to: Isaacson, Miller, 263 Summer St., 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02210.

Submitters may remain anonymous.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 01:07:56|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

TAIPEI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Four people have been found dead while four others remained missing after a mainland sand carrier capsized in the waters of the Penghu archipelago on Sunday evening, Taiwan's coast guard authority said Monday.

One of the nine crew members on board was rescued as of 10:06 a.m. on Monday, the authority said. Enditem
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / Aegis Capital Corp. (www.aegiscapcorp.com) a full-service wealth management, financial services and investment banking firm is pleased to announce the hiring of two veteran compliance officers with over 40 years of combined experience in compliance

Sean Darling has over 20 years of compliance experience and will handle regulatory exam management and inquiries, compliance testing and anti-money laundering responsibilities. Prior to Aegis Sean was with FINRA for 13 years where he was a Principal Examiner responsible for conducting numerous regulatory examinations as well as being part of the high risk registered representative unit. Sean is CAMS (Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist) and CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) certified.

William (Bill) Hodge has over 20 years of compliance experience and will be the AMLCO (Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Officer) for Aegis. Most recently he was the AMLCO for Dinosaur Securities and has held senior compliance roles at Convergex, Sberbank and other institutions. Bill has his Series 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 24, 53, 55, 63, 65, and 79.

Robert Eide Aegis' CEO commented: "We are pleased to expand our compliance team with the addition of Bill and Sean. They both bring an expansive amount of knowledge and will be valued additions to the compliance staff. With their hiring, Aegis is committed to keeping up with today's regulatory environment."

Timothy Treble Aegis' CCO commented: "Bill and Sean bring more than four decades of combined industry experience and we look forward to providing them with the necessary resources they need to ensure the firm remains compliant. I am excited to add another two high-quality members to our team and look forward to working with them as Aegis continues to grow and attract talented financial advisors."

About Aegis Capital Corporation

Aegis Capital Corporation "Aegis" has been in business for over 35 years catering to the needs of private clients, institutions and corporations. Aegis was founded in 1984 and offers its investment representatives a conflict free service platform and is able to provide a full-range of products and services including investment banking, wealth management, insurance, retirement planning, structured products, private equity, alternatives, equity research, fixed income and special purpose vehicles. Aegis is able to provide quality service through its primary clearing relationship with RBC Correspondent Services whose parent company, Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY), is one of the world's leading diversified financial services companies. Member: FINRA / SIPC

Any questions contact:

Michael Pata, Head of Business Development

Telephone: 1-212-813-1010

mpata@aegiscap.com

SOURCE: Aegis Capital Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/599217/Aegis-Capital-Corp-Hires-Two-Veteran-Compliance-Officers
Zelensky introduces temporary visa-free regime for citizens of China who enter Ukraine for tourism  decree

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on the temporary introduction of a visa-free regime for citizens of the People's Republic of China who enter Ukraine for tourist purposes.

According to the presidential press service's statement on Tuesday, decree No. 295/2020 was signed "with the purpose of developing friendly relations between Ukraine and China," as well as enhancing bilateral cooperation in tourism sector.

According to the document, for the period from August 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021, the visa-free regime of entry into Ukraine and transit through the territory of Ukraine is introduced for citizens of China entering with a tourist purpose, if the period of their stay in Ukraine does not exceed 30 days within 180 days.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine must take measures arising from this decree.

The decree comes into force on the day of its publication.
GOP Relief Bill: Schools Would Lose Two-Thirds of Aid Money if They Dont Physically Reopen

Schools that dont plan to physically reopen, or at least offer some in-person learning in the fall, would lose two-thirds of the relief money set aside for K-12 education under Senate Republicans relief bill.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on July 27 unveiled the much-anticipated HEALS Act, which would provide $70 billion to K-12 public and private schools, as well as $5 billion in funds for governors to spend on K-12 and higher education.

According to Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Miss.), who crafted the HEALS Acts education provision, a third of the $70 billion relief fund would go to all schools, regardless of whether they plan to bring students back to classroom or not. The remaining two-thirds, however, would be available only for schools with a state-approved physical reopening plan.

While making it clear that most of the relief money will be directed toward schools that are set to fully reopen, the act doesnt specify whether schools that reopen with a mix of in-person and online learning could still get their cut.

The act would also grant schools with protections from legal liability, a measure championed by McConnell to discourage insubstantial lawsuits relating to COVID-19 while preserving the ability of individuals and businesses that have suffered real injury to obtain complete relief.

The qualification requirements laid out in the HEALS Act are in line with President Donald Trumps push to have schools reopen this fall. Earlier this month, Trump threatened to cut off funding for those that dont.

In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS, he wrote on Twitter. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!

Democrats, on the other hand, voiced strong opposition to tying K-12 education relief funds to school reopening. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate education committee, said last week that Republican lawmakers were using student safety as a bargaining chip.

Democrats have a plan to give schools the resources they need to keep their campuses safe and to keep students learning, whether in-person or online, while the president is irresponsibly trying to bully schools into reopening no matter the risk, Murray said. I hope Senate Republicans dont stoop to that level just because the president wants to.
Vials of investigational COVID-19 treatment drug remdesivir are capped at a Gilead Sciences facility in La Verne, Calif., on March 18, 2020. (Gilead Sciences via Reuters)

Health Canada Approves Remdesivir to Treat Severe COVID-19 Symptoms

OTTAWAHealth Canada has approved the use of remdesivir to treat patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19.

The federal agency says the antiviral drug may be used to treat patients who have pneumonia and require extra oxygen to help them breathe.

Its the first drug that Health Canada has authorized for the treatment of COVID-19. Health Canada approved its use in adults and adolescents.

Remdesivir, which has been shown to shorten hospital stays, is administered intravenously and will be used only on patients that can be closely monitored.

Canadas chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said use of the drug requires close medical supervision.

Some of the range of side effects could involve other organs such as the liver, Tam said Tuesday.

Health Canada has actually reviewed all this information and determined that the benefits outweigh the risk of the side effects. But again this is not a drug that you use as an outpatient. You have to be in a hospital setting where someone can monitor all that.

Until now, a small number of patients have been treated with remdesivir in Canada under a special access program.

The drug has also been granted emergency or conditional authorization in the United States, Europe, Japan, Singapore and Australia.

Two clinical trials authorized by Health Canada are ongoing to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of remdesivir.

Remdesivir is sold under the brand name Veklury and manufactured by Gilead Sciences Canada.

Tam said the Public Health Agency of Canada is talking to the manufacturer about securing a Canadian supply, but admitted supply is very limited globally from this company.

Those discussions are taking place right now. I think the company will begin to accelerate its capacity but the bottom line is that the supply is not plentiful.
When he could not procure essential COVID drugs in time when his friend's aunt was in need, Deep Shah realised how important it is to get medicine on time because every minute is important when a person is fighting the battle against the virus.

The Mumbai-based textile trader disseminates information about the availability of COVID-19 drugs to residents of Thane. He is now also the go-to person for many patients in Kolkata, 2026.25 kilometres away.

On a daily basis, Shah receives hundreds of calls, many from Kolkata seeking help to procure medicines.

I was hunting for a medicine for my friends aunt and did not know any chemist or druggist at that time. Doctors had prescribed Remdesivir and it wasnt available in any nearby pharmacy. As I desperately looked for the medicine, I wished I could turn to someone for guidance, Shah told TOI.

TOI

Time is precious in this pandemic. If a patient gets medicines late, his/her chance of survival gets lower.

Shah came in touch with a few stockists and distributors while visiting the hospital where the friends aunt was being treated. He also met some doctors who were willing to help those in need.

I composed a message on Whatsapp and urged people to contact me in case they were looking for medicines for people contracting the novel coronavirus, he said.

Reuters

In a matter of a few days, he started getting calls from people in Thane, asking for numbers and addresses of medicine distributors. Then calls started coming in from other parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. When I got a call from Bengal, I was surprised. But I decided to help anyway, he said. He now gets as many as 80 calls from Bengal everyday.

He connects with stockists, distributors, doctors, manufacturers in Mumbai and keeps a tab on the availability of medicines, like Remdesivir and Tocilizumab. Some stockists now even know me by name, Shah said.

Shahs effort has not gone unnoticed. Bhanushali Samaj in Thane  an association of Jains  has joined hands with him.
Members of the Ministry of People's Security join others as they pay their respects before the statues of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, Monday, on the 67th anniversary of the signing of the Korean War armistice agreement. / AFP-Yonhap



By Do Je-hae



Questions are rising about what North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meant with his focus on nuclear deterrence at a veterans' event held this week to mark the 67th anniversary of the 1953 Korean War armistice.



"Thanks to our reliable and effective self-defensive nuclear deterrent, there will no longer be such a word as war in this land. Our national security and future will be firmly guaranteed forever," Kim was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the North Korea's state media, Tuesday.



The remarks came amid rising concerns about North Korea's economy, which is believed to have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this week, Pyongyang announced the closure of Gaeseong, a border city with South Korea, after a former defector to South Korea who, according to the North, is suspected of having COVID-19 symptoms, illegally crossed back into North Korea.



Experts told The Korea Times Tuesday that Kim's renewed focus on nuclear deterrence has several implications, internally and externally.



"Kim's remarks are intended to work on several levels," said Mason Richey, a professor of international politics at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. "They bolster internal regime strength during a difficult economic and public health phase, while also reiterating to the outside world that North Korea is a nuclear-armed state that will never relinquish its nuclear weapons."



Some believe the speech has more to do with internal reasons than external ones.



"The veterans' conference is not a venue for new policy pronouncements, but rather where Kim reassures the Korean War generation that national security is in good hands with the current leadership," said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.



Donald Kirk, an author and correspondent on Korean Peninsula issues, said, "Kim needs to show that he is still the strongman leader despite COVID-19 and a severely weakened economy. He is posturing as much for impact on his own people, notably the military and others who may be losing confidence in him."



There is also a message in Kim's latest speech for South Korea and the U.S., ahead of the U.S. presidential election, according to analysts.



"Kim is also signaling to the U.S. and South Korea that any perceived weakness in North Korea doesn't make the North vulnerable externally, as Pyongyang's nuclear weapons serve as a backstop," Richey added. "Kim is reminding the U.S. that if and when diplomatic negotiations resume, denuclearization will not be on the table."



Others say Kim left room for talks, which is consistent with things his powerful sister Kim Yo-jong recently said regarding denuclearization. But it is the dominant view that there is little hope of any immediate resumption of U.S.-North Korea talks.



"Kim's statement leaves the door cracked ever so slightly open to the future resumption of denuclearization diplomacy  he does not say the nuclear deterrence is permanent, rather, peace and security are what is guaranteed forever," said John Delury, a professor at Yonsei University's Graduate School of International Studies.



"In that sense, it is consistent with Kim's sister's recent statement that they are not saying they will never give up their nuclear weapons. Of course, the point of negotiations and diplomacy is get things moving in the right direction. There has been no such progress since Trump met Kim in Hanoi, and Kim's latest statement gives little hope for any imminent resumption of constructive talks or 'action for action."


UAE-based overseas Filipino workers and residents can now plan their next travel to the Philippines as Cebu Pacific, the Philippines largest national flag carrier, holds a AED79 ($21.5) seat sale in time for the celebration of Eid Al Adha.

The seat sale, which will run from July 28 until July 31, allows travellers to book Dubai-Manila flights for as low as AED79, for travel between November 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021.

Even better, bookings made during this seat sale promo come with free unlimited rebooking.

More flexibility

Earlier on, the airline had introduced more flexible options for passengers, to give them peace of mind in booking flights during this period.

These sale flights may be rebooked an unlimited number of times, without any fee, and only with minimal fare difference, should the passenger have a change in travel plans or an emergency arises.

Passengers can conveniently manage their flights through the Manage Booking portal in the Cebu Pacific website. - TradeArabia News Service
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic which has affected economies across the world, while the smaller nations facing the brunt of the pandemic even more, the State Bank of India (SBI) in order to assist one such friendly nation, the Maldives, is providing liquidity support of USD 16.20 million for local businesses and deferred loan repayment for over 200 retail accounts, the Indian High Commission in the Maldives said on Monday.

SBI's Covid-relief for 



Supporting eco. relief measures of Govt. of Maldives,State Bank of INDIA, s largest public sector bank, provides liquidity support of $16.20 million for local businesses & defers loan repayment for over 200 retail accounts.@iameeru @TheOfficialSBI  India in Maldives (@HCIMaldives) July 27, 2020

On the occasion of Independence Day of the Maldives on July 26, Indian High Commissioner Sunjay Sudhir said, "Assistance of USD 400 million through an extended currency swap arrangement has been made available already to tide over liquidity shortage. India will soon announce another substantial financial assistance package to support the Maldivian economy and assist in economic recovery post-COVID-19."

"Ours is an all-weather friendship steeped in history and with a glorious future. 'India First' policy of Maldives and 'Neighbourhood First' policy of India has set the foundation of the growing relationship," he added.

READ | India Bans 47 More Apps; Most Are Clones Of 59 Earlier-banned Chinese-origin Apps

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India's assistance to Sri Lanka

India is taking proactive steps in understanding the concerns of friendly nations and assisting them during the global crisis situation. A few days back the island nation of Sri Lanka signed a USD 400 million currency swap agreement with India's Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to meet short-term international liquidity requirements due to the COVID-19 consequential economic crisis.

The Indian High Commission in Colombo said that the development comes as a relief for Sri Lanka which can help it in the post COVID recovery. The High Commission added that it is another example of India's strong commitment to work with Sri Lanka in post-COVID-19 economic recovery.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a telephonic conversation with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on May 23 and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on May 27 to discuss the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on lives of the people and economy. PM Modi had then assured the Sri Lankan President and Prime Minister that India would continue to support Sri Lanka to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.

Besides, Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay on May 29 made a courtesy call on President Gotabaya and the two agreed to accelerate India's participation in Sri Lanka's post-COVID economic recovery.

(With ANI inputs)

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Minister Rodney Muhammad, president of the NAACP in Philadelphia, faces criticism for an anti-Semitic post he made on Facebook. Read more

Thirteen Black and Jewish elected officials and community leaders called Tuesday for Minister Rodney Muhammad, the leader of the NAACP in Philadelphia, to apologize for an anti-Semitic image he posted on his Facebook page last week.

Some demanded that Muhammad resign or be removed from his post.

State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, a Philadelphia Democrat, said he would no longer work with the local NAACP if Muhammad remains in charge.

I cannot accept anything less ... than an apology and, frankly, stepping out of the way, Williams said in a conference call hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

Muhammad had already faced calls for his resignation after posting and later deleting the image Friday. It showed photos of Ice Cube, DeSean Jackson, and Nick Cannon above a caricature of a hook-nosed, yarmulke-wearing figure on the sleeve of an unseen person who is crushing a mass of people with a ring-bedecked hand.

The image included a quote  To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize  often misattributed to Voltaire. The quote has been traced to a neo-Nazi convicted on a federal child pornography charge in 2008.

Williams and others on the call noted that the image is used widely by white supremacists.

The Rev. Kenneth Huston, president of the Pennsylvania conference of the NAACP, and others on the call said they hoped Muhammads misdeed would further mobilize the combined efforts of groups combating racism and bigotry. Huston said his group is in deep conversation with the NAACPs national leadership about Muhammad.

We are anxiously awaiting to see what our national direction will be, Huston said. And were prayerful that we will get that answer expeditiously.

Muhammad, in an interview Friday, said he paid no attention to the image in his post. He has not apologized for sharing it.

If the image of that man on that sleeve is offensive, then youre opening me up to a sensibility, he said. Im not going to share it anymore.

Muhammad insisted that his point was about conversations being shut down through censorship.

History has shown us that there have been ruthless totalitarian regimes that have shut down voice and opinion, he said. That certainly cant build a healthy society.

Steve Rosenberg of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia again called on Muhammad to resign during Tuesdays conference call.

We cannot allow this type of behavior from anyone, much less a leader of one of our nations most prolific and important civil rights organizations, he said.

Ryan Boyer, business manager for the Laborers District Council, said he told Muhammad the Facebook post was evil.

It dehumanizes people, Boyer said. Its hurtful.

State Sen. Sharif Street, a Philadelphia Democrat, noted that the local NAACP leader is elected by the groups membership.

There will be a reckoning for this, either now or in the future, he said.

City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier said Muhammad has repeatedly displayed his lack of compassion and understanding of the dangers of anti-Semitism.

The idea that a civil rights leader would not just share [an] anti-Semitic message, but then refuse to take ownership of it and apologize, its not just disappointing, its completely unacceptable, she said.
A Kentucky high school student who sued the Washington Post and CNN for portraying him as racist in their coverage of his stand-off with a Native American protester last year is now threatening to take the outlets to court again.

A lawyer for Nicholas Sandmann, a student at Covington Catholic High School, has vowed to take additional legal action against CNN and the Post for allegedly breaching confidentiality agreements under the settlements they made in the initial lawsuits.

Sandmann, 18, and the Post confirmed that they'd settled their lawsuit for an undisclosed amount last week. CNN settled their suit back in January, also for an undisclosed amount.

Attorney Lin Wood put the outlets back in his crosshairs on Monday as he accused CNN anchor Brian Stetler and a Post reporter of breaking confidentiality by tweeting about the settlements.

Nicholas Sandmann, a student at Covington Catholic High School who sued The Washington Post and CNN for portraying him as racist in their coverage of his stand-off with a Native American protester last year (pictured), is now threatening to take the outlets to court again

Sandmann's attorney Lin Wood (pictured together) vowed to take additional legal action against CNN and the Post on Monday as he accused the outlets of breaching confidentiality agreements under the settlements they made in the defamation lawsuits

Wood's threat came after CNN host Brian Stetler (left) and Post reporter Dan Zak (right) shared tweets speculating about the amount of money Sandmann received

Wood first called out Stetler on Twitter on Monday afternoon after spotting a post the 'Reliable Sources' host had retweeted from attorney Mark Zaid, who speculated about how much money Sandmann walked away with from the settlement.

'Those with zero legal experience (as far as I can tell) should not be conjecturing on lawsuits they know nothing about. What kind of journalism is that?' Zaid asked.

'I've litigated defamation cases. [Sandmann] was undoubtedly paid nuisance value settlement & nothing more.'

Wood shared a photo of the retweet, writing: 'This retweet by @brianstelter may have cost him his job at @CNN. It is called breach of confidentiality agreement. Brian Stelter is a liar. I know how to deal with liars.'

The attorney made the same attack on CNN analyst Asha Rangappa, who had responded to Zaid's tweet about the settlement by writing: 'I'd guess $25K to go away.'

In a retweet of Rangappa's post, Wood wrote: 'Heads are going to roll at CNN or [Sandmann] is going to filing another lawsuit & reveal truth.'

Wood called out Stetler on Twitter on Monday afternoon after spotting a post the 'Reliable Sources' host had retweeted from attorney Mark Zaid, who speculated about how much money Sandmann walked away with from the settlement

Wood made the same attack on CNN analyst Asha Rangappa, who had responded to Zaid's tweet about the settlement by writing: 'I'd guess $25K to go away'

Wood also dragged Post reporter Dan Zak in the fray by sharing a photo of a since-deleted tweet he'd written about his outlet's settlement over the weekend.

'You settle for a small amount  without admitting fault (because there was none)  in order to avoid a more expensive trial that you would nonetheless win,' Zak wrote. 'It is, you might say, the American way.'

A spokesperson for the Washington Post has since said that Zak's tweet was taken down 'because it had no basis in fact'.

'Dan has no knowledge about the agreement,' the spokesperson said.

Wood also dragged Post reporter Dan Zak in the fray by sharing a photo of a since-deleted tweet he'd written about his outlet's settlement over the weekend

Zak's tweet (pictured) has since been deleted. A spokeswoman for the Post said it was taken down 'because it had no basis in fact' and 'Dan has no knowledge about the agreement'

In a series of related tweets over the course of the afternoon Wood pledged to take legal action against CNN and the Post if they refused to fire the offending journalists.

'If CNN does not fire @brianstetler, I will be okay with a good butt spanking which will teach him not to ever again falsely speculate on confidential settlements,' he wrote in one post. 'Take him to the woodshed, CNN.'

Sandmann also laid into Stetler, tweeting: 'I can't decide if it's worse to be Brian Stelter or believe Brian Stelter. He was never in any court hearing or meeting I was. So why does he act like he knows anything?'

It's unclear whether Wood's threats would hold up in court given that the tweets from Stetler, Zak and Rangappa are all speculative and in no way indicate that they had knowledge of the settlements.

If they didn't have knowledge of the settlements, it's unlikely that Wood could make the case that they breached confidentiality.

DailyMail.com has reached out to CNN and the Post for comment about the controversy.

Wood promised to take legal action against CNN and the Post if they didn't fire the journalists who tweeted about the Sandmann settlements

Sandmann also called out Stetler on Twitter, writing: 'I can't decide if it's worse to be Brian Stelter or believe Brian Stelter. He was never in any court hearing or meeting I was. So why does he act like he knows anything?'

Sandmann filed lawsuits against the Post, CNN and NBC last year after claiming the outlets vilified him following his stand-off with Nathan Phillips, an American Indian activist, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington in January 2019.

The teen and his family were seeking combined damages of more than $525million from the outlets, which he said had falsely conveyed to viewers and readers that he was 'the face of an unruly mob' facing off against Phillips during protests at the memorial while he was in Washington DC on a field trip.

Sandmann, who was wearing a MAGA hat, and his classmates were participating in the annual anti-abortion March for Life at the time, which coincided with an Indigenous Peoples March.

An image of Sandmann staring down Phillips while the Native American was drumming and singing quickly went viral.

Both Sandmann and Phillips had said they were trying to defuse tensions rising among three groups marching on the same day.

An organization of black 'Hebrew Israelites' demonstrating nearby added to the confusion.

While Sandmann was initially characterized as a smug racist who initiated a physical confrontation, video footage later debunked that interpretation.

Some outlets had reported that Sandmann and his classmates had 'surrounded' and 'taunted' the 64-year-old Phillips. They also claimed that a 'smirking' Sandmann had stood in Phillip's path, blocking him from moving.

Sandmann (right) was participating in the annual anti-abortion March for Life, while Phillips (left) was in an Indigenous Peoples March. Both Sandmann and Phillips had said they were trying to defuse tensions rising among three groups marching on the same day
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 20:10:23|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has been rescheduled to take place from May 17 to 30, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said Tuesday.

The event under the aegis of United Nations was originally scheduled to be held from Oct. 15 to 28 in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, with the theme -- "Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth."

The new schedule has been approved by the State Council, China's cabinet, said Liu Youbin at a press conference.

To be held concurrently are the meeting of the parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, and the meeting of the parties to the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing, he added.

China will continue working closely with the CBD Secretariat to ensure a successful conference, he said. Enditem
Mars is the darling of many planetary scientists, who continue to visit it through increasingly advanced robotic explorers. But dont forget that our planetary neighbour is adorned with two moons: puny Phobos, a lumpy mass 17 miles across; and diminutive Deimos, just nine miles long. Their names in ancient Greek may mean fear and dread, but the aesthetics of these Lilliputian space potatoes inspire anything but.

They dont look anywhere near as interesting as the volcanic or icy-ocean moons of Jupiter and Saturn, nor is their desolation as extreme or diverse as Earths moon. But that hasnt stopped generations of planetary scientists from being eager to get a closer look at the ramshackle duo.

The Soviet Union and, later, Russia have tried three times to reach Phobos, but software errors and launch disasters have doomed every attempt. U.S. scientists have tried and, so far, failed to convince the powers-that-be at NASA that a mission to the two moons will be worthwhile. The next great hope is Japan, which is aiming to launch a heist mission to Phobos in 2024 that will try to steal some of its rocks.

Whats all the fuss about? For many, the desire to visit Phobos and Deimos was galvanized by their deeply mysterious nature.

Theyre super weird, confusing and interesting, said Abigail Fraeman, a planetary scientist studying Mars, Phobos and Deimos at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

We dont know where the moons came from because they look like asteroids foreign to the red planet but behave like byproducts of Mars early, impact-laden history. And if that Japanese mission manages to grab some samples and decode the chemistry of the mangled moons, we might be able to discover their origins. In doing so, we wont just gain a better understanding of Mars ancient past. We will also be able to peer back in time to the chaos that shaped the early solar system.

Much of what we know about Phobos and Deimos comes from serendipitous observations. Rovers on the surface as well as mechanical eyes orbiting Mars are sometimes in the right place to angle their cameras and snap shots of the two moons. Phobos, being larger and closer to Mars, can be seen in greater detail: a misshapen mess scarred by a large crater and multiple grooves that look like they were made by a cosmic cats claws.

Remote observations of their surfaces havent revealed any standout mineral features or textures that could definitively detail the moons overall compositions and, ultimately, their origins, said Laura Kerber, the Mars Odyssey spacecrafts deputy project scientist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

They check all of the boxes that are consistent with them being these captured asteroids, said Fraeman  rubbly patchworks that drifted too close to Mars long ago and became trapped in the planets orbit.

But both moons orbit the equator in a neat-and-tidy circular fashion, which suggests they coalesced from a disk of debris that danced around a young Mars. Its difficult to capture an asteroid and have it wind up in this beautiful, symmetric, circular orbit, said Jeffrey Plaut, the project scientist for the Mars Odyssey mission.

Mars, having one-tenth of Earths mass, has a relatively weak gravitational pull, so it seems improbable that it would be able to capture asteroids zipping by, said Tomohiro Usui, a robotic planetary exploration expert at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. But if they formed from a debris disk launched up from Mars after a colossal impact, Deimos should be orbiting closer to Mars than it is today.

Reconciling their appearances with their orbits is difficult.

They just shouldnt exist, Fraeman said. They dont make any sense.

Cast as siblings, both moons may not even have the same origin story.

In less than 100 million years, said Matija Cuk, a research scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, Phobos will get so close to Mars that its gravity will tear the moon apart, transforming into a beautiful system of rings.

It wont be the first time, some scientists say. Recent calculations suggest that Phobos was once 20 times more massive. But, as one hypothesis goes, it drifted toward Mars and shattered into ring material, much of it raining onto Mars. The remaining ring material clumped together into a new, smaller Phobos. This cycle has repeated several times over billions of years, with Phobos shrinking with every completed cycle.

Although made of ancient matter, the Phobos we see today may have been assembled just 200 million years ago. If it were confirmed that Phobos is a haphazardly clumped-together mass, it would be a revelation, suggesting planets with rings are the norm for our solar system.

Tiny Deimos, on the other hand, may have remained intact for 3.5 billion years. It is on track to eventually escape Mars entirely, Usui says, to wander elsewhere in the void.

NASAs Perseverance rover, launching Thursday, is the first stage of a protracted series of missions to bring pristine samples of Mars back to Earth for study. Mars atmosphere, ancient volcanism and flowing water has eroded away many of the planets earliest rocks. But if Phobos is made of Martian flotsam from a massive impact shortly after the planets birth, then the moon has retained the earliest memories of Mars.

Many theories suggest the terrestrial planets, including the Earth, formed dry, and water was delivered by icy meteorites that were scattered inward, Usui said. If the moons are captured asteroids, they are evidence of this process in action and their composition shows what materials were delivered to the early Earth.

Meteors crashing into Mars could have coated Phobos in a fine layer of Martian dust sourced from all over the planet. This matter may be both very young and extremely old, and grabbing some of it will help scientists unpack how Mars may have progressed from a habitable world to an uninhabitable one, Usui said.

With one successful (albeit problem-riddled) asteroid sample-return mission under its belt and another speeding back to Earth with more asteroid matter, the Japanese space agency has a fairly good track record at snatching up space rocks, Fraeman said. Hopes are understandably high for Japans Martian Moons eXploration, or MMX mission, which will arrive at Mars in 2025.

Should it be successful, these huge planetary science questions may finally have clear answers. We will come to see not just Mars, but also Earth, in a new light.

To me, thats really cool, Fraeman said.
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Linkedin Matthew Lavietes (Thomson Reuters Foundation) New York  Tue, July 28, 2020 11:30 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669d7e98 2 Environment UN,UN-Climate-Action-Summit,UN-climate-conference,climate-activists,climate-change,climate-crisis,environment,environmental-issues Free

The head of the United Nations said on Monday he will start meeting regularly with young climate activists, saying participation by youth on the frontlines is critical to scaling up action to slow global warming.

A group of seven people, ages 18 to 28, from seven countries will sit down with US Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to advise him on global warming issues, he said in a video on Twitter.

"We have seen young people on the front lines of climate action, showing us what bold leadership looks like," Guterres said in a video on Twitter.

The youth advisory group is tasked with providing "perspectives, ideas and solutions that will help us scale up climate action," he said.

"We are in a climate emergency. We do not have the luxury of time," he added.

The announcement marked an acknowledgement of the role young people have been playing in combating climate change as they look to their future.

Young climate change activists met with UN leaders last fall to demand a greater role in global decision-making and planning processes to combat global warming.

The one-day summit at the UN drew more than 1,000 young climate campaigners from more than 120 countries.

Guterres, who has made climate change his signature issue since taking office in 2017, said recently that governments should consider the issue when designing economic stimulus responses to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Where taxpayers' money is used to rescue businesses, it needs to be tied to achieving green jobs and sustainable growth," Guterres said on Earth Day in April.

Unable to gather due to coronavirus restrictions, young activists from about 20 countries recently took to YouTube in a 24-hour broadcast to share ideas on how to fight global warming.

Previously they were skipping classes, marching through cities and holding vigils outside government buildings in regular Friday protests.

The founder of Fridays for Future, Sweden's Greta Thunberg, 17, addressed the United Nations last year.

She was not among those named to the advisory group, which included Nisreen Elsaim, a Sudanese climate activist; Ernest Gibson of Fiji; Vladislav Kaim, an economist from Moldova; Sophia Kianni, an American who founded a nonprofit to translate climate information into more than 100 languages; Nathan Metenier of France; Paloma Costa, a Brazilian lawyer; and Archana Soreng of India.
OTTAWAA teenager arrested in an RCMP raid in Kingston last year has pleaded guilty to a series of terrorism-related charges for trying to encourage and facilitate a bomb attack.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be identified under the terms of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, admitted to the four charges  plus another for violating his bail conditions  during a video appearance in the Ontario Court of Justice in Belleville on Tuesday.

Sentencing is expected at a later date. The Crown is asking that the youth be sentenced as an adult. Justice Elaine Deluzio ordered a psychiatric assessment and a pre-sentence report be compiled, with the case expected back in court on Sept. 29.

The Canadian Press monitored the proceedings via telephone due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The RCMP arrested the youth during a raid in Kingston on Jan. 25, 2019, following an investigation initiated by a tip from the FBI in the United States after the teen began unwittingly communicating with an FBI undercover agent.

According to an agreed statement of facts read in English by the Crown and translated into Arabic in court, the youth thought the agent was a lone wolf Islamic terrorist in Virginia who needed support.

The youth sent the agent instructions on how to build a pressure-cooker bomb. He also encouraged him to build it and plant it in a public place, such as a bar, to kill infidels, according to the statement of facts, saying such an attack would help the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

While the RCMP have said an explosive device was not planted, the court heard police seized a number of explosive substances and that the youth admitted to manufacturing an explosive substance and planned to put it in a public place or beneath a police or military vehicle.

He also admitted to creating a PowerPoint presentation with instructions on how to build a pressure-cooker bomb and disseminating the information online.

The youth pleaded guilty Tuesday to facilitating a terrorist activity, possession of an explosive substance with intent to injure or kill, taking action to cause an explosion and counselling another person to detonate an explosive device to cause injury or death.

He also admitted to breaching his bail conditions for failing to wear a tracking device.

Like the rest of the proceeding, the charges were read in English and translated into Arabic. The youth, who at one point was warned by the judge to keep his eyes open, pleaded guilty to each charge in Arabic.

The youths arrest in January 2019 caused a stir following an investigation that included assistance from the FBI, Kingston police, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Canada Border Services Agency and the federal agency that tracks suspicious financial activities.

The effort included a small RCMP surveillance plane, whose circling over Kingston had puzzled, and sometimes annoyed, residents of the normally sedate city on the shore of Lake Ontario for weeks. The RCMP said the aerial support helped police keep tabs on certain addresses.

The arrest also stoked fresh fears at the time about ISIL sympathizers in Canada. Two Canadian Armed Forces members were killed in separate attacks in 2014.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 21:06:23|Editor: huaxia

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Aerial photo taken on April 23, 2017 shows the Jinqing Island of Yongle Islands, located in the Xisha Islands, in south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- China has always strictly implemented international laws including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and never expanded its claims of sovereignty, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a press briefing in response to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's slandering over the South China Sea issue.

China's South China Sea policy remains unchanged, and has been consistent and stable, Wang said, adding that China has always insisted on resolving territorial and maritime rights disputes with neighboring countries through negotiation in accordance with international law and historical facts.

"We have always abided by the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and we are willing to work with ASEAN countries to push forward consultations on the Code of Conduct to reach a code of conduct common to China and ASEAN countries at an early date," the spokesperson said.

The United States is not a party concerned to the South China Sea issue, nor a party to UNCLOS, Wang said, noting that it has blatantly violated its commitment not to hold a stand on the issue of South China Sea sovereignty, and deliberately drove a wedge between China and ASEAN countries.

Regional countries and all peace-loving people will not allow a few U.S. politicians to muddy the waters in the South China Sea, Wang added. 
The goal of Alfa-Bank (Kyiv) is to receive the status of the largest universal bank in Ukraine, the bank has developed relevant strategy at the end of spring in order to achieve this goal, General Manager of Alfa-Bank Rafal Juszczak has said.

"Our goal is to become the largest universal bank in the country which possesses all three components  [services for] corporate business, small and medium-sized business and retail clients," he said in an exclusive interview to Interfax-Ukraine.

Juszczak noted that the strategy was approved in the middle of March, a couple days before the quarantine was introduced.

"We are already working within the new strategy. This is not noticeable in full yet. The main results of our new projects will become obvious next year," he said.

According to the general manager, the bank's strategy includes four main vectors, including the focus and the system of priorities. He noted that Alfa-Bank does not plan to become a leading bank in the corporate segment or compete with the national banks, however it plans to take a worthy niche on the market.

"We want to become a leading bank in the spheres of retail services and mobile banking at the same time. We want to be a bank for middle-sized enterprises of Ukraine where we are weakly represented today," Juszczak said.

The second vector of the strategy is integrity  stability and consistency despite the economy's dynamics. He noted that the bank has demonstrated its commitment to this vector recently by opening large credit lines for enterprises, which are facing temporary difficulties amid the coronavirus crisis, including the Boryspil International Airport.

"Its [the strategy's] third item is identity. I understand our strong and weak sides, what we can be proud of and what we should work on. And the fourth one, which we have mentioned, is the difference, which will show why we are the best and that we do certain things in a different manner," the general manager said.

He also noted that the first results of strategy are already visible.

"We have launched a new line of service packages, which are being actively sold. It is not just about updating design of debit cards, it is a part of our strategy: to become the main bank for our customer, the bank for every day," Juszczak said.
The exact spot where Vincent Van Gogh painted his final masterpiece hours before he shot himself has been discovered in a French village - with the help of a postcard, researchers have claimed.

Experts believe that 'Tree Roots' was painted on Van Gogh's final day in the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris.

The tortured Dutch artist had been working on the painting, a jumble of brightly-coloured tree trunks, roots and stumps, on a hot July day in 1890 when he staggered back to the village inn with a gunshot wound to the chest.

What happened beforehand has remained a mystery to scholars of Van Gogh, but the discovery of the roots' location has shed some light on his last hours.

Pictured: 'Tree Roots', by Vincent van Gogh (1880). The roots depicted in the master painter's final paiting before his death are believed to have been discovered in the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris

Wouter van der Veen - who spotted the trunks and roots (pictured) depicted in Van Gogh's painting - poses next to the alleged spot where Vincent Van Gogh painted his last canvas

The trunks and roots depicted in Van Gogh's painting were first spotted in the postcard by Wouter van der Veen, the scientific director of the Van Gogh Institute.

The Institute looks after the artist's room at the Auberge Ravoux - the village inn where he spent his final 70 days. Van der Veen said most of the tangle of roots is still there, a stone's throw from the inn.

He said that he made the breakthrough from the postcard of the village from the turn of the 20th century, which shows an embankment with the trees on the main road through the hamlet, 18 miles north of Paris.

He was going through some documents during the coronavirus lockdown when 'my eye was caught by a detail from the postcard'.

He compared it with the painting and found 'that the trunks and roots corresponded,' he said.

Mr van der Veen said most of the tangle of roots (pictured) is still there, a stone's throw from the inn

'Discovering the place where Van Gogh painted his last and most mysterious work is a waking dream which I am still trying to comprehend,' the researcher added.

His discovery prompted a comparative study of the painting, the postcard and the current hillside.

Researchers at the Van Gogh Institute, along with Bert Maes, a dendrologist specialising in historical vegetation, were able to conclude that it was 'highly plausible' that the roots in Van Gogh's painting had been uncovered.

The main tree trunk in the centre of the painting has survived the 130 years since the death of the Dutch painter, and with the help of the postcard, the researchers were able to bridge the gap between today, and the famous 1890 painting.

It has long been believed that Van Gogh had been working on Tree Roots in the hours leading up to his death, when he took his own life with a pistol shot to the chest.

A researcher at the Van Gogh Institute happened upon a postcard (pictured above, with the Tree Roots painting imposed over the top) during lockdown from the early 1900s, which showed a bank beside a road and some tree roots that looked ramarkebly similar to those in Van Gogh's painting. His discovery prompted a comparative study that they are very likely the same as those in the painting

'The sunlight painted by Van Gogh indicates that the last brush strokes were painted towards the end of the afternoon, which provides more information about the course of this dramatic day ending in his suicide,' van der Veen said. 'We now know what he was doing during his last day.'

Andries Bonger, the brother-in-law of Van Gogh's younger brother Theo, wrote in a letter that Vincent had 'painted a sous-bois [forest scene], full of sun and life,' the 'morning before his death'.

The spot is around 500 ft away from the Auberge Ravoux, the inn in Auvers-sur-Oise where Van Gogh had stayed during the last 70 days of his life.

Teio Meedendorp, a senior researcher at the Van Gogh Institute, said that it was likely that the artist would have passed the roots a number of times on his way to church or to the local fields before he decided to paint them.

'The overgrowth on the postcard shows very clear similarities to the shape of the roots on Van Gogh's painting,' he said.

'That this is his last artwork renders it all the more exceptional, and even dramatic. He must often have passed by the location when going to the fields stretching out behind the castle of Auvers, where he painted several times during the last week of his life and where he would take his own life.'

The site has now been put behind a wooden structure for its protection, but beforehand, it was formally acknowledged at a ceremony on Tuesday.

The ceremony was attended by by Emilie Gordenker, the general director of the Van Gogh Institute in Amsterdam, and Willem van Gogh, the great-grandson of Vincent's brother Theo, according to The Guardian.

Van der Veen noted that the finding puts more doubt on a theory put forward in 2011 that suggests that Van Gogh did not commit suicide, and that rather he was killed by two young boys after a drunken argument.

The discovery not only gives insight into where Van Gogh's (pictured in a 1887 portrait) final painting depicted, but also what he was doing on his final day. The placement of light suggests that he was painting into the early hours of the evening before his suicide

'Now that we know he was painting all day, there was even less time for that to happen,' Mr. van der Veen said.

The theory was first floated in a biography of the painter by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith nine years ago, and featured in the 2018 movie 'At Eternity's Gate' starring Willem Dafoe.

Its director, the American painter Julian Schnabel, told news agency AFP when the film was released that Van Gogh was probably murdered.

He insisted that was a man who had painted 75 canvases in almost as many days at Auvers-sur-Oise was unlikely to be suicidal.

Schnabel also claimed that 'the painting material he had that day was never found.

'It is strange to bury your s**t if you are committing suicide,' he added.

But Van der Veen dismissed 'these lousy theories', insisting that for him the painting was Van Gogh's final 'testament, a farewell letter... Suicide had been an option for him for a year.

'The thicket of roots was a symbol of the struggles of life. We cut down the tree and from their stumps new shoots appear.

'It makes sense, the theme of life and death, and eliminates all these lousy theories which do little for his memory,' Van der Veen said.

The revolver with which Van Gogh is believed to have shot himself sold for 162,500 euros (147,000) at a Paris auction last year.

The 7mm-calibre Lefaucheux pinfire revolver that Vincent Van Gogh (in background) is believed to have used to take his own life, fetched 162,500 (147,000) at auction in Paris last year

Discovered in a field in the village, it was billed as 'the most famous weapon in the history of art'.

The rusty 7mm Lefaucheux had already been exhibited at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

While the Van Gogh Institute said the link with painter could not be proven conclusively, the bullet extracted from his stomach was the same calibre as the one used for the Lefaucheux revolver.
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Linkedin Adrian Wail Akhlas (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 13:56 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669e331c 1 Business cyrus-network,survey,stimulus,pandemic,COVID-19,economic-crisis,SMEs,low-income-people Free

Indonesias stimulus packages are considered insufficient for households to survive the pandemic, a new survey shows, as economists call on the government to increase budget allocations to revive the virus-battered economy.

According to a new survey published on Monday by political campaign consultancy Cyrus Network, the majority of Indonesian respondents consider the governments stimulus not enough to help them weather economic risks amid the pandemic.

We still need a greater stimulus to boost the demand side of the economy, University of Indonesia economist Ari Kuncoro told The Jakarta Post. The government should opt for more creative incentives, such as an internet subsidy for students and incentives for leisure activities.

The governments stimulus to boost demand will be able to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) hit hard by the pandemic and will further support economic recovery he said. The MSMEs are now looking to get working capital loans to boost production, but they will need demand, which has been temporarily weakened by the pandemic, Ari added.

The government has allocated Rp 695.2 trillion (US$47.66 billion) in funds to respond to the pandemic and bolster the economy, which, according to the Finance Ministrys projection, will grow by only 1 percent this year or, in a worst-case scenario, may contract by 0.4 percent.

Several other economists have also called on the government to step up stimulus spending to boost demand, which in turn is hoped to boost the supply side of the economy.

Former finance minister Chatib Basri said recently that the government would need an additional Rp 120 trillion to serve as cash transfers for lower-middle income citizens to jump-start the economy.

The survey, which involved 1,230 individuals in 123 villages/districts of all 34 provinces, found that the majority of respondents are satisfied with the governments stimulus, such as tax incentives, financial aid for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and debt restructuring.

The respondents are convinced that the decision to reopen the economy after three months of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) will improve economic conditions and reduce financial losses, with most of them expressing confidence in the economic recovery program.

The respondents also expressed their agreement with retail stores, restaurants, malls, tourism spots, offices and schools reopening soon, according to the survey.

Public support for reopening schools and universities is higher than for reopening shopping malls, Cyrus Network CEO Eko Dafid Alfianto said during a press briefing, contrasting that with the governments decision to open malls before schools.

Ari, who is also the University of Indonesias rector, said the survey results should be a point of reference for the government to make a policy decision to open schools, given the higher public approval, rather than reopening malls and restaurants.

The governments decision to reopen the economy has resulted in a higher infection rate, as the country has recorded 100,000 virus cases as of Monday, risking heavier blows to economic activity.

Despite the rising number of virus infections, the government is accelerating efforts to support the economy as it announced on Monday Rp 16.5 trillion in loans for the administrations of Jakarta and West Java to help them fund infrastructure projects, such as roads and housing.

Jakarta and West Java contribute around 30 percent to Indonesias GDP. Therefore, this agreement will help support economic recovery efforts while also upholding COVID-19 health protocols, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Monday.

The government also revealed that it would place Rp 11.5 trillion in regional development banks to be channeled as loans to businesses to further support the economic recovery after placing Rp 30 trillion in state-owned banks under the same program.
East Hartford, Conn., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- QuEST Global, a global product engineering and lifecycle services company, today announced a broad-based equity compensation plan for its employees globally. The plan, aimed at increasing employee ownership in the organization, comprises of Employee Stock Options (ESOPs) which have the potential to provide significant benefits to the participants. ESOPs will be rolled out to eligible employees - selected based on roles, performance, and growth potential - in the coming weeks.

The ESOP grants vest over a future period - typically 3-5 years and will provide employees with a financial interest in the future success of the business. Along with this, the ESOP will also enable the company to develop and retain its future leaders as equity plans help align the interests of the shareholders and the employees.

Calling it a significant business decision, Ajit Prabhu, Chairman & CEO, QuEST Global, said, "The well-being of the company is in the hands of our loyal, long-term employees and clients who rely on them. Over the last two decades, our belief in the power of people has led us to build an organization that employs over 11,000 talented engineers across the globe. It is not just the founding families and private equity firms who are the owners of the company but also our employees, who double up during crises to rebuild the business. It is befitting to reward them with ownership by rolling out ESOP for their loyalty and commitment, providing them with a great opportunity to participate in generating and sharing the wealth."

Ajit also said that he is grateful to all the employees, shareholders, and investors who supported the organization during this unprecedented situation as the COVID-19 pandemic hit businesses worldwide. "The year 2020 has been tough. With the strong support of our shareholders and investors, who continue to believe in us, along with the positive spirit demonstrated by our employees, we have been successfully sailing through the trying times. With their support, we will continue to build an organization where we have put purpose over profit, empowerment over control, networking, and engagement of employees over control and command. The culture and employees are truly the greatest assets of QuEST, and it will lead us to a bright and successful future," he added.

Niketh Sundar, Global Head  People Function and Culture, QuEST Global, said, "The founders of the company always believed in greater employee ownership and participation. This has translated into us going deeper and enrolling a lot more employees across multiple levels than what is typically expected of such plans in the industry. This strategic move will also help us groom experienced and dedicated engineers who can solve problems for our customers, while they directly benefit from the continued success of the company. At QuEST, we are very excited about the future."

Over the last two decades, QuEST has seen multiple equity-linked incentive plans, and this is the company's fourth ESOP grant cycle following grants in 2004, 2011, and 2017. The new plan will enroll almost twice as many participants as compared to previous years; providing greater flexibility and adopts several good practices in terms of design  be it around plan vehicles, vesting, and performance conditions.

About QuEST Global

For more than 20 years, QuEST Global has aimed to be a trusted global product engineering and lifecycle services partner to many of the world's most recognized companies in the Aero Engines, Hi-Tech, Aerospace & Defense, Transportation (Auto and Rail), Power and Industrial, Oil & Gas and Medical Devices industries. With a global presence in 14 countries, 72 global centers and 11,800+ personnel, QuEST Global believes that it is at the forefront of the convergence of the mechanical, electronics, software and digital engineering innovations to engineer solutions for a safer, cleaner world. QuEST Global's deep domain knowledge and digital expertise aim to help its clients accelerate product development and innovation cycles, create alternate revenue streams, enhance consumer experience and make manufacturing processes and operations more efficient.

SOURCE QuEST Global
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 16:02:10|Editor: huaxia

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VIENNA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) daily basket price stood at 43.14 U.S. dollars a barrel on Monday, compared with 43.38 dollars per barrel on Friday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations released Tuesday.

Also known as the OPEC reference basket of crude oil, the OPEC basket, a weighted average of oil prices from different OPEC members around the world, is used as an important benchmark for crude oil prices. Enditem
Beth Warren, a middle school history teacher in Lookout Mountain, Ga., had been looking forward to a much-anticipated trip this summer to Egypt, a country she vowed to show her husband and friends after her first visit several years ago. She was deep into organizing the trip with High End Journeys when the pandemic struck, and has since shifted the visit to summer 2022, in part to make sure the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza is open.

2022 sounds really far away, she said. But once I saw Egypt, I couldnt get enough of it.

People have always planned big trips months or even a year ahead of time, but now many are extending that timeline even further. In the travel stasis induced by the pandemic, future travelers have taken to tackling their bucket lists with big trips that are more distant and longer than usual  and planned further in advance. Optimists are targeting 2021. For others, their next big trip will be in 2022.

Before the pandemic, according to the American Society of Travel Advisors, most travelers booked trips six months or more in advance, on average, and longer for elaborate honeymoons or very special events like the solar eclipse passing over South America in December. Some travel companies say longer term bookings have recently rebounded. For instance, Red Savannah, a British luxury travel agency that organizes custom trips, says it is up 160 percent over bookings this time last year.

These days, even spontaneous types have more time to think about where they want to go and put a plan in place.
At the request of the Republic of Azerbaijan Russia handed over an individual accused of receiving terrorist training in Iran, TASS and Azerbaijani media reported July 28.

Russian Federation Prosecutor Generals Office announced that Mehdi Shukurov, an Azerbaijani citizen sought by Baku was handed over for criminal prosecution.

The accusation against Mr. Shukurov is that in 2016 he crossed the border into Iran and joined an illegal armed group receiving training in the use of firearms and explosives and other terror techniques.

The group in question is not named and it is not clear whether the Iranian government was involved in any way or Shukurov joined an underground group.

After the alleged training the accused traveled to Russia and after Azerbaijan determined he was in Russia asked for his extradition. Russia arrested him earlier this year and finally extradited him to Azerbaijan.

Two years ago, Azerbaijan claimed that a suspect in the assassination of the mayor of Ganja had spent eight months in 2016 in Irans religious city of Qom and then traveled to Syria for military training. Yunis Safarov was arrested shortly after the mayors murder.

At the time it was reported that Safarov intended to establish an organization called Unity of Azerbaijans Muslims and agitating for the assassinations of government officials to prepare the ground for an insurrection to set up an Islamic state.
on Monday informed the that the Common Service Centers (CSC) are not for mock tests and the facility is only available for the main examination.

A single-judge bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh was surprised to hear the response of DU, when she sought to know how many were open today for mock tests.

Professor Vinay Gupta, DU's Dean (Examination) told the court that centres are not for mock test. The court asked how will someone, who wants to use CSC, appear for mock test and directed the DU to place MoU between the University with CSC.

The court also asked various questions related to DU's Open Book Examination.

Gupta told the court that question paper will be delivered automatically to the registered email of the students and if students are facing any problems, they can ask the college, who will provide the question papers.

DU's Computer Centre Joint director Sanjeev Singh told the court that all end-to-end facilities are with DU and they are using cloud services.

Gupta told the court that it is yet to constitute a committee to take care of students who face technical glitches.

Common Service Centre academy's Dinesh Tyagi told the court that there are more than 3.6 lakh common service centres, which have the facility of a computer, scanner, internet etc.

(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.)
Korea and China have agreed to resume issuing visas for students that had been halted due to the coronavirus epidemic.

Korean Ambassador to China Jang Ha-sung told reporters in Beijing on Monday, "We agreed with China to resume services for entry visas to visitors with residence permits."

China stopped the services on March 28 as coronavirus infections spread quickly within its borders and only allowed diplomats and emergency rescue personnel in. The move effectively sealed China's borders to foreigners.

But on May 1, Korea and China allowed selected businesspeople from both sides to enter. Before the pandemic, around 50,000 Korean students had been studying in China and more than 90 percent of them were unable to go back there.

The exact timing and required quarantine will be decided in further negotiations, but the two sides are eying early next month.

Koreans are the first foreigners China decided to readmit.

Based on the principle of reciprocity, the Korean government will be doing the same. Korea has not banned foreigners altogether but requires them to abide by strict quarantine measures, which has held up visas especially for students.


Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday said there are signs of a second wave of coronavirus in Europe after the UK removed Spain from the list of countries deemed safe to travel to and return from, making a 14-day quarantine mandatory for arrivals from there.

Spain has seen a spike in the number of cases in recent days, prompting UK officials to impose the 14-day quarantine on Britons and travellers arriving from that country. The decision has thrown holidays of millions of Britons into disarray.

Johnson said: Lets be absolutely clear about whats happening in Europe, amongst some of our European friends, Im afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic.

What we have to do is take swift and decisive action where we think that the risks are starting to bubble up again, he added.

Figures in the UK continued to plummet. As of Monday night, seven new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the overall figure to 45,759 and the number of cases to 300,111. Scotland did not report any death for several days.

UKs decision to impose quarantine has riled Spanish ministers, who insist the rise in cases is limited to two or three regions, and claim that the country is in a better position than the UK. The quarantine has severely hit Spanish tourism industry.

Johnson defended the quarantine decision, adding: These are decisions (about going on holiday to Spain and elsewhere) for families, for individuals, about where they want to go.

The latest Foreign and Commonwealth Office travel advice on Spain says: From 27 July, the FCO advise against all non-essential travel to Spain, including the Balearic and Canary Islands, based on the current assessment of Covid-19 risks in the country.

This advice is based on evidence of increases in cases of Covid-19 in several regions, but particularly in Aragon, Navarra and Catalonia (which include the cities of Zaragoza, Pamplona and Barcelona).

On Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez calling the UKs quarantine decision unjust, minister of state for housing Simon Clarke said: We respectfully disagree with the Spanish governments position on this, adding that there had been a sharp increase in cases in Spain.

We obviously continue to work closely with them (Spain) and we wish them every success in managing this outbreak, but weve seen a very sharp increase in cases in Spain. A 75% increase in cases reported between the middle of last week and the end of last week. Thats why we took the action that we have, he told BBC.
Over the past several days, many Instagram feeds have been overrun with black-and-white images of women both famous and not.

These photographs are often posed and filtered, taken from flattering angles and accompanied by benign captions about "supporting women."

"Love this simple way to lift each other up. #challengeaccepted. Thank you for nominating me @vanessabryant," model Cindy Crawford posted Monday along with a black-and-white photo of herself strolling on a beach that looks ripped from a Calvin Klein advertisement.

The premise of the "challenge accepted" trend is that these photos promote female empowerment, and that nominating friends to take part in the campaign is a way for women to support each other.
by Fady Noun

To mark the centenary of Greater Lebanon, the university magazine Travaux et Jours * dedicates a special issue to the genesis of the Lebanese state. "History is littered with destroyed nations," Mauriac writes, but the fact that Lebanon "is not eternal" does not mean that it is moribund.

Beirut (AsiaNews) - For the centenary of Greater Lebanon, the university magazine "Travaux et Jours * dedicated a special issue to the genesis of the Lebanese state. Its editor in chief, Antoine Courban, titled his editorial "Un identite nationale a conquer," setting the tone for the whole issue, affirming a fundamental truth: like any historical, political and social reality, Lebanon is a developing nation, it is not a fixed reality.

This introductory text reproduces a passage from a pastoral letter from Patriarch Elias Hoyek dating back to 1931. As he negotiated the creation of Greater Lebanon in Versailles he warned military chiefs and sovereigns of the time to be guardians of the common good and not personal interests:

He writes: You who are heads of the country, you judges of the earth, you deputies of the people who live on behalf of the people, (...) are obliged, in your official capacity and according to your responsibilities, to seek the best interest of the public. Your time should not be dedicated to pursuing your own gain, your action is not for you, but for the state and for the homeland you represent. This distress signal was launched ten years after the announcement of General Henri Joseph Eugene Gouraud. Antoine Courban comments: "He (the Maronite patriarch) had percieved the danger of clientelism and bad government, of which, a hundred years later, we can observe the disastrous effects of the damage to our country".

The appeal of Patriarch Hoyek is still extremely timely. Is Lebanon ungovernable? Is it just a mistake of history? Faced with the ideologies that present it as "detached" from the French mandate, from a "natural" Syria, does Lebanon justify itself as an independent state?

Jacques Keilo, cartographer engineer, doctor of the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne provides a convincing response. This scholar of political geography maintains that the answer to this central question is  without a shadow of doubt - negative. Keilo aims - certainly within the limits of a newspaper article - to deconstruct the ideological discourse that seeks to dilute Greater Lebanon into a larger political entity that precedes it.

Using the two concepts of "continuation" and "succession", the researcher shows that the Syrian Arab Republic is "neither the continuation nor the succession" of this distant reality which is the ancient historical-geographical space called Syria and that, from Classical antiquity to the Ottoman Empire, it has various outlines. However, he admits that Lebanon and Syria are almost two, each in its own way, "cultural heirs" of this space, of which they reproduce certain characteristics, since geography necessarily conditions history.

In an article published in L'Orient-Le Jour ("The 'Phenicia, Entering Historical Reality and Political Recovery, March 2, 2019), Keilo also applies the same reasoning to an ideology that some" Lebanese "have developed as an argument against the partisans of Greater Syria. It assures us, therefore, that it is equally false to inscribe the Lebanese in "continuity or succession" of historical Phenicia, as it is to include them in the continuity or succession of ancient Syria.

Lebanese and Arabists

These ideological historical constructions clashed, sometimes vehemently, between 1918 and 1920, the period immediately following the end of the First World War, the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire and the proclamation of Great Lebanon on September 1, 1920. In two articles distinguished, the historian Carla Edde, vice-rector of the USJ and the essayist Youssef Moawadan analyze this pivotal period, each from a different perspective.

The doubts also come entirely from the mandated power. Carla Edde speaks of the genesis of the Lebanese state as a "difficult learning in dissent and negotiation". We see in this period the "Lebanese" oppose the "Arabists", as well as the partisans of an Arab Syria and those of a Syrian Syria. "Shouldn't we commemorate the genesis of the Lebanese state in 1920? (...) A hundred years later, the issue is still dividing in Lebanon," notes the author of the article. So if we are not a mistake in history, after a hundred years of bad governance, we are certainly still an unfinished chapter.

For his part, addressing the topic from a purely Maronite perspective, Youssef Moawad evokes a population of survivors of the great famine of 1915-1918, who see Lebanon as "a country at hand". "The weight of the claims of the mountain Christians and of Beirut was decisive (in the decision to create the state of Greater Lebanon), writes Moawad. This helps to better understand why the figure of the Maronite patriarch of the time, Bishop Elias Hoyek, occupies a prominent place in the portrait gallery of the founding fathers of modern Lebanon".

"Travaux et Jours" a great undertaking

It should be recognized that the publication of Travaux et Jours, in this period of financial confinement and collapse, is a true result, which we must acknowledge to Antoine Courban. The magazine is also a tribute to a university that has continued since its inception in 1875, and particularly after the announcement of Greater Lebanon, to promote the values of national unity and joint research.

It is not excessive to say that Saint Joseph University has contributed greatly to instilling in the generations that it has formed a spirit of national belonging to their homeland. In the same way, it has always promoted a culture of political unity and a constant and loyal attachment to a sovereign state. A heritage that should motivate the generation of October 17 even more to rectify the institutions and fight a clientelism that provokes discord and suffocates the State.

Pictured: General Henri Gouraud, who proclaimed Greater Lebanon, and Patriarch Elias Hoyek in Dimane, home of the Maronite patriarchs.

(*) The "Travaux et Jours" magazine can be purchased online at: https://www.usj.edu.lb/publications/catalogue/my-usjinfo.php?perpubid=2957

It is available in bookstores and / or on order.
On Sunday, 29 year old Yair Netanyahu, son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, posted a picture of the Hindu goddess Durga, with the face of Liat Ben Ari, the prosecutor in his father's corruption cases, placed over the face of the goddess, as a joke. The tweet resulted in outrage on social media.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus eldest son Yair issued an apology to Hindus, on Sunday, for an image he tweeted which some Indians found to be quite offensive.

He posted a picture of the Hindu goddess Durga, with the face of Liat Ben Ari, the prosecutor in his fathers cases, placed over the goddess face. All of her arms were also raised in an objectionable gesture. Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelbits face was superimposed over that of a tiger accompanying the goddess under a caption.

Ive tweeted a meme from a satirical page, criticising political figures in Israel. I didnt realise the meme also portrayed an image connected to the majestic Hindu faith. As soon as I realised it from comments of our Indian friends, I have removed the tweet. I apologise, he said in his apology tweet.

Also Read: Amid global boycott calls, China forges cooperation with Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan

Also Read: India opposes Pakistan attempt to convert Gurudwara into Mosque in Lahore

Some Twitter users harshly criticized him for the offensive tweet, while others felt he was simply unaware of the Hindu faith, leading him to make this mistake.

In a similar manner, Yair was appreciated by some Israelis for showing courage in apologising for his mistake, but also reprimanded as being irresponsible.

Earlier this month, Yair was forced to apologize journalist Dana Weiss for suggesting that she had attained her position through sexual favours.

Also Read:China collecting DNA samples to develop genetic tool for surveillance: Report

For all the latest World News, download NewsX App
Kuleba sees a great prospect for the Lublin Triangle.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania agreed on a new format of interstate cooperation, the so-called "Lublin Triangle."

"Today we are creating the Lublin Triangle. This is a format that will become an important element in the development and consolidation of Central Europe, as well as strengthening Ukraine as a full member of the European and Euro-Atlantic family of nations," he said in Lublin, Poland, at a joint press conference with his Polish and Lithuanian counterparts, Jacek Czaputowicz and Linas Linkevicius, an UNIAN correspondent reported.

Read alsoUkraine's FM calls on EU to stick to sanctions policies toward Russia

Kuleba explained the Lublin Triangle would focus on "deepening interaction between our countries."

"But we also see a great prospect for the Lublin Triangle to become an instrument of engaging those countries that need closer contacts with the West, with European structures. And my colleagues and I will help our neighbors, our friends to cooperate more actively in this sphere," the minister said.

Mentioning LITPOLUKRBRIG (LithuanianPolishUkrainian Brigade), the Ukrainian foreign minister added that cooperation between the three countries would expand and would not be limited only to the issue of defense.

"We will touch on economic issues, we will talk about trade, investment, infrastructure, tourism. Everything that can bring our countries closer, make Central Europe stronger. And make Europe as a whole greater in the great struggle, which is unfolding in the world," Kuleba added.
(Natural News) The leader of the so-called Not F**king Around Coalition, a radical Left-wing black militia, declared during a rally on Saturday that his organization will kidnap police officers involved in the death of EMT Breonna Taylor earlier this year.

We hope we aint gotta shoot nobody, the leader, John Grand Master Jay Johnson, told his militants as they gathered for an armed demonstration in Louisville, Ky., on the steps of a courthouse.

We hoped we wasnt gonna have to make our own citizens arrest of those cops, but I think we got enough people to do it, he continued.

(Attention: Strong language)

Aint that what they was tryin to do with Ahmaud Arbery? Johnson continued, a reference to a young black Georgia man shot to death by two white men  one of whom was an former police officer  earlier this year.

Did they say they was doin a citizens arrest? he continued, noting that the two suspects, Gregory and Travis McMichael, claimed they were attempting to bring Arbery in for suspected burglaries in a local neighborhood.

A third suspect, William Roddie Bryan Jr., has been charged with felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment for videoing the incident.

So, we figure we goin to arrest them, Johnson continues, referring to the Louisville officers who shot and killed Taylor, 26, during the execution of a no-knock warrant in March.

And then when they come ask us, Where they at? We got em, he said. Well, can we get em back? You gotta bail em out with the loot. Well, we aint gonna pay for em. Well, then you wont get em back. We just gonna keep em.

Later, Johnson made another threat.

Four weeks from today, were going to come back here, and we should have an answer. If not, I need yall to repeat after me: If we dont get the truth, the whole truth, and the motherfking truth, we are, going to, burn this motherfker down, he said, prodding his militant followers to repeat after him.

Prior to the Louisville event, hundreds of NFAC militia members demonstrated  armed  in Georgia earlier this month, intimidating white motorists on their way to Stone Mountain, a massive Confederate monument.

Natural News founder and editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, noted:

Hundreds of members of the NFAC  Not F#cking Around Coalition  marched near Atlanta over the weekend, dressed in all-black uniforms and carrying AR-15s and other similar weapons as they shouted their demands for defeating Texas and launching a new Black ethnostate inside the USA.

Described by one of its members as the backbone for the military of a new Black nation, the NFAC has adopted an aggressive, confrontational tone that implies kinetic conflict with Whites and the U.S. government. And why not? Since Black lives have now been given the ultimate black privilege / black supremacy across America, it seems theres no demand thats a bridge too far.

Plans include a Declaration of Liberation in which the group will state that every black person in the country is a political prisoner who must be freed, even as they openly advocate for their own CHOP-like, police-free autonomous zone they themselves would govern.

The black-on-black shootings would no doubt start immediately, and the Black ethnostate would quickly collapse into a Haiti-style sh#thole, but thats already obvious to everyone. Nowhere on earth has an armed, angry Black mob ever created a peaceful, fair and just society, Adams noted.

NFAC's leader Grand Master Jay describing how he will build his black ethnostate inside the United States.

boasting they are all ex-military extremely disciplined & experts shooters..gonna end really bad for these guys.. pic.twitter.com/FKPCT8pRRC  Veritas News Feed (@veritasnewsfeed) July 5, 2020

In addition, the NFAC has also egged on white militias in what appears to be a motive for fueling a race war. All while the Marxist-themed Black Lives Matter movement rises around the country.

Things are about to get out of hand.

Sources include:

NaturalNews.com

BET.com

TheDailyBeast.com
ServiceMaster of Lancaster County is a trusted disaster restoration and cleaning service provider that has been serving the homes and businesses of Lincoln, NE and the surrounding areas of southeast and south-central Nebraska since 1997. They recently launched their newly redesigned website with improved navigation and mobile friendliness and an updated, visually appealing design. Their website was designed by Proceed Innovative, a digital marketing professional in the Chicago, IL area that provides web design and SEO services.

The Need for a New Web Design

The website for ServiceMaster of Lancaster County needed an update to its design and navigation to improve the user experience and mobile friendliness. The new web design incorporates the current color scheme and logos for ServiceMaster branding into a smoother, more modern design. The navigation has also been changed to dropdown menus that make it easy for users to find the restoration services they provide and the areas they serve. There is a contact form conveniently located in the right navigation of each service page so users can quickly submit a form.

The other major improvement in the new web design is that it is mobile responsive and performs much better on all mobile devices. Mobile responsiveness is a very important feature of a website because more people search for products and services on mobile devices. The new web design displays and navigates properly on mobile devices and even has a call button feature so that users can call ServiceMaster of Lancaster County directly from their device.

About ServiceMaster of Lancaster County

ServiceMaster of Lancaster County began business in 1997 and has been under their current ownership since 2009. They provide disaster restoration and cleaning services, including water damage restoration and fire damage restoration for homes and businesses in the Lincoln, NE area as well as the surrounding areas of southeast and south-central Nebraska.

They are an IICRC-certified firm as well as a quality restoration vendor (QRV) which means they are committed to providing quality restoration using the industrys best methods and equipment. Their technicians are proud to help homeowners and businesses in their local communities and their excellent services earned them a nomination for the Marion E. Wade Award in 2014.

Visit servicemasterbyjlk.com or call (402) 434-2197 for more information.
(Natural News) Many of us in digital media use pseudonyms to protect our identities, and thus our personal safety, in this increasingly hostile world. But there is another layer to digital media known as deepfakes that involves creating fake identities for fake people who do not even exist and passing off their work as genuine.

Take Oliver Taylor, for instance, a supposed student at the University of Birmingham who claims to be a freelancer and who has bylines in both the Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel. It turns out that Taylor is not even a real person, and merely had a fake identity along with a fake image generated out of thin air and passed off as real.

For a while, many thought Taylor was real, including the two aforementioned papers that published his work. It took a forensics team with expertise in the matter to uncover the reality that Taylor is a complete work of digital fiction who is as real as the Alex robot that lives inside Amazons spying products.

London academic Mazen Masri is credited with informing Reuters about Taylors non-existence, and this after he filed a lawsuit back in 2018 against surveillance company NSO on behalf of Mexican victims of the companys phone-hacking technology. Masri has an eye for this stuff and he determined that Taylor, whose fake person has created considerable controversy online, is nothing more than a deepfake.

Vaccine industry uses deepfakes to smear anti-vaxxers

What is further interesting about the Taylor deepfake is that it had an anti-Palestinian bent, having accused Masri and his wife, a Palestinian rights campaigner, of being known terrorist sympathizers. Masri could not figure out why Taylor, whom he did not even know, would make such a claim out of left field.

After taking a closer look at Taylors official photo, Masri says there was something about the young mans face that seemed off. He eventually came to the realization that the image of Taylor being passed off as real was a computer-generated work of digital fiction.

The distortion and inconsistencies in the background are a tell-tale sign of a synthesized image, as are a few glitches around his neck and collar, says Hany Farid, a digital image forensics pioneer who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.

Taylor is just one of many online deepfakes that experts now have to deal with as public dialogue goes increasingly digital. Both Washington, D.C., and Silicon Valley are concerned about their proliferation, which House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff last year warned could turn a world leader into a ventriloquists dummy.

Facebook recently launched a Deepfake Detection Challenge to encourage those with the appropriate savvy to help out and expose deepfakes as they come across them. Bogus personalities like Taylors are everywhere, it turns out, and are being used to create a totally untraceable identity for people who do not, and never did, exist.

As we reported last year, the pharmaceutical industry appears to be using deepfakes to try to frame anti-vaxxers in what Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, described as a covert, sinister campaign to try to smear and defame all individuals who speak out about the dangers of vaccines.

Rather than have to employ the services of crisis actors, which has been a common occurrence for many years now with various false flag incidents that get reported by the mainstream media, deep state players like Big Pharma can simply use technology to create deepfakes that in video footage appear to be real, but that are nothing more than digital fiction.

For more related news, be sure to check out Faked.news.

Sources for this article include:

Reuters.com

NaturalNews.com
KOCHI: When online has become the new normal, be it work, studies or doctor consultation during the pandemic times, the council of ministers in Kerala also met online for a special session of the Cabinet on Monday.

It was for the first time in the history of the state that Cabinet meeting was being held online. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan chaired the session by joining the meeting from his official residence at Thiruvananthapuram.

The decision to conduct web conference of ministers was taken keeping in mind the recent surge in the number of positive cases. While few ministers attended the meeting from their offices in Thiruvananthapuram, some of them who were in their constituencies coordinating COVID-19 control measures attended the session from their homes.

Normally, a Cabinet meeting is convened every Wednesday at the State Secretariat in the block housing the Chief Minister's office.

A major decision taken by the special cabinet session was not to enforce a complete state-wide lockdown considering its economic impacts. The all-party meeting convened by the Chief Minister earlier had opposed the total lockdown and proposed imposing stricter restrictions in disease spread clusters.

The Cabinet also decided to pass an Ordinance as a temporary substitute for the Finance Bill as the Assembly session scheduled on Monday had to be suspended due to spiralling COVID-19 cases.
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Linkedin Sangmi Cha (Reuters) Seoul, South Korea  Tue, July 28, 2020 16:15 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669f390b 2 World North-Korea,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-infection,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

North Korea introduced tougher prevention measures against the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, state media reported, after it locked down the border town of Kaesong to tackle what could be its first publicly confirmed case of the respiratory disease.

Strict quarantine measures and the screening of districts were in progress, and test kits, protective clothing, and medical equipment were being rapidly supplied, the North's KCNA state news agency said.

The measures come after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared an emergency on Sunday after a person suspected of being infected with the virus returned from South Korea.

North Korea had reported testing 1,211 people for the virus as of July 16 with all returning negative results, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement sent to Reuters on Monday. The report said 696 nationals were under quarantine.

Primers and probes for machines capable of facilitating 1,000 tests have arrived in North Korea, WHO said. There are 15 laboratories designated to test COVID-19 in the country.

North Korea has a limited healthcare system with hospitals that lack adequate electricity, medicine, and water. It has long depended on the WHO to procure drugs as sanctions against the country made imports difficult.

In the past months, it received test kits and protective gear from the WHO and countries including Russia, but some of these were held up at the border because of the country's own restrictions.

North Korea said earlier this month it has started early clinical trial on a vaccine for the virus, but experts are skeptical.

The country lacks the technology or laboratories to develop COVID-19 vaccines, said Choi Jung-hun, a former North Korean doctor who defected to the South in 2012.

"North Korea wasn't even capable of testing people just until three or four months ago," said Choi, now a researcher at Korea University. "It is groundless for them to claim they are enrolling participants for human trials of COVID-19 vaccines."
A tightly packed group of protestors gathered last Wednesday at the gate guarding the spacious and well-manicured lawn surrounding the Wyomissing Borough Hall. Calls to defund the police filled the air.

Across the street a man wearing camouflage fatigues, a helmet, knee pads and a tactical vest clutched his semiautomatic rifle as he watched. A group of police officers stood nearby, unconcerned by the armed mans presence. At the other end of the block, a different man dressed in black was standing; he carried an AR-15 on his chest and a .45 caliber pistol on his thigh.

A self-described militia member watches a Wednesday protest in Wyomissing from afar. (Photo by Anthony Orozco/PA Post)

The armed men watched as activist Shakair McCain grabbed the microphone at the center of the protests and voiced her frustration. Once again, she said, she was forced by events to come to the defense of Black man forcefully detained by the state. This was a reference to Stanley Gracius, whose arrest inside a Wyomissing Walmart on July 20 was captured on video and shared widely online.

Being Black in America is getting harder and harder everyday because we look like we are playing a race card but at the end of the day, were not going to just sit back and be treated like this anymore, McCain said. A close look wasnt required to see the holstered handgun jutting out of the waistline of her shorts.

The scene last week in Wyomissing was an example of how fear  fear of Black Lives Matter protesters and Antifa, fear of an authoritarian police state, fear of neighbors who may sympathize with the other  has driven Americans to arm themselves.

The man in camo, one of the few people not wearing a mask, did not want to identify himself. His fatigues featured a stylized American Flag patch on his shoulder. Instead of the traditional Old Glory, this flag was black and white, emblazoned with a Punisher skull logo.

Punisher is a comic book character. His backstory is that hes a veteran (and in some versions, a former police officer) turned ultraviolent vigilante who skillfully dispatches criminals. The Marvel character, unlike other comic book heroes, takes no mercy on his targets.

The man in camo reluctantly shared that he is affiliated with a state militia.

Down the street, the armed man dressed in black identified himself only as a Wyomissing resident. He said he was there to protect the borough if the protests became violent.

Left, right-wing, I dont care, everybodys human, everybody has their right to whatever, he said through a mask decorated with a black and white American flag and ghoulish grin. But to do this and to bash the police department and say defund the police like everybody wants to in my opinion is a bad idea because if something happens to you and you call 911, theyre not going to show up. Whats going to happen?

1/ Protestsers gather outside of the Wyomissing Police station to demand justice for Stanley Gracius, a Black man who was tackled, tased and arrested by Wyomissing Police after riding a bike he bought inside of the store pic.twitter.com/RJJchTXUc0  Anthony Orozco (@AnthonyOrozco20) July 22, 2020

The man said he was not part of law enforcement but part of another group he declined to name. He also said he believed police had done the right thing in arresting Gracius.

The arrest of Gracius prompted the protests outside the borough hall, which continued the next day when about 40 people gathered outside the Walmart where the incident happened.

McCain also showed up to the Thursday protest with her handgun, saying fears for her safety and the presence of militia and other armed residents have not made her feel any safer.

I feel like they want to intimidate us so bad they would go to those lengths and police probably wouldnt even do anything if he tried to come over and have a say in what he would do to us and not do to us, McCain said. Thats the thing, we do not take threats lightly, were not supposed to; thats why Im armed.

Referring to the two armed men who stood on the sidelines of Wednesdays protest, McCain said she is not going to be intimidated.

He was armed, he basically said, to protect Wyomissing like we were going around Wyomissing destroying things and stealing things  As you can see were peaceful, we still want to be peaceful, McCain said. Were not going to come out of our element unless provoked.

McCains fiance, Jordan Bridges, was also carrying a handgun and shared similar views about the presence of the armed resident and the self-described militia member on the fringes of protests like the one against Graciuss arrest.

I feel like the people that do that are against Black Lives Matter, they do that so if something goes wrong they feel like, I got the right so, I can go shoot [protesters] or harm them or intimidate them, he said.

Wyomissing Police Chief Jeffrey R. Biehl did not respond to requests for comment about how armed residents and protestors complicate policing in his community.

Berks District Attorney John T. Adams said law enforcement recognizes and respects the rights of Pennsylvanians to openly carry firearms, though it may cause concern among neighbors and draw extra attention from officers.

As long as that person is an individual who may legally possess a firearm it is legal to open carry, Adams said. In any situation when there are firearms present of course, I think law enforcement uses extraordinary caution as they should and firmly believe they should and I firmly believe they will be very observant of an individual who possesses a firearm  in a situation like a protest.

Bridges also recognized the fact multiple sides of a protest wielding weapons creates a heightened potential for violence.

I think it creates a high tension, Bridges said. They feel like they have to protect themselves from us, we feel like we have to protect ourselves from them so, theres definitely a tension but were not here to harm anybody.

McCain said she hopes more activists and protesters arm themselves as the country boils with racial and political tensions.

People have this thing, they think minorities arent supposed to carry concealed, theyre not supposed to do that because they automatically think were criminals, McCain said. They dont see anything wrong with Caucasian people carrying weapons to intimidate but they see something wrong with us carrying weapons to protect ourselves because we are now being threatened and our lives are being threatened.

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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday pleaded for the federal government to help Michigan recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

During a coronavirus update news briefing, Whitmer was joined by state budget director Chris Kolb, who said Michigan needs federal aid to offset a projected $3 billion deficit for the budget year starting Oct. 1, 2020.

Kolb praised State Sen. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, the Senate appropriations chairman, among others, for working with him to balance the budget for the current fiscal year.

Detroit Regional Chamber President and CEO Sandy Baruah spoke of the need for residents to wear masks to help Michigan businesses stay open and keep their employees working.

Paola Mendivil, co-owner of El Granjero Mexican Grill in Grand Rapids, implored Congress to provide more financial help to businesses struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Michigan Chief Medical Executive Joneigh Khaldun said that recent virus numbers are trending in a good direction. She also reported public health officials will now be texting people who have tested positive for the virus. Khaldun hopes that, as a result, those people will be more likely to answer the phone when the officials call them to start tracing people with whom the infected person may have been in recent contact.

Whitmer only briefly addressed the subject of schools reopening in the fall, but she was asked multiple questions about it at the end of the news conference.

She replied that if positive cases rise significantly between now and late August, she might not allow schools to reopen. And she reemphasized the need for residents to "mask up," practice social distancing and wash their hands. She sought support from the federal level, specifically asking President Donald J. Trump to issue a federal mask mandate for public buildings and transportation.
Bengaluru, July 28 : The 'muhurat' or auspicious moment proposed by Hindu priest N.R. Vijayeendra Sharma, based in Karnataka's Belagavi town, has been chosen as the right time to lay the foundation for the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

"I have drafted four muhurats for the temple and the one falling on August 5 has been chosen," 75-year-old Sharma told IANS on Tuesday.

The 'Kulapati' or head of Vidya Vihar Vidyalaya located near the railway overbridge in the northwestern town of Karnataka had proposed three more muhurats - July 29, 9 a.m., July 31, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and post 10 a.m. on August 3.

Incidentally, Sharma got the opportunity to identify the muhurat after another famous priest, Swami Govid Dev Giri Ji Maharaj, who is closely associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had asked him to work on it.

Maharaj is one of the 15 members of the Ram Temple Trust announced by Modi in February.

"Through Maharaj I got the message to work on the Muhurat dates and I have submitted to him my proposal. I have no contact with Modi but Maharaj has a very close contact with Modi," he said about the trust member whom he has known for three decades.

Maharaj is the seer of Bharat Mata Mandir in Haridwar and his head office is in Pune, including connections with Belapur.

Though Sharma said he is not an astrologer, he said the discipline is a part of the Vedic law and many muhurats he had suggested earlier had succeeded by 95 per cent.

"Any Muhurat I propose will only succeed by God's blessings who is the architect of this world. He was the one who created this wonderful world, sun, moon, stars, the ocean and everything," said Sharma.

According to the priest, when God made the world, he also authored the Vedic law to which astrology also belongs.

"I am not a professional astrologer but as a Kulapati I have proposed this muhurat. I very well know the astrological signs. A Kulapati should have all round knowledge of the scriptures," he observed.

Commenting on why August 5 was chosen, Sharma said the Prime Minister's Office would have chosen it and pointed out that Modi is well aware of the Hindu scriptures.

Immediately after the Supreme Court's Ayodhya Ram Mandir judgment, Maharaj contacted Sharma to work on the muhurat dates and time, although Sharma heard that many pundits had also submitted muhurats to the PMO for the Ram temple foundation stone laying ceremony.

He said it got delayed because of the Covid lockdown.

Earlier, Sharma worked as a personal secretary to saint and philosopher M.R. Gopalacharya in Mumbai from a very young age and spent time in the city.

Though he had an opportunity to go to Germany, Sharma had stayed back in India on his master's advice to serve Indian culture.

"He strictly instructed me not to go after wealth, property or land and told me to serve and sacrifice for the promotion of ancient Indian culture," said Sharma.

Being in Mumbai in the past, he used to accompany his master regularly to Belagavi where the devotees requested for a permanent spiritual centre.

"I founded this spiritual centre on a lake some 30 years ago. I started in 1985. This place had connections with the Ramayana and Sita Devi dwelled in this place. Hanuman was also connected to this place. It is called Janaki Bandacha," observed Sharma.

Though the priest is not very keen on miracles, he said such wonders are required as people believe more in the supreme law when their prayers are fulfilled, saying many people witnessed miracles.

He had a legacy of proposing Muhurats to many temples in the past such as Narayana Mandira in Gujarat, Devi Mandira in Uttar Pradesh and also in West Bengal and Karnataka among others.

The priest with expertise in Chaturashtra is also a gold medal winning post graduate from Kashi Vidyapith which is connected to the Banaras Hindu University in world and Indian philosophy.

As a priest, Sharma said he generously offers his services to poor people, including proposing muhurats for free to any poor person approaching him.

Belagavi is 506 kms northwest of Bengaluru.
Maharashtra on Tuesday recorded 7,717 new Covid-19 cases pushing the states tally to 391,440. The state could cross another grim landmark of 4 lakh cases on Wednesday, based on the current trend of the daily caseload increase. Mumbai reported its lowest tally in three months, with 700 new cases on Tuesday, which took the citys tally to 110,882. For the second day in a row, the number of discharged/recovered patients in Maharashtra is more than the new cases reported.

The states active case tally stood at 144,694, with 10,333 patients being discharged on Tuesday. So far, 232,277 people have recovered in the state. The active case count in Mumbai now stands at 19,990.

Maharashtra also recorded 282 fatalities taking the toll to 14,165. Mumbai recorded 55 new fatalities, which pushed the toll to 6,187. Maharashtra, which has the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases and fatalities in the country, could become the state with the highest CFR, as the gap between CFR of Gujarat and Maharashtra  the top two states  is narrowing. As per the data of state Medical Education and Drugs Department (MEDD) released on Tuesday, CFR of the state is 3.62%, while Gujarats CFR is 4.13%. On June 28, Gujarats CFR was 5.83%, while Maharashtras was 4.57%. On May 28, CFR in Maharashtra was 3.33%, while it was 6.17% in its bordering state. Till July 27, Gujarat has reported 2,348 fatalities and 56,874 cases.

State health minister Rajesh Tope dismissed the comparison and said the Maharashtra government has been transparent in its data and dealing. Gujarat must not be testing aggressively and therefore the numbers are low there. The Maharashtra government has always been transparent in its data. We have equipped districts with infrastructure, including ventilators, anti-viral drugs, and guidance from the task force, to bring down the fatality rate, he said.

The silver lining, according to state officials, is the CFR in Maharashtra is dropping. A health department official said the two states should not be compared as the protocol and processes followed in the two states would be different.

The official, requesting anonymity, said, There is a task force in each district and a uniform treatment protocol has been prepared. There are a few districts and semi-rural areas which have a higher death rate. For instance, Solapur city has a CFR of nearly 8%. It has reduced than a few days ago. Timely detection and hospitalisation is the key, which has been drilled into districts and city administration. Besides, coordination between the state task force and the district task force has been increased.

Tope said they are looking at measures to reduce fatalities. The task at hand is to reduce CFR in the state. The chief minister also earlier has given his directions on the matter. We have given funds to the district administration to procure the anti-viral drugs, remdesivir and tocilizumab, based on their requirement. The companies will provide adequate stock and delivery, Tope said.

An official from the MEDD said, On an average, a patient is hospitalised after five to six days of developing symptoms. This ratio needs to come down so that doctors get enough time to treat the patient. As per latest MEDD data, 70% of the deaths that occurred are of people with co-morbidities, while the remaining 30% of victims did not have any co-morbidities.

Meanwhile, the contribution of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, excluding Mumbai, to the daily caseload in the state reduced to 19.73% on Tuesday. MMR contributed to 40% of the total cases in June and during the first week of July.

The lockdown in most of the municipal corporation areas in the MMR is showing results, officials said. The stabilising of figures from MMR would have a bearing on the restrictions for Mumbai as a lot of floating population comes from the adjoining areas of Mumbai.

Thane city recorded 191 new cases, while Thane district that comprises of rural areas recorded 147 new cases on Tuesday. Kalyan-Dombvli saw 219 new cases, while Navi Mumbai recorded 335 new cases.

Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad recorded 1,182 and 673 cases, respectively. Pune city recorded 23 fatalities taking the citys tally to 1,318. Aurangabad city recorded 576 new Covid-19 taking the citys tally to 9,635. Jalgaon district recorded 312 new infections, while Pune district recorded 340 new infections.

In the past 24 hours, Maharashtra conducted 43,160 tests and recorded 7,717 cases. The overall positivity rate in Maharashtra stood at 19.88%, with 19,68,559 samples so far. Currently, 885,545 people are in home quarantine and 42,733 people are in institutional quarantine.

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Demonstrators take part in a Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney on July 5, 2020, to call for an end to Aboriginal deaths in custody in Australia. (Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images)

Sydney BLM Activists Defy Supreme Court Ruling and Demand Answers From State Premier

Sydneys Black Lives Matter organisers have said they will consider postponing their protest on July 28 if New South Wales (NSW) Premier Gladys Berejiklian can commit to two things.

Firstly, they would like the premier to ask SafeWork NSW to investigate the death of Indigenous prisoner David Dungay Jr.

Secondly, the organisers want the state government to request the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate whether charges should be laid against the guards involved in Dungays death.

The NSW Supreme Court ruled the protest as illegal on Sunday, but organisers have vowed to carry on despite it being unauthorised.

David Dungay Jr, who has become a symbol of the Australian Black Lives Matter movement, was serving time in jail for assault, aggravated attempted sexual assault, and being party to robbery.

He died in Sydneys Long Bay jail in 2015, after being restrained and sedated for refusing to comply with police.

A video that captured the moments before the Dunghutti mans death showed him struggling as they sought to move him to another cell.

Paul Silva, David Dungay Jrs nephew, told The Guardian that the family wants justice.

I tell you what, if the premier can commit to asking SafeWork NSW and the DPP to investigate whether charges can be laid in relation to my uncles death. Im sure that we can put off the protest, Silva said.

Sydney Lives Matter

Avi Yemini of TR News said that now is not the time for a protest and that Sydney lives matter.

Youre organising thousands of people now, urgently, in 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, for a violent criminal who died half a decade ago, Yemini said last Wednesday.

Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman echoed Yeminis sentiments on Sky News on Monday.

You dont have a rally about saving lives by putting lives at risk, Zimmerman said.

Labor MP Peter Khalil said that there are ways that the organisers could raise public awareness even more broadly than you would with a rally.

They could do what we did for Anzac Day, where we all lit a candle in the front of our driveways. Millions of people participated, Khalil said.
Regulatory News:

SFL (Paris:FLY) has published its Interim Financial Report for the six months ended 30 June 2020 and filed it with France's securities regulator, Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF). The document can be viewed at the SFL website, www.fonciere-lyonnaise.com, in the "Publications" section under "Reports"

About SFL

Leader in the prime segment of the Parisian commercial real estate market, Societe Fonciere Lyonnaise stands out for the quality of its property portfolio, which is valued at 7.2 billion and is focused on the Central Business District of Paris (cloud.paris, Edouard VII, Washington Plaza, etc.), and for the quality of its client portfolio, which is composed of prestigious companies in the consulting, media, digital, luxury, finance and insurance sectors. As France's oldest property company, SFL demonstrates year after year an unwavering commitment to its strategy focused on creating a high value in use for users and, ultimately, substantial appraisal values for its properties.

Stock market: Euronext Paris Compartment A Euronext Paris ISIN FR0000033409 Bloomberg: FLY FP

Reuters: FLYP PA

S&P rating: BBB+ stable outlook

www.fonciere-lyonnaise.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005815/en/

Contacts:

SFL Thomas Fareng Phone +33 (0)1 42 97 27 00 t.fareng@fonciere-lyonnaise.com

Evidence Gregoire Silly Phone: 06 99 10 78 99 gregoire.silly@evidenceparis.fr
The risk of military conflict in the South China Sea between China and the United States is high and tensions are rising. In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, amid discord on a wide range of issues and shortly after both held naval exercises in the area at the same time, American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has raised the stakes to even more worrying levels by ending his countrys silence on territorial disputes in the contested waters.

His siding with Southeast Asian nations over Beijing was to be expected, as was the foreign ministrys angry response, but weighing in on so sensitive a row is a further unnecessary provocation that puts the rivals and their allies on a dangerous course. With relations arguably at their worst and seemingly spiraling out of control, there is every need for a diplomatic solution, no matter how remote that may appear.
July 28, 2020  Ottawa, Ontario  Global Affairs Canada

Yesterday, the Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, spoke with the Honourable Stuart Nash, New Zealands Minister of Police, Fisheries, Revenue and Small Business.

As Canada and New Zealand take action to help keep their people safe and work to help their economy recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the ministers discussed how to support small businesses to help them rebuild in the months to come.

Minister Ng highlighted the importance of the global rules-based trade system and emphasized that helping businesses access opportunities and customers in the global marketplace will put them in a stronger position to recover more quickly.

They spoke about the need to support small businesses in going digital and pivoting more of their business online, which is crucial now more than ever.

The ministers also discussed next steps for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Working Party on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Entrepreneurship, which has shifted its focus to helping small businesses deal with the impacts of the pandemic.

The ministers also discussed strengthening their collaboration on medical supplies and working toward finding a vaccine for COVID-19.

Minister Ng concluded the call by offering her best wishes to Minister Nash and all New Zealanders as the world continues the fight against COVID-19 together.
OTTAWA - A new government report shows Canada's three biggest wireless carriers have lowered prices for a number of plans in Quebec since January but left them unchanged in all other provinces.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/7/2020 (540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA - A new government report shows Canada's three biggest wireless carriers have lowered prices for a number of plans in Quebec since January but left them unchanged in all other provinces.

The biggest declines were at the low end of a range of plans that are being monitored by the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.

Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

In Quebec, Fido, Koodo and Virgin brands dropped their posted prices for two gigabytes of data and other features to $35 per month in February, down $15 from January when ISED started its study.

In other provinces, the same brands  owned by Rogers, Telus and Bell respectively  kept their 2 GB plans at $50 per month, though not all the brands offered the plans consistently through February to June in other provinces.

The ministry says Canadians use an average of 2.5 GB of data per month, citing 2018 figures.

Fido (Rogers), Koodo (Telus) and Virgin (Bell) also dropped their Quebec price for 4 GB plans to $45 but left them unchanged at $55 per month in the other provinces, though not all the brands offered the plans consistently through February to June in other provinces.

Tuesday's price report is the first since the Liberals returned to power last fall after promising to push down prices for common wireless plans by 25 per cent within two years.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2020.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has visited a national cemetery and handed out commemorative pistols to army officers, state media reported Monday, as he pushes to muster public support for efforts to contain a potential coronavirus outbreak.

On Sunday, North Korea said that Kim had put a city near the border with South Korea under lockdown and declared a state of emergency after a person with suspected COVID-19 symptoms was recently found there. If the person is diagnosed with the coronavirus, it would be North Korea's first officially confirmed case, though many outside experts believe the virus has already spread to the country.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim visited a cemetery on the outskirts of Pyongyang where Korean War dead are buried to mark the 67th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 war. Kim laid a single rose and bowed before a big monument at the Fatherland Liberation War Martyrs Cemetery, according to KCNA. It didnt say exactly when Kim went there.

A 1953 armistice that ended the war has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula in a technical state of war. North Korea considers the armistice signing as a victory and often uses the anniversary as a chance to promote nationalism.

KCNA also reported that Kim gave Paektusan commemorative pistols, named after the sacred peak on the peninsula, to senior military officials during a ceremony Sunday marking the war anniversary. State media photos showed a beaming Kim, clad in his trademark dark suit, sitting while surrounded by army officers holding black pistols.

The participants held high the pistols and made firm pledges to fight for Kim Jong Un at the cost of their lives, KCNA reported.

Kim is in need of stronger internal unity as he struggles to withstand crippling U.S.-led sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic, which forced him in January to close the Norths border with China, its biggest trading partner and aid benefactor.

Story continues

While announcing the Kaesong city lockdown, North Koreas state media reported that the suspected virus patient was a runway who had fled to South Korea three years ago before illegally slipping back to the North early last week.

Some experts say North Korea was aiming to hold South Korea responsible for a virus spread and apply more pressure on its rival. Others say the North may be trying to find an excuse to win anti-virus aid items from South Korea.

South Korean officials said their investigation into who crossed the border into the North has been narrowed to a single person. Without identifying who that person is, military spokesperson Kim Jun-rak told reporters Monday that a bag belonging to the person was found on a South Korean border island. Health official Yoon Taeho separately said that the person has never been listed as a virus patient in South Korea.

KCNA on Sunday quoted Kim as saying the vicious virus may have entered the North while urging the North Korean public to rally behind him to overcome the present epidemic crisis.

Monitoring groups and refugees from North Korea have been highly skeptical of the Norths claim that it has had no cases of the coronavirus because the country shares a long, porous border with China, where the virus is believed to have started late last year. Analysts say a virus outbreak in North Korea could cause a humanitarian disaster due to its wrecked health care system and lack of medical supplies.
The coronavirus crisis and the collapse in oil prices will not be the death knell for Canadas oil sands, as production will still grow through 2030 to reach 3.8 million bpd, just 100,000 bpd lower than pre-crisis output projections, IHS Markit said in its latest analysis on Tuesday.

Even before the COVID-19 shock to the oil markets, oil demand, and economies, investments in Canadas oil sands were expected to struggle from price insecurity because of the chronic insufficiency of pipelines that are necessary to carry Canadian heavy oil to market. The period of price insecurity was expected to last until the early 2020s.

The impact of COVID19 has changed the driver of the lower investment period, not necessarily the direction of long-term expectations, said Kevin Birn, Vice President for the North American Crude Oil Markets team, and Celina Hwang, Senior Research Analyst for the North American Crude Oils Markets team at IHS Markit.

This year will mark the single largest production drop in the history of the Canadian oil sands, according to the analysts, but that will not necessarily weigh on the longer-term prospects of the oil sands.

Canadian producers curtailed a lot of output earlier this year because of the price and demand collapseIHS Markit expects the peak curtailment to have shut in more than 700,000 bpd of oil sands production in the second quarter. Related: China Signs Series Of Deals To Develop Supergiant Oilfield In Iran

The dramatic curtailments, however, are likely to be only temporary, and producers are set to restore more production later this year and in 2021. Canadas oil sands output will rise next year, thanks to curtailed volumes coming back and ramp-up of never-fully-utilized existing capacity, according to IHS Markit. If Alberta eases the mandatory cuts, Canadian oil sands output could increase by 300,000 bpd in 2022 compared to the pre-crisis levels in 2019.

Longer term, growth will continue, but it will slow down as the crisis will likely defer new investments, IHS Markit said.

Yet, the consultancy warned about three key uncertainties going forwardthe longer-term impact of COVID-19 on oil demand and markets, the perennial pipeline problem, and the oil sands industrys license to operate in the energy transition.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Illinois has experienced nearly a week with more than 1,200 new coronavirus cases a day, and case numbers are surging in most of the United States. Hours after Mr. Musers speech, Gov. Gavin Newsom shut down indoor dining rooms and bars across California. New York City had already postponed its return to indoor dining, and last week Mayor Lightfoot announced that Chicago bars that didnt serve food could not sell alcohol indoors.

I dont read the news anymore, Mr. Duffy said. I deleted it from my phone.

Mr. Muser cant wrap his head around the possibility of a future shutdown of indoor dining. It just removes all the joy from my profession, he said. Theres no such thing as three-Michelin-star to-go anything.

He checks the virus numbers every morning, then plows ahead, because there can be no hesitation when youre in the final stretch of opening a restaurant. Most of Evers reservations through the end of September have been sold.

Last Tuesday, the kitchen plated the menu for him and the sommeliers Jessica Dennis and Ryan Rickelman so they could decide which wines to pair with, say, caviar and king crab nestled into a cucumber gel in which the Ever logo has been embedded with roasted coconut pudding.

Late Thursday afternoon, Mr. Selk and Chris Sullivan, a line cook, were hanging dehydrated foods  among them slices of dragonfruit, a maitake mushroom, a Fresno pepper and herbs in rice paper  in the hallway corner as the team prepared for the first of three nights of friends-and-family diners.

Mr. Muser was putting the finishing touches on his elegant solution to the P.P.E. question. He had hired the same craftsman who designed the walls to create a matching sculpturelike table that would sit inside the entryway to hold masks and hand sanitizer.

Its a $6,000 problem solver, Mr. Muser said with a rueful smile. He called it the Covid table.

The automatic sanitizer dispenser wound up spewing so much goop onto the first guests hands that it dripped onto the floor. Mr. Muser made a note. One more problem to solve.
Britain's first spacecraft lift-off could take place in the next few years, the Transport Secretary announced last night.

Grant Shapps said a consultation will be launched today on the rules for UK spaceflight.

There are seven proposed spaceports for south-west England, Scotland and Wales and the Civil Aviation Authority will become the flights regulator.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said a consultation will be launched today on the future of space flight in Britain

Mr Shapps said: The UKs space sector can strengthen our national capabilities, create high-skilled jobs and drive future economic growth.

Getting the rules in place for space launches from UK territory may seem like one small step.

'But it paves the way for a giant leap in the development of our space sector.

The Government and industry are aiming to develop a 10 per cent share of the global space market by 2030.

So far, Whitehall has awarded nearly 40million in grants to set up small satellite launches.

Richard Moriarty, of the CAA, said: We welcome the publication of this important consultation and the Governments intention to appoint the CAA.
Three more states as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. have been added to the tri-state travel advisory as coronavirus cases continue to soar across the country.

The governors of New York and New Jersey announced on Tuesday that Illinois, Minnesota, Puerto Rico and D.C. are now on the list of states that face a 14-day quarantine under a joint travel order issued last month.

The additions are based on whether a region's seven-day rolling average of positive tests exceeds 10 per cent, or if the number of positive cases exceeds 10 per 100,000 residents.

A total of 36 states and territories are now included in the tri-state travel advisory as coronavirus cases continue to soar across the country

New York governor Cuomo and New Jersey governor Phil Murphy added three more states as well as Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. to their joint travel order requiring travelers to quarantine upon arrival

A total of 36 states and territories now make up the growing list of coronavirus hotspots which has included Texas, California and Florida for weeks.

Minnesota was added for a second time on Tuesday after it had been removed last week when its positivity rate fell 10 percent.

Delaware and Washington state were also re-added last week after having been removed from a previous version of the list.

The 36 states and territories on NY and NJ's mandatory quarantine list Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Delaware

District of Columbia

Florida

Georgia

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maryland

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Mexico

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Puerto Rico

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Virginia

Washington

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Governor Cuomo last week warned the order will be strictly enforced by requiring travelers to fill out quarantine paperwork upon arrival and those who fail to do so would be subject to a $2,000 fine.

As of Monday, there were 412,878 confirmed cases in the state and a total of 25,126 deaths.

Cuomo has expressed worry that infection rates in hard-hit New York could once again rise because of travel from high-risk states.

New York hospitals saw over 18,000 patients with COVID-19 at a time in mid-April when infections surged and more than 750 COVID-19 patients died each day in hospitals and nursing homes.

Those figures plunged in May, and rates of hospitalizations and new positive COVID-19 cases have been relatively stable since June.

Cuomo said 0.93 per cent of 57,000 tests conducted Monday were positive, and nursing homes and hospitals reported nine people with COVID-19 died.

State lawmakers are holding hearings about the impact of COVID-19 on New York, with Tuesday's hearing focusing on higher education.

Cuomo faces decisions on legislation addressing the pandemic passed by the state Senate and Assembly last week, including bills that address the expected surge in mail-in voting this fall by ensuring certain absentee ballots without a postmark are accepted and making it easier for voters to request absentee ballots earlier and fix deficient ballots.

The governor has said he's concerned about reports of people failing to wear masks or stay six feet apart in populous New York City and Long Island.

The state has suspended the liquor licenses of an additional dozen, mostly Latin restaurants in several Queens neighborhoods - including Jackson Heights and Corona, both at the epicenter of the pandemic in New York City - as a result of Cuomo's amped up enforcement.

Since late March, the Cuomo administration has suspended the liquor licenses of 45 businesses - with 25 in Queens or the Bronx.

'New Yorkers have worked hard to flatten the curve, but the bars and restaurants that ignore public health guidance are disrespecting their sacrifices which have saved lives while allowing us to sustain the reopening of our economy,' Cuomo said.

On Friday the State Liquor Authority issued 52 violations, 53 on Saturday and 27 on Sunday to restaurants and bars that violated social distancing and face-mask mandates.

Over the weekend 10 establishments had their liquor licenses suspended altogether.

Some bars saw slaps on the wrist for failing to provide 'substantial food' along with alcohol orders, in accordance with a new State Liquor Authority guidance.

On Friday the State Liquor Authority issued 52 violations, 53 on Saturday and 27 on Sunday to restaurants and bars that violated social distancing and face-mask mandates. A view of patrons wearing masks at a restaurant in Koreatown on Sunday above, as New York continues with Phase 4 of re-opening

In nearby New Jersey an outdoor bar was forced to close for two days after an employee tested positive for coronavirus, a day after the business was packed with patrons who failed to wear masks and practice social distancing.

'I want establishments to know that we will continue to diligently enforce the law. Thats what this is  its enforcing the law, Cuomo said Monday at his coronavirus press briefing.

'Sunday is a more quiet night, but even on a Sunday 27 more violations,' he said.

He added most of the violations were based in New York City and all of Sunday's citations were from all five boroughs of the city.


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Montgomery County authorities apprehended a group of seven traveling from Indiana last week in two vehicles reportedly carrying $60,000 after allegedly burglarizing an ATM.

Brandon Gonzalez, 18, Melissa Jean Gonzalez, 35, Ralph Earl Gray III, 18, Darin Jones, 22, Julian Rondell Kegler, 20, Bernard Mackey Jr., 26, and Jamontrell Lamar Seals, 24, are being charged with organized criminal activity, a second-degree felony, and money laundering, a third-degree felony, according to the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office.

All are from Houston, but for Melissa Gonzalez, who is from Friendswood, jail and public records show.

On July 21, the Houston Police Department reached out to the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office for assistance in apprehending the alleged ATM burglars as they drove from Indianapolis to Houston in a white Mitsubishi SUV and a silver Dodge Journey, according to the sheriffs office.

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The sheriffs office, HPD and the Texas Department of Public Safety were on a stakeout on U.S. 59 for the vehicles and located them traveling southbound. Sheriffs deputies pulled over both vehicles, the sheriffs office stated.

The Mitsubishi was stopped off FM 1314 and had Mackey, Jones and Seals as occupants. The Dodge was stopped at a gas station on the 23500 block of Texas 242 in Splendora and had Brandon Gonzalez, Melissa Gonzalez, Gray and Kegler as occupants, according to the sheriffs office.

An estimated $60,000 in U.S. currency, thought to be seized from an Indianapolis ATM, was found concealed in both vehicles. Further evidence from inside both vehicles tie the group to that burglary, the sheriffs office stated.

As of Monday afternoon, Brandon Gonzalez, Melissa Gonzalez, Gray and Jones were being held at the Montgomery County Jail. They had varying bonds. Melissa Gonzalezs combined bond was the highest at $100,000, jail records show.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

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Former Los Angeles County Assessor John Noguez (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles County district attorneys office has refiled charges against former county Assessor John Noguez, reviving the long-running bribery and public corruption case after an appellate court ordered its dismissal on a technical violation.

In a criminal complaint filed Monday, prosecutors accused Noguez along with Mark McNeil, a top official in the assessors office, and Arizona tax consultant Ramin Salari of participating in a scheme in which Noguez would accept bribes to illegally lower the values of properties across greater L.A. so that Salaris clients would pay less in taxes.

Noguez was first arrested in 2012 and accused of accepting a $185,000 bribe, but the case was marked by delays owing in part to the tens of thousands of pages of evidence collected by investigators. At a preliminary hearing in the summer of 2018, a judge found sufficient evidence for the trio to stand trial.

However, the L.A. County district attorneys office did not file a charging document within 15 days of the preliminary hearing.

In May, the 2nd District Court of Appeals ordered all charges against the trio dismissed because of the missed deadline, although the ruling did not prohibit Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey's office from rebooting.

The prosecution refiling the case was completely expected, said Noguezs defense attorney, Anthony Falangetti. Mr. Noguez has always maintained that hes innocent, and he continues to maintain hes innocent. He intends to fight this.

Stephen G. Larson, Salari's defense attorney, who is also a former federal judge, said the charges were "completely meritless, both legally and factually."

Im disappointed in the DAs office. I don't think they thought this through," Larson added. "They should have used [the appellate ruling] as a time-out to reevaluate the evidence. This case is going to be driven into a brick wall. It's really problematic on many levels."

Larson said the case was flawed because it relied "on a highly unreliable witness" and because the lower tax assessments sought by Salari  brought about by lower property values in the aftermath of the Great Recession  were agreed upon and validated by the county's assessment appeals board, a quasi-judicial body.

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"We are very convinced that if this case goes to trial, we are confident the evidence will establish [Salari's] innocence," Larson added.

Noguez, a longtime Huntington Park city councilman who was elected in 2010 to serve as L.A. County's tax assessor, was first led out of his home in handcuffs in 2012. Then-Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley described it as one of the most significant public corruption cases in county government in decades.

Residents must have confidence that their government is not for sale to the highest bidder or the highest briber," Cooley said at the time.

Prosecutors allege that McNeils role was to help obtain the tax reductions for Salaris clients. Among the properties that received the reductions: The site of the shuttered Old Spaghetti Factory in Hollywood, a grocery store in Torrance and a seven-bedroom mansion in Bel-Air, according to court documents. Owners of parcels in Santa Monica, Hermosa Beach and Beverly Hills also benefited from the breaks.

Some refunds reached into six figures, according to court records, including two neighboring apartment complexes in Hermosa Beach, with refunds totaling more than $560,000.

Over the years, the case was amended several times, with the number of charges against Noguez fluctuating from 24 to 36 to 25. The latest complaint against him has 39 counts, including perjury, embezzlement, accepting a bribe, grand theft, misappropriation of public funds and conspiracy to commit grand theft.

Noguez faces a maximum sentence of 36 years in prison if convicted as charged. Salari faces 59 years in prison and McNeil, 22 years.

Marilyn Bednarski, the defense attorney representing McNeil, said in a statement that her client will prove his innocence in court.

"We believe it is a flawed circumstantial case based on the District Attorneys Office misunderstanding of the laws applicable to tax laws," Bednarski said.




Several people, including a former longtime state senator, were arrested Tuesday for attempting to paint Good Trouble and Expand Medicaid on the street in front of the Alabama Capitol.

Montgomery police swiftly handcuffed former Sen. Hank Sanders, 77, and several others as they began to write the words in yellow spray paint. It was not immediately clear what they were being charged with.

The painting and arrests followed a news conference by the Alabama Save OurSelves Movement for Justice an Democracy and other groups who have held periodic events urging Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and legislators to expand the states Medicaid program.

We have to keep fighting. Right here in Alabama we are calling upon the governor once again to expand Medicaid. More than 300,000 Alabamians would benefit in terms of having affordable and accessible health care if she would expand Medicaid in this state, said Johnny Ford.

Good Trouble is a reference used by the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis for the arrests and entanglements he faced during the civil rights movement. Lewis, an Alabama native, was honored Sunday at the Alabama Capitol.

Today the new civil rights struggle is health rights, Ford said.

This is the second time members of the group have been arrested.

The group returned for the painting protest despite that five members of the group were arrested earlier in the month for writing Black Lives Matter and Expand Medicaid on the same spot. They said the two women in the group were strip-searched at the jail.
Jordan Kazlow joined John Lewis' 2008 congressional campaign at 17, before she was old enough to cast a ballot.

That gave her something in common with her boss, who began his work toward becoming a civil rights icon around the same age.

"It was really meaningful to talk to him about him fighting for the vote before he was even old enough to vote," said Kazlow, 29, a lawyer in Dallas. "But that kind of commitment was inspiring. And the whole experience showed how important it was to him to get young people involved. His entire staff was under 25, and most between 16 and 20 years old."

For all the achievements of his 67 years of service, Lewis' commitment to inspiring the next generation of leaders and activists may be his most significant and lasting contribution.

As an activist fighting for racial equality, Lewis, at 23, was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Two years later, he put his body on the line for voting rights on "Bloody Sunday" on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, thinking he might be killed at 25.

John Lewis

Even before his work on the national stage, Lewis was a young preacher in his teens, and he led other students in anti-segregation work. But as he grew into an elder statesman of the civil rights movement, Lewis actively looked to young people, like Kazlow and others who worked in his office, to continue his work.

John Lewis staffer Rachelle O'Neil said she learned and had fun in her 18 years working for the congressman. (Courtesy Rachelle O'Neil)

"We are the legacy of Congressman Lewis," said Rachelle O'Neil, who joined Lewis' staff as a constituent services representative when she was 32 and worked with him for 18 years. "He was committed to young people. The beautiful thing is that he started as a teenager. He believed in the young stepping up, taking action, making noise, fighting for what's right  that they have a moral responsibility to take stock in what their future is like. There are hundreds of us around the country who have been impacted by him."

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As the nation mourns Lewis' death from pancreatic cancer this month at age 80, with services throughout his home state of Alabama, as well as in Georgia, which he served in Congress since 1987, and in Washington, D.C., his countless proteges take it all in with admiration and gratitude.

"With Congressman Lewis, young people of all ages could come and work at the feet of a civil rights icon," O'Neil said. "At [Lewis] 65th birthday party, Harry Belafonte said they did not do enough to pass the baton to younger people to carry on the work. Congressman Lewis heard that and increased his efforts. You'd see him in May speaking at colleges and talking to students at schools, trying to bridge the gap from the civil rights movement to today's generation. He loved young people."

Jamesia James was inspired to run for Senate because of John Lewis (Courtesy Jamesia James)

Jamesia James, 37, is running in a special election for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia. She said her campaign was directly influenced by her two years working on Lewis' staff.

"I was inspired by his dedication to people," James said. "I wasn't aware politicians could be so committed. I looked around at the photos on various walls in his office and saw over the years, all the work he had done.

"It made me feel I wasn't doing enough. He always talked about us young people picking up the torch, that we needed to be more involved, that it was on our shoulders. He was adamant about young people being committed. But it wasn't like he was a politician. It was like being around your grandfather. He spoke as if I had a job to do."

Related: Lewis marched alongside the civil rights leader in Selma, Alabama in 1965.

More than 20 years ago, Earle Burke, a lawyer in Atlanta, met Lewis at an event. They quickly formed a friendship. "Every opportunity I spent with the congressman I got a history lesson about laws I am fighting to enforce as a lawyer," Burke said. "He was truly a warrior for justice. He's been very helpful in guiding me and helping me to understand the workings of Congress.

"And if he could have hired every young person interested in politics and have them spend time with him in Congress, he would have."

Atlanta lawyer Earle Burke, left, cherished John Lewis' humanity. (Courtesy Earle Burke)

Lewis often spoke of the importance of young people's role in fighting for justice. He once said: "I want to see young people in America feel the spirit of the 1960s and find a way to get in the way. To find a way to get into trouble. Good trouble. Necessary trouble."

His commitment to youth extended to the John Lewis Fellowship, which supports young grassroots activists in dismantling inequality, and his internship program for high school and college students. J.L. Invictus Academy is a middle school in Atlanta built and named after Lewis in 2017 with the ideals matching its namesake's of "persistence, self-mastery, and an unconquerable spirit."

Kazlow, who was in high school when she worked for Lewis, witnessed that spirit in his office.

"There was a parade we walked with Congressman Lewis," she said. "It was incredible. We had to pull him along to keep up with the parade. He stopped constantly, talking to people, shaking hands, taking pictures. It was a two-hour walk in miserable heat, and he spent most of that time stopping and talking to people, never complaining. And it wasn't a show. It was who he was."

Related: The 17-term congressman sat down with Al Roker for a virtual conversation during the 3rd hour of TODAY.

Lewis served the 5th Congressional District of Georgia for more than three decades. He was a shoo-in every election cycle and ultimately did not have to expend much energy campaigning.

"And yet there he was, campaigning hard," Kazlow said. "He was up early in the morning, meeting people, handing out information. He was there at the phone banks. He showed us how important it is to show up, to not rest on your laurels."

March For Our Lives (Prince Williams / WireImage)

Outside politics, Lewis was just as committed to the young people in his life. Burke said Lewis not only attended one of his birthday parties, but also spoke to Burke's daughter's middle school class and had her work as an intern in his office.

"He's getting pulled from all directions," Burke said, "but he took time to do those things, and I cherish that about him."

James said, "He was one of those people you didn't have to be around a lot to like and appreciate. When we were told he'd be in the office the next day, there was excitement. There was something to look forward to, because he always made time to spend quality time with everyone."

His mission was accomplished.

"Congressman Lewis allowed my level of fearlessness to grow," O'Neil said. "He was like a bonus dad to me. It was a blessing to work for a living, breathing icon. He taught me so much, including how to love the hell out of people. ...

"He was glad to see the new generation is taking the blueprint he and his cohorts established in the '60s. Black Lives Matter supporters are protesting in 50 states and 23 countries, willing to go to jail and willing to die. They learned that from the civil rights movement. And Congressman Lewis' message was: keep going."

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com.
GLENS FALLS  Jim Siplon, an Air Force veteran whose career has ranged from startups to Fortune 500 firms, has been named interim president of the Warren County Economic Development Corp. following the unexpected death last week of President Ed Bartholomew.

Siplon, an EDC board member and Glens Falls resident, has a career that included marketing and sales manager at General Electric, a senior manager at MCI, vice president and managing director at Fiji Water, and most recently founder and president of rethinkH2O, a water industry consulting firm.
UN: Afghan Civilian Casualties Drop By 13%, Lowest Since 2012

By Ayaz Gul July 27, 2020

The United Nations says that civilian casualties in conflict-torn Afghanistan have dropped by 13% in the first half of the year, the lowest figure since 2012, attributing it mainly to a scale back in operations by U.S.-led international military forces and Islamic State terrorists.

The decrease follows a landmark agreement the United States and the Taliban insurgency sealed in February to end the nearly 19-year-old Afghan war, America's longest.

In its new midyear report released Monday, by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) it had recorded nearly 3,500 civilian casualties, including 1,282 deaths, blaming mostly the Taliban and Afghan national security forces for the bloodshed.

"The overall number of civilian casualties represents a 13% decrease as compared to the same period last year, and the lowest figure since 2012," the report said.

"UNAMA welcomes the reduction, but notes that it was mainly due to a drop in civilian casualties attributed to the international military forces as well as to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant  Khorasan Province (ISIL-KPO)," said UNAMA, using an acronym for the Afghan branch of Islamic State.

"The main reason for the lower number of civilian casualties is due to a reduction in operations by international military forces and the Islamic State of Iraq and the LevantKhorasan Province," said UNAMA, using an acronym for the Afghan branch of Islamic State.

The report noted that Afghan national security forces were responsible for causing 23 percent of the total number of civilian casualties, representing a nine percent increase.

"Civilian casualties from airstrikes by the Afghan air force during the first six months of 2020 have tripled as compared to the same time period in 2019 Pro-government forces remained responsible for most child deaths," it said.

UNAMA attributed a total of 58 percent civilian casualties to anti-government forces, with the Taliban responsible for killing and injuring 1,473 of them, which represents 43 per cent of the total number of harm inflicted on civilians.

Deborah Lyons, the head of UNAMA, while referring to the U.S.-led push for Afghan peace called on warring sides to avail what she described as a "historic opportunity" to come to the table and negotiate a political settlement.

"I urge the parties to pause, to reflect on the chilling incidents and the harm that they are causing to the Afghan people as documented in this report, and to take decisive action to stop the carnage and get to the negotiating table," said Lyons.

The UNAMA report lamented that women and children continue to be disproportionately affected by the direct and indirect impacts of the Afghan armed conflict, comprising more than 40 per cent of the total civilian casualties.

It said that the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has drastically reduced the ability of victims to recover, making it even more imperative for the parties to the conflict to reduce the violence.

U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad said last week that deaths among Afghan security forces had dropped 35 percent to 40 percent this year compared with the same period in 2019.

Khalilzad also told an online forum in Washington on Friday that no American or coalition soldiers had been killed by the Taliban since the signing of the February 29 agreement with the insurgents.

The U.S. assessment of the conflict and Monday's UNAMA report both contradict claims by Afghan authorities that insurgent violence has risen to record levels since the signing of the US-Taliban deal, killing hundreds of security forces and civilians. The Taliban also has denied Kabul's insertions.

"This year, the number of Afghan security forces killed is between 35 and 40% less than last year for the same period and the number of civilians killed is also significantly lower for the same period compared to last year," the Afghan-born U.S. envoy said.

Khalilzad is due to arrive in the region to visit Kabul and Qatar, where the Taliban operates its political office, to meet with leaders from both sides and press for a reduction in violence as well as resolution of disputes surrounding a prisoner swap between the Afghan adversaries so the proposed peace negotiations could begin.

"The parties are closer than ever to the start of Intra-Afghan negotiations, the key next step to ending Afghanistan's 40-year long war. Although significant progress has been made on prisoner exchanges, the issue requires additional effort to fully resolve," said a pre-visit State Department statement on Friday.

The Afghan government, which was not party to the U.S.-Taliban pact, has released in phases more than 4,400 insurgent prisoners out of up to 5,000 stipulated in the deal. In exchange, the insurgent group has freed almost 900 Afghan security forces from the objective of 1,000 government detainees held by the Taliban.

But Kabul has refused to free a last set of several hundred Taliban prisoners, accusing them of involvement in "serious" crimes, including killing innocent Afghan civilians. The refusal has slowed down the exchange process and effetely blocked diplomatic efforts aimed at jumpstarting intra-Afghan talks.

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DETROIT, MI  A 75-year-old man seen on video being brutally beaten inside a Detroit nursing home earlier this year has died.

The victim, Norman Bledsoe, had been depressed and was not eating since the beating at Detroits Westwood Nursing Center, in May, FOX-2 Detroit reports.

Bledsoe suffered four broken fingers, broken ribs, and a broken jaw after the attack.

Prosecutors have charged 20-year-old Jaden Hayden with assault and credit card theft. Hayden is expected to appear in court Thursday to determine if he is mentally competent to stand trial.

Haydens, father said his son has had several health issues, including autism and hears voices, FOX-2 Detroit reports.

Hayden had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and said he was supposed to be taken to another facility to be quarantined, according to his father, FOX-2 Detroit reports.

Haydens father also says there is a pending case in Washtenaw County where his son is accused of assaulting a staff member at another group home.

READ MORE:

Ypsilanti man accused of severely beating 75-year-old in Detroit nursing home, filming attack

Disturbing video shows 20-year-old repeatedly beating elderly nursing home patient in Detroit
A plantation near Georgetown is on the market for the first time in more than a century, and the profits from the sale will eventually flow to electric customers in South Carolina.

The Ramsey Grove Plantation, a 2,689-acre tract on the banks of the Black River, is up for sale because of the alleged misdeeds of its former owner, SCANA Corp.

SCANA, which was the parent company of South Carolina Electric & Gas, was forced to turn over the property as part of a class-action settlement stemming from the failed expansion of the V.C. Summer nuclear plant three years ago. The project ended when SCANA and its utility partner, state-run Santee Cooper, abandoned two unfinished nuclear reactors after spending more than $9 billion.

The attorneys who represented SCE&G ratepayers in a large class-action lawsuit following the project's demise negotiated a settlement in late 2018 that requires the plantation to be sold along with an office building owned by SCE&G in downtown Charleston and several other properties owned by the utility company.

All of the proceeds will then be distributed to hundreds of thousands of current and former electric customers with SCE&G, which is now owned by Virginia-based Dominion Energy.

John Alphin, an attorney with the Strom Law Firm, said they've already been able to sell off some of the other properties the utility gave up as part of the settlement. That includes several pieces of property near SCANA's headquarters in Cayce.

"That's all money that goes straight to the customers," he said.

Those same ratepayers received the first part of the class-action legal settlement last year. That part of the deal included $60 million in cash. The payouts were based on how much electricity each customer used over the course of the nuclear project, and many recipients received checks for less than $20.

The website marketing the Ramsey Grove Plantation  which has been used for turkey, deer and waterfowl hunting  was launched this week. And Tom Anderson, the senior vice president with Plantation Services Inc., said the property has already generated inquiries from potential buyers.

Plantation Services was hired as part of the court-ordered settlement to help market and solicit offers for the plantation, which includes a lodge with 12 bedrooms and a commercial kitchen.

Anderson called the plantation a "legendary property." It was established in 1731 through a 500-acre land grant by the king of England.

It's too early, Anderson said, to know how quickly his firm will be able to net a suitable buyer. Such historic properties, he said, can sometimes be sold quickly. Other times, it can take several years to find a good match.

During the settlement process, the plantation and SCE&G's other properties were estimated to be valued at a combined $60 million to $85 million.

But it's yet to be seen what the plantation, located 7 miles from Georgetown, will be able to fetch now that it's on the open market.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 28, 2020 | 06:36 AM | PADUCAH

The City of Paducah's Board of Commissioners is set to meet later today.

On the agenda for this afternoon's meeting is a municipal order regarding design pause for the indoor recreation and aquatic center.

A city block development agreement and a COPS grant are also on the agenda.

Due to the COVID-19 situation, the meeting will be conducted entirely by video conferencing. The meeting will be streamed live on Youtuve and available on Government 11 (for Comcast subscribers).

The meeting begins at 5:30 pm.
A woman repeatedly yelled black lives dont matter as opposing groups of protesters confronted each other at a rally outside the Vermont State House in Montpelier on July 25.

Local media reported that counter protesters showed up at the rally, which was held in support of Vermont law enforcement.

This video shows a woman confronting counter-protesters and saying black lives dont matter at all to me and white lives matter. The woman is later seen singing God Bless America and toting a sign that reads BLM=Terrorist organization.

Youve had everything. Free f****** everything. Blacks have been coddled for years. Free college, free everything, the woman says in the video.

Zanevia Wilcox, an 18-year-old counter-protester, told Storyful she was the person being yelled at in this video.

I had to be the one to stand in front of my black brother and despite the amount of police around the perimeter I had to smile and shake my head as people threatened to spit on me, threatened my existence and physically pushed me out of hatred, Wilcox told Storyful. Credit: @_sofro_ via Storyful
A staff member of a bar carries chairs, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in the Gothic quarter in Barcelona, Spain, on July 27, 2020. (Albert Gea/Reuters)

Spain Lost One Million Jobs in Second Quarter Due to Pandemic

MADRIDSpain lost one million jobs between April and June, its biggest ever quarterly decline, as one of Europes strictest coronavirus lockdowns pulverised the tourism-dependent economy, official data showed on Tuesday.

The National Statistics Institute said unemployment rose from 14.41 percent the previous quarter to a two-year high of 15.33 percentbut that masked the extent of the crisis by leaving out people on furlough and those not meeting technical jobless criteria.

The second quarter is traditionally good for labor as Spains tourism season kicks in. But that was paralyzed by the pandemic and a slew of new quarantines do not bode well for summer trade either, even though a lockdown was lifted in June.

A woman looks at masks displayed at a souvenir shop, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Barcelona, Spain, on July 27, 2020. (Albert Gea/Reuters)

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast unemployment would reach 16.7 percent.

But for the first time in its long history of economic crises, Spain has made mass use of job protection schemes, known as ERTE, to limit redundancies in the face of forced closures.

If not, there would have been far more than the 1,074,000 job losses reported in the second quarter.

The ERTE have proven to be effective in maintaining employment, Secretary of State for the Economy Ana de la Cueva told a news conference.

Women, Young Worst-hit

As well as the furlough factor, many Spaniards did not meet technical criteria for the unemployment category such as actively searching for a new job.

The destruction of jobs was highest for people on temporary contracts, women and people aged 16-24, de la Cueva said.

The government data showed the intensity of the lockdown, with only 35 percent of the working population, around 14 million people, actually able to perform their job in the second quarter, mainly essential and home workers.

Despite the swathe of new unemployment, Spains jobless rate is still well below its 2013 peak of 26.94 percent when it was reeling from austerity measures in the wake of the global financial crisis.

But since 2018, the fall in unemployment has slowed, pushing back the goal of below double-digit unemployment.

Spain has recorded 278,782 coronavirus cases and 28,434 deaths.

By Belen Carreno
Financial regulators stepped in with enforcement actions against Sichuan Trust Co. Ltd. as the troubled trust company failed to obtain capital support from major shareholders to resolve a repayment crisis involving $3.6 billion of investments that has dragged on since May.

The Sichuan branch of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) ordered Sichuan Trust to suspend repayments of some trust products, affecting both institutional and individual investors, Caixin learned from sources close to the matter.

The CBIRC branch in southwest Chinas Sichuan province confirmed last week that it took enforcement measures against Sichuan Trust as the company violated industry rules regarding connected-party transactions, risk management and internal controls, putting investors interests at risk. It was the first time regulators formally addressed the violations of the mid-sized trust company since its credit crisis came to light in May.

Sichuan Trust is the latest target on regulators radar as China moves to put the once free-wheeling $3.1 trillion trust industry under closer oversight. Another such company, Anxin Trust Co. Ltd., faces a government-led restructuring to deal with a 50 billion yuan ($7 billion) financial black hole. In May, regulators punished nearly one-third of Chinas 68 trust companies for violations including conducting illicit off-balance-sheet lending and illegal real estate investments, levying 22.5 million yuan ($3.2 million) in fines.

Sichuan Trust failed to repay principal and interest on a trust product in May, triggering a wave of protests by investors. At stake is the repayment of about 25 billion yuan ($3.6 billion) that investors put into Sichuan Trusts trust of trust investments, which buy into other trust products that have invested in a wide variety of assets, including bonds, stocks and loans to private companies, and local government financing vehicles. More than 8,000 individual investors have been affected.

It is likely that regulators are studying proper plans (for repayment) while everyone is waiting for the audit results, said a person with knowledge of the matter.

Sichuan Trusts management pledged to raise funds to repay investors by issuing new shares to existing and new investors and by making asset sales. Chairman Mou Yue said in late May that the company was planning a share placement.

However, Sichuan Hongda Co. Ltd., the third-largest shareholder of Sichuan Trust, said Tuesday it decided to give up participation in the share sale because of its own capital stress. Hongda said it agreed with Sichuan Trusts plan to seek new strategic investors.

Hongda is a subsidiary of Sichuan Trusts largest shareholder Hongda Group, controlled by businessman Liu Canglong. Together, the two companies hold 54.2% of Sichuan Trust.

Hongda Group and the second-largest shareholder, Zhonghai Trust Co. Ltd., as well as smaller shareholder China Railway No. 8 Engineering Group Co. Ltd. previously said they wouldnt take part in Sichuan Trusts share placement.

According to Hongdas statement Tuesday, Sichuan Trust planned to raise 1.5 billion yuan to increase registered capital to 5 billion yuan. Upon completion of the share sale, Hongdas stake would be reduced to 15.5% from 22.2%. The placement plan has yet to be finalized and is still pending approval from shareholders and regulators, Hongda said.

Sichuan Trust last month warned investors that most of the companys outstanding 25.3 billion yuan of trust products face repayment risks. About 13 billion yuan of the companys products are set to mature this year, while 10.35 billion yuan will mature next year and 1.92 billion yuan more will mature in 2022.

The repayment of most of the products maturing by the end of 2020 may need to be extended, Liu Jingfeng, president of Sichuan Trust, told investors in June.

Sichuan Trusts problems go back at least to late 2019 when local regulators began closely monitoring the company, Caixin learned. Since then, the local banking watchdog has sporadically sent staff to work onsite.

In October and November 2019, a team of inspectors from the CBRC visited Sichuan Trust and provided rectification suggestions, the company said in its 2019 annual report, without elaborating. In May, the company denied rumors that its capital pool business was frozen and it would be taken over by regulators.

In 2019, Sichuan Trusts net profit shrank nearly 30% to 521.4 million yuan, according to the annual report.

Timmy Shen contributed to this story.

Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com)

Caixin Global has launched Caixin CEIC Mobile, the mobile-only version of its world-class macroeconomic data platform.

If youre using the Caixin app, please click here. If you havent downloaded the app, please click here.
The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) says it will resist any attempt from anyone who tries to intimidate its agents and executives at registration centres across the country.

The party said its agents are being harassed and intimidated in parts of the country especially the Volta Region in the ongoing voter registration exercise.

Speaking to Citi News after touring some registration centres in the Volta Region, the National Organizer of the NPP, Sammi Awuku stated that the party will not accept such conduct.

Well like to make it clear that as a party, we will not countenance any form of intimidation on our agents and our executives across the country. We believe that as they go about their lawful duties, they should be given the opportunity to exercise these rights within the confines of the law. We have also had the opportunity to make a case that intimidation from either EC officials or from any of our opponents will not be tolerated. We believe that for us as Ghanaians and as a political party with major interest in this election, we are a major stakeholder just like our opponents from the NDC and other political parties, he noted.

The compilation of a new voters register which is currently in its final phase has seen a number of violent acts with political parties accusing each other of intimidating members of the public to prevent them from taking part in the exercise.

The Volta Region has also had its fair share of violence.

Energy Minister, John Peter Amewu had earlier called for calm among residents of Hohoe in the region after alleged acts of violence at some registration centres in the constituency.

---citinewsroom
Donald Trump's aides have frustration with the presidents decision not to pay his respects to late congressman John Lewis.

The civil rights leader passed away last week. His body was lying in state at the US Capitol on Monday and politicians  from presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his wife to the Vice President Mike Pence  visited to pay their respects.

When asked if he planned to visit the civil rights leaders body, Mr Trump told reporters that he was not.

According to Johnathn Lemire, an Associated Press White House correspondent, Mr Trumps aides were surprised by the presidents answer.

I was on the White House lawn when we asked if the president was going to attend to pay his respects to the congressman lying in state at the Capitol, and he said no, Mr Lemire said during an appearance on MSNBCs Morning Joe. That took aides by surprise because there had been discussions about the president going over there at some point today, they thought that might be something he would want to do. We should note that Vice President Pence, who served with Congressman Lewis in the house, did go over there yesterday. 

Recommended Senators demand Mitch McConnell call vote on John Lewis bill

Joe Scarborough, the host of Morning Joe, asked Mr Lemire if Mr Trump was afraid that visiting the black civil rights leaders body would hurt him with his white supporters.

Publicly, White House aides are saying its the presidents decision, privately there is some frustration, Mr Lemire said. They do feel that the president is too mindful of that, the signal he might be sending to white voters. And also its someone with whom he feuded before, we know how he holds grudges. We know that he did the same when Senator McCain died, he did not attend or pay his respects in any public way then either. He had to be convinced to put the flag at half-mast at the White House when Senator McCain died. For Congressman Lewis, it was put at half-mast but only half a day.

On the day Mr Lewis died, Mr Trump did not issue a statement acknowledging the lawmakers death for 12 hours, despite being active on Twitter during that time period.

Mr Trump and Mr Lewis sparred in the press in 2017, when Mr Lewis said he would skip the presidents inauguration.

Mr Lewis believed that Mr Trumps presidency was illegitimate and the product of Russian interference in the election.

I dont see this president-elect as a legitimate president, Mr Lewis said in a 2017 interview with MSNBCs Meet the Press. I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected and they have destroyed the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.

Recommended Body of civil rights leader John Lewis carried across Selma bridge

Mr Trump responded by calling Mr Lewis all talk ... no action or results.

Mr Lemire said that Mr Trumps decision not to visit Mr Lewis s was part of the presidents intensifying culture war strategy heading into the 2020 US election.

Youre right, he continued. Theres a growing recognition among his advisers, that theyre going to lean into the cultural efforts, the preservations of the statues, confederate bases and the real push of law and order using federal troops in the cities, most notably Portland. Its part of a piece, a signal to white and suburban voters, the same ones hes trying to court there, weve seen out of the 1950s, a message to white families about black and brown families moving to the suburbs. To this point the polling has not suggested thats working.
President Akufo-Addo, on Monday, 27th July commissioned the Yapei Water Supply Project, in fulfillment of a campaign pledge he made to the people of Yapei in the run-up to the 2016 elections.

According to President Akufo-Addo, the Yapei Water Supply System will serve eleven thousand, four hundred and forty-three (11,443) people, and has been constructed at a cost of five million, six hundred and sixty-five thousand, nine hundred and sixty-six Ghana cedis, forty-two pesewas (GH5,665,966.42).

It will be recalled that on Friday, 2nd September, 2016, as part of his tour of the Northern Region, ahead of the conduct of the 2016 elections, then candidate Akufo-Addo paid a courtesy call on the paramount chief of Yapei, Yapeiwura Soale Alhassan, who lamented about the deprivation in Yapei of basic social amenities, including potable water.

The Yapeiwura spoke at a time when his fellow Gonja, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, was the President of the Republic, and told then candidate Akufo-Addo that though John Mahama comes from here and we are surrounded by water, we are thirsty. There is no drinking water at all.

In his response at the time, candidate Akufo-Addo assured the Yapeiwura that, if, by God's grace and the generosity of the Ghanaian people, he became President, he would do hisbest to rectify this problem.

Nearly four years on, I am happy to tell the Yapeiwura, Soale Alhassan, and the good people of Yapei, that Akufo-Addo has fulfilled his promise to provide Yapei with water. I am here this afternoon to commission the Yapei Water Supply System, under the Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project (SRWSP).

The Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project, initiated in 2017, has been financed with a credit facility from the World Bank, at a total cost of US$47.5 million.

Apart from the Savannah Region, the Rural Water Project has been implemented in ten (10) other Regions of the country, namely Ahafo, Bono, Bono East, Central, Western, Western North, Northern, North East, Upper West and Upper East Regions. The Project components include the construction of piped water supply systems, support for household latrine construction, health and hygiene education, and environmental and social safeguards.

In his remarks, President Akufo-Addo told the residents of Yapei that one way to help improve the longevity of the treatment plant is for all of them, collectively, to protect their water bodies by stopping activities such as galamsey, sand winning and farming along river banks, all of which lead to their pollution.

This would help guarantee improved water supply, in terms of quality, quantity and reliability, to the people of Yapei and surrounding communities. Water-borne diseases, such as guinea worm, cholera and dysentery, would also be eliminated, he added.

The President was equally hopeful that the Yapei water supply system would go a long way to enhance the country's collective efforts at protecting it from the COVID-19 pandemic, and was hopeful that the availability of potable water in this area, investors will take advantage of Government's Flagship Programmes such as One- District, One-Factory to establish small and medium scale factories to create employment opportunities for the youth of this community, and stimulate the growth and development of the local economy.

He encouraged inhabitants of Yapei, with requisite skills in water systems management, to take advantage of the employment opportunities created by the provision of these water systems.

Government, President Akufo-Addo added, will continue to provide additional resources to ensure that many other communities in the Savannah and other Regions also benefit from these life-changing projects. Together, let us all protect and help maintain the water infrastructure, which has come at such significant expense to the taxpayer.

'Water for All'

President Akufo-Addo assured that Government would not relent in its efforts to increase access to Water For All, a 2016 manifesto commitment of the NPP, which remains a key priority.

We have secured funding for two other rural based water supply projects, namely, the Rural Communities and Small Towns Water Supply Project (RCSTWSP), otherwise known as the Aqua Africa Water Project, which will benefit one hundred and fifty (150) communities in the Ashanti, Eastern, Greater Accra, Oti and Volta Regions, and the Phase III of the Water Supply Scheme for Central Tongu, Adaklu Anyigbe, Agotime-Ziope Districts and the Ho Municipality, he said.

The President continued, Further, Government, through the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, has awarded contracts for the construction of six hundred and forty-five (645) mechanised borehole systems nationwide.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday pulled up the Delhi University for its lack of preparation and facilities, including the arrangement of scribes and CSE Centres, for differently abled students to facilitate them to appear in the Open Book Examinations (OBE) for final-year undergraduate courses.

This is how you are concerned about the career of differently abled students who have to appear for final-year exams. We are aware of the challenge to UGC guidelines that is before the Supreme Court. But we will surely ask questions about your preparation for the exams, a bench comprising justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad said.

I am sure DU is cognisant of the fact that the career of students is at stake, how can you be so slow, Justice Kohli asked the university.

The court sought to know how many students in the Persons with Disabilities (PwD) category have applied to take exams through Common Service (CSE) Centers, which have been set up to provide services to students who do not have the infrastructure to attend OBE.

The counsel appearing for the University said he would require time to get the details.

The court was hearing a plea by a law student Prateek Sharma and the National Federation of Blind through a senior advocate SK Rungta seeking to set up effective mechanisms for visually impaired and specially abled students so that educational instructions can be imparted to them properly via the online mode of teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Appearing for one of the petitioners, senior advocate Rungta told the court that about 200 students could not appear for the mock test because of lack of assisting devices, reading material and scribes. He said when colleges were informed about the need for writing scribes, one of the principals said they could not provide them without knowing the health status of the student during the pandemic.

The high court sought to know whether the claim of petitioners was true while noting that the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Ministry of Electronics and Technology were earlier directed to file affidavits about the CSE centres and their preparation, including the availability of scribes.

However, the affidavit filed by the Ministry of Electronics and Technology is silent on the number of non-functional CSE centres, the bench said, adding that the issue of absence of infrastructure at the centres is yet to be addressed. It said despite directions, DU has not filed its affidavit in the matter and sought time to do so.

It is important for us to know that if the students who have asked for scribes will be able to interact with them two days before the exams, the bench said while noting the submission of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for Sharma, that as per the varsitys guidelines, scribes will be given to the students before the exams to check for suitability.

The high court asked the representative of CSE Academy, which has an agreement with DU to help the varsity in conducting the OBE, to be present before it on July 30, to know how many CSE centres across the country are situated in metropolitan and rural areas.

It also sought to know that out of 2,75 lakh students who have applied for OBE, how many have asked for the services of CSE centres and how many reside in remote places.

DUs professor Anil Aneja, who handles the issues of PwD students at DU, said that students had to buy assistant devices on their own but they have not received any request for reimbursements.

The matter will be now heard on July 30.
By Trend

The violence carried out against Azerbaijanis by the radical groups of the Armenian diaspora against diplomatic missions and members of Azerbaijani communities in various countries have been highlighted in the Italian media, the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Italy told Trend.

Articles published in Kmetro0, Gironale Diplomatico, Agenzia Nova said that radical groups of the Armenian Diaspora wearing T-shirts with the logos of the internationally recognized terrorist organization (ASALA), as well as the extremely extremist Armenian Dashnaktsutyun party, having organized extremely aggressive attacks in front of the diplomatic missions of Azerbaijan in Belgium, the US, France, the UK, Sweden, Poland, Australia, the Netherlands and other countries of the world, committed acts of vandalism in recent days against the buildings of diplomatic missions, diplomatic staff, members of Azerbaijani communities and their property, and promoted these acts of vandalism on their social media pages.

Following several days of intense armed clashes, after Armenia made a gross ceasefire violation and launched attacks in the direction of Azerbaijan's Tovuz district on July 12, Azerbaijanis living abroad started staging peaceful protests, calling to put an end to Armenia's aggressive occupation policy.

The rallies were met with harsh response from the Armenian diaspora members.

According to publications by Italian media, about 3,000 extremist members of the Armenian community in California, in an attempt to hold a protest in front of the Azerbaijani Consulate General in Los Angeles, ignoring the legal demands of the local police, deliberately attacked 40 members of the Azerbaijani community who were there. As a result of the attack, seven members of the Azerbaijani community, including a woman, were seriously injured, four of whom were hospitalized.

Extremist Armenian groups, which organized a protest in front of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Belgium, attacked the embassys employees, as well as members of the Azerbaijani community, and also using stones, sharp cutting tools and explosives, resulting in a total of six people injured, including the European correspondent of the Azerbaijani REAL TV channel and the embassys staff," said the message.

This vandalism by radical Armenian forces is not new either for Azerbaijan or for other countries that have faced Armenian terrorism. In 1970-1980, the ASALA and other Armenian terrorist organizations killed more than 70 people and carried out more than 235 terrorist attacks in 22 countries, during which 24 Turkish diplomats were killed, said the embassy's statement.

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 us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Midland County's upswell of confirmed coronavirus cases is due to several factors, including risky behaviors disregarding social distancing and masks, more testing and increased movement in the community after the "stay at home" order was lifted, according to Midland County Public Health Director/Health Officer Fred Yanoski.

Since July 14, the county has added 66 confirmed cases. In contrast, Midland recorded 13 confirmed cases during the first 13 days in July, and a total of 52 cases in June.

The county has 211 confirmed cases as of Tuesday, and 67 probable cases since the pandemic start, according to state numbers.

"We are currently seeing cases from all age groups, including numerous cases from our younger populations that we were not seeing earlier in the pandemic," Yanoski said. "Our cases have gotten 'younger' recently, and many more tests are being performed as well."

He said people younger than 40 make up 62% percent of total Midland County cases, confirmed and probable.

On July 20, Yanoski said teenagers had accounted for a third of the countys new cases recorded since July 1. Although the teen cases weren't related to one event or one person, Yanoski said the department found, through contact tracing, there were gatherings at friends houses, parties and get-togethers or trips to other states.

Yanoski said community behavior will determine whether it moves forward or backward.

"Our behaviors will determine how successful we are in the future with our battle with COVID-19," he said. "We have seen some risky behaviors (large parties, crowded bars, etc.) that have spurned a significant amount of cases. We have also seen some smaller gatherings where social distancing or masks were not used that also produced multiple cases. We know how to reduce transmission ... we just have to buckle down and take all precautions very seriously."

Yanoski said the increase in new cases also is likely due to more testing after health department investigations lead to people who came in close contact with an infected person.

"The health department investigates all lab diagnosed cases of Midland County residents," he said. "Through our investigations, we sometimes find close contacts who may have an increased likelihood of becoming infected. Many other cases, it is impossible to identify the source of infection. I believe we are currently doing well in aggressively identifying cases and doing contact tracing to mitigate additional spread. With additional cases being found, contact tracing is more important than ever to slow the spread in our community."

Household contacts, or household members infecting each other, remain a significant source of transmission due to prolonged close personal contact, he said.

Yanoski said although the number of confirmed coronavirus cases has been rising daily, he doesn't consider Midland County a hotspot.

"Overall, our cases have increased and we expect to continue to see more. However, I would not consider our community a 'hotspot' when comparing to other areas in the country. Our positivity rate, which is positive cases compared to total tests completed, remains less than 4%."

The July 26 positivity rate in Michigan was 3.06%, according to the state website. Nationally, the most recent week-long average was 8.1%, according to John Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

A positivity rate of less than 3% indicates a lack of community spread, according to Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Department of Health and Human Services chief medical executive.

In Tuesday's state news conference, Khaldun listed the Saginaw region, in addition to Detroit as Grand Rapids, as having 40 cases per million per day, which is a high number. The Saginaw region includes Midland and Gladwin counties, along with Saginaw, Alcona, Iosco, Ogemaw, Arenac, Bay, Genesee, Tuscola, Lapeer, Sanilac and Huron counties. Saginaw County has had 328 confirmed coronavirus cases since July 14, with Bay County adding 80 new cases and Gladwin County adding 15 during that time.

Midland County added five confirmed coronavirus cases in Tuesday's state report, bringing its pandemic total to 211 cases and nine deaths. Bay County added eight new cases and Gladwin County seven, bringing their pandemic totals to 476 cases and 31 deaths and 43 cases and two deaths, respectively.

Saginaw County recorded one death in addition to 21 new cases on Tuesday. It is now at 1,689 cases and 122 deaths. Isabella County added two new cases and is at 172 pandemic cases and eight deaths.

Khaldun said on Tuesday that state health officials are able to determine the source of infection in 32% of new cases.

The state added 669 new cases and 16 deaths; 11 of those were from a review of vital records. Overall, Michigan's pandemic total is at 79,176 cases and 6,170 deaths.

The state lists the total recovered at 57,502 cases, as of July 24, which represents COVID-19 confirmed individuals with an onset date on or prior to June 24, according to the state website, mich.gov.

The Midland County health department website lists 163 recoveries as of July 23.

Dr. Catherine Bodnar, Midland County Department of Public Health medical director, said it is critical for people to take the following steps:

 Socially distance at least 6 feet from non-household members.

 Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.

 Wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom, before eating and after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing.

 If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol based sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

 Always wash hands with soap and water if hands are visibly dirty.

 Wear face coverings in public.

 Stay home when sick.

 Covering coughs and sneezes.

 Throw used tissues in the trash right after use.

 Routinely clean frequently touched objects and surfaces using a regular household cleaning wipe or spray.

If you think you've been exposed to COVID-19 and develop a fever and symptoms such as cough or difficulty breathing, call your health care provider for medical advice. If he/she isn't available, call MidMichigan Urgent Care in Midland at 989- 633-1350 or MidMichigan Medical Center's Emergency Department in Midland at 989-839-3100.

MidMichigan Health has a COVID-19 informational hotline with a reminder of CDC guidelines and recommendations. The hotline can be reached toll-free at 800-445-7356 or 989-794-7600. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services also has a hotline number for Michigan residents for questions about COVID-19. The number is 1-888-535-6136 and is available seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Residents can also e-mail COVID19@michigan.gov. E-mails will be answered seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

If you are feeling anxious, stressed, depressed and feel you need to talk to someone, reach out to Community Mental Health for Central Michigan by calling 800-317-0708.
Ismail Haniyeh: Hamas rejects $15-billion aid from major powers conditioned on disarming

Iran Press TV

Monday, 27 July 2020 3:09 PM

The head of the political bureau of the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says the movement has turned down a $15-billion development aid offer conditioned on disarming.

Ismail Haniyeh was speaking to the Qatari newspaper al-Lusail in an exclusive interview, whose full transcript was published on Monday.

"There were parties that came to us two months ago, who we know had been paid off by major powers. They offered us new projects in the Gaza Strip worth about $15 billion. Of course, we said this is excellent, we want to establish an airport, port, and economic development projects in the Gaza Strip," said Haniyeh, who lives in the Qatari capital of Doha.

He added that the offer, however, was conditioned on Hamas relinquishing its military capabilities. For years, Hamas has been defending the Palestinian cause against Israel.

"We learned that, in exchange, we would have to dissolve our military factions and integrate them into the police and retire our weaponry, especially heavy weapons, the rockets that hit Tel Aviv and beyond, and dissolve the capability of Gaza for self-rule," the Hamas leader further said.

According to Haniyeh, the hefty aid offer had been made in the context of US President Donald Trump's highly provocative 'peace' plan, which would allocate $13.38 billion to Gaza for development if implemented.

Trump gave Tel Aviv the green light to annex large parts of the West Bank and Jordan Valley in his self-proclaimed "deal of the century," which was unveiled in January with the aim of legitimizing Israel's occupation and re-drawing the Middle East map.

The scheme has drawn global condemnation. Still, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is determined to carry on with it.

Trump's plan largely gives in to Israel's demands while carving out a Palestinian state with limited control over its own security and borders, enshrining the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel's "capital."

Under the US scheme, the future Palestinian state will consist of scattered lands linked together via bridges and tunnels. The plan also denies Palestinian refugees the right of return to their homeland, among other controversial terms.

Many Palestinians believe Israel's plan to annex one-third of the already occupied West Bank, including parts of the strategic Jordan Valley, is only a formality and a de facto Israeli occupation of their land has been underway for many years.

Trump's scheme also stipulates Hamas' disarmament as a precondition for talks on Palestinian statehood. The resistance movement rejects such a precondition.

Haniyeh said disarming of Hamas as a condition for receiving such an aid offer was unacceptable.

"They want to put an end to the existence of resistance and separate Gaza from the rest of the Palestinian national movement," he said in the interview, referring to the ultimate goal of the plan that would essentially create two separate Palestinian entities in the West Bank and Gaza.

"We want to break the siege, and we want projects in the Gaza Strip. We want a port in Gaza  but as a right and not in exchange for our political principles or disarmament. Our principle is Palestine from the river to the sea, the right of return, the liberation of prisoners and the establishment of a full sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem [al-Quds] as its capital," the Hamas leader added.

Gaza has been under Israeli siege since June 2007.

Israel has waged three wars over the past decade on Gaza, where two million Palestinians live under a 12-year blockade. Thousands of Gazans have been killed in each of these deadly wars since 2008.

The crippling blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty in the Strip.

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The neighbor of Sen. Rand Paul who in 2017 attacked the Kentucky Republican during a dispute about their yards was sentenced Monday to an additional eight months in prison for the assault.

Rene Boucher must also serve six months in home confinement, U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Leitman said Monday. Boucher will receive credit for the 30 days in prison he has already served.

Boucher had initially been sentenced to 30 days in jail for the attack, as well as 100 hours of community service and a $10,000 fine, but prosecutors said that sentence was too lenient and won the right to argue for a harsher sentence.

In a separate civil case, Boucher was also ordered to pay Paul more than $580,000 in damages.

Prosecutors were seeking a prison term of 21 to 27 months for Boucher.

During the virtual hearing, Paul, who suffered broken ribs in the November 2017 attack, said he flew 10 feet in the air from the force of the attack and was left with a significant injury that I have lifelong symptoms from.

I don't know what a night without pain is like or what a day without pain is like, so I do suffer from this, Paul said. This was no routine altercation. This was no sort of face-to-face, man-to-man thing."

Paul testified that he suffered several bouts of pneumonia following the attack and eventually had to have hernia surgery because of all of his chronic coughing.

After he completes his sentence, Boucher will be on supervised release for 18 months with no contact with Paul or Pauls family.

The attack stemmed from a dispute the two men had over yard waste.

Boucher, who according to court documents "had enough" of Pauls yard maintenance habits after he saw him stacking brush into a pile on his own lawn that was near Boucher's property. Boucher then ran onto Paul's property and tackled him. Boucher was charged with assaulting a member of Congress as part of a federal plea agreement.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 10:16:32|Editor: huaxia

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PYONGYANG, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un stressed the importance of nuclear deterrence on the occasion of the 67th anniversary of the armistice of the 1950-53 Korean War, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Tuesday.

At the 6th National Conference of War Veterans held here Monday, Kim said thanks to the "reliable and effective self-defense war deterrence, there will no longer be war on this land and our national security and future will be firmly guaranteed permanently," the KCNA reported.

"Bearing in mind that we should have a strong power to safeguard the fate of our country and people, we will never stop honing the most powerful national defense capacity that cannot be matched by anyone else," Kim was quoted by the KCNA as saying.

During the conference, Kim also paid tribute to the martyrs and war veterans who "dedicated their valuable lives to the sacred war for the country's reunification and independence and people's freedom and happiness," said the KCNA.

The DPRK held its 1st National Conference of War Veterans in 1993, marking the 40th anniversary of the end of the war. The following four conferences in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018 were all held after Kim took office at the end of 2011. Enditem
Figure 1

Results from DDH 114, 117 and 119A - Bonnefond Deposit

Results from DDH 114, 117 and 119A - Bonnefond Deposit

Figure 2

QMXs extensive and target-rich land package

QMXs extensive and target-rich land package

 Multiple Mineralized Intersections Per Hole

 Including 29.38 g/t Gold Over 5.6 Metres

TORONTO, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- QMX Gold Corporation (QMX or the Company) (TSX:V:QMX) is pleased to release additional assay results from the Winter 2020 drilling program from the Bonnefond Deposit (Table 1). The Bonnefond Deposit is located in the Val dOr East Zone of QMXs extensive land package in Val dOr, Quebec (Figure 2).

Highlights include (Grades are uncut; lengths are measured along the holes, Table 1):



DDH 17315-20-114 returned 1.18 g/t Au over 136.2 m including 12.14 g/t Au over 3.0m in the Bonnefond intrusive

DDH 17315-20-117 returned 29.38 g/t Au over 5.6m including 111.70 g/t Au over 1.4m in a shear zone south of the Bonnefond intrusive.

DDH 17315-20-119A returned 1.79g/t Au over 228.7m including 13.58 g/t Au over 7.0m in the Bonnefond intrusive.

Since 2017, when QMX first began drilling at Bonnefond, this deposit has continuously shown its strong upside potential. As with all the previous drilling campaigns, the results from the Winter Program consistently expand the project both in size and grade. We anticipate this will continue as we explore the shear zones to the north of the deposit over the summer months, commented Brad Humphrey, President and Chief Executive Officer. In the coming weeks and months, we look forward to a number of key catalysts including, the Bonnefond resource update and further drill results from Bonnefond and River and the initial results from the Poulmaque target.



We are very excited to once again show that our Bonnefond project is high in grade, especially where the shear zones are in contact with the tonalite intrusion, says Dr. Andreas Rompel, Vice President Exploration, and we are looking forward to an updated resource estimate for Bonnefond later this summer.

Story continues

The Bonnefond deposit is composed of a tonalitic intrusion with an elliptical shape measuring approximately 250m by 60m and dipping 70 degrees to the north-east and a series of mineralized shear zones dipping 45 degrees to the north which lie south of the intrusive body.

The three drill holes included in this batch of assays are located in the central part of the Bonnefond deposit (Figure 2). DDH 114 and 117 targeted the series of shear zones located to the south and north of the tonalite. They both intercepted grades typical of the Bonnefond intrusive. DDH 117 was also successful at intersecting high-grade mineralization in a shear zone south of the intrusive which assayed 29.38 g/t Au over 5.6m including 111.70 g/t Au over 1.4m.

DDH 119A was drilled close to the eastern edge of the intrusive, down plunge, to test grade continuity between pre-existing drill holes. Mid-way along its length the hole exited the tonalite but re-entered it about 60m further down the hole. The drill hole returned two sections of mineralized tonalite grading 1.79 g/t Au over 228.7m and 1.05 g/t Au over 184.3m.

The three drill holes intersected several high-grade zones within the tonalite with grades ranging from 4.55 g/t Au over 2.8m to 13.58 g/t Au over 7.0m.

Table 1: Results from DDH 114, 117 and 119A - Bonnefond Deposit

Hole Number Azimuth

() Dip

() Hole

Length From

(metre) To

(metre) Length*

(metre) Au**

(g/t) Comment 17315-20-114 180 -80 655 356.8 493.0 136.2 1.18 Tonalite Incl. 362.8 364.8 2.0 5.09 Incl. 411.0 414.0 3.0 12.14 17315-20-117 180 -80 520 46.5 52.5 6.0 2.09 South Shear 240.7 329.0 88.3 1.69 Tonalite Incl. 277.4 282.5 5.1 14.89 Incl. 326.4 329.0 2.6 4.09 350.2 354.0 3.8 2.43 South Shear 365.0 368.2 3.2 5.29 South Shear 415.8 421.4 5.6 29.38 South Shear Incl. 420.0 421.4 1.4 111.70 17315-20-119A 5 -70 582 48.0 276.7 228.7 1.79 Tonalite Incl. 150.7 165.2 14.5 4.05 Incl. 216.0 223.0 7.0 13.58 305.8 317.3 11.5 1.86 Shear Zone 342.2 526.5 184.3 1.05 Tonalite Incl. 469.2 471.2 2.0 9.03 Incl. 475.2 477.2 2.0 5.30 Incl. 506.0 508.0 2.0 17.55 Incl. 523.7 526.5 2.8 4.55

* Reported length measured along the hole.

** Au uncut

Figure 1: Results from DDH 114, 117 and 119A - Bonnefond Deposit

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b5076a32-e555-4b5e-bc14-a4395402fc35

Figure 2: QMXs extensive and target-rich land package

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/173a8b04-7437-45a4-b7dd-65fbc9f242b3

Current Exploration Drilling

QMX Gold currently has 3 drill rigs turning on its Val dOr property, with one drilling on the River Target and two drilling on the East Zone.

At the Bonnefond Deposit, QMX is in the process of updating the 2019 43-101 resource estimate and has commenced a 10,000m exploration program on Bonnefond to test for new mineralized shear zones north of the current pit shell. Drilling results, compilation and close-by projects suggest the currently known series of shear zones could extend further north on the Bonnefond property.

QMX has also launched a follow up exploration drilling program on the River Target as a result of its highly successful reconnaissance program, which returned 39.83g/t Au over 2.0m in DDH 17421-19-046 (See Press Release January 26, 2020) and 38.69g/t Au over 3.5m in DDH 17421-19-048 (See Press Release February 24, 2020).

The planned reconnaissance drilling program on the Poulmaque Target, located on the eastern side of the Bourlamaque batholith, will commence shortly. The objective of this initial program of at least 3,000m is to narrow the target area.

Poulmaque is a highly prospective target located 3km west of Probe Metals Courvan gold trend and 5km from the Pascalis gold trend. The northern end of the target area hosts the F-Zone and the southern end the Callahan deposit on QMX Golds Beacon property. The F-Zone has returned 10.93g/t Au over 1.4m and 28.45g/t Au over 1.6m according to the MERN Sigeom database and the Callahan deposit was drilled by QMX in 2017 returning quartz veins grading 32.6g/t Au over 1.0m and 7.6g/t Au over 3.0m in drill hole DDH 17319-17-005 (See Press Release May 23, 2017).

Quality Control

During the drilling program, assay samples were taken from the NQ core and sawed in half. One half is sent to Swaslab Ltd., a certified commercial laboratory. The other half of the core is retained for future reference. A strict quality assurance and quality control program was applied to all samples, which included insertion of mineralized standards, blank samples and duplicates inside each batch of 20 samples. The gold analyses were completed by fire-assay with an atomic absorption finish on 50 grams of material. Repeats were carried out by fire-assay with a gravimetric finish on each sample containing 5.0 g/t Au or more. The gold analyses were undertaken by fire-assay on 50 grams of pulp with an atomic absorption finish. Repeats were carried out by fire-assay with a gravimetric finish on each sample containing 5.0 g/t Au or more.

Qualified Persons

The scientific and technical content of this press release has been reviewed, prepared and approved by Melanie Pichon, P.Geo, M.Sc, Exploration Manager, who is a "Qualified Person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101").

About QMX Gold Corporation

QMX Gold Corporation is a Canadian based resource company traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol QMX. The Company is systematically exploring its extensive property position in the Val dOr mining camp in the Abitibi District of Quebec. QMX Gold is currently drilling in the Val dOr East portion of its land package focused on the Bonnefond Deposit and in the Bourlamaque Batholith. In addition to its extensive land package QMX Gold owns the strategically located Aurbel gold mill and tailings facility.

Contact Information: Brad Humphrey

President and CEO Louis Baribeau

Public Relations

Tel: (514) 667-2304 Toll free: +1 877-717-3027 Email: info@qmxgold.ca Website: www.qmxgold.ca

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information:



This press release contains or may be deemed to contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements regarding future plans, operations and activities, planned drilling programs, projected mineralization, timing of assay results, and the ability of the Company to continue as a going concern. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company, its properties and/or its projects to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to those risks described in the disclosure documents of the Company filed under the Companys profile on SEDAR. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

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.




Beyond comprehension is how Eugene Levy describes the 15 Emmy Award nominations that Schitts Creek received on Tuesday morning.

Last year, we got four nominations and we were dancing on a cloud, the Canadian comedy legend said by phone from Los Angeles. It hasnt quite sunk in yet. Its still spinning at the top of my head.

Levy and co-star Catherine OHara got repeat Emmy nods for Best Actor and Actress in a Comedy, as did Debra Hanson for costume design. The CBC show, which airs in the U.S. on Pop TV, was also once again nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series.

On top of that, Annie Murphy got her first ever Emmy nomination, for Best Supporting Actress, and Daniel Levy, Eugenes son, nominated last year as one of the series producers, also got Best Supporting Actor, writing and directing nominations this time around. The series also received nods for casting, picture editing, sound mixing, hair and makeup, with double nominations in the writing and picture editing categories.

Im telling you, I could not be prouder of that boy, Eugene said of his son. He just poured his heart and soul into the show.

The Levys, OHara and Murphy  who play members of the riches-to-rags Rose family in the series  were celebrating the shows bounty remotely with texts and phone calls to each other.

Daniel was at a friends cottage in Muskoka; OHara somewhere in Ontario and Murphy at her Toronto home.

OHara said she was just sitting by the window looking at the lake, drinking a cup of tea and (eating) some toast. Ill go jump in the lake and put myself in my place.

When Murphy learned about her nomination, she was sitting on a floor eating pancakes and gathered around a laptop with her husband and some friends.

What was her first reaction? A whole bunch of expletives and, I mean, Im just so, so proud  of the show and the entire team behind it, she said in a phone call.

She was going to celebrate by pouring a Mimosa to go with her pancakes. And Levy Sr., who learned about the nominations from his daughter Sarah, who played waitress Twyla on Schitts Creek, was going to send out some congratulatory emails, make some more phone calls and walk Daniels dog, Redmond.

Both Levy and OHara echoed Murphys comment that the nominations are a tribute to everyone who worked on the show, which ended its run in April.

I wish I could see everybody on the crew, OHara said. They all worked so hard; they were all so creative and fun-loving. I miss everyone.

This is only the second time Levy Sr. and OHara have been nominated for lead acting Emmys, which seems surprising given how revered they both are, for sketch comedy series SCTV and their other TV and movie work. Both won Emmys previously for writing on SCTV.

OHara called the Schitts Creek nominations a lovely bonus.

I received a great gift being able to work with Eugene again, and Daniel and all the lovely people in Toronto  it was a wonderful experience. Why would I expect anything more?

When we started, this was a small show on CBC that we shot in Goodwood, Ontario, Murphy added. Even though we had Eugene Levy and Catherine OHara attached to it, and everything (they touch) turns to gold, I dont think anyone knew this was on the horizon.

Indeed, Schitts Creek was strictly a Canadian concern until Netflix picked it up a few years ago and its popularity began to soar.

Daniel Levy created the show with the help of Eugene, about a rich family who loses everything and has to move to a small town they bought as a joke because of its unlikely name, holing up in two rooms of a motel.

The series became beloved for its big-hearted, LGBTQ-friendly world view.

According to the people who watch our show  it brings them comfort and makes them optimistic about a world that we can live in with love and acceptance and a lot of laughs, OHara said, particularly in this scary reality.

Victory is, of course, far from assured for Schitts Creek, despite the fan adoration and heaps of critical praise it has received this year.

Its competition in the Best Comedy category includes Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dead to Me, The Good Place, Insecure, The Kominsky Method, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and What We Do in the Shadows, while there are also some heavy hitters in the acting categories.

Other Canadian Emmy nominees this year include Sandra Oh for Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Killing Eve; Luke Kirby for Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; Martin Short for Guest Actor in a Drama Series for The Morning Show; Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, hosted by the titular Toronto-born comedian; Antoni Porowski as one of the hosts of Queer Eye; and Kevin OLeary for Shark Tank.

HBOs Watchmen led all shows with 26 nominations while Netflix broke the record for the most nominations of any network or platform with 160.

The Best Drama Series nominees include HBOs Succession; Netflixs Ozark, The Crown and Stranger Things; Hulus The Handmaids Tale, AMCs Better Call Saul; BBC Americas Killing Eve; and, in a surprise inclusion, The Mandalorian from Disney Plus.

The top show for another new streaming service, the Apple TV Plus series The Morning Show, did not receive a nod in the Best Drama category, but two of its stars, Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell, landed nominations for their work on the show.

CORRECTION  JULY 28, 2020: This story has been edited from an earlier version that said this was only the second time Catherine OHara had been nominated for an acting Emmy. In fact, its her second lead actress nomination, but she was nominated for supporting actress in a miniseries in 2010 for Temple Grandin.
Morgan County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Katherine N. Green, 31, of 101 E. Tremont St., Waverly, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 3:45 p.m. Friday on a battery charge.

 Destiny B. Ingram, 23, of 304 W. Walnut St., Mount Sterling, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 6:21 p.m. Saturday on charges of disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing.

 Dakota J. Pate, 32, of 1100 Day St., Beardstown, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 4:15 a.m. Sunday on a charge of aggravated battery.

 Leigha N. Morrell, 33, of 303 W. Jackson St., Athens, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 5:37 a.m. Sunday on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting a peace officer.

THEFTS, BURGLARIES

 A firearm was stolen from a residence in the 100 block of East Elm Street in Waverly, according to a report filed at 8:40 p.m. Friday.

Jacksonville Police

ACCIDENTS

 Beverly A. Fricke, 71, of Jacksonville was cited on a charge of failing to yield at a stop or yield intersection after the car she was driving struck a car being driven by Keagan A. Gilbert, 18, of Jacksonville at 2:13 p.m. Sunday at Douglas Avenue and North Main Street. The impact of the crash caused Gilberts car to hit a wall at US Bank.

THEFTS, BURGLARIES

 MCS Community Services at 345 W. State St. was broken into during the weekend and unspecified items were removed, according to a report filed at 6:27 a.m. Monday.

 A wallet was stolen from a car parked in the 1000 block of Doolin Avenue between 3 and 10 a.m. Sunday. The wallet and its contents were altogether valued at $1,710, according to a police report.

 Two bicycles were taken from a residence in the 300 block of Brookside Drive between noon Saturday and noon Sunday.

 A wallet fell off a car as it was being driven in the 400 block of West College Avenue at 11:22 p.m. Sunday and was gone by the time the driver went around the block. It contained about $360.

OTHER REPORTS

 Twenty syringes and a meth pipe were found in a yard in the 100 block of West Chambers Street at 12:19 p.m. Sunday. An officer retrieved and disposed of the items.



Pike County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Austin S. Mason, 24, of Barry was arrested at 3:16 a.m. Friday on a charge of domestic battery.

 Kenny L. Voepel, 49, of Philadelphia, Missouri, was arrested at 1:43 a.m. Thursday on a charge of driving under the influence.

 Antwon D. Stevenson, 41, of Kansas City, Kansas, was arrested at 12:50 a.m. Thursday on a charge of driving under the influence.

 Teale M. Meighan, 42, of Pittsfield was arrested at 6:11 p.m. Thursday on a violation of an order of protection.

Compiled by David C.L. Bauer
The Building Main Street, not Wall Street column rarely ventures into the political arena. However, I feel compelled to bring this to your attention, as this impacts every local community in such a dramatic fashion. Additionally, this will provide an opportunity for you to make a significant impact in your community in a very simple and yes, a patriotic way.

I am reminded of a quote by Thomas Paine, These are the times that try men's souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. One might rightfully ask, how does this famous quote by a Founding Father relate to myself and our community today? Let me explain.

It is no secret that local media is a tough business, in fact, since the outbreak of COVID-19 earlier this year, most local media companies have lost a significant portion of their revenue and many are nearing a breaking point. Hundreds of communities around the country have already lost their local media voice. When a community loses their media voice, they lose a valuable local information conduit for the community. Additionally, they also lose the messenger that spreads local information to the outside world. This is the same local voice our Founding Fathers referred to when considering the value and importance of assuring freedom of the press in maintaining our Democratic-Republic.

In response to the current pandemic and crisis in local media, Francis Wick, one of the brightest young minds in the news-media industry and CEO of Wick Communications worked with his local congressional representatives in Arizona to create what has become known as the Local Journalism Sustainability Act. This powerful bipartisan piece of legislation is actually simple. This legislation empowers local communities to stand-up and provide support to their local media companies in a community-wide way saving them money at the same time. Without boring you with extensive detail, let me summarize this legislation.

 It provides tax credits (much better than a deduction) to local media supporters for simply supporting their local media company by subscribing to their service. This now makes supporting the local media financially appealing for subscribers.

 It provides small local businesses tax credits for advertising in their local media. Many small businesses have very tight budgets. Due to this, advertising, marketing and branding are difficult without those deep pockets of financial resources. This legislation provides a shot in the arm to any local business with fewer than 1000 employees. This will be a huge benefit for local businesses and thus the community.

 It provides tax credits for your local media companies to employ local journalists in their markets. In order to provide accurate and timely news, it takes a dedicated staff. This legislation allows local media companies to invest in the communities in which they serve.

Often, we ask ourselves, how can I make a difference? I am only one person and one person really hasnt much of a voice in government. Nothing could be further from the truth. When a local media company folds, studies have shown the cost of local government increases 30% within four to five years, civic pride diminishes, voting numbers drop, economic vitality declines and volunteering fades away. This is a unique opportunity that allows just a few voices to make a dramatic impact in the future of your local community.

What can I do now? That is very simple, reach out by phone to your federal representatives and ask them to support this critical piece of legislation. Follow that up with a letter. Let them know how important local media is to your community. Then share this column with your family, friends and neighbors, your city leaders, your chamber and/or Main Street organizations and encourage them to do the same.

Time is of the essence, the economic pressures on local communities are mounting. As pressure increases, so will the pressure on your local media company. Now is not the time to be the summer soldier or sunshine patriot that Thomas Paine mentioned. Now is the time to move quickly and take action that can be the difference between your community losing the freedom of the press or maintaining it. Being a patriot doesnt always mean fighting a war or placing yourself in harms way, it can also be the little, yet powerful efforts of the hidden few that save a community  now is one of those moments. Your community awaits your efforts!

John A. Newby is partnering with the Daily News for this"Building Main Street, Not Wall Street " column series dedicated to helping communities combine synergies with local media allowing them to not just survive, but thrive in a world where Truly Local is lost to Amazon and Wall Street chains. Readers can email Newby at john@360MediaAlliance.net
The latest in a series of EU Humanitarian Air Bridge flights with over 40 tons of medical and emergency supplies to reinforce the humanitarian response has arrived in Iraq.



The flight is part of the ongoing Team Europe support to deliver assistance to the most serious humanitarian crisis in the world, which are impacted by transport restrictions in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.



The EU is also providing a new humanitarian aid package of 35 million ($41 million) to help victims of conflict and forced displacement in Iraq and boost the coronavirus response.



Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, said: "The EU continues to stand by those most in need in Iraq. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, humanitarian organisations are facing very difficult access conditions, while the needs in Iraq are increasing. This humanitarian air bridge is a tangible expression of EU solidarity with the most vulnerable.



EU humanitarian assistance in Iraq focuses on delivering lifesaving assistance such as emergency healthcare, shelter, access to safe water and sanitation, education and protection. EU humanitarian aid is channelled to some 400,000 people, many of them women and children.



Since 2015, over 490 million in humanitarian support has been provided in the country.  TradeArabia News Service
I currently have a holiday booked to Spain in two weeks time.

Now the Government has changed the rules and said travellers have to quarantine for 14 days after their return, I am unable to go as I cannot afford to take the time off work, where I have recently returned.

This is obviously very disappointing and I am worried about how much money I might lose. Is it possible to make a claim on my travel insurance to get the cost of the holiday back if I cancel the flights?

Every Briton now returning from Spain has to quarantine for two weeks, under new rules

Grace Gausden, This is Money, replies: Many holidaymakers plans will be scuppered after the Government changed the rules regarding travel to Spain this weekend.

Travellers will now be looking to cancel their travel plans as they will not wish to quarantine for two weeks on their return from Spain.

This will especially be the case now many people have started returning to their place of work as the coronavirus lockdown restrictions ease.

Unfortunately, that raises the question about whether customers who booked their holiday to Spain before the quarantine came into effect will be able to get their money back if they are no longer able to go.

Your travel insurance might cover you for a range of issues with your holiday.

As the Foreign and Commonwealth Office guidelines currently state that holidaymakers should not make any travel to mainland Spain that isnt essential, it may be that you are entitled to get your money back.

This means you could get a refund from your travel insurance as the guidance changed as of Sunday 26 July and you booked before this date.

Many airlines are also likely to cancel flights to Spain if there is an increased risk of infection which means you will be offered a refund.

Tui has already announced it is cancelling all flights until August 9 in reaction to the news.

The Government's decision will affect many holidaymakers as thousands head to Spain each year (pictured: Benidorm)

However, if you choose to cancel flights, it may be that you will not be recompensed, even though it is due to restrictions being put in place.

Similarly, if you are due to travel to another European destination, such as France or Italy, and want to cancel your flights for fear 14 days quarantine will be imposed for those who travel there, you are unlikely to get a refund.

This is because you are choosing to not travel, known in the insurance industry as disinclination to travel compared to not being able to.

Brian Brown, of Defaqto, replies: If you are in Spain now your insurance will cover you as normal. This will include curtailment and medical claims. However, it will not include curtailment if you just want to come home early.

You wont however have any compensation from your travel insurer for any enforced quarantine on your return to the UK.

If you are on your way to Spain right now by car you might also have problems. If you enter Spain after the FCO advised you not to, then you will have no cover at all, including medical insurance.

So, if you are driving through France to Spain, you should turn around and come home, or find somewhere else to have your holiday.

If you have a booking to Spain but cant now travel because the FCO has advised against it, your first recourse will be to the travel provider.

Tui has confirmed it is cancelling all flights to Spain until August 9 in response to the new rules

Airlines and package operators will likely cancel the flight/holiday. You should ask them for a refund, or to transfer your holiday to another destination or time.

If you cant get refunds, for instance if you booked your accommodation directly with the hotel, your travel insurance might pay out, but only if the policy covers you for change of government advice and you booked the holiday and bought the insurance before the FCO changed its advice.

You will need to check your insurance policy wording.

If you are planning to travel somewhere else, where the FCO currently says you can go, but now dont want to take the risk then no travel insurance policy will cover you for cancellation. Disinclination to travel is not an insured peril.

Sally Jaques of GoCompare Travel Insurance, replies: If a holiday company is still taking customers to mainland Spain, which at the moment would be against FCO advice, those holidaymakers are between a rock and hard place.

They cant cancel their holiday and claim their holiday cost back on their insurance and by travelling to a destination classified as an area where the advice is to avoid all non-essential travel, they will be invalidating their travel insurance policy.

If they fall ill abroad, have an accident, or have their luggage lost or stolen, their insurer is unlikely to pay out a claim.

The best option for holidaymakers in this situation who dont want to take the risk is to request to rebook their trip for a later date, when hopefully the pandemic will have abated or at least the situation will be clearer. However, holiday companies are under no obligation to do this.

If a travel insurance policyholder is already abroad when the FCO change their advice to stop all non-essential travel to a country, the insurer will usually still provide cover for the rest of the holiday. The policy is only null and void if the FCO advice changes before departure and the customer decides to travel anyway.

The sudden turnaround of advice regarding travelling to mainland Spain and the quarantine requirements imposed for all of Spain, including its islands, highlights how unpredictable foreign travel is at the moment.

Customers booking holidays anywhere this summer run the risk of having their trips cancelled or being left in an almost impossible situation of not wishing to travel, being pushed into ignoring FCO advice by their tour operator and invalidating their insurance whilst away.

Frankly anyone choosing to go abroad this year is taking a gamble.

Grace Gausden, This is Money, adds: It seems that each individual case will be different depending on the level of insurance they have and their circumstances.

The first thing to do is contact your travel provider and find out what their policy is.

If they are not offering refunds for cancelled flights, then contact your travel insurer and see what you are covered for.

If your policy cannot cover you under these circumstances then another port of call is your bank. See if you can use the chargeback scheme to claim your money back for your flights.

If you had paid by credit card, Section 75 protection covers transactions costing between 100 and 30,000 - where at least part of the purchase was made using your credit card.

If you paid on a debit card, you can also use chargeback, which is a scheme which gives customers a chance of getting your money back from your bank if you bought faulty goods, a service wasn't provided, or the company you bought something from went bust and your goods weren't delivered.
LANDOVER, Md., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Giant Food, the Washington D.C. area's leading regional grocery chain, is teaming up with Avocados from Peru (AFP) to donate a trailer of over 40,000 pounds of Avocados from Peru, also known as summer avocados, to Feeding America network members Capital Area Food Bank in Northeast Washington, D.C., and the Maryland Food Bank in Baltimore, Md. Both deliveries will take place on National Avocado Day, Friday, July 31, 2020.

These generous donations will make the globally popular "superfood" more accessible to DMV area families during these challenging times. Depending on their size, that's over 120,000 avocados of the beloved fruit.

"The impact of COVID-19 has been swift and unprecedented. It is therefore a privilege for Avocados from Peru to partner with Giant Food to support people who might be struggling to feed their families during the unparalleled crisis affecting our local communities," said Xavier Equihua, President and CEO of the Peruvian Avocado Commission.

"Avocados are not only a versatile ingredient that can be used for anything from breakfast to sweet or savory dishes. They also make us feel good, and are nutritionally dense, packed with vitamins, minerals, and healthy mono-saturated fats," said Lisa Coleman, Director of Healthy Living at Giant Food. "We are excited to be able to provide this superfood as part of our ongoing efforts to make sure that all families in our community have access to healthy food options."

"The current need for emergency food is unlike anything we've experienced in our forty-year history," said Radha Muthiah, President and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank. "With the dramatic decline in retail donations that's occurred as a result of the pandemic, we're so thankful to be receiving a truckload of healthy, easy-to-distribute food that's also culturally relevant for many of the people we serve. Avocados from Peru is making a big difference for many of the thousands of families in our region that are struggling to put meals on the table right now."

The Capital Area Food Bank delivery will feature one of the Peruvian Brothers' famous food trucks from the popular Giuseppe and Mario Lanzone. Capital Area Food Bank staff will also receive a delicious boxed meal made with Avocados from Peru.

"COVID-related demand has reached unprecedented levels, so this donation of high-quality produce could not have come at a better time," Maryland Food Bank President & CEO Carmen Del Guercio said. "We appreciate Giant's longstanding partnership and their willingness to join with companies like Avocados from Peru to expand their philanthropic efforts even further. These nutrient-rich avocados will be a welcome addition to the product mix we make available to our network of community partners all over Maryland."

Avocados from Peru, also known as the Summer Avocado, are available in all Giant Food stores through September, the peak season for America's favorite superfood. Throughout the summer Giant shoppers will also have free access to AFP's new e-cookbook, "Avocados in Bloom," featuring more than 50 delicious recipes, beautiful photos, and helpful tips for using avocados, as well as valuable nutritional information. In-store displays at Giant will feature "ripening tips" so shoppers can take the guesswork out of achieving prime avo-readiness.

Now more than ever, consumers are seeking ways to maintain their health and provide their families with nutritious food. Giant continues to show its dedication to keeping local communities healthy and promoting access to the food they need.

To learn more about Giant's efforts to support hunger relief and the needs of its communities during this challenging time, visit Giantfood.com.

About Giant Food

Giant Food is headquartered in Landover, Md. and operates 163 supermarkets in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia with approximately 20,000 associates. Included within the 163 stores are 153 full-service pharmacies, 81 full-service PNC Banks and 23 Starbucks locations. With flexible options and convenient solutions, Giant fits all the ways today's busy consumers want to shop  whether in store, via Giant Pickup or home delivery from Giant Delivers which combined serves 159 store locations. For more information on Giant, visit www.giantfood.com.

About the Peruvian Avocado Commission

The Peruvian Avocado Commission (PAC) is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was established in 2010 to increase the consumption/demand for Avocados from Peru through advertising, retail promotion and public relations. The PAC's promotional activities are conducted under the guidelines of the federal promotion program for Hass avocados, which is under the oversight of the USDA. For more information about the PAC, please visit www.avocadosfromperu.com.

About the Capital Area Food Bank

Now commemorating its 40th anniversary year, the Capital Area Food Bank works to address hunger today and create brighter futures tomorrow for close to 400,000 people across the region experiencing food insecurity. As the anchor in the area's hunger relief infrastructure, the food bank provides over 30 million meals to people in need each year by supplying food to 450+ nonprofit organizations, including Martha's Table, SOME  So Others Might Eat, DC Central Kitchen, Food for Others, Manna, and others.

About the Maryland Food Bank

The Maryland Food Bank is a nonprofit hunger-relief organization dedicated to feeding people, strengthening communities, and ending hunger for more Marylanders by partnering with local organizations from the western mountains to the Eastern Shore. Last year, the food bank's statewide network of food assistance brought enough resources together to provide the equivalent of 110,000 meals every day (over 40 million meals annually) to hungry children, seniors, veterans, and hard-working families, meeting the immediate needs of hungry Marylanders while simultaneously working to create pathways out of hunger.

SOURCE Giant Food

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By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a bid to silence the detractors of Shashi Tharoor who criticised the Congress MP for not taking steps to construct a sea wall in the coastal areas of the Thiruvananthapuram, KPCC has stated that MP was informed by the Centre that the seawall construction cannot be included under the Central Governments flagship Sagarmala programme.KPCC general secretary Manacaud Suresh, in his Facebook post, said that Tharoor had relentlessly raised the issue in Parliament where Central Jal Shakti Minister Rattan Lal Kataria had informed him that the construction of seawalls is the responsibility of the state government.

Sagarmala project focuses on various infrastructure projects, coastal berth projects, fishing harbours and skill development projects which are being implemented by central ministries, state governments, Ports and other agencies. It is the flagship programme of the shipping ministry to promote port-led development in the country by exploiting Indias 7,500 km long coastline, 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways and its strategic location on key international maritime trade routes.

The construction of sea walls does not come under the ambit of flagship project.Even though the Centre provides technical advice as per Flood Management and Border Areas Programme, the Central cabinet has decided against providing funds towards seawall construction. Accordingly, Tharoor had written a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and `30 lakh was awarded from the MPs fund urging him to kick off the seawall construction, said Suresh.He warned that instead of highlighting the state and Central Governments laxity in dealing with the sea erosion and dearth of seawall construction, it is unfortunate that the local MP and Congress leaders are being criticised.
A Sinn Fein TD has issued defamation proceedings against RTE and broadcaster Joe Duffy.

The case is being taken by Cork South Central TD Donnchadh O Laoghaire and is understood to relate to an item on the Liveline show.

Mr OLaoghaire declined to comment on the action, which was initiated in the High Court on Monday.

He is being represented in the matter by Dublin law firm Damien Sheridan Solicitors.

Papers have yet to be filed in the case and the full set of reliefs being sought by Mr O Laoghaire are not yet known.

Expand Close Sinn Feins Donnchadh O Laoghaire (Niall Carson/PA) / Facebook

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He is the partys spokesman on education and topped the poll in a constituency which includes Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney and Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath.

News of the action come just months after Mr Duffy apologised over incorrect comments he made about another Sinn Fein TD Aengus O Snodaigh.

The apology related to a programme on February 12 when Mr Duffy wrongly stated Mr O Snodaigh had been convicted of a public order offence in the past.

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The broadcaster said he and RTE regretted the mistake and offered a sincere and unreserved apology.

Last month party president Mary Lou McDonald received an apology and an undisclosed financial settlement from a former Fianna Fail TD as part of the settlement of defamation proceedings.

Ms McDonald sued Declan Breathnach in the High Court over comments on Twitter in which she alleged he portrayed her as condoning the murders of gardai.

Another high-profile party figure, former president Gerry Adams, is also involved in defamation proceedings.

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He is suing the BBC, claiming it defamed him when it broadcast a programme containing an allegation he sanctioned the murder of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson, who acted as a spy for the British for decades. The claims were made in a Spotlight programme in 2016.
Photo: The Canadian Press

A retired members of Parliament who represented the southeastern British Columbia riding of Kootenay-Columbia for 18 years has died.

Several politicians, including current Kootenay-Columbia MP Rob Morrison, posted messages on social media mourning the death of James Abbott.

Born in Toronto, Abbott died Sunday in hospital in Cranbrook, B.C., just three weeks before he would have turned 78.

Morrison says Abbott embodied the definition of a leader while representing the riding in five elections between 1993 and 2011, first as a member of the Reform Party for the now-redrawn riding of Kootenay East.

He captured nearly 68 per cent of the vote as a member of the Canadian Alliance in 2000 and was returned to Parliament three more times as a Conservative.

Morrison's post says Abbott was sworn in as a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada in 2007.

"He represented our area with a gentle spirit and was guided by an unwavering commitment to his constituents," Morrison says.

Abbott is survived by his wife, Jeannette, and family.
WASHINGTON - An Army National Guard officer who witnessed protesters forcibly removed from Lafayette Square last month is contradicting claims by the attorney general and the Trump administration they did not speed up the clearing to make way for the president's photo opportunity minutes later.

A new statement by Adam DeMarco, an Iraq veteran who now serves as a major in the D.C. National Guard, also casts doubt on the claims by acting Park Police Chief Gregory Monahan that violence by protesters spurred Park Police to clear the area at that time with unusually aggressive tactics. DeMarco said that "demonstrators were behaving peacefully" and that tear gas was deployed in an "excessive use of force."

DeMarco backs up law enforcement officials who told The Washington Post that they thought the clearing operation would happen after the 7 p.m. curfew that night - but it was dramatically accelerated after Attorney General William Barr and others appeared in the park about 6 p.m. Monahan has said the operation was conducted so a fence might be erected around the park. DeMarco said that the fencing materials did not arrive until 9 p.m. - hours after Barr told the Park Police to expand the perimeter - and that the fence was not built until later that night.

DeMarco's account of events also reveals for the first time the details of the visit that Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made to Lafayette Square just before the move on protesters - and the warning he gave his troops.

Milley, who had arrived in the park with Barr about 30 minutes before the clearing, warned DeMarco to keep officers from going overboard. "General Milley told me to ensure that National Guard personnel remained calm, adding that we were there to respect the demonstrators' First Amendment rights," DeMarco said.

Milley has since apologized for his presence in Lafayette Square, saying, "I should not have been there. My presence in that moment, and in that environment, created the perception of the military involved in domestic politics."

DeMarco is scheduled to testify Tuesday before the House Natural Resources Committee, which is investigating the government's actions in clearing protesters away from Lafayette Square with projectiles, gas, smoke and mounted police, including an apparent assault on Australian journalists by two Park Police officers. His statement was posted Monday on the committee's website.

Monahan also is scheduled to testify. In a statement posted Monday evening by the committee, Monahan says violence beginning May 29 outside the White House led to the decision to expand the perimeter with fencing that protesters could not scale. "The unprecedented and sustained nature of the violence and destruction associated with some of the activities in Lafayette Park and surrounding park areas immediate and adjacent to the White House required de-escalation," and that the decision was made late on May 30, the chief's statement says.

Monahan said, "Once the fencing arrived, an on-the-ground assessment of the violence and danger presented by the crowd led to the clearing of the Park and the installation of the fence." That conflicts with DeMarco's claim that the fencing did not arrive until later that night.

"The hearing comes at an interesting time, during the protests in Portland and Seattle," said Rep. Raul Grijalv, D-Ariz., chair of the natural resources committee, "and the presence of both police and ICE in those areas. What happened at Lafayette Square was kind of a precursor to the escalations this administration is using, the using of federal law enforcement, the contemplation of use of the military in these communities."

The Trump administration has said the clearing operation was planned in advance, and Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec previously said, "No one voiced disagreement with that plan." The White House has not commented on the timing of the operation, which started about 30 minutes before the 7 p.m. curfew.

As police were clearing the area around Lafayette Square, Trump began a short speech at the White House, and some of the small explosions from the park could be heard in the background. Trump then walked with an entourage to the park, which is adjacent to the White House, and stood in front of St. John's Episcopal Church. He was photographed holding a Bible, did not make any remarks, and then walked back to the White House.

Barr said in a news conference on June 4 that he made the decision to expand the perimeter north of Lafayette Square.

"There was no correlation between our tactical plan of moving the perimeter out by one block and the president's going over to the church," Barr said.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Laws and court rulings require police to provide demonstrators with repeated, clear warnings of officers' intentions and then adequate time and avenues for protesters to disperse peacefully, but DeMarco said the warnings given on June 1 almost certainly could not be heard by the crowd. If the street was cleared to accommodate Trump, rules of engagement for the Secret Service also may have been broken.

After the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on May 25, demonstrations began at Lafayette Square and elsewhere in the nation's capital. On the night of May 31, projectiles and fireworks were launched toward Park Police officers and National Guard soldiers stationed in the park, and fires were set both at the park and in the adjacent St. John's. Park Police have said 51 officers were injured in the days immediately after the protests began.

The next day, a number of agencies gathered to defend the park, including the Park Police, Secret Service, the D.C. National Guard and Arlington County, Va., police. A 2 p.m. meeting was held at an FBI command center with the heads of the agencies, and Barr told CBS News that a decision to expand the perimeter around the park "was communicated to all the police agencies."

But no specific time or plan of action was discussed, District of Columbia Police Chief Peter Newsham and National Guard chief Gen. Joseph Lengyel told The Post last month. DeMarco's testimony corroborates that version. A curfew was set for 7 p.m., "so I was not expecting any clearing operation to commence before then," DeMarco said.

But at 6:05 p.m., DeMarco said, Barr and Milley entered the park. DeMarco said he briefed the Army general, who told him to respect the demonstrators' rights. Grijalva said it seemed that Milley knew something was planned, "there's a tinderbox here and he wants his people to respect the rights of the protesters."

Milley has testified that he had no prior knowledge of the forcible clearing of Lafayette Square. A Defense Department official said Monday that Milley was surveying the situation in the park because of the president's wish to use military troops to quell protests, and Milley was satisfied that law enforcement could handle the protest.

"We had seen a lot of violence in protests over the previous days," the official said. "He was just reminding forces on the ground that we were there to support law enforcement and to stay calm in the face of uncertainty."

At 6:20 p.m., DeMarco said, the Park Police issued three warning announcements to the protesters. But he said the warnings were made using a hand-held megaphone at the base of an Andrew Jackson statue, 50 yards from the protesters. DeMarco said he stood 20 yards from the protesters, "the announcements were barely audible and I saw no indication that the demonstrators were cognizant of the warnings to disperse."

The operation to clear the protesters began at 6:30 p.m., DeMarco said. The National Guard did not participate in the direct push, but it was used to follow the officers who dispersed the protesters and establish the new perimeter, DeMarco said. The Guard members were not armed.

As the federal and local police waded into the protesters, DeMarco said that he saw smoke being used and that he was told by a Park Police officer that it was "stage smoke," not tear gas. But DeMarco said, "I could feel irritation in my eyes and nose, and based on my previous exposure to tear gas in my training at West Point and later in my Army training, I recognized that irritation as effects consistent with CS or 'tear gas.' " He said he found spent tear gas canisters on the street later.

The Park Police have adamantly denied using tear gas, instead saying they shot balls with pepper spray irritant in them. The Secret Service have not commented on whether it fired tear gas.

DeMarco said that as he followed the Park Police, he saw "unidentified law enforcement personnel behind our National Guardsmen using 'paintball-like' weapons to discharge what I later learned to be 'pepper balls' into the crowd, as demonstrators continued to retreat."

The protesters were pushed a block away from Lafayette Square. At 7:05 p.m.,DeMarco said he watched Trump walking onto the street where he would have his picture taken holding up a Bible. "The president's arrival was a complete surprise," DeMarco said, "as we had not been briefed that he would enter our sector."

"As for the new security barrier," DeMarco continued, "whose installation was the stated purpose of the clearing operation, the materials to erect it did not arrive on the scene until around 9 p.m., and it was not completed until later that night." This required the local and federal police to maintain a human barricade for hours until the fence was built.

DeMarco, 34, is a U.S. Military Academy graduate and a veteran of three overseas deployments, including a combat tour in Iraq. In 2018, he ran in the Democratic primary for Congress against incumbent Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., and was critical of Trump. He now works as an associate for Booz Allen Hamilton at the Defense Intelligence Agency, according to his LinkedIn profile.

DeMarco said he was coming forward "to help ensure that there is a fair factual record of what happened at Lafayette Square, based on what I saw and experienced first-hand." He said that, having served in a combat zone and having experience in assessing threats, "at no time did I feel threatened by the protesters or assess them to be violent. . . . From my observation, these demonstrators - our fellow American citizens - were engaged in the peaceful expression of their First Amendment rights. Yet they were subjected to an unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force."

Grijalva said DeMarco's testimony showed "the discomfort the military has with policing against the American citizen. This was a political stunt at the expense of the protesters and at the expense of the reputations of the National Guard and the police."
A legal luminary, Aare Afe Babalola, on Monday, petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, over the arrest and death ...





A legal luminary, Aare Afe Babalola, on Monday, petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, over the arrest and death of one Mr. Kehinde Omotosho.





Babalola in a petition made available in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, alleged that Omotosho was arrested and detained by some officers of the anti-cultism unit of the Oyo State Criminal Investigation Department last week.





The legal luminary further explained that Omotosho was detained for six days without trial, the arrest which led to his death in police custody.





Babalola in a petition signed by one of the lawyers in his chamber, Mr. Oluwasina Ogungbade, appealed to Adamu to use his office to set up an investigation into the allegations contained in his petition.





He said, We are Solicitors to Miss Khadijat Omotosho (for herself and on behalf of other children of the late Mr. Kehinde Omotosho), and have her instructions to present to you, this Petition regarding the unlawful arrest, detention and eventual death of her father, Mr. Kehinde Omotosho, (hereinafter referred to as the deceased) on 21st July 2020 while in custody of the police officers attached to the Anti-Cultism Unit of the Oyo State Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku, Ibadan.





As we shall subsequently detail, this Petition has been presented to request urgent investigation of not only the propriety of the arrest and detention of the deceased in lieu of another person for a period of 5 days until his eventual demise but also more importantly, the circumstances surrounding his death which are rendered particularly suspicious and disturbing by a seeming attempt by certain Police Officials to cover up and distort the events leading up to this tragic incident.





In the early hours of Friday, 17th July 2020 (at about 12:30am), several police officers from the Anti-Cultism Unit of the Oyo State CID stormed the residence of our clients fathers house at No. 2, Ifedapo Zone 2, Alaja Meta, Gbaremu, Idi-Obi, Ibadan, where the deceased resided alongside other tenants. The officers from the Anti-Cultism Unit were accompanied by some other police officers in Agugu Police Division, led by one officer identified simply as SOJ.





After breaking down the door of our clients fathers residence, Mr. Omotosho (now deceased), the police officers demanded to see one Mr. Kabiru who, about 5 months prior to that time, had moved to another apartment in a different vicinity. Upon realizing that their prime suspect, Mr. Kabiru, no longer resided in the apartment, the police officers arrested the two occupants of the house  Mr. Omotosho (now deceased) and one Mr. Jelili Razaq  in lieu of the suspect. At the point of arrest, both Mr. Omotosho and Mr. Jelili Razaq requested to know the crime for which they were being arrested but instead, the police officers gun-whipped them with their weapons several times. Thereafter, the police officers from the Agugu Police Division (led by SOJ) returned to the Agugu Station while officers from the Anti-Cultism Unit proceeded with both the deceased and Mr. Jelili Razaq to the State CID. They were thereafter locked in the cell, alongside about 130 (One Hundred and Thirty) inmates. This was around 1:20am on Friday, 17th July 2020.





On Monday, 20th July 2020, the deceased and Mr. Jelili Razaq were brought before the Officer-in-Charge of the Anti-Cultism Unit for interview. In the course of the interview, the OC demanded that both the deceased and Mr. Jelili Razaq produce their prime suspect, Mr. Kabiru, before they could be released. However, both the deceased and Mr. Jelili Razaq informed the OC that they were all co-tenants, and that Mr. Kabiru had relocated to another place and did not inform them of his new location. Nevertheless, the OC insisted that their release would be consequent upon their production of Mr. Kabiru. They were, thereafter, returned to the cell. It was at the point of this interview that the police informed the deceased and Mr. Jelili Razaq that the prime suspect, Mr. Kabiru, was involved in a fight, which led to the death of a person. There was however no suspicion or allegation that either the deceased or Mr. Jelili Razaq were involved in the said fight or committed any crime whatsoever.





The following day, i.e. on 21st July at about 5am, Mr. Kehinde Omotosho, our clients father, died in police custody. Prior to his death, the deceased spent 5 days in detention while Mr. Jelili Razaq spent 6 days before being released on bail, both without any investigation, reasonable suspicion of crime, or arraignment.





From the moment of their arrest and until the death of the deceased, the officers of the Anti-Cultism Unit prevented the deceaseds and Mr. Jelili Razaqs family members from visiting them or providing them with food. Prior to his unlawful arrest, detention and death, the deceased had no underlying medical ailment.





But, Police Public Relations Officer of the State Police Command, Mr. Olugbenga Fadeyi, while reacting, said that the deceased took ill in detention and was taking to the police clinic where he later died.





Fadeyi added that autopsy will still be conducted on the deceased body so as to know the cause of death.




It seems no one likes mutual funds these days. They are passe. They underperform. Theyre too expensive.

A reader wrote recently to ask about the Mawer Global Balanced Fund. It looks like a good choice in terms of its performance, risk and volatility, however the MER seems high, he wrote.

In fact, the MER (management expense ratio) is 1.09 per cent. Thats dirt cheap for a mutual fund but when compared with the annual cost of ETFs  which is clearly what the reader is doing  it looks pricey.

But that begs the question: What do you get for the extra expense? This Mawer fund gets a five-star rating from Morningstar and an A+ from Fund Library. Very few funds can match that. Since it was launched in 2013, the fund has generated an average annual return of 9.6 per cent (to June 30). It has only lost money in one calendar year. That was in 2016 when it was down a fractional 0.6 per cent.

This is a true balanced fund, with about 60 per cent of the assets in stocks, and the rest in bonds and cash. The fund is well-diversified geographically, with 18 countries represented in the portfolio.

There are only a few ETFs with a better track record over that time and they tend to focus on technology stocks. Balanced ETFs are relatively new, and none has been around as long as the Mawer fund.

In short, youre getting a lot of value for your money with this fund. You can say the same for several other mutual funds from this small, Calgary-based company. Their U.S. Equity Fund has gained 16.4 per cent annually over the last decade (to June 30), with an MER of 1.14 per cent. The Global Equity Fund has gained 14.5 per cent a year (MER 1.31 per cent). The Global Small Cap Fund has averaged 17 per cent a year (MER 1.74 per cent).

Unfortunately, there are few mutual fund companies that can match Mawers track record, but the industry is not the wasteland some critics claim. There are good funds to be found. It just takes some searching.

Here are some tips to help you find winners, whether youre shopping for mutual funds or ETFs.

Look for consistency. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Youll find that line in any prospectus you read. And its true. However, a fund that has outperformed the averages over a consistent period is likely to continue to do so in my experience, assuming management remains the same.

Study the ratings. Morningstar and Fund Library are the two leading fund rating companies in Canada. Each uses a range of data points to arrive at a rating for the funds they cover. Five stars indicates a top performer on Morningstar. Look for A or A+ ratings at Fund Library.

Be wary of volatility. A funds average annual performance over several years may be impressive  but look behind the curtain. How has it done on a yearly basis? If you find a lot of volatility  years with big gains sandwiched around others with large losses  you may decide to pass. Volatility will likely translate into a lot of sleepless nights as you wrestle with whether to sell.

Price matters. Cheaper does not necessarily mean better, but high costs cut your returns, whether its an ETF or a mutual fund. Value for money is the key. Its OK to pay a little more if you believe the end result will be a stronger performance.

Avoid newcomers. New mutual funds and ETFs are appearing almost daily. Some have a great sales pitch and may in fact do well over time. But theres no history to guide you  nothing that allows you to compare performance against a benchmark or a fund category. Youre flying blind.

Question any advice. A broker or the financial adviser at your bank will be glad to offer suggestions on which funds to purchase, but be wary. Bank employees will tend to push their own companys funds, even if they have a mediocre track record. Some brokers may be more motivated by the fees they receive from a sale, rather than by your best interests. As a litmus test, ask any adviser what he/she thinks of the Mawer funds, which dont pay trailer fees. Youll probably be told they arent available on their platform or offered a substitute.

Finally, set aside any prejudices. ETFs may be the darlings of the market right now but check out the top-rated mutual funds as well before making any decisions.

Correction  July 28, 2020: This story has been edited to correct the name of the Mawer Global Balanced Fund.
Middle Eastern airlines cargo demand declined 19.1 per cent year-on-year in June, an improvement from the 24.9 per cent fall in May, according to figures released by the International Air Transport Association (Iata).

International capacity decreased 25.8 per cent, the best of all regions. This was driven by the aggressive operational strategies of some of the regions carriers, data showed.

All regions recorded declines in June. Airlines in Europe and Latin America suffered the sharpest drops in year-on-year growth in total air freight volumes, while airlines in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East experienced slightly less dramatic declines. Airlines in North America and Africa saw more moderate drops compared to the other regions.

Iata released data for global air freight markets in June showing improvement, but at a slower pace than some of the traditional leading indicators would suggest.

 Global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs), fell by 17.6 per cent in June (down 19.9 per cent for international operations) compared to the previous year. That is a modest improvement from the 20.1 per cent year-on-year drop recorded in May.

 Global capacity, measured in available cargo tonne-kilometers (ACTKs), shrank by 34.1 per cent in June (down 33.9 per cent for international operations) compared to the previous year. This was on par with the 34.8 per cent year-on-year drop in May.

 Belly capacity for international air cargo shrank by 70 per cent in June compared to the previous year due to the withdrawal of passenger services amid Covid-19. This was partially offset by a 32 per cent increase in capacity through expanded use of freighter aircraft.

 Global manufacturing demand stabilised in June:

- The new export orders component of the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose by 11 points compared to May, the strongest monthly increase since the series began in 1999.

- The PMI tracking global manufacturing output rebounded in June to its highest level since January.

Cargo is, by far, healthier than the passenger markets but doing business remains exceptionally challenging. While economic activity is re-starting after major lockdown disruptions there has not been a major boost in demand. The rush to get personal protective equipment (PPE) to market has subsided as supply chains regularized, enabling shippers to use cheaper sea and rail options. And the capacity crunch continues because passenger operations are recovering very slowly, said Alexandre de Juniac, Iata's Director General and CEO. - TradeArabia News Service
Still missing: The body of Madeleine McCann has never been found. Photo: PA Wire

GERMAN police are searching an allotment in Germany in connection with the Madeleine McCann case.

Investigators are carrying out a large operation in an allotment in Hanover, Germany, close to the home of Christian Brueckner, the prime suspect in the case.

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Brueckner is currently imprisoned but he spent time in Portugal in 2007, when Madeleine vanished.

German website Haz.de also reported that police are searching the Linden branch channel.

Images published by the newspaper show officers searching the area.

Its understood the operation is between the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Braunschweig public prosecutors office.

A spokesman for the prosecutors office told the Daily Mirror: I do not comment on the background and aim of this measure.

The Star newspaper reported a sniffer dog has been utilised to help in the search.

According to Haz.de Brueckner has a criminal past based in Hanover and a local district court sentenced him for falsifying documents in 2010. In 2013, he was jailed for joint theft.

A number of forces are at the scene, including a prisoner transporter, the Star reported.

There are three police vehicles and a tent with observatory technologies has been set up.

Its been reported police will remain at the scene until Wednesday.

Brueckner was identified by police last month as the prime suspect in the missing child case which has fascinated the world for over a decade.

However, there was not enough evidence to charge him in relation to the case.

Prosecutors have claimed he was near the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz, Portugal, about an hour before the child was suspected to have been snatched by an intruder.

German criminologist Mark T Hofman told the Sun newspaper there is no doubt Brueckner, a convicted paedophile, was at the scene.

Mobile phone data proves he was by the apartments, Mr Hofman said.

Also his record fits the profile. Im sure the prosecutor will pull an ace from up his sleeve and have more than we know so far.

The child vanished on May 3, 2008, days before she was due to turn four-years-old.

Madeleine, who had a distinctive eye defect, was holidaying with her doctor parents, Gerry and Kate McCann and her 18-month-old twin siblings, Sean and Amelie.

The children were sleeping in the holiday apartment while their parents went for dinner nearby.

Madeleine, who has relatives from Co Donegal, was taken from the apartment by an intruder.

Brueckner has been alleged to have had a 30-minute phone call outside the apartment building before the child went missing.

Brueckner is in prison in Kiel, northern Germany, for raping a 72-year-old woman in Prai da Luz and for drug trafficking.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil prices fell slightly in choppy trade on Tuesday as investors kept a close watch on rising coronavirus cases, U.S. stimulus talks and a two-day policy meeting of the Federal Reserve starting later in the day. Benchmark Brent crude edged down marginally to $43.88 a barrel, giving up early gains. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 19 cents, or half a percent, at $41.41 a barrel. The coronavirus pandemic continues to accelerate, raising concerns about the global economic outlook. According to World Health Organization (WHO), global Covid-19 cases had doubled over the past six weeks. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he would resume the Emergency Committee on Thursday to re-evaluate the Covid-19 pandemic. U.S. Senate Republicans on Monday proposed a $1 trillion coronavirus aid package that slashes unemployment benefits from the current $600 per week to $200, generating swift backlash from Democrats. The proposal extends the paycheck protection program, which is scheduled to expire on August 8. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged Democrats to compromise with Republicans on the plan, as unemployment benefits will expire at the end of this week. The U.S. Federal Reserve kicks off its two-day meeting later in the day, although no change in policy is expected. Investors will focus on a press conference by Chairman Jerome Powell for more indications about the policy outlook. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting searches in the Mumbai International Airport Limited case. On Tuesday, the ED began searches at the GVK Group's offices in Mumbai and Hyderabad. The searches cover the residences of the GVK Group's promoters as well.

On July 7, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a case against the promoters of GVK Power & Infrastructure, Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) and others companies under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The case was registered a week after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case of cheating and forgery against the GVK Group, its promoter GVK Reddy, Sanjay Reddy, MIAL and nine other companies for causing a loss of Rs 705 crore to the government.

MIAL is a joint venture between the Hyderabad-based GVK groups GVK Airport Holdings, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and some foreign companies. GVK Airport Holdings and AAI hold a 50.05 percent and 26 percent stake, respectively, in MIAL.

The CBIs First Information Report

The CBI had also carried out searches on the company last month in this case.

In its First Information Report, the CBI has divided the MIAL scam case into four parts:

1) Siphoning funds by showing execution of bogus contract work

2) Misusing MIALs surplus or reserve funds by inflating expenditure through diversion of funds

3) Under-reporting MIALs revenue by entering into related-party contracts

4) Meeting the personal expenses of GVK group promoters and their families using MIAL funds.

The alleged irregularities were spread over a six-year period, from 2012 to 2018.

Moneycontrol reached out to GVK for a response but without success. However, A GVK source has confirmed searches at Mumbai and Hyderabad offices.

'Bogus' work contract

AAI had in 2006 signed an agreement with MIAL for modernisation, operation and maintenance of the Mumbai airport. Under the terms of the pact, MIAL was to share 38.7 percent of its revenue with the AAI as an annual fee.

The AAI granted a 200-acre land parcel near the Mumbai airport to MIAL for development and generative revenue, the CBI said. But in 2017, MIAL allegedly entered into a bogus contract with Aishwaryagiri Construction Pvt, Kotia Enterprises, SBK Trade & Infrastructure, Subhash Infra, Aqua Tech Solutions, MV Omni Projects, Richa Industries, Nice Projects and Aditi Infrabuild for real estate development, the agency said.

MIAL transferred around Rs 310 crore to these nine companies but no work was carried out, causing a loss to the Airports Authority of India, the CBIs FIR said.

The nine companies also took fake input credit, which resulted in a loss to the exchequer.

Misuse and diversion of funds

GVK group allegedly misused Rs 395 crore of MIALs reserved funds to finance its other companies. As per source information from 2012 onwards, the promoter of GVK used surplus funds of MIAL (to the) tune of Rs 395 crore to finance their own other group companies, the CBI said in the FIR.

The promoters created forged MIAL board resolutions authorising them to keep the reserve in the form of a fixed deposit with a public sector bank in Hyderabad, even though MIAL is a Mumbai-based company, the FIR said.

GVK used overdraft facilities and loans on this FDR. They have given benefits to other companies at the expense of MIAL. Similarly, the company has used surplus funds of MIAL in Hyderabad in other nationalised banks and availed loans and overdraft facility, it said.

Inflated expenditure

The CBI has accused the GVK group of inflating MIALs expenditure. It said employees of other GVK group companies, who had nothing to do with the airport business, were shown on the payrolls of MIAL, causing a loss to the AAI.

Revenue loss

The GVK group connived with family members and employees to gain an undue monetary advantage and cause a loss to the AAI, the CBI said. As part of the conspiracy, they assigned the premium retail areas of Mumbai airport to their family members at exorbitantly low rates, thereby reducing the revenue of MIAL," the CBI said.

The GVK promoters also used MIAL funds to book air tickets and hotel stays for family members.

This the second time in as many years that GVK group is facing scrutiny over Mumbai airport. Last year, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs conducted an inspection of the group companies on a whistleblowers complaint that also included MIAL.

Commenting on the CBI searches, the spokesperson for Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) had said: MIAL is surprised to note the registration of a case by CBI against MIAL and others. MIAL would have provided every assistance had the agency sought explanation or any document even if a preliminary enquiry had been initiated. MIAL is a transparent and responsible corporate entity which is committed to co-operate with the agency in its investigation to arrive at the truth.
(Newser)  Attorney General William Barr is defending the aggressive federal law enforcement response to civil unrest in America, saying violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests sparked by George Floyds death at the hands of Minneapolis police. Barr will tell members of the House Judiciary Committee at a much-anticipated hearing on Tuesday that the violence taking place in Portland, Ore., and other cities is disconnected from the death of Floyd, which he described as a horrible" event that prompted a necessary national reckoning on the relationship between the Black community and law enforcement. Largely absent from these scenes of destruction are even superficial attempts by the rioters to connect their actions to George Floyds death or any legitimate call for reform, Barr will say of the Portland protests, according to a copy of his prepared remarks released by the Justice Department on Monday and reported by the AP.

story continues below

The attorney general, speaking as Congress and the public pay respects to the late Rep. John Lewis, will acknowledge to lawmakers that Floyds death struck a chord in the Black community because it reinforced concerns that Blacks are treated differently by police. But, he will say, "as elected officials of the federal government, every Member of this Committeeregardless of your political views or your feelings about the Trump Administrationshould condemn violence against federal officers and destruction of federal property." The hearing on Tuesday marks Barrs first appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, bringing him face-to-face with a panel that voted last year to hold him in contempt and is holding hearings on what Democrats allege is politicization of the Justice Department under his watch. He will also touch on other controversies that have shadowed his tenure, including his handling of the investigation into Trump campaign ties to Russia.

(Read more William Barr stories.)
Securities and Exchange Board of India has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on CARE Ratings over lapses in due diligence in the Reliance Communications (RCom) case.

As per SEBI, the case pertains to default by RCL on the repayment of the principal amount of Rs 375 crore and interest of Rs 9.7 crore due on February 7, 2017, and March 7, 2017. Delayed payment on the same was made on April 10, 2017.

Sebi said CARE failed to monitor the ratings and factors affecting the creditworthiness of the issuer in a timely manner, resulting in a significant delay in conducting the rating process and downgrading the rating.

The rating agency failed to initiate a review of its earlier ratings assigned to RCL even after the publication of Q3 FY2017 results, which inter alia showed a major decline in cash accruals affecting its credit profile.

Care Ratings had not even followed up with RCL for NDS (No Default Statement) despite it being a crucial document for conducting a review of quarterly financials of an entity.

Considering all the facts and circumstances of the case, a penalty of worth Rs 1,00,00,000 has been imposed on Care Ratings, the Sebi order said.

The amount of penalty must be paid either by way of demand draft in favour of 'SEBI - Penalties Remittable to Government of India', payable at Mumbai, or by online payment.

In the event of failure to pay the said amount of penalty in 45 days of the receipt of this order, consequential proceedings including, recovery proceedings may be initiated by attachment and sale of movable and immovable properties, the order said.

Also read: Unify G-sec and corporate bond markets, says Sebi Chief Ajay Tyagi
MONTREALMasqulin Studio took a health break with the rest of the adult industry and the world beyond to deal with COVID-19. Things are still crazy out there, but during this moment of semi-normality, Bro-ing It Up is freshly released on DVD.

The Bros include Alex Mecum, Gabriel Phoenix, Jack Hunter, JJ Knight, Michael DelRay, Orson Deane, Pierce Paris and Troy Daniels.

The 100 percent bareback DVD contains a total of four scenes. There's a neighborly hook-up in small-town suburbia; a best friends gift of sex to a dying virgin; a fan getting close to his online crush in a steamy streaming episode; and an airport security agent conducting a private second screening and discovering a large concealed "package."

A studio rep noted that the company is excited to be back to releasing DVDs. "These have been such unfamiliar times with so much of what was our normal coming to a halt. Being able to distribute our new releases again is such a welcomed positive for us.

For a look at the box art and hardcore preview for Bro-ing It Up, visit here.

Visit Masqulin online at Masqulin.com and follow on Twitter and Instagram.
He has been getting in plenty of family time while hunkering down at ex Kourtney Kardashian's, 41, beachfront rental property in Malibu.

And Scott Disick looked like a total Super Dad on Monday afternoon as he played on the beach with daughter Penelope, eight, niece North West, seven, and nephew Saint West, four.

Meanwhile, Kourtney was spotted hangout out on the deck of the beach house in a black oversized blouse and a pair of sunglasses.

Having a blast: Scott Disick looked like a total Super Dad on Monday afternoon as he played on the beach with daughter Penelope, eight, niece North West, seven, and nephew Saint West, four

Catch me if you can: Scott radiated pure joy as he attempted to outrun the incoming waves with his kid crew

His baby girl: At one point in their shoreline hangout, Scott picked up a squirmy Penelope from the sand and lifted her over his head

She had her hair in a bun and appeared to be spending some time with her and Scott's sons, Mason, 10, and Reign, five.

Scott radiated pure joy as he attempted to outrun the incoming waves with his kid crew.

The 37-year-old Talentless founder sported a navy blue tee and a pair of matching board shorts.

He had a navy blue hat on his head that featured a red and white emblem and he concealed his eyes behind a pair of RayBan sunglasses.

Emotional: Kim was photographed on Monday engaging in an emotional back-and-forth with Kanye, while visiting his ranch in Wyoming

Chic: Meanwhile, Kourtney was spotted hanging out on the deck of the beach house

Relaxation time: She wore a black oversized blouse and a pair of sunglasses

Eldest West: North donned a brown, tie-dyed one piece suit, possibly made by her father Kanye West

Bonding: Saint was clearly loving all the quality time he was spending with Scott as he ran around in the sand in a pair of black board shorts

I got you: Scott had a tea drink in one hand and Saint's hand in the other as they ran away from the incoming wave with North in tow

At one point in their shoreline hangout, Scott picked up a squirmy Penelope from the sand and lifted her over his head.

The father-of-three looked up at Penelope with a playful expression before bringing her in for a hug.

Penelope looked absolutely sweet in a blue terrycloth two piece swimsuit, while North donned a brown, tie-dyed one piece suit, possibly made by her father Kanye West.

Her hair was neatly styled into two braids and she could hardly shake the excited look off her face, while playing with her cousins.

Warning: North let out playful screams once she spotted an impending wave

Too cute: Penelope looked absolutely sweet in a blue terrycloth two piece swimsuit

Casual fit: The 37-year-old Talentless founder sported a navy blue tee and a pair of matching board shorts

One of three: Scott also shares 10-year-old son Mason and five-year-old son Reign with his ex Kourtney

Saint was clearly loving all the quality time he was spending with Scott as he ran around in the sand in a pair of black board shorts.

There were two other children in attendance who could not be identified, but were clearly close pals with the Kardashian offspring.

North and Saint are the children of Kourtney's sister Kim Kardashian and her husband of six-years Kanye West.

The couple - who wed in 2014 - also share two-year-old daughter Chicago and son Psalm, who turned one in May. Kim, Kanye, Chicago, and Psalm were not present.

Full force: Saint charged into the oncoming waves

Kardashian royalty: North and Saint are the children of Kourtney's sister Kim Kardashian and her husband of six-years Kanye West

Kim was photographed on Monday engaging in an emotional back-and-forth with Kanye, while visiting his ranch in Wyoming.

It is the first time that the married couple have been pictured together since before his disastrous first campaign rally in in North Charleston, South Carolina, after announcing his unlikely bid for presidency.

North and Saint have been spotted at Kourtney and Scott's beach house numerous times, since the former couple started inhabiting the rental property nearly two weeks ago.

Scoping it out: Scott, Saint, and an unidentified young boy looked on at the water together before resuming their antics

Partner in crime: Saint was glued to Scott's hip during their afternoon hangout

Scott and Kourtney split in 2015, but have remained extremely close as they focus on co-parenting their three children.

On the Fourth Of July, Scott reunited with ex girlfriend Sofia Richie, 21, who he split from in May after roughly three-years together.

Since then, Scott and Sofia - who happens to be the daughter of music legend Lionel Richie - have not been seen together publicly.

Beaming: Scott was seen smiling following his time on the beach
Dig is a powerful and flexible tool for interrogating DNS name servers. It performs DNS lookups and displays the answers that are returned from the name servers that were involved in the process along with details related to the search. System and DNS administrators often use dig to help troubleshoot DNS problems. In this post, well take a deep dive into how it works and see what it can tell us.

To get started, it's helpful to have a good mental image of how DNS or domain name system works. It's a critical part of the global Internet because it provides a way to look up and, thereby, connect with servers around the world. You can think of it as the Internet's address book and any system that is properly connected to the Internet should be able to use it to look up the IP address of any properly registered server.

Getting started with dig

The dig tool is generally installed on Linux systems by default. Heres an example of a dig command with a little annotation:

$ dig www.networkworld.com ; <<>> DiG 9.16.1-Ubuntu <<>> www.networkworld.com <== version of dig youre using ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 6034 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1 ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 65494 ;; QUESTION SECTION: <== details on your query ;www.networkworld.com. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: <== results

www.networkworld.com. 3568 IN CNAME idg.map.fastly.net. idg.map.fastly.net. 30 IN A 151.101.250.165 ;; Query time: 36 msec <== query time ;; SERVER: 127.0.0.53#53(127.0.0.53) <== local caching resolver ;; WHEN: Fri Jul 24 19:11:42 EDT 2020 <== date and time of inquiry ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 97 <== bytes returned

If you get a response like this, is it good news? The short answer is yes. You got a reply in a timely manner. The status field (status: NOERROR) shows there were no problems. Youre connecting to a name server that is able to supply the requested information and getting a reply that tells you some important details about the system youre inquiring about. In short, youve verified that your system and the domain name system are getting along just fine.

Other possible status indicators include:

SERVFAIL  The name that was queried exists, but no data is available or available data is invalid.

NXDOMAIN  The name in question does not exist.

REFUSED  The zone does not exist at the requested authority and the infrastructure is not set up to provide responses when this is the case.

Here's an example of what you'd see if you were looking up a domain that doesn't exist:

$ dig cannotbe.org ; <<>> DiG 9.16.1-Ubuntu <<>> cannotbe.org ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 35348 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

In general, dig provides more details than ping, though ping will respond with "Name or service not known" if the domain doesn't exit. When you ask about a legitimate system, you get to see what the domain name system knows about the system, how those records are configured and how long it takes to retrieve that data.

In fact, sometimes dig can respond with information when ping cannot respond at all and that kind of information can be very helpful when you're trying to nail down a connection problem.

DNS record types and flags

One thing we can see in the first query above is the presence of both CNAME and A records. The CNAME (canonical name) is like an alias that refers one domain name to another. Most systems that you dig for wont have a CNAME record, but only an A record. If you run a dig localhost command, you will see an A record that simply refers to 127.0.0.1  the "loopback" address that every system uses. An A record maps a name to an IP address.

The DNS record types include:

A or AAAA - IPv4 and IPv6 addresses

CNAME - alias

MX - mail exchanger

NS - name server

PTR - a reversing entry that lets you find a system name when providing the IP address

SOA - start of authority record

TXT - some related text

We also see a series of flags on the fifth line of output. These are defined in RFC 1035 which defines the flags included in the header of DNS messages and even shows the format of headers.

1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | ID | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ |QR| Opcode |AA|TC|RD|RA| Z | RCODE | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | QDCOUNT | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | ANCOUNT | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | NSCOUNT | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | ARCOUNT | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+

The flags shown in the fifth line in the initial query above are:

qr = query

= query rd = recursion desired

= recursion desired ra = recursion available

Other flags described in the RFC include:

aa = authoritative answer

= authoritative answer cd = checking disabled

= checking disabled ad = authentic data

= authentic data opcode = a 4-bit field

= a 4-bit field tc = truncation

= truncation z (unused)

Adding the +trace option

You will get a LOT more output from dig if you add +trace as an option. It will add information that shows how your DNS query rooted through the hierarchy of name servers to locate the answer youre looking for.

All the NS records shown below reflect name servers  and this is just the first section of data you will see as the query runs through the hierarchy of name servers to track down what you're looking for.

$ dig +trace networkworld.com ; <<>> DiG 9.16.1-Ubuntu <<>> +trace networkworld.com ;; global options: +cmd . 84895 IN NS k.root-servers.net. . 84895 IN NS e.root-servers.net. . 84895 IN NS m.root-servers.net. . 84895 IN NS h.root-servers.net. . 84895 IN NS c.root-servers.net. . 84895 IN NS f.root-servers.net. . 84895 IN NS a.root-servers.net. . 84895 IN NS g.root-servers.net. . 84895 IN NS l.root-servers.net. . 84895 IN NS d.root-servers.net. . 84895 IN NS b.root-servers.net. . 84895 IN NS i.root-servers.net. . 84895 IN NS j.root-servers.net. ;; Received 262 bytes from 127.0.0.53#53(127.0.0.53) in 28 ms ...

Eventually, you'll get information tied directly to your request.

networkworld.com. 300 IN A 151.101.2.165 networkworld.com. 300 IN A 151.101.66.165 networkworld.com. 300 IN A 151.101.130.165 networkworld.com. 300 IN A 151.101.194.165 networkworld.com. 14400 IN NS ns-d.pnap.net. networkworld.com. 14400 IN NS ns-a.pnap.net. networkworld.com. 14400 IN NS ns0.pcworld.com. networkworld.com. 14400 IN NS ns1.pcworld.com. networkworld.com. 14400 IN NS ns-b.pnap.net. networkworld.com. 14400 IN NS ns-c.pnap.net. ;; Received 269 bytes from 70.42.185.30#53(ns0.pcworld.com) in 116 ms

Picking your responder

You can use the @ sign to specify a particular name server that you want to handle your query. Here were asking the primary name server for Google to respond to our query:

$ dig @8.8.8.8 networkworld.com ; <<>> DiG 9.16.1-Ubuntu <<>> @8.8.8.8 networkworld.com ; (1 server found) ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 43640 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1 ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;networkworld.com. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: networkworld.com. 299 IN A 151.101.66.165 networkworld.com. 299 IN A 151.101.194.165 networkworld.com. 299 IN A 151.101.130.165 networkworld.com. 299 IN A 151.101.2.165 ;; Query time: 48 msec ;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8) ;; WHEN: Sat Jul 25 11:21:19 EDT 2020 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 109

The command shown below does a reverse lookup of the 8.8.8.8 IP address to show that it belongs to Google's DNS server.

$ nslookup 8.8.8.8 8.8.8.8.in-addr.arpa name = dns.google.

Wrap-Up

The dig command is an essential tool for both grasping how DNS works and troubleshooting connection problems when they arise.
A sort of gloom has descended across the Balearics. Its as if the islands have been given a kick in the teeth by an old friend and they are not too sure why. The old friend is of course Britain which banned all non-essential travel to the islands late on Monday.

The Balearics simply don't understand why they have been placed on the hit list. The number of cases of the coronavirus here is low, compared to mainland Spain and Britain, and British tourists who have visited the islands say that they feel safer here than they do in Britain.

So why? Now, there are plenty of conspiracy theories doing the rounds from Brexit to Gibraltar; even the Balearic President Francina Armengol claimed that the travel ban had been introduced for political rather than health reasons. To be honest you can see their point.

The Balearics has worked long and hard to bring the coronavirus under control so that the all important holiday season could go ahead. In the end it has all ended in tears. The Brits will not be coming this summer. The economic repercussions of the move are enormous for the islands, you can't just brush the loss of two million tourists under the carpet. So what do we do now?

There isn't much we can do. Just sit and wait and hope that Britain has a change of heart and the restrictions are lifted. But the Balearics are hurting. Their summer friend is not coming this year and it is all rather sad.
MONTREAL, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Val Verde Unified School District, one of the leading school districts in California, partners with PAPER , the leader in personalized online learning.

This grants approximately 12,000 students in grades 6-12 free academic support.

In Val Verde USD, with full distance learning occurring through at least October 30th , the need for flexible and personalized online supports for students has only increased. In partnering with Paper, Val Verde USD is helping close the divide between those who can afford private tutoring and those who cannot.

Superintendent Michael R. McCormick said, "Val Verde is committed to ensuring equitable access for all students to achieve our vision for a Portrait of a Graduate. We have articulated this into five key attributes and characteristics (Critical Thinking, Flexibility, Creativity, Communication, and Collaboration) our graduates will need to be College and Career Ready. As a district, we are committed to supporting 21st Century learning for every student. We believe Paper is a great tool to help us accomplish our vision."

"We have worked for three years to ensure all our students have the technology and access to extend learning beyond the school building and day by providing a device to each student and Wi-Fi access to families without connectivity. Paper ensures all our students, but especially our students in most need, can leverage those resources even further. Enabling all students to have access 24/7 to tutoring extends our ability to ensure more equitable access to learning, no matter the place or time of day," he added.

"Val Verde has always been considered one of the best-run districts in the state. Their leadership puts the community first in all their decisions, whether that is having the State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond join parents for their Town Hall or implementing an equitable tool like Paper, Val Verde Unified is a model district," said Philip Cutler, CEO of Paper.

Through Paper's remote learning platform, available in both English and Spanish, students are provided unlimited 24/7 access to online tutoring in any subject from a fully vetted Paper educator, and essay review with annotated feedback within 24 hours. Using Socratic instruction methods, students are guided through concepts to find the answers on their own.

Teachers in Paper's partner organizations have reported seeing an increase in students' grades since using Paper, and many students have reported feeling more confident with their school work.

About PAPER

Founded in 2014, Paper is an Educational Support System (ESS) providing students with 24/7 live help & essay review, and teachers with real-time feedback and intervention tools. Paper partners with districts across North America to close the achievement gap and support educational equity.

Further information about Val Verde Unified School District is available here .

For further information, please contact:

Jacob Geller

Director of Partnerships

PAPER

1-438-523-2350

[email protected]

SOURCE Paper Education Company Inc.

Related Links

https://paper.co


Residents of Virginia and several other states have received unsolicited packages of plant seeds in the mail recently, and agriculture officials are warning people not to open them, plant them or toss them in the trash for fear they could be an invasive and harmful species.

A spokesman for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said the agency has heard from "several" Virginia residents who have received seed packages that they did not order. The packages appear to have come from China.

"The types of seeds in the packages are unknown at this time and may be invasive plant species," the state agency said in a public notice. "The packages were sent by mail and may have Chinese writing on them."

"Please do not plant these seeds," the agency said. "Invasive species wreak havoc on the environment, displace or destroy native plants and insects and severely damage crops."

The department is asking anyone who has received unsolicited seeds in the mail that appear to have Chinese origin to contact the Office of Plant Industry Services through email at ReportAPest@vdacs.virginia.gov

An agency spokesman said the department is partnering with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate and verify the identity of the seeds. Some of that work is being done in Richmond.

The seed package should not be tossed into the trash, agency spokesman Michael Wallace said. "We are requesting residents to place the seed package and all shipping packaging into a Ziploc bag," then contact the agency, he said.

Agriculture officials in multiple states issued warnings in the last couple of days about unsolicited shipments of foreign seeds.

In Kentucky, the state agriculture department was notified that several residents received seed packets by mail, also apparently from China, Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles said.

At this point in time, we dont have enough information to know if this is a hoax, a prank, an internet scam or an act of agricultural bio-terrorism," Quarles said. Unsolicited seeds could be invasive and introduce unknown diseases to local plants, harm livestock or threaten our environment."

In North Carolina, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said it was contacted by numerous people who received seed shipments. The agency said the shipments were likely the product of an international internet scam known as brushing.

According to the Better Business Bureau, foreign, third-party sellers use your address and Amazon information to generate a fake sale and positive review to boost their product ratings, said Phil Wilson, director of the state's Plant Industry Division.

jblackwell@timesdispatch.com (804) 775-8123 The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Amazon Prime is co-producing UK romantic comedy-drama The Pursuit of Love, adapted and directed by Emily Mortimer (pictured) with BBC.

The series is based on Nancy Mitfords novel of the same name and stars Lily James, Dominic West, Emily Beecham and Andrew Scott plus Dolly Wells, Assaad Bouab, Shazad Latif, Freddie Fox, Emily Mortimer and Beattie Edmondson.

Emily Mortimer, said: Ive always loved Nancy Mitford so when I was asked to adapt The Pursuit of Love it was impossible to say no. Its an outrageously funny and honest story, whose central character  the wild, love-addicted Linda Radlett  still reads as a radical. I feel privileged to be directing this show and working with the brilliant teams at Open Book, Moonage Pictures, Amazon Studios and the BBC.

Lily James, said; Its great to be working with Emily and the team. Her brilliant scripts bring new life to this story, full of love, full of friendship, very moving and sad in places, but also funny and true to life.

Charles Collier for Open Book, said: From the start, we built this show around the talents of three brilliant women: Emily Mortimer, Lily James and Nancy Mitford. Our plan is to deliver sharp and innovative female-driven drama, full of warmth, wit and wisdom, which audiences everywhere will take to their hearts.

Matthew Read for Moonage Pictures, said: The Pursuit of Love reads like a manifesto for how to live fearlessly and whole-heartedly while relishing the absurdities and eccentricities of life. Emilys voice and vision perfectly capture the spirit of Mitfords novel and we couldnt be more excited to be involved in helping her bring it to life.

Piers Wenger, Controller of BBC Drama, said: Emily Mortimers adaptation of Nancy Mitfords masterpiece will introduce The Pursuit of Love to a new generation of fans. We are indebted to Emily, producers Moonage Pictures and Open Book and to the series glittering cast, led by Dominic West and Lily James, for their commitment to bringing this treasured novel to life.

Chris Mansolillo, Head of Licensed Content in the US, Amazon Prime Video, said: The Pursuit of Love is an exciting journey combining family, love, honesty and introspection. We are thrilled to be working with such a talented team and looking forward to bringing this romantic adventure to our Prime members.

Filming has begun on Emily Mortimers adaptation of Nancy Mitfords celebrated novel The Pursuit of Love, from executive producers Charles Collier, Matthew Read and Frith Tiplady for Open Book and Moonage Pictures. The show has been commissioned for BBC One by Charlotte Moore, BBC Director of Content and Piers Wenger, Controller of BBC Drama. Amazon Studios is co-producing within the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The series will be produced by Rhonda Smith.

Written and directed by Mortimer, The Pursuit of Love is a romantic comedy-drama about love and friendship. Set in Europe between the two World Wars, the story follows the adventures and misadventures of the charismatic and fearless Linda Radlett, played by Lily James (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Rebecca, Cinderella, Baby Driver) and her best friend and cousin Fanny Logan, played by Emily Beecham (Hail, Caesar!, Daphne).

Consumed by a desire for love and marriage, the two women are on the hunt for the ideal husband. Their friendship is put to the test as Fanny settles for a steady life and Linda decides to follow her heart, to increasingly wild and outrageous places. As social and political divisions split the nation, their diverging choices raise personal questions that remain intensely relevant today  questions about freedom, about love and sex, and the mystery of the human heart.

Further cast includes Dominic West (The Wire, The Affair, Les Miserables) and Dolly Wells (Dracula, Doll & Em) as Lindas parents, Uncle Matthew and Aunt Sadie Radlett, Andrew Scott (Fleabag, Sherlock) as Lord Merlin, the Radletts wealthy and eccentric neighbour, Emily Mortimer (Mary Poppins Returns, The Sense of an Ending) as Fannys mother, The Bolter and Beattie Edmondson (Josh, Patrick the Pug) as Louisa Radlett.

Linda and Fannys suitors include Assaad Bouab (Messiah, Call My Agent) as Fabrice de Sauveterre, Shazad Latif (Penny Dreadful, Star Trek: Discovery) as Alfred Wincham, and Freddie Fox (White House Farm, The Crown) as Tony Kroesig.

The Pursuit of Love will be filmed primarily around the Bristol and Bath area in the UK. Together with independent health and safety consultants, in full consultation with industry partners, and in accordance with all current government guidelines, The Pursuit of Love production team has developed comprehensive production protocols to ensure that the series is produced in a safe and responsible manner during this time of the global pandemic.

At 3 x 60 minutes, The Pursuit of Love will premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK, and be available on Amazon Prime Video in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. BBC Studios are the international distributors and brokered the deal with Amazon Studios.
Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg plans to defend the company in a hearing before the House antitrust subcommittee by arguing that hampering American technological innovation only aids China, a new report says.

Congressional investigators have reviewed thousands of internal Facebook documents to piece together the companys motivation for acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp and to understand Zuckerberg thinking about competitors, Bloomberg reported.

Zuckerberg plans to defend the companys decisions when he testifies before the House on July 29, saying Instagram and WhatsApps success under Facebook wasnt inevitable  particularly Instagram which had only 13 employees and no revenue when it joined Facebooks portfolio in 2012, according to Bloomberg.

Zuckerberg, who will testify in the hearing along with CEOs from Amazon, Google and Apple, will paint Facebook as an American success story in a competitive and unpredictable market, now threatened by the rise of Chinese social media apps.

He will argue that any weakening of U.S. companies will cede territory to Chinese companies, especially in high-growth markets like India, an argument he made in a 2019 hearing about the now-renamed cryptocurrency Libra.

China is moving quickly to launch a similar idea in the coming months, he said then. If America doesnt innovate, our financial leadership is not guaranteed.

He also warned that China, as a country without democratic values, shouldnt set the rules for the internet for the rest of the world.

His warnings on China come after years of failed attempts to woo Chinas leaders so he could launch Facebook services in the country.

Tensions have escalated between China and the U.S. recently over a host of issues, including trade, Hong Kongs autonomy and tech. Recently the Trump administration has said it is considering banning TikTok, a short-form video app owned by China-based ByteDance Ltd.

More from National Review
LOBAMBA - How long does it take the police to vet three people? This was the question Members of Parliament (MPs) had yesterday after Senate elections failed to take place following communication from the national commissioner of police, who said they were still vetting the candidates.



What started as a day of great excitement ended in disappointment as the elections were postponed by the Speaker, Petros Mavimbela, to next Wednesday.

The elections were meant to replace the late Senator Mike Temple, who passed away over a year ago.

Five candidates were nominated by the House of Assembly last Thursday and they were Ngomuyayona Gamedze, Sifiso Mabuza, Jacques Potgieter, Bongani Matsebula and Jimmy Hlophe.



Withdrawn



However, the Senate Election Returning Officer, Ndvuna Dlamini, revealed that Gamedze had withdrawn his candidacy while Potgieter had been disqualified because he had allegedly not registered as a voter during the 2018 national elections.

This essentially means that the police had to carry out the vetting of three candidates, namely Matsebula, Mabuza and Hlophe.



However, at the start of yesterdays sitting Dlamini, who is also Clerk to Parliament, informed the MPs that he had just returned from a very serious meeting which was a security brief with the police.

He said he had received a report from police and asked to read a letter purportedly from the National Commissioner of Police William Tsitsibala Dlamini.

The returning officer then proceed to read the letter to the Speaker and the MPs where the national commissioner mentioned that all were aware of the ongoing parliamentary process of elections to replace Temple.



Process



As the Speaker is mindful of the fact that the police service also has a role to play in relation to the election process, specifically through the security vetting of nominated candidates, the Clerk to Parliament read.

He stated that the national commissioner said due to the complex and involved nature of the exercise, the vetting had not yet been finalised.

We anticipate that all being equal, the process should be exhausted before the end of business on Monday August 3, 2020.



The police further said they trusted that the Speaker would be understanding of their position regarding the matter and for such a decision that it was appropriate in such circumstances for the Speakers anticipated cooperation.

Ndvuna said in terms of the Senate Elections Act of 2013 and the Constitution, his hands, as returning officer, were now tied and he could not proceed with the election after having received such a letter.

I had asked them (police) what the challenge was and they said although they had started the process they found that there were some elements which they had to really dig deep into, said Ndvuna.

He added that he could not go into the security details as it was not his domain, save to only address parliamentary processes.

I was ready for the elections and even the ballot papers are here and all is in order, said Ndvuna.



He said, however, due to the latest developments, he would seek guidance from the Speaker.

Speaker Mavimbela then said under the circumstances, it was only proper to adjourn the sitting until next Wednesday to allow the police to complete their duties.

According to the dictionary, vetting is the process of performing a background check on someone before offering them employment, conferring an award or doing fact-checking prior to making any decision.

In a recap of last Thursdays sitting, the returning officer reminded the MPs that the Senate candidates needed not only police clearance, but also to be cleared by the Eswatini Revenue Authority (SRA).

He stated that the candidate must be a liSwati and also registered for the national elections and not have lost in the very same election.



Prayers



Ndvuna said having done all the preliminaries, they needed the MPs prayers because conducting an election was not an easy task.

He said the law was very clear that someone who was elected into Senate should be a person with integrity.



Meanwhile, after the House was adjourned, most of the MPs were left wondering what was happening and why the police needed over a week to complete the task. It is basically three people now in the race after one candidate was disqualified while the other withdrew his candidacy, so why would they need so much time for three nominees? wondered an MP who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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Linkedin Bagus Aditya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020

In a democratic society, everybody has a right to a fair trial and people have a right to counsel. The state will allow them to have a lawyer if they can find one they can afford. Every suspected terrorist, mass murderer or corrupt official needs a lawyer.

But, how do you defend a person who you know is guilty? Some lawyers think of themselves like a doctor. If a patient enters the emergency ward, the doctor will take care of him or her. A lawyer does not defend a crime, but a criminal. Their defense is not an endorsement of those crimes.

According to Law 18/2003 on advocate, lawyers are also law enforcers. This idea highlights a very important dual role that lawyers serve that a lot of people tend to forget, especially clients. Lawyers do not represent clients interests at all costs. There are certain things that lawyers are not allowed to do, even if it is in the interest of their clients.

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The messing is back - as if cheeky little minds had never been away. Spitballs were being gobbed into readiness and flung across the Dail chamber at Leaders' Questions.

They'd want an education, some of these pups - but the Taoiseach is no better. He deliberately provoked a schoolyard scrap with Pearse Doherty.

It came after everyone recognised that the Governments sums on ministerial pay reductions didnt add up to what was originally claimed  leading to more humiliating surrenders yesterday, this time on super junior pay-hikes (but even then, there were strings attached).

It was like a child putting 50p ostentatiously into the classroom Trocaire box  and then upending it at break-time to try to fish some of the coins back out with the end of a ruler.

Not that ruler Micheals own end is close. Martin can suddenly and spectacularly box Pearse in the face by claiming he got secret sweets from an uncle in America.

All hell broke loose - Sean O Fearghail (which is a classic school principals name, even though hes a farmer) must have thought he was back in his alma mater of De La Salle in Kildare.

Read More

He tried to keep order, a national school tricolour somewhere to the left of his desk, as Pearse spat out that hed been accused of illegality and hurled howls of anguish.

The class was kicking up no end, probably through knowing their holidays are immediately in prospect, with no chance of anyone imposing any fines for taking time off (the House rises on Thursday and will be back in mid-September).

The Taoiseach had a withdrawal of his nasty charge dragged out of him  so much for his holier-than-thou best-boy act of recent years.

Disappointingly, there was no appearance by Mrs Foley, the new Special Needs Assistant, who seems so nice and poised.

There was a sense that some of the miscreants were just hoping for her to show up, to see if they could break her, or at least make her shout out loud or even dissolve in tears.

But presumably the return to school for everyone outside the 33rd Dail  heading for holidays in the opposite direction  is going well indeed, because it turns out that Mrs Foley is the very embodiment of the new normal.

An unfortunate announcers accident on the 8.30am news on Morning Ireland first christened her Norman'' Foley. As listeners gasped in horror, the newsreader attempted a correction, but couldnt stop himself referring to her as Normal.

The new Normal Foley cannot have been amused... but had the good sense to responsibly distance herself from the Dail by attending to matters in her Department all day.

She had no desire to see anyone torture the PUP issue, which many of them gleefully did again. Sinn Fein, in particular, shed bitter tears over people flying off on holiday being brought down to earth by mean-spirited Government potshots.

The Taoiseach pointed out that Sinn Fein had taken a blithe holiday from its own position of just last week  that there should be no foreign travel in line with public health advice.

Thereafter, having aimed a number of sneaky kicks, particularly on political pay, Mary Lou decided to behave and diligently attended to her books, popping a pair of serious specs on her nose. She paid almost no notice as Micheal Martin and her pal Pearse had a fight on the floor.

Nothing to see here, just the new normal.
The lights were dimmed during the last day of Devcon in October 2019. A hush fell over the auditorium in Osaka, Japan. A haunting melody rippled through the crowd of roughly 1,000 people. Everyone knew the dance was about to begin.

Ethereum leaders, such as Hudson Jameson and Aya Miyaguchi of the Ethereum Foundation, would lead a goofy dance to close out the annual tech conference.

Cheers erupted when the Ethereum influencers took the stage, nodding respectfully to conference organizers and thanking the crowd. Soon the whole crowd was following along, jumping up and down, turning in circles. Critics might say they were simply mimicking the technologists on stage, but on the ground, people were adding their own moves or simply nodding along. Every Etherean dances his or her own way, or smiles and sways timidly. (Ethereum Foundation developer Vlad Zamfir, for example, dislikes the dance and said he prefers not to partake.)

Related: FTX to Launch 'Scalable' Decentralized Exchange in Weeks

The tongue-in-cheek ritual offers a microcosm of the carefree Ethereum lifestyle brand, inspired by the cryptocurrency founded in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin and others. Over the past five years, Ethereum, the blockchain platform that birthed so many ill-fated ideas, also launched a crop of products and services that are currently multibillion-dollar endeavors.

The dance is a promise until next year, the leaders say on stage. Its a celebration of what the community has achieved so far and what it will achieve. The dance is a way to communicate with Ethereans from all around the world, even if they dont speak English.

There is roughly $3.7 billion worth of cryptocurrency locked up in Ethereum-based decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms used by people around the world like Gerald Nash, a computer science student who interned at Coinbase and leads programs at the Howard University Blockchain Lab.

Story continues

I wouldnt consider it a hard money because of the economic decisions the core team makes, Nash said, describing the difference between bitcoin and ether. Bitcoin is digital money, he said, unlike ether.

Related: MakerDAO Passes $1B Milestone in DeFi First

But I am fascinated by the other technological aspects [beyond money], like Turing-complete smart contracts, he added.

As a young Black man, Nash said he uses DeFi to access more complex or sophisticated finance [tools], than he previously could through banks. He acknowledges these are risky software projects and uses them with deliberate caution. That hasnt damped the allure.

Scaling diversity

Ethereum was able to outgrow the pop culture affiliations of its predecessor, Bitcoin, and develop a distinct culture where more people feel welcome to participate.

Law professor and Maker Foundation board member Tonya Evans offers another example of a DeFi fan.

Im a Black, queer woman in crypto  focused on education and financial inclusion, she said. You dont have to come from a technical background to have a lot to add.

From her perspective, cryptocurrency projects should start off with some level of control then work toward decentralization. She added this may not be the Bitcoin approach, often referred to cheekily as Satoshis Vision. Although different, she said, Ethereum represents a good-faith march toward a similar goal.

These platforms and protocols arent developed in a vacuum, especially those developed for heavily regulated industries like finance and healthcare, she said, describing Ethereum experiments. Its not about a foundation or any one person.

Indeed, the DeFi industry attracted some of the shrewdest women in the blockchain industry, from Evans to Volt Capital co-founder Soona Amhaz and Optimism co-founder Jinglan Wang. None of these women danced with developers in Japan in 2019. But they may engage with the Ethereum lifestyle brand in other ways, like wearing unicorn swag.

Ethereum chic

Its impossible to mistake an Ethereum event, which may include dancing or goofy rap performances (like the one at EDCON 2019 in Australia), in addition to unicorn graphics and rainbow or pastel-colored decor.

Attendees often dress with more pizazz than other tech conferences and may be openly inclined to use recreational drugs.

Like many digital countercultural movements, who have always been anchored in a bohemian and hippie-like ethos, Ethereum is no exception, said anthropologist Ann Brody, a crypto fan in attendance in Japan during the fifth Devcon.

She compared Ethereum to thought leader Stewart Brand and his Bay Area circles of influence in the 1960s and 1970s. However, the contemporary band of Ethereum thought leaders isnt yet a social movement, Brody said.

There are also those in the community that treat Ethereum simply as an experiment and thats why I hesitate to call them a social movement at this time, Brody said. I think the dancing in itself speaks so much about Ethereums cultural values related to freedom, creative expression, fun, unconventionality, and even the desire for collective unity to some extent.

TikTok commonalities

After all, the younger generation has a different relationship with brands than those who grew up before social media was omnipresent.

As the New York Times reported, its a popular pastime for teenagers to impersonate brands on platforms like TikTok and act out fictional storylines that often include dance moves. Likewise, Ethereans identify themselves with the Ethereum lifestyle brand, acting out the meme of a socially awkward nerd in the form of interpretive dance.

TikTok and Ethereum influencers can motivate thousands of people to download an app, sometimes garnering thousands of dollars in the process.

Ethereum has spawned many subcultures, comparable to how Twitter became a jungle of amorphous social groups like Weird Twitter and Bitcoin Twitter. Yet, even Ethereans who never attended a conference use the same iconography, the ether symbol or pink-haired unicorn, often illustrated with rainbows. This visual aesthetic sets it apart from the (generally older or more academic) Bitcoin community.

On the other hand, one tendency crypto fans, Bitcoiners and Ethereans alike, share with teens on TikTok is the preoccupation with identifying posers who dont belong to Elite TikTok or to a chosen crypto revolution.

At their core, TikTok, Twitter and Bitcoin are platforms. Ethereums tech platform cannot handle comparable volumes yet, but the Ethereum community is motivated to achieve that goal and maybe even become tech unicorns.

There is something naive and childlike to these symbols, Brody said of the uncorrupted youth aesthetics in Ethereum. She added that, to some people, the rainbow world computer is subconsciously a metaphor for global unification.

Unicorns

Many people believe they can use the wizardry (Ethereans love magical metaphors) of software to fix the failures of previous generations.

Ethereum is a wonderland, a confusing wonderland for abstractions, said the Ethereum Foundations Zamfir. It represented a super ambitious decentralization agenda that was very general and took Bitcoins ethos to the next level. It was never just about finance.

Ethereum advocate and journalist Camila Russo said token creator Fabian Vogelsteller used cartoon unicorns in his videos, similar to the small unicorn and rainbow featured on early Devcon conference shirts and decorations, long before the token boom in 2017. Plus, unicorn has long been slang for a tech company evaluated at $1 billion. The aspirational unicorn metaphor was already common among young developers. Then, when Buterin was photographed in 2017 wearing unicorn shirts at tech events, Russo said the trend blew up.

This is all in the context of the ETH community being young, millennial developers, where all these internet memes and unicorn images are already popular, she added.

Years later, the Ethereum Foundation and the Brooklyn-based conglomerate ConsenSys, headed by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, are still busy evangelizing their blockchain. While Lubins companies run a considerable chunk of the infrastructure supporting the DeFi ecosystem, Buterins nonprofit donates ether to organizations like the United Nations Childrens Fund. Both companies sponsor a variety of grants and scholarships, and they are rarely short on unicorn swag.

Most of the dozen or so Ethereum co-founders pivoted to their own projects long ago. Those that remain, like Buterin and Lubin, remain consistent.

Vision

One common gripe among Ethereum critics, that the project keeps changing focus, doesnt hold up if we consider the communitys goal rather than its tools.

Longtime Bitcoin advocate Bruce Fenton said he met Buterin at a conference in Miami back when Ethereum co-founders were just starting to crystalize their idea. In the years to come, Fenton said Lubins ConsenSys sponsored many fun and relaxed events with unicorn art and hip vendors. He said hacker commune-style spaces popped up from Zug to San Francisco, all revolving around similar aesthetics and values.

Ive always loved the energy at Ethereum events  lots of excited builders, Fenton said. What this ultimately means is democratizing finance.  They dont need to go beg the establishment for money, they can go directly to the people.

Token Summit co-founder William Mougayar, author of the Business of Blockchain, said the projects 2020 brand strategy is still similar to conversations he had with Ethereum co-founders in 2014.

According to Mougayars consultation documents from 2014, the project aimed to be inclusive, empowering and visionary in order to bring people together from all disciplines for the common goal of something bigger than themselves.

The Ethereum community has generally followed these principles across a variety of software experiments over the past five years.

Roots

Millennials didnt invent this moralistic and social approach to technology, as historian Benjamin Peters showed in his writings about Soviet tech culture. The Russian-Canadian Buterin said in public interviews he was interested in both socialism and libertarianism, offering a unique cultural mix. Ethereans, including fans of all backgrounds, are now putting their own spins on blockchain technology.

MyEtherWallet co-founder Kosala Hemachandra, who has been involved with the token economy since 2015, now spearheads a team of 18 employees serving at least 300,000 monthly active users, he said.

Volumes went up nine times since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, starting in February, compared to previous months, Hemachandra said. We have way more help requests now than before [2017], which means new users are coming in.

Bitcoin purists who claim Ethereum is failing arent measuring success the same way as Ethereans. Hemachandra said he is confident Eth 2.0, the blockchains latest technical overhaul, will launch a usable beacon chain in 2020. Regardless of the current state of the software, Ethereum fans see the experiment as a success. It inspired research and community-building efforts that changed thousands of lives, for better or worse.

ConsenSys alum Andrew Keys said he met Lubin in 2014 and was instrumental in helping create Ethereums first cooperation with Microsoft in 2015. In May 2020, he described Ethereum as a huge success in its opening act.

It has proven the ability to digitize all assets, automate agreements and empower self-sovereign identity, Keys said. Were still in the first inning, though, and bleeding-edge technology that already garners billions in value takes time to upgrade properly.

Global reach

Even Ethereums critics cant deny the lifestyle brand went global in 2017.

In addition to dozens of central bank experiments, Ethereum also inspired grassroots education initiatives that draw more emotional nourishment from the founders than financial incentives.

Awosika Israel Ayodeji, an Ethereum advocate in Nigeria since the token boom of 2017, said hes helped train 150 local developers on how to write Ethereum smart contracts since October 2019. After having an amazing experience at the EthCC 3 conference in Europe in March 2020, he returned home feeling confident in his work and supported by the global community.

While Bitcoiners are often individualistic, Ethereans tend to be more collectivist. For Ayodeji, Ethereum is more than a software or even a project. It is a way of thinking.

The fact that Ethereum allows everyone an [opportunity for] expression is why I personally like Ethereum, he said. The image I see of Ethereum is an innovation giving power to groups of people to express and govern themselves.

Like Evans and Nash, Ayodeji is a token user, including the dai stablecoins minted on MakerDAO.

I earn in ETH and convert to fiat when I need to spend, he said. Ethereum culture for me is decentralization. Although we might still be far from decentralization, as it might still be early, its gradually coming along.

At least in terms of geographic decentralization, the Ethereum community has achieved some degree of diversity. Over in Taiwan, marketing associate Yahsin Huang has been involved with a local Ethereum meetup group since 2016.

Im interested in building the next generation of the internet, she said. For her, getting involved in blockchain projects is less about investment or career development and closer to activism.

Im more of an idealist, very purpose-driven, believe in the core values, and also strongly believe in the future of the web, she said.

Likeminded Ethereum Foundation developer Danny Ryan said that from his perspective Ethereum is about freedom of choice on the internet. He added Hemachandra is correct to believe the Eth 2.0 beacon chain will go live this year.

Im deeply concerned about the trajectory of technology.  Ethereum might help us disrupt that and push it in the right direction, Ryan said. The beacon chain is the core of this new consensus mechanism.

His coworker Zamfir said Ethereum is also associated with a type of discipline or practice beyond coding. Zamfir doesnt dance, like some of his fellow Ethereans, but even he cant deny the narrative-shaping power of the moment at Devcon when the lights turned low.

I still believe that Ethereum, Bitcoin and the blockchain space create an incredible opportunity to do interesting research, Zamfir said. Im more optimistic than ever about what it could be, despite not being optimistic about what it is now.

Related Stories
The South Tongu District of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has called on Ghanaians to make the wearing of the face mask a habit but further take note that once worn, they do not make people immune to the virus.

The District Director of NCCE Mr. Seth Fiagorme made the appeal when he visited the Sokpoe branch of the Church of Pentecost in the Volta Region in the second series of NCCEs monthly public awareness creation campaign on COVID-19 preventive measures and good environmental governance.

The exercise is expected to conscientize the citizenry on the deadly coronavirus and the need to safeguard and protect the environment.

The COVID-19 District Director Mr. Seth Fiagorme who addressed the congregation entreated them to observe the COVID-19 preventive protocols especially the wearing of face masks because it is now mandatory to wear it whiles in a public place.

According to Mr. Fiagorme, the face mask is just one layer of defense against the deadly coronavirus, and that the surest way for us to remain safe and healthy is to religiously adhere to all the protocols.

He said the Inspector General of Police had sent a memoir for the enforcement of the law criminalizing the non-wearing of face mask whiles at public places to all divisional police commanders, and that very soon police officers across the country would start to arrest and prosecute offenders.

Mr. Fiagome told the congregants not to panic but wear the face mask, maintain the social distancing, practice respiratory hygiene, and stay home unless it was critically important to do so.

Finally, with regard to environmental governance, Mr. Fiagorme further entreated the congregants to adopt safer means to dispose of all unwanted and used face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) in order not to pollute the environment.

He again advised parents and guardians to make sure that their children stay away from playing with used face masks and other personal protective equipment in order not to acquire the virus.

Keeping the environment clean is our collective responsibility and it starts with everyone he stressed.

As a citizen let us know that it is our responsibility to protect and safeguard the environment as stated in Article 41(k) of the 1992 Constitution.
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Britons were today warned not to book a foreign holiday unless they can afford to lose the money with dreams of a summer getaway now hanging in the balance.

Concerns over travel restrictions abroad intensified as UK tourism chiefs warned Britons to make their reservations for 'staycations' next year as soon as possible. Families are booking up dates for UK holidays in 2021 despite the cost of some stays going up by 50 per cent as operators try to recoup some of their lockdown losses.

Slots at campsites, B&Bs and cottages across Britain are also running out because holidays postponed during the lockdown are now being rebooked for next year.

Up to 14million Britons are expected to go on a UK holiday before children go back to school in September, giving the country's economy a 3.7billion boost - with Havens saying bookings at its 36 parks are up 96 per cent year-on-year, demand for caravan sites up 140 per cent in Devon and bookings also surging at Butlins locations.

But speaking about going abroad, Guy Anker from MoneySavingExpert told The Times: 'People who booked a holiday or took out insurance after mid-March are not going to be covered by a local lockdown or the decision to change travel advice.

'My advice would be, do not spend any money at the moment that you can't afford to lose, or where flexibility is not written into your airline ticket or hotel booking.'

UK holiday agent Hoseasons said it has employed extra telesales staff to cope with extra demand with bookings made for the next year up by a third on normal levels.

Its cottage break bookings are up 223 per cent over the last month compared to the same period in 2019, while call volumes are at more than ten times the normal level.

The empty Jet2 check-in desk at Edinburgh Airport this morning after UK tourists were told not to travel to Spain

Jet2 staff stand at the check-in desk at Edinburgh Airport today after the new UK guidance on not travelling to Spain

Charles Millward, owner of Staycation Holidays, which manages 120 UK properties, told The Times: 'People should be worried about finding availability next year.'

What can I do if I've booked a holiday to Spain? Can I get a refund on my flights? Airlines are refusing to cancel flights to Spain  despite the Government advising against all but essential travel. The move puts hundreds of thousands of British families in limbo and at risk of losing thousands of pounds. It also puts the airline industry at odds with the UK Government by ignoring a public safety edict. The Government issued the travel warning after the emergence of a second wave of coronavirus in parts of Spain. Customers would normally expect travel firms to cancel the flights and offer refunds. But all the major carriers, which have suffered massive losses following the collapse of air travel, have snubbed the Government and continue to offer the flights. This means families will potentially lose their holidays and their money. People could ignore the Government and take their flights. But they would have to quarantine for 14 days when they get back and their travel insurance may be void. Alternatively, they could cancel their trip without any guarantee of a refund. Can I switch my flight date or change destination? British Airways and easyJet have suggested they will offer vouchers for future flights, rather than a refund, for those who cancel. Ryanair has refused to offer anything. It even suggested people who changed their flights could incur charges of up to 95 per person. What if I have booked a package holiday? If you booked a package holiday which cannot go ahead as planned, you are entitled to a refund and it should be returned within 14 days. However, a number of airlines have not cancelled flights and some tour operators are also doing the same - this means you might not get a refund without a fight. Companies will be expected to cancel package holidays to Spain and its islands and offer refunds. An estimated 1.8m bookings will be affected. Tui has suspended all holidays to Spain up to and including August 9. It said customers travelling 'will be able to cancel or amend holidays and will be able to receive a full refund or the option to rebook their holiday with a booking incentive and our customer service team will proactively email these customers'. Jet2 and Tui have cancelled trips up to certain dates in August. Kuoni, even though it is not cancelling trips, is offering refunds or rebookings at a later date. Will I be able to cancel a direct hotel booking? If you have booked directly with a hotel it is unlikely that they will let you cancel without abiding by their cancellation charges. You could try appealing to their goodwill and there is certainly no harm in asking. They may for instance let you move to a later date. If you have booked through a third-party website like Booking.com, Expedia or Lastminute, you may find that the cancellation terms are more generous, depending on what sort of reservation you made. If it is not offering either option, contact your travel insurer to see if you can claim on your policy instead. Will my insurance cover it? Only Nationwide's FlexPlus travel insurance, which comes with its 13-a-month current account, covers trips cancelled because Foreign Office advice changed after a booking was made - while it also covers a trip being cut short because of a local lockdown. Other policies from the likes of Trailfinders, Nationwide, Axa, All Clear, Coverwise and Insure For will cover coronavirus-related cancellations, but not because of a change in government travel restrictions. The Civil Aviation Authority said there was nothing it could do to ensure those with a flight-only booking got a refund. It suggested they claim money back from a travel insurance policy, but most insurers have clauses that reject any claims linked to coronavirus. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has said it is 'likely' that travel insurance will remain in place for holidaymakers already in Spain until they return home. However, those attempting to travel to countries against FCO advice would invalidate their travel insurance. The ABI said people who booked a trip or took out travel insurance after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic may not be covered for travel disruption or cancellation. In either circumstance, travellers should check with their insurer. What if my trip isn't cancelled but I want to cancel it? If your trip isn't cancelled, contact your travel provider in the first instance to see if they are offering refunds, or again, a change of date. If they are not, you may have to swallow the cost of cancelling your holiday and then fighting to get a refund through your insurance, credit card provider through Section 75 or a chargeback, offered by some banks. While most tour providers still haven't shown their hand, it is thought likely most will cancel holidays given the Government advice. What should I do if I am already in Spain? People currently on holiday in Spain have been encouraged to follow the local rules, return home as normal and check the FCO's travel advice pages on gov.uk for further information. The FCO is not advising those already travelling in Spain to leave. Abta - the UK's travel trade association - has advised customers in the country to continue their holidays and return as normal. What if I am going on holiday elsewhere? The FCO continues to advise against non-essential international travel except to the countries and territories on its exemption list. But local government minister Simon Clarke said the reality is that holidaymakers travelling abroad during the coronavirus outbreak will have to accept there is a 'degree of uncertainty'. He said people going on holiday should understand that they may be asked to self-isolate on their return and the Government must reserve the right to keep the British public safe. Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said anyone making travel arrangements needs to recognise the restrictions that may be placed upon them by the Government on their return to the UK. What will happen when I get back from Spain? If you're returning to the UK from Spain you will need to provide your journey and contact details and self-isolate for 14 days. This may drop to 10 days soon. You may be fined up to 100 if you refuse to provide your contact details or more if you break this rule more than once. You may also be fined up to 1,000 if you refuse to self-isolate, or you could face further action. Will my employer pay me if I have to quarantine? This will depend on your employer and their rules. If, for example, you can still work from home, there should - in theory - be no problem with you quarantining. However, you are not automatically entitled to statutory sick pay from your employer if you have to quarantine after coming back off holiday, according to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. Some employers will offer sick pay  either statutory or a higher level, depending on their policy. It could be that if your employer is unable to offer you sick pay, you could take annual leave to avoid missing out on any payment, although this may not be possible if you do not have enough left to take. However, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said no worker following quarantine guidance should be penalised by employers, including by being put on to sick pay. Advertisement

He added that one property has just three weekends free next year from March until September, and the staycation has 'suddenly become massive for us this summer'.

Writer and broadcaster Sally Jones, who lives in Warwick, told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'I do think it's totally bonkers to encourage people to go abroad at the moment when we don't know which countries are going to be shut down, where we're going to have quarantine coming back from, say, Croatia or France.

'There's wonderful, wonderful places in England. I think most people don't really know their own country that well.'

She added: 'Why not go and explore places like, say, Scotland or the beaches of Northumberland? There are these incredible places in England  most of us have never been there.'

British campsites have also seen a boom in bookings as people give up on foreign trips.

The website Pitchup.com, which sends 800,000 people a year to 2,000 UK campsites, said bookings on Sunday were double last year's high for a single day.

It took some 6,100 bookings, representing around 18,000 people, which was up by 20 per cent on the previous Sunday. Founder of the booking platform, Dan Yates, said there is a clear switch to staycations.

He said: 'For many who were just starting to consider booking a trip abroad this is probably the nail in the coffin, with the change in regulations fundamentally damaging consumer confidence to travel overseas.

'The tightened financial climate means British holidaymakers are unlikely to take the risk of not being able to work when they return which has likely been the catalyst for this weekend's surge in UK bookings.'

The website also offers bookings to campsites across Europe.

Mr Yates said: 'The tourism and hospitality sector has been decimated by Covid and our Spanish site owners are in uproar.

'They believe a more localised approach which focuses on quarantine in the specific regions which have been affected by the Covid peaks would have been a more appropriate and effective response by the UK government.

'This is, however, good news for domestic campsites and caravan parks as thousands will substitute a UK holiday for their usual one abroad.'

Mr Yates said: 'The ever changing guidance is likely to cause mass confusion and concern amongst Brits, with many likely to elect to play it safe and staying closer to home this year.'

Airbnb has said that on bookings made on the weekend of June 27/28, more than 70 per cent were staycations.

A spokesman said: 'Staycations are great for Brits who want to explore beyond their own four walls again, but also for the hospitality industry and Airbnb hosts who depend on the income from listing on our platform.

'We've seen a significant spike in demand as travel becomes a reality again, with our trending destinations showing people are keen to explore the many interesting towns and rural areas the nation has to offer, providing a welcome boost to local businesses.'

Issuing advice to those concerned about holidays in Spain, Brian Brown of Defaqto said: 'If you are in Spain now your insurance will cover you as normal. This will include curtailment and medical claims. However, it will not include curtailment if you just want to come home early.

'You won't however have any compensation from your travel insurer for any enforced quarantine on your return to the UK.

'If you are on your way to Spain right now by car you might also have problems.

'If you enter Spain after the FCO advised you not to, then you will have no cover at all, including medical insurance.

'So, if you are driving through France to Spain, you should turn around and come home, or find somewhere else to have your holiday.'

He added that those who have a booking to Spain but can't now travel because the FCO has advised against it, should first go to the travel provider.

Mr Brown continued: 'Airlines and package operators will likely cancel the flight/holiday. You should ask them for a refund, or to transfer your holiday to another destination or time.

'If you can't get refunds, for instance if you booked your accommodation directly with the hotel, your travel insurance might pay out, but only if the policy covers you for change of government advice and you booked the holiday and bought the insurance before the FCO changed its advice.

'You will need to check your insurance policy wording.

'If you are planning to travel somewhere else, where the FCO currently says you can go, but now don't want to take the risk then no travel insurance policy will cover you for cancellation. Disinclination to travel is not an insured peril.'

Meanwhile Sally Jaques of GoCompare Travel Insurance, said: 'If a holiday company is still taking customers to mainland Spain, which at the moment would be against FCO advice, those holidaymakers are between a rock and hard place.

'They can't cancel their holiday and claim their holiday cost back on their insurance and by travelling to a destination classified as an area where the advice is to avoid all non-essential travel, they will be invalidating their travel insurance policy.

'If they fall ill abroad, have an accident, or have their luggage lost or stolen, their insurer is unlikely to pay out a claim.

'The best option for holidaymakers in this situation who don't want to take the risk is to request to rebook their trip for a later date, when hopefully the pandemic will have abated or at least the situation will be clearer. However, holiday companies are under no obligation to do this.

'The sudden turnaround of advice regarding travelling to mainland Spain and the quarantine requirements imposed for all of Spain, including its islands, highlights how unpredictable foreign travel is at the moment.

'Customers booking holidays anywhere this summer run the risk of having their trips cancelled or being left in an almost impossible situation of not wishing to travel, being pushed into ignoring FCO advice by their tour operator and invalidating their insurance whilst away.

'Frankly anyone choosing to go abroad this year is taking a gamble.'

In a huge blow to the tourism industry both at home and abroad, ministers have extended travel restrictions to the Spanish islands and warned that other holiday destinations could follow.

The Foreign Office is now warning against 'all but essential' travel to the Balearics and Canaries, having already done so for the mainland.

This is on top of 14-day quarantine on return.

Travel firm Jet2 responded to the diktat by cancelling flights to all Spanish destinations and told passengers not to go to the airport.

Downing Street warned: 'Unfortunately no travel is risk-free during this pandemic.'

Sources said there were 'no immediate plans' to change travel and quarantine advice to other countries.

But Croatia and Belgium are thought to be of concern, and ministers are also monitoring France and Germany. Last night Grant Shapps cut short his own holiday in Spain to deal with the crisis.

The Transport Secretary, whose wife and children will continue their holiday without him, will have to quarantine at home for two weeks.

He told the Mail he 'didn't feel right' continuing his holiday when others were having their plans wrecked. Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove cancelled a trip to the Balearics on Saturday.

Ministers were last night facing a backlash from travel experts and the airline industry over the 'chaotic' handling of the air bridges policy, which has been in place for only three weeks.

Tourists look around Boscastle village in Cornwall on a rainy day yesterday as people go on staycations across the UK

The Spanish government, international airline bosses, holidaymakers and travel firms said Britain had got it wrong on safety, science and economic impact.

Former Tory Cabinet minister Michael Portillo said it 'looked like a deliberate attempt to wreck the recovery'.

Spanish PM says quarantine is 'unjust' and claims tourists will be SAFER in his country than in the UK after FCO changed contradictory advice and urges Brits not to travel to islands Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez Spain's Prime Minister has blasted quarantine restrictions as 'unjust' and said tourists will be safer in his country than the UK as ministers prepare to slash quarantine from 14 to 10 days to salvage getaways for millions of families. Pedro Sanchez last night criticised the government's sudden decision to force Britons returning from Spain to stay at home for two weeks and called on the government to reconsider its decision. Tourists braced to enter quarantine are worried the fortnight self-isolating could cost them paid work and there are fears the newly-imposed rules could kill off the summer holiday season. Speaking moments after the Foreign Office hardened its stance and advised against non-essential travel to the whole of Spain, including the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands, Mr Sanchez told Spanish TV station Telecinco on Monday night: 'I think the UK's decision is an incorrect one. 'Spain is made up of a number of regions that have a cumulative rate of contagion that is lower than the European average as well as the UK average. 'The Spanish tourist industry has acted very responsibly over the past few months and has transferred a message of security with regards to the health emergency we are experiencing. 'It's true that on a global level the coronavirus pandemic continues to show a very worrying development and at European level as well, but in Spain the spread of the virus is not occurring in a uniform way. 'Sixty-two per cent of the new cases are occurring in two regions but in the majority of the country, the cumulative incidence of the virus is lower than the European average and the UK average.' Advertisement

But a government source said: 'This was always a safety first policy. If we think there is a risk we will end up importing cases from overseas then we will act decisively to prevent it.'

The Government shocked the nation and travel industry at the weekend with new advice against all but essential travel to mainland Spain.

At the same time, it said anyone returning from there should go into a 14-day home quarantine. Breaking quarantine risks a 1,000 fine.

The decision was taken amid fears of a second wave of Covid in Spain after case numbers rose by 75 per cent in just 48 hours last week.

The rate of infection in Spain is 35.1 cases per 100,000 people, while the UK is at 14, according to the latest figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

The Balearic and Canary islands were included in the quarantine restrictions but excluded from Foreign Office warning against 'all but essential travel.'

The omission had led to hopes yesterday that the islands, where coronavirus cases are said to be lower, might be lifted out of the restrictions altogether, following intense lobbying from Spain.

Those hopes were dashed last night by the latest Foreign Office advice.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We have considered the overall situation for British nationals travelling to and from the Balearic and Canary Islands, including the impact of the requirement to self-isolate on return to the UK, and concluded that we should advise British nationals against all non-essential travel to the whole of Spain.'

It was claimed last night that the Chief Medical Officer had warned that ten Britons who had tested positive for coronavirus since July 1 had reported visiting Spain in the 14 days before their test.

It comes after one of the country's most popular holidays seemed to be struggling with the onslaught of guests.

Swathes of people have descended on St Ives, Cornwall - famed for its narrow streets - seemingly struggling to adhere to social distancing guidelines.

Car parks in the area are reaching capacity, and people are packing on to the town's popular beach and into cafes and restaurants surrounding it.

Officials in St Ives have introduced a 'keep to the left' policy in an attempt to ensure everyone can keep to the one-metre plus distance currently advised.

Guests in the town have also been advised to wear a face mask and to avoid cramming into smaller shops. And in an effort to further reduce congestion in St Ives, access for most vehicles has been restricted between 10am and 6pm.

Malcolm Bell, chief executive of Visit Cornwall, admitted some locals were still 'nervous' about the sudden rush of tourists. In spite of that, he added that on the whole 'everyone is sticking to social distancing rules' despite some of the historic towns being 'close to capacity'.

* Have you taken photographs of a busy UK resort this week? Please email them to: pictures@mailonline.co.uk *
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has recently introduced the Print Media Advertisement Policy 2020. The policy will be effective from August 1, 2020.

Set up on December 8, 2017 by integration of erstwhile Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), Directorate of Field Publicity (DFP) and Song & Drama Division (S&DD), the Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC) is the nodal organisation for paid outreach campaigns through Print Media, Electronic Media, Outdoor Media, Social Media, Internet Websites, etc, on behalf of client Ministries/ Departments and organisations of Government of India. The Print Media Advertisement Policy 2020 will provide clear guidelines for empanelment of newspapers and periodicals, release of advertisements, advertisement rates, payment of bills and penalties.

Also read: I follow print media more closely for COVID-19-related news: Venkaiah Naidu

BOC will maintain a list of approved publications for release of advertisements by empanelling acceptable publications which are found suitable for issue of advertisements of the Government of India.

The primary objective of the Government campaigns through print media is to secure the widest possible coverage of the intended content or message through newspapers and periodicals of current affairs as well as Science, Art, Literature, Sports, Films, Cultural Affairs, etc. However, Government advertisements are not intended to be financial assistance to publications.

The publications have been divided into three categories:

Small publications: Publications with circulation up to 25,000 copies per publishing day.

Medium Publications: Publications with circulation between 25,001 and 75,000 copies per publishing day.

Big Publications: Publications with circulation of above 75,000 copies per publishing day.

Procedure for empanelment of publication

The Policy provides detailed guidelines for considering applications of publications for empanelment for receiving Government advertisements. A Panel Advisory Committee (PAC) will be formed for this comprising the following:

Additional Director General (MR & C), BOC- Chairman

(ii) Additional Director General (Media & Communication) in the Press Information Bureau (PIB) - Member

Press Registrar/ Additional Press Registrar- Member

Director/ Deputy Secretary/ Under Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting dealing with print media - Member

Additional Director General/ Director, BOC, in charge of Print Media Policy as Convener/ Member Secretary

One representative each from the big, medium and small category of newspapers nominated by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting  Non-official Member.

The tenure of the non-official Member of the PAC would be two years from the date of their nomination by the Government.

Advertisement rates

The rate structure for advertisements against advertisements released by BOC will be worked out as per recommendations of the Rate Structure Committee. The rates will be related to certified circulation of a publication.

The payment against advertisements released by BOC will be worked out as per rate for advertisements in print media issued by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting vide OM No. M-24013/55/2017-MUC-I dated 8th January, 2019 or any subsequent order in this regard.

The rates for advertisements by Maharatna and Navratna Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) will be 1.5 times the normal BOC rates. For advertisements of other PSUs, normal BOC rates will apply.

The rates will be valid for 3 years from the date of revision.

Rate Contract

All empanelled publications will enter into rate contract with BOC on the basis of rate offered and other terms and conditions, as laid down from time to time, to ensure proper and timely publication of BOC advertisements.

The Rate Contract will be valid for a period of two (2) years.

A change in rate can be accepted every year on submission of latest ABC/RNI circulation certificate with immediate effect.

Publication with CA Certified circulation may claim change in rate on submission of Annual Return to RNI duly certified by Chartered Accountant at the time of online filing of rate-renewal with effect from 1st January of the subsequent year.

Rate revision on the basis of CA certified circulation will be accepted only once in three years of rate contract. However, in case of information regarding increase/ decrease in circulation, Pr. DG/DG, BOC, may accept the same with immediate effect.

Application for renewal of Rate Contract will be filled online on BOC website in the prescribed format and the hard copy along with documents and specimen copies as specified should be submitted to BOC, complete in all respects.

All empanelled publications must submit a copy of annual return submitted to RNI, with proof of receipt of the same in RNI, for the latest financial year, during July to September every year, failing which the publication can be suspended by Pr. DG/DG, BOC.

Publication will be treated as coloured publications if minimum two (2) pages are printed in colour.

Payment and Bills

BOC will release payment of advertisement bills in the name of the publication/ company account directly through ECS or NEFT. In case of any change in the account number, payees name or address, it will be the responsibility of the publisher to intimate such changes to BOC, duly supported by self-attested copy of the Declaration authenticated by the Magistrate, to this effect for timely and transparent payments.

Every publication shall submit bills for publication of advertisements as per the release order of BOC, complete in all respects and supported with relevant documents, within 30 days of the publication of the said advertisements. BOC will endeavour to make payment against the bill within 30 days of its receipt. BOC may levy a fine for late submission of bills uniformly to all publications.

Balanced distribution of advertisements

BOC will endeavour that a balance is maintained between various categories of newspapers taking into account circulation, language, coverage area, target readership etc., while releasing display advertisements. For this purpose, the distribution of advertisements, among small, medium and big newspapers, in terms of space (in Sq. cms), will be as under to the extent possible:

Category - Ceiling (in terms of space):

Small - 15%

Medium - 35%

Big - 50%

The distribution of advertisement among newspapers of various languages, in space terms will be as under:

Category - Ceiling (in terms of space):

English - 20% (approx.)

Indian languages - 80% (approx.)
An Iranian delegation will visit Ukraine later this week to discuss compensation for a Ukrainian jet shot down by Iran on January 8, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said.



"Given the circumstance of what happened, there are all reasons to ask from Iran to pay the highest price for what it did," Dmytro Kuleba said at a news conference during a visit to Warsaw.



"I cannot disclose final numbers of the compensation...numbers will be the result of the consultations," RFE/RL cited him as saying.



Kuleba said Ukraine would represent all countries and groups affected during the talks, which will take place July 29-30.



Iran's military says it downed the Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) passenger jet after mistaking it for a missile amid heightened tensions with the United States. All 176 people on board, including 57 Canadians, were killed.



The aircraft was shot down hours after Iran fired missiles at Iraqi air bases housing U.S. forces in retaliation for the U.S. drone killing of a senior Iranian commander.



The data extraction from the jet's black boxes is being carried out in Paris. Canada's Transportation Safety Board (TSB) said on July 23 the download and preliminary analysis of the cockpit voice and flight data was finished but the investigation is far from over.



"The download and preliminary data analysis was an important milestone in what must be a thorough and transparent safety investigation," TSB Chairwoman Kathy Fox said in a statement.



Iran's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is leading the investigation, which is being observed by Canadian, U.S., Swedish, and British experts and representatives from UIA, aircraft manufacturer Boeing, and engine maker Safran.
In September, Jeff Bezos, Amazon's chief executive, rattled off terrifying statistics about the warming planet from the storied National Press Club, two blocks from the White House. Then he said he had something exciting to announce.

But when he uncovered a towering sign with the news, Amazon's name was nowhere in sight. Instead, the sign introduced the Climate Pledge, a project to reduce carbon emissions from companies. Yes, Amazon would be the first, and at the time only, signatory. But this was a bigger push, Bezos said.

Jeff Bezos testifies before Congress for the first time this week. Credit:AP

It was Amazon news, couched as something grander.

The event reflected Bezos' approach to the nation's capital. He has jumped at opportunities to cast himself as a statesman  the saviour of The Washington Post, who holds court among the country's elite. At the same time, he has eschewed the day-to-day grind of bolstering Amazon's influence with policymakers.
Online shopping has revolutionized the way the world shops - but it has also given rise to so-called 'porch pirates' who steal deliveries right off people's doorsteps.

After Canadian inventor Dennis Evans was struck by pirates himself, he vowed to come up with a solution - and created a device called Snare.

One in five Americans are thought to have fallen victim to 'porch pirates', with 1.7million parcels going missing across the US every day.

Snare security system stops parcels from being stolen from doorsteps using an aircraft-grade steel cable which wraps around the package

The system is designed to stop opportunistic thieves from taking packages by making them much more difficult to steal (file image)

The system works by wrapping parcels in a loop made from aircraft-grade steel cable which is pulled tight, meaning the package cannot be taken by passersby.

The cable runs through through a lock which fixes on to the outside of a house using a specially designed bracket.

Whenever the homeowner is expecting a delivery, they take the lock outside and fix it on to the bracket, before locking it in place.

Evans has spent four years developing Snare, and is now raising money for the project on Kickstarter

After a package has been put inside the cable tightened, the only way to loosen it is by unlocking the box using the key.

The bracket has been designed to fit to brick, wood paneling or metal railings with screws, making it difficult to remove.

The cable itself is made from aircraft steel, meaning it is difficult to cut through - but flexible enough to fit all kinds of packages.

Evans admits that Snare, which is currently raising money on Kickstarter, is not totally secure - but said that is not the point.

Because porch pirates are opportunistic - striking because the parcels are an easy target - his aim was not to make stealing the parcel impossible, only to make it difficult enough that the crooks either give up or don't bother in the first place.

He said: 'I started Snare because I wanted to solve a problem I had personally experienced - my online orders were getting stolen right off my front porch!

Evans said the project evolved three times after input from his wife, but is now patented and will be available from November this year

'Every community site in my neighbourhood was posting videos of porch pirates stealing their parcels.'

While cameras might help to catch thieves, Evans noticed that they weren't stopping them from taking the packages.

Over the course of four years - and with plenty of input from his wife - he developed a lock which he says makes taking packages much more difficult, if not impossible.

Snare will cost $100 when it is finished, but is available for an early bird price of $69 if you pledge through Kickstarter.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mission Ready Solutions Inc. (Mission Ready or the Company) (TSXV: MRS) announces that, effective August 7, 2020, James A. Marks will assume the role of interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Company. To facilitate this change, Jeffery L. Schwartz has tendered his resignation as the Companys President and CEO, effective August 7, 2020, but will remain a member of the Companys board of directors (the Board).

Mr. Schwartz has served as the Companys President and CEO since March 2017, during which time he has led the Company to new heights and presided over impressive revenue growth, with 2019 revenues reaching CAD $21.19 million, a 588% increase over the previous year.

We are forever grateful for Jeffs devoted and faithful service to the Company and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors, states James Marks, a Director of Mission Ready. Its now time to transition to a new leader with deep leadership and organizational skills to continue to build and to stabilize the platform.

Jeffery Schwartz, President and CEO of Mission Ready, states Its has been a pleasure and truly an honor to help build Mission Ready to the point its at today. It is with mixed emotions that I step aside as President and CEO. I will certainly miss the great folks Ive had the pleasure of working so closely with during the past 3 years but I am also very much looking forward to spending more time with my immediate and extended family. As for the Companys future, I have full confidence in my fellow directors to identify an excellent candidate to lead the Company forward at this exciting and opportune time.

Since joining the Companys Board in June 2018, Major General (Retired) James A. Marks has contributed immeasurable value to Mission Ready, lending extraordinary insights and expertise gained throughout 30 years of service with the United States Army. General Marks served in the United States Army holding every command position from infantry platoon leader to commanding general and was the senior intelligence officer during the LA Riots, in the Balkans, Korea, Iraq. He is an Honor Graduate of the US Armys Ranger School and a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame. General Marks has a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY and a Master of Arts degree in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.

Additionally, the Company announces that it has granted incentive stock options (the Options), pursuant to its stock option plan (the Plan), for a total of 400,000 common shares of the Company, to a director and officer of the Company. The Options, subject to the terms of the Plan and the corresponding option agreement, are exercisable at a price of CAD $0.15 per share for a period of up to five years.

About Mission Ready Solutions Inc.

Mission Ready specializes in providing comprehensive government contracting solutions through its privileged access to a host of government contracting vehicles including its Special Operational Equipment (SOE) Tailored Logistics Support (TLS) contract administered by the United States Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), and Multiple Award Schedule contracts administered by the United States General Services Administration (GSA).

Mission Readys wholly-owned subsidiary, Unifire, Inc. (Unifire), is one of six companies, globally, authorized to provide equipment and designated services under DLAs SOE TLS program. Unifire is a designated Small Business and an industry-leading manufacturer and distributor of over 1.5 million fire, military, emergency, and law enforcement products. As an incumbent awardee of the SOE TLS contract, with extensive knowledge and experience in providing solutions to the US Federal Government, Unifire utilizes its highly-efficient, scalable technology infrastructure to provide procurement solutions for program managers, military and federal contracting offices, base supply centers, and other governmental supply agencies.

Mission Ready trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol MRS.

For further information, visit MRSCorp.com or contact:

Investor Relations

T: 1.877.479.7778  Ext 5

E: IR@MRSCorp.com

Mission Ready Solutions Inc.

(signed Jeffery L. Schwartz)

Jeffery L. Schwartz,

President & CEO

T: 1.877.479.7778

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.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "forecast", "project", "budget", "schedule", "may", "will", "could", "might", "should" or variations of such words or similar words or expressions. Forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions that have been made by Mission Ready Solutions Inc. as at the date of such information and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Mission Ready Solutions Inc. to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Mission Ready Solutions Inc. does not undertake to update any forward-looking information that is included herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
A lucky Australian has literally struck gold by finding a precious rare coin thanks to a late change of plans on where to go on his regular hunts with a metal detector.

Shane King was due to join a mate on a day out detecting, but that fell through, and instead he went searching along the old train line near the centre of Busselton, Western Australia, when he came across a 1909 half sovereign made of 22-carat gold.

'I actually rang my mate to go detecting and he cancelled on me, so I tried a new spot and I dug up just in Busselton, Western Australia,' he said.

The 1909 coin, designed by Benedetto Pistrucci and features King Edward VIII and St George and the dragon, is worth around $4,000 in mint condition but Mr King expects his to fetch $1,500-2000.

The 1909 half sovereign coin was designed by Benedetto Pistrucci and features King Edward VIII and St George and the dragon

'I knew I'd find one, one day, but not within a week of buying my new detector,' Mr King told ABC.

The 1909 sovereign was minted twice, in Perth and Melbourne, and the one Mr King found was one of the 44,000 made in the Western Australia capital.

While thrilled with his find, Mr King will resist the temptation to cash in.

'I'm a coin collector so this is my first gold coin for my collection and it's never going to leave my collection,' he said.

Andrew Crellin, an Australia rare coin expert, said the coin's run of 44,000 represented one for every person living in Western Australia at the time.

'Half sovereigns were made according to the amount of people in the economy and sovereigns were made according to the amount of gold in the ground,' he said.

The coin was also considered legal tender in England.
A batch of dangerous 'black MDMA' has left three young women in hospital after suffering horrifying reactions to the drug.

The women allegedly bought the contaminated MDMA from a pub in Innisfail, Far North Queensland, before taking the powder at a house at 12.30am on Saturday.

Friends of the women became so concerned about the trio's reaction to the party drug that they called an ambulance.

Police have now warned party-goers to avoid the drug 'at all costs' amid fears it could cause serious health problems.

The women, one aged 19 and the other two aged 20, were taken to Innisfail Hospital for treatment, with one being kept overnight.

The black MDMA (pictured) was seized by police after leaving three young women in hospital

Far North Police Detective Acting Inspector Jason Smith said there were fears the drug could seriously hurt any user.

'We're very concerned that this drug is not safe to take,' he told Cairns Post.

'At this stage I'm very concerned that this drug is in Far North Queensland.

'I urge anyone to avoid it at all costs.'

Innisfail Police Detective Sergeant Steve Bull said a number of deaths across Australia had been linked to MDMA.

He said this version of the drug would be sent away for testing, and that it was lucky the repercussions weren't worse.

A man and two women have been charged with a string of offences including supplying a dangerous drug.

The three women, one aged 19 and the other two aged 20, were taken to Innisfail Hospital to be treated after taking the black MDMA (pictured)

Far North Police Detective Acting Inspector Jason Smith said the drug (pictured) was concerning and the MDMA had become contaminated

A 20-year-old Goondi Bend woman faces three charges of supplying a dangerous drug and one count of possessing a dangerous drug.

An East Innisfail woman, also 20, was charged with one count of supplying a dangerous drug.

A man, 20, from Innisfail is facing six charges including supplying a dangerous drug, possessing property believed to have been used in commission of a drug offence and possessing proceeds of an offence.

The trio will appear in Innisfail Magistrates Court on August 24.
JetBlue Airways on Tuesday said it swung to a loss in the second quarter and forecast that revenue will fall by about 80% in the third quarter as the coronavirus pandemic promises a choppy recovery in travel demand.

The New York-based airline carried just 616,000 passengers in the three months ended June 30, down more than 94% from the 11 million who flew JetBlue in the same period last year. Revenue plunged about 90% to $215 million from more than $2.1 billion in the second quarter of 2019.

JetBlue is the latest airline to detail financial losses stemming from the coronavirus crisis, which kept millions of would-be travelers at home. Executives are warning that while demand bottomed out in the spring, a choppy recovery is ahead because of a surge in virus cases and new travel restrictions.

The crisis has been particularly painful for airlines because it is impacting the key summer travel season, the most lucrative for carriers.

JetBlue, like its competitors, slashed flights in an effort to cut costs as demand fell. JetBlue's third-quarter capacity will be down "at least" 45% compared with last year, the company said in an earnings call presentation.

Cash burn in the second quarter averaged $9.5 million a day and will likely average between $7 million and $9 million a day in the current quarter.

JetBlue posted a net loss of $320 million for the three months ended June 30, down from net income of $179 million a year earlier.

Shares in the airline were down nearly 1% in morning trading.
The Cabinet is 'too large' for 'genuine debate,' the outgoing head of Britain's Civil Service has warned, suggesting the number of government departments should be cut.

Sir Mark Sedwill, speaking yesterday during his last public lecture as Cabinet Secretary has said the number of cabinet members should be cut to reduce numbers similar to other committees in the hope of improving decision making.

As it stands there are 27 ministers usually in attendance at Cabinet, including several junior ministers, which held its first meeting since March last week.

Sir Mark Sedwill said that demoralising criticism of civil servants and ministers had risen in the past few years

Boris Johnson's Cabinet met face to face for the first time since mid March on July 21 at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

During his lecture, Mr Sedwill backed a 2013 paper written by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, which suggested the number of government departments should be reduced to 'around a dozen,' according to The Telegraph.

Mr Sedwill said: 'Ive said that Cabinet is too large and therefore the Cabinet itself is quite a cumbersome forum for genuine debate of the issues.

'If you have 25 or 30 people around the table, at best only a few of them can have a significant intervention.'

Britain's top civil servant went on to warn that political sniping by anonymous officials in Boris Johnsons administration was damaging the Government.

Sir Mark Sedwill said that demoralising criticism of civil servants and ministers had risen in the past few years.

Sir Mark Sedwill has suggested the number of ministers in Boris Johnson's Cabinet (above) should be reduced, to allow room for 'genuine debate'

Sir Mark, who has been forced out as Cabinet Secretary following a power struggle with Dominic Cummings, said anonymous briefings were damaging to the Government because officials need the support of their leaders.

But last night a Government source hit back, saying: We have also seen an increase in leaking by civil servants in recent years, and that is even more damaging to Government.

In a speech at Oxford Universitys Blavatnik School of Government, Sir Mark said: So any kind of anonymous briefings and sniping is demoralising for people.

Its not completely unique but it has definitely risen in the last few years.

Sir Mark, who revealed he had been shot at during his time as a diplomat, joked: Political sniping is a regrettable feature of Government now but it is not as bad as the real thing.

He said Mr Johnson and predecessor Theresa May had been four-square in their support for the Civil Service when speaking on the record.

Having that political leadership offsetting some of the sniping that goes on is really important, Sir Mark added.

Sir Mark, who has been forced out as Cabinet Secretary following a power struggle with Dominic Cummings (pictured), said anonymous briefings were damaging to the Government

Theres nothing more destabilising for a senior Cabinet minister to read a load of stuff in one of the newspapers about whether or not the skids are under them because of something thats happened.

His departure as Cabinet Secretary, and replacement as national security adviser by Mr Johnsons chief EU negotiator David Frost, was announced last month.

It was the highest profile exit in a series that included former Home Office permanent secretary Sir Philip Rutnum, who accused Home Secretary Priti Patel of a vicious briefing campaign against him.

Sir Mark said the string of departures should not necessarily be linked to the anonymous briefings. His successor is yet to be named.
T he number of wild tigers has increased in five of the countries where the endangered animal resides, conservationists have said.

More big cats have been recorded in Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Russia, a decade on from the launch of an ambitious scheme to double the population of the species.

The TX2 initiative was set up in 2010 when it was estimated that wild populations of the cat were at a historic low with as few as 3,200 animals remaining across the 13 range countries where they are found.

It aims to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022, the next Chinese Year of the Tiger. Conservationists are marking this years Global Tiger Day by highlighting some of the successes that have been seen in range countries following efforts to protect tigers and their habitat.

Guess who is back? Numbers of the big striped cat have increased / PA

In India, the number of wild tigers has more than doubled from 2006 to 2018 and the country is estimated to contain between 2,600 and 3,350 animals  around three-quarters of the worlds population.

Nepals population of tigers had nearly doubled by 2018, up from 121 individuals in 2009 to 235 just under a decade later.

The population in Nepals Bardia National Park alone has increased from just 18 tigers in 2008 to 87 in 2018, wildlife charity WWF said.

In Russia, Amur tiger numbers have increased by 15 per cent in the past 10 years to around 540 animals, and in Bhutans Royal Manas National Park the population rose from only 10 tigers a decade ago to 22 in 2019.

A female Bengal tiger grooming her cub in Ranthambore National Park, India / PA

In 2010 China had no more than 20 wild tigers, most of which had crossed the border from Russia.

But the country recorded a landmark moment in 2014 when camera traps captured footage of a tigress and her cubs in Jilin Wangqing Nature Reserve, indicating that tigers were breeding in China again and dispersing into new areas.

Becci May, regional manager, Asian Big Cats, at WWF UK, said: Ten years ago, tigers were in such a perilous state that there was a very real risk of them becoming extinct in the wild.

From that population low in 2010, they are finally making a remarkable comeback in much of South Asia, Russia and China, thanks to co-ordinated and concerted conservation efforts in these countries.

Two tiger cubs playing in the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, India / PA

This is an achievement that not only offers a future for tigers in the wild, but for the landscapes they inhabit and the communities living alongside this iconic big cat.

There are still only around 3,900 tigers in the wild, where they are under threat from poaching for the illegal wildlife trade, and the destruction and breaking up of their habitat across much of their range, WWF said.

The key to helping wild tiger populations recover is to focus on conserving landscapes where they can thrive and ensuring communities in these wildlife-rich areas are supported and included in conservation, the organisation said.

Also to mark Global Tiger Day, Thailands Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP), Panthera and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) have released footage and photos showing numerous new tigers in a region of western Thailand.

The images come from camera traps set as part of a monitoring programme adjacent to the largest remaining and only second known breeding population of Indochinese tigers in the world.

The sign of tigers in new areas suggests suitable habitat and prey exists for them there, the experts said.

Chief of the Wildlife Research Division for DNP Dr Saksit Simcharoen said: These sightings are extremely encouraging for the future of tigers in our country and beyond.

These tigers are in a precarious situation. Sustained and stronger protection of this area from poaching activity of any kind is the key to ensuring these individuals live on, helping Thailands tigers to rebound.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 27

Trend:

Armenias military provocation in the direction of Azerbaijan's Tovuz district, a few months before the shipment of Azerbaijani gas to Europe isn't accidental, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Italy Mammad Ahmadzade said, Trend reports citing the Embassy of Azerbaijan to Italy.

It should be noted that by launching military provocation in the direction of Tovuz district of Azerbaijan, Armenia intended to target critical energy infrastructure implemented by Azerbaijan and its international partners, thereby jeopardizing the energy security of not only the neighboring region, but also of the greater European continent.

Ahmadzade made the speech at the "Eurasia: energy and culture" event held in a video meeting format as part of the current issue "Winners and losers in new balances in the Mediterranean" at the 17th conference dedicated to views on the world economy and geopolitics.

The conference is traditionally organized by the renowned Italian Nodo di Gordio think tank and the Vox Populi research center.

The Azerbaijani ambassador also spoke about the most memorable moments of this year in Azerbaijani-Italian relations, Azerbaijan's joining international initiatives in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan, its latest military provocations and their threat to Europes energy security.

Ahmadzade highlighted the Armenias latest military provocations against Azerbaijan, stressing that for 30 years Armenia has been holding 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven adjacent regions under occupation, as a result of which more than one million Azerbaijanis have become refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).

The latest military provocation of Armenia against Azerbaijan is a continuation of the aggressive policy, and is arising from the impunity of Armenia for its crimes, said the ambassador.

Following continuous ceasefire violations of Armenia's armed forces, the country launched another military provocation against Azerbaijan on July 12. Grossly violating the ceasefire regime, Armenian armed forces opened fire in the direction of Azerbaijan's Tovuz district.

As a result of the appropriate measures, the Armenian armed forces were silenced. The tensions continued on the border, July 12 night. During the night battles, by using artillery, mortars and tanks, the Azerbaijani armed forces destroyed a stronghold, army vehicles.

As a result of the shelling, many houses in the Tovuz district's border villages were damaged.

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.
TDT | Manama

The Cabinet decided yesterday to exempt citizen subscribers of electricity and water services from paying municipal fees for their first household, for a period of three months, starting from July. This is in line with the directives of His Majesty the King to unite national efforts to counter the repercussions of the global spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), and to ensure the safety and health of Bahraini citizens and residents while ensuring the continued provision of government services aimed at supporting sustainable development.

It also follows the decisions made by the government, led by His Royal Highness the Prime Minister, and in support of national efforts led by HRH the Crown Prince. The decision was made during yesterdays weekly Cabinet session, held remotely and chaired by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister.

During the meeting, the Cabinet extended its best wishes to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, HRH the Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, HRH the Crown Prince, and the Kingdoms citizens and residents on the occasion of Eid Al Adha.

The Cabinet underscored the importance for all to adhere to precautionary measures during the Eid holidays, in order to further mitigate the spread of the COVID-19. A number of other submissions, memorandums and proposed laws were discussed during the meeting. The Cabinet outlined the following outcomes:

 The Cabinet approved a proposal to provide masks and sterilisers to institutions and companies, and to ensure the government oversees the process to prevent misuse, represented by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism.

 The Cabinet approved two proposals related to the repatriation of citizens abroad and facilitating treatment needed, through the measures taken by the government, to repatriate all Bahraini citizens oversees who wish to return to the Kingdom.

 The Cabinet approved a recommendation submitted by the Civil Service Council, chaired by HRH the Crown Prince, on the restructuring of the Horse Care Affairs Authority, by establishing two directorates and determining the rank of the CEO position.

 The Cabinet approved a recommendation submitted by the Civil Service Council, chaired by HRH the Crown Prince, regarding a decision to organise shared services at the Ministry of Finance and National Economy. The draft decision outlines the mechanisms and procedures for organising employee affairs in the financial services sector, including the mechanism for mandating and paying salaries and job benefits, as well as regulations on reviewing the administrative organisation of financial resource departments across government agencies.

 The Cabinet approved a memorandum on the exchange of information regarding refugees and asylum seekers between Bahrain and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The memorandum aims to enhance cooperation and exchange of experiences and information regarding refugees or asylum seekers, who are proven to be residing within the Kingdom, in accordance with the national legislation of Bahrain.

 The Cabinet approved a recommendation submitted by the Ministerial Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs and Fiscal Balance on working according to the current mechanism regarding the construction projects budget for the Ministry of Education.

 The Cabinet referred a periodic report to the Ministerial Committee for Legal and Legislative Affairs on the work of the coordination and follow-up committee between Bahrain and UN agencies, submitted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

 The Cabinet referred the fifth National Telecommunications Plan, submitted by the Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, to the Ministerial Committee for Legal and Legislative Affairs.

 The Cabinet referred to the Council of Representatives a draft-law with a memorandum on the governments opinion on a proposal of a law submitted by the Shura Council, to amend some provisions of the Law on the Promotion and Protection of Competition.

Also during yesterdays Cabinet session, the Minister of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning and the Minister of Housing were commissioned to visit Dair and Samaheej villages, to assess and follow up on housing needs and requirements, in line with directives of HRH the Prime Minister.

The Cabinet extend - ed thanks and appreciation to the leadership and government of the UAE for their strategic cooperation across a number of sectors, particularly their coordination on efforts to combat COVID-19, and providing the Kingdom with medical equipment, medicine, and scientific research.
Connecting the dots  Crains columnist Joe Cahill offered a snapshot in a piece last week about the big deals that the utility and the Illinois General Assembly hammered out over the last decade, including that 2016 deal:Exelon got a new law that puts ComEd rate hikes on something close to autopilot. Exelon is ComEds parent company. The utilitys rates for delivering power have climbed 35% since Madigan waved through the new rate-setting process in 2011, generating more than $750 million in revenue increases for ComEd. Madigan also greenlighted a 2016 bill that bails out ailing Exelon nuke plants through extra charges on electric bills. Its worth about $2.4 billion to Exelon over 10 years.
By Joseph Sipalan and A. Ananthalakshmi

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Whichever way the verdict goes on Tuesday in the first 1MDB corruption trial of Malaysia's former leader Najib Razak, the outcome will be fraught with risk for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, political sources and analysts say.

A guilty verdict could boost Muhyiddin's credibility with the public, but weaken his coalition, which counts Najib's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) as its biggest component - and potentially trigger snap polls.

An acquittal could turn public sentiment against Muhyiddin, and encourage the opposition to challenge the ruling coalition's two-seat majority in parliament.

UMNO lost a 2018 election amid widespread anger over allegations of graft on a massive scale.

But the party returned to power in a coalition led by Muhyiddin in March, after veteran leader Mahathir Mohamad resigned as premier amid infighting within the alliance that toppled Najib.

While Najib no longer leads UMNO, he remains highly influential despite fighting dozens of charges over a multi-billion-dollar graft scandal at state fund 1MDB.

Prosecutors allege more than $1 billion went into Najib's accounts from 1MDB, but Najib has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.

The verdict on Tuesday is in a case that involves only around $10 million, but as it is the first of many its outcome is being especially closely watched.

"A guilty verdict would be unacceptable to UMNO, and may further weaken Muhyiddin's administration or lead to snap polls," said Adib Zalkapli, Malaysia director with political risk consultancy BowerGroupAsia.

Najib's camp could withdraw support for the prime minister, a source close to UMNO and another close to Muhyiddin said.

"There is a real threat," said the source close to the prime minister.

Spokesmen for Najib and Muhyiddin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mahathir and his uneasy ally in opposition, Anwar Ibrahim, have accused Muhyiddin of stealing power by shifting alliances to UMNO instead of earning it at the ballot box.

Story continues

While agreed on the goal of ousting Muhyiddin, the opposition camp is split over who should be its prime ministerial candidate.

Muhyiddin was also helped last week by the $3.9 billion settlement reached with U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs <GS.N> for its role in the 1MDB scandal.

He has gained public support too for his administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

But opposition lawmakers reckon they could benefit from a backlash against Muhyiddin if Najib is acquitted.

"People will be extremely angry, and we could gain momentum politically," said Chang Lih Kang, an opposition lawmaker with Anwar's party. "It's not good to go into election with a baggage like Najib."

Yet, UMNO leaders, including Najib, have been pushing for snap polls to capitalise on perceptions among Malays, the country's ethnic majority, that Mahathir's administration had neglected their interests.

"If an election is held tomorrow, UMNO would win together with PAS, perhaps close to half the total seats," said Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow with Singapore's Institute of International Affairs, referring to the main Islamic party.

In such a scenario, Muhyiddin and his Bersatu party, made up largely of former UMNO members, could also struggle to secure a relevant role, political analysts said.

(Additional reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
Syracuse, N.Y.  There are currently 173 people in Onondaga County who have not yet recovered from Covid-19, the lowest number of active cases since just after the novel coronavirus arrived four months ago, county officials report.

The last time there were fewer active cases was March 28, when there were 145. Onondaga County recorded its first case March 16. The number of unrecovered patients rose steadily from there to a peak of 941 on June 8 and has been declining since then.

The decline in active cases means that the number of patients who have recovered from the disease has been greater than the number of new cases.

Onondaga County today reported 16 new cases of Covid-19 since Monday, bringing the total to 3,302 since March.

There were no new deaths since Monday, officials said. A total of 196 county residents have died of the virus.

Of the 16 new cases, six were attributed to community spread; six occurred in senior living facilities or other group homes (among residents or staff); two were blamed on travel from other states (Ohio and Virginia); and one occurred in a household with a previous infection.

There are 33 coronavirus patients in local hospitals, down four from Monday. Four patients are in intensive care.

According to the state Department of Health, an average of 0.8% of people tested in Onondaga County were positive for the virus during the seven days ending Tuesday. Thats about half the infection rate compared with one month ago.

Regions that have infection rates below 5% will be allowed by state officials to send kids back to school in September.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

How is your school reopening? See Central New York school district coronavirus plans

CNY radio host whose mom died of coronavirus warns: Not wearing a mask is a license to kill

Pioneering Syracuse restaurant risks closing: Youre watching everything crumble around you

Relax, Upstate New York: The governor is not coming after your beloved chicken wings

Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com

News tips? Contact reporter Tim Knauss of syracuse.com/The Post-Standard: email | Twitter | | 315-470-3023
FERRY OF RAFALE

India - Press Information Bureau

Ministry of Defence

Posted On: 27 JUL 2020 3:00PM by PIB Delhi

The first five Indian Air Force (IAF) Rafales have taken off from Dassault Aviation Facility, Merignac, France, today morning. These five include three single seater and two twin seater aircraft.

The ferry of the aircraft is planned in two stages and will be undertaken by the pilots of the IAF, who have undergone comprehensive training on the aircraft. The Air to Air Refuelling planned during the first leg of the ferry will be undertaken by these pilots with dedicated tanker support from the French Air Force.

The aircraft are likely to arrive at Air Force Station, Ambala, on 29 Jul 20 subject to weather. No 17 Squadron, the "Golden Arrows", is being raised at this base equipped with Rafale aircraft.

***

IN/BSK

(Release ID: 1641490)

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Young Ambitious Activists is planning a vigil in San Antonio next week for Garrett Foster, a man who died during a Black Lives Matter protest in Austin on Saturday.

"He fought for us so we will fight for him," the group, who helped organize BLM protests in San Antonio, said in its Facebook event for the vigil scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday Aug. 8 at Travis Park. From there, the activists plan to march to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, at 451 Jefferson Street, in honor of Foster.

READ ALSO: An armed Black Lives Matter protester confronted a car that drove toward a march. The driver fatally shot him.

Foster, 28, was shot multiple times after he walked toward a car while carrying an AK-47 assault rifle during the protest. According to the Austin Police Department, the driver, who called 911 after the shooting, said he shot Foster because he pointed his rifle directly at him.

Foster was rushed to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Police said witnesses told them the disturbance began when a vehicle started honking its horn as it turned onto Congress Avenue in downtown Austin. A crowd of people surrounded the vehicle and began striking it, police said. The driver then opened fire from inside the car as Foster approached, according to police. Another person in the crowd pulled out a handgun and shot at the vehicle as it sped away, police said.

Both the driver and the person who fired at the vehicle as it sped away were questioned and released. Both had state-issued handgun licenses, police said. In Texas, its legal to openly carry a rifle in public so long as its not brandished in a threatening way.

It is unclear why Foster had a weapon at the rally.

READ ALSO: Austin mayor 'heartbroken' after shooting at downtown protest leaves one dead

In an interview with ABC on Sunday, Foster's family had a different account of the incident. Sheila Foster said she was told the driver got out of his car and started firing shots at her son. She added her son had been participating in peaceful protests almost every night during the past 50 days with his fiancee Whitney Mitchell, an African American woman who is a quadruple amputee.

She said Foster served in the military and described him as a man committed to social justice.

On Sunday, a vigil was held for Foster in Austin in which many placed a memorial of flowers and candles at the corner of 4th Street and Congress.

Priscilla Aguirre is a general assignment reporter for MySA.com | priscilla.aguirre@express-news.net | @CillaAguirre
THE BUTTERFLY LAMPSHADE

By Aimee Bender

If it is defensible to divide works of fiction into those that prize stillness and those that prize motion, then The Butterfly Lampshade, Aimee Benders compact surrealist memory box of a novel, sets its store firmly by stillness. Her earlier books were dedicated, as this one is, to transfiguring the American domestic landscape by way of magic, fantasy, bewitchment, peculiarization. But where those books were also propelled by motion, to change, The Butterfly Lampshade by contrast stakes its ground early, and remains there. It resists becoming something other than what its opening pages suggest its going to be. Yet its particular quality of stillness hums with so much mystery and intensity that the book never feels static. It is a measure of the books success that as I reached the conclusion, I felt considerably more altered by the experience than I often am by novels that travel much further from their beginnings.

The music critic Walter Holland recently proposed that active musical listening is part patient attention to the moment and part predictive attention to the possible futures that that moment suggests. If the same holds true for reading  and I think it does  then Benders success here might be explained by the ease and simplicity with which she commingles these two forms of attention. After all, how often does a novel that seems poised to reward your immersive attention diminish in its power, conspicuously and all at once, as soon as it tries to engage your predictive attention? Everything begins so promisingly, but then the plot takes hold and the book becomes smaller, more desiccated, as you realize the predictive attention the writer is applying to the material is so much more meager than it could have been, or than your own was. The Butterfly Lampshade never makes that swerve. Instead it retraces the path it has already established, gradually filling in its textures, looking both back and deeper. In this way, it evades the stiffness of those stories that are able to move forward only by hardening into their possibilities.

Early in the novel, before her obsessions saturate her life, the narrator, Francie, holds a managerial position at a framing store. It is a telling job for someone so aware of the need to maintain the borders between things. My great love then  and still  is delineation, she says, recollecting a few formative days when, at the age of 8, she lost her mother to psychosis and the scrim of meaning had floated off of everything.
My name is Andy Perez. I am CEO of AudiencePoint here in Chattanooga. Husband to Julie Perez (teacher at Signal Mountain), father of two amazing young men, Aidan (junior at Gordon College in Boston) and Keegan (freshman at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Ca.). Both graduated from the Hamilton County Schools and were actively involved in the marching band. I highlight this because my son Aidan is deaf. He was welcomed into the band and excelled, representing the best of what the public school system can offer.

When we moved here 14 years ago (wow) from Seattle, we visited private schools, and they (at the time) told us they were not set up to support his needs.

As a parent who knew the costs of that support, I completely understood. Nolan Elementary welcomed him with open arms and set him on a path to success. Thanks to the public school education, both my boys received incredible scholarships to great Christian universities.

I am also brother to Marco Perez who is running for your consideration for school board in District 2. Growing up, I was not the best older brother in the world, so the irony of my writing this is not lost on me.

During this campaign, I have heard attacks on my brother that are laughably false. When I have confronted those people privately about the falsehoods, some justified their lies saying, Well, the left does it. I may be an idealist, but I believe we can and should do better.

I have seen Marco called an outsider, and in a couple of cases attacked for being an immigrant. He has been a United States citizen since his birth, so attacking my brothers American citizenship is un-Amercan and unpatriotic.

Nevertheless, let me run through the history of our family:



Our family, the Peckhams, arrived in the United States fairly early on. We are part of the Mayflower Society. Additionally, we can trace our ancestry to the 10th Century in England. In fact, some fun family trivia, one of our ancestors was the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1279 AD. Our ancestor Rob Morris (b.1818) was a member of the Robert Morris family. The same Robert Morris family that signed the United States Constitution and financed the American Revolution. He moved to Kentucky and is a poet laureate for the Order of the Eastern Star (not sure how I feel about that, but there it is).

My grandmothers family emigrated from Switzerland in the early 1900s, and my grandmother worked at the Oakridge National Labs for the Atomic program during WWII and died from cancer due to the radiation she endured doing her work.

My grandfather, Robert Morris, graduated from Georgia Tech and served in the United States Army in the 1940s. He became CEO of San Diego Gas and Electric and developed a very close friendship with then Governor Ronald Reagan and continued through his Presidency and their deaths. They spoke often and asked for mutual advice.

My parents met at Bible school in England, and afterwards they felt the Lord leading them to Costa Rica, where my parents established a Torchbearers International School, a Bible school whose main focus is that people get to know what it means to live John 10:10 where Christ says that He came to give life and life abundant.

So, needless to say (or maybe not) our roots in the United States of America are fairly deep.

I think it is crazy that I am having to bring this up, especially for a school board seat. Goodness gracious, I dont hold Marcos opponents immigrant background against him, maybe you shouldnt hold it against Marco.

With regards to Costa Rica, I have seen people try to state that it is a socialist (or even more laughably, a communist) country. That is an incredibly asinine comment. Costa Rica is considered neo-liberal, meaning that their politics are closer in line with Reagan and Bush. It was one of the first allies in WWII and has been incredibly supportive in the U.S.s anti-communist efforts. It has stood up to the Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan governments and is considered one of the most stable democracies in the Americas. Additionally, it is a beautiful country. I will gladly plan your visit.

More importantly, as a family, we were taught that all of this background and history, all of our career accomplishments, as the apostle Paul states, dont matter when compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. This drives what my brother does.

My brother, traveled the world with Major Ian Thomas, author of he Saving Life of Christ. He went to Columbia International University graduating in ministry. He then became a Bible teacher and also a director of a Bible School serving hundreds of students as they got to know the Gospel and the hope that is in Christ.

He was called to serve and has a servant heart. Whether you agree with his positions or not, he cares about yours. Why? Because he believes in loving your neighbor as yourself. I admire the fact that he has been here almost 10 years and he is willing to serve even through unfair and untrue attacks. He does this because he cares about you, me and especially our kids. All of them.

I have been disappointed in the lies that have been said about Marco in this campaign, especially by people who claim to be Christians and conservatives. I know my God expects better. I dont know when for them conservative and traditional values, became synonymous with mean-spirited, selfish, greedy, hateful and deceitful. I would rather choose Christ-like values.

It should concern you that if they are lying about my brother, what else are they lying to you about?

If you feel that we, Hamilton County, can do better and be a shining city on a hill," vote Maro Perez for District 2 School Board.

Andy Perez

* * *

Im surprised, but maybe not, by the attacks on District 2 School Board candidate, Marco Perez.

I have read with amusement the number of letters claiming that his opponent has a heart. Why are these folks trying to convince us of the candidates emotion?

I also notice the candidate advertises his courage. Apparently not when it comes to distancing himself from the less than patriotic groups who attacked Mr. Perez with derogatory and false accusations.



The District 2 Voters are better than that. Please show the community that we want decency represented on the School Board by voting for Marco Perez.



Eugenia D. Allderdice








Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - The COVID-19 virus is likely not impacted by the changing seasons like other respiratory diseases, the UN health agency said on Tuesday, before urging much greater respect for physical distancing measures to stop it spreading
Joe Biden said Tuesday that he will make a decision on his running mate by the end of the first week in August, adding at most a week to his initial self-imposed deadline of Aug. 1 for determining his campaign partner.

"I'm going to have a choice in the first week in August," he said Tuesday, "and I promise I'll let you know when I do."

Biden said he was not sure whether he will be able to meet face-to-face with the women vying to be his running mate. "We'll see," he said, speaking to reporters in Wilmington, Del., after giving an address on his new racial-justice plan.

He added that he and any interviewees will have to wear masks if they do sit down in person.

Biden's team played down the former vice president's initial deadline. "He may have announced it, but I think it was always more of a goal," said Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., a Biden confidant.

Some close to Biden were urging him not to rush the decision, with the target date recently slipping from Aug. 1 to the early days of August. Former Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has been in touch with Biden and the officials leading the search process, said there was "nothing wrong with that."

"We have plenty of time before the election," Reid said. He said he thinks Biden ought to make the pick "within a week or 10 days after August 1."

People close to the of the process cited several factors they believe have extended the search. The logistics of Biden interviewing the candidates, including the decision of whether to do so in person or via videoconference, has been complicated by the spread of the coronavirus, prompting campaign officials to have to weigh the risks and benefits of arranging candidate meetings remotely or in person.

Another factor Democrats have pointed to is the size of the field and the fast-moving external political environment. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., once looked like a strong front-runner, but the death of George Floyd and other unarmed black people put a spotlight on her record as a prosecutor, which has drawn criticism from black activists. Klobuchar soon removed herself from the running.

There are other possible political calculations for naming the pick closer to the Democratic National Convention, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 17, Democrats close the process said. Since the pandemic has limited the ability of Biden and his running mate to do big rallies together, an early pick would have made for an unusually inactive period after the decision.

"It does add buzz going into those conventions," said David Axelrod, who was a top adviser for both of Barack Obama's presidential campaigns.

"I think he probably shouldn't have imposed a deadline," Axelrod said. "Right now this race is in a good place for Biden. He might as well ride this as long as he can."

Axelrod said that in 2008 it took months to determine that Biden was the right pick. "It followed rigorous vetting and many conversations," he said.

Axelrod said that the pick will be more important because of Biden's age. If he wins in November, Biden will be 78 when he is inaugurated and become the oldest person to take the oath of office.

"The vice-presidential nominee could well become the president in the future," he said.

Biden has run an unusually open process of vetting potential running mates, with a list of names so public that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is using the process as a list-building and fundraising tactic.

A recent email from the Senate committee listed 11 women as potential Biden picks, included Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis. Other names included Reps. Karen Bass, D-Calif., and Val Demings, D-Fla., along with Stacey Abrams, a former Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Georgia; Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer; and former national security adviser Susan Rice.

Biden encountered Bass on Tuesday when he was at the U.S. Capitol to pay respects to late congressman John Lewis, but the two did not have a formal interview, according to Richmond, who accompanied Biden for the day. The two spoke briefly and focused on Lewis's legacy, he said.

Had Biden stuck to his initial Aug. 1 deadline, Democrats say it would have provided the GOP a long window to criticize his pick and scrutinize her record, potentially allowing the Republicans to dominate the news cycles. This reality has offered little incentive for moving swiftly to name a running mate.

"Trump's campaign team is focused on making this a choice election, and their next big opportunity will be with the Biden vice-presidential selection by narrowing in on a weakness that splashes back onto Biden," said Scott Reed, a Republican campaign veteran who is not working on the Trump campaign. "This is the voters' first chance to view Biden's decision-making process, and expect an uncalibrated onslaught."

Biden's campaign allies say the former vice president is ready. "They don't have anything to say about Biden, so they will try to do the same thing they did with Biden, which is make up stuff," said Richmond, who added that the GOP will "absolutely" go after Biden's running mate.

Beyond these factors, several Democrats who have been in touch with Biden have said they do not know which way he is leaning and that genuine indecision could delay things more than any political calculation about the best time to unveil the pick.

"I think the decision just has to be made, and then all of that has to come after that," Richmond said.
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Linkedin Michael Shields and Stephanie Nebehay (Reuters) Geneva, Switzerland  Tue, July 28, 2020 08:40 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669c0f16 2 World COVID-19-travel-restriction,WHO,travel-ban,coronavirus,COVID-19,coronavirus-restrictions,COVID-19-infection,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus,COVID-19-travel-ban Free

Bans on international travel cannot stay in place indefinitely, and countries are going to have to do more to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus within their borders, the World Health Organization said on Monday.

A surge of infections has prompted countries to reimpose some travel restrictions in recent days, with Britain throwing the reopening of Europe's tourism industry into disarray by ordering a quarantine on travellers returning from Spain.

Only with strict adherence to health measures, from wearing masks to avoiding crowds, would the world manage to beat the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at a virtual news briefing.

"Where these measures are followed, cases go down. Where they are not, cases go up," he said, praising Canada, China, Germany and South Korea for controlling outbreaks.

WHO emergencies program head Mike Ryan said it was impossible for countries to keep borders shut for the foreseeable future.

"...It is going to be almost impossible for individual countries to keep their borders shut for the foreseeable future. Economies have to open up, people have to work, trade has to resume," he said.

"What is clear is pressure on the virus pushes the numbers down. Release that pressure and cases creep back up."

Ryan praised Japan and Australia for having had "good success in containing the disease" but said that it was to be expected that the virus would resurge in areas with active transmission if restrictions are lifted and mobility increased.

"And that is what has essentially occurred in many countries is that in nightclubs, other situations, dormitories, other environments in which people are close together can act as amplification points for the disease and then it can spread back into the community. We need to be hyper-alert on those."

Measures must be consistent and kept in place long enough to ensure their effectiveness and public acceptance, Ryan said, adding that governments investigating clusters should be praised not criticized.

"What we need to worry about is situations where the problems aren't being surfaced, where the problems are being glossed over, where everything looks good."

Ryan said Spain's current situation was nowhere near as bad as it had been at the pandemic's peak there, and he expected clusters to be brought under control, though it would take days or weeks to discern the disease's future pattern.

"The more we understand the disease, the more we have a microscope on the virus, the more precise we can be in surgically removing it from our communities," he added.
South Carolina distillers are asking politicians for more aid as the pandemic continues to ravage the states economy.

In a July 22 letter sent to the South Carolina congressional delegation, the South Carolina Craft Distillers Guild, along with the Distilled Spirits Council, asked lawmakers to lend additional support through tax breaks and more. The press release announcing the move explains that the nations distillery industry is facing an uncertain future, citing a survey that details two-thirds of responding craft distillers dont believe they will be able to sustain for more than six months.

Absent additional relief, some distilleries soon may be faced with the tough decision to permanently close their doors, thus also impacting their farmer suppliers and others throughout the hospitality and tourism industries, the two organizations leaders say in the release.

The letter asks for five main components to be included in any future economic relief packages  federal excise tax relief, deferment of those taxes, suspension of tariffs on distilled spirits, support for the RESTAURANTS Act, and replenishing funding for the Paycheck Protection Program and the economic injury disaster loan program.

John and Venetia Sharpe, the owners of Cayces Southern Essence Distilling were not familiar with the letter or its asks, but say they hope support comes for small distilleries like theirs.

The letter asks for the temporarily lowered federal excise tax to be made permanent, which Venetia says would be a boon for them. However, she says if a distiller is selling alcohol she isnt sure a suspension of collections should take place.

Throughout the pandemic the Sharpes have converted some of their mom-and-pop distillerys liquor creating efforts to make hand sanitizer. They say that and slower business overall has been a drain on them, explaining they may earn $120 per gallon of drinking liquor, and only $40 on a gallon of hand sanitizer.

And while early on they filled a niche with their sanitizer creation, thats changed as more and more places are selling it, they explain.

Tom, Dick and Harry has decided they want to cash in on hand sanitizer, John Sharpe says.

Meanwhile, they mention that the PPP federal program wasnt helpful for them as their business is so small that they didnt qualify.

The Columbia areas distilleries have had a rough go, with Crouch Distilling closing in June and Copper Horse Distillery prior to that. John Sharpe says they are confident Southern Essence will be able to stay open through the pandemic.

The tariffs mentioned in the letter have been a particular headache throughout the hospitality industry. Prior to the pandemic, restaurant players told Free Times that the tariffs could cause customers wine prices to double and, potentially, cause a ripple effect where servers earn less, independent restaurants close and European winemakers move sales to other countries.

Per the press release, the states distilling industry supports more than 20,000 jobs and had over $1.6 billion in economic activity in 2018.
Insecticide-treated mosquito nets, the mainstay in the global battle against malaria, are not providing the protection they once did

Research published in Nature Communications shows that insecticide-treated mosquito nets, the mainstay in the global battle against malaria, are not providing the protection they once did - and scientists say that's a cause for serious concern in tropical and subtropical countries around the globe.

Long-Lasting Insecticidal Nets, or LLINs, are credited with having saved 6.8 million lives from 2000 to 2015.

"While an untreated net stops mosquitoes from biting you while you sleep - providing valuable protection - these nets are treated with a long-life insecticide that actually kills mosquitoes that come in contact with them," said Dr Stephan Karl, a malaria researcher from James Cook University's Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, and the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research.

"LLINs add a community-level protective effect by massively decreasing the overall number of mosquitoes. In other words, even people not directly using these nets benefit by their being present in the communities," Dr Karl said.

The introduction of LLINs in Papua New Guinea in 2006 led to a significant drop in malaria cases, but the rate of infections has since bounced back - from less than 1% in 2013-2014 to 7.1% in 2016-2017.

"The nets are really a frontline defence - in Papua New Guinea they are the only tools used at present in the national campaign against the mosquitoes that can carry malaria," said co-author Dr Moses Laman, Deputy Director at the PNG Institute of Medical Research.

"Malaria kills around half a million people worldwide each year, so any suggestion that the nets are not working is cause for grave concern."

When researchers in Papua New Guinea, Australia and the UK investigated, their search took an unexpected twist.

"Early on it was believed the rise in cases was due to shortages in anti-malarial drugs," said co-author Tim Freeman, country manager of Rotarians Against Malaria. "But after the drug supply was restored, cases continued to climb." Rotarians Against Malaria assists Papua New Guinea's National Department of Health with net distribution across the country.

Other possible explanations were investigated. Were mosquitoes building resistance to the insecticide, or avoiding the insecticide by feeding more on animals and humans outdoors? Were people getting bitten more often because greater access to electricity enabled them to stay up later?

"We can certainly rule out insecticide resistance as our studies have shown over and over again that there is currently no insecticide resistance in the malaria mosquitoes in PNG," Dr Karl said.

"Each of the remaining factors could contribute to an increasing rate of infections to some extent, but the rapid rise in cases - to almost pre-control levels - indicated that we were still missing a major cause."

The mosquito nets themselves were not an obvious culprit, since their insecticide content is tested regularly in pre-delivery inspections.

The LLINs used in Papua New Guinea are all made by a single company (Vestergaard) to specifications set by the World Health Organisation. The model (PermaNet 2.0) is widely used - in 2014 it accounted for the largest market share of LLNIs globally.

It was when the researchers tested the nets' performance at knocking down and killing mosquitoes that the problem was revealed.

"With new nets manufactured up to 2012, the percentage of mosquitoes killed was always close to 100%," Dr Karl said.

"Using the same standard tests with new nets produced from 2013 to 2019, the kill rate dropped to an average of 40%, with some of the nets not killing any mosquitoes at all.

"That's an alarming loss of efficacy in critical protective equipment.

"This also calls into question the regulations and standards governing the quality of LLINs worldwide, if such nets are still considered acceptable."

All nets tested appeared to have the same amount of insecticide, which poses the question of how nets with the same insecticide levels could be less lethal to mosquitoes.

The authors agree that the answer most likely lies in changes to the manufacture of the nets. "We hope to work with the manufacturer to investigate further," Dr Karl said.

In the meantime, the researchers urge that LLINs be tested for their ability to kill mosquitoes - not just their insecticide content.

They have notified the World Health Organisation and the manufacturer of their findings.

###

The research is published in the current edition of Nature Communications.
Anastasia Kriegel was murdered by two boys back in 2018

One of the teenagers found guilty of murdering schoolgirl Ana Kriegel has applied to exceed legal aid limits so he can seek the services of a UK psychologist ahead of an appeal.

The Court of Appeal also heard that Boy B's appeal against his conviction will focus on a refusal to allow the evidence of a clinical psychologist, who said he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after witnessing Ana's assault.

The appeal will also argue that lies he told gardai did not show he was guilty of murder.

James Dwyer SC with Seoirse O Dunlaing BL, for Boy B, said the figure quoted by the new expert was "ordinarily more" than what the Legal Aid Board usually certified.

"It is a very unusual application for an unusual case," said Mr Dwyer.

Guilty

The teenager was unanimously found guilty of murdering the "lonely and vulnerable" schoolgirl last June and was sentenced to 15 years' detention, to be reviewed after eight years.

He and his co-accused Boy A, whose identities cannot be published as they are children, were just 13 years old when they murdered 14-year-old Ana in May 2018.

Boy B lured Ana from her home, knowing that his friend was waiting to attack her in a derelict house in St Catherine's Park in Lucan.

He gave several different versions of events to gardai, but eventually admitted seeing Boy A attacking Ana.

They were unanimously found guilty of murder by a Central Criminal Court jury in June last year. Boy A was also convicted of Ana's aggravated sexual assault.

Boy A was sentenced to life imprisonment with a review after 12 years, and eight years for aggravated sexual assault. No appeal has been lodged on his behalf. Boy B is seeking to appeal his conviction only.

Mr Dwyer told President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice George Birmingham yesterday morning that Boy B's case primarily rested on his interviews to gardai over the course of his two detentions.

A clinical psychologist was obtained by the defence during the trial but the trial judge refused to allow his evidence to go before the jury, argued Mr Dwyer.

Clinical psychologist Dr Colm Humphreys was called by Boy B's defence team in the absence of the jury.

He testified that the boy was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after witnessing the assault and that his lies did not show that he was guilty.

However, Mr Justice Paul McDermott refused to allow Dr Humphreys to give evidence before the jury after the prosecution objected, saying his evidence would make him a 13th juror.

Mr Dwyer said yesterday this ruling formed "the thrust of the appeal" and he wanted another expert from the UK with experience in these matters to view the videos of Boy B's interviews.

Mr Justice Birmingham said it was unusual to attempt to involve an expert after the case had concluded.

"If the trial court's rulings were correct that is the end of the matter. If they were incorrect that would have implications for the verdict and there could be a retrial," said the judge.

Limits

Mr Dwyer said he will have to bring a motion before the three-judge court if the UK expert makes certain conclusions as to how his client's interviews were conducted.

Mr Justice Birmingham said the Legal Aid Board has indicated that it has limits or guidelines and counsel for Boy B was asking for authority to exceed these.

"I don't see any basis for this and I'm dubious as to whether there is a role for the expert at this stage post-conviction," said the judge.

Mr Justice Birmingham asked the lawyer to find an expert who would operate within existing guidelines.

The judge gave Mr Dwyer liberty to renew his application at a later date.
Belarusian President's Ex-Security Chief Gets 12 Years In Prison For Bribery

By RFE/RL's Belarus Service July 27, 2020

MINSK -- The former chief of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's security has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for bribe taking.

The Supreme Court of Belarus pronounced the verdict and sentencing of Andrey Utsyurin on July 27. The court also barred Utsyurin from working at administrative posts for five years and deprived him of the military rank of colonel.

The court also ruled to confiscate $192,000 from Utsyurin, which, according to the court, he had received as bribes.

Fourteen of 15 other defendants in the case, including former employees of state entities, financial institutions, and private businesses, received prison terms of between two and 7 1/2 years.

One defendant, a citizen of Latvia, was fined $14,600.

The group went on trial on March 10.

Utsyurin was arrested in April last year and charged with accepting at least $190,000 in bribes and instigation of bribe-giving during his handling of a state project on buying communication equipment, computers, and software.

Born in 1971 in the Russian city of Penza, Utsyurin led the presidential security unit from 2007-2014 before he was appointed a deputy secretary of the Security Council, the post he had until his arrest.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/belarusian-president-s -ex-security-chief-gets-12-years-in- prison-for-bribery/30749528.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.

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By PTI

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday condemned the attempts reportedly being made to convert a famous gurdwara in Pakistan's Lahore city into a mosque.

"Strongly condemn attempts being made to convert holy Gurdwara Sri Shahidi Asthan in Lahore, site of martyrdom of Bhai Taru Singh Ji, into mosque.

"Urge @DrSJaishankar to convey Punjab's concerns in strongest terms to Pakistan to safeguard all Sikh places of reverence," Singh said in a tweet.

Gurdwara Shahidi Asthan is a historical shrine where Bhai Taru Singh made the supreme sacrifice in 1745.

India on Monday lodged a strong protest with the Pakistan High Commission over reports of attempts being made to convert the gurdwara at Naulakha Bazaar into a mosque.
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Hundreds of veterans have been photographed gathered together to cheer on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un - despite an increased risk of COVID-19 as it was revealed a defector blamed for bringing coronavirus into the country was fleeing a rape charge.

There was a distinct absence of any social distancing measures as army veterans raised their hands to enthusiastically clap and cheer for Mr Kim.

The Supreme Leader spoke to praise his country's nuclear power capabilities at celebrations for the 67th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War in Pyongyand on Monday.

Last week a 24-year-old defector returned to North Korea the way he left in 2017, authorities say. He has now been accused of bringing coronavirus into the country and the border city of Kaesong, where he was found, has been put under total lockdown to stop the spread.

Meanwhile Mr Kim used his speech to claim his country's nuclear weapons were a 'reliable, effective' deterrent for any further wars. He said North Korea was now 'a nuclear state', according to the Korean Central News Agency.

'Now, we've changed to a country which can defend itself reliably and unwaveringly against high-intensity pressures and military threats and blackmailing by imperialistic reactionaries and hostile forces,' he said.

Hundreds of veterans were photographed sitting next to each other as they animatedly clapped and cheered the leader at the 6th National Conference of War Veterans at the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang

During a speech to celebrate the 67th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War in Pyongyang on Monday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (pictured) told war veterans there would be 'no war in our land again'

'There won't be any war on this land again and our national security and future will be guaranteed firmly and permanently because of our reliable, effective self-defensive nuclear deterrent.'

Meanwhile, South Korea has identified the defector only by his surname, Kim, and said he was the 'runaway' who North Korea accused of illegally crossing their shared border last week with symptoms of COVID-19.

Facing a sexual assault investigation, Kim evaded high-tech South Korean border control systems by crawling through a drain pipe and swimming across the Han River to the North on July 19, the South Korean military has said.

He appears to have spent several days there before being caught.

South Korean military chief Park Han-ki told parliament on Tuesday that Kim, who is 163 cm (5.35 ft) tall and weighs 54 kg (119 lb), cut his way through barbed wire fences installed at the end of the pipe leading to the river.

A Seoul official said Kim is believed to have taken a similar path when he defected to the South in 2017, and authorities say he scoped out the area earlier in July, apparently in preparation.

Fireworks were set off in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang to celebrate the anniversary of the end of the Korean War on Monday night

A view showing the Kaesong Industrial Complex, in Kaesong, North Korea on June 15. When the industrial project was shut down amid rising tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme in 2016, the economic shock prompted Kim to try his luck in the South in 2017, he said in a YouTube video filmed with a fellow defector in South Korea in June

Kim's story as a defector revolves around the city of Kaesong, a North Korean border town that hosted a now-shuttered inter-Korean factory park and liaison office.

When the industrial project was shut down amid rising tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme in 2016, the economic shock prompted Kim to try his luck in the South in 2017, he said in a YouTube video filmed with a fellow defector in South Korea in June.

Rather than make his way through China, as the vast majority of North Korean defectors do, Kim headed south via the porous sea border toward the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas.

'After passing through barbed-wire fences, I encountered minefields, which I bypassed and came to a reed field near the Han River where I stayed hidden for about three hours,' he said in the video, adding that he was living off mere bread crumbs.

He started swimming, following the lights on the southern bank of the river. When he finally made land, he let out a cry for help, and was found by a unit of South Korean soldiers.

Mr Kim gave Paektusan commemorative pistols to leading commanding officers of DPRK armed forces on the 67th anniversary of the Korean War ceasefire

People make their way across a road in Kaesong, North Korea, on July 23 last year. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has placed the city of Kaesong near the border with South Korea under total lockdown

Little is known about how Kim made a living in South Korea, but a source with knowledge of his background said he owed 20 million won ($16,800) to at least one fellow defector from Kaesong.

'He had expressed his wish to become a security lecturer for students, like many other defectors do, but it never happened, partly because of the pandemic,' the source said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

According to police, a female defector in her 20s filed a complaint on June 12, accusing Kim of sexually assaulting her at his home. They interviewed him once on June 21, and he denied the accusations.

The investigation gathered steam when one of Kim's acquaintances reported to police on July 19 that he threatened the woman and planned to flee to the North, a police official said.

A warrant for Kim's arrest was issued two days later, but according to North Korean state media, he had already arrived there.

By July 24, North Korean authorities found him in Kaesong, and said he displayed COVID-19 symptoms.

During the celebrations Mr Kim gave out commemorative pistols to army officers. They held the pistols against their chests and made firm pledges to fight for their leader

There were no social distancing measures in place as veterans raised their hands as they clapped for their leader in the capital of North Korea during the ceremony on Monday

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the city to be locked down and declared a state of emergency, state media reported on Sunday.

South Korean health officials said there was no sign that Kim was infected with the coronavirus before he left the South, and at least two people who were in close contact with him have tested negative.

Mr Kim's speech followed recent remarks by both North Korean and US officials suggesting they were reluctant to engage in a new round of diplomacy on the North's nuclear program.

Mr Kim, 36, and President Donald Trump met three times since 2018 - when Mr Kim abruptly reached out to Washington and Seoul for talks.

He said he wanted to deal away his advancing nuclear arsenals.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said President Trump would only want to engage with Mr Kim again if there were real prospects of progress.

Mr Kim said the country's nuclear weapons were a 'reliable, effective' deterrent and it was now 'a nuclear state', according to the Korean Central News Agency

Mr Kim's sister and senior ruling party official, Kim Yo Jong, said a new summit would be 'impractical' for North Korea and that Pyongyang would not gift Mr Trump a high-level meeting that he can boast as a foreign policy achievement.

Many experts were sceptical of Mr Kim's disarmament commitment and said he only aimed to weaken US-led sanctions and perfect his nuclear program.

The nuclear diplomacy remains largely stalled since a second meeting in February 2019 in Vietnam collapsed without reaching any agreement because Mr Trump rejected Mr Kim's proposal to get extensive sanctions relief in return for a limited denuclearisation step.

His speech followed recent remarks by both North Korean and US officials suggesting they were reluctant to engage in a new round of diplomacy. Pictured, Mr Kim posed next to his army officers who stood closely together despite the risk of COVID-19

Mr Kim entered this year with a vow to bolster his nuclear program and threatened to unveil a new 'strategic' weapon.

He also said he would no longer be bound by a self-imposed temporary pause on nuclear and long-range missile tests.

Mr Kim has not performed such high-profile weapons tests, which some analysts say could completely derail diplomacy with the US.

During the celebrations Mr Kim gave out commemorative pistols to army officers.

They held the pistols against their chests and made firm pledges to fight for their leader at the cost of their lives.

In this hand-out photo from North Korea's state news agency KCNA, leader Kim Jong Un reportedly holds an emergency enlarged meeting of politburo

It comes after Mr Kim convened an emergency politburo meeting after the man, suspected of having COVID-19, illegally crossed the border from South Korea into the state earlier this month, state media said on Sunday.

If confirmed, it would be the first case officially acknowledged by North Korean authorities, who have so far said the country has no confirmed cases of the disease.

Kim declared a state of emergency and imposed a lockdown on the border city of Kaesong, calling it a 'critical situation in which the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country,' state news agency KCNA reported.

South Korea has reported a total of 14,203 cases of coronavirus, with 300 deaths so far.
Sandra Oh is one of the most recognizable and beloved actors out there. And shes now the lead of her own show, Killing Eve, in the titular role. Shes delivered mesmerizing performances since the 90s and won Golden Globe and SAG awards.

A lot of roles shes been in were originally written for white actors, but shes looking to forge a new path moving forward, and using her roles to look at the Asian-American experience.

Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri comes across Dasha in Season 3 of Killing Eve | Laura Radford/BBCAmerica/Sid Gentle

RELATED: Greys Anatomy: Sandra Oh Says Gaining Fame From the Shondaland Series Was Traumatic

Sandra Oh is interested in playing more characters that explore Asian-American stories

On The Hollywood Reporters podcast, Awards Chatter, on July 10, Oh gave a very in-depth interview about her life, her roles, and her position in Hollywood. The host, Scott Feinberg, asked Oh specifically about how her past roles werent written with her Korean heritage in mind. Many were originally from a white womans point of view.

I hadnt even thought about it that way, she said. But she has a different desire going forward. Because here I am, Id say now and at this point in my career, specifically wanting to return to only playing specifically Asian characters.

Oh talked about Hollywoods treatment of Asian roles and Asian-Americans stories in the past. She hopes to be a part of a better vantage point going forward. She wants to go for specifically Asian characters to look at experiences through that lens.

I hope where we are now moving towards and going back to not a type of assimilation where it is embracing a certain type of mainstream, which is the white mainstream, she said. Its to actually embrace our own accents, our own histories, our own culture. And thats, its a big shift because its really a shift in writing as well.

Oh is also conscious of other aspects when it comes to Asian characters

Feinberg also touched on the topic of culture-specific casting, where actors take roles of their own ethnicities. Where Korean-American actors like Oh take Korean roles and so-on. If that was the industry standard, Oh would be OK with that. But thats not the case.

The demand of specificity does not hold for white actors, she said. So that means the actual range of what a white actor can play would be five times as large, lets just say. So I bristle at those standards being then put on actors who clearly have less opportunity

Oh is excited about where stories are headed for Asian characters in the industry. Telling more than just white Americans stories gives a fuller picture of America.

Were just in a place right now, because I feel hopefully continuing on with the Parasite wave, and the Crazy Rich Asians wave, Oh said. Lets hope that theres still a deep interest in a real movement to have Asian-American stories really be a larger thread in the fabric of American culture, and just Western culture.

Oh also told a story of a writer who wrote a film about her Taiwanese grandmother, and wanted Oh to play the character. Oh made sure she was OK with this, even though Oh isnt Taiwanese. The writer wanted to adapt to her being Korean.

I think we should always be up for that conversation, Oh said. And up for the flexibility of it The only people regarding that, that I would need to answer to, are people from my own community.

Oh worked through Hollywood diversity issues and is now the star of a hit show

Oh talked about how film and television sets were far different in the past than how they are right now, in regards to diversity and the #MeToo movement. Despite having a lead role on Greys Anatomy, Oh dealt with a lack of opportunities when she left.

I was definitely making my options, Oh said. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Oh hoped that playing Cristina Yang on that popular show would have moved her higher on the hierarchy of opportunity in show business. However, she said, that wasnt the case for years.

But Oh is now exciting audiences as the lead of BBC Americas Killing Eve, alongside Jodie Comer, as well as being one of the executive producers on the show. Eve Polastri  Ohs character  was an MI6 agent assigned to Villanelles case. Instead of just finding the deranged assassin, Eve and Villanelle become obsessed with one another. Over three seasons, they have major impacts on each other, and theres so much tension its exhilarating to watch.

Following Ohs career is nearly just as exciting, and its safe to say shes in a role that gives her far more interesting storylines than the medical drama did.

RELATED: Does The Title, Killing Eve, Give Away The Shows Eventual End? 1 Scene Makes It Seem Like It Does
FILE PHOTO: Kenya's candidate for General Director of the World Trade Organization Amina Mohamed attends attends the General Council meeting in Geneva

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) - Kenya's candidate to the World Trade Organization's (WTO) top post said on Monday she is seeking Washington's backing and expressed some sympathy with its criticism of the global body as she emerges as one of two reform-minded African female frontrunners.

Amina Mohamed told Reuters a closed-door vetting session last week went "really well" as she outlined her platform to steer the body out of crises from global trade tensions and rising protectionism to a COVID-induced dive in business.

Delegates say Mohamed, a 58-year-old minister and former WTO chair, is one of the favourites alongside Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to replace Brazil's Roberto Azevedo as director general, although weeks of campaigning lie ahead.

The WTO has never been led by a woman or an African.

"The rulebook needs to be upgraded because of the concerns that are being expressed about the rules not being fit for purpose," she said, adding that resuming the top appeals court would be a priority and that she hoped this would be on the agenda of the next major WTO meeting in 2021.

The United States has paralysed the Appellate Body by blocking new judges.

In an apparent nod to Washington, she referred to concerns about the body's "overreach".

Asked if that meant she sympathised with the U.S. position, she said: "Those concerns that have been raised, they would not have been raised if they did not have solid reason to raise them."

The U.S. mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mohamed's supporters say she combines deep WTO knowledge with a drive to overhaul its 25-year-old rules. "The difference between me and them is I have worked this system," she said.

However, she must win over those African countries who have expressed support for Okonjo-Iweala.

Over the past week, countries have been hosting Geneva cocktail parties to showcase candidates.

The WTO eliminates them in batches, starting with those unlikely to win consensus from 164 members.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
After delivering a tractor to two girls in Andhra Pradesh who were ploughing the field with the yoke, Sonu Sood has now assured help to a family in Bihar who lost their son and two buffaloes, their only source of income, in floods.

A Twitter user had shared the plight of the family on Tuesday. The tweet read, This case is genuine as we have verified about it. Bhola lost his son in flood and 2 Buffalo which was his only source of earning. We have decided to donate a cow so that they can sell the cow milk for their livelihood. One cow will cost around 50 to 60k.

I am sorry for the loss 



Buffaloes will reach their house by today evening so that their livelihood doesnt suffer.



Save our farmers #BiharFloods @NeetiGoel2 https://t.co/ETMJ00E6YW  sonu sood (@SonuSood) July 28, 2020

Assuring immediate help, Sonu replied to the user on Twitter, I am sorry for the loss. Buffaloes will reach their house by today evening so that their livelihood doesnt suffer. Save our farmers. He also tagged one of his team members asking her to do the needful.

Sonu recently gifted a tractor to help a farmer from Chittoor district.The family expressed their gratitude towards the actor saying that he is no less than god to them. He might play a villain in films but he is a hero in real life. When we heard the reports of him helping thousands of migrant workers to reach their native states, we thought he is a real hero. We experienced it now. He is no less than a God to us, said Nageswara Rao, the farmer who received the tractor from the actor.

Watch: Sonu Sood gifts tractor to farmer whose daughters had to pull plough

Nageswara Raos daughter Vennela said, We too wanted to do some agricultural work. But we had no money. So all our family members are striving to do farm work. The matter went viral through media and social media. And Sonu Sood ji came to know about our plight. We thank him from our the bottom of our hearts.

Also read: Job letter sent: Sonu Sood helps software engineer who was fired during pandemic, was forced to sell vegetables

A video of the two girls named Vennela and Chandana tilling a farm had gone viral. The two took the yoke on their shoulders to till the land as the family could not hire a tractor or oxen to plough the land. Their father Nageswara Rao, who used to run a tea stall in Madanapalle Mandal for the past 20 years was left with no source of income after the lockdown decided to return to his native village Rajuvaripalle to do farming.

Taking to Twitter, Sood said the girls should be allowed to focus on their education and he will provide the family with a tractor.

(With ANI inputs)

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 15:01:09|Editor: huaxia

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KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's exports grew 8.8 percent year on year to 82.87 billion ringgit (about 19.5 billion U.S. dollars), showing signs of recovery from the COVID-19 impact, official data showed Tuesday.

Malaysian International Trade and Industry Ministry said in a statement that total trade in June expanded by 2.2 percent year on year to 144.84 billion ringgit, driven by increases in trade with China, the United States and Vietnam.

"This better performance is in line with the gradual lifting of restrictions due to COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia and globally," said the ministry.

Imports, however, decreased by 5.6 percent to 61.98 billion ringgit, resulting in a trade surplus of 20.89 billion ringgit in June.

Exports of manufactured goods, which made up 87.5 percent of total exports, picked up by 13.7 percent year on year to 72.48 billion ringgit, due mainly to higher demand of electrical and electronic (E&E) products.

Exports of agriculture goods rose by 30 percent to 6.27 billion ringgit, underpinned mainly by higher exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products.

Exports of mining goods, however, dropped by 45.6 percent to 3.79 billion ringgit, weighed down by lower exports of crude petroleum and liquefied natural gas.

Malaysia's exports to China continued to expand for three consecutive months, registering a 46.8 percent increase in June.

The increase was led by higher exports of iron and steel products, manufactures of metal, petroleum products, palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products, other manufactures, optical and scientific equipment as well as E&E products.

Meanwhile, June's imports from China was up by 3.4 percent.

Malaysia's Socio-Economic Research Center executive director Lee Heng Guie said the better than expected June exports was lifted by the delivery of backlog orders during the government-imposed restrictive measures, especially for E&E as well as high crude palm oil prices.

"With exports contracted by 6.8 percent in the first half, the full year exports contraction could be smaller than expected," he told Xinhua.

For the first half, Malaysia's total trade contracted by 7 percent year on year to 833.36 billion ringgit, with exports declining by 6.8 percent to 448.99 billion ringgit.

Malaysia's trade with China in the first half increased by 0.3 percent year on year, with exports to China growing by 8.3 percent. Enditem
Energizer Holdings Inc (NYSE:ENR), Textron Inc (NYSE:TXT) and SmartFinancial Inc (NASDAQ:SMBK) announced quarterly dividends on Monday, July 27.

These companies attract the interest of dividend investors because they have been distributing dividends for several years.

Energizer Holdings Inc

The St. Louis, Missouri-based global manufacturer and distributor of household and specialty batteries announced that on Sept. 10, it will proceed with the payment of a quarterly cash dividend of 30 cents per common share to its shareholders of record as of Aug. 20.





The payment will be on par with the previous one. The ex-dividend date is scheduled for Aug. 19.

Based on Monday's closing price of $49.11 per share, the quarterly cash dividend generates a forward dividend yield of 2.44%.

Energizer Holdings Inc has distributed dividends for nearly five years and increased them by a compound annual growth rate of 5.4% over the past three years.

The company sustains the payment with cash on hand of $280 million and trailing 12-month operating cash flow of approximately $235 million as of the most recent quarter ended on March 30.

GuruFocus has assigned a score of 3 out of 10 to the company's financial strength.

The share price has risen 18.7% over the past year, determining a 52-week range of $26.60 to $53.84.

The stock has a market capitalization of $3.36 billion, a price-book ratio of 9 versus the industry median of 1.47 and a price-sales ratio of 1.27 versus the industry median of 1.07.

Wall Street sell-side analysts recommend an overweight rating for this stock and have produced an average target price of $50.46 per share.

Textron Inc

The Providence, Rhode Island-based aircraft and defense operator announced that on Oct. 1, it will pay a quarterly cash dividend of 2 cents per common share to its shareholders of record Sept. 11.

Story continues

The ex-dividend date is scheduled for Sept. 10. The payment will be on par with the previous one.

Based on Monday's closing price of $34.18 per share, the quarterly dividend produces a forward dividend yield of 0.23%.

Textron Inc has been distributing dividends for nearly 31 years but has not increased them over the last 10 years.

The company finances the payment of the quarterly dividend with $2.3 billion in cash on hand and approximately $835 million in cash flows from the prior 12 months of operating activities through April 3.

GuruFocus has assigned a positive score of 5 out of 10 to the financial strength of the company.

The share price has fallen by 31.4% over the past year for a 52-week range of $20.26 to $58.

The market capitalization is $7.78 billion, the price-book ratio is 1.4 versus the industry median of 1.78 and the price-sales ratio yields 0.59 versus the industry median of 1.2.

Wall Street sell-side analysts recommend a moderate buy rating for the stock and have established an average target price of $34.71 per share.

SmartFinancial Inc

The Knoxville, Tennessee-based regional bank with branches in Tennessee, Alabama, Florida and Georgia announced that on Aug. 24, a 5 cents per common share quarterly cash dividend will be distributed to shareholders of record as of Aug. 7.

The distribution will be in line with the previous one. The ex-dividend date is scheduled for Aug. 6.

Based on Monday's closing price of $13.95 per share, the quarterly dividend generates a forward yield of 1.42%.

The dividend reports a sharp decline of 18.6% over the past 10 years. SmartFinancial Inc has made dividend payments for nearly 15 years.

The company sustains the quarterly dividend with nearly $400 million available in cash on hand and equivalents.

GuruFocus has assigned a score of 3 out of 10 to the company's financial strength.

The share price has declined by 36.2% in the past year, determining a 52-week range of $11.05 to $23.99.

The stock has a market capitalization of $212.28 million, a price-book ratio of 0.62 versus the industry median of 0.74 and a price-sales ratio of 2.02 which is on par with the industry median.

Wall Street sell-side analysts issued an overweight recommendation rating for the stock and have set an average target price of $17.67 per share.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any securities mentioned.

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This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






By Scott L. Bohn

Times Guest Columnist

Law enforcement leaders in Pennsylvania are committed to continuing constructive changes that can make our criminal justice system fairer for all citizens. Pennsylvania is one of the few states to pass meaningful reforms into law since George Floyds death. This is a considerable achievement. The legislation was supported by law enforcement leaders. The adoption and approval of well-intended and well-constructed legislation is crucial to strengthening our communities trust in law enforcement. It is imperative that these efforts reflect a balanced approach to addressing crime and making community safety our first priority. It is equally as critical that law enforcement leaders have a seat at the table as future reforms are discussed.

Professional law enforcement practitioners are advocates for best practices and standards. What are best practices, standards, and law enforcement accreditation? In Pennsylvania, accreditation is an established set of standards of performance, acknowledged business practices, and professionally recognized organizational principles that are mandated for the policing profession or organization. The Pennsylvania Accreditation program has existed since 2001. The Pennsylvania Accreditation process addresses 7 of the 8 tenants of the Eight Cant Wait movement, inspired by former President Barack Obama. Standards and best practices are an instrument for elected officials and Pennsylvanias law enforcement leaders to clarify the policies and practices in accordance with Pennsylvania law and community concerns. It also provides police officers clear guidelines  guidelines that are formalized into policy.

What is currently expected of the police in some areas of the state has been confusing and, in some instances, impossible to know. Police policy may be incongruent with the language of our elected officials or prominent community leaders. Police policy may require a particular action, but that same action may run counter to the demands of a population segment or a vocal part of the community. Following policy in such instances may lead to a police officer being publicly maligned, terminated or even criminally prosecuted.

Law enforcement, as subject matter experts and practitioners, must educate our elected officials and the public we serve on best practices and the current training standards that exist. Police officers need clear guidance. Transparency and accountability are fundamental to public trust.

Today, public safety officers in many parts of the commonwealth are fatigued by the mixed messages they often receive from officials and the communities that they serve. Residents and business owners call the police for problems that plague their daily life  from loitering to noise complaints to intoxicated persons and neighborhood disputes. They turn to their local officers to do something about quality of life issues. Proactive enforcement intended to prevent and identify unlawful activity significantly increases the incidence of police contacts and, therefore, the likelihood of citations, arrests or use of force incidents that some have characterized as unreasonable or even shocking.

It is perplexing that a portion of the public is blaming the police for an increase in crime and civil discord while at the same time blaming them for engaging in proactive policing that inevitably leads to more confrontation. History has shown us that in these conditions, total crime goes up, and police activity effectively decreases as interactions with the public are reduced. Ill-considered measures will often have unintended consequences.

In some of our Pennsylvania communities, protesters have decided to demonize the police. Rioters have decided to take advantage of the lawful and peaceful protests. Media coverage has not always put this tragedy in context. In Minneapolis, the police officers who arrested George Floyd must be held accountable for their excessive use of force and callous indifference to his distress. However, Floyds death should not undermine the legitimacy of law enforcement in Pennsylvania, without which we will continue a path of disorder and increased crime. We must target individual officers for wrongdoing rather than disparaging entire police departments and the policing profession. Law enforcement officers are the guardians of the public. The police are the public and the public are the police.

This a sentinel moment for Pennsylvanians. Best practices, policies, and standards (accreditation) and accountability is our goal. Courageous conversations need to occur. This is not a political issue; it is an issue of civility, common courtesy, and a respect for human dignity. Policing must evolve as our communities evolve.

Change is both necessary and possible, but this must occur through the lens of truth and reality. This will require the commitment of all elements of our criminal justice system, social and mental health practitioners, members of the non-public sector, community leaders, and elected officials. Law enforcement officers take an oath to serve the public and safeguard our communities. It is imperative and critical that law enforcement leaders have a seat at the table as future reforms are discussed.

Scott L. Bohn is executive director of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association.
A database that contained information about complaints about thousands of NYPD officers was published by a news website despite the temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge on the public release of said documents just a few days before.

News outlet ProPublica posted the database on their website adding a note telling its readers that since it is not part of a party to a union lawsuit that challenges said records, it is not compelled to follow the orders issued by Judge Katherine Polk Failla

According to the Associated Press, Eric Umansky, ProPublica's Deputy Managing Editor, obtained the information after requesting it from the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which serves as a watchdog agency of the police. It was also stated that the request was made soon after the state law that prohibited the disclosure of disciplinary records was repealed last month.

The issue on the release of the said records erupted after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to release misconduct complaints against the police on a government website. On July 15, a lawsuit was then filed by public safety workers and unions representing the police officers to block de Blasio's promise. In their statement, the unions said that releasing such records could stain the reputation and compromise the safety of police officers by letting the public see false and unproven claims.

Earlier this month, a state judge who initially handled the case issued a restraining order on which temporarily blocked the disclosure of the records. However, it only encompassed allegations, claims that were unsubstantiated and settlement agreements.

Read also: Presidential Elections 2020 Standing: Biden and Trump Numbers, 100 Days Before Poll

PBS also stated in a report that ProPublica has claimed that the database they published did not include the allegations that investigators considered as unfounded. On the uploaded database, it can be seen that there have been 12,056 complaints filed against 3,996 NYPD officers who are still in active service.

In a statement by the news website's Editor-in-Chief Stephen Engelberg, he said that while they understand the arguments that have been laid out against the disclosure of the information, the organization believes that the public will benefit from the information. He also added that they believe that the good that said information would bring outweighs the possible harm.

Based on the ruling that was given by Federal Judge Failla on Wednesday, the police department, the CCRB, and other parties are blocked from releasing the records before the hearing on August 18. In addition, in the TRO that was issued, the American Civil Liberties Union (New York Chapter) was also barred from releasing the records that they have obtained.

Like ProPublica, the organization also argued that they are not obligated to stand by restraining order since they are not a party to the lawsuit.

Christopher Dunn, NYLU's legal director stated that the federal court does not have the authority to bar the organization from releasing the records and stated that they will contest the ruling as soon as possible. He also stated that they were able to request the records before the lawsuit was filed.



Related article: Beijing Forces US Diplomats to Flee Chengdu Consulate Amid Political War

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Northern cities are outperforming the rest of the UK, according to Zoopla. Photo: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images

The housing market is playing catch-up due to coronavirus lockdowns, with sales running 20% lower than at the same point in 2019, new research has shown.

124,000 property sales have been lost compared with the same period running 1 January 2019 to 30 June 2019, according to the Zoopla House Price index, equating to a deficit of 27bn ($35bn) in transactions.

There has been strong demand since the market reopened, however, while 2020 saw the strongest start to a year since 2015.

On a cumulative basis, since January 2020, demand is running 25% higher than the same period in 2019 despite the lockdown and market closure.

Despite this spike in demand, by the end of the year sales agreed are still expected to net out at 15% below 2019.

READ MORE: 'Millions less for rough sleepers' as foreign buyer stamp duty watered down

However, house prices have continue to grow, according to the report. Regional cities across the north of England have recorded the strongest growth in demand in the first half of 2020 compared with 2019, while new supply is down.

The highest spike in demand from house hunters year-on-year came in Sheffield (+46%), Liverpool (+40%) and Manchester (+33%), compared with the UK average of 25%.

Meanwhile, supply in these cities has seen a minimum decrease of 16%.

Rishi Sunaks stamp duty holiday announced in his summer statement meant that London saw an immediate bump in sales, despite an overall decline in transactions.

In the two weeks following the announcement agreed sales jumped by 27%, in comparison to 6% for the rest of England. In other regions, average property prices are lower and less responsive to stamp duty amends.

Looking at trends since the start of the year, it is clear there is a widening gap between supply and demand. This is expected to support house prices over the second half of 2020 with year on year declines in capital values unlikely before the year end.

The report found a supply-demand mismatch. Image: Zoopla

The staggered reopening of housing markets across countries and the added impetus from the stamp duty holiday mean we expect buyer demand and new sales volumes to hold at current levels over the next two months, said Richard Donnell, research and insight director, Zoopla.

Story continues

The net result will be continued support for house price growth at current levels over the second half of the year. Regional cities in northern England and the Midlands have the strongest underlying trends.

Listen to the latest podcast from Yahoo Finance UK
July 27, 2020: The new, pro-military king does not want to become dependent on the military for his, and the monarchies, survival. The royal solution is seen as dangerous for the monarchy. The king is trying to restore the political and economic power the monarchy had in the 1930s, but surrendered back then as an act of self-preservation. The new king seems to thing history wont repeat itself. The new king has moved forcefully to assert long dormant royal powers. In mid-2018 he officially took personal control over the royal fortune. Currently this is estimated to be worth over $33 billion and consists mainly of real estate and shares of major corporations. In the past the royal assets were managed by the semi-independent Crown Property Bureau and not taxed. A law was passed, at the kings request, in 2017 to allow the change and with that came another change; the royal fortune was now subject to taxation. This is not a popular move but the king believes the monarch can ignore public opinion, up to a point.

The king has taken steps to reduce the criticism. He has eliminated most of the lese majeste (criticism of the monarchy) prosecutions although these laws remain on the books. The king has curbed corruption by family members and is always on the lookout for gestures he can perform to improve his public standing. All that helps, but so far the open criticism of the king who would be an old school king continues.

The Thai people disagree and after six years of military rule have resumed public protests, even though that sort of thing is now illegal. Then again, the military is much more disliked than feared compared to 2014. The military seems to feel that the king can handle demonstrations against monarchy himself. The king and the military appear to be feuding.

The king is taking advantage of that to curb the power of the military. He has established a military force separate from the military and ordered all non-royal combat units out of the capital. The new Royal Guard Command has only 5,000 troops, but they are in the capital and answer only to the king. There is also a new police command devoted just to royal protection and led by a commander approved by the king. The king is also demanding that all officers considered for senior positions in the military be approved by him.

The king is also conducting a purge of the palace staff along with a loyalty training program for thousands of officials serving the monarchy in one way or another. He fired dozens of palace officials for misconduct and dismissed and stripped of all official honors his recently appointed royal concubine. All this palace intrigue appears to have something to do with the kings fourth wife, who is the queen and does not want to become an ex-wife like her three predecessors. In Thailand, discussing such palace activity publicly is illegal. Nevertheless, the gossip describes a very truth is stranger than fiction situation.

The purge and loyalty training program is not unusual for the new king. He conducted a ceremony not seen since the 1930s as he officially recognized his mistress as a royal concubine (literally a royal noble consort). The new consort was an army nurse when she met the crown prince and later became part of his bodyguard. As is customary the queen (since a recent marriage) sat next to the king during the brief ceremony. The queen was also a long-time girlfriend. The king met her when she was a flight attendant. The 68-year-old king spent most of his life as a playboy crown prince. This was in sharp contrast to his father. The official concubine is now in jail but there are still more than a dozen unofficial concubines, most of them with the king and his wife in a German hotel.

Royalists fear the behavior of the new king will do permanent damage to the monarchy. This is just one more problem the military has created. Now there is the possibility that the next political opposition movement will call for elimination of the monarchy. This was not really possible until the current king took power and made it clear he was different, and not in a good way. Unlike his predecessor, the new king already had an unsavory reputation. To make matters worse the new king made a deal with the military government that would, in theory, benefit both of them in the long run. First, the former crown prince assured everyone that he would behave. In return the military government freed the monarchy from constitutional and parliamentary restrictions that were part of the 1930s deal that turned a threatened absolute monarchy into a more popular constitutional one. The military government was changing the constitution when the old king died in 2016 and that presented a rare opportunity for the new king to gain more power for the monarchy. The generals needed the backing of the king because they justified their 2014 coup by claiming they were doing it to protect the monarchy. The old king was not enthusiastic about that but had learned to stand back. In 2016 the military got their new constitution ratified in a referendum and the king approved it in early 2017.

The king is also restoring royal palaces and other properties that had long been used as tourist attractions. No more. The king is not only expanding the number of properties owned and operated by the monarchy, but is demanding absolute obedience. Those who disobey or otherwise annoy the king are dismissed or worse. He has ordered symbols of the 1932 revolution/coup/compromise, that created the constitutional monarchy, to be eliminated, often secretly without any acknowledgement of royal involvement. The king is also writing many of his three former wives and their children out of his official personal history. The flaw in these moves is that most Thais know what really happened in 1932 and are angry about a clueless new king trying to reverse and rewrite history.

The king has made his situation even worse by living in the German Alps, taking over hotel for himself and about a hundred staff and family members. This began after covid19 became a crisis last March. The king made one quick (24 hour) trip back to Thailand in April to take care of some royal business but has otherwise been ruling the country from a German hotel where he and his entourage are the only guests. Germans and Thais have protested this arrangement but the king has ignored that.

The majority of Thais are pro-democracy and are relentless in their efforts to restore their power without triggering a civil war. A major goal of the democrats is a return of local elections. These have not been held since the 2014 coup and resuming the local elections is one thing nearly all Thais can agree on. Those elections were supposed to be held in 2020 but the military dominated government is trying to use covid19 to push the vote into 2021. That is apparently not working. The military knows that the local elections will simply spotlight how unpopular the military has become. Local elections would also remove the many replacement local officials appointed while the military was in charge.

The elected military government is behaving much like the former unelected military government. For example, the new government is using compliant courts to terrorize journalists using jail terms for fabricated offenses and getting opposition political parties outlawed the same way. This ensures that the civil war between the military/royalist coalition and democrats continues. The more the military tries to suppress the democrats, the more anger they generate among the majority of Thais who do not want to be ruled by the military. The generals realized they were in trouble after the March 2019 elections showed the democrats winning more votes than expected. The pro-democracy parties attempted to form a coalition government but lost out to a slightly larger coalition assembled by the pro-military parties. This close call for the new military dominated government led to the current policy of terrorizing individual critics (real, suspected or imagined) and litigating suspect organizations out of existence. Methods include trying to arrest and prosecute key pro-democracy politicians on false charges and disrupt pro-democracy activity in parliament.

The opposition is not backing off. At the end of 2019 an opinion poll showed that opposition politician and political party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit was favored as a prime minister by 31.4 percent of Thais compared to 23.7 percent for the actual prime minister former general Prayut Chan Ocha. Juangroongruangkit is a billionaire businessman whose party was among the top three favorites. The military dominated government eventually had Juangroongruangkit banned from parliament and his party banned from politics. This only increased his popularity as his followers joined other parties that shared their goals. Large protests against Prayut Chan Ocha are more frequent, even though they are illegal.

Juangroongruangkit is much less popular with the new king, who is angry that the Juangroongruangkit parliamentary coalition were the only ones voting against the royal request that two army units be transferred to direct control of the king. It was unprecedented, but not illegal, to vote against a royal request. The king is not pleased but the king is not nearly as popular as his father and more

July 26, 2020: Thailand has gone more than 60 days without any new covid19 cases. A disciplined population and an effective national health system made the difference. Thailand so far had 3,300 confirmed cases of covid19 (coronavirus) which comes out to 47 cases per million population and 0.8 deaths per million. Those numbers hardly changed over the last month. Such was not the case with other nations in the region. Neighbor Malaysia had 276 cases per million population cases and four deaths per million.

The stark difference here was because Thailand had a public health system that extended to the lowest levels (villages and city neighbors) with volunteers making up most of the staff and obtaining directions and medical supplies from the government. That meant a strict quarantine was not necessary and compliance was monitored and enforced by locals. In Malaysia some Moslem clerics defied quarantine rules and continued holding prayer services in crowded mosques. Because more people in Malaysia were infected, some Thai Moslems working in Malaysia tried to return home infected with covid19.A screening and approval process was set up to catch most of these virus carriers before they got home and infected others.

Another potential source of infections was the large number of Chinese tourists and commercial visitors that are normally in the country. Foreigners were sent home as soon as possible. While still in Thailand foreigners were forced to self-quarantine for two weeks before they could move freely. Even then they were avoided by most Thais.

Thailand did not undertake widespread testing for covid19 but does know that few Chinese visitors were infected. While covid19 first appeared in Wuhan China in late 2019 the Chinese government tried to suppress the news but word-of-mouth did the job in Wuhan and a lot of tourists and business travelers cancelled their trips. Some infected travelers did get out of Wuhan but Thailand was one of the earliest nations to quarantine and then ban foreign visitors in general. This ban is just now beginning to lift.

Elsewhere in the region Bangladesh has 1,356 covid19 cases per million and 18 dead per million. In Burma its six cases per million people and 0.1 deaths. India has 1,041 cases per million and 24 dead per million while Pakistan has 1,240 cases per million and 26 deaths per million people. China, where the virus began, stopped releasing covid19 cases and deaths data as part of a government program to try and blame the U.S. for the virus. Few (Chinese or foreigners) believe that and it is taken for granted by neighbors of China that the Wuhan Virus, as it was first known, indeed came from China. A growing number of Chinese virus researchers who know too much are fleeing China and seeking asylum in the West.

By now it has also become known that covid19 is not much more dangerous than one of the deadlier annual influenza epidemics. The flu is taken for granted and it is unclear if covid19, which is genetically almost identical to the 2013 SARS virus, another Chinese corona (trans-species) virus, will be an annual event or disappear like SARS and similar diseases. Covid19 is unique in that it attacks the lungs and is often mistaken for pneumonia. As such it is particularly dangerous to the elderly or anyone with weakened immune system or other illnesses. Most healthy adults and children do not notice covid19 at all even if exposed to it.

July 25, 2020: Exports in June were down 23 percent compared to June 2019. This is not as bad as the damage covid19 has done to the tourism industry, which is expected to generate less than a third of the income it usually does. Tourism is about 20 percent of the Thai economy and added to other economic woes has got most Thais anxious about their financial futures. The government sees the unemployment rate peaking at over 25 percent and fears how long that will last. In late 2019 it was estimated that the economy (GDP) would grow nearly three percent in 2020. Now the prediction of for the GDP to lose nearly nine percent in 2020 and possibly more depending on how long it takes to get the tourists back. Exports of manufactured goods is already booming but that cannot make up for the tourism losses. All this is catastrophic for a country that has long had an unemployment rate of one percent or less. Particularly hard hit is the south, which depends a lot on tourism and where the less educated majority Moslem population always had a higher unemployment rate. The government has begun to ease economic restrictions and let people get back to work.

July 24, 2020: The army announced that it will not try to suppress popular protests against the government and the army, but will monitor them.

July 18, 2020: In the capital thousands of people protested against the government and a smaller group protested in front of the main military headquarters.

July 14, 2020: In the south (Pattani province) a soldier died when a remotely controlled bomb was detonated. The dead soldier was leading a six-man patrol through an area where separatists and Islamic terrorists often attacked school teachers on their way to work. The teachers are often Buddhists. Violence like this has declined considerably since covid19 showed up in March. The men responsible for the violence are still around and expected to become more active by the end of the year. So far this month there have been several attacks, all in Pattani province, that wounded about a dozen soldiers and civilians.
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Linkedin Choi Ji-won (The Korea Herald/Asia News Network) Seoul, South Korea  Tue, July 28, 2020 21:09 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066a04247 2 Entertainment Lee-Jung-jae,South-Korea,actor,director,film Free

Veteran actor Lee Jung-jae is set to make his directorial debut in an upcoming spy-action film.

Tentatively titled Hunt, the film is expected to kick off production next year, according to the films distributor Megabox Joongang Plus M last week. Lee will also play the lead role in the movie.

Taking place in 1980s Korea, the film will revolve around national security agents Park Pyong-ho and Kim Jung-do, who are chasing after the chief of North Koreas espionage operation in the South. Lee will play Park, a member of the agencys overseas division.

Lee joined the production of the spy movie in early 2017. He selected the film -- which was then titled Namsan -- as his first production piece and stated he would also take part in writing the films screenplay.

Read also: Korean films hope to repeat Cannes success in 2020 Cannes Film Market

A few months later, media reported that filmmaker Jung Ji-woo of Eungyo (2012) and veteran actor Choi Min-sik would be joining the project as director and lead actor, respectively. However, Jung and Choi ultimately declined to take the part, and star director Han Jae-rim, of The Face Reader (2013) and The King (2017), was then expected to helm the movie. However, Han also turned down the offer in March 2018.

After almost four years of working on the script, Lee finally confirmed he will himself be taking up the role of producer, director and lead actor.

Meanwhile, the distributor on Monday told The Korea Herald that another headlining actor, Jung Woo-sung -- well known as a longtime close friend of Lee -- is considering starring in the movie. If Jung confirms the casting, the two actors will partner for the first time in 21 years, since action-drama film City of the Rising Sun in 1999.

Lee, 47, debuted as a TV actor in 1993 and, in the following year, shot to fame with his first film The Young Man. Since then, Lee has had key roles in several hit films, including The Thieves (2012), The New World (2013) and Assassination (2015), which all exceeded the blockbuster milestone of 10 million tickets sold.

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This article appeared on The Korea Herald newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
File image of members of an Iraqi Shia militia group marching in Baghdad - Reuters

Britains ambassador to Iraq has been targeted by a graphic propaganda campaign featuring an image of his bloodied face after he spoke out against militia groups which are strengthening their grip on the war-torn country.

Stephen Hickey, who has served in the post since last September, was singled out by militiamen after he encouraged Iraq to turn its back on armed groups that operate outside the law.

In response, one militia group with ties to the Iranian regime published a series of posts on the messaging app Telegram which warned the senior diplomat to keep his views to himself.

Stop lying and mind your own business and represent your old country as a diplomat, reads one of the messages seen by the Telegraph. It was posted by Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, an Iraqi Shia militia group backed by Iran.

The warning was accompanied by two polaroid-style photographs of Mr Hickey which were edited so that his face and head were smeared with blood.

Founded in 2013, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba reportedly has around 10,000 fighters and is subject to US sanctions.

Another message told the British ambassador to stop playing malicious games by addressing the issue of militia groups in Iraq, and a third warned him not to intervene in issues that are bigger than you.

Stephen Hickey, the British ambassador to Iraq, speaking to the media - Twitter

It is understood that the hostile messages were responding to a tweet by the ambassador, which warned that armed groups operating outside state control were hampering Iraqs development.

UK government officials said the safety of their staff was of "paramount importance" and that they were working to ensure the stability of Iraq under a sovereign government which has control over armed groups.

Iraq analysts said the messages were part of a broader campaign to intimidate those who speak out against militia groups.

Despite the recent departure of British troops from Taji Air Base, UK diplomatic staff are still under regular threat from pro-Iranian hardline Shiite factions in Iraq, said Evan Kohlmann, a senior analyst at the security consultancy Flashpoint.

Story continues

Those factions seethe at comments from the outspoken UK ambassador in support of the Iraqi government and its efforts to end continuing rocket attacks on the Green Zone in Baghdad, he added.

Pro-Iran militia groups wield significant power over the Iraqi parliament, though the countrys newly appointed prime minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, has vowed to crack down on them.

Many of the militia groups are known as Iranian proxies which are funded by the regime and used to undermine Western forces and their allies in the region.

Over the past year, the militias have been linked to rocket attacks on US and UK forces in Iraq, the killing of young protesters and a campaign of intimidation against Iraqi MPs.

In May, the Telegraph disclosed that a group named Thar Allah (Gods Revenge) was believed to be responsible for the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old man during protests in Basra in May.

Another major militia group tied to Iran, Kataib Hezbollah, was blamed by the US for a rocket attack in December 2019 on a military base hosting US troops, which killed an American contractor.

Another rocket attack in March on Camp Taji base killed two American soldiers and one British soldier.

Shortly after pledging to stand up to the militias, Mr Kadhimi ordered a raid on Kataib Hizbollahs offices in June, in what was widely regarded as an attempt to stymie Tehrans influence in Iraq.

Around a dozen members of the group, which was also involved in the siege of the US Baghdad embassy in January 2020, were arrested.

A UK Foreign Office spokesman said: The UK has long been clear in its support for Iraqi sovereignty and stability, and its position that all armed groups within Iraq should fall under the control of the Iraqi Government.

The safety of our staff is of paramount importance and we keep our security under constant review.
Two members of the Lancaster County community are planning to lead a procession through the area to show solidarity for the family of Linda Stoltzfoos, an Amish teenager who authorities believe was kidnapped on Fathers Day.

The prayer ride is scheduled for Aug. 8, according to a post on the Stoltzfoos familys Facebook. The event will run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and kick off at the Ephrata Community Church on Clay School Road, organizers said in their own post.

Participants are encouraged to wear, fly or represent the 18-year-olds favorite color, yellow, in some way. Anyone is welcome to join the procession, according to organizers Brendan Luciano and Shaun Wood.

This ride is to show support to the Stoltzfoos family and to send prayer for Linda Stoltzfoos, Luciano and Wood said on their Facebook event page. We want to be seen and we want to be heard!

The two men told WGAL their sense of community inspired them to do something to help.

This is all about a community coming together and supporting a cause, Wood said in the WGAL interview.

Authorities believe Stoltzfoos was kidnapped June 21 while walking home from a church service.

Paradise resident Justo Smoker, 34, was charged in connection to her disappearance, but hasnt given investigators information on her whereabouts, authorities said.

Clothing that matches what Stoltzfoos was wearing when she went missing was found in a wooded area of Ronks, about three miles from where she was last seen.

Authorities have conducted a number of searches for Stoltzfoos, including this past Saturday. They believe the 18-year-old could have been harmed after she disappeared.

Investigators are asking residents of East Earl, East Lampeter, Paradise and Salisbury townships to check their home security cameras and think about whether they saw Smokers red, beat-up 2007 Kia Rio near June 21.

Smoker has a preliminary court hearing scheduled for Aug. 5 at 1:30 p.m. in front of Magisterial District Judge B. Denise Commins, court records show.

Anyone with information can contact state police at 717-299-7650, or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.

READ MORE:

The spotlight is on Lancasters Amish community again after Linda Stolzfoos disappearance; experts explain just how rare events like this are

Pa. tavern apologizes for menu item mocking Secretary of Health Rachel Levine

2 dead, others hurt in Pa. house fire: chief
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: AG Perarivalan -- who has been languishing in prison for the last 29 years, convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case -- has approached the Mumbai High Court seeking details related to the early release of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who was also convicted under the same Arms Act.

In 2016, Perarivalan had sought details about the legal procedures under which Sanjay Dutt was released from the Yeravada Jail Information Officer, through an RTI application. Now, he has moved the State High Court.

Dutt and Perarivalan were punished under the same Arms Act. Maharashtra could release Dutt on their own without getting permission from the Centre, but the release of Perarivalan cannot happen without the Centres clearance, said the latters counsel K Sivakumar.

So, the documents regarding Dutts release will give us more clarity, he added.

Perarivalan has sought all records and documents, correspondence, etc., relating to the release of Dutt from Yerawada Central Jail. He also sought the provisions of law -- either Article 161 of the Constitution or CrPC or Maharashtra State Prison Rules -- under which Dutts release was ordered.
Ram temple in Ayodhya to be ready by 2025, open for 'darshan' to devotees by 2023 end

Foundation works for Ram Mandir to be ready by October, 'garbhagriha' by Dec 2023: VHP

Reports of Time Capsule being placed underground at Ram Mandir site not correct

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Jaipur, July 28: Reports being circulated about a time capsule being placed beneath the site of the Ram Temple is baseless said Champat Rai, general secretary of the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.

His clarification came following reports stating that a time capsule will be placed 200 feet underground at the Ram Temple.

"Some news items are being circulated which suggest that a time capsule will be placed beneath the temple construction site in Ayodhya. Any such news is fake & should not be believed." : Shri Champat Rai, General Secretary, Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra, Rai said.

"Some news items are being circulated which suggest that a time capsule will be placed beneath the temple construction site in Ayodhya. Any such news is fake & should not be believed." : Shri Champat Rai, General Secretary, Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra. pic.twitter.com/5wO5Tu7NvX  Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra (@ShriRamTeerth) July 28, 2020

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the Bhumi Pujan at the site for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on August 5. This would be telecast live on Doordharshan, India's public broadcaster.

At 12.30 pm on August 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will perform the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of the grand Ram Temple at Ayodhya.

The schedule was finalised as per the suggestions made by several astrologers.

The Ram Temple in Ayodhya will be 161 feet tall, the architect of the Temple said. He also said that original design prepared in 1988 mentioned the height as 141 feet.

The earlier design was prepared in 1988 and over 30 years have passed since. People are also very enthusiastic about visiting the Temple. Hence we through its size should be increased. As per the revised design, the height of the Temple has been increased from 141 feet to 161 feet, Nikhil Sompura, architect and son of C Sompura, the chief architect told news agency ANI.

He also said that two mandaps have been added and all the pillars and stones that were carved based on the earlier design will still be used, he also said. He also said that the construction of the Temple will take 3.5 years.

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirtha Kshetra has decided that there will be not more than 200 people, including 150 invitees to ensure maximum social distancing.

Swami Govind Dev Giri, Treasurer of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirtha Kshetra said that it has been decided that there will not be more than 200 people including 150 invitees at the event.

Before laying the foundation stone, PM Modi will offer prayers to Lord Ram at the Temple and Lord Hanuman at the Garhi Temple in Ayodhya. All chief minsters from different states will be invited for the programme.

Veteran BJP leader, L K Advani will also be invited for the ceremony. There are elaborate arrangements on for the programme. The rituals will begin on August 3 and end with a brume pujan on August 5, following which the construction of the Temple would commence.
A man who single-handedly exposed corruption against all odds with no support from family or friends was thanked officially with a thankless gesture.

Nguyen Dong

A certificate of merit.

After he fought non-stop for six years against corruption and protecting public interest, Pham Tan Luc, 61, was finally recognized for his brave and selfless act.

It was a day in early June. Authorities of Binh Trung Commune in Quang Ngai Provinces Binh Son District called Luc on the phone and asked him to drop by their office whenever he was back home.

Luc was working as a guard at a building in Da Nang City, not far from Quang Ngai, when he received the call. He did not hesitate. That night, he took a bus and traveled 130 kilometers (81 miles) to reach his house in Binh Trung.

The next morning, Luc dressed up and went to the communes office at 8 a.m. He had been informed that the communes chairman would hand over a certificate of merit signed by the chairman of Binh Son District.

Luc was taken to a small meeting room, where four commune officials were waiting. After one of them read out loud a decision on rewarding him, Sau was given the certificate along with a bouquet and VND1 million ($43) in cash.

There was no fanfare, not a single member of the public in attendance.

The "ceremony" lasted all of five minutes.

"I felt so lonely and sorry for myself. I asked one of the officials to take a photo of me as a souvenir of that day."

As the photo was taken, Luc could not smile.

A dangerous road

The 5-minute ceremony was not the first time he had felt isolated and lonely.

There were many such instances throughout his six-year journey of dogged persistence, shedding sweat, tears and blood protecting the quality of the Da Nang-Quang Ngai Expressway, which runs 139 km (86 miles) between Hoa Vang District of Da Nang City and Tu Nghia District of Quang Ngai Province.

Throughout those long years, as he kept reporting wrongdoings by Chinas Jiangsu Provincial Transportation Engineering Group Co., Ltd, or JTEG, the contractor for a VND1.3-trillion ($56-million) section of the expressway that runs 10.6 km through Binh Trung Commune, he never had anyone by his side.

JTEG is quite a famous name in the infrastructure industry. The groups website states that it makes seven billion yuan ($979 million) each year implementing projects in poor and developing countries, from Central African Republic to Mongolia, Fiji, Cambodia and Bangladesh.

Lucs arduous journey started after JTEG hired him in 2015, when he was just an ordinary resident living next to the construction site, as one of its guards. With his own experience in the construction sector, Luc detected a series of mistakes by the Chinese contractor.

He took photos, notes, filed petitions, and repeatedly sent them to higher authorities and the Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC), the expressways main investor, but got no response. During his process of denouncing JTEG, he was tempted with bribes, assaulted and received death threats from both unknown sources and workers at the site.

Pham Tan Luc stands by the Quang Ngai-Da Nang Expressway, May 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong.

A lone wolf

A poor man who sometimes ran out of money to top up his mobile phone, Luc stood tall as a public citizen when the authorities were conspicuously absent.

He was a lone wolf whose own family did not support him in the fight; even his neighbors turned their backs against him.

In some cases, Luc successfully convinced the contractor into fixing the faults he had pointed out, but for the most part, no one bothered.

He asked relatives working in state agencies and friends in the police to help him with petitions, but no one lifted a finger. He traveled hundreds of kilometers to the office of the expressway management board in Da Nang City, but they always refused to meet him in person.

It was only in 2018 when completed sections of the expressway, including those not built by JTEG, started revealing faults, that people took notice.

In November last year, police detained and probed four VEC officials.

In early May this year, Le Quang Hao, deputy general director of the firm, was arrested.

And it was not until investigations were launched into the wrongdoings in constructing and assessing the expressways quality that local authorities considered recognizing Lucs key role in exposing corruption.

On the certificate of merit, Luc is praised for "promoting the people's supervision spirit, participating in supervising projects in Binh Trung Commune."

There is no mention of the Da Nang-Quang Ngai Expressway in particular and no mention of the actions Luc had taken to fight corruption. Explaining the omission, the commune officials said that they had put the name of the project in the file making a recommendation to acknowledge Lucs contribution.

No one believed that Lucs reports on JTEG could make any difference, especially when they saw how seriously he was assaulted, requiring hospitalization for several days.

We have heard about stones being thrown into Lucs house in the middle of the night. Luc and his wife collected the stones and put them into a bag as "evidence." But who would they send the evidence to? What could be done to help him?

It is impossible to quantify the effort that Luc has quietly devoted for the expressway. He was not just a guard on the site; he was a guardian for the nation whose conscience and courage are reflected in statements that he was "not afraid of death" and that he "has to fight to make sure we have a qualified road to leave for our next generations."

To repeat, the importance of Lucs work cannot be understated, even as the Transport Ministry is in the process of choosing a contractor for five North-South Expressway sections.

One of these, the HCMC  Trung Luong section, the only expressway that connects Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta, will need VND22 billion ($947,000) for repairs. After it opened to traffic just 10 years ago, the expressways surface is already flaked and chipped.

The expressways are not the only infrastructure projects that have quality problems, of course.

But in each and every instance, the official system of monitoring and supervision failed.

It took a poverty stricken but honest man like Luc to dare raise his voice and "show responsibility of the residents."

In other instances of people who speak up or act against corruption, we can see that it is indeed a thankless task; worse, the retribution can be nasty.

In 2017, Nguyen Tien Lang, 79, and Nguyen Cong Uan, 80, in the northern province of Bac Ninh were terrorized when people splashed their houses with urine and stool and chopped down their pomelo trees in just one night. This was how they were rewarded for reporting that 3,000 counterfeit war invalids certificates were being used to get undeserved financial aid from the state.

And in the central province of Quang Tri, a man named Mai Xuan Lan was stabbed to death last August as he tried to tell a man not to run a red light.

We are afraid

It is a sad state of affairs that the fear of retaliation, of getting involved and of other consequences of speaking out and denouncing those engaged in wrongdoing has prompted most of us to avoid the responsibilities of being a public citizen and to resign ourselves to accepting that these things happen. Our fear makes us conclude that we can do nothing about it.

In fact, not many people know that denunciation is a basic right of any citizen guaranteed by Vietnams constitution, and an extremely important channel to help state agencies access information, detect and handle violations.

To be responsible citizens, we do not need to bust a billion dollar project like Luc. We can start with very small things in our daily life.

When we see a neighbor block the sidewalk with something, we decide to ignore it to avoid spoiling the relationship. If we someone litter, we simply shake our heads and walk away. Not our responsibility, we tell ourselves.

When he was given the certificate of merit without a single public person present, Luc asked a pertinent question. "How can they encourage people to monitor (projects) if they reward me like this?"

A famous quote goes: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Luc has shown us what a normal citizen can do, but what does it say about us that he is isolated both by authorities and the community around him?

Luc could not smile for the photograph. We should not be smiling either.

*Nguyen Dong is a journalist. The opinions expressed here are his own.
Reacting to India's ban on Chinese mobile apps, China on Tuesday said that it will take measures to protect the interests of its companies. In addition, China has also asked the Indian side to "correct its wrongdoings".

"Deliberate interference in such cooperation will not serve the interests of the Indian side. China will also take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies," said Chinese Embassy in New Delhi.

Chinese Embassy also said that it "wants to reiterate that the Chinese government consistently asks Chinese enterprises to abide by international rules and local laws and regulations when conducting external cooperation."

Also read: Govt bans 47 more Chinese apps; 250 more, including PUBG, on radar

India recently banned around 59 popular Chinese apps, including TikTok on June 29, saying they were prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity, and security of the country. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had also written a letter to all these Chinese firms, warning that continued availability and operation of these banned apps, directly or indirectly, was an offence under the Information Technology Act and other applicable Acts.

India has also cracked down on 47 more Chinese-origin mobile apps, most being clones or lite variants of the ones earlier banned. Besides, India has prepared a list of over 250 Chinese apps, including apps linked to Alibaba, that it will examine for any user privacy or national security violations. The list also includes Tencent-backed gaming app PUBG.

The decision to ban Chinese apps came as a part of India's economic offensive against China after the death of its 20 soldiers at LAC in Ladakh's Galwan valley, triggering the most serious crisis between the two countries in decades.

Also read: Govt plans ban on PubG, 273 other apps after action against 59 Chinese apps
(Newser)  Stranded on a tiny Italian island, a cancer researcher grew alarmed as one, and then three more visitors fell ill with COVID-19. Paola Muti braced for a rapid spread of the coronavirus to the 800 close-knit islanders. Her mother was born on Giglio Island, and she often stays at the family home with its charming view of the sea through the parlor windows. But days passed, and none of the islanders developed any COVID-19 symptoms, though conditions seemed favorable for the disease to spread. Dr. Armando Schiaffino, the island's sole physician for around 40 years, shared Muti's worry, the AP reports. "Every time an ordinary childhood illness, like scarlet fever, measles or chicken pox strikes, within a very few days practically all get infected on Giglio, he said. Muti, a breast cancer researcher and an epidemiology professor, decided to try to find out why it wasn't happening this time. Were residents infected but not showing symptoms? Was it something genetic? Or just plain luck?

story continues below

By then, Muti was trapped on the island by Italy's strict lockdown rules. Of the 800 or so year-round residents, 723 volunteered to be tested. Of those tested, only one was found to have antibodies, an elderly Gigliese man who had sailed on the same ferry to the island as a German visitor, Muti said. Intrigued about why "the virus didn't seem to interact" with the native population, Muti hadn't reached any conclusions by the time she was preparing to leave the island this month. It's possible, Muti guessed, that islanders weren't exposed to enough COVID-19 to be infected. A Rome expert voiced that possibility, saying some patients are simply less capable of spreading the disease for reasons that are unclear. "It could be something more or less trivialnobody got infected because through good luck there was little contact," a London expert said. Or "it could be something important and exotic," such as a genetic variant common among the island's population.

(Read more coronavirus stories.)
The worlds most significant coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine study is underway in the United States, with a planned 30,000 volunteers. The phase 3 clinical trial aims to examine the efficacy and safety of the candidate vaccine developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc.

The U.S. biotech firm Moderna announced that it had started the final stage of its human trials for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. The phase 3 human clinical trial comes after the company revealed promising results in its open-label phase 2 study, which showed that the vaccine, called mRNA-1273, induced an immune response against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19.

A volunteer in Savannah, Georgia, received the first shot of the experimental vaccine in the phase 3 trial at 6:45 a.m. on July 27, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said.

Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (green) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (purple), isolated from a patient sample. Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Credit: NIAID

The vaccine

The COVID-19 candidate vaccine, mRNA-1273, is an mRNA vaccine developed to protect against SARS-CoV-2. Moderna partnered with the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the NIH to develop the vaccine.

The team developed the vaccine based on the atomic-level structure assessment and study of betacoronavirus Spike proteins. These S-proteins guided the application of mutations to enhance their expression and immunogenicity.

The final phase trial

The phase 3 trial, called the Coronavirus Efficacy (COVE) study, will enroll 30,000 health people at about 89 sites around the country this summer. Half of the enrollees will receive two shots of the experimental vaccine, 28 days apart, and the other half will receive two shots of saltwater placebo. Neither the volunteers nor the medical staff administering the vaccines will know who will get the real vaccine. However, the researchers and those running the trial are the only ones who will receive the vaccine.

We are pleased to have started the Phase 3 COVE study. We are grateful to the efforts of so many inside and outside the company to get us to this important milestone. We are indebted to the participants and investigators who now begin the work of the COVE study itself. We look forward to this trial demonstrating the potential of our vaccine to prevent COVID-19 so that we can defeat this pandemic, Stephane Bancel, CEO at Moderna, said in a statement.

In the randomized, placebo-controlled trial, the participants will receive the 11 g dose of the mRNA-1273. The primary endpoint will be the prevention of symptomatic development of COVID-19, and key secondary endpoints include the prevention of severe COVID-19, and prevention of infection by SARS-CoV-2, even without the symptoms.

Phase 3 trial participants will receive two intramuscular injections approximately 28 days apart. Participants will be randomly assigned 1:1 to receive either two 100 microgram (mcg) injections of mRNA-1273 or two shots of a saline placebo. The trial is blinded, so the investigators and the participants will not know who is assigned to which group.

Volunteers must provide informed consent to participate in the trial. They will be asked to provide a nasopharyngeal swab and a blood sample at an initial screening visit and additional blood samples at specified time points after each vaccination and over the two years following the second vaccination. Scientists will examine blood samples in the laboratory to detect and quantify immune responses to SARS-CoV-2.

Investigators will closely monitor participant safety. They will call participants after each vaccination to discuss any symptoms and will provide participants with a diary to record symptoms and a thermometer for temperature readings.

If a participant is suspected of having COVID-19, the participant will be asked to provide a nasal swab for testing within 72 hours. If the test is positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection, the participant will be followed closely and referred for medical care if symptoms worsen. Participants will be asked to provide a daily assessment of symptoms through resolution and have saliva sampled periodically so that investigators can test for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Study investigators will regularly review trial safety data. An independent data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) will review blinded and unblinded data--including safety data and cases of COVID-19 in both groups--at scheduled data review meetings.

The phase 3 trial commenced after the results of its phase 1 trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that the vaccine-induced immune responses in all of the volunteers and were deemed as generally safe to use. The vaccine only produced mild side effects, such as chills, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, and pain at the injection site.

In the phase 1 trial, only a small number of participants were given the vaccine so as to determine whether the vaccine triggered immune responses.

The phase 2 trial focused on expanding the number of participants, giving it to people who were at a higher risk of severe disease, such as those who are older and those with underlying health conditions. The last phase 3 stage is administered to thousands of people to test for effectiveness and safety.

Vaccine development and global toll

The Moderna trial is just one of the 25 clinical trials across the globe. Other candidate vaccines have also started their trials to determine their efficacy to prevent infection with the novel coronavirus.

The total number of infections around the world has already topped 16.48 million, with the death toll reaching more than 654,000. The United States remains as the nation with the highest infection toll, reaching more than 4.29 million individuals, while Brazil reports more than 2.44 million cases.

India, Russia, South Africa, and Mexico report high numbers of infections, with more than 1.48 million, 816,000, 452,000, and 395,000, respectively.
When anti-graft czar, Nuhu Ribadu, fell out of favour with the Nigerian political powerbrokers and was subsequently forced out of office in December 2007, he went under the radar for many years.

He was axed when he unsuccessfully tried to prosecute the influential former Delta State governor, James Ibori, who was a known associate of the late president, Umaru YarAdua.

But years after his controversial exit from leading the nations controversial anti-corruption war, Mr Ribadu, who had a dexterous ability to court media attention, came out with guns blazing, opening a can of worms.

Mr Ribadu named some Nigerians he said tried their best to frustrate the nations fight against corruption.

Top on his long list was the Attorney-General of the Federation, he served alongside in the fight against graft: Michael Aondoakaa.

I still recall with amazement and shock how some very senior lawyers made it a duty upon themselves to bring down the EFCC and stop the work we were doing. Many of them, like Prof Ben Nwabueze, SAN, teamed up with politicians to wage very serious propaganda to discredit the work we were doing, he told an amazed audience.

Not done, he added: Take the case of Mr Michael Aondoakaa, whose most cardinal agenda as the AGF seemed to be destroying EFCC by every means possible and frustrating all the cases.

In that regard, he attempted to take over the prosecutorial powers of the commission, which would have rendered the EFCC into a toothless bulldog. But, of course, we resisted, he said.

He also said Mr Aondoakaa later found a partner in Farida Waziri (Ribadus successor) when she was appointed as the chairman of the EFCC to replace Mr Ribadu.

Mr Ribadu also said Mrs Waziri inflicted serious damages on the EFCC from which the commission is still struggling to recover.

Mrs Waziri later refuted the claims. There was no response from the Aondoakaa camp.

Mr Ribadu was widely known for his aggressive battle on the prominent personalities involved in alleged graft. In the course of this, analysts say he inadvertently put himself in the cross-fire.

To his credit, he was able to secure the conviction of many high-profile individuals, ranging from a former chief law enforcement officer to many bank chief executives. In 2006, he stunned many Nigerians when he said 31 of Nigerias 36 state governors were being investigated for alleged stealing.

However, his sporadic battle with Mr Aondoakaa, his ally in the war on graft, attracted undue attention.

In December 2007, embattled, Mr Ribadu was temporarily removed from office by the then IGP, Mike Okiro, who ordered him to attend a one-year course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru.

12 months later, he was unceremoniously sacked by the Police Service Commission. He would later be reinstated though.

EFCCs albatross?

The Act (2004) setting up the EFCC mandates it to be the principal outfit combatting financial and economic crimes.

The commission is empowered to prevent, investigate, prosecute and penalise economic and financial crimes and is also charged with the responsibility of enforcing the provisions of other laws and regulations relating to economic and financial crimes.

In addition, it is viewed legally as the key agency of government responsible for fighting terrorism.

But in carrying out its duties, it is mandated to liaise with other government agencies especially the Attorney-General of the Federation

On its board are representatives of the AGF, security agencies, CAC, CBN, NCC, SEC, security agencies and others.

But over the years, conflicts between the heads of the prominent anti-graft commission and AGFs have threatened the progress of the war on corruption.

Turf war

A former Daily Trust editor, Theophilus Abbah, in a recent piece, perhaps aptly captures the unending battle for supremacy between the two top offices over the years. He also examined the difficulty EFCC heads have faced over the years.

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Nuhu Ribadu booted out, demoted (2008). Farida Waziri sacked! (2011). Ibrahim Lamorde removed, under probe (2015). Ibrahim Magu arrested, detained, grilled (2019), he said. With these fragmented statements and reads-on that scream from the headlines of dailies, each chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was, with bleary eyes, ingloriously booted out of the seat of fire.

Were they round holes in square pegs? Were they hypocrites, double-faced or impostors? Did they come under the spell of powerful witches or wizards who have put a curse upon the executive chair? The answer may be none of the above.

Political analysts believe the prime reason majority of the EFCC bosses over the years have been sacked may not be unconnected with their inability to navigate the thin but sensitive line between politics and the arduous job of frontally battling corruption.

A few other also opine that their less-than-friendly relationship with the office of the AGF has also largely contributed to their ouster from office at various times.

The recurring cold and open warfare between Ministers of Justice and EFCC Chairpersons is inimical to Nigerias integrity in her fight to end corruption, Mr Abbah, now a public affairs analyst adds. Nuhu Ribadu was chased away by Michael Aondooka; Farida Waziris no-love-lost relationship with Mohammad Adoke was not hidden, as Adoke openly declared in an interview that Farida was too powerful as EFCC chairperson. It is the turn of Magu to face fire from Malami, and this fire is more ferocious than those faced by Magus predecessors.

Waziri/Adoke

On November 16, 2010, Mrs Waziri (ex-EFCC boss) frontally tackled her counterpart, the then AGF, Mohammed Adoke, accusing him of frustrating the war on graft. She also threatened to resign from office, if her concerns were not addressed.

For many weeks, there had been an intense struggle between the two public officials over an allegation Mrs Waziri, the first and only female to head the agency, paid N1.3 billion to Mr Aondoakaa.

Mrs Waziri, known for her no-nonsense mien, had linked the onslaught and others on her to the then AGF and accused him of causing the commission to lose focus.

The activities of the AGF office are embarrassing to the commission and have brought us in a bad light to the public perception on the fight against corruption, she said. It has made the commission to lose its focus.

In recent times the office of the AGF has waded into the commissions activities thereby scuttling its prosecutions. These intrusions are not in the best interest in the fight against corruption

It is worthy to note that the EFCC loss of focus is as a result of the intrusion of the AGF office, which has made the chairman of the commission, Mrs Farida Waziri to contemplate resigning from the job, her aide, Femi Babafemi, had said in a statement.

The two were constantly engaged in a war of words during her tumultuous reign at the commission.

On one hand, Mrs Waziri was accused of failing to secure convictions for high profile cases involving former governors already commenced by her predecessor, especially as some believed these ex-governors sponsored her appointment.

She, however, on the other hands, accused Mr Adoke of stalling the corruption war by withdrawing high profile cases initiated by the commission under her.

Mr Adoke would later throw his former colleague to the wolves when he washed his hands off the non-prosecution deal, which Nigeria reached with a company, Tidex Nigeria Limited, suspected to have imported toxic substances into the country.

He said it was Mrs Waziri, who initiated the deal, wherein, a controversial lawyer, Godwin Obla, was paid $300,000 out of the $6 million settlement deal reached with the company in 2011.

It was the EFCC, under the chairmanship of Chief (Mrs) Farida Waziri, OON, that initiated these settlements and nominated Mr Godwin Obla, SAN, as the lawyer to represent their interest in the negotiations that were conducted under the auspices of the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Adoke said. It was when the negotiations were concluded to the satisfaction of all the parties, that I signed on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria and Mr Emmanuel Akomoye (then, Secretary to the EFCC) signed on behalf of the EFCC. The copies of the agreements are in the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and I believe, with the EFCC as well.

This was the procedure that was adopted in respect of all the settlements that were initiated by the EFCC in 2011, including those of Shell, Saipem, KBR, JGC, among others, that infracted the laws of the country, he added in a reply to his successor, Abubakar Malami, who had directed the EFCC to re-open the files on the deal.

Mrs Waziri, the only female head of the agency so far, was later axed by President Goodluck Jonathan and replaced by Ibrahim Lamorde.

Mr Jonathan, years later, cited national interest for the removal of the appointee, while Mrs Waziri, in her memoirs, said she was victimised for not going after firms who engaged in fuel subsidy scam. But many believe her first relationship with Mr Adoke was equally a contributing factor to her ouster.

Lamorde

If there was any rivalry between Mr Lamorde and Mr Adoke, during his tenure at the EFCC, this was largely managed and kept under wraps. Not much of their conflict ever made it to the public.

Although Mr Lamorde was confirmed on February 15, 2012 by the Nigerian Senate, he later had a confrontation with lawmakers who sought to remove him from office over alleged corrupt acts.

Before he was removed as EFCC boss by President Muhammadu Buhari, in November 9, 2015, the Senate reeled out several cases of alleged malfeasance against him which included illegally warehousing recovered funds; manipulating bank accounts to conceal diversion of funds; releasing of recovered funds to unidentified persons and EFCC officials; collusion with real estate companies to grossly under-value seized assets and other allegations.

Mr Lamorde, who is now an assistant inspector general of police (AIG) was accused by the Senate of diverting $5 billion at the EFCC. The senators even issued a warrant of arrest for him after which he temporarily left the shores of Nigeria.

He denied all allegations.

Magu/Malami

Perhaps, no other battle has typified the no love lost that has typified the two offices over the years than the ongoing tug of war between the now suspended EFCC boss, Ibrahim Magu and the incumbent AGF, Abubakar Malami.

In the current confrontation, despite the suspension of the former, both parties continue to unleash lethal attacks from their well-stocked arsenal on each other.

An elated Mr Malami had quickly announced Mr Magus suspension following Mr Buharis approval in the aftermath of a probe into the activities of the EFCC boss.

Mr Magu, who served as the pioneer head of administration and finance, when the EFCC was newly birthed in 2003, is currently being investigated by a panel headed by Ayo Salami, former president of the appeal court, over allegations of graft and insubordination levelled against him by Mr Malami.

He was detained for about 10 days and only released after much pressure. Before the detention, like their predecessors, the two had consistently engaged themselves publicly over the manner the anti-graft was being run.

After his arrest, allegations that Mr Magu diverted billions of naira from recovered funds, as well as the interests accruing from the funds, were circulated and published in the media. An unperturbed AGF has insisted, there is more to come in the alleged crimes levelled against his partner in the war on corruption

Mr Magu has, however, denied any wrongdoing and continues to clear his name. It is no gainsaying then that his present predicament is directly linked to his frosty relationship with the AGF, again, just as his predecessors.

Meanwhile, the battle of wits has continued between the duo, even as Mr Magu remains suspended.

In most of the battles between the two offices, EFCC bosses have usually get the short end of the stick going by their quick fall from grace over the years. Many feel this has impacted negatively on the commissions activities.

It is perhaps out of these concerns that prominent global groups in the war on graft wrote to the Buhari government on July 12 to express their concern over Nigerias ability to curb graft especially in the light of the alleged victimisation of the current EFCC boss.

But the government pushed back later saying the anti-graft was on course and Magus trial showed there was no sacred cow in the Nigerian government.

However, for Fadare Nureni, a lecturer at the Sokoto State University, the war on graft will be fruitless if the two offices (EFCC, AGF) do not work in harmony.

For EFFC to function effectively, there is a need for synergy between the commission and the office of the AGF and why this is not so is as a result of the collapsed system, corruption, political correctness, party influence, presidential orders among others, the political analyst said. The incessant faceoff emanate from conflicting political interest over corrupt cases and so many interests have to come to play and when that happens, crises are inevitable.

Also, the faceoff is an indication that EFCC is not truly independent and there is a political machinery put in place to limit their power and that is the office of Attorney General of the Federation answerable to the presidency, he adds.

Supremacy battle, impact on graft war

Meanwhile, Mr Abbah says, it has become evident that if EFCC is not independent, anyone appointed as chairman of the agency would not escape Mr Magus fate.

Yes, AGFs are the albatross of EFCC chairmen. They would always have an ace up their sleeve, accumulating secret details of the slips of EFCC chairmen who would not dance to their music, and wait for EFCC chairmens vulnerable moment to strike and bite hard with poisonous and deadly teeth, he said. From all indications, the EFCC chair and AGF are like apples and oranges, perpetually irreconcilable. The EFCC chair who would escape such unkind treatment must become hypocrites, pretending to fight corruption but, in reality, jumping in bed with corrupt individuals, enjoying himself and drinking wine brewed in the winery of financial fraud.

Nigeria depends on an effective the anti-corruption agency, like EFCC, to rid the country of corruption. Other political bodies vested with anti-corruption powers, like the National Assembly, and state Houses of Assembly, have failed to lift a finger in this fight, he adds Anti-corruption agencies like ICPC, EFCC, Auditor-General of the Federation and Code of Conduct Bureau are the few taking up this challenge. Therefore, the government must protect, nurture and defend EFCC and its leadership from sharks, else, in the near future no man of integrity would accept the position of EFCC chairperson.

Ariyo-Dare Atoye, the director of Adopt a Goal for Development, said the inter-agency rivalry is common in many countries, including developed ones.

They (rivalries) are as old as the creation or existence of these agencies until a serious government steps in through legislation in a civilian administration, it is either the executive introducing a bill or the parliament taking it upon itself to address this problem, he said.

He said if the executive will not act or take up the responsibility to correct the anomaly, then the National Assembly should act.

He said subsequent administrations should be blamed for the drag in this unabated rivalry between EFFC bosses and the chief law officers (the AGFs) at various times for doing nothing, to either guarantee the independence of the EFCC with the parliament over-sighting responsibly or just effectively putting the EFCC under well-defined supervision of the AGF.

However, to make the kind of gain that will resonate with development and good governance, we will need to build an independent EFCC, and which shall require the anti-graft commission to work without executive interference, while the legislative oversight of the agency shall require a bipartisan, thorough and transparent process.
Hauntingly Beautiful

by Jenni Lada

The whole debate about whether or not games are art has been ongoing for at least a decade now. Ghost of Tsushima, Sucker Punch and Sonys latest provides new evidence for those in the for camp. It is a stunning game that revels in its homages, even offering a monochromatic Kurosawa mode in honor of filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. It's gorgeous with an incredible sense of flow and understanding of what makes a game satisfying and work. Which is so good, it helps overshadow its more minor problems.

Ghost of Tsushima is a game inspired by historical events. Namely, the Mongolian invasions of Japan and the one that made landfall on Tsushima island in 1274. Like many works of fiction that tap into history, it may not always be entirely accurate and its important to know youre seeing it through Sucker Punchs lens. (Basically, dont use it as evidence for any history papers.) Jin Sakai and his uncle, Lord Shimura, were facing off against Khotun Khan. Khans forces completely wiped the 80-odd samurai who appeared to meet them. Shimura was captured, and Jin was left for dead. Fortunately, he lived and has the chance to fight back and reclaim the island.

What makes Ghost of Tsushima different from all of those games based on samurai or that fawn-over the different tactics fictional ninjas employ is that they can focus on one side and element. This is a game where Jin is caught between two worlds. He was raised as a samurai, with the ideas of honor and a nature that drove him to try and protect others. But, his new enemies dont respect or fight like that. So, he has to resort to new, stealthier methods of addressing foes.

This is reflected in the character builds you can end up creating and the approach you can take to different missions. You earn different technique points as Jin goes around Tsushima fighting the Mongols. Samurai techniques end up dealing with deflection, evasion, exploration, and mythic skills. As a warrior, he also ends up learning different stances that are extra effective against different sorts of enemies or have an added stagger damage bonus connected to a specific kind of attack. Then, there are the ghost techniques that, well, feel like they would fit into a ninja or rogues repertoire, since archery, bombs, chain assassinations, and kunai all fit into that category. You decide what kind of character you want Jin to be, which is rather freeing.

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Hottest Stuff On CheatCC!

Especially since you can then carry this over into how you approach missions. It is very possible to barrel through with no stealth, running head on into danger. While some duels are scripted, you could also initiate standoffs against enemies to eliminate up to three enemies at once. Or, if you have a more delicate mission or would rather be stealthy, you can bring up your far hearing to keep track of enemies, sneak up on people, and go for assassinations. Its very freeform and handled rather well.

The combat is incredibly satisfying. The swordplay is excellent and so beautiful, it might even be distracting the first few times you watch Jin in some of the more elaborate fights or duels. Timing is essential, since you need to read opponents movements for parrying, dodging, and determining which sorts of strikes might be most effective. There were a few times, typically during side quests, where the environment might also be Jins enemy as he attempts to appropriately handle the larger numbers. But its generally a joy to run into a fight.

Tsushima is a rather large island and, in a nice twist, you dont constantly have arrows or trails showing you where to go once youre done with one encounter and on to the next. Your map will have points of interest fill in and major quests hinted at, in addition to some largely great Tales that are Mythic or ally-based. But you typically swipe on the touchpad to see how the wind is blowing and to lead you to designated quests. Animals or smoke might draw you in to additional activities. Many of the side-quests that arent designated as Tales arent as enthralling, but can be rewarding in their own way. Plus, they give you even more of an excuse to see more of the absolutely stunning island.

It also, and I cant understate this enough, hauntingly beautiful. I would even say Ghost of Tsushima is the sort of game where it looks better when youre engaging in general gameplay than it does when youre watching cutscenes. And the additional visual options, like Kurosawa mode or the filters you can use when playing around with Photo Mode, make it even more stunning. It is extraordinary and sometimes I would find myself pursuing additional quests just so I could maybe find more gear, get new dye to change items appearances, or acquire more helpful charms.

The worst thing I can say about it is that sometimes, the pacing can feel a bit off in Ghost of Tsushima. There are some segments that can feel a bit slower than others, especially if you are really taking the time to see as much as possible. So, say, the first five hours might feel perfect. Then, youll have a few that feel more plodding until you start doing enough to really chase Khotun down more. But even then, this could all come down to personal preference and I generally thought it flowed well.

Ghost of Tsushima is a gorgeous game that has Sucker Punch taking its shot at telling its own samurai story. The combat feels great; and you have a lot of freedom when it comes to building up Jin. Its simply a stunning way to say goodbye to the PS4.

By

Jenni Lada

Writing Team Lead

Date: 07/28/2020

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 5.0 Graphics

Ghost of Tsushima is easily Sucker Punchs most beautiful game 5.0 Control

It is so easy to fight back, observe enemies, and make the most of its sword fights. Everything flows very well 5.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting

The voice acting is exceptional, whether you go with the Japanese language option or English dub 4.5 Play Value

Some of the optional side quests can drag on a bit and there are some minor pacing issues, but the campaign quests and character-focused Tales are great 4.9 Overall Rating - Must Buy

Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown. Review Rating Legend 0.1 - 1.9 = Avoid 2.5 - 2.9 = Average 3.5 - 3.9 = Good 4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy 2.0 - 2.4 = Poor 3.0 - 3.4 = Fair 4.0 - 4.4 = Great 5.0 = The Best
The Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday observed that there was a risk of ostracising Covid-19 patients if their names were disclosed, as demanded by two public interest litigants.

What purpose will be served by disclosing the names? asked the bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Sarang Kotwal, during the course of hearing on the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by law student Vaishnavi Gholave and farmer Mahesh Gadekar.

In the PIL filed through advocate Vinod Sangvikar, the two petitioners contended that on several occasions, Covid-19 patients are unable to recognise and give complete information about the people they had come in contact with. This, they said, makes contact tracing an arduous task, and many possible cases fall through the cracks.

The litigants cited the example of a Covid-positive meat seller from Muraji Peth in Solapur who had come in contact with around 1,000 people.

However, the meat seller didnt know all his customers names or their whereabouts, the plea stated.

It added that since there are about 25 meat sellers in Muraji Peth, and since the name of the infected meat seller was not disclosed, people did not know whether they had exposed themselves to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19.

The plea expressed concerns about the growing risk of community transmission, and argued that it is necessary to disclose the names of Covid-19 patients in a bid to make contact tracing easier and improve the chances of early detection.

The PIL cited that Maharashtra has been reporting a surge in Covid-19 positive cases even though the state government is maintaining that community transmission has not occurred yet.

Arguing on behalf of the central government, additional solicitor general Anil Singh opposed the PIL. He pointed out that four high courts have already dismissed similar petitions, and therefore the HC should not entertain the PIL.

The bench, however, posted the PIL for further hearing on Friday after Sangvikar sought time to go through the judgments. The court said that it was more important to practice personal safety. Try to avoid congregations, wear face masks and head shields... This is what is advocated to stay safe from the infection, the bench said.

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Collecting guide: Graff diamonds

An introduction to the sparkling career of Laurence Graff, the London jeweller synonymous with all-diamond masterpieces and coloured gems of remarkable quality  illustrated with past and upcoming lots offered at Christies

A brief history of Graff Sixty years after he founded his eponymous house, London-born jeweller Laurence Graff is renowned the world over for diamonds of rare historical pedigree and coloured gems of remarkable quality. From the start, his eye for high-quality gemstones got him noticed. His settings enhanced their natural brilliance and fire, and his focus on balance and proportion led to deceptively simple designs that transcend the whims of fashion.

Graff diamond ring. Estimate: $300,000-500,000. Offered in Magnificent Jewels on 8 June 2021 at Christies in New York

In 1973 Graff became the first jeweller to receive the Queens Award to Industry and Export. By the early 1980s, Graff had become synonymous with the all-diamond jewel, attracting an international clientele that loved large, spectacular stones. The house is involved with every stage of a diamonds life, from mining and cutting to designing and manufacturing. From humble beginnings in Londons East End, the Graff brand is now one of the largest diamond corporations and is represented by more than 50 stores worldwide.

Historic gems that made history Laurence Graffs passion for rare and extraordinary gems has brought him into contact with some of the most celebrated diamonds in the world, from the Emperor Maximilian and the Idols Eye to the Eternal Twins, two identical 50-carat emerald-cut diamonds set into a magnificent pair of earrings. More recently, Graffs team of master craftsmen expertly cut and polished the Graff Lesedi La Rona, a spectacular 302.37-carat square emerald-cut stone that is the largest, highest-colour, highest-clarity diamond ever certified by the Gemological Institute of America. One of the most prestigious of Graffs historic gems was probably the Wittelsbach, a 17th-century blue diamond from the Golconda mines of India, with a documented history dating back to many royal families of Europe.

In 2008, Graff acquired this legendary 35.56-carat stone for more than 16 million at Christies in London. In 2009, after careful repolishing to improve its colour and clarity, the diamond, now weighing 31.06 carats, was renamed the Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond. Coloured diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires





In 2009, a Graff ring set with a fancy vivid pink diamond of 5.00 carats was auctioned at Christies Hong Kong and sold for HKD 83,540,000  the equivalent of US$2 million per carat, and a record price-per-carat for any pink diamond at that time. Other notable coloured diamonds to have passed through Graffs hands include the Empress Rose, the largest internally flawless Fancy Light pink diamond in the world; and the Golden Empress, a Fancy Intense yellow diamond from Lesothos Letseng mine in South Africa. The splendid honey-hued 132.55-carat cushion-cut diamond was presented in 2015, together with a further eight stones: two brilliant rounds and six pear-shaped diamonds.

Over the decades, Graff has also designed jewels set with coloured gems of the rarest quality. In 2006, Christies Senior International Specialist Jean-Marc Lunel came across the near perfect 8.62 carat Burmese ruby, which came to be known as The Graff Ruby. Combining the highly sought-after pigeons blood red typical of old Burmese material and a high degree of transparency, which is rare in rubies, it came to auction with a pre-sale estimate of between $400,000 and $600,000. More than 20 minutes of bidding saw the final price reach the $3.6 million mark  at the time the highest price-per-carat ruby ever sold.

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Red-carpet glamour Graff creates red-carpet jewellery, too  feminine designs enhanced with floating diamonds, sometimes with the addition of fine coloured gemstones.

Graff diamond earrings. Estimate: $180,000-250,000. Offered in Magnificent Jewels on 8 June 2021 at Christies in New York
The SpaceX Crew Dragon is becoming a family affair for NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Megan McArthur.

McArthur is set to launch on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft in spring 2021, NASA announced Tuesday. Her husband, Behnken, was on the test flight of this vehicle that launched May 30 and is set to return to Earth on Sunday.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Astronauts find ways to talk to their kids about the joy - and risks - of blasting off into space

Traveling with McArthur, who will be the spacecrafts pilot, is NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet. This mission is called Crew-2, and it will be the second operational SpaceX Crew Dragon flight to the International Space Station as part of NASAs Commercial Crew Program. The astronauts will remain on the space station for about six months, and theyll work alongside three cosmonauts who will launch on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. This increases the full space station crew to seven members (up from six people) and allows for more science to be conducted in microgravity.

The Commercial Crew Program has spent years working with SpaceX and Boeing to develop vehicles that could ferry astronauts to the space station. Behnken and Doug Hurley, both graduates from military test pilot schools, were selected for the first crewed flight. This flight is considered a test flight before SpaceX can receive NASA certification to begin more routine service to the International Space Station.

The test flight is set to end on Sunday when Behnken and Hurley land in the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. The first non-test flight, Crew-1, could launch as soon as late September with Houston-born astronaut Shannon Walker among its crew.

Crew-2 will be McArthurs second trip into space and her first time at the International Space Station. Selected as an astronaut in 2000, McArthur launched on space shuttle Atlantis in 2009 to perform maintenance on the Hubble Space Telescope. She operated the shuttles robotic arm during her 12 days and 21 hours in space, capturing the telescope and moving crew members during spacewalks. She holds a bachelors degree in aerospace engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles and a doctorate in oceanography from the University of California, San Diego.

andrea.leinfelder@chron.com

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A four-member team of Patna Police left for Mumbai on Tuesday to question actor Rhea Chakraborty and four of her family members in actor Sushant Singh Rajputs suicide case. The late actors father KK Singh, a retired government official, on Tuesday lodged an FIR at the Rajiv Nagar police station in Patna against Rhea and her family under the various sections of the Indian Penal Code, said Sanjay Kumar Singh, Inspector General, central range.

Singh said, KK Singh lodged the case with Rajiv Nagar police station against Rhea Chakraborty, and her family including Indrajit Chakraborty, Sandhya Chakraborty, Shruti Modi, Showik Chakraborty and others under Sections 341, 342, 380, 406,420, 306 and 120 (B) of the IPC. Sushants father has made a serious charge against Rhea and her family. He has alleged that she had kept Sushant away from his family and completely in her possession. She was also handling his bank account. It was also reported that crores of rupees were withdrawn from his bank account.

WATCH | Sushant death: FIR against girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty on fathers complaint

Sushant died by suicide at his Bandra flat in Mumbai on June 14.

The IG said, The four-member police team reached Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon and are looking into the case from all angles. The Patna Police are enquiring about the statements of 38 persons, including Bollywood directors Mahesh Bhatt, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Aditya Chopra, which were recorded by the Mumbai Police.

A police officer said that the SHO of Rajiv Nagar police station, Nishant Singh was made the investigation officer of the case. KK Singh has been troubled ever since his sons suicide. He met a senior police officer of Patna and narrated his woes to him. He did not trust the Mumbai Police in this regard, he added.

Sushants father, in his FIR said that on June 8, when Rhea found that bank balance of Sushant is going down, she left with cash, jewellery, laptop, credit card, its pin number and password and important documents and doctors receipts.

Also read | Shruti Haasan says she feels like an outsider in Bollywood: There is a whole North-South thing that constantly happens

Singh further mentions in the FIR that, Sushant called his sister and told her that Rhea had threatened him to show doctor receipts to the media and would prove him mad. Thereafter, no person would give him work. On June 8 night, Sushants secretary Disha committed suicide. Rhea had appointed her as Sushants secretary. Later, Rhea blocked Sushants number on her cell. Sushant was afraid that Rhea could have made him responsible for his managers suicide as she had threatened to frame him in the secretarys suicide case.

Sushants father has expressed his inability to go to Mumbai to fight the case due to his health issues. Therefore, the case was filed in Patna.

Rhea had earlier requested home minister Amit Shah to initiate a CBI investigation in Sushants death case. The Chehre actor addressed Sushant as her boyfriend for the first time in her post.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has said that the state government will initiate a CBI probe in Sushant Singh Rajputs death case if needed. Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan talked to Thackeray over the phone on the matter.

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

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ALBANY, N.Y., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorneys Sujata Gibson, Michael H. Sussman, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Mary Holland filed a class action lawsuit last Thursday in Federal Court challenging the constitutionality of New York State's Department of Health regulations that allow school principals to overrule treating physicians on recommendations about medical exemptions to immunization for medically fragile kids. The named plaintiffs, eight New York State families whose valid medical exemptions for their school children were overruled, and Children's Health Defense (CHD) ask that the court declare the policy unconstitutional and allow children back into school.

"What these families have gone through shocks the conscience," said lead attorney Sujata Gibson. "Since the regulation took effect in August 2019, thousands of immunocompromised children in New York have had their treating physicians overruled and been removed from school."

In powerful detail, the complaint describes how these families have sought and received multiple exemptions from physicians and specialists, only to have them denied by school officials with no medical training. This widespread practice of rejecting valid medical exemptions is especially bewildering as New York repealed the religious exemption to vaccination in June 2019, arguing that it was to protect immunocompromised and medically vulnerable children.

"My child has suffered enough because of his health condition," said plaintiff Jane Doe. "Why must he suffer school expulsion and ostracism too?" Treating physicians assert that the policies are preventing them from doing their jobs: "Physicians who are on the ground, caring for these medically vulnerable children, need to be able to defend children's health without fear of professional and personal threats," said Lawrence B. Palevsky, MD.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., CHD Chairman, stated, "The right to a valid medical exemption from vaccine mandates has been federal law and policy for over 100 years. New York betrays children when it rejects exemptions from licensed, treating physicians in favor of the say-so of principals and superintendents."

During the press conference, lawyers will take questions from the media and concerned citizens. Register to receive a link to the press conference.

Contact: Sujata Gibson

(607) 327-4125

SOURCE Children's Health Defense

Related Links

http://www.childrenshealthdefense.org


New Delhi: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday urged Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to fix the deteriorating law and order in the state, asserting that it is the responsibility of police and administration to take action in the wake of rising incidents of kidnapping.

In a letter to the chief minister, the Congress general secretary raised the matter of Vikram Tyagi, a businessman from Ghaziabad who has been missing for almost a month.

Tyagi's family suspects that he has been kidnapped, Priyanka Gandhi said.

Even after repeated requests, no concrete action has been taken by the police or administration, she alleged.

"Two days ago, a delegation of our party met the family. They are very worried and upset. They have written in a letter seeking help and strict directive to the police officers to fully assist them," she said.

The Congress general secretary said in the letter that kidnapping incidents are increasing rapidly in Uttar Pradesh.

"Law and order is deteriorating. At this time, it is the responsibility of the police and administration to take action in such matters with promptness and efficiency," Priyanka Gandhi asserted.

"Fix the law and order problem in the state. People are disturbed," she said.

The Congress general secretary has been attacking the Uttar Pradesh government over law and order and has slammed the state dispensation over the Vikas Dubey incident as well as the killing of Ghaziabad-based journalist Vikram Joshi, who was shot in the head by some assailants.

She had attacked the Yogi Adityanath government on Monday over the issue of rising crime, alleging that "jungle raj" was growing in the state, but no action was being taken apart from some transfers.
STERLING HEIGHTS, MI  A location north of Marquette has been identified as an ideal spot for a vertical space launch site.

The Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association, which oversees Michigans aerospace and defense manufacturing community within the global industry, announced findings from a year-long site-selection process late last week.

The search conducted by spaceport consultants BRPH and Kimley-Horn ranked sites based on several factors, including existing commercial and public infrastructure, geographic and terrestrial mapping, living standards and workforce development. Operations are expected to begin by early 2025.

RELATED: NASA rockets once flew from launch pad hidden in Michigan wilderness

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is home to some of the hardest working and most resourceful people in the world, said U.S. Rep Jack Bergman, who represents the 1st District. Locating this spaceport in the U.P. will create the opportunity for our residents to use their skills, talents and technological expertise to adapt to the changing needs of the commercial and defense space industries.

The announcement for the vertical space launch comes after MAMA identified the Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport outside of Oscoda as the top candidate for a horizontal spaceport in February. Licensing through the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, has begun for that site with operations projected to begin in late 2023 or early 2024.

This announcement is a true win for the people of the U.P., said Sen Ed McBroom, who represents Michigans 38th District. We are very pleased that the U.P.s many attributes were recognized through the vetting process. The vertical spaceport could bring quality job prospects to the region and highlight Michigan as a center for excellence and innovation.

The two launch sites in Marquette and Oscoda, along with a yet-to-be-identified command and control center, will create more than 2,000 jobs, according to a news release. Furthermore, the sites aim to foster industry growth in the state which could lead to projected 40,000 new jobs by 2025.

Michigan has a real opportunity to support a space-based ecosystem, said Gavin Brown, executive director of MAMA. The Marquette location will be a critical component, bringing low-earth orbit vertical launch capabilities to the state to meet the domestic and global demand. By integrating sophisticated infrastructure with first-rate human talent, Michigan can be one of the leaders in the space industry.

In June 2019, the Michigan Legislature appropriated $2 million to assess the feasibility of developing one or more low-orbit launch sites in Michigan.

Im pleased the Marquette area has been chosen as a vertical space launch site and appreciate the comprehensive and thoughtful process that led to the selection, said Rep. Sara Cambensy, who represents Michigans 109th District. This will help bring a new industry to the U.P. and to our state that will provide good-paying jobs to our residents.

Now that the site has been selected, MAMA will work with community, local, and state partners to solicit feedback as part of the licensing process with the FAA. A command and control center analysis is being conducted with an expected completion date of November 2020.

Additional renderings can be seen below.

A location north of Marquette has been identified as an ideal spot for a vertical space launch site by the Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association. This is an artist's rendering of the site.Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association

A location north of Marquette has been identified as an ideal spot for a vertical space launch site by the Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association. This is an artist's rendering of the site.Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association
It's gotta be tough to be center-left media outlet Axios.

They pay a ton of money to do focus group work on swing state voters ... and the voters don't tell them the story they had probably hoped to hear. Witness this:

Some swing voters in Warren, Mich., question Joe Biden's ability to lead the country  calling him a "puppet" who's not "mentally capable of being president"  while admitting they haven't paid much attention to his events, platforms or speeches.

They've got it down as 'some' from their focus group of voters who had voted for President Obama in 2012 and then went for Trump in 2016, which, to be fair, is accurate enough.

But it doesn't tell the whole story. Actually, that 'some' looks like quite a lot -- only two of the nine voters in the swing-state focus group actually plan to vote for Biden. The other seven, well, Axios doesn't say, but they're probably either undecided or more likely (given the Axios reticence) voting again for Trump.

In a story from last month, Axios found that nine out of 10 Trump voters intend to stick with Trump.

Meanwhile, back in Michigan, the swing voter verdict on Biden is pretty brutal - here's a sample from the Axios report:

"I just feel that what hes saying is not making any sense to me," said Sharon T. of Biden's television appearances. She called Biden "a puppet" for wearing a mask in public, suggesting that he was only doing it to be politically correct.

Some other takings:

"I dont think that Biden is mentally capable of being president." ..."up there in age" ..."showing signs of dementia" ..."a puppet" who is "controlled by a lot of people in the deep state." ... "the lobbyists, the people that have the big money, the people that have influence on a lot of the politicians." ...a feeling that Biden "becomes lost in his answers,"

There were no contrasting positive statements noted from the participants, and you know that Axios would note them if they were there -- Axios was reduced to citing a national poll that made unfavorable claims about Trump as if those things were accurate.

The negativity on Biden extended well beyond his general addlepatedness - Axios also noted this:

Biden's lower profile in mostly virtual events was proving no competition for Trump's provocative attacks and national bully pulpit. Many of the voters couldn't name a single achievement Biden has had in his life.

That's the Democrats' signature campaign strategy, keeping Biden locked up in basement and hoping Trump hangs himself. The media has praised it as Biden's genius, Biden's winning formula, Biden's secret sauce - 'stay out of Trump's way.' Well, ahem. So much for strategy.

Focus groups aren't everything, but every single one that I've seen Axios do seems to show an opposite response to what they are looking for. Now, either they blundered into identifying a huge hidden nest of Republican voters (possible, and maybe they really are everywhere), or else they are getting a whiff of real voter sentiment in the critical swing state areas that Democrats have been crowing about as a breeze for pickups.

Even this June Axios focus group of swing voters in Pennsylvania, headlined as generally good news for Democrats, has those devils contradicting it in their details. There's this:

Details: The nine-voter focus group was conducted virtually last Tuesday. Six of its participants voted for Barack Obama in 2012 and flipped to Trump in 2016; three voted for Mitt Romney in 2012 but Hillary Clinton in 2016. Four of the Obama/Trump voters and all three Romney/Clinton voters said they plan to support Biden in November.

Which shows that even in a bad-new focus group last month, Trump is not losing all voters.

With news like this seeping out, is it any wonder that Democrats are starting to sound nervous about their chances?

The wokester Atlantic quotes Debbie Dingell of Michigan, sure enough, saying she's worried the pollsters have been oversampling Biden voters.

The Obama-hipsterly Vox similarly reports that maybe Democrats shouldn't be trusting the polls. "Democrats are worried they can't trust 2020 polls. Maybe they should be,' which is one heck of a vote for confidence in basement Joe Biden.

We don't see a lot of this the other way around.

And Cato reports that some 62% of voters are scared to tell pollsters and their friends what they poltically think.

Could there be a Trump landslide in the works? With focus groups like these, how could there not be? Biden's only electoral advantage these days for voters who want him is that he's Not Trump. The rest of the swing staters may well be sticking with Trump.

Image credit: Monica Showalter, based on camera shot aimed at television set. Processed with FotoSketcher.
A group of unaccompanied migrant children being held at a hotel in McAllen, Texas, won't be subject to the Trump administration's recent coronavirus-related immigration order that bars the entry of those who cross into the United States without authorization.

It was unclear what would happen to young migrants after the order went into effect, but, at least in the case of those held at the McAllen hotel, the White House is backing down in the face of a lawsuit by the Texas Civil Rights Process and the American Civil Rights Union. The children will be processed under the immigration procedures that would apply without the order, meaning that rather than getting returned to their home countries quickly, they'll head to a government shelter, apply for asylum, and wait to reunite with family members in the United States.

DOJ says immigrant children who were held in a hotel in McAllen, Texas, last week --- and who @ACLU/@TXCivilRights sued to represent -- are not going to be expelled under Trump admin's recent border policy: pic.twitter.com/lgZC0MDwAj  Hamed Aleaziz (@Haleaziz) July 27, 2020

The decision only applies to the children in the McAllen hotel, however. And while there does seem to be a trend in which the government relents when facing lawsuits, there are reportedly many other children who groups like the ACLU aren't able to locate before they are expelled.

As @Haleaziz points out -- this does not necessarily mean the end of the Trump administration using public health law to immediately expel *other* migrant kids who reach the U.S. -- just those in the hotel incident. https://t.co/UcYBZMmKZt  Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) July 27, 2020

More stories from theweek.com

Trump: 'Nobody likes me'

Even mild coronavirus cases can cause lasting cardiovascular damage, study shows

Pelosi calls Barr 'despicable' after contentious appearance before House panel


Omjasvin MD By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: The average growth of Covid cases in Chennai over the last seven days is now at 0.1 per cent in the negative. This means, the number of people testing positive every day has slowed down. On July 25, the seven day average was 0.5 percent, indicating a very small spike after the daily cases fell down from about 2,400 in July first week, to about 1,100. Since then, the city has recorded cases between 1,100-1,400 every day.

The latest growth rate data indicates that there has been a minor fall in cases in the past week. Seven Corporation zones  Manali, Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Thiruvika Nagar, Anna Nagar, Teynampet, and Alandur  have recorded a growth rate in minus. This means, a large number of people are getting discharged here, while daily new cases are very minimal. However, for officials, the cause for concern is from the remaining zones, mostly from central and south Chennai, where the rate is higher.

Adyar has a growth rate of 3.7 per cent, Sholinganallur has 2.9 per cent, Valsaravakkam has 4.6 per cent, while Ambattur in Central Chennai limits has 4.1 per cent. Madhavaram zone in North Chennai has the highest growth rate of 11.9 per cent, where the government shifted the wholesale fruit market from Koyambedu, after the latter turned into a hotspot. Rigorous testing from fever camps and contact tracing of those patients have brought in more cases here lately and also, we have been identifying more symptomatic patients. The case growth rate is temporary as once vulnerable population is tested and isolated, it would decline, a zone official said.

Interestingly, 13 Corporation zones in Chennai have a recovery rate of more than 80 per cent, and in that the Tondiarpet zone has a recovery rate of 91 per cent. The zone only has 7 per cent active cases as every day, more people are getting discharged. Meanwhile, Public Health Experts say that people must not get complacent because the citys case growth rate is zero. It is a very good sign the case growth rate is zero, but it is also a warning for people that daily we are recording around the same numbers of 1,200 every day, former Director of Public Health Dr K Kolandasamy said.

The priority of the people and officials must be to accelerate the decline of Covid-19 cases. If its 100 or 200 cases daily, it is natural for those numbers to remain for a few months before it falls. However, 1,200 is still a big number and it must decline, he said. He added that movement of people within Corporation zones, without a proper purpose, must be restricted in the coming days. That will help in reducing the cases further, he said.
WASHINGTON - Democrats clashed with Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday at a congressional hearing marked by angry recriminations over racial justice protests in Portland, Ore., and across the country as the nation's top law enforcement official said additional agents were needed to subdue aggressive, violent crowds.

The hearing before the House Judiciary Committee was acrimonious from the outset, when liberal lawmakers accused the conservative attorney general of politicizing the Justice Department through his deployment of federal agents to U.S. cities, his involvement in high-profile prosecutions of people connected to President Donald Trump, and his posture toward the upcoming presidential election.

Lawmakers spent months seeking Barr's testimony on a host of issues related to the Trump administration's interactions with the Justice Department. With the attorney general finally seated at the witness table, Democrats mostly made speeches or talked over him as he attempted to answer their questions, seemingly squandering any chance of getting new information or an admission out of him.

"This is a hearing; I thought I was the one who was supposed to be heard," Barr said in exasperation.

In a thick fog of partisan bickering, indignant lawmakers argued about mask-wearing etiquette, bathroom breaks and more. In the afternoon, the committee chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., initially refused Barr's request for a five-minute break. "You're a class act," the attorney general said sarcastically, before Nadler relented.

Many of the angriest exchanges focused on the federal government's response to protests over police misconduct and brutality, with Nadler accusing the attorney general of deploying more resources to spark confrontations with protesters because, the lawmaker argued, Trump believes such confrontations will scare Americans into voting for him.

3 1 of 3 Washington Post photo by Matt McClain Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Washington Post photo by Matt McClain Show More Show Less 3 of 3





"You are projecting fear and violence nationwide in pursuit of obvious political objectives. Shame on you, Mr. Barr," Nadler said.

Barr replied that U.S. marshals and other federal agents have a duty to guard the Portland courthouse from people tossing fireworks and trying to vandalize and break into the building. He said they are under siege in that building and need help dealing with a nightly barrage of fireworks, fires, and attacks. Law enforcement personnel have sustained serious injuries, Barr said.

"We are on the defense, we are not looking for trouble, and if the state and the city would provide the law enforcement services that other jurisdictions do, we would have no need to have additional marshals in the courthouse," the attorney general said.

The Washington Post reported Monday that law enforcement officials have decided to send 100 deputy marshals to Portland to beef up courthouse security; Customs and Border Protection is sending an additional 50 agents. The first new batch of deputy marshals, according to internal emails reviewed by The Post, were dispatched to Portland last week.

State and local officials have called for federal agents to leave the city, a demand rejected by the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department.

Republicans and Democrats played dueling videos at the hearing about the protests. The Republicans' video showed police officers and federal agents under siege, being hit with projectiles, and rioters stomping on top of police cars. The Democrats' video showed peaceful protesters singing and chanting for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Barr argued that force was needed to repel rioters, not protesters, arguing that "when people resist law enforcement, they're not peaceful."

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., suggested that Barr use a complex anti-racketeering law known as RICO to go after those committing acts of violence at the protests.

"General Barr, this has to stop. We can't let antifa continue terrorizing our country," said Buck, referring to the far-left anti-fascist movement demonized by Trump. RICO is a complex, decades-old law designed to dismantle criminal organizations, though it is rarely used because it is often simpler for federal prosecutors to charge suspects with conspiracy or other crimes. RICO was most famously used in the 1980s to prosecute the leaders of New York-area Mafia families.

Barr told the congressman that he had assigned counterterrorism investigators to help investigate what he called "violent extremist terrorists who are involved in these activities, and one of the tools obviously we would use is RICO, which could be used against an organization," though he quickly added, "That doesn't mean that we currently have a RICO case pending."

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., accused Barr and those in the GOP of seeking to distract from what the protests were actually about - the "persistent killing of black bodies by law enforcement."

She criticized the move by federal police to clear demonstrators near the White House in early June, just before the president walked across the area to pose for a photo at a nearby church, and contrasted the episode with how Trump supported other protesters, such as those in Michigan, demonstrating against coronavirus-related shutdown measures.

"Apparently the president believes that you can be activated to implement the president's agenda and dominate American people exercising First Amendment rights if they're protesting against him," Jayapal told Barr.

Jayapal asked Barr whether he was aware that the Michigan protesters had called for the state's Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, to be "lynched, shot and beheaded." Barr said he was not. As Jayapal expressed her dismay, Barr began to argue that there are "a lot of protests" in the U.S. and that he was focused on those that threaten federal property.

Barr was equally defensive of his interventions of high-profile, criminal cases involving allies of the president - most notably Trump's longtime friend Roger Stone and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Democrats accused the attorney general of using the Justice Department to shield Trump and his friends while prosecuting his enemies.

"The message these actions send is clear: In this Justice Department, the president's enemies will be punished and his friends will be protected, no matter the cost, no matter the cost to liberty, no matter the cost to justice," Nadler said.

Barr insisted that the assertion was not true, saying Trump "told me from the start that he expects me to exercise my independent judgment to make whatever call I think is right," adding, "That is precisely what I have done." He challenged his critics to point to a single indictment of one of Trump's foes.

"I'm supposedly punishing the president's enemies and helping his friends," Barr said. "What enemies have I indicted? Who - could you point to one indictment that has been under the department that you feel is unmerited?"

Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a Russian diplomat during the presidential transition, though he later hired a new legal team and fought the case. As Flynn awaited sentencing, Barr tapped the U.S. attorney in St. Louis to review how the case was handled and ultimately had the Justice Department move to throw it out. The matter is now tied up in an appeals court, after a federal judge balked at the Justice Department's request.

Stone was convicted last year of lying to Congress as it investigated Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. As he awaited a hearing on his penalty, Barr moved to override career prosecutors' sentencing recommendation in the case. The career prosecutors wanted a term of seven to nine years; Barr pushed for something lesser.

Barr insisted in both instances that his interventions were of his own volition, and not because of Stone and Flynn's relationships with Trump. He took special aim at the career prosecutors, characterizing their recommendation as harsh and out of step with what a judge ultimately imposed.

"This is a 67-year-old man, first-time offender, no violence, and they were trying to put him in jail for seven to nine years," Barr said of Stone. "And I wasn't going to advocate that, because that is not the rule of law."

"The judge agreed with me," he stressed later.

While it is true that a judge ultimately sentenced Stone to 40 months in prison, she did so after calling Barr's intervention "unprecedented." Career prosecutors' dispute with Barr was over a technical point: They wanted to recommend a sentence within what federal guidelines called for, which Justice Department prosecutors almost always do, while Barr believed some leeway was in order.

"The president's friends don't deserve special breaks, but they also don't deserve to be treated more harshly than other people," Barr said Tuesday.

In a similar vein, Barr said that, as it was happening, he was unaware of authorities' move to send Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen back to prison after his release as part of an initiative meant to stem the spread of coronavirus in prisons. Barr said the decision was mostly due to demands of the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services System, which is part of the federal court system, not his department.

Several Democrats sought to press Barr on the 2020 election - particularly whether foreigners were seeking to interfere with it, why he believes mail-in voting would lead to fraud and whether he will ultimately accept the result should Trump lose.

Perhaps the most notable exchange came when Biden ally Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., asked whether he believed the election would be "rigged." In an interview this month, Trump told Fox News that he believes "mail-in voting is going to rig the election" and declined to say whether he will accept the November results.

"I have no reason to think it will be," Barr said.

Barr, however, stood by his repeated public suggestion that mail-in voting could lead to fraud, particularly if the practice is expanded widely. Some of his critics have said there is no evidence to support that assertion, and Barr himself conceded that he has voted by mail at least once.

Barr said Americans "have to assume" that Russia is seeking to interfere in the coming election, though he offered no specifics. In one exchange, he stumbled when asked whether it would be appropriate for the president "to solicit or accept foreign assistance in an election." At first, Barr told Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., "it depends what kind of assistance." But when asked the question again, with Cicilline adding that the assistance could be "of any kind," Barr shifted course.

"No, it's not appropriate," he said.

Unlike Trump, Barr did confirm that he would leave office if the president lost.

"If the results are clear, I will leave office," Barr said.

- - -

The Washington Post's John Wagner and Nick Miroff contributed to this report.
I used to check its downloads occasionally, using a program called Midnight Planets, built by Michael Howard, an app developer. He would download raw images as they were transmitted via the Deep Space Networks antennas. It was great fun to see what the rovers were seeing, in almost real-time. But Mr. Howard stopped updating his site almost a year ago, noting that I have moved on to other projects in life.

I only found this out because I just checked it for the first time in more than a year. What a statement, right? We cant get excited about nightly image dumps from Mars. FROM MARS.

Curiosity was the first Mars mission to land in the era of social media, and people around the world watched on Twitter and live on TV in Times Square. That was electrifying. But the attention has faded.

Is it because Mars looks so familiar? For now, well have to be content with wondering what the public response would be to something like a boat on Titan.

D.W.B.: At least theres a Titan quadcopter in the works. The problem for the rest of the solar system is that the S in NASA doesnt stand for science. The agency is first and foremost a human spaceflight organization. Thats where its real money goes, and robotic Mars missions are the natural beneficiaries. Astronauts cant get to Europa with current technologies, and cant land on Venus. But humans in spacesuits can survive on Mars, which means every robotic Mars mission is more than abstruse geology or aeolian physics. No, every Mars mission is a human precursor mission. Every dollar spent on Mars rovers reduces the inherent risk of future astronaut adventures.

Culturally, Mars is deeply important to NASA, and has been since its infancy. A humans-to-Mars program, conceived before Apollo, was the lunar programs natural successor. To become multi-planetary, NASA identified the need for reusable space shuttles, a space station, rockets at least as powerful as the Saturn V and other space-based infrastructure. Though the glory days of Apollo funding died, the fundamental elements of Mars exploration did not: All of those things were built, though across a much longer timeline.

R.B.: The other reason is private industry. Its relatively easy to fling something at Mars; every 26 months, the planet is on the same side of the sun as Earth is, so the journey only takes half a year.
Scout Willis took a trip out of town on Monday and was spotted exploring the picturesque town of Ojai .

The 29-year-old daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis took along her rescue pup Grandma who sat comfortably in a sling carrier as she strolled with a pal.

Scout's look consisted of a soft pink prairie style dress with lace-up boots and she carried bright red tote bag.

Out of town: Scout Willis is pictured in the town of Ojai on Monday wearing a summery pink dress

The brunette beauty wore her long locks loose and took precautions against COVID-19 with a black face mask.

Meanwhile, Demi revealed last month that she thinks her children are 'so lucky' to have her ex-husband Bruce as a father.

The 57-year-old actress took to social media to heap praise on her former husband in honor of Fathers Day, where she claimed his children - including their daughters Scout, Rumer, 31, and Tallulah, 26, and his two daughters Mabel, eight, and Evelyn, five, whom he has with current wife Emma Heming Willis - couldnt have a better father.

Alongside a picture of their blended family, Demi wrote: 'Happy Fathers Day, Bruce! Your kids are so lucky to have you (sic)' And Emma, 42, posted a similar tribute to the 65-year-old actor on her own Instagram account, where she wrote: 'We love and adore him this much. Happy Fathers Day to one of the best (sic)'

Safe place: The 29-year-old carried her pup Grandma in a sling style carrier

Pit stop: The daughter of Demi Moore wore a soft pink prairie style dress with lace-up boots and was spotted filling up her truck in the picturesque California town

The sweet posts come as Demi has been quarantining with Bruce and their family in Idaho amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Originally, Emma and her two young daughters had been staying in Los Angeles, leaving Bruce with the Ghost actress and their three kids, but in late May the model was able to travel to Idaho with her children to meet up with the rest of the family.

Scout had revealed in April that Emma and Bruce weren't quarantining together because one of their kids had stepped on a hypodermic needle discarded in a park so had needed medical tests.

Just chilling: Last week Scout flashed her legs in this Instagram snap from home

Scooped up: Scout rescued Grandma in 2017 after finding her in the street

She explained: 'My stepmom was supposed to come up here with my little sisters, but my younger sister, who is now about to be [six] years old, at a park, had never gotten the talk about not f***ing with hypodermic needles that she found.

'So she actually tried to poke her shoe with it and poked her foot... My stepmom had to be in L.A. waiting to get the results from taking her to the doctor.

'So my dad came up here and then travel got crazy so my stepmom stayed in L.A. with my little sisters.'
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

Azerbaijani MP Arzu Naghiyev gave an interview to the Turkish Yeni Safak newspaper, where he talked in detail about the reasons, for which Armenian side made a military provocation in the direction of Azerbaijan's Tovuz district, on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border, Trend reports on July 28.

Naghiyev said that over the past 24 hours, units of the Armenian armed forces violated the ceasefire with Azerbaijan 105 times.

The MP noted that the length of the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border on the territory of the Tovuz district is 69 kilometers, and the district has a strategically important position.

"The territory of Tovuz district includes such villages as Abulbeyli, Aghdam, as well as villages in mountain terrain. The territory of the district is safeguarded by Azerbaijan's army. The hills here are high, the territory from them is seen for 25 kilometers or so. Since Tovuz is strategically important, the Armenians are looking to take it over. This is the territory through which the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad passes through, as well as energy routes," he said.

"The Armenians aren't risking to strike at it directly, but are looking to take control over it," Naghiyev said. "They didn't succeed in doing it during the last armed clashes."

In his interview, the MP also touched upon the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), members of which are Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Belarus and Armenia.

"Opening fire, the Armenians knew that the Azerbaijani side would give an adequate response. Members of the organization are authorized to interfere militarily in the event of a border violation. Therefore, Armenia is trying to involve Russia. All efforts ofthe Armenians are aimed to this. Armenia suffers numerous internal problems. Prime Minister Pashinyan is unable to fulfill the promises given to his nation. So he is trying to divert the attention of the people from his promises," added Naghiyev.

Following continuous ceasefire violations of Armenia's armed forces, the country launched another military provocation against Azerbaijan on July 12. Grossly violating the ceasefire regime, Armenian armed forces opened fire in the direction of Azerbaijan's Tovuz district.

As a result of the appropriate measures, the Armenian armed forces were silenced. The tensions continued on the border, July 12 night. During the night battles, by using artillery, mortars and tanks, the Azerbaijani armed forces destroyed a stronghold, army vehicles.

As a result of the shelling, many houses in the Tovuz district's border villages were damaged.

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.
Attorney General William Barr is defending the federal response to recent nationwide unrest ahead of his scheduled testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

The rule of law must be upheld as violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests to wreak senseless havoc and destruction, he said in a written opening statement released late Monday.

In early July, the government began deploying agents to Portland to protect federal property and has since threatened to send agents to an increasing number of cities experiencing unrest. Protestors in Portland are suing the Trump administration, accusing federal agents of violating protesters constitutionally protected freedom of speech, freedom from unreasonable seizures, and right to due process.

We should all be able to agree that there is no place in this country for armed mobs that seek to establish autonomous zones beyond government control, or tear down statues and monuments that law-abiding communities chose to erect, or to destroy the property and livelihoods of innocent business owners, Barr said.

Tuesdays hearing will offer Barr an opportunity to address the protest response, as well as his decisions regarding the Russia investigation and other issues like voter fraud.

He has never appeared before the House judiciary panel, which has oversight responsibility for the Justice Department, and he has not testified before Congress since May 2019, when he answered questions about the Mueller report before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Ever since I made it clear that I was going to do everything I could to get to the bottom of the grave abuses involved in the bogus Russiagate scandal, many of the Democrats on this committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that I am simply the presidents factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions, Barr said, adding that he had acted independently and without partisan considerations.

Story continues

Democrats will ask about Barrs recommendation that President Trumps longtime friend Roger Stone receive a shorter prison sentence on seven felony crimes and to drop a charge against the former national security adviser Michael Flynn, though he had pleaded guilty.

Are you the A.G. for the country, or are you the A.G. for the president? said Representative Karen Bass (D., Calif.), the author of a policing overhaul bill that Barr opposes. Do you represent the American people, or is it your job to protect, to cover up and to facilitate corruption?

Democrats will also question Barr about the politicization of high-profile criminal and antitrust cases, including his scrutinizing California emissions deal with automakers after the president attacked the deal. They may also question Barr on Trumps decision to fire Manhattans stop federal prosecutor, Geoffrey S. Berman last month.

But Republicans are expected to laud Barr as a defender of the rule of law.

Youve got all this violence going on, and Democratic mayors in these cities across the country are just bowing to the mob, and yet they try to criticize the attorney general when his federal law enforcement is protecting federal property and, more importantly, enforcing federal law, said Representative Jim Jordan (R., Ohio).

The attorney general is doing an outstanding job, he added.

The hearing is expected to last most of the day with each of the committees 40 members receiving five minutes to question Barr.

More from National Review
The Michigan Attorney Generals office is warning people to be wary of puppy scammers during the coronavirus pandemic.

Since 2018, the attorney generals office has received nearly 50 complaints of puppy-related scams--26 of which happened this year.

The state attributes the increase to more households looking for pets online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several people have complained about paying for a puppy online only to find that the dog doesnt exist.

Scammers are looking for any way to take advantage of consumers during this pandemic and puppies are unfortunately not exempt, Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a July 27 statement. While many people may be eager to bring home a puppy during this time, I urge Michiganders to be vigilant in their search to avoid being scammed.

The prospect of getting buyers their money back after being deceived is unlikely, because most of the scammers are operating outside the country, Nessels office said.

My office continues to prioritize protecting residents from predatory and deceptive business practices, and these puppy scams will ultimately result in heartbreak and financial loss, Nessel said. Always do your homework before making any purchase online to avoid being taken advantage of.

Scammers are taking advantage of the pandemic as a way to avoid in-person visits while demanding additional fees, the attorney generals office said.

Taking advantage of Michiganders by exploiting our love of animals is as cruel to the people as it is to the dogs, said Molly Tamulevich, Michigan State Director of the Humane Society of the United States.

These are the Attorney Generals tips to spot and avoid puppy scams:

Research the breed

Research the breeder

Research the advertised puppy

Do not purchase a puppy sight-unseen

Use a credit card to make the purchase

Retain all documents and communications from the breeder

Consider contacting your local shelter

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 executive orders requiring people to wear face coverings over their mouth and nose while in public indoor and crowded outdoor spaces. See an explanation of what that means here .

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus .

For more data on COVID-19 in Michigan, visit https://www.mlive.com/coronavirus/data/ .

More coronavirus coverage on MLive:

Michigan reports 488 new cases of coronavirus for Monday, July 27

Michigan auto insurance companies give drivers $95 million in state-ordered coronavirus refunds

Fewer flights, layoffs and reduced ridership among COVID-19 effects on mid-Michigan airports
Pune, July 28 : As the Pune division again shot past Thane in Covid-19 cases and deaths, a central panel on Tuesday asked the Maharashtra government to bring down the mortality rate to zero, officials said here.

The central team head Kunal Kumar also suggested that corona patients must be given quick and effective treatment.

Besides, he asked that all Covid death causes must be thoroughly investigated and efforts must be taken to bring down the death rate to zero in the state.

Kumar's recommendations came at a meeting to review the Covid-19 status with Pune Divisional Commissioner Dr Deepak Mhaisekar, Officer on Special Duty Saurabh Rao, Pune Collector Naval Kishore Ram, Pune Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar, PMC Additional Municipal Commissioner Rubal Agarwal besides top medical officers of major hospitals in Pune.

The central team which included Arvind Kushwaha and Dr Simikanta Banerjee also appreciated the measures taken by the Pune administration in the Covid war, but urged that measures should be taken to reduce the stress on the health workers and corona warriors.

Emphasising on the need to follow guidelines of ICMR, the team said CCTV must be installed in hospitals, psychiatric treatment must be given to patients and asymptomatic patients must be encouraged for home quarantine as far as possible.

On his part, Mhaisekar said that the government has introduced health insurance scheme for all medical workers, besides the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Kalyan Yojana is benefitting all patients in the state.

While CCTVs are being installed as per the state government orders, Rao said that the administration has taken into confidence the medical associations to help save each patient's life.

The administration, along with the corona warriors, has resolved that they would work in full swing over the next 45 days to tackle the Covid-19 crisis, he added.

After a month's interval, Pune division on July 27 again shot past Thane district to the second spot (after Mumbai district) in terms of Covid-19 cases and fatalities, though Mumbai district deaths fell to the fourth spot after Raigad, Pune and Thane for the first time since the pandemic erupted in March.
When Michael and Brenda Pickup received a knock on their door and an offer of free insulation under the Government's Green Deal, they thought it was a safe way to save money.

But, six years on, the pensioners face a bill of nearly 20,000 to correct the damage caused by rogue traders cashing in on the scheme.

The Government will hand out 2billion in grant cash for energy efficient home improvements from September.

Campaigners are now demanding reassurances after previous similar initiatives left behind a legacy of scams and shoddy work.

Huge bill: Michael and Brenda Pickup face paying nearly 20,000 to correct the damage caused by rogue traders

More than half of households across the country plan to apply for a green homes grant, according to MoneySuperMarket.

But last week Darren Jones, chairman of the business, energy and industrial strategy committee, asked the Government how it would ensure only 'quality suppliers' carried out the work.

The Labour MP also pointed out that previous energy efficiency schemes had seen homes suffer 'inadequate work from suppliers who failed to meet required standards'.

One previous multi-million-pound initiative, the Green Deal, offered loans to households for energy efficient home improvements.

It was abandoned due to low uptake just two years after it launched in 2013. Yet many households are still out of pocket after signing up.

Michael, 74, and Brenda, 73, agreed to have cavity wall insulation installed at their 1930s stone property in Rossendale, Lancashire, after a salesman knocked on their door claiming to be from a firm called Heatwave Energy Solutions.

The couple were told they would not have to pay anything and that the company could claim the cost back from the government.

By the end of the year, their wallpaper had started peeling off as rainwater leaked through the insulation, causing damp.

It turned out their home was not suitable and the wall insulation should never have been installed.

But when Michael called Heatwave Energy Solutions, he was told there was no record of work being carried out at their home.

Heatwave Energy Solutions, a company based in Wigan, has since gone into liquidation and Money Mail was unable to contact it.

The couple, who have mobility problems, want to downsize but have been warned they will struggle to sell their 200,000 home unless they spend 19,660 to have the insulation removed.

The Green Deal, used to offer loans to households for energy efficient home improvements

Father-of-three Michael says: 'The whole thing has just made us really angry, as it has ruined the past six-or-so years for us. We trusted them because they said it was a government scheme.'

Families also complained that, under the Green Deal, they had been mis-sold solar panels and insulation tied to long-term high interest loans that were far more costly than any savings they enjoyed on their energy bills.

Close to 200 customers of one firm, Home Energy and Lifestyle Management Systems (Helms), are still waiting for compensation after the company dissolved in 2018.

Chartered surveyor Tim Davies, who acts as an expert witness in trading standards cases, says: 'This country has a big problem with rogue traders and the green grants scheme has all the hallmarks of an initiative which will replicate the same kind of problems as the Green Deal did.

'The Government will have to be scrupulous when it comes to the vetting process, but inevitably some rogue traders will slip through the net.'

National Trading Standards is urging people to make sure they understand the full details of the grants and what they cover, before they agree to have work done.

Having a bad cavity wall insulation fitted could mean wallpaper starts peeling off (stock image)

Director Wendy Martin says: 'Criminals exploit new trends and investments to deceive and defraud consumers and we recognise concerns that some may seek to abuse the Government's green homes grants.'

Homeowners in Suffolk have already started receiving phone calls from companies claiming they are eligible for one of the grants, even though the scheme has not been launched yet, according to Trading Standards.

Last week Matthew Vickers, chief executive of the Energy Ombudsman, called for customers who use the green grants to have the right to 'free, independent redress if things go wrong'.

The green home grants will enable eligible households to claim government cash to cover at least two-thirds of the bill for energy-efficient home improvements, but no more than 5,000.

Those on the lowest income will be able to claim for the full cost of work done, up to 10,000.

A Government spokesman says only 'accredited installers working to specified standards and with robust consumer protection practices' will be able to carry out work for the scheme.
Laser inversion enables multi-materials 3D printing

New York, NY--July 27, 2020--Additive manufacturing--or 3D printing--uses digital manufacturing processes to fabricate components that are light, strong, and require no special tooling to produce. Over the past decade, the field has experienced staggering growth, at a rate of more than 20% per year, printing pieces that range from aircraft components and car parts to medical and dental implants out of metals and engineering polymers. One of the most widely used manufacturing processes, selective laser sintering (SLS), prints parts out of micron-scale material powders using a laser: the laser heats the particles to the point where they fuse together to form a solid mass.

"Additive manufacturing is key to economic resilience," say Hod Lipson, James and Sally Scapa Professor of Innovation (Mechanical Engineering). "All of us care about this technology--it's going to save us. But there's a catch."

The catch is that SLS technologies have been limited to printing with a single material at a time: the entire part has to be made of just that one powder. "Now, let me ask you," Lipson continues, "how many products are made of just one material? The limitations of printing in only one material has been haunting the industry and blocking its expansion, preventing it from reaching its full potential."

Wondering how to solve this challenge, Lipson and his PhD student John Whitehead used their expertise in robotics to develop a new approach to overcome these SLS limitations. By inverting the laser so that it points upwards, they invented a way to enable SLS to use--at the same time--multiple materials. Their working prototype, along with a print sample that contained two different materials in the same layer, was recently published online by Additive Manufacturing as part of its December 2020 issue.

"Our initial results are exciting," says Whitehead, the study's lead author, "because they hint at a future where any part can be fabricated at the press of a button, where objects ranging from simple tools to more complex systems like robots can be removed from a printer fully formed, without the need for assembly."

Selective laser sintering traditionally has involved fusing together material particles using a laser pointing downward into a heated print bed. A solid object is built from the bottom up, with the printer placing down a uniform layer of powder and using the laser to selectively fuse some material in the layer. The printer then deposits a second layer of powder onto the first layer, the laser fuses new material to the material in the previous layer, and the process is repeated over and over until the part is completed.

This process works well if there is just one material used in the printing process. But using multiple materials in a single print has been very challenging, because once the powder layer is deposited onto the bed, it cannot be unplaced, or replaced with a different powder.

"Also," adds Whitehead, "in a standard printer, because each of the successive layers placed down are homogeneous, the unfused material obscures your view of the object being printed, until you remove the finished part at the end of the cycle. Think about excavation and how you can't be sure the fossil is intact until you completely remove it from the surrounding dirt. This means that a print failure won't necessarily be found until the print is completed, wasting time and money."

The researchers decided to find a way to eliminate the need for a powder bed entirely. They set up multiple transparent glass plates, each coated with a thin layer of a different plastic powder. They lowered a print platform onto the upper surface of one of the powders, and directed a laser beam up from below the plate and through the plate's bottom. This process selectively sinters some powder onto the print platform in a pre-programmed pattern according to a virtual blueprint. The platform is then raised with the fused material, and moved to another plate, coated with a different powder, where the process is repeated. This allows multiple materials to either be incorporated into a single layer, or stacked. Meanwhile, the old, used-up plate is replenished.

In the paper, the team demonstrated their working prototype by generating a 50 layer thick, 2.18mm sample out of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) powder with an average layer height of 43.6 microns and a multi-material nylon and TPU print with an average layer height of 71 microns. These parts demonstrated both the feasibility of the process and the capability to make stronger, denser materials by pressing the plate hard against the hanging part while sintering.

"This technology has the potential to print embedded circuits, electromechanical components, and even robot components. It could make machine parts with graded alloys, whose material composition changes gradually from end to end, such as a turbine blade with one material used for the core and different material used for the surface coatings," Lipson notes. "We think this will expand laser sintering towards a wider variety of industries by enabling the fabrication of complex multi-material parts without assembly. In other words, this could be key to moving the additive manufacturing industry from printing only passive uniform parts, towards printing active integrated systems."

The researchers are now experimenting with metallic powders and resins in order to directly generate parts with a wider range of mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties than is possible with conventional SLS systems today.

###

About the Study

The study is titled "Inverted multi-material laser sintering."

Authors are: John Whitehead and Hod Lipson, Mechanical Engineering, Columbia Engineering.

The authors declare no financial or other conflicts of interest.

LINKS:

Paper: https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1016/ j. addma. 2020. 101440

DOI: 10.1016/j.addma.2020.101440

VIDEO: https:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v= d-ZshGOtF-I&feature= youtu. be

https:/ / www. creativemachineslab. com/ inverted-laser-sintering. html

https:/ / engineering. columbia. edu/ faculty/ hod-lipson

https:/ / me. columbia. edu/

http://engineering. columbia. edu/

Columbia Engineering

Columbia Engineering, based in New York City, is one of the top engineering schools in the U.S. and one of the oldest in the nation. Also known as The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School expands knowledge and advances technology through the pioneering research of its more than 220 faculty, while educating undergraduate and graduate students in a collaborative environment to become leaders informed by a firm foundation in engineering. The School's faculty are at the center of the University's cross-disciplinary research, contributing to the Data Science Institute, Earth Institute, Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Precision Medicine Initiative, and the Columbia Nano Initiative. Guided by its strategic vision, "Columbia Engineering for Humanity," the School aims to translate ideas into innovations that foster a sustainable, healthy, secure, connected, and creative humanity.

This story has been published on: 2020-07-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
EAST HAVEN  The Shore Line Trolley Museum is reopening Aug. 1, and will have hours on Wednesdays and Saturdays, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

A limited number of tickets will be sold each day for specific time slots. Tickets are available online now and all tickets must be purchased in advance. The admission price, scheduled for a nominal increase this year, has rolled back to last years price. No cash is accepted; the museum store will also remain closed, but is available online for shipping and pickup as of Aug. 1. Visitors will be greeted by volunteer staff outside of the Sprague Visitors Center for instructions and online admission redemption. The Visitors Center will be open for restrooms use only. Visitors and staff must wear face coverings, and social distancing will still be enforced. All touch points on trolleys and in the Visitors Center will be cleaned frequently.

Patrons are asked to consider making a donation to the museums summer appeal. Visit www.shorelinetrolley.org for updated information, to purchase tickets or to donate to the museum.

Step Up for Brooksvale campaign launched

HAMDEN  The Hamden Land Conservation Trust has launched its Step Up For Brooksvale campaign, to raise funds for the Town of Hamden to use in its impending purchase of 42 acres to be added to Brooksvale Park. Last month, the Hamden Legislative Council authorized the Town to accept the grant it was awarded from the State to add 42 acres to Brooksvale Park after receiving dozens of emails and letters from residents in support of the initiative.

Donors can contribute to Step Up for Brooksvale via the land trusts GoFundMe page at https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/step-up-for-brooksvale, donate on the land trusts website at www.hlct.org or mail a check to HLCT, Box 6185, Hamden, CT 06518. Details at www.hlct.org.

Food bank sets up delivery site

WALLINGFORD - Connecticut Food Bank will offer a Mobile Distribution in New Haven at John Martinez School, 100 James St., 4:30-6 p.m. July 31. The distribution is in partnership with the City of New Haven. Connecticut Food Bank will offer fresh and nonperishable foods to households in need. Food will be distributed through a contactless system to prevent spread of COVID-19 and protect both visitors and volunteers. The distribution will be accessible to walk up and drive-through visitors.

Food distributed at Connecticut Food Bank Mobile Distribution sites is supplemental to the food that Connecticut Food Bank distributes through its network of member agencies. Combined, there are 500 food access points supplied by Connecticut Food Bank across its six-county service area.

As that purchased food continues to flow into the food banks warehouse, distribution to Connecticut Food Bank member agencies is increasing. Connecticut Food Bank also will continue to distribute food through its Mobile Pantry program, aimed at filling gaps in its network where transportation barriers or other factors prevent people from accessing enough food. Connecticut Food Bank offers an average of 25 to 30 Mobile Pantries each month in its six-county service area.

Hamden student creates scholarship fund

NEW HAVEN  The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven recently received a $15,000 contribution from AT&T to support a scholarship fund for Hamden High School students impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Scholarships will be given to 150 graduating seniors to assist in their pursuit of college and career goals.

The scholarship originated with local Hamden High School senior Mareshah White, who recognized that high school seniors have forgone many normalcies during the pandemic, including proms, graduation ceremonies and now summer employment that many young people rely on to support their post-secondary education goals.

White connected with The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, who helped her create the Scholarship Fund for Courage, Opportunity, Vitality, Innovation, and Drive. AT&T donated the initial $15,000 to launch the scholarship.

White and the foundation are continuing to advocate for further corporate donations so that they can raise enough money to provide all 396 Hamden High graduating seniors with scholarship funding. The Foundation has set up a webpage that individuals and companies can visit to make a donation, which can be found here www.cfgnh.org/hamdencovidscholarshipfund.

Derby sending data mailers to improved properties

DERBY  The City of Derby announced to homeowners and commercial property owners that the 2020 revaluation project is under way and will be performed by the City of Derby Assessors Office. The first phase of the revaluation process is collecting current information on all properties within the City of Derby. Derby was scheduled to conduct a Full Inspection effort which included an onsite visit to all properties within the City. Due to COVID-19, an executive order has been enacted by the state substituting the Full Inspection effort with a Data Mailer.

Data Mailers are a postal mailing that contains specific information on each property. They will be mailed to the owner on record with the City. The property owner will be asked to make any necessary adjustments and return the form to the Derby Assessors office or deposit it in the drop box on the Minerva side of City Hall. Detailed instructions will be included in the mailing.

For information, contact the Derby Assessors Office at revaluation@derbyct.gov or call 203-736-1455.

Residents asked to report receiving unsolicited packages of seeds

The Connecticut Department of Agriculture (CT DoAg) and The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) have been notified that several Connecticut residents have received unsolicited packages containing seeds that appear to have originated from China. The types of seeds in the packages are unknown at this time and may be invasive plant species. The packages were sent by mail and may have Chinese writing on them. Unsolicited packages of seeds have been received by people in several other states across the United States over the last several days.

Do not plant these seeds. CT DoAg and CAES encourage anyone who receives an unsolicited package of seeds from China to immediately contact their state plant regulatory officials, Dr. Kirby Stafford at 203-974-8485 (Kirby.Stafford@ct.gov) or Dr. Victoria Smith at 203-974-8474 (Victoria.Smith@ct.gov ). Please hold on to the seeds and packaging, including the mailing label, until someone contacts you with further instructions.

Invasive species wreak havoc on the environment, displace or destroy native plants and insects and severely damage crops. Taking steps to prevent their introduction is the most effective method of reducing both the risk of invasive species infestations and the cost to control and mitigate those infestations.
CHICAGO - A high-ranking member of the Chicago Police Department who was promoted earlier this month was found dead after he apparently shot himself in a station on the citys West Side, authorities said.

An autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday at the Cook County Medical Examiners Office on the remains of Deputy Chief Dion Boyd, whose body was found Tuesday morning. If the autopsy confirms that the 57-year-old Boyd fatally shot himself, he would become at least the ninth member of the department to die by suicide in the last two years.

Police Superintendent David Brown did not discuss the circumstances surrounding Boyds death. But the department confirmed that it believes Boyd fatally shot himself, and Brown made sure to reach out to officers and plead with them to seek help if they need it.

There is no shame in reaching out for help, Brown said during a press briefing during which he announced Boyds death. Please, officers, please, stay humble, stay human, stay safe and stay well.

Boyd, who had been with the department for 29 years, was sworn in as deputy chief of criminal networks on July 15, one of several promotions Brown has made.

During the course of his career, Boyd worked as an undercover officer in narcotics, homicide detective and internal affairs officer before moving into command ranks.

Boyds death is the latest blow to a police force that has seen more than its share of suicides. In a 2017 report about the departments policing practices, the US. Justice Department reported that the suicide rate among officers in Chicago was 60 % higher than the national average of 18.1 per 100,000.

To every officer, we want you to know that you are deserving of help and healing, and no one needs to struggle alone, Mayor Lori Lightfoot wrote on Twitter while offering condolences to Boyds family. This City has a fundamental obligation to support each of you, and over the coming weeks, we will be taking steps to bolster our support network so that every first responder understands that help is available.

Boyds body was taken from the Homan Square police office by ambulance in a procession that included a fleet of Chicago police vehicles to the medical examiners office, where dozens of officers had converged in a show of respect.
Benedict XVI canonised her in 2008 celebrating the young nuns extreme physical and spiritual suffering. Yesterday, Jinil Joseph was one of the few faithful present at her tomb. His miraculous recovery at the age of two was an element in her canonisation process.

Bharanganam (AsiaNews)  Indian Catholics today celebrated the feast day of Saint Alphonsa, the saint who suffered physically during much of her short life (36 years).

Alphonsa was canonised in 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI. During the ceremony, the pontiff celebrated the young nuns "extreme physical and spiritual suffering".

Saint Alphonsa was born in 1910 and died on 28 July 1946 in Bharanaganam, in the Diocese of Palai, where her grave is venerated by thousands of people from across India.

The saint is known for her physical suffering because she was bedridden for long periods of time during her convent life. For the same reason, Catholics in India pray to her every time they are ill or suffer some form of pain.

Yesterday, during the solemn Mass celebrated at the saints tomb, Bishop Joseph Kallaranhattu of Palai said that the grave is a place where one can find moments of strength.

In his homily, the bishop noted that like Mother Mary, Saint Alphonsa could stand near the cross to overcome her difficulties.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, few people were allowed to take part in the ceremony at the tomb.

Usually, a ten-day festival is celebrated each, with solemn ceremonies on 28 July. This year, the tomb can still be visited but under strict government restrictions.

Yesterday, Jinil Joseph was one of the few faithful present at the tomb. His miraculous recovery at the age of two was an element in the process of Saint Alphonsas canonisation.

Jinil was born with a clubfoot. His parents, who lived near Saint Alphonsas shrine, regularly visited her grave with the boy and at the age of two he was miraculously healed.

Although he doesn't remember much of that time, Jinil says that his only wish is to celebrate a Mass at Saint Alphonsas tomb. The young man from the Diocese of Palai is currently studying in the seminary to become a priest. (BV)
Book signings and tours have been yet another casualty of the pandemic in 2020, but one best-selling author of childrens books will be rolling into RJ Julia in Madison Friday, Aug. 7, with a few deft moves to help reimagine the book signing tour.

Author Jeff Kinney is the six-time Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards winner for his Diary of a Wimpy Kid series; hes also been named one of Times 100 Most Influential People in the World, and he created the online game Poptropica.

Kinney will appear at RJ Julia to deliver signed copies of his new book Rowley Jeffersons Awesome Friendly Adventure  a first-time fantasy book and follow-up to the 2019 bestseller Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid.

The new book has an announced 3 million-copy first printing and will be released simultaneously in 17 countries, according to publisher release.

Written from the imagination of Rowley Jefferson, characters Rowley and Greg Heffley are known as Roland the Kind and Garg the Barbarian as they leave the safety of their village to embark on a quest to save Rolands mom from the White Warlock.

Even though this tour is much different, I cant wait to connect with my fans and meet real awesome friendly kids along the way, said Kinney in a news release.

The details of Kinneys visit to Madison, part of the August East Coast tour, are indeed unique to this COVID-battered year:

All attendees over the age of 2 must wear a mask, notes a publicist.

Ticket holders (who sign up on line) will receive an e-mail with further event details/instructions, including a personal appointment time for your meet-and-greet at RJ Julia.

All books will be pre-signed. Due to health restrictions, there will be no personalization at this event and no signing of books from home . But Kinney will sign all purchased copies, including Wimpy Kid and Rowley Jefferson.

As a publicist noted, some bookstores will do a drive-through but RJ Julia will have a special outdoor area for the author and allow a small numbers of people in that area. Once the child reaches Jeff with their guardian, Jeff will do a ceremonial-hand off of the book with a 96-inch grabber shaped like a trident, she said.

I dont think were in 2019 anymore, Toto.

A staffer will take socially distanced photos of each customer with Jeff, which will be uploaded to DropEvent.com after the event. All attendees must stay 6 feet distanced from each other at all times during the event.

With his specially decorated van, Kinney will also do special tour visits to the homes of children of essential workers, delivering a book and lawn signs that read An Awesome Friendly Kid Lives Here.

When hes not writing, Washington, D.C.,-area native Kinney and his wife run a bookstore called An Unlikely Story in Plainville, Mass., not far from Foxborough.

RJ Julia, 768 Boston Post Road, Madison. Friday, Aug. 7, 2 p.m. $14.99 book/event. Rrjjulia.com/event/jeff-kinneys-awesome-friendly-adventure-tour
She has been enduring the coronavirus pandemic at her Los Angeles area home with her two-year-old daughter True.

And Khloe Kardashian cuddled up with the toddler to try a series of filters posted to Instagram on Monday,

The two tried on bunny ears, cowboy hats and color distorting filters all from the comfort of their couch.

Sweet: Khloe Kardashian cuddled up with her toddler True to try a series of filters posted to Instagram on Monday

Khloe cozied up to True at home, first starting in a video with a light flare filter adding a pink hue over part of the picture.

Giving True the spotlight, she tried on a large cowboy hat, blue plaid button-up and a mustache.

True seemed to enjoy seeing her look change quickly, smiling at the camera.

Flare: Khloe cozied up to True at home, first starting in a video with a light flare filter adding a pink hue over part of the picture

Western True: Giving True the spotlight, she tried on a large cowboy hat, blue plaid button-up and a mustache

The two then tried on glittery pink bunny ears, with a button nose and active pink sparkling tongue.

True looked absolutely adorable in a chic filter that put a red bandana tied on her head in a bow, large and dark sunglasses and a dark red lip.

Khloe and family are likely looking for ways to be positive amid trying times.

Tongues out: The two then tried on glittery pink bunny ears, with a button nose and active pink sparkling tongue

Color change: True got to change the color of her eyes with a butterfly filter

Chic: True looked absolutely adorable in a chic filter that put a red bandana tied on her head in a bow, large and dark sunglasses and a dark red lip

This past week has indeed been a turbulent one for the Kardashian family.

After his presidential rally last weekend, Kayne West took to Twitter to accuse his wife Kim of attempting to 'lock me up'.

He also claimed he had been 'trying to get divorced' from Kim ever since she allegedly met his fellow rapper Meek Mill at the Waldorf Hotel.

Positive: Khloe and family are likely looking for ways to be positive amid trying times

Turbulent: Last week the Kardashian/Jenner family dealt with a number of personal attacks from Kanye West, Kim's husband. He is seen at a July 19 campaign rally above

'Kim was trying to fly to Wyoming with a doctor to lock me up like on the movie Get Out,' he tweeted.

He reinforced these claims turning on both Kim and her 'momager' Kris Jenner claiming on Twitter that 'they tried to fly in with two doctors to 51/50 me', referring to a section of California law under which people can be confined for mental health reasons.

He also called mother-in-law Kris 'Kris Jong-Un' and accused the pair of 'white supremacy' in another freewheeling series of tweets.

Kim, who shares North, seven, Saint, four, Chicago, two, and Psalm, 14 months with Kanye, broke her silence over the matter as she addressed his battle with bipolar disorder on Instagram.

Paranoia: After his presidential rally last weekend, Kayne West took to Twitter to accuse his wife Kim of attempting to 'lock me up.' They're seen in December 2018 above

Harsh: He called mother-in-law Kris 'Kris Jong-Un' and accused her and Kim of 'white supremacy' in another freewheeling series of tweets. Kris, Kanye and Kim are seen last November above

Kim called her husband 'brilliant but complicated', and said she and her family were 'powerless' in helping him.

Kanye ultimately issued a grovelling apology to Kim on Twitter last week, where he acknowledged he had hurt her.

'I would like to apologize to my wife Kim for going public with something that was a private matter,' Kanye tweeted on Saturday. I did not cover her like she has covered me.

'Kim I want to say I know I hurt you. Please forgive me. Thank you for always being there for me.'

Speaking up: Kim, who shares North, seven, Saint, four, Chicago, two, and Psalm, 14 months with Kanye, broke her silence over the matter as she addressed his battle with bipolar disorder on Instagram

Kim broke her silence on Wednesday with a statement on Instagram to say she is 'powerless' and described her husband as 'brilliant but complicated'

--
(Natural News) The United Nations (UN) has decided to side with Antifa and intervene in U.S. domestic affairs, condemning President Donald Trump for defending American cities against left-wing terrorism. Liz Throssell, a UN human rights spokeswoman warned that unidentified federal agents are illegally detaining peaceful protestors, which may give rise to arbitrary detention and other human rights violations.

The authorities should ensure that federal and local security forces deployed are properly and clearly identified and would use force only when necessary, proportionately and in accordance with international standards, she said.

The UN did not condemn the mass violence toward law enforcement, initiated by left-wing terror groups. The UN did not denounce the human rights abuses that Antifa and Black Lives Matter militants have inflicted throughout America, which has become a stealth form of genocide toward whites. Instead, the UN is right on time to defend the left-wing terror, to aid and abed the destruction of the United States from within, and to tear down the rule of law in America. Its now apparent that foreign militaries and intelligence operations are behind the upheaval occurring in American cities, and these bad actors and governing bodies will clearly take advantage of the upheaval to take control and impose their will over the United States.

As federal agents try to save their country from violent left-wing mobs, will the UN send troops into the US to take out the federal agents, to occupy America, and to let terror reign?

Democrat Governors and Mayors openly invite terror and unrestrained human rights abuses

No one wants to see federal troops, Homeland Security officers, and Border and Custom patrols going to war in American cities, but the democrat governors and mayors have left the federal government with no choice but to intervene in strategic and powerful ways that restore law and order. Federal agents have adapted new strategies to avoid doxxing and to avoid large confrontations in the city streets, protecting innocent lives as agents single out, detain, and prosecute violent criminals hiding within the mob.

The inner cities are burning and law enforcement is being overrun by racially-charged, left-wing anarchist mobs. Portland Oregon mayor Ted Wheeler has stood with the arsonists, looters, violent criminals and domestic terrorists, watching his city go up in flames. Standing with the terrorists, Wheeler has called Trumps federal help an explicit abuse of power that puts federal officers and Oregonians in danger. He publicly stated that federal law enforcement should leave our city.

These weak democrat leaders have become the problem, openly permitting thugs to attack law enforcement, burn down businesses and threaten peoples lives. These unrestrained human rights abuses are being openly encouraged by mayors like Ted Wheeler. The streets of Portland look like a war zone, as state and federal property comes under threat.

UN turns blind eye toward widespread human rights abuses initiated by Antifa and Black Lives Matter

Three federal officers who were defending the Hatfield Federal Courthouse were attacked by antifa rioters. Department of Homeland Security official Richard Cline confirmed that the officers were attacked by lasers; the officers have sustained permanent eye injuries from the attack.

When officers responded to put out these fires, glass bottles were thrown and lasers  which can cause permanent blindness  were shined in their eyes, said Director Cline. We have three officers who currently have eye injuries and they may not recover sight in those eyes from those laser attacks.

Antifa are also using commercial fireworks to permanently injure or kill law enforcement. Antifa has also used doxxing to punish and intimidate law enforcement officers and their families. Armed rioters sometimes emerge out of mobs and single out motorists, sticking a gun to their chest.

The UN has nothing to say about human rights abuses like these, which have gone on for multiple weeks across America. As soon as U.S. federal agents move in to restore law and order, the UN is quick to condemn, fueling the flames of civil unrest and domestic terror throughout American cities.

Sources include:

BigLeaguePolitics.com

BigLeaguePolitics.com

NaturalNews.com
The Teva x Cotopaxi limited-edition collaboration features Teva's classic sandal, the Original Universal, and Cotopaxi's signature Teca windbreaker in playful prints and bright neon colors. Two iconic styles that complement each other in style and purpose, the duo feature remnant and recycled materials brought to life in a fresh, sustainable collection.

"We're thrilled to work with Cotopaxi, a like-minded adventure brand with a shared desire to inspire people to do good," said Anders Bergstrom, General Manager at Teva. "We are both passionate when it comes to reducing our impact on the planet so future generations are free to explore, and this collection is the perfect expression of that shared belief."

The utilitarian and water-ready Teva x Cotopaxi Original Universal sandal is designed with a combination of REPREVE recycled polyester webbing coupled with colorful straps featuring upcycled Cotopaxi Del Dia ripstop fabrics, making the sandal not only durable and quick drying, but environmentally friendly. The sandal also features an EVA foam midsole, easy hook-and-loop closure, and a rubber outsole for all-day comfort and support. The Teva x Cotopaxi Teca Half-Zip Windbreaker is adventure-ready with its packable, water-resistant, and lightweight shell that is constructed from DWR-treated repurposed polyester taffeta. The jacket features an outdoor-inspired topo-map pattern, large front kangaroo pocket, front flat pocket, and an internal phone pocket to make travel easy and convenient.

"Collaborating with Teva presented an ideal opportunity to work alongside a fellow outdoor brand to advance sustainability and social responsibility, while adding to our product offering," said Davis Smith, CEO and co-founder of Cotopaxi. "Having an impact goes hand-in-hand with collective action, and we're honored to partner with Teva to help address poverty and climate change."

The Teva x Cotopaxi Original Universal comes in both men's and women's styles and retails for $70. The Teva x Cotopaxi Teca Half-Zip Windbreaker is available in unisex sizing ranging from WXS to MXXL and retails for $90. The Teva x Cotopaxi collection is available for purchase in select specialty retail stores as well as online at Cotopaxi.com and Teva.com.

Visit Teva.com for more information. #TevaxCotopaxi

About Teva:

In 1984, Teva created the world's first sport sandal on the banks of the Grand Canyon. The brand outfits free-spirited adventure-seekers all over the world with versatile, modern outdoor footwear. In 2020, Teva committed to reducing the brand's environmental impact by ensuring 100% of their iconic straps are made with recycled plastic, so future generations can continue exploring the wild world around them. Learn more about Teva, a division of Deckers Brands, at teva.com or follow @Teva.

About Cotopaxi:

Cotopaxi is an outdoor gear brand and Benefit Corporation with a social mission. With two storefronts and a strong ecommerce platform, and employing over 65 staff members, we design, manufacture, and sell packs, water bottles, apparel, and gear, raising awareness and funds for various humanitarian causes through the Cotopaxi Foundation. For more information please visit https://www.cotopaxi.com

Teva:

[email protected]

Cotopaxi:

Jess Smith: 415.565.9530, [email protected]

SOURCE Teva

Related Links

http://www.teva.com


The State Bank of India (SBI) is providing liquidity support of USD 16.20 million for local businesses and deferred loan repayment for over 200 retail accounts, the Indian High Commission in the said on Monday.

"SBI's COVID-relief for -- supporting economic relief measures of Government of Maldives, State Bank of India, largest public sector bank, provides liquidity support of USD 16.20 million for local businesses and defers loan repayment for over 200 retail accounts," the High Commission tweeted.

On the occasion of Independence Day of the on July 26, Indian High Commissioner Sunjay Sudhir said, "Assistance of USD 400 million through an extended currency swap arrangement has been made available already to tide over liquidity shortage. India will soon announce another substantial financial assistance package to support the Maldivian economy and assist in economic recovery post-COVID-19."

"Ours is an all-weather friendship steeped in history and with a glorious future. 'India First' policy of Maldives and 'Neighbourhood First' policy of India has set the foundation of the growing relationship," he added.

(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.)
28.07.2020 LISTEN

A Senior Lecturer at the Kumasi Campus of the University of Education, Winneba and the Patron for the NDC students group on campus, Dr.Yarhands Dissou Arthur, has heaped a fountain of laudations on President Akufo-Addo, over moves targeted at making Kumasi and Mampong campuses of the University of Education, Winneba self-autonomous.

According to him, this plan when finalised, will go a long way to increase access, motivate staff and generate thousands of jobs.

A Step, he said will make President Akufo-Addo, an unforgetable leader in the life of the two yet to be established universities.

For several years, authorities at the Kumasi and Mampong Campuses of the University have clamoured for an autonomy status stating adequate human and material resources as some of the reasons. The calls however, had fallen on deaf ears until the assumption of office of President Akufo-Addo.

In his 2016 campaign, the then canadidate Akufo-Addo, now President promised to grant Kumasi and Mampong Campuses autonomy status when elected.

While there seem to be frantic efforts from the Central Administration to stifle the conversion move, a bill in Parliament has received a second reading pending final passage and assent by the president.

Dr.Yarhands Arthur, the Patron for the NDC students group at the University Campus while addressing the media in Kumasi could not hide his admiration for the steps government has taken so far.

"It is important to give praises to the president for such a bold step. I least expected what I am hearing." Dr.Arthur said.

It could be recalled that Dr. Arthur, who is the immediate past Campus UTAG Chairman was one of the first personalities to have commended President Akufo-Addo for commencing preparatory works on the much awaited autonomy of the two campuses.

He has therefore, urged the President to assent to the bill with dispatch when it is passed by Parliament.

Source: Dr Yarhands
By John Geddie and Aradhana Aravindan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The case of a Singaporean caught spying for China in the United States has reawakened fears over China recruiting intelligence assets on an island state which has won trust among Western governments while keeping on good terms with Beijing.

Jun Wei Yeo, a 39-year-old academic who also goes by the name Dickson Yeo, pleaded guilty in a U.S. court on Friday to acting as an illegal agent of Chinese intelligence. He will be sentenced in October and faces up to 10 years in prison.

Singapore's home ministry said in a brief statement on Sunday that it had been aware of Yeo's case since his arrest by U.S. authorities in November, and he is receiving consular assistance.

Court documents show Yeo was lured into becoming a Chinese asset four years earlier while attending a forum in Beijing to give a presentation on Southeast Asian politics. He moved to the United States in January, 2019.

"One fool like this can get all Singaporeans suspected," academic and former Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan said in a Facebook post in response to the spy's case.

Initially claiming to represent China-based think tanks, Yeo's recruiters offered to pay him for political reports and information, but he learned later that some of his contacts were intelligence agents, the court records show.

Tasked with finding people with non-public information about politics, economics, and diplomacy, Yeo first focused on Southeast Asia, before switching to the United States.

When he moved to the United States his handlers gave him a bank card and told him to communicate with them using multiple phones to avoid detection.

Using a fake consultancy and business networking site LinkedIn, Yeo reached out to individuals, targeting those with financial or work troubles, and paid them to write reports.

Among those he lured was a civilian with high level security clearance working on a U.S. military fighter jet programme.

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Yeo's former PhD supervisor at Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy was an ethnic Chinese U.S. citizen, who was accused by Singaporean authorities in 2017 of being an agent of foreign influence for an undisclosed country.

Huang Jing denied those allegations, and while never convicted he had his residency pass revoked.

Now working in Beijing, Huang said he was shocked and glad Yeo had been caught, noting that he had an "obvious sense of insecurity and hunger for being somebody".

Two former classmates said that Yeo had dreamed of becoming a diplomat but felt he had been shunned by the Singapore establishment. Yeo could not be reached for comment.

ASIA'S SWITZERLAND

The home ministry said investigations into Yeo "had not revealed any direct threat" to Singapore.

While Yeo may have drawn the line at betraying his own country, he was caught spying against the superpower with whom Singapore has the closest security ties, though the city-state is bound by its own rules to pursue a neutral foreign policy.

At loggerheads with the United States over trade and other issues, Beijing denied knowledge of Yeo's case on Monday and accused the United States of using espionage claims to smear China.

Deteriorating Sino-U.S. relations hit a new low during the past week, as the United States closed China's consulate in Houston and China retaliated by seizing the U.S. consulate in Chengdu.

Yeo's case reinforced concerns raised in Western security think-tanks that Singapore was a soft target for China to recruit well-educated ethnic Chinese assets whose passports grant them easy access to countries almost everywhere.

"People might be more suspicious of Singaporeans if there is a perception that Singapore is compromised," said Chong Ja Ian, a visiting Singapore scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute in Cambridge, Mass.. Chong said the incident may also make it more difficult for Singapore to walk the diplomatic tightrope between Washington and Beijing.

Often described as the Switzerland of Asia because of its wealth, international finance network and neutrality, Singapore is one of the most politically stable countries in a region where the United States and China have competing interests.

China is Singapore's biggest trading partner, as it is for many countries in Asia.

A report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in 2018 found Singapore universities had among the highest level of collaboration globally with researchers from the China's People Liberation Army (PLA).

And U.S.-based think tank Jamestown Foundation last year said that China used business associations and other organisations in Singapore to spread propaganda about a "greater China" identity among Singaporeans, 75% of whom are ethnic Chinese.

Bilveer Singh of the National University of Singapore's department of political science, said the city-state's openness and strategic location has made it a hub for many countries to "acquire intel" and "agents of influence".

Yeo was "definitely not an isolated case," he said.

A Mexican researcher from another Singapore university, Duke-NUS, was arrested in the United States earlier this year for acting on behalf of Russia.

Reuters asked the home ministry for comment on whether Yeo was an isolated case and, among other questions, whether there would be any restrictions on academics coming from, or visiting China.

The ministry said it would not be commenting further.

(Reporting by John Geddie and Aradhana Aravindan; additional reporting by Fanny Potkin; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
Dr. Liza Ortiz Updates Tuolumne County Supervisors View Photo

Sonora, CA  Two men have become the first two coronavirus-related casualties in Tuolumne County and five new cases reported since Friday, bringing the total to 131, have a watch list action in the wings.

According to Tuolumne County Public Health officials, one of the men was in his 60s with no known underlying health conditions that contributed to his illness. The other, in his 80s, had some underlying health conditions. Due to medical privacy concerns, no other details were released.

We want to share our heartfelt condolences with the families and loved ones in this difficult time, stated Dr. Liza Ortiz, Interim Tuolumne County Health Officer. These deaths are a sobering reminder of the severity of COVID-19. Our actions affect the lives of those around us and our whole community. Tuolumne County must act to slow the rate of transmission and protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our community.

Ortizs office reported five new cases since Friday, which includes one case confirmed Saturday, two on Sunday, and two today.

According to the doctor, the number of new cases brings the countys 14-day case rate to 110.79/100k or 110 cases per 100,000 population, which continues exceeding the 100/100k mark, which is one of the metrics for the states county data monitoring program.

This is now our fifth day of a 14-day case rate exceeding 100/100k. There is a delay in state reporting, so we will not appear on the states list immediately and no action will be taken until we are officially on the list and have gone through the established process with the state, Ortiz shares.

When we remain at this case rate according to the state reporting system for three consecutive days, we will be added to the state watchlist. Other metrics for the watchlist are the number of COVID hospitalizations, regular and ICU hospital bed availability, and case positivity rate. When a county is on the watchlist for three consecutive days, they must implement more restrictive closures and mitigation measures as determined by the state, including schools starting the year with distance learning only.
TORRINGTON  Under a shady stand of trees in the parking lot at St. Pauls Lutheran Church, vendors set up their booths and serve up a variety of produce, jams, fudge and soaps to a crowd of shoppers.

Business was brisk, with shoppers browsing and purchasing from an assortment of freshly picked produce. With the summer harvest in full swing, the Torrington Farmers Market attracted several hundred customers, with some saying they were happy to support local farmers and other enterprises.

Vendors and shoppers were wearing masks, and in some instances face shields in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Shoppers were also instructed to move around the weekend market in a one-way pattern and social distance as they walked from booth to booth.

Vendors also asked shoppers not to touch, but rather point to what they wanted and the item would be placed in a bag for weighing and purchase. Its another safety precaution the participating sellers are taking during the pandemic.

Its nice to be out and feeling somewhat normal, said Rita Nettleton, who was at the market with her daughter, Amanda, and grandson, Adam, who took in the goings-on from his stroller.

Mark and Carole Gauger, owners of Maple View Farm in Harwinton, were quite busy. Mark Gauger is the markets president.

The Torrington market has been in different locations; weve been here four years now, he said. This is a great location and there is plenty of room for the vendors and for people to park their vehicles.

He said on a busy day, the market can draw up to 400 people, bringing in customers mostly from Torrington and some surrounding towns.

Several factors delayed the markets opening this year, Gauger said.

The COVID-19 pandemic and shutdowns of businesses and events put a hold on things for a bit and the cold spring was not conducive to getting an early crop, he said. But we were able to finally open with all the safety protocols in place and it has gone well. We have 11 vendors here today, and the location allows us to spread out and each has ample room. We are also accepting SNAP this year.

The U.S. Department of Agricultures Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, provides nutrition benefits to supplement the food budget of families who need it, so they can purchase healthful food.

Bethany Zukowski, owner of Torringtons Better Baking by Beth, has been bringing her products to the Torrington Farmers Market for the past 15 years.

I was very concerned early this year that we werent going to be able to have it because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. But Im glad it worked out. I think its good for people to get out and feel a bit of normalcy in their lives.

Kristy Barto, owner of the Nutmeg Fudge Company of Torrington, is new to the market, selling her assortment of homemade fudge.

Its been wonderful so far, she said. Its nice to get out in public and sell my products and with all the precautions being taken I think people feel safe coming here.

The Torrington Farmers Market is open from 3 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. Because fresh produce is seasonal, the items for sale change weekly depending on whats ripe.
SALES

Epping

Some retail assets are being viewed as a safe havens by investors. Fitzroys Chris Kombi and Lewis Waddell have negotiated the sale of three strata retail properties in Lendleases Aurora Village for a combined $2.9 million. The sales reflect a tight average yield of 5.4 per cent. Each had a long, secure lease in place. 301 Harvest Home Road is leased to Bottlemart, 305 is occupied by Suburban Grill and 309 is leased to Aurora Groceries.

Braeside

Frasers Property Australia has sold four industrial-zoned land allotments in its Braeside Industrial Estate in an off-market deal negotiated by Colliers International's Luke Lowden and James Stott. The total land area transacted was 5652 square metres. Land rates in the estate are around $600 per square metre.
London's streets fell silent during 2020 as the coronavirus lockdown saw barely a soul in the centre of the usually bustling metropolis.

And now the eerie lack of road noise can be compared with the bustling sounds of the same streets captured almost a century ago, as the Museum of London digitally recreates gramophone recordings taken by the Daily Mail in 1928.

The initial recordings were taken at five London locations as part of a campaign by the newspaper to draw attention to the growing rabble on the city's streets.

One of the five records was aired by the BBC, but the rest have never been aired or available to listen to in their entirety until now.

Archived clippings from 92 years ago reveal growing concern over traffic noise referred to as a 'vague roar' and 'pandemonium'.

Culprits of the era included motor-omnibuses, horse-drawn drays, tramway-cars, lorries and the whistle of a policeman controlling traffic.

The Museum of London has also been using the lockdown to build a unique portfolio that documents the year the world was struck by a pandemic.

The Columbia Graphophone Company was employed by the Daily Mail to immortalise the headline-worthy road noise. at five central locations. These were Whitechapel East, St George's Hospital (Hyde Park Corner), Leicester Square, Cromwell Road and Beauchamp Place in South Kensington

Pictured, Leicester Square during 2020's coronavirus lockdown, with the Hippodrome on the left. The Museum of London recorded road noise to immortalise the silent roads

Pictured, the north side of Leicester Square, looking West in 1928. It shows the Empire Theatre on the left of the picture, once a famous music hall, which was converted into a cinema shortly before this photograph was taken. In the centre, can be seen Daly's Theatre, which was demolished in 1937, and beyond it is the London Hippodrome

In 1928, the recording system was at the cutting edge of technology and extremely laborious to use.

The Columbia Graphophone Company was employed by the Daily Mail to immortalise the headline-worthy road noise at five central locations.

These were Whitechapel East, St George's Hospital (Hyde Park Corner), Leicester Square, Cromwell Road and Beauchamp Place in South Kensington.

The system was set up in a vacant room, and an entire production team was required to capture the noise via a 'microphone suspended out of the first storey window'.

By comparison, the modern audio clips for the museum's 'Collecting COVID' initiative were taken by Will Cohen of String and Tins, a recording studio, using two small microphones.

They visited the same locations as the Columbia Graphophone Company did in 1928, to provide a like-for-like comparison.

Reporting in the Daily Mail on 11 September 1928, Commander Daniel RN DSO wrote: 'That was a large lorry with building materials, very noisy. There's a motor bicycle without a proper silencer!

'That was the self-starter of a small seven-horsepower car . . . that was an awful vehicle on solid tyres,' he notes on 20 September.

Even back then, journalists were questioning how damaging noise pollution could be on health.

In a later article on September 6, 1928, Commander Daniel wrote: 'When the ear has become accustomed to the incessant but indeterminate roar, the question arises, "Is this really so intolerable after all?"

'This question is really the kernel of the nut to be cracked.

'We have become so used to the perpetual noise around us that many of us fail to appreciate what our poor brains are being called upon to endure.

'At the end of the record has been left a small space in which the normal instrumental noises of the gramophone needle may be heard, and the silence of this is like the darkness of Egypt, which could be felt.'

Pictured, Leicester Square at night in the 1920s. The Daily Mail launched an anti-noise campaign to cut down on traffic sounds in 1928

The comparison of noise between lockdown London (pictured) and the 1920s shows the capital far quieter in 2020 despite now being home to almost nine million people

Pictured, a story that appeared in the Daily Mail newspaper on September 6 1928 when Commander Daniel RN DSO discusses the impact of road noise

Although no scientific or professional analysis has compared the sound levels of the different periods, it is clear London in 1928 was extremely busy, wiping away any remaining ideologies of an idyllic post-Edwardian era.

Foteini Aravani, Digital Curator at the Museum of London, told MailOnline: 'In January 1928 there was the great flood of London and there was a lot of rebuilding that boosted noise levels in the city centre.

'London had started expanding during the interwar years of the 1920s and 1930s and the city saw the geographical extent of its urban area grew faster than at any point before or since.

'Londons population reached its all-time peak of about 8.6 million in the Thirties. And then there was World War II and the Blitz and the reconstruction of the city after the air raids.'

Despite all these unpredictable and often horrific events, London was never silenced, something Ms Aravani does not envisage happening any time soon.

'In the future, introductions of electric cars or car-free regions would most probably change the soundscape of London, but in all these predictions or projections about the development of the city, we may need to leave more room for the unexpected and the unpredictable,' she adds.

'It is very rare to listen to the development of a city, especially over the course of nearly a century.

'These soundscapes offer a very immersive and multi-sensory way to experience London in 1928 and during the lockdown.

'They soundscapes provide a sensory experience, they trigger the imagination and invite the listener to go back in time.'
GOLD

Last week was exciting and highly profitable for gold and silver owners. The price of gold increased $90 for the week, closing at $1,897.30 per ounce. Gold hit a high of $1,904 last Friday, a nine-year high, before seeing some light weekend profit taking. Last weeks trading volume was the highest Ive seen in months, as old and new buyers increased their holdings of gold. Gold investors spent $3.8 billion in precious metal funds last week, the second largest weekly amount ever, according to data analyzed by Bank of America.

What is driving this increase?

The U.S. Federal Reserve and central banks around the globe pumping Trillions of Dollars, Euros, Yen and Yuan into their financial markets. The U.S. Congress and governments around the world passing Covid-19 stimulus aid programs and legislation to provide trillions to victims of economic problems. Geopolitical tensions are increasing, not only between the U.S. and China, but in Asia and the Middle East. The U.S. Dollar has been dropping, down 5% since the start of July. That has a direct bullish effect on the price we pay for gold/silver. Yields on U.S. Treasuries from 2 year to 10 year have been dropping, another positive for the gold and silver price

In the United States, the Congress (House of Representatives and the Senate) debated new Covid-19 stimulus legislation last week. I believe we will see the results of this debate passed into law this week. From what Im hearing from multiple sources, it could be another $2 Trillion Dollars in aid distributed to unemployed workers, businesses, states, cities, hospitals, schools, and fire/police departments.

As the worth of currencies continues to be devalued around the world, the price of gold can only go one direction, HIGHER. As many of you know, I have been predicting gold will reach $2,000 per ounce by year-end since early this year. When I made that prediction, I could not have imagined the extra trillions of dollars/euro/yen/yuan that would be printed, just in the first half of 2020.

What do I see next for Gold?

Because of the current momentum, I believe golds all-time high of $1,923.20 (Sept 6th, 2011) will be passed on Monday. Then, Im hoping for price consolidation, as its badly needed and should happen during August, between $1,800 and $1,950. That consolidation would be great for gold to build a firm base for the next move above $2,000 per ounce.

After looking at what is currently happening by governments and central banks around the world, I have revised my year-end gold prediction. Lets recap 2020, gold was $1,519 per ounce at the start and reached a low of $1,450 in March. Since March, gold has been in a bullish trend, moving higher with an occasional correction. Once the gold price passes $1,923.20 per ounce, its all-time high, its in uncharted territory. With media coverage on the all-time high for gold, it could briefly cause a spike in demand and price. That happened in 1979 and again in 2011, which caused another 5-8% increase in price. Based on these factors and many others, I believe we will see gold reach $2,200 per ounce before the end of 2020.

7/27/20 9am PT update for Gold: A combination of a weaker U.S. Dollar and lower yields on U.S. Treasuries fueled the raise for gold to an all-time high. Gold broke above the past all-time high of $1,923 and kept on gold, reaching a high of $1,946 per ounce.

SILVER

Not only was last week extraordinary for silver investors, its been an extraordinary year. At the beginning of this year, the silver price was $17.83 per ounce. By March as the pandemic started affecting the economy, the price of silver dropped to a low of $11.60 per ounce (with the silver/gold ratio reaching 120-to-1). From March to July, the price of silver moved from $11.60 to $18 at an excellent pace with the silver/gold ratio dropping. Last week, after exploding through the $20 resistance level, silver kept on going reaching a high of $23.60 on record-setting high volume. Silver closed the week at $22.80 per ounce, the highest price since August of 2013, up an amazing $3.00. To stay healthy, silver needs time to build a base above $20 and consolidate recent gains. However, with its current high volatility, it may reach $25 before seeing a major correction. The silver-to-gold ratio has dropped to 83-to-1.

7/27/20 9am PT update for Silver: Following the todays raise in gold prices, silver went into orbit, flying through $24 per ounce, reaching a high of $24.50. Late last week, a good number of professional traders shorted silver around $23 and this morning they ran to cover those shorts, taking the price above $24.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Ramallah, Palestinian Territories  Tue, July 28, 2020 16:06 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669f2f08 2 Art & Culture artwork,Banksy,Palestine,donation Free

British street artist Banksy is to donate the proceeds from the auction of one of his works, valued at over $1 million, to a Palestinian hospital, one of his collaborators told AFP on Monday.

Titled "Mediterranean Sea View 2017," the work is to be auctioned Tuesday at Sotheby's in London, said Wissam Salsaa, director of the Walled Off Hotel which Banksy helped set up in 2017 in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The work comprises three oil paintings depicting views of raging seas and shoreline littered with orange life jackets and buoys, alluding "to the lives lost at sea during the European migrant 'crisis' of the 2010s", according to the description on the Sotheby's site.

The work, which used to hang in the entry of the hotel, is valued at $1.5 million, according to Salsaa.

All the proceeds will go to a hospital in Bethlehem to build an acute stroke unit and buy children's rehabilitation equipment, Sotheby's said.

In May, a new work by Banksy paying tribute to Britain's health service and medics battling the novel coronavirus pandemic was installed in a hospital in southern England.

It will later be auctioned to raise money for charities connected to the country's National Health Service (NHS).

The artist, whose true identity remains a secret, has unveiled multiple works in Bethlehem, home of his Walled Off Hotel where all rooms overlook a concrete section of the barrier built by Israel to cut off the West Bank from its territory.

Israel says the five-metre (16-foot) concrete barrier is needed to protect it from attack by assailants coming from the West Bank.

Topics : artwork Banksy Palestine donation
In a related attack that police said they are investigating in connection with the Van Buren shooting, a 37-year-old man initially told police a male attacker fired shots at him as he stood outside in the 4500 block of West Congress Parkway, striking his legs, abdomen and lower back. Initial police information didnt indicate whether the attacker was on foot or in a vehicle. The 37-year-old man ran to the 4500 block of West Van Buren and was taken by an acquaintance to Stroger Hospital, in fair condition, police said..
(Newser)  Election campaigning in Georgia took an ugly turn this week as the Democratic challenger to a sitting Republican senator accused the latter of running an anti-Semitic ad against him. The Hill reports that the campaign of GOP Sen. David Perdue nixed a Facebook ad that had been running since July 22, showing his opponent, Jon Ossoff, who's Jewish, with a noticeably larger nose, along with Jewish New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and the words "Democrats are trying to buy Georgia." The Forward had three graphic artists examine the photo, and they determined Ossoff's nose had been made longer and wider from the nose in the original picture of Ossoff, which was a 2017 Reuters photo. Other parts of Ossoff's face remained the same size and proportions as the original, the graphic artists noted.

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A rep from the Perdue campaign says in a statement that "in the graphic design process handled by an outside vendor, the photo was resized and a filter was applied, which appears to have caused an unintentional error that distorted the image." The rep notes the ad has been taken down from Facebook and cites Perdue's "strong and consistent record of standing firmly against anti-Semitism and all forms of hate." Ossoff isn't buying it, saying that the ad uses "the oldest, most obvious, least original anti-Semitic trope in history." "Senator, literally no one believes your excuses," he adds. Per the Washington Post, Ossoff also issued a statement calling for Perdue to offer an "unqualified apology to Georgia's Jewish community." (Read more David Perdue stories.)
K ate Garraway says she is desperate to see improvement in husband Derek Drapers condition from the effects of coronavirus.

Draper remains in hospital after being admitted when he first began suffering from Covid-19 in March.

While he has since tested negative for the virus, it has caused "extraordinary damage" to his entire body.

Speaking during Tuesday morning's Good Britain, Garraway, 53, explained that she is now finally able to visit her husband in hospital.

Garraway returned to GMB earlier this month / GMB

"I did go and see Derek yesterday," she told Ben Shephard. "It was quite a tough visit. Hes had a tough couple of weeks and its just frustrating.

Its [my son] Billys birthday today so I think I was extra emotional because you think about the day he was born and Dereks involvement and how much Derek would like to be present. So its very emotional.

Garraway added that doctors have told her to remain positive.

She continued: What the doctors said to me is, Sometimes, a day when nothing has gone backwards and nothing has gone wrong is a positive day.

Celebrities supporting Clap for Carers to battle Coronavirus 1 /14 Celebrities supporting Clap for Carers to battle Coronavirus Naomie Harris @naomieharris The Beckham Family @davidbeckham Daniel Craig and his wife Rachel Weisz @rachelweisz1 Amanda Holden @noholdenback Ben Whishaw @benwhishaw Katie Price with her son Harvey @katieprice Stacey Solomon @staceysolomon Stacey Solomon @staceysolomon Frankie Bridge and her family @frankiebridge Gemma Collins @gemmacollins

Its a stable day. Its just Im desperate for a step forward but its always lovely to see him and its wonderful to have the chance to do that [visit]."

Garraway and Shephard almost didn't make it on air on Tuesday, after a powercut hit the ITV studios shortly before 6am.

They couldn't use any printers to print us the briefs to brief us on the stories," Kate explained.

"They had no lights, the air conditioning went off, the server which is the thing that brings the show to you and allows us at the moment to speak to our guests because they are not allowed into the studio."

On Monday, Garraway said she was at her absolute limit after a tyre on her car blew out while she was driving on a motorway.

The presenter was returning to London when she felt as though she was losing control of the vehicle.

You know people say that God and the universe doesnt send you what you cant deal with? Id just like to put a message out: Im at my limit. Im at my absolute limit now, she said.

Additional reporting by Press Association
Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine, support Ukraine's EU integration aspirations, and call for granting Ukraine a NATO Membership Action Plan, according to a joint declaration of the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania on the establishment of the "Lublin Triangle."

"[The foreign ministers] declare invariably their strong condemnation of the attempted annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation. They do not recognize it and will never do it. They also call upon the Russian Federation to withdraw its troops from the parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine," the declaration reads.

The foreign ministers of the three countries called on Russia to "stop its aggression against Ukraine, as well as its temporary occupation of Ukraine's territories of Crimea and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine."

The parties reaffirmed "their firm support for the European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Ukraine and welcome its European choice."

At the same time, the ministers noted with satisfaction the "granting of NATO Enhanced Opportunities Partner status to Ukraine."

"They support Ukraine's aspirations to NATO membership. Providing Ukraine with the NATO Membership Action Plan should be the next step to this direction," the joint declaration reads.

In the document, the ministers stressed their readiness to deepen and broaden Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian military-to-military cooperation, both through bilateral and trilateral activities and by making full use of possibilities created by NATO. To achieve these goals, the ministers decided to create a trilateral platform for political economic and social cooperation between Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine - Lublin Triangle.

According to the declaration, as part of the Lublin Triangle, the ministers will organize their regular meetings, including in the margins of multilateral sessions and with the participation of chosen partners. They will also organize consultations of high-level foreign ministry officials and establish liaison-officers within the Ministries of Foreign Affairs.

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EDUCATION Minister Norma Foley has defended the decision to move substitute teachers to various schools, and said she expects classes to reopen in late August.

Minister Foley told RTES Morning Ireland that substitutes will be moved around schools as and when needed, to cover periods of absence and sickness.

When asked if this was 'risky' given the Covid-19 pandemic she replied; It will be on a very limited basis".

"The provision has to be made of that nature, but it will be a small number of schools and it will be a very small panel.

The Association of Secondary School Teachers (ASTI) has meanwhile stated it is not confident it will be possible for all schools to open within weeks due to the substantial amount of changes to be made under the reopening plans.

But Minister Foley didnt agree with this, stating: The plan unfolding yesterday means schools will fully open in a safe manner, in a way that doesnt compromise educational standards.

Parents and communities and the entire society want schools to reopen fully and as Minister of Education I want to see a full and safe reopening of schools at the end of August.

This is back to school as normal for our school communities, for all those who work in the sector and our students.

The Government has pledged 375m into reopening schools across the country. Teachers will be drawn from a pool of 2000 registered teachers who are currently not working.

An additional 1080 teaching posts will be filled and this includes guidance counsellor posts and counsellors to aid with student well-being.

Many are working in the teaching environment, Minister Foley said. Many principles will already know where their additional hours will come from.

We are looking at a wide range from the pools to draw from, which is a good news for schools.

The funding was, Minister Foley said, an endorsement of the education sector.

All of us in the education sector, the widest realms of society want schools to open.

She said the reopening plan would provide a confidence boost to the economy, a return to normality for us.

Every precaution will be taken, we are working in a safe environment, she added.

The minister said it was incumbent on schools to create spaces to ensure students would be separated into bubbles and smaller pods within classrooms.

She said: We already have substantial funding to offer school's capacity to go into class spaces and declutter, remove furniture that is not needed and maximise capacity and look at other spaces in the school.

Ms Foley said schools should be looking at rearranging general purpose areas and assembly areas to make more room for students to move round and social distance.

I have confidence schools have the potential and have the resources, she added.

The ASTI believes not all schools will be able to open in time for the end of August and that opening times would need to be staggered.

Ms Foley said there was a little give within days of opening from the end of August until the start of September.
Queensland's Premier has warned residents not to travel to NSW after 14 new coronavirus cases were confirmed there, as the Prime Minister abandoned the rest of his trip in the Sunshine State.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison cut short his Queensland tour to deal with the unfolding crisis in Victoria.

Commuters stopped by police at the Queensland-NSW border checkpoint in the Gold Coast hinterland. Credit:Elise Derwin

"I'll be returning to Canberra later this morning ... I had been planning to be in Queensland for the next few days," Mr Morrison said at the Sunshine Coast on Tuesday.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was poised to "slam" the state's southern border shut if community transmission exploded in NSW.
I relocated to a new state for a job this past December. In March, my workplace closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, and Ive been working from home since. Were now preparing to go back to work, and my employers are requiring every person coming to the office to sign a daily affidavit affirming that they dont have any Covid-19 symptoms. Anyone refusing to sign will be barred from the office and forced to use paid time off or potentially lose a days wages. Requiring me to sign this statement feels like an invasion of my privacy  theyve never required anyone to sign such an affidavit during a flu outbreak. Is it ethical for a business to ask employees to sign something like this? I should also note that my state hasnt met the benchmarks for reopening set by the White House. Is it ethical for my employer to require us to come back to work in the first place? J. T.

In ethics, there are many different notions of privacy. Two are relevant here. First, theres informational privacy, which concerns what others dont have a right to know about. In this respect, your (consensual) behavior in the bedroom and in the voting booth are private, though you have a right to reveal them if you choose, at least to people who are willing to listen. Informational privacy can also impose restrictions on you: There are things you ought not to reveal, like personal confidences, professionally privileged communications or state and business secrets. They are not other peoples business, and putting extraordinary circumstances aside, you dont have the right to make them other peoples business.

Second, theres an arena thats private in the sense that authorities  your boss, the government  have no right to decide them for you. The issue here isnt what others can expect to know but what they can legitimately require you to do. We could call this autonomy privacy: It has to do with what areas of your life should be under your own control. Its an aspect of liberty.

Does requiring people with the symptoms of a potentially fatal communicable disease to stay away from work violate informational privacy? It does not. For one thing, given the policy, your presence in the office is already an implicit assertion that you are symptom-free. Whats more, the point of the affidavit isnt to gather information at all; its to get you to take your undertaking seriously and, perhaps, to have some legal leverage if you dont.
Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of Leo Cable LP

Global Credit Research - 28 Jul 2020

New York, July 28, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Leo Cable LP and other ratings that are associated with the same analytical unit. The review was conducted through a portfolio review in which Moody's reassessed the appropriateness of the ratings in the context of the relevant principal methodology(ies), recent developments, and a comparison of the financial and operating profile to similarly rated peers. The review did not involve a rating committee. Since 1 January 2019, Moody's practice has been to issue a press release following each periodic review to announce its completion.

This publication does not announce a credit rating action and is not an indication of whether or not a credit rating action is likely in the near future. Credit ratings and outlook/review status cannot be changed in a portfolio review and hence are not impacted by this announcement. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history.

Key rating considerations are summarized below.

Leo Cable LP's B1 corporate family rating takes into consideration the combination of AT&T Inc.'s (AT&T, Baa2 stable) operations in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands (together AT&T PR) with Liberty Puerto Rico's existing operations in Puerto Rico under Liberty Communications of Puerto Rico LLC (LCPR, B3 stable), and reflects the combined group's increased scale and leading wireless and fixed market positions in Puerto Rico, its offering of a full suite of services, the quality of its networks and mobile spectrum holdings, as well as its expected positive free cash flow generation. The B1 rating also reflects the group's concentration in two small markets, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands, which have weak economies and exposure to adverse weather events; the integration risks related to the business combination; a competitive telecom market in Puerto Rico; and the lack of track record of the combined entity. The acquisition by Leo Cable of AT&T's operations in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands is expected to close during the second half of 2020.

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This document summarizes Moody's view as of the publication date and will not be updated until the next periodic review announcement, which will incorporate material changes in credit circumstances (if any) during the intervening period.

The principal methodology used for this review was Telecommunications Service Providers published in January 2017. Please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

This announcement applies only to EU rated and EU endorsed ratings. Non EU rated and non EU endorsed ratings may be referenced above to the extent necessary, if they are part of the same analytical unit.

This publication does not announce a credit rating action. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history.

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President Donald Trump (L) boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Md., on July 15, 2020. On right, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks in Dunmore, Pa., on July 9, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images; Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

First Presidential Debate Venue Changed Over CCP Virus Concerns

The venue for the first U.S. presidential debate was changed on July 27 after the University of Notre Dame withdrew as the host site over concerns related to the CCP virus. Case Western University in Cleveland announced it will host the Sept. 29 event instead.

Notre Dame President John Jenkins said in a statement that the constraints the coronavirus pandemic put on the eventas understandable and necessary as they arehave led us to withdraw.

The inevitable reduction in student attendance in the debate hall, volunteer opportunities, and ancillary educational events undermined the primary benefit of hostingto provide our students with a meaningful opportunity to engage in the American political process, he added.

Barring a Democratic convention surprise, President Donald Trump would face presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden at Case Westerns Health Education Campus. The university shares the campus with the Cleveland Clinic, which is co-hosting the event.

This pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of health care and scientific discovery in unprecedented ways. To have the presidential candidates discuss these issues in our innovative learning space represents a tremendous opportunity for both institutionsand our entire region, Cleveland Clinic CEO and President Tom Mihaljevic and Case Western Reserve University President Barbara Snyder said in a joint statement.

Case Westerns Health Education Campus opened in 2019 and features a 477,000-square-foot pavilion.

The partnership with the Cleveland clinic will make the COVID-19-related preparations easier according to Case Western. The Health Education Campuss distance from the main campus also makes hosting the event more feasible.

The Cleveland Clinic is advising the Commission on Presidential Debates on pandemic-related logistics for all four of the scheduled debates before the election on Nov. 3. The hospital will establish risk-mitigation procedures with the pavilion, including capping the audience size, distancing seats, and rolling out disinfectant measures.

We are all challenged with adapting to a new normal and safety is key as we all face this pandemic together, said James Merlino, the chief clinical transformation officer at Cleveland Clinic and chief health security adviser to the Commission on Presidential Debates. The Cleveland Clinic has been focused on understanding, containing, and preparing for COVID-19.

Case Western hosted the 2004 vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards. More than 43 million people watched the event. The TrumpBiden matchup is expected to draw 100 million viewers, according to Case Western.

Biden leads Trump by more than 9 points in an average of national polls maintained by Real Clear Politics.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows follows President Donald J. Trump as he walks to board Marine One and depart from the South Lawn of the White House on Friday, July 10, 2020 in Washington, DC.

The year before he became President Donald Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows took nearly $40,000 worth of trips that were paid for by nonprofit groups and conservative advocacy organizations.

Meadows, who was chairman of the fiscally conservative House Freedom Caucus, and his wife, Debra, took expense-paid business trips last year to the Czech Republic, Australia and Palm Beach, Florida, according to his latest financial disclosure report. The document was recently filed to the Office of Government Ethics.

The form says these trips were related to Meadows' duties as a member of Congress. Meadows, who was an ardent Trump defender in Congress, became the White House chief of staff in March of this year.

Meadows, who represented North Carolina in the House, had gone on similar outings in the past, according to previous disclosures. Though ethics experts say these trips are above board, the itineraries included private dinners, parties with heads of state and, in some cases, meetings with Trump officials.

The trips serve as an example of how some members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, get essentially free, luxurious travel as part of their duties. They also demonstrate how this way of doing business has persisted in Washington, even amid Trump's calls to "drain the swamp."

All congressional trips have to be approved by the House Ethics Committee. Separate documents from the Office of the Clerk, reviewed by CNBC, show that each one of Meadows' trips was given the go-ahead by the committee's leaders.

Meadows and his wife went to Sydney, Australia, in August for the first-ever Conservative Political Action Conference in that country. CPAC is organized by the American Conservative Union, an advocacy group that also has a lobbying arm and is chaired by Matt Schlapp. Schlapp's wife, Mercedes, once worked in the Trump White House and is now a member of the Trump campaign.

The White House financial disclosure shows that Meadows and his wife received over $23,000 in food, travel and lodging paid for by the American Conservative Union Foundation, a 501(c)(3) also chaired by Schlapp. According to the organization's website, it was created to help lawmakers better understand "why conservative principles work better to solve the myriad of complex and dynamic problems."

According to the House documents, which confirmed ACUF paid for the trip, Meadows and his wife each had a plane ticket worth $10,000, their total lodging was about $2,000, and each had meals totaling over $390. The conference took place at The Langham Hotel in Sydney. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., also attended.

The agenda included in Meadows' House ethics disclosure documents shows that U.S. congressional attendees took part in a dinner cruise, with Brexit supporter Nigel Farage as a featured speaker. The itinerary says topics for the cruise included "How the Federal Government Can Reduce National Debt in a Responsible Way." There was also a meeting with former Australian prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard.

On one of the forms, Meadows said he participated in panels about debt, tax policy, free trade and free speech. He also participated in private meetings about gun ownership rights.

Then there was the trip to Palm Beach, where the Club for Growth, a conservative nonprofit organization, paid over $3,000 for Meadows and his spouse to take part in a conference from Feb. 21-23, 2019, at the luxurious Breakers hotel.

Though the group says attendees picked up the cheapest hotel rate, it still cost $525 each night. Other House members who received paid trips to the conference include libertarian Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan and former Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe, who is now Trump's director of national intelligence.

Meadows, along with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, were among the featured speakers.

Three months after their travels to Palm Beach, Meadows and his wife went to the Czech Republic to take part in a bipartisan congressional conference led by the Aspen Institute, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit think tank.

The meeting in Prague focused on U.S. policies toward Europe and Asia. Meadows and his wife participated in the conference, with the Aspen Institute, along with at least three other organizations, financially sponsoring their trip. The bill came to over $11,000.
Ive never been one of those people who cant wait to leave New York City on the weekend. Firstly, I hate sitting in traffic  and cant even complain about it, as Im part of the problem. Secondly, our fantastic city has, in my opinion, the best food in the world. For instance, when New Yorkers want Chinese food, the first step isnt opening an app, its choosing the Chinese province you want to experience. Due to the pandemic, however, Im constantly fantasizing about going away  I even went camping recently after a 30-year hiatus.

Maybe like you, I have also been wondering if the time has come to finally leave the city, though I read somewhere that the obituary for New York City has been written many times. But then if we were to leave, where could one possibly go that, first of all, isnt another city, and secondly, doesnt immediately limit food options, cultural experiences, general New York weirdness, and things we can still do here post-COVID, like people-watching in the park? The Hamptons? Um, sure, if youre a gazillionaire. In my opinion, owning a decent-sized house in the Hamptons is like owning a Lamborghini. You might be able to buy one, but can you afford to maintain it? I dont mean the maintenance costs associated with a pool or fixing a pipe. Im talking about property taxes, which in some cases on the East End may feel like a mini-mortgage.

Photo courtesy of Simon Van Booy

Recently, Lexus asked if Id be interested in taking their latest hybrid SUV for a long drive, so my wife and I decided to visit some friends who have given up their respective places in Long Island City and the West Village to rent an apartment in a boutique hotel in the town of Hudson, the popular spot for people that want to get away from the hustle and bustle but not too far away. About two hours north of the city, I imagined eco-farms with hippies making goat soap, but while Im quite fond of both animals and washing, Hudson is more like a mini-Brooklyn. Its got cool stores, excellent coffee shops, fantastic dining options, and best of all, racial and socio-economic diversity, along with a significant number of LGBTQ-run businesses. Political affiliation is definitely mixed, but any division seems to be swept away by an overwhelming sense of friendliness in the town  even with a feeling amongst some locals that the gentrification of Hudson has made life much more difficult for those who live there full-time.

The drive up from the city was uneventful, which is exactly how I like it, and fears of COVID discouraged me from flicking on the blinker whenever we saw a Starbucks logo next to an arrow. The idea of having to stop for gas in our futuristic hybrid was laughable. At one point I thought the gas needle was stuck. In addition to being a hybrid with three electric motors, the RX 450h is all-wheel-drive with a 3.5-liter engine, producing about 308 horsepower. Aside from great gas mileage, its also quite zippy, and so quiet that when you inevitably come up behind a skateboarder on his cellphone or someone with no pants yelling about Jesus and the devil (yet another reason to love New York), they may fail to realize youre there  which is awkward as you crawl behind them, reluctant to honk. Pedestrian Detection is just one of the many standard safety features on the vehicle. The RX 450h is actually so safe, the only danger is that you might get bored with it after awhile. But if you see driving as a means to an end, then this is possibly the best car for the money. The range of safety options is dizzying (its an IIHS Top Safety Pick for 2020), its more comfortable than the lounge at Cartier on Fifth Avenue (though without complimentary coffee), and in terms of reliability, Lexus has already proven itself. My wife does not enjoy driving, and so I wasnt surprised that she loved this vehicle. In fact, on the freeway, she kept opening the glove box to study the window sticker.

The first thing youll notice about Hudson  or at least the popular downtown area (from the 7th Street Park to South Front Street)  is that parts of it appear to be caught in an architectural time warp. While there is a certain amount of building decay, its fantastic in a Tim Burton way, as you get a sense of what things really looked like when Hudson was hopping, from about 1790 to the early 1900s (though by then it had something of a reputation for debauchery). After massive decline in the mid-20th century, the first signs of a revival came in the 1980s, apparently due to antique dealers who, like me, were mesmerized by the beautiful, period architecture. Warren Street, now Hudsons main drag, just over a mile long, is a thriving mix of antique shops, cheesemongers, coffee shops (one of which is also a classic Italian motorcycle store), and unique businesses like The Quiet Botanist (a wild-crafted botanical apothecary) and the West Indies Natural Food, owned and operated by Paulette Clarke, who moved to Hudson from Montego Bay in the 1980s.

Photo courtesy of Simon Van Booy

Our home for the night, and the place where our friends had rented an apartment, was The Howard Hotel, a boutique-style hotel with seven rooms, including a pair of one-bedroom apartments, two king suites and three queen rooms. A king suite is $160 per night weekdays, $250 weekends. While the house started life as a late 18th century mansion, it spent some time as a seminary for young ladies before becoming a hotel again in the late 1800s. A complete renovation within the last few years, however, has transformed 216 Warren Street yet again into a modern-looking brick mansion, with the type of Italian restaurant on the first floor, CaMea, that people dress up for. The hotel is owned by Roy Felcetto and Max Cenci, who managed and owned three bed and breakfast properties in the Hudson area before selling those interests to focus on The Howard Hotel. If you dont drive, the hotel can be reached after a ten-minute walk from the train station (about two hours to Penn Station).

But driving has its benefits, as Bear Mountain State Park and the Woodbury Common outlet mall are both on the way. Piloting the RX 450h over 130 miles in one sitting incurred very little driver fatigue on my part. Was it the chair? The climate control with cooling seats? The velvet ride? All the little tech touches that make you feel like youre in a spaceship? Who can say  though when I returned the vehicle and got back into my own, five-year-old European wagon I felt like I was driving something from The Beverly Hillbillies. Without any bells and whistles, the RX 450h, in my opinion, is a bargain at $46,750, when compared with other new cars for this price. Some of the extras are worth it, I think, such as a parking and safety package which includes Rear Cross Traffic Braking. Thats only $1,865. However, a 12.3-inch Navigation System, and Mark Levinson, 15-Speaker Premium Audio System for $3,365 seems excessive (sorry Mr. Levinson). The model we took to Hudson in Nori Pearl comes in at $58,490, which doesnt really feel like a bargain anymore  even for something this good.

The verdict? The Lexus RX 450h is far superior to its familial peers, and, if you can keep it under $50K, a pretty good deal, as you might honestly not have to buy another car for 20-plus years. That is, if you dont take it off-roading, and cover, say, about 7,500 miles a year  or the equivalent of about 30 round-trip journeys from the city to Hudson.

The post Review: The Lexus RX 450h Is the Perfect Car for Escaping New York appeared first on InsideHook.
The most controversial moustache in South Korea has fallen victim to the razor's blade, with US ambassador Harry Harris visiting a traditional barbershop months after his facial hair became the object of unusual criticism. Seoul and Washington are security allies and the US stations 28,500 troops in the country. But their relationship has been strained in recent years by differences in their approaches to North Korea and over cost-sharing responsibilities. Harris has several times been the object of controversy in the South, and accused of high-handedness. Even his facial hair became an issue of debate. The envoy's mother was Japanese and, with Koreans still bitterly resentful of Tokyo's 1910-45 colonisation of the peninsula, commentators claimed the moustache alluded to the fashions of imperial governors-general from the period. In January Harris retorted that his grooming was a matter of personal choice, and that his critics were "cherry picking history". But over the weekend he uploaded a video to social media of him getting the moustache shaved off at a traditional Korean barbershop, saying he did so to keep cool in the Seoul summer, while wearing a mask to fight the coronavirus pandemic. "Glad I did this," the envoy said in a tweet. "For me it was either keep the 'stache or lose the mask. Summer in Seoul is way too hot & humid for both. #COVID guidelines matter & I'm a masked man!" Seoul and Tokyo are both major US allies, democracies and market economies faced with an overbearing China and nuclear-armed North Korea, but are locked in bitter disputes over historical issues. Earlier this year Harris said: "I understand the historical animosity that exists between both of the countries but I'm not the Japanese American ambassador in Korea, I'm the American ambassador to Korea. "And to take that history and put it on me simply because an accident of birth I think is a mistake."
HMRC is urging parents to claim Child Benefit

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jul 28th, 2020

Parents in Wales are being urged to claim Child Benefit, even if they have not yet been able to register the birth of their new-borns, to ensure they dont miss out.

Between April and July 2019, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) received 49,637 more new Child Benefit claims compared to the same period in 2020.

Claims can only be backdated by up to three months, so its important that new parents claim as soon as they can to receive the maximum support available.

Usually, to claim Child Benefit parents must register their childs birth first. However, with many local register offices operating at reduced capacity and some parents unable to go to their local register office because of COVID-19, HMRC announced in April that parents can claim Child Benefit without having to register their childs birth first during the pandemic.

First time parents will need to fill in Child Benefit claim form CH2 found online and send it to the Child Benefit Office. If they havent registered the birth because of COVID19, they should add a note with their claim to let us know.

If they already claim Child Benefit, they can complete the form or add their new-borns details over the telephone on 0300 200 3100. They will need their National Insurance number or Child Benefit number.

Angela MacDonald, Director General for Customer Services, HMRC said:

Its really important that parents remember to claim Child Benefit, not just for the payments which we hope will provide vital support at this time, but also so they dont miss out on National Insurance credits that help protect their State Pension.

In addition, it helps children to get their National Insurance number automatically at 16.

We are doing all we can to make this as simple and stress free as possible for parents.

Child Benefit payments increased from 6 April to a weekly rate of 21.05 for the first child and 13.95 for each additional child. Child Benefit is paid into your bank account, usually every 4 weeks.

Only one person can claim Child Benefit for a child. For couples with one partner not working or paying National Insurance contributions, making the claim in their name will help protect their State Pension.

HMRC is reminding people of the importance of claiming Child Benefit, even if they choose to opt out of receiving monetary benefits.

A tax charge known as the High Income Child Benefit Charge applies to anyone with an income over 50,000 who gets Child Benefit or whose partner gets it. Even if they have to pay the tax charge, they could still be better off by claiming Child Benefit  the tax is 1% of Child Benefit for each 100 of income over 50,000.

You can use the Child Benefit tax calculator to work out how much you may have to pay, or you can opt out of receiving Child Benefit payments altogether when
Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania create a new format of cooperation named "Lublin Triangle."

Today we create the Lublin Triangle. This format will be an important element of the development and strengthening of Central Europe and the strengthening of Ukraine as a full-fledged member of the European and Euro-Atlantic family of nations, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said at a joint press conference with his Polish and Lithuanian counterparts in Lublin, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

He thanked Poland and Lithuania for their consistent support for Ukraine on its path towards membership in the European Union and NATO and in the implementation of reforms.

Kuleba stressed that the countries had been already cooperating within the Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian Brigade but noted that the new format would expand cooperation. According to him, cooperation will not be limited to security issues, it will also cover economy, trade, investment, tourism, infrastructure, everything that can unite our countries even more, make Central Europe even stronger and make Europe more powerful.

The Lublin Triangle format will focus on deepening cooperation between our countries, but we also see great prospects for the Lublin Triangle to become a tool for inviting the countries that need closer contacts with the West, with European structures, and my colleagues and I will help our neighbors, our friends to interact more actively in this area, Kuleba emphasized.

As reported, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba makes a working visit to Poland on July 27-28.

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Linkedin Dzulfiqar Fathur Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 14:05 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669e61d9 1 Business unemployment,pre-employment-card,admission,recipients,COVID-19 Free

The management of the preemployment card program is planning to increase the admission intake for future registration batches to make up for the temporary suspension, an official has stated.

The fourth round of registration has been delayed since the programs third registration batch in late April. The government said earlier this month it was planning to admit 500,000 eligible applicants for the fourth round of registration, slated to commence later this month.

[The Coordinating Economic Minister] signaled to us that once the program reopens, the volume will be much bigger than before and we will do this consistently for more than four batches ahead, Denni Puspa Purbasari, the executive director of the management, said in a virtual talk on Monday.

The preemployment card program, a mix of social assistance and a skilling program for laid-off workers affected by the pandemic, has been temporarily suspended to allow an overhaul of its legal basis and governance. The suspension is in response to the Corruption Eradication Commissions (KPK) report on irregularities in the program, including a potential for conflicts of interest and a risk of mistargeting.

The government then issued Presidential Regulation No. 76/2020, which allows the management to file criminal charges against ineligible participants who use falsified personal data in applying to the program, among other things.

Since its launch in mid-April, the preemployment card program has attracted 11.3 million applicants across the country and accepted 680,000 eligible participants, around half of whom are laid-off workers.

With a budget of Rp 20 trillion (US$1.38 billion), the program aims to help laid-off or furloughed workers by offering them a benefit worth Rp 3.5 million per recipient.

The pandemic has battered the Indonesian economy, which only grew 2.97 percent in the first quarter, the lowest in 19 years. Some 5.5 million people may lose their jobs this year, raising the total number of unemployed people to 12.7 million, according to an estimate by the National Development Planning Ministry.

Read also: Jokowi sets salaries for preemployment cards directors amid criticism of program



With the program, the government aims not only to help people stay afloat by finding another employment opportunity, but also by becoming an entrepreneur. By the end of June, the program was offering 3,805 courses through eight partnering platforms, including e-commerce giants Tokopedia and Bukalapak.



Bukalapak reported Monday that the most popular courses on its platform were online business and digital marketing, according to Rachmat Kaimuddin, the chief executive officer.



Rachmat added that online business courses accounted for around 65 percent of the preemployment cards courses offered via Bukalapaks platform.



We have seen quite high interest in the preemployment card, said Rachmat.



However, not all eligible recipients have received the Rp 600,000 monthly cash assistance from the program because they have not completed a course or experienced issues regarding their bank accounts or e-wallets.



State-owned Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), which partners with the program, now provides in-person consultation for eligible recipients facing technical issues in receiving the cash assistance as its 2,262 branch offices have now reopened.



Our outlets are ready to help people open a bank account for the preemployment card, said Sis Apik Wijayanto, the director of institutional relations at the bank.



The management reported that around 70 percent of eligible recipients had finished at least one course, qualifying them to get the cash aid. Of the recipients, between 10,000 and 20,000 have not received the aid funds.
Trend Micro announced its Trend Micro Cloud One  Conformity offering is now available to Azure customers, helping global organizations tackle misconfigurations, compliance challenges and cyber-risks in the cloud.

The company also achieved the CIS Microsoft Azure Foundation Security Benchmark. This certifies the Conformity product has built-in rules to check for more than 100 best practices in the CIS framework.

The security of the cloud is a cloud providers responsibility, but security in the cloud falls to the customer, which is where we fit, said Wendy Moore, vice president of product marketing for Trend Micro. Our Cloud One platform integrates closely with Microsoft Azure allowing DevOps to easily deploy against any hybrid cloud environment during their migration to the cloud.

In-house skills are often overloaded with the challenge of managing hybrid cloud complexities. The proliferation of shadow IT projects in the enterprise also means IT functions are often the last to know if cloud accounts have been created by business units without adequate care and attention paid to compliance, security and governance controls.

Conformity tackles these challenges by providing powerful visibility and control of Azure environments. Its continuous cloud security and compliance posture management capabilities alert customers to the risk status and provide easy-to-action remediation recommendations. These can help prevent common mistakes such as unauthorized database access and public access to Blob storage accounts.

By implementing the Conformity API into a CI/CD pipeline and existing workflows, DevOps teams can identify potential risk in their cloud infrastructure before they are deployed to live environments for automated, proactive prevention of vulnerabilities.

Trend Micro Cloud One  Conformity identifies around 230 million cloud misconfigurations for its global Azure and AWS customers every single day.

Trend Micros experience securing multi-cloud environments is a key differentiator to many organizations. Trend Micro is one of just a few vendors that provides the same full security and monitoring capabilities across both Microsoft Azure and AWS, said Mario Mendoza, Team Lead, Cyber Security Architecture and Engagement at Blackbaud. Blackbaud adheres to a DevOps approach internally, so any shift in security vendors requires buy-in from the DevOps teams. The fact that Trend Micro is able to protect Blackbauds hybrid cloud environment without slowing down its DevOps teams was critical in our decision for Trend Micro.

Trend Micro helps Blackbaud maintain constant vigilance for security and monitoring across its cloud operations. Trend Micro is always on the cutting edge of new threats, and they include us in those efforts. As a market leader, thats what we look for in partners, said Mendoza.
Lyme Expert Joins Tolk Wellness Center Were excited to welcome Dr. Yimoyines to our family of wellness practitioners, says David Tolk, Head Chiropractic Physician at Tolk Wellness Center. His extensive experience in the field will help us offer our patients alternative options on managing the ever-complicated Lyme disease.

Tolk Wellness Center announces its newest addition to the team: Dr. Keith Yimoyines, ND. Dr. Yimoyines is an experienced Naturopathic Doctor and an expert in the many diseases transmitted by ticks, such as Lyme disease.

Were excited to welcome Dr. Yimoyines to our family of wellness practitioners, says David Tolk, Head Chiropractic Physician at Tolk Wellness Center. His extensive experience in the field will help us offer our patients alternative options on managing the ever-complicated Lyme disease.

The addition of Dr. Keith Yimoyines couldnt have come at a better time, as Connecticut is currently dealing with an invasion of aggressive human-biting ticks, originating from the Southwest area of the US. Commonly known as the Lone Star tick, or Amblyomma americanum, this invasive species has been known to cause a myriad of fatal diseases, such as tularemia, ehrlichiosis, rickettsiosis, Heartland virus disease and Bourbon virus disease. On July 28, 2020 from 11:30 to 12:30 PM (Eastern Standard Time), Dr. David Tolk, DC will host the second Lyme Webinar on Zoom with Dr. Yimoyines as the guest speaker. The recorded webinar will be available to all registrants and shared on the Tolk Wellness Center website.

Im very excited to be joining the team at Tolk Wellness Center, says Dr. Keith Yimoyines. My approach with patients is to treat the whole person, which is exactly how they have been providing care for decades.

Patients looking to schedule an appointment with Dr. Yimoyines can do so via the online appointment form or by calling Tolk Wellness Center at 860-651-3521. Dr. Keith is currently offeirng 15-minute consultations and patients are being added to the waitlist as the demand grows for his service.

About Tolk Chiropractic & Wellness Center

Tolk Wellness Center was founded 37 years ago in Simsbury, CT to provide patients with holistic and natural alternatives to traditional health care that takes into account nutrition, allergies and mental health. The Tolk Doctors work with their patients to optimize their skeletal, muscular and chemical systems to identify the cause of their issue and prevent future conditions.

The Tolk Wellness mission is to aid patients in taking a proactive long-term approach to maintaining their health and is committed to providing the highest quality of natural healthcare services to its local community. Tolk Wellness Center is the flagship wellness center of OakLeaf Wellness.
India adds 47 more Chinese apps to `banned' list

The government on Friday banned 47 more Chinese apps, after its ban of 59 Chinese origin apps in June-end. These 47 apps were acting as clones of the 59 Chinese apps that were banned earlier.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) has prepared a list of 250 apps of which 47 have been alleged to be sharing data with the Chinese agencies, Times Now reports.

The development comes just days after the Indian government directed the makers of the banned 59 apps of Chinese origin to strictly comply with the ban order. The government said those violating the order would face serious action.

Through its order issued on 29 June, the government had banned 59 apps with Chinese links, stating that these were prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity and security of the country.

The banned apps included popular ones like TikTok, CamScanner, SHAREit and UC Browser.

MeiTY has confirmed that the apps in the latest ban list are clones/variants of the already banned 59 apps like Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, SHAREit Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite and VFY Lite and there are no additional apps that have been banned.

A report in The Economic Times said the list of 250 apps prepared by MeiTY includes big names such as PUBG mobile and Resso. Some other top gaming Chinese apps are also reported to be on this list.

Besides, according to the report, apps like Zili by Xiaomi, AliExpress by e-commerce giant Alibaba, and Resso and ULike from TikTok-owner ByteDance are also on the list of apps that may be banned in India.

A PTI report citing sources said the MeiTY has in a written communication to the concerned companies stated that the apps continued availability and operation, directly or indirectly, was illegal as well as an offence under the Information Technology Act and other applicable Acts.

The communication further stated that if any banned app was found to be available in India through any means, directly or indirectly, the government would view this as a violation of its orders.

The official communication to the 59 Chinese apps providers also has a set of questions asking them to disclose their operations and how they collect the data of Indian users.

The government communication underlined that apps were banned in exercise of the sovereign powers and Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.

Google and Apple have removed these 59 apps from their respective app stores and telecom operators have halted data transfers for these apps.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - Leaders of a Kansas city have pledged to make systemic racism a key budget priority in upcoming years. The Lawrence City Commission on Saturday outlined the goal as part of the city's new strategic plan, the Lawrence Journal-World reported.
The North Korean government has revealed it has recorded its first case of coronavirus in a city near the border with South Korea. Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un has announced the country will be placed on maximum emergency system protocols and told officials to brace for the impacts of the virus.

First case

According to the Wall Street Journal, the state-run media reported that the COVID-19 patient was a defector who fled to South Korea three years ago and came back to North Korea illegally on July 19.

The individual is believed to have contracted the deadly virus after several medical examinations that were conducted on him returned uncertain results.

North Korean Leader Kim was notified of the news on Friday afternoon and immediately ordered to place the city of Kaesong on lockdown and required its citizens and those who have been near the patient to be investigated, examined and quarantined.

At a Workers' Party meeting held on Saturday, Kim reportedly told the attendees to face up to the reality of the situation of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

On Sunday, South Korea's military force said it was investigating the potentially illegal border crossing. Yonhap News Agency identified the patient as a 24-year-old individual with last name Kim who swam across the Han River's estuary to escape to the south three years prior.

Reportedly, the COVID-19 positive Kim studied and finished middle school in the city of Kaesong before defecting to South Korea and settling in the city of Gimpo.

Six months ago, North Korea closed its borders and placed thousands of its residents into isolation as the coronavirus pandemic was rampaging across the entire world, as reported by BBC.

Also Read: Trump Pleads People to Wear a Mask, Says Coronavirus Pandemic Will 'Get Worse'

The apparent win against COVID-19

Earlier this month, Supreme Leader Kim expressed his gratitude to the country's successful response to the deadly pandemic.

Despite the country's apparent victory over the coronavirus pandemic, rumors have been circulating that North Korea has had positive COVID-19 cases for months but did not reveal the news to the world.

The secrecy and difficulty in verifying the claims made the announcement by the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) surprising to international entities.

The incident, however, raises many doubts about the authenticity of the news as defectors usually avoid the border closer to South Korea as it is heavily fortified. It is even rarer for them to re-defect via the same route years later.

According to CNN, international critics have since worried over the impoverished health system within North Korea, stating the country will most likely face severe difficulties in handling the situation. Despite the challenges, the country's government will most likely benefit from poor road and rail constructions and travel restrictions.

The restrictions on the travel of information have been the power that Pyongyang has held over several years in what is considered to be the country with the lease-free media environment. It becomes even more likely that the truth of the coronavirus case will never be revealed to the world.

Related Article: How Airlines Are Trying to Protect Passengers During COVID-19 Pandemic

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Companies seeking to commercialize seafood products made from the cells of fish or shellfish should use the term "cell-based" on product labels, according to a Rutgers study - the first of its kind - in the Journal of Food Science.

Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture require food products to have a "common or usual name" on their labels so consumers can make informed choices about what they're purchasing.

The study by William Hallman, a professor who chairs the Department of Human Ecology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, is the first to evaluate what name should be used on labels for seafood products to best meet both regulatory and consumer acceptance criteria.

"The results suggest that 'cell-based' is the best name when it comes to meeting both FDA regulations and likely consumer acceptance of these novel products," Hallman said. "The participants were able to tell that 'cell-based seafood' products were different from 'wild caught' and 'farm raised' products, but viewed them as equally nutritious and were just as interested in tasting and purchasing them."

Demand for seafood continues to increase, but the global supply is vulnerable and cannot keep pace. By producing just the parts of fish that people eat rather than catching or raising them whole, cell-based seafood products are expected to offer a healthy, sustainable alternative that will look, cook and taste the same as conventional seafood. They will also have the same nutritional qualities and health benefits as farmed and wild caught seafood, but will be free of mercury, microplastics and other environmental contaminants.

In the Rutgers study, 3,186 consumers were asked to evaluate one of seven potential names as well as "wild caught" and "farm raised," shown on images of realistic packages of salmon, tuna or shrimp. The names tested were: "cell-based seafood," "cell-cultured seafood," "cultivated seafood," "cultured seafood," and the phrases, "produced using cellular aquaculture," "cultivated from the cells of ____" and "grown directly from the cells of ____."

Under FDA regulations, a common or usual name must clearly distinguish a new product type from those with which consumers are already familiar. For cell-based seafood, this means choosing a name that signals to consumers that the product is different from wild caught and farm raised seafood. Because the products will also have the same proteins as conventional fish and shellfish, the name chosen also needs to signal that people allergic to seafood shouldn't eat the product.

The study also stipulated that the name be seen by consumers as an appropriate term to identify the product and that it not disparage either cell-based or conventional products, which excluded testing terms such as "lab-grown," "synthetic," "slaughter-free" and "cruelty-free."

The study found that terms with the word "cell" in them, including "cell-based" and "cell-cultured," worked best in helping consumers understand that the products are neither farm raised nor wild caught.

The names "cell-based" and "cell-cultured" were not significantly different on most key measures, making "cell-cultured" also a potentially viable name. Consumers viewed both as appropriate to identify the product and they did equally well at signaling that people allergic to seafood shouldn't eat the products.

However, products labeled "cell-based" were seen by participants as equally desirable as "wild caught" and "farm raised" seafood products, while those labeled "cell-cultured" were not, suggesting that "cell-based seafood" is the better common or usual name to appear on products.

The study was supported by BlueNalu, a San Diego company led by Lou Cooperhouse, former director of Rutgers Food Innovation Center. Hallman has served as director of Rutgers Food Policy Institute and chaired the FDA's Risk Communication Advisory Committee. He serves on the Standing Committee on Advancing Science Communication of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

###
--Next-wave engineered protein company with pipeline of cytokine therapeutics developed in Versant's Ridgeline Discovery Engine--

--First IL-2 development candidate shows superior properties to all known competitors--

--Industry veteran Sef Kurstjens joins as president and CEO--

Versant Ventures today announced the debut of Bright Peak Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing a platform to chemically synthesize and optimize the structure and function of proteins. Versant has made a $35 million Series A commitment to the company, which was launched out of the firm's Ridgeline Therapeutics Discovery Engine based in Basel, Switzerland.

Bright Peak's technology platform, licensed from ETH Zurich, allows a wide range of proteins to be chemically assembled de novo. Unlike recombinant technologies, the platform enables specific modification and conjugation at any atom and at multiple sites in the structure of the target protein to optimize its function. Importantly, the technology also allows for the introduction of conjugation handles that can expand an optimized protein into a portfolio of conjugated or multi-targeted products.

The company has validated the platform by creating a portfolio of designer cytokines with the potential to be advanced as novel immune-oncology therapeutics. Amongst other constructs, these include an optimized IL-2 conjugated with targeting antibody moieties such as PD-1 or PD-L1.

"Cytokines are emerging as a fundamental backbone in immuno-oncology," said Alex Mayweg, Ph.D., managing director at Versant and Bright Peak board member. "Bright Peak's platform is exciting because it allows us to design and construct superior molecules by precisely engineering the desired pharmacological effects and pharmacokinetic properties."

Precision engineering to create superior therapeutic proteins

Bright Peak's chemistry know-how originated in the laboratory of co-founder Jeffery Bode, Ph.D., and was exclusively licensed to the company. Dr. Bode is a professor of organic chemistry at ETH Zurich and a leader in the chemical synthesis of proteins. He has developed and optimized the technology over the past several years.

During a two-year stealth period, critical proof of principle experiments have been executed across four areas of protein engineering. These include optimizations of the receptor biology of various cytokines, half-life extensions, fusions tomonoclonal antibodies and masking or conditional activation strategies to further harness the therapeutic potential of these proteins.

"This is a true medicinal chemistry approach to optimizing the molecular structure of proteins with disease-relevant biology," said Dr. Bode. "It's gratifying to see the technology delivering substantial quantities of precisely tailored proteins in our CMC campaigns and I look forward to exploring the breadth of this approach with the team at Bright Peak."

A growing internal pipeline

A pipeline was developed within Versant's Ridgeline labs in collaboration with ETH Zurich. This included modified versions of IL-2, IL-18 and IL-7 optimized for the desired biology and pharmacokinetic profiles. Through further conjugation to antibodies or other moieties, each molecule can additionally be turned into its own portfolio of next-generation therapies.

Bright Peak made three modifications to its IL-2 molecule. The first was to completely block the cytokine's ability to engage the CD25 receptor on regulatory T cells, which dramatically shifted the balance of activity towards effector T cells and eliminated vascular toxicities. The second was to enhance potency on the beta/gamma receptors, which augmented the desired effects on CD8 T cell and NK proliferation. Finally, the molecule's half-life was significantly extended through site-specific modifications.

The resulting compounds have shown best-in-class properties in a variety of preclinical models. Based on these results, Bright Peak is currently running IND-enabling studies and has launched scale-up and CMC campaigns on the first IL-2 development candidate with the expectation of entering the clinic within a year.

The portfolio is being expanded by installing a conjugation handle on the optimized IL-2 compounds to attach other cytokines or targeted monoclonal antibodies, such as checkpoint inhibitors. The company expects to select a second development candidate from this program later this year.

Bright Peak's pipeline also includes a modified IL-18, also known as IFN-?-inducing factor. This cytokine plays a critical role in both the innate and adaptive immune response, but the wild-type version is quickly quenched by its native IL-18 binding protein. This limits the use of the natural protein in cancer therapy.

A modified IL-18 has been designed to specifically overcome these limitations in the natural protein. Enhancements such as half-life extension and further tumor-targeting strategies are underway to unlock its full potential as a cancer therapeutic.

Company leadership and operating plans

Versant has recruited Sef Kurstjens, M.D., Ph.D. to join as Bright Peak president and CEO. Dr. Kurstjens possesses more than 28 years of biotech and pharmaceutical drug development experience, having most recently served as chief medical officer at Astellas Pharma Inc., where he was a member of the corporate executive committee. Dr. Kurstjens also served as president and CEO at Astellas' Agensys Inc. affiliate.

"I'm excited to lead such a promising company with the potential to transform the field of protein therapeutics by developing products that possess markedly superior properties," said Dr. Kurstjens. "Each molecule we design can become a portfolio within a protein, which speaks to the power of this technology platform."

Bright Peak's internal R&D team is based in Basel and has been working alongside a founding team of leading scientists who have made major contributions to the fields of protein engineering. The company's scientific founders and advisors include:

Jeffery Bode, Ph.D., professor of organic chemistry at ETH Zurich. His group has focused on the synthesis of molecules and conjugates that are currently outside the reach of conventional synthetic methods, as well as new approaches to generate structural and functional complexity in small organic molecules. Dr. Bode's research and teaching have been recognized by numerous awards including an MIT Technology Review TR35 (2006) and the Elias J. Corey Award for Outstanding Original Contribution in Organic Synthesis by a Young Investigator (2011).

John Teijaro, Ph.D., associate professor in the department of immunology and microbiology at the Scripps Research Institute. Dr. Teijaro has published extensively on mechanisms of immune cell stimulation and suppression. His group recently discovered a mechanism for promoting the proliferation of self-renewing T cells, offering a potential new pathway for enhancing cancer immunotherapy.

Markus Enzelberger, Ph.D., partner at Versant. Dr. Enzelberger possesses deep expertise in the development of proteins and antibodies. He served as CSO and a member of the management board of MorphoSys AG. He joined that company in 2002 and is recognized as an authority in the field of protein engineering.

Bright Peak will operate across sites in Basel, Switzerland, and in San Diego, California. This allows the new company to further refine the protein engineering platform and in parallel launch multiple programs from its current pipeline of candidates.

With Versant's anchor investment, the company plans to expand its 20-member team to more than 30 scientists this year and expects to advance its lead program into clinical testing in 2021.

To capture the expanding opportunities in the field of cytokine therapeutics and beyond, Bright Peak will pursue Pharma partners in parallel with financial investors over the coming months.

About Bright Peak

Bright Peak Therapeutics is a biotechnology company with a platform capable of chemically synthesizing and optimizing natural proteins such as cytokines. Bright Peak was founded by Versant Ventures, and emerged from Versant's Ridgeline Therapeutics Discovery Engine in Basel, Switzerland.

About Versant Ventures

Versant Ventures is a leading healthcare venture capital firm committed to helping exceptional entrepreneurs build the next generation of great companies. The firm's emphasis is on biotechnology companies that are discovering and developing novel therapeutics. With $3.2 billion under management and offices in the U.S., Canada and Europe, Versant has built a team with deep investment, operating and R&D expertise that enables a hands-on approach to company building. Since the firm's founding in 1999, more than 75 Versant companies have achieved successful acquisitions or IPOs. Versant is currently investing out of its seventh fund, Versant Venture Capital VII, a $600 million global biotech fund closed in December 2018. In parallel the firm co-invests out of its Canadian strategic fund Versant Voyageurs I and its later-stage biotech opportunity fund Versant Vantage I. For more information, please visit www.versantventures.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005215/en/

Contacts:

Steve Edelson

sedelson@versantventures.com

415-801-8088
A ticket agent helps travelers arriving on a flight from Frankfurt, Germany before travel restrictions are enacted hours later on flights from Europe entering the U.S. because of concerns of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) at the Denver International Airport outside Denver, Colorado, U.S. March 13, 2020.

Germany's foreign ministry on Tuesday advised holidaymakers not to travel to several Spanish regions including Catalonia, home to Barcelona, that have seen coronavirus infection rates rise.

"We currently advise against unnecessary tourist trips to the autonomous communities of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre due to high infection numbers and local lockdowns," the ministry said on its website.

Spain's rise in COVID-19 cases has prompted most regions to impose rules for masks to be worn everywhere and, in several areas including Barcelona, calls for people to stay at home.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Mauritius counterpart Pravind Jugnauth will on Thursday jointly inaugurate the new Supreme Court built in Port Louis with Indian grant assistance, reflecting New Delhis sharpened focus on its neighbourhood first policy.

The Supreme Court building is one of five projects implemented under a $353-million special economic package extended by India in 2016. The structure is the first India-assisted infrastructure project in the capital of Mauritius.

India also announced the implementation of nine high impact community development projects (HICDP) in the Maldives on Tuesday. Indian envoy Sunjay Sudhir handed over a symbolic cheque to mark the implementation of projects worth $5.6 million during a ceremony at the foreign ministry in Male, which was attended by foreign minister Abdulla Shahid and members of Parliament.

New Delhi has taken several steps in recent days to revive economic activity amid the Covid-19 crisis and to shore up relations with key neighbours amid the border standoff with China.

On Monday, India handed over 10 railway locomotives to Bangladesh. Over the weekend, India announced a $400-million currency swap facility under the Saarc framework for Sri Lanka. Another $400 million was provided through an extended currency swap arrangement to the Maldives and India will soon announce another substantial financial assistance package to help post-Covid-19 economic recovery.

The inauguration of the new Supreme Court building in Port Louis will be done via video conference in the presence of senior members of the judiciary of Mauritius and other dignitaries.

The building was completed within schedule and below the expected cost, the external affairs ministry said in a statement. The building, spread over more than 4700 sq m with 10 floors and a built-up area of 25,000 sq m, has green features and high energy efficiency. It will house all divisions and offices of the Supreme Court.

In October 2019, Modi and Jugnauth inaugurated the first phase of the Metro Express project and a new 100-bed ENT hospital in Mauritius, also built under the special economic package. Construction of 12 km of the metro line was completed till last September, and work on a 14-km line in the second phase is underway.

The successful and timely completion of India-assisted high quality infrastructure projects in Mauritius shall also create greater opportunities for Indian companies in Mauritius and in the region, the statement said.

India and the Maldives signed a MoU on HICDPs during the visit of late former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj in March 2019. A grant of $5.6 million was announced for these projects and there was another cash grant of $7 million for small projects.

These projects, chosen by the Maldives, are meant to have a high level of community impact and participation in areas such as income generation, healthcare, education and sustainable development.

The HICDPs include three fish processing plants in Addu city, the Addu Tourism Zone and a bottled water plant in Hoarafushi, which are being steered by local authorities. Contracts for building the fish processing plants were awarded on July 22 and contracts for five eco-tourism projects are expected to be awarded soon.

Sudhir said Indias strategy for development cooperation with the Maldives includes big projects under a $800-million line of credit and a large number of smaller grant projects. He noted these projects are transparent and demand-driven, with full ownership for the Maldives government.

Former ambassador Rajiv Bhatia, distinguished fellow for foreign policy studies at Gateway House, said the standoff with China had clearly triggered a policy reappraisal by South Block.

India remains committed to its neighbourhood first policy, which has led to many successes. South Asia is of immense importance to Indias national interests and it has to keep pursuing these goals, he said.

Recent developments pertaining to Iran and Nepal underline the need to pursue the neighbourhood first policy with greater commitment and perhaps greater generosity. We can expect more such initiatives, perhaps even for Myanmar, he added.

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On the Frontline Against China, the US Coast Guard Is Taking on Missions the US Navy Can't Do

Competition with China has drawn more Pentagon resources to the Pacific, but the most visible U.S. military presence there...
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's recent speech on China is full of political lies as well as ideological prejudices that will only backfire and devastate his own credibility as well as that of the U.S. government.

Speaking at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, Pompeo harshly attacked the Communist Party of China (CPC) and China's social system, once again demonstrating Washington's obsolete cold-war mentality.

Pompeo's lies are almost everywhere. According to U.S. mainstream media, during his two-year tenure as U.S. secretary of state, by fabricating vicious charges, Pompeo bombarded countries including China, Russia, and Iran as well as international organizations and agencies such as the United Nations, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Monetary Fund.

Pompeo's lies are self-contradictory. Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pompeo has been sparing no effort to stigmatize China by referring to the novel coronavirus as the "Chinese virus" and "Wuhan virus."

In April, in a phone conversation with the Chinese side, Pompeo said that the COVID-19 outbreak is a common challenge for the international community, and the U.S. side is ready to work with China to strengthen bilateral cooperation in battling the outbreak. However, only days after, he wrongly accused China of failing to report its outbreak in a timely manner.

In February, Pompeo announced that the United States stands ready to spend up to 100 million U.S. dollars to assist China and other countries impacted by the coronavirus. The fact is that there is still no sign of this committed assistance to China, and moreover, the United States has decided to freeze its funding to the WHO, the world-leading health agency that most developing and less developed countries count on.

Pompeo's lies are ingrained in his personality. This former director of the Central Intelligence Agency once admitted: "We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment."

In Pompeo's point of view, as long as it is beneficial to his personal interests, facts and truths can be distorted. Amid the global COVID-19 fight, smearing China is his powerful weapon to cater to the current U.S. administration and secure his position in the White House.

His anti-China rhetoric and fallacies are only for shifting blame on China to cover the U.S. government's poor response to the COVID-19 outbreak and misleading the world community into containing China.

Yet the truth speaks for itself. China's social system and development path have won whole-hearted support from its people over the past 70-plus years, and will never change according to Washington's wishes.

Under the CPC's leadership, China has made remarkable achievements of worldwide acclaim in the political, economic, social and many other areas, and has greatly improved people's livelihoods, lifting hundreds of millions of Chinese out of extreme poverty.

Meanwhile, China has been maintaining world peace, contributing to global development, and safeguarding the rules-based international order.

Beijing has been widely recognized for following a path of peaceful development, and actively promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Also, it always advocates and has practiced the notion that all nations are equal and have the right to choose a development model that suits their own conditions, and it never tries to seek hegemony or expansion.

Choosing Nixon's presidential library to give a highly provocative China-smearing speech, Pompeo has not only deliberately distorted facts on China's development and maliciously slandered its domestic and foreign policy, but also intentionally gainsaid the historic moment of U.S.-China reengagement and defied a stable and sound bilateral relationship in the past decades, only to divert the public's attention from Washington's own flaws over the years.

However, his attempt to demonize China for cheap political gains is self-defeating, as the past and reality have proven that the two countries stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation.

Pompeo's dream of winning political points by inciting ideological opposition and sowing discord between China and other countries is also self-deceiving, as such groundless anti-China theories fool neither Americans nor the international community.

"His credibility is so diminished, any statements he makes are met with skepticism," read an article published on May 6 by Vanity Fair, describing Pompeo as "a longtime China hawk" infamous for "incendiary and baseless conspiracy theory."

Lying backfires. It is time for Pompeo to wake up to this fact, cure his China-bashing addiction as soon as possible, and start to spend more energy on fixing Washington's own problems.
The Irish government announced yesterday that an additional 375m would be made available to assist in reopening schools safely at the end of next month.

Along with last weeks July stimulus, this takes the cumulative direct spending in response to COVID-19 to to 16.9bn (7.9% of GNI).

Given the complications involved with Irish national accounts and the fact that this is a people-centred crisis, Goodbody Stockbrokers believe a comparison relative to population is justified. On this basis, direct spending per head in Ireland (3,424) is now among the highest in Europe, well ahead of Italy (1,736), France (2,015) and now even ahead of Germany (3,054).

The Irish government last week made changes to its COVID-19 credit guarantee scheme to make it more attractive by removing the portfolio cap, but it left the 80% guarantee restriction in place while the size was maintained at 2bn. The Irish government has introduced significant policies such as rates waivers, tax deferrals and wage supports to reduce cash-burn for businesses.

It remains to be seen whether further loan supports will be required as the new guarantee scheme gets up and running. Goodbody say this depends on the path of the virus from here, the speed of reopening in the economy and consumer and business confidence.

According to Goodbody, "Stage 3 of Ireland's fiscal response to the crisis will be in the budget in October where a national recovery plan will be set out. The new governments record so far suggests that it will be aggressive in its response, with obvious short-term impacts on the budget deficit, which is now likely to exceed 30bn (17% of GNI) this year."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
WHO Representative in Vietnam Kidong Park speaks at the meeting in Hanoi on July 27 (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi  The recent detection of new local infections of COVID-19 has proved the efficiency of Vietnams communicable disease surveillance system, according to WHO Representative in the country Kidong Park.

With a good surveillance system, it will not be a surprise that more cases of community transmission will be recorded in the time ahead, he said during a meeting between the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control and international organisations in Hanoi on July 27.

He spoke highly of Vietnams system for coronavirus prevention and control, which has swiftly quarantined, monitored and traced confirmed cases, suggesting the application of social distancing, public health measures and restriction of mass gatherings for a long period of time.

Park also valued the national steering committee and the local health sectors transparency and timeliness in sharing information, which have built and enhanced peoples trust in the COVID-19 fight.

The WHO Representative also said he respects the decision to repatriate Vietnamese citizens from pandemic-hit regions, including a flight to bring home 200 citizens from Equatorial Guinea with about 120 of them positive for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and another with over 100 infection cases from Uzbekistan, adding that the move demonstrates the humanitarian policy and timely attention of the Vietnamese Government.

The number of infections may surge in the time ahead, but it will not affect the countrys previous achievements in the pandemic prevention and control, according to him.

He also expressed his confidence in Vietnams response plans in case of widespread transmission, saying the WHO will continue standing side by side with the country to deal with challenges caused by this pandemic.

At the meeting, other international organisations hoped Vietnam to continue sharing information about mutations of SARS-CoV-2, the use of test kits and its treatment regimens.

Appreciating their support for the coronavirus combat, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, head of the national steering committee, called on international organisations to keep assisting the country in the production of test kits and vaccines and the updating of gene mutations and new strains of the virus.

He stressed that Vietnam will continue working closely with WHO and other international organisations in the COVID-19 fight.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Vietnam now stands at 431, including 11 new locally infected cases reported on July 27 evening. A patient confirmed in central Da Nang city on July 25 was the first local infection of the coronavirus after 99 straight days without community transmission in the country.
For parents who require childcare during remote learning times, an extended learning proposal will be offered, according to the plan. There is no cost for this option, which will be held at the districts Family Resource Center (the former Stevenson School in unincorporated Maine Township) and offered as soon as the school year begins, Bishop said. Parents will need to register and space will be limited, according to the plan.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28)  President Rodrigo Duterte shamed the two biggest water supply firms anew during his fifth State of the Nation Address because the two firms still haven't signed new deals with government, his spokesman said Tuesday.

Malacanang spokesman Harry Roque said the President's rants against Maynilad and Manila Water continue despite offering apologies to its owners Manny Pangilinan and the Zobel de Ayala brothers, respectively, back in May.

"Kinakailangan po kasing pumasok sila doon sa amended agreement. Hanggang ngayon po, wala pa 'yang ganyang kontrata," Roque said in a press briefing.

"Ang sabi naman niya pinatawad na niya 'yung mga may-ari niyan. Wala na silang kulong pero kinakailangang magkaroon pa rin ng panibagong kasunduan kung saan bibigyan ng katarungan ang sambayanang Pilipino," he added.

[Translation: They still need to enter into an amended agreement (with government). Until now, there's no such contract. The President said he has forgiven the owners. They will no longer be jailed but they still have to sign a new deal which will give justice to the Filipino people.]

READ: Duterte unlikely to sue water firms after apology to Ayala, Pangilinan business groups  Roque

The two firms supplying water to Metro Manila and nearby provinces have been the subject of Duterte's public rants since late last year after they ran to an international arbiter to demand that government pay 10.8 billion to recoup losses from rejected water rate hikes in 2015, during the term of then-President Noynoy Aquino.

The Department of Justice has been told to review the existing deals and craft a new one that no longer allows "onerous" concession agreements, such as requiring government to shoulder a firm's losses.

RELATED: ADB will help in drafting new deal for Maynilad, Manila Water

Negotiations for the new contracts were supposed to last a maximum of six months for eventual signing sometime in June. However, the country had to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, Duterte ordered the cancellation of contract extensions granted by former Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that authorized Manila Water and its counterpart Pangilinan-led Maynilad's supply deals until 2037.

Duterte revived the issue during his penultimate SONA, this time dragging the name of opposition Senator Franklin Drilon.

Drilon, a former private lawyer for ACCRA Law which helped Manila Water draft its supply deal with government back in 1997, on Tuesday denied having anything to do with the contract. He said he had already retired from the firm and was working in Congress at that time.

Manila Water shares dropped by 3.49 percent at Tuesday's trading, shedding a few centavos to 12.16 apiece. Meanwhile, the share price for its parent firm Ayala Corporation is up 1.69 percent to 722 each.

RELATED: Businessman Enrique Razon buys into embattled Manila Water

Metro Pacific Investments, which runs Maynilad, also saw a 1.32 percent boost in its stock price to 3.06 each. Metro Pacific's infrastructure projects were acknowledged by Duterte during his speech.

Duterte also linked the dominance of the two water providers to his crackdown against oligarchs, which he equates to rich families and tycoons "taking control of the water, the electricity and power."

The local utilities sector is dominated by family-owned conglomerates, as these industries require billions of pesos in capital to set up and operate. The Philippine government opted to privatize water and power distribution services decades ago.
Guy Ghazali, Singapore's first female senior president of the Syariah Court. (PHOTO: Ministry of Culture, Communication and Youth)

SINGAPORE  Singapore will see its first female senior president of the Syariah Court, with Guy Ghazali replacing the outgoing Alfian Yasrif Kuchit.

In a media release on Monday (27 July), the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) said that Guy, 38, will understudy Alfian as senior president-designate from 1 August, before taking on the appointment on 1 October.

She will be the fourth senior president of the Syariah Court, which is an Islamic religious court that handles Muslim legal affairs according to Muslim law. She will assume responsibilities such as hearing and making judgments and orders on divorce cases.

Guy is a legal service officer, and currently serves as a district judge and assistant registrar in the Family Justice Courts. Prior to this, she was a litigation lawyer in private practice, and was a member of the Law Society of Singapores Muslim law practice, family law practice and probate practice committees.

Outgoing senior president to return to MUIS

Alfian, 42, will return to the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS), after being seconded to MCCY since 2009. He will continue to serve as an ad-hoc president of the Syariah Court, while pursuing a doctorate degree at the law faculty at National University of Singapore.

He has served as senior president of the Syariah Court since 2017, succeeding previous senior presidents Sallim Jasman (1999 to 2006) and Mohamad Haji Rais (2006 to 2017).

Ms Guys appointment signals the governments commitment towards strengthening the Syariah Court, he said of Guys appointment as senior president.

I welcome the appointment, as I am confident that her skills, abilities and network of contacts can help facilitate greater collaboration and partnership between the Syariah Court and other agencies.

Families undergoing divorce face one of the toughest moments in their lives. As such, Syariah Court presidents should be conscious of the real-world impact that their decisions have on the lives of these families. For this reason, the Syariah Court must continue to be open to leaders like Ms Guy who can bring new perspectives and life experiences towards the administration of the law.

Story continues

Developing expertise in both Muslim and civil family law

In the media release, MCCY said that it is important to ensure that asatizah (religious teachers) who are trained in both Muslim and civil law helm the Syariah Court, as the needs of Muslim families evolve and divorces become more complex.

It is working with MUIS to develop such expertise among current and future asatizah. As a transitional arrangement, a civil judge with experience in Muslim family law will appointed to mentor the pool of asatizah to be future Syariah Court judges.

Mufti of Singapore Dr Nazirudin Nasir, who is the countrys highest Islamic authority and oversees key religious rulings for Muslims in the country, has expressed support for both Guy's appointment and the plan for Syariah Court judges to be trained in both Muslim and civil family laws.

The judiciary is a complex institution that requires a high level of expertise in various disciplines, he said in the media release.

I am confident that Ms Guy Ghazali is well placed to lead the Syariah Court as well as develop our asatizah who can be future Syariah Court judges. I look forward to working with her and the Syariah Court team to further advance the practice of Muslim family law in accordance with the principles and progressive values of Islamic jurisprudence.

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A sequence of clips showing police officers beating, pushing and shocking protesters and other unarmed Americans is set against President Donald Trump's description of himself as "your president of law and order" and his notorious 2017 directive to law enforcement, "Please don't be too nice."

The 30-second spot, called "Police State," is part of an ad campaign sponsored by Priorities USA and Color of Change, two liberal political action committees, and aimed at mobilizing black voters, particularly younger and Trump-curious black voters.

But the graphic material was rejected by Google, along with Hulu and Verizon. Facebook approved the ad.

The move by Google, the Web's largest ad platform, to filter out disturbing content central to a searing national debate over race and policing - a debate increasingly pivotal to the presidential campaign - speaks anew to the dilemmas faced by technology companies in regulating their platforms. Facebook has been pushed back on its heels by an intensifying ad boycott, organized by Color of Change and other civil rights groups that accuse the Silicon Valley giant of not erasing hate speech and misinformation.

Decisions in Silicon Valley are coming under heightened scrutiny as the technology industry's four most powerful chief executives - including Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, which owns Google - prepare to testify Wednesday before Congress. Lawmakers in the House are set to question the technology leaders about whether their practices are anticompetitive or otherwise harmful to the country.

The online depiction of violence, long a quandary for technology companies, has become even more vexed after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. Video of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, lying prone as a white officer knelt on his neck ignited nationwide protests against racial injustice; Trump seized on the unrest to depict himself as an agent of "law and order."

Google accepted an ad from the Trump campaign with lurid depictions of urban mayhem spliced together with an unanswered 911 call, part of an alarmist attack on the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden. Trump has also taken to Twitter to share videos and other accounts of violence, including a recent shooting in Austin, Texas.

Twitter and Facebook have taken action against the president and his reelection campaign, while their policies - regarding a range from political ads to conspiracy theories - remain in some flux.

Google said it blocked the graphic ad from the liberal groups in a bid to prevent harm to its users.

"We don't allow advertisers to run ads that contain graphic violence, including depictions of blood, baton beatings, and other instances of physical trauma," said Charlotte Smith, a spokeswoman for the company. "These policies apply to all advertisers, regardless of political affiliation."

She added, "We recognize that this imagery is from current events, but we have a firm policy against ads with shocking and disturbing content."

But Priorities USA, which is the super PAC favored by the Biden campaign, condemned the move.

"Donald Trump is abusing law enforcement powers to declare war on black people and other peaceful protestors across the country," said the group's deputy executive director, Jenn Stowe. "It's important to reflect this very real depiction of Donald Trump's America and we must be allowed to hold him accountable for his actions ahead of the election. The decision by Google and other online platforms to censor our ads while allowing Trump to use violence in his own ads only exacerbates the problem and prevents our elected officials from being held accountable for their dangerous actions."

The $3.4 million ad campaign with the 30-second spot is set to launch Saturday and run through Election Day. It will appear in four battleground states - Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - and target users who have shown interest in historically black colleges and universities, black churches, black media companies and black fraternities and sororities. It will also focus on black voters who indicate that they "like" both Trump and former president Barack Obama on Facebook.

The initiative is part of a broader mobilization by Priorities USA, which announced earlier this month it would put $24 million into a program designed to reach black and Latino voters.

Hulu and Verizon, which also rejected the ad, did not respond to requests for comment. In communication to Priorities USA, Hulu said the material was rejected because of "consistent violent imagery," including "human-to-human violence," but has agreed to run a portion of the ad.

Verizon took a similar position.

"The issue is that the video features some shots of violence that are intense and distressing," the telecommunications conglomerate said. "In general, we don't allow ads that depict violence, criminal behavior, physical harm or leverage fear, across all categories."
S Lalitha By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: To drastically reduce water losses in the city, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), is now giving a huge thrust to regularising them. A total of 20,000-plus illegal water and sewerage connections have been identified.On an average, 1450 Million Litres of Water per Day (MLD) are pumped to the city and a slightly reduced 1,429 MLD has been pumped during the past week. There are 9.8 lakh water connections registered with the BWSSB.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, BWSSB Chairman, N Jayaram said that nearly 36% of the water supply supply each day is unaccounted for. Of this, 10% of the loss that occurs is the result of parallel water connections (an additional one created after paying for one connection), unauthorised connections and meter manipulation. Our primary focus is to first cut down on this loss which will not cost us any amount at all by regularising all of them.

An informal target of August 15 was given to engineers on Monday to ensure the connections are regularised, the Chairman said. Chief Engineer Kemparamaiah said that a whopping 13,000 connections were reported from the C-3 Sub Division alone which comprised of Coles Park, Fraser Town, Pulakeshi Nagar and surrounding areas. The remaining connections, around 7,000 are distributed across the rest of the city.To give priority to cracking down on these irregularities, engineers of the Maintenance Division have been asked to focus on this aspect during a meeting today. The Division has two Chief Engineers

and four Additional Chief Engineers (ACE). Each ACE has been asked to identify 2,000 connections a week, Kemparamaiah said.

Asked about the possible penalty, the he said that an imprisonment of 6 months and a penalty of Rs 5,000 can be levied under the BWSSB Act. Since water is an essential requirement for people, we have not taken very strict action. But our focus is definitely on regularizing all unauthorized connections, he added.It is easier to book those with individual, small houses. However, in case of huge apartments, the amount to be collected is huge with pro rata amounts to be paid too. We are creating a comprehensive database now on exact irregularity and sums will be paid, he said.
New Delhi:

To boost cash flow to agri sector and ease farmers' problem facing acute cash-crunch during Rabi crop sowing season, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das briefed media on new schemes by government after demonetisation exercise to help farmers.

Here are the highlights:

#RBI announced certain relaxation yday on E-wallets, enhancing the limit from Rs 10k to Rs 20K in respect of individuals

#Some of public & private sector banks & service providers agreed to waive service charges on use of debit cards up to Dec 31

#Indianrailways waives service charges on e-tickets booked till December 31

#Government has taken steps to ease rural area problems like micro-atms, bank correspondents have been made available

#82,000 ATMs re-calibrated so far, only a matter of few days all the ATMs will be re-calibrated

#No service charge will be levied on digital financial transactions using features phones till Dec 31st '16

#Public banks have said that there has been a surge in demand for usage of digital financial transactions

#Farmers allowed to buy seeds using old notes

#FM Arun Jaitley held video-conference call with NABARD & RBI; advised them to carry out whole chain of activities smoothly

#As far as RUPAY cards are concerned, all switching charges and other charges have been waived till December 31

#TRAI has reduced USSD charges from Rs. 1.50 to 50 paise for feature phones (not smartphones) - as feature phones comprise over 65% of all phones

#The government will also promote digital transactions at toll plazas. The Ministry of road transport have told manufacturers to include ETC complaint RFID facility in all new cars

#NABARD and RBI has been advised to ensure adequate cash supply is available to the DCCBs

#NABARD has sanctioned Rs 21,000 crore limit to district central cooperative bank

#For benefit of agricultural operations in current rabi season, NABARD has sanctioned a credit limit of a 23,000 cr to DCCBs

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Ottawa, July 28 : The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has announced to extend again the payment deadline for federal taxes and to offer interest relief on taxes amid the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CRA said on Monday it is extending the payment due date for current year individual, corporate, and trust income tax returns, including installment payments, from September 1-30, Xinhua news agency.

Penalties and interest will not be charged if payments are made by the extended deadline. This includes the late-filing penalty as long as the return is filed by September 30, the tax agency said in a statement.

The CRA is also waiving interest on existing tax debts related to individual, corporate, and trust income tax returns from April 1 to September 30, and from April 1 to June 30, for goods and services tax and sales tax returns.

"While this measure for existing tax debts does not cancel penalties and interest already assessed on a taxpayer's account prior to this period, it ensures that a taxpayer's existing tax debt does not continue to grow through interest charges during this difficult time," the agency said.

The government extended this year's tax filing deadline from April 30 to June 1 to reckon with the impacts of COVID-19.

Canadians were also told they had until September 1 to pay what they owe without any interest or penalty.

However, with the deadline having come and gone, the CRA is encouraging Canadians to file as soon as possible to ensure their benefits don't get disrupted.

To ensure Canadians continue to receive their benefits and credits during the COVID-19 pandemic, the CRA temporarily suspended interruptions for those who were unable to file their income tax and benefit return by the June 1 deadline.
Fingrid Oyj

Stock Exchange release 28 July at 11:30 EET

FINGRID GROUP'S HALF-YEAR REPORT 1 JANUARY - 30 JUNE 2020

Fingrid's consolidated financial statements have been drawn up in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This half-year report has been drawn up in accordance with the IAS 34 Interim Financial Reporting standard and complies with the same accounting principles as those presented in the Group's financial statements for 2019. This half-year report is unaudited. Unless otherwise indicated, the figures in parentheses refer to the same period of the previous year. The graphs and clarifying texts of the half-year report are available in the attached PDF file.

Turnover fell due to the decline in electricity consumption caused by the warm winter, which directly impacts grid service income, and due to the lower price of imbalance power resulting from the lower electricity price. The latter can be seen also in the lower imbalance power costs.

Consolidated operating profit excluding the change in the fair value of derivatives decreased due to falling grid service income and to the increased cost of reserves. Profit for the period was also affected by the negative change in the fair value of electricity derivatives hedging the loss power procurement as well as the positive impact on financing items attributable to the sale of the Nord Pool shares.

The impacts of the corona pandemic on business have so far been very limited.

Finland's electricity consumption during the period amounted to 41.4 (44.6) terawatt hours.

A total of 34.3 (34.8) terawatt hours of electricity was transmitted in Fingrid's grid, representing 76.3 (74.3) per cent of the total transmission volume in Finland (consumption and inter-TSO).

KEY FIGURES 1-6/20 1-6/19 change % 1-12/19 Turnover MEUR 343.4 415.2 -17.3 789.4 Capital expenditure, gross MEUR 70.3 59.0 19.1 126.9 - of turnover % 20.5 14.2 16.1 Personnel costs MEUR 16.3 16.0 1.8 26.4 Operating profit excluding the change in the fair value of derivatives MEUR 70.9 89.0 -20.3 142.1 - of turnover % 20.6 21.4 18.0 Operating profit MEUR 55.2 66.8 -17.3 115.5 - of turnover % 16.1 16.1 14.6 Profit before taxes MEUR 58.5 69.0 -15.2 105.8 - of turnover % 17.0 16.6 13.4 Profit for the period MEUR 48.2 55.9 -13.7 84.6 Comprehensive income for the period MEUR 49.3 55.9 -11.9 84.7 Net cash flow from operations, after capital expenditure MEUR 101.7 94.4 7.8 263.1 Equity ratio at the end of the review period % 28.0 33.9 32.0 Interest-bearing net borrowings at the end of the review period MEUR 1,035.8 1,036.1 0.0 1,037.2 Net gearing at end of period 1.6 1.5 1.5 Earnings per share  14,500.57 16,808.26 -13.7 25,452.50 Dividend, Series A shares  58,500.00 Dividend, Series B shares  21,400.00 Equity per share  190,921.32 212,874.71 -10.3 206,213.21 Dividend payout ratio, A shares % 234.9 Dividend payout ratio, B shares % 86.0 Number of shares - Series A shares qty 2,078 2,078 2,078 - Series B shares qty 1,247 1,247 1,247 Total qty 3,325 3,325 3,325

President and CEO Jukka Ruusunen: Weather conditions played the main role in the Nordic electricity markets

Conventionally, the electricity system and electricity markets are heavily dependent on weather conditions. The weather played the main role in the Nordic electricity markets in the first half of this year: an exceptionally mild winter and the resulting substantial decrease in electricity consumption, heavy rains and the consequent good availability of hydropower, hard winds and high production of wind power as well as, specifically for Finland, scarcity of balancing power due to spring floods in the north of the country. The winter's peak consumption in Finland did not exceed 12,400 MWh/h, which is the lowest peak demand this millennium.

The exceptional weather conditions have resulted in very low electricity market prices and large area price differences in the Nordics. Finland has imported electricity from Sweden, using the full transmission capacity between the countries, but the existing transmission capacity has failed to meet the actual market needs. We have put substantial effort into ensuring the reliability of cross-border connections and Fingrid's cross-border links worked extremely well throughout the first six months of the year. Our goal is to make the entire transmission capacity allowable in terms of the system security of the electricity system available to the electricity markets each day and we have successfully achieved this goal.

Fingrid's financial development during the first half of the year was weaker than in the previous year. Due to the decrease in electricity consumption, the grid service income fell year-on-year. The market conditions also resulted in a decrease of the cross-border transmission income for the Russian transmission. The exceptionally intensive spring floods increased the prices for the reserves required for balancing consumption and production for several weeks, resulting in increased costs for the company.

The corona pandemic has not had a major impact on electricity consumption in Finland, and Finland's electricity system has functioned normally. During the pandemic, our focus has been on the continuity of operations while we have simultaneously strived to maintain the stability of our business in other respects as well. Our transmission reliability has been very high. Our capex projects have proceeded according to the planned schedules despite the exceptional circumstances. As regards major transmission projects, the Forest Line and the third AC connection to Sweden constitute a part of the electricity network infrastructure that Finland needs to become carbon-neutral. Connecting wind power to the main grid means a lot of work for us and more wind power projects are underway than ever before in Fingrid's history.

Today and tomorrow, our success relies on competent people and on our unique corporate culture. As testimony of this, Fingrid came in 7th in the mid-sized companies category of the Great Place to Work Finland survey-an excellent achievement. Fingrid's top score in ITOMS (The International Transmission Operations & Maintenance Study) bears witness to our world-class quality and cost-effectiveness. We were the only TSO to achieve a Top Performer nomination both in the transmission line and substation maintenance categories.

Financial result

The Group's turnover in January-June was EUR 343.4 (415.2) million. Grid service income declined to EUR 199.8 (209.3) million during the first half of the year due to unseasonably warm weather, which resulted in decreased electricity consumption. Electricity consumption in Finland totalled 41.4 (44.6) terawatt hours in January-June. Imbalance power sales revenue decreased to EUR 120.9 (175.2) million, as a result of the lower imbalance power prices. Cross-border transmission income from the connection between Finland and Russia decreased from the previous year's level, to EUR 1.5 (5.4) million, due to the reduced transmission volume. Other operating income totalled EUR 0.4 (0.6) million.

Costs during January-June totalled EUR 273.0 (326.9) million. Due to the lower imbalance power price, imbalance power costs decreased from the previous year's level, to EUR 106.2 (162.5) million. Loss power costs amounted to EUR 24.5 (25.7) million. At the end of June, approximately 98 (96) per cent of Fingrid's projected loss power procurement for the remainder of 2020 was, in terms of system price, hedged at an average price of EUR 25.4 (27.2) per megawatt hour. In terms of the Finnish area price difference, roughly 100 (100) per cent of loss power procurement was hedged at an average price of EUR 4.6 (5.3) per megawatt hour. The cost of reserves to safeguard the grid's system security increased to EUR 33.4 (26.6) million, as a result of the high prices during the flood season.

Depreciation for the review period totalled EUR 49.0 (48.7) million. Grid maintenance costs grew to EUR 10.6 (7.9) million as a result of increased maintenance expenditure in DC connections and voltage compensation equipment. Personnel costs amounted to EUR 16.3 (16.0) million.

The Group's operating profit for the first six months of the year was EUR 55.2 (66.8) million. Profit before taxes was EUR 58.5 (69.0) million. The differences from the corresponding period of the previous year are mainly explained by the decrease in grid service income and cross-border transmission income (EUR -13.4 million). Profit for the review period amounted to EUR 48.2 (55.9) million and comprehensive income to EUR 49.3 (55.9) million.

Financing

The Group's net cash flow from operating activities, with net capital expenditure deducted, was EUR 101.7 (94.4) million for the review period. The equity ratio was 28.0 (33.9) per cent at the end of the review period. The impact of the IFRS 16 standard reduced the share of equity by 0.4 percentage points.

The consolidated net financial costs between January and June were EUR 4.3 (1.7) million positive, including the positive change of EUR 4.7 million (EUR 9.7 million positive) in the fair value of derivatives. The change in the fair value of financial assets was EUR 0.4 million negative (EUR 0.3 million positive). The Group's finance income increased during the review period, including an EUR 8.4 million dividend attributable to the sale of the Nord Pool shares. The net financial costs included EUR 0.3 million (0.3) in interest expenses on the lease liabilities entered into the balance sheet, due to the introduction of the IFRS 16 standard in 2019.

Interest-bearing borrowings totalled EUR 1,261.3 (1,133.3) million, of which non-current borrowings accounted for EUR 1,044.1 (898.6) million and current borrowings for EUR 217.2 (234.6) million. On the reporting date, the liabilities included a total of EUR 31.7 million (34.0) in lease borrowings in accordance with IFRS 16, consisting of EUR 2.4 million (3.0) in short-term liabilities, with a maturity date within one year, and EUR 29.3 million (31.0) in long-term liabilities, with a maturity date after more than a year.

The Group's liquidity remained good. Cash assets and financial assets at the end of the review period amounted to EUR 225.5 (96.6) million. The increase was due to the significant growth of the congestion income, included in the cash flow, and new long-term financing arrangements implemented to minimise refinancing risks resulting from the crisis on the money markets during the first half of the year. The Group's liquidity is additionally bolstered by an undrawn revolving credit facility of EUR 300 million and a total of EUR 225 million in uncommitted overdraft facilities consisting of binding and non-binding bilateral arrangements with banks.

Ensuring transmission capacity

As regards major electricity transmission projects, the Forest Line and the third AC connection to Sweden constitute a part of the electricity network infrastructure that Finland needs to become carbon-neutral.

The Forest Line will substantially increase the North-South transmission capacity necessary for the Finnish electricity system. The roughly 300 kilometres long, 400-kilovolt transmission link is being built in place of or next to the current power lines, running from Petajavesi through Haapavesi and to Muhos. The work has progressed well, with roughly half of all the transmission line foundations completed. The related modifications to the Petajavesi and Toivila substations are also underway.

Fingrid is preparing, in co-operation with the Swedish TSO Svenska kraftnat, a new transmission connection from Pyhanselka at Muhos via Keminmaa to Messaure in Sweden. Due for completion in 2025, the transmission line will even out the price differences between the countries and improve the availability of electricity in Finland. Fingrid's and Svenska kraftnat's joint project has been included in the European Commission's list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI). In March, the Finnish and Swedish energy authorities decided on the cost-sharing principles to be applied to this capex project. The estimated capital expenditure is EUR 250 to 300 million, with Connecting Europe Facility funding to be applied for half of this total investment cost. The funding will be decided on by the EU's Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA).

The transmission line being built in the municipality of Kontiolahti and the city of Joensuu to reinforce the grid in North Karelia is proceeding as planned. Work on the transmission line is currently underway and the project will be completed in the spring of 2022.





A total of 29 substation projects is currently in the implementation stage. Nine out of these will be completed in 2020, 11 in 2021 and the remaining nine substations in 2022. While the new substation projects are located evenly throughout Finland, the focus is on the Forest Line and Coastal Line connections.

Fingrid decided on several new capital expenditure projects during the review period. Connecting up wind power to the grid has particularly increased the capex needs.

New wind power plants with a total capacity of roughly 4,000 megawatts are planned in the area between Kristinestad, Vaasa and Seinajoki. Haapajarvi and the neighbouring municipalities, in central Finland, are planning new wind power projects totalling more than 1,000 megawatts. Fingrid has made investment decisions to build a substation at Pysayspera in the municipality of Haapajarvi and another substation at Karppio in the municipality of Teuva. The total capital expenditure will be roughly EUR 55 million. The investments encompass substations as well as modifications to the surrounding transmission lines necessary for linking the transmission lines with the new substations. The planned commissioning dates for the substations are in the summer of 2022.



A 400/110-kilovolt substation will be modernised at Tammisto in Vantaa. The investment will improve the system security of electricity supply in the Helsinki region. The Tammisto substation is one of the stations supplying electricity to the capital region and a key node of the grid. The construction work on this project will start in June 2021. The new substation will be commissioned in late 2022.



The 110-kilovolt Luukkala substation will be modernised in Lappeenranta. The Luukkala substation plays an important role for electricity transmission in the South Karelia and Lappeenranta area: it is the starting point of several grid ring connections and also supplies the city of Lappeenranta as well as local industries with electricity. The project will be completed in the autumn of 2023.



The Jylkka substation, located in Kalajoki, will be expanded and fitted out with a third transformer, making the substation Finland's most important connection point for wind power. The project will be completed during 2022.

Fingrid scored top results in ITOMS (The International Transmission Operations & Maintenance Study) and was the only TSO to achieve a Top Performer nomination both in the transmission line and substation maintenance categories in March. ITOMS looks into the effectiveness of maintenance based on criteria such as maintenance costs and disturbance statistics.

Fingrid will carry out aerial photography of all the transmission lines included in the grid during the summer of 2020. This means approximately 12,000 kilometres of power lines, making it the most extensive imaging project of Finland's grid system ever completed. The previously created images cover 2,000 kilometres of grid transmission lines. The aerial photography will bring the documentation of the grid up to date, while also helping to assess the condition of the grid and enable planning of future maintenance work.

Management of system security





In January-June, Finland's electricity consumption amounted to 41.4 (44.6) terawatt hours. Inter-TSO transmission in the same period amounted to 3.5 (2.2) terawatt hours. The total electricity transmission in Finland was 44.9 (46.8) terawatt hours. Fingrid transmitted a total of 34.3 (34.8) terawatt hours in its grid, representing 76.3 (74.3) per cent of the total electricity transmission in Finland. During this period, the electricity Fingrid transmitted to its customers amounted to 30.7 (32.5) terawatt hours, which represented 74.1 (72.9) per cent of Finland's total consumption.

The electricity consumption in Finland peaked this year on 28 February, rising close to 12,400 megawatts. The peak consumption figure is the lowest this century, a result of the exceptionally mild weather as well as various industrial conflicts and the consequent plant closures.The peak consumption was met with 9,849 megawatts of domestic production and 2,539 megawatts of net imports. The electricity supply was not in jeopardy in the winter of 2019-2020.

Through January to June, the system security of Fingrid's grid system was at a very good level and there were no significant grid disturbances. Finland's electricity system retained its normal functionality in its entirety during the review period, despite the corona pandemic. The exceptionally intensive spring floods increased the prices for the reserves required for balancing consumption and production for several weeks.

From January through June, 9.3 (7.2) terawatt hours of electricity were imported from Sweden to Finland, and 0.1 (0.4) terawatt hours were exported from Finland to Sweden. The transmission capacity between Sweden and Finland was fully available during the review period, expect for short maintenance breaks.

In January-June, 3.3 (1.7) terawatt hours of electricity were exported to Estonia. Only very small amounts of electricity were imported from Estonia to Finland during the review period. The transmission capacity between the two countries functioned reliably, even if EstLink1 was subjected to some planned restrictions during a period of automation testing in March and during annual maintenance in June.

Electricity imports from Russia to Finland between January and June amounted to 1.2 (4.2) terawatt hours of electricity. The reason for the decreased imports was the low price of electricity in the Nordics. Transmission capacity from Russia to Finland was fully available during the review period. The electricity imports from Russia were clearly lower in the first half of 2020 than in the previous review period in 2019. Electricity was exported from Finland to Russia several times over February through June. However, the volumes of electricity transmitted to Russia remained very low. The reason for these exports was the low price of electricity in the Nordics. Major intraday variations in import volumes still persist.

Electricity market

In January-June, the average Nordic price on the day-ahead market was EUR 10.53 (41.22) per megawatt hour, and the area price for Finland was EUR 23.23 (42.42) per megawatt hour.

Due to constraints on the transmission connections between the countries, total congestion income increased compared to the corresponding period last year. Congestion income between Finland and Sweden in January-June increased to EUR 104.0 (30.0) million. The increase in congestion income resulted from the increased disparity between Finnish and Swedish area prices, due to weather conditions. The mild winter and high water levels resulted in a major decrease in wholesale price of electricity and in Sweden, the price of electricity decreased more than in Finland, as a result of the larger share of hydropower in the Swedish and Norwegian electricity systems. Congestion income between Finland and Estonia grew in January-June to EUR 20.7 (11.0) million. Even in Estonia, the area price decreased due to the mild weather and the lower Nordic prices, but the Estonian prices still persisted higher than the Finnish rates. In accordance with the regulation on congestion income, Fingrid will use the congestion income received for capital expenditure to improve the functioning of the electricity markets.

The availability and reliability of Fingrid's DC connections have been high, expect for some short-term disturbances. At the turn of the year, the Estlink 2 connection had a technically challenging malfunction, as a result of which the connection was down for several days in early January. Generally, troubleshooting and fault elimination measures were highly successful, and the connections were quickly made available to the markets again. The countertrade costs resulting from the disturbances that occurred over the review period were low in comparison to the previous year.

Fingrid is currently implementing electricity market development projects to increase the flexibility of the electricity markets and to enable the participation of consumers and the producers of weather-dependent renewables.

The Nordic Balancing Model and the related project to implement a 15-minute imbalance settlement period (ISP) will revamp the Nordic balancing power and reserve power marketplaces, modify the balancing model and adopt the 15-min ISP. Once the ISP is contracted to 15 minutes, the market time unit (MTU) in the electricity markets can be 15 minutes as well, instead of the current one hour. The 15-min ISP and 15-min MTU will have a major impact on the electricity system's imbalance settlement procedures and also on the operations of the market operators. Finland will switch to the 15-min ISP at the same time as the other Nordic countries. One aspect of the new imbalance settlement model is the adoption of a single balance model, where the production, consumption and trade of electricity are all processed in a single balance.

In May, the Steering Group for the Nordic Balancing Model confirmed the Nordic TSOs' joint position on the timing of the implementation of the 15-min ISP in Q2 2023. A derogation period extending to 22 May 2023 has been applied for the adoption of the 15-min ISP in all the Nordic countries. Fingrid sent a request for derogation to the Finnish regulation authority in early June.

In June, the Nordic TSOs communicated their estimation that the timeline for implementing the single balance model ('Single Price Single Position') may be delayed by roughly six months, which would mean a go-live date in Q4-2021.

Competitive trading between the Nordic electricity exchanges started in early June. Once competitive trading has gone live, several electricity market operators approved by the authorities can operate in the day-ahead markets of the 12 Nordic bidding zones. The start of competitive trading will increase the options available to the market operators in acquiring trading services, deepen the integration of European electricity markets and also benefit the Nordic markets. The Nordic countries are the second area in Europe to implement competition between the electricity exchanges.

Fingrid is building a centralised information exchange system for electricity retail markets, Datahub, which is the company's biggest investment in ICT systems. The Datahub will contain data from about 3.7 million electricity metering points. The implementation of the system will proceed in stages, according to specific milestones, in co-operation with the industry players. Some of the distribution system operators (DSOs) and retail sellers still face challenges in implementing the necessary changes in their own customer management and metering data management systems according to the target schedule. The Datahub will go live in February 2022.

Personnel

The total number of personnel employed by the Group averaged 390 (383) with an average of 344 (331) in a permanent employment relationship. Personnel costs amounted to EUR 16.3 (16.0) million. Wages and salaries amounted to EUR 14.0 (13.3) million, which equals 4.1 (3.2) per cent of the turnover.

Fingrid is well prepared for exceptional circumstances. The company was able to continue its business operations in a nearly normal manner, despite the exceptional circumstances resulting from the corona pandemic, by resorting heavily to remote work.

Fingrid came in 7th in the mid-sized companies category of the Great Place to Work Finland survey in February. The Great Place to Work Finland award annually recognises organisations with excellent workplace cultures, based on both employees' opinions and an HR assessment. This was already the fifth time Fingrid participated in this survey, coming in tenth place in the previous survey in 2018.

Fingrid continued its traditional participation in the annual Responsible Summer Job competition, the aim of which is to challenge employers to offer young people more high-quality summer jobs and positive experiences. Despite the corona pandemic, our company employs around forty people in various summer jobs throughout Finland.

Other matters

On 20 March 2020, Fingrid Oyj's Annual General Meeting approved the financial statements for 2019 and decided on the dividend payment. The first instalment of the dividend, totalling EUR 100,100,150.00, was paid on 25 March 2020. In compliance with the AGM's decision, Juhani Jarvi continues as Chair of the Board of Directors and Paivi Nerg continues as Vice Chair of the Board. The other Board members are Sanna Syri and Esko Torsti and, as a new Board member, Hannu Linna.

On 5 December 2019, Fingrid Oyj announced that it had, together with the other owners of Nord Pool Holding AS, entered into a binding agreement to sell 66% of the company's shares to Euronext. The transaction was finalised on 15 January 2020.

Legal proceedings and proceedings by authorities

An accident took place on a work site in Laukaa, Finland, on 25 August 2017, where an employee of Revilla y Garcia S.L. died after having fallen from a power line tower. A civil court case, as well as proceedings concerning social-security-based damages, have been initiated in Spain for damages against Fingrid (the client linked with the accident), the main contractor, Technolines S.R.L. filial i Finland, and its sub-contractor, Revilla y Garcia S.L. Fingrid does not believe the claim against it is likely to succeed and, in Fingrid's view, the legal proceedings or their outcome are not likely to have a substantial impact on the company's earnings or financial position.

On 30 June 2020, the Market Court received an appeal on the company's decision to exclude a bidder from a competitive tender for 400-MVA transformers in 2022-2025. The company decided to discontinue the tendering process on 14 July 2020. According to the company's view, the discontinued tendering process does not have a substantial impact on the company's financial result or financial position.

Events after the review period and outlook for the rest of the year

On 28 July 2020, the Board of Directors decided, in compliance with the authorisation granted by the AGM, that the second instalment of dividends shall be paid after the Board has approved the half-year report and assessed the company's solvency, financial position and financial performance. Based on the Board's authorisation from the AGM, the second instalment of EUR 19,000.00 for each Series A share and EUR 6,950.00 for each Series B share, totalling EUR 48,148,650.00 in dividends, will be paid on 31 July 2020.

In accordance with the earlier earnings guidance, Fingrid Group's profit for the 2020 financial period, excluding changes in the fair value of derivatives and before taxes, is expected to slightly decline from the previous year. The company's own estimates indicate the result according to the regulatory model that governs grid operations to show a deficit for 2020. The company's debt service capacity is expected to remain stable.

Results forecasts for the financial year are complicated especially by the uncertainty related to grid income, ITC income and cross-border transmission income, and to reserve and loss power costs. The income and costs are dependent on the outside temperatures, wind conditions, rainfall and changes in the hydrological conditions in the Nordic countries. These have an impact on the electricity production and consumption and consequently on the transmission and prices of electricity in Finland and in the surrounding areas.

Further information:

Jukka Ruusunen, President & CEO, tel. +358 30 395 5140 or +358 40 593 8428

Jan Montell, Chief Financial Officer, tel. +358 30 395 5213 or +358 40 592 4419

Attachments
East Baton Rouge Parish extended its mask mandate Tuesday as the parish pushed past Orleans Parish for the second most cases in the state since the outbreak began.

Amid a major testing push, East Baton Rouge has seen its case numbers nearly double since the end of June as the parish has closed the gap on Orleans, once the early epicenter of the viral outbreak.

In passing Orleans, East Baton Rouge became only the third parish to have more than 10,000 cases since the outbreak began, reporting 170 more on Tuesday to break that barrier.

Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome announced Tuesday that her "No Mask, No Service" order will remain in effect until the parish enters Phase 3 of reopening.

"We have seen positive results since my executive order went into effect at the beginning of July, however, we still have a long way to go to protect our economy and residents," Broome said in a news release Tuesday afternoon. "Our positivity rate of those people taking COVID-19 tests has dropped since the order went into effect, but hospitalizations and new cases have risen in general."

Her current mask order, which went into effect July 3, was set to expire Aug. 3.

Its not clear when the parish would enter Phase 3, but Gov. John Bel Edwards suggested Tuesday that Louisiana overall may be seeing the beginning signs of a plateau in new cases.

That shift, he added, may be the fruit of the partial tightening of state social distancing restrictions in Phase 2 and the statewide mask mandate.

Edwards drew that conclusion while defending those restrictions on businesses and other public activities as the best option to reduce viral spread and also avoid more severe economic limits.

You cannot get to a transmission rate of less than one without the mitigation measures that include mandatory masks and bar closures, Edwards said in a news conference.

East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's largest by population, has closed a more than 2,500-case gap with Orleans since July 1.

East Baton Rouge hit 10,155 cases on Tuesday. Total cases in the parish were at 5,123 on June 30, state health data show.

Orleans reported 60 new cases to reach 10,071 on Tuesday. Jefferson Parish remains the top parish for total cases in the state and reached 13,780 on Tuesday.

Orleans, which has about 50,000 fewer people than East Baton Rouge does, remains ahead of the parish for cases on a per capita basis but Baton Rouge is gradually closing that gap too.

The rise in new cases in East Baton Rouge has come amid a significant push in testing in the Baton Rouge area, however.

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

The White House directed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to set up surge sites in Baton Rouge so 60,000 tests could be given in a region that federal officials had deemed a hotspot for viral spread.

With the big federal testing surge, completed tests in East Baton Rouge have nearly doubled since the end of June on a seven-day rolling average basis.

The rate of new cases per test, however, has remained nearly at or above a federal benchmark through much of July, suggesting the increase in cases hasn't been due to testing alone.

Despite the effect increased testing has on revealing new cases, Susan Hassig, a Tulane University epidemiologist, said the 10,000-case mark remains a significant threshold. Along with other data points like the recent stress on the hospitals, the case tally points to continued high prevalence of the virus in the community.

I have been saying somewhat publicly, and certainly privately, that we should have been in Phase 1 probably three weeks ago if were really serious about getting this under control, Hassig said.

The phase would further restrict businesses and public gatherings than current limits do.

Hassig added that Baton Rouge may not hold on to its ranking above New Orleans for long on total cases.

She has attributed East Baton Rouges gain on Orleans, in part, due to New Orleans early experience with the virus and more stringent city social distancing policies that have helped tamp down the viruss spread.

But testing has also lessened in Orleans in recent months. Edwards announced on Tuesday that New Orleans was in line for a federal surge site.

So, thats going to once again raise the amount of testing were going to be doing here, Hassig said. So I suspect East Baton Rouge and Orleans are probably going to bounce back and forth in term of numbers of cases and, thus, their ranking.

In East Baton Rouge, more recent statistics may be starting to point to a downward turn in the share of new cases to tests, known as positivity.

The two-day percentage on Tuesday fell to 7.8% after a large influx of tests on Monday. The parish had averaged 9.8% in weekly average positivity over the past two weeks, just under the federal benchmark is 10%. The calculations, however, do not include the date the tests were administered, only when they were reported.

Louisiana began reopening for Phase 1 on May 15-16 then moved to Phase 2 on June 5. Edwards announced on June 22 that the state, seeing an alarming increase in cases and hospitalizations, will remain in Phase 2 for 28 more days.

Coronavirus in Louisiana: Over 1,100 cases reported; East Baton Rouge passes Orleans The Louisiana Dept. of Health reported 1,121 more coronavirus cases, 26 more deaths and 17 less hospitalizations in its daily noon update Tuesday.
Union Minister, Prakash Javadekar, and Minister of State, Babul Supriyo, addressed media on the eve of Global Tiger Day on Tiger Census report, said plans underway to collaborate with 13 tiger range countries on actual management of reserves, touted India's biodiversity one of its biggest soft powers.

Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday released the report of the Tiger Census on eve of Global Tiger Day.

India is proud of its tiger assets. The country today has 70 per cent of the worlds tiger population. We are ready to work with all the 13 tiger range countries in their actual management of tiger reserves, Javadekar said while speaking at a function at the National Media Centre, New Delhi.

At the international level, we have a lot of soft powers, but one soft power is that the country has animals. India has 30,000 elephants 3,000 one-horned rhinos and more than 500 lions, he added.

We have a large amount of flora and fauna of which we are proud, our effort is to improve the environment and biodiversity. India will take the lead in taking our numbers more and has also decided to take up ambitious water and fodder augmentation programme. We have 8 per cent of the worlds biodiversity, this is Indias real strength, this is soft power.

Also read: Mayawati on Rajasthan crisis: Waited for right time to teach Gehlot a lesson

Also read: It is our right to call the assembly, claims Ashok Gehlots camp after cabinet meeting

MoS Babul Supriyo was also present at the event in which a poster on Small Wild Cats of India was released as well.

Supriyo further informed that about 3.5 crore photos were taken by the camera traps in the forests in the Tiger Census 2018, 76,651 of which were of tigers and 51,777 were of leopards. More than 30,000 camera traps covered more than 3,81,400 sq km area.

The Saint Petersburg Declaration on Tiger Conservation was signed in 2010. In the meeting, it was decided to celebrate 29th July as Global Tiger Day across the world to create awareness on tiger conservation.

Also read: PM Modi launches high-throughput Covid-19 testing facilities

For all the latest National News, download NewsX App
The nation's attorneys-general met on Monday to discuss whether to raise the age of criminal responsibility. They decided that no action would be taken at this stage. Right across Australia, children can be locked up in prisons from the age of 10.

Terleaha Williams is a youth ambassador for Just Reinvest NSW.

As Aboriginal young people, from experience we can tell you that this is far too young and has a devastating effect. In NSW, 75 per cent of kids under 14 in detention are Aboriginal. We have to raise the age to at least 14.

African American philosopher Cornel West says justice is what love looks like in public. Our young people need to know that we as a community care for them. Children aged 10 to 13 need to be supported, not punished. Raising the age is about changing the way our systems interact with and support young people.

Despite our peoples longstanding fight for self-determination and land rights, we are still at the mercy of a system that is afraid of us. So afraid that it keeps 10-year-old children locked behind barbed wire, controls their contact with family, and repeatedly strip-searches them.
By Trend

Azerbaijani travel companies cannot sell air tickets to clients yet, spokesman for Azerbaijans Association of Tourist Agencies Orkhan Badalov told Trend on July 28.

According to him, based on the appeal of Turkish Airlines to the travel companies, they can sell tickets to tourists only after August 1.

"Therefore, at present, the travel companies dont operate in the sale of air tickets. However, clients can individually buy tickets online and travel to Turkey," said Badalov.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
A worker at a restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky, cleans a table at a restaurant after it was allowed to reopen in May.

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, recommended that the state of Kentucky close its bars and reduce restaurant capacity, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

"We have significant concerns about the rising test positivity rate and the rising number of cases," Birx told Gov. Andy Beshear and state health leaders at the meeting.

Beshear is expected to make an announcement later Monday about additional steps he's taking to combat the spread of COVID-19.

Kentucky has counted 27,079 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the state health department, and 8% of tests administered over the last week have come back positive, per Johns Hopkins University.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx in a meeting with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and state health officials on Sunday said she was concerned with the state's rise in coronavirus cases and recommended that he shut down bars and reduce capacity in restaurants, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

"We have significant concerns about the rising test positivity rate and the rising number of cases," Birx said at the meeting, according to the Herald-Leader. "We can see what is happening in the south moving north."

As the Louisville Courier-Journal reported, Kentucky bars were allowed to reopen at a reduced capacity at the end of June. As of July 26, there have been 27,079 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the state of Kentucky and at least 700 deaths, according to data from the state department of health. On Sunday, the state reported 316 new cases and four additional deaths.

About 8% of tests administered over the last week in the state have returned a positive result, according to data analyzed by Johns Hopkins University  more than double the rate of tests administered earlier in July. The national positivity rate over the past week is a similar 8.2%, according to the data.

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Birx reportedly added that Kentucky was in the "the yellow zone," meaning there was cause for concern and action, but Kentucky was not experiencing outbreaks as larges as those in states like Florida, which over the weekend surpassed New York to become the second-hardest hit state in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 infections.

Beshear, a Democrat, said he will announce "additional steps" to combat the virus at a press conference at 4 p.m. Monday.

Governor Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear) July 27, 2020

The Kentucky governor on July 10 instituted a 30-day statewide mask mandate despite a local court's restraining order related to pandemic mandates, the Associated Press reported.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 11:32:07|Editor: huaxia

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HAVANA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Small-scale organic farms are flourishing in Cuba, spurred by COVID-19's potentially damaging impact on the food supply.

Misael Ponce's Vista Hermosa Organic Farm is a tranquil agroecological dairy, meat and poultry enterprise situated by the side of a narrow stream that flows through a savannah on the outskirts of the country's capital Havana.

The 44-year-old farmer, who inherited the land from his father, took part in an organic farming revolution initially driven by the U.S. trade embargo, which made it difficult to import necessary goods, like machinery and chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Ponce, who enjoys taking a handful of wet soil, bringing it up to his face and breathing deeply, said nothing is wasted at the farm, everything is repurposed in keeping with organic farming practices.

From chickens to goats, pigs and cows, farm animals at the 67-hectare farm have a lot of space to roam and feed on naturally nutrient-rich soil. Nearly 20 different crops, including lettuce, cucumber and carrots, are also harvested here without using fertilizers and pesticides.

"By the end of the year, this farm will have delivered a total of 40 tons of meat to the Cuban people, and we can still do more," Ponce said.

Ponce, who employs almost 30 people he described as his "agricultural extended family," said "we are committed to continuing to work hard to put food on Cubans' dinner tables."

The working day starts before sunrise, when 80 dairy cows and 70 goats are lined up to be milked.

Vista Hermosa has joined the global Slow Food movement, which encourages people to eschew fast-food restaurants in favor of dishes made with locally produced ingredients, and preserve culture and heritage through healthy eating habits.

Iris Fonseca, who works as an agricultural engineer at the farm, said that in lieu of chemical fertilizers, crop rotation is used to effectively control pests, in addition to combating soil erosion and sustaining soil nutrients.

"Growing the same crop on the same land year after year is not good. That's why we follow a rigorous crop rotation system, which makes the land more productive and environmentally sustainable," she said. "This is the way successful farmers have worked for generations."

Before the pandemic, the farm was a tourist attraction, drawing about a thousand visitors a month escaping the hustle and bustle to breathe fresh air, ride horses, enjoy lunch at a farm-to-table restaurant in the middle of this green oasis, and pick up some organic produce.

"I drove 20 minutes from Havana's historic downtown area. I bought bananas, spinach, avocados and cheese," said Jose Fuentes, a Cuban vintage car driver. "Quality produce is worth the trip."

The island imports as much as 80 percent of the food it consumes, and to reduce the imports, authorities have been promoting small urban farms across the country's 168 municipalities.

"Cuba's self-sufficiency program at the municipal level can and needs to move forward. It is a guiding principle and an urgent need in light of the intensification of the obsessive U.S. embargo against the island and the food crisis the COVID-19 pandemic will provoke," Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, second secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee, told local media in late June.

Modern-day organic farming in Cuba first gained ground in the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which cut off the island's access to essential imports.

Gregory Valdes, a senior professor at the School of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Sancti Spiritus, said that in the beginning, going organic was seen as a necessity but it has now become a choice. Enditem
The growth of digital banking has opened up a wealth of opportunities for making the world of finance more accessible and transparent to a greater number of people. But the darker underbelly is that it has also created more avenues for illicit activity to flourish, with some $2 trillion laundered annually but only 1-3% of that sum "caught."

To help combat that, a London-based startup called ComplyAdvantage, which has built an AI platform and wider database of some 10 million entities to help identify and track those involved in financial crime, is today announcing a growth round of funding of $50 million to expand its reach and operations.

Specifically, the plan will be to use the funding for hiring, to invest in the tools it uses to detect entities and map the relationships between them and to bring on more clients.

"We've been focused on more granular analysis and being able to scale to hundreds of millions of searches across our database," said Charles Delingpole, founder and CEO, said in an interview. "The next phase is more around the network of contacts and more enhanced diligence." The company today has some 250 staff, mainly in the U.K. and Romania.

The Series C is being led by Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers), a huge pension plan out of Canada (U.S. $155 billion) that is known as a prolific growth-stage tech investor. Previous backers Balderton and Index are also in the round. The company has raised $88 million to date, and while it's not disclosing its valuation, for some context, it was last valued at around $141 million in its last round a year ago, per PitchBook data.

Today, ComplyAdvantage has more than 500 customers, primarily financial institutions using it to meet regulatory compliance requirements as well as to reduce their own exposure and risk, providing some automated services to complement (and potentially replace) some of the manual checks that they make to prove you are who you say you are.

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It also has a growing business with other groups that are tracking fraud for their own ends, such as insurance companies trying to stem fraudulent claims and government entities. It also has a number of partners that access its database and use that as part of their own solutions (Quantexa, which announced a big funding round of its own last week, is one of those licensing partners).

"A lot of companies in the wider identity space are powered by our data, even if they dont disclose it," Delingpole said.

The company had its start originally focusing on the process of helping banks meet regulatory compliance around fraud detection by ingesting and analysing documents provided by customers ahead of opening accounts, initiating larger transactions with new entities and so on. That has taken on a more targeted purpose in recent years as ComplyAdvantage's database has grown deeper.

Today the core of the business is based around a central database of known money launderers, human traffickers, terrorists, drug lords and others who exploit financial rails to run illegal operations and make a profit from them.

It's formed, Delingpole said, by way of "automatically ingesting tens of thousands of data points, from websites, national warning lists, linked real-time databases of companies and various other applications on top of that." That central database is still growing, and Delingpole believes that it's not unrealistic for it to run to a much higher number in order to get the most accurate picture possible.

"Although we have 10 million today, we want to cover every company and person one day. We think the right number is 8 billion" -- that is, the world's population. "With that larger database we can solve other kinds of crimes too."

The startup already has a straight channel through to government agencies, reporting connections and discoveries on behalf of their clients directly to them. And to be clear, although there are now strong data protection measures in place in Europe, when people are linked to illegal activity, that puts them on a list that supersedes that. When someone is suspected and is tipped to authorities, that information is kept private.

While all institutions will continue to have teams of people dedicated to risk analysis and investigations into activity, the idea here is to supercharge that work with more data that helps those investigators tackle the greater scale of data in the world today.

Detecting financial crime in billions of transactions that take place around the globe has become nearly impossible without the application of data science and machine learning. It is this approach that has made ComplyAdvantage into a leader in the category, and the go-to partner for organizations that seek to automate what are still very often manual or inadequate processes, said Jan Hammer, a partner at Index Ventures, in a statement.

The longer-term opportunity is to build out ComplyAdvantage's customer base by leveraging information that the company is already surfacing that might be relevant to other verticals.

Insurance is a key example, Delingpole said. "We already see a mention of a person having defaulted on a loan then making an insurance claim," he said. "We see credit, fraud and ownership data together."

This, of course, puts the company into close competition not just with others building credit databases but those building strong AI platforms to leverage data to gain deeper insights into seemingly disparate digital actions and to build better pictures of activity on behalf of their clients. That includes not just partners like Quantexa, but others like Palantir.

The strength here, said Delingpole, is the sheer size of ComplyAdvantage's database and its very specific focus on financial crime and how that sits for companies that need to police that, both for their own business health and for regulatory reasons. It's that focus that has attracted investment.

ComplyAdvantage offers mission-critical technology solutions for combating financial crime and keeping pace with an ever-evolving regulatory landscape, said Olivia Steedman, senior managing director, TIP, at Ontario Teachers. The company is well-positioned to continue its rapid growth as its powerful technology platform transforms the compliance and risk management process for its clients.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- This development, in a Malaysian courtroom, truly is unprecedented.

Former Prime Minister Najib Razak was found guilty Tuesday on charges of abusing power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust. The verdicts in the high court capped the first of a series of trials stemming from scandals at state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Bhd., or 1MDB. The judge sentenced Najib to 12 years in prison and a fine of 210 million ringgit (nearly $50 million). His legal team will work to keep him out of custody during the appeals process.

The saga enmeshed Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Hollywood and spurred an outcry that helped drive Najibs party from government in 2018, the first time the long-suffering opposition won a general election. The revolution was short-lived; the new cabinet collapsed less than halfway through its five-year term, largely because its two leaders, Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim, couldn't bury decades of rivalry. But the team was in power long enough to preside over something extremely important  the arrest and charging of Najib with an array of corruption offenses, a first for anyone who ever held Malaysias top office.

For all the rancor and disillusionment that accompanied the implosion of Mahathir's second spell as premier  he ran the country between 1981 and 2003, at the head of the party that Najib later led  the nonagenarian politician engineered a couple of big things. Najib's appearance in a courtroom as defendant was one of them. The pursuit of former leaders has characterized the transition to a fuller version of democracy in places like South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Malaysia has now had its turn. Najib, who maintains his innocence, will appeal, and the legal process still has a long course to run. No matter. The Southeast Asian country has crossed a milestone in the rule of law. Goldman, which settled with the government last week for $3.9 billion, will be content to have sealed that deal before theres any fallout. (My colleague Nisha Gopalan and I wrote about Fridays settlement here.)

Story continues

When I was Bloomberg News's bureau chief in Kuala Lumpur during the late 1990s, I couldn't conceive of a prime minister busted for so much as a parking infringement, such was the authority of the long-ruling United Malays National Organization. Mahathir sat atop the power structure and survived a serious challenge during the Asian financial crisis from his deputy, Anwar, that ended in trials and imprisonment for his erstwhile protege.

Najib, then an up-and-comer, was never just a run-of-the-mill politician. Even after leading UMNO to historic defeat and being charged, he has rebounded as a popular figure. His pedigree is deeply woven into Malaysia's political, economic and social fabric. He is descended from aristocrats and is the son of the countrys second prime minister, who presided over contentious affirmative-action laws that enshrine benefits and preferences for the Malay majority.

Najibs status is what makes it amazing that things got as far as a courtroom, much less that the judge turned thumbs down on all seven counts. The decision is emphatic enough that the appeals process will have to stand up to scrutiny. While it runs, Najib can keep rebuilding his following in UMNO and await a shift in the political winds; by-election candidates are happy to have selfies with him and his supporters are scattered through many branches of the party. Theres always the prospect of a royal pardon.

When UMNO maneuvered its way back into power in March by allying with defectors from Mahathirs camp, the disappointment among reformers was palpable. Many feared political expediency would mean that the new prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, a party stalwart, would take a more lenient stance and that Najib would somehow escape the law. After all, given the pandemic and a deep economic slump, who could blame voters if they lost interest?

The real significance of these court proceedings so far is that they happened, period. Granted, it took a historic change of government. That may be one of Mahathir's real services to his country after a life in and around politics. He created the circumstances that facilitated this unprecedented chain of events. The opposition now knows it can win, under the right circumstances, and leaders can be held to account.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Daniel Moss is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian economies. Previously he was executive editor of Bloomberg News for global economics, and has led teams in Asia, Europe and North America.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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2020 Bloomberg L.P.
PITTSBURGH, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- "While breastfeeding, I noticed that my cup size would change throughout the day depending on milk production," said one of two inventors, from Covington, Ky. "We thought there could be a better bra to compensate for this, so we invented the SYMMETRY BRA."

The invention provides an effective way for a nursing mother to achieve the look of symmetrical breasts. In doing so, it offers an improved alternative to traditional nursing bras. As a result, it could enhance support, confidence and comfort and it provides added convenience when nursing or pumping. The invention features a discreet design that is easy to wear and use so it is ideal for nursing mothers and women who may be self conscious about uneven cup sizes. Additionally, it is producible in design variations.

The inventors described the invention design. "Our design offers a discreet way to increase breast symmetry and provide support for breastfeeding mothers and women of all sizes."

The original design was submitted to the Cincinnati sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 19-CCT-4427, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.

SOURCE InventHelp

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to chair a high-level meeting with chiefs of banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) on Wednesday to take stock of the economic situation. Modi would also take stock of the flow of credit during the coronavirus crisis, Prime Minister's Office said on Tuesday.

"The topics on agenda include credit products and efficient models for delivery, financial empowerment through technology, prudential practices for stability and sustainability of the financial sector," PMO said.

"Banking sector plays an important role in contributing to India's economic growth through financing infrastructure, agriculture, and local manufacturing including MSMEs. Financial inclusion can play a big role in financial empowerment through technology," as per the statement issued by the PMO.

Modi recently took stock of the financial sector which has been hit hard by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. He also reviewed the progress of a host of measures announced under the Rs 21-lakh crore Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package to stimulate the economy and help the MSME sector and poor sections of society.

Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the economy is showing "green shoots" as the country emerges from the coronavirus lockdown and underscored the importance of being focussed on both life and livelihood.

Although a pickup in economic activity has been seen, full recovery remains a major challenge as industries are functioning with lower capacities. Fresh lockdown measures announced by some states due to spurt in coronavirus cases have thrown up new challenges.

Also Read: Govt tweaks FDI rules; NRIs can now acquire up to 100% stake in Air India

Also Read: India's crackdown on Chinese apps irks China, vows to protect firms' interests
The International Monetary Fund has approved a $4.3 billion emergency loan to South Africa as it reels under the coronavirus pandemic.

The country has the world's fifth largest virus caseload, and confirmed cases are approaching half a million.

The fact that Africa's most developed country for the first time approached the IMF for a loan is the latest sign of pain. Unemployment is above 30 percent and rising, and major state-owned enterprises were already in poor shape.

The IMF says South Africa is seeing a sharp economic contraction, though authorities responded swiftly to this latest crisis. The government weeks ago announced a historic $26 billion economic relief package.

Other African nations are watching how the country of 57 million responds to the pandemic as cases begin to climb in many parts of the continent.

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

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
The Netherlands does not recognize the annexation of Crimea and considers it to be a violation of international law.

Ambassador of the Netherlands to Ukraine Jennes de Mol said this during a meeting with Anton Korynevych, the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the Embassy of the Netherlands in Ukraine wrote on its official Facebook page on July 27.

The Netherlands does not recognize the annexation of Crimea and considers it to be a violation of international law. We will support the current sanctions until the violation stops and the Minsk agreements are fully implemented. Through our Human Rights Fund we support lawyers, civic activists and families of political prisoners on the ground, and we will continue putting international pressure on Russia, according to our policy, Ambassador de Mol reiterated.

During the meeting, the parties discussed the situation of Crimeas indigenous people  Crimean Tatars, violations of human rights in the peninsula, sanctions, non-recognition policy, religious freedoms and threats to the environment in Crimea.

ish
Surfers like to think theyre cool. From Malibu King Miki Dora complaining about clones taking over to two-time World Champion John Florences habit of celebrating 10 point rides with only the subtlest body language, self-promotion is still, among many surfers, a dirty word.

Enter: Sydneys last mega-swell, during which a bunch of local surfers casually caught some of the biggest waves ever surfed in Sydney.

RELATED: Best Surf Beaches & Breaks In Sydney

One, ridden by Chris Lougher, stood above the rest, with Avalon filmmaker Spencer Frost capturing the moment, which later went viral, calling it hands down the best wave Ive ever seen ridden in Sydney.

As Coastalwatch reports, While a session for the ages was going down at infamous heavy Manly spot, Deadmans, the filmmaker camped up over a kilometre away on Queenscliff headland with a 1600mm lens to capture the action. And when underground local charger Chris Lougher pulled into the wave of the day, Spenny had the perfect shot.

The screenshot of the tube went viral overnight on Wednesday July 15, and had some calling it the best wave ever surfed in a city with a long storied history of waveriding.

When contacted by media, however, Lougher declined to feed the hype. This didnt go unnoticed. As Coastalwatch reported, One of the best things about the day, and this wave in particular, was the way in which the crew taking it on just shrugged off the chance to self-publicise.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Craig Brokensha (@craigbrokensha) on Jul 20, 2020 at 9:55pm PDT

When we asked Chris about it, Coastalwatch wrote, He pointed out the safety aspects of surfing the spot, but otherwise, politely turned down an interview: Ha ha cheers guys, Im holding back, not really my scene Im stoked everyone is frothin, surfing is about having fun.

Refreshing in a world where it sometimes seems half the population wants to be famous for doing nothing, (Coastalwatch).

While not a direct critique of Kardashian ~Couture~ from Coastalwatch, it got us thinking: Loughers cool response to this epic moment, in DMARGEs eyes, represents one of Australian surfings biggest cultural divides right now.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by @jayalvarrez on Sep 29, 2019 at 12:11pm PDT

As Hawaii spawns more vegan vloggers than top tier athletes and as Australian teenage prodigies see pro (and semi pro) surfers all around the world (think: Jamie OBrien, Tia Blanco; Ben Gravy) build lucrative followings on social media, more and more are seeing a career on Instagram or Youtube as a smart back up to the QS grind.

This isnt necessarily bad (nor unique to surfing). But when you get a blast from the past in the form of someone like Lougher, its a nice reminder theres more to surfing than Instagram presets.

Read Next
The Ministry of Finance officials are conducting frequent meetings with corporate leaders to seek input on the next phase of stimulus package as it aims to revive sectors severely impacted by the pandemic, including tourism, hospitality and construction. Corporate leaders have put forth their proposals to the Ministry of Finance as well as the Reserve Bank of India. However, the key to Stimulus 2.0, officials believe, is the timing.

Corporate houses have also put the onus on the RBI to revive growth. The members of the industry also pointed out to RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das banks' risk aversion amid fears of rising NPAs. They said that this is hurting the business community.

HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh pointed out that restructuring loans would help firms in the longer run and provide ammunition to tide over the next few quarters. He, however, advocated against extension of moratorium beyond August 31 as he believes that even the ones who can repay are exploiting the situation for financial gains, resulting in stress to the lenders.

Bharti Enterprises' Vice Chairman Rakesh Bharti Mittal suggested considering moratorium extension to alleviate the stress on corporates and the economy. Meanwhile, Vinayak Chatterjee, Chairman of Feedback Infra said that thinking outside the box is the need of the hour and suggested a separate fund for businesses.

The RBI Governor said that all suggestions have been noted and the apex bank would conduct internal discussions on the same.

CORPORATE SECTOR DEMANDS

Despite the Rs 20 lakh crore package by the government, the economic growth has not shot off. Some of the demands on reviving businesses that the corporate leaders have presented to the government are:

Setting up of a separate COVID-19 fund for various sectors.

Relaxing of FDI norms to entice more investment in the country that would in turn boost the economy.

Banks loosening their purse strings -- something that was unanimously voiced by the sector.

Restructuring of loans to make businesses battle-ready for upcoming quarters.

RIGHT TIMING FOR STIMULUS 2.0

Government officials believe that the timing of the package has to be precise for the stimulus to have any impact. Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said, "I will emphasise again that the government is willing to do what is necessary in terms of government spending, but the timing of this is extremely important. Now that there is news coming that vaccine may not be actually very far off, once we have the vaccine then the uncertainty that people have will go down significantly. And till we have the uncertainty, even if people have money in their pockets, they may actually decide to keep that in their banks as saving accounts."

Also read: India needs 8-9% annual growth for 22 years to boost per capita income: Rangarajan

Also read: FDI norms to be eased, more economic reforms planned: Piyush Goyal
Mills Soko, University of the Witwatersrand

The remarkable economic transformation of Asia in recent decades has attracted global attention. It has ignited scholarly and policy debates about the regions development models and strategies.

African policymakers have not been immune to the worldwide fascination with the Asian miracle. African leaders and officials have these past few years undertaken a constant stream of study visits to countries such as China, Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam.

What lessons can African countries glean from Asias successes and failures? And how can they emulate those successes and avoid the mistakes made by their Asian peers? These are the two key questions the book The Asian Aspiration  Why and How Africa Should Emulate Asia seeks to answer. Co-authored by Greg Mills, Olusegun Obasanjo, Hailemariam Desalegn and Emily van der Merwe, the book is divided into two parts.

The first part showcases the growth stories of 10 East Asian and South-East Asian countries. They are Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China and Vietnam. It analyses the developmental paths of these countries, pointing out what they did well to power their rise as well as their policy missteps. The second section discusses five lessons for success from Asia and illuminates these with comparative examples from both Asia and Africa.

The book notes the differences between Asia and Africa, and the importance of differentiation. But it concludes by asking what Lee Kuan Yew might have done had he found himself at the helm of Africa. Lee was the formidable statesman who presided over the change in Singapores fortunes from 1959 to 1990.

Not a miracle, but deliberate steps

The book identifies some parallels between Africa and East Asia. These include a colonial heritage, a complex make-up of ethnic groups as well as human and institutional under-development.

The book also draws attention to differences between the two. These are rooted in how the political economy of Africa evolved after independence. This was typified by clientelism,

the management of elite access and preferences in exchange for support, leading to rent-seeking  the creation of wealth not by investment but by the connections of organised groups.

In contrast, the East Asian development tale has been defined by the unity of purpose among leaders in several countries. It has also been characterised by the deliberate use of institutional and constitutional means to broaden opportunities beyond a tiny elite. This does not suggest that these countries were insulated from or spared the ills of poor governance. The experiences of Indonesia and the Philippines, for example, demonstrate the baleful influence of corruption, cronyism, fragile institutions and populism on governance.

The Book Cover

The authors emphasise the importance of differentiating between  and within  the East Asian countries, based on factors such as language, religion, economic wealth, governance systems and urban-rural divides. They argue, using 10 case studies, that the phenomenal changes that have taken place in East Asia are not the product of a miracle. They are the result of calculated policy actions.

They identify the vital principles of leadership, the policy choices and trade-offs that need to be made, and the policy execution that is required.

The case of Japan

East Asian countries have looked up to Japan as a model of success. Japan represents the power of example and innovation. The countrys industrialisation process borrowed from a mixture of American, British and German industrialisation models.

Japans technocracy, led by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), played a key part in the countrys extraordinary rise in the post-war period. At the heart of the countrys development was strong collaboration between government and business, facilitated and guided by MITI.

This government-business prototype was later copied by Taiwan and South Korea.

Taiwans success can be attributed to its ability to modernise its economy through macro-economic stability, careful planning and institutionalisation. For its part, South Korea managed to accomplish a transition from an agrarian to high-tech society. In both countries, the business sector was central to industrialisation efforts.

In the case of China, the authors acknowledge the impressive strides the country has made. But they argue that its development experience does not offer a flawless model for African governance. This might disappoint several African policymakers who are enamoured with Chinas development model.

Singapores meritocracy

Singapores success is venerated across Africa. The city-state used the crisis arising from its separation from the Malaysian Federation in 1965 to focus relentlessly on national growth and development.

Singapore epitomises the pinnacle of technocratic rule. Its success rests on expert rule, focus on meritocratic talent and long-range thinking. Leadership performance is non-negotiable. As a Singaporean scholar interviewed for the book stated:

The reality is that East Asian leaders need to perform, even in an authoritarian setting, as their legitimacy and tenure is due to their successful growth performance, even in the absence of free and fair elections.

Like Singapore, South Korea had an authoritarian leader in Park Chung-hee.

But the authors caution against the focus on authoritarianism as the reason for these countries rapid growth and transformation. They cite other key success factors, including a meritocratic civil service, an adroitness at fusing the political and expert components of the governing system, and policy pragmatism.

These countries also place a great deal of store on hard work, discipline, education, innovation, incentivisation and growth. These experiences have been absorbed and replicated by other countries across the region, Vietnam being an example.

The book outlines five lessons for Africa from Asias success. These are encapsulated under the headings:

The premium of leadership and institutions;

Dont be a prisoner of the past;

Get the basics right for growth;

Build and integrate;

Open up to keep control.

Call to action

This meticulously researched, well-written and solution-oriented book is a call for action. It exhorts African leaders and other actors to shun parochial mindsets and ideological dogma, and to enact policies that prioritise the collective interests of their nations. It does not confine itself to providing a diagnosis of the problems afflicting Africa. It also offers well-considered and tested ideas on how the continent can overcome them.

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The book was published before the outbreak of the coronavirus global pandemic, which has wrought significant social and economic damage across the world, including Africa. This makes its message even more relevant and urgent, given the pressing need for African countries to implement institutional and policy reforms to counter the effects of the pandemic.

Asia has extricated a billion people out of poverty in a single generation through inclusive and sustainable growth policies. As the authors note, Africa is neither a continent of chronic hopelessness nor one of unbridled optimism. With the right leadership, mindset and policies African countries can achieve, even exceed, the astonishing successes recorded by their Asian counterparts.

They cannot duplicate the Asian development path, but they can learn from their peers experiences, avoid their mistakes and replicate their successes.

Mills Soko, Professor: International Business & Strategy, Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The conversation
An attempt to amend a bill which its opponents say gives too much power to individual Stormont ministers has failed after MLAs from four of the five Executive parties opposed it.

DUP MLAs disregarded the advice of their party's former special adviser, barrister Richard Bullick, who has argued that they are "sleepwalking into making profound constitutional amendments" and shedding gains that the party negotiated in the 2006 St Andrew's Agreement.

The amendment was defeated by 73 votes to 10 with only the Ulster Unionists, TUV leader Jim Allister, and former DUP MLA Jim Wells supporting it.

People Before Profit and the Green Party did not back the amendment, although they will oppose the bill in a final vote on Tuesday.

Neither First Minister Arlene Foster, nor deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill, who proposed the legislation, were present for the debate.

Stormont sources admitted to the Belfast Telegraph that fast-tracking such complex legislation through the Assembly was "far from ideal".

They denied that the bill would mean dangerous solo runs by individual ministers but believed it would "help business flow better". They acknowledged Mr Bullick's expertise on the issue, but said that the Executive's most senior legal advisers disagreed.

"It's a highly technical argument, so there is much confusion," a source said. "Probably, about only 15 people in the whole of Northern Ireland understand what's going on.

"Richard Bullick knows his stuff inside out but the Executive's most senior legal advisers disagree with his interpretation. The only definitive answer will be when the whole matter is tested in court."

The bill seeks to clarify what constitutes a cross-cutting issue that requires the consideration of the whole Stormont executive.

It is a response to the 2018 Buick court judgment, when judges ruled that the granting of planning permission for a contentious waste incinerator plant in north Belfast was unlawful.

UUP MLA Doug Beattie argued that the Executive Committee (Functions) Bill was an "extremely complex" piece of legislation with "far-reaching" consequences, and should be paused.

"The reality is, it needs more scrutiny," he said. "This bill intends to give ministers more power and that can be abused.

"I don't want to see any minister abusing their power, and the way to stop them either deliberating or accidentally abusing their power is to have a scrutiny mechanism which is in the Executive already."

Expand Close DUP MLA Christopher Stalford / Facebook

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But DUP MLA Christopher Stalford rejected the suggestion the bill would allow solo runs, such as the move by the late Martin McGuinness to abolish the 11-plus in 2002 when he was Education Minister. "Let me be very clear, under St Andrews and under this bill today, such a decision could not be made by a minister on a solo run. It is simply not true to say that it could," Mr Stalford said.

"We pushed hard to have this issue addressed at St Andrews, and we will fully maintain the protections which prevent government ministers from doing such things without the agreement of Executive colleagues.

"Any suggestion that this bill would diminish this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the bill which we have been considering."

Mr Wells said that DUP MLAs had "been whipped to within an inch of their life to vote for something that many of them are extremely unhappy with but have been told they have to vote for".

The South Down MLA said: "There is a conflicting legal advice on this, but the crucial legal advice comes from one of the architects of the St Andrews Agreement, Richard Bullick.

"If there is doubt between those who think that this will stop solo runs and those who think that it will facilitate them, the obvious thing to do is to postpone the further consideration stage of the bill.

"It is not to try to railroad through something as important as this at the end of an Assembly term and with 24 hours' notice to table amendments."
Over 70% of churches holding in-person services with safety measures in place

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After months of COVID-19-related restrictions compelled places of worship to suspend on-campus services across America, more than 70% of Protestant churches have cautiously resumed in-person services following the required safety measures, according to a new LifeWay Research survey.

About three months ago, in April, less than 10% of Protestant churches held in-person services, but the number climbed to more than 55% by the first weekend in June, and in July, more than 70% met physically, according to the LifeWay survey.

While more and more churches have resumed in-person worship services, it has not always been a straight path back, said LifeWay Researchs executive director, Scott McConnell. Some have had difficulty resuming or had to stop meeting again as things got worse in their area.

The study found that 99% of the churches that have reopened to meet physically indoors are taking health and safety precaution.

For example, 94% of pastors said they provided hand sanitizer, masks or gloves to those needing it, 86% conducted additional cleaning of surfaces, and 76% closed seats to increase the distance between people.

Nearly 60% or churches meeting in-person have recommended masks, but only about 35% required attendees to wear them. And more than 20% of churches that have reopened added services to allow people to spread out more, and 18% provided additional viewing rooms to do so.

Some churches also conducted temperature checks of staff and volunteers (21%), and some checked temperatures of all attendees (14%), the survey found.

Resuming in-person worship services has not been reverting to worship as usual, McConnell commented. Churches are making efforts to make the environment safe, but these efforts are often second-guessed by those who either want more precautions or less restrictions.

In late May, immediately after President Donald Trump declared churches to be essential and said they should be allowed to reopen as long as they adhere to the CDCs health guidelines, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided in favor of California Gov. Gavin Newsoms statewide stay-at-home order and rejected an emergency motion to allow for in-person religious services to proceed in that state.

Some churches said they would continue to delay their reopening. Grace Community Church was among them and said they would leave it in the hands of God. Churches in California were later allowed to reopen with some restrictions.

However, in July, Newsom announced that churches, fitness centers and businesses in several industries in 30 California counties would be ordered to shut down again unless they can operate outside or through pick-up services. Various churches said they would not follow the order. Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church announced that his church would continue to hold in-person services despite the restrictions. Others, including Harvest Christian Fellowship, have chosen to hold their services outdoors in accordance with the order.

The LifeWay survey found that 5% of churches, most of them in the Northeast, have dealt with an attendee dying from the coronavirus.

In the past three months, pastors said church attendees had also dealt with reduced hours at work (74%) and losing a job (48%).

According to the survey, only 29% are holding in-person Bible studies.

Last week, the State of the Bible 2020 report released by the Barna Group and the American Bible Society also showed that the pandemic has affected Americans Bible engagement, with the number of U.S. adults who read Scripture declining drastically amid the outbreak.

U.S. adults who say they read the Bible daily dropped from 14% to 9% between early 2019 and 2020, the report said.
A record volume of U.S. crude oil is set to arrive in China and the rest of Asia this month as buyers rushed to snap up cheap oil earlier this year, Refinitivs tanker-tracking and port data showed.

According to Reuters columnist Clyde Russell, the most likely reason for the all-time high Asian imports of crude from America is the cheap oil prices in March and April, when oil prices were half what they are today.

The cargoes bought in March, April, and May are set to arrive in July and August, so it is no surprise that Asias imports of U.S. crude oil are set to smash records this month.

According to Refinitiv data, Asia as a whole is expected to import a record 1.86 million barrels per day (bpd) of American oil this month, compared to the previous record of 1.36 million bpd imported in October 2019.

Among Asian buyers, China is leading the way, after its oil refiners rushed to buy ultra-cheap spot cargoes in April, taking advantage of the deep discounts at which many crude grades were being offered to China with non-existent demand elsewhere.

China is expected to import around 1.1 million bpd of U.S. crude oil in July, according to Refinitiv estimates. This would be more than double the previous record of Chinese imports from the U.S. of 466,000 bpd in June 2018, just before the two biggest economies started the trade war.

The high imports of U.S. crude oil in Asia are likely to continue in August until all cheap cargoes arrive, but after that, nominations seem to have dropped off, as oil prices rose.

Despite the expected record imports of U.S. crude in July, China is nowhere near achieving its target for energy purchases from the United States under the Phase 1 trade deal, and with oil prices double compared to April and demand still weak in Asia, the Chinese buying spree  including of U.S. oil  may be coming to an end.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Organizations are now faced with a new attack surface as employees access their corporate networks from their home computers. IT SecurManage addresses this critical gap with complete, secure network infrastructure management thats managed in the cloud by security-trained engineers.

Focus Technology, a leading provider of next-generation IT infrastructure, managed IT services, cyber security and cloud solutions, recently announced the launch of its custom solution, IT SecurManage. The solution was developed in response to a market need for a complete network infrastructure management solution, managed in the cloud as a service, that could offer comprehensive security and compliance auditability.

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FORT COLLINS, Colo., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Culturs magazine's "Time for Change" issue tackles some of today's most important multicultural issues from a global perspective  including viewpoints on what is "Blackness," COVID-19 experiences and anti-racism resources. On newsstands now, this historic Colorado-based print publication celebrates cross-cultural identity with emphasis on People of Color (POC). The only publication of its kind, Culturs' content focuses on immigrants, refugees, Third Culture Kids, Expats and multi-ethnic people.

Culturs - the global multicultural magazine's "Time for Change" issue (l t r) subscriber cover and retail cover Culturs Editor-in-Chief, Doni Aldine

"Culturs amplifies voices for intersectional cultural identities," says Editor-in-Chief, Doni Aldine (doni.culturs.org), an Afro-Latina who lived in five cultures on four continents before age 12 and two more cultures before adulthood. "Culturs was specifically created for those in-between culture, race, ethnicity, nations and locations and especially those who experienced this during their formative years. All of the dimensions of hidden diversity are addressed in each issue, fulfilling a need for a large segment of our world's rapidly-growing geographically mobile and culturally fluid audience," she says.

According to the United Nations, more than 238 million people around the globe live outside their passport countries, yet no one media outlet fully addresses their needs. "This culturally fluid population typically believes itself highly culturally aware; yet, issues specific to POC often are not considered," Aldine says. "The need for intersectional cultural perspectives is necessary to understand those who may look like us, but don't necessarily think like us  hidden diversity is becoming more and more prevalent." As current events unfolded, the Culturs team scrapped its June issue as it went to press, pivoting to produce "Time for Change" and slashing their normal four-month production time to 10 days.

The "Time for Change" issue was inspired by Aldine's Costa Rican father, who succumbed to COVID-19 amidst a second battle with cancer. Social justice issues, including the Black Lives Matter movement and the disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on POC in the U.S., underscore the need for broader perspectives on culture and race. "Time for Change" tackles those issues from a rarely acknowledged viewpoint and includes an exclusive interview from "White Fragility" author Robin D'Angelo, a much-anticipated African-American Princess photo spread by Hollywood stylist LaChanda Gatson and tips on how to be anti-racist. On faculty at Colorado State University, Aldine teaches "Media and Global Culture Identity," which educates budding journalists on cultural fluidity and the importance of a truly multicultural perspective in journalism.

"Time for Change" is on newsstands in North America at Whole Foods, Sprouts and Books-a-Million. Find a store near you at Cultursmag.com/United-States-Print-Stores, or subscribe at Cultursmag.com

ABOUT: Culturs is a global multicultural philanthropic brand that brings lifestyle content to culturally fluid populations whose lives are punctuated by "straddling" different cultures during their formative years. The missing "e" in CULTURS represents the population's hidden diversity. Proceeds support cross-cultural education. Visit www.Culturs.org for details.

Contact: Donnyale Ambrosine  [email protected]

303.905.9903

SOURCE Culturs
-- Sunday marks the beginning of the 100-day countdown to the 2020 U.S. presidential election;

-- The pandemic continues to surge across the country, especially in some populous states, amid an economic recession;

-- Apart from the pandemic, the country has also been gripped by nationwide demonstrations against racial discrimination following the death of African American George Floyd in May.

WASHINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Sunday marks the beginning of the 100-day countdown to the 2020 U.S. presidential election while the country is still trapped in the raging coronavirus pandemic and nationwide protests against racial discrimination and police brutality.

With the clock ticking toward what may be the most complicated presidential contest in American history, both Democrats and Republicans are ramping up their push to get the keys to the Oval Office.

Nevertheless, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to sweep the nation, protests over racial injustice in several U.S. cities turned violent over the weekend.

The Capitol is seen in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Jan. 21, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

MUTUAL ASSAULT

Sitting president and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, 74, didn't mention the milestone directly on Sunday but lashed out at polls that have showed him falling behind his Democratic opponent, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, calling them "fake."

"The Trump Campaign has more ENTHUSIASM, according to many, than any campaign in the history of our great Country -- Even more than 2016," he tweeted before claiming that battleground states, including Pennsylvania and Texas, will not vote for Biden, a 77-year-old moderate political veteran who has recently adopted several progressive policy proposals.

Biden, whose campaign is accelerating its staffing and television spending, tweeted "100 days" on Sunday.

"Folks, we have just 100 days until Election Day. Now, more than ever, we have to do everything we can to make Donald Trump a one-term president," he said.

In the RealClearPolitics average of national polls, Biden leads Trump 50 percent to 40.9 percent as of Sunday. Meanwhile, polls conducted in some key battlegrounds, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Arizona, also showed that Biden is ahead of Trump by at least several points.

Pedestrians walk past a social distancing notice on Times Square in New York, the United States, July 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

In an AP-NORC poll released Sunday, eight in 10 Americans said that the United States is heading in the wrong direction, the highest level during Trump's presidency, while only about a third of Americans approve of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Additionally, the majority of Americans have a negative view of how Trump is handling the economy, health care and education.

"This is a very unpleasant real-time look at what the future could be for President Trump," said Tim Malloy, a polling analyst at Quinnipiac University, after the Connecticut-based polling center released its latest survey earlier this month.

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, however, urged caution in using polls to make predictions, tweeting on Sunday that "numbers are sand castles not stone monuments."

Biden has seized the moment by sharply criticizing Trump's performance during the coronavirus pandemic as well as his ability to steer the country out of the crisis, while Trump has repeatedly questioned Biden's cognitive health, accused him of being a "puppet" of what he called the "Radical Left," and highlighted their ideological differences in a highly politically and socially divisive time.

A vendor waits for customers at a kiosk on Times Square in New York, the United States, July 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

PANDEMIC IMPACT

Nate Silver, founder and editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight, a U.S. website focusing on opinion poll analysis, politics and economics, said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that the coronavirus is "an extra complication" in this year's presidential election.

More than 4.2 million people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus, with some 146,000 deaths, according to a dashboard run by Johns Hopkins University. The pandemic continues to surge across the country, especially in some populous states, amid an economic recession.

"We found historically when there are lots of major news events and economic disruptions, an election becomes harder to predict," Silver said.

"So while he's clearly in trouble, I do not buy that Trump's fate is sealed," he said. "A lot could change in the next one hundred days. Things could get worse still for the president. But a turnaround in the COVID situation by the fall could make the election more competitive."

The pandemic, which has plagued the United States for months, has forced the presidential and other campaigns to go virtual due to health and safety risks.

The Republican and Democratic national conventions, both scheduled for August, where Trump and Biden will formally receive each party's presidential nomination, will take place on a smaller scale.

Trump, who has relied on campaigns to build momentum, had tried to restart in-person activities in June. But his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the first of its kind in more than three months, met with a lower-than-expected attendance and led to coronavirus infections among campaign staff and Secret Service agents. Biden has said he won't hold rallies during the pandemic.

Apart from the pandemic, the country has also been gripped by nationwide demonstrations against racial discrimination following the death of African American George Floyd in May.

A total of 45 people were arrested and 21 police officers injured on Saturday after a protest in the western U.S. city of Seattle turned violent.

In the Texas capital of Austin, a protester was shot dead by a person who drove through a crowd of marchers. In Aurora, Colorado, a protester fired a weapon, striking at least one person who was taken to a hospital, police said.

People vote at a polling site in Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, June 23, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

ELECTION PROSPECTS

As the general election approaches, three presidential debates between Trump and Biden are scheduled to take place between September and October. A vice presidential debate between Trump's deputy Mike Pence and whoever Biden chooses as his running mate will be held in early October.

Biden, who is considering a broad tier of candidates to be his running mate after pledging to pick a woman for the job, has said that he will announce his pick in early August.

Biden "holds a discernible -- though not insurmountable -- Electoral College advantage" over Trump, according to ABC News' initial ratings for the 2020 general election which will be held on Nov. 3.

The ratings place 279 electoral votes as either solidly or leaning Democratic -- slightly more than the 270 electoral votes needed to secure the presidency. Another 72 electoral votes are rated as toss-ups, while 187 are either solidly or leaning Republican.

In his race against Hillary Clinton in 2016, Trump secured 306 electoral votes, winning the presidency -- in part -- by taking longtime Democratic strongholds: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

In addition to the Trump-Biden race, all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested on Nov. 3, along with 13 state and territorial governorships, as well as numerous other state and local elections.

In congressional races, Republicans will fight to defend their majority in the Senate, while Democrats are looking at expanding their seats in the House.
Houston oil-field equipment maker National Oilwell Varco narrowed losses in the second quarter, but its share price tumbled after executives offered a pessimistic outlook for the industry during the coronavirus pandemic.

NOV said Monday that it lost $93 million in the second quarter compared with a $5.4 billion loss one year earlier and a $2 billion loss in the first quarter.

Revenue decreased 30 percent to $1.5 billion from $2.1 billion during the second quarter of 2019.

The company, which has lost money for six-straight quarters, generated $378 million in cash flow through cost cutting efforts. But it was hit with charges totaling $102 million for severance pay to laid-off employees, closing facilities and writing down the value of its inventory.

Downturn: National Oilwell Varco to stop paying dividend

With 35 years in oil and gas, I can't recall a more challenging time, CEO Clay Williams told investors during a Tuesday morning call.

The second quarter saw cases of COVID-19 soar as the pandemic spread around the world. Efforts to control the virus slashed demand for crude, creating a global glut and sending oil prices to historic lows.

As oil production was slashed, demand for NOV products such as drill pipe and rig equipment has dried up in North America, Williams said.

As a result, NOVs wellbore technologies division, which specializes in drilling tools, took the hardest hit. The division usually produces the largest share of the companys revenue, but brought in $442 million during the second quarter, about half of the $850 million in the same period in 2019.

Demand is better overseas, Williams said, but pandemic shutdowns prevented the company from finding vessels to ship pipe overseas from domestic plants and forced it to close plants in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

2020 is a crucible for all of us, a year that is testing what we're made up, it's a year that will remake us and a year that's remaking NOV, Williams said.

Markets reacted negatively, sending NOV shares down 11 percent to $11.56.

sergio.chapa@chron.com

http://twitter.com/SergioChapa
In a new proposal, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams called for the reopening of New York City schools to be postponed at least a month and to have elementary school students attend in-person classes first when schools do reopen.

Williams recommendations follow severalreportsthat suggest younger children are less likely to become seriously ill from the coronavirus and less likely to transmit the virus. From everything were learning, having younger kids begin that process makes the most sense, Williams told the Daily News. We can use that science.

The citys 1,606 public schools provide child care for working parents, school lunch and a place for students to socialize and make strides in their educational development. However, it remains unclear if the benefits of reopening the schools outweigh the potential negative effects of doing so in the midst of a pandemic.Regardless of when schools reopen, health experts said it is imperative that they change to meet new safety standards to protect students, teachers and other school personnel.

On July 8, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and schools Chancellor Richard Carranza proposed a mix of in-person and remote learning in the fall. They said parents would also be given the option to enroll their children in exclusively remote classes. However, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was quick to remind de Blasio that he has the final say when it comes to reopening schools and will not be making any decisions until the first week of August. De Blasio has since said that no decisions regarding reopening schools will be made until the beginning of September. On July 13, Cuomo unveiled a new formula for when the state would reopen and close schools. They would not be allowed to reopen unless their region had a daily infection rate below 5% over a 14-day average. If schools were open, they would close again if the regional coronavirus infection rate exceeded 9% over a 7-day average.

While the city Department of Education has said it is looking at how to create more space in schools, developing cleaning protocols, and fixing heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, both the citys principals and teachers unions are unsure of how much progress has been made. The Council of School Supervisors & Administrators, the citys principals union, criticized the departments alarming lack of preparedness for reopening schools in an email to union members last week. Yet, through no fault of your own, as each day passes without clear guidance and safety assurances, it becomes less likely that we will be ready to reopen in September, union President Mark Cannizzaro wrote.

The citys teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers, is also prepared to fight the reopening of schools with legal action and protests, if its leaders believe schools are not being reopened safely.

Donna Hallas, the program director of the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program at the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, told City & State that if the city isnt fully prepared to make the necessary updates and changes to schools by September, it may want to consider delaying the start of the school year. Do we just forge ahead and say, Well, lets see what happens.  Maybe schools should wait to open until November, so we can really get all of these things (safety protocols and renovations) in place, Hallas said.

Because COVID-19 is most likely to be transmitted in enclosed indoor spaces, Hallas said refurbishing air ventilation and filtration systems in the citys public schools is of the utmost importance. The education department is currently looking at the airflow in classrooms but has yet to release a report or update on its findings.

Another issue that should factor into the reopening of schools, according to Hallas, is the citys COVID-19 testing capabilities. From day one, we havent had a comprehensive, efficient testing strategy, Hallas said. Thats a barrier (to reopening schools) because you dont know which children are symptomatic or asymptomatic.

However, much of what would be required to ensure the safety of students and teachers, such as heating and cooling fixes, and widespread testing and contact tracing for students, would be costly. The citys school system is currently looking at $642 million in budget cuts next year. And on July 8, President Donald Trump threatened to cut all federal funding for schools that do not reopen in the fall, putting the fate of the citys schools in an even more precarious position.
Beanstox Our goals at Beanstox include helping many of the 100 million Americans who have almost no savings, no investments, nothing for retirement. Beanstox can help change that. We want people to make a serious commitment to their financial health.

Beanstox is a FinTech Business Providing Automated Wealth Management and Seriously Simple Investing. Beanstox and Kevin OLeary, Chairman and cofounder, launched a crowdfunding that has already attracted over 600 investors. Beanstox is a fintech business providing automated wealth management for Seriously Simple Investing. The crowdfunding allows investors to invest in the Beanstox business. The team at Beanstox developed technology to provide personalized and automated savings and investment for millions of people. Over 100 million adults in the U.S. have little or no savings and investments, representing significant potential to Beanstox for a positive social impact. The app is now live in the AppStores, and with the crowdfunding, supporters can now become investors in Beanstox. Offering terms can be found at http://www.startengine.com/beanstox.

Our goals at Beanstox include helping many of the 100 million Americans who have almost no savings, no investments, nothing for retirement. Beanstox can help change that. We want people to make a serious commitment to their financial health. My philosophy is reflected in how Beanstox can help people to keep it simple, keep investing, and keep portfolios diversified OLeary said. He added Now, with the crowdfunding, it is possible for people to invest in the Beanstox business.

About Beanstox, Inc.

Beanstox (https://www.beanstox.com) provides investors access to online saving and investing using an automated internet-based investment advisory services app. Our philosophy is Seriously Simple InvestingTM. Serious: because we believe investing is not a game, its a thoughtful path to personal financial stability and freedom. Simple: because we believe that lowering barriers to saving and investing will help more investors to start saving, and when people understand their investments, they are more likely to stick with it for the long term. Investing: because just saving is not enough; we believe in the power of compound returns. Clients can open an account with as little as $100 and set up an automatic recurring investing plan. Beanstox does the rest, including automated, personalized investing, automated dividend reinvestment and automated rebalancing.

For more information relating to the crowdfunding please contact:

Louise Anne Poirier, CFO

email@beanstox.com

Beanstox Inc. is an SEC registered investment adviser and has arranged for brokerage services to be provided by DriveWealth LLC., a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA/SIPC. DriveWealth is not affiliated with Beanstox.

Investments in securities: Not FDIC Insured  No Bank Guarantee  May Lose Value

Investing in securities involves risks, and there is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities. Before investing, consider your investment objectives and risk tolerance levels and Beanstoxs charges and expenses. The information provided herein is for illustrative purposes only and does not constitute personalized investment advice, recommendations or solicitations to hold, buy or sell any investment or security of any kind. Beanstoxs internet-based advisory services are designed to assist clients in achieving investment goals. They are not intended to provide comprehensive tax advice or financial planning with respect to every aspect of a client's financial situation and do not incorporate specific investments that clients hold elsewhere. For more details, see our Form ADV Part 2A and Part 3 CRS and other disclosures.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-27 23:35:20|Editor: huaxia

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SINGAPORE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Monday evening that Singaporeans have to get the economy going again.

The prime minister said while delivering a speech at the swearing-in ceremony for the new cabinet that the city-state's economic conditions will continue to be difficult, and Singaporeans are expected to lose many more jobs.

"We will do our best to save as many as we can, and help workers who still lose their jobs to find new work," Lee said, adding that the National Jobs Council is urgently working with the unions, business associations and government agencies.

The prime minister also said that the government will help businesses that have been shut down by COVID-19 to start up again, and will help the sectors that rely heavily on the international market and have been hard hit by the closure of international borders to pull through, as these sectors are linked to many other parts of Singaporean economy.

Besides, Lee said that Singaporeans must also be prepared that some industries will not return to what they were before. He said that the government cannot afford to prop up failing industries indefinitely, or trap workers in jobs that are no longer viable.

"The better, long-term solution is to invest our resources to develop new capabilities, grow new industries and create new jobs," he said. "Then we can help firms in declining industries to reinvent themselves or pivot to other fields of business. We will also help workers in these industries reskill for the new jobs created."

In the second quarter of this year, Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 12.6 percent year on year. Enditem
I had some really good belly laughs for a couple of minutes, and it was so generous of all of these people to go out of their way, some of them even coming in from the city, Levin said.
Volunteers have played a major role in dealing with a tsunami of coronavirus cases that has hit Kyrgyzstan this month, causing the country's outdated and poorly funded health care system to nearly collapse.

It wasn't until after Kyrgyz authorities lifted a tight lockdown in late May that the epidemic started to unravel among the ex-Soviet country's population of 6.5 million.

By that time, the tight lockdown imposed in late March - with curfews, heavy police presence and little monetary support from the government to those lost their incomes - had started to take a toll.

Authorities started to ease lockdown restrictions in early May, when the country reported a little over 1,000 coronavirus cases and 12 deaths.

Frustration with the lockdown mounted, and as offices, markets and malls re-opened and public transportation resumed, people rushed to get back to their normal life.

Masks and social distancing were no longer part of it, but big family events, typical for a Central Asian nation - weddings and funerals attended by 200-300 people - were.

Several weeks later, health officials started reporting several hundred new cases every day instead of dozens.

In July, when the government included suspected, but not confirmed cases into the count, hundreds turned into over 1,000 a day.

The country's teetering healthcare system, with only 2,036 hospital beds prepared for virus patients by late June, started to collapse under a massive influx of patients.

By late July, Kyrgyzstan had recorded over 33,000 cases of coronavirus - 20 times more than when it was emerging from the lockdown - and more than 1,300 deaths.

Patients complained about not being able to get into a hospital due to shortages of beds; ambulance service not picking up the phone; lines in pharmacies and outpatient facilities lasting for hours, if not days, on end.

As problems became more apparent, thousands of ordinary people rushed to help.

Hotel and restaurant owners converted their closed venues into day hospitals and night patient facilities.

At such night-time facilities, patients stay overnight, receive treatment such as IV therapy and injections, and leave in the morning

Activists started supplying medical workers with protective gear, drugs, medical equipment, food and water.

In several weeks, almost 600 people joined the online chat of the group that dubbed itself 'Together'.

Several-dozen of them regularly worked as orderlies at seven Bishkek hospitals and at night drove people who couldn't get an ambulance to hospitals.

Many in Bishkek rushed to tackle the most acute problem -- shortage of ambulances.

Once the surge of new infections hit Bishkek, volunteers quickly converted several cars into ambulance-like vehicles equipped with oxygen tanks or oxygen concentrators and started transporting patients in respiratory distress to hospitals.

"We decided to help people during in difficult time", said a former taxi driver Almaz Asseitov who has now been driving people to the hospitals as volunteer.

"We have cars and people gave us the (oxygen) concentrators so that we can help people."

Asseitov is not the only one.

Local online communities and chats last week were abuzz with people offering a ride to the hospital or bring an oxygen generator to those in need of stabilising their oxygen levels.

Ruslan uulu Manasbek, a car importer, spent his own savings on turning his car into a make-shift ambulance.

His business withered during the lockdown, so Manasbek spent 140 US dollars - an average salary in Kyrgyzstan in 2019 has been 236 US dollars - on installing an oxygen tank in his car and rearranging seats so that he could transport people with breathing difficulties to hospitals.

Manasbek says he's been driving sick people to hospitals round the clock and is trying to avoid contact with his family members

By the end of last week, the explosive growth of the outbreak appeared to have wound down, with the daily number of new infections stabilising around 800-900.

On Monday, Kyrgyz health officials reported 483 new infections.

The government opened additional medical facilities in re-purposed spaces, taking some pressure off the collapsing health care system, and Russia deployed several medical teams with equipment to help deal with the crisis.

Hospitals started reporting smaller numbers of patients, and volunteers - fewer night calls from people gasping for air.

Doctors and experts the AP spoke to unanimously credited activists for helping plug the holes of the country's failing response to the pandemic.
Dean of the School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, Professor Kofi Agyekum has urged the Police Service to hasten their investigations into the death of a 90-year old woman accused of witchcraft in the Savannah Region.



The elderly woman was lynched by a group of people led by a self-acclaimed high priestess who declared the woman as a witch.



Following the incident, there have been calls on the Police to find the perpetrators and ensure they face prosecution.



Addressing the issue on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Professor Kofi Agyekum, popularly known as Opanyin Agyekum, wondered how in a civilized world today, a woman could be accused of being a witch and stoned or beaten to death.



He condemned the brutish treatment meted out to the deceased stating emphatically that the perpetrators are accursed because the blood of the elderly woman will speak for her.



''With someone like this woman who has been blessed by God, anybody who lifts a hand against her will be cursed. If those who assaulted and killed the woman knew what awaits them, they would have put on a metal helmet," he said.



He further called on President Nana Akufo-Addo and his government to collapse all witches camps in the country.



"The Police must hasten to arrest the perpetrators and also destroy the witches camp. Even if they have to burn the camps, they should do it."



Opanyin Agyekum also bemoaned the influx of Pastors and fetish priests in Ghana saying ''we've reached a point where you can't separate Pastors from fetish priests because their works are similar to the fetish priests. Some of them even go these fetish priests for power and hide under the guise of the bible. So, they wear long coats and learn Hebrew and Greek to terrorize us''.



Watch his 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.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) listens next to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) during a press conference to announce articles of impeachment for President Donald Trump during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Dec. 10, 2019. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Rep. Jerrold Nadler Gets in Car Accident Ahead of Barr Hearing: Spokesperson

Attorney General William Barrs testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee was delayed on Tuesday after the panels chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), was involved in a car accident in Washington, according to his spokesperson.

A spokesperson for Nadler told several news outlets that he was not hurt during the incident and wasnt driving.

There was a minor accident, and the hearing will be delayed. Everyone is fine, no one was injured. The Chairman is in route and we expect to start around 10:45 [a.m.], Nadlers spokesperson told the Washington Examiner and other outlets.

Nadlers office has not responded to a request for comment.

The Judiciary Committee hearing was originally scheduled to start at 10 a.m.

In his testimony, Barr was set to accost Democrats in the House for pushing a narrative that President Donald Trumps 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. Former special counsel Robert Mueller later found that the Trump campaign didnt collude with the Kremlin.

Attorney General William Barr speaks during in a roundtable with law enforcement officials in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on June, 8, 2020. (Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

According to a transcript of his speech, the attorney general will also say that police killings of unarmed black men, including the incident that left George Floyd dead in May, are fortunately quite rare across the United States.

According to statistics compiled by the Washington Post, the number of unarmed black men killed by police so far this year is eight. The number of unarmed white men killed by police over the same time period is 11, he will testify, reported Fox news. Some unarmed suspects, moreover, were physically attacking officers or threatening others at the time they were shot. And, the overall number of police shootings has been decreasing.

Barr is also expected to say that black men are far more likely to die at the hands of other black males in the U.S.

The threat to Black lives posed by crime on the streets is massively greater than any threat posed by police misconduct, Barrs remarks read. The leading cause of death for young Black males is homicide. Every year approximately 7,500 Black Americans are victims of homicide, and the vast majority of themaround 90 percentare killed by other Blacks, mainly by gunfire. Each of those lives matter, according to the transcript.

Barr is also expected to speak about the situation unfolding in Portland, Oregon, where violent rioters haveon a nightly basisgathered around a federal courthouse and other federal property.
New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested Delhi University professor Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil in connection with the Elgar Parishad case, in which 11 other activists and intellectuals are accused of conspiring with Maoists to foment violence in Maharashtras Bhima Koregaon village two years ago.

Two NIA officials, who didnt wish to be named, said Babu, a 54-year-old associate professor of English, was arrested in Mumbai after four consecutive days of questioning.

One of the officers said he was suspected to have close links with Maoist leaders and co-conspirators in the case -- including activist Gautam Navlakha, scholar Anand Teltumbde and poet-activist Varavara Rao -- and that the agency had irrefutable evidence in the matter.

The NIA spokesperson said investigation revealed that senior leaders of CPI (Maoist), an organisation banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, were in contact with the organizers of Elgar Parishad -- an event held in Pune on December 31, 2017 and attended by hundreds of activists -- and Babu to spread the ideology of Maoism and encourage unlawful activities.

Babu will be produced before NIA special court in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Investigators say that speeches made at the Elgar Parishad event, which was allegedly funded by Maoists, aggravated caste clashes that broke out near Bhima Koregaon village on January 1, 2018 during the bicentennial celebration of a British-era war commemorated by Dalits.

One person died in the clashes that also sparked widespread protests by Dalit groups that shut down Maharashtra later that month.

Pune (city) police have filed two charge sheets, the first in November 2018 against several activists for their alleged Maoist links and a supplementary charge sheet in February last year.

Apart from Rao, Navlakha, Babu and Teltumbde, those accused of helping Maoists include activist Sudha Bhardwaj, activist Arun Ferriera, lawyers Vernon Gonsalves and Surendra Gadling, activist Rona Wilson, former professor Shoma Sen, social entrepreneur Mahesh Raut and activist Sudhir Dhavale.

Maoist leaders including Ganpathy, Kishan Da alias Prashant Bose and Prakash alias Rituparn Goswami are also named as accused in the charge sheets.

On September 11 last year, Babus house in Noida was searched by Pune Police and material recovered from his laptop, phone and hard drives was shared with NIA when the latter took over the case in January this year.

Babus Jenny Rowena, a professor at Miranda House college in Delhi, said she intended to approach the courts against the arrest.

She said Babu was summoned by NIA earlier this month. He wrote to the agency asking for an extension since he would not be able to travel during a pandemic. The extension was granted for one week and he went to Mumbai on July 24, she said.

Rowena added that the investigating agency was just talking to him and asking questions before his arrest on Monday.

They said that they have found a folder on his computer which has incriminating material against him. Other than that, they dont have anything. These are letters written by some other people saying he is a Naxal leader etc. Why would somebody keep such a folder on his own laptop? These were not his documents but were shown as his. He said that he didnt know about the documents and had nothing to do with him, she said.

Delhi University refused to officially comment. University cannot interfere because this is a matter of national security and it is being investigated by the NIA, said a senior DU official on condition of anonymity. A second official added, Since we have not received any official information on this matter, we cannot comment on it for now.

DU teachers association president Rajib Ray, said, We have known him as a fantastic teacher. He has been a great voice for the oppressed and he should not be harassed like this.
Protests erupted in cities across the U.S. following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd, who was Black and handcuffed, died after a white police officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck for nearly 8 minutes even as Floyd begged for air and eventually stopped moving.
MAC Cosmetics has announced they will be giving away free lipsticks in Australia -but you'll need to be quick.

Beauty lovers will have the chance to snap up a free lipstick from MAC Cosmetics from Wednesday 29 July to Sunday 2 August in honour of National Lipstick Day.

In order to get your hands on one of three free shades, all you need to do is purchase one $30 regular lipstick.

MAC Cosmetics has announced they will be giving away free lipsticks in Australia -but you'll need to be quick (MAC lipsticks pictured)

In order to get your hands on one of three free shades, all you need to do is purchase one $30 regular lipstick (MAC lipstick pictured)

The shades on offer as free gifts include Marrakash (described as an 'intense orange brown'), Hug M (a 'flesh-toned pink') and Brave (a 'muted mauve pink').

To redeem a free bullet, the nationwide offer will be available at any MAC outlets, David Jones, and selected Myer stores - or online via MAC Cosmetics.

Women online were quick to convey their excitement about the offer.

'Can't wait for this. They go really quickly though,' one commenter wrote.

'So exciting!' another added, while a third said the offer might be less popular this year due to the fact that much of the population is wearing masks during the coronavirus crisis.

To redeem a free bullet, the nationwide offer will be available at any MAC outlets, David Jones, and selected Myer stores - or online via MAC Cosmetics (MAC lipsticks pictured)

This isn't the first time MAC has given away free lipsticks.

Last year, they also gave away free bullets on National Lipstick Day, while they have other initiatives in place to help their customers.

The Canadian label allows customers to bring in six empty MAC make up containers of any kind - upon which point they can pick out any shade of their classic lipsticks for free.

MAC have another offer where you bring in six empty MAC make up containers of any kind and then can pick out any shade of their classic lipsticks for free (MAC lipstick pictured)

And MAC isn't the only cosmetics brand embracing National Lipstick Day this week.

Big W is offering half price lipsticks from Rimmel, Max Factor and Covergirl when you enter LipstickDay at the checkout online.

For more information, please visit the MAC website here.
By Akbar Mammadov

Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has thanked Iranian Ambassador Javad Jahangirzadeh for voicing Tehran's fair position over the military provocation committed by Armenian armed forces in the Azerbaijan-Armenian border on July 12, the ministrys press service reported on 27 July.

Bayramov made the remarks while receiving Jahangirzadeh on the occasion of the end of his diplomatic mission in Azerbaijan.

Bayramov commended Iran's position on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that is based on international law as well as Iran's unequivocal support for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity.

It was emphasized during the meeting that Iran has always supported Azerbaijans territorial integrity. Moreover, during the meeting, it was stressed that Azerbaijan's concerns is also shared by Iran.

Furthermore, Bayramov spoke about the development of friendly, fraternal and cooperative relations between the two countries in the form of mutual respect and support based on deep historical roots.

The minister noted the development of relations and mutual support between the two countries in the regional and multilateral frameworks.

Recalling Azerbaijans national leader Heydar Aliyev's contribution to these relations, the minister said that the development of cooperation at the level of leaders of both countries is in the focus of attention.

In turn, Jahangirzadeh on behalf of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, congratulated Bayramov on his recent appointment as the Foreign Minister. The ambassador also expressed his gratitude for the support provided to him during his diplomatic term.

Jahangirzadeh stressed that all opportunities were mobilized for the development of bilateral relations during his tenure as ambassador, and expressed confidence that his successor will spare no effort to further develop these relations.

The ambassador recalled Azerbaijans support to Iran over coronavirus pandemic, saying that this help will not be forgotten.

The sides also exchanged views on other issues of mutual interest.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The front page of The Age, published on July 30, 1962. Credit:The Age

A 250,000 fire destroyed the Bendigo Advertiser building early yesterday morning. Charred and twisted machinery lying among ruined rolls of newsprint was all that was left of the paper with a 109-year-old background.

First published in The Age on July 30, 1962

The fire was first noticed at 4.20 a.m. by Bendigo ambulance driver, Keith Pipcorn, who was on his way to an early morning call.

The fire had been burning for about two hours before three units of firefighters raced to the scene.

An electric clock in the front office had stopped at 2.20 a.m.

It is believed the fire started on the first floor machine room. It quickly spread through the rest of the building, fed by paper, chemicals and inflammable liquids.

Loud Explosions
(The Center Square)  The head of the Wisconsin Republican Party is doubling-down on his questions about a killing in Milwaukee that could have been politically motivated.

Andrew Hitt, chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party, said on Monday there are too many unanswered questions about last week's slaying of Bernell Trammell in Milwaukee.

It has now been four days since the death of Bernell Trammell and the public still does not have any details surrounding the circumstances of Mr. Trammells death," Hitt said in a statement. "With the general election 99 days away and a primary in two weeks, it is imperative that the community knows if Mr. Trammells murder was politically motivated."

The questions linger because Trammell, who is black, had been a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump.

For decades Trammell published the eXpressions Journal, which is described as a political and spiritual publication. He had an office in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood, and the windows were covered with Trump 2020 signs. Milwaukee Police say someone gunned Trammell down in front of that office in broad daylight Thursday. There are no named suspects, and, as of yet, no arrests in the case.

Hitt said because of Trammell's obvious political leanings, it is important to make sure that someone didn't kill him because of who he supported for president.

"Wisconsin voters, and especially campaign volunteers, deserve to know if they are safe while exercising their First Amendment rights," Hitt added.

Hitt also took time to point out Milwaukee is in the middle of a spike in violent crimes. The city's homicide rate is up about 150 percent from this time last year. The city's number of shootings is also up significantly.

"No matter if Trammells senseless murder was politically motivated or not, officials in Milwaukee, Gov. Tony Evers, Attorney General [Josh] Kaul and Mayor Tom Barrett need to do everything they can to ensure the personal safety of their citizens," Hitt said.

Milwaukee Police on Sunday told the Journal Sentinel they have not yet established a motive for Trammell's murder.
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Incredible photos show brave surfers taking on ominous waves after three days of heavy rain whipped up a super swell.

The images were captured by photographer Saeed Khan on Tuesday morning at Manly Beach in Sydney's north.

They showed daring surfers riding waves more than six feet tall after days of torrential rain and strong winds battered region.

Southerly swells picked up throughout the morning, smashing the coastline and creating treacherous rips along the beach.

Two surfers catch a wave in large surf conditions at Manly Beach in Sydney on Tuesday morning following strong winds and rain

A surfer rides waves more than six feet tall after days of torrential rain and strong winds battered region, leaving some homes without power

While conditions are expected to ease in Sydney on Tuesday evening, a hazardous surf warning is still in place for Hunter, Sydney, Illawarra Coast, Batemans Coast and Eden Coast.

Authorities have also urged surfers in the Wollongong and Central Coast regions to avoid the water on Tuesday.

A very heavy surf will likely lead to localised damage and coastal erosion, and the beach conditions in these areas are forecast to be dangerous.

The NSW SES has responded to more than 2,030 jobs across the state since the downpours started at midnight on Saturday.

Southerly swells picked up throughout the morning, but it didn't deter surfers from catching the waves. Pictured: a surfer at Manly Beach

Pictured: A surfer braving the wind and rain to ride the waves at Sydney's Manly Beach on Tuesday. Experts warned people in the state's south to stay out of the water

Southerly swells smashed the coastline and creating treacherous rips along the Manly Beach. Southern towns in the state were battered by another night of wild weather on Monday, with up to 180mm of rain and winds of 120km/h

Most calls for help have been for leaking, damaged roofs, fallen trees and requests for sandbags, with volunteers responding to more than 900 jobs across the Illawarra, South Coast and Southern Highlands.

There have been more than 610 jobs on the Central Coast, mid-north coast and northern NSW as well as 430 in Sydney and the Blue Mountains.

Meanwhile, southern towns in the state were battered by another night of wild weather on Monday, with up to 180mm of rain and winds of 120km/h.

Wild weather left more than 14,000 homes without power on the state's south coast on Monday night.

Water levels rose past knee level in some parts of NSW (pictured, cows being rescued from flooding in Nowra)

Pictured: Emergency workers responding to fallen trees in Ulladulla on the NSW South Coast (pictured on Monday night)

The SES have recorded thousands of requests for assistance since Saturday, SES commissioner Carlene York said.

'The weather conditions have created some risk for our community, particularly in relation to damaged roofs, fallen trees and an increased call for sandbagging across the coastal areas,' Ms York told reporters on Monday.

Three motorists and six cows had to be rescued overnight as damaging winds and flash flooding wreak havoc on the coastal communities.

Residents of Sussex Inlet 155km south of Sydney were urged to leave their homes immediately late on Monday evening as torrential rain paved the way for flooding.

Emergency crews have also been working around the clock to restore power to 14,500 Shoalhaven homes and businesses which were affected by the storm.
Gloria Hunniford has branded the Duchess of Sussex manipulative, saying that "when you marry into the royal family you can't have it all your own way".

The Portadown native caused a stir when she clashed with Kelle Bryan (45) on Loose Women over Meghan (38).

The presenters were discussing Finding Freedom, the new biography of Harry (35) and Meghan by Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie.

Extracts from the book, due to be published by HQ on August 11 and serialised in the The Times and the Sunday Times, have covered claims the Duke of Sussex was angered by what he perceived as his brother's "snobbish" attitude to his bride.

The publisher said the authors have been given "unique access" and the cooperation of those closest to the couple.

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Neither Meghan nor the Duke have contributed to the upcoming book.

It is based on interviews conducted by Scobie and Durand with sources close to the couple in addition to the authors' own reporting.

"I just want to say up front that at the beginning I really liked Meghan," said Gloria (80).

"I thought that she was a breath of fresh air.

"She was different, she had a lot of interests that Harry was interested in and I thought that was good.

"But over a period of time I have sort of changed my mind.

"I see the manipulation or what I fell is manipulation, in my opinion.

"But you know, there is nothing earth shattering about this book, we have heard a lot of it before.

"I don't believe for one second that they did not feed a lot of information."

Gloria described the couple as "miserable" looking in recent photographs.

"The name of the book is Finding Freedom. And I have the gut feeling they're not finding that," said Gloria.

"In every picture they look miserable, I don't know what Harry is doing in LA, Meghan I feel is loving it, she's already been back doing voiceovers and things."

Kelle said that was because that was the actress' previous job.

"Obviously they've taken a step back from royal life and they are providing for themselves, so that is a job to do and earn money from," she said.

Gloria replied: "I would say she married the institution, she didn't just marry Harry and I know she was a very successful television person, but I don't think she can have it both ways."

Gloria said she felt there had been signs of manipulation, as she believed Meghan was desperate to return to the US.

"Maybe I'm old fashioned, there is so much information when you marry into the royal family and you can't have it all your own way, but I do wish them well," she said.
Factory quotes for lamb fell yesterday by between 10-30c/kg, while the quotes offered for cull ewes by the main processors were either up 5c/kg or down 10c/kg.

On the lamb side, the ICM group and Dawn Ballyhaunis are now all on 5.20+10c/kg quality assurance - that's a drop of 20c and 30c/kg respectively.

Kildare Chilling is paying 20c/kg less for lambs at 5.30+10c/kg QA, with Kepak Athleague easier by 10c/kg at 5.25/kg+15c/kg QA.

On the cull ewe side, the two ICM plants drop their quote by 10c/kg to 2.50/kg. Kildare remain unchanged on 2.50+10c/kg QA, while Kepak Athleague actually put up their quote yesterday by 5c/kg to 2.65/kg. Dawn did not offer a quote yesterday.

An industry source told me that with the demand created by the Eid al Adha festival now largely satisfied, the "trade is looking difficult from Wednesday on because big numbers of UK sheep are starting to hit our French and German markets."

Sean McNamara of ICSA is of the opinion that mart prices may not be too badly hit even if the factories pull prices hard. The reason? He is seeing more cattlemen turning up at marts to buy store lambs.

"These lads have cattle or cull cows gone to the factory and are buying store lambs now to eat the grass because they tell me store cattle are too dear."

Will they stick at the sheep?

"They'd be hoping to turn them in the autumn and get back into cattle for the winter."

He expects the store trade to remain strong, commenting that if the price of lambs was to come back in the factories with a knock-on effect at the marts, "the store men will take the factory men out for them".

The IFA's Sean Dennehy believes that the trade remains steady with prices for lambs ranging from 5.60-5.70/kg and up to 20c/kg above this when bonuses are added in for producer groups.

Mr Dennehy also noted that some agents were suggesting to him that supplies might actually begin to tighten.

With some plants reported to be working extra hours and, in some cases, extra days in recent weeks to fill orders connected to the Eid al Adha festival, the national kill looks decidedly healthy, leading one to wonder about how many fit sheep are left in the system short term.

The total sheep kill in the Republic up to July 19 stood at 1,509,592 as against 1,430,860 for the same period in 2019.

Department of Agriculture figures show a total of 192,885 sheep were slaughtered at export plants in the first three weeks of July.

Of that figure, 166,681 were lambs, compared to 152,500 in the same three weeks of July 2019.

Imports

If numbers do tighten, will some of that increasing supply of UK lamb mentioned above by an industry source make its way into Northern Ireland?

And will the thorny question of just where all those Northern sheep who travel South originate from raise its head again?

In short, therefore, the industry appears to be gearing itself to pay less in the coming weeks, yet with big numbers already processed and those buyers or stores still keen, there appears to be plenty to play for yet on the prices front.





Marts

Carnew

Excellent demand saw the 3,200 sheep on offer move very well with butcher type lambs over 50kgs selling from 116-122/hd. 45-49kgs made from 108-118/hd, with 40-44kgs seeing 96-112/hd, while 35-39kgs averaged from 83-101/hd; lighter lots sold from 65-84/hd. Ewe lambs made from 95-133/hd, with breeding ewes ranging from 140-190/hd. Heavy cull ewes sold from 120-137/hd.





Headford

Prices for lambs here ranged from 70/hd for store types to 120/hd for the heavier butcher type. Sample prices included 32-36kgs at 85-93/hd, 37-38kgs at 92-93/hd, and 39kgs at 100/hd with 45kgs making 113/hd.





Raphoe

Numbers here yesterday were up a couple of hundred to around the 2,000 mark with the trade reported to have held. Sample prices among the lambs included 32-34kgs at 72-84/hd, 41-42kgs at 102-110/hd, 44-45kgs sold from 104-116/hd, while 53-55kgs made from 129-133/hd.





Athenry

Acting manager Gerry Linnane noted a continuation of recent strong numbers yesterday with lambs seeing 49kgs topping the price table at 135/hd. Other prices included 51kgs at 120-132/hd, 45kgs at 112 and 35-40kgs 88-102/hd. Cull ewes in general sold from 80-129/hd.





Kilkenny

George Candler reported a bigger sale with 700 on offer. Among the lambs, top call went to a batch of 21 lambs at 48kgs that sold for 123/hd. Other prices of note among the lambs included 50kgs selling from 120-121/hd, 47kgs making from 113-117/hd with 46kgs averaging 110-116/hd. On the store side, 37kgs made from75-87/hd, 36kgs made 88/hd with 41kgs varying from 96-98/hd. Cull ewes sold for 70-139/hd.





Baltinglass

A full yard of sheep saw an almost complete clearance with prices reported as being improved by around 1-3/hd. In detail, 30-35kg lambs from 75-114/hd, with 35-40kgs seeing 78-108/hd, and 40-45kgs made from 104-115/hd.
After BSP general secretary Satish Mishra issued a whip to party MLAs, who had merged with the Congress around 10 months ago, to vote against the Rajasthan government in the Assembly, interesting debates have ensued on the legality of the whip and the merger of BSP's state unit with the Congress.

But what hasn't been discussed as much perhaps is how this is a rerun for both, the BSP and for the Congress under Gehlot.

Apart from the fact that Gehlot was the chief minister in both cases, there are many similarities in political developments that are unfolding in the state right now and what happened in Rajasthan after the 2008 elections.

It was in 1998 that the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had first contested elections in Rajasthan and opened its account with two MLAs. However, at the time, neither of the national parties  the Congress at 150 and the BJP at 33 - needed the BSP's support.

The national parties did not require the BSP's support even in the following elections - 2003 - when the BJP emerged victorious with 130 seats and the Congress won from 56 constituencies.

But in its third election, the BSP emerged as the kingmaker when both the Congress with 96 seats and BJP with 78 seats tried to court its six MLAs.

The results were similar to those of the last Assembly elections, in which the Congress got 100 seats, the BJP 73, and the BSP emerged as the third-largest party with six MLAs.

That is the first thing common in both cases  the Congress trying to survive by a slender margin while the BJP waits to pounce on the first opportunity it has to unseat the Gehlot-led dispensation.

After the results of the 2008 elections, the BSP announced its support to the Congress just as it did soon after the results were announced in 2018.

However, Gehlot understood in both cases the precarious existence of the government he commanded from Jaipur. A curious episode happened within the first few months of Gehlot swearing in as the chief minister.

Kirori Lal Meena, who was an independent MLA at the time and whose wife was given a cabinet berth for their support to the government, resigned from the cabinet.

Word went around that Meena along with three to four other MLAs was planning to bring down the government with the help of the BJP.

Within no time, in April 2009, Gehlot got all the six MLAs to merge with his party and so without any outside help his tally went to 102, one more than the majority figure, and the day was saved for him.

Meena had served as a minister under the previous BJP government, headed by Vasundhara Raje, but had left the party over differences with the latter.

In 2018, after a brief stint of running his own party, he rejoined the BJP and was rewarded with a Rajya Sabha seat from Dausa.

On September 16, Gehlot again got the entire BSP state unit to merge with his party, a move that had angered the partys national head Mayawati, who had demanded imposition of Presidents rule in the state.

The case over the merger of the BSPs state unit is pending before the Election Commission.
The Rajasthan cabinet chaired by chief minister Ashok Gehlot has decided to stick to its demand to convene the assembly session from July 31, instead after 21-days as recommended by the governor. The queries raised by Kalraj Mishra as a precondition for convening the assembly session were also discussed.

A senior Rajasthan minister said that the party hopes that governor Kalraj Mishra respects the constitution and approved the cabinets proposal, failing which further course of action will be decided.

If still, he does not approve then it is clear that there is no constitution. They are doing politics by keeping aside the constitution. The governor should understand that this fight is for the pride and honour of Rajasthan, state transport minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said after the cabinet meeting.

Citing an example, he asked if the country would afford a similar hypothetical situation of the President turning down PM Narendra Modis cabinet proposal for convening a Lok Sabha session. Then how will the country run, he asked and added that The BJP is doing politics to weaken Lok Sabha and state assembly.

He reiterated his partys stated position that the governor had no right to reject the cabinets proposal.

We do not want any confrontation with the governor and neither have any resentment against him. The governor is the head of our family. Under article 163 of the India Constitution, it is clearly written that no governor of the country can deny the proposal by the cabinet, he added.

Governor Kalraj Mishra had returned Gehlot governments earlier proposal for convening the assembly session from July 31 and suggested that he give 21 days notice for the same and made arrangements for social distancing and ensured live streaming of the floor test.

Also Read: BSP to file plea in Rajasthan High Court tomorrow against merger of its MLAs with Congress

Congress minister said the governor had no legal right to make the queries.

The governors query is simple and the replies were discussed. However, he has no right to query under the law, Khachariyawas said.

He said the business advisory committee of the assembly will decide the agenda of the session and the speaker will decide the seating arrangements as per social distancing norms in the assembly. On the issue of a 21-day notice for calling the session, the minister said it was just a delaying tactic.

The entire BJP is working as slaves of the Congress dissidents. If today, the BJP people are told by Congress rebels that dont let the session begin then it will not happen. How much time should be given so that they can horse trade the MLAs but not one will break as people are awake, he alleged.

Also Read: Rajasthan cabinet meets to discuss points raised by governor for calling assembly session

The current threat to the state government has been precipitated by the rebellion of 19 Congress MLAs including former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot. The Gehlot government has blamed the BJP of plotting his governments downfall in connivance with Pilot. It has also alleged that the governor is also acting unconstitutionally at the behest of the BJP leadership.

Revenue minister Harish Choudhary said, We dont want the governor to follow us but the constitution, the law and the rules; this is what we are requesting. The Governor should leave the speakers issues to him, governments issues with the cabinet, and he should also follow the Supreme Court judgments.

The governor has returned cabinet recommendations for calling the assembly session twice while raising technical issues. His office has told the Rajasthan government that an assembly session can be called at a short notice provided it states that holding a floor test is its purpose. But the Congress government has cited discussion on Covid situation in the state as the main reason for calling the session.

BJP spokesperson Mukesh Pareek has rejected Congress allegations of putting pressure on the governor and claimed that the current turmoil in the state Congress was the result of an internal factional feud, existence of which was visible since the formation of the government.
A sweeping investigative report has revealed that drugstore chain Rite Aid quietly added facial recognition systems to 200 stores across the U.S. in an attempt to bust repeat shoplifters.

The Reuters investigation found facial recognition cameras at 33 of the 75 Rite Aid shops in Manhattan and the central Los Angeles metropolitan area during one or more visits from October through July.

Among the 75 stores Reuters visited, those in areas that were poorer or less white were much more likely to have the equipment, the news agencys statistical analysis found.

In Los Angeles, Tristan Jackson-Stankunas spoke out to say that said Rite Aid wrongly fingered him as a shoplifter based on someone else's photo.

When confronted with the information from the investigation, which found cases of misidentification, Rite Aid said that it had disconnected all of the cameras and discontinued use of facial recognition.

A woman shops inside a Rite Aid store underneath a DeepCam facial recognition security camera in New York City in November 2019

A Rite Aid store located at 3rd and Vermont is shown in Los Angeles. A new investigation revealed hundreds of stores using facial recognition cameras

In Los Angeles, Tristan Jackson-Stankunas (above) spoke out to say that said Rite Aid wrongly fingered him as a shoplifter based on someone else's photo

While Reuters could not confirm the method Rite Aid used to identify him, the store had FaceFirst technology by that time, according to a Rite Aid security agent and a Foursquare review photo showing the camera.

According to a complaint Jackson-Stankunas filed with the California Department of Consumer Affairs a week after the incident, he was looking for air freshener in September 2016 when a manager ordered him to leave the store.

The manager said he had received a security image of Jackson-Stankunas taken at another Rite Aid in 2013 from which he allegedly had stolen goods, according to the complaint.

When Jackson-Stankunas viewed the photo on the manager's phone, he told Reuters, he saw nothing in common with the person except their race: Both are black.

'The guy looks nothing like me,' said Jackson-Stankunas, 34, who ultimately was allowed to make his purchase and leave the store. Rite Aid 'only identified me because I was a person of color. Thats it.'

The California department told him his complaint fell outside its purview, directing him to another state office, email records show. Instead, he said he decided to write the store a bad review on Yelp.

This chart shows the distribution of stores with and without facial recognition based on the poverty level and racial demographics of the surrounding area

A Rite Aid store worker looks over security camera footage from facial recognition cameras in one of the company's stores in downtown Los Angeles in October

Rite Aid and the manager who allegedly was involved declined to comment on Jackson-Stankunas' account.

How Rite Aid's facial recognition works Cameras take photos and videos of a person after they enter a store

The images are matched with the profile of any known prior customer

If the customer has previously been flagged for shoplifting or even suspicious behavior, an alert is sent to the manager's phone

Manager must sign off on adding a flag to a customer's profile

Rite Aid says it deletes data after 10 days for law-abiding customers

Company retains data in criminal cases to aid investigators Advertisement

Over the course of eight years, Rite Aid deployed facial recognition technology in its stores, and for more than a year, the retailer used state-of-the-art facial recognition technology from a company with links to China and its authoritarian government, according to Reuters.

In telephone and email exchanges with Reuters since February, Rite Aid confirmed the existence and breadth of its facial recognition program.

The retailer defended the technology's use, saying it had nothing to do with race and was intended to deter theft and protect staff and customers from violence. Reuters found no evidence that Rite Aid's data was sent to China.

Last week, however, after Reuters sent its findings to the retailer, Rite Aid said it had quit using its facial recognition software. It later said all the cameras had been turned off.

'This decision was in part based on a larger industry conversation,' the company told Reuters in a statement, adding that 'other large technology companies seem to be scaling back or rethinking their efforts around facial recognition given increasing uncertainty around the technologys utility.'

Reuters pieced together how the companys initiative evolved, how the software has been used and how a recent vendor was linked to China, drawing on thousands of pages of internal documents from Rite Aid and its suppliers, as well as direct observations during store visits by Reuters journalists and interviews with more than 40 people familiar with the systems' deployment.

Most current and former employees spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they feared jeopardizing their careers.

A woman shops inside a Rite Aid store underneath a DeepCam security camera in New York City on June 25

While Rite Aid declined to disclose which locations used the technology, Reuters found facial recognition cameras at 33 of the 75 Rite Aid shops in Manhattan and the central Los Angeles metropolitan area during one or more visits from October through July.

The cameras were easily recognizable, hanging from the ceiling on poles near store entrances and in cosmetics aisles. Most were about half a foot long, rectangular and labeled either by their model, 'iHD23,' or by a serial number including the vendors initials, 'DC.' In a few stores, security personnel - known as loss prevention or asset protection agents - showed Reuters how they worked.

The cameras matched facial images of customers entering a store to those of people Rite Aid previously observed engaging in potential criminal activity, causing an alert to be sent to security agents smartphones. Agents then reviewed the match for accuracy and could tell the customer to leave.

Rite Aid told Reuters in a February statement that customers had been apprised of the technology through 'signage' at the shops, as well as in a written policy posted this year on its website. Reporters found no notice of the surveillance in more than a third of the stores they visited with the facial recognition cameras.

Among the 75 stores Reuters visited, those in areas that were poorer or less white were much more likely to have the equipment, the news agencys statistical analysis found.

Stores in more impoverished areas were nearly three times as likely as those in richer areas to have facial recognition cameras. Seventeen of 25 stores in poorer areas had the systems. In wealthier areas, it was 10 of 40. (Ten of the stores were in areas whose wealth status was not clear. Six of those stores had the equipment.)

In areas where people of color, including Black or Latino residents, made up the largest racial or ethnic group, Reuters found that stores were more than three times as likely to have the technology.

Reuters findings illustrate 'the dire need for a national conversation about privacy, consumer education, transparency, and the need to safeguard the Constitutional rights of Americans,' said Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic chairwoman of the House oversight committee, which has held hearings on the use of facial recognition technology.

A woman shops inside a Rite Aid store underneath a DeepCam security camera in New York City on June 25

Rite Aid said the rollout was 'data-driven,' based on stores theft histories, local and national crime data and site infrastructure.

Cathy Langley, Rite Aids vice president of asset protection, said earlier this year that facial recognition - which she referred to as 'feature matching' - resulted in less violence and organized crime in the companys stores. Last week, however, Rite Aid said its new leadership team was reviewing practices across the company, and 'this was one of a number of programs that was terminated.'

'It doesn't pick up black people well': Facial recognition system is accused of racial profiling

In interviews, 10 current and former Rite Aid loss prevention agents told Reuters that the system they initially used in stores was from a company called FaceFirst, which has been backed by U.S. investment firms.

It regularly misidentified people, all 10 of them said.

'It doesn't pick up black people well,' one loss prevention staffer said last year while using FaceFirst at a Rite Aid in a majority African American neighborhood of Detroit.

'If your eyes are the same way, or if youre wearing your headband like another person is wearing a headband, you're going to get a hit.'

FaceFirst's chief executive, Peter Trepp, said facial recognition generally works well irrespective of skin tone, an issue he said the industry addressed years ago. He declined to talk about Rite Aid, saying he would not discuss any possible clients.

Rite Aid originally piloted FaceFirst at its store on West 3rd Street and South Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles, a largely Asian and Latino neighborhood, around 2012.

Of the 65 stores the retailer targeted in its first big rollout, 52 were in areas where the largest group was Black or Latino, according to Reuters analysis of a Rite Aid planning document from 2013 that was read aloud to a reporter by someone with access to it. Reuters confirmed that some of these stores later deployed the technology but did not confirm its presence at every location on the list.

Separately, two former Rite Aid managers and a third source familiar with the FaceFirst rollout said the systems were concentrated, respectively, in the 'tougher,' 'toughest' or 'worst' areas.

Reuters reviewed a 2016 spreadsheet from the companys asset protection unit in which Rite Aid rated 20 higher-earning Manhattan stores as having equal risk of loss - labeled 'MedHigh.' Two of 10 stores where whites were the largest racial group had facial recognition technology when Reuters visited this year, whereas eight of the 10 in non-white areas had the systems.

One spot ranked 'MedHigh' was a store at 741 Columbus Avenue in New Yorks whiter, wealthier Upper West Side. Another was the pharmacys West 125th Street store in nearby Harlem, a majority African-American neighborhood. The Harlem store got facial recognition technology; the Upper West Side one did not, as of July 9.

Starting in 2013, as Rite Aid deployed FaceFirsts technology in Philadelphia, Baltimore and beyond, some serious drawbacks emerged, current and former security agents and managers told Reuters.

For instance, the system would 'generate 500 hits in an hour all across the United States' when photos in the system were blurry or taken at an odd angle, one of the people familiar with FaceFirsts operations said.

FaceFirsts Trepp said the company has high accuracy rates while running 'over 12 trillion comparisons per day without any known complaints to date.'

At one store Reuters visited, a security agent scrolled through FaceFirst 'alerts' showing a number of cases in which faces were obviously mismatched, including a Black man mixed up with someone who was Asian. Reuters could not determine whether the incorrect matches resulted in confrontations with customers.

FaceFirst CEO Trepp said that his company takes racial bias seriously and would not work with any business that disregarded civil rights. 'We cannot stand for racial injustice of any kind, including in our technology,' he said.

Generally, Trepp said, Reuters findings about his company contained 'extensive factual inaccuracies' and are 'not based upon information from credible sources.'

Facial recognition is largely unregulated in the US

Facial recognition systems are largely unregulated in the United States, despite disclosure or consent requirements, or limits on government use, in several states, including California, Washington, Texas and Illinois.

Some cities, including San Francisco, ban municipal officials from using them. In general, the technology makes photos and videos more readily searchable, allowing retailers almost instantaneous facial comparisons within and across stores.

Among the systems used by Rite Aid was one from DeepCam LLC, which worked with a firm in China whose largest outside investor is a Chinese government fund. Some security experts said any program with connections to China was troubling because it could open the door to aggressive surveillance in the United States more typical of an autocratic state.

Security monitoring warning stickers are shown at the entrance of a Rite Aid store in downtown Los Angeles in October

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican and acting chair of the U.S. Senates intelligence committee, told Reuters in a statement that the Rite Aid systems potential link to China was 'outrageous.'

'The Chinese Communist Partys buildup of its Orwellian surveillance state is alarming, and Chinas efforts to export its surveillance state to collect data in America would be an unacceptable, serious threat,' he said.

The security specialists expressed concern that information gathered by a China-linked company could ultimately land in that governments hands, helping Beijing to refine its facial recognition technology globally and monitor people in ways that violate American standards of privacy.

'If it goes back to China, there are no rules,' said James Lewis, the Technology Policy Program director at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Asked for comment, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: 'These are unfounded smears and rumors.'

Rite Aid's connection to facial recognition firm with 'Chinese ties'

Early in 2018, Rite Aid began installing technology from DeepCam LLC, ultimately phasing out FaceFirst in stores around the country, interviews with Rite Aid loss prevention agents and internal vendor documents indicate.

Six security staffers who used both systems said DeepCams matches were more accurate - sometimes to a fault.

The technology picked up faces from ads on buses or pictures on T-shirts, three said. One famous face captured in DeepCam was Marilyn Monroes, one of the agents said.

At least until 2017, FaceFirst had employed an older method of biometric identification that compared maps of subjects faces, two people familiar with its system said.

Only later did it move over to software based on 'artificial intelligence' like DeepCam's. Though the data and algorithms differ by brand, these systems draw upon potentially millions of samples to 'learn' how to match faces.

DeepCam cameras photographed and took live video of every person entering a Rite Aid store, aiming to create a unique facial profile, Rite Aid agents said.

If the customer walked in front of another DeepCam facial recognition camera at a Rite Aid shop, new images were added to the person's existing profile. Two agents said they lost access to the images after 10 days unless the person landed on a watch list based on their behavior in stores.

When agents saw someone commit a crime - or just do something suspicious, one said - they scrolled through profiles on their smartphone to search for the individual, only adding the person to the watch list with a manager's approval.

The next time the shopper walked into a Rite Aid that had the technology, agents received a phone alert and checked the match for accuracy. Then they could order the person to leave, agents told Reuters.

Rite Aid said adding customers to the watch list was based on 'multiple layers of meaningful human review.' The company told Reuters its procedures ensured customers were not confronted unnecessarily.

If a person was found to be engaging in criminal behavior, Rite Aid said, 'we retain the data as a matter of policy to cooperate in pending or potential criminal investigations.'

A Rite Aid store is shown in downtown Los Angeles, California in October

Other U.S. retail stores have tried DeepCam. Independent 7-Eleven franchise owners in Virginia told Reuters they conducted trials of the software starting in 2018 and later dropped it. They said they largely found the system accurate but not user friendly and too expensive to maintain. The system was advertised online as costing $99 a month.

7-Eleven Inc did not answer requests for comment.

The two founding owners of U.S.-based DeepCam LLC were Don Knasel and Jingfeng Liu, who set up the firm in Longmont, Colorado, in 2017, state records show. Liu's residential address in Longmont was listed as its headquarters.

A Chinese native with U.S. citizenship and a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University, Liu had the skills to do business in both the United States and China.

According to China's official business registration records, he is chairman of another facial recognition firm in China called Shenzhen Shenmu Information Technology Co Ltd, whose website is DeepCam.com.

For a time, the U.S.-based DeepCam LLC and Shenzhen Shenmu were closely connected: In addition to Lius role in both companies, they shared the same website and email accounts, according to internal records seen by Reuters.

Internal correspondence reviewed by Reuters suggests that DeepCam reached a deal with Rite Aid by March 2018, when a colleague emailed Knasel to congratulate him.

Internal records also indicated that China-based Shenzhen Shenmu helped its American counterpart with product development and that Liu was expected to pay at least some of the bills. That same month, a U.S. executive wrote: 'Hi Jingfeng- Thanks for the credit card. Here is the receipt for the Indianapolis Trade Show.'

In an interview, Liu confirmed the financing, saying of Knasel: 'Whenever he needed money, I give him some money.' Liu said Knasel told him about the Rite Aid project but left him in the dark about the business. Knasel 'never let data cross between the two countries,' Liu said.

As the Rite Aid rollout proceeded in 2018, correspondence among DeepCam staff, seen by Reuters, expressed concerns about publicly revealing any links to China, as well as using the term 'facial recognition' in the U.S. market for fear of attracting the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Days after the ACLU wrote a March 2018 blog post critical of retailers suspected use of the technology, including Rite Aids, Knasel emailed staff: 'It looks like the ACLU may be starting to stick its head up....We need to tone down facial recognition, which I have tried to do....If they come after us, we are dead....so we have to avoid.' The punctuation in the message is Knasels.

Today, both Liu and Knasel say no ties exist between the U.S. and Chinese businesses.

'We never do any business in USA,' Liu wrote in a brief email to Reuters in March. 'We focus in China market.'

More recently, in an interview and an email, Liu said he had not spoken with Knasel for more than a year and, to his disappointment, had not benefited from the U.S. venture.

In a statement to Reuters, Knasel sought to distance himself from Liu, Shenzhen Shenmu and DeepCam.

He did not address questions about DeepCam's deal with Rite Aid. DeepCam, he said, is 'winding up' its operations and now has no assets. He added that DeepCam never supplied China-based Shenzhen Shenmu with any data.

DeepCam security cameras monitor shoppers inside a Rite Aid store in New York City in June

In February, Rite Aid told Reuters that DeepCam had been 're-branded' as pdActive. PdActive is a facial recognition company run by Knasel, who said it is not a rebranding of DeepCam but a different company that has no owners who are Chinese citizens.

Knasel remained connected to DeepCam through another company he runs, dcAnalytics, which Knasel said licensed DeepCams technology until November 2019. Since then, Knasel said, U.S.-based dcAnalytics has been using 'proprietary' technology, as well as facial recognition cameras purchased from DeepCam.

Knasel said dcAnalytics is 'committed to upholding the highest standards possible to make sure facial recognition technology is used fairly, properly and responsibly.'

Steve Dickinson, a Seattle attorney who practiced law in China for more than a decade and writes about cybersecurity, said geopolitical tensions have added sensitivity to any work Chinese surveillance firms do in the United States.

Last year, the U.S. government blacklisted several Chinese companies - including Hikvision, one of the biggest surveillance camera manufacturers globally - alleging involvement in human rights abuses. China has deployed facial recognition cameras widely within its borders, providing a level of monitoring unfathomable to many Americans.

At the time, a U.S. Hikvision spokesman said the firm 'strongly opposes' the decision and that punishing Hikvision would harm its U.S. business partners and discourage global companies from communicating with the U.S. government.

Liu described his company as nothing like the Chinese video surveillance giants. With about 20 employees, he said, it is 'a tiny company pretending to be big,' struggling unsuccessfully to get government contracts and nearly bankrupt.

Reuters found that he and his company have financial and other ties to the Chinese government, however.

Most notably, Shenzhen Shenmus largest outside investor, holding about 20% of its registered capital, is a strategic fund set up by the government of China. Called the SME Development Fund (Shenzhen Limited Partnership), it has built a 6 million yuan ($855,000) stake in Shenzhen Shenmu since early 2018, Chinese public business records show.

A person with the same name as a Shenzhen Shenmu board director has also worked for the venture firm managing the SME fund, according to the records and the investment firms website.

The fund acknowledged investing in Shenzhen Shenmu and said it 'does not participate in the daily operation and management of the enterprise.'

Liu is a member of China's Thousand Talents program, according to a local government website. That program was started by Beijing as a way to bring top academics working in important fields abroad back to China.

According to allegations by the U.S. Justice Department, the program aimed to steal foreign technology.

In a statement, Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs described such allegations as false and as 'stigmatization' by the United States.

Liu told Reuters he tried to get into the program but does not know if he is. The achievement was reported in an article on Shenzhen Shenmu's website, but Liu said he only wanted to use the distinction to help him sell products. Reuters was unable to confirm with Chinas government whether Liu was a member.

Another website, that of a Shenzhen Shenmu subsidiary, Magicision, claims its technology has helped officials arrest fugitives and suspected criminals in China.

Liu was vague about the firms public security work, saying his company has tried unsuccessfully to get contracts with Chinese law enforcement. He called the websites information 'bullshit marketing.'

About the Chinese governments interest in his companys data, however, he was clear.

'The China government never care about us,' he said. 'We are too small.'

'I know (the) China threat is a hot, eyeball-attractive topic. But what you have in mind is totally untrue.'
The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it will continue to defy a federal court order compelling the full restoration of DACA, the Obama-era program that allows 700,000 immigrants to live and work in the United States legally. By doing so, the administration has chosen to flout a decision by the Supreme Court, effectively rejecting the judiciarys authority to say what the law is.

Donald Trump first attempted to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in September 2017, a move that wouldve stripped its beneficiaries of work permits and subjected them to deportation. But his administration continually cut corners, failing to explain the basis for its decision and refusing to consider the impact of DACA repeal on immigrants, their communities, and their employers (including the U.S. Army). This June, the Supreme Court ruled that the administrations actions were arbitrary and capricious under federal law and therefore set aside DACA repeal.

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To implement that decision, U.S. District Judge Paul Grimm compelled the administration to restore DACA to its pre-repeal condition on July 17. Grimms order required the Department of Homeland Security to let DACA beneficiaries renew their status for two years, accept new applicants, and restore advance parole, which permits travel outside the country. But DHS did not do that. Instead, the agency maintained that it would reject new DACA applicants. It also declined to accept DACA renewals or reinstate advance parole.

At a hearing Friday, Grimm tore into Justice Department attorneys for flouting his order. The governments actions, he explained, created a feeling and a belief that the agency is disregarding binding decisions from the Supreme Court. DOJ attorneys insisted that DACA applications were merely on hold, or placed into a bucket, while the administration decided how to proceed. But, as Grimm retorted, it is a distinction without a difference to say that this application has not been denied, it has been received and it has been put in a bucket. The judge once again directed DHS to comply with the law by accepting new applicants and processing renewals.

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Incredibly, the agency has decided to disobey this order, as well. On Tuesday, acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf declared that it would not accept new applications and would only grant one-year extensions to current beneficiaries on a case by case basis. This tactic will make it easier for Trump to deport DACA beneficiaries if he wins reelection, since their status will expire sooner. The agency will also deny advance parole absent exceptional circumstances. This new policy is nothing less than brazen defiance of a federal court ruling. Grimm, and the Supreme Court itself, ordered DACAs full resuscitation, which requires the acceptance of new applicants and the conferral of two-year renewals. There is simply no legal basis for DHSs zombie version of the program.

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The administration has tried this malfeasance before with a different policyand it didnt work then, either. After the Supreme Court blocked Trumps addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census, Trump insisted they would find a way to do it anyway. That court decision, too, found that the government had violated the law through dishonest incompetence. And in its aftermath, the administration scrambled to work around SCOTUS and snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat. It failed, though not before tiptoeing up to the line of defying the Supreme Court.

Now the administration has crossed that linesprinted past it, really, without any apparent hesitation. It is true that SCOTUS allowed the Trump administration to take another stab at rescinding DACA. But Wolfs memo does not purport to initiate a new process of winding down the program. Rather, Wolf presented these new rules as interim changes while DHS decides how to repeal DACA legally. Certainly, the agency can go back to the drawing board and devise a new method of killing the program. But neither the Supreme Courts decision nor Grimms order gave Wolf the power to limit [DACAs] scope in the interim.

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It is no surprise that DHS, whose agents are unconstitutionally kidnapping and brutalizing peaceful protesters in Portland, Oregon, would disregard the law. Trump is doubling down on his smash-and-grab approach to governance. While the president demands law and order and Attorney General William Barr complains about mass disrespect of authority, the administration is intent on getting its way even when it means ignoring a federal court order. The presidents men are restrained only by their own sense of what they can get away with.

For more of Slates news coverage, subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts or listen below.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 28, 2020 - 19:03 | All, World

Nearly 3 billion animals were killed or otherwise impacted by Australia's devastating 2019-2020 summer bushfires, an interim report commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature showed on Tuesday.

The figure -- comprised of 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs -- is almost three times larger than the original estimate of over 1 billion animals, made in January by University of Sydney professor and report overseer Chris Dickman.

"When you think about nearly 3 billion native animals being in the path of the fires, it is absolutely huge, it's a difficult number to comprehend," Dickman said in a statement released by WWF.

Related coverage:

Inquiry warns koalas face extinction in Australia's largest state

Aussie wildlife hospital takes annual charity benefit online

State of emergency declared for Australia capital Canberra amid fires

The report, which analyzed the impacts of fire on 11.46 million hectares of land, primarily in the southeast and southwest of Australia, said not all animals were killed directly by the flames and heat.

Indirect factors such as dehydration, smoke inhalation and decreased availability of food resources meant the prospects of animals which escaped the fires were "probably not that great," according to Dickman.

Data limitations meant that some animal groups, such as invertebrates, fish and turtles, were not included in the analysis.

WWF-Australia CEO Dermot O'Gorman said the fires rank as "one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history."

"It's hard to think of another event anywhere in the world in living memory that has killed or displaced that many animals," O'Gorman said.

It is estimated over 12.6 million hectares were scorched and 33 people killed in the 2019-2020 bushfires.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 17:16:42|Editor: huaxia

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BERLIN, July 28 (Xinhua) -- German stocks showed little change at the start of trading on Tuesday, with the benchmark DAX index increasing 47.57 points, or 0.37 percent, opening at 12,886.23 points.

The biggest winner among Germany's 30 largest listed companies at the start of trading was payment service provider Wirecard, increasing by 2.62 percent, followed by automotive supplier Continental with 0.79 percent and housing company Vonovia with 0.78 percent.

German media reported on Tuesday that Continental had set up a new supercomputer to accelerate the development of driver assistance systems and automated car software.

Shares of Deutsche Bank fell by 0.14 percent. The largest German banking institute was the biggest loser at the start of trading on Tuesday. On Monday, Deutsche Bank announced to end its global business activities in coal mining by 2025.

The German ifo Institute announced on Tuesday that export expectations for manufacturing rose from minus 2.2 points to plus 6.9 points in July, spreading "cautious optimism" among German exporters.

The yield on German ten-year bonds went up 0.001 percentage points to minus 0.490 percent, and the euro was trading almost unchanged at 1.1751 U.S. dollars, decreasing by 0.01 percent on Tuesday morning. Enditem
People attend a meeting of the exhibitors' association of the third China International Import Expo (CIIE) in east China's Shanghai, July 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang)

BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- While the world economy struggles in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising protectionism, preparations are in full swing for the third China International Import Expo (CIIE), a strong message that China is committed to an open world economy and global efforts for the post-pandemic recovery.

As the world's first import-themed national expo, the CIIE has set up a broad platform to boost international trade. Scheduled to open in Shanghai in early November this year, the third CIIE will provide a precious opportunity for enterprises across the world to showcase their products and services and expand their markets in China amid the pandemic.

The total planned exhibition area for enterprises at the third CIIE is 360,000 square meters, 60,000 square meters larger than the second edition. The average exhibition area for the world's top 500 companies and industry leaders will increase by 14 percent from last year. Many companies are planning the world debut of their products at the event.

This impressive scale reflects the broad international recognition of both the CIIE and the Chinese market. More importantly, it demonstrates the world's urgent need for a "stabilizer" of industrial and supply chains amid the increasing uncertainty of global economic and trade development.

While some countries are turning away from economic globalization and even politicizing economic and technological issues, China, the world's second-largest economy with a market of 1.4 billion consumers, continues to promote openness and cooperation to restore world economic growth.

A visitor looks at exhibits during a supply-demand matchmaking meeting ahead of the 3rd China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, east China, July 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang)

The world has every reason to believe in China's dedication to expanding imports and promoting openness. This pursuit is motivated by a long-term approach to meeting the people's demands for higher-level consumption, unleashing the potential of the domestic market and promoting reform, development and innovation. It also fulfills China's commitment to achieving common development with the rest of the world.

As one of the first major economies to have achieved an economic rebound, China is naturally seeking ways to accelerate the global economic recovery through free trade and investment.

The country will remain resolute in following a win-win strategy of opening-up, advocating openness at the global level and acting as a stable engine of global growth.

When companies from around the globe gather at the upcoming CIIE, sharing information, exchanging views and signing cooperation agreements, their latest products will not be the only thing on display -- the true power of international cooperation to overcome any difficulties will be on show for all the world to see.
Kochi, July 29 : The NIA on Tuesday questioned suspended IAS officer M. Sivasankar in the Kerala gold smuggling case here for over 10 hours before allowing him to return to his home in the state capital.

This is the third time in the past five days that he has been interrogated. On Monday, after being questioning by the NIA for nine hours, Sivasankar was served a notice to appear before them on Tuesday again.

On Tuesday, he arrived at the NIA office here around 10 a.m. and was allowed to go back at 8.30 p.m.

The questioning was led by a woman IPS officer of the NIA from Hyderabad, while other officers were linked online from various offices in the country.

The NIA had questioned Sivasankar in Thiruvananthapuram for five hours on July 23 and served him notice to appear at its Kochi office for further questioning on Monday. After Monday's exercise, he stayed the night at a hotel near the NIA office.

Sivasankar is a former Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Information Technology Secretary before he was removed from the post after the racket came to light.

In the state capital, when media persons asked the Chief Minister about the questioning of his former top aide and the frequent demands of the Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala for his resignation, a peeved Vijayan shot back: "He (Chennithala) has a special frame of mind and naturally, he will speak like this only." He also reiterated that the ongoing questioning of his former secretary will, in no way, affect his government.

Leading lawyer S. Rajeev, from whom Sivasankar had sought legal advice, told the media that the investigation of a very important case of national interest has only begun.

"The NIA will now continue to collect evidence in the case and any investigation agency can call up anyone any number of times for taking statements," said Rajeev, soon after Sivasankar left the NIA office to return to his home in the state capital.

This case has rocked Kerala all this month and has caused a huge dent to the image of Vijayan, who continues to maintain that this was a private affair concerning Sivasankar and his office has nothing to do with it.

But, the social media is buzz with the position he took against his predecessor Oommen Chandy, when con woman Saritha Nair was arrested for cheating investors in the solar panel case.

Vijayan is being reminded of his speeches on the need for a Chief Minister to maintain a clean image in public life during Chandy's time. His then rhetoric that Chandy "has no moral right to continue in the post", is making the rounds on social media.

The gold smuggling case first surfaced when P.S. Sarith, a former employee of the UAE Consulate here, was arrested by the Customs on July 5 when he was allegedly was facilitating the smuggling of 30 kg gold in a diplomatic baggage from Dubai to Thiruvananthapuram.

The case became murkier when the name of Swapna Suresh, a former employee of the UAE Consulate and later employed with the IT Department, came to light. Her links with Sivasankar came up later during the investigation.

Another accused, Sandip Nair of Kochi, was arrested on charge of direct involvement in the smuggling.

The Customs had first quizzed Sivasankar for nine hours, after the case surfaced and they arrested Sarith. Swapna and Sandip were arrested by the NIA from Bengaluru. Sivasankar has maintained all through that his relations with Swapna were personal and not linked to his work.
Scott Morrison has experienced a COVID-19 close call after one of his advisors was directed to self-isolate after dining near an infected customer.

Prime Minister's staff member Nico Louw was tested for coronavirus after eating at The Apollo restaurant at Potts Point in inner east Sydney.

NSW Health put out an alert for The Apollo on Monday, urging anyone who visited from Thursday 23 to Saturday 25 July to get tested.

Mr Louw's result came back negative, however he will remain isolated until his 14 day quarantine period is complete.

Scott Morrison (pictured) has endured a coronavirus scare after a member of his staff was told to self isolate and be COVID-19 tested

Mr Morrison's advisor Nico Louw ate at The Apollo restaurant in Potts Point (pictured) while another diner had coronavirus

A spokeswoman for Mr Morrison told the Daily Telegraph the Prime Minister will continue his work schedule as normal.

'The acting Chief Medical Officer advised that because the staff member has no COVID-19 symptoms, the Prime Minister is clear to continue with his plans,' she said.

The Apollo is among several Sydney venues forced to close due to COVID-19 infections including Mounties and the Pritchard's Hotel in Mount Pritchard, and Thai Rock outlets in Wetherill Park and Potts Point.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said she is 'extremely concerned' over the growing clusters of coronavirus at Sydney restaurants.

The Thai Rock restaurant in Potts Point (pictured) is among several Sydney venues forced to close due to COVID-19 infections

She begged Sydneysiders to 'reduce their mobility' to stop the spread of the disease during an appearance on the Today show on Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday, the state recorded 14 new cases - including staff members from The Apollo and Thai Rock in Potts Point.

Making matters worse, 18 staff from the pharmacy at St Vincents Private Hospital in Darlinghurst dined at the Thai Rock restaurant in Potts Point and are now in self-isolation.

Mr Louw was in the news back in April when he reportedly distributed dozens of pirated copies of the ex-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's biography before its publication.

Legal action resulted in the two parties reaching a confidential settlement.
It wont necessarily be easily accomplished in any case. Alabamas legislature, dominated by a supermajority of conservative Republicans, passed a law in 2017 that makes it extremely difficult to remove or alter monuments and street names honoring Confederates. A unified movement by Selmas residents might overcome that retrograde legislation, but there is ambivalence in the community: concerns about a name changes impact on tourism, and objections from some African American veterans of the march who have said that preserving the name helps preserve memories of the event, as The Posts Sydney Trent has reported.
A hooded official canes two women in Indonesias Langsa, Aceh province after they were convicted in a sharia court of promoting sex outside of marriage, in a photo released by local sharia officials on July 28, 2020.

Two women each received 95 lashes in Indonesias Aceh province after being found guilty under sharia law of soliciting clients for sex workers over the internet, officials said Tuesday.

Wearing white robes and headscarves but no face masks, the women identified as YU, 47, and HE, 35, were caned in front of dozens of spectators outside the Sharia office in the town of Langsa on Monday, according to Aji Asmanuddin, head of Langsas Islamic sharia agency.

This was the first case of [online prostitution] that we handled, and we hope it will be the last in Langsa City and in Aceh as a whole, Aji told BenarNews.

The women were arrested on May 9 after officers received a tip from residents about online prostitution, and found guilty of promoting sex outside of marriage by the towns sharia court on June 4, according to Aji. The offense carries a maximum sentence of 100 lashes or 100 months in prison.

Police briefly detained five suspected sex workers but they were released because they were not caught in the act, officials said.

Aji said a crackdown on vice in Langsa forced sex workers and their pimps to move the business online, causing public unease.

We continue to work with police so we can uncover cases of prostitution of this kind because they are undermining and damaging the faith and character of our society, he said, adding that he hoped the womens punishment would serve as a lesson for the community.

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia which practices sharia law, regulating mixing of the sexes, gambling, drinking and selling liquor, sex outside marriage, rape, sexual harassment and homosexual sex. Aji said this was the citys third public flogging this year.

Human trafficking charges

The women remain in detention where they face separate criminal charges under Indonesias secular justice system, police said.

The head of the Langsa police criminal investigation unit, Arief S. Wibowo, said they would be indicted with human trafficking and a violation of the countrys Electronic Transaction and Information Act. If convicted, they could face a maximum of six years in prison and a fine of 1 billion rupiah (U.S. $68,700).

The criminal investigation is ongoing and we have submitted the case file to the prosecutors office, Arief told BenarNews.

Arief said the other women who were briefly detained were required to report regularly to police.

We will keep an eye on them and hopefully we can also uncover similar cases, which according to information from the public, have become more frequent lately, Arief said.

Public events

Canings in Aceh are carried out publicly, a spectacle that attracts hundreds of camera-wielding people, including children, despite a rule prohibiting people younger than 18 from watching.

In April 2018, Irwandi Yusuf, who was serving as governor of Aceh at the time, issued a gubernatorial regulation that canings be carried out inside prisons.

Irwandi said the move would reduce an international uproar over the practice and Islamophobia as an unwanted byproduct. In addition, Irwandi said he wanted to spare children from seeing the punishment being meted out in public.

While human rights activists supported the plan, conservative Muslim groups voiced their opposition and officials said local authorities were not ready to move canings to prisons, citing a lack of facilities.
President Akufo-Addo has Commissioned a GH4,932,085 water supply project for Nalerigu.

The Nalerigu Supply water system was constructed under the sustainable rural water and sanitation project.

The sustainable rural water and sanitation project has been implemented in 11 regions out of the 16 regions of the country.

The projects are financed through the $ 47.5million credit facility from the world bank.

The projects include the construction of water supply systems, Support for household latrines construction, health and hygiene education and others.

According to President Akufo-Addo, a total of 106,842 people are expected to benefit from the projects in the North East and Northern regions.

The project covers four (4) municipal district assemblies namely West Mamprusi, East Mamprusi, Chereponi and Saboba, he said.

He indicated that a total amount of twenty-six million, eight hundred and forty-eight thousand and seventy-five cedis (GH26,848,075) was spent in the construction of the water projects in the North East Region.

As co-Chair of the Group of Eminent Advocates for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, I am glad that the completion of this project will go towards the realisation of SDG No.6, which demands that we ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

The President called on the people of the Ghanaian to protect the water bodies by stopping activists like galamsey, sand winning and farming along river bounds.

This will help guarantee of improved water supply in terms of quality, quantity and liability to the people of the North East and it's surroundings, water born diseases such as cholera will also be eliminated.

President Akufo-Addo was hopeful that the water supply system will go a long way to enhance collective efforts to protect Ghanaians from the covid-19 virus.

I encourage all of you follow the covid-19 protocols by washing your hands with soap under running water, observing social distancing, avoiding shaking hands, covering your nose and mouth when sneezing and wearing of mask when you leave your homes.

He said government will not relent on its efforts to increase access of water for all which remains as a key commitment.
Malian refugees collect aid items at Goudoubo camp, Burkina Faso, February 2020.  UNHCR/Sylvain Cherkaoui

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is calling for stronger efforts to mitigate the risks for refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) posed by landmines and improvised explosive devices in Africas conflict-ridden Sahel and Lake Chad basin regions. Since the beginning of 2020, there has been a growing number of fatal incidents involving forcibly displaced populations.

Mines, unexploded ordnance (UXO) and more frequent use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are resulting in a growing threat to host populations, refugees and IDPs. While it appears that the intended targets of numerous anti-government and non-state armed groups are the security forces, more and more civilians are indiscriminately killed and maimed.

Chad and Nigeria top the most affected countries in the lake Chad Basin. In the most recent incident in a refugee camp in eastern Chad on June 24, four refugee children aged from 9 to 12 were killed and three others seriously injured when they picked up an unexploded device and tried to open it.

Meanwhile, in northeastern Nigeria, some 230 people were killed by IEDs and more than 300 injured in 2019. More than 15 incidents have been reported so far in 2020.

Our teams on the ground also witness a rising trend in the Sahel. In Niger, five incidents have killed at least five refugees and displaced people while injuring many others since the start of the year.

For example, on 21 January 2020, two teenagers - a local resident and a refugee friend from Burkina Faso - picked up an unexploded rocket. Mistakenly thinking it was a toy, they tried to open it with an axe. The device exploded killing the teenage resident and badly wounding the refugee.

In Nigers Diffa region, two vans ran over explosive devices near the town of Bosso, in two separate incidents in February and March. The explosions killed four people including three high school students and many others injured, including a 10-month-old baby.

In Mali, the civilian population accounts for almost half of the victims of landmines and improvised device explosions in the entire country. At least 42 civilians were killed in 82 incidents between January and May this year, mainly Mopti, Gao and Kidal regions. The routes linking Mopti, in the centre of the country, with the northern regions are particularly affected and dangerous.

In Burkina Faso, on 6 June, a vehicle carrying two refugees hit an IED near Mentao refugee camp. Both were evacuated to Djibo, where they received treatment for their injuries.

Sahel is facing one of the fastest growing displacement crisis in the world, where millions have fled indiscriminate attacks by armed groups against civilians such as summary executions, the widespread use of rape against women, and attacks against state institutions, including schools and health facilities.

In addition to the high death toll, injuries and their after-effects, including psychological damages, the presence of explosive devices hinders access to local livelihoods such as pastures, fields, farms, fire wood as well as community infrastructure. They also affect the delivery of humanitarian aid and development activities.

UNHCR continues to support the injured and the families of the victims. We also help with the funerals of the deceased and provide psycho-social support sessions for survivors  including for the children. We are also engaging with the community leaders to raise awareness on the risks caused by unexploded ordnance.

Urgent efforts are needed to address the dangers and legacy of landmines and to heighten awareness of the horrifying threat from mines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices. There is a vital need for governments, humanitarian organizations and parties to conflict to expand mine action work as civilians pay a heavy price.

Mines also pose additional hazard for refugees and IDPs fleeing violence and persecution and hinders their right to return to their homes. We see mines and unexploded ordnance as critical obstacle to safe and dignified returns, posing lethal dangers for the returning refugees and displaced people for years after the conflict has ended.

UNHCR stresses the importance of broad and comprehensive assistance for all victims, in line with the United Nations Policy on Mine Victim Assistance. The United Nations Policy recommends that landmine victim assistance includes data collection, medical care, physical and other rehabilitation, including psycho-social care.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) sharply criticized stimulus negotiations between House Democrats and the Trump administration on Tuesday, dismissing Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin as "two big government Democrats."

Why it matters: Sasse is one of a number of Senate Republicans who have expressed frustration with key provisions in the White House-backed bill released by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday  underscoring how far Congress is from striking a deal on a coronavirus relief package.

What he's saying: "The swamp should stop pretending theres some thoughtful negotiation happening here," Sasse said in a statement.

"We have two big government Democrats  Secretary Mnuchin on behalf of the Trump administration and Speaker Pelosi on behalf of binge-spending politicians everywhere  playing gross games with your kids money."

"The White House is trying to solve bad polling by agreeing to indefensibly bad debt. This proposal is not targeted to fix precise problems  its about Democrats and Trumpers competing to outspend each other."

Go deeper: Senate Republicans criticize their own stimulus bill
A manifesto written by residents of Direct Provision Centres in Wexford has been presented to both the Minister for Justice and the Minister for Equality and Integration.

Acting on behalf of the residents, Deputy Brendan Howlin met with Minister Helen McEntee and Minister Roderic O'Gorman to discuss the contents of the manifesto which had previously been presented to Wexford TDs, councillors and senators.

'I was delighted to receive the manifesto from Deputy Howlin,' said Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration, Roderic O'Gorman.

'It contains positive ideas about reforming and replacing Direct Provision, many of which are in the new Programme for Government. When the Covid-19 restrictions are lifted, I hope to visit Direct Provision centres like those in Courtown and Rosslare, and hear directly from residents in Direct Provision.'

The manifesto, which was compiled by residents who have joined the Wexford Sanctuary Ambassadors, contains requests to limit the amount of time an asylum seeker can spend in Direct Provision to one year, reduce waiting time for work permits for asylum seekers to six months and make it easier for residents to reunite with family members who have not yet arrived in Ireland.

A statement from Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee's office noted how an expert group containing asylum seekers has already been set up to 'examine best practise' and 'set out recommendations and solutions' for the Direct Provision system.

'Any new system for the provision of accommodation and additional supports to international protection applicants will be informed by the report of this expert group,' read the statement.

'The group is examining both the reception system for accommodating applicants and the system for processing applications, and is expected to make recommendations for changes in both areas.

'A briefing paper on the work of the group, prepared by the Chairperson to inform programme for government talks, was recently circulated to members of both Houses of the Oireachtas by the previous Minister and its interim recommendations cover many of the issues raised in the Wexford Sanctuary Manifesto including: extending the right to work; exploring alternative housing models and funding provisions; reducing the amount of time taken to process positive decisions; ensuring binding standards for centres are applied and enforced by January 2021; compulsory training and regular networking for centre managers; and moving away from the use of emergency accommodation.'

Minister McEntee's office confirmed that the full report is expected by the end of September and this will be followed by the Government's 'White Paper' which will set out how a replacement to the Direct Provision system will be structured and the steps to achieving it.

Thereafter, responsibility for Direct Provision will transfer to Minister O'Gorman's office.
The June 1 demonstrations outside the White House came at the height of this years nationwide protests over the killing of Black people at the hands of police, and has been a flashpoint in growing debate over Trumps ongoing use of heavily militarized federal forces against the street protests. Hundreds of federal agency employees are now mobilized against a mix of peaceful and unruly protesters in Portland, Oregon.
Russian prosecutors seek seizure of Arashukovs property worth $21 mln in civil suit

 RAPSI, Natalia Vaneyeva

15:06 28/07/2020

MOSCOW, July 28 (RAPSI)  Russias Prosecutor Generals Office has initiated a civil lawsuit against ex-senator Rauf Arashukov, his father Raul Arashukov, and their relatives seeking seizure of their assets in the amount of almost 1.5 billion rubles (about $21 million), the press service of the body reports on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have petitioned the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to change the venue, where the case is to be heard, saying fair trial was impossible in the jurisdiction the defendants have their registered place of residence, the statement reads.

A probe into the Arashukovs, according to the Prosecutor Generals Office, revealed that although Raul Arashukovs total salary made only 65.9 million rubles in 2007 through 2017, whereas Rauf Arashukov received 15.6 million rubles in 2009 through 2018, they could purchase properties worth 1.469 billion rubles. Among the real estate the father and son Arashukovs purchased when holding state and local governmental posts are 75 real estate units, including apartments, apartment blocks, a hotel, a restaurant, a bathing facility, plots of land, vehicles, and luxury articles they, as claimed by the prosecutors, registered in the names of their relatives and employees.

The Arashukovs together with other defendants in a 31-billion-ruble (about $431 million at the current exchange rate) gas embezzlement criminal case are in detention at this time.

Investigators claim that Raul Arashukov together with other defendants in the case were involved in gas embezzlement from Gazprom company. This April, Raul Arashukov was also charged with abuse of office and presenting a knowingly false denunciation.

Raul Arashukov pleads not guilty and calls the case against him fabricated.

Rauf Arashukov was arrested and detained in late January 2019. The upper house of parliament stripped him of immunity and gave consent to his prosecution upon an application by the Prosecutor General. He stands charged with murder, participation in a gang and witness tampering.

According to investigators, ex-Federation Council member was involved in the murder of a Karachay-Cherkessia public youth movements deputy chairman Aslan Zhukov and the republican presidents advisor Fral Shebzukhov in 2010. Moreover, investigators believe that the former senator is implicated to the natural gas embezzlement from Gazprom company, where his father is among the defendants.

He has pleaded not guilty.
Satanic Temple scholarship asks students to detail how they upheld atheist group's mission

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An atheist group that calls itself The Satanic Temple has created an educational grant called "The Devils Advocate Scholarship" for high school students seeking higher education.

The Satanic Temple is proud to announce its scholarship that awards students who champion individualism, free-thought, empathy, and other noble aspects of The Satanic Temple's mission to better society as they pursue higher education, reads The Satanic Temple website.

To apply for the scholarship, applicants must be 2020 high school graduates and answer either one of two questions. The first question asks what initiatives they have undertaken that are consistent with the group's tenets and mission. The second question asks students to discuss and describe in detail any one of the teachers who crushed your spirit, undermined your self-confidence, and made you hate every minute you were forced to be in school.

Malcolm Jarry, co-founder of the Massachusetts-based group, told CNN that the scholarship was created after a high school student sent an email requesting a letter of recommendation for a religious scholarship her school was offering.

"I was disappointed that she did not receive the scholarship and saw that moment as an opportunity to offer our own scholarship that reflects our values," Jarry told CNN.

"In addition to promoting our values by honoring those who engage in pro-social rugged individualism, the scholarship allows students a rare opportunity to be critical of an institution that only rewards sycophantic adulation."

Jarry told CNN that the group has already received at least 50 applications for the two $500 scholarships.

"Students are often expected to praise their schools in spite of the fact that many students endure unconscionable abuse at the hands of faculty, administration, and their peers," Jarry said.

"It is common to hear a successful person talk about a teacher who inspired them, but they never acknowledge that after 13 years of schooling they were quite fortunate if they came across just one."

Founded in 2013, The Satanic Temple has 15 chapters in the U.S. and one in Canada. Symbolized by a goat-headed symbol linked to Satan, the group is known for its activism on church and state issues and objects to exclusively Christian religious displays on public property.

In April, The Satanic Temple announced the Internal Revenue Service had granted its request for tax-exempt status, making it comparable to a church. The Satanic Temple explains in a FAQ page that its members do not believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural.



The organization has repeatedly petitioned to have a massive Baphomet statue in the Oklahoma state Capitol, which was home to a Ten Commandments statue.

In 2018, the Chicago chapter of The Satanic Temple forced officials to display its "Snaketivity" statue next to a huge Christmas tree in the Illinois Statehouse rotunda.

In 2016, the group announced the launch of After School Satan Clubs for elementary schools in response to the presence of evangelical Christian Good News Clubs at public schools.

At the time, Douglas Mesner, spokesperson and co-founder of The Satanic Temple who goes by the name Lucien Greaves, told The Christian Post that the Christian clubs being at public schools "created the need for a counter-balance in the extracurricular options."

Graves claimed that "while the Good News Clubs teach children shame, guilt, and fear  that they will die and be tormented in Hell  the After School Satan Clubs will focus on art projects and education with no religious opinion inserted."

"The program is merely created and operated by The Satanic Temple. There is no attempt to indoctrinate the children, he said.
Attorney General William Barr cast himself as the victim of Democratic attacks on Tuesday while defending his decisions to deploy unwanted federal law enforcement units to US cities such as Portland, Oregon, and intervene in the criminal prosecutions of two of Donald Trumps friends, Michael Flynn and Roger Stone.

We are on the defence [in Portland]. Were not out looking for trouble, Mr Barr told lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee during his first ever testimony before the panel.



"If the state and the city would provide the law enforcement services that other jurisdictions do, we would have no need to have additional marshals in the courthouse," Mr Barr said, arguing that, for weeks, violent protesters have attempted to besiege the federal US courthouse in Portland.

Democratic Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of California pushed back on Mr Barrs characterisation of the scene in Portland, saying most of [the protesters] are nonviolent and that the presence of the federal troops has precipitated even more violence.

The reaction has actually been in reverse proportion  people are showing up because the troops are there, Ms Lofgren said.

The Trump administration is sending more federal officers to Portland this week as the situation escalated over the weekend between demonstrators and federal agents.

Federal agents were placed in and around the citys federal courthouse earlier this month to protect it from the nightly protests taking place.

In an effort to strengthen these forces, the US Marshals Service decided to deploy an additional 100 officers starting last Thursday, The Washington Post reported.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is now also considering sending an additional 50 US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, but the department has not made a final decision, the newspaper reported.

Federal agents from the US Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Homeland Securitys Federal Protective Service first arrived in Portland earlier in July in an effort to quell the protests.

Ms Lofgren and other Democrats on the Judiciary panel accused Mr Barr of deploying federal units to Portland to distract public attention away from Mr Trumps handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Through his law enforcement moves in Portland, Mr Barr is trying to create a scene and divert attention from the Covid failure, Ms Lofgren said.

The mandate of federal officers in Portland was to protect federal buildings, but several independent journalists have accused them on social media of driving unmarked cars and seizing people from the street without explanation in recent days. Footage released on social media and other platforms has also shown agents using excessive force against demonstrators.

The DOJs internal watchdog, Michael Horowitz, has launched an investigation into the events in Portland, per the request of House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler.

Mr Nadler issued a searing opening statement against Mr Barrs operations in Portland at Tuesdays hearing.

Under your leadership, the Department has endangered Americans and violated their constitutional rights by flooding federal law enforcement into the streets of American cities, against the wishes of the state and local leaders of those cities, to forcefully and unconstitutionally suppress dissent, Mr Nadler said.

Mr Barr also faced a grilling over his decision to intervene in the separate DOJ prosecutions of Mr Stone and Mr Flynn, who both formerly worked for the president.

Mr Flynn, Mr Trumps erstwhile national security adviser, was indicted in 2017 for lying to the FBI earlier that year about his conversations with former Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.

Mr Stone was convicted earlier this year of lying to Congress during the House Intelligence Committees investigation into Russian election interference in 2016. Mr Trump has commuted his prison sentence.

The presidents friends dont deserve special breaks. But they also dont deserve to be treated more harshly than other people, Mr Barr testified on Tuesday.

Mr Barr personally stepped in on the Stone case to ask the judge for a shorter sentence for the convicted felon than the prosecutors who had worked the case for years had asked for. Mr Barr has said Mr Stones his own lawyers initial sentencing request of seven to nine years in prison was too extreme for a non-violent criminal with no previous convictions.

Sometimes thats a difficult decision to make, especially when you know youre going to be castigated for it, Mr Barr said.

But that is what the rule of law is, and thats what fairness to the individual ultimately comes to, he said.
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Linkedin Eisya A. Eloksari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 29, 2020 11:08 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669f8cf5 1 Business travel-bubble,ASEAN,Southeast-Asia,Indonesia,Thailand,Philippines,Hotel,pandemic,COVID-19 Free

Hotel associations in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines are advocating a start to intra-ASEAN travel to boost regional tourism, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the possibility of opening borders for tourism is likely still months away, each country is starting to open up travel and hospitality services for domestic tourists.

Hotel and Restaurant Association of the Philippines head Eugene T. Yap said the country had created a local travel bubble program, allowing domestic tourists to visit 10 destinations with strict protocols in place.

If opening local tourism gains success, then international tourists will become more confident in coming to ASEAN countries, he said during a webinar hosted by Sahid University in Indonesia on Monday.

We need to reopen our businesses and find solutions to deal with the effects of COVID-19. There is no use in sitting down and hoping that this pandemic will be gone, added Yap, who is also the ASEAN Hotel and Restaurant Association president.

Thailand Hotel Association president Supawan Tanomkieatipum said that the Thai government was subsidizing 40 percent of local tourists expenses, such as hotel fares, to help the travel industry recover.

As soon as we see local travel recover, we would like the Thai government to join an intra-ASEAN travel bubble, she said, adding that the tourist industry in Thailand had experienced an 89 percent decline in both tourist arrivals and income from tourism.

Read also: Doubts loom over Indonesia's 'travel bubble' plan

The Indonesian tourist industry has also struggled during the pandemic, losing Rp 85 trillion (US$5.87 billion) in tourism revenue so far this year. The hotel and restaurant industry has lost nearly Rp 70 trillion in revenue as leisure travel has come to a complete halt, while aviation and tour operators have lost Rp 15 trillion in revenue.

The tourism sector is currently eligible for a 30 percent discount on corporate income tax to cushion the COVID-19 pandemics impact.

Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) chairman Hariyadi Sukamdani said that domestic tourists made up 91 percent of total tourists last year, and it made up 96 percent of total visitor since the pandemic.

There is great market potential with domestic tourists, he said at the event. However, their confidence in traveling is still low now. I believe demand in travel will rebound once the government can handle the pandemic better and a vaccine is available.

Hariyadi quoted a survey from online travel agency Traveloka that shows 71 percent of people feel it will be safe to travel around October or even next year. Only 21 percent of people surveyed said they felt safe traveling in July.

According to the Foreign Ministry, tourist arrivals in Southeast Asia were down 48 percent due to the pandemic, affecting more than 100 million jobs.

The ministrys ASEAN economic cooperation director, Berlianto Situngkir, said that member countries were considering creating a travel corridor to facilitate business travel.

The foreign minister will discuss the ASEAN travel bubble for international travelers sometime around September, Berlianto said, adding that some destinations in Indonesia were already open to domestic travelers.

Indonesia was also finalizing a travel corridor agreement with the United Arab Emirates to facilitate essential business trips between the two countries.

The government recently announced that it would reopen Banyuwangi in East Java and Bali for local tourists on the first week of August, as part of the governments effort to gradually revive tourism and the aviation sector.

Read also: Bali to reopen to international tourists on Sept. 11

However, Southeast Asia has seen a rise in COVID-19 cases recently.

Indonesia reported on Monday that it had exceeded 100,000 cases, with the capital reporting its highest one-day spike since the first cases were confirmed in the city in March.

Meanwhile, Manila and Vietnams Danang city have seen a surge in COVID-19 cases, with the Danang cases being the first community infection since April, according to Reuters.
Nigeria is awaiting the return of $200 million from The Netherlands and Switzerland as part of OPL 245 Malabu Oil, Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami said.

Mr Malami made this known while declaring open a capacity building workshop and interactive session with judiciary correspondents in Abuja on Tuesday.

The attorney-general, who gave a scorecard of the ministry in the past one year, said: due to the anti-corruption crusade of the present administration, we facilitated the recovery of $62 billion arrears from oil companies as part of federation government Production Sharing Agreement (PSA).

Also recovered within the period is the sum of $311 million from the U.S. and New Jersey, in the third phase of Abacha loot and another $6.3 million Abacha loot from the Republic of Northern Ireland.

Mr Malami said the monies have been paid into the federal government treasury for utility development such as Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Kano-Abuja Expressway and the Second Niger Bridge in line with the agreement reached with the foreign partners.

He further disclosed that over N685 million was recovered through the help of whistleblowers within the last one year while N500 million was recovered from forfeited vessels, trucks, and barges.

The AGF said that a legal framework introduced by the ministry has helped to raise stamp duty collection from a mere total of N22 billion over the years to N66 billion within the last six months of the amendment of the act.

He said that some bills which are currently before the National Assembly, including the electronic transaction, electronic evidence act, digital management act and electronic banking act will stimulate the economy when passed into law.

There are several other acts to regulate emerging digital financial sub-sector of the economy.

Some of these acts will provide for national digital certification authority that will regulate issuance and processing of public and private electronic key validations.

The expected bills will prepare Nigeria for emerging realities relating to digital cash, bitcoin and e-currency, the minister add

Also speaking, the Solicitor General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, in the ministry, Dayo Apata, said effective coverage of the justice sector will help prevent injustice in the country.

This should be done by shining the spotlight on the actions of judges, lawyers and other stakeholders in the justice system.

He said that the growing interest by the public in what the judiciary sector does, necessitated the workshop.

The public is interested in how the sector handles criminal cases, election litigations, fight against corruption among others.

The above underscored the importance of the media in creating the much-needed awareness that will help shape public opinion and perception.

He said the workshop was organised because of complaints that some news organisations send journalists with little training to cover judiciary, without recourse to the complexities and intricacies of the sector.

There are also the complaints of sensational reporting, inaccurate presentation of facts or mutilation of context, contempt of court, media trials among others.

Therefore, it is our hope that this workshop would strengthen the skills of judiciary correspondents to achieve efficient and effective coverage of the sector, he added.

(NAN)
A crowd listens to speeches for racial justice in Portland, Oregon, on July 23, 2020. Over a thousand people, including a large march of mothers, demonstrated for racial justice and against Donald Trump's insertion of federal officers into Portland. Getty Images

The images from Portland, Oregon, are startling. Chaotic nighttime footage of Black Lives Matter protestors--among them a "Wall of Moms," a woman dubbed "Naked Athena," and the city's own mayor--tear-gassed and set upon by unidentified military forces has played on cable news and in people's newsfeeds for weeks.

Dispatches from area businesses also showcase a city in turmoil or, in some cases, an eerie calm--but that status has as much do to with the pandemic as the protests.

"The protests and Covid are kind of merging together," says Jamaal Lane, owner of Champions Barbershop and Champions Barbering Institute. In March, Lane's three shops and his school were forced to close down as "non-essential" businesses, with 14 independent stylists being put out of work and 25 students' training put on hold. "Everything came to a halt," Lane recalls.

While Lane and his wife, Christina Lane, Champions's COO and co-founder of the Barbering Institute, had hoped to reopen by July, the protests brought complications. One of their locations shares a building with the Portland Police Bureau's North Precinct and was forced to board up. Lane describes another Champions location downtown as "really in the midst of everything," but it has so far gone undamaged.

"We're not the target," Jamaal Lane says. "Our whole business model is about community. It does them no good to tear down what we've built."

The real problem isn't looting, says Lisa Schroeder, chef-owner of Mother's Bistro & Bar, which has operated in downtown Portland since 2000. It's the absence of people; it's the lack of interest in the city's downtown, which she describes as looking "bombed out," with graffiti and boarded-up shop windows. "Businesses are not looking inviting. But this isn't the time to be patronizing businesses," she says. "Nobody should be going to downtown Portland."

Her restaurant, which is about three minutes from the federal courthouse where the protests and police presence has been focused, has been boarded up since early June, after employees struggled getting to and from work. Bridges, also a scene of some protests, were often impassable. "After three days of my staff saying, 'You know, we don't feel comfortable coming in,' I just shuttered my doors, because there was absolutely no reason to be open," Schroeder says.

Schroeder tried to keep Mother's, which at its height employed over 100 people, open for the first three months of the pandemic, offering to-go and delivery items. "I make a mean chicken soup--'Jewish penicillin'--and I thought maybe there'll be so many sick people it's needed," she says. But even that operation started to falter, she says: "We struggled along, and then in early June when the protests began, my staff could not get to work."

The protests tend to highlight more abstract issues--namely, they've exacerbated the overall lack of certainty around operating amid a pandemic. That's the case for Greg Higgins, the owner of Higgins, a downtown restaurant that's operated in Portland for 26 years.

Just last week, Higgins opened up Piggins, an outside pop-up restaurant, which is designed to be a safe, socially distanced way for diners to enjoy meals and drinks downtown. Higgins noted that the restaurant closes before 10 p.m., as part of a nightly city curfew, so most of his customers and staff are gone before any clashes, which usually begin late at night. "The truth is, right now it's a nuisance and it's frustrating," he says. "I don't think I can say that it's actually impacting my business at all."

Higgins does acknowledge, though, that "it's a very surreal period" for his city and an unsteady time for the restaurant scene in particular. Looking at the challenges posed by Covid-19 and the clashes with police and federal forces, Higgins could almost be speaking for other small and midsize business owners when he says, "We realized early on that if we didn't get ourselves motivated and motivate our crew that we'd be nowhere. We have a lot of real-long-term front- and back-of-the-house staff, and we feel very strongly that we're in this together."
For help starting a rank-and-file safety committee at your factory, send an email to the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter at autoworkers@wsws.org to learn more.

On July 10, auto parts manufacturer DENSO acknowledged that one worker died and another 13 were infected with COVID-19 at its thermal manufacturing plant in Battle Creek, Michigan. Overall, the Japanese-based company has reported it has 124 confirmed cases at its North American plants, which produce air conditioners and other components for the Detroit Three automakers along with Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Hyundai, Audi and Caterpillar.

Following an intial report by the World Socialist Web Site on the outbreak at the plant in Battle Creek, Michigan, workers contacted the WSWS to describe the unsafe conditions that led the spread of the deadly disease. While DENSO tells its employees that it is following cleaning and safety protocols, rank-and-file workers have exposed the real conditions.

DENSO claims to care about the safety of its associates, but their actions tell a completely different story, reported one worker, who used the pseudonym Wayne to protect himself from retaliation. Due to how long it takes to get test results back for COVID, DENSO rarely does any third-party deep cleaning. If the associate is out of work for more than seven days, they say its not necessary to deep clean. I also would like to point out that when there is a possible infected associate, they make that associates team stop and spend about 15 minutes cleaning with alcohol. That is all that is done if they think someone has COVID.

Battle Creek Denso workers (Source: Denso)

Another worker, who also wished to remain anonymous, wrote, We DO wear facial protection, but the heat, humidity, constantly blowing air and sweat make the passing and incubation of this virus all too favorable. The virus is, in fact, jumping from area to area in small amounts with whole teams sometimes being quarantined.

The high temperatures and lack of proper ventilation are creating very difficult and unsafe working conditions. DENSO has installed thermostats in each area of the plant, Wayne wrote, but whether or not we get an extra break due to the heat depends on what the temperature is in your area. However, the thermostats are barely a couple feet off the floor, where it is obviously cooler. That is how DENSO has found a way to no longer give heat stress breaks.

Disease transmission is made more likely by the way the company mandates water breaks. The anonymous worker wrote, The heat is unbearable, and DENSO refuses to provide its employees with cold water. We now have to either spend $1.50 every two hours to buy a bottle of water or you can join everyone else in line at the drinking fountains to refill your old one. So now everyone is either touching the vending machines or the drinking fountains, which I have never seen being cleaned.

Inside the factory, sweltering conditions make it hard to observe social distancing guidelines. The worker told the World Socialist Web Site, Our fans are old and most of them can barely be felt from your work station, the amount of sweat is insane. Its constantly running down our faces and into our eyes, causing us to touch our faces all day long. The heat and resulting fatigue increase our stress, lowering our rest and overall health and immunity. It is ironic that though we manufacture HVAC systems, our plant has no cooling system in place. Many of us do not know where to seek help when those who decide our work conditions are themselves officed in climate-controlled accommodations; caring only about their bottom line."

Workers also described the grueling work schedules they face. "Our product number requirements are being increased exponentially without reason, and, as a result, our work hours are being increased to seven days in many areas and 12-hour shifts. We are living through a time of pandemic; some of us wait for the weekend to do important things we can't during the week (like grocery shopping or spending time caring for our children, families, and selves). Those working second shift are COMPLETELY unable to shop for food and necessities after work and have so little time to sleep that we only have enough time to wake up and prepare for work," the worker wrote.

Wayne explained how the company threw caution to the wind once demand increased. After the shutdown ended in May, we were called back to come to work. We were told it would be on a reduced schedule, bringing half the people back to work on Monday and Tuesday and the other half was to work on Wednesday and Thursday. That lasted one day. After the first day, we were told that DENSO was back on full production, and the entire team was to report to work every day.

Factory floor of thermal manufacturing plant (Source: Denso)

During the coronavirus lockdown mandated by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, DENSO instituted a policy of continuing to pay its employees while they were not working. But there was more to this policy than meets the eye. They were protecting their reputation for never once having to furlough or having a mass layoff of people, Wayne wrote. They did pay us, for 32 hours a week, but with the amount of [overtime] they usually make us work, they paid us the bare minimum. Then they tried to lower the 32 hours a week down to 24, which would have caused every single person who works for them to struggle."

The DENSO Manufacturing Michigan plant and large sections of the auto parts industry are nonunion. This is largely due to the betrayal of a series of auto parts strikes during the 1980s by the United Auto Workers union, which openly collaborated with GM, Ford and Chrysler to reduce labor costs in the parts industry. In unionized parts companies like Lear, Faurecia, Nexteer and others, the UAW has overseen decades of wage and benefit cuts and the proliferation of low-paid temporary and contract labor.

Autoworkers at Fiat Chryslers Jefferson North, Sterling Heights and Toledo Jeep assembly plants have organized rank-and-file safety committees, independent of the UAW, to fight the pandemic and protect their lives. Auto parts workers at DENSO and other component manufacturers should follow the lead of the FCA workers and establish their own safety committees.

When asked about the idea of rank-and-file committees, Wayne wrote, "I think its a good idea and given enough time and support could blossom into something great. ... Something has to be done."
There are now effectively two "sections" within the Beef Plan Movement says Eamon Corley, one of the main figures behind the founding of the organisation.

Speaking to the Farming Independent, the Meath farmer (pictured right) also said that "factory agents" may have infiltrated the Beef Plan movement over the past year and sown the seeds of internal discontent.

"I think that it's inevitable that in any sort of [farmers] organisation that there could be infiltration from people who just want to make life difficult. I can't say that that has happened in our case, but the last year has been quite troublesome at the politics end of things," he said.

"We don't have any proof of it [infiltration of Beef Plan by the meat industry] but it is a possibility.

"A lot of farmers firmly believe that there is a cartel at work in the meat industry, but how do you prove something like that? It's a tough industry."

Mr Corley has conceded that last year's Beef Plan protests were not "thought out enough" and were ultimately unsuccessful, but they were important to raise awareness of the issues.

"We needed to raise awareness [among the public] about the uneconomic nature of the beef industry. This was part of the plan," he said.

"When the protests started it probably wasn't coordinated well enough and wasn't thought out enough. There wasn't universal agreement over what was supposed to be done. It grew and grew and ended up being something that was out of the control of Beef Plan.

"It got nasty. There wasn't very much sympathy from the factories and very little dialogue. There was no price increase, the Minister [Creed] turned against us and said that we would destroy the beef industry and at the same time we were losing money ourselves.

"The more the Government and the factories came against us the bigger the buy in from the farmers. Farmers came out, got stuck in and got very entrenched. When it was called off, it was the right thing to do. It became obvious that no matter how long we stayed there, the beef industry wasn't going to give us a price increase.

"The hope in the Plan was that we would have our protests and then reach an agreement for a base price for farmers. That hasn't happened. We'd be disappointed about that. We hit them [the factories] as hard as we possibly could, as hard as they have ever been hit in this country and they weren't prepared to talk."

Mr Corley believes that the Beef Plan movement can point to some significant successes over the past 12 months, including the launch of its purchasers group and the Emerald Isle Producers Group.

"While there has been internal politics within Beef Plan over the last year, which has hurt elements of it [the 86 point plan], the Producers Group and the Purchasers Group has been working away all the time," he said.

"Emerald Isle is taking a lot of cattle on a weekly basis and is getting more for cattle than the farmers would get themselves. Emerald Isle is probably the only functioning producers' group in the country at this stage.

Engagement

"We have eight different factories who are dealing with us at present. We are shifting maybe 300 cattle a week, something in that region. We are open to all farmers, all over the country. If we could get enough farmers into the producers group it has the potential to solve a lot of the problems that are in the beef industry at the moment.

"We need more farmers getting involved, more engagement from factories and more supports [from the Department of Agriculture] to make that a reality."

"There is still a plan there and there is a lot of good stuff in the plan. The fact that the plan was written by farmers is something that we hope the Minister will be interested in."

Movement has secured some concessions, but the established order remains more or less intact

Martin Coughlan

You need to go back to 2018 to understand what drove beef farmers to the picket lines in 2019.

The autumn of 2018 through to the spring of 2019 saw a new farming group fill parish halls and mart centres up and down the country.

The Beef Plan Movement (BPM) claimed it would do what the other farm organisations had failed to do  put money back in the pockets of both finishers and primary beef producers.

There was talk of opening up the Chinese market, direct selling, abolishing the four movement rule and generally making life better for beef farmers.

But when factory base prices had again reached 4/kg by May 2019, the appetite for such schemes appeared to have passed. The processors remained quiet and the farm organisations seemed to consider BPM as nothing more than a winter talking shop.

In July, however, prices slumped to 3.50/kg and the whiff of rebellion was once again in the air.

Within a month Beef Plan protestors were picketing 10 factories.

Soon the protests became fully fledged blockades with factories across the country forced to close.
NEW YORK, July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. ("Brookdale" or the "Company")(NYSE: BKD) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise, acquired Brookdale securities between August 10, 2016, and April 29, 2020, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants' violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Brookdale securities during the class period, you have until August 24, 2020, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

Brookdale is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee. The Company is the nation's largest senior living community operator, with $4 billion in reported revenue in 2019.

As of February 1, 2020, Brookdale owned 356 communities, leased 307 communities, managed seventy-seven communities on behalf of third parties, and three communities for which it has an equity interest. The Company operates independent living, assisted living and dementia-care communities and continuing care retirement centers ("CCRCs"). Through its ancillary services programs, the Company also offers a range of outpatient therapy, home health, personalized living, and hospice services.

The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational, and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Brookdale's financial performance was sustained by, among other things, the Company's purposeful understaffing of its senior living communities; (ii) the foregoing conduct subjected Brookdale to an increased risk of litigation and, once revealed, was foreseeably likely to have a material negative impact on the Company's financial results and reputation; (iii) as a result, the Company's financial results were unsustainable; and (iv) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On April 30, 2020, Nashville Business Journal reported that a proposed class-action lawsuit had been filed against Brookdale in this Judicial District, which accused the Company of, among other things, purposeful "chronically insufficient staffing" at its facilities to meet financial benchmarks since at least April 24, 2016. According to the lawsuit, Brookdale misled residents and their families when it promised to provide basic care and daily living services. The lawsuit also claims that the proposed class of plaintiffs "have not received the care and services they paid for." The lawsuit asks for damages and Brookdale to "stop the unlawful and fraudulent practices."

On this news, Brookdale's stock price fell $0.56 per share, or 15.22%, over two trading sessions, closing at $3.12 per share on May 1, 2020.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP

Related Links

www.pomerantzlaw.com


New Delhi, July 28 : Efforts of a 14-year old Edgar Sebastian, resident of Chellanam village in Kerala, to save a Covid-19 and sea erosion hit coastal village paid off after President Ramnath Kovind took cognizance of his letter and instructed the Kerala government to take immediate steps to save the village from disaster.

Sebastian wrote a letter to the President saying that it is very important to build a sea wall to save the village and he is his last hope.

Sources at Rashtrapati Bhavan told IANS, "Considering the letter of the 14-year-old student from Kerala, written on July 25, the President's Secretary K.D. Tripathi has not only written a letter to the Chief Secretary of Kerala, but also had a conversation with the Secretary to the Governor of the state and asked them to help the villagers." Seeking help from the President, Sebastian in his letter wrote, "My village Chellanam is battling disasters, but there is no one to help us. Every year, twice my parents have to run away from the house. Sea water enters the house during summer and monsoon due to sea erosion. Like every year, we were ready to go to our relative's place but since coronavirus has entered into the third stage of community spread in our area so we couldn't go. Meanwhile, the sea erosion has started again from July 16." "I have read that the Arabian Sea is one of the boundaries of India. I believe you have the responsibility to protect the borders. You are my last hope. Please help us to get a sea wall build to protect the village from the waves," he further wrote.

Chellanam is a coastal village in Kochi which is badly hit by corona and sea erosion which started from July 16 has made things worst. Hundreds of families have been affected due to this.
JACKSON, MI  Nick Green was studying to be an engineer back in 2006 when he needed some extra cash.

Thats how his path to becoming owner of Jacksons Rocky Top Beer-BBQ & Grill, 1900 Lansing Ave., began. He started as a cook when the restaurant opened in 2008. Then in 2011, he purchased the business from Michael LeMaster.

Its been fantastic, said Green, who was born and raised in Jackson. I was a full-time engineer in Ann Arbor -- that is what I went to school for. But Ive been in the restaurant industry since I was young.

Green started off working just two days a week, but once the auto industry took a hit around 2009, he said he slid into a manager role before becoming the owner.

The restaurants 45 flavors of smoked chicken wings were named one of the top-10 in the state during MLives search for Michigans best wings. They are a staple of the menu thats highlighted by not just the restaurants signature barbecue but also Rocky Tops diverse range of 26 beers on tap and other dinner and lunch items that include wraps, burgers and salads.

The restaurant offers catering and lunch and dinner options from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. You can view the menu here.

The best chicken wings in Michigan are at these 11 restaurants

Growing the menu and innovating to remain relevant in the competitive restaurant industry has been important for Rocky Top, Green said.

Its been a transition between recipes and environments, he said. Ive changed a lot of things from when it first opened. It was a very small basic menu -- strictly barbecue. Theres a lot of people that want to go out that maybe dont want to experience barbecue with a date. So I started expanding the menu a little bit and doing a lot of research. You kind of know what takes off, whats trendy, whats falling off.

Rocky Top Beer & BBQ is the Home of 40 Flavors

The restaurant doesnt deliver, but it offers carryout and curbside takeout. Customer capacity also has been limited to 50% and all staff and patrons are required to wear masks. The restaurant is working on getting a food truck started, too, Green said.

But, at the end of the day, Green said nothing would happen without his staff.

The staff cares about the restaurant, they enjoy coming to work and they enjoy the food we sell because they see the hard work that is put into it, Green said. Its hard to find that these days.

Read more about Jackson local eats:

Local Eats: There is a lot on the line with reopening, owner of The Deck Down Under in Jerome says

Local Eats: Opened in 1914, Virginia Coney Island is a Jackson tradition

Local Eats: Bella Nottes roots have allowed it to stick in Jackson food scene

Local Eats: The Hunt Club struggles, but leans on family-like workplace during reopening phases

Local Eats: OneNorth Kitchen & Bar approaches two year anniversary with different vibe

Local eats: A pandemic, ghosts and 50 years of service, Roadhouse Grill and Bar has stood the test of time
COVID - New Requirement for Returning Vessels to BGTW

The Captain of the Port has issued a protocol to all marinas, small boats associations and local yacht agents informing them of the procedures to be followed by all vessels returning to British Gibraltar Territorial Waters.

The protocol has been put together following discussions with and advice from the Director of Public Health.

Any locally registered small boat returning to Gibraltar after having touched a foreign port will need to submit a written report to the Captain of the Port or submit an electronic declaration into the ASYCUDA portal (HM Customs Gibraltar) before being allowed to return to their berth at any of the local Government marinas, as well as the Royal Gibraltar Yacht Club or private marinas.

The declaration or written report must be submitted at least six hours before arriving back into British Gibraltar Territorial Waters. Access to the ASYCUDA portal can be found on the following link:-

https://www.hmcustoms.gov.gi/portal/services/electronicPreDeclarations.jsf

The written report (Yacht Masters Report) can be downloaded from the port website at https://www.gibraltarport.com/pre-arrival-forms and once completed must be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The protocol reminds everyone that it is a requirement under the Port Rules for the master of every vessel arriving at the Port from outside the territorial waters of Gibraltar to submit a written report to the Captain of the Port.

In addition, marinas are advised that a COVID-19 protocol is to be followed. This includes:

 Yachts calling into the marina must be reported to the BCA and Customs upon berthing;

 No-one is to be allowed to come ashore until the authorities have cleared the vessel;

 A symptom check-list, to include temperature checks, is to be kept on a daily basis;

 Any signs of illness are to be reported to the GHA by calling 111.
More private hospitals are being called on to treat critically ill aged care residents being evacuated from nursing homes as the state moves to suspend non-urgent elective surgeries to free up more staff to treat COVID-19 patients.

John Fawkner Private Hospital in Coburg in Melbourne's north is the latest hospital to open its doors, with 10 elderly residents from Epping Gardens admitted as that nursing home cluster swelled to 82 cases late Tuesday.

Ambulance workers push a stretcher into the St Basil's in Fawkner on Monday. Credit:Getty Images

Victoria recorded another 384 new cases of coronavirus and six more people have died in the past day, four of them in aged care.

As the aged care crisis deepened, Premier Daniel Andrews said all but the most urgent elective surgeries would be cancelled in public and private hospitals.
Researchers identify evolutionary origins of SARS-CoV-2

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- By reconstructing the evolutionary history of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, an international research team of Chinese, European and U.S. scientists has discovered that the lineage that gave rise to the virus has been circulating in bats for decades and likely includes other viruses with the ability to infect humans. The findings have implications for the prevention of future pandemics stemming from this lineage.

"Coronaviruses have genetic material that is highly recombinant, meaning different regions of the virus's genome can be derived from multiple sources," said Maciej Boni, associate professor of biology, Penn State. "This has made it difficult to reconstruct SARS-CoV-2's origins. You have to identify all the regions that have been recombining and trace their histories. To do that, we put together a diverse team with expertise in recombination, phylogenetic dating, virus sampling, and molecular and viral evolution."

The team used three different bioinformatic approaches to identify and remove the recombinant regions within the SARS-CoV-2 genome. Next, they reconstructed phylogenetic histories for the non-recombinant regions and compared them to each other to see which specific viruses have been involved in recombination events in the past. They were able to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships between SARS-CoV-2 and its closest known bat and pangolin viruses. Their findings appear today (July 28) in Nature Microbiology.

The researchers found that the lineage of viruses to which SARS-CoV-2 belongs diverged from other bat viruses about 40-70 years ago. Importantly, although SARS-CoV-2 is genetically similar (about 96%) to the RaTG13 coronavirus, which was sampled from a Rhinolophus affinis horseshoe bat in 2013 in Yunnan province, China, the team found that it diverged from RaTG13 a relatively long time ago, in 1969.

"The ability to estimate divergence times after disentangling recombination histories, which is something we developed in this collaboration, may lead to insights into the origins of many different viral pathogens," said Philippe Lemey, principal investigator in the Department of Evolutionary and Computational Virology, KE Leuven.

The team found that one of the older traits that SARS-CoV-2 shares with its relatives is the receptor-binding domain (RBD) located on the Spike protein, which enables the virus to recognize and bind to receptors on the surfaces of human cells.

"This means that other viruses that are capable of infecting humans are circulating in horseshoe bats in China," said David L. Robertson, professor of computational virology, MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research.

Will these viruses be capable of jumping directly from bats into humans or will an intermediate species be required to make the leap? According to Robertson, for SARS-CoV-2, other research groups incorrectly proposed that key evolutionary changes occurred in pangolins.

"SARS-CoV-2's RBD sequence has so far only been found in a few pangolin viruses," said Robertson. "Furthermore, the other key feature thought to be instrumental to SARS-CoV-2's ability to infect humans -- a polybasic cleavage site insertion in the Spike protein -- has not yet been seen in another close bat relative of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Yet, while it is possible that pangolins may have acted as an intermediate host facilitating transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans, no evidence exists to suggest that pangolin infection is a requirement for bat viruses to cross into humans. Instead, our research suggests that SARS-CoV-2 likely evolved the ability to replicate in the upper respiratory tract of both humans and pangolins."

The team concluded that preventing future pandemics will require better sampling within wild bats and the implementation of human disease surveillance systems that are able to identify novel pathogens in humans and respond in real time.

"The key to successful surveillance," said Robertson, "is knowing which viruses to look for and prioritizing those that can readily infect humans. We should have been better prepared for a second SARS virus."

Boni added, "We were too late in responding to the initial SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, but this will not be our last coronavirus pandemic. A much more comprehensive and real-time surveillance system needs to be put in place to catch viruses like this when case numbers are still in the double digits."

###

Other authors on the paper include: Xiaowei Jiang, lecturer in bioinformatics, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University; Tommy Tsan-Yuk Lam, assistant professor of public health, University of Hong Kong; Blair Perry, graduate student, University of Texas Arlington; Todd Castoe, associate professor of biology, University of Texas Arlington; and Andrew Rambaut, professor of molecular evolution, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh.

Support for this research was provided by the European Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the Research Foundation -- Flanders and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

This story has been published on: 2020-07-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
There have been no new hospital deaths reported for more than two weeks (PA)

There have been no further coronavirus deaths recorded in Northern Ireland for the 15th day in a row, the Department of Health has confirmed.

The most recent death was recorded on July 13 in Northern Ireland, leaving the death toll at 556.

A further nine new cases have been recorded, following on from 21 new cases on Monday. A total of 138,615 people have been tested for the virus with 5,921 found positive.

Over the past seven days, 22 new cases have been reported in Newry, Mourne and Down, 13 in Mid and East Antrim and 13 in Belfast.

There are two patients in intensive care with Covid-19.

Read More

Earlier on Tuesday, the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) reported that the death rate in Northern Ireland has risen by almost a fifth during the coronavirus pandemic.

There have been 837 Covid-related deaths in the period between March 1 and June 30 of a total of 885 excess deaths. They vary to the Department of Health statistics as they include deaths where coronavirus was thought to be a factor. Those involved may not have been tested.

The vast majority of excess deaths (78.4%) were in people aged 75 and over - while 79.8% of Covid-19 related deaths were accounted for those aged 75 and over.

Read More

The new statistics from Nisra indicate that the death rate between 1 March and 30 June was 17.4% higher than what would have been expected. Deaths above the five-year average are labelled as "excess deaths" by statisticians.

Read More

Meanwhile, the UK has updated its advice against all non-essential travel to Spain to include the Balearic and Canary Islands following a rise in coronavirus cases.

It comes as the NI Executive has said it will examine measures to support those facing a 14-day quarantine after returning from Spain.

Health Minister Robin Swann told MLAs on Monday the risk to the population of NI was "too great" to delay imposing the quarantine. On Tuesday he is to outline how the health service will be rebuilt after the pandemic.

Read More

Here's how Tuesday unfolded:
Wood Dale, July 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AAR (NYSE: AIR), a leading provider of aviation services to commercial airlines and governments worldwide, has been awarded a three-year contract by the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) to perform maintenance, repair and overhaul on F-16 jet fuel starters.

AAR will service the jet fuel starters in its component repair facility in Amsterdam, where AAR has been supporting European Participating Air Forces (EPAF) for over 30 years as a prime provider or subcontractor for repair management, component maintenance, supply chain and depot services.

The RNLAF is pleased to have an MRO contract in place for its F-16 jet fuel starters, said Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Zoeteman, Program Manager F-16. The F-16 community is excited to have a trusted partner like AAR support the RNLAF to maintain and improve the availability of the F-16 fleet, and looks forward to continuing this valued relationship.

AAR has been a proud and trusted partner of the RNLAF on the F-16 platform for more than 30 years, said Maarten Willemsen, Government Program Manager of AAR Component Repair in Amsterdam. Since the 1980s, AAR Amsterdam has serviced over 3,500 jet fuel starters at our Amsterdam facility  including all RNLAF jet fuel starters. The award of this End-of-Life-of-Type contract reflects our strong relationship, dedication to exceeding customer expectations and shared core values with the RNLAF. We deliver tailored services and capabilities based on commercial best practices and our customers unique needs to produce high quality work and cost savings.

For more information about AAR Component Repair services, please click here.

# # #

About AAR

AAR is a global aerospace and defense aftermarket solutions company with operations in over 20 countries. Headquartered in the Chicago area, AAR supports commercial and government customers through two operating segments: Aviation Services and Expeditionary Services. AARs Aviation Services include Parts Supply; OEM Solutions; Integrated Solutions; and Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Services. AARs Expeditionary Services include Mobility Systems and Composite Manufacturing operations. Additional information can be found at www.aarcorp.com.

Story continues

About the Royal Netherlands Air Force

The Royal Netherlands Air Force is a modern, high-tech armed forces Service that is active on a global basis. The Air Force lends support in combating international unrest and provides disaster relief. At home in the Netherlands, the Air Force ensures security from the air. For these purposes, it has highly-qualified personnel, aircraft, helicopters and other weapon systems at its disposal.

This press release contains certain statements relating to future results, which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including the estimated contract value. Forward-looking statements may also be identified because they contain words such as anticipate, believe, continue, could, estimate, expect, intend, likely, may, might, plan, potential, predict, project, seek, should, target, will, would, or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. These forward-looking statements are based on beliefs of Company management, as well as assumptions and estimates based on information currently available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or those anticipated, including those factors discussed under Item 1A, entitled Risk Factors, included in the Companys Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2020. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize adversely, or should underlying assumptions or estimates prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described. These events and uncertainties are difficult or impossible to predict accurately and many are beyond the Companys control. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events. For additional information, see the comments included in AARs filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

CONTACT: Daniela Pietsch AAR Corp +1 630 227 5100 editor@aarcorp.com




MOSCOW (Reuters) - Express COVID-19 testing will be available for some passengers at Russia's busiest airport from Monday as part of a pilot project aimed at allowing air travel and tourism to resume safely.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport said the diagnostic tests, which give results in one hour, would be available for all passengers on domestic flights at Terminal B on Monday, as part of a wider plan to create coronavirus-free airport hubs.

The portable testing system, which fits in two small suitcases, is already used at production sites by some Russian companies and was deployed at Russia's World War Two Victory Day military parade, held on June 24, the RDIF said.

"If you're at an airport and you need to be tested for three hours, this is not a workable solution," RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev told Reuters in an interview last week, adding the project aims to provide test results "within an hour".

"We are doing a pilot in an airport in Japan and in Moscow, Sheremetyevo, and in an airport in the United Arab Emirates."

Russia has not yet confirmed the date that international flights will return, with restrictions in place for many people travelling in and out of the country. But the RDIF said express coronavirus testing would be available from July 27 for domestic and international flights at Sheremetyevo's Terminal D.

Those behind the project are hopeful that a successful trial could set an example for other major airports worldwide and allow tourism to return while ensuring passenger safety.

Russia has the world's fourth-highest number of novel coronavirus cases at 777,486. It says 12,427 people have died from the virus.

(Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Mark Wright and Michelle Keegan have been forced to isolate for two weeks as they returned home to the UK following their Spanish trip, after the government pulled its air bridge with the country following a spike in COVID-19 cases.

The former TOWIE star, 33, shared his travel woes as he uploaded an image of himself and the actress, also 33, sporting face masks during their flight on Monday.

The couple had been living it up in the Balearic islands as they enjoyed idyllic trips in Marbella, Mallorca and Ibiza.

'Back to quarantine life!' Mark Wright and Michelle Keegan have been forced to isolate for two weeks as they returned home to the UK following their Spanish trip on Monday

Sharing an image of himself in bed watching TV, presenter Mark penned: 'Quarantine life. 2 weeks!! How's ya luck !! Oh well. Looks like I will be doing a whole lot of this.' (sic)

The media personality - who usually follows a healthy lifestyle - treated himself to some Chinese food, with the hunk captioning an image of his feast: 'And just today of this !! Back on the gym buzz tomo.' (sic)

Mark's ex Sam Faiers and presenter Maya Jama could also be hit by the restriction, with them both enjoying picturesque breaks in Ibiza and Marbella.

Full relaxation mode: The former TOWIE star and the actress, 33, had been living it up in the Balearic islands as they enjoyed idyllic trips in Marbella, Mallorca and Ibiza

Fun in the sun: Former Corrie star Michelle enjoyed a spot of paddleboarding during their trip earlier this month

Return: Despite seeing grey skies, the host admitted it's 'always nice to be home' courtesy of Jet2.com & Jet2holidays

The UK government pulled its air bridge with Spain on Saturday night with almost immediate effect following a spike of novel coronavirus cases in the country.

The move, which came into effect from midnight, means anyone returning to Britain from Spain faces an automatic fortnight-long quarantine at home.

The rules apply to all regions of Spain, including the Canary and Balearic islands - though politicians in the latter say they are trying to thrash out a regional air bridge.

'How's ya luck?' Later in the day, the TV presenter uploaded an image of himself in bed watching TV, before treating himself to some Chinese food

Spain was one of the worst hit countries in Europe by the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 290,000 cases and over 28,000 deaths.

However, it imposed very strict lockdown measures to contain the spread, gradually easing them earlier in the summer.

Spain was originally put on a list of 74 countries which were considered safe for Brits to visit, prompting many celebs to book getaways.

'Take me back': The media personality pined for his getaway just hours after landing in the UK
U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, is pressing FEMA to provide school districts reopening this fall with emergency pandemic funding.

Peters, who serves as the ranking member on a committee that supervises FEMA, sent a letter to Administrator Peter Gaynor Monday urging him to open a federal disaster relief fund for schools. The funding could be used to cover costs related to training, reconfiguring classrooms and providing masks and other personal protective equipment, Peters wrote.

Related: Kent County teachers say schools must make masks mandatory for students, staff

The senator said it will cost the average school district $1.8 million to reopen safely, citing estimates published by the School Superintendents Association and the Association of School Business Officials International. Those groups found hand sanitizer alone can cost districts $39,500, with costs ranging as high as $448,000 to hire additional custodial staff.

Meanwhile, schools across the country are facing budget cuts due to a lack of tax revenue lost during state-mandated shutdowns.

Federal funds will cover some of the extra cost associated with reopening during a pandemic. The Michigan Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer outlined a budget plan that would cut K-12 funding by $256 million, offset by an extra $512 million in federal support and $53 million in hazard pay for teachers.

Related: Grand Rapids school board approves $10.6M budget cut for next year due to coronavirus

Peters also asked FEMA to work with the U.S. Departments of Education and Treasury to issue clear guidance on what school expenses can be reimbursed. Peters said this would help prevent duplication of effort from other emergency funds.

Schools across the country currently face an unsustainable situation  drastic increases in costs to implement protective measures against COVID-19, paired with expected reductions in financial support from state and local governments, Peters said in the letter.

Congress is also expected to include emergency funding for K-12 schools in the next coronavirus relief package. The Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate have yet to strike a deal.

Peters said FEMA has the ability to reimburse schools thanks to President Donald Trumps national emergency declaration. Peters said the declaration allows FEMA to reimburse state and local governments working to reduce the COVID-19 health threat.

Gaynor faced pressure from House Democrats during a recent committee hearing, who asked whether FEMA should be in charge of distributing masks and PPE to schools. Gaynor said FEMA likely would not provide states with emergency public assistance to help schools reopen or pay for masks.

I think when you look at the funding thats been provided by Congress to schools its pretty significant, and I think there is enough money out there that governors and mayors can use that money ... before they come to FEMA, Gaynor said. It doesnt exactly fit into our authority.

Peters disagreed in the Monday letter.

We are all in agreement that our students deserve to have access to a safe, quality education this fall, even in the midst of a global pandemic, Peters wrote. FEMA has the opportunity and the duty to play a role in supporting our nations schools in this effort.

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 executive orders requiring people to wear face coverings over their mouth and nose while in public indoor and crowded outdoor spaces. See an explanation of what that means here .

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus .

For more data on COVID-19 in Michigan, visit https://www.mlive.com/coronavirus/data/ .

READ MORE ON MLIVE:

State to spot check bars, restaurants and other high-risk businesses for compliance with coronavirus rules

Portage Central, Northern halt summer sports workouts amid positive COVID-19 tests

Michigan reports 488 new cases of coronavirus for Monday, July 27

Starting the school year in virtual classrooms: Parents react to Ann Arbor Public Schools decision

Ann Arbor Public Schools plans fully virtual start to new school year
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 Identity and Access Management (IAM) 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.

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the security discipline that enables the right individuals to access the right resources at the right times for the right reasons. It is a unique proposition that helps end-users be assured that access across multiple technological environments is granted only to the concerned individuals. IAM solutions provide secure, identity-based access to various systems, applications, and information from any location.

The Identity and Access management solution can be deployed through cloud, hybrid or by having it on company premises. The IAM solutions have found major applications in banking & financial services, energy, oil & gas, telecom & it, education, healthcare, public sector & utilities and manufacturing sector.

The major driving force in the global identity and access management market is the ease of installation concerning introduction of its solutions. Identity and access management solutions are also finding market opportunities in the SME sector because of attractive pricing policies. North America and Europe have provided a good platform for this market. Asia Pacific and Latin America are turning out to be good prospects for the IAM markets. Middle East and Africa also contribute substantially to the Global IAM Market.

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CA Technologies

Centrify

IBM

Intel

Microsoft

Okta

Oracle

SailPoint

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Cloud

Hybrid

On-premise

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BFSI

Energy

Oil & Gas

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Education

Healthcare

Public sector & utilities

Manufacturing

Other

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Europe

Asia-Pacific

Latin America

Middle East And Africa

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BlackRock Smaller Companies Trust plc

(LEI: 549300MS535KC2WH4082)

Results of AGM

BlackRock Smaller Companies Trust plc announces that, at the Annual General Meeting held today, all 15 resolutions were duly passed on a poll.



The full text of the resolutions can be found in the Notice of Annual General Meeting set out in the Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 29 February 2020, which has previously been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and is available for inspection at:



https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism



The results of the poll were as follows:

Votes

For & Discretionary

% Votes

Against

% Votes Total % of Available voting rights* Votes

Withheld Resolution 1 22,024,213 100.00 0 0.00 22,024,213 45.10 3,658 Resolution 2 21,989,709 99.93 15,326 0.07 22,005,035 45.06 22,836 Resolution 3 21,841,775 99.88 26,326 0.12 21,868,101 44.78 159,770 Resolution 4 22,023,162 99.99 1,431 0.01 22,024,593 45.10 3,278 Resolution 5 21,907,219 99.47 115,827 0.53 22,023,046 45.10 4,825 Resolution 6 20,463,263 92.92 1,559,783 7.08 22,023,046 45.10 4,825 Resolution 7 22,017,896 99.98 5,150 0.02 22,023,046 45.10 4,825 Resolution 8 22,018,350 99.98 4,696 0.02 22,023,046 45.10 4,825 Resolution 9 20,352,832 92.42 1,670,214 7.58 22,023,046 45.10 4,825 Resolution 10 22,008,772 99.94 13,091 0.06 22,021,863 45.10 6,008 Resolution 11 22,016,571 99.97 6,942 0.03 22,023,513 45.10 4,358 Resolution 12 22,002,552 99.91 18,937 0.09 22,021,489 45.10 6,382 Resolution 13 21,977,802 99.86 30,479 0.14 22,008,281 45.07 19,590 Resolution 14 19,118,021 86.83 2,898,634 13.17 22,016,655 45.09 11,216 Resolution 15 22,000,860 99.96 8,271 0.04 22,009,131 45.07 18,740



*Available Voting Rights (exc. Treasury) equals 48,829,792



28 July 2020
A mother was given the devastating news she had cancer after accidentally spraying perfume in her eye.

Carol Player, 56, from Sutton Coldfield, said she went to hospital to get checked out after she lost some of her vision in her eye after spraying the scent.

However doctors then referred Carol to St Paul's Eye Hospital in Liverpool who diagnosed Ocular Melanoma, one of the most common types of eye cancer.

Carol Player, 56, (pictured) from Sutton Coldfield was given the devastating news she had cancer after accidentally spraying perfume in her eye

The perfume that ended up in her eye did not cause the cancer but instead led doctors at St Paul's to discover the disease.

The mother-of-two said: 'The professor at St Paul's diagnosed my cancer on Monday and my eye was removed on Tuesday morning.

'I was then told no further treatment was needed at that time.'

Sadly, in November 2019, after almost five years of being cancer-free, doctors found cancerous spots on Carol's liver.

Her family are hoping to raise more than 160,000 after Carol's cancer treatment was halted by Covid-19

Surgeons removed part of her liver, however three months later a follow-up scan revealed it had travelled to other areas in her liver.

Doctors decided the best treatment for Carol would be a trial drug called Delcath Melferlan Chemosaturation, which has proven to be very successful for her type of cancer.

WHAT IS OCULAR MELANOMA? Ocular melanoma (OM) is a cancer of the eye that approximately 750 Britons and 2,500 Americans are diagnosed with annually. Although it can occur in people of all races, it is most common in those with light-pigmented skin and blue eyes. The median age of diagnosis is 55. It develops slowly from pigmented cells of the choroid, in the iris or ciliary body and is often referred to as a 'silent killer'. These areas make up the uveal and the disease is sometime referred to as uveal melanoma. Usually 10-15 years after diagnosis, in half the cases, the malignant tumor can spread through the body via metastasis resulting in the death of the diagnosed person. It is especially when it reaches the liver but in some patients the process can be delayed by 20-25 years. It is the most common type of eye cancer is the second most common kind of melanoma. Unlike cutaneous melanoma of the skin, OM is not believed to be related to sun exposure. Advertisement

Carol and her family were hit with another devastating blow when the treatment she was due to get free on the NHS, as part of a fully-funded clinical trial, was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

And now the family has been left with no other option but to try and raise the funds themselves.

The grandmother-of-two said: 'I've got too much to lose, I need to stay alive.

'The drug has proven to be so successful in prolonging people's lives but I might not get that chance now.'

Carol has had to cash in all of her pension to try and raise money to fund her treatment and her son, Adam, has started a Gofundme page to try and raise 160,000 needed to cover the cost.

Each treatment will cost 40,000 but it's possible Carol may need several to help get the result she needs to prolong her life.

Despite everything that has happened to her, Carol praised the NHS hospitals in Liverpool for what they have done to try and save her.

She said: 'I want to say the service I've had from the NHS has been amazing.

'Particularly the service I've had from St Paul's Eye Hospital to all my MRI scans which were in Clatterbridge, and the surgery to remove part of my liver was done in Aintree Hospital.

'All the Liverpool hospitals have been amazing. I don't know what I would have done without them.'

The Department of Health said work is being done to restore clinical trials that have been paused.

You can donate towards the cost of Carol's treatment on her son Adam's Gofundme page by clicking on the link here.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

By Asif Mehman - Trend:

The tourism industry is now experiencing the deepest crisis in its history, Chairman of the State Tourism Agency Fuad Naghiyev told Trend.

"The recovery of this sector of the economy will take place in conditions of fierce competition at the regional and global levels. To increase the competitiveness of the industry requires the involvement of all its subjects in the decision-making process," said Naghiyev.

"In addition, decisions must be made quickly, the response must be dynamic and effective. One of the most important factors that can and should contribute to the restoration and development of tourism is the availability of travel to the country," he noted.
By Trend

Turkey is the guarantor of trust and peace on both a regional and global scale, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, Head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev said, Trend reports with reference to Daily Sabah.

Speaking to Demiroren News Agency (DHA) in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, Hajiyev said Turkey is a proactive country that has become a global power on many fronts.

"At the same time, Turkey is an expansive state that provides peace in various regions. Azerbaijan is proud of Turkeys success in various fields. Turkey is a guarantor of trust and peace on both a regional and global scale. Thanks to Turkeys strong political and military policies, terror elements such as the 'Islamic State' terrorist group have suffered a major blow. Turkey exerts great efforts in the name of peace and stability in many regions, including the Balkans, the Caucasus and Europe, he added.

Touching upon joint military exercises planned between the Azerbaijani and Turkish militaries, Hajiyev said such actions would send a bold message to the country's enemies.

Turkey played a big part in the foundation of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. Military cooperation between our two countries serves the interests of peace in the region. These joint military exercises demonstrate the power of the Turkey-Azerbaijan partnership and solidarity between these two countries, he said.

The Azerbaijani defense ministry on Monday announced that Ankara and Baku were going to launch large-scale military exercises as part of the Agreement on Military Cooperation between both countries.

Azerbaijani-Turkish Live Fire Joint Large-Scale Tactical and Flight-Tactical Exercises will be held in our country with the participation of the Land Forces and the Air Force of both countries, a written statement of the ministry said.

The statement added that the joint exercises would involve military personnel, armored vehicles, artillery mounts and mortars, as well as military aviation and air defense equipment belonging to the armies of the two countries.

According to the plan, exercises involving the Land Forces will be held from Aug. 1 to 5 in Baku and Nakhchivan, while exercises joined by both country's air forces will be held from July 29 to Aug. 10 in Baku, Nakhchivan, Ganja, Kurdamir and Yevlakh, the statement added.

Turkey and Azerbaijan have been reiterating cooperation in every field, especially militarily, since an Armenian attack took place on Azerbaijans border on July 12.

Regarding recent military aggression by Armenia, Hajiyev said that the latter nation ought to act with sanity.

The ongoing policy conducted by Armenia drags both Armenia and its people into a dead end. They cannot continue like this. Armenia should learn to live in peace with its neighbors. The joint military exercises will give a strong message to such countries as Armenia, he also said.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The Congress in Manipur submitted a notice for a no-confidence motion against the BJP-led coalition government in the state on Tuesday. Congress legislators K Meghachandra and Th Lokeshwar submitted the notice to the Assembly secretary.

Manipur Congress spokesperson Ningombam Bupenda Meitei said the party was confident that the House will take up the no-confidence motion during the Monsoon Session on August 10.

The Congress has been targeting the Manipur government over what the party called its failure to hand over a 2018 drug haul case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Thounaojam Brinda, Additional Superintendent of police, Narcotic and Affairs of Border (NAB), had in June 2018 recovered a consignment of contraband drugs and old currencies from the official quarter of Lukhosei Zou, Chairman of Autonomous District Council (ADC), Chandel district of Manipur.

In her affidavit submitted before the Manipur High Court recently, she had alleged that Chief Minister N Biren Singh had pressured her to release Zhou.

The chief minister has denied the allegations. The woman police officer's affidavit was published in two local newspaper on July 14, following which an criminal contempt case was lodged against them.

The state Congress unit had on July 15 demanded a CBI probe into the case. Meghachandra said that the submission of the no-confidence motion was also in consideration of the FIR lodged against the two local media houses which had published the officer's affidavit. Lokeshwar also urged all to support their cause.

After failed attempts to dislodge the Biren Singh government following the resignation of nine ruling coalition legislators, including four ministers belonging to National People's Party (NPP), the Congress is trying to put the Manipur government on the mat on the drug haul case.

The Manipur political crisis triggered by the resignations was later resolved after intervention of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda. The four NPP ministers returned to the cabinet subsequently.
Saudi Arabias foreign minister said his government supports Egypts calls for a cease-fire in Libya after a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on Monday.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud said Riyadh sympathizes with Cairos security concerns, a nod to Sisis recent threats to militarily intervene in Libya if Turkey-backed forces continue to advance on the key city of Sirte and the Jufra region.

Both Saudi Arabia and Egypt have backed Libyan Gen. Khalifa Hifters yearlong offensive against the UN-recognized government in Tripoli. That offensive has been turned back by forces aligned with the Tripoli government, in part due to a boost in military support by Turkey.

Faisal also called for a restoration of Libyas domestic oil flow, in contrast to Hifters primary backers, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.

Why it matters: Saudi Arabia is an oft-overlooked player in Libyas civil war, overshadowed by Hifters biggest Arab backer, the UAE. While Riyadhs role alone will not decide the outcome of the conflict, its statement of support for Egypt is likely a reminder to Turkey that Ankaras designs in Libya face broad regional opposition.

Riyadh stepped up its support for Hifter via Egypt over the past year in response to Turkeys intervention on behalf of Libyas Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA).

The Saudi press has sought to delegitimize Turkeys involvement in the conflict and Riyadh has reportedly given financial assistance to the Wagner Group paramilitary organization, which acts as an unofficial arm of the Russian Defense Ministry in support of Hifter.

The GNA cites the kingdoms alleged ties to Libyas Madkhali Salafi movement as further evidence of Saudi support for Hifter.

Whats next: So far there is little indication that Turkey is taking Egypts threats seriously and no clear sign the GNA intends to negotiate until Hifters forces and their backers pull out of Sirte.

Besides Turkey, nearly every other foreign country invested in the conflict has voiced support for a cease-fire since the GNA turned back Hifters yearlong nationwide campaign in recent months. But the recent appearance of Russian and UAE military hardware in the area suggests Hifters foreign backers are preparing for a fight nonetheless.

Know more: While Metin Gurcans sources say Turkey is calling Sisis bluff in Libya, the threat of Turkish fighter aircraft facing off with Russian and UAE jets in a potential battle for Sirte remains real.
A teenage boy allegedly resisting and attempting to flee police was grabbed by the neck and pulled to the ground in a video that has gone viral across social media.

While the video showed a shortened version of the exchange, police said the boy was part of a larger group of bicyclists riding through New Jersey that were blocking traffic and causing a safety hazard.

Ridgewood police said the incident is under investigation and has been referred to the Internal Affairs Unit due to the use of force and the public response.

The 15-year-old from Sloatsburg, New York, who can be heard yelling at officers to get off him and let him go, was issued four summonses for motor vehicle violations.

Ridgewood Police Department chief, Jacqueline Luthcke, said the group of cyclists ignored repeated orders to stop as they approached a section of the central business district that had been closed to traffic for a "Welcome back Ridgewood" event.

"One bicyclist disregarded the safety of others and began to pass the officer as the officer was speaking with the group," Ms Luthcke said in a statement shared with Ridgewood Daily Voice.

"After some conversation, the officer advised that bicyclist that he was going to be issued a summons... At that time, the bicyclist attempted to flee and began to pull his bicycle away from the officer. The officers on scene then attempted to take custody of the bicyclist and the bicyclist continued to actively resist the officers."

Photographer Boyd Loving, who captured the incident on Sunday afternoon, posted images to Facebook describing the group as a "flash mob" of bicyclists.

"The bicyclists were initially observed disrupting traffic on Lincoln Avenue in Hawthorne," Mr Loving said in the post.
State agencies in Iowa have spent about 60 percent of their federal coronavirus-related funds, with Iowa Workforce Development accounting for the lions share of those expenditures.

So far, Iowa has been awarded $3.08 billion for costs associated with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. Of that, state agencies have spent more than $2.4 billion, according to the Legislative Services Agency. More than $1.5 billion  63 percent  has been for worker unemployment benefits.

Workforce Developments share increases to nearly 84 percent when $490 million that was awarded to the Department of Management is added. Gov. Kim Reynolds put those funds into the Unemployment Trust Fund to ensure that eligible Iowans continue to receive unemployment benefits without causing employers unemployment insurance rates to increase.

The Workforce Development funds include money from several federal programs, including the $600-a-week federal supplemental unemployment benefit for workers who have been idled by COVID-19, the LSA said.

The next largest slice of the federal COVID-19 funds  $191.5 million, or nearly 8 percent  has been spent by the Department of Human Services.

Iowa is among eight states where governors have used a portion of the $150 billion CARES fund allocated to states to shore up unemployment funds. Based on population, Iowa received the minimum amount  $1.25 billion.

As we move forward with recovery, I want to minimize the pandemics impact on employers so they can focus on growing and reinvesting in Iowa, Reynolds said. The $490 million will ensure that the trust fund remains healthy and in a position to weather any storm.

States and the federal government work together to fund unemployment benefits. State trust funds rely on a per-employee tax thats higher for companies that have laid off a lot of workers recently. The federal trust fund maxes out at $42 per employee per year for companies that pay state taxes on time in states with solvent trust funds. If the trust funds start to run out of money  as they are in several states  state and federal laws trigger increases.

Peter Fisher, research director for the Iowa Policy Project, is among the Democrats and left-leaning groups that say there are better uses for the money, such as direct assistance to workers and local governments, rental assistance and food banks, according to Stateline, a publication of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Reynolds is spending 40 percent of her $1.25 billion allocation to keep employer insurance rates from going up in a couple of years instead of using it to help schools prepare to reopen safely, fund county general assistance programs, or any of several other policy options.

More data on Iowas federal funds can be found at https://recovery-finance.iowa.gov/.
American States Water Company AWR is set to release second-quarter 2020 results on Aug 3, after market close. The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 5.92%, on average.



Lets discuss the factors that are likely to get reflected in the upcoming quarterly results.

Factors to Note

The extended stay-at-home orders are expected to have increased demand for potable water during the second quarter. Evidently, the company decided to provide uninterrupted services to all customers despite non-payment of fees, which in turn, might offset the upbeat demand scenario to some extent.



The second-quarter earnings are expected to have benefited from new water and electric rates authorized by the California Public Utilities Commission in the first quarter.



However, the second-quarter cash receipts of American States Water are expected to have declined year over year due to the impact of stay-at-home orders on the economy to check the spread of novel coronavirus.

Q2 Expectations

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter 2020 sales is pegged at $119 million, indicating a decline of 4.53% from the year-ago quarters reported figure. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter earnings per share is pegged at 69 cents per share, suggesting a 7.81% rise from the year-earlier quarters reported number.

What the Zacks Model Unveils

Our proven model predicts an earnings beat for American States Water this time round. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of a positive surprise.

American States Water Company Price and EPS Surprise

American States Water Company Price and EPS Surprise

American States Water Company price-eps-surprise | American States Water Company Quote

Earnings ESP: American States Water has an Earnings ESP of +2.19%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.



Zacks Rank: American States Water currently has a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Story continues

Other Stocks to Consider

Here are some other companies worth considering from the same sector that have the right combination of elements to also beat on earnings in the upcoming releases.



American Water Works Company, Inc. AWK is set to release second-quarter 2020 numbers on Aug 5. It has an Earnings ESP of +1.18% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present.



Essential Utilities Inc. WTRG is scheduled to release second-quarter results on Aug 5. It has an Earnings ESP of +7.75% and a Zacks Rank of 2, currently.



WEC Energy Group, Inc. WEC is scheduled to release second-quarter results on Aug 4. It has an Earnings ESP of +0.96% and is presently Zacks #2 Ranked.

These Stocks Are Poised to Soar Past the Pandemic

The COVID-19 outbreak has shifted consumer behavior dramatically, and a handful of high-tech companies have stepped up to keep America running. Right now, investors in these companies have a shot at serious profits. For example, Zoom jumped 108.5% in less than 4 months while most other stocks were sinking.



Our research shows that 5 cutting-edge stocks could skyrocket from the exponential increase in demand for stay at home technologies. This could be one of the biggest buying opportunities of this decade, especially for those who get in early.



See the 5 high-tech stocks now>>



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WEC Energy Group, Inc. (WEC) : Free Stock Analysis Report



American States Water Company (AWR) : Free Stock Analysis Report



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
In absolute terms, the impact of COVID-19 on the power generation equipment market is minor when considered in the framework of a 10-year forecast.

The 6.5 percent increase in sales projected for the 2020-2029 period marks the first sign in five years of a recovery in the gas turbine electrical power generation market. Despite this, 2020 will not be remembered as the year the recovery started but as the year the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic shut down the power generation equipment industry (along with much else). Despite the COVID-19 lockdown, projections of total world sales of power generation equipment over the decade have risen to $102.33 billion. Stuart Slade, Industrial Gas Turbines Senior Analyst, said: "In absolute terms, the impact of COVID-19 on the power generation equipment market is minor when considered in the framework of a 10-year forecast."

General Electric Energy will install nearly half the total electrical power generating capacity to be added over the period 2020-2029, according to projections made by Forecast International. When licensees and subsidiaries are included, GE Energy is projected to deliver 47.66 percent of the capacity to be installed during this period. Siemens will follow with 24.29 percent, while Mitsubishi Power Systems will contribute 15.13 percent. Thus, these three companies will be producing 87.08 percent of the projected increase in worldwide electrical power generation capacity between 2020 and 2029.

The improving forecast for the power generation equipment industry reflects the strenuous efforts made by these three major companies to adapt their corporate structures and capabilities to the current environment of reduced demand, overcapacity, and soft prices. Mitsubishi has dissolved its Mitsubishi-Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) partnership, with the group now trading as Mitsubishi Power Systems (MPS). Siemens has dramatically restructured itself, changing from a conventional conglomerate to a constellation of three separate operating groups that are independently represented on the stock market. This was intended to make the group more flexible and responsive to changing technical developments. GE Energy has executed a deep-reaching reorganization that is intended to maximize its market penetration, eliminate marginal operations, and generally rationalize its business structure. This still leaves the company holding almost 50 percent of the power generation equipment market. This strategy brought with it significant risks that were picked up by stock market analysts to reflect concern about the company's performance. Slade adds that "GE Energy's market share in total capacity terms gives it major strengths that will help sustain it through a difficult readjustment period."

A detailed review conducted by Forecast International made using its breakthrough Platinum Forecast System 4.4 suggests that the existing overcapacity in the industry may have largely compensated for production issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The main concern in 2020 appears to be servicing and maintaining the existing equipment inventory and dealing with unexpected outages. However, this appears to be an overstated issue at this point, with existing provisions being adequate to maintain services. Slade summarized the situation by saying, "When the pandemic struck, the power generation industry stepped up to the mark."

About Forecast International

Forecast International, Inc. is a leading provider of Market Intelligence and Consulting in the areas of aerospace, defense, power systems and military electronics. Based in Newtown, Conn., USA, the company specializes in long-range industry forecasts and market assessments used by strategic planners, marketing professionals, military organizations, and governments worldwide. Forecast International also maintains a high posture of situational awareness and geopolitical analysis.


A possible coronavirus vaccine has moved on to Phase 3 trials and Michiganders will have the opportunity to take part in the study.

Henry Ford Health System is one of about 90 health care systems across the country -- and the only hospital system in Michigan -- to be chosen as a trial site for the Moderna mRNA-1273 Coronavirus Efficacy (COVE) vaccine study.

The health system is enrolling volunteers into the randomized double-blind study of whether a two-dose vaccine prevents COVID-19 infection in those exposed to the coronavirus. The last-phase study aims to enroll 30,000 volunteers nationwide in the study.

Henry Ford Health System is proud to be part of the fight against this deadly virus, reads a statement on the hospitals website. As one of the regions major academic medical centers with more than $100 million in annual research funding, Henry Ford is involved in numerous COVID-19 efforts with partners around the world.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the countrys leading infectious-disease expert, said hes cautiously optimistic and the potential vaccine, according to a report by the Washington Post.

Typically, vaccines are made from a weakened or inactive virus. However, the mRNA-1273 study vaccine is not made from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to Henry Ford Health System.

The trial vaccine is made from the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), a genetic code that tells cells how to make protein. The protein is a small part of the virus that is thought to help the bodys immune system make antibodies to fight the virus.

Participation in the study is voluntary. Interested residents can apply to partake in the study, here. Participants must be at least 18 years old and cannot be pregnant or immune-compromised.

Qualifications include those at high risk of COVID-19 infection due to their location, circumstances, age, or pre-existing medical conditions, as well as health adults with no previous history of COVID-19, and those who are free from prior exposure to an investigational vaccine or treatment for COVID-19.

Those who meet the parameters of the study will go through an informed consent process, where theyll have the opportunity to ask questions about participation before enrolling in the study.

Health care workers and first responders interested in the study are asked by the hospital system to bring their employment badge to their first in-person enrollment meeting with study coordinators.

Participants will have two injections spaced about a month apart. They will then visit their enrollment site five additional times and talk to study coordinators about 24 times over two years.

During that time, participants will be closely monitored by the study team for symptoms of COVID-19 and will be tested to see if they have produced the antibodies to protect them from the coronavirus, reads an explanation of the study. If a participant is diagnosed with COVID-19 during their time in the study, the study team will provide the highest level of care because each participants health and safety are our top priorities.

Trial participants have a 50% chance of receiving the study vaccine or a placebo, which will be a sterile saline solution with no active vaccine. The study vaccine cannot cause infection or disease, according to the hospital system.

The potential vaccine is being developed by Moderna in collaboration with the National Institute of Health.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and BioNTech, a small German firm, has also announced a 30,000-person trial of its potential coronavirus vaccine. The company, which has a production facility in Kalamazoo County, reached a $1.95 billion agreement with the U.S. government to supply up to 100 million doses of its vaccine by the end of the year.

Pfizers vaccine is expected to begin Phase 2b/3 soon and are enrolling up to 30,000 subjects as well. Regulatory review could begin in October 2020, according to an announcement from the White House.

As of Monday, July 27, Michigan had reported 78,507 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 6,154 deaths linked to the infectious respiratory illness. New daily cases in the state have risen in recent weeks, though new death remain low and the percent of tests coming back positive have been less than 4% on average.

For more information on the Moderna Cove vaccine study, visit the Henry Ford Health System website, here.

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 executive orders requiring people to wear face coverings over their mouth and nosewhile in public indoor and crowded outdoor spaces. See an explanation of what that means here.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

For more data on COVID-19 in Michigan, visit https://www.mlive.com/coronavirus/data/.

Read more on MLive:

Fewer flights, layoffs and reduced ridership among COVID-19 effects on mid-Michigan airports

Coronavirus antibody testing expands in Kalamazoo but health officials say it has low utility

Michigan senator asks FEMA to help school districts buy masks, cover costs related to reopening
Godswill Akpabio, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, has linked some members of the National Assembly to some contracts awarded by the Niger Delta Development Commission.

Punch reports that Akpabio in a list in which he copied the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, enlisted the former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on the NDDC, Nicholas Mutu, who represents the Bomadi/Patani Federal Constituency of Delta State, as one of the lawmakers that have been awarded contracts by the Commission. According to him, Mutu who was arraigned in court in February this year by the EFCC for alleged abuse of office and N320m fraud, received 74 projects including various emergency road projects in Delta, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, and Rivers states.

Akpabio, who is a former governor of Akwa Ibom state, also linked the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi (Delta-North), with 53 projects, which included emergency repairs of Asue Street, Owa Phase 2; ldumuogbe Road via Ojemaye; Otolokpo College Road, Otolokpo; and the Police lshu Ani Ukwu Road, Issele Uku.

Other lawmakers that Akpabio listed projects against are Senator Matthew Urhoghide (Edo-South), six; James Manager (Delta-South), six; Samuel Anyanwu (Imo-West, 8th Senate), 19; and others simply identified as Ondo and Edo Reps.

The minister, however, did not provide the cost of the projects listed against the lawmakers names, while the cost of contracts given to non-lawmakers had costs of various projects attached to them.

Akpabio did not also state if the lawmakers were directly awarded the contracts or they nominated the projects under their Zonal Intervention Projects, also known as constituency projects.

On Monday, July 20, Akpabio while testifying at the House of Representatives panel investigating allegations of financial recklessness at the NDDC, alleged that most of the contracts awarded in the Commission were to members of the National Assembly.

On Tuesday, July 21, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, gave the Minister 48 hours to release the names of the lawmakers in question or face punitive measures.

After the two-day ultimatum had expired, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, directed the clerk of the House to institute a lawsuit against Akpabio after he failed to release the names of the National Assemblies members that have been awarded contracts by NDDC.

Akpabio in a letter that was later read on the floor of the House of Representatives by the Speaker, denied saying 60% of the contracts were awarded to lawmakers.
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Linkedin Makini Brice (Reuters) Washington, United States  Tue, July 28, 2020 10:30 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669d17bb 2 World Black-people,women-in-politics,US,congress Free

Joyce Elliott, an Arkansas state senator who is seeking a US congressional seat in November, was the second Black student to attend her local public high school; the first was her older sister. If elected in November, she will be the first Black lawmaker in Congress from Arkansas, ever.

On the campaign trail in June, Elliott attended a demonstration against racism in White County, which is more than 90% white, and spoke to attendees in the shadow of a Confederate monument.

The November election is a "chance to change our history," she told Reuters afterward. "I really decided I needed to run because I could see a pathway to winning."

As the United States grapples with a deadly coronavirus pandemic that has disproportionately sickened and killed Black Americans and recent upheaval over police brutality, a record number of Black women are running for Congress.

Elliott is one of at least 122 Black or multi-racial Black women who filed to run for congressional seats in this year's election; this figure has increased steadily since 2012, when it was 48, according to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP).

As primary season draws to a close, nearly 60 Black women are still in the running, according to Collective PAC.

"People are becoming more comfortable with seeing different kinds of people in Congress. You don't know what it looks like to have powerful Black women in Congress until you see powerful Black women in Congress," said Pam Keith, a Navy veteran and attorney who is running in the Democratic primary for a Florida congressional seat.

Black women are nearly 8% of the US population, but 4.3% of Congress, according to a report by the Center of Women and Politics and Higher Heights for America, a political action committee that seeks to elect more progressive Black women to elected office. They are underrepresented in statewide executive's jobs and among mayors as well, according to the report.

But Black women voters showed the highest participation rate of any group in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.

Historically, Black women have been more likely to win in majority-Black districts, but many are running this cycle in majority white or mixed districts, some of which had previously voted for Republicans.

"We're going to flip this seat from red to blue," said North Carolina's Patricia Timmons-Goodson, the first Black judge to serve on the state Supreme Court and a former member of the US Civil Rights Commission. "We have a candidate that knows and understands the district and its people," said Timmons-Goodson, who is running for a seat in Congress.

Several of the eight Black women congressional candidates Reuters spoke to said they relate to voters better than their often wealthier opponents, because they, too, have lived through fiscal hardships.

"We almost lost our house a couple of times. We ran into financial difficulties when I was first starting my business," said Jeannine Lee Lake, a former journalist who is running for Congress from Indiana against US Vice President Mike Pence's brother, Greg Pence, an incumbent business executive who reported millions in assets last election cycle.

The coronavirus crisis has also highlighted the importance of issues these women are running on - improving healthcare, creating better jobs, ameliorating access to broadband internet.

"It really has just amplified and co-signed what I was already talking about with voters," such as the importance of agriculture and expanding Medicaid, said Alabama's Adia McClellan-Winfrey, a psychologist and chair of the Talladega County Democratic Party.

Ohio candidate Desiree Tims returned home in 2019 after a stint in Washington, D.C. as a congressional aide and White House intern, intending to work at a law firm and pay down her student loan debt.

But she decided to run after watching people come together to bag clothes, share food and provide shelter following a rash of tornadoes that tore across the state, with little support from the federal government.

"After coming back from Washington, D.C., what I saw was the community doing the work, but their tax dollars not working for them," Tims said.

Kimberly Walker, a veteran and former corrections officer from Florida running for Congress, says the solution to that discrepancy is clear.

"We need to have more people, average, everyday American citizens who are there fighting for average, everyday American citizens," she said.
Elderly failed at the time of their greatest need The number of virus cases in Victoria is concerning. Equally disturbing is the fact that COVID-19 is ripping through aged care facilities like a bushfire ("Catastrophe looms in aged care sector as deaths rise", July 28). The not-so-thinly veiled attempts to lay the blame at the feet of staff in these facilities is disingenuous. The aged care sector, the responsibility of federal government, has been under-funded, under-resourced and under-staffed, with low-paid workers for years. Anyone with even a passing connection with aged care facilities knows this, and knows the pressure on over-worked staff at the best of times. It is sad to see the wisdom figures of our society ending their long lives not only at the hands of coronavirus, but at the hands of political leadership which has failed to provide adequately for their care at the time of their greatest need. Megan Brock, Summer Hill Nothing has been learned from the Newmarch House fiasco. As aged care residents continue to die in distressing numbers in Victoria, those who test positive are left in the homes where the infection is passed around to other residents. While many of them have end-of-life plans stating they do not want to go to hospital, there need to be exceptions to this rule in the interests of the other residents. They should be immediately transferred to a hospital ward where they can receive palliative treatment only if that is their wish. Aged care facilities are not hospitals and are incapable of providing the type of care they need, while protecting the other residents. Judy Christian, Castle Hill The Fair Work Commission has given aged care workers more paid sick leave to stop the spread of COVID-19 between nursing homes. This will help stop the spread of the virus in these places and reduce the number of untimely deaths of vulnerable residents ("Critical workers granted virus pay", July 28). But the commission's decision doesn't go far enough. It excludes workers who have less permanent work. These are the lowest-paid workers who are more likely to be working in two or three nursing homes to make ends meet. Geoff Black, Caves Beach Picture this: you are a casual worker on the minimum hourly pay rate, barely surviving ("Scott Morrison's 'deflect blame, take the credit' shtick is wearing thin", July 28). You have some vague symptoms, maybe a cold, maybe an allergy, maybe the coronavirus. You know if you don't go to work you have absolutely no money for even basics such as food or rent. What would you do? Sandra Pertot, Diamond Beach

Go-it-alone foreign policy is only way to go Siding with the US against China in overly aggressive ways is clearly not in the world's interests or ours ("Bow to neither Xi nor Trump", July 28). There is no rational explanation for getting into bed with the erratic, self-serving Donald Trump at any time, let alone when his presidency is almost certainly coming to an ignominious end. The out-of-control pandemic in America suggests that Trump doesn't care too much about his own people, so wouldn't hesitate to ditch us, if we became an inconvenience. Graham Lum, North Rocks Peter Hartcher suggests Australia "bow to neither Xi nor Trump", however we are already stooping to the US by sending our ministers to Washington ("Australia to ramp up naval drills with US in hostile sea", July 28). One has to wonder what conditions may have been attached to our non-attendance to the talks in the US. By appearing in person, ministers Payne and Reynolds are not only giving strong support to the misguided US foreign policy related to China, they have allowed themselves to be manipulated for internal political purposes by the Trump administration. While the US government employs blunt, culturally insensitive foreign policy, it is incumbent upon our government to develop its own independent approaches aligned to our geography, strategic security and economic interests. Ross Butler, Rodd Point We shouldn't be surprised that Trump is promoting conflict with China. He's already declared war on the USA. Norm Neill, Darlinghurst All the way with Donald J? No way! Peter Craig, Alexandria

Set children free The NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman has decided to wait another 12 months to make a decision because a working group needs to "examine alternatives to imprisonment", with children aged 10 to 14 left lingering in custody until then ("A-Gs defer raising age for culpability", July 28).

A hundred per cent of these children are from disadvantaged backgrounds and more than 60 per cent are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander backgrounds. There were almost 600 children aged 10 to 13 in detention in Australia last financial year. Where do these disadvantaged children end up later in life after being in detention at such a young, impressionable age? In jail. Helen Simpson, Curl Curl As an Australian, I thought I understood the history of racism in Australia. I was wrong.

Never would I have believed that it was legal to arrest a child as young as 10 in this country.

Such laws belong in the dustbin of history. All those taking part in the Black Lives Matters march are asking for a change to these iniquitous laws. They deserve it. It's time to remember David Dungay. Sarah Ahern, Birchgrove I wish those who are quick to condemn the Black Lives Matter protests were similarly diligent about condemning successive governments' lack of action over Aboriginal deaths in custody (Letters, July 28). More than 400 Aboriginal deaths in custody since the early 90s, and no arrests? Talk about tipping points. Graham Fazio, Old Bar The solution to what I agree is a double standard, is for the state government to offer the BLM organisers the free use of a stadium which has been properly set up for social distanced gatherings and is easily accessible by public transport set-up to be socially distanced. Peter Thornton, Killara

Historic mistake It is "just nuts" to amalgamate archives ("Historian bemoans plan to amalgamate archives", July 28). The Historic Houses Trust resulted from my restoration of Elizabeth Bay House in the early 1970s for the NSW government. The government had a number of historic houses which had been acquired and were all managed by different departments. I convinced the government to bring them under one department and treat them equally. With the help the National Trust it was called the Historic Houses Trust of NSW. It thrived and eventually controlled buildings outside Sydney, as well as the Hyde Park Barracks, the Mint and other buildings that were historic although not necessarily houses. As founder of the organisation I cannot understand how anyone could think they should be linked with State Archives and Records Authority. They have different charters and clearly should be separate. Clive Lucas, Neutral Bay The state government's plan to merge the State Archives with other institutions seems irrational and doctrinaire. It is simply an anomaly that it is the Arts Minister who is responsible because such historical and administrative records are not the arts. Support from the Opera House and the Art Gallery is irrelevant: they are arts institution which engage in the demonstrably different activities of performances and exhibitions. Mention of the National Archives hardly strengthens the government's case. The collection, maintenance and use of archives are critically important for understanding our past. Archives are used by historians of all sorts and their activities are scholarly, not artistic. John Carmody, Roseville The proposal for the merger of Sydney Living Museums and State Archives and Records is as nonsensical as the proposed move of the Powerhouse. It makes no logical sense and is another example of ill-considered policy on the run. Anyone with any depth of knowledge and real understanding of the two organisations appears to oppose it. One wonders where these mad ideas come from and why they get traction. Peter Watts, Lilyfield

Dispensing advice Ross Neilson should be less derogatory to pharmacists in his article. Words like hoax, witch doctor and slow key strokes are unnecessary ("Why I read the riot act to my chemist", July 28). The pharmacist is dispensing a prescription and it needs to be considered, as it is a lot more than just sticking a label on a box. In addition, a pharmacist who is on duty is legally bound to have his or her name clearly displayed along with their qualifications. Pharmacies can legally sell products and consumers can buy products that may not be evidence-based  the difference is counselling by the pharmacist. Unfortunately, as a practicality a pharmacist cannot be involved in every encounter with a customer and it is often left to pharmacy staff. Big pharma is not the gold standard when it comes to determining what is efficacious as a medicinal treatment. There are plenty of ineffective drugs in their pharmacopoeias. Lesley Rowe, Exeter Stupidity unmasked Rosalind Croucher makes many sensible and valid points in her article ("Wearing a mask protects our liberties", July 28). Unfortunately the mindset of anti-maskers is neither valid nor sensible, showing a flagrant disregard for the well-being of other humans. I have a simple acronym for such people, who in social media commonly tend to reveal themselves as anti-science conspiracy theorists - CSI. Crazy (or more charitably expressed "confused"), stupid and ignorant. Stephen Scholem, North Ryde Those who refuse to wear a mask outdoors should be made to sign a waiver that they will refuse all Medicare-funded treatment if they catch COVID-19. Ian Brennan, Wareemba
Former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, who played a key role in the Russia investigation but whose pejorative text messages about Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign made him a target of the presidents wrath, is releasing a book on his concerns the president could be compromised.

'Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump' is due out Sept. 8, publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The book will offer an insider's view on some of the most sensational and politically freighted investigations in modern American history, including into whether the 2016 Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to sway the presidential election.

Due out two months before the November election, the book adds to the list of first-person accounts from other senior FBI and Justice Department officials during the Trump era.

'Russia has long regarded the United States as its "Main Enemy," and I spent decades trying to protect our country from their efforts to weaken and undermine us,' Strzok said Tuesday in a statement accompanying the book announcement.

Back in the public eye: Peter Strzok was fired by the FBI after his anti-Trump texts surfaced and is now suing over his termination. His September book, Compromised, will make a case that Donald Trump is in the sway of the Kremlin

FBI lovers: The texts between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page have become a regular attack line for Donald Trump

THE FBI LOVERS' TEXTS Strzok to Page: God that's a great article. Thanks for sharing. And F TRUMP. Strzok to Page: Just went to a Southern Virginia Walmart. I could SMELL the Trump support. Page to Strzok: Trumps not ever going to become president, right? Strzok replies: No. No, he wont. Well stop it. Page to Strzok: God trump is a loathsome human. Strzok replied: Yet he many win. Good for Hillary.' Page to Strzok: omg hes an idiot. Strzok replied: He's awful. Strzok to Page: God Hillary should win. 100,000,000-0. Strzok to Page [during Republican national convention]: Oooh, TURN IT ON, TURN IT ON!!! THE DOUCHEBAGS ARE ABOUT TO COME OUT. You can tell by the excitable clapping. Page: My god, Im so embarrassed for them. These are like second-run stars. Nothing the B-list to relate to the kids these days. Page: And wow, Donald Trump is in an enormous douche. Strzok to Page [during Trump-Clinton debate]: I am riled up. Trump is a f***ing idiot, is unable to provide a coherent answer. Strzok: I CAN'T PULL AWAY, WHAT THE F**K HAPPENED TO OUR COUNTRY (REDACTED)??!?! Page: I don't know. But we'll get it back. We're America. We rock. Advertisement

'In this book,' he added, 'I use that background to explain how the elevation by President Trump and his collaborators of Trump's own personal interests over the interests of the country allowed Putin to succeed beyond Stalin's wildest dreams, and how the national security implications of Putins triumph will persist through our next election and beyond.'

As a senior counterintelligence agent with more than 20 years at the FBI, Strzok helped lead the investigation into whether Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information on the private email server she relied on as secretary of state.

The FBI ultimately recommended against criminal charges.

He also played a pivotal role in the Russia investigation, including by interviewing former national security adviser Michael Flynn about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition period.

Strzok briefly served on special counsel Robert Mueller's team but was removed from his role after the Justice Department inspector general flagged derogatory and pejorative text messages about Trump that Strzok sent and received during the 2016 campaign.

Once the texts were made public, Strzok became a regular Twitter target of the Republican president's attacks, with Trump alleging that Strzok and others in the FBI had plotted against his campaign and had even committed treason - an accusation that Strzok's lawyer rejected as 'beyond reckless.'

The text messages were exchanged with an FBI lawyer, Lisa Page, and Trump routinely refers to the two of them together as 'the lovers.'

At a fiery, daylong congressional hearing in July 2018, Strzok insisted that he never allowed personal viewpoints to influence his work, though he did acknowledge being dismayed by Trump's behavior during the campaign.

The text messages featured prominently in the inspector general investigations into the Clinton and Russia probes, but the watchdog office said it did not find evidence in either case that the actions that Strzok and other FBI officials took were motivated by political bias.

Strzok was fired from the FBI in August 2018, though he has since sued over the termination.

He remains a frequent target of Trumps scornful tweets. In a statement announcing the book, the publishing company said 'the Trump administration used his private expression of political opinions to force him out.'

'But by that time,' the statement added, 'Strzok had seen more than enough to convince him that the commander in chief had fallen under the sway of Americas adversary in the Kremlin.'

Though Mueller did not allege a criminal conspiracy between Moscow and the Trump campaign, the publisher said that in the book, Strzok 'grapples with a question that should concern every U.S. citizen: When a president appears to favor personal and Russian interests over those of our nation, has he become a national security threat?'

Former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe have each released books that describe aspects of the Trump investigation.

Andrew Weissmann, a former Justice Department prosecutor who served on Mueller's team, is due out with a book in September.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 13:06:28|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has congratulated Lee Hsien Loong on his re-election as Singapore's prime minister.

In his message sent on Monday, Li said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Lee, Singapore's economy has maintained a good momentum for a long period of time.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Singaporean government has taken decisive measures, achieving positive results in epidemic prevention and control and gradual economic and social recovery.

Noting that China and Singapore are friendly neighbors, Li said that China highly values bilateral ties.

The Chinese premier said that he is willing to work together with his Singaporean counterpart to coordinate efforts to promote the fight against COVID-19 as well as development cooperation, continue to deepen high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road, and raise the China-Singapore relationship to a higher level on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations this year. Enditem
Watch: Rafale jets refuelled mid-air on their way from France to India

The 5 Rafale fighter aircraft en route to India were refuelled mid-air. Pictures of the refuelling exercise were taken at a height of 30,000 feet. The Indian Air Force 'appreciated the support' provided by the French Air Force for the Rafale journey. France used an Airbus A330 multi-role tanker transport to refuel the Rafale jets. The aircraft had left for India on July 27 with a stopover in the United Arab Emirates. While France provided fuel support in the first leg of the journey, IAF's Ilyushin-78s will take over for the second leg. This is the first batch of Rafales being delivered to India after a deal was finalised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his then French counterpart Francois Hollande in 2015. India has bought 36 Rafale jets for Rs 59,000 crore. They will be part of the IAF's No. 17 squadron, the 'Golden Arrows'. ...read more
A German member of the European Parliament says his country should follow Britains decision and bar 5G technology from Chinese tech company Huawei.

Reinhard Buetikofer is a member of Germanys opposition Green Party. He chairs the European Parliaments Delegation for Relations with the Peoples Republic of China.

Buetikofer spoke to VOA last week from Berlin. He said that Germanys decision on whether to include Huawei equipment in its 5G telecommunications network is still up for grabs. 5G is a term for the next generation of high-speed wireless technology.

Britain recently decided to bar Huawei equipment from its 5G network. The decision marked a major change from the countrys earlier plan to permit the use of such equipment.

Britains decision may very well have an impact on the decision Germany is about to make, Buetikofer said. He added that Britains earlier plan had been suggested as a model by German supporters of the Chinese company.

In the past, supporters of having Huawei construct Germanys 5G network often pointed out: Look, the Brits knew that much more about Huawei than we do, if the Brits are not doing anything about it, why should we? Buetikofer said.

China-based Huawei is the worlds largest supplier of telecommunications equipment, capturing nearly 30 percent of the market. The company is a leader in 5G networks and a top producer of smartphones. Huawei is currently working on building 5G mobile systems in countries around the world.

United States officials pressed Britain to change its position on Huawei and have urged other countries to ban the companys equipment. The officials say they are concerned about Huaweis links to the Chinese government. They have warned that the equipment may include back doors that could permit China to spy on sensitive communications. Huawei has rejected such accusations.

Buetikofer is a strong supporter of a ban on Huawei 5G equipment in Germany. He welcomed the British announcement with a piece of advice for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Now it's Berlin's turn to move! he wrote in a message on Twitter.

Observers say a German decision to ban Huawei would be a diplomatic win for the U.S. government. The Trump administration is seeking to persuade more countries to take Britains lead.

We hope we can build out a coalition that understands the threat and will work collectively, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a recent trip to Britain and Denmark.

But Buetikofer said his objections to the Chinese company are not influenced by Washington. I oppose Huaweis playing a part in the German 5G network not because I want to do the U.S. a favor, but because I think it is a threat to German national security, he said.

As in other countries, the German argument over Huawei is tied to a larger debate about the best way to deal with Chinas rising power. Merkel has stated the importance of dialogue with China. But others, including several German lawmakers, see the Chinese leadership using its influence around the world to seek to replace democratic values.

Merkel has argued in favor of Huawei based on a no-spying agreement she said her government completed with the company. But Buetikofer notes that Huawei founder and head Ren Zhengfei is a member of Chinas ruling Communist Party.

Dont take us for idiots, the Green Party member said during a recent podcast.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Natalie Liu reported this story for VOA News. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

network  n. a system or group of connected parts

up for grabs  phr. available and ready

impact  n. have a strong effect on something or someone

construct  v. to build

mobile  adj. able to be moved from one place to another

favor  n. the support of approval of something

dialogue  n. formal talks

idiot  n. a stupid person or a person who is acting in a stupid way
A group of fuel storage tanks exploded in western Iran, state news reported Tuesday, marking the latest in a series of suspicious blasts across the country.

Iran's semi-official ISNA reported six trucks carrying fuel caught fire Monday morning in a parking lot in the Dolat Abad industrial area of Kermanshah province.

Keyvan Maleki, deputy head of the Kermanshah Fire Department, told ISNA there were no casualties but a few people were injured in the blaze.

The cause of the accident is under investigation, Maleki added.

In the past month, Iran has seen a number of mysterious explosions and fires, some of which hit strategic military and nuclear sites. Incidents include a huge explosion at the Parchin military complex in eastern Tehran on June 25 and another at a private medical clinic on June 30 that left 19 people dead.

A July 2 fire at the underground Natanz nuclear facility is believed to have set back the countrys uranium enrichment, which Iran says is used only for peaceful purposes. Iran's official news agency IRNA suggested hostile countries, especially the Zionist regime (Israel) and the US, were behind the Natanz fire.

Experts speculate Israel, a longtime adversary of the Islamic Republic, is behind the Natanz fire and the other blasts. Asked about the series of explosions, Israels Defense Minister Benny Gantz said his government was not necessarily involved in every incident.

Iran has downplayed reports of foreign involvement. During a recent press conference, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Abbas Mousavi said limited fires during this time of year were neither peculiar nor something happening this year alone."
The companies that own many of the plants in Nebraska, including JBS USA, Tyson Foods, Smithfield and Cargill, say they have tried to slow the spread of the virus by providing masks and other protective gear, enforcing temperature checks and installing dividers to separate workers on the line.

Plexiglas dividers help, but its not enough, said Eric Reeder, president of United Food & Commercial Workers Local 293 union that represents meat and food production workers in Nebraska. Many facilities have ventilation systems that havent been updated for 20 or 30 years.  Essential should not mean expendable.

In a statement, Smithfield Foods said its precautions meet or exceed federal health and safety guidelines.

In a recent letter to federal lawmakers, Kenneth M. Sullivan, the companys president and CEO, said production workers are receiving extra hourly pay during the pandemic. The company has granted some form of paid leave to nearly 3,000 workers who are staying home because they are older or have serious health conditions, and spent tens of millions of dollars procuring masks, face shields and gallons of hand sanitizer.
Authorities in China return to demolish Christians homes after razing church

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A month after partially demolishing a church structure in Chinas Fujian province, dozens of security guards and officials came back to bulldoze homes in the residential compound where the church once stood.

Guards and officials from the local Ethnic and Religious Bureau stormed the Xingguang Church building in Xiamen city last Wednesday for further demolition of Christian homes in conjunction to the house church, reports the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern.

A Christian preacher, Yang Xibo from Xunsiding Church posted videos on Facebook in which dozens of officials from the Urban Management Law Enforcement department can be seen marching toward the remaining structures that were not demolished in June.

While breaking into a Christian home, the officials didnt show any papers of authorization for their action. When a 67-year-old woman tried to stop them, officials  some of them equipped with anti-riot shields  shuffled her off.

Other Christians at the scene who were trying to intervene were blocked at the stairs and prevented from moving further. When they questioned the authorities why they illegally entered private property and demolished peoples residence, they were met with silence, ICC said.

For the Chinese government to frantically persecute Christians even after their churches were shut down shows how Beijing has no interest in respecting religious freedom," Gina Goh, ICCs regional manager for Southeast Asia, said. What the Chinese Communist Party does not understand is that Christianity will not be wiped out just because the buildings no longer stand. The more the government erodes the rights of Chinese citizens, the more enemies it creates within its territories. One day, this pressure cooker will explode, threatening the CCP regime, the exact endgame it is fearful of.

On June 11, more than 100 officers from four different agencies came to demolish parts of the Xingguang Churchs interior of five rooms, removing panelling and partition walls, according to the U.K.-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

Authorities also removed church property, including furniture and educational materials, from the churchs school section.

The timing of the destruction coincided with the State Departments annual report on international religious freedom, including a lengthy section on freedom of religion or belief violations by the Chinese government.

Xingguang Church was earlier raided on April 19, followed by another violent raid on May 3, in which many members were injured and some were briefly detained, according to ICC, which said the churchs preacher, Titus Yu, recently filed a complaint pursuant to Chinas Supervision Law against three officials for their abuse of power and illegal intrusion of personal property. The preacher received no response.

The Italian-based magazine Bitter Winter, a publication produced by the Center for Studies on New Religion which covers human rights issues in China, reported in June that authorities removed crosses from more than 250 state-sanctioned churches in Anhui province between January and April.

In its 2020 annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom noted that not only have authorities removed crosses from churches across the nation, but they have also banned youth aged 18 and younger from participating in religious services.

On Open Doors USAs World Watch List, China is ranked as one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians. The organization notes that all churches are perceived as a threat if they become too large, too political, or invite foreign guests.
With advances in genome sequencing, cancer treatments have increasingly sought to leverage the idea of "synthetic lethality," exploiting cancer-specific genetic defects to identify targets that are uniquely essential to the survival of cancer cells.

Synthetic lethality results when non-lethal mutations in different genes become deadly when combined in cells. In a new paper published online July 27, 2020 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers at the San Diego branch of Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and University of California San Diego School of Medicine report that inhibiting a key enzyme caused human cancer cells associated with two major types of breast and ovarian cancer to die and in mouse studies reduced tumor growth.

The research team, led by senior study author Richard D. Kolodner, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Cellular and Molecular Medicine and member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research San Diego Branch, studied Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a species of yeast used in basic research, to search for synthetic lethal relationships.

They zeroed in on Flap Endonuclease 1 (FEN1), a DNA structure-specific endonuclease involved in DNA replication and repair. Turning their attention to cancer cells, they found that when they blocked functions of FEN1 using either a small molecule inhibitor or genetic ablation, BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutant cancer cell lines were preferentially killed. Notably, normal cells were able to recover from FEN1 inhibition.

BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes normally act to prevent breast and ovarian cancer as well as other cancers, but when mutated, may cause a person to be more likely to develop breast or ovarian cancer or develop cancer at a younger age. Less than 10 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer have a BRCA mutation, but it's estimated that 55 to 65 percent of women with the BRCA1 mutation will develop breast cancer before age 70 while approximately 45 percent of women with a BRCA2 mutation will develop breast cancer by age 70, according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Similarly, women with inherited BRCA mutations have an increased risk of developing ovarian cancer and men with inherited BRCA mutations have increased risk of developing breast and prostate cancer.

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States, with approximately 276,000 new cases per year, according to the National Cancer Institute. Prostate cancer is the fourth most common, with 191,930 new cases and ovarian is 17th, with an estimated 21,750 new cases annually, according to the National Cancer Institute. Kolodner and colleagues then tested the approach in an immune-compromised mouse xenograft model, and found that FEN1 inhibition significantly reduced tumor growth.

The researchers say their findings are significant in two ways: They underscore the value of using S. cerevisiae yeast as a genetics tool for discovering synthetic lethality relationships and identify FEN1 inhibitors as a possible therapeutic agent to further develop for treating certain cancers with targeted vulnerabilities.
HOUSTON - (July 27, 2020) - Materials scientists at Rice University and the University of Pennsylvania are calling for a collective, global effort to fast-track the mass production of 2D materials like graphene and molybdenum disulfide.

In a perspective article published online in Materials Today, journal editor-in-chief Jun Lou and colleagues make a case for a focused, collective effort to address the research challenges that could clear the way for large-scale mass production of 2D materials.

Lou and fellow Rice materials scientists Ming Tang, Jing Zhang and Fan Wang joined Penn's Vivek Shenoy in describing the potential transformation in 2D materials technology that could result from a systematic, communitywide effort to map the shapes of the 2D crystals that are being grown in labs worldwide via a process known as chemical vapor deposition (CVD).

"Like snowflakes in nature, 2D crystals exhibit a rich variety of morphologies under different growth conditions," they wrote.

Mapping these unique crystal patterns and compiling the maps in a global database, alongside the recipes for creating each pattern, could unlock a wealth of information "for understanding, diagnosing and controlling the CVD process and environment for 2D material growth," the researchers wrote.

CVD is a commonly used process for creating thin films, including commercially important materials in the semiconductor industry. In a typical CVD reaction, a flat sheet of material called a substrate is placed in a reaction chamber and gases are flowed through the chamber in such a way that they react and form a solid film atop the substrate.

One goal of the field is developing computer software that can accurately predict the properties of a thin film that will result from the mixing of specific reactant gases under specific conditions. Creating such models is complicated by both an incomplete understanding of the physical and chemical processes that take place during CVD and by the existence of dozens of CVD reactor formats.

Cataloging the shape of crystals produced by CVD experiments could provide materials scientists with important information about their synthesis, in much the same way that mineralogists retrieve valuable clues about the history of Earth based on examination of naturally occurring crystal structures, Lou and colleagues suggested.

"Take the beautiful snowflakes as an example," the authors wrote. "A perhaps surprising fact to many is that snow crystals can exhibit many different categories of shapes, which depend on the temperature and water supersaturation of the atmosphere in which they are formed."

The Japanese scientist Ukichiro Nakaya, through extensive observations of snowflakes in both nature and the laboratory, developed a figure known as the Nakaya diagram to help decipher the information in snowflakes. By examining the shapes in a snowflake, and seeing where those shapes lie on Nakaya's diagram, scientists can determine the exact atmospheric conditions that produced the snowflake, which Nakaya poetically referred to as "a letter from the sky."

Inspired by Nakaya's work, Lou and colleagues created a Nakaya-like diagram of 2D crystal patterns that have been produced via CVD and demonstrated how it and other morphology diagrams could be used to infer clues about process variables like gas flow rates and heating temperatures that produced each pattern.

Thanks to advances in real-time imaging and in automated systems that can produce large datasets of crystal structures, the authors said there is "real potential for morphology diagram development to become a common practice and serve as a cornerstone of crystal growth."

###

Lou, Tang, Zhang and Wang are members of Rice's Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering. Lou is a professor and associate department chair. Tang is an assistant professor. Zhang is a postdoctoral research associate, and Fang is a graduate student. Shenoy is Penn's Eduardo D. Glandt President's Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering.

The research was supported by the Welch Foundation (C-1716), the National Science Foundation (IIP-1539999) and the Department of Energy (DE-SC0019111).

Links and resources:

The DOI of the Materials Today paper is: 10.1016/j.mattod.2020.06.012

A copy of the paper is available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mattod.2020.06.012

High-resolution IMAGES are available for download at:

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2020/07/0723_MORPHOLOGIC-dia-lg.jpg

CAPTION: Inspired by the work of Japanese snowflake researcher Ukichiro Nakaya, materials scientists from Rice University the University of Pennsylvania created a Nakaya-like diagram of 2D crystal shapes of molybdenum disulfide produced via chemical vapor deposition (left) and a complete morphology diagram of molybdenum sulfide (right). (Image courtesy of MSNE/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2020/07/0723_MORPHOLOGIC-shapes-lg.jpg

CAPTION: An array of crystal shapes of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides as imaged with a scanning electron microscope. (Image courtesy of MSNE/Rice University)

This release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,962 undergraduates and 3,027 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 4 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 12:55:42|Editor: huaxia

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NEW DELHI, July 28 (Xinhua) -- India's federal health ministry on Tuesday reported 654 new deaths due to COVID-19 and 47,703 new positive cases, taking the number of deaths to 33,425 and total cases to 1,483,156.

"As on 8:00 a.m. (local time) Tuesday, 33,425 deaths related to novel coronavirus have been recorded in the country," read the information released by the ministry.

According to ministry officials, so far 952,743 people have been discharged from hospitals after showing improvement. "The number of active cases in the country right now is 496,988," read the information.

The federal government is presently focusing on ramping up the number of tests carried out every day.

As per the figures of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), for the past three days the total number of samples tested is over 500,000 per day. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced Monday that this number would be increased to 1 million tests per day in the coming weeks.

In the wake of prevailing COVID-19 conditions, the Indian government has decided to extend the existing restrictions on limited domestic flight operations and caps on air fares till Nov. 24.

Currently, domestic flight operations are allowed to function at 45 percent of their total capacity. Enditem
Kathie Lee Gifford shares final moments with Regis Philbin, praises God: I know where he is

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Emmy award-winning TV host Kathie Lee Gifford detailed her final moments with her longtime television partner Regis Philbin, and the outspoken Christian said she believes he is now in Heaven with God.

"I was up from Tennessee, where I live, most of the time and of course the first call I always make is to Regis and Joy, Gifford on the TODAY show on Monday. I said, 'Can we get together? Can we have some lunch?' They came over about two weeks ago.

"I'm just so grateful  the Lord gave me that final time, and it was so precious because when I talked to Joy the day that I found out, right after he had passed, she said, 'Kathie, he hadn't laughed in a long, long time.

She said, 'I was so worried about him, he was just ready. So many of his friends had died, his dearest friend had died a week before of corona, actually. He was ready to go.' And she said, 'The day that we came to have lunch with you,' she said, 'was the last time I heard him laugh.'

Philbin, known for shows such as Live with Regis and Kelly! and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? died on July 24, at the age of 88. The TV personality died from cardiovascular disease at a hospital in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Gifford, Philbins co-host for over 15 years, explained that when she saw Philbin and his wife get out of their vehicle a couple weeks ago, she recognized that he was much more fragile than the last time she saw him.

The popular personality revealed that she served the couple their favorite dish and was so grateful to reconnect.

So we just had the best time and after they left I just thought to myself, 'Lord is that the last time I'm going to see my friend?' Gifford said.

The devout Christian said she felt the need to return to Tennessee last week.

I didn't know why but I've learned to listen to that voice. So I got on the plane, came home and immediately heard the news about Regis. I called Joy immediately and talked with her, Gifford said of her time with Philbins wife and daughters after his death.

"I was just grateful to have the time with them and comfort them a little bit, let them know that I believed with all my heart that I know where Regis is and I know who he's with because I had many conversations with him over the years about faith, and about where we go when this life is over, and he was very curious as always, and listened.

Gifford told TODAY that she and Philbin never once had an issue and were the best of friends.

In a public tribute to Philbin on Instagram, she wrote: There are no words to fully express the love I have for my precious friend, Regis. I simply adored him and every day with him was a gift. We spent 15 years together bantering and bickering and laughing ourselves silly  a tradition and a friendship we shared up to this very day.

I smile knowing somewhere in Heaven, at this very moment, hes making someone laugh. It brings me great comfort knowing that he had a personal relationship with his Lord that brought him great peace. I send all the love in my heart to Joy, to his children, to the rest of his family and to the innumerable people he touched over his legendary life.
TOKYO, July 28 (Reuters) - The United States has awarded a $265 million contract to a Texas facility of Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp to step up production of a coronavirus vaccine candidate, President Donald Trump said.

Trump made the announcement on Monday, as he toured another Fujifilm facility in North Carolina. The order widens a pact between the Department of Health and Human Services, the Texas A&M university system and Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies.

The funds will speed by several months an expansion planned at the Texas facility in College Station, with completion now expected this fall, Fujifilm said in a news release.

Last week, Fujifilm Diosynth, a drug ingredient subsidiary of the Japanese firm, said it would make bulk drug substances for Novavax Inc.'s virus vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373.

It added that it would spend $928 million to double capacity at a Denmark facility that is also involved in making virus treatments.

The company's shares climbed 3.2% in Tokyo in a flat overall market. (Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Even as the gems and jewellery industry welcomed the government's decision to extend the compulsory hallmarking, jewellers feel it's not enough to liquidate the current stock and they need a minimum one-year time.

In view of the coronavirus pandemic, the government on Monday announced the extension of a deadline for mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts by over four months till June 1, 2021.

"We welcome this decision to give extension on mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts. However, we have been requesting for a one-year extension. Practically, there are no sales taking place and unless we sell, we cannot replace our stock with hallmark gold," All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council Chairman Anantha Padmanabhan told PTI.

He said the association, together with other jewellery bodies, will again make a representation to the government raising these concerns.

"By September we expect to replace 70-80 per cent of stocks with hallmark items. With sales going slow we need time, especially the small jewellers, of at least one year to replace all our stocks. We will approach the government again with a representation to extend the time in this regard to January 2022," he added.

Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Monday told reporters that this decision was taken on the behest of jewellers, who had urged for extension.

"Jewellers had made a request to extend the time. We have extended the deadline from January 15 to June 1, 2021, in view of the disruption in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis," Paswan said.

From June 1 next year, jewellers will be allowed to sell only 14, 18 and 22 carats of gold jewellery, the minister added.

At present, gold hallmarking is a purity certification of the precious metal and is voluntary in nature.

The Centre, in November last year, had announced that hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts would be made mandatory across the country from January 15, 2021.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is already running a hallmarking scheme for gold jewellery since April 2000, and around 40 per cent of gold jewellery is being hallmarked currently. So far, 28,849 jewellers have been registered with the BIS.

World Gold Council (WGC) Managing Director (India) Somasundaram PR opined that the extension of time by six months for mandatory hallmarking reflects a pragmatic approach by the government to support the industry in the current environment while keeping the path of reform intact.

"Soon after the announcement early this year making hallmarking mandatory and giving a transition time of one year for manufacturers and jewellers to adapt to new logistics and dispose of non-hallmarked inventories, pandemic struck causing unprecedented business disruption, he said.

Demand has slumped and therefore, the transition time has to be stretched to enable industry to embrace this change, he added.

"However, many organised players have been selling hallmarked jewellery for years and so they may see accelerated growth in their market share as customers will be looking for trust underpinned by hallmarking when prices are at life-time high," Somasundaram said.

The industry needs to invest in collaborative efforts to ensure effective enforcement of this critical reform and successful transition within the extended period, he noted.

Welcoming the government's decision, PNG Jewellers managing director and CEO Saurabh Gadgil said the industry had been pitching for this aggressively.

However, the industry is not compliant with hallmarking and needs at least a year to have enough hallmarking centres across the country, he said.

"Moreover, the jewellers also need time to liquidate their stocks before replacing them with hallmark jewellery and items. We are hopeful that the government will consider our request in the current scenario," Gadgil added.
Once again, hopes surged in the hunt for Mobile-area teenager Brittney Wood, who disappeared under ominous circumstances in 2012. Once again, the search came up empty.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Mobile County Sheriffs Office reported that a dig at a site in Grand Bay had been fruitless. Were satisfied theres nothing back there, said Capt. Paul Burch.

Wood disappeared in 2012 just as some members of her extended family were coming under scrutiny for widespread, multi-generational sex crimes. The quest to understand her fate roused to life again this week as investigators searched a lot in Grand Bay.

The latest round of activity apparently was triggered by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which released an age-progressed image showing what Wood, who was 19 when she disappeared at the end of May 2012, might look like now at age 27.

According to information provided by the Mobile Police Department, the publication of that image resulted in a tip received by the Mobile County Sheriffs Office. MCSO got a search warrant for 11070 Ramsey Blvd. in Grand Bay, where it a unit working with a dog reported hits by the dog. That in turn led to a warrant for a dig, which began on Monday.

Mobile Police Sgt. Jeffrey Corley said that the 11000 block of Ramsey Blvd. has previously been searched, but the tip and the dogs response justified new action. The MCSO is taking the lead at the site because it is out of the Mobile police jurisdiction.

By midday Tuesday, no discoveries had been made public. Paul Burch said that investigators had begun digging with hand tools on Monday but had been interrupted by rainy weather. When work resumed on Tuesday, he said, heavy equipment had to be brought in to deal with debris piles including heavy chunks of concrete and machinery. With those out of the way, he said, work was to resume with hand tools on Tuesday afternoon.

Burch said that the area had been pretty well searched in the past for any signs of a body, but no excavation had been done. In the latest search, he said, two trained cadaver dogs had been used.

Two separate dogs showed interest, he said. It was not an all-out alert.

Investigators believe that on May 30, 2012, Brittney Wood went to visit an uncle, Donnie Holland, who lived near Fairhope. At that point Holland already was under suspicion of child molestation; by the next day hed been found dead of a gunshot wound to the head that was believed to be self-inflicted, though doubts have been raised about that.

Hollands death obscured the fact that Wood was missing, for a short time, and made it impossible to determine exactly where shed been or who shed been with leading up to her disappearance. As the search for her continued, a horrifying picture began to emerge of web of relatives who aided each other in sexual atrocities. Not all family members were involved, but those who did allegedly committed offenses in Stockton, Saraland, Fairhope and Mobile

Donnie Hollands wife, Wendy Holland, was sentenced in 2015 to 219 years in prison with no possibility of parole. Shed been convicted of sodomy, sexual torture, criminal sexual abuse and endangering child welfare. At that point, 11 people, including eight relatives, had been charged or convicted.

Nicki Patterson, an assistant District Attorney in Mobile County, said at the time that Hollands place in the web of offenses was representative of generations of abuse. We have generations of people who were abused and never disclosed it, Patterson said. Their lack of disclosure, unfortunately, allowed the next generation of kids to be abused as well.

Note: This story has been updated with news that the dig in Grand Bay proved fruitless.
The public murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor represented a culmination of hundreds of years of violence towards Black people in this country. And for once, non-Black people couldnt briefly notice it and then quickly move on. They couldnt look away. No one could. Not even corporate America could turn a blind eye when protests on behalf of the Black Lives Matter movement erupted worldwide.

After the death of Mr. Floyd, social media feeds became overwhelmed with heavily vetted solidarity statements and branded graphics from businesses. Additionally, many company leaders made the passionate memos they sent to employees public. Most of these actions, even if well intended, were performative  examples of Optical Allyship.

What is Optical Allyship?

Latham Thomas coined the term Optical Allyship in May 2020, defining it as allyship that only serves at the surface level to platform the ally. It makes a statement but doesnt go beneath the surface and is not aimed at breaking away from the systems of power that oppress.

When suddenly impassioned companies actions are viewed from this perspective, it raises the question, Did company leaders make bold statements because being anti-racist is something they regularly think about and consider day-to-day? Or did they only do so to stay relevant and look the part?

Indeed, many of these corporate statements felt empty and have been publicly criticized by their Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) employees. Employees exposed clear examples of unequal compensation, lesser career opportunities compared to their white coworkers and an unwillingness to engage with equity work in the organizations.

The meaning of silence

Silence during these times is as bad as, if not worse than, the empty statements of Optical Allyship. Protesters chant Silence is Violence as they march through the streets because silence from those in power implies being against the movement. It is not a neutral position.

The U.S. was founded in systemic oppression that permeates all industries still to this day. Silence is keeping with the status quo and refusing to acknowledge the realities of the Black community.

If company leaders dont know what to say, it is a much stronger approach to be vulnerable and acknowledge that your company doesnt have the answer. For those who are committed to this movement and anti-racism, the active process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems and organizational structures is the way forward. This commitment involves a great deal of humility and is not an easy path, but its the only authentic way to truly engage in this movement.

The importance of showing your work

The messages put out by Optical Allies were perceived as being empty statements because very few companies actually showed their work, as W. Kamau Bell puts it. Bell, a comedian and social justice activist, emphasizes the importance of coupling any solidarity statements with tangible action steps and goals that company leaders are setting for themselves when it comes to racial equity.

Ben and Jerrys is an example of a company that has done it right. They have been clear on where they stand on issues of racial justice for many years, and the company released a powerful statement condemning white supremacy and listing out tangible actions being taken to address systemic racism. In taking a quick glance at their leadership team, it shouldnt be a surprise to see there is diverse representation across positions. True institutional equity is developed from the inside out.

NASCAR is another example of a company publicly taking a stand and making real change in solidarity with the movement. In addition to banning use of the Confederate Flag, they took swift and decisive action when it was thought that a noose was left in driver Bubba Wallaces garage room, stating that whoever was responsible would be unequivocally banned for life.

Next steps for CIOs

Racial justice is new territory for a lot of companies, and its normal to not know what to do next. However, doing nothing is not an option and Optical Allyship is not going to benefit anyone. As a starting point, IT leaders can do the following:

Commit to being an actively anti-racist company

Require regular anti-bias training for all employees.

Collect and publish employee demographic data.

Commit to increasing BIPOC in leadership roles  which will lead to an increase in innovation and revenue.

Invest in the talent pipeline for BIPOC.

Analyze retention patterns and create internal systems and programs to mentor and support BIPOC employees.

Increase your awareness of the role that algorithms play in prioritizing whiteness and perpetuating racism and oppression. Turn to Safiya Umoja Nobles work for further learning on how companies can help dismantle this pattern.

If you are leveraging AI in your recruitment process, ensure you are setting controls on how applicant data is being interpreted. If there is already bias in a companys hiring process, incorporating the use of AI into existing systems will reinforce and even exacerbate those biases.

While the current movement has been centered in racial justice, companies should be authentically showing support for marginalized groups across the board, including the LGBTQ+ community. Changing a logo to a more colorful version for the month of June is not enough.

If youre looking for guidance or direction, there are organizations that can help. For example, Ready Set, Dismantling Racism Works, and Racial Equity Institute are a couple of national organizations that are worth a look.
LONDON British finance minister Rishi Sunak should extend the governments job retention scheme until the middle of next year to stop a surge in unemployment to levels not seen since the early 1990s, a top think tank said on Tuesday.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the furlough programme for workers at companies hit by the coronavirus outbreak should run until June 2021. It is due to wind down at the end of October.

The planned closure of the furlough seems to be a mistake, motivated by an understandable desire to limit spending," NIESR deputy director Garry Young said.

The scheme was intended by the Chancellor to be a bridge through the crisis and there is a risk that it is coming to an end prematurely and this increases the probability of economic scarring."

Earlier this month Sunak said calls for an endless extension to the furlough programme were irresponsible" and brought in a scheme to pay employers 1,000 pounds for each worker they retain following furlough.

Sunaks deputy, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay, said on Tuesday that extra targeted measures" to help workers in especially hard-hit sectors were possible but a further wholescale extension was not.

Spending on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which has supported 9.5 million jobs and is the costliest single government COVID relief measure, has reached 31.7 billion pounds ($41 billion) so far.

NIESR said unemployment looks set to rise to almost 10% of the workforce by the end of this year if the furlough scheme shuts as planned - similar to forecasts from the Bank of England and the governments own budget watchdog.

But Barclay said at an event hosted by a centre-right think tank, Onward, that workers were likely to lose their skills and fail to develop new ones if they spent more than eight months on leave, waiting for jobs that might never come back.

The rationale behind the furlough scheme was about maintaining the link with the job. And actually if you stretch the elastic of that too long it is not good for them, never mind the debate on the financial side of it."

(Editing by Timothy Heritage and Gareth Jones)

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
Vaulsys becomes a TPSP of UnionPay International

DUBAI, UAE, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- UnionPay International and Vaulsys today announce their partnership: Vaulsys becomes a Third Party Service Provider (TPSP) of UnionPay International. The two parties will join force to support the UAE's vision to further digitize the payment industry. Vaulsys is deploying its systems across two different continents in 3 locations across Pakistan, Africa and UAE. Through these 3 locations, Vaulsys intends to serve UnionPay cardholders across the Middle East and Africa regions. Vaulsys plans to carry out business in UnionPay card issuance, card acceptance, cross border remittance, QR payment (issuance and acquiring) and online payments via UPOP. This will enhance the current payment landscape and in turn, improve the lives of the masses in the MEA region.

With over 8.4 billion cards issued in 61 countries and regions, UnionPay is the world's largest bankcard organization in terms of card issuance. In the Middle East, UnionPay is present in 11 countries, and has reached 100% acceptance in the UAE and Pakistan. Moreover, various innovative payment products, including UnionPay contactless payment QuickPass and UnionPay QR Code payment, have been launched in the Middle East region.

Vaulsys is known in the banking and payment industry for its products and solutions namely aulPay  POS/ATM/Web switch, VaulCard  Card Management System, VaulPurse  a Wallet Management System, VaulGuard  AML/Fraud Management System, VaulPi  Microservices basd API system, and VaulGate  API Gateway.

"We are very excited to be a TPSP agent of UnionPay International," said Usman Qureshi, CEO, Vaulsys. "Teaming up with UnionPay International to provide access to UnionPay cards and digital payments is an exciting development for our company and will enable us to bring further value to our products and customers in the MEA region.

This development will also support SME businesses who have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic to launch their digital payment products and solutions in a cost efficient manner. Our headquarters are based in UAE and the domestic hosting and processing of card payment transactions will also help the domestic economy to boost back."

"UnionPay is committed to providing secure and seamless payment experiences to our cardholders worldwide. We believe this partnership will drive further growth of the payment ecosystem and bring more benefits to the customers, merchants in the MEA region," said Han Wang, General Manager of UnionPay International Middle East Branch.

Established in 2015, Vaulsys took a holistic approach in delivering the payment services across multiple channels. From customization and installation of all the delivery channels (POS, ATMs, Internet Gateways, etc.), to designing powerful software solutions to serve as middleware and backend systems, and to setting up the connectivity and network from the front office all the way to back office; Vaulsys brings a new concept to the payments industry of becoming a single most trusted partner to fulfil all the payments needs of any business.

At Vaulsys, we visualized a world of payments full of unique challenges, increased pressures, higher regulations and diverse customer preference giving rise to a whole set of opportunities to improve the very eco-system of payments. This defined our vision to build a fintech powerhouse to cater to the needs of the payment industry, enhance the business of banks, financial institutions and enterprises and in turn, improve the lives of people.

About UnionPay International

UnionPay International (UPI) is a subsidiary of China UnionPay focused on the growth and support of UnionPay's global business. In partnership with more than 2300 institutions worldwide, UnionPay International has enabled card acceptance in 179 countries and regions with issuance in 61 countries and regions. UnionPay International provides high quality, cost effective and secure cross-border payment services to the world's largest cardholder base and ensures convenient local services to a growing number of global UnionPay cardholders and merchants.

Related Links

www.unionpayintl.com



SOURCE UnionPay International
New evidence of kickbacks in Rafale deal appears in French journal Mediapart

Rafale to S-400 air defence systems all set to add more firepower to Indian Air Force

Ready to provide more Rafales to India says French Defence Minister Parly

As Rafales get set to fly into Ambala, India ups diplomatic game

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 28: India has been upping its diplomatic game against China. On Sunday, External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar spoke with Israel's foreign minister Gali Ashkenazi.

Prior to that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Gantz. During the talks both leaders expressed satisfaction at the progress of the strategic cooperation between the two countries.

Both Singh and Gantz also discussed the future of defence engagements. On the other hand National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval spoke with his US counterpart Robert O Brein.

First batch of 5 Rafales reaches Al Dhafra airbase in UAE on way to India from France

Jaishankar also spoke with US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, while Singh had a conversation with his US counterpart, Mark T Esper.

Sources tell OneIndia that the focus of these conversations was multi-fold. It involved military and intelligence cooperation. The talks were fruitful the source also said.

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

Meanwhile, the first five Rafale fighter aircraft will reach India on Wednesday. "The delivery of the Rafale fighter jets is significant step in strengthening airpower and defence preparedness with the first five Rafale fighter aircraft, built by Dassault, flying out from Merignac airbase in Bordeaux, France, to India today," a statement from the Indian embassy in France read.

The Indian Air Force said that the aircraft are likely to arrive at Ambala Air Force Station on Wednesday, subject to weather. The No. 17 Squadron, the Golden Arrows is being raised at this based equipped with the Rafale aircraft.
Study: Mapping crystal shapes could fast-track 2D materials

HOUSTON - (July 27, 2020) - Materials scientists at Rice University and the University of Pennsylvania are calling for a collective, global effort to fast-track the mass production of 2D materials like graphene and molybdenum disulfide.

In a perspective article published online in Materials Today, journal editor-in-chief Jun Lou and colleagues make a case for a focused, collective effort to address the research challenges that could clear the way for large-scale mass production of 2D materials.

Lou and fellow Rice materials scientists Ming Tang, Jing Zhang and Fan Wang joined Penn's Vivek Shenoy in describing the potential transformation in 2D materials technology that could result from a systematic, communitywide effort to map the shapes of the 2D crystals that are being grown in labs worldwide via a process known as chemical vapor deposition (CVD).

"Like snowflakes in nature, 2D crystals exhibit a rich variety of morphologies under different growth conditions," they wrote.

Mapping these unique crystal patterns and compiling the maps in a global database, alongside the recipes for creating each pattern, could unlock a wealth of information "for understanding, diagnosing and controlling the CVD process and environment for 2D material growth," the researchers wrote.

CVD is a commonly used process for creating thin films, including commercially important materials in the semiconductor industry. In a typical CVD reaction, a flat sheet of material called a substrate is placed in a reaction chamber and gases are flowed through the chamber in such a way that they react and form a solid film atop the substrate.

One goal of the field is developing computer software that can accurately predict the properties of a thin film that will result from the mixing of specific reactant gases under specific conditions. Creating such models is complicated by both an incomplete understanding of the physical and chemical processes that take place during CVD and by the existence of dozens of CVD reactor formats.

Cataloging the shape of crystals produced by CVD experiments could provide materials scientists with important information about their synthesis, in much the same way that mineralogists retrieve valuable clues about the history of Earth based on examination of naturally occurring crystal structures, Lou and colleagues suggested.

"Take the beautiful snowflakes as an example," the authors wrote. "A perhaps surprising fact to many is that snow crystals can exhibit many different categories of shapes, which depend on the temperature and water supersaturation of the atmosphere in which they are formed."

The Japanese scientist Ukichiro Nakaya, through extensive observations of snowflakes in both nature and the laboratory, developed a figure known as the Nakaya diagram to help decipher the information in snowflakes. By examining the shapes in a snowflake, and seeing where those shapes lie on Nakaya's diagram, scientists can determine the exact atmospheric conditions that produced the snowflake, which Nakaya poetically referred to as "a letter from the sky."

Inspired by Nakaya's work, Lou and colleagues created a Nakaya-like diagram of 2D crystal patterns that have been produced via CVD and demonstrated how it and other morphology diagrams could be used to infer clues about process variables like gas flow rates and heating temperatures that produced each pattern.

Thanks to advances in real-time imaging and in automated systems that can produce large datasets of crystal structures, the authors said there is "real potential for morphology diagram development to become a common practice and serve as a cornerstone of crystal growth."

###

Lou, Tang, Zhang and Wang are members of Rice's Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering. Lou is a professor and associate department chair. Tang is an assistant professor. Zhang is a postdoctoral research associate, and Fang is a graduate student. Shenoy is Penn's Eduardo D. Glandt President's Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering.

The research was supported by the Welch Foundation (C-1716), the National Science Foundation (IIP-1539999) and the Department of Energy (DE-SC0019111).

Links and resources:

The DOI of the Materials Today paper is: 10.1016/j.mattod.2020.06.012

A copy of the paper is available at: https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1016/ j. mattod. 2020. 06. 012

High-resolution IMAGES are available for download at:

https:/ / news-network. rice. edu/ news/ files/ 2020/ 07/ 0723_MORPHOLOGIC-dia-lg. jpg

CAPTION: Inspired by the work of Japanese snowflake researcher Ukichiro Nakaya, materials scientists from Rice University the University of Pennsylvania created a Nakaya-like diagram of 2D crystal shapes of molybdenum disulfide produced via chemical vapor deposition (left) and a complete morphology diagram of molybdenum sulfide (right). (Image courtesy of MSNE/Rice University)

https:/ / news-network. rice. edu/ news/ files/ 2020/ 07/ 0723_MORPHOLOGIC-shapes-lg. jpg

CAPTION: An array of crystal shapes of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides as imaged with a scanning electron microscope. (Image courtesy of MSNE/Rice University)

This release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,962 undergraduates and 3,027 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 4 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance.

This story has been published on: 2020-07-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
A Seattle court ordered on 24 July 5 news outlets to hand over unpublished photos and videos to the police as part of an ongoing investigation. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliates the NewsGuild and the National Writers Union in condemning this ruling, which violates journalism principles and 2007 reporters shield statute of the Washington State Legislature.

On 24 July, Seattle judge Nelson Lee ruled that five news outlets should hand over to the police unpublished pictures and videos from a protest that took place on 30 May. The police claims that the footage will help in an ongoing investigation on arson and theft.

The 2007 Washingston State shield law says journalists are considered a special group because of their public function of holding the powerful into account, and their material is therefore protected.

The IFJ and its affiliates the NewsGuild and the National Writers Union, believe the Seattle Court ruling not only ignores the law and disregards journalism's function, but it also puts journalists themselves in danger of being perceived as government informants.

The ruling is a major step backward in a recent series of progressive decisions. On 23 July, a Portland court had issued a temporary order barring officers from using force and ordering journalists. On 2 July, another court protected journalists with authorized press passes from Portland police dispersals during protests.

NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss said, Seattle police have clearly overreached by subpoenaing photos and videos taken by journalists. It puts journalists and the public at risk. A truly free press must be free from the interference of the state. Anyone concerned about securing our democracy must fight against government overreach.

Who will talk to a reporter or allow someone to video an action if they believe it will end up in the hands of the police?, added Larry Goldbetter from the National Writers Union.

IFJ Secretary General Anthony Bellanger said, "It is very discouraging to hear that a Court has taken such a decision and has not shown any interest in safeguarding journalism. We are very concerned about the state of the press in the US: this is yet another instance in which law and order principles have been allowed to step onto it."
Most school districts across Central New York and the state are moving toward a mix of teaching students at home and in class this fall due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Many district officials say they would like to bring everyone back into the schools but they dont have the space or staff to accommodate social distancing.

In Central New York, at least one public school district  Jordan-Elbridge  and a private school  Manlius Pebble Hill  plan to bring all students back into the classrooms this fall.

Districts have until Friday to submit their reopening plans to the state Education Department, and post them on their websites. But for many, the desire to bring everybody back just isnt possible.

Jordan-Elbridge School Superintendent James Froio said his district plans to bring everyone from prekindergarten to 12th grade back into the schools. The details of how it will work havent been released yet, but Froio said its doable in his schools.

The district has about 1,300 students, and there is enough space in the buildings to spread out students six feet apart, he said.

Im happy we can do this, because I think middle and high school students need in-person instruction as much as younger children,' he said.

Manlius Pebble Hill School, a small, private prekindergarten through 12th grade school in DeWitt, will offer in-person instruction for everyone, said Dave McCusker, head of school. With about 320 students, there is enough space in the buildings to spread students out six feet apart, he said.

The rooms are large enough to hold 14 to 16 students in each class, he said.

The school will require everyone to wear masks  staff and students. The youngest children  4 and 5-year-olds  will wear masks and hats with transparent plastic covering that resemble welders hats. Staff working with them also will have to wear shields.

Lunches will be outside or in the classroom, and recess and gym will be outdoors whenever possible, he said.

McCusker said there been an uptick in interest in MPH since the coronavirus pandemic, and some grades are tight, such as fourth and fifth grade. The school does offer financial aid to almost half of its students. Annual tuition ranges between $9,500 for lower grades to more than $24,000 for the upper grades.

Some of the bigger districts - Syracuse, Liverpool, Jamesville-DeWitt and Fayetteville-Manlius - have draft hybrid reopening plans with students dividing time in class and at home.

Related article: See Central New York school district coronavirus plans

Many smaller school districts in the Onondaga County havent yet announced their plans, but many say the social distancing requirements make it difficult to open up to everyone. At Fabius-Pompey, Superintendent Tim Ryan says officials are still figuring out their staffing and available space.

Some individual non-public schools are expecting they will be able offer in-class instruction too.

More on the coronavirus and schools

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Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com

Elizabeth Doran covers education, suburban government and development, breaking news and more. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact her anytime 315-470-3012 or email edoran@syracuse.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 05:12:55|Editor: huaxia

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Christoph Heusgen (L), the German UN ambassador, whose country holds the Security Council presidency for the month of July, chairs a Security Council meeting on West Africa and Sahel at the UN headquarters in New York, on July 28, 2020. The UN Security Council on Tuesday expressed deep concern about the continued deterioration of the security and humanitarian situation in the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin as well as the challenging security situation in West Africa. (UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Tuesday expressed deep concern about the continued deterioration of the security and humanitarian situation in the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin as well as the challenging security situation in West Africa.

In a presidential statement, the Security Council called for continued national, regional and international engagement to help countries in the region to address the peace and security challenges there.

The Security Council expressed concern over the overall humanitarian situation in the region, notably characterized by the impact of forced displacement, extreme poverty, social inequalities and violence, including sexual and gender-based violence.

It called for safe, sustained and unhindered access for the delivery of humanitarian and medical aid to persons in need, including access to holistic care for survivors of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations.

The Security Council expressed concern about the potential of the COVID-19 pandemic to further exacerbate existing fragilities in the region, undermine development, worsen the humanitarian situation and affect disproportionately women and girls, children, refugees, internally displaced persons, older persons and persons with disabilities.

It called for international support for the region and a coordinated, inclusive, comprehensive and global response to the pandemic.

The Security Council underscored the importance of addressing the underlying conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, and violent extremism conducive to terrorism, and the need for a holistic approach to address the root causes of intercommunal violence.

It emphasized the need for national stakeholders in Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea and Niger to work together to facilitate the holding of free and fair, credible, timely and peaceful elections, and to take all appropriate steps to prevent violence.

The Security Council expressed deep concern regarding the latest tensions in Mali and urged the Malian stakeholders to prioritize the use of dialogue to resolve the crisis, to refrain from any action likely to fuel further tensions, and to work inclusively and constructively to preserve the rule of law.

Mali has been in political turmoil since June 5, when massive protests first erupted in the capital city of Bamako. A coalition of opposition and civil society groups are calling for the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. The situation dramatically escalated when at least 11 protestors were killed and 150 people injured in Bamako between July 10 and 12. Enditem
India on Tuesday handed over a symbolic cheque to the Maldivian government to begin the implementation of nine projects in the atoll nation under the High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDP).

This follows India and the Maldives signing a bilateral pact on HICDPs in March 2019. Under the pact, a total grant of $ 5.6 million was announced for executing high-impact grant projects in the Maldives. This is in addition to a cash grant of about $ 7 million for the execution of small projects.

The HICDPs are chosen by the Government of Maldives through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and are those with a high-level of community impact and participation in the areas of livelihood and income generation, health, education, gender and child empowerment, sports and sustainable development, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Since the election of the Ibrahim Mohamed Solih as president in 2018, India-Maldives ties have seen a remarkable turnaround. New Delhi extended $ 1.4 billion as budgetary support to the Maldivian government at their request and also a $ 400 currency swap scheme under a South Asian regional framework to help the Maldives tide of economic difficulties due to a loss of tourist revenue due to the covid-19 pandemic. Ties between India and the Maldives had floundered when Solihs predecessor Abdullah Yameen was in office because of his clear pro-China tilt which upset New Delhi.

Under the HICDP scheme, agreements were concluded in December 2019 for the construction of three fish-processing plants in Maradhoo, Hithadhoo and Hulhudhoo in Addu city. In February this year, another five pacts were signed for establishing the Addu Tourism Zone in Feydhoo, Meedhoo, Hithadhoo, Hulhudhoo and Maradhoo. A sixth pact was also signed at the time to set up a bottled water plant in Hoarafushi. While Addu City Council is the Implementing Agency for the fish-processing plants and eco-tourism projects, the Hoarafushi Council will direct the process for setting up of a bottled-water plant in Hoarafushi.

Speaking at the event on Tuesday, Indian high commissioner to the Maldives Sunjay Sudhir stressed that the projects were those identified by the Maldives government and the entire process from identifying the need to tendering, price negotiations and implementation was done by different ministries of the Maldives government.

This made the projects of the Maldivians, by the Maldivians and for the Maldivians  a reflection of the democratic ideals cherished by the peoples of both Maldives and India," the person cited Sudhir as saying. India looks forward to the swift implementation of all projects under the HICDP scheme, Sudhir added.

Indias strategy of development cooperation with the Maldives includes both big projects under a $ 800 million Line of Credit and a large number of relatively small grant projects. While the LoC projects with a longer gestation period will contribute significantly to the development of infrastructure in the Maldives, the grant projects are expected to have an immediate and positive impact on the lives of the island communities, the person cited above said.

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TEHRAN, Iran, July 28

Trend:

Governor of Tehran Anoushirvan Mohseni Bandpey has announced that the government has paid some $226 million to the production units of the Tehran Province, which have been heavily hit by COVID-19, Trend reports via IRNA.

"The US sanctions and the economic situation caused by coronavirus have increased the need to support the production units, so the government has allocated credits to these units, Bandpey said.

"A week ago, a total of $3.8 million has been paid to the production units affected by the coronavirus. The figure has increased to $226 this week," said the governor.

Bandpey said that to date, 21,661 loan requests of the coronavirus-affected businesses and individuals have been reviewed and sent to banks.

Delivered in partnership with several private banks and the National Innovation Fund, the Iranian government has for the third time announced a new coronavirus package to protect small and medium sized firms stimulating innovation in the country.

This includes investment fund for small companies impacted by the crisis, made up of funding from government and the private banking sector. Knowledge-based companies focusing on research and development will also benefit from the new grants and loans.

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.

The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019.

The Islamic Republic of Iran only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19.
Marylands highest court has issued an unanimous ruling that limits the ability of police, saying officers may not search or arrest people based on the smell of marijuana alone, according to the Baltimore Sun.

It builds on a ruling last summer by the same court that an officer could not arrest and search someone based on an observation of an amount of marijuana that is fewer than 10 grams. In that case, the court ruled that the officer knew the source of the marijuana was below the criminal threshold, and therefore should not have made an arrest and searched for more.

The ruling builds on one from last summer by the same court that said an officer could not arrest and search someone based on an observation of an amount of marijuana that is fewer than 10 grams. https://t.co/N6KtOBwACE  The Baltimore Sun (@baltimoresun) July 28, 2020

The latest ruling goes further, saying that the smell alone is also not justification to make an arrest.

The state has argued that an odor could be indicative of a larger amount  giving police probable cause to search for more.

One of the justifications for the automobile exception is the diminished expectation of privacy one enjoys in his or her vehicle, the court ruled this week. There is a heightened expectation of privacy enjoyed in ones person. Arresting and searching a person, without a warrant and based exclusively on the odor of marijuana on that persons body or breath, is unreasonable and does violence to the fundamental privacy expectation in ones body; the same concerns do not attend the search of a vehicle.

David Jaros, a law professor at the University of Baltimore, said the ruling is more evidence that a mere citation-level of marijuana cannot be leveraged into probable cause to search.

Marijuana has remained a common way for police to stop and search people. Police may pull over a vehicle based on a traffic violation, say they smell marijuana, and search the vehicle. Such stops are often racially disproportionate.

The case at the center of this weeks ruling involved a Baltimore man named Rasherd Lewis. A Baltimore police officer said he received a tip about an armed person in the 400 block of West Saratoga Street on Feb. 1, 2017, and that a man matching the description of the person was seen entering a store.

Several officers entered the store, and said Lewis walked past one of the officers emitting the smell of marijuana. Lewis was handcuffed based on the marijuana smell, and searched. Police found a handgun, in addition to a small amount of marijuana in one of Lewis pockets.

The Baltimore States Attorneys Office argued, according to the appeals court, that the odor of marijuana provided probable cause to arrest and search because marijuana in any amount is contraband, and although possession of less than ten grams of marijuana was decriminalized, it was never the legislatures intention to reclassify marijuana as not being contraband. A judge upheld the search, and Lewis was convicted of having a handgun and sentenced to three years in prison with all but 90 days suspended.

The recent high courts ruling sends the case back to Baltimore city court, with instructions to grant the motion to suppress the search of Burch that netted the gun, essentially ensuring the conviction and sentencing will be vacated.

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Recent graduates of Alamo Heights High School have spent most of their summer meeting with school district leaders to press for a more inclusive environment for Black and Hispanic students.

Yet even as they drafted proposed policy changes, a video was circulating on social media showing three white cheerleaders from the high school using a racial slur.

Around the same time, the commencement ceremony at Sam Houston High School on the East Side was roiled by racial justice concerns. The graduating seniors refused to stand for the national anthem, and the valedictorian faulted the administration for tolerating misbehavior, disrespect, fights and drugs at school, as well as subpar academic performance.

In my four years at Sam Houston, I have seen little done to push students toward success, said valedictorian Payton Gogo. Days later, the schools principal was reassigned.

The ferment at these two San Antonio high schools  one mostly white and affluent, the other predominantly minority and poor  shows how the national reckoning over race relations is prompting young people and some of their elders to question educational disparities and their causes.

In their search for answers, students and activists are exploring the history of racial segregation in San Antonio and how it continues to shape educational opportunities and outcomes.

Lisa Krantz /Staff photographer

Todays school district boundaries evolved from almost 50 years of segregated real estate development in San Antonio  the formal, legal kind common in U.S. cities in the early and mid-20th century.

Magoli Garcia, a recent graduate of Alamo Heights High, says minority students there have been targets of racial epithets for years. She addressed the school board on this issue last month.

I do believe the history of how the citys been drawn really contributed to how San Antonio became so segregated and how that affected our education, Garcia told the Express-News. Because, how is it that Alamo Heights just happens to be the best school district but also the wealthiest?

Garcia and another recent graduate, Mckenzie Hervey, obtained 1,500 signatures on a petition to encourage the board to look closer at its policies related to racial slurs, discriminatory language and behavior among students.

Garcia and Hervey, both 18, said they hoped the petition would lead the district to put teeth in its anti-discrimination policy. Among other things, they want accountability  specific punishments for bigoted behavior  and restorative measures such as cultural training for offenders.

Frank Alfaro, assistant superintendent for administrative services at Alamo Heights Independent School District, said the young womens proposals are under consideration and that he agrees with many of them.

Lisa Krantz /Staff photographer

I think were probably going to have to talk about including more specific language about racial discrimination and harassment, so I think thats a possibility to grow out of their recommendations, Alfaro said.

Just as the Black Lives Matter movement provoked conversations about discriminatory policing and the COVID-19 pandemic spotlighted racial disparities in healthcare, the legacy of how school districts were created was bound to come under scrutiny, said Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, a member of the Texas House Public Education Committee.

While were examining systems steeped in racial discrimination, we cant avoid the ones that hit close to home or convenience for some of us, Bernal wrote recently on Twitter. Im looking at you, public education, and especially you, school district boundaries.

Drawing lines

San Antonios status as the most economically segregated city in the United States goes back to the first half of the 20th century, when developers designed neighborhoods to keep races separate.

Now Playing: Christine Drennon, director of urban studies at Trinity University, describes how school districts overlaid neighborhoods designed to keep races separated. Video: San Antonio Express-News

A 2006 research paper by Christine Drennon, an associate professor of sociology and anthropology at Trinity University and the schools director of urban studies, described how school district boundaries were overlain on those neighborhood lines.

They really were spacing us out racially, Drennon said. Many districts have become more racially diverse, but inequality continues to plague schools, she said.

As the city grew, those inequalities just got greater and greater. Not until the 1990s did we try to equalize (school district funding) but by then the inequalities were so tremendous, Drennon said.

On ExpressNews.com: Schools in San Antonios exurbs are becoming more integrated

Alamo Heights, which was incorporated as a city in 1922, was designed for houses that were to cost not less than ten thousand dollars, Drennon found. Deed restrictions prohibited houses from being sold or leased to one not of the Caucasian race.

Homes in nearby Olmos Park were to cost at least $12,000 and were for white residents and their servants, Drennon found.

Alamo Heights ISD was created in 1923 and included Olmos Park. It remains Bexar Countys wealthiest school district in taxable property value per student. It is also one of the highest achieving.

Racial segregation was no less explicit in what became San Antonio ISD. Deed restrictions excluded nonwhites from buying homes in prime areas north of downtown and in less-expensive subdivisions to the south.

In the 1930s and 1940s, schools were designated white, colored or Mexican.

Subdivisions with narrow streets, small lots and no sidewalks sprung up for Black, Mexican and Mexican Americans, who often worked in white neighborhoods nearby.

South of downtown, builder George Harlan gave the name Harlandale to a residential development  and later a school district  for the white working class. Homes there could not be sold or leased to Mexicans or Negroes, Drennon found.

White flight to newer subdivisions on the North Side changed Harlandales demographics in the 1960s and 1970s, especially after school desegregation. Harlandale schools are now 98 percent Hispanic.

South San Antonio ISD was created in 1922 on the citys southwest side. In 1940s, the military expanded nearby Kelly Field (later Kelly AFB), generating jobs that helped sustain a Latino middle class in San Antonio for decades.

But developers of housing for Kellys white employees built on land to the north, in San Antonio ISD. Like Harlandale, those neighborhoods later turned Hispanic.

Lisa Krantz /Staff photographer

Independent school districts that could tax property to maintain schools had a clear advantage over the patchwork of mostly rural schools in common school districts run by county commissioners. A mass consolidation of the remaining common districts began in 1948.

SAISD annexed those serving Hot Wells, W.W. White and Los Angeles Heights.

Ten other common school districts combined to become Northside ISD. Similar consolidations created the present-day North East, East Central, Judson, Southwest and Southside ISDs.

The Edgewood Common School District on the West Side was left on its own. Properties there lacked deed restrictions to exclude families of color, and property values were the lowest in the region. The districts attempts to join Northside and San Antonio ISDs were repeatedly turned away, Drennon found.

So, Edgewood became an independent school district. Its chronic underfunding formed the basis of civil rights lawsuits, one of which led to a 1989 Texas Supreme Court decision that began to change how the states public schools are funded.

Other lawsuits have followed. Edgewoods argument has stayed the same: Its students of color are denied the quality education received by peers living a few miles away, in wealthier districts.

The racial makeup of many neighborhoods has changed dramatically since the mid-20th century. But race and wealth are still tightly coordinated, and a districts property tax wealth is a strong predictor of student success, Drennon said. She said the solution is a serious redistribution of resources to neglected communities.

Just because an area is low-income doesnt mean it has to have low-performing schools, Drennon said. Weve allowed this to happen.

I felt like an outsider

Garcia could scarcely believe what shed heard.

It was during her junior year at Alamo Heights High, in debate class. Garcia said a classmate advocated killing all minorities. She said she told him his catch-all phrase would include wealthy elites too.

The classmate explained that he meant just racial minorities.

I didnt know whether to take it as a joke or not, because even if it was a joke, no one should make jokes like that, Garcia said.

White students make up 53 percent of Alamo Heights ISDs enrollment, Hispanics about 40 percent. Barely 2 percent of students are Black.

About 20 percent of students are classified as economically disadvantaged. At Edgewood ISD, by contrast, the figure is 95 percent.

Among the results of Edgewoods legal victory in 1989 was the Legislatures creation of a system to recapture for poor districts a portion of the property taxes collected by wealthy ones. Under the Robin Hood system, Alamo Heights ISD will part with $32 million this year  nearly half its total property tax revenue.

The district drew attention and praise for a determined effort about a decade ago to reshape its culture and values to promote diversity and inclusion.

But some white students still express a demeaning attitude toward minorities, amplified by a clique mentality among those whose families have lived there for generations, said Hanah Shields, a 2019 graduate of Alamo Heights High who identifies as Asian and white.

Shields started attending district schools in second grade after her fathers military career brought her family to San Antonio. I felt restricted in who I could talk to and finding people who were approachable, she said.

Herveys father was in the Air Force when she arrived in the eighth grade. She was one of a handful of Black students in her class. There were times I felt like an outsider, she said.

On ExpressNews.com: Video of Alamo Heights high school students using racist language sparks calls for discipline

During a lunch to welcome new students, Hervey said, a woman scolded her for taking a slice of pizza. Hervey hadnt touched the pizza; the woman had mistaken her for another Black student.

Classmates would touch her hair without permission, Hervey said. Some remarked that she spoke well for a Black girl, recalled Hervey, who will attend Howard University in Washington D.C. this fall  remotely because of the pandemic.

Garcia, Hervey and Shields are among a network of students and alumni who want the district to hire more minority staff, teach Mexican American and African American studies and hold students accountable for hate speech, including off-campus.

These incidents happen out of hate or ignorance and because of lack of representation of minority students, said Garcia, who will study political science at DePaul University in Chicago this fall  remotely, from San Antonio. In order to bridge that gap and close that disparity, we need to educate students more.

Garcia and Hervey said theyd been encouraged by Alamo Heights Superintendent Dana Basharas support for their efforts. Bashara and Alfaro, the assistant superintendent, met with the activists July 2.

Lisa Krantz /Staff photographer

At a July 20 school board meeting, Bashara said she had heard from countless district students and staff members who wanted to tell her their experiences with racial injustice.

I come to you from a resolute place that acknowledges that we have work to do, Bashara told trustees. My goal around this important work would be to ensure that our classrooms and our campuses are places that are free of discrimination and prejudice.

She recommended creating an equity council to identify discriminatory practices that may affect student achievement and learning experiences.

Board President David Hornberger read a resolution supporting those goals.

Garcia said after the meeting: Its a step in the right direction but we need accountability.

Give people choices

In his June 16 commencement speech, Payton Gogo, the valedictorian at Sam Houston High, said administrators found it easier to give struggling students passing grades than to create the conditions for them to succeed.

This is not to discredit the handful of (teachers) who do show care for the success of these students, but to acknowledge that they are fighting an uphill battle against the administrations inability to solve the issues that plague Sam Houston, he said from the dais at Alamo Stadium.

Sam Houston High once was part of the W.W. White rural school district. The East Side neighborhood was restricted to whites only. That changed starting in the 1950s. Today, the student population is about 58 percent Hispanic, 38 percent Black, 2 percent white  and more than 90 percent economically disadvantaged.

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Gogo, 18, said he talked to principal Mateen Diop before and after his speech about the schools poor academic performance. Gogo said Diop pointed to statistics that show people who dont graduate from high school are more likely to end up in poverty or in jail.

Gogo said he countered that a diploma, in the absence of academic skills, doesnt mean graduates will escape poverty.

After Gogos speech, SAISD said Diop would be reassigned to another high school.

Superintendent Pedro Martinez said it wasnt a knock on Diops performance. In the past five years, Sam Houstons state rating improved from the equivalent of an F to a C. Martinez said the district is always looking for leaders who can take its historically segregated, high-poverty schools to the next level.

SAISD has tried to integrate its student body and give affluent, white families a stake in the districts success by creating specialized academies and high-achieving schools. The goal is to draw students from middle-class white families that abandoned the district over the years.

The district uses a lottery to achieve socioeconomic diversity at each of these campuses. Half the students are from households living in poverty and a quarter are the poorest of the poor.

Martinez said he realizes these changes began too late to have much effect on Gogos experience. Today, students in neighborhoods around Sam Houston can opt to attend a different high school.

How are we disrupting the segregation on the East Side? Well, the way you disrupt it is you give people choices, Martinez said. Were trying to undo decades of low performance and low expectations, all driven by poverty and segregation.

Gogo, who is heading to Prairie View A&M University to study music education, said many Sam Houston students are capable of learning but need a push  and sustained support  from teachers and administrators.

I dont think students really have that mindset, especially in neighborhoods like around Sam Houston, where a lot of students struggle at home, even, he said.

Gogo said he wants to return to the neighborhood someday and serve as band director at his alma mater to do my part.

Baked-in disparities

From time to time, legislators suggest consolidating school districts as a way to alleviate racial and economic divides. A property-poor district could tap into the relative wealth of other areas, the thinking goes. The best teachers could be paid more to teach in schools with the greatest need. Consolidated districts could benefit from economies of scale.

But a 2014 study commissioned by the Texas Education Agency at the request of State Rep. Roland Gutierrez found that consolidation would increase costs.

Now, Rep. Diego Bernal, another San Antonio Democrat, has taken up the cause of consolidating districts. He says its necessary to remedy the effects of segregation.

Theres a legacy behind them that they continue to maintain and perpetuate, Bernal said. Im not saying the families that live there and send their kids there or the administrations are purposely perpetuating that.  What I am saying is there are innate inequalities baked into the current system. If were going to address them, it means that some or all of that system has to some degree be unmade.

Mohammed Choudhury, SAISDs chief innovation officer, said his personal opinion (not speaking officially) is that one or two school districts covering all of Bexar County would make more sense than the current hodge-podge.

Equity issues still persist in large districts, but they are much smaller when you can share the wealth, Choudhury said. Districts north of SAISD generate more property tax revenue because their residential real estate is worth more, which ultimately is tied to segregation, he said.

Superintendent Martinez would rather see state law changed so that districts in big urban areas would share the total pot of property tax revenue and draw from it based on enrollment.

Bernal declined to specify which districts should be consolidated. He said that would require careful analysis, extended deliberation and political will. Trustees in some existing districts would need to essentially vote themselves out of office.

This city has to have a reckoning with what it is, who we are and what weve allowed to happen across the board, he said.

Krista Torralva covers several school districts and public universities in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Krista, become a subscriber. Krista.Torralva@express-news.net | Twitter: @KMTorralva
NEWS CENTER Maine Bailey Island

A woman in Maine is dead after an apparent shark attack off the coast of Bailey Island in Harpswell.

An eyewitness said the woman was swimming near White Sails Lane on Monday when she was injured in what appeared to be an encounter with a shark, according to a statement from the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Kayakers nearby were able to bring the woman to shore, but she was pronounced dead when first responders arrived at the scene, the department said. The identity of the woman was not released.

We just heard her cries and we came out and we kayaked out and we did our best, but, you know, at this time, I think thats all I want to say, a kayaker at the scene told 7NEWS. Were all in shock.

RELATED: Woman Making Documentary About Sharks Bitten by What Paramedics Believe Was a Shark on Her Day Off

Officials said that the Maine Marine Patrol has launch an investigation into the incident. For now, swimmers and boaters are urged to use caution around Bailey Island and avoid swimming near schooling fish or seals.

Shark attacks in Maine are very rare, according to the International Shark Attack File, a database that documents shark attacks around the world. The ISAF said on its website that there has been only one unprovoked shark attack in the state since 1837.

In 2010, a scuba diver named Scott MacNichol came face-to-face with a porbeagle shark while swimming off the coast of Eastport, Maine, the Associated Press reported.

Though MacNichol was uninjured in the incident, the wild sea creature took a chomp at the diver's camera equipment. The harrowing encounter was caught on video.

RELATED: 16-Year-Old Boy Survives N.C. Shark Attack That Left Him with 40 Puncture Wounds

He took a couple of bites at the camera. When he did that I was pretty much petrified, MacNichol told the outlet. If you watch the video, you can hear me screaming underwater.

Chris Heinig, who was on the dive boat at the water's surface during the incident, said at the time that the shark was probably drawn to the light and silver casing of MacNichol's camera.

"I think it came up and bumped the camera to see what it was," Heinig told Associated Press. "But I honestly don't think the shark attacked Scott."
Nissan Motor Co said on Tuesday it expects to make an annual operating loss for a second straight year, as the coronavirus pandemic hampers its efforts to emerge from a deep slump in sales. It forecast an operating loss of 470 billion yen ($4.5 billion), which would be its biggest according to Nissan data that goes back to 1977 and much larger than a consensus estimate of a 262.8 billion yen loss drawn from 20 analysts polled by Refinitiv.

It predicted revenue would plunge by a fifth to 7.8 trillion yen and global vehicle sales would fall 16.3%. Years of aggressive expansion, particularly in emerging markets, has left Japan's No. 2 automaker with dismal margins, an ageing portfolio and a tarnished brand.

Still reeling from the 2018 arrest and ouster of former CEO Carlos Ghosn, Nissan unveiled a far-reaching restructuring plan in May that calls for a dramatic reduction in production lines and its vehicle model range. In the first quarter, Nissan posted an operating loss of 153.9 billion yen, its second consecutive quarterly loss after falling 94.8 billion yen into the red in January-March.

Nissan's woes have highlighted the fragility of its automaking partnership with France's Renault SA which has also announced a major restructuring as it rows back on policies pursued by Ghosn, now a fugitive wanted on charges of financial misconduct in Tokyo. Ghosn denies the charges.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp, a junior partner in the three-way alliance, saw its shares tumble some 13% on Tuesday after sales in Southeast Asia plunged 70% during the April-June quarter.

Also read: Mumbai airport fraud: ED raids multiple locations in probe against GVK group, MIAL
The State Security Service (SSS) said it has uncovered plans by some unnamed persons and groups taking advantage of the insecurity in the country to destabilize it.

The unnamed persons and groups are made up of prominent personalities and socio-cultural groups, the secret police said in a statement published by PRNigeria and signed its spokesperson, Peter Afunanya.

Mr Afunanya said plans have been hatched by the said people to use divisive acts and inciteful statement to pit Nigerians against themselves.

He said the service is aware of the plans and the sponsors of those using the latest developments in parts of the country to cause violence.

It is unclear what latest developments Mr Afunanya referred to, but some parts of Nigeria have seen a spate of killings in recent weeks.

Asides from the unabating banditry attacks in the north-western part of the country, Kaduna inclusive, the southern part of the state has also reported a series of ethnic clashes that have killed many.

Read the security outfits statement below:

DSS Warns against Plan to Destabilize Nigeria The Department of State Services (DSS) has uncovered plans by some persons and groups desirous of taking advantage of latest developments in parts of the country to destabilize it.

Some prominent personalities and socio-cultural groups have resorted to divisive acts through inciting statements aimed at pitting individuals, groups and ethnic nationalities against another.

The Service is, without doubt, aware of these plans and their sponsors. Consequently, it warns that it will no longer tolerate the orchestrations by subversive and unscrupulous elements to cause a breakdown of law and order in the country.

In this regard, it is working assiduously with relevant authorities and sister security and law enforcement agencies to ensure that the sinister objective is not achieved.

The Service reiterates its commitment to the internal security of Nigeria and will, within the confines of the law, decisively deal with planners of the mayhem. Law abiding citizens are urged to go about their normal businesses and disregard the antics of agents of destabilization.

They should, however, avail the Service and related agencies with useful information about the activities of criminals and groups intent on instigating violence in the country.

Peter Afunanya,

Ph.D Public Relations Officer,

Department of State Services,

National Headquarters.
Google is now reportedly testing the addition of Lens to its namesake search app  namely the Google app.

The tool, designed to utilize AI vision for identification, scanning, and copying real-world text, is already found in a wide assortment of places. Those range from the Google Assistant app, to web searches via the Google website, and even a standalone app. It will also appear soon to make an appearance in the companys Android keyboard, Gboard. Thats if it doesnt present too many problems in testing.

But this is the first time the company has added it directly to its own Google app on Android. The change was already in place for iOS users.

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Where is Lens found in the Google app?

This feature wont necessarily be available to everybody just yet. In fact, it appears to be an A/B style test of the feature. So it may never appear in the wild at all. But, for those who are seeing it, its been placed in the most obvious location in the UI.

Google embedded its icon for the Lens app directly into the search bar in the Google app. Specifically, its placed the icon, shaped like colored box corners with a center dot, to the right of the microphone icon.

The latter icon was previously found at the far-right-hand side of the UI, with white space left between it and the Google G  placed at the far-left. That still leaves plenty of white space, allowing users to enter queries. But it now also means users can conduct more visual-focused searches directly from their phone camera.

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The remaining UI, as with the iOS implementation, appears to be unchanged.

This will almost certainly arrive for everybody but when is more of an open question

There should be very little question as to whether or not the new feature will eventually roll out more widely. Since the feature has already been live on iPhones and iPads for quite some time, it wouldnt make much sense for Google to leave its own operating system out.

None of that means this will arrive in the near future though. The timing for a wider rollout, still apparently very much undecided, hasnt been revealed just yet. That will depend on the number and severity of any bugs that are discovered via testing of the new app feature.
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Scientists developed a protectant for astronauts against dangerous radiation by pulling inspiration from beach-goers  a 'space sunblock.'

By synthesizing a new form of melanin enriched with selenium, the team developed a biomaterial called selenomelanin that protects human tissues once applied.

During lab experiments, cells treated with the 'sunscreen' exhibited a normal cycle after being shot with a lethal dose of radiation.

Other tests showed that when selenomelanin can reproduce in the body on its own when cells are fed appropriate nutrients, allowing astronauts to reproduce the shield while traveling through space.

By synthesizing a new form of melanin enriched with selenium, the team developed a biomaterial called selenomelanin that protects human tissues once applied. During lab experiments, cells treated with the 'sunscreen' exhibited a normal cycle after being shot with a lethal dose of radiation

The first men and women will soon embark on a historical journey to Mars, but the mission has raised concerns about how galactic cosmic rays would affect them, as high doses of radiation can lead to dementia, memory loss or even death.

Scientists are working around the clock to find a solution and a team from Northwestern University believes to have uncovered a solution.

Nathan Gianneschi, who led the research, said: 'Given the increased interest in space travel and the general need for lightweight, multifunctional and radioprotective biomaterials, we've become excited about the potential of melanin.'

'It occurred to our postdoctoral fellow Wei Cao that melanin containing selenium would offer better protection than other forms of melanin.'

During lab experiments, cells treated with the 'sunscreen' exhibited a normal cycle after being shot with a lethal dose of radiation

'That brought up the intriguing possibility that this as-yet undiscovered melanin may very well exist in nature, being used in this way. So we skipped the discovery part and decided to make it ourselves.'

Melanin is found in most organisms on Earth, along with bacteria, fungi and most animal kingdoms.

Although it is mostly known for pigmentation, it provides humans with their hair, skin and eye color, it also protects cells from radiation.

Gianneschi and his team looked to this pigmentation as a shield due to the idea that it is easier to carry on missions compared to heavy, bulky lead or metal protectants.

Melanin samples are also currently in orbit at the International Space Station, being studied by another research team for the material's response to radiation exposure.

Other tests showed that when selenomelanin can reproduce in the body on its own when cells are fed appropriate nutrients, allowing astronauts to reproduce the shield while traveling through space

Recent studies have focused on pheomelanin, which contains sulfur, as the best candidate for that purpose, but the recent study took a different route.

The team used melanin, which protects against X-rays and combined it with selenium that is a micronutrient used in cancer prevention - and the end result was 'selenomelanin.'

To test the new biomaterial, Ginneschi treated cells with it and dosed them with enough radiation to kill a human.

'Our results demonstrated that selenomelanin offers superior protection from radiation,' Gianneschi said. 'We also found that it was easier to synthesize selenomelanin than pheomelanin, and what we created was closer than synthetic pheomelanin to the melanin found in nature.'

The team also discovered that live cells fed certain nutrients can reproduce the biomaterial on their own, allowing astronauts to create the shield while traveling through space.

'With an abundant source of selenium in the environment, some organisms may have been able to adapt to extreme circumstances such as radiation through the beneficial effects of selenomelanin,' Gianneschi said.
Figure 1

Plan view of mineralized zones and Drill Hole locations

Plan view of mineralized zones and Drill Hole locations

TORONTO, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Troilus Gold Corp. (TSX: TLG; OTCQB: CHXMF) (Troilus or the Company) is pleased to provide an updated mineral resource estimate from its 100% owned Troilus property located 170 km by road northeast of Chibougamau, Quebec, Canada (the Troilus Project). The updated mineral resource estimate is summarized in Table 1. For full cut-off sensitivities and background information please visit the Troilus website at www.troilusgold.com.

Highlights:

The total estimated indicated mineral resource has increased to 4.96 Moz AuEq (177 Mt with an average grade of 0.87 g/t AuEq) and the total estimated inferred mineral resource has increased to 3.15 Moz AuEq (116.7 Mt with an average grade of 0.84 g/t AuEq)





The open pit estimated mineral resources have increased by 601,000 ounces AuEq to 4.21 Moz (164.2 Mt with an average grade of 0.80 g/t AuEq) in the Indicated category and 1.49 Moz ounces AuEq in the Inferred category to 2.27 Moz (101.2 Mt with an average grade of 0.70 g/t AuEq), compared to the December 20, 2019 mineral resource estimate





The newly discovered and recently drilled Southwest Zone contributed 583,000 ounces AuEq to inferred mineral resources (22.6 Mt with an average grade of 0.80 g/t AuEq)





Total estimated indicated mineral resources have increased by 142% and inferred mineral resources have increased by 350% since the mineral resource estimate (effective date of June 30, 2016) when the Troilus Project was first acquired

Table 1  Mineral Resource Estimate  Effective as of July 20, 2020

Classification Tonnage

(Mt) AuEq

(g/t) Au

(g/t) Cu

(%) Ag

(g/t) Contained

AuEQ

(Moz) Contained

Gold

(Moz) Contained

Copper

(Mlb) Contained

Silver

(Moz) Indicated 177.3 0.87 0.75 0.08 1.17 4.96 4.30 322.60 6.66 Inferred 116.7 0.84 0.73 0.07 1.04 3.15 2.76 189.73 3.91





Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability; Summation errors may occur due to rounding; Open pit mineral resources are reported within an optimized constraining shells. Open pit cut-off grade is 0.3 gpt AuEQ where the metal equivalents were calculated as follows: Z87 Zone: AuEq = Au grade + 1.2566 * Cu grade + 0.0103 * Ag grade J4/J5 Zone: AuEq = Au grade + 1.2979 * Cu grade + 0.0108 * Ag grade SW Zone: AuEq = Au grade + 1.2768 * Cu grade + 0.0106 * Ag grade Metal prices for the AuEQ formulas are: $US 1,600/ oz Au; $3.25/lb Cu, and $20.00/ oz Ag; with an exchange rate of US$1.00:CAD$1.30; Metal recoveries for the AuEQ formulas are: Z87 Zone: 83% for Au recovery, 92% for Cu recovery and 76% for Ag recovery J4/J5 Zone: 82% for Au recovery, 88% for Cu recovery and 76% for Ag recovery SW Zone: 82.5% for Au recovery, 90% for Cu recovery and 76% for Ag recovery The resource constraining shells were generated with: Metal Prices: Gold $US 1600/oz, Copper $US 3.25/lb, Silver $US 20/oz Mining Costs: J Zone and 87 Zone base cost $Cdn 1.71/t moved, SW Zone base cost $Cdn 1.66/t moved Incremental cost $Cdn 0.03/t waste moved, $Cdn 0.02/t feed moved Process and G&A Costs: $Cdn 8.44/t processed Wall slopes: varied between 49.5 to 60 degrees depending on pit area and slope sector Metal Recoveries: Gold: 90% all zones except in lower grade (Au<1/2 g/t) portions of SW zone = 88% Copper: 90% all zones except in higher grade (Cu%>0.13%) portions of SW zone = 92% Silver: all zones 40% Underground cut-off grade is 0.9 AuEQ at Z87 Zone and J4/J5 Zone

This updated mineral resource estimate, prepared in accordance with Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum CIM (2014) Definition Standards incorporated by reference in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101), is the result of over 8,500 metres of drilling between November 2019 and February 2020 (24 drill holes), in addition to 36,000 metres (81 drill holes) of drilling completed by the Company from February 2019 to July 2019 and 36,000 metres (91 drill holes) of drilling completed in August 2018. The mineral resource estimates for Z87 Zone and J Zones (J4 and J5) are based on a combined open pit and underground mining scenario, while the mineral resource estimates for the Southwest Zone (SWZ) is based on open pit mining (see Figure 1 for Plan View of Mineralized Zones). The combined updated open pit and underground mineral resource estimate is summarized in Table 2.



Story continues

Table 2  Open Pit and Underground Estimated Mineral Resources  Effective as of July 20, 2020

Classification Tonnage

(Mt) AuEq

(g/t) Au

(g/t) Cu

(%) Ag

(g/t) Contained

AuEq

(Moz) Contained

Au

(Moz) Contained

Copper

(Mlb) Contained

Silver

(Moz) Total Open Pit and Underground Indicated 177.3 0.87 0.75 0.08 1.17 4.96 4.30 322.60 6.66 Inferred 116.7 0.84 0.73 0.07 1.04 3.15 2.76 189.72 3.91 Total Open Pit Indicated 164.2 0.80 0.68 0.08 1.20 4.21 3.62 284.69 6.32 Inferred 101.2 0.70 0.60 0.07 1.12 2.27 1.95 151.01 3.65 Total Open Pit Z87 Zone Indicated 84.6 0.92 0.79 0.09 1.39 2.50 2.15 169.54 3.77 Inferred 32.7 0.70 0.60 0.07 1.50 0.73 0.63 49.34 1.57 Total Open Pit J Zone (J4 & J5) Indicated 79.6 0.67 0.57 0.07 1.00 1.71 1.47 115.16 2.55 Inferred 45.9 0.65 0.55 0.07 0.96 0.96 0.82 65.94 1.42 Total Open Pit Southwest Zone Inferred 22.6 0.80 0.70 0.07 0.89 0.58 0.51 35.73 0.65 Total Underground Indicated 13.1 1.79 1.61 0.13 0.81 0.75 0.68 37.91 0.34 Inferred 15.5 1.77 1.62 0.11 0.52 0.88 0.81 38.72 0.26 Total Underground Z87 Zone Indicated 13.1 1.79 1.61 0.13 0.81 0.75 0.68 37.90 0.34 Inferred 13.5 1.85 1.70 0.12 0.37 0.80 0.74 34.48 0.16 Total Underground J Zone (J4 & J5) Indicated 0.01 1.07 1.03 0.03 0.47 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Inferred 2.00 1.21 1.06 0.10 1.55 0.08 0.07 4.24 0.10





Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability; Summation errors may occur due to rounding; Open pit mineral resources are reported within an optimized constraining shells. Open pit cut-off grade is 0.3 gpt AuEQ where the metal equivalents were calculated as follows: Z87 Zone: AuEq = Au grade + 1.2566 * Cu grade + 0.0103 * Ag grade J4/J5 Zone: AuEq = Au grade + 1.2979 * Cu grade + 0.0108 * Ag grade SW Zone: AuEq = Au grade + 1.2768 * Cu grade + 0.0106 * Ag grade Metal prices for the AuEQ formulas are: $US 1,600/ oz Au; $3.25/lb Cu, and $20.00/ oz Ag; with an exchange rate of US$1.00:CAD$1.30; Metal recoveries for the AuEQ formulas are: Z87 Zone: 83% for Au recovery, 92% for Cu recovery and 76% for Ag recovery J4/J5 Zone: 82% for Au recovery, 88% for Cu recovery and 76% for Ag recovery SW Zone: 82.5% for Au recovery, 90% for Cu recovery and 76% for Ag recovery The resource constraining shells were generated with: Metal Prices: Gold $US 1600/oz, Copper $US 3.25/lb, Silver $US 20/oz Mining Costs: J Zone and 87 Zone base cost $Cdn 1.71/t moved, SW Zone base cost $Cdn 1.66/t moved Incremental cost $Cdn 0.03/t waste moved, $Cdn 0.02/t feed moved Process and G&A Costs: $Cdn 8.44/t processed Wall slopes: varied between 49.5 to 60 degrees depending on pit area and slope sector Metal Recoveries: Gold: 90% all zones except in lower grade (Au<1/2 g/t) portions of SW zone = 88% Copper: 90% all zones except in higher grade (Cu%>0.13%) portions of SW zone = 92% Silver: all zones 40% Underground cut-off grade is 0.9 AuEQ at Z87 Zone and J4/J5 Zone

The Troilus Team is incredibly pleased with the results of the new resource. We have materially added to the estimated inferred and indicated resource in every zone while maintaining essentially the same grade. In addition, we have discovered and added a new impactful inferred mineral resource in the Southwest Zone that we believe still has the ability to grow materially through further drilling. Troilus has shown scale, the ability for expansion and optionality from multiple resource centers, said Justin Reid, CEO of Troilus. Since acquiring the Troilus project in 2017, the careful work and scientific analysis by our technical team has resulted in a 142% increase to the indicated mineral resource estimate and a 350% increase to the inferred mineral resource estimate, providing the foundation for a Preliminary Economic Assessment for the project which we are targeting for release towards the end of calendar Q3.



Troilus continues to expand, commented Blake Hylands, SVP Exploration. We are very pleased to observe that as the mineral resource estimate continues to grow, the grade remains consistent and the new Southwest Zone is comparable to what we have observed at Z87 and the J Zones. Looking ahead to a 20,000 metre drill program planned for later this year, we intend to continue drilling in the Southwest Zone to further tap into this new area of mineralization as we believe there is still significant room for further growth and we will complete infill drilling around the main ore bodies at Z87 and J Zones.

The updated mineral resource estimate was completed by AGP Mining Consultants Inc. (AGP) and has been reviewed internally by the Company. The full technical report in respect of the updated mineral resource estimate (the Technical Report) will be available on SEDAR ( www.sedar.com ) under the Companys issuer profile within 45 calendar days.

Figure 1: Plan view of mineralized zones and Drill Hole locations

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6d23239c-6191-4ec2-9638-44a466ae6acb

Quality Assurance and Quality Control



During the Southwest Zone drill program in 2019/20, one metre assay samples were taken from NQ core and sawed in half. One-half was sent for assaying at ALS Canada Ltd. (ALS), a certified commercial laboratory, and the other half was retained for results, cross checks, and future reference. A strict QA/QC program was applied to all samples; which included insertion of one certified mineralized standard and one blank sample in each batch of 25 samples. Every sample was processed with standard crushing to 85% passing 75 microns on 500 g splits. Samples were assayed by one-AT (30 g) fire assay with an AA finish and if results were higher than 3.5 g/t Au, assays were redone with a gravimetric finish. For QA/QC samples, a 50 g fire assay was done. In addition to gold, ALS carried out multi-element analysis for ME-ICP61 analysis of 33 elements four acid ICP-AES.

Qualified Person



The technical and scientific information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Bertrand Brassard, M.Sc., P.Geo., Senior Project Geologist, who is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Brassard has also verified the technical data contained in this press release using industry accepted standards. Mr. Brassard is an employee of Troilus and is not independent of the Company under NI 43-101.

The updated mineral resource estimate disclosed in this press release was prepared by Mr. Paul Daigle, geo., Senior Associate Resource Geologist with AGP, and the supporting Technical Report will be available on SEDAR ( www.sedar.com ) under the Companys issuer profile within 45 calendar days. Mr. Paul Daigle, who is an independent Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the mineral resource estimate disclosed in this press release.

About Troilus Gold Corp.

Troilus is a Toronto-based, Quebec focused, advanced stage exploration and early-development company focused on the mineral expansion and potential mine re-start of the former gold and copper Troilus mine. The 107,326 hectare Troilus property is located within the Frotet-Evans Greenstone Belt in Quebec, Canada. From 1996 to 2010, Inmet Mining Corporation operated the Troilus project as an open pit mine, producing more than 2,000,000 ounces of gold and nearly 70,000 tonnes of copper.

For more information:

Justin Reid

Chief Executive Officer

+1 (647) 276-0050 x 1305

Justin.reid@troilusgold.com

Paul Pint

President

+1 (416) 602-1050

paul.pint@troilusgold.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Information



Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability; the estimate of Mineral Resources in the updated Mineral Resource statement may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues. There is no certainty that the Indicated Mineral Resources will be converted to the Probable Mineral Reserve category, and there is no certainty that the updated Mineral Resource statement will be realized.



The mineral resource estimates contained herein may be subject to legal, political, environmental or other risks that could materially affect the potential development of such mineral resources. See the Technical Report, once filed, for more information with respect to the key assumptions, parameters, methods and risks of determination associated with the foregoing.



This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the impact and implications of the updated mineral resource estimate and drill results on the Company, the growth potential and possible economics of the project and the Companys understanding of the project; the development potential and timetable of the project; the estimation of mineral resources; realization of mineral resource estimates; the anticipated timing of the Preliminary Economic Assessment; the timing and amount of estimated future exploration; the anticipated results of the Companys planned 2020 drill program and their possible impact on the potential size of the mineral resource estimate; costs of future activities; capital and operating expenditures; success of exploration activities; the anticipated ability of investors to continue benefiting from the Companys low discovery costs, technical expertise and support from local communities; and the anticipated timing of filing the Technical Report. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, continue, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, will, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements are made based upon certain assumptions and other important facts that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performances or achievements of Troilus to be materially different from future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which Troilus will operate in the future. Certain important factors that could cause actual results, performances or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, amongst others, currency fluctuations, the global economic climate, dilution, share price volatility and competition. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Troilus to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: the impact the COVID 19 pandemic may have on the Companys activities and the economy in general; the impact of the recovery post COVID 19 pandemic and its impact on gold and other metals; there being no assurance that the exploration program will result in expanded mineral resources; risks and uncertainties inherent to mineral resource estimates; receipt of necessary approvals; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; future gold and other metal prices; accidents, labour disputes and shortages; environmental and other risks of the mining industry, including without limitation, risks and uncertainties discussed in the latest annual information form of the Company, in the Technical Report to be filed and in other continuous disclosure documents of the Company available under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com. Although Troilus has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. 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. Troilus does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.



Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors Concerning Estimates of Mineral Resources



These mineral resource estimates have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of Canadian securities laws, which differ from the requirements of U.S. securities laws. The terms mineral resource, measured mineral resource, indicated mineral resource and inferred mineral resource are defined in NI 43-101 and recognized by Canadian securities laws but are not defined terms or recognized under U.S. securities laws. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of mineral deposits in these categories will ever be upgraded to mineral reserves. 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 securities laws, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource exists or is economically or legally mineable. Accordingly, these mineral resource estimates and related information may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S. companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements under the U.S. federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.




The Covid-19 outbreak has undoubtedly imposed enormous impact on the worldwide travel industry. The latest ITB China Travel Trends Report, conducted by ITB China, the largest B2B exclusive travel trade show in China, examines the impact on the planned travel behaviour of the Chinese in the coming recovery phase.

The 2020 China Market Recovery Special Edition is based on a survey among 200 Chinese outbound travel agencies and travel companies, including interviews with several industry experts. The report is a yearly publication, updating global travel suppliers and Chinese buyers with the latest needs of the Chinese travel market, in order to get best prepared to restart travel business in China.

Asked about the recovery of the Chinese outbound travel market, 43 per cent of those surveyed expect that outbound travel will recover within the next nine to 12 months. Thirty-three per cent think it might take six to nine months, whereas 20 per cent believe it will take three to six months, and only four per cent expect to see a recovery within the next three months.

China was hit first and should therefore be one of the first countries to recover, which would prove to be positive for European-Chinese tourism cooperation. By the time Europe can go back to normal, China might be ready for long haul travel again. said Eduardo Santander, Executive Director of the European Tourism Commission, in an interview with ITB China. We expect the European travel industry to recover in 2021.

How Chinese travel operators and outbound travel agencies are handling risk management

Coping with the Covid-19 crisis, Chinese travel operators and outbound travel agencies have made all efforts to prepare for the recovery by restructuring their operations, engaging in internal employee training programs as well as maintaining close external communication with partners and customers. The survey revealed that even with the suspension of business during the outbreak, travel agencies and travel-related companies have proactively and consistently communicated with their customers. 66.5 per cent of the respondents communicate with stakeholders weekly, 16.5 per cent share updates every two weeks, while 17 per cent communicate on a monthly basis.

James Liang, Trip.com Group Chairman, said: "Different measures taken by different countries and territories will hinder international travels, which will impose certain pressure on short-term upward tendency. However, in the long run, the industry is extremely resilient and any irreversible change is highly unlikely.

Further results of the report will soon be published in further press releases. The complete version of the ITB China Travel Trends Report- The 2020 China Market Recovery Special Edition will be published on www.itb-china.com in the next month. - TradeArabia News Service
Michigan residents are more opposed to the COVID-19 closures of schools, restaurants and large gatherings than other Americans are  yet theyre more supportive of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer than other Americans are of their governor.

A poll from Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape interviewed more than 32,000 Americans between June 11 and July 15, asking for opinions on COVID-19 policies. The poll surveyed roughly 850 Michigan residents, with 372 Democrats/Democrat leaners and 345 Republicans/Republican leaners.

The margin of error for the whole sample is +/-1%.

The poll asked questions about support for COVID-related closures, which political leaders have handled the crisis well and which habits people are picking up to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

(Cant see the chart? Click here https://www.datawrapper.de/_/qO1H7/)

Michigan more skeptical about closures

Michiganders were less likely than other Americans to support various closures  including schools, restaurants and large gatherings.

Only 32% of Michigan respondents "strongly support" governments closing schools and universities  compared to 39% nationally. On that question, 30% of Michiganders either somewhat oppose or strongly oppose such closures, with the national average at 26%.

Whitmer has laid out a plan to reopen schools in the fall, but theyll only open in-person if a school is in a region thats in Phase 4 or higher out of six in the MI Safe Start Plan  which gauges how the state is doing in handling the coronavirus.

Some school districts have already announced they plan to start the year with all virtual learning. President Donald Trump has threatened to take away funding from schools that don't open in person.

(Cant see the chart? Click here)

Michiganders also opposed other types of closures more than the national average.

The majority of Michigan respondents support the government closure of businesses like restaurants and theaters where people gather, as well as large events like concerts (64% support for both), but less so than the U.S. average (70% support for both).

Gyms, theaters and large gatherings are still closed in most of Michigan. Bars with 70% of their revenue or more coming from alcohol sales have been forced to close again, in recent weeks.

(Cant see the chart? Click here)

Whitmer gets higher marks than Trump

Despite being a little more opposed to the closures than others, Michigan residents approve more of their governors handling of the virus than most states.

Of those polled, 38% "strongly approve" of how Whitmer has handled the pandemic and 63% either "strongly approve" or "somewhat approve." Both are higher than the national average for governors, with 28% at "strongly approve" and 60% at either "strongly approve" or "somewhat approve."

Theres less support for how Trump has handled the pandemic. About 41% of Michiganders polled approve of Trumps handling, which is on par with the national level.

(Cant see the chart? Click here)

More likely to wear masks, but more likely to get out and socialize

In the last week, 92% of Michigan residents polled said they have worn a mask when going out in public. The national average was 89%. Ohio was one of the lowest at 83%.

(Cant see the chart? Click here)

When it comes to staying in, Michigan was one of the worst. About 74% said theyve socialized in person with people from other households while maintaining distancing in the past week and 38% said theyve socialized without social distancing.

About 59% have left their house in the past week for nonessential goods and services, also higher than most states.

(Cant see the chart? Click here)

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 executive orders requiring people to wear face coverings over their mouth and nose while in public indoor and crowded outdoor spaces. See an explanation of what that means here .

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus .

For more data on COVID-19 in Michigan, visit https://www.mlive.com/coronavirus/data/ .

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A man from Minnesota is facing charges of murder for the death of his mother. Authorities alleged that the suspect brutally beat and stabbed the city councilwoman inside their shared home on Thursday.

Brutal beating

According to Crime Online, 62-year-old Rose Johnson, a councilwoman for the city of Big Lake in Minnesota, was reportedly found dead inside her home. Johnson lived with her husband and her son, 20-year-old Eric Jordahl.

Jordahl's father called a 911 dispatcher on Thursday to state that he came home only to find his wife dead and his son admitting that he killed her.

The criminal complaint writes that Jordahl said he went inside his mother's bedroom in the middle of the night where Johnson told him to go back to bed and sleep. However, instead of adhering to his mother, Jordahl proceeded to brutally beat Johnson, went to grab a knife, and stabbed her repeatedly, causing her death.

Authorities reported they found Johnson's dead body with severe facial trauma in a lower-level bedroom. Police officers revealed that medical examiners who autopsied the corpse required dental records to identify the victim as Johnson accurately.

Police officers who responded to the scene reportedly found Jordahl drenched in blood. A news outlet reported that authorities discovered a knife that was left on the kitchen table.

Medical autopsies revealed that Johnson suffered sharp and blunt force trauma from the assault to her head and body. Local authorities ruled the council woman's death as a homicide.

Officials have charged Jordahl with second-degree murder with intent and not premeditated along with second-degree murder without intent while committing another felony. The felony the son was charged with was second-degree assault.

Also Read: Mother, 10-Month-Old Twin Boys Found Dead Inside Vehicle Submerged Underwater

Court records showed that the judge set Jordahl's bail at $1.5 million without conditions or at $1 million with conditions.

The suspect has been scheduled to make an initial court appearance on August 11. Jordahl's attorney did not give an immediate response for comments on Monday, as reported by Michigan's Thumb.

Johnson was appointed as a councilwoman for Big Lake in January 2019 when a vacant seat was left open. The official was set to run her term until the November 6 General Election, after which a vote will decide the remaining two-year term for the position.

Similar incident

A similar tragedy occurred recently when 911 dispatchers were having a call with a woman and heard her scream which prompted police officers to respond to the scene where a dead body was found in a home in Chula Vista.

The woman reportedly had multiple stab wounds and her son was taken into custody for alleged connection to her death, said police.

According to NBC San Diego, the victim was identified to be Gloria San Miguel, 56 years old, who called 911 at around 7:00 p.m.

Officers who responded to the scene stated that they were met by a man covered in blood while standing in the driveway of the residence and holding a framed picture. Before the arrest, the man fled from the officers who tried to contact him.

The suspect, 28-year-old Glen Hammitt, became increasingly violent while he was being detained and hit an officer on the forehead with the frame in his hands. Police reported that while being arrested, Hammitt said "she's dead" as he referred to his mother.

An investigation revealed that Hammitt suffered from frequent mental issues. The suspect admitted to the crime and was charged with homicide and felony assault on a police officer and placed in San Diego County Jail.

Related Article: Man Charged After Woman's Remains Discovered Stuffed in Suitcase

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
New Delhi: At 75 years old, Zareef Ahmad Zareef has witnessed several major events that have shaped Kashmir - for the worse, he says - since it became part of India in 1947.

Now, the historian and poet worries for the future of Kashmir's culture and its people, after India passed a new law that allows non-locals to become permanent residents of the Muslim-majority territory.

"Our Kashmir is a garden. The new laws have thrown the doors open for plunderers to ruin it," said Zareef in a phone interview from Srinagar, Kashmir's main city.

Kashmiris purchase a goat at a livestock market ahead of Eid al-Adha festival in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir. Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, starting on Thursday, by sacrificing animals to commemorate the prophet Ibrahim's faith in being willing to sacrifice his son. Credit:AP

"The days are not far when we will be left with no job opportunities or economic resources, including land and forests," he added. "Kashmiris will become second-class citizens in their own homeland."
Maryland's health department has warned nursing homes that the state will soon stop paying for the weekly coronavirus testing it requires for staff - prompting frustration from some in the industry, who say facilities cannot afford to foot the bill.

State officials say nursing homes should be able to pay for the tests through funding they received from the federal Cares Act. But industry advocates say there is not enough money to cover those costs and other pressing pandemic-related needs, especially for small, independent facilities.

"This is not something that [nursing homes] are set up to be able to continue on their own," said Allison Ciborowski, chief executive for LeadingAge Maryland, which represents 120 nonprofit operators of long-term care facilities.

She added that it is vital for the state to ensure regular testing at long-term care facilities, where the coronavirus has already killed more than 2,000 staff and residents.

Maryland has required since mid-June that nursing homes test all staff weekly, and offered to pay for facilities that were unable to afford it. Last week, however, the health department informed industry advocates that the state would stop conducting and sponsoring employee testing. The agency said facilities should establish their own testing arrangements with laboratories by Aug. 14.

In response to questions about what would happen to facilities that do not have the funds, Mike Ricci, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, said: "We expect the vast majority of facilities to have plans in place, but there's a range of options depending on the situation." He said the state will continue paying for testing for residents at facilities where there are coronavirus outbreaks.

Hogan on Tuesday said the state is facing its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and warned that state agencies may be asked to cut their budgets by 15 to 20%.

The federal government in May distributed $4.9 billion to 15,000 Medicare-certified skilled nursing facilities. Facilities with more than six residents were eligible for a baseline amount of $50,000, along with $2,500 per bed. This month, the government added $5 billion in relief funding for nursing homes.

In a Friday letter to three nursing home trade associations, state health officials said they "fully expect that your member facilities will make use of those funds to protect your residents from COVID-19 by continuing weekly mandated testing."

State health secretary Robert Neall released an order that day outlining the requirements and saying failure to comply is a misdemeanor. Maryland has fined multiple nursing homes for failing to meet requirements related to testing.

Nationally, some lawmakers and watchdog groups have expressed concern with how nursing homes are using the federal funding, calling for more government scrutiny. Ciborowski said her organization's members are following all relevant guidelines.

Ciborowski said it is not immediately clear whether testing staff is an eligible expense under the Cares Act. The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to questions seeking clarification.

Even if facilities can use federal funding to pay for tests, what they have received is "simply not enough" to cover weekly testing on top of other expenses such as additional protective equipment and hazard pay for employees, said Joseph DeMattos Jr., chief executive of the Health Facilities Association of Maryland.

Philip Meyer, who owns the 50-bed Althea Woodland facility in Montgomery County, said it is "ridiculous" for the state to make facilities use their federal funding to pay for weekly testing of staff.

The $175,000 in Cares Act money that Althea Woodland received in May has gone toward paying employees and operating costs while revenue declined, and buying protective equipment, he said. The state's decision to stop sponsoring employee testing, he added, "will wreak havoc on an already over-burned industry."

At Maryland Baptist Aged Home, a 29-bed nonprofit facility in Baltimore that has had zero coronavirus cases, leaders are scrambling to figure out how to pay for their own testing. "This will crush us," said Rev. Derrick DeWitt, who serves as the facility's director.

DeMattos said shifting responsibility for testing to individuals nursing homes also means tests will likely be sent to commercial labs, which are experiencing nationwide backlogs. The state lab has generally turned around results more quickly, he said.

Nursing homes in Virginia and the District will also soon need to begin paying for regular testing, said industry advocates, although there have not been orders stating when funding will be cut.

In Virginia, the state organized and paid for a round of testing and is now shifting responsibility to the facilities, said Amy Hewett, spokeswoman for Virginia Health Care Association. State guidance says all staff and residents should be tested weekly in the first phase of reopening, until there are no new cases among residents for 14 days. But it is a recommendation, not a mandate.

In the District, the city had been paying for required weekly testing. On Monday, however, one nursing home said it was asked to begin organizing and paying for its own testing, said Veronica Sharpe, president of the D.C. Health Care Association. She said she will ask the city for more funding if it expects nursing homes to pay for their own testing.
Queensland's premier has stopped short of closing the Sunshine State's border to New South Wales but has warned the state's residents not to travel south.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said that Queenslanders should remain safe within their own state where there were zero new cases on COVID-19 on Monday and should not travel to NSW.

The premier reaffirmed her stance that she would slam the borders shut should there be significant community transmission of coronavirus in Sydney.

New South Wales recorded 14 new cases on Monday, while Victoria recorded 384.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said that Queenslanders should remain safe within their own state where there were zero new cases on COVID-19 on Monday and should not travel to NSW

Vehicles arriving from New South Wales are checked by police at a checkpoint on the Queensland border in Coolangatta on the Gold Coast, Thursday, July 23, 2020

'I would advise Queenslanders at the moment not to travel to New South Wales,' Ms Palaszczuk told reporters on Tuesday.

'Now is not the time to leave Queensland; now is the time to stay in Queensland.'

Queensland has managed to effectively halt the spread of coronavirus with just five active cases across the state.

Further south, Victoria's situation continues to escalate with 4775 active cases following 384 new cases overnight.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison cut short his planned tour of Queensland on Tuesday to return to Canberra for crisis talks about the deadly outbreaks in the southern state's aged care facilities.

Even though Queensland has so far been able to control the spread of coronavirus, Ms Palaszczuk said they are prepared for any outbreak through worst-case scenario testing.

The testing includes all emergencies services and health professionals.

ADF personnel and Victorian police officers patrol a walking track as Melbourne remains in lockdown restrictions due to outbreaks of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Melbourne, Australia, July 26, 2020

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

'We're always constantly making sure we're ready, just like we do for cyclones and floods, we always get together all of our key agencies to make sure they are prepared,' she said.

'It is a huge job for our police, emergency services, SES and, of course, our health professionals.

'Every single week, we are looking at our plans, we are monitoring and we are always making sure we are ready.'

Queensland's borders remain closed to Victorians and anyone who has visited declared hotspots in NSW.

However, police have still turned some 650 people away at the border and 10 arrivals at Gold Coast Airport.

Ms Palaszczuk said she is surprised people are still trying to enter the state when they are clearly ineligible.

'People should use their common sense, and they just shouldn't do it [try to enter the state]. The rules are tough and they are being enforced,' she said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison talked up his government's incentives for businesses to invest more and revive jobs during a visit to a tuna company on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

'We can't continue to have confidence about jobs unless we continue to do the things that will support businesses to make investments,' he told reporters.

'A $60,000 investment in a blast freezer here at Walker Seafoods is supporting the 50 jobs that are here because it means that (owner) Pavo can go and catch different fish because he can freeze them in the blast (chiller) and send it to a different market.'

Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacott renewed calls for a 20 per cent investment allowance.

'Investment before the crisis was already weak. Now it is diabolical,' she told a tech industry conference.

Every time a new supermarket or mine opened, or a business upgraded its plant and equipment or digital technology, hundreds or thousands of jobs were created, she said.
Pakistani authorities are encouraging people to buy sacrificial animals online or at least wear masks when visiting cattle markets, fearing preparations for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha could reverse a decline in COVID-19 infection numbers.

Government social-distancing restrictions this year including half-day closing have seen a drop in customers at the normally bustling markets which, like in other Muslim countries, are set up in urban centres ahead of one of Islam's most important festivals.

The main cattle market of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, was less busy on Sunday than in preceding years with just six days before festivities, Reuters witnesses said. Trader Allah Ditta, who travelled hundreds of miles to sell his stock, told Reuters his customers had almost halved.

Most visitors flouted a requirement to wear masks, and many were accompanied by children who this year are barred.

"I don't understand this coronavirus. I have not seen anyone dying of it," said trader Muhammad Akram. "Look around you: No one is wearing a mask."

Pakistan has reported over 270,000 COVID-19 cases with almost 6,000 deaths. Daily cases of new infection numbered just under 1,200 on Sunday versus a peak last month nearing 7,000 around another festival, Eid al-Fitr.

"In the last four weeks there has been significant slowdown in the pandemic's spread, with an 80% decline in deaths," State Minister of Health Zafar Mirza said on Sunday - three weeks after he himself tested positive for COVID-19.

"Last Eid, since gatherings increased, people travelled, and this interaction caused cases to spike," Mizra said. "People should take it very seriously and act responsibly. There is a chance that cases might go up again, like Spain."

While market visitors have fallen, more people are paying charities to slaughter cattle on their behalf and deliver their cut to them or donate it to the needy.

Shakil Dehelvi, joint secretary-general of Alamgir Welfare Trust, said the charity had received its target booking number twice as quickly as last year.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that it is extending its menu of lending programs to businesses, governments and individuals to the end of 2020.

Originally set to expire Sept. 30, the myriad facilities, stretching from credit to small businesses up to the purchase of junk bonds now will stretch to Dec. 31.

The Fed began rolling out the initiatives as market functioning broke down in March. A lack of liquidity stemming from fears over the coronavirus crisis froze markets and pushed the central bank into various credit facilities, a number of which had their origins during the financial crisis.

"The extraordinary Federal Reserve response to the COVID-19 pandemic, supported by Treasury's equity capital, has played a vital role in improving liquidity and restoring market function," Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said. "Through this extension, we will continue to support the flow of credit to American workers, businesses and municipalities."

Treasury had to sign off on the extension as it provides funding, which the Fed can then use as collateral to lever up.

Programs covered include facilities for primary dealers and money markets, corporate bond purchases on both the primary and second markets and the most recent rollout, the Main Street Lending Program. The Term Asset-Backed Securities facility also is included, as is the Fed's end of the Paycheck Protection Program, the congressional initiative aimed at incentivizng businesses to maintain employees and continue operating during the pandemic.

A lending program for local and state governments already had been set to run to Dec. 31 and the commercial paper facility, which provides short-term funding for businesses, expires March 17, 2021.

The extension comes even though the takeup on most of the programs has been fairly slow. When they announced the initiatives in early April, Fed officials said the facilities could provide some $2.3 trillion worth of funding.

Thus far, though, the total loans have been about $110 billion, according to the most recent filings the Fed has made to Congress on the programs' activities. Market functioning also has been strong, with corporate bond issuance, for instance, running at record levels.
A soldier stands guard inside a clandestine chemical drug processing laboratory discovered in Mexico on Feb. 9, 2012. Chinese gangs are supplying Mexican drug cartels with chemicals to create illicit substances, for sale in the United States. (Hector Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images)

Chinese Networks Dominate Chemical, Cash Sectors of Drug Cartel Business

WASHINGTONThe insidious Chinese presence in the drug trafficking arena has been growing for years. It now dominates the global money laundering business and chemical productionboth critical services to cartel operations in Mexico, Colombia, and beyond.

Chinese criminal networks supply tons of drug-making chemicals and launder billions of dollars for cartels, yet most of the attention is focused on the territorial gun battles south of the border, or when a kingpin such as Joaquin El Chapo Guzman is arrested.

Clearly the Chinese are way more dangerous, way more sophisticated, way more complex, and way more of a national security threat to Americaits not even a comparison [with Mexican cartels], Derek Maltz, former head of the Drug Enforcement Administrations (DEA) special operations division, told The Epoch Times.

Agreements between cartel leaders and the heads of Chinese money laundering operations based in Mexico have cemented the relationships and provided fertile ground for rapid expansion, according to the DEA.

Chinas commercial and manufacturing industries have transformed China into a key international hub and criminal magnet for money laundering activities and illicit financial transactions, a DEA spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

In June, a Chinese man pleaded guilty in connection with laundering more than $4 million in drug proceeds generated by large-scale cocaine trafficking in the United States, specifically Virginia.

The man, Xueyong Wu, worked with Latin American drug trafficking organizations to repatriate the money to Mexico through a complex series of international financial transactions, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Wu received a percentage of the money involved.

In March, another Chinese man was convicted of coordinating the collection of drug money in Chicago for Mexican cartels and transferring it to bank accounts in China, according to the DOJ. Xianbing Gan directed the money transfers while living in Guadalajara, Mexico, but was arrested at Los Angeles airport during a stopover from Hong Kong to Mexico.

Maltz said traditional money laundering organizations charged around 8 percent for laundering bulk cash, but Chinese networks overtook the industry by undercutting the competition and charging commissions as low as 1 percent, or even nothing.

Its a brilliant business idea, Maltz said. They set up very sophisticated, complex, trade-based money laundering schemes where hundreds of millions of dollars are picked up and used to buy consumer goods in China. And then the consumer goods are shipped into Central America, South America, all over the region in Latin America, to launder the proceeds for the drug traffickers in Mexico as well.

Chinese nationals in the United States also operate a popular scheme, known as the Chinese Underground Banking System, which works not only to launder money for the cartels, but to help Chinese nationals living in the United States access massive amounts of cash, according to the DEA.

A prominent case involved three Chinese nationals who were indicted in 2019 but remain at large. They coordinated the collection of cash from cartel drug sales at around 300 pick-up locations in the United States, according to the DOJ. They then allegedly acted as brokers to supply cash to wealthy, U.S.-based Chinese who were restricted from transferring more than $50,000 per year from Chinese banks to overseas.

The Chinese buyer would transfer money from his or her Chinese bank account to the brokers bank account in China. After the transfer, the U.S. cash from the drug sales would be directly released to the Chinese people in the United States. To complete the cycle, the brokers would export Chinese goods such as electronics and clothing to the cartel in Mexico, which would be sold for pesos.

Other laundering channels identified by the DEA include trade-based money-laundering (the over- or underpricing of goods, falsified bills of lading and customs declarations, and counterfeit import/export contracts); securities transactions (stocks, bonds, commodities, and precious metals); real estate transactions; casino-related transactions; and wire transfers via both formal and underground banking systems.

Numerous countries have been investigating Chinese money launderers residing in Colombia, Mexico, Canada, Australia, and the United States, the DEA spokesperson said. Furthermore, in the past seven years, Chinese banks in Italy, Spain, and the United States have been under investigation resulting in arrests and heavy fines for money laundering violations.

Chinas massive export industry has allowed hundreds of billions of dollars worth of drug proceeds to be easily laundered on behalf of Mexican and Colombian drug trafficking organizations, the spokesperson said.

Its hard to imagine that the Chinese communist regime is not somehow involved in both the money laundering operations and the drug-related chemical manufacturing, Maltz said.

How can they not be aware of this activity? Now, whether theyre leading it, whether theyre organizing it, whether theyre directing it, thats an unknown, he said.

Drug cartels are primarily motivated by money and power, but the Chinese motivations go beyond that, Maltz said.

I look at this as another avenue in Chinas global attack against their adversaries, he said. What better way to hurt America than poison the kids and cause all these overdose deaths, at the same time making billions of dollars? I call it a form of chemical war on America, because youre dealing with these potent lethal chemicals that are being produced in these labs in China.

Maltz said the Chinese networks are difficult to penetrate as theres a dearth of undercover agents and informants who look Chinese, speak Chinese, and understand the culture.

And then when you add in encrypted communications, and you add in digital currency, it becomes very complicated, he said.

The rise in digital currency use by criminal organizations coincides with a drop in bulk cash seizures in the United States. In 2011, agents seized more than $741 million in cash, whereas $234 million was seized in 2018, according to a recent DEA report.

Chemicals by the Ton

As smaller methamphetamine labs were being shut down in the United States in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the DEA started targeting the precursor chemicals that were being used to produce the drug.

During that same timeframe, the geniuses in the Sinaloa cartel like Chapo Guzman and others were aligning themselves with the Chinese organized crime groups, and they were importing multi-ton shipments of chemicals from China right into Mexicospecifically to produce methamphetamine, Maltz said.

Super labs were set up in Mexico and the flow of meth across the U.S. border has continued to increase dramaticallyalong with the potency of the drug.

In 2007, a Chinese national was arrested and charged with drug offenses for his role in manufacturing methamphetamine in Mexico to be distributed in the United States. The man, Zhenli Ye Gon, was arrested in Maryland but lived in Mexico. When Mexican authorities searched his residence, they found at least $205 million in U.S. currency stacked in a room.

Thats one guy sitting in Mexico, Maltz said. That gives you an understanding of the magnitude of what were talking about. That was just from chemical sales.

In recent years, the amount of meth being trafficked has increased dramatically. So far this fiscal year, with three months to go, Customs and Border Protection has seized almost 104,000 pounds of meth being trafficked through ports of entry. In comparison, almost 20,000 pounds was seized in fiscal 2014.

The super labs rely on the importation of precursor chemicals from China, as well as India, according to a 2019 DEA report.

Chemical shipments will be mislabeled in China, shipped to legitimate companies in Mexico or Central America, and then diverted by the [cartels] and smuggled overland to the clandestine laboratories, the report states.

Last summer, Maltz said, Mexican authorities seized a meth lab in Mexico that was capable of producing seven tons of meth in three days.

Chinese are also operating all over [in] Panama and areas of Central America, as well as working on large cocaine shipments to Asia and other parts of the world, Maltz said. People dont realize that ethnic Chinese are down there in the trenches organizing large-scale cocaine shipments as well.

Fentanyl

China is perhaps best-known for its connection to the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl. Tons of fentanyl have been manufactured in Chinese labs and mailed directly into peoples homes in the United States through the postal system. More has been brought in via Mexico over the southern border.

Mexican cartels have also increased their production of fentanyl-related products, but still rely on China for the precursor chemicals.

Fentanyl was originally developed as a painkiller and anesthetic. Its 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin, highly addictive, and deadly. It is often pressed into counterfeit prescription oxycodone pills, or mixed into heroin, cocaine, and even marijuana. Buyers may be unaware the drugs they buy contain illicit fentanyl, of which a 2 mg dose can be fatal.

It is also an extremely lucrative drug. One kilogram of fentanyl costs about $5,000 in China, according to Maltz. If the cartels take that kilogram into their labs and cut it with other drugs or press it into pills, they can make $2 million or more by then selling it on American streets.

Fentanyl seizures just in Arizona have more than tripled each year since 2016.

In August 2019, the Mexican navy intercepted a 25-ton shipload of fentanyl originating from China and bound for Culiacan, Sinaloathe home base of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico.

The Chinese and the Mexican cartels have a very lethal relationship right now, said Maltz. Why isnt anybody in America talking about the level of overdose deaths from this poison every day?

In 2018, there was an average of 184 fatal overdoses per day in the United States, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The total for the year was more than 67,000 drug overdose deaths, slightly down from the more than 70,000 in 2017, according to the CDC.

About 70 percent of all drug overdoses are opioid-related, including prescription pills, heroin, and fentanyl.

In August 2018, the DOJ unsealed a 43-count indictment in Cleveland, Ohio, that charged two Chinese citizens with operating a conspiracy that manufactured and shipped deadly fentanyl analogues and 250 other drugs to at least 25 countries and 37 states.

On July 17, the Treasury Department placed sanctions on four Chinese nationals and their organization under the Kingpin Act for their role as significant foreign narcotics traffickers.

The four used a company called Global United Biotechnology Inc. to facilitate drug purchases of fentanyl and other drugs for front man Zheng Fujing, according to the Treasury.

The organization laundered its drug proceeds in part by using digital currency such as bitcoin and transmitted proceeds into and out of bank accounts in China and Hong Kong. The kingpin designation means all property of the individuals and the organization that are in the United States must be blocked and reported.

A rare action by China in November 2019 saw nine fentanyl traffickers sentenced for their roles in manufacturing and distributing drugs. The arrests were made off of a tip by U.S. law enforcement.

However, China expert and retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding expressed skepticism over Chinas move in a Twitter post on Nov. 8, 2019.

If you know anything about Fentanyl and the CCP you will know that this is all designed for the media. It represents no actual change in policy. The CCP is happy to sacrifice a few Chinese for a trade agreement. Since we dont understand this it will be hailed as a big deal, Spalding wrote.

The Chinese regime also pledged that it would widen its control of fentanyl analogues to try to curb the illicit manufacturing and distribution.

Stronger Than Ever

The partnership between Chinese criminal networks and Mexican cartels is stronger than ever. Each has its portion of the business, with the Chinese supplying chemicals and laundering services, while the Mexican cartels take care of the rest.

Barring significant, unanticipated changes to the illicit drug market, Mexican [cartels] will continue, in the near term, to dominate the wholesale importation and distribution of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine, and fentanyl in U.S. markets, the 2019 DEA report states. No other criminal organizations currently possess a logistical infrastructure to rival that of Mexican [cartels].

Using the Chinese organizations to launder money also creates a safety barrier for the cartels, said Maltz.

They recognize that putting the Chinese out frontwho know very little about their organization and their structureis going to be a lower risk on their organization if one of these Chinese guys gets arrested with the money, he said.

Remember chemicals and money are the critical components for the cartels. Without the chemicals, no drugs can be produced. Without the money, they are out of business. They are making billions of dollars and at the same time killing Americans at unprecedented levels.
N early three billion animals were killed or displaced by Australias devastating bushfires, researchers have said.

The figure, which includes mammals, reptiles, birds and frogs, is almost three times the estimate released in January.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which commissioned the report, said the data shows it was one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history.

Blazes swept through Australia towards the end of last year, destroying properties and killing at least 33 people.

An injured koala sits at an emergency wildlife centre on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, which was also ravaged by bushfires / REUTERS

In January the WWF UK Bushfires Appeal raised more than 3.2 million, as thousands of supporters signed up to become "koala protectors" and gave generous donations to help fund the recovery effort.

Funds raised helped provide emergency care for injured wildlife and the planting of the first 10,000 trees urgently needed in koala habitats.

Australia Wildfires & Heatwave: December 2019 - In pictures 1 /30 Australia Wildfires & Heatwave: December 2019 - In pictures A firefighter conducts back burning measures to secure residential areas from encroaching bushfires AFP via Getty Images A helicopter drops fire retardent AFP via Getty Images Tourists Julia Wasmiller (L) and Jessica Pryor take a selfie at Mrs Macquarie's chair, wearing face masks due to heavy smoke Getty Images Smoke haze from bushfires shrouds the harbour bridge and city skyline in Sydney AFP via Getty Images People flock to St Kilda beach as a heat wave sweeps across Victoria, Australia via Reuters Tourists take photos of a smokey Sydney Getty Images Smoke haze from bushfires shrouds the harbour bridge and city skyline in Sydney AFP via Getty Images Fire and Rescue personal watch a wildfire as it burns near homes on the outskirts of the town of Bilpin in Sydney, Australia Getty Images A property burns from bushfires AFP via Getty Images A farmer drives a tractor as he uses a hose to put out a fire burning in his paddock and near homes on the outskirts of the town of Bilpin, Sydney Getty Images A property burns from bushfires AFP via Getty Images An old car burns from bushfires in Balmoral, southwest of Sydney AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images A fireman fights a wildfire AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images Smoke haze from bushfires shrouds the city skyline in Sydne AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images Tourists take photos of a smokey Sydney Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AP AFP via Getty Images

Paul De Ornellas, Chief Wildlife Adviser at WWF UK, said: The scale of the devastation is staggering - that three billion animals have been displaced or killed by the bushfires is a disaster for Australias wildlife.

"We must do all we can to restore what has been lost, and the generosity of the public here in the UK has enabled essential recovery efforts.

Sadly, this is not a one-off event - this summer's fire season will see conditions intensified by the impacts of climate change, yet again threatening people and wildlife in Australia.

"We need urgent global action to tackle the climate and nature crisis - failure to act will make extreme weather standard, with deadly consequences for people and animals not just in Australia, but worldwide.

In the coming months and years, the funds will be used to assess the scale of the loss, restore habitats and support rural community fire management.

Ten scientists from the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales, the University of Newcastle, Charles Sturt University, and BirdLife Australia contributed the majority of the work in the new report.

Professor Chris Dickman, at the University of Sydney, said the research showed people that mega-fires were changing the environment and depleting native biodiversity and change was necessary.

When you think about nearly three billion native animals being in the path of the fires it is absolutely huge, its a difficult number to comprehend," he said.

How quickly can we decarbonise? How quickly can we stop our manic land clearing? We land clear at a rate thats one of the highest in the world.

While the scientists cannot say how many animals died, the prospects for animals which escaped the flames were poor, as their survival was hindered by a lack of food, shelter and available habitat.

In January, Professor Dickman, working with WWF scientists, produced an early estimate that 1.25 billion animals were impacted.

However, that calculation focused only on the states of New South Wales and Victoria. The team has since examined a fire impact area of 11.46 million hectares for this new report.

Dr Lily Van Eeden, at the University of Sydney, added: We believe a continent-wide assessment of the number of animals that might be impacted has never been done in Australia before or anywhere else in the world. Other nations can build upon this research to improve understanding of bushfire impacts everywhere.

The recommendations in the interim report call for addressing knowledge gaps on wildlife densities and responses to fire, improving habitat connectivity to help mobile species escape fire, identifying and protecting unburnt habitat crucial to threatened species, improving fire prevention and management, and establishing rapid response teams to help species impacted by fire.

It is anticipated that the final report will be completed by the end of August 2020. While results are still being finalised for the final report, the headline figure of nearly three billion animals impacted is unlikely to change.
Tens of thousands of people have flocked to Las Vegas for more than 50 years to feast their eyes on the latest technology  but that all changes next year.

Organizers of the wildly popular Consumer Electronics Show (CES) announced that the 2021 tech conference will be held online-only due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Although the event will be digital, viewers can still attend keynotes, meetings, product showcase and networking events and the in-person show is set to resume in 2022.

The news comes a month after the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) said CES would be held physically, as the team was set to implement safety measures, including sanitation stations, contactless scans at entry points and on-site medical aid.

Organizers of the wildly popular Consumer Electronics Show (CES) announced that the 2021 tech conference will be held online-only due to the coronavirus pandemic

With the growing global health concerns about the spread of COVID-19, it is not possible to safely convene tens of thousands of people in Las Vegas in early January 2021 to meet and do business in person, CES shared in the Tuesday announcement.

An all-digital CES 2021 will allow the entire tech community to safely share ideas and introduce the products that will shape our future.

Youll be able to participate in all the awe-inspiring moments of CES wherever you are in the world. We are designing a unique experience for the tech industry.

The CTA notes that the 2021 event will offer a highly personalized experience, as everyone will have a front-row seat to keynotes and conferences.

Although the event will be digital, viewers can still attend keynotes, meetings, product showcase and networking events and the in-person show is set to resume in 2022

Viewers can still explore the show floor and search for products or services of interest, along with have live meetings with others attending.

Tuesdays announcement sings a different tune than the plans CTA revealed in June, which said the show must go on  in so many words.

'You can expect to see a wider selection of livestreamed CES content, along with many other engaging digital and virtual opportunities, enabling you to connect with the world's leading technology innovators, thought leaders and policymakers,' read the June announcement.

'We will showcase our exhibitors' products, technology breakthroughs and ideas to the world, both physically in Las Vegas and digitally.'

However, the recent news may not come as a surprise as many, if not all, in-person conference have been pushed to digital events.

The announcement also comes after an April report that claims to have evidence that this year's CES may have played a key role in US coronavirus outbreak.

The event had carried on amid the outbreak happening in China, which experts say created 'an ideal venue for transmission.'

The announcement comes after a report surfaced claiming the 2020 conference played a key role in spreading the virus in the US. Michael Webber (pictured) attended CES in Jan. and tested positive for antibodies

Multiple attendees became seriously ill following the days after CES, but were dismissed as have nothing more than the 'CES flu' that occurs every year.

What alarmed some experts was that these individuals suffered different symptoms than previous years including fever, shortness of breath, dry cough, pains and body aches  all of which are caused by COVID-19.

A professor who attended the conference came down with a sickness after the event and recently tested positive for coronavirus antibodies  making his case 'the first clear evidence that the virus was likely circulating at the conference.'

The conference was attended by more than 180,000 people, many of whom were from outside of the US, and more than 100 of the people traveled from Wuhan, China where the coronavirus first began.

The news comes from APM Reports, an investigative news publication, which spoke with one of the attendees who recently tested positive for the coronavirus.

The APM Report says Webber's test results are 'the first clear evidence that the virus was likely circulating at the conference'

Michael Webber, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, tested positive for antibodies for Covid-19 in April and although CES was held months ago, he had fallen ill shortly after the conference ended.

Webber told the publication that his 'revelation comes at the same time that public health officials in Northern California, including Silicon Valley, reported three newly confirmed coronavirus deaths.'

He also shared his struggle on Twitter, noting he felt swollen, had body aches, struggled to breath and had a fever for days.

A tweet on January 18 read: 'I know in my brain I don't have this virus,' he wrote.

'But I spent last week in Las Vegas w/ my boss at #CES2020 w/ 170k people including many from China & we got a weird respiratory cold that made us sick for a week so my paranoid self is convinced that I have this new killer virus.'
DALLAS, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, today announced details of the much-anticipated fall edition of its popular Pwn2Own competition, which this year will be open to virtual participants.

Pwn2Own Tokyo is usually held during the PacSec Conference in the Japanese capital, with the focus on hacking physical devices such as mobile phones, TVs, smart speakers and wireless routers.

Due to concerns around COVID-19, PacSec will take place virtually on Nov. 1-6, 2020. To ensure Pwn2Own Tokyo can still go ahead at the same time, we will be hosting live from Trend Micro's Toronto office (Nov. 3-5, 2020), where Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) researchers will be able to run exploit code submitted remotely by participants on the physical devices.

"Pwn2Own has been helping Trend Micro fulfil its mission to secure the connected world for more than a decade and we look forward to welcoming another group of extremely talented, highly-motivated entrants this year," said Brian Gorenc, senior director of vulnerability research and head of Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative. "We're delighted to have found a way to ensure everyone who wants to will be able to participate, regardless of where they are in the world."

As for the contest itself, Facebook returns as a partner for this year's event, again offering their Oculus Quest and Portal from Facebook devices as targets. This year, competitors will also get to probe handsets from Huawei, Samsung, Google, Apple and Xiaomi, as well as wearables, smart home equipment, TVs, routers, and NAS servers.

The top prize for a single exploit is $160,000 if a contestant is able to compromise the iPhone and the payload runs with kernel privileges and survives a reboot. In total, Pwn2Own Tokyo will have 20 devices available as targets and more than $500,000 USD in prize money.

Participants will also be awarded Master of Pwn points for each successful attempt, with the individual accruing the most points awarded the coveted title of overall winner. They will also receive an impressive trophy and an additional 65,000 ZDI reward points, elevating them to instant Platinum status to unlock a range of additional benefits.

Entrants must register before the contest deadline (October 29, 2020), and will also need to send a detailed whitepaper by November 1, 2020 explaining their exploit chain, with instructions on how to run it. Those who have travel restrictions or travel-safety concerns can opt to compete remotely.

Trend Micro will be blogging and tweeting results in real-time throughout the competition. We encourage you to keep an eye on the blog for the latest results. Follow us on Twitter at @thezdi and @trendmicro, and keep an eye on the #P2OTokyo hashtag for continuing coverage.

Full contest rules and additional Pwn2Own Tokyo Live from Toronto information can be found here: https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/blog/2020/7/28/announcing-pwn2own-tokyo-2020-live-from-toronto.

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. All our products work together to seamlessly share threat intelligence and provide a connected threat defense with centralized visibility and control, enabling better, faster protection. With nearly 6,000 employees in over 50 countries and the world's most advanced global threat intelligence, Trend Micro enables organizations to secure their journey to the cloud. For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com.

SOURCE Trend Micro Incorporated

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She could tell her story over and over again like no one else could, Fritzshall said. She did it all over the world. I always admired her strength. She was able to do what so many of us could not do.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-27 23:41:20|Editor: huaxia

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Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, attends and addresses a symposium on how to strengthen the development of religious personnel in the country, in Beijing, capital of China, July 27, 2020. The symposium was organized by the committee for ethnic and religious affairs of the CPPCC National Committee. (Xinhua/Gao Jie)

BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese political advisors on Monday joined a symposium in Beijing to discuss how to strengthen the development of religious personnel in the country.

Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, attended and addressed the symposium.

Noting that training religious personnel is crucial to advancing the cause of religion in China, Wang called for efforts to train more qualified and patriotic religious personnel to promote the healthy development of all faiths and guide religions to adapt to a socialist society.

A total of 11 political advisors, young and middle-aged representatives from the religious field and religious experts and scholars shared their experience at the symposium.

Participants called for upholding Party leadership while training religious personnel and guiding religious figures to firmly establish the sense of state, citizenship, and rule of law.

Religious schools should be important bases for the development of patriotic religious personnel, interpreting religious doctrines correctly, and training existing religious staff, said the participants.

Participants also called for attaching importance to the training of high-level representatives of the religious circle, stepping up the development of primary-level religious staff, and promoting exchanges to broaden the international horizon of religious figures.

The symposium was organized by the committee for ethnic and religious affairs of the CPPCC National Committee. Enditem
After the tragic death of a 9-year-old Florida girl due to COVID-19, her family is urging people to do what they can to slow to spread of the coronavirus.

I pray that what they take away from the story and what they learn is COVID-19 is something serious, Dejeon Cain, family spokesperson, told TODAY. If we continue with this path, in the same behavior in our state and in our country, we're going to lose a lot of more lives and a lot more young lives.

The family is based in Northeast Florida. The state surpassed 400,000 total coronavirus cases last week, and has an average of over 10,000 new cases per day. As cases are spiking, public schools are expected to reopen next month which led the largest teachers union in Florida to sue Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Family remembers Kimora

Kimora Kimmie Lynum's death highlights the many unknown questions about how the coronavirus impacts children. Kimmie is thought to be one of the youngest coronavirus victims in Florida. In July, she contracted COVID-19 and died soon after. Cain said the family does not wish to discuss the details of Kimmies illness but noted that she had no risk factors that made her more susceptible to COVID-19.

She had no underlying conditions, Cain said. She was a very healthy young lady and that is according to the Putnam County coroner's office.

It is unclear how Kimmie contracted the virus.

Related:

TODAY reached out to the Florida Department of Health for a statement, but has not received a response. Kimmies death comes on the heels on another family tragedy: Kimmies dad, Theophilus Lynum, died about a month and a half earlier. Cain said during that funeral he saw that Kimmie had a resilience about her that the family remembers as they mourn her. Their faith is helping them navigate this challenging time.

God is able to keep us together, Cain said. It has been very difficult, very hard  we want to get the positive message out about things that will strengthen our family.

Story continues

When Kimora

The family set up a Go Fund Me to help cover Kimmie's funeral expenses. Remembering how upbeat and kind Kimmie was certainly helps the family grapple with their grief.

You wont find a better child. She always had a smile. Always happy, just joyous, and she brings smiles to others, Cain said. She was just remarkable.

He hopes that by hearing about Kimmie, people will social distance and wear masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus  and prevent others from losing loved ones.

Kimora

This pandemic is definitely catastrophic, he said. We need to adjust and get along with the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines and also understand that social distance is very, very important. And we need to take our time so that we can get this virus under control in our country, in our neighborhoods.
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Linkedin Dmitry Zaks (Agence France-Presse) London  Tue, July 28, 2020 15:02 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669ee68d 2 Books Booker-Prize,Book,Literature Free

Eight debut novelists came up against veterans Hilary Mantel and Tsitsi Dangarembga when Britain unveiled a US-dominated longlist of finalists Tuesday for its revered Booker Prize.

One of the world's most celebrated literary competitions tore up the rule book last year by splitting the fiction award between Canada's Margaret Atwood and Anglo-Nigerian author Bernardine Evaristo.

It courted controversy on this occasion by pitting nine Americans or dual-US citizens against just three Britons and Zimbabwe's Dangarembga.

"There are voices from minorities often unheard, stories that are fresh, bold and absorbing," judges' panel chair Margaret Busby said.

"Unplanned, our final selection encompasses both seasoned favorites and debut talents -- a truly satisfying outcome."

'Year of seismic change'

The title of best work of English-language fiction published in the United Kingdom and Ireland has launched careers and caused countless arguments since its creation in 1969.

Past laureates have ranged from contemporary giants such as Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes to Kazuo Ishiguro and Roddy Doyle.

This year's 13-title longlist -- to be whittled down to a shortlist of six on September 15 before the winner is unveiled in November -- features nine female authors.

"In this year of seismic change, visibility for new books published in the UK has been drastically low," the Booker Prize Foundation's literary director Gaby Wood said.

"So, however unintended the ratio, its especially heartening to know that some authors who have launched their careers in the midst of COVID-19 may now have a chance to reach the readers they deserve.

The five-judge panel picked through 162 novels either published or scheduled for release in the 12 months ending on September 30.

Britain was represented by Mantel -- nominated for "The Mirror & The Light" -- and debutants Sophie Ward and Gabriel Krauze.

Mantel won the Booker in 2009 for "Wolf Hall" and in 2012 for "Bring Up the Bodies".

The panel said her latest entry "completes a tragic arc in which Thomas Cromwell is finally brought down by the police state he designed".

Mantel's "masterful exhibition of sly dialogue and exquisite description brings the Tudor world alive," the panel of judges said.

Read also: Female authors lead International Booker Prizes 2020 shortlist

'Sweep of history'

Irish-American US National Book Award winner Colum McCann was nominated for "Apeirogon" about two Israeli and Palestinian fathers coming together over shared grief at losing their sons. He was longlisted for "TransAtlantic" in 2013.

The panel called "Apeirogon" "a moving reflection on what it might mean to make peace between two warring sides."

Dangarembga's nomination for "This Mournable Body" is her first in a distinguished career that has spanned four decades and featured plays and films.

Her new book "drew an immediate reaction like a sharp intake of breath from all of us on the panel," the judges said.

"The breakdown of the protagonist and the breakdown of a country are inextricably linked in this arresting novel from a mercurial writer."

Panel chair Busby said the longlist features "novels carried by the sweep of history".

The works "represent a moment of cultural change, or the pressures an individual faces in pre- and post-dystopian society," she said.

Organizers said the 2020 winner will receive 50,000 ($64,000 / 55,000 euros) "and can expect international recognition".
By Azernews





By Akbar Mammadov

Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has thanked Iranian Ambassador Javad Jahangirzadeh for voicing Tehran's fair position over the military provocation committed by Armenian armed forces in the Azerbaijan-Armenian border on July 12, the ministrys press service reported on 27 July.

Bayramov made the remarks while receiving Jahangirzadeh on the occasion of the end of his diplomatic mission in Azerbaijan.

Bayramov commended Iran's position on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that is based on international law as well as Iran's unequivocal support for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity.

It was emphasized during the meeting that Iran has always supported Azerbaijans territorial integrity. Moreover, during the meeting, it was stressed that Azerbaijan's concerns is also shared by Iran.

Furthermore, Bayramov spoke about the development of friendly, fraternal and cooperative relations between the two countries in the form of mutual respect and support based on deep historical roots.

The minister noted the development of relations and mutual support between the two countries in the regional and multilateral frameworks.

Recalling Azerbaijans national leader Heydar Aliyev's contribution to these relations, the minister said that the development of cooperation at the level of leaders of both countries is in the focus of attention.

In turn, Jahangirzadeh on behalf of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, congratulated Bayramov on his recent appointment as the Foreign Minister. The ambassador also expressed his gratitude for the support provided to him during his diplomatic term.

Jahangirzadeh stressed that all opportunities were mobilized for the development of bilateral relations during his tenure as ambassador, and expressed confidence that his successor will spare no effort to further develop these relations.

The ambassador recalled Azerbaijans support to Iran over coronavirus pandemic, saying that this help will not be forgotten.

The sides also exchanged views on other issues of mutual interest.








Patna, July 28 : Late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's suicide case took a new turn after it emerged on Tuesday that his father K.K. Singh has filed an FIR in the Rajiv Nagar police station here accusing six people, including actress Rhea Chakraborty for abetment to suicide.

Chakraborty has admitted to being the late actor's girlfriend in an open letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah pleading for a CBI probe in the matter.

Rajiv Nagar police station in-charge Yogendra Ravidas on Tuesday said Sushant Singh Rajput's father K.K. Singh has accused six people, including Chakraborty for abetment to suicide in his complaint (FIR number 241/20). The police is investigating the case." According to sources a four-member police team from Patna has left for Mumbai to investigate the claims made in the FIR.

Chakraborty had earlier disclosed that she received rape and murder threats on social media over the actor's death and added that she "only wanted to understand what prompted him to take the step".

Sushant Singh Rajput allegedly committed suicide on June 14 in his flat in Bandra. While Mumbai Police is already investigating the case and even several people have been interrogated.

Several organisations have been demanding CBI probe into the matter as the death of the actor has literally opened a can of worms with nepotism charges, groupism and lobbying in Bollywood coming to the fore with many people coming out of closets with their claims of being sidelined by a selected group.

So far, around 40 people have already recorded their statements, including director-producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali, filmmaker Aditya Chopra, director Mukesh Chhabra, filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor, film critic Rajeev Masand, director Mahesh Bhatt among others.

Chakraborty's statement was recorded at Bandra Police Station on June 18, four days after Sushant's demise.

"#SushantSinghRajput 's father, #KKSingh has registered an FIR against Actress #RheaChakraborty in #Patna. He has alleged that Rhea took money from Sushant and instigated him to commit suicide. Sushant and Rhea dated for a while before the actor died by suicide on June 14," trade analyst Ramesh Bala tweeted from his verified account on Tuesday evening.

Bollywood actor Shekhar Suman, who has been actively voicing his demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into Sushant's death, tweeted from an unverified account on Tuesday evening: "Case filed against Rhea and her family under section 306 for abetment to suicide..also section 340 and 342.#CBICantBeDeniedForSSR" "Good news coming in..Presumably, the cops from Patna are in Bombay already after an FIR has been filed by Sushanr's family and a SIT has been formed to investigate the matter. #CBICantBeDeniedForSSR #justiceforsushanthforum," Suman mentioned in a separate tweet.

Sushant Singh Rajput made his Bollywood debut in 2013 with the movie - "Kai Po Che". He was appreciated for his performance in 2015 movie "Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!", "MS Dhoni: The Untold Story", "Sonchiriya" and "Chhichhore".

"Dil Bechara", his last movie that was released online on July 24 on Disney+ Hotstar, has drawn praise from critics.
The Chinese probably thought its brutal assault was a knock-out, but they had not counted on the ingenuity, loyalty and courage of battle-trained Indian officers and jawans.

David Devadas pieces together what happened on the night of June 15 in the Galwan Valley.

IMAGE: A satellite image of the Galwan Valley in Ladakh. Photograph: Reuters

The battle at Galwan on June 15 illustrated how a well-trained army can most effectively deploy resources and tactics on the run, even as masses of deadly opponents attack it as fast as in a video game.

That night's events ought to be a case study at the finest war colleges. For, the most legendary tacticians in history, from Henry V at Agincourt to Mehmet II at Constantinople, would have been proud to own the tactics employed.

Many of the Chinese troops were from the PLA's Special Forces, the equivalent of the US Marines. And yet the Indian soldiers were able to chase them deep into the Galwan Valley. Indeed half-a-dozen soldiers went so deep that they only found their way back late the next evening.

Early reverses

The country has mainly been told about the first brief phase of that battle, though the entire fighting lasted through most of that night.

That first phase went very badly for the Indians, since the Chinese ambushed them.

During the ambush, the commanding officer of the 16 Bihar regiment, Colonel Santosh Babu, and the 20 soldiers, including two other officers, who had gone with him were brutally assaulted with medieval weapons.

I am told that Colonel Babu was hit on the back of his head and apparently fell into the stream. It was a fatal injury.

I am also told that more than half of the 20 Indian casualties that night took place when that first group was ambushed by a larger number of Chinese armed with bunches of sticks wrapped with barbed wire.

Amazing comeback

The Chinese probably thought that brutal assault was a knock-out, but they had not counted on the ingenuity, loyalty and courage of battle-trained Indian officers and jawans.

Through the next three phases of that night's battle, scores of Indian reinforcements suffered much fewer additional casualties than they apparently imposed on their opponents.

An officer almost as senior as Colonel Babu had shadowed the lead team with a small team of soldiers.

When he saw the ambush from a distance, he promptly called in reinforcements. I am told he then led a bayonet charge which took the fight to another level.

I am told the lieutenant colonel (now a full colonel), was one of the Indian Army's most proficient Ghatak warriors. He certainly earned fresh spurs that night.

Since Ghatak warriors are trained for hand-to-hand combat, he and his men were able to inflict severe damage on their opponents, even after the latter called up substantial reinforcements.

Severely outnumbered

Even after Indian reinforcements arrived to take the battle into its third phase, they were severely outnumbered by the Chinese reinforcements -- ten to one, according to one officer's estimate.

Yet, they went into the fight ferociously, proving equal to the larger numbers of Chinese troops.

I am told that most of the reinforcements were from the 3 Medium Artillery Regiment and the 3 Punjab Regiment.

But as word spread that a 'CO saab' had been killed by the Chinese, enraged soldiers of all sorts rushed pell-mell to the battleground.

I am told that two nursing assistants and several signals operators were among those who joined the battle.

The reinforcements fought doughtily. One Gurtej Singh is said to have fought with great prowess, taking down a large number of opponents before he was felled.

PLA officer captured

One of the Chinese looked important. So, later that night, a spirited bunch of soldiers decided to grab him and carry him back.

That chance move took a turn more like a Hollywood thriller the next morning.

When the Chinese commander called up to ask worriedly about him, it turned out that he was the officer in charge of the PLA special forces in Galwan.

I am told PLA special forces had just arrived to take over the Galwan area. Colonel Babu had gone trustingly because he had a good equation with the CO earlier in charge there. Instead, he found the special forces waiting in ambush.

Far more truculent than those who were earlier deployed, they were the ones who used nail-studded maces.

Of course, capturing a special forces officer is a huge feather in any military cap. As one officer exulted: "The catch was definitely prized. Just think (it is like) we get the CO of the (US)Navy Seals."

Two very different Indian officers have told me that that Chinese officer's capture decidedly turned the tide of the battle at Galwan. The Chinese morale nosedived.

Objective achieved

Later that night, a group of Gorkha soldiers joined battle along with a team of engineers who, I am told, wrought havoc of a different sort in the fourth phase of the battle at Galwan, completing the military objective of that night's operation.

After the major setback with which the night began, it is truly commendable that the military objective was achieved amid the fog of war which, in every sense of that term, enveloped that night.

If the government had not chosen to only own the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers, distancing itself from the outstanding displays of prowess on that battlefield, it could have been a tremendous morale-booster at a time when the nation is confused about the government's strategy in response to a strident Chinese challenge.

Indeed, to prevent details from emerging, mobile communications were shut down at the front for a week after the battle, and soldiers's phones were confiscated. The videos some of them had taken of the mayhem on the battlefield by the early morning were not allowed out.

However, some information has spread among other officers, and I have pieced together what happened that night through chats with a couple of mid-ranking officers who have had authentic information from the front.

I hope the officers who led the fight back are duly recognised on Republic Day if not on this Independence Day. The country must acknowledge how valiantly the army fought against great odds that night.

The government, which initially focused on preventing escalation, must re-think how to treat the battle of Galwan in light of the clear evidence that has emerged in the last six weeks that China is in any case intent on escalating hostilities right across the two countries' boundaries.

David Devadas, the author of The Story of Kashmir and The Generation of Rage in Kashmir, is a political and geostrategic analyst.
Line of Duty (Credit: BBC)

Line of Duty writer Jed Mercurio has said that the cop show was initially rejected by BBC One when it was first pitched.

Mercurio, who also wrote Bodyguard, has accused the broadcaster of selective amnesia, taking aim at the former controller of BBC One, who he does not name.

That particular controller never had to justify her decision. It didnt affect her career, that she turned down something that went on to be the biggest BBC1 drama currently returning, he told the Radio Times.

Everybody, and every TV commissioner or TV executive, who was involved in rejecting Line of Duty now pretends that it didnt happen.

Jed Mercurio (Getty Images)

He went on: Its not that I seethe, were in a fantastic position and Im certainly not bitter. But if you consider all the other projects that have been rejected over the years, the opportunities missed, and the ones that still are rejected, then of course its disappointing.

You worry that something that youve worked on and you believe in is never going to see the light of day.

Mercurio's series, about the fictional AC-12 police anti-corruption squad, first aired in 2012, starring Martin Compston, Vicky McClure Gina McKee, Adrian Dunbar and Lennie James.

It moved to BBC One after its third series, with its fifth series, airing in 2019, averaging nearly 13 million viewers.

Series six began filming in Belfast in February this year, but was curtailed by the coronavirus lockdown.

Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, Mercurio said that the footage already shot could now be axed.

Were all considering [a rewrite]. We shot for four weeks in a pre-lockdown world, and all that material would have to be reshot if we were going to change things, he said.

First day of filming #LineofDuty6 @BBCOne @worldprods. It's great to be back on the hunt for bent coppers. Rest assured our camera crew will do better than my amateur snaps. pic.twitter.com/R2564QTzGC  Jed Mercurio (@jed_mercurio) February 17, 2020

That would have huge cost implications, but we are considering it.

The show is likely to return in 2021.
NATO AGS Force's remotely piloted aircraft fleet continues to grow

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

Jul 27 2020

SIGONELLA, Italy -- On July 26, 2020, the fourth remotely piloted aircraft of NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) Force arrived at the Italian Air Force Base in Sigonella, Italy. The aircraft took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California, USA, at 18:33 local time on July 25 and landed at Sigonella at 16:20 local time the following day, almost 22 hours later.

The arrival of the fourth aircraft represents another successful step for NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance Force. Less than two weeks after the landing of the third RQ-4D remotely piloted aircraft, also called "Phoenix", the NATO AGS Force's fleet of five total aircraft is near completion.

"The arrival of the fourth aircraft enhances our capabilities with greater redundancy and flexibility. The NATO AGS Force continues our advance in becoming NATO's key provider of regional 'indications and warning' information to members of the NATO Alliance," announced NATO AGS Force Commander Brigadier General Houston Cantwell.

Procuring the Alliance Ground Surveillance System is the responsibility of the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Management Agency (NAGSMA).

"Having now four out of five NATO AGS aircraft in SIGONELLA demonstrates the commitment and ability of the AGS procuring nations and of NAGSMA to deliver the NATO AGS system while increasing our flexibility in testing the system. It also provides the NATO AGS Force additional equipment for familiarization and training", said Brigadier General Volker Samanns, the General Manager of the Agency.

This latest crossing of the Atlantic from California to Italy was entirely controlled by industry pilots at the Alliance Ground Surveillance Force's Main Operating Base in Sigonella, in the same manner as the first three ferry flights. Following arrival, the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Management Agency and the Italian Airworthiness Authorities will finalize the required documentation and hand-over the system to the Force as soon as possible.

Story by Allied Air Command Public Affairs Office

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The 360 shows you diverse perspectives on the days top stories and debates.

Whats happening

Given the way Joe Biden has been characterized by his competitors during the 2020 election cycle, the average voter could be forgiven for being confused over where he fits on the political spectrum.

During the Democratic primary, the former vice president was framed by rivals as a centrist with antiquated ideas relative to the more progressive candidates in the race. Now that he has advanced to the general election, Biden is being called a hapless tool of the extreme left by the presidents reelection campaign.

Anyones place on the political spectrum is, of course, relative. Biden will always look like a moderate when compared to a democratic socialist like Bernie Sanders. Any Democratic nominee would be well to the left of a conservative Republican like President Trump. The same is true of Bidens policy proposals. Few of his plans go far enough to satisfy the left wing of the Democratic Party. At the same time, his proposals on many issues are significantly more progressive than Barack Obamas or Hillary Clintons.

Why theres debate

A popular view of Biden is that he is a consummate moderate, who has worked to find the center of the Democratic Party throughout his career. His shift to the left relative to his predecessors, then, could be seen as a response to the partys broader move in that direction. A public option, the central element of Bidens health care plan, was seen as too progressive by a decisive number of Senate Democrats when the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2009. Today a public option is considered the moderate position when compared to Medicare for All proposals championed by some of his competitors in the primary.

That view, some argue, undersells how truly progressive Bidens platform is. After winning the nomination, he partnered with Sanders to create a unity task force to find common ground between the left and moderate wings of the party. The resulting compromises, which were released earlier this month, would make Biden the most progressive president since FDR, Sanders said. In addition to health care reform, Bidens agenda includes aggressive action to curb climate change, a $700 billion investment in American manufacturing, significant police reforms, free universal prekindergarten programs and $4 trillion in tax increases on the richest Americans.

Story continues

What Biden doesnt call for, however, is the systemic overhauls that the progressive wing of the party supports. He has routinely rejected Medicare for All, the Green New Deal and, more recently, calls to defund the police. There are also questions from progressives about Bidens level of commitment to his policy agenda if he were to become president. His frequent talk of finding compromise with Republicans and reluctance to support abolishing the filibuster are seen as a signal that he might abandon his most aggressive policies in order to get a deal done, some on the left say.

Whats next

Bidens choice of running mate will provide a signal of his vision for the future of the country, especially given the common belief that he would only serve one term if elected. Partnering with a progressive figure like Elizabeth Warren could set the stage for an even bigger shift to the left from Democrats by the time the 2024 election comes around.

Perspectives

Bidens platform isnt a revolution, but its still a major restructuring of our political system

Biden is not a socialist. Hes not a radical. But he is running on the most liberal policy platform of any Democratic candidate in modern American history. And if he wins the presidency, it could usher in a period of progressive victories unlike anything since the Great Society of the 1960s.  Michael A. Cohen, Boston Globe

Despite his shift to the left, Biden is still a moderate

Overall, its a left of center agenda, close to where the public is, though it would have to be modified to be enacted. It is not radical.  Al Hunt, The Hill

He is very liberal relative to all previous Democratic nominees

Biden is a moderate compared to Sanders, but he is notably to the left of previous Democratic standard-bearers. To describe Biden as a moderate without this context is to ignore the specifics of his agenda and the leftward shift in Democratic Party politics it represents.  Peter Suderman, Reason

Biden is listening to progressives, but may not follow their advice

While liberal activists have lauded the campaigns outreach to progressives, Bidens team hasnt necessarily promised to act on the input theyve received.  Kara Voght, Mother Jones

Biden has drifted left along with public opinion

Biden is not progressives champion: He does not push the envelope in the ways they want, and he has not endorsed their most ambitious ideas. But public opinion has been shifting leftward, and Bidens thinking has shifted with it, creating a platform that progressives are genuinely excited about.  Matthew Yglesias, Vox

He cant move too far left without alienating swing voters

He is going to have to find a way of keeping his balance  find a way of pulling together the main arguments and objectives of the different pieces of the party in a way that keeps him within hailing distance of the center of gravity in the country.  political scientist William Galston to Wall Street Journal

He has rejected the most divisive left-wing policies

He has very intentionally resisted taking symbolic positions that might sound to some like hes running to the left. Just as in the primaries he rejected abolish ICE when it was suggested, more recently he refused to join calls to defund the police.  By visibly rejecting the slogan, Biden shows that hes more moderate than some in his party, and certainly more moderate than leftists who dont consider themselves Democrats.  Paul Waldman, Washington Post

The coronavirus could push Biden further to the left

Biden has always been a creature of his time, and the COVID-19 crisis could force him to veer further left than he ever would have in another context.  Ross Barkan, GQ

As president, Biden would allow the far left to control his decision-making

Biden has proven only that he is an empty husk. Old Joe, who was for police and working people and law and order, is long gone. His body is there but, like his party, it has been invaded by the socialist left.  Miranda Devine, New York Post

Biden has a lot of work to do if he wants to gain the trust of progressives

Skepticism about Mr. Biden runs deep on the left.  Some progressives regard him as just the sort of compromised, compromising, politics-as-usual establishment tool standing in the way of meaningful change, and they fear that he has surrounded himself with other establishment tools who see the activist base as a threat to the existing power structure that must be neutralized.  Michelle Cottle, New York Times

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The analysis included information from 4,918 men and 5,634 women who participated in the Framingham Study. These individuals were followed for a first hip fracture between Jan. 1, 1970, and Dec. 31, 2010. The rates for hip fractures, which were adjusted for age, dropped by 4.4% each year across the 40-year study period. The decrease was seen in both men and women.In this group, the rate of smoking decreased from 38% in the 1970s to 15% in the period from 2006 to 2010. During the same period, heavy drinking (defined as three or more drinks per day) fell from 7% to 4.5%. The rates of other risk factors for hip fractures, such as underweight and early menopause, did not change over the study period."This study points to the continued need for public health interventions to target modifiable lifestyle factors such as smoking and drinking, in addition to considering osteoporosis treatments in individuals at risk of hip fractures," said Bhattacharyya."As we learn more about lifestyle factors that impact bone health, we continue to conduct research aimed at understanding all the factors that contribute to reducing fractures, including both lifestyle and medications, so that we can all live longer lives without disability," Robert H. Carter, M.D., acting director of NIAMS, added.The Framingham Heart Study launched in 1948 to determine factors that contribute to cardiovascular disease. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, assumed responsibility for the project in 1949. Though many of the original participants have passed away, the study continues to examine another two generations of residents in and near Framingham, Massachusetts.The study authors note that because the data was exclusively from white individuals, it is unclear whether other populations might show a similar correlation based on lifestyle factors. Another limiting factor was that Framingham participants had lower rates of obesity than the national average. Additionally, the study did not include measurements of bone mineral density, because such testing was not available until the 1990s.Source: Eurekalert
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., defended controversial comments he made over the weekend after coming under fire for claiming that America's Founding Fathers considered slavery a "necessary evil."

Cotton attempted to explain comments he made during an interview with the Arkansas Democratic-Gazette, in which he criticized The New York Times over an initiative that would reframe U.S. history lessons by marking the country's founding as 1619, the year the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia.

"This is the definition of fake news," Cotton tweeted Sunday. "I said that *the Founders viewed slavery as a necessary evil* and described how they put the evil institution on the path to extinction, a point frequently made by Lincoln."

Cotton faced fierce backlash over the weekend after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published an article about the senator's efforts to target the Times initiative.

PHOTO: Sen. Tom Cotton attends a press conference announcing Senate Republicans' opposition to D.C. statehood on Capitol Hill July 1, 2020 in Washington. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

"We have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we cant understand our country," Cotton said in the interview. "As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction."

In response, Cotton, a strong ally of President Donald Trump, said he's working on legislation that would withhold federal funding from schools that implemented the 1619 curriculum.

Cotton said he drafted the "Saving American History Act of 2020", claiming that America was founded on the ideals of the Declaration of Independence rather than on the history of enslaved people, which began more than 100 years before the Declaration was signed. His bill would also make schools that teach the 1619 Project ineligible for federal professional-development grants.

MORE: en. Tom Cotton bill would prohibit federal funding for teaching The 1619 Project

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"The New York Timess 1619 Project is a racially divisive, revisionist account of history that denies the noble principles of freedom and equality on which our nation was founded. Not a single cent of federal funding should go to indoctrinate young Americans with this left-wing garbage," Cotton said in a release.

"Curriculum is a matter for local decisions, and if local left-wing school boards want to fill their childrens heads with anti-American rot, thats their regrettable choice, he told the paper. "But they ought not to benefit from federal tax dollars to teach Americas children to hate America."

Cotton called the proposed reinterpretation a distortion of American history, according to the paper. He dismissed the 1619 Project as left-wing propaganda and revisionist history at its worst, the paper reported.

MORE: Backlash after Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton pushes Trump to invoke Insurrection Act in NYT op-ed: 'Send in the Troops'

Cotton said he doesn't, personally, support the concept that slavery was a "necessary evil," but Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones pushed back on those claims via Twitter, saying, "You said, quote: 'As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built.' That 'as' denotes agreement. Further, if by path to extinction you mean growing the enslaved (population) from 500k to 4 million at Civil War, a war fought over slavery, then, ok."

Cotton responded to Hannah-Jones' tweet on Sunday, calling it "more lies from the debunked 1619 Project."

"Describing the *views of the Founders* and how they put the evil institution on a path to extinction, a point frequently made by Lincoln, is not endorsing or justifying slavery," he tweeted. "No surprise that the 1619 Project can't get facts right."

ABC News' Bobby Gehlen contributed to this report.

Sen. Tom Cotton defends controversial slavery comments amid backlash originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Hundreds of people were crammed into a Jackson Township mansion Sunday night, dancing as music played in the background.

But the out-of-control Airbnb house party held in the normally quiet Whispering Hills section of Jackson Township would soon be shut down.
Bill Barr asserted Tuesday Roger Stone and Michael Flynn were not treated fairly by prosecutors claiming Justice Department individuals were trying to levy harsher sentences because of their relationships with President Donald Trump.

'I agree the president's friends do not deserve special breaks, but they also don't deserve to be treated more harshly than other people,' the U.S. Attorney General said during a Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday afternoon.

'The cases that are cited, the Stone case and the Flynn case  both cases where I determined that some intervention was necessary to rectify the rule of law to make sure people are treated the same,' he continued during Republican Representative Mike Jonhson's questioning.

Barr acknowledged that it's difficult for the Justice Department to treat everyone fairly 'especially when you know you will be castigated' for decisions and outcomes.

'But that is what the rule of law is and that's what fairness to the individual ultimately comes to  being willing to do what's right for the individual,' he assured.

Johnson replied to Barr's response with an 'Amen.'

Stone served as an adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign and General Flynn served as the president's national security adviser for only one month in the beginning of his presidency.

Both men faced lawsuits involving their time with Trump and their communications with Russia  as related to the investigation into the Kremlin interfering in the 2016 presidential election.

Attorney General Bill Barr said Tuesday that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign aide Roger Stone were treated 'more harshly' by prosecutors due to their ties with the president

'I agree the president's friends do not deserve special breaks, but they also don't deserve to be treated more harshly than other people,' Barr said of the two cases

Barr made the claim in response to Rep. Mike Johnson during his questioning time at the House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday. Johnson responded, 'Amen' to Barr's comments

Stone (left) and Flynn (right) were both prosecuted as relating to their ties to Trump and communications with Russia. Stone's five-nine-year sentence was commuted by Trump and Flynn's charges were dropped by Barr's DOJ

A court in Washington D.C. recommended Stone serve between seven and nine years for lying to Congress.

Trump and senior administration officials decried the decision as a 'miscarriage of justice,' prompting speculation that there was political interference, with critics claiming the sentencing should have actually been more harsh.

'Stone was prosecuted under me, and I said all along I thought that was a righteous prosecution,' Barr told House lawmakers during the oversight hearing Tuesday. 'I thought he should go to jail, and I thought the judge's sentence was correct.'

'But the lying prosecutors were trying to advocate for a sentence that was more than twice what anyone else in a similar position had ever served,' he claimed.

'And this is a 67-year-old man, first-time offender, no violence,' the Attorney General said of Stone. 'And they were trying to put him in jail for seven to nine years. And I wasn't going to advocate that, because that is not the rule of law.'

On July 10, 2020, Trump commuted his former campaign aide's sentence  just days before he was set to report to prison.

Flynn was also charged during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, but he agreed to a plea bargain in a D.C. court.

As part of the agreement, and in a show of cooperation with Mueller's investigation, the three-star retired general pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations with Russia's ambassador.

Trump publicly called for the charged against his former adviser to be dropped.

Flynn was never officially sentenced, with his hearing being indefinitely postponed just one day before the scheduled date amid appeals and developing information  including his claim that his previous lawyers violated his constitutional rights by providing inadequate legal counsel.

Barr declared in February of this year that Flynn's case would be reviewed by a Trump-appointed prosecutor, who ultimately recommended in the spring that Barr drop the charges .

The U.S. attorney general took that recommendation.
Businesswomen Joanne Russell followed her instincts when she closed her dry-cleaning business to focus on farm and family life. Apart from running the dry-cleaners, she was also working as a florist and says the long hours just were not working for her.

"I knew I needed to make a change. I wanted something more family-friendly and I knew our farm had the potential to be my solution," says Joanne.

Joanne and her husband David decided to dedicate three to four acres of their 97 acre holding to a new agri-tourism business at White Strand near Doonbeg in west Clare.

"Some years back, my father Michael bought land, which was adjoining our land. There was an old farmhouse and two cottages on it, which he renovated and then put up for rent through an agent. In 2017, I took over running the cottages myself. I knew there was also potential for another form of self-catering or glamping accommodation because of the interest we were getting in the cottages," says Joanne.

Wanting something unique and quirky, David came up with the idea of 'camping pods'. These are small, half-moon shaped, wooden structures for guest accommodation.

There was an old orchard on the farm and they reckoned it would be the perfect space for the pods. However, sourcing the materials they needed was not easy.

"We did our research and realised that we couldn't source any of the materials for the pods in Ireland," says Joanne.

Expand Close Joanne and David are now planning to grow the business and build an additional three pods. Photo: Eamon Ward / Facebook

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Whatsapp Joanne and David are now planning to grow the business and build an additional three pods. Photo: Eamon Ward

But with their hearts set on the pod business, they kept looking and eventually located the right materials in the UK.

David prepared the area for the pods and also put in a large shared bathroom, which would be used by both pods. "The bathroom is huge and well equipped. It was actually a bathroom which was due to be fitted in a hotel that never went ahead. We got lucky with it," says Joanne.

When the pod materials arrived, David, along with Michael and Joanne's brother Michael Jnr, built them. "As well as being a beef farmer, David is an electrician by trade, so he wired the pods, which was great," says Joanne.

Joanne and David then got a local kitchen fitter to fit a small kitchen unit in each pod. They sourced a double bed and a sofa bed for each pod from local suppliers and kitted out each pod.

"With the pods having a double bed and a sofa bed each, they can each sleep two adults and two children," says Joanne.

The nearby cottages are fitted with a solid fuel stove, TV and compact kitchen and each has its own courtyard.

"In times gone by, the cottages were actually stables, however by the time Dad bought the land, they had been converted to cottages.

"They were badly run down and there was a lot of work to be done. We have continued to improve them. They had traditional floors, which we had to level out and we also dry-lined each of the cottages," says Joanne.

Staycations

The area surrounding the pods and cottages is securely enclosed, making it ideal for young families. It is also situated just 300m from a Blue Flag beach, making Doonbeg Pods and Cottages an ideal coastal staycation destination.

When Joanne and David got the business ready for the public, they faced a new challenge - getting bookings.

"When we opened up initially, we didn't have a website or a definite way to get our name out there. We started using Booking.com, which we thought was great in the beginning, but they actually take 15pc commission from every booking.

"When you have to pay your tax and VAT, and maintain and clean the pods, cottages and surrounding area, that 15pc makes a big difference," says Joanne.

Her solution was to set up her own website with a direct booking engine.

"Setting up the website was essential, but it didn't generate as much awareness or bookings as we had hoped," she says.

"What really boosted our business and got us bookings was social media. I decided to run a Facebook competition whereby people had to like, comment and share our post for a chance to win a two-night stay in two pods for themselves and their family. It really took off and got our name out there and before I knew it, we were booking out."

She estimates that 90pc of her bookings now come from social media.

"It's a great tool, but you also can spend a lot of time replying to people that might never actually be interested," says Joanne. "The pros outweigh the cons though."

Joanne and David have recently built a camper's kitchen for those staying in the pods.

"It was the one recommendation we kept getting from our customers when we asked for feedback. They would often say if there was one thing we could do with, it was a kitchen facility, so we built one. It has all the essentials, like a stove and toasters, and it can seat eight people. This is our first season with it and it has proven to be a good idea," says Joanne.

Expansion is now on the cards for Doonbeg Pods and Cottages with Joanne planning to add three more pods in the near future.

"Expanding will require a bit of work because we need to get planning permission, a whole new ESB connection and a new septic tank," says Joanne.

"We are also planning on renovating an old shed on the land, which we plan to turn into a space which we can use for retreats and events in the near future.

"We hope it will attract the likes of wellness retreats and/or art classes and retreats."

With summer 2020 proving to be the year for staycations, Joanne and David's business is now fully booked until September.





'We are constantly developing the business - it's not something that happened overnight'

Expand Close Support: Joanne Russell was approved for the ACORNS (Accelerating the Creation of Rural Nascent Start-ups) Programme, which is designed to support early-stage female entrepreneurs living in rural areas / Facebook

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Whatsapp Support: Joanne Russell was approved for the ACORNS (Accelerating the Creation of Rural Nascent Start-ups) Programme, which is designed to support early-stage female entrepreneurs living in rural areas

What level of start-up costs did you incur in setting up the business?

Sourcing the materials for the pods and getting them kitted out and getting the grounds ready for them came to about 25,000, and then the refurbishments we did to the cottages cost around 15,000. In total, we spent about 35,000 getting the place up and running and ready for business.

Was financing readily available from the banks for this type of business?

We didn't apply for anything and it's a regret I have.

Was planning permission required?

Yes, we need to get planning now for our expansion. We are going to erect three more pods and we are going to convert an unused shed into a space, which we hope to use for things such as retreats and events. We need a new septic tank and a new ESB connection.

Did you need a licence or permission from any other Government body?

No, our business is private and we didn't need to register with any bodies.

What grant aid or other assistance was available?

I applied to the BMI FLAGS (Fisheries Local Area Group Development Scheme) for grant aid towards the kitchen we installed, but we haven't heard back from them as of yet. The first round was in April, but I know there were delays due to Covid-19.

What supports bodies/agencies were available to help?

I was approved for the ACORNS (Accelerating the Creation of Rural Nascent Start-ups) Programme, which is designed to support early-stage female entrepreneurs living in rural Ireland. It's facilitated by lead female entrepreneurs, who have successfully established and grown their businesses in rural Ireland and you get to meet and learn from other Irish female entrepreneurs. It's advice rather than funding. I've met some great people and have become aware of so many other rural businesses through it. I also went to LEADER for advice - they were good when I was starting up.

Was insurance required?

Yes, and it was expensive. I had to get public liability insurance and what is called 'holiday park insurance'. It covers the cottages and the other buildings on the land.

How much time was needed to get your farm business off the ground?

Getting this business off the ground has been slow. This is our third season operating and we are still constantly developing and making improvements. It's not something that happened overnight.

What has been your biggest challenge to date?

When we started, getting the bookings was our biggest challenge and, as I explained, social media really helped with that.

Now business is going great. It sounds ironic, but the weather is probably one of the biggest challenges we face.

It's not something you initially think about, but the weather plays a huge role in this type of business. We currently only open the pods during the summer months as I just don't think they would be as appealing during wetter, colder seasons.

When the weather is wet, it also makes everything harder to clean, especially the pods. It takes a lot longer to get ready for the next arrival.

Is there anything you would do differently if you could go back?

I would have applied for grant aid to assist in starting up the business and I would have put up more than two pods in the beginning.
George Russell, 73, will be pedalling from California to Florida (NTS/PA)

A 73-year-old man is planning to cycle coast-to-coast across the US to raise funds for conservation in Scotland.

George Russell aims to raise 100,000 for the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) by pedalling more than 3,000 miles from San Diego in California to St Augustine in Florida.

The conservation charity has been hit by the impact of coronavirus this year and is running a major fundraising campaign  Save Our Scotland  to help it recover from this crisis.

Expand Close George Russells grandad helped to secure Glencoe for the trust (NTS) / Facebook

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Whatsapp George Russells grandad helped to secure Glencoe for the trust (NTS)

Mr Russell, originally from Edinburgh but now based in Colorado, has familial links to the charity  including his grandfather Arthur Russell, who was the charitys first secretary and treasurer.

He said: The trust cares for quite staggering collections of Scotlands treasures but it urgently needs colossal sums to guarantee its survival.

It is as serious as that. It is vital that somehow as much as possible of its lost income is replaced as matter of urgency.

That can only be done by the support of donors worldwide and that is why I am getting on my bike to pedal to protect Scotlands heritage.

His dedication to our charity and all we do to protect whats special about Scotland is so appreciated at this difficult time Ali Macleod, NTS

Mr Russell will be riding solo while his wife Mary will be driving their car as a support vehicle for the first half of the trip.

It is expected to take around 50 days, depending on weather conditions, starting at the Pacific Ocean on August 27.

He will travel from San Diego through California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida to St Augustine, on the Atlantic coast.

Ali Macleod, NTS head of fundraising, said: We are overwhelmed at this incredible support from George.

His dedication to our charity and all we do to protect whats special about Scotland is so appreciated at this difficult time.

As George travels across the USA, hell be thinking of Glencoe, the property and iconic Scottish location his grandfather helped the trust secure in the 1930s, and knowing that every pedal stroke helps the trust protect this and other special places, now and for the future.
(Natural News) Its no secret that regular exercise is good for human health. It strengthens muscles, boosts immune function and reduces the risk of chronic disease, among other health benefits.

On top of these benefits, researchers from a health insurance firm in the UK found that regular exercise can also lead to a longer life. The team found that exercising for just 13 minutes, or less than a quarter of an hour, every day for 12 months can increase an inactive persons life expectancy by three years.

Regular exercise can lead to a significant increase in life expectancy

Researchers from Vitality, a UK-based medical insurance firm, examined the exercise data of 140,000 of their customers over a period of 12 months. Prior to and after the observation period, the team assessed each participants life expectancy using an overall health check.

It appeared that exercising for a total of 90 minutes each week over a 12-month period increased an inactive persons life expectancy by three years. The team defined inactive as putting in less than 30 minutes of exercise each week or less than four minutes every day.

If spread out throughout the week, 90 minutes corresponds to just 13 minutes of exercise every day. This is the equivalent of a short jog or a bike ride.

Those that exercised for 25 minutes every day, on the other hand, increased their life expectancy by four years.

The team also reported that fit participants enjoyed a 1.7-year increase in their life expectancy by just adding four more minutes of exercise to their daily routine.

Taken together, these findings seemingly debunk the idea that people need to spend hours exercising in order to see results.

These findings also present regular exercise in a much more doable and manageable light. For instance, 30 minutes of exercise might seem like a lot. But it appears more feasible and less intimidating if divided into just four minutes of exercise every day.

Nick Read, a managing director at Vitality, adds that fitting exercise into our lives can be difficult. But, as their findings demonstrate, putting in just a couple of minutes of exercise every day can have a massive impact on a persons health in the long run.

Lack of exercise affects millions around the globe

Physical inactivity has become a global public health problem. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 23 percent of adults and 81 percent of adolescents around the globe do not meet the recommendations on physical activity for optimal health.

This places people at risk of health problems that stem from physical inactivity, including obesity, high blood pressure and bone problems in later life. The findings of a recent article published in The Lancet indicate that lack of exercise is tied to global killers like heart disease and colon cancer.

In particular, the researchers behind the report found that lack of exercise might be responsible for about one in 10 cases of heart disease and one in five cases of colon cancer in the United Kingdom. Lack of exercise also caused more than 5.3 million of the 57 million deaths around the globe recorded in 2008.

Pedro Hallal, an associate professor at the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil and a member of the research team, adds that despite its consequences, lack of exercise does not get as much attention as other health issues nor does research on the subject get as much funding.

The WHO suggests that increasing sedentary behavior in millions of people could be the result of a host of factors that are, in turn, the result of modern developments and technological advancements.

For instance, the urban design of cities is often in favor of using cars or public transport instead of bicycles. Other possible factors affecting physical activity include traffic, pollution and a lack of parks or recreational facilities.

But physical inactivity is not a lost cause. As the Vitality study suggests, its not too late for people to start exercising. More importantly, people do not need to exercise for hours at a time to notice results and reap both the short- and long-term benefits of exercise for health. (Related: Physical fitness equals brain fitness for older men, according to study.)

Learn more about the health benefits of exercise at Slender.news.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

WHO.int

NHS.uk

LATimesBlogs.LATimes.com


Megan Thee Stallion is thanking fans for their support following her shooting incident and slamming others for making jokes. 50 Cent has apologized for joking about the matter but many are still furious with Draya Michele for her comments. Micheles joke may have cost her to lose her gig as an ambassador for Rihannas Savage Fenty line. Rihanna publicly endured her own domestic violence incident.

Draya Michele and Megan Thee Stallion via Twitter

Draya Michele comments on Megan Thee Stallion and Tory Lanez; Stallion responds

As the world waited for Stallion to confirm what led to the shooting, speculation ran wild. Michele spoke of the reported relationship between Stallion and Lanez during an interview, likening their romance to another Hollywood couple known for wild moments.

I predict that they had some sort of Bobby and Whitney love that drove them down this type of road. Im here for it. I like that. I want you to like me so much you shoot me in the foot too, Michele joked.

Draya Michele and Megan Thee Stallion via Twitter

Related: Tory Lanez Allegedly Flirted With Kylie Jenner, Sparking Fight Between Him and Megan Thee Stallion Before Shooting

The backlash against Michele was swift and she offered an apology and explanation on her Twitter account almost immediately.

I truly dont glorify domestic violenceI was trying to say just love me deeply. But while trying to be funny, I offended many, including meg. And Im sorry, she wrote.

Micheles apology came too late as Stallion is offended by her joke.

Dumb b***h that s**t aint fucking funny who tf jokes about getting shot by a n***a, Stallion asked on Twitter.

Draya Michele allegedly dropped by Rihannas Savage Fenty; fans respond on social media

Social media users comments about Michele didnt stop. She posted a lengthier message to her Instagram story captured by The Neighborhood Talk after Stallions note.

Michele has been an ambassador of Rihannas lingerie line, Savage Fenty, and has promoted the brand on social media. Fenty responded to Micheles comments.

Weve been made aware of this, thank you, they replied.

Reports are circulating that Michele no longer works as an ambassador. Rihanna has publicly dealt with domestic violence in her previous relationship with Chris Brown.

Draya being cut from Savage x Fenty makes sense seeing how her joke not only makes a mockery of Megs experience, it makes a mockery f [sic] other womens experiences too. Like Rihannas. Who owns the brand, one commented on Twitter.

Rihanna cancelling Drayas Savage x Fenty deal for making fun of Megan is the direct action I love to see, another chimed in.

Interestingly, Stallion is also a Fenty ambassador. Michele and Stallion have shared photos together on their social media pages.

Fenty posted a photo of Stallion moments after it was reported that Michele was dropped. Fans are laughing at the timing.

Draya lost her Fenty endorsement and they posted Meg less than 24 hours later. I know she sick, one wrote on Twitter.

Michele has not confirmed whether or not she no longer works with Fenty.
Author

Mia A. Mackman has more than 25 years of beauty, spa, and wellness industry experience. Ms. Mackman is the Managing Director of HVS Spa and Wellness Consulting, and Principal and owner of Mackman ES, a future-ready, wellness and spa consultancy. She specializes in spa and wellness consulting, concept development, strategic planning, market and feasibility studies, valuation narratives, data analysis and financial forecasting. Ms. Mackman works in partnership with HVS and provides spa-and-wellness services for HVSs global client network.

Ms. Mackman, who is based in Sedona, Arizona, has extensive consulting experience and has been successfully forecasting emerging value propositions in the market since 2004. She works with global investors, hotel and resort developers, hospitality organizations and contributes as an industry expert to international business reports, global think-tanks, and world news organizations. She is recognized for her industry knowledge and her aptitude to navigate, adapt, and excel in a fast-changing market. She contributes as an industry expert to international magazines, national news organizations, business reports, and private club publications. She also participates in world academic studies, wellness tourism research, and consumer innovation projects.

Ms. Mackman, who is also, Founder & President of the Arizona Spa & Wellness Association leads the discussions of HospitalityNets World Panel titled Wellness, Lifestyle as panel Champ and contributing expert. This panel examines how Wellness, Lifestyle and Spa contribute to hospitality value proposition growth and impact the leisure, tourism and business economy. The objective of the panel is to provide high-level, experienced, and diverse industry viewpoints on topics ranging from investment and development to industry trends, strategic planning and operational performance.

More about Mia Mackman
SAN JOSE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / After graduating Summa Cum Laude from Oregon State Honors College, Kevin David began his career working as a corporate accountant. This journey led him through several successful and notable companies, including Facebook, before he realized that he could never be happy working for someone else.

It was at this time that Kevin David started to get back to his entrepreneurial roots and meaningfully explore online sources of income. His goal was to find a way to free himself financially so he could travel the world and live life on his own terms. That's how he discovered Fulfillment by Amazon - better known as Amazon FBA. One month later, Kevin launched his first Amazon product and started building the online empire that would help him achieve his dream of independence.

"I'm so humbled by the success I've experienced - especially at my age," says 28-year-old entrepreneur, Kevin David. "It's amazing to me that I started with nothing but an idea - this sense that there was something more to life than working for someone else. Now that I've found what I was looking for, I feel like I'm responsible for sharing how I did it. Everyone should have the opportunity to be as happy as I am."

It is in that spirit that he created four different packages - each meant to address people at different stages of development and financial success in their lives.

Do It Yourself - The Bronze Package by Kevin David

"The Bronze package is the most affordable DIY service for people who are trying to find success through Amazon," says Kevin David. "I developed it for people who have about $3,000 available as working capital to invest in inventory."

Over 10,000 people have signed up for this package since the writing of this article. The package includes Kevin David's Amazon FBA Masterclass, membership to an exclusive student Facebook Group, and access to the Email Support Team.

"I developed the Facebook Group as a sort of support group," says Kevin David. "It's a place to connect with people, network, offer tips and tricks, and discuss the challenges you're facing. It's the network I wish I'd had when I was starting out."

The email support team gives followers access to in-house Amazon Support Assistants. "They do this day in and day out," says Kevin David. "They know the class and the process and the platform like the back of their hands and they are ready to help you with virtually any questions or problems you might be having. It's an incredibly valuable resource that can save you hours of time and frustration."

Done With You - The Silver Package by Kevin David

The Done With You package was developed to help those with around $5,000 of working capital for inventory. It's meant to strike a balance between receiving mentorship and maintaining value. "This package is meant for that enterprising student who's got a foot on the ground and is ready to maximize their Amazon business," says Kevin David.

This package gives you everything you get with the Bronze package in addition to access to 1,000 potential products, 12-weeks of intensive live, one-on-one group mentorship with some of Amazon's top sellers, access to Kevin David's high-level business contacts, help with supplier shipping, listing optimization, and PPC management.

"You also get 7 days of free access to the best underground Amazon Software Suite," says Kevin David. "It's a well-kept industry secret and I'm thrilled to share it with my students."

Semi-Automation - The Gold Package by Kevin David

The suggested working capital for this package is $10,000. "This is the package for people with huge ambitions," says Kevin David. "This is the package for people who want my personalized help while still being hands-on in the business."

Unfortunately, space is extremely limited at this tier and once spots fill up, there is no room for other participants. "I only have so many hours in the day, unfortunately," laughs Kevin David. "But I want to help everyone that I can, which is why I developed some of the smaller, less supervised packages for those who can't get into these sessions."

With this package, two products are tailor picked for you, from which you may choose one. The one you do not choose will be kept in reserve in case you would like to launch it later on. You also receive fully optimized Amazon listings with SEO titles, bullet points, descriptions, and back-end keyword optimization already in place. The company will facilitate shipping and freight forwarding logistics - you're only responsible for finding the lowest bid for the fastest shipping.

"You also get the same mentorship available in the Bronze package, but the groups are limited to 10 members instead of 30, so you're guaranteed more face-time and personalized care," says Kevin David. "And you get 12 weeks of access to the underground software."

Automation - The Emerald Package by Kevin David

The required working capital for this highest level of package is $20,000. "I developed this package for people who would like to start out at the top," says Kevin David. "We handle everything for you - 100% private label."

You get four products - two for immediate launch and two for later launch, all SEO completed for you, three months of PPC management, manufacturer negotiation, an exclusive Mastermind session with Kevin David, complimentary consultation with their Amazon-specialized CPAs, and lifetime preferential rates on products.

"I love to see new businesses grow and more and more people successfully find the financial freedom they've been looking for all their working lives," says Kevin David. "I'm just grateful that I'm in a position to help."

CONTACT:

Kevin David

kevin@officialkevindavid.com

1-800-425-2401

SOURCE: Kevin David

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/599209/Kevin-David-Discusses-The-Key-Points-of-His-Four-New-Package-Options
NEW YORK, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Simon & Schuster is proud to announce two brand-new audiobooks from Rhonda Byrne, the author of the #1 runaway bestseller The Secret. Both programs, THE SECRET TO HEALTH MASTERCLASS and THE SECRET TO MONEY MASTERCLASS, will debut as audiobooks on August 11, 2020, read by the author.

"I'm so happy to be able to bring these masterclasses on health and money to people right when I know they need it most," says Byrne. "Through applying the simple practices in these audiobooks, anyone can change their current life circumstances of health and wealth and live the life they deserve."

THE SECRET TO HEALTH MASTERCLASS and THE SECRET TO MONEY MASTERCLASS will guide listeners on how to use the law of attraction to take control of their lives.

Health is precious, priceless, and the greatest gift of life; it is something we receive and continue to receive, each and every day. Other than taking good care of our body, the sure-fire way to guarantee our health is to apply the principles of The Secret.

Similarly, financial abundance is not something you have to work to deserve, earn, or qualify for. You are meant to have a rich life, in every respect, and yet many people are unaware of the power they have within them that directly and effortlessly accesses abundance in all things, including money. By applying the knowledge in The Secret, you can stop money from slipping through your fingers, and discover the power you have to bring money to you and to live a life of abundance, where you can be, do, or have anything you want.

"Rhonda Byrne has helped millions of people improve their lives, and is one of the best-selling audiobook authors ever," said Chris Lynch, President & Publisher, Simon & Schuster Audio. "We are thrilled that she has chosen to introduce these two new, vital works to the world through the audiobook medium."

Rhonda Byrne is the creator behind The Secret, a documentary film that swept the world in 2006, changing millions of lives and igniting a global movement. Later that same year, the print and audiobook editions of The Secret were released. The audiobook editions of The Secret have sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. It has been translated into more than fifty languages and remains one of the longest-running bestsellers of this century. Lionsgate released The Secret: Dare to Dream, a feature film adaptation starring Katie Holmes, Josh Lucas, and Jerry O'Connell, Friday, July 31 on Premium Video on Demand. Byrne has written three more bestselling books: The Power in 2010, The Magic in 2012, and Hero in 2013.

ABOUT SIMON & SCHUSTER AUDIO: Simon & Schuster Audio is a leading publisher of general interest audiobooks including bestselling fiction, nonfiction, business/finance, self-improvement, inspiration, language learning programs, original audiobook productions, and children's titles. In addition to a list that includes such unparalleled authors as Mary Higgins Clark, Vince Flynn, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, Michael Lewis, and David McCullough. Simon & Schuster Audio has produced audiobooks that have won eight Grammy Awards and earned forty-four Grammy nominations since 1989. For more information about Simon & Schuster Audio, visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com/audio.

Simon & Schuster is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Digital, and international companies in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com.

SOURCE Simon & Schuster Audio

Related Links

www.simonandschuster.com


South Korea said Tuesday it has reached an agreement with the United States that will allow it to use solid rocket fuel for space vehicles, a change that will enable the country to launch its first military surveillance satellites and develop the technology to build more powerful missiles.

The agreement lifts guidelines Seoul first signed onto with Washington in 1979. The U.S. had imposed restrictions out of concern solid fuel could lead to bigger rockets and a regional arms race.

The guidelines were last revised in 2017 to scrap a payload cap of 500 kilograms for South Korea's ballistic missiles with ranges of 800 kilometers.

But at a Seoul news conference, South Korean Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Hyun-chong announced the U.S. and South Korea agreed to lift those restriction.

Kim said, effective immediately, all South Korean companies, research institutes and nationals will be free to research, develop, produce and own not only liquid fuel but also solid fuel and various types of hybrid space rockets, without any restrictions.

Solid fuel is less expensive, offers greater mobility for missiles and rockets and reduces launch preparation time.

Kim said the revised agreement still bars South Korea from having a missile with a range of more than 800 kilometers but added Seoul could discuss altering that restriction with Washington if that's needed for South Korean national security.

Kim said South Korea could use solid fuel-based rockets to launch military reconnaissance satellites. South Korea currently has no spy satellites.

South Korea's missile capability is inferior to that of rival North Korea. In 2017, North Korea carried out three intercontinental ballistic missile tests as part of its stated efforts to build a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
TORONTO, July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Battle North Gold Corp. (TSX: BNAU) (OTCQX: BNAUF) ("Battle North" or the "Company") reports initial assay results from the confirmatory drilling program at the Peninsula zone ("Pen Zone"), a mineralized target area located within 550 metres ("m") of the F2 Gold Zone and related existing underground infrastructure at the Company's Bateman Gold Project in Red Lake, Ontario (the "Project").

Pen Zone

The Pen Zone is one of the three high-priority targets just north of the Project, along with the CARZ and Island zones (collectively referred to by Battle North as the "String of Pearls"). The Company has encountered high-grade mineralization in the String of Pearls from historical drilling (see Diagram 1) and is focussed on advancing exploration of the String of Pearls as potential sources of incremental mill feed. This year, the Company has completed approximately 2,100 metres ("m") of a 2,700 m drilling program at the Pen Zone. Battle North has conducted drilling from the 244 m Level exploration drift of the Project, targeting the high-titanium basaltic units ("High-Ti Basalt Units") which are the main host rock of gold mineralization in this zone. The information gathered from the 2020 Pen Zone drilling program is expected to further advance the Company's understanding of the lithological and structural controls on the gold mineralization in the zone. Please see Tables 1 and 2 for the summary of the assay results from the 2020 Pen Zone confirmatory drilling program and drill hole coordinates, respectively.

Historical drilling at the Pen Zone demonstrated high-grade mineralization and initial assay results from the current drilling program appear to confirm those historical results. Current modelling of the Pen Zone High-Ti Basalt Units has this zone potentially extending at depth, which warrants further exploration drilling. Please see Diagrams 1 and 2 below for a plan view of the historical drilling from the String of Pearls and a section view of the 2020 Pen Zone drilling (with historical intercepts), respectively, and Tables 3 and 4 for the historical Pen Zone drill results and drill hole coordinates, respectively.

Table 1: 2020 Pen Zone Drilling Program1 Summary of Assay Results (as of July 27, 2020).

Drill hole

number Type Elevation Total

Depth

(m) Vertical

depth

(m) From

(m) To

(m) Width

(m) True

width

(m) Grade

(a/t Au) Notes 244L-20-01 Explore 244 m Level 500.00 264.0 397.00 399.00 2.00 1.99 4.46 High-Ti

Basalt Units





















244L-20-02 Explore 244 m Level 484.50 174.00 403.32 404.07 0.75 0.74 4.22 High-Ti

Basalt Units







173.00 410.35 411.69 1.34 1.32 6.49 High-Ti

Basalt Units





















244L-20-03 Explore 244 m Level 550.00 228 377.45 380.52 3.07 3.07 1.44 High-Ti

Basalt Units







228 401.05 404.00 2.95 2.95 2.44 High-Ti

Basalt Units







228 410.88 411.43 0.55 0.55 2.06 High-Ti

Basalt Units





















244L-20-04 Explore 244 m Level 549.00 Assays Pending























244L-20-05 Explore 244 m Level 525.00 Drilling in Progress



________________________________ 1 The 2020 Pen Zone Drilling Program (244 m Level), which commenced in early 2020 is focused on confirming historical drill hole results and expanding the geology dataset for the Pen Zone which could potentially result in a mineral resource estimate in 2021 (see more details in the "Qualified Persons and QA/QC" section below).

High-Ti Basalt Units are also the main host rock of gold mineralization at the Project's F2 Gold Zone where, as recently announced, the Company has delineated Measured and Indicated mineral resource estimates of 979,000 ounces of gold and Inferred Mineral Resource estimates of 283,000 ounces of gold ("Updated 2020 Mineral Resource Estimate")2.

_____________________________ 2 For more details, please refer to the Company's news release dated July 8, 2020 and the current Technical Report for the Project, described further below under "Technical Report for the Bateman Gold Project", both of which are available under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com and on its website at www.battlenorthgold.com.

CEO Comment

Battle North President and Chief Executive Officer George Ogilvie, P.Eng., stated, "With the Feasibility Study for the Bateman Gold Project on track to be completed in the second half of 2020, we began confirmatory drilling programs at the Pen Zone and McFinley zone with the goal of providing NI 43-101 mineral resource estimates from these zones, which are in close proximity to the Bateman Gold Project. Similar to the 2019 Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA")3 for the Project, we anticipate that the Feasibility Study mine plan will not fully utilize the Project's 1,800 tonne per day milling capacity, allowing room for incremental mill feed that could potentially be sourced from the String of Pearls and the McFinley Zone."

"We had an encouraging start to the 2020 Pen Zone drilling program. The drill results appear to confirm historically identified areas of mineralization. More importantly, the drill results support the geological model that was produced from historical drill data in the targeted areas. Gold mineralization at the Pen Zone is mainly hosted in the High-Ti Basalt Unit, similar to the F2 Gold Zone at the Bateman Gold Project. This similarity is also encouraging from a mineralogy perspective and the possibility for the Project's mill to process any potential mineralized material from the Pen Zone. We are in the early stages in understanding the potential extension of the High-Ti Basalt Units at the Pen Zone at depth, which warrants additional drilling."

________________________________ 3 For a summary of the PEA, please see the current Technical Report for the Project described further below under "Technical Report for the Bateman Gold Project", a copy of which is available under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com and on its website at www.battlenorthgold.com.

Technical Report for the Bateman Gold Project

Today the Company filed a new technical report for the Project reflecting the Updated 2020 Mineral Resource Estimate, in accordance with the requirements of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (the "Technical Report"). The Technical Report, effective May 5, 2020, was prepared by T. Maunula & Associates Consulting Inc., which is independent of Battle North. The Company issued a news release on July 8, 2020 announcing the Updated 2020 Mineral Resource Estimate, which is reflected in the Technical Report. A copy of the July 8, 2020 news release and the Technical Report can be viewed online under Battle North's profile at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.battlenorthgold.com.

U.S. Ticker Symbol Changed to BNAUF on the OTCQX Best Market ("OTCQX")

Battle North's common shares are now trading on the OTCQX under the new ticker symbol BNAUF. U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for Battle North on www.otcmarkets.com. The Company will continue to trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol BNAU.

Qualified Persons and Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC)

The content of this news release has been reviewed, verified, and approved by Michael Willett, P.Eng., Director of Projects for Battle North, and Isaac Oduro, P.Geo., Manager of Technical Services for Battle North, who are Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

Underground drilling was conducted by Boart Longyear Drilling of Haileybury, Ontario and was supervised by the Battle North Gold exploration team. All assays reported are uncut unless otherwise stated. Samples reported herein were assayed by SGS Mineral Services of Red Lake, Ontario and Activation Laboratories Ltd., Dryden, Ontario, both of which are independent of Battle North. All NQ core assays reported were obtained by fire assay with AA-finish or using gravimetric finish for values over 10.0 g/t Au.

Intercepts cited do not necessarily represent true widths, unless otherwise noted, however drilling is generally intersecting interpreted mineralized zones at angles between -30o and +30o. True width determinations are estimated at 65-80% of the core length intervals for the 305 m Level drilling, and estimated at 75-95% of the core length for the 610 m and 685 m Level drilling. Battle North Gold's quality control checks include insertion of blanks, standards and duplicates to ensure laboratory accuracy and precision.4

About Battle North Gold Corporation

Battle North is a Canadian gold mine developer led by an accomplished management team with successful underground gold mine operations, finance, and capital markets experience. Battle North owns the significantly de-risked and shovel-ready Bateman Gold Project, located in the renowned Red Lake gold district in Ontario, Canada and controls the strategic and second largest exploration ground in the district. Battle North also owns a large gold exploration land package on the Long Canyon gold trend near the Nevada-Utah border in the United States. Battle North's shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the OTCQX markets. For more information, please visit our website at www.battlenorthgold.com.

BATTLE NORTH GOLD CORPORATION

George Ogilvie, P.Eng.

President, CEO, and Director

________________________________ 4 For more information on applicable QA/QC procedures, see the current Technical Report, described further above under "Technical Report for the Bateman Gold Project", a copy of which is available under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com and its website at www.battlenorthgold.com.

Table 2: 2020 Pen Zone Drilling Program  Drill Hole Coordinates

Drill hole

number Drill Hole Location Azimuth Inclination Easting

(Mine Grid) Northing

(Mine Grid) Elevation

(Mine Grid) 244L-20-01 10197.9 50308.5 5133.6 313.0 -3.0 244L-20-02 10199.0 50307.6 5133.6 320.6 10.0 244L-20-03 10198.5 50307.6 5133.6 311.6 -0.2 244L-20-04 10198.6 50307.5 5133.5 315.3 -9.7 244L-20-05 10199.0 50309.0 5132.0 303.0 1.0

Table 3: Historical Pen Zone Drill Results (prior to 2020). Information on true widths and vertical depth not available.

Drill Hole

Number Drill Hole Length

(m) Type From (m) To (m) Width (m) Grade (g/t Au) 84-76 212.45 Explore 56.39 57.03 0.64 10.270





62.48 63.95 1.47 3.060 F2-96A 918.00 Explore 819.00 821.10 2.10 3.196





824.90 825.50 0.60 3.120 MF-03-16 350.00 Explore 19.45 21.05 1.60 6.045 including 20.40 20.75 0.35 20.900





91.35 93.65 2.30 3.147





163.40 164.60 1.20 6.745





185.00 185.30 0.30 4.050





190.40 191.55 1.15 10.182





213.20 214.20 1.00 46.000





322.25 322.75 0.50 17.650 MF-03-19 176.00 Explore 52.35 52.75 0.40 3.960





68.65 68.95 0.30 33.160





71.15 71.50 0.35 4.540





89.55 89.85 0.30 3.170





113.40 113.80 0.40 3.410 MF-03-30A 326.00 Explore 92.80 94.47 1.67 13.129 including 93.70 94.00 0.30 66.100





240.70 241.10 0.40 8.280





263.50 264.00 0.50 7.930 MF-03-34 107.00 Explore 49.10 52.40 3.30 4.522





70.30 72.62 2.32 8.363 including 70.80 71.20 0.40 38.200 MF-03-36 107.00 Explore 34.80 35.10 0.30 6.430





46.00 47.20 1.20 3.029





61.90 62.35 0.45 11.350





78.50 79.00 0.50 13.150 MF-03-41 392.00 Explore 14.30 14.80 0.50 3.150





33.70 34.10 0.40 5.120





90.10 91.10 1.00 6.462





174.10 174.70 0.60 11.750





264.90 265.20 0.30 4.330 MF-03-46 358.00 Explore 116.00 116.50 0.50 3.190





118.10 118.50 0.40 4.790





191.30 191.90 0.60 6.870





329.80 330.55 0.75 6.480





350.50 351.00 0.50 9.330 MF-03-47 368.00 Explore 44.30 44.70 0.40 4.340





337.20 337.90 0.70 3.310 MF-03-50 198.00 Explore 150.10 150.40 0.30 3.400 MF-07-202 984.00 Explore 180.20 181.20 1.00 9.930





208.80 209.55 0.75 4.300





253.60 254.50 0.90 28.070





320.15 321.65 1.50 10.460





324.50 325.45 0.95 4.410





366.00 366.60 0.60 4.010 MF-07-203 528.00 Explore 70.58 71.00 0.42 5.950





97.70 98.39 0.69 17.950





309.33 310.62 1.29 5.399





331.27 331.60 0.33 3.580





354.00 356.00 2.00 3.400





367.85 369.22 1.37 3.383 MF-07-204 372.00 Explore 84.40 84.90 0.50 4.340





289.25 296.50 7.25 5.320 including 290.10 290.62 0.52 33.800





308.00 309.22 1.22 3.485





327.00 328.80 1.80 4.689 including 328.50 328.80 0.30 16.300 MF-07-205 588.00 Explore 81.48 82.24 0.76 3.380





326.24 327.33 1.09 6.850





396.64 396.95 0.31 4.000





419.34 420.00 0.66 3.050 MF-07-209 474.00 Explore 77.40 78.50 1.10 3.520





95.40 96.70 1.30 4.437





293.70 295.27 1.57 9.682





301.00 301.67 0.67 4.430





340.35 341.35 1.00 21.825 MF-07-210 463.00 Explore 97.70 99.85 2.15 5.943 including 98.70 99.35 0.65 12.750





333.40 334.25 0.85 3.110 MF-07-211 486.00 Explore 8.20 9.00 0.80 14.650





326.50 327.50 1.00 4.230 MF-07-212 566.00 Explore 77.55 78.20 0.65 5.650





248.65 249.65 1.00 9.190





345.95 346.45 0.50 3.410





388.00 388.60 0.60 5.070 MF-07-213 525.00 Explore 78.25 78.80 0.55 4.290





308.90 309.90 1.00 9.490 MF-08-224 513.00 Explore 124.30 125.20 0.90 11.900 NPZ-08-02 834.00 Explore 282.00 283.00 1.00 4.630 NPZ-08-03 864.00 Explore 322.00 323.00 1.00 8.490 PR-10-02 728.50 Explore 132.50 134.00 1.50 6.320 PR-10-03 606.00 Explore 131.70 132.70 1.00 7.250





157.00 158.00 1.00 3.300





176.00 178.00 2.00 4.555 PR-10-04 579.00 Explore 244.00 246.50 2.50 5.942





261.00 262.00 1.00 8.030





273.00 274.00 1.00 10.400





287.00 291.00 4.00 4.105





297.00 301.70 4.70 5.069 including 298.00 299.00 1.00 14.480





303.00 303.60 0.60 3.960 PR-10-05 684.00 Explore 146.00 147.00 1.00 9.090





117.00 117.50 0.50 4.260





120.00 121.00 1.00 4.110 PR-10-10 432.00 Explore 257.00 260.00 3.00 4.923 including 257.00 258.00 1.00 10.920





318.00 320.00 2.00 4.505 PR-10-11 456.00 Explore 329.00 331.00 2.00 5.320 PR-10-12 435.00 Explore 314.00 315.00 1.00 3.040 RP-09-03 807.00 Explore 154.00 155.00 1.00 3.390





646.00 647.00 1.00 3.470





659.00 660.00 1.00 4.200





787.00 789.00 2.00 5.520

Table 4: Historical Pen Zone Drill Coordinates (prior to 2020).

Drill Hole

Number Location X (Mine

Grid) Location Y (Mine

Grid) Location Z (Mine

Grid) Azimuth Inclination 84-76 9804.83 50438.61 5360.36 91.9 -52.0 F2-96A 9799.88 50409.62 5363.28 92.4 -50.9 MF-03-16 9567.95 50727.82 5355.00 60.0 -45.0 MF-03-19 9785.74 50450.63 5359.25 60.0 -45.0 MF-03-30A 9671.89 50606.90 5355.00 55.0 -55.0 MF-03-34 9706.54 50627.41 5355.00 55.0 -70.0 MF-03-36 9705.13 50630.24 5355.00 60.0 -53.0 MF-03-41 9550.27 50717.21 5355.00 60.0 -55.0 MF-03-46 9598.35 50572.96 5356.23 60.0 -62.0 MF-03-47 9565.12 50607.61 5357.59 40.0 -45.0 MF-03-50 9618.15 50514.98 5362.32 60.0 -40.0 MF-07-202 9785.74 50450.63 5359.25 35.0 -70.0 MF-07-203 9785.74 50450.63 5359.25 35.0 -62.0 MF-07-204 9785.74 50450.63 5359.25 36.0 -53.0 MF-07-205 9785.74 50450.63 5359.25 42.7 -76.6 MF-07-209 9804.83 50399.01 5363.00 37.0 -63.6 MF-07-210 9804.83 50399.01 5363.00 35.9 -70.6 MF-07-211 9804.83 50399.01 5363.00 41.7 -55.1 MF-07-212 9607.55 50543.97 5353.00 65.0 -70.0 MF-07-213 9757.45 50416.69 5359.25 31.1 -78.2 MF-08-224 9830.99 50801.36 5355.00 40.0 -71.6 NPZ-08-02 9773.72 50406.08 5365.00 45.0 -80.0 NPZ-08-03 9707.25 50420.23 5363.00 45.0 -85.0 PR-10-02 9954.74 50482.45 5355.00 54.2 -64.5 PR-10-03 9954.74 50482.45 5355.00 62.3 -85.6 PR-10-04 9835.24 50494.47 5355.00 43.7 -63.5 PR-10-05 9910.19 50826.81 5355.00 42.9 -67.0 PR-10-10 9817.56 50582.86 5355.00 50.4 -60.2 PR-10-11 9817.56 50582.86 5355.00 36.9 -75.9 PR-10-12 9782.20 50622.46 5355.00 42.3 -61.5 RP-09-03 9756.04 50826.81 5355.00 91.0 -71.3

Cautionary Statement regarding Forward-Looking Statements and other Cautionary Notes

All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained or incorporated by reference in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" and "forward looking information" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate", "appear", "assumption", "conceptual", "contingency", "demonstrate", "encouraging", "estimate", "evaluation", "expect", "exploration", "factors", "feasibility", "focus", "forward", "future", "goal", "may", "model", "on track", "PEA", "planned", "possibly", "potential", "preliminary", "priority", "project", "prospect", "risk", "strategic", "study", "target", "upgrade", "viability" and "will", or variations of such words, and similar such words, expressions or statements that certain actions, events or results can, could, may, should, will (or not) be achieved, occur or result in the future. In some cases, forward-looking information may be stated in the present tense, such as in respect of current matters that may be continuing, or that may have a future impact or effect. Forward-looking statements reflect current expectations and assumptions, and are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to statements regarding mineralization and mineral resource estimates (including the Updated 2020 Mineral Resource Estimate and any potential future mineral resource estimates at the Pen Zone or any other proximity target (including the String of Pearly) or otherwise); the ongoing Feasibility Study for the Project (including timing of delivery, and the mine plan and other potential results to be disclosed in such study); the results of the Pen Zone drilling program, including assay results, confirmation of historical drill results or areas of mineralization and potential extension of the zone at depth; proximity targets including the "String of Pearls" (including the Pen Zone) and the McFinley zone, and any future or other exploration drilling of such proximity targets; the PEA (including its results); and the potential to source incremental mill feed from proximity targets including from the Pen Zone and McFinley zone.

Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions, estimates, expectations and opinions, which are considered reasonable and represent best judgment based on available facts, as of the date such statements are made. If such assumptions, estimates, expectations and opinions prove to be incorrect, actual and future results may be materially different than expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. The assumptions, estimates, expectations and opinions referenced, contained or incorporated by reference in this news release which may prove to be incorrect include those set forth herein, and in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 (the "Q1, 2020 MD&A") and the accompanying financial statements, and the Technical Report, all available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on its website at www.battlenorthgold.com.

Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Battle North to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties, contingencies and factors include, among others: gold price fluctuations; possible variations in mineralization, grade or recovery or throughput rates; uncertainty of mineral resource estimates; inability to realize exploration potential, mineral grades and mineral recovery estimates; actual results of exploration activities including their impact; delays in completion of exploration and other drilling or plans, and any studies, including the ongoing Feasibility Study for the Project, for any reason including insufficient capital and other risks, uncertainties, contingencies and factors identified herein; labour issues at the Company or third parties, such as government and regulatory agencies, suppliers and service providers, including labour shortages and/or work curtailments or stoppages as may result from COVID-19; conclusions of economic, geological or structural evaluations and models including those reflected in mineral resource estimates, or included in the January 2020 Technical Report and the ongoing Feasibility Study, and any other studies for the Project; changes in Project parameters as plans continue to be refined; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents and other risks of the mining industry; delays and other risks related to operations; the ability to obtain and maintain permits and other regulatory approvals (as well as the timing and terms thereof) and to comply with such permits, approvals and other applicable regulatory requirements; the ability of Battle North to comply with its obligations under material agreements including its current loan facility and other financing agreements; the availability of financing for proposed programs and working capital requirements on reasonable terms and in a timely manner; the ability to meet, repay, or refinance, or replace, or renegotiate current and future debt obligations on reasonable terms and in a timely manner including the current loan facility and closure and reclamation surety bond; the ability of third-party service providers and other suppliers to deliver on reasonable terms and in a timely manner (including those working on the ongoing Feasibility Study for the Project); risks associated with the ability to retain key executives and key operating personnel; cost of environmental expenditures and potential environmental liabilities; relations with local communities including First Nations; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; cost of supplies; market conditions and general business, economic, competitive, political and social conditions; our ability to generate sufficient cash flow from operations or obtain adequate financing to fund our capital expenditures and working capital needs and meet our other obligations; the volatility of our stock price, and the ability of our common stock to remain listed and traded on the TSX; epidemics, pandemics and other public health crises, including COVID-19 or similar such viruses; and the "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual information form dated March 27, 2020 ("2020 AIF") as well as the risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors identified in the Technical Report and Q1, 2020 MD&A and accompanying financial statements, all of which are available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on its website at www.battlenorthgold.com. The foregoing assumptions, risks, uncertainties and other factors is not exhaustive; readers should consult the more complete discussion of the Company's business, financial condition and prospects that is provided in the 2020 AIF.

The forward-looking statements referenced or contained herein are expressly qualified by these Cautionary Statements as well as the Cautionary Statements in the Q1, 2020 MD&A, the 2020 AIF and the Technical Report. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release (or otherwise expressly specified) and Battle North 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 laws.

Cautionary Note Regarding Preliminary Economic Assessments

The Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Project (or "PEA") referenced in this news release and summarized in the Technical Report is only a conceptual study of the potential viability of the Project and the economic and technical viability of the Project has not been demonstrated. The PEA is preliminary in nature and provides only an initial, high-level review of the Project's potential and design options; there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Mineral Resources

Until mineral deposits are actually mined and processed, mineral resources are estimates only. Mineral resource estimates that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimation of mineral resources is inherently uncertain, involves subjective judgement about many relevant factors and may be materially affected by, among other things, environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors described in the foregoing Cautionary Statements, as well as those described in the Q1, 2020 MD&A and accompanying financial statements, the 2020 AIF and the Technical Report. The quantity and grade of reported "Inferred" mineral resource estimates are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define "Inferred" mineral resource estimates as an "Indicated" or "Measured" mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading (or converting) "Inferred" mineral resource estimates to an "Indicated" or "Measured" mineral resource category. The accuracy of any such estimates is a function of the quantity and quality of available data, and of the assumptions made and judgments used in engineering and geological interpretation, which may prove to be unreliable and depend, to a certain extent, upon the analysis of drilling results and statistical inferences that may ultimately prove to be inaccurate. Mineral resource estimates may have to be re-estimated based on, among other things: (i) fluctuations in mineral prices; (ii) results of drilling, and development; (iii) results of test stoping and other testing; (iv) metallurgical testing and other studies; (v) results of geological and structural modeling including stope design; (vi) proposed mining operations, including dilution; (vii) the evaluation of mine plans subsequent to the date of any estimates; and (viii) the possible failure to receive required permits, licenses and other approvals. The mineral resources estimates referenced in this news release were reported using Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101").

Cautionary Statement to U.S. Readers

Information concerning descriptions of mineralization and mineral resources estimates contained in this news release may not be comparable to information made public by United States companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") under applicable United States securities laws. Canadian reporting requirements for disclosure of mineral properties are governed by NI 43-101. The definitions used in NI 43-101 differ from the definitions under applicable United States securities laws. For example, this news release uses the terms "Measured" and "Indicated" mineral resources and "Inferred" mineral resources which, while defined by NI 43-101 and recognized and required by the Canadian Securities Administrators, are not recognized by the SEC. The estimation of "Measured", "Indicated" and "Inferred" mineral resources involves greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic feasibility than the estimation of a "Reserve". The estimation of "Inferred" mineral resources involves far greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic viability than the estimation of other categories of mineral resources. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of a "Measured", "Indicated" or "Inferred" mineral resource estimate will ever be upgraded (or converted) to a higher category.

It should not be assumed that any part or all of a "Measured", "Indicated" or "Inferred" mineral resource estimate exists or is economically or legally mineable. Under Canadian securities laws, estimates of "Inferred" mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility studies, pre-feasibility studies or other economic studies, except in prescribed cases, such as in a preliminary economic assessment under certain circumstances. The SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute "Reserves" as in-place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures. 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 Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release

SOURCE Battle North Gold Corporation

Related Links

http://www.battlenorthgold.com/


New Delhi:

Government has received complaint relating to tapping of phones of some industrialists, bureaucrats and politicians by a private telecom company, Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir in reply to a written question acknowledged that such a complaint has been received by the government.

A complaint regarding illegal and unauthorized interception, tapping and recording of phone calls of several persons was received and the government has directed the Delhi Police to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the matter, he said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
MUMBAI : Automakers such as Maruti Suzuki India Ltd and Hyundai Motor India Ltd and their key vendors are hiring skilled and semi-skilled diploma holders trained under government schemes to fill in vacancies.

Hiring people trained under the National Employment Enhancement Mission or NEEM scheme and at Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) is aimed at ensuring the carmakers have enough manpower as they ramp up operations, three senior industry executives said.

People aware of the matter said while Suzuki Motor Gujarat Pvt. Ltd, a unit of Suzuki Motor Corp., is adding fresh recruits at its Hansalpur plant, Maruti Suzuki has also asked its vendors to recruit staff in the coming months.

The company declined to comment on the matter.

Hyundai Motor, Indias largest exporter of cars and second-largest domestic player, plans to hire 1,800 staffers, mainly polytechnic and ITI diploma holders, at its plant in Tamil Nadu as it resumes the third shift as part of ramping up production.

Stephen Sudhakar J., senior vice-president of people strategy and business support, Hyundai Motor India said, To fulfil growing demand, we recently resumed our third shift and we need a skilled and highly driven team backing our operations from our facility in Sriperumbudur (near Chennai). In view of the same, we are currently in the process of recruiting manpower and will bring on board around 1,800 of them in the apprentice and trainee cadres."

This hiring will also fill up the gap created by those who were unable to return to or rejoin work due to the lockdown and travel ban situations prevailing in the state," he added.

According to Gaurav Vangaal, associate director of light vehicle production forecast, IHS Markit, manpower shortage is one of the biggest problems facing automakers in ramping up production.

There is high demand for technical staffers, diploma holders and ITI candidates across the industry. The new recruits are being hired to fill in the vacuum of support staff for the permanent skilled workers on the production line. They get on-the-job-training immediately after their induction and this process ensures continuous flow of work on the shop floor without disrupting output," he said.

Even large tier-1 suppliers are adding new recruits.

Vivek Vikram Singh, managing director and group CEO, Sona Comstar, said the company recently hired 140 diploma trainees and 20 ITI freshers at its Gurugram and Manesar facilities for new vacancies as well as to replace workers who have returned to their hometowns.

We are paying the freshers regular salaries. However, to incentivize our skilled and experienced workforce that has been with us for longer, we are paying extra retention bonuses for regular attendance," Singh said.

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Topics
Ukraine can even withdraw from the agreement if the enemy violates the deal.

The latest agreements of the Trilateral Contact Group for Donbas settlement on a complete and comprehensive ceasefire does not deprive Ukraine Army of the right to open fire when it comes to self-defense, says Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksiy Reznikov.

The comment came as Reznikov joined an online discussion on security and political challenges of the Minsk peace process and the Normandy format.

"Today I'd like to reassure the critics of this truce, who claim that the Ukrainian Army has allegedly been deprived of the right to open fire. This isn't so. I'd like to remind everyone of the norms of international law, starting from the UN Charter. Its Article 51 clearly grants any country the right to self-defense, which, in fact, is the norm Ukraine has been applying since the start of Russia's military aggression," Reznikov said.

Also, he recalled Article 40 of the 1907 Hague Convention. "The Convention regulates laws and customs of war. Article 40 of the Convention quite clearly formulates that, in case of the truce violation by one of the parties, the other party has the right to withdraw from the truce before the resumption of hostilities," Reznikov said.

Despite the fact that the implementation of Minsk Agreements was set to be completed by the end of 2015, since all deadlines in the deal relate to 2014 and 2015, there is no other platform for negotiations.

Read alsoUkraine Vice PM slams Putin's spox over ceasefire statement

"This is an uncontested platform today, which makes it possible to eventually end hybrid war and bring peace to the occupied Donbas, in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and ultimately come to the final political settlement, that is, local elections in those territories," said Reznikov.

He has added that Ukraine will do everything for the sake of the implementation of Minsk agreements, while realizing that the key task is safe reintegration of the occupied territories.

"All measures and all processes that will take place must pose no threat to Ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty, and unitary structure," he added.

At the same time, Reznikov admitted that a ceasefire had already been proclaimed in Donbas many times, and none of them were observed. "Many critics today argue that more than one ceasefire has been declared over the past six years, and they have been neither implemented nor respected. Yes, indeed, this is true. And we're looking very carefully at how the agreements reached at the TCG last week will be respected, and we understand that this is yet another attempt, another chance to make the Minsk agreements work," Reznikov said.

Read alsoKuchma concludes mission as Ukraine's envoy to Minsk talks

As UNIAN reported earlier, since midnight on July 27, the full and comprehensive ceasefire has been in place along the contact line in the zone of the Joint Forces Operation in Donbas. The latest truce deal was reached on July 22 by the TCG participants (Ukraine, Russia, and OSCE). The parties agreed on a ban on offensive actions and reconnaissance, sniper fire, the use of aircraft, and deployment of heavy weapons in populated areas, etc.

At the same time, on July 27, in Kyiv, activists rallied outside the President's Office against what they say is "capitulation policy" of President Volodymyr Zelensky in Donbas. A "complete ban" on returning fire would make the Army defenseless, while the withdrawal of air reconnaissance units from the JFO zone would make the Army blind, protesters said.

Also, activists pointed at Russia trying to portray itself as an observer over the conflict, while the latest deal forces Ukraine to negotiate with the Russian proxies in Donbas, thus legitimizing the unrecognized entities.
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:

1. VIRUS-LINKED HUNGER TIED TO CHILD DEATHS

The U.N. says coronavirus-linked hunger is leading to the deaths of 10,000 children a month because of fears of contamination and movement restrictions, AP finds.

2. THIS IS A SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE

The biggest test yet of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine gets underway with the first of some 30,000 Americans volunteering to receive shots created by the U.S. government.

3. US-CHINA SPATS RATTLE GLOBE

The tension between Washington and Beijing prompted a German official to warn of Cold War 2.0 and Kenyas president to appeal for unity to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

4. TRUMP RANKLES GOP OVER MAIL VOTING

The presidents campaign against voting by mail is setting his party back in swing states in the race to sign its voters up for the easiest and safest way to cast a ballot during the pandemic.

5. WHOS FAVORED FOR EMMY NODS

The Morning Show and Ramy are among the series vying for TVs top honors, as the Emmy Awards become the first major entertainment awards to cope with limitations forced by the pandemic.
The process for human trial of the Covid-19 vaccine that Bharat Biotech has developed formally began at a private hospital in Uttar Pradeshs Kanpur. The first set of participants, who have cleared the screening process, will be vaccinated on Thursday or Friday under medical supervision.

Prakhar Hospital, one of the two facilities chosen for testing the coronavirus vaccine in Uttar Pradesh, has 36 volunteers between the age group of 18 and 55 years. Five of the volunteers are women and two are 20-year-olds.

Coming from diverse backgrounds, the volunteers also include sportspersons. They are mostly from middle class background and all of them registered on their own volition as they want to contribute to the experiment that can help mankind in these trying hours, said Dr JS Kushwaha, chairman of the hospital.

All 36 volunteers on Monday underwent a comprehensive process of determining their health status, which needs to fit in the parametres the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has defined. Their blood samples and swabs were taken and sent to the ICMR certified laboratory for RT-PCR and anti-body test.

On the basis of these reports, the vaccine will be given to them at the hospital positively by Thursday or Friday, said Kushwaha. The hospital will conduct the human trials in two phases on 100 volunteers.

People are regularly calling us and seek details of the process they will have to follow. Even today we got four calls from people, two of them women, and they wanted to be part of this trial, he said.

Before the vaccine is given, the hospital will insure the volunteers meet all the specified conditions. A team of specialists, led by a doctor from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), will administer the vaccine and monitor the health parametres for a period of two hours at the hospital before the volunteers are allowed to leave.

The team will collect the blood samples on the 14th day and then on 28th day, these samples would be sent to the ICMR certified laboratory for the test.

Kushwaha said the hospital is well-equipped for such trials and has conducted similar trials for Rotavirus and Pentavalent vaccines in the past.

The hospital has received the go-ahead from the Data and Safety Monitoring Board and Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation to commence the trial. Kushwaha appealed to the people that they should come forward and get involved in the trial.
Many of the hundreds of thousands of DACA beneficiaries who have felt their futures to be in peril reacted with exasperation to the latest development.

I was one of the lucky ones, said Pierre R. Berastain, whose application for a two-year renewal of his DACA status, which allows him to work at Harvard University, his alma mater, was approved this past month. Im very cognizant of the tremendous anxiety of people who are in limbo.

Mr. Berastain said that as he waited for a Supreme Court decision on his fate, he dusted off an old safety plan he had developed as a student and updated it with current contact information for his loved ones, his lawyers and any elected officials who might be able to intervene on his behalf if he was arrested by immigration authorities.

I had this extreme anxiety and depression because of the instability of my situation, he said.

Groups that favor tighter restrictions on immigration were gratified that the program would at least be curtailed.

Its a smart move, said Jessica M. Vaughan, the director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, one such group. In this way, he manages to keep the ball in Congresss court without having to keep the program going on autopilot.

Ms. Vaughan said she thought Congress should ultimately decide the fate of the program, but that for now lawmakers should remain focused on responding to the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic crisis.

Mr. Trumps promised assault on immigration, including a pledge to end DACA, was critical to his election victory in 2016 and became a central part of his administrations agenda as he moved to keep out refugees and asylum seekers, to build a wall across the southwestern border and to reduce legal immigration.
To the Editor:

This summer is flying by! Im sure that for many of us, it seems that time is standing still with our focus on the Covid-19 pandemic and all of the new and inconvenient protocols its brought into our lives. However, we are actually halfway through summer  and halfway to the deadline for submitting our census surveys.

As of July 23, nearly 42% of Oswego County residents  41.3% to be exact  have still not submitted their census forms yet.

As Chairman of our County Legislature, this is alarming to me because it affects the amount of federal funding our county receives for the next 10 years!

U.S. census responses are critical to many of the services that county residents rely on, such as health clinics, Medicare and Medicaid. The data also affects Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), school meals and housing assistance; as well as financial aid for college students and Community Development Block Grants. It impacts fire departments, disaster response plans, public transportation and new construction or repairs to highways and infrastructure.

More than $675 billion in federal funding will be distributed to states and communities based on census data. With parts of our population at risk of being undercounted, this could affect the very programs and services that our friends and neighbors rely on.

I cannot stress enough how important it is for everyone to participate in the census. The process is quick and easy, safe and secure. Your information is kept confidential and your privacy is protected.

There are several convenient ways to respond. You can go online to www.my2020census.gov. Or, you can respond by phone at 1-844-330-2020 in English, or 1-844-468-2020 in Spanish. You can also return your form in the mail.

The survey has about 10 questions. It takes about 10 minutes to complete. But it affects us for the next 10 years.

Please do your part to make sure that Oswego County receives its share of funding by returning your census form. Its not too late for everyone to be counted.

For more information about the 2020 U.S. Census, go to www.2020census.gov or call 1-844-330-2020.

Jim Weatherup

Chairman

Oswego County Legislature

Oswego

Related: Only half of Syracuses households have taken the Census. Thats a problem, mayor says
The Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) reminds the faithful that the annual SECAM Day celebration will be held on Sunday, 2 August.

By Fr. Benedict Mayaki, SJ

The Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) has called for prayers for the continental symposium ahead of the annual celebration of SECAM Day, scheduled for 29 July and 2 August.

SECAM Day is an important event for the Church-Family of God in Africa and Madagascar. We earnestly urge you to pray for SECAM on Wednesday 29th July and 2nd August 2020, said SECAM president, Cardinal Philippe Ouedraogo in a goodwill message issued on Monday.

The day is set aside for all members of the Church-Family of God in Africa and the surrounding islands to thank God for the gift of mother Africa, for the gift of one another and for the gift of the Christian Faith, Cardinal Ouedraogo added.

Normally, the annual celebration is held on 29 July. However, SECAM Day is shifted to the following Sunday when 29 July falls on a weekday, explained the Cardinal. Therefore, SECAM Day this year is to be celebrated on 2nd August 2020.

SECAM

Founded on 29 July 1969, SECAM marks its fifty-first anniversary this year. It was formally launched by Pope Saint Paul VI on 31 July 1969 in Kampala, Uganda.

SECAM is a common forum for Bishops in Africa and Madagascar to voice their respective opinions on matters concerning the Church on the African continent.

Challenges to SECAMs mission

Cardinal Ouedraogo recalled that SECAM made several resolutions at its plenary sessions during last years Golden Jubilee celebrations held in Kampala, Uganda  the place where SECAM was founded.

Some of the resolutions include making the Jubilee a springboard for a more profound evangelization on the Continent and its islands; intensifying the commitment to promoting organic pastoral solidarity among SECAM members; and being more proactive in the prophetic mission.

Unfortunately, the Cardinal noted, one year after the Golden Jubilee, the situation in Africa and the surrounding islands has remained the same, within and outside the Church.

Further compounding the situation is the coronavirus pandemic that has wreaked havoc everywhere. Covid-19 has so far killed millions around the world including Africans. It has affected the clergy, religious and lay faithful alike, Cardinal Ouedraogo said.

Covid-19 in Africa

Faced with the ongoing health crisis, Cardinal Ouedraogo pointed out that Africa is particularly hard-hit. Thousands have lost jobs, small businesses [have been] destroyed. The diversity of pre-existing disasters such as floods, drought, locust invasion, poor harvest, are real and constitute serious challenges, he said.

The SECAM president further noted that not even the deadly Covid-19 has deterred violence and terrorism in some countries in Africa. Joining his voice with that of Pope Francis, he called on world leaders to put an immediate end to violence everywhere in Africa and elsewhere in the world.

Covid-19 has exposed how vulnerable we are, irrespective of color or status, he said. This is the time for all African peoples to reactivate the value of solidarity that has shaped our worldview and traditional society.

Annual collection deferred

Among the activities on the annual SECAM day is a special collection to support the work of the continental symposium. However, due to the ongoing challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, the SECAM leadership announced that it would defer the collection this year.

But, the SECAM president noted, if any person or group of people are moved by the Holy Spirit to support SECAM financially or materially, you are welcome to do so.

Appreciation

Cardinal Ouedraogo concluded his message with a note of gratitude.

We have had our moments of sorrow but there were also joyful moments in the last one year, the Cardinal said, then goes further to express gratitude to Bishops, clergy and the lay faithful across the continent.
WESLACO, Texas - As recovery and cleanup efforts got underway Monday in South Texas in the wake of a downgraded Hanna, worried residents confronted the prospect of undertaking the effort amid a surge in coronavirus cases that has left many fearful about their health.

Now a tropical depression, Hanna was 65 miles (105 km) north of Fresnillo in the Mexican state of Zacatecas as its winds weakened to about 25 mph (40 kph), the National Hurricane Center said. Its remnants still threatened to bring rainfall and flash flooding to waterlogged parts of South Texas and Northern Mexico.

For 66-year-old, Nora Esquivel, who has mostly stayed in her home in Weslaco, Texas, in Hidalgo County since March because of the pandemic, flooding damage to her home from Hanna meant greater chance of exposure to the virus.

No contact with nobody, only my daughter once in a while, and now with this, I have to allow people to come into my house, the insurance and all this and Im scared, said a tearful Esquivel, who takes heart medication and had to be rescued from her home Sunday morning by her son on a kayak.

All my friends are dying. ... I have fear for my family, for everybody, not just me and this is the whole world.

In the aftermath of Hanna, which dumped up to 16 inches (41 centimetres) of rain in some parts of South Texas and Northern Mexico, officials reported two people died in the northern Mexican city of Ramos Arispe, near Monterrey, after torrents of water unleashed by Hanna swept their vehicle away. Three people were reported missing in Monterrey and three more were missing in the border city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas, according to Mexicos national civil defence office.

Gov. Greg Abbott said the state was sending additional testing supplies and hospital personnel to South Texas communities impacted by Hanna to ensure the storm doesnt exacerbate the spread of the virus.

The spread of COVID can be far more deadly than the damage caused by the storm, Abbott said on KRGV-TV. He planned to tour damaged areas Tuesday.

The governor asked residents to adhere to social distancing guidelines and to wear masks if they had to leave their homes and go to a shelter. Officials said shelters were set up to be as safe as possible, with temperature checks by on-site medical personnel. Some were being sheltered in hotel rooms.

Border communities hit by Hanna were already strained by COVID-19 cases  with some patients being airlifted to larger cities.

Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday that in a strange way the hurricane might have helped with the countys recent surge in COVID-19 cases because the storm made people stay at home.

In Cameron County, located next to Hidalgo County, officials said they were grateful the hurricane did not overwhelm their hospitals, which continue dealing with a crush of COVID-19 patients.

Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr., the countys top elected official, said there were reports of at least 150 flooded homes and some roadways were still impassable due to high water, but for the most part the county was doing well.

I think were very fortunate the storm did not bring major, major flooding and no loss of life, he said.

But Cameron County officials remained concerned about the pandemic, as cases in the past week have increased by 2,587  more than the total from mid-March to July 1. The county has more than 7,800 cases. Deaths have increased by 81 in the past week, Trevino said. A week ago, the county had 96 deaths.

North of Cameron County in Nueces County, Corpus Christi reported that 60 infants tested positive for COVID-19 from July 1 to July 16.

The storm hasnt made (COVID-19) go away, said Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni, adding officials remained concerned Monday about the number of local coronavirus cases, including 16 deaths over the weekend.

Coastal states scrambled this spring to adjust emergency hurricane plans to account for the virus, and Hanna was the first big test.

Abbott announced Sunday the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved an emergency declaration that will provide federal aid.

Hanna blew ashore as a Category 1 storm late Saturday afternoon with winds of 90 mph (145 kph) not far from Port Mansfield, which is about 130 miles (210 kilometres) south of Corpus Christi.

By Monday evening, 50,600 customers remained without power throughout South Texas, including Corpus Christi, Harlingen and McAllen, utility officials said. That was down from a peak of 200,000 early Sunday morning.

Officials throughout South Texas were still assessing damage from Hanna on Monday. In Hidalgo County, some colonias  unincorporated, low-income areas along the U.S.-Mexico border  had been flooded by several feet of water, Cortez said.

Hanna came nearly three years after Hurricane Harvey blew ashore northeast of Corpus Christi, killing 68 people and causing an estimated $125 billion in damage in Texas.

In the Mexican city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, more than 1,300 asylum seekers, including newborns and elderly people, at a refugee camp braced for the impact of flooding from the Rio Grande due to Hanna. The river was expected to rise and likely flood the camp in the next few days.

Chloe Rastatter, a volunteer engineer at the camp, said United Nations representatives have been working with Mexican authorities to plan for the relocation of the migrants.

In the Mexican border city of Reynosa, a maternity hospital was damaged by heavy rain, with some patients moved to upper floors and others evacuated to other facilities, said Pedro Granados, director of civil protection for Tamaulipas state.

In the Pacific Ocean, meanwhile, Hawaii avoided a direct hit Monday from Hurricane Douglas as the storm was moving away from the main Hawaiian islands.

___

Lozano reported from Houston. Associated Press writers Mark Stevenson in Mexico City and Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
WASHINGTONAfter lawmakers collected hundreds of hours of interviews and obtained more than 1.3 million documents about Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, their chief executives will testify before Congress on Wednesday to defend their powerful businesses from the hammer of government.

The captains of the New Gilded Age  Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google  will appear together before Congress for the first time to justify their business practices. Members of the House judiciarys antitrust subcommittee have investigated the internet giants for more than a year on accusations that they stifled rivals and harmed consumers.

The hearing is the governments most aggressive show against tech power since the pursuit to break up Microsoft two decades ago. It is set to be a bizarre spectacle, with four men who run companies worth a total of around $4.85 trillion  and who include two of the worlds richest individuals  primed to argue that their businesses are not really that powerful after all.

And it will be a first in another way: Zuckerberg, Pichai, Bezos and Cook will all be testifying via video conference, rather than rising side-by-side for a swearing-in at a witness table in Washington. Perhaps appropriately, their reckoning will be broadcast online.

It has the feeling of techs Big Tobacco moment, said Gigi Sohn, a former senior adviser at the Federal Communications Commission and a fellow at Georgetown Universitys law school, referring to the 1994 congressional appearance of top executives of the seven largest U.S. tobacco companies, who said they did not believe that cigarettes were addictive.

The hearing, which caps a 13-month investigation by the House subcommittee, will be closely watched for clues that could advance other antitrust cases against the companies. The Federal Trade Commission, for one, is preparing to depose Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives in its 13-month probe of the social network. The Justice Department may soon unveil a case against Google. And an investigation into Apple by state attorneys general also appears to be advancing.

As a result, preparations for the hearing have been frenetic  even with the event postponed by a few days this week to accommodate the commemoration of Rep. John Lewis  as tech lobbyists jockeyed behind the scenes to influence the types of questions that lawmakers might ask.

At the hearing, which starts at noon ET Wednesday, the 15 members of the antitrust subcommittee will have five minutes for each question. Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., the chairman of the subcommittee, will control the number of rounds of questioning, potentially stretching questioning into the evening.

The length of the hearing may also be prolonged since the antitrust issues facing Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon are complex and vastly different.

Amazon is accused of abusing its role as both a retailer and a platform hosting third-party sellers on its marketplace. Apple has been accused of unfairly using its clout over its App Store to block rivals and to force apps to pay high commissions. Rivals have said Facebook has a monopoly in social networking. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is dealing with multiple antitrust allegations because of Googles dominance in online advertising, search and smartphone software.

Democrats may also veer off the topic of antitrust and bring up concerns about misinformation on social media. Some Republicans are expected to sidetrack discussion with their concerns of liberal bias at the Silicon Valley companies and accusations that conservative voices are censored.

There was an attitude these were great American companies that created jobs and that we should have a hands-off approach and let them flourish, Cicilline said in an interview. But there are a lot of serious issues we have uncovered over the course of the investigation that werent apparent when we first began investigating.

Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple declined to comment.

For the chief executives, the hearing will be a test of how they perform under fire. Bezos, 56, has not previously testified to Congress, while Cook, 59, and Pichai, 48, have both testified once before. Zuckerberg, 36, the youngest of the group, has the distinction of being the veteran: He has answered questions at three congressional hearings in the past two years as Facebook has dealt with issues such as election interference and privacy violations.

But none are taking any chances for the event to go awry. Zuckerberg, who had been at his 750-acre estate on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, has been preparing for his testimony with the law firm WilmerHale, according to people with knowledge of the matter. And a small team is working with Bezos for his testimony in Seattle, said people with knowledge of the matter.

For weeks, the tech giants have also waged a lobbying battle to soften any blows. All four chief executives planned to call lawmakers on the House subcommittee in the days before the hearing, said three people with knowledge of the preparations who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Apple and Amazon also recently released studies to rebut claims of market dominance and anticompetitive practices. Last week, Apple publicized a study by a consulting firm called Analysis Group showing that the 30 per cent commission it charges many apps for the right to appear on iPhones is close to what other platforms charge for distribution. The study left out that Apple helped popularize that 30 per cent standard across the industry.

Amazon-funded economic consultants have in recent months argued that the e-commerce companys business model, which is not grounded in selling ads like Google and Facebook, makes it less likely to violate antitrust laws. Last week, Amazon also released a report on small business, saying sales by third-party sellers grew 26 per cent in the past year, outpacing Amazons own sales directly to consumers.

Google has said that the search and advertising tech markets that it dominates are changing fast. More than half of all searches for products on the internet originate on Amazon, Googles lobbyists have said.

And Facebooks Washington staff has pointed to competition from China, particularly from the popular video app TikTok, as evidence that competition in social media abounds. The Chinese-owned app is in the cross hairs of the Trump administration, which has threatened to ban it for national security reasons.

Big Techs rivals have also jockeyed to have their gripes brought up at the hearing, even if for just a few minutes. The House subcommittee has been flooded with proposed questions, documents and letters from the companies competitors, according to congressional staff and rivals.

Spotify, for instance, submitted questions about Apples dominance of the App Store. GreatFire, a China-based group, sent a letter with nine questions for Cook about Apples censorship of certain apps in China. Blix, a company whose email app competes with Apple and that is suing Apple in federal court for patent infringement, sent five questions to the subcommittee, including one on why Apple ranked its own apps ahead of rivals offerings in its App Store.

This month, David Heinemeier Hansson, the co-founder of Basecamp, a project-management tool, said he briefed lawmakers on a recent public spat with Apple. Apple had denied Basecamps new email app from appearing in the App Store because it charged customers outside of Apples payment system. After Heinemeier Hansson complained publicly, Apple permitted the app with some minor changes.

The subcommittees members, who have already held five hearings about the tech giants, were informed and thoughtful during his briefing, Heinemeier Hansson said.

Clearly theres already a great resonance, he said.

Even if the hearing results in more theatre than substance, some said the greatest risk to the tech companies was increasing momentum toward regulations.

The CEOs dont want to be testifying. Even having this collective hearing creates a sense of quasi-guilt just because of who else has gotten called in like this  Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, Big Banks, said Paul Gallant, a tech policy analyst at the investment firm Cowen. Thats not a crowd they want to be associated with.

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The frontline troops of China and India have "completed" disengagement at most locations of their border, a senior Chinese official said on Tuesday, adding the situation on the ground is easing.

IMAGE: Army vehicles move towards Leh amid the ongoing India-China border dispute. Photograph: ANI Photo

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin made this statement at a briefing in Beijing when a reporter from China's official media asked him to comment on media reports that the border troops from India and China have completed the disengagement from the Galwan Valley, Hot Springs and Kongka Pass areas and the only area where disengagement is left to be implemented is along the Pangong Tso.

During the briefing, the spokesman noted that China and India have recently conducted frequent communication through military and diplomatic channels.

The border troops of China and India have "completed" the disengagement in most locations in eastern Ladakh after "intensive communication" through military and diplomatic channels and the situation on the ground is easing, the official translator quoted Wang as saying.

Indian government sources in New Delhi said this statement is not correct.

Later, an English translation of Wang's remarks in Mandarin put up on the Chinese foreign ministry website which read as, As border troops have disengaged in most localities, the situation on the ground is deescalating and the temperature is coming down."

At the briefing, Wang said, We have held four rounds of commander level talks and three meetings of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC)."

Currently the two sides are actively preparing for the fifth round of commander-level talks to resolve outstanding issues on the ground. We hope the Indian side will work towards the same goal with China, implement the two sides' consensus and jointly uphold peace and tranquillity along the border," the spokesman added.

Asked when the next commanders level meeting will be held, Wang said the information will be released in due course.

The Indian ministry of external affairs on Friday said that India and China agreed on "early and complete" disengagement of troops in eastern Ladakh and may hold more military talks soon so as to work out further steps to ensure "expeditiously" complete disengagement and de-escalation" and restoration of peace and tranquility in the border areas.

India had also asked China to sincerely implement the understanding on troop withdrawals reached by senior military commanders of the two sides.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a nearly two-hour-long telephonic conversation on July 5 to bring down tension between the armies of the two countries in eastern Ladakh.

Both China and India commenced the disengagement process from July 6 following talks between Doval and Wang who are Special Representatives for the boundary question.

The tension in eastern Ladakh escalated manifold after the violent clashes in the Galwan Valley on June 15 in which 20 Indian Army personnel were killed.

The Chinese side also suffered casualties but it is yet to give out the details. As per U.S. intelligence reports, the Chinese Army suffered 35 casualties.
The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court (HC) last week observed that no other amount except statutory dues are allowed to be deducted while computing the compensation for motor accident claims.

It is well-settled that except the statutory deduction to be made towards income tax, professional tax, no other deduction is permissible under law. The deduction from salary of the deceased towards insurance, pensionary benefits, gratuity or grant of employment to kin of deceased is not permissible, said justice VL Achliya, while hearing an appeal filed by an Ahmednagar resident. The appellant had challenged an order passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Ahmednagar, in December 2011, granting only 9-lakh compensation to her and her aged in-laws on the account of her husbands death in an accident.

The appellant claimed that the accident took place on June 2, 2007, barely three months after her marriage, while the couple was travelling from Pune to Ahmednagar. Her husband, a sepoy in Indian Army, was riding a bike, while she was seated pillion.

When the couple reached near Kamargaon village, a state transport corporation bus hit their bike and the two-wheeler was thrown off the road. The womans husband died owing to a severe head injury, while she also sustained severe injuries.

The woman later filed a motor accident claim, claiming compensation of 15.5 lakh from Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), which owned the bus. After the tribunals decision to compensate her with 9 lakh, she moved HC in 2012 seeking enhancement in compensation.

Her counsel pointed out that the tribunal had wrongly deducted the amount of pension being received by the appellant from her claim, and this reduced the amount of compensation to be received by her.

HC accepted the argument presented by the womans counsel. Justice Achliya found that the assessment of compensation made by the tribunal was against the settled position in law, and held that the woman was entitled to 23.52 lakh as compensation, of which 50% will be paid to her, while the remaining half to her parents-in-law.
- MTN Ghana is set to organise a virtual Annual General Meeting on August 13, 2020

- The company announced the meeting will be streamed from its head office in Accra

- It added that it measures have been implemented to ensure shareholders can fully participate

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Scancom PLC (MTN Ghana) has announced it will hold its second Annual General Meeting (AGM) on August 13, 2020.

YEN.com.gh understands that the meeting will be held virtually and live streamed.

The event will be streamed from the companys head office at MTN House in Accra from 11 am and the agenda for the meeting has been set.

CEO of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh Source: MTN Ghana

Source: UGC

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Issues to be discussed include audited financial statements and the reports of directors and auditors for the year ended December 31, 2019.

The company will also take the opportunity to declare a final dividend and re-elect retiring directors of the company.

MTN Ghanas shareholders will also take the opportunity to authorise the amendment of the Constitution of the company in compliance with the new Companies Act 2019 (Act 992).

Per a report by citinewsroom.com, the company stated that shareholders can take part in the virtual meeting via www.mtnghagm.com.

The company held its first AGM in May 2019 after being listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) on September 5, 2018. It was the first Ghanaian telecoms provider to be listed on the GSE.

The process was successfully completed with the company recording 127,826 shareholders, which is the largest number of Ghanaian shareholders of any listed company on the Exchange.

YEN.com.gh earlier reported that mobile telecommunications company, MTN Ghana, has announced a suspension of the payment of dividends to shareholders which was scheduled for Monday, May 25, 2020.

The company also announced that it had postponed its Annual General Meeting that was scheduled for Wednesday, May 13, 2020.

YEN.com.gh understands that the company has tens of thousands of shareholders due to its Initial Public Offering in 2018.

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Source: YEN.com.gh
Many industries have faced foreclosures and shortfall in revenues due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The travel and tourism industry is one of the many that are mostly affected with around 58 percent to 78 percent forecasted declines in international tourist arrivals for this year.

These expected scenarios would result from 100 to 120 million direct tourism jobs at risk, according to the World Tourism Organization data.

This is recognized as the worst result of a historical series of international tourism since 1950.

The organization's data also shows that there is a 22 percent decrease in international tourist arrivals in the first quarter of 2020, representing a loss of 67 million international arrivals.

With this reported loss, U.S. Senate Republicans on Monday agreed on the additional $10 billion assistance for U.S. airports that are experiencing a decline in revenue due to the travel fall'off brought by the pandemic.

The Republican proposal also suggests a $75 million fund to maintain essential air service to rural communities and $50 million for the Federal Aviation Administration's administrative cost related to air traffic control, tower cleaning, and janitorial services and supplies.

U.S. airports asked earlier this month for a new $13 billion bail out after Congress in March approved $10 billion in government assistance for airports.

The Republican proposal said that the country's airports are seeing a record drop in passengers.

In June, six unions representing aviation workers sought another $32 billion in payroll aid to keep many workers employed through March 31.

This after Congress in March approved $32 billion for the aviation industry to keep workers on the payroll through Sept. 30.

U.S. airports collectively had $100 billion in debt at the end of 2018.

Some warned they might not be able to make payments without the initial $10 billion assistance.

Travel During the Pandemic

If you are to travel during the coronavirus pandemic, you might be wondering how you can reduce your chances of contracting the virus.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that you can reduce risk by frequently practicing proper hygiene such as washing your hands with soap and water or hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol content.

It is also recommended that you wear a face mask when traveling.

CDC also recommends that you avoid all nonessential international travel during the pandemic.

"Some healthcare systems are overwhelmed and there may be limited access to adequate medical care in affected areas," according to the CDC site.

Many countries are also enforcing travel restrictions and mandatory quarantines, which can disrupt your travel plans.

This may also require you to remain outside the United States for a long period of time.

If it happens that you traveled internationally, you would be required to stay for 14 days after arriving into the U.S.

While at home, you are expected to observe your health and practice social distancing to protect others.

Domestic travel are also not advised such as going to campgrounds. Being exposed to COVID-19 might be unsafe as they might be no accessible medical care in some areas.

"Also be aware that many local, state, and national public parks have been temporarily closed due to COVID-19," the CDC said.



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The draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification, 2020, threatens to be the next flashpoint in Assam after the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, with several prominent groups and parties opposing it by terming it anti-north-east.

Issued on March 12 by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), if implemented, EIA, 2020, will be applicable across the country and subsume EIA, 2006, with regards to setting up projects or expansion/modernisation of existing projects entailing capacity addition.

The guidelines of EIA are used to study and predict the effect of a proposed activity/project on the environment. It is used as a tool to compare various alternatives for a project and tries to identify the one that represents the best combination of economic and environmental costs and benefits.

The draft EIA notification, 2020, states that it aims to make the process of prior environment clearance more transparent and expedient through the implementation of an online system, further delegations, rationalisation, standardisation of the process, etc.

But since the new draft reduces the period set aside for public consultation and allows post-facto clearance of projects, many groups, and parties are sceptical that it is aimed at hurting interests of Assam and the north-east and would harm the regions fragile ecosystem.

This proposed law is objectionable primarily because it paves the way for post-facto clearance of projects in eco-sensitive zones and sidesteps inputs by communities likely to be adversely affected by such projects, said Congress legislator and leader of opposition in Assam assembly Debabrata Saikia in a letter to Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar on July 23.

Private companies concerned can even prepare their own EIA reports by engaging private consultants. This is a travesty of natural justice and a body blow to the rights of indigenous people over their land, he added seeking scrapping of the draft EIA notification, 2020, in its present form.

Saikia cited EIA, 2020 as extremely dangerous for Assam and the north-east in view of the damage, which has already been caused by mining/drilling operations underway or sanctioned in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in the region.

The EIA draft, 2020, legitimises the systemic repression perpetrated by the Central government. It is violative, exploitative, suppresses public involvement, and cripples biodiversity. Its inclusions are unjust, anti-democratic and anti-environment for Assam and the north-east at large, Samujjal Bhattacharjya, chief adviser of All Assam Students Union (AASU), had tweeted on July 25.

The opposition to EIA, 2020, has some recent context in Assam.

On April 17, the National Board of Wild Life (NBWL) under the MoEFCC had allowed opencast coal mining at Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary, a move that caused an uproar in Assam.

In May, the MoEFCC gave environmental clearance for extension drilling and testing of hydrocarbons at seven locations by Oil India Limited (OIL) under Dibru-Saikhowa National Park (DSNP) area in Upper Assams Tinsukia district.

On May 27, a natural gas well of OIL located at Baghjan, adjacent to DSNP, had a blowout and then caught fire on June 9 killing two firefighters and displacing around 2,000 families besides causing ecological damage to the surrounding area.

The gas well blaze is yet to be extinguished.

The Central governments intention is to loot the land and resources of Assam and the rest of the north-east. Hence they brought out this draft EIA notification, 2020, which is detrimental to our interests, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti leader Manas Konwar had alleged at a press meet in Guwahati on July 25.

The draft EIA notification, 2020, allows the Centre to set up industry within a 100-kilometre (km) aerial distance from any international boundary without a public hearing. Since almost all states of the north-east, including Assam, are connected to international borders, this draft is directly against the interests of the people from the north-east, said Partha Protim Bezbaruah, general secretary, Liberal Democratic Party, a regional outfit.

The MoEFCC had published the draft EIA notification, 2020, on March 12 seeking feedback from the public within 60 days.

Later, the Delhi high court had extended the deadline to August 11 owing to the prevailing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.

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INDIANAPOLIS, IN / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / Noble Roman's, Inc. (OTCQB:NROM), the Indianapolis based franchisor and operator of Noble Roman's Pizza and Noble Roman's Craft Pizza & Pub announced today that it has entered into a lease agreement for the company's sixth company-operated flagship Craft Pizza & Pub restaurant. The newest location will be in the Greenwood, IN area south of Indianapolis and is currently forecasted to open towards the end of the third quarter of 2020. An additional franchise location is also currently under construction in Kokomo, IN, a city approximately 50 miles north of Indianapolis.

The newest company-operated Craft Pizza & Pub restaurant will be located in an outlot duplex at the corner of IN-135 & Stones Crossing Road. The area has a strong residential base, serving the fast-growing Greenwood, Bargersville, Whiteland and Center Grove areas. According to Scott Mobley, president and CEO of Noble Roman's, "The location for the sixth company-operated Craft Pizza & Pub is situated in an ideal spot to serve 4 dynamic markets on the south side of Indianapolis, including the larger city of Greenwood. These areas are very familiar with the Noble Roman's brand, and we are excited to be a part of the local communities there."

According to Mobley, the new location will represent the first company-operated unit to reflect its latest v2.1 Craft Pizza & Pub prototype - a design meant to reduce space requirements and occupancy costs while maintaining seating and serving capacity reflective of the company's original v1.0 prototype. The v2.1 prototype is also highly adaptable to a variety of service systems depending on the current operating environment, and it is designed to increase speed of production and to increase the efficiency of the company's novel "Pizza Valet" curbside service. The new location occupies approximately 3,700 square feet and will have seating for 160, including a beer and wine bar that seats ten. Says Mobley, "Our new Greenwood-area restaurant incorporates new equipment and work-flows in the kitchen that will allow faster production speeds during heavy online ordering and peak hours. Our dining room has been restructured to be much more space efficient and will allow switching between various service systems based on needs arising from events such as Covid-19. It will also feature a separate entrance for our curb-side Pizza Valets designed to enhance the functionality of that important service. And finally, we will have a large outdoor patio seating area at this location, which will be fun in general as well as advantageous during Covid-19 restrictions. All of this adds up to one of the most exciting new Craft Pizza & Pubs yet!"

The first Noble Roman's Craft Pizza & Pub opened on January 31, 2017 in Westfield, Indiana. The other company operated restaurants are in Whitestown, Fishers, Carmel and Brownsburg, Indiana. The company also has two franchised Craft Pizza & Pub locations operating in Lafayette and Evansville, Indiana. A third franchise location is currently under construction in Kokomo, Indiana.

The statements contained above in this press release concerning the Company's future revenues, profitability, financial resources, market demand and product development are forward-looking statements (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) relating to the Company that are based on the beliefs of the management of the Company, as well as assumptions and estimates made by and information currently available to the Company's management. The Company's actual results in the future may differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties that exist in the Company's operations and business environment, including, but not limited to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, competitive factors and pricing pressures, non-renewal of franchise agreements, shifts in market demand, the success of new franchise programs, including the Noble Roman's Craft Pizza & Pub format, the Company's ability to successfully operate an increased number of Company-owned restaurants, general economic conditions, changes in demand for the Company's products or franchises, the Company's ability to service its loans, the impact of franchise regulation, the success or failure of individual franchisees and changes in prices or supplies of food ingredients and labor and dependent on continued involvement of current management. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions or estimates prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated, expected or intended.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Media Information - Scott Mobley, President & CEO: smobley@nobleromans.com

Investor Relations - Paul Mobley, Executive Chairman: pmobley@nobleromans.com

SOURCE: Noble Roman's, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/599338/Noble-Romans-to-Open-New-Craft-Pizza-Pub-Restaurant-in-Greenwood-IN
While the governor and commissioner of education are still pushing for a full, in-person reopening of school come fall, they said they will leave that decision up to local school districts.

It may be that some districts at the high school level and maybe the middle school level begin with the hybrid and then work toward the goal of (a full reopening,) Commissioner of Education Miguel Cardona said Monday.

School districts around the state, on Friday, submitted reopening plans to the state Department of Education based on three scenarios: full reopening, a hybrid model that included both in- and out-of-school learning and complete remote learning. A department team is now reviewing them, Cardona said.

The in-person model, which is contingent on the state continuing to show a declining COVID-19 infection rate, relies largely on everyone wearing masks and most students sticking together with the same class or group as much as possible throughout the school day.

Cardona called the plans fluid documents and a final call wont be made until sometime in August.

While the state is also allowing parents to keep their children home for remote learning if they choose, some 67 percent of parents say they intend to send their kids back in the fall and a surprising 81 percent of teachers plan to be there too, according to a preliminary reopening survey released Monday by the state.

A heavy price tag was also put on the effort. Connecticut school superintendents estimate returning to school in the fall is going to cost them $400 million or more above their 2020-21 budgets. About half of the added cost is for extra personnel and half for non-personnel costs such as building needs, added technology and transportation.

The results come from 192 school districts, representing the lions share of the states 530,000 students. Gov. Ned Lamont referenced some of the data when he held a coronavirus briefing on Monday.

Students, Lamont said, miss their friends and need the socialization that school offers.

The staff results, he added, surprised him given the concerns raised by the states largest teacher unions over a full in-school return in the fall.

On Thursday, teachers, including some from Bridgeport, plan to caravan up to Hartford in a bid to put the brakes on a full reopening.

The Connecticut Education Association wants a slower reopening that is fully funded by the state and federal government.

Well see how that sorts out over the course of the next few weeks, Lamont said. The state is there to backstop every single one of our school districts when it comes to public health and public safety.

New Canaan Schools Superintendent Bryan Luizzi, brought on by the governor during his Monday briefing, said his district will keep elementary and middle school students together but have not yet figured out how to do that effectively at the high school level.

Were figuring out how can we try to stay at a reasonable distance from each other ... and yet still have interactive activities, Luizzi said. Schools these days, he added, are supposed to be active and engaging learning environments, regardless of modalities and furniture setups.

Many districts reported uncertainty around their submitted survey numbers and in many cases, parents who filled them out are still unsure if their July answers will hold into September, data released by the state suggests.

The number of parents choosing in-person learning was lowest in high-needs districts like Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford, according to the survey narrative.

The surveys reveal that many districts have classrooms too small to accommodate a class where students are appropriately spread apart if everyone shows up to school. Gyms and cafeterias cant be used as auxiliary classes in many cases, because that is where schools are storing excess classroom desks, chairs and book cases.

Some school officials are looking into renting tents for outdoor classroom spaces.

Others are dealing with the logistics of teaching children both in a classroom or at home watching a live-stream video of the class.

There is a lot of work to be done around that, Luizzi said.

There will be training, for both teachers and students.

These are immense challenges, Luizzi said. But we are single-mindedly focused on doing the right thing for our kids.

lclambeck@ctpost.com; twitter/lclambeck
Prisons brimful with undertrials have long been a stark sign of a travesty of justice in India. Now, COVID-19 adds another disturbing element. Jail conditions, abysmal to begin with, offer a kind of petri dish for infectious diseases. Two out of three prisoners in an Indian jail are in enforced proximityroughly 70% of those behind bars, including a record number of children of prisoners.

The idea of the prison as a place of reformation has long ceased to be our guiding principle. Moral reparation is on no ones mind. Now, even political prisoners, the ill and the elderly among them, are not spared the harder edge of prison life. Its often said even the colonial British did not treat political prisoners the way they are now treated. Even in the dark days of Emergency, when virtually the entire political opposition was incarcerated, they were not made to live in subhuman conditionsthe controversy over Jayaprakash Narayan notwithstanding, or Gayatri Devi being made to share a cell with commoners. There were no harrowing stories rife about 300 prisoners having to share a single stinking toilet. Social distancing, of course, is an impossibility in such conditions. No prison across the length and breadth of India is anything less than a hell.

ALSO READ | Jails racing against time in fight against coronavirus

Not just prisoners, even jail staff have tested COVID positive153 prisoners and 92 jail staff in Tamil Nadu alone. In Assam, the situation is so bad the states human rights body has sought the CMs intervention. Maharashtra, of course, is a class apart. It not only tops the COVID charts, its jail conditions are among the poorest. Kerala has at least been taking its remand prisoners for testing instead of awaiting divine mercy. Karnataka too released 1,200-odd prisoners under court direction to decongest jails. We are leaving a time bomb ticking, particularly when the judiciary is working at half-mast. Unless this indeed is the intention, and we do not wish to call ourselves a civilised democracy anymore.
MARIGOT:--- Following the increase in the number of coronavirus cases on the Dutch side, the Prefette Sylvie Feucher indicated she will not close the border again, only "if the necessary measures were taken" on Sint Maarten.

Following the sharp increase in the number of positive cases on the Dutch side, the Prefette met on Monday morning with the Prime Minister of Sint Maarten Silveria Jacobs. "I told her that if the necessary measures were taken, I would not necessarily close the border immediately," said the Prefette said at a press conference on Monday afternoon.

However, if Sint Maarten reopens, as announced, its airport to flights from the United States, I will close the border. We are not able to handle planes arriving en masse, particularly from territories where there is there are a lot of cases. If we have a sudden increase in the number of cases, neither Sint Maarten nor we are able to manage a mass epidemic,  Feucher added.

1 NEW POSITIVE CASE ON THE FRENCH SIDE.

Following the announcement of the three positive cases, a fourth case has been identified today Monday in Saint-Martin. This is a contact case of Sint Maarten, indicates the Prefette Feucher. In Saint-Barthelemy, the man who tested positive went through Guyana. He is currently in confinement. For its part, the government of Sint Maarten reports 36 cases. "At least 6 people from Guadeloupe who have stayed in Saint-Martin and who have gone to a disco in Sint Maarten are positive". This thus generated a cluster in Guadeloupe.

THE MEASURES IMPLEMENTED

The Prefette indicated that establishments organizing public events of more than 10 people without authorization will be subject to administrative closure. A new decree will also be taken to confirm the limitation of the opening hours of drinking establishments to midnight. The Prefecture reiterates its instructions to respect barrier gestures.

Source Le Pelican.
DUBAI, UAE, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- UAE Homegrown fitness facility GymNation is celebrating reaching its one millionth member visit milestone.

The gym opened its first location in Dubai's Al Quoz in July 2018, and it's now celebrating its one millionth member visit.

The one millionth member was Joanne Mary Ababa who checked in to GymNation Bur Dubai on Tuesday 28th July at 11.04am. As a reward, she received a free lifetime GymNation membership, as well as prizes worth more than Dhs10,000 from GymNation partners.

It's not a surprise that over 1 million Dubai residents have visited GymNation since its opening  with an unrivalled price point of AED99 per month, each gym boasting over 30k sq ft of space, 24hour opening hours, 400+ free classes a month, over 500 pieces of Matrix gym equipment and free parking at all sites  the offer is more than compelling.

GymNation was a UAE homegrown business and was established by three friends who'd lived in Dubai for several years and had grown increasingly frustrated by the cost of keeping fit and healthy. To combat this problems, Loren Holland, Frank Afeaki and Anthony Martland, came up with the idea for GymNation  Dubai's first affordable gym.

The one million member visits have been across gyms in Al Quoz, Bur Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah, and there are exciting plans for more GymNation branches coming this year in Motor City, Mirdif, Silicon Oasis, Downtown Dubai and Khalidiyah Mall in Abu Dhabi; not even the COVID19 market disruption can stop the growth of this UAE homegrown brand which it appears has no problem taking the fight to multinational franchises given they recently started the pre sell and fit out of their Motor City site which is right next door to Fitness First.

GymNation Founder Loren Holland, "The Dubai gym market had become stagnant, with operators overpricing their bang average products which simply hadn't evolved with the global markets. They had become complacent and the industry needed a shake up. As a customer myself I simply wasn't prepared to spend AED400-500 per month on a gym membership to use a tired and old facility. We saw a gap in the market for a world class offering which was priced fairly so we could make health and fitness available to everyone, not just the upper echelons of income earners. And that's just what we have achieved. Everyone told us the concept wouldn't work in Dubai, but at GymNation you'll find millionaire CEO's running on treadmills or lifting weights alongside far lower income earners previously priced out of the gym market. There's no social status, just a great and inspiring environment which over 1 million people have benefited from in under 24 months."

Photos:

https://www.prlog.org/12831841

Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE GymNation UAE

Related Links

http://gymnation.ae


LANGHORNE, PA  Nurses at St. Mary Medical Center plan to picket Thursday afternoon as negotiations continue on their new contract with the hospital.

The roughly 800 nurses at St. Mary voted in August to join the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals. Since then, they've been in negotiations with Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic, which owns St. Mary, over a new contact.

Thursday's picket will be informational, and comes as nurses continue treating patients sick with the coronavirus. The union claims Trinity executives "are dragging their feet on putting basic patient protections and fairness for nurses in writing" in a new contract.

This month, Trinity made cuts to nursing and other staff, which the union says is putting added pressure on already overburdened frontline health workers.

Trinity spokeswoman Ann D'Antonio said the hospital has had to make changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After a break, she said, the hospital resumed negotiations in June.

"Despite these obstacles and the related financial impact the pandemic has had on St. Mary and other hospitals around the country, we remain fully committed to negotiating in good faith and in the spirit of obtaining a fair, consistent and sustainable contract," she said. "We are aware of a planned demonstration of nurses and union supporters related to the ongoing negotiations, and we fully recognize and respect our nurses' rights to gather and demonstrate."

The picket, by nurses who are either off work or on a break, will be from 4:30-8:30 p.m. at the hospital.

Speeches are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. and will include a coronavirus survivor who was treated at St. Mary for more than seven weeks  more than half of that time in intensive care.

This article originally appeared on the Levittown Patch
B oris Johnson was facing growing Tory unease today over quarantine chaos as a minister declared that holidaymakers must simply accept there is a degree of uncertainty over travelling abroad.

Conservative MPs urged the Prime Minister to do more to help families caught out and unable to work and to end the one-size-fits-all quarantine policy that has caught out thousands of Britons returning from relatively safe islands such as the Canaries and the Balearics.

At the same time, Mr Johnson was plunged into a war of words with the Spanish prime minister who accused him of an unjustified rush to scrap the air bridge that allowed holidaymakers to visit the Costas and return to the UK without the need for 14 days of isolation.

In a sign that the Government is getting anxious about the public reaction to the changes in the rules since the weekend, it emerged that ministers are considering cutting short the quarantine period by four days for people who pass a coronavirus test carried out after a week in isolation.

If clear of infection, a person would be asked to isolate for two more days and then be allowed to go back to work on day 10, giving them back almost a working week in some cases.

The plan drawn up by the Department of Health was conspicuously not denied by ministers, but neither was it confirmed by No 10 sources who said it had not been agreed centrally.

The World on Coronavirus lockdown 1 /45 The World on Coronavirus lockdown Getty Images A UK government public health campaign is displayed in Piccadilly Circus Reuters Chinese paramilitary police and security officers wear face masks to protect against the spread of the new coronavirus as they stand guard outside an entrance to the Forbidden City in Beijing AP A usually busy 42nd Street is seen nearly empty in New York AFP via Getty Images Bondi Beach, Australia Getty Images Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images View of the illuminated statue of Christ the Redeemer that reads "Thank you" as Archbishop of the city of Rio de Janeiro Dom Orani Tempesta performs a mass in honor of Act of Consecration of Brazil and tribute to medical workers amidst the Coronavirus (COVID - 19) pandemic Getty Images Rome AFP via Getty Images An Indian man paddles his bicycle in front of a mural depicting the globe covered in a mask, as India remains under an unprecedented lockdown over the highly contagious coronavirus Getty Images Aerial view of the empty 9 de Julio avenue in Buenos Aires in Argentina AFP via Getty Images A view of an empty Grand Canal Reuters Las Ramblas, Barcelona, Spain Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Central cemetery in Bogota, Columbia AFP via Getty Images The facade of the Palacio de Lopez (seat of the government palace) AFP via Getty Images Miami, Florida AFP via Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Simon Bolivar park in Bogota AFP via Getty Images An LAPD patrol car drives through Venice Beach Boardwalk AP Venice Beach, California Getty Images Los Angeles, California Getty Images Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images Many shops stand shuttered on the Venice Beach boardwalk Getty Images Empty escalators are seen at a deserted train station during morning rush hour after New South Wales began shutting down non-essential businesses Reuters A nearly empty Times Square in New York AFP via Getty Images Caracas AFP via Getty Images Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador AFP via Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Midland Park in Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Civic Square at lunchtimein Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A policeman rides his motorcycle wearing a face mask in front of a closed shopping mall in Buenos Aires, Argentina AFP via Getty Images Florida Keys AP The historic Channel 2 Bridge closed to fishermen, bikers and pedestrians in Florida Keys AP The Beach on Scenic Gulf Drive near Seascape Resort in south Walton County, Florida sits empty of tourists AP Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images A deserted Rajpath leading to India Gate in New Delhi AFP via Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images Empty roads are pictured following the lockdown by the government amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Kathmandu, Nepal Reuters An empty New York Subway car i AFP via Getty Images The empty pedestrian zone is seen in the city of Cologne, western Germany, AFP via Getty Images Place de la Comedie in the city of Montpellier , southern France AFP via Getty Images An empty street in Kuwait city AFP via Getty Images A building is covered by the Portuguese message: "Coronavirus: take precaution" over empty streets in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, AP A general view shows an empty street after a curfew was imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters Parliament of Canada is pictured with empty street during morning rush hour AFP via Getty Images A near empty beach on Southend seafront in England PA Near empty Keswick town centre in Cumbria, England PA

Ministers decided on Saturday to lift Spains travel corridor with just five hours notice . Now millions of Britons feel unsure about booking holidays or even going on breaks they have paid for.

Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Commons defence select committee, said he was concerned that the blanket ruling for Spain ignored clear evidence that islands such as Majorca were safe for holidaymakers .

We need to be more clever about how we isolate countries where there are areas of risk, Mr Ellwood told the Evening Standard.

UK adds five more countries to quarantine exemption list

How would we feel if other countries closed to the whole UK because of the situation in Leicester?

We need fewer one size fits all policies. The Balearic islands are a major destination and they are not subject to the same spike in cases.

The Government communication with the nation needs to be slicker and more authoritative.

Boris Johnson pushes his bike at the Canal Side Heritage Centre in Beeston near Nottingham / AP

Tory chairman of the foreign affairs committee Tom Tugendhat said more should be done to help families trapped in isolation and unable to work.

He told ITVs Good Morning Britain: I cant see how we can punish anybody for obeying the law. It has to be right that those who obey the law get the support of the whole community.

I hope the Government will look really hard at this because it isnt something anybody expected.

TODO: define component type apester

Referring to changes to sick pay rules for those self-isolating, he added: It does look like this is another moment where in order to make sure the public health message works, we again have to look at what sick pay is used for.

Local government minister Simon Clarke said this morning holidaymakers had to accept the risk that they may have to isolate for 14 days .

He told the BBC: The reality is people travelling abroad will have to accept that there is a degree of uncertainty. As the situation changes on the ground we have to reserve the right to take action to keep the British public safe.

Thats what weve done in the case of Spain. I think wed have faced equally, frankly, strong criticism from you this morning had we done anything else. The policy was criticised by Spains PM Pedro Sanchez, who pointed out that the upsurge in coronavirus cases was focused in two regions, Catalonia and Aragon. He added: In most of Spain, the incidence is very much inferior to even the numbers registered in the United Kingdom.

Government defends Spain quarantine move

Mr Clarke told BBC Breakfast: We respectfully disagree with the Spanish governments position. Clearly, you do have to make decisions on a country-wide basis.

He also appealed to employers to take a sensible and compassionate approach if staff were caught out.

The decision to have a one-size-fits-all quarantine rule for Spain is said to have been taken by Mr Johnson after an intense debate between ministers at No 10. The PM ruled that a simple policy was needed to reduce confusion.

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Last night the Foreign Office toughened travel advice for the Spanish islands to bring it into line with the warning against non-essential visits that already applied to the mainland.
Nigerian women need sensitisation and access to funding and technology to drive their participation in the mining sector, experts in the sector have said.

The experts spoke on Friday during a webinar session on the theme Driving Innovation to manage the mining sector in the post-COVID-19 Era.

The session was organised by the Australia Alumni Association of Nigeria (AAAN) and Women In Mining in Nigeria (WIMIN) , in collaboration with the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ).

Speaking to the participants, the President, Women in Mining in Africa/Ghana, Georgette Barnes, said technology needs to get to women in the language they can understand because, all over the world, mines are now becoming automated.

According to her, Africa needs to get to the point where every mine in the continent would be like the Syama mine, which is the most modern mine in Mali and is being managed from Australia.

I believe Nigeria has the singular strength of starting because, in some of our own countries, we didnt have the hindsight. And as Ghana took some lessons from Nigerias oil and gas, now Nigeria can start things on a much better space, Mrs Barnes said

She added that automation is key, remote operation is key, geo and data analytics is key, and collaboration with academia in the industry. So in terms of the small-scale mining, we should find a way of letting them work hand in hand with technical universities and polytechnics.

The Executive Secretary of Solid Minerals Development Fund, Fatima Shinkafi, in her presentation, said women are more involved in processing minerals and are hardly seen going underground in the mining sites. She said they should be given better technology to enable them handle materials that would not be expose them to risks.

So technology and education, sensitizing the women, from an innovative perspective and giving them access to funding is what we are doing. We presented the first locally sourced bullion bar to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with Mr President. That is the first time we will ever source gold locally in Nigeria. And we plan to have women mostly, 70 per cent, at the processing centres, she said.

On financial inclusion, she said at the moment, women have limited and poor access to finance.

We can do a deliberate programme where we will give support to women in mining and give them technical support as well as finances so they can succeed those corporations that would employ Nigerians and others to create wealth, she said.

She called on financial institutions to recognise women who need financing for their projects.

Beneficiation

Josephine Aburime-Shine, the CEO/MD, Emotan Global Ventures Limited, said rather than focus on the international market, Nigeria should start off by building its local markets.

The importance of building a local market is that when we have a thriving market, we dont even have to make any effort for international investors to come here. They will come to look for us and then we are able to retain our wealth here.

One of my biggest concerns is that we are exporting ore in their raw state. And what this means is that no ore is ever actually just an individual item. Usually, iron is a combination of very important minerals together.

At the moment, we dont have many local companies adding value to our solid minerals. A lot of it is exported out in very raw form for very little money and then we have to spend a lot of money to buy it back once its been processed in other countries.

So we are losing a lot of revenue and we are also missing out on the taxes that should be paid if we were able to add this value before these products actually left the country, she stated.

However, she added that branding Nigeria and its products more efficiently with the help of the government and other companies to bring the products to the limelight would go a long way to help us move this industry forward and in getting us ahead.

Learn from us

The Australian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Claire Ireland, in her keynote speech, said the mining sector has the opportunity to fill the gap of a staggering economy.

In the first month of the lockdown in Australia, we had a trade cycle of $10.6 billion, and this was absolutely and fundamentally due to the export of our mining sector; export of iron ore to China, and the tripling of our gold export.

While the sustained impact of the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly hit us, the buffering of the mining sector has gone a long way to ease the economic challenges we are facing with COVID-19, and this is something I really hope Nigeria would learn from and position itself for future-kind of crises.

Nigeria has the opportunity to learn lessons from other countries in ensuring its mining industry is developed economically, vehemently, and in a socially sustainable manner.

Furthermore, Ms Claire said inclusive economic development is essential and makes good business sense.

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This means right now as the industry is still young, Nigeria should strive for equal gender representation in the mining sector. It is good for business and good for innovation. While the Australian companies are now working hard to achieve this, with over 100 years of a male-driven industry, Nigeria has the chance to seek the gender balance right from the beginning, the envoy said.

In her closing remarks , the Programme Director, PTCIJ, Oluwatosin Alagbe, spoke on the importance of collaboration. She said collaboration should not just be between miners, it should be all-encompassing, that is, between all stakeholders  miners, academics, retailers, government, etc.

She added that data needs to be made available so that it can be analysed and inform decisions.
YEREVAN, JULY 28, ARMENPRESS. In an interview to the Russian RBK, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan didnt rule out the possibility of large-scale war in the background of the recent escalation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, because, according to him, there are some forces and countries which inflame the conflict.

Asked which countries the talk is about, the Armenian PM firstly mentioned Turkey.

There are ongoing interests and historical causes for that because Turkey has not refused from the policy of the genocide of Armenians. Turkeys President not only does not recognize the Armenian Genocide, which took place in 1915 in the Ottoman Empire, but also justifies it, the Armenian PM said.

Pashinyan said that there is also another factor for Turkeys such behavior.

Turkey, as at the beginning of the past century, has a dream to control the South Caucasus. And within 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union they are working every day to implement their dream and goal, he said.

Pashinyan said first of all Russia understands what geopolitical developments this can have.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
The first batch of five Rafale fighter aircraft, which took off on Monday from France - the home country of Rafale jet manufacturer Dassault Aviation - will reach India on Wednesday.

The Indian Air Force (IAF)'s Media Co-ordination Centre, in a twitter post, shared a few images of mid-air refuelling of these jets, and said: "Indian Air Force appreciates the support provided by French Air Force for our Rafale journey back home."

The five jets - 3-single seater, and 2-double seater planes - landed safely in United Arab Emirates (UAE)'s Al Dhafra airbase yesterday after a 7-hour flight from France. These jets will be delivered in India nearly four years after the two countries inked an inter-governmental agreement to supply 36 of the multi-role jets to IAF.

The first 5 #IAF #Rafales have taken off from Dassault Aviation Facility, Merignac, #France today morning. These 5 include 3 single-seater and 2 twin-seater aircraft. The ferry is planned in two stages & is being undertaken by IAF pilots. 1/2#RafaleJet pic.twitter.com/0TWU5zlgvQ - Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) July 27, 2020

All five Rafale jets started their journey to India from the Merignac airbase in French city of Bordeaux. The aircraft will cover around 7,000 km with air-to-air refuelling and a single stop in the United Arab Emirates before arriving at Ambala airbase, said officials.

The jets will formally be inducted in IAF as part of its No 17 Squadron, also known as the Golden Arrows on July 29, Wednesday at the Ambala Airbase, located near the Line of Control (LoC) to avoid any misadventure from across the border.

"The aircraft are likely to arrive at Air Force Station, Ambala, on July 29 subject to weather (condition)," the IAF said.

The Indian embassy in Paris, in a statement, said "Delivery of 10 aircraft has been completed on schedule. Five will stay back in France for training mission. The delivery of all 36 aircraft will be completed on schedule by the end of 2021."

The first Rafale jet was handed over to IAF in October 2019 to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh during his visit to France.

Indian Ambassador to France Jawed Ashraf called "them (Rafale) both beauty and the beast." He added "Our air force pilots tell us that these are extremely swift, nimble, versatile and very deadly aircraft," while congratulating IAF pilots on becoming the first ones to fly one of the world's most advanced fighter jet.

The envoy also thanked the French government and French Air Force and Dassault Aviation for delivering the fleet on time.

"This (the fleet) is going to add a great deal of air power to our defence preparedness. This is also a powerful symbol of the strategic partnership between India and France," Ashraf added.

Official sources said that the Rafale is also likely to be deployed in Ladakh as part of IAF's efforts to enhance its operational capabilities along Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.

Rafale is capable of carrying a range of potent weapons. European arms manufacturer MBDA's Meteor beyond visual range (BVR) air-to-air missile and Scalp cruise missile will be a major aid of the weapons package for these jets.

Meteor is the next generation of BVR air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) designed to revolutionise air-to-air combat. The weapon has been developed by MBDA to combat common threats facing the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Sweden. The Meteor missile is powered by a unique rocket-ramjet motor which gives it far more power for much longer than any other missile, said an official.

Rafale jets will also feature various India-specific modifications which include - Israeli helmet-mounted displays, radar warning receivers, low-band jammers, 10-hour flight data recording, infra-red search and tracking systems.

(With agency inputs)

Also Read: India's crackdown on Chinese apps irks China, vows to protect firms' interests

Also Read: Govt tweaks FDI rules; NRIs can now acquire up to 100% stake in Air India

Also Read: Rakesh Jhunjhunwala lost Rs 40 crore with this stock in three years
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Website tunisienumerique.com uses latest and advanced technologies like: JQuery and Boostrap. It is very popular on the web, it's within the 1 million most visited websites of the world at position 16457 by Alexa. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 172842 bytes (168.79 kb uncompressed) and 24621 bytes (24.04 kb compressed).

This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-08-28, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.
Sonu Soods goodwill knows no bounds. This peoples messiah who surfaced since the outbreak of coronavirus in the country has proven every single day that money cannot buy a compassionate heart, and sympathy can move mountains.

 Twitter/KaviAnuragAtul

While the man and his several good deeds need no introduction, he is yet again in the news for his benevolence after he recently reached out to an out-of-job software engineer in Hyderabad and offered her a job after a video of her working as a vegetable vendor went viral on the internet.



It was Twitter user Ritchie Shelson who reached out to Sonu Sood on the microblogging site and shared Unadadi Sharadas story with a request to support her in some way if possible.

Dear @SonuSood sir, She's Sharada, techie who recently got fired from @VirtusaCorp Hyd amid Covid crisis. Without giving up, She's selling vegetables to support her family & surviving. Please see if you could support her in anyways. Hope you'll revert sir https://t.co/fNWvljL3DA  Ritchie Shelson (@ritchieshelson) July 26, 2020

As it turns out, 26-year-old Sharada is a vegetable vendors daughter who had joined a Hyderabad MNC named VirtusaCorp just three months before coronavirus broke out in the country. After her employers said they wouldnt be able to pay half her salary, and there werent projects she could work on, she had to leave.

 YouTube/Sakshi TV

Out of work, Sharada joined her father and now sells vegetables to support her family in managing their everyday finances and feels no shame in doing what she does.



So, after Sonu Sood found out about Sharada, his officials reportedly got in touch with her and took her interview, following which she has now been offered a job.

My official met her.



Interview done.



Job letter already sent.



Jai hind  @PravasiRojgar https://t.co/tqbAwXAcYt  sonu sood (@SonuSood) July 27, 2020

People cannot stop praising this man for his kindness.

You are just awesome Sir, I don't have words to speak on the speed you are solving the peoples problem, I really wonder what the System appointed admin employees really do?? No system can catch such speed  Dayanand Chandragiri (@Chdaya) July 27, 2020

You are "masiyah" for people ...dear sir....we youth get inspired from your good work.....thank you in all respects.....keep up your good work...so we can be aspire to become like you...and keep the goodness overwhelmed by people's blessings.... @SonuSood  Stutee Verma (@stutee_verma) July 28, 2020

Creating Employment Opportunities, helping migrants, helping poor families and making others problems his... Kudos to Sonu and his team, this proves you need a big heart and a goal in your mind.. Respect Sonu  Anurag Kumar (@LeadsAnurag) July 27, 2020

@SonuSood Sir aap to sankat mochan "" ban gae ho...

Aajkal to yehi line prasangik ban gai hai..

"    ,    "...

You r a true super star ...  amit tiwari (@amittiwari35) July 28, 2020

God bless you Sonu. there is no words to express. such a wonderful person you are every one should learn from you what is social responsibility. we feel proud of you God gives you good health, wealth and all your dreams come true take care.  Ravi Varma (@RaviVar65842642) July 27, 2020

Sonu Sood has helped thousands of people in need since May when the COVID-19 outbreak reached its peak. He has also found a hundred other ways of touching peoples life and making it better amid the times of uncertainty and gloom.

Recently he also gifted a tractor to a farmer from Chittoor who was forced to use his two daughters to till the farms since he couldnt afford to buy a tractor or oxen to plough the land. When Sonu heard about it, he promised to send them a tractor and delivered it.

What a great man this guy is!
An Ansonia man was arrested Monday after state police said his vehicle struck a tractor-trailer truck and caused it to roll over on Interstate 84 in Farmington.

Darnell Porter, of Woodbridge Avenue in Ansonia, also is accused of fleeing the scene of the crash, which happened around 9 p.m. Monday  the day before Porter turned 33 years old.

Porter is charged with evading responsibility, failure to maintain a proper lane, misuse of plates, operating an unregistered vehicle and possession of a controlled substance.

According to the incident report, the tractor-trailer truck owned by UPS Ground Freight was traveling on I-84 east, in the center of three lanes.

Porters 2007 Infiniti G35 was traveling in the left lane, adjacent to the truck, police said.

Near Exit 37, state police said Porters vehicle veered into the center lane, striking the truck on the drivers side.

The truck then lost control and veered into the right shoulder, and rolled over, the report said.

Porter then fled the scene, but state police stopped him near Exit 41, the report said.

He was taken into custody and transported to Troop H, where he was charged.

The 37-year-old driver of the truck, from Willmington, Del., was treated at the scene for injuries and transported to St. Francis Hospital. The report said the driver had suspected serious injuries.
Two Louisiana teens who were charged with the murder of an Arizona professor never revealed where they dumped the body of their victim. However, it was soon found in a landfill.

According to reports, the professor was missing for four months. The authorities conducted a 48-day search which lead them to the victim's body inside a landfill.

The missing professor

On March 25, Junseok Chae got a missing persons' report when he failed to get back home. He worked at the Arizona State University. After his unforeseen disappearance, his car was found in Louisiana, reported MEAWW.

While Javian Ezell and Gabrielle Austin were driving Chae's car, they were stopped by authorities on March 30. Police noted that one unidentified individual was inside the car, which is the reason why they were stopped. Both Ezell and Austin were accused and charged with the killing of Chae's. When interviewed, the police took note of their words and concluded that the victim was slain by them. A search began for the victim's corpse in the landfill way back in May 11.

The murder of Chae by the teens and the subsequent search costed the authorities a lot of money, with 15 people a day to search the landfill. It took a lot of time before the remains were discovered and located at the Northwest Regional Landfill. The remains were recognized as the murdered professor's body. But, the investigators were puzzled why he was killed or how he was slain by the two murderous teens, mentioned Fox10Phoenix.

Also read: Three Friends Found Killed on a Fishing Trip Under Mysterious Circumstances

Particulars of the Junseok Chae murder

According to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, they received a call from Shreveport, Louisiana police last March 30. Soon after, the police got a suspicious all-points bulletin (APB) about a car. Later, the car was discovered as owned by the murder victim, with the suspects and another person inside it. Upon interrogation of Ezell and Austin, they concluded foul play was involved. Another is that the police were sure that Chae had been slain in the Maricopa County.

Investigators got evidence that led to substantial leads in the case. These leads revealed that Chae was killed on Carefree Highway and Seventh Street, another is that ABC15 News said that more leads point to hiding the corpse in a dumpster.

It took a long time for the police to connect the related evidence from May 11 to work out the probable place where the victim's corpse was disposed.

Overall, the search that lasted for 48-days amounted to $304,000, according to the sheriff's office. The Arizona Central added that 15-people did a 10-hour search per day. Sheriff Penzone added that he was impressed by the efforts of everyone involved in the search, and all the hard work, confirmed AZCentral.

He added that the perseverance in solving the case by those involved has allowed closure for the family of the victim. They praised their efforts in locating the corpse in a landfill which was the hardest part of the case, citing that not all searches are gifted with success.

The two Louisiana teens were charged with first degree murder, robbery with a weapon, and stealing a car with a bail of $1 million each.

Related article: Man Hides Decomposing Body Under Floor Board, Tries to Escape Authorities By Disguising as His Sister

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Rating Action: Moody's Assigns Aa1 to AK HFC Gen. Mtg. Rev. Bds. II 2020A & 2020B; outlook stable

Global Credit Research - 27 Jul 2020

New York, July 27, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service has assigned Aa1 to Alaska Housing Finance Corporation's approximately $135 million of General Mortgage Revenue Bonds II, 2020 Series A, and approximately $75 million of General Mortgage Revenue Bonds II, 2020 Series B (2020 Bonds). Concurrently Moody's maintains Aa1 ratings on all outstanding parity debt under the General Mortgage Revenue Bonds II Indenture (Indenture). The outlook is stable.

RATINGS RATIONALE

The Aa1 rating reflects the strong financial position of the Indenture, a sound loan portfolio and the general obligation pledge of Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (Aa2/stable) (AHFC or Corporation).

We regard the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak as a social risk under our ESG framework, given the substantial implications for public health and safety. The coronavirus crisis is not a key driver for this rating action. We do not see any material immediate credit risks for AHFC and the Indenture. However, the situation surrounding coronavirus is rapidly evolving and the longer-term impact will depend on both the severity and duration of the crisis. If our view of the credit quality of AHFC or the Indenture changes, we will update the rating and/or outlook at that time.

RATING OUTLOOK

The stable outlook is based on Indenture's strong financial position and portfolio performance.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OF THE RATINGS

- Significant PADR and margins growth while maintaining current loan portfolio characteristics

- Significant improvement in the quality of mortgage portfolio, especially a shift toward FHA-insured mortgage loan

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO A DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

- Substantial erosion of Indenture's financial position or continued deterioration of program financial performance to a level not consistent with the Aa1 rating

Story continues

LEGAL SECURITY

The 2020 Bonds are general obligation of AHFC and are further secured by a pledge and a grant of security interest in bond proceeds, mortgage loans, investments, revenues and other assets held under the GMRB Indenture. 2020 Bonds will be on parity with other bonds outstanding under the Indenture. Although pledged, non-first lien mortgage loans are excluded in our credit consideration for the Indenture.

USE OF PROCEEDS

A portion of proceeds of the 2020 Series A Bonds will be used to acquire mortgage loans for financing affordable housing within the state of Alaska, to pay costs of issuance and to refund bonds previously issued in AHFC's Mortgage Revenue Bonds indenture. Proceeds of 2020 Series B Bonds will be used to refund certain outstanding obligations of AHFC and to pay costs of issuance.

PROFILE

The Indenture was established in July 2012 to provide financing of permitted mortgage loans. Bond payments are secured by AHFC's general obligation and a pledge of revenues, loans and amounts on deposit in funds and accounts under the Indenture.

The Indenture provides a debt service reserve fund, which is required to be maintained in an amount at least equal to 2% of the amount of first-lien whole loans and unexpended proceeds held in the mortgage loan fund under the Indenture.

Upon occurrence of various events including issuance of new debt, disbursement of funds to acquire mortgage obligations and release of funds, AHFC is required to deliver a certificate demonstrating (1) a minimum bond coverage (103% for fund withdrawal and 100% for other purposes including issuance of new debt) and (2) that there will be sufficient funds to meet debt service timely under stress assumptions including no prepayments and the entire mortgage portfolio prepaying on the day after the certificate date and the day after the first debt service payment date following the certificate date.

AHFC has no taxing power. The Bonds do not constitute a debt, liability or obligation of the State of Alaska.

METHODOLOGY

The principal methodology used in these ratings was US Housing Finance Agency Single-Family Housing Methodology published in October 2019 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1154478. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.

For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

The ratings have been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent(s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.

These ratings are solicited. Please refer to Moody's Policy for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on its website www.moodys.com.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.

The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph 3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies. Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's office that issued the credit rating is available on www.moodys.com.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.

Ping Hsieh Lead Analyst Housing Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 7 World Trade Center 250 Greenwich Street New York 10007 US JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Florence Zeman Additional Contact Housing JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653

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Judge to give decision in first case relating to failed state fund in decision that could have a major political impact.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  After nearly 16 months, dozens of witnesses and thousands of pages of evidence, a Malaysian judge will on Tuesday deliver his verdict on whether former Prime Minister Najib Razak is guilty of corruption in the first of a series of trials related to the alleged theft of billions of dollars from state fund 1MDB, in a decision that could have major political ramifications.

Najib faces seven charges in relation to SRC International, a unit of 1MDB, and allegations that millions of dollars ended up in his personal bank accounts and were used to shop at luxury stores, pay for home renovation projects and provide funding for the component parties of his then-ruling coalition.

If found guilty, he could face decades in prison and substantial fines. He would also become the first Malaysian prime minister to be convicted in a criminal court.

Its a test for Muhyiddins [the current prime ministers] government, said Bridget Welsh, an expert on Malaysia and honorary research fellow with the University of Nottinghams Asia Research Institute Malaysia. It will also send a very important signal about whether leaders will be held to account for what they do while in office, as well as the penalties for elites abusing the system.

Najib might be facing more than 40 charges in relation to 1MDB and spending most of his days in court, but he remains an influential figure in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which was ousted in May 2018 amid popular anger about 1MDB, but is once again the biggest party in the coalition after Muhyiddin Yassin  the deputy Najib sacked over 1MDB  emerged as prime minister in March.





UMNO leaders were seen at court and hundreds of people turned out to show their support despite coronavirus restrictions, as Judge Mohd Nazlan Ghazali, who began his legal career at the Securities Commission and Malaysias biggest bank, began delivering his verdict at 10.20am (02:20 GMT).

Near-absolute power

When the trial got under way on April 3 last year, then-Attorney General Tommy Thomas told the court that Najib, who sat on the docks wooden bench leaning against a plump cushion provided by an aide, had wielded near-absolute power as prime minister; a time when he was also finance minister.

The highest trust had been placed in Najib by the Malaysian people, Thomas noted.

The prosecution called scores of witnesses to buttress its case, including anti-corruption investigators, former Second Minister of Finance Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah and senior bankers at AmBank where Najib kept his personal accounts.

The defence, meanwhile, sought to show that Najib was not aware of the source of the funds and was misled by Penang-born financier Jho Low, a man notorious for blowing thousands of dollars on bottles of champagne and partying with celebrities and socialites. He is now a fugitive, and has denied wrongdoing.

Investigators in the United States have said $4.5bn was siphoned from 1MDB  where Najib chaired the board of advisers  through a complex web of shell companies before it was used to buy the trappings of the uber-rich, including luxury homes, an ocean-going yacht, and art by Picasso.

Najib himself took the witness stand in December, reading from a prepared statement that was nearly 250 pages long.

His defence team said they were convinced they have done enough.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak arrives at the Kuala Lumpur High Court last August as the prosecution wrapped its case. Najib has denied wrongdoing [Vincent Thian/AP Photo]

We are very confident in the defence and the outcome as well, Muhammad Farhan Shafee, one of Najibs team of lawyers, told Al Jazeera. Enough doubt has been aroused during the proceedings, and thats the burden of proof we have to meet.

Optimism

Najib, who turned 67 last week, has oozed confidence throughout, and the change in government has reinvigorated his political profile.

Earlier this month, he joined campaigning for a state assembly seat in his east coast constituency, and last week got special permission from the court  initially denied  to attend Parliament to deliver a speech.

On social media, the former prime minister continues to pepper lighter fare on family  his cat Kiky makes regular appearances  with his views on political developments. Last week, he posted a video of himself surrounded by dozens of staff singing happy birthday to the man they dubbed bossku a reference to the online persona he crafted in the run-up to the trial.

On Tuesday night, in a Facebook posting ahead of the verdict he thanked people for their support, took potshots at the government that ousted him, and said he would appeal if found guilty,

I want justice, he wrote. I want to clear my name.

Some cases related to 1MDB have been settled without jail time being served.

Last week, Malaysia reached a $3.9bn deal with US investment bank Goldman Sachs to drop criminal charges over its role in the scandal, and in June withdrew money-laundering charges against Najibs stepson Riza Aziz, who had been accused of using money diverted from 1MDB to fund the blockbuster movie the Wolf of Wall Street.

The film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese, was banned in Malaysia.

Rizas production house had already paid a fine to the Department of Justice in the US, while the settlement with Malaysia came to just over $107m.

Away from 1MDB, other politicians forced to answer corruption allegations after the 2018 election have also had their cases dropped or settled, including the former chief minister of the Borneo state of Sabah.

Since the change of government, there have been a number of rulings in favour of those who were prosecuted, said Ross Tapsell, senior lecturer at the Australian National Universitys College of Asia and the Pacific. The trend seems to be towards softer rulings.

The SRC decision is being handed down five years to the day that Najib fired Muhyiddin and four other ministers as the revelations about 1MDB snowballed. Muhyiddin was sacked as deputy prime minister and home minister while then-Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail, as well as the head of the Special Branch, were also removed from their positions.

Najib Razaks stepson Riza Aziz, left, pictured with Wolf of Wall Street stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Jonah Hill and producer Joey McFarland the films 2014 premiere in London, recently agreed to a $107m settlement with the Malaysian government over money-laundering allegations [File: Paul Hackett/Reuters]

Later, Muhyiddin joined forces with the opposition, which had united in a bid to remove Najib. In the 2018 polls, he campaigned alongside veteran leader Mahathir Mohamad and the Pakatan Harapan coalition, to call for a full investigation into 1MDB and an end to corruption.

It would look very bad for the Muhyiddin government if Najib was let off, especially as Muhyiddin himself was sacked and campaigned on these corruption cases, Tapsell said.

Divisions

Muhyiddin became prime minister in March, aligning himself with UMNO and the Islamic party PAS to form a conservative, Malay-nationalist administration, after the king was convinced that he had a majority in Parliament.

Still, while he was won plaudits for his effective control of the coronavirus pandemic in Malaysia, his coalitions majority is wafer-thin.

Parliament did not sit until earlier this month  bar a single ceremonial day for the official opening  and a vote to remove the speaker who had taken on the job under the previous administration was secured by only two votes. Rumours of a snap election are rife.

For Muhyiddin, a conviction would take away his absolutely most daunting rival  and would spare him from having to cooperate with a coalition-mate he has ripped apart previously, said Meredith Weiss, professor of political science at the University at Albany. At least as important, a conviction (especially one worded clearly enough to increase the odds of its holding up on appeal) would certify his government as opposing corruption.

Muhyiddin Yassin emerged as prime minister in March after a power grab in the then-ruling coalition led to the resignation of predecessor Mahathir Mohamad. His coalition has a wafer-thin majority in Parliament [Lim Huey Teng/Reuters]

UMNO too has its problems, which could undermine the ruling coalitions position.

A number of senior politicians, including leader Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, are on trial for corruption. If any of them are found guilty, and the decision is upheld on appeal, they will lose their seats in Parliament.

Najib himself was also ordered last week by a Kuala Lumpur court to pay a staggering 1.69 billion ringgit ($397.4m) in unpaid taxes for the period from 2011 to 2017.

When Najib was first charged over SRC, Thomas noted the case was one of the most straightforward involving 1MDB; a case that spans at least six countries and involves a complex money trail through numerous shell companies and far-flung tax havens.

There was overwhelming evidence against Najib, he said.

Many Malaysians, emboldened by the May election result  the first time UMNO had been defeated since independence  were eager for a conviction, but there were also die-hard supporters who refused to believe that the scion of one of the countrys most influential political families could be guilty of such a crime.

Najibs supporters plan to gather outside the court on Tuesday.

For many Malaysians, it would be nice if Najib Razak was convicted, said Oh Ei Sun, a political analyst who once worked in Najibs office. People are worried about the economy and wider government policies. A conviction would be an antidote to what progressives see as the regression of the country.
NEW DELHI: Indian and Chinese troops along their common border in Ladakh have "completed" disengagement at most locations, a senior Chinese official said on Tuesday, adding the situation on the ground is easing.

This was however, not corroborated by the Indian government in New Delhi with two people familiar with the development saying that the situation on the ground has remained the same for almost two weeks.

According to a PTI report from Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the situation was easing when he was asked whether the border troops from India and China have completed the disengagement from Galwan, Gogra and Hot Springs areas in eastern Ladakh. The question put by a Chinese reporter did not refer to a fourth friction point ie Pangong Tso, the PTI report said.

In his remarks, Wang said that China and India had recently conducted "intensive communication through military and diplomatic channels."

Now the frontline border troops have completed disengagement in most locations and the situation on the ground is easing," Wang said, according to the PTI report.

We have held four rounds of commander level talks and three meetings of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC)," Wang said referring to dialogue at the military and diplomatic levels to defuse tensions in the weeks after the buildup of troops along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh since early May.

Now we are preparing for the fifth round of commander level talks to study the settlement of the remaining issue. We hope India will work with China to implement our consensus and uphold peace and stability along our border areas," he added.

On Friday, at the conclusion of the last round of the WMCC talks, India had said that a further round of talks at the level of senior commanders would be scheduled to find a way out of the current impasse on disengagement and de-escalation.

According to New Delhi, Chinese troops who have taken up positions on the heights of Finger 4 on the banks of the Pangong Tso lake were not budging though some troops who were at the foot of the mountains had moved back to Finger 5. Fingers refer mountain folds jutting into the Pangong Tso lake. India holds territory upto Finger 4 and used to patrol upto Finger 8 while Chinese troops used to patrol upto Finger 4 but hold territory upto Finger 8.

Chinese troops were also to complete the process of a pullback that they had agreed to previously at Patrolling Point 17A while the two sides had established a buffer zone at Patrolling Points 14 and 15.

Indias demand has been that the Chinese withdraw to positions they were holding before May when the intrusions first began.

The tension in eastern Ladakh escalated after a violent clash in the Galwan Valley on 15 June in which 20 Indian Army personnel were killed. The Chinese side also suffered casualties but it is yet to give out the details.

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In the early 1900s, when Pablo Picasso (18811973) was first attempting to stake his claim as the world's best artist, money was tight. As such, it wasn't uncommon for the Spanish artist to paint over a previously completed canvas. Art historians know he did this, for example, with his Blue Period work La Soupe (1902-03). What is uncommon is for researchers, nearly five decades after his death, to now find more instances of this in his work.

But thats precisely what a team of researchers at the Art Institute of Chicago discovered and discussed in a newly published report in Applied Science. What the researchers found was that on the canvas used for his 1922 masterpiece Still Life, Picasso first attempted painting a different, more neoclassical still life. They decided to take a closer look at the canvas when they noticed the surface of that painting appeared to be wrinkled with multiple layers. What started as benign curiosity, resulted in a breakthrough discovery. After researchers applied X-radiography and infrared imaging, they were stunned to find an entirely different composition beneath the painting.

What made this find all the more fascinating is that Picasso seemed to have intended for it to never be noticed. While the artist typically wanted his viewers to see the many iterations that went into his work by allowing previous drafts to show through his final work, Picasso purposely blotted out the first draft with a heavy cast of white paint. Almost ensuring its disappearance, until now. Picasso was a playful and inventive painter who often seemed to have more ideas than materials at hand, says Allison Langley, Head of Paintings Conservation at the Art Institute of Chicago. He frequently painted over earlier works that were partially or fully finished, often responding to the colors, forms or themes of the earlier composition.

Photo courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Pablo Picassos 1922 canvas Still Life has been one of the most prized possessions in the Art Institute of Chicago's collection since it was donated in 1953 by Alice Toklas on behalf of her late partner, Gertrude Stein. The work was made a decade after Picasso shocked the world with his Cubist murals, and four years after the artist married his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, a time when Picasso drifted toward neoclassical paintings. In the early 1920s, the Spaniard was late in his Cubist period, spending much of his energy experimenting with flat grids underlying thick, colorful lines. As Langley explains, Chicago's Still Life is unusual in that he blocked out the early work and turned the canvas on its side before painting the linear still life we see today. In this period, Picasso was working in two styles simultaneously: linear cubism and neoclassical narratives.

Story continues

Photo is courtesy of Department of Conservation and Science, Art Institute of Chicago.

Perhaps Picasso knew all along that he couldn't hide anything from a curious public. In the 1950s he suggested as much. You should be doing X-rays of my work, because youll find things underneath, Kenneth Brummel, a curator of modern art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, paraphrased a quote from a 1950's book to the Toronto Star in a 2018 interview. He didnt get any more specific, but he urged people to do just that.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
An Amazon distribution center is shown next to the freeway in Fontana, California, U.S., June 30, 2020.

California's attorney general and state and local agencies are investigating whether Amazon has taken adequate steps to protect its workers from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a court filing on Monday.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra's office, California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health and the San Francisco Department of Public Health "have all opened investigations into Amazon's practices" around the pandemic, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman wrote in the filing.

Chiyomi Brent, described as a picker who fills orders at Amazon's San Francisco Fulfillment Center, filed a lawsuit on June 11 contending the world's largest online retailer has put workers at "needless risk." The lawsuit alleges unsafe practices such as having workers share equipment such as freezer suits and failing to allow extra time for safe social distancing.

The attorney general's office declined to comment, and Amazon and the other agencies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Schulman refused to issue a preliminary injunction that would have closed the warehouse until more precautions were taken. He said Brent had failed to show risk of imminent harm and her concerns would be better handled by government investigators.

SFDPH told Schulman that Amazon's practices at the San Francisco facility had improved between visits on July 7 and July 16, while Cal/OSHA told the judge its investigation is ongoing following a July 14 inspection.

The attorney general's office told the court last week that its statewide Amazon investigation, which dates back to at least May, also is ongoing.

Amazon faced criticism for working conditions in its warehouses even before the coronavirus hit, and in April was accused of firing three critics of its pandemic response.

U.S. consumers have come to rely on Amazon to shop online and avoid the coronavirus, which has killed more than 146,00 Americans.

Amazon has argued in court papers that it has taken many steps to protect workers at the San Francisco facility, including requiring masks and extensively disinfecting equipment such as freezer suits. Amazon and SFDPH told the court that no coronavirus cases had been linked to the facility.

New York Attorney General Letitia James's office sent a letter to Amazon in April saying the online retailer may have violated safety measures and labor practices during the pandemic. The letter came after Amazon terminated Christian Smalls, a critic of the company's warehouse conditions in the pandemic, for violating a paid quarantine.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- MJC Engineering announced a distribution agreement with the Danish UVD ROBOTS Infection Prevention company to provide cutting edge ultraviolet disinfection technology to reduce the risk of the spread of the Coronavirus infection in California.

With 459,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, 8,451 deaths and amid predictions of continuing spread affecting Californians, the effects on residents, businesses and the state economy could be devastating.

The most efficient and effective disinfection method to help fight and reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19.

MJC Engineering is diligently working to combat and prevent the spread of the coronavirus infection for Californian's by providing effective ultraviolet technology with the UVD Robot https://mjcengineering.com/services/automation/uvdrobot. The autonomous UVD Robot has been proven to kill 99% of bacteria in hospital settings, with a 10-minute disinfection time and covering 3,000 square feet per hour without the need for human intervention.

"This unprecedented time has people afraid and businesses struggling, and we are committed to helping overcome the biggest issue with COVID-19  the spread of the infection," said Carl Lorentzen, President MJC engineering. "I want every location where the UVD Robot can be used to help businesses comply with infection control and ease the minds of its customers, so I have created a range of options to make this solution widely available."

The UVD Robot is used as part of the regular cleaning cycle and aims at preventing and reducing the spread of infectious diseases, vira, bacteria, and other types of harmful organic microorganisms in the environment by breaking down their DNA-structure. The robot is safe, reliable and eliminates human error. Furthermore, it is user friendly and is designed to be operated by every-day cleaning staff.

MJC has become a distributor of the UVD Robot to provide this vitally needed disinfection technology to all non-healthcare industries in California, especially businesses and locations with public congregation and interaction to fight the spread of the coronavirus infection.

MJC Engineering and Technology, Inc. is the North American leader in development and manufacturing of CNC machine tools for chip-less metal forming. As a global center of expertise, MJC designs and manufactures CNC machinery for most metal forming applications such as; High Pressure Cylinders, Wheels, Aerospace, Military, Ventilation, Medical and many more. MJC provides customers with innovative products and solutions, by using advanced State-of-the-Art CNC technology, proven machine design and worldwide service and support. https://mjcengineering.com. MJC has now added the UVD Robot to its list of product solutions.

PRESS CONTACTS:

Carl Lorentzen & Tammy Strickling

714.890.0618 / 727.470.4153

[email protected] / [email protected]

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UVD Robot

The most efficient and effective disinfection method to help fight and reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19.

SOURCE MJC Engineering
The Congress on Monday welcomed the Rafale aircraft in the country, saying the party has nothing against the fighter jet, but reiterated there were issues in the way the contract was handled. "There is no issue with the Rafale aircraft. The Rafale aircraft was evaluated and approved by the UPA. We welcome the Rafale aircraft," senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said when asked about five Rafale jets arriving in the country soon.

The Congress had made the purchase of Rafale fighter jets by the Modi government-1 a major poll issue during the 2019 Lok Sabha election, alleging corruption in the deal. The charges were vehemently denied by the BJP. "Why should we protest against Rafale aircraft? Remember from day one, we said that it is a good aircraft. In fact, it was chosen by the UPA government.

"There is nothing wrong with the aircraft. There are other issues in the way the contract was handled," he said at a virtual press conference, when asked about it.

The first batch of five Rafale fighter aircraft on Monday took off from France for India, nearly four years after the two countries inked an inter-governmental agreement to supply 36 of the multi-role jets to the Indian Air Force under a Rs 59,000-crore deal.

The aircraft flew out from the Merignac airbase in the French port city of Bordeaux and will cover a distance of nearly 7,000 km with air-to-air refuelling and a single stop in the United Arab Emirates before arriving at Ambala airbase on Wednesday, officials said.

Also read: Rafale jets' first batch to reach India this week; Indian pilots take off from France
The organization that fed protesters downtown over the last four weeks will suspend operations, a spokesperson announced on Twitter Monday afternoon.

Riot Ribs is dissolving completely, said the tweet.

Riot Ribs first emerged July 4, setting up in Lownsdale Square and cooking food for the protesters who showed up downtown each night. The group described itself as a donation-funded and volunteer-staffed that operated 24/7.

The group said it has been targeted with threats and assaults, and that someone had repeatedly misrepresented themselves as part of the organization in Lownsdale Square.

In addition to their operations at Lownsdale Square, which sits directly opposite the federal courthouse, Riot Ribs has also operated on Southwest Fourth Avenue and Salmon Street. Police have seized Riot Ribs supplies at least once, including on July 16.

Riot Ribs tweeted that they would eventually return to feeding protesters, but that they needed to take some time away for their own safety.

All volunteers should leave the park immediately and do not continue to come to the tents, Riot Ribs tweeted. Tell anyone you know thats at the park to leave. We are going to regroup and will be back.

The group sent out an updated statement on Tuesday clarifying their status and identified some of the recipients who will receive some of the monetary donations that they had drawn in.

Moving forward, we intend on distributing a large amount of the remaining donations to other people on the ground including but not limited to: The Witches, PDX Action Medics, Meals 4 Heels, PDX Resistance Assistance, OHSU4BLM, PDX EWOKS and Team Raccoon, the statement said.

On Friday, the group had Tweeted that they had raised more than $300,000 in donations, and asked people to stop donating money to them. They also said that someone had been impersonating Riot Ribs and trying to solicit donations for a cash app account that wasnt affiliated with the organization.

Riot Ribs did not identify that person by name, but in Tuesdays statement said that person was spotted on Saturday taking money from the groups cash donation jar. The statement said others reported that same person had also attacked other volunteers.

After repeatedly trying to resolve the situation on our own, we were unable to remedy the situation. This individual began to try to runRiot Ribs and set up an alternate CashApp and Twitter handle to continue operations in the park. They said that person is still trying to operate as Riot Ribs in Lownsdale Square, but asked people not to interact with or donate to that person.

A Riot Ribs booth was set up in Lownsdale Square on Monday, after the group announced it would no longer operate in Portland, but the cook would not identify themselves or discuss their relationship to the group.

Riot Ribs had initially announced it would transfer leadership to Dont Shoot Portland, a nonprofit community activism group led by Teressa Raiford. The Portland Mercury first reported the news.

In a statement released on July 28, Riot Ribs said it never successfully made the transfer to Dont Shoot Portland, because they were dealing with the abuse group members faced from the former volunteer. Riot Ribs said in its statement that it appreciated Dont Shoot Portlands willingness to help.

The news that Riot Ribs would no longer have a Portland presence came as a surprise. Riot Ribs had tweeted that they were expanding operations, with a group of volunteers traveling to Seattle to cook food for protesters Sunday.

The statement on Tuesday said Riot Ribs would continue to live on as a traveling entity under the name Revolution Ribs, and had purchased two vans, which volunteers would immediately begin taking up and down the west coast to feed people. The statement said volunteers hope to eventually move east.

A spokesperson for Riot Ribs did not immediately return a request for comment.

In its Tuesday statement, Riot Ribs thanked the people of Portland and reminded residents that the movement was always about Black lives.

This story has been updated.

Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 23:05:41|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

ISTANBUL, July 28 (Xinhua) -- China's third-party payment platform WeChat Pay, run by Chinese tech giant Tencent, was launched in Turkey on Tuesday.

Speaking at an online signing ceremony, Turkey's Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said the payment service is first offered in Turkey's Istanbul Airport, and later it will be used in different parts of the country.

He said Turkey is an important destination for Chinese tourists and the system will make the visit of Chinese travelers to Turkey more comfortable.

Cui Wei, the Chinese consul general in Istanbul, said the project further strengthened the economic cooperation between the two countries.

Last year, 426,000 Chinese tourists visited Turkey, with an 8.2 percent year-on-year increase, he said.

The WeChat Pay was introduced to Turkey with a joint effort of the Turkish subsidiary of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Tencent, according to a press release issued after the ceremony.

The Istanbul Airport served 64 million passengers over the last year after it became operational in April 2019. Enditem
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

On July 28, at the direction of the First Vice-President of the Republic of Azerbaijan  Mrs. Mehriban Aliyeva, a meeting was held between the leadership of the country's civil aviation and tourism industry.

The talks were attended by the President of AZAL  Mr. Jahangir Asgarov, Vice President of AZAL  Mr. Eldar Hajiyev, Head of the AZAL Air Transportation Sales Department  Mr. Niyazi Hasanov, Chairman of the State Tourism Agency  Mr. Fuad Nagiyev, Director General of the Tourism Bureau  Mr. Florian Zengstshmid, Chairman of the Association of Travel Agencies  Mr. Rufat Hajiyev, and Chairman of the Azerbaijan Tourism Association  Mr. Ahmad Gurbanov.

The primary focus of negotiations was the development of the tourism sector during the pandemic and the role of civil aviation in this regard. It should be noted that a day earlier a meeting was held via videoconference with the heads of the leading travel companies of Azerbaijan to discuss their proposals on cooperation with AZAL during the pandemic.

After welcoming the guests, Mr. Jahangir Asgarov noted that due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of borders between countries the civil aviation and tourism sectors are going through a very difficult period. According to him, since March 15 to the present day, the National Air Carrier of Azerbaijan and its partners have performed 239 international flights delivering more than 23 thousand of our compatriots back home. Furthermore, in accordance with the schedule of the Operational Headquarters of the Cabinet of Ministers, AZAL continues to operate charter flights to evacuate our compatriots to the homeland.

As was noted by Mr. Fuad Nagiyev during the meeting, the tourism industry is now suffering the deepest crisis in its entire history. The recovery of this sector of the economy will take place in a highly competitive environment at the regional and global levels. To increase the competitiveness of the industry the involvement of all its subjects in the decision-making process is required with the decisions being taken quickly and the reaction being dynamic and effective. One of the most important factors that can and should contribute to the restoration and development of tourism is the travel accessibility of the country.

Summing up the debates, Mr. Jahangir Asgarov noted that following the approval of new provisional rules for air transportation during the pandemic, the National Air Carrier of Azerbaijan and some foreign airlines began operating special international flights to the most popular destinations, such as Istanbul, London, Berlin, Dubai and Minsk. Moreover, 30% discount on air tickets is applicable on AZAL flights for Azerbaijani students wishing to return to their homeland.

Due to the extension of the quarantine and the closure of borders until August 31, 2020, all airports of Azerbaijan are closed for regular passenger flights. At the same time, AZAL is continuing negotiations with a number of countries, including Russia, for the launch of special flights.

The President of AZAL noted that taking into consideration the wishes of travel companies outlined previously via videoconference, starting from August 1, the National Air Carrier of Azerbaijan will open offline sales in Azerbaijan through the Global Distribution System (GDS) to its direct agents. At the same time, according to Mr. Jahangir Askerov, it is necessary to understand that the main source of income for tour operators should be not only the sale of air tickets but rather the sale of ready-made tour packages as is practiced all over the world. Based on the experience of other countries, in the post-pandemic period it would first be necessary to focus on the development of domestic tourism, and Azerbaijan Airlines will make our country even more accessible to foreign tourists.

The participants of the meeting which was held in a businesslike and constructive atmosphere discussed the most pressing and critical issues. The parties noted their readiness for further cooperation.
Its been almost a month since we learned of an alleged bounty paid by Russia for Americans killed in Afghanistan.

10th District Congressman Scott Perry has been lukewarm on getting to the bottom of the bounty, claiming in an interview on WITF that we dont go accusing individuals or other countries of nefarious and horrific actions that are unverified.

However, Perry didnt hesitate to accuse Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., of making anti-American statements and advocating Marxist government when he co-sponsored a resolution in Congress on July 14. The resolution came just days after Omar advocated ending oppression existing in housing, education, healthcare, employment and environmental pollution.

For political reasons, Perry didnt hesitate to raise Cain in accusing Omar. But his reaction is more that of a church mouse in pushing for answers about the alleged American soldier bounty, how long the U.S. was aware of it, and if Russia will be held accountable for the reward.

Why is there a double standard for an American congresswoman and the likes of Vladimir Putin?

Jay Purdy, Lower Paxton Township, Pa.
T he US ambassador to South Korea has shaved off his controversial moustache saying it was too uncomfortable while wearing a coronavirus mask during South Koreas notoriously hot summer.

Harry Harriss facial hair had drawn criticism from the media and a small number of online commentators, who compared his look to colonial Japanese governors during the countrys brutal rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

Mr Harris, a retired navy admiral who became ambassador in July 2018, acknowledged in January that his moustache had become a point of some fascination here.

He also said he was being criticised for his ethnic background as a Japanese-American.

Glad I did this, Mr Harris tweeted after his visit to a barbershop in Seoul, South Koreas capital.

For me it was either keep the stache or lose the mask. Summer in Seoul is way too hot & humid for both. #COVID guidelines matter & Im a masked man!

Mr Harris said he was glad to groom his moustashe / AFP via Getty Images

His embassy tweeted a video that showed Mr Harris bumping elbows with a masked barber and gesturing for a shave.

He playfully rolled his eyes as he lay back on a leather chair as the barber shaved his moustache and trimmed his eyebrows.

Wow, I havent seen this face in years! Mr Harris exclaimed after washing his face and applying lotion.

In an interview last year with The Korea Times, an English-language daily, Mr Harris said he would keep his moustache unless someone convinces him that it is viewed in a way that hurts the relationship between Washington and Seoul.

The newspaper said Mr Harriss moustache has become associated with the latest US image of being disrespectful and even coercive towards Korea.

The ambassador without his facial hair / via REUTERS

Relations between South Korea and Japan sank to their lowest point in decades last year as they feuded over trade issues, wartime history and military co-operation.

South Koreas own alliance with the United States has also become shaky under the administration of President Donald Trump, who has openly complained about the costs of maintaining the 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea to protect against North Korean threats.

The allies have failed to sign a new cost-sharing agreement after the last one expired at the end of 2019.
By Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters) - MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon.com Inc's billionaire Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, has donated $1.7 billion of her wealth in the past year to causes including racial equality, LGBTQ rights, public health and climate change, she said in a blog post on Tuesday.

Scott, who was previously known as MacKenzie Bezos, also announced her new last name, which she said was taken from her middle name.

Last year, Scott signed the Giving Pledge in a commitment to donate the majority of her fortune after her split from Bezos - the world's richest man - left her with a 4% stake in Amazon.

"Like many, I watched the first half of 2020 with a mixture of heartbreak and horror," she wrote in a post on Medium.

"I began work to complete my pledge with the belief that my life had yielded two assets that could be of particular value to others: the money these systems helped deliver to me, and a conviction that people who have experience with inequities are the ones best equipped to design solutions," she added.

At the time of the divorce, her stake was worth about $36 billion. Her fortune has grown to over $60 billion with a jump in Amazon's shares this year.

Scott made her announcement a day before Jeff Bezos will appear for his first-ever Congressional testimony in front of an antitrust panel, which has been investigating how Amazon has used its market power to hurt smaller rivals. https://reut.rs/2DhrEFT (Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)
First Transaction To Send Medicine To Iran Via Swiss Channel Takes Place

Radio Farda July 27, 2020

The Swiss government announced July 27 that a pharmaceutical company has completed the first transaction under a new humanitarian trade channel with Iran.

The Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA) channel to bring food and medicine to Iran was arranged between the United States and Switzerland late last year. It started trial operations in January, helping supply Swiss goods to sanctions-hit Iran without tripping over U.S. sanctions.

"We would like to emphasize that the operationalization of the SHTA is progressing and that a number of companies have already been approved, more companies will follow. Further transactions should be carried out shortly," the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said by email.

However, the Swiss official did not disclose the name of the company or the quantity of medications shipped.

On the same day, the head of Iran and Swiss chamber of commerce Sharif Nezam Mafi confirmed the news to official government news agency IRNA. He explained that "The shipment includes medications against cancer and so far fifty companies have registered through this financial channel and are planning to conduct transaction".

Based on the Swiss humanitarian channel, the U.S. Treasury Department provides assurances to banks involved in approved transaction to be immune form litigation under sanctions rules.

With reporting by Reuters

Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/first-transaction- to-send-medicine-to-iran-via-swiss -channel-takes-place/30750965.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.

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Tata Motors intends to regain ground it ceded to rivals and re-enter the league of top three carmakers in the country. But that may be easier said than done, given how its market share has sunk to a new low.

Tata Motors finished fourth in FY20 with a share of 4.98 percent of the passenger vehicle (PV) segment, as per data shared by the Society of India Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). It clocked sales of 138,238 PV units, a fall of over 40 percent, and far greater than the 18 percent decline posted by the industry during the same year.

The countrys top three carmakers  Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) control 75 percent of the domestic PV market. M&M finished third in FY20 with a share of 6.73 percent, Hyundai had 17.48 percent and Maruti Suzuki led the pack with 51.03 percent.

For Tata Motors, a market share of under 5 percent is less than a third compared to its lifetime best market share of 16.5 percent, clocked in 2007, as per SIAM data.

The fall in share has come on the back of a series of new product launches, vigorous expansion of the dealer network and a number of consumer-focussed initiatives. Nexon, Tiago, Tigor, Hexa, Harrier and several variants and derivatives were launched by the company during the past two to three years.

Uphill task

In a Finance Partnership Meet organised by Tata Motors, the company said it aspires to not only be among the Top 3 OEMs in terms of total sales but also double its sales in the medium term, as well as grab the number 1 or number 2 positions in the segments the company is present in currently.

If it has to get even to the third spot, currently occupied by Mahindra & Mahindra, the Mumbai-based company will either have to almost double its FY20 market share or hope other companies lose share.

The company refused to provide any dates for these targets to be achieved. The 2x target sales pertains to passenger vehicles. As this and the target to become one of top three in the PV segment is the aspiration, no timeline is indicated.

In the past two-three years, Tata Motors has increased its dealership count by more than 50 percent to around 860. At least another 100 dealerships are planned this year with the aim of doubling dealer throughput. We plan to increase the number of outlets per dealer to provide a greater catchment area and increase sales, Tata Motors said in the presentation.

New launches

Tata Motors is betting on the success of new launches and those in the pipeline to be able to meet those aspirations. The company managed to launch the premium hatchback Altroz just before the nationwide lockdown came into effect.

A seven-seater version of the Harrier, called Gravitas, will make its way to showrooms in a few months followed by a sub-compact SUV currently codenamed HBX. This new mini SUV is slightly smaller than its elder sibling Nexon.

A battery electric version of the Altroz is also in the pipeline, apart from a mid-size SUV in the same category as the Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos.
New Delhi, July 28 : Wipro on Tuesday announced it has selected Google Cloud as the cloud provider for its enterprise-wide SAP footprint to advance its digital transformation.

The engagement will bring SAP applications and workloads to the cloud to support over 1.8 lakh employees at Wipro.

The company said it will transform mission-critical SAP applications with Google Cloud and roll out G Suite into its workplace productivity tool set.

"It is critical that our core systems and technologies are running on intelligent and modern platforms that encompass the needs of the future," said Bhanumurthy BM, President and Chief Operating Officer, Wipro.

"This transformation programme will help us run our most business-critical workloads and applications with speed and agility, and to support our customers more effectively".

Wipro will modernise and transform its core ERP (enterprise resource planning) system to SAP's flagship S/4HANA and migrate the SAP workloads onto Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

The company will also leverage the advanced intelligent ERP from SAP, along with the flexibility and scalability of GCP, for hosting SAP Workloads.

"Wipro is embracing digital transformation at speed and scale. By modernizing their core systems and technologies with Google Cloud, they have a powerful and scalable foundation to accelerate their strategic enterprise priorities and build for the future," said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud.

Wipro will also roll out G Suite for some of its employees as a workplace productivity platform.

Wipro's industry-focused solutions, with Google Cloud technologies embedded at their core, are already enabling enterprises to future-proof their IT investments.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top American infectious disease expert, speaking after President Trump retweeted a post that accused Fauci and the Democrats of misleading the American people. The post suggested that the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was a cure for COVID-19 and that masks were unnecessary for virus protection. Facebook and Twitter have removed the post for violating their policies of misinformation. ( Reuters  July 28, 2020)
Najib was calm and stone-faced as he became the first Malaysian leader to be convicted. He has vowed to appeal the verdict and took an oath in brief remarks from the dock before the sentencing that he was unaware of the corruption.

Judge Mohamad Nazlan Ghazali sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail on one count of abuse of power, 10 years each for three counts of criminal breach of trust, and 10 years each for three counts of money laundering, as well as a fine of 210 million ringgit (38.3 million). But he ordered the sentences to run concurrently, meaning Najib will face up to 12 years in jail.

The judge said the sentence was appropriate and proportionate taking into account that Najib had committed the crime from a position of trust as prime minister, his final plea and the need to deter others from committing the same crime.

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The ruling in the first of his five corruption trials came five months after Najibs Malay party returned to government as the biggest bloc in an alliance that took power from the reformist government that ousted Najibs in 2018.

Analysts said the ruling would bolster the prosecutions case in Najibs other trials and would signal to the business community Malaysias legal system has strength in tackling international financial crimes. But others cautioned the ruling could be overturned and his political party remains in office.

I find the accused guilty and convict the accused of all seven charges, the judge said after spending two hours reading out an elaborate ruling.

Najibs lawyers had argued for a light sentence, saying the defence was crippled by the judges refusal to delay the sentencing arguments until next week. Prosecutors said the case had tarnished the country as a kleptocracy and sought a sentence that would remind those in high public office that no-one is above the law.

Speaking from the dock, Najib asked the court to take into account his achievements during his nine-year tenure and gave an oath that he was not aware of the 42 million ringgit (7.6 million) channelled into his bank accounts from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.

I did not demand the 42 million, I did not plan for the 42 million, nor was the 42 million offered to me. There has been no evidence nor witness to this. And I also like to say that I have no knowledge of the 42 million, Najib insisted.

Some of Najibs supporters outside the courthouse cried when they learned of the verdict while others chanted free bossku and long live bossku. The nickname meaning my boss was coined for Najib in his social media campaign to reinvent himself as a working-class leader.

Najib, 67, has vowed to fight to the end. He has said he was misled by rogue bankers and the case against him is political.

He wrote on Facebook: I want justice. I want to clear my name. After this, we will go to the Court of Appeal. I am ready.
On July 27, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced an Indian origin youth climate change activist on his board of advisory. According to the UNs official press release, the Secretary-General felt that the UN must not ignore the urgency of the climate crisis and engage young people in an open and transparent dialogue to address the issue. Hence, he appointed Archana Soreng and seven other people from across the world, aged 18 to 28, to advise him on global warming issues.

We have seen young people on the front lines of climate action, showing us what bold leadership looks like," Guterres said in a live-streamed video on Twitter. Further, he added, that the youth advisory group has been tasked with providing "perspectives, ideas, and solutions that will help us scale up climate action. Guterres announcement focused on the importance of the youths role and its engagement in UN climate recommendations.

Young people are on the front lines of #ClimateAction, showing us what bold leadership looks like.



That is why I am launching my Youth Advisory Group on climate change - to provide essential perspectives, ideas & solutions. https://t.co/i16H8sNljI pic.twitter.com/zwUynl9T7i  Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) July 27, 2020

Read: UN Mission In Afghanistan Lists Terror Attacks Against Minorities, Exposes Pakistan's Hand

Read: Google Extends Work From Home Until July 2021: 'Want To Make Sure You're Taking Care'

From school strikes to demonstrations, and to innovation, young peoples mobilization all around the world shows the power they possess to help tackle the climate emergency, the UN wrote in the press release. The youth activist group includes members from Brazil, Fiji, France, India, Moldova, Sudan, and the United States. The chosen activist and researcher from India, Archana Soreng, said in a statement, Our ancestors have been protecting the forest and nature over the ages through their traditional knowledge and practices. She added, Now it is on us to be the front runners in combating the climate crisis.

We are in a climate emergency. We do not have the luxury of time, Guterres said in a live-streamed video.

Youth's role on advisory first-ever

While it remains unclear what role and responsibilities will be bestowed on the new Youth Advisory Group in addressing global warming and other issues, this, however, would be the first time that a group of young aspirants from worldwide have a formal role in advising the UN secretary-general.

Read: US Senator Tom Cotton Under Fire For Describing Slavery As 'necessary Evil'

Read: Bombay Flying Club Becomes Country's First DGCA-approved Drone Training School: Aviation Ministry
25% of Americans believe there is at least some truth that COVID-19 was planned: poll

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Some 25% of Americans believe that there is at least some truth to the conspiracy theory that powerful people intentionally planned the new coronavirus outbreak, and conservative Republicans, blacks and Hispanics are more likely to fall into this group, according to results of a survey recently released by the Pew Research Center.

The results of the survey, conducted in June, were highlighted by the Pew Research Center just a day before Sinclair Broadcast Groupannounced it would delay airing a controversial episode of its program "America This Week," suggesting Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had a hand in the development of COVID-19.

In the America This Week" episode, which still aired in at least one local market before Sinclairs postponement, host Eric Bolling interviews Judy Mikovits, former research director of chronic fatigue syndrome research organization Whittemore Peterson Institute and her lawyer, Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch.

Mikovits, a well-known conspiracy theorist who appeared in the discredited Plandemic viral video, alleged that the NIAID under Faucis leadership had been illegally experimenting with coronaviruses and later funded that research in Wuhan, China.

Hes the head of NIAID, he didnt discover this particular coronavirus but they had been working on isolating coronaviruses from bats  since the mid to late '90s and they had shipped originally, funded the studies to Wuhan, China, when it was illegal in this country to do these types of studies further, Mikovits told Bolling.

Were looking at a possible RICO case, Eric, and were analyzing that right now, what it appears happened is the Chinese got that virus. We know that $3.7 million was given as a grant during the Obama administration to that Wuhan laboratory. Thats not in dispute. And the Chinese then engineered it into a bioweapon, Klayman told Bolling.

So what happened here is relevant to our lawsuit in Dallas, Texas, our class action against the communist Chinese, for releasing either accidentally or by design this pandemic. So its a very serious matter and it needs to be looked into, he continued. No one wants to discuss it and I suspect that the president probably knows about this right now, which is why, and I support the president personally, but I think thats why hes not going real strong against China right now because this virus had its origins, apparently in a lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland.

Dr. Nicole Saphier, a Fox News medical contributor, who is also featured in the postponed episode, agreed with Bolling that it was "highly unlikely" that Fauci was behind the coronavirus but said it was possible the virus was "man-made within a laboratory" and escaped. Some experts noted earlier this year that the virus was not engineered in a lab.

According to the Pew survey, 71% of Americans say they have heard of the Plandemic conspiracy but just 20% say it is probably true and 5% believe its definitely true.

Among conservative Republicans, the survey noted that 37% believe the conspiracy theory is probably or definitely true compared to 29% of moderate and liberal Republicans, 24% of moderate and conservative Democrats and 10% of liberal Democrats.

Some 33% of blacks and 34% of Hispanic adults also say the theory is probably or definitely true, compared with about 22% of white adults and 19% of Asian Americans. Women were slightly more likely than men, 29% vs. 21%, to see at least some truth in the conspiracy theory.

Lower levels of education were also associated with a higher likelihood of believing the conspiracy theory.

In an interview with CNN Business, Bolling said he was not aware of the viral "Plandemic" video. He noted that Saphier "was not originally booked on the show" and that he added her to "provide an opposing viewpoint."

"I don't know of any video she was in prior to or after appearing on my show. Frankly, I was shocked when she made the accusation," Bolling said. "I asked our producers to add Saphier to the show for the express purpose of debunking the conspiracy theory. I believe viewers see that I did not and do not endorse her theory."
Platinummarkets.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 22 Dec 2012, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

The total number of people who shared the platinummarkets homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the platinummarkets homepage on Twitter + the total number of platinummarkets followers (if platinummarkets has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the platinummarkets homepage on StumbleUpon. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the platinummarkets homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if platinummarkets has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the platinummarkets homepage on Delicious.

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PAGE TITLE Platinum Markets DESCRIPTION Free Forex Market Advice and Tips KEYWORDS forex market, forex trading, forex brokers, foreign exchange, forex, forex investment, forex advice, forex tools, forex tips OTHER KEYWORDS



CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage.

Domain and Server

DOCTYPE XHTML 1.0 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE UTF-8 DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER Apache OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux

The language of platinummarkets.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Operative System running on the server. Character set and language of the site. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Type of server and offered services.

Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world.

Referring domains for platinummarkets.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines.

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Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The URL of the found Facebook page. The type of Facebook page.

Twitter account link

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Kelli Trent, an insurance claim agent in Perry County, said her employer isnt following health and safety COVID-19 guidelines.

The corporation isnt enforcing a mask policy or social distancing as some workers are returning to the office, she said. Now, four employees have tested positive for the coronavirus and nine others are in quarantine.

Trent also said the company is mandating employees report to work unless they show symptoms  even if they were exposed.

She said she filed a complaint with the state Department of Health, who then referred Trent to the governors office. She was then sent to the state police and finally to the local police.

The local police said they couldnt help us, Trent said.

Trent was one of seven Pennsylvania essential workers that testified virtually before the House Democratic Policy Committee on Monday about the impacts of the pandemic they are facing in their fields. Many spoke of the shortage of personal protective equipment provided by their employers and the need for hazard pay and paid sick leave as they continue their work.

And the impacts are often disproportionately felt by minority workers.

It is a health crisis hitting brown and black people, said Dalia Cruz, a lab and clinic cleaner in York County and a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient, sometimes referred to as a Dreamer, from Mexico. Everyday we have to decide between our lives or food on our table. Everyday we have to decide if all this effort is worth it.

One recent study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that while Black workers make up about one in nine workers overall, they account for one-sixth of front-line industry workers.

Tom Smith, a home care worker in Montgomery County, said caregivers like him are often in the most vulnerable positions. With social distancing virtually impossible. Since most caregivers receive no time off, he said they are left choosing between a paycheck and going to work sick.

Some of the testifiers also shared broader labor concerns in Pennsylvania. The states public sector workers are still not protected by the Occupational Safety and Health Act standards, which covers the private sector but requires states to opt in to grant the public workforce with OSHA protections.

Steve Catanese, the president of the Pennsylvania Social Services Union Local 668, one of the largest state government employee unions, said that puts Pennsylvania on an inglorious list of states that havent extended OSHA to the public sector.

Rep. Pat Harkins, D-Erie County, recalled an infamous instance in 2014 where the lack of OSHA protections potentially allowed for an unsafe work environment. He said an Erie Metro Transit Agency worker was killed on the job and his investigation was further stonewalled. Harkins has since tried but failed to get the state to extend such OSHA protections.

The rules are written in a way that are broken and work against working people, Catanese said.

Catanese called it a moral imperative for the state government to act, particularly on areas of hazard pay, paid sick leave and requiring employers to provide adequate protective equipment.

If were essential workers, we need to know that the state has our back, Smith said.

The hearing comes amidst debate at the federal level for a potential new stimulus bill as the pandemic drags on. Early reports indicate U.S. Senate Republicans plan to introduce a bill that would drastically cut federal unemployment benefits compared to the first stimulus bill.

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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Singapore  Tue, July 28, 2020 08:20 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669bf64e 2 SE Asia Singapore,Lee-Hsien-Loong,politics,election,opposition,ruling Free

Singapore's ruling party must open up to much greater debate of its policies and future plans, its prime minister said on Monday, after an election in which the opposition made historic inroads into its unbroken grip on power.

Lee Hsien Loong, whose People's Action Party (PAP) has governed the city-state since independence in 1965, won all but 10 of 93 seats in parliament in the July 10 ballot but its share of the vote dropped nine points from the last election in 2015.

At the swearing-in of his new cabinet, Lee stressed the need to adapt to long-term changes in voter habits.

"The election has shown a strong desire among Singaporeans for greater diversity of views in politics. Voters want the PAP to form the government but they also want more robust debate of policies and plans. And this trend is here to stay," he said.

"We have to give expression to it and evolve our political system to accommodate it while maintaining our cohesion and sense of national purpose."

Singapore maintains tight controls on free speech and public assembly and the mainstream local media scene has close ties to the government.

The PAP's election win was tainted by concerns about a generational voter shift after a youth backlash was reinforced by disaffection from middle-aged voters, who had not been expected to rock the boat given the dire economic outlook due to COVID-19.

Some voters criticized the government's decision to hold the vote during the pandemic as opportunistic and unsafe, while others took issue with targeting of opposition figures seen as high-handed. Calls by opposition parties to vote for them as a check on PAP power also swung some voters.

After the vote, Lee for the first time named the head of the main opposition Workers' Party, Pritam Singh, as the official Leader of the Opposition, which analysts said signaled the city-state's gradual move towards a multi-party democracy.
The Alabama Democratic Party renewed its call for a state lawmaker to step down after he posted on social media that he had a great time honoring Confederate Army General and Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest over the weekend.

And while the states Republican Party isnt asking Rep. Will Dismukes, R-Prattville, to resign, the partys chairwoman called the tribute improper.

Dismukes said on Facebook Sunday that he had a great time celebrating Forrests birthday at Fort Dixie in Selma, adding that he gave the invocation for the festivities.

Always a great time and some sure good enough eating!! wrote Dismukes, who is a chaplain for the Prattville Dragoons, a chapter of the Sons of the Confederacy.

Rep. Will Dismukes (R1865) spent today honoring a KKK founder rather than a giant of the Civil Rights Movement. Both events were in Selma, but there really arent two sides to this.



Want fewer folks like Will Dismukes getting elected in Alabama? Help us: https://t.co/e9cnBpQ5Eq pic.twitter.com/pIbtq3gs79  Alabama Democrats (@aldemocrats) July 26, 2020

Dismukes took the post down by Monday, and said that the photo and posting was in no way glorifying the Klan or disrespecting the late Rep. John Lewis, the Alabama civil rights icon and longtime congressman from Georgia who died last week and was celebrated in Alabama over the weekend.

Alabama Democratic Party Executive Director Wade Perry said Dismukes is an extremist who is unfit to hold public office over the posting.

Will Dismukes has demonstrated yet again why he is unfit to hold public office. Americans dont celebrate racists or traitors. Nathan Bedford Forrest was both. And a founder of the Klan, Perry said in a statement. The Alabama Democratic Party renews our call for Dismukes to resign. Its 2020 and its time for racial extremists like Will Dismukes to go away.

The partys call on Monday for Dismukes to step down is the second time in as many months that it urged the Montgomery-area lawmaker to resign.

In late June, the party said Dismukes should abandon his post because he supports continued state funding for Confederate Memorial Park in Marbury, north of Montgomery.

Alabama Republican Party Chairwoman Terry Lathan said the GOP isnt asking on Dismukes to resign, saying his political future should be up to the voters in his district. But she also said it was improper for Dismukes to pay tribute to the KKKs first grand wizard.

It is one thing to honor ones Southern heritage, however, it is completely another issue to specifically commemorate the leader of an organization with an indisputable history of unconscionable actions and atrocities toward African-Americans, Lathan said. I strongly urge his constituents to contact Rep. Dismukes to articulate and share with him their thoughts on his personal actions.

Alabama House leaders also condemned Dismukes post.

Alabama House Majority Whip Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, said the social media post does not represent my party or my faith.

I cannot fathom why anyone in 2020 celebrates the birthday of the 1st KKK Grand Wizard. And while the body of a civil rights icon beaten by the Klan lies at state Capitol being honored by GOP/Dem leaders from all over the state. This mentality does not rep my party or my faith.  Rep. Danny Garrett (@DannyGarrett44) July 27, 2020

Alabama House Speaker Mac McCutcheon agreed with Lathan that voters should decide whether Dismukes remains in office but added that he and other Republican House members spent the weekend honoring Lewis and not a Confederate general and KKK leader.

Today I released the following statement regarding a controversial social media post by State Rep. Will Dismukes.



The Alabama House cannot police the beliefs, statements, & activities of its members outside the Legislature as that is a job best assigned to voters.  Speaker Mac McCutcheon (@MacDistrict25) July 27, 2020

Lecia Brooks, chief of staff of the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, said it was no accident that state Rep. Will Dismukes chose to blatantly celebrate a brutal slaveholder, Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former Confederate general and first Grand Wizard of the original Ku Klux Klan who spent his life intimidating, dehumanizing and working to keep Black people in chains.

More:

How the Black Lives Matter generation remembers John Lewis

For Black-owned businesses, access to capital is starting point to leveling field

Civil rights icon John Lewis lies in state at U.S. Capitol, but Trump says he wont visit
As a girl growing up in Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates, Sarah al-Amiri looked at an astronomy book with a photograph of Andromeda, the giant galaxy neighbouring our Milky Way.

I cant describe it, al-Amiri said in an interview, but just to realize that something that was printed on a page was larger than anything that Ive ever seen and dwarfs the planet that I live on.

When she was in college, there were few opportunities in the Middle East to pursue studies of the universe, and al-Amiri majored in computer science instead. But now, the UAE is aiming to inspire its youth to pursue science and technology careers, and al-Amiri has forged a career pursuing the heavens.

Just 33 years old, she is the head of science operations and the deputy project manager for a space probe that the UAE just sent to Mars.

A rocket lifting a spacecraft called Hope has begun its journey. The launch is the boldest move yet by a country that is looking to establish a future that will long outlive its oil wealth and sees a space program as one way to accomplish that goal.

In Pics | UAE's 'Hope' mission to Mars launched from Japan

Mars has been much in the news in July, with a once-every-26-month interlude when Earth and Mars line up to allow robotic spacecraft to make a relatively quick trip. After several delays, NASAs next Mars rover, Perseverance, with instruments to search for chemical signs of past life, is scheduled to launch Thursday. China also launched an ambitious mission to Mars, Tianwen-1, last week.

A fourth mission, which would have put a Russian-European rover named Rosalind Franklin on Mars, was pushed off the calendar because of technical hurdles that could not be cleared in time.

Preparations for Hope, the smallest of the bunch, proceeded smoothly, and it was the first to be ready for liftoff.

Because the UAE does not yet have its own rocket industry, it bought the launch for Hope aboard an H-IIA rocket from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a machinery maker in Japan. Because of bad weather at the launchpad on an island in Japan, liftoff was delayed a number of times until it took place July 20.

Also read  NASA's next Mars rover is brawniest and brainiest one yet

About the size of a Mini Cooper car, Hope is to arrive in orbit around Mars in February. The spacecraft  which cost about $200 million to build and launch  will carry three instruments: an infrared spectrometer, an ultraviolet spectrometer and a camera.

From its high orbit  varying from 12,400 miles to 27,000 miles above the surface  Hope will give planetary scientists their first global view of Martian weather at all times of day. Over its two-year mission, it will investigate how dust storms and other weather phenomena near the Martian surface speed or slow the loss of the planets atmosphere into space.

That, however, is not the main reason that the Emirates government built Hope.

A lot of you might ask us, Why space? Omran Sharaf, the Hope project manager, said during a news conference July 9. Its not about reaching Mars.

Rather, Sharaf said, the countrys primary aim is to inspire schoolchildren and spur its science and technology industries, which, in turn, will enable the Emirates to tackle critical issues like food, water, energy and a post-petroleum economy.

Its about starting getting the ball rolling, Sharaf said, and creating that disruptive change, and changing the mindset.

The Emirates previously built and launched three Earth-observing satellites, collaborating with a South Korean manufacturer and gradually taking on greater shares of the engineering. The country even has a nascent human spaceflight program. Last year, the UAE bought a seat on a Russian Soyuz rocket and sent its first astronaut, Hazzaa al-Mansoori, for an eight-day stay at the International Space Station.

For the Mars mission, the country took a similar approach to the earlier satellites by working with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where Hope was built before being sent to Dubai for testing.

In Pics | Facts about missions to Mars: The race for the Red Planet

By design, Emirati engineers worked side by side with their counterparts in Boulder, learning as they designed and assembled the spacecraft.

One of the requirements that the government gave us since the beginning, Sharaf said, they told us, You have to build it and not buy it.

The science piece of the mission was an even bigger gap to fill for a country without Mars scientists, which until recently constituted an unfathomable career choice.

Al-Amiri is the head of science even though she never formally studied planetary science.

After she graduated college with a computer science degree, the likeliest job prospects  working at a networking company performing troubleshooting and maintenance  did not enrapture her. She wanted to design and build new things.

She saw a job posting at what is now known as the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai. She joined in 2009, working as an engineer on the satellite programs. When that assignment wrapped up in 2014, she moved on to her current roles on the Hope mission.

She now also serves as the countrys minister of state for advanced sciences and chairs an advisory council of scientists.

If the UAE had tried to train planetary scientists from scratch to work on Hope, the mission would have been long over before the scientists were ready. Instead, Emirati officials took a quicker approach: converting some of the space centers engineers into scientists by offering apprentice-like training with researchers in the United States.

I was put there to develop scientific talents within the organization and be able to transfer knowledge in a non-traditional way, al-Amiri said.

The coronavirus outbreak tossed in more challenges.

For latest updates and live news on coronavirus, click here

Once construction of the spacecraft was complete in Colorado, a large Ukrainian transport plane ferried it to Dubai, where it was to undergo a round of testing before heading to the launchpad in Japan.

But at the end of February  not long before the European Space Agency and Russia postponed the launch of the Rosalind Franklin mission in part because of the logistical hurdles created by the pandemic  Sharaf and al-Amiri realized the outbreak could disrupt their carefully planned schedules if airports were shut down.

Based on that, we started working on a plan to get the team across to Japan as soon as possible, al-Amiri said.

They shuffled some of the tests in order to hurry the spacecraft to Japan, three weeks earlier than originally planned, and where some of the testing would instead be completed.

Travel restrictions meant team members could not travel back and forth. A small team went ahead in early April to wait out a quarantine. Two weeks later, the cargo plane with Hope flew to Japan with another small team from the Emirates.

Ever wonder about existence beyond Earth? Here are 3 great mysteries about life on Mars

In Japan, the people who flew with Hope then went into quarantine, and then those who had gone ahead joined the spacecraft on the barge trip to the island that is home to the launch site.

Sharaf and al-Amiri said the nations space program would continue regardless of the missions ultimate outcome.

The Emirates fully understand the risk associated with this mission, Sharaf said. So does the team. Lets be honest. Fifty percent of the missions that have been to Mars have failed.

The greatest success is the training of the people, he said.

For the Emirates, its more about the journey, Sharaf said. Its more about the impact. Reaching there is one of the goals. But that doesnt mean that the mission has failed, if we didnt manage to get there. So failure is an option.
YEREVAN, JULY 28, ARMENPRESS. Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, Lieutenant-General Onik Gasparyan on July 28 received US Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy and Embassys Military Attache, Colonel Scott Maxwell, the defense ministry of Armenia told Armenpress.

During the meeting issues relating to the Armenian-American bilateral cooperation in the defense sector were discussed. The participants also touched upon the recent escalation of the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the current situation in the borderline.

The sides discussed the future cooperation programs and outlined other issues of mutual interest.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan  Tue, July 28, 2020 18:42 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669fe03c 1 Politics Medan-mayoral-election,Akhyar-Nasution,Bobby-Nasution,PDI-P,Democratic-party Free

Akhyar Nasution, the acting mayor of Medan in North Sumatra, has switched parties from the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to the Democratic Party in a bid to secure his candidacy in the citys mayoral election.

The former PDI-P senior politician, who previously led the party's North Sumatra chapter, joined the Democrats after the ruling party refused to nominate him as it leaned toward supporting President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's son-in-law Bobby Nasution instead.

Democratic Party politician Andi Arief announced Akhyar's decision through a post on his Twitter account, in which he also revealed the Democrats teamed up with the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) to back the acting Medan mayor in the upcoming race.

"The 2020 Medan mayoral election. It's official, the people's coalition [Democrats-PKS] will be running against a giant coalition supporting President Jokowi's son-in-law," Arief tweeted along with a picture of Akhyar wearing the Democratic Party's blue uniform.

Pilkada Kota Medan 2020, Sah.. Koalisi Rakyat (Demokrat-PKS) menghadapi koalisi raksasa pendukung Mantu Pak Presiden Jokowi. pic.twitter.com/KWrrl4tpis  andi arief (@AndiArief__) July 24, 2020

The head of the Democratic Party's Medan chapter, Burhanuddin Sitepu, confirmed on Saturday that Akhyar had joined the party, which was founded by former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"Akhyar Nasution is now a Democratic Party politician," he told The Jakarta Post.

Burhanuddin said the Democrats and the PKS would nominate Akhyar as their candidate for the Medan mayoral election in December. With support from both parties, which own seven and four council seats respectively, Akhyar has passed the minimum 10-seat requirement needed to secure a nomination.

The Democratic Party Central Executive Board head, Jansen Sitindaon, said Akhyar decided to switch party lines because he shared the "the same goals" and "common interests" with the Democrats.

Read also: Dynasty in the making

The PKS had previously announced that the party would nominate Akhyar in the mayoral race following a meeting between the party's North Sumatra chairman, Hariyanto, and the incumbent on July 14.

Meanwhile, the acting chairperson of the PDI-Ps North Sumatra branch, Djarot Saiful Hidayat, regretted Akhyar's decision, saying that the latter had betrayed the ruling party, which had helped him grow as a politician.

Djarot said the PDI-P refused to back Akhyar in the race because of his relatively poor performance as acting mayor. "The evaluation reports were bad, so [the PDI-P] decided not to nominate him again."

Although the PDI-P has yet to officially confirm Bobby's nomination, Djarot said that the ruling party would likely throw its support behind him.

Bobby officially joined the PDI-P in March in a bid to run in the 2020 Medan mayoral race. The NasDem Party, one of the political parties in Jokowi's ruling coalition, previously confirmed its plan in February to also nominate Bobby. (nal)
A council in London is set to ban meat as part of its efforts to fight climate change.

From December, only vegan and vegetarian options will be offered at events hosted by Enfield Council.

The local authority is understood to be the first in the UK to announce such a move.

Setting out the aim in its climate change "action plan" for this year, the council said: "All events held by Enfield Council where catering is provided to offer only vegan or vegetarian options."

The council has already declared a climate emergency, deputy leader Ian Barnes said, and the local authority aims to be carbon neutral by 2030.

"The emergency is real and the action to remedy it must be local, national and global," Mr Barnes wrote in the climate report's foreword.

Ensuring the council is carbon neutral in 10 years means "taking bold and sometimes unpopular action", he added.

The move has been met with some criticism. Mo Metcalf-Fisher of the Countryside Alliance branded the decision to ban meat an "awful move".

He wrote on Twitter: "A ban demonstrates no understanding of how meat in this country is produced.

"Thanks to UK farming practices, it's among the most sustainable in the world. No surprise there was limited public consultation with this one... awful move."

Boris Johnson and Sir David Attenborough Talk to Schoolchildren About Climate Change

Sam Calvert from The Vegan Society told the Evening Standard the society welcomes Enfield Council's decision.

"A comparison of even the lowest impact beef with plant protein such as peas shows that beef is responsible for six times more greenhouse gasses and 36 times more land," said Ms Calvert.

"For councils that have declared a Climate Emergency this would be a simple policy to enact which would have a positive impact.

"We hope other councils and public sector organisations will be inspired to follow Enfield Councils lead.

Loading....

The Standard has contacted Enfield Council for comment.
Justice Suleman Belgore of an FCT High Court, Maitama, Abuja, on Monday, issued a warrant for the arrest of the immediate past Clerk of the National Assembly, Mohammed Omolori.

Mr Belgore issued the order following an ex parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seeking an order of the court for the arrest of Omolori.

The EFCC in the application, marked M/8728/2020, filed before the court, alleged that the respondent had ignored its invitation for him to report to its office over an investigation of a petition.

The EFCC stated that it was investigating a petition, alleging diversion of 14 Toyota Hilux vehicles and 13 Peugeot 508 valued at over N400 million.

According to the commission, as part of its investigation activities, it invited the Secretary of the National Assembly Commission, Adamu Fika, Mr Oluseye Ajakaye and others to its office.

It further stated that the invitees made revelations indicting Mr Omolori, following which letters were sent to him on November 4, 2019, which Mr Omolori failed to honour.

EFCC added that it sent another letter to him on March 16, 2020, which he still failed to honour.

In view of his failure, the EFCC stated that it was left with no option than to approach the court for a warrant of arrest to be issued against the respondent.

After listening to the counsel for EFCC, S.N. Robert, Justice Belgore granted the order sought.

I have considered the application, I averted to Paragraph 7 of the supporting affidavit and Exhibit EFCC 4 wherein the respondent was said to have ignored invitations to report in the applicants office without any justifiable reason.

It is clear to me that Section 3 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015 can be invoked in the circumstances of this case in granting this application and I so do.

Warrant of immediate arrest is hereby issued against Mohammed Omolori, the former Clerk of the National Assembly forthwith, Mr Belgore ordered.

(NAN)
A rival bidder has appealed a court decision approving NordStars $60-million takeover of the Toronto Stars publisher  but Torstars chair says the company still plans to close the deal this week.

Barring a stay, we intend to close this deal by Thursday. To further delay this transaction would cause harm to shareholders and the company, said John Honderich in an interview Tuesday afternoon.

This was an already difficult time for this industry, and it has been made more so by the pandemic. NordStar should be able to get going with its plan as soon as possible.

The successful bid, submitted by Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivetts company NordStar Capital, got the thumbs-up from Superior Court Justice Cory Gilmore in a decision released by email late Monday night, following a one-hour fairness hearing last Thursday.

I find that the arrangement is fair and reasonable and should be approved by this court, wrote Gilmore in her decision.

But the team behind the rival bid is refusing to give up.

On Tuesday afternoon, a notice of appeal was filed by lawyers for Canadian Modern Media Holdings. The lawyers also asked Ontarios divisional court to issue a stay setting aside Gilmores ruling while CMMH appeals.

Our clients position is that they and Torstar shareholders will suffer irreparable harm if the transaction closes. If a stay pending the appeal is not granted, or the appeal is not heard before closing, the transaction will close and the appeal will become moot, CMMHs request for a hearing said.

CMMHs legal team asked for the appeal to be heard as soon as possible.

In their supporting documents for the appeal, CMMHs lawyers said Gilmore made several mistakes in her ruling.

The artificially rushed nature of the hearing resulted in the application judge making a number of palpable and overriding errors of fact, CMMHs lawyers argued in documents submitted to the divisional court. Among their arguments was that a vote last Tuesday, where 98.7 per cent of shareholders approved of the deal, shouldnt count.

The application judge erred in placing undue weight on the results of the shareholder vote given that the votes were obtained on the basis of misleading and inaccurate disclosure to shareholders, the documents said. CMMH argued that Torstar didnt disclose enough details to shareholders about its bid, including an assessment of the value of contingent value rights that were part of its initial offer.

But the divisional court might be reluctant to consider the disclosure argument, given that the Ontario Securities Commission hasnt blocked the deal either, said Poonam Puri, a professor at York Universitys Osgoode Hall law school.

Securities regulators are considered experts in assessing appropriate disclosure standards under relevant securities laws and regulations. The OSCs decision not to review the case puts the judge in a challenging position in determining whether appropriate disclosure was made to shareholders in the management information circular, Puri told the Star.

CMMHs lawyers also argued that there is no urgent need for the NordStar deal to close quickly, claiming NordStars offer doesnt expire until September 30.

Gilmore had rejected arguments from CMMH that Torstars board had stopped negotiating with CMMH after receiving its first 72-cents-per-share bid, which was subsequently topped by NordStars final offer of 74 cents per share.

A day before shareholders approved the takeover, CMMH raised its offer to 80 cents per share, but hard lock-ups signed by Torstars biggest shareholders had already guaranteed their support for NordStar.
American Catastrophe: How Did We Get Here? (ABC at 9) This 

20/20 special will look at how the United States missed opportunities and warning signs leading to the coronavirus pandemic; it includes interviews with U.S. officials to figure out how the nation will proceed.
The UK lawmakers across the aisles have come together to commemorate the anniversary of Black July, a week of anti-Tamil pogroms at least 37 years ago that led to the killing of thousands of people in Sri Lanka. From the ruling Conservative Party members to its biggest opposition, the Labour MPs and other Tamil representatives even discussed the essential topics including Sri Lanka, Black July, British politics, application of British foreign office and new global Human Rights Sanctions Act on Sri Lankan perpetrators.

Stephen Timms, Chair of Work and Pensions Committee and former Vice-Chair of the APPG for Tamils expressed his deepest sympathy to all those who were impacted with the horrible events that took place in Black July. He noted that the commemoration came at a time when the progress towards reconciliation in Sri Lanka appeared to have been ceased. According to Timms, the latest report of the United Nations Commissioner on Human Rights about the situation in Sri Lanka makes pretty grim reading. He the, went on to quote some of the points made in the document.

Timms said, Just to quote some of the points that it makes, this was the report in February. It says that there has been no further progress towards the development of a more comprehensive truth and reconciliation commission. There has also been no progress towards establishing a judicial mechanism with a special council to investigate allegations of human rights abuses.

That report is in the pursuit of Resolution 30/1 which Sri Lanka co-sponsored with the UK and others in 2015. But in February the Sri Lankan government said that it no longer supported that resolution and it appears that the Sri Lankan government is no longer even claiming to want reconciliation. It is a grim time and what I want to do is to reaffirm my support for what I think now is the only plausible way forward which is the establishment for the Independent international investigation of what happened in Sri Lanka at the end of the civil war in 2019, he added.

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What is Black July?

Black July is the common name used to mention the anti-Tamil pogrom and riots that prevailed in Sri Lanka during July of 1983. The unrest was triggered as a response to a deadly ambush on July 23, 1983, that resulted in the killing of at least 13 soldiers of Sri Lankan army by the Tamil militant group. In a bid to respond, on the night of July 24, 1983, the anti-Tamil rioting started in the capital, Colombo and then eventually spread to other parts of the country.

Over the course of seven days, mobs attacked, burned, looted, and killed Tamilians. Accordion to existing records the death toll of the riots range between 400 and 3,000 while several thousand lost their homes. 8,000 homes and 5,000 shops were destroyed during this time and reportedly economic cost of the riots was $300 million. This was followed by Sri Lankan Tamilians fleeing to other countries and a large number of them even joined the militant groups.

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Read - Rift Between Royal Brothers Laid Bare In New Book Extract

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Wipro has served a three-month notice to many of its bench employees  without pay. If they fail to find a project within the period, their services could be terminated, the company said in an email to affected employees.

Bench employees are those on the companys payroll, but not assigned to any project.

In an email to the employees concerned, the company said: Upon the expiry of the extended bench and your failure to find suitable billable opportunity within the said period, the company reserves its right to proceed as per allocation and deployment policy. Moneycontrol has seen the mail.

This policy gives the company the right to terminate service, if an employee fails to join a project within the given time period.

Though Moneycontrol asked the company about the number of employees who will be affected, there was no reply. However, a source estimated that it could be in a couple of hundreds, with the team leads (those with seven years or more of experience), being affected the most.

While other IT firms such as Capgemini and Cognizant have laid off bench employees in recent times, the Wipro move was a bit surprising.

Only a couple of weeks ago, Wipro chairman Rishad Premji had ruled out layoffs amid COVID-19. He said this during a recent annual general meeting.

In the email, Wipro described the move as being done in good faith and as a part of our endeavour to support employees.

During the three-month period, employees can avail leave if they choose to, and they will be on extended bench for the rest of the period.

Employees will receive insurance coverage and other medical benefits, wherever applicable during this period. Cash-based perks, discretionary bonus, or incentive schemes will stop.

No compensation or replacement scheme or other employee benefits shall be due or payable to you during the extended bench period, the mail said.

While in bench, employees can access training and skill development modules. We urge you to undergo as many training as possible to enable you to find a suitable opportunity soon, the mail said.

These programmes include Top Gear, the internal crowd sourcing platform.

In an e-mailed response to Moneycontrol, Wipro said: The allocation and deployment policy for India covers those who are not engaged in assignments and have remained unbilled for an extended period of time. The policy is applied upon receiving the employees consent and will extend for three months.

Wipro will continue to extend healthcare-related and other benefits to these employees. They will continue to receive insurance coverage and remain eligible for the medical assistance scheme, even if they exhaust their earned leaves, the statement added.

While the scale of the extended bench could be a couple of hundreds in Capgemini, the numbers are likely to be much higher in Cognizant. For the other firms, it is unclear.

Already, for the quarter ending June, headcount has fallen by over 10,000 in Indias top five IT companies - TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra. Wipros total employee count has been falling over the last two quarters by 5,500.

In a post, the IT arm of the National Democratic Labour Front said that the move was illegal amid the pandemic and the company has to allocate projects for existing employees instead of selecting new ones.

The company on-boarded 7,000 laterals for the last quarter and will start on-boarding freshers from mid-July through the course of the year.

Experts said that in the wake of budget cuts and cost optimisation, options are limited. Even if employees acquire additional skills, three months is too short and will result in increased performance-related layoffs, they said.
28.07.2020 LISTEN

Covid-19 is taking a major toll on our world today. From another angle, it has helped to expose the deficiencies in some of our significant policies. It is evident that the world is struggling to contain the COVID-19 pandemic with every citizen striving to survive.

However, women have been disproportionate primary recipients of the gut-wrenching effects of the virus ranging from economic, social, to psychological repercussions. The most disturbing of all is Gender-Based Violence peeking in these times. Undeniably, several policies have long existed before now to mitigate this challenge. However, these have over the years seen an abysmal performance; and as usual, issues of women are merely resolved by words of mouth and sword-less policies. Various advocacy groups have given off their best efforts to push this; however, without much support, they only end up doing charity. We anticipated that, at least, the gendered impacts of COVID-19 would shape the decisions that mainly male leaders are making in these hard times. But sadly, this has least been fulfilled.

The South African government has declared violence against women a national crisis. In Ghana, it is a pathetic situation, yet it has not been given the needed credence to be considered a crisis. As patriarchal as the system is, victims are blamed for their predicament, subjecting them to secondary victimisation. We have the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit that seeks to address these issues. But then what concrete achievement has been made? Even when there are policies in place, there are a lot of foot-dragging when it comes to implementation. Bureaucracy and red-tapeism have taken over our justice system with most feminine struggles still pending resolution. The media has been instrumental in capturing the attention of key stakeholders through broadcasting some of the severe cases of some paedophile cases and other lethal cases like murder by a partner, rape and assault, yet nothing has changed. Justice takes forever to be served. As already known, justice delayed is justice denied.

The one pressing aspect of this pickle yet ignored is the provision of alternative shelter for victims. Unfortunately, after reporting abuse, most victims are left with no option than to join their abusers back home, if an arrest is not issued instantly. This mostly ends in a fatality. As such, people who refuse to report abuse have reasonable justification though not the best.

COVID-19 has even made the challenge more turbulent. The very conditions that are needed to battle the diseaseisolation, social distancing, restrictions on freedom of movementare, perversely, the very conditions that feed into the hands of abusers who now find state- sanctioned circumstances tailor-made for unleashing abuse on women. The consequence is what we are witnessing currently- severe economic and social decadence on society and victims as well. Moving forward, COVID-19 recovery programmes in Ghana should capture this gender-based need. Provision of shelter for victims of gender-based violence is very crucial in the dispensation of justice for the abused.

By: Womens International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Ghana Communication Manager, Diaspora
A Lucchese mob boss and two accomplices have been jailed for life for the murder of another gang leader in the Bronx in 2013.

Matthew Madonna, 84, Chris Londonio, 45, and Terrence Caldwell, 61, were handed the sentences on Monday, having been found guilty of the slaying in November last year.

A New York court heard that Madonna ordered a hit on Michael Meldish, leader of the notorious Purple Gang, after he refused to repay a debt.

Londonio, a made man within the Lucchese family, lured Meldish - who was his friend - into position, before Caldwell, a hired gun, shot him in the head.

The sentencing comes after it was revealed that Londonio - who used to weigh 350lbs and was nicknamed Veal Chop - had hatched an elaborate plan to escape jail before trial that involved losing enough weight to fit through a small window.

Matthew Madonna, 84 (left), and Chris 'Veal Chop' Londonio, 45 (right), have both been jailed for life for ordering and carrying out at hit on a rival mob boss in the Bronx in 2013

The plot to escape through a cell window at he Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in the Brooklyn (pictured) allegedly involved a wide cast of characters, including Londonio's wife, mother, father, the family priest and a Bronx bookie

Meldish was a known mobster who, as boss of the Purple Gang, ran much of the drugs trade in the Bronx and Harlem, the trial heard.

Authorities suspect his brother and criminal associate Joseph Meldish of being responsible for 70 murders.

As leader of the gang, the elder Meldish also carried out jobs for the Lucchese, Genovese and Bonanno gangs - three of New York's Five Families.

But in 2013 he fell foul of Madonna, then acting boss of the Lucchese, after refusing to repay a $100,000 gambling debt he owed.

When Madonna tried to collect the debt, Meldish told him to 'f*** off', the trial heard.

That prompted Madonna and his second-in-command, Stephen Crea, to decide he needed to be 'whacked'.

Crea relayed the order to Londonio, who asked Meldish to meet with him on Ellsworth Avenue in the Bronx on the night of November 15, 2013.

Meanwhile Caldwell, who was an associate of the Lucchese family but was not a member, met with Meldish beforehand and drove to the location with him.

As Meldish went to get out of the car to speak with Londonio, Caldwell shot him once in the head, killing him instantly.

Caldwell then got into Londonio's car, and the pair drove away from the scene.

The trio were arrested along with Crea in a massive bust against the Lucchese family carried out in 2017.

Hired gun Terrence Caldwell, 61, fired a single shot which hit Purple Gang boss Michael Meldish in the head, killing him

All four were subsequently charged with the killing, along with other crimes ranging from fraud and extortion to beatings and shootings.

Shortly after being locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, Londonio hatched a plan to escape along with his co-accused.

As part of the scheme, Londonio planned to have his local priest smuggle 'a diamond-tipped hacksaw blade' into the MDC that he could use 'to cut through the steel window guards' of his cell, according to an FBI report on the escape attempt.

Phase two involved having Lononio's mother smuggle dental floss into the jail, which he planned to use as a wire saw to cut through the window itself, the FBI said.

After punching two holes in the window glass using a homemade tool, Londonio planned to 'snake' the knotted dental floss in one hole and out the other using a second tool 'fashioned out of an electrical clamp', the agents wrote.

'The floss would then be pulled back and forth, creating a sawing effect on the glass,' allowing Londonio and his accomplices to slip out into the parking lot at night, the report said.

To test surveillance at the facility, Londonio's wife went into the parking lot outside his cell and danced feverishly for a while, but was never stopped or escorted out, leading the plotters to believe there was no camera coverage in the area, the agents said.

Meldish was killed after refusing to pay a $100,000 gambling debt to Madonna, the court heard, telling him to 'f*** off' when he demanded his money

Using bed sheets that he had squirreled away in a box under his bed, Londonio planned to braid a rope and slip out into the night, where he would be met by his father 'in the vicinity of the jail, given guns and brought to the home of his father's friend in the vicinity of the MDC,' the agents wrote.

'Londonio was also going to dye their shirts using Kool-Aid to avoid looking overly suspicious while en route to their safe house in Brooklyn,' the agents said, without specifying a flavor.

Initially, Londonio planned to wait with his accomplices in the Brooklyn safe house for several days until the heat died down, and then make his way to a secret hideaway in Monticello in upstate New York, the report said.

'A close friend,' whom Londonio described 'as a big bookmaker from the Arthur Avenue section of the Bronx,' the agents wrote, 'was going to provide $150,000 to sustain them while on the lam' in a home that 'the Londonio family owned in Monticello' that was 'not traceable to his family.'

At the Monticello stronghold, he planned to remain a year 'while Londonio's father obtained false documentation for them and Londonio was able to have his appearance changed through cosmetic surgery,' the agents wrote.

However, the plan suddenly changed when Londonio became enraged at the wife of then-Lucchese acting boss Matthew Madonna, who was one of his co-defendants in the murder trial, for showing him 'disrespect,' according to the report.

Londonio lured Meldish to this street in the Bronx in November 2013, where Caldwell shot him in the head before the pair fled in the same car

'Madonna didn't acknowledge Londonio's parents and Madonna's wife shook hands with several FBI agents in the courtroom, while ignoring his parents,' the agents wrote.

'Londonio's revised plan involved stopping in the Bronx,' the agents wrote, 'to kill both Madonna's wife and his unidentified partner in a loansharking business' who had stolen $200,000 from him.

Londonio told an informant, the agents wrote, that 'his designs on Mrs. Madonna were a result of the disrespect Madonna had shown him and his family, particularly after, 'all [he] had done for [Madonna].' '

The alleged plot fell apart when one of Londonio's jailhouse confederates, bank robber David Evangelista, crumbled under pressure and squealed on his plans to prison guards.

Londonio was later acquitted of the escape charge.

Sentencing Londonio on Monday, Judge Cathy Seibel said he had planned to cooperate with investigators in order to avoid a life term, but backed out under pressure from his co-accused.

He refused to address the courtroom as he was sent down.

Crea, who was also found guilty of his part in the murder, has yet to be sentenced - though is facing a mandatory minimum of life behind bars.
New information has surfaced online suggesting that the PS5 could have interchangeable faceplates. This will make the PS5 the most customizable PlayStation in the consoles history.

Sony has shown off the PS5 console in a grand reveal event but there are still a number of unanswered questions about the console. For starters, what are the ports at the back? Where is the M.2 slot for storage expansion? While PlayStation Lead Architect Mark Cerny has said we will get a teardown of the console before it launches, it is possible that one of Sonys key aesthetic features for the PS5 has leaked online - customizable faceplates.

If information circulating the internet is to be believed, then the white plates on the PS5 can be snapped on and off. This means that you will be able to purchase additional plates aftermarket to customize the console to your liking. It also means that you will be able to replace the faceplates if they get damaged or dirty as a lot of people have been quite concerned about the durability of the fins of the console.

The question that comes to mind is whether both the faceplates will be changeable. It seems possible for the all-digital edition, but what about the one with the disc? If you look at the image of the PS5 with a disc drive it looks like the drive is beneath the white plate which means it is possible that the faceplate is changeable, but this is something we will only know when the feature is confirmed by Sony.

A PS5 leak hints at interchangeable faceplates

The information about the customizable faceplates comes from ResetEra which has posted images of a bunch of faceplates in what looks like the assembly process of the PS5. There is also one post with an A4 sized paper kept on top of the faceplate so a size comparison can be drawn as to how big the console is. Even though the internet has taken the size of a standard Blu-ray drive to judge how big the PS5 is, there is no concrete information on the dimensions of the console.

If you are interested in checking out the design of the PS5 and seeing how it compares with the Xbox Series X, you can do so here. You can also check out our comparison between the specifications of the 2 consoles here. We also had a chance to speak with the head of PlayStation India about the journey of the PS4 and you can read that here.

Both Sony and Microsoft are set to launch their consoles towards the end of 2020 in the global market. While Microsoft has expressed interest in a simultaneous global launch of the Xbox Series X, there is no information on when the console will come to India. Sony, on the other hand, has a page for the PS5 live on Amazon, Flipkart and its own portal in India and we can expect the console in India close to its global debut. You can read more about the listing page for the PS5 here.
A MAN who was punched in the face after he insulted a member of the Travelling community sustained a fractured jaw and temporarily lost sight in his right eye, a court has heard.

The victim was struck by the womans husband during a late-night scuffle at a Chinese restaurant in Rathkeale.

Ryan Daly, 26, of Templegreen, Newcastle West pleaded guilty, at Limerick Circuit Court, to a charge of assault relating to the incident which occurred in the early hours of August 27, 2017.

Garda Ken Driscoll said the victim had been out socialising and went for some food shortly after 1am.

He told Lily Buckley BL, instructed by state solicitor Aidan Judge, that a scuffle broke out inside the takeaway during which he was punched in the face.

CCTV footage, which was played in court, shows the incident lasted for less than 30 seconds and that the assault was sparked by an interaction between the victim and Mr Dalys wife.

There were around a dozen other people in the premises at the time.

Garda Driscoll said it was subsequently established that the victim has made derogatory and insulting comments which had caused matters to escalate.

It all kicked off, he (Mr Daly) struck him with a closed fist, said Ms Buckley.

When questioned, the defendant told gardai he and his wife had been celebrating their anniversary and that he had consumed some alcohol earlier in the night.

He said he believed his wife was going to be hit and that he reacted instinctively. It was a spur of the moment thing, he said.

In a victim impact statement the victim said he was blind sided and struck without any warning.

He said he had to undergo surgery afterwards and that a previous difficulty he had with pronunciation was aggravated.

He added that he is still afraid to go out at night as he fears he might encounter Mr Daly again.

Barrister Eimear Carey submitted there was an element of provocation and she asked the court to note that what was said to her clients wife is regarded as particularly obscene within the Traveller community.

Two wrongs dont make a right, she said adding that Mr Daly has no history of violence and is in full time employment.

Judge Tom ODonnell said the defendant had struck a nasty blow but he accepted there was a background and context.

He imposed an 18 month prison sentence which he suspended in full.
The leader of the 'Bunnings Karen' anti-mask movement needn't be too worried about catching COVID-19 according to a previous interview about her life as a witch.

Elizabeth 'Lizzy' Rose is at the head of a bizarre movement of Victorians who lecture store staff about why they don't have to wear masks, as is required by law.

Long before the mother-of-five became a defiant mask-burning activist, the Melbourne woman described herself as the 'witch next door' in a Daily Mail Australia tell-all.

In 2018 comments that resurfaced on Tuesday, Ms Rose claimed that she had rid herself of cold and flu viruses by casting spells.

Ms Rose said she'd been tutored in magic as a young child - and even dressed up in witch's robes for the camera, Harry Potter-style broomstick and all.

The leader of the 'Bunnings Karen' movement can be revealed as Melbourne mother-of-five Elizabeth 'Lizzy' Rose, a self-described witch and 'high priestess'

When she's not casting spells, Ms Rose (above) traipses around Melbourne suburbs without a mask on, in a reckless defiance to public health laws

Ms Rose has described how she realised how she had magical powers at age nine (seen in action on left) but now devotes her time to burning face masks (right and in below video)

In bizarre comments - which perhaps explain her blase attitude toward mandatory protective face coverings today - Ms Rose said: 'I used to get head colds and the flu.

'And a few years ago I wrote a particular spell to remove the programming in my body for that kind of sickness and I haven't to this day.'

Ms Rose claimed she cast her first spell as a nine-year-old girl when she somehow bent the universe to her will and prevented the school bus from showing up.

'I remember that day well, it was the first time I realised my manifestations could have an impact on the real world,' she said.

'And I got to stay home and play with my horse all day.'

She claimed an 80-year-old woman who lived on a farm with her in Mount Gambier played something of a Professor Dumbledore role in her education, teaching her about magic.

But Ms Rose she was 'very much shunned' as a teenager, with others calling her a witch.

People would whisper 'don't go near Elizabeth, she makes bad things happen,' she claimed.

Ms Rose claimed she had managed to ward off cold and flu viruses by casting spells - perhaps explaining her blase attitude toward mandatory face coverings today

The self-described pagan witch candidly told a Daily Mail reporter she was 'shunned' as a teenager (left and right) with people whispering 'don't go near Elizabeth, she makes bad things happen'

Ms Rose is pictured here as a 12-year-old, when she was initiated as a 'priestess' by her mother's land lady who taught her the craft

Ms Rose realised at 21 that she needed to branch out from simple spell-casting.

'I didn't want to do just one thing, I wanted to be a medium and a witch and do exorcisms,' the jack-of-all trades said.

She claimed some of her spells have worked in conjuring up car spaces, securing bids on Ebay and increasing property prices.

But it is her more recent activities that have brought her the attention and scorn of the Victorian public.

Ms Rose is the alleged leader of a group of troublemakers who claim on Facebook that COVID-19 is a scam.

Exorcist Lizzy Rose has a medical certificate that exempts her from wearing a mask. She has filmed herself shopping at Bunnings

Back in April, Ms Rose sent a message of praise to health workers in April while wearing a mask. She now films herself getting about town without one

What is a 'Karen'? A 'Karen' is a term for a self-righteous woman, sometimes racist and usually middle-aged, who tells people how to do their jobs, asserts their rights and complains to the manager. The term became popular in meme culture on internet forum Reddit to describe problematic women. A Karen meme is often combined with the quote: 'Can I speak to the manager?' The male version of a 'Karen' is sometimes referred to as a 'Kevin'. Advertisement

She has shot videos of herself burning face masks in a fire pit and has declared she will travel through up to five suburbs a day without wearing a mask.

Ms Rose has said she has a medical exemption not to wear a face covering.

Alongside former iSelect employee Kerry Nash, Ms Rose is one of two women to make headlines by filming themselves confronting Bunnings warehouse staff who ask them about their lack of protective headwear.

A video of Ms Rose at the Maribyrnong shows her disparaging masked customers as 'zombies' while as she walked through the aisles without one on.

'People are so very silly,' she said. 'And they're so silly and it's so very sad that they're not evolved enough to see.'

Ms Rose was seen arguing with a checkout operator before she turned the video off.

Her new-found notoriety landed Ms Rose on the Nine Network's Today Show on Tuesday morning.

But she did not have either Allison Langdon or Karl Stefanovic under her spell.

'I can't even listen to you,' Stefanovic said, after briefly sharing her scientifically disproven opinions with viewers.

Victoria reported 384 cases and six more deaths due to COVID-19 today. On Monday, the state suffered 532 new cases, its highest one-day total.
Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

Increasing private and public investment in digital imaging technology particularly in the field of healthcare, the numerous benefits offered by digital detectors, analog X-ray reimbursement cuts, and reducing prices are the main factors driving the medical X-ray detectors market .

Furthermore, technological advancements coupled with strong encouragement by venture capitalists should boost the medical X-ray detectors market throughout the course of the study period. The medical X-ray detectors market is poised to grow with a robust CAGR of 6.1% from 2017-2022.

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Company Profiles Agfa-Gevaert NV

Onex Corporation

FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation

Analogic Corporation

Canon Inc

DRTECH Corporation

Hamamatsu Photonics k.k

Konica Minolta, Inc.

Rayence Co., Ltd.

Teledyne Technologies Incorporated

Others.

Digital X-ray systems are twice the size of retrofit X-ray systems in terms of module type and are expected to become even more popular in the days ahead.

The digital x-ray systems medical X-ray detectors segment is on track to be worth more than US$ 2 billion by the end of the study period, making it imperative for key stakeholders to target this segment. Retrofit systems are slowly but surely fading in popularity.

Nonetheless, this segment still accounts for a revenue share approaching a third of the medical X-ray detectors market in 2017 and companies cannot overlook it entirely in favor of digital x-ray systems

Fixed detectors comprise more than half the medical X-ray detectors market by revenue share. North America alone has a third of the market in 2017 and is expected to be the only region in the medical X-ray detectors market to record a robust CAGR in excess of 6%.

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Europe is the second largest region in the fixed detector segment of the medical X-ray detectors market but MEA and Latin America are predicted to grow at a higher CAGR. Portable detectors occupy the balance revenue share in the modality segment of the medical X-ray detectors market.

This segment is highly likely to see strong growth and companies can try to target this lucrative segment accordingly

Large-area flat panel detectors are dominant in the medical X-ray detectors market by panel size segment in 2017 and are estimated to remain so going forward.

The large-area flat panel detector segment in both North America and Europe is assessed to be worth more than US $ 600 million by the end of the forecast period, ensuring that all major players can be profitable in such a large market. The small-area flat panel detectors segment is particularly popular in North America with a high CAGR in the APEJ region

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Computed radiography has a revenue share of just over a fifth of the medical X-ray detectors market by product type segment and is likely to lose popularity over the study period. A similar CAGR greater than 4.5% exists in Latin America and APEJ but the latter is considerably larger in terms of market size

North America is the largest region in the medical X-ray detectors market and the US accounts for the lion's share within the continent. The US medical X-ray detectors market is anticipated to grow to more than a billion dollars by end 2022.
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Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 17:23 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669f7faf 1 National terrorism-victims,terrorism-in-Indonesia,#Terrorism,compensation,victims,#compensation,#victims,terrorism Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodo's administration has issued a long-awaited government regulation that ensures the right of terror attack victims to seek compensation for damages incurred in the past.

The policy -- issued on July 7 as an implementing regulation of the 2018 Terrorism Law, will allow victims and their families affected by past terrorist attacks who have yet to receive state compensation to seek it through the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) without having to wait for a court order. However, they have only three years since the 2018 law came into force, or until 2021, to apply for compensation.

Government Regulation No. 35/2020 defines past terror victims as people impacted by past acts of terrorism in Indonesia since the inception of the first terrorism law in 2002. This includes victims of the 2002 Bali bombings.

The 2018 Terrorism Law has been lauded for opening the door for past terror victims to seek compensation through the LPSK. However, the law requires the recently issued implementing regulation to detail the payment mechanism for the victims, thus enabling the LPSK to disburse the compensation funds.

LPSK deputy chairman Edwin Partogi Pasaribu said the new regulation was a significant advancement of the rights of terror victims. It also revised an outdated implementing regulation, which was crafted before the 2018 law was enacted.

This government regulation is needed because it is an extension to the 2018 Terrorism Law, Edwin told The Jakarta Post on Monday. This government regulation accommodates victims rights on three events: past terror attacks, future terror attacks and terror incidents that affected Indonesians living abroad.

The LPSK estimated that around 1,100 people could fall into this category of past terror victims -- about 400 of whom have already sought compensation from the agency long before the new regulation was issued. But without the revised regulation, the LPSK could not process the requests from victims of past cases that had been closed by the court without any compensation orders.

The LPSK has compensated a number of victims of past terror attacks before the new policy was enacted, such as the victims of the 2016 church bombing in Samarinda, East Kalimantan and the Thamrin bombing in Jakarta, although the payment was made only after the perpetrators were sent to jail.

Sucipto Hari Wibowo, chairman of the Indonesian Survivors Foundation (YPI), a civil organization that helps victims of terrorist attacks, welcomed the governments move, saying that the assurance over the compensation could help terror victims to become more resilient and overcome dark chapters in their lives.

"This is the kind of intervention that should have been made from the get-go. In the past, payment of compensation was stalled due to the absence of regulations," said Sucipto, who himself was injured in the 2004 Australian Embassy bomb attack in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

This intervention can help motivate victims psychologically as they transition to become a survivor.

Another organization that works with victims of terror attacks, the Alliance for a Peaceful Indonesia (AIDA), has been pushing for the issuance of the regulation, considering the three-year deadline for the government to resolve compensation for victims of past cases since the enactment of the 2018 law.

One of the sticking points in the deliberation of the regulation was when the government could pay compensation to victims of incidents that occur after the 2018 law was enacted -- who are now entitled to compensation only if a court ruling against the perpetrators includes it. If the suspect is dead or cannot be identified, these future terror victims can still receive compensation through a court order.

Although it cannot replace material and immaterial damages the victims and their families have suffered, the fulfillment of compensation is an integral part of the government's protection of victims' [rights], AIDAs chairman Hasibullah Satrawi said in a statement.

The new regulation also stipulates the rights of Indonesian victims of terror attacks abroad to seek medical and psychological assistance, and compensation from the government, in a provision the LPSK formulated after the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, in which one Indonesian was killed and two others were injured.

Presidential expert staff member Dini Shanti Purwono said the new regulation represented the Jokowi administrations commitment to protect victims of terror attacks at home and abroad.

The government understands the difficulty and pain experienced by families who have become victims of terror acts, which is why it was amended -- to ease their financial burden, Dini said in a statement.
AUSTIN  Texas public school districts risk losing state funding if they shut down campuses solely in response to closure orders issued by local health officials, the Texas Education Agency announced Tuesday, adding another twist to weeks of uncertainty over whether county and city government leaders can issue such orders.

The guidance came hours after Attorney General Ken Paxton released a letter  which is not legally binding  in which he opined that state law does not allow local health authorities to order the closure of schools as a preemptive measure to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Health officials in all of the states five largest counties issued closure orders in recent weeks that aimed to keep campuses shuttered through at least Labor Day.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who has the power to overrule local closure orders, has not explicitly stated whether he believes local health officials have that power. The TEAs decision, however, renders the local health orders largely moot for public school districts that rely on state funding.

For now, the state guidance does not significantly impact districts that have pushed their start date until after Labor Day or those beginning their year with online-only classes, an option available under TEA rules for the first eight weeks of school. Nearly all Houston-area districts are employing those options.

Virtually all of the public health authority orders covered a time period that was also covered by the start-of-school transition period, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath told Texas superintendents on a conference call Tuesday.

TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

However, the guidance could have a longer-term impact if state officials require districts to provide in-person classes to families that want them after the first eight weeks of school. When Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Friday issued a school closure order lasting through Labor Day, she warned that she likely would extend the mandate amid a regionwide COVID-19 outbreak.

Our actions to save lives from this crisis should be guided by public health, science and compassion for the health and safety of our residents  not politics, Hidalgo said in a statement Tuesday. That is why weve consulted with superintendents from across the region to put forth a school plan that protects the health and safety of our community given the severity of this threat right now.

In a statement, Morath said will "continue to adjust its waivers as the situation warrants."

TEA officials have consistently stated that districts would receive funding for online-only classes if they are forced to close under an order legally issued by a local health authority  though the legality of local orders remained in question.

In his letter, Paxton said local health authorities cannot preemptively order campus closures for the purposes of preventing COVID-19 outbreaks. Paxton said its up to school officials to decide whether, when and how to open schools  not local health authorities whose roles are limited by statute to addressing specific, actual outbreaks of disease.

Education of our children is an essential Texas value and there is no current statewide order prohibiting any school from opening, Paxton said in a statement. While local health authorities may possess some authority to close schools in limited circumstances, they may not issue blanket orders closing all schools on a purely preventative basis. That decision rightfully remains with school system leaders.

EARLIER OPINION: Texas AG to private religious schools: Local health orders cant restrict reopenings

Paxtons letter and the TEAs new funding rules added to confusion percolating in recent weeks about the states approach to resuming in-person classes.

Early this month, state education officials said public school districts would risk losing funding if they did not offer five days of in-person instruction each week to all families that want it. At the time, TEA leaders said districts could force students with at-home technology to remain in online classes for the first three weeks of school.

One week later, TEA officials clarified that districts would continue to receive funding if legally ordered to close campuses by a local health authority. Agency officials also changed their guidance to allow districts to limit in-person classes for up to eight weeks to begin the school year.

Over the past three weeks, health authorities in several of the states largest counties  Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Travis and Bexar, among others  issued closure orders.

During that time, Abbott did not directly answers questions from Hearst Newspapers or comment on whether he planned to allow those orders to stand. Abbott routinely said in television interviews that local leaders would have the authority to decide when to reopen buildings, though he did not specify whether those leaders included city and county health authorities.

Abbott did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The Texas State Teachers Association on Tuesday pushed back on Paxtons letter, saying he was sending a conflicting message to school districts, students, parents and employees.

The Texas State Teachers Association has more confidence in the professionalism of local health officials and their determination to act in the best interests of all Texans, including our children, President Ovidia Molina said in a statement.

We have less confidence in Ken Paxton, whose primary goal as attorney general has been to advance an ideological agenda. Now, he is promoting President Trumps election-year demands that school campuses reopen prematurely, regardless of the price that educators, students and their families may pay.

Trump has aggressively pushed for the reopening of all schools, though he softened his stance last week by suggesting some campuses in COVID-19 hotspots could need to remain closed. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidance last week recommending that school leaders in areas with substantial, uncontrolled transmission of COVID-19 should work closely with local health officials to make decisions on whether to maintain school operations.

Despite Paxtons letter, local health orders mandating the closure of schools remain legally binding for now.

Jared Woodfill, a Houston-based lawyer who served 12 years as chairman of the Harris County Republican Party, said he plans to file a lawsuit as early as Wednesday on behalf of parents challenging the legality of the countys school closure order.

Woodfill, who has filed several lawsuits against local and state officials instituting restrictions on rights during the pandemic, said he believes laws that delegate powers to health authorities during public health emergencies are unconstitutional and improperly applied.

Theres a whole host of folks that are going to fall through the cracks if we shut down our public schools, Woodfill said.

Staff writer Zach Despart contributed to this report.
Developer: Greg Kavanagh says he has a good defence and counterclaim to the case

A property investor is suing developer Greg Kavanagh for 6.4m, claiming default on a debt related to loans to one of his companies.

Anne O'Neill, of Mount Pleasant Square, Dublin, is seeking summary judgment for the money against Mr Kavanagh, of Bath Avenue, Dublin, claiming he failed to meet a demand for repayment issued last May. Mr Kavanagh says he has a good defence and counterclaim to her case.

The proceedings come just weeks after another High Court dispute involving Mr Kavanagh was settled.

His brother Hugh issued proceedings after being removed as a director of 19 companies in which both were involved.

Yesterday, Mr Justice David Barniville refused to admit proceedings issued by Ms O'Neill to the fast-track Commercial Court list because of a four-year delay between when the debt became due and proceedings being taken. The case must now go through the court's ordinary non-jury list.

In her action, Ms O'Neill said while Mr Kavanagh's liability to her became enforceable in May 2016, she had given him forbearance as a result of representations he made at different stages that he would discharge the debt due.

She said she made two loans to his company Ballycrag Developments in September and December 2013 totalling 975,000, with Ballycrag providing security in first fixed charge over a property called Wynnstay House in Clonskeagh, Dublin.

In January 2014, the loan was consolidated into a 2m loan with 20pc interest.

She said Mr Kavanagh also entered into a personal guarantee and indemnity agreement in November 2015 to guarantee the obligations of Ballycrag to her. Under that, it was agreed the amount owing was 2.8m plus interest.

Mr Kavanagh gave an undertaking to sell his shareholding in a company called Greybirch Ltd to pay down the money owed to her, she said. He further agreed that if she was not repaid by February 2016, he would sell the Clonskeagh property to pay off the debt.

Since February 2016, Mr Kavanagh outlined "various scenarios" that would result in repayment but "none came to fruition", she said. Ms O'Neill believed it was used as "a means of deflection, delay and prevarication" to persuade her against taking legal action.

She said in 2016 there were newspaper reports Mr Kavanagh was to receive 150m from his former financial backers, M&G Investments, under a settlement agreement.

But, she says, Mr Kavanagh had a dispute with M&G and eventually High Court proceedings over the matter were settled in 2017. Despite the ultimate resolution of that and another dispute with a businessman, he had still refused to pay her, she said.

Ms O'Neill said she was now concerned Mr Kavanagh's assets may be reduced after the settlement with his brother.

In a replying affidavit, Mr Kavanagh said far from showing forbearance, Ms O'Neill had been vigorous in making demands and threats of enforcement against him, including threatening to seek the winding up of Ballycrag.

He said the dispute with his brother had "no connection" to these proceedings.
Chennai, July 28 : A few Tamil movie stars are finding themselves on the wrong side of the law during the Covid-19 lockdown period.

The city police have arrested actor Shaam and 12 others as they were found gambling in the former's apartment on Monday night.

The police team raided the apartment of Shaam in the upmarket Nungambakkam locality following a tip-off, the police said, adding that they found tokens which were used in gambling.

The actor and others were later let out on bail after being booked for gambling.

Recently, actors Soori and Vimal were fined Rs 2,000 by the forest department in Kodaikanal for violating quarantine rules and fishing in the Berijam lake. The Department of Forest has taken action against two of its staff.
(ANSA) - ROME, 28 LUG - League leader Matteo Salvini on Tuesday attacked the government after asylum seekers under quarantine managed to escape from two migrant centres in Sicily and defended how he implemented his tough policy on migrants when he was interior minister.

The government has said most of the runaway migrants have been rounded up and it is sending the army to watch over these centres.

Salvini opened fire on Premier Giuseppe Conte's government as spoke about a decision that the floor of the Senate is set to make about whether to grant a request for him to stand trial for allegedly 'kidnapping' rescued migrants in the Open Arms case, one of a string of cases stemming from his former closed ports policy against NGO-run migrant rescue ships.

The Open Arms rescue ship spent almost three weeks at sea last year after Salvini refused to give the OK for it to dock.

Regarding this case, Salvini said he was "proud of having protected Italy and the Italian people.

"I would do it again," he added. (ANSA).


Responding to fears that Aer Lingus could be wound up, Mr Doyle told the Oireachtas Covid-19 committee that the company was in consultations with workers and their representatives.

The airline has already formally told the Government that it could have to seek up to 500 redundancies from its 4,500 workers.

Mr Doyle said Aer Lingus was working hard to come through the crisis.

If you enact the recommendations of the aviation task force, then coupled with what we are doing ourselves, Aer Lingus will have a future when all this is over, he said.

Those recommendations included lifting travel restrictions such as the 14-day quarantine imposed on passengers travelling into the Republic.

Mr Doyle said Ireland stands alone in Europe when it comes to its travel restrictions and has been effectively closed off to business.

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The Government published a green list of countries and areas last week that people can enter Ireland from without having to quarantine but people are still being told to avoid non-essential travel.

The list excludes Britain, the US, and popular holiday destinations for Irish holidaymakers such as Spain.

The 15 approved areas are Malta, Finland, Norway, Italy, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Slovakia, Greece, Greenland, Gibraltar, Monaco and San Marino.

Mr Doyle told the committee that the pandemic has been catastrophic for the airline industry.

He said: There is not a clear understanding of the scale of the crisis or indeed its significance for the Irish economy and its future recovery.

Irelands travel restrictions are more restrictive than any other country in Europe, and Ireland now stands alone in applying a policy, while the rest of Europe has opened up for travel.

The criteria being used for Ireland is even more restrictive than what the EU uses for passengers from third countries entering the EU.

I started off by saying the Covid-19 crisis had brought about the greatest crisis of global aviation the industry has ever experienced. The situation in the Irish sector is even worse.

Ryanair chief executive Eddie Wilson said aviation in Ireland supports 40,000 direct jobs and more than 100,000 indirect jobs and said Ireland risks being left behind unless travel restrictions are eased.

We are on the periphery of Europe, and shutting down connectivity will lead to stagnation, and massive job losses in Ireland. That is a certainty and we should wake up to it, he said.

Miriam Ryan, head of strategy with Dublin Airport Authority, told the committee that testing arriving passengers for Covid-19 would be challenging.

She said: It presents challenges when it comes to space for holding passengers and where you keep them while they are being tested, and the availability of reagents when it comes to testing, and the availability of suitability qualified staff to undertake that testing.

Additional reporting: Press Association
C.D.C. guidelines are fairly clear on what to do with the sick individual and what type of cleaning should be done. The guidance on the overall school approach is less specific. It suggests schools probably do not need to close for a single case, but beyond that, it pushes the decision largely onto schools and local health departments. It suggests a host of factors to consider  community transmission levels, contact levels and so on  but does not draw any bright lines. Even the suggestion of not closing after a single case is not definitive.

Schools are left to choose their own approaches. One extreme is to basically do nothing  just tell the sick student or teacher to stay home. The other extreme is to shut down the school for each case. If a school plans to do the latter, it may as well not open at all. There is an intermediate option: Close the classroom for a few days, clean it and reopen.

It isnt obvious to me what the optimal micro plan is, although Id be inclined to a middle road where the infected person is out of school and the rest of the class is encouraged to check for symptoms closely.

The school also needs a macro plan. Lets say you will keep the school open even if there are some cases: Is there a point where an outbreak is large enough that you would close the school? Again, guidelines are vague on this. The C.D.C. doesnt make any concrete statements.

We might look to places that have had open schools for evidence of what worked. Many European countries have opened schools, largely successfully. They did so taking various approaches to closures. In Germany, classmates and teachers (but not the rest of the school) were isolated for two weeks after a reported case. Taiwan, apparently, planned to close schools for two or more cases but as of early this month had yet to face that. Israel, which has had probably the most fraught reopening, closed schools for every case. This has resulted in a very large number of school closures.

The evidence from other countries suggests schools could take a variety of approaches. My view is that the most important thing is that they are explicit about which approach they will take. Not just in broad strokes, but in detail. And more than that, in advance.

For parents, knowing the chance that your school will be shut down at a moments notice is key in the decision about whether your children return or not. I am as eager as anyone to have my kids back in school, but if the school will shut down for two weeks after each case, I may prefer to embrace the inevitable and plan for it rather than whiplash back and forth. This planning could involve identifying backup care, talking to other parents about how to maintain social time during a school closing or even deciding that we should opt for an entirely online experience from the start.
Whoever Republicans pick to challenge U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin will face a significant financial disadvantage just two years after the Democrat from Holly won the most expensive House race in Michigan history.

Slotkin has more than six times as much money for her reelection campaign than all four GOP candidates combined. Republicans are eager to oust the first-term Democrat, who beat an incumbent to flip Michigans 8th Congressional District in 2018, but the lack of cash could show conservative donors are looking elsewhere to pick up vulnerable seats.
Beautiful moments are truly worth savoring when they are shared with those who matter the most. Carl F. Bucherer has always celebrated that philosophy with its elegant timepieces. The companys new partner, IGNIV, manifests it in its culinary concept. IGNIVs motto is: We love to share. Its four teams run exclusive restaurants in Bad Ragaz, St. Moritz, Zurich, and Bangkok, and their guests get to treat themselves to a truly indulgent time.

Shared Values

What do the art of watchmaking and exquisite cuisine have in common? You will find that it is quite a lot. Excellence, passion, innovation, and high precision are the foundation of all genuinely exceptional creations in both Haute Horlogerie and Haute Cuisine. And there is more that unites Carl F. Bucherer and IGNIV: their new partnership focuses on the aspect of shared time and the cosmopolitan spirit that is deeply enshrined in the corporate culture of both brands. Now, this connection is also reflected on the wrists of the four IGNIV teams based in Bad Ragaz, St. Moritz, Zurich, and Bangkok, respectively.

The four head chefs, Silvio Germann, Marcel Skibba, Daniel Zeindlhofer, and David Hartwig, and the four sommeliers, Francesco Benvenuto, Giuseppe Lo Vasco, Ines Triebenbacher, and Marco Franzelin, have become official friends of the brand, and are now part of the CFB family. The culinary concept of IGNIV gives a whole new meaning to the concept of savoring the moment. As a watch manufacturer that has always been infused with a cosmopolitan spirit, we are especially proud to contribute a piece of watchmaking excellence Made of Lucerne to the culinary journey of the teams and their restaurant guests, comments Sascha Moeri, CEO of Carl F. Bucherer, on the new partnership. Visitors to the four restaurants will now get to experience the global zeitgeist of Carl F. Bucherer up close.

Sivio Germann  Carl F.Bucherer

At Home Anywhere in the World, Rooted in the Heart of Switzerland

The Rhaeto-Romanic word igniv translates to nest. It represents the companys desire for its guests to feel at home in its restaurants, just like a little bird in its nest. On top of outstanding hospitality and the welcoming atmosphere that the Spanish interior designer Patricia Urquiola created specially for IGNIV, the company achieves this with its sharing approach in its four exceptional restaurants. Guests do not need to stick to a traditional sequence of courses. Instead, they are offered a Fine Dining Sharing Experience consisting of up to 30 components served at their table in numerous bowls. All IGNIV restaurants  i.e. at the Grand Resort in Bad Ragaz, Badrutts Palace in St. Moritz, Marktgasse Hotel in Zurich, and St. Regis in Bangkok  follow the same culinary philosophy. They serve imaginative, award-winning dishes. In a cosmopolitan environment with regional charm, guests get to spend pleasurable hours and soak up the same openness that links the IGNIV family to the Lucerne manufacturer. Both companies are at home in the world, yet firmly rooted in the heart of Switzerland.

Ines Triebenbacher, the sommelier and restaurant manager at IGNIV Zurich, explains: Just like Carl F. Bucherers 130 years of watchmaking excellence impresses customers all over the world, we want to provide our guests with an extraordinary experience wherever they visit us, be it in Switzerland or Bangkok.

Ines Triebenbacher  Carl F.Bucherer

The teams wear pieces from the Manero Flyback collection, developed specially for the high demands of modern and urban cosmopolites, as well as other watches from the Carl F. Bucherer collection. The chronographs come in a 43-millimeter case and feature a flyback function allowing their wearers to reset and restart the timer instantly. Inside, they are powered by CFB 1970 automatic movement, whose tireless work can be admired through the sapphire crystal case back  unlike the hustle and bustle of the IGNIV kitchens, where countless hands work behind the scenes to create unforgettable memories for their guests to take home.
STAMFORD  A former Stamford YMCA employee was charged with embezzling for allegedly funneling just under $2,500 of the organizations funds into her own bank account, police say.

Dora Hayes-Sangster, 52, was charged with third-degree larceny and five counts of felony second-degree forgery.

Financial crimes Sgt. Steven Perrotta said police in February 2019 received a complaint from the YMCA about Hayes Sangster, a membership, sales and management manager at the Bell Street organization.

When police investigators looked into the complaint they determined that Hayes-Sangster allegedly had five checks written to the girlfriend of her son for after school tutoring that had never been done. Perrotta said that the woman had done some tutoring at the YMCA, but not the five times she had been paid for.

Perrotta said that five checks for tutoring services had been written to the woman between November 2018 and January 2019 for $2,460.

And when the checks were examined Perrotta said his investigators determined that Hayes-Sangster had forged the womans name on the back of the checks while making them payable to her and they were allegedly deposited into her own bank account.

Hayes-Sangster was released after posting a $20,000 court appearance bond and arraigned on the charges Monday at the Stamford courthouse. No pleas have been made in the case.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
A mattress voted best in the world by the consumer experts at Choice has launched in Australia - and it promises to give you your best night's sleep ever.

The Emma Original Mattress was recently named best mattress for 2020 by the Choice Recommended team, and it is so decorated it has been called 'Europe's most awarded' in the past.

The bed - which ranges between $499 and $899 depending on the size you go for - is different from many mattresses, insofar as it is sold in a box and arrives rolled-up and vacuum-packed at your door.

A mattress voted best in the world by consumer experts at Choice has launched in Australia - and it promises to give you your best night's sleep ever (the Emma mattress pictured)

The Emma Original Mattress (pictured) was named best mattress for 2020 by the Choice Recommended team, and it is so decorated it has been called 'Europe's most awarded'

Within the mattress, there is a three centimetre breathable foam layer, followed by two centimetres of visco-elastic memory foam which relieves pressure and 19 centimetres of cold foam at the base.

This is said to be grooved to help to distribute your weight evenly for better pressure relief.

The three layers of the mattress reportedly use 'advanced zoning to keep you supported in the areas you need it the most', while it is made from natural materials, which wick away moisture and keep you cool at night.

'Thanks to the exceptional motion isolation you'll never be disturbed by your partner moving on the mattress again,' product description reads.

'The high-quality cover also supports perfect air circulation.'

The three layers of the mattress (pictured) reportedly use 'advanced zoning to keep you supported in the areas you need it the most'

Since the German mattress first launched in 2015 in Europe, it has sold over one million mattresses globally across 21 different countries.

The award in Australia is just the latest in a string of accolades, including the Which? consumers' association test in Britain.

'At Emma, we are so delighted to not only be a Choice Recommended product, but to also have come out with a top score,' co-founder Benjamin Quiroga-Rivera told FEMAIL.

'Since launching in Australia earlier this year, this has been our first big move into the Australian market and this recognition is truly a testament to our brand and product.'

Reviews online highlight some of the best features of the mattress (pictured), which include the warranty - which is an impressive 10 years

Reviews online highlight some of the best features of the mattress, which include the warranty.

Each mattress is made and manufactured in Germany, includes a 10 year warranty and 100 night risk free trial including free delivery and returns.

'I truly enjoy lying on my mattress and feel as though my sleep has drastically improved so far,' one reviewer posted.

'I was a little disappointed with the mattress at first as it seemed a little too firm,' another added.

'But after a few weeks, the mattress started to shape into us. It's extremely comfortable and once it's broken in, it feels great.'

For more information about Emma mattresses, please click here.
Julie Dimperio Holowach, 63, of New York City was identified Tuesday by The Maine Department of Marine Resource as the woman who died in a shark attack Monday

A 63-year-old New York City woman has died after she was attacked by a great white shark off the coast of Maine.

Julie Dimperio Holowach was swimming in a wetsuit with her daughter near Bailey Island, Harpswell, on Monday when an eyewitness saw her 'dip under the water'.

An expert said the shark may have mistaken her for food and now swimmers are being urged to avoid schools of fish and seals.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it was alerted to a shark attack just after 3.30pm after Holowach's uninjured daughter, who was in a blue one piece swim suit, swam back to shore, calling for help.

Two kayakers were able to help Holowach, the former president of accessories brand Kipling, back to shore so she could be treated on land. Marine Patrol says she woman was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.

One onlooker told News Center Maine Holowach had appeared to be 'thrown up in the air by something underwater'.

Another, Tom Whyte, told The Boston Globe he watched as the mother and daughter laughed and enjoyed their time in the water before seeing Holowach flailing her arms.

After seeing her mom disappear under the water Holowach's daughter is said to have swam back to the shore for help. She then collapsed on the sand, screaming for help, according to witnesses.

Two kayakers then headed out to help bring her body back to the shore.

Scroll down for video

Julie Dimpero, then President of Kipling and Helena Christensen attend the Kipling By Helena Christensen Launch Event at Gramercy Park Hotel Rooftop on April 10, 2013

She was swimming in a wetsuit with her daughter near Bailey Island, Harpswell, when an eyewitness saw her 'dip under the water'

The U.S. Coast Guard said it was alerted to a shark attack just after 3.30pm after Holowach's uninjured daughter, who was in a blue one piece swim suit, swam back to shore, calling for help

Officials confirmed there have been no additional sightings of the shark after the initial contact in a press conference Tuesday morning.

They called the attack 'highly unusual' and said beaches would not be closed.

Holowach and her husband are understood to own a property in the area, spending the summer months there.

Patrick Keliher of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said a recovered tooth fragment confirmed a great white was responsible for the attack.

Major Rob Beale of the state Marine Patrol added: 'Julie and her husband were very respected individuals, and the community is really at a tough juncture now.'

Police confirmed that the Coast Guard was in the process of sending a small boat in the rescue effort but stopped when they learned two kayakers helped bring those two people in the water back to shore.

Back at shore they were met by members of the Harpswell EMS squad.

Holowach was the former president of accessories brand Kipling

The incident took place in Harpswell, Maine

Swimmers and boaters are now being urged to use caution near Bailey Island and to avoid swimming near schooling fish or seals until further notice.

Dr. James Sulikowski, a professor at Arizona State University who conducts shark research in New England, said: 'Shark interactions with humans are very rare in Maine. My guess is that the person (who was attacked) was mistaken as a food item.

'In this area of Maine and depending on how close to shore the event occurred, my guess it was a white shark,' he said to the Press Herald.

Sulikowksi said a seal was bitten on Sunday in Phippsburg, Maine by a shark and died later.

Kipling President Julie Dimperio attends Kipling's 25th Anniversary celebration in 2012

Anne Nearman and Julie Dimperio attend Kipling's 25th Anniversary celebration

Bailey Island, Harpswell near where Holowach was swimming is pictured
Crusoe Osagie, spokesman of Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo state, says Adams Oshiomhole, former national chairman of the All Progressiv...

Crusoe Osagie, spokesman of Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo state, says Adams Oshiomhole, former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is desperate to save his political career.





Oshiomhole, a former governor of the state, had on Sunday said he made a mistake by supporting Obaseki to succeed him in 2016.





But reacting, in a statement, Osagie said the problem with Oshiomhole is that the governor did not allow him to hijack the government.





He also accused Oshiomhole of awarding a contract at the Edo Specialist Hospital to a crony who did not execute the project.

We feel sorry for the sacked national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. He is clearly a frustrated man who is clutching at straws in desperate effort to save his drowning political career, the statement read.





The childish Mercedes and Toyota analogy goes to show that Oshiomhole has run out of lies to tell.





He keeps trying to turn the story of the Edo Specialist Hospital on its head but has failed to answer a simple question which is; why did heavily guarded trucks come in the dead of the night to remove the equipment in the hospital which President Buhari had commissioned just one day after the commissioning?





Why was the hospital not opened to the public for the remaining days of his tenure after the hospital had been commissioned?





Oshiomhole actually had to reach out to the hospital equipment supplier in Lagos to loan him some equipment just for the commissioning and the equipment was returned to the owner after the commissioning ceremony.





Oshiomholes problem with Obaseki is because Obaseki refused to allow him to hijack the government and use it for the satisfaction of his warlords and thugs who are now fighting for him and causing crisis in Edo state ahead of the election.





The governor had left the APC after he was screened out of its governorship race. He joined the PDP where he clinched the partys ticket.





Obaseki will now face Osagie Ize-Iyamu, candidate of the APC, in the September 19 election.




Dalal Street bulls had a field day on Tuesday as the benchmark indices ended around 1.5 per cent higher amid buying in almost all the sectors. Better-than-expected corporate earnings of select companies coupled with positive global cues helped the market log stellar gains.



The benchmark S&P Sensex today rallied 558 points or 1.47 per cent to settle at 38,493, with UltraTech Cement (up 7 per cent) being the top gainer, followed by TCS (up 4.7 per cent), M&M (up nearly 4.5 per cent), and Maruti (up 4 per cent). On the other hand, ICICI Bank (down nearly 2 per cent) ended as the biggest loser on the index. Of 30 constituents, 25 advanced and rest 5 declined.



On the NSE, the broader Nifty index ended at 11,300.5, up 169 points or 1.52 per cent. Volatility index, India VIX, declined over 5 per cent to 23.73 levels.



Among individual stocks, UltraTech Cement moved higher by 7 per cent to Rs 4,136 on the BSE after the company reported better-than-expected operational performance in the April-June quarter of FY21 (Q1FY21).



HDFC Life Insurance hit an all-time high of Rs 647.50 on the BSE during the day ahead of its inclusion in the benchmark index Nifty50 from Friday, July 31, 2020, onwards. The stock ended at Rs 640.55.



Shares of Tech Mahindra gained as much as 6 per cent to Rs 702 on the BSE after the company's April-June quarter (Q1FY21) earnings beat Street estimate. The stock settled at Rs 683.50, up nearly 3 per cent.



In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index ended 0.76 per cent higher at 13,669 levels while the S&P BSE SmallCap index ended at 12,917, up 0.6 per cent.



On the sectoral front, barring Nifty Media, all the other indices ended in the green. Nifty Auto index rallied over 3 per cent to 7,417 levels while Nifty IT gained over 2 per cent to 18,043 points.



Now, let's have a look at the global



European stocks inched higher as investors held out for more US stimulus to limit the economic damage of the Covid-19 pandemic. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei closed lower, but Chinese blue chips rose 0.8 per cent.



In commodity markets, gold hit a record high before falling a bit as investors booked profit following a steep surge in the precious metal.



Read by Swati Verma
Health departments across Southern Illinois are seeing an upswing in COVID-19 cases.

The number of new cases was so high in Jackson County, it prompted the health department to issue a public health alert on Sunday.

We have had a definite upswing in the number of cases, Bart Hagston, administrator of Jackson County Health Department, said. The number of cases eclipsed the previous record number three times in the past week, and thats not the way we want the data to trend.

On Sunday, Jackson County added 38 new cases of the virus, the highest one-day total to date. On Monday, the health department reported 13 new cases.

The public health alert, dated July 26, read, in part: Immediate actions are needed by young adults in Jackson County to stem the tide of new COVID-19 infections.

Hagston said the health alert focused on residents in their teens and 20s because those age groups represent 70% of the new cases in the county during July. Of 212 new cases in the county in July, 148 are from people in their teens and 20s.

Just a week earlier, Saline County also saw its highest number of positive cases in one day, with many of those cases in teens and young adults.

Hagston said a few issues play into the number of young adult cases.

Youth tend to hang out with friends and are very social in nature. They like to throw parties and share beverages. Unfortunately, all these things offer an ideal environment for spreading COVID-19, Hagston said.

He also said young adults think they are invincible. Even if they do get the virus, they suffer generally mild symptoms or even no symptoms.

This is not something I desire to do, picking on one demographic, but the numbers are certainly staggering, he said. We have young people who are symptomatic, yet they continue to go out in the community.

Hagston and the health department are asking teens and young adults to consider their grandparents or, for example, a cousin with chronic heart disease who are likely to get very ill if infected with COVID-19. He also asked them to practice social distancing, wear a mask, wash hands frequently for 20 seconds and not to share drinks or vaping equipment.

Carrie Eldridge, director of health education for Franklin-Williamson Bi-County Health Department, said both counties are seeing rising numbers of cases, but they are spread across all age groups. On Monday, Franklin County had five new cases and Williamson had six.

Our cases are just typical community spread, Eldridge said. As more and more people are migrating out of their homes, some just arent protecting themselves.

Like Hagston, Eldridge said the key to reversing the numbers is to practice social distancing, wearing masks and washing hands.

We encourage people to practice those safety measures because COVID-19 is in the area, Eldridge said.

Britt Peyton, a 21-year-old SIU senior majoring in physiology, is disappointed to see young people who are not taking the virus seriously.

Peyton, who hopes to go to medical school, worked at a Carbondale nursing home that had an outbreak of the virus earlier this year. For a time, she worked with residents who had tested positive for COVID-19 and saw firsthand how devastating the virus can be for those at higher risk.

Peyton asks her peers to step up and do something great for their community.

I urge everybody to take the virus seriously, follow Illinois Department of Public Health guidelines and hopefully save lives, she said.

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Fort Hood has seen its fair share of soldiers' deaths in the past. This year gave the post a series of tragedies as one soldier after another turns up dead.

One of the most known deaths in Fort Hood is that of Latina soldier Vanessa Guillen. However, other than Guillen, there had been seven other Fort Hood soldiers, who died or were found dead since March.

One of them took his life after being the suspect to Guillen's disappearance form the base. Here is what we know of the tragic losses.

Mejhor Morta

From Pensacola Florida, Morta joined the army in September 2019, reported the Army Times.

His body was discovered on July 17 just 20 minutes away from Fort Hood. His body was identified by officials on July 21, reported The Sun.

Morta's battalion commander Lt. Col. Neil Armstrong felt "truly heartbroken" by his loss. "Private Morta was a great Trooper and this loss is felt by every member within our formation," he said.

Vanessa Guillen

Guillen is one that caught national attention after her disappearance in April.

The search for the 20-year-old small arms repairer ended when her remains were found on June 30 in a shallow grave. The army positively identified the body as Guillen.

The League of United Latin American Citizens president Domingo Garcia urged Latinas not to join the military with his claim that the army is "not protecting female soldiers".

Aaron David Robinson

Aaron David Robinson was identified as the main suspect in Guillen's disappearance. He killed himself in a confrontation with investigators, CNN reported

Guillen's family attorney said she planned to file a sexual harassment complaint against Robinson. There is now a sexual harassment investigation taking place to add to the murder investigation.

Gregory Scott Morales

Morales is a 24 year old private who went AWOL months prior, said a report from Fox News. Authorities believe foul play took place in the case.

According to Fox News, he was found in a field in Killeen, Texas on June 19.

"His life was taken too soon, and we appreciate his service to our nation," Maj. Gen. Jeffery Broadwater said in a statement.

Brandon Scott Rosecrans

Rosecrans was found dead on May 2018 in Harker Heights, Texas. Police are looking at his case as a murder after a gunshot wound was found on his body.

The army man's 2016 Jeep Renegade was found the day his body was found, and officials are investigating the burn as arson, reported CNN affiliate KWTX.

Freddy Beningo Delacruz Jr.

Delacruz was one of the three victims found dead with gunshot wounds at a Texas apartment complex, said a report from military news site Stripes.

The other victims in the triple suicide were a man and a woman who were later identified as Army veteran Shaquan Markell Allred and Asia Cline.

Christopher Wayne Sawyer

Sawyer, 29-year-old wheeled vehicle mechanic, was found unresponsive on March 5 in his Fort Hood residence, said the base's statement. There is no suspect of foul play but investigators had not ruled it out.

He joined the army in October 2017.

Shelby Tyler Jones

Jones, 20, died on March 1 after a gunshot wound in south Killeen, said Fort Hood.

His death was under investigation by the Killeen Police. The department's news release said Jones is believed to have been shot at a club before he was found at a convenience store.

The case was presented to a grand jury on June 11 and the district attorney did not prosecute.

Want to read more? Check these out!

Hispanic Group Asks Latinas Not to Join the Military After Vanessa Guillen's Death

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According to reports, the NIA has said that Babu was propagating Maoist ideology and Naxal activities and that he was a co-conspirator with other arrested accused in the case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil, an Associate Professor of Delhi University, in connection with the Elgar Parishad case in Mumbai, several reports have said. He will be produced before a special court in Mumbai on Wednesday, news agency ANI reported.

Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu M.T has been formally arrested by the NIA in the Elgar Parishad case today. He was being questioned at the NIA's Mumbai office since July 23. He is the 12th person to be arrested.

More arrests likely. @thewire_in  Sukanya Shantha (@sukanyashantha) July 28, 2020

According to The Times of India, the NIA in a release said that Babu was propagating "Maoist ideology and Naxal activities", adding that he was a co-conspirator with others arrested in the case.

NIA in a release said Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil was propagating Naxal activities and Maoist ideology and was a co-conspirator with other arrested accused in the case  Bharti Jain (@bhartijainTOI) July 28, 2020

Babu is the 12th person to have been arrested in connection to the case, which pertains to speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune on 31 December 2017, which had allegedly triggered violence at the Bhima Koregaon war memorial the next day.

Eleven other accused  Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Arun Ferreira, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Vernon Gonsalves, Varavara Rao, Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha were arrested earlier in the same case and all are in jail now. The NIA took over the case from the Maharashtra Police in January 2020.

Jenny Rowena, Hany Babu's wife and a lecturer at Delhi University, told Maktoob Media that she received a call from the NIA, informing her of Hany Babu's arrest. The agency told her that a "hidden folder" on his laptop established him as a Maoist.

The Maktoob Media report also quoted unnamed NIA sources stating that the "hidden folder" contained letters that he had exchanged with Maoists. According to the report, the laptop had been seized by the agency in September 2019 in a raid on the associate professor's house in Noida.

The NIA had issued summons to Babu twice this month, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. According to The Wire, Babu was summoned to the agency's Mumbai office as a witness on 12 July. The summons, which were served to him by a local NIA officer in Delhi, said:It appears that you are acquainted with the circumstances of the case You are hereby required to attend before the NIA.

Babu had expressed reluctance in traveling to Mumbai, saying that he was concerned for his own health as well as that of his family.They are asking me to travel to Mumbai in the middle of a pandemic, Babu told Scroll.in. It is not just a health hazard to me but also to my family. I live in Noida and there are so many restrictions to even travel to Delhi.

According to a Pune Mirror report, Babu had requested the agency to allow him to appear via video-conferencing, but the agency had told him to appear in person for the questioning on 24 July.

According to reports, Babu had reached Mumbai and was being questioned since 23 July.

The Pune Police had in September 2019 carried out a raid at Babu's Noida residence had seized his laptop and pendrive. "Police, who came to my house without a warrant, told me that they came related to a case in Pune without a warrant. They were interested in books. They seized my laptop and pen drive. They also changed my email password and I am unable to access it now. I will get my material from the court within two to three months. They said my name has come up in the investigation," Babu had told news agency ANI, adding that he would consult a lawyer for further action.

Babu, 54, a resident of Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, is an Associate Professor in the Department of English.

According to the Scroll report, Babu, who a vocal anti-caste activist, had alleged that the summons issued to him were part of an attempt to intimidate activists who had no links to Elgar Parishad event. He is also an active member of the committee formed for the defence of GN Saibaba, a Delhi University professor who was convicted for his alleged links with the Maoist movement.

The witch-hunt in the #BhimaKoregaon case continues. Now, the 12th arrest has been made, Prof MT Hany Babu, Delhi University. What does an English professor have to do with this case? Nothing, except a fascist state sending a signal that any noise will be crushed ruthlessly. https://t.co/gtTHssL6no  meena kandasamy ||    (@meenakandasamy) July 28, 2020

The NIA has also opposed bail pleas of the other accused, including Rao, Navlakha and Bharadwaj.

With inputs from agencies.
Oli and party executive chairperson Pushpa Prachanda reportedly need more time for informal consultations to sort out their differences

Kathmandu: A crucial meeting of Nepal's ruling communist party scheduled for Tuesday to iron out the differences between Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and the rival faction led by party executive chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" has been postponed indefinitely.

The meeting of the 45-member Standing Committee of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) was scheduled for 11 am.

The two leaders  Prime Minister Oli and Prachanda  need more time for informal consultations to sort out their differences, Standing Committee member Ganesh Shah said, announcing the postponement of the talks.

On Wednesday last week, a Standing Committee meeting was briefly held at the Prime Minister's Official residence at Baluwatar. However, the prime minister did not attend the meeting.

Subsequently, the party decided to convene another meeting a week later, on 28 July, to review its activities, the government's performance, finalising division of work among party cadres and leaders, and proposed general convention among other issues.

Tuesday's meeting was postponed as the two leaders need some more time for consultation, PM's press advisor Surya Thapa said in a Facebook post.

The date of the next meeting will be decided after the two leaders hold consultations, he said.

A bitter internal feud has been brewing in the ruling NCP since the last few weeks after top party leaders, including Prachanda, demanded Oli's resignation, saying his recent anti-India remarks were "neither politically correct nor diplomatically appropriate." They are also against Oli's autocratic style of functioning.

The differences grew further after Oli said that some of the ruling party leaders are aligning with the southern neighbour to remove him from power after his government issued a new political map incorporating three Indian territories of Kalapani, Lipulekh, and Limpiyadhura.

Prachanda on Monday last week said efforts were going on to resolve the intra-party differences and ruled out an early general convention of the party as proposed by embattled Prime Minister Oli.

Oli and Prachanda have held at least eight meetings in recent weeks to sort out the differences between them. But, as the Prime Minister did not accept the condition of a one-man-one-post, the talks failed. Oli has refused to give up his post as prime minister as well as a co-chairman of the NCP.
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Mourners gathered Tuesday morning at the US Capitol to say their final goodbyes to the late civil rights hero, Rep John Lewis, who died earlier this month at the age of 80.

The longtime congressman passed away on July 17 after losing his battle with pancreatic cancer. On Monday, Lewis became the first black lawmaker to lie in state in the Rotunda. He will lie in state at the Capitol Building until Tuesday evening.

Images showed Capitol Police bringing out the flag-draped casket containing Lewis's body for public viewing atop the East Front steps of the US Capitol.

Families were seen taking photos while they waited in line at the base of the East Front steps.

Scroll down for video

US Capitol Police bring out the flag-draped casket containing the body of late Democratic Representative from Georgia John Lewis for public viewing atop the East Front steps of the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, on Tuesday

The casket was positioned in front of dozens of flowers at the East Front Steps of the US Capitol on Tuesday

Mourners gathered Tuesday morning at the US Capitol to say their final goodbyes to Lewis, who died earlier this month at the age of 80

Families were seen taking photos as they waited in line at the base of the East Front steps of the US Capitol on Tuesday

At one point, Reverend Jessie Jackson (right) paid his respects to Lewis by taking a few moments of silence while placing his hands on the casket

Tonya Jones, of New York City (left) bumps elbows with the Rev Jesse Jackson, as he leaves after viewing Lewis's casket

One woman is seen holding her right hand over her heart as she closed her eyes while viewing Lewis's casket on Tuesday

A man is seen standing with others as he places his right hand over his heart while at the base of the East Front steps on Tuesday

People were seen taking photos while paying their respects to the late civil right hero on Tuesday

People are seen trying to take an image of Lewis's flag-draped casket on Tuesday morning

A man is seen carrying his son at the public viewing of Lewis's casket on Tuesday morning

Members of the public are seen waiting in line outside the US Capitol building on Tuesday

Rep John Lewis, who died on July 17 from pancreatic cancer

At one point, Reverend Jessie Jackson paid his respects to Lewis by taking a few moments of silence while placing his hands on the casket.

Sen Kamala Harris was seen later in the day at the public viewing.

She was met with cheers from members of the public who were standing at the base of the East Front steps.

Melanie Eversley, of New York City, was seen wiping away tears as she and her mother, Mae Eversley, 92, attended the viewing.

'I would go see Congressman Lewis a few times a week when I was covering Capitol Hill for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,' Melanie said.

'He set this great example. He always kept his calm and told me you have to pick your battles. He was such a special person, I really admired him. He was a wonderful human being,' she added.

Cornelia Dobbins, of Forestville, Maryland, attended the viewing with her six-year-old granddaughter, Autumn.

'I was down here at the March on Washington [in 1963],' says Dobbins.

'All the things John Lewis has stood for, what he's done for people of color and people of all races, I wanted to pay my respects,' she added.

On Monday, congressional leaders praised Lewis as a moral force for the nation in a Capitol Rotunda memorial service.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Lewis the 'conscience of the Congress' who was 'revered and beloved on both sides of the aisle, on both sides of the Capitol'.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell praised the longtime Georgia congressman as a model of courage and a 'peacemaker'.

'The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,' McConnell, a Republican, said, quoting the Rev Martin Luther King Jr. 'But that is never automatic. History only bent toward what's right because people like John paid the price.'

Born to sharecroppers during Jim Crow segregation, Lewis was beaten by Alabama state troopers during the civil rights movement, spoke ahead of King's 'I Have a Dream' speech at the 1963 March on Washington and was awarded the Medal of Freedom by the nation's first Black president, Barack Obama, in 2011.

Several lawmakers wiped away tears as a recording of the late congressman's voice echoed off the marble and gilded walls while his casket sat atop the catafalque built for President Abraham Lincoln.

'You must find a way to get in the way. You must find a way to get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble,' Lewis intoned in a recorded commencement address he'd delivered in his hometown of Atlanta.

'Use what you have ... to help make our country and make our world a better place, where no one will be left out or left behind. ... It is your time.'

Sen Kamala Harris (pictured arriving to the US Capitol) was seen later in the day at the public viewing

Harris was met with cheers from members of the public who were standing at the base of the East Front steps

Melanie Eversley, of New York City, was seen wiping away tears as she and her mother, Mae Eversley, 92, attended the viewing

Members of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated, locked arms and sang their hymn to honor Lewis who was also a member of their fraternity

Catholic Rev Bede Shipps, wears a sign as he views Lewis's casket at the US Capitol on Tuesday

Cornelia Dobbins, of Forestville, Maryland (left), and her granddaughter Autumn Dobbins, six, get in line to view Lewis's casket on Tuesday. 'I was down here at the March on Washington,' says Dobbins, adding that 'all the things John Lewis has stood for, what he's done for people of color and people of all races, I wanted to pay my respects'.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus wore masks with the message 'Good Trouble,' a nod to Lewis' signature advice.

Since his passing, there have been several public remembrances for the civil rights hero.

Pelosi, who counted Lewis as a close friend, met his casket earlier Monday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, and Lewis' motorcade stopped at Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House as it wound through Washington before arriving at the Capitol.

The Democratic speaker noted that Lewis, frail with cancer, had come to the newly painted plaza weeks ago to stand 'in solidarity' amid nationwide protests against systemic racism and police brutality.

She called the image of Lewis 'an iconic picture of justice' and juxtaposed it with another image that seared Lewis into the national memory.

In that frame, 'an iconic picture of injustice,' Pelosi said. Lewis is seen collapsed and bleeding near the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965, when state troopers beat him and other Black Americans as they demanded voting rights.

Following the Rotunda service, Lewis's body was moved to the steps on the Capitol's east side in public view, an unusual sequence required because the pandemic has closed the Capitol to visitors.

People were also able to Lewis's casket during a public viewing on Monday on the East Front Steps of the Capitol in Washington

On Monday, congressional leaders praised Lewis as a moral force for the nation in a Capitol Rotunda memorial service. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, say farewell at the conclusion of a service for Lewis on Monday

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaks during a memorial service for Lewis on Monday

An aerial view of the US Capitol Rotunda shows Lewis's casket in the center of the room during a memorial service on Monday

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (left) and Sen Tim Scott (right) attend a memorial service for Lewis on Monday

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Lewis the 'conscience of the Congress' who was 'revered and beloved on both sides of the aisle, on both sides of the Capitol'

Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, touches the flag-draped casket of the late congressman on Monday

President Donald Trump said Monday that he would not go to the Capitol, but Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen (both pictured)

Late into the night, a long line of visitors formed outside the Capitol as members of the public quietly, and with appropriate socially distant spacing, came to pay their respects to Lewis.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden paid his respects late Monday afternoon.

The pair became friends over their two decades on Capitol Hill together and Biden's two terms as vice president Obama.

Notably absent from the ceremonies was President Donald Trump. Lewis once called Trump an illegitimate president and chided him for stoking racial discord.

Trump countered by blasting Lewis's Atlanta district as 'crime-infested'.

The president said Monday that he would not go to the Capitol, but Vice President Mike Pence and his wife paid their respects.

Since his passing, there have been several public remembrances for the civil rights hero. Pelosi, who counted Lewis as a close friend, met his casket earlier Monday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland (pictured)

Lewis's motorcade stopped at Black Lives Matter Plaza (pictured) near the White House as it wound through Washington before arriving at the Capitol

Hundreds gathered at Black Lives Matter Plaza to watch the motorcade drive pass on Monday

The hearse carrying Lewis's casket also paused in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Monday before arriving at the US Capitol

Lewis was among the original Freedom Riders, young activists who boarded commercial passenger buses and traveled through the segregated Jim Crow South in the early 1960s.

They were assaulted and battered at many stops, by citizens and authorities alike.

Lewis was the youngest and last-living of those who spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington.

The Bloody Sunday events in Selma two years later forged much of Lewis's public identity. He was at the head of hundreds of civil rights protesters who attempted to march from the Black Belt city to the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery.

On Sunday, Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the last time on a horse-drawn carriage before an automobile hearse transported him to the Alabama Capitol, where he lay in repose

He was escorted by Alabama state troopers, this time with black officers in their ranks, and his casket stood down the hall from the office where Wallace had peered out of his window at the citizens he refused to meet

The marchers completed the journey weeks later under the protection of federal authorities, but then-Alabama Gov George C. Wallace, an outspoken segregationist at the time, refused to meet the marchers when they arrived at the Capitol. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on August 6 of that year.

Lewis spoke of those critical months for the rest of his life as he championed voting rights as the foundation of democracy, and he returned to Selma many times for commemorations at the site where authorities had brutalized him and others.

'The vote is precious. It is almost sacred,' he said again and again. 'It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democracy.'

The Supreme Court scaled back the seminal voting law in 2012; an overhauled version remains bottle-necked on Capitol Hill, with Democrats pushing a draft that McConnell and most of his fellow Republicans oppose. The new version would carry Lewis' name.

Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the last time Sunday on a horse-drawn carriage before an automobile hearse transported him to the Alabama Capitol, where he lay in repose.

He was escorted by Alabama state troopers, this time with black officers in their ranks, and his casket stood down the hall from the office where Wallace had peered out of his window at the citizens he refused to meet.

After the public viewing ends on Tuesday, Lewis's body will return to Georgia. He will have a private funeral Thursday at Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, which Dr King once led.
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An Australian university lecturer imprisoned in Iran has suddenly been transferred to what has been described as one of the worst female prisons in the world.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a lecturer from the University of Melbourne, was arrested in September 2018 while visiting an educational conference in the country and later convicted of espionage.

After being jailed in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran for almost two years, Ms Moore-Gilbert was earlier this week transferred to Qarchak prison, according to The Australian.

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert (pictured) was arrested while at an educational conference in September 2018 and later convicted of espionage

Dr Moore-Gilbert had reportedly formed a prison resistance choir in the notorious Evin jail

Reza Khandan, the husband of lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh who was imprisoned in Evin prison after speaking out on human rights issues, posted online that authorities had moved Ms Moore-Gilbert for 'punishment reasons'.

Mr Khandan said she was able to send a message to him saying: 'The conditions are very bad I cannot eat anything, I am very disappointed, I am so very depressed'.

Ms Moore-Gilbert had been at Tehran airport waiting to fly home to Melbourne when she was detained by Iranian authorities.

The dual UK-Australian national is understood to have been sentenced to ten years for spying.

She has claimed Iran had tried to recruit her as a spy and she was shown two sentences by authorities, one with 13 months' imprisonment and the other a decade-long term.

Both Evin Prison and Qarchak prison are controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Intelligence Organization.

Qarchak prison was in December 2019 labelled by the U.S. Department of State as being responsible for 'gross violations of internationally recognised human rights'.

After being jailed in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran for two years, Ms Moore-Gilbert was transferred to Qarchak prison (pictured) which has been called out for human rights abuse

'It is known for unbearable conditions, including regular assaults and inappropriate behavior of prison guards towards women, chronic lack of water, unsanitary living spaces,' a statement from the Department of State reads.

The prison reportedly has about 2,000 inmates, many political prisoners, but only 600 beds and head lice are controlled by shaving the hair of the woman followed by bleach baths.

Last month Ms Moore-Gilbert was reportedly beaten by guards and heavily drugged after encouraging other prisoners to sing and hum in their cells.

Dr Moore-Gilbert (pictured) recently lost an appeal against her 10 year sentence

There had been reports she had attempted suicide but her family denied these.

'She has strongly denied reports that she has attempted suicide or that she is being tortured,' they said.

'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.'

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade previously said Dr Moore-Gilbert was still a top priority.

'Dr Moore-Gilbert's case is one of our highest priorities, including for our embassy officials in Tehran,' the statement states.

'We do not accept the charges upon which Dr Moore-Gilbert was convicted and continue all efforts to have her returned to Australia as soon as possible.'

Foreign Minister Marise Payne has repeatedly raised the case with her Iranian Foreign Minister Jawad Zarif, a spokeswoman said.

It comes after letters smuggled out of Dr Moore-Gilbert's cell in Evin prison, and seen by The Times and The Guardian, showed she begged to leave the restrictive unit where she had served periods in solitary confinement.

Mr Khandan has been vocal about a number of political prisoners after his wife was jailed for 38 years in 2019 for political reasons.

'[Ms Moore-Gilbert's situation] is absolutely unbearable ... we don't know what has happened to her in these past two years,' he has previously said.
Church volunteer confesses to arson of cathedral in French city of Nantes

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A church volunteer has confessed to setting fire to a medieval cathedral in the French city of Nantes earlier this month, badly damaging the Gothic worship space.

The unnamed 39-year-old Rwandan man had previously been detained and questioned by authorities and then was again detained for further questioning when he confessed.

He confessed to the allegations against him which, as the prosecutor indicated, are causing destruction and damage by fire, said his lawyer, Quentin Chabert, as reported by the Associated Press. He regrets the facts. That is certain. He is in a sort of repentance.

The volunteer had been tasked with locking up the cathedral and had set three fires, two to two organs and one to an electrical box. The motive remains unknown, according to AP.

Officially known as the Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul Cathedral, the Nantes sanctuary was the subject of an arson attack on July 18 that damaged an organ and stained glass windows.

It took around 100 firefighters about three hours to contain the fire, which did not spread to the roof in large part because a fire in 1972 led the church to replace it with concrete.

The Nantes Cathedral traces its history back to the 15th century and is considered a major national treasure, second only to the famed Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris.

After Notre-Dame, Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul cathedral, in the heart of Nantes, is in flames, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter at the time. Support for our firefighters who take all the risks to save this Gothic jewel of the city of the Dukes."

In April of last year, the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris suffered a major accidental fire during restoration work that caused severe damage to the structure.

Last December, the rector of the Paris cathedral expressed concern that despite the heavy outpouring of donations aimed at repairing the church, it might unsalvageable.

Today it is not out of danger, Monsignor Patrick Chauvet told AP at the time. It will be out of danger when we take out the remaining scaffolding.

Today we can say that there is maybe a 50% chance that it will be saved. There is also 50% chance of scaffolding falling onto the three vaults, so as you can see the building is still very fragile.
By Trend

A protest action in relation to a military provocation committed by the Armenian army in the direction of Azerbaijans Tovuz district in the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, as well as the continuing fact of the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories, was held in the US state of Minnesota on July 27, the State Committee on Affairs with Diaspora told Trend.

The action, which was held in the states capital, Saint Paul city, was organized by the Minnesota-Azerbaijan Association. A convoy of cars with the state flags of Azerbaijan, Turkey and the US, with posters containing various slogans, drove through the city streets, drawing public attention to the realities of Azerbaijan, the committee said.

Azerbaijani compatriots called on the US Congress, the world community and international organizations to take decisive steps to put an end to the occupation and aggressive policy of Armenia, to liberate the Azerbaijani lands from occupation and restore the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, said the committee.

Following several days of intense armed clashes, after Armenia made a gross ceasefire violation and launched attacks in the direction of Azerbaijan's Tovuz district, Azerbaijanis living abroad started staging peaceful protests, calling to put an end to Armenia's aggressive occupation policy.

The rallies were met with harsh response from the Armenian diaspora members.

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 us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Denver, CO, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The familiar phrase necessity is the mother of invention is an old way of describing a new challenge for the COVID-19 era: how can a lung cancer nonprofit bring members of the lung cancer community together safely for a fundraising and awareness-raising event? The answer is virtually, using all of its social media platforms to create conversation, connection, and commitment to increased lung cancer research funding. Lets walk through how M&C Communications moves the stairs to make it happen for the nonprofit Lung Cancer Foundation of America.

A social media takeover is a new twist on an old idea

A social media takeover is just the digital version of the analog campfire: the place where everyone gathers to listen to stories, share ideas, and spend time together. Our job as public relations strategists is to help small nonprofits use social media to generate engagement, media coverage, and drive donations.

While its not possible to bring a bunch of people together safely during the COVID-19 pandemic (especially those living with lung cancer), its entirely possible to gather virtually- from LA to Budapest- in a day-long event across four LCFA social media channels.

Research saves lives, and humans love stories



The social media takeover happens when a little planning meets a great idea: lets show people what living with lung cancer really looks like as we raise awareness of the need for more research funding and money for LCFAs Young Investigator research grants.



The patient advocates are all in on the idea, excited to show off how incredible advances in lung cancer research allows them to do what they love to do every day. The ideas for live conversations came pouring in from dozens of patient advocates: well show you what living with lung cancer looks like by doing yoga, cooking, working up a sweat in the gym, baking cupcakes with the kids, leading an employment seminar, making homemade salsa and challah bread and so much more.

What makes a great nonprofit social media takeover?

Lung Cancer Foundation of America picked a date with special resonance for the lung cancer community: August 1, World Lung Cancer Day. Lung cancer kills more people than breast, colon, and prostate cancer combined but astonishingly is one of the least federally-funded major cancers in terms of research. Its also the number one cancer killer of women, making it critical for the campaign to reflect the reality of living with lung cancer today: younger people with careers, families, and so much more to contribute to society. Thats the starting point for LCFAs World Lung Cancer Day social media takeover.

The plan is simple but robust:

Measurable goals for engagement, donations, and new followers will determine success

Patient advocate will set the tone by demonstrating what living with lung cancer looks like to him/her

A social media takeover outline of visual demonstrations on Facebook Live, engaging Twitter conversations, and inspiring hourly posts on Instagram showcases crowd-sourced content from the lung cancer patient advocates and researchers themselves

Friends, family, local media, sponsors, and other supporters know how to promote a social media takeover ahead of time thanks to consistent promotion, paid media, and direct outreach

The content is easy to find, search, and engage with using the designated hashtag: #livingwithlungcancer

Highly engaged social media users are guided to a custom MobileCause online event page populated with live content streams from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, giving users an easy and safe way to donate to LCFAs mission of funding lung cancer research

Make it happen!

Keys to a successful social media takeover & fundraiser

No surprise here. The keys to a great fundraising social media takeover event are:

Be organized

Create a social media takeover checklist and execute on the plan relentlessly

Make sure everyone knows what to do, how to do it, and when it needs to be done

Leverage every opportunity to grab attention and drive engagement

A successful guest takeover event is also an earned media driver for patient advocates to engage local news media with their stories of living with lung cancer. M&C created a customizable press release for patient advocates to adapt and use to pitch media in their own communities to extend coverage and reach of the event.

Organizing the creation of 37 hours of engaging, useful, and hopeful social media content for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram from more than 30 people is no small feat, but its what M&C Communications does best. As former journalists and expert content creators, the strategists at M&C Communications help clients grab attention and drive engagement. From in-depth podcasts to eye-catching videos, to award-winning PR campaigns, M&C knows how to turn heads and protect your brand.



Would you like to watch the Lung Cancer Foundation of America campaign and get ideas for how to host a successful social media takeover and fundraiser of your own? Join LCFA on Saturday, August 1st from 5am PT/8am ET to 7pm PT /10pm ET to watch this incredible social media takeover and fundraiser unfold.
Britain's cottages, hotels and holiday sites are seeing a rush in bookings as people give up on travelling abroad amid quarantine fears and opt for a staycation instead.

Families are booking up dates for UK holidays in 2021 despite the cost of some stays going up by 50 per cent as operators try to recoup some of their lockdown losses.

Those hoping for a last-minute stay in a holiday hotspot this weekend will find campsites for 150 a night or 200 a night for three-star hotels as demand soars.

One four-star hotel on the beach in Newquay, Cornwall, comes in at nearly 350 a night, while a one-bedroom cottage in the Cotswolds will set you back 280 a night.

It comes as:

Up to 14million Britons are expected to go on a UK holiday before September;

Havens said bookings at its 36 parks in Britain are up 96 per cent year-on-year;

Some cottages have just three weekends free from March until September 2021;

Demand for caravan sites across the Devon area has increased by 140 per cent;

Call volumes for Hoseasons cottage bookings are ten times higher than normal.

Demand will also be boosted by rising temperatures over the next few days, with Friday expected to be the hottest day of the year so far with 91F (33C) highs.

Slots at campsites, B&Bs and cottages across Britain are also running out because holidays postponed during the lockdown are now being rebooked for next year.

A family room at the three-star Best Western Livermead Cliff Hotel in Devon costs 440 for two nights this weekend as demand surges for hotels and cottages amid the staycations boom

It comes as the UK Government advised against all but essential travel to Spain after the emergence of a second wave of coronavirus in parts of the country.

Charles Millward, the owner of Staycation Holidays, told The Times: 'People should be worried about finding availability next year.

What can I do if I've booked a holiday to Spain? Can I get a refund on my flights? Airlines are refusing to cancel flights to Spain  despite the Government advising against all but essential travel. The move puts hundreds of thousands of British families in limbo and at risk of losing thousands of pounds. It also puts the airline industry at odds with the UK Government by ignoring a public safety edict. The Government issued the travel warning after the emergence of a second wave of coronavirus in parts of Spain. Customers would normally expect travel firms to cancel the flights and offer refunds. But all the major carriers, which have suffered massive losses following the collapse of air travel, have snubbed the Government and continue to offer the flights. This means families will potentially lose their holidays and their money. People could ignore the Government and take their flights. But they would have to quarantine for 14 days when they get back and their travel insurance may be void. Alternatively, they could cancel their trip without any guarantee of a refund. Can I switch my flight date or change destination? British Airways and easyJet have suggested they will offer vouchers for future flights, rather than a refund, for those who cancel. Ryanair has refused to offer anything. It even suggested people who changed their flights could incur charges of up to 95 per person. What if I have booked a package holiday? If you booked a package holiday which cannot go ahead as planned, you are entitled to a refund and it should be returned within 14 days. However, a number of airlines have not cancelled flights and some tour operators are also doing the same - this means you might not get a refund without a fight. Companies will be expected to cancel package holidays to Spain and its islands and offer refunds. An estimated 1.8m bookings will be affected. Tui has suspended all holidays to Spain up to and including August 9. It said customers travelling 'will be able to cancel or amend holidays and will be able to receive a full refund or the option to rebook their holiday with a booking incentive and our customer service team will proactively email these customers'. Jet2 and Tui have cancelled trips up to certain dates in August. Kuoni, even though it is not cancelling trips, is offering refunds or rebookings at a later date. Will I be able to cancel a direct hotel booking? If you have booked directly with a hotel it is unlikely that they will let you cancel without abiding by their cancellation charges. You could try appealing to their goodwill and there is certainly no harm in asking. They may for instance let you move to a later date. If you have booked through a third-party website like Booking.com, Expedia or Lastminute, you may find that the cancellation terms are more generous, depending on what sort of reservation you made. If it is not offering either option, contact your travel insurer to see if you can claim on your policy instead. Will my insurance cover it? Only Nationwide's FlexPlus travel insurance, which comes with its 13-a-month current account, covers trips cancelled because Foreign Office advice changed after a booking was made - while it also covers a trip being cut short because of a local lockdown. Other policies from the likes of Trailfinders, Nationwide, Axa, All Clear, Coverwise and Insure For will cover coronavirus-related cancellations, but not because of a change in government travel restrictions. The Civil Aviation Authority said there was nothing it could do to ensure those with a flight-only booking got a refund. It suggested they claim money back from a travel insurance policy, but most insurers have clauses that reject any claims linked to coronavirus. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has said it is 'likely' that travel insurance will remain in place for holidaymakers already in Spain until they return home. However, those attempting to travel to countries against FCO advice would invalidate their travel insurance. The ABI said people who booked a trip or took out travel insurance after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic may not be covered for travel disruption or cancellation. In either circumstance, travellers should check with their insurer. What if my trip isn't cancelled but I want to cancel it? If your trip isn't cancelled, contact your travel provider in the first instance to see if they are offering refunds, or again, a change of date. If they are not, you may have to swallow the cost of cancelling your holiday and then fighting to get a refund through your insurance, credit card provider through Section 75 or a chargeback, offered by some banks. While most tour providers still haven't shown their hand, it is thought likely most will cancel holidays given the Government advice. What should I do if I am already in Spain? People currently on holiday in Spain have been encouraged to follow the local rules, return home as normal and check the FCO's travel advice pages on gov.uk for further information. The FCO is not advising those already travelling in Spain to leave. Abta - the UK's travel trade association - has advised customers in the country to continue their holidays and return as normal. What if I am going on holiday elsewhere? The FCO continues to advise against non-essential international travel except to the countries and territories on its exemption list. But local government minister Simon Clarke said the reality is that holidaymakers travelling abroad during the coronavirus outbreak will have to accept there is a 'degree of uncertainty'. He said people going on holiday should understand that they may be asked to self-isolate on their return and the Government must reserve the right to keep the British public safe. Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said anyone making travel arrangements needs to recognise the restrictions that may be placed upon them by the Government on their return to the UK. What will happen when I get back from Spain? If you're returning to the UK from Spain you will need to provide your journey and contact details and self-isolate for 14 days. This may drop to 10 days soon. You may be fined up to 100 if you refuse to provide your contact details or more if you break this rule more than once. You may also be fined up to 1,000 if you refuse to self-isolate, or you could face further action. Will my employer pay me if I have to quarantine? This will depend on your employer and their rules. If, for example, you can still work from home, there should - in theory - be no problem with you quarantining. However, you are not automatically entitled to statutory sick pay from your employer if you have to quarantine after coming back off holiday, according to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. Some employers will offer sick pay  either statutory or a higher level, depending on their policy. It could be that if your employer is unable to offer you sick pay, you could take annual leave to avoid missing out on any payment, although this may not be possible if you do not have enough left to take. However, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said no worker following quarantine guidance should be penalised by employers, including by being put on to sick pay. Advertisement

'A lot of dates are already taken because they will have been moved from this year - one of our properties only has three weekends free next year from March until September.

'In general our properties will increase in price next year by 20 per cent to recoup the cost owners lost during the lockdown.

'One property we're booking for next year has gone up by 50 per cent. I think that will happen more and more as owners have lost thousands of pounds and need it back.'

Up to 14million Britons are expected to go on a UK holiday before children go back to school in September, giving the country's economy a 3.7billion boost.

Havens said bookings at its 36 parks are up 96 per cent year-on-year, while demand for caravan sites is up 140 per cent in Devon and bookings are surging at Butlins.

UK holiday agent Hoseasons said it has employed extra telesales staff to cope with extra demand with bookings made for the next year up by a third on normal levels.

Its cottage break bookings are up 223 per cent over the last month compared to the same period in 2019, while call volumes are at more than ten times the normal level.

Writer and broadcaster Sally Jones, who lives in Warwick, told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'I do think it's totally bonkers to encourage people to go abroad at the moment when we don't know which countries are going to be shut down, where we're going to have quarantine coming back from, say, Croatia or France.

'There's wonderful, wonderful places in England. I think most people don't really know their own country that well.'

She added: 'Why not go and explore places like, say, Scotland or the beaches of Northumberland?

'There are these incredible places in England  most of us have never been there.'

British campsites have also seen a boom in bookings as people give up on foreign trips.

The website Pitchup.com, which sends 800,000 people a year to 2,000 UK campsites, said bookings on Sunday were double last year's high for a single day.

It took some 6,100 bookings, representing around 18,000 people, which was up by 20 per cent on the previous Sunday. Founder of the booking platform, Dan Yates, said there is a clear switch to staycations.

He said: 'For many who were just starting to consider booking a trip abroad this is probably the nail in the coffin, with the change in regulations fundamentally damaging consumer confidence to travel overseas.

'The tightened financial climate means British holidaymakers are unlikely to take the risk of not being able to work when they return which has likely been the catalyst for this weekend's surge in UK bookings.'

The website also offers bookings to campsites across Europe. Mr Yates said: 'The tourism and hospitality sector has been decimated by Covid and our Spanish site owners are in uproar.

'They believe a more localised approach which focuses on quarantine in the specific regions which have been affected by the Covid peaks would have been a more appropriate and effective response by the UK government.

'This is, however, good news for domestic campsites and caravan parks as thousands will substitute a UK holiday for their usual one abroad.'

Mr Yates said: 'The ever changing guidance is likely to cause mass confusion and concern amongst Brits, with many likely to elect to play it safe and staying closer to home this year.'

Airbnb has said that on bookings made on the weekend of June 27/28, more than 70 per cent were staycations.

A spokesman said: 'Staycations are great for Brits who want to explore beyond their own four walls again, but also for the hospitality industry and Airbnb hosts who depend on the income from listing on our platform.

'We've seen a significant spike in demand as travel becomes a reality again, with our trending destinations showing people are keen to explore the many interesting towns and rural areas the nation has to offer, providing a welcome boost to local businesses.'

Speaking about going abroad, Guy Anker from MoneySavingExpert told The Times: 'People who booked a holiday or took out insurance after mid-March are not going to be covered by a local lockdown or the decision to change travel advice.

'My advice would be, do not spend any money at the moment that you can't afford to lose, or where flexibility is not written into your airline ticket or hotel booking.'

Meanwhile Boris Johnson has indicated that quarantine restrictions could be imposed on further European countries if a 'second wave' of coronavirus hits the continent.

The Prime Minister already faces a diplomatic row with Spain after warning against all but essential travel to the country - and its resort islands - and insisting that travellers arriving in the UK from there spend a fortnight in quarantine due to an increase in cases.

But he defended the move and insisted the Government would not hesitate to act if flare-ups of coronavirus occurred in other destinations.

'I'm afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic,' the Prime Minister warned.

With holidaymakers already facing uncertainty over trips abroad this summer, Mr Johnson indicated further action could be considered by the Government.

'It's vital that when people are coming back from abroad, if they are coming back from a place where I'm afraid there is another outbreak, they must go into quarantine,' he said.

'That's why we have taken the action that we have and we will continue, throughout the summer, to take such action where it is necessary.'

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described the restrictions on travel to the country as an 'error'.

He pointed out that the upsurge in coronavirus cases is focused in two regions, Catalonia and Aragon, adding: 'In most of Spain, the incidence is very much inferior to even the numbers registered in the United Kingdom.'

Madrid had been urging the UK to exclude the Canaries and Balearics - which include popular tourist resorts on Ibiza, Majorca and Menorca - from its quarantine requirements.

But instead, official travel advice was tightened to bring the islands in line with the Spanish mainland.

The move has dealt a further blow to the travel industry, which was already reeling after the lockdown.

Mr Johnson said it was up to individuals to decide whether they wanted to take the risk of travelling in the present circumstances.

'These are decisions for families, for individuals, about where they want to go,' he said.

The decision to impose quarantine restrictions was made after England's chief medical officer Chris Whitty reportedly told ministers that 10 Britons who tested positive for coronavirus after July 1 had reported visiting Spain in the 14 days before their test.

Mr Johnson said: 'I'm afraid if we do see signs of a second wave in other countries, it is really our job, our duty, to act swiftly and decisively to stop ... travellers coming back from those places seeding the disease here in the UK.'

Britons make up over a fifth of foreign visitors to Spain, which relies heavily on tourism, and Madrid has said the UK Government gave it no warning that the quarantine move was coming over the weekend.

Travel firm Tui UK cancelled all holidays to the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands after the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) updated travel advice.

Tui's decision runs from Tuesday July 28 up to and including Friday July 31.

Holidays to Spain's mainland were already cancelled from Sunday July 26 up to and including Sunday August 9.

A camp rental in the Cornish countryside in Truro will cost 366 for two nights this weekend

A two-night stay this weekend at another campsite in Chiddingly, East Sussex, will cost 332

The company said: 'The UK Government must work closely with the travel industry as this level of uncertainty and confusion is damaging for business and disappointing for those looking forward to a well-deserved break.'

Jet2 has suspended flights and holidays to Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza up to and including August 9, after the Government changed its advice on travel to the Balearic and Canary Islands.

The company had already suspended flights and holidays to mainland Spain until August 16, and yesterday evening advised customers due to travel to the Balearic and Canary Islands today not to go to the airport.

'Where customers are affected by any programme changes, we have been repeatedly recognised for how we have been looking after customers, offering the option to rebook with no admin fee, a Refund Credit Note or a full cash refund, and we will be contacting customers to discuss these options,' Jet2 said.

'We will also be contacting customers who are currently in these destinations to advise them of their options regarding flying back to the UK, so we urge customers not to contact us.

Rooms at this beach hotel in Newquay, Cornwall, this weekend will cost 685 for two nights

For customers who are due to travel to these destinations after the dates given above, we will provide an additional update once we receive more information from the Government.

'What we need now is clarity and consistency from the Government. We understand that this is a fast-moving situation, however the information we are receiving is contradictory and often comes with little or no notice.

'We want to provide customers, who work hard and save hard for their well-deserved holidays, with timely information and we need this from the Government. We would like to sincerely thank our customers for their understanding and patience.'

Labour said the Government must abandon its one-size-fits-all approach and introduce sectoral support for struggling businesses to ensure that public health measures such as the change in quarantine rules for people returning from Spain do not lead to mass job losses.

Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said: 'The Government's handling of this issue has been nothing short of chaotic.'

A triple room at the Clachaig Inn in the Highlands this weekend will cost 439 for two nights

Acting Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: 'The Prime Minister is right... to warn that some countries face the possibility of a second wave of coronavirus.

'However, it is extremely worrying that he has not acknowledged or acted upon the risk of a second wave here in the UK.

'Yesterday, I met with families who had lost loved ones due to Covid-19. Many just want the Prime Minister to start an independent inquiry immediately, so that the Government does not make the same mistakes that cost so many lives earlier this year.

'Back in March, as the coronavirus wreaked havoc across Spain and Italy, Boris Johnson acted too slowly.

'The UK was not immune and it still is not. That is why the Prime Minister must take immediate action and begin an independent inquiry, so that we have learned the lessons should there be a second wave of the virus.'

The Daily Telegraph reported that quarantine for people arriving from Spain or other countries with high coronavirus levels could be cut to 10 days under plans being looked at by ministers.

A one-bedroom home in Woodmancote in the Chilterns costs 573 for two nights this weekend

Returned travellers would need to quarantine for eight days before being tested, and then only remain in quarantine for another two days should they test negative.

The paper reports the Government is also considering instructing everyone who has returned from Spain since July 23 to get tested.

Mr Johnson said: 'We are always looking at ways in which we can mitigate the impact of the quarantine, try to help people, try to make sure that the science is working to help travellers and holidaymakers.'

In better news for travellers, five more countries were added to the quarantine exemption list on Tuesday - Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia, Slovakia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Issuing advice to those concerned about holidays in Spain, Brian Brown of Defaqto said: 'If you are in Spain now your insurance will cover you as normal. This will include curtailment and medical claims. However, it will not include curtailment if you just want to come home early.

'You won't however have any compensation from your travel insurer for any enforced quarantine on your return to the UK. If you are on your way to Spain right now by car you might also have problems.

'If you enter Spain after the FCO advised you not to, then you will have no cover at all, including medical insurance.

'So, if you are driving through France to Spain, you should turn around and come home, or find somewhere else to have your holiday.'

He added that those who have a booking to Spain but can't now travel because the FCO has advised against it, should first go to the travel provider.

Mr Brown continued: 'Airlines and package operators will likely cancel the flight/holiday. You should ask them for a refund, or to transfer your holiday to another destination or time.

'If you can't get refunds, for instance if you booked your accommodation directly with the hotel, your travel insurance might pay out, but only if the policy covers you for change of government advice and you booked the holiday and bought the insurance before the FCO changed its advice.

'You will need to check your insurance policy wording.

'If you are planning to travel somewhere else, where the FCO currently says you can go, but now don't want to take the risk then no travel insurance policy will cover you for cancellation. Disinclination to travel is not an insured peril.'

It comes after one of the country's most popular holidays seemed to be struggling with the onslaught of guests.

Swathes of people have descended on St Ives, Cornwall - famed for its narrow streets - seemingly struggling to adhere to social distancing guidelines.

Car parks in the area are reaching capacity, and people are packing on to the town's popular beach and into cafes and restaurants surrounding it.

Officials in St Ives have introduced a 'keep to the left' policy in an attempt to ensure everyone can keep to the one-metre plus distance currently advised.

Guests in the town have also been advised to wear a face mask and to avoid cramming into smaller shops. And in an effort to further reduce congestion in St Ives, access for most vehicles has been restricted between 10am and 6pm.

Malcolm Bell, chief executive of Visit Cornwall, admitted some locals were still 'nervous' about the sudden rush of tourists. In spite of that, he added that on the whole 'everyone is sticking to social distancing rules' despite some of the historic towns being 'close to capacity'.
By Ingrid Meulemans

meuleman@grinnell.edu

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in nursing homes and senior centers throughout Iowa, the Mayflower Community and Health Complex reports that there are no cases of coronavirus on its campus. In an environment where nursing homes and health complexes are the hardest hit by COVID-19, the Mayflower stands as an example of what could happen, with careful planning and perhaps some good fortune, if all members in a community respond efficiently and responsibly to a crisis.

For the 280 residents that live within the Mayflower, each day is filled with new caution and uncertainty. The all-clear announcement came just five days after a resident tested positive for COVID-19. That residents follow-up test came back negative, though, and they are still being isolated as per protocol and remain asymptomatic. While a late June press release sent out to family and friends of residents stated that a Mayflower employee tested positive for the novel virus, that employee has quarantined and no further cases have been detected in the staff.

The Mayflower has fared relatively well in comparison to other retirement communities. As of July 27, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported 21 active outbreaks of COVID-29 in the states long term care facilities. Within the town of Grinnell, St. Francis Manor battled its own outbreak in April, eventually reporting 74 cases.

According to Kellie McGriff, BSN, NHA, who serves as the associate director and administrator of the Mayflower Community, much of the communitys success is due to the precautions taken by its residents.

Any amount of PPE is only good as the compliance of the person using it, said McGriff. I really do think that we have incredible residents that are passionate about protecting the lives of each other and themselves.

For Bob Mann, director of sales and marketing at Mayflower, this level of respect and responsibility is especially impressive for the independent living residents. They could go to a grandchilds ballgame, for example, and be around people  who dont wear masks and who could be asymptomatic. But they have been very, very careful about that. And for that reason, there have been no cases diagnosed among independent living residents.

McGriff also attributes the wellbeing of residents to the Mayflowers quick response to the pandemic. Despite nursing homes already being heavily regulated facilities, the staff went out of their way to take extra precautions. Besides state-mandated PPE, staff also use face masks when in contact with residents, creating a double barrier.

The healthcare field is learning right along with this virus, said McGriff. She explained that as the summer and the pandemic continue, they are adjusting the accommodations in order to keep residents both mentally and physically well.

The Mayflower is currently evaluating potential new precautions against COVID-19, including incorporating a mandatory Plexiglas shield between residents and their visitors for the time being. While McGriff and Mann acknowledged that the process does get tedious, they said that Mayflower staff understand that every little decision they make affects many other lives.

Theres the fatigue [that comes with] doing this all the time. So, when youre outside of work, youre like I cant do this anymore. But knowing that the next day you come back and your choices outside of here will directly impact lives here  makes a difference and I just really commend our staff for their commitment to our residents, said McGriff.

Ultimately, although the Mayflowers initial response to the pandemic may have been, according to McGriff, conservative and assertive, the communitys ongoing success will continue to rely on its residents.

According to Mann, this shouldnt be a problem. Theyre smart enough to know that theyre just not going to take a chance.
Rolls-Royce was dealt yet another blow as a second influential agency slashed its credit rating to 'junk' status.

Moody's made the cut as it warned demand for Rolls' engines and services had already tumbled  and could be set to fall further.

The collapse in global air travel caused by the pandemic has hammered airlines, plane makers and other companies further down the supply chain. Rolls boss Warren East has described the coronavirus crisis as the company's 'darkest hour' since the 1970s  when it went bust following a difficult contract and had to be nationalised to bail it out.

Although Rolls makes engines, it earns money from maintaining them and its profits depend on the number of hours they fly.

Derby-based Rolls is at an even bigger disadvantage because it makes engines for large planes used on long-haul routes  and this is expected to be the slowest part of the market to recover.

Moody's said it expects lots of cash to flow out of the business this year and thinks it is too early to place any bets on when demand for long-haul flights will pick up again, particularly if new waves of the virus lead to a stop-start recovery.

Airlines don't reckon passenger numbers on flights will get back to the same levels as 2019 until at least 2023  and plane makers such as Airbus think it will take until 2025 for their business to recover.

The downgrade to two of the company's long-term bonds and its overall rating means Rolls, once a byword for prestige and seen as the pinnacle of Britain's engineering innovation, is no longer viewed as an investment-grade company.

Having a junk rating will make it more difficult and more expensive for Rolls to borrow money.

The decision means some of its large investors will have to sell their debt holdings in the company, because they can only own investment-grade bonds. And it could also make it more difficult for Rolls to sign long contracts with customers  as it will be seen as a riskier investment.

Another ratings agency, Standard & Poor's, cut its assessment of the engineer's debt two months ago. Shares fell 3 per cent, or 8.1p, to 260p  and have fallen by almost two-thirds this year.

Moody's decision comes at a terrible moment for FTSE 100- listed Rolls. Even before the coronavirus crisis hit, the company was struggling.

Turbulent times: Boss Warren East

It was dealing with a 2.4billion bill to fix the Trent 1000 engines that were breaking earlier than expected, and a major investor, Value Act, left the company's board in December.

But the pandemic has pummelled its finances, leaving it scrambling to cut costs. It said earlier this month it burned through 3billion of cash during the first six months of the year  and is set to lose another 1billion by Christmas.

It made around half its 15.4billion turnover last year from its civil aerospace arm  though it also works on defence and energy contracts. East, who has been at the helm of the company since 2015, is now undertaking the company's third major restructuring in six years.

It plans to let go of 9,000 staff in its 52,000-strong global workforce and has abandoned profit and revenue targets for the first time since it was privatised in 1987. Even though it has around 8billion at its disposal, it has admitted it will probably need to go cap in hand to investors at some point in the coming months. Rumours are also building that it is preparing to sell its Spanish aerospace arm ITP Aero, which makes parts for the Eurofighter Typhoon jet, for around 1billion.

When pressed about the matter last week, East said: 'No decisions have been made.'

A Rolls-Royce spokesman called the Moody's downgrade 'disappointing', but said: 'None of our borrowing facilities contain covenants or credit rating triggers that demand early repayment, nor do any of our contracts with airlines. Our current financial position and liquidity remain strong.'
Unions in hard-hit nation accuse government of being criminally negligent in its management of coronavirus pandemic.

A group of unions representing Brazilian health workers have urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate President Jair Bolsonaros government for crimes against humanity over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Brazil has the worlds highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths after the United States.

The umbrella group on Monday filed a complaint to the court, accusing the government of being criminally negligent in its management of the COVID-19 pandemic  risking the lives of healthcare professionals and of members of the Brazilian society.

The unions believe it is the first suit of its kind to be filed against a government for large-scale death and illness due to public health failings, they said in a statement.

The ICC  established in 2002 in The Hague to achieve justice for the worlds worst crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide  is under no obligation to consider such complaints.

Brazil has recorded almost 2.44 million coronavirus cases and more than 87,000 related deaths. Hospitals are struggling to cope with an influx of patients, as infections are peaking in new locations across the country.

Bolsonaro has downplayed the pandemic, comparing the virus to a little flu and attacking stay-at-home measures imposed by local authorities to contain it.

The far-right leader tested positive for the virus himself on July 7 but said on Saturday he was now negative  crediting his controversial use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, a drug with no proven effectiveness against COVID-19.

On Monday, the 65-year-old president was seen outside his official residence in the capital, Brasilia, where he removed his mask in public, greeting supporters and posing for pictures with them.

Experts blame the countrys crisis on a lack of national coordination combined with scattershot responses by city and state governments, with some reopening earlier than health experts recommended.

Bolsonaros government should be held accountable for its callous response to the pandemic, said Marcio Monzane of UNI Americas, the organisation that led the legal action.

Filing a case with the International Criminal Court is a drastic measure, but Brazilians face an extremely dire and dangerous situation created by Bolsonaros deliberate decisions, he was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
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Kim Kardashian West reunited with her husband Kanye West on Monday, after flying into Wyoming where she was pictured sobbing during an intense conversation with the troubled rapper.

The 39-year-old reality star appeared distressed and cried as she talked to Kanye, 43, in a vehicle, following his political campaign rally and Twitter meltdown last week, where he discussed how they once considered having an abortion and hinted she had an affair with rapper Meek Mill, which Kanye has since publicly apologized for.

It is the first time that the married couple has been pictured together since before his disastrous first campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, after announcing his unlikely bid for presidency.

Crisis talks: Kim Kardashian West reunited with her husband Kanye West on Monday, after flying into Wyoming where she was pictured sobbing during an intense conversation with the troubled rapper

Marriage on the brink: The 39-year-old reality star appeared distressed and cried as she talked to Kanye, 43, in a vehicle following his political campaign rally and Twitter meltdown last week, where he discussed how they once considered having an abortion and hinted she had an affair with rapper Meek Mill, which Kanye has since publicly apologized for

Tense reunion: It is the first time that the married couple has been pictured together since before his disastrous first campaign rally in in North Charleston, South Carolina, after announcing his unlikely bid for presidency

The pair - who share children North, seven, Saint, four, Chicago, two, and Psalm, one - were seen having what appears to be crisis talks in his car after leaving a Wendy's fast-food restaurant in Wyoming where he owns a $14 million ranch.

DailyMail.com has reached out to representatives for comment regarding their fraught reunion.

'She is very emotional about everything, and also exhausted,' a source told People magazine Monday. 'She feels very hurt by Kanye. She has tried to reach him multiple times and he just ignores her. It's all a bad situation.'

The insider added: 'She decided to fly to Cody to speak with him in person. She doesn't want to be ignored anymore.'

Meanwhile, Kanye is still eager for his presidential bid to become a reality, after making another last-ditch attempt to get on another ballot in Missouri, TMZ reported on Monday.

Last week, Kim took to Instagram following Kanye's controversial behavior, admitting that she was 'powerless' amid his meltdown, calling her husband 'brilliant but complicated'.

The reality star said 'his words sometimes do not align with his intentions' after Kanye last night claimed he has been 'trying to get divorced' from Kim since she met his fellow rapper Meek Mill at a hotel.

Showing the strain: The pair - who share children North, seven, Saint, four, Chicago, two, and Psalm, one - both looked on edge as they were seen leaving a Wendy's fast-food restaurant in Wyoming where he owns a $14 million ranch

Kanye said last Tuesday that Kim was 'out of line' to meet Meek Mill at a hotel in Los Angeles to talk about 'prison reform', and blasted her mother Kris Jenner as 'Kris Jong-Un' while accusing the pair of 'white supremacy.'

However, Kanye apologized to his wife in a tweet last week, amid reports that he went to hospital to be treated for anxiety.

The rapper tweeted: 'I would like to apologize to my wife Kim for going public with something that was a private matter. I did not cover her like she has covered me.to [sic] Kim I want to say I know I hurt you. Please forgive me. Thank you for always being there for me.'

His apology came after Kim gave a frank and honest statement about the situation to her fans, sharing three pages to her Instagram story last Wednesday saying: 'Those that understand mental illness or even compulsive behavior know that the family is powerless unless the member is a minor.'

Seeking forgiveness: Kanye issued a public apology to Kim last week after airing details about their private life

Still has eyes on the White House: Kanye is still eager for his presidential bid to become a reality and has made another last-ditch attempt to get on another ballot in Missouri

She told her 180 million followers: 'I understand Kanye is subject to criticism because he is a public figure and his actions at times can cause strong opinions and emotions. He is a brilliant but complicated person who on top of the pressures of being an artist and a black man, who experienced the painful loss of his mother, and has to deal with the pressure and isolation that is heightened by his bi-polar disorder.

'Those who are close with Kanye know his heart and understand his words some times do not align with his intentions.'

Prior to his meltdown on Twitter, Kanye sparked concern during a rambling and chaotic speech at his first presidential rally at North Charleston's Exquis Event Center in South Carolina.

He shockingly revealed that he and his wife Kim had considered aborting their daughter North, who is now seven, before he got a 'message from God'.

His unscripted speech, which came two weeks after he announced his unlikely bid for president, is said to have left his wife and her family upset and alarmed.

Speaking: His unscripted speech, which came two weeks after he announced his unlikely bid for president, is said to have left his wife and her family upset and alarmed

Emotional: Kim was seen turning away from Kanye during their conversation in the car

Emotional: Kanye appeared animated as Kim turned her head away from him during the conversation

Looking away: Kanye continued to speak as Kim looked outside amid their seemingly tense discussion in the car

'Complicated and painful': Kim took to Instagram on Wednesday morning following West's late night Twitter meltdown, saying she feels 'powerless' amid his struggle with bi-polar disorder

During the event, the rapper appeared to acknowledge that his comments would be met with a negative reaction by his family. He explained that if his wife were to divorce him after making the comments, he would still be thankful that she had North.

Making her voice heard: Kim signed off the three page note with 'Kim Kardashian West'

'Even if my wife were to divorce me after this speech, she brought North into this world, when I did not want to,' he said.

Kanye has been open about his struggle with bipolar disorder and, in 2016, he spent time in hospital after a 'psychiatric emergency' that forced him to cancel 21 concert dates.

Kim has previously defended her husband's rants and said in a 2018 tweet that he was a 'free-thinker' and entitled to his own opinion. She also appeared to endorse her husband's presidential bid when he first announced it two weeks ago by retweeting his message with an emoji of a US flag.

During his rally speech, Kanye, who was dressed in a bullet-proof vest with 2020 shaved into his hair, shared that in 2013 Kim 'had the pills in her hand' to have an abortion before he was inspired by God to have the child.

'My girlfriend called me screaming, crying. I'm a rapper. And she said I'm pregnant. She was crying,' he said.

Kanye said he was weighing up what to do, when he received what he interpreted as a sign from God while he was working on his laptop in Paris.

'My screen went black and white. And God said, if you f*** with my vision I f*** with yours,' he yelled. 'And I called my girlfriend and said we're going to have this child.

'Even if my wife were to divorce me after this speech, she brought North into this world, when I did not want to.'

The rapper went on to break down in tears as he shouted: 'She had the pills in her hand! I almost killed my daughter!'

Kanye also revealed that his father wanted to abort him but his mother Donda 'saved his life'.

'My mom saved my life. My dad wanted to abort me. My mom saved my life. There would have been no Kanye West because my dad was too busy,' he said.

Famous family: Kim and Kanye have four children North, seven, Saint, four, Chicago, two, and Psalm, 14 months

Kanye spent much of the rally discussing abortion, and announced that he wanted women to be given money by the government for bearing children, to discourage abortion.

'Abortion should be legal but the option of maximum increase should be available,' he said.

'Everybody who has a baby gets a million dollars or something. No more Plan B - Plan A.'

Meanwhile, Kanye caused further drama during a Twitter rant when he brought up the fact that Kim had met with rapper Meek Mill back in 2018.

Kanye had claimed he'd been 'trying to get divorced' from Kim since she met Meek at LA's Waldorf Astoria hotel to discuss prison reform.

The 33-year-old rapper, real name Robert Rihmeek Williams, was pictured meeting Kim in a professional capacity, joined by philanthropist Clara Wu at a rooftop restaurant.

However, Meek was clear in his denial that nothing untoward happened between himself and Kim, writing earlier this week: 'Sh** is cappp cmon', which is slang. (Meek announced at the weekend that he has now split with his girlfriend Milan Harris.)

After the photo emerged, Meek took to his Twitter account last Thursday to tweet: 'Being around the wrong environment and wrong people will make you forget your worth! Stay focused.'

Kim earned glowing praise from Mill last year, when the rapper called her a 'friend' and hailed her for 'doing a lot of good work' on prison reform.

Meek and Kim both attended a Criminal Justice Reform Summit in Los Angeles in November 2018, but it was at the Jeremy Hotel rather than the Waldorf in Beverly Hills which Kanye appeared to be referring to.

Last Tuesday, in a string of now-deleted shocking tweets, Kanye claimed: 'I've been trying to get divorced since Kim met with Meek at the Warldolf for 'prison reform.'

He added: 'Meek is my man and was respectful That's my dog Kim was out of line I'm worth 5 billion dollars and more than that through Christ But ya'll ain't listen to MJ and now ya'll believe them???'

He said sorry: However, Kanye apologized to his wife in a tweet last week, amid reports that he went to hospital to be treated for anxiety
People hold posters reading "Freedom for Khabarovsk region's governor Sergei Furgal" during an unsanctioned protest in support of Furgal, who was interrogated and ordered held in jail for two months, in Khabarovsk, 6,100 kilometers (3,800 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Saturday, July 18, 2020. Read more

Four thousand miles west of Portland, Ore., clear across the Pacific Ocean, there are other political demonstrations that deserve our attention.

In Russias far eastern city of Khabarovsk, near the Chinese border, tens of thousands of angry Russians have turned out for three weeks to protest the arrest of a popular young governor. Sergei Furgal was pulled from his car, bundled off to Moscow, and accused of 15-year-old murders, but his real crime was to challenge Vladimir Putin by defeating a Kremlin ally in elections.

What makes these demonstrations so stunning is that Putin has crushed similar protests in far off Moscow, and elsewhere. The Kremlin has also been cracking down on free press remnants and political activists since Putin orchestrated a July 1 referendum that permits him to remain president for his lifetime.

Yet, serious economic problems, including low oil prices and the ravages of COVID-19  along with gross Kremlin corruption  are eating away at Putins legitimacy. The Kremlin was apparently taken by surprise by the outpouring of public fury in Khabarovsk and hasnt yet decided what to do.

 READ MORE: By sending feds to Portland for political gain, Trump follows autocrats' playbook | Trudy Rubin

Khabarovsk is a bracing reminder that weakened at home, Putin will be even more eager to prove that Russia is still a global great power. That gives him a strong incentive to try again to interfere in a U.S. presidential election in favor of his fervent admirer, Donald Trump.

Watching clips of the demonstrations, it is easy to feel the rage of Russians at Putins billionaire circle while many medical facilities lack running water or heating and small businesses are ripped off by officials.

Khabarovsk banners read: We hate Moscow; Putin resign!; They have stolen our Governor; and Go away from our river, our minerals, our resources. The BBC reports that, according to the latest Levada poll, 83% of Russians know about the protests, and 45% view them positively, even though state-controlled TV has ignored them.

If you want to grasp how post-Soviet Russia was overtaken by thugs, read Putins People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West by investigative journalist Catherine Belton. It traces how Putin and a small group of KGB agents, many from his hometown of St. Petersburg, took control of the countrys natural resources and extended tentacles into the United States and Europe.

Reading the book cast me back to a day in November 1998, when I stood by the stairs in a St. Petersburg apartment building, on a landing strewn with flowers in tribute to Galina Starovoitova. A human rights activist and parliament member whom I knew well, she had been gunned down right there a couple of days prior, apparently because of her crusade against corruption in the oil industry. Putin, then head of Russias main intelligence agency and soon to become president, could surely have learned who ordered the hit job, but the murderer was never identified.

At Galinas graveside, in the frigid cold, an endless procession of mourners filed by, piling notes and flowers on the site, as many cried silently. Those tears were the prelude to the two decades of rapacious Putin thuggery that has led to Khabarovsk.

So one must give full credit to the courage of the demonstrators  and Gov. Furgal. Although Putins popularity is at its lowest since he took power, it still stands at 59%, perhaps because Russians see no alternative, perhaps because they fear pollsters. The people of Khabarovsk know the dangers of challenging Putin and the slim odds of moving the Kremlin, yet they still turn out.

 READ MORE: Absolutely, this harms Ukraine: Prominent NGO official in Kiev talks about Trump shakedown | Trudy Rubin

But the Kremlin kidnapping of Furgal is a reminder of Putins methodology  and of the importance of the 2020 election to the Russian leader. He has made clear his determination to expand Russian influence in Europe, with political and military provocations. He openly seeks to undermine NATO and to weaken the European Union.

Trump has helped Putin in the past  denigrating the EU and NATO, and threatening to quit the security alliance while inviting Putin back to G-7 talks over European objections. Should Trump be reelected, many European officials assume he would exit NATO. If Trump wins, it is not a matter of if, but when NATO goes away, I was told by U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Pa.), a member of the U.S. delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Boyle says this is the firm belief of pro-American officials across the ideological spectrum in Europe.

So Putin has every incentive to intervene again in the 2020 election.

They dont need to do much, just to take advantage of our volatility, says Fiona Hill, the former national security expert on Russia who testified at the Trump impeachment hearings. If they think Biden is going to win, they will try to weaken him. If the election is tight, something small might have more consequences.

Khabarovsk should serve as a warning that an autocrat wounded at home may strike out elsewhere. Think of Galina. Pray for the demonstrators. And beware.
(Newser)  After 18 months in office, Attorney General William Barr made his first appearance before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesdayand he clashed with Democrats, including Rep. Jerrold Nadler, right from the start. In his opening remarks, Nadler, the committee chairman, said the Trump administration had "twisted the Department of Justice into a shadow of its former self." Barr, he said, had "aided and abetted the worst failings of the president." After Barr was asked later in the hearing whether he had discussed the deployment of federal officers in Portland with President Trump as part of a re-election strategy, he said he would not discuss his conversations with the president, USA Today reports. "Shame on you Mr. Barr," Nadler said."Shame on you." More:

He says Democrats are trying to discredit him. Barr defended himself and the administration's policies but he revealed little that was new, the AP reports. "Many of the Democrats on this committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that I am simply the presidents factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions, Barr said in his opening statement. "Judging from the letter inviting me to this hearing, that appears to be your agenda today."

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Cabinet has discussed re-election . Politico reports that Barr told the committee Trump's re-election has been discussed in Cabinet meetings, but he rejected accusations that he was using the Justice Department to help Trump get re-elected. "Im a member of the Cabinet and theres an election going on, so obviously the topic comes up," he said.

. Politico reports that Barr told the committee Trump's re-election has been discussed in Cabinet meetings, but he rejected accusations that he was using the Justice Department to help Trump get re-elected. "Im a member of the Cabinet and theres an election going on, so obviously the topic comes up," he said. He contradicts Trump on election being "rigged." Barr contradicted Trump's claim that "mail-in voting is going to rig the election," saying he "has no reason to believe" the election will be rigged, although he does believe there is a high risk of voter fraud, the Washington Post. Asked by Democratic Rep. Cedric L. Richmond whether the president has the power to move Election Day, Barr said he had never looked into it.

Barr contradicted Trump's claim that "mail-in voting is going to rig the election," saying he "has no reason to believe" the election will be rigged, although he does believe there is a high risk of voter fraud, the Washington Post. Asked by Democratic Rep. Cedric L. Richmond whether the president has the power to move Election Day, Barr said he had never looked into it. Decision in Stone case defended. Barr defended his decision to intervene in the Roger Stone case, saying that while he believes the prosecution was "righteous," the initial sentence was too harsh. "I agree the president's friends don't deserve special breaks, but they also don't deserve to be treated more harshly," he said, per USA Today.

Barr defended his decision to intervene in the Roger Stone case, saying that while he believes the prosecution was "righteous," the initial sentence was too harsh. "I agree the president's friends don't deserve special breaks, but they also don't deserve to be treated more harshly," he said, per USA Today. Riots "an assault on the government of the United States." Barr, who said in prepared testimony that riots in Portland and elsewhere were not connected to the death of George Floyd, defended the federal deployment in Portland and said every lawmaker present should condemn attacks on federal property. "It is, by any objective measure, an assault on the Government of the United States," he said.

Barr, who said in prepared testimony that riots in Portland and elsewhere were not connected to the death of George Floyd, defended the federal deployment in Portland and said every lawmaker present should condemn attacks on federal property. "It is, by any objective measure, an assault on the Government of the United States," he said. Republicans defend Barr . Republicans on the committee hit back against the Democrat accusations and played a five-minute video montage of violence at protests across the country. " I want to thank you for defending law enforcement, for pointing out what a crazy idea the defund the police policy, whatever you want to call it, is, and standing up for the rule of law," said Rep Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the committee, per the New York Times.

. Republicans on the committee hit back against the Democrat accusations and played a five-minute video montage of violence at protests across the country. " I want to thank you for defending law enforcement, for pointing out what a crazy idea the defund the police policy, whatever you want to call it, is, and standing up for the rule of law," said Rep Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the committee, per the New York Times. "What enemies have I indicted?" Barr also defended his intervention in the Michael Flynn case, and rejected Nadler's accusation that under Barr, Trump's " enemies will be punished and his friends will be protected," the Post reports. "What enemies have I indicted?" Barr asked. "Could you point to one indictment that has been under the department that you feel is unmerited?"

(Read more William Barr stories.)
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday that 6,518 illegal immigrants have been rescued and returned to Libya so far in 2020, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

The rescued immigrants include 462 women and 340 miners, the IOM said, adding 101 died and 168 went missing on the Central Mediterranean route.

According to IOM, 9,225 illegal immigrants were rescued and returned to Libya in 2019, while 270 died and 992 went messing on the Central Mediterranean route.

Libya has been plagued by insecurity and chaos ever since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011, which made it a preferred point of departure for immigrants to cross the Mediterranean Sea toward Europe.
OTTAWA - A timeline of events regarding the Canada Student Service Grant program, based on public documents, events and statements from cabinet ministers, government officials, and WE Charity:

March 6, 2020: WE Charity staff prepare a concept paper on service learning for public servants at Employment and Social Development Canada.

April 5: Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talk over the phone about how to help students whose summer job and volunteer opportunities were vanishing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Finance Department officials are tasked with considering options the next morning.

April 7: Small Business Minister Mary Ng and WE co-founder Craig Kielburger have an introductory phone call in which Ng asks WE to send what it calls a pre-established proposal to help young people launch businesses.

April 7 or 8: Morneaus office contacts the WE organization, among other groups, to get their input on potential programs. Morneau says the call was on April 7 while WE says it was April 8.

April 9: WE Charity sends the unsolicited proposal for a youth business program to Youth Minister Bardish Chagger, Ng, Morneau and Trudeaus office. The price tag is between $6 million and $14 million to provide digital programming and $500 grants, plus incentive funds, for 8,000 students.

April 16: ESDC officials mention WE in the context of the student program in an email discussion with Finance officials.

April 18: Morneaus officials raise the idea of partnering with a non-profit, or for-profit group to administer the program. (ESDC officials suggest the same day that WE might be an option.) Morneau said it was the first time he was involved in any talk about WE and the grant program.

April 19: Wernick contacts Craig Kielburger. WE says the call was to discuss launching a youth service program in the summer and that Wernick asks Kielburger to develop a proposal to fulfil that objective. During the call, Wernick learns of the April 9 proposal for a youth business program and Kielburger agrees to send both proposals.

April 20: Morneaus office contacts WE to ask about its ability to deliver a volunteer program. An officials record of the call notes WE Charity will re-work their 10-week summer program proposal to fully meet the policy objective of national service and increase their current placements of 8,000 to double.

April 21: Morneau approves going with an outside organization to run the volunteer program, but no specific group is chosen.

April 22: Trudeau announces a $9-billion package of student aid, including the outline of a volunteer program paying students up to $5,000 toward education costs, based on the number of hours they volunteer. WE sends Wernick an updated proposal to reflect the announcement. The message is forwarded to Chagger, Ng and Morneau.

April 26: Morneau speaks with WE co-founder Craig Kielburger, but told the finance committee neither of them talked about the Canada Student Service Grant program. Craig Kielburger later tells the committee he only brought up the youth business proposal, not the grant program.

April 27: Volunteer Canada, a charity that promotes volunteering and helps organizations use volunteers well, meets Chagger and raises concerns about paying students hourly rates below minimum wage and calling it volunteering.

May 4: WE sends a third proposal to ESDC, this time with more details and specific to the grant program. Finance official Michelle Kovacevic, who was working on the program, told the finance committee she received it May 7.

May 5: Chagger goes to a special COVID-19 cabinet committee with the recommendation to go with WE for the program. Morneau isnt at the meeting.

May 22: Cabinet, including Trudeau and Morneau, approved handing the reins of the program to WE.

May 23: The public service officially begins negotiating a contribution agreement with WE, which would have paid up to $43.5 million in fees to the group.

May 25 to June 3: In a series of meetings with Volunteer Canada, WE suggests the target for placements through the program had gone from 20,000 to 100,000.

June 12: WE co-founder Marc Kielburger says in a video chat with youth leaders that he heard from Trudeaus office about getting involved in the volunteer program the day after it was announced by the prime minister. He later backtracks, saying the contact came the week of April 26 from Wernick, and not the PMO.

June 23: WE Charity Foundation signs a contribution agreement with the federal government. WE signatories include Scott Baker, named as president of the one-year-old foundation and executive director of WE Charity, and chief financial officer Victor Li. Chagger signs for the government.

June 25: Trudeau unveils more details about student aid. A government release notes that WE will administer the student-volunteer program.

June 26: Facing questions about WE, Trudeau says the non-partisan public service made the recommendation, and the government accepted it: As the public service dug into it, they came back with only one organization that was capable of networking and organizing and delivering this program on the scale that we needed it, and that was the WE program.

July 3: Citing the ongoing controversy, WE and the Liberals announce a parting of ways and the federal government takes control of the program. Ethics commissioner Mario Dion tells Conservative and NDP ethics critics in separate letters he will examine Trudeaus role in the awarding of the agreement because of the prime ministers close ties to the group.

July 9: WE says it has paid Trudeaus mother Margaret about $250,000 for 28 speaking appearances at WE-related events between 2016 and 2020. His brother Alexandre was been paid $32,000 for eight events, and Trudeaus wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau received $1,400 in 2012 for a single appearance. The organization says Trudeau himself has never been paid by the charity or its for-profit arm.

July 13: Trudeau apologizes for not recusing himself from discussions about WE over his familys longtime involvement with the organization. Morneau also issues an apology.

July 16: Dion says he will investigate Morneaus actions in the affair. Chagger testifies at the finance committee, saying Trudeaus office didnt direct her to go with WE.

July 21: Ian Shugart, clerk of the Privy Council, tells the Commons finance committee there is no evidence to suggest Trudeau spoke with WE before the organization was awarded the deal to run the student-volunteer program.

July 22: Morneau tells the finance committee he just repaid over $41,000 to WE for travel expenses the organization footed for the minister and his family. The Opposition Conservatives call for Morneau to resign.

Trudeaus office says he and his chief of staff, Katie Telford, have agreed to testify before the committee with a date and time to be set.

The House of Commons ethics committee also calls on Trudeau to testify, and votes to seek copies of records for Trudeau and his familys speaking appearances dating back years. Six opposition members outvote five Liberals to have that committee start its own investigation.

July 23: Conservatives and New Democrats ask Dion to launch a new probe of Morneau over his travel expenses.

July 27: A copy of the contribution agreement with WE Charity Foundation is filed with the finance committee. It lays out the details of the program, including a provision for a maximum contribution of $543.53 million  $500 million for grants, and $43.53 million to WE.

July 28: Craig and Marc Kielburger testify over four hours of sometimes testy interactions with MPs on the finance committee. The co-founders of WE Charity say their history and experience, not ties to Liberal cabinet ministers, landed the group the deal to run the volunteer program. They add they would have never agreed to take part in the program had they known it could jeopardize the work the WE organization has done over 25 years.

They also say WE estimated the cost of the program to be between $200 million and $300 million.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2020.

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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson

Britain will crack down on junk food advertising and introduce calorie counts on menus in an effort to tackle obesity and ease the pressure on the countrys National Health Service amid the coronavirus pandemic, the government said Monday.

For the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, the intersection of obesity and the coronavirus is personal. Johnson was, by his own admission, way overweight when he was admitted to the hospital after becoming ill with COVID-19 this year, and his health deteriorated to such an extent that at one point he needed intensive care.

Studies have linked obesity to a greater risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19, and Johnson, writing in the British newspaper The Daily Express, described his time in hospital as a wake-up call.

We all put things off  I know I have, Johnson wrote. Ive wanted to lose weight for ages, and like many people I struggle with my weight.

I go up and down, but during the whole coronavirus epidemic and when I got it, too, I realized how important it is not to be overweight, he added.

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

As part of the governments new obesity strategy, advertisements for any food high in fat, sugar or salt will be banned on television and online until 9 p.m. to avoid hours when children are most likely to see them. There will also be a consultation on whether Britain should entirely ban online ads for junk food.

All large restaurants and cafes will be required to add a calorie count to their menus, and the government will look into adding calorie labels to alcoholic drinks.

Promotional offers like buy one, get one free on fatty or sugary foods will also be prohibited.

Obesity in Britain has long been cited as a growing problem and as a drain on the NHS, and the country is usually near the top of lists ranking Europes fattest countries.

Government statistics show almost two-thirds of adults in England are overweight or obese. The World Health Organization estimates that about 39% of adults worldwide are overweight and that around 13% are obese.

More than 45,000 people in Britain have died from the coronavirus. Nearly 8% of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units have been morbidly obese, the British government said, even though morbidly obese people account for only 2.9% of the general population.

Johnson said in a video posted on Twitter on Monday that he had lost more than 14 pounds since his time in the hospital.

The Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper, reported that the prime minister weighed 245 pounds when he was hospitalized in April. Even with his recent slimming, Johnson, who is about 5 feet 10 inches tall, would still rank as obese, according to an NHS calculator, although the prime minister said he had only just started concentrating on building his fitness and losing weight.

The wide-ranging measures announced Monday are a change in tack for Johnson, who last year described a levy on sugary drinks as sin stealth taxes and warned of the continuing creep of the nanny state.

Professor Parveen Kumar, a spokeswoman for the British Medical Association, which represents doctors, said in a statement Monday that the strategy could go a long way in kick-starting a health revolution for the nation.

But the measures did not receive such a warm welcome from the food and retail industry. Tim Rycroft, chief operating officer at the Food and Drink Federation, a group representing manufacturers in the sector, called the plans a punishing blow for companies that had been heralded by government for feeding the nation during the COVID crisis.

The federation said that while it supported the governments push for Britain to become healthier, the proposed policies had been shown to be ineffective and would serve only to raise prices.

c.2020 The New York Times Company
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said that charges for Covid-19 treatment in private hospitals fixed by the state government in consultation with the private hospitals are the lowest in the country.

The per-day charges for treatment in private hospitals are Rs 2,300 in general ward, Rs 6,500 in ICU and Rs 11,500 in Ventilator ICU.

The Chief Minister said, In Kerala, treatment for Covid-19 is provided completely free of cost in government hospitals. Covid hospitals and Covid First-Line Treatment Centres also provide free meals to patients. Private hospitals are cooperating well with the government for Covid-19 treatment.

As of now, 44 non-functioning hospitals and 42 partially functioning hospitals in the private sector have been identified for taking over and will be converted for coronavirus treatment. More hospitals are coming forward to join hands with the government for coronavirus treatment as part of the Karunya Suraksha scheme, he said.

Vijayan stated that CASP beneficiaries and government-referred Covid-19 patients will get free treatment from empanelled private hospitals. A temporary empanelment facility has been set up exclusively for Covid-19 treatment, he said.

He informed that 45 per cent of the 12,801 beds available in 101 Covid First-Line Treatment Centres (CFLTCs) are now occupied. He also announced that more CFLTCs are being prepared and additional manpower resources required will be mobilised.

On Monday, 702 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed in Kerala as 745 patients under treatment have recovered from the disease. The total number of Covid cases confirmed in the state so far is 19,727 and there are 495 hotspots.
Report projects 35 million youth to leave Christianity by 2050; Greg Stier responds Dare 2 Share leader says youth ministry needs to be 're-engineered' Sponsored by

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With 35 million youths raised in Christian families projected to disaffiliate from Christianity by the year 2050, youth ministry leader Greg Stier believes churches can't settle for simply slowing down the bleeding.

How about not just slowing down the bleeding, what if there was a revival that flipped those stats? he asked. That is what we are praying for. How do we flip the switch?"

The 131-page report, titled The Great Opportunity, is based on reviews of different reports and surveys examining millennial attitudes toward religion and relies most heavily on four major research efforts.

The report was completed in collaboration between Pinetops Foundation and The Veritas Forum.

According to the report's authors and to Greg Stier, who founded the national youth ministry organization Dare 2 Share and has written several books on the topic, the massive disaffiliation trend over the next 30 years will represent the largest missional opportunity in U.S. history.

But in order to respond to the trend, Stier believes that churches need to reimagine the way they do youth ministry.

If you were to go back to the retention rate of Gen X from 20 years ago, that would slow down [disaffiliation] to 20 million young people, Stier told The Christian Post. Thats more than the First and Second Great Awakenings and all the Azuza Street Revival and all of Billy Grahams converts combined.

The report relies on research efforts like Pew Research Centers Religious Landscape Study (2007-2014), the Baylor Religion Survey (2007 to 2011), a September 2016 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute and the Gallup Annual Religion Surveys (1992-2016).

Based on those primary data sources, we built out religious switching scenarios for the next 30 years, using the most up-to-date switching and attitudinal data, harmonizing assumptions across primary data sources," the report explains.

Our projections are based on modeling techniques akin to what one might use in a professional context for market forecasts. They are certain to diverge over time from reality, and we have called out our assumptions wherever we can.

The report uses compiled data to project the decline in Christianity for three different scenarios: a base case (if trends continue in line with how they are), worst-case scenario (if trends worsen) and a better case scenario" (if trends improve to Generation X rates).

The report estimates through its base case scenario that as many as 35 million youths raised in the Christian homes will disaffiliate from the faith by 2050.

Additionally, Christianity in America will make up just 59 percent of the countrys population by 2050, compared to 73 percent today. Meanwhile, the base case indicates that the population of the religiously unaffiliated will double to 30 percent of the total population in 2050.

Taking into account a worst-case scenario, the report projects that as many as 42 million people raised in Christian homes will disaffiliate from Christianity by 2050 while the Christian population will decrease to 54 percent and the unaffiliated population will increase to 35 percent.

Taking into account a better-case scenario, the report estimates that 26 million people raised in Christian families will disaffiliate by 2050. Then, Christians will comprise 64 percent of the nations population by 2050.

It is the largest and fastest numerical shift in religious affiliation in the history of this country, the report stresses.

Even in the most optimistic scenarios, Christian affiliation in the U.S. shrinks dramatically, and in our base case, over 1 million youth at least nominally in the church today will choose to leave each year for the next three decades. 35 million youth raised in families that call themselves Christians will say that they are not by 2050.

Although the report admits that it is hard to find clear data, it projects the single largest generational loss of souls in history.

This is not a gradual shift as in Europe (and also fundamentally different; we do not believe this is the result of secularization but indifference), the report expands.

The need is urgent; the last Millennials are now nearly 20, and all data suggests that most people settle on their religious affiliation by 25, with the door closing by 35. Statistically, though perhaps not ultimately, weve lost much of the opportunity for Millennials, and the first wave of Gen Z is now entering college.

The report stresses that there is good news offered by such an opportunity.

It calls for a number of things, including a doubling or tripling of church planting efforts in the United States. The current rate of church planting will not be enough to address population growth and anticipated church closures of older congregations.

At least 215,000 churches will need to be planted by 2050 just to maintain the status quo.

The report also calls for churches to transform youth discipleship, contending that the youth ministry models of the last 50 years are no longer effective.

Despite its findings, Stier said he is thrilled for the report because of the opportunity presented to the Church.

He's praying for another awakening. "Revival is something God brings about but it can change paths pretty quickly. The first Great Awakening happened when America was a pretty dark place before we were the United States," he noted.

Jonathan Edwards, his revival, had been chiefly among the young. So it was a student youth movement that prepared us to become the United States. What if it was a student youth movement that would bring us back to our roots and unite this nation and transform it from the inside out?

Stier said that opportunity lies with the fact that the churches in the U.S. outnumber high schools and middle schools by almost a five-to-one ratio. He stressed that churches need to be fully onboard when it comes to mobilizing and equipping youth to become missionaries on their campuses in order to reach their peers with the Gospel.

Youth ministry needs to be re-engineered to be Gospel-advancing and disciple-multiplying, he stressed. It is not about meetings but about the mission. Young people are longing for a cause that matters. So they need to be equipped and youth leaders need to be equipped to equip them.

There is nothing wrong with games and all that stuff, but they (youth groups) need to take it serious about the mission that God has put before us. I think we have to have a higher standard for youth ministry than fun, games, pizza and a 10-minute lesson.

On Oct. 12, Dare 2 Share will host its third annual Dare 2 Share Live, a simulcast revival event that incorporates satellite sites across over 100 cities worldwide. At the event, students are trained on how to share the Gospel with their friends and communities.

Each of the cities youth groups come together and they're equipped to share the Gospel, Stier said.

Dare 2 Share will host a seminary in October to help equip youth leaders to live out the call of having a mission-focused youth ministry.

We are trying to get other organizations in on it. It cant just be Dare 2 Share. We are trying to get entire denominations and parachurch organizations working with us in this movement, he explained.

It is not going to be one ministry that turns the tide but we are hoping that Dare 2 Share Live provides the sizzle. It will be 100-plus cities from Anchorage, Alaska, to Puerto Rico where students will be simultaneously trained in a single day. The kids well be sending out will have thousands of Gospel conversations happening across the nation.
Getting cat pictures across the internet requires lots of infrastructure, which is why Google is paying to lay another subsea pipe across the Atlantic. In a blog post today, the search giant revealed that its invested in a new line to connect New York with London and Bilbao.

The cable, named Grace Hopper, is the fourth Google-owned pipe after Curie (SF to Chile via Panama), Dunant (Virginia Beach to France) and Equiano (Lisbon to Cape Town via Lagos). Its designed to bolster the forthcoming rollout of Google Cloud in Spain, as well as improve connectivity between the US and Europe.

Nestled inside the line is 32 fibers packing optical fiber switching that, Google says, will improve reliability and greater redundancy to prevent outages. The contract to lay the pipe was signed earlier this year, and Google is expecting it to come online at some point in 2022.

If youre unfamiliar, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper was an American computer scientist who worked on the Harvard Mark 1. After the war, Hopper worked on developing computers both for the Navy and the general public, and laid much of the groundwork for the programming language COBOL. She was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB) today released its preliminary results for the recent U.S. tax season that was extended due to the coronavirus pandemic. Total U.S. tax returns prepared by or through H&R Block were 21.2 million for the period of May 1, 2019 through July 17, 2020, an increase of 0.7 million, or 3.3%, when compared to May 1, 2018 through July 17, 2019.



I could not be prouder of the agility and resilience demonstrated by our team, said Jeff Jones, H&R Blocks president and chief executive officer. While facing unprecedented disruption to all facets of daily life, we served more clients than last year by delivering expertise and care, while accelerating our efforts to digitally enable all aspects of our business.

Tax Season Results

The increase in tax returns was led by DIY online filings (excluding Free File returns) of 6.7 million, resulting in growth of 10.6%. This was the fourth consecutive year of growth in the DIY business driven by continued product innovation, competitive pricing, and increased awareness. Total Assisted filings were 11.5 million which represented a decline of 2.8%. As the company shared in its most recent quarterly earnings call, the challenging operating environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic and various state and local orders limited the companys ability to operate its retail network.

Our DIY growth was strong, and we continued to receive positive client feedback and third-party accolades on the product, said Jones. Following a strong start to the tax season in our Assisted business, we were on track to deliver our outlook for the year. During the extension period, despite our modified operating model, we finished strong and exceeded our expectations. We will continue to build on our leading capabilities to deliver our human advantage in innovative ways.

The aforementioned results are included in a table attached to this press release.

Given the unusual nature of the tax season, there are elements of the industry data, such as paper filings and returns related to economic stimulus payments, that continue to shift week to week making it difficult to draw relevant comparisons. The company intends to provide additional perspective during its fiscal 2021 first quarter earnings call in September.

H&R Block to Announce Fiscal 2021 First Quarter Results on September 1

H&R Block will report fiscal 2021 first quarter results on Tuesday, September 1, 2020 after the New York Stock Exchange market close. At that time, a copy of the press release will be available on the companys investor relations website at https://investors.hrblock.com .

A conference call for analysts, institutional investors, and shareholders will be held at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, September 1, 2020. During the conference call the company will discuss fiscal 2021 first quarter results, tax season 2020 results, outlook, and a general business update. To access the call, please dial the number below approximately 5 minutes prior to the scheduled starting time:

U.S./Canada (866) 987-6821 or International (630) 652-5951

Conference ID: 2117669

The call, along with a presentation for viewing, will also be webcast in a listen-only format for the media and public. The link to the webcast can be accessed directly at https://investors.hrblock.com . The presentation will be posted on the Quarterly Results page at http://investors.hrblock.com following the conclusion of the call.

A replay of the call will be available beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, September 1, 2020 and continuing for seven days by dialing (855) 859-2056 (U.S./Canada) or (404) 537-3406 (International). The conference ID is 2117669. The webcast will be available for replay beginning on Wednesday, September 2, 2020 and continuing for 90 days at https://investors.hrblock.com.

About H&R Block

H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB) provides help and inspires confidence in its clients and communities everywhere through global tax preparation , financial services and small business solutions . The company is disrupting the tax industry by providing consumers price transparency and with digital platforms such as Tax Pro Go SM . H&R Block believes the best solutions blend digital capabilities with human expertise and care. For more information visit hrblock.com/news and follow @HRBlockNews .

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the securities laws. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They often include words or variation of words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "commits," "seeks," "estimates," "projects," "forecasts," "targets," "would," "will," "should," "goal," "could," "may," or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements provide management's current expectations or predictions of future conditions, events or results. All statements that address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future are forward-looking statements. They may include estimates of revenues, client trajectory, income, effective tax rate, earnings per share, cost savings, capital expenditures, dividends, share repurchases, liquidity, capital structure, market share, industry volumes, or other financial items, descriptions of managements plans or objectives for future operations, products or services, or descriptions of assumptions underlying any of the above. They also include the expected impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, including, without limitation, the impact on economic and financial markets, the Companys capital resources and financial condition, the expected use of proceeds under the Companys revolving credit facility, future expenditures, potential regulatory actions, such as extensions of tax filing deadlines or other related relief, changes in consumer behaviors and modifications to the Companys operations related thereto. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and reflect the company's good faith beliefs, assumptions and expectations, but they are not guarantees of future performance or events. Furthermore, the company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect changes in underlying assumptions, factors, or expectations, new information, data or methods, future events or other changes, except as required by law. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to a variety of economic, competitive and regulatory factors, many of which are beyond the company's control, that are described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the most recently completed fiscal year in the section entitled "Risk Factors" and additional factors we may describe from time to time in other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You may get such filings for free at our website at http://investors.hrblock.com . You should understand that it is not possible to predict or identify all such factors and, consequently, you should not consider any such list to be a complete set of all potential risks or uncertainties.

For Further Information

Investor Relations: Colby Brown, (816) 854-4559, colby.brown@hrblock.com

Media Relations: Susan Waldron, (816) 854-5522, susan.waldron@hrblock.com





U.S. TAX OPERATING DATA May 1, 2019 through July 17, 2020 May 1, 2018 through July 17, 2019 % Change U.S. Tax Returns Prepared: (in 000s) (1) (2) Company-owned operations 8,145 8,412 (3.2 )% Franchise Operations 3,324 3,389 (1.9 )% Total H&R Block Assisted 11,469 11,801 (2.8 )% Desktop 1,983 1,986 (0.2 )% Online 6,704 6,059 10.6 % Total H&R Block DIY 8,687 8,045 8.0 % IRS Free File 1,034 675 53.2 % Total H&R Block U.S. Returns 21,190 20,521 3.3 % Net Average Charge: (3) Company-owned operations $ 229.11 $ 231.57 (1.1 )% Franchise operations (4) 217.62 216.73 0.4 % DIY 31.41 32.87 (4.4 )%





(1) An assisted tax return is defined as a current or prior year individual tax return that has been accepted and paid for by the client, including Tax Pro GoSM and Tax Pro ReviewSM returns, and business returns. A DIY return is defined as a return that has been electronically filed and accepted by the IRS. Also included are online returns paid and printed. (2) Amounts have been reclassified between company-owned and franchise operations for offices which were refranchised or repurchased by the company during the periods presented. (3) Net average charge is calculated as tax preparation fees divided by tax returns prepared. For DIY, net average charge excludes IRS Free File. (4) Net average charge related to H&R Block Franchise Operations represents tax preparation fees collected by H&R Block franchisees divided by returns prepared in franchise offices. H&R Block will recognize a portion of franchise revenues as franchise royalties based on the terms of franchise agreements.








Man convicted of female blogger murder to serve 9-year prison term

 flickr.com/ Jobs For Felons Hub

19:09 28/07/2020

MOSCOW, July 28 (RAPSI)  The Moscow City Court on Tuesday upheld a 9-year high-security prison sentence given to the Moscow Region resident Maxim Gareyev for killing female blogger Yekaterina Semochkina, RAPSI learnt from the courts press service.

Earlier, Moscows Nikulinsky District Court convicted and sentenced Gareyev finding him guilty of murder. According to the sentence, he is to undergo compulsory mental treatment in a colony. Moreover, the court granted a 2.5 million-ruble moral damage claim filed by the victims relatives.

The court found that in July 2019 the defendant killed the woman with extreme atrocity in a rental apartment and hid her body in a bag. The bloggers body was found by the flat owner. Gareyev pleaded guilty.




Modified On Aug 07, 2020 07:22 PM By Sonny for Kia Sonet

Another carmaker is poised to enter the sub-4m SUV segment in India soon

Update (07/08/2020): Kia has officially unveiled the Sonet. You can read more about it here.

The sub-compact SUV market is gearing up for a few new entrants in 2020, starting with the Kia Sonet. Following the success of the Seltos, the Sonet will be another new global model that will be locally manufactured for the Indian market. The sub-4m SUV segment is still among the most popular and Kia can easily make a name for itself in this space. The Sonet will be making its world premiere on August 7 in India and heres what you can expect from it:

Premium design

The Sonet was previewed as a pre-production concept at Auto Expo 2020. Even though the final version is yet to be unveiled, weve had a few teasers and spied some test mules that confirm that various design elements from the concept have made their way to the production model. Kias sub-4m SUV has a premium look in terms of the front fascia, LED headlamps with integrated LED DRLs and a rear end design with connected taillamps.

Range of powertrains

The Kia Sonet will be sharing its engine options with its cousin, the Hyundai Venue. That means the Sonet will be offered with a choice of three engines: 1.2-litre petrol unit (83PS/114Nm), 1.0-litre turbo-petrol engine (120PS/171Nm) and the 1.5-litre diesel from the Seltos detuned to make 100PS/240Nm). The naturally-aspirated petrol will only be offered with a manual gearbox while the turbo-petrol engine will have a choice of three transmission options: 6-speed manual, 7-speed dual-clutch automatic and the newly introduced 6-speed iMT (clutchless manual). Kia is expected to offer the diesel engine with a 6-speed manual and introduce a 6-speed automatic option (from the Seltos) which is missing from the Venue.

Heres a table of the expected powertrains and their performance ratings:

1.2-litre Petrol 1.0-litre Turbo-petrol 1.5-litre Diesel Power 83PS 120PS 100PS Torque 114Nm 171Nm 200Nm Transmission 5-speed MT 6-speed MT/ 6-speed iMT/ 7-speed DCT 6-speed MT/ 6-speed AT

Loaded with features

Kias offerings are positioned as the premium choice in their segments and the same can be expected from the Sonet. It is expected to be equipped with a 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system, UVO connected car technology, sunroof, air purifier, wireless phone charger and a Bose premium sound system. The Sonet might also be the first in its segment to offer a 360-degree camera. Like the Venue, it will also get similar safety features like rear parking camera and sensors, upto 6 airbags, electronic stability control, vehicle stability management, and tyre pressure monitoring system.

Launch Likely In September 2020

The launch date for the Kia Sonet is yet to be confirmed but the carmaker has stated that it will arrive during the festive season. Kia is expected to price the Sonet between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 11.5 lakh.

Tough competition

The sub-4m SUV segment is a hotly contested one in the Indian automotive space. Kias Sonet will be taking on the likes of the aforementioned Hyundai Venue along with Mahindra XUV300, Ford EcoSport, Tata Nexon and Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza and other upcoming models like the Nissan Magnite and Renault Kiger.

Prices

Kia Sonet (expected) Hyundai Venue Mahindra XUV300 Ford EcoSport Tata Nexon Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza Rs 7 lakh to Rs 11.5 lakh Rs 6.70 lakh to Rs 11.51 lakh Rs 8.30 lakh to Rs 12.69 lakh Rs 8.18 lakh to Rs 11.72 lakh Rs 6.95 lakh to Rs 12.70 lakh Rs 7.34 lakh to Rs 11.4 lakh

(all prices are ex-showroom Delhi)
Two young sisters from Tennessee who had been reported missing and were suspected of running off with a 29-year-old man were found unharmed this morning.

The Cheatham County Sheriff's Office on Monday posted a Facebook message, announcing that the 'runaway girls,' ages 12 and 13, were 'in custody and safe.'

The agency offered no further details, only saying that the investigation is continuing.

Tennessee sisters, ages 12 and 13, were found safe on Tuesday after being missing since last Thursday

Sheriff's officials previously said they were looking for 29-year-old Jason Crutchfield (pictured) in connection to the girls' disappearance

The Cheatham County Sheriff's Office sent out an alert seeking the public's help in locating the sisters early Tuesday

In an earlier post dated Monday night, the sheriff's office appealed to the public's help in locating the runaways, as WKRN first reported.

According to the alert, the two sisters had run away from home and were suspected to be in the company of 29-year-old Jason Crutchfield.

The Ashland City resident was said to have 'given incriminating statements and needs to be located and questioned,' the status update read.

Crutchfield has not been charged with any crime and has staunchly defended himself on social media.

The girls' grandparents posted on Facebook that their two 'unruly' granddaughters had been missing since last Thursday.

The girls' grandparents posted a message on Facebook, saying the two 'unruly' sisters were last seen on Thursday before running away

The sisters' maternal grandmother wrote in a post on Monday that her daughter and the woman's other children had joined her on a weekend trip to an amusement park in Kentucky, while the older girls were still missing.

In a follow-up post on Tuesday, the grandmother confirmed that her granddaughters were safe after being dropped off at a police station.

Meanwhile, Crutchfield has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, writing in an expletive-ridden Facebook post that he was nowhere near Cheatham County and had nothing to do with the disappearance of the girls.

'Now I want the apology to go as far as this went world wide,' he wrote in a status update on Tuesday morning.

But a man claiming to be an uncle of the runaway girls quickly clapped back at Crutchfield, claiming that he has seen proof in the form of text message exchanges showing that the 29-year-old had been communicating with the minors, and allegedly professing his love to one of them.

Crutchfield vehemently denied any wrongdoing and wrote on Facebook that he had nothing to do with the girls' disappearance. He has not been arrested or charged

The 29-year-old made some serious counter-accusations, which have not been proven

'Apologies for what??' the uncle wrote. 'We still have proof of you and the girls talking & proof of pictures sent,so stick that apology up your a** & leave my nieces alone! Just because they werent found with you doesnt mean a damn thing because Ive seen the proof that you are a pedophile!!'

Crutchfield did not directly respond to the uncle's allegations.

As of Tuesday morning, no arrests or charges have been announced in the sisters' missing persons case.
Press Release

July 28, 2020 Explanation of vote on Bayanihan 2 -- Sen. Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Majority Leader. It is with regret that I have to vote no on this measure. I was listening to Sen. Recto and all the more I am convinced that a 'no vote' has basis. Mr. President, it has been 7 weeks after this chamber approved on 2nd reading the Bayanihan 2, extremely disturbing news of alleged massive corruption, 7 weeks after, in Philhealth hit the country's news headlines. In the days to come I understand hearings will be conducted to look into these serious allegations of the misuse of COVID related funding right in the middle of the pandemic. Today, nearly two months after the Government imposed the May 30 deadline to achieve 30,000 tests daily, we have failed to meet the target with over 10,000 backlog cases as of today. Today, nearly 5 months after the March 15 lockdown and after experiencing the longest community quarantine all over the world, the total number of COVID cases continues to rise with 82,040 total cases and 1,657 new confirmed cases and deaths now nearing 2,000 as of July 27, 2020. In contrast, Thailand to date has 3,292 cases, Malaysia has 8,897, and Vietnam has 420 cases. The difference in the numbers is glaring and disappointing.? ? Clearly, compared to all other countries in the region save for Indonesia whose population is nearly three times larger than ours, we have failed to stop the spread of the disease and have been unable to meet our own imposed targets and deadlines for mass testing, contact tracing, and isolation. ? ? The Senate last April correctly called on the resignation of Sec. Duque for his failure in leadership. Sadly, his incompetence and worse, his being linked to corruption has been condoned and left unpunished. ? ? I am afraid Mr. President that unless Secretary Duque is fired or is forced to step down as Chairperson of the IATF, the country will only see more incompetence and more corruption issues hounding the government's efforts in addressing the pandemic. It must be underscored that a review of the provisions of Bayanihan 2 that we have just approved on third reading will show that of the first 26 interventions listed by the law in Section 3 as necessary to effectively combat the pandemic, 13 or half of these needed interventions, are placed on the shoulders of the DoH. I am afraid that under the mediocre leadership displayed consistently since the pandemic hit us, none of these 13 interventions will be met or achieved and billions of funds will be spent yet again without our achieving the results necessary to manage the spread of the disease effectively. ? ? Without an effective management of the spread of the disease, Mr. President, we will be unable to reopen the economy and in failing to reopen the economy due to the failure of the DoH to bring COVID to manageable levels, then our economic recovery will be elusive and widespread hunger and joblessness will persist. In addition to the poor performance, Mr President, I believe the amount of 160 billion [pesos] is inadequate to address the economic losses we are now facing. To be fair, the Senate through Sen. Angara proposed a much higher amount in the original committee report but this was not what the Executive Department had in mind. Originally the Senate Committee report recommended the amount of 236 billion [pesos]. It is also my belief and I know this is shared by several other colleagues that to be able to face what is arguably the most serious health and economic crisis since World War 2, it will require more than just 160 billion [pesos] worth of government funds. And as Sen. Recto puts it, 13 days of salaries for our workers is worth 160 billion pesos. This is another concern regarding the impact of such an amount in the effort to revive the economy and provide meaningful assistance to those distressed. ? We vote no to additional funding specified in the Bayanihan 2 because we believe that Sec. Duque ought to be fired before billions more are allowed to be released to the DoH. We must hold him, the country's top health official and the Chairperson of the IATF, to account for the continuing spread of the disease among Filipinos. Since the first COVID foreigner patient was discovered seven months ago, the test scores on the outcome of the Philippine COVID response indicate failure: In terms of percentage of active cases, we are the worst among Asian countries: 65%. Singapore, in contrast is 8.8%, while Thailand is 3.5%. In terms of deaths per million population, ours is one of the worst: 17. Singapore is 5, and Thailand 0.8. In terms of percentage of recovered, among the worst among Asian countries: 32.1% recovered. Singapore has 91.2% recovery, and Thailand has 94.85% recovery. Numbers do not lie, Mr. President. All indicators point to a dismal, mediocre performance. Our people are going hungry. Millions are jobless. All are worried about the future because again, almost seven months after the first imported case of COVID, with what is said to be the longest lockdown in the world, the government still does not have a well-defined, clearly spelled out and efficient system for mass testing, contact tracing, and isolation. Naghihingalo ang ating ekonomiya dahil sa palpak at kulang na pagtugon sa pandemya. Ang kailangan natin ay magaling, mapag-aruga, at matinong doktor para maayos natin, masolusyunan natin, ang magkakambal na sakit ng COVID at kurakot na kinakaharap ng bayan natin. Hindi natin kailangan nang mas marami pang pulis. Ng mas marami pang militar. Hindi natin kinakailangan ang kamay na bakal. When the Senate voted on Bayanihan 1, this representation stressed that our expression of a yes vote with serious reservations comes with both a warning and an admonition to the implementors of the law that our people deserve better from them. In view of the foregoing, we vote no to Bayanihan 2. We vote no because we refuse to tolerate mediocrity, incompetence, and, yes,corruption. For Secretary Duque's failure to keep infections down and to flatten the curve, and his failure to stem corruption and to prevent the misuse of public funds meant to address the COVID pandemic, we vote no to additional funding specified in the Bayanihan 2. We cannot allow this mediocrity in leadership to further have a hand in billions of pesos worth of public funds and we cannot allow incompetence in the highest levels to continue to hold sway and make decisions urgently needed to stave off further economic losses, losses now reaching over a trillion pesos. For the sake of the nation's health and to prevent the total collapse of the nation's economy, Duque has to go. The nation deserves better. For this, again, it is with regret that I vote NO. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you Majority Leader.
It sounds criminal now, but the nitrogen norm on Teagasc's trial farms around Moorepark in Cork used to be 390kg/Ha.

That's almost 40pc more than the absolute legal limit these days, when nitrate directives insist that any farmer using up to 250kg/Ha must also adhere to a raft of additional measures to minimise run-off and emissions.

But, as every farmer knows, the bar is getting higher. The current regime on several Teagasc farms at Curtins, Clonakilty and Solahead is to limit overall nitrogen loads to 125kg/Ha.

It's not any single breakthrough technology that has facilitated this. Clover is probably the biggest factor, with farmers now being encouraged to develop swards that have a far higher proportion of this nitrogen fixer than heretofore.

Clover has been available for decades, and even though it holds out real potential savings for farmers in fertiliser costs, it was never a big feature, simply because bagged fertiliser was cheap and easier to manage than finicky clover swards.

The reason for the big shift to clover now is more about the environmental than the financial challenges that farmers are grappling with.

So it is really frustrating to see that these and all the other measures that have been implemented on farms around the country labelled as a failure in An Taisce's latest statement (see below) about our ammonia problem.

The lobby group has fired off a legal scud to the EU complaining about Irish efforts to reduce ammonia.

Their statement contrasts a recent vote by the Dutch Parliament to lower ammonia levels from farming with Ireland's decision to grant planning permission for a new cheese plant in Kilkenny.

Of course they glossed over the fact that the Netherlands has nearly double the density of dairy cows per square kilometre compared to Ireland.

Instead, they resort to slagging off Teagasc's emissions mitigation strategy as lacking "credibility in science, implementation and outcomes".

Like thousands of farmers, I pay Teagasc an annual fee because I believe that it gives me access to good scientific information and advice.

In fact, I'd go as far as to say that Irish farmers are lucky to have such a large body of skilled scientists carrying out cutting-edge, publicly-funded research on their behalf.

Right now, there are hundreds of highly-trained Teagasc staff totally dedicated to the task of looking at ways to mitigate emissions and the environmental impact of farming.

The Department of Agriculture are on the case too.

Almost half of all the national slurry output comes from pig and dairy farms governed by their nitrate derogation rules. So about 50pc of all the slurry generated is already spread via low-emission systems that cut ammonia losses by a quarter.

By rolling out the low-emission spreading requirements with the heaviest users first, and providing grant-aid for gearing up, the Department ensured there was enough kit available and that those who could most afford it were targeted first.

But the State's efforts are ignored by An Taisce.

Instead, they claim that "Teagasc is now pushing a change in nitrogen fertiliser type that increases ammonia emissions and does nothing to cut methane". This is presumably a reference to protected urea and is an example of some of the nonsense that they are becoming prone to.

Incomes

Switching from CAN to protected urea reduces greenhouse gases like nitrous oxide by over 70pc. Switching from urea to protected urea reduces ammonia emissions by nearly 80pc.

An Taisce laments how the increase in dairy cows over the last decade has "increased the pressure on small farmers".

Populist claims like this also ignore the fact that dairying remains the only enterprise that is returning an income comparable to your average environmentalist lobbyist.

It is rapidly becoming the only mainstream farm sector that can sustain the traditional one-person 40Ha set-up that has been the backbone of rural Ireland.

An Taisce don't bother suggesting ways to ensure the 10,000 new jobs created by the dairy sector in the last decade are secured for another decade.

They don't need to worry about that stuff, "especially now in the midst of the tremendous national effort to tackle coronavirus", to borrow a line from their press release.

Instead, they can label all the efforts of the Irish agri-sector at producing some of the most sustainable meat and dairy in the world a "failure" and head off to enjoy a nice latte, courtesy of an almond grove in California or a dairy farm in Brazil.

Darragh McCullough is a broadcaster and runs a mixed farming enterprise at www.elmgrovefarm.ie
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THE TENTH (10TH) PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS ON THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON MONDAY, 27TH JULY, 2020 AT STATE HOUSE, NAIROBI.

My Fellow Countrymen,

Today marks the 21st day since I last addressed you on the 6th of July 2020. On that day, in order to enable our economy to open, I reduced some measures we had taken against the COVID-19 pandemic. This action was made alongside a national call to individual and collective civic responsibility.

This process of de-escalating the measures against the pandemic needed all citizens to be far more serious with wearing masks, sanitising often, and keeping social distance. We have had 3 weeks to assess the response.

This morning, I chaired the Fifth Extraordinary Summit of the National and County Governments. This was third consultation we have had on where we stand as a country against one of the greatest health and economic threats faced by humanity in the last century.

The results are in. The surge of the infections has continued for the last 21 days, and in some areas accelerated sharply. The virus has now infected Kenyans in 44 counties.

Nationally, 17,603 persons have so far tested positive for the virus. My greatest concern at the moment is the aggressive surge of infections among young Kenyans who are in turn infecting their elders.

Contact tracing of the recent surge of infections indicates that our socialising without regard for protective behaviour, particularly in environments serving alcohol, is becoming a high risk factor.

We are fortunate that our Case Fatality Rate, at 1.6%, is much lower than the global average. Perhaps it is this relatively low rate that is giving some Kenyans false comfort that this is not a serious health risk to them and their families.

Those are the people who have interpreted the de-escalation of the measures as a green light to pay no heed to the guidance by our health authorities. Their reckless actions are endangering those around them, and our whole country.

I must remind Kenyans that the Government cannot police the morality of its citizens. Citizens must balance between their individual rights and their responsibility to each other.

We cannot have a policeman at every street and in every village to enforce the rules. We need, as citizens, to hold ourselves and one another accountable.

If someone enters your shop without a mask, insist that they wear one. If a waiter in a restaurant is not complying with the health rules, speak up, report them, and even refuse them your business. Do your part knowing that it will keep you and your loved ones safer.

These are not normal times. Countries whose citizens have taken a careless or relaxed attitude have suffered greatly. Let us not follow their example.

Some who have the most extensive and advanced medical facilities have been completely overwhelmed.

Their sick, by the tens of thousands, have suffered loneliness as comforting visitors are kept away to prevent infection. They have lacked sufficient space in their morgues.

They have dug graves by the tens of thousands for lonely, scary burials as health authorities limit the numbers who can mourn at the graveside. We cannot allow this to be Kenyas fate.

We mourn the 280 Kenyans lost to this cruel virus as of yesterday. Unfortunately, there will be more. The only question is whether we shall emerge with a low number of deaths or shall suffer a catastrophe.

The harsh reality is that we are at war. With an invisible, ruthless and relentless enemy.

In war, no mercy is shown by either side. In war, survival is key. Self-preservation is the priority for all in a theatre of war.

This is precisely the level of danger we find ourselves in today. COVID-19 will only be defeated if Kenyans stand shoulder-to-shoulder and take up arms.

In war, victory is assured by united armies that pursue the singular aim of subjugating the enemy. Our victory will be to suffer minimal harm, and to shorten the length of the war.

It is time to get realistic as parents, brothers, sisters, friends, colleagues and neighbours. Look at those around you that you love dearly and care about.

They are the people that your actions are going to impact going forward. You do not want to mourn them, and they do not want to mourn you.

The power is in your hands to save them. Wear a mask and wash your hands because you are a responsible and caring person, not because the Government is telling you to do so.

We all have to step up to being responsible. This is especially the case with leaders, particularly the elected ones.

All measures announced today shall be applied to all citizens regardless of their social or political standing.

When we de-escalated 21 days ago, I said that I would not hesitate to re-escalate again if reckless behavior is widespread.

Accordingly, in response to todays resolutions from my consultation with the Governors, and on the advice of the National Security Council and the National Emergency Response Committee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, I further order and direct as follows:

I. The Nationwide Curfew shall remain in force for a further 30 days.

II. There will be no sale of alcoholic drinks and beverages in eateries and restaurants across the Territory of the Republic of Kenya, effective at midnight today, for the next 30 days.

III. The closing time for restaurants and eateries has been amended from 8pm to 7pm, starting today at midnight, for the next 30 days.

IV. Bars shall remain closed until further notice.

V. That the InspectorGeneral of the National Police Service shall cause withdrawal of all licenses for bars operating in breach of this directive.

VI. That the Inspector General shall file a weekly return of all bars whose licenses have been withdrawn to the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and Co-ordination of National Government.

VII. That the Inspector General of Police shall ensure that his officers spare no mheshimiwa, or individual, regardless of social status or rank, who is either out after curfew or who flaunts the health protocols without being an essential worker. The rules are for all of us, and rank or status does not exempt you from them.

VIII. That the National Government Administration Officers and the National Police Service will strictly enforce Ministry of Health protocols on public gatherings, and particularly funerals.

IX. That strict personal sanction will ensue to all police and National Administration officers in whose areas of jurisdiction there is breach of the set guidelines.

X. That the Ministry of Health will develop a protocol to temporarily retain retired anesthetists and ICU staff to support the medical staff assigned to dealing with serious COVID-19 cases in the Counties.

XI. That any Government Institutions including all sporting facilities, stadia and educational institutions and other Government facilities, upon designation by the Cabinet Secretary for Health as a public health facility, shall be availed to the Ministry of Health for Isolation and Quarantine purposes.

If, and when, necessary, these measures will be made even more stringent. We will do this without hesitation because we hold precious the life of every Kenyan.

We also understand that our economic health as a country is ultimately tied to keeping our infections and fatalities as low as possible. There will be little tourism, scarce investment and falling trade if our headlines start to match those of countries that have been hardest hit by the pandemic.

I want to thank the Governors for the efforts they are making. I have been encouraged to note that over 70% of County Governments have met the set irreducible minimum we agreed on a few weeks ago.

This is only the start. I have urged them to do more to reach full compliance and to go even further. I have promised to work with them to help keep Kenyans working and producing as much as possible during this time.

Let me remind Kenyans that this is not a competition, not between counties and National Government, not amongst counties, not between political groupings, this is a war that we shall either drown together of hold each other up and see the glory of God as we celebrate victory against this invisible enemy.

In closing, let us salute the sacrifices made by our frontline staff the medical care workers who have unflinchingly sustained our war against COVID-19.

We honour the soul of the first health care worker to succumb to the coronavirus: Dr. Doreen Adisa Lugaliki. May perpetual light shine upon her oh Lord and grant her family and particularly her twins, who have been robbed the gift of a mother too early.

We extend our gratitude too to our law enforcement officers for their valiant acts.

We thank God for his Grace and Mercy, and pray to him to save the souls of those we have lost this pandemic.

Thank you.
Democratic mayors in Portland, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Kansas City and Albuquerque urged congressional leaders in a letter Monday to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized federal agents to cities that oppose such action.

Driving the news: The Trump administration is looking at deploying more federal agents to Portland, Oregon, following unrest during protests over the weekend, according to multiple reports.

Federal agents "repeatedly fired what appeared to be tear gas, flash bangs and pepper balls at protesters outside the federal courthouse in downtown in Portland" early Monday after some activists "shot fireworks" and climbed a fence surrounding the building, AP reports.

Democratic mayors in Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago, Portland, Kansas City, and Washington, D.C., wrote a letter to congressional leaders and the Trump administration last week that accused federal agents of escalating violence against civilians.

What they're saying: In their letter, the mayors criticized the Trump administration for "authorizing the deployment of riot-gear clad forces" to cities including Washington, D.C., Portland, Seattle without local authorities' consent.

"This administration's egregious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities should never happen," they added.

The other side: Axios has contacted the Trump administration for comment. President Trump tweeted Monday, "Homeland Security or Federal Forces are little involved in Seattle, other than we have a large standby team in case of emergency. The media is calling that one wrong also. In Portland, we are protecting Federal property, including the Courthouse, which wouldn't last a day!"

Attorney General Bill Barr will address the issue of federal agents in cities in opening remarks to the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, where he will refer to those involved in unrest during protests as "rioters" and tell lawmakers they should "condemn violence against federal officers and destruction of federal property."

Go deeper: Liberal cities resist as Trump stakes his re-election hopes on "law and order"
News of the destruction of about 800 jobs at WISAG Ground Services Tegel hit like lightning two weeks ago. This represents more than half of all ground services jobs at Tegel and Schoenefeld airports.

At the works meeting, which took place last Friday in a hangar at Tegel airport, the company announced it had gone into voluntary insolvency. This means July wages would only be paid as part of the insolvency proceedings and 350 employees would be laid off. In the next two months, they would still receive their wages, then it would be the end of the line for everyone at Tegel Airport. Only a small, hand-picked group of about 60 foremen and more highly qualified employees would be taken over to Schoenefeld.

The temporary workers, who are losing or have already lost their jobs, even independently of the insolvency proceedings, and whose number is probably over 400, were not mentioned at all.

The news came as a real hammer blow. The vicious treatment of these workers, who carry out heavy manual labour at the airport under great time pressurepassenger processing, baggage loading, apron work when refuelling the aircraft, marshalling the aircraft, ground transport, etc.cannot be underestimated.

WISAG ground services at work in Tegel (Photo: WSWS)

Voluntary insolvency is a special legal procedure that allows WISAG to circumvent contractually agreed redundancy measures worth some 14 million. It also means reducing the period of notice from seven to three months. The attacks on the workforce are not being planned by an insolvency administrator but by the company itself. In the end, they will be given a judicial stamp so that everything can be mercilessly enforced with the authority of the courts and state power.

Most of those affected, around 75 percent, receive wages in the lowest income groups, E1 to E4, which corresponds to an hourly wage of between 11.10 and 13.20. For full-time employment, this amounts to around 1,600 to at most 2,000 gross per month.

Anyone who has been working in airport ground services for 20 or 30 years, and therefore earns a little more and perhaps still has a claim to a company pension or a better social plan, also loses everything.

The Verdi trade union had already prepared itself for the job cuts in 2018 during the closure of Tegel, and had agreed to the departure of the old employees with a severance payment as part of a social plan. Under this agreement, the severance payment amounted to up to 15 months salary. As a result of the insolvency, this will now be reduced to a maximum of 2.5 months salary. One of WISAG's main objectives is to get rid of these people and their claims to a social plan and a company pension.

The situation is even worse for those working part-time and bringing home at most between 1,000 and 1,300 (net) per month. Quite a few are dependent on having their wages supplemented by housing benefit or Hartz-IV welfare payments at the JobCenter. They will receive almost no unemployment benefit and be entirely dependent on Hartz-IV payments. Especially single women are affected by this.

Most ground service employees are employed on temporary contracts or by subcontractors, often coming from eastern or southeastern European countries. They usually earn less than 10 an hour and have to pay 300 for shared accommodation.

These foreign temporary workers were the first victims of earlier job cuts. They were laid off long ago, right at the beginning of the pandemic, Thomas N., who works for WISAG Aviation in Berlin, told the WSWS. The Romanians were gone within an hour. German temporary workers will also be dismissed at short notice based on the collective bargaining agreement for temporary workers.

But those remaining are also affected. Since March, they have been on short-time work, receiving just 60 or 67 percent of their salary. In addition, WISAG simply suspended the recently signed collective agreement when the pandemic measures began. This agreement was itself lousy: an in-house collective agreement that only provided for a wage increase of 400 spread over three years.

The first instalment of 150 had been agreed for last March. Thomas N. reports, With the pandemic as the reason, even that was simply cancelled. As justification, Verdi secretary Enrico Rumker claimed that WISAG would pay the wage increase twice next year. This is all nonsense!

How Verdi works with WISAG

When WISAG announced the job cuts two weeks ago, Verdi expressed its surprise in a press release and called for talks with the employer.

The surprise could not have been that great. After all, numerous trade union secretaries and works council members belonging to Verdisuch as the Verdi district chief for Frankfurt, Roswitha Hausoccupy well-paid positions on the supervisory board of the WISAG holding company AVECO orsuch as Enrico Rumker, Holger Roler and Jens Grogeron the supervisory board of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH. There, too, 400 employees will be laid off. The union secretaries and works council representatives are closely enmeshed with the company.

For example, one day before the works meeting, in a press release, Verdi proposed the establishment of a transfer company, in which dismissed employees would be parked for a year.

Such transfer or employment companies were invented by the unions in the 1980s to break the resistance of steelworkers to mass dismissals. In the early 1990s, the unions then used them to suppress industrial action against the closure of hundreds of factories in former East Germany. They offer no protection against unemployment and poverty in old age but serve as marshalling yards for such outcomes. They have proved so efficient that their regulation as a state-sponsored measure was included in the Social Security Code in 1998.

Today, Verdi no longer even pretends to oppose the redundancies, but openly supports WISAGs mass redundancy plans by proposing a transfer company as an accompanying measure. One reason for this is it fears that even a hollow protest demonstration could slip out of its control and become the trigger for major spontaneous industrial action.

This fear is justified. For many years, Berlin airport employees can thank an unholy alliance of the trade unions and state governments under the Social Democrats (SPD), Left Party and the Greens for their ever-worsening working conditions, speed-ups and lower wages.

A milestone was reached in 2003 when the SPD-Left Party Senate (state executive) withdrew from the federal public service wage agreement, which at the time also applied to airport service company GlobeGround, and which was still owned by the states of Berlin and Brandenburg. This was the green light for the wage dumping spiral that then followed.

Four years later, Verdi organised a reduction collective agreement. Under the threat of otherwise imminent insolvency, employees were forced to forgo a fifth of their salary. This made the company attractive to WISAG for takeover and it was fully privatised in 2008. As a reward for his efforts, Ingo Kronsfoth, then head of the Verdi specialist group for air transport, became a managing director at WISAG.

This opened the way for the special WISAG system of wage dumping. The entire company of Frankfurt Social Democrat Claus Wisser operates according to the same principle: the brutal exploitation of low-wage labour, finely thought out and carefully coordinated and organized with the trade unions Verdi, IG Metall and IG BAU. Even according to trade union data, wages in 2012 were on average 30 percent below the level before privatisation.

In addition to WISAG ground services, the building and room cleaning crews of Facility Service GmbH and the pool of temporary workers (for the automotive industry) of WISAG Industrie Service Holding GmbH are also part of the network of subsidiaries of the WISAG corporation, which employs a total of over 51,000 people. In cooperation with subcontractors, they ensure that all those from the army of temporary workers can be transferred in good time to another WISAG company before otherwise acquiring a legal entitlement to permanent employment after two years of service in the same company.

The sell-out of the 2017 strike

A further milestone in the attacks on ground service workers was Verdis ending of the massive strike for a nationwide collective agreement and wage increases in 2017. Almost 99 percent of union members had voted for an indefinite strike, but the union simply called off the strike after three days, even though the employers had made no concessions whatsoever.

While the union leaders were still loudly proclaiming to the outside world that the national collective agreement was an objective, they had long since begun to arrange in-house contracts with minimal increases behind closed doors at one airport after another. This was also the case in Berlin. The result of the negotiations was sharply condemned by most workers and rejected in the subsequent vote, especially since it meant only a minimal pay increase. The union did not contest this, simply signing the collective agreement anyway.

The result is todays appalling working conditions and wage levels for employees at Berlin airports. The insolvency is now intended to ensure that profit margins for WISAG continue to climb thanks to low wages at the new BER airport, scheduled to start operations on October 31.

What this means for the families of those dismissed, both permanent and temporary workers, can easily be calculated. The shocking results of a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation recently became known: 21.3 percent of all children and young people under 18 grow up in Germany in poverty and precarious circumstances, half of them in families of those receiving Hartz IV benefits. WISAG and similar corporations and their stooges in the unions and political parties are the authors and profiteers of these conditions.

The mass dismissals that have now been announced have also been prepared for a long time. Two years ago, Verdi had already concluded a collective agreement on a social plan for the closure of Tegel. The coronavirus pandemic and the closure of Tegel airport, planned for the end of October, are now being used as an excuse to get rid of workers in the higher income groups and to exploit the remaining workforce even more.

These attacks are part of a global class war against workers in all industries. In Germany, the closures, mass layoffs and wage cuts in aviation, automotive, engineering, tourism and other industries are taking on proportions that even exceed those of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

While the population is being driven into unemployment and poverty, the corporations, banks and speculators receive billions from the state. Billions are cut in education, schools and infrastructure and used for military rearmament. It is high time to take up the fight against these attacks of the capitalists and their government!

The unions are on the side of the companies and defend the capitalist system. The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) therefore advocates the establishment of action committees in aviation which take the defence of jobs and wages into their own hands, coordinate them nationwide and unite them with the struggle of workers in other branches of industry in Germany and other countries of Europe and internationally.

This struggle must be conducted based on a socialist programme. Billionaires and millionaires like Claus Wisser and their corporations, banks and real estate companies must be expropriated without compensation, their companies placed under the democratic control of the working class. Only by freeing society from the dictates of the profit interests of a tiny rich minority and by reorganising it based on the needs of the working population can the right to work and a decent income be ensured.

The World Socialist Web Site and the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei invite all WISAG workers to contact them, participate in their meetings and discuss these policies.
- Kim Kardashian West has stood by Kanye West's side through this whole meltdown but people can see she is taking a strain

- Pictures of the couple were captured showing how hard Kim was taking the whole thing

- All Kim wants is for his hubby to get the treatment he needs to be able to fight his battle with bipolar disorder

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were spotted together for the first time since Kanyes online meltdown and it looks like the two are trying to work things out.

While it is never easy going through something like this, having literally the entire world chipping in does not make it any easier for the married couple.

READ ALSO: Papa Shirandula's wife discloses they lost 4 babies, explains how his TV name was coined

Kim Kardashian West planting a kiss on hubby Kanye during their happy days Photo: Kim Kardashian

Source: Instagram

READ ALSO: Laikipia: Woman slips into Thomson's Falls during photo session, drowns

Pictures of the couple in a car while in Wyoming, where Kanye's ranch is located, went viral on social media.

Kim could be seen breaking down in the car seemingly feeling helpless as she and Kanye had a discussion.

While the singer apologised for his online meltdown and what he said about his wife and her family, his wife still feels he needs professional help to conquer this battle once and for all.

READ ALSO: Kenyans share hilarious memes after Uhuru Kenyatta ordered closure of bars

READ ALSO: World's most identical twins who share boyfriend promise to conceive at same time

Kanye was talking about divorce just a couple of days back and fans are hoping the two will manage to work things out.

Kim, however, understood that the rapper was having a hard time with his condition and even came out to say they were trying the best they could to ensure he got the treatment he needed.

READ ALSO: Klopp says having breakfast with Sir Alex Ferguson felt like meeting the Pope

READ ALSO: Msichana, 16, akatwa mkono na mpenzi wake baada ya kukataa posa

TUKO.co.ke previously reported that Kanye had visited a hospital exactly as Kim had advised.

The 45-year-old visited a treatment facility in Wyoming near his ranch and stayed there for approximately 10 minutes before leaving.

It is understood an ambulance was later spotted in the Jesus is King rappers home moments later on Saturday, July 25.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly.

I should be given a medal for finding Chris Msando's car - Moses Kuria: Part two | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
US President Donald Trump holds a Bible while visiting St. John's Church across from the White House after the area was cleared of people protesting the death of George Floyd June 1, 2020, in Washington, DC.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

An Army National Guard officer is set to testify before Congress on President Donald Trump's controversial Bible photo-op in Washington last month.

Adam DeMarco, who serves in the DC National Guard and is an Iraq combat veteran, contradicted the president and his top advisers in his written statement on the events of June 1.

Contrary to Trump's assertions, DeMarco said that the protesters were peaceful and that "excessive" force was used to clear them, including tear gas.

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An Army National Guard commander who was present in Washington, DC, last month when law enforcement used force against protesters to clear a path for President Donald Trump to take a photo at a church near the White House is set to tell Congress that police used "excessive" force, including tear gas.

Maj. Adam DeMarco, who serves in the DC National Guard, is scheduled to testify on the controversial incident before the House Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday.

DeMarco, an Iraq War combat veteran, in his written statement said that the events he witnessed in Lafayette Square on June 1 were "deeply disturbing" to him and fellow National Guardsmen, noting that he was one of the most senior DC National Guard officers present at the square.

Police officers wearing riot gear push back demonstrators shooting tear gas next to St. John's Episcopal Church outside of the White House, June 1, 2020 in Washington D.C., during a protest over the death of George Floyd.

JOSE LUIS MAGANA/AFP via Getty Images

Though Trump depicted the demonstrators near the White House on June 1 as unruly and violent, DeMarco disputed this characterization.

"Having served in a combat zone, and understanding how to assess threat environments, at no time did I feel threatened by the protestors or assess them to be violent," DeMarco wrote. "It was my observation that the use of force against demonstrators in the clearing operation was an unnecessary escalation of the use of force."

"From my observation, those demonstrators  our fellow American citizens  were engaged in the peaceful expression of their First Amendment rights. Yet they were subjected to an unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force," DeMarco said.

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Attorney General William Barr has insisted that there was no connection between the clearing operation and Trump's photo-op, which involved the president momentarily holding up a Bible in front of St. John's Church.

"This was not an operation to respond to that particular crowd. It was an operation to move the perimeter one block," Attorney General William P. Barr told CBS News in June.

But DeMarco in his written statement said that US Park Police (USPP) unexpectedly began to disperse the crowd roughly 30 minutes prior to the 7 pm ET curfew implemented in the nation's capital. The clearing operation was expected to begin after 7 pm, DeMarco said.

DeMarco also revealed new details of the visit Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made to Lafayette Square prior to the clearing operation. According to the written statement, Milley told DeMarco to "ensure that National Guard personnel remained calm, adding that we were there to respect the demonstrators' First Amendment rights." Milley later apologized for his role in the events of June 1.

The Army National Guard commander also said that tear gas was used despite being told by Park Police that it would not be employed.

"I could feel irritation in my eyes and nose, and based on my previous exposure to tear gas in my training at West Point and later in my Army training, I recognized that irritation as effects consistent with CS or 'tear gas.' And later that evening, I found spent tear gas canisters on the street nearby," DeMarco said.

US Park Police in June denied using tear gas on the protesters, stating that pepper balls and smoke cannisters were used. This prompted Trump to accuse the media of lying about the June 1 incident.

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines the pepper balls the USPP used on June 1 to disperse the crowd as a form of tear gas. Park Police spokesman Sergeant Eduardo Delgado conceded in an interview with Business Insider last month that the USPP should have said it did not use two specific, common gases found in tear gas: CS and CN.

The events on June 1 led to widespread condemnation, including from Trump's former secretary of defense, and prompted historians to warn that the Trump administration had mirrored the tactics of authoritarian regimes.

Eliza Relman contributed reporting.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The students of St. James the Apostle Catholic Elementary School will have some new digs thanks to provincial funding.

On July 23, Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced the province would be investing more than $500 million to build 30 new schools, as well as create permanent additions to 15 existing schools.

According to the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, they have received $14.7 million in capital funding from the ministry to replace the current school.

The existing upper Stoney Creek school was opened in 1976. Designed as a one-storey, open-concept facility, the school currently has 378 students from kindergarten to Grade 8.

Chair Pat Daly said in a statement that both the board as well as the community were very pleased with the announcement of a much-needed new replacement school and child-care centre.

The new replacement school, which will be built on the current site on John Murray Street, is expected to have 590 spots for students.

It will also have a three-room child-care centre with 49 new licensed child-care spaces.

According to the board, the larger school will assist the community, which has been experiencing accommodation pressures due to new residential housing development in Upper Stoney Creek.

The announcement of the new school was made alongside funding for a second public elementary school set to be built in Binbrook, which will create an additional 615 pupil spaces. A site for the new school has yet to be chosen.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have formally axed their royal charitable foundation today in another symbolic split from the Royal family.

Documents filed at Companies House confirm they are winding up the company behind the Sussex Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The full details of the documents have not yet been revealed, but are expected to appear on the Companies House website in the next five days.

After announcing they were launching a new charity Archewell in the US back in April, the couple said they were 'looking forward' to getting started with the foundation, which will replace their Sussex Royal brand.

Harry and Meghan also revealed the Greek word in the project Arche  meaning source of action  was the inspiration behind the name of their son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.

The final stage in Sussex Royal's closure begins amid the fallout from the Finding Freedom biography, which has exposed the resentment and mistrust that led to Harry and Meghan quitting as working royals.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (pictured) have formally axed their royal charitable foundation today in another symbolic split from the Royal family

The Companies House schedule (pictured) reveals that three separate reports have been filed today - a special resolution to wind up the company, the appointment of a voluntary liquidator and a declaration of solvency

The Companies House schedule reveals that three separate reports have been filed today - a special resolution to wind up the company, the appointment of a voluntary liquidator and a declaration of solvency.

A statement under each filing states: 'This document is being processed and will be available in 5 days'.

The move to dissolve the Foundation had not been unexpected and follows the Queen's decision that Harry and Meghan can no longer use the word 'royal' in their branding.

The Sussex foundation was only incorporated on July 1 last year following Meghan and Harry's decision to split from the foundation that they previously shared with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

After announcing they were launching a new charity Archewell in the US back in April, the couple said they were 'looking forward' to getting started with the foundation, which will replace their Sussex Royal brand. The name is inspired by their son Archie (pictured)

It has never filed accounts as it is a new company so the assets it holds have not been revealed.

Documents filed for the Sussex foundation on July 7 gave a new service address for Harry and Meghan at Buckingham Palace, following their decision to base themselves in Los Angeles.

It also emerged that an error at Companies House had meant that the prefix of Meghan's name was initially filed as 'Dr' even though she has never been a doctor. The error was quickly corrected after it was spotted.

Harry and Meghan have been reported to be planning to shift their emphasis on to helping other charitable endeavours and good causes such as their new Archewell foundation which still has to be properly launched.

They are also said to be keen on promoting Harry's eco-tourism scheme 'Travalyst'

The company - which has been set up independently - hopes to help the hard-hit tourism industry survive the coronavirus crisis and to promote more sustainable forms of travel and holidays.

It brings together some of the biggest operators in the travel industry - including Visa, Booking.com and Skyscanner - to help travellers pick low carbon options more easily and chose destinations that will have more benefit to local communities.

Responding to media reports back in April about Archewell, the duke and duchess said they were focusing their efforts on the coronavirus pandemic but felt 'compelled' to reveal details of the venture.

The royal couple are also still said to be keen on promoting Harry's eco-tourism scheme 'Travalyst'

'Like you, our focus is on supporting efforts to tackle the global Covid-19 pandemic but faced with this information coming to light, we felt compelled to share the story of how this came to be.

'Before SussexRoyal, came the idea of Arche  the Greek word meaning source of action.

'We connected to this concept for the charitable organisation we hoped to build one day, and it became the inspiration for our son's name. To do something of meaning, to do something that matters.

'Archewell is a name that combines an ancient word for strength and action, and another that evokes the deep resources we each must draw upon.

'We look forward to launching Archewell when the time is right.'

The couple moved to Los Angeles with baby Archie to start their new life after they were forced to choose between financial independence or remaining as working members of the royal family.

Last week, Republic, which campaigns for an elected head of state, reported the Sussexes and the Cambridges' foundations to the Charity Commission for alleged 'inappropriate use of charitable funds, conflicts of interest and lack of independence'.

The claims were made after Sussex Royal received a six-figure grant from William and Kate's foundation.

Harry's fledgling not-for-profit sustainable travel organisation Travalyst also received funds from the Cambridges' foundation, and it has received the assets of Sussex Royal.

His lawyers are to formally write to Republic to contest its claims and said the duke's charity work was 'his life's focus' and the allegations were 'deeply offensive'.
A new powerful virtual art exhibition called "Stay with Me which was inspired by the story of the Tuam Babies, will be screened on social media Wednesday, July 29 at 7:30pm and will include Leitrim based artist Catherine McGagh.

The group art show was filmed during the coronavirus lockdown to show solidarity with the Mother and Baby homes survivors who are currently anxiously awaiting the final report by the Commission of Inquiry. The report which was due to be published in June, but has been delayed until October.

The show features work from 33 artists, including Catherine McGagh, Kinlough who works out of Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Veronica Buachanan, Alison Lowry, who is currently exhibiting "(A)dressing our Hidden Truths" at Collins Barracks and Melissa Curry, who has presented jewellery to Michelle Obama, as well as former heroin addict and activist Rachael Keogh.

This year's show combines modern losses with past losses and will highlight how no excavation has taken place yet for the Tuam Babies.

The show, which will be launched by RTE Journalist Philip Boucher-Hayes, will feature a video of the artworks shot at various locations around Ireland as well as a studio discussion with adult adoptee and survivor Breda Tuite. Ms Tuite recently found her biological mother's family after searching for years for her mother who died before they could meet each other.

It will be streamed live on the Remembering Tuam Babies Facebook page, as well as the @stay_with_me_art Instagram page, and YouTube channel Stay With Me Art.

The show which was directed and curated by journalist and author Alison O'Reilly.

Ms O'Reilly broke the story of the Tuam babies' burial scandal in 2014 and has written the book on the home, My Name Is Bridget, by Gill publishers.

Catherine described the above picture as: This disturbing image came into my mind with the shocking reality that even a year after the silent vigil in Tuam remains of little babies are still in a septic tank at the former Bon Secour mother & baby home
G S Vasu By

My Lords,

This petition is being filed against the respondents (High Courts and the Supreme Court of India) for contempt of the Constitution committed by their varying interpretations of fundamental rights guaranteed in what is a holy book to all of us, the citizens of India. This book looks at freedom of speech and expression as our paramount right that should prevail over all others. Without wasting the time of the Honourable Judges, let us get to the point.

The inherent weakness in the way our democracy functions is that the response to any issue is often based on the individual(s) who raises it or the political colour of the person concerned, juxtaposed against the line of the party in power. As it happened yet again a few days ago when senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan posted two tweetsone of them by and large factual and the other, a comment against four past Chief Justices of the SC. He could have been wrong in respect of the latter but it was a citizens perception of the state of the judiciary. Yet, contempt has been preferred on the ground that the remark has brought the administration of justice into disrepute. Lets delink Prashant Bhushan and evaluate the issue at hand.

Two of the four former CJs referred to in the tweets figured in the famous January 2018 press conference by the then sitting judges of this very court: Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph. Their letter of complaint against the then Chief Justice Dipak Misra began thus: It is with great anguish that we thought it proper to highlight certain judicial orders passed by this court which has adversely affected the functioning of the justice delivery system besides impacting the administrative functioning of the office of Chief Justice Referring to cases of far-reaching consequences assigned selectively by the CJI, they said,  such departures have already damaged the image of the institution to some extent. When the Rajya Sabha Chairperson rejected the plea of MPs for the impeachment of the CJI, a PIL was filed and Justice Misra himself decided and dismissed it!! As for Gogoi, he ascended the same seat later and is now a member of the Rajya Sabha, nominated by the ruling party. Could the four judges be guilty of contempt, even though one should accept they were leaning on the side of justice at the time of holding the press conference?

Lest people lose faith in the justice system, comments such as dissent cannot be suppressed keep coming from the HCs and SC. We heard it again most recently in the context of Congress MLAs of Rajasthan revolting against the chief minister. Even if one were to argue that the MLAs in the current episode are defectors willing to sell themselves in an auction, a tradition set by the Congress and pursued with greater vigour by the current rulers, the court was right in saying they still have a right to dissent. How then, in the same breath, My Lords, can your critics be called contemnors?

Judges often remark that their judgments are based on law and on arguments advanced within the four walls of the courtroom. But experience has been that they are also largely influenced by the ideologies of the justicestheir values, views, prejudices and so on. And this is true of the more evolved American Constitutional jurisprudence, too. Erwin Chemerinsky, whose legal acumen has been undisputed, indicted the US top court as a failure at its most important moments. He accused it of being a silent spectator to egregious violation of basic liberties, always sailing with the majority, businesses and those in power and described it as an Emperor that truly has no clothes. None considered hauling him up for contempt.

We have our own Chemerinsky, late H M Seervai, arguably the most distinguished exponent of Constitutional law and whose books are widely used in the HCs and SC. It may be useful to current practitioners of lawboth in the Bar and Benchto read up his scathing observations against six of the seven SC judges who delivered the verdict in a contempt case involving a member of the UP legislature in 1965. Seervai accused the judgesGajendragadkar (CJ), Subba Rao, Wanchoo, Hidayatullah, J C Shah and Rajagopala Ayyangarof having turned a blind eye, closing their minds, being personally interested in the case and approaching the issue with a predetermined mindset. None dared say anything against Seervai because more often than not, the judges themselves depended on his interpretation of the Constitution. When former Union Law Minister late P Shiv Shankar said in 1987 that the SC essentially comprises people from the elite and had become a haven for FERA violators, bride burners and reactionaries, the SC merely felt he could have avoided such harsh language. Renowned Marxist E M S Namboodiripad, of course, saw the judiciary as an instrument of oppression.

My Lords, we have declared ourselves a democratic country (whether its just a facade is a bigger debate). We have given ourselves a Constitution that protects individual liberties and a Supreme Court to ensure that they are enforced. The underlying emphasis being that the majority should never be allowed to trample on the rights of the minoritiesbe it political, social, racial or economic. The Emergency saw the detention of political opponents, from sympathisers of Naxalites to RSS swayamsevaks. What we are seeing now is denial of bail to those who have no reason to be kept in jail, including 60-plus intellectual-activist Sudha Bharadwaj, despite her suffering from an ailment that reduces flow of blood. It is as violative of fundamental rights as it was to deny bail to an Islamic preacher who stayed in prison for nine years only to be acquitted finally, or to police officers accused in an encounter case and kept in prison for years as undertrialsboth during the earlier regime. The point that should not be missed is that fundamental rights apply even to those who do not profess faith in the Constitution. It will be a waste of time and space to recall how our own SC behaved during the Emergency. As to what is happening now, it will be recorded in the days to come.

My Lords, there is nothing personal in the criticism of the judiciary or those who helm it. Like Seervai and the four former judges, some feel it is their duty to speak out, maybe even to indulge in personal criticism, for a larger cause. This is because inconsistencies in judicial pronouncements, particularly those that go against the disadvantaged and opponents of government, are only increasing. The remedy is not the threat of contempt but to ensure respect for the notion of justice, which is fast eroding. Remember, countries like the UK, from which we have borrowed our jurisprudence, abolished contempt power as incompatible with the freedom of speech.


South Africa: Easier access to COVID-19 Loan Guarantee Scheme

The COVID-19 Loan Guarantee Scheme has been reviewed to make it easier for businesses to access, National Treasury said.

The COVID-19 Loan Guarantee Scheme was set up to help ease some pressure off qualifying businesses, which are negatively affected by low economic activity following the global lockdown imposed to reduce the spread of Coronavirus.

In a joint statement with the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and the Banking Association of South Africa (BASA), Treasury said some of the changes include that bank credit assessments and loan approvals will be more discretionary and less restrictive, in line with the objectives of the scheme.

In addition, clients are now being able to access the loan over a longer period.

The COVID-19 Loan Guarantee Scheme provides loans, substantially guaranteed by government but with some of the risk shared by banks, to eligible businesses to assist them during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Funds borrowed from this scheme, through the banks, can be used for operational expenses, such as salaries, rent and lease agreements, and contracts with suppliers.

The loans are granted at a preferential rate (prime) and repayment may be deferred for a maximum of one year after taking out the loan. Businesses will then be required to repay the loan over five years.

Government and commercial banks are sharing the risk of non-repayment of these loans.

National Treasury initially provided a R100 billion guarantee to participating banks through the South African Reserve Bank, with the option to extend the scheme to R200 billion, if required. Government is engaging with non-bank lenders in order to possibly extend the scheme, Treasury said.

The following changes have been implemented:

 Business restart loans will now be available to assist businesses that are able to begin operating as the economy opens up.

 Bank credit assessments and loan approvals will be more discretionary and less restrictive, in line with the objectives of the scheme. Banks may use their discretion on financial information required, for example, bank or financial statements, where audited statements are not available. Suretyships or guarantees may also be required. The provisions of the National Credit Act and Financial Intelligence Centre Act remain applicable.

 Clients can now access the loan over a longer period. The draw down period has been extended from three months to a maximum of six months. For example, a R6 million loan can be drawn down over six months, at R1 million a month if the business qualifies. The size of the loan is still calculated on operating expenses.

 The interest and capital repayment holiday has been extended. The interest and capital repayment holiday has been extended from three months to a maximum of six months after the final draw down. For example, in the case of the same R6 million loan, drawn down at R1 million a month for six months, repayments will only be required from month 13.

 The turnover cap has been replaced with a maximum loan amount of R100 million. Banks may also provide syndicated loans for loans larger than R50 million.

 The test for good standing has been made easier. This has now moved back to 31 December 2019 from 29 February 2020, which will accommodate firms which were already experiencing cash-flow problems in February.

 Sole proprietorships are now explicitly included. For sole proprietorships and small companies, salary-like payments to the owners (drawings) are included in the use of proceeds. Security, suretyships or guarantees are not explicitly required.

Eligible businesses should contact their primary or main banker for further information on the scheme and the qualifying criteria, Treasury said.

While this scheme operates through banks willing to take some of the risks of lending to client companies in distress, Treasury said government is also exploring the option of working with non-bank lenders willing to share the risks of lending to their client companies in distress.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-07-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
New Delhi:

In the eye of the storm due to the problems faced by the people following the demonetisation exercise, the Modi government has announced a slew of measures to ease the pressure on consumers and farmers. From allowing farmers to buy seeds using old notes to now waiving off the service charges on digital financial transactions using features phones till December 31st, the government has taken many steps to ease cash-crunch.

Here are the top decisions that the government has announced so far to counter the currency overhaul woes.



Announcements for farmers

On the RBI allowed farmers to buy seeds using old Rs 500 currency notes

The government has allowed the state-run lender NABARD to disburse Rs 21,000 crore to farmers during rabi sowing season

Small farmers can withdraw 40% of their credit from cooperative banks

NABARD and RBI have been advised to ensure adequate cash supply to central cooperative banks

TRAI has reduced USSD charges from Rs. 1.50 to 50 paise for feature phones (not smartphones) - as feature phones comprise over 65% of all phones

Micro-ATMs, bank correspondents have been made available in rural areas

For bank borrowers

To ease problems of people who took loans from banks, the RBI has provided additional 60 days for repayment of housing, car, farm and other loans worth up to Rs 1 crore.

Withdrawal limit for holders of current/overdraft/cash credit account has been raised upto Rs 50,000 per week

To boost e-transactions

Service charges have been waived on digital financial transactions using features phones till December 31st.

Railways has waived service charges on e-tickets booked till

RBI has also announced relaxation on E-wallets, enhancing the limit from Rs 10,ooo to Rs 20,000 in respect of individuals

As far as RUPAY cards are concerned, all charges have been waived till

The government have also promoted digital transactions at toll plazas. The ministry of road transport have told contractors to include ETC complaint Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) facility in all new cars

For weddings

RBI raised withdrawal limit upto Rs 2.5 lakh for wedding expenditures

RBI has relaxed one of several conditions for withdrawal of Rs 2.5 lakh from their own accounts by making declaration for payments beyond Rs 10,000 only

The RBI also doubled the limit to Rs 20,000 for semi-close pre-paid instruments with a view to meeting the transnational needs of the public through digital mean

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Ghanaians are learning to adapt to the new normal way of life. However, they will now be given more reasons to find comfort in their homes through the power of Samsungs innovative technology.



To help with adapting to the rules of social distancing and bring joy to homes across the country, Samsung products can now be won until 31 July 2020 in the Stay Connected and Win campaign. Samsungs weekly draws will give those who have purchased a Samsung device and entered the competition the chance to win prizes including Samsung TVs, washing machines and fridges.



It's amazing to see how people are making sacrifices to safeguard the health of everyone in the country despite the challenges of remaining at home. We want to leverage the power of our innovative technology to help Ghanaians stay connected, to make staying at home easier and better, said Eugene Nahm, managing Director at Samsung Ghana.



To enter, customers can buy selected Samsung products, from participating retailers, complete the form on Samsung.com, upload the proof of payment and theyll be in the weekly draw. The ten winners of the weekly draws will be announced on Samsungs social platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.



Rose Agyekum who bought a Galaxy A51 won a Samsung washing machine and expressed her delight at entering the competition.



"I am very happy and still can't believe this. When I first got the call everyone thought it was tricky because how could anyone give a washing machine away in these times. I only believed it when I saw my name on the Samsung Instagram page. I didn't think I would be using a washing machine any time soon so thank you so much Samsung. I am a nurse so this will really help my nurse colleagues and I in my apartment."



The qualifying mobile products are: Galaxy A11, A21s, A31, A51, A71, Note10, Note10+, Note10 Lite, S20, S20+, S20 Ultra and the prizes include air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, UHD and QLED TVs





Source: Peacefmonline.com









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A minister has prompted more travel confusion after saying he "wouldn't say don't go abroad" following the introduction of new quarantine measures for travellers returning from Spain to the UK.

Local government minister Simon Clarke said all travel "carries with it a degree of uncertainty" but he said it is "open to people to travel".

It comes after ministers were told to get a grip on summer holiday "confusion" after the Balearic and Canary islands were added to the list of places where only essential travel should take place.

"The advice that we have to give is that all travel at the moment carries with it a degree of uncertainty," Mr Clarke told Sky News.

But he added: "In many European countries the situation is absolutely stable or improving and I certainly wouldn't want to say don't go abroad as a blanket rule...it is open to people to travel, they just need to understand that this is a risk at the moment and it's something that has to be lived with."

Despite insisting there are safe countries for Brits to travel to, Mr Clarke confirmed he would be taking a holiday in the UK.

It comes a day after a health minister Helen Whately told Brits they should "look carefully" before booking foreign holidays.

She said that people booking holidays needed to understand "we are in a global pandemic" and the Government was right to take "rapid action" where necessary.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has advised against all non-essential travel to the Spanish holiday islands following a coronavirus upsurge in some parts of mainland Spain.

The move brought the FCO advice into line with existing advice for mainland Spain and with the UK Goverments decision to impose a 14-day quarantine requirement on people arriving from the whole of the country.

But the quarantine policy has been criticised by Spains Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who described it as an "error".

Passengers arriving at Birmingham Airport as many people arrive into England from holidays in Spain / PA

Mr Sanchez pointed out that the upsurge in coronavirus cases is focused in two regions, Catalonia and Aragon, adding: "In most of Spain, the incidence is very much inferior to even the numbers registered in the United Kingdom."

But, responding to Mr Sanchez's comments, Mr Clarke told BBC Breakfast: "We respectfully disagree with the Spanish Governments position on this.

We obviously continue to work closely with them and we wish them every success in managing this outbreak, but weve seen a very sharp increase in cases in Spain.

"A 75 per cent increase in cases reported between the middle of last week and the end of last week. Thats why we took the action that we have."

Speaking to Sky News about the comments from the Spanish Government, Mr Clarke added: "We are making enormous progress against coronavirus here within the country and we don't want to be reimporting risk from overseas at what is a crucial time in our national recovery."

Passengers arrived at the airport in Mallorca / AP

Prime Minister Boris Johnsons official spokesman said decisions on border measures and travel advice "can be changed rapidly if necessary to help stop the spread of the disease".

He said: Unfortunately no travel is risk-free during this pandemic and disruption is possible and so anyone travelling abroad should be aware that our travel advice and exemption list is under constant review as we monitor the international situation.

The announcement happened amid fears more European holidays could be thrown into disarray this summer with reports of potential new coronavirus lockdowns in France and Germany.

Meanwhile, the Government has refused to comment on reports that quarantine for people arriving from Spain or other countries with high coronavirus levels could be cut to ten days under plans being looked at by ministers.

Returned travellers would need to quarantine for eight days before being tested, The Telegraph reports, and then only remain in quarantine for another two days should they test negative.

The paper reports the Government is also considering instructing everyone who has returned from Spain since July 23 to get tested.
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty

HONG KONGChina launched its most ambitious space mission last week, with a trio consisting of an orbiter, lander, and rover loaded onto a massive rocket that is heading to Mars. The mission is an impressive scientific feat, one that is entangled with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinpings push to define China as a conquering superpower in space.

Called Tianwen-1, the Chinese Mars mission involves a seven-month journey to the red planet. When the rocket nears its destination after traveling 39 million miles, it will release the orbiter to scan and map Mars from above, while the lander will carry the rover to the planets surface. If everything goes according to plan and the rover maintains communication with ground control on Earth, China will be the second nation to successfully place an operational robot on Martian soila significant achievement for a country that is attempting to establish technological supremacy on a global and now interplanetary scale.

Yet that triumph comes loaded with CCP officials desire for space colonization. One senior aerospace engineer and the head of Chinas lunar exploration program, Ye Peijian, indicated two years ago that his countrys designs for space expedition mirror Beijings plan for the South China Seathat is, the party seeks to occupy the moon and Mars at any cost.

The universe is an ocean, the moon is the Diaoyu Islands, Mars is Huangyan Island, Ye said at the CCPs annual plenary session in Beijing two years ago, referencing geological formations that are also known as Senkaku and Scarborough Shoal, and are claimed by Japan, Taiwan, as well as the Philippines. If we do not go there now even though we can, then we will be blamed by our descendants, Ye also said. If others go there, then they will take over, and you will not be able to go even if you want to. This is reason enough.

What the Hell Is China Doing on the Dark Side of the Moon?

Chinas Space Force Is Way Ahead of Trumps

Story continues

The message was clear then: its a zero-sum game. The partys officials see space as a place to be conquered, so they are compelled to stake a claimfast.

China has designs to become an astral superpower. Details about state funding for space missions are opaque, but in 2018, Beijing earmarked at least $8 billion for the China National Space Administration, second only to the U.S. That amount has almost certainly increased every year since then, with Beijing hastening efforts to establish a permanent presence in space. China already has rovers on the moon. It will likely launch the core module of a space station to low Earth orbit next year. It is laying the groundwork for a crewed lunar mission in the 2030s, with plans to build a base near the lunar south pole.

And Mars? If we take Yes words at face value, then the plan is to seize, annex, and build on top of it.

NASAs Perseverance Mars rover is scheduled to launch this week, on July 30. Like Tianwen-1s as yet unnamed rover, it will hunt for carbon-containing molecules that may point to Martian life in the past, as well as collect dirt samples for scientific analysis.

After Tianwen-1 left its launchpad, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted out well wishes, welcoming China to a small, elite group of nations that are exploring Mars. Yet it is impossible to ignore that the current confrontations between China and the U.S. look more and more like a Cold War with each passing day, and the competing space programs resemble a page out of the ideological showdown between the U.S. and Soviet Union.

Beijing and Washington have locked horns on every front. The two largest economies in the world are trapped in a spiral of tariffs. Chinas military is looking to project its power in new places around the globe, grating against American spheres of influence, particularly in East Asia and the Middle East. And tech companies on either side of the Pacific Ocean are racing to one-up each other, fueled by bonfires of cash from venture capital funds that place bets on both coasts. The competition between China and the United States is multi-pronged, extending beyond the stratosphere too.

If Tianwen-1 is a success, Xi Jinping will score a major win within the partys hierarchy, and feed the justification of his decree to remain president for life. Space exploration in any form is an inspiration, and the pride shared by Chinese people while watching a rocket built by their country fly to Mars is pure. Many young people will no doubt heed the call to build careers in STEM fields, or even dream of becoming the first Chinese person to leave footprints on another planet. But the CCPs extra dimension of conquest taints this legacy, and even maps the potential for conflict beyond our world.

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In clash with US President Donald Trump's push to open economy to normalcy despite rising Covid-19 caseload, corporates all over the world, including Google and Facebook, are creating rules to allow work from home incentives for extended periods of time, announce new timetables for advanced planning.

Amid the surge in coronavirus cases, Google has announced that its employees will not be returning to the office until July 2021, The Washington Post reported.

The decision shows that though US President Donald Trump has been pushing for re-opening of the economy, the corporate sector is making their own rules with regard to following norms aimed at preventing further spread of coronavirus cases.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that Googles decision has pushed Alphabet, its parent company, to delay the comeback of its employees into the second half of next year.

The decision was reportedly influenced by different approaches to schools reopening across the country. Google Chief Executive Sunad Pichai announced a new timetable in a companywide email to give employees the ability to plan ahead, according to the Post.

Also read: Gurgaon court summons Alibaba, Jack Ma on charges of fake news and censorship by former employee

Also read: India changes trade rules amid China standoff

Similarly, Facebook has planned to keep its 48,000 employees at home till the end of the year though CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly said in May that he expects half of the employees to permanently transit to remote work in the next decade.

While Snap has extended its work from home timeline from September to January, Amazons corporate employees might go on working from home throughout 2020.

As businesses and political leaders are eagerly waiting for a vaccine, it is highly likely that most firms would soon follow the footsteps of Google and make such decisions in the days to come.

Meanwhile, the government has invested billions of dollars in companies racing against each other to develop a vaccine.

The Washington Post reported that Monday was a milestone as large-scale clinical trials launching to gauge the effectiveness and safety of biotech firm Modernas vaccine candidate but inoculations are months away even with the accelerated timeline. However, public health experts believe that the broadly accessible vaccinations will not be available until December or even till spring 2021.

Also read: US adds Jio in Clean Telcos list, slams China

For all the latest Business News, download NewsX App
Prancing in front of a camera with its blond mane blowing in the wind, "007" is one of thousands of goats being sold online as Muslims prepare for a key religious festival shaken this year by the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of goats, sheep and cattle are slaughtered annually at Eid al-Adha -- the festival of sacrifice -- one of two major holy days observed by Muslims across the world, including some 600 million in South Asia. The pandemic has, however, badly hit India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, which have shut or heavily restricted major markets, while fears about catching the virus are keeping customers away ahead of the main festival on Saturday. "We were traumatised by the loss of two of my uncles to COVID-19 and didn't want to sacrifice an animal," Saddid Hossain told AFP in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka. "But we have to stay within our religious tradition, so we'd rather buy from an online cow seller." Faced with deserted markets, livestock breeders and traders have turned to websites, apps and social media to showcase their animals. Fahad Zariwala promotes goats such as "007" from farms across India on his YouTube channel, which has more than 800,000 followers. "I shoot a slow-motion video with beautiful music, and I make them (goats) popular," said Zariwala, who is based in Mumbai. - Video beauty contest - "They have a personality and are... mostly named after Bollywood movies and trending characters in Bollywood," he told AFP. Zariwala has seen a huge increase in viewers from Australia, Britain, the United States and the Middle East, which all have large South Asian diasporas. One farm he promotes runs video beauty contests to tempt potential customers, who might buy the goats for their families in India, where there are 200 million Muslims. PashuBajaar, which sells thousands of goats for Indian farmers, said online sales had jumped from a few dozen last year to more than 2,500 in the past three months. "We've even received online orders for thousands for next year," chief executive Sanjeev Kumar told AFP. The animals are delivered to buyers in open-air vehicles, which can carry 10 to 15 of them. In Muslim-majority Pakistan, home to 215 million people, dozens of apps and websites have sprung up. Buyers can select an animal and have it delivered to their doorstep, slaughtered or donated to a charity. Qurbani App chief executive Muhammad Ali Chaudhry said "orders have gone through the roof". Islamabad goat farmer Muhammad Naeem, meanwhile, said his digital transactions had jumped from 20 percent of sales to almost half. But the rise in online sales has been accompanied by plunging prices. Mumbai seller Walid Dawood Jat, who sold six goats online during India's lockdown, said they fetched just half their usual prices. "We used to sell goats at 500-600 rupees ($6.70-$8.00) per kilo," he said, adding the price had fallen by half. "Buyers haggle with us. They say they don't have money, their income is down." In Dhaka's biggest cattle market, livestock sales are down from 400,000 a week in previous years to 30,000. "Last year many people came. We were very busy," said trader Kalu Bepari -- who travelled 245 kilometres (150 miles) to the bazaar with 13 bulls, but has only sold two "for a very cheap price". "This year there is barely anyone due to coronavirus fears. Nobody even asks the price." burs-grk/tw/fox/leg
A new video tutorial will help Medicare insurance agents generate publicity in their local newspapers. The video was posted by the American Association for Medicare Supplement Insurance.

"Local newspapers seek relevant and current information that benefits their community," shares Jesse Slome, the Association's director and an award-winning public relations executive. "We wanted to show insurance agents the very easy steps that would enable them to generate articles in local daily and weekly newspapers."

According to Slome, there are currently over 1,300 daily newspapers in the U.S. "There are some 7,700 weekly or community newspapers all seeking information that's relevant to their local readership. Publicity is the art of getting this information published for free in these media."

The 25-minute video shares the steps for implementing a successful local publicity effort. "Insurance agents have three options for generating Medicare leads," Slome notes. "Buy them, get them in exchange for significantly reduced commissions or do a little work to promote your presence. Publicity can be one of the most overlooked and yet the most effective ways to do that."

Slome is an award-wining public relations professional whose marketing career included working for several leading New York-based public relations firms. "I have always loved the power of great public relations to achieve meaningful results for people and businesses," Slome says. "I wanted to help Medicare insurance agents learn the steps so that they could publicize their efforts locally."

The video can be accessed via the Association's website. Go to Free Medicare Publicity Toolkit Video to watch.

The American Association for Medicare Supplement Insurance is an advocacy and informational organization that strives to create heightened awareness for the many Medicare insurance planning options and supports insurance professionals who market Medicare insurance. To find local Medicare insurance agents in your Zip Code go to www.medicaresupp.org/find-local-agent/.
To be clear, Madigan, who is also chair of the Illinois Democratic Party, has not been indicted and is identified in the documents this way: Public Official A was the Speaker of the House of Representatives. There is only one speaker. And the allegations in the charging documents are closer to insinuations: In its guilty plea, ComEd admitted to giving dubious, little-work contracts to associates of Public Official A and to hiring lobbyists, contractors, interns and lawyers in his orbit in an effort to grease the way for bills favorable to the utility. Those bills passed.
Revenue down slightly, -5% (reported data)

Business activity confirmed resilient in France

Contrasting situations abroad

Business targets maintained

Regulatory News:

Seche Environnement (Paris:SCHP):

Limited impact from COVID-19 pandemic

Contributed revenue: 314m, i.e. -4.9% vs. 6/30/2019

Revenue France: 237m, i.e. -5.0% vs. 6/30/2019

Revenue International: 77m, i.e. -4.6% vs. 6/30/2019

Business confirmed resilient

Hazardous W. revenue: 198m, down slightly -6.2%

Non Hazardous W. revenue: 116m, stable at +0.1%

Outlook differs by region

France: Big bounce in HW and NHW businesses

International: cycles postponed and negative Forex impact

Business targets maintained for 20201

2020 contributed revenue target to low end of the initial range of 650m to 700m.

EBITDA target adjusted for 20201

Accounting for crisis effects during Q2 and International uncertainties, leading to anticipate a one-off impact up to 1% of contributed revenue on the 2020 EBITDA target.

Confidence in the 2022 trajectory

Contributed revenue targeted between 750m and 800m and EBITDA between 21% and 22% of 2022 contributed revenue.

First-half 2020 highlights

The first half of 2020 was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected Seche Environnement's businesses and the geographical regions where the Group is present, albeit in different ways.

With contributed revenue of 313.6m as of June 30, 2020, slightly down -4.9% compared to June 30, 2019, Seche Environnement has demonstrated the resilience of its waste recovery and treatment businesses, particularly in France.

This was because Seche Environnement carries on essential business in environmental and health risk management, and addresses a non-cyclical core industrial clientele with strategic businesses (energy, health, pharmaceuticals, chemistry, etc., amounting to 35% of 2019 revenue) which continued to operate during the crisis, while Local Authorities and Environmental Services (36% of consolidated revenue in 2019) are characterized by the durability of their markets.

However, the symmetry between changes by scope (France revenue: -5.0% and International revenue: -4.6%) conceals contrasting situations between regions and businesses over the period:

In France (75% of revenue in 2019), the crisis primarily affected services (stoppage of decontamination sites), sorting and recovery (lower WEA2 volumes) and final waste management (particularly polluted land treatment); meanwhile, materials recovery (chemical purification), and incineration (particularly hazardous waste) benefited from a good starting level of activity and the continuation of industrial clients' activities.

At the end of the period, a sharp rebound in waste volumes and the resumption of worksites led to a return to growth in this scope in June compared to June 2019 (+2.8%).

Internationally (25% of revenue in 2019), the crisis had varying impacts on the subsidiaries' business, with a sharp decline for Solarca (industrial maintenance sites) while Mecomer (Italy) maintained a good level of growth over the period, and Spain and South Africa saw moderate business contraction.

In some places (South Africa, LatAm), the unfavorable shift in foreign exchange rates beginning in March compounded the decline in business.

Finally, the cycle shift, between the late arrival of the health crisis in Latin America and the implementation of strict lockdowns particularly in Chile and Peru, has heavily impacted business in those areas, and hindered the overall recovery of the International scope.

The continuation of current trends in France should spell a good second half and, in that scope, the contraction in business seen in the first half would at least partially be made up.

Internationally, uncertainties as to the strength of the recovery in some geographical areas presage a 2020 revenue figure below that of 2019.

These forecasts have allowed Seche Environnement to adjust its business expectations for 2020, with a contributed revenue target adjusted to low end of its initial range of 650m-700m3

Given the business resilience seen in the first half of the year but also the one-off costs due to the health crisis in Q2 and the persistent uncertainties as to the scale of the International recovery in the second half, the Group is anticipating a negative one-off impact up to 1% of contributed revenue on the EBITDA of 20% of revenue targeted for fiscal year 2020.

Seche Environnement remains confident in its ability to meet its 2022 goals, which include a target consolidated revenue of between 750m and 800m, of which 30% will come from International, and EBITDA of between 21% and 22% of contributed revenue.

Analysis of business in the first half of 2020

As of June 30, 2020, Seche Environnement reported consolidated revenue of 313.8m, compared to 342.3m one year earlier. Reported consolidated revenue includes non-contributed revenue of 0.2m (vs. 12.5m as of June 30, 2019).

Net of non-contributed revenue, contributed revenue totaled 313.6m as of June 30, 2020 (vs. 329.8m one year earlier), marking a -4.9% decline over the period (reported data) and -7.8% in organic terms4

Breakdown of revenue by geographic region

At June 30 2019 2020 Gross

change Organic

change In m As a In m As a Subsidiaries in France (contributed revenue) o/w scope effect 249.5 75.7% 237.0 75.6% -5.0% -5.0% International subsidiaries o/w scope effect 80.3 43.2 24.3% 76.6 13.6 24.4% -4.6% -17.0% Total contributed revenue 329.8 100.0% 313.6 100.0% -5.0% -7.8%

Non-audited consolidated data

At constant exchange rates, contributed revenue at June 30, 2019 was 325.3m, illustrating a negative foreign exchange effect of 4.5m over the period.

The period was characterized by the COVID-19 crisis, which hurt geographical regions in different ways, with significant foreign exchange effects and cycle delays between France and International outside Europe:

In France, contributed revenue totaled 237.0m at June 30, 2020 vs. 249.5m one year earlier, reflecting a decrease of -5.0% for the period.



This scope had a strong start to the fiscal year, particularly in industrial markets. Beginning in the second half of March, the crisis hurt some businesses such as Services (Pollution Remediation Decontamination sites), final waste management (smaller contaminated soil volumes), and sorting/recovery of Waste from Economic Activity (WEA). At the same time, recovery and incineration, particularly of hazardous waste, were barely affected by the effects of the lockdown.

After hitting a low in April, most businesses saw a sharp rebound, and revenue in France climbed back up, with growth returning in June (+2.8% over June 2019).



Revenue earned in France accounted for 75.6% of contributed revenue in the first half of 2020 (vs. 75.7% in H1 2019).

Internationally , revenue totaled 76.6m at June 30, 2020 vs. 80.4m one year earlier, reflecting a decrease of -4.6% for the period. This includes a scope effect of 13.6m from the first quarter, reflecting the contribution of Mecomer, which was consolidated as of April 1, 2019.



At constant scope , revenue earned by International subsidiaries totaled 63.0m, down -21.6% at current exchange rates and -17.0% at constant exchange rates.



Besides producing a cycle delay, the health crisis also revealed contrasting situations between regions and subsidiaries: In Europe (Italy, Spain, Germany), business at subsidiaries saw a -16% decline over the period, except for Mecomer which posted revenue that was up +4.9%. Outside Europe , the crisis was accompanied by a very substantial decline in exchange rates beginning in March, particularly in South Africa and to a lesser extent in Peru (4.5m impact over the first half of the year). As such: Interwaste (South Africa): Revenue at June 30, 2020 was 29.2m, a -9.7% decline at current exchange rates but a +1.2% increase at constant rates. Kanay (Peru): Revenue (5.5m at June 30, 2020) was down -18.5% at current exchange rates and -18.0% at constant rates. SAN (Chile) suffered a large contraction in its business due to a strong first half of 2019, with revenue of 2.5m, down -43.9% at current exchange rates and -19.1% at constant rates. Solarca (Rest of the World) suspended its worksite operations at the start of the first half, with revenue of 6.2m, down -48.1% (no significant foreign exchange effect).

, revenue totaled 76.6m at June 30, 2020 vs. 80.4m one year earlier, reflecting a decrease of -4.6% for the period. This includes a scope effect of 13.6m from the first quarter, reflecting the contribution of Mecomer, which was consolidated as of April 1, 2019. , revenue earned by International subsidiaries totaled 63.0m, down -21.6% at current exchange rates and -17.0% at constant exchange rates. Besides producing a cycle delay, the health crisis also revealed contrasting situations between regions and subsidiaries:

Revenue earned by international subsidiaries accounted for 24.4% of contributed revenue in the first quarter of 2020 (vs. 24.3% one year earlier).

Breakdown of revenue by division

At June 30 2019 2020 Gross

change Organic

change In m As a In m As a Hazardous Waste division o/w scope effect 213.8 32.5 64.8% 197.5 13.6 63.0% -7.6% -12.7% Non-Hazardous Waste division o/w scope effect 116.0 10.7 35.2% 116.1 37.0% +0.1% +1.1% Total contributed revenue 329.8 100.0% 313.6 100.0% -4.9% -7.8%

Non-audited consolidated data

In the first half of 2020, the waste treatment and recovery divisions demonstrated the resilience of Seche Environnement's business. As such, after a substantial contraction in volume and a sharp decline in some service businesses (worksites) in France and abroad, the divisions saw their business recover significantly, particularly the Hazardous Waste division.

The Hazardous Waste (HW) division, which accounts for 63.0% of consolidated contributed revenue, recorded revenue of 197.5m at June 30, 2020, down -7.6% from the first half of 2019 at current exchange rates. Subtracting the scope effect and foreign exchange fluctuations, the division's decline was -12.7%, reflecting the fact that markets moved differently from one geographical region to another, with substantially more resilient business in France even as the cycle shifts observed in the International scope led to a greater contraction in its HW business:

In France, the division brought in 144.9m in revenue, representing a slight decline of -1.0% compared to the same period last year.



The division had a promising start to the fiscal year, supported by solid industrial markets and the growth of Services businesses (Decontamination). The arrival of the health crisis in mid-March led to the suspension of decontamination work, as well a decline in the volumes of contaminated soil in treatment facilities.



Businesses linked to industrial activity, such as incineration and materials recovery (chemical purification), were substantially less affected given the Group's positioning in favor of a strategic industrial clientele, which remained operational.



Since May, the division has benefited from the resumption of decontamination work and a sharp rebound in volumes, particularly in final waste treatment facilities.

Internationally, the division's revenue totaled 52.6m at June 30, 2020 vs. 64.2m one year earlier, a decrease of -22.0% in reported data. Subtracting the scope effect (13.6m) and foreign exchange fluctuations, the decline in organic terms was -39.3%.



The substantial contraction of International revenue from the HW division, at constant scope and exchange rates, reflects cycle shifts in the health crisis between different geographical regions, as the post-crisis restart of industrial markets has been slower than in France.

With contributed revenue of 116.1m, the Non Hazardous Waste (NHW) division is slightly up (+0.1% at constant exchange rates and +1.1% in organic terms) compared to the first half of 2019 (116.0m), and accounts for 37.0% of contributed revenue:

In France, the division recorded contributed revenue of 92.1m, down -10.7% from the first half of 2019.



Over the period, the division was affected by the reduced contribution of the energy recovery business (ramp-up of Senerval), and during the health crisis, by the decline in the Services business (decontamination sites) and by the contraction in WEA volumes.



The sharp jump in volumes and return of site-based work to a normal level enabled the division to rebound at the end of the period to its pre-crisis level of activity.

Internationally, revenue totaled 24.0m at June 30, 2020 (vs. 12.9m one year earlier).



The strong organic growth in the division (+106%) particularly reflects the large contribution from Interwaste (South Africa), which benefited from spot markets in that period.

Breakdown of revenue by activity

At June 30 2019 2020 Gross

change Organic

change In m As a In m As a Treatment o/w scope effect 158.0 15.1 47.8% 157.3 13.6 50.1% -0.4% -8.4% Recovery o/w scope effect 60.6 4.5 18.4% 44.4 14.2% -26.6% -26.0% Services o/w scope effect 111.2 23.6 33.8% 111.8 35.7% +0.5% +3.1% Total contributed revenue 329.8 100.0% 313.6 100.0% -4.9% -7.8%

Non-audited consolidated data

Treatment activities brought in 157.3m at June 30, 2020 vs. 158.0m one year earlier, a slight decline of -0.4% (reported data).

This change incorporates a 13.6m scope effect resulting from the contribution of Mecomer in the first half of 2020 (consolidated effective April 1, 2019). In organic terms, treatment activities were down -8.4%:

In France, treatment activities contracted -3.0% to 130.2m, benefiting from the resilience of the NHW division, while the decline in contaminated soil (related to the stoppage of decontamination work) hurt the HW division during the health crisis.

Internationally, these activities saw a sharp organic decline (-40.0%), with contrasting changes between Mecomer, which grew over the period, and non-Europe business which remained persistently affected.

Treatment activities accounted for 50.1% of contributed revenue.

Recovery activities brought in 44.4m at June 30, 2020 (vs. 60.6m a year earlier, down -26.6% at current exchange rates and -26.0% at constant rates:

In France, revenue from recovery activities stood at 33.6m (-24.1%), reflecting the lower performance of energy recovery activities, which were hurt by the ramp-up of the Senerval incinerator in the winter while hazardous waste recovery activities (chemical purification) continued to hold up well.

In the International scope, revenue fell stood at 10.8m, down -33.5% at current exchange rates and down -31.2% at constant rates, hurt by a sharp decline in PCBs activities in Latin America (spot markets) and to a lesser extent, by Valls Quimica (Regeneration) whose activities are increasingly focused on businesses with higher value added against a backdrop of less buoyant economic conditions in Spain.

Recovery activities accounted for 14.9% of contributed revenue.

Services activities recorded contributed revenue of 111.8m at June 30, 2020 (vs. 111.3m a year earlier, up +0.5% at current exchange rates and +3.1% at constant rates:

In France, revenue from services activities was 73.2m, up +3.1% over the period, reflecting the bounce in Decontamination activities after the health crisis.

In the International scope, revenue stood at 38.7m, a -4.1% contraction at current exchange rates and up +2.9% at constant rates, representative of positive movement by Interwaste (South Africa) even as the Solarca project's activities were badly hurt over the period.

Services activities accounted for 35.7% of contributed revenue.

Business outlook maintained for 2020 Confidence in the 2022 trajectory

Seche Environnement is growing in promising waste recovery and treatment markets, with solutions that address the challenges of its industrial and governmental clients for the circular economy, fighting climate change, and promoting sustainable development.

These markets are characterized by their resilience, which has as much to do with the inevitable nature of waste output as it does with regulations that support their growth in terms of both volume and value.

For this reason, after a health crisis that has led to an unprecedented GDP contraction in France and many countries where the Group is present, Seche Environnement has observed:

In France, the return to growth of most of its business, with a rebound in volumes that has been keenly felt in the HW division, while the NHW division is continuing its positive course.

The continuation of these trends is strengthening the prospect of a good second half in this scope, compared to a second-half 2019 that saw few challenges given the partial unavailability of some sites (the revamping of Salaise 3; the restart of Senerval) and the lower contribution from some businesses (Decontamination).

For this reason, the second half might allow for the first-half decline in activity within this scope to be partially made up.

In the International scope , each geographical area and subsidiary is facing a different situation: Solarca (4% of revenue in 2019) is expected to benefit from a high level of billings in the second half of the year, due to the postponement of its projects, and Mecomer (5% of revenue in 2019) is expected to continue its pace of growth observed throughout the first half of the year. Valls Quimica (Spain; 4% of revenue in 2019) and Interwaste (South Africa; 9% of revenue in 2019) have recovered despite a bleak economy. Latin America (4% of revenue in 2019): The current situation still looks uncertain with respect to how long the crisis will last and what impacts it will have on the business of subsidiaries there.

, each geographical area and subsidiary is facing a different situation:

The continuation of these trends, accompanied by persistently unfavorable foreign exchange effects, suggest that this scope will see a lower contribution in the second half of 2020 than in the second half of 2019.

These facts have allowed Seche Environnement to adjust its business expectations for 20205, with a contributed revenue target at low end of its initial range of 650m-700m.

On this basis, the one-off negative impacts of the health crisis in Q2 (change in waste mix, ), the lower contribution of energy recovery over the period and the uncertainties as to the strength of the International recovery, could impact up to 1% of revenue the EBITDA of 20% of contributed revenue targeted for 2020.

Seche Environnement is confident in its ability to continue its 2022 trajectory, which includes a target consolidated revenue of between 750m and 800m, including 30% from International operations, and EBITDA of between 21% and 22% of contributed revenue.

Conference call

A conference call to discuss the business activity for the first half of 2020 will be held (in French only) on July 28, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. Paris time.

To participate in the conference, please dial +33 (0)1 70 71 01 59. Code: 60 17 90 85 #

Material to accompany the presentation will be available from 5:45 p.m. on Seche Environnement's website:

https://www.groupe-seche.com/en/investors/home

The conference recording will be available at +33 (0)1 72 72 74 02 Code: 41 89 46 566

Calendar

Consolidated results at June 30, 2020: September 14, 2020 after market close

About Seche Environnement

Seche Environnement is one of France's leading players in the recovery and treatment of all types of waste, from both industry and local communities.

Seche Environnement is the leading independent operator in France. It is uniquely positioned as a specialist in highly complex waste, operating within regulated waste recovery and treatment markets with high barriers to entry, and develops cutting edge hazardous and non-hazardous waste recovery and treatment solutions.

Its facilities and expertise enable it to provide high value-added solutions to its industrial and public authority clients, targeting the challenges of the circular economy and sustainable development requirements, such as:

material or energy recovery from hazardous and non-hazardous waste;

a comprehensive range of treatment solutions for solid, liquid and gaseous waste (thermal, physical-chemical and radiation treatment, etc.);

the storage of final hazardous and non-hazardous waste;

eco-services such as decontamination, decommissioning, asbestos removal and rehabilitation;

the global management of environmental services under outsourcing agreements.

Leveraging its extensive expertise, Seche Environnement operates in more than 15 countries around the world and is developing rapidly internationally through organic growth and acquisitions. Already operating in Europe (Spain and Germany, and now Italy) Seche Environnement has recently taken a leading position in Latin America (Peru and Chile) and in South Africa.

The Group currently employs around 4,500 people worldwide (including about 2,000 in France).

Seche Environnement has been listed on Eurolist by Euronext (Compartment B) since November 27, 1997.

It is eligible for equity savings funds dedicated to investing in SMEs and is listed in the CAC Mid&Small, Enternext PEA-PME 150, and Enternext Tech40 indexes.

Important notice

This press release may contain information of a provisional nature. This information represents either trends or targets as of the date of publication of the press release and may not be considered as results forecasts or as any other type of performance indicator. This information is by nature subject to risks and uncertainties which are difficult to foresee and are usually beyond the Company's control, which may imply that expected results and developments differ significantly from announced trends and targets. These risks notably include those described in the Company's Registration Document, which is available on its website (www.groupe-seche.com). This information therefore does not reflect the Company's future performance, which may differ considerably, and no guarantee can be given as to the achievement of these forward-looking figures. The Company makes no commitment on the updating of this information. More detailed information on the Company can be obtained on its website (www.groupe-seche.com), in the Regulated Information section. This press release does not constitute an offer of shares or a solicitation in view of an offer of shares in any country, including the United States. Distribution of this press release may be subject to the laws and regulations in force in France or other countries. Persons in possession of this press release must be aware of these restrictions and observe them.

1 See Investor Day, June 26, 2018: targeted EBITDA at 20% of contributed revenue for 2020

2 WEA: Waste from Economic Activities

3 See "Investor Day", June 26, 2018 and "Investor Day", December 17, 2019

4 Organic: at constant scope and exchange rates

5 See "Investor Day", June 26, 2018 and "Investor Day", December 17, 2019

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005506/en/

Contacts:

Seche Environnement

Manuel Andersen

Head of Investor Relations

+33 (0)1 53 21 53 60

m.andersen@groupe-seche.com
Thousands of Britons have had travel plans thrown into uncertainty after the Government announced holidaymakers in or going to Spain must quarantine on their return.

The Foreign Office has also advised against all but essential travel to Spain and its islands, prompting some operators to cancel holidays.

What does this mean for holidaymakers and their money. Can you claim on insurance, Section 75 of your credit card or cancel with your airline and hotel directly?

Can employers stop you from going or withhold pay and what about those planning trips to European destinations that also have rising infection rates?

Outbreak: Holidaymakers going to Spain now have to quarantine for 14 days on their return

What's going on with travel rules?

The quarantine decision was announced on Sunday after the Government said there has been a 'significant change' over the last week in both the level and pace of change in confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Spain.

Since then, the advice has been extended to include the Balearics and Canary Islands, despite the areas initially being exempt from the quarantine rules. This has left a large number of travellers having to isolate on their return with thousands of other holidaymakers unsure whether to cancel their holiday or not.

There have been talks about the quarantine being reduced to 10 days, but it is not clear if that will happen or not, with the situation changing at pace all the time.

Crucially, on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office advises British nationals against 'all but essential international travel,' to Spain. It says: 'This advice is being kept under constant review... national control measures may be brought in with little notice.'

I have a trip booked soon to Spain, will I get a refund?

If you booked a package holiday which is cancelled by the provider, you are entitled to a refund and it should be returned within 14 days.

However, only some are so far cancelling and most airlines are not yet cancelling flights (see below). By law, if you booked with an airline directly, you should receive a refund from them within seven days - if it cancels your flights.

The first port of call should be to contact your travel company or airline directly. Some might be offering the option to rebook or to accept a voucher for the value of your booking.

However, as we have seen in the past few months, lines will be busy and many firms have been slow to refund even when they have cancelled trips or flights.

Which package firms are cancelling and what will I get if they do?

It is essential to check about your particular booking with the firm, with all currently having different approaches to the latest crisis.

For instance, Jet2, Tui and First Choice have cancelled trips up to certain dates in August. This means you should get a refund or, if you should choose, a voucher or the option to rebook.

And Kuoni, even though it is not cancelling trips, is offering refunds or rebookings at a later date. Again, you should check with the firm you have booked with.

Jet2 has cancelled trips to Spain up to certain dates in August in response to the outbreak.

Jet2 has cancelled trips to Spain up to certain dates in August in response to the outbreak

Which airlines are cancelling and what will I get if they do?

You must check your particular flight. None of BA, easyJet or Ryanair are cancelling at the moment - but the situation is fast moving. Je2 is apparently cancelling some flights.

In the case of BA and easyJet it seems that they are offering a voucher for the value of certain bookings, or the option to rebook.

Will I be able to cancel a direct hotel booking because of this?

If you have booked directly with a hotel it is unlikely that they will let you cancel without abiding by their cancellation charges.

You could try appealing to their goodwill and there is certainly no harm in asking. They may for instance let you move to a later date.

If you have booked through a third-party website like Booking.com, Expedia or Lastminute, you may find that the cancellation terms are more generous, depending on what sort of reservation you made.

What if my trip isn't cancelled but I want to cancel it?

If your trip isn't cancelled, contact your travel provider in the first instance to see if they are offering refunds, vouchers or a change of date.

It is a fast-moving situation and as the Foreign Office advice has changed, more trips will be cancelled. So if you can wait, it might be worth seeing if your provider cancels first - as you will then be entitled to a refund.

If they do not, check your travel insurance (see below).

If you cannot claim on that you may have to swallow the cost of cancelling your holiday and then fight to get a refund through your insurance, credit card provider through Section 75 or a chargeback, offered by some banks.

Tour providers and airlines are starting to show their hands, and more will probably will cancel holidays given the Government advice.

Contact your travel provider for the very latest info.

If your trip isn't cancelled, contact your travel provider to see if they are offering refunds

Can I claim on my travel insurance?

If you can't get a refund, your travel insurance might pay out - although most will not.

If you took out your policy and booked your holiday at a time when the FCO had no warning in place against all non-essential travel, most insurers should cover you for cancellation - as long as an FCO warning remains in place.

You'll be expected to try for a refund from your airline or travel firm first though.

If you either took out your policy or booked your holiday when the current or previous FCO warning was in place (at the start of lockdown), you're much less likely to be covered for any kind of coronavirus travel restrictions or disruption.

It's also worth checking whether your policy covers cancellation  even if there's no FCO advisory. Its probable that only more expensive policies will do this.

You will need to check your insurance policy wording to see if you are able to make a successful claim.

I have a booking to Spain in the next few days or weeks: what happens if I go?

If you travel to Spain against FCO advice, your travel insurance will be invalid and you will have no cover for anything, including medical claims.

This is obviously quite risky, especially if you end up needing any sort of medical attention, so it would be generally advised to try and re-arrange or cancel your trip.

This is why it is important to contact the airline, hotel and/or tour operator to cancel.

What will happen when I get back?

If you're returning to the UK from Spain you will need to provide your journey and contact details and self-isolate for 14 days. This may drop to 10 days soon.

You may be fined up to 100 if you refuse to provide your contact details or more if you break this rule more than once.

You may also be fined up to 1,000 if you refuse to self-isolate, or you could face further action.

If you travel to Spain on holiday against FCO advice, your travel insurance will be invalid

Will I get sick leave from my job? Could I be forced to take unpaid leave?

This will depend on your employer and their rules. If, for example, you can still work from home, there should - in theory - be no problem with you quarantining.

However, you are not automatically entitled to statutory sick pay from your employer if you have to quarantine after coming back off holiday, according to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

Some employers will offer sick pay  either statutory or a higher level, depending on their policy.

It could be that if your employer is unable to offer you sick pay, you could take annual leave to avoid missing out on any payment, although this may not be possible if you do not have enough left to take.

However, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said no worker following quarantine guidance should be penalised by employers, including by being put on to sick pay.

Slater and Gordon employment lawyer Danielle Parsons said: 'Those returning from Spain, who have suddenly discovered they have to quarantine are in a very weak legal position as their bosses don't have to give them time off if they are unable to work from home.

'If you're able to explain this to your employer they could offer you the chance to take annual leave or unpaid leave.

'However if this leads to a dispute the employee only has a claim to unfair dismissal if they have been with the employer for two or more years.

'Those who are self-employed will potentially have no recourse with income protection needing a longer period of time to kick in.'

I am thinking of booking a European trip: should I go ahead?

The advice is that if you book a trip to somewhere like Spain, France, Italy or Germany, at the moment you must be prepared to lose your money. Boris Johnson warned today that as second waves look like emerging across Europe, quarantine orders could spread.

There are ways of booking that offer more flexibility. Airline operators offer flexibile tickets. And booking rooms via websites like Booking.com, Expedia and AirBnB often means that you can cancel quite close to the date of travel without losing too much money.

As seen with Spain, the advice can change quickly.

Can I cancel and get a refund if I booked with credit card?

If you paid by credit card, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act covers transactions costing between 100 and 30,000 - where at least part of the purchase was made using your credit card.

If your airline, hotel or tour operator will not play ball, you might need to go down this route.

If you paid on a debit card - and also credit card - you can also potentially issue a chargeback via your bank.

This gives customers a chance of getting your money back from your bank if you bought faulty goods, a service wasn't provided, or the company you bought something from went bust and your goods weren't delivered.

Under the chargeback process  which is part of Amex, Mastercard and Visa rules - your bank is asking for money back from the airline or holiday firm's bank.
Japan's ruling party will urge the government to restrict the use of Chinese-developed apps like TikTok and better protect sensitive information, aiming to ensure that the country can keep working closely with the U.S. on security matters.

Members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party met with experts Tuesday to start discussing new recommendations that could be proposed as early as August.

The move forms part of a broader push in the LDP for tighter controls on the handling of sensitive information.

"If the Japanese government and companies do not adopt a framework for security clearance, we could be excluded from international research and the exchange of talent with the U.S. and Europe," said Akira Amari, a former cabinet member who is leading the LDP's discussions.

Japan's debate on TikTok comes amid growing concerns that this app and others are being used to collect personal data for the Chinese government.

People should download TikTok "only if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a television interview in early July. The month before, India had announced a ban on the app after a border clash with China.

TikTok is believed to have more than 10 million users in Japan, many of them younger people.

The LDP plans to first propose a bill listing the legislation to be amended, as well as a timeline for new drafts to submit to the parliament -- standard procedure when tackling long-term issues.

In addition to restricting Chinese apps, the party wants to create a security clearance program to protect sensitive technology and information.

The U.S. and the European Union require individuals to have a security clearance to access military and other sensitive information, both within government and in the private sector. Japan passed a law in 2014 setting heavy penalties for those who leak such information -- but data held by private companies, research facilities and universities is not covered.

Since then, nongovernment actors have only become bigger players in such cutting-edge fields as artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
The Jersey City man who was wanted in the death of a 17-year-old high school student earlier this month has been captured in Pennsylvania, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said in a tweet.

Jahquell Carter, 24, was taken into custody at 7 a.m. today in Plymouth, a small borough outside Wilkes-Barre. Suarez said the arrest was made by the HCPO Homicide Task Force, Plymouth police, Pennsylvania State Police, Lycoming County sheriffs officers, Pennsylvania State parole officers and the NY/NJ Regional Marshals Fugitive Task Force.

Tyeah Garner, who attended Lincoln High School in Jersey City, was fatally shot at 10:30 p.m. on Rutgers Avenue on July 6. On Saturday, Carter and two 19-year-old women, Heavenley Cherry and Izmae Tinker-Trent, was charged in her death.

When police arrived at the home where Carter was hiding, the suspect fled to the attic and attempted bust through the wall, according to a Pennsylvania criminal complaint. When he couldnt break through the attic wall, he surrendered to police.

At a hearing Tuesday morning he was ordered held without bail, pending extradition proceedings to be brought back to New Jersey, the complaint said. His extradition hearing is set for July 31.

Carter was charged with first-degree murder as an accomplice, conspiracy to commit murder, possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes and unlawful possession of a weapon. In February 2019, he was charged with using a gun to threaten a woman. The disposition of that case was not immediately available.
As 4,300 shipbuilders at the Bath Iron Works (BIW) north of Portland, Maine, enter their sixth week of strike, defense contractor General Dynamics is continuing production of US Navy ships with strikebreakers. The company is being assisted by non-striking members of other union locals.

Management shows absolutely no sign of retreating from its demands relating to increased subcontracting and attacks on seniority rights despite reports that it is falling further behind schedule of the delivery of guided missile destroyers to the US Navy. The silence of US Navy officials and the White House on the walkout demonstrates support for the strikebreaking operation aimed at starving workers into submission.

For their part, workers are trying to survive on a mere $150 in weekly strike pay as well as local food donations. The International Association of Machinists, which is sitting on nearly $250 million in assets, has not proposed any additional strike assistance nor has there been a call to other well-heeled unions, such as the United Auto Workers with nearly $1 billion in assets, for help. The last strike in 2000 lasted 55 days.

Bath shipbuilders picket

General Dynamics wants to convert the highly skilled Bath Iron Works labor force into low paid, contingent employees serving at managements whim. They are being assisted in this objective by the IAM and the AFL-CIO, which have isolated the workers from broader sections of the working class. As part of this, the IAM has tolerated, indeed welcomed, the strikebreaking of other, smaller, union locals which are continuing to work in the shipyard while their brothers and sisters walk the picket lines.

In a highly provocative move, management terminated health benefits for strikers July 1, despite a spate of new COVID-19 infections among workers, likely contracted at the shipyard. In March, BIW workers staged a job protest demanding a shutdown of the shipyard as coronavirus spread. The Trump administration then intervened to declare navy shipyards critical infrastructure.

At a strike rally Saturday, IAM President Richard Martinez Jr., whose reported 2019 compensation was $371,580, offered nothing but empty platitudes about fighting corporate greed along with stock nationalist demagogy. In June, Martinez sent an appeal to President Trump arguing that the companys intransigence was undermining US naval preparedness. The IAM has also sent letters to Navy Secretary Ken Braithwaite and to Congress.

The IAM invited Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon, a Democrat, to address the strike rally. Gideon is challenging incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins in the November general election and has said little about the strike except expressing the hope for a fair contract. Both Gideon and Collins visited the IAM picket line last week to profess support for the strikers.

Neither Collins nor Gideon have proposed any concrete assistance to the workers, merely declaring their wish for management and the union to resume talks. No face-to-face talks have taken place since the walkout began June 22. The only communications have been through a federal mediator.

For her part, Collins issued a statement equating solidarity with BIW workers with support for unrestrained militarism. I can help them as Ive always helped them, and thats by ensuring that BIW gets contracts, that we have an adequate shipbuilding budget, and we continue to pursue the goal of a 355-ship Navy.

The IAM endorsed Collins, who holds a position on the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, in her 2014 Senate race.

According to one source, the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing strike have put the shipyard up to one year behind on the delivery of ships under its current contract with the Navy. It is currently working on the completion of several high tech Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and the last of three Zumwalt-class destroyers.

BIW claims that its demand to hire virtually unlimited numbers of subcontractors is necessary to allow it to catch up on the completion of its backlog of ships.

General Dynamics reported earnings of $708 million in the first quarter of 2020 and has lucrative Navy contracts booked well into the future. Despite this, management claims the yard is not competitive with other US shipyards, particularly on the Gulf Coast where labor costs are lower and the climate is more favorable.

One of Baths largest competitors is Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi, where workers are members of the IAM and several other unions. However, at no time has the IAM suggested any manner of united action with these workers, despite managements efforts at pitting one section of workers against another in a race to the bottom.

The Bath strike is in serious danger and cannot be won on the present basis, forcing workers at one shipyard to battle alone against a multibillion-dollar defense contractor and key component of the massive US military industrial complex.

The strategy of the IAM is not only bankrupt but is aimed at deliberately isolating workers and wearing them down. What the IAM fears more than anything is that the stand by shipyard workers will find broader support in the working class under conditions of massive social tensions in the midst of a raging pandemic.

The IAM has demonstrated its opposition to any serious measures to prosecute the strike. The World Socialist Web Site and the Socialist Equality Party urge Bath shipyard workers to organize a rank-and-file strike committee independent of the IAM to carry forth their struggle. What is required is the broadest mobilization of the working class in opposition to the massive strikebreaking opposition being mounted by BIW. Appeals must be made to shipyard workers in the US and internationally, teachers, autoworkers, steelworkers, logistics workers and other sections of the working class.

This must be combined with a political strategy aimed at ending the subordination of economic and political life to the profit demands of the corporations and to transform the war-making industries into useful production, including the manufacture of life-saving equipment during the pandemic.
Geneva, July 28 : Governments should react quickly and communicate transparently to ensure small numbers of COVID-19 cases and clusters don't "reignite sustained and efficient community transmission", said a senior expert of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, made the appeal on Monday when talking about the recent resurgence of COVID-19 cases worldwide, reports Xinhua news agency.

Countries such as Japan and Australia that have had contained the virus are experiencing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases.

Japan has reported 4,740 newly confirmed cases to WHO in the past seven days.

"When the measures to suppress the virus are lifted, the virus returns," Ryan noted.

Some of the resurgences have started from long-term care facilities such as nursing homes, others were happening in places like nightclubs, where people come together and spend a prolonged period of time, said Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead of the WHO Health Emergencies Program.

Meanwhile, Ryan said that in order to efficiently control the resurgence, countries need to have "consistent, clear, sustained interventions," and to get the interventions down to the community level.

It is equally important that governments be "honest and trustful" and "communicate reality on the ground" to the public.

According to the Johns Hopkins University, the overall number of global coronavirus cases stood at 16,407,310 as of Tuesday morning, while the deaths have increased to 652,459.

The US accounted for the world's highest number of infections and fatalities at 4,287,974 and 148,009, respectively.

Brazil came in the second place with 2,442,375 infections and 87,618 deaths.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Fears have arisen that a COVID-19 outbreak erupting China's Xinjiang could infect millions of Uighur allegedly detained inside the region's 're-education camps' as the country is hit by a new spike of coronavirus cases.

China Tuesday recorded 68 confirmed cases with the bulk of infections being found in Xinjiang where as many as three million people are believed to have been detained in vast internment camps.

The north-western Chinese region has been battling a fresh coronavirus crisis that has infected over 200 people, including a range of ethnic minorities, according to the country's Vice Premier Sun Chunlan.

Fears have arisen that a COVID-19 outbreak erupting China's Xinjiang could infect millions of Uighur allegedly detained inside the region's 're-education camps'. The file picture reportedly shows detainees in a Xinjiang re-education camp located in the far western Chinese region

China Tuesday recorded 68 confirmed cases with the bulk of infections being found in Xinjiang where as many as three million people are believed to have been detained in vast internment camps. A medical collects a swab from a man in Urumqi, Xinjiang on July 19

This photo taken on May 31, 2019 shows watchtowers on a high-security facility near what is believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained

It comes as a infection cluster first emerged in a major port city in north-eastern China last week has spread to nine cities, including the Chinese capital Beijing, prompting officials to impose fresh restrictions to prevent a second wave of infections.

China had largely brought the virus under control since it first emerged in the country late last year, through a series of strict lockdowns and travel restrictions.

But in recent months a number of small outbreaks have given cause for concern, with China reporting 68 new infections on Tuesday - the highest daily number since April.

Of those, 57 were in the north-western region of Xinjiang, where an outbreak has seen millions of residents tested and strict lockdowns in the regional capital Urumqi.

The escalating COVID-19 outbreak in Xinjiang has fuelled fears for the millions of Uighur people who are believed to be detained in what Chinese government called 're-education' facilities.

Dr Anna Hayes, a senior lecturer in politics and international relations at James Cook University in Australia, told The Guardian that she feared China's lack of transparency meant an outbreak might never even come to light.

'I doubt we would ever know. But the fact there is community transmission, it's only a matter of time, if it hasn't happened already,' she said.

'The poor treatment and torture they endure make detainees very vulnerable and susceptible to the virus,' said Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, an advocacy group based in Germany, to The Telegraph.

China has been hit with a spike of coronavirus cases as a new COVID-19 infection cluster spreads to five regions across the country. This photo taken on July 26 shows a health worker carrying out a coronavirus test on a resident in Dalian, Liaoning province in north-east China

The contagion link first emerged in a major port city in north-eastern China last week has spread to nine cities, including the Chinese capital Beijing, prompting officials to impose fresh restrictions to prevent a second wave of infections. Dalian has been carrying out mass testing of the port city's residents after a cluser of coronavirus cases was discovered last week

'Many Uighurs have already died from medical neglect in the camps,' said Mr Isa, demanding China to shutter the facilities. 'It will be a humanitarian disaster if the virus spreads in the camps...if it has not happened already.'

Xinjiang's capital city, Urumqi of 3.5million, reported on July 16 its first COVID-19 infection - a 24-year-old female retail worker - in five months.

Experts still have not confirmed the origin of the recent Xinjiang cluster, which has infected 235 people to date.

Many of the infected patients were said to be ethnic minorities, according to Sun Chunlan, China's Vice Premier, without specifying the residents' ethnicities.

Six more cases were also reported in the industrial port city of Dalian, Liaoning province, where a new outbreak first emerged at a seafood processing plant last week. This brings the total number of new infections in Dalian to 44.

China had largely brought the virus under control since it first emerged in the country late last year, through a series of strict lockdowns and travel restrictions. In this picture taken on Monday, people line up to undergo COVID-19 coronavirus tests at a testing centre in Dalian

Dalian authorities have also banned group celebratory dining activities and ordered customers to display a local 'health code' on their phones when entering restaurants. A health worker carries out a COVID-19 test at a makeshift testing centre in Dalian, Liaoning province

A fresh Beijing case reported Tuesday was also linked to an asymptomatic patient who had travelled from Dalian - the first new local case since a cluster in the capital was brought under control in early July.

The Chinese capital has recently declared a victory in containing a local COVID-19 outbreak linked to a seafood market.

A coronavirus cluster emerged at Beijing's massive Xinfadi wholesale market in early June and infected a total of 335 people have been infected.

The local government marked the city as 'low-risk' on July 20 after reporting zero new cases for 14 consecutive days.

Beijing has sealed off the neighbourhood where the patient lives and begun mass testing local residents, according to the officials today.

Residential communities in both Dalian and Urumqi have been placed under lockdown, with authorities declaring a 'wartime mode' to combat the virus. Pictured, Residents wait for groceries delivered to an entrance of a sealed residential compound in Dalian on July 23

In recent months a number of small outbreaks have given cause for concern, with China reporting 68 new infections on Tuesday - the highest daily number since April. A man wearing a face mask to protect against the coronavirus rides alone on a bus in Beijing on July 28

Health authorities said the Dalian cluster had now spread to nine cities in five regions across the country, including as far away as the southeast coastal province of Fujian.

Fujian said the provincial capital Fuzhou would enter 'wartime mode' after it discovered an asymptomatic patient who had travelled from Dalian, 1,500 kilometres (900 miles) away.

The new measures mean increased scrutiny of travellers who enter the city from nationwide virus hotspots.

Twelve new asymptomatic cases were also recorded in Dalian on Tuesday. China counts asymptomatic cases separately.

The Chinese Super League is currently being played in the city, under strict conditions.

Local health officials in Dalian said Sunday that they would mass-test all six million residents within four days, and announced on Monday that samples had already been taken from 1.68million people.

A fresh Beijing case reported Tuesday was also linked to an asymptomatic patient who had travelled from Dalian - the first new local case since a cluster in the capital was brought under control in early July. People are pictured wearing face masks in Beijing on Tuesday

Local authorities have rolled out mass testing for all 6million residents in the major port city to stamp out a fresh COVID-19 outbreak. This photo taken on July 26 shows a health worker carrying out a coronavirus test in Dalian, in China's north-eastern Liaoning province

Dalian authorities have also banned group celebratory dining activities and ordered customers to display a local 'health code' on their phones when entering restaurants.

Meanwhile, health authorities in Shenzhen announced that more than 3,000 locals had been tested as of Tuesday morning, after a Hong Kong truck driver who recently tested positive passed through the city close to the semi-autonomous financial hub.

Hong Kong initially had remarkable success in controlling the outbreak, but local infections have soared over the last month.

Across the mainland, 391 people are still hospitalised with COVID-19, and there have been 83,959 infections in total.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28) The Philippines must borrow more funds to beef up its COVID-19 response, a lawmaker said Tuesday.

Speaking to CNN Philippines, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said the country can afford to pay loans if funds are dedicated to the right projects.

The government must borrow some more because we will put these into good use. Can we afford to pay? Yes, we can afford to pay these if the funds are dedicated to the right projects, Drilon said in an interview with The Source.

The opposition lawmaker cited the governments infrastructure program as a possible focal point as it provides employment to our people and prepares our economy.

In a previous statement, Drilon said he would support the move to obtain loans to help shore up the economy amid the COVID-19 crisis.

The Philippines has borrowed $5.28 billion or roughly 260 billion from foreign sources as of July 1, officials have reported. The countrys total debt load has also grown to over 8 trillion as of May, the Bureau of the Treasury disclosed last month.

With the economy playing a huge factor in the countrys crisis recovery, Drilon likewise said he hopes to hear a stronger voice from the Finance Department, particularly with the decisions made by the COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force.

The economic sector should have a strong voice. This problem involves two basic sectors: health and economy, Drilon said, adding that Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez should be the ones leading the Philippines recovery program.

Coronavirus infections in the country have surpassed 82,000, according to the Health Departments latest record. Globally, the mysterious virus has affected over 16 million individuals in 188 different countries including China, where the pandemic originated.
In March 1968, Ho Dai Dong and Stephens Nash Edmunds were on two sides of the battle in Chu Tan Kra Mountain.

Vietnamese veterans Pham Van Chuc and Ho Dai Dong (first and second from right) and US veterans with a jar of soil excavated from a tunnel where US soldiers died in 1968 in Sa Thay District, Kon Tum. Photos courtesy of Regiment 209

More than 50 years later, the veterans, one Vietnamese, one American, stand on the same mountain, shaking hands and calling each other friends.

On the first days of Lunar New Year 1968, as many as 2,100 young Hanoian soldiers from Regiment 209 headed to the south to fight at the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) battlefield.

After a US attack on March 26, 1968, more than 200 Vietnamese soldiers laid down their lives on Chu Tan Kra Mountain, Kon Tum Province.

Ho Dai Dong was lucky to be among those that survived. More than 50 years after the moment he witnessed his comrades die, Dong along with other former soldiers, both Vietnamese and Americans, keep searching for missing remains of the martyrs.

In the spring of 2009, Pham Van Chuc, one of the Vietnamese veterans from Regiment 209, made contact with Stephens Nash Edmunds, a US veteran who fought in 1968, to seek assistance in locating the graves of Vietnamese soldiers who died on Chu Tan Kra Mountain.

Edmunds did not hesitate and made a trip to Vietnam six months later, bringing an aerial view of the hilltop with the approximate location of two mass graves, diaries, journals and photos, which were then precious documents for Vietnamese veterans to search for the martyrs remains.

We agreed that 40 years prior we would not have hesitated to take the other one out if given the opportunity, but now we have lunch together as friends, Edmunds recalled the reunion with Vietnamese veterans in 2009.

Edmunds then returned to Vietnams southern battlefield many times with his US comrades, ate, slept and climbed the mountain with Vietnamese veterans in search for the bodies.

Edmunds is not talkative and rarely talks about politics. We dont know each others language but hug each other tightly each time we meet, Dong said.

Stephens Nash Edmunds (left) gives a Vietnamese veteran a hug when they were reunited in 2018.

When we realise that we all come together to voluntarily search for the martyrs remains, there is no border between us. They come here with their heart and human love. And so do we.

Over the past 11 years, the team returned to the battlefield more than 30 times, occasionally three times a year on March 26 - the death anniversary of fallen soldiers; July 27 - Vietnams War Martyrs and Invalids Day and December 22 - the founding anniversary of the Vietnamese Peoples Army.

"Each trip lasted between 10 and 30 days. We slept and ate in the forest," Dong said.

We use all possible methods to find the remains. Most of the time we use military maps and data provided by the US, but sometimes from the reports of local people and memories of veterans, he said.

Since 2009, they have found more than 170 remains of martyrs. Nearly 90 per cent were excavated thanks to US military data on mass graves.

Many were repatriated to their homes. Others were buried at the martyr cemetery of Sa Thay District.

In 2016, a former US soldier named John Cimino brought to Vietnam the wallet he took from a dead Vietnamese soldier in the war.

There was Vietnamese writing inside the wallet that he did not know what it was. It turned out to be the soldier's name and unit. Thanks to the item, the Vietnamese veterans were able to contact the surviving members of the soldier family and make a formal presentation to them.

A wallet and portraits of Vietnamese soldiers handed over to their families by US veterans.

When I returned to Vietnam in 2018 on the 50th anniversary of the battle, they [Vietnamese veterans] had wreath laying ceremonies for their dead and included a wreath laying ceremony for our dead. It was very emotional," said Edmunds.

Norton Richard Paschal, who also fought in Chu Tan Kra from December 1967 to December 1968, did not have a chance to come back to Vietnam as early as his fellows due to personal reasons.

But his first return to the battlefield in 2018, 50 years after the attack, was full of emotion.

I was treated marvelously by former Vietnamese soldiers that I actually fought against. They treated me like a brother, as a fellow veteran. They said the war is over; you were a soldier, we were soldiers. You followed your orders and we followed ours. There is no animosity left between us.

Pass it on

Since 2017, veterans of Regiment 209 have found a way to synchronise military maps and official documents on the dead, injured and buried Vietnamese soldiers with Google Earth using Global Positioning System (GPS) to locate martyrs remains.

With this new technology, Dong has pinpointed about 12,000 remains of soldiers on more than 1,000 co-ordinates on Google Earth. They fought against the US during the 1965-70 period in battlefields in central Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue provinces and Central Highlands provinces of Kon Tum and Lai Chau.

About 70 per cent of the remains pinpointed on the map have not been excavated. About 4,000 are feasible to be found because they are located in old forests. Many were buried under houses and roads, he said.

The more we travel, the more data we collect. As a soldier, I think every martyr is our comrade. Once we know the locations, we have to go find them. We decided to expand the search to find remains of not only soldiers in our regiment but also from other battalions, Dong said.

I hope that the database that I built on Google Earth will facilitate the search. Maybe in the next few years, when the old veterans can no longer go on the trips, we will pass on the data to the martyrs next of kin so that the young ones will help us continue the work, he said.

A team of Vietnamese and US veterans on a trip in 2018 to Chu Tan Kra Mountain in search of martyrs remains. The trip was also joined by relatives of Vietnamese martyrs.

Still keeping in touch with each other on social media, the Vietnamese and US veterans wish they could reunite and resume the trips back to the battlefield soon.

Edmunds said: I was planning to return in March but had to cancel due to COVID-19. Hopefully, I will be able to come next March.

The men of Regiment 209 have been gracious hosts and I look forward to being with them again. Once we were enemies, now we are friends! VNS

Khanh Duong

Vietnam, US war veterans meet on Ham Rong Bridge War veterans from Vietnam and the US get together on Ham Rong Bridge, northern Thanh Hoa province in celebration of the 25th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations.
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Harringtons testimonial video about Sameza is scheduled for release across social media platforms, digital channels, and streaming services as well as http://www.sameza.com and AsSeenOnTV.pro.

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About Kevin Harrington

As the inventor of the infomercial and founder of As Seen on TV, Kevin Harrington has launched some of the best-selling DRTV campaigns in history. Since producing his first thirty-minute infomercial in 1984, Harrington has been involved in over 500 product launches that have resulted in over $5 billion in global sales.

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Headquartered in South Florida, AsSeenOnTV.pro is a full-service production, branding, and marketing company that specializes in direct response television, short- and long-form commercials, and brand building. Based out of a 25,000+ sq ft, state-of-the-art studio, the companys creative team handles every aspect of production from script to screen to airing. For nearly two decades, AsSeenOnTV.pros veteran staff of writers, producers, videographers, and editors has amassed more than 50 Telly Awards, thousands of prestigious clients, and over $20 million in television placements.

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A case of sedition has been registered against political activist and convenor of Peoples Resurgence and Justice Alliance (PRJA) Erendro Leichombam over his objectionable remarks on social media against newly elected Rajya Sabha MP from Manipur Leishemba Sanajaoba.

The case has been registered at the Porompat police station in Imphal (East). Leichombam has been booked under sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 124(A) (sedition) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code, said Jogeshchandra Haobijam, Superintendent of Police, Imphal East district.

On July 24, Leichombam had posted a picture of MP Sanajaoba Leishemba and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Facebook under the caption - Minai macha (Son of a Servant).

In the image, Leishemba, who is also the titular king of Manipur, is seen bowing before Shah with folded hands in a gesture of gratitude.

How does calling someone servant fall under sedition? They are now going through all of my previous posts for legal justifications. I am afraid they will do the same to me - what they had done with Manipur TV journalist Kishore Chandra Wangkhem. He was in jail for almost a year, said Leichombam.

Wangkhem was arrested under the National Security Act (NSA) for social media posts criticising the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In a video uploaded on Facebook, Wangkhem had reportedly called Chief Minister N Biren Singh a puppet of PM Modi - for celebrating Rani Laxmibais birth anniversary.

He was first arrested in November last year and released in six days only to be sent to prison under NSA two days later. He was released in April last year after completing a one-year jail term.

A day after Leichombams Facebook post went viral, a team from Manipur Police landed at the activists residence in Thangmeiband, Imphal West, on Sunday midnight.

They came to our house and asked for Erendro. They also said it would be good if my brother takes down the post, said Leichombams younger brother Sikendra.

Reacting to news of Imphal Police registering a case against him, Leichombam once again took to Facebook late Tuesday evening to write, You can imprison my body, but how will you imprison my mind?

In a subsequent post, he said, MK Gandhi, Tilak, Arundhati Roy & Hijam Irabot. Today, I proudly join them. Sedition 124(a) is a colonial law. Biren Singhji is a puppet of Hindutva colonialism.

Leichombam, a Harvard postgraduate in economic policy, has an impressive fan following in social media.

He had unsuccessfully contested the Manipur Assembly elections in 2017. PRJA was formed the same year with Irom Sharmila Chanu being the mascot of the regional party.

In 2018, Leichombam was arrested for refusing to take down a video containing inflammatory speeches from his Facebook profile -- he had questioned the Manipur Police for not arresting those who created the hate video and circulated it on social media.

The young activist was then booked under relevant sections of the IPC and IT Act for criminal intimidation and allegedly promoting enmity between different groups.

They have tried to arrest me on uncountable occasions. They arrested me once. But this time, its sedition, said Leichombam.

In February 2019, a student leader from Manipur, Veewon Thokchom, was arrested in Delhi on sedition charges and later brought to Imphal.

The 24-year-old activist was booked for raising voice against the Centres intent to implement Citizenship (Amendment) Bill - a move that had witnessed massive protests across the northeast.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was later passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019. The CAA amended the Citizenship Act of 1955, thus, paving way for persecuted non-Muslim minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to avail Indian citizenship.
The animal was approximately 10 cm long and lived more than 130 million years ago in what is now the state of Minas Gerais. Its morphology differs from that of all other known lizard species.

Fossil remains of a novel species of lizard that lived more than 130 million years ago have been found in the north of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It has been named Neokotus sanfranciscanus and is the oldest representative of the order Squamata ever found in South America.

Squamates are the largest reptile group, comprising lizards, snakes and amphisbaenians (worm lizards).

The discovery shows that scaled lizards were present on the continent at least 20 million years earlier than previously recorded and suggests that early South American squamates were part of a much broader global distribution, in contrast with the high levels of endemism (confinement to certain geographic regions) characteristic of modern species.

The fossil is described in an article published in Communications Biology.

The study was led by Jonathas Bittencourt, who was formerly awarded a postdoctoral research scholarship by FAPESP and is currently a professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). The last author of the article is Max Langer, a professor in the Biology Department of the University of Sao Paulos Ribeirao Preto School of Philosophy, Science and Letters (FFCLRP-USP). The study was supported by the Minas Gerais Research Foundation (FAPEMIG) via a grant awarded to Bittencourt and by FAPESP via a Thematic Project led by Langer.

This was a small lizard, approximately 10 cm long, Langer told Agencia FAPESP. Its discovery in Brazil shows that the squamates were distributed throughout the world and were alive much earlier than we thought. This was only possible because, although the supercontinent Pangaea no longer existed, the continental lands were still relatively close to each other, allowing animals to disperse widely.

The genus name Neokotus comes from Greek and means novel and unfamiliar. It was chosen because this animals morphology differs in several ways from that of all other species of Squamata. The specific epithet sanfranciscanus refers to the fact that the lizards fossilized remains were found in the Quirico Formation, which is in the Sao Francisco River Basin.

One of the morphological peculiarities of Neokotus is the shape of its ungual phalanges, which are terminal finger or toe bones. These bones end in nails in humans and in claws in other animals. In Neokotus, the base of the ungual phalanx was flat, a trait not found in any other known lizard. More detailed study of this feature is required, but it probably had something to do with locomotion, Bittencourt said.

Another peculiarity is the shape of its teeth, which had robust bases, tapering and curving inwards at the tip. We also have a theory about this: the shape of its teeth helped capture the insects it fed on.

Bittencourt discovered Neokotus by chance. He was collecting scales from small sharks on a riverbank when he came across a block of sediment containing phalanges, vertebrae, teeth and other bones that did not appear to belong to fish. On assembling the bones and analyzing their mutual relationships, he realized they belonged to a lizard.

I found approximately 30% of the fossil remains of a single individual, he said. The Quirico Formation in the municipality of Joao Pinheiro in northern Minas Gerais must have included a large lake or several interconnected lakes in the remote past, as its very rich in fossils of lacustrine origin. Ive been digging in the area since 2012. My field work consists of collecting chunks of rock, which I take back to the lab to be washed and broken up using hydrogen peroxide. I collect the tiny bones with brushes and tweezers.

The rocks in which Neokotus was found were dated by means of microcrustaceans also embedded in the sediment.

Many dinosaurs have been discovered in South America, but findings of small reptiles are also very important for the reconstruction of the scene at the time, Langer said.

The article, Discovery of the oldest South American fossil lizard illustrates the cosmopolitanism of early South American squamates, can be read at: www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-0926-0.
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Rent has fallen sharply in the city with Australia's best performing economy as the COVID-19 crisis kills off the Airbnb market.

Hobart suffered the steepest rental drop during the three months to the end of June with apartment leases plunging by 3.7 per cent, new CoreLogic data showed.

The Tasmanian capital is now the fifth most expensive major city to rent a unit, with weekly costs of $391, putting it behind Sydney ($536), Canberra ($485), Melbourne ($446) and Brisbane ($398).

Rent has fallen sharply in the city with Australia's best performing economy as the COVID-19 crisis kills off the Airbnb market. Pictured is Hobart's Constitution Dock

By comparison, Sydney apartment rents plunged by 2.1 per cent as Melbourne's equivalent charges fell by two per cent during the June quarter.

Leasing an apartment became much cheaper in Hobart, despite Tasmania coming first in CommSec's State of the States report for having the strongest economy for the first time since October 2009.

CoreLogic blamed the state border closures for killing off the short-term Airbnb market.

'Hobart is estimated to have a relatively high level of Airbnb accommodation,' the quarterly rental review said.

'With anecdotes emerging of Airbnb owners putting this stock to the long-term rental market, the additional supply may have served to further reduce rents.'

Hobart was already an expensive market to rent with households dedicating an average of 34 per cent of their after-tax pay to service a lease, the highest of any capital city.

Hobart (Salamanca Market pictured) suffered the steepest rental drop during the three months to the end of June with apartment leases plunging by 3.7 per cent, new CoreLogic data showed

House rents fell in five of Australia's eight capital cities during the June quarter.

CoreLogic blamed the state border closures for killing off the short-term Airbnb market

CoreLogic's head of research in Australia Eliza Owen said renters were also be more likely to either work in hospitality or be a migrant.

'The COVID-19 environment shifted this trajectory,' she said.

'Closed international borders created a significant shock to rental demand, as historically the majority of new migrants to Australia have been renters.

'Job losses in sectors such as hospitality, tourism and the arts have also impacted demand, because households in these sectors are more likely to rent than in other industries.'

By comparison, Sydney apartment rents plunged by 2.1 per cent as Melbourne's equivalent charges fell by two per cent during the June quarter
Shares of the cement major surged 6.16% to Rs 4096.80 after the company's consolidated EBITDA margin rose 400 bps to 31% in Q1 FY21 from 27% in Q1 FY20.

The firm reported 38% drop in its consolidated net profit in the June quarter to Rs 797 crore in Q1 June 2020 as against Rs 1281 crore reported in the same period last year. Revenues (net of taxes) declined 33% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 7563 crore in in the first quarter of the financial year 2020-21 (FY21).

EBITDA fell 24% to Rs 2353 crore in Q1 June 2020 from Rs 3084 crore in Q1 June 2019. Profit before tax in Q1 FY21 stood at Rs 1314 crore, down by 31% from Rs 1893 crore in Q1 FY20.

Ultratech Cement recorded an exceptional expenditure of Rs 108 crore (net of tax) consequent to an order passed by the Supreme Court of India against the company's claim of capital investment incentive, relating to past periods.

The company managed the COVID-19 crisis with a sharp focus on operational efficiencies. In the available 68 operating days during this quarter, the company kept a tight control on costs and cash flow, and achieved an effective capacity utilisation of 60% across its network of 54 plants around the country.

"General disruption as a result of the lockdown did impact business performance, But with the Government of India and the State Governments taking measured steps towards opening up the economy, some encouraging trends were seen during the latter part of May, 2020, driven largely by better than expected pick-up in cement consumption in the rural markets", Ultratech Cement said in a statement.

The company's focus on conserving cash continued unabated. The "overheads control programme" initiated by the management cut fixed costs by 21% YoY. Prudent working capital management and control on cash flows are reflected in a reduction of net debt by Rs. 2,209 crores during Q1FY21.

The company is closely monitoring the impact of COVID-19 on its operations. Its capital and financial resources remain entirely protected and its liquidity position is adequately covered. Most importantly, the company continues to remain committed to all its business associates.

UltraTech Cement manufactures a range of products that cater to construction needs from foundation to finish, including Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), Portland Blast Furnace Slag Cement (PSC), Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC), white cement including white cement-based products and ready-mix concrete.

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Researchers have created an optical fiber gel or agar produced from saltwater algae. It was made by scientists from the UNICAMP or the University of Campinas in Sao Paulo in Brazil.

It is an edible, biodegradable, and biocompatible device which has numerous in vivo applications. These applications include localized delivery of drugs; body structure imaging; and localized delivery of light in phototherapy and optogenetics, such as using light to stimulate neurons in studying neural circuits within a live brain.

It is also possible to apply the optical fiber gel in detecting microorganisms in particular organs. If applied this way, the body will totally absorb the probe after it has completed its function.

UNICAMP School of Mechanical Engineering professor Eric Fujiwara and UNICAMP Gleb Wataghin Institute of Physics professor Cristiano Cordeiro led the research study, which was funded by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation-FAPESP. The researchers also benefited from the collaboration of Gunma University, Japan professor Hiromasa Oku.

They published the study entitled: "Agarose-based structured optical fiber," in the journal Scientific Reports.

READ: Researchers Use Blue-Green Algae in Wound Patch to Speed Up Healing





Composition of the Gel

Agars are also known as agar-agar. They are jelly-like substances produced from saltwater algae. This agar is a mixture composed of two kinds of polysaccharides, agaropectin, and agarose. Agarose functions as the supporting structure of algal cell walls; it is released upon being boiled. Agars are polymers composed of sub-units of galactose. Its solid substrate form is widely used as a culture media for various microbiological applications.

Optical fibers are used for transmitting information in the form of light pulses along a fiber strand. They are usually used for high-performance and long-distance data networking.

Fujiwara says the optical fiber they created is a cylinder having an exterior diameter of 2.5 mm., with an interior arrangement composed of six 0.5-mm cylindrically-shaped airholes surrounding a solid core. It confines light due to the difference between its air holes and the agar core's refraction indices.

Fujiwara said that they produced the fiber by using food-grade agar and molding it using six internal rods arranged lengthwise around an axis. He says the gel distributes itself into all available space. After it has cooled, they removed the rods in order to form airholes, releasing the solidified waveguide from its mold. The fiber's geometry and refraction index may be adapted by changing the mold design's and agar solution's compositions, respectively.

READ ALSO: Scientists Are Baffled by Origin of New Species of Red Algae Threatening Coral Reefs of Hawaii

Optical Sensing Applications

The research team tested the optical fiber in various media, including air, water, acetone, and ethanol. They concluded that it's context-sensitive. According to Fujiwara, the fact that the optical fiber gel goes through structural changes when it is subjected to variations in pH, humidity, and temperature makes it applicable in optical sensing.

One of its other promising applications includes its possible function as a growth medium for microbes and an optical sensor at the same time. Fujiwara says that in such a case, the waveguide may be designed to be a disposable sample that contains the needed nutrients. It would optically sense the device's immobilized cells, while a spectrometer or camera can analyze the signal.

READ NEXT: 50,000-Year-Old Indian Lake Just Turned Pink, Baffling Scientists, and Experts
WASHINGTON  A mask in every mailbox  thats what Rep. Ro Khanna wants to make reality under a new proposed law.

The Fremont Democrat and Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, have introduced legislation that would respond to the surge in coronavirus cases by distributing three high-quality, reusable face masks to all Americans through the Postal Service, for free. The bill would also provide medical-grade N95 masks to health care workers at no cost.

Although the face coverings would be provided through the Postal Service, the bill would also require that they be distributed to homeless people and that mask-pickup sites be designated in communities.

The proposal would set aside $5 billion for the effort.

If we can afford a $740 billion defense budget, we can afford to send every American a face mask, Khanna said. We are the wealthiest country on Earth, yet our health care workers are still facing a shortage of N95s, our essential workers are having to purchase their own protective face masks, and far too many vulnerable Americans are being left to figure out how to procure this basic need.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and scientific experts say wearing masks can significantly reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Gov. Gavin Newsom is among many state and local officials around the country to mandate that people wear them in public when safe physical distancing is impossible.

Along with the masks, the legislation would require the government to pass out a one-page flyer with information about masks and how to wear them.

The bill would direct officials to invoke the Defense Production Act and take other emergency action to distribute the masks.

The legislation is co-sponsored by more than three dozen Democrats, including California Sen. Kamala Harris and Oakland Rep. Barbara Lee.

The fact is, this administrations handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a failure, Harris said. Its inaction when it comes to fully implementing the Defense Production Act and preparing our countrys stockpile of protective equipment and supplies, including masks, has been disastrous and deadly.

The bill, which has no Republican co-sponsors, faces long odds. The Democratic-run House, GOP-controlled Senate and Trump administration are focused on negotiations over a new coronavirus relief package, and the sides remain far apart. The House passed a $3 trillion bill in May that the GOP criticized as a Democratic wish list, and Senate Republicans answered this week with a $1 trillion package that Democrats called woefully inadequate.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, has asked congressional leaders to make further aid to states dependent on whether they have mask mandates, but that has yet to be adopted.

Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan
Gerard Butler sported a casually stylish look while grabbing lunch with a friend on Monday afternoon.

The 50-year-old actor was spotted leaving Soho House in Malibu after his meal, while he was waiting for his vehicle at the valet stand.

The Angel Has Fallen star was all smiles after his lunch outing, though he wasn't seen with his girlfriend, Morgan Brown.

Lunch time: Gerard Butler sported a casually stylish look while grabbing lunch with a friend on Monday afternoon

Butler was wearing a white short-sleeved buttoned-down shirt sunglasses as he walked out of the restaurant.

He also rocked khaki pants and brown work boots as he waited for his vehicle with his friend.

The Den of Thieves star completed his look with a small gold ring on his right hand.

Gerard's look: Butler was wearing a white short-sleeved buttoned-down shirt sunglasses as he walked out of the restaurant

Butler has had an off and on relationship with Morgan Brown, 48, since 2014, though they reportedly split in 2015.

They got back together in 2016 when they were spotted on the beaches of Mexico together, though Butler claimed in 2016 he was single.

There were back together in 2019 when Butler took her to the premiere of his new movie Angel Has Fallen, and they've been together ever since.

Angel: There were back together in 2019 when Butler took her to the premiere of his new movie Angel Has Fallen, and they've been together ever since

Butler will next be seen on the big screen in Greenland, which is currently slated for release in September.

The actor portrays the patriarch of a family, alongside Morena Baccarin, who try to survive in the face of a cataclysmic disaster.

The film also stars David Denman, Scott Glenn and Andrew Bachelor in the film, which reunites Butler with his Angel Has Fallen director Ric Roman Waugh.

Off and on: Butler has had an off and on relationship with Morgan Brown, 48, since 2014, though they reportedly split in 2015

Butler also stars in All-Star Weekend, which marks the directorial debut of Jamie Foxx, who also stars with Robert Downey Jr., Benicio del Toro and Eva Longoria.

He's also attached to return as Big Nick O'Brien in a sequel to Den of Thieves, plus a new film dubbed Remote Control, based on Mark Burnell's novel.

The actor is also attached to star in another Ric Roman Waugh film, Kandahar, plus another film called Afterburn.
Saudi Arabia's top diplomat visited Algeria and Tunisia on Tuesday, the second day of a North African tour to discuss the conflict in neighbouring Libya.

The kingdom backs eastern Libya-based army commander Khalifa Haftar, who launched a months-long campaign to seize the capital Tripoli from the unity government in early 2019.

Haftar is also backed by Egypt, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, while Turkey has sent military support to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord that was crucial in turning the tide against the Libyan National Army leader Haftar earlier this year.

On Tuesday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan met Algeria's president Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who has vowed to remain neutral in the conflict.

The Saudi diplomat told Tebboune that the kingdom would "coordinate with Algeria to reach a peaceful solution to the Libyan crisis".

He also underlined the "central role of neighbouring countries" in resolving the conflict and battling "terrorism and foreign interference" in Libya, according to a statement published by Algerian state news agency APS.

In Tunisia, he met president Kais Saied and praised "the converging views between Tunisia and Saudi Arabia on the challenges facing the region".

Libya plunged into violence in 2011 with the NATO-backed uprising that overthrew then killed longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi.

It has been plagued by persistent conflict ever since, with rival administrations backed by a plethora of armed groups and foreign powers.

Prince Faisal's visits came a day after he met his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in Cairo, which has mooted the possibility of sending troops to Libya in support of Haftar.

Speaking after the meeting, the Saudi diplomat said he had voiced the kingdom's "full support for the Egyptian stance" in Libya and called for "peaceful political talks and a ceasefire".

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.

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Sophie Budack has revealed that she plans to leave Australia and return to The Netherlands.

In a series of emotional Instagram Stories shared on Tuesday, the 25-year-old made the announcement to her fans, revealing that the resurgence of COVID-19 has made it impossible for her to find work in Sydney.

'My plan was to stay there and live there. We were there for the week, coronavirus came back strong, the second wave was hitting,' she began.

Leaving: Sophie Budack (pictured) has revealed that she plans to leave Australia and return to The Netherlands. In a series of emotional Instagram Stories shared on Tuesday, the 25-year-old made the announcement to her fans

'And I thought, oh my god, I can't get a job now. I can't live here, it's not sustainable for me. So I thought I'd take the time now to go back to The Netherlands, which is my second home anyway.

'See my family, see my dogs and when everything is settled, I will come back to Australia, Sydney hopefully'.

She added: 'For now I am just taking it one step at a time and looking at the positives. At least now I can show you the other side of the world and a bit more of me'.

Issues: She revealed that the resurgence of COVID-19 has made it impossible for her to find work in Sydney. 'My plan was to stay there and live there. We were there for the week, coronavirus came back strong, the second wave was hitting,' she said

On the move: 'And I thought, oh my god, I can't get a job now. I can't live here, it's not sustainable for me. So I thought I'd take the time now to go back to The Netherlands, which is my second home anyway,' she said

However, Sophie would not be drawn on her relationship with Chad Hurst, 27, who she met in the Big Brother house.

'On that note a lot of people will be asking about myself and Chad but there are some elements of my life I want to keep private,' she said.

The couple had awkwardly dodged Sonia Kruger's questions about their relationship status during Wednesday night's live finale.

Staying mum: However, Sophie would not be drawn on her relationship with Chad Hurst, 27, who she met in the Big Brother house. Both pictured

She told fans: 'On that note a lot of people will be asking about myself and Chad but there are some elements of my life I want to keep private'

But on Friday night, Chad Hurst and Sophie appeared to enjoy a low-key date night in Sydney.

The pair were in good spirits while leaving the Hard Rock Cafe in Darling Harbour, just two days after Chad won $230,000 on Channel Seven's reality show.

The Big Brother 2020 winner was all smiles as he kept Sophie close, despite rumours the pair were no longer romantically involved.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 17:49:54|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, July 28 (Xinhua) -- An explosion at a parking space in Iran's western province of Kermanshah set several fuel tankers on fire on Tuesday, official IRNA news agency reported.

"The explosion first took place in a fuel tanker and then it was spread to other parking vehicles" in Dolat Abad industrial area of Kermanshah, Fazlollah Ranjbar, the governor of Kermanshah province told IRNA.

There has been no report about casualties so far, Ranjbar was quoted as saying.

According to semi-official Mehr news agency, four firefighters and a local have been injured in the operations to extinguish the fire.

Over the past weeks, several explosions and fires have occurred in different regions of Iran. Enditem
As per Chrome News Track data for Week 29 of 2020, the Rajasthan political crisis is the Most Trending and the Most Watched News of the week.

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 is picked from 30,200 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 29

According to the Chrome News Track data for the Week 29, Rajasthan political crisis was the most Aired News this week, followed by News about Heavy rains and flood in Bihar. The News about India and China relations stood at the 3rd spot, while Coronavirus cases in the world was next in the list and News about Police encounter in Uttar Pradesh managed to take the fifth and the last spot.

Most Watched News in Week 29

The data also unveils that India and China relations was the most watched news for the week, grabbing maximum eyeballs, followed by Rajasthan political crisis. The news about Heavy rains and flood in Bihar, Police encounter in Uttar Pradesh and Coronavirus cases in the world also generated interests amongst viewers and are placed at the 3rd, 4th and 5th, respectively in the list.

Most Discussed News in Week 29

On the other hand, taking a closer view of the Most Discussed News category, the news about Heavy rains and flood in Bihar has been the talk of the nation, making it the most discussed news, whereas the News about the Rajasthan political crisis happens to be the 2nd most discussed news, as per the automated data picked from 30,200 Chrome DM Panel Homes. India and China relations became the 3rd most discussed news among the masses. Police encounter in Uttar Pradesh and Coronavirus cases in the world are placed at 4th and 5th positions, respectively in the list.
Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton's relationship has always been complex and tainted with controversies since the former "Suits" star married Prince Harry in 2018.

Various tabloids and news outlets have been continuously citing out incidents to prove that the Duchess of Sussex and the Duchess of Cambridge are not on good terms.

In addition, previous reports have also revealed that there were instances wherein both duchesses were ignoring each other.

Having said that, here are three times when the future queen consort allegedly "snubbed" Meghan Markle.

Kate Middleton And Meghan Markle's "Awkward" Shopping Experience

In the upcoming biography of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex titled "Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Family," authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Duran cited an "awkward moment" during Kate and Meghan's shopping trip.

"There were awkward moments, such as the day the women happened to cross paths at Kensington Palace (in early 2017, when Harry and Meghan were still only dating), and although both were heading out to go shopping - in the same street - Kate went in her own Range Rover," a part of the book read

Moreover, the book also delved into the runaway royal's "disappointment" over her sister-in-law for not reaching out to her when she became Prince Harry's girlfriend.

"At the outset of her romance with Harry, Meghan had fully expected Kate to reach out and give her the lie of the land on everything an outsider to the Firm needed to know. But that was not how things turned out," another part of the book detailed. "Meghan was disappointed that she and Kate hadn't bonded over the position they shared, but she wasn't losing sleep over it."

The Cambridges Left Meghan Markle Out During this Family Pic

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have also been accused of snubbing the former Hollywood actress by leaving her out of the family picture during Queen Elizabeth II's 93rd birthday.

When the royal couple shared a family photo to their official Instagram account, eagle-eyed fans spotted that the Duchess of Sussex was nowhere to be found.

"Wishing a very happy 93rd birthday to Her Majesty The Queen!" read the caption of the post, which featured a photo of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their two kids, Her Majesty the Queen beside Prince Philip, and Prince Harry.

Kate Middleton "Purposely Snubbed" Duchess Meghan During Their Final Engagement

Last on the list is during the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's final royal engagement last March before officially leaving the Firm.

Royal authors Scobie and Duran claimed in their explosive new book that during the highly anticipated face-to-face reunion of the royal fab four at the Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey, Duchess Kate "purposely snubbed" Duchess Meghan despite the latter trying to make eye contact.

"Although Meghan tried to make eye contact with Kate, the duchess barely acknowledged her," the book stated.

In addition, the book also revealed that the Sussexes "both greeted William and Kate with smiles" but the "Cambridges showed little response."

READ MORE: 'Nightmare On Elm Street' Actor Passes Away -- Cause Of Death Revealed!
The presidential debate in September will be moved to Ohio from Indiana after the University of Notre Dame withdrew from hosting the event Monday over concerns about the safety of holding a large-scale public event amid a pandemic.

"The constraints the coronavirus pandemic put on the event - as understandable and necessary as they are - have led us to withdraw," said the Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame's president, in a post on the university's website.

Instead, the event - the first debate between President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden - will take place at a shared health campus of Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic, according to the Commission on Presidential Debates.

"This pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of health care and scientific discovery in unprecedented ways," said a joint statement by Tom Mihaljevic, president and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, and Case Western President Barbara Snyder. "To have the presidential candidates discuss these issues in our innovative learning space represents a tremendous opportunity for both institutions - and our entire region."

Bill Lubinger, a spokesman for Case Western, declined to say why the Cleveland institutions believe they could host a safe event when Notre Dame has concluded that it could not.

Ohio has about 10 coronavirus infections per 100,000 people, and the state's infections are trending down, according to Washington Post data. Indiana is seeing 12 infections per 100,000 and is experiencing a slight uptick in rates.

The Commission on Presidential Debates has scheduled three Trump-Biden encounters, in addition to one between the running mates. The Trump campaign has sought more debates, a common request for a candidate trailing in the polls, while Biden has said he will stick to the commission's plan.

"President Trump looks forward to debating Joe Biden in more events and as early as possible to account for people voting early," campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said Monday. "We hope Biden isn't looking for excuses to duck debates the same way he ducks the media."

Biden's campaign suggested its candidate is embracing the opportunity to directly confront the incumbent.

"Joe Biden said in June that he looks forward to debating Donald Trump on the dates and in the locations chosen by the [Commission on Presidential Debates]," said Andrew Bates, a spokesman for the Biden campaign.

Monday's announcement represents the latest coronavirus-related disruption to a topsy-turvy campaign.

Last week, Trump directed the Republican National Committee to scale back the party's convention, the final chapter in a saga involving whether and where the event would be held. It was initially set for Charlotte, N.C., but was later divided into a two-part event after North Carolina authorities refused to guarantee mass gatherings, with the more-public in-person events to be held in Jacksonville, Fla.

But as infections rose in Florida, Jacksonville's leaders grew more concerned, and Trump ultimately scrapped the plan, meaning the Republicans' convention will be largely virtual.

Democrats made a similar decision months ago, with less drama. They shifted their convention from July to August and announced that they would hold a small gathering in their host city of Milwaukee, with most of the event to be conducted virtually.

Another debate has also moved locations because of the pandemic. That event is now scheduled to take place at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami after the University of Michigan pulled out.

The first debate is set for Sept. 29 in Cleveland. The second, scheduled for Oct. 15, will be the one in Miami. The final debate is set for Oct. 22 and remains at its original location, Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. The vice presidential debate is set for Oct. 7 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
Germany and the U.K. have turned down U.S. President Donald Trump's attempt to expand the G7 summit to include four or five other countries, such as Korea, Australia, India, and Russia.

Trump expressed his desire to invite those countries in May, which Seoul welcomed immediately.

But in an interview with the Rheinische Post daily on Sunday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said, "The G7 and G20 are two sensibly coordinated formats" and "We don't need a G11 or G12."

He explained that the reasons for barring Russia from what was then the G8 "were the annexation of the Crimea and the intervention in eastern Ukraine. As long as we don't have a solution there, I don't see a chance" for expanding the G7 again.

Germany's opposition makes it difficult for Korea to be included because any restructuring needs the consensus of existing members.

Back in late May, Trump proposed restructuring of the G7 to draft more countries into a worldwide coalition against China.

Tokyo has already protested against including Korea. Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi last month said, "It's very important to keep the G7 framework itself, and I believe this is an overall consensus."


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Linkedin Neil Jerome Morales and Karen Lema (Reuters) Manila, Philippines  Tue, July 28, 2020 08:00 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669bc7fb 2 SE Asia Philippines,Rodrigo-Duterte,coronavirus,coronavirus-restrictions,COVID-19,COVID-19-infection,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte defended his tough approach to fighting the coronavirus on Monday amid a surge in cases, touting its effectiveness in an annual address that critics said revealed little about plans to resuscitate a battered economy.

While Duterte urged Congress to approve a 140 billion pesos ($2.85 billion) stimulus package, he devoted much of his speech to attacking opponents, reviving the death penalty and defending a bloody war on drugs.

Duterte said imposing one of the world's strictest lockdowns may have hurt the economy but it had prevented 1.3 million to 3.5 million infections, and countries that had opened up too soon like the United States were suffering.

"To me, even if the numbers were much lower, it would still be and would have been worth the sacrifice we made," he said.

He stood by his decision not to let schools reopen until a vaccine was available, which he initially thought could be by September.

As countries race to secure vaccines, Duterte said he last week asked Chinese President Xi Jinping for help should Beijing make a breakthrough with a COVID-19 vaccine.

"I made a plea to President Xi if they have the vaccine can they allow us to be one of the first ... so that we can normalize as fast as possible," he said.

Though the Philippines waited 11 weeks before starting to ease restrictions on June 1, cases have since quadrupled with 82,040 infections and deaths more than doubling to 1,945.

Duterte acknowledged "difficulties" with testing capacity.

Though he repeatedly stressed in a speech lasting more than 100 minutes the importance of saving lives, Duterte also called for the death penalty to be re-imposed and promised no let-up in a war on drugs that has killed thousands of people.

"I will really kill you, that is a commitment," he said, warning drug dealers.

Opposition lawmakers and investors were hoping Duterte would reveal plans on how to restore millions of jobs and mitigate economic damages from the pandemic, but said he barely touched on pressing issues.

"The anticipated roadmap meandered into the roadside of trite generalities and an invocation that the people should trust its government," Congressman Edcel Lagman said, adding Duterte's planned stimulus was "stingy".

Duterte also defended his policy of not pressing China to abide by Philippines' 2016 international arbitration award on the South China Sea, saying it risked a backlash.

"We cannot go to war," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 19:46:12|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday announced a decision to suspend extradition and judiciary assistance treaties between its Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and Canada, Australia and Britain.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the announcement at a press briefing.

Canada, Australia and Britain, on the pretext of China's passage of the law on safeguarding national security in the HKSAR, have unilaterally suspended their respective agreements with Hong Kong on fugitives transfer, grossly interfered in China's internal affairs, and seriously violated international law and basic norms governing international relations, Wang said, noting that China firmly opposes this.

He added that with the assistance and authorization of the central government, the HKSAR has actively rendered assistance to Canada, Australia and Britain in accordance with the HKSAR Basic Law and within the framework of the treaties.

The politicization of judicial cooperation with HKSAR by Canada, Australia and Britain has severely damaged the foundation for the HKSAR to carry out judicial cooperation with the three countries and has deviated from safeguarding justice and the rule of law via judicial cooperation, Wang said.

Therefore, the Chinese side has decided to suspend the HKSAR's fugitives transfer agreements and agreements on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters with Canada, Australia and Britain, Wang said. Enditem
Uttarakhand on Tuesday reported 259 fresh Covid-19 positive cases, taking the state tally to 6,587.

According to the health bulletin released by the state health department on Tuesday evening, 259 fresh cases included maximum 108 from US Nagar district. The other districts reported, Almora (10), Bageshwar (1), Chamoli (2), Champawat (5), Dehradun (33), Haridwar (42), Nainital (45) and Tehri (13).

The state also reported deaths of four Covid-19 positive patients. An 80-year-old male Covid-19 patient from Hardiwar district died at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh on Monday due to refractory septic shock, Covid-19 pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Three other deaths were reported from Sushila Tiwari Government Hospital in Haldwani. A 57-year-old male patient died due to severe acute respiratory I illness, respiratory distress, bilateral pneumonitis, severe metabolic acidosis, dyselectrolytemia, hyperkalemia, and hyperglycemia.

A 50-year-old male patient from US Nagar district died due to bilateral pneumonitis, ARDS, Type 2 respiratory failure. Another 50-year-old male died due to asthma, type 2 diabetes mellitus, systemic hypertention, shock, hypoglycemia, type 1 respiratory failure, bilateral pneumonitis and anoxic encephalopathy

A total of 70 Covid-19 positive patients have died in Uttarakhand till now with 11 patients dying due to coronavirus, according to the health officials. The rest of the positive patients died due to co-morbidities and other causes, added health officials.

Of the 224 fresh cases reported on Tuesday, 96 cases were contacts of earlier detected positive patients, two were army personnel with travel history from Agra, seven were healthcare workers from US Nagar district and 22 cases were detected at flu clinics.

A total of 45 Covid-19 patients were also discharged from different hospitals in the state on Tuesday with a maximum 41 from Dehradun district.

The rate of doubling of cases based on the last seven days now stands at 24.25 days, while the infection rate is 4.67%. The state has so far tested over 1.50 lakh samples of which results of over 5700 are awaited.

Taking cognizance of the deaths of eight patients at Sushila Tiwari Hospital, Nainital district magistrate has directed the chief medical officer to review the death audit of these patients and submit a report within seven days.

Meanwhile, 52-year-old person quarantine at an institutional facility in Ramnagar, Nainital district died on Tuesday. The deceaseds body has been sent for post-mortem examination.

Officials said that the deceased worked at a government hospital in Ramnagar where he came in contact with a Covid-19 positive patient on July 23, after which he was quarantined. The deceased was an epileptic patient who had been taking medicines, but was found unconscious in his room on Tuesday morning.
Dozens of protesters marched to Ukraine's presidential office in Kyiv on Monday against measures taken by Ukrainian authorities to settle a cease-fire with Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country.

The demonstrators disagree with the move to agree the truce, which is scheduled to begin at midnight into Tuesday.

The Ukrainian military and rebel forces have started preparing for a "full and comprehensive" cease-fire, a move officials hope can lead to work to resolve the six-year-old conflict.

However, protesters in Kyiv expressed anger with what demonstrator Svyatoslav Boyko called the "clumsy leadership" of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Fellow protester Anton Sosnovskiy accused Zelenskiy of "capitulating" to Russia after the "cynical killings" of Ukrainian soldiers.

If upheld, the cease-fire would pave the way for implementing other clauses of the Minsk peace deal, the office of Ukraines president said earlier this week.

Brokered in 2015 by France and Germany, the Minsk peace plan aimed to resolve the conflict between Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists that flared in 2014 after Russias annexation of Crimea and its support for the separatists.

The conflict has since killed more than 14,000.

(Representative Image)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 10:52:12|Editor: huaxia

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SYDNEY, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The capital of Papua New Guinea (PNG), Port Moresby has been placed in a 14-day lockdown as of Tuesday, with only essential businesses to operate to help stop rapidly rising COVID-19 cases.

On Sunday the country recorded the largest daily increase of 23 new infections, taking the national total to 62.

Prime Minister James Marape announced that the lockdown would also include a curfew from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., mandatory wearing of face masks in public places, and limits of 15 people on public gatherings.

Schools will be closed for the 14-day period, and public transport services will stop operating excluding taxis, while nightclubs will remain closed.

Domestic flights out of Port Moresby will also be suspended for 14 days, while international flights will be limited to the Australian cities of Brisbane and Cairns and only operated by local carriers.

Testing will also be scaled up and targeted, which Marape said, based on expert modelling will likely reveal significantly more cases already in the community.

"We have conducted close to 10,000 tests, including 535 in the last 24 hours which have revealed 23 confirmed cases in the nation's capital city," Marape said.

"Based on current numbers, we can expect to see a double in the number of cases every two to three days."

Marape urged PNG citizens to remain calm and cooperate as the country is facing it's most imminent threat of widespread outbreak since the pandemic began.

"By washing your hands, social distancing, and staying home unless it is essential, all of us can play our part in stopping the virus from spreading," he said. Enditem
Consumers should not plant them and should report it to the Michigan Dept. of Agriculture & Rural Development

NOTE: On July 30, 2020, MDARD sent out another press release advising consumers on what to do if they receive unsolicited packages containing seeds. Click here to view the release.

For immediate release: July 27, 2020

Program contact: Robin Rosenbaum, 517-490-1301

Media contact: Jennifer Holton, 517-284-5724

LANSING - Across the United States, people have been reporting receiving unsolicited packages containing seeds from China in the mail. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) is warning residents who receive these packages not to open or plant the seeds.

Photo courtesy of Washington State Department of Agriculture

The seeds are usually sent in white packages displaying Chinese lettering and the words "China Post." Most recipients say they did not order anything, and that the packaging was labeled as jewelry. Some recipients have reported ordering seeds on Amazon and receiving these seeds.

"If you receive unsolicited seeds from another country, do not plant them. If they are in sealed packaging, do not open the package," said Mike Philip, director of MDARD's Pesticide and Plant Pest Management Division. "We don't know what type of seeds are in the packages, but we do know they come in a variety of sizes and colors, with some reported to be very tiny. These unsolicited seeds could be invasive, introduce diseases to local plants, or be harmful to livestock."

The packages may be a part of a "brushing" scam. A brushing scam is an exploit by a vendor used to bolster product ratings and increase visibility online by shipping an inexpensive product to an unwitting receiver and then submitting positive reviews on the receiver's behalf under the guise of a verified owner.

"If planted, these unknown and potentially invasive species could have a very negative impact on the environment. Additionally, we're asking people not to throw the seeds or packages away or dispose of them," added Philip. "MDARD appreciates the cooperation of Michiganders who receive these packages as we work together to protect Michigan agriculture."

The United States Department of Agriculture's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service's Plant Protection and Quarantine Smuggling, Interdiction and Trade Compliance Unit is currently investigating this situation across the nation. If you receive an unsolicited package of seeds from China, hold on to the seeds, packaging and mailing label, and contact MDARD's Customer Service Center, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., at 800-292-3939 or via MDA-Info@Michigan.gov.

For more information on MDARD's Pesticide and Plant Pesticide Management Division, visit Michigan.gov/MDARD .

###

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SEOUL, July 28 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said there will be no more war as the country's nuclear weapons guarantee its safety and future despite unabated outside pressure and military threats, state media said on Tuesday.

Kim made the remarks as he celebrated the 67th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, which fell on July 27, with a reception for veterans, the official KCNA news agency said.

The country developed nuclear weapons to win "absolute strength" to stave off another armed conflict, Kim said in a speech carried by KCNA, emphasising the defensive nature of the programmes.

"Now we are capable of defending ourselves in the face of any form of high intensity pressure and military threats from imperialist and hostile forces," he said.

"Thanks to our reliable and effective self-defensive nuclear deterrent, there will no longer be war, and our country's safety and future will be firmly guaranteed forever."

The speech came amid stalled talks aimed at dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes in exchange for sanctions relief from Washington.

Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump met for the first time in 2018 in Singapore, raising hopes for a negotiated end to North Korea's nuclear threats. But their second summit, in 2019 in Vietnam, and subsequent working-level meetings fell apart. (Reporting by Hyonhee Shin in Seoul Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Leaked security footage has revealed what young McDonald's employees get up to when customers are out of sight.

The video titled 'what it's like working at Maccas' was posted by an Australian TikTok user earlier this month.

It showed a compilation of scenes from CCTV cameras featuring restaurant employees making a series of embarrassing blunders.

One clip showed a male in a McDonald's uniform falling into a cool room and dropping a tray of food.

One scene showed a man in a McDonald's uniform falling into a cool room and dropping a tray of food (pictured)

Another scene showed a worker running at his colleague in the kitchen, frightening him until he fell over (pictured)

Another showed a young male employee enthusiastically kicking an empty box, before slipping and landing on the tiles.

A third scene showed a worker running at his colleague in the kitchen which spooked his co-worker and causing him to fall over.

Additional footage showed a male worker sneaking up on two female employees while they ate lunch.

It was followed by a clip of the same male dropping a cloth in the kitchen and hitting his head on an oven door after retrieving it.

McDonald's employees flocked to the comments section on the TikTok video to share their experiences.

Another scene showed a young male employee enthusiastically kicking an empty box

The McDonald's employee then slipped over in the storage room after kicking the box

The young worker landed hard on the tiles as the box flies off into a pile of cardboard

'I've done literally every one of these. I work at Maccas too,' one woman wrote.

'If you haven't hit your head on the chick/fish fridge have you ever really worked there,' another shared.

'Friend of mine deep fried her hand while working at maccas,' someone else wrote.

Others shared examples of when they messed up on the job.

Additional footage showed a male worker sneaking up on two female employees while they ate lunch

The video has received almost 100,000 likes and hundreds of comments. Pictured: a McDonald's employee in the video

'I accidentally gave away a bag full of ketchup to a customer,' one employee admitted.

'Lol I hit my head on the sink at work today, also smacked into someone's elbow. Bruised the shit out of my knee on the cafe fridge,' another said.

'Kicking the frick out of boxes is what makes working at Maccas tolerable,' one man joked.

The video has received almost 100,000 likes and hundreds of comments.

A McDonald's Australia spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia the footage is not representative of its employees.

'We have comprehensive protocols in place to ensure the safety of our employees,' she said.

'This footage does not reflect the behaviour we expect from our employees while working in our restaurants, and we are investigating accordingly.'
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Commerce Department agency on Monday petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to reinterpret a 1996 law to require transparency in how social media companies moderate content, after President Donald Trump asked it to intervene in the matter.

Trump directed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to file the petition after Twitter in May warned readers to fact-check his posts about unsubstantiated claims of fraud in mail-in voting.

Trump's executive order asked the NTIA to petition the FCC to write regulations stemming from Section 230, a provision of the Communications Decency Act that shields social media companies from liability for content posted by their users and allows them to remove lawful but objectionable posts.

The NTIA said in Monday's petition it wants the FCC to require social media firms to "publicly disclose accurate information regarding its content-management mechanisms" to "enable users to make more informed choices about competitive alternatives."

Trump, a Republican who is running for re-election on Nov. 3, has repeatedly expressed anger at social media companies. On Monday, he said Twitter's trending topics feature was unfair.

"They look for anything they can find, make it as bad as possible, and blow it up, trying to make it trend," he wrote.

Both Democratic commissioners on the five-member FCC said the commission should quickly reject the petition.

"The FCC shouldnt take this bait. While social media can be frustrating, turning this agency into the President's speech police is not the answer," FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said in a written statement.

Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr said the "petition provides an opportunity to bring much-needed clarity to the statutory text."

Twitter has called Trump's executive order "a reactionary and politicized approach to a landmark law."

Story continues

A spokesman for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who has said in the past he does not see a role for the FCC to regulate websites like Twitter, Facebook or Alphabet's Google, said on Monday the agency "will carefully review the petition."

The FCC could take a year or longer to finalize any rules.

Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a Georgetown University lecturer, said Trump was on shaky legal ground.

"The FCC has no authority to interpret Section 230, and even if it did, the rule that Trump wants is utterly incompatible with the plain language of the statute," he said.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Sandra Maler and Sonya Hepinstall)
BADEN  The group pushing to have the Prime Ministers Path project removed from the grounds at Castle Kilbride say theyre delighted that Wilmot council has voted to remove the statue of John A Macdonald.

Were thrilled that council did come to this decision, even if wasnt a unanimous one, said Cheyanne Thorpe, a local Indigenous woman who has been leading the charge to have the prime ministers statues removed from the public park.

In a 4-2 vote, with Coun. Jeff Gerber and Mayor Les Armstrong opposed, council voted to relocate the Macdonald statue from the entrance to the township offices in Baden to a location that does not harm any members of the Indigenous community.

The amended motion, put forward by Coun. Angie Hallman, also directs staff to discuss appropriate locations for the statue with members of the Indigenous community and get back to council with a relocation strategy that honours Wilmot Townships commitment to the calls to action set out in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Over the past five weeks, Thorpe and others have been holding sit-in protests nearly every Saturday, often through the blazing heat. On Monday night, she spoke to council for the third time on the issue and said watching the vote result was incredibly liberating.

Its not clear yet where the Macdonald statue will be moved to, or when. The other four statues now on site will remain in place until a consultation by an Indigenous consultant is done.

The consultants report will include the data collected by the City of Kitchener and Wilfrid Laurier University, where the statue project had earlier been proposed and rejected. It will also include data collected from school group visits, local tourism numbers and previous delegations made before council.

The additional consultation seems a little senseless, Thorpe said, given all the research that has already been collected, but said its a small step in the right direction to the true acts of reconciliation that our township should be working towards.

Gerber said he couldnt support the motion because of concerns around possible legal implications from pausing the agreement with Createscape Waterloo Region, the organization working with the township to install the statues. In total, 22 sculptures were planned for the site.

He suggested moving the Macdonald statue back further on the path, where its not as much in peoples faces.

Maybe the decision to place that one (Macdonald) in a prominent location, in hindsight, was a poor one.

Coun. Cheryl Gordijk said enough consultation with Indigenous community members had been done over the years and no more was needed. Moving the Macdonald statue further back in the Baden park wont solve this issue, she said.

Indigenous activists and their allies say the Macdonald statue in particular is a traumatic reminder of his oppression of Indigenous people.

We need to get that statue gone, Gordijk said.

It is still our public land. In order to show we are committed to listening, SJAM needs to go.

Armstrong said he understands the situation the township is facing and that more dialogue is needed around the issues with these statues.

There needs to be good conversation with people that are willing, on both sides, to sit and listen to each other and work this out. And I think thats possible.

The whole region would benefit from a consultation process, he said, but he would not vote for the motion and put the project on pause.

He said in the two weeks that followed after the unanimous council vote in 2016 to provide a home for the bronze statues of past prime ministers, he received only two negative comments, and countless emails of support.

Hallman and Coun. Jennifer Pfenning asked Armstrong to clarify how the township ended up getting the statues in the first place. They wanted to know if the township sought these statues out, even after Kitchener and Laurier rejected the project.

The mayor said it was kind of a mutual thing that came about when he was talking with Jim Rodger, one of the driving forces behind the project. It was as part of a conversation we were having and thats where the seed was sown.

The Record spoke with Rodger on Monday morning and he said the township approached him about the project.

The township approached us. We looked at their offer with the other two. We liked the site and what was being offered in Baden. We told them that we would accept.

Following that, township staff created a report which was placed on a public agenda several days prior to the council meeting on April 4, 2016. At that meeting, council voted unanimously to endorse the report and for the township to enter into an agreement with Createscape to install the statues.

Coun. Barry Fisher, who was a councillor at that time, said the 2016 decision was hurried and suggested council now take time to consider everything.

Sixteen delegates spoke at Mondays meeting.

Some called for the statues to be removed from the public park and placed in a museum, out of public view. They argued that sufficient consultation with Indigenous peoples had taken place when the statues were proposed to be installed in Kitcheners Victoria Park and at Laurier.

Others said the statues should remain in place for educational purposes. They said the public park makes them accessible to all, and putting them in a museum would keep people from seeing them.

Council began discussing the motion at 7:50 p.m. and voted on the amended motion at 11:30 p.m.
Catholic board votes for regular class sizes, July 25

It is very difficult to understand why the Toronto Catholic school board trustees would vote to keep class sizes unchanged in elementary and secondary schools, if and when schools open full-time this fall. We well know that social distancing is a key requirement to help reduce the danger of spread of the coronavirus, which becomes critical for enclosed areas, such as school rooms. Trustee Norm Di Pasquales sensible proposal for the 15-student cap was not accepted by fellow trustees who felt this wasnt realistic, based on their belief that the funding required to hire extra teachers would not be provided by the government. It would be a very dangerous decision for the board to seriously expose students to COVID-19 infection, should schools opt for the in-class option or the hybrid model. Students deserve to be given the Catholic School Boards assurance that when they get back to class in September they can be assured of their safety.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 04:36:25|Editor: huaxia

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KHARTOUM, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Director of Egypt's General Intelligence Service Abbas Kamel on Tuesday held talks with Sudanese leaders to review the developments related to the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

Kamel met with Chairman of the Sudanese Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan at the presidential palace in Khartoum and conveyed to him a verbal message from Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the council said in a statement.

The meeting reviewed the developments in the GERD and the efforts being made to overcome the differences in the spirit of dialogue to resolve the dispute, it noted.

Kamel also held separate meetings with Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Deputy Chairman of the Sovereign Council Mohamed Hamdan Daqlu, it added.

On Monday, Sudan's Irrigation and Water Resources Ministry announced postponement of the new round of talks on the GERD for a week for further consultations.

Sudan expressed once again its reservation over Ethiopia's unilateral move to start the filling of the dam before reaching a binding agreement by the three countries.

Khartoum regarded the Ethiopian move as a harmful and worrying precedent in the path of cooperation between the concerned countries.

A mini-African summit was convened on July 21 through video link, where the parties agreed to continue talks to narrow viewpoints.

Ethiopia, which started building the GERD in 2011, expects to produce over 6,000 megawatts of electricity to push the development in the country forward.

But 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. Enditem
VANCOUVER - West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. beat expectations as it earned $48 million in its latest quarter despite lower revenues.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/7/2020 (540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Softwood lumber is pictured along the Fraser River in Richmond, B.C., Tuesday, April 25, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

VANCOUVER - West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. beat expectations as it earned $48 million in its latest quarter despite lower revenues.

The Vancouver-based forest products producer says it earned 70 cents per share for the three months ended June 30, compared with a loss of $58 million or 92 cents per share in the second quarter of 2019.

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Adjusted profits increased to $79 million or $1.13 per share, from $28 million or 42 cents a year earlier.

Revenues decreased three per cent to $1.28 billion from $1.32 billion in the prior year's quarter.

West Fraser was expected to report 19 cents per share in adjusted earnings on $1.15 billion of revenues, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

The company says it adjusted operations starting in March to address COVID-19 which led to a reduction in production of lumber and pulp. Yet, as the quarter progressed, demand for lumber and plywood was more resilient than expected, resulting in increased pricing.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:WFT)
The document was registered on July 27.

A motion has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, to dismiss Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov.

It was initiated by 96 Members of Parliament from different parliamentary factions, in particular, from Holos (Voice), European Solidarity, and the Servant of the People, according to an announcement on the parliament's website.

Read alsoUkraine's new health minister outlines priorities in office

The document was registered on July 27.

Holos earlier announced that signatures would be collected to initiate the health minister's dismissal.

Stepanov became health minister on March 30, 2020; he succeeded Illa Yemets. The latter worked as health minister for less than a month, from March 4 to March 30, 2020.
In this photo illustration, the TransferWise app is seen displayed on an Android smartphone with a vintage turntable in the background. Guillaume Payen | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images

Fintech start-up TransferWise is now valued at $5 billion following a secondary share sale, the company announced Wednesday, highlighting increased investor appetite for online payments amid the coronavirus pandemic. Founded in 2011, TransferWise has become a formidable competitor to the likes of Western Union and MoneyGram by lowering fees and adding a slick online platform to help consumers move money across borders. It now has a total of 8 million customers globally and processes 4 billion ($5.2 billion) in cross-border payments each month. The London-headquartered money transfer firm hasn't added any fresh cash to its balance sheet with this deal, instead opting to give employees and early investors the chance to sell some of their stakes in a $319 million secondary deal. It's not the first time existing investors have sold shares  the company was valued at $3.5 billion last year in a $292 million secondary round. "We've been funded exclusively by our customers for the last few years and we didn't need to raise external funding for the company," said Kristo Kaarmann, TransferWise's CEO and co-founder. "This secondary round provides an opportunity for new investors to come in, alongside rewarding the investors and employees who've helped us succeed so far."

Unlike many of its rival fintech unicorns  Revolut, Monzo and N26, to name a few  TransferWise is profitable. Kaarmann recently told CNBC that the firm expects to turn an annual profit again in its 2020 accounts. The company has been profitable for three years running, but a big selling point of its multi-currency card is the ability to convert to local currencies when travelling. Kaarmann and fellow co-founder Taavet Hinrikus both had the option to sell shares in this round, though TransferWise declined to disclose how much they sold. TransferWise says share sales were settled internally, rather than through an investment bank like Goldman Sachs. The company's $5 billion valuation makes it one of Europe's most valuable fintech start-ups, with the top three  Revolut, Klarna and Checkout.com  each worth $5.5 billion. The secondary round was co-led by existing investor Lone Pine Capital and a new investor, D1 Capital Partners. Another new investor, Vulcan Capital, also bought shares, while Baillie Gifford, Fidelity and venture capital fund LocalGlobe increased their holdings too. Other investors in the firm include British billionaire Richard Branson and PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel and Max Levchin.

Online payments accelerate

TransferWise has made a deeper push into banking of late with the introduction of a "borderless" multi-currency account linked with a Mastercard debit card. It claims to have taken more than 2 billion in current deposits through the account and issued 1 million cards. The company says its main competitors are still banks, though it has no plans to become a bank itself.
Rajasthan crisis: Gehlot calls for Cabinet meet, Guv's conditional nod to assembly session on agenda

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Jiapur, July 28: A meeting of the Rajasthan Cabinet began on Tuesday at the residence of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to discuss points raised by governor for calling assembly session. The meet will hold discussions on reccomendations sent on Monday by the Governor.

Gehlot made the revelation before reporters shortly after Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra, for the second time, snubbed the state government's proposal for convening the Assembly session from July 31.

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

Rajasthan Assembly Speaker moves SC challenging HC's status quo order

The Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government, which is facing a political crisis after rebellion by 19 dissident Congress MLAs, including rebel party leader Sachin Pilot, wants to hold the assembly session to prove its majority.

The Governor had earlier raised objections to the previous recommendation on July 24, asking about the need for calling the session when the government already had the majority, about the free movement of MLAs, and the disqualification matter then pending in the Supreme Court.
(Newser)  President Trump hailed progress toward a coronavirus vaccine Monday, saying his administration's Operation Warp Speed had reduced development time by years. The project is a "historic initiative to develop, test, manufacture, and deliver a vaccine in record time," the president said during a visit to a North Carolina biotech facility, per the Hill. He was seen wearing a face mask during a brief tour of the Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies Innovation Center in Morrisville. Trump told reporters that a vaccine will probably be available before the end of the year, leading to a "tremendous" economic recovery.

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Trump said Wednesday that Americans should "focus on maintaining social distance, maintaining rigorous hygiene, avoid large gatherings" and wear masks, when appropriate. But in what the New York Times calls "something of a return to form," he also called for states to reopen. "A lot of the governors should be opening up states that theyre not opening, and well see what happens with them," he said. In a briefing in Miami, Vice President Mike Pence said vaccine doses should go to the most vulnerable first, especially senior citizens. (Read more President Trump stories.)
HACKENSACK, NJ  The Bergen County Sheriff's Department reports that temperatures inside the Bergen County jail are currently between 70 and 73 degrees. A group of immigration attorneys say that's a lie.

As temperatures touch the mid-90s, the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project and their legal providers continue to call for the release of their clients held at the jail, amid a growing number of reports that the air conditioning units at the facility are failing.

In a July 25 letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), NYIFUP cited the high temperatures, lack of air conditioning and a heightened risk of COVID-19 exposure due to poor air circulation as reasons for their demand.

"Such temperatures are dangerous without air conditioning," the group said.

"These conditions would be intolerable under ordinary circumstances. But given that air circulation and ventilation are essential to prevent the spread of COVID-19, which has affected staff and detainees at Bergen County Jail and continues to spread in the surrounding community, these conditions place our clients at imminent risk."



Despite their efforts, the group's clients were not released over the weekend, and the Bergen County Sheriff's Office said staff at the jail have received no formal complaints of "high heat conditions."

Public Information Officer Keisha McLean did add that the jail is currently undergoing scheduled electrical maintenance, which "may require inmates/detainees to relocate from time to time."

Though the Sheriff's Office reports no formal complaints from inmates or immigration detainees, Undersheriff Orestes Alvarez was notified of the Saturday letter.

The group doubled down, this time with the legal representatives, including The Bronx Defenders, The Legal Aid Society and Brooklyn Defender Services releasing a statement on Monday, again demanding the release of their clients.

"ICE and local jail officials have repeatedly shown their inability to handle public health emergencies and are responsible for an ongoing humanitarian crisis," they said.

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"As detention conditions continue to threaten the health and safety of detained immigrants, we demand the release of our clients from Bergen County Jail and renew our calls for the immediate release of all people currently in ICE custody and an end to ICE raids.

In response to the statement from the Sheriff's Office, the Legal Aid Society tweeted:

It is bizarre and disheartening to hear the denial of air conditioning outages from Bergen County officials, as the number of individual reports from people we represent are mounting and we formally notified the sheriff on Saturday," #NYIFUP#FreeThemAllhttps://t.co/jIr3XmLKlO

 The Legal Aid Society (@LegalAidNYC) July 28, 2020





According to ICE statistics, two detainees have tested positive for the coronavirus at the jail, but are not currently being monitored or under isolation. No detainees have died, according to ICE.

McClean said the jail hasn't had any positive coronavirus cases "in many weeks," and the her office stopped reporting those numbers in mid-June.

In total, two detainees and one county inmate tested positive for the coronavirus, but there are no current cases at the jail.

In a statement, University of North Carolina assistant professor of social medicine Dr. Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein stated that poor ventilation and high temperatures could heighten the risk of contracting COVID-19.

"Exposing people to housing units without proper ventilation amplifies risk of COVID-19 infection in correctional settings. Extreme heat, similarly, can exacerbate existing conditions with sometimes fatal consequences," she said.





This article originally appeared on the Ridgewood-Glen Rock Patch
by Sumon Corraya

The clergyman, who died in the US on Saturday from COVID-19-related complications, served the Church in Bangladesh for 60 years until 2016 when he returned to the United States because of health problems and death threats from radical Islamists. By founding schools and health centres, and defending the persecuted Garo community, Fr Eugene became an indispensable reference in our life, said Fr Hacha. A Muslim wants a road named after him in Modhupur.

Tangail (AsiaNews)  Bangladeshi Christians and Muslims are mourning the death of Fr Eugene Eduard Homrich, a US missionary who died two days ago at the age of 92 at the Holy Cross House in Indiana (US) from COVID-19-related complications.

The clergyman served the Church in Bangladesh for 60 years, until 2016, when he had to return to the United States because of health problems and death threats from radical Islamists.

Yesterday, hundreds of people gathered in Pirgacha parish church, Tangail, for a memorial service that highlighted his exceptional contribution to the Diocese of Mymensingh.

Most of this Diocese is home to ethnic Garos. Much of Fr Eugenes mission was dedicated to them, including setting up two high schools and 28 primary schools to keep the Garo culture alive.

Fr Homrich is called the father of the modern Garo community, said For Surma Chiran, a Garo woman. If he had not come to Mymensingh, our tribal community would not have been able to save our culture.

She remembers that Once he told us that religion and culture are not the same thing. So, he advised us to practice our faith and at the same time maintain the culture we received from our ancestors. I feel very lucky to have met him and learnt from him what it means to be Catholic.

Fr Simon Hacha, a 66-year-old ethnic Garo priest in Diocese of Mymensingh, stressed that in 60 years of pastoral life, the great missionary transformed the Garos socio-economic conditions.

By founding schools and health centres, and defending the persecuted Garo community, Fr Eugene became an indispensable reference in our life, said Fr Hacha, who is pastor in Dhakua parish. When he had to return to the United States, Catholics wept saying goodbye. Today we weep because of the sad news of his death.

Fr Eugenes life and mission were full of success, Fr Hacha added. He was a friend of the Garo community and always encouraged its culture. In the liturgy he kept Garo musical instruments, language, and hymns. When the Garos were persecuted, he always fought for them.

Muslims also expressed their condolences for the missionary's death. I met Fr Homrich many times, said Zoynal Abedin. He was a Catholic, but he respected me as a Muslim. We had good talks. May Allah Almighty give him eternal peace.

During its War of Liberation, Bangladesh (then called East Pakistan) fought West Pakistan (26 March- 16 December 1971). During the hostilities, Fr Homrich saved hundreds of Muslims, Hindus and Christians by giving them shelter, hiding them in his church and feeding them.

Fr Homrich gave a lot to the population of Modhupur [in the Diocese of Mymenshing], said a saddened Harun Rashid. When he was alive, we could have honoured him with Bangladeshi citizenship, but nothing was done. The Bangladesh government honoured him as a foreign friend but he should have road named after him in Modhupur.

In 2012 Fr Homrich received a Friends of Liberation War Honour award, which is given to foreign nationals who helped the country win the 1971 war, directly from the hands of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

This recognition highlights Bangladeshs friendship and gratitude for those who provide moral, mental, material, political, diplomatic, logistical and military support for the struggle for freedom of the Bangladeshi people.

Fr Eugene Eduard Homrich was born in Michigan in 1928 and arrived in Bangladesh in 1955. After learning the language, he served a Bengali congregation for three years in the Diocese of Dhaka. In 1959 he was moved to Jalchatra parish, in the Diocese of Mymensingh, where he remained until 2016.

The Garos are an indigenous Tibeto-Burman ethnic group who also live in India. About 120,000 live Bangladesh and are mostly Christians.
Poland's support for Ukraine in the fight against Russian aggression, mitigation of coronavirus pandemic impact on relations between the two countries, and settlement of historical differences are the priority issues of Ukraine-Poland relations.

"The priority issue of Ukraine-Poland relations is the continuation of Poland's support for the fight of Ukraine against Russian aggression. We see this support both in bilateral relations and at the level of EU and NATO," Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said in a commentary to an Ukrinform correspondent.

He added that Kyiv and Warsaw should also consider the mitigation of the negative impact of coronavirus pandemic on economic and interpersonal contacts between the two countries.

According to the Ukrainian minister, the settlement of historical issues, of which the two sides have different views on, is the third important priority.

"We do not have different views about the present and the future," Kuleba noted.

In the opinion of the minister, it is, unfortunately, unrealistic to completely separate politics from history in modern Europe. However, both sides can find mutually acceptable solutions that will leave these issues to consideration of historians.

"I am very grateful to [Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Jacek] Czaputowicz for his constructive approach to this issue," the Ukrainian diplomat said.

Kuleba also expressed the belief that Ukraine now needs a "qualitatively new policy" towards Ukrainians living abroad.

"The structure, age, and geographical presence of the diaspora has changed significantly, and we need to take a fresh look at how we can support Ukrainians abroad," the minister said.

Kuleba noted that he had met with the Ukrainian community, noting that Ukrainians in Poland are now concerned about history and respect for Ukrainian historical sites, respect for the Ukrainian community, and support for Ukrainian projects in Poland.

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NEW HAVEN  A West Haven man suspected in a July 10 homicide was found in a group home in Maryland, according to police.

Authorities in that state found Rashad Hardy, 44, in Princess Anne, Md., during the execution of a search warrant at the group home Friday, New Haven police said. The search warrant was not related to Hardy, but authorities in Maryland discovered there was an outstanding warrant for Hardys arrest, New Haven police said.

Hardy is a suspect in the July 10 shooting death of Ricky Newton, 36, on Rosette Street . There have been 11 homicides in New Haven to date this year.

New Haven Police Chief Otoniel Reyes, standing beside Newtons mother, Patricia Newton, spoke Monday of Hardys arrest in Maryland on an extraditable murder warrant.

Rashad was known to us, Reyes said.

Newton was shot at a corner store then succumbed to his injuries at Yale New Haven Hospital, according to police.

States Attorney Patrick Griffin said Hardy waived extradition and his arrival back in Connecticut is a matter of logistics.

Patricia Newton thanked officers for making the arrest.

As someone with two young daughters, I can only imagine how that feels for you, said Mayor Justin Elicker.

He said he hoped the arrest would be a help to her, even if it would not bring back her son.

Elicker also complimented New Haven police on the arrest, saying it was a reminder of the important work they do.

This is not an easy time to be a police officer, he said.

Alder Ron Hurt, D-3, urged the city to stop the violence.

Like I said at Rickys funeral, we need to start loving on one another, he said. Theres a lot going on in our city. This type of press conference shouldnt be taking place.

Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson then spoke on crime statistics in the city, saying shootings in the second half of July are down, with four shootings so far.

Reyes said that none of the four shootings was gang-related and one  possibly two  were self-inflicted.

We need all hands on deck, and we have them with Mr. Griffin and his crew, Jacobson said.

Jacobson said police appreciate marches calling for an end to violence and urging the community to support the police.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 658,000 people worldwide.

Over 16.6 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their nations' outbreaks.

The United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 4.3 million diagnosed cases and at least 149,234 deaths.

Tuesday's headlines:

North Korea locks down Kaesong City Marlins games postponed through Sunday DC, Illinois now on New York travel advisory list

Here is how the news developed on Tuesday. All times Eastern.

9:41 p.m.: Veteran considered 'clinically recovered' from COVID-19 tests positive again

A resident at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home, a long-term care facility for veterans in Holyoke, Massachusetts, that was devastated by a coronavirus outbreak this spring, has tested positive for the virus a second time, officials said.

According to the state's Department of Health and Human Services, the veteran had been considered "clinically recovered" from COVID-19, but recently began experiencing COVID-like symptoms again. On Monday, the veteran was transferred to a hospital for treatment and tested positive.

The resident was living in a unit dedicated to clinically recovered individuals. It is not known when the veteran first tested positive for the virus.

When asked whether this latest test could have been the result of an error, such as a false positive or a swapped lab sample, a spokesperson for HHS told ABC News, "No, this is a positive case."

The spokesperson said it is still unclear whether the veteran was infected a second time, saying that "the science and medicine are unclear around reinfection."

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MORE: 'Substantial errors,' 'utterly baffling' decisions led to COVID tragedy at Holyoke Soldiers' Home

So far, there is no definitive proof that reinfection of COVID-19 is possible, an ABC News report found.

The test marks the first time since June 18 that a resident has tested positive for COVID-19. The Soldiers' Home is now testing throughout the facility with support from the Massachusetts National Guard, and all residents in the unit for clinically recovered individuals are currently in quarantine. All outdoor in-person visitation has also been suspended until further notice.

Since March 1, 76 Soldiers' Home residents who tested positive for the coronavirus have died. An independent investigation found that "substantial errors" and "utterly baffling" decisions by the home's leadership likely contributed to the tragedy.

PHOTO: This May 2018 file photo shows an aerial view of the Holyoke Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, Mass., where dozens of residents died from the coronavirus during the 2020 pandemic. (Patrick Johnson/The Republican via AP, File)

8:51 p.m.: Philadelphia school leaders pivot on reopening plans

After introducing a plan earlier this month to start the fall with a mix of online and in-person learning, Philadelphia school leaders are now proposing that schools stay remote until mid-November and then transition into a hybrid model.

In a letter to families on Tuesday, William R. Hite Jr. said the change in plans came "after careful consideration of all of the feedback we have received."

The District is proposing changes to its 2020-2021 reopening plan. The new plan proposes to start the school year with all students learning remotely for the first marking period. For more info, visit https://t.co/1Ov6VYENiN  Philadelphia Schools (@PHLschools) July 28, 2020

Under the revised proposal, the school year would start with all students learning remotely through Nov. 17. At that point, they would transition to a hybrid learning model "as long as guidance from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and other indicators support it is still safe to do so, Hite said.

Starting with digital learning would allow more time for facilities improvements in schools, the letter noted.

Under the proposal, Chromebooks will be available for any student that needs one and meals will be provided for students during remote learning, the letter said.

The education board is set to consider the new proposal on Thursday.

5:34 p.m.: Kentucky recommends quarantining from 'hot' states

In today's press conference, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced that he is recommending a 14-day self-quarantine for travelers from states that have an equal to or greater than 15% positivity rate.

Those states would include Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, South Carolina and Texas.

Beshear was optimistic about restaurants expanding capacity in two weeks, but said it will be dependent on the numbers across the state.

"It is my expectation that we'll be able to increase capacity at restaurants again in two weeks," Beshear said.

Commissioner for Public Health Steven Stack said that wearing a mask is the best thing people can do: "Wear a mask. If we want to keep businesses open, wear a mask. That is the single thing, if we just do it, if we get over the cultural divide about not wearing these things, this is how we keep businesses open, we keep people working, we get people back to the activities, we get kids back to school."

Beshear announced 532 new cases on Tuesday, along with 10 deaths and a positivity rate of 5.08% -- the first time it's been down in four days.

5:22 p.m.: Pfizer announces it has begun phase 3 trials

Pfizer, in partnership with BioNTech, says it has started injections for its phase 3 trial of a coronavirus vaccine.

"The companies received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to proceed to phase 3 on Monday, immediately after which four volunteers in Rochester were among the first in the nation to receive the experimental vaccine," the University of Rochester Medical Center and Rochester Regional Health, where the study is taking place, said in a press release.

Another 11 people were injected on Tuesday.

MORE: Human trial for coronavirus vaccine launched by Moderna enters Phase 3

Moderna announced it had begun injections of its vaccine on Monday as well.

"We were pleased to be a part of the early stage studies of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine and look forward to participating in these new critical clinical trials," Dr. Edward Walsh, a professor in the URMC Department of Medicine, said in a statement. "While there is a tremendous urgency to develop a coronavirus vaccine and this study represents the final stage of human research, it is equally essential that we continue to rigorously evaluate the safety and efficacy of every potential vaccine candidate."

President Donald Trump has said he wants to bring a vaccine to production by the end of the year.

4:45 p.m.: North Korea locks down Kaesong City

North Korea's state-run KCNA reports that authorities imposed a complete lockdown in Kaesong City after the first reported COVID-19 case.

KCNA reported that Kaesong City has testing kits, PPE, disinfectants, masks and medical supplies at the ready.

The extent of spread of the coronavirus in North Korea has been largely unknown due to the country's isolation from the world.

3:22 p.m.: Marlins games postponed through Sunday

Miami Marlins games will be postponed through Sunday after numerous Marlins players were diagnosed with COVID-19, MLB announced Tuesday.

PHOTO: Jesus Aguilar #24, Brian Anderson #15, Francisco Cervelli #29, and Corey Dickerson #23 of the Miami Marlins react after a three run home run by Anderson against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on July 26, 2020, in Philadelphia. (Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

"Given the current circumstances, MLB believes that it is most prudent to allow the Marlins time to focus on providing care for their players and planning their Baseball Operations for a resumption early next week," the league said in a statement.

"The Marlins personnel who tested positive remain in isolation and are receiving care," the league said.

MORE: Timeline: How coronavirus got started

ESPN reported Monday that multiple Marlins players had COVID-19 -- one day after the Marlins played the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies' Monday night game against the New York Yankees was canceled, as was the Marlins' Monday night game against the Baltimore Orioles.

PHOTO: Miguel Rojas of the Miami Marlins hits an RBI triple in the top of the fourth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on July 26, 2020, in Philadelphia. (Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

"Out of an abundance of caution, the remainder of the home-and-home series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees has been postponed (NYY @ PHI tonight, and PHI @ NYY Wednesday and Thursday)," MLB said Tuesday. "As a result of these postponements, the Yankees will now play the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards on Wednesday and Thursday in order to create more scheduling flexibility later in the season. Additional rescheduling during the week of August 3rd will be announced later this week."

2:40 p.m.: 12 NYC bars get liquor licenses suspended for 'egregious' violations

New York state has suspended liquor licenses at 12 New York City bars, alleging they made "egregious violations" of COVID-19 rules, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement Tuesday.

"The bars and restaurants that ignore public health guidance are disrespecting their sacrifices which have saved lives while allowing us to sustain the reopening of our economy," Cuomo said.

A state task force conducted over 1,300 compliance checks this weekend and reported 132 violations, Cuomo said. Over 600 more compliance checks were done Monday night and the task force found 26 violations in New York City, he said.

PHOTO: Outdoor restaurant and bar seating along Smith Street in the Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn, NY. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

PHOTO: People dine al fresco, or open air, in Hell's Kitchen on July 21, 2020 in New York City. (Jeenah Moon/Getty Images)

Businesses violating coronavirus rules can be fined up to $10,000 per violation. "Egregious violations can result in the immediate suspension of a bar or restaurant's liquor license," the governor's statement said.

2:10 p.m.: 30% of new Louisiana cases are among young people

In Louisiana, 30% of the coronavirus cases reported on Tuesday are among people ages 29 and under, the state's Department of Health said.

PHOTO: Pedestrians are seen walking along Bourbon Street in the French Quarter on July 14, 2020 in New Orleans. (Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

PHOTO: A woman waits in line for carryout at Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter on July 14, 2020 in New Orleans. (Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Twenty-six new fatalities were reported on Tuesday, bringing Louisiana's death toll to 3,700, the Department of Health said.

As of July 25, all bars and restaurants in New Orleans are prohibited from selling takeout alcohol. A statewide rule prohibits bars from serving people on the premises.

1:35 p.m.: Columbus, Ohio, schools will begin year fully virtual

Columbus city schools -- Ohio's biggest school district -- will have 100% virtual learning for the beginning of the year, from Sept. 8 to Oct. 27, officials announced Tuesday.

While it was recommended on June 30 that high schoolers go fully virtual and younger students have blended learning, since then, "public health conditions have dramatically worsened" in the county, Columbus City schools said in a statement Tuesday.

MORE: Parents concerned about children falling behind as COVID-19 keeps schools shuttered: POLL

Franklin County, which includes Columbus, has at least 3,993 confirmed COVID-19 cases and at least 124 deaths, according to Monday's data from the county.

Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin said the council stands with the school officials' decision.

"While this is a tough decision, it will save lives and prevent the spread," Hardin tweeted Tuesday.

MORE: Fauci's concerned about Midwest reopening: 'Can't afford ... another surge'

Earlier Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he was concerned about the Midwest reopening, noting that hard-hit South and West states like Florida, Texas, Arizona and California look like "they may be cresting and coming back down."

States like Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee and Kentucky are "starting to have" a "very early indication" of rising COVID-19 positivity rates -- a "surefire sign that youve got to be really careful," the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told "Good Morning America."

12:20 p.m.: DC, Illinois now on New York travel advisory list

Illinois, Kentucky and Minnesota have been added to New York's travel advisory list, as well as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on a conference call Tuesday.

PHOTO: People social distance at an outdoor bar outside Nationals Park before the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals play an opening day baseball game, July 23, 2020, in Washington. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

PHOTO: Members of the public wait to walk past the casket of civil rights pioneer and longtime Representative John Lewis at the Capitol in Washington, July 27, 2020. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

Anyone traveling to New York, New Jersey or Connecticut from a state with a high coronavirus test-positivity rate must quarantine for two weeks.

Thirty-four states, plus D.C. and Puerto Rico, are now on the list.

PHOTO: Fans on a rooftop overlooking Wrigley Field take In a baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and the Milwaukee Brewers, July 25, 2020, in Chicago. (Teresa Crawford/AP)

11 a.m.: Florida reports new daily death toll record

In Florida, a record 191 new fatalities were reported in one day, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health Tuesday morning.

The previous one-day record was 173 fatalities, reported on July 23.

PHOTO: A health care worker uses a picture to show a person how to use a nasal swab for a self administered test at the new federally funded COVID-19 testing site at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium on July 23, 2020, in Miami. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Coronavirus cases in the state have jumped by 9,230, bringing the total to over 441,900, according to the Department of Health.

Florida has the second-most COVID-19 cases, behind California.

PHOTO: Philadelphia Union and New England Revolution players walk on the pitch prior to their game during the knockout round of the MLS is Back Tournament at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, July 25, 2020, in Reunion, Florida. (Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)

Of those tested in Miami-Dade County on Monday, 17.5% were positive, officials said.

PHOTO: Healthcare worker Rahaana Smith instructs passengers how to use a nasal swab, July 24, 2020, at a drive-thru COVID-19 testing site at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium, in Miami. (Wilfredo Lee/AP)

Throughout Florida, 16.86% of the state's adult ICU beds are available, according to Floridas Agency for Healthcare Administration.

Two counties -- Monroe and Putnam -- had no ICU beds, the agency said.

These numbers will fluctuate throughout the day as hospitals and medical centers provide updates.

9:30 a.m.: Hospitals overwhelmed in Florida, Texas

An internal FEMA memo obtained by ABC News has detailed the latest on overwhelmed hospitals in Florida and Texas, and the strain on EMS systems in Georgia.

PHOTO: A worker checks in people for testing, July 24, 2020, at a drive-thru COVID-19 testing site at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium, in Miami. (Wilfredo Lee/AP)

In Florida, hospitalizations statewide have increased 79% since July 4, with 8,974 current COVID-19 patients, the memo said.

In hard-hit Miami-Dade County, ICU beds were at 146% capacity, the memo said.

PHOTO: Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) arrive with a patient while a funeral car begins to depart at North Shore Medical Center where coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients are treated, in Miami, July 14, 2020. (Maria Alejandra Cardona/Reuters)

In Georgia, where the test-positivity has reached 15.6%, the EMS systems are under strain with staff out sick, according to FEMA.

MORE: Inside the grueling front lines of COVID first responders

And in Texas, as of July 22, five ICU beds were available in Laredo and none were available in Galveston, the memo said.

4:58 a.m.: Russia coronavirus cases pass 820,000

Russia reported 5,395 new COVID-19 cases and 150 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the coronavirus response headquarters statement on Tuesday.

"Over the past day, 5,395 cases of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus infections were confirmed in 84 regions of Russia, including 1,620 active asymptomatic cases (30.0%)," the headquarters said.

MORE: Government predicted, but failed to address, racial disparities in global pandemic: Ex-officials

Russia's total case count currently stands at 823,515 and 13,504 coronavirus patients died.

Moscow on Tuesday reported 674 new COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths.

3:35 a.m.: COVID-19 linked hunger killing 10,000 children per month, says UN

COVID-19 and its ramifications are pushing children who already live in hunger to beyond breaking point, killing an estimated 10,000 more youngsters a month as meager farms have no way of delivering produce to markets while villages are isolated from food and medical supplies, the United Nations has warned.

Furthermore, more than 550,000 additional children each month are being struck by what is called wasting, which manifests in spindly limbs and distended bellies, according to the UN.

In the call to action shared with The Associated Press prior to its release, four UN bodies said that increasing malnutrition would have long-term consequences, with individual tragedies likely to turn into a generational catastrophe.

"The food security effects of the COVID crisis are going to reflect many years from now," said Francesco Branca, the World Health Organization's head of nutrition. "There is going to be a societal effect.

What to know about coronavirus:

How it started and how to protect yourself: Coronavirus explained

What to do if you have symptoms: Coronavirus symptoms

Tracking the spread in the U.S. and worldwide: Coronavirus map

3:16 a.m.: Trump Jr. shares video of doctor claiming hydroxychloroquine is a cure for COVID-19

Donald Trump Jr. shared a bizarre video on Twitter featuring what appears to be doctor who blasts the science and medical health experts' recommendations about wearing masks and saying there are cures for COVID-19, including hydroxychloroquine.

Trump Jr. says, "This is a much watch!!! So different from the narrative that everyone is running with."

The doctor calls the science and studies against hydroxychloroquine fake studies and says they're sponsored by big pharmaceutical companies.

ABC News' Greg Bradbury, Dee Carden, Brian Hartman, Dragana Jovanovic, Alina Lobzina, Josh Margolin, Arielle Mitropoulos, Tom Shine, Terrance Smith, J. Gabriel Ware, and Scott Withers contributed to this report.

Florida reports new daily death toll record originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Millions of coffee farmers across Africa are facing economic devastation as coffee prices offered to them continue to be on a downward trajectory, often below production costs, a report by Selina Wamucii has revealed.

In a statement by Selina Wamucii, on Tuesday titled Misery at the Farm: Africas Coffee Farmers are Losing Billions to Exploitation, Africas farmers produce some of the finest quality coffee but receive the lowest prices of all growers globally.

Selina Wamucii is the platform for food and agricultural produce from Africas agricultural cooperatives, farmers groups, agro-processors, and other organizations, which works directly with family farmers across 54 African countries.

It is putting all Africas producers 80 per cent of whom are family farmers and their products in one platform where buyers from anywhere in the world can reliably find and buy produce from Africa.

The report gives the most recent and ground-up perspective on how Africas coffee farmers are exploited to death in an industry that makes billions of dollars every year.

It said, African farmers share in the roasted coffee value chain is ranging from 8.7% to 12.6%, with the share being less in major African coffee exporters, Ethiopia and Uganda, being respectively at 12.6% and 10.0% respectively.

Farmers shares in the roasted coffee value chain are higher outside of Africa with Indias coffee growers getting 15.7% in India and 14.9% in Brazil.

Due to unfair trade terms, lost earnings yearly for Ethiopian farmers are 713.1 million USD and 229.7 million USD for farmers in Uganda.

It is estimated that African coffee farmers are losing $1.47 billion every year from exploitative pricing of their crops, the report said.

These amounts are crucial for African producers from several countries where coffee is their major exporting product.

In the statement, Wanjiru Kariuki, a 68-year old coffee farmer from Othaya, about 120 kilometres north of Nairobi, Kenya, ponders on how, as a coffee grower, she can be so poor while profits for multinational coffee dealers increase year after year.

Look at this tight belt  it holds my stomach in and helps avoid hunger pangs, said Wanjiru, pointing towards her waist.

I am poor, hungry, and shoeless.

Those who benefit from my hard work cannot even tie a belt like this as they have stomachs bigger than a hippopotamus, all from my coffee added the grandmother to four.

READ ALSO:

According to CEO of Selina Wamucii, John Oroko said this situation is untenable for the African farmer, who produces some fine quality coffee, but receives the lowest prices of all growers, globally.

These coffee farmers are existentially threatened.

The only feasible solution is the establishment of a quota-based, International Coffee Agreement, that sets export quotas and helps steer the price and makes it possible for farmers to live from the proceeds of their hard work, he said.

If Africa wants to bring to an end the exploitation eating away her coffee farmers, the global trading rules for coffee will have to be changed through a pro-farmer political framework.

And if this cannot be achieved within the confines of the World Trade Organization (WTO), then Africans are better off looking up to OPEC for inspiration and executing a Pan Africa Coffee Agreement that doesnt fatten a few whiles sucking the life out of farmers. Anything else is pure tokenism that seeks to buy time, he concludes.
Growing up in the mountains of Western North Carolina and East Tennessee, Nichols' sharing of clogging with tourists at Fontana Village Resort created a ripple effect that took the dance across the country and abroad.

Nichols is credited as being the first person in America to give terminology, structure, and organization to this American folk dance that was a "melting pot" of percussive dances from any cultures. He created a dance movement that has resulted in elevating a regional recreational activity to a national competitive platform with international acclaim. "He never made his work about "him," said his daughter Simone Nichols Pace, who is coordinating the event. "His work was always for the benefit of future generations of dancers. Around the world, this is a day of celebration of our talents and a day of reverence for those who came before us. We can put our dancers in the spotlight and generate a multitude of publicity which will inevitably open many more doors of opportunity," Pace said.

The culture that clogging instructors cultivate through the dance and for the clog dance families can be a bond for bringing our diverse cultures together to share the bonds of fun and friendship. Especially in these times, dance instructors are introducing many people to dance for fun and fitness via the internet. Bill Nichols believed that the best way to reduce cultural bias is to show someone you care, share a meal, share a laugh, share a photograph, and share a dance. Bill would agree with diversity and inclusion expert Verna Myers: "Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance." He may also add that leadership is "calling" the dance. By developing this culture during weekly dance classes, the reach into other areas of life can be extended. Dance instructors influence the minds and attitudes of those who dance with them.

Through the National Day of Clogging and International Day of Clog Dancing on August 8, 2020 we will celebrate our history, encourage diversity and inclusion, and create a brighter future for our dancers. We can make a difference.

Learn more

Who is Bill Nichols?  watch this short informative video.

https://youtu.be/VyIHMz7KNkA

For more information about the National Day of Clogging, please visit our Facebook Page:

The National Day of Clogging Page:

https://www.facebook.com/NationalDayofClogging

National Day of Clogging Videos are also available on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa_Av4pIPN4OohuczknrkkHckMMMUUNp8

The National Day of Clogging and International Day of Clog Dancing is established to raise awareness of the American Folk Dance style of Clogging. Over the last 80 years, this dance form has changed and evolved to worldwide appeal. Bill Nichols is known as the Grandfather of Modern Clogging. He developed the first common method and vocabulary by which to teach the American version of clogging. He was also the founder and first president of The National Clogging and Hoedown Council, the first American clogging organization. He was instrumental in establishing the first standardized rules of competitive clogging in America.

Contact: If you would like more information about the National Day of Clogging Simone Nichols Pace at 864-266-5787 or [email protected]

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE The National Day of Clogging
RTHK: Malaysian ex-PM Najib convicted on all 1MDB charges

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was found guilty on Tuesday on all seven corruption charges in his first trial linked to a multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

"After considering all evidence in this trial, I find that the prosecution has successfully proven its case beyond a resonable doubt," Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohamad Nazlan Mohamad Ghazali said.

Najib, who was voted out in a historic 2018 election, had faced dozens of criminal charges over allegations that US$4.5 billion was stolen from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Prosecutors had alleged more than US$1 billion of the funds made its way into his personal accounts. Najib had pleaded not guilty.

Najib's lawyers had said he was misled by Malaysian financier Jho Low and other 1MDB officials into believing that the funds banked into his accounts were donated by the Saudi royal family, rather than misappropriated from SRC as prosecutors have alleged. Low denies wrongdoing.

Some of Najib's supporters had gathered near the courthouse early on Tuesday. Roads to the court were closed off for security reasons.

This story has been published on: 2020-07-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
St. Bernard dogs are the ones that traditionally have come to the rescue of humans. But in a reversal of circumstances, humans rescued a St. Bernard after she collapsed while coming down Englands highest mountain.

With their great sense of direction and resistance to cold, St. Bernards have been saving people in the mountains since the 18th century, according to the Smithsonian Magazine. They were first bred by monks living in St. Bernard Pass, a dangerous route through the Alps connecting Italy and Switzerland, to help them on rescue missions after heavy snowstorms. Over a span of nearly 200 years, the dogs saved about 2,000 people, according to the magazine.

However, on the evening of July 24, it was a 121-pound (approx. 55-kilogram) St. Bernard named Daisy that needed saving from Scafell Pike in northwest England after she showed signs of pain in her rear legs and was refusing to move.

A 121-pound St. Bernard named Daisy was rescued from Englands Scafell Pike. (Courtesy of Wasdale Mountain Rescue)

The rescue operation took a total of five hours and involved 16 team members of the Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team.

Daisys owners were able to keep her well-hydrated and fed until team members were able to get on scene with a stretcher to help get them moving again quickly as the weather was due to deteriorate later that evening, the rescue team said in a statement.

From steep hills and rocks to even a waterfall, the team said it faced many obstacles during their trek including. But with a number of tacticsincluding plenty of treats the team was able to assess her condition and even administer analgesia for the pain.

Rescuers put Daisy on a stretcher to safely bring her down Scafell Pike. (Courtesy of Wasdale Mountain Rescue)

The team had realized that to carry out the rescue, Daisys cooperation was of importance, and thus after a little persuasion and adjusting the stretchers needs to Daisy, the rescuers were able to safely bring Daisy downhill.

Daisy very quickly settled down with her chin resting on the head guard, having realized that we were trying to help her, the rescue team added.

The rescue operation took a total of five hours and involved 16 team members of the Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team. (Courtesy of Wasdale Mountain Rescue)

Noting that Daisy had a hard start in life until she was rescued by her current owners a few months ago, the rescue team said Daisy has since been reported to be back to her usual high spirits after she slept well that night and snored louder than normal.

She apparently feels a bit guilty and slightly embarrassed about letting down the image of her cousins bouncing across the Alpine snows with barrels of brandy around their necks, the rescue team joked.

The CNN Wire and Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, part of Mubadalas healthcare network, has been awarded the Emergency Nurses Associations prestigious Lantern Award, one of only two hospitals outside the US to be named as the first-ever international recipients of the prestigious honour.



The Lantern Award is given by the Emergency Nurses Association, a global membership organization of more than 40,000 emergency nurses, in recognition of emergency departments that demonstrate exceptional performance and deliver the highest level of care to patients. The three-year award is given to only a handful of top-performing facilities each year, with just 28 of the more than 5,000 emergency departments in the United States receiving the award in 2019.



In addition to quality of care, emergency departments are evaluated for their commitment to innovation in terms of nursing practice, leadership, education, advocacy and research to qualify for the award. Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi has placed innovation at the core of its mission and was the first facility in the UAE to employ advanced nursing roles including nurse practitioners and physician assistants.



At Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, our nurses are the foundation of everything we do. Not only do they provide the highest possible level of patient care, they also play an active role in helping us improve every step of the patient journey, said Sue Behrens, Chief Nursing Officer, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.



Nurses at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi play a vital role in its research efforts and work to implement new processes and procedures in the Emergency Department and across the hospital to improve patient care and outcomes. The Lantern Award is named in honour of Florence Nightingale, who is credited with changing nursing from an untrained job to a skilled, science-based profession.



Neil David Clark, Acting Director of Healthcare Planning Division at the Department of Health  Abu Dhabi: We applaud the efforts of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. Receiving Lantern Award is a major milestone that would never have been possible without the dedicated efforts made by the hospital to provide world-class healthcare services for all members of the community; which has always been and will remain at the forefront of Abu Dhabis healthcare sector priorities.



Becoming the first Emergency Department outside the United States to receive the Lantern Award is a tremendous honour that highlights the compassion and innovation that our caregivers provide for every patient that steps through our doors. Throughout 2020, our nursing team and emergency department provided heroic service, enabling us to provide treatment for the whole community even in the most challenging circumstances, said Dr Rakesh Suri, Chief Executive Officer at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.  TradeArabia News Service
MIDLAND, MI - When Good to Go: Specialty Takeout co-owner Kara Bingham heard that the biggest business in town - chemical giant Dow - was laying off workers, she fought through her initial worries and said to herself, Well get through this.

Bingham and her boyfriend have owned Good to Go, located at 128 Townsend St. in Midland, for two and half years. Theyre known for their rolled sandwiches made with naan flatbread. Bingham said the restaurant is only open for lunch, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, and theyre closed Sunday.
The government has announced how it intends to support arts organisations through the 1.57bn package.

In this first round of funding, 622 million will be distributed. Arts Council England will oversee the allocation of 500 million for theatres, music and comedy venues and museums, to help support them throughout the ongoing crisis. The rest of the money will be distributed by the British Film Institute, National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England.

258 million will be reserved for a second round of funding later in the financial year. A new independent Culture Recovery Board will be chaired by Damon Buffini to help administer the fund.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: "Today we're publishing guidance so organisations know how to access help. We're also calling on organisations to be creative in diversifying their income streams and the public to continue supporting the places they love so this funding can be spread as far and wide as possible."

According to the government, "successful applicants for grants will need to have an innovative plan for how they will operate and be sustainable for the remainder of this financial year". Organisations should visit the websites of their relevant specialist bodies (British Film Institute, Arts Council England, Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund) for further details.

Arts Council England's Nicholas Serota said: "Arts and cultural organisations are an integral part of public life in villages, towns and cities across the country. We warmly welcome and are pleased to be administering this vital investment from Government, which will help ensure as many organisations as possible survive the existential challenge posed by Covid-19 so they can continue to serve their communities safely in the future."
There are two major concerns: I can draw unemployment plus $600, which is more than when I work; and I am concerned about contracting the virus, Norment said in a text message on Monday.

For Brian Moore, the right solution would be to restructure the unemployment benefit to help people replace a portion of their income, but not more than theyre already making.

Unemployment was always structured so you would make less money than when you were working, Moore said. It should be weighted according to what you were making.

When the coronavirus crisis began, he offered his 14 employees the option to stay on salary as the restaurant was forced to rely on carryout and delivery, which represented about 20% of its revenues.

Nine stayed, although two of them left later for different reasons that Moore said he believes were about all the money they make on unemployment versus what were paying them.

As the restaurant returned to indoor dining and reduced hours, he offered to rehire the five he said had chosen to be laid off. They refused and he reported to VEC that they had declined the offer, as he is required to do under his PPP loan for it to be converted to a grant.
An April survey released by the National Endowment for Financial Education found that 88 percent of Americans  nearly nine in 10  say the COVID-19 crisis is causing stress on their personal finances. What are they worried about? Everything. People are stressed about their emergency savings and retirement funds, income fluctuations, their ability to pay bills, job security; paying off debt and volatility in the financial markets.

While the credit union movement cant do much about the virus itself, it can ease some of the economic disruption by helping people recover a sense of financial wellbeing during difficult times. Helping members cultivate financial wellness during a crisis is an opportunity to build member relationships that capitalize on the traditional strengths, digital advances and elevated member experiences credit unions have been working on, while also building genuine relationships that will outlive the current pandemic.

Your Members Need You

Everything about the COVID-19 crisis feels unprecedented. The labor market shows a pandemic total of more than 47 million unemployment claims, with 11.1 percent of American workers out of work in June. Nearly five months in, federal unemployment stimulus payments are approaching expiration with a new round of benefits up in the air. Anecdotally, we see businesses closing and families using their savings, charging up credit cards or raiding their retirement. Even routine money-handling has become taboo, driving consumers to abandon cash and in-person point-of-sale card payments in favor of digital wallets and contactless EMV.

But its not just solutions to individual dilemmas that consumers are seeking. People want holistic advice as well.

In the early days of the crisis, big credit card issuers started cutting credit lines. At the very moment cardholders were relying on their credit to cover expenses and provide a small measure of security, card issuers were pulling the plug. That so many credit unions have maintained their members access to credit and even allowed them to forego interest or skip a payment is a perfect illustration of why member-first financial services matter. Credit unions arent just providers of financial services; theyve got their members backs.

Empower Members Through Financial Wellness

In times of crisis, financial wellness takes on new importance.

In the 12 years since the Great Recession, financial services have made some great strides. Its now possible to apply for a loan, send money to a friend, turn your credit card on and off, or invest automatically using change from your transactions  all using a mobile device that barely existed in 2008. Our evolving use of data, too, allows financial services providers to know more about consumers  even predictively  than ever before.

How can credit unions, as financial services providers with a mission to help their members, actually promote financial wellness in difficult times?

Find new ways to help members meet the unprecedented challenges they face. Continue to support your members that were hit hardest by COVID-19  the unemployed, furloughed workers or those struggling with increased debt. At CO-OP Financial Services, weve seen credit unions rise to the challenge with emergency rate reductions, innovative credit and loan offers, and increased withdrawal and deposit limits  real help for the real problems members are facing.

Provide long-term solutions to help members recover their financial health. The COVID-19 crisis isnt going to last forever. As members rebuild their financial lives, credit unions can create the tools that facilitate recovery. Many of these programs already exist. For example, Patelco Credit Union in California has been in the process of putting financial wellness at its core. Theyve eliminated $1.5 million in fees, restricted NSF charges, and created personal and auto loans that offer incentives to encourage members to pay on time, which is especially critical now, when people are seeing their credit scores impacted. Town & Country Federal Credit Union in Maine offers a savings accelerator auto loan that diverts a members first three payments to a savings account, to encourage members to start a savings habit.

Become the Primary Financial Relationship

For all the proliferation of financial services weve seen pop up  fintech apps, digital wallets, online lenders, digital banks  where have members actually placed their trust? So far, no single institution owns the entire member relationship. But this is our golden opportunity: to become our members Primary Financial Relationship. Achieving PFR status means designing products and services around our members lifestyles  from the key life moments like going to college or purchasing a home, to their everyday banking and financial needs. To maintain that PFR status, credit unions must ensure that financial well-being is positioned at the heart of everything they do.

While it is uncertain when or how this crisis will end, credit unions have more than a century of experience helping people pull through difficult financial times and they are a sure bet to become strong financial partners to a nation working to recover. If we can innovate the solutions that members need now, reach out to people who are struggling and need help, act as genuine partners and build trust, this could be the start of a beautiful relationshipand the open door to a future of financial health for all of us.
Among other segments, home broadband subscriptions have picked up and the virtual private network service, too, increased by around 15 per cent.

Unlike most other sectors, telecom services has seen a lower impact from the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and is also among the early ones to recover.

A surge in data consumption and a rebound in new subscriber base are the major gains for the sector.

S P Kochhar, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), has highlighted this trend.

Network activity increased due to limitation of movement, logistics and distribution, leading to higher data consumption.

"The average monthly consumption of data per subscriber has gone up 20 per cent from 10.37 GB to 12.4 GB from September 2019 to April 2020 while voice usage increased by 3 per cent to 712 minutes during this period.

"New subscriber additions, which had seen a dip due to the restrictions, are now coming back to normal levels.

Among other segments, home broadband subscriptions have picked up and the virtual private network (VPN) service, too, increased by around 15 per cent.

Higher data consumption has helped average revenue per user (ARPU) and revenue of telecom companies, say industry experts.

ARPU in April-May 2020 is likely to have increased as rising data consumption by 10-15 per cent during the period would have led to higher recharge of data-packs, said Prashant Tarwadi, director (corporates), India Ratings and Research.

Tarwadi said the lockdown has provided another strong fillip to the ongoing trend of 2G and 3G customers for telcos transitioning into 4G, driven by the needs for higher data download speed and limits.

Some of this is reflected in the fact that data subscribers account for more than half of Vodafone Idea and Airtels customer base at the end of March quarter from 40 per cent levels a year ago.

Going ahead, the rating agency estimates that even in a scenario of no change in telecom tariffs, the 4G transition alone can add 6-7 per cent to the ARPUs of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea in FY21.

However, should the 4G data prices rise (amid rising usage per customer), the addition to ARPUs can go up to 8-12 per cent.

Moreover, cost savings are expected from marketing, channel margins (lower gross additions and increased digital recharges) and other admin costs, said analysts at Emkay Global.

The sector has also seen its share of woes as the pandemic and the lockdown also brought about other changes in consumption. International roaming and enterprise business segments took a pause.

While the sector, being an essential activity, was up and running through the crisis, there has been some impact due to inability of customers to recharge their plans.

Slower pace of subscriber additions, due to lower smartphone sales, also had an impact.

Further, telecom companies extended validity of prepaid plans and low income customers were given additional benefits till May 3.

Even on a conservative basis, the value of such benefits is more than Rs 600 crore, Kochhar said.

Unlike Tarwadi, Prashant Singhal, telecom expert at EY, believes that while data consumption has spiked by 30 per cent, it may not translate into higher revenues.

The decline in voice subscriptions would offset data consumption gains, and the slowdown in enterprise business could also have a bearing.

While the June quarter numbers will reveal the real picture, experts believe that price hikes are inevitable, given India has the lowest tariffs in the world.

Also, the balance sheets of telecom companies will require tariff revision.

Even on the demand side, shift in consumer behaviour, both for personal and official purposes, will ensure increasing data and voice traffic for telcos.

And all this is being reflected in telco valuations.

Singhal added, The sector remains resilient, and the accelerated shift in digital adoption will drive revenue and profitability.

"The valuation of a few global telcos is already factoring this growth, with ratios such as enterprise value to Ebitda spiking by 10-15 per cent in the past six months.

Photograph: Himangshu Sharma/Reuters
(Natural News) Two statues of Christopher Columbus in Chicago have been taken down after city officials caved in to pressure from Antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement, many of whom have been rioting for days to try and tear down these statues themselves.

The two statues are located in Grant Park in the Loop and in Arrigo Park in Little Italy. Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat, ordered the statues removed in response to demonstrations that became unsafe for both protesters and police, as well as efforts by individuals to independently pull the Grant Park statue down in an extremely dangerous manner.

The order to remove the statues comes less than a week after no fewer than 19 officers from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) were hospitalized after they were endlessly physically assaulted by rioters for defending the Columbus statue in Grant Park. Videos taken from the event show the violent mob throwing all manner of projectiles, from bottles to soda cans and even rocks. Aerial footage from the incident even showed some rioters shooting fireworks at the CPD officers.

Mayor Lori Lightfoots silence on the assault against these Chicago police officers protecting the Columbus statue is deafening. pic.twitter.com/OjTIssC8t0  Kara Zupkus (@kara_kirsten) July 18, 2020

Statues removed as mobs cheer

At around 1 a.m. on Friday, July 24, a crew began removing the statue of Christopher Columbus in Grant Park. The operation was completed at around 3 a.m., and the large statue was hauled off to the sound of cheering demonstrators.

On the same day, the statue of Columbus at Arrigo Park in Little Italy was also taken down. The process was completed by around 5:30 a.m. Both historical monuments will be relocated to a storage facility somewhere in the city. Their future fate remains unknown. (Related: City officials in Boston unanimously vote to TAKE DOWN statue showing Abraham Lincoln ENDING SLAVERY.)

NOW: Protesters react to the news that Mayor Lori Lightfoot plans to remove the Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park.

Video by @colinbphoto https://t.co/kLof5yI9qN pic.twitter.com/9JedsvTFOE  Colin Boyle (@colinbphoto) July 24, 2020

The move is a reversal from Mayor Lightfoots original statements, which heavily criticized any attempt to get the statues of the Italian explorer removed on the grounds that it would be a grave act of historical revisionism. She has even rejected calls from demonstrators to have the Columbus Day holiday renamed.

There may be evidence to suggest that Lightfoots decision was forced, as this abrupt decision came just hours after several hundred demonstrators camped outside of Lightfoots own home in the Logan Square neighborhood.

City officials said they will be working on enacting a formal process to assess whether or not every single mural, monument and memorial in Chicago is worth keeping.

Italian American community disappointed with Lightfoots decision

Chicagos Italian American community has reacted strongly against the removal of the Christopher Columbus statues.

Are we happy about it? Absolutely not. As a community, we are extremely hurt, said Sergio Giangrande, president of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans (JCCIA). The main organization, which ties together all civil society groups in the Chicago metropolitan area and advocates for the Italian American community, constitutes a little under 20 percent of the population of Chicago  or around 500,000 people.

Giangrande said he was previously reassured by Lightfoots earlier statements that the city would not be tearing down the statue of Columbus, or any kind of historical monument in the city.

Last week, Giangrande, on behalf of the JCCIA, sent letters to the mayor and to Heather Miller, the executive director of the American Indian Center in Chicago, a foundation that promotes the citys Native American community. The letter proposed that, instead of tearing down the statue of Columbus in Little Italy, a plaque be installed instead that would highlight the many versions of the history of Columbus.

I dont understand what changed, said Giangrande. Are we giving in to the violence of the left at this point?  This was a decision made without us. We were not at the table to discuss what other options there were.

Other members of the JCCIA have expressed similar sentiments, such as Pasquale Gianni, who said that Columbus statue represents the ability of the Italian American community to assimilate to American culture and to prosper using that culture.

Even residents of Little Italy have been very disappointed by Lightfoots reversal. Carlo Vaniglia, a resident, said that tearing down the statue was a slap in the face to the community. If you take away statues or monuments you are no better than the Taliban because whether you like it or dont like it, its history.

Steve Mane, another resident, called Lightfoot a coward for not being able to stand up to the Black Lives Matter mob. Jeff Muehlfelder, another resident and a political candidate, said that many more Americans prefer keeping the statues of Columbus. Theyre called the silent majority, he said.

Learn more about Antifas recent activities all over the United States at Antifa.news.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

Breitbart.com

WGNTV.com

TheHill.com

ABC7Chicago.com

Chicago.SunTimes.com

Lib.NIU.edu
Twitter has banned Donald Trump Jr. from posting any tweets, claiming he shared 'potentially harmful information' after posting a link Monday evening to a viral video of a doctor claiming hydroxychloroquine is a 'cure' for coronavirus and calling it 'must watch.'

His father also posted a link to the video through a retweet but was not locked out of his account. Twitter did not explain the discrepancy.

'We've temporarily limited some of your account features,' the Twitter notice to the president's eldest son reads, adding it will be in effect for 12 hours.

'We have determined that this account violated the Twitter Rules. Specifically, for: 1. Violating the policy on spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19,' it continued.

Andrew Surabian, a spokesman to Don Jr., posted an image of the notice to Twitter Tuesday morning, lamenting: 'Big Tech is the biggest threat to free expression in America today & they're continuing to engage in open election interference - full stop.'

The ban comes as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google's parent company Alphabet, prepare to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

The hearing will focus on big tech companies and potential antitrust law violations in the industry.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is not on the docket for the hearing Wednesday.

While Don Jr.'s account is in this restricted state, he can still send direct messages on the platform and browse Twitter.

He will not, however, be able to tweet, retweet, follow new accounts or like anyone's tweets.

President Donald Trump also retweeted Monday night two posts of Dr. Stella Immanuel's speech making dubious claims that the anti-malaria drug, claiming it has successfully cured people of the virus.

Donald Trump Jr.'s Twitter account was restricted after he posted a video of a doctor claiming hydroxychloroquine 'cures' coronavirus

The president's eldest son's spokesperson Andrew Surabian posted the notification of the ban, claiming, 'Big Tech is the biggest threat to free expression in America'

Video of Dr. Stella Immanuel giving a speech outside the Capitol went viral on Monday as President Donald Trump and Don Jr. posted it to their accounts  but the video was removed by Facebook, Twitter and Youtube

Don Jr. called the video a 'must watch'

Trump retweeted two videos of Immanuel speaking with other 'American Frontline Doctors'  but the clip was taken down both times by Twitter citing a violation of the platform's coronavirus misinformation policy

Immanuel demanded the social media platforms repost the video, claiming God would crash Facebook's if they did not comply

WHY STUDIES DON'T BACK HYDROXY Scores of large, credible controlled studies including the 1,542-patient RECOVERY study in the UK and an NIH study, have found the drug offered no benefit, compared to patients who were only given supportive care, like oxygen. On the heels of the RECOVERY study, the WHO cancelled the hydroxychloroquine arm of its international SOLIDARITY trial of multiple potential coronavirus treatments on June 17. It came just days after the FDA revoked its emergency use authorization for the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. The agency had also previously posted a warning that the drug may cause dangerous heart arrhythmias. On July 2, researchers from Henry Ford Health System published a study on hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus that caught the White House's eye. The study's main finding was that death rates were 50 percent lower among patients who were treated with the controversial malaria drug. But the Detroit study was done in a manner far flung from the FDA's 'gold standard' for conclusive research. Research to determine whether a drug works is typically done as what's called a randomized controlled trial. In this type of study, patients are assigned to either get the drug being tested, or a placebo. Neither doctors nor patients know who got which until the study ends. The Detroit study was neither randomized, nor controlled. It was observational, meaning researchers simply compared data on 2,541 COVID-19 patients who got all manner of treatments. These types of studies are usually used to decide which drugs should undergo 'gold standard' testing, not which ones should be the gold standard of treatment. In the simplest sense, those who got hydroxychloroquine were less likely to die - but they were also more likely to receive steroids, drugs which many studies suggest do work to combat the inflammation that kills many coronavirus sufferers. Advertisement

While Don Jr. and his spokesperson called Twitter's move a suspension from using Twitter, the social media platform clarified in a statement Tuesday: 'We did not suspend the account.'

'The screenshot shared directly says that Twitter required the Tweet to be deleted because it violated our rules, and that we would limit some account functionality for 12 hours' a Twitter spokesperson said.

Surabian said he would not accept that explanation.

'When the features 'temporarily limited' are the abilities to tweet and retweet, what would you call that?' he tweeted in response to Twitter's statement. 'Anyone with a functioning brain would call it a suspension, despite the BS word games @Twitter is playing here.'

Videos of Immanuel's Friday speech, made outside the Capitol building, went viral on Monday  but were removed on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube for spreading misleading information.

The Houston pediatrician demanded the social media platforms reupload her videos, claiming God would crash their computers if they did not repost her speech.

'Hello Facebook put back my profile page and videos up or your computers with start crashing till you do. You are not bigger that God. I promise you. If my page is not back up face book will be down in Jesus name,' Immanuel said in a mistake-littered tweet Monday night.

While Immanuel has been embraced by Trump and his supporters, the doctor and religious minister has made some outlandish medical claims in the past.

She has often alleged that gynecological problems, like cysts and endometriosis, are actually caused by people dreaming about having intercourse with demons and witches.

Immanuel also claims scientists are working on a vaccine to prevent people from being born religious and asserts that alien DNA is used in modern-day medical treatments.

Donald Trump Jr. called Immanuel's viral Friday speech a 'must watch' as he posted a link on his Twitter page, causing his account access to be limited by Twitter.

President Trump often lamented that there is social media bias against conservative voices.

'Twitter suspending Don Jr. for sharing a viral video of medical professionals discussing their views on Hydroxychloroquine is further proof that Big Tech is intent on killing free expression online and is another instance of them committing election interference to stifle Republican voices,' Don Jr.'s spokesperson Surabian said in a statement on the incident.

'While there is indeed much disagreement in the medical community about the efficacy of Hydroxychloroquine in treating coronavirus, there have been studies reported on by 'mainstream' outlets like CNN, suggesting that it may in fact be an effective treatment,' he continued. 'Those pretending otherwise are lying for political reasons.'

'[I]t is beyond the pale for Twitter to silence someone for sharing the views of medical professionals who happen to dissent with their anti-Hydroxychloroquine narrative,' Surabian concluded.

Earlier this summer, President Trump also earned his first ever blue exclamation point when Twitter flagged two of his tweets claiming there are heightened instances of voter-fraud with mail-in ballots as 'misleading.'

Another one of Trump's tweets was hidden, with a prompt to reveal the contents of it, this summer after he threatened protesters in the Seattle Autonomous Zone with 'force.'

'There will never be an Autonomous Zone' in Washington, D.C., as long as I'm your President,' Trump tweeted at the time, referring to an area that was occupied by protesters. 'If they try they will be met with serious force!'

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday morning also dismissed Trump's Monday night Twitter rant, which included his post of Dr. Immanuel's speech along with criticism of Fauci.

'I don't know how to address that,' the nation's top immunologist told Good Morning America regarding the president's tweet storm. 'I'm just going to, certainly, continue doing my job.'

'I, you know, I don't tweet, I don't  I don't even read them,' Fauci, 79, told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos. 'So I don't really want to go there.'

Trump went on a Twitter frenzy Monday night, including retweets of posts claiming Fauci lied to the country regarding hydroxychloroquine, which the president revealed he has taken as a preventative measure to stop him from contracting coronavirus.

Fauci, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, pushed back Tuesday morning: 'I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances.'

Big Tech CEOs, Facebook Mark Zuckerberg (top left), Amazon's Jeff Bezos (top right), Apple's Tim Cook (bottom left) and Google's parent company Alphabet's Sundar Pichai are set to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday in an anti-trust hearing

Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey, however, will not make an appearance on Capitol Hill for Wednesday's hearing

Trump also shared a retweet Monday claiming Fauci is 'misleading' the country by dismissing the drug touted by the president and instead endorsing Remdesivir

Dr. Anthony Fauci dismissed it Tuesday morning, claiming he doesn't tweet or read the president's posts. 'I don't know how to address that,' Fauci said

The president's Twitter storm included reposts of videos of a doctor who claimed the anti-Malaria drug is a 'cure' for COVID-19.

Several of the tweets he shared with his 84 million followers, however, were taken down by Twitter citing misinformation regulations.

The president's insistence that the drug does work come as the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for controlling and regulating all prescription and over-the-counter medications, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, said hydroxychloroquine is 'unlikely to be effective' in treating the virus.

'I just will continue to do my job no matter what comes out because I think it's very important,' Fauci said Tuesday. 'We're in the middle of a crisis with regard to an epidemic  a pandemic. This is what I do, this is what I've been trained for my entire professional life and I'll continue to do it.'

Fauci has advised six presidents since joining the National Institute of Health in 1984.

In Trump's Twitter spree he shared a post that claims Fauci is leading the country in the wrong direction by refusing to endorse hydroxychloroquine in combating the virus.

Trump has often promoted the drug, repeatedly pushing it as a therapeutic treatment, even though the FDA warns the drug has harmful side effects and in June revoked an emergency authorization for its use to treat coronavirus.

'Dr. Fauci has misled the American public on many issues, but in particular, on dismissing #hydroxychloroquine and calling Remdesivir the new gold standard,' the retweet said.

Fauci, once a fixture at the White House briefing room podium toward the start of the pandemic, has not yet been invited back for Trump's rebooted task force briefings.

Trump went into a Twitter frenzy Monday night sharing posts to his 84 million followers praising hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19, only for some posts to be removed

Trump retweeted a slew of posts on Monday night all in support of the controversial drug, despite science and medical tests proving it isn't helpful in combating the virus

Meet Trump's new favorite doctor, Dr Stella Immanuel, a homophobic preacher who uses 'alien DNA' as a cure, blames witchcraft for illness and says hydroxychloroquine can stop Covid 19 A Texas-based doctor whose declarations about using hydroxychloroquine to cure COVID-19 were retweeted by Donald Trump has a long history of supporting conspiracy theories, it has emerged. Dr Stella Immanuel, 55, shot to fame on Monday when the president retweeted a video featuring her appearing in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress. In the video - which has since been removed by Facebook, YouTube and Twitter - she promotes the discredited coronavirus remedy, hydroxychloroquine. She attacked 'fake doctors' who doubt the efficacy of the drug, and claimed it's a 'cure', adding 'you don't need a mask.' 'If some fake science comes out and says we've done studies and they found out that it doesn't work, I can tell you categorically it's fake science,' she said. 'I want to know who's conducted that study and who's behind it. Because there is no way I have treat 350 patients and counting and nobody is dead.' She said she has treated patients with hydroxychloroquine along with zinc, and the antibiotic zithromax. Donald Trump Jr was also impressed by her speech, noting on Twitter that it was 'a must-watch'. Immanuel, who runs the Fire Power Ministries in a strip mall next door to her clinic in Houston, was born in Cameroon and did her medical training in Nigeria, The Daily Beast reported. On her Facebook page she describes herself as: 'Physician, Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Deliverance Minister, God's battle axe and weapon of war.' The church's 'beliefs' section on their website - which has now been taken down - says they are against 'unmarried couples living together, homosexuality, bestiality, polygamy, etc.,' Heavy reported. Stella Immanuel has run the Fire Power Ministries in Houston, Texas, since 2002 One sentence in the profile reads: 'Her attitude toward demonic forces has been described as cut-throat, a warrior to the core.' Immanuel is also a 'wealth transfer coach' and believes 'you can be saved, anointed, fire brand and wealthy too.' A mother of three daughters, Immanuel reportedly studied medicine in Nigeria between 1984 and 1990. In November 1998, Immanuel began working as a pediatrician in Alexandria, Louisiana. She has been a physician at the Rehoboth Medical Center in Katy, just west of Houston, Texas, since October 2019. She received a medical license in Texas eight months ago, in November, according to state records. A Nigerian website, PM News, reported that Immanuel did a residency in pediatrics at Bronx-Lebanon in New York. It was unclear when. She then interned under Dr. Babatunde Dosu, a Dallas-based Nigerian pediatrician. It also stated that she holds medical licenses in Texas, Louisiana and Kentucky. Immanuel founded the church in 2002 and has given sermons attacking progressive values and promoting conspiracy theories including 'the gay agenda, secular humanism, Illuminati and the demonic New World Order.' She has claimed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches. She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, saying: 'They're using all kinds of DNA, even alien DNA, to treat people.' In a 2015 sermon she declared that the Illuminati are promoting a plan hatched by 'a witch' to destroy the world using abortion, gay marriage, and children's toys. Immanuel claims the Magic 8-Ball toy is in fact a scheme to get children used to witchcraft. 'The 8-Ball was a psychic,' she said. Immanuel describes herself on Facebook as: 'Physician, Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Deliverance Minister, God's battle axe and weapon of war.' 'There are people that are ruling this nation that are not even human,' Immanuel said, before launching into a conversation she had with a 'reptilian spirit' she described as 'half-human, half-ET.' In another 2015 sermon she said scientists had plans to install microchips in people, and develop a 'vaccine' to make it impossible to become religious. 'They found the gene in somebody's mind that makes you religious, so they can vaccinate against it,' Immanuel said. Immanuel warned that the Disney Channel show Hannah Montana was a gateway to evil, because its character had an 'alter ego.' She has claimed that schools teach children to meditate so they can 'meet with demons.' She also urges that 'children need to be whipped'. The doctor warned her flock that gay marriage meant that 'very soon people are going to be seeking to marry children'. She accused gay Americans of practicing 'homosexual terrorism' and praised a father's decision to not love his transgender son after a gender transition. 'You know the crazy part?' Immanuel said. 'The little girl demands he must love her anyway. Really? You will not get it from me, I'd be like 'Little girl, when you come back to be a little girl again, but you talkfor now, I'm gone.'' Advertisement

Trump and Fauci have often butted heads over how to respond to the health crisis and eventually, the president sidelined the nation's top immunologist from the press conferences altogether.

Reports emerged of tensions between the two, and Fauci could be seen physically recoiling from some of the president's remarks  including smirking and face-palming.

The president has come under heat for his handling of the coronavirus crisis and in recent weeks has tried rectify his reputation by holding solo coronavirus briefings, canceling some campaign events, and wearing a mask in public.

As of Tuesday morning the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. is nearing 4.3 million and the death toll has surpassed 148,000.

At the same time, Trump, who's poll numbers in handling the crisis are dismal, returned to preaching about the benefits of the drug, which he famously took for two weeks as a preventative measure earlier this summer.

In May the World Health Organization stopped its hydroxychloroquine trial. The National Institutes for Health similarly halted their trial in June after determining it provided 'no benefit' in the patients studied.

In his Monday Twitter spree Trump retweeted a video of Dr. Stella Immanuel claiming hydroxychloroquine works in battling the virus.

The video was published by the right-wing media outlet Breitbart News and showed Immanuel and others calling themselves 'America's Frontline Doctors' staging a press conference in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC on Friday.

She slammed 'fake doctors' who doubt the efficacy of the drug, and claimed it's a 'cure', adding 'you don't need a mask.'

'If some fake science comes out and says we've done studies and they found out that it doesn't work, I can tell you categorically it's fake science,' she said.

'I want to know who's conducted that study and who's behind it. Because there is no way I have treat 350 patients and counting and nobody is dead,' she said on how she allegedly treated patients with hydroxychloroquine along with zinc, and Zithromax.

However, her claims are contrary to the extensive tests that have been done regarding the drug.

Video of her fiery speech was shared on Twitter where it racked up over 14million views on Monday, partly due to the promotion by far-right news organizations, but Twitter later took it down.

Facebook and YouTube also began to pull down videos of her claims, claiming it's spreading misinformation about the pandemic.

CNN's Oliver Darcy took to Twitter to shed light on Trump's controversial posts saying: 'Videos Trump shared are now no longer available.'

'While Twitter reviews the video, it's worth noting that various versions of it have received hundreds of thousands of views on this platform and more than one has been retweeted to the public by the President of the United States,' he added.

In May the World Health Organization stopped its hydroxychloroquine trial. The National Institutes for Health similarly halted their trial in June after determining it provided 'no benefit' in the patients studying

Trump has often promoted hydroxychloroquine as a therapeutic treatment for coronavirus, and famously took the drug as a preventative measure for two weeks earlier this summer, even though the Federal Drug Administration warns the drug has harmful side effects

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. is nearing 4.3 million in the U.S. as the death toll has surpassed 148,000 as of Tuesday morning

Twitter later took it down for its COVID-19 misinformation policy.

Similar videos of Immanuel's speech were shared on Facebook on Monday.

It became one of the top performing posts on Facebook with more than 14 million views and nearly 600,000 shares before it was taken down Monday night for promoting misinformation, according to Crowdtangle, a data-analytics firm owned by Facebook.

A Facebook spokesperson said to CNN on removing the clip: 'We've removed this video for sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19.'

The spokesperson added Facebook is 'showing messages in News Feed to people who have reacted to, commented on or shared harmful COVID-19-related misinformation that we have removed, connecting them to myths debunked by the WHO.'
K4Connect Were excited to introduce Allbridge as our first official channel and infrastructure partner, and honored to work with such a talented team of experienced digital innovators." - Ian Sanders, Vice President of Business Development, K4Connect

Allbridge, the leading provider of data, video, and voice solutions for hospitality, senior living, and healthcare properties, and K4Connect, today announced a partnership to bring seamless digital experiences to thousands of senior living communities across the nation. Allbridge will deliver K4Connects flagship solution, K4Community, to senior living operators to better connect residents with family, friends, and care providers through advanced digital communication and information tools. Allbridge customers will also have access to K4Community Team Hub, the comprehensive community management tool for staff teams.

There are over two million older adults living in senior care communities throughout the U.S. The technology needs of this demographic are rising in smartphone adoption, social media use and more. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated the need to reach seniors with digital tools that keep them informed, connected, and engaged while experiencing longer periods of isolation during quarantine. Allbridge and K4Connect are delivering these resources to communities of all sizes and care settings through information, communication, and engagement tools for residents, and mass community management tools for staff.

Together with K4Connect, we are able to reach senior living communities with dynamic digital solutions that empower residents and transform the work day for staff teams. Combining the K4Community senior living resident and staff solutions alongside our industry-leading data network, video, and voice products, makes for a seamless package of enterprise digital solutions these communities need now, said Craig Snelgrove, EVP of sales for Allbridge.

Allbridge is an end-to-end provider who can support all in-room resident technologies for data, video and voice, scaling to meet changing needs and reducing capital expenditures while freeing staff to focus on other internal IT priorities. In partnership with K4Connect, Allbridge will be reselling three core K4Community products specifically designed for senior living residents and staff:



Digital Signage: Community digital signs displayed throughout campus deliver quality experiences and content, keeping residents, staff and visitors constantly informed.

Insertion TV Channel: Reaching residents directly in their homes through the community TV channel, residents stay up to date on the latest community news, daily information such as menus and activities, as well as critical communications during emergency scenarios.

K4Community Plus (Mobile App): Available for iOS and Android devices, K4Community Plus is a robust resident application, including features for communication (e.g., video calling for both residents and families), engagement (e.g., event sign-ups), information (e.g., community news and a Community Social Feed tool), and more.

K4Community Team Hub: The comprehensive community management staff tool that supports the K4Community solutions through content creation and publishing, resident and family communication, and a variety of productivity tools.

This is a powerhouse partnership. Joining our K4Community solutions with Allbridges network expertise ensures the highest quality digital experiences for the senior living communities we serve. We are now able to reach even more communities with these technologies with the added value of their established success in the hospitality and senior living markets. Were excited to introduce Allbridge as our first official channel and infrastructure partner, and honored to work with such a talented team of experienced digital innovators, said K4Connect Vice President of Business Development, Ian Sanders.

To learn more about Allbridge and K4Community, please visit http://www.allbridge.com/k4community.

About Allbridge:

Allbridge delivers one connected experience with all data, video, and voice technologies for hospitality, senior living, and healthcare organizations. Currently serving more than one million rooms nationally, Allbridge positions properties for the future by integrating technologies to exceed guest and resident expectations. The company is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina with additional offices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For more information please visit http://www.allbridge.com.

About K4Connect:

K4Connect is a mission-driven technology company that integrates the best in technology to serve and empower older adults and individuals living with disabilities, together with the people, communities and organizations that also serve them. We believe the future of senior living is in enabling Smart Senior Living Communities through tech-based solutions that truly impact the lives of older adults, wherever they live. Our premier solution, K4Community, provides smart products and features across Home, Wellness, and Engagement for residents, and Productivity, Building, and Insight for staff and operators.

Based in Raleigh, N.C., K4Connect is currently serving tens of thousands of senior living residents and staff at over 800 continuing care, independent living, assisted living and memory care communities across the nation. For more information, please visit http://www.K4Connect.com.

###

MEDIA CONTACTS

Allbridge

Emily Marchbanks

EVP of Marketing

emarchbanks@allbridge.com

K4Connect

Natalie Jones

Director of Marketing & Communications

natalie.jones@K4Connect.com
A Melbourne mother has revealed the grim reality of life inside the intensive care unit of a children's hospital after a coronavirus outbreak.

Stefani Doree's daughter Antonia spent six days in the Butterfly Ward at the Royal Children's Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Melbourne.

Four people in the ward were diagnosed with COVID-19 while Antonia was kept there: a newborn baby, two parents and a staff member.

The 18-day-old baby has since been taken home into isolation.

Mrs Doree told 9News of the life-and-death struggles inside the coronavirus-stricken ward.

Stefani Doree's baby Antonia (pictured) spent six days in Butterfly Ward in Melbourne Royal Children's Hospital where there was a coronavirus outbreak

'They were seriously ill children. Dying. Dying kids. They were really, really unwell,' she said on Tuesday.

All babies, staff and parents in the Butterfly Ward were tested for coronavirus on Tuesday, with all the babies testing negative for the disease.

The hospital currently has seven patients, 17 staff and three parents in self-isolation from exposure to COVID-19.

'We've had a very challenging set of circumstances in the last 24 hours at the Royal Children's Hospital,' Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos told reporters.

'I know that this particular incident is one that would have caused a great deal of distress to many.'

Despite the outbreak, Mrs Doree said she was unable to find out through the hospital and authorities whether her family was in danger.

Mrs Doree (pictured) revealed children were struggling in the coronavirus-stricken ward

'The news had more information than DHHS and the hospital,' Mrs Doree said.

'One would think they would've come to my house and tested my entire family and said "stay here till we come back to you". No, it was up to me to chase them and get nowhere.'

The Royal Childrens Hospital said in a statement it was working with the DHHS, patients and families in their response.

'These cases were notified at different times and a connection between all four has not been confirmed,' the statement reads.

'We extend our thoughts and wishes to each of those members of our RCH community.

'We alerted all of Butterfly team and inpatient families as soon as we became aware of these cases and have maintained regular contact.

'We continue to work closely with the Department of Health and Human Services to finalise contact tracing for these Butterfly Ward cases and ensure the highest level of response.'
The report compares information gathered during tiger surveys of 2006, 2010 and 2014 with data from the 2018-19 review to estimate population trends, patch colonisation and extinction rate

India now accounts 70 percent of the world's total population of tigers, the environment ministry said on Tuesday while releasing its fourth detailed national tiger estimation report.

"Despite India's constraint of 2.5 percent of global land, four per cent of rainfall and 16 percent of world's human population, India is home to eight percent of world's biodiversity which includes 70 percent of world's tiger population," said Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar in Delhi, after releasing the detailed Status of Tigers Co-predators and Prey in India 2018.

Released ahead of International Tiger Day that is observed every year on 29 July, the report assesses the status of tigers in terms of spatial occupancy and density of individual populations across India.

According to the report on the condition of all 50 tiger reserves, Madhya Pradesh has the maximum number of tigers followed by Karnataka.

The minister also said that India has achieved the feat in not just tiger conservation but other species too.

"Today, India not only has tigers, but 30,000 elephants, 3,000 one-horned rhinoceros and over 500 lions besides variety of other flora and fauna," he said.

The report compares information obtained from tiger surveys of 2006, 2010 and 2014 with data obtained from the 2018-19 review to estimate population trends at country and landscape scales, patch colonisation and extinction rates. It also highlights information on likely factors responsible for changes in tiger status.

The report also evaluates the status of habitat corridors that connect major tiger populations while highlighting vulnerable areas that require conservation.

The detailed report in unique in the way that it includes an abundance index of co-predators and other species, sex ratio of tigers carried out by camera traps for the first time and elaborate details in anthropogenic effects on tiger population.

The report, for the first time, also includes details on tiger abundance within pockets in tiger reserves.

According news agency ANI, speaking at a function in New Delhi, Javadekar said that India is proud of its tiger assets while also expressing the willingness to work with other tiger range countries.

"We are ready to take leadership role and work with all 12 tiger range countries in their training, capacity building and in actual management of tiger reserves," he said, according to PTI.

There are currently 13 tiger range countries  India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

In 2010, with tiger numbers at an all time low, India along with other tiger range countries had committed to doubling the number of wild tigers at the St Petersburg Declaration on Tiger Conservation.

According to the 2018 Tiger Census, the tiger population in India at the time of the St Petersburg Summit was 1,706. The number of tigers in India is estiamted to have increased to 2,967 as per the 2108 Census, up from the 2,226 tigers estimated in the 2014 census, the BBC reported.

India counts its tigers once in four years with forest officials and scientists trekking across half a million square kilometres looking for evidence of the elusive feline. The status report released today is bases on surveys conducted since 2006.

According to an All India Radio report, Javadekar said that India had just nine tiger reserves in 1973. However, the number has increased to 50, the minsiter said, adding that none of the 50 tiger reserves in the country are of poor quality, accordign to Times Now.

With inputs from PTI
Updated 11:50

A retired Garda sergeant has died in a fatal fire overnight in Co Kilkenny.

The man, who is in his 80s, was in his bungalow with one of his daughters, who is in her 50s and who cares for him when the blaze broke out around midnight in the village of Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny.

Emerging services from the village and nearby Thomastown were quickly on the scene.

His body has been taken to University Hospital Waterford for a post mortem examination.

His daughter was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The scene has been preserved for a technical examination.
MKs technology has enabled our bank to not only market our cards, but to grow customer credit acquisition tremendously.

Labette Bank, a $415 million-asset community bank serving the state of Kansas announced its agreement with MK Decision (MK) to digitize their credit card origination processes for an enriched customer experience.

MKs technology has enabled our bank to not only market our cards, but to grow customer credit acquisition tremendously, bringing us new business opportunities, Labette Banks Chief Information Officer Nicholas Borror said. Before implementation, we were limited to offering credit cards in our branches. The implementation was seamless and MK has helped Labette Bank digitally market our product.

By deploying MKs Credit Card Origination System (CCOS), Labette Bank has introduced SalesFunnel to educate their customers on credit card options, an online credit card application AppFlow for personal and business cards, and a modern e-sign process on agreements via MKs SecureSign. Once the application has been submitted, automated Messaging notifications are sent from the bank to the customer for updates on the status of their application.

Community banks continue to digitize their credit offerings to best support the customers they serve, ICBA Bancard President and CEO Tina Giorgio said. Were pleased with the response to MKs Credit Card Origination System from ICBA Bancard clients like Labette Bank that want a solid underwriting platform that is efficient, safe and as frictionless as possible for consumers.

About MK Decision

MK Decision's mission is to help community financial institutions thrive by receiving more deposits and more loans. With a commitment to strengthen local economies, MKs platform gives community financial institutions a competitive advantage through simple, beautiful customer experiences and streamlined banker workflows. The MK platform supports a variety of financial products including checking & savings accounts, credit cards, and consumer, commercial, small business, and indirect loans. So far, MK has helped over 180 community banks acquire customers online. The company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in San Diego, California. For more information, visit http://www.mkdecision.com.

About Labette Bank

Labette Bank is a trustworthy community bank that serves the people and businesses of Southeast Kansas. Labette Bank was founded in 1915 by a group of businessmen who strongly believed in the people and businesses of our area. Their founding beliefs are still the cornerstone of our banking philosophy today: a local community bank that serves the needs of its neighbors. At Labette Bank, your banker is also your neighbor and your friend. Labette Bank will always offer the highest level of personal service from an experienced staff that you know and trust. Our broad array of banking products has been created to meet the financial needs of you, our customer. For more information, visit https://labettebank.com/credit-cards.html

About ICBA Bancard

ICBA Bancard is the wholly owned payment services subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America. ICBA Bancards community bank issuers generated $31.6 billion in sales volume in 2019 and are ranked collectively as the 24th largest credit card portfolio in the United States. ICBA Bancard enables thousands of community banks to provide competitive credit card, debit card, ATM and merchant processing solutions. The company also provides exclusive services to issuers including its Fraud Loss Protection Plan, marketing support, and product education. For more information, visit http://www.icbabancard.org.
Grandpa Records founder Yusuf Noah a.k.a Refigah paid a glowing tribute to the late Kibra MP Ken Okoth, who succumbed to cancer a year ago.

In a message posted to his social media on Sunday, Refigah said they were close and Okoth was like a brother to him.

We became friends with the late through social media in early 2010 and was so passionate about transforming his motherland, Kibra. It was at that time that he was planning to come back home. When he relocated back, we frequently interacted, and he became close to me like a brother, wrote Refigah.

Besides being a member of Parliament, Ken never changed his attitude but carried out everything like he used to. Later on when grandpa records was moving its offices to Olympic, I invited him to grace the occasion as chief guest, together with Gor Semelango; Out of humility, he attended, and during the event, invited Gor Semelango who was in attendance, and asked him to be the chief guest, said the producer.

Refigah said Okoth was always a phone call away and that they kept in touch even when he(Ken) was in France for treatment.

He made Uheshimiwa so normal; Didnt use big cars, and at no time had he ever portrayed himself as more important, and whenever he met a talented artist he always directed them to Grandpa Records for assistance.

In 2018, when he traveled to France for treatment, we were always in contact. When I lost my father in law, at the time he managed to send his brother, the current Mp Hon. Imran Okoth to represent him during the burial, in Ngong, he wrote.

Later on in July 2019 when the late was flown back to the country, and his health deteriorated, I planned to visit him but unfortunately that never came to pass. That Friday evening when the family made the announcement concerning his death, that was a dark day to me, to Kibra community, and to the nation at large, narrated Refigah.

The Grandpa CEO described the late Ken Okoth as a hero and a legend.

From a life well-lived, and the many people he transformed, the late is a hero to me -A hero remembered, NEVER dies Legends never die in our dreams, Because They will always live within our hearts, Rest In Peace brother, Hon. Ken Odhiambo Okoth.
Demonstrators sit and kneel as tear gas fills the air during a protest Sunday in Portland. (Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)

An eight-inch hole blown through the wall of a police precinct house in Seattle. A courthouse set on fire in Oakland and the police station vandalized. Nightly videos of demonstrators clashing violently with police. Barricades in the streets, Molotov cocktails, tear gas, slingshots.

Regardless of who you believe is most at fault, can there be any doubt that these scenes benefit President Trump's reelection efforts?

I can already anticipate the howls of protest from my readers on the left: Im blaming the victims. Im not acknowledging that the worst of the violence is coming from law enforcement. Federal troops are exceeding their authority. There are just a handful of troublemakers among the overwhelmingly well-behaved protesters.

OK, maybe so. But right now, what matters most is the defeat of Donald Trump, who needs to be voted out of office before we can begin to solve this countrys problems.

The trouble is, Trump has set a brilliant trap, and it won't be easy to end this without his reaping the benefit.

Trump first began screaming about the breakdown of law and order weeks ago during the overwhelmingly peaceful George Floyd demonstrations. He was talking about anarchists and Antifa and about a left-wing mob that was going to bring the bedlam in Seattle to every city town and suburb in the country. It was a dishonest, hyperbolic, demagogic effort to scare voters, a Nixon-like appeal to the anxieties of a silent majority.

It seemed nuts at the time, but then he exacerbated the conflict, dispatching aggressive federal troops to Portland, where they are tear-gassing demonstrators and snatching people off the streets without warrants and tossing them into unmarked cars. Protests that were dying down were reinvigorated. And news reports suggest that violence and vandalism by protesters are spreading.

This is precisely what @realDonaldTrump and his campaign were hoping for, said David Axelrod on Twitter. Hes an arsonist, not a fireman. He wants to stir violent protests to fuel his law and order campaign ads.

Story continues

I called Axelrod, who served as chief strategist to Barack Obama on the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, and asked him to elaborate. Axelrod noted that while he cant get inside Trumps head to learn his motivations, the violent images were all seeing are perfectly aligned with Trumps advertising, which paints a dystopian picture of a country overrun by lawless mobs, with Trump as the thin blue line between anarchy and law-and-order.

In Axelrods view, Trump is focusing on the violent outliers in an effort to frighten suburban voters  including soft Republicans, Republican-leaning independents and others who voted for him in 2016, but drifted away in 2018  and win them back into his column.

Unsurprisingly, Trumps campaign is already (and dishonestly) accusing Joe Biden of siding with criminals and aligning himself with violent rioters. Anarchy and chaos, Trump says, is what we should expect in Joe Bidens America.

Biden needs to make it clear just how ridiculous that is.

Of course he should defend the right of Americans to protest peacefully on behalf of racial justice and he should criticize the law enforcement overreaction, including that of the uninvited federal forces.

But he must leave no doubt that he condemns violence by protesters as well.

So far, Biden  the moderate candidate in the primaries  has been pretty careful to remain in the mainstream of the Democratic Party. When the calls came to defund the police, Biden said that was going too far. He also rejected the idea that statues of the founding fathers who owned slaves ought to be torn down. Now he should condemn violent protesters, because it's both morally correct and politically important.

The sad truth is that Trump is in a strong position: If the violence comes to an end and all the protesters go home, he can say it was his aggressive, forceful response that shut it down and saved America from anarchy. If the violence continues, well, thats even better for him  because his fearsome narrative of societal breakdown will be easier to sell.

For the demonstrators, the goal should be to take back the protests from those whose actions undermine them. Those who truly want to fight racism and reform the police dont need to go home. But they  and Joe Biden  need to separate themselves from the violent subset that is abetting the president in his cynical efforts to frighten Americans.
In early July 2020 Israel launched another recon satellite, Ofek (Horizon) 16, which was described an an upgrade of the Ofek 11 design, which first went up in 2016. At the time Ofek 11 was described as an upgraded Okek 10, which went up in 2014.

Israel was the eighth nation to develop and build its own satellite launch capability. Israel only uses its own launchers for military satellites. Since these launchers are based on Israeli Jericho ballistic missile designs, it was cheaper using foreign launch services for commercial satellites. For example, Israeli communications satellites are now put into orbit by American SpaceX rockets, which have the cheapest prices because SpaceX uses reusable first stages that land under their own power after separating from the second stage carrying the satellite.

Ofek satellites have proved very reliable and are now built to recover from problems that often lead to the loss of satellites in other nations. For example, in late 2016 Israel launched Ofek 11. While the satellite achieved orbit it soon lost communications with ground control. The Ofek was built with fail-soft self-repair software and it was hoped whatever was wrong could be fixed. After nine days ground control regained contact, Ofek 11 was sending back digital images. Since then Ofek has remained fully functional but it is still unclear if it will remain so for eight years (at least), as it was designed to remain in service.

In addition to photo satellites, Israel also has a military-grade radar satellite called TekSar. One of these, in 2008, was launched using an Indian launcher. This was more of a good-will gesture towards a new ally and major purchaser of Israeli defense technology. That use of an Indian launcher for a military satellite was a one-time event and the Indians were eager to show the world their satellite launch capability. In addition to Israeli built Ofek and TekSar birds, Israeli intelligence also uses Israeli built Eros B and Eros A civilian photo satellites for some military needs.

The first Ofek went up in 1988 and the last few have been incremental upgrades of the Ofek 9 which entered service in 2010. The Ofek 9 weighed about 300 kg (660 pounds) and used a new generation of sensors that were able to see objects as small as 55 cm (twenty inches). Ofek 10 was a little heavier with new electronics providing better resolution and Ofek 11 was more of the same. Ofek 16 has higher resolution cameras. All the Ofek spy sats are mainly for keeping tabs on Iran and what Iran is doing in Syria and Lebanon.

There have been failures. In 1998 Ofek 4 failed and in 2004 so did Ofek 6. This led to design changes that included the fail-soft capabilities that saved Ofek 11. Each of the failed launches cost Israel about $100 million, which includes the cost of the satellite and the launcher, which are based on the Israeli Jericho ballistic missile.

The satellite launcher version of Jericho is called Shavit. The first two stages of the Shavit are also used for the Israeli Jericho 3 IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile). With a range of nearly 5,000 kilometers, the Jericho 3 can drop a nuke anywhere in the Middle East. Jericho is a 30-ton, solid fuel, two stage missile with a one-ton payload. There are several dozen Jericho 3s in service, mainly as a nuclear deterrent that can be launched from underground silos.

Israel is believed to have 90 of the shorter-range Jericho 2s still in service. This is a 26-ton missile which has a range of 1,400 kilometers and a terminal guidance system similar to what the Americans developed for their similar Pershing missile. As a result, the Jericho 2 can be used with a conventional warhead against important targets. The Jericho 1, developed with French assistance, entered service in 1973. This 500-kilometer range missile was gradually replaced by the Jericho 2, which entered service in 1989.

Israel has often used its spy satellite capabilities for diplomacy. In 2012 Israel built and launched a photo spy satellite for Italy that cost $182 million for the satellite and launcher. This was part of a deal where Italy agreed to buy an equal value of Israeli military gear as part of a deal where Israel bought $993 million worth of Italian jet trainers. Italy managed to cover this with the purchase of two AWACs and a spy satellite from Israel.

In 2014 it was revealed that Israel had quietly and anonymously contributed some vital targeting information for the air campaign against ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) in Iraq, and possibly Syria as well. It wasnt that the U.S. doesnt have spy satellites that could have provided this, but the Israeli fleet of spy satellites does not have worldwide responsibilities, spends most of their time over Middle Eastern nations and have been doing so for a long time. The Israelis had satellite data immediately that it would take weeks, months or longer for American satellites to compile. The Israeli contribution was kept quiet and data provided had been scrubbed to remove any evidence that it was from Israel. But none of the Arab nations contributing warplanes to the operation were surprised and, except for Iran, which openly insists ISIL is an invention of the Americans, British and Israelis, no one complained.
Since becoming a member of ASEAN 25 years ago, Vietnam has developed into an important member of the group and has significantly contributed to elevating the blocs position and consolidating the centrality of ASEAN within the region.

Starting as an outsider

Flag-raising ceremony on July 28, 1995 afternoon, Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei), marking Vietnam's official admission to ASEAN (Photo: VNA)

Vietnam was officially admitted to ASEAN on July 28, 1995, during a solemn ceremony held in Brunei which ultimately paved the way for the country to become closely integrated into the region and the world.

We made a correct and timely decision, taking into account the trend of globalisation, recalled former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam. Joining ASEAN, we vowed to fulfil the groups commitment to strengthening co-operation for the sake of development in each country and the whole region.

Ahead of joining the group, Vietnam was forced to overcome numerous difficulties and remove barriers in order to be permitted to become part of the bloc. The most challenging obstacle was suspicion from the founding members of the group with regards to Vietnam. At the time the United States had imposed an embargo on the nation, while ASEAN founders such as the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand were close allies of the US.

Such suspicion was only dispelled after the US lifted its 19-year-long embargo in 1994 and established diplomatic ties with the country the following year. The normalisation of diplomatic ties with the global power served to open the door for Vietnam to join ASEAN, although there were still differences that needed to be resolved by both sides.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan says only unity and cooperation can generate strength to drive the group forward

Former Deputy Foreign Minister Vu Khoan can still recall the historic moment when Vietnam was officially admitted to the group on July 28, 1995.

I thought the time of suspicion and hostility no longer existed. From now on, all seven ASEAN members were on the same boat to jointly weather the storm.

According to the veteran diplomat, ahead of the country joining the regional group, several Southeast Asian countries had been embroiled in the Vietnam War and they had voiced their strong support for the US embargo against Vietnam after the country launched a campaign to stop the Khmer Rouge and save the Cambodian people from genocide. By permitting it to join the group, member states put forward the notion that only unity and co-operation are factors capable of generating sufficient strength that can drive the group forward.

Becoming a proactive and responsible member

Once the country had become an ASEAN member, it was later able to persuade member states to admit Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia. This was also a goal that ASEAN has long pursued in its quest to build a unified bloc that brings together all 10 countries in Southeast Asia.

With more members to be added moving forward, ASEAN was keen to mark the start of a new era of substantial intra-co-operation, therefore ending decades of conflict and confrontation whilst simultaneously removing barriers toward building a Southeast Asian region of peace, stability, and prosperity.

Vietnam has left an impression after hosting the sixth ASEAN Summit in 1998 - three years folowing its admission to the group (Photo: VNA)

Three years after becoming a member, Vietnam played host to the Sixth ASEAN Summit in Hanoi. This came amid a challenging time due to the 1998 global economic-financial crisis beginning to take a heavy toll on the region and the world.

Despite possessing little experience and limited resources, the country successfully organised the event, leaving a positive impression on all member states. The summit also adopted the Hanoi Action Program, one of the nations most important contributions, setting out many specific measures and orientations aimed at boosting the Associations development and co-operation in the six subsequent years and towards Vision 2020. The summit also saw members agree to admit Cambodia as the 10th member of the bloc in April 1999, finally realising the idea of a 10-strong ASEAN.

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung notes Vietnam has gradually made a substantial contribution to ASEAN

The initial success therefore elevated the nations prestige and position within ASEAN, as well as fundamentally changing the perspective of ASEAN countries towards Vietnam.

From listening and learning at the beginning, Vietnam gradually took an active part in and made a substantial contribution to the groups affairs, said Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung, who is also head of SOM ASEAN of Vietnam. This was evident by Vietnams hosting of the Sixth ASEAN Summit in 1998, and ASEAN Chairmanships in 2000 to 2001, 2010, and 2020.

Moreover, Vietnamese ministries and agencies have all widely participated in and made an active contribution to all co-operation areas of ASEAN. The country has maintained a leading role in a number of areas, especially in terms of promoting solidarity and unity within ASEAN. This has seen the country develop into an important supporter for many members, voicing its position on many issues which are supported and respected by other countries.

In conclusion, Vietnam has played a significant role in enhancing the position of ASEAN as a regional power bloc while simultaneously consolidating the centrality of the group within the region. VOV

Vietnam enjoys great benefit from ASEAN membership: Deputy FM Becoming a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has brought about great benefits to Vietnam in various fields, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung.
When someone thinks about how a house is built, images of bustling, noisy and dusty construction sites spring to mind.

Our hunger for new buildings and internal space has an impact on the planet. A recent report from the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, International Energy Agency and the UN Environment Programme, said building construction and operations were, globally, responsible for 36% of final energy use in 2018.

Published in December 2019, the Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction also stated that, worldwide, the sector accounted for 39% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2018.

As demand for new residential and commercial structures grows, could modular, pre-fabricated buildings manufactured "off-site" have a role to play in the future of sustainable construction?

The idea of pre-assembled or pre-fabricated homes is not new. In the U.K., for instance, many of these structures were developed to tackle a significant housing shortage following the end of World War II.

All in all, 156,623 "temporary prefabricated bungalows" were put up in the U.K. between 1945 and 1949, according to The Prefab Museum.



More than 70 years later, as concerns about construction's impact on the environment grow, the notion of modular, pre-built and sustainable developments is starting to gain traction.

"Modular and offsite manufactured buildings that are designed and delivered to a high standard can offer a range of environmental benefits," Richard Twinn, from the U.K. Green Building Council (UKGBC), a charity and "membership network" focused on the built environment and sustainability, told CNBC via email.

"During the construction process there is the potential to significantly reduce the amount of waste produced, which also delivers associated carbon reductions," Twinn, who is senior manager, Advancing Net Zero, at the UKGBC said.

In practice, pre-built and modular structures take many shapes. Across the U.K., a host of residential developments using these techniques are starting to spring up.



In southeast London, for example, the Royal Borough of Greenwich is now home to Lister Terrace, a development of four new residences that were constructed at a facility in Yorkshire and then lowered into place using cranes.

The council homes, which were "precision engineered" at the factory of a firm called ilke Homes, have solar panels and use air source heat pumps instead of gas boilers.

They have been described as being "extremely air-tight"  which helps to cut heat loss  and "capable of generating more energy than they consume."

The speed with which a modular development can be completed is another advantage, a point reinforced by the UKGBC's Twinn.

"Reductions in construction times can also help to minimise the emissions from a construction site and improve local air quality," he explained.

"Precision engineering of an offsite manufactured solution can also offer significant improvements in thermal performance, when the building is in use, by improving airtightness and helping to reduce the performance gap  between modelled and actual energy use  that is often seen in new buildings," he added.



These types of buildings are not restricted to the residential sector. Earlier this month, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, in the north of England, announced that work had started on an 8 million ($10.3 million) "healthcare sterilisation facility."

According to the Trust, the centralized sterilisation service department, or CSSD, will be a carbon neutral facility and 90% of the scheme "will be completed offsite, reducing construction time and cost."



Back in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, authorities appear keen to pursue the development of modular buildings.

In a statement sent to CNBC via email, Anthony Okereke, cabinet member for housing, said the borough was "unflinching in its commitment to both resolving the housing crisis and tackling climate change."



"We are building hundreds of zero-carbon council homes across the borough with our Greenwich Builds programme, for which Lister Terrace is the successful pilot scheme," he explained.



Okereke went on to describe modular construction as being "crucial in allowing us to build these sustainable homes quickly, efficiently and with minimum disruption, whilst maintaining the highest standards of durability and quality."
Five Rafale fighter jets of the 36 ordered by the Indian Air Force (IAF) from France will land at their home base in Ambala on Wednesday afternoon, an IAF official said.

The fighter jets took off from Merignac in France on Monday and had a one-day stopover at the Al Dhafra airbase near Abu Dhabi. The two-leg flight will see the Rafales covering a distance of nearly 7,000 km. IAF chief Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria is expected to be in Ambala to receive the Rafales and the pilots flying them home.

The first Rafales RB-001 tail number denotes the initials of the IAF chief: Rakesh Bhadauria. He led the complex negotiations for the Rafale deal.

Also read: Ahead of Rafale touchdown, Section 144 imposed in area around Ambala Air Force station

The jets are being flown by Indian pilots who have undergone comprehensive training on the aircraft. The Rafales will be a part of the IAFs No. 17 Squadron, which is also known as the Golden Arrows. The aircrew bringing the Rafales to India is headed by Group Captain Harkirat Singh, a decorated fighter pilot, who is the commanding officer of the No. 17 Squadron.

Also read: Rafale is a reminder | HT Editorial

While the French air force refuelled the fighters  three single-seater and two twin-seater aircraft  using its Airbus A330 multi-role tanker transport (MRTT) aircraft on their way to Al Dhafra, aerial refuelling support will be provided by the IAFs Russian Ilyushin-78 refuellers for the second leg of the journey from Al Dhafra to Ambala.

The new fighters  the first imported jets to be inducted into the IAF in 23 years after the Russian Sukhoi-30 jets entered service in June 1997  will significantly enhance the offensive capabilities of IAF, which has for long planned to update its fighter jet force.

The jets -- the first of the 36 Rafale jets purchased from French firm Dassault in a government-to-government deal worth 59,000 crore in September 2016 -- have been specially tailored for IAF.
This is the terrifying moment a giant sinkhole suddenly opened up on a Chinese street, swallowing two pedestrians.

Shocking footage shows the two female residents walking on the footpath next to a main road before tumbling into the deep pit as the pavement ripped in half in Chongqing.

Both women survived the accident with minor injuries after being rescued by firefighters, according to reports.

Shocking footage shows the two female residents walking on the footpath next to a busy road before tumbling into the deep pit as the pavement ripped in half in Chongqing on Monday

Officials believed that the collapse was caused by a landslide due to recent heavy rain in the region, reported Chinese media. A further investigation is said to be underway.

Traffic police said that they had sealed off the road after the incident occurred yesterday evening in Chongqings Wulong district.

Surveillance footage captures the shocking moment two female pedestrians were dropped into a giant sinkhole after the sidewalk suddenly collapsed.

Local firefighters are seen in the video searching for the residents in the debris after being called to the scene.

An onlooker can be heard saying: You cant even see them.

Chinese officials believed that the collapse was caused by a landslide due to recent heavy rain in the region, reported Chinese media. A further investigation is said to be underway

The two pedestrians were later rescued and sent to a local hospital for medical examination.

One of the women is seen in footage with her fingers covered in blood as she tells onlookers about the terrifying incident.

We were walking over there and suddenly tumbled [into the sinkhole]. My feet were trapped under a rock, the women said.

They are said to have been in stable condition with minor injuries, according to reports.

The authorities told The Paper that the accident was caused by a landslide due to heavy downpours in the region, according to their initial inspection. A further investigation into the cause is underway.

Surveillance footage released by Chinese media captures the shocking moment two female pedestrians were dropped into a giant sinkhole after the sidewalk suddenly collapsed

The news comes as regions across China have been hit by floods and heavy rain since June.

Chinese regions as far apart as Sichuan in the south-west and Gansu in the north-west are at heightened risk of natural disasters in the coming days amid another round of torrential rain, the country's weather bureau said on Thursday.

Regions throughout China have been ordering emergency evacuations as a result of landslides, burst riverbanks and mountain floods.

China has vowed to take a scientific approach to controlling floods and has made use of early warning systems as well as its dams and reservoirs to try to minimise the damage.

More than 45million people have been affected since flood season began in June, with at least 142 people dead or missing, according to official figures.


Search News Archive : Fast Travel News Promotion Via Search, Social Media + Email Follow Us On : YUCATaN MAINTAINS PUSH TOWARD TOURISM REACTIVATION INCREASING AIR CONNECTIVITY Industry: Destinations

Yucatan's tourism reactivation plan comprises three phases: health care, preservation of tourism industry and market reactivation.



(TRAVPR.COM) UNITED STATES - July 27th, 2020 - The relaunch of air routes in and out of the State of Yucatan by Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris and the opening of Merida hotel the Wayam Mundo Imperial are two of the latest developments in the state tourism board's activation of its three-phase Tourism Recovery Plan. The plan encompasses health care, preservation of the tourist offers  with more than 29 million Mexican pesos ($1.3 million U.S.) in loans granted to sector workers  and market reactivation.



"In Yucatan, we are a benchmark in terms of security, biosecurity and sanitary certitude", said Michelle Fridman Hirsch, Secretary of Tourism of Yucatan. "We have prepared ourselves with the best protocols to receive visitors when the time to travel is right, giving our visitors a safe and extraordinary experience so that they can enjoy this destination full of natural, cultural and gastronomic attractions, where thousands of years of history comes together with modernity."



The state has a wide variety of attractions and scenarios that make it ideal for all tastes. Its picturesque cities, exquisite gastronomy, white-sand beaches and calm emerald green waters, tropical climate, imposing archaeological legacy and warmth of its people make Yucatan a renowned place of enjoyment, rest or adventure.



Among the most important recognitions that Yucatan has received for its good sanitary practices in the tourism industry, the following stand out: Certification of Good Sanitary Practices, approved in joint venture with the state of Quintana Roo; Safe Travels stamp from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and, recently, the Punto Limpio designation announced by the Secretary of Tourism of Mexico. It should be noted that Yucatan has been recognized recently, with Merida named one of the "Best Cities in Mexico" by Travel + Leisure magazine and Travel Lemming pronouncing Valladolid one of the nine top emerging travel destinations in North America, among many more. All this is coupled with Yucatan being home to one of the new Seven Wonders of the Modern World: the Temple of Kukulkan in Chichen Itza.



For more information, please visit yucatan.travel.



For more news, visit: https://www.enroutecommunications.com/yucatan-maintains-push-toward-tourism-reactivation-while-increasing-air-connectivity-and-opening-new-hotels/ ### Please contact the person or company listed above for information regarding the content of this press release. TravPR.com are not the issuers of this press release and are not responsible for the accuracy of the content. Share Release :



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When we think about the future of automotive, vehicles equipped with health care systems, is not the first thing that springs to mind.



It is understandable given that driverless cars, shared mobility, and electrification have been widely talked about in recent times and will change the way we travel in a few years.



The revolution of technology is not just transforming the way cars are being manufactured and driven but also how they operate and what it offers.



What if these vehicles installed necessary tools that can read the mind of the driver and detect health warnings such as drowsiness? In other words, a car that tracks the drivers condition and is capable of responding to an emergency.



In this day and age, the car that we drive daily is not a medical asset as it will not know your medical condition, for example, if you are feeling drowsy or suffering from stress.



But that is almost certain to change and will soon become a reality due to the on-going evolution of technology.



Investing in technology that monitors the drivers health can benefit both the automotive and healthcare industries. With careful planning and collaboration with other organizations, vehicles integrated with health care systems could help reduce the number of road fatalities. It is about recognizing a drivers health status and connecting it to the vehicle system to induce safe driving.



With the rapid wave of changes across the automobile industry, Hyundai Motor Group is working on welcoming these innovative technologies to match the vehicles that we are manufacturing.



Hyundai is already working with global ICT companies by investing in startups to promote the development of connected technology and innovation. It includes investing in the face recognition Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup Deep Glint which will recognize faces in 3D. This will be key to identifying the drivers face and status inside vehicles.



We are also working on developing other aspects such as the collection of bio-information through non-contact and contact sensors, which can help detect movements of the driver and any levels of fatigue or undesirable driving postures.



We have also developed a Driver State Monitoring (DSM) system that will be able to help prevent road fatalities by signalling whether the driver is feeling drowsy. Other plans include a purpose-built vehicle which can serve as self-driving mobility and be used as a mobile clinic.



Hyundai Motors also proposed a new concept mobility solution at this years CES which can be implemented in healthcare. It is the Purpose-built vehicle (PBV) and the Mobility transfer hub (Hub). The PBV is self-driving ground mobility which can change into various shapes and can act as a mobile clinic. In the future, we might be able to receive emergency treatments in a mobile clinic, not in an ambulance with minimum equipment.



The base of such PBVs is the Hub. Basically, it acts like an airport or a terminal. The Hub has the docking station to be connected to PBVs, and upon connection with PBVs, it can be used in many ways. As it is not fixed into a single form, it can be utilized as a regional hub general hospital depending on the need. It is still to be realized, but when the day comes, a new world where patients are treated in a moving vehicle free from time and space limitations will open up.



There is still a long way to go before vehicles with the connected health care systems hit the roads. Extensive work still needs to be undertaken. But it is another step forward and an opportunity that Hyundai is relishing.



With peoples health and wellbeing so important, vehicles installed with car health systems can no longer be an option. It is a necessity that can help protect and enhance the quality of our lives. More importantly, it can be a game-changer for the industry.



About the author



Bang Sun Jeong is Vice President, Head of Hyundai Motor Company Middle East & Africa HQs






Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 00:27:47|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong has suspended the implementation of agreements on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters with Canada, Australia and Britain, respectively.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said Tuesday in a statement that it has issued notices about the suspension to consulates of those countries in Hong Kong.

A government spokesman said that to safeguard national security through the enactment of laws is an international practice as the three countries all have put in place relevant legislation and enforcement mechanisms for safeguarding their national security and sovereignty.

However, those countries used the enactment of the national security law in Hong Kong as an excuse to suspend the agreements on surrender of fugitive offenders with the HKSAR, he said, stressing that such action smacks of political manipulation and double standards.

The HKSAR government strongly objects to the moves as they posed a gross interference in China's internal affairs and a grave violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations, the spokesman said.

The wrongful act of Canada, Australia and Britain in politicizing juridical cooperation has seriously damaged the basis of juridical cooperation between the HKSAR and them, he said.

With the authorization and assistance of the central government, the HKSAR government has conducted close and effective law enforcement cooperation with those countries based on the principle of mutual assistance and reciprocity, the spokesman said.

Despite the suspension of agreements with those three countries, the HKSAR has established a comprehensive cooperation regime and will as always uphold the principle of mutual assistance and reciprocity, and carry out law enforcement cooperation with other members of the international community, the spokesman said. Enditem
Clearly acting under intense pressure from Washington, the Australian government last week issued a statement matching a US turn to declare illegal Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Australia suddenly abandoned its previous policy of formal neutrality on the many competing claims by China and neighbouring countries in the highly strategic and resource-rich sea, just 10 days after a similar declaration by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Pompeos July 13 statement was belligerent and provocative. We are making clear: Beijings claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them, he said, accusing China of seeking to unilaterally impose its will on the region.

For the first time, the United States has officially sided with the regional countries that have rival claims in the South China Sea. Pompeos statement contained an implicit threat to take military action on the pretext of protecting these countries from Chinese bullying. He declared: The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire.

Initially, on July 16, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison failed to endorse the abrupt change in the US position, reflecting the concern in some Australian ruling circles about openly clashing with Beijing, given their heavy dependence on exports to China.

Asked by reporters, Morrison avoided saying whether he agreed that Chinas activities in the South China Sea are illegal. Instead, he said Australia would continue to support freedom of navigation in the region with our own actions and our own initiatives and our own statements.

Until last week, Australian governments had not taken sides in the seas territorial disputes. They had urged all sides to resolve them bilaterally, in accordance with a 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling that rejected most Chinese claims to maritime economic zones in the sea.

Likewise, Australian governments so far have declined US requests to join its confrontational freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) inside the 12-mile territorial zones claimed by China around its islets in the South China Sea.

But on July 23, via a formal submission to the UN secretary general, Morrisons Liberal-National government echoed the US policy shift, repudiating Chinas claims, and noting protests by Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

The switch came on the eve of the annual Australia-United States Ministerial (AUSMIN) talks in Washington DC this Tuesday. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic raging across the US, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds have travelled to personally meet with Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

Using similar language to the US, the UN submission said Australia rejects any claims by China that are inconsistent with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in particular, maritime claims that do not adhere to its rules on baselines, maritime zones and classification of features.

The Australian document further scorned Chinas claims to maritime zones generated by submerged features, or low tide elevations and said Beijings claims could not be legitimised by land building activities or other forms of artificial transformation.

The resulting likelihood of a US and Australian military conflict with China was quickly underscored yesterday. Two US-connected figures in Australias military-intelligence establishment called for the government to match its overdue policy switch by conducting FONOPs.

Former intelligence chief and Defence Department secretary Dennis Richardson said the UN submission should be backed by Australian naval vessels sailing as close as they wish to those artificial features which the Chinese government have militarised.

Peter Jennings, the executive director of the government-subsidised Australian Strategic Policy Institute also urged Australian FONOPs within 12 nautical miles of Chinese-claimed islets. Otherwise, you are really giving de facto acknowledgment of the reality of Chinese control, he said.

HMAS Parramatta, left, sails with USS America, USS Bunker Hill and USS Barry in the South China Sea [Credit: US Navy/MC3 Nicholas Huynh]

Earlier this month, the US Navy staged war games involving two aircraft carrier strike groups in these strategic waters, which are near key Chinese military bases in southern China. Last week, to underline Pompeos statement, a US destroyer conducted another FONOP, while five Australian warships joined a US taskforce and a Japanese naval vessel in the show of force in the neighbouring Philippine Sea.

On every front, the Trump administration is insisting that the Australian government must step up its already frontline role in the escalating US offensive against China, following Pompeos call last week for all free nations to fight Chinese tyranny, regardless of the economic consequences.

In a blatant case of imperialist hypocrisy, the US has not even ratified the 1982 UNCLOS treaty. So Australia is essentially acting on its behalf in taking the issue to the UN. Australias July 23 document carries a request that it be circulated to all UN member states, possibly setting in train processes for a UN declaration against China.

The Australian declaration actually went beyond the 2016 tribunal ruling, rejecting Chinas subsequent arguments, based on archipelagic baselines around the Pratas, Paracel, Spratly and Macclesfield Bank groups. Australia dismissed any claims to internal waters, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf based on such straight baselines.

Australias document did not contain Pompeos allegations of bullying. Last Saturday, however, just before departing for the AUSMIN consultations, Payne and Reynolds similarly accused China of coercive conduct and militarisation in the South China Sea.

The cynical and provocative character of the US-Australian position is all the greater because some of the countries with claims in the South China Sea, notably the Philippines, have sought to reach bilateral territorial agreements with China, to which they have major economic ties.

A commentary by the Lowy Institute, an Australian corporate think tank, noted that Australias alignment with the US puts it in the potentially awkward position of being more stridently opposed to the PRCs [Chinas] claims than the maritime Southeast Asian states that have a direct stake in the disputes.

According to the Australian Financial Review, the Australian alignment behind the US switch is not simply an accommodation to the Trump administration, which is ramping up its anti-China demagogy. Canberras shift is based also on the expectation that a post-presidential election Democratic administration would be equally antagonistic to China.

In fact, Donald Trump and Joe Biden are vying with each other to be more belligerent in denouncing China, which the US ruling class regards as a threat to its decaying post-World War II international dominance.

In line with the opposition Labor Partys own complete support for the US military alliance, it quickly backed the Morrison governments UN declaration. Party leader Anthony Albanese said Australia needed to stand up for international law.

The US-Australian position has nothing whatever to do with respect for international law, which they have constantly flouted, including via illegal invasions and military interventions from the Vietnam War to the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and unlawful bugging operations around the globe, including in East Timor.

The South China Sea is a key flashpoint for another world war. The US is seeking to militarily control it because up to one-third of the worlds shipping passes through it, and China relies heavily on the route, as do Japan and South Korea. A key element of US military strategy in fighting a war with China is to dominate its surrounding waters so as to be able to launch offensive strikes against China as well as mount a naval blockade to strangle it economically.
Candidates who appeared for the DHSE Kerala one plus exam in the year 2020 will get their results soon. It has been anticipated that the Department of Higher Secondary Education (DHSE) in Kerala, may release the result date anytime within two weeks.

According to reports, DHSE Kerala is expected to make the announcement anytime this month. Once declared, the students can get their result on DHSE official website keralaresults.nic.in.

Students can also check their Kerala DHSE class 11 results on dhsekerala.gov.in.

Kerala Education Minister C Raveendranath had earlier made an announcement regarding the Kerala DHSE +1 results 2020 and said that the results will be announced soon. The minister made the announcement while announcing the Kerala Plus Two results 2020 on Wednesday.

How to check Kerala DHSE Kerala Plus one result 2020 online:

Step 1: Log in at the official website of Kerala DHSE  keralaresults.nic.in;

Step 2: On home page, click at 'HSE Results'.

Step 3: Click at Plus one results.

Step 4: Fill in your roll number and other credentials.

Step 5: Your result will be displayed on the computer monitor.

Step 6: Download and take a printout of it for future references.

Those students who appeared in the Kerala DHSE +1 Exams 2020 are advised to keep checking at the boards official websites - keralaresults.nic.in and dhsekerala.gov.in to know their result.

The Kerala DHSE class 12 result is now available on the official website of the Kerala board - keralaresults.nic.in, dhsekerala.gov.in.

In the Kerala DHSE class 12 results, the pass percentage has registered an improvement of 0.77 percent as it is 85.13 per cent in 2020 as compared to 84.33 per cent in 2019. A total of 3.75 lakh students appeared for Kerala Board +2 exams out of which 3.19 lakh passed the exams successfully.

Kerala plus one results 2020, Kerala board class 11 results, Kerala board class 11 result, keralaresults.nic.in, dhsekerala.gov.in
A Republican congressional candidate in Kansas claimed that the number of people that have died due to the coronavirus has been exaggerated to hurt Donald Trump.

Kris Kobach, who is running for a Senate seat in Kansas and previously served as its secretary of state, appeared on a YouTube channel and claimed the number of cases and deaths was a lie.

"I believe that the numbers are being cooked," he said. "The books are being cooked."

During his interview on the show National File, Mr Kobach said hospitals were misdiagnosing coronavirus cases and repeated Mr Trump's claims that more testing would result in higher numbers.

"There are so many things that are happening that indicate that they are overstating the positive numbers. Of course, we've all heard about hospitals, they will test someone who comes in for a liver problem, or for an auto accident, and they test positive and they are  or people who die of something else, but they're also Covid-positive, they'll be treated as a Covid death," Mr Kobach said.

"And of course, the fact that we have whatever the number is, five times, four times as many tests now as we did in March. And so, if you're testing a greater population, you're going to see a proportional increase in the number of positive results."

Mr Kobach went on to claim that the numbers were purposefully being misconstrued "at least on the political left" to "scare the public and to scare the political leadership into shutting down".

He then claimed the overall goal of the Democrats is to undermine the economy to cause Mr Trump's downfall in the 2020 US election.

Almost 150,000 people have died as a result of the coronavirus in the US.

This isn't the first time Mr Kobach has backed Mr Trump. The Senate hopeful once served on Mr Trump's "Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity" where he stoked fears over voter fraud that have been frequently debunked by experts.

He was fined $1,000 in 2018 for demonstrating "deceptive conduct and lack of candour" during a trial defending a voter identification law he supported from the ACLU.

In the early days of the Trump administration, Mr Kobach was one of the driving forces behind reinstating a "Muslim registry" that was put into place in the wake of 9/11.

Today, he is the favoured candidate of tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who has pumped more than $1m into Mr Kobach's Senate campaign.
The Today show has been slammed for interviewing a women dubbed 'Bunnings Karen' over her refusal to wear a face mask amid a deadly second wave of coronavirus infections in Victoria.

Elizabeth 'Lizzy' Rose, a self proclaimed high priestess witch who performs exorcisms for a living, appeared on the program on Tuesday after filming herself without a face mask at the Bunnings store in Maribyrnong, just west of Melbourne.

Ms Rose, who claimed the coronavirus pandemic was 'orchestrated' and 'the statistics aren't real', was dumped by hosts Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon as she tried to defend her scientifically debunked opinions.

After cutting the interview short, Stefanovic apologised to viewers for giving her any air time, while Allison Langdon admitted they'd grappled over the decision to interview her prior to the segment.

Elizabeth 'Lizzy' Rose, a self proclaimed high priestess witch who performs exorcisms for a living, appeared on Today on Tuesday

'We had this discussion last night whether we would give her air time. It is important. Bunnings staff members doing the right thing [are] faced with this kind of activity and we felt it was important to hear from her point of view,' Langdon said.

'I back you 100 per cent calling quits on that.'

Stefanovic added: 'Apologies if you are offended.'

But disappointed viewers lambasted the Today show for bringing Ms Rose on the show for the sake of 'click bait' and ratings.

'There is no place in Australian media for her. You just had her on for click bait and it's not helping our doctors and nurses who are fighting to keep people alive,' one tweet read.

'Don't give that dragon any oxygen. She should be forced to volunteer for the COVID patients at a nursing home,' another said.

Disappointed viewers lambasted the Today show for bringing Ms Rose on the show for the sake of 'click bait' and ratings

A third said: 'Yep... Now they're giving the cranks a platform to get the viewers and ratings up, then dissing the cranks when they've served their 'on-air' purpose.'

'This helps maintain the illusion of having a high moral ground!'

A fourth tweet read: 'So you decide to get this lady on, whose own videos already prove her illogical position, then shut her down (in the most staged way) to make yourself look like you actually care.

'How about getting Pete Evans on and do the same with him?'

Other critics suggested the Today show should instead air medical experts who can refute dangerous conspiracy theories.

Other critics suggested the Today show should instead air medical experts who can refute dangerous conspiracy theories

Ms Rose (pictured) claimed the coronavirus pandemic was 'orchestrated' and 'the statistics aren't real' on the Today show on Tuesday

'Don't interview #CovIdiots who spread germs and dangerous ideas. That's just a ratings grab. Instead, interview medical experts or the poor souls at Bunnings who bravely put up with this woman's c**p,' one twitter user wrote.

'Could you, perhaps, interview some doctors, nurses etc instead of this scourge of society?' another asked.

During the interview, Langdon cut Ms Rose off as she argued people had a right to make their own choices about their health during Melbourne's coronavirus outbreak.

'Sorry, what was your medical degree?' Langdon asked.

Ms Rose claimed to have had experience as a medic, but admitted she hasn't worked in the field for about four years.

'I am not a doctor,' she clarified on air. 'I am not a scientist but I worked as a medic. Obviously quite a while ago, not when COVID was around.'

She now advertises her services as a psychic, and claims to have been practising since she was just nine years old.

Today hosts Allison Langdon and Karl Stefanovic cut short an interview with 'Bunnings Karen' Lizzy Rose after she defended her criticism of mandatory masks in Victoria

Ms Rose has emerged as one of the leaders of a group of Melburnians that has come to police attention since mandatory mask laws came into force on Thursday July 23.

In the segment, Ms Rose - who has been labelled a 'Bunnings Karen' after sharing footage of herself berating staff members who told her to wear a mask - admitted she had no issues covering her face in the past.

'It is about personal choice,' she said. 'It is about choice. If you want a mask that is up to you.'

Ms Rose said about four months ago she wore a mask while attending an eyelash appointment, but told the program she took issue with Premier Daniel Andrews making them mandatory.

The admission only appeared to further frustrate Stefanovic, who reminded her that vulnerable Australians were dying at rapid rates as a result of the virus, particularly in Victoria.

'Did you, Lizzy, know the elderly and aged care homes... now 700 of them affected with COVID, do they have a choice? The answer is no,' he said.

'You deliberately went into that place to antagonise workers who are literally just trying to do their bit for the country right now, to protect other people from this killer virus, which it is.

'I can't listen to you anymore,' he said as he instructed producers to cut the segment short.

'It's wrong, I'm sorry. I thought that we would in some way shape or form get to a reasonable excuse as to why she was doing that. Otherwise we wouldn't have got her on.'

Exorcist Lizzy Rose said she has a medical certificate that exempts her from wearing a mask. She has filmed herself shopping without a face mask at Bunnings

Lizzy Rose is a pagan witch who has filmed herself burning face masks in a fire pit

The group of troublemakers linked to Ms Rose are all believed to be members of 'The Illuminating Army' - a group of like-minded conspiracy theorists who believe COVID-19 is a scam and 5G networks are the work of the devil.

Ms Rose, who has been contacted by Daily Mail Australia, claims to be the leader of the army.

In videos of the exorcist posted on both her own Facebook page and that of the 'army', Ms Rose declares she will continue to travel through up to five Melbourne suburbs a day without wearing a mask.

Other videos show her burning face masks in a fire pit.

'I will be walking the streets with no mask,' she brags. 'And I will be telling anyone who is interested to not consent. To not comply. To not put your life and your health at risk.'

Ordained pagan minister Lizzy Rose (left) has been getting about Melbourne without a mask and proudly filming herself as she breaks the law

In a long-winded rant posted on the day the bans kicked in, Ms Rose filmed herself walking down a street in Tullamarine in Melbourne's outer north-west while refusing to wear a mask.

In it, she claims the government actually hopes to kill Victorians by forcing them to wear masks.

'This is about control, this is about submission, this is about compliance, this is about you doing what you're told, not about a killer virus,' she said.

'Don't walk around with a mask on your face, it's really, really quite dangerous for you ... you'll see a whole heap of people die now. That's the agenda - depopulation. And it'll be through wearing a mask.'

Ms Rose explains that she does not need to obey the draconian laws before signing off with a smile.

Lizzy Rose sent a message of praise to health workers in April while wearing a mask. She now films herself getting about town without one

What is a 'Karen'? A 'Karen' is a term for a self-righteous woman, sometimes racist and usually middle-aged, who tells people how to do their jobs, asserts their rights and complains to the manager. The term became popular in meme culture on internet forum Reddit to describe problematic women. A Karen meme is often combined with the quote: 'Can I speak to the manager?' The male version of a 'Karen' is sometimes referred to as a 'Kevin'. Advertisement

'See you in another suburb really, really soon. No mask,' she said.

Days later, Ms Rose was seen taking her cause into a Bunnings Warehouse at Maribyrnong in Melbourne's west, where she planned to buy plant pots and items for her 'Viking fire pit'.

Armed with a medical certificate exempting her from wearing the mandatory masks, she fronted confused staff members.

'I went shopping in my local Bunnings where I've spent thousands of dollars over nearly 18 years and was rudely illegally denied customer service due to not wearing a facial mask, despite the fact that I produced a legal medical certificate of exemption,' she posted after the stunt.

'Management called the police, stating to police that my exemption was 'bogus' which is completely untrue.

'This is absolutely disgusting treatment of a customer and a direct contradiction to Mr Daniel Andrews, the premier of Victoria's, instructions stating that no person with a medical exemption is to be refused service, goods or products.'

The video showed Ms Rose referring to masked customers as 'zombies' as she walked without a mask through the aisles.

'People are so very silly,' she said. 'And they're so silly and it's so very sad that they're not evolved enough to see.'

Ms Rose was seen arguing with a checkout operator before she turned the video off.

A post on social media by Lizzy Rose, encouraging people to refuse to wear masks

Lizzy Rose has been travelling about Melbourne filming herself shopping without wearing a mask
Bigg Boss 4 Telugu is all set to go on air next month and fans can't wait to see who will enter the madhouse. The announcement teaser of the show is already out and we are excited to witness the grand premiere of Bigg Boss 4 Telugu, hosted by Nagarjuna Akkineni. Ever since the reports about the show started floating on the internet, several names of celebrities came out and Shraddha Das was one of them.

Reports were stating that Shraddha Das will be seen in Bigg Boss 4 Telugu house. However, the actress refuted the reports on Twitter. Shraddha claimed that she was not even approached for the show and warned to take legal action on those who spread false information.

Shraddha Das on Twitter wrote, "I hav Not been approached for Big boss Telugu & i am not a part of it. Once again, inundated with msgs from a lot of ppl askin me about it & putting my name up as if it is confirmed already.Will have to take legal action on the sources otherwise!Making it clear 1 last time pls."Shraddha Das is the second person after Tharun who clarified such rumours. For those who are unversed, Tharun Kumar in a statement said, "Neither do I have the intention to participate in this season, nor I wish to join the later seasons. I will never do such reality shows."

Also Read : After Karthika Nair, Shraddha Das Expresses Shock Over Adani For Charging Hefty Electricity Bill

Talking about Bigg Boss 4 Telugu, the makers will tweak the show to suit the Coronavirus pandemic. It will start airing from the last week of August.

Also Read : Sushant Singh Rajput's Death: Shraddha Das Bashes B-Town Celebs For Showing Fake Nature

Coming back to Shraddha Das, the 33-year-old actress will next be seen in Kannada film Kotigobba 3 starring Kiccha Sudeep in the lead role. Apart from that, she will also be a part of Telugu film, Nireekshana.
In tackling the coronavirus pandemic in the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte and his officials are turning to tactics such as mass arrests and threats of state violence  methods employed to deadly effect in his war on drugs. The populist leader has enforced one of the world's longest and most stringent lockdowns, yet with more than 82,000 cases of covid-19 and almost 2,000 deaths, the country has one of the region's highest tolls.
Russian ships have taken part in a naval show off the coast of Tartous, to mark Russia's Navy Day writes SANA.

On the occasion of Russias Navy Day, the command of the Russian forces operating in Syria held an official ceremony on the shores of Tartous city.

Chief of the General Staff of the Army and Armed Forces, Defense Minister Gen. Ali Abdullah Ayoub attended the ceremony along with a number of Syrian and Russian military, official, and public figures.

The celebration included a naval parade in which Syrian and Russian vessels participated, and a naval combat simulation featuring Russian ships, submarines, and aircrafts.

At the end of the ceremony, Russian fighters and helicopters carried out an air show.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
The superintendent also responded to Graupes concern about children at risk, stating that the board will now need to determine if they want to create a safe place for students with special needs, ones who didnt engage in remote learning last spring and those who have custodial care issues. Clear protocols, she said, would need to be established in order to address the needs of the 30% of students who fall into these categories.
(Newser)  A scam that ends with people tying themselves up in a hotel room and sending photos of it to their family? Outlandish but true, say Australian police, who are warning Chinese students in Sydney of a surge of "virtual kidnapping" cases in the country. Police say they have this year logged eight such incidents that have reaped $2.3 million. The New York Times explains the gist of the scam: A student receives a call from a Mandarin-speaking messenger service looking to deliver a package and needing an address. The student then receives a second call from someone purporting to be from the Chinese government who says the package contains illegal items or is linked to some other crimeand the student must pay or face arrest or deportation. In some cases, the student is told to break off contact with their relatives, book a hotel room, go to it and bind themselves there, and take photos or video.

story continues below

That footage is then sent home to get relatives to pay. The BBC reports that in one case, a father who believed his daughter had been taken paid $1.43 million before receiving a video that showed her bound and gagged. After receiving the video, he went to police, who found her within an hour in a Sydney hotel room. The Times shares another such incident, of a family who deposited a six-figure ransom into an offshore bank account after a video showed their 21-year-old daughter, whom they hadn't heard from in days, appear to be in pain. She too was found unharmed in a hotel room. If it sounds wild that someone would fall for the scam, one New South Wales police official tells Reuters the scams are "very polished"; the scammers have reportedly been able to make the number they are calling from appear to be an embassy line. (Read more kidnapping stories.)
Members of environmental groups perform a skit in front of Emart in Seoul's Seongdong-gu District, July 2, demanding the store immediately introduce a ban on product repackaging. Yonhap



By Ko Dong-hwan



Two major retail chains in Korea have denied an environmental group's claim they "hid behind an association of their likes to avoid" a questionnaire the group sent them regarding the country's drive to ban repackaging to reduce packaging material waste.



Responses from Emart and Homeplus came after the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements (KFEM) said on July 22 that three major retail chains  Lotte Mart, Emart and Homeplus  did not directly respond to the questionnaire, but instead had the Korea Chain Stores Association (KOCA) answer it.



"Until now, the 'big three' major retail chains have been discussing how to deal with the repackaging ban with KOCA and the Ministry of Environment," Homeplus official Koo Do-yeon told The Korea Times. "That's why we needed to prepare our unionized position to answer to KFEM."



Koo said KOCA, comprising 46 member companies, did not stand for any single company but a de facto "association" and its president's office was held by the big three firms, with each taking a turn.



"What we gave to KFEM was a well-arranged, easily understandable version of the voices of the three companies. What they claimed that we hid behind KOCA is absolutely untrue."



Emart official Joo Kyung-don told The Korea Times that he saw nothing wrong with KOCA handling KFEM's questionnaire because Emart was linked to KOCA.



"Besides, it is yet inappropriate for us to make a direct comment to such a questionnaire when the central government hasn't yet established a complete set of rules regarding the product repackaging ban," Joo said.



Joo's comment refers to a loophole left during the shaping of the regulations that will be introduced in 2021. While the regulation mainly purports to reduce vinyl and plastic materials used in repackaging the shelved products to promote discount sales, it has wrought havoc among many retailers who failed to understand clearly what was allowed and was not.



The government explained that bundling of products for sale by tying them up with a paper- or plastic wire was allowed, but wholly repackaging the bundled products with plastic or vinyl materials was not.





Two pictures on the left are examples of product repackaging that the Ministry of Environment aims to ban, while the other, cartons of milk without any repackaging materials used, is shown as a model case to follow. Courtesy of Ministry of Environment
WILLIAMSPORT  Lewisburg is now the second community sued this year by activist Gene Stilp.

The Middle Paxton Twp. resident has sued the borough in U.S. Middle District, claiming his free speech rights have been violated by being charged for burning flags.

The amended complaint filed Monday to correct mistakes in one from Friday is similar to the suit he has brought against the city of Harrisburg.

Stilp describes himself as a prominent political activist in Pennsylvania who frequently publicly protests political corruption and racial injustice by burning flags, often those containing images and slogans supporting the reelection of President Trump.

His court complaint states he had notified Lewisburg in February he planned to hold a public protest involving the burning of flags and was advised he would be violating the boroughs burn ordinance.

On March 12 he appeared outside the Union County Courthouse with the intention, according to his suit, to burn a Trump campaign flag sewn together with a Nazi flag, a Trump flag sewn together with the flag of the former Soviet Union, and a campaign flag containing No More Bull---.

After the flags were ignited a Buffalo Valley Regional Police officer cited him for violating the burn ordinance.

Among the reasons Stilp alleges the ordinance is constitutional is it violates his First Amendment right of free speech.

He also contends it is discriminatory because it allows open burnings by organizations dedicated to the public good but not for individuals like himself who want to publicly protest the Trump administration.

Stilp is seeking a court order declaring the Lewisburg burn ordinance unconstitutional, an injunction to prevent the borough from enforcing it and payment of his legal fees.

He has pleaded not guilty to a summary criminal charge. His trial, which was scheduled Monday, was continued.

Last Thursday, Stilp set fire to flags in a trash container he brought with him outside the Lycoming County courthouse in downtown Williamsport.

Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze and assistant Police Chief Mark Sechrist said Stilp will be charged with violating the citys burn ordinance.

He had been charged with violating Harrisburgs health and safety ordinance but a district judge threw out the citation after concluding the statute is so broad it could squelch political free speech.

He had obtained a permit from the state Department of State to burn three flags on Dec. 5, 2019, near the Capitol fountain but was told by a Capitol Police officer not to strike his match.

Stilp says the officer told him he was barring the burning under the terms of the city ordinance.

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The global e-commerce logistics market size is expected to grow by USD 100.63 billion as per Technavio. This marks a significant market growth compared to the 2019 growth estimates due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020. Healthy growth is expected to continue throughout the forecast period, and the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of almost 12%. Request Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impacts

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005455/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global E-Commerce Logistics Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Read the 120-page report with TOC on "E-Commerce Logistics Market Analysis Report by Service (Transportation, Warehousing, and Others) and Geography (APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and MEA), and the Segment Forecasts, 2020-2024".

https://www.technavio.com/report/e-commerce-logistics-market-industry-analysis

The market is driven by the rising cross-border e-commerce activities. In addition, the rise in social commerce is anticipated to boost the growth of the E-Commerce Logistics Market.

The increase in cross-border e-commerce activities is expected to drive market growth during the forecast period. Cross-border e-commerce enables customers and individuals to purchase products from outside their borders. Cross-border e-commerce is gaining prominence in many countries such as France, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Australia, China, Singapore, and the US. Chinese websites such as Alibaba.com and Banggood are gaining popularity among Indian customers due to the growing accessibility to foreign brands and the rise in per capita income. This allows a country to improve its global competitiveness by promoting foreign trade. It also enables sellers to tap into newer markets by expanding their business outside their home market. This is driving the growth of logistics as it plays a crucial role in the movement of goods.

Buy 1 Technavio report and get the second for 50% off. Buy 2 Technavio reports and get the third for free.

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Major Five E-Commerce Logistics Companies:

Aramex International LLC

Aramex is headquartered in UAE and operates the business under various segments such as International express, Freight forwarding, Domestic express, Logistics, and Others. The company offers warehousing and facility management for e-commerce companies.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. has business operations under three segments: North American Surface Transportation, Global Forwarding, and All Other and Corporate. The company provides e-commerce retail logistics.

CEVA Logistics AG

CEVA Logistics AG operates its business through two segments: freight management and contract logistics. The company provides high-speed e-Commerce fulfillment centers that design and run networks delivering optimized costs speed.

Deutsche Post DHL Group

Deutsche Post DHL Group offers products through the following business units: post-eCommerce-parcel, express, global forwarding, freight, and supply chain. The company provides international standard parcel delivery for business customers.

FedEx Corp.

FedEx Corp. operates under various business segments, namely FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, and FedEx Services. The company provides integrated solutions designed to streamline and support online businesses.

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E-Commerce Logistics Service Outlook (Revenue, USD bn, 2020-2024)

Transportation

Warehousing

Others

E-Commerce Logistics Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD bn, 2020-2024)

APAC

North America

Europe

South America

MEA

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The recent detection of new local infections of COVID-19 has proved the efficiency of Vietnams communicable disease surveillance system, according to WHO Representative in the country Kidong Park.

WHO Representative in Vietnam Kidong Park speaks at the meeting in Hanoi on July 27 (Photo: VNA)

With a good surveillance system, it will not be a surprise that more cases of community transmission will be recorded in the time ahead, he said during a meeting between the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control and international organisations in Hanoi on July 27.

He spoke highly of Vietnams system for coronavirus prevention and control, which has swiftly quarantined, monitored and traced confirmed cases, suggesting the application of social distancing, public health measures and restriction of mass gatherings for a long period of time.

Park also valued the national steering committee and the local health sectors transparency and timeliness in sharing information, which have built and enhanced peoples trust in the COVID-19 fight.

The WHO Representative also said he respects the decision to repatriate Vietnamese citizens from pandemic-hit regions, including a flight to bring home 200 citizens from Equatorial Guinea with about 120 of them positive for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and another with over 100 infection cases from Uzbekistan, adding that the move demonstrates the humanitarian policy and timely attention of the Vietnamese Government.

The number of infections may surge in the time ahead, but it will not affect the countrys previous achievements in the pandemic prevention and control, according to him.

He also expressed his confidence in Vietnams response plans in case of widespread transmission, saying the WHO will continue standing side by side with the country to deal with challenges caused by this pandemic.

At the meeting, other international organisations hoped Vietnam to continue sharing information about mutations of SARS-CoV-2, the use of test kits and its treatment regimens.

Appreciating their support for the coronavirus combat, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, head of the national steering committee, called on international organisations to keep assisting the country in the production of test kits and vaccines and the updating of gene mutations and new strains of the virus.

He stressed that Vietnam will continue working closely with WHO and other international organisations in the COVID-19 fight.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Vietnam now stands at 431, including 11 new locally infected cases reported on July 27 evening. A patient confirmed in central Da Nang city on July 25 was the first local infection of the coronavirus after 99 straight days without community transmission in the country./.VNA
Police in Aurora, Colo. have shared this image of a person of interest in a shooting involving protesters on highway I-225, July 25, 2020. - (Aurora Police Department via Twitter)By BILL HUTCHINSON, ABC News



(AURORA, Cold.) -- A 23-year-old protester has been arrested for allegedly shooting two fellow demonstrators during the Black Lives Matter freeway protest near Denver that turned chaotic when an SUV came charging through the crowd.



Samuel Young was taken into custody Monday night at his home after a judge signed arrests warrants on four counts of attempted homicide, police said.



Young is suspected of opening fire with a handgun on Interstate 225 in Aurora on Saturday night when a Jeep drove through the large demonstration, nearly striking protesters, police said. Bullets believed to have been fired by Young grazed the head of one protester and hit another in the leg, according to the Aurora Police Department.



The gunfire broke out as demonstrators took to the freeway to demand justice in the 2019 police-involved death in Aurora of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black violinist.



I not only find great concern with someone making the decision to drive their vehicle toward protesters on the interstate but that someone in the protester group opened fire, recklessly shooting two people," Aurora Interim Police Chief Vanessa Wilson said in a statement.



Police said Young is the "person of interest" they had been seeking to interview and released images of him wearing a holstered handgun on his right hip while walking with protesters on the freeway. With the help of tips from witnesses and the community, police said they were able to identify Young as the curly-haired white man wearing glasses in the photos.



Officer Matthew Longshore, a spokesman for the Aurora Police Department, told ABC News that investigators made contact with Young earlier Monday and that he agreed to speak to them with his lawyer present.



But when Young failed to show up at the police department to tell his side of the story, prosecutors from the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office sought warrants for his arrest "based on the facts and probable cause provided" by the police, authorities said in a statement.



The shooting was one of several that occurred at protests across the country over the weekend, including one in Austin, Texas, that left a Black Lives Matter protester dead. The shooting also came three weeks after a driver barreled into a Black Lives Matter protest on a closed Seattle freeway, killing one demonstrator and leaving another seriously injured.



The Aurora episode unfolded around 7 p.m. on Saturday as protesters marched onto Interstate 225 in support of McClain, who died after Aurora police stopped him on a street and ended up putting him in a chokehold. McClain was listening to music and walking home after buying iced tea at a corner store on Aug. 24, 2019, when someone reported him as a suspicious person wearing a ski mask and waving his hands, authorities said.



The officers involved in McClain's death were cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the district attorney for Colorado's 17th Judicial District.



Earlier this month, Chief Wilson fired four Aurora police officers and a fifth resigned after photos surfaced of them mimicking the chokehold death near a memorial for McClain. One of the fire officers was involved in McClain's death.



Police said protesters were walking northbound on Interstate 225 when a turquoise-colored Jeep drove toward the demonstration around 7 p.m.



"While the Jeep was being driven through the crowd, multiple shots were fired by a protester," police in a statement.



Police said a protester in a car tried to prevent the driver from hitting demonstrators by ramming the side of the Jeep.



The Jeep continued to head north on Interstate 225 and the driver was stopped by police when he exited the freeway, officials said.



"During preliminary interviews with the Jeep driver, he advised officers that while on I-225, his vehicle began to be surrounded by protesters who were yelling and striking his vehicle," police said in a statement. "He also claims that a white pickup truck struck the front of his vehicle. He claims that the reason that he drove towards the protesters is because he was scared and trying to get away."



Investigators plan to present a case to the local district attorney, who will decide whether criminal charges will be filed against the driver, whose name was not released.



Police officials urged witnesses to come forward with video and photographs of the incident that could help them identify the person or persons responsible for the shooting. A $2,000 reward is also being offered by Crime Stoppers for information leading to an arrest.



Meanwhile, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said a preliminary investigation of the fatal shooting of protester Garrett Foster, 28, during a Black Lives Matter demonstration in downtown Austin on Saturday night indicates that Foster may have pointed an assault rifle at the driver of a vehicle before he was shot.



"Gunshots were fired from inside the vehicle at Foster," Manley said in a statement issued Sunday night. "Someone else in the crowd opened fire on the car as it drove off.



Manley said both people who fired guns have been questioned and released pending further investigation. He said both people had concealed handgun licenses.



Foster's mother disputed the police account of the shooting during an interview on ABC's Good Morning America.



Sheila Foster said her son was pushing his fiancee's wheelchair when he was gunned down.



"And this gentleman got out of his car and started firing shots, and my son was shot three times," she said.



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 28, 2020) -Palladium One Mining Inc. (TSXV: PDM) (FSE: 7N11) (OTC Pink: NKORF) (the "Company" or "Palladium One") is pleased to report the second batch of drilling results from the Phase 1 winter 2020 drill program at the Lantinen Koillismaa ("LK") PGE-Cu-Ni Project, located in north-central Finland.

Highlights:

41.6m grading 2.16 g/t palladium equivalent ("Pd_Eq")* , in hole LK20-007 Total platinum-group elements ("PGE") (Pd + Pt + Au), 1.18 g/t Individually by metal, 0.83 g/t Pd; 0.28 g/t Pt; 0.07 g/t Au; 0.16% Cu and 0.17% Ni Including 7.8m grading 3.26 g/t Pd_Eq Total PGE of 2.18g/t , Individually by metal, 1.53 g/t Pd; 0.53 g/t Pt; 0.13 g/t Au; 0.21% Cu and 0.17% Ni

, in hole LK20-007 36.8m grading 1.97 g/t Pd_Eq, from 33m down hole, in hole LK20-005 Total PGE, 1.13 g/t Individually by metal, 0.74 g/t Pd; 0.31 g/t Pt; 0.08 g/t Au; 0.16% Cu and 0.13% Ni Including 8.2m grading 3.40 g/t Pd_Eq Total PGE, 2.00 g/t , Individually by metal, 1.38 g/t Pd; 0.52 g/t Pt; 0.11 g/t Au; 0.29% Cu and 0.21% Ni

from 33m down hole, in hole LK20-005 Reported widths are "drilled widths" true widths are estimated to be approximately 90% of drilled width

President and CEO, Derrick Weyrauch commented, "Hole 7 has confirmed a previously unrecognized higher-grade shoot within the Kaukua Open Pit Deposit, this shoot remain open at depth and further drilling could significantly expand the current resource."

Hole LK20-007 targeted the down plunge of a previously unrecognized, southwest trending, higher-grade shoot within the Kaukua deposit (Figure 1 and 2). The results of this hole indicate that this higher-grade shoot remains open to the southwest for expansion. Hole LK20-007 is on the lower edge of the 2019 block model and the expansion of this higher-grade shoot will add ounces to a future resource update. Holes LK20-001 through LK20-005 targeted a previously untested up dip portion of the Kaukua deposit (Figure 1) with the goal of upgrading current inferred resources to indicated and outlining near surface mineralization which could form part of a future bulk sample. The Kaukua deposit hosts 635,600 Pd_Eq ounces of Indicated Resources grading 1.80 g/t palladium equivalent, and 525,800 palladium equivalent ounces of Inferred Resources grading 1.50 g/t Pd_Eq (see press release September 9, 2019).

Table 1. Phase 1 Drill Results

Zone Hole From (m) To (m) Width (m) Pd_Eq g/t* PGE g/t

(Pd+Pt+Au) Pd g/t

Pt g/t

Au g/t

Cu

% Ni

% Kaukua LK20-001 33.4

66.0

32.6 2.86 1.82 1.22 0.46 0.14 0.23 0.16

Inc. 45.0 61.0 16.0 3.64 2.43 1.67 0.59 0.18 0.27 0.18

Inc. 48.6 49.9 1.3 5.70 3.96 2.78 0.93 0.25 0.41 0.25 Kaukua LK20-002 38.4 71.0 32.7 2.00 1.06 0.70 0.29 0.07 0.15 0.16

Inc. 43.0 53.1 10.1 3.08 1.65 1.07 0.47 0.11 0.26 0.24

Inc. 45.8 47.3 1.5 5.23 2.85 1.82 0.82 0.21 0.49 0.37 Kaukua LK20-003 37.0 75.0 38.0 1.49 0.77 0.52 0.19 0.06 0.10 0.13

Inc. 37.0 57.3 20.3 2.03 1.13 0.77 0.28 0.09 0.14 0.16

Inc. 48.0 49.2 1.2 4.07 2.53 1.75 0.60 0.19 0.29 0.25 Kaukua LK20-004 40.3 68.5 28.2 2.04 1.11 0.73 0.29 0.09 0.19 0.14

Inc. 40.3 53.4 13.1 2.73 1.58 1.05 0.41 0.12 0.24 0.17

Inc. 52.1 53.4 1.4 4.43 2.69 1.83 0.71 0.15 0.38 0.26 Kaukua LK20-005 32.8 69.5 36.8 1.95 1.13 0.74 0.31 0.08 0.16 0.13

Inc. 32.8 41.0 8.3 3.40 2.00 1.38 0.52 0.11 0.29 0.21

Inc. 36.2 37.7 1.5 4.83 2.87 2.01 0.70 0.16 0.39 0.31 Kaukua South

LK20-006 Results Pending















Kaukua LK20-007 200.1

241.7

41.6

2.16

1.18 0.83 0.28 0.07 0.16 0.17

Inc. 205.9 213.8 7.8 3.26 2.18 1.53 0.53 0.13 0.21 0.17

Inc. 207.4 208.9 1.5 4.47 2.70 1.72 0.61 0.38 0.42 0.24

*Palladium Equivalent "Pd_Eq" is calculated using metal prices (in USD) of $1,100/oz for palladium, $950/oz for platinum, $1,300/oz for gold, $6,614/t for copper and $15,432/t for nickel as used in the Company's 2019, 43-101 mineral resource estimate on the Kaukua Deposit (see press release September 9, 2019).

** Reported widths are "drilled widths" true widths are estimated to be approximately 90% of drilled width.

*** Italicised values are previously released (see press release July 22, 2020).

The Company suspended the Phase 1 exploration program in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic and has announced plans to restart drilling in August. (see news release July 14, 2020).

QA/QC

The Phase I drilling program was carried out under the supervision of Neil Pettigrew, M.Sc., P. Geo., Vice President of Exploration and a director of the Company.

Drill core samples were split using a rock saw by Company staff, with half retained in the core box and stored indoors in a secure facility, in Taivalkoski, Finland. The drill core samples were transported by courier from the Company's core handling facility in Taivalkoski, Finland, to ALS Global ("ALS") laboratory in Outokumpu, Finland. ALS, is an accredited lab and are ISO compliant (ISO 9001:2008, ISO/IEC 17025:2005). PGE analysis was performed using a 30 grams fire assay with an ICP-MS or ICP-AES finish. Multi-element analyses, including copper and nickel were analysed by four acid digestion using 0.25 grams with an ICP-AES finish.

Certified standards, blanks and crushed duplicates are placed in the sample stream at a rate of one QA/QC sample per 10 core samples. Results are analyzed for acceptance at the time of import. All standards associated with the results in this press release were determined to be acceptable within the defined limits of the standard used

Figure 1. Greater Kaukua Area showing IP chargeability anomalies and Phase 1 drill hole locations.



To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6502/60572_bb38eaff24b07a6b_001full.jpg

Figure 2. Cross section of the Kaukua Open Pit deposit. Showing hole LK20-007 and historic holes and the combined palladium block model, and optimized pit from the 2019, 43-101 resource estimate.



To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6502/60572_bb38eaff24b07a6b_002full.jpg

Qualified Person

The technical information in this release has been reviewed and verified by Neil Pettigrew, M.Sc., P. Geo., Vice President of Exploration and a director of the Company and the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Palladium One

Palladium One Mining Inc. is a palladium dominant, PGE, nickel, copper exploration and development company. Its assets consist of the Lantinen Koillismaa ("LK") and Kostonjarvi ("KS") PGE-Cu-Ni projects, located in north-central Finland and the Tyko Ni-Cu-PGE and Disraeli PGE-Ni-Cu properties in Ontario, Canada. All projects are 100% owned and are of a district scale. LK is an advanced project targeting disseminated sulphide along 38 kilometers of favorable basal contact. The KS project is targeting massive sulphide within a 20,000-hectare land package covering a regional scale gravity and magnetic geophysical anomaly. Tyko is a 13,000-hectare project targeting disseminated and massive sulphide in a highly metamorphosed Archean terrain. Disraeli is a 3,100-hectare project targeting PGE-rich disseminated and massive sulphide in a highly productive Proterozoic mid-continent rift.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Derrick Weyrauch"

President & CEO, Director

For further information contact:

Derrick Weyrauch, President & CEO

Email: info@palladiumoneinc.com



Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release is not an offer or a solicitation of an offer of securities for sale in the United States of America. The common shares of Palladium One Mining Inc. have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration.

Information set forth in this press release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address a company's expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks associated with project development; the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mining and mineral processing; fluctuations in palladium and other commodity prices; title matters; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the absence of dividends; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume; and tax consequences to Canadian and U.S. Shareholders. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/60572




The women were flogged in public

Two Indonesian women have been disgraced after being whipped nearly 100 times each for selling sex workers services online.

The punishment was made public by an official in the countrys conservative Aceh province said on Tuesday.

Aceh, at the tip of Sumatra, is the only region in Muslim-majority Indonesia to impose Islamic sharia law, which allows flogging for a range of offences including prostitution, gambling, adultery, drinking alcohol, and gay sex.

The punishment was handed down on Monday in Langsa city where dozens gathered to watch the pair get lashed, despite bans on crowds over coronavirus fears.

Neither of the women wore disposable face masks, unlike in some other recent whippings.

The two hijab-wearing suspects were arrested in March along with five sex workers, who could also face a flogging if found guilty of violating Islamic law, said Aji Asmanuddin, head of Langsas Islamic sharia agency.

They were punished for violating sharia by advertising (sex) through the internet, Asmanuddin said.

Officials were struggling to crack down on the areas booming online sex trade, he added.

This is the first (pimping) case in Langsa although we believe there are many of them out there, Asmanuddin said.

We just dont have the necessary tools to monitor them online.

Rights groups have slammed public caning as cruel, and Indonesias President Joko Widodo has called for it to end.

But the practice has wide support among Acehs mostly Muslim population. 
President Xi Jinping is set to address a key meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Tuesday at which analysts said he may unveil more policies to support the bank as it helps fund regional and global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Xi will speak in Beijing at the opening ceremony of the fifth annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the AIIB, to be held via video link. A key message Xi may deliver, analysts said, is that China, as the world's first major economy that has shown a robust recovery from the downturn caused by COVID-19, will assume more responsibility in fueling regional and global economic recovery. "The AIIB has become an important strength in promoting regional economic recovery, and China's offering of more support policies to the bank will bolster the momentum in this regard," said Xu Xiujun, a researcher of international political economy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the author of a book about the AIIB. The AIIB has doubled available funds under its COVID-19 crisis recovery facility to provide up to $10 billion in financing to help mitigate adverse impacts for its member economies. So far the bank has approved loans earmarked for coronavirus response in close to a dozen Asian countries, including India, Pakistan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mongolia and Indonesia. Xu said the establishment of the crisis recovery facility reflects the development-oriented nature of the AIIB, which, with its efficient operation mechanism and simplified approval procedures, can respond quickly to funding demands from different countries. Another important part of Xi's speech, Xu said, is likely to be sharing China's experience in epidemic containment and sharing China's growth opportunities with the world. The AIIB said in a statement that the virtual meeting, to be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, will be the first in the format for AIIB and was designed to respond to the pandemic and the need for continued dialogue with stakeholders. Wei Jianguo, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges and former vice-minister of commerce, said Xi's participation at the opening ceremony shows the leadership's recognition of AIIB's achievements over five years. "As a multilateral development institution, the AIIB is leading the reform of the global governance system, and developing countries are playing more significant roles in the institution to promote international coordination in the fields of infrastructure construction and green and digital economic development," he said. Liu Ying, a senior researcher at Renmin University of China's Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, said the AIIB will better provide financial support to narrow the huge financing gap for infrastructure construction in Asia, Europe and Africa. Through promoting infrastructure cooperation and construction based on the multilateral network, it will strengthen the world's economic growth, especially in the post-pandemic era, Liu said.


A toddler is in critical condition after plunging from a block of flats in east London.

The Metropolitan Police were scrambled to East India Dock Road in Poplar at 6.54pm yesterday to reports that the boy had 'fallen from height'.

Police, London Ambulance Service and an air ambulance attended and the child was taken to hospital. There have been no arrests.

Today police said: 'The injured child, a boy, has been transferred to a specialist hospital. His condition at this time is believed to be critical but stable.'

The Metropolitan Police were scrambled to East India Dock Road in Poplar, east London at 6.54pm yesterday to reports that the boy had 'fallen from height'

Today the Met Police said: 'The injured child, a boy, has been transferred to a specialist hospital. His condition at this time is believed to be critical but stable'

A road closure was in place as of 8.30pm last night at East India Dock Road's junction with Chrisp Street and Newby Place.

People who witnessed the incident or have footage are asked to contact the Met, quoting reference CAD 6419/27 July.

There were no signs of the tragedy this morning as traffic moved past the tower block, which sits on a busy main road in London's east end.

A resident, who would not give her name and had only been living there for a month, said: 'I saw people outside with the child (after it happened).

'They were trying to help but they did not know what to do.'

Residents at the inner city building said they had concerns about the windows, which can open wide on some settings.

Lydia Best, 50, who lives on the eighth floor, said: 'I am very scared about the windows. They can open wide.

Residents at the inner city building said they had concerns about the windows, which can open wide. Lydia Best said: 'I am very scared about the windows. They can open wide'

An air ambulance lands after a toddler plunged from a building in east London

'I only ever open my windows a little bit, even when it is hot.

'You have to pull it to open them wide.'

Ranjit Naik, 43, a father of two, said the windows in the flats are 'quite large' and 'something I worry about'.

He said there are two settings - one which opens just a little bit and another that is big enough for someone to get through if there is a sofa or large piece of furniture in front of it.

He said he keeps the window keys in the locks so his children, aged four and nine, cannot get at them.

A security guard at the building, who did not give his name, said he was 'very upset' by what had happened.

He said the family, whom he did not know well, 'are very nice people and it is just horrible'.
A court in Austria has convicted a Banker for the murder of an elderly female customer to the age of 16 years in prison. The 62-Year-old had confessed to beat the Elderly woman in September 2019 with a coin trump floor, then with cling film, and finally, with his hands choked. He regretted the deed deeply, said the defendant before the sentencing on Tuesday before the district court in the lower Austria Wiener Neustadt. The judgment is not yet final.

The financial Advisor had concealed the time of the murder of 86-year-old woman according to their own figures, around 20 years of speculation losses against their assets, with appropriate supporting documentation falsified and his reputation feared, as the lie a little more than threatened. Criminal tempering had, according to the Chairman of a judge that the 62-Year-old had confessed to after the fact in a comprehensive and previously blameless had been.

Updated Date: 28 July 2020, 10:19
New Delhi, July 28 : The Delhi government on Tuesday rejected the panel of lawyers proposed to represent the city police in the riots cases, observing that a free and fair trial of the cases would not be possible by the lawyers selected by them.

Keeping in mind the principles of the criminal justice system and the need to ensure independence between investigation and prosecution, the Delhi cabinet has directed the Home Department to form an impartial panel of the best possible lawyers in the country for the cases related to the Delhi riots.

The Delhi Police had, earlier, sent a proposal to the Arvind Kejriwal-led government to appoint six senior lawyers, including Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and ASG Aman Lekhi, as Special Counsel in the High Court and Supreme Court in 85 cases related to the riots in northeast Delhi and the anti-CAA protests.

The government had then rejected the Delhi Police's proposal and said that government's lawyer Rahul Mehra and his team were capable of getting justice in these cases.

Lt Governor Anil Baijal, however, disagreed with the proposal sent by the Delhi Home Minister and asked for the file using his special power.

He then wrote to Chief Minister Kejriwal, saying that the Delhi cabinet should take a decision on this matter.

At its meeting on Tuesday, the Kejriwal cabinet thoroughly studied the proposal made by Baijal and the Delhi Police. Noting that anyone who is guilty of causing communal violence in Delhi should be punished severely, it held that there should not be any punishment or harassment of innocent people and hence, rejected Baijal's suggestion to approve the Delhi Police's panel of lawyers.

The cabinet further relied on the observations of Justice Suresh Kumar of the Delhi High Court who had earlier stated that the Delhi Police is taking the entire judicial system on a ride in the riot cases.

Besides this, it pointed that various session courts and media have questioned the role of the Delhi Police during the riots and its investigations.

The cabinet hence observed that in such a situation the panel of lawyers of the Delhi Police would not be able to ensure justice in these cases and as that these cases are very important, the Delhi government's panel of lawyers should represent these cases.

It has also noted that the investigating agency should not be allowed to decide the lawyers.

Alluding to the fundamental principle of the criminal justice system, the cabinet noted that it is not possible to expect a free and fair trial by lawyers appointed by Delhi Police.

It also rued over the way that the Lt Governor is repeatedly interfering in the decision of appointment of the panel of lawyers, citing how the apex court's Constitution Bench has clearly stated in its July 4, 2018 order that the Lt Governor "can exercise his authority over decisions of the elected government only in the rarest of rare cases".
BOSTON - President Donald Trumps administration is appealing a federal judges order to r eunite three Massachusetts families separated because of its controversial Remain in Mexico asylum policy.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which represents the families, countered in a legal brief Tuesday that the administrations appeal would force their clients  three women and two young children  to return to dangerous living conditions in Mexicos border communities.

The administrations pursuit of its anti-immigrant agenda knows no bounds, Carol Rose, executive director of ACLU Massachusetts, said in a written statement. The irreparable harm it causes is clear.

Spokespersons for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which appealed the decision, didnt respond to an email seeking comment.

In May, a Boston federal judge ruled the asylum seekers  four from Guatemala and one from El Salvador  should be reunited with their families in Massachusetts until their immigration cases were decided.

Thousands of asylum-seekers from Guatemala, El Salvador, and other Spanish-speaking nations are waiting out their asylum cases in Mexico as part of the Trump administrations Migrant Protection Protocols, which took effect January 2019.

The administration maintains the so-called Remain in Mexico policy has significantly reduced illegal border crossings, but civil rights groups complain its unconstitutional.
Currently, both men are in custody.

Prosecutors of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) in Ukraine have sent an indictment to the court against Chairman of Kherson Regional Council Vladyslav Manger and Oleksiy Levin, an aide to a member of the same council, on the fact of ordering and organizing a fatal acid attack on Kherson activist Kateryna Handziuk on July 31, 2018.

"A pretrial investigation has established Kherson Regional Council's chairman and a citizen extradited from Bulgaria to Ukraine, by prior conspiracy by a group of persons, organized an act to cause intentional grievous bodily harm with significant sufferings, which resulted in victim Kateryna Handziuk's death (Part 3 of Article 27, Part 2 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 121 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine)," as reported on the PGO's official website.

Read alsoHandziuk case: Suspect Manger to be kept in pretrial detention center until Sept 11

Currently, both men are in custody: the preventive measure against Manger has been extended until September 11, 2020, while Levin will stay behind bars until August 24, 2020.

Earlier, the court found five principal offenders who committed the attack on Handziuk guilty and sentenced them to imprisonment.

Under Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and shall not be subjected to criminal punishment until his or her guilt is proved through legal procedure and established by a court verdict of guilty.

UNIAN memo. Kherson activist, advisor to the Mayor of Kherson and acting manager of affairs at Kherson City Council's executive committee Kateryna Handziuk, 33, on July 31, 2018, survived an acid attack. She suffered burns to more than 35% of her body and underwent 11 operations in Kyiv. Handziuk died on November 4, 2018.

The immediate cause of her death was a severed blood clot resulting from the acid attack. Police originally qualified the attack as an attempted murder committed with extreme cruelty, then its status was changed to completed murder. Six suspects were detained, one of whom, Mykola Novikov, was later released from custody as charges against him had been dropped.

On May 7, 2019, the Prosecutor General's Office sent an indictment against five defendants in the case of the murder: Mykyta Hrabchuk, Volodymyr Vasyanovych, Vyacheslav Vishnevsky, Serhiy Torbin, and Viktor Horbunov.

On June 6, 2019, the court announced their sentences. Torbin, the organizer of the murder, was sentenced to six years and six months in prison. Hrabchuk, the actual perpetrator of the crime, was sentenced to six years in prison. Accused of aiding, Vasyanovych and Horbunov were sentenced to four and three years in prison, respectively; accomplice Vishnevsky's sentence is four years' imprisonment.

Oleksiy Levin, who has a criminal record, as well as Chairman of Kherson Regional Council Vladyslav Manger and Ihor Pavlovsky, who was an assistant to MP Mykola Palamarchuk, are also suspects in the Handziuk murder case. Moreover, public activists believe that former Chairman of Kherson Regional State Administration Andriy Gordeev and former Deputy Chairman of Kherson Regional State Administration Yevhen Ryshchuk were involved in the crime. On January 27, Levin was taken into police custody in Bulgaria's Burgas for a 40-day term after detention on January 24. On February 22, the court of the city of Burgas (Bulgaria) ruled to extradite Levin to Ukraine. He was extradited on March 16 and Kyiv's Pechersky district court on March 17 ruled that he should be remanded in custody until April 2. On March 25, Kyiv's Shevchenkivsky district court extended the pretrial probe into the Handziuk case until July 29.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Tuesday of a "second wave" in Europe of the coronavirus as he defended a controversial decision to quarantine all travellers arriving from Spain, despite criticism from Madrid. Johnson insisted the UK had taken "swift and decisive" action at the weekend to impose a 14-day quarantine on everyone entering Britain from Spain -- a major tourist destination for Britons. The move was subsequently criticised by both the Spanish government and in the UK. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the decision "unbalanced" and insisted parts of his country were safer from the virus than areas of Britain. But Johnson, on a visit to the English midlands, said it was the correct move. "What we have to do is take swift and decisive action where we think that the risks are starting to bubble up again," he said in Nottingham. "Let's be absolutely clear about what's happening in Europe, amongst some of our European friends, I'm afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic." However the premier did appear to indicate the quarantine period could be relaxed. Asked if it might be imposed for 10 rather than 14 days, Johnson said the UK was looking at ways "we can mitigate the impact". Britain imposed the measure following a recent surge of cases in Spain. Norway has imposed similar conditions and French Prime Minister Jean Castex has "strongly recommended" that people avoid going to northeastern Spain, the worst-hit area. Germany has expressed "great concern" at the virus spike. - 'Badly handled' - Sanchez defended Spanish tourist hotspots, including the Balearic and Canary islands, Andalucia and the Valencia region, saying they had "a cumulative incidence of the virus that is lower than that currently in the United Kingdom. "That is to say, in epidemiological terms, it might even be safer at these destinations than in the United Kingdom," Sanchez told the Telecinco channel in an interview on Monday. He added that Madrid was in talks with London "to try to convince them to reconsider the measure, which in our opinion is unbalanced". In Britain, the decision has also come under pressure from the opposition Labour party, which claimed Johnson's government had "badly handled" it. Labour called for help for British tourists hurriedly returning to the UK over fears that the new rules could affect their jobs. London had initially said people could still travel to the Canaries and Balearics, but later extended the quarantine to these island groups. The move is potentially perilous for the Spanish tourist industry, which received 18 million visitors from the UK last year, the largest number from a foreign country. Spain's tourist industry accounts for 12 percent of gross domestic product and 13 percent of employment. Britain and Spain are among the European countries worst hit by the pandemic. Official figures show there have been almost 46,000 deaths and 300,000 people infected in the UK, though the actual numbers may be far higher. In Spain, more than 28,400 lives have been lost and more than 272,000 people infected. The coronavirus crisis dealt a major blow to Spain's tourism industry, which normally accounts for 12 percent of GDP
It's one of Northern Ireland's most famous tourist attractions, pulling in millions of visitors mesmerised by the Titanic story over a century on from its tragic sinking.

But even the eternal lure of the luxury liner built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast couldn't protect Titanic Belfast from the impact of coronavirus on tourism and the economy. The venue, named World's Leading Tourist Attraction in the World Travel Awards 2016, took the same hit as the smallest bed and breakfast.

The visitor attraction was closed down in March, ahead of the start of the official UK Government lockdown.

Judith Owens was plunged into her biggest challenge since she was appointed chief executive three years ago. She had previously worked as director of operations at the venue since 2011.

Ironically, she was on a Northern Ireland tourism sales mission to UAE & India while the coronavirus crisis was starting to build. "I was there with lots of people from within the industry at the time, and we were all very hesitant and concerned. When we came back home, it just seemed to hit us so quickly and so hard.

"We made the decision to close a little bit earlier than everyone else. I just felt it was like the right thing to do."

Before joining Titanic Belfast, she had spent 14 years in event management at the Ulster Hall and Waterfront Hall. She thinks working in events had prepared her well for dealing with crises - it's just that she didn't expect the present crisis to go on for so long.

"You go into crisis management mode and that feels natural to me - but at this point, the crisis management mode has been prolonged now for four months.

"For the first time for me as a leader, I was quite emotional. We have such a great team. It was one of those times where you really had to drive your leadership, we were making so many decisions you never thought you'd have to make for such a business that had been so successful."

Titanic Belfast and the SS Nomadic - the Titanic transfer ship berthed close to the venue - usually employ around 300 people. But it's understood around 75 have been made redundant.

Judith says: "My aim over the next year is that we really work with our colleagues in the industry and we try and grow the business so I can rebuild the team...

"I'm absolutely determined and I have that in my sights."

The Titanic Belfast building had also become a major venue for events like corporate dinners and conferences - a stream worth millions of pounds, accounting for around 25% of revenues, now cut off for the foreseeable future.

Judith says she hopes events will be back up and running in spring next year, provided government guidance allows them.

"At the moment, we wouldn't be able to do the events and couldn't deliver to the standard that Titanic Belfast delivers them to. So that means we're going to take a rest from events until we can get accurate guidelines and until demand is there for the type of events we do at Titanic Belfast."

She says Titanic has become known for "exceptional" hospitality. "It's not just about the service, but it was also about the atmosphere and experience from the minute when you stepped out of the car and looked at this incredible shining building and came through the grand atrium and up to the top floor. It's almost about transporting people into another era."

Its usual markets for international tourist visitors - the US, the EU, China and others - are currently cut off, making near-markets more important that ever.

"Pre-Covid our international markets were extremely strong and 80% of our six milllion visitors that we brought to Titanic Belfast over eight years came from countries that would never have come here if it hadn't been for Titanic Belfast."

Now the push is to draw holidaymakers from Northern Ireland, the Republic and Great Britain.

Among Northern Ireland people, she will be hoping to recapture some of the excitement and buzz which Titanic Belfast generated when it opened in 2012, in time for the centenary of Titanic's sinking.

"The whole spirit and drive at the time for tourism was just incredible, and the eyes of the world were on Titanic Belfast when it opened... We have been very fortunate to build a very strong organisation with some great people and we've had great successes in the accolades that we've received over the years."

She says the venue has attracted return visitors from Northern Ireland who in turn bring visitors from other regions. "People are usually spending from 1.5 hours but there are other people who are spending four or five hours and drilling down different layers the story. People might feel that once you've been you may not return that quickly but there are so many other facets.

"This year we are selling an SS Nomadic bounce-back ticket so if you visit Titanic Belfast you can come at any stage over six months to see the Nomadic."

Other features which have been developed include a treasure trail across the maritime mile outside Belfast, and an outdoor discovery tour. "You could easily spend two days down here just immersing yourself in the Titanic and the maritime experience.

"The Northern Ireland market is very important and it's amazing how many people haven't been and didn't want to come before as it was always too busy. But ironically this is now a great time to come as we don't have the same level of international guests we would have.

"We have actually developed part of the galleries with the NI market in mind knowing it will be a more local market who come this season."

And she wants to see a major push to promote Northern Ireland. "It's pretty imperative for between now and the height of our season next year.

"We've effectively lost our high season, and we're going back soon into winter again so it's very, very important that there is marketing and there is profile in the UK and rest of UK to let people know they can come over here." She is not in favour of the 14-day quarantine provision for visitors from Great Britain mooted by Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill. "Foremost it's a public health issue and we have to take government guidelines however if the 14-day quarantine was implemented from Great Britain, that would have a severe impact - not just on us, but on many other businesses."

Her link to Titanic Quarter goes deeper than just work. "I have a connection to Titanic Quarter because my father Jim was general manager at the electrical division of H&W.

"As child I remember being brought down to headquarters building when I was about nine. I think having been down on the site when H&W was a thriving business, then to come back and again to see the slipways thrive in a very different way, was just incredible.

"When I came to operate Titanic Belfast, I hadn't been involved in the operation of a visitor attraction before but I think in Northern Ireland Titanic has always been part of our DNA and we all knew the story and we love to share that absolute passion with our visitors.

"You become a Titanorak very quickly. I think I have to be."

There were plenty of naysayers at the outset who thought the attraction, which cost over 100m, would not succeed.

But Judith was focused on proving them wrong. "I think to be honest with you in the first couple of years, I didn't look outwards as much as certainly I have to now.

"It was all about building the business and concentrating on what our goals there, and looking to those really important international markets.

"Everything is about the present... It's very difficult to predict what's going to happen though we are trying to but we don't know what is going to happen.

"But what I would say is that we cannot lose sight of growing those international markets.

"At the minute those markets are still looking at us and we have to be very confident about how we're messaging NI over the next year or so.

"I think the next six months, the next year, is going to be very challenging, I would like to see tourism as one of the key sectors for regrowth and investment. I would like to see investment in that. There are so many jobs that are associated with the tourism industry and we need to see it as a catalyst for regrowth."

She says Titanic Belfast has carried out extensive research on how to draw in the staycationers. Even the Titanic Belfast shop has been redesigned and restocked, bringing in items that the local market is expected to prefer.

"The tourists from the international market buy a lot more clothing but our local market prefers small items of memorabilia so that's what we have brought in.

"There are lots of different types of gifts to people who want to treat to themselves to something a little bit special.

"Our cafe is now takeaway only but we have some new picnic benches outside, and people can also bring their own picnic down and enjoy the slipways where Titanic was built."

Judith grew up in Holywood with her dad Jim and mother Pat but has now lived in east Belfast for 25 years. She lives with husband David and their daughter, Grace, who's 18. She's had a varied career, and worked in media sales at the Belfast Telegraph and later UTV, before joining the Ulster Hall and Waterfront Hall.

Titanic Belfast secured a 25,000 grant from the NI Executive and is also talking to insurance brokers about a potential claim for the impact of Covid-19 on business. It has added up to a challenging time. "I have never worked harder in my life. When we opened Titanic Belfast I didn't take a day's leave for a year, I worked every day.

"Lockdown was so much more intense than that and I think it was because of how quick it seemed to happen, because one day we had a thriving business next day it was closed. We were trying to come to terms with working from home and leading a team and if I'm being honest, trying to save a business.

"It was awful. I was in the dining room and my husband would call it the bunker. I went in at 6am and 6.30m in the morning and I had to be pulled out at night. I'm really glad to be back in here at Titanic Belfast again."

Q&A: 'For me, it will always be a privilege to promote NI'

Q What piece of advice would you pass on to someone starting out in business?

A Work hard, stay grounded and focus on your goals. Never take success for granted as you never know what life can throw at you, which certainly rings true during this challenging time as we work to regrow our businesses following the impact of Covid-19.

Q What was your best business decision?

A When I took over as chief executive of Titanic Belfast, I made the conscious decision to get involved in the wider tourism industry, helping raise its profile and the needs of the sector, as well as building supportive networks for myself and our organisation. Over the last three years, tourism's voice has certainly become stronger and this decision has been invaluable, especially during this crisis and as we look towards recovery.

Q If you weren't doing this job, what would be your other career?

A I'm privileged to be where I am today and would not change my role. However, if I had the choice to go back and do it all again, I would consider taking a few years out to experience another culture before returning to Northern Ireland, I have never worked abroad for a considerable amount of time, despite travelling a lot as part of my role. I feel strongly about encouraging young people to study or work abroad and then return to be part of Northern Ireland's future.

Q What was your last holiday? Where are you going next, restrictions permitting?

A My last break was my annual ski trip with my daughter, a matter of weeks before lockdown. Whilst we have always enjoyed staycations, this year they are more than important than ever and I will be visiting Lough Erne, as well as a few day trips to support local businesses as they reopen.

Q What are your hobbies/interests/way to relax?

A According to my family, I can't sit still. However, I'm happiest experimenting in the kitchen, with a glass of red wine in hand.

Q If you enjoy reading, can you recommend a book?

A I haven't had the time to read recently but I have rediscovered audio books, recently I've listened to Lucy Foley's The Guest List and The Hunting Party.

Q Have you any economic predictions?

A The private sector will continue to be the most severely impacted by Covid-19 outbreak, with substantial job losses over the next six months. Any chances of the short sharp dip forecast at the beginning of this crisis have now been replaced with prolonged uncertainty and more gradual regrowth.

Q How would you assess your time in business with Titanic Belfast?

A I, like many of my team, have been completely immersed over the last eight years in developing Titanic Belfast as a product and as an organisation that contributed 60m of spend to Northern Ireland economy each year. Although it has been all encompassing it has been incredibly rewarding and I am more determined than ever to see our business and our industry bounce back over the next few years.

Q How do you sum up working in the tourism sector?

A At the moment, the industry is facing huge challenges but I am working alongside a group of highly motivated and inspiring individuals at Titanic Belfast, within the industry and in our tourism agencies, and for me it is and always will be a privilege to promote Northern Ireland every day.
The court said it would not allow the petitioners, who had referred to media interviews by retired DGP KL Gupta for seeking his removal, to cast aspersions on the inquiry commission.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday dismissed the pleas seeking removal of former high court judge Justice (retd) Shashi Kant Agarwal and retired Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) KL Gupta from the three-member inquiry commission set up to probe the killing of gangster Vikas Dubey in police encounter.

A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde said it would not allow the petitioners, who had referred to media interviews by Gupta for seeking his removal, to cast aspersions on the inquiry commission.

The panel will also probe the killing of eight policemen allegedly by the Dubey gang and the subsequent encounter of the gangster and five of his purported associates.

The bench, also comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, perused the media reports pertaining to interviews by Gupta and said the inquiry would not be vitiated as there are former judges of the apex court and the high court as part of the commission.

The top court was hearing two applications filed by petitioners Ghanshyam Upadhyay and Anoop Prakash Awasthi seeking removal of members of the commission.

The apex court had on 22 July approved the Uttar Pradesh government's draft notification for appointing former top court judge Justice (retd) BS Chauhan as the chairman of the three-member inquiry commission.

Eight policemen, including DSP Devendra Mishra, who were ambushed in Bikru village in Chaubeypur area of Kanpur when they were going to arrest Dubey and fell to bullets fired from rooftops shortly after midnight on 3 July.

Dubey was killed in an encounter on the morning of 10 July when a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur met with an accident and he tried to escape from the spot in Bhauti area, the police had said.

Prior to Dubey's encounter, five of his alleged associates were killed in separate encounters.

During the hearing, Upadhyay referred to media statements given by Gupta and claimed that it reflected his bias regarding the encounter.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Uttar Pradesh, argued that Gupta had said that there will be an inquiry into the incident. Mehta said there should be no controversy on this.

The bench, while perusing the media reports, observed that it cannot change a member of the commission like this because of the apprehension of the petitioner.

The bench said that Gupta had also made it clear in his statements that if any policemen will be found guilty, then they will be taken into task. "Why are you casting aspersions on them? Don't do this. We will not allow you to do this," the bench said.

The top court said that even in a trial, the charge sheet is accepted and accepting it does not mean that contents of the probe report have been believed by the court.

Awasthi told the bench that he has also filed an application seeking removal of Gupta from the commission.

On 22 July, the apex court had directed that the inquiry commission should start functioning within a week and the probe be concluded within two months.

The apex court had passed the order last week while hearing a batch of petitions which have sought court-monitored probe into encounters of Dubey and five of his alleged associates.

Some of the pleas have also sought probe into the killing of eight policemen on 3 July.

In an affidavit filed in the apex court earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government had said that it has constituted a three-member SIT, headed by UP additional chief secretary Sanjay Bhoosreddy on 11 July, to look into the crimes committed by the dreaded gangster and the alleged collusion between Dubey, police and politicians.

Mehta had earlier informed the court that Dubey, who was facing 65 FIRs, was released on bail. On June 20, the apex court had said that it is a failure of the institution that a person like Dubey got bail despite several cases lodged against him.

The Uttar Pradesh government, in an affidavit filed in the apex court in the matter, had said that the police party escorting Dubey from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh to Kanpur had to fire back in self-defence as he had tried to escape and was killed.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

A protest action in relation to a military provocation committed by the Armenian army in the direction of Azerbaijans Tovuz district in the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, as well as the continuing fact of the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories, was held in the US state of Minnesota on July 27, the State Committee on Affairs with Diaspora told Trend.

The action, which was held in the states capital, Saint Paul city, was organized by the Minnesota-Azerbaijan Association. A convoy of cars with the state flags of Azerbaijan, Turkey and the US, with posters containing various slogans, drove through the city streets, drawing public attention to the realities of Azerbaijan, the committee said.

Azerbaijani compatriots called on the US Congress, the world community and international organizations to take decisive steps to put an end to the occupation and aggressive policy of Armenia, to liberate the Azerbaijani lands from occupation and restore the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, said the committee.

Following several days of intense armed clashes, after Armenia made a gross ceasefire violation and launched attacks in the direction of Azerbaijan's Tovuz district, Azerbaijanis living abroad started staging peaceful protests, calling to put an end to Armenia's aggressive occupation policy.

The rallies were met with harsh response from the Armenian diaspora members.

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.
A Florida family has filed a police report after a neighbor left them a nasty racist note about their twin daughters, who graduated from high school with honors earlier this summer.

Xanah and Xarah Sproul excelled at their high school in Yulee, Florida, and upon their graduation, their proud parents hung signs from the front of their house congratulating them on the accomplishment.

But last week, a racist neighbor tried to diminish their joy by leaving a letter telling them to remove the 'hideous' posters of the 'ugly fat black [girls]' and urging them to leave the neighborhood.

Exciting! Xanah and Xarah Sproul graduated with honors from heir high school in Yulee, Florida this summer

Beaming! Their proud parents hung these signs from their home. Neighbors hung similar signs for their own children

Video courtesy of News4Jax

Xanah and Xarah were members of the National Honor Society at Yulee High School, and also served as section leaders for the school band.

In the fall, they have scholarships to attend Saint Leo University in Florida, where they were admitted to the honors pre-med program.

'They've been ridiculously hard-working girls ever since kindergarten,' their father, David, told BuzzFeed. 'They've always pushed for the best. As twins, especially, they work together and help each other.'

Proud of their accomplishments, David and his wife Toya hung posters of the girls in their marching band uniforms from the front of their home, adding signs with 'Senior Class of 2020' signs beneath them.

According to the family, several neighbors in their community hung similar signs outside their houses  but it seems that just the Sprouls' signs enraged a racist neighbor.

Disgusting: Last week, David Sproul found this note in their mailbox, demanding they 'take down those hideous posters of that ugly fat black [girls]

Hate crime: Mom Toya phoned the Nassau County Sheriffs Office to file a report

On Thursday, David found a typed, unsigned note in his mailbox.

'Don't you think enough is enough?' it read. 'It's time to take those hideous posters of that ugly fat black girl down off your house.

'What a disgrace to the neighborhood. In fact, your entire brood is a disgrace to the neighborhood. Consider moving to a "hood" of your kind. Your neighbors are watching you!'

The note naturally made he and his wife furious.

'You see all the things happening all across the country,' he told News 4 Jax. 'It's one thing when it's across the country, but it's absolutely different when it's literally in your own yard, literally in your own house.'

Toya phone the police and filed a report.

'They've been ridiculously hard-working girls ever since kindergarten,' their father said

Top of the class: Xanah and Xarah were members of the National Honor Society at Yulee High School, and also served as section leaders for the school band

There for them: The story has since spread through Twitter and news outlets, and the Sproul family has received support from their community and around the world

'We at the Nassau County Sheriffs Office do not tolerate racism and hate crimes in our county,' Undersheriff Roy Henderson said in a statement. 'This is out of character for Nassau County and we will continue to investigate this incident. We are proud of the Sproul twins accomplishments and hope to get to the bottom of this soon.'

The story has since spread through Twitter and news outlets, and the Sproul family has received support from their community  who placed a drive-by parade  and around the world.

David admitted that his teenage daughters 'hate all of this attention,' but he's glad that it shows them 'that there's more love than the hate that's out there.'

'We know we have a great support system and everyone is on our side so we will get over it and get justice,' Xanah said.
Perseverance will carry new tech to Mars that represents major technological advances since NASA's last rover  Curiosity  landed on the Red Planet in 2012.

Why it matters: These new experiments and technology demonstrations will fill in gaps in knowledge scientists have about the world and set up future robotic missions in the process.

Details: NASA's Ingenuity helicopter heading to Mars with Perseverance is a technology demonstration designed to autonomously fly through Mars' thin atmosphere as a proof of concept for a full-scale mission in the future.

"After receiving commands from Earth relayed through the rover, each test flight is performed without real-time input from Mars Helicopter mission controllers," NASA wrote in a fact sheet.

Perseverance will also record sounds from the surface of Mars and during its landing once it arrives about seven months after launch.

The scientific tool will allow scientists to listen in as the rover performs its tasks and possibly aid in experiments as Perseverance uses its powerful laser to investigate the composition of Martian rocks.

Perseverance's SHERLOC instrument, which is mounted to the rover's robotic arm, will search for organic compounds and possible biosignatures on Mars while also testing out pieces of spacesuit fabric for future human missions.

The big picture: All of these instruments will give scientists a more comprehensive look at Mars than they've had in the past, adding to the data collected by other rovers, landers and orbiters over the decades.

What to watch: Perseverance and all of its technological goodies are expected to leave for Mars Thursday at 7:50am ET from Florida atop a ULA Atlas V rocket.
COVID Update - Govt Advised to Not Unlock the Rock

Following the advice of the Director of Public Health and the Minister for Civil Contingencies, the Government has today said it will make an assessment this week of what posture will be able to be taken from the 1st of August.

The current advice is that the Government should not move to Rock Unlocked.

A further announcement on the posture for August will be made on Friday 31st July at 11:00am.

'It is likely that Gibraltar will remain in Phase 6 with certain modifications.'

In its social media update, Government explained that it continues to take advice on whether mask wearing should be made compulsory, at least in enclosed areas.

"The Government does not currently envisage a further lockdown and does not envisage difficulties at the frontier."

"The key to successfully Unlocking the Rock will be your help and your support."

Tests are available to anyone with a GHA Health Card who is over 16 years of age at the walk in mobile testing centre. The schedule for the rest of the week is as follows:

Tuesday 28th July 8:00am to 12:00pm - The Caleta Hotel

Wednesday 29th July 8:00am to 12:30pm  Piazza

Thursday 30th July and Friday 31st July 7:30am to 12:30pm  Morrisons Supermarket

Saturday 1st August 7:30am to 11:30am  Morrisons Supermarket.
Storyful

A security camera captured the moment a driver careened off a road and onto a frozen river in Ontario, Canada, on January 16.This footage, captured by Sacha Geras security camera in their backyard, shows the yellow car speeding across the ice of the Rideau River in Manotick.According to local news reports residents came to the rescue, using kayaks to pull the driver from the sinking vehicle.Ottawa Police said there were no injuries, but warned locals to remain vigilant while driving during winter. Credit: Sacha Gera via Storyful
WINDSOR, Ont. - The mysterious, low-frequency noise that plagued the city of Windsor, Ont., for nearly a decade has finally quieted down after a steel factory just outside neighbouring Detroit halted its operations indefinitely.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/7/2020 (541 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Transport trucks and other vehicles are seen near the Ambassador Bridge at the Canada/USA border crossing in Windsor, Ont. on Saturday, March 21, 2020. The mysterious, low-frequency noise that plagued the city of Windsor, Ont., for nearly a decade has finally quieted down after a steel factory across the border halted its operations indefinitely. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Rob Gurdebeke

WINDSOR, Ont. - The mysterious, low-frequency noise that plagued the city of Windsor, Ont., for nearly a decade has finally quieted down after a steel factory just outside neighbouring Detroit halted its operations indefinitely.

The so-called "Windsor Hum" has been the subject of intense speculation by governments and journalists on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border since 2011, when an investigation by the Canadian government first documented its existence.

Although the origin of the hum was initially up for debate, research in recent years pinpointed the culprit as a U.S. Steel facility on Zug Island, just across the river from Windsor's west end.

At the end of last year, U.S. Steel announced it would be significantly scaling back operations at its Great Lakes facilities  including Zug Island  starting on April 1, citing a need to stay competitive in a changing market.

According to Colin Novak, the lead researcher on Canada's 2013 flagship study into the hum, the noise has practically vanished since the decision to idle the plant was made.

"There's no reports that I am aware of showing the continued existence of the hum," Novak said.

"Some people may say otherwise, but I haven't heard it for almost a year."

In December, a city councillor for the town of Lakeshore, Ont.  just a few kilometres outside of Windsor  posted on social media that he had received complaints from residents about the hum, and added that he would be following up with the Ontario Ministry of Environment.

However, the ministry told The Canadian Press there is no merit to the claims.

"The ministry is aware of recent media reports suggesting some residents living in the Town of Lakeshore are hearing noise/vibrations. Since 2018 there have been two reports received by the ministry and neither was from the Town of Lakeshore area," spokeswoman Lindsay Davidson said in an email.

Novak explained that the hum was being generated by the facility's blast furnaces running at a higher-than-normal capacity, causing the metallic foundation of the plant to reverberate intensely.

Similar phenomena have been documented across the world: in the U.S., there are cases in Taos, N.M., and Kokomo, Ind., while internationally, the next most famous hum was documented in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2006.

In all instances, the hum has been described as more of a feeling than a sound  a general sense of uneasiness and reverberation through one's body.

That's because the hum usually comes in the form of a frequency lower than 30 hertz, which is the bottom end of humans' natural hearing ability. These type of "infrasounds" are typically quite hard to detect.

Sometimes sustained infrasounds like the hum can be observed via the subtle shaking of windows and walls in affected zones, but research usually requires microphones and recording equipment to accurately capture the noise.

Science says infrasounds are unlikely to cause hearing damage, but they can be particularly irritating to those who are sensitive to stimulus and acoustic reverberation.

"It's not about what you hear, it's about what you feel.... It is literally vibrating your organs, even though most people won't be able to verbalize it that way," Novak said.

When asked whether the noise had the potential to return, Novak said he thinks U.S. Steel will permanently relocate major operations from Zug Island to a facility that is newer and less costly to maintain.

For years, the Zug Island facility has remained shrouded in secrecy, with both U.S. and Canadian government bodies being unable to get the manufacturing company to address the issue.

But recently, U.S. Steel was reprimanded by Michigan's Department of Environment after reportedly violating numerous emissions and pollution regulations between August 2017 and June 2019.

The citations included exceeding visible emission limits, exceeding emissions of hydrochloric acid, degradation of local air quality, and failure to maintain and replace the facility's air filters, also known as "scrubbers."

In May, the company was ordered to pay $79,227 directly to the state, as well as another $300,000 for a supplemental environment project in which the company is required to demolish one of Detroit's crumbling ice rinks and completely clean the area of contaminants.

by Jake Kivanc in Toronto

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2020.
Group says firms linked to former campaign manager Brad Parscale masked millions in payments in violation of laws.

President Donald Trumps re-election effort allegedly hid nearly $170m in spending from mandatory public disclosure by routing payments through companies tied to his former campaign manager, a government oversight group claimed on Tuesday.

The use of firms linked to former campaign manager Brad Parscale masked the ultimate recipients of the money, which the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) described as a laundering effort that violates election law, according to a complaint the group filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Trump communications director Tim Murtaugh disputed the allegations and said the campaign complies with all campaign finance laws and FEC regulations.

Most of the payments by Trumps campaign committees were made to American Made Media Consultants, which has received at least $177m since 2018, according to FEC records. The other firm, Parscale Strategy, has collected at least $32m during that period, the records show.

Details on our new complaint in this thread from CLC's @brendan_fischer  https://t.co/qSajUdSILX  Campaign Legal Center (@CampaignLegal) July 28, 2020

The campaign said that American Made Media Consultants was formed to purchase advertising directly  and save money by not relying on middlemen. But records show the company instead acted as a clearinghouse for spending, while still using third-party vendors, which it was ostensibly created to avoid, the complaint states.

In at least two cases, outside firms owned by Trumps digital director Gary Coby appeared to have been the firm tapped to make purchases or develop digital communication products, though there is no record of payments made to Coby in Trumps campaign finance disclosures, according to the complaint.

Meanwhile, Parscale Strategy has been used to pay the salaries of some Trump re-election officials, including Lara Trump, the wife of Trumps son Eric, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Trumps eldest son, Don Jr, the complaint states.

Parscale, a political novice and ally of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, ran Trumps digital advertising in 2016 and was credited with helping bring about his surprise victory that year with micro-targeted online advertising campaigns on social media platforms such as Facebook.

Have never tweeted before, didn't plan to startbut Twitter is making me tweet something so they'll delete the people creating fake accounts. Lots of folks out there without a date on a Friday night, apparently. #MAGA  BillStepien (@BillStepien) July 18, 2020

Earlier this month, facing increasingly dismal poll numbers, Trump replaced Parscale as campaign manager with Republican operative Bill Stepien, who worked for former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and served as Trumps national field director in 2016.

Trump and Parscales relationship had been increasingly strained in the run-up to the change, with the president annoyed by the publicity Parscale had garnered in the role. But the final straw appeared to be a Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally last month that drew an unexpectedly low crowd of about 6,200 people after Parscale had bragged that more than a million people had requested tickets.

Parscale remains employed by the campaign as a senior adviser for digital strategy.

In a statement, Murtaugh did not address the salaries paid through Parscale Strategies. But he said that American Made Media Consultants is not paid a fee and does not earn a commission.

It builds efficiencies and saves the campaign money by providing these in-house services that otherwise would be done by outside vendors, Murtaugh said. The campaign reports all payments to AMMC as required by the FEC.

The media is a criminal network that has very few honest people. They have zero intention to tell the truth. I have seen so many live in fear of a negative story. I am happy I get to continue to fight with @realDonaldTrump against Americas biggest enemy, the media!  Brad Parscale (@parscale) July 17, 2020

Brendan Fischer, a lawyer with the CLC, said the campaign was improperly avoiding mandatory disclosure.

This illegal conduit scheme leaves voters in the dark about the entities working for the Trump campaign, the nature of their services and the full amount they are paid, Fischer said. We dont know all of what is being hidden by this scheme, but we do know that it violates the law.

While the CLC bills itself as a non-partisan organisation and was founded by a Republican who once worked on late Senator John McCains 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns, its work in recent years has tended to be on behalf of left-of-centre causes such as felons voting rights and voter suppression issues. Its leadership includes veterans of the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, and it received funding from ActBlue and the George Soros Open Society Foundations.

In any event, it is unlikely that the groups complaint will be taken up by the FEC before the election. The federal agency can take years to address complaints and it often deadlocks along partisan lines.

Earlier this month, one longtime commissioner announced she was stepping down, denying the FEC enough members to legally meet to conduct business.
Ministry leader questions John MacArthurs resistance to Calif. COVID-19 shutdown order

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A prominent ministry leader has expressed concern over megachurch pastor and author John MacArthurs decision to keep Grace Community Church open despite a state order.

Earlier this month, California announced that churches and other in-person public gatherings in 30 of its counties would be closed to help curb an uptick in COVID-19 cases.

MacArthur said that Grace Community would remain open despite the order, arguing that the state government had no right to interfere in ecclesiastical matters in a way that undermines or disregards the God-given authority of pastors and elders.

 we cannot and will not acquiesce to a government-imposed moratorium on our weekly congregational worship or other regular corporate gatherings. Compliance would be disobedience to our Lords clear commands, MacArthur stated.

 when any government official issues orders regulating worship (such as bans on singing, caps on attendance, or prohibitions against gatherings and services), he steps outside the legitimate bounds of his God-ordained authority as a civic official and arrogates to himself authority that God expressly grants only to the Lord Jesus Christ as sovereign over His Kingdom, which is the church.

Jonathan Leeman, editorial director of the ministry group 9Marks and an elder at Cheverly Baptist Church in Maryland, penned a column in response to MacArthurs announcement.

Leeman warned churches about following the actions of Grace Community, noting that while he respected some of what MacArthur had to say, he was concerned about certain conclusions.

One was that churches can still meet outdoors under the guidelines and that, in the past, churches have altered their worship patterns in light of national calamities due to government orders.

Churches in coastal cities during World War Two accommodated evening black-out requirements in case enemy planes hit the coasts. Those churches didnt insist the government had no right to restrict our worship, wrote Leeman.

In other words, just because you think God will ultimately vindicate your decision to disobey the government on the last day doesnt mean its wise. You might have other options that avoid undue attention.

Leeman also pointed to the increasing debate over LGBT issues and religious liberty, especially government mandated support for LGBT agenda items for Christian individuals and groups.

The politics of LGBT tells me our churches may have more occasions to defy government requirements in years to come. Do we want to spend down our capital on pandemics? he continued.

Right now, the guidelines restricting churches also restricts restaurants, movie theaters, museum, gyms, funeral homes, non-essential offices, shopping malls, barbershops, and more. As those restaurant and gym owners cast a glance over at our churches, will our refusal to abide by the same restrictions which are causing them financial distress help the witness of the gospel, especially if we could find other ways to comply, such as meeting outdoors?

Leeman added that while he is also concerned about the indefinite timeline provided by California on the restrictions, he was concerned that Graces stance implied that the church did not believe there is a real threat with Covid-19.

Again, that is a judgment call they are allowed to make. And that judgement call presumably stands behind their subsequent judgment call to disobey the government, he added.

Once more, my goal here is not to necessarily disagree with much less condemn either judgment. My goal is to open up a little space of Christian freedom for other churches to make different judgments, and then to encourage all of us to exercise patience and charity with one another and our churches as we make different decisions.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has garnered much criticism for his orders restricting in-person worship in his efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This included a ban on singing in church, believed to be a way in which the coronavirus can be spread. Three churches filed suit against the ban earlier this month.

When Newsom banned indoor worship services and small group meetings in as many as 30 counties earlier this month, two ministry groups filed suit in district court.

The Pasadena-based Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministries filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

The Governors orders impose disparately onerous prohibitions and numerical restrictions on religious gatherings in churches, and even on in-home Bible studies, worship meetings, and life groups, they claimed in the lawsuit.

And the Governor has imposed these draconian restrictions on Plaintiffs while openly celebrating and encouraging mass gatherings for protests. The Constitution demands more and so should this Court.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday disposed of the public interest litigation filed by an advocate from Mandya, seeking the transfer of the sedition case against Amulya Leona Noronha, a 19-year-old college student in the city, to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice HP Sandesh disposed of the petition, saying this is not a case for invoking extraordinary jurisdiction and entrusting it to the NIA for a probe, directing the magistrate court to cancel the bail granted to her or ordering a probe against the investigating officer for alleged delay in filing the charge sheet.

Amulya was arrested by the city police on charges of sedition for allegedly raising pro-Pakistan slogans during an anti-CAA rally held at Freedom Park on February 21. She was released on bail in June.

The petition was filed by H L Vishala Raghu on June 16. The single judge referred the matter to the division bench.

Accordingly, the matter was heard by the division bench headed by the Chief Justice and disposed of. The bench also recorded the absence of the counsel of the petitioner while passing the order.

In the petition, Raghu said there is a need to ascertain whether there is an advisory committee that was behind Amulyas speeches and whether it had any links to terror organisations.

The state government, meanwhile, has appointed I S Pramod Chandra as Special Public Prosecutor to argue the sedition case registered against Amulya, before the JMFC and sessions courts.
Between 50,000 to 100,000 people took part this past weekend in protests in Khabarovsk, Russia. The city of 600,000 on the Russian-Chinese border is the capital of the Khabarovsk region, which has 1.34 million inhabitants.

The demonstrations, the largest in the areas history, began on July 11 after the regions governor, Sergei Furgal, was arrested by the Russian secret service FSB and flown to Moscow. He has been charged with involvement in the murder of several local businessmen in 2004 and 2005.

Furgal is a businessman himself and politician of the far-right Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR). For two decades, the LDPR, which promotes Russian chauvinism and anti-immigrant sentiment in an effort to contain social discontent, has formed part of the nominal opposition to the Putin regime. De facto, however, it supports all of the Kremlins main policies. Furgal was elected over his rival from the ruling United Russia party in 2018.

The governor was arrested just days after a national referendum on a series of amendmentsthat enshrined far-right values in the Russian constitution and significantly strengthened the power of the Russian president over local authorities. Khabarovsk was one of two regions where the amendments were overwhelmingly rejected.

A rally in Khabarovsk on July 18

Anti-Kremlin protesters demanded that Furgal be tried in Khabarovsk and not in Moscow. Many carried signs saying, I am Furgal, Freedom for Furgal and Putin, you have lost my confidence. They chanted slogans, such as Putin resign, This is our region, We hate Moscow, Shame on the Kremlin!, Russia, wake up! and We are the ones in power! Many were carrying Russian flags and the blue-green-white flags of the Khabarovsk region. According to reports, protesters were drawn from different social layers, including businessmen, the middle class, and workers.

Speaking to journalists, demonstrators expressed anger over inequality and the federal governments infringement upon regional authorities and laws. Irina Lukasheva, a 56-year-old vendor, told the New York Times: There will be a revolution. What did our grandfathers fight for? Not for poverty or for the oligarchs sitting over there in the Kremlin.

Another resident told the Deutsche Welle, We hate Moscow. This hate began with the prohibition on cars that had the steering wheel on the right, which we used to be allowed to import cheaply from Japan. Now we have to pay high tariffs. Ever since this ban on cheap Japanese cars, the levels of popular support for the central government have gone down."

Businessmen from small- and medium-sized enterprises indicated that they were struggling to develop their companies because of federal laws that favor national companies in fishing and timber, in particular.

So far, police have not cracked down on protesters in Khabarovsk. One demonstrator told the German public broadcaster ARD that most law enforcement officers voted for Furgal and likely sympathized with the protests.

Political analyst Ilya Grashenkov told Deutsche Welle, These are protests against Moscow and against the heavy pressure that the Kremlin traditionally exerts on local politicians. Local elites fear for their livelihoods, and in this case, theyre showing solidarity with common people, who feel betrayed. He stated that the outcome could be a putsch in the Kremlin organized by disloyal elites.

The Kremlin has been scrambling to respond to the protests. Last Monday, Putin appointed Mikhail Degtyarev, also from the LDPR, as acting governor. In one of his first statements, Degtyarev declared that people dont have enough money to live and that his administration would try to regulate prices for utilities, which many inhabitants of Khabarovsk cannot afford.

Social discontent and anger over the Kremlins antidemocratic constitutional amendments are factors driving the protests, which are occurring under conditions in which the Russian oligarchy, like its counterparts elsewhere, has forced through a premature reopening of the economy even as the coronavirus continues to rip through the population.

With over 811,000 infections, Russia has the fourth highest number of cases in the world. Millions have either lost their jobs or are forced to work shortened hours and thus lose a substantial portion of their meager income. Hospitals have been devastated by the pandemic.

Warring factions of Russias ruling oligarchy seek to channel these sentiments into the dead-end of regionalism and nationalism. This is precisely the goal of pro-US opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been supporting the Khabarovsk protests and long advocated greater regional autonomy for Russias 80 regions. The LDPR, Furgals party, too has a history of building alliances with regional elites that seek greater independence from Moscow. Such forces have been deliberately fostered by US imperialism with the aim of further destabilizing the Putin regime from the right.

In the 1990s, conflicts within the rising oligarchy over the control of state assets and raw materials often took regionalist forms, especially in energy-rich regions like the Urals, Siberia and the Far East. The possibility of a secession of these regions has long been a topic of open discussion.

From its inception, a central aim of the Putin regime was to subordinate regional elites to federal control to prevent a breakup of the Russian Federation. However, as the economic and social crisis has deepened and the pressure of imperialism has increased in recent years, conflicts between Moscow and regional authorities have acquired a renewed intensity.

Russia is marred by huge regional disparities. While Moscow and a handful of regions with vast oil and gas resources, such as the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region, now have gross domestic products (GDP) that are equivalent to the Netherlands and Singapore respectively, other regions, especially in the North Caucasus, have GDPs that are closer to that of Congo or Honduras.

By contrast, the Russian Far East is home to some of the worst-off regions in the country, with poverty levels that can be as high as double the national average. While Khabarovsk is not among the poorest areas, it has recently been hammered by mass layoffs. And the region has the highest rate of depopulation among the areas that make up Russias Far East. A World Bank report from 2018 stated that [t]he sheer scale, scope, and starkness of spatial disparities in Russia are startling by any standard.

Any progressive challenge to the Putin regime must oppose the regionalism and nationalism that are fostered by the ruling elites and encouraged by US imperialism. To defend its social and democratic rights, the Russian working class must come to the fore as a unified and independent social and political force, and align itself with the millions of workers around the world that are now entering into struggle against capitalism.
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Coastal towns ravaged by unrelenting bushfires just six months ago are now suffering severe floods after days of wild weather.

A low pressure system off Australia's east coast brought 120km/h winds overnight and dumped more than 180mm of rain across several areas of New South Wales.

Dramatic pictures captured the extent of severe flooding, which forced some residents to evacuate and left about 14,500 homes and businesses without power.

The towns in Shoalhaven, on the NSW south coast, had only just began recovering from the bushfires, which left hundreds homeless.

'It's been a shocker. It's terrible we have to go through this all over again,' Shoalhaven City Mayor Amanda Findley told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.

A man is seen standing knee-deep in floodwater in the NSW South Coast town of Sussex Inlet (pictured on Monday) He is seen standing on the ironically named River Road

A massive low pressure system off Australia's east coast brought 120km/h winds overnight and dumped more than 180mm of rain across several areas (pictured, Sussex Inlet on Monday)

A house is seen surrounded by water (pictured on Monday) as the wild weather battered the town of Sussex Inlet

'This is actually our second flood since the bushfires.

'Around the Shoalhaven, the fact that another east coast low pressure system has landed upon us, people are just thinking what's next? Can we really take more of this?'

Australia's unprecedented summer bushfires burned through 18.6 million hectares of bushland, destroyed about 3,500 homes, claimed the lives of 34 people and is estimated to have killed more than one billion animals.

Small communities along the state's south coast were among the worst hit by the devastating crisis.

Shocking pictures show how floods have caused chaos for residents just months after bushfires (pictured, Rural Fire Service officers clear a tree in Shoalhaven on Tuesday)

SES crews and firefighters work to clear a road on the NSW South Coast after a large tree fell overnight (pictured on Tuesday morning)

Terrified residents were forced to flee their homes as a wall of fire beared down on them - now, they're fleeing another deluge after an evacuation order was put out on Monday night.

'At the moment the inundation is occurring around Sussex Inlet and Sanctuary Point,' Ms Findley said.

'Sussex Inlet was threatened by fire and they've had a terrible time of it.'

But so far there have been no reports of serious injuries.

'One thing in the Shoalhaven is that we know how our catchments react very well and we have very good warning systems in place,' Ms Findley said.

'With those warning systems in place, we did have a few people evacuated overnight at Sussex Inlet and we are expecting another peak again today at 2pm, so there may be some further evacuations taking place.'

Australia's unprecedented summer bushfires destroyed about 3,500 homes (pictured, a fire rages in Shoalhaven on December 3, 2019)

Small communities along the state's south coast were among the worst-hit by the devastating crisis (pictured, a fire raging near Ulladulla on December 5, 2019)

Crews from the RFS, NSW Fire and Rescue and are seen fighting a bushfire encroaching on properties near Lake Tabourie on the NSW south coast (pictured on December 3)

In other areas, parts of southeast Queensland saw the wettest July day in 15 years.

The Hunter Valley had flash flooding along with the Central Coast of NSW, which had 152mm of rain overnight.

Further south of Shoalhaven, Batemans Bay recorded 164mm of rainfall - the highest July total ever seen.

'Since midnight Saturday 25 July, NSW SES has received more than 2,000 requests for assistance,' a NSW SES Spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

'On the Central and South Coasts, we have received 33 calls for help from motorists stuck in floodwaters. It is important motorist remember not to drive through floodwaters, even if it looks shallow.'

A four wheel drive is pictured driving through flood water on the NSW South Coast town of Sussex Inlet (pictured on Monday)

A massive tree have been upturned after a low pressure system ravaged Australia's east coast (pictured in Sussex Inlet on Monday)

Although Ms Findley admitted the barrage of natural disasters has taken its toll on south coast residents, she said: 'We will pick ourselves up and dust off the mud.'

'We have a really resilient community who work really tightly together when it comes to times of crisis. '

Ms Findley has urged anyone struggling to cope, to reach out for help.

'People don't have to be stoic and they can reach out for mental health services.'

Residents in the region were told to 'leave now and move to safety' at 11pm on Monday as water levels rose past knee level in some areas.

The aggressive low pressure system will ease by Tuesday afternoon as it slowly makes its way off shore, but not before wind gusts reach upwards of 120km/h.

A car is seen stuck in flood water (pictured on Monday) in Sussex Inlet, which was only just beginning to recover from the bushfires

Sussex Inlet (pictured on Monday) had evacuation orders in place for some residents on Monday night thanks to widespread flooding

'Leave now, leave the high danger area and move to safety,' a statement from the State Emergency Service read on Monday night.

'Once floodwater enters low lying areas of Sussex Inlet, properties will be flooded above floor level, road access will be lost, sewerage lines and power to the area may be lost.

'If you remain in the area you may be trapped, and it may be too dangerous for NSW SES to rescue you.'

'This system is weakening in trend but is still significant,' BoM meteorologist Shuang Wang said.

'By evening there will only be a remnant along the coast as it moves east.'

Sunshine will return to Sydney by Wednesday, Ms Shuang said, with a maximum of 19 degrees and a ten per cent chance of rain.
Mayor Bill de Blasio shut down moped ride share company Revel Tuesday following the deaths of two riders in New York City in just ten days.

Jeremy Malave, 32, died in the early hours of Tuesday morning after crashing his Revel moped crash in Queens.

He became the second fatality linked to the hired scooters after the death of CBS reporter Nina Kapur, 26, who died while riding one without a helmet in Brooklyn on July 18.

Following the news Revel tweeted: 'New York riders - starting today, NYC service will be shut down until further notice. Were reviewing and strengthening our rider accountability and safety measures and communicating with city officials, and we look forward to serving you again in the near future.'

Mayor Bill de Blasio later confirmed the news, calling the two deaths 'unacceptable' and adding: 'I told Revel they cannot be open in this city unless they can make this service safe.'

Revel had already been forced to suspend 2,000 of its members in the past six weeks as the electric scooter ride share company moved to enforce its safety guidelines in the face of a dozen injury lawsuits filed in recent months.

Scroll down for video

Jeremy Malave, 32, left died in the early hours of Tuesday morning after crashing his Revel moped crash in Queens. He became the second fatality linked to the hired scooters after the death of CBS reporter Nina Kapur, 26, right, who died while riding one without a helmet in Brooklyn on July 18

Following the news Revel tweeted: 'New York riders - starting today, NYC service will be shut down until further notice'

Riders on Revel Scooters violate rider rules by driving without helmets in traffic in Manhattan on Tuesday before the shutdown started

Malave was said to have been driving alone in Queens at around 3:15am when he hit a light pole in a center median. He was found by medics with severe head trauma before being rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Reporter Kapur, originally from Newton, Pennsylvania, died in what is believed to be the first fatal accident involving a Revel. She was being driven by a 26-year-old man in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, who said he swerved to avoid a car pulling out of a parking spot, according to unnamed police sources.

Both Kapur and the driver were thrown onto the roadway, and it's believed neither were wearing helmets. They were taken to Bellevue Hospital where Kapur was pronounced dead.

The driver, whose relationship to Kapur was not immediately known, suffered only minor injuries, according to police sources.

Mayor Bill de Blasio later confirmed the news, calling the two deaths 'unacceptable' and adding: 'I told Revel they cannot be open in this city unless they can make this service safe'

Revel - a Brooklyn-based startup - which got off the ground two years ago recently expanded into Manhattan. Riders get access to the ride-share scooters for a one-time fee of $5 and are charged 35 cents per minute of driving time, Gothamist reported.

Passengers cost an additional $1. Revel provides an instructional video for all members upon signing up, as well as an in-person course, which is optional.

However, a lawyer representing several riders who ended up hurt after using Revel and are now suing the company, said people could be better prepared before mounting the scooters.

'With better training, with making sure [there's] better enforcement of helmet wearing, they can be, if done properly, a good thing for New York,' attorney Daniel Flanzig told Gothamist.

An image of the scooter Kapur was riding is pictured after the fatal crash on July 18

Kapur, originally from Newton, Pennsylvania, was being driven by a 26-year-old man in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, who claimed he swerved to avoid a car that was pulling out, according to unnamed police sources

Malave was said to have been driving alone in Queens at around 3:15am when he hit a light pole in a center median. He was found by medics with severe head trauma before being rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead

Two more people were hurt this weekend when a Revel scooter crashed into a pole in Manhattan's Inwood section.

A 30-year-old man driving the scooter was in critical condition and a passenger suffered a broken ankle when the scooter crashed on Wadsworth Terrace around 4.30am Saturday. Neither of them were wearing a helmet, WABC reported.

The driver was taken to New York Presbyterian Columbia Hospital, police said. He and the passenger were not identified.

Before Kapur's death, more than a dozen riders say they were injured while riding the moped, including a 38-year-old man who suffered a serious head injury and was left in critical condition.

Revel requires its riders to have a drivers license, obey traffic laws and wear a helmet.

A spokesperson told Gothamist that the company suspended 2,000 accounts in the past month and a half and is rolling out an in-app safety test this week that requires a user to confirm they've put on a helmet.

At least twelve lawsuits have been filed against the company. One of the cases filed by John Ruiz, claims he crashed while riding a Revel scooter in Brooklyn in September and broke a leg while breaking to avoid a jaywalker.

'My take on it was, if it was available on the app, it should have been properly functioning, which it wasn't. It was beat up,' Ruiz said, NY1 reported.

Revel riders get access to the ride-share scooters for a one-time fee of $5 and are charged 35 cents per minute of driving time. A lawyer representing people who injured while riding the scooters who are suing Revel said the company should provide more training. Revel riders pictured in Manhattan Tuesday without helmets before the shutdown started

Moped ride share company Revel said Tuesday it would be suspending its service in New York City following the deaths of two riders. An unidentified Revel rider is pictured riding in Manhattan Tuesday

The case alleges that the scooter's tires 'were balancing and needed replacement and the brakes were not properly working.'

Fanzig said he has four additional complaints of people suing Revel.

One of the cases filed in January was from a woman who said she was hurt while training to ride a Revel.

Revel has denied the woman's claims in court documents, and has asked her to seek relief in arbitration.
A first effort at regional diplomacy by ECOWAS mediators already had failed to bring an agreement from the parties, prompting Mondays summit held by video conference because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was not immediately clear what action the opposition might take now, but they have agreed to put protests on hold in this predominantly Muslim country until after the holiday of Eid al-Adha expected later this week.
Amid growing global hostility against China, analysts suggest US and Australia may discuss growing Chinese agression against neighbours, especially in the Indo-Pacific region, role in the spread of Covid-19 in Australia-US Ministerial Consulations to be held in Washington DC on Tuesday.

Amid Chinas expansionist and aggressive policies, Australian-US Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) will take place on Tuesday to discuss a range of issues including COVID-19 pandemic and the South China Sea.

According to South China Morning Post, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne and Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds arrived in Washington DC on Monday ahead of the talks, as both countries have hardened their stances towards Beijings increasingly aggressive policy in the Asia-Pacific.

During the meeting, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper and their Australian counterparts are likely to discuss both the coronavirus pandemic and Chinas activities in the South China Sea.

Also read: China retaliates Houston: US flag lowered at consulate in Chengdu

Also read: Visa restrictions on Chinese employees supporting regimes engaged in human rights abuses: Mike Pompeo

Ahead of their departure, Payne and Reynolds issued a joint statement highlighting coercive actions in the South China Sea and the new national security law in Hong Kong undermining the rights, freedoms and futures of millions of people, South China Morning Post reported.

Though the leaders did not mention China in their statement, they reportedly discussed the rise in cyberattacks, disinformation about COVID-19 and moves by the authoritarian governments to stop open and secure internet.

Payne said that one-on-on meetings were essential to address strategic challenges and advance our shared interests in a secure, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific.

With AUSMIN, both Australia and the US wish to move closer to a unified and tougher stance on China as relations between them and Beijing continues to worsen.

Australia, which recently unveiled a new defence strategy backed by a 40 per cent rise in military spending, last week joined its treaty ally in formally declaring Chinas expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea to be illegal, according to South China Morning Post.

Also read: China pressurises Vietnam to compensate companies operating in South China Sea

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The time of day soon wont factor into whether hunters can kill feral hogs, nutria and other critters the state calls outlaw quadrupeds.

A new law signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards and taking effect Saturday allows licensed hunters to shoot certain invasive and nuisance animals at night during the entire year on private property. State regulations had limited the hunting of these animals, which include coyotes, armadillos and beaver, to daylight hours. The new law also allows hunters to kill first and report later. Previously, a hunter had to get permission before hunting a problem animal at night.

The rule changes may be especially helpful in curbing the growth of feral hogs, which tend to be more active at night. Descendants of domesticated pigs, feral hogs have caused widespread destruction of croplands and coastal wetlands. Theyre also blamed for gobbling up imperiled species of salamanders and turtles, and raiding the nests of shorebirds, wild turkeys and alligators.

In Louisiana, feral hogs number around 700,000  more than the combined human populations of New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Hunting, poisoning, trapping and other control measures arent doing nearly enough to reduce the hogs numbers. During the past hunting season, more than 213,000 feral hogs were killed. Thats up from the previous year, but not even close to the nearly 500,000 hogs scientists say would need to be killed each year just to maintain a static population.

The rule changes wont fix the hog problem, but they'll help, said Jim LaCour, a state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries veterinarian and feral hog expert.

Itll remove some of the regulations and allow more opportunities (to hunt hogs), which is a good thing, he said.

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Hog hunting had been limited to daytime to curb potential illegal deer hunting.

But we have so many pigs now, and we need to do what we can to make it easier to shoot them, LaCour said.

The old rule limited opportunistic hunting, such as when a farmer happened to spot a hog in a sugar cane field, or if a property owner heard hogs rummaging in the trash. Those hogs would have gotten away because shooting them wasnt pre-approved.

Now, if you walk out of your camp and there are hogs on your property, you can shoot one, LaCour said. Then you just pick up the phone, call the sheriff and say you shot a hog.

The rule changes will also help hunters who kill hogs as a service to property owners. During deer season, hog hunters helping with land management had to get a special permit to hunt hogs at night.

It was an extensive permit application that required maps of properties and other things, and that made things somewhat limiting, LaCour said. It wont be as much of a burden now.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 04:19:00|Editor: huaxia

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Moroccan Minister of Health Khalid Ait Taleb speaks during a press conference in Rabat, Morocco, on July 27, 2020. Khalid Ait Taleb warned that the spread of COVID-19 in Morocco is becoming a big concern given the surge in infections in the past week. (Photo by Chadi/Xinhua)

RABAT, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Morocco registered 609 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the tally of infections in the North African country to 20,887, the health ministry said.

The total recoveries increased by 115 to 16,553, while the death toll from the virus rose by three to 316 in the last 24 hours, said Mouad Mrabet, coordinator of the Moroccan Center for Public Health Operations at the Ministry of Health, at a press briefing.

In addition, 13,251 contacts with the coronavirus patients are still under medical surveillance, while 72 patients are in intensive care units.

Earlier in the day, Moroccan Minister of Health Khalid Ait Taleb warned at a press briefing in Rabat that the spread of COVID-19 in Morocco is becoming a big concern given the surge in infections in the past week.

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 help Morocco fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

China's Guizhou Province also donated 15,000 surgical gloves, 20,000 medical masks and 2,000 protective suits to help protect Moroccan medical workers fighting the pandemic.
China Launches Propaganda for Recognition of Disputed Maritime Claims

By Ralph Jennings July 27, 2020

Chinese scholars have had scores of reports published in internationally recognized scientific journals containing a mention of their country's 'nine-dash line,' the core of its claim to the hotly contested South China Sea, an American research institution said this month.

China is using the journal pieces to promote its claimed demarcation line, Vietnamese scholar Nguyen Thuy Anh wrote in a July 15 article for the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative under the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Journal articles are just China's latest effort to publicize its nine-dash line for a wide global audience in hopes that the constant reminders will legitimize its claim over the claims of other countries, analysts say.

Maps, globes, postcards, T-shirts, video games and at least one blockbuster film influenced by China refer to the line as well. China has churned out those items for at least 10 years.

"If you do slap a nine-dash line on say DreamWorks movies that get localized and distributed around the world, it does I think send a subtle message that (the) default world view should be that the nine-dash line is real and legitimate," initiative director Gregory Poling said.

Nguyen, a research fellow at the East Sea Institute of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, found 260 articles using the nine-dash line in 20 "prominent" scientific journals owned by various publishers, her report says.

China vies for maritime sovereignty in the South China Sea with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. At stake is a shared 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea valued for fisheries, energy reserves and commercial shipping lanes.

Beijing claims about 90% of the waterway and has angered weaker neighbors over the past decade by landfilling tiny islets in the sea for military, economic and scientific use.

China refers to the nine-dash line to back its sovereignty claim. The line, literally composed of nine thick dashes, swings south from the Chinese mainland, across waters east of Vietnam, near the north coast of Borneo, and back along the Philippine island of Palawan toward Taiwan. The thickness of lines plus the spaces between them make China's actual claims vague, analysts have said.

Propaganda and constant reminder

Chinese officials as well as private firms show the nine-dash line in passports, books, online games and tourist brochures, Nguyen said in her report.

In cinema, the most internationally memorable example was a scene from "Abominable," an animated movie made by China-based Pearl Studio and America's DreamWorks Animation. The film was banned in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam last year because of the scene.

Vietnamese officials in 2018 denounced the arrival of 14 Chinese tourists who flew into the Southeast Asian country wearing T-shirts showing the disputed line. Five years earlier Philippine booksellers quit selling made-in-China globes showing the Chinese demarcation line.

The government in China, a major exporter of globes, last year published a notice aimed at ensuring that any map-bearing materials make the Chinese "position on territory clear to the international community," state-controlled media outlet Global Times online said.

'Target audience'

China is aiming these materials at a "target audience" of Arab, African, and other "third countries" rather than Western consumers, Poling said. A student doing research in Africa, he said, would see probably the nine-dash line on a globe and not question it.

Few world consumers know what the line means, said Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines.

"Most of them don't notice it, because they're not really familiar with South China Sea issues, meaning this goes over their heads," Batongbacal said. "That's why China is doing this. It's like a subtle propaganda effort, which they will use later on to say the nine-dash line is well known to everybody because it's in all these products and articles and whatnot."

China cites historical records to support its maritime claim. In 2016 a world arbitration court ruled against the claim's legal basis in the South China Sea. Southeast Asian countries that assert their maritime sovereignty, sometimes sparring with Chinese vessels in the contested sea, normally rely on 370-kilometer-wide exclusive economic zones extending from their coasts.

People offshore and on are supposed to pay attention to the nine-dash line merchandising, said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei. The Chinese government regularly reminds citizens of its achievements overseas to drum up support for the state and ruling Communist Party.

"Its actions of this type actually have two points  one is to approach the international community and promote that the PRC has had the whole South China Sea forever, but another point of course is for what amounts to domestic patriotic education," Huang said.

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Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly took snaps of topless young girls as a 'hobby' and kept them in a photo album at pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's Florida mansion, shocking unearthed court documents reveal.

A witness also claimed Maxwell kept a collection of sex toys in a closet at the $22 million property in Palm Beach and detectives searching the home found a purple 'Jelly A**l Wand' and 'double ended' dildo.

Maxwell, 58, currently faces trial over criminal child sex trafficking charges in New York, having been accused of procuring girls as young as 14 for Epstein to abuse.

The former British socialite has pleaded not guilty and has denied any wrongdoing.

A judge last week ordered the unsealing of a vast tranche of documents related to Maxwell and Epstein from a defamation case brought by Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre in 2015.

Judge Loretta Preska said that 80 documents - which will run to hundreds of pages - should be made public within a week.

The documents could include details about Maxwells sex life that her lawyers have previously tried to stop from being released, relating to a seven-hour, 418-page deposition Maxwell gave that her legal team said was extremely personal, confidential.

Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly took snaps of topless young girls as a 'hobby' and kept them in a photo album at pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's Florida mansion, shocking unearthed court documents reveal

A witness also claimed Maxwell kept a collection of sex toys in a closet at the $22 million property in Palm Beach and detectives searching the home found a purple 'Jelly A**l Wand' and 'double ended' dildo

Maxwell shared her alleged twisted hobby for nude 'art' with pedophile Epstein who had photos of naked girls and women - including Maxwell - plastered all over his mansion. Pictured: A woman who appears to be Maxwell posing nude on a beach at Epstein's Florida home

Among the original documents which were unsealed in 2018 was the eye witness account of Epstein's former maintenance worker and butler, Juan Alessi. Alessi told Roberts' lawyers in a sworn deposition that Maxwell had an album full of photos of young girls including some who were topless

The documents filed on Monday also claim prosecutors may have 'Highly Confidential Information', which includes 'nude, partially-nude, or otherwise sexualized images, videos, or other depictions of individuals.'

Among the original documents which were unsealed in 2018 was the eye witness account of Epstein's former maintenance worker and butler, Juan Alessi.

Alessi told Roberts' lawyers in a sworn deposition that Maxwell had an album full of photos of young girls including some who were topless.

She had an album full of photographs of people, young girls,' he said in the 2016 deposition. 'And I remember that she had. Like a hobby... It was some girls were topless [sic], taking the sun.

Juan Alessi, 70, (pictured) worked for Epstein from 1990 to 2002. He claimed that probably over 100 alleged massage therapists came to Epstein's Palm Beach home

Maxwell shared her alleged twisted hobby for nude 'art' with pedophile Epstein who had photos of naked girls and women - including Maxwell - plastered all over his mansion.

Alessi also claimed in his deposition that he discovered sex toys including a 'double-ended dildo' in the massage room of Epstein's Palm Beach mansion.

The 70-year-old, who worked for Epstein from 1990 to 2002, claimed that probably over 100 alleged massage therapists came to Epstein's Palm Beach home.

According to excerpts of a 2005 police report, also seen by DailyMail.com, undercover officers had Epstein's property under surveillance in April that year.

On October 3, 2005 one officer was at the now infamous 358 El Brillo address in Palm Beach and observed a sanitation worker removing trash, according to the document obtained by DailyMail.com.

The officer then followed the worker and pulled his truck over, seizing the trash he'd collected and taking it to the Palm Beach Police Department to sift through it.

'Inside one of the white in color bags, I located a broken piece of hard plastic and clear acrylic stick, which was shaped with small ridges. This device is commonly used as a sexual toy,' he wrote in the report.

According to excerpts of a 2005 police report, also seen by DailyMail.com, undercover officers had Epstein's property under surveillance in April that year

On October 3, 2005 one officer was at the now infamous 358 El Brillo address in Palm Beach and observed a sanitation worker removing trash, according to the document obtained by DailyMail.com.

In another excerpt from the same report the officer said he searched online to identify the 'purple item' he retrieved from the trash pull.

'The item was similar in description as the one described by (ANONYMOUS EPSTEIN VICTIM) and used by Epstein,' he wrote.

The officer contacted a sex toy retailer called spicygear.com and sent the owner a photo of the item.

'He identified the items as a Jelly A**l Wand of some sort,' the documents state. 'The item is easily available at sex shops in South Florida.'

Epstein victim Roberts sued Maxwell in 2015 for defamation because Maxwell accused her of lying.

In court filings Roberts said that Maxwell recruited her and other girls into a sex trafficking ring for politically connected and financially powerful people.

In her lawsuit Roberts claimed that massage was a code word for sex used by Maxwell and Epstein.

'I would find things like a dildo, it's called a double. I hate to say it because these ladies. But I find these things, put my gloves on, took it out and rinse it, and put it in Ms. Maxwell's closet,' Alessi allegedly told the lawyers in 2016.

Because I knew thats where they were kept.

The then-maintenance man also claims he saw a 'shiny black costume' in Maxwell's closet that he believed was used for sex.

Alessi gave an interview in May claiming that Prince Andrew attended naked pool parties at Epsteins House of Sin and was a regular guest and recipient of massages from underage girls at the Palm Beach mansion

Alessi also claimed in his deposition that he discovered sex toys including a 'double-ended dildo' in the massage room of Epstein's Palm Beach mansion

Alessi allegedly told the lawyers in 2016. Because I knew thats where they were kept. The then-maintenance man also claims he saw a 'shiny black costume' in Maxwell's closet that he believed was used for sex

Now 36, mother-of-three Roberts lives in Australia and goes by her married name Virginia Giuffre.

The defamation case was settled in 2017 for an undisclosed sum but media organizations sued for documents in the case to be made public.

The infamous Palm Beach property has now been listed for sale for $22 million as part of the sell-off of the late pedophile billionaire's assets by his estate, which recently opened a compensation fund for his alleged victims.

Alessi gave an interview in May claiming that Prince Andrew attended naked pool parties at Epsteins House of Sin and was a regular guest and recipient of massages from underage girls at the Palm Beach mansion.

The former handyman told UK newspaper The Mirror that the pool would often be full of naked women, but they would put their clothes on when they came in the house.

In 2005 Alessi also gave a sworn statement to Palm Beach Police that Andrew spent weeks with us and slept in the main guest bedroom, the blue room, of the Palm Beach residence.

In his May interview, Alessi said he met Prince Andrew twice at Epstein's mansion and he never saw the Duke of York taking part in any improper sex acts, but told the newspaper that the prince should speak to the FBI.

Ghislaine should face justice. I hope they get her. I hope Prince Andrew, as a father himself, does the right thing too,' he said.

Alessi added that he was tasked with paying some of the women.

Now 36, mother-of-three Roberts lives in Australia and goes by her married name Virginia Giuffre. The defamation case was settled in 2017 for an undisclosed sum but media organizations sued for documents in the case to be made public

I used to go to the bank, withdraw $10,000, he said. Id pay them out of petty cash and fill out a receipt. I wish Id known what they were really being paid for. He swore them to secrecy, threatened them if they ever told.

Alessi also said that Roberts secretly visited him a few months ago and explained to the former butler what had happened to her.

He claims to have challenged his former employer on one occasion and is glad that he has broken his silence on Epstein, who he calls a coward.

The probe into Epstein in 2005 started when a woman from West Palm Beach claimed her 14-year-old daughter had been lured to the mansion and ordered to strip to her underwear while she massaged Epstein.

The financier ultimately pleaded guilty to a single charge of soliciting an under-age prostitute under a sweetheart deal that saw him serve just 13 months in prison and required him to register as a sex offender.

Everything resurfaced in 2018 when the Miami Herald published a report about the plea deal, sparking an onslaught of allegations that led to Epstein being charged again last summer.

He died by apparent suicide in his Manhattan jail cell on August 10 while awaiting trial.
As Unlock 2.0 ends on July 31, it remains to be seen whether states resort to extension of lockdown in parts that are witnessing a surge in new cases of COVID-19. In the case of Mumbai, the city saw its lowest single-day spike in fresh cases on July 28.

This, even as states like West Bengal have announced the extension of complete lockdown in containment zones until August 31. Other states have also resorted to partial lockdowns in cities and districts with a relatively higher caseload.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray recently expressed his reservations against a hurried lifting of the coronavirus lockdown in the state. He reportedly said he isn't US President Donald Trump and hence can't see his people suffer.

On the subject of the pandemic-led lockdown, CM Thackeray cautioned Mumbaikars. He said even as the city was making some progress in its fight against the virus, people should not let their guard down as yet. His views were also shared by his son Aaditya, who took to Twitter earlier today to highlight that Mumbai has reported 700 fresh cases today, a news he called "a major relief after 3 months".

Aaditya Thackeray did however reiterate the need to remain cautious as he said, "Caution: dont let the guard down! Dont let your mask down! Only get numbers down!"

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

Industry bodies like the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) have recommended easing the prohibitions across some sectors during Unlock 3.0  a calibrated exit from the COVID-19 induced lockdown.
Canadas foreign policy has strayed from its traditional path, losing the traction it once had on the world stage.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/7/2020 (540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Canadas foreign policy has strayed from its traditional path, losing the traction it once had on the world stage.

Canadas last two attempts to secure a seat as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council failed. Our international standing as a neutral middle power and an honest broker has lost its shine. Our reputation has slipped with many developing countries.

Our foreign policy is in urgent need of a reset. Its time to reclaim Canadas traditional place as a major global player. We need to up our game as a global advocate for fairness, equitable treatment and human rights. We need to stand out as a role model for the elimination of racism and discrimination.

With the world facing a myriad of political, social and economic problems, the global stage needs more Canada, not less. But it also needs a Canada that speaks with old-fashioned Canadian identity. That identity once garnered the admiration of the international community of nations because Canada spoke from collective experiences and foundational values.

Our experiences as a colony of France and Britain contributed to our savoir faire on global issues. Colonial rule also gave us a special diplomatic currency with developing countries. Those experiences have allowed Canada to be an honest broker and peacemaker in international disputes. They allowed us to be a trusted neutral arbitrator in conflicts between superpowers and the developing world.

Canadas iconic image on the global stage was reflected in our core values, our humanitarian outreach and our diplomatic integrity. When Canada spoke, diplomats around the world listened. Canada was widely acknowledged for punching above its weight on foreign policy.

It started with John Peters Humphrey, a law professor at McGill University who was tasked by Eleanor Roosevelt to write the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Then came Lester B. Pearson, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his peacekeeping model in the Middle East that helped defuse the Suez Crisis.

It included Pierre Elliot Trudeaus unconventional diplomatic outreach to China and Cuba. Also of note was Brian Mulroneys relentless pursuit of sanctions against South Africa that ultimately resulted in the demise of apartheid.

Canada was also instrumental in establishing the International Criminal Court, proposed the treaty to ban anti-personnel landmines and helped to create the United Nations Responsibility to Protect initiative.

We need to reclaim our place through a renewed and innovative foreign policy that reflects our foundational Canadian values. It must underscore our commitment to human rights and trumpet our constructive engagement in global affairs. This foreign policy would embrace the diversity created in Canada, a country of the world and the world within a country.

Navigating the contemporary geopolitical landscape isnt going to be a walk in the park. The future is unfolding in a very tumultuous, unpredictable and uncertain manner. But never have the stakes been so high. We cant simply watch global events unfold. We have a valuable contribution to make and were up to the challenge.

The appointment of Bob Rae as Canadas ambassador to the United Nations is an opportunity for our foreign policy to undergo a course correction.

COVID-19 has forced us to embrace a model of governance that redefines federal-provincial relations  call it a collaborative confederation. This model resonates with our ambition for a renewed foreign policy. It allows the provinces to become partners in shaping our foreign policy.

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Provincial governments face hot-button issues directly related to Canadas foreign policy. These include the reopening of the Canada-United States border, the sale of our natural resources around the world, addressing climate change and diversifying our international trading partners.

Canadas effective diplomatic engagement is directly linked to our domestic prosperity. We are a trading nation, and our foreign policy empowers the provinces to succeed in international trade. Our success at creating jobs, growing our provincial and national economies, and maintaining our standard of living are direct reflections of the efficacy of our foreign policy.

Most countries scrutinize the character, integrity and ethics of our foreign policy before signing on to new trade agreements. Canadas foreign policy needs to reflect our status as a non-aligned middle power with considerable empathy for global grievances and support for international aspirations.

We need to rediscover that our diplomatic strength lies in our soft power, which embraces our principled approach and the power of persuasion.

Constantine Passaris is a professor of economics at the University of New Brunswick.

 Troy Media
MINSK -- Belarusian police have detained at least 11 journalists near the KGB security service building in the capital, Minsk, in the latest crackdown on the press ahead of the countrys upcoming presidential election.



The detentions on July 28 occurred as a representative of jailed presidential candidate Viktar Babaryka filed a petition with the KGB to change the terms of his arrest.



The representative, Maria Kolesnikova, was untouched by security forces, but several people were arrested outside the KGB building as they sought to file similar petitions to release Babaryka on his own recognizance.



According to Barys Haretski, deputy chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, 11 journalists were also detained while covering the event.



All but three were later released, he said on Facebook.



Among those detained were a journalist from Tut.by, four journalists from Belsat TV, two reporters from BelaPAN, a photojournalist from Russias TASS news agency, and Reuters journalists.



The Tut.by news website reported that security forces took the journalists to the Zavodskoye district Department of Internal Affairs to check their media accreditation.



The latest detentions have come just days after President Alyaksandr Lukashenka attacked both Russian and Western media outlets for their coverage of developments in Belarus.

He also called for those promoting mass disturbances to be expelled from the country because they "don't observe our country's laws."



Lukashenka faces mounting public pressure after 26 years in power and an energized opposition ahead of the August 9 presidential election in which he is seeking a sixth presidential term.



Hundreds of people, including activists and bloggers, have been detained or arrested as the government cracks down hard on rallies and demonstrations supporting opposition candidates, who were not registered by election officials.



On July 14 and 15, at least 17 journalists were detained while covering protests against the electoral body's decision to deny opposition presidential candidates Valery Tsapkala and Babaryka the ability to register in the upcoming election, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.



In June, Belarusian authorities detained at least 14 journalists for allegedly participating in unsanctioned protests, and in May, five journalists covering opposition candidates were detained.

Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has emerged as the opposition's main candidate against strongman Lukashenka.



She became a presidential candidate because her jailed husband, well-known vlogger Syarhey Tsikhanouski, was incarcerated after he openly expressed his intention to run for president.



Tsikhanouskaya is campaigning with the representatives of two opposition candidates who were denied registration as presidential candidates -- former Belgazprombank head Babaryka and prominent businessman Tsapkala.



Babaryka, who was viewed as a potentially potent rival to Lukashenka, was jailed in June on suspicion of money laundering, bribery, and tax evasion. He rejected the charges as politically motivated.

With reporting by Tut.by
MECOSTA COUNTY  State officials Tuesday moved the Grand Rapids region, which Mecosta County is located in, out of the high-risk category pertaining to COVID-19 because of a decline in new cases.

Mecosta County, however, confirmed one new case of coronavirus Tuesday, according to the District Health Department No. 10.

Tuesdays daily report from the health department brought Mecosta County's total to 46 cases.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer held a news conference Tuesday with some coronavirus-related updates.

The Grand Rapids region is averaging about 40 new cases a day.

The good news is the Grand Rapids region has seen a steady two-week decline in new cases, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the states Chief Medical Executive, said at the news conference. Today, we will be able to move them out of a high-risk category.

Each region in the state is now meeting the goal in testing for their region, she added.

Last week alone, 78 outbreaks were reported in the state, Khaldun said.

The outbreak statistics, listed by Khaldun, include:

 31% associated with nursing homes.

 22% associated with social gatherings.

 10% associated with work places.

 9% associated with restaurants.

In Osceola County, the Central Michigan District Health Department reported no new cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday, keeping the county's total at 59 cases.

Lake County also saw no new cases Tuesday, with the county total remaining at 15 cases.

The DHD No. 10 serves residents in Mecosta, Crawford, Kalkaska, Lake, Manistee, Mason, Missaukee, Newaygo, Oceana and Wexford counties.

This is Tuesdays breakdown of coronavirus numbers in the health departments jurisdiction:

Cumulative total:

 1,050 positive COVID-19 cases in the DHD No. 10s jurisdiction.

 86 positive cases in Crawford County

 34 positive cases in Kalkaska County

 15 positive cases in Lake County

 30 positive cases in Manistee County

 83 positive cases in Mason County

 26 positive cases in Missaukee County

 237 positive cases in Newaygo County

 441 positive cases in Oceana County

 52 positive cases in Wexford County

Deaths:

 22 deaths from COVID-19 in the DHD No. 10s jurisdiction. Deaths are included in the positive cases listed above.

 5 deaths in Crawford County

 4 deaths in Kalkaska County

 2 deaths in Mecosta County

 1 death in Missaukee County

 6 deaths in Oceana County

 4 deaths in Wexford County

Recoveries:

 574 recoveries from from COVID-19 in the DHD No. 10s jurisdiction (based on whether individuals are still alive 30 days past the confirmed date).

 58 recoveries in Crawford County

 18 recoveries in Kalkaska County

 6 recoveries in Lake County

 15 recoveries in Manistee County

 38 recoveries in Mason County

 24 recoveries in Mecosta County

 18 recoveries in Missaukee County

 159 recoveries in Newaygo County

 224 recoveries in Oceana County

 14 recoveries in Wexford County

As of Tuesday, there are 79,176 confirmed cases and 6,170 confirmed deaths in Michigan.
(Refiles to change slug, no changes to text)

WASHINGTON, July 27 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans and the White House plan to seek a reduction in emergency federal weekly unemployment benefits from $600 to $200 until states can handle a more complicated benefit formula, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

Democrats, who control the U.S. House of Representatives, have sought to keep the current federal benefit in place. Senate Republicans are expected to unveil their latest coronavirus relief plan later on Monday. (Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Tim Ahmann)
The Nigerian government said it has recovered over N800 billion in looted funds.

The government also said it has secured the conviction of over 1,400 persons.

The nations information minister, Lai Mohammed, stated this via a statement on Tuesday.

This administrations fight against corruption is as strong as ever, and we have the records to back up this claim, Mr Muhammed said.

This administration has recorded over 1,400 convictions, including high profile ones, and recovered funds in excess of N800 billion, not to talk of forfeiture of ill-gotten properties. This is no mean feat, he added.

Mr Muhammed also addressed the alleged corruption unearthed in agencies such as the anti-graft EFCC, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), and the Nigeria Social Investment Trust Fund (NSITF).

A civic group, ActionAid Nigeria, in a report on Tuesday, said the incessant corruption allegations in government agencies may stop Nigeria from achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The minister, in his statement, referring to the allegations, acknowledged the administration could have avoided its present predicaments but said the cases are still under investigation.

He added that many of the allegations had already been in existence in previous administrations.

Mr Mohammed described critics as naysayers for misinterpreting the current administration fight against corruption.

READ ALSO:

What the revelations of the past few weeks, especially the investigation of the nations anti-corruption czar, (Ibrahim Magu) have shown is that this administration is not ready to sweep any allegation of corruption under the carpet; that there is no sacred cow in this fight, and that unlike the PDP  we will not cover up for anyone, including the members of our party and government, who face corruption allegations.

Our fight against corruption is blind to party affiliation, position in government and any other consideration. If the nations anti-corruption Czar can be investigated, then the fight against corruption cannot be deemed to be fake, neither can it be said to be waning, he said.

Remember, the fight against corruption is not about loot recovery or convictions alone. We are also putting in place enduring institutional reforms that will deter acts of corruption, he added.
In addition to Dr. Bradley's patients in Savannah, Ga., the vaccine will be trialed by participants at nearly 100 clinical research sites across the country. The study, called the COVE (Coronavirus Efficacy) study , is a collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

"I'm overwhelmingly impressed by the speed at which Moderna was able to develop a coronavirus trial vaccine. We administered the first dosage to a participant this morning with great hope that this clinical trial will bring us closer to an approved preventative treatment for COVID-19," said Paul Bradley, MD, Principal Investigator at Meridian Clinical Research and Chief Medical Officer, Scripta Insights. "Our team will be working tirelessly to ensure a thorough Phase 3 clinical trial in the coming weeks."

Dr. Bradley serves as Principal Investigator at the Meridian Clinical Research site in Savannah, Ga. Meridian partners with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to research new drugs, medical devices, and diagnostics that could improve human health and wellbeing.

Dr. Bradley is also leading the fight on prescription drug pricing as Chief Medical Officer of Scripta Insights, a healthcare IT and data analytics company he co-founded. Scripta was born out of Dr. Bradley's frustration with the difficulties of getting his patients their medications, and seeing a lack of adherence when patients could not afford them. As he discovered that physicians like himself were blind to the real costs of drugs, he pulled together more than 50 practicing physicians to find a solution for overspending on prescriptions to get patients The Right Meds at The Best Price.

Scripta continues to be a doctor-led organization with Dr. Bradley at the helm of the company's P&T Committee of doctors and pharmacists, which has mapped every drug on the market to every possible way to save in the company's proprietary Drug Savings Database. Scripta now offers pharmacy-saving solutions and insights to self-insured employers, consultants, TPAs, health plans and members. The company's proprietary Script.AI technology enables three key advances in pharmacy benefit cost containment: PBM optimization, data-driven plan design and member savings. Scripta has saved self-insured employers and their members millions of dollars on prescription drugs.

"We are so proud of the work Dr. Bradley does for us every day, relentlessly innovating strategies for lowering the cost of prescription drugs for self-insured employers and their members," said Eric Levin, CEO of Scripta Insights. "To see Dr. Bradley in this critical role of principal researcher for this historic Phase 3 trial only reinforces how fortunate we are to have him as part of team Scripta."

Dr. Bradley is a board-certified Internist and preeminent researcher. He has been practicing internal medicine at BCG Medical Group in Savannah for more than 29 years. Dr. Bradley is a frequent guest lecturer and author of numerous articles, as published in the nation's premier medical journals. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the Georgia Medical Society, and is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is a graduate of Tulane University and the Emory School of Medicine.

About Scripta Insights

Scripta Insights, a company founded by doctors, is using technology to create transparency, disrupt and improve the $300B self-funded pharmacy benefits marketplace.

Scripta is a cloud-based healthcare IT solution that delivers immediate, real savings on pharmacy benefit costs for self-insured employers, payers and their members. It empowers companies to take control of their pharmacy spend, while helping members get the medicine they need at the best possible price.

Scripta's proprietary software, Script.AI, was developed over a decade and is designed to analyze millions of pharmacy transactions in mere seconds to yield actionable insights. It uses data analytics, AI and expert insights from its P&T Committee to recognize savings opportunities that, until now, have been impossible to identify.

Scripta has saved employers and members millions of dollars on prescriptions.

For more information about Scripta, visit www.scriptainsights.com .

Media Contact:

Kristen Joerger, LKPR, Inc., [email protected], 603-494-3295

SOURCE Scripta Insights

Related Links

www.scriptainsights.com


A cow has been euthanised following a crash on State Highway 29, in the Lower Kaimai area. Police were called to the single vehicle crash at 9.19pm. A police spokesperson says the incident happened on the highway, where it intersects with Omanawa Road. The crash was between a ute and cow. The driver of the ute was not injured. However, the cow had to be euthanised.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) will readily use its experience in renewable energy projects for benefit of Azerbaijan, the Bank told Trend.

"Alternative energy sources such as hydro-power, wind and solar are enhancing the countrys potential in the energy sector, while also helping to address a number of environmental issues," said BSTDB.

The Bank said it will be looking forward for more renewable energy opportunities.

"BSTDB has accumulated substantial experience in renewable energy projects in other member countries, such as Bulgaria and Ukraine, and the Bank will readily use it for the benefit of Azerbaijan. It must be noted that the existence of an appropriate competitive environment and regulatory framework will be an important consideration in ascertaining bankability of such projects alongside their development impact," said BSTDB.

Azerbaijan prioritizes the use of renewable energy sources in the development of the energy sector. The country signed major contracts on pilot projects for construction of a 240 megawatt wind farm and a 200 megawatt solar power plant with Saudi Arabias ACWA Power company and UAEs Masdar company on January 9, 2020.

Presently, consistent steps to develop alternative energy are being taking in Azerbaijan.

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB), an international financial institution with headquarters in Thessaloniki, Greece, was established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

---

Follow the author on Twitter:@Lyaman_Zeyn
From Cosmopolitan

As coronavirus infection rates rise, it can be hard to keep track of which countries you have to quarantine for two weeks on return to the UK. Situations can feel so fast moving that what might feel like a 'safe' holiday destination one week, quickly becomes a riskier choice seven days later.

Health minister Helen Whately said the situation with all holiday destinations was under review, and countries were the situation was developing quickly would be removed from the 'safe list'. She told Sky News:

"We have to keep the situation under review and I think that is what the public would expect us to do. If we see rates going up in a country where at the moment there is no need to quarantine, if we see the rates going up, we would have to take action because we cannot take the risk of coronavirus being spread again across the UK."

The UK government is basing the safety of a country on the number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 - deeming any country with other 20 cases per 100k a risk.

Photo credit: Andreas Schulte-Beckmann / EyeEm - Getty Images

*It's worth noting the two-week quarantine rule aims to protect the United Kingdom against the spread of coronavirus, as opposed to being in place in an attempt to ruin holidays.

So, which countries do you currently not have to quarantine on return from?

From 4am on Sunday 25 October, the government have announced you will no longer have to quarantine when returning from:

The Canary Islands

Denmark

Mykonos

Maldives

Countries already on the no quarantine / safe travel list include the likes of:

Australia

Barbados

British Virgin Islands

the Channel Islands

Cuba

Cyprus

Fiji

Finland

Gibraltar

Germany

Greenland

Hong Kong

Ireland

Japan

New Zealand

Singapore

South Korea

St Lucia

Sweden

Thailand

Vietnam

SEE THE FULL LIST OF COUNTRIES HERE



Photo credit: Getty Images

As for the places you do have to quarantine on return from? Most recently, Liechtenstein was added to the list, meaning anyone returning after 4am on 25 October has to isolate for two weeks. Other places on the list include:

Story continues

SEE THE FULL LIST OF COUNTRIES HERE

Photo credit: Getty Images

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Vietnam confirmed seven more Covid-19 patients Tuesday evening, with five linked to the Da Nang Hospital, a coronavirus hotspot in the eponymous city.

The seven new patients have raised the number of cases caused by community transmission in Vietnam to 22 since Saturday, when the first such case was recorded in more than three months.

"Patient 432" is a 63-year-old woman who lives in Ai Nghia Town, Dai Loc District, Quang Nam Province, which neighbors Da Nang. She attended a wedding party at the For You Palace in Da Nangs Hai Chau District on July 18, an event where "Patient 416," Vietnam's first local infection in 100 days, was present. "Patient 432" tested positive on Monday.

"Patient 433," also a 63-year-old woman, resides in Quang Nams Dien Tho Commune, Dien Ban Town. From July 13-17, she took care of her mother at the Da Nang Hospitals Department of Neurology. Three days later she started coughing and running slight fever. She treated herself at home at first before going last Saturday to the provinces Vinh Duc General Hospital for further treatment. She tested positive three days later.

"Patient 434," 71, is a resident of Da Nangs An Hai Dong Ward in Son Tra District. She developed fatigue, fever and a cough last Sunday and went to Hospital No.99 (under the Ministry of Public Security) for treatment. She was transferred to the Son Tra Medical Center the same day, and test results showed her Covid-19 positive the next day.

"Patient 435," 29, resides in the same ward as "Patient 434." She is a staff at the Traditional Medicine Department of the Da Nang Hospital. She tested positive on Monday.

The other three patients, numbered 436, 437 and 438, are men aged between 56 and 66. One of them is a resident of Quang Nam and the other two live in Da Nang.

They are all patients who were undergoing treatment at the Da Nang Hopsital for other ailments. The hospital is now linked to at least 16 Covid-19 cases.

With the new additions, Vietnam now has 438 cases of Covid-19 and 69 of them are active patients after 369 have recovered, including four announced to be Covid-19 free Tuesday.

The latest recoveries are a Vietnamese man repatriated from Bangladesh, two Vietnamese women returning from Russia and a Russian expert coming to Vietnam on July 11.

Around the globe, 657,284 have died of Covid-19.
Azerbaijani, Armenian Ambassadors Call On Compatriots In Russia To Keep Calm

By RFE/RL July 27, 2020

The ambassadors of Armenia and Azerbaijan have called on their countrymen to avoid "provocations" and confrontations amid reports that ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis have clashed in Moscow and some other Russian cities in recent days amid an escalation of tensions between the two South Caucasus countries.

Vardan Toghanian and Polad Bulbuloglu issued separate statements calling on Armenians and Azerbaijanis residing in Russia not to violate laws of the Russian Federation.

The call came after Moscow police said more than 30 foreign nationals were arrested for taking part in huge fights and riots in the Russian capital and surrounding region on July 23-24.

According to police officials, the majority of the arrested foreigners were charged with hooliganism, while some faced robbery charges as well.

"In addition, in accordance with migration laws, many of the detained individuals will be barred from entering the territory of the Russian Federation for a period of five years," the officials said.

Police did not specify which countries the detained people were from and what exactly caused the fights, but media reports said that several mass brawls between ethnic Azerbaijanis and Armenians took place in Moscow and other towns and cities near the Russian capital last week.

Police in Russia's second-largest city, St, Peterburg, said on July 25 that they prevented a large fight between Azerbaijanis and Armenians in an area near the city.

The reports came as the situation on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border has escalated since July 12. Both sides have reported casualties among military personnel.

Since July 17, both sides have characterized the situation as relatively calm, though both have also accused each other of shelling in the border area and near the contact line in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Armenia said on July 27 that one of its soldiers was killed overnight by sniper fire near the border, while Azerbaijan accused Armenia of using machine guns and sniper rifles along the border over the previous 24 hours.

The two countries have been in conflict since 1988, when the mostly Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region announced its secession from Azerbaijan.

In the course of the 1992-94 armed conflict, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts.

Since 1992, negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the conflict conducted by the OSCE Minsk Group, which is chaired by the United States, France, and Russia, have brought no progress in solution of the ongoing conflict.

In a phone call on July 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, expressed "readiness...to coordinate efforts for stabilization in the region," the Kremlin said.

A statement said that Putin "underlined the importance of not allowing any actions that promote an escalation in tensions."

Both leaders said they backed "resolving the conflict situation exclusively in a peaceful way, through talks."

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry announced that the country and its close ally Turkey will hold joint military exercises in early August.

The drills would take place on Azerbaijani soil and involve "army personnel of both countries, armored vehicles, artillery and mortars, as well as military aircraft and air defense," the ministry said.

With reporting by Interfax, TASS, and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/azerbaijani-armenian- ambassadors-call-on-compatriots-in -russia-to-keep-calm-/30750860.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.

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Rose McGowan has explained why she never really liked working in Hollywood where agents acted like 'low-key human traffickers' and 'pimps' who were paid to put naked woman on screen.

The actress and activist shared an image of herself during the height of her acting career on Sunday along with her thoughts on show business.

'I get asked a lot if I ever liked working in Hollywood. My answer is no. I never did. It was a means to my end. My goals. My Hollywood was a job filled with mostly sociopathic predators shooting damaged fish in a barrel,' she began.

'We, the beautiful ones, we were the fish. We were their targets. The truth of it is that the beautiful ones are looked at as the weak gazelles in the herd, the ones that limp under the attention they receive. It was too much for me.'

McGowan, who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s, was one of the leading activists of the global #MeToo movement that ultimately saw him convicted and jailed earlier this year.

Rose McGowan has explained why she never really liked working in Hollywood where agents acted like 'low-key human traffickers' and 'pimps' who were paid to put naked woman on screen

'Honestly, I think agents in Hollywood are low-key human traffickers,' she said toward the end of the post

'Honestly, I think agents in Hollywood are low-key human traffickers,' she continued.

'Anyone who makes money in a negotiation of how long my right breast can be on the screen and PROFITS from it?! Sanctioned pimping if you ask me. Listen to your clients. Respect them. Dont sell your clients out to the invisible rules of bullsh*t Hollywood. PS you always did suck.'

In other parts of her post the Charmed star talked about the things that she was consistently told in Hollywood, including that she was 'intimidating' to men because of her vocabulary.

'Once by (in my opinion) my dead souled agent, Leslie Siebert, at the creepy agency Gersh- Good old Leslie told me not to speak so much in meetings, that I was intimidating the men in the audition room with my vocabulary. I was destroyed by that comment. It was late in my "career" and I was stunned. Imagine how tired I was?

'Years of that directly to my face. But it was so demoralizing. I went into my car and cried and tried to figure out a way out of my life. Being trapped on the other side of the screen fucking sucked for me. But heres the thing, none of it was a shock.

'I always knew Id be famous and I always knew it was not the big deal. The Culture Reset is the big deal. So, in hindsight, @lesliesiebert and #Gersh go f**k yourselves.

In other parts of her post the Charmed star talked about the things that she was consistently told in Hollywood, including that she was 'intimidating' to men because of her vocabulary

The actress, who accused Harvey Weinstein (pictured together) of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s, was one of the leading activists of the global #MeToo movement that ultimately saw him convicted and jailed earlier this year

'You did me a favor. You helped get me mad enough to crack the glass ceiling of thought. I hope now you take your clients seriously. They are smarter than you. How you treat them is how they are treated is how the world is treated. Stop it,' McGowan wrote.

She then reiterated her disdain for show business, saying: 'Look in my eyes. Ask me again if I liked it. No. But you wouldnt either if youd been made fun of, shunned, looked down upon, considered dirty all because someone everyone knew as King Predator and a total piece of sh*t, told them to do so directly or indirectly.'

Last month, McGowan claimed in an interview with Mariella Frostrup on the new Times Radio channel that Weinstein had been regularly making million dollar payments to ensure his victims didn't speak out - and that she 'tricked him' after she 'refused' to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

'I said I wanted a hundred thousand dollars. And I think he got so excited. And I said I wanted less money but I don't want to sign a non-disclosure,' the Mirror reported.

'....So I had a document that proved what he'd done and didn't have an NDA.'

Weinstein was hospitalized with chest pains hours after receiving a 23-year sentence earlier this year.

Later in March, he reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 and was put in isolation for 14-days at Wende Correctional Facility in Western New York.

He is now being held in the prison's residential mental health unit, where he remains on suicide watch, a prison official said in April.

Weinstein was convicted of raping an aspiring actress in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006.

McGowan has previously claimed that she forwent having children so she could 'keep on fighting' against Weinstein and insisted she won't be free of the disgraced mogul until one of them is dead.
An indictment has been filed against Vladyslav Manher, the Kherson Regional Council chairman, and Oleksiy Levin, an ex-aide to a Kherson Regional Council deputy, for organizing an attack on activist Kateryna Handziuk, the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office has said.

"Prosecutors of the Prosecutor General's Office have filed an indictment against the chairman and a former aide to a deputy of the Kherson Regional Council for ordering and organizing the attack on Kateryna Handziuk on July 31, 2018," the statement said.

The pretrial investigation established that Manher and Levin, who was extradited to Ukraine from Bulgaria, had organized, on prior collusion with a group of individuals, premeditated grievous bodily harm in a manner that had signs of special torture and caused Handziuk's death (Part 3 of Article 27, Part 2 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 121 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

According to the statement, they are both currently in custody. The term of the measure of restraint for Manher was extended until September 11, 2020, and that for Levin was extended until August 24, 2020.

On July 31, 2018, activist Kateryna Handziuk was doused in sulfuric acid near the entrance to her house in Kherson. She sustained burns to 40% of her body. She underwent several surgeries but died on November 4 of the same year.

Five people were detained on suspicion of involvement in Handziuk's murder. Ihor Pavlovsky, a former aide to MP Mykola Palamarchuk, was arrested on November 12, 2018.

On February 11, 2019, the Prosecutor General's Office served Manher with a notice of suspicion in organizing Handziuk's murder. The court chose a measure of restraint for him in the form of detention with the possibility of posting bail of UAH 2,497,300, which was put up.

On June 6, 2019, five direct perpetrators of the attack were sentenced to prison terms of three to six-and-a-half years.

In January 2020, Levin was detained in Bulgaria for organizing the acid attack on Handziuk.

On March 16, Levin was extradited from Bulgaria to Ukraine. According to investigators, Levin is a key figure who connects perpetrators and those who ordered the attack on Handziuk. He is suspected of organizing this crime, inciting others to commit it, and providing information about Handziuk's place of residence.

In March 2020, the court extended the investigation into the case against Levin until July 29.

op
Biodesign Leader to Expand Its Sustainable Ingredients-as-a-Service Platform Globally

SAN LEANDRO, California, July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Geltor today announced the closing of a $91.3M Series B financing that will fuel the global expansion of its Ingredients-as-a-Service platform. The funding round aims to meet accelerating demand from global CPG companies for sustainable, functional, and 100% animal-free ingredients. The round was led by future protein pioneer CPT Capital (London, UK), with significant commitment from WTT Investment Ltd. (Taipei, Taiwan).

Since being established in 2015, the California-based firm has proven its biodesign technology for large and growing global CPG segments including cosmetics & personal care, nutraceuticals, and the food & beverage industries. Its success across global CPG segments reflects consumers' increasing preference for ethical products, as more brands face backlash for using animal ingredients and contributing to the growing threat of climate change.

Over the past year, global demand for collagen grew by 25% and Geltor saw sales surge for its first products, animal-free collagens like HumaColl21 and Collume. Despite African Swine Fever and COVID-19 disrupting industrial supply chains, Geltor was able to scale its fermentation-based technology platform up 100X and produced hundreds of new proteins to help customers seamlessly turn an idea into a highly effective ingredient quickly and with minimal risk.

"Our goal is to make it ridiculously easy for iconic brands to build sustainable products. This next stage of growth will allow Geltor to meet the moment our world is facing, as businesses recognize the urgent need to transition to a sustainable protein supply chain," said Geltor CEO and co-founder Alex Lorestani. "We're grateful to have investors who see Geltor as an index of this important shift to a system powered by fermentation and plant-based platforms like ours. As a scientist, I'm convinced that the highest-impact action I can take to support human and planetary health is making our Ingredients-as-a-Service platform better every single day."

"Having established the success of our biodesign platform, we are now able to work even more closely with customers to develop unique tailored bioactive ingredients for their specific product needs. We've only scratched the surface of what our technology can unlock for our clients at unprecedented speed," added Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Nick Ouzounov.

Noting Geltor's position of strength from the emerging consumer biotechnology sector, Chief Financial Officer Sachin Kelkar said, "Since its founding, Geltor has focused on developing an industrial strength Ingredients-as-a-Service platform based on the fundamental principles of functionality, breadth, scale, and speed to meet the pace of customer innovation in multiple end markets. We're excited to leverage our strong balance sheet and investor base to scale business and manufacturing operations around the core platform to meet global protein demands for decades to come."

The lead investment by long-standing alternative protein investor CPT Capital validates Geltor's unique approach to developing tailored bioactive ingredients, and the vastness of the market opportunity. "We see huge market potential for Geltor's protein platform across categories from cosmetics to food. We are excited by the speed and skill with which they are building out their capabilities. Even more so, in light of the havoc wreaked by COVID-19 on protein supply chains globally, we believe Geltor is laying the foundations for the sustainable, resilient, protein supply chain of the future", said Costa Yiannoulis, CPT Capital Investment Director and Geltor Board Director.

Returning investors in this financing include Cultivian Sandbox, SOSV, and iSelect Fund, along with the investment arms of global ingredient technology companies GELITA and Archer Daniels Midland. New investors include Blue Horizon Ventures, RIT Capital Partners, Humboldt Fund, and Pegasus Tech Ventures. The Series B brings the total funding raised for Geltor to $116.3M to date.

About Geltor

Geltor is the biodesign company that has created the world's largest selection of designer proteins, with unprecedented biocompatibility, functionality and benefits for consumers. Geltor products are 100% animal-free, sustainably cultivated, and clinically demonstrated for high performance. Geltor was founded in 2015 by Alexander Lorestani and Nick Ouzounov and is based in San Leandro, California. For more information, visit www.geltor.com .

About CPT Capital

CPT Capital is the venture arm of a leading private family office. As a long-standing dedicated investor in the alternative protein space, they partner with the best and the boldest companies driving the food and materials technology revolution. From plant-based protein to recombinant proteins to cell-based meat, CPT Capital backs the most promising solutions from seed all the way through to sale or IPO and longer term.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 29)  The Department of Trade and Industry intends to reopen more businesses in a limited capacity by August 1 amid the still rising COVID-19 cases in the country.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez revealed on Tuesday they will recommend to the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) the gradual reopening of testing centers, gyms, and computer shops in areas under general community quarantine.

Also other businesses that Lopez will recommend for a gradual reopening in GCQ areas are personal grooming (hair, nail, skincare except for full body massage) and aesthetic services and pet grooming shops.

All of these establishments are currently listed under Category 4, which are prohibited to open.

Lopez added the DTIs recommendation calls for these establishments to operate in a 30 percent capacity, upgrading them to Category 3.

The Trade Secretary shared they want to partially open computer shops for educational reasons.

These places can be used for online learning because we are looking into alternative learning mechanics. This is an option that makes Internet connection accessible, said Lopez, noting the departments response to the governments promotion of alternative learning methods amid the prohibition of traditional face-to-face sessions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lopez also said that in their proposal to reopen testing or review centers, only a maximum of 10 seats will be allowed inside the room. Other minimum health standards that will be observed in these tutorial centers are required wearing of face mask inside the room, more than one-meter distance between chairs, and frequent sanitation of rooms.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 17:24:55|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the opening ceremony of the fifth annual meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, July 28, 2020. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the opening ceremony of the fifth annual meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank via video link on Tuesday. Please see the attachment for the full text of the remarks.
ORLANDO - Police Chief Val Demings's department was under fire.

A 2008 investigation by Orlando Weekly magazine had blasted the agency's handling of excessive force cases, saying internal affairs had sided with heavy-handed officers over citizens 98 out of 98 times. The department, the magazine said, is "a place where rogue cops operate with impunity."

Demings defended her officers. "Yes, we are only human, trying to do a job in challenging times that sometimes appears to require superhuman strength," she wrote in an opinion piece. "However, 98 claims of excessive force out of more than 2,000,000 encounters with the public would lead a reasonable person to conclude that Orlando police officers are doing OK, for the most part, in the performance of their duties."

It was a familiar posture for Demings, whose leadership of the department from 2007 to 2011 capped a 27-year policing career.

Later, when one of her officers slammed an 84-year-old man to the ground, fracturing a vertebrate and causing his head to crack "like a watermelon," as a witness testified, Demings described the maneuver as a "defensive tactic" and told reporters the officer "performed the technique within department guidelines."

Demings's trailblazing record as the first woman and second African American to run the Orlando police is the centerpiece of a rising national political profile - one that has made her one of the more intriguing names on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's shortlist of potential running mates. Her work as a cop, after all, helped elect her to Congress in 2016 and prompted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to tap her last year as an impeachment manager to prosecute the case against President Donald Trump. It was a starring role that first sparked speculation about the potential of a charismatic African American woman from a key swing state on the Democratic national ticket.

But as public perceptions of police brutality have shifted amid the racial justice movement that has erupted since the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, Demings's past work in law enforcement is emerging less as a clear selling point and more as a complicating factor.

Demings, 63, who has touted her policing career as an asset for a potential national run, has sought to recast herself from law enforcement champion to critic - and someone who could be a bridge between police and minority communities. It was a shift she signaled clearly in May when she penned a Washington Post op-ed under the headline, "My fellow brothers and sisters in blue, what the hell are you doing?"

Back in Orlando, critics describe Demings as a status-quo chief who did little to improve the culture of a police department that, at one point, used force at nearly twice the rate of similarly sized cities. Demings was well-liked, they said, but not viewed as someone who strongly challenged entrenched interests such as the police union or the heavily white, male roster of officers who worked under her.

"It looked good for the photo-ops, but as far as making any changes, bringing law enforcement into the 21st century, I didn't see it," said Lawanna Gelzer, an Orlando activist who has also run for elected office, who said Demings's response to police violence was inadequate. "I just saw the continuation of a problem that was going to explode one day ... The people that was living on the west side, we were still getting our butts whooped (by police) when she was chief."

Demings recalls the situation differently.

In a recent interview, she described herself as a champion of community policing who disbanded a dysfunctional plainclothes drug unit, focused police resources on the city's most violent repeat offenders and marshaled city services to deal with the societal roots of crime.

"A lot of times, people focus on what ... makes the headlines," she said. "Most of this stuff nobody even knows about because I believe that when you do good, you don't have to call a press conference."

Demings said she knew her race and gender would draw additional scrutiny to her performance in a mostly white male profession.

"I remember saying to myself 'Oh God, now, Orlando gets its first woman (chief) who happens to be black. If I can't reduce the crime rate, what are people going to say?" she recalled. "And I bet you can guess who the majority of people who were being murdered, or who would be victimized in terms of violent crime."

But she said she realized her ability to quiet potential critics and improve life for Orlandoans of all colors would depend on the same thing: being good at the job she was appointed to do.

"So I launched an all-out war on violent crime," she said.

- - -

Valdez Venita Butler was born in a two-room house in Jacksonville, Fla., the youngest of seven children. Her mother was a maid and her father was a janitor, but they lived long enough to see their daughter sworn in as chief of the Orlando Police Department. They died months apart in 2009, never seeing her become a congresswoman from Florida's 10th District or a manager in the impeachment of Trump or, more recently, land on Biden's list of potential running mates.

After responding to a radio ad looking for Orlando officers, Demings was elected president of her class at the police training academy and went to work on the midnight shift of Orlando's west side. What followed was a steady rise and a steady drumbeat of praise from supervisors who saw her as a rising star. Her lone performance appraisal that could be described as middling came when she was pregnant, in 1989. As chief, she was censured by Internal Affairs after her service weapon was stolen out of her unlocked police SUV.

Demings said her critics constantly bring up the incident, saying she lost her department-issued gun when it was in fact stolen out of her unlocked SUV.

"There is clearly a difference, both are bad, but clearly a difference," she said. "I am an 'it is what it is' kind of person ... I'm not going to hide from anything. I'm not going to try to sugarcoat it. I'm not going to try to make bad look good. It is what it is, but I do expect people to be honest and fair."

But she was widely hailed as competent as she climbed up through the police department.

She married Jerry Demings, another ascendant black officer in the police department. He was appointed chief in 1998 and now serves as Orange County mayor. At one point, husband and wife ran neighboring law enforcement agencies.

In 2012, a year after retiring from the police force, Demings ran unsuccessfully for a congressional seat that included part of Orlando. Two years later, she sought to become Orange County mayor, although she dropped out of the race in May 2014. Her first congressional victory came in 2016, when she ran again for the 10th District, which a court-ordered redistricting had made slightly more Democratic.

Those close to Demings described her as a charismatic but private woman of deep faith, who sang on the choir at St. Mark AME Zion church, but occasionally slipped out of service to respond to crime scenes, emerging from her department-issued Chevy Tahoe in her Sunday best.

As a chief with a social work background, she leaned heavily on community policing and insisted Orlando couldn't arrest its way out of deeply ingrained social problems.

But she also put the onus on black communities to work with police to combat crime.

"She became like mama," said Terence Gray, the church's pastor who also served as a police chaplain. "She could go into some communities, especially on Mercy Drive, that was filled with nothing but crime, where people got shot over there something like every other day. She went over there and took all of us as her supporters and had conversations with people and acted like mama. She was like 'You all know you can do better than this.' "

After a triple homicide at an apartment complex called the Palms early in Demings's tenure, she called a community meeting and encouraged people to cooperate with police to clean up the community - but also brought city resources to address quality of life issues. The city put down mulch. Demings passed around her office number. One woman called the chief's office saying her refrigerator was broken, spoiling her groceries. Demings took the call - then worked to get the woman's fridge fixed.

"We did everything short of move in there," she said.

Expanding the role of officers was a hallmark of her time at the top of OPD, Demings said, policies seated in her belief that officers couldn't just "arrest our way out of the problem." She involved her officers in youth-mentoring programs and job-training programs. She recalled officers knocking on the doors of people who were not showing up to a GED program.

"Police are in the business of fighting crime, but because so many other systems fail, we found ourselves filling that gap," she said.

"Look, I grew up poor, black and female in the South, and I know you can be one heartbeat away from making it or not making it, and I didn't let ... the young boys and girls that I had contact with, I didn't let them have an excuse. I wanted them to succeed."

Demings had inherited a city plagued by violent crime; Orlando experienced its highest number of killings in the year before she took over as chief. Violent crime corrodes any community, but its effects can be particularly damaging in a city that has an economy based on welcoming tourists from across the world.

"We had had our most homicides ever in Orlando in the year before she became chief," said John Mina, who worked as her staff sergeant, before moving on to become Orlando police chief and then Orange County sheriff. He said even her biggest critics didn't doubt her competence or the downward trend of the crime statistics.

"I've seen in my 30-year career people promoted and transferred to positions they were not able to do. They were promoted well out of their abilities," Mina said. "That wasn't her. There wasn't a policy she wasn't familiar with. There wasn't a thing she didn't know."

- - -

Daniel Daley was angry when he shuffled out of the bar and saw his Chrysler being hoisted up by a tow truck, then incensed when he learned it would cost $50 to avoid a costlier tow. The 84-year-old transferred his ire to the policeman who showed up to mitigate the dispute a short time later, jamming his finger into the chest of Officer Travis Lamont one time too many.

Lamont used a hip check to slam the World War II veteran onto the pavement, cracking a vertebra. When police leaders determined that Lamont behaved within policy, the case became a symbol of unchecked police excesses.

Daley sued, and a jury awarded him $880,000, a settlement that remains the department's highest payout over a use of force. A decade later, it continued to be a blemish on Demings's time as chief. "Nobody wanted that to happen," she said of Daley's injury.

Still, she defends her department's decision, arguing that force is excessive if it violates department policies, not if it results in an injury. She said several supervisors in Lamont's chain of command - including her - reviewed his actions, all coming to the conclusion that his use of force wasn't excessive.

Lamont could not be reached for comment. The attorney who represented him and the city in the civil trial, Dennis O'Connor, said Demings as chief was fair but also "supported the officers."

"I found her to be principled," he said. "I would not think she would unjustifiably elevate the police officers above others. She recognized the need for the cases to run their course and let the facts come out. She wouldn't get caught up in the rhetoric that was being said in a lot of these cases."

Demings's critics have also scrutinized her for the department's handling of the case of Fernando Trinidad, an officer who pushed a woman down a flight of stairs during an altercation at a club where he worked an off-duty job. Though the incident happened a few months before Demings was appointed chief, she signed off on discipline critics decried as a slap on the wrist. In the end, Trinidad lost one vacation day. Trinidad and his attorney could not be reached for comment.

Demings told The Post that the police department's hands were tied because investigators didn't inform Trinidad about one of the charges he faced, a technicality that could have resulted in the officer facing no punishment at all.

"When policies are codified into state statute, it can determine how officers are investigated, how they are disciplined, when they are interviewed, you know how they are notified of charges, allowing them to see every witness statement before you can talk to them," she said. "And when those things are codified in state statute, they make it extremely difficult."

But attorneys who brought excessive force cases against the department during Demings's tenure faulted her for not pushing hard enough against a disciplinary system tilted in favor of police officers.

Demings rose to prominence during an era when Orlando chiefs served for a few years and then often took a shot at higher office, said William Ruffier, an attorney who brought several excessive force cases against the department, including during Demings's time as chief.

"It used to be the same chief (would serve) forever, but now the position is really a steppingstone," Ruffier said. "Nobody that runs as chief comes in with any great agenda to reform the police department. They just want to not make waves and move onto their bigger better position."

Ruffier and others said numerous factors at the time hampered a police chief's power to change the system, including a police union that held sway over local political leaders and negotiated contracts that imposed limits on punishments that could be imposed on rank-and-file officers.

Leaders of the police union did not return calls seeking comment.

"Val Demings when she came in as chief, from my perspective, she's just a typical caretaker chief doing her two to four years," Ruffier said. "She was able to navigate herself politically though a white Southern police department, which is a tribute to her. But she's not in a position where she's going to reform the department."

But Demings said she held officers to a high standard and wasn't shy about initiatives unpopular with the rank and file, including publicizing a list that ranked officers' performance and breaking up units found to be ineffective.

"I was on them every single day about treating people with dignity and respect so for them to read 'what the hell are you doing,' every man and woman who worked with me, that sounds real familiar to them. I'm sure they were like 'Oh, there she goes again.' "

- - -

The Washington Post's Ellen McCarthy and Sean Sullivan contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Tuesday received 109 stranded Nigerians repatriated from Mali at the International Wing of Murtala Muhammed International Airport Ikeja in Lagos.

The Director General of NEMA, Muhammed Muhammadu, who received the returnees, said that they would be isolated for 14 days in Ikeja before they would be free to reunite with their families.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the returnees, who were received at 3.15am, comprise 11 male adults, 89 female adults, with 4 male children and 5 female children.

Mr Muhammadu said that the returnees were assisted back into the country by the International Organization of Migration (IOM).

He enjoined the returnees to be careful with those that promise greener pastures outside the country.

The NEMA boss admonished them to always be wary of close family friends and relatives that lure and expose them to unnecessary hazards that are life-threatening.

He urged them to make better use of their lives as they returned to the country, assuring them of governments readiness to provide equal opportunities to everyone.

According to him, the federal government has several social development programmes and other incentives meant for empowering the youth in the country.

One of the returnees, 21-year-old Irhobosa Orhumnzie, said she left Nigeria about six months ago with the hope of going to Dubai.

My madam (her trafficker) took about 25 of us and told us that she would take us to Dubai.

We took off from Lagos and crossed over to Cotonou in Togo and from there we went straight to Mali.

But as we entered Bamako, Mali, the Malian Police arrested our madam and all of us, they asked us if we are interested to go back to Nigeria, all of us volunteered to return to our country.

We dont know what is happening with our madam.

They asked us if we are interested in dealing with our madam, we just told them that they should do whatever they want to do with her, but we just wish to go back to Nigeria, she said.

The returnee said that from the police station, they were taken to the Nigerian Embassy, but the Coronavirus pandemic did not allow the embassy to bring them until IOM came to the rescue.

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She said that they stayed in the embassy for some time.

It was the IOM that facilitated our return to the country. We are also grateful to the Malian Police, the embassy staff for helping us come back to Nigeria safely, she said.

(NAN)
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
Technology giant Microsoft India is the countrys most attractive employer brand, showed Randstad Employer Brand Research 2020 by HR firm Randstad.

Here, Samsung India stood at the second spot while Amazon India came third. Infosys took the fourth position while Mercedes Benz came fifth.

As per the research, Microsoft India scored high on financial health, strong reputation and utilisation of the latest technologies.

The Randstad Employer Brand Research, covering 75 percent of the global economy with 33 participating countries and more than 1,85,000 respondents worldwide, showed that in 2020, work-life balance (43 percent) emerges as the top employer value proposition (EVP) driver for the Indian workforce while choosing an employer.

This is followed by attractive salary and employee benefits (41 percent) and job security (40 percent). These are also the areas where there is a significant gap between what employees want and what they think employers offer in India.

In 2019, Amazon was the most attractive employer brand in India followed by Microsoft and Sony. Mercedes Benz was at the fourth position while IBM came in at fifth.

This year, it is interesting to note that there are no gender differences in the top two EVP drivers. Both male and female respondents attributed equal importance to work-life balance (43 percent) and attractive salary and employee benefits (41 percent) as key factors while choosing an employer.

However, more men (40 percent) considered job security as a key factor while choosing an employer than women (39 percent).

A higher percentage of male respondents (36 percent) also accorded more importance to career progression opportunities compared to their female (33 percent) counterparts.

Paul Dupuis, MD & CEO Randstad India said that this research is crucial right now amidst COVID-19 since the job market is undergoing a paradigm shift.

The need for organizations to transform their employer branding proposition to make it more humane in the new world of work becomes even more critical, he added.

Here are the top 10 most attractive employer brands in India for 2020:

1. Microsoft

2. Samsung

3. Amazon

4. Infosys

5. Mercedes-Benz

6. Sony

7. IBM

8. Dell Technologies

9. ITC Group

10. Tata Consultancy Services

What do employees want from the companies?

As per Randstad research, 38 percent of Gen Z (18-24 years) are looking for good training opportunities from their employer, while 34 percent of the Millennials (25-34 years) are attracted to forward-thinking and tech-savvy organizations and deem the use of latest technologies as a very important attribute.

Further, 46 percent of Gen Xs (35-54 years) find good work-life balance a very important pull-factor towards an employer, whereas 32 percent of the Boomers (55-64 years) find a convenient location as the key factor.

Job switches in the past and near future

As per the Randstad survey, 69 percent of the survey respondents mentioned that they stayed with their employer in the past year and 43 percent mentioned that they plan to change their employer within the next year.

Work-life balance emerged as the top factor for stayers (45 percent) while 71 percent of switchers and intenders mentioned that they changed their employer or plan to do so shortly because of a lower salary compared to elsewhere.

Further, 35 percent of the survey respondents who left their previous employer received a salary increase between 1 percent and 10 percent.

The top most attractive benefits for the Indian workforce are healthcare (85 percent), flexible working hours (84 percent) and the possibility of working from home (83 percent). Other factors include internal training and subsidized higher education like short-term courses, certifications (80 percent) and group life insurance (79 percent).

Among sectoral preferences, the survey showed that the Indian workforce prefers to work for companies operating in sectors like IT, ITeS & telecom, automotive, followed by FMCG, retail & e-commerce and BFSI.
SAFEGUARDS | SoftlinesNO. 111/20

On July 8, 2020, the World Trade Organization (WTO) announced a revised proposal from Ecuador to revise its technical regulation on food contact ceramics. The latest proposal, draft Ecuadorian Technical Regulation RTE UNEN 010 (2R) - 'Ceramic Tableware Intended to Come into Contact with Food', attached to WTO document number 20-4675 and notified under G/TBT/N/ECU/348/Rev.2, has a new structure and contains, inter alia, several important changes:

Revision to existing definitions and addition of new definitions

Addition of a table detailing the migration requirements for lead and cadmium (see Table 1 below)

Mandating the list of information that must be included for labeling requirements.

Requirements for conformity evaluation procedure (Procedimiento de Evaluacion de la Conformidad (PEC)), including:' Inspection and sampling Requiring four identical units/samples for testing Product certificate of conformity (CoC) Supplier declaration of conformity (DoC) Test reports recognized by the Ecuadorian Accreditation Service (Servicio de Acreditacion Ecuatoriano, SAE)



Once approved, the new Ecuadorian Technical Regulation RTE UNEN 010 (2R) will enter into force six months from the date of its publication in the Official Register and replaces RTE INEN 010:2013 (IR) and Amendments 1, 2 and 3:2014 on food contact ceramics. According to the WTO document, the proposed date of entry into force is Q1 of 2021.

Highlights of the migration requirements for lead and cadmium in draft Ecuadorian Technical Regulation RTE UNEN 010 (2R) are summarized in Table 1.

WTO Document Number 20-4675, July 8, 2020

Draft Ecuadorian Technical Regulation RTE INEN 010 (2R) 'Ceramic Tableware Intended to Come into Contact with Food'

Type of Ceramicware Standard Criteria for 4 units Requirement Lead

Cadmium Flatware

Test Standard:

ISO 6486-1 or

NTE INEN ISO 6486-1



Standard:

ISO 6486-2

Average

= 0.8 mg/dm

= 0.07 mg/dm

Small Hollowware

All = 2 mg/l

= 0.5 mg/l

Large Hollowware

All = 1 mg/l

= 0.25 mg/l

Storage Hollowware

All = 0.5 mg/l

= 0.25 mg/l

Cups and Mugs

All = 0.5 mg/l = 0.25 mg/l

Cooking Ware

All = 0.5 mg/l

= 0.25 mg/l



Table 1

SGS is committed to providing information about development in regulations for consumer products as complimentary services. Through a global network of laboratories, SGS provides a wide range of services including physical/mechanical testing, analytical testing and consultancy work for technical and non-technical parameters applicable to a comprehensive range of consumer products. Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information.

For enquiries, please contact:

Hingwo Tsang

Global Information and Innovation Manager

t: (+852) 2774 7420

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Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Manoj Tiwari has urged Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to look into the case of actor Sushant Singh Rajputs death and direct the state police to register an FIR in this connection.

Wishing Thackeray on Monday on his birthday, Tiwari, who has acted in Bhojpuri films, pointed out that over 40 days have passed since the death of Rajput, but an FIR is yet to be registered.

Many happy returns of the Day @CMOMaharashtra Shri Uddhav Ji, on this day I request with folded hands to give justice to Sushant who died 43 days ago, but no FIR has been registered so far. I hope you will help. Please do justice to millions of SSR fans, he tweeted.

Bollywood actor Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14, which the police said was a case of suicide. His death had triggered an outcry from several quarters alleging that the late actor, who hailed from Bihar, was a victim of nepotism in the film industry.

The lawmaker from Northeast Delhis Lok Sabha seat, who visited the deceased actors family in Patna last month had then said: Sushants father and sister requested me to take up the issue and get him justice. It was really a sentimental moment for me.

Previously, Tiwari had demanded a CBI investigation into the matter

According to the police, statements of 40 people including film critic Rajeev Masand, director-producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and filmmaker Aditya Chopra and actor Rhea Chakraborty have been recorded in the investigation so far.
A Tema Magistrate Court presided over by Mrs. Akosua Anokyewaa Adjepong has discharged an alleged Togolese charged for attempting to register in the ongoing voters registration exercise.



Elvis Kweku Seglah, 35 years old, was discharged after the prosecution failed to provide evidence or witness to support the charge related to electoral offence.



The Court, a fortnight ago, granted Seglah a bail in the sum of Ghs 6,000 with two sureties after pleading not guilty to the charge when he first appeared before it.



Chief Inspector Emmanuel Mensah, Prosecutor, explained to the Ghana News Agency that, the court dismissed the case due to the lack of evidence against the accused person, adding that

the prosecution witness failed to turn up.



According to him, the prosecution witness declined to testify against the accused person.



He added that the Court ruled that, all must adhere to the Constitutional Instrument (C.I) 126, the legal document for the voter registration, quoting the Court as saying, You cannot stop someone from registering but rather you challenge them after they have registered.



Mr. Donnie Saglah, a relative of the accused, said Saglah was a Ghanaian, born to a Ghanaian father, the late Mr Mensah Saglah, who hailed from Anloga in the Volta Region.



The relative further explained that the accused was however born in Togo because his late mother was a Togolese.



He grew up and schooled in Togo but he was brought to Ghana by some foreign investors in 2009 to work and had since remained in Ghana, he said.



He is a Ghanaian and must be treated with some dignity, "he added.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday directed Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital to submit a report on the health condition of the veteran Telugu poet and social activist P Varavara Rao (81), an accused in the Elgar Parishad/Bhima Koregaon case and undergoing treatment after he had tested coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positive.

Rao is believed to have contracted the viral infection while he was lodged at Navi Mumbais Taloja Jail.

The court gave the direction after Raos family members had expressed concerns about his well-being.

He was shifted to the Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital in a critical condition and neither the hospital nor the Taloja Jail authorities were forthcoming in their information, his family members have alleged.

The court has asked the hospital authorities to submit a report within the next three days and posted the next hearing of the case on August 7.

A two-member HC division bench, comprising Justices RD Dhanuka and VG Bisht, while hearing the petition, filed through Raos advocate, was informed by senior counsel Sudeep Pasbola that ever since the undertrial was shifted from Sir JJ Hospital to St Georges Hospital and finally to Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital at Vile Parle, the family members were kept in the dark regarding his health condition.

Initially, Rao was shifted to Sir JJ Hospital from Taloja Jail after his health condition had worsened and subsequently, to St Georges Hospital, a dedicated Covid-19 facility, after he was found to have contracted SARS-CoV-2, which causes the viral disease.

He was found to be asymptomatic but because of other comorbidities due to his advanced age, he fell from the St Georges Hospital bed and shifted to Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital on July 19.

Pasbola prayed before the court to direct the jail authorities to allow his family members to meet him in the hospital, as they were never taken into confidence about Raos worsening health condition.

Rao has been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act (UAAPA), 2019, a non-bailable offence, by the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in the Elgar Parishad/Bhima Koregaon case that was transferred from the Pune Police to NIA in February.

Anil Singh, additional solicitor-general (ASG), who represented the NIA, opposed Raos family members plea and cited the Indian Council for Medical Researchs (ICMR) guidelines, which bar any meeting with a Covid-19 patient except doctors and healthcare staff.

He also backed his argument with ICMRs guidelines that no information about a Covid-19 patient could be revealed to anyone until the patient has recovered from the viral infection.

The Taloja Jail authorities and the Maharashtra government through public prosecutor Deepak Thakare concurred with Singh.

However, Thakare submitted before the court that there would be no objection if Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital authorities were asked to furnish a report on Raos health condition that could be disclosed to his family members.

The court heard the submissions and directed the hospital authorities to submit the report within three days.

The court said it would decide whether the contents of the report could be shared with Raos family members.
WeedMD's 2019 outdoor crop in Strathroy, Ont. (Provided)

Growing cannabis under the free rays of the sun costs a fraction of indoor or greenhouse cultivation. But outdoor producers have yet to sell millions worth of last years harvest, and at least one has slashed its expected selling price amid an oversupplied market.

Indoor and greenhouse-grown pot make up the vast majority of legal cannabis in Canada, since it can be grown year round under far more controlled conditions. But more producers are turning to the great outdoors to push cultivation costs down to pennies per gram. Industry observers warn this years harvest will be up to four times bigger than last years. A Croptober flood of bud this fall could trigger a wave of writedowns as supply surges past demand.

According to Health Canada, nearly 700 acres were licenced for outdoor cannabis as of April, up more than 20 per cent from October 2019. Meanwhile, pot companies are sitting on record stockpiles. As of April, Canadian cultivators and processors had amassed 620,144 kilograms of unpackaged dried flower inventory. That comes despite record retail sales of $185.9 million in May.

Source: Health Canada

WeedMD (WMD.V) finished planting more than 18,000 cannabis plants in a 27-acre field in Strathroy, Ont. in June. Last year, the company grew nearly 9,000 kilograms of saleable flower at a cash cost of $0.11 cents per gram. In the companys greenhouse, grams cost $0.84 to grow.

You cant beat the cost. Its fantastic, Angelo Tsebelis, the companys CEO, told Yahoo Finance Canada in an interview. You can never substitute what Mother Nature provides. All you can do is try to replicate things like sunlight, heat, cool nights, and the rest of the conditions that are ideal for growing.

Knocking on wood, Tsebelis expects about the same yield from his second outdoor harvest. This year, the company will use one-third the labour and spend less on startup costs, since the field required only minor upgrades. He said the farm is well advanced from where it was at this time a year ago, and predicts a significant cost-per-gram reduction.

Story continues

In Brant County, Ont., 48North Cannabis (NRTH.V) is also in its second season of outdoor cultivation. Last years crop brought in 12,000 kilograms at a total cash cost per gram of $0.25 on its 100-acre farm. Like Tsebelis, 48Norths new CEO Charles Vennat told Yahoo Finance Canada he expects a bigger, cheaper crop this time, but declined to disclose numbers while the plants are still in the ground.

Aleafia Health (AH.TO) said it produced 12,747 kilograms of outdoor dried flower at an all-in cash cost to harvest of $0.10 per gram last year. The companys CEO, Geoffrey Benic, recently referenced growing outdoors for as little as $0.04 per gram. He said the company could potentially grow 100,000 kilograms of low-cost outdoor cannabis in 2020.

Aleafia Health's 2019 outdoor crop in Port Perry, Ont. (aleafiahealth.com)

When someone's coming and offering you $2.50 a gram for your outdoor grow, or even $2 grams, it's hard not to want to take some of that, because its profitable for you as you build your business, he told a virtual investor conference on June 24. But make no mistake folks. I want to be very clear on this. We're not wholesalers. We are building consumer experiences.

Aleafia reported $13.7 million in net sales in the quarter ended March 31, $11.7 million of which came from bulk wholesale cannabis. WeedMD booked net revenue of $12.2 million during the same quarter, $5 million of which was from bulk sales to other licenced producers. 48North brought in $2.8 million through sales to other licenced producers and provincial regulators in its most recent quarter.

48North and WeedMD told Yahoo Finance Canada they do not have confirmed contracts to sell their 2020 harvests. Both intend to sell outdoor cannabis through retail channels as flower and extract products like vapes. WeedMD said it is having ongoing discussions with multiple groups looking to buy a portion of the crop. Aleafia did not respond to an emailed question about plans for its 2020 harvest.

WeedMD CEO Angelo Tsebelis (left) and Stephen Ng, chief commercial officer planting 18,000 plants in Strathroy, Ont. (Provided)

Craig Wiggins, managing director of the research firm TheCannalysts, predicts this years outdoor harvest will be four times the size of last years. That could mean bigger problems than asparagus sprouting up around the plants, which has been known to happen on WeedMDs former vegetable farm.

Were just pouring more water into a full bathtub, Wiggins said, referring to the glut of cannabis and excess cultivation capacity weighing on the industry as it adjusts to a smaller-than-expected global market.

Large players like Canopy Growth (WEED.TO)(CGC) and Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO)(ACB) have recently shut down indoor growing facilities and laid off scores of workers. Organigram (OGI.TO)(OGI) became the latest major producer to write-off excess and unsaleable inventory, amounting to a $19.3 million charge in its most recent quarter. Of that total, $11.9 million was related to excess trim and concentrate.

48North, WeedMD and Aleafia still have portions of last years outdoor harvest on their books. In recent financial filings, 48North cut the expected selling price for its outdoor cannabis inventory from $1 per gram to $0.50 per gram, resulting in a negative fair market adjustment of $5.4 million.

Tsebelis said WeedMD sold about half of its outdoor harvest to a wholesale buyer in Australia for roughly $5 million, or about $1 per gram, in the companys most recent quarter.

Aleafia has said its 2019 outdoor harvest improved wholesale profitability in the quarters since the 2019 harvest, but it is unclear exactly how much outdoor product has been sold.

They better be able to clear their existing harvests before they harvest again, Wiggins said. I think a lot of people have misread the economics. Were going to see what happens in about five months when the [2020] outdoor harvest comes in.

48North, WeedMD and Aleafia all say their best quality outdoor strains are good enough to be sold alongside the indoor-grown dried flower they currently distribute to retailers. However, the bulk of their next outdoor harvests are expected to go towards in-house manufacturing of extracted products.

While a growing selection of vapes, topicals, oils, edibles, concentrates, capsules and drinks continue to hit the market, dried flower still commands the lions share of cannabis spending. Stockpiles of extract-based producers are surging as well. Health Canada data show record inventory levels of packaged extracts and edibles in April 2020.

You thought the market was badly constipated with flower? The glut for oil [extracts] is bigger because the market is starting off so much smaller, Wiggins said.

Vennat, 48Norths CEO, argues the glut concern is an oversimplification.

Oversupply is relative. An oversupply of what? People paint cannabis with a wide brush. The reality is, much like grapes for wine, there are many different grades. What we are really trying to do is get the best quality off the field, he told Yahoo Finance Canada. What really matters ultimately is, are you selling it profitably when you turn it into a retail product?

WeedMds Tsebelis agrees. He said trim, a low-grade byproduct that all cultivators have on hand, can be repurposed for extraction. But using his outdoor buds will result in a better product that will gain traction with increasingly discerning consumers.

We have a glut of biomass. Not necessarily a glut of high quality cannabis, he said. It is pouring gasoline on the fire. But I think there are two different fires.

Since taking the reins as CEO in February hes attempted to steer the company away from reliance on wholesale revenue towards a stronger retail focus, emphasizing brands like its Colour Cannabis line. That said, he expects the 2020 outdoor crop will be sold both through wholesale and directly to consumers.

Aaron Salz, founder and principal at the Toronto-based cannabis finance firm Stoic Advisory, said he expects high quality outdoor cultivation will eventually squeeze out lower-end indoor and greenhouse producers. For now though, he believes many outdoor producers will be forced to settle for pennies above their cultivation costs if they are motivated to sell.

Ive been pitched a couple of deals from companies in the outdoor space. Theyre all assuming theyre growing at $0.10 [per gram] and selling at $1.50 or $2, he said. Its a pipe dream.

48North's outdoor cannabis farm is seen in a September 2019 promotional video. (48North/YouTube)

Vennat also sees the cost benefits of outdoor cultivation winning in the long run as the cannabis sector matures, and supply and demand smooth out.

We feel very strongly about our method. Were hoping to prove out that model over the coming quarters, he said. Id be a lot more nervous if I was a greenhouse grower than an outdoor grower.

Jeff Lagerquist is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jefflagerquist.

Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.
Catholic schools in the Diocese of Allentown will have a virtual learning option when schools reopen this year.

The news comes after the diocese earlier this month announced it was planning for in-person classes, based on the expectation the state will remain in the green phase of reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We recognize that some families will feel better if their student can attend school virtually at first, until they become more comfortable with returning in-person, Brooke Tesche, chancellor of catholic education, said. We will be monitoring conditions and health and safety guidance, and will be flexible as needed, while continuing to provide our students with quality, faith-based education.

The Easton Area, Phillipsburg and Bethlehem Area school districts have all proposed their own hybrid plans of in-person and online classes this fall for K-12 students

The Dioceses Catholic schools serve 9,700 students in seven high schools, 27 elementary schools and three special learning centers in Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton and Schuylkill counties.

The in-person classes include required face coverings, social distancing, restricting visitors and daily health screenings for students and staff.

Each school will have its own virtual learning option, recently approved by the diocesan Department of Education, and plans will be posted on each schools website.

The schools also have contingency plans if the state moves back to the yellow or red phases.

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com.
Kathy Brotzner of Niagara Falls thought it would be a routine visit to the hospital that Friday in May.

She was feeling lethargic and thought she might be low on iron.

Her husband Frank waited for her in the car.

It would be weeks before they saw each other again.

They ran some tests and the next thing I know, theyre telling me I need a blood transfusion, she says. Then the emergency room doctor was saying, We think you have leukemia. Were going to keep you until we can send you to Juravinski (Hospital).

My husband was waiting in the car thinking Ill be out and Ill be fine. I had to call him and say  I couldnt see him for the next (several) weeks because of COVID.

What was supposed to be a quick visit turned her life upside down. The next two months saw kidney failure, endless tests and isolation from her family.

Its hard for everybody, but when youre by yourself and you cant have anybody there when youre trying to process everything  it was really hard.

To make it worse for Brotzner, she felt she was letting her students down. The nursery school teacher and supervisor at Mary Ward Catholic School was making daily videos for her preschoolers to help them get through the pandemic.

I would tape myself telling them stories and singing songs  send them something so they could still feel that they were part of school, she says. I felt so horrible because all of a sudden I end up in the hospital and I couldnt do that for them anymore.

You dont want to tell everybody whats going on but it broke my heart because I thought, I dont want my little kids to think Ive forgotten them.

Though she has temporarily returned home, a friend of the family has started a GoFundMe page for their money troubles ahead. With her husband on a leave of absence from work to take care of her, the near-daily trips to Hamilton for treatment are gutting their finances.

It gets worse in August when shes scheduled for a bone marrow transplant. It will require another four to six weeks isolated in hospital, followed by months of recovery at home.

Im not working, hes not working, the driving up every day, the gas, the parking, she says.

We havent even had time to think and shop and say, Oh, well make lunch ahead of time, because by the time we get home were exhausted.

Through it all, she hopes people now understand how serious COVID-19 is affecting lives. It can make an already brutal situation worse.

I know this diagnosis would be terrible for anybody, but having it happen during COVID  you dont have any supports, nobody can come and see you  made it so much worse.

The GoFundMe page has raised more than $8,000 since it was posted Monday.
WASHINGTON, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in hospital rankings, today released the 2020-21 Best Hospitals rankings. The 31st edition includes special recognition of the herculean efforts being mounted by the nation's health professionals who have stepped up during COVID-19, often at great personal risk. The U.S. News Hospital Heroes series is a cornerstone of this year's rankings package, profiling more than 65 health care heroes from across the country, along with commentary from top executives at hospitals who faced the pandemic head on.

"The pandemic has altered, perhaps permanently, how patients get care and from whom they get it. Amid the disruption, we are steadfastly committed to providing the public with authoritative data for comparing hospital quality," said Ben Harder, managing editor and chief of health analysis at U.S. News. "No hospital's clinical team came through this unprecedented health crisis unscathed. Our Hospital Heroes series is a tribute to recognizing individuals at urban and rural hospitals in communities across the country who have gone above and beyond during this unparalleled time in history."

The coronavirus crisis also has unmasked the deadly effects of health disparities by race, ethnicity and other social determinants. The U.S. News Hospital Heroes series highlights a community health equity leader , a doctor in hard-hit Navajo Nation and a public health leader who have spoken out about structural forces that drive racial and ethnic health inequities. While health inequities have existed in the U.S. health care system since its inception, efforts to quantify these gaps in a comparable way across individual hospitals have been scarce. U.S. News recently announced it will use more than three decades of experience in hospital quality measurement to contribute to the much needed dialogue on disparities in hospital care. In a new analysis published today, U.S. News examined seven years of Medicare records that reveal broad and enduring racial disparities in surgical care access and quality of that care.

Alongside these firsthand accounts, the 2020-21 Best Hospitals editorial package features commentaries from hospital leaders addressing ways hospitals and health systems are navigating the path forward along with reporting on topics from the rise in telemedicine to provider burnout and mental health strain stemming from the pandemic.

As America's health care system copes with the lasting impacts of the global pandemic, the commentaries and features highlighting those hard at work serving their patients and communities supplement this year's updated rankings. U.S. News remains committed to providing data-driven information and guidance to help patients, their families, and their physicians navigate their health care options. Spanning 26 adult specialties, procedures and conditions, the 2020-21 Best Hospitals rankings evaluated nearly every community hospital in America.

U.S. News updated rankings for 16 medical specialties, which cover Cancer, Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Diabetes & Endocrinology, Ear, Nose & Throat, Gastroenterology & GI Surgery, Geriatrics, Gynecology, Nephrology, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Ophthalmology, Orthopedics, Psychiatry, Pulmonology & Lung Surgery, Rehabilitation, Rheumatology and Urology. This year, 134 hospitals out of more than 4,500 were nationally ranked in one specialty, while 563 were ranked among the Best Regional Hospitals in a state or metro area.

For 2020-21, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN claimed the No. 1 spot on the Best Hospitals Honor Roll. Cleveland Clinic ranked No. 2, followed by Johns Hopkins Hospital at No. 3. The Honor Roll is a distinction awarded to hospitals ranked in the top 20 nationally for delivering exceptional treatment across multiple areas of care.

In the specialty rankings, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center ranked No. 1 in Cancer, the Cleveland Clinic is No. 1 in Cardiology & Heart Surgery and Hospital for Special Surgery is No. 1 in Orthopedics .

2020-21 Best Hospitals Honor Roll

Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota Cleveland Clinic Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell , New York (tie) UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles (tie) Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco NYU Langone Hospitals, New York, N.Y. Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago University of Michigan Hospitals-Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital, Palo Alto, California Mount Sinai Hospital, New York Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania -Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia Mayo Clinic-Phoenix Rush University Medical Center, Chicago Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Saint Louis (tie) Keck Medical Center of USC , Los Angeles (tie) Houston Methodist Hospital

The rankings are produced by U.S. News with RTI International, a leading research organization based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

The data used in the 2020-21 Best Hospitals rankings and ratings come from a period predating the COVID-19 pandemic and were not affected by the pandemic's impact on hospitals. The U.S. News Best Hospitals methodologies are based largely on objective measures such as risk-adjusted survival and discharge-to-home rates, volume, and quality of nursing, among other care-related indicators.

Debuting this year, U.S. News released a new cardiac rating that measures the quality of hospitals' transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) programs. Developed in recent years, TAVR is rapidly being adopted as a minimally invasive alternative to aortic valve surgery. For more information on the methodology please refer to the FAQ .

The rankings will be published in the U.S. News " Best Hospitals 2021 " guidebook (ISBN 9781931469951), available for pre-order now from the U.S. News Online Store and for purchase at other bookstores October 6.

For the full rankings, visit Best Hospitals and use #BestHospitals on Facebook and Twitter.

About U.S. News & World Report

U.S. News & World Report is the global leader in quality rankings that empower people to make better, more informed decisions about important issues affecting their lives. A digital news and information company focused on Education, Health, Money, Travel, Cars and News, USNews.com provides consumer advice, rankings and analysis to serve people making complex decisions throughout all stages of life. More than 40 million people visit USNews.com each month for research and guidance. Founded in 1933, U.S. News is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

SOURCE U.S. News & World Report

Related Links

http://USNews.com


Olivia de Havilland, the last surviving actress of the Golden Age of Hollywood, died on Sunday in Paris at the age of 104. Parisian for more than 60 years, she said she felt at home in the French capital.

De Havilland won two Academy Awards, for To Each His Own in 1946 and The Heiress in 1949.

She was most famous for her role as the sweet-natured Melanie in the 1939 civil war film Gone with the Wind.

But she is also remembered for her work to improve labour rights after winning a legal battle which changed the studio system in Hollywood and allowed her to take charge of her own career.

Immeasurable talent

De Havilland was nominated for five Oscars during her long career, and when she presented the Academy Awards in 2003, she received a four-minute standing ovation.

Olivia de Havillard was a mainstay of Hollywood's Golden Age and an immeasurable talent," the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hosts the Oscars, said in a statement. "Here's to a true legend of our industry.

Journalist Henry-Jean Servat, who met the star several times, lamented the lost splendour of an actress whose noble soul and sentiment enchanted everyone she met. With class, elegance, lucidity, humour and character, Olivia de Havilland lit up an era...and [will continue] into eternity.

Not just a pretty face

De Havilland had grace and beauty on screen. She was also the first woman to preside the Cannes Film Festival in 1965.

At a time when the place of women in cinema and society in general is being questioned, she should be remembered for her strength in attacking the studio system to release actors from exploitative contracts, Thierry Fremaux, director general of the Cannes Festival told AFP.

She showed strength and courage throughout her long career. She was a queen of Hollywood and will also be revered as such in the history of cinema, Fremaux continued.

In 1943 de Havilland sued Warner Bros for refusing to free her from her contract.

She won her case and it gave rise to the de Havilland law, which made actors more independent in choosing roles and career paths.

The resistance she showed in standing up to studios in the 1930s and '40s, taking them to court, was a determining factor in substantially improving the rights of actors, Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot told AFP.

A penchant for France?

She was beautiful, chic, proud of having had a great career and having belonged to a world that no longer exists, said former culture minister Frederic Mitterrand, adding that "she was American and she preferred France.

France is the only country where I really feel at home, the actress is reported to have said.

A naturalised American, born to English parents in Japan, de Havilland moved to Paris in 1953 after meeting French journalist Pierre Galante, head of Paris Match at the time.

He became her second husband and she remained in Paris until her death, residing in the plush 16th arrondissement, close to the Eiffel Tower.

She found Hollywood in the 1950s stifling and Paris seemed like "a breath of fresh air" she told The Irish Independent in 2009.

But despite speaking good French, she wasn't inundated with roles in her adopted country.

"I thought that I had made great progress with my French when a grande dame said to me one day: 'You speak French very well Olivia, but you have a slight Yugoslav accent.' I suppose there were no parts in French movies for actresses with Yugoslav accents," she said in the interview.

Nonetheless, in 2010 she was awarded the Chevalier of the Legion d'honneur by then-president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Hollywood icon and francophile Kirk Douglas and his love affair with Franc e

'Gone with the Wind'

De Havilland made an enduring impression as the demure Southern belle Melanie Hamilton Wilkes, Scarlett O'Hara's sister-in-law, in the film "Gone With the Wind".

The actress' gentle but wilful personality helped make the role of Melanie an intriguing part.

I felt very drawn to Melanie, de Havilland later said in a video. She was a complex personality compared to the heroines I'd been playing over and over.

Henry-Jean Servat recalled how "rather than battling to get the role of Scarlett, like most other actresses, she immediately wanted the role of Melanie, the archetype of a good-hearted woman.

"She liked the character a lot. She was deeply religious in real life.

The role earned de Havilland an Oscar nomination, but the award went to her co-star Hattie McDaniel, who played Mammy in the film. McDaniel became the first Black actor to win an Oscar.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) arrives with Prime Minister of Nepal K.P. Sharma Oli as they arrive for a biliteral meeting at Hyderabad house in New Delhi on April 7, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Money SHARMA (Photo credit should read MONEY SHARMA/AFP via Getty Images)

Nepalese Communist Leader Jabs at Indias Ruling Party With Attacks on Religious Icon

The Prime Minister of Nepal and the leader of the Nepalese Communist Party (NCP) recently took jabs at members of Indias ruling party by saying that the popular Hindu god Rama was born in Nepal. Experts said this is an attack on the people-to-people connections between the two nations, and the Chinese are using the NCP to attack India.

Nepalese Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli said at a cultural event in Kathmandu on July 13 that Rama, who is followed by millions of Hindus across the world and is believed to have been born in India, was actually born in Nepal. At issue are two towns, one in India and one in Nepal, with the name Ayodhya.

Rama, whose story is told in the famous Hindu epic Ramayana, is generally believed to have been born in Ayodhya in todays state of Uttar Pradesh, and his wife, Sita, is believed to have been born in either in Bihar in central India or Janakpur in Nepal. But Oli said that both were born in Nepal.

We still believe we gave Sita to Prince Ram, but we gave the prince too, from Ayodhya, not India. Ayodhya is a village a little west [of] Birgunj, Oli said, according to Nepalese media outlet Setopati.com. Birgunj is a district in Nepal about 135 km from the capital Kathmandu.

The story of Ramayana has influenced the cultural values in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Thailand, and has various adaptations in these countries.

Indias ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has had a three-decade-long tryst with Rama as a religious icon as it has campaigned in many elections on the issue of building a temple at Ayodhya.

The resulting Ram Janmabhoomi (Ramas birthplace) movement reached its culmination after the Supreme Court of India last year passed a verdict that paved the way for the construction of the temple at the site.

Experts believe that political intentions are behind Olis raking up of the issue of Ramas birthplace.

A model of the temple at Ayodhya, the birthplace of popular Hindu god Rama. (SANJAY KANOJIA/AFP via Getty Images)

Oli is just trying to strike at the heart of Indo-Nepal ties, which is a religious and cultural convergence. By making these ludicrous remarks, he is trying to appropriate an icon which is widely revered in India and can potentially lead to India responding strongly, Harsh Pant, a political analyst with the Observer Research Foundation told The Epoch Times over the phone.

Girish Kant Pandey, a political analyst and an associate professor at the Department of Defence Studies from Gorakhpur University, told The Epoch Times over the phone that Oli didnt consider geography when he made comments about Ramas birthplace.

Oli made comments about Rama to instigate anti-India sentiment in Nepal. But he went back on it when Nepalese protested against his statement. People started to ask him that if Rama was born in Nepal, then the Saryu River should also be flowing in Nepal because the actual Ayodhya (as mentioned in the epic) is on the banks of the Saryu. Thats why Oli is silent now, Pandey said.

The Saryu River mentioned in the Indian ancient scriptures, including the Ramayana, flows through the modern-day state of Uttar Pradesh in India.

Infighting in NCP

Olis comments come in the wake of political infighting inside the NCP, an alliance between Nepals former Maoist rebels and the liberal Communist UML (Unified MarxistLeninist) that came to power in May 2018 after defeating the pro-India Nepali Congress Partya first majority government in 19 years in a nation plagued by unstable coalitions.

Problems appeared in the Nepalese government due to a stalemate between the co-chairman of the ruling alliance, NCP, P.K. Dahal, and Oli, wherein Dahal wanted Oli to step down from power.

In the first week of July, 31 of the 45 members of the Communist Partys standing committee had asked Oli to step down.

Aparna Pande, director of the Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia at the Hudson Institute, told The Epoch Times over a chat platform that the internal political crisis propelled Oli to make such statements.

It is easy to use identity politics and fear of a big brother when some fear exists, said Pande. By big brother, she here refers to India.

Pant said the statement would have lead to a wider public backlash if India had responded to Olis comments. Fortunately, New Delhi decided to ignore his remarks, he said.

IndiaNepal relations havent been going smoothly recently, with both the nations embroiled in a long-pending border dispute. The Nepalese Parliament recently passed a resolution including three territories on its map that India currently administers.

Nepals Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli (center R) reviews a military honor guard with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on June 21, 2018. (GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)

China Gains

Experts said the NCP is connected more with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), while India and Nepal relations are more people-centric, with about 6 million Nepalese living and working in India, according to government sources.

Pant said the Chinese ambassador in Nepal intervened and helped to save Olis office as well as his government, as the CCP wants the communist regime to survive in Nepal for the CCPs own benefit.

China is using its leverage with the Communist Party of Nepal to target India via Nepal, he said.

Pande said in an op-ed earlier that while India and China were involved in a border dispute that escalated into the killing of 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers, the Chinese were breeding insecurity in Nepal against the Indian establishment.

As China beefs up its aggressiveness along the Line of Actual Control, India must also focus on Chinese attempts to make its immediate neighborhood insecure for New Delhi. Chinas strategy usually involves multiple simultaneous moves, Pande said, adding that the deterioration of Indias relationships with Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka have happened at Beijings encouragement.

Pande said the problem also lies in India using a civilizational approach in its relationships in the neighborhood, which is Indias historic and civilizational sphere of influence.

The wrinkle in the IndiaNepal relationship points to the problem India seems to be having with some of its other neighbors, something that China is actively taking advantage of in pursuit of strategic advantage, said Pande.

India accepts the sovereignty of all its neighbors, but its emphasis on ancient history creates fear that New Delhis goal might be to diminish the separate identities of its smaller neighbors, she said, adding that such an approach is helping Nepalese politicians produce an ultra-nationalist sentiment.
A further 119 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK.

The Government said 45,878 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus as of 5pm on Monday - an increase of 119 from the day before.

This is also a big jump from the rise of just seven further deaths reported yesterday - the lowest since March 12.

And separate figures published by the UKs statistics agencies show there have now been 56,400 fatalities registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The Government also said that in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Tuesday, there had been a further 581 lab-confirmed cases. Overall, a total of 300,692 cases have been confirmed.

The official statistics differ from the hospital death tolls released separately by devolved authorities.

NHS England said on Tuesday that a further 12 people had died in UK hospitals after testing postitive for coronavirus.

This takes the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals to 29,303 as of 4pm on July 27.

Patients were aged between 45 and 99 years old and all had known underlying health conditions.

Another two deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.

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

Public Health Wales said there are no new deaths of people who tested positive for coronavirus with the country's total number remaining at 1,549.

The number of cases in Wales increased by 21, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 17,191.

Meanwhile, Scotland has now gone 12 days without any new coronavirus deaths, Nicola Sturgeon said.

The First Minister gave the latest figures at the Scottish Governments daily coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh.

Passengers arriving at Birmingham Airport as many people arrive into England from holidays in Spain / PA

A total of 2,491 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for Covid-19.

Ms Sturgeon said 18,558 people have tested positive for the virus, up by four from 18,554 the day before.

There were 264 people in hospital with confirmed Covid-19, down six in 24 hours.

Of these, two were in intensive care, no change on the previous day.

It comes after it emerged that the Office for National Statistics now counts the number of deaths in the UK at more than 56,400.

Figures published on Tuesday by the ONS show that 51,366 deaths involving Covid-19 had occurred in England and Wales up to July 17, and had been registered by July 25.

And figures published last week by the National Records for Scotland showed that 4,193 deaths involving Covid-19 had been registered in Scotland up to July 19, while 850 deaths had occurred in Northern Ireland up to July 17 (and had been registered up to July 22) according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.

Together, these figures mean that so far 56,409 deaths have been registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, including suspected cases.

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These again differ from the Government's statistics which will be released later today.
Sex and the City didnt focus much on the origin stories of its characters. After six seasons, though, a few interesting tidbits were dropped for fans. During the shows original run, fans learned that Carrie Bradshaws father had left when she was young and that Samantha Jones and Miranda Hobbes had multiple siblings. Fans also learned that Miranda grew up in Philadelphia and that Charlottes Connecticut upbringing informed many of her decisions. Carrie might have been the main character of the series, but fans actually learned the most about Charlottes background.

Charlotte was the daughter of a doctor, according to her wedding announcement

When Charlotte married her second husband, Harry Goldenblatt, their wedding announcement appeared in The New York Times. While most fans focused on the ink splat on the picture, one eagle-eyed Reddit user noticed that a fair amount of Charlotte and Harrys announcement was visible, and some interesting pieces of information appeared in the writeup.

Charlotte York, Harry Goldenblatt and Lily | Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

RELATED: Sex and the City: Do You Know How Many Proposals Were Featured on the Series?

Charlotte was the daughter of a doctor. In the writeup, it stated that Charlottes father was a doctor, and her mother, whose real name was Sandra, went by the nickname Muffin. Charlottes father appeared just once on the show, to walk her down the aisle at her first wedding to Trey McDougal, and the show never extrapolated on what type of doctor he was. Funnily enough, Treys mother also went by a nickname. Bunny McDougals real name was never mentioned.

Charlotte York had a lot in common with a Gilmore Girls character

While Charlottes wonton dating as an adult would not have sat well with Gilmore Girls character, Emily Gilmore, she and Charlotte had a lot in common. Not only did Charlotte attend the same college as the Gilmore Girls matriarch, but Charlotte could have been a part of Emilys beloved organization, The Daughters of the American Revolution.

Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw and Kristin Davis as Charlotte York| Bobby Bank/WireImage

RELATED: Sex and the City and Gilmore Girls Have More In Common Than You Think

According to her wedding announcement, Charlotte was the descendent of Nathaniel Gorham. According to Rutgers, Gorham was a prominent politician. In fact, he was one of the original signers of the United States Constitution. The similarities didnt end there. Charlotte was also raised in Connecticut, which is the same state that Emily called home, although Charlotte grew up in Old Greenwich, while Emily called Hartford home.

There was a couple of plot holes in Charlotte and Harrys wedding announcement

Charlotte and Harrys wedding announcement shared some important information about Charlottes upbringing, but there were a couple of mistakes in the writeup. Charlottes career path, for example, was completely wrong. The writeup suggested that Charlotte was a writer and editor for a fashion magazine, but no mention of such a job ever made it onto the show. Instead, Charlotte was first introduced as an art director at a gallery. Later, after she quit to have children, she volunteered her time at a museum.

Charlotte York and Carrie Bradshaw | Tom Kingston/WireImage

RELATED: Sex and the City: Which Character Dated The Most Men?

Charlottes career path wasnt the only thing that was incorrect in the article. The writeup mentioned Harrys parents, but never mentioned the fact that his mother was deceased. Harry said, in the early stages of his relationship with Charlotte, that his mother had died. One would think she would have been listed as the late Judith Goldenblatt, but nothing in the announcement indicated that she had died.
Bank of Ireland has been fined 1.6m by the Central Bank, after it failing to report an incident of online fraud to Gardai in 2014.

In September 2014, Bank of Ireland paid 106,000 to an account in the UK after taking instructions from a fraudster impersonating a client.

The transfer was made by a fraudster who had hacked the client's email account.

To allow this to happen, bank staff handed over confidential details following an email request, while they didn't ask security questions to verify the person's identity, or notice that the fraudster signed off their email with a different name to the client.

The client later contacted the bank about the fraud, and was reimbursed their money.

The Central Bank discovered the incident a year later, and an investigation found serious deficiencies in how Bank of Ireland handled third party payments.

A lack of transparency about the incident also had the effect of misleading its investigation.

Bank of Ireland started marking the appropriate adjustments to its processes 17 months after the incident occurred, and only after the Central Bank's intervention, which it says was another aggravating factor in the case.

In a press release issued today, the bank reiterated a public apology for the indiscretion.

"Bank of Ireland regrets the circumstances of this incident and the weaknesses in internal controls and procedures that it highlighted. As soon as the Bank became aware of the issue we ensured that the customer involved was fully reimbursed.

"Bank of Ireland also regrets the approach to this investigation. All relevant information should have been disclosed to the Central Bank of Ireland from the outset, and the matter should have been reported to all relevant authorities.

"The Bank has apologised to the customer involved and to the Central Bank."
GIC led the round with participation from Silver Lake Waterman and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures (USV).

Stack Overflow, the most trusted platform for developers and technologists visited by more than 120 million people each month, today announced $85M in Series E funding led by GIC with participation from new investor Silver Lake Waterman and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Spark Capital, and Union Square Ventures (USV). The round brings Stack Overflow's total funding to $153M.

The new financing will be used to accelerate the company's SaaS knowledge management and collaboration offering, Stack Overflow for Teams. The funding comes on the heels of the product's significant momentum, with Stack Overflow for Teams' revenue doubling every year since launching in 2017.

A collaboration platform for developers and technologists to break down silos and work asynchronously to ship products faster, accelerate onboarding, improve customer experience and drive innovation, Stack Overflow for Teams is used by thousands of companies including Bloomberg, Elastic, Expensify, Microsoft, Wix and Zapier. Stack Overflow for Teams is seeing rapid adoption as startups and large enterprises embrace platforms to streamline developer and technologist workflows and integrate tools for transparency, security and communication. Over 200,000 paid users across more than 5,000 teams use the platform across Engineering, Product Management, Data Science and Customer Support.

"This $85 million in new funding, fueled by the growth of Stack Overflow for Teams, allows Stack Overflow to scale rapidly, to accelerate our transformation into a leading SaaS company, to expand into new markets, and to continue to invest in our public platform and the community that is the foundation of our company," said Stack Overflow CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar. As part of the recent financing, Chandrasekar will join the board of Stack Overflow. A senior leader and cloud veteran from Rackspace, he was appointed CEO of the company in October 2019.

COVID-19 has reshaped what the future of work looks like, with a recent Gartner poll showing that 48% of employees will likely work remotely at least part of the time after COVID-19 versus 30% before the pandemic. Stack Overflow for Teams addresses this emerging customer need by connecting distributed employees and enabling them to easily access a central source of knowledge to unlock information. Forrester's The Total Economic Impact of Stack Overflow for Teams report found the product has an ROI of 179% for organizations that use it.

"Stack Overflow for Teams makes it easy for our developers to find the information they need quickly. It reduces the repetition of questions internally and eliminates cross-functional silos," said Chris Thomas, Managing Director at Moody's Analytics, a customer of Stack Overflow. "Stack Overflow for Teams helps us drive more collaboration and innovation at Moody's Analytics, especially as we've gone fully remote."

About Stack Overflow:

Stack Overflow is helping developers and technologists write the script of the future. More than 120 million unique visitors come to Stack Overflow's public platform every month making it one of the 50 most-visited websites in the world. Stack Overflow's products include a SaaS knowledge management and collaboration offering, Stack Overflow for Teams, in addition to Stack Overflow Advertising and Stack Overflow Talent. Through its products Stack Overflow partners with top companies such as Bloomberg, Microsoft, Wix, Expensify, and more to help them enable, understand, hire, and engage the world's developers and technologists. Founded in 2008, Stack Overflow is headquartered in New York.

About GIC

GIC is a leading global investment firm established in 1981 to manage Singapore's foreign reserves. A disciplined long-term value investor, GIC is uniquely positioned for investments across a wide range of asset classes, including equities, fixed income, private equity, real estate and infrastructure. In private equity, GIC invests through funds as well as directly in companies, partnering with its fund managers and management teams to help world class businesses achieve their objectives. GIC has invested in the technology space for nearly 40 years and seeks to be a lifetime partner to the companies it invests in. Headquartered in Singapore, GIC employs over 1,700 people across 10 offices in key financial cities worldwide. For more information about GIC, please visit www.gic.com.sg or follow us on LinkedIn.

About Silver Lake Waterman

Silver Lake Waterman is part of Silver Lake, the global leader in technology investing with about $40 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital and a team of approximately 100 investment and value creation professionals located in Silicon Valley, New York, London and Hong Kong. Silver Lake Waterman focuses on providing flexible expansion capital to later-stage growth companies in the technology and technology-enabled industries. For more information about Silver Lake Waterman and Silver Lake, please visit www.silverlake.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005330/en/

Contacts:

Maggie Squires

press@stackoverflow.com

901-230-6514
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The end of Johnny Depp's sensational libel trial against The Sun newspaper will have a major impact on another high-profile case the Hollywood star is bringing against ex-wife Amber Heard in the US.

Judgment in the High Court trial in London is not expected to be delivered by Mr Justice Nicol until late September, giving Depp's lawyers enough time to prepare for his US defamation case against Heard, which is expected to get underway next January.

In the US proceedings, Depp is suing Heard for $50 million over a 2018 article she wrote in the Washington Post in which she describes herself as being a domestic abuse survivor.

Although Depp is not specifically named, his lawyers allege that it is obvious that the article refers to him and labels the actor of being a domestic abuser.

The three-week libel trial against The Sun in London, in which Depp hopes to win 350,000 in damages, has widely been seen as a 'dress rehearsal' for the US hearing, which will take place in Virginia.

It will feature all the same witnesses that appeared on behalf of either Depp or Heard in London and is also based on the same bombshell evidence that was produced at the High Court over the past few weeks.

The US hearing will also result in Depp and Heard returning to the witness box again to divulge details of their stormy relationship, which have already generated widespread publicity around the world.

Defamations from the former Hollywood couple and their witnesses have already been filed in the US, with the war of words between their respective camps already underway.

Depp's defence in the US also mirrors the one that has featured at the High Court; that it was Heard and not him who was physically abusive in their relationship and that he is the victim of a 'hoax' orchestrated by her and her associates.

But legal sources have indicated that a potential 'round two' of the Depp-Heard now depends on the outcome of the London libel hearing and could be settled even before it comes to court, depending on Mr Justice Nicol's judgment.

Johnny Depp received a rapturous welcome from fans today as he arrived at the High Court for the final day of libel trial against The Sun

Amber Heard waves to supporters as she arrives at the High Court this morning as the blockbuster Hollywood trial edges towards its conclusion

Mr Justice Nicol is the judge in the high profile trial and is expected to deliver his judgment at the end of September following the High Court's summer break next month

One source connected to the High Court trial told MailOnline: 'A lot depends on this High Court hearing for both Depp and Heard. If Depp loses in London, he's unlikely to pursue the US case. If Heard loses, she's going to try and settle the US case out of court.

'Both of them are very head strong people and have a got the appetite for another fight in the US. And I'm sure the world will enjoy it because it's been great entertainment. But it would be absolutely foolish of them to go back to court in the US if the London case goes against either of them. Ultimately, what happens in the US hearing is in the hands of Mr Justice Nicol.'

For Heard, preventing the US hearing from going ahead may also come down to a question of economics. Faced with a $50 million defamation suit, she does not have the financial resources that are at Depp's disposal and if the Virgina court was to find against her, it could leave her bankrupt.

Depp has made it privately clear to his legal team that he is determined to further vindicate his name in the US if he wins the libel hearing against The Sun. The High Court trial is estimated to have cost him 1 million in legal fees and a US hearing is expected to cost him around the same amount.

On the final day of the blockbuster trial today, Depp's lawyer laid into 'compulsive liar' Heard and claimed her evidence has been littered with inconsistencies.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star, who missed yesterday's hearing, received a rapturous welcome from fans this morning as he arrived at the High Court for the final day of the hearing.

Depp was present to hear his barrister David Sherborne deliver his final submission, following a trial which has gripped the showbiz world with sensational details of his marriage to the Aquaman actress.

Today, Heard was accused of being a 'compulsive liar,' which, the court was told, calls into question her evidence and claims that she was a victim of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of Depp.

Mr Sherborne asked the judge, Mr Justice Nicol - who is likely to deliver his judgment at the end of September following the High Court's summer break next month - to consider five key points which he said, prove their allegation that Heard has lied in her evidence. He asked him to consider her credibility as witness based on them.

The first, the barrister said, was the Heard had lied about incidents; the second, that she added further details about incidents; third, that she 'invented wholly' incidents based around text messages; fourth, that she responded to 'difficult evidence' by blaming others, 'largely Mr Depp;' and finally, Mr Sherborne claimed, Heard had refused to admit that she had not been telling the truth when confronted by it.

He added: 'If the court reaches the conclusion that any one of those five points is correct, then Miss Heard's evidence can't be treated as from a witness of truth, which given her centrality to the defendants case, we say spells doom.'

Mr Sherborne alleged that it was Heard who was the domestic abuser, not Depp.

The court heard a recording, which was also played earlier in the trial, in which she admits to hitting him, as Depp's legal team alleged Heard has a 'propensity for violence'.

Mr Sherborne added: 'Miss Heard perpetrated acts of violence on Mr Depp. Why can't she say this? Because it can't fit with her narrative of Mr Depp being a wife beater.

'Her physical violence towards him makes her the domestic abuser, not him.'

Amber Heard and Bianca Butti held hands as they arrived at court for the sixteenth day of the high-profile libel trial

The Pirates of the Caribbean star missed yesterday's hearing but was greeted on arrival this morning by dozens of fans outside the court with flowers, gifts and banners reading: 'Justice for Johnny' and 'Abuse has no gender. Men can be victims too'

Johnny Depp v The Sun: Key issues in libel trial at London's High Court These are the key issues the trial judge, Mr Justice Nicol, has to determine. - Whether the April 2018 article by the tabloid's executive editor Dan Wootton was defamatory of Depp. Under the Defamation Act 2013, a statement is not defamatory unless its publication causes 'serious harm to the reputation of the claimant'. - The Sun's publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), is defending the claim and relying on a defence of truth. It is for the publisher to prove that the allegations made in the article are 'substantially true'. - The meaning of the article, which is defined as what it would mean to the 'reasonable reader', will have to be determined by the judge. But NGN's lawyers say the differences between the rival meanings contended by each side are 'not significant' and the outcome of the case will therefore not turn on meaning. - Depp's case is that the article bore the meaning that he was 'guilty, on overwhelming evidence, of serious domestic violence against his then wife, causing significant injury and leading to her fearing for her life, for which he was constrained to pay no less than 5 million to compensate her, and which resulted in him being subjected to a continuing court restraining order; and for that reason is not fit to work in the film industry'. He strenuously denies the allegations and claims he 'has never hit or committed any acts of physical violence against Ms Heard'. - The meaning which NGN will seek to prove is true is that the Claimant beat his wife Amber Heard, causing her to suffer significant injury and on occasion leading her to fearing for her life. They rely on 14 separate allegations of violence and allege more generally that Depp was 'controlling and verbally and physically abusive' towards Ms Heard, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol and or drugs, throughout their relationship. NGN's lawyers say an important issue for the judge to decide will be what substances Depp was using during the relationship. They contend that he frequently lost control of himself, partly because of his heavy drug and alcohol use, and also that his memory has been impaired by his heavy use of drugs. - If Depp wins his case, the judge will have to decide what level of compensation he should receive for the harm to his reputation and for the 'distress, hurt and humiliation caused'. There is an upper limit on general damages for libel of 300,000 to 325,000. However, if he succeeds, Depp may also be entitled to aggravated damages. The actor is also asking for a final injunction against NGN, who his legal team say 'have retained the article on their website and maintained their allegation to the bitter end'. Advertisement

Depp, 57, is suing News Group Newspapers (NGN), publishers of the Sun and executive editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 article which referred to him as a 'wife beater'.

It appeared under the headline 'Gone Potty How can JK Rowling be 'genuinely happy' casting wife-beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?'

A written submission presented to Mr Justice Nicol claimed that allegations contained in the article are untrue and go 'to the very heart' of Depp's integrity and who he is as a person.

It stated: 'The libel in this case is of the utmost seriousness published to the world at large. It goes to very heart of who Mr Depp is as a person. Is he a violent monster who put his ex-wife in fear for her life or has she falsely accused him of the most heinous conduct?

'The allegation could hardly be more serious. The allegation of domestic violence and causing serious injury to Ms Heard and putting her in fear of her life goes to the heart of Mr Depp's integrity.'

The Sun's article, it continued, had maliciously compared Depp to Harvey Weinstein and included him in the 'rogues gallery of abusers' that the #MeToo campaign had exposed.

Mr Justice Nicol was asked to consider the professional and personal damage done to Depp's reputation, which it was alleged, was not challenged by The Sun's lawyers when he was giving evidence.

Mr Sherborne referred to Johnny Depp's 'Southern Gentleman' code, which the actor spoke about in his evidence, saying it might be considered 'old-fashioned'.

He said the actor made clear that, according to that code, one does not hit a woman and only retaliates to a man in self defence.

The barrister said the fact Mr Depp had shared a 'stupid, crude joke' with Vanessa Paradis did not mean he did not put the Southern Gentleman code into practice 'the majority of the time'.

He added: 'He has never hit a woman in his entire life. Period. Full stop. Nada.'

Mr Sherborne said it was 'not just a Southern Gentleman thing', but also because Mr Depp had himself been subjected to violence from his mother as a child.

He said: 'Crucially, not only has he never hit a woman in his life, he has never been accused of it.'

The barrister said that, other than Heard's allegations, it had been accepted by the defendants that Mr Depp had never been accused of violence by another woman.

He said that was why there was 'no need' to call the actor's former partners Ms Paradis and Winona Ryder to give evidence.

Mr Sherborne also referred to the evidence of actress and #MeToo movement advocate Katherine Kendall, who he said was a 'genuine MeToo victim'.

In a hard-hitting closing speech, Mr Sherborne questioned the credibility of Heard, claiming that her evidence was 'shifting' and 'inconsistent'.

He reminded the court once again of her testimony that she punched Depp in March 2015 in defence of her sister after hearing a rumour that he had pushed Kate Moss down the stairs when he was dating her.

Mr Sherborne described Heard's allegation that Depp was violent towards Moss as 'unscripted malevolence' which she made up while giving evidence two weeks ago.

He added: 'This was a gratuitous and totally invented reference to Kate Moss. If you want to see the credibility of the witness that this case is so heavily dependent on, that tells you a lot.

'This invention shows that Miss Heard's evidence just can't be relied upon.'

The court was told that claims by Heard and The Sun's lawyers that Depp is a violent man are simply not true.

Mr Sherborne added: 'He's a generous, warm and gentle individual. He is a peaceful man. He's not the man that Miss Heard and the defendants have constantly sought to portray.'

He went on to say the court had heard 'hugely varied accounts ... of what went on in the relationship between Mr Depp and Ms Heard'.

Depp was bundled through a boisterous crowd by his bodyguards as he arrived at the main entrance dressed in sharp grey suit and sporting a black bandana

After making his way to the main steps, he stopped and turned, waving and blowing kisses at his fans as he milked the adulation

The court was told yesterday that Depp's 'deep misogyny' was at the root of his anger that manifested as violence towards Heard, pictured today

Depp's alleged violence against Heard 'supported by a wealth of evidence,' court hears Johnny Depp's alleged violence towards Amber Heard during a night in December 2015 is 'supported by a wealth of evidence,' the High Court heard yesterday. The Sun's lawyer Sasha Wass QC said: 'Mr Depp was intoxicated and violent. He headbutted her, he chased her up the stairs, grabbed hold of her hair and dragged her by the hair into PH (penthouse) four. 'He threw her onto the bed and hurled himself on top of her with such force that the bed frame was damaged.' Ms Wass said Johnny Depp then went to the kitchen in penthouse three and wrote in gold paint: 'Why be a fraud? All is bulls***.' She said that after that incident, Ms Heard messaged her publicist Jodie Gottlieb to say she had had 'an accident' and was 'really bruised and might have a black eye or two'. Ms Wass said: 'If this was an elaborate hoax, why would Ms Heard be protecting Mr Depp at this stage? 'Because she is not telling her publicist she was assaulted by her husband - which is, we suggest, the truth. 'She is pretending it was an accident and, for the avoidance of doubt, there is no room for accident in the injuries Ms Heard suffered, because it was not only the headbutt... but it was the pulling out of her hair in clumps and the damage caused to her scalp.' Ms Wass said Mr Depp admitted in evidence that there may have been a headbutt, but it was accidental. However the barrister said there was 'no way he was dragging Ms Heard by her hair in a way that was anything other than deliberate' Advertisement

He added: 'It would be easy to lose focus on precisely why we are all here ... why the claimant has subjected himself to days of cross-examination.'

The barrister played an audio recording of a conversation between the couple in September 2015, in which Ms Heard tells him: 'I didn't punch you ... I'm sorry that I didn't hit you across the face in a proper slap, but I was hitting you, it was not punching you. Babe, you're not punched.'

Heard also says: 'You didn't get punched. You got hit. I'm sorry I hit you like this. But I did not punch you. I did not f***ing deck you.'

Mr Sherborne said: 'If it was a man who had said what Ms Heard said and who had admitted to what she admitted to, this was Mr Depp for example, and it was the other way around, can you imagine what consternation there would be?

'A straightforward, unambiguous, unequivocal admission of hitting him.'

Later in the hearing, Mr Sherborne referred to the aftermath of an alleged incident of domestic violence on December 15 2015, saying there were witnesses who had evidence 'about watching Ms Heard be physical', including Tara Roberts, Depp's property manager in the Bahamas, who he said had 'a graphic account... that Ms Heard perpetrated acts of violence on Mr Depp'.

The barrister said these allegations against Ms Heard were relevant because 'it does not sit, it cannot sit with her narrative of Mr Depp being a wife beater'.

He added: 'Her physical violence towards him, her starting physical violence as she admits, make her the domestic abuser, not him.'

Mr Sherborne told Mr Justice Nicol that 'the allegations made against Mr Depp are exceptionally serious', with the actor accused of 'repeated violence involving serious physical injury and causing her (Ms Heard) to fear for her life on several occasions'.

He said the fact that Depp has 'a history of consuming alcohol and taking drugs' was 'neither newsworthy nor, quite frankly, probative of anything', and described the questioning of the actor during the trial about his drink and drug use as 'a wasteful exercise'.

Mr Sherborne said Mr Depp 'never denies taking controlled drugs or consuming alcohol'.

'He admitted it and, if occasionally he was mistaken or forgot exactly when he stopped taking something ... it is quite hard to see why that would make any material difference given how candid he has been about his use of certain substances,' Mr Sherborne said.

He told the court: 'The defendants' case has to be more than that he (Mr Depp) took controlled drugs or that he consumed alcohol.'

During the hearing, Mr Sherborne reminded the judge that the burden of proof rests on NGN to prove what it published and said there is a higher standard of proof for the allegations because many are criminal in nature.

The barrister added: 'This court requires compelling and cogent evidence before it will find that an allegation that someone is guilty of a serious criminal offence is true.'

He said the court needs evidence which is 'clear, consistent and forceful'.

Mr Sherborne said there are 'two diametrically opposed accounts' of what happened in the couple's relationship, adding: 'One side is obviously lying and one is telling the truth.'

He told the court that the article referred to 'overwhelming evidence' that Depp was violent towards Ms Heard and stated 'there is a detailed history of domestic abuse incidents, some of which led to her fearing for her life'.

He said: 'So serious is the charge that is made against Depp that Mr Wootton calls on (JK Rowling) to recast someone else in the role.'

Addressing his own use of the word 'charge', the barrister described it as 'one of the great ironies in this case: there is no charge ever filed against Depp.

'This is not a mere accusation - the article leaves no room for doubt whatsoever for its readership of millions.'

Mr Sherborne said The Sun and Mr Wootton were 'acting as both judge and jury, and the defendants plainly and squarely state that Depp is guilty (of a) series of serious and violent criminal offences'.

The court was told how evidence has not been heard 'from a single journalist' in relation to the article as Depp's representative referred sarcastically to the 'journalistic excellence' The Sun was seeking to defend.

The barrister said the article was 'not researched at all' and that it was presented in a 'deliberately and wholly one-sided manner'.

A huge crowd gathered outside the High Court this morning as the Hollywood star made his way inside to hear the final submissions

The Sun's lawyer Sasha Wass QC said there was 'overwhelming evidence of domestic violence or wife-beating behaviour, cataloged over a three-year period'. Pictured: Amber Heard today

A written submission presented to Mr Justice Nicol, who is likely to deliver his judgment at the end of September, claimed that allegations contained in the article are untrue and go 'to the very heart' of Depp's integrity and who he is as a person

Earlier today, the Pirates of the Caribbean star was greeted on arrival this morning by dozens of fans outside the court with flowers, gifts and banners reading: 'Justice for Johnny' and 'Abuse has no gender. Men can be victims too.'

Depp was bundled through a boisterous crowd by his bodyguards as he arrived at the main entrance dressed in sharp grey suit and sporting a black bandana.

After making his way to the main steps, he stopped and turned, waving and blowing kisses at his fans as he milked the adulation.

Around 40 other adoring fans, all of them women, lined the inside hall of the court with Depp walking along, hugging and kissing them and thanking them for the support as he made his way for the start of the day's proceedings.

The court was told yesterday that Depp's 'deep misogyny' was at the root of his anger that manifested as violence towards Heard, as emails and texts were read out in which he used words like 'whore' and 'slut' to refer to his ex-wife and other women.

It was also heard how the Hollywood star's self-description as a 'Southern gentlemen who had respect for women' was 'entirely untrue'.

The hard-hitting claims were made as Sasha Wass QC, representing the Sun newspaper, delivered the defence's final submission in the high-profile libel case which has rocked the showbiz world with sensational revelations of Depp's troubled relationship with the Aquaman actress.

Over the past three weeks, the hearing has heard from Depp, Heard and 25 other witnesses who have provided graphic testimony of their stormy relationship and details of Depp's excessive use of alcohol and drug binges.

Amber Heard wrote honeymoon diary entry alleging Johnny Depp tried to strangle her with her own shirt, court hears Johnny Depp allegedly tried to strangle Amber Heard with her own shirt during their honeymoon, according to the actress's diary entry mentioned in court yesterday. Sasha Wass QC told London's High Court about the evidence in relation to the couple's honeymoon in July 2015 on a train in south-east Asia. Delivering her final submission on behalf of the Sun newspaper, who are being sued by Depp after a 2018 article referred to him as a 'wife beater', she said Heard described an argument during which Depp assaulted her. She said this contradicted the actor's evidence, which was that he had not been violent towards his wife in any way. The barrister referred to Heard's handwritten diary entry from July 27 2015, in which she said the actress gave a 'graphic description' of Depp trying to strangle her with her own shirt. Ms Wass said that, despite Depp saying he was not violent towards Heard in his evidence, the actor said in a September 2015 audio recording of the couple discussing their relationship that they had a great time 'other than we had a fight on the train which was physical'. She said the conversation was not simply about Heard being responsible for all the violence, but that Depp was also accepting being physical, which she said was 'completely absent from his witness statement or his evidence in this case'. Ms Wass said in another part of the conversation, Depp 'appears to be accepting that he is the culprit the majority of the time' and that he says sometimes 'I just freak out'. The barrister said: 'That is exactly what this case is about, Mr Depp freaking out after he has taken too many illegal drugs and drunk too much alcohol.' Advertisement

While Depp was absent yesterday, Heard did attend, and was pictured smiling alongside girlfriend Bianca Butti, before waving at awaiting fans outside the Royal Courts of Justice.

Ms Wass said there was 'overwhelming evidence of domestic violence or wife-beating behaviour, cataloged over a three-year period.'

She said Depp was 'a hopeless addict who repeatedly lost his self-control and all ability to restrain his anger.'

'Permeating all of the evidence in this case is the character of Mr. Depp himself - his well-documented evidence of violence and destruction over his adult life which have occurred when he was under the influence of drink and drugs.'

Ms Wass added that Depp 'was subject to irrational mood swings and abnormal behavioral patterns, which would not have been present when Mr. Depp was clean and sober, and Mr. Depp has a name for this metamorphosed entity - namely, The Monster.'

She said: 'The other aspect which is important in terms of substance abuse is Mr Depp's recollection of his own disgraceful conduct, which is so severely impaired by drug misuse that he may not even have been aware of the extent of his violence and terrifying behaviour which, on more than one of these pleaded incidents, put Ms Heard in fear of her life.'

Depp and Heard met on the set of the 2011 comedy 'The Rum Diary' and married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard filed for divorce the following year, and the divorce was finalized in 2017.

The former spouses have both been in court during three weeks of testimony at the grand neo-Gothic court building.

Ms Wass reminded Mr Justice Nicol there were 'well-documented episodes of violence and destruction' over Depp's adult life and that the actor had accepted he was violent to inanimate objects but not people.

However, she said there was an incident earlier in his career when he assaulted a photographer with a plank of wood when under the influence of drink and drugs.

She also said his evidence that he was not violent towards people was 'meaningless' when he was as intoxicated as he was on occasions and 'wouldn't have known what he was doing'.

Ms Wass continued: 'In answer to what we suggest is overwhelming evidence of domestic violence or wife-beating behaviour, catalogued over a three-year period between 2013 and 2016, Mr Depp's response is to claim that he is a victim of an elaborate hoax that has been perpetrated against him by Ms Heard and her friends.'

The barrister said Depp had accused Heard and her friends of 'having painted on injuries, manipulated photographs and destroyed property which they then went on to photograph in order to create what he describes as some sort of insurance policy for Ms Heard'.

Ms Wass added: 'What exactly Ms Heard was insuring against in the course of this hoax remains unexplained.'

She told the court that such a hoax 'would have entailed Ms Heard engaging in a pre-planned conspiracy over the period of the entire relationship with Mr Depp', adding: 'Such a suggestion, we say, is risible.'

Ms Wass told the court: 'The approach taken by Mr Depp from the time Ms Heard obtained a domestic violence restraining order against him on May 27 2016 was as follows: to deny that he ever assaulted Ms Heard, to accuse Ms Heard of being the violent party and to reverse his role with hers.'
The unusual fanfare surrounding the arrival of five Rafale fighters from France is a cautionary tale at many levels. The first is the context of the border confrontation with China. So long as Beijing refuses to restore status quo ante along the Line of Actual Control, India must retain a degree of military readiness as a bargaining chip or as a contingency for further violence. Two, the Rafales represent the first strategically significant upgrade in Indias air power in decades. While India is also fast-tracking the purchase of Russian MiGs and Sukhois, one has already been pensioned out of the arsenal and the other serves as a second stringer for the Chinese air force. Three, the importance attached to the Rafales and attempts to fast-track the subsequent batches is a reminder of the slowness of Indias procurement system and the question marks over its indigenisation drive.

India had the luxury of putting defence procurement and reforms on the backburner. After all, it enjoyed military superiority against Pakistan, and had a military restraint understanding with China. The Balakot dogfights showed that, at best, India had technological parity with Pakistan. Galwan Valley has shown Beijing no longer feels the need to be constrained by the past 45 years. The Indian political system has been more concerned about accusations of scandals regarding arms purchases than what the weapons meant for national security. It is telling that the Rafales are the first tangible result of a fighter contract that was first unveiled in 2007. To its credit, the Narendra Modi government has implemented several defence reforms. But the gap has been its focus on weapons indigenisation, where the Make in India focus may not be adequate to address the quality needs of the armed forces. But with the changed security environment, the question has to be asked whether, in the case of offensive platforms, this priority makes sense.

The new paradigm means the services also need to relook at their earlier convictions. Networking allows militaries to get more accurate bang for their buck but barely exists in even the most primitive form in the Indian military. A host of new technologies means older formulae need a rethink. The advent of the armed drone, for example, means the original 42-squadron air force goal of the Indian Air Force may be obsolete. The times they are a-changing in dangerous ways and mindsets need to be a-changing as well.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle must decide between representing The Firm or earning lots of money, a royal commentator has claimed.

Angela Levin, who wrote Harry: Conversations with the Prince in 2018, told talkRADIO that the Duke, 35, and Duchess of Sussex, 38, have been given a 'massive amount of what they wanted' by the Queen.

The royal biographer went on to say Her Majesty has kept the door open for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to return to the Royal Family, but claimed the couple need to choose between whether they want royalty or money.

'They have been given a massive amount of what they wanted, the Queen was very generous,' she said. 'She has kept the door open to them but they can't have it both ways.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle must decide between representing The Firm or earning lots of money, Angela Levin has claimed. Pictured, the royal couple attending the Commonwealth Day Service 2020 on March 9, 2020 in London

The royal biographer claims Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been given a 'massive amount of what they wanted' by the Queen. Pictured, the Queen attends St Mary the Virgin church, Hillington, Sandringham, Norfolk on 19 January 2020

She continued: 'It can't be royal and earn lots of money for themselves at the same time.

'They can go anywhere they want and do anything they want yet they still hark back about the most minute grievances.'

'Kate gave her flowers rather than checking how she was, the Queen hasnt got their picture on display, tiny grievances which they build up.'

It comes just a day after the royal biographer claimed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle 'bring out the worst in each other.'

Angela, who wrote a biography about Prince Harry in 2018, previously told how negativity appeared to have 'engulfed' the couple (pictured, during their final royal engagement in March 2020)

She claimed the Duchess of Sussex is a 'mega-watt attention grabber with the eyes of the world on her' while the Duke has 'faded in her shadow.'

Writing in The Telegraph, she said the Duchess had proved herself not to be a 'team player' but 'a fiercely ambitious woman who wants to be number one.'

Meanwhile, she added that Prince Harry has transformed from 'charismatic and accessible' to 'a nervy, tense man who seems constantly on edge.'

Angela explained how the Duchess had proved herself not to be a 'team player' during her time in the royal family, instead saying she 'seemingly finds it difficult to compromise.'

She went on to say that that the Duchess maybe someone who will always 'zoom in on the negative' unless 'everything and everyone around her' is going her way.
Mecca (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) - Pilgrims were quarantined Tuesday in the Muslim holy city of Mecca ahead of the dramatically downsized hajj as Saudi authorities strive to prevent a coronavirus outbreak during the five-day pilgrimage.

Up to 10,000 people already residing in the kingdom will participate in the annual ritual starting Wednesday, according to hajj officials, a tiny fraction of the 2.5 million international pilgrims that attended last year.

Those selected to take part in this year's hajj were subject to temperature checks and placed in quarantine as they began trickling into Mecca at the weekend.

State media showed health workers sanitising their luggage, and some pilgrims reported being given electronic wristbands to allow authorities to monitor their whereabouts.

Workers, clutching brooms and disinfectant, were seen cleaning the area around the Kaaba, the structure at the centre of the Grand Mosque draped in gold-embroidered cloth towards which Muslims around the world pray.

Hajj authorities have cordoned the Kaaba this year, saying pilgrims will not be allowed to touch it, to limit the chances of infection.

They also reported setting up multiple health facilities, mobile clinics and ambulances to cater to the pilgrims, who will be required to wear masks and observe social distancing.

"There are no security-related concerns in this pilgrimage, but it is to protect pilgrims from the danger of the pandemic," Khalid bin Qarar Al-Harbi, Saudi Arabia's director of public security, told reporters on Monday.

Some 70 percent of the pilgrims are foreigners residing in the kingdom, while the rest will be Saudi citizens.

All worshippers were required to be tested for coronavirus before arriving in Mecca and will also have to quarantine after the pilgrimage as the number of cases in the kingdom nears 270,000 -- one of the largest outbreaks in the Middle East.

They were given elaborate amenity kits that include sterilised pebbles for a stoning ritual, disinfectants, masks, a prayer rug and the ihram, a seamless white garment worn by pilgrims, according to a hajj ministry programme document.

Story continues

- 'Indescribable feeling' -

The foreign press are barred from this year's hajj, usually a huge global media event, as the government tightens access to Mecca.

Saudi authorities initially said only around 1,000 pilgrims residing in the kingdom would be permitted for the hajj but local media reports say as many as 10,000 will be allowed to take part.

The hajj ministry has fielded a deluge of anguished queries on Twitter from rejected applicants.

But Hajj Minister Mohammad Benten insisted the process was transparent, telling the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television that "health determinants" formed the basis of selection.

"I did not expect, among millions of Muslims, to be blessed with approval," Emirati pilgrim Abdullah Al-Kathiri said in a video released by the Saudi media ministry.

"It is an indescribable feeling... especially since it is my first pilgrimage."

The ministry said non-Saudi residents of the kingdom from around 160 countries competed in the online selection process.

But it did not explain how many applied, and some disappointed pilgrims have complained that the government-run lottery was not clearly outlined and say no reason was given for their rejection.

Despite the pandemic, many pilgrims consider it is safer to participate in this year's ritual without the usual colossal crowds cramming into tiny religious sites, which make it a logistical nightmare and a health hazard.

Even in a regular year, the hajj leaves pilgrims exposed to a host of viral illnesses.

The government scaled back the pilgrimage as it could be a major source of contagion, but the move will deepen the kingdom's economic slump, analysts say.

It comes as Saudi Arabia faces a sharp downturn in oil prices due to a collapse in global demand driven by national lockdowns, which triggered austerity measures including the tripling of a value added tax and cuts to civil servants' allowances.

The hajj and the year-round umrah pilgrimages together rake in some $12 billion (10.3 billion euros) annually.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 14:02:38|Editor: huaxia

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Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speaks during a live address to the nation in Singapore, June 23, 2020. (Ministry of Communications and Information of Singapore/Handout via Xinhua)

In his message sent on Monday, Li said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Lee, Singapore's economy has maintained a good momentum for a long period of time.



BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has congratulated Lee Hsien Loong on his re-election as Singapore's prime minister.

In his message sent on Monday, Li said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Lee, Singapore's economy has maintained a good momentum for a long period of time.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Singaporean government has taken decisive measures, achieving positive results in epidemic prevention and control and gradual economic and social recovery.

Noting that China and Singapore are friendly neighbors, Li said that China highly values bilateral ties.

The Chinese premier said that he is willing to work together with his Singaporean counterpart to coordinate efforts to promote the fight against COVID-19 as well as development cooperation, continue to deepen high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road, and raise the China-Singapore relationship to a higher level on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations this year. 
President Akufo-Addo, on Monday, 27th July, 2020, commissioned the Yapei Water Supply Project, in fulfilment of a campaign pledge he made to the people in the area in the run-up to the 2016 elections.

According to President Akufo-Addo, the Yapei Water Supply System will serve 11,443 people, and has been constructed at a cost of GH5,665,966.42.

It will be recalled that on Friday, 2nd September, 2016, as part of his tour of the Northern Region, ahead of the conduct of the 2016 elections, then-candidate Akufo-Addo paid a courtesy call on the paramount chief of Yapei, Yapeiwura Soale Alhassan, who lamented about the deprivation in Yapei of basic social amenities, including potable water.

The Yapeiwura spoke at a time when his fellow Gonja, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, was the President of the Republic and told then-candidate Akufo-Addo that though John Mahama comes from here and we are surrounded by water, we are thirsty. There is no drinking water at all.

In his response at the time, candidate Akufo-Addo assured the Yapeiwura that, if by God's grace and the generosity of the Ghanaian people, he became President, he would do his best to rectify this problem.

Nearly four years on, I am happy to tell the Yapeiwura, Soale Alhassan, and the good people of Yapei, that Akufo-Addo has fulfilled his promise to provide Yapei with water. I am here this afternoon to commission the Yapei Water Supply System, under the Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project (SRWSP).

The Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project, initiated in 2017, has been financed with a credit facility from the World Bank, at a total cost of US$47.5 million.

Apart from the Savannah Region, the Rural Water Project has been implemented in 10 other regions of the country, namely Ahafo, Bono, Bono East, Central, Western, Western North, Northern, North East, Upper West and Upper East Regions. The Project components include the construction of piped water supply systems, support for household latrine construction, health and hygiene education, and environmental and social safeguards.

In his remarks, President Akufo-Addo told the residents of Yapei that one way to help improve the longevity of the treatment plant is for all of them, collectively, to protect their water bodies by stopping activities such as galamsey, sand winning and farming along river banks, all of which lead to their pollution.

This would help guarantee improved water supply, in terms of quality, quantity and reliability, to the people of Yapei and surrounding communities. Water-borne diseases, such as guinea worm, cholera and dysentery, would also be eliminated, he added.

The President was equally hopeful that the Yapei water supply system would go a long way to enhance the country's collective efforts at protecting it from the COVID-19 pandemic, and was hopeful that the availability of potable water in this area, investors will take advantage of Government's Flagship Programmes such as One- District, One-Factory to establish small and medium scale factories to create employment opportunities for the youth of this community, and stimulate the growth and development of the local economy.

He encouraged inhabitants of Yapei, with requisite skills in water systems management, to take advantage of the employment opportunities created by the provision of these water systems.

Government, President Akufo-Addo added, will continue to provide additional resources to ensure that many other communities in the Savannah and other regions also benefit from these life-changing projects. Together, let us all protect and help maintain the water infrastructure, which has come at such a significant expense to the taxpayer. 'Water for All'

President Akufo-Addo assured that government would not relent in its efforts to increase access to Water For All, a 2016 manifesto commitment of the NPP, which remains a key priority.

We have secured funding for two other rural-based water supply projects, namely, the Rural Communities and Small Towns Water Supply Project (RCSTWSP), otherwise known as the Aqua Africa Water Project, which will benefit one hundred and fifty (150) communities in the Ashanti, Eastern, Greater Accra, Oti and Volta Regions, and the Phase III of the Water Supply Scheme for Central Tongu, Adaklu Anyigbe, Agotime-Ziope Districts and the Ho Municipality, he said.

The President continued, Further, government, through the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, has awarded contracts for the construction of 645 mechanised borehole systems nationwide.
The Zacks Utility - Water Supply industry includes companies that are involved in providing drinking water and wastewater services to industrial, commercial and residential customer classes. The water utilities also provide services to numerous military bases across the United States.



Water utility operators own one million miles of pipelines that are buried under soil. Moreover, they own water treatment plants and desalination plants to supply potable water 24X7 across customer classes. The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has again highlighted the importance of potable water and wastewater services as maintaining hygiene is one of the primary ways to keep this highly infectious virus at bay.



Lets take a look at the three major industry themes:



Water continues to play a critical role in preventing the spread of COVID-19. Washing hands properly with soap at regular interval is the primary way of not getting infected and breaking the chain of the infection. Water utilities are also extending 24x7 water and wastewaters services to their customers across the United States, ignoring non-payment of water and wastewater service dues. Industry participants are restoring services previously disconnected and waiving penalties for nonpayment. Amid the unprecedented economic crisis, a few water utilities are continuing with planned capital projects to efficiently serve their current and future customers.



Per the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), COVID-19 has not been detected in drinking-water supplies and based on current finding, the risk to water supplies is low. Hence EPA advises Americans to continue using and drinking water from their taps as usual. The gradual reopening of the economy and hotter summer temperatures are likely to increase demand for potable water. However, per the finding of Utah State University, between 250,000 and 300,000 line breaks occur every year in the United States due to aging of existing water infrastructure, which results in wastage of huge volumes of potable water each day. According to the American Water Works Association, an estimated $1 trillion investment is necessary to maintain and expand drinking water service to meet demand over the next 25 years. So huge effort is needed from private operators and funding is required from government agencies to upgrade and maintain aging water and wastewater facilities.



Consolidation is the need of the hour in the very fragmented water utility industry. At present more than 53,000 water systems in the United States are providing water solutions to customers. The highly fragmented water industry creates operational challenges in meeting or increasing requirement for replacement, and adding to aging water and wastewater infrastructure. At present, only 7% of the countrys systems serve a population of more than 10,000 and a mere 1% of the systems serve a population of more than 100,000. Acquisitions of small water utilities by bigger companies ensure extension of high-quality services to customers and upgrade of assets of small service providers. Water conservation and initiatives taken by large water operators in educating their consumers on efficient usage and appliances to detect leakage will help to prevent wastage.

Story continues



Zacks Industry Rank Indicates Strong Prospects

The Zacks Utility Water Supply industry is a 12-stock group within the broader Zacks Utilities sector. The industry currently carries a Zacks Industry Rank #63, which places it in the top 25% of more than 250 Zacks industries.



The groups Zacks Industry Rank, which is basically the average of the Zacks Rank of all the member stocks, indicates solid near-term prospects. 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.



The industrys positioning in the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries is a result of positive earnings outlook for the constituent companies in aggregate. Looking at the aggregate earnings estimate revisions it appears that analysts are optimistic about this groups earnings growth potential. Water Utility industrys 2020 earnings estimates moved up 38.1% year over year to $2.21.



Before we present a few stocks that you may want to consider for your portfolio, lets take a look at the industrys recent stock market performance and valuation.



Industry Outperforms S&P 500 and Sector

The Zacks Utility Water Supply industry has outperformed its own sector and the Zacks S&P 500 composite over the past 12 months. The industry has gained 11.2% in the past 12 months compared with the S&P 500s rally of 5.4% and its sectors growth of 3.6%.







One Year Price Performance



Industrys Current Valuation



On the basis of trailing 12-month enterprise value to EBITDA (EV/EBITDA), which is a commonly used multiple for valuing water utility stocks, the industry is currently trading at 12.76X compared with the S&P 500s 11.95X. It is trading below the sectors trailing 12-month EV/EBITDA of 18.46X.



Over the past five years, the industry has traded as high as 14.54X, low of 10.02X and at the median of 11.9X.



Water Supply Industry vs S&P 500 ( Past 5 yrs)





Water Supply Industry vs Utility Sector ( Past 5 yrs)





Summing Up

In this COVID-19-induced crisis, demand for potable water will increase in the United States and globally. With demand for potable water growing in the United States, an increasing number of desalination plants have been pressed into service. Per an International Desalination Association report, more than 2,000 desalination facilities are operational in the United States and the number is gradually rising.



Below we present four stocks  three carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and one holding a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold)  that are well positioned to grow in this fragmented water space. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here



American Water Works (AWK), based in Camden, NJ, is engaged in providing water services to over 15 million customers in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Ontario, Canada. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2020 and 2021 EPS has improved 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively, over the past 90 days. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2.





Price & Consensus: AWK



Essential Utilities, Inc, (WTRG) is a water and natural gas service provider. The company has a well spread out water infrastructure to provide quality services to its expanding customer base. It has diversified operation through the acquisition of Peoples Gas, a natural gas distribution utility. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2020 earnings has remained unchanged over the past 90 days but that for 2021 earnings has improved 1.2% over the past 90 days. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2.



Price & Consensus: WTRG



Consolidated Water Co., (CWCO) along with its subsidiaries, is involved in the development and operation of seawater desalination plants and water distribution systems in areas where naturally occurring supplies of potable water are scarce or nonexistent. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2020 earnings has improved 48.6% over the past 90 days. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2.

Price & Consensus: CWCO

American States Water Company (AWR), based in San Dimas, CA along with its subsidiaries provides fresh water, wastewater services and electricity to its customers in the United States. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2020 and 2021 earnings has improved 1.8% and 2.5%, respectively, over the past 90 days. The stock has a Zacks Rank #3.

Price & Consensus: AWR

Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2020

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Editor's Note: This column was adapted from The Socialist Temptation.

Youll remember that when I sketched out the socialist position on freedom I mentioned freedom of worship. Freedom of worship is not only a fundamental American liberty, but also very much part of our tradition. Not for nothing is it called Americas first freedom. Long before there was a Constitution, our ancestors came here to pursue freedom of worship. And while their ideas of religious liberty were both limited and very different from ours, they started an evolving tradition of increasing freedom of conscience, which helped America avoid the religious strife other Western nations suffered.[1]

Socialists attitude toward religion has also evolved. Early utopian socialists took religion as the basis for their beliefs. Marx, however, famously denigrated religion, calling it the opiate of the masses, and saying, Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. . . . The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness.[2] Marx may not have disparaged religion entirely, but Lenin took the ball and ran with it, saying, Atheism is a natural and inseparable part of Marxism, of the theory and practice of scientific socialism, although he declined to make atheism a requirement of Communist Party membership.[3]

Atheism was part and parcel of the Cultural Revolution in China and Year Zero in Cambodia (in those countries, Buddhism and Islam were the main targets). Yet in other countries socialist revolutionaries tied themselves to the Cross or to Islam. In Latin America a whole new brand of Roman Catholic theology evolved to reconcile socialism with the Church  Liberation Theology (the current Pope, Francis, has strong links to this strain of Catholicism, which centers on a preferential option for the poor and tends to portray Christ as a revolutionary figure.[4])

In short, modern socialism has an ambivalent relationship with religion, especially organized religion. According to the statistical analysts at FiveThirtyEight (working from a survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute), Americans who are not religious are 10 percent more socialist, on average, than religious Americans, with the gap greater among older people than young (young people are more likely not to be religious regardless of politics).[5] Not being religious is also strongly correlated with the distinguishing features of the democratic socialists we have met  young, college educated, childless, living alone.

On the other hand, many of the poor and working-class constituencies that socialists court are much more religious. African American churches, for instance, have been major organizational forces in liberal politics for generations. Hispanic immigrants also tend to take religion seriously. Even white women are more religious than white men, according to most polls.

This puts socialists in a bind. Attacking religion itself is likely to put off people they need to attract. So modern American socialists tend to concentrate on one way to square this circle: the aggressive pursuit of separation of church and state.

Any separationist worth his salt will bend over backwards to say that all he wants to do is to ensure that the First Amendments strictures on religion are respected. State establishment of religion, he will contend, includes any attempt to prefer one religion over another, or over none at all. Thus it is fine to pray in school, but not fine for teachers or other school authorities to lead a prayer, or ask a student to do so. The courts have accepted this argument. As David French notes, In a series of shocking Supreme Court cases, a progressive court elite destroyed the Protestant public school and ruthlessly disentangled Protestant church and state. School prayers? Gone. Daily Bible reading? Gone. Recitations of the Lords Prayer? Gone. Prohibitions on teaching evolution? Gone. The Ten Commandments on school walls? Nope, no longer. In a roughly twenty-year span, the edifice of Americas Christian public educational establishment was nuked from orbit.[6]

Many Americans, even religious ones, accept this now, though it was hotly debated when the courts were on their march through the classroom. Some teachers and school administrators, fearful of falling afoul of the new rules went further, essentially chilling religious activity among students at school.

But even that wasnt enough. Separationists waged war against the dead, objecting to state-owned memorials in the shape of crosses. They attacked the unborn, challenging laws that attempted to protect babies in their mothers wombs as religiously inspired attacks on womens right to choose. The laws are always depicted as the last step on the way to imposing the theocratic society depicted in The HandmaidsTale, with young women reduced to servitude as nothing more than vessels to carry their masters children.

The latest wave of attacks is on small business owners who attempt to live their faith through their business. By means of equal opportunity jurisprudence and public accommodation laws, separationists sue business owners in an attempt to force them to bake cakes or arrange flowers for weddings whose validity the business owners do not recognize.

These laws were passed with good intentions, but something has gone badly wrong. Culture and tradition can give those who dont fit in very bad experiences. A gay persons life can be made a living hell by those who do not approve of his lifestyle. It is right that state or federal law attempts to prevent this from happening. As law professor Michael Greve has pointed out, the reason we have a federal government in the first place is to prevent local tyranny.[7]

But the live-and-let-live spirit of these laws is clearly being perverted by the separationists  to punish people of whose lifestyle they disapprove, all the while claiming that they are the victims. In the age of social media, they have a mob at their command, which can be activated by the use of a single hashtag. In days past, a gay boy might have found himself the victim of mob violence. Now a Christian baker might find herself the victim of doxing, with a dangerous crowd trespassing to threaten her in her own home.

The aggressive use of separation-of-church-and-state tactics is functionally the state promotion of atheism. It delegitimizes faith and drives it underground. And the religious communities who are the targets of socialist organizers are being played for fools. African-American pastors and Latino priests may be the last to be targeted, but they will be targeted.

In a socialist America, therefore, religion will almost certainly be drummed out of the public square. Politicians will not  unlike every previous generation of American politicians  appeal to religious morality. Theyll have to turn to something else instead.

1.See, for example, the language of the Massachusetts Body of Liberties, a constitution enacted in 1651: If any man after legal conviction shall have or worship any other god, but the lord god, he shall be put to death.

2.Karl Marx, Critique of Hegels Philosophy of Right, ed. Joseph OMalley (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press, 1970). First published in 1843.

3. Quoted in Samuel Gregg, Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization, (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2019); V. I. Lenin, Socialism and Religion, Novaya Zhizn 28, December 3, 1905, https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1905/dec/03.htm.

4. This is not the place to go into Pope Francis complicated relationship with liberation theology, but it is safe to say that he is much more sympathetic to its arguments than either of his two immediate predecessors, who strongly condemned the theology involved.

5. Andrew R. Lewis and Paul A. Djupe, Americans May Be Too Religious to Embrace Socialism, FiveThirtyEight, March 10, 2016, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-may-be-tooreligious-to-embrace-socialism/.

6. David French, Liberty Gained and Power Lost, The Dispatch, January 10, 2020, https://thedispatch.com/p/liberty-gained-andpower-lost.

7. Michael Greve, The Upside Down Constitution (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2012).
It's a busy earnings week for the industrial sector.

Among the biggest names, 3M and Rockwell reported Tuesday morning, Boeing and General Electric are set for Wednesday, UPS and Stanley Black & Decker on Thursday and Caterpillar rounds out the week Friday.

Michael Binger, president of Gradient Investments, said he has a stake in Lockheed Martin, which reported better-than-expected earnings last week. As for upcoming earnings, he has his eye on another defense-sector stock  Raytheon.

"We think it's great value," Binger told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Monday.

Raytheon reported earnings per share of 40 cents in adjusted profit for its second quarter, beating estimates of 12 cents. Revenue climbed 26% to $14.28 billion.

In the manufacturing and construction slice of the sector, Binger is looking ahead to Caterpillar.

"We think it's an interesting name. They have exposure to the global infrastructure recovery, and we think their earnings is going to bottom in the first half of 2021 and improve from there," said Binger.

Ari Wald, head of technical analysis at Oppenheimer, sees buys in Cummins, Rockwell Automation and Roper Technologies.

"It's worthwhile to highlight Rockwell Automation. It's also outperform-rated at our firm at Oppenheimer Why we like it based on the chart is that the stock is breaking through three-year resistance dating back to the year 2017 so as much as it's rising more recently, we still see runway for the stock after three years of little progress for the price," Wald said during the same "Trading Nation" segment.
Last week, the U.S. District court sitting in Illinois dismissed the complaints against Olalekan Ponle, the Nigerian facing charges on...





Last week, the U.S. District court sitting in Illinois dismissed the complaints against Olalekan Ponle, the Nigerian facing charges on multi-million dollar wire fraud.





Mr Ponle, popularly addressed as Woodberry, was arrested, alongside Ramon Abbas (Hushpuppi) in the United Arab Emirate, on June 10, for multiple fraud charges after a raid by operatives of the Dubai crime unit.





They were extradited to the U.S on July 2.





According to the complaint against Mr Ponle, an unnamed Chicago company was tricked into sending wire transfers totalling $15.2 million. Companies based in Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New York and California also were victims of the fraud, prosecutors say.





In what seemed like a plot twist on Wednesday, the U.S government applied for a motion of dismissal without prejudice and it was granted by the presiding Judge, Robert W. Gettleman.





When a case is dismissed with prejudice, it is over and done with, once and for all, and cannot be brought back to court.





On the other hand, when it is dismissed without prejudice, as in the case of Mr Ponle, the dismissal is temporary as the prosecutor can refile such within a certain period of time.





Although, the government attorney, when contacted, declined to disclose the reasons for the dismissal of the complaints, plausible reasons for such step include but not limited to; insufficiency of evidence or inclusion of superfluous details.





The attorney, however, hinted that the grand jury indictment, which summed the allegations against him to an eight-count charge, is still active.





With or without the dismissal, Mr Ponle is not yet a free man.





Between complaints and indictments

According to the administration of criminal justice in the U.S., both the indictment and the complaint serve the same function of initiating a criminal case and informing the defendant of the charges.





They also ensure that a prosecutor has sufficient evidence to establish probable cause that a crime has been committed.





A complaint is a statement of the essential facts of the offence to be charged, made under oath by a law enforcement official. This was what the FBI investigator first presented against Mr Ponle.





In order to make an arrest, prosecutors often file a complaint to hasten the process.





Unlike the complaint, to obtain an indictment, the prosecutor must present proposed charges to a grand jury  a body of jurors that investigates crimes and decides whether charges should be filed.









The Jury, done in strict confidence, may demand that some of the witnesses and evidence be provided, after which they vote. Grand juries do not need a unanimous decision from all members to indict, but it does need a supermajority of 2/3 or 3/4 agreement for an indictment.





Most federal criminal offenses require an indictment under the U.S constitution because the grand jury proceedings are often a valuable test for prosecutors in making the decision to bring the case to fore.





Nevertheless, if a grand jury chooses not to indict, the prosecutor may still bring the defendant to trial if he/she thinks that the case is strong enough, using the complaint.




Police in New York City arrested two men who they say attacked workers at a Trader Joe's after they were told they had to wear masks in the store.

The men entered a Trader Joe's store on East 32nd Street at about 8:50 p.m. on July 14, a police spokeswoman said.

Several employees told police that they asked the men to leave the store because they refused to wear masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus, the spokeswoman said.

Police said the men, John Carrero and Alejandro Escobar, both 34, refused to leave and pulled a mask off the face of one of the employees.

Police said that Carrero hit a 22-year-old female employee in the head with a paddle and that Escobar then said he would return to the store with a firearm, which police said caused "fear and alarm to employees and customers inside of the store."

After leaving the store, Escobar struck a store window with a chair in an attempt to regain entry, police alleged. Carrero and Escobar each face charges including disorderly conduct, harassment and criminal trespassing.

A spokeswoman for Trader Joe's, Kenya Friend-Daniel, said eight store employees "suffered some sort of injury," including at least one worker who was treated at a hospital.

"All the crew members are doing OK, and they're all back at work," Friend-Daniel said in an interview Tuesday.

She said all of the employees at the store  not just those who were working on the evening of July 14  were given the opportunity to temporarily transfer to another Trader Joe's location or to receive paid time off.

"They all said that they wanted to continue to work and were fine," she said.

Trader Joe's has since hired a security guard at the store.

"We are extremely grateful that everyone is OK and they're back at work and it isn't worse," Friend-Daniel said, adding that "the incident was unfortunate enough."

She said the company, which is cooperating with the investigation, does not believe the incident was triggered by a request to wear a mask.

Story continues

"We feel there was a different motivation behind it, such as wanting to start some trouble," she said.

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Other charges against Carrero, of New York, include second-degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon. Escobar, a resident of the Bronx, is also charged with menacing. They were released on their own recognizance and are due in court Oct. 13. Carrero could not immediately be reached for comment.

Escobar denied being the aggressor and said he did not strike a store window with a chair. In a telephone interview Tuesday, he said he was recording a video for his YouTube channel at the time of the incident. He said he was wearing a mask in the store that covered his mouth and part of his nose, because he has asthma.

"I never would've thought that this would turn into a nightmare like this," he said. He said a store employee "put hands" on Carrero, prompting a dispute. "When he got assaulted, he snapped," Escobar said.
ALBANY, N.Y., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CHA Consulting, Inc. (CHA), a highly diversified, innovative full-service consulting engineering and construction management firm, announces the release of its first comprehensive Sustainability Report. The report details CHA's commitment to doing business in a way that meets the needs of the present while contributing to an environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable future centered around four strategic pillars.

Sustainability is fundamental to the way CHA approaches the work we do. Responsibly Improving the World We Live In is a guiding tenet every day to inspire our employees, elate our clients and create value for our employees, clients, business partners, and communities. This long-term value creation enables a growing and sustainable company now and into the future. CHA's four strategic pillars include:

Sustainable Services and Clients: Providing sustainable practices in the services we offer to help our clients plan, design, and build projects that endure.

Sustainable Workforce: Inspiring our employees by creating an environment that connects us to our company and communities and challenges our employees to grow personally and professionally.

Sustainable Communities: Meaningfully engaging with stakeholders and supporting the communities in which we work and live.

Sustainable Operations: Measuring our environmental footprint and implementing programs to reduce resource use, waste, and carbon emissions.

"Sustainability is at the core of how we conduct our business and we are pleased to publish our first comprehensive report outlining our goals and progress. This foundation will guide every aspect of our business going forward," said Jim Stephenson, CEO, CHA Holdings, Inc. and President, CHA Consulting, Inc.

The Sustainability Report includes data and activities related to the firm's sustainability strategy for the fiscal 2019 year, covering the period January 1 to December 31, 2019, and spanning across CHA's operations. Projects that enable a more sustainable future are highlighted along with employee volunteerism, staff development, and management of the Company's environmental footprint. CHA plans to deliver an annual update on its sustainability initiatives, including progress in meeting the goals set in this report.

The 2019 Sustainability Report is available on the CHA website.

About CHA Consulting, Inc.

CHA Consulting, Inc. is a highly diversified, full-service engineering consulting and construction management firm which, along with its subsidiaries, provides a wide range of technology-enhanced planning and design services to public, private and institutional clients. CHA was ranked the 50th largest engineering firm in the United States in 2020 by Engineering News-Record. With technical personnel and offices throughout the United States and Canada, CHA offers engineering, architectural, survey, construction, project management, and other services necessary to complete projects on time and within budget. The CHA Companies include: CHA Consulting, Inc., CHA Tech Services, CHA Canada, Novara GeoSolutions, American Fire, and CHA Architecture. For more information, please visit www.chacompanies.com.

Contact:

Mary Bray Gallagher, APR

Communications Manager

T: (518) 453-8264

C: (518) 231-2412

[email protected]

SOURCE CHA Consulting, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.chacompanies.com


Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28)  Shuttered broadcast network ABS-CBN offered its transmission network for government use as the Duterte administration implements a shift to blended learning amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Hours after President Rodrigo Duterte's rant against the media giant during his State of the Nation Address yesterday, the network said its commitment to help Filipinos continues despite its closure on May 5 and denied franchise application bid.

"In response to the educational thrust of the government in this time of the pandemic, we are offering the use of our transmission network to broadcast educational programs all over the country. We hope to help the government continuously educate students nationwide despite the limitations brought about by the pandemic," it said in a statement on Monday.

Duterte ordered his Cabinet secretaries to ensure the government can freely use untapped television frequencies to carry out alternative modes of learning as he reiterated that no face-to-face classes will be held without an available COVID-19 vaccine. Earlier this month, a lawmaker proposed the government's temporary use of these frequencies "as those vacated by ABS-CBN."

Aside from lending its transmission network, ABS-CBN also offered the use of its educational shows to help students. The broadcasting network has produced education programs such as "Sine'skwela," "Math-Tinik," and "Bayani," among others, which were aired on Knowledge Channel.

"While this is not expected to have any business impact to the company, we are hopeful that our network can help in the education of our students nationwide," it said.

On Tuesday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the decision still lies with the government on how it will use the frequencies.

"Sa ngayon po, dedesisyunan muna kung sino po ang gagamit ng mga frequencies dahil nabakante na nga po 'yan... Pero kung gobyerno po ang gagamit, salamat po at baka naman po pwedeng gamiting ang transmission at mga materyales ng ABS-CBN [For now, we have to make a decision regarding who will use those frequencies since they were vacated... If it's the government which will use them, then thank you for offering to use ABS-CBN's transmission (network) and materials]," he said during a press briefing.

Broadcast frequencies may be retained by government or awarded to a new media outlet looking to do broadcasts.

Duterte on Monday said he was a "casualty" of the Lopez family during the 2016 presidential elections. The network has long apologized to him for failure to air some of his campaign advertisements.

The President, who has continuously lashed out at the network and urged the Lopez family to sell ABS-CBN, has insisted on his neutrality over the fate of the media giant's franchise.

Roque maintained that Duterte kept a "neutral" stance regarding the ABS-CBN franchise, saying that he did not influence how lawmakers voted. He added that it was the House panel, not Malacanang, which denied the network's franchise renewal bid.
(TNS) - Family gatherings on Zoom and FaceTime. Online orders from grocery stores and pharmacies. Telehealth appointments with physicians.These have been lifesavers for many older adults staying at home during the coronavirus pandemic. But an unprecedented shift to virtual interactions has a downside: Large numbers of seniors are unable to participate.Among them are older adults with dementia (14% of those 71 and older), hearing loss (nearly two-thirds of those 70 and older) and impaired vision (13.5% of those 65 and older), who can have a hard time using digital devices and programs designed without their needs in mind. (Think small icons, difficult-to-read typefaces, inadequate captioning among the hurdles.)Many older adults with limited financial resources also may not be able to afford devices or the associated internet service fees. (Half of seniors living alone and 23% of those in two-person households are unable to afford basic necessities.) Others are not adept at using technology and lack the assistance to learn.During the pandemic, which has hit older adults especially hard, this divide between technology haves and have-nots has serious consequences.Older adults in the haves group have more access to virtual social interactions and telehealth services, and more opportunities to secure essential supplies online. Meanwhile, the have-nots are at greater risk of social isolation, forgoing medical care and being without food or other necessary items.Dr. Charlotte Yeh, chief medical officer for AARP Services, observed difficulties associated with technology this year when trying to remotely teach her 92-year-old father how to use an iPhone. She lives in Boston; her father lives in Pittsburgh.Yehs mother had always handled communication for the couple, but she was in a nursing home after being hospitalized for pneumonia. Because of the pandemic, the home had closed to visitors. To talk to her and other family members, Yehs father had to resort to technology.But various impairments got in the way: Yehs father is blind in one eye, with severe hearing loss and a cochlear implant, and he had trouble hearing conversations over the iPhone. And it was more difficult than Yeh expected to find an easy-to-use iPhone app that accurately translates speech into captions.Often, family members would try to arrange Zoom meetings. For these, Yehs father used a computer but still had problems because he could not read the very small captions on Zoom. A tech-savvy granddaughter solved that problem by connecting a tablet with a separate transcription program.When Yehs mother, who was 90, came home in early April, physicians treating her for metastatic lung cancer wanted to arrange telehealth visits. But this could not occur via cellphone (the screen was too small) or her computer (too hard to move it around). Physicians could examine lesions around the older womans mouth only when a tablet was held at just the right angle, with a phones flashlight aimed at it for extra light.It was like a three-ring circus, Yeh said. Her family had the resources needed to solve these problems; many do not, she noted. Yehs mother passed away in July; her father is now living alone, making him more dependent on technology than ever.When SCAN Health Plan, a Medicare Advantage plan with 215,000 members in California, surveyed its most vulnerable members after the pandemic hit, it discovered that about one-third did not have access to the technology needed for a telehealth appointment. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had expanded the use of telehealth in March.Other barriers also stood in the way of serving SCANs members remotely. Many people needed translation services, which are difficult to arrange for telehealth visits. We realized language barriers are a big thing, said Eve Gelb, SCANs senior vice president of health care services.Nearly 40% of the plans members have vision issues that interfere with their ability to use digital devices; 28% have a clinically significant hearing impairment.We need to target interventions to help these people, Gelb said. SCAN is considering sending community health workers into the homes of vulnerable members to help them conduct telehealth visits. Also, it may give members easy-to-use devices, with essential functions already set up, to keep at home, Gelb said.Landmark Health serves a highly vulnerable group of 42,000 people in 14 states, bringing services into patients homes. Its average patient is nearly 80 years old, with eight medical conditions. After the first few weeks of the pandemic, Landmark halted in-person visits to homes because personal protective equipment, or PPE, was in short supply.Instead, Landmark tried to deliver care remotely. It soon discovered that fewer than 25% of patients had appropriate technology and knew how to use it, according to Nick Loporcaro, the chief executive officer. Telehealth is not the panacea, especially for this population, he said.Landmark plans to experiment with what he calls facilitated telehealth: nonmedical staff members bringing devices to patients homes and managing telehealth visits. (It now has enough PPE to make this possible.) And it, too, is looking at technology that it can give to members.One alternative gaining attention is GrandPad, a tablet loaded with senior-friendly apps designed for adults 75 and older. In July, the National PACE Association, whose members run programs providing comprehensive services to frail seniors who live at home, announced a partnership with GrandPad to encourage adoption of this technology.Everyone is scrambling to move to this new remote care model and looking for options, said Scott Lien, the companys co-founder and chief executive officer.PACE Southeast Michigan purchased 125 GrandPads for highly vulnerable members after closing five centers in March where seniors receive services. The devices have been remarkably successful in facilitating video-streamed social and telehealth interactions and allowing nurses and social workers to address emerging needs, said Roger Anderson, senior director of operational support and innovation.Another alternative is technology from iN2L (an acronym for Its Never Too Late), a company that specializes in serving people with dementia. In Florida, under a new program sponsored by the states Department of Elder Affairs, iN2L tablets loaded with dementia-specific content have been distributed to 300 nursing homes and assisted living centers.The goal is to help seniors with cognitive impairment connect virtually with friends and family and engage in online activities that ease social isolation, said Sam Fazio, senior director of quality care and psychosocial research at the Alzheimers Association, a partner in the effort. But because of budget constraints, only two tablets are being sent to each long-term care community.Families report it can be difficult to schedule adequate time with loved ones when only a few devices are available. This happened to Maitely Weismanns 77-year-old mother after she moved into a short-staffed Los Angeles memory care facility in March. After seeing how hard it was to connect, Weismann, who lives in Los Angeles, gave her mother an iPad and hired an aide to ensure that mother and daughter were able to talk each night.Without the aides assistance, Weismanns mother would end up accidentally pausing the video or turning off the device. She probably wanted to reach out and touch me, and when she touched the screen it would go blank and shed panic, Weismann said.Whats needed going forward? Laurie Orlov, founder of the blog Aging in Place Technology Watch, said nursing homes, assisted living centers and senior communities need to install communitywide Wi-Fi services  something that many lack.We need to enable Zoom get-togethers. We need the ability to put voice technology in individual rooms, so people can access Amazon Alexa or Google products, she said. We need more group activities that enable multiple residents to communicate with each other virtually. And we need vendors to bundle connectivity, devices, training and service in packages designed for older adults.-Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.2020 Kaiser Health NewsVisit Kaiser Health News at www.khn.orgDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(@FahadShabbir)

CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th July, 2020) The Moldovan government will allocate about $18 million to support farmers who lost crops due to drought and hailstorms that hit the country this year, Prime Minister Ion Chicu said Tuesday.

On Monday, agriculture industry workers from the Moldovan regions of Causeni and Stefan Voda staged a protest on the country's highways over the lack of government support amid a harvest failure. Many farmers have lost this year's crops due to the inclement weather.

"At this stage, the government will allocate 300 million lei [$18 million] to partially compensate for the damage caused by the drought and hail.

And this is in the midst of the economic crisis," Chicu said at a briefing.

The prime minister called on farmers to refrain from blocking national highways, noting that the solution to the problem should be found through a dialogue.

Meteorologists in Moldova have said that this past winter was abnormally warm with insufficient precipitation, as many areas received between 40 and 70 percent of the expected rainfall. A drought in spring was followed by heavy rains and hail in May, which washed away a large part of the crops.
NEW YORK  Clare Bronfman, an heiress to the Seagrams liquor fortune and the financial muscle behind NXIVM leader Keith Ranieres cult-like organization, is now tentatively scheduled to be sentenced for her federal crimes on Sept. 30.

In a court appearance heard remotely on Tuesday, Senior U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis said he expects that in-person courthouse appearances will resume after Labor Day in his federal courthouse in Brooklyn.

The 41-year-old Bronfman, who has homes in Manhattan and Clifton Park, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to conceal and harbor illegal aliens for financial gain, and fraudulent use of identification.

Her sentencing has been delayed several times. The judge has said he is considering an "above guidelines" sentencing for Bronfman, which means she could face a longer prison term than the 21 to 27 months recommended by the guidelines.

One of the daughters of late Seagram's tycoon Edgar Bronfman, she has been on home detention in her Manhattan residence on $100 million bond since her arrest in July 2018.

Complete NXIVM coverage from the Times Union

Listen to the "NXIVM on Trial" podcast

On Tuesday, Bronfman was represented by Washington, D.C.-based attorney Ronald Sullivan as well as Duncan Levin, who are new to her defense team; Bronfman's onetime lawyer Kathleen Cassidy has exited the case. Sullivan told the judge his client wanted her mother, Georgiana Bronfman, who lives in England, and her older sister, Sara Bronfman-Igtet, a longtime member of NXIVM who lives in France, to attend her sentencing. Sullivan said he did not know if they would be allowed into the country due to travel restrictions prompted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The judge said given the ups and downs of the pandemic, the travel situation might not be resolved "potentially for years." Sullivan said he understood the judge's point but wanted two or three months to have the flexibility to allow the family members to appear at the sentencing. He said Bronfman-Igtet can get into the country, but is not sure she would be able to get back to France.

Bronfman has opposed the prospect of being sentenced via videoconference. Garaufis said defendants have a right to be sentenced in the courtroom, but noted that right does not extend to family members or victims. He did not rule out additional adjournments.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Hajjar, echoing comments made by the judge, said she believes flights are available between England and New York.

"The government is available," she said. "The government is ready to proceed."

Raniere, 59, known as "Vanguard," was convicted of all seven counts he faced at his trial last year, including sex trafficking, forced labor and racketeering charges with underlying acts of identity theft, obstruction of justice, wire and visa fraud, forced labor, human trafficking, sex trafficking, money laundering, child exploitation and possessing child pornography. He faces the possibility of life in prison.

Raniere, formerly of Halfmoon, is awaiting sentencing in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center, where members of NXIVM have been dancing outside the facility on a nightly basis to show support for him and other inmates. Last week, Garaufis rejected Raniere's bid for a new trial. His sentencing date remains indefinite.

Raniere's other co-defendants  former NXIVM president Nancy Salzman and NXIVM officials Lauren Salzman, Allison Mack and Kathy Russell  have all pleaded guilty to charges and await sentencing.
Eight debut novelists are also in the running for the 2020 Man Booker Prize.

Zimbabwes Tsitsi Dangarembga, best-selling British novelist Hilary Mantel and US author Anne Tyler are among 13 writers on a US-dominated list of contenders for the prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction.

Mantel was named among competitors for the 50,000-pound ($63,000) literary prize on Tuesday for The Mirror and the Light, the third instalment in her trilogy about Tudor power broker Thomas Cromwell.

She won the Booker for both its predecessors, Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies.

Other British writers on the list are Gabriel Krauze for Who They Was, Douglas Stuart for Shuggie Bain and Sophie Ward for Love and Other Thought Experiments.

American contenders include Tyler for Redhead by the Side of the Road, Diane Cook for The New Wilderness, Avni Doshi for Burnt Sugar, Kiley Reid for Such a Fun Age, Brandon Taylor for Real Life, and C Pam Zhang for How Much of These Hills is Gold.

Rounding out the longlist are This Mournable Boy by Dangarembga, Apeirogon by Irelands Colum McCann and The Shadow King by Ethiopian-American writer Maaza Mengiste.

The prize, subject to intense speculation and a flurry of betting, usually brings the victor a huge boost in sales and profile.

Margaret Atwood poses with Bernardine Evaristo after jointly winning the Booker Prize for Fiction 2019 at the Guildhall in London, Britain [File: Simon Dawson/ Reuters]

Eight of the nominees are for first novels  an unusually high number for the prize.

There are voices from minorities often unheard, stories that are fresh, bold and absorbing, judges panel chair Margaret Busby said. Unplanned, our final selection encompasses both seasoned favourites and debut talents  a truly satisfying outcome.

Gaby Wood, the awards literary director, said it was heartening to know that some authors who have launched their careers in the midst of COVID-19 may now have a chance to reach the readers they deserve.

A six-book shortlist will be announced on September 15, and the winner will be revealed in November.

Established in 1969, the prize is open to English-language authors from around the world, but until 2014 only British, Irish and Commonwealth writers were eligible.

That years change sparked fears among some Britons that it would become a US-dominated prize. Since then there have been two American winners, Paul Beattys The Sellout in 2016 and George Saunders Lincoln in the Bardo in 2017.

Last year, the competition tore up the rulebook by splitting the fiction award between Canadas Margaret Atwood and Anglo-Nigerian author Bernardine Evaristo.
On this day in 1914, the World War I called as The War to End All Wars commenced a month after the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist that caused July Crisis of 1914. Not handed a proper response to the assassination and amid heightened tensions with Serbia in the Balkans region of Europe, Austria-Hungary backed by its ally Germany declared war on Serbia. The conflict marked the beginning of WWI as Serbias ally Russia and France jumped into the military standoff flaring the most devastating war history has ever witnessed.

On July 28, 1914, one month to the day after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, effectively beginning the First World War. pic.twitter.com/va2N8mLDBa  Veteranhood (@_VeteranHood_) July 28, 2020

Good morning all & OTD in 1914, Austria-Hungary served an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. The Austrian military chief, Count Franz Conrad von Hotzendorf, had informed the Emperor that the desire to get the summer harvest in meant A-H could not declare war before 25 July. pic.twitter.com/XcVcQg8OcB  Gray Connolly (@GrayConnolly) July 22, 2020

As per reports, the famous editorial by the broadcasters in the year 1914 that read War Madness blamed the German militarism and the European nations diplomatic disputes for the terrible catastrophe. The official declaration of war by Austria and its acquisition of Serbian territory and the outbreak of the Balkans Conflict spiralled nations into WWI.

Read: Kargil Vijay Diwas 2020: Know All About Kargil War Of 1999, History & More

Read: US Joins Baltic States To Oppose Russian President's Attempt To 'rewrite History'

Germany ordered Vienna to go ahead

According to several reports that narrate the account of the 1914 war, the refusal of the German government to cooperate with the British Foreign Office for an international convention led to thaw of relations among the European nations. While Berlin, Paris, and Rome sought to moderate the conflict, Germany ordered Vienna to go ahead with military plans. In response, Russia mobilized the troops in four military districts on Galicia, USSRs frontier with Austro-Hungarian territory.

While Europe and Russia locked into a military conflict, Great Britain, an ally to both Germany and Russia offered to mediate for negotiations and sworn to remain neutral but got involved in the war defending the interest of Belgium entering into the July Crisis. And hence, Germany declared war on Russia on 1 August and had a military conflict with France on August 3. While Germany violated Belgian neutrality, Britain entered the war on August 4 fearing Germanys dominance on Europe. After nearly four years of wars, allied powers the United Kingdom, France, and the United States won the war, and a peace agreement with Germany, Treaty of Versailles, was signed that marked the end of WWI.

Read: World Hepatitis Day 2020 | All You Need To Know About Its History, Significance & Theme

Read: National Milk Chocolate Day 2020 | Know About Its History And Significance
The political and public health conversations around reopening schools are complicated, but one San Antonio school has a simple message for students.

"Spread the Gospel, Not Germs!" said Blessed Sacrament Catholic School on Facebook.

The North Side school, which serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, asked members of its community to watch their distance, wear masks, use personal supplies and stay home if they are sick.

READ ALSO: How different a $400K house looks from one Texas city to the next

According to a letter to parents, Blessed Sacrament will reopen on Aug. 17. The school will let students and parents decide between in-person classes, distance learning, and self-paced learning.

The first option involves traditional classes using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

Those who choose distance learning will be required to log-in daily for some classes, while other assignments can be completed independently offline.

The self-paced model allows students (in second through eighth grade) to complete all assignments independently using an online learning management system. A campus facilitator will assign due dates.

On ExpressNews.com: Cornerstone Church sues San Antonio, county, Metro Health seeking to open its school in August

All students, regardless of the option they choose, can participate in extracurricular activities.

The school's principal, Michael Fierro, noted that students enrolled in distance or self-paced learning may transition to in-school classes "whenever their family feels comfortable."

Blessed Sacrament acknowledged that plans may have to change if ordered to do so by Gov. Greg Abbott, local health authorities or the Archbishop.

San Antonio health officials recently issued closure orders that aimed to keep campuses closed through at least Labor Day. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said religious private schools were exempt from following such orders.
Myanmar: Mangrove conservation up against socioeconomic realities of forest resources

July 28,2020 | Source: BNI Online

rakan State residents are deleteriously cutting down mangroves growing along the states coast to earn a living, say organisations working to conserve the valuable shoreline forests. Mangroves are deforested to sell firewood for brick-making fields and to make charcoal, said Ko Myo Lwin, a leader of the Ann Township Mangrove Trees Conservation Group. Villagers find it difficult to get a job for their living. Additionally, COVID-19 is one of the factors creating hardships for their living. Thats why some residents rely on mangrove forests for income, said Ko Myo Lwin.



The current socioeconomic trends require that mangrove forests be conserved, he added. The Ann Township Mangrove Trees Conservation Group said residents of several townships in Arakan State including Ann, Kyaukphyu, Myebon, Taungup and Ramree are taking the ax to mangroves every day. The group is now working to reforest mangroves in Ann, Kyaukphyu, Taungup, Myebon and Pauktaw townships, Ko Myo Lwin told DMG.



Fishermen in the townships are affected by the impacts of water pollution while they are also facing difficulties to do fishing because of more prawn and fish farming. So, we plant and conserve mangrove plants so that fishermen can do fishing well in communal fishing areas, he said. The Forest Department said it compiles and updates information on mangrove forests throughout Myanmar once every five years. The most recent tabulations, from 2015, found that Arakan State had 395,726 acres of mangroves in total.



U Zaw Myo Hlaing, assistant director of the Arakan State Forest Department, said: We will check whether mangrove forests are destroyed or not after 2020 under the Forest Department Climate Change Adaptation [FDCCA] programme. Cooperation on the project between the Arakan State Forest Department and the Danish Embassy has taken the form of financing and technical aid in Ramree and Myebon townships, the Arakan State Forest Department said. But plans to grow mangrove trees have been suspended in Myebon Township due to regional instability, while a total of 250 acres of mangroves has been planted annually in Ramree Township under the FDCCAs five-year project, it said.



In November 2019, the Environment and Mangrove Forest Conservation Group (Harp) and Humanitarian Support Network (MSN) worked together planting mangrove trees worth about K20 million (US$14,600) at seven mangrove forests in Manaung Township. Ko Yan Naung Soe, secretary of the Rakhine State Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association, told DMG that the RBANCA is mainly conserving mangrove forests grown near Nantha Island and the Mayyu Estuary. We will work with residents to avoid deforestation of mangrove plants. It takes many years to become a big mangrove plant. So, we will protect mangrove plants as a first priority, he said. There are about 300 acres of mangrove forest near Nantha Island and the Mayyu Estuary, RBANCA said. In addition to being sold as firewood and charcoal, mangrove plants are also cut down to develop areas for prawn or fish farming, or to make way for dams, destroying the habitats of aquatic wildlife, mangrove conservation activists said.
Ram temple in Ayodhya to be ready by 2025, open for 'darshan' to devotees by 2023 end

Ram Temple Bhumi Pujan schedule: All you should know

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 28: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the Bhumi Pujan at the site for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on August 5. This would be telecast live on Doordharshan, India's public broadcaster.

At 12.30 pm on August 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will perform the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of the grand Ram Temple at Ayodhya.

The schedule was finalised as per the suggestions made by several astrologers.

What is Time Capsule in Ram Mandir and why will it be buried 2,000 feet below

Prime Minister Modi will arrive at the Saket University and reach the Ram Mandir complex at 11.30 am. There would be an hour long programme followed by an address by the PM.

Former deputy prime minister, L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinayar Katiyar will also attend the ceremony. All the developments will be personally monitored by the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath. The entire city will be decorated while the 12 dwars of the city will be decorated with lights.

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The Ram Temple in Ayodhya will be 161 feet tall, the architect of the Temple said. He also said that original design prepared in 1988 mentioned the height as 141 feet.

The earlier design was prepared in 1988 and over 30 years have passed since. People are also very enthusiastic about visiting the Temple. Hence we through its size should be increased. As per the revised design, the height of the Temple has been increased from 141 feet to 161 feet, Nikhil Sompura, architect and son of C Sompura, the chief architect told news agency ANI.

He also said that two mandaps have been added and all the pillars and stones that were carved based on the earlier design will still be used, he also said. He also said that the construction of the Temple will take 3.5 years.

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirtha Kshetra has decided that there will be not more than 200 people, including 150 invitees to ensure maximum social distancing. The 200 guests will be divided into blocks of 50 people each. There would be one block for saints, one for political dignitaries, one for leaders that led the Ram Mandir movement and one for representatives.

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

Swami Govind Dev Giri, Treasurer of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirtha Kshetra said that it has been decided that there will not be more than 200 people including 150 invitees at the event.

Before laying the foundation stone, PM Modi will offer prayers to Lord Ram at the Temple and Lord Hanuman at the Garhi Temple in Ayodhya. All chief minsters from different states will be invited for the programme.

Veteran BJP leader, L K Advani will also be invited for the ceremony. There are elaborate arrangements on for the programme. The rituals will begin on August 3 and end with a brume pujan on August 5, following which the construction of the Temple would commence.
"The flu is a serious and unpredictable disease that causes tens of millions of illnesses, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths in the US each year," 1 said Judy Stewart, Senior Vice President, US Vaccines. "GSK is looking at every opportunity to produce and distribute additional flu vaccines this upcoming season to meet anticipated demand. We are working closely with public health partners to improve flu immunization rates to reduce the spread of disease and burden on the healthcare system during the ongoing public health challenge presented by the COVID-19 pandemic."

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone 6 months of age and older get a flu vaccine every season. In recent weeks, the CDC has repeatedly emphasized the importance of influenza vaccination this flu season to help reduce the burden of disease and the impact of influenza on the healthcare system and other critical infrastructures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

GSK expects to supply more than 50 million doses of its influenza vaccines for the US market in the 2020-21 season, an increase from the 46 million it distributed during the 2019-20 influenza season. With shipments this season, GSK will cross the 1 billion doses manufactured globally milestone during the company's history.

"Many people have fallen behind on their routine immunizations during the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders with immunization rates declining for children, adolescents and adults,"2 said Dr. Leonard Friedland, VP, Director of Scientific Affairs and Public Health, Vaccines, GSK. "The CDC has urged individuals to maintain or reinitiate routine immunization across the lifespan to prevent illnesses that could lead to unnecessary medical visits, hospitalization and further strain on the healthcare system. As we head into flu season, it's important to not only get a flu vaccine, but to prioritize getting caught up on all CDC-recommended vaccines, particularly for adults and vulnerable populations."

Both FLULAVAL QUADRIVALENT and FLUARIX QUADRIVALENT will be available in a 0.5mL, single-dose, pre-filled syringe, and indicated for patients 6 months and older in line with CDC recommendations.

According to the CDC, annual influenza vaccination is the best available tool to help protect people 6 months and older against the flu. The CDC has estimated that flu vaccination during the 2018-19 flu season prevented approximately 4.4 million illnesses, 2.3 million medical visits and 58,000 hospitalizations associated with the flu.3

For the 2020-21 flu season, the World Health Organization and FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee recommended including the A/Guangdong-Maonan/SWL1536/2019 (H1N1) pdm09-like virus, A/HongKong/2671/2019 (H3N2)-like virus, B/Washington/02/2019- like virus (B/Victoria lineage), with the addition of B/Phuket/3073/2013-like (B/Yamagata lineage) virus for the quadrivalent vaccine.4

About seasonal influenza

Seasonal influenza (the "flu") is a contagious respiratory illness, caused by flu viruses.5 There are two main types of flu viruses, A and B, that are spread person-to-person and can cause mild to severe illness.6 Most flu cases in the US occur from October through May, with cases usually peaking between December and February.7

While anyone can get the flu, it can be particularly serious for young children, adults 65 years and older, pregnant women and people with pre-existing chronic health conditions, such as asthma.8 According to the CDC, the best tool available to help protect yourself and those around you against the flu is to get vaccinated. The more people who are vaccinated, the less chance the virus has to spread.9 The CDC recommends that all people over the age of 6 months get vaccinated against the flu annually.10

For more information about the flu, visit https://us.gsk.com/en-us/about-us/vaccines/flu.

Indication for FLUARIX QUADRIVALENT and FLULAVAL QUADRIVALENT



FLUARIX QUADRIVALENT and FLULAVAL QUADRIVALENT are vaccines indicated for active immunization for the prevention of disease caused by influenza A subtype viruses and type B viruses contained in the vaccines. FLUARIX QUADRIVALENT and FLULAVAL QUADRIVALENT are approved for use in persons age 6 months and older.



Important Safety Information for FLUARIX QUADRIVALENT and FLULAVAL QUADRIVALENT

Do not administer FLUARIX QUADRIVALENT or FLULAVAL QUADRIVALENT to anyone with a history of severe allergic reactions (eg, anaphylaxis) to any component of the vaccine, including egg protein, or following a previous dose of any influenza vaccine

If Guillain-Barre syndrome has occurred within 6 weeks of receipt of a prior influenza vaccine, the decision to give FLUARIX QUADRIVALENT or FLULAVAL QUADRIVALENT should be based on careful consideration of the potential benefits and risks

Syncope (fainting) can occur in association with administration of injectable vaccines, including FLUARIX QUADRIVALENT or FLULAVAL QUADRIVALENT. Procedures should be in place to avoid falling injury and to restore cerebral perfusion following syncope

If FLUARIX QUADRIVALENT or FLULAVAL QUADRIVALENT is administered to immunosuppressed persons, including individuals receiving immunosuppressive therapy, the immune response may be lower than in immunocompetent persons

In clinical trials with FLUARIX QUADRIVALENT in adults, the most common solicited local adverse reaction was pain and the most common systemic adverse reactions were muscle aches, headache, and fatigue. In children 6 through 35 months of age, the most common solicited local adverse reactions were pain and redness and the most common systemic adverse reactions were irritability, loss of appetite, and drowsiness. In children 3 through 17 years of age, the solicited local adverse reactions were pain, redness, and swelling. In children 3 through 5 years of age, the most common systemic adverse reactions were drowsiness, irritability, and loss of appetite. In children 6 through 17 years of age, the most common systemic adverse reactions were fatigue, muscle aches, headache, arthralgia, and gastrointestinal symptoms. (See Adverse Reactions section of the Prescribing Information for FLUARIX QUADRIVALENT for other potential adverse reactions and events)

In clinical trials with FLULAVAL QUADRIVALENT in adults, the most common solicited local adverse reaction was pain and the most common solicited systemic adverse reactions were muscle aches, headache, fatigue, and arthralgia. In children 6 through 35 months of age, the most common solicited local adverse reaction was pain and the most common solicited systemic adverse reactions were irritability, drowsiness, and loss of appetite. In children 3 through 17 years of age, the most common solicited local adverse reaction was pain. In children 3 through 4 years of age, the most common solicited systemic adverse reactions were irritability, drowsiness, and loss of appetite. In children 5 through 17 years of age, the most common solicited systemic adverse reactions were muscle aches, fatigue, headache, arthralgia, and gastrointestinal symptoms. (See Adverse Reactions section of the Prescribing Information for FLULAVAL QUADRIVALENT for other potential adverse reactions and events)

Vaccination with FLUARIX QUADRIVALENT or FLULAVAL QUADRIVALENT may not result in protection in all vaccine recipients

Please see full Prescribing Information for FLUARIX QUADRIVALENT and for FLULAVAL QUADRIVALENT.

About 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 please visit www.gsk.com/about-us.

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Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements GSK cautions investors that any forward-looking statements or projections made by GSK, including those made in this announcement, are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Such factors include, but are not limited to, those described under Item 3.D "Risk Factors" in the company's Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2019 and any impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Registered in England & Wales: No. 3888792





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1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disease Burden of Influenza. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm.

2 Santoli JM, Lindley MC, DeSilva MB, et al. Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Routine Pediatric Vaccine Ordering and Administration  United States, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:591593. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6919e2.

3 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2018-19 Influenza Illnesses, Medical Visits, Hospitalizations, and Deaths Averted by Vaccination. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden-averted/2018-2019.htm.

4 Food and Drug Administration. Influenza Virus Strains Chosen for Inclusion in the U.S. 2020-2021 Influenza Season Vaccine. Available at: https://www.fda.gov/media/136302/download.

5 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Key Facts about Influenza (Flu). Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/keyfacts.htm.

6 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Types of Influenza Viruses. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/viruses/types.htm.

7 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Flu Season. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season.htm.

8 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People at High Risk of Developing FluRelated Complications. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/high_risk.htm.

9 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What Would Happen If We Stopped Vaccinations? Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/whatifstop.htm.

10 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccination: Who Should and Who Should NOT get a Flu Vaccine. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/whoshouldvax.htm.

SOURCE GSK
The deaths of five people in homeless services in a week has been described as "soul destroying" and a "cause for concern".

On Saturday a young woman, believed to be just 19, died tragically in a Dublin homeless facility.

She became the fifth person to die in just a week and now it is understood some families are planning to hold a silent protest on Saturday to highlight the deaths.

Last Thursday, a homeless man was found dead in the city centre in the early hours of the morning. The man was in his 30s. He was also believed to have died tragically.

Unprecedented

On Tuesday two young women died within hours of each other at a homeless service.

The body of a 34-year-old woman was found at Abigail Women's Centre in Finglas at around 6am. She died tragically also. A second woman (21) was found dead at 10.30am.

Homelessness campaigner Anthony Flynn said: "This is an unprecedented number of deaths in homeless services in such a short space of time bringing tragedy to many families.

"We have spoken time and time again of the urgent need for proper wrap-around supports for people in emergency accommodation and unfortunately this week has highlighted this even further."

Glenda Harrington, who runs Friends Helping Friends, said the loss of five people in seven days had been "just soul destroying" for all involved in helping homeless people.

A spokeswoman for the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, said the organisation offered its sympathies to the families of the five people.

"We are very aware of the pain caused by the death of a loved one. Five deaths in a week is an unprecedentedly high number, and is obviously a cause for concern," she said.
There was no evidence to show Michelle Lodzinski had caused the death of her 5-year-old son in 1991, her attorneys argued in new filings before the New Jersey Supreme Court, as they seek to overturn a conviction reached more than two decades after the boys mysterious disappearance.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, argued that they had presented a compelling case based on the circumstantial evidence that defendant purposely or knowingly caused the death of her son, Timmy.

Separately, the state Attorney Generals office in its own brief to the court rejected arguments that the trial judge had made a mistake when he refused to declare a mistrial after a juror was excused during deliberations for conducting his own research on the internet into the high-profile case.

The state Supreme Court  in the long and emotional investigation that began with the disappearance of Timothy Wiltsey, to the discovery of his remains in a muddy creek nearly a year later, and ultimately Lodzinskis arrest in August 2014  agreed in February to hear an appeal of her conviction.

The court in taking the case said it would consider the arguments regarding the judges refusal to declare a mistrial, as well as the bigger issue of whether there was sufficient evidence to support her conviction.

If the court were to rule that there was not sufficient evidence for conviction, it could be tantamount to an acquittal.

Lodzinski, 52, has always denied she had anything to do with the death of her son. She is currently serving a 30-year sentence at the Edna Mahon Correctional Facility in Hunterdon County with no chance of parole.

In a filing with the court on Tuesday, her attorney, Gerald Krovatin of Krovatin | Nau in Newark, said the state had failed to prove that Lodzinski engaged in any conduct led to her sons death.

There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Michelle did anything prior to his disappearance that caused his death, he wrote.

He added that to this day, the state cannot offer even a theory as to how Timmy died.

The Middlesex County Prosecutors Office, in its filing with the court, said the absence of evidence regarding the cause of death was not fatal to the states case because they had proved Lodzinskis guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The state presented a compelling case based on the circumstantial evidence that defendant purposely or knowingly caused the death of her son, Timmy. The states case included evidence of defendants motive for the crime, her consciousness of guilt, her inexplicable behavior, physical evidence such as a unique blanket recovered from the crime scene that was linked to her home, and evidence that she repeatedly lied to the police as they tried to help her find Timmy, wrote the acting Middlesex County assistant prosecutor Joie Piderit.

Timothy vanished in May 1991 after Lodzinski, then a young single mother living in South Amboy, told police she and her son had attended a carnival one evening and she had left him for a moment to buy a soda. When she turned around, he was missing.

The disappearance of the kindergarten student sparked intensive search parties, and captured national headlines. The boy later became one of the first to appear on a milk carton to raise awareness about missing children. Suspicion soon fell on Lodzinski, who changed her story several times in the weeks after his disappearance, but she was not arrested.

It would not be until nearly a year later, when Timmys skeletal remains would be found in a creek in a remote section of the Raritan Center industrial park, close to where Lodzinski had once worked. A cause of death was never established because only a few bones were recovered. However, no charges were brought in the case for more than 20 years.

Timothy Wiltsey in his kindergarten photo, with his mother, Michelle Lodzinski before he disappeared in 1991Star-Ledger file photos

In 2014, the Middlesex County prosecutor reopened the cold case based on a faded blue-and-white childs blanket discovered near the creek where the boys remains had been discovered. Investigators said the frayed fabric had come from Lodzinskis apartment and it became a centerpiece of the prosecution case.

In August of that year, on the day of Timothys birthday, police came with a warrant and arrested Lodzinski in Port St. Lucie, Fla., where she was then living with two teenage sons, and returned her to New Jersey for trial.

Her niece testified for the prosecution, telling jurors she had seen the blanket when she was babysitting Timmy. After an eight-week trial, Lodzinski was convicted for her sons death in 2016.

A state appellate court upheld the verdict, agreeing that there was available proof for the jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Timmys death was neither suicide nor an accident, but rather he was the victim of a homicide.

In its ruling, the appellate panel also concluded there was also available evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Lodzinski had placed Timmys body in the shallow grave where he was discovered.

She was the last person seen with him, said the appellate panel.

But Lodzinskis attorneys, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, said Lodzinskis conviction and its affirmation by the appellate panel was unsupported by sufficient evidence of guilt.

The Appellate Division simply disregarded whole swaths of highly probative, persuasive defense evidence, simply because it was introduced by the defense, notwithstanding that this would serve to permit an unconstitutional conviction where the evidence might very well have led a reasonable juror to vote for acquittal, wrote the ACLU to the court.

Attorneys for Lodzinski also pointed to the removal of the jury foreman five hours into deliberations for allegedly conducting his own research on the case. He was quickly replaced with an alternate and the jury continued deliberating for three more hours.

Krovatin had argued that should have been enough for a mistrial, a motion denied at the time.

Prosecutors, in their response, said the removal of the juror was proper.

The judge went above and beyond to assure defendant a fair trial, with not only repeated instruction but with a special code he used to convey to the jury that it was not to stray from the evidence, they wrote in their brief.

The Attorney Generals office in its amicus brief also said the judge acted properly.

No manifest injustice occurs when a trial court follows the appropriate court rule and case law, and dismisses the offending juror under these circumstances. This court should affirm the decision of the appellate division, and find no error in the dismissal of the juror, wrote Deputy Attorney General Debra G. Simms for the state.

It is not known when the state Supreme Court might rule on the appeal.

Local journalism needs your support. Subscribe at nj.com/supporter.

Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL.
Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday morning dismissed President Donald Trump's Monday night Twitter rant accusing him of 'misleading' Americans regarding antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine.

'I don't know how to address that,' the nation's top immunologist told Good Morning America regarding the president's tweet storm. 'I'm just going to, certainly, continue doing my job.'

'I, you know, I don't tweet, I don't  I don't even read them,' Fauci, 79, told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos. 'So I don't really want to go there.'

Trump went on a Twitter frenzy Monday night, including retweets of posts claiming Fauci lied to the country regarding hydroxychloroquine, which the president revealed he has taken as a preventative measure to stop him from contracting coronavirus.

Fauci, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, pushed back Tuesday morning: 'I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances.'

The president's Twitter storm included reposts of videos of a doctor who claimed the anti-Malaria drug is a 'cure' for COVID-19.

Several of the tweets he shared with his 84 million followers, however, were taken down by Twitter citing misinformation regulations.

Facebook and YouTube also removed video of Dr. Stella Immanuel's speech outside the Capitol, which, before it was taken down, garnered tens of millions of views Monday on Facebook alone.

Dr. Anthony Fauci defended himself against President Donald Trump's accusations via Twitter rant Monday night that claim the nation's top immunologist 'misled' Americans regarding hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus

'I, you know, I don't tweet, I don't  I don't even read them,' Fauci, 79, told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos (left) Tuesday morning. 'So I don't really want to go there,' he continued, adding he doesn't know 'how to address' the president's tweets

The president's insistence that the drug does work come as the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for controlling and regulating all prescription and over-the-counter medications, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, said hydroxychloroquine is 'unlikely to be effective' in treating the virus.

'I just will continue to do my job no matter what comes out because I think it's very important,' Fauci said Tuesday. 'We're in the middle of a crisis with regard to an epidemic  a pandemic. This is what I do, this is what I've been trained for my entire professional life and I'll continue to do it.'

Fauci has advised six presidents since joining the National Institute of Health in 1984.

In Trump's Twitter spree he shared a post that claims Fauci is leading the country in the wrong direction by refusing to endorse hydroxychloroquine in combating the virus.

Trump has often promoted the drug, repeatedly pushing it as a therapeutic treatment, even though the FDA warns the drug has harmful side effects and in June revoked an emergency authorization for its use to treat coronavirus.

'Dr. Fauci has misled the American public on many issues, but in particular, on dismissing #hydroxychloroquine and calling Remdesivir the new gold standard,' the retweet said.

Fauci, once a fixture at the White House briefing room podium toward the start of the pandemic, has not yet been invited back for Trump's rebooted task force briefings.

President Donald Trump went into a Twitter frenzy Monday night sharing a slew of posts to his 84 million followers praising controversail drug hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19, only for some posts to be removed for coronavirus misinformation

He shared a retweet claiming Fauci is 'misleading' the country by dismissing the drug touted by the president and instead endorsing Remdesivir

Trump and Fauci have butted heads at coronavirus briefings and disagreed over the handling of the pandemic  and the doctor has not been invited back for the rebooted briefings

WHY STUDIES DON'T BACK HYDROXY Scores of large, credible controlled studies including the 1,542-patient RECOVERY study in the UK and an NIH study, have found the drug offered no benefit, compared to patients who were only given supportive care, like oxygen. On the heels of the RECOVERY study, the WHO cancelled the hydroxychloroquine arm of its international SOLIDARITY trial of multiple potential coronavirus treatments on June 17. It came just days after the FDA revoked its emergency use authorization for the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. The agency had also previously posted a warning that the drug may cause dangerous heart arrhythmias. On July 2, researchers from Henry Ford Health System published a study on hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus that caught the White House's eye. The study's main finding was that death rates were 50 percent lower among patients who were treated with the controversial malaria drug. But the Detroit study was done in a manner far flung from the FDA's 'gold standard' for conclusive research. Research to determine whether a drug works is typically done as what's called a randomized controlled trial. In this type of study, patients are assigned to either get the drug being tested, or a placebo. Neither doctors nor patients know who got which until the study ends. The Detroit study was neither randomized, nor controlled. It was observational, meaning researchers simply compared data on 2,541 COVID-19 patients who got all manner of treatments. These types of studies are usually used to decide which drugs should undergo 'gold standard' testing, not which ones should be the gold standard of treatment. In the simplest sense, those who got hydroxychloroquine were less likely to die - but they were also more likely to receive steroids, drugs which many studies suggest do work to combat the inflammation that kills many coronavirus sufferers. Advertisement

Trump and Fauci have often butted heads over how to respond to the health crisis and eventually, the president sidelined the nation's top immunologist from the press conferences altogether.

Reports emerged of tensions between the two, and Fauci could be seen physically recoiling from some of the president's remarks  including smirking and face-palming.

Trump also retweeted Monday night two posts of a doctor's speech on the steps of Capitol Hill making dubious claims that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is a 'cure' for the virus.

Immanuel demanded the social media platforms reupload her videos after they were taken down for spreading disinformation. She claimed God would crash their computers if they did not repost her speech.

'Hello Facebook put back my profile page and videos up or your computers with start crashing till you do. You are not bigger that God. I promise you. If my page is not back up face book will be down in Jesus name,' Immanuel said in a mistake-littered tweet Monday night.

While Immanuel has been embraced by Trump and his supporters, the pediatrician and religious minister has made some outlandish claims in the past.

She has often alleged that gynecological problems, like cysts and endometriosis, are actually caused by people dreaming about having intercourse with demons and witches.

Immanuel also claims scientists are working on a vaccine to prevent people from being born religious and asserts that alien DNA is used in modern-day medical treatments.

Donald Trump Jr. called Immanuel's viral Friday speech a 'must watch' and posted a link on his Twitter page, causing his account access to be limited by Twitter for violating its rules.

The president has come under heat for his handling of the coronavirus crisis and in recent weeks has tried rectify his reputation by holding solo coronavirus briefings, canceling some campaign events, and wearing a mask in public.

As of Tuesday morning the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. is nearing 4.3 million and the death toll has surpassed 148,000.

At the same time, Trump, who's poll numbers in handling the crisis are dismal, returned to preaching about the benefits of the drug, which he famously took for two weeks as a preventative measure earlier this summer.

In May the World Health Organization stopped its hydroxychloroquine trial. The National Institutes for Health similarly halted their trial in June after determining it provided 'no benefit' in the patients studied.

In his Monday Twitter spree Trump retweeted a video of Dr. Stella Immanuel claiming hydroxychloroquine works in battling the virus.

Trump also retweeted two videos of Dr. Stella Immanuel speaking in front of the US Capitol on Friday with others calling themselves 'America's Frontline Doctors'. She claimed anti-malaria drug hydroxycloroquine is effective in treating COVID-19, despite other medical research disproving that

Donald Trump shared video of her speech twice, but the clip was taken down both times by Twitter citing a violation of the platform's coronavirus misinformation policy

Trump retweeted a slew of posts on Monday night all in support of the controversial drug, despite science and medical tests proving it isn't helpful in combating the virus

Immanuel demanded that the videos be reposted on social media

The video was published by the right-wing media outlet Breitbart News and showed Immanuel and others calling themselves 'America's Frontline Doctors' staging a press conference in Washington, D.C. on Friday.

She slammed 'fake doctors' who doubt the efficacy of the drug, and claimed it's a 'cure', adding 'you don't need a mask.'

'If some fake science comes out and says we've done studies and they found out that it doesn't work, I can tell you categorically it's fake science,' she said.

'I want to know who's conducted that study and who's behind it. Because there is no way I have treat 350 patients and counting and nobody is dead,' she said on how she allegedly treated patients with hydroxychloroquine along with zinc, and Zithromax.

However, her claims are contrary to the extensive tests that have been done regarding the drug.

Video of her fiery speech was shared on Twitter where it racked up over 14million views on Monday, partly due to the promotion by far-right news organizations, but Twitter later took it down.

Facebook and YouTube also began to pull down videos of her claims, claiming it's spreading misinformation about the pandemic.

CNN's Oliver Darcy took to Twitter to shed light on Trump's controversial posts saying: 'Videos Trump shared are now no longer available.'

'While Twitter reviews the video, it's worth noting that various versions of it have received hundreds of thousands of views on this platform and more than one has been retweeted to the public by the President of the United States,' he added.

In May the World Health Organization stopped its hydroxychloroquine trial. The National Institutes for Health similarly halted their trial in June after determining it provided 'no benefit' in the patients studying

Trump has often promoted hydroxychloroquine as a therapeutic treatment for coronavirus, and famously took the drug as a preventative measure for two weeks earlier this summer, even though the Federal Drug Administration warns the drug has harmful side effects

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. is nearing 4.3 million in the U.S. as the death toll has surpassed 148,000 as of Tuesday morning

Twitter later took it down for its COVID-19 misinformation policy.

Similar videos of Immanuel's speech were shared on Facebook on Monday.

It became one of the top performing posts on Facebook with more than 14 million views and nearly 600,000 shares before it was taken down Monday night for promoting misinformation, according to Crowdtangle, a data-analytics firm owned by Facebook.

A Facebook spokesperson said to CNN on removing the clip: 'We've removed this video for sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19.'

The spokesperson added Facebook is 'showing messages in News Feed to people who have reacted to, commented on or shared harmful COVID-19-related misinformation that we have removed, connecting them to myths debunked by the WHO.'
LIONS BAY, B.C.Cayla Troyer looks out her living room window at the quiet beach below. These days, its unusual not to see some young people lying and swimming there but, like many places, Lions Bay has become quieter since COVID-19 descended.

Unlike many spots in British Columbia, which clamoured to reopen as the province emerged from its pandemic lockdown, Troyer is among many in her community happier with their solitude.

I dont quite understand it, because if I want to go somewhere, Ill choose a provincial park; I dont choose someones home, Troyer said. And yet it seems to me that other people decide to come to our home  which is not an established resort.

A self-declared bedroom community with only one general store and fewer than 1,500 residents living in multimillion-dollar homes, Lions Bay doesnt draw visitors for the commercial opportunities.

But nestled between Vancouver and Squamish on the Sea-to-Sky highway, it presents an attractive base to access hiking trails, towering cliffs and beaches on public land.

On a recent day, though, boulders line a waterfront street to prevent parking, and few people dotted the beach.

Residents say that for a decade, their concerns about the increasing levels of visitors to their community have gone unheeded. That changed when COVID-19 arrived.

At the height of the COVID-19 restrictions in March, the municipality was quick to shut its doors  installing signs at entrances to the village declaring parking lots and amenities were closed to everyone except residents. In a May special meeting, council passed new rules to triple the parking fines for those without a resident or guest permit. All public lots were closed.

Now, even though the province is well into Stage 3 of its pandemic recovery, and public places are opening for public use, a reticence has surfaced among some in Lions Bay.

Troyer reminisces about the days 20 years ago when the only casual visitors to this idyllic spot were the mild-mannered nudists who would say hello to her and her neighbours by name before heading to the locally famed au naturel section of waterfront.

And Troyer believes the influx of visitors to her community in Lions Bay, B.C., had become nothing short of a home invasion  with young people driving in from the city and parking wherever they can find space in the two-square-kilometre municipality.

At the end of June, in a video update to residents, Mayor Ron McLaughlin addressed the tension.

Parking was not in this councils agenda when we took office; COVID-19 changed that, Mayor Ron McLaughlin said in a video update to residents at the end of June. What we did before was ineffective. Casual visitors did what they wanted to, parked where they wanted to, and scoffed at our low parking fines.

What we wont do is put casual visitors desires ahead of those of our own residents, or our residents safety.

Following feedback from some residents, the five-person council agreed to open some parking lots closest to hiking trails. But despite recommendations from staff to provide more opportunities for visitors to enjoy the waterfront, council was unanimous in wanting to keep the parking opportunities there closed until they consulted locals further.

On a rainy Friday, the large rocky beach behind Troyers property lay practically empty, save the lawn chairs and kayaks left out by the homeowners with waterfront.

The big fear for the residents is that, due to its beauty and closeness to Vancouver, Lions Bay could lose the small community feel that drove many to move there in the first place  like the community of Deep Cove at the eastern extremity of Vancouvers North Shore, which sees hundreds of visitors every weekend but 20 years ago was a quiet local haven.

It has become invasive since the 2010 Olympics, Troyer said. Its not me being exclusive and elitist because I understand that people want to feed their soul. They want to be in nature and I get that.

But its just to think twice about coming to somewhere thats someones house, someones neighbourhood, that doesnt have the infrastructure to support it, she said.

A desire to limit visitors is not universal in the area but it is the dominant perspective  one neighbour who said he thinks more people should be able to come and access the beach refused to give his name for fear of making enemies of his neighbours.

We are quite privileged to live in a beautiful spot with numerous outdoor recreation opportunities at our doorsteps, said Jon Wescott, another local resident who played a part in encouraging the council to open the village up to hikers. These opportunities are not limited to only residents, they are open to all.

Wescott said he thinks the closure of nearby provincial parks  including the massive Garibaldi Provincial Park near Whistler  is diverting more and more people to places such as Lions Bay, and residents rightly worry how the small community could keep up with the demand without losing its character.

Theres little tourism business here, just the marina and general store. The village is run primarily from property taxes, Wescott said. Therefore, it feels a bit like were subsidizing recreation for others.

When Troyer thinks about the visitors, she worries about what would happen to her community if the traffic gets so bad that the neighbours dont want to stop and talk, sometimes for hours at a time, on evening walks.

Its like me coming to your house and deciding that Im going to do my thing in your backyard and invade you, she said. People dont think about it that way. Yes, we live in a beautiful area, but theres lots of provincial parks that provide that beautiful thing, too, that have access.

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New Delhi: There will be a centralized system in place to classify asymptomatic, symptomatic and mild symptomatic persons and recommend treatment based on the severity of the cases, said Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar in Bengaluru on Tuesday (July 28).

Speaking with a team of experts from government and Infosys, the Medical Education Minister said, "Various existing Apps related to Covid will be brought under one platform to get real-time information which will assist in strategizing allocation of hospitals/beds to the needy."

This will probably remove the delay in bed allocation and treatment which is being faced now, the patients will get all information in one phone call, the minister said.

Referring to a company by name Step 1, which is providing such services in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, Dr Sudhakar said that a similar system will be implemented in the state as well.

The Medical Education Minister said, "This company is having a team of doctors and nurses which is guiding the people whether they need hospital treatment or home isolation after they are tested positive for Covid. More than 70% of the positive cases are being asymptomatic or mild symptomatic and are advised to go for Home isolation."

The load on the hospitals is reduced and severe cases can be administered proper treatment. Infosys to co-ordinate with the government to provide technical support for this system, Dr Sudhakar added.

Chief secretary, representatives of Infosys, Principal Secretary ITBT were present in the Video conference.

Earlier in the day, the Minister held a video conference with the heads of private Medical colleges to review Covid preparedness. The minister informed that the government has already passed guidelines to allocate 50% beds for Covid patients, while instructed them to provide treatment for non-Covid patients as well.

He enquired regarding the Tests being conducted in Private medical colleges, deployment of staff for the purpose, number of Covid cases being treated in each hospital. He instructed them to strictly adhere to the guidelines.

Karnataka records single-day spike of 5,536 new cases

The COVID-19 death toll in Karnataka breached the 2,000-mark today while the state reported its biggest single-day spike of 5,536 new cases, taking the total infection count to 1,07,001. The day also saw a record 2,819 patients getting discharged after recovery.

As many as 102 people succumbed to the disease, taking the toll to 2,055. Of the fresh cases, marginally higher than the previous biggest daily spike of 5,324 on Monday, a total of 1,898 cases were from Bengaluru Urban district.

This is the fifth consecutive day that the state is reporting over 5,000 fresh cases.

As of Tuesday evening, cumulatively 1,07,001 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 2,055 deaths and 40,504 discharges, the health department said in a bulletin.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28)  The Department of Social Welfare and Development plans to include 217,170 public utility vehicle drivers in the country in the waitlisted beneficiaries of the governments COVID-19 cash assistance.

DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista said on Tuesday that 84,014 waitlisted beneficiaries from the National Capital Region were already given cash subsidy under the Social Amelioration Program.

PUV drivers in Cagayan Valley, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, and SOCCSKSARGEN have also received cash aid.

DSWD Spokesperson Irene Dumlao said this covers drivers of public utility jeepneys, buses, UV express, taxis, motorcycle taxis, Transport Network Vehicle Services, and tricycles.

Bautista explained that those excluded from the list were covered by other government aid programs such as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino where 24,581 PUV drivers received cash assistance.

He added that about P795 million were allocated for 98,132 drivers in NCR in the first tranche.

In his State of the Nation Address on Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte said he ordered the DSWD and the Department of Interior and Local Government to investigate complaints of some drivers that they did not get cash aid amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

READ: Duterte orders DSWD, DILG to check on PUV drivers who did not get cash aid

The government implemented quarantine protocols in mid-March to control the spread of the virus. This led to the suspension of public transportation, leaving drivers without source of income.

Bautista said the department is trying its best to meet its end-July target for the distribution of the second tranche of SAP.

As of July 28, a total of P42.8 billion were already distributed to 6.5 million beneficiaries of the program, he said.

The department targets to give out cash aid to 12 million families by July 31.
Bengaluru, July 28 : Karnataka has dropped a chapter on Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan from the history textbook for Class 7 students to reduce their syllabus, as reopening of schools has been delayed due to Covid crisis this academic year, an official said on Tuesday.

"The chapter on Tipu Sultan for Class 7 has been dropped to reduce the syllabus by 30 per cent for this academic year due to delay in reopening of schools due to no let-up in coronavirus spread," Karnataka Text Book Society Director Madde Gowda told reporters here.

The society, however, retained the chapter on the 'Tiger of Mysore' for Classes 6 and 10.

"As Class 7 students would have read Tipu in Class 6 and will read more on him again in Class 10, dropping it for them in this academic year will not be a loss to them," asserted Gowda.

The society has uploaded the reduced syllabus for the state board schools on the Department of State Education Research and Training (DSERT) website for online classes and teaching.

"The chapter on Tipu will, however, be taught to Class 7 students as part of the assignment and not as a separate lesson," said Gowda.

The eldest son of Sultan Hyder Ali, Tipu (1750-1799) was the king of then Mysore kingdom in southern India and died in the fourth Anglo-Mysore war in 1799 at Srirangapatna, about 20km from Mysore, after a series of battle victories against the British.

The syllabus in the textbooks has been trimmed to adjust for the shortened academic year.

Meanwhile, the opposition Congress protested against the dropping of Tipu's lesson for Class 7 students and accused the BJP government of "playing communal politics" in education too.

An expert committee headed by noted writer Baraguru Ramachandrappa advised the state government in November 2019 against dropping the content on Tipu from history textbooks.

Chapter 5 on Tipu in Class 7 is part of the history portion on the "Wodeyars of Mysuru". In Chapter 4 for Class 10 students, Tipu is mentioned along with Halagali Bedas, Kittur Rani Chenamma and Sangoli Rayanna as those who opposed and fought the British in the 18th century.

"We have not deleted study matter on Tipu or Hyder Ali. The changes were made by subject experts in whose work we do not meddle. They have changed it on priority, as the academic year has been reduced to 120 days from 220 working days," Gowda added.
The Senate GOP proposed its $1 trillion stimulus package Monday, more than two months after House Democrats passed their own $3 trillion bill and just days before an extra $600 a week federal unemployment insurance payments expire.

The plan includes a second stimulus check and although it would extend unemployment benefits, they would be lower than the benefits that expire this week.

While Senate Republicans delayed their rollout for days because of disagreements amongst themselves and with President Donald Trump, the legislation they came up is likely not the last word on the subject since it doesnt have the support needed to pass the Senate, let alone the House.

It now will be up to Trump administration officials and congressional leaders of both parties to come up with legislation that can clear Congress and be signed into law by the president.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said now was the time to reach a deal.

We have one foot in the pandemic and one foot in the recovery, McConnell said on the Senate floor. The American people need more help. They need it to be comprehensive and the need it to be carefully tailored to this crossroads.

It will take bipartisan cooperation, he said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the Senate could have begun negotiations once the House passed its own stimulus bill in May.

We have stood ready to negotiate for more than two months, said Pelosi, D-Calif. If Republicans care about working families, this wont take long. Time is running out. Congress cannot go home without an agreement.

Major disagreements include the amount of the federal unemployment benefits going forward, protecting businesses against coronavirus-related lawsuits, state and local assistance and the House provision suspending for two-years the $10,000 cap on deducting state and local income, sales and property taxes, which falls heavily on New Jerseys middle-class homeowners.

A national emergency is raging, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez said Monday at a news conference in Newark.

Renters across the country may face eviction at the end of the month, said Menendez, D-N.J. Millions of unemployed workers, whove relied on the $600 in additional federal support to get by each month, will soon get their last unemployment benefits check with that help. People are going hungry and families are losing their homes. And state and local governments are literally running out of money to operate.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

Heres whats in the Senate bill:

Stimulus checks. The Republicans would send another $1,200 check to individuals making $75,000 a year or less. A married couple can make up to $150,000. As in the first round, the checks would phase out as income rises, up to $99,000 for an individual and $198,000 for a married couple.

There would be an additional $500 payment for a dependent of any age. The original bill limited the payment to those under age 17.

The payments will not be adjusted on the basis of regional costs of living.

Unemployment insurance. The bill would slash the extra federal payment to $200 through September from $600 a week. Beginning in October, recipients would receive 70% of their pre-coronavirus pay, instead of the $200 a week.

There also is $2 billion to help states upgrade their unemployment insurance systems.

There were 17.8 million unemployed Americans in June, including 1.4 million New Jerseyans.

Former U.S. Treasury economist Ernie Tedeschi said he found no evidence that the higher unemployment payments, which in some cases meant recipients made more money than when they were working, discouraged employees from returning to their jobs.

The bottom line was that I found no evidence of any effect on labor market flows from more generous UI in May and June, controlling for other demographic factors. In fact some of the point-estimate coefficients were the "wrong" sign. /8 pic.twitter.com/I47YUCBtfM  Ernie Tedeschi (@ernietedeschi) July 16, 2020

Lawsuit protection. Republicans would ban most coronavirus-related lawsuits against businesses, as well as health care workers and universities. Companies have lobbied for decades to limit the ability of those injured to sue for damages.

There wont be a bill that passes the Senate that doesnt have this in it, McConnell said.

But some businesses said they dont need liability protection as much as they need rules to follow and financial help to buy personal protective gear and install safety equipment.

Its a bit of a red herring, said Amanda Ballantyne, executive director of the Main Street Alliance, a small businesses association. State law is already very friendly to businesses that are acting responsibly. What small businesses really need are clear industry standards. As long as those rules are clear, its very unlikely we will see a wave of lawsuits.

Small businesses. Hardest-hit small businesses, those with revenue losses of at least 50%, could get a second loan under the paycheck protection program, which offers forgivable loans to small businesses that keep their employees on the payroll.

In addition, some loan money could be spent on protective equipment such as masks and plexiglass shields, renovations to accommodate social distancing among customers, and to expand outside seating areas.

In addition, seasonal businesses would be given more flexibility in calculating how much money they need.

Small businesses. The bill includes another $100 billion paycheck protection program, which offers forgivable loans to small businesses that keep their employees on the payroll, even as Congress earlier extended the program because $130 billion remained unspent.

School reopenings. There is $100 billion set aside for K-12 schools and universities, with about two-thirds going to those institutions that allow students to return to their classrooms. Private and religious schools would get a share of taxpayer funds.

State aid. State and local governments would get more flexibility to spend $150 billion approved in previous legislation, but no new aid despite a falloff in tax collections and the threat of laying off police officers, firefighters and teachers.

Flexible spending accounts. Pretax income set aside for dependent care or health expenses, which normally has to be spent during the calendar year, can be rolled over until 2021.

National debt. After passing a tax cut that increased the federal deficit by $1.9 trillion over 10 years, Republicans pledged to address the national debt in this bill by naming a commission to look at Social Security and Medicare.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com.
Kaon's interactive sales and marketing platform expedites digital transformations for European enterprises post COVID-19

MAYNARD, Massachusetts, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaon Interactive , the leading provider of interactive sales and marketing applications for global B2B brands, today announced its expansion into Europe to strengthen the company's partnerships with global B2B organizations. The company has also appointed two new executives to help facilitate the EU expansion and has added leading European companies, such as Theo Forch GmbH & Co. KG, as marquee new clients.

Kaon Interactive's solutions are used by sales teams and marketers in nearly 150 countries. "Despite the double-digit percentage decline in global economic activity since March 2020, Kaon's customer engagement index for its interactive sales and marketing applications has increased by over 55%," said Gavin Finn, President & CEO at Kaon Interactive. "Based on our aggregated user data for digital sales and marketing applications, European companies saw precipitous declines in B2B sales activity immediately following their countries' lockdown orders, and did not make a swift transition to virtual selling environments. Many European companies are still struggling with developing and implementing strategies to adapt to a predominantly digital customer engagement model. This European expansion is an opportunity for Kaon to help enterprise customers thrive through and beyond this crisis."

Kaon's transformative sales and marketing applications enable companies to effectively communicate a product or solution's value to prospects through interactive experiences, virtually. These applications help drive increased sales and reduced marketing costs. The applications are created once and are deployed everywhere on all commercial devices and operating systems.

One innovative European industrial leader is Theo Forch GmbH & Co. KG, headquartered in Neuenstadt, Germany. Their digital sales platform is at the heart of their competitive strategy, and is totally transforming their customer engagement model. In order to propel their VARO Storage System to further market leadership, they have focused on elevating the customer experience, and have deployed an interactive sales engagement application to help visualize, specify, and order individual products and complete solutions during the sales meetings. Challenged to easily showcase the demand-and-consumption flexibility of their VARO shelving, storage and rack solutions, FORCH commissioned Kaon Interactive to both configure and visually lay out each customer solution.

"Prior to using the Kaon Interactive Space Planning Tool application, we were following standard industry practice in manually developing specifications and proposals to design systems configured within our customers' environments," said Alexander Emmert, Business Unit Manager Digital Business International at FORCH. "Today, we have automated much of that process, improving the customer's solutions and dramatically reducing the sales cycle and customer lead time. The system automatically creates consistent visuals to represent a common and correct understanding between the customer, sales, our inventory system, all the way through delivery and installation. The pandemic has highlighted the value of this digital strategy, because the efficiencies and interactive nature of this application have brilliantly transformed our sellers' ability to effectively engage customers and communicate complex product offerings. It is a game changer."

To keep up with growing European demand, Kaon recently made two significant hires in the Netherlands, including notable director roles. Kaon's new hires included:

Thomas Scheerder , Senior Director, Strategic Accounts, has held various sales positions for emerging technology, event and software companies.

, Senior Director, Strategic Accounts, has held various sales positions for emerging technology, event and software companies. Sandra Velema-Hijnen, Executive Director  Head of Account Management, a highly effective sales and business development leader who has built a successful career in driving growth through B2B consultative partnerships with clients.

The increased use of Kaon's applications during this crisis underscores three lessons: the power of a digital transformation platform in today's global climate, the importance of agility in business and customer engagement, and the need for a growth mindset in both short- and long-term business continuity planning. Kaon is excited to deliver continued growth and success for its clients through this European expansion.

About Kaon Interactive

Kaon Interactive is a B2B software company. Kaon's interactive sales and marketing applications simplify complex product and solution stories in a visually engaging way anywhere, anytime, turning prospects into customers. The company's interactive 3D sales and marketing applications transform product and solution marketing content into visual storytelling experiences to deepen customer engagement, reduce marketing expenses and accelerate the sales cycle. Whether virtual or in-person, more than 5,000 Kaon interactive applications are being used worldwide by leading global B2B companies in such industries as life sciences, manufacturing and technology. For more information about Kaon, visit www.kaon.com.

About FORCH

Founded in 1963, Theo Forch GmbH & Co. KG is one of the leading direct selling companies for workshop, installation and fastening products for trade and industrial companies. Their product range includes consumables, tools, workshop chemicals, workshop requirements, diamond equipment, construction chemicals, fasteners, pipe insulation, roof ventilation and many others more. For more information, visit www.foerch.com.

Media Contact for Kaon Interactive

Kim MacKenzie

kim@hollywoodagency.com

(781) 749-0077 x24

Related Links

https://www.kaon.com



SOURCE Kaon Interactive
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to put a strain on health care systems, nursing homes have become overburdened with the challenge of keeping both patients and staff safe and healthy. Older residents in long-term care facilities are especially vulnerable to the effects of a respiratory illness like COVID-19, and nursing homes are not appropriately designed nor staffed to handle large numbers of infectious residents.

In response, two MU Sinclair School of Nursing support teams - the Quality Improvement Program for Missouri and the Missouri Quality Initiative - are working with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to provide assistance to more than 500 nursing homes across the state.

The main goal of our response efforts is to make sure nursing home residents are staying as safe as possible during this very traumatic and challenging experience. At the beginning of the pandemic, access to personal protective equipment (PPE) was a big concern for nursing home staff. We were able to collaborate with various community organizations to distribute more than 3,000 face shields to nursing homes throughout the state." Lori Popejoy, Associate Professor, MU Sinclair School of Nursing

In addition to securing and distributing PPE, other efforts include offering recommendations, guidance and support to nursing home staff and administrators as they navigate and implement the ever-changing COVID-19 infection control practices. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services continue to update their recommendations for mitigating the spread of COVID-19, the support teams are synthesizing, summarizing and organizing this information to help nursing homes establish and modify protocols for isolating sick patients, use PPE properly and notify the family members of infected patients.

"Now that the nursing homes are isolating residents in individual rooms, the residents are no longer dining in groups, attending group activities or inviting outside visitors into the facilities," said Amy Vogelsmeier, associate professor in the MU Sinclair School of Nursing. "In order to continue providing support to these individuals, nursing homes have adopted creative practices, such as video chatting with family members so residents can see their loved ones, or assigning staff members to check in daily with residents who may be struggling to cope with the effects of social isolation."

Given the shortage of nurses in Missouri, the pandemic has highlighted the importance of advanced practice registered nurses, who play a key role in identifying and managing illness in nursing homes to prevent avoidable hospitalizations.

"This is a time where the public is really becoming aware of the value registered nurses bring to the health care industry," Popejoy said. "It has been inspiring to see the impact they have had to mitigate the effects of this public health crisis."
It will include four stops and a 600-vehicle park and ride at Charlestown, close to the M50.

A cycle and pedestrian path will also be built along most of the track, which is now up for public consultation.

Meanwhile eight new longer trams have been added today, that can each carry an extra 100 passengers.

The new extension connects communities such as Charlestown, Finglas Village, Finglas west, St Helenas and Tolka Valley and the city centre.

It will be constructed mostly in grass track, while a cycle and pedestrian path will be constructed along much of the line.

Weve obtained an advanced copy of the Luas Finglas proposals.



Have a look and see if your guesses were correct! pic.twitter.com/68y4WnJbQk  Dublin Commuter Coalition (@DublinCommuters) July 25, 2020

The final stop at Charlestown, close to the M50 will include a 600-vehicle park and ride facility.

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Submissions on the proposed route can be made on www.luasfinglas.ie where all details of Emerging Preferred Route are available.

Bigger trams

The first of eight brand-new Luas 55m trams was also announced today and seven more 55m trams are to be delivered in the coming months and all will be in passenger service by early 2021.

In addition, work on converting 26 existing 44m trams into 55m trams is now 50 per cent complete with 13 extended trams now in passenger service.

Speaking at the announcement of the new extension, Minister Ryan said:

"I am delighted to announce this consultation on the Emerging Preferred Route for Luas Finglas.

"I encourage the public and stakeholders to take part in this Public Consultation so we can deliver a major public transport improvement to Finglas and north Dublin.

"Im also very pleased to see the first of eight new 55m Luas trams going into passenger service and to see that half of the 44m trams have now being extended."

Meanwhile, Anne Graham from the National Transport Authority said: The extension of the Luas to Finglas is a clear example of the kind of progress we are making in planning to invest in ambitious and exciting sustainable transport solutions.

"I believe that Luas has the potential to be transformative for this part of the city and will further enhance the area for people who live here, work here, or want to run a business here."
Instagram allegedly offered thousands of dollars to lure high-profile TikTok creators into using its new service Reels.

This was based on a Wall Street Journal report published on Tuesday, July 28, as shared by Business Insider.

While the Journal did not mention the names of involved creators who had been approached by Facebook, but this shows a direct competition between ByteDance-owned TikTok and Facebook.

Facebook seeks to reel in TikTok creators, raising stakes in social-media rivalry Facebook's Instagram is offering financial incentives to TikTok users to join its competitor app, Reels. pic.twitter.com/JpJKm3F7Ey  Ajay J Pillai (@ajayjpillai) July 28, 2020

According to NBC News, Facebook will launch Instagram Reels, a short-form video platform in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and other 50 countries in a matter of weeks or probably in August. Currently, it is already being tested in Brazil, India, Germany, and France.

Reels will be shown in Instagram's Stories and is seen as TikTok's direct rival. However, short videos are only limited to 15 seconds, while TikTok allows up to 60 seconds.

While TikTok gave Facebook a run with 2 billion downloads in April across the globe with a huge fan-base among the youth. However, Facebook eyes to snatch the throne again. And with the security woes that the U.S. government continuously build over the Chinese app, it would be easy.

Also, Reels has another huge market in India where TikTok is now banned. Tech Times reported on July 6 that while the Chinese app is highly popular in India, the Asian country banned TikTok along with other 58 apps that pose a threat to national security.

Read also: TikTok Loses India, Now Instagram Swoops in With 'Safer' Reels App

Instagram Reels: How to Use

Just like TikTok, Instagram Reels can be used to record a clip with music. Reels would be somehow familiar to those avid TikTokers. Here is how to do it:

First, users may choose to pick music from Instagram's huge library, copy the audio from another video, or record their original soundtrack.

They will be shown a video countdown timer, and they will have an option to adjust the video speed.

Once done filming the video, users can opt to share their Instagram Reels on Instagram Stories, send it directly to a certain user or group of users, or add it to a new Reels tab on their profile.

Surely, Reels will make Instagram Stories more fun and engaging.

TikTok Aims to Inspire Creative Minds with Creator Fund

TikTok has recently launched on July 26, a $200 million "creator fund," which will be used to pay users for the content they make. The fund will be distributed among users in the U.S. by 2021--expected to increase to more than $200 million.

According to the Search Engine Journal, the fund aims to support creators who seek "opportunities to foster a livelihood through their innovative content." TikTok hopes to encourage creative minds to use their voices and creativity to create valuable careers.

TikTok will begin accepting applications for the TikTok Creator Fund in August. To be eligible to join, users must be at least 18 years old, living in the U.S. with a huge army of followers, and post original content in accordance with community guidelines.

Read also: YouTube Stories Rolling Out To More Creators: How Is It Different From Instagram, Facebook?

This article is owned by Tech Times

For more latest news, visit https://www.techtimes.com/

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The Indian Navy has stepped up surveillance and activities in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), which, it believes, China will inevitably try to enter in its quest to become a global power, just as it has laid claim to large portions of the disputed South China Sea, according to a top officer aware of the developments.

It is to deal with this scenario that India reached out to neighbours in IOR  Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles and Madagascar, to prevent China from expanding its footprint in the region by creating more bases  and like-minded navies, such as those of the United States and Japan, over the last two months, he added.

It is inevitable that the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN) will come to IOR if China wants to become a global power. They are opening multiple routes to the Indian Ocean to overcome the Malacca Dilemma (Chinas strategic weakness), the officer said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The comments come at a time when there are heightened military tensions in eastern Ladakh  where Indian and Chinese forces are locked in a tense border confrontation and disengagement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has turned out to be a challenging process  and China is militarising the South China Sea.

Also read: How the cold will alter the India-China power equation next month in Ladakh

The Malacca Dilemma refers to Chinas apprehension of major naval powers controlling the Malacca Strait between Malaysia and Indonesia and interdicting vital supply lines. A significant volume (more than 80%) of Chinas oil imports pass through the strait connecting the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

The multiple routes that China could be looking at to enter the Indian Ocean are further south of Malacca and include the Sunda, Lombok, Ombai and Wetar straits, said a second Indian Navy officer who asked not to be named.

Its a reality that the PLAN will deploy in the Indian Ocean once its power crosses a certain threshold. Right now, its good enough for the South China Sea, said Admiral Arun Prakash (retd), a former navy chief.

India is keeping tabs on Chinas aggressive moves in the South China Sea and taking steps to ensure that the Chinese navy doesnt muscle its way into the Indian Ocean where combat-ready Indian warships are carrying out round-the-clock surveillance for any unusual activity, said the first officer.

Over the last one month, the navy has conducted joint drills with a US Navy carrier strike group, led by USS Nimitz, and Indian and Japanese warships have carried out exercises in the Indian Ocean, against the backdrop of the India-China border standoff in Ladakh.

The India-US exercise involving eight Indian and US warships took place a week ago at a time when tensions have mounted over Chinas activities in South China Sea, where the US Navy recently conducted a major exercise that involved two carrier strike groups.

From carrying out naval drills with like-minded countries to reaching out to states in the Indian Ocean region, the Indian Navy is focusing on checking Chinas rising ambitions in the region and sending out a strong message that Beijings power play in South China Sea cannot be replicated in the Indian Ocean.

China is claiming almost 90% of the South China Sea. We dont want that scenario unfolding in the Indian Ocean. We will not allow China to have it easy coming here, said the second officer.

Chinas step-by-step inroads into territorialising the South China Sea find echoes in some parts of IOR, not by trumped up claims because that would be blatant neo-colonialism but with more sophistication, said naval affairs expert Rear Admiral Sudarshan Shrikhande (retd)

Its (Chinas) diplomacy and economic influence when combined with port investments, logistics bases, all of which could be for dual-use and their sustained deployments in the IOR, are of serious concern, Shrikhande said.

The stage is also set for Australia to be part of the next Malabar naval exercise conducted by India with the US and Japan, as reported by Hindustan Times on July 17. The next edition of Malabar, already delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, is set to be held by the end of the year.

China has also been wary of the Quadrilateral security dialogue, or Quad, that was revived in late 2017 by India, the US, Australia and Japan, and these suspicions have increased since the four countries upgraded the forum to the ministerial level last year.

We are already operating with these navies. We dont need time to put the Quad into effect if the government gives us the go-ahead Its not that we are aligning with the US. Our actions are guided by national interest and what you see unfolding is issue-based convergence of interests, said the first officer.

China began deploying troops to its first overseas naval base at Djibouti in the Horn of Africa in July 2017, in what some global experts said was the outcome of Beijings debt-trap diplomacy. Mounting debts have led countries such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Pakistan to give control of territories, which are of strategic significance, to China.

The base in Djibouti has shored up Chinas capabilities to sustain naval units in the Indian Ocean.

In recent months, with much of the world preoccupied with the Covid-19 pandemic, China has sharply escalated its coercive activities. In early April, a Chinese Coast Guard vessel sank a Vietnamese fishing boat close to islands claimed by both China and Vietnam. A Chinese marine survey vessel harassed a Malaysian oil exploration vessel off Borneo. This month, the [US] department of defense voiced concern about the Chinese navys decision to seal off an area around the Paracel Islands to conduct naval exercises. In response, the United States increased its own naval activities, including joint exercises by two aircraft carrier groups, the New York Times said in an editorial on Monday.

The Indian Navy has been on an operational alert in the Indian Ocean where scores of warships are ready for any task in the aftermath of the border row. It has positioned warships along critical sea lanes of communications and choke points and the vessels could be diverted for any mission.

Indian warships are deployed from as far as the Persian Gulf to the Malacca Strait and northern Bay of Bengal to the southeast coast of Africa.

While the Indian Navy is keeping a sharp eye on the Indian Ocean, it is also playing a key role in the Ladakh sector.

The navys P-8I maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft, imported from the US, are being used for surveillance of the Ladakh sector and gathering intelligence on Chinese deployments across the contested LAC.

The primary role of the P-8Is encompasses carrying out anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance of the oceans.

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A group of property owners seeking to gain control of a system of dams that released catastrophic floodwater across mid-Michigan anticipates repairs to the dam and surrounding lakes to cost upwards of $340 million.

Dave Kepler, president of the Four Lakes Task Force, disclosed the estimate to Senate joint committees on Energy and Technology and Environmental Quality Tuesday. Approximately $20 million needs to be spent on efforts to stabilize shorelines and banks eroded by floodwaters before the winter, according to an estimate from engineering consultant Spicer Group, with another $340 million needed for long-term restoration of the Edenville, Sanford, Secord and Smallwood dams.

A fact sheet provided by Four Lakes outlines estimates showing the project could cost $338 million in total, including $92 million to repair or rebuild the Sanford Dam, $208 million for the Edenville Dam, $14 million for the Smallwood Dam and $24 million for the Secord Dam.

The Four Lakes Task Force is a nonprofit representing property owners in Midland and Gladwin counties. The two counties delegated authority to the group under the National Resources and Environmental Protection Act, allowing the task force to purchase the dams from its owner Boyce Hydro.

Four Lakes previously sought to buy the dams and restore them to meet state and federal requirements but plans changed after the failure of Edenville and Sanford dams caused historic flooding in May. Now Four Lakes is seeking control of four dams through eminent domain, setting up a legal battle with the group arguing the property should be condemned and turned over.

Kepler said the dams should have held back spring rainfall and blamed the private owners for not covering long-term costs required to keep the critical infrastructure in good condition.

The operator had an opportunity to invest and change it and they didnt, Kepler said. We were trying to get through it in a way that would give us control, in an expensive way, and now we have to go clean it up. Frankly, the value of that property for anything other than the lake is a liability.

Kepler acknowledged that restoring the dam is an expensive undertaking. Four Lakes planned to establish a special assessment district, but that effort is on hold.

We need to think about the affordability model in these things because they cant be spread equally in a big lake system that goes from a well-off city all the way up to some economically challenged townships, he said.

Kepler said the group is also hoping to secure financing for repairs through federal grants from FEMA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

READ MORE ON MLIVE:

Lakefront owners oppose plan to condemn Mid-Michigan lake after dams fail downstream

Michigan sues Edenville Dam owner, seeks flooding damage compensation

Michigans aging dams are an expensive headache

Wixom Lake residents grapple with new reality

Flood aftermath spawning mosquito horde in mid-Michigan

Michigans high-hazard dams: This is something were going to wrestle with
The pain isnt spread equally as airlines reduce the number of flights.

Even before COVID-19, it was difficult to find a nonstop flight at San Antonio International to many popular destinations.

Passengers often had to take two flights to get to their endpoint, one to, say, American Airlines hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, where they would catch a second flight.

Still, American offered a few nonstops from San Antonio to its other hubs in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

No longer.

More from The Wary Traveler: Airlines cracking down on maskless passengers in quest to control coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic has meant American has concentrated on its Dallas-area hub, its largest, abandoning its New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia flights from San Antonio.

Flying these days often takes longer, at least if you live near a midsize, nonhub airport like San Antonio or St. Louis or Indianapolis or dozens of others. These airports are losing direct flights to a variety of cities.

Before the pandemic, it took about 2 hours to fly from San Antonio to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the nation. Four airlines competed on the route from San Antonio: American, Delta, United and Southwest.

All those direct flights are gone. Traveling to Los Angeles now requires a flight change.

That means Los Angeles will take you six hours on American Airlines, 5 hours on Delta Air Lines, five hours on United Airlines and 4 hours on Southwest Airlines.

The same holds for flights from San Antonio to other destinations such as New York City or Philadelphia  expect it to take longer. Key exceptions are Chicago, where three airlines still compete on the route, and Denver, with three airlines offering service.

Both Delta and American eliminated their nonstop service from San Antonio to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, about doubling the 3 hours it takes to get to New York on many of their flights.

More from The Wary Traveler: On Southwest flights, empty middle seats are cold comfort

Aviation experts say it could take two or three years or longer  for airlines to recover from the COVID-19 crisis and add more direct flights, meaning nonhub airports like San Antonio are going to suffer the most until then.

The short-term future looks bleak.

At San Antonio International, flights have been down by about 75 percent during the pandemic. But Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is seeing a smaller 40 to 45 percent decline because more passengers have to change flights there.

The policy leaves travelers in communities near midsize airports with no options to complete their journeys faster  except maybe moving to the Metroplex or some other hub city like Denver or Charlotte, N.C.

If you live in San Antonio and want to fly straight to Los Angeles, you could drive to Austins airport, where there are still nonstops to Los Angeles and New York.

But the two-hour drive, if theres heavy traffic, also would add time to your journey.

Driving to Los Angeles is certainly not an option unless youre in long road trip mode. The drive to Los Angeles would take 19 hours, assuming you never stopped to go to the restroom or to grab a bite.

New York would take almost 27 hours without a stop.

Amtrak does have a train to Los Angeles from San Antonio, but assuming the train is on time, and it rarely is, the journey would take 45 hours and 55 minutes.

The largest airline at San Antonio International, Southwest Airlines, had offered a ray of hope in June, saying it would restore its full flight schedule by the end of the year, bringing back direct flights to destinations such as San Diego, New Orleans, St. Louis and Tampa, Fla.

Unfortunately, during a teleconference with reporters, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly told me a few days ago that a new downturn in bookings, resulting from the recent spike in coronavirus cases, means that Southwests schedule wont be back to normal at San Antonio International by the end of the year.

Kelly would not offer specifics for San Antonio, but said flights systemwide will still be down by around 25 percent at the end of the year, compared with 2019.

On ExpressNews.com: Coronavirus concerns expected to keep travelers off roads, out of airports for holiday

Some smaller airports are faring even worse than San Antonio International. Long Beach International Airport in California is losing its largest airline, JetBlue Airways, which is moving all of its flights to Los Angeles International Airport.

The departure of JetBlue leaves the airport with fewer than than 15 flights a day, around half of its former schedule.

Luckily for travelers who use the Long Beach Airport, its only 20 minutes down the 405 freeway to Los Angeles International Airport.

Sure, LAX, one of the busiest airports in the country, is more of a hassle to use than smaller Long Beach, but at least Long Beach users have a choice if they want to fly.

The same cant be said for travelers at San Antonio International  unless you dont mind the drive up Interstate 35 to Austins airport!

Randy Diamond covers avation and tourism and writes the Wary Traveler Column. To read more from Randy, become a subscriber. randy.diamond@express-news.net
VANCOUVERAn orca that brought the plight of her struggling family to the worlds attention by carrying her dead newborns body for 17 days is pregnant once again.

Drone footage taken by the marine research organization SR3 shows that J35, a 22-year-old southern resident killer whale, is pregnant.

Its a hopeful sign to whale researchers who have been following the endangered orcas decline for decades. There are 72 orcas left in the population that lives off the coast of British Columbia and Washington.

Deborah Giles, a scientist with the University of Washingtons Center for Conservation Biology, said she hopes J35 will give birth to a healthy calf, despite all the challenges the whales face.

The southern resident orcas are facing a triple threat of toxic waters, noise pollution and dwindling food sources.

Its a lot for a young animal to deal with, said Giles, who also volunteers with the advocacy group Wild Orca.

J35 also recently became the matriarch of her family after her mother, J17, died last summer. Matriarchs have added responsibilities such as guiding their family to feeding grounds and sharing food with younger members, Giles said.

I think she can do it. Shes a resilient animal, obviously. Shes got a lot of will to live, and I think if anyone can pull it off, she can.

Still, the odds are against her.

Seven out of 10 southern resident orca pregnancies fail due to a lack of food, according to a 2017 study out of the University of Washington. The mothers either suffer a miscarriage, or the baby dies within days after birth  something J35 experienced in 2018 with her most recent calf.

A release from SR3, a non-profit that collects data on the orcas body condition by using drone imagery, states that several individuals from all three southern resident pods are pregnant.

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Ahead of the historic bhoomi pujan at Ram temple, the security has been tightened in Ayodhya with over ten thousand security personnel stationed in the temple town. The security in Ayodhya has been divided into three zones--red, yellow and green.

The Ram Janmabhoomi complex has been placed under the red zone, the area outside the campus has been marked as a yellow zone and the rest of the Ayodhya is in the green zone.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), PAC, Uttar Pradesh Police, and the Black Cat Commandos of the UP Police have been entrusted with the security.

On August 5, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya. Along with PM Modi, prominent saints, some Sangh officials and other famous names associated with the Ayodhya Ram Temple movement will be present for the bhoomi pujan of the Ram Temple.

The intelligence agencies sources have revealed that Pakistani spy agency ISI is planning to carry out a terrorist attack in Ram Janmabhoomi on August 15. According to intelligence agency R&AW, the ISI was training Lashkar and Jaish terrorists in Afghanistan to launch the attack. The Pakistani agency had planned to send three to five groups of terrorists in Ayodhya for the attack.

Indian intelligence agency revealed that Pakistan wants the terrorist group to carry out separate attacks and in such a way that it appears as an internal attack within India.

The intelligence agency has also found that the VVIPs will remain on the target of the terrorists so that the impact of this attack is felt at large. Meanwhile, the security system has been tightened to keep a check on the activities in Delhi, Ayodhya, and Kashmir.

As the holy city Ayodhya gets ready to begin the construction of the Ram Temple, it is also getting a massive makeover as several developmental works are either underway or been proposed in the near future. The city makeover will include the construction, extension, and widening of roads and bypasses, development of a 600-acre township, along with setting up a sewage treatment plant.

Recently, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had said that the ancient holy town of Ayodhya will be developed as the 'pride of India and the world'.

Here are the complete details of the development projects:

- A Rs 210 crore proposal has been passed for widening and beautification of one of Ayodhya city's main roads that connect Sahadatganj with Naya Ghat. This stretch is around 13.30 km long.

- The National Highway 27 road leading to Ram temple will be widened. Over 400 shops on the stretch will also be shifted to Ayodhya's Terhi Bazar and Community Center premises.

- The road from Terhi Bazaar to Asharfi Bhawan via post office will also be extended by 2.60 km at a cost of Rs 4.26 crore.

- A new 500-meter road from the Asharfi Bhavan to International Media Center will be constructed. The project will cost Rs 2.75 crores.

- Roads around the Ram temple will be repaired and there are also plans to build new roads.

- A bypass from Sohawal in Ayodhya to Vikramjot in Basti via Nawabganj of Gonda will be constructed.

- A 1.5 km long four-lane road will be constructed that will connect Ram temple to the airport. The project will reportedly cost Rs 18.75 crore.

- A 600-acre township will be developed in the Shahnazpur village that lies on the Lucknow-Gorakhpur highway.

- There will be extension and repair work the 4 km road from Udaya Chauraha to Golhar on the Panchkosi route which will cost around Rs 25.35 crore.



- The road from booth number 4 in Ayodhya to Hanuman cave via Ramghat intersection will be extended by 4.50 km. This will cost over Rs 10.85 crore.

- A new 1.90 km road from the highway to Ram temple via Mahobra Bazar-Terhi Bazaar will be built at a cost of Rs 275.25 crore.



- A sewage treatment plant will also be set up that will cost over Rs 363 crore.

- A 165 km-long sewer line will also be built in Ayodhya.

- Facade lighting will be installed in temples namely Hanuman Garhi, Dashrath Mahal, Kanak Bhawan, Janaki Temple, Digambar Akhada, Raj Dwar Temple.

- Naya Ghat intersection will be widened and beautified at a cost of Rs 4.90 crore.

- Construction of Queen Huh Memorial Park is underway.

- Work on Bhajan Sandhya Sthal in Ayodhya has started in 2016 which is a Rs 19 crore project.

- Ram Katha Park to be expanded and a Ram Katha Gallery is also being made at a cost of Rs 7.5 crore.

- A New bus depot is being built in the city at a cost of Rs 7 crore.

- A Rs 15.65 crore multilevel car parking near Ayodhya bypass is also proposed.



- A project is proposed of a multipurpose hall in Digambar Arena that will cost Rs 2.75 crore.



- Pavements across the streets in Ayodhya are being built at a cost of Rs 8.38 crore.

- Proposal for development of Laxman Kila Ghat that will reportedly cost Rs 9.73 crore.



- A Press Club is also being constructed in Ayodhya.



- An international Ram Leela centre is under construction in the city.

- Bharat Kund will also be renovated.
On this scorching hot Thursday, White hustled to welcome strangers into his lot and into his flock. Many of his church members wore shirts emblazoned with the same biblical scripture: If you have food, share it with those who are hungry. Luke 3:11.
The vast majority of people infected with COVID-19 met the virus while in close physical proximity to an infectious individual for an extended period of time. Prolonged exposure not only results in a much greater chance of being infected; it makes it likely one will be infected by a lot of virus  "high viral load"  which will be a major factor in determining the clinical consequences.

This reality is not being given sufficient emphasis in our mitigation strategies.

Police at The Domain on Tuesday ahead of the protest. Credit:Nick Moir

As we attempt to tame this epidemic it is crucial that we not only practise social distancing but also focus on minimising occasions when we are close to fellow citizens for a prolonged period of time, a strategy we might call "social brevity".

Remember our local experience of one infected individual attending a wedding reception with 35 others, all of whom went home infected.
LEVA Hotels has rolled out compelling brand conversion options and strong alternatives for existing properties looking for change



(TRAVPR.COM) DUBAI - July 28th, 2020 - Coronavirus has reshaped the hospitality business landscape like never before. Offering hotel owners, a strong alternative, LEVA Hotels has rolled out compelling brand conversion options for existing properties looking for change. The choice of having one of Leva brands or managing the owner asset with their branding as a Third party or white label operator. A higher Gross Operating Profit (GOP), lower management fees and global operations with a highly experienced international team purely focused on revenue maximization and offering cost effective models and fees.

Mr. JS Anand, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of LEVA Hotels, said, The world is changing and so is the way to do business in our industry. There are many variables coming into play. Hotels need much more than just conventional hotel management agreements. LEVA Hotels gives access to a unique portfolio of brands and an internationally rounded management team with standardization, action and result oriented to focus on bottom line owner profitability. We have carried out brand conversions and positioning in less than 60 days.

Third-Party Management is an excellent alternative to the traditional asset or resource heavy owner operator or direct management structure. Under the scheme, property owners can take over the franchise of any brand along with the management services of the Leva team that manages their own brands or international brands or owners individual brand.

Mr. JS Anand stated, We have also launched a design division where we have the resources of an architect and designer that create a soft cosmetic refurbishment model with elements of the brand. On the management side we ensure greater flexibility in contract terms, higher profits due to lower cost structure by way of clustering resources across multiple properties and more defined management method are some of the key advantages.

LEVA Hotels is uniquely positioned in the upscale and midscale segments with three complementary and well differentiated brands designed to provide a solid return on investment for owners and greater value to guests.

Building up on its growth momentum, the brand is aggressively exploring expansion opportunities across the GCC, Africa, Europe and USA. In addition to its flagship hotel LEVA Mazaya Centre, a deluxe 4-star hotel in Dubai, the group had recently signed management agreements for two beautiful hotels in Muscat and a stunning property in Kampala.

--Ends--

Connect with LEVA Hotels on @LEVAHotels #LEVAHotels

About LEVA Hotels

LEVA Hotels is a dynamic lifestyle hotel brand uniquely positioned in the upscale and midscale segments offering a fresh perspective on hospitality. It attracts travellers who want to be immersed in vibrant spaces while enjoying world-class comfort and engaging service at affordable price points. Derived from the Latin word Levatio meaning comfort, LEVA Hotels boasts a unique portfolio of 3 complementary and well differentiated hospitality brands aimed at delivering greater value to guests with a balanced lifestyle and solid return on investment for owners. At every level, LEVA is focused on the essentials that turn the mundane into memorable. For more information visit www.stayleva.com

For Media Contact:

Hina Bakht

Managing Director

EVOPS Marketing & PR

M: +971 50 6975146 | T: +971 4 566 7355

Hina.bakht@evops-pr.com

www.evops-pr.com

###
Organizers of the #StopHateforProfit advertising boycott say Facebook's ability to withstand their campaign suggests a competition problem and are urging House antitrust investigators to press CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the issue Wednesday.

Why it matters: If the boycott isn't enough to get Facebook and other social media platforms to take firmer action against hate speech, its organizers are hoping pressure from Washington will get results.

What's happening: Common Sense Media, a consumer tech advocacy group, has written letters to the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee on behalf of the boycott organizers, which also include groups like the NAACP, Color for Change and the Anti-Defamation League.

They want panel members to raise the boycott with Zuckerberg at a landmark hearing Wednesday.

Details: In a letter written to all committee members and obtained by Axios, Common Sense tells lawmakers the boycott campaign has "highlighted how much control Facebook has over online advertising."

The letter is the second of two notes sent to lawmakers in the past week  one sent last Tuesday and the second one Monday afternoon.

It provides sample questions that they want lawmakers to ask Zuckerberg, such as, "[I]s it accurate that you have said that advertisers will be back soon? Does this mean they have no real alternative?" Zuckerberg has reportedly told employees as much.

Another sample question the groups suggest for Zuckerberg: "Facebook offers tremendous reach and targeting capabilities to advertisers. What alternatives do advertisers have to reach the demographic audiences held captive by Facebook?"

Committee members have confirmed receipt of the letters and say appreciate the input from the campaign, sources tell Axios. Some of the groups leading the boycott, including the NAACP, have individually been in touch with lawmakers regarding the hearing, sources say.

"Facebook has enough power that it believes it is effectively immune to ad boycotts, massive privacy violations, and other scandals," Common Sense CEO Jim Steyer said in a call with Axios.

The other side: "The perception that our services are full of hate and political discourse is not true," a Facebook spokesperson tells Axios. "There's no place for hate on our services and we'e made it clear there is nothing more important than that."

The company has said it faces ample competition from other players in online advertising. Meanwhile, its free-to-users services don't trigger the consumer pricing concerns that antitrust cases are traditionally built on.

Between the lines: Common Sense has long been lobbying for more action against Big Tech across an array of issues.

Steyer says the aim is "fundamental regulatory change," which could include Facebook being forced to divest Instagram and WhatsApp.

For its part, Facebook has long said breakups aren't the answer for the issues it has wrestled with but has called for regulation to help reduce the amount of harmful content online and harmonize differing standards on privacy and other issues.

The big picture: The #StopHateforProfit boycott has escalated quickly to encompass roughly 1,000 advertisers.

Tensions between the boycotters and the tech giant haven't improved since the company's disastrous meeting with civil rights leaders last month, Steyer says, and Common Sense hasn't been in touch with Facebook since.

"I don't feel they've made progress," says Steyer. "I would say deny, deflect, distract has been their strategy. The meeting a couple weeks ago was a total failure."

What's next: Steyer says that the Stop Hate for Profit campaign is going to be continuing past July. "We will be making an announcement about that later this week."
When we do not know the answer to something we look to Google, so much so that the proper noun has become a verb (actually, it became one officially in 2006 when the Oxford English Dictionary included it).

All of us, individuals, organisations, even administrations, should do that (look to Google) now  when planning for our uncertain short-term (the next one year) future.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

After all, a vaccine wont be available before the end of the year, and chances are the first vaccines will either not be very effective, or will require multiple booster shots. It is also clear that not everyone is going to get the vaccine immediately. And Google, perhaps aware of all of this (it should be; all the information is available on, er, Google) has decided that its 200,000 employees are not going to return to office before July 2021. This applies to those who work for Google around the world  at its head office in Mountain View, California, but also in countries such the US, UK, India, and Brazil, The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story, reported. Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and its holding company Alphabet, subsequently sent out a message to employees on the decision. I hope this will offer the flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months, WSJ reported him as saying in his message.

I am not suggesting that everyone and every company move to WFH (work from home). My views on that are known to regular readers of this column  it is a luxury (a sub-optimal one) that takes away more than it gives, although in the current context, the scales are tilted strongly in terms of the latter. Commuting by public transport  many of the journalists in the HT newsroom in Delhi, for instance, prefer the Metro, just like many of them in Mumbai depend on the suburban rail network; most of them are working from home currently  is unsafe. As are air-conditioning systems that do not have the right kind of filters or recommended air-circulation cycles. And the social act of sharing the workspace may well be life-threatening.

The big takeaway for me from Google and Pichais decision is that it is actually more about stability than flexibility  and a gentle reminder to actually plan for the next year. We have all unconsciously moved to two default planning cycles during the pandemic: the now, and the when-this-is-over. The first helps us survive, get by; the second helps us put things off (and which of us doesnt like to?). This, despite most of us being aware that the crisis isnt going to pass anytime soon, perhaps not till a vaccine is discovered and most people have been administered it. And so, to repeat myself, all of us should plan for the next year.

Also read: Working from home? Here are some tips to keep the lockdown pounds off

At one level, for instance, Googles decision makes it clear to employees that they will not be returning to office for the next year (at the least). So, for the next 12 months, they can plan around the certainty that they will be working from home. Thats a big certainty at a time when nothing is really certain. WSJ reports that Pichais decision was made, in part, by sympathy for employees with families to plan for uncertain school years and by the desire to make it easier for employees to decide where they are going to live for the next year.

Its probably time for companies in India to also start thinking along these lines  provided they are in businesses that are conducive to remote working, however sub-optimal it may be (at least in the current context, safety is more important than efficiency). And it is definitely time for individuals whose plans for 2020 (and longer) were disrupted by the coronavirus disease to pick up the threads and move on and move ahead.

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President Buhari has urged Malian political leaders to consider the fragile peace in the country and the likely spiralling effect on the sub-region.

The president gave the challenge on Monday during a virtual Extraordinary Session of the Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja.

The Nigerian leader appealed to government and people of Mali to consider recommendations of ECOWAS Special Envoy, former President Goodluck Jonathan and his team, in resolving the political crisis.

According to him, a government of national unity will provide inclusivity and ensure peaceful co-existence.

I wish to place on record, my commendations for the various layers of efforts, and especially, of former President Goodluck Jonathan, whose painstaking engagements as Special Envoy and Mediator, provided clear road-map to contain the crisis in Mali.

I appeal therefore, to all the Malian stakeholders to consider the proposals for the reform of the Constitutional Court and the established modalities for resolving the continuous 31 seats issue at the National Assembly.

Equally significant, is the need to address governance challenges, whose manifestations are at the core of restiveness across the country.

In order to address these matters holistically, it is important that all Malians embrace the call for a Government of National Unity where inclusivity of participation in the affairs of governing their country will be a responsibility of each and every Malian actor.

I wish to reiterate the imperative of compromise and concessions for a peaceful resolution of the current crisis which would be acceptable to all parties,'' he said.

The president commended the Chair of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State & Government, for convening the Extraordinary Session to discuss the socio-economic, political and security developments in Mali, especially, following the outcome of the Parliamentary elections in the country, last March.

May I recall that last March, Parliamentary elections took place in Mali. Regrettably, results of 31 seats arising from those elections, provoked the spate of unrest and protests that became violent with tragic consequences in July 2020.

We are still living and contending with the negative fallout from those incidents.

Our organisation, the ECOWAS, using its instrumentality of peaceful resolutions of crisis and in the context of our Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, embarked upon a series of efforts to address this crisis, at the levels of Ministerial Committee, Special Envoy & Mediator and to a select-group of Heads of State and Government and now, the Authority of Heads of State and Government, at this Extraordinary Session, today, he said.

President Buhari thanked Development Partners, the EU, France, AU and the UN, urging them to continue to support efforts for national-regional security and stability of West Africa.

All ECOWAS leaders at the summit appreciated former Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, who had been appointed Special Envoy and Mediator in the crisis.

The meeting adopted positions to resolve crisis sparked off by disputed parliamentary elections held in Mali, which had led to widespread riots, arson and killings in the West African country.

Among conclusions by the Heads of State and Government are: formation of a Government of National Unity to comprise 50% nominees by government of the day, headed by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, 30% by the opposition, and 20% by civil society groups.

It was also agreed that given the numerous challenges facing the country, some members of Government will be nominated before the National Unity Government is formed. These are the Ministers in charge of Defense, Justice, Foreign Affairs, National Security and Finance.

The Malian President was equally mandated to ensure the stepping down of the 31 parliamentarians who emerged from the disputed polls, while a by-election will be held as speedily as possible.

Also agreed was that steps should be taken to reconstitute the Constitutional Court in the country as soon as possible, while a commission of enquiry would determine and identify those responsible for the violence that led to deaths and casualties as well as public properties destroyed on July 10-12, 2020.

Equally resolved was that the government would step up efforts to secure the release of opposition figure, Soumaila Cisse, kidnapped since March, among others.

The ECOWAS Commission is to put in place a Monitoring Committee for the implementation of all the above measures.

The Declaration, to be communicated to relevant organs of African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN), also agreed to support President Keita in restoring peace and order to Mali.

The sub-regional leaders emphasised that no anti-constitutional change of government would be accepted anywhere in West Africa.

Present at the virtual extraordinary meeting were the Presidents of Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Mali, Senegal, Liberia, Cote D'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry, Cape Verde, The Gambia, and Niger Republic, who is the ECOWAS Chairman.

Equally present was Mr Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, President of ECOWAS Commission.(NAN)
A new Harris County district judge will again take up the decision of whether to move Attorney General Ken Paxton's criminal case back to his hometown of Collin County.

A Houston appellate judge on Monday set aside a previous district judges ruling on the venue change, and has redirected the case to Harris District Judge Jason Luong, giving him until Sept. 10 to decide whether it should stay in Harris County or return to Collin County where it originated, as first reported by the Dallas Morning News.

This marks the latest in a series of setbacks that have dragged out the resolution of five-year-old criminal charges that have already outlasted one of Paxton's re-election cycles. The two-term Republican attorney general was indicted on felony securities fraud charges in July 2015 but is still far from trial. Paxton has maintained his innocence.

Luong, a former prosecutor with the Harris County District Attorneys office, was assigned to the case after the previous presiding judge, Robert Johnson, recused himself because the attorney generals office is representing him in a separate, unrelated case alleging discriminatory bail practices in the countys felony courts.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST?: 23 Harris County judges sued over discriminatory bail practices

Its unclear whether Luong, who is also being represented by Paxtons office in the bail case, will recuse himself as well.

Prior to recusing himself, Johnson had ordered the case moved to Collin County, siding with Paxtons lawyers who had argued that the judge who moved the case out of Paxtons home county in the first place lacked the authority to do so because his term had expired.

The location of the trial could have immense bearing on how its decided. Paxton, who lives in in McKinney, has many allies in Collin County  those very connections were enough to convince a judge in 2017 that the case ought to move from Collin to Harris.

Paxton is charged with two counts of first-degree felony securities fraud and a third-degree felony charge of selling securities without registering with the state.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Judge orders Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtons criminal case back to Collin County

He is accused of encouraging investors, including friends and a Texas lawmaker, in 2011 to invest in a technology startup without disclosing that he was being paid by the firm. He is also accused of soliciting clients for a friends investment company without registering with the state.

Paxtons lawyers had just filed a nearly 80-page brief on the appeal Monday only to find out that 1st Court of Appeals Judge Gordon Goodman had bounced the case back to district court.

Were not only disappointed but also troubled by the fact that the Court of Appeals ruled without giving Mr. Paxton an opportunity to respond, Paxton defense attorney Bill Mateja said in a statement. Paxtons legal team is also asking Goodman to reconsider his ruling.

Special prosecutors Kent Schaffer and Brian Wice declined to comment.
MANCHESTER, CT, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LYDALL, INC. (NYSE: LDL) today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2020 and provided an update of COVID-19 impacts.



FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS - Q2 2020 vs. Q2 2019

GAAP Financials

Second quarter ending cash balance of $92.5 million, compared to $43.4 million Year to date cash flow from operations of $40.4 million, compared to $36.2 million

Net sales of $146.2 million, down 33.8%

Gross margin of 19.4%, down 110 basis points

Operating loss of ($1.7) million, compared to operating income of $13.2 million

Loss per share of ($0.34), compared to loss per share of ($0.40) Prior year includes employee benefit plan settlement expenses of $0.86 per share



Non-GAAP Financial Measures*

Organic sales decline of 31.7%

Adjusted gross margin of 19.5%, down 100 basis points

Adjusted operating margin of (0.2%), down 640 basis points

Adjusted loss per share of ($0.27), compared to adjusted earnings per share of $0.41

Adjusted EBITDA of $11.4 million, compared to $25.3 million Adjusted EBITDA margin of 7.8%, down 370 basis points



*Reconciliations of the Non-GAAP financial measures to Lydalls GAAP financial results are included at the end of this release. See also Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures below.

I am incredibly proud of Lydall's global employees who delivered extraordinary results while the world was in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. In times like these, cash matters most and the team rose to the occasion by generating almost $14 million of cash from operations in the second quarter," Sara A. Greenstein, President and Chief Executive Officer, said. "Additionally, we quickly pivoted our resources to the production of personal protective equipment for our first responders, medical professionals, military personnel and the general public, which contributed to our adjusted consolidated EBITDA margin of nearly 8% in the quarter. We also announced new strategic investments to accelerate domestic meltblown filtration media capacity supported by a $13.5 million commitment from the U.S. Government.

The demand for the filtration media produced in our Performance Materials segment has significantly increased. Lydall saw a 20% increase in Filtration sales in the second quarter compared to prior year, a trend we expect to continue. In our Technical Nonwovens segment, we completed a large order for nonwoven material used in medical gowns to support first responders for the New York Department of Health," said Ms. Greenstein. "When our automotive customers shuttered their factories late in the first quarter, the Thermal Acoustical Solutions business saw a historic decline in second quarter volumes in North America and Europe. The team responded quickly and decisively to flex our cost structure, and by the end of the second quarter our factories were back to nearly full pre-COVID production to support our automotive customers production re-starts.

Ms. Greenstein added, Most importantly, we continue to operate safely as the pandemic continues, adapting to a new normal that includes more frequent cleaning, social distancing and new work processes. Our employees have shown exceptional commitment and resilience during these challenging times, and I thank them for all their contributions.

Q2 2020 Consolidated Results

Net sales of $146.2 million decreased by $74.7 million, or 33.8%, compared to $220.8 million in the second quarter of 2019, primarily due to the effects of COVID-19 related automotive OEM shutdowns and weaker industrial demand. Gross margin in the second quarter declined 110 basis points year-over-year to 19.4%. Randall B. Gonzales, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, stated, "despite the effects of the pandemic, the Performance Materials ("PM") and Technical Nonwovens ("TNW") segments improved gross margin on lower sales volumes. This helped offset lower gross margin in the Thermal Acoustical Solutions ("TAS") segment which was heavily impacted by widespread customer shutdowns. While TAS sales declined 60% or $55.8 million compared to prior year, volumes within the quarter grew sequentially each month in line with auto production."

Operating loss was ($1.7) million, compared to operating income of $13.2 million in the second quarter of 2019, driven by the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the TAS segment and, to a lesser extent, the TNW segment. This was partially offset by the PM segment which benefited from the increased demand for specialty filtration solutions. On an adjusted basis, operating loss was ($0.3) million compared to $13.7 million in the second quarter of 2019.

Adjusted EBITDA margin in PM was 19.5%, up 470 basis points on favorable mix and productivity actions while TNW EBITDA margin was 18.8%, up 260 basis points driven by a $1.3 million insurance recovery in this quarter from flood related losses in the first quarter of 2020. Compressed margins in TAS due to COVID-19 resulted in consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin of 7.8%, down 370 basis points compared to the second quarter of 2019. Mr. Gonzales commented, "Performance in the second quarter demonstrates the earnings potential of the business. We were able to quickly flex our cost structure, reducing overhead by almost $15 million from prior year in reaction to lower demand, while leveraging resources to address surging demand for filtration. These actions mitigated the profit loss on lower sales and will position the business to drive incremental returns as volumes recover."

Liquidity

Net cash provided by operations through the second quarter of 2020 was $40.4 million driven by continued working capital management initiatives, accounts receivable factoring, and payroll tax deferral under the CARES Act. Mr. Gonzales concluded, "Although we experienced unprecedented headwinds from the pandemic, through disciplined management of working capital we not only maintained but also increased our cash balance through the quarter, while reducing our net factoring." The Companys cash balance was $92.5 million at June 30, 2020, compared to $87.8 million at March 31, 2020. Debt balance at June 30 was $286 million, and the Company's net leverage ratio was 3.5, well below the maximum of 6.5 allowed by our amended credit agreement.

Outlook

"As we move into the second half of the year, our focus remains on the well-being of our employees, meeting the needs of our customers, and driving more value for our shareholders," Ms. Greenstein commented. "While we expect our Performance Materials Sealing business will face headwinds in the second half, continued strong demand for Filtration products should offset this, with meltblown media sales for N95 and surgical masks contributing incremental sales of $10 to $12 million. As a respected leader in filtration, we continue to pursue opportunities with government leaders across the world who recognize that a strong localized supply chain of PPE is a national priority. Lydall is well positioned, globally, to leverage our technical expertise and decades of experience to provide solutions in the fight against COVID-19 and develop innovative new solutions for clean air applications.

"We anticipate the North American and European automotive markets will recover in similar fashion to what we experienced in China. While the timing and magnitude of the recovery by region remains uncertain, we believe auto production will begin to stabilize in the third quarter, albeit with volumes in the second half of 2020 lower than the same period in 2019." Ms. Greenstein continued, "In Technical Nonwovens, we are seeing seasonally strong construction activity driving robust demand for geosynthetics and continued demand for medical related nonwoven products, offset by softer sales in Industrial Filtration applications as the industrial outlook remains uncertain.

"In summary, Lydall and its management team have demonstrated their ability to successfully navigate unprecedented challenges, and I have full confidence the team will continue to quickly adapt to market changes," Ms. Greenstein shared. "Going forward, we will sharpen our strategic focus where our global footprint, deep product expertise, customer and supplier relationships, and innovation are clear competitive advantages in attractive markets. Specialty filtration is a cornerstone of our strategy, as shown by the investments were making this year. I remain confident in our ability to deliver long-term shareholder value through our focus on value added engineered materials and specialty filtration solutions that promote a cleaner, quieter, safer world."

Conference Call

Lydall will host a conference call on July 29, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss results its second quarter ended June 30, 2020 as well as general matters related to its businesses and markets. The call may be accessed at (888) 338-7142, from within the U.S., or (412) 902-4181, internationally. In addition, the audio of the call will be webcast live and will be available for replay on the Company's website at www.lydall.com in the Investor Relations Section. A recording of the call will be available from 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on July 29, 2020 through 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on August 5, 2020 at (877) 344-7529, from within the U.S., or (412) 317-0088, internationally, access code 10146673. Additional information, including a presentation outlining key financial data supporting the conference call, can be found on the Companys website www.lydall.com under the Investors Relations section.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to the financial measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the Company uses certain non-GAAP financial measures, including organic sales, adjusted gross profit, adjusted gross margin, adjusted operating income, adjusted operating margin, adjusted earnings per share, consolidated and segment EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA. The attached financial tables address the non-GAAP measures used in this press release and reconcile non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. The Company believes that the use of non-GAAP measures helps investors gain a better understanding of our core operating results and future prospects, consistent with how management measures and forecasts the Company's performance, especially when comparing such results to previous periods or forecasts. Adjusted segment EBITDA is used as a basis to internally evaluate the financial performance of the Company's segments because the Company believes it reflects current core operating performance and provides an indicator of the segment's ability to generate cash. Non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to, and not as a replacement for or superior to, the corresponding GAAP measures, and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies.

Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact, including statements about the outlook for 2020, the expected impact of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) on the Company's businesses, and optimizing profit and cash flow generation may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements are intended to provide managements current expectations for the future operating and financial performance of the Company based on current expectations and assumptions relating to the Companys business, the economy and other future conditions. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified through the use of words such as believes, anticipates, may, should, will, plans, projects, expects, expectations, estimates, forecasts, predicts, targets, prospects, strategy, signs, and other words of similar meaning in connection with the discussion of future operating or financial performance. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Such risks and uncertainties which include, among others, worldwide economic or political changes that affect the markets that the Companys businesses serve which could have an effect on demand for the Companys products and impact the Companys profitability, challenges encountered by the Company in the execution of restructuring programs, disruptions in the global credit and financial markets, including diminished liquidity and credit availability, changes in international trade agreements, including tariffs and trade restrictions, disruptions in the Company's businesses from the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), foreign currency volatility, swings in consumer confidence and spending, raw material pricing and supply issues, retention of key employees, increases in fuel prices, and outcomes of legal proceedings, claims and investigations. Accordingly, the Companys actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements. Investors, therefore, are cautioned against relying on any of these forward-looking statements. They are neither statements of historical fact nor guarantees or assurances of future performance. Additional information regarding the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements is available in Lydalls filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risks and uncertainties identified in Part I, Item 1A - Risk Factors of Lydalls Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019.

These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and Lydall does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement made in this press release or that may from time to time be made by or on behalf of the Company.

Headquartered in Manchester, Connecticut with global manufacturing operations, Lydall delivers value-added engineered materials and specialty filtration solutions that promote a cleaner, quieter and safer world. We partner with our customers to develop bespoke, high-performing and efficient solutions that are adaptable and scalable to meet their needs. Lydall is a New York Stock Exchange-listed company. For more information, visit http://www.lydall.com. Lydall is a registered trademark of Lydall, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.





Summary of Operations In thousands except per share data (Unaudited) For the Three Months Ended For the Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2020 2019 2020 2019 Net sales $ 146,160 $ 220,811 $ 346,687 $ 438,836 Cost of sales 117,742 175,536 279,701 351,505 Gross profit 28,418 45,275 66,986 87,331 Selling, product development and administrative expenses 30,164 32,096 63,191 65,102 Impairment of goodwill and other long-lived assets   61,109  Operating (loss) income (1,746 ) 13,179 (57,314 ) 22,229 Employee benefit plans settlement expenses  25,515 385 25,515 Interest expense 4,476 3,731 7,333 7,359 Other expense (income), net 248 (873 ) (170 ) (474 ) Loss before income taxes (6,470 ) (15,194 ) (64,862 ) (10,171 ) Income tax benefit (595 ) (8,199 ) (2,610 ) (7,093 ) (Income) loss from equity method investment (18 ) (49 ) 26 (22 ) Net loss $ (5,857 ) $ (6,946 ) $ (62,278 ) $ (3,056 ) Loss per share: Basic $ (0.34 ) $ (0.40 ) $ (3.59 ) $ (0.18 ) Diluted $ (0.34 ) $ (0.40 ) $ (3.59 ) $ (0.18 ) Weighted average number of common shares outstanding 17,372 17,267 17,354 17,260 Weighted average number of common shares and equivalents outstanding 17,372 17,267 17,354 17,260





Summary of Segment Information and Corporate Office Expenses In thousands (Unaudited) For the Three Months Ended For the Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2020 2019 2020 2019 Net Sales Performance Materials Segment $ 58,473 $ 65,102 $ 123,693 $ 129,682 Technical Nonwovens Segment (1),(2) 52,007 69,078 109,410 134,684 Thermal Acoustical Solutions 37,448 93,272 121,209 187,585 Eliminations and Other (2) (1,768 ) (6,641 ) (7,625 ) (13,115 ) Consolidated Net Sales $ 146,160 $ 220,811 $ 346,687 $ 438,836 Operating Income Performance Materials Segment (3) $ 5,443 $ 3,303 $ (51,498 ) $ 4,762 Technical Nonwovens Segment (1),(2),(4) 6,684 7,844 10,497 12,578 Thermal Acoustical Solutions (6,285 ) 7,357 (657 ) 16,848 Corporate Office Expenses (7,588 ) (5,325 ) (15,656 ) (11,959 ) Consolidated Operating (Loss) Income $ (1,746 ) $ 13,179 $ (57,314 ) $ 22,229

(1) The Technical Nonwovens segment reports the results of Geosol through the date of disposition of May 9, 2019.

(2) Included in the Technical Nonwovens segment and Eliminations and Other is $1.4 million and $4.6 million in intercompany sales to the Thermal Acoustical Solutions segment for the quarters ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively, and 6.4 million and 9.3 million in intercompany sales to the Thermal Acoustical Solutions segment for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019

(3) Included in the Performance Materials segment is $61.1 million of impairment charges related to goodwill and other long-lived assets for the six months ended June 30, 2020, $4.0 million and $4.1 million of intangible assets amortization for the three months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively, and $7.9 million and $8.1 million of intangible assets amortization for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

(4) Included in the Technical Nonwovens segment is $1.2 million and $1.3 million of intangible assets amortization for the three months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively, and $2.3 million and $2.6 million of intangible assets amortization for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019.





Financial Position In thousands except ratio data (Unaudited) June 30, 2020 December 31, 2019 Cash and cash equivalents $ 92,546 $ 51,331 Working capital $ 172,417 $ 153,739 Total debt $ 285,510 $ 272,641 Stockholders' equity $ 253,262 $ 318,420 Total capitalization $ 538,772 $ 591,061 Total debt to total capitalization 53.0 % 46.1 %





Cash Flows In thousands For the Three Months Ended For the Six Months Ended (Unaudited) June 30, June 30, 2020 2019 2020 2019 Net cash provided by operating activities $ 13,674 $ 21,849 $ 40,415 $ 36,219 Net cash used for investing activities $ (4,581 ) $ (10,140 ) $ (12,080 ) $ (16,825 ) Net cash (used for) provided by financing activities $ (4,893 ) $ (18,102 ) $ 13,482 $ (25,212 ) Depreciation and amortization $ 12,612 $ 12,066 $ 24,842 $ 24,001 Capital expenditures $ (6,315 ) $ (11,048 ) $ (15,472 ) $ (20,287 )





Common Stock Data For the Three Months Ended June 30, 2020 2019 High $ 17.73 $ 26.47 Low $ 5.67 $ 17.90 Close $ 13.56 $ 20.20

During the second quarter of 2020, 14,906,709 shares of Lydall common stock (LDL) were traded on the New York Stock Exchange.





Non-GAAP Measures

In thousands except ratio and per share data

(Unaudited)

The following tables address the non-GAAP measures used in this press release and reconcile the non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures:

For the Three Months Ended

June 30, For the Six Months Ended

June 30, In thousands 2020 2019 2020 2019 Net sales $ 146,160 $ 220,811 $ 346,687 $ 438,836 Net sales, adjusted $ 146,160 $ 220,811 $ 346,687 $ 438,836 Gross profit, as reported $ 28,418 $ 45,275 $ 66,986 $ 87,331 TNW restructuring expenses  42  372 Reduction-in-force severance expenses $ 127 $  $ 127 $  Gross profit, adjusted $ 28,545 $ 45,317 $ 67,113 $ 87,703 Gross margin, as reported 19.4 % 20.5 % 19.3 % 19.9 % Gross margin, adjusted 19.5 % 20.5 % 19.4 % 20.0 % Operating (loss) income, as reported $ (1,746 ) $ 13,179 $ (57,314 ) $ 22,229 Strategic initiatives expenses 1,230 405 3,138 1,246 TNW restructuring expenses  97  473 Impairment of goodwill and long-lived assets   61,109  Reduction-in-force severance expenses 257  257  Operating income, adjusted $ (259 ) $ 13,681 $ 7,190 $ 23,948 Operating margin, as reported (1.2 ) % 6.0 % (16.5 ) % 5.1 % Operating margin, adjusted (0.2 ) % 6.2 % 2.1 % 5.5 % (Loss) earnings per share, as reported $ (0.34 ) $ (0.40 ) $ (3.59 ) $ (0.18 ) Strategic initiatives expenses $ 0.07 $ 0.02 $ 0.18 $ 0.07 TNW restructuring expenses $  $ 0.01 $  $ 0.03 Impairment of goodwill and long-lived assets $  $  $ 3.52 $  Reduction-in-force severance expenses $ 0.02 $  $ 0.02 $  Employee benefit plans settlement expenses $  $ 1.47 $ 0.02 $ 1.47 Gain on sale from a divestiture $  $ (0.08 ) $  $ (0.08 ) Tax effect of above adjustments $ (0.02 ) $ (0.61 ) $ (0.22 ) $ (0.61 ) Diluted (loss) earnings per share, adjusted $ (0.27 ) $ 0.41 $ (0.07 ) $ 0.70

This press release reports adjusted results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, which excludes strategic initiatives expenses, restructuring expenses in the Technical Nonwovens segment, impairment charges in the Performance Materials segment, reduction-in-force severance expenses, employee benefit plans settlement expenses, and gain on sale from a divestiture.





CONSOLIDATED AND SEGMENT EBITDA/ADJUSTED EBITDA

In thousands except ratio data

(Unaudited)

The following tables report consolidated and segment earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA") and adjusted EBITDA for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019. The Company uses segment operating income (loss) for the purpose of calculating segment EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA excludes strategic initiatives expenses, restructuring expenses, non-cash impairment charges, reduction-in-force severance expenses, employee benefit plans settlement expenses, and gain on sale from a divestiture.

For the Three Months Ended June 30, 2020 Segments Performance

Materials Technical

Nonwovens Thermal Acoustical Solutions Total Corporate Office Consolidated Lydall Net loss $ (5,857 ) Interest expense 4,476 Income tax benefit (595 ) Other expense, net 248 Income from equity method investment (18 ) Operating (loss) income $ 5,443 $ 6,684 $ (6,285 ) $ 5,842 $ (7,588 ) $ (1,746 ) Depreciation and amortization 5,954 3,093 2,714 11,761 130 11,891 Other expense, net     248 248 Income from equity method investment  (18 )  (18 )  (18 ) EBITDA $ 11,397 $ 9,795 $ (3,571 ) $ 17,621 $ (7,706 ) $ 9,915 % of net sales 19.5 % 18.8 % (9.5 )% 11.9 % 6.8 % Strategic initiatives expenses $  $  $  $  $ 1,230 $ 1,230 Reduction-in-force severance expenses   257 257  257 EBITDA, adjusted $ 11,397 $ 9,795 $ (3,314 ) $ 17,878 $ (6,476 ) $ 11,402 % of net sales 19.5 % 18.8 % (8.8 )% 12.1 % 7.8 % For the Three Months Ended June 30, 2019 Segments Performance

Materials Technical

Nonwovens Thermal Acoustical Solutions Total Corporate Office Consolidated Lydall Net loss $ (6,946 ) Interest expense 3,731 Income tax benefit (8,199 ) Other income, net (873 ) Income from equity method investment (49 ) Operating income (loss) $ 3,303 $ 7,844 $ 7,357 $ 18,504 $ (5,325 ) $ 13,179 Depreciation and amortization 6,329 3,222 2,458 12,009 166 12,175 Employee benefits plans settlement expense     25,515 25,515 Other income, net     (873 ) (873 ) Income from equity method investment  (49 )  (49 )  (49 ) EBITDA $ 9,632 $ 11,115 $ 9,815 $ 30,562 $ (29,801 ) $ 761 % of net sales 14.8 % 16.1 % 10.5 % 13.4 % 0.3 % Strategic initiatives expenses $  $  $  $  $ 405 $ 405 TNW restructuring expenses  97  97  97 Employee benefit plans settlement expenses     25,515 25,515 Gain on sale from a divestiture     (1,459 ) (1,459 ) EBITDA, adjusted $ 9,632 $ 11,212 $ 9,815 % $ 30,659 $ (5,340 ) $ 25,319 % of net sales 14.8 % 16.2 % 10.5 % 13.5 % 11.5 %





For the Six Months Ended June 30, 2020 Segments Performance

Materials Technical

Nonwovens Thermal Acoustical Solutions Total Corporate Office Consolidated Lydall Net loss $ (62,278 ) Employee benefit plans settlement expenses 385 Interest expense 7,333 Income tax benefit (2,610 ) Other income, net (170 ) Loss from equity method investment 26 Operating income (loss) $ (51,498 ) $ 10,497 $ (657 ) $ (41,658 ) $ (15,656 ) $ (57,314 ) Depreciation and amortization 12,208 6,131 5,431 23,770 265 24,035 Employee benefit plans settlement expenses     385 385 Other income, net     (170 ) (170 ) Loss from equity method investment  26  26  26 EBITDA $ (39,290 ) $ 16,602 $ 4,774 $ (17,914 ) $ (15,606 ) $ (33,520 ) % of net sales (31.8 )% 15.2 % 3.9 % (5.1 )% (9.7 )% Strategic initiatives expenses $  $  $  $  $ 3,138 $ 3,138 Impairment of goodwill and long-lived assets 61,109   61,109  61,109 Reduction-in-force severance expenses   257 257  257 Employee benefit plans settlement expenses     385 385 EBITDA, adjusted $ 21,819 $ 16,602 $ 5,031 $ 43,452 $ (12,083 ) $ 31,369 % of net sales 17.6 % 15.2 % 4.2 % 12.3 % 9.0 %





For the Six Months Ended June 30, 2019 Segments Performance

Materials Technical

Nonwovens Thermal Acoustical Solutions Total Corporate Office Consolidated Lydall Net loss $ (3,056 ) Employee benefit plans settlement expenses 25,515 Interest expense 7,359 Income tax benefit (7,093 ) Other income, net (474 ) Income from equity method investment (22 ) Operating income (loss) $ 4,762 $ 12,578 $ 16,848 $ 34,188 $ (11,959 ) $ 22,229 Depreciation and amortization 12,499 6,365 4,890 23,754 338 24,092 Employee benefit plans settlement expenses     25,515 25,515 Other income, net     (474 ) (474 ) Income from equity method investment  (22 )  (22 )  (22 ) EBITDA $ 17,261 $ 18,965 $ 21,738 $ 57,964 $ (36,662 ) $ 21,302 % of net sales 13.3 % 14.1 % 11.6 % 12.8 % 4.9 % Strategic initiatives expenses $  $  $  $  $ 1,246 $ 1,246 TNW restructuring expenses  473  473  473 Employee benefit plans settlement expenses     25,515 25,515 Gain on sale from a divestiture     (1,459 ) (1,459 ) EBITDA, adjusted $ 17,261 $ 19,438 $ 21,738 $ 58,437 $ (11,360 ) $ 47,077 % of net sales 13.3 % 14.4 % 11.6 % 12.9 % 10.7 %

Organic Sales

(Unaudited)

Three Months Ended June 30, 2020 Performance

Materials Technical

Nonwovens Thermal Acoustical Solutions Consolidated Sales growth, as reported (10.2 ) % (24.7 ) % (59.9 ) % (33.8 ) % Acquisitions and divestitures  % (0.1 ) %  %  % Change in tooling sales (0.1 ) %  % (2.7 ) % (1.2 ) % Foreign currency translation (0.6 ) % (1.9 ) % (0.4 ) % (0.9 ) % Organic sales growth (9.5 ) % (22.7 ) % (56.8 ) % (31.7 ) % Six Months Ended June 30, 2020 Performance

Materials Technical

Nonwovens Thermal Acoustical Solutions Consolidated Sales growth, as reported (4.6 ) % (18.8 ) % (35.4 ) % (21.0 ) % Acquisitions and divestitures 0.6 % (0.2 ) %  % 0.1 % Change in tooling sales  %  % (3.1 ) % (1.3 ) % Foreign currency translation (0.8 ) % (1.6 ) % (0.6 ) % (1.0 ) % Organic sales growth (4.4 ) % (17.0 ) % (31.7 ) % (18.8 ) %

This press release provides information regarding organic sales change, defined as net sales change excluding (1) sales from acquired and divested businesses (2) the impact of foreign currency translation and (3) tooling sales. Management believes that the presentation of organic sales change is useful to investors because it enables them to assess, on a consistent basis, sales trends related to the Company selling products to customers, without the impact of foreign currency rate changes that are not under management's control and do not reflect the performance of the Company and management. Tooling sales are excluded because tooling revenue is not generated from selling the Company's products to customers, but rather is reimbursement from our customers for the design and production of tools used by the Company in our manufacturing processes. Tooling sales can be sporadic and may mask underlying business conditions and obscure business trends.
Apple was the fastest-growing smartphone maker in China in the second quarter, according to research data, which showed that the iPhone maker bucked the overall decline in the world's second-largest economy.

The cheaper iPhone SE and the popularity of the iPhone 11 series, along with deep discounts, helped Apple get a boost in one of its most critical markets.

The sell-through volume for iPhones in China was 7.4 million units in the April to June quarter, a 32% growth year-on-year, according to Counterpoint Research. Sell-through refers to iPhones that go to Apple's retail partners and is a close gauge to actual sales to consumers.

In comparison, Chinese phone maker Huawei saw sell-through volumes of 36.6 million units, or up 14% compared to a year ago. Apple sells significantly fewer phones than Huawei in China.

Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi, the brands that make up the rest of the top five biggest players in China, all saw significant declines, while the overall market fell 17% year-on-year.

Separately, figures from Shanghai-based CINNO Research showed iPhone sales jumped 62% year-on-year to 13 million in the second quarter. CINNO Research tracks sales rather than sell-through. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, iPhone sales jumped 225%, coming off a low base but also highlighting a recovery for the Cupertino giant after the coronavirus outbreak forced closures of its stores in China and dented sales in the three months that ended in March.
Firefighters braved Tuesdays sweltering heat to rescue a woman and a dog from a three-alarm fire on the West Side of Jersey City, officials said.

Four firefighters suffered injuries, including one with a hand burn and others with chest pains, while responding to the blaze inside a three-story building at the corner of West Side and Virginia avenues, Jersey City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said.

The ground floor of the building is retail space, while the top two floors comprise eight residential units, she added.

Officials said no other residents were home at the time other than the woman who was rescued.

The four firefighters who were injured were taken to Jersey City Medical Center for treatment.

Firefighters battled the three-alarm blaze in 90-plus-degree heat on Tuesday, with a heat index of 96 degrees.
(Newser)  It seems a Canadian woman with terminal cancer will get her final wish: to be reunited with her American fiance. Charles Emch had been unable to see Danielle Larocque since the US-Canada border was closed to most travellers back in March. Though exceptions are now made for immediate family members, the couple didn't have documentation to prove their common-law status (which means living together for at least a year) as they previously moved between 81-year-old Emch's home in Pompano Beach, Fla., and 67-year-old Larocque's abode in Ottawa, reports the CBC. But after weeks apart, Emch grew impatient. He showed up at the border on Monday with photos, a shared phone bill, a written history of the couple's five-year relationship, medical records showing Larocque has terminal uterine cancer and less than a year to live, and his own quarantine plan.

story continues below

It was enough. Emch was allowed entry into Canada on the condition that he quarantine for two weeks before seeing Larocque. Larocque's daughter, Tara Vidosa, thinks he must have encountered "a very down to earth, compassionate agent," per the CBC. "I was elated," says Emch. "We have hopes that we are going to be able to spend some quality time together." The couple also hopes to keep fighting for other binational families separated as a result of the pandemic. The Advocacy for Family Reunification at the Canadian Border Group says there are thousands, per Global News. "It's absolutely heartbreaking what's happening," Vidosa tells the CBC. The outlet separately reports that New Yorker Timothy Martin House, 61, is unable to visit his ailing 85-year-old mother in Toronto as only dependent children count as immediate family under travel restrictions. (Read more uplifting news stories.)
Gold prices reached a new all-time peak of VND58 million (US$2,500) per tael in Vietnam on Tuesday morning after the precious metal had skyrocketed to $1,980 per ounce in the global market.

DOJI, Vietnams largest jewelry company, sold SJC gold, the national brand, at VND58 million per tael and asked for VND56.5 million ($2,435) per tael early Tuesday.

One tael of gold equals 37.8 grams.

Meanwhile, the prices of gold listed at other gold firms were quite comparable.

The rise in domestic gold prices can be attributed to the impact of the global market which saw rates surge to $1,972.7 per ounce as of 8:45 am Tuesday.

The precious metal had previously risen 1.6 percent to a record high of $1,943 per ounce globally on Monday, surpassing its gains in September 2011, according to Reuters.

A lot of factors were in play for markets, said Shafali Sachdev, the head of FX Asia at BNP Paribas Wealth Management in Singapore, from U.S.-China tensions to a second wave of coronavirus outbreaks, Reuters reported.

Vietnams gold prices topped VND53 million ($2,286) per tael for the first time in history on Wednesday last week.

The upward trend is expected to continue in the next few days, according to experts.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
GUILFORD  A local pharmaceutical company developing a treatment for COVID-19 patients is entering Phase II of its efforts to get the drug approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

AI Therapeutics is working with Yale University to conduct the Phase II study on newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients. The study will evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of its drug candidate, LAM-002A, also known as apilimod.

In Phase II studies, researchers administer the drug candidate to a group of patients with the disease or condition for which it is being developed.

These studies typically involve a few hundred patients, according to FDA officials, and arent large enough to show whether the drug will be beneficial. AI Therapeutics Phase II study will enroll up to 142 patients.

The drug was proven safe in previous trials involving more than 700 patients for treatment of autoimmune diseases and follicular lymphoma, according to a press release from Yale University. The FDA has given the drug fast-track status and has designated it an orphan drug for treatment of lymphoma.

LAM-002A has been shown in several studies to interfere with the entry and trafficking of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in cells, according to company officials. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus responsible for COVID-19.

AI Therapeutics develops drug candidates through a proprietary artificial intelligence algorithm for matching drugs to new indications.

Jonathan Rothberg, AI Therapeutics co-founder and a member of the companys board of directors, said the companys employees are doing all they can to make sure our drug, LAM-002, has the best shot to help (treat the disease).

Working with Yale is the perfect place to start, said Rothberg, who also is an adjunct professor of genetics at the university. He is best known in the Connecticut business community as having created nine companies, including CuraGen Corp.

LAM-002A holds promise to be a powerful new therapy for COVID-19 patients to prevent progression of disease, hopefully avoiding the need for hospitalization, said Murat Gunel, professor of neurosurgery and professor of genetics and neuroscience at Yale. Gunel is AI Therapeutics chief science adviser and has a financial interest in the company.

Gunel said if the trial is successful, it could be expanded to assess whether it would help prevent someone who is exposed to the coronavirus from coming down with COVID, particularly in high-risk populations such as the elderly in nursing homes, health care and frontl-ine workers, or people in underserved communities, according to the Yale release.

Dr. Charles Dela Cruz, director of the Center for Pulmonary Infection Research at Yale University, said working with the university provides AI Therapeutics with an outpatient treatment option for patients who are symptomatic in order to prevent progression of disease and hospitalization for COVID-19. Dela Cruz is the principal investigator of the clinical trial.

As the clinical trial is progressing, AI Therapeutics is preparing to make the LAM-002 accessible: It has 70,000 doses ready to go, 70,000 on the way, and the compound is being prepared for nearly 5 million more doses.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com
NEW YORK, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WindRose Health Investors, LLC ("WindRose"), the New York-based healthcare private equity firm, announced that it has completed the recapitalization of Caregiver Inc. ("Caregiver" or the "Company"), a leading provider of long-term care services and supports to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Caregiver provides home and community-based services to more than three thousand individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities across Texas, Ohio, Tennessee and Indiana. WindRose partnered with Caregiver's executive team to recapitalize the business and provide additional capital to support future growth. With WindRose's investment, Caregiver will be able to expand into new markets across the United States and increase its market share within existing markets to provide its high-quality care to more clients. WindRose purchased its stake from DW Healthcare Partners and Council Capital, who will both retain an ownership stake in the business going forward.

"We are excited to partner with WindRose to support the next phase of the Company's growth," said Mark Lashley, chief executive officer, Caregiver. "WindRose understands our industry, the rewarding work we do each day, and the impact we make on each other through our acts of service. We believe this will be a great partnership as we strive for operational excellence and to be the provider and employer of choice."

"We are thrilled to be partnering with Mark and the Caregiver management team," said CJ Burnes, Partner with WindRose. "We have evaluated many businesses in this sector and have identified Caregiver as the premier platform. Caregiver has an exceptional reputation for providing high quality care and we look forward to supporting the Company's continued growth as they expand into new and existing markets."

About WindRose Health Investors

WindRose Health Investors, LLC makes equity investments in companies that operate within the services sectors of the healthcare industry. We focus on companies with profitable business models and a demonstrated ability to deliver cost-effective solutions. WindRose manages over $1.2 billion in investments and is currently investing out of its fifth fund. We are based in New York City and invest in companies throughout the United States. For more information, please email us at [email protected].

About Caregiver Inc.

At Caregiver, we are guided by a mission to enable people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to lead their unique lives with dignity, independence, and inclusion. Respect for an individual's abilities is the foundation of our work. We provide intermediate, home and community care services in innovative and loving environments to thousands of individuals through our affiliates in Texas, Tennessee, Indiana, and Ohio. They include Unified Care Group , Southern Concepts , River Gardens , Daybreak Community Services Inc., St. Giles Living Centers , DSA of Indiana , HHC of Ohio , and Omni Support Services of Tennessee . Learn more about Caregiver at www.cg-idd.com or call (800) 299-5161.

Reporters may contact Liz Bradford, [email protected], or (214) 202-8830.

SOURCE WindRose Health Investors, LLC

Related Links

https://www.windrose.com


In November, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to have Buncichs case revisited by the court of appeals. A year ago, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its opinion on Buncichs appeal, affirming his conviction on charges of bribery and wire fraud, but vacating convictions on three counts of wire fraud, which the government admitted there was insufficient evidence to convict. The appeals judges said Judge James Moody should resentence Buncich.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 04:21:02|Editor: huaxia

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GAZA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Hamas, ruler of the Gaza Strip, slammed on Monday the recent Israeli attacks on Syrian and Lebanese territories.

"The movement condemns the endless attacks on Syria and Lebanon and fully supports the rights of Lebanon and Syria to resistance and confronting these attacks," Hamas said in a press statement sent to Xinhua.

"Resistance is a legitimate right until the end of the (Israeli) occupation and until the liberation of Palestine and all the occupied Arab territories," it added.

Hamas' response came a few hours after the Israeli army announced that it had foiled a military attack by four Hezbollah militants close to the borders between northern Israel and southern Lebanon.

Speaking to the Turkish Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity, a Hezbollah source said a group of militants tried to carry out an attack on Monday against Israeli targets on Lebanon's southern border.

The Israeli army deployed forces along the border with Lebanon on Thursday, just days after killing a Hezbollah militant in an air raid on Syria. Enditem
City Editor

Tom Roeder is the Gazette's City Editor. In Colorado Springs since 2003, Tom has covered the military at home and overseas and has covered statehouses in Denver and Olympia, Wash. His main job, though, is being dad to two great kids.
In what is being seen as an assurance to India, Bangladesh on Monday termed bilateral ties as rock solid, adding that in the past few years both countries have scripted a golden chapter (sonali adhyaya) under the leadership of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The remarks by Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen was on the occasion of a Virtual ceremony that marked Indias handing over of 10 Broad Gauge (BG) locomotives to Dhaka to boost rail connectivity between the two nations, seen by both countries as a vital element of bilateral cooperation in promoting trade and connectivity and in boosting the economic partnership.

It may be recalled that China has been trying to increase its economic influence in Bangladesh which New Delhi is only too aware of. This also comes at a time when Pakistan is trying to fish in troubled waters by reaching out to Bangladesh and raking up the Kashmir issue with it.

The Bangladesh Foreign Minister meanwhile also said bilateral ties with India were based on shared principles, values and history touching almost every sphere of life including politics, culture, trade, security, water, energy and much more.

Terming Mondays event as the fulfilment of an important commitment made during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India last October, New Delhi asserted that the two countries need to work together to expedite many of the ongoing projects.

Echoing the warm sentiments, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said very few countries in the world share such close fraternal ties as those of ours and that our partnership today stands out as a role model in the region for good neighbourly relations.

Praising the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, Mr. Jaishankar told his Bangladesh counterpart, As your close friend and neighbour, we are indeed happy to witness the transformative growth. We have seen impressive growth rates in the last few years. And your achievements across all socio-economic indicators have set new benchmarks.

EAM Jaishankar also assured Bangladesh, saying, India remains a committed development partner of Bangladesh. Our uniquely concessional lines of credit of close to US$ 10 billion is the largest India has extended to any country. These projects will help in the infrastructure development of Bangladesh, a pre-requisite for its economy to leapfrog to the next level. We need to work together to expedite many of the ongoing projects.

Incidentally, last Thursday had also marked another historic achievement towards strengthening India Bangladesh maritime and economic partnership in the successful conclusion of the first time ever movement of container cargo from Kolkata to Agartala through the Chattogram Port.

In a statement on Monday, the Ministry of External Affairs said, In a handing over ceremony held today, 10 Broad Gauge (BG) locomotives were virtually flagged off to Bangladesh by the External Affairs Minister, Dr. S. Jaishankar and the Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal. ... From the Bangladesh end, Minister of Railway, Md. Nurul Islam Sujan and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Abul Kalam Abdul Momen received the locomotives on behalf of the Government of Bangladesh.

The MEA added, In keeping with the requirements of Bangladesh Railway, the locomotives have been suitably modified by the Indian side. These locomotives will help handle the increasing volume of passenger and freight train operations in Bangladesh.

It may be recalled that in response to questions last week on media reports of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan raising the Kashmir issue in a phone conversation recently with his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina but reportedly failing miserably in getting any support on the issue from her, New Delhi had last Thursday said it appreciated Bangladeshs consistent position that the Kashmir issue was internal to India. New Delhi had also said its ties with Bangadesh are time-tested.
YEREVAN, JULY 28, ARMENPRESS. The ministry of emergency situations informs that the roads across Armenia are passable.

The Georgian side reported that the Stepantsminda-Lars highway is open only for trucks as the ban on entry to Georgia for foreigners is still in force.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Packaging Innovations London postponed due to Covid-19

The organisers of Packaging Innovations & Luxury Packaging London have rescheduled the show due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Easyfairs said the event, which was due to take place at Olympia on 23 and 24 September and would have seen almost half its exhibitors (43.3 per cent) come from outside the UK, had been moved to 8 and 9 December at the same venue.

As more business is conducted online during the pandemic, Easyfairs has also launched a series of free webinars - the Innovation Talks - to provide relevant content and a platform for industry discussions for the packaging community.

Renan Joel, divisional director for Easyfairs UK & Global's packaging events, said: "The international outbreak and spread of Covid-19 has had a huge impact on everyone's lives and specifically in the exhibitions industry on the ability to bring people together and run live events.

"Whilst we have worked hard on health and safety measures to ensure that we could be very positive about the running of a safe and successful event in September, the two-week quarantine period for anyone arriving in the UK that was recently enforced as part of the UK government aciton plan to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, followed by last week's announcement from the Prime Minister that events are only able to run from 1 October 2020, has unfortunately put us in the Force Majeure position of having to move the show.

"Having already spoken to many in our community, we have been overwhelmed by the positivity and enthusiasm with which the move has been received and the support that the packaging industry has shown for our events generally. It is very clear that they will play a crucial role in the rebuilding of many sales pipelines in sectors that have suffered and are vitally placed to bring the industry back together after a long period of distancing - social and physical."

He added: "We are looking forward to running an event in December that adheres to the highest level of sanitary and health standards, and will share more details in due course regarding the measures we will be putting in place to do so."

28 July 2020 - Bethany Whymark
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28) Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Tuesday denied his recent remarks against political dynasties targeted President Rodrigo Dutertes kin, saying he has long supported the policy even before the tenure of the chief executive.

I do not know why I was singled out, Drilon told CNN Philippines The Source, responding to Dutertes tirades against him during Mondays State of the Nation Address.

Probably the President erroneously thought that I was after his family, because of my position on political dynasties. But the position I have on political dynasties was already there even before he became president, because that is my belief that indeed dynasties would not be good for our system of democracy, the veteran lawmaker added, adding that he filed a measure on the issue even before Dutertes children got elected to public office.

Three of the president's children currently hold key positions in government: his daughter Sara serves as Davao City Mayor, while sons Sebastian "Baste" Duterte and Paolo Duterte hold vice mayoral and congressional posts, respectively.

Drilon was put on the spotlight during Dutertes penultimate SONA, with the latter accusing him of defending oligarchs particularly the Lopez family a claim the solon has denied.

RELATED: Duterte hits Drilon for defending Lopezes amid ABS-CBN shutdown

The opposition lawmaker admitted that members of the Lopez family have become his friends due to similar roots, but stressed he has not asked any favor from the ABS-CBN majority owners.

I took a position that we should renew the (ABS-CBN) franchise because the issue was freedom of the press. The Lopezes were not the issue, Drilon said, adding he was surprised by the speech callout.

The media giant earlier this month failed to obtain a fresh congressional franchise, forcing it to stay off the airwaves.

ABS-CBN has repeatedly hogged the limelight in Dutertes previous speeches with the Presidents rants stemming from the network's failure to run some of his campaign advertisements during the 2016 elections. Duterte has since accepted the companys apology.

No hand in onerous water deals

By the tail-end of the SONA, Duterte once again floated accusations against Drilon, this time questioning him about supposed ties with the ACCRA law firm when the governments water contract with the Ayalas was being drafted.

Drilon, in response, likewise denied having a hand in the crafting of the supposed onerous 1997 water deal, saying he had already retired from the firm and was working in Congress at that time.

First of all, on the grave of my parents, I swear that I had nothing to do with the contract. Not even a period or a comma. Up to this point, I have not seen a copy of that contract, Drilon said.

In 1997, I was already in the Senate. Ive long retired from ACCRA by that time, he added.

Duterte earlier criticized government's water contracts with Maynilad and Manila Water after a review of provisions that he deemed "highly disadvantageous" to the state.

The development prompted the government to craft new contracts with the major concessionaires, which were targeted to be finalized within the year.

READ: Duterte unlikely to sue water firms after apology to Ayala, Pangilinan business groups  Roque
The YouTube video is captioned with the caveat, I do not have first hand knowledge that Officer Ignatius Goetz is the Officer Goetz mentioned in the first half of the video (00:00 - 04:10). That is for you to decide. It is unclear whether that caption was added before or after the suit was filed.
With a shared goal of enhancing the resident experience through communication and innovative technologies, we are excited to partner with Candlestick Cove, said Todd Caniglia, regional director at FirstService Residential.

FirstService Residential, North Americas leading community management company, was awarded the management contract for Candlestick Cove Homeowners Association in San Francisco, California. FirstService Residential started managing the 150-unit condo community on June 1, 2020.

Candlestick Cove is located near Candlestick Pointe State Recreation Area and Bayview Park, a 20-acre wildlife refuge. The homes feature open floor plans and tall ceilings, and homeowners have access to attached 2-car garages with storage space. Amenities include a BBQ area, tot-lot and pool area.

With a shared goal of enhancing the resident experience through communication and innovative technologies, we are excited to partner with Candlestick Cove, said Todd Caniglia, regional director at FirstService Residential. Our team looks forward to collaborating with and building a long-term partnership with this beautiful community in the years ahead.

Candlestick Cove Homeowners Association is located just minutes away from downtown San Francisco and Balboa Park Station, with easy access to the Peninsula and South Bay. The community is also near San Francisco International Airport, with easy access to the 101 highway and shuttles to Balboa BART and Caltrain stations.

About FirstService Residential

FirstService Residential is North Americas property management leader, partnering with 8,000 communities across the U.S. and Canada, including low-, mid- and high-rise condominiums and cooperatives; single-family communities; master-planned, lifestyle and active adult communities; and mixed-use and rental properties. HOAs, community associations, condos and strata corporations rely on their extensive experience, resources and local expertise to maximize property values and enhance their residents lifestyles. Dedicated to making a difference, every day, FirstService Residential goes above and beyond to deliver exceptional service. FirstService Residential is a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation (FSV), a North American leader in the property services sector.

For more information, visit http://www.fsresidential.com/california.
New Australian Classical brings together three exceptional local musicians to explore new Australian repertoire.

In this piano trio program, we explore the haunting, ethereal melancholy in The Aching Bones by the Australian composer Andrew Howes, followed by the intricate, playful and sometimes menacing layers in Elizabeth Younan's delightful Piano Trio (second movement).

Book ending these Australian compositions are two vibrant works by Bela Bartok (including his Romanian Dances, newly arranged by Andrew Howes). This is timeless repertoire that inspires and showcases the exceptional talent of the young performers on stage, all hailing from New South Wales.

EXCLUSIVE FACEBOOK LIVE CHAT

Tune in on our Facebook page to join the live chat with violinist Anna Da Silva Chen at 8pm on Friday 31 July.

PROGRAMME

BARTOK, arr. HOWES Romanian Dances Sz.56

HOWES The Aching Bones (Australian Premiere)

YOUNAN Piano Trio, Mvt 2 (Australian Premiere)

BARTOK Contrasts Sz.111, BB.116

ARTISTS

Anna Da Silva Chen is recognised as one of Australia's leading young violinists, appearing as soloist with state Symphony Orchestras and regularly performing with acclaimed chamber music groups, concerts, including as Artist in Residence with the Australian Piano Quartet and regular with Omega Ensemble and Ensemble Apex. She grew up in Wollongong in NSW and is set to continue her violin studies in Cologne, Germany from the end of 2020.

Oliver Shermacher is a charismatic, multi-faceted clarinetist. A finalist in the 2018 ABC Young Performers Awards (winning the audience choice category) he regularly performs with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Ensemble Apex and has performed in the new music festival Extended Play at City Recital Hall in 2019. He continues his instrumental studies in Freiburg, Germany from the end of 2020.

Vatche Jambazian recently returned home to Sydney after working and studying as a musician in New York City. He made his international Debut at the age of 16 in Yerevan, Armenia performing a televised recital as part of the Independence Day celebrations. Vatche has been a prizewinner in the Los Angeles International Piano Competition and the Australian National Piano Award and was a finalist in the 2015 ABC Young Performers Awards.
(Newser)  A Malaysian court pronounced former Prime Minister Najib Razak guilty Tuesday in his first corruption trial over the multibillion-dollar looting of the 1MDB investment fund, the AP reports. The ruling came five months after a new government took power with Najibs Malay party the biggest bloc in the alliance. His partys shocking election ouster in 2018 was driven by public anger over the 1MDB scandal. I find the accused guilty and convict the accused of all seven charges, Judge Mohamad Nazlan Ghazali said after spending two hours reading out his ruling. Analysts said the ruling would bolster the prosecutions case in Najibs other trials and would signal to the business community Malaysias legal system has strength in tackling international financial crimes. Najib, 67, has promised to appeal. He has said he was misled by rogue bankers and the case against him is political.

story continues below

A scion of one of Malaysias most prominent political families, he faces 42 charges in five separate trials and could face years in prison. The current trial involved a charge of abuse of power, three charges of criminal breach of trust, and three money laundering charges. Najib shortly after taking office in 2009 set up 1MDB to ostensibly accelerate Malaysias economic development. But the fund accumulated billions in debt, and US investigators allege that at least $4.5 billion was stolen from it and laundered by Najibs associates to finance Hollywood films and buy hotels, a luxury yacht, artwork, jewelry, and other extravagances. More than $700 million from the fund allegedly landed in Najibs bank accounts. Najibs wife and several officials from his party and previous government have also been charged with graft.

(Read more Najib Razak stories.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 13:52:23|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, July 28 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called for efforts to build sustainable cities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a video message for the launch of his policy brief on COVID-19 and cities, Guterres said urban areas are ground zero of the pandemic, with 90 percent of reported cases. But he added that cities have the resilience to build back better.

"We must pursue a green, resilient and inclusive economic recovery," he said. "Many cities have created new bike lanes and pedestrian zones, reclaiming public spaces and improving mobility, safety and air quality. By focusing on high ecological transformation and job creation, stimulus packages can steer growth toward a low-carbon, resilient pathway and advance the Sustainable Development Goals."

The rapid adoption of telecommuting illustrates how societies can transform seemingly overnight to confront urgent threats; there is a need to act with the same urgency and resolve to transform cities and address the climate and pollution crises, he said.

"Now is the time to rethink and reshape the urban world. Now is the moment to adapt to the reality of this and future pandemics. And now is our chance to recover better, by building more resilient, inclusive and sustainable cities."

Guterres stressed the need to ensure that all phases of the pandemic response tackle inequalities and long-term development deficits and safeguard social cohesion.

"We must prioritize those who are the most vulnerable in our cities, including guaranteeing safe shelter for all and emergency housing to those without homes. Access to water and sanitation is also vital."

The inadequate state of public services in many cities requires urgent attention, particularly in informal settlements. Nearly one quarter of the world's urban population lives in slums, he said.

He also asked for the strengthening of the capacities of local governments. "This requires decisive action -- and deeper cooperation between local and national authorities. Stimulus packages and other relief should support tailored responses and boost local government capacity."

Cities are bearing the brunt of the crisis -- many with strained health systems, inadequate water and sanitation services, and other challenges. This is especially the case in poorer areas where the pandemic has exposed deeply rooted inequalities, said Guterres.

But cities are also home to extraordinary solidarity and resilience, he said. "As we respond to the pandemic and work toward recovery, we look to our cities as hubs of community, human innovation and ingenuity. Today, we have an opportunity to reflect and reset how we live, interact and rebuild our cities." Enditem
Thierry Bollore, former chairman of Renault, will take over reins at Jaguar Land Rover. Photo: Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images

Thierry Bollore, the former chief executive at French carmaker Renault (RNO.PA) has been named as the new chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover (TTM).

It will be my privilege to lead this fantastic company through what continues to be the most testing time of our generation, Bollore said in a statement.

Bollore was appointed as CEO of Renault in January 2019, after Carlos Ghosn was arrested in November the year before. Then he was abruptly fired from the job in October, describing his ouster to French media as a strong-arm coup.

READ MORE: Coronavirus: Tentative restart to UK car market in June

At the time, it was noted that Bollore had been a close associate of Ghosn, and may have been let go as part of an overall house-cleaning, and to mend the rift with alliance partner Nissan in the wake of the Ghosn debacle.

Renault, Nissan (NSANY), and Mitsubishi (MSBHY) presented a new strategy designed to reboot their 21-year alliance in May.

Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of JLR parent company Tata, said in a statement that Bollore was an established global business leader with a proven track record of implementing complex transformations, and that he brings a wealth of experience to one of the most revered positions in the industry.

Bollore will take the reins on 10 September from Ralf Speth, who has headed the automotive company for over 10 years. Speth will become the non-executive vice-chairman.

Jaguar Land Rover, like its global automotive rivals, has seen production and sales take a hit as coronavirus lockdowns brought production to a halt, and caused a collapse in demand that is barely ticking up even after dealerships have reopened. JLR reported a first-quarter pretax loss of 422m ($543m).
G oogle staff will be able to work from home until next summer, the technology giant has confirmed, as part of its ongoing response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The firms employees, including several thousand in the UK, have been working remotely since the early days of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Now, chief executive Sundar Pichai has told staff that they will have the option to work from home until at least the end of June 2021.

Confirming the companys decision, a Google spokeswoman said: To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we are extending our global voluntary work-from-home option through June 30 2021 for roles that dont need to be in the office.

CEO Sundar Pichai made the announcement today in an email to employees.

In May, fellow tech giant Twitter announced that it would allow staff who could work from home to continue to do so indefinitely, and Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has previously said that as many as 50% of the social networks employees could work remotely for the next five to 10 years, as the company embraces less office-based work.

In its own blog post about employees working from home, Twitter said: When we do decide to open offices, it also wont be a snap back to the way it was before.

It will be careful, intentional, office by office and gradual.

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, technology businesses and events have been widely affected, with a number of major technology conventions being cancelled, including industry trade show Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and Los Angeles-based gaming show E3.
Sushant Singh Rajputs tragic demise has got the people questioning how Bollywood functions and not just that, celebs like Ranvir Shorey are now opening up about the gang culture in the industry. Its not a hidden fact that people who dont belong from any filmy background find it very difficult to make a mark despite being talented.

Ranvir Shorey, on Twitter, opened up on how a certain gang in Bollywood is trying to control everything and is at the top of the pyramid. The Gang is essentially a mutually beneficial alliance of a few powerful, corrupt, crafty old men, and a few second generation younger producers who have inherited film empires. Their objective is to have control over the top of the pyramid and have pliable stars. #Bollywood, he wrote on Twitter.

The Gang is essentially a mutually beneficial alliance of a few powerful, corrupt, crafty old men, and a few second generation younger producers who have inherited film empires. Their objective is to have control over the top of the pyramid and have pliable stars. #Bollywood  Ranvir Shorey (@RanvirShorey) July 27, 2020

He also pointed out that he had his own experience with one such gang member 15 years ago. He took a pot-shot at his character and called him a product of his own damaged mind.

He wrote, Ive had a run in with one of them 15 years ago. This is the man who fancies himself as the holy-moly Dronacharya of the gang, except when it comes to covering up the indiscretions and crimes of his own offsprings. A product of a damaged mind and faux spirituality.

Ive had a run in with one of them 15 years ago. This is the man who fancies himself as the holy-moly Dronacharya of the gang, except when it comes to covering up the indiscretions and crimes of his own offsprings. A product of a damaged mind and faux spirituality.  Ranvir Shorey (@RanvirShorey) July 27, 2020

He also added, The modus operandi is that when youre vulnerable, like the death or loss of a close one, youre professionally & socially ostracised by spreading lies and rumours, through the media, as well as the grapevine, leaving you disoriented and hopeless with a sense of doom.

The modus operandi is that when youre vulnerable, like the death or loss of a close one, youre professionally & socially ostracised by spreading lies and rumours, through the media, as well as the grapevine, leaving you disoriented and hopeless with a sense of doom.  Ranvir Shorey (@RanvirShorey) July 27, 2020

After his tweets started to go viral, people started to point out that he is talking about Mahesh Bhatt and are thanking the actor for having the courage to finally speak the ugly truth.

Thank you @RanvirShorey bro, now got to know why you suddenly had vanished from the screen after doing many amazing rules! Yes Mahesh Bhatt has a 'Damaged Mind' here is the proof! He has parked the mental health issue on #SushantSinghRajputcase #SpeakUpForSushant pic.twitter.com/q1ZZmmnRft  Tamal Das (@AskTamal) July 27, 2020

These people which Ranvir Shorey talked about are - Mahesh Bhatt, Salman Khan ( powerful old crafty corrupted individual) & Second Generation Producers who have inherited the umpire - Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar.  Rishabh Wadhwa (@Cric_Rishabh) July 27, 2020

Mahesh Bhatt. In SSR case, him and Rhea seems to be obvious culprit just by common sense. There maybe chain of people behind him but that link to rest is through him. Stop Mumbai salary as they dont work of taxpayers. @Official_Arnab_ #ArrestCulpritsOfSSR  ritu singh (@RituIndian) July 28, 2020

Kudos to you for speaking out loud and clear! May these self acclaimed 'biggies' be dethroned!!!!  SD (@shweta5924) July 27, 2020

In a recent interview with Hindustan Times, he spoke how he felt completely sidelined and left out after his public fallout with the Bhatts.

Ranvir, who made his Bollywood debut with Ek Chotisi Love Story in 2002, was last seen on the big screen in Angrezi Medium. Now, he will be seen in Lootcase.
President Donald Trump is nominating Mark Christie, chairman of Virginia's State Corporation Commission, to fill a vacant seat at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

In announcing the move the White House called Christie "one of the nation's longest-serving utility regulators," noting that he has served on the SCC for 16 years.

Christie's departure would further leadership changes at the three-member SCC. Last month, Gov. Ralph Northam appointed Judge Jehmal Hudson to the commission to replace former Judge Patricia West.

Christie was elected to the SCC by GOP-controlled legislatures in 2004, 2010 and 2016; his current six-year term expires in 2022. His departure will allow Democrats, who control the statehouse and governor's office, to have their candidates hold the majority on the commission.

Christie, a former president of the State Board of Education, previously served as counsel to Gov. George Allen and as director of policy in the Republican governor's administration. Christie is also the former president of the Organization of PJM States, a collective of 14 regional utility regulators.

Christie has sometimes been a critic of Dominion Energy, which the SCC regulates. In May 2019 he warned from the bench that the commission would take on the utility's requests with heightened scrutiny, as he chided the utility for filing to the commission a "photoshopped" long-term plan.

This is not an accurate picture," Christie said at the time. "Its not telling the public, the consumer and the legislators what is coming down the road.

Christie graduated from Wake Forest University and has a law degree from Georgetown University. He is a former officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.

The third member on the SCC is Judge Judith Williams Jagdmann. She began her time on the SCC in 2006 and was elected to her current six-year term by a GOP-controlled legislature in 2018.

Northam can appoint a member to the SCC upon Christie's departure. The appointee's term would expire 30 days after the start of the regular legislative session, per state law, when lawmakers will contend with electing two judges to the SCC.

Hudson, who was appointed by Northam to the SCC late spring, is serving an abbreviated term that expires in January. Democrats nominated Hudson to a six-year term earlier this year, but Republicans successfully blocked his election, prompting Northam's temporary nomination.
OTTAWA - A timeline of events regarding the Canada Student Service Grant program, based on public documents, events and statements from cabinet ministers, government officials, and WE Charity:

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/7/2020 (540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA - A timeline of events regarding the Canada Student Service Grant program, based on public documents, events and statements from cabinet ministers, government officials, and WE Charity:

March 6, 2020: WE Charity staff prepare a concept paper on service learning for public servants at Employment and Social Development Canada.

Marc Kielburger, screen left, and Craig Kielburger, screen right, appear as witnesses via videoconference during a House of Commons finance committee in the Wellington Building in Ottawa on Tuesday, July 28, 2020. The committee is looking into Government Spending, WE Charity and the Canada Student Service Grant. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

April 5: Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talk over the phone about how to help students whose summer job and volunteer opportunities were vanishing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Finance Department officials are tasked with considering options the next morning.

April 7: Small Business Minister Mary Ng and WE co-founder Craig Kielburger have an introductory phone call in which Ng asks WE to send what it calls a "pre-established proposal" to help young people launch businesses.

April 7 or 8: Morneau's office contacts the WE organization, among other groups, to get their input on potential programs. Morneau says the call was on April 7 while WE says it was April 8.

April 9: WE Charity sends the unsolicited proposal for a youth business program to Youth Minister Bardish Chagger, Ng, Morneau and Trudeau's office. The price tag is between $6 million and $14 million to provide digital programming and $500 grants, plus "incentive funds," for 8,000 students.

April 16: ESDC officials mention WE in the context of the student program in an email discussion with Finance officials.

April 18: Morneau's officials raise the idea of partnering with a non-profit, or for-profit group to administer the program. (ESDC officials suggest the same day that WE might be an option.) Morneau said it was the first time he was involved in any talk about WE and the grant program.

April 19: Wernick contacts Craig Kielburger. WE says the call was to discuss launching a youth service program in the summer and that Wernick asks Kielburger to develop a proposal to fulfil that objective. During the call, Wernick learns of the April 9 proposal for a youth business program and Kielburger agrees to send both proposals.

April 20: Morneau's office contacts WE to ask about its ability to deliver a volunteer program. An official's record of the call notes "WE Charity will re-work their 10-week summer program proposal to fully meet the policy objective of national service and increase their current placements of 8,000 to double."

April 21: Morneau approves going with an outside organization to run the volunteer program, but no specific group is chosen.

April 22: Trudeau announces a $9-billion package of student aid, including the outline of a volunteer program paying students up to $5,000 toward education costs, based on the number of hours they volunteer. WE sends Wernick an updated proposal to reflect the announcement. The message is forwarded to Chagger, Ng and Morneau.

April 26: Morneau speaks with WE co-founder Craig Kielburger, but told the finance committee neither of them talked about the Canada Student Service Grant program. Craig Kielburger later tells the committee he only brought up the youth business proposal, not the grant program.

April 27: Volunteer Canada, a charity that promotes volunteering and helps organizations use volunteers well, meets Chagger and raises concerns about paying students hourly rates below minimum wage and calling it volunteering.

May 4: WE sends a third proposal to ESDC, this time with more details and specific to the grant program. Finance official Michelle Kovacevic, who was working on the program, told the finance committee she received it May 7.

May 5: Chagger goes to a special COVID-19 cabinet committee with the recommendation to go with WE for the program. Morneau isn't at the meeting.

May 22: Cabinet, including Trudeau and Morneau, approved handing the reins of the program to WE.

May 23: The public service officially begins negotiating a contribution agreement with WE, which would have paid up to $43.5 million in fees to the group.

May 25 to June 3: In a series of meetings with Volunteer Canada, WE suggests the target for placements through the program had gone from 20,000 to 100,000.

June 12: WE co-founder Marc Kielburger says in a video chat with youth leaders that he heard from Trudeau's office about getting involved in the volunteer program the day after it was announced by the prime minister. He later backtracks, saying the contact came the week of April 26 from Wernick, and not the PMO.

June 23: WE Charity Foundation signs a contribution agreement with the federal government. WE signatories include Scott Baker, named as president of the one-year-old foundation and executive director of WE Charity, and chief financial officer Victor Li. Chagger signs for the government.

June 25: Trudeau unveils more details about student aid. A government release notes that WE will administer the student-volunteer program.

June 26: Facing questions about WE, Trudeau says the non-partisan public service made the recommendation, and the government accepted it: "As the public service dug into it, they came back with only one organization that was capable of networking and organizing and delivering this program on the scale that we needed it, and that was the WE program."

July 3: Citing the ongoing controversy, WE and the Liberals announce a parting of ways and the federal government takes control of the program. Ethics commissioner Mario Dion tells Conservative and NDP ethics critics in separate letters he will examine Trudeau's role in the awarding of the agreement because of the prime minister's close ties to the group.

July 9: WE says it has paid Trudeau's mother Margaret about $250,000 for 28 speaking appearances at WE-related events between 2016 and 2020. His brother Alexandre was been paid $32,000 for eight events, and Trudeau's wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau received $1,400 in 2012 for a single appearance. The organization says Trudeau himself has never been paid by the charity or its for-profit arm.

July 13: Trudeau apologizes for not recusing himself from discussions about WE over his family's longtime involvement with the organization. Morneau also issues an apology.

July 16: Dion says he will investigate Morneau's actions in the affair. Chagger testifies at the finance committee, saying Trudeau's office didn't direct her to go with WE.

July 21: Ian Shugart, clerk of the Privy Council, tells the Commons finance committee there is no evidence to suggest Trudeau spoke with WE before the organization was awarded the deal to run the student-volunteer program.

July 22: Morneau tells the finance committee he just repaid over $41,000 to WE for travel expenses the organization footed for the minister and his family. The Opposition Conservatives call for Morneau to resign.

Trudeau's office says he and his chief of staff, Katie Telford, have agreed to testify before the committee with a date and time to be set.

Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The House of Commons ethics committee also calls on Trudeau to testify, and votes to seek copies of records for Trudeau and his family's speaking appearances dating back years. Six opposition members outvote five Liberals to have that committee start its own investigation.

July 23: Conservatives and New Democrats ask Dion to launch a new probe of Morneau over his travel expenses.

July 27: A copy of the contribution agreement with WE Charity Foundation is filed with the finance committee. It lays out the details of the program, including a provision for a maximum contribution of $543.53 million  $500 million for grants, and $43.53 million to WE.

July 28: Craig and Marc Kielburger testify over four hours of sometimes testy interactions with MPs on the finance committee. The co-founders of WE Charity say their history and experience, not ties to Liberal cabinet ministers, landed the group the deal to run the volunteer program. They add they would have never agreed to take part in the program had they known it could jeopardize the work the WE organization has done over 25 years.

They also say WE estimated the cost of the program to be between $200 million and $300 million.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2020.
SHANGHAI: Tesla Inc has launched a hiring spree in Shanghai with plans to bring on designers at its China studio and about 1,000 factory workers, job posts show, as the U.S. electric vehicle maker ramps up production in the world's biggest auto market.

The posts on the Tesla human resources department's official WeChat account mark the first time the California-based automaker has looked to hire designers in China. Tesla said in January it planned to open a design and research centre in China to make "Chinese-style" cars.

The posts did not reveal how many designers Tesla planned to hire.

The company also planned to hire 600 workers at stamping, bodywork, painting and assembly workshops in Shanghai, according to a separate job post by the Lingang local government. Another 150 workers were needed for quality checks, 200 for logistics work and 20 for security, it added.

Two sources familiar with the matter said the recruitment drive was partly for the preparation of Model Y sport-utility vehicles at the Shanghai plant. Tesla is building manufacturing facilities for Model Ys in Shanghai from next year.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company delivered over 30,000 units in China in the past quarter, most of them locally made Model 3 sedans.

In March it advertised for solar and energy storage project managers in China, as it moves to expand its energy business into the country. (Reporting by Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh; Editing by Stephen Coates)

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The US House of Representatives has agreed to rename a bill that reinstates key elements of the Voting Rights Act after John Lewis, the late Civil Rights leader and congressman who died on 17 July.

A group senators have also demanded Senate Republicans bring the measure to a vote after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tabled legislation in 2019.

Mr Lewis was instrumental in the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, landmark federal legislation barring racial discrimination at the polls.

A 2013 US Supreme Court decision invalidated key provisions in the law, which prohibited states with histories of racial discrimination from changing their election laws without first receiving federal approval.

In a letter to Senate judiciary chairman Lindsey Graham, senators wrote that the committee must not stand idly by while the precious constitutional rights of so many Americans hang in the balance.

The Senates John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act has 48 cosponsors, including every Democrat, two independents who caucus with Democrats, and Republican senator Lisa Murkowski.

That measure would go far in restoring the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and curtailing some of the worst forms of voter suppression, according to the letter. We urge you to promptly hold a hearing and a markup to discuss, debate, and hopefully move this vital legislation out of committee.

Mr McConnell refused to hold hearings on the House measure after its passage in December.

That chamber already done its part by passing this legislation this past December, the letter says. Now the Senate must do its job, and that begins here in the storied Senate judiciary committee. We cannot claim to honour the life of John Lewis if we refuse to carry on his lifes work.

Mr McConnell has dismissed that voter suppression remains an issue, claiming in the Wall Street Journal that its nonsense and that there is very little tangible evidence that it even exists.

While outright suppression tactics like poll taxes and literacy tests no longer remain in the US, states have imposed voter ID laws, gerrymandered districts, purged voter rolls and moved or closed polling locations, among other methods that aim to manipulate election outcomes while disproportionately impacting voters of colour, according to civil rights groups.

Story continues

Several states have closed nearly 1,200 polling places following the 2013 Supreme Court ruling.

Voting rights advocates fear that threats to absentee or mail-in ballots during the coronavirus pandemic could significantly undermine Novembers crucial presidential election.

Mr McConnell was among elected officials who eulogised the late congressman in written tributes, praising Mr Lewis as a pioneering civil rights leader who put his life on the line to fight racism, promote equal rights, and bring our nation into greater alignment with its founding principles.

Police fractured Mr Lewis skull on Bloody Sunday in 1965, when civil rights marchers were met by brutal Alabama State Police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Mr Lewis was arrested at least 45 times throughout his life in defence of the rights he sought to protect.

He did not live to see the restoration of the act for which he gave a little blood, he often would say. Once the youngest among giants of the civil rights movement in the 1960s alongside Martin Luther King Jr, and the youngest person to address a massive crowd during the March on Washington, he died at age 80 following a cancer diagnosis.

Mr Lewis would return to the bridge throughout his life to recognise the anniversary of the event. His body made one final journey across the bridge on 26 July during a funerary procession.

His body is currently lying in state at the US Capitol.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn said that that if they so celebrate the heroism of this man, then lets go to work and pass that bill.

He told CNN on 19 July that Donald Trump and other Republicans who dismissed the initial bill before paying their respects to the civil rights leader should seek the passage of the bill in his honour.

Words maybe powerful, but deeds are lasting, he said.

Read more

Congressman John Lewis to lie in state in US Capitol Rotunda

Trump says he wont go pay respects to John Lewis at Capitol

Body of civil rights leader John Lewis carried across Selma bridge

John R Lewis: Civil rights leader who championed racial justice

Former presidents and pay tribute to civil rights giant John Lewis
Google extends remote work until July of 2021

The decision affects more than 123,000 employees on the payroll of Google and other Alphabet companies, as well as 80,000 contractors.



By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

AP Technology Writer

SAN RAMON, Calif.  Google has decided that most of its 200,000 employees and contractors should work from home through next June, a sobering assessment of the pandemic's potential staying power from the company providing the answers for the world's most trusted internet search engine.

The remote-work order issued Monday by Google CEO Sundar Pichai also affects other companies owned by Google's corporate parent, Alphabet Inc. It marks a six-month extension of Google's previous plan to keep most of its offices closed through the rest of this year.

I know this extended timeline may come with mixed emotions and I want to make sure you're taking care of yourselves, wrote Pichai, who is also Alphabet's CEO, in an email to employees.

Pichai's decision was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The prolonged lockdown of Google's offices could influence other major employers to take similar precautions, given that the technology industry has been at the forefront of the shift to remote work that has been triggered by the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Even before the World Health Organization declared a pandemic on March 11, Google and many other prominent tech firms had been telling their employees to work from home.

Google had originally planned to allow a significant number of employees to begin returning to its Mountain View, California, headquarters and other offices during the summer. But the pandemic's ongoing spread prompted Google to push back the reopening until January and now it has prompted yet another delay.

Besides helping protect people from the virus, the new July 2021 target date for reopening Google's offices should make it easier for workers with children to adjust to schools that aren't allowing students to return to campus next month and in September. It will also make it easier for employees to sign one-year leases if they decide to rent a home somewhere else while working outside the office.

I hope this will offer the flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months, Pichai wrote.

Pichai's email noted that Google and Alphabet have been able to reopen some offices in 42 countries, although he didn't specify which.

But new guidelines mean Google's biggest offices will remain largely unoccupied through June 2021. The decision affects more than 123,000 employees on the payroll of Google and other Alphabet companies, as well as 80,000 contractors that normally work on the companies' campuses.

The pandemic has also prompted several other tech companies to inform their workers they won't have to return to work this year. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has taken the most extreme step so far by telling the messaging service's employees they will never have to return to the office, if they don't want, an offer he is also extending to workers at Square, a payment processing service that he also runs.




Pro-lifer on mission to paint Baby Lives Matter in front of Planned Parenthood clinics across US

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A pro-life activist painted a blue and pink mural displaying the phrase Baby Lives Matter in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Washington, D.C., over the weekend and plans to paint more murals across the country.

This mural is the latest effort of the Baby Lives Matter movement, which began two weeks ago after artist and pro-life activist Tayler Hansen spent seven hours painting a Baby Lives Matter mural on the street in front of a Planned Parenthood abortion facility in his hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Baby Lives Matter movement began not long after Black Lives Matter murals were allowed to be painted on the streets of major cities across the United States.

After Hansen painted the Baby Lives Matter mural on the street in front of the largest Planned Parenthood clinic in the nation's capital, he explained the rationale behind the movement.

[Ten] unarmed Black Americans were killed by police in 2019. They have murals all around the country. Almost 400,000 innocent babies were murdered by Planned Parenthood in 2019. Its about damn time they get a mural too. #BabyLivesMatter, Hansen proclaimed in a tweet on Sunday.

10 unarmed Black Americans were killed by police in 2019



They have murals all around the country



Almost 400,000 innocent babies were murdered by Planned Parenthood in 2019



Its about damn time they get a mural too.#BabyLivesMatter



pic.twitter.com/jbsjrMdGDv  Tayler Hansen (@TaylerUSA) July 26, 2020

Hansen told KUTV in Salt Lake City that he used paint that would only last up to 10 days and can easily be washed off the street.

Hansen explained on social media that the mural he painted in Salt Lake City didnt even last 10 days because it was vandalized within 24 hours.

In a July 18 post on Twitter, Hansen said: The mural has already been desecrated and erased to an extent. Nonetheless, he declared, THIS IS NOT OVER!

The mural has already been desecrated and erased to an extent..



THIS IS NOT OVER!  Tayler Hansen (@TaylerUSA) July 18, 2020

Hansen has established a GoFundMe page to collect funds so he can travel across the country to pro-abortion organizations and paint 'BABY LIVES MATTER' in front of their buildings.

According to the fundraising page, each mural will cost about $7,000 when costs for supplies, travel, lodging, logistics, and "potentially legal funds" are taken into account.

The fundraiser urges donors to offer recommendations for where Tayler should go next.

Hansen said he funded the initial Baby Lives Matter mural in Salt Lake City by using a considerable portion of his life savings. As of Tuesday afternoon, the fundraiser has raised $7,900 of its goal of $10,000.

Prominent conservatives have taken notice of Hansens efforts, including Donald Trump Jr. and Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA.

Kirk re-tweeted a video of the Baby Lives Matter mural in Washington that was first posted by Benny Johnson, his colleague at Turning Point USA. The activist asked pro-life Twitter users to retweet if they think the mural "should go up in front of EVERY Planned Parenthood abortion factory in America!

RT if this should go up in front of EVERY Planned Parenthood abortion factory in America!



pic.twitter.com/VnCCShDPFt  Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) July 26, 2020

For now, Hansen has a much more modest goal: the creation of 10 Baby Lives Matter murals. He hopes the murals will help raise awareness for the pro-life movement.

In 2019, Abortion was the leading cause of death worldwide. Almost 43 million children were denied the most basic right of all: life," Hansen said in a video posted to Twitter on July 17 that has over 272,300 views as of Tuesday afternoon.



"[That] is why I felt inclined to demonstrate a true peaceful protest dedicated to those abandoned without a voice."
University of North Carolina-Wilmington professor Mike Adams, 55, was found dead Thursday

The death of a North Carolina professor, who recently announced his retirement amid backlash for comments he made on social media that included calling the state's governor 'Massa Cooper,' has been ruled a suicide.

An investigation showed Mike Adams, a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, killed himself with a single gunshot wound to the head.

New Hanover County Sheriff's Office announced their findings on Monday.

Deputies found his body last Thursday during a welfare check at his home after he was not seen or heard from in several days, Lt. J.J. Brewer said.

Earlier in the morning, a friend called 911 saying that the 55-year-old professor had recently been 'erratic' and 'under a lot of stress' and had not been seen in several days.

Adams, who was a tenured professor at the university, had been forced to take early retirement following two student petitions to have him ousted for posting inflammatory remarks on social media.

Adams recently reached a $504,702 settlement with UNCW for lost salary and lost retirement benefits, and was due to officially cease his association with the university on August 1.

He had recently begun seeing his ex-wife again, according to the New Observer.

Bryan Hanley, a neighbor, said Adams had told him recently that he had befriended his ex-wife, and that she would come by his house every few weeks. It did not appear that the couple had any children.

Another neighbor, John Gillespie, said Adams had planned on selling his home and moving to Charlotte.

The right-wing professor had a history of making misogynistic and racist comments.

He once referred to transgender people as 'mentally ill' and mocked students who accused him of harassing them as 'weak pansies'.

Back in May, Adams sparked outrage among students and faculty once again after he penned several inflammatory tweets.

UNCW denounced his comments as 'vile' and 'inexcusable', and two petitions to have him removed from the college garnered 88,000 signatures.

Scroll down for video

Police cars are seen outside Adams' Wilmington home on Thursday, called for a wellness check

Medics are seen wheeling a gurney into Adams' home on Thursday after finding his dead body

On May 28, he wrote: 'Don't shut down the universities. Shut down the non essential majors. Like Women's Studies.'

The following day he posted a tweet in which he compared North Carolina's coronavirus restrictions to living 'in a slave state'.

He tweeted: 'This evening I ate pizza and drank beer with six guys at a six seat table top. I almost felt like a free man who was not living in the slave state of North Carolina. Massa Cooper, let my people go!'

'Massa', which means 'Master', was used in literature and representations of black people during the slave era as the way they referred to their owners.

Adams had tried to defend his post to WECT, saying the analogy he used was to do with the Gov Cooper's oppression during the shutdown, not race.

However, the tweets prompted two online Change.org petitions to have him fired from his job. Combined they received more than 88,000 signatures.

The university subsequently released a statement on June 1, which read: 'We are listening to the outrage being expressed regarding the vile and inexcusable comments made by a UNCW faculty member.

'However, we are not just listening; we can confirm we are very carefully and assertively reviewing our options in terms of how to proceed. We are not able to comment further at this time, as this is a personnel matter'.

Professor Adams is seen speaking at a Conservative Political Action Conference

Later, Chancellor Jose V. Sartarelli, Adams posted a statement on the university's website saying that Adams would retire on August 1.

Adams responded with a Twitter post which read: 'Many young people are depressed because they have been taught to be offended constantly.'

Adams also regularly critiqued his colleagues, as well as the students he taught.

Referring to Black Lives Matter protests, he wrote on Twitter: 'The violent outrage of white liberals taking to the streets is brought to you by your local university.

'None of this would be possible without the encouragement of academic extremists who have hijacked the system of higher education.'

PROFESSOR ADAMS' MOST CONTROVERSIAL COMMENTS 'The only thing more disgusting than a jihadist Muslim is a pro-choice Muslim' (April 2015) 'A black man's biggest obstacle to success is not white racism. It's black culture' (July 2016) 'Transsexuals in the military. Now we know what Obama meant when he promised to radically transform America' (July 2016) 'A nation that allows the mentally ill to serve in combat is not far from extinction' (July 2016) 'I wonder whether LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Thespian. So much drama, so few letters in the alphabet' (September 2016) 'We could have had a woman president. Unfortunately, radical feminism aborted 28million 'potential' candidates' (November 2016) 'Presently a woman can get her baby cut out of the womb in North Carolina. But she cannot go to a salon to get her hair cut' (April 2019) 'I almost felt like a free man who was not living in the slave state of North Carolina. 'Massa Cooper, let my people go!' (May 2019) Advertisement

Adams had never been far from controversy - and he appeared to relish in making provocative remarks.

Back in 2016, Adams was the target of another Change.org petition after he suggested a Muslim student was a terrorist and that gay marriage was bad as rape.

That petition, which garnered 5,600 comments, claimed Adams had a history of 'spewing misogynistic, xenophobic, transphobic, homophobic, racist rhetoric'.

The petition said: 'Adams has disrespected the university's promise to provide a safe environment for all individual student[s], and instead has mocked and ridiculed not only individuals, but entire groups. These actions are not acceptable, and no university should make a student feel unsafe.'

In September 2016, Adams wrote an article condemning student Nada Merghani - a self-described 'queer Muslim social justice warrior' - after she wrote on Facebook: 'Expect to see me at the Trump rally... y'all are not prepared for what I'm about to do. All I can say is pray I make it out of this alive.'

Responding to that, Professor Adams said: 'That sounds like a suicide mission for those who have never met Merghani.'

He added: 'In my view, she simply lacks the intellectual coherence to form any sort of rational plan  including, but not limited to, killing a presidential candidate.

'She comes across sort of like Squeaky Fromme, minus the handgun and resolve.'

Merghani told the Daily Beast she felt personally threatened and unsafe on campus after that attack.

She said Adams 'suggested I was a terrorist without a hint of truth or any regard for my personal safety.' She then left the university.

At the time, UNCW said that, whilst they did not agree with Adams' comments, they were 'expressions protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.'

'Dr Adams' conduct and written material do not contain any evidence of a true threat toward this or any other student,' the university claimed.

Two online Change.org petitions to get Adams fired gained 88,000 signatures collectively

Meanwhile, Professor Adams continued to write provocative comments on social media.

Later in 2016, he wrote that 'students who make false claims of harassment to silence others should also be deported'.

He also claimed the argument ''you're racist' usually means 'I have no argument''.

In a separate post following the November 2016 election loss of Hillary Clinton, Adams sniped: 'We could have had a woman president. Unfortunately, radical feminism aborted 28 million 'potential' candidates.'

He also unleashed an attack on the LGBT community in a piece for right-wing publication Daily Wire.

'I wonder whether LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Thespian. So much drama, so few letters in the alphabet.'

Meanwhile, Adams had successfully sued the university for religious and speech-based discrimination when he was not promoted to full professor in 2006.

He was a tenured sociology and criminology professor and had authored a number of books.

Titles included Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts 'Womyn' on Campus.

He also wrote Letters to a Young Progressive: How to Avoid Wasting Your Life Protesting Things You Don't Understand, and A 'Queer Muslim' Jihad.

The Office of University Relations on behalf of the Division of Academic Affairs at UNCW released a statement Thursday night.

'It is with sadness that we share the news that the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office is conducting a death investigation involving Dr. Mike Adams, professor of criminology. Please keep his friends and loved ones in your thoughts.

'Students may call the University Counseling Center (910.962.3746) for grief support; faculty and staff can seek support through the Employee Assistance Program.'
DUBLIN, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ResearchAndMarkets.com published a new article on the cypersecurity industry - "Emotet Returns After 5 Month Absence"

Emotet, one of the world's most destructive cybercrime operations has returned from a five month absence. On 17th July, it was reported that the Emotet botnet sent approximately 250,000 spam messages mostly to users based in the United Kingdom and United States. The group is known for taking long breaks between attacks. Prior to the recent July campaign, the last reported activity was a five day run in early February 2020. Analysts believe the timing of the most recent activity could have been purposeful as the attackers may have hoped to use the weekend to deploy malware before employees returned to work on Monday.



Emotet emails contain a malicious attachment or link to download a malicious file which when activated installs the Emotet backdoor. The emails often use information collected from infected computers such as contacts and text from previous email threads to make the malicious emails seem legitimate. This can trick users into believing the emails are genuine and make it harder for spam filters to detect the malicious emails.



To see the full article and a list of related reports on the market, visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/v83xfc

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Kim Kardashian and family are 'shielding the kids' from the drama surrounding Kanye West's ongoing string of erratic behavior.

The reality star - who reunited with her husband for the first time in weeks on Monday - is trying to keep things as normal as possible for daughters North, seven, and Chicago, two-and-a-half, and sons Saint, four-and-a-half, and Psalm, 14-months.

'She is shielding the kids. All of her family is. They've circled around the kids and are insulating them from all of this,' a source told People. 'And everyone else has decided to create an atmosphere of normalcy around them.'

Too young to worry: Kim Kardashian is trying to keep her four children away from the current drama surrounding dad Kanye West and the superstar pair's marriage

'They don't need to see such a public meltdown,' the source went on.

Kim flew to Kanye's Cody, Wyoming compound on Monday to speak to him. Things appeared overwhelming for the star, who was seen crying during a conversation with West.

'She is very emotional about everything, and also exhausted,' a source told People magazine Monday. 'She feels very hurt by Kanye. She has tried to reach him multiple times and he just ignores her. It's all a bad situation.'

The insider added: 'She decided to fly to Cody to speak with him in person. She doesn't want to be ignored anymore.'

On Sunday Kanye publicly said sorry to his wife via Twitter.

'I would like to apologize to my wife Kim for going public with something that was a private matter. I did not cover her like she has covered me. To Kim I want to say I know I hurt you. Please forgive me. Thank you for always being there for me.'

People's source said he understands how much he hurt his wife, telling the magazine: 'He definitely understands that he upset Kim. He feels very bad about it. It's obvious that he still loves Kim.'

Last week, Kim took to Instagram following Kanye's controversial behavior, admitting that she was 'powerless' amid his meltdown, calling her husband 'brilliant but complicated'.

Normal: 'She is shielding the kids. All of her family is. They've circled around the kids and are insulating them from all of this,' a source told People. 'And everyone else has decided to create an atmosphere of normalcy around them.' Kim, Saint and North are seen above

'Complicated and painful': Kim took to Instagram on Wednesday morning following West's late night Twitter meltdown, saying she feels 'powerless' amid his struggle with bi-polar disorder

The reality star said 'his words sometimes do not align with his intentions' after Kanye last night claimed he has been 'trying to get divorced' from Kim since she met his fellow rapper Meek Mill at a hotel.

Making her voice heard: Kim signed off the three page note with 'Kim Kardashian West'

Kanye said last Tuesday that Kim was 'out of line' to meet Meek Mill at a hotel in Los Angeles to talk about 'prison reform', and blasted her mother Kris Jenner as 'Kris Jong-Un' while accusing the pair of 'white supremacy.'

However, Kanye apologized to his wife in a tweet last week, amid reports that he went to hospital to be treated for anxiety.

The rapper tweeted: 'I would like to apologize to my wife Kim for going public with something that was a private matter. I did not cover her like she has covered me.to [sic] Kim I want to say I know I hurt you. Please forgive me. Thank you for always being there for me.'

His apology came after Kim gave a frank and honest statement about the situation to her fans, sharing three pages to her Instagram story last Wednesday saying: 'Those that understand mental illness or even compulsive behavior know that the family is powerless unless the member is a minor.'

She told her 180 million followers: 'I understand Kanye is subject to criticism because he is a public figure and his actions at times can cause strong opinions and emotions. He is a brilliant but complicated person who on top of the pressures of being an artist and a black man, who experienced the painful loss of his mother, and has to deal with the pressure and isolation that is heightened by his bi-polar disorder.

'Those who are close with Kanye know his heart and understand his words some times do not align with his intentions.'

Meanwhile, Kanye is still eager for his presidential bid to become a reality, after making another last-ditch attempt to get on another ballot in Missouri, TMZ reported on Monday.

Prior to his meltdown on Twitter, Kanye sparked concern during a rambling and chaotic speech at his first presidential rally at North Charleston's Exquis Event Center in South Carolina.

He shockingly revealed that he and his wife Kim had considered aborting their daughter North, who is now seven, before he got a 'message from God'.

Famous family: Kim and Kanye have four children North, seven, Saint, four, Chicago, two, and Psalm, 14 months

His unscripted speech, which came two weeks after he announced his unlikely bid for president, is said to have left his wife and her family upset and alarmed.

During the event, the rapper appeared to acknowledge that his comments would be met with a negative reaction by his family. He explained that if his wife were to divorce him after making the comments, he would still be thankful that she had North.

'Even if my wife were to divorce me after this speech, she brought North into this world, when I did not want to,' he said.

Kanye has been open about his struggle with bipolar disorder and, in 2016, he spent time in hospital after a 'psychiatric emergency' that forced him to cancel 21 concert dates.

Kim has previously defended her husband's rants and said in a 2018 tweet that he was a 'free-thinker' and entitled to his own opinion. She also appeared to endorse her husband's presidential bid when he first announced it two weeks ago by retweeting his message with an emoji of a US flag.

During his rally speech, Kanye, who was dressed in a bullet-proof vest with 2020 shaved into his hair, shared that in 2013 Kim 'had the pills in her hand' to have an abortion before he was inspired by God to have the child.

'My girlfriend called me screaming, crying. I'm a rapper. And she said I'm pregnant. She was crying,' he said.

Kanye said he was weighing up what to do, when he received what he interpreted as a sign from God while he was working on his laptop in Paris.

Kanye appeared at a campaign rally in South Carolina on July 19 (pictured) in which he delivered a lengthy monologue which sparked concerns about his well-being

'My screen went black and white. And God said, if you f*** with my vision I f*** with yours,' he yelled. 'And I called my girlfriend and said we're going to have this child.

'Even if my wife were to divorce me after this speech, she brought North into this world, when I did not want to.'

The rapper went on to break down in tears as he shouted: 'She had the pills in her hand! I almost killed my daughter!'

Kanye also revealed that his father wanted to abort him but his mother Donda 'saved his life'.

'My mom saved my life. My dad wanted to abort me. My mom saved my life. There would have been no Kanye West because my dad was too busy,' he said.

Kanye spent much of the rally discussing abortion, and announced that he wanted women to be given money by the government for bearing children, to discourage abortion.

'Abortion should be legal but the option of maximum increase should be available,' he said.

'Everybody who has a baby gets a million dollars or something. No more Plan B - Plan A.'

He said sorry: However, Kanye apologized to his wife in a tweet last week, amid reports that he went to hospital to be treated for anxiety

Meanwhile, Kanye caused further drama during a Twitter rant when he brought up the fact that Kim had met with rapper Meek Mill back in 2018.

Kanye had claimed he'd been 'trying to get divorced' from Kim since she met Meek at LA's Waldorf Astoria hotel to discuss prison reform.

The 33-year-old rapper, real name Robert Rihmeek Williams, was pictured meeting Kim in a professional capacity, joined by philanthropist Clara Wu at a rooftop restaurant.

However, Meek was clear in his denial that nothing untoward happened between himself and Kim, writing earlier this week: 'Sh** is cappp cmon', which is slang. (Meek announced at the weekend that he has now split with his girlfriend Milan Harris.)

After the photo emerged, Meek took to his Twitter account last Thursday to tweet: 'Being around the wrong environment and wrong people will make you forget your worth! Stay focused.'

Kim earned glowing praise from Mill last year, when the rapper called her a 'friend' and hailed her for 'doing a lot of good work' on prison reform.

Meek and Kim both attended a Criminal Justice Reform Summit in Los Angeles in November 2018, but it was at the Jeremy Hotel rather than the Waldorf in Beverly Hills which Kanye appeared to be referring to.

Last Tuesday, in a string of now-deleted shocking tweets, Kanye claimed: 'I've been trying to get divorced since Kim met with Meek at the Warldolf for 'prison reform.'

He added: 'Meek is my man and was respectful That's my dog Kim was out of line I'm worth 5 billion dollars and more than that through Christ But ya'll ain't listen to MJ and now ya'll believe them???'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 22:59:59|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the African continent reached 859,237 on Tuesday, the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The Africa CDC, a specialized healthcare agency of the 55-member African Union (AU) Commission in its latest situation update issued on Tuesday, said that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the continent rose from 846,311 on Monday to 859,237 as of Tuesday afternoon, registering close to 13,000 new positive cases during the stated period.

The Africa CDC report also said that the number of deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic rose to 18,160 as of Tuesday afternoon, up from 17,747 on Monday afternoon.

The continental disease control and prevention agency also stressed that some 506,534 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered across the continent so far.

South Africa, which has so far reported 452,529 confirmed COVID-19 positive cases, is Africa's highest affected country in terms of positive cases, followed by Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria and Morocco, it was noted.

The Southern Africa region is the most affected area in terms of confirmed cases, followed by Northern Africa and Western Africa regions, respectively, the Africa CDC said.

Amid the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic across the African continent, the Africa CDC had recently said that some 40 African countries are still under "full border closure" while night-time curfew has been activated across around 34 countries in an effort to halt the spread of the infectious virus. Enditem
Motorola Moto G9 Plus appeared the first time on Eurasian EEC certification site along with some of its key specifications, such as 4GB RAM and 128GB storage. The smartphone has now reached the TUV Rheinland certification wherein the battery capacity and the charging speed have been revealed. The Moto G9 Plus launch date is, however, something subject to either further leaks or an official announcement by the company.

According to the listing of Moto G9 Plus on the TUV Rheinland website, the smartphone will carry a 4700mAh battery under the hood. It is a significant upgrade over the Moto G8 Plus' 4000mAh battery, but still less capacious than the 5000mAh battery on the Motorola Moto G8 Power. The battery will support up to 30W fast charging, the listing has additionally suggested. We do not know if the bundled charger will provide 30W power output but the smartphone will definitely support it possibly via a USB-C port. The Moto G9 Plus model numbers listed on the website are Motorola XT2087-1, XT2087-2.

There is only so much the TUV Rheinland certification reveals about the Moto G9 Plus. However, we do have some information thanks to the previous leaks. The Motorola Moto G9 Plus is said to come in a 4GB/128GB memory configuration. But there could be more variants. The EEC listing also revealed the smartphone will come with Android 10 out of the box. And while the earlier listing does not shed the light on what processor Moto G9 Plus, what display it will have, and what it will look like, it does reveal what the said memory variant could cost in the European market.

According to EEC listing, the Motorola Moto G9 Plus 4GB/128GB variant could cost EUR 277.15, which translates to roughly Rs 24,000. The Moto G9 Plus is likely to hit the European markets first while its India availability is also expected.

Motorola's G-series is scattered across various price ranges and has typically more than four models under each new series. This should mean after the Moto G9 Plus, the company could also launch the Moto G9, Moto G9 Play, and Moto G9 Power. There could also be a Lite version for the Moto G9 Plus with heavily toned-down specifications.
In what may come as a shock to many, recently Sushant Singh Rajputs father KK Singh has registered an FIR against the late actors girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty. at Rajiv Nagar Police station in Patna. Singh, in his complaint, has accused Rhea of extorting money from the Pavitra Rishta actor in the name of love and abetting him to commit suicide.

 Instagram

ANI quoted Sanjay Singh, Inspector General, Patna Central Zone as saying, FIR registered against actor Rhea Chakraborty under various sections, including abetment of suicide, on the complaint of #SushantSinghRajput's father. (Sic)



FIR registered against actor Rhea Chakraborty under various sections, including abetment of suicide, on the complaint of #SushantSinghRajput's father: Sanjay Singh, Inspector General, Patna Central Zone  ANI (@ANI) July 28, 2020

According to the reports, Sushants father registered a five-page FIR against Rhea on Sunday, accusing the actress of instigating the actor to commit suicide. Bihar Police officers have reached Patna to question Rhea in connection with SSR's death case. The case has been filed against Rhea under sections 406, 420, 341,323,342 of the IPC.

 Twitter/@itsSSR

However, owing to his inability to go to Mumbai to fight the case due to his health issues, Sushants father has filed the case in his hometown, Patna.



ABP, in its report, has mentioned that Patnas SSP said that the case has been filed under special circumstances and hence the FIR has been kept under the classified category and sent to the court.

On the other hand, Rhea had earlier shared a post on her social media handle to request Home Minister Amit Shah to initiate a CBI investigation in Sushant Singh Rajputs death case. The 'Chehre' actress addressed Sushant as her boyfriend for the first ever time in her post.

"Respected @amitshahofficial sir ,Im sushant Singh Rajputs girlfriend Rhea chakraborty, it is now over a month since his sudden demise . I have complete faith in the government , however in the interest of justice , I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry into this matter . I only want to understand what pressures prompted Sushant to take this step. Yours sincerely, Rhea Chakraborty," the Jalebi actress wrote.

People on social media had mixed reactions to this piece of news with most of them widely appreciating the move by SSRs father.

Check out some of the reactions here:

Arrest the whole Bhatt gang  HIMANSHU (@Himanshu_Pant94) July 28, 2020

Need of the hour.  Myself NJ (@NamasteNJ) July 28, 2020

Finally  Storyteller (@Shilpzzm) July 28, 2020

Big Twist.  Maggi (@JainMaggii) July 28, 2020

Its just the tip pf the iceberg.  Sourabh Malhotra (@sourabhmalhotra) July 28, 2020

Good action.  Amaresh Mahapatra (@AmareshMahapat9) July 28, 2020

This makes me so happy!!! #WhyFearCBIForSSR  ItsSSRfan (@its_rfan) July 28, 2020

Well done!!! Finally good thing happening  MohitSingh (@Mohit071088) July 28, 2020

Mumbai Police officers, who are currently investigating Sushant Singh's case, have recorded the statement of at least 38 people including Aditya Chopra, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Shekhar Kapur and Mukesh Chhabra. Meanwhile Rhea was interrogated for over 9 hours in connection with the late actor's death case last month.

Besides, Dharma Productions CEO Apoorva Mehta also recorded his statement on Tuesday (July 28) at Jogeshwari Police station, Mumbai. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has said that the state government will initiate a CBI probe in Sushant's death case if needed.

What do you think about this move? Tell us in the space below.
HOUSTON, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- MRC Global Inc. (NYSE: MRC), the largest global distributor, based on sales, of pipe, valves and fittings and related infrastructure products and services to the energy industry, today announced second quarter 2020 results.

The company's sales were $602 million for the second quarter of 2020, which was 24% lower than the first quarter of 2020 and 39% lower than the second quarter of 2019. The sequential decline was across all segments and sectors except gas utilities, which was up $3 million. As compared to the second quarter of 2019, the decrease was across all sectors and segments as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and lower commodity prices significantly reduced customer spending.

Net loss attributable to common stockholders for the second quarter of 2020 was $287 million, or $(3.50) per diluted share, as compared the second quarter of 2019 net income of $18 million, or $0.21 per diluted share. The second quarter of 2020 results include pre-tax charges for the impairment of goodwill and intangible assets, severance and restructuring and other items of $301 million and after-tax charges of $284 million or $3.46 per diluted share. Adjusted net loss attributable to common stockholders for the second quarter of 2020 was $(8) million, or $(0.10) per diluted share, compared to net income of $17 million, or $0.20 per diluted share for the second quarter of 2019. Please refer to the reconciliation of adjusted net income (loss) (a non-GAAP measure) to net income (loss) (a GAAP measure) included in this release.

Andrew R. Lane, MRC Global's president and chief executive officer stated, "Due to the incredible demand destruction brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, the second quarter was our most challenging to date, but I am very pleased with the rapid and proactive response of our employees and management team, who remain fully committed to our long-term strategy to enhance shareholder value. We are keenly focused on the levers within our control. As a result, we have reduced operating costs significantly in the second quarter, exceeding our initial estimates and achieving a new quarterly SG&A run rate of $104 million, excluding severance and restructuring charges. Our cost savings programs are expected to achieve over $100 million of adjusted cost savings in 2020 as compared to 2019 and we will continue to adjust the cost structure as conditions dictate. We generated $84 million of cash from operations in the first half of the year, and we continue to target $200 million for the full year. Debt reduction remains a top priority. We have reduced net debt by $64 million in the first half of the year and reduced our ABL balance to $89 million."

"We continue to invest in e-commerce opportunities and have recently set a new milestone to transition thousands of smaller transactional customers to our e-commerce platform, which can reduce our cost to serve with targeted $5 million to $10 million in annual savings by 2022. We are the global leader in supplying PVF to the energy industry. We remain focused on delivering shareholder value by serving our customers, generating cash, strengthening our balance sheet, managing operating costs and optimizing our working capital." Mr. Lane added.

MRC Global's second quarter 2020 gross profit was $79 million, or 13.1% of sales as compared to the second quarter of 2019 gross profit of $174 million, or 17.7% of sales. Gross profit for the second quarter of 2020 and 2019 reflects income of $6 million and $1 million, respectively, in cost of sales relating to the use of the last-in, first out (LIFO) method of inventory cost accounting. Gross profit for the second quarter of 2020 also includes $34 million of pre-tax inventory-related charges. Adjusted gross profit, which excludes both the impact of LIFO and inventory-related charges for the second quarter of 2020 was $118 million or 19.6% of revenue, a 30-basis point improvement over the second quarter of 2019.

Selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses were $126 million, or 20.9% of sales, for the second quarter of 2020 compared to $133 million, or 13.5% of sales, for the same period of 2019. SG&A includes severance and restructuring charges and facilities closure charges of $22 million in the second quarter of 2020.

Other, net includes $3 million of non-cash charges for the write-down of assets related to facility closures.

The income tax benefit was $17 million for the three months ended June 30, 2020 as compared to $8 million of expense for the three months ended June 30, 2019. The effective tax rates were 6% and 25% for the three months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively. The company's rates generally differ from the U.S. federal statutory rate of 21% as a result of state income taxes and differing foreign income tax rates. The effective tax rate for three months ended June 30, 2020 was lower primarily due to a non-tax-deductible goodwill impairment charge during the quarter.

Please refer to the reconciliation of non-GAAP measures (adjusted gross profit, adjusted EBITDA) to GAAP measures (gross profit, net income) in this release.

Sales by Segment

U.S. sales in the second quarter of 2020 were $474 million, down $332 million, or 41%, from the same quarter in 2019. Upstream production sales decreased by $122 million, or 65% primarily due to reduced spending from the company's customers and a 62% reduction in well completions. Downstream and industrial sales declined $87 million, or 41%, as many customers delayed maintenance spending and idled facilities due to lower demand as well as non-recurring projects. Midstream pipeline sales declined $79 million, or 49% due to reduced customer spending and the timing of customer projects. Gas utilities' sales were down $44 million, or 18%, primarily due to the impact from the pandemic restrictions as customers paused spending.

Canadian sales in the second quarter of 2020 were $28 million, down $30 million, or 52%, from the same quarter in 2019 driven primarily by the upstream production sector, which was adversely affected by the pandemic and associated reduced demand as well as the midstream pipeline sector, which was lower due to non-recurring projects.

International sales in the second quarter of 2020 were $100 million, down $20 million, or 17%, from the same period in 2019 driven primarily by reduced spending in the downstream and industrials sector followed by the upstream sector due to the completion of a multi-year project in 2019. Weaker foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar unfavorably impacted sales by $6 million or 5%.

All sales were adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the related mitigation measures, which negatively affected demand for energy products.

Sales by Sector

Upstream production sales in the second quarter of 2020 were $134 million, or 22% of total sales, a decline of $150 million or 53% from the second quarter of 2019. The decrease in upstream production sales was across all segments led by the U.S. segment.

Midstream pipeline sales in the second quarter of 2020 were $87 million, or 15% of total sales, a reduction of $87 million or 50% from the first quarter of 2019 driven by the U.S. segment.

Gas utilities sales in the second quarter of 2020 were $205 million, or 34% of total sales, lower by 17% from the second quarter of 2019.

Downstream and industrial sales in the second quarter of 2020 were $176 million, or 29%, of total sales, a decrease of $103 million, or 37%, from the second quarter of 2019 driven by the U.S. segment.

Balance Sheet

Cash balances were $19 million and debt, net of cash, was $455 million at June 30, 2020. Cash provided by operations was $47 million in the second quarter of 2020 and $84 million for the six months ended June 30, 2020. Excess availability under the company's asset-based lending facility was $411 million and available liquidity was $430 million.

COVID-19 Pandemic Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic and related mitigation measures have created significant volatility and uncertainty in the oil and gas industry. Oil demand has significantly deteriorated as a result. The unparalleled demand destruction has resulted in lower spending by customers and reduced demand for the company's products and services. There is significant uncertainty as to the duration of this disruption.

As a critical supplier to the global energy infrastructure and an essential business, the company has remained operational with no closures to any facilities. The company currently has 27 COVID-19 illnesses reported. MRC Global has implemented various safety measures for employees working in the company's facilities and implemented remote working for those whose jobs permit it. MRC Global is committed to a safe working environment for all employees and is constantly monitoring its response in the locations where the company operates.

From a supply chain perspective, the effects have moved around the globe as the virus has spread. Given the company's inventory position and the reduced demand, the company has fulfilled orders with little disruption. However, if shutdowns are re-established in our suppliers' locations, order fulfillment risk could increase.

Conference Call

The company will hold a conference call to discuss its second quarter 2020 results at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time (9:00 a.m. Central Time) on July 29, 2020. To participate in the call, please dial 412902-0003 and ask for the MRC Global conference call at least 10 minutes prior to the start time. To access the conference call, live over the Internet, please log onto the web at www.mrcglobal.com and go to the "Investor Relations" page of the company's website at least fifteen minutes early to register, download and install any necessary audio software. For those who cannot listen to the live call, a replay will be available through August 12, 2020 and can be accessed by dialing 201-612-7415 and using pass code 13704697#. Also, an archive of the webcast will be available shortly after the call at www.mrcglobal.com for 90 days.

About MRC Global Inc.

MRC Global is the largest distributor of pipe, valves and fittings (PVF) and other infrastructure products and services to the energy industry, based on sales. Through approximately 240 service locations worldwide, approximately 2,850 employees and with nearly 100 years of history, MRC Global provides innovative supply chain solutions and technical product expertise to customers globally across diversified end-markets including the upstream production, midstream pipeline, gas utility and downstream and industrial. MRC Global manages a complex network of over 200,000 SKUs and 10,000 suppliers simplifying the supply chain for its over 13,000 customers. With a focus on technical products, value-added services, a global network of valve and engineering centers and an unmatched quality assurance program, MRC Global is the trusted PVF expert. Find out more at www.mrcglobal.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. Words such as "will," "expect," "expected," "intend," "believes," "well positioned," "strong position," "looking forward," "guidance," "plans," "can," "target," "targeted," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

Statements about the company's business, including its strategy, its industry, the company's future profitability, the company's guidance on its sales, adjusted EBITDA, tax rate, capital expenditures, achieving cost savings and cash flow, debt reduction, liquidity, growth in the company's various markets and the company's expectations, beliefs, plans, strategies, objectives, prospects and assumptions are not guarantees of future performance. These statements are based on management's expectations that involve a number of business risks and uncertainties, any of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond MRC Global's control, including the factors described in the company's SEC filings that may cause the company's actual results and performance to be materially different from any future results or performance expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

These risks and uncertainties include (among others) decreases in oil and natural gas prices; decreases in oil and natural gas industry expenditure levels, which may result from decreased oil and natural gas prices or other factors; U.S. and international general economic conditions; the company's ability to compete successfully with other companies in MRC Global's industry; the risk that manufacturers of the products the company distributes will sell a substantial amount of goods directly to end users in the industry sectors the company serves; unexpected supply shortages; cost increases by the company's suppliers; the company's lack of long-term contracts with most of its suppliers; suppliers' price reductions of products that the company sells, which could cause the value of the company's inventory to decline; decreases in steel prices, which could significantly lower MRC Global's profit; increases in steel prices, which the company may be unable to pass along to its customers which could significantly lower its profit; the company's lack of long-term contracts with many of its customers and the company's lack of contracts with customers that require minimum purchase volumes; changes in the company's customer and product mix; risks related to the company's customers' creditworthiness; the success of the company's acquisition strategies; the potential adverse effects associated with integrating acquisitions into the company's business and whether these acquisitions will yield their intended benefits; the company's significant indebtedness; the dependence on the company's subsidiaries for cash to meet its obligations; changes in the company's credit profile; a decline in demand for certain of the products the company distributes if import restrictions on these products are lifted or imposed; significant substitution of alternative fuels for oil and gas; environmental, health and safety laws and regulations and the interpretation or implementation thereof; the sufficiency of the company's insurance policies to cover losses, including liabilities arising from litigation; product liability claims against the company; pending or future asbestos-related claims against the company; the potential loss of key personnel; adverse health events such as a pandemic; interruption in the proper functioning of the company's information systems and the occurrence of cyber security incidents; loss of third-party transportation providers; potential inability to obtain necessary capital; risks related to adverse weather events or natural disasters; impairment of the company's goodwill or other intangible assets; adverse changes in political or economic conditions in the countries in which the company operates; exposure to U.S. and international laws and regulations, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act and other economic sanction programs; risks associated with international stability and geopolitical developments; risks relating to ongoing evaluations of internal controls required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; risks related to the company's intention not to pay dividends; and risks arising from compliance with and changes in law in the countries in which we operate, including (among others) changes in tax law, tax rates and interpretation in tax laws.

For a discussion of key risk factors, please see the risk factors disclosed in the company's SEC filings, which are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov and on the company's website, www.mrcglobal.com . MRC Global's filings and other important information are also available on the Investor Relations page of the company's website at www.mrcglobal.com.

Undue reliance should not be placed on the company's forward-looking statements. Although forward-looking statements reflect the company's good faith beliefs, reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the company's actual results, performance or achievements or future events to differ materially from anticipated future results, performance or achievements or future events expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise, except to the extent required by law.

Contact:

Monica Broughton

Investor Relations

MRC Global Inc.

[email protected]

832-308-2847

MRC Global Inc. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited) (in millions, except shares)





June 30,



December 31,



2020



2019















Assets













Current assets:













Cash

$ 19



$ 32 Accounts receivable, net



379





459 Inventories, net



627





701 Other current assets



36





26 Total current assets



1,061





1,218















Long-term assets:













Operating lease assets



163





186 Property, plant and equipment, net



131





138 Other assets



17





19















Intangible assets:













Goodwill, net



264





483 Other intangible assets, net



241





281



$ 1,877



$ 2,325















Liabilities and stockholders' equity













Current liabilities:













Trade accounts payable

$ 301



$ 357 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities



89





91 Operating lease liabilities



33





34 Current portion of long-term debt



4





4 Total current liabilities



427





486















Long-term liabilities:













Long-term debt, net



470





547 Operating lease liabilities



157





167 Deferred income taxes



81





91 Other liabilities



46





37















Commitments and contingencies





























6.5% Series A Convertible Perpetual Preferred Stock, $0.01 par value; authorized 363,000 shares; 363,000 shares issued and outstanding



355





355















Stockholders' equity:













Common stock, $0.01 par value per share: 500 million shares authorized, 106,283,903 and 105,624,750 issued, respectively



1





1 Additional paid-in capital



1,733





1,731 Retained deficit



(767)





(483) Less: Treasury stock at cost: 24,216,330 shares



(375)





(375) Accumulated other comprehensive loss



(251)





(232)





341





642



$ 1,877



$ 2,325

MRC Global Inc. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited) (in millions, except per share amounts)





Three Months Ended



Six Months Ended



June 30,



June 30,



June 30,



June 30,



2020



2019



2020



2019































Sales

$ 602



$ 984



$ 1,396



$ 1,954 Cost of sales



523





810





1,169





1,606 Gross profit



79





174





227





348 Selling, general and administrative expenses



126





133





252





272 Goodwill and intangibles impairment



242





-





242





- Operating (loss) income



(289)





41





(267)





76 Other (expense) income:





























Interest expense



(7)





(10)





(15)





(21) Other, net



(2)





1





(2)





1































(Loss) income before income taxes



(298)





32





(284)





56 Income tax (benefit) expense



(17)





8





(12)





14 Net (loss) income



(281)





24





(272)





42 Series A preferred stock dividends



6





6





12





12 Net (loss) income attributable to common stockholders

$ (287)



$ 18



$ (284)



$ 30































































Basic (loss) income per common share

$ (3.50)



$ 0.22



$ (3.47)



$ 0.36 Diluted (loss) income per common share

$ (3.50)



$ 0.21



$ (3.47)



$ 0.35 Weighted-average common shares, basic



82.0





83.2





81.9





83.8 Weighted-average common shares, diluted



82.0





83.9





81.9





84.7

MRC Global Inc. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited) (in millions)





Six Months Ended



June 30,



June 30,



2020



2019















Operating activities













Net (loss) income

$ (272)



$ 42 Adjustments to reconcile net (loss) income to net cash provided by operations:













Depreciation and amortization



10





11 Amortization of intangibles



13





22 Equity-based compensation expense



5





7 Deferred income tax benefit



(8)





(2) Decrease in LIFO reserve



(9)





(1) Goodwill and intangible asset impairment



242





- Lease impairment and abandonment



15





- Inventory-related charges



34





- Provision for uncollectible accounts



5





2 Other



1





2 Changes in operating assets and liabilities:













Accounts receivable



69





(47) Inventories



41





- Other current assets



(10)





1 Accounts payable



(51)





2 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities



(1)





(31) Net cash provided by operations



84





8















Investing activities













Purchases of property, plant and equipment



(5)





(6) Other investing activities



-





2 Net cash used in investing activities



(5)





(4)















Financing activities













Payments on revolving credit facilities



(460)





(513) Proceeds from revolving credit facilities



389





569 Payments on long-term obligations



(4)





(2) Purchase of common stock



-





(50) Dividends paid on preferred stock



(12)





(12) Repurchases of shares to satisfy tax withholdings



(3)





(6) Other



-





1 Net cash used in financing activities



(90)





(13)















Decrease in cash



(11)





(9) Effect of foreign exchange rate on cash



(2)





1 Cash -- beginning of period



32





43 Cash -- end of period

$ 19



$ 35

MRC Global Inc. Supplemental Information (Unaudited) Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA (a non-GAAP measure) (in millions)





Three Months Ended



Six Months Ended



June 30,



June 30,



June 30,



June 30,



2020



2019



2020



2019































Net (loss) income

$ (281)



$ 24



$ (272)



$ 42 Income tax (benefit) expense



(17)





8





(12)





14 Interest expense



7





10





15





21 Depreciation and amortization



5





6





10





11 Amortization of intangibles



6





11





13





22 Goodwill and intangible asset impairment (1)



242





-





242





- Inventory-related charges (2)



34





-





34





- Facility closures (3)



18





-





18





- Severance and restructuring (4)



7





-





7





- Decrease in LIFO reserve



(6)





(1)





(9)





(1) Equity-based compensation expense (5)



3





3





5





7 Gain on early extinguishment of debt (6)



-





-





(1)





- Foreign currency (gains) losses



(1)





(1)





1





- Adjusted EBITDA

$ 17



$ 60



$ 51



$ 116



Notes to above: (1) Non-cash charges (pre-tax) for the impairment of $217 million for goodwill and $25 million for the U.S. intangible, indefinite-lived tradename asset. The goodwill impairment consisted of $177 million for the U.S. segment and $40 million for the International segment, resulting in a $0 balance for the International segment. (2) Non-cash charges (pre-tax) for inventory recorded in cost of goods sold. Charges of $19 million in the U.S. and $1 million in Canada relate to excess and obsolete inventory as a result of the current market outlook for certain products. International segment charges of $14 million relate to increased reserves for excess and obsolete inventory as well as the exit of the Thailand business. (3) Charges (pre-tax) of $15 million for lease impairments and abandonments related to facility closures, substantially non-cash, recorded in SG&A. $12 million is recorded in the International segment, $2 million in the U.S. segment and $1 million in Canada segment. Also included are $3 million of non-cash (pre-tax) charges for the write-down of assets for facilities in Canada ($2 million) and International, recorded in Other expense. (4) Charges (pre-tax) related to employee severance and restructuring charges associated with the company's cost reduction initiatives recorded in SG&A, of which $6 million is in the U.S. segment and $1 million is in the International segment. (5) Recorded in SG&A. (6) Charges (pre-tax) related the purchase of the Term Loan recorded in Other, net.

The company defines Adjusted EBITDA as net income plus interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, amortization of intangibles, and certain other expenses, including non-cash expenses, (such as equity-based compensation, severance and restructuring, changes in the fair value of derivative instruments and asset impairments, including intangible assets and inventory) and plus or minus the impact of its LIFO inventory costing methodology. The company presents Adjusted EBITDA because the company believes Adjusted EBITDA is a useful indicator of the company's operating performance. Among other things, Adjusted EBITDA measures the company's operating performance without regard to certain non-recurring, non-cash or transaction-related expenses. Adjusted EBITDA, however, does not represent and should not be considered as an alternative to net income, cash flow from operations or any other measure of financial performance calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Because Adjusted EBITDA does not account for certain expenses, its utility as a measure of the company's operating performance has material limitations. Because of these limitations, the company does not view Adjusted EBITDA in isolation or as a primary performance measure and also uses other measures, such as net income and sales, to measure operating performance. See the company's Annual Report filed on Form 10-K for a more thorough discussion of the use of Adjusted EBITDA.

MRC Global Inc. Supplemental Information (Unaudited) Reconciliation of Gross Profit to Adjusted Gross Profit (a non-GAAP measure) (in millions)





Three Months Ended





June 30,



Percentage



June 30,



Percentage





2020



of Revenue*



2019



of Revenue



































Gross profit, as reported

$ 79





13.1 %

$ 174





17.7 % Depreciation and amortization



5





0.8 %



6





0.6 % Amortization of intangibles



6





1.0 %



11





1.1 % Decrease in LIFO reserve



(6)





(1.0) %



(1)





(0.1) % Inventory-related charges (1)



34





5.6 %



-





0.0 % Adjusted Gross Profit

$ 118





19.6 %

$ 190





19.3 %





Six Months Ended





June 30,



Percentage



June 30,



Percentage





2020



of Revenue



2019



of Revenue



































Gross profit, as reported

$ 227





16.3 %

$ 348





17.8 % Depreciation and amortization



10





0.7 %



11





0.6 % Amortization of intangibles



13





0.9 %



22





1.1 % Decrease in LIFO reserve



(9)





(0.6) %



(1)





(0.1) % Inventory-related charges (1)



34





2.4 %



-





0.0 % Adjusted Gross Profit

$ 275





19.7 %

$ 380





19.4 %



Notes to above:

* Does not foot due to rounding (1) Non-cash charges (pre-tax) for inventory recorded in cost of goods sold. Charges of $19 million in the U.S. and $1 million in Canada relate to excess and obsolete inventory as a result of the current market outlook for certain products. International segment charges of $14 million relate to increased reserves for excess and obsolete inventory as well as the exit of the Thailand business.



The company defines Adjusted Gross Profit as sales, less cost of sales, plus depreciation and amortization, plus amortization of intangibles, plus inventory-related charges, and plus or minus the impact of its LIFO inventory costing methodology. The company presents Adjusted Gross Profit because the company believes it is a useful indicator of the company's operating performance without regard to items, such as amortization of intangibles, that can vary substantially from company to company depending upon the nature and extent of acquisitions of which they have been involved. Similarly, the impact of the LIFO inventory costing method can cause results to vary substantially from company to company depending upon whether they elect to utilize LIFO and depending upon which method they may elect. The company uses Adjusted Gross Profit as a key performance indicator in managing its business. The company believes that gross profit is the financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles that is most directly comparable to Adjusted Gross Profit.

MRC Global Inc. Supplemental Sales Information (Unaudited) (in millions)

Disaggregated Sales by Segment

Three Months Ended June 30,





U.S.



Canada



International



Total

2020































Upstream production

$ 66



$ 18



$ 50



$ 134

Midstream pipeline



82





3





2





87

Gas utilities



200





5





-





205

Downstream & industrial



126





2





48





176





$ 474



$ 28



$ 100



$ 602

2019































Upstream production

$ 188



$ 41



$ 55



$ 284

Midstream pipeline



161





9





4





174

Gas utilities



244





3





-





247

Downstream & industrial



213





5





61





279





$ 806



$ 58



$ 120



$ 984



Six Months Ended June 30,





U.S.



Canada



International



Total

2020































Upstream production

$ 205



$ 55



$ 96



$ 356

Midstream pipeline



192





7





7





206

Gas utilities



399





8





-





407

Downstream & industrial



316





8





103





427





$ 1,112



$ 78



$ 206



$ 1,396

2019































Upstream production

$ 394



$ 87



$ 115



$ 596

Midstream pipeline



294





15





12





321

Gas utilities



448





13





-





461

Downstream & industrial



449





11





116





576





$ 1,585



$ 126



$ 243



$ 1,954



MRC Global Inc.

Supplemental Sales Information (Unaudited)

(in millions)





Sales by Product Line









Three Months Ended



Six Months Ended





June 30,



June 30,



June 30,



June 30,

Type

2020



2019



2020



2019

Line pipe

$ 80



$ 161



$ 180



$ 315

Carbon fittings and flanges



73





158





188





311

Total carbon pipe, fittings and flanges



153





319





368





626

Valves, automation, measurement and instrumentation



249





380





572





763

Gas products



114





145





248





278

Stainless steel and alloy pipe and fittings



30





42





67





92

General products



56





98





141





195





$ 602



$ 984



$ 1,396



$ 1,954



MRC Global Inc. Supplemental Information (Unaudited) Reconciliation of Net Income Attributable to Common Stockholders to Adjusted Net Income Attributable to Common Stockholders (a non-GAAP measure) (in millions, except per share amounts)





June 30, 2020





Three Months Ended



Six Months Ended





Amount



Per Share



Amount



Per Share



































Net loss attributable to common stockholders

$ (287)



$ (3.50)



$ (284)



$ (3.47)

Goodwill and intangible asset impairment, net of tax (1)



234





2.85





234





2.86

Inventory-related charges, net of tax (2)



29





0.35





29





0.35

Facility closures, net of tax (3)



16





0.20





16





0.20

Severance and restructuring, net of tax (4)



5





0.06





5





0.06

Decrease in LIFO reserve, net of tax



(5)





(0.06)





(7)





(0.09)

Adjusted net loss attributable to common stockholders

$ (8)



$ (0.10)



$ (7)



$ (0.09)



































June 30, 2019





Three Months Ended



Six Months Ended





Amount



Per Share



Amount



Per Share



































Net income attributable to common stockholders

$ 18



$ 0.21



$ 30



$ 0.35

Decrease in LIFO reserve, net of tax



(1)





(0.01)





(1)





(0.01)

Adjusted net income attributable to common stockholders

$ 17



$ 0.20



$ 29



$ 0.34





Notes to above: (1) Non-cash charges (after-tax) for the impairment of $215 million for goodwill and $19 million for the U.S. intangible, indefinite-lived tradename asset. The after-tax goodwill impairment consisted of $175 million for the U.S. segment and $40 million for the International segment, resulting in a $0 balance for the International segment. (2) Charges (after-tax) for inventory recorded in cost of goods sold. Charges (after-tax) of $15 million in the U.S. relate to excess and obsolete inventory as a result of the current market outlook for certain products. International segment charges (after-tax) of $14 million relate to increased reserves for excess and obsolete inventory as well as the exit of the Thailand business. (3) Charges (after-tax) of $14 million for lease impairments and abandonments related to facility closures, substantially non-cash, recorded in SG&A. $11 million is recorded in the International segment, $2 million in the U.S. segment and $1 million in Canada segment, each after-tax. Also includes $2 million of non-cash (after-tax) charges for the write-down of assets for facilities in Canada ($2 million) and International, recorded in Other expense. (4) Charges (after-tax) related to employee severance and restructuring charges associated with the company's cost reduction initiatives recorded in SG&A, of which $4 million is in the U.S. segment and $1 million is in the International segment.



The company defines Adjusted Net Income Attributable to Common Stockholders (a non-GAAP measure) as Net Income Attributable to Common Stockholders less after-tax goodwill and intangible impairment, inventory-related charges, facility closures, severance and restructuring, plus or minus the after-tax impact of its LIFO inventory costing methodology. The company presents Adjusted Net Income Attributable to Common Stockholders and related per share amounts because the company believes it provides useful comparisons of the company's operating results to other companies, including those companies with whom we compete in the distribution of pipe, valves and fittings to the energy industry, without regard to the irregular variations from certain restructuring events not indicative of the on-going business. Those items include goodwill and intangible asset impairments, inventory-related charges, facility closures, severance and restructuring as well as the LIFO inventory costing methodology. The impact of the LIFO inventory costing methodology can cause results to vary substantially from company to company depending upon whether they elect to utilize LIFO and depending upon which method they may elect. The company believes that Net Income Attributable to Common Stockholders is the financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles that is most directly compared to Adjusted Net Income Attributable to Common Stockholders.

SOURCE MRC Global Inc.

Related Links

http://www.mrcglobal.com


The current pandemic situation across the world is known to many by the back of their hands. There is no doubt that major cities at this stage, some at lockdown and while others are slowly reopening up their economies, are launching digital initiatives and driving contactless transactions. According to Forbes, the usage of traffic across mobile and fixed networks has seen a sharp increase from 30% to 50%. This data shows that people will have to leverage on telecommunications to adapt to the new normal of living, working, and shopping online.

In FORCS' business, the number of searches for smart forms, e-Forms, and e-Signatures surged since the onset of the coronavirus outbreak. More companies are switching to online channels, using electronic forms to communicate with their customers, getting approval, and continuing business transactions. FORCS' customers in the banking and insurance space are now maximizing the solutions to its maximum advantage, which allows them to continue serving their customers efficiently without having to meet them face-to-face.

Recent research by Accenture pointed out COVID-19 would permanently change the future of consumer behavior. The retail and food and beverage industries are hit the most, forcing owners to revamp their business models to stay in business. Contactless food deliveries and online shopping have become the new norm for many. Across industries, companies are adapting to incorporating cloud systems and digital solutions quickly to respond to changing consumer behavior. Banks are introducing new ways to maintain and strengthen their relationships with their customers by combining the human touch with digital solutions and servicing customers from a socially secure distance.

Government across all nations plays the most crucial role in supporting businesses and their people. Many of them have come up with financial assistance packages to respond to the economic impact. They are calling companies to build up their digital infrastructure to transform digitally fully.

A search on Google Trends shows an upward trend of people searching for digital transformation and contactless solutions. As data and trends reflect the ongoing shift in consumer behavior, businesses that are still relying on brick-and-mortar concepts and paper processes are stressed in adopting digital solutions to survive during this period of economic uncertainty.

Even before this pandemic, the development of a form filling technology using voice was underway in FORCS' product roadmap. This new feature uses Artificial Intelligent technology to extract relevant data from a natural conversation to fill out electronic forms. Made available across devices such as tablets, smartphones, and desktop, FORCS aims to take contactless form filling to the next level for both businesses and people.

Besides growing within FORCS' organization, they are also committed to making the world a more beautiful place by improving people's lives. Yearly, FORCS donates 1% of their profit to charity and initiate campaigns such as tree planting and delivering briquettes to the poor and homeless during winter. Following the coronavirus outbreak, Mikyung Park, CEO of FORCS, also the Chairman of the Korea Women's Venture Association (KOVMA), participated in the Flower Relay Campaign (an initiative by KOVMA) to support flower farmers and small business owners who are experiencing a difficult time.

Companies FORCS worked with have seen an increase in their business potential after the adoption of the Smart e-Form. At large, FORCS see many opportunities for companies worldwide to accelerate digital transformation, bringing even greater convenience to how people live, work, and shop; now, the contactless way and without losing the human touch.

FORCS

FORCS provides the best-in-class Enterprise e-Form and Reporting solutions to organizations.

Established in 1995, we have helped over 4,000 customers across industries in transforming digitally successfully with our proprietary paperless technology. For over 20 years, we have been driving the adoption of paperless technology in Korea, winning the "Market Leader" title. Banks, insurance companies, government agencies, hospitals, engineering firms, etc. experience productivity growth and significant cost reduction after the adoption of our solutions.

Today, our operations span across Asia and Europe, with offices in Korea (HQ), Belgium, Japan, and Singapore, and currently working with over 50 business partners. Public listed on KOSDAQ in 2015, we aim to bring paperless transformation to even more organizations and people worldwide.

Media Contact

Juan Sim, Marketing Manager of FORCS



Email: juan.sim@forcs.com



Contact: +65 9138 9096

Kylynn Lee, Marketing Executive of FORCS



Email: kylynn.lee@forcs.com



Contact: +65 8111 0625
Every investor in Moelis Australia Limited (ASX:MOE) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said 'Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.

Moelis Australia is not a large company by global standards. It has a market capitalization of AU$486m, which means it wouldn't have the attention of many institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it's seems that institutions don't own many shares in the company. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about Moelis Australia.

See our latest analysis for Moelis Australia

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Moelis Australia?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

Institutions have a very small stake in Moelis Australia. That indicates that the company is on the radar of some funds, but it isn't particularly popular with professional investors at the moment. So if the company itself can improve over time, we may well see more institutional buyers in the future. It is not uncommon to see a big share price rise if multiple institutional investors are trying to buy into a stock at the same time. So check out the historic earnings trajectory, below, but keep in mind it's the future that counts most.

Moelis Australia is not owned by hedge funds. From our data, we infer that the largest shareholder is Andrew Pridham (who also holds the title of Top Key Executive) with 28% of shares outstanding. Its usually considered a good sign when insiders own a significant number of shares in the company, and in this case, we're glad to see a company insider play the role of a key stakeholder. With 20% and 9.9% of the shares outstanding respectively, Moelis & Company and Magic Tt 2 Pty Ltd are the second and third largest shareholders. Furthermore, CEO Julian Biggins is the owner of 0.0379371 of the company's shares.

Story continues

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 3 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. There is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of Moelis Australia

The definition of company insiders can be subjective, and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Moelis Australia Limited. Insiders own AU$195m worth of shares in the AU$486m company. I would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, with a 25% stake in the company, will not easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 14%, of the shares on issue. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

Public Company Ownership

Public companies currently own 20% of Moelis Australia stock. We can't be certain, but this is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Be aware that Moelis Australia is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is a bit unpleasant...

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

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.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
A group calling itself the Coalition of Affected DKM Customers based in the Bono East Region has slammed government for not making provision for them in the mid-year budget review concerned their locked-up money that was promised them.

Leaders of the Coalition of Affected DKM Customers addressing a presser at Nkoransa on Monday, July 27, 2020, noted that they have been promised several times that their monies would be paid them but such assurance is yet to materialize.

According to the group, they have made several appeals to the appropriate authorities, but they are not getting any favourable feedback.

They noted that their hopes were dashed last week during the presentation of the mid-year budget review by the Finance Minister when only microfinance companies with challenges from 2017 were captured leaving out those of 2015 which included DKM.

Patrick Adu Baffoe, the Public Relations Officer of the Group addressing the media noted that: The Mid-Year Budget reading on microfinance was stated for between 2017 and 2020, leaving out 2015, the year DKM suffered its fate. We find the whole thing preposterous to suggest that a registered company under Bank of Ghana's supervision could drag unsuspecting customers through this harrowing situation under their watch and yet we have to bear the brats. Isn't 5years enough suffering?

He also noted that the outbreak of COVID-19 has also compounded their problems and are therefore calling on government for support.

Your Excellency, we have incessantly suffered the difficulty this DKM fallout left us with since May 11, 2015. We are not slapped by only this, but also, the horrors of the COVID-19 pandemic. You can imagine how deep our wounds are now.

I'll investigate and retrieve DKM monies  Akufo-Addo

The then Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, promised to launch an investigation into circumstances surrounding the scandal if voted into office during the 2016 election campaign.

He said it was clear that the governing NDC at the time failed to adequately deal with the matter, leading to thousands of Ghanaians losing their monies.

I will investigate the government's inability to pay the monies owed as well as investigate the DKM scandal and to ensure that there would be total restoration to all affected in both scandals.

Woes of DKM customers

Thousands of customers of DKM microfinance Company lost their investments running into millions of cedis after the central bank in 2015 suspended the operations of DKM for violating the Banking Act.

Though the central bank subsequently lifted the ban on the company's operations, DKM was unable to pay its customers their locked up cash.

The Bank of Ghana confiscated the assets of the company and appointed the Registrar General's Department to commence liquidation processes to refund customers of the company.

John Dramani Mahama had earlier challenged President Nana Akufo-Addo to fulfil his promise of retrieving monies owed victims of the Diamond Microfinance Company (DKM) scam.

[TUBE]https://www.youtube.com/embed/S3wR6HjOl30[/TUBE

---citinewsroom
This article will reflect on the compensation paid to Tom Becker who has served as CEO of Iofina plc (LON:IOF) since 2014. This analysis will also look to assess whether the CEO is appropriately paid, considering recent earnings growth and investor returns for Iofina.

See our latest analysis for Iofina

Comparing Iofina plc's CEO Compensation With the industry

At the time of writing, our data shows that Iofina plc has a market capitalization of UK25m, and reported total annual CEO compensation of US$276k for the year to December 2019. We note that's an increase of 9.9% above last year. Notably, the salary which is US$235.6k, represents most of the total compensation being paid.

In comparison with other companies in the industry with market capitalizations under UK155m, the reported median total CEO compensation was US$280k. This suggests that Iofina remunerates its CEO largely in line with the industry average.

Component 2019 2018 Proportion (2019) Salary US$236k US$211k 85% Other US$40k US$40k 15% Total Compensation US$276k US$251k 100%

On an industry level, roughly 68% of total compensation represents salary and 32% is other remuneration. Iofina pays out 85% of remuneration in the form of a salary, significantly higher than the industry average. If salary dominates total compensation, it suggests that CEO compensation is leaning less towards the variable component, which is usually linked with performance.

Iofina plc's Growth

Iofina plc has seen its earnings per share (EPS) increase by 50% a year over the past three years. In the last year, its revenue is up 22%.

Shareholders would be glad to know that the company has improved itself over the last few years. It's also good to see decent revenue growth in the last year, suggesting the business is healthy and growing. Historical performance can sometimes be a good indicator on what's coming up next but if you want to peer into the company's future you might be interested in this free visualization of analyst forecasts.

Story continues

Has Iofina plc Been A Good Investment?

Iofina plc has generated a total shareholder return of 2.0% over three years, so most shareholders wouldn't be too disappointed. But they probably wouldn't be so happy as to think the CEO should be paid more than is normal, for companies around this size.

To Conclude...

As we noted earlier, Iofina pays its CEO in line with similar-sized companies belonging to the same industry. But earnings growth for the company has been strong over the last three years, though shareholder returns in comparison haven't been as impressive. Considering overall performance, we'd say the compensation is fair, although stockholders will want to see higher returns moving forward.

CEO pay is simply one of the many factors that need to be considered while examining business performance. That's why we did our research, and identified 3 warning signs for Iofina (of which 1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) that you should know about in order to have a holistic understanding of the stock.

Important note: Iofina is an exciting stock, but we understand investors may be looking for an unencumbered balance sheet and blockbuster returns. You might find something better in this list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

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.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
In a pact that is likely to change the film industry, Universal and AMC have agreed to allow the studio's movies to make their way to premium video-on-demand (PVOD) platforms after only 17 days of play at theaters. The agreement is a significant change from the status quo. Traditionally, studios have shown their films at cinemas for about three months before making them available for home viewing.

The new deal covers Universal films, as well as features from its specialty label, Focus Features. After a theatrical run of at least three weekends, the studio will have the option of releasing its films on premium video-on-demand platforms, including AMC's Theaters On Demand service.

AMC and Universal did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, but as The Hollywood Reporter points out, it appears they will share PVOD revenue. That point is what seems to have tipped the scales for the country's largest theater chain. "AMC enthusiastically embraces this new industry model both because we are participating in the entirety of the economics of the new structure, and because premium video on demand creates the added potential for increased movie studio profitability, which should in turn lead to the green-lighting of more theatrical movies," said AMC CEO Adam Aron.

The agreement comes after the two companies had a falling out in April. Aron said the chain would not play Universal movies at any of its theaters across the US, Europe and the Middle East after Universal floated the idea of releasing its films in cinemas and at home on the same day.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Trolls World Tour, one of the movies Universal released directly to PVOD platforms like Apple TV this past spring, made $95 million after three weeks. Jeff Shell, the head of NBCUniversal, told the paper that "as soon as theaters reopen, we expect to release movies on both formats."

The deal could present a way forward for an industry dealing with the ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic. The health crisis forced theaters across the US to close in March. AMC currently plans to reopen sometime in mid- to late-August. It could also give some movies, which currently have no release date thanks to deals studios signed to show them at theaters, a way to make their way online.
KITs doctoral programs offer the opportunity to pursue a doctorate as part of a research program and a structured qualification concept. Doctoral programs focus on the education of doctoral students in future-oriented research areas as well as on the support of their personal career development and scientific autonomy. In addition, the programs support early networking, internationalization, and interdisciplinary cooperation of doctoral students.

KIT offers young scientists not only the doctoral programs mentioned below but also graduate schools and research training groups in a variety of disciplines.
A suspect wanted in connection to a fatal shooting in Lynn earlier this year has been captured in Maine after being added to the Massachusetts State Police most wanted fugitives list, officials said Tuesday.

Derell Guy, 34, was wanted by authorities in connection with a Jan. 4 shooting on Howard Street in Lynn that killed 25-year-old Bryan Omar Mendez, according to state police.

After Guy was added to the most wanted list, troopers received tips this week that placed Guy near Wilton, Maine, a small, former mill town northwest of Augusta, state police said in a statement.

Those tips were shared with Maine State Police and the US Marshals office in Portland, Maine. On Monday, police in Wilton saw Guy and tried to arrest him, but the suspect ran off, the statement said.

At 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Guy was seen in a wooded area near Earth Way in Carthage, Maine, and was captured by a team of Maine troopers, Maine Game Wardens and U.S. Marshals Service Deputies, officials said. The town of Carthage is next to Wilton.

Guy is being held in Maine pending rendition to Massachusetts. The Lynn shooting, a homicide case, will be prosecuted by the Essex County District Attorneys office.

MSP Most Wanted List member DERELL GUY has been apprehended in Maine by @USMarshalsHQ . MSP developed info on his whereabouts and forwarded to our partners with USMS, who located and arrested him around midday today. GUY is wanted for a January homicide of Bryan Mendez in Lynn. pic.twitter.com/fjhy3FMhQM  Mass State Police (@MassStatePolice) July 28, 2020

Related Content:
For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here.

Andytown Coffee Roasters has temporarily closed all its cafes and roasting plant after a former employee tested positive for COVID-19.

The San Francisco coffee roaster shared the news Monday in a detailed Instagram post that specified the closure could last through Aug. 2 as each employee that came in contact with the infected staff member awaits to be tested for the virus or is asymptomatic for at least two weeks.

Out of an abundance of caution, we are closing all locations  even the one that the employee in question never set foot in, the post read. In the past 8 days since exposure, our staff have crossed paths with each other, and we think the safest thing to do is to shut down everything until we can either get tested or are past the CDC-reccomended [sic] 14 days from last exposure.

According to the post, the former employee tested positive on July 22, just after their final work shift at the Andytown Coffee location at 3629 Taraval on July 18. Andytown Coffee wrote that the employee passed temperature checks and didnt show any symptoms. No other employees have shown symptoms since the exposure, the post added.

ALSO: Popular Japanese food truck and SF restaurant will close at end of the month

In this crisis, business owners have to prioritize safety over income, Crabbe told Eater SF. No matter how big or small your business is, no amount of money is worth risking lives. If a few days of closure means that we can be assured that our team and customers are safe, then thats a very small price to pay.

Lauren Crabbe, Andytown co-owner, told Eater SF that its possible that the Andytown Coffee locations and the roastery at 3016 Taraval could reopen before the projected Aug. 2 date, but only if every employee can get tested earlier.

The closures come days after other San Francisco businesses have recently shuttered due to COVID-19 exposures. On Friday, Square Pie Guys and Hetchy's Hots, a chicken sandwich delivery restaurant that operates inside the Square Pie Guys' kitchen, both closed Friday and have not yet reopened.

ALSO: It's Tops survived for decades in San Francisco, but couldn't ride out COVID-19

The popular sandwich shop, Deli Board, also closed its doors last week following its own COVID-19 scare. The business plans to reopen July 30.

Andytown Coffee has three S.F. locations and one coffee-roasting plant in the city. Find their locations here.

Susana Guerrero is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: Susana.Guerrero@sfgate.com | Twitter: @SusyGuerrero3

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:

Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus here.

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Wealthy medical, banking, and mining sector professionals are snapping up high-end South West properties as the prospect of holidaying overseas any time soon diminishes.

Mack Hall Real Estate South West representative Mitch Thorson said there had been a spike in inquiries in multi-million dollar properties and an increase in actual sales.

The property has sold, but there are three written offers waiting in the wings in case the deal stalls. Credit:Acton South West

"The most interesting for me is the interest from high net wealth people from the medical world," he said.

"People who can rustle up $3-5 million. Its a scenario thats unfolded in the last few months thats quite intriguing."




LAWYERS have taken police to court over a litany of new demands imposed by the law enforcement agents on the public over passage at police checkpoints during the COVID-19 lockdown.





President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week imposed new lockdown measures to curb the surge in COVID-19 cases and the police immediately responded by listing fresh requirements on top of exemption letters for employees still permitted to report for work to be allowed passage at the check points.





The police now demand health workers to be in uniform and those in civilian attire to have a letter from a medial superintendent stating the place and date of reporting on and off duty.





Employees are now required to have letters from their chief executive officers stating the place, days and time of reporting on and off duty, among other demands.





But the Young Lawyers Association of Zimbabwe (YLAZ), a grouping of over 200 lawyers and a citizen, Nontokozo Tichaona, also a practising lawyer, have taken the police to court over the latest demands claiming they were unconstitutional.





In an urgent chamber application filed at the High Court yesterday, YLAZ and Tichaona said the respondent acted illegally and unconstitutionally by assuming law-making powers, which does not exist in terms of any law.





Respondents intend to use the law which they created illegally at the expense of applicants fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution, the lawyers said.





Applicants stand to suffer irreparable harm should their fundamental rights (be) infringed as is being contemplated by the Press statement.





There will not be adequate compensation to the curtailment of their right to free movement, right to administrative justice and their convenience which they are entitled to in terms of the Constitution as read with current lockdown measures.





YLAZ said they had nowhere else to turn to for the protection of their rights and prevention of the pending harm except approaching the court.





They said they acted within 24 hours or immediately after coming across the Press statement on various social media platforms.





One of the lawyers, Emma Kate Drury, in her founding affidavit said the matter was urgent on the grounds that the respondents had acted illegally and unconstitutionally by assuming law-making powers, which does not exist in terms of any law.





Respondents intended to use law which they created illegally to stop applicants and other ordinary citizens from enjoying their rights to freedom of movement and other freedoms as provided in the Constitution, the founding affidavit reads.





YLAZ and Tichaona are being represented by Obey Shava of Shava Law Chambers.




Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 22:58:26|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

- - - -

SINGAPORE -- Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 359 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 51,197.

Of the new cases, two are imported cases, one is community case and the rest are linked with the dormitories of foreign workers. Among the cases, 99 percent are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

- - - -

FUZHOU -- Eastern China's Fuzhou has demanded a "wartime" preparedness after an asymptomatic COVID-19 case from Dalian, where new clusters have been reported, reportedly visited several crowded venues in the city.

The city's COVID-19 prevention and control authorities said on Tuesday they had ordered all districts and counties to be prepared like in wartime, and to defend local communities with "the most decisive measures."

- - - -

LUSAKA -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Zambia reached 5,002 on Tuesday, its health ministry announced.

Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary in charge of administration Kennedy Malama said the country recorded 450 new cases in the last 24 hours and two deaths.

- - - -

DALIAN -- More than 2.96 million samples for nucleic acid tests of COVID-19 had been collected by Monday in the city of Dalian after new cases began to emerge last week, local authorities said on Tuesday.

A total of 8,107 medics have been mobilized to collect samples at more than 2,000 sites across the city in northeast China's Liaoning Province, according to Zhao Lian, deputy director of the city's health commission.

- - - -

BISHKEK -- Kyrgyzstan's total COVID-19 cases reached 33,844 on Tuesday, after 548 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours.

Eight of the new cases are medical workers, raising the tally of contracted medical workers to 2,691, Ainura Akmatova, head of the public healthcare department of the country's health ministry, told a daily news briefing.

- - - -

BERLIN -- The rapid rise in Germany's COVID-19 cases is very worrying, the country's health agency Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said on Tuesday.

"We had all managed to keep the number of cases stable over several weeks" in Germany, said RKI President Lothar Wieler. Around four weeks ago, only 300 to 500 new cases had been recorded by the RKI daily. At some time, the figures had been even lower.

- - - -

ULAN BATOR -- Mongolia on Tuesday decided to extend the country's heightened state of readiness until Aug. 31 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The extension is part of efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the State Emergency Commission said in a statement.

As of Tuesday, Mongolia has confirmed 289 COVID-19 cases with no local transmissions or deaths.

- - - -

MINSK -- Belarus reported 115 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, taking its tally to 67,366, according to the country's health ministry.

There have been 177 new recoveries in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 60,669, the ministry added.

- - - -

COLOMBO -- Sri Lanka's health ministry said the country's COVID-19 recovery rate was high above the global rate and those highly affected countries, local media reported on Tuesday.

According to the ministry, Sri Lanka's current COVID-19 recovery rate is 75.7 percent, compared with an average 61.21 percent in the world, 63.9 percent in India and 47.81 percent in the United States. Enditem
Maharashtra minister on Tuesday accused BJP leader of misleading people over the issue, which is being heard by the

The on Monday assured the that it would not proceed with the recruitment process to fill up the vacancies on the basis of 12 per cent till September 15, except for departments of public health and medical education and research.

Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly and former chief minister on Monday said he was surprised at the state government's submission before the apex court.

ALSO READ: Tamil Nadu CM asks PM to continue with current OBC reservation policy

Reacting to it, Chavan, who heads the Maharashtra cabinet subcommittee on Maratha reservation, told reporters on Tuesday that "either some people do not understand the issue or they are deliberately misleading people, is my firm opinion."



Mukul Rohatgi, appearing on behalf of the State of Maharashtra, submitted before the that as per a state government's resolution (GR) passed on May 4, except for departments of public health and medical education and research, all the other departments shall not undertake any type of fresh recruitment process.

Chavan said the government's submission in the apex court on Monday was a reference to the GR issued on May 4.

"It is a clear indication that Fadnavis is misleading people over the issue," the minister said.

"Fadnavis also claimed it was painful for him to know the state government would put recruitments on hold till the decision (of the apex court) is out. He must have forgotten that he made a similar assurance before the Bombay High Court in December 2018. I am keen to find out whether it pained Fadnavis to make such a submission before the court or not, the senior Congress leader said.

The Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act-2018 was enacted to grant reservation to people of the Maratha community in Maharashtra in jobs and admissions.

The Bombay High Court, while upholding the law in June last year, held that 16 per cent reservation was not justifiable and said the quota should not exceed 12 per cent in employment and 13 per cent in admissions.

The Supreme Court is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the high court order and the Maharashtra law granting reservation to Marathas in education and jobs.
Parler: Twitter users flocking to alternative social media to 'engage without censorship'

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Parler, the social media app thats billed as a platform for free and open dialogue, said it would continue to counter technocronyism following Twitter's announcement that it would be cracking down on accounts and censoring content it deems as harmful.

After Twitter released a statement Tuesday saying it would be permanently banning accounts, a spokesperson for the social media giant told NBC News that some 150,000 accounts would be affected.

Weve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm. In line with this approach ... we are taking further action on so-called QAnon activity across the service, Twitter said last week.

QAnon, which is followed by more than 3 million people on various social media platforms, has posited that deep state elites are entrenched in such things as the occult and sex trafficking. However, many on the left and right view QAnon as a source of conspiracy theories and misinformation.

Numerous complaints have been levied against Twitter over the years for its censorship of conservatives, Christians, and pro-life groups, including the banning of ads and effectively muting accounts by shadowbanning users' posts. Because of this, many Twitter users have opened accounts with Parler and are encouraging others to follow suit.

Parler, which has 2.7 million users, says it doesnt censor content based on politics or ideology, or mine or sell user data." And it will "continues to stand with the people and against technocronyism."

The app was co-founded by John Matze Jr. and Jared Thomson, both of whom studied computer science at the University of Denver, according to Fox Business. Matze is Parler's CEO and Thomson is the company's CTO.

On June 25, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, announced on Twitter that he'd joined Parler. He cited big techs shadowbanning and the silencing of those with whom they disagree as his reasons for jumping on board.

Im proud to join @parler_app  a platform that gets what free speech is all about  and Im excited to be a part of it. Lets speak. Lets speak freely. And lets end the Silicon Valley censorship. Follow me there, Cruz tweeted.

Jessica Scaggs, deputy press secretary for Cruz, told The Christian Post that social media companies are threatening the future of democracy.

Time and time again, big tech and their Silicon Valley billionaire overlords have failed the American people," she said. "They silence those with whom they disagree with, from conservative media organizations like The Federalist to the President of the United States and millions of Americans in between.

They (big tech companies) threaten the integrity of our elections and the future of our democracy. Thats why Sen. Cruz has joined Parler  an unbiased social media platform where he can engage with the American people without censorship. In the Senate, Sen. Cruz will continue working to hold big tech accountable to the American people.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who joined Parler in 2018 when it was launched, welcomed Cruz and Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., to the platform by posting a message on Twitter, saying: "Its about time yall joined me on @parler_app. Whats taking the rest of you so long?!"

Also on the platform is Lila Rose, president and founder of the pro-life group Live Action, who spoke at the White House summit on big tech and social media censorship last year.

At the summit, Rose said Live Action had not only been barred from doing any advertising on Twitter, but their accounts had been periodically shut down for espousing pro-life views.

"They told us that in order to reinstate our accounts we'd have to stop calling for the defunding of Planned Parenthood and stop sharing our pro-life content," Rose said at the time.

While President Donald Trump is not on Parler, the Trump 2020 Campaign, Eric Trump and his wife, Laura Trump, have accounts on the platform.

Free speech advocate and author of Dont Burn This Book, Dave Rubin, who's also on Parler, noted that Twitter frequently fails to remove hate speech and threats of violence from leftist groups and terrorist organizations. He replied directly to Twitter Safety last week with the quip, Antifa and Hamas totally cool though.

An example of violence-inciting speech that continues to be allowed on Twitter is the hashtag #killalljews that first trended in 2015 and can still be found today.

Additionally, many Twitter users said they were locked out of their accounts last week for using the Star of David as their profile photo. The users were subsequently notified that the symbol of Judaism has been deemed a symbol of hate by the social media giant, which announced Thursday that it now has 186 million daily users.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the Campaign Against Antisemitism had been contacted by "several Twitter users ... to report that their accounts had been locked by the social media platform."

Users explained that they also received a message from Twitter that said: "We have determined that this account violated the Twitter Rules. Specifically for: Violating our rules against posting hateful imagery. You may not use hateful images or symbols in your profile image or profile header. As a result, we have locked your account."

The Star of David has been for almost two centuries a symbol of Judaism and Jewish identity for a people who were stateless, said Parler Strategic Investor Jeffrey Wernick in a statement shared with The Christian Post.

For me as a Jew, it symbolizes my love for Judaism, which does not conflict in any way with my love for my nation and my love for humanity," he added. "To designate it, if the allegations are true, as a hateful image, is not only an act of hate but also likely libelous and slanderous. The desire to remove a symbol of my Jewish identity as 'hateful imagery' is, to me, no different than the desire to remove me as hateful just because I am Jewish."

Even though Parler bills itself as a venue for free speech, it does stipulate that users must follow its rules against defamation, spam, blackmail and porn.

It also does not allow terrorist organizations or support thereof, unsolicited ads, fighting words or threats to harm, indecency, obscenity, impersonation or plagiarism, and bribery.

Some on the left have tested Parler's free speech limits by posting sexually explicit images and fecal matter to harass users. Those accounts were summarily banned from Parler, The Washington Post reported.

Twitter, meanwhile, does allow pornography. In an interview on the "Joe Rogan Podcast" in March 2019, Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Twitter, said porn will never be banned on the platform.

According to CNBC, Parler's prominence grew last month after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump campaign was looking for social media alternatives amid concerns that its messages and ads could be censored by Facebook and Twitter.

Two days after the WSJ report, "Parler was the top-ranked iPhone app in the news category, ahead of Twitter and Reddit, and 24th overall, just behind Venmo and WhatsApp, according to App Annie," CNBC reported.

Matze told CNBC that "user growth surged to 1.5 million from 1 million over the course of about a week" in June.

While some have called Parler the conservative alternative to Twitter, Matze said the app wasn't created to cater to Republicans; it just attracted Republicans who felt disenfranchised by other social media platforms. Matze told Forbes that he's aware the majority of the apps users are conservative, and he's working on drawing more liberals to the platform.

"Hes so intent on getting some liberals onto the platform that hes offering a $20,000 'progressive bounty' for an openly liberal pundit with 50,000 followers on Twitter or Facebook to start a Parler account," CNBC reported of Matze, who's not affiliated with any political party.

"The whole company was never intended to be a pro-Trump thing," Matze said. "A lot of the audience is pro-Trump. I don't care. I'm not judging them either way."

Melissa Barnhart contributed to this report
Platform is part of effort to balance the centre-left establishment with the partys increasingly vocal progressives.

Reflecting candidate Joe Bidens careful positioning in the United States presidential campaign, a key Democratic Party committee has approved a 2020 platform that presents a liberal outline for the country but rejects many policies pursued by the lefts most outspoken progressives.

The document (PDF), approved by Democrats platform committee on a voice vote late on Monday, now goes to more than 4,000 Democratic delegates who will vote by mail on whether to approve the document in advance of the partys August convention, which will take place almost entirely online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The final draft endorses universal healthcare coverage but, as Biden does, calls for a public option insurance plan to compete in existing private insurance markets as the next step. Committee members overwhelmingly rejected amendments to more explicitly endorse the single-payer insurance model like Bernie Sanders has pushed.

In a lengthy passage demanding an overhaul of the criminal justice system, Democrats decry the effects of a decades-long war on drugs. But committee members rejected an amendment calling to legalise cannabis. The same section demands an end to police violence against Americans, but it does not endorse some activists calls to defund the police.

In total, the platform is part of Bidens effort to balance the centre-left establishment that has been his political home for decades with the partys ascendant progressive wing represented by high-profile figures like Sanders, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

In fact, the drafting process included a series of policy committees that Bidens campaign convened with Sanders campaign after the Vermont senator finished as runner-up in the nominating fight. Ocasio-Cortez was included in that process, while Warren has emerged as a key policy adviser who talks regularly with Biden.

Incredibly, the 2020 Dem platform calls for the US to rejoin the corrupt UN Human Rights Council. Which thing do the Dems like best, the extreme bias against Israel, the refusal to denounce Chinas concentration camps, or the support for communist dictators in Cuba & Venezuela?  Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) July 28, 2020

Bidens goal has been to avoid the kind of rancour that hobbled Hillary Clintons general election campaign four years ago, even as President Donald Trump and Republicans lambaste the former vice president as captive to a radical left.

The platform committee repeatedly voted on Monday not to modify language that would push the party closer to embracing Sanders Medicare for All health insurance model, sticking with Bidens preferred language promising to build on the 2010 healthcare law signed by President Barack Obama.

Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and former health commissioner for the city of Detroit, argued that the coronavirus outbreak demonstrates why the country needs a single-payer system like Medicare for All rather than just an expansion of the Affordable Care Act.

We have an opportunity to go bigger because this moment demands it, El-Sayed said, arguing for an amendment that was eventually defeated.

Remember in 2014 when we heard annexation was among the worst crimes a nation could commit & must be punished? Yesterday, 131 member of the DNC Platform Committee voted *against* denying US aid to Israel if they annex the West Bank. Only 34 voted yes:https://t.co/pCtdHGjXXP  Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 28, 2020

Cecilia Munoz, who was director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Obama, countered that the platform was already shaping up to be the most progressive ever proposed by Democrats. She also noted that it incorporated the work of the Biden-Sanders task forces that had laboured to craft language to appeal across the Democratic spectrum.

Im proud and thankful that the Biden-Sanders unity task force has outlined such a progressive statement on our partys views on this issue, Munoz said. I believe we should retain that language, the language that they negotiated.

On climate, the platform calls for rejoining international alliances of nations agreeing to sharp reductions in carbon pollution. Biden, after working with progressives, agreed explicitly to the goal of making the nations energy grid carbon neutral by 2035. That detail does not appear in the platform. The document also makes no mention of some Democrats Green New Deal legislative proposals that includes even more aggressive timelines.





The partys discussion of law enforcement reflects the nations reckoning with systemic racism.

Our criminal justice system is failing to keep communities safe, the draft reads, adding that police brutality is a stain on the soul of our nation. The platform calls for strict national standards governing the use of force and for the nation to reimagine policing for the benefit and safety of the American people, with the US Justice Department taking a more active role in collecting statistics on police violence and investigating departments where it is alleged. But the document stops short of activists calls to defund the police, reflecting Bidens position on the matter.

Trump has sought to link Biden to the activists calls for eliminating traditional law enforcement.

Still, Democrats draft language on policing and law enforcement is significantly sharper than a much shorter section on the matter in 2016. That platform called for improving police-community relations but emphasised: Across the country, there are police officers inspiring trust and confidence, honorably doing their duty  demonstrating that it is possible to prevent crime without relying on unnecessary force. They deserve our respect and support.
First-of-its-kind study finds that, even when demographics and health conditions are comparable, women on public insurance report less respect, choice, and autonomy in their maternity care than women on private insurance.

Giving birth in the United States is a radically different experience based on race and income, illustrated most brutally by the Black and Indigenous maternal mortality crisis.

Now, a new study from the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and the National Partnership for Women & Families finds insurance type itself also plays a role in how mothers are treated, and how much agency they have in maternity decisions.

Published in the journal PLOS ONE, the first-of-its-kind study is part of Listening to Mothers in California, which examined women's experiences giving birth in California hospitals in 2016.

The study finds that, after adjusting for demographics and health conditions, a mother on Medicaid is three times less likely than a mother on private insurance to feel she had a choice about whether she had a vaginal or cesarean birth, or an episiotomy. Compared to private coverage, coverage by Medi-Cal (California's Medicaid program) was also associated with being about half as likely to have a choice of prenatal provider or to be encouraged by maternity care staff to make one's own decisions about labor and birth.

"This study is the largest to date using women's voices to examine their maternity experiences in births funded by Medicaid," says study lead author Dr. Eugene Declercq, professor of community health sciences at BUSPH and a member of the Listening to Mothers team.

"It documents the limitations on their ability to share in decisions about their own care, and is a call for clinicians and policymakers to make changes that ensure equitable rights for all mothers, regardless of insurance status," he says.

"Every indictor of disrespect and limit on choice that we examined was worse for women with Medi-Cal versus private insurance," says Carol Sakala, director of maternal health at the National Partnership for Women & Families and the survey's principal investigator. "This suggests women with Medi-Cal systemically receive substandard quality of care. Our results sound alarm bells about missed opportunities for mitigating the maternal health crisis within the Medi-Cal program.

For their analysis, the researchers used survey data from 1,087 women with commercial private insurance and 1,231 women enrolled in Medi-Cal. The sample was demographically representative of all live births in California that year.

The researchers then analyzed the relationships between the different insurance types and the women's experiences around maternal agency, including decision-making about interventions such as vaginal birth after cesarean and episiotomy, feeling pressured to have interventions, and their sense of fair treatment. The researchers then adjusted for the women's demographics, including income, as well as attitudes toward birth, type of prenatal care provider, type of birth attendant, and pregnancy complications, to identify how much of the difference in experiences was associated with insurance type.

Of course, the authors note, demographics and conditions are rarely equal for mothers on private and public insurance: In this sample, over half of non-Latina Black women and over two-thirds of Latina women were on Medi-Cal, compared to just over a quarter of non-Latina white women and just under a quarter of non-Latina Asian and Pacific Islander women; the majority of women born outside of the U.S. were on Medi-Cal; and 85% of women who spoke Spanish at home were on Medi-Cal. Before accounting for these and other demographic differences, many of the gaps between privately- and publicly-insured mothers' experiences were twice as large.

However, the researchers also found that insurance type may also influence other forms of discrimination: After adjusting for demographics and other factors, women with Medi-Cal were twice as likely to report that they were treated unfairly because of their race/ethnicity (particularly Asian and Pacific Islander women), and four times as likely because of the language they spoke.

With Medicaid covering 42% of childbearing women in the United States, the authors write, the program has huge potential to improve maternal health, and better treatment for Medicaid enrollees would have a profound effect on overall equity in maternal health.

"It is critical that maternity care providers--and really any gatekeepers to care--are made aware of these inequities," says study co-author Dr. Candice Belanoff, clinical associate professor of community health sciences at BUSPH, "and that they take steps to ensure equitable treatment and access regardless of insurer."

###

About the Boston University School of Public Health

Founded in 1976, the Boston University School of Public Health is one of the top five ranked private schools of public health in the world. It offers master's- and doctoral-level education in public health. The faculty in six departments conduct policy-changing public health research around the world, with the mission of improving the health of populations--especially the disadvantaged, underserved, and vulnerable--locally and globally.

About the National Partnership for Women & Families

The National Partnership for Women & Families is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group dedicated to promoting fairness in the workplace, reproductive health and rights, access to quality, affordable health care, and policies that help all people meet the dual demands of work and family.
Daisy at the vets and the car which it is believed she was thrown from. (SWNS)

The RSPCA have launched an investigation after a thug hurled a kitten out of a moving car like a piece of rubbish.

The 12-week-old cat was seen being thrown out of the vehicle on Audley Road, in Stoke-on-Trent, at around 11.55am on Saturday.

Another driver pulled over and carried the injured kitten off the road before rushing it to a nearby vets.

The cat survived and has been named Daisy by the vets, but the RSPCA and police have appealed for help in tracing those responsible for her injuries.

The RSPCA have released a picture of the dark blue car Daisy was thrown from as they launched an appeal to catch the culprits.

The police are investigating and urging anyone with information to come forward. (SWNS)

RSPCA Inspector Caren Goodman-James said: This is such a shocking incident. It is so upsetting to think anyone would consider doing this to an animal.

The car was on Audley Road just before the junction with Merelake Road and travelling towards Alsager from the A500 junction when Daisy was thrown out of the window.

The poor kitten was seen hitting the road and rolled over a few times before stopping.

The witness in the car behind had to swerve to avoid hitting her and initially thought she was a piece of rubbish that had been thrown out of the car.

It was only when the kitten moved her head up did they realise it was an animal and stopped their car to help.

Read more: New UK law will raise maximum jail time for animal abusers to five years

We are so grateful to the driver that stopped to help poor Daisy. This poor kitten was just thrown to the kerb like a piece of rubbish.

I have dealt with incidents of animals being dumped and abandoned before but this is

extreme. It is very lucky that this little kitten survived.

The vet is hopeful that Daisy will pull through but the next 36 hours are crucial.

She has a pull injury to her tail which means her tail will need to be amputated and she has a lower jaw fracture and head trauma.

There may be more damage but until she is fully stable we wont know the full extent of her injuries.

We are hopeful there are other people who know what happened or have footage of it which could help us track down the person that did this to poor Daisy.

I would urge anyone who may know where this kitten has come from to call our inspector appeal line as soon as possible on 0300 123 8018.
Bihar Police has started its process of recruiting people for the posts of Forester. It is inviting application for the post for which any 12th pass person can apply. The selected candidates will be appointed in Level 5 of the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC). This is because the Bihar government had implemented the 7th pay commission for its state government employees. All in all, there are 236 vacancies for this particular post and doors are open till September 10, 2020, for applications.

The appointee will come under Level-5 of 7th CPC pay matrix, which means the monthly salary will range from Rs 29,200 to Rs 92,300, reported Zee Business.Apart from the pay based on 7th CPC, the selected candidates will also get certain perks associated with Level 5. They will get dearness and other allowances.

Bihar Police Forester vacancy details

Out of the 236 vacancies, only 91 will be unreserved. Rest will be divided as - 23 are reserved for the EWS candidates, 125 vacancies are reserved for the Schedule Caste, 49 for the extremely backward class, 37 for the Schedule Tribe while 9 seats for the SC Female candidates and 3 vacancies for the ST Female candidates.

Bihar Police Forester eligibility criteria

The applicant should be the age group of 18 to 25 years and its age will be calculated on January 1, 2020. The only other criteria is that the applicant should have passed Class 12 (intermediate) from any board with science stream subjects i.e Physics, Chemistry.

For further details, log in at

csbc.bih.nic.in/Advt/EFC/Advt-04-2020-Forester.pdf to get the latest update.

Application for the post will be accepted online. The website will start accepting application since form yesterday July 27.

Also Read: Govt tweaks FDI rules; NRIs can now acquire up to 100% stake in Air India

Also Read: India's crackdown on Chinese apps irks China, vows to protect firms' interests
(Natural News) Democrats for Life led a coalition against the Democrat Partys explicit support for abortion extremism in its national platform in an open letter released on Friday.

(Article by Alexa Moutevelis republished from NewsBusters.org)

The letter, which pointed out abortions disturbing parallels to Dred Scott, was signed by a diverse group of over 100 Democrat and independent religious leaders, professors and community leaders, according to LifeNews.

This letter demonstrates the strength of opposition to Joe Bidens beliefs about abortion, especially from Democratic voters of color and religious voters, Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life, told LifeNews. The Democratic Party should seek to include these voters, rather than pushing them into the arms of the Republican Party.

The AP reported,

Among the signatories of the letter are the Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition and a member of former President Barack Obamas faith-based advisory council; and John DeBerry, a longtime Tennessee state representative and pastor who was recently removed from the Democratic primary ballot due in part to votes against the partys position.

The open letter to members of the Democratic Platform Committee of the Democratic National Committee began, Inspired by the Christian faith, we note that the Bible calls on us to speak up in favor of those who do not have a voice, citing 13 scripture verses related to when life begins and the taking of innocent life.

Furthermore, The Christian faith invites us to play a particular role in moving the conscience of the American people to end unjust discrimination against certain classes of people, as in previous civil rights movements.

But its not just their faith that compelled the group to speak for the unborn, they also refer to biology, law, racism and human rights  and they brought receipts! (links in original document)

Informed by human reason, we recall that 95% of biologists affirm the biological view that life begins at fertilization. Likewise, we recall the opinion of leading scholars, who have rejected Roe v. Wade as bad constitutional law. We recall that denying personhood to the pre-born child has disturbing parallels to Dred Scott vs. Sandford. Sadly, the US is just one of seven countries, alongside North Korea, to allow the horrific practice of elective late-term abortion after 20 weeks.

Citing an obligation to speak truth to power in the face of injustice and inequality, the group noted they do not presently speak to support or oppose particular candidates or parties and not all of the signatories are registered Democrats, but they appreciate the Democratic Partys stated commitment to human rights, equality, and fairness. Yeah, Democrats dont really walk the walk there.

The letter went on:

Accordingly, we urge the Democratic Party to embrace policies that protect both women and children: legal protection for pre-born children, improved prenatal care for women in need, especially women of color, alternatives to abortion, and a comprehensive culture of life free from violence, poverty and racism.

They called on Democrats to recognize the inviolable human dignity of the child, before and after birth, reject a litmus test on pro-life people of faith seeking office in the Democratic Party, and end the explicit support in your platform for abortion extremism, such as taxpayer-funded abortion in America and overseas, opposed by 60% and 76% of voters.

The letter ended noting, 79% of voters oppose elective abortion on demand and [t]hey deserve a home in the Democratic Party, too.

Lets hope someday Democrats get on the right side of history for once and embrace the pro-life issue in their platform.

Read more at: NewsBusters.org
MIAMI, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- After 77 years in business, Ramon Puig Guayaberas "La Casa de la Guayabera," is closing. Located at 5840 SW 8th St Miami FL 33144, the Calle Ocho flagship shop will be hosting a closing sale from Monday July 27th to Sunday August 2nd, 2020. The public is invited to visit the historic store one last time by appointment respecting CDC guidelines.

Ramon Puig

Established by the late Mr. Ramon Puig, the Puig legacy has continued with his son Louis Puig at the helm of the business for the last several years. After decades of dressing various U.S. Presidents, world leaders, and prominent figures in the Latin community, the brand has been recognized as an International success.

With notables including celebrities, actors, athletes and musicians such as Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Andy Garcia, Alex Rodriguez, Alonzo Mourning, and Ice Cube it's no wonder the brand has long been the go-to for those wanting to own the popular and timeless "guayabera" shirt.

The Internationally known Ramon Puig brand and the Puig guayabera transcended continents, race, ethnicity, traditions, cultural customs, and political views. Always on the cutting-edge of fashion, every generation has adopted Puig's authentic Cuban jewel as a favorite for their social events, birthdays, weddings, and other special occasions.

The garment has been worn for generations and became a symbol of hope and prosperity for the Cuban exiles which made the Ramon Puig Calle Ocho Guayabera store a world-renown Miami Icon. Sadly, due to Covid-19 Louis Puig has announced: " It is with deepest regret that we must close our store due to the current pandemic, the uncertain financial climate and the lack of government financial help, advice and direction".

Ownership and staff wish to thank the millions of customers and friends worldwide who have supported the Ramon Puig brand for the past 77 years. "It has been an incredible journey and we would not have made it this far without you", stated Louis Puig.

For those wanting to get their hands on an original Ramon Puig piece, the Calle Ocho store closing sale will take place from Monday July 27th to Sunday August 2nd. All merchandise will be discounted at 50% off at the store and online at www.ramonpuig.com.

ABOUT RAMON PUIG GUAYABERAS

Ramon Puig opened his first guayabera store in Cuba 1943, in the ancestral home of the garment, Sancti Espiritus, the city of his birth. Since he was a child, Puig showed an interest in tailoring and once of age, he learned and developed his skills under a local tailor and opened his first shop at the age of twenty-three. His iconic brand has been recognized in local and national press and noted as the guayabera among all guayaberas.

For more information, visit: www.ramonpuig.com.

Follow on social: Facebook & Instagram @ramonpuigguayaberas

*Interviews and photos available upon request*

Media Contact:

Liza Santana

305.968.2384

[email protected]

SOURCE Ramon Puig Guayaberas

Related Links

http://www.ramonpuig.com


CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Will the first presidential debate between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump at the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University attract protestors?

Were talking about the debate -- and the security and coronavirus preparation it will require -- on This Week in the CLE.

Listen online here.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour coronavirus news podcast, with editors Jane Kahoun, Kris Wernowsky and me, answering all sorts of questions from the news.

Youve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom account, in which he shares once or twice a day what were thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up for free by sending a text to 216-868-4802.

And youve been offering all sorts of great perspective in our coronavirus alert account, which has 13,000-plus subscribers. You can sign up for free by texting 216-279-7784.

Here are the questions were answering today:

1) Is Cleveland really adding to its history of hosting big political debates with the first meeting of Donald Trump and Joe Biden in less than two months? The first 2020 presidential debate will take place at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinics Health Education campus. The partnership stepped in after the University of Notre Dame withdrew from hosting the Sept. 29 debate because of the complexities COVID-19 created for its fall semester.

2) Did the Cleveland Clinic move up in the annual hospital rankings, and is its heart center number one for the 26th straight year? Yes. It jumped from No. 4 last year to No. 2 this year, same as it was in 2018. The Best Hospitals rankings, released on Tuesday, feature the Clinic among the top five hospitals in the nation for the 22nd consecutive year. The Clinic also earned national rankings in 14 of the 16 specialties included in the 2020-21 Best Hospitals rankings, including top-five finishes in nine specialties.

3) How far back in time is the FBI going in its work to root out corruption in the drive to bail out First Energys nuclear plants? At least 2017. A federal subpoena seeks records related to four FirstEnergy nuclear bailout bills, including three iterations introduced before Larry Householder became Ohio House speaker.

4) Do we have a budding motorcycle gang war in the offing in Cleveland after a high-profile killing? A fight between two motorcycle gangs ended with one gang member stabbed and another fatally shot at a Valley View gas station, and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation says the fight involved members of the motorcycle gangs the Mongols and the Hells Angels.

5) How is Cleveland City Council working to stop Cleveland kids from drinking so much soda and sugar? Its targeting kids meals. New Cleveland City Council legislation would require restaurants that have childrens menus to offer healthy drink options such as milk, water and juice, though sugary drinks and soda could still be options.

6) What will it take to get Larry Householder, who is charged with racketeering in a $60 million FirstEnergy bribery scheme, removed as Ohio speaker of the house? The most straightforward way is if Householder is convicted of conspiracy to commit racketeering. But the Ohio Constitution and house backup rules have other options.

7) How big of a deal is it that a lawyer has filed what he hopes will be a class-action lawsuit against FirstEnergy for investors who have lost a bunch of money because of the Statehouse bribery scandal? The suit wants the electricity company to refund customers for rate hikes that resulted from the bailout.

8) Is someone spraying swastikas on Jewish businesses and concerns in University Heights? Someone spray-painted a swastika and other graffiti on Waxman Torah Center, Mikas Wig Shop and Friedman, Leavitt and Associates accounting firm in what could be a hate crime.

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A teenage girl has died after her uncle allegedly threw her from an 11th floor apartment in Iran.

Fatemeh Ghozat, 16, was allegedly beaten and then murdered by her uncle Mojtaba Namdar after speaking out against his abuse on May 22.

The alleged incident took place in the Shahrah-e Aseman neighbourhood of Parand in southeast Tehran.

Fatemeh Ghozat, 16, (left and right) was allegedly beaten and then murdered by her uncle Mojtaba Namdar after speaking out against his abuse on May 22

The victim's mother is now speaking out after Namdar was released on bail just two weeks after the incident, Iran International TV reported.

Speaking to Iran International TV, Bariha Rahmani said: 'He threw my girl out of the window in front of my eyes, and then placed her body in my hands.

'He has now been released on bail and walks free. He threatens my son, and tells him, "It's your turn now!".

The victim's mother Bariha Rahmani (pictured) is now speaking out after Namdar was released on bail just two weeks after the incident

Flowers are laid in memory of 16-year-old Fatemeh Ghozati, who died on May 22

'I'm afraid for myself and my children.

'Tell me, in what other country in the world, when a murder has occurred and all the evidence points to the fact it was murder, would the accused be released on bail two weeks later?'

Relatives insist that Mojtaba Namdar confessed to killing Fatemeh in front of all their neighbours before emergency services arrived at the crime scene.

However, after the girl was pronounced dead, Mojtaba allegedly retracted the confession and claimed there had been no witnesses.

Legal analyst and Journalist at Iran International TV, Nargess Tavassolian said: 'This case is very strange, it is not known why the uncle was released after only two weeks.

'The most important issue is the independence of the judiciary so that a criminal cannot get off the hook through his "connections" and get freed on bail easily.'

She added: 'The judiciary is losing its independence more and more.

'There are only two cases where the law allows for the murderer to either escape punishment or receive a more lenient punishment, but none of these laws apply here.'
NEW YORK, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Already one of the largest and highest-grade gold producing districts, the Red Lake Mining District in northwestern Ontario has produced roughly 30 million ounces of high-grade gold. But through a series of recent discoveries in the region, it's evident that miners have still just barely scratched the surface, and that another gold rush catalytic moment is underway. The Red Lake region is still home to many mining and exploration projects making headway in 2020, including from Portofino Resources Inc. (TSX-V:POR) (OTCPK:PFFOF), Great Bear Resources (TSX-V:GBR) (OTCQX:GTBAF), Pure Gold Mining (TSX-V:PGM) (OTCPK:LRTNF), Newmont Corporation (NYSE:NEM) (TSX:NGT), and Yamana Gold (TSX:YRI) (NYSE:AUY).

The Red Lake district's ~30 million ounces of gold have come mostly from the iconic Campbell and Red Lake gold mines, as well as ten smaller mines. Now with its South of Otter and Bruce Lake projects underway, Portofino Resources Inc. (TSXV:POR) (OTC:PFFOF) (FSE:POTA) has set itself up in close proximity to the high-grade Dixie gold project being drilled and explored by Great Bear Resources (TSXV:GBR) (OTCQX:GTBAF).

All of Portofino's projects are strategically located in historical and current mining districts, with nearby infrastructure and road access at hand.

Recently, the company announced it had commenced exploration on the 1,427-hectare Bruce Lake Gold Property, consisting of prospecting, rock, soil, and glacial till sampling, and geological mapping. Portofino hasn't wasted any time, having only acquired the Bruce Lake property at the end of June.

Using a sampling method that's recently proven successful in the Red Lake area on nearby gold mineralization, Portofino plans to collect approximately 200 soil samples for conventional analysis over a 50-meter sample spacing, including up to 50 glacial till samples over a 300-meter sample interval for gold grain analysis.

Located only 10km away from Portofino's Bruce Lake is the Dixie Gold Project from Great Bear Resources - dubbed as one of Canada's largest new gold discoveries.

The Dixie project was secured by Great Bear five years ago, which now consists of 9,140 hectares of contiguous claims that extend over 22km. Earlier this July, the company made a major announcement that it had expanded its LP Fault Gold System at depth, with 10.06g/t gold over 31.25m. Great Bear has completed 120 of approximately 300 planned drill holes into the LP Fault target, as part of its 5 kilometer long by 500 meter deep grid drill program.

Located just east of Ontario Highway 106, and only 9km east of Dixie, is Portofino's South of Otter Property, which comprises 5,207 hectares. Both Dixie and South of Otter share similar geology and structures.

The area where South of Otter resides has traditionally been known for its copper and zinc volcanogenic massive sulphide ("VMS") potential. However, the recent successes at Dixie have very seriously opened the possibility for significant gold mineralization at South of Otter.

Portofino Resources Inc. (TSXV:POR) (OTC:PFFOF) (FSE:POTA) has discovered geophysical anomalies coinciding with gold-in-soils chemical anomalies, and has applied for a trenching and drilling permit to test these targets. In June, the company announced it had mobilized a crew to follow up on sulphides discoveries made on the project.

The Changing of the Guard

Back in November of 2019, Newmont Corporation (NYSE: NEM) (TSX: NGT) made headlines when it sold its historic Red Lake mine . However, the company still maintains its Musselwhite Mine, located in the lesser explored portion of the Red Lake district known as the Birch-Uchi Greenstone Belt, in the Uchi Subprovince of the Canadian Shield.

So despite having sold the Red Lake Mine to Australia's Evolution Mining for US$375 million, Newmont's Musselwhite Mine is still an important asset for the company. Essentially a fly-in/fly-out operation located almost 500km north of Thunder Bay, the Musselwhite Mine initiated extraction in 1997. After a brief shutdown period for health reasons, in May, the company was able to restart operations as restrictions eased.

En route to starting production on another new Red Lake mine, Pure Gold Mining (TSXV: PGM) (OTC: LRTNF) recently celebrated the receipt of a " milestone " environmental permit. On what's been dubbed the Pure Gold Mine, the company still awaits the receipt of an amended industrial effluent permit for its sewage works. But after an initial regulatory review has already been completed, Pure Gold has said it's applied for an expedited approval process for this permit.

Pure Gold has also said that the underground operation will generate more than CA$470 million in direct salaries over the first phase of the mine's life, offering incentive for the jurisdiction to carry out the operation. The company is continuing its exploration drilling on the property, by following the trail of a gold system that's 7km in length, while also tapping into multiple other discoveries to help build out and prolong the mine's life.

Located to the southwest of the Red Lake Mine, Yamana Gold (TSX: YRI) (NYSE: AUY) is developing its own Red Lake project. Consisting of 542 hectares in two property positionsNorth Madsen and HeadwayYamana has secured significant mineral envelopes nearby Premier Gold Mines' Hasaga gold deposit and Newmont's former Red Lake Gold Mines operation. After seeing temporary suspensions at two of the company's mines earlier this year, Yamana revised its annual guidance in April, saying that its gold production is now tracking above expectations and ramping up mines that were closed faster than expected. Relief coming from revenues generated from gold production could provide exploration budgets on Red Lake, should the company allocate funds in that direction.

The ongoing trend at the moment is that Canadian interests should feature prominently during this economic shift. Most current mining mega deals involve Canadian companies, while record gold price forecasts are set to continue to boost prospects for junior mining companies. As the globe continues to struggle economically, Canadian miners are proving to be resilient, thus leading to the potential for regions such as Red Lake to continue to thrive and develop.

To get more information on Portofino Resources Inc. (TSXV: POR) (OTC: PFFOF) (FSE: POTA), please click here

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NCP chief Sharad Pawar has backed the stance adopted by his alliance partner and Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, saying that this is not the right time for large crowds to gather in Ayodhya for the ground-breaking ceremony for the Ram temple construction.

Speaking to CNN-News18, Pawar said that the bhoomi pujan ceremony can be done by a very select few people in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic as a large gathering may further lead to the virus spreading.

A question was asked to me about whether Im going to attend (the bhoomi pujan), so I said, Im sorry, Im not going to attend. I am not against the ceremony but my top priority is coronavirus and thats why Im concentrating here Im not going anywhere, he said.

According to members of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Ayodhya on August 5 for the "bhoomi pujan" ceremony to begin the construction of the Ram temple.

The veteran politician was at pains to point out that not wishing to attend the ceremony should not be construed as opposition to the construction of the temple itself.

The Supreme Court has already given a clear cut decision. I categorically say that we are not against the temple. Let very few people go and they can perform the puja while the others should concentrate on coronavirus, he added.

He said Thackerays suggestion, from what he had heard was for similar reasons. The CM was not very happy with the idea of a big assembly of people as coronavirus can spread in a large gathering, so thats why he made that suggestion, he said.

Thackeray had on Sunday said that the ceremony for the Ram temple construction in Ayodhya can be conducted through video-conference.

"An e-bhoomi pujan can be done. The ground-breaking ceremony can be held through video-conference. This is an event of joy, and lakhs of people would be interested in attending the ceremony. Will we allow the spread of coronavirus?" Thackeray said in an interview published in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

He had added that while he can go to Ayodhya for the ceremony, he asked if lakhs of Ram bhakts can be stopped from going there.
(Newser)  Authorities in Maine said Tuesday the shark that killed a woman in a rare attack off the state's coast was a great white, the same type of shark that served as the inspiration for the movie Jaws. The shark bite killed Julie Dimperio Holowach, 63, of New York City, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said. The shark fatally bit Holowach off Bailey Island on Monday while she was swimming. Scientists were able to later identify the shark as a great white using a tooth fragment, state officials said. Great whites aren't common in Maine, which is the northern tip of their range, but recent summers have brought reports of sightings of the giant fish, the AP reports. Authorities say two kayakers helped got Holowach to shore, but she was pronounced dead at the scene,

story continues below

There had previously only been one recorded unprovoked shark attack in Maine, and it was 10 years ago off Eastport, Maine Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher said. He said that bite involved a different species of shark. He described the Monday attack as "highly unusual," but added that it is cause for vigilance among beachgoers. "The rarity of this event does not mean its not going to happen again," Keliher said. The Marine Patrol has urged swimmers and boaters to use caution near Bailey Island and to avoid swimming near schooling fish or seals. Large sharks like great whites prey on seals, which are common off Maine. Two coastal state parks, Popham and Reid, are not allowing swimmers beyond waist deep water, state officials said.

(Read more shark attack stories.)
By PTI

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan government on Tuesday sent a revised proposal for an assembly session to Governor Kalraj Mishra, sticking to its demand that the sitting should begin on July 31 and refusing to mention if it would seek a trust vote.

Sources said the Cabinet took the stand after discussing the suggestions made by Mishra when he returned a proposal from the state government to summon a Vidhan Sabha session.

Amid nationwide protests by Congress workers over the Governor's apparent reluctance to call a session, Mishra had on Monday said he had no such intention.

But he sought a redrafted proposal, the second time in the past few days, including three points  a 21-day notice for calling a session, live broadcast of the proceedings if there is a trust vote, and social distancing.

In addition, the Governor had written that a session can be called at a short notice if the government says in its new proposal that it planned to seek a vote of confidence.

But sources said the Ashok Gehlot government has not mentioned in its new proposal whether it is seeking a vote of confidence in the assembly session, which it is still insisting should begin on July 31, the date it gave in its last recommendation.

Asked about the agenda of the proposed session, Transport Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said it was for the Business Advisory Committee of the assembly to decide.

On social distancing in the Vidhan Sabha to fight coronavirus, the minister said it was for the Speaker to make the arrangements.

"The BJP stands exposed. They are changing their statements," he said, in an apparent reference to the Speaker's last note.

The minister was also dismissive of the 21-day notice requirement.

ALSO READ | Didn't fulfil 'constitutional obligations': Lawyer files plea in Rajasthan HC to remove Guv Kalraj Mishra

He said '10 days' have already passed since the government proposed a session and asked why the Governor hadn't given a date himself.

"We want permission to call the assembly session, which is our right. We don't want any confrontation with the Governor and we hope that he will give his approval this time," Khachariyawas told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

"He has no right to be raising queries. Yet we are giving a reply," the minister said.

He said there was no rivalry with the Governor.

"He is the head of our family."

In his note, Governor Mishra had said media statements by the state government indicated that it wanted to prove its majority through a vote of confidence, but this has not been mentioned in its proposal.

"If the government wants to win a vote of confidence, then it can become a reasonable ground for calling the assembly session on a short notice, a press note said Monday, quoting the Governor.

This is the third time Ashok Gehlot government has sent a proposal to the Governor for an assembly session, amid the crisis the Congress faces in the state after a rebellion by Sachin Pilot and 18 other dissident MLAs.

The minister alleged that after Rajasthan, the BJP wants to target West Bengal, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

The Congress has alleged that the Mishra is acting "under pressure" from the BJP government at the Centre.

AICC general secretary Avinash Pande in a series of tweets questioned the Governor for not calling the assembly session.

"Kalraj Mishra is identified as a skilled administrator and a seasoned leader who respects political integrity, and holds a dignified post of the Governor of Rajasthan. His image has always been that of an idealistic leader," he said.

ALSO READ | Rajasthan Congress sends memorandum to President, seeks intervention to convene assembly session

"But in the context of the crisis in Rajasthan, the Governor of Rajasthan is adopting a biased approach to fulfil the interests of a particular party, which is violation of the rules mentioned in our Constitution," he added.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan BJP MLA Madan Dilawar on Tuesday filed two writ petitions challenging the assembly Speaker's decision to reject his complaint against the merger of six BSP MLAs with the Congress.

The first petition was filed this morning against a communication received from the assembly secretariat Monday that the complaint has been decided and rejected by the Speaker, the counsel for Dilawar said.

"Today, we got a detailed order of the Speaker (about the rejection of the complaint). Thereafter, we filed a second petition challenging the detailed order," the counsel said.

Dilawar had filed his complaint to the Speaker in March, and on July 24, he moved the high court alleging inaction by the Speaker on the issue he raised.

The High Court on Monday dismissed his petition as "having become infructuous" as the Speaker passed the order later on July 24.

In the fresh petitions filed on Tuesday against the Speaker's order, the MLA has challenged the validity, legality and correctness of the Speaker's July 24 order on his complaint filed in March.

In his complaint to the Speaker, he had prayed that the BSP MLAs be disqualified from the Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha under para 2 of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution.

Dilawar has alleged he was not heard by the Speaker before he decided his complaint on July 24.

On Monday, he had staged a dharna in the chamber of the assembly secretary to get a copy of the order and was given a communication saying that his complaint had been rejected.

A detailed order was given to him Tuesday.

Sandeep Yadav, Wajib Ali, Deepchand Kheria, Lakhan Meena, Jogendra Awana and Rajendra Gudha successfully contested the 2018 assembly elections on BSP tickets, but they all defected to the Congress in September 2019.

They submitted an application for merger on September 16, 2019 and the Speaker issued an order two days later.

The Merger of BSP MLAs with the ruling Congress was a boost to the Ashok Gehlot-led government as the tally of Congress increased to 107 in the house of 200.
Colleen Silk, brand manager, blamed the lack of customers downtown. In an email, she said that tourism in the Loop is down 68%, if not more, from last year and office buildings are still mostly closed. Since the restaurants re-opened June 30, they have seen an average of 15 to 20 customers a day, which is more than a 90% decrease since last year.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 21:28:18|Editor: huaxia

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the Northern Command Headquarters of Israel Defense Forces in Safed, northern Israel, on July 28, 2020. Netanyahu visited the Israel-Lebanon border on Tuesday, a day after a military escalation in the region. (David Cohen/JINI via Xinhua)

JERUSALEM, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Israel-Lebanon border on Tuesday, a day after a military escalation in the region.

The Israeli prime minister's office said he held a security assessment and briefing with Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff Aviv Kohavi and other senior officials at the military's Northern Command Headquarters.

The tour took place a day after Israel said an armed "terrorist squad" attempted to infiltrate into Israel and had fled back to Lebanon after Israeli troops opened fire. Israel also fired artillery into southern Lebanon.

"Everything happening now is the result of the effort by Iran and its Lebanese proxies to entrench militarily in our region," Netanyahu said during his tour.

He also accused Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah of "serving the Iranian interest at Lebanon's expense."

"I do not suggest that anybody try the IDF or the State of Israel. We are determined to defend ourselves," he warned, adding that the military is "well prepared for every possible scenario."

He warned that Israel will continue to "take action" to thwart Iran's military presence in the region. "We will do whatever is necessary to defend ourselves and I suggest that Hezbollah consider this simple fact," he said.

Hezbollah denied any involvement in Monday's incident, saying Israel's charges on thwarting an infiltration were "completely false."

On his Twitter account, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab condemned Israel saying that "Israel has once again violated Lebanon's sovereignty... in a dangerous military escalation."

The violence was the heaviest fighting along the volatile border in nearly a year.

Tensions along Israel's borders with Lebanon and Syria have been on the rise since a fighter with Hezbollah was killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike in Syria last week.
Soldiers to guard quarantine centres in Sicily after migrants flee en masse.

Italy's interior minister Luciana Lamorgese has announced plans to send the military to Sicily after around 100 migrants violated quarantine and fled a detention centre in Porto Empedocle on the western coast of the island on 27 July.

Lamorgese stated later that most of the missing migrants had been located and all had tested negative for covid-19, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

The interior minister has also pledged to send a navy ship, to be used for quarantine purposes, and organise transfers of migrants from Sicilian detention centres to elsewhere in Italy, reports Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

The migrants had been at a temporary tensile structure where they were undergoing a 14-day quarantine after arriving by boat from Tunisia in recent days.

The holding facility, which was previously guarded by civil protection authorities, will now be guarded by the military instead.

The incident in Porto Empedocle came after 184 migrants fled another detention centre in the Sicilian city of Caltanissetta on 26 July, with 125 of them located by the following day, according to the government.

Italian online newspaper Il Post reported that there were differing reasons for the two breakouts: in Caltanissetta the migrants had received "distorted information" about their imminent repatriation to Tunisia, while in the case of Porto Empedocle the overcrowded environment was described by mayor Ida Carmina as "inhuman conditions."

Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio has voiced concerns that such incidents may impede Italy's efforts to contain the spread of covid-19.

"The virus has not gone. Italian citizens, just like me, need to keep abiding by the rules that we set ourselves, and the same goes for tourists and those entitled to international protection," Di Maio said.

Photo La Repubblica
Dr. Anthony Fauci says he's concerned about the Midwest reopening, noting that hard-hit South and West states like Florida, Texas, Arizona and California look like "they may be cresting and coming back down."

States like Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee and Kentucky are "starting to have" a "very early indication" of rising COVID-19 positivity rates  a "surefire sign that youve got to be really careful," Fauci told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America" Tuesday.

MORE: Government predicted, but failed to address, racial disparities in global pandemic: Ex-officials

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases urged states to reopen in a manner consistent with the federal governments guidelines for reopening.

PHOTO: Pedestrians wear masks as they walk in front of a sign reminding the public to take steps to stop the spread of coronavirus, July 23, 2020, in Glendale, Calif. (Chris Pizzello/AP)

If the guidelines are followed, Fauci said, "I think we can prevent the surges that weve seen in the southern states, because we just cant afford, yet again, another surge."

Asked if the U.S. needs a coordinated, national reopening strategy, Fauci pointed to the guidelines the federal government had already released and asked states to "rethink what happens when you dont adhere to that."

PHOTO: A health care worker uses a picture to show a person how to use a nasal swab for a self administered test at the new federally funded COVID-19 testing site at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium on July 23, 2020, in Miami. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Fauci also responded to a claim retweeted by President Donald Trump that said the CDC and doctors are "lying."

Trump two weeks ago retweeted a post from former "Wheel of Fortune" host and conservative commentator Chuck Woolery, who wrote, "Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust. I think it's all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election."

MORE: Which US states require masks?

"I don't know how to address that. I'm just going to certainly continue doing my job," Fauci said. "You know, I don't tweet. I don't even read them."

"This is what I do, this is what I've been trained for my entire professional life, and I'll continue to do it," Fauci said. "I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances.

Story continues

Fauci also addressed hydroxychloroquine, the drug Trump self-administered that has since had its emergency authorization revoked by the FDA. Trump on Monday night tweeted his praises of the hydroxychloroquine, but Fauci told "GMA," "The overwhelming, prevailing clinical trials ... have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease."

This report was featured in the Tuesday, July 28, 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.

Fauci's concerned about Midwest reopening: 'Can't afford ... another surge' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
iStock/Seahorse Vector(FLORIDA) -- Residents in Florida and other states are bemoaning what they're calling "mask traps" -- that is, cops waiting in hiding to fine you the moment you're not wearing one.

According to the Miami Herald, in the fewer than two weeks since Miami-Dade County announced it would be fining people for not wearing masks in public, the Miami-Dade Police Department has issued more than 160 citations, with each violation carrying a $100 penalty.

While Miami-Dade's coffers are being filled, residents are complaining about being busted unfairly by authorities lying in wait.

The Herald article reports the story of one citizen who was cited after lowering his mask momentarily to get a sip of water; a police officer making one of hundreds of random compliance checks across the city happened to notice, and wrote the man a ticket.

Others are complaining they were busted when walking out in the open by themselves, or even when wearing a mask with their nose sticking out.

The paper explains that convenience stores have become one-stop-shopping for cops looking to catch citizens off guard -- and complaints of overreach are growing. The Herald says more than 100 residents have been slapped with citations, along with 56 businesses.

It's not only in Miami, however. The Mercury News reports that in San Francisco, 26 citations have been issued for people spotted violating that city's new emergency mask mandate.

Some of the cops also aren't happy with their new duties, given the current climate.

"Law enforcement as a whole is not jumping to...do this kind of work and have our communities get any angrier at us than they might already be," said Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriffs Office tells the paper. "We're not interested in being the mask police."

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NEW YORK, July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. ("Gol Linhas" or the "Company") (NYSE: GOL). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether Gol Linhas and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

In mid-June 2020, Gol's auditor, KPMG, raised significant concerns about Gol during the accounting firm's first annual audit of the Company after being hired in 2019, stating that it had an "adverse opinion" on the strength of Gol's internal controls regarding the preparation of financial statements, adding that there was "substantial doubt" about the airline's ability to exist a year from now." KPMG's adverse opinion prompted Gol to carry out a review of its financial reporting procedures. Then, on July 23, 2020, Gol announced the termination of KPMG as its external auditor.

On this news, Gol's American depositary receipt ("ADR") price fell $0.65, or 7.05%, to close at $7.25 per ADR on July 23, 2020.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

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By Benjamin Goldfrank

After years of proclaiming its exceptionalism, the U.S. today distinguishes itself mainly for leading the world in cases and deaths from COVID-19. Yet our leaders  including many university presidents  continue pretending everything is fine. As a result, college faculty, staff, and students face a triple threat: a malevolently incompetent federal government, state governments pressured to restart their economies, and anxious university administrations bringing students back to campus prematurely. Even in states like New Jersey, which managed to lower rates of transmission, reopening universities next month could have terrible consequences.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Educations tracker, 85% of colleges nationwide are planning on either in-person or hybrid teaching models that entail bringing significant numbers to students to campus. While Princeton and the Rutgers system will go for online teaching, 75% of New Jerseys colleges plan on in-person or hybrid teaching, with the remaining colleges still weighing options.

In another country  Canada, or most Caribbean, East Asian, or European countries that contained the virus  returning to normal higher education models would be reasonable. But the U.S. is not Taiwan or Norway. Even relatively successful New Jersey must face the reality of COVID-19s accelerating spread across the U.S. and the consequences of our gradual re-opening. Inviting students back to campus too soon jeopardizes that success.

Without a federal plan to stop COVID-19, infections will remain uncontained throughout the country, and outbreaks on college campuses will continue, despite the numerous safety precautions under discussion. Even if universities require students to wear masks, install plexiglass in classrooms, and encourage distancing, they cannot control human behavior off-campus or in dorm rooms, especially that of young adults, the main source of new cases in New Jersey now.

This should all be obvious by now. Universities that remained open this summer or brought back athletes for training faced outbreaks soon thereafter. If university leaders really thought reopening was safe, they would not be asking students for liability waivers and governments for Safe Harbor laws.

So why are so many college presidents insisting on reopening? It comes down to money. If students dont come to campus, universities lose revenues from housing and meal plans (10% to 30% of typical budgets). University leaders also fear that students will demand discounts for online classes or choose schools offering in-person classes instead.

The federal governments failure to lead has put our universities in a bind. First, the government let the virus spiral out of control, failing to implement a consistent national plan for quarantines, testing, tracing, and isolation, not to mention guaranteed long-term basic income for those who cannot work remotely. Now, President Trump is pushing universities to reopen regardless of the accelerating spread of COVID-19 nationwide.

For New Jerseys many private universities that rely heavily on tuition, dorms, and dining halls for revenues, rather than on state aid, the choices are ugly. Going online risks fiscal crisis or even bankruptcy, potentially resulting in massive faculty and staff layoffs and the interruption of student education, while reopening campus risks the health and lives of students, staff and faculty.

But this set of choices is false. It assumes that reopening will lead to budget stability and ignores the long-term fiscal risk that reopening leads to a surge of infections and deaths on campus, forcing a shutdown that wrecks the budget as students again demand refunds. Furthermore, given the unequal effects of COVID-19 and the racialized inequality of U.S. society, reopening puts the risks disproportionately on Black and Latinx students, faculty and staff, especially vulnerable adjuncts and essential workers.

Such a calculus also ignores the basic immorality of contributing to the spread of a lethal virus, making universities complicit in the federal governments failure to act responsibly and ethically. Fortunately, the state government can prevent university leaders from making these risky choices.

In New Jersey, university re-openings depend on Gov. Phil Murphy authorizing the state to move to Stage 3 of its restart plan. Until the virus is contained not only in our state but in the rest of the country, Governor Murphy should keep New Jersey at Stage 2 and should provide aid to colleges to help them weather the expected budget crunch.

Benjamin Goldfrank, Ph.D., is a professor in the School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University.

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The White House has not appointed a board observers say may help to bring the truth of US racial killings into light.

In spite of a law to that effect, the process meant to make public case documents from investigations into unsolved civil rights movement-era hate crimes has languished because US President Donald Trump has so far not appointed a review board central to gathering and declassifying the files, observers say.

The Civil Rights Cold Case Collection Act of 2018  passed by the president in January 2019  calls for the creation of a public archive of civil rights-era cold cases  unsolved killings that appear motivated by racial hatred that occurred between 1940 and 1980 during the movement for equal rights for all citizens in the US.

The digitised collection at the National Archive and Records Administration (NARA) is intended to pool all relevant documents from any federal agency, including any State or local government that worked in connection with a federal civil rights cold case investigation.

The law also calls for a five-person review board to serve as an independent agency that will ensure and facilitate the review, transmission to the Archivist, and public disclosure of civil rights cold case records.

The board would mediate challenges to making the documents public, while maintaining certain investigative abilities, including the right to seek testimony and facts surrounding records and to subpoena private persons to compel the production of documents and other records, which were often only attainable through lengthy Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and court challenges.





The release of cold case investigative files can shed light on how justice was approached when it came to racially motivated killings of Black people, said Stuart Wexler, a teacher at Hightstown High School in New Jersey.

Wexlers advanced-placement Government and Politics came up with the idea for the law in 2015, helped draft, and has for years been monitoring the implementation of the legislation.

Moving the cases into the public domain has taken on special significance, Wexler noted, amid the most recent national reckoning the countrys treatment of Black Americans following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota police custody.

Were in a national conversation right now about law enforcement and prosecutorial responses to the taking of Black lives, said Wexler. But we havent gotten the history of that from 40, 50 years ago  We need these files for that component, for us as a nation to really start to interrogate why, historically, havent these cases gotten to the point where they deserve to be?

Eventual justice

Groups that monitor civil rights-era cold cases said granting access to the files may also lead to eventual justice by allowing journalists, academics and independent sleuths to examine the cases outside of official investigations.

Sometimes these files that arent seen by the public can play a role in these cases being reopened and reprosecuted, said Jerry Mitchell, an investigative journalist and leader of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting.

Mitchells reporting, detailed in his book, Race Against Time, helped prosecute the man who killed civil rights organiser Medgar Evers, who was fatally shot in 1963 in Mississippi. His work also led to the prosecution of a suspect in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The attack killed Addie Mae Collins, Carole Rosamond Robertson, and Cynthia Dionne Wesley, all 14 years old, and 11-year-old Carol Denise McNair.

Certainly, in my reporting along the way, Ive had a lot of those kinds of situations where youre able to find old documents, the old FBI files or law enforcement records that help you kind of piece a case together that you wouldnt have otherwise, he said.

In 2006, the FBI launched the Cold Case Initiative, which called for the Department of Justice to identify, review and if possible prosecute unsolved racially motivated murders committed decades ago. Under that and the 2008 passage of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, the FBI and Justice Department have closed 116 of the 132 incidents investigated.

As of their most recent 2019 report to Congress, 60 of those cases were closed because of the death of all identifiable subjects, and 37 were closed because of insufficient evidence to prove violation of any relevant civil rights statutes. The remaining 19 were closed for a combination of reasons, including inability to overcome legal hurdles such as statutes of limitation or double jeopardy.

However, outside scrutiny of cases closed by the FBI has in the past yielded new leads.

In 2019, US broadcaster National Public Radio (NPR) reported that its journalists, using only the FBI case files from the closed investigation, were able to identify a man who had participated in the murder of Boston minister James Reeb, killed in 1965 during a voting-rights campaign in Selma, Alabama. The suspect died shortly after his involvement was confirmed.

NPR also learned that the case files had never been shared with local authorities.





Even in cases where justice in the courts is no longer possible, the truth can still come out, Mitchell added.

I think in order to have justice, you have to have truth. And even if justice is impossible, truth is still possible, Mitchell said. A lot of these families have never known the truth of what happened to their loved ones.

As time passes, the window for offering that truth to surviving people who directly knew the victims is also closing, Wexler said.

Every time I see, for instance, a cousin of Emmett Till passing away, I think well theres one more relative of a victim who has passed on without getting all the answers they deserve, he said, referencing the 1955 killing of 14-year-old Till by two white men in Mississippi, for which no one has ever been convicted.

The FBI announced in 2018 that it had reopened Tills case, citing the discovery of new information, without offering further details. The announcement came after a new interview with Carolyn Bryant Donham, who had accused Till of making vulgar remarks and grabbing her, was published. In the interview, Donham said those allegations were untrue.

The year Till was murdered, Roy Bryant and JW Milam were prosecuted for the killing, but acquitted by a jury. A year later, they confessed to the murder in an interview with a magazine, but lived the rest of their lives in freedom. There has long been speculation that more people may have been involved.

No board appointed

Trump signed the bill at the tail end of a two-year legislative session, but included a lengthy statement detailing several serious constitutional concerns, including issues of the bill possibly being interpreted to allow interference with executive privilege and the integrity of the law enforcement processes.

He also took issue with the review boards purported authority  to compel agency heads to provide cold case records to the Board, its investigative powers, and its ability to make decisions on public disclosure of documents.

The legislation calls on the president, if practicable, to appoint the board within 120 days of the laws passage, or 60 days of receiving recommendations from several legal and historical organisations.





Those organisations began providing recommendations in July of last year.

The delay creates several issues, including cutting into the four-year time period the board has to complete its work. The board can vote to extend for one year, after which new legislation would be needed.

While the White House did not respond to a request for comment from Al Jazeera, an administration official told Politico this week they are actively vetting candidates for appointment to this board.

In a June letter to Trump, Senator Doug Jones, who co-sponsored the bill, noted that if appointments are not made, it is unclear what will happen to the one million dollars allocated by Congress for Fiscal Year 2020, which ends September 30, to support the boards work.

As our country is once again grappling with important questions related to civil rights, I urge you to appoint the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board as expeditiously as possible and fulfill the promise of this important legislation, Jones wrote.

Wexlers students have also been trying to find ways to try to get the presidents ear.

Weve done research on whos really close with the president, and we were figuring out how we could ask them to put pressure on the administration, said Rachael Hu, a 16-year-old student who has been involved in the process for two years.

I honestly feel like having this opportunity is kind of like a big once-in-a-lifetime thing to make a change, she added.
By PTI

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday sought response from the state government on a petition challenging a lower court order directing investigation against Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and others in a cooperative society scam case.

The High Court, however, did not issue a stay restraining the order of the lower court asking the Special Operations Group (SOG) to investigate Shekhawat's role in connection with the Rs 884-crore Sanjivani Credit Cooperative Society scam.

The order has been passed on a petition filed by one Kewal Chand Dakalia, the shareholder director of Navprabha Buildtech Pvt Ltd which is said to be linked with Shekhawat.

Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani argued the matter on behalf of the petitioner from Mumbai via video conference.

The High Court has asked the state government to file its response by August 5.

A city ADJ court last week directed a private complaint to be investigated by the SOG in relation to the money trail that ended at Navprabha Buildtech in the Sanjeevani Credit Cooperative Society scam case.

On July 21, additional district judge Pawan Kumar directed the additional chief judicial magistrate's court to send the complaint related to the credit society scam to the SOG.

Shekhawat has been named along with his wife and others in the complaint related to the Sanjivani Credit Cooperative Society scam in which thousands of investors allegedly lost about Rs 884 crores.

The Jaipur unit of the SOG has been probing the scam case since last year.

An FIR was registered in connection with the case on August 23, 2019.

Shekhawat was not named as an accused in the charge sheet filed by the SOG in connection with the case.

In the investigation, the money trail was found to be linked with Navprabha Buildtech Pvt Ltd.

Later, a magistrate's court also rejected an application to include Shekhawat in the charge sheet.

The applicants then approached the additional district judge's court, which issued directions that their complaint should also be probed.

In their application to the magistrate's court, complainants Gulam Singh and Laboo Singh had claimed that a money trail mentioned in the FIR led to companies allegedly linked to the minister.

But the SOG did not investigate the role of Shekhawat or the company, the two Barmer residents had alleged.

The complainants alleged that the SOG deliberately protected Shekhawat and some others who did not figure in the charge sheet.

The Special Operations Group has already sent a notice to the minister in connection with a probe into another case pertaining to audio clips which purportedly indicate efforts to lure MLAs away from the Congress.
Kremlin on Maas' G7 'Statement': Russia Not Seeking to Rejoin Group

Sputnik News

10:45 GMT 27.07.2020(updated 15:22 GMT 27.07.2020)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has not put forward any initiatives related to joining the G7, and the country does not actually seek being a member of the group, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, commenting on German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas' fresh statement against Russia's reincorporation into the format.

"President Putin has never presented any initiative, any address, or taken any other step aimed at resuming Russia's participation in the G7 effort", Peskov told reporters.

"Russia does not seek joining the G7, moreover, we have repeatedly said we are absolutely satisfied with the efficiency of the G20 format, which, we believe, better meets the modern economic realia, taking into consideration the global centres of the economic development", Peskov explained.

The Kremlin spokesman expressed the belief that the G7 could discuss economic issues, but could hardly aspire to global leadership.

The statement comes after German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas stated that Russia cannot be reincorporated into the G7 format until the Ukrainian crisis is resolved.

Prior to this, Trump said that the United States is postponing the G7 meeting, originally planned for June, until September and plans to invite the leaders of Russia, India, Australia and South Korea to refresh "this very outdated group of countries". According to the US president, he does not feel that the G7 "properly represents what's going on in the world".

Russia joined the Group of Seven in 1998, making it G8 until 2014 when other member countries gathered in Brussels instead of Sochi due to disagreements with Moscow over the Ukrainian crisis and Crimea reunification.

A Sputnik

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Mumbai, July 28 : Veteran film and television actor Anupam Shyam is battling kidney infection in the ICU of a hospital in Goregaon. His family has sought financial help from the film industry to bear the cost of his treatment.

The 62-year-old actor was first admitted to a hospital in Malad where he was undergoing treatment. However, after he reportedly collapsed during dialysis on Monday, he was shifted to the ICU of a hospital in Goregaon. Reports claim he is in stable condition now.

The "Mann Kee Awaaz Pratigya" actor's family and friends made the appeal for financial aid on social media.

"There's a money crisis right now, so we are talking to people. We have informed some of Anupam's friends about his condition. Manoj Bajpayee ji had called and said that he will look into it," the actor's brother Anurag told indianexpress.com.

Veteran actor Anupam Shyam, mostly known for essaying negative roles, has acted in many films as well as television shows over the past three decades. His filmography includes "Dil Se", "Nayak: The Real Hero", "Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi", "Bandit Queen", and "Slumdog Millionaire". However, he is best known for playing Thakur Sajjan Singh in the daily soap, "Mann Kee Awaaz Pratigya".
Coronavirus deaths in the United States surged to their highest level in months on Wednesday as Muslim pilgrims began a pandemic-curtailed version of their sacred hajj. The human toll of the disease in the US hit a magnitude not seen since mid-May with nearly 1,600 deaths recorded in 24 hours for the world's hardest-hit country, Johns Hopkins University reported Tuesday. Meanwhile China, where the deadly pathogen was first detected late last year, reported its highest single-day case total in three months. Residents in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong were adjusting to their strictest social-distancing measures yet over fears a "large-scale" outbreak could overwhelm hospitals. COVID-19 has claimed 660,000 lives and infected more than 16.7 million people across the globe, according to an AFP tally of official figures, although experts believe the true infection rate could be wildly higher. A second startling study from India in under a week, based on blood tests from almost 7,000 people, revealed more than half those living in the slums of Mumbai have had the coronavirus. - Clusters and lockdowns - Case numbers have been rising across the US for weeks, leaving health authorities and leaders to watch nervously for a feared spike in fatalities. President Donald Trump's push for re-election in November has been dogged by the virus crisis that has already killed nearly 150,000 Americans and wrought havoc on the world's biggest economy. In a fresh blow to the president, Twitter removed a video that Trump retweeted in which doctors made allegedly false claims about the pandemic, saying it broke its "COVID-19 misinformation policy". China, which Trump has often criticised for its initial handling of the pandemic, reported a three-month high of 101 new virus cases Wednesday as sporadic regional outbreaks illustrated the mammoth task of keeping contagion at bay. Authorities have concentrated their attention on a cluster that emerged last week in the northeastern port city of Dalian, where officials said workers handled contaminated packaging of imported seafood. More than three million people have been tested there and enclosed public venues including libraries, gyms and restaurants will be closed. Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam warned the financial hub was "on the verge of a large-scale community outbreak, which may lead to a collapse of our hospital system and cost lives, especially of the elderly". From Wednesday all residents in the densely packed city of 7.5 million must wear masks when they leave their homes, while restaurants can only serve takeaway meals, in a blow for diners during the city's hot and humid summer. "It's so hot outside now," a construction worker, who gave his surname as Chow, told AFP as he tucked into a pork chop in an alcove outside a department store. "Ten minutes after I start work, my shirt is all sweaty," he said, adding that he missed the air-conditioning of restaurants. And there were distressing scenes in Australia, where a care home resident who had died of the virus was seen being wheeled away in a body bag, while other residents waited for transport to hospital. Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned of a "critical" situation at more than a dozen care homes in Melbourne, where disaster-relief teams have been deployed to overwhelmed nursing facilities. - Hampered hajj - Resurgent outbreaks have forced nations to step up measures against the virus, leaving tourism and event calendars in tatters. The annual hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia's Mecca drew 2.5 million Muslims last year, but in 2020 just 10,000 already living in the kingdom will be allowed in. The chosen ones were subject to electronic tagging, temperature checks and quarantine as they began trickling into Mecca over the weekend. In addition to being a spiritual rite for faithful Muslims, the pilgrimage normally provides a boost to the local economy that will be sorely missed this year. In Europe, swelling caseloads are blasting a similar hole in local hopes for a financial windfall in summer holiday hotspots. Spain, one of the countries hit hardest by the pandemic, insists it is a safe destination despite dealing with 361 active outbreaks and more than 4,000 new cases. Several countries have nonetheless imposed quarantines on people returning from Spain, including its biggest tourist market, Britain. Spain's strict lockdown destroyed more than a million jobs during the second quarter of the year, the National Statistics Institute reported -- mainly in tourism. burs-je/leg/kaf
A Bengaluru man has been on the run after trying to extort Rs 15 lakh from a pet shop by threatening to have the shop raided by wildlife officials over fake claims of sale of illegal animals.

The incident occurred in Bengaluru when a middle-aged man appeared in a pet shop named 'Bloo Aqua Studio' and made routine inquiries about fish tanks. Innocuous enough at first, the man soon began to depict suspicious behavior.

As per a report in The News Minute, the man soon started asking questions about how he could purchase chorals. When the store owner, Kavita Nandakumar, told the man that they did not sell coral which was endangered and illegal to sell, the man pointed at a fake plastic coral that was on display.

Upon being told that the coral was indeed fake, the man refused to believe it and threatened to get the pet shop raided by wildlife authorities In exchange for his silence, the man demanded a ransom of Rs 15 lakh or he would

When the store refused to comply, the man indeed called the forest officials who reached the store next day. As per reports, officials confirmed that the coral was indeed ornamental and not real.

Though the shop owners are not pressing any charges, the man has remained missing since the raid. He had accompanied the officials on the raid but disappeared from outside the store while the officials were inspecting. The man also claimed to be a member of Wilf Eye India, a fictitious group that claims to carry out raids against animal abuses.

A police complaint has been filed and cops are on the lookout for the man.

Sale of live coral is banned across all states in India under the Wildlife Protection Act.
New Delhi, July 29 : Industry body PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry has urged the Centre to launch 'District Level Ease of Doing Business' rankings to ensure that smaller towns become more business-friendly in the coming times.

The industry body's President D. K. Aggarwal, in a virtual interaction with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, suggested the measure to promote healthy competition in more than 700 districts in the country.

"The focus should be put upon One District One Product (ODOP) scheme that aims to give boost to the traditional industries and enable the people to gain expertise in one product," Aggarwal said, as per a statement.

"The scheme has the potential to contribute towards the growth of states' GSDP and raise the quality of the products." According to Aggarwal, in the post-Covid scenario, there would be noticeable changes in the global supply chains and India should focus on capturing a significant share in the world economic system.

"To become 'AatmaNirbhar Bharat', it is now imperative for our country to reduce import content and divert trade towards friendly nations while focusing on enhancing indigenous production and domestic capacity building," he said.

He further said that India should completely stop the entry of products from China, especially in the current difficult time, which may hurt the growth prospects of indigenous manufacturers.

"At this juncture, bolstering manufacturing at competitive costs should be a key focus area for the government," Aggarwal said.

"India should take advantage of the global supply chain disruptions and become a global manufacturing and exporting hub, going forward." In addition, he said that India has immense potential to become a $100 billion FDI destination by 2022.

"Cost competitiveness of our businesses enterprises should be enhanced and a level playing field should be created.

"The government should focus on further reducing the cost of doing business in the country including the costs of capital, costs of compliances, costs of logistics, costs of land and availability of land and costs of labour," he said.
A prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin has been announced by Netflix.

The limited series will be a six part, live-action series set in an elven world 1,200 years before the world of The Witcher. It will chart the origins of the very first Witcher, and the events that lead to the pivotal conjunction of the spheres, when the worlds of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one.

Henry Cavill starred in The Witcher, which drew 76 million views globally in its first four weeks.

Declan de Barra, executive producer and showrunner, said: As a lifelong fan of fantasy, I am beyond excited to tell the story The Witcher: Blood Origin. A question has been burning in my mind ever since I first read The Witcher books  What was the Elven world really like before the cataclysmic arrival of the humans? Ive always been fascinated by the rise and fall of civilizations, how science, discovery, and culture flourish right before that fall. How vast swathes of knowledge are lost forever in such a short time, often compounded by colonization and a rewriting of history. Leaving only fragments of a civilizations true story behind. The Witcher: Blood Origin will tell the tale of the Elven civilization before its fall, and most importantly reveal the forgotten history of the very first Witcher.

Filming is due to take place in the UK, but dates have not been revealed.

Source: Deadline
Archbishop slams Catholic leaders for allowing heresy, sodomy and corruption to run rampant

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Roman Catholic Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a prominent critic of Pope Francis, has accused a group of Church leaders of subverting the Church from within by allowing "heresy, sodomy and corruption" to run rampant.

In a recent interview with Vatican expert Marco Tosatti, the 79-year-old Vigano elaborated further on what he sees as the "deep church."

Vigano, who previously served as the Vatican's ambassador to the United States in one of the top diplomatic positions, first coined the phrase "deep church" in a June letter to President Donald Trump in which he described it as mercenary infidels who seek to scatter the flock and hand the sheep over to be devoured by ravenous wolves.

According to Vigano, there's an effort by the leadership of the Catholic Church, including the pope, to downplay the role of sodomy and homosexual behaviors in the sexual abuse of minors.

Throughout the interview, Vigano referred to Pope Francis by his given name of Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

For Bergoglio and his entourage, sodomy is not a sin that cries out for vengeance in the presence of God, as the Catechism teaches," Vigano said. "Bergoglios words on this topic  and even more the actions and words of those who surround him  unfortunately, confirm that an operation of legalization of homosexuality is currently underway and that prelates and theologians are carrying this discussion forward who have manifested without equivocation that they are unfaithful to Catholic teaching."

After declaring that a "gay lobby"  consisting of now defrocked Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Cardinal Joseph Tobin and others  has infiltrated the Catholic Church, Vigano spoke of another interest of a political nature. He alleges the interest can explain the Catholic churchs response to McCarrick, who faced allegations of sexual abuse.

Vigano quoted from an article in Church Militant that alleged that Francis unshackled him [McCarrick] from Benedict-imposed restrictions just weeks after becoming pope.

Sources in China  show that McCarrick may have been instrumental in working out the ongoing secret payments of billions of dollars from the Chinese communists to Francis Vatican, Church Militant claimed.

Vigano alleged that it was hardly a coincidence that the Vatican remained silent when China ordered Christian villagers to renounce their faith and worship the nations Communist Party leaders instead.

The implication from Vigano was that a secret agreement made between the Holy See and Beijing explains the Vaticans decision to remain silent on the human rights violations perpetrated by the regime.

Vigano added that he remains pessimistic as to whether Catholics worldwide will ever learn the whole truth about McCarrick.

McCarrick, who served as archbishop of Washington, D.C., has faced a multitude of sexual abuse allegations dating back half a century when he allegedly grabbed the genitals of a teenage boy on two occasions.

While multiple priests and seminarians have accused McCarrick of predatory sexual behavior over the years, most of those accusations were ignored.

The dynamics of McCarrick's situation changed considerably in 2018 when an investigation conducted by the Archdiocese of New York deemed allegations against McCarrick to be credible. McCarrick resigned from the College of Cardinals that summer and the pope placed him in seclusion for a "life of prayer and penance."

The Vatican laicized McCarrick in early 2019, stripping him of his clerical status.

Lets not forget that the legitimization of homosexuality is part of the agenda of the New World Order  to which the Bergoglian church adheres openly and unconditionally  not only for its destabilizing value in the social body but also because sodomy is the principal instrument with which the Enemy intends to destroy the Catholic priesthood, corrupting the souls of the Ministers of God, Vigano said. For this reason, at least as far as what seems possible, the entire truth about McCarrick will never officially come to light.

Vigano concluded the interview with Tosatti by calling for action from the sons of light to expose the complicities and crimes of those who make war on the Good so as to establish the New World Order.

In May, Vigano penned a document titled the Appeal for the Church and the World to Catholics and all people of good will." In the appeal, he criticized the restrictions on religious services during the coronavirus pandemic. He also warned of a world government beyond all control and an odious technological tyranny.

Vigano caused a stir in the global Catholic community in 2018 by publishing an 11-page letter calling on Pope Francis to resign and accusing the pontiff of covering for McCarrick. The Vatican responded to Viganos allegations by calling them monstrous and blasphemous.

In 2019, the Vatican held a global summit focusing on the need to combat the sexual abuse of minors within the Catholic church. The summit featured about 200 leaders from across the world.

During his introductory remarks at the summit, Pope Francis implored leaders to find ways to fight this evil afflicting the Church and humanity. However, critics contend that the Vatican still has not done enough to halt clergy sexual abuse since the summit.
For endorsing the construction of a monument in honour of the late President John Evans Atta Mills, the founder of Atta Mills Institute, Koku Anyidoho, is effusive in his praise for President Akufo-Addo, equating him to the Biblical King Cyrus.



Cyrus the Great of the Persian Kingdom, is credited for helping Jews return from exile to Jerusalem 2,500 years ago, to rebuild the Temple in the book of Daniel.



Government, through the Chief Executive Officer (CEO of the Coastal Development Authority (CoDA) ), Jerry Ahmed Shaib, announced President Akufo-Addos pledge to renovate the Asomdwe Park, the resting place of Prof. Mills, near the Independence Square at Osu, Accra, into an ultra-modern facility befitting the status of the former President.



Delivering a solidarity message on behalf of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) during the 8th Anniversary of the late former president, Hon Shuaib explained that the President was committed to holding on to the legacy of the former statesman.



"The Presidents seriousness about the Asomdwe Park has been manifested today as I cut sod to commence the construction of an ultra-modern edifice befitting the status of the late son of the land," the CEO of CoDA said.



It is this show of solidarity that has got the NDC former Deputy General Secretary waxing lyrically about the current president.



Speaking in an interview with Kwame Nkrumah Tikesie on Okay FMs 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Koku Anyidoho described as disappointing and lamentable, the fact that such a remarkable monument could not be constructed during the NDC - Prof Mills' own party's - era.



Alluding to King Cyrus, he opined that it is clearly divine design that the redevelopment is being done under a different administration other than the NDCs, just as the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem happened under the Persian King.



Look in the book of Daniel, Cyrus was not a Jew but in the wisdom of God Almighty, it was King Cyrus of Persia who gave the go-ahead for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. When Nehemiah decided to rebuild the broken walls of his fathers, it was not a Jewish team that gave him the support.



Times and seasons are in the hands of God. He brings Kings and Rulers to set certain purposes. Im talking scripture; if Nana Akufo-Addo is the King Cyrus, it is not my doing but the Lords. God, thank you, he gushed.



Touching on the confusion at the 8th wreath laying ceremony of the late President Atta Mills, Koku Anyidoho said the two different ceremonies held in honour of the late President is rather "brilliant and wonderful", adding that there were prior engagement with the NDC regarding the commemoration of the day.



He added that as a Founder and CEO of Atta Mills Institute, celebrating their first anniversary, he reserves the right to draw a program for their anniversary celebration; thus, it did not take anything away from the NDC to organize a separate ceremony for Atta Mills.



I am Founder and CEO of Atta Mills Institute and we are celebrating our first anniversary. I have a right to draw a program for my anniversary celebration. It takes nothing away from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to organize a separate ceremony for Atta Mills and we also did ours; it is brilliant and wonderful. We had interactions with the party on that, he said.



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Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will file a plea in Rajasthan High Court tomorrow against the merger of its MLAs in the state with the Congress. Earlier in the day, BSP supremo Mayawati lashed out at Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, alleging that he merged her MLAs with the Congress out of malicious intent. She said that the BSP supported the Congress unconditionally after the Assembly elections in Rajasthan.

In Rajasthan, after elections results, the BSP gave unconditional support of all its six MLAs to Congress. Unfortunately, chief minister Ashok Gehlot, out of his malicious intent and to damage the BSP, merged them with Congress in an unconstitutional. He did the same even in his last tenure, Mayawati said on Tuesday.

She said that the MLAs in question will lose their party membership if they dont vote against the Congress in proceedings to be held during the assembly Session. She said the party is willing to even move the Supreme Court.

BJP leader Madan Dilwar files another petition before Rajasthan High Court against the merger of six BSP MLAs in the state with Congress party.



The petition seeks cancellation of the membership of the six BSP MLAs from the state legislative Assembly. https://t.co/B7tdKQQJMg pic.twitter.com/JSslfskx80  ANI (@ANI) July 28, 2020

The BSP could have gone to the court earlier too but we were looking for a time to teach Congress party and CM Ashok Gehlot a lesson. Now we have decided to go to the court. We will not let this matter alone. We will go even to the Supreme Court, Mayawati said.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Madan Dilawar on Tuesday filed another petition before the Rajasthan High Court against the BSP MLAs merger with Congress party. This is his third petition against the merger. In a relief to the Gehlot government, the High Court had dismissed Dilawars petition on Monday. Dilawar filed his second plea earlier today, seeking cancellation of the membership of the six BSP MLAs from the state legislative Assembly..
President Donald Trump told reporters Monday he would not visit the Capitol to pay respects to civil rights activist Rep. John Lewis, who died July 17.

"No I won't be going," the president said when asked. "No."

CORONAVIRUS UPDATES: CDC updates school safety guidelines, strongly advocates for reopening campuses in the fall

Trump travelled to North Carolina Monday to visit a facility working on a COVID-19 vaccine. He returned later that day.

Trump and Lewis publicly conflicted. Lewis called Trump an "illegitimate president" and refused to attend the 2017 inauguration, while Trump has said Lewis was all talk with no action or results" in his congressional career.

Lewis is lying in state in the Capitol as part of six days of funeral services. The public was permitted to visit Monday and Tuesday.

Lewis died from pancreatic cancer at age 80 on July 17. Serving for more than three decades in Congress, Lewis was a prominent activist in the Civil Rights movement, an original freedom rider and the last living member of the Big Six who organized the 1963 March on Washington. He is the second black lawmaker to lay in state in the Capitol, according to the Washington Post.

Bill Clark, Contributor / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Vice President Mike Pence, former Vice President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and more have visited.
Pa. Health Department Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine started her daily coronavirus response briefing Tuesday with a response to the multiple incidents of LGBTQ harassment, and specifically transphobia directed at me, that have been reported in the press.

A Tioga county tavern recently apologized for a menu item that mocked Levine, who is a transgender woman, while a Facebook post about a fundraiser at the Bloomsburg Fair featured a male wearing a womans dress and a wig. The post suggested that it was a Levine impersonation.

They are not the only examples. In May, a Pittsburgh radio host repeatedly referred to Levine as sir during an interview, and social media comment sections have often run rampant with transphobic comments in response to stories that had nothing to do with Levines gender identity.

Gov. Tom Wolf and many others had previously condemned anyone mocking Levines gender identity, but before Tuesday, she had only said that she would stay laser focused on guiding the states health response against the coronavirus pandemic.

Levine did use that phase again, but shared much more during a four-minute opening statement that can be read in its entirety below.

Before I begin, however, with the daily updates, there is an important issue that I would like to address.

I feel that I must personally respond to the multiple incidents of LGBTQ harassment, and specifically transphobia, directed at me, that have been reported in the press.

I would first like to sincerely thank Governor Wolf for his continued support and for his comments last week. The LGBTQ community has made so much progress under Governor Wolf and his leadership during his time in office, but I want to emphasize that while these individuals may think that they are only expressing their displeasure with me, they are, in fact, hurting the thousands of LGBTQ Pennsylvanians who suffered directly from these current demonstrations of harassment.

Your actions perpetuate the spirit of intolerance and discrimination against LGBTQ individuals, and specifically transgender individuals.

It is only one month ago that the Supreme Court prohibited discrimination in the workplace due to sexual orientation and gender identity, but LGBTQ individuals can still be denied housing, and public accommodations in most places in Pennsylvania, that do not have local nondiscrimination ordinances.

In addition, the most vulnerable among us continue to suffer, including LGBTQ individuals of color, LGBTQ youth, LGBTQ seniors, and LGBTQ immigrants. Transgender women of color continue to not only be harassed, but are more likely to suffer, violence, and even murder.

We have not made progress, unless we have all made progress. It is in this space that these acts of intolerance live, and where we need to continue to work against them. To the perpetuators of these and the perpetrators of these actions, if your apologies are sincere, then I accept your apologies, but an apology is the beginning, not the end of the conversation.

I call on you. I call on you and all Pennsylvanians to work towards a spirit of not just tolerance, but a spirit of acceptance and welcome towards LGBTQ individuals. We all need to foster that spirit of acceptance and welcoming toLGBTQ individuals and celebrate the wonderful diversity of our commonwealth.

Our children are watching. They are watching what we do. And they are watching how we act, and to all LGBTQ young people, iIt is okay to be you, and it is okay to stand up for your rights, and your freedoms.

Levine then paused before finishing her statement.

As for me, I have no room in my heart for hatred, and frankly, I do not have time for intolerance," she said.

My heart is full with a burning desire to help people, and my time is full with working towards protecting the public health of everyone in Pennsylvania from the impact of the global pandemic due to COVID-19, and I will stay laser focused on that goal.

Levine became the states highest-ranking transgender official in history when she was confirmed as the Pennsylvanian Physicians General in 2015. Wolf then elevated Levine to Acting Health Department Secretary in 2017, and she was confirmed for that role in March 2018.

The victory in the Supreme Court a month ago was a tremendous victory in terms of nondiscrimination in the workplace, but we cant stop there, and we have to have to go forward with Pennsylvania legislation and even national legislation for protection, nondiscrimination, including sexual orientation and gender identity, Levine said later in the news conference.

The other is, I think that people are very, very stressed, and I think that I dont blame them. I mean were in the middle of the biggest global pandemic since 1918. This has hit every country of the world, and has hit the United States extremely hard, including Pennsylvania.

Ive said many times that I think that that when people dont understand something, and theyre very stressed, they can react with anger, and anger can lead to hate, and hate can lead to the dark side of the force. I think that all of that is related to some of what weve seen.

There might be reasons for it, but theres no excuse for it, and so today, my call was for was for tolerance, was for acceptance, and welcoming of everyone, in terms of the amazing tapestry of diversity in our commonwealth.

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Rio Tinto has disclosed the maiden Inferred Mineral Resource at the 100% owned Winu copper-gold project and revealed the discovery of a new zone of gold dominant mineralisation approximately 2 km east of the Winu deposit in the Paterson Province of Western Australia.

The Inferred Mineral Resource, reported at a 0.2% copper equivalent cutoff, is 503Mt at 0.45% copper equivalent (CuEq). This includes a higher grade component of 188Mt at 0.68% CuEq at a cutoff grade of 0.45% CuEq.

Study work to date suggests the copper mineralisation supports the development of a relatively shallow open-pit mine, combined with industry-standard processing technology that is used at other Rio Tinto sites. Drilling continues to refine the overall geometry of the system and controls. The deposit remains open at depth as well as to the north and southeast Figures 1 to 4. The Winu project team continues to work with local Nyangumarta and Martu Traditional Owners and regulators to progress the agreements and approvals required for any future development. We are targeting first production from Winu in 2023, subject to securing all necessary approvals.

The discovery of a new zone of gold dominant mineralisation approximately 2 km east of the Winu deposit, at a prospect called Ngapakarra, as well as a number of other encouraging drilling results in close proximity to the maiden Winu Resource, provides further encouragement about the potential for the development of multiple ore bodies within one system.

Rio Tinto group executive of Growth Innovation and Health, Safety Environment (HSE) Stephen McIntosh, said "We're taking a more agile and innovative approach at Winu, and are working on the studies for a small-scale, start-up operation focused on Winu's higher-grade core as we take another step towards commercialising this deposit. We are also assessing options for future expansion in the Paterson region given the extent of mineralisation identified to date and our large land package."

"The additional exploration results reported today support our view that there is potential to develop the Paterson region into a large-scale operation over time through both our 100% owned tenements and joint ventures. We've so far carried out exploration activity in just 2% of our tenements in the region and we're building on this discovery at Winu with further encouraging results."

Rio Tinto chief executive of Copper Diamonds, Arnaud Soirat, said "We are very pleased with the progress at Winu as it adds a further option to our strong copper portfolio in a country that is home to many of Rio Tinto's world class operations."

A copy of the full announcement to the ASX is available on Rio Tinto's website at riotinto.com/invest/financial-news-performance/resources-and-reserves.

Contacts

media.enquiries@riotinto.com

riotinto.com

Follow @RioTinto on Twitter

This announcement is authorised for release to the market by Rio Tinto's Group Company Secretary.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200727005828/en/

Contacts:

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ABN 96 004 458 404



Category: General
A tense calm returned to Israel's border with Lebanon early Tuesday, following Monday's clashes that were triggered by what Israel said was an attempted infiltration by Hezbollah militants.

Israeli tanks were patrolling the Golan Heights area on Tuesday morning, at the country's northern frontier.

Monday's incident sparked one of the heaviest exchanges of fire along the volatile border since a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Neither side reported casualties during a battle that raged for over an hour , and Hezbollah denied involvement.

But the Israeli military said it was sure the Iranian-backed militant group had carried out an attempted infiltration, and Israeli forces in the area remained on heightened alert.

Israel had been bracing for an attack since an Israeli airstrike in neighboring Syria killed a Hezbollah fighter last week.

Following the airstrike, the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights was hit by explosives fired from Syria on Friday.

Israel responded by attacking Syrian military positions and beefing up its forces in the area.

(Representative Image)
The President of the Austin Police Association said the armed Black Lives Matter protester shot dead by a motorist during a demonstration Saturday was looking for trouble and found it - as witnesses come forward to suggest it was actually the driver who 'incited violence.

APA President Kenneth Casaday first made the declaration on Twitter Sunday, accompanying the message with a video of victim Garrett Foster, 28, speaking to a reporter about why hed chosen to march carrying an AK-47, on the night he was fatally shot.

This is the guy that lost his life last night, Casaday wrote of Saturday nights shooting. He was looking for confrontation and he found it.

Casaday then doubled down on his declaration to CNNs Chris Cuomo on Monday, accusing Foster of picking a fight by walking around with an assault rifle, despite the former Air Force mechanic having a license to carry in the state.

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President of the Austin Police Association Kenneth Casaday (right) said the armed Black Lives Matter protester shot dead by a motorist during a demonstration Saturday was looking for trouble and found it

Garrett Foster, 28, was shot dead on the evening of July 25 after he confronted the driver of a car who had driven his vehicle toward a hundred-strong crowd of protesters marching through the center of Austin.

Former Air Force Mechanic gave up Career to Become Full Time Carer for his Quadruple Amputee Girlfriend Originally from Plano, Garret Foster had been living with his fiancee Whitney Mitchell for two years in Austin, prior to his death Saturday. Together the couple had been protesting in Austin for 50 consecutive nights, in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The couple began dating just over a decade ago, having first met in an online chat room and became engaged a year later. The following month, in November 2010, Mitchell was struck down by a mysterious illness and later had to have all four of her limbs amputated following sepsis. Foster and Mitchell pictured together shortly after her quadruple amputation Foster had to leave for basic training two months later but was discharged from the Air Force, aged 19, to become her full time carer. Family members described the couple as 'soul mates'. Foster's mom Shelia recounted: ''I saw my son at 19 years old brush this girl's teeth, comb her hair. He would put her on the toilet and clean her up, and he would make sure that she got bathed and make sure that she was able to get dressed and took her everywhere that she needed to go. And he's been doing that ever since.' Mitchell's mother Patricia Kirven said her daughter has been beside herself, since Foster's death. 'She physically is OK, but mentally she is not. "Inconsolable" is the only word I can think of, because shell talk for a bit and then break down.' Advertisement

Im surprised to be hearing this from someone from Texas, Cuomo quipped, adding that the states gun laws would allow Foster to carry the assault rifle wherever he wanted.

When asked why he appeared to be celebrating the fact that Foster was fatally shot, Casaday responded: He comes out on these videos saying, nobodys gonna stop me because everyones a bunch of p*****s, referencing the clip he tweeted.

And he said he wouldnt point it at cops because he knew hed get shot. So when you tell citizens of Austin you can march where you want and nobody can stop you because theyre a bunch of p*****s  I think thats relevant, he continued.

Cuomo asked the APA President whether he would consider apologizing for his comments, considering he is a representative of law enforcement, with an oath to protect and serve.

Maybe in hindsight it wasn't the best thing to do, but I stand by what I did. ... I just think that it was the best thing for the community to know at that time, Casaday responded.

Casaday also said Foster had been protesting in front of the City Manager's house with his rifle.

You look like you're picking a fight when you're out standing in front of the city manager's house intimidating them, he said.

Foster, 28, was shot dead on the evening of July 25 after he confronted the driver of a car who had driven his vehicle toward a hundred-strong crowd of protesters marching through the center of Austin.

He had been crossing 4th Street and Congress Avenue with his with his wheel-chair bound fiancee Whitney Mitchell, 28, in the moments prior, on what would prove to be the couples 50th and final night of protesting in the city.

Foster, who was carrying an AK-47, was shot three times by the driver who then fled the scene. The motorist later told police he fired his handgun at Foster after the activist pointed his assault rifle at his car.

A photograph obtained by DailyMail.com shows Foster standing at the driver's window moments before the fatal shots rang out. The barrel of his AK-47 appears to be pointing towards the floor, however he is leaning towards the car with right arm raised and his hand seemingly placed around the weapon's grip.

Police, who declined to identify the driver, have released the suspect as they continue their investigation.

Witnesses, however, say that Foster never raised the barrel of his gun toward the driver and was not intimidating him. They say the car swerved towards them and Foster has jumped in front of Mitchell, a quadruple amputee, fearing she was a target.

Bystander James Sasinowski told CNN that the driver was not defending himself from violence when he shot Foster, and instead said he'd been the instigator of it.

A newly surfaced photograph shows Garrett Foster at the driver's window. The barrel of the rifle is pointed towards the ground, while his right arm is high with his hand seemingly placed on the grip of the weapon

First responders are seen preparing to transport Foster to a local hospital where he was later pronounced dead

Sasinowski said the driver intentionally and aggressively accelerated their vehicle into a crowd of people prior to the shots ringing out.

I want to be very clear that the driver incited the violence -- he accelerated into the crowd of people and he shot first, Sasinowski told the network.

Shelia Foster, Garrett's mother, said her son had previously served in the military and described him as a man committed to social justice, who had peacefully protested almost every night for the past 50 days with Mitchell

Witnesses gave conflicting accounts of what happened in the moments before the shooting, including that the disturbance began when the vehicle started honking its horn, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said.

Witnesses also told police that Foster approached the car with an AK-47 assault-style rifle while others in the crowd began striking the vehicle.

Sasinowski said he couldnt be certain if Foster ever raised his weapon at the driver, adding that he hasnt heard any other witnesses saying that happened  contrary to the Austin PDs claims.

One thing Sasinowski says he was certain of, though, is that the driver initiated the encounter.

This was intentional. It was aggressive and he accelerated into a crowd of protesters, Sasinowski said. He could have waited for us to pass or he could have gone slowly. We would have allowed him to go through.

Police responded to the scene just after 9:50pm when the driver dialed 911 after fleeing, telling a dispatcher he had shot someone who had approached their drivers window and pointed a rifle at them.

Police declined to say why the driver was where he was and whether his intent was nefarious.

Foster, who did not fire his weapon, received first aid at the scene before being transported to Dell Seton Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead an hour later.

Foster had been crossing 4th Street on Congress Avenue with Mitchell and hundreds of other demonstrators when a motorist sped towards the crowd and began blaring its horn. Cell phone footage captured the moment the fatal shots rang out

Following the vigil, protesters continued to march on the Texas State Capitol to finish the demonstration which was cut short by Foster's death

The 28-year-old was originally from Plano but had been living with Mitchell in Austin for the last two years. His mother Sheila said her son had been participating in the Black Lives Matter protests for 50 days in support of Mitchell, who is African-American.

The couple began dating just over a decade ago, having first met in an online chat room and became engaged a year later.

The following month, Mitchell was struck down by a mysterious illness and later had to have all four of her limbs amputated following sepsis.

Foster had to leave for basic training two months later but was discharged from the Air Force, aged 19, to become her full time carer.

'That time when he was gone [for basic training] was so detrimental to both of them, because they were very much in love, and he had cared for her so well,' his aunt Karen Sourber told USA Today. 'Hes been her primary caretaker ever since. He just loved her unconditionally and took care of everything.'

Hundreds gathered at the scene of the shooting on Sunday evening to mourn Foster's death in a vigil led by Mitchell.

Whitney Mitchell, 28, led Black Lives Matter protesters in a vigil march for finace Garrett Foster, also 28, who was shot and killed during demonstrations in Austin, Texas, on Saturday night

Mitchell choked back tears as marchers held a moment of silence on the street where Foster was shot and killed as he approached the driver of a vehicle who opened fire

A woman clutching flowers breaks down in tears during a vigil for Garrett Foster in downtown Austin

Marchers carried signs reading 'Justice for Garrett' and laid them at the spot where he died along with candles and flower. Police have interviewed the man who shot Foster, but have released him pending further investigation

Shelia Foster said her son had been demonstrating for consecutive nights for nearly two months because he felt really strongly about justice and he was very heavily against police brutality.'

Crediting her late son as 'one of the best young men you would ever know', Shelia also tearfully recounted the unconditional love Foster had for Mitchell.

'I saw my son at 19 years old brush this girl's teeth, comb her hair. He would put her on the toilet and clean her up, and he would make sure that she got bathed and make sure that she was able to get dressed and took her everywhere that she needed to go. And he's been doing that ever since,' Sheila told GMA.

'On top of grieving for my son, I worry about Whitney. Because who's going to do that for her now?' she continued. 'She just lost the love of her life, because somebody just randomly fired shots and killed my son. And I don't mean to say that anybody else's life is less valuable. I don't believe that. But I don't know why it had to be my son.'

The couple were planning on getting married, but were waiting until Mitchell mastered her prosthetics before they walked down the aisle.

Mitchells mother, Patricia Kirven, told the Dallas Morning News she warned her daughter about going to the protests, because she was 'afraid something would happen.'

'She physically is OK, but mentally she is not. "Inconsolable" is the only word I can think of, because shell talk for a bit and then break down,' Kirven added.
(Natural News) Black Lives Matter brigades continue to tear up the inner cities and threaten law enforcement, growing bolder and more ruthless with each act of violence. Law abiding citizens are beginning to feel helpless in the Northwest U.S. cities as mobs pillage the streets, deface property, burn buildings and block roads.

These rioters have been blocking roads in cities around the country, stopping travelers, destroying their vehicles, and threatening innocent lives. White silence is violence, they decry as they wield actual, unrelenting violence toward peaceful, law abiding Americans.

Rioters hold traveler at gunpoint

A riot in Eugene, Oregon effectively blocked a roadway and one of the demonstrators, armed with a handgun, decided to hold a motorist at gunpoint, pointing his handgun through the window of the vehicle, targeting the motorists chest.

According to eye witness reports, the motorist felt that his life was threatened by the mob and decided to act in self defense against the rioters. Surrounded by violent thugs, the motorist brandished a handgun to defend his life. An armed Black Lives Matter demonstrator confronted the motorist as he appears to be getting out of his truck. The armed demonstrator hoisted his handgun inside the opened window of the truck, pointing it at the motorists chest. The standoff reportedly went on for about a minute before the motorist was able to drive off. The armed demonstrator is lucky the motorist did not fire as his life was clearly in danger.

Rioters will play the victim and the hero when law abiding Americans defend themselves

Law enforcement are outnumbered by the violent Antifa and BLM mobs, and ordinary Americans are left with no choice but to defend themselves against these domestic terrorists. As more Americans step up to defend themselves, the Black Lives Matter brigades will try to play the role of victim and the hero. If the motorist would have fired in self defense, he wouldve been cast as the bad guy. If the BLM assailant would have shot the motorist down, he would have been cast as a hero, defending peaceful protestors. Just ask the McCloskeys, the St. Louis couple who defended their property from a violent mob that broke through their front gate, were. The McCloskeys are the ones being charged with felonies  for successfully defending their property and their lives. The corporate left-wing media is currently gas-lighting the nation, referring to Black Lives Matter violence as peaceful, their demonstrations democratic, and their cause one of justice.

As law abiding Americans begin to defend themselves from the mob, they will be cast as the enemy and their actions will be labeled as the violent threat. It wont be long before the United Nations declares US police activity and federal intervention of inner-city violence as a human rights abuse. The New York Times has called upon left-wing demonstrators to continue terrorizing Portland to stave off fascism.

The United Nations may ultimately side with the violent mobs and help Antifa and Black Lives Matter rise to power, destroying the American republic and the rule of law. This is what is at stake. Democratic mayors and governors are openly allowing the violence and terrorist occupation of the cities they preside over, telling police to stand down and criticizing federal agents for upholding law and order. These leaders could very well invite foreign forces like the UN to occupy  and force federal forces out  of the cities, allowing a reign of terror to commence on American soil. Americans may be called upon to defend their nation against this escalation of violence and this communist overthrow of America.

Sources include:

BigLeaguePolitics.com

BBC.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com
ISTANBUL  Turkish lawmakers prepared to debate a controversial social media bill Tuesday that free speech advocates said would lead to increased censorship and the removal of online content, furthering restrictions on freedom of information in the country.

Despite pushback from opposition groups and international rights organizations, the bill is expected to pass through a parliamentary majority held by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the National Movement Party (MHP) before the bodys summer recess begins Friday.

A draft of the proposal would require social media platforms with more than one million domestic daily users, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to open offices in Turkey and appoint local representatives to implement government requests to block and remove content or face steep fines along with possible access cuts if they fail to comply.

This is an attempt to expand the censorship regime into social media, which is one of the last free spaces in Turkey, Scott Griffen, deputy director at the International Press Institute, told Al-Monitor. I would describe it as blackmail of social media platforms.

A similar bill was proposed and quickly dropped in April, but the issue was revived earlier this month after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged to increase state control over social media platforms in response to the online harassment of his daughter, Esra Albayrak.

They need to be brought into order, Erdogan told AKP members July 1. Such platforms dont suit this country and our people. Thats why we want these social media platforms completely shut or controlled after bringing the issue to our parliament.

In recent years, freedom of information has been severely restricted in Turkey, particularly amid a state of emergency sparked by a 2016 coup attempt that led to a broad crackdown on critical journalists, the closure of dozens of media outlets and a nearly three-year ban on Wikipedia. The nation was ranked 154 of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders 2020 World Press Freedom index.

The nine-article social media bill will be debated as heavy-handed censorship efforts continue in Turkey, where authorities blocked access to 130,000 websites, 7,000 Twitter accounts and 10,000 YouTube videos in 2019, according to a recent report by the Freedom of Expression Association (IFOD).

If passed, the proposal would require social media companies to store user data locally, where advocates say it could be easily accessed by law enforcement agents. The bill would also introduce financial penalties for platforms that do not comply with state requests through fines ranging from 1 to 10 million Turkish liras ($144,000 to $1.44 million), up from current fines of 10,000 to 100,000 Turkish liras ($1,400-$14,000).

Apart from financial penalties, uncooperative social media companies could see their websites throttled by state communications authorities, rendering their platforms unusable in Turkey.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube did not respond to requests for comment on the legislation. The companies have yet to make public statements regarding the bill, and their lack of response has been criticized by internet rights activists such as Yaman Akdeniz, a law professor at Istanbul Bilgi University and a founder of IFOD.

Their silence has also been detrimental to the legislative process as they should have immediately reacted and rejected these proposals categorically, Akdeniz told Al-Monitor. Coming to Turkey under such circumstances will be detrimental to their business and reputation.

Another clause put forth in the proposal would require domestic news sites to remove content or face legal repercussions. Isik Mater, research director at Turkey Blocks, a nonprofit that tracks online censorship, said such legislation could be used to erase unfavorable coverage of Turkish lawmakers such as past corruption allegations or political scandals.

If you block something inside Turkey, people can access it through VPNs or from other countries, but if you remove the content, its gone, Mater told Al-Monitor, referring to virtual private networks, a tool used to circumvent local internet restrictions. So anything written about politicians or AKP members, it will be all gone.

She added, It will have a huge impact on freedom of speech.

On top of removal requests, MHP deputy chair Feti Yildiz suggested adding a provision to the bill Monday that would block VPNs, limiting citizens ability to sidestep looming restrictions on internet services in Turkey.

New and radical measures must be taken to make sure banned platforms and sites remain restricted, Yildiz said Monday. These platforms do not have a function of informing the public; they dont adhere to any discipline to gain users.

When asked if such a proposal was technically feasible, Akdeniz said many popular VPN providers were already blocked in Turkey, including a TOR browser website.

Do not underestimate the government's attempts to further restrict access to alternative means of accessing blocked websites and platforms from Turkey, Akdeniz told Al-Monitor. For sure, the new law is bad news for network development and access to information from Turkey.
John and Abbie Duggar have been married since 2018, and they star alongside the rest of the Duggar family on Counting On. The two tend to keep a lower profile than some of the other Duggars; their storyline isnt as prominent on the show. Still, fans have grown to love them, and their recent photo might confirm theyre one of the happiest Duggar couples.

John David Duggar and Abbie Burnett | John and Abbie Duggar via Instagram

John and Abbie Duggar wed back in 2018

When John and Abbie started courting, they were already a bit further along in life than most of Johns siblings had been. Its not uncommon for the Duggars to wed in their early twenties, though John didnt start courting Abbie until he was 28. The two were engaged quickly and planned a wedding for November 2018.

Abbie was born and raised in Oklahoma, and while shes very religious, she wasnt raised with the same strict rules as other family members. Abbie went to school to become a nurse; Duggar women arent typically allowed to hold jobs. She also wears pants, while Duggar women were raised to only wear skirts and dresses.

The couple welcomed their first child earlier this year

John and Abbie didnt start a family right away. Although its common for Duggars to become pregnant on the honeymoon, these two opted to spend some time as a married couple before starting a family. The two vacationed to Finland, then took time to do mission work in Asia before starting a family.

In August 2019, nine months after they wed, the couple announced a pregnancy. They welcomed their daughter, Grace Annette, in January 2020, and the two have loved showing her off on social media.

RELATED: Counting On: Some Think John and Abbie Duggar Are Defying Some of the Duggars Strict Rules As New Parents

John and Abbies family photo had fans gushing

The couple has been documenting their life as a family for fans to see, though they dont post as much as other Duggar couples. Still, they mark all of Graces one-month milestones with a photo, and, most recently, the two uploaded a photo with their little family  and fans loved to see them so happy.

John is head over heels in love. You see it all over his face, one user wrote. You guys are my favorite! another person commented. How cute and happy you all are, someone else added. People also commented on how adorable they find the couples daughter.

RELATED: Counting On: Some People Are Convinced John and Abbie Duggar Will Have Twins Soon

Fans think these two will take things more slowly than the others

John and Abbie defied Duggar tradition by waiting longer than usual to have kids. And some think these two arent in a rush to complete with Jim Bob and Michelle and have 19 children. Abbie had her first child at 27, which is late for most Duggar women, and she once laughed at the thought of having as many kids as her in-laws. Abbie also dealt with severe morning sickness during her first pregnancy, but its unclear if that could affect how many kids she wants.
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Linkedin Cecile Mantovani (Reuters) Geneva, Switzerland  Tue, July 28, 2020 07:30 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669bb4e1 2 World health-worker,healthcare-professionals,healthcare-workers,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-vaccines,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,frontline-workers Free

Nurses and other health workers must be top priority for the first COVID-19 vaccines, especially as they are often left without enough protection against the virus in their frontline jobs, the International Council of Nurses said on Monday.

An estimated 1.5 million health care workers have been infected, three times the number in early June, it said, citing figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) on the novel coronavirus which has infected some 16 million people worldwide.

"We are continuing to receive reports of nurses and health care workers not having enough personal protective equipment, not being able to access testing, working under incredible strain and pressure," Howard Catton, chief executive officer of the Geneva-based ICN, told Reuters Television.

"To be frank, many governments have just been too slow to prioritize nurses and healthcare workers. So we are saying, when it comes to vaccines, no excuses, no ifs, no buts, we are putting governments on notice now, that nurses and healthcare workers must be prioritized for a vaccine when it becomes available," he said.

Researchers are making "good progress" in developing vaccines against COVID-19, with a handful in late-stage trials, but their first use cannot be expected until early 2021, the WHO's top emergency expert Mike Ryan said last week.

WHO's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said last week that it was drawing up a framework to ensure "fair and equitable access" would give priority to three groups including frontline workers such as medics and the police.

The ICN, which represents 130 national nursing associations, has appealed throughout the six-month pandemic for sufficient personal protective equipment for nurses.

Catton, referring to nightly public tributes in some countries, said: "Nurses, quite frankly, have had enough of the applause. They are saying, we want action, the applauses are ringing very hollow.

"Action, committing to vaccination for healthcare workers, ensuring personal protective equipment, testing nurses and healthcare workers: these are the issues which will really make a difference to nurses, but also to the people that they look after."
UK Board result 2020 DECLARED: Around 1.35 lakh students appeared for the Class 12 board exams which were scheduled to be held in March but got postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic

UK Board result 2020 DECLARED | The Uttarakhand Board of Secondary Education (UBSE) declared the much-awaited Class 12 board exam results today (Wednesday, 29 July) at its headquarters in Ramnagar (Nainital), said reports.

Once declared, students can check the results on UBSE's official website - ubse.uk.gov.in.

Students can check their Class 12 exam results at Firstpost by entering their details in the widget below:

It has been observed that the official website becomes slow or fails to respond due to heavy traffic as students try to check their results simultaneously. Some may also face problems in accessing internet facilities due to consequent congestion.

In such a situation, students can also access their results via SMS. To get their scores on their mobile handsets students should message UK12 ROLL NUMBER to 56263.

Steps to check UK Board Class 10th and Class 12th result 2020:

Step 1: Go to the official website - ubse.uk.gov.in

Step 2: On the homepage, click on the result tab

Step 3: You will be redirected to a new page, where you will have to choose UBSE 10th Result 2020 or UBSE 12th Result 2020

Step 4: Enter your roll number and other login credentials and press Submit

Step 5: Your result will be displayed on the screen. Download and take a printout for future reference.

The Class 10 exam results will also be announced along with the Class 12 results on 29 July in the presence of education minister Arvind Pandey and chairman of the board RK Kunwar, Hindustan Times quoted UBSE secretary Neeta Tiwari as saying.

According to the Indian Express, around 1.35 lakh students appeared for the Class 12 board exams which were scheduled to be held in March. However, the exams were postponed due to the coronavirus lockdown and the results, which are usually out by June, were also delayed.

Last year, the Class 12 Board exams results were announced on 30 May and the overall pass percentage was 80.13.
Bill Gates is a true master of the diplomatic putdown.

For example, when Donald Trump asked Gates, twice, if there is a difference between HIV and HPV, Gates neatly skewered the POTUS by responding that "those are rarely confused with each other." Translated into everyday language, that would be "[forehead slap]."

Earlier today, Gates similarly gob-slapped Elon Musk. While Musk, in contrast to Trump, has actually accomplished something in the business world other than branding and bankruptcy, he's nevertheless developed a Trumpian habit of shooting his mouth off about Covid-19, a subject about which he clearly knows nothing.

Like many successful (and unsuccessful) entrepreneurs, Musk has the habit of assuming that because he has expertise on several subjects, he's an expert on anything and everything else. A perfect example of this was Musk's weird insistence that he could quickly build a submarine to save some trapped spelunkers in Thailand.

Even in areas adjacent to his businesses, Musk strays into the nonsensical. For example, Musk keeps predicting that driverless cars are just around the corner, even though that technology would require the so-called "singularity," the chimerical breakthrough that even A.I. faith-based true believers have concluded is decades away.

Similarly, Musk has been bloviating big time about the coronavirus and Covid-19. In March, well after it was clear we had a major pandemic on our hands, Musk tweeted that "the coronavirus panic is dumb." Musk also incorrectly blamed false testing positives for the rise of Covid cases and spread the dangerous myth that children were immune to the disease.

Gates (who, unlike Musk, has been using his money and influence to actually help solve the problem) finally had his fill of his Musk's puerile logorrhea. Thus, on a CNN interview, rather than addressing Musk's individuals rants, Gates simply filleted Musk like a fresh codfish:

Elon's positioning is to maintain a high level of outrageous comments. He's not much involved in vaccines. He makes a great electric car. And his rockets work well. So he's allowed to say these things. I hope that he doesn't confuse areas he's not involved in too much.
Openings are still available for a blood drive to be held Wednesday, July 29, on the campus of MidMichigan Medical Center  Midland.

In partnership with Versiti Blood Center of Michigan, the drive will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Those donating are to enter the MRI Building Lobby, (old Orchard Building), on the campus of MidMichigan Medical Center  Midland.
'Accommodating vital new protection protocols in a classroom, and enforcing urgent safety strictures that seem to go against every instinct of bringing people together, must from now on be hard-wired into the system'. (stock photo)

Any tradesman will advise while on a ladder, never step back to admire your work. It's something the Coalition might bear in mind as it signs off on a high-wire act to reopen schools.

As Irish National Teachers Organisation general secretary John Boyle put it: "There will be a lot of pressure on boards of management and principals to deliver the return to school plans and it is a very big ask."

Accommodating vital new protection protocols in a classroom, and enforcing urgent safety strictures that seem to go against every instinct of bringing people together, must from now on be hard-wired into the system.

According to the writer William D Tammeus: "You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back."

It's a level of concern that never rests, a level which like everything else has soared to new heights over the past six months.

So it makes complete sense for Taoiseach Micheal Martin to list keeping pupils, teachers, and staff safe as a singular prerogative for the Government.

And it is an onerous responsibility. How onerous is reflected in the fact there are one million children and over 4,000 primary and secondary schools to be taken into consideration.

True, primary schools may not impose physical distancing rules on the youngest classes.

But for older classes, and second-level schools, teachers and pupils will be asked to keep at least one metre apart.

Unions have pointed out national supply panels of teachers will be essential to keeping schools open.

The 400m earmarked for the return is welcome as the demand for resources will be unprecedented. But as once noted by Franklin D Roosevelt: "The school is the last expenditure upon which we should be willing to economise."

Additional guidance counsellors and psychologists will doubtlessly be required to be available to schools to help students adapt to the new unfamiliar environment.

It has been said to bring up a child in the way he or she should go, it is worth travelling that way yourself, once in a while. But no pupil, parent or teacher has ever been asked to traverse the terrain Covid-19 has led us into.

Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland general secretary Kieran Christie said that while teachers will work with the Government, it is essential the health of both students and staff is fully protected.

The message was brought home by the fact the WHO has just declared Covid-19 is "easily the most severe" global health emergency the organisation has ever encountered.

The statement came as the global number of confirmed Covid-19 cases passed 16 million.

We know how grimly predictable the virus is. Its ruthlessly efficient, and won't change its behaviour: so we simply must change ours.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 27

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 45 times, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

Armenian armed forces were using large-caliber machine guns and sniper rifles.

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.
Kavi Ramano est intervenu pendant la seance parlementaire du 28 juillet 2020 pour faire un point sur le recent naufrage qui a eu lieu non-loin du Parc Marin de Blue Bay le 25 juillet 2020.

Mr. Speaker Sir

I wish to make a statement on the wreck of the bulk carrier vessel named MV Wakashio.

Allow me to inform the House that the Police Information and Operations Rooms (PIOR) alerted my Ministry that on Saturday 25th July around 7.30 pm, a Vessel ran aground near Pointe dEsny. The ship is a bulk carrier vessel named MV Wakashio and the owner is Okiyo Maritime Corp. / Nagashiki Shipping Co. Ltd.

The ship was on its route to Brazil from China and its last port of call was Singapore. According to information received there was no cargo on the ship and there are 20 crew members.

Its a bulk carrier of dimension of around 300 m length and width 50 m. As per information received, the vessel has on board fuel for its use as follows:

3894 metric tons of low- sulphur Fuel Oil

207 metric tons of Diesel

90 metric ton of Lubricant oil

As soon as the alert was given, my ministry activated the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan. The National Coast Guard and the Special Mobile Force of the Mauritius Police Force mobilised on site as from 5 a.m on Sunday 26th July 2020 with oil- spill combat equipment. A Command Post was set up at the NCG post of Blue Bay . It was observed at that point in time that there was no oil spillage.

The National Environmental Laboratory of my Ministry collected samples of seawater on Sunday 26th July 2020 around 10.30 am and Monday 27 July 2020 to carry out tests to check presence of any oil and grease and total hydrocarbons .The test results confirmed that there was no oil and grease and total hydrocarbons detected in the samples collected. The National Environmental Laboratory of my Ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Blue Economy , Marine Resources , Fisheries and Shipping will be carrying sampling and testing of seawater samples on a daily basis.

The Director of Shipping convened an urgent meeting in the morning of 26th July at 8 a.m to look into salvage matters.

The Director of Environment convened a first meeting of the National Oil Spill Contingency Committee on Sunday 26th July at 9 am. In view of the vicinity of the Blue Bay Marine Park, the Director of the Environment in consultation with the Ministry of Blue Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries and Shipping and the NCG, advised for the deployment of around 190 m of booms at the seaward entrance of the Blue Bay Marine Park.

My Ministry issued a communique on Sunday 26th July 2020 to inform the public in general and beach users to exercise precaution in the lagoons of Blue Bay and Pointe dEsny and the surroundings.

Mr Speaker Sir,

Furthermore, I was informed by the Director of Shipping that

(i) a letter of Lloyds Standard Form of Salvage agreement has been signed with Smith Salvage Co. and local counterpart CELERO on 27 July 2020 to take remedial actions such as pumping of the fuel oil, salvage of the ship and anti-pollution measures amongst others.

(ii) The ship hull has not been damaged at this point in time.

(iii) The engine room was flooded due to the rupture of a water hose pipe.

(iv) A tug is on its way to Mauritius from South Africa.

(v) A second Tug (with oil spill response equipment and a team of 10 persons) has left Singapore on 27 July 2020 at night for Reunion island from where an additional 6 salvators would board the Tug and then would proceed to the wreck site. They are expected on Wednesday 29 July 2020.

An additional Tug would be on standby if required.

On 27 July 2020, traces of hydrocarbons have been reported on smeared algae over a stretch of around 300 m. Slight smell of hydrocarbon was discerned in the algae. Following an enquiry carried out by the NCG it has been reported that it may have originated from the engine room. No further leakage has been observed.

A cleanup of the shoreline has been effected by the SMF on 27th July 2020 at 9pm under the supervision of my ministry.

Mr Speaker Sir,

My Ministry, in line with the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan , has already established contact with Authorities in Reunion Island through the French Embassy for support as part as the POLMAR plan whenever the need arises. It is to be noted that such request is triggered in the event of any major spill, that is, of the order of 10 metric tons and above ( Tier 2 ( 10- 100 metric ton) and Tier 3 (above 100 metric ton)) .

My Ministry is also considering measures such as the pumping of the oil and placement of booms around the ship and in the vicinity in the days to come. Furthermore, a communication cell has been set up at the level of my Ministry to regularly inform the public of measures taken .

As at today morning, Tuesday 28th July 2020 at 09 15hrs, the NCG has informed that there is no occurrence of any oil spill. All precautions are being taken to prevent any oil spillage.

Thank you
Rating Action: Moody's assigns B1 Corporate Family Rating to InterGen N.V.

Global Credit Research - 28 Jul 2020

London, 28 July 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has today assigned a B1 corporate family rating (CFR) and B1-PD probability of default rating to InterGen N.V. (InterGen), in line with the existing senior secured rating. The outlook on the rating remains negative.

RATINGS RATIONALE

The B1 ratings are supported by InterGen's very strong liquidity and Moody's expectation that net leverage will decline over the next 18-24 months with positive free cashflow. In addition, the rating reflects good short-term cash flow visibility as a result of the Spalding tolling contract, which runs until September 2021, and significant revenues from the UK's capacity mechanism until September 2024. Moody's expects the company's modern and efficient fleet of combined-cycle gas turbines in the UK and supercritical coal-fired stations in Queensland, Australia to remain profitable in both markets.

However, the rating is constrained by the likelihood that dividends from the company's Australian joint venture will fall sharply as lower market prices are reflected in project cash flow, and that the profitability of the company's UK assets will be reduced with the expiry of a key contract in 2021. A 2021 debt maturity at the company's Millmerran coal project may need to be funded from internal cash flow, which would further constrain distributions to InterGen. Taken together, these factors mean InterGen's ratio of funds from operations (FFO) to debt could fall to the mid-single digits, in percentage terms, in 2022 and 2023.

The rating is also constrained by refinancing risk at the holding company, which will rise as the June 2023 maturity of most of its debt approaches, given weak projected metrics at that time and lenders' growing focus on ESG-related risks to coal and gas generators.

Story continues

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

The outlook could be stabilised if Moody's believes InterGen will be able to maintain FFO/debt sustainably above 8% and debt/EBITDA, based on consolidated and unencumbered assets, below 7x, and if forthcoming debt maturities are refinanced in good time.

In the longer term, the rating could be upgraded if InterGen maintains FFO/debt consistently above 12% with prudent liquidity, or if there were a significant increase in revenue visibility as a result of long-term offtake contracts with creditworthy counterparties.

The rating could be downgraded if FFO/debt appears likely to fall persistently below 8% or if debt/EBITDA rose above 7x. The rating could also be downgraded if InterGen failed to secure liquidity comfortably ahead of the 2023 debt maturity, or if there were changes in the company's business profile that increased cash flow volatility, without offsetting measures to strengthen the balance sheet.

The principal methodology used in these ratings was Unregulated Utilities and Unregulated Power Companies published in May 2017 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1066389. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

Headquartered in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, InterGen N.V. is a holding company with a 3,269 MW portfolio in operations consisting of four natural gas-fired power plants in the UK and two coal-fired power plants in Queensland, Australia. InterGen N.V. is owned by Sev.en Energy and China Huaneng Group Co., Ltd (A2 stable).

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.

For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action, and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action, the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity. Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures, if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.

The ratings have been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent(s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.

These ratings are solicited. Please refer to Moody's Policy for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on its website www.moodys.com.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.

At least one ESG consideration was material to the credit rating action(s) announced and described above.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.

Graham Taylor VP - Senior Credit Officer Infrastructure Finance Group Moody's Investors Service Ltd. One Canada Square Canary Wharf London E14 5FA United Kingdom JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456 Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454 Neil Griffiths-Lambeth Associate Managing Director Infrastructure Finance Group JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456 Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service Ltd. One Canada Square Canary Wharf London E14 5FA United Kingdom JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456 Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454

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The Kuntanase Magistrate Court presided over by Francis Ana-Am Asakiya on Friday remanded three young men alleged to be military imposters into police custody for two weeks.



The three whose pleas were not taken are to re-appear on 10th August, 2020 after being provisionally charged with impersonation, unlawful possession of military accoutrements and assault.



Prosecuting, Chief Inspector Emmanuel Aboagye Ansah, told the court that on Thursday, 23rd July, 2020 at about 2:14 pm, the assembly member for Piase electoral area in the Bosomtwe District of Ashanti, Mr. Daniel Owusu Forjour alerted the Kuntanase Police that two young men dressed in military uniforms and claiming to be military officers were assaulting and arresting people in the community.



The prosecutor said the police quickly rushed to Piase and upon their arrival observed the two men dressed in military uniforms had assaulted and arrested some people for allegedly smoking Indian hemp and extorted money from them.



He said the police arrested the two who gave their details as N0. 211579 AC2 Sarfo Emmanuel, aged 29, of the Air Force Command in Accra and a private soldier Bernard Ofori with registration number No. 211461 aged 30 of the 4BN, Kumasi.



The prosecutor said the police also arrested an accomplice, one Bismarck Dankwa Asare who was driving a Nissan Sunny private saloon car with registration number GS 4447-10, which car brought the suspects to the community.



The prosecutor stated that upon their arrest, they had in their possession an amount of GH88 being money they forcibly collected from their victims including one Ofori Donkor who was their last victim they assaulted before their arrest.



Other items found on them apart from the military uniforms, were a military name tag bearing the name Prince Acquah Adomako with registration N0. 211445, a military bag, a knife and a handcuff.



Chief Inspector Emmanuel Aboagye Ansah said before going to court, the Kuntanase Police checked with the Military high command and established that the two were not military personnel.



He stated that the Nissan Sunny car has been impounded as they continue with further investigation.







Source: Graphic.com.gh









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
An anti-masker dubbed 'Bunnings Karen' has threatened to cast a spell on Karl Stefanovic after he cut her off when she began spouting conspiracy theories about coronavirus during a live interview.

Elizabeth 'Lizzy' Rose, a self-proclaimed high priestess who performs exorcisms for a living, appeared on the Today show on Tuesday after vision of her arguing with Bunnings staff about Victorian health directives went viral.

But she was dumped minutes into the interview when Stefanovic and his co-host Allison Langdon realised they were giving her a platform to discuss harmful, scientifically debunked theories.

Ms Rose took to social media after the segment aired to insist the duo simply 'couldn't handle the truth'.

'Karl... acted like a spoilt, childish brat,' she said, claiming that the host approached her to do the segment.

'You don't get to shut me down because you don't like what I say. Where there's a witch, there's always a way and now you are also on my radar,' she said.

In the segment, Ms Rose - who has been colloquially labelled a 'Bunnings Karen' after sharing footage of herself berating staff who told her she couldn't enter without a mask - admitted she had no issues covering her face in the past

Ms Rose told friends and family she thought Stefanovic was 'biased, demonstrative and dismissive when talking about a very important issue that is affecting five million Victorians'.

She also took aim at Langdon for her response to the wild theories, insisting that exemptions for wearing a face mask in public were introduced to 'protect people like myself from such hate and unlawful discrimination Allison'.

Stefanovic and Langdon expressed their concerns immediately to Ms Rose as she tried to defend her anti-mask crusade.

After just a few minutes, Langdon cut Ms Rose off as she argued people had a right to make their own choices about their health during Melbourne's COVID-19 second wave - even if it put the lives of more vulnerable Australians at risk.

'Sorry, what was your medical degree?' Langdon asked.

Ms Rose claimed to have had experience as a medic, but admitted she hasn't worked in the field for about four years.

Today hosts Allison Langdon and Karl Stefanovic cut short an interview with 'Bunnings Karen' Lizzie Rose after she defended her criticism of mandatory masks in Victoria

Lizzy Rose is a pagan witch who has filmed herself burning face masks in a fire pit

'I am not a doctor,' she clarified on air. 'I am not a scientist but I worked as a medic. Obviously quite a while ago, not when COVID was around.'

She now advertises her services as a psychic, and claims to have been practising since she was just nine years old.

'You deliberately went into that place to antagonise workers who are literally just trying to do their bit for the country right now, to protect other people from this killer virus, which it is,' Stefanovic said of her outburst at Bunnings.

But Ms Rose now argues she was simply 'enacting her rights'.

'The New World Order is VERY real, and Today show demonstrated by their own actions that... the media is running a fear based campaign.

'The people in Australia are not all stupid.'

Ms Rose argues that every death in 2020 has been listed as a COVID-19-related fatality - a claim which authorities have repeatedly debunked.

Lizzy Rose hams it up while dressed as a Viking queen. She had been trying to get items for a Viking fire pit when she ran into trouble at her local Bunnings

Lizzy Rose sent a message of praise to health workers in April while wearing a mask. She now films herself breaking the law by getting around Melbourne without one

Ms Rose has emerged as one of the leaders of a group of Melburnians that has come to police attention since mandatory mask laws came into force last Thursday.

After cutting the interview short, Stefanovic apologised to viewers for giving Rose air time, while Langdon admitted they'd argued about the decision to interview her prior to the segment.

'We had this discussion last night whether we would give her air time. It is important. Bunnings staff members doing the right thing [are] faced with this kind of activity and we felt it was important to hear from her point of view. I back you 100 per cent calling quits on that,' Langdon said.

'Apologies if you are offended,' Stefanovic added.

In the segment, Ms Rose - who has been labelled a 'Bunnings Karen' after sharing footage of herself berating staff members who told her to wear a mask - admitted she had no issues covering her face in the past.

'It is about personal choice,' she said. 'It is about choice. If you want a mask that is up to you.'

Ms Rose said about four months ago she wore a mask while attending an eyelash appointment, but told the program she took issue with Premier Daniel Andrews making them mandatory.

The admission only appeared to further frustrate Stefanovic, who reminded her that vulnerable Australians were dying at rapid rates as a result of the virus, particularly in Victoria.

'Did you, Lizzie, know the elderly and aged care homes... now 700 of them affected with COVID, do they have a choice? The answer is no,' he said.

'I can't listen to you anymore,' he said as he instructed producers to cut the segment short.

'It's wrong, I'm sorry. I thought that we would in some way shape or form get to a reasonable excuse as to why she was doing that. Otherwise we wouldn't have got her on.'

Exorcist Lizzie Rose said she has a medical certificate that exempts her from wearing a mask. She has filmed herself shopping at Bunnings

Disappointed viewers lambasted the Today show for bringing Ms Rose on the show for the sake of 'click bait' and ratings.

'There is no place in Australian media for her. You just had her on for click bait and it's not helping our doctors and nurses who are fighting to keep people alive,' one tweet read.

'Don't give that dragon any oxygen. She should be forced to volunteer for the COVID patients at a nursing home,' another said.

The group of troublemakers linked to Ms Rose are all believed to be members of 'The Illuminating Army' - a group of like-minded conspiracy theorists who believe COVID-19 is a scam and 5G networks are the work of the devil.

Ms Rose, who has been contacted by Daily Mail Australia, claims to be the leader of the army.

In videos of the exorcist posted on both her own Facebook page and that of the 'army', Ms Rose declares she will continue to travel through up to five Melbourne suburbs a day without wearing a mask.

Ordained pagan minister Lizzy Rose (left) has been getting about Melbourne without a mask and proudly filming herself as she breaks the law

Other videos show her burning face masks in a fire pit.

'I will be walking the streets with no mask,' she brags. 'And I will be telling anyone who is interested to not consent. To not comply. To not put your life and your health at risk.'

In a long-winded rant posted on the day the bans kicked in, Ms Rose filmed herself walking down a street in Tullamarine in Melbourne's outer north-west while refusing to wear a mask.

In it, she claimed the government actually hopes to kill Victorians by forcing them to wear masks.

'This is about control, this is about submission, this is about compliance, this is about you doing what you're told, not about a killer virus,' she said.

'Don't walk around with a mask on your face, it's really, really quite dangerous for you ... you'll see a whole heap of people die now. That's the agenda - depopulation. And it'll be through wearing a mask.'

Ms Rose explains that she does not need to obey the draconian laws before signing off with a smile.

Lizzy Rose has started an 'army' of like-minded people opposed to COVID-19 restrictions and laws

'That's not a Mask This is a Mask' reads a post from Lizzy Rose on her Facebook page

'See you in another suburb really, really soon. No mask,' she said.

Days later, Ms Rose was seen taking her cause into a Bunnings Warehouse at Maribyrnong in Melbourne's west, where she planned to buy plant pots and items for her 'Viking fire pit'.

Armed with a medical certificate exempting her from wearing the mandatory masks, she fronted confused staff members.

'I went shopping in my local Bunnings where I've spent thousands of dollars over nearly 18 years and was rudely illegally denied customer service due to not wearing a facial mask, despite the fact that I produced a legal medical certificate of exemption,' she posted after the stunt.

'Management called the police, stating to police that my exemption was 'bogus' which is completely untrue.

'This is absolutely disgusting treatment of a customer and a direct contradiction to Mr Daniel Andrews, the premier of Victoria's, instructions stating that no person with a medical exemption is to be refused service, goods or products.'

The video showed Ms Rose referring to masked customers as 'zombies' as she walked without a mask through the aisles.

'People are so very silly,' she said. 'And they're so silly and it's so very sad that they're not evolved enough to see.'

Ms Rose was seen arguing with a checkout operator before she turned the video off.

She later stated that she did not get to purchase the items and had complained directly with Bunnings.

On Monday, Ms Rose said she plans to conduct a 'Ritual of Justice' on the 'Australian Government Freemason De Molay associates, who run this country and implement draconian inhumane laws upon its people'.

Lizzy Rose has been travelling about Melbourne filming herself shopping without wearing a mask

A post on social media by Lizzy Rose, encouraging people to refuse to wear masks

What is a 'Karen'? A 'Karen' is a newly-emerged term for a self-righteous woman, usually middle-aged, who tells people how to do their jobs, asserts their rights and complains to the manager. The origins of the term are unclear, however it quickly became popular in meme culture on internet forums such as Reddit to describe problematic women. A Karen meme is often combined with the quote: 'Can I speak to the manager?' It is also associated with anti-vaccination activists who favour unproven essential oils to medical science. The 'Karen' was also associated with a side-swept bob haircut that is long at the front and short at the back. Advertisement
Major General Su Guanghui, China's defence attache to the UK, delivers a speech during the reception to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army of China.

This year marks the 93rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army of China. Over the past 93 years, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, the PLA has made its mark in history with splendid achievements. It has committed itself to the liberation and wellbeing of the Chinese people, and to the independence and rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Over the past 93 years and with complete dedication to the people, the PLA has served the people wholeheartedly as per its founding principles. Entering the New Era, guided by the Xi Jinping Thoughts on building a strong military, the PLA remains true to its original aspiration and keeps its mission firmly in mind. It has faithfully fulfilled every mission entrusted by the Party and the people. No danger or challenge could ever stop the PLA from advancing with tremendous courage and morale, be it border patrol or counter terrorism, exercise or training, UN peacekeeping or maritime escort, disaster relief or disease control. With its infinite loyalty, striving and sacrifice, the PLA has made continuous contribution to the world. History and reality prove that the PLA is indeed a force of victory, of iron discipline, and of peace. The growth of the PLA provides not only solid protection to the national sovereignty, security and development interest of China, but also robust support to the global peace and progress.

As President Xi Jinping points out, China will be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and an upholder of the international order. China's military will always be a staunch force that safeguards world peace. Going forward, the PLA will continue to advocate common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, perform the international duty that is required of the military of a big country, and make greater contribution to the building of lasting peace and universal security.

Firstly, the Chinese military unswervingly pursues a national defense policy that is defensive in nature. This is determined by China's decision to follow the path of peaceful development. On the one hand, the pursuit of both development and security is an integral part of the China Dream, which aims at building both a prosperous country and a powerful military as required by the grand rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. A peaceful and stable environment is essential for China's development. Faced with multiple and complex security threats and challenges, the PLA will resolutely safeguard China's national security and core interests, support its sustainable development, and take active defensive actions in order to prevent crises, and deter and win wars. The PLA will never allow the secession of any part of Chinese territory by anyone or any force by any means at any time. On the other hand, the Chinese nation has always loved peace and opposed militarism. Since its founding 70 years ago, the People's Republic of China has never started any war or provoked any conflict. The PLA has never taken by force an inch of land from any other country. It is not by relying on handouts from others or by engaging in military expansion or colonial plunder that China has grown from a poor and weak country to what it is today. History proves and will continue to prove that China will never follow the beaten trail of previous powers who sought hegemony. No matter developed it becomes, China will never seek hegemony, expansion or spheres of influence.

Secondly, the Chinese military unswervingly serve the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Today's world is faced with more pronounced instability and uncertainty. No country can respond alone or stand aloof. The world is increasingly becoming a community with a shared future, where interests and security needs are intertwined. The PLA has responded faithfully to the call for building a community with a shared future for mankind, and has expounded, through its peaceful actions, on the global implication of China's defense capability. This year, in the face of a sudden outbreak of the Covid-19, the PLA responded promptly when called upon to meet the severe challenge, and made remarkable contribution to the nationwide efforts to put virus under control. At the same time, the PLA also actively joined hands with the international community in fighting the pandemic. Medical supplies has been sent to the armed forces of nearly 50 countries, including Pakistan, Thailand, Tajikistan, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Argentina, Peru etc. Online conferences have been held to exchange the experiences of controlling Covid-19 with over 10 countries such as Russia, South Africa, Singapore, Indonesia etc. The PLA medical expert teams have been dispatched to the Laos, Cambodia and many other countries. With profound sincerity and efforts, the PLA has been working together with partners around the world to overcome the current difficulties and has made substantial contribution to the global fight against Covid-19. All these fully demonstrate that the PLA is committed to honoring its international responsibilities as the armed forces of a responsible country. The PLA is willing to continue working side by side with defense forces of other countries around the world, in a joint effort to win the ultimate victory in the global battle against Covid-19.

Thirdly, we unswervingly promote world peace and development. The PLA will continue to deepen exchanges and cooperation with the military of foreign countries, to participate actively in international joint response to global security challenges and to provide more public security goods to the international community.

We are determined to continue participating in the UN peacekeeping operations. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the PLA's participation in the UNPKOs. Over the past 30 years, China has participated in 25 UN peacekeeping missions and has contributed more than 40,000 peacekeepers. Fifteen Chinese military personnel have sacrificed their lives in the UNPKOs. China is the largest troop contributor and the second largest budget contributor among the permanent members of the UN Security Council.

We will continue to safeguard the security of international maritime passages. Since the year 2008, the PLA has dispatched 35 convoys to regular vessel escort operations in, for example, the waters near the Gulf of Aden. In total, escort has been provided to nearly 7,000 ships in over 1,300 operations, half of which were non-Chinese commercial ships.

We will continue to facilitate international and regional counter-terrorism cooperation. Over the past years, a series of "Peace Mission" military exercises have been held and counter-terrorism intelligence has been shared under the framework of Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The "Great Wall" international forum on counter-terrorism has been held.

Multilateral activities have also been organized such as the "Beijing Xiangshan Forum", which provided a platform where dialogues on regional security can be held to promote mutual trust and cooperation. Through safeguarding world peace, China creates favorable conditions for its development; through self-development, China is able to do more to safeguard world peace. Facts have shown that a stronger PLA helps strengthen the force that upholds peace and deters war, and hence making greater contribution to peace and development in the world.

As China's Defence Attache to the UK, I feel proud of the progress made by the PLA towards the goal of building a strong army. I am also delighted to see that pragmatic communication and cooperation have been conducted on multiple levels and in a variety of domains between the PLA and the British Armed Forces, thanks to the joint efforts of both sides. Achievements have already been made in fields like military training, peacekeeping, personnel training, etc. At present, the prolonged spread of Covid-19 worldwide has accelerated the profound changes in the world unseen in a century. The human society is once again standing at a new crossroads and faced with major choices between multilateralism and unilateralism, between cooperation and confrontation, and between win-win collaboration and zero-sum game. These would be vital choices that will have a significant impact on global development and human destiny. The PLA attaches great importance to cultivating friendly and cooperative relations with the British Armed Forces. It is hoped that the strategic communication and coordination between the two could be strengthened while engagement and cooperation could be broadened.

First, China and the UK should enhance strategic mutual trust. While the two countries differ in history, culture and social system, our differences should not prevent us from strengthening mutual trust and cooperation. Given the profound changes the world is currently faced with, China-UK relationship is gaining global and strategic significance, and should be seen and handled from the strategic and long-term perspectives. The two countries should regard each other as an opportunity rather than a threat, a partner rather than an adversary. We should respect each other's core interests and major concerns, deepen strategic mutual trust and enhance engagement and cooperation, so that the bilateral and mil-to-mil relations could develop in a healthy fashion.

Second, China and the UK should carry on with pragmatic cooperation. Given the complex changes of today's international strategic climate, the cooperation between the PLA and the UK Armed Forces is invaluable for both sides in addressing various challenges on security and development. Building on our past achievements, both sides need to further remove obstacles and explore potentials in order to widen and deepen engagement and cooperation on a more regular basis. In the short run, priority could be accorded to the two-way communication and exchanges, academic symposium and personnel training in fields like pandemic prevention & control, military medical science, logistics management, international peacekeeping, military training, humanitarian aid, disaster relief and so on. These would not only serve the interests of China and the UK but also promote the wellbeing of the world.

Third, China and the UK should work together to safeguard world peace. Today's world is characterized by sophisticated strategic rivalry. The risk to global and regional stability remains high. As permanent members of UNSC, China and the UK shoulder the responsibilities of maintaining global and regional peace and stability. Both countries and our armed forces need to join hands in fulfilling our international duties and obligations. By working together to cope with global security challenges of various kinds, China and the UK could write a new chapter on safeguarding world peace and stability, and building a community with a shared future for mankind.

As President Xi Jinping says, "At different times there are different challenges. Each generation has its own mission." Winston Churchill also said, "The price of greatness is responsibility."

We should understand the historical mission and responsibility entrusted on us in our times. For the sake of the wellbeing of both Chinese and British people, and for the peace, stability and prosperity of the world, we need to increasingly substantiate our bilateral relations, handle our differences properly, to mitigate disruptions, and seek common grounds for win-win cooperation. We believe that through our joint efforts, the development of the China-UK mil-to-mil relations will gain a healthy momentum, bringing more positive energy to a sustained "Global Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" between the two countries, as well as to the global and regional peace and stability.

The Chinese Embassy in Uk will host an on-line photo and video exhibition in celebration of the 93rd Anniversary of The Founding of The People's Liberation Army of China.
Transaction highlights

 Esperite NV secures an external financing of up to EUR 35 million through further private placements of convertible notes with share subscription warrants attached over a period of 36 months, subject to fulfillment of certain conditions

 The Warrants, if exercised, are leading to an additional EUR 35 million proceeds over a period of 5 years

 Bridge note of EUR 150,000 issued today

 Subscription by European Small Caps Opportunities Fund, based in Australia

 Before the end of September Esperite will convene a Shareholder Extraordinary General Meeting.

 Esperite will propose a settlement to its creditors

 Proceeds to be used to support Esperite' s restructuring plan to be approved by creditors

The Netherlands, 28 July 2020 - Esperite N.V. (Euronext: ESP, "Esperite" or "the Issuer") announces today (i) the issuance of a bridge note of EUR 150,000 nominal value (the "Bridge Note") and (ii) the signing of a financing agreement allowing Esperite to draw up to EUR 35 million (the "Financing") private placement of convertible notes with share subscription warrants attached under certain conditions (the "Notes and Warrants") and having the characteristics detailed in Appendix 1 (the "Issuance Agreement").

The Bridge Note (issued) and the Notes and Warrants shall be subscribed by European Small Cap Opportunities Fund, a fund based in Australia (the "Investor").

The Bridge Note financing shall allow Esperite to initiate next steps of restructuring.

With regards to the Financing, the first tranche of Notes and Warrants of a nominal amount of EUR 400,000 shall be issued after the approval of resolutions by the general meeting of shareholders of the Issuer and approval by Esperite' s creditors of a settlement amount to be paid overtime by the Issuer for their debt (the "Restructuring Plan Approval").

The second tranche of Notes and Warrants of a nominal amount of EUR 500,000 shall be issued after the approval of a prospectus by the AFM with regards to the new shares to be issued upon conversion of the Notes and exercise of the Warrants.

Pursuant to the Issuance Agreement, the Investor has committed to subscribe up to EUR 35 million of Notes and Warrants over the next 36 months, subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions (the "Commitment").

The issuance of and subscription to Notes and Warrants shall be structured through the issuance by Esperite to the Investor of tranche warrants (the "Tranche Warrants") within 5 trading days from the Restructuring Plan Approval, whose characteristics are described in Appendix 1 to this press release.

The terms and conditions of the Tranche Warrants, the Notes and the Warrants will be published on Esperite's website (www.esperite.com).

***

About ESPERITE

ESPERITE group, listed at Euronext Amsterdam and Paris, is a leading international company in regenerative and precision medicine founded in 2000.

***

This press release contains inside information as referred to in article 7 paragraph 1 of Regulation (EU) 596/2014 (Market Abuse Regulation).

With respect to Member States of the European Economic Area that have transposed European Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and European Council (as amended in particular by Directive 2010/73/EU to the extent that the said Directive has been transposed into each Member State of the European Economic Area), no action has been taken or will be taken to permit a public offering of the securities referred to in this press release requiring the publication of a prospectus in any Member State.

This press release and the information it contains do not, and will not, constitute an offer to subscribe for or sell, nor the solicitation of an offer to subscribe for or buy, securities of Esperite in the United States of America or any other jurisdiction. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States of America absent registration or an exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), it being specified that the securities of Esperite have not been and will not be registered within the US Securities Act. Esperite does not intend to register securities or conduct a public offering in the United States of America.

***

Appendix 1

Terms and conditions of the financing through the issuance of warrants giving access to convertible notes with share subscription warrants attached

Legal framework of the transaction

On July 27, 2020, the Issuer and the Investor entered into an issuance agreement pursuant to which the Investor has agreed to commit to fund the Issuer up to EUR 35,000,000 over the course of a period of 36 months from the Issuance Date (as defined below) by subscribing for up to 3,500 notes with a principal amount of EUR 10,000 each, which are convertible into ordinary shares of the Issuer, with share subscription warrants attached.

The Commitment is subject to:

the adoption by the Issuer's shareholders of the resolutions to be proposed for adoption at the next general meeting of shareholders of the Issuer to be held no later than September 30, 2020 in respect notably of (i) the approval to grant rights to subscribe for shares and to limit or exclude pre-emptive rights in respect of such grant of rights to the extent required in connection with the Issuance Agreement and (ii) the reduction of the Issuer's share capital through the reduction of the nominal value of the Share to EUR 0.01;

the Restructuring Plan Approval.

Main characteristics of the Tranche Warrants

The issuance of 3,500 Tranche Warrants shall occur within 5 trading days from the Restructuring Plan Approval (the "Issuance Date").

Over the 36 months following the Issuance Date, provided that all the conditions to the delivery of a Request and the funding of a tranche (the "Conditions", see Note 1 below) have been satisfied (or waived by the Investor), the Issuer shall request for the disbursement of a tranche (the "Request") by submitting a Request as follows:

for the first tranche, within five (5) trading days from the Restructuring Plan Approval;

- for the second tranche, within five (5) trading days from the date of the approval of the listing Prospectus by the AFM.

For the following tranches, the Issuer shall have the right (and not the obligation) to request for the disbursement of a tranche by submitting a Request on the earlier of:

(i) the fifth (5th) trading day following the conversion (whether through one or several conversions) or redemption of all the Notes that had been issued in connection with previous tranches; or

(ii) the 2-month anniversary date of the issuance of the previous tranche.

Esperite may therefore request the exercise of Tranche Warrants in order to issue the Notes with Warrants in a first tranche of EUR 400,000 nominal amount and several subsequent tranches of EUR 500,000 nominal amount (amount which may be increased or decreased upon mutual consent).

The exercise of one Tranche Warrant gives access to the subscription of one Note (having a nominal value of EUR 10,000) with Warrants attached at a subscription price of EUR 9,500.

The right of the Investor to exercise Tranche Warrants at its sole and exclusive discretion will only be available regarding the exercise of 650 Tranche Warrants (i.e. up to an aggregate principal amount of EUR 6.5 million).

The Tranche Warrants will not be admitted to trading on any financial market.

Main characteristics of the Notes

The Notes have a nominal value of EUR 10,000 each and will be subscribed at 95% of such nominal value. The Notes bear no interest and have a maturity of 12 months from their respective issuance date.

Each Note gives its holder a conversion right (a "Conversion") to receive ordinary shares. Upon a Conversion, the corresponding number of shares issued by Esperite shall be equal to:

N = Nv / Cp

" N ": number of new and/or existing shares to be remitted to the Note holder (rounded down);

": number of new and/or existing shares to be remitted to the Note holder (rounded down); " Nv ": nominal value of the Note (EUR 10,000);

": nominal value of the Note (EUR 10,000); "Cp": 90% of the lowest daily volume weighted-average price of the share over the Pricing Period[1].

At maturity any Note for which no Conversion has occurred shall be redeemed at par in cash by Esperite. Upon the occurrence of any event of default, any Note for which no Conversion has occurred shall be redeemed at 110% of par in cash by Esperite.

The Notes will not be admitted to trading on any financial market.

Main characteristics of the Warrants

The number of Warrants to be issued under each tranche will be such that, multiplied by their strike price (determined as described below), the resulting amount shall be equal to the principal amount of the tranche.

The Warrants shall be immediately detached from the Notes. The Warrants shall have a maturity of 5 years from their respective issuance date (the "Exercise Period"). Each Warrant will give right to its holder, during the Exercise Period, to subscribe one new share of Esperite, subject to customary adjustments.

Subject to customary ratchet provisions, the strike price of the Warrants will be equal to:

 for the first, the second and the third tranches (the "Warrants 1"), 110% of the lower of (i) the lowest daily volume weighted average price of the share over the Pricing period preceding each request of such tranches and (ii) EUR 0.0272; and

 for the subsequent tranches (the "Warrants 2"), 110% of the lowest daily volume weighted average price of the share over the Pricing Period preceding the Request (or the Tranche Warrant exercise date, in case of Tranche Warrants exercised at the discretion of the Investor).

The Warrants will not be admitted to trading on any financial market.

New shares resulting from conversion of Notes or exercise of Warrants

The new shares issued upon conversion of Notes or exercise of Warrants will be admitted to trading on Euronext as from their issuance, will carry immediate and current dividend rights and will be fully assimilated to and fungible with the existing shares (ISIN code NL0009272137).

Esperite will publish and update on its website a follow-up table of the outstanding Tranche Warrants, Notes, Warrants and number of shares.

Note 1: Conditions to the delivery of a Request and the funding of a tranche

The right of Esperite to deliver a Request to the Investor and the obligation of the Investor to fund the requested tranche through the exercise of Tranche Warrants are subject to the fulfilment, on the date of such Request and on the date of funding of the requested tranche, of each of the following conditions (unless waived by the Investor):

no more than thirty-six (36) months shall have expired from the Issuance Date; the Notes of the previous tranches have been fully converted and/or redeemed for more than four (4) trading days or more than 2 months have elapsed since the previous Tranche Warrant exercise date. It is specified that this Condition shall not apply to the issuance of the second Tranche which shall be issued within five (5) trading days from the date of the approval of the listing Prospectus by the AFM; no material adverse change shall have occurred; no event that constitutes an early redemption event and no triggering event that would constitute an early redemption event if not cured during the applicable cure period, if any, shall be in existence; the Issuer shall have at least: two (2) times coverage of Shares (based on the conversion price) authorized, available and approved for issuance to the Investor and admission to trading on Euronext, increased, as the case may be, by the amount of any other outstanding Notes; and

one (1) time coverage of Shares authorized, available and approved for issuance to the Investor upon exercise of the maximum number of Warrants to be issued for the applicable Tranche; taking into account the Notes to be issued to the Investor under the requested tranche, the Investor shall not hold more than EUR 700,000 of aggregate principal amount of Notes; no suspension of the trading of the Shares on Euronext (other than intra-day suspension at the request of Euronext Amsterdam under Euronext rules) shall have occurred for more than five (5) consecutive trading days over the ninety (90) preceding calendar days; the closing price and the daily VWAP on each of the five (5) preceding trading days shall be at least equal to 250% of the nominal value of the Shares; the average daily value traded of the Shares over the ten (10) preceding trading days shall be at least equal to EUR 20,000; except with respect to the first Tranche, the AFM shall have approved a prospectus for the admission to trading of any shares to be issued upon conversion of the Notes or exercise of the Warrants; the final Restructuring Plan Approval shall have occurred; the Issuer has provided the Investor with all necessary information to fulfil its disclosure requirements with the AFM.

[1] shall mean the fifteen (15) consecutive trading days immediately preceding the relevant date to be considered in order to determine the conversion price or the Warrant 1 exercise price or the Warrant 2 exercise price. In the case of a conversion of Notes or upon the exercise of Tranche Warrants at the discretion of the Investor, Pricing Period shall mean the trading days during which the Investor (or the relevant Note or Tranche Warrant holder as the case may be) has not sold any Share in the market among the fifteen (15) consecutive trading days immediately preceding the applicable date.

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Corporations should be proactive when dealing with social change, says the president of Brock University.

Gervan Fearon, president and vice-chancellor of the St. Catharines university, is using this weeks edition of the free Business Breathers webinar series to discuss what role corporations should play as society navigates the Black Lives Matter movement.

In periods of significant social change, such as what we are seeing in the U.S. and across the globe with the Black Lives Matter movement, it is important for business leaders to consider the influence of societal changes and the role corporations can play through their corporate social responsibility strategy to foster broader societal values, such as civil rights, equity, diversity and inclusion, said Fearon.

The series is facilitated by the Goodman School of Businesses Goodman Group. Topics of discussion focus on leadership, management and innovation, as well as the financial and social justice topics.

Wednesdays event will be broadcast online starting at 11 a.m. The event is open to the public, but people interested in joining should register online.

Fearon said the goal of the webinar is to have people redefine what corporations and corporate leaders can do to make a meaningful role in community development in building inclusive society.

We not only need to look at our shareholder but we also need to look at our stakeholders to ensure that were responsive to their concerns, he said.

Fearon pointed to Brocks strategic plan to demonstrate its commitment to addressing inequities and systemic barriers that are affecting racialized students, educators and administrators.

The second pillar of the plan states Brock will attempt to foster a culture of inclusivity, accessibility, reconciliation and decolonization.

Brock has undertaken specific actions to complement the plans second pillar.

Weve hired the vice-provost, Indigenous, established a human rights and equity office, established an independent ombudsperson office, established an advisory council to the president, he said. Recently, we established a scholarship to recruit racialized students for graduate programs. It is a multi-year program that allocated around $1 million in funding.

The best way to move forward with the racialized community is through dialogue, Fearon said

Corporations should engage with the Indigenous community and engage with the Black community to ensure organizations arent missing or ignoring their perspective in decision making. Similarly, our boards should include individuals from a diverse group of the population to make sure our decision making represents Canada as a whole. Not just Canada today but the Canada we want to live in tomorrow.
Friends and family have shared fond memories of a skateboarder who died after falling on an uneven path with a pizza in hand and a beer in his pocket.

Troy Connell, 43, has been remembered for his 'smile and good cheer' following the freak accident in Perth on Friday.

The 'special creation of God' was captured on CCTV tumbling in a dimly-lit area while skating along a footpath on McKimmie Road in Palmyra.

He had a pizza in hand and a glass beer in his pocket, which smashed when he hit the ground and severed his femoral artery.

Troy Connell (pictured) has been remembered for his 'smile and good cheer' after dying in a freak accident on Friday

Bystanders who tried to help the man before paramedics arrived could barely see the pavement through his blood, 7News reported.

The skateboarder's last words to paramedics were 'help me, I'm dying' before succumbing to his injuries at the scene.

Tributes have flooded in on social media, with some referring to Mr Connell as a 'best friend' and others saying he was 'gone but not forgotten'.

'R.I.P Troy ... Your smile and good cheer was something that everyone loved. God bless,' one said.

Troy Connell (pictured) has been remembered for his 'smile and good cheer' and labelled 'a special creation of God' following his death on Friday

'He is a special creation of God', another commented.

Lulu McCabe, a friend of Mr Connell, told The West Australian she was devastated by his sudden death and questioned whether it could have been prevented.

The uneven footpath where Mr Connell fell is being fixed.

It will be up to the State Coroner to decide if the incident could have been prevented and what contributed to Mr Connell's death.

'For me it was devastating, it was devastating I couldn't really come to grips with what had happened,' Ms McCabe said.

City of Melville council rangers put up a sign warning pedestrians to watch their step at the spot where skateboarder Troy Connell (pictured) died on Friday

Troy Connell (pictured) had a pizza in hand and a glass beer in his pocket at the time of the incident, which smashed when he hit the ground and severed his femoral artery

'You knew when Troy was in the room, he was always... full of life... he loved his skateboard.'

City of Melville council rangers on Monday put up a sign warning pedestrians to watch their step at the spot where the skateboarder died.

Flowers in memory of the skater have been laid at the scene.

Tributes have flowed on social media, with some referring to Troy Connell (pictured) a 'best friend' and others saying he was 'gone but not forgotten'
MUMBAI: Maharashtra State Board (MSBSHSE) is expected to declare the Maharashtra 10th result 2020 very soon. Going by media reports, the board is expected to declare the results at 1 pm on July 29, i.e. on Wednesday.

An official statement released by the Maharashtra board stated that MSBSHE will announce the class 10th results on its official website at 1:00 pm on Wednesday afternoon. Maharashtra Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad had earlier informed that the Maharashtra SSC result would be declared anytime before the month-end.

Once officially declared, the Maharashtra SSC Class 10 result 2020 will be made available online on the official websites - mahresult.nic.in 2020, maharashtraeducation.com, and mahahsscboard.maharashtra.gov.in.

Students can also check their SSC10th class result by using SMS. All they need to do is type an SMS in the specified format: MH<exam name> <Seat No.> and send it to 57766. Your result will be received on the same number after some time.

Students are suggested to keep their roll number ready to check the Maharashtra SSC result 2020.

A few days ago, Maharashtra Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad also said that the Maharashtra SSC result will be released by the end of July.

Around 17 Lakh students appeared for the board exams this year. This year, exams were scheduled to be conducted from March 3 to March 23.

However, the geography exam could not be held due to the coronavirus induced lockdown across the country.

Students need to score an aggregate score of 35%, and t least 20% marks in the theory to pass in a subject. About 17 lakh students had registered for the board exams this year. This year, the Geography exam could not be held due to the Coronavirus COVID-19 induced lockdown across the country. The board has decided to grant marks for the Geography subject on the basis of internal assessment.
The People Liberation Army Navy's newest amphibious warfare assault ship, the Type-075 LHD (Landing Helicopter Dock) is setting sail for the first time.

The People Liberation Army Navy's newest amphibious warfare assault ship, the Type-075 LHD (Landing Helicopter Dock) is setting sail for the first time.

Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link

Type-075 being prepared for sea trials. (Picture source: Weibo/Rupprecht_A)

First Type 075 amphibious assault ship will commence sea trial and enter full deployment soon. Recent pictures show tug boats at work with the first Type 075 LHD, so the start of trials is happening now.

Additional images from the first Type 075 LHD clearly show lights in the hangar, the opening for the deck elevator from inside the hangar ... the ship seems to be ready to go.

The island-seizing LHD can be equipped with a pair of HHQ-10 surface-to-air defence missile systems and two H/PJ-11 30mm close-in weapon system that can deliver 10,000 shots per minute.

Type-075 being prepared for sea trials. (Picture source: Weibo/Rupprecht_A)

Warships under development at HudongZhonghua Shipyard:

At the moment the yard is building the Type-071 LPD for Thailand and a Type-054A frigate for the Pakistan Navy.

And there are already rumours of the follow-on Type-076 LHD which is expected to include EMALS (Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System) for UCAVs or crewed aircraft. Having EMALs on an assault carrier could be a significant game-changer for China. While it cannot be verified, it does appear to reflect the direction of PLAN thinking.
Governor Andrew Cuomos office is investigating a Chainsmokers concert held in the Hamptons where attendees ignored social distancing guidelines and hordes of fans partied by the stage without masks over the weekend.

The 'Safe & Sound' charity drive-in show on Saturday had about 500 drive-in parking spots that reportedly sold for up to $25,000 each and welcomed a couple thousand attendees in Water Mill, New York.

The show featured a performance by The Chainsmokers and opening acts from Southamptons Town Supervisor Jay Schneidermans band and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon as DJ D-Sol.

Despite the concerts design to have 'safe zones' for cars with up to six people, posts on social media showed people leaving their cars, partying together, and dancing without masks.

Attendees included Olympic athletes-turned-venture capitalists the Winklevoss twins and RFK Jr's son Conor Kennedy celebrating his 26th birthday with friends Damon Dash and Rachel Roy's daughter Ava Dash.

Governor Andrew Cuomos office is investigating a Chainsmokers concert held in the Hamptons where attendees ignored social distancing guidelines and hordes of fans partied by the stage without masks. Chainsmokers duo Alexander Pall and Andrew Taggart pictured backstage during the 'Safe & Sound' Drive-In Concert fundraiser on Saturday in Water Mill, New York

A view of the hundreds of fans packed together without practicing social distancing near the front stage at the 'Safe & Sound' show pictured above

Posts on social media show large groups of people mingling together, many of them not wearing masks, and failing to keep a distance of six feet from each other

Gov. Andrew Cuomo also blasted the event on Monday tweeting: 'Videos from a concert held in Southampton on Saturday show egregious social distancing violations. I am appalled. The Department of Health will conduct an investigation. We have no tolerance for the illegal & reckless endangerment of public health'

State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker blasted the event on Monday in a letter sent to Schneiderman for failing to enforce coronavirus safety measures at the concert.

'I am greatly disturbed by reports concerning the "drive-in" concert held in your town this past weekend, which apparently involved thousands of people in close proximity, out of their vehicles, a VIP area where there was no pretense of a vehicle, and generally not adhering to social distancing guidance,' Zucker wrote in a letter seen by Page Six.

'I am at a loss as to how the Town of Southampton could have issued a permit for such an event, how they believed it was legal and not an obvious public health threat,' he added.

The concert included opening acts by Southamptons Town Supervisor Jay Schneidermans (right) band and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon as DJ D-Sol (left in February)

State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker blasted the event on Monday in a letter sent to Schneiderman for failing to enforce coronavirus safety measures at the concert. Zucker said: 'What town officials were at the concert and why was it allowed to continue when it became clear violations were rampant?'

Zucker also demanded a reply within 24 hours to address the events permits, security in an effort to know who attended the event.

'What town officials were at the concert and why was it allowed to continue when it became clear violations were rampant?'

'Please be advised that all responses to these questions are a submission to a state department conducting an investigation, and any submission will be deemed to be a sworn statement.'

Cuomo also blasted the event on Monday tweeting: 'Videos from a concert held in Southampton on Saturday show egregious social distancing violations. I am appalled. The Department of Health will conduct an investigation. We have no tolerance for the illegal & reckless endangerment of public health.'

The Chainsmokers pictured during their performance Saturday with hordes of fans gathered by the stage

Video from the concert praised the event as a success boasting that guests had temperatures checked and guests were confined to parking spot areas, but footage of crowds of people close together without masks seemed to defeat those safety efforts

Tons of videos were uploaded on Instagram showing revelers partying at the pricey event

A view near the front stage of the concert on Saturday above

However, In The Know Experiences and Invisible Noise, the organizers of the show, have defended the event saying it followed CDC guidelines.

'The Safe & Sound drive-in concert fundraiser followed the guidelines created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and made best efforts to ensure New Yorks social distancing guidelines were properly maintained throughout the event.'

The event's website said every car had a 20ft x 20ft area to park their vehicle and enjoy the concert in the surrounding space.

Organizers praised the event as a success on social media boasting that guests had temperatures checked and were confined to parking spot areas, but footage of crowds show large groups close together without masks, defeating those safety efforts.

But a source said: 'There was definitely a section of people in front of the cars that did not adhere to social distancing. But you could really be safe there if you were smart enough and mature enough to do it. You could go from your car and then have your square [of space] and have no contact. I think the intentions were good, but there is no way you can control those kids who feel immortal.'

Schneiderman said his office will respond to the questions by the end of the day Tuesday.

'This was a charitable eventI am as upset as anyone else.'

He said his office was also investigating the concert and said that the permits granted did not include a VIP area but only for parking spaces.

Robert F. Kenendy Jr.'s son Conor Kennedy (pictured right in black T shirt on car) celebrated his 26th birthday at the concert over the weekend along with a crowd of socialite friends

They headed to a drive-in Chainsmokers concert, where Conor danced on the car

Drive-up: The whole group seemed to have a blast at the outdoor concert

Ticket packages for the event  where people submitted to temperature checks before being admitted  cost as much as $25,000

However, the reckless partying only continued after the concert.

Page Six reports that a wild party took place at a private house in Amagansett for around 200 people after the concert.

Witnesses said there was a huge line outside of the party, where The Chainsmokers were reportedly partying.

'The Chainsmokers were there and people were dying to get in. The line was crazy [with] hordes of people. The police apparently showed up three times,' a source said.

'They went to a friends house after for about 10 minutes outside,' another source added on The Chainsmokers.

Despite state backlash, attendees seemed to find nothing wrong with the bash.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, who just paid a multibillion-dollar fine to settle criminal charges in Malaysia, was carefree as he took the stage.

'Standing up there and watching the sunset, looking out over this huge field of cars and people on their cars, it was absolutely beautiful,' Solomon said to Bloomberg Monday.

'The group that put this together did an incredible job in a difficult environment. If we work together and are thoughtful, we can do things that feel more normal and allow us to live with this virus safely,' he added.
Navalnys associate fined $1,400 once more for foreign agent law violation

 RAPSI, Eugeny Varlamov

11:18 28/07/2020

MOSCOW, July 28 (RAPSI) - Lawyer Ivan Zhdanov has been again fined 100,000 rubles ($1,400) for publishing posts on the Instagram account of Alexey Navalnys foundation without noting that the materials had been distributed by a foreign agent, RAPSI has learnt in the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow.

Zhdanov was found guilty of breaching the order of the operation of an NGO operating under the label of a foreign agent.

In early July, the court also fined Navalnys associate 100,000 rubles for a similar violation.

In early November 2019, Moscows Zamoskvoretsky District Court refused to overturn the Justice Ministrys October decision to include Navalnys organization in the list of NGOs acting as foreign agents.

The Justice Ministry established the fact of the organizations conforming to the foreign agent criteria during the monitoring of its activity conducted by the Justice Ministrys Moscow Main Directorate, the Ministrys official website informed at that time.

The decision to give Navalnys foundation the status of a foreign agent was made based on evidence of its funding from abroad, the acting director of the Justice Ministrys NGO affairs department Vladimir Titov told journalists.
BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- China has always strictly implemented international laws including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and never expanded its claims of sovereignty, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a press briefing in response to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's slandering over the South China Sea issue.

China's South China Sea policy remains unchanged, and has been consistent and stable, Wang said, adding that China has always insisted on resolving territorial and maritime rights disputes with neighboring countries through negotiation in accordance with international law and historical facts.

"We have always abided by the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and we are willing to work with ASEAN countries to push forward consultations on the Code of Conduct to reach a code of conduct common to China and ASEAN countries at an early date," the spokesperson said.

The United States is not a party concerned to the South China Sea issue, nor a party to UNCLOS, Wang said, noting that it has blatantly violated its commitment not to hold a stand on the issue of South China Sea sovereignty, and deliberately drove a wedge between China and ASEAN countries.

Regional countries and all peace-loving people will not allow a few U.S. politicians to muddy the waters in the South China Sea, Wang added.
YEREVAN, JULY 28, ARMENPRESS. In a virtual ceremony Sunday night, the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) awarded David McKenzie the Emmy for Outstanding Directing Special Class for the critically acclaimed documentary film Hate Among Us.

We are very thankful that the Academy has given attention to this important subject that affects all of us, said McKenzie. I am honored that they recognized this work so that hopefully it will bring more attention to this subject matter and shine a light on the terrible situation that hate generates among people.

Distributed by Associated Television International (ATI) and premiering on Popstar! TV, Hate Among Us from executive producers David McKenzie, Dean Cain, Montel Williams and Sergey Sarkisov, tracks the origins of hate crimes against members of the Jewish faith as well as many others and the ultimate murder of an estimated 6 million European Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators that are still being exhibited by hate groups to this very day from Europe to the United States and throughout the world.

The film follows the family members of Mireille Knoll, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor who was murdered in her Paris apartment in 2018 in an anti-Semitic hate crime. The film also depicts unique perspectives on antisemitism from all cultures and all faiths, from within historic Jewish neighborhoods in Europe, to the streets of Charlottesville and Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue massacre. McKenzies direction told real stories of current survivors of violent antisemitism to those of the Holocaust. Hate Among Us illustrates how renewed intolerance is taking root in our communities, institutions and universities, with far reaching consequences around the world.

"It helps us to achieve our goal, said Dean Cain, which is to shine a light on hate and help educate people about the history and the current growth of hate and anti-Semitism. We are very excited about this recognition and hope this brings more awareness to this serious humanitarian crisis."

Montel Williams agreed. When we set out to make Hate Among Us, we knew it was an urgent project. In these divided times, we have to remember that hate and bigotry are never the answer."

"The response of the community from this inhumanity proves that this topic is very important to many people as well as being very relevant," states Sergey Sarkisov. "I do believe that Hate Among Us contributes to the proper understanding and empathy that any kind of national, racial or religious hate continues to be an existing danger and every human, including humanity itself, can be a target."

Hate Among Us is the second film from the producing quartet of McKenzie, Cain, Williams and Sarkisov with their first being the also critically lauded documentary Architects of Denial which shed light on the Armenian Genocide that is still not fully recognized as of this day. That film was also produced and directed by McKenzie.
Philadelphia Sheriff Officers and volunteers load boxes of food, bound for North Philadelphia residents, from the Share Food Program distributed at the Young Chances Foundation in Point Breeze in April. Read more

While the coronavirus isnt hitting children as hard as adults, the economic effects of COVID-19 appear to be having a disproportionate effect on young people in one vital area: hunger.

Food insecurity is rising among American children as the coronavirus savages the economy, diminishing the salaries of parents struggling to feed their kids.

During the first week of July, the number of households with children that reported not having enough to eat was 13,570,374, according to an analysis of U.S. census data by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Council on Contemporary Families. Before March 13, the day the federal government declared a national emergency, the number was 12,046,456.

Thats an increase of more than 1.5 million households in just four months, from 12.8% to 14.5%.

Throughout the United States, there are around 121 million households; more than 32 million of them have children under 18.

Along with food insecurity  lacking consistent access to enough food to support a healthy life  families are also seeing a jump in housing insecurity as well, according to the council, which is based in Austin, Texas, and is dedicated to providing research on families.

 READ MORE: Hunger expected to explode around Philly, throughout America, because of COVID-19

Difficulties with hunger and unstable housing can haunt children into adulthood.

When experienced in childhood, these forms of economic adversity have cumulative negative consequences that endure throughout the life course, said Kristi Williams, a sociologist whos president of the board of directors of the council. Williams is also editor of the Journal of Marriage and Family. Its a worrying storm of strain that can affect behavior, education, and long-term health for years.

The new data have been released as Congress continues discussing the next coronavirus relief package, before expanded unemployment benefits and protections against evictions and foreclosures are set to expire on Friday.

Fighting off childhood hunger is a never-ending war for Delmy Ascencio, 37, who lives in a trailer home in Trooper, Montgomery County. I hate whats going on, said Ascencio, the single mother of four girls, ages 6, 8, 12, and 16. The father is not in our lives. I cant give them the life thats best for them.

Ascencio worked for a housecleaning service until COVID-19 stopped the business cold and she was laid off. We live on food stamps, and Im looking for jobs every day, she said. I have to keep going forward.

Hunger has an insidious effect on children. A well-established body of research shows that children raised in food-insecure households are at higher risk of depression, suicidal thinking, deficits in educational and social skills, and overall poor health.

 READ MORE: Hunger in Philly: Its a pain in my belly (from 2018)

The council reported that while schools play an important hunger-fighting role by providing breakfast and lunch, its not clear how theyll feed students in the fall.

Children too young for school wouldnt be getting those meals anyway. And because much of a childs cognitive development occurs in the first three years of life, food insecurity at those ages can have an effect on kids for years to come, according to Stephanie Coontz, a historian and the director of research and public education for the Council.

Their memory skills, attention spans, and immune-system development will all be affected, she said.

In many cases, children experiencing food insecurity are also living in inadequate housing, and may be forced to move frequently because of evictions or homelessness.

According to the council, children who were forced to move multiple times prior to age 7 were almost three times more likely to be diagnosed with depression by age 14.

The stress of dealing with food and housing insecurity plays havoc with the relationships between parents and children living in poverty. Parental depression increases as grownups scramble endlessly to keep their families fed and housed, the council reported.

 FAQ: Your coronavirus questions, answered.

It can lead to harsh parenting, said Coontz. Its a mom losing her temper in a way she normally wouldnt if she werent worried about hunger. And now, under increased pandemic stress, parents just dont know whats coming day to day. The kids who grow up in unpredictable households are far less able to focus and concentrate.

Dissatisfied with federal efforts to intervene, Drexel University child-hunger expert Mariana Chilton said America isnt doing nearly enough to help the most vulnerable.

The federal government could have acted more immediately to prevent this increase in hunger, said Chilton, director of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities at Drexels Dornsife School of Public Health.

For example, she added, the governments of Canada and Australia responded quickly with universal payments to all families.

Meanwhile, Chilton warned, in America the public health crisis of increased food insecurity will last for decades as children will bring their major health and social problems from lack of proper food with them into adulthood.

This scarring will be passed on to the next generation. The damage done is not just for today, but for the next several decades.
China seizes children from Christian parents, threatens to send kids to re-education camps

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A member of Chinas Early Rain Covenant Church says the Chinese Communist Party continues to persecute members of the church by threatening to send their children to government re-education camps or forcibly remove adopted children from their parents.

In a video released Wednesday alongside a new report by International Christian Concern, Liao Qiang, a member of ERCC in Chengdu, said that despite shuttering the church and jailing Pastor Wang Yi in December of 2018, the CCP continues to harass its members.

Qiang said in the video accompanying ICC's new report on Religious Suppression in China that his family was forced to leave China and flee to Taiwan with his extended family because the Chinese Communist Party is limitless in its persecution.

They not only threatened us, normal adult, normal church members, but they threatened our children," Qiang said. "Some of our members have adopted children, and CPC forcibly sent the adoptive children back to the original family. That is the main reason why we fled China. Because we can't guarantee our adopted child would not be taken away by them."

Communist officials removed four adopted children from one ERCC family, returned them to their biological parents and eventually dispersed them among other homes, Qiang said.

"This is a living tragedy," Qiang said. "Their constant oppression made me feel we must flee China, because our children are most important to us."

An earlier report from ICC documented authorities' forced removal of children from the home of church members Pei Wenju and Jing Jianan. CCP officials told them their adoption papers were no longer valid because their children were trapped by an evil religion.

In addition to seizing children from their Christian parents, the CCP also threatened to send Christian children to government re-education camps and ordered parents to refrain from enrolling their children in church schools, Qiang said.

Qiang called on U.S. media to report on the oppression of religious minorities occurring across China. Transparency, he said, is one of the communist regime's greatest threats.

"The biggest help is to report the persecution. Report it fairly. We aren't saying the U.S. government should put pressure on the Chinese government. This isn't what we hope for," Qiang said. "What CPC is most afraid of is being exposed. They are afraid of transparency. We don't want the government or the public to pressure CPC. Because under such circumstances, CPC will definitely intensify religious persecution. The worse China-U.S. relations get, the more CPC persecutes Christians."

According to Qiang, China continues to persecute Christians to gain leverage in future diplomatic relations with the U.S. He added that the CCP "makes you think that they are willing to compromise, because they know Americans care about freedom of religion. If China makes a concession in religious freedom, then U.S. should compromise in trade.

It's CPC who politicizes religious freedom, not Christians, he stressed.

Gina Goh, ICC's regional manager for Southeast Asia and the author of the report, explained that Christians like Qiang are hesitant to ask the U.S. for intervention because doing so would likely invite further governmental persecution.

"Even receiving interviews in Taiwan, [Qiang's] family was harassed by the government," she said, according to Baptist Press. "You can imagine if they stand out and say, 'We want the U.S. government to do something for us,' that would probably invite more persecution. But I don't think that contradicts with other people's efforts to try to do things on behalf of them.

"I think that's all the more reason for us to actually speak on behalf of them, because they are not in a position to openly condemn or actually invite sanctions or punishment upon their government."

The ICC report documents how the CCP routinely targets Christians through its legal framework, Sinicization, closure or demolition of churches or places of worship, arresting of Christians, and social pressure.

Such persecution is part of Chinese President Xi Jinpings efforts to stamp out religion and enforce greater control over people's lives.

"With the intensified crackdown against churches, both state-sanctioned and underground, there is no longer a safe place to be a Christian in China," Goh wrote in the report.

She said that while "almost every province in China has seen Christian persecution on the rise" Henan and Anhui provinces in particular "have a high percentage of Christians," and have seen active "cross demolition campaigns."

"Thousands of crosses have been removed since 2018, with some churches leveled to the ground," Goh wrote. "Deteriorating Sino-U.S. relations could further encourage crackdown against churches in 2020."

Still, the report includes a note of optimism, noting that history has shown that Beijings attempt to control religion with a growing number of unlawful regulations will prove unsuccessful. Like Christianity in North Korea, persecution may force believers underground, but it can never eradicate the faith itself.

On Thursday, Save the Persecuted Christians, a leading international human rights advocacy group, delivered an open letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr asking him to designate the CCP as a transnational criminal organization, which the FBI defines as posing a significant and growing threat to national and international security with dire implications for public safety, public health, democratic institutions, and economic stability across the globe.

For far too long, the world blindly ignored the menacing criminality of the Chinese Communist Party, said Liz Yore, founder of YoreChildren and partner of Save the Persecuted Christians.

The Trump Administration is rightly taking a tough stance against the unrelenting corruption and repression of the CCP. It is time that we speak the truth and call out the CCP in all its brutality. The CCP is a transnational criminal organization, and the Trump Administration needs to designate it as such, so that the full prosecutorial power of the federal government can outlaw these global gangsters. As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised, we wont stay still while Communist China tries to crush the worlds freedoms.

Open Doors USA ranks China at No. 23 on its 2020 World Watch List of the 50 most dangerous countries for Christians.
Vietnam has spared no efforts to protect its citizens in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in many countries and territories to ensure the best health conditions for Vietnamese people.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the UK Tran Ngoc Anh talks with Vietnamese citizens at Heathrow Airport prior to their flight home on July 12.  VNA/VNS Photo

From the early stages of the pandemic, citizen protection was an important task and a highlight in Vietnam's pandemic prevention and control efforts to ensure the rights and interests of Vietnamese people abroad and repatriate those in disadvantaged conditions.

On January 25, three days after the first case of coronavirus infection was discovered in Vietnam, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired a Government meeting to direct relevant ministries, agencies and organisations to implement citizen protection tasks in countries and territories affected by the pandemic.

In the following days, the PM and the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control asked ministries to count the number of Vietnamese citizens in pandemic-hit areas and be ready to carry out citizen protection measures. They were also told to encourage and warn Vietnamese citizens to not return to Vietnam if not necessary and to strictly abide by pandemic prevention and control regulations in their host countries.

Diplomatic agencies abroad were instructed to prepare plans to bring Vietnamese citizens stranded at international airports due to travel restrictions home and propose plans to repatriate Vietnamese citizens with priority given to the elderly, people with health problems and children under 18 years old.

At online exchanges with leaders of foreign countries, Prime Minister Phuc and Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh proposed the countries work together in pandemic prevention and control as well as support Vietnamese citizens in their countries.

Following direction from the PM, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has worked with relevant domestic ministries and agencies and Vietnamese diplomatic agencies abroad, domestic airlines and authorised agencies of host countries to carry out citizen protection tasks.

The aviation sector has so far conducted more than 60 flights repatriating some 15,000 Vietnamese citizens in 48 countries and territories, including China, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the US and Canada.

The successful implementation of citizen protection has also been attributed to information dissemination and communication. The rapid, accurate and full information provided to citizens in a timely manner has helped them understand the Party, State and Government policies in citizen protection tasks and co-ordinate with authorised agencies.

The foreign ministry has also provided information for foreign press agencies to timely update Vietnams pandemic prevention and control efforts.

'Silent' soldiers

The citizen protection tasks have been carried out successfully also thanks to the great efforts of diplomatic officials, particularly those working abroad.

Vietnamese ambassadors and those in charge of Vietnamese consulates in foreign countries have visited and encouraged Vietnamese citizens to strictly abide by disease prevention and control regulations. They have been on duty around the clock to respond to any emerging problem and made plans to repatriate citizens safely.

Right after the COVID-19 started to develop complicatedly in Wuhan, Hubei Province, the Vietnamese Embassy in China asked the Government plan to move Vietnamese citizens out of Wuhan. The embassy staff worked with authorised agencies of China to deal with related procedures and build plans to repatriate Vietnamese citizens in line with international norms and Vietnamese and Chinese regulations. On February 10, a Vietnam Airlines flight brought 30 Vietnamese citizens home safely from China.

I could only sleep well when my Vietnamese citizens landed home safely, Vietnamese Ambassador to India Pham Sanh Chau said when the plan to repatriate Vietnamese citizens in New Delhi met many difficulties.

Two months after the repatriation plan was made, the embassy still failed to bring Vietnamese citizens from other areas in India to New Delhi to fly back to Vietnam. However, the embassy did not give up. With great efforts of the ambassador and diplomatic officials in India, the flight was conducted successfully. A total of 340 Vietnamese citizens stranded in India returned home to Vietnam on May 20 onboard a specially arranged flight.

With practical policies and actions, citizen protection tasks have aided Vietnamese citizens abroad and lessen their worries amid a complex pandemic. VNS

Trinh Minh Duyen

Vietnam to better protect citizens in local countries Vietnam will continue to offer support to overseas Vietnamese communities in a timely manner, an official has said.
A group of Portland, Oregon, protesters is suing the Trump administration, alleging that the actions of federal agents in the city violated their constitutional rights, went beyond legal authority and were directed by someone not formally confirmed in their role.

The nonprofit Protect Democracy filed the federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., on behalf of individual protesters and the groups Don't Shoot Portland and Wall of Moms.

In the lawsuit, the protesters say federal agents have unlawfully sought to "quell" the protests in Portland by firing tear gas, bean bags, pepper spray, rubber bullets, flash grenades and other less lethal munitions on peaceful protesters.

The agents' mission has gone beyond their legal authority to protect federal property, the lawsuit alleges, saying they have engaged in unlawful arrests, used excessive force and restricted free speech.

The lawsuit also seeks that the court rule that orders by Chad Wolf, acting secretary of Homeland Security, are void because he is "not legally serving in this role" as an unconfirmed acting secretary.

"The intent of the administrations deployment of federal agents in Portland appears to be to stifle speech the president doesnt like. Its important to check this unlawful administration policy now, before it is allowed to spread to other cities across the U.S.," Deana El-Mallawany, an attorney for Protect Democracy, said in a statement.

Previously reported: Portland police detain two suspects after reported shooting near federal courthouse protest site

'Somebody's going to die': Portland mayor tear-gassed by federal officers

Since the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died in May as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd's neck, Portland has seen nightly protests against police brutality and racial injustice.

President Donald Trump has said he ordered federal agents into the city to halt the unrest. He has described the protesters as "anarchists" and "agitators."

Story continues

These are attacks on federal officers protecting fed property, acting Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli tweeted Monday. Anyone who tells you otherwise is willfully ignoring the facts or lying.

In recent weeks, confrontations between protesters and federal officers have escalated and largely centered on the federal courthouse.

While some protesters have lit fireworks or thrown objects over fencing at the courthouse, many others have gathered peacefully, repeating chants and marching through the streets.

Federal agents have fired tear gas and pepper spray at the protesters, and in response, protesters have formed "walls of moms," a group of women who have stood on the front lines to protect others, or donned orange and carried leaf blowers to help disperse tear gas.

Members of the 'Wall of Moms" lock their arms during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse Thursday, July 23, 2020, in Portland, Oregon.

Its not a bunch of anarchists on the front lines ... Its not nearly as out of control as people think," Tai Carpenter, board president of Dont Shoot Portland, told USA TODAY in Portland last week.

The lawsuit says Trump has tried to create a federal domestic police force  which the Constitution does not permit, the lawsuit says  and that his plans to send federal agents to other U.S. cities are not about protecting federal property.

Separately, mayors from six U.S. cities penned a letter to Congress Monday asking lawmakers to pass legislation blocking the administration from sending unidentified federal agents to cities without local consultation.

This must stop. The administrations egregious use of federal force on cities over the objection of local authorities should never happen, wrote the mayors of Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Albuquerque, Kansas City and Washington, D.C. We welcome partnership, not partisan threats.

In Portland, like the other liberal cities where Trump has said he'll send agents, local officials have denounced the federal presence and argued it has only further inflamed tensions.

Local officials have also sought relief in the courts to try to hinder the federal response. The state attorney general also sued the federal government, but U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman ruled Friday that the state lacked standing to sue on behalf of protesters.

U.S. District Judge Michael Simon has ruled that federal agents cannot target or disperse journalists and legal observers, after a lawsuit on their behalf. A lawsuit has also been filed on behalf of medics who have treated injured protesters.

Local police's use of tear gas and other munitions have also previously been limited by federal judges in Portland, Denver and Seattle.

Teressa Raiford, a plaintiff in the case and founder of Dont Shoot Portland, said in a statement that police in Portland have long been violent toward protesters and the presence of federal agents has only exacerbated the situation.

What were doing with this lawsuit is protecting the fundamental right to protest, which defines a democracy, so that we can continue to defend Black lives against state-sanctioned violence, Raiford said. Hopefully, it inspires others to do the same.

Contributing: Trevor Hughes, Grace Hauck and The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Portland BLM protesters, Wall of Moms sue Trump administration
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) New York, United States  Tue, July 28, 2020 12:00 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669d9226 2 Entertainment Christopher-Nolan,Tenet Free

Christopher Nolan's hotly-awaited, super-secret sci fi epic "Tenet" will finally release internationally on August 26 before hitting a limited number of US screens in September, Warner Bros said Monday.

It is the fourth time the studio has announced a release date for the blockbuster because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has shut movie theaters across the world.

"Tenet" was originally due to hit screens on July 17, then July 31, before Warner Bros announced last week that it was delaying its third date of August 12.

The studio said in a statement that the movie will open in over 70 countries, including most of Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea on August 26.

The movie will then open in the US on Thursday, September 3 for the Labor Day holiday weekend, traditionally an important time for the cinema business.

It is unclear how many movie theaters will be open to show it.

The process of reopening theaters is a slow one at best, and one that has been interrupted by a resurgence of virus cases in several US states and elsewhere in the world.

Even in areas where theaters are open, attendance is not huge, as spectators are wary of the potential health risks.

AMC -- the largest cinema chain in the US -- recently postponed a gradual reopening from the end of July to mid-to-late August, without providing a specific date.

"Tenet," a thriller about an agency trying to ward off World War III, combines the big-budget spectacle and inventive storytelling that have made Nolan one of Hollywood's most sought-after directors.

From "Memento" to "Inception" to "Dunkirk" by way of the Batman "Dark Knight" trilogy, the creative British filmmaker has carved out a singular niche on the industry.

His clout is reflected in the colossal $205 million budget that US media reported was lavished on "Tenet," which stars John David Washington ("BlacKkKlansman"), Denzel Washington's son.
In March, masks were considered a scarce commodity for health care workers. There was little debate around their effectiveness; it was primarily a hunt to secure them. The generous outpouring and combined dedication of Canadians, however, supplied the missing personal protective equipment (PPE), facilitated containment measures, and flattened the ominously rising curve.

Now with five weeks before schools reopen, the once unified approach to conquering COVID-19 has deteriorated into a cacophony of mixed messages. From East to West, Canadian public health officials and politicians have adopted a patchwork of policies and practices on mask-wearing. You will need a mask to get a haircut  but not if you are standing in a classroom in September, for eight hours a day, teaching twenty potentially infectious children.

Given that the CDC and WHO recommend masks, it is astounding (and unconscionable) that some Canadian school boards have opted to negate the evidence of the importance of masks. Only Nova Scotia has mandated masks in schools. What is even more bizarre is how divided opinions have become about the topic. The reasons touted for why children cant wear masks have ranged from fear that there is no added benefit (then why would medical professionals wear them?) to my child wont be able to stand them (how then does one wear a ski mask for hours?) to my child wont know how to wear a mask (but developmental milestones state that a 5-year-old can be taught to use utensils and toilets, so why not masks?) to its not what Canadians do (so culture trumps safety?).

Even after seven months of deliberation, Canadians have no national mask policy. Children will be sent back to public schools in regular size classrooms totally unmasked. In the absence of moral leadership and political will, desperate parents are now considering sending their children out of town to avoid the inevitable community spread. The idea sends shivers down my spine, and is reminiscent of World War II when families shipped their children off to the countryside in order to spare them from the devastating effects of war. It is well known that adverse childhood experiences such as separation from family can lead to significant emotional and physical sequelae. These desperate solutions to avoid infection will only compound the anxiety and fear children have already experienced through this pandemic.

Masks are a cost-effective solution to the dilemma of reopening schools full time, particularly when they are used as part of a larger containment strategy. For working families, full-day, in-person schooling is the only viable option. However, children are excellent vectors for this virus, with asymptomatic rates as high as 40 per cent. Based on a South Korean study of nearly 65,000 kids, even slightly older children (over 10 years of age) can transmit this virus as much as adults. Among various changes needed for safe school return, cloth masks prevent droplet transmission and would be a warranted approach to reduce community spread. In Singapore, the government has invested in designing and distributing reusable, comfortable antimicrobial cloth masks for every citizen. The expectation is that everyone, barring the very young, can learn how to use masks safely and effectively.

Canadian school boards should follow suit and mandate masks for all children ages 5 and up (except for those with medical exemptions). Fastidious symptom screening, physical distancing, and hand hygiene are also crucial. Denmark reduced classroom sizes and allowed for outdoor learning to reduce transmission risks. Their infection rates have not skyrocketed, and schools continue to remain open.

In the ideal world, Canadian public schools would have the same resourceful plans as our Danish and Singaporean counterparts: happy children sitting six feet apart, learning and socializing in outdoor or well-ventilated classrooms, in small groups, with reduced school hours and government-provided masks. Canadian children deserve a safe start in September. It is time to act now  or the unmasking of our children will be the start of our own undoing.

Karen Wang, M.Ed., M.D, is a former high school teacher for the Toronto District School Board, and is now a practicing adolescent inpatient psychiatrist in Toronto. She is a member of the community group Masks4Canada.
Lebanese powerful Shia movement Hezbollah Tuesday brushed aside possibility of war with Israel amid heated incident between the two sides in recent day.

In an interview with Al-Mayadeen TV, Sheikh Naim Qassem, deputy leader of the Iran-backed movement said it is unlikely that both will head for an all-out war in the near future.

The atmosphere does not indicate a war Its unlikely, the atmosphere of war in the next few months, said Qassem.

There is no change of rules of engagement and the deterrent equation with Israel exists and we are not planning to change it.

Israel has beefed up its military presence along its northern border amid fears that the Lebanese Hezbollah group would try to carry out an attack.

Some Hezbollah fighters according to Israeli authorities crossed briefly into Israel on Monday afternoon but were repelled by shorts.

The incident occurred after one of the Iran-backed movements fighters was killed in Syria in airstrike allegedly carried by Tel Aviv, last week.

Fears of retaliation forced Israel to increase drone flights on Southern Lebanon on Tuesday morning. One of the drones earlier on Sunday crashed into the Lebanese territory. But the Israeli army said no risk of breach of information.

Qassem in the interview did not rule out retaliation for the killing of the movements fighter. Hezbollah official stopped short of revealing details of the plan.
Designed to inspire and connect, The Boro offers a variety of boutique restaurants and services in tandem with the three residential buildings: luxury apartment living at Rise & Bolden, and the exquisite condominiums at Verse. When the initial phase of the project opened in 2019, The Boro already featured pedestrian-friendly streets, green public spaces to lounge and play, everyday conveniences, and high-end retailersall within steps from the Silver Line.

However, while The Boro is not immune to the challenges brought by 2020, a combination of creative summer programming and deft handling of Virginia's phased reopenings and social distancing requirements, has allowed residents and visitors to the neighborhood to continue enjoying the energy that comes from smart community-focused urban design.

On weekends, Boro Place turns into a pedestrian-only zone to accommodate outdoor dining and social distancing. So far, summer programming has included a hugely successful pop-up drive-in movie theater, a community blood drive and free live music on Fridays and Saturdays enjoyed from the restaurant patios of Flower Child, North Italia, Fish Taco and Poki DC.

"The Boro is doing a great job of allowing life to still happensafely. Drive-in movies, poke bowls, live music and outdoor happy hours in the parkand that's just the beginning of how residents here are enjoying their summers," says Tom Boylan, Senior VP of The Meridian Group, who together with developer partner Kettler, was responsible for bringing the vision of The Boro into reality.

As we all spend more time at home, homeowners are finding out what type of space is really valuable to them. All the homes available at The Boro immerse their residents in an enviable walkable lifestyle; however, with its luxe amenities, 24/7 concierge services, and one-acre Sky Park, the jewel in The Boro's crown is Verse.

"The Boro is sort of this hidden gem in Tysons right now and Verse is the most luxurious new condo building in the area that you can move into now," says David Mayhood, President of Mayhood Company, who provides sales and marketing services for The Boro.

Verse is a private refuge for homeowners searching for tranquility without having to compromise walkable convenience. From epicurean designer kitchens to practicing yoga on the outdoor Zen terrace, residents of the Verse know why The Boro is perhaps the only neighborhood in the area where residents can still have it all.

To learn more or to experience a virtual tour, visit www.VerseCondos.com

The Meridian Group

The Meridian Group is a Washington, D.C. based real estate investment and development firm with a strategic focus in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. region. Formed in 1993, the firm has substantial transactional and operational experience in acquisitions, development, asset management, property management, leasing, and sales. Meridian grew its business by investing with and on behalf of institutional capital partners, including many of the premier insurance companies, real estate private equity funds, and other institutional capital sources.

www.VerseCondos.com

TheBoroTysons.com

SOURCE The Meridian Group

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July 28 : Samsung has released a teaser giving a glimpse of five new devices that will be launched at its virtual Galaxy Unpacked 2020 event on August 5. Among these products, the Galaxy Note 20 series and Z Fold 2 will be the highlight.

The virtual Galaxy Unpacked 2020 event will begin at 7:30 pm IST on August 5, and will be live-streamed on the companys official website. Samsung will host the Galaxy Unpacked 2020 at its Digital City campus in Suwon, South Korea.

Power  a new form for a new norm. Unpacked on August 5, 2020. #SamsungEvent pic.twitter.com/DtwxXXurNP  Samsung Mobile (@SamsungMobile) July 7, 2020

The five new Samsung devices that are expected to be unveiled on August 5 are Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy Z Fold 2, Galaxy Watch 3, Galaxy Buds Live, and Galaxy Tab S7 series. The teaser video opens with a glimpse of the S Pen of the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series in a mystic bronze colour. It is then followed by a quick glance of the disassembled hardware and the assembly line that appear to be of the Galaxy Z Fold 2. The video also suggests bringing Exclusive Access to Untold Stories from its developers, designers, and innovators.

In a teaser earlier, Samsung showed a mystic bronze-coloured droplet transforming into a butterfly-like object, which denoted the Galaxy Z Fold 2 smartphone that carried a butterfly image wallpaper when it was first released last year.
Dancing With the Stars is set to resume production amid the coronavirus pandemic with plans to film season 29 this September, according to ET.

The strategy for how to safely and successfully film the competition dance series is reportedly in flux, however, with the timeline subject to change due to a growing number of COVID-19 cases.

DailyMail.com exclusively reported that Tyra Banks will be stepping in as the solo host for the upcoming season, replacing both Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews.

They're coming back! Dancing With the Stars is set to resume production amid the coronavirus pandemic with plans to film season 29 this September, according to ET

The DWTS team is 'getting creative' about how to safely resume production as diagnosed cases of COVID-19 are on the rise, ET reported.

Production for season 29 is scheduled to begin in September but because of the pandemic but 'it's possible that the date could be moved around if new issues arise or safety protocols change in Los Angeles.'

Last week, California averaged 9,558 new coronavirus cases, making the total number of confirmed cases in the Golden State over 467K.

Details about how the show will safely film, particularly with the dancers needing to be in such close contact, haven't been revealed at this time.

Making it work: The DWTS team is 'getting creative' about how to safely resume production as diagnosed cases of COVID-19 are on the rise and the September date is subject to change, ET reported

Aside from the safety concerns causing some production changes, the show will have a totally different feel from the previous 15 years with a new host at the helm.

DailyMail.com first broke the news that Tyra Banks would replace veteran Tom Bergeron, as well as Erin Andrews, after they were both unexpectedly axed by the network.

Tyra was then officially unveiled as the new host of the popular show during an appearance on GMA last week.

The 46-year-old model turned TV mogul said she was 'excited' to step into the role of both host and executive producer and thrilled to 'break down' barriers by becoming the show's first solo black female host.

All new: DailyMail.com first broke the news that Tyra Banks would replace veteran Tom Bergeron, as well as Erin Andrews, after they were both unexpectedly axed by the network (Pictured in March)

Replaced: Bergeron recently tweeted that the show would be 'continuing without' him; ABC later confirmed in a statement that not only was Bergeron out, but his co-host Andrews wouldn't return as well

While she couldn't divulge too many details, Tyra hinted that she and the show's other executive producer are working together to make some changes on the celebrity dance series.

'Let's just keep this real, it's gonna be so next level,' she teased. 'We're doing all this crazy stuff, taking it to the next level, but still keeping the stuff America loves.'

Adding: 'But you need to get ready because it's gonna be different.'

She is replacing both of the current hosts on the show as part of the network's recent decision to pivot.

'Let's just keep this real, it's gonna be so next level,' Tyra teased about season 29 on GMA. 'We're doing all this crazy stuff, taking it to the next level, but still keeping the stuff America loves.'

'ABC wanted to freshen the show up and take it in a new direction,' one source told DailyMail.com. 'Tyra is an experienced TV host who knows how to produce great TV and make TV moments.'

Adding: 'She's dynamic and fun and will bring a whole new energy to the show.'

Bergeron most recently hosted the 28th season of Dancing With The Stars and marked his 15th year with the program.

The Emmy-winning host recently tweeted that the show would be 'continuing without' him; ABC later confirmed in a statement that not only was Bergeron out, but his co-host Andrews wouldn't return as well.

A representative for the television personality said in a statement that the move was the network's call: 'ABC opted not to pick up Tom's option. In the fine tradition of Hollywood cliches, they're 'Going in a different direction.''

A representative for the television personality said in a statement that the move was the network's call: 'ABC opted not to pick up Tom's option. In the fine tradition of Hollywood cliches, they're 'Going in a different direction.''

Andrews began co-hosting in 2014 for season 18, following Brooke Burke-Charvet's departure.

Casting for season 29 hasn't been unveiled with the exception of Bacheloretty star Kaitlyn Bristowe who was announced in June.

'I'll be happy with whoever they partner me with. I just feel like they're all incredible,' Bristowe told ET after her big reveal. 'They have to be to be on that show!'

Last season, fellow Bachelor Nation star Hannah Brown took home the coveted mirror ball trophy with her partner Alan Bersten.
The Egyptian short film Henet Ward ("Ward's Henna Party"), the debut from director Morad Mostafa, has been shortlisted to compete at a number of different international film festivals across the globe, some of which qualify prizewinners to compete at the Oscars and the BAFTA awards.

"So far, the film has been selected for ten Oscar- and BAFTA-qualifying film festivals and 40 other international festivals worldwide. The road is very long, but we are making good steps towards it," the 32-year-old filmmaker told Ahram Online this week, thanking his French distributor Salaud Morisset.

Since its world premiere at Clermont-Ferrand in February, the Bonanza production has become a favourite choice for various festivals across the globe, such as Cinalfama Lisbon, Not, Busan and Rhode Island.

Last month, Henet Ward received a special mention for the jury of the 2020 Palm Springs International Short Film Festival.

"A lot of festivals have invited us but I can't attend all of them. I will attend Busan in Korea and La Guarimba in south Italy," confirmed Mostafa, who has been known in the film industry since 2010 as an assistant director to directors like Hala Khalil, Sherif El-Bendary and Mohamed Diab.

Poor peoples hostility

Tackling various sensitive issues like poverty, racism and discrimination, the 23-minute film follows Halima, an Egypt-based Sudanese henna painter, and her young daughter Ward, as they head to a party in Giza near the pyramids to do their job.

"The film is about a conflict that occurs between a group of poor people. I wanted to look at the ordinary lives of simple people and the hostility that they have for one another, focusing more specifically on the lives of refugees in general and the Sudanese in particular," explained the director, who co-wrote the script with Mohamed Ali Mansour and co-produced the film with Sawsan Youssef.

"Egypt is becoming more strict against discrimination and the government is playing a great role in facing such issues, like what happened with the Sudanese youngster incident last year," he added.

The cast includes Emad Goniem (Hassan), Hagar Mahmoud (Mona), Amal Salah (Basma's mother) and Marina Victor (Basma). The cinematography was done by Zezo while the editing was finalised by Mohamed Mamdouh with the sound was designed by Moustafa Shaaban.

Egyptian cinema and independent filmmakers

Mostafa, who was the first assistant director for Ayten Amin's Souad, one of 56 films among the Cannes film festivals official selection for its cancelled 2020 edition, is currently developing a new short film in collaboration with a French producer.

"I hope our international participation increases in upcoming years. In fact, the biggest problem for independent filmmakers is the funding. Good films are so rare in Egypt because most producers only aim for profits without any consideration of quality or support for independent filmmakers," said the assistant director of multi-award-winning films Ali, the Goat and Ibrahim, and Villa 69.

"Recently, we have had many short films competing in the most important festivals in the world. Among these films I liked Fifteen by director Sameh Alaa. I think it was a different leap in the industry of short films in Egypt," concluded Mostafa.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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Molly Nichols, age 5, was playing with a friend outside her home in Pike Road, Ala. when her friend tapped her on the arm. Molly got upset at that, afraid theyd broken the coronavirus rules by touching.

Her friend grew upset too and ran home, crying.

Their moms then had to talk to them, reassure them it was OK, and that they just needed to wash their hands.

There are all these weird taboos our kids have now, said Mollys mom, Whitney Nichols.

The next evening, the girls families went for a socially-distanced walk together around the neighborhood.

We cant play tag because we cant touch each other, one of the girls announced.

Whitney Nichols got an idea.

I told them they could do air-tags, like air high-fives, she recalled. And that seemed to work.

Molly is preparing to enter kindergarten in a couple of weeks, and her mother says shes excited. But the ban on tag was a reminder that her first year of big-kid school wont look like she expected.

As parents and students around the state prepare for a school year unlike any other, students of all ages could forego all sorts of rites of passage they'd normally expect in the course of a school year, from kindergarten parades to senior prom.

AL.com spoke with the parents of a kindergartener and a high school senior at opposite ends of the state, to see how theyre navigating the demands of work while still getting their kids ready for a school year full of unknowns.

Kindergarten

Last spring, when Mollys preschool shut down and the Nichols family transitioned to working from home, they had the best intentions for homeschooling Molly, then 4, and caring for their son Sam, not quite 2. Whitney is a former classroom teacher who now develops training courses for a state association and her husband Taylor is an attorney.

Whitney set up a desk in their home, putting a chair for Molly beside her own chair.

Whitney Nichols works at a desk at home beside her daughter Molly, 5, who worked on school work while offices and schools were closed in spring 2020 due to the coronavirus epidemic. (Special to AL.com)

Mollys juice box sat next to Whitneys coffee mug while Whitney typed on her laptop and Molly did worksheets. The Nichols had planned on working with Molly on her reading, practicing number skills, and making their way through work packets sent home from preschool.

It didnt last.

The reality of trying to keep Molly and her brother safely occupied and accomplish our work tasks  those learning goals lasted about two weeks, said Whitney. It quickly became apparent to us that this was not sustainable.

The Nichols family plans to send Molly to school in person this fall. The Pike Road school district, located near Montgomery, is offering traditional, virtual and blended learning options. The Nichols said theyre satisfied with the safety and sanitation rules put in place by the district, and with research theyve read that seems to show young children do not transmit coronavirus well.

Their employers have been understanding, Whitney said. But working demanding full-time jobs at home felt incompatible with the kind of education they want for their kids.

A big part of our considering is that kindergarten is when you set the norms for how to be a student, you understand how classroom behavior works, and how to interact with other students, said Taylor. Its very difficult to do that in a virtual environment.

And teaching Molly at home seems nearly impossible. A nanny or tutor wouldnt be financially feasible, and neither would one of the Nichols quitting their jobs.

If we were to go all virtual like some districts, we have no idea how we would do that, said Taylor. In a normal situation, the people I would call on would be the grandparents, but they are the exact people we dont want to be in frequent contact right now due to concerns about the risks posed by COVID-19 to older people.

Whitney Nichols takes a break from work to do Cosmic Kids yoga with her kids Molly, then 4, and Sam, then 1, while isolated at home during the coronavirus epidemic in the spring of 2020. (Courtesy of the Nichols family)

Two weeks ago, Whitney took Molly to the store to get school supplies. Molly was excited to check everything off the list, though they couldnt find disinfecting wipes or spray.

Whitney bought two boxes of disposable masks. Those werent on the list, but she wanted to send them in for her daughters teacher so that classmates who might show up at school without the required masks would have them.

As a former classroom teacher, she knows what its like to worry about supplies.

Mollys backpack holds her own school supplies as well as four plastic bags each containing a mask, so that Molly will have extras. Kindergarten can get a little messy.

Senior year

At the other end of the state, in the rural Caddo community in North Alabama, Kristal Campbells twin sons Dakota and Dylan are preparing for a virtual senior year of high school.

Campbell and her husband have a blended family with six children between them. Her son Dakota is the only one who still lives at home with them; Dylan lives nearby with his father and attends a different high school, but theyve both chosen to go mostly virtual for their final year of school.

I hate this is their senior year, said Campbell. Honestly, my husband and I had talked about letting Dakota just go get his GED and be done. But I want him to experience what your senior year should be.

East Limestone High School, which Dakota attends, offers traditional, virtual and blended school options. At first, Dakota wanted to go the traditional route, so he could be at school in person.

But Campbell and her husband sat down with him to explain why they needed him to do the blended or virtual option. The Campbells own a maintenance business, where Dakota also works, and Kristal manages a convenience store.

Kristal Campbell with her family, including sons Dakota and Dylan, who will be high school seniors. Campbell lives in Lawrence County, Ala. (Special to AL.com)

Quitting the jobs is out of the question.

With our business, we have a lot of elderly clients, and I cant risk that he picks (coronavirus) up at school and gives it to me or to somebody else, she said. With the type of work both of us do, and in this pandemic, we cant risk giving that to our customers.

So Dakota is going the blended route, only attending in-person school for his math class.

He and his brother were born 10 weeks prematurely, and Dakota now gets some services through the school to help him manage ADHD. Campbell worries about how hell continue to get the services he needs when hes mainly a virtual student.

Originally, the plan for his senior year was for him to work on developing job and interview skills. Hell probably enter the workforce after graduation, she said, and she was hoping his senior year would focus on job training.

But its been hard to get concrete answers from the school about whether that can happen virtually, she said.

Theyre not telling us anything, she said. I feel like everything is up in the air and you cant make any plans for anything.

Hes been handling the change in routine, she said, spending most of the summer working for the familys business and going to the beach with his dad.

But last week he missed out on senior photos at the school, an event Campbell said she only found out about after it had already happened. Now shes crossing her fingers for makeup photos.

She hopes hell get to participate in other traditional senior year activities in some form, but not at the expense of being exposed to COVID-19. Campbell missed her own senior prom, and she doesnt want that for her son.

I want there to be some semblance of a senior year, no matter what that might look like, she said. But we cant risk our family or our business. Maybe Im asking too much.

Flying the plane

Back in Pike Road, a few nights ago, Whitney found herself crying. She was thinking about how different the school year would look for her daughter.

It just occurred to me that Molly is not going to do any of the kindergarten things weve been looking forward to, said Whitney. She wont get to ride the bus or go through the lunch line, or square dancing in P.E., and it was all too much for me.

But shes trying to focus on the positives and keep her daughter excited about school. Taylor said hes resigned that the school year will be full of disruptions and less-than-ideal situations.

Educators, parents and students, were all trying to build the plane while we fly it, said Taylor. The situation is changing so quickly and so much that even if good plans are made that were pleased with, that could all fall through tomorrow.
Storytelling is not new. However, most entrepreneurs are not aware of a small change they can make while pitching and using stories. The secret is simple: Tell it in the present tense, even if it happened 20 years ago. And perhaps the best way to help you feel the power of the present tense is to demonstrate it.

I had a memorable encounter on December 2012 In Palo Alto, California. Imagine now the picture I saw at the heart of Silicon Valley. Shes a musician, and the way she holds her violin is magical. The way she plays reminds me of Pearlman. But there she stands in front of a famous coffee shop on University Street. Her music soothes the hearts and minds of those who walk around her.

A simple hat is laid upside down next to her feet with several dollar bills in it. I approached her and said: Felix Mendelssohn, huh?

Its my favorite concert, she said and stopped playing.

Why do you stand and play here, of all places? I asked.

The people here have a lot of money, she said.

Do you want a tip that is worth much more than a couple of bucks?" I asked, smiling. "Just like in music, sometimes a small change can make a big difference."

Id love to," she said politely.

You should move to the sidewalk on the other side of the street and play there.

Whats the difference? she asked.

Over there is the Apple Store," I explained. "People who go there undergo an experience. Youll see what happens.

Two weeks after that, she played close to the Apple Store entrance, and her hat was filled with many bills. She saw me watching her again, smiling.

Related: How to Use Storytelling to Sell Your Brand and Vision

As an entrepreneur, If you want to succeed, help other people find their success. Sometimes a small adjustment they make due to your advice can lead them to a substantial, positive change. And the next time you tell a story, consider telling it in the present tense.

Today, when most of your communication is virtual with Zoom, Teams, Webex et al, its even more critical, because it helps you effectively engage your audience.

An experiment done by researchers at Princeton University showed neural coupling between storyteller and listener, and when you present it in the present tense, you get the best effect and impact.

You dont want them to wander off, multitask and pay attention to other things while delivering your message. If you want them to be fully present, tell your stories using the present tense.

That brings me to another advantage of telling your stories in the present tense: You often animate, act, play and better use your non-verbal communication while speaking in the present tense. Now, its not only storytelling; its like story playing. A small change makes a big impact.

Related: Why the Best Storytellers Achieve the Most Brand Awareness

Now, whats the main reason you want to use stories? To lead, make an impact, influence, sell. That will happen only if the audience members remember your key message. Molecular biologist John Medina wrote in his classic book, Brain Rules: When the brain detects an emotionally charged event, the Amygdala releases dopamine into the system. Because dopamine greatly aids memory and information processing, you could say it creates a Post-It note that reads, Remember this. And when you tell a good story in the present tense, you create an emotionally charged event, which helps your story stick to their minds.

Whats your story?

Related:

8 Leadership Lessons From ESPN's Documentary, 'The Last Dance'

The Ultimate 3-Step Formula for Business Success

5 Key Quotes That Sum Up What Made John Lewis Such a Legendary Leader



Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo "Unity" launches toward the edge of space on December 13, 2018.

Virgin Galactic; MarsScientific.com/Trumbull Studios

Virgin Galactic is gearing up to launch paying passengers to the edge of space aboard a reusable winged rocket ship called SpaceShipTwo.

The publicly traded spaceflight and space tourism company, founded by Richard Branson in 2004, plans to reveal the finalized design of SpaceShipTwo's cabin on Tuesday.

Virgin Galactic won't say when it plans to begin launching space tourists, and has suffered many delays over the years.

However, the company has moved into final experimental flights to earn FAA approval and complete an internal test program.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Sixteen years after Richard Branson founded Virgin Galactic, the company plans to unveil the interior design of its centerpiece suborbital rocket ship, SpaceShipTwo.

The vehicle is designed to fly to supersonic speeds and pierce the unofficial boundary of space some 62 miles above Earth.

At the pinnacle of such flights, six passengers  either a group of space tourists or science researchers  and two pilots would experience a few minutes of weightlessness before returning and landing at Spaceport America in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Virgin Galactic is now in the final stages of a test-flight program before the company attempts to start commercial operations.

As those final experimental flights take place, the company is announcing that it has finalized the interior cabin of SpaceShipTwo.

Virgin Galactic has seen repeated setbacks to its goal to carry paying passengers, which founder Richard Branson had predicted could start as long ago as 2009. A prototype ship failed over the desert in 2014, killing a test pilot and further hampering the project.

But Virgin Galactic says it is now on the final stretch. The next phase of the company's existence is planned to kick off with the inaugural flight of Branson himself, followed by a manifest of at least 600 passengers who've already paid $200,000 to $250,000 each for a ticket. An additional 400 passengers who've placed $1,000 deposits may follow.

Story continues

Since the coronavirus pandemic limits in-person tours, the company plans to reveal that design on Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET in a virtual tour on YouTube, embedded below.

SpaceShipTwo's cabin has to work for passengers and pilots in a many challenging situations. Its missions involve dropping from a two-bodied mothership airplane, igniting its rocket engine, then accelerating to more than three times the speed of sound.

The ship can then give passengers a few minutes of weightlessness before descending, falling back to Earth in a spiral flight pattern to bleed off speed, and gliding to a soft runway landing.

In a press release, Virgin Galactic said the "cabin interior has been created to integrate seamlessly with every step of that journey, it is also the design centerpiece, providing safety without distraction, quietly absorbing periods of sensory intensity and offering each astronaut a level of intimacy required for personal discovery and transformation."

Ahead of the event, the company released a short teaser clip for its unveiling, below.

A spokesperson could not tell Business Insider when Virgin Galactic planned to begin commercial operations.

However, the spokesperson noted that only one or two rocket-powered test flights remain before the Federal Aviation Administration can sign off on the final five of 29 requirements to license the vehicle.

"We're now on what I think of as sort of the final stretch of those," George T. Whitesides, the CEO of Virgin Galactic, told Business Insider in May. "Many of those have to do with things related to the cabin. Stuff like humidity [levels]."

Following those one or two powered flights and an FAA license, the spokesperson said Virgin Galactic can fly additional missions to the edge of space with up to four employee passengers each to test out the company's cabin hardware and suborbital astronaut training program.

Have a story or inside information to share about the spaceflight industry? Send Dave Mosher an email at dmosher+tips@businessinsider.com or a Twitter direct message at @davemosher. More secure communication options are listed here.

This story has been updated. It was originally published on July 2, 2020.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Last week Intel revealed that yields for CPUs manufactured on a 7nm process were running a year behind schedule, which will slow its transition to the technology that lets it build more efficient processors. Now the chipmaker has reshuffled executives in charge, with chief engineering officer Dr. Murthy Renduchintala, who had been leading its Technology, Systems Architecture and Client Group (TSCG), leaving the company.

Now the push for 7nm and 5nm processes is led by Dr. Ann Kelleher, as the group is being split up under different people who will all report directly to the CEO. Another key change is Keyvan Esfarjani taking over Kellehers former responsibility of manufacturing and operations, where he will lead global manufacturing operations and continue Kellehers work driving product ramp and the build-out of new fab capacity.

Just as the release credits Kelleher with accelerating Intels ramp up of 10nm tech, now they will need to do it again as the company looks to rely on outside fabs instead of the vertically-integrated structure its maintained in the past. In a statement, CEO Bob Swan said . We have the most diverse portfolio of leadership products in our history and, as a result of our six pillars of innovation and disaggregation strategy, much more flexibility in how we build, package and deliver those products for our customers.
Sunil Tiwari, a stringer with Nai Duniya newspaper, was killed in Niwari district of Madhya Pradesh on July 22. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Indian affiliate the National Union of Journalists- India (NUJ-I) are saddened by his killing and urge the Indian government to launch an investigation to uncover the killers motives and punish the guilty.

The 39 year old journalist was left unconscious when thugs attacked him on evening of July 22 near Putri Khera village in Niwari district. The assailants encircled Sunils motorbike, firing shots and striking him with sticks and an axe. The assailants then fled the scene. .

With the help of his family members and relatives, the unconscious journalist was taken to the Niwari district hospital for treatment. The hospital referred him to Jhansi Medical College by which time Sunil had already died from his injuries.

On May 25, the journalist had uploaded a video on his Facebook page, pleading with the Niwari police superintendent and the Jhansi police superintendent for his safety. In the video, Sunil claimed that he along with his family had received death threats after he exposed illegal activities of Avdhesh Tiwari, Narendra Tiwari and Anil Tiwari .The video also accuses the Niwari police of refusing to file FIR against the trio. The police claim that the attack was not related to Sunils job as a journalist but instead over a land dispute between two old rivals.

Following the attack, the police charged seven people for Sunils death: Avdesh, Narendra, Anil, Mohit Tiwari, Praveen Purohit, Balveer Kamariya and Rohit Shukla.

Sunils death is one of a number of recent killings of journalists in India. On July 20, 2020, journalist Vikram Joshi from Ghaziabaddistrict of UttarPradesh was shot in the head by miscreants and died. Reporter Shubham Mani Tripathi of Kampu Mail newspaper was killed on June 19 in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, allegedly by the sand mafia'.

The NUJ-I President Ras Bihari said: Attacks on journalists are mostly carried out by individuals and groups often supported and backed by political parties and influential persons wielding power who fear exposure for their misdeeds. Therefore NUJ-I calls on the government of India to take formal and informal complaints by the journalists more seriously. We call on impartial investigation in the killings of the journalist Sunil Tiwari and other journalists killed in India.

The IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: The IFJ strongly condemns the organised killing of the journalists. We extend our condolences to his family member, his colleagues and his community. There must be an impartial and independent investigation and the guilty must be held to account.
The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) has issued a data call to insurance companies writing personal automobile and residential property policies in the state.

The department said the information is needed for price comparison on the HelpInsure website. HelpInsure.com is a resource for Texas consumers who are shopping for personal automobile or residential property insurance. Insurance Code Section 32.102 requires that TDI provide this information.

Responses for this data call are due by Aug. 26, 2020, for rates effective June 1, 2020.

Insurers who are in one of the top 25 national groups and have more than $1 million in direct written premiums in Texas must respond to this call.

Those insurers must also include data from all business issued and processed through nonaffiliated companies, such as a county mutual.

TDI will notify insurers by email if they meet the above criteria and must report. Insurers in the top-25 national groups that are not writing new business must confirm this in writing to TDI.

TDI encourages all other property and casualty insurers to participate, but participation is optional for companies that do not receive the notification.

More information regarding the data call, including filing instructions, may be found on TDIs website.

Source: TDI

Topics Carriers Texas Auto Data Driven
The official U.S. COVID-19 death toll is approaching 150,000, twice the number of flu deaths in 2017-2018. At least 73 percent of those who are listed as total deaths died with the virus not because of it. Nonetheless, our country has been frightened into draconian measures to combat COVID-19, viewing it more like Ebola than what it truly is: a respiratory virus that primarily attacks those with life-threatening pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes, chronic lung disease, and/or immune deficiency.

The death rate from COVID-19 has been reported as 3.5 percent, implying that at least three out of 100 Americans who become infected will die. This is false.

A percentage is a ratio, numerator divided by denominator. The 3.5 percent is calculated as 145,982 total deaths divided by 4,163,892 total cases. However, total cases include only those tested, and tests are offered only to those who are symptomatic. When this author, age 76 years young, went to get a COVID test, I was turned away because I was not symptomatic.

A population study in Santa Clara, California of healthy volunteers suggested that the actual case rate may be 50-85 times greater than the reported total cases. Using 208,199,100 (50 times 4,163,892) as the denominator case rate, the death risk for the general population becomes 0.07 percent, that is, seven out of 10,000 healthy Americans will die with COVID infection, just like the flu.

A human body protects itself against viral infection by developing an immune defense: antibodies, attack cells, and often both. Those who do not become ill when infected with a virus, any virus, either (a) have a prompt and highly effective immune response, and/or (b) are healthy persons, that is, they do not have a serious pre-existing medical condition that predisposes them to illness and death.

Reports have surfaced, including official statements, questioning whether COVID-19 infection will produce a lasting protective immune response. Some claim that antibodies fade quickly; an Israeli physician had COVID infection twice; that there is no immunity post-infection; and one report mused, so long to herd immunity hopes?

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control is testing convalescent serum, from patients who recovered from COVID-19 infection, to treat those currently ill. They presume that infused antibodies will help the sick individuals fight off the virus.

Humans develop immunity to a virus either naturally or artificially. Natural immunity occurs when the live virus infects someone and that persons body does what nature commands -- it builds an immune response. Artificial immunity is the result of vaccination, where an artificially produced medicine mimics the infection and tricks the body into thinking there is a live virus when there is none. The body responds to a vaccination with a similar reaction as though a live virus were present.

When enough people become immune, there is herd immunity. That means a large enough number of immune people can surround a non-immune person so the virus cannot get through the defensive herd to attack the nonimmune individual. Quarantine has the same effect: it isolates the individual so the virus cannot get to the at-risk person to infect him or her.

The United States has placed all its faith in a COVID-19 vaccine currently in phase III clinical trials. Washington has purchased 100 million doses of a yet-to-be-proven vaccine produced by a partnership of Pfizer and BioNTech.

The official narrative about COVID-19 has two fundamental contradictions. Americans deserve to have these inconsistencies resolved based on well-vetted medical evidence rather than to fit some political ideology or agenda.

Inconsistency #1: Why has the risk of death due to COVID-19 infection has been inflated to resemble Ebola or bubonic plague when in fact, the health risk is closer to the seasonal flu? Based on the official false narrative, states have shut down their economies, and the country has suppressed the development of national herd immunity.

Inconsistency #2: Does infection, natural or artificial, i.e., by vaccination, confer lasting immunity, or not? If it does not, why did the U.S. just spend $1.95 billion on a vaccine that wont protect us?

Deane Waldman, MD MBA, is Emeritus Professor of Pediatric, Pathology, and Decision Science; former Director of Center for Healthcare Policy at Texas Public Policy Foundation; and author of multi-award-winning, Curing the Cancer in U.S. Healthcare: StatesCare and Market-Based Medicine.
A protester was filmed repeatedly yelling "I can't breathe" as she was arrested by a federal officer during demonstrations in Portland.

The woman, who identified herself as Noelle Mandolfo, was detained during another night of Black Lives Matter protests in the Oregon city.

Video footage shows a federal agent kneeling on her back and holding a baton near her neck as she appears to resist arrest.

Bystanders are heard shouting "you're hurting her" before she yells "get off of me" and repeatedly says "I can't breathe".

Armed officers surround the two agents as they attempt to handcuff the woman.

A federal officer asks her to "stop resisting" arrest as she asks them: "Why are you doing this? Why would you pick me?"

Another bystander is heard saying: "Be gentle with her."

Portland has held nightly protests for two months since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May.

President Donald Trump said he sent federal agents to the city to halt the unrest but state and local officials said they are making the situation worse.

A federal officer holds a tear gas rifle during a protest in Portland / AP

Mr Trump's deployment of federal officers over the July 4 weekend fanned the flames of the Black Lives Matter protest movement in the city.

The number of protesters had dwindled to less than 100 before the deployment, and it has now has swelled to the thousands.

Before the federal intervention, Mayor Ted Wheeler and other local leaders said a small group of violent activists were drowning out the message of peaceful protesters.

Federal officers deploy tear gas while dispersing a crowd of protesters / Nathan Howard/Getty Images

However, the Democrat, who was tear-gassed this week as he joined protesters, says the federal presence is exacerbating a tense situation and he has repeatedly told them to leave.

On Monday, a top official said the federal militarised officers will remain in Portland until attacks on the US courthouse cease.

"It is not a solution to tell federal officers to leave when there continues to be attacks on federal property and personnel," US Attorney Billy Williams told reporters.

Protesters in Portland, Oregon / Associated Press

"We are not leaving the building unprotected to be destroyed by people intent on doing so."

US agents repeatedly fired tear gas, flash bangs and pepper balls at protesters outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland on Monday.

Some protesters had climbed over the fence surrounding the courthouse, while others shot fireworks, banged on the fence and projected lights on the building.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's explosive tell-all book also revealed the truth about Prince Philip's furious outburst during the Sandringham Summit.

After the Sussexes made their bombshell announcement of stepping down from their roles as senior members of the Firm, Queen Elizabeth II called an urgent meeting at Sandringham estate in an attempt to iron out the crisis.

The historic meeting included Her Majesty the Queen and the four core royals, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry..

However, according to the controversial autobiography "Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Family," the Duke of Edinburgh -- who was expected to play a big role in the crisis meeting -- walked out just before the discussion started.

"Harry was facing the Queen, Charles, and William for the first time since he and Meghan had released their full plans to step away from their official roles in the Royal Family to the world," the bombshell book stated.

Written by royal writers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Duran, the biography also cited that the 99-year-old royal Prince Philip "left for his farmhouse located on the estate shortly before discussions got underway."

Meanwhile, multiple reports previously noted that Prince Philip was spotted being escorted by a Land Rover as he leaves Norfolk early in the morning.

An anonymous source revealed to The Sun that the Duke of Edinburgh was "deeply hurt" by his grandson's shocking announcement and was believed to be furious over the "lack of respect" that the couple has shown to the Queen.

"To say that the Duke feels let down would be a considerable understatement," a source told the outlet. "A lot of Philip's anger comes from seeing Her Majesty upset."

In addition, Mail Online reported that the royal was so angry that he reportedly shouted "What the hell are they playing at?"

It was also the first time that the Queen's husband was seen in public after being hospitalized at King Edward VII hospital in London last December 20 due to his pre-existing condition.

Meanwhile, aside from the senior royals, the top palace aides were also present at the Sandringham Summit. These included Queen Elizabeth II's private secretary, Sir Edward Young, her senior lady-in-waiting Lady Susan Hussey, the Prince of Wales' private secretary Clive Alderton, Prince Harry's private secretary Fiona Mcilwham, and the Duke of Cambridge's top aide Simon Case.

The autobiography, which is set to be released to the public on August 11, is expected to reveal the royal family's hostility towards Duchess Meghan.

According to The Guardian, "Finding Freedom" delves into the couple's driving force behind the shocking "Megxit," which points out to the Buckingham Palace's unfair treatment with the former "Suits" actress.

It remains to be seen what else is in the book, but the revelations has certainly not been disappointing so far.

READ MORE: BREAKING: Kim Kardashian Breaks Down In Heated Argument With Kanye West
Katrina Mulligan says her decision to organize a homeschooling pod  a modern version of a one-room schoolhouse, with a small group of parents splitting the cost of hiring teachers  wasnt done lightly.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the nation, shes grown increasingly wary about her public schools plan for getting kids back in the building.

I don't think its a great idea to send your kids to school in the middle of the pandemic, says Mulligan, 40. A lot of us started freaking out.

At the same time, she adds, she and her husband found it difficult this spring to juggle working from home while managing their 6-year-old daughters virtual schooling. That experience, plus concerns about school safety, prompted her family to connect with four other families in their hometown of Alexandria, Virginia, to create a homeschooling pod. Mulligan plans on hiring a teacher to instruct the groups first grade children on a part-time basis, which she estimates will cost $2,500 a month, or $500 per family.

Mulligan isnt alone. Several families across the U.S. told USA TODAY theyre scrambling to create similar pods. Among the hurdles are logistics, such as finding families with children of the same age as their own, and finances. By pooling resources, the families expect to pay several hundred dollars a month to hire teachers, tutors and pay for resources like online classes through programs such as Outschool.

Outschool, which was founded in 2015 and offers classes ranging from multiplication to ukulele boot camp, has seen a 30-fold increase in enrollment since the pandemic started, says co-founder Amir Nathoo. He adds that he expects to see that continue.

We are preparing for another jump because it seems like schools aren't going to reopen in any way that looks normal, he says. In states where they are moving more aggressively to open schools, we're seeing increased demand, not decreased.

Story continues

Katrina Mulligan and her daughter, November 2019 in Manassas, Virginia.

At the heart of the issue is parents desire to create a stable structure for their kids, with parents worried a second wave could create more school shutdowns  creating stress for them. Pods also allow their children to socialize consistently with a small group of peers. And it provides parents with more stability for their work schedules, they added.

Shauna Hill, 42, a single parent of twin 7-year-olds is in discussions with other parents about setting up a pod. It really is to build a little village.

Shauna Hill with her twins and their baby sitter, Rachel Kelly, during the stay at home order in Montpelier, VT in early May 2020.

Hill, a mental health executive in Burlington, Vermont, says she never would have considered a homeschooling pod before the pandemic, noting that shes a believer in public school education. But, she says, as a single parent, I need something that is economically sustainable for future closures if we have to go back on lockdown.

To be sure, the parents who spoke with USA TODAY acknowledged that the costs of organizing a pod, such as fees for hiring teachers, likely exclude many low-income families.

Each expressed apprehension about the pandemics impact on education, specifically for lower-income children. Thats a very real issue, with Harvard Universitys Opportunity Insights tracker finding that students in low-income schools decreased their online math coursework by 36% from January through early May, while those from middle-income schools were little changed.

There will be a lot of parents who can't financially make this work, or can't secure a teacher, Mulligan says, adding that her group is interested including a family or two in their pod who might not be able to otherwise pay for such a system.

Parents should check with the Homeschool Legal Defense Association to see their state's legal requirements for creating a homeschool-type of structure, recommends National Home School Association's executive director J. Allen Weston.

Heres the advice that these parents have for others interested in creating homeschooling pods.

Determine how much homeschooling youll handle

Parents noted that some of their plans involve a portion of traditional homeschooling, or when parents instruct their own children, which can help lower costs. By banding together with several families, kids can rotate between houses, giving them a change of scenery and splitting the child care duties among families.

Juliet Travis of Hillsboro, Oregon, says that her pod, which includes her seventh grade son and two of his friends, will include one parent tutoring her son, for example. They also plan to hire a teacher to tutor the boys in English and Social Studies and supplement learning with online classes. She estimates her costs will range from $3,000 to $5,000 for the year.

We are going to rotate classes here and there, she says. No one has the burden of having the kids all the time.

Rely on local resources like colleges

Marina Jurica, 43, of Altadena, California, and her husband are planning on tapping students and grads of nearby California Institute of Technology to tutor her son if she and two other families decide to move forward with a homeschooling pod. She adds that shes currently evaluating her sons school plans for fall instruction before deciding on a plan.

Marina Jurica and her family outside NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in December 2019.

We are a huge math and science family, says Jurica, who works for NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory and expressed her familys interest in hiring a STEM-focused teacher. The three of us decided if we could spend one week at one person's house, one week at our house, one week at another house, and then hiring a tutor that can come in.

Be flexible and relax

Thats the advice from veteran homeschooling parent Nicole Olson, a teacher from Medway, Massachusetts, who has four kids and switched to homeschooling when her oldest child, now 17, was old enough to enter school.

She said she initially stressed out that her kids would fall behind. But she said she soon viewed education differently, prioritizing getting her kids engaged and immersed. (She added that homeschooling, where the parents teach their own kids, is less expensive than a homeschool pod, estimating she spends about $300 to $1,500 a year on education.)

Try it out, experiment, and even if your child learns absolutely nothing  which I guarantee won't happen  give yourself permission to get as creative and out-of-the-box as possible, she says. This is your chance to reimagine your child's education and your child's life.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Parents working from home pooling resources to hire tutors for kids
Two days after a young boy was spotted wandering around a Florida parking lot, the Miramar Police Department still hasn't found his mother.

The boy, approximately 2 or 3 years old, was identified after a photo of him was circulated on social media.

The boy's aunt, Gina Lewis, told ABC affiliate WPLG that her sister, Leila Cavett, nor her family have any connections to South Florida.

PHOTO: Police are searching for Leila Cavett, who may be the mother of the child in the photograph, that was found alone in a parking lot in Miramar, Florida. (Miramar Police Department via Twitter)

The boy, police said, currently is "being cared for by a foster parent and has been provided with the necessary items" until his relatives can make the 12-hour drive from their hometown of Jasper, Alabama.

"Were in the middle of a pandemic," Lewis told the station. "So it's not like they were taking a vacation out of the blue with the baby. There's no way."

Cavett, 21, was last seen driving a white Chevy 3500 with a maroon or red tailgate and a "Baby on Board" sign on the passenger window, police said.

PHOTO: Police are looking for Leila Cavett who was last seen driving this white Chevy 3500. (Miramar Police Department via Twitter)

PHOTO: A child seen with Leila Cavett, pictured, was found alone in a parking lot in Miramar, Florida. (Miramar Police Department via Twitter)

"We are concerned for her safety and well-being," the Miramar Police Department said in Facebook and Twitter posts that included photos of the boy and of Cavett.

MORE: California mom Heather Gumina missing for weeks, vehicle found: Officials

Anyone with information on Cavett's whereabouts is urged to contact the Miramar Police Department at (954) 602-4000.

Florida police search for missing mom after son found alone in parking lot originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Basel, Switzerland, July 28, 2020

Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. (SIX: BSLN) announced today that three abstracts featuring preclinical and clinical data on its fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) kinase inhibitor derazantinib and its tumor checkpoint controller lisavanbulin are going to be presented as e-posters at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress 2020, which is taking place from 19-21 September, 2020.

Dr. Marc Engelhardt, Chief Medical Officer, said: "The preclinical derazantinib data may provide an explanation for differences in reported adverse event profiles between various FGFR kinase inhibitors. Furthermore, derazantinib shows promising efficacy in patient-derived tumor models with gene aberrations in FGFR1-3. The data which will be presented at ESMO are part of our broad preclinical and clinical program focused on generating further scientific evidence for the differentiation of derazantinib, in order to explore its full therapeutic potential in FGFR-driven tumors."

He continued: "We are also pleased that the full data from the phase 1 study with oral lisavanbulin in patients with recurrent glioblastoma will be presented at ESMO. As previously reported, we observed clinical benefit in a subset of patients in the study. In particular, one patient shows an exceptional long-lasting response and the brain tumor tissue of this patient is strongly positive for EB1, a potential response-predictive biomarker. Based on the results from this and other clinical and preclinical studies, we are currently preparing the start of a biomarker-driven phase 2 study in patients with recurrent glioblastoma and subsequently potential additional tumor types."

The following e-posters are scheduled for presentation at ESMO Virtual Congress 2020: Presentation # Title 1960P Differential induction of gene expression may explain differences in reported adverse event profiles between the FGFR-inhibitors derazantinib and erdafitinib: an analysis in safety relevant normal tissues from urothelial cancer (UC) patient-derived mouse xenograft (PDX) models. Presenting author: Paul McSheehy 541P Derazantinib (DZB), an oral Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor inhibitor (FGFRi), shows promising activity in PDX-tumor models with aberrations in FGFR1-3 Presenting author: Paul McSheehy 382P The potential utility of end-binding protein 1 (EB1) as response-predictive biomarker for lisavanbulin: Final results from a phase 1 study of lisavanbulin (BAL101553) in adult patients with recurrent glioblastoma (GBM) Presenting author: Crescens Tiu

For further information, please visit https://www.esmo.org/meetings/esmo-virtual-congress-2020

About derazantinib

Derazantinib is an investigational orally administered small-molecule FGFR kinase inhibitor with strong activity against FGFR1, 2, and 3.1 FGFR kinases are key drivers of cell proliferation, differentiation and migration. FGFR genetic aberrations, e.g. gene fusions, mutations or amplifications, have been identified as potentially important therapeutic targets for various cancers, including intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), urothelial, breast, gastric and lung cancers.2 In these cancers, FGFR genetic aberrations are found in a range of 5% to 30%.3 Derazantinib also inhibits the colony-stimulating-factor-1-receptor kinase (CSF1R).1, 4 CSF1R-mediated signaling is important for the maintenance of tumor-promoting macrophages and therefore has been identified as a potential target for anti-cancer drugs.5 Pre-clinical data has shown that tumor macrophage depletion through CSF1R blockade renders tumors more responsive to T-cell checkpoint immunotherapy, including approaches targeting PD-L1/PD-1.6, 7

Derazantinib has demonstrated antitumor activity and a manageable safety profile in previous clinical studies, including a biomarker-driven phase 1/2 study in iCCA patients,8 and has received U.S. and EU orphan drug designation for iCCA. Basilea is currently conducting two clinical studies with derazantinib. The first study, FIDES-01, is a registrational phase 2 study in patients with inoperable or advanced iCCA. It comprises one cohort of patients with FGFR2 gene fusions and another cohort of patients with mutations or amplifications.9 The second study, FIDES-02, is a phase 1/2 study evaluating derazantinib alone and in combination with Roche's PD-L1-blocking immune-checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab (Tecentriq)10 in patients with advanced urothelial cancer, including metastatic, or recurrent surgically unresectable disease, expressing FGFR genetic aberrations.11

Basilea in-licensed derazantinib from ArQule Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., U.S.A.

About lisavanbulin (BAL101553)

Basilea's oncology drug candidate lisavanbulin (BAL101553, the prodrug of BAL27862)12 is being developed as a potential therapy for diverse cancers.13, 14, 15 In preclinical studies, lisavanbulin demonstrated in-vitro and in-vivo activity against diverse treatment-resistant cancer models, including tumors refractory to conventional approved therapeutics and radiotherapy.16,17, 18 Lisavanbulin efficiently distributes to the brain, with anticancer activity in glioblastoma models.19, 20, 21 In preclinical studies, end-binding protein 1 (EB1) was identified as a potential response-predictive biomarker in glioblastoma models.21 The active moiety BAL27862 binds to the colchicine site of tubulin, with distinct effects on microtubule organization,22 resulting in the activation of the "spindle assembly checkpoint" which promotes tumor cell death.23

About Basilea

Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focused on the development of products that address the medical challenges in the therapeutic areas of oncology and infectious diseases. With two commercialized drugs, the company is committed to discovering, developing and commercializing innovative pharmaceutical products to meet the medical needs of patients with serious and life-threatening conditions. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

Disclaimer

This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements, such as "believe", "assume", "expect", "forecast", "project", "may", "could", "might", "will" or similar expressions concerning Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. and its business, including with respect to the progress, timing and completion of research, development and clinical studies for product candidates. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Derazantinib and its uses are investigational and have not been approved by a regulatory authority for any use. Efficacy and safety have not been established. The information presented should not be construed as a recommendation for use. The relevance of findings in nonclinical/preclinical studies to humans is currently being evaluated

For further information, please contact:

Peer Nils Schroder, PhD



Head of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations Phone +41 61 606 1102 E-mail media_relations@basilea.com (mailto:media_relations@basilea.com)

investor_relations@basilea.com (mailto:investor_relations@basilea.com)

This press release can be downloaded from www.basilea.com.

References

T. G. Hall, Y. Yu, S. Eathiraj et al. Preclinical activity of ARQ 087, a novel inhibitor targeting FGFR dysregulation. PLoS ONE 2016, 11 (9), e0162594 R. Porta, R. Borea, A. Coelho et al. FGFR a promising druggable target in cancer: Molecular biology and new drugs. Critical K. P. Papadopoulos, B. F. El-Rayes, A. W. Tolcher et al. A phase 1 study of ARQ 087, an oral pan-FGFR inhibitor in patients with advanced solid tumours. British Journal of Cancer 2017 (117), 1592-1599. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01752920 T. Helsten, S. Elkin, E. Arthur et al. The FGFR landscape in cancer: Analysis of 4,853 tumors by next-generation sequencing. Clinical Cancer Research 2016 (22), 259-267 P. McSheehy, F. Bachmann, N. Forster-Gross et al. Derazantinib (DZB): A dual FGFR/CSF1R-inhibitor active in PDX-models of urothelial cancer. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 2019 (18), 12 supplement, pp. LB-C12 M. A. Cannarile, M. Weisser, W. Jacob et al. Colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) inhibitors in cancer therapy. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2017, 5:53 Y. Zhu, B. L. Knolhoff, M. A. Meyer et al. CSF1/CSF1R Blockade reprograms tumor-infiltrating macrophages and improves response to T cell checkpoint immunotherapy in pancreatic cancer models. Cancer Research 2014 (74), 5057-5069 E. Peranzoni, J. Lemoine, L. Vimeux et al. Macrophages impede CD8 T cells from reaching tumor cells and limit the efficacy of anti-PD-1 treatment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America 2018 (115), E4041-E4050 V. Mazzaferro, B. F. El-Rayes, M. Droz dit Busset et al. Derazantinib (ARQ 087) in advanced or inoperable FGFR2 gene fusion-positive intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. British Journal of Cancer 2019 (120), 165-171. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01752920 FIDES-01: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03230318 Tecentriq is a registered trademark of Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. FIDES-02: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04045613. J. Pohlmann, F. Bachmann, A. Schmitt-Hoffmann et al. BAL101553: An optimized prodrug of the microtubule destabilizer BAL27862 with superior antitumor activity. American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting 2011, abstract 1347; Cancer Research 2011, 71 (8 supplement) ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02490800 ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03250299 ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02895360 A. Sharmq, A. Broggini-Tenzer, V. Vuong et al. The novel microtubule targeting agent BAL101553 in combination with radiotherapy in treatment-refractory tumor models. Radiotherapy Oncology 2017 (124), 433-438 G. E. Duran, H. Lane, F. Bachmann et al. In vitro activity of the novel tubulin active agent BAL27862 in MDR1(+) and MDR1(-) human breast and ovarian cancer variants selected for resistance to taxanes. American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting 2010, abstract 4412; Cancer Research 2010, 70 (8 supplement) F. Bachmann, K. Burger, G. E. Duran et al. BAL101553 (prodrug of BAL27862): A unique microtubule destabilizer active against drug refractory breast cancers alone and in combination with trastuzumab. American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting 2014, abstract 831; Cancer Research 2014, 74 (19 supplement) A. Schmitt-Hoffmann, D. Klauer, K. Gebhardt et al. BAL27862: a unique microtubule-targeted agent with a potential for the treatment of human brain tumors. AACR-NCI-EORTC conference 2009, abstract C233; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 2009, 8 (12 supplement) A. C. Mladek, J. L. Pokorny, H. Lane et al. The novel tubulin-binding 'tumor checkpoint controller' BAL101553 has anti-cancer activity alone and in combination treatments across a panel of GBM patient-derived xenografts. American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting 2016, abstract 4781; Cancer Research 2016, 76 (14 supplement) R. Berges, A. Tchoghandjian, S. Honore et al. The novel tubulin-binding checkpoint activator BAL101553 inhibits EB1-dependent migration and invasion and promotes differentiation of glioblastoma stem-like cells. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 2016 (15), 2740-2749 A. E. Prota, F. Danel, F. Bachmann et al. The novel microtubule-destabilizing drug BAL27862 binds to the colchicine site of tubulin with distinct effects on microtubule organization. Journal of Molecular Biology 2014 (426), 1848-1860 F. Bachmann, K. Burger, H. Lane. BAL101553 (prodrug of BAL27862): the spindle assembly checkpoint is required for anticancer activity. American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting 2015, abstract 3789; Cancer Research 2015, 75 (15 supplement)

Attachment
KANSAS CITY, Mo. The Kansas City Royals signed former All-Star Matt Harvey to a minor league contract.

The Royals announced the move before Tuesday nights game at Detroit. The 31-year-old Harvey has struggled to recapture the form that made him a key member of the New York Mets when they faced Kansas City in the 2015 World Series.

Harvey went 3-5 with a 7.09 ERA in 12 starts for the Los Angeles Angels last year. The right-hander made 28 starts the previous season for the Mets and Cincinnati Reds.

Harvey was an All-Star in 2013 and helped the Mets to the World Series two years later after returning from Tommy John surgery. He hasnt had a winning season since and has struggled to stay healthy.

___

More AP MLB coverage: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
TORONTO, July 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CF Energy Corp. (TSX-V: CFY) (CF Energy or the Company, together with its subsidiaries, the Group), a leading new energy service provider in the Peoples Republic of China (the PRC or China) is pleased to announce that, the Group has officially launched operation of its first electric vehicle (EV) battery swap station in Sanya City. The first battery swap station of the Company is located near the Sanyas airport. It is expected to start serving more than 100 registered EVs immediately in Sanya City. The station is designed to be able to complete each vehicle battery change within a three-minute time frame in a fully automated machinery process. As announced in Companys earlier press release, our immediate plan is to build four of such stations in Sanya City by the end of 2020.



We are excited to see our first EV battery swap station up and running today. Thanks to our strong partners, EDF China and BAIC who have been very supportive and made our work much easier. Ann Lin, the CEO and Chair of the Board added, Hainan province aims to increase EVs number to 1,000,000 by 2030 from current 30,000 level. We are optimistic about the EV battery swap program in Hainan Province and the rest of China, not only for its profitable nature but also for its effective contribution to solve many EV drivers daily charging problems. Most recently the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China announced that it will fully support Beijing and Hainan Province being Chinas pilot regions to carry out high quality and standardized EV battery swap services in meeting the high demand of new energy vehicle expansion. We are very proud of having this great opportunity and look forward to seeing revenues and profits to be added on top of our existing business.

About EDF CF (Sanya) Energy Co., Ltd.

A key player in energy transition, the EDF Group is an integrated electricity company, active in all areas of the business: generation, transmission, distribution, energy supply and trading, energy services. A global leader in low-carbon energies, the Group has developed a diversified generation mix based on nuclear power, hydropower and new renewable energies. The Group is involved in supplying energy and services to approximately 38.9 million customers, of which 26.2 million in France. The Group generated consolidated sales of EUR71.3 billion in 2019. EDF is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.

About CF Energy Corp. (Previously known as: Changfeng Energy Inc.)

CF Energy Corp. is a Canadian public company currently traded on the Toronto Venture Exchange (TSX-V) under the stock symbol CFY. It is an integrated energy provider and natural gas distribution company (or natural gas utility) in the PRC. CF Energy strives to combine leading clean energy technology with natural gas usage to provide sustainable energy to its customer base in the PRC. In 2009, CF Energy was recognized as being one of Chinas the Top Ten Most Influential Brands in the Natural Gas Industry and in 2019, ranked amongst the 2019 TSX Venture 50 top performers on the TSXV for the 2018 year.

About EDF Group

A key player in energy transition, the EDF Group is an integrated electricity company, active in all areas of the business: generation, transmission, distribution, energy supply and trading, energy services. A global leader in low-carbon energies, the Group has developed a diversified generation mix based on nuclear power, hydropower, new renewable energies and thermal energy. The Group is involved in supplying energy and services to approximately 37.1 million customers, of which 26.2 million in France. The Group generated consolidated sales of EUR71 billion in 2016. EDF is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.

About BAIC Qingxiang Technology Co., Ltd

Founded in September 2010, BAIC Motor is the platform of Beijing Automotive Group Co., Ltd (BAIC Group) for complete passenger car resource integration and business development, and is one of the enterprises to which the Beijing municipal government offers focused support. BAIC Motor completed its IPO of H Shares on 19 December 2014 and went public on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (SEHK) (H Shares name: BAIC Motor; H Shares Code: 1958).

BAIC Motor has a diverse range of business sectors, from R&D, manufacturing, sales and after-sales service for passenger cars, production of passenger car core components, automotive finance, to other related businesses. BAIC Motor is also the leading company for the pure electric passenger car business in China. BAIC Qingxiang is a subsidiary of the BAIC group that focuses on EV car rentals and related technology development in the PRC.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Corporate Investment Relations

Investor.relations@changfengenergy.cn

Charles Wang

Executive Assistant to CEO & Chair of the Board

Zhaoyu.wang@changfengenergy.cn

Frederick Wong

Director of the Board

fred.wong@changfengenergy.cn

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, Forward-Looking Statements). All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included or incorporated by reference in this document are Forward-Looking Statements, including statements regarding activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates may occur in the future. These Forward-Looking Statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as will, expect, intend, plan, estimate, anticipate, believe or continue or similar words or the negative thereof. No assurance can be given that the plans, intentions or expectations or assumptions upon which these Forward-Looking Statements are based will prove to be correct and such Forward-Looking Statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon.

Although management believes that the expectations represented in such Forward-Looking Statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Such Forward-Looking Statements are not a guarantee of performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements or developments expressed or implied by such Forward-Looking Statements. These factors include, without limitation, no significant and continuing adverse changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets. Readers are cautioned that all Forward-Looking Statements involve risks and uncertainties, including those risks and uncertainties detailed in the Companys filings with applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities, copies of which are available at www.sedar.com. The Company urges readers to carefully consider those factors.

The Forward-Looking Statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this document and 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 expressly required by applicable securities legislation. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such.

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.
Today marks the ninetieth day since the police arrested Mubarak Bala, president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, in Kaduna. They later transferred him to Kano, where he has been held incommunicado, without access to a lawyer or a legal representation. Bala has not been formally charged or allowed to see his family members. There has not been an independent confirmation that Mubarak Bala is alive. There has not been a confirmation of the exact place where they detained him, and his well being. Both governmental and non-governmental agencies, including some foreign Christian faith NGOs, have called for his release. But so far, the Nigerian authorities have ignored all the appeals. Requests to charge or release Mr. Bala have fallen on deaf ears. Following what has transpired since his arrest, the police are not committed to prosecuting Mr. Bala as required by law. At the same time, they are unwilling to release him. The police are only interested in disappearing Mubarak Bala as demanded by the Islamist power base that sponsored the petition. However, some days ago, the UN rights experts issued a landmark statement asking Nigeria to release Mr. Bala.

In the release, they noted some key points that I would like to reiterate here.

First of all, the UN experts stated that the arrest and detention of Mubarak Bala amounted to the persecution of non-believers in Nigeria. Indeed the arrest of Bala illustrates the systemic and institutionalized oppression of religious nonbelievers in the country especially those who live in muslim dominated areas. Religious nonbelievers are treated as second class and, in some cases, third-class citizens, who should be seen and not heard or who should neither be seen nor heard. Bala has been accused of making blasphemous posts on Facebook. Those who petitioned him said that he called the prophet of Islam a terrorist and a pedophile. Now, religious believers freely express their views about the prophets, but nonbelievers are denied the same right and freedom. Meanwhile, religious believers openly and publicly express their thoughts about atheism and atheistic icons without being arrested and detained.

More so, Bala only made posts on Facebook. He did not attack or kill as many Muslim extremists have done across the country with impunity. So, Bala's only crime is that he is an atheist.

The UN experts also highlighted another crucial point. That expression of opinion and beliefs, including those that could be seen to offend religious sensibilities, were protected by international law and should not be restricted. Those who brought the petition against Mubarak Bala stated that his Facebook posts angered and irritated Muslims. But these right experts have made it clear that remarks, comments, and expressions that could be deemed as religiously provocative or insulting, whether they are made by Christians, Muslims, Hindus, or non-believers, are protected by law. They should not be criminalized.

Furthermore, the UN experts went further and stated that as in the case of Mr. Bala: No one should be arbitrarily detained or arrested for expressing peacefully their opinion, thought and conscience or for simply being an atheist". The posts that Bala made on Facebook were opinions that he peacefully expressed. Were they not? The UN statement condemned the harassment, discrimination, and persecution of religious nonbelievers, or persons who identify as atheists or disbelievers in God or Allah.

Now, some are saying that the UN statement would make no difference in the situation of Mubarak Bala because the people behind the arrest are Islamic fanatics who do not care about what the UN says. They are of the view that the 'Sharia' police in Kano would not abide by the directive of the UN. They will not release Mubarak Bala because the Islamist government in Kano does not reckon with the UN. It does not respect human rights. Others believe that the Muslim sponsors of the petition care only about Sharia, not international law. That the islamists are hell-bent on punishing Mr. Bala directly or indirectly in line with Islamic law. Thus what is going on in Kano is a prosecution according to the state law as we know. It is a legal charade because Islamists are using the police and court as fronts to consummate their jihadist intent and penalize Mubarak Bala for blaspheming against prophet Muhammad.

But after ninety days of detention without trial, access to a lawyer and family visits, the police should rethink their handling of Bala's case. The police should listen to the UN experts and do the needful-release Mubarak Bala. The police should initiate a negotiated settlement of the case and end this stalemate in Kano. The petitioners and the Islamist sponsors should realize that the continued illegal detention of Mr. Bala is setting a precedent that will negatively reflect on Islam and Muslims in Nigeria and beyond.
The Turkish government is considering the establishment of a bilateral chamber of commerce in Ghana to facilitate sustainable trade between the two countries.



The Turkish Ambassador to Ghana, Ozlem Gulsun Ergun Ulueren, who announced this, said Ghana was one of the major trade partners of Turkey in the Sub-region and the move would further strengthen the bilateral relationship between the two countries.



She was speaking during a virtual conference dubbed, Turkey-Ghana Interconnected Business for captains of industries of the two countries.



It was put together by NIM Global, a Ghanaian business promotion firm in collaboration with the Foreign Economic Relation Board of Turkey (DEIK) and the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI).



The Participants included Mr Nail Olpak, President of the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEIK), Mr Turan Kocyigit, the Chairman of Turkey-Ghana Business Council, Madam Ergun, Turkish Ambassador to Ghana, Dr Yaw Adu Gyamfi, President of AGI and Mr Inuwa Musah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nim Global.



Others were Mr Seth Twum Akwaboah, the Chief Executive Officer of AGI, Mr Tsonam Cleanse Akpeloo, Greater Accra Regional Chairman of AGI as well as Mr Joseph Ntsiful and Mohammed Nurudeen Ali, both from NIM Global.



The Turkish ambassador said Ghana had been an important partner of Turkey over the last decade with Turkish businesses contributing to Ghanas development efforts in the areas of energy, construction, agriculture, among others.



"....the current $500 million trade volume is not enough and does not reflect the potential of the two countries, and with this understanding, we're working for the establishment of a bilateral chamber of commerce and considering the establishment of logistics centres in Ghana."



I want to thank the organizers of this event. We need to start to discuss how our entrepreneurs and investors could collaborate for the mutual benefit of both countries in the coming years, she said.



Nail Olpak, the President of the Foreign Economic Relation Board of Turkey, stressed that, as businesses continue to suffer the devastating effect of COVID-19 globally, the Turkish government was ready to collaborate with Ghana to improve its trade volumes.



Mr Turan Kocyigit, Chairman of DEIK Turkey-Ghana Business Council, underlined the need for both countries to adopt strategic partnership to harness the existing potentials in the two countries to grow businesses in the face of the COVID-19 challenges.



He said his office was committed to implementing some business strategies for specific sectors of the Ghanaian economy to increase the trade volume between Ghana and Turkey and called for close collaboration from all stakeholders.



Dr Yaw Adu Gyamfi, President of the AGI, said the Association was ready to collaborate with Turkey to insulate their businesses from the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic.



He said a visit to Turkey last year by the AGI exposed them to several areas where they could collaborate with their Turkish partners.



He said the visit led to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore business opportunities in both countries.



Mr Inuwa Musah, the CEO of NIM Global, stressed the need for both countries to trade amid the COVID-19 by adopting technology and innovative means to navigate the new business environment.

Source: GNA









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The Senate released its next coronavirus stimulus package Monday night, including provisions for $1,200 economic impact payments, reduced unemployment benefits, funding for schools and additional Paycheck Protection Program loans.

What the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools, or HEALS, Act doesn't include: an extension of the federal eviction moratorium or adequate housing relief, according to advocates, just as eviction bans across the country expire.

The HEALS Act provides $3.3 billion for lost income for Housing Choice Voucher, Public Housing and Rural rental assistance tenants, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). Housing advocates had been pushing for at least $100 billion in rental assistance, as well as a uniform, nationwide eviction moratorium to prevent the coming "housing apocalypse." Some 19 to 23 million  or 1 in 5  people living in renter households are at risk of eviction by October, according to the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, a coalition of economic researchers and legal experts.

The allocation in the HEALS Act is "a drop in an ocean of need among unsubsidized renters and people experiencing homelessness," Diane Yentel, the NLIHC's president and CEO, said in a statement. "Rental assistance will keep low-income renters stably housed and allow small landlords to continue to maintain and operate their properties."

Additional rental assistance is imperative, says Yentel, because Senate Republicans also want to cut the amount of federal enhanced unemployment insurance from $600 a week to $200 per week. While the amount isn't set in stone, the $600 per week UI benefit helped many unemployed Americans pay for essentials like rent.

Without additional UI benefits or any rental assistance, "millions of workers who have experienced a loss of income through pay cuts, reductions in hours, or other loss of earnings ... will struggle to afford rent with reduced wages," says Yentel. There are currently 30 million people collecting jobless benefits, who could see their checks drop by two-thirds.

"Evicting millions of families during a pandemic is cruel and senseless," she adds.

It is likely that Democrats will push for some type of housing relief as they begin negotiating the HEALS Act. Discussions are expected to stretch into August. As Congress debates, almost 24 million Americans have little or no confidence that they can pay next month's rent, according to the most recent survey from the U.S. Census Bureau. That's one-third of all renters.

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Fourth plank of build back better plan to revive US economy seeks to close racial wealth and opportunity gaps.

Joe Biden rounded out his pitch for rebuilding the United States economy on Tuesday by pledging to allocate $30bn in federal investments to bolster minority-owned business and implement policies to redress the yawning racial wealth and opportunity gap in the country.

Speaking near his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, the presumptive Democratic nominee accused President Donald Trump of failing to keep Americans safe during the COVID-19 crisis  which has disproportionately hit Black and brown communities  and deliberately fuelling racial tensions.

He [Trump] is horrifyingly and not surprisingly intentionally stoking the flames of division and racism in this country, said Biden.

Tuesdays event showcased details of the fourth and final plank of Bidens build back better blueprint for reviving the US economy from the ravages of coronavirus.

Each plank attempts to leverage the historic economic disruptions triggered by the pandemic to promote programmes designed to boost growth and address long-festering social and environmental issues, while creating millions of well-paying jobs.

The more-than-$3 trillion, heavily detailed plan envisions spending $775bn over 10 years to improve childcare and eldercare; investing $2 trillion on building clean energy infrastructure during Bidens first four-year term in office; and spending $700bn in federal funds topromoteUS manufacturing and innovation.

The $30bn Biden is earmarking to advance economic justice would be carved out of the $700bn in federal funds to promote US industry. That money would then be directed into a Small Business Opportunity Fund to spur private investment in minority-owned businesses, especially in disadvantaged, underserved communities.

The number of active African-American business owners plummeted 41 percent between February and April as coronavirus lockdowns swept the nation, a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found.

Biden accused the Trump administration of not doing enough to throw a financial lifeline to these struggling business owners through the heavily criticised Paycheck Protection Program that has largely favoured bigger businesses.

Black and brown businesses that needed the help most got shut out, Biden noted. Our economy cannot afford for them to close.

To remedy this, Biden pledged to earmark 50 percent of emergency small business relief to businesses with 50 or fewer employees.

Promoting racial equity

The death of unarmed Black man George Floyd in police custody in May reinvigorated the Black Lives Matter movement and propelled the need to meaningfully address systemic racial inequality to the forefront of this years election issues.

There are mountains of metrics gauging that vast racial-income gap and the wealth and opportunity gaps that exist in the US  and these disparities have been exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis.

The US unemployment rate in June for white adult workers was 10.1 percent, compared to 15.4 percent for African-Americans, and 14.5 percent for Latinos.

Historically, homeownership has been a key driver for building wealth in the US. Here too, African-Americans have struggled compared to their white peers.

In the later half of last year, white households enjoyed a 73.1 percent home ownership rate, compared to 46.6 Latino households and 40.6 percent for Black households, according to the New York Federal Reserve.

Bidens plan seeks to help close this gap with a $15,000 federal tax credit for low- and middle-income families buying their first homes and a tax credit for renovating homes in distressed neighbourhoods to boost home values.

Other initiatives in Bidens plan aim to minimise racial disparities in credit scoring; reinstate fair housing and fair lending protections suspended by the Trump administration; cancel a minimum of $10,000 in student loan debt immediately; diversify the ranks of the US Federal Reserve to promote racial equity; and promote criminal record expungement and sealing for selected categories of non-violent offenders to help facilitate their re-entry into the labour force.
Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has called on the Ghana Police Service to expedite their hunt for the culprits in the murder of a 90-year-old woman at Kafaba near Salaga in the Savannah Region.



A video surfaced on social media showing some unidentified persons mercilessly whipping the elderly woman who they accuse of being a witch and lynched her.



The woman was condemned to death in full glare of people who looked unconcerned for such babaric act to be carried out.



The assault on the elderly woman is said to have been ignited by a female Priestess in the area who claimed the 90-year-old woman is a witch and, as part of measures to exorcise her, incited the 'beating' parade.



Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. wondered why no suspect has been arrested by the Police Service yet, saying if it were a different incident, the security personnel would have been swift in their investigations.



He stressed the perpetrators of this heinous crime were clearly seen in the viral video and so wants the Police to quickly swoop down on them.



''Why should it always be the elderly and poor who are accused of being witches? Why is the poor the only ones said to be witches? Because I haven't ever heard a rich witch before. A rich person cannot be a witch, right?'' he asked.



''It baffles me that till today, I haven't heard anybody has been arrested. However, there is a video showing the people who killed the woman. There is a video evidence showing the suspects using horse whips and mercilessly beating this woman to death but up till now, no arrest has been made. If it had been something else, the perpetrators would have been apprehended immediately.



''Whatever way or approach the security forces would adopt to hunt down the perpetrators, they should use it and ensure these culprits are brought to book. If they go scot free for killing this woman, it will encourage other people to do same. This is a shame and disgrace to the country'', he charged.





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.

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The tensions regarding the India-China border between New Delhi and Beijing have increased to unprecedented heights after the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers during a violent face-off with Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) last month. China also suffered massive casualties with reports suggesting more than 40 soldiers of the PLA were killed in the Galwan Valley clash and more than 100 were injured. However, Beijing has not revealed the numbers till date.

In April-May this year, the Chinese started patrolling more aggressively around the area and started piling up troops near the Pangong lake after which a military impasse ensued till the Galwan clash. BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy on Monday claimed that the Indian government was relaxed about the Chinese Army's actions in April-May because the Russian Government assured India that China will do nothing.

'Were the Russians fooled by Chinese?'

Taking to Twitter, Dr Swamy said, "Massing of PLA troops was for routine annual exercise," the Russians told us. Were the Russians fooled by Chinese?"

The reason Modi government was relaxed (about Chinese PLA actions) in April to May 5th is that the Russian Govt assured us that China will do nothing.Massing of PLA troops was for routine annual excercise. the Russians told us. Were the Russians fooled by Chinese ?  Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) July 27, 2020

Dr Swamy's remarks come at a time when Russia, considered to be an ally of China but one that is known to remain wary, has announced the suspension of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems to Beijing and said the resumption of further deliveries is yet to be ascertained.

Another setback for China

Citing Chinese newspaper Sohu, UAWire reported, This time, Russia announced the postponement of the delivery of missiles for the Chinese S-400 system. To a certain extent, we can say that it is for the sake of China. Getting a gun is not as easy as signing an invoice after receiving a weapon.

READ | Subramanian Swamy takes note as AR Rahman reveals Bollywood 'gang' opposing his Hindi work

They say that the work on delivering these weapons is quite complicated. While China has to send personnel for training, Russia also needs to send a lot of technical personnel to put the weapons into service, Sohu said.

READ | Subramanian Swamy fires rebuttal to P Chidambaram's charge of BJP violating law

Post-Russias announcement, China has reportedly said that Moscow was forced to make such a decision as it is worried that the delivery of S-400 missiles at this time will affect the anti-pandemic actions of the Peoples Liberation Army and does not want to cause trouble to China.

READ | Swamy lauds Modi govt's decision to swap currency with SL, says 'It's the way to go'

Russias suspension of S-400 missiles to China comes after Moscow had earlier accused Beijing of spying, despite the two countries enjoying good relations over the years, ANI reported. Russian authorities have found Valery Mitko, president of its St Petersburg Arctic Social Sciences Academy, guilty of handing over classified materials to the Chinese intelligence, TASS reported.

READ | Swamy slams Kejriwal, says 'Shree 420 only appears on TV, does nothing for Delhi'

(With ANI inputs)
[Read more on Modernas Covid-19 vaccine.]

Monkeys given the Moderna coronavirus vaccine and then deliberately infected were able to fight off the virus, quickly clearing it from their lungs, researchers reported on Tuesday.

The findings do not guarantee that the vaccine will perform the same way in people, but the results are considered encouraging and a milestone in the struggle against the pandemic. If an experimental vaccine fails in monkeys, that is generally seen as a bad sign for its ability to work in humans. This type of study is considered valuable because infecting people on purpose, though sometimes done, is not standard practice.

On Monday clinics around the country began a Phase 3 trial of the vaccine candidate from Moderna, a biotech company based in Massachusetts, with the aim of enrolling 30,000 people to test for safety and effectiveness.

The virus was cleared very rapidly in the vaccinated animals, said Dr. Barney S. Graham, the senior author of a report in The New England Journal of Medicine, and the deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Grahams scientific team collaborated with Moderna to develop the vaccine.
Banda:

An 18-year-old student allegedly committed suicide after "failing to withdraw money" from the bank for submitting his examination fees at in Mavai Buzurg village in Banda district, police said.

Police said Suresh has been standing in queue for the past several days to withdraw money but he could not succeed.

After returning from the bank on Tuesday, he hanged himself from the ceiling with the help of his mother's saree, police said.

Suresh's family members said he was a BSc second year student in Panchnehi Degree College and had to submit the fees by Wednesday.

A case has been lodged and investigations are on, police said.

On hearing of the suicide of the student, the villagers pelted the bank with stones in protest. On Monday, a four-year-old child had died in a bank compound after her father had failed to withdraw money for her treatment in Tindwari police station area.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
SEATTLE (dpa-AFX) - Amazon.com said it has delivered more than 6 million meals, with 7.4 million pounds of food in more than 25 cities in the U.S. since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to help fight hunger. It also plans to add a million more meals by the end of August. Amazon has also been donating delivery services to food banks and community organizations since March so that food can be brought directly to the homes with the help of Amazon Flex network drivers, who safely deliver meals directly to clients' homes. Food banks across the country are experiencing unprecedented demand as the communities are facing record-high unemployment and many observing strict social distancing guidelines. More than 30 million Americans are unemployed and hunger on the rise amidst the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Amazon has also piloted deliveries of hundreds of thousands of meals with Portland Public Schools and Seattle Public Schools (SPS), and delivered meals and devices for Los Angeles Unified School District. In Seattle, the deliveries were specifically for students who are medically fragile and have disabilities. Outside the U.S., Amazon has delivered foods in cities such as Melbourne, Tokyo, Singapore, Madrid, Valencia, and London. In the U.K., Amazon partnered charity Magic Breakfast to help schools reach more children who are at risk of hunger due to COVID-19 restrictions to deliver breakfast foods. In April, Amazon had donated 8200 laptops, worth more than $2 million, to elementary students in SPS to help towards the continuous learning program online during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 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.
Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is conducting a series of large-scale military drills in Persian Gulf waters west of the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic passageway to some 20% of the global oil trade.

According to the IRGC official website, Sepah News, the exercise is meant to evaluate the operation preparedness and coordination among different units, including naval and aerospace divisions. The latter is in charge of the bulk of Irans controversial missile program.

The IRGCs deputy commander for operations and the maneuver's spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan, said the impact power of ballistic and cruise missiles is practiced against aggressing vessels, mines are planted, and manned and unmanned reconnaissance capabilities are tested in the war game, while the entire operation is being monitored by Nour, the first military satellite the IRGC launched into orbit in April.

In June 2019, the same Iranian forces shot down a surveillance drone operated by the US military over Persian Gulf waters, not too far from the site of the ongoing drills. Tehran argued the aircraft had violated Iranian airspace. While dismissing the charge, the United States decided not to retaliate.

Every year, the Islamic Republic routinely conducts multiple land and sea military drills in strategic and sensitive locations in what is described as defense maneuvers. But not every war game has been smooth. Back in May, one such exercise by the countrys regular army (known as Artesh) left 19 sailors dead in mistaken missile fire.

Hours into the official launch of the latest exercise, Irans state TV broadcast pictures of what was said to be a replica of American Nimitz-class carriers, which the US military has been sailing near the Strait of Hormuz. Coast-to-sea missiles were seen launched at the mock carrier as combat copters were shown hovering around, from which IRGC commandos rappelled down. Reacting to the latest exercise, US Fifth Fleet Spokesperson Rebecca Rebarich slammed it as irresponsible and reckless behavior.

The Islamic Republic has long seen the US military presence in the Persian Gulf as a threat to regional stability and has particularly used the sensitivity of the Strait of Hormuz as a pressure tool, issuing every now and then threats of a disruption in the global crude flow. In July 2018, after the US administration imposed strict international sanctions on oil trade with Iran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani suggested Tehran could shut down the strait if its oil exports are blocked.

Amid the scenes of missiles showering the American mock carrier during the exercise on Tuesday, IRGC rhetoric also appeared to be further sharpening, a sign that tensions in the Persian Gulf might not ease anytime soon.

We warn the enemies that they will have to pay the cost, said Maj. Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid. Optimizing all their capacities  the Islamic Republic armed forces will give a firm response to the destabilizing threats and actions by the enemies, the senior IRGC commander added in his veiled message perhaps for a range of adversaries from the United States and Israel to some regional Arab states.
A teenager carrying a gun has sparked a lockdown at a New South Wales primary school on Tuesday afternoon.

Students and teachers were sheltering inside Beckom Public School in the NSW Riverina region as police secured the area following a call at about 1.30pm.

A young male was seen walking around the perimeter of the school grounds carrying a rifle, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The Beckom Public School in the NSW Riverina region (pictured) was sent into lockdown on Tuesday afternoon following the sighting of a male with a gun pacing around the school

Police officers arrested the 16-year-old male upon arriving at the school, which teaches students from kindergarten to grade six.

The gun was seized and the arrested male is assisting police with their investigation into the incident.

More to follow.
YEREVAN, JULY 28, ARMENPRESS/BELTA. President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko has overcome asymptomatic COVID-19, Lukashenko announced in a meeting with senior officials and the staff of the national security system.

I had coronavirus without knowing about it as I showed no symptoms, he said. I apologize for my voice. I have had to talk a lot lately. But, most amazingly, as it turned out, I had coronavirus. This is the conclusion that the doctors made yesterday. It was an asymptomatic case," the head of state said.

As I have said earlier, 97% of the Belarusians who contract the virus recover without showing any symptoms. Thank heavens, I was one of the asymptomatic ones, Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
Chief Justice John Roberts announces the results of the vote on the second article of impeachment during impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the Capitol in Washington on Feb. 5, 2020. (Senate Television via Getty Images)

US Ruled by Whim of a Single Supreme Court Justice

Commentary

As if Americans didnt have enough crises going onthe irrational COVID-19 panic, the rioting in the streets by the masked, pampered thugs of Antifa and pseudo-civil rights movement of Black Lives Matter, the widespread destruction of public and private property, the rejection of federal law by rogue blue states, and the assault on Western civilization in generalwe have another one brewing in our legal system. This one may be the worst of all.

From John Roberts atop the Supreme Court in Washington to the lowliest federal judge in the land, madly contravening the lawful actions of the executive branch via nationwide injunctions, the jurisdictionally metastasizing judiciary has become obsessed with its own legitimacy and legacy and politicized beyond all reason. In its pettifogging, stare decisis (settled law) legalism, it has become a menace to the nation and the spirit in which it was founded.

This is what comes of the fetishization of independence in a country now so fractured emotionally and spiritually that its very survival is at stake. The American Constitution was written with a modicum of checks and balances, to be sure (although that language is nowhere to be found therein), but overall was intended to work as a harmonious whole in order serve the new nationand not as three squabbling power centers vying for political supremacy. Which is why our elected officials swear to preserve, protect, and defend it against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Far from working together, or even opposing each other within the historically delineated constitutional confines, the three branches are now openly at war with one another. The Congress, especially the House but with a sizable Senate contingent as wellhello, Mitt Romney! Ben Sasse!despises the president, who, in turn, holds them in disdain.

And then there is the judiciary, starting with the Supreme Court, which apparently holds the entire American people in contempt, and doesnt care who knows it. With the court essentially evenly divided between the lockstep liberals of Breyer, Ginsburg, Kagan, and Sotomayor on the one hand and Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch/Roberts on the other, the United States is effectively ruled by the whim of one man: the swing vote.

Once upon a time that vote belonged to former Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Republican appointee who grew in office during his 30-year tenure and, as the deciding vote in the 2015 Obergefell decision, ordered every state to facilitate and recognize gay marriage in contravention of thousands of years of civil and religious history. His work done, Kennedy retired in 2018.

Latterly, the role of king of America has been played by the Chief Justice Roberts himself, with Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch taking over on Wednesday and Sunday matinee performances.

Consider two recent developments.

Significant Uncertainty

First, McGirt v. Oklahoma, decided earlier this month, which finally made good on the promise of Rodgers and Harts song Give It Back to the Indians and in fact has given much of Oklahoma back to the displaced native tribes whose settlement of what was then known as Indian Territory was occasioned by Democrat President Andrew Jackson and his forcible displacement of the southeastern tribes along the Trail of Tears.

Ironically, the relocation of the Cherokee and the other four of the Five Civilized Tribes under Jacksons Indian Removal Act of 1830 came despite a later ruling by the Supreme Court in Worcester v. Georgia (1832), which implicitly invalidated the Removal Act by arguing that the Indians retained political rights over their lands, and were answerable only to the federal government, not the states. Since the ruling had no direct effect on the White House, Jackson blithely ignored both it and the chief justice, John Marshall, the architect of Marbury v. Madison, the decision that lay the groundwork for the doctrine of judicial supremacy that has now morphed into tyranny.

In McGirt, the swing vote belonged to Gorsuch, Trumps first appointee to the court in 2017. Incredibly, the neophyte justice overthrew not only centuries of settled custom (in war, to the victor go the spoils) but also tossed the territorial integrity of the United States into a cocked hat.

On the far end of the Trail of Tears was a promise, wrote Gorsuch in the majority opinion. Forced to leave their ancestral lands in Georgia and Alabama, the Creek Nation received assurances that their new lands in the West would be secure forever.

Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law. Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word.

If the country ever legally fractures, we can date its eventual dissolution to this ruling.

Roberts, the apostle of stare decisis was appalled: The Court has profoundly destabilized the governance of eastern Oklahoma, he wrote. The decision today creates significant uncertainty for the States continuing authority over any area that touches Indian affairs, ranging from zoning and taxation to family and environmental law.

Roberts and the other dissenting justices pointed out that the political sovereignty of the plaintiff Creek Nation was disestablished when Oklahoma became part of the Union in 1907, when the people of the Indian and Oklahoma territories voted in favor of admission. In his dissent, Clarence Thomas wrote: The State of Oklahoma deserves more respect under our Constitutions federal system.

Just wait until France sues over the Louisiana Purchase, Russia over the sale of Alaska, or Mexico over the conquest of a huge swath of Mexican territory by the Americans in 1848.

Freedom to Play Craps

The second case involved the Courts unwillingness to hear the state of Nevadas appeal of a Nevada federal court decision, Calvary Chapel v. Sisolak et al., which petitioned for the reopening of Nevadas churches under the First Amendment in the face of Democrat Gov. Steve Sisolaks order to allow casinos and other fleshpots to reopen in the face of the CCP virus pandemica scare word that means nothing more than widespread, but has no intimation of severity, lethality, or mortalitybut not houses of worship.

The petition was rejected 54, with Roberts voting with the Democrats. This despite the plain language of the First Amendment, which states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Since the Bill of Rights has been incorporated into state constitutions via the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, this would appear to have been a slam dunk. But as Tammany Hall Democrat bigwig George Washington Plunkitt famously observed around the turn of the last century, Whats the Constitution among friends?

Writing for the minority, Justice Alito noted: The Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion. It says nothing about the freedom to play craps or blackjack, to feed tokens into a slot machine, or to engage in any other game of chance.

Gorsuch added, There is no world in which the Constitution permits Nevada to favor Caesars Palace over Calvary Chapel.

Ah, but thats the world we live in nowa place where a single, unelected, life-tenured judge can erase the free exercise clause from the Constitution without a word of public explanation. Yes, Roberts and the other eight justices had to go through the motions of considering the case and taking the obligatory 54 vote in order to give the charade a patina of legitimacy. And the four on the short end of the stick got to voice their outrage in a series of impotent dissents.

But since the only constitutionally mandated justice (chief) on the only constitutionally mandated court (Supreme) has effectively become the absolute monarch of the American Republic, Congress could save both time and money by abolishing the rest of the Court and letting Roberts rule alone.

Hed need a new title, of course, one befitting his exalted status, and besides, chief is no longer politically correct. Something historical that resonates absolute authority:

We could call him Caesar.

Michael Walsh is the editor of The-Pipeline.org and 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 from the Greeks to the Korean War, will be published in December by St. Martins Press.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.




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We'll preface this by saying that when things work as they're meant to, we don't hear about them. When it comes to the Paycheck Protection Program, created as part of the CARES Act in March to provide loans to businesses to pay employees during the coronavirus lockdown, that means many jobs were saved but we also get stories of honest businesspeople unable to get loans or blackguards abusing the program. This story is the latter. David T. Hines, a 29-year-old Miami man with four businesses, applied for PPP funds in May. He received about $3.9 million in loans, and blew about $500,000 of that before the government began investigating and his bank froze his accounts.

Instead of applying for loans to cover monthly expenditures of about $200,000 among his four moving-related companies, the feds say, Hines' four applications through Bank of America claimed combined monthly expenses of $4 million to pay 70 employees. BofA approved three of the four submissions. After the government made its first of three planned deposits of $3,984,557 into Hines' Bank of America account, Hines continued requesting more money, authorities say, ultimately seeking $13.54 million.

The spending began almost immediately after the PPP disbursement. As far as the government could tell by going through Hines' records, none of the money was spent on employees who "either did not exist or earned a fraction of what Hines claimed in his PPP applications. Instead, officials say, Hines picked up a blue Lamborghini Huracan Evo for $318,497. He paid a person he listed as "Mom" $60,000. Saks Fifth Avenue got another $4,000. In June, $8,500 went to the Graff jewelry boutique, and $7,000 went to Miami's Setai hotel.

The disbursement problem has arisen because the Small Business Administration that backs the PPP loans doesn't verify the claims in the applications, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Berger. How did Hines get caught, then? He got into a hit-and-run accident in his blue Lamborghini in July, and Miami police impounded the car. That eventually attracted investigation from no less than six governmental departments: the FDIC-OIG, USPIS, IRS-CI, the SBA-OIG, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection-OIG.

Story continues

The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday announced it had charged Hines with one count of bank fraud, one count of making false statements to a financial institution, and one count of engaging in transactions in unlawful proceeds. The maximum penalty for all charges would earn Hines 70 years in prison. He is free on a $100,000 bond until his arraignment on October 14, permitted to live with his mother while wearing a GPS monitor.

Hines lawyer, Chad Piotrowski, called Hines "a legitimate business owner who, like millions of Americans, suffered financially during the pandemic" and who is "anxious to tell his side of the story when the time comes."

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The pastors of Cornerstone Church and several parents whose children attend Cornerstone Christian Schools have sued various San Antonio and Bexar County officials challenging Metro Healths order to close all public and private schools until after Labor Day to guard against the spread of the coronavirus.

Their lawsuit also claims a San Antonio Police Department code enforcement officer went to Cornerstone Christian Schools a week ago  on July 21  to investigate a complaint, but couldnt provide any details to school officials.

After meeting with the school superintendent and touring the campus, the officer left without issuing any citations, the lawsuit stated.

The defendants targeted by the lawsuit are Dr. Junda Woo, Metropolitan Health Districts medical director who issued the order to keep schools closed until after September 7; Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff; San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg; Police Chief William McManus; and the officer who went to the schools last week, whose full name is not known.

Woos order allows virtual instruction, such as video streaming of educational activities, to proceed. But it also mentions schools could be ordered to remain closed even longer as public health officials continue to monitor the coronavirus presence in the city and the county.

State law grants Woo the authority to issue such a directive, San Antonio City Attorney Andy Segovia said. He noted the order seeks to minimize the risks of exposing children, parents and school staff to COVID-19.

Gov. Greg Abbott has the authority to rescind Woos order if he wishes, Segovia said.

On ExpressNews.com: Metro Health orders schools to stay closed through Labor Day

Through a church spokesman, Cornerstone pastors John Hagee and Matthew Hagee, father and son, declined to be interviewed Tuesday. They are among the plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit.

On its Facebook page, Cornerstone Christian Schools announced plans to welcome students back to campus on Aug. 17. The educational institution said it has adequate space to safely distance students who show up for in-person instruction.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued legal guidance proclaiming that governmental orders seeking to keep schools closed until Sept. 7 dont apply to private, religious schools, which Paxton said can decide for themselves when to reopen.

However, Paxtons guidance is not legally binding.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg said Metro Healths directive aims to protect the communitys health and safety and applies to all public and private schools.

This is a health directive based on the best scientific evidence available, Nirenberg said Tuesday. It is 100 percent apolitical.

He offered a stinging rebuke of Paxtons guidance.

Attorney General Paxton has brought nothing of value to our states response to a global pandemic, only confusion, contradiction and chaos, he said.

Nirenberg expanded on his criticism at the citys daily coronavirus briefing later Tuesday night: That confusion and chaos could cost lives this fall.

City and county officials said they will keep asking private, religious schools to voluntarily comply with Woos public health order.

I think what Dr. Woo has done is not an overreach, Wolff said Tuesday night. All shes simply saying at this stage is wait until Sept. 7.

I hope that we can work with the schools and get that worked out without having to continue the litigation. I think its in the best interests of the parents, the children and everybody here in the community.

Segovia said the city will seek a speedy resolution of the lawsuit.

Theres no attempt at all to stifle any religious messaging or practice of religion, he said. So our hope is that the schools will see that and again voluntarily comply.

Woos directive contains a range of enforcement measures. Segovia said the city doesnt want to have to resort to those. But we will enforce the order if we need to, he said.

Metro Health and the San Antonio Police Department did not respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit Tuesday.

On ExpressNews.com: Texas Education Agency wont fund schools closed solely due to local health orders

The Hagees are represented by Houston attorney Jared Woodfill, who served as the chairman of the Harris County Republican Party from 2002 until 2014.

Woodfill has filed a number of similar lawsuits challenging what he sees as governmental overreach since the coronavirus pandemic began.

He predicts the Hagees lawsuit will have implications for private, faith-based schools across Texas.

Unfortunately, (San Antonio) isnt the only place this is happening, Woodfill said Tuesday. Its happening to other schools, smaller schools. A lot of folks just dont have the courage that the Hagees have to take a strong stand  They dont have the ability to stand up and fight.

He said the Hagees believe in the Constitution, the First Amendment and the right to freedom of worship.

For Dr. Woo, for Judge Wolff or for the mayor to come out and threaten a private, faith-based school like Cornerstone is completely contrary to the law and a violation of the law, Woodfill said. So its the intimidation tactic that they attempt to use to get people to comply with their unconstitutional mandates, orders, directives, whatever you want to call them.

The plaintiffs are asking the court for a declaration striking down Metro Healths order and a temporary restraining order that stops the defendants from prohibiting Cornerstone from holding in-person educational instruction at its facilities.

Cornerstone Church is a nondenominational, evangelical church with more than 22,000 active members. During the 2019-2020 school year, Cornerstone Christian Schools educated around 1,300 students at all grade levels.

Other plaintiffs named in the lawsuit are Rick and Eileen Ritchie, David Schmaltz and Brad Freeman, all of whom have children who attend school at Cornerstone. The lawsuit claims those parents might have to quit their jobs to care for their children and tend to their educational needs if Cornerstones school doesnt reopen for in-person instruction.

Peggy OHare covers demographics, the census and occasionally crime and general assignment stories in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Peggy, become a subscriber. pohare@express-news.net | Twitter: @Peggy_OHare
Cybellum, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based provider of Automotive Cybersecurity Risk Assessment solutions, raised $12m Series A funding.

The round, which brought total funding raised to date to $15m, was led by RSBG Ventures with participation from existing investors Blumberg Capital and Target Global.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its growth through expanded sales, marketing, and engineering programs and enable the adoption of its Risk Assessment platform and Digital Twin approach by more industries, enabling them to scale vulnerability management operations.

Co-founded by Michael Engstler and Slava Bronfman in 2018, Cybellum provides an Automotive Risk Assessment platform that exposes all the software vulnerabilities in the vehicles different components, without ever accessing their source code. The system monitors every strand of code for their exposure to risk, allowing manufacturers to take action immediately and eliminate any cyber risk before any harm is done. It creates a detailed Digital Twin, including even the smallest details of each software component. With the complete Digital Twin on file, Cybellum continuously scans for new emerging vulnerabilities, identifying potential threats impacting certain makes, models, and manufacturing series. The company already partners with 10 leading OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers in the USA, Europe, Japan and China.

FinSMEs

28/07/2020
MEXICO CITY - A Mexican court held the first hearing Tuesday in what President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said would be a watershed corruption case against the former head of the state-owned oil company.

Emilio Lozoya, the former head of Petroleos Mexicanos, said through his lawyers that he had been used by an organized apparatus of power during the alleged corruption during his tenure at the head of the company, known as Pemex, from 2012 to 2016.

Lozoya did not identify that group, but the wording appeared to suggest he was ready to spill the beans on top officials in the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto. The hearing wasnt open to the public.

According to an informal synopsis of the session provided by the court system, Lozoyas lawyers said they would not argue against the prosecutions request to the judge that Lozoya be held over for trial on money-laundering charges. Lozoya has reportedly agreed to co-operate with prosecutors and will act as a protected witness in return for possible sentence reductions or elimination of charges.

According to the synopsis, Lozoya reiterated my commitment to collaborate with Mexican government authorities. His lawyers described him as having been used as an unintentional instrument by others, even though he allegedly used much of the purported bribe money to buy houses for himself or relatives.

Lozoya told the court he was innocent of the charges and would prove it. He fled Mexico and led authorities on a monthslong overseas manhunt. Spanish police arrested him in the Spanish city of Malaga in February, and he was extradited to Mexico in mid-July.

Lopez Obrador said Lozoyas trial is a before and after moment in what the president describes as the main priority of his administration  fighting corruption.

The court opened proceedings via a video link because of coronavirus pandemic restrictions and the fact that Lozoya has been under treatment in a hospital for pre-existing conditions.

A judge ruled that Lozoya could avoid being held in prison and would instead wear a monitoring bracelet and turn in his passport. He will be under guard while in the hospital and, after he leaves, will have to sign in with the court every two weeks. The prosecution has asked for six months to strengthen its investigation in the case, but Lozoya could face more charges and another hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Lozoya said he had been systematically intimidated, pressured and used, though he did not say by whom. There had been speculation he may have felt pressure to raise money for Pena Nietoss presidential campaign.

The Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, investigated throughout the region in recent years for buying big government contracts with generous bribes, allegedly gave Lozoya $4 million to put toward the 2012 presidential campaign of Pena Nieto, Lopez Obradors predecessor.

The hearing focused on charges in a 2013 case in which a Mexican firm, Altos Hornos de Mexico, sold an overpriced old fertilizer plant to Pemex after allegedly paying Lozoya around $3.4 million in 2012. According to prosecutors, the money went though accounts controlled by Lozoya and his sister, and they used most of it to buy a house in an upscale neighbourhood in the capital.

Lozoya said he had declared the property as required on audit forms that government employees must fill out, but prosecutors said he tried to hide the payments and the transaction.

Prosecutors said Lozoya pushed for the purchase of the fertilizer plant even though it would have been cheaper to build a new one.

Lopez Obrador said the new owner of the plant has since offered to repay as much as $200 million related to the purchase. The president said Mexico hopes to get back some of the money from bribes and crooked contracts, and he criticized the fact that Mexican corruption cases often play out in U.S. courts  and that money recovered in those cases also often remains in the United States. He said he has instructed Mexican diplomats to try to get some of it returned to Mexico.

Odebrecht allegedly kicked in an additional $6 million once Pena Nieto was in office. Some of that money was allegedly used to bribe federal lawmakers into voting for his signature energy reform package, known as the Pact for Mexico, which opened the countrys energy sector to greater private investment.

Mr. Lozoya is letting it be known that there were these bribes and that the money was used to buy the energy reform and that the money was divided among the parties legislators, Lopez Obrador said last week. He had opposed the energy overhaul.

The president said Tuesday the case will help a lot, I repeat, in banishing corruption from Mexico.

He called graft a bigger problem for Mexico than the coronavirus outbreak.

I am convinced that it is Mexicos main problem. It is not a pandemic ... it is a plague, Lopez Obrador said.

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Danny is online weekly to chat live with readers. Heres an edited transcript of this weeks chat.

Q. I accidentally overheard my bosss bedroom talk: I was on a Zoom call with my boss and two other colleagues last week. When my boss thought he was muted, he began an extremely intimate, X-rated conversation with his girlfriend using voice-to-text on his phone. It lasted for almost a full minute before he realized he wasnt actually on mute. He seemed mortified, but we all pretended we hadnt heard anything and just continued on with the meeting. Then, the next day, he emailed all three of us with a meme that was inappropriate. He was clearly trying to defuse the tension but it just ramped it up! THEN, after all this, he started a Gchat apology thread. Now its just horrendously awkward. I want to just forget anything ever happened, but when he constantly brings it up, I cant move on. The last thing I want to do is have a conversation about this with my boss, but thats looking more and more necessary. What should I do?

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A: That is nightmarish! And as embarrassing as the original incident must have been, it sounds 10 times worse to try to get through a workday wondering when your boss is going to bring it up again, and in what format, and whether hell be joking or tripling up on apologies hes already made.

Since hes already displayed repeated bad judgment on this issue, I think your next move should be to speak to HR, if your companys large enough to have an HR department, or to bring it up with your bosss boss if you dont. You have plenty of written evidence that hes brought this up several times when the rest of you have tried to simply forget about it and move on, and the company should have a vested interest in getting him to stop, since its grounds for a future sexual harassment case. To that end, you may also want to speak to a lawyer about your options if going over your bosss head doesnt get results or if you fear retaliation. But I think its better to involve HR or upper management at this pointyou deserve institutional support and he needs real guidance and consequences for having put his employees in such excruciatingly uncomfortable positions over and over again.

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Q. I dont want to be a Karen, but  : I live in a small, rural town that is overwhelmingly white and quite conservative (except for the faculty and staff at the local university, which includes me). The city recently passed a mask mandate since our governor refuses to. I care deeply about racial justice and so I would generally never call the police on someone  but this feels different since not wearing a mask endangers people. Is it a Karen move to call the police on someone not complying with a mask mandate? To be clear, I still wouldnt call the police if the person violating the mandate were Black because of the increased risk of police violence (but all the complaining about mask-wearing has come from white community members).

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A: The more important question is: Would calling the police on someone not complying with a mask mandate make anyone safer? Incarcerated populations are at greater risk and have far fewer options for treatment and risk management than non-incarcerated populations do. I think the answer to that question is a fairly straightforward No. That doesnt mean its safe for people not to wear masks in public, but it does establish the limited utility of a police response.

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The next question might be something like: What does it look like for me as an individual, and for us as a community, to address real risk and endangerment without calling the police? How might you use your position at the university to provide information and PPE to the general public? Who are some of the most at-risk members of your community, and how can you help them? Can you carry spare masks with you when youre out in public and offer them to people who might need them, then come up with a strategy for moving on and focusing your energy elsewhere if someone refuses? What are some organizations or groups whove developed similar strategies you admire, and how can you learn from/get in touch with them? There are a number of ways to support mask-wearing that dont focus solely on the most stubborn of outliers, and I think the best use of your time and energy right now is to choose the battles where you think you can do the most good.

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Q. Last dregs of family ties: I was cut off from my family nearly 30 years ago because I rejected the church I grew up in. Its not been easy, but Ive mostly come to terms with it. We will never be close. (I would NEVER go back to that fundamentalist, doomsday-prophesying, misogynistic, controlling group.) They know this; I know this.

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A few years back I made a commitment to try to be the bigger person, and for a while I was able to rekindle a semblance of a relationship with one sibling who sporadically reaches out, but Im just  tired of it. I feel like I have to do so much emotional lifting. Ive gotten over the hump of being traumatized over individual interactions, but now I dont even want to bother responding to the occasional text. Why should I bother? I have lots of extended family from my fathers side that Im connected to, so Im not lacking in all familial tiesjust the people I grew up and share childhood memories with. Putting aside the ideological differences, the past abuse, and the pain, I feel like Im finished. But it feels weird that, in the end, ennui would end up being the final nail in the coffin.

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They dont need me and I get all of my emotional support from othersis that a good-enough reason to just ghost? Because that is what Id do. Ive already had the heart-to-hearts and the tearful confrontations. I am ready to move on. I wouldnt declare my feelings, Id just fade awayagain. Is that terrible?

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A: It may hurt your familys feelings, but it doesnt sound like avoiding hurt feelings is your primary goal here. (Sometimes hurt feelings are a necessary evil; sometimes they can even lead to meaningful reflection and change.) If youre prepared to accept that as a necessary byproduct of ghosting, then you may be ready to cut that final tie. You can also explore the possibility of saying somethingnot necessarily having a heart-to-heart, but a brief explanation about why maintaining this connection has proved too difficult for you before cutting off contact. You dont have to, of course, but it might feel like a bit of a relief to know your sibling knows what youre doing, even if its only from a brief text. Its perfectly understandable why you dont feel up to regular Hey, hows it going? conversations with someone whos still in contact with your controlling, religiously abusive family of origin. Youve explained your reasons for pulling away more than once and been met with denial, self-pity, and hostilityyou dont have to do it again if what you want is simply to end the relationship.

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Q. Noisy boy: My boyfriend is an absolutely wonderful personhere comes the butBUT I am struggling with the fact that he makes piglike sounds when he eats. This has caused me to rethink how and when we spend time togethermostly avoiding anything around meals. My question is: How do I handle this? I do love him very much.

A: Not by trying to avoid meals with him, I think. Its never fun to contemplate telling someone you care about that they have an unpleasant or off-putting habit, but presumably youd want to know if you had a similarly annoying habit that you hadnt yet recognized. Eating noisily is a pretty fixable habit, not some inherent quality he cant possibly change. He can start eating more slowly and keeping his mouth closed when he chewsbut he has to know that its a problem first. Just say something! Dont wait until hes in the middle of doing it, because its a little embarrassing to have such a conversation as its happening. Be polite and dont overload him: You may not have noticed this, but you have a habit of chewing loudly and making noise when you eat, and thats pretty distracting. If you want to reassure him either before or afterward, you can, but you dont have to apologize for asking him to chew more quietly. Just say something, and dont overthink it.

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Q. My husband forgot my birthday: I have been married to my husband for 13 years. Weve been together a total of 22 years and have five kids. In that time, he hasnt done much for me on birthdays, Mothers Day, or anniversaries, though I always do something special for him on such occasions. We sometimes go out to dinner to celebrate but nothing big and extravagant. This Mothers Day he gave me a card. For my recent birthday he did nothing. His work moves us a lot and I had to quit my last job to move for him. I have been fighting depression from not being able to find work. So now I am hurt. I feel unappreciated and unloved. He says I am picky, but I would have taken anything. Now we are separating because he wont even apologize. Is this the right move?

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A: I cant promise you that this is the right move (or even that theres only one right move available to you), but it certainly sounds like theres more than just a few birthdays at stake. Does he have a habit of making you feel appreciated the rest of the year, or is his non-observance of holidays indicative of a larger pattern where he takes you for granted and dismisses your feelings? Did he know youd been fighting depression during this period of unemployment? Does he often apologize when he thinks hes been in the wrong, or does he generally pretend nothing happened after an argument? Has this period of separation made you feel more alone? Has it reminded you of all the things you love about himor has it highlighted the one-sidedness of your relationship? Most importantly: What would you need from your husband in order to give your marriage another try, and do you think hes willing to give it to you?

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Q. Twin, not guardian: My twin sister married very young and has three kids. I have a demanding career that involves long hours and tons of travel. Houseplants are too much trouble for me. I am also not a patient or maternal person, even though I love my nephews. Recently, my sister and her husband approached me about being their boys legal guardian if anything happened to them. I have no idea why, when both when our parents are alive and our older brother is married. My brother-in-law has several siblings who are married with kids. I told them I was flattered but that I dont think Im the right candidate. My twin got angry with me and took my refusal as a personal rejection of her kids. I must not love them enough. I apologized and explained my reasons: I would have to quit my profession to take care of the boys, and it would be a huge mess. My sister just hissed at me, You are supposed to be my twin!

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She isnt talking to me now. My family feels I should have seen this comingmy sister wanted to honor me and I should have just accepted it since it most likely will not happen. This is annoying. I feel like I am getting punished for being logical about a legal responsibility. I actually gave thought and care to the possibility of my nephews being orphaned. What do I do here? I love my sister, but being her twin is a fact, not a rationale for being a good guardian! The longest I have spent in the U.S. was a month, last year, recovering from surgery.

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A: I suppose its possible that saying It would be a huge mess might have activated your sisters protectiveness around her kids, but thats really a cosmetic issueyou carefully considered whether youd be the best first candidate for taking in your sisters children in the unlikely event of her (and her husbands) death and decided that the answer was no. Saying sure to something just because you think it probably wont happen is a recipe for trouble; I cant agree with your other relatives that you should have agreed just to make her happy. Maybe after shes had a few more weeks to cool off, you can try again with something like this: I hope you know how much I love my nephews, because I do love them. I love you too. If anything happened to you and your husband, I would be there for them. I said no to being your first option as a possible guardian because, as a single person who travels often, I couldnt offer the kids the same stability and financial support that our parents, siblings, and in-laws could. But Id do everything I could for them.

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Q. My husbands female best friend he previously had sex with: I warned my husband before we got together years ago that I wasnt comfortable with any partner of mine having a friend whom hes slept with. He said OK. Well, we tried having an open relationship and he decided to sleep with his best friend, whom, he told me, hed previously had a thing for. Its all been called off because I wasnt comfortable with any of it. He was OK with that but now he wont quit talking to her despite me telling him that Im uncomfortable with their friendship and that we had this conversation before we got together. Hes cut their friendship back some but Im still not comfortable with it. Im deeply hurt and he just brushes it off and makes me feel like my feelings on it are unimportant. And he said that if he has to choose, hes going to choose her; we have had some problems recently, mainly pertaining to all of this. What should I do? How should I handle this? Am I just overreacting, or am I right to feel hurt and upset by this?

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A: Im not sure how it could be overreacting if you feel hurt when your husband says, unprompted, Ive always had a thing for my best friend, and now that weve slept together, Im prepared to choose her over you. Thats hurtful! You entered this relationship with a pretty clear personal boundary about friendship and sex; that boundary has now been violated and your husband intends to continue disregarding it because of his best friend. What does it mean to you to stay in a marriage where your husbands made it clear that youre not his first priority? Do you see meaningful possible compromise, or do you see a fundamental incompatibility?

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You can handle this however you like. Youre not obligated to leave your husband if you dont want to. Asking a partner never even to talk to anyone theyve ever slept with is a pretty tall order, and it may be worth spending some time asking yourself whether thats a hard-and-fast rule you want to commit to in future relationships. But its also a pretty tall order to say to your wife, Not only am I maintaining a close friendship with a former lover and an ongoing crush, I plan on choosing her over you if it ever comes to thatnow what should we have for dinner tonight? However you decide to handle this, whether you pursue couples counseling or individual therapy, whether you want a trial separation or anything else, you should take your own feelings seriously instead of trying to convince your husband to take them seriously when hes unwilling to do so.

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Q. Not-so-kid-friendly vacation: We just finished a big family vacation with my husbands large family. We try to get together every two to three years for a vacation. We live out-of-state and dont get to see them outside of the holiday season each year, so these vacations are a big deal. My in-laws did not take their big family on vacations until my husband was in college, so my father-in-law has a bucket list of places hes always dreamed of going. At the end of this vacation my father-in-law announced the next two family vacations two and four years from now: Chicago and Hawaii. He made this decision without consulting any other family members.

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Three of us have kids, and in two years there will be three 2-year-olds in the group, including my own daughter. My husband and I have talked excessively, and privately, about how poorly thought-through these vacations sound with so many toddlers (and maybe more babies?) in the familynot to mention expensive! We will try to keep an open mind about going, and in two years from now a lot can change, but how can we tell my father-in-law that the vacation plans hes always wanted to take the family on sound terrible with kids? I feel both of these vacations would be amazing without kids. An adults-only Hawaii vacation? Sign me up! But I dont want to pay for my kid to go on an expensive Hawaiian or big-city vacation she wont remember. Plus, we might have more kids soon, so trying to juggle a baby and toddler sounds like a nonvacation to me. My husband is willing to try to talk to his dad, but what do we say?

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A: Mostly just what youve told me: that youve loved being able to travel together, that you understand the importance of these vacations, and that you may not be able to join family in Hawaii due to the cost of travel and child care for multiple toddlers. That doesnt mean you dont love your husbands family or that you dont value the time you get to spend together. It just means you might not be able to afford the next big vacation. Its not as if youre delivering news of a terminal diagnosis; youd just be stating the obvious. Your husband doesnt have to say, Its selfish and foolish of you to have even considered the idea of traveling to Hawaii, and we wont stand for it. He can just say you might not be able to go! Then, if the time comes (and if such travel is even possible) and you cant afford it, just dont go. Tell them you hope they have a great time and that you cant wait to see them when they get back.

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Q. Re: I accidentally overheard my bosss bedroom talk: Dont go to HR! The guy is embarrassed and not handling his embarrassment well. If HR will start an investigation, it will become a very big deal. Just tell the guy youd prefer to pretend it never happened and go about your lives.

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A: Ive gotten a few letters to the same effect, so I think its worth running them here, even though Im not quite convinced. For starters, its already a big deal if your boss is contacting you across multiple platforms and during work hours to keep talking about it. And its his responsibility as the letter writers boss to make sure he stays reasonably professional with his employees, even if hes embarrassed. But if the letter writer ordinarily has a good relationship and thinks theres reason to hope hell knock it off if they say, I know it was a mistake, but Id rather we just move on and stop talking about it than hear another apology or joking reference, that might be the best next move.

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Q. Re: I accidentally overheard my bosss bedroom talk: The letter writers boss has a sex life: shocker! Good for him and get over it! Telling the writer to go to HR seems like an overreaction here. Since the boss opened up an apology chat to folks, that seems like a great opportunity to say directly to him that thanks, the letter writer doesnt want to talk about it anymore, and move on. Clearly what happened initially was unintentional and an accident the boss was mortified by and is trying to deal with. In these pandemic times, good jobs can be tough to come by, and going to HR or his boss could endanger his job. I would absolutely say go to HR if he were repeatedly being inappropriate, but it doesnt sound like he wasnt trying to and clearly is embarrassed. If someone has an issue with something hes done or said, a direct conversation with him about that first is the right thing to do, and if he doesnt modify the behavior or retaliates, THEN go to his boss or supervisor. But please have some grace that hes a person just like everyone else who is adjusting to constant video calls and the new normal.

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A: The problem quite obviously is not that the boss has a sex life but that hes made his employees uncomfortable by bringing it up on multiple occasions, sometimes apologetically and sometimes jokingly. That puts his employees in an uncomfortable position. But Im getting enough letters saying to hold off on HR until the letter writer has tried just telling him that they want to move on that Im prepared to revise my answer and to say that the direct request is the letter writers first option. It is true that adjusting to video calls and working from home is a pretty drastic change and that its trickier to distinguish between public and private time when youre muted on a conference call in your living room versus sitting in a conference room at your office. But I do think it was the bosss responsibility, after realizing hed made a mistake, to respond better than he did: He should have made at most a single sincere apology, then committed to not doing it again and doing his employees the favor of not trying to exorcise his own embarrassment by reminding them of what happened.

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Q. Re: I accidentally overheard my bosss bedroom talk: Do NOT go to HR. This could start a spiral of things that can and should be avoided. The guy is stuck in an embarrassment spiral. Tell him: I understand youre embarrassed. Lets not ever discuss this again and try to forget it. I think he will. No sense in making this into a thing. Have some compassion for the poor guythis is probably the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to him.

A: I think Im convinced that saying something directly is the better first option now. While I still think he should have checked his embarrassment spiral sooner, I think hes likely to respond well to Please just stop talking about it. The letter writer can always go to HR later if he continues to press the issue, although I still dont think he should have put his employees in the position of having to make this call for him. And while I may have compassion for him as an individual, I dont want to encourage employees to feel responsible for their bosss embarrassment either, because they depend on him for their continued employment, and its just too much pressure for someone with less professional power to take responsibility for their bosss emotions and comfort on top of everything else. All of which is to say to the letter writer: Speak to him first, give him the chance to do the right thing, but dont feel like its your job to make sure he stays out of trouble if he continues to bring it up after youve asked him to stop.

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Danny M. Lavery: Thanks for the help, everyoneI really appreciate it.

If you missed Part 1 of this weeks chat, click here to read it.

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From How to Do It

Q. Is my wife, a feminist, testing me when she asks to be dominated in bed? I am having a hard time reconciling my wifes feminism with her desire to be dominated and submissive. My wife is a very attractive woman who doesnt suffer chauvinism or objectification. Her strength of character, and fearlessness to confront an unequal power structure, is one of the characteristics that I love about her. As she has been able to advance professionally, she has become even more confident, which only increases my desire for her.

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I have been finding myself confused, however, because while she will not tolerate being objectified by anyone in public and is very adamant about her agency, in private she wants me to be quite aggressive and seems willing to be very submissive. I find myself acting with great skepticism during sex, as though shes testing me and that if I actually do become more physical, that I will have failed this test and ruin our relationship, which has lasted for 18 years so far. This results in sex that is fine, but I feel could be so much better for both of us if Im confident I am giving her the kind of sexual experience she actually wants and not just tolerates.

While I know that submissive desires are normal and common sexual behavior, I am wondering if it is common for such adamant feminism to coincide or run parallel with a clear and strong submissive desire? Is this perhaps a specific category that I need to look into? Read what Rich Juzwiak had to say.

Danny M. Laverys new book, Something That May Shock and Discredit You, is out now.
Next gen fighter jet forthcoming in great power competition: J-20 chief designer

Global Times

By Liu Xuanzun Source: Global Times Published: 2020/7/27 19:33:07

A revolutionary, cognition-subverting next generation fighter jet, characterized by long-range, high capabilities in penetration, awareness, firepower and fast decision-making, is about to come into being amid great power competition, according to a recent paper by the chief designer of China's J-20 stealth fighter jet.

Artificial intelligence is a key field to help pilots process vast information and make decisions in complicated battlefield environments, it said.

Amid great power competition and the commissioning of more and more fourth generation fighter jets (or fifth generation under US classification, which includes China's J-20, US' F-22 and F-35), there have been extensive discussions on the changes in types of warfare, and the development of post-fourth generation fighter jets, said Yang Wei of Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), in a paper published in Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica, a Chinese monthly journal on aeronautics, last month.

Yang is the chief designer of China's first fourth generation fighter jet, the J-20.

In the paper, Yang said that in older generations of fighter jets, maneuverability used to be the deciding factor, but this concept is becoming outdated with the development of advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles with their beyond-visual-range attack capabilities.

Information has now become the deciding factor, as modern fighter jets focus on gaining more information with the help of AESA radars and data chains, while also reducing opponents' ability to gain information, including using stealth technology and electronic countermeasures.

When aircraft can get more information with these advanced devices, pilots must have extensive knowledge, sharp analysis and sound decision-making to put them to use.

Yang said artificial intelligence will help pilots process the information, and help them become mission objective-oriented.

Each step in the original observe-orient-decide-act (OODA) loop in the air combat decision-making process will feature artificial intelligence's assistance, the paper said. "Intelligence becoming the deciding factor" will be the essence of what Yang calls an OODA 3.0.

Citing foreign projects, Yang said that a future fighter jet will generally require a longer combat range, longer endurance, stronger stealth capability, a larger load of air-to-air and air-to-surface weapons, and the functionality to provide its pilot with easy-to-understand battlefield situation images and predictions. In an integrated system, the aircraft should be able to form a network, draw real-time integrated situational images, create multiple attack routes, and transmit target information across mission areas in real time.

Yang's vision could indicate what China's future fighter jet might be like, a Chinese military expert told the Global Times on Monday under the condition of anonymity.

Usually the Chinese military simultaneously equips a current generation of weapons, develops a next generation, and conducts pre-study on a further generation at the same time. So as J-20s are being commissioned into the Chinese Air Force, the next generation fighter jet must have already started development, the expert said.

China is eyeing to develop a next generation fighter jet by 2035 or earlier, which could feature laser, adaptive engines and the ability to command drones, reports in early 2019 quoted Wang Haifeng, another senior designer at AVIC who participated in the development of the J-20 and J-10 fighter jets, as saying.



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India objects to attempts by Pakistan to convert Gurudwara into a Mosque

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 28: India has lodged a strong protest with Pakistan over attempts to convert a Gurudwara into a Mosque at Lahore.

A strong protest was lodged with the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi, the External Affairs Ministry said. The concern was raised over the move to claim Gurudwara Shahidi Asthan at Naulakha Bazaar in Lahore as the place of Masjid Shahid Ganj as well as to convert the shrine into a Mosque.

MEA spokesperson, Anurag Srivastava said that a strong protest was lodged with the Pakistan High Commission today on the reported incident whereby Gurdwara 'Shahidi Asthan', site of martyrdom of Bhai Taru Singh ji at Naulakha Bazaar in Lahore, Pakistan has been claimed as the place of Masjid Shahid Ganj and attempts are being made to convert it to a Mosque.

Hazur Sahib Gurudwara on alert as 8 pilgrims contract COVID-19

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

He also said that India expressed its concerns, in strongest terms, on the move and called upon Pakistan to investigate the matter and take immediate remedial measures. "Pakistan was also called upon to look after the safety, security, well-being of its minority communities including protection of their religious rights and cultural heritage.

He also said that the Gurudwara is a place of reverence and considered sacred by the Sikh community. This incident has been viewed with grave concerns in India, the MEA spokesperson also said.
China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government Monday announced three grants totaling 13.479 million HK dollars (about 1.737 million U.S. dollars) for providing relief to cyclone victims in West Bengal and Odisha, India.

The move came after the government accepted the advice of the Disaster Relief Fund Advisory Committee.

The three grants, one of 5.099 million HK dollars to Habitat for Humanity Hong Kong, one of 4.52 million HK dollars to Save the Children Hong Kong and one of 3.86 million HK dollars to World Vision Hong Kong, will be used to provide hygiene kits, food kits and education kits as well as household items and shelter materials to benefit around 104,040 victims.

The committee hopes the grants will facilitate the provision of timely relief to the victims and help them restore their normal living, a government spokesman said.

To ensure that the money is used for designated purposes, the relief agencies will be asked to submit evaluation reports and audited accounts on the use of the grants after the relief projects are completed, the spokesman added. (1 U.S. dollar = 7.75 HK dollars)
Paris Hilton and boyfriend Carter Reum mixed play with passion Monday during a family outing on the beach in Malibu, California.

The 39-year-old socialite sizzled in a red swimsuit while running on the sand with Carter, 39, and her new puppy.

Paris hugged and kissed Carter who wrapped his arms around her as they stood together in wet sand near incoming whitewater.

Summer loving: Paris Hilton and boyfriend Carter Reum mixed play with passion Monday during a family outing on the beach in Malibu, California

The Simple Life star showed her fit figure in her low cut bathing suit that featured front and side sheer panels.

Paris covered up with a blue wrap around her waist and accessorized with white sunglasses.

She had her blonde hair pulled back into a low knot.

Carter meanwhile donned pink trunks, blue jacket and a blue cap for the beach day.

Tender moment: The 39-year-old socialite kissed Carter, 39, down by the water

Good times: Paris sizzled in a red swimsuit while running on the sand with Carter and her new puppy

Paris and Carter were joined by friends and family including Nicky Hilton Rothschild's children and the sisters also were spotted Monday shopping on Melrose Avenue.

Nicky, 36, and Paris also have brothers Barron, 30, and Conrad, 26.

Their great-grandfather is the late Conrad Hilton, founder of the Hilton Hotels chain, who died in 1979 at age 91.

Pink power: Paris also was seen on Melrose Avenue wearing a pink dress and matching mask while out with her little sister Nicky, 36

Shopping session: Nicky was behind the wheel as the sisters parked before shopping at a boutique store on Melrose

Fashion model: The Simple Life star, shown on the runway in February 2017 in New York City, has younger sister Nicky and little brothers Barron, 30, and Conrad, 26

Paris after a string of failed romances that includes two broken engagements believes she may have finally found true love with Carter.

She tweeted a throwback snap last week of herself and Carter and wrote in the caption: 'For the two of us, home isnt a place. Its a person. And were finally home'.

Paris has been dating entrepreneur Carter since about April 2019, after calling off her engagement to actor Chris Zylka, 35.

She and Reum have been quarantining together during the coronavirus pandemic.

Paris last week revealed that she will discuss a period of trauma from her childhood for the very first time in an upcoming new documentary on her YouTube channel.
In a sign of the deepening rift between constitutional institutions in Rajasthan, the state government, in its third proposal to state governor Kalraj Mishra, has reiterated its demand to convene an assembly session from July 31  but did not mention whether it will seek a trust vote in the house.

The Ashok Gehlot-led cabinet, which met on Tuesday, also claimed that the governor did not have any locus stand in stipulating conditions to hold the session, asked him to abide by the proposal of the cabinet, claimed that the failure to do so would be unconstitutional, asserted that the agenda of the session will be determined by the business advisory committee of the house, and said that it was the Speakers domain to decide on social distancing norms in the assembly.

Also read: ED summons Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlots brother, asks him to appear within 24 hours

Separately, the Congress accused the governor of acting under pressure of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while leaders privately said they would wait for the governors response before determining their next step.

The cabinet meeting followed Mishras response to an earlier request by Gehlot to convene the assembly session. The governor had suggested a 21-day notice period to convene the house; sought clarity on the agenda of the session and advised live-streaming of the floor test, if such a test was to be held; and asked about Covid-19 related precautions in the assembly.

A senior official at the governors office, on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the governments proposal has been received.

The BJP has rejected the allegation and claimed that the entire crisis was purely a result of an internal clash within the Congress.

The Rajasthan crisis has seen an open tussle between Gehlot, who claims to have a majority in the house, and his now-dismissed deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and a set of rebel Congress legislators, who allege that Gehlots government is in a minority. Gehlot, in recent days, has sought a quick assembly session based on the assessment that he has the numbers in the house, according to Congress strategists.

In response to the governors queries, laying out the governments position, state transport minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said, He has no right to be raising queries. Yet we are giving a reply.

On the 21-day requirement  the first point mentioned by the governor  Khachariyawas said that 10 days had already passed since the government had asked for a session, and asked why the governor had not given a date himself. The governor is the head of our family. Under Article 163 of the Constitution, it is clearly written that no governor of the country can reject the proposal by the cabinet. Khachariyawas alleged that if the governor did not approve it, it would be a sign that there was no Constitution. The minister also asked what would happen if the central government sought to hold a session of Parliament and wrote to the President, who rejected the proposal. The BJP is doing politics to weaken the Lok Sabha and state assembly.

A Congress functionary involved in political management in the state said that the Rajasthan government, in its reply, has also conveyed to the governor that the Supreme Court judgements Mishra had quoted in his letters restrict his role in convening the assembly sessions.

These judgements clearly state that he has to go by the aid and advice of the council of ministers and that he has no authority to set the agenda or decide the timing and the venue of the assembly sessions, the functionary added.

When asked about the agenda of the session  a point raised by the governor  Khachariyawas said that it was for the Business Advisory Committee of the assembly to decide the agenda. Regarding the social distancing norms in the assembly  the third point raised by the governor  the minister said that the speaker would decide the seating arrangements.

Mahesh Menon who teaches law at Daksha Fellowship Programme said, I do not subscribe to the view that the Governor can exercise his discretion when it comes to calling an assembly session. Even if the Governor can use his discretion, it should not be exercised whimsically.

The Congress, separately, also alleged that Mishra was acting under pressure from the BJP government at the Centre. Party general secretary in charge of Rajasthan, Avinash Pande, in a series of tweets, questioned the Governor for not calling the assembly session and said, ..In the context of the crisis in Rajasthan, the Governor of Rajasthan is adopting a biased approach to fulfil the interests of a particular party, which is violation of the rules mentioned in our Constitution.

BJP spokesperson Mukesh Pareek said the post of governor is constitutional, and BJP does not interfere in the work of the constitutional bodies. Claiming that the entire political struggle was an internal fight of the Congress, he said that BJPs politics was based on serving people and asked if any party lost its government because of its infighting, how could the BJP be held responsible for it.

The Congress functionary quoted above said that the party will decide on its next course of action only after receiving the governors response. We will go step by step and wait for the governors reply to decide our future strategy. We dont want to pre-empt things, the functionary quoted above said. Asked if the party will take the matter to the courts, he said, All options are open. We want to make it political fight first and the legal option is always there.

A second Congress leader said there were two opinions in the party on accepting the governors conditions for convening the assembly session.

One section was of the view that the state government should insist on a short session and stick to the July 31 date, he said. Some of our leaders say that the state cabinet should clearly mention that it wants a floor test immediately since it had not done so in its earlier communications. The state government will decide its future strategy after the governor responds to its fresh proposals, the leader added.

He said the second view was that the Congress should accept all the governors conditions, including giving the 21-day notice for calling the session, and not rush to the court to get the floor test done. The leader further said the Congress will fight the Rajasthan battle politically by taking to streets and keeping its flock (legislators) together.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

A group of Turkish servicemen, involved in the Azerbaijani-Turkish Live Fire Joint Large-Scale Tactical and Flight-Tactical Exercises with live fire, arrived in Azerbaijans Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Trend reports on July 28.

The aviation equipment of the Turkish armed forces was also brought to Nakhchivan.

During the official meeting of the personnel involved in the exercises, the national anthems of Turkey and Azerbaijan were performed at the military airfield of the Separate Combined Arms Army of Nakhchivan.

The military transport and combat aircraft of the Turkish armed forces, delivered by cargo aircraft, are brought to readiness for participation in tactical flight exercises with live fire at the military airfield of the Separate Combined Arms Army.
Hey hey, ho ho, these racist cops have got to go. Hey hey, ho ho, these racist cops have got to go. Hey hey, ho ho. Im here right now because the feds are here, and thats terrifying to me as a citizen. President Trumps deployment of federal agents is fueling the unrest in Portland, where protests have continued for over 50 consecutive days. This represents a new turning point, and thats really scary. Protesters tell us that the presence of federal forces is bringing more people to the streets. They have no business being here. As soon as they showed up, they pushed Portland too far, and as long as they are hurting innocent citizens  the moms, the dads  everybodys coming out. Crowd: Yes! Ahhhh! Crowd: Ahhhh! Ahhhh! Crowd: Ahhhh! Thats the sound of frustration. I think that people are becoming reinvigorated by seeing how theyre treating us. The energy has definitely changed in the past week, like way more people here the past two nights than Ive seen since we started. Were going to continue doing this, and were going to continue doing it peacefully. There we go, Portland. When we are together as a unit, when we are together were not afraid. We have each others back. When we have each others back, we show who the real strength is. The biggest thing today thats changed is that you see people of all ages. You know, this has really been led by a kind of Generation Z feeling, and right now were seeing a larger swath of Portland coming together, and my parents generation is finally paying attention. Say her name! Crowd: Breonna Taylor. Say her name! Crowd: Breonna Taylor! People initially came out to protest systemic racism and police violence, but say the federal response has raised the stakes. My friends got tear-gassed, time and time again. And tear gas is internationally banned in war, and theyre using it on our streets, on our young people. This is only my second day. I was scared before, but Ive had enough. Whose lives matter? Crowd: Black lives matter! We want Black lives to matter just as much as white lives, and we want to protect the children. We know theyre out here. It doesnt matter. Were still going to be out here protesting. Portland, are you scared? Crowd: Hell no! I aint scared! Crowd: I aint scared! I aint scared! Crowd: I aint scared! Trump had no business sending people here. We are standing up for what we believe in.
Many devotees across India eagerly await the ceremony for the laying of the foundation stone of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on August 5. Few would be as elated as the fourth generation of a tailoring business in the holy city. That's because they are busy stitching clothes to be worn by Ram Lalla on the auspicious occasion. Babu Lal Tailors is the only tailoring shop in Ayodhya authorised to stitch clothes for the deity. Two brothers, Shankar Lal Srivastava and Bhagwat Prasad Pahadi, are carrying forward the family legacy. They only stitch clothes for deities and seers.

Elder brother Bhagwat Prasad says he is very happy with Prime Minister Narendra Modi coming to Ayodhya on August 5. The Prime Minister is coming here on a very holy day. This occasion has finally come after a long wait. The struggle for Ram temple started when he was not even born," he said.

At the eight-by-six-feet shop of Babu Lal Tailors in Badi Kutiya locality of Ayodhya, sitting next to Bhagwat Prasad was his younger brother Shankar Lal. Our family has been stitching clothes for Lord Ram for four generations, he said. The brothers were preparing the clothes to be worn by Ram Lalla on the day and were elated that the entire country and parts of the world would witness the occasion live on television, as Doordarshan would broadcast it.

The brothers reminisced on how their father Babu Lal used to take his sewing machine to the Ramjanmabhoomi premises to stitch the clothes of Ram Lalla. The exact measurements of the deity are purportedly only known to this family, which has been decking up the idol for decades now. Our father passed away in 1994, after which we brothers have been stitching the clothes for Ram Lalla. Earlier when my father was alive, he used to take this sewing machine to the Ramjanmabhoomi and stitch the clothes then and there. However, now the clothes for Ram Lalla are stitched here at our shop, and then taken there, said Shankar Lal.

We just stitch clothes for Thakur ji and sadhus, said Bhagwat Prasad. It is all kripa (grace) of Thakur ji. A man may wake up with an empty stomach in Ayodhya, but he never goes to bed with an empty stomach.
A Government commitment to fully fund Pillar II schemes for the next CAP programme could secure an additional 1 billion for the farm sector.

However, an increase of close to 1bn in co-funding by the Irish Government will be required to draw down the full amount of Pillar II monies from Brussels.

Changes to the financing arrangements for CAP Pillar II schemes for 2021-2027 mean that the Government will have to fund 54pc of total expenditure.

In contrast, the national exchequer funded just 43pc of the total spend under Pillar II in the 2014-2020 CAP programme.

The IFA has calculated that a potential fund of 5.24bn is available for Pillar II measures in the 2021-2027 period, up from 4.1bn in the last CAP round.

However, while the Irish exchequer provided around 1.75bn in Pillar II funding for the 2014-2020 programme, this figure will have to increase to over 2.8bn under the new co-financing arrangements if the maximum available financial supports from Brussels are to be accessed for 2021-2027.

"The debate will now move quickly to the level of national co-financing the Irish Government is prepared to provide, which will be critical in terms of financing future farm schemes and farm incomes," an internal IFA assessment of last week's EU budget has stated.

IFA has set a target that direct payments (both Pillar I and Pillar II), should increase from the current annual level of 1.8bn to 2bn in the next CAP post 2020, it added.

Meanwhile, there is still some confusion around whether Irelands CAP allocation has been maintained or decreased following last weeks agreement in Brussels.

The Minister for Agriculture, Dara Calleary, claimed last week that Irelands 10.73bn share of the overall CAP budget was an increase of 50m on the previous seven-year programme.





Spinning

However, Sinn Fein leader, Mary Lou McDonald, accused the Government of spinning figures in the Dail last week and claimed that the agreement represented a 9pc cut to overall CAP supports.

Trinity College economist, Alan Matthews, agreed that the proposed CAP budget of 344bn represented a 10pc reduction on the previous programme, but he maintained that this evaluation was based on the budget being viewed on a constant prices basis.

What farmers will receive in payments is determined in current prices, he explained.

When the CAP budget is shown in current prices, there is no cut in payments and even a small increase at the EU level.

ICMSA leader, Pat McCormack, has called for greater clarity on the CAP budget.

Firstly, we need a country-by-country allocation. Secondly, we need to know by how much Irelands overall allocations  under Pillar I and Pillar II  are down. And thirdly, and most importantly now, we will need to know how our Government intends to make up that reduction, said Mr McCormack.





Continued from page 1

IFA has set a target that direct payments (both Pillar I and Pillar II), should increase from the current annual level of 1.8bn to 2bn in the next CAP post 2020, it added.

Meanwhile, there is still some confusion around whether Irelands CAP allocation has been maintained or decreased following last weeks agreement in Brussels.

The Minister for Agriculture, Dara Calleary, claimed last week that Irelands 10.73bn share of the overall CAP budget was an increase of 50m on the previous seven-year programme.

Spinning

However, Sinn Fein leader, Mary Lou McDonald, accused the Government of spinning figures in the Dail last week and claimed that the agreement represented a 9pc cut to overall CAP supports.

Trinity College economist, Alan Matthews, agreed that the proposed CAP budget of 344bn represented a 10pc reduction on the previous programme, but he maintained that this evaluation was based on the budget being viewed on a constant prices basis.

What farmers will receive in payments is determined in current prices, he explained.

When the CAP budget is shown in current prices, there is no cut in payments and even a small increase at the EU level.

ICMSA leader, Pat McCormack, has called for greater clarity on the CAP budget.

Firstly, we need a country-by-country allocation. Secondly, we need to know by how much Irelands overall allocations  under Pillar I and Pillar II  are down. And thirdly, and most importantly now, we will need to know how our Government intends to make up that reduction, said Mr McCormack.





IFA has set a target that direct payments (both Pillar I and Pillar II), should increase from the current annual level of 1.8bn to 2bn in the next CAP post 2020, it added.

Meanwhile, there is still some confusion around whether Irelands CAP allocation has been maintained or decreased following last weeks agreement in Brussels.

The Minister for Agriculture, Dara Calleary, claimed last week that Irelands 10.73bn share of the overall CAP budget was an increase of 50m on the previous seven-year programme.





Spinning

However, Sinn Fein leader, Mary Lou McDonald, accused the Government of spinning figures in the Dail last week and claimed that the agreement represented a 9pc cut to overall CAP supports.

Trinity College economist, Alan Matthews, agreed that the proposed CAP budget of 344bn represented a 10pc reduction on the previous programme, but he maintained that this evaluation was based on the budget being viewed on a constant prices basis.

What farmers will receive in payments is determined in current prices, he explained.

When the CAP budget is shown in current prices, there is no cut in payments and even a small increase at the EU level.

ICMSA leader, Pat McCormack, has called for greater clarity on the CAP budget.

Firstly, we need a country-by-country allocation. Secondly, we need to know by how much Irelands overall allocations  under Pillar I and Pillar II  are down. And thirdly, and most importantly now, we will need to know how our Government intends to make up that reduction, said Mr McCormack.

IFA has set a target that direct payments (both Pillar I and Pillar II), should increase from the current annual level of 1.8bn to 2bn in the next CAP post 2020, it added.

Meanwhile, there is still some confusion around whether Irelands CAP allocation has been maintained or decreased following last weeks agreement in Brussels.

The Minister for Agriculture, Dara Calleary, claimed last week that Irelands 10.73bn share of the overall CAP budget was an increase of 50m on the previous seven-year programme.

Spinning

However, Sinn Fein leader, Mary Lou McDonald, accused the Government of spinning figures in the Dail last week and claimed that the agreement represented a 9pc cut to overall CAP supports.

Trinity College economist, Alan Matthews, agreed that the proposed CAP budget of 344bn represented a 10pc reduction on the previous programme, but he maintained that this evaluation was based on the budget being viewed on a constant prices basis.

What farmers will receive in payments is determined in current prices, he explained.

When the CAP budget is shown in current prices, there is no cut in payments and even a small increase at the EU level.

ICMSA leader, Pat McCormack, has called for greater clarity on the CAP budget.

Firstly, we need a country-by-country allocation. Secondly, we need to know by how much Irelands overall allocations  under Pillar I and Pillar II  are down. And thirdly, and most importantly now, we will need to know how our Government intends to make up that reduction, said Mr McCormack.
CLEVELAND, Ohio Michael Wormick loved spending time with his many friends and popping in to visit family members during good times.

His history of schizophrenia often disrupted those plans. He often found himself in jail after arrests for mostly petty crimes during periods when he left the treatment centers he frequented off and on for years, his sister Shelly McCord said.

McCord said she cherished those good times and hoped for the best during the bad time. That ended July 8, when Wormick died in the Cuyahoga County Jail. His death is the first since a string of nine inmates died from June 2018 through May 2019.

A lot of friends really loved him, McCord said. To know him was to love him. He wasnt an aggressive person. He was humble. He wasnt revengeful, or aggressive. He really had a good heart and a humble heart.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner has not yet determined why Wormick died, although they ruled out foul play, suicide and COVID-19, according to medical examiner records. McCord said he had no known medical history, but that he hadnt been to a doctor regularly in years.

Wormicks death comes at a time when Cuyahoga County officials are grappling with how to get people living with mental illness and drug addiction into treatment instead of locking them in the jail for low-level, non-violent offenses.

A years-long effort at getting a diversion center up and running is slowly progressing. The goal is to create a center that diverts people with mental illness or addiction to the center, where doctors, nurses, counselors and psychiatrists would provide around the clock care instead of taking them directly to jail.

The county earmarked $2.5 million for the center in the 2020 budget and MetroHealth committed $1 million. The county in April began soliciting bids for a company to run the program. It would hold about 160 people.

A study by consultants hired by the county to study the program reviewed inmates booked into the jail between May and November 2019. They found one-third had serious mental illness or substance abuse issues and that those inmates on average stayed in the jail 77 percent longer than other inmates.

Greater Cleveland Congregations Criminal Justice Coordinator Donna Weinberger said the diversion center is badly needed. She said her organization has pushed for a diversion center for more than three years.

Weinberger said she didnt know the specifics of Wormicks death but that they sounded reminiscent of prior jail deaths.

We know people with mental illness and addiction issues dont belong at the jail, Weinberger said. Its not the right place for them. They dont get the right kind of treatment they need. They get taken off Medicaid. They get cut off from support.

She also said a diversion center would keep the jails population low. During the string of nine inmate deaths, the jails population rose to more than 2,500, about 700 above the recommended limit.

In recent months, officials worked to release some 900 low-level, non-violent offenders from the jail to prepare for the coronavirus pandemic. The jail population hit an all-time low of 950 inmates, but since crept back up to about 1,235 as of Monday.

We also encouraged them to look at the fact that if they could make this happen during the COVID crisis, that they could make the population less when the crisis passes, Weinberger said. That would have implications and mean that if all these people dont need to be in jail, the county doesnt have to spend as much money the jail and can put that money into other programs that could help people get treatment.

For McCord, it cant happen quickly enough.

They just dont treat people very good with mental illnesses, she said.

McCord described her brother as a funny, out-going person with a slew of friends. He grew up in Warrensville Heights and was pretty popular, McCord said. He and friends liked to ride MB5s, small motorcycles similar to mopeds. He always wore designer clothes, his sister said.

He worked small jobs after high school, but ran into trouble in his late teens, McCord said. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 1988 on charges of theft, robbery and gun possession.

During his prison stint, officials transferred him on Feb. 22, 1993 to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, where some 300 of the 450 inmates had some form of mental illness.

Within two months, the Lucasville riot broke out. The riot lasted 11 days and ended with nine inmates and one corrections officer dead and five inmates on death row in what is considered the worst prison crisis in Ohio history.

Womick was transferred out five days into the riot, according to prison records. But his experience left a lasting effect, his sister said. He knew one of the five inmates eventually put on death row for killing the corrections officer, she said.

They just didnt treat people good, McCord said. They put him in the hole a lot. I know traumatic experiences can bring schizophrenia out or make it worse. To my recollection, thats when it started for him.

McCord said after his release from prison in 1996, her brother would hear voices in his head. Then began a cycle that continued to his death: hed get treatment, stop at some point, begin using drugs again usually crack cocaine and end up back in jail, his sister said.

McCord said she often talked with her brother and try to convince him back into treatment. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didnt she said.

Hed live on his own for a while and would sometimes find himself homeless and would live at various shelters around the area, she said.

McCord said the last time they talked, her brother had hopes of getting a stable job and finding a place to live on his own.

He was homeless at the time Shaker Heights police arrested him on June 22. He was held on a $5,000 bond on a felony grand theft charge. He also faced a felony charge of aggravated theft, but a judge issued him a personal bond in that case.

Sheriff detectives investigating Wormicks death in the jail told McCord that jail phone calls showed he tried to call his sister about two hours before he died, but that he dialed the wrong number.

It was really hard to believe, McCord said. I still cant believe it.
I agree with your perceptive assessment that your wifes rude and unprofessional behavior is actually causing her to feel more frustrated and angry at the end of the day. That is because she is not actually winning at work. She cannot close out her work days with the memory of successful interactions and positive feedback. Instead she carries with her the vestiges of constant conflict. What a burden!
It is intriguing to note how the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has over the period sought to work their way back to the reigns of political power through varied strategies and crude machinations.



Their morbid activities began with grave attempts to discredit and soil the first gentleman of the State, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and his political appointees with indelible tags of corruption. This was followed by their sworn agenda to ostensibly hold the NPP government to its campaign promises, which promises they (NDC) castigated and never had a scintilla of faith that same will see the light of day anyway. The opposition NDC hurriedly followed up with their diabolical strategy of running down and striping off state institutions, government agencies and their actors of their hard won and time tested credibility and reputation.



The rationale for such a bracingly morbid agenda by a team of nation wreckers, we surmise, would be to frustrate and cast the ruling government in a bad light; and as well paralyze the institutions of state which are creatures of law and clothed with the mandate to deliver holistic national development and ensure strict compliance with the laws by which the State is governed.



The results of such unpatriotic acts are obvious -- they create and breed a culture of repugnance and mistrust between the citizenry and the ruling party on one hand, and a strong sense of dissatisfaction and insecurity between the citizenry and state institutions on the other hand -- and in a society like ours where the government has an uphill task of yet ensuring that a majority of its citizens get the benefit of at least Senior High School education, a chunk of the population is likely to fall prey to the illogical and deceitful maneuverings of a desperate political party like the NDC whose stock in trade has been to always manipulate and distort the facts and frantic efforts of the ruling government to their advantage.



Despite the tireless efforts by the opposition NDC to discredit and thwart the efforts of the ruling New Patriotic Party, the ship of state, ably captained by His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo continues to sail through the turbulence associated with the high seas of national governance and has severally docked with goodies meant for the survival and wellbeing of its crew and all who look up to it for their livelihood.



The growth of the Ghanaian economy at both macro and micro levels, the Planting for Food and Jobs program, the Free SHS program, the Planting for Export and Rural Development, the provision of employment for over 100,000 idling graduates through the NABCO program, the One - Million per Constituency program being implemented through IPEP, the One - Village - One - Dam program, the Presidential Pitch program, the One - District - One - Factory program, the prompt releases of funds meant for PWDs at the MMDAs, the National Entrepreneurial and Innovation Program, the settlement of heritage debts owed by the energy sector, the retooling of our Security Services, the decentralization of the Ghana Scholarship Scheme, the payment of NHIS arrears, the GPS and Digital Addressing System, the successful operationalization of the Mobile Inter Operability System, the implementation of the Ghana Card through the NIA, the restoration of Teacher Trainee and Nursing Trainee allowances, the massive public sector recruitment nationwide, the rural electrification program, the launch and operationalization of the Year of Roads program, the massive roll out of infrastructure in Tertiary Institutions and Senior High Schools nationwide, the expansion of and prompt payments associated with the LEAP and NYA programs, the successful creation of six (6) new administrative regions, the One - Constituency - One - Ambulance program, the National Emergency Drone Service program, the agenda 88 whose aim is to see to the construction of new Regional and District Hospitals in new administrative areas, the COVID Alleviation Program ( CAP ), provision of free utilities to lifeline consumers and the 50% subsidy for non - lifeline consumers in this era of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic -- the list of the NPP government's achievements within the spate of three and a half (3.5) years is endless.



The NDC in its desperate and confused state already admits covertly that their proverbial lame horse isn't fit for purposes of issue - based electioneering, as well as back-to-back comparison of their records on solid infrastructural projects, social interventions, the economy and national governance with that of the NPP as the general elections of 2020 draw closer.



Over the period, they've sought to strangle and frustrate the ruling government through some of their strategies as follows: Staging walkouts from Parliament; embarking on street protests and demonstrations against government popular policies; organizing uncountable press conferences across the country; character assassination of the President and his appointees; courting the support and sympathy of local and international corporations and institutions; and backtracking on developmental and administrative policies that required the consensual agreement of their side of the August House of Parliament, the botched referendum for the election of MMDCEs is a case in point.



When all these plots couldn't ran the Nana Addo - led government aground, their only straw to clutch unto would have been the maintenance of the current voters register in its bloated and error ridden form which the New Patriotic Party made a strong case against while in opposition. Luck eluded the NDC and the overwhelming majority of Ghanaians endorsed the NPP for a landslide victory in the 2016 general elections. Therefore, the NPP has been consistent in its call for a new voter's register, and the government of the day has made every financial and logistical resource available to the statutory body responsible for the compilation of the new voters roll.



Having tasted that historic, wrecking and humiliating defeat in the 2016 general elections while in power and with every incumbency advantage imaginable, the NDC is now more than ever bitter, suspicious, hallucinating, desperate and sensing yet another mammoth and harrowing political defeat in the upcoming Presidential and Parliamentary elections on December 7, 2020. Once the Electoral Commission successfully compiles the new electoral roll, it will be deemed that our voters register is clean and fit for purpose because all minors, multiple registrants, the deceased and non - Ghanaians who hitherto had their details in the bloated register will have same totally obliterated by the Electoral Commission.



It's for these and many other ulterior motives that the NDC is strangely bent on marshalling all manner of forces and strategies in order to create the ambience for these unlawful registrants indicated supra to get their names unto the electoral roll in order to shore up their support base in many strategic registration centers nationwide. In the recent incidence at the Ewutu Senya East Constituency where the NPP has a sitting Member of Parliament, the strategy of the NDC has been to flood the registration centers with able - bodied men and party thugs just to create fear, intimidation, pandemonium and panic, in order to ward off the majority of prospective registrants who're deemed to be supporters and sympathizers of the NPP. It must be stated that Hon. Mavis Hawa Kumson is a major stakeholder in the activities of the Electoral Commission in the Ewutu Senya East Constituency.



The credibility or otherwise of the reference document to be used in conducting the December polls will have direct consequences on her job as the incumbent MP who is seeking reelection. The following questions are begging for answers: What can be said to have been the legitimate role of the NDC thugs and hooligans who were busy crisscrossing the length and breadth of the registration center? What was their interest in parading around and surrounding the official vehicle of the Hon. MP for that Constituency? What was the purpose of their reckless riding of motorbikes on the registration premises? When the said NDC motor riders rode and intentionally bumped into the Hon. MP's convoy, thereby scratching and mangling portions of one of the vehicles, did they know the extent of damage they could have caused if that metallic cowl were a human body?



As a Member of Parliament and a Minister of State, is Hon. Mavis Hawa Kumson permitted under the laws of Ghana to wield an ammunition? If yes, is she permitted to give a warning shot into the empty, plain atmosphere when there is an attack and threat on her life? What does the law say about potential and legitimate registrants at every registration center? If those NDC thugs wouldn't mind to ride and crash against a metallic vehicle, who knows what they would probably have done to the Hon. MP, if they had access to her life? How would the security implications and narrative have been if these avowed NDC thugs had gotten hold of the Hon. MP and tore her flesh into pieces? If the Hon. MP had lost her life in the process of that attack, would anyone have imagined the strange wave of its rippling political effect, as well as the foreseeable religious and ethnic reprisals that could have erupted given the cosmopolitan nature of that community?



We wish to state that it has always been in the genetic code of the NDC to want to dabble in illegality and exploit every means available to them in their attempts to want to flout the rules that govern public elections in this country. They should desist from encouraging and conveying people they already know aren't qualified to go and flood up the various registration centers across the country. The NPP government is mandated by the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana to enforce the laws governing the land through the various state institutions and agencies.



The NDC through their National Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, can keep on blowing hot air and play the proverbial Ostrich. Their numerous press conferences and open threats to the nation's men and women in uniform will not deter the government from enforcing the law through the appropriate state institutions. The nation's security personnel are mandated by the Constitution to maintain law and order, and to safeguard life and property. We wish to assure and implore our gallant men and women in uniform that no individual can, by their attachment to any political party or through their auto imposed selective amnesia, threaten you of any form of dismissal from your jobs.

This dying minute and face saving tactics being employed by the opposition NDC to want to play on the psychology of the nation's security services in order that they may bow to their whims and caprices won't work.



We therefore encourage all legitimate citizens of the Republic of Ghana to turn out in their numbers to register at their designated registration centers. This upcoming general elections will be a Ghanaian election and it's only legitimate Ghanaians who are permitted by the sovereign laws of the land to duly register and cast their ballots in order to determine who best serves their interests in the Parliament of Ghana, as well as the first gentleman in whose hands they can entrust their lives and that of their progenies, their natural resources and their sovereignty in order that he steers the affairs of the State of Ghana from the Jubilee House for another four years.



Ghana has come far. We have lived through it all. Let no one be troubled and dismayed by the hot air and empty threats of young men and women whose closest participation and experience of Ghana's battles for self rule and our stable democracy could best be described as that acquired via text book tutelage.



Fellow Ghanaians, let's all be law abiding, and let's all collectively adhere to the rules governing the processes leading to the compilation of our new Ghanaian voters register.



Long live the New Patriotic Party!



Long live the Nana Addo - led Administration !!



Long live our Nation and its Institutions !!!





.........Signed.........

Asare Bediako Seth

( Regional Communication Director, NPP, Bono Region ).

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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NASA astronaut Bob Behnken, who is currently stationed at the International Space Station (ISS) shared an amazing picture of Hurrican Hanna from space as it made landfall in the Gulf of Mexico on July 24. Behnken, who shared the picture on July 26 informed his followers on Twitter that he had snapped the picture of the storm in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday as it was starting to have observable structure from the ISS. Hurricane Hanna, the category 1 storm made its landfall in Texas on July 25 followed by heavy winds and rain. The picture has left netizens on social media amazed as it has already garnered more than 15,000 likes a d over 2,000 retweets.

Snapped this photo of the storm in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday as it was starting to have observable structure from @Space_Station. #HurricaneHanna pic.twitter.com/KiamE0lmKk  Bob Behnken (@AstroBehnken) July 26, 2020

Read: NASA Astronaut Shares Mesmerizing Video Of Lightning From Space | Watch

Netizens flooded the post with a lot of comments with some just appreciating the beauty of the picture, while others asking the angle from which it was taken and more interesting questions. "Great Picture. Looks like a crazy hurricane. Must be crazy to be able to view Earth-like how you view the land from the plane all the time. Would it be out of order to request pics looking the other way?" one user commented. Another user wrote, "Wow great picture. Take care out there. How many miles away from the surface of the earth are orbiting?"

Beautiful photo, it keeps things in perspective of how SMALL we are Loved my work at NASA and when we look down, we can see the awesome power of God. I wonder what that design review was like when God made the world...Enjoy, Godspeed and safe trip back to earth.  E. Smith (@Erv461) July 27, 2020

You guys got the best view, amazing photo!!!! #HurricaneHanna pic.twitter.com/V04OD0WPaf  Queen of No Sugar Coating  (@HereJust4Coffee) July 26, 2020

Wow one massive storm building up there look at the size of that thing most impressive" someone is in for a bumpy ride there "  Alan Evans (@AlanEva21042719) July 27, 2020

Thank you for the pic. You guys are so lucky but i know you have to stay busy but wow the views are......  IamBob (@BrunsBob) July 26, 2020

How incredible, weve been getting very heavy rain and thunderstorms in Houston, Texas. Hurricane season is upon us   Lori Nelms (@GrandyNelms) July 26, 2020

Read: SpaceX Sets Record For Rocket Turnaround Time With S Korea's 1st Military Satellite Launch

Lightning from space

Behnken, who flew in the Dragon Crew spacecraft along with another NASA astronaut Doug Hurley, the other day shared a video of lightning from the space. The 'mesmerizing' footage he shared on July 22 has garnered more than 1,50,000 views on Twitter. Former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden while sharing the video said that watching lightning from orbit was his all-time favourite phenomenon.

Lightning viewed from orbit was my all-time favorite phenomenon! Like watching a great light show. https://t.co/5rqht3jC9k  Charles Bolden (@cboldenjr) July 22, 2020

Read: SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch Live Stream: Here Is How To Watch The Rocket Launch Live

Read: Russian Cosmonaut Bioprints 3D Human Cartilage Onboard International Space Station


Full Of Muscles made a name for himself last fall when he was the highest priced trotter sold at the 2019 London Selected Yearling Sale. The Muscle Mass colt was front and centre on Tuesday (July 28) at Woodbine Mohawk Park, as the $140,000 yearling purchase strutted his stuff during the morning qualifying session at the Campbellville, Ont. oval.

Chris Christoforou was in the bike behind Full Of Muscles, and the pair lined up in Post 5 for Race 2.

Christoforou opted for a patient approach with the Brad Maxwell trainee, as the bay colt was positioned fifth through the opening quarter (:31.1) and had made his way up to fourth by the time the leaders clicked off the opening half (1:02).

The action picked up in the third quarter of the mile, as the leader, Buckys Angel, was slugging it out with the first-up Zoes Choice on the turn. Neither one of the combatants were willing to give an inch past the three-quarters pole (1:31.2), which played in favour of Full Of Muscles, who was surveying the tilt from fourth.

The leaders continued to spar into the stretch, at which point Christoforou angled Full Of Muscles out wide and set his sights on the wire. Full Of Muscles was fresh and ready in the lane, and went on to tally the victory in 2:02.2 with minimal effort.

Full Of Muscles' Tuesday performance was the second qualifying effort of his career. He is owned by Farhi Standardbreds Corp, of London, Ont.

To view the harness racing results for the Tuesday qualifying session at Mohawk, click the following link: Tuesday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park (Qualifiers).
People shut down I-225 to protest the death of Elijah McClain in Aurora, Colo., on July 25, 2020. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

Police Arrest Man Who Shot at Jeep During Black Lives Matter Protest

The man who opened fire on a Jeep on a highway during a Black Lives Matter protest was arrested and is facing attempted homicide charges, police said late Monday.

Samuel Young, 22, was arrested by Aurora, Colo., police officers on an arrest warrant from the 18th Judicial District Attorneys Office.

Young is facing four counts of attempted homicide.

A man who appears to be Young was captured on camera firing a handgun at a Jeep on I-225 on Saturday.

The Jeep was traveling northbound around 7 p.m., heading toward a crowd of protesters who were blocking the interstate.

Video footage showed protesters scattering just before the Jeep moved through the area. Some of them stepped toward the vehicle and hurled objects at it while a white male whipped out a gun and fired multiple rounds.

Two other protesters were struck by the bullets, police said. Both were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. One was later released.

The Jeep didnt strike any protesters.

A man shoots at a Jeep speeding on a highway in Aurora, Colo., on July 25, 2020. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

Samuel Young walks in Aurora, Colo., on July 25, 2020. (Aurora Police Department)

Paramedics tend to a woman who jumped off the side of the highway to avoid a car, in Aurora, Colo., on July 25, 2020. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

Paramedics tend to a man who was shot during a protest that was blocking I-225 in Aurora, Colo., on July 25, 2020. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

The man driving the Jeep later exited the interstate and found officers who were investigating a separate unrelated crash. He explained what happened and was questioned.

Pending an investigation, the man was released, though his Jeep was impounded as part of the probe.

The man said his Jeep was surrounded by protesters who yelled and struck his vehicle. He also said a white pickup truck struck the front of his vehicle.

He claims that the reason that he drove toward the protesters is because he was scared and trying to get away, Aurora Police Department said in an incident summary.

A police spokesman told The Epoch Times on Tuesday that the actions of the driver are still being investigated. Officers are in communication with the district attorneys office.

Asked if protesters were illegally blocking the road, the spokesman said in an email, Pedestrians are legally not allowed to be walking on an interstate.

I-255 was closed on Saturday just south of Alameda.

No vehicles ever got past our blockade once we stopped traffic. The Jeep was either ahead of our blockade and stuck behind the protesters or entered the interstate from Alameda where the protesters had their own blockade, the spokesman said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 01:22:31|Editor: huaxia

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VENICE, Italy, July 28 (Xinhua) -- A year ago, Venice was on the front line of Italy's growing battle against mass tourism. Now -- as Italy is recovering from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, including a dramatic drop-off in tourism -- locals are split over whether they want to return to the way they used to be.

Before the pandemic, Italy's famed canal city received about 4 million tourists per year, enough for the city to start charging a 10-euro (11.5-U.S.-dollar) tourist tax to raise cash to protect infrastructure and curb the number of day-trip arrivals. There were occasional clashes between the city's dwindling number of locals and the tourists that filled its alleyways and bridges.

Today, the city seems empty by comparison, with a light trickle of tourists, almost all of them from other parts of Europe. Most of the chatter in the streets is in Italian, much of it with the distinctive Venetian accent.

Many stores, restaurants, and hotels remain boarded up. Economic analysts say many will not re-open despite the easing of the national lockdown which the government put into place in March.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, Venice was already struggling -- not just from too many tourists, but also from historic floods that inundated the city for days last November.

Now, many of the beleaguered locals are just enjoying the rare occasion to have the city to themselves.

"We've been through so much that what I value the most now is being able to stretch out in the sun and just relax with a gelato or something to drink and not have to worry about a tour group tripping over my feet or people shouting at each other in a language I don't understand," Letizia Stefani, a retired school teacher, told Xinhua.

Stefani's neighbor, Anna Maria Ballarin, a government office worker, agreed.

"It can't stay like this forever, but there's something nice about having the city to ourselves at least for a while," Ballarin said in an interview. "I see people I know when I'm walking my dog and we stop and chat. Before, during the high season, we'd all be lost in a crowd of tourists."

Italy opened its borders to tourists from most European countries starting in June, but arrivals have been low. Noticeably absent are travelers from the United States, China, and other places further afield.

Luigi Brugnaro, who is running for re-election as Venice's mayor, has said the city has to take steps now to assure that when tourists return in bigger numbers the city is ready. That involves reinforcing infrastructure, including the unveiling of the "Moses" system designed to help protect the city from floods. The tourist tax remains on the books and will be applied again when numbers rise.

In contrast to the views of Stefani and Ballarin, that day cannot happen soon enough for many cash-strapped shopkeepers and restaurant owners.

"We are really struggling with the lack of tourists," Marco Zanin, who owns a shop selling glass products made in the city, told Xinhua. "We cursed the high number of tourists before but now we miss them because we have no business. We went from one extreme to another. It's a shame we can't take an average from the numbers we had last year and the numbers from this year."

Restaurant owner Pier Paolo Bordignon said the coming months worry him.

"We usually earn enough in the summer to make it through the slow period when the weather turns cold," Bordignon said in an interview. "Now I'm losing money in what is supposed to be the high season. It's going to be a challenge to find a way to survive until next year." Enditem
NEW YORK CITY  Forget about that weekend trip to Chicago, boozy getaway drinking down the Bourbon Trail or fishing trip to the Boundary Waters.

Travelers from Illinois, Kentucky and Minnesota now must quarantine once they arrive in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday.

He also added Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico to the quarantine list.

"That means there are now ... 34 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico that are on the quarantine list," he said.

The new additions illustrate how the coronavirus pandemic continues to grow outside of New York. States are placed on the quarantine list if their positive rates reach 10 percent or more for a week.

New York's positive rate has steadily decreased and currently stands at 0.93 percent, Cuomo said.

Travelers from quarantine states must fill out a State Department of Health travel form or else pay $2,000 fine. They must also quarantine for 14 days.



And the coronavirus could affect New York City travel in another way. Cuomo excoriated Senate Republicans for not including state aid in a proposed new stimulus bill.

Without that help, MTA and LIRR could increase and improvements at JFK and other city airports could be halted, Cuomo warned.

What the federal government does this week will determine your property taxes, your school's budget, your subway fare, your bridge tolls and more.Without state and local aid in the stimulus package, there will be painful cuts.New Yorkers are watching and waiting.

 Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) July 28, 2020





This article originally appeared on the New York City Patch
Technology giant Microsoft India has emerged as the country's most attractive employer brand, followed by Samsung India and Amazon India in the second and third place, respectively, says a survey. According to Randstad Employer Brand Research (REBR) 2020, Microsoft India scored high on financial health, strong reputation and utilisation of the latest technologies.

The REBR revealed that in 2020, work-life balance emerged as the top Employee Value Proposition (EVP) driver for the Indian workforce while choosing an employer as it was cited by 43 per cent respondents, followed by attractive salary and employee benefits (41 per cent) and job security (40 per cent). The REBR sought views of over 1,85,000 respondents (general public, aged 18-65) on 6,136 companies in 33 countries.

"Employer branding is an evolving journey based on newer and deeper insights that unravel with time, so organisations must make this a strategic business agenda," Randstad India MD and CEO Paul Dupuis said. Dupuis further noted that "this process has become increasingly important since the onset of COVID-19, when the job market is undergoing a paradigm shift and the need for organisations to transform their employer branding proposition to make it more "humane" in the new world of work becomes even more critical".

Others in the top 10 most-attractive employer brands in India for 2020 include Infosys Technologies at the fourth place, Mercedes-Benz (5th), Sony (6th), IBM (7th), Dell Technologies Ltd (8th), ITC Group (9th) and Tata Consultancy Services (10th). The survey further said 69 per cent of respondents indicated that they stayed with their employer in the past year and 81 per cent agreed that non-monetary benefits like company phone/car, childcare services and support, flexible working hours are equally important when choosing an employer.

As per the survey, 38 per cent of Gen Z (18-24 years) are looking for good training opportunities from their employer, while 34 per cent of the millennials (25-34 years) are attracted to forward-thinking and tech-savvy organisations and deem the use of latest technologies as a very important attribute.

Around 46 per cent of Gen X (35-54 years) find good work-life balance a very important pull-factor towards an employer, whereas 32 per cent of the boomers (55-64 years) find a convenient location as the key factor. The survey noted that the Indian workforce prefers to work for companies operating in sectors like IT, ITeS & telecom, automotive, followed by FMCG, retail & e-commerce and BFSI.

Also read: UltraTech Cement Q1 results: Profit falls 38% to Rs 796 crore amid coronavirus crisis
UB student wins fellowship for research on migrant workers in Lebanon

Gabriella Nassif will seek to partner with community organizations to learn about and document the experiences of women hired to work in Lebanese households, including during COVID-19

The only thing keeping many families in Lebanon going during COVID-19 is these migrant domestic workers. Some have masks, and some dont, but theyre still going out, whether it be to buy groceries, walk their employers dogs, or to fill prescriptions at the pharmacy. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  The global pandemic has revealed how some of the worlds most vulnerable workers are also among the most essential.

One example: migrant domestic workers, who are hired to complete household labor such as cooking, cleaning, child care and grocery shopping, says Gabriella Nassif, a University at Buffalo PhD candidate. Through her dissertation research, Nassif will seek to partner with current and former migrant domestic workers in Lebanon to document and understand their experiences both during and prior to COVID-19.

The work these women do is often undervalued, leaving them marginalized, with low pay, minimal benefits and limited job security, Nassif says.

And yet, she adds, the only thing keeping many families in Lebanon going during COVID-19 is these migrant domestic workers. Some have masks, and some dont, but theyre still going out, whether it be to buy groceries, walk their employers dogs, or to fill prescriptions at the pharmacy. Theyre in the streets while everyone else is safely tucked away in their homes. Its shocking to see.

Nassif  a student in the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies in the UB College of Arts and Sciences  has received a $20,000 Dissertation Fellowship from the American Association of University Women to complete her PhD research.

Her focus will be on women who have traveled from Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Philippines and other countries to work in Lebanese households. She hopes to connect with these workers through community organizations that support and advocate for migrant domestic workers in Beirut, Lebanons capital and largest city.

Through interviews and other research, Nassifs dissertation will examine questions such as how perceptions of gender and race shape the way communities in Lebanon view and value domestic labor. Even before COVID-19, the situation of Lebanons migrant domestic workers had been growing ever-more perilous as the nation entered its worst economic crisis in decades.

You have just this super, super precarious and marginalized existence for these women in Lebanon, and I wanted to learn more about their lives and their relationship with Lebanese society, Nassif says. For much of the Middle East, theres a dearth of data on women and labor. Globally, research on migrant domestic workers tends to focus overwhelmingly on women who migrate from the Global South to what are traditionally known as developed countries, like in Europe and North America.

Nassif, who grew up in Shorewood, Wisconsin, holds both U.S. and Lebanese citizenship. Her father is from Lebanon, and as a child, she used to take summer trips there with her family.

Today, Nassif splits time between Buffalo and Beirut. In Lebanon, she has worked for the Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University, and as an independent research consultant to various United Nations organizations, with a focus on gender in development and humanitarian programming.
No cause for panic, new media rules will benefit all: Javadekar

India ready to take leadership role, work with other tiger range nations: Prakash Javadekar

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, July 28: India is ready to take a leadership role and work with other tiger range countries for the management of the reserves, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Tuesday.

Speaking on the eve of the Global Tiger Day, the minister said India is proud of its achievements and despite the scarcity of land and rainfall, it boasts of eight per cent of the world's biodiversity.

No Mr. China this is not done, says India - your true face is exposed! Amb Vishnu Prakash

"In 1973, there were just nine tiger reserves which have now increased to 50. It is important to know that none of these reserves are poor quality. Either they are good or the best. "Despite India's constraint of 2.5 per cent of global land, four per cent of rainfall and 16 per cent of world's human population, India is home to eight per cent of world's biodiversity which includes 70 per cent of the world's tiger population," he said.

He said India is ready to work with other tiger range countries for the conservation of the big cat. "We are ready to take leadership role and work with all 12 tiger range countries in their training, capacity building and in actual management of tiger reserves," Javadekar said.

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

There are currently 13 tiger range countries -- India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam. At the event, a report on the condition of all 50 tiger reserves was released. As per the report, Madhya Pradesh has the maximum number of tigers followed by Karnataka.

Besides the minister, the event was attended by Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo who said India's contribution to tiger conservation is so fascinating that the Guinness Book of World Records has acknowledged it.

The prime minister had in 2019 released a tiger estimation report as per which, India recorded 2,967 tigers, more than double the number from 1,411 in 2006.
The Summerland community came together with an amazing show of support in an anti-racist car parade for the Lekhi family, whose home had been vandalized and sprayed with racist graffiti. During the parade, a visitor to Summerland had carelessly displayed the Confederate flag, which is often associated with slavery and racism. The visitor later apologized to Mayor Toni Boot for any harm his actions during the parade, had caused the community. Mayor Boot later visited Your Dollar Store and More where the visitor indicated he had bought the Confederate flag. However, instead of amicably discussing the sale of the Confederate flag with the owner of the store, Allan Carter, Mayor Boot accused Carter of perpetuating racism in our town. (Sland Review July 23, 2020)

Perhaps it was just misjudgment on Mayor Boots part that she didnt first seek to understand why the bandanas with the Confederate emblem printed on them, were in the store in the first place. A few months back Allan Carter explained, he had requested hundreds of bandanas with a variety of designs from his supplier, when the public was in need of face coverings. It was Carters own admission that he had made a poor decision by leaving the Confederate bandanas for sale in his store, along with the hundreds of other bandanas. It must be obvious that Allen Carter, a well-respected business owner and supporter of organizations in this community, would not purposefully perpetuate racism in our town.

This situation could have been resolved without blame and degradation. Let not the filmed display of Mayor Boot cutting up the remaining Confederate bandanas in front of Carters store, overshadow the spirit of unity and goodwill this community extended to the Rikhi family. The province wide media attention sought by Mayor Boot to film the cutting of the Confederate bandanas will do absolutely nothing to effectively address racism in this community. This error in judgment will only deepen the divide. It is evident that the people of Summerland have the courage and willingness to address racism in constructive ways. Let us continually strive for unity in these most difficult times.

Sandra and John Nicolson, Summerland
<! Stella Immanuel speaks in Washington D.C. >

By Bayo Onanuga

YouTube has blocked Dr Stella Immanuels testimony about the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine, as a cure for COVID-19.

YouTube said it violates its rules.

Facebook is also reported to have done the same, with Immanuels account blocked.

This made the doctor threaten to crash the social platform, invoking the power of Jesus.

Hello Facebook put back my profile page and videos up or your computers with start crashing till you do. You are not bigger that God. I promise you. If my page is not back up face book will be down in Jesus name.

P.M.News, however found that her controversial video is alive on many Facebook accounts as it has been widely shared, before the clampdown.

Dr Stella Immanuel is Cameroonian-born but Nigerian trained physician.

Her maiden name is Gwandiku-Ambe. She attended University of Calabar College of Medicine and graduated in 1990.

According to a shared whatsApp profile of hers, she is also the owner of Fire Power Deliverance Ministry.

She did Residency in Pediatrics at Bronx-Lebanon in New York.

She did her internship under Dr. Babatunde Dosu, a Nigerian pediatrician in Dallas.

She has Medical Licenses in Louisiana, Texas (November 2019) and Kentucky.

A Nigerian Abraham Ariyo wondered how she crossed from Pediatrics to Adult Medicine /Emergency to treating a 96-year-old patient.

Nonetheless, there is a Gofundme page for legal troubles in her name, maybe to cash in. Also, reliable sources have confirmed that this campaign is politically motivated and sponsored by Steve Bannons BREITBART, said Ariyo.

Remember none of them were wearing masks. Also, this campaign tends to look for easy manipulated doctors like Trumps 2016 strange physician., he added.

Dr Stella Immanuel was trending on social media on Tuesday after delivering an impassioned COVID-19 speech in Washington D.C.

Immanuel claimed that antimalarial drug, hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and antibacterial drug, Zithromax, were effective cures for the virus.

She dismissed experts warning that hydroxychloroquine could cause serious heart problems for coronavirus patients, citing her experience with the use of the drug.

She said she had successfully treated no fewer than 350 patients with hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax. Hydroxychloroquine, long touted by President Donald Trump as the cure for the virus, according to her.

But her testimony has been dismissed as politically motivated.

Immanuel is said to be working with Trump campaign groups.

And she is reported to be just a primary health care doctor, who probably comes across patients with mild symptoms of COVID-19.

As some experts said, those people do not even need any medicine, as they will come through.

Her video is also being shared by Freedom Rights and retweeted by Conservative Trump campaigners.

Benny Arthur Johnson is one of them.

He is an American political columnist, currently serving as chief creative officer at conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA. So he is a Trump campaigner.

Johnson first rose to prominence as an editor at BuzzFeed, until it was revealed that many of his published articles were plagiarized and he was fired.

He shared Immanuels testimony on Twitter:

Dr. Stella Immanuel talks about her experience treating COVID-19 patients with Hydroxychloroquine, Zinc, and Zithromax. You want a double blinded study where people are dying? Its unethical. pic.twitter.com/TYQjn7EKMH  Benny (@bennyjohnson) July 27, 2020

The following are excerpts of Immanuels speech: Hello, Im Dr Stella Immanuel. Im a primary care physician in Houston, Texas.

I went to medical school in West Africa, Nigeria, where I took care of malaria patients, treated them with hydroxychloroquine and stuff like that.

So Im used to these medications. Im here because I have personally treated over 350 patients with COVID-19. Patients that have diabetes, patients that have high blood pressure, patients that have asthma, old people  I think my oldest patients are 92  87-year-olds.

And the result has been the same. I put them on hydroxychloroquine, I put them on zinc, I put them on Zithromax, and theyre all well.

For the past few months, after taking care of over 350 patients, weve not lost one. Not a diabetic, not a somebody with high blood pressure, not somebody who asthma, not an old person.

Weve not lost one patient. And on top of that, Ive put myself, my staff, and many doctors that I know on hydroxychloroquine for prevention because by the very mechanism of action, it works early and as a prophylaxis.

The study that made me start using hydroxychloroquine was a study that they did under the NIH in 2005 that says it works.

Recently, I was doing some research about a patient that had hiccups and I found out that they even did a recent study in the NIH, which is our National Institute  that is the National  NIH, what? National Institute of Health.

I know youre going to tell me that you treated 20 people, 40 people, and it didnt work. Im a true testimony. So I came here to Washington DC to tell America nobody needs to get sick.

This virus has a cure. It is called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax. I know you people want to talk about a mask. Hello? You dont need a mask. There is a cure.

I tell all of you doctors that are sitting down and watching Americans die. Youre like the good Nazi  the good one, the good Germans that watched Jews get killed and you did not speak up.

If they come after me, they threaten me. Theyve threatened to  I mean, Ive gotten all kinds of threats. Or theyre going to report me to the bots.

I say, you know what? I dont care. Im not going to let Americans die. And if this is the hill where I get nailed on, I will get nailed on it. I dont care.

You can report me to the bots, you can kill me, you can do whatever, but Im not going to let Americans die.

And today Im here to say it, that America, there is a cure for COVID-19. All this foolishness does not need to happen. There is a cure for COVID-19.

Watch the video below as posted by Dr. Benny Johnson:

Related
A Beijing official has revealed that he has been injected with an experimental coronavirus vaccine.

'I'm going to reveal something undercover: I am injected with one of the vaccines,' Dr Gao Fu, the head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an online conference on Sunday. 'I hope it will work.'

China is developing at least eight vaccine candidates for COVID-19 as the country determines to become the first country in the world to roll out a successful vaccination for the disease.

Dr Gao Fu (pictured in this file photo on January 26), the head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention says he has been injected with an experimental coronavirus vaccine in an attempt to persuade the public to follow suit when one is approved

Beijing's top coronavirus adviser has claimed that some of China's COVID-19 vaccines could be ready to use as early as autumn. This file picture taken on April 29 shows an experimental vaccine for the COVID-19 that was tested at the Sinovac Biotech facilities in Beijing

The Chinese health chief has previously claimed that China's first coronavirus vaccine could be ready by September.

Dr Gao Fu Sunday revealed the news during a webinar hosted by Alibaba Health, an arm of the Chinese e-commerce giant, and Cell Press, an American publisher of scientific journals.

He also said that taking the jab himself was an attempt to persuade the public to follow suit when one is approved.

Gao did not say when or how he took the vaccine candidate, leaving it unclear whether he was injected as part of a government-approved human trial.

The claim underscores the enormous stakes as China competes with US and British companies to be the first with a vaccine to help end the pandemic - a feat that would be both a scientific and political triumph.

China has positioned itself to be a strong contender. Eight of the nearly two dozen potential vaccines in various stages of human testing worldwide are from China, the most of any country.

Gao declined to say which of the vaccines he was injected with, saying he didn't want to be seen as 'doing some kind of propaganda' for a particular company.

Last month, Gao was a coauthor on a paper introducing one candidate, an 'inactivated' vaccine made by growing the whole virus in a lab and then killing it. That candidate is being developed by an affiliate of state-owned SinoPharm.

The company previously said in an online post that 30 employees, including top executives, helped 'pre-test' its vaccine in March, before it was approved for its initial human study. Scientists vehemently debate such self-experimentation, because what happens to one or a few people outside a well-designed study is not usable evidence of safety or effectiveness.

China has positioned itself to be a strong contender. Eight of the nearly two dozen potential vaccines in various stages of human testing worldwide are from China. This file picture taken on April 29 shows an engineer testing an experimental vaccine for COVID-19 in Beijing

A state-owned Chinese company injected employees with experimental shots in March, that even before the government-approved testing in people - a move that raised ethical concerns among some experts, reported The Associated Press earlier this month.

Chinese state media have also reported that employees of state-owned companies going abroad are being offered injections of the vaccine.

Gao said he took the injection to instill public confidence in vaccines, especially amid a tide of rising mistrust that has fuelled conspiracy theories and attacks on scientists.

'Everybody has suspicions about the new coronavirus vaccine,' Gao said. 'As a scientist, you've got to be brave. ... If even we didn't do it, how can we persuade the whole world - all the people, the public - to be vaccinated?'

Andrew Rennekamp, an editor at Cell and one of the moderators of Gao's webinar, said, 'This is a brave thing to do, and it shows his faith in what he believes is the safety of the vaccine and his commitment to the science and to public health.'

Even as China is among the leaders in the global race for a vaccine, it is also striving to overcome years of drug scandals - the latest coming in 2018 when authorities recalled a rabies vaccine and later announced that batches of childrens DPT vaccines, for diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus, were ineffective.

Gao himself had also been under heavy scrutiny for the China CDCs initial handling of the coronavirus outbreak, both at home and abroad. He largely vanished from public view for months, resurfacing again in an interview with state media in late April.

Recently, Gao has been involved in research on the coronavirus.

As vaccine research continues, China's CDC is now looking into potential immunisation programs, trying to figure out whether to prioritise children, the elderly or healthcare workers, he said.

Gao's revelations come at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions fuelled by the outbreak. Beijing's delays in warning the public and releasing data at the beginning of the outbreak contributed significantly to the coronavirus's spread, while President Donald Trump and other American politicians have made unsubstantiated claims that the virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where it was first detected.

Tensions have flared to the point where its now disrupting research, leading to frustration among scientists who work with Chinese collaborators. The Trump administration has moved to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization, and has cut funding to research initiatives studying coronaviruses in China.

Gao said repeatedly in his lecture that he wanted more cooperation between the US and China, pleading for unity even as relations between Beijing and Washington plummet to new lows.

'We dont want to have China and the U.S. separated scientifically,' Gao said. 'Weve got to work together.'
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EnWave Corporation (TSX-V:ENW | FSE:E4U) (EnWave, or the "Company") announced today that the Company has obtained a Research License from Health Canada under the Cannabis Act for its Vancouver-based facilities (the License).



With a pilot plant that is now approved for independent research and development for cannabis products, EnWave has the ability to expedite process development and data analytics for terpene and cannabinoid retention along with other critical properties of cannabis. This strategy is designed to further demonstrate the significant value proposition of the Companys proprietary, vacuum-microwave drying technology. Previous trials conducted at our licensed partners facilities yielded very positive results. With a Health Canada License, this valuable in-house research can further facilitate adoption decisions by Canadian and international cannabis producers looking to up-scale their post-harvest drying operations. It also allows EnWave to better advance the research process, working independently and in collaboration with cannabis companies at its on-site facilities. Through its new licensed capabilities, EnWave is intensifying its efforts to support licensed producers looking to improve their drying processes.

EnWaves proprietary Radiant Energy Vacuum (REV) drying technology provides cannabis producers with a rapid drying solution that creates high quality cannabis products for both extraction and combustion, while reducing processing bottlenecks at lower operating costs. The REV process also significantly reduces the bioburden in the product and reduces crop loss due to microbes and other quality issues. REV has already been adopted by several licensed cannabis and hemp producers in Canada, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia and the United States of America.

With EnWave conducting on-site trials with a variety of cannabis strains, the perceived technology risk is anticipated to be materially reduced for prospective licensees and is targeted to stimulate new licenses and REV equipment sales into the sector.

Story continues

About EnWave

EnWave Corporation, a Canadian advanced technology company, has developed Radiant Energy Vacuum (REV)  an innovative, proprietary method for the precise dehydration of organic materials. EnWave has further developed patented methods for uniformly drying and decontaminating cannabis through the use of REV technology, shortening the time from harvest to marketable cannabis products.

REV technologys commercial viability has been demonstrated and is growing rapidly across several market verticals in the food, and pharmaceutical sectors, including legal cannabis. EnWaves strategy is to sign royalty-bearing commercial licenses with innovative, disruptive companies in multiple verticals for the use of REV technology. The company has signed over thirty royalty-bearing licenses to date. In addition to these licenses, EnWave established a Limited Liability Corporation, NutraDried Food Company, LLC, to manufacture, market and sell all-natural dairy snack products in the United States, including the Moon Cheese brand.

EnWave has introduced REV as a disruptive dehydration platform in the food and cannabis sectors: faster and cheaper than freeze drying, with better end product quality than air drying or spray drying. EnWave currently offers two distinct commercial REV platforms:

nutraREV which is a drum-based system that dehydrates organic materials quickly and at low-cost, while maintaining high levels of nutrition, taste, texture and colour; and, quantaREV which is a tray-based system used for continuous, high-volume low-temperature drying.

EnWave is also active in the pharmaceutical industry through a joint development agreement with GEA Lyophil, a leader in GMP drying machinery.



More information about EnWave is available at www.enwave.net .



EnWave Corporation

Mr. Brent Charleton, CFA

President and CEO

For further information:

Brent Charleton, CFA , President and CEO at +1 (778) 378-9616

E-mail: bcharleton@enwave.net

Dan Henriques, CA, CPA, Chief Financial Officer at +1 (604) 835-5212

E-mail: dhenriques@enwave.net



Safe Harbour for Forward-Looking Information Statements: This press release may contain forward-looking information based on management's expectations, estimates and projections. All statements that address expectations or projections about the future, including statements about the Company's strategy for growth, product development, market position, expected expenditures, and the expected synergies following the closing are forward-looking statements. All third party claims referred to in this release are not guaranteed to be accurate. All third party references to market information in this release are not guaranteed to be accurate as the Company did not conduct the original primary research. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. 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.

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.




Johnnie Walker releases 3 new whiskeys, new label celebrating 200th anniversary

A global Scotch whiskey maker is celebrating its 200th anniversary with the limited release of three new spirits and an updated label.

The 200th anniversary releases are in celebration of the brands journey since it was founded in Scotland in 1820 by grocer John Walker. The announcement coincides with the founders birthday; distribution of the whiskeys will launch in October.

Johns spark, vision and entrepreneurial fire were the impetus to growing the John Walker name, our business and ultimately a new future for Scotch whisky, said John Williams, Diageo Global scotch director. This year were celebrating the steps he first took - steps that have inspired generations of our whisky makers and are at the heart of everything we do today and will do tomorrow.

The brand is now owned by Diageo Global, which also owns Crown Royal, Smirnoff, Ciroc, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness, among others.

Heres a look at the anniversary whiskeys:

Blue Label 200th Anniversary limited edition design : The label features illustrations depicting the 200-year journey of the brand, paying homage to some of the cities and countries that have been part of it.

Johnnie Walker Blue Label Legendary Eight : This spirit celebrates 200 years of craft. It is a smooth, mellow Scotch crafted using whisky hand selected from eight distilleries that all existed in 1820, including rare expressions from long-closed ghost distilleries.

John Walker & Sons Celebratory Blend : This limited-edition release is inspired by the launch of Old Highland Whisky in the 1860s, which was a breakthrough moment in John Walker & Sons history. This rich and complex Scotch is inspired by the flavors found in the Walker familys grocery store during that period and is crafted with whiskies from distilleries operating at the time.

John Walker & Sons Bicentenary Blend: This whisky is a sensorial journey down the fragrant aisles of John Walkers original grocery store in Scotland with layers that re-imagine the flavors that shaped John Walkers imagination. It is crafted with rare and exceptional whiskies, all aged for at least 28 years, including whiskies from long-closed ghost distilleries such as Pittyvaich, Cambus and soon to be re-opened Port Ellen.

Each of these exclusive releases bring a fresh perspective to our 200th anniversary story and are the perfect way to celebrate this moment for Johnnie Walker, said Jim Beveridge, Johnnie Walker master blender.

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An In Independent Review Panel has cleared the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, of any ethical wrongdoings.

The panels report was sent, on Monday, to the chairperson of the Bureau of Governors of the bank, Niale Kaba.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Independent Review Panel was set up by the Bureau of Governors of the Bank, following a complaint by the United States, to review the process by which two previous organs of the Bank  the Ethics Committee of the Board, and the Bureau of the Board of Governors  had previously exonerated Adesina.

The three-member Independent Review Panel include Mary Robinson, who is a former President of the Republic of Ireland, a former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Chairperson of the Elders, a global body of wise persons concerned with the worlds wellbeing; the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Gambia, Hassan B. Jallow; and Leonard McCarthy, a former Director of Public Prosecutions, a former Director for the Office of Serious Economic Offences, and a former Head of the Directorate of Special Operations of South Africa. He also served as the Vice President of Integrity for the World Bank for nine years.

After reviewing the activities of the ethics committee and the allegations against Mr Adesina, the independent panel said it concurs with the (Ethics) Committee in its findings in respect of all the allegations against the President and finds that they were properly considered and dismissed by the Committee.

Read the full report below.

Report of Panel of High-Level Independent Experts

Reviewing Report of Ethics Committee of African

Development Bank and Response of President Thereto

Introduction

On 4 June 2020 the Chairperson of the Bureau of the Board of Governors of the African

Development Bank Group issued a communique stating that it had agreed to authorize an

Independent Review of the Report of the Ethics Committee of the Board of Directors dated 26 April 2020 relative to allegations made against the President of the Bank Group.

On 1 July 2020, the Chairperson announced the selection of a High-Level Panel of Independent Experts to conduct that Review. The members are: Mrs Mary Robinson, Chair, Justice Hassan B Jallow and Mr Leonard F McCarthy.

The task of the Panel is to conduct an assessment or review of the Report dated 26 April 2020 of the Ethics Committee of the Board of Directors regarding allegations against the President of the Bank that the Committee received from anonymous whistle-blowers on 19 January 2020, how the Committee considered those allegations and its findings as well the submissions made by the President of the Bank in response to those allegations.

The African Development Bank was established by an Agreement signed on 4 August 1963, which entered into force on 10 September 1964. It was thereafter amended on a number of occasions, as its membership was expanded. It is here described, with the African Development Fund, as the Bank.

READ ALSO:

The purpose of the Bank is to contribute to the sustainable economic development and social progress of the regional members individually and jointly. Pursuant to Article 29 (1) of the Agreement., the powers of the Bank are vested in the Board of Governors. The Board shall have sole power to elect, suspend or remove the President from office. Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina is the President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank. One of the functions of the Bank (and by extension the Board of Governors), is to undertake such other activities and provide such other services as may advance its purpose. The Bureau of the Board of Governors has, as an ancillary of selecting a panel to undertake an independent review, as in the present matter. The of the Bureau of the Board of 4 June 2020 is, as stated, in the interest of the Bank Group to find a solution that would carry every Governor along in resolving the matter, as well as to preserve the integrity of the Bank Group and its governance mechanisms.

African Development Bank

The Panels Consideration of the Report

The Panel proposes to divide its Report as follows:

Firstly, it will review all aspects of the handling by the Ethics Committee of the complaints submitted to it by the whistle blowers, to include the manner in which it described its obligations, its assessment of the complaints and its adoption of its Report. This part will include a detailed case-by-case review of the Ethics Committees decisions on the individual complaints.

Secondly, in the interests of due process, the Panel will consider the submissions made by the President to the Ethics Committee.

The Panels Consideration of the Work of the Committee

I. Codes of Conduct

a) The Code of Conduct for Executive Directors was adopted by the Board of Directors of the Bank on 25 April 2001. It has been amended on a number of subsequent occasions. It did not, as originally adopted, apply to the President.

b) The task of Enforcement of the Code, was conferred by Article 18 of the Code on the Ethics Committee which was given general responsibility for determining all questions relating to the Code of Conduct and for enforcing the standards set forth in the Code of Conduct.

c) Particular responsibility was assigned to the General Counsel of the Bank, who was to serve in an advisory capacity as counsel to the Committee, to serve as Secretary of the Committee, and [to] keep summary records of the meetings of the Committee and a full record of the recommendations of the Committee. (Article 18 of the Code) d) By Resolution B/BG/2008/11 of 14 May 2008 (the Resolution) the provisions of the Code of Conduct for Executive Directors of the Bank were made applicable to the President (see Article 1).

II. Whistle Blowing and Complaints Handling Policy

This policy was adopted in January 2007 in furtherance of the Bank Groups desire to strengthen the Banks system of integrity and the fight against corruption and related offences.

a) A Whistle-Blower is defined (paragraph 5) as any person or party who conveys or is proven to be about to convey a concern, allegation or any information indicating that Fraud, Corruption or any other Misconduct is occurring or has occurred in the Bank or in a Bank Project; with knowledge or good faith belief that the concern, allegation or information is true.

b) The Ethics Committee is not assigned any express role in respect of the Policy. However, Section 2.2 states that: The Auditor General is designated as the advocate for whistleblowers and is authorized to implement this Policy. The Anti-Corruption and Fraud Investigation Division (PIAC) in the Office of the Auditor-General shall be responsible for undertaking investigations under this Policy. As the whistle-blowers point out, the responsibility for investigation of Fraud and Staff Misconduct has been transferred from the Auditor General to PIAC. In the events that have happened, the functions of the Auditor General and of PIAC have been assimilated, in the case of complaints involving the President, to the Ethics Committee.

c) Complaints may be made anonymously. However, Section 4.2 provides:

Allegations and concerns expressed anonymously shall be considered at the discretion of the Auditor General. In the exercise of such discretion, the factors to be considered by the Auditor General shall include, without limitation, the seriousness of the allegation, its credibility, and the extent to which the allegation can be confirmed or corroborated by attributable sources.

III. The Complaints

The facts regarding the presentation of the complaints are as follows:

a) On 19 January 2020 the Ethics Committee received a document purporting to be signed by A Group of Concerned Staff Members of the AFDB. (hereinafter called the whistleblowers). It claimed to relate to serious and repeated breaches of the Code of Conduct by the President.

b) The covering letter claimed that it was being transmitted both in accordance to [sic] the Whistle-Blowing and Complaints Handling Policy of the African Development Bank and to Resolution B/BG/2008/11 mentioned at paragraph 2.d above. Thus the whistle-blowers expressly accepted the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee to deal with the complaints. As stated at Chapter IV (b) above, the two procedures have been effectively assimilated.

c) The covering letter also emphasised the wish of the whistle-blowers, who were not named, to protect their anonymity;

d) The Complaints were, therefore, transmitted to:

o The Ethics Committee;

o The Director of the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Department (PIAC);

o The Chairpersons of the Audit and Finance Committee.

o The accompanying document contained sixteen individual complaints of alleged

breaches by the President of the Bank of the Code of Ethics. These complaints

were variously described as amounting to unethical conduct, impediment to

efficiency, political activity, private gain, impediment to efficiency, preferential

treatment, adversely affecting confidence in the integrity of the Bank.

o A number of the sixteen instances contained allegations of fact. In no case was any

supporting evidence, documentary or otherwise, presented in support.

IV. Resolution B/BG/2008/11

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This Resolution is fundamental to the entire procedure. It is the legal basis through which the Code of Conduct is made applicable to the President of the Bank. It is also the legal provision pursuant to which the Ethics Committee handled the complaints.

a. The following are the key relevant provisions:

Article 2 is headed Procedures for Lodging a Complaint before the Ethics Committee. It provides: Any complaint or allegation relating to the violation by the President of the provisions of the Code of Conduct shall be submitted in writing to the Ethics Committee provided for in Article 18 of the said Code of Conduct either in person, through the Chairperson of the Audit and Finance Committee (AUFI) of the Boards of Directors, or through the Auditor General of the Bank. Article 3 is headed: Preliminary Review and Transmittal of a Complaint by the Ethics Committee. It provides: The Ethics Committee shall conduct a preliminary examination of the complaint or allegation to determine whether it is based on apparently solid justifications with a view to submitting it to the Chairperson of the Bureau of the Board of Governors under the following conditions:

 If the preliminary examination of the complaint or allegation

shows that it is frivolous or not based on any objective and

solid facts it shall be dismissed;

 If the preliminary examination of the complaint or allegation

reveals facts that are capable of establishing violations of the

Code of Conduct, the complaint or allegation shall be

submitted to the Chairperson of the Bureau of the Board of

Governors for further examination.

b. Thus, the first obligation of the Ethics Committee, upon receiving a complaint

pursuant to the Resolution, is to conduct a preliminary examination of the complaint

or complaints. The Ethics Committee does not, itself proceed beyond the stage of

preliminary examination. Any further examination or investigation can take place

only if the complaint is referred to the Chairperson of the Bureau of the Board of

Governors.

c. The Resolution mandates a strict distinction between a preliminary examination and

an investigation.

V. Procedures of the Ethics Committee

a) Following the receipt of the complaints the Board of Directors of the Bank Group, as disclosed to the Ethics Committee at its meeting on 27 February, held a closed session and decided to refer the complaints to the Ethics Committee. The complaints had, in fact, already been transmitted to the Committee.

b) The Ethics Committee, at an informal meeting on 5 February 2020, in the absence of the General Counsel, decided to ask the whistle blowers to provide additional information relating to the allegations contained in their complaint. The Committee thus wrote to the whistle-blowers on 6 February and asked them, in order to permit it to conduct a preliminary examination of the complaint or allegation to determine whether it is based on apparently solid justifications as required to submit to the ECBD, evidence which you may have to substantiate the allegations.

c) The whistle-blowers replied on 7 February, stating: This (sic) has never been our intention to provide evidence of our allegations. They gave two reasons for declining to provide evidence. Firstly, they said that most of them, presumably meaning evidence in support of the allegations would expose [their] identity. Secondly, they added that they feared that the validity of such evidence would ultimately be contested because obtained illegally. The Panel does not find these explanations to be persuasive. They also maintained that it was the responsibility of the Ethics Committee to gather the evidence if it so wishes. Thus, the whistle-blowers declined, with one exception, to provide evidence in support of any of the complaints sent by them to the Ethics Committee on 19 January 2020. On 13 February they provided two computer links to photographs apparently intended to show that there was friendship between the President and the person mentioned in complaint number 6, dating back some 35 years.

d) On 7 February, the Chairperson of the Ethics Committee provided the President of the Bank with a copy of the complaints received by the Committee on 19 January. This was done in the interest of Due Process, although Article 7 of the Resolution requires due-process procedures to be accorded to the President only in the case of an investigation and not in the case of a preliminary examination pursuant to Article 3.

e) The Ethics Committee proceeded to conduct the examination of the complaints as required by Resolution B/BG/2008/11 of 14 May 2008. The Committee held a series of meetings on 27 February, 12 March, 26 March, 2 April and 9 April 2020 with a view to performing its function of conducting a preliminary examination of the sixteen allegations contained in the complaint.

f) The meetings of the Committee were attended by the General Counsel. Article 2(8) of its Terms of Reference provides: The General Counsel, or if absent, a formally designated representative, shall serve in an advisory capacity as counsel to the Committee. In addition, the General Counsel shall serve as Secretary to the Committee and in such capacity, shall keep summary records of the meetings of the Committee and a full record of the recommendations of the Committee. The General Counsel shall not, however, be, in either capacity, a member of the Committee. The General Counsel provided advice to the Committee verbally and provided a written Legal Note on 16 March. The Committee insisted, however, that the role of the General Counsels Office was advisory and that decisions would be taken by the Committee itself.

g) The following are key points from the advice provided by the General Counsel:

o the actions of the Committee were to be governed by the provisions of

Resolution No. B/BG/2008/11, which provides, at Article 3, that the

Committee is required to conduct a preliminary examination of the

complaint or allegation to determine whether it is based on apparently

solid justifications.

o The General Counsel advised the Committee on 26 March and the

Committee accepted that the whistle-blowers complaints were

formally admissible since they were made against an elected officer.

Thus, they fell within the Committees mandate. Substantive

admissibility could be determined only following a point-by-point

examination of the individual allegations,

o The General Counsel advised, in various terms, that a preliminary

examination is an initial assessment of the facts and circumstances

submitted to the Committee in order to determine whether on their

face they reveal information on which a reasonable person would come

to the conclusion as to whether those facts and circumstances warrant

further inquiry based on probable cause or not. He added that it is an

examination of the facts to determine if they are credible on the face of

them (prima facie) or if they are frivolous. He concluded that a

preliminary examination is  an ex ante review of the complaint or

allegation to screen out frivolous or vexatious allegations.

o At certain points, the General Counsel said that the burden of proof

(an expression not used in the Resolution) was on any person who

alleges a series of facts, a proposition which was accepted by the Ethics

Committee in its report, in the sense that it believed that the complaints

needed to have some basis in fact.

h) PIAC: The Committee determined on 12 March that it would invite the Director of the

Integrity and Anti-Corruption Department of the Bank (PIAC) and the Auditor General to its

subsequent meetings with the object of discovering which of the allegations by the whistleblowers

were under investigation by PIAC or the Auditor General:

i. The Director of PIAC attended meetings of the Ethics Committee and engaged in

detailed discussions. However, it emerged that PIAC could play little if any role

in the deliberations of the Committee with regard to the whistle-blowers

complaints.

ii. The Director explained that, while the Committees mandate focuses on elected

officers, the mandate and jurisdiction of PIAC cover only employees and contractors. The investigation of elected officers is beyond its mandate. In the event that PIAC encountered a matter concerning an elected officer, it would, however, be bound to report it to the Ethics Committee.

iii. PIAC has received and has looked at the complaints of the whistle-blowers. Its

general view is that it is not within PIACs mandate to investigate them. It noted

that one allegation (number 8) mentioned alleged sexual harassment of one

staff member (not the President) by another, which, for that reason, would fall

within PIACs mandate. The Director said that there was no substance in the

allegation.

iv. Moreover, the General Counsel advised that, once an investigation is

undertaken by one organ of the Bank, it would constitute double jeopardy, if

another organ of the Bank were to investigate the same matter. Furthermore, all

PIACs reports are confidential and cannot be provided to the Ethics Committee.

v. The Director was asked to consider each of the sixteen complaints of the

whistle-blowers. In the great majority of cases, there was no investigation of the

complaint by PIAC. Insofar as there were issues concerning some of the areas of

Bank activity under some form of inquiry by PIAC, none of them related to an

elected officer and, thus not to the President.

i) The Auditor General. The Committee also invited the Auditor General to attend its meetings with a view to finding out which, if any, of the whistle-blowers complaints had been audited by his office. As already noted, the Auditor General had formerly been authorised to implement the Whistle-Blowing and Complaints Handling Policy. However, the Auditor General had not received the whistle-blowers complaints, which had been sent to PIAC, until they were supplied to him by the Committee. The Auditor General informed the Committee that his office does not conduct investigations. It looks at processes and robustness of controls. If, in the course of an audit a whistle-blower makes a complaint relating to controls, it is examined as part of the audit, but if it relates to alleged misconduct which need investigation, the Auditor General refers it to PIAC. If a complaint concerns an elected

officer, the Auditor General will refer it to the Ethics Committee.

j) The President: On 8th April the Committee received a memorandum and supporting documents from the President in response to the complaints which had been furnished to him.

VI. Consideration of Complaints by Ethics Committee

It is important to recall that the Ethics Committee received the detailed written and oral advice of the General Counsel and that it engaged in detail with both PIAC and with the Auditor General. It is equally important to note that the consideration of the complaints of the whistle-blowers was, pursuant to the Resolution, a function of the Ethics Committee.

Bearing in mind that it had already determined the formal admissibility of the complaints at its meeting on 26 March the Committee proceeded on 2 April to address their substantive admissibility.

It employed an excel template submitted to the Committee members by the Vice Chairperson of the Committee. The General Counsel advised that the Committee should look at the allegations and the surrounding circumstances and determine whether, in their view they looked credible.

Each member of the Committee presented his or her analysis of each of the sixteen allegations. Following their deliberations, they reached a consensus that fourteen of the allegations were unfounded and without merit and should be dismissed.

The Committee decided to continue its deliberations at its next meeting on 9 April in relation to complaint number 4, which concerned alleged mismanagement of an agricultural programme and complaint number 10 concerning awards received by the President and potential costs borne by the Bank for such awards.

On 9 April the Committee firstly considered how they should treat the memorandum and supporting documents received from the President on 8 April. It heard the advice of the General Counsel, which was to the effect that the Committee was currently undertaking a preliminary examination and that this implied that the President was not required to appear before it to adduce any evidence since such a prerogative was within the purview of the Bureau of the Board of Governors.

The General Counsel added that, because of the amount of time that it had taken for the Committee to conduct its preliminary review, and the fact that the allegations have been made public, the President had felt compelled to provide a response. The General Counsel advised the Committee that the material received provided a second side to the story, and it was within the purview of the Committee either to consider it or to transmit it to the Bureau of the Board of Governors as received along with its report to the Chairperson of the Bureau.

Having taken due note of the advice of the General Counsel, the Committee determined that given that its mandate was limited to conducting a preliminary examination, it was not in a position to go through the documents received from the President as it does not have the mandate to reflect upon them. It decided to finalize its report to the Bureau of the Board of Governors and to append the documents received by the Committee from the President.

AfDB president Adesina honoured by Swazi King at traditional ceremony

The Committee then conducted a preliminary examination of the two outstanding allegations, numbers 4 and 10. It decided unanimously that both allegations were unsubstantiated and that they should be dismissed. In relation to each of these cases, it decided as follows:

The TAAT was validly approved by the Board of Directors. Although its discussions with PIAC revealed that there was an ongoing investigation, potentially raising concerns relating to staff, no elected officer, including the President, had been shown to be implicated in any wrongdoing;

The allegation suggesting that awards received by the President and associated costs allegedly borne by the Bank were unsubstantiated and lacked support of any solid facts or information to back them up.

The General Counsel, as was his duty, prepared the Report of the Ethics Committee.

VII. Panels Review of the Report of the Ethics Committee

The first and principal function of this Panel is to review the Report of the Ethics Committee. This requires the Panel to conduct an independent and objective review of how the Ethics Committee handled the complaints received by it on 19 January 2020 and ultimately reported on them. The following summarises the steps taken by the Ethics Committee in the performance of its duty.

The Duty of the Committee: From the outset, the Committee had to identify for itself the precise duty imposed on it by the Code of Conduct of the Bank. For this purpose, it had available to it the assistance and advice of the General Counsel. Next it had to adopt procedures to enable it to identify and collate any available evidence relevant to the complaints. It then had to consider and discuss that evidence and reach conclusions about the extent, if any, to which the complaints were borne out by the evidence. Finally, with the assistance of the General Counsel, it had to reduce those conclusions to the form of a Report, comprising the result of a preliminary examination of the complaints pursuant to Article 3 of the Resolution.

a. The Ethics Committee: Under Article 18 of the Code of Conduct, as stated at Chapter III b above, the Ethics Committee, which is a Committee of the Board of Directors has general responsibility for determining all questions relating to the Code of Conduct and for enforcing the standards set forth in the Code of Conduct.

b. The Revised Terms of Reference of the Ethics Committee adopted on 25 April 2001

provides for the composition and procedures of the Ethics Committee. Its members are Executive Directors of the Bank.

c. Originally, the Code of Conduct applied to the Executive Directors of the Bank and other named officials but not to the President of the Bank.

d. The Resolution: Resolution No B/BG/2008/11 of 14 May 2008 (the Resolution), as

stated at Chapter III d above, provided that the provisions of the Code of Conduct for Executive Directors of the African Development Bank and the African Development Fund (the Code of Conduct) [should] apply to the President. Article 2 of the Resolution lays down the procedures for lodging a complaint before the Ethics Committee.

e. Complaints: Any complaint relating to an alleged violation of the Code of Conduct by the President must, as provided by Article 2 of the Resolution, be submitted in writing to the Ethics Committee. The complaint may be submitted either in person or, in the alternative through the Chairperson of the Audit and Finance Committee or through the Auditor General.

f. Preliminary Examination Article 3 of the Resolution lays down a special procedure

whereby the Ethics Committee is required to conduct a preliminary examination of the complaint or allegation to determine whether it is based on apparently solid

justifications with a view to submitting it to the Chairperson of the Bureau of the Board of Governors The preliminary examination is an essential precondition to any substantive investigation of a complaint against the President under the Resolution. Only where a preliminary examination reveals facts that are cable of violations of the Code of Conduct,.. may the complaint or allegation be submitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Governors for further examination. (Article 3, second indent). This is further emphasised by Article 4 of the Resolution, which provides that the Chairperson of the Bureau of the Board of Governors, in consultation with other members of the said Bureau, shall have sole competence to finally determine whether or not there exists a reasonable basis for pursuing a complaint or an allegation in relation to the violation by the President of any provision of the Code of Conduct.

g. General Counsel: As recounted earlier, the Committee received both written and oral advice from the General Counsel. Particularly regarding the meaning of a preliminary examination and the interpretation of the Resolution, including references to the standard or burden of proof which lay on the complainants or whistle-blowers.

h. PIAC and Auditor General. The Committee invited the attendance of both PIAC and the Auditor General at its meetings and discussed the extent, extremely limited in each case, to which they had investigated any of the sixteen complaints.

i. Burden of Proof. Both the General Counsel and the Committee itself occasionally

suggested that a burden of proof lay on the complainants or whistle-blowers.

However, that term is not used in the Resolution. Rather Article 3 of the Resolution

requires the Committee, when conducting its preliminary examination to determine whether [a complaint] is based on apparently solid justifications Article 3 further

requires that a complaint be dismissed where it is frivolous or not based on any objective and solid facts. It is clear that these two expressions are intended to have the same meaning. They perform the same function, i.e., to assist the Committee in conducting its preliminary examination. The General Counsel and the Committee

occasionally used the expression, burden of proof, intending it to guide the Committee in conducting the preliminary examination envisaged by Article 3.

j. Consistently with this the Committee, when ruling on individual complaints, used various expressions all connoting deficiency of evidence. Most commonly, it described complaints as unsubstantiated. It also spoke of lack of credible evidence or of solid facts or information. These and other expressions conveyed the Committees view that there was either no, or no sufficient, evidence to support a complaint. This approach was entirely consistent with the Committees function in conducting the preliminary examination.

k. The proceedings of the Ethics Committee are recorded in the Minutes of five lengthy meetings held on 27 February, 12 March, 27 March and 2 and 9 April 2020. The Minutes show that the Committee engaged in detailed analysis and debate on each of the sixteen complaints. It used an excel template provided to it by its Vice Chairperson to assist in a point-by-point examination. Firstly, it reached a consensus at its meeting on 2 April that fourteen of the complaints were unfounded and should be dismissed. On 9 April, it considered the remaining two complaints and reached the conclusion that each of them was unsubstantiated and should also be dismissed.

l. Having followed the procedures outline here, the Committee, with the assistance of its General Counsel reduced the results of its deliberations to writing and, on 26 April 2020, presented it to the Chairperson of the Board of Governors of the Bank Group.

VIII. Review of Individual Complaints

The Panel has, in Chapters I to VII reported on the general issues and principles relating to the conduct by the Ethics Committee of its function pursuant to the Resolution of receiving, considering and reporting on the complaints made to it by the whistle-blowers and, in particular, reporting on its preliminary examination of the complaints received by it on 19 January 2020. The Panel now proceeds to consider separately the decisions of the Committee on each of the sixteen individual complaints.

AFDB President Dr Akinwunmi Adesina visits President Buhari [Photo  @BayoMomboriowo]

The Panel, in reporting on individual cases, has adopted a policy of preserving, so far as possible, the anonymity of individual persons named in the complaints. Those persons, in many, indeed most cases, were not the object of the complaints. The Complainants themselves carefully guarded their own anonymity. More importantly, in circumstances where the Ethics Committee did not uphold any of the complaints, it would be unfair to name individuals and would run the risk of exposing innocent persons to unfair exposure and potential reputational damage.

The Panel would add that it does not necessarily follow from the dismissal of a complaint that there are not matters worthy of investigation. This has prompted the Panel to make comments in some cases. These do not detract from the Panels conclusion that the complaints, which were all made against the President were correctly dismissed at the stage of preliminary examination.

Allegation Number One

Non Respect of Internal Rules and Regulations in recruitment- The Complainants charged the President of the Bank with playing a very active role in the recruitment of all managerial positions, acting as the de facto HR Manager. he is known to have excluded top-rated candidates from shortlists and to have cancelled shortlists drawn up by independent recruitment panels.

The complainants declined to provide any evidence in support of this allegation. The ECBD concluded that the allegation was unfounded and should be dismissed on the grounds that the staff rules bestow authority on the President in respect of all staff, give him the power of appointment and promotion of staff and that all structures of the Bank on appointments and promotions are advisory to the President. This position of the ECBD appears to be based on an opinion of the General Legal Counsel of the Bank quoted by the complainants to wit: the President is better placed than any ad hoc interview panel to know which prospective candidate for employment by the Bank would be best suited in assisting him/her in delivering that vision (which he has been elected to deliver) .. he/she can recruit the person concerned without passing through an interview panel or any other formal process.

The Panel concurs with the finding/conclusion of the ECBD that this allegation is unfounded and should be dismissed, though not principally for the reason given by the ECBD. The Panel finds that the allegations are general: they lack specificity and are not supported by any information or evidence. Hence do not satisfy the threshold of credibility and substantiation required by the Resolution and should be dismissed.

The Panel is however concerned at the apparent position of both the General Legal Counsel and the ECBD in the matter of recruitment and promotion of staff. The Bank has rules and regulations governing recruitment, promotion and management of staff which should be respected especially by the President of the institution to maintain public trust and confidence in the institution. Undoubtedly, as the head of the institution the President will often rightly enjoy wide discretion to be exercised properly and fairly, in such matters. The Panel reiterates that no evidence of actual departure by the President from such standards has been presented by the complainants.

Allegation Number Two

Appointment of a named staff member.  The petitioners allege that this staff member was appointed to the Bank despite having been dismissed from the National Pension Commission of Nigeria following allegations of improper conduct and that the President of the Bank must have been aware of these circumstances.

It is also alleged that this staff member was appointed as a consultant at the request of the

President for a fee considerably higher than the applicable standard and that, in protest, the head of Human Resources resigned.

The complainants declined to provide any evidence to support any of these allegations. The complainants declined to proffer any evidence of the alleged dismissal of the staff member or of the personal involvement of the Bank President in her recruitment as a consultant to the Bank or of any protest or resignation by the head of HR of the Bank. The complaint was unsupported by any evidence. The Committee found the allegation to be unsubstantiated and dismissed them. The conclusion of the Committee is thus reasonable and correct.

Allegation Number Three

Appointment and promotion of a named person  The complaint is that: The staff member is alleged to be the Presidents brother-in-law, that at the Presidents request, he was appointed a lead expert to the VP Agriculture and promoted Adviser on both occasions without competition, then to a further senior position, while the incumbent was still in place as a result of which two salaries were being paid for the same position by the Bank in violation of the Bank Recruitment Manual.

The complainants once more declined to provide any evidence in support of any of the

allegations. The Committee held that the allegation was uncorroborated and should be

dismissed. While it focused on an alleged familial relationship between the staff member

and the President of the Bank, the existence of the alleged relationship was not supported

by any evidence. Furthermore, the complainants themselves state that it is not clear if the

alleged familial relationship played any part in the staff members recruitment and promotion. Far from supporting their allegations with evidence, the complainants seemed to be transmitting rumours/reports in respect of both the alleged familial relationship and the alleged request of the President for the recruitment of the staff member. This allegation was properly dismissed by the Committee.

Allegation Number Four

Alleged Mismanagement of a named agricultural technology Programme  The complainants allege that a grant of $40 Million was made by the Bank to a particular named beneficiary only after the President personally used all of his political weight to defend the transaction and lift the doubts of the Board of Directors of the Bank. It is further alleged that this was because the President was a former employee of the beneficiary and that the procurement rules were violated through direct procurement of $5.46 Million worth of pesticides when the grant contract specifically prohibited such a procurement method.

The complainants declined to provide any evidence in support of the allegations. The

Committee was right in dismissing this complaint as there was no evidence of personal

responsibility of the President in any wrongdoing in this programme. The Committee was

justified in dismissing the allegation.

This suffices to dismiss this complaint. The Panel would add that, at its meeting of 26th

March 2020 the PIAC Director disclosed to the Committee that in relation to the Agriculture

cases its investigation has uncovered elements of potential staff misconduct and potential sanctionable practices against certain companies. However. PIAC had uncovered no evidence linking the subject of the complaints, in particular the President, under consideration to the agriculture cases. If it had, it would have reported the matter to the Committee.

Allegation Number Five

Appointments and promotions of a named person It is alleged that the named staff member had long lasting professional ties with the President and worked for him when he was the Minister of Agriculture of Nigeria; that the staff member was appointed Director of Cabinet Office of the President in April 2017 without competition at a salary which was increased in breach of staff rules and that in 2018, despite falling into disgrace, this staff member was appointed by the President as a Director in a senior position to perform a function that does not exist in the current organizational chart; that almost no trace of actual work by her can be found and that according to the complainants information the special duty she was assigned by the President is to take care of his wife allegedly undergoing treatment in South Africa.

The complainants declined to provide any evidence to support any of these allegations. The Committee decided that the allegation was unsubstantiated and should be dismissed as it lacks credible evidence and was weakened by the inclusion of hearsay in it. The Panel finds this allegation to have been rightly dismissed by the Ethics Committee.

The Panel would add that the inclusion in the complaint of a far-fetched and unsupported

allegation that the staff member was engaged in, the care of the Presidents wife tends to

weaken the case and to discredit the process.

Allegation Number Six

Direct Contracting and appointment of a named person.  The complainants allege that the staff member, allegedly a childhood friend of the President was awarded a consultancy contract in 2017 which contract had been flagged by Internal Audit as being potentially subject to a conflict of interest. They suggest that the staff members close association should have been disclosed during the contracting or recruitment process.

The complainants declined to provide any evidence in support of the allegations other than a photograph of the President in the company of the staff member. The Committee

dismissed this allegation as unsubstantiated. They point out that there was a failure by the

complainants to report appearances of conflict of interest in the appointments of the consultants as required by the provisions of Presidential Directive No. 02/2012. The Panel is satisfied that the decision of the Ethics Committee was correct. The Panel considers the

complaint to be without merit.

Allegation Number Seven

Contracting of a named person  The complaint alleges that a particular individual was appointed as a consultant by the President immediately upon his retirement and was kept in office with an allegedly comfortable monthly fee and that his continued appointment as a consultant is in disregard of the presence of the Deputy Director General in Pretoria.

The Panel concurs with the Committee in dismissing the allegation on the grounds that the

alleged facts do not disclose any wrong doing nor are any rules specified by the complainants as having been violated by the President for his role in the award of the contract of consultancy in question.

Allegation Number Eight

Appointment of a named individual- The complaint alleges that this person was found guilty of sexually harassing a colleague during the probation period and that the then Human Resource Director refused to confirm his contract at the end of the probation period because of his alleged misconduct, that it was the President who requested the confirmation of the individuals contract despite this alleged sexual harassment and that the action of the President in turn contributed to the resignation in 2019 of the HR Director at the time.

The complainants provided no evidence in support of this serious allegation. This allegation, apart from being unsupported by evidence has, as it happens, been shown to be untrue. At the meeting of 26th March 2020 of the Ethics Committee, the Director of the PIAC disclosed that this allegation of sexual harassment had been investigated and found to be totally baseless and unfounded. Its discussions with the former Human Resource Director who had resigned also revealed, according to the minutes of that meeting, that she had absolutely no knowledge of the allegation of sexual harassment and that it was certainly not the reason for her resignation.

The allegations made against the named individual in this respect and also the President are totally false and unfounded, and the Committee was right in dismissing them.

Allegation Number Nine

Preferential Treatment for Nigeria and Nigerians  The complainants allege that under the current President, Nigeria was promoted to almost a fully-fledged Region of the Bank and that furthermore in the massive recruitment drive which followed his appointment, the President gave preferential treatment by recruiting a large and disproportionate number of Nigerians into the Bank.

The complainants declined to provide any evidence beyond their bare allegations. The

Committee looked into this allegation and found it to be unsubstantiated and that it should be dismissed. The decision of the Committee was correct.

The Panel would further observe that the Committee found that the whistle-blowers erred

in attributing the current country structure of the Bank to be the responsibility of the

President. The Board of Directors played its proper statutory role as required by Article 32 ofthe Agreement establishing the Bank.

Allegation Number Ten

Awards Received by the President  The complainants here allege that in 2017 and 2019, the President received two major awards, one being the World Food Prize of $250,000, and the other being the Sunhak Peace Prize of $500,000. The complainants state that the Bank supported associated costs of attendance of a large number of people at the award ceremonies.

The complainants do not state clearly whether these were awards made personally to the

President or as President of the Bank. They further allege that dozens of people- Bank staff, Directors, family members etc. attended these awards ceremonies at the Banks cost. They however failed to give any details of those who attended and the cost involved and to

confirm that these costs were borne by the Bank itself.

The complainants failed to provide any evidence to support their allegation or, indeed, any

evidence of alleged impropriety. The Panel concurs with the Committee in the dismissal of this complaint. There is no list of people who attended. There is no indication of the cost involved. There is no clarity as to whether those costs were undertaken by the Bank or not by the Bank. The Committee was accordingly right in finding that the allegations uncertain as they are, were not substantiated in any way and should be dismissed.

Allegation Number Eleven

Settlements for Staff Separations- The allegation here is very general that some separation packageswere negotiated by the Bank and that they seem to be unnecessarily and unreasonably costly or generous.

Only one specific instance is cited, namely a person who is alleged to have received a severance package of more than $400,000 just when his contract had been renewed. But even in relation to that specific instance, there are no specific allegations of wrongdoing or impropriety, only questions are raised by the complainants about that particular package. So far as the evidence goes, it would be perfectly consistent with the sums being based on accrued benefits based on years of service.

President @MBuhari receives President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. @Akin_Adesina, at the State House, Abuja. [PHOTO CREDIT: BASHIR AHMAD]

The complainants seem to be uncertain themselves as to whether it was proper or not

proper and raise questions. Whereas, they should actually have been more categoric and

provided supporting evidence to establish that it was an improper arrangement. The Panel

therefore agrees with the Committee in dismissing this allegation.

In addition to these considerations, the Committee itself has sufficiently explained the

circumstances surrounding the departure of the staff member as well as the level of the

severance package that he received and the Panel is satisfied with that and with the decision of the Committee to dismiss the allegation.

Allegation Number Twelve

Resignation of a named staff member  The complainants allege first that this staff member signed two service contracts through direct procurement amounting to $2.5 Million to the benefit of a Kenya recruitment firm in which he is alleged to have an interest and that he also exceeded his authority in that as a Director he could only sign contracts up to $100,000 whereas these two contracts amounted to $2.1 Million.

Furthermore, the complainants allege that the President of the Bank, once he became aware of these improprieties and while the staff member was under investigation, allowed him to resign from the Bank and paid him a substantial separation package.

The complainants declined to provide any evidence in support of the allegation. With regard to the first allegation, although the Committee did not refer to it in its report,

the PIAC Director did inform the Committee at its meeting of 26th March 2020, that that

allegation had been the subject of investigation by the PIAC and that the President of the

Bank had not been found to be in any way involved with that transaction and that if he had been the matter would have been reported to the Ethics Committee given that he is an

elected official. The Panel therefore concurs with the decision of the Committee to dismiss

this allegation against the President.

With regard to the second issue, that is the separation of the staff member with the

permission of the President and the payment of what is said to be a substantial amount of

compensation, the Committee itself came to the conclusion that the President under the

Rules of the Bank has no power to refuse to accept a resignation by a staff member even

while they are under investigation. So, there was nothing improper with him accepting the

resignation.

With regard to the separation package, no supporting evidence was provided by the

complainants as to the amount that the staff member received and whether it was proper

for him to have received such a package. In any case, the Committee dismissed that

allegation and rightly held that not only could the President not prevent resignation of a

staff member under investigation but that such a staff member is entitled to all his benefits under the Rules and these could not be withheld from him. The Panel therefore agrees with the conclusion of the Committee on this particular allegation.

Allegation Number Thirteen

Resignation of a named staff member  This staff member who was the Banks representative in one named country was alleged by the complainants to have been found guilty of serious misconduct after an audit investigation.

The complaint is that instead of being sanctioned by the Bank, the staff member was

allowed to resign and receive what the complainants called a golden parachute as part of an amicable settlement. The complainants have not provided any particulars, and elements of this alleged golden parachute.

The Committee rightly found as in the previous case that where a staff member resigns even under investigation they are entitled to their full benefits.

Furthermore, it should be noted that the PIAC in its report to the Ethics Committee on 26th

March 2020, indicated that the conduct of this staff member had been under investigation

but that there had been no evidence of any wrong doing by the President in this matter and if the PIAC had found such evidence it would have been reported to the Ethics Committee. The Panel concurs with the finding of the Ethics Committee in this case.

Allegation Number Fourteen

The appointment of a named individual to a senior position in the Bank. The complainants allege that the staff member used his position and fraudulently awarded two contracts to companies for a total amount of more than $18 Million and that the matter had been investigated, the responsibility of the staff member established but that until now no action has been taken by the Bank against him and that instead in October 2019, he was appointed by the President to a senior position.

The Committee held that this allegation is unsubstantiated and should be dismissed having regard to the briefing it received from PIAC to the effect that the staff member was not found to have been involved in any wrong doing following the outcome of the investigations on the award of the contracts.

Along the same lines, the Board of Directors of the Bank in discussions with the President of the Bank and on the advice of the General Legal Counsel, came to the conclusion that it was not legally justified to punish the staff member because he was following professional advice provided to him by the Procurement Department of the Bank in the award of the contracts.

Thus, there was no justification for him to be sanctioned. As a result, therefore, the award of these contracts was no impediment to his appointment to senior positions in the Bank. As a result, the allegation of the complainants in this matter was properly dismissed by the

Committee.

Allegation Number Fifteen

Disregard of rules concerning leave of absence of Vice Presidents or travel of management  The complainants allege here that senior management abuse the travel policy without sanction. The complainants claim that they cannot imagine that the absences of such staff have not been authorized by the President.

There is no evidence provided by the complainants that the President de facto or de jure has the authority to grant leave of absence for such officers and to refrain from sanctioning

them for unauthorized absences. They provided no evidence, other than surmise, that the

President in fact knew or authorized. For that reason, the Committee was right in dismissing the allegation against the President.

It is true that the complainants are quite specific. They provide details of two named

individuals allegedly taking excessive periods of leave. While the Panel agrees with the Ethics Committees conclusion that the allegation against the President should be dismissed in respect of these absences, the Panel nonetheless is of the view that these alleged abuses of travel policy by senior management particularly those specified by the complainants ought to be looked into to ensure that the Banks rules and regulations regarding travel and leave are fully complied with. This does not affect the Panels view that the complaint against the President was correctly dismissed.

Allegation Number Sixteen

Political Lobbying of Heads of State- The complainants describe the President as the unchallenged travel champion of the Bank. They allege that he uses the opportunities of these travels to meet with Heads of State and make promises, effectively by-passing Bank management in order to secure support for his re-election to a second term and to stifle competition.

The Committee found these allegations unsubstantiated and dismissed them. The Panel

however finds these allegations frivolous. It has to be recognized that the President as the

elected head of the Bank has to engage in diplomatic outreach. This does not necessarily

relate to his own re-election but is necessary in order to secure the widest possible political and diplomatic support for the institution. The allegation was properly dismissed.

The Panels Conclusions regarding Report of Ethics Committee The Panel is satisfied that the Ethics Committee considered the complaints received by it on 19 January 2020 in a comprehensive and responsible manner and followed correct procedures. It considered them, both as complaints submitted pursuant to the Resolution and pursuant to paragraph 4 of the Whistle-blowers Policy. It appropriately took the advice of the General Counsel in identifying its duty. It conducted a preliminary examination of the complaints as it was required. It took proper note of the criteria laid down for evaluating complaints and the sufficiency of supporting evidence. It consulted PIAC and the Auditor General. It engaged in discussion and debate of each individual complaint and reached a consensus on the outcome. It applied the correct standard and prepared a report for submission to the Chairperson of the Bureau of the Board of Governors.

The Panel concurs with the Committee in its findings in respect of all the allegations against the President and finds that they were properly considered and dismissed by the Committee.

Panel Review of Presidents Response to Complaints

 The Terms of Reference of the Panel as laid down by the Bureau of the Board of Governors

on 4 June 2020, require it to conduct an assessment or review of the submissions made by the President of the Bank Group in the interest of due process in response to the allegations levelled against him and to have regard to the documents, emails, annexes, and letters supporting his submission. The goal described by the Bureau of the Banks Board of Governors is to establish the propriety or otherwise of the process undertaken by the Ethics Committee.

 On 8 April 2020, Dr. Adesina, (hereinafter the President), having been notified by the

Committee of the complaints, submitted a detailed document to the Ethics Committee, contending that the specific facts contained in his submissions demonstrate that the complaints made in the Disclosure by the Unidentified Concerned Staff, did not meet the requirements of the Whistleblowing and Complaints Handling Policy of the Bank and that they were frivolous, and not based on objective and solid facts. Under the Terms of Reference, the Bureau of the Board of Governors directed this submission to the Panel, to assess and address in its Report to the Bureau (in the interest of due process).

 This is, therefore, a review of the submissions of the President, based on what is contained in the papers submitted by him. It is an unusual procedure. It is not a judgement, as the process does not lend itself to the reaching of any conclusions by the Panel. The Panels approach is to assess the Presidents memorandum on the face of his submissions, bearing in mind that the Ethics Committee did not deem it necessary to review its contents in conducting the preliminary examination of the complaints, as it was required by Article 3 of the Resolution. Our opinion is based on the common sense and prudence of a reasonable person looking at the facts. We have also considered two letters

by an attorney on the Presidents behalf.

 In essence, the President contends that the complaints are based on bad faith, that they are not informed by a reasonable belief but by ulterior motive, that some were carelessly or illogically made and some plain dishonest, untrue, and vexatious.

 As a preliminary matter, the Panel notes that it appears that the confidentiality of the Banks procedures was compromised by virtue of the fact that both the allegations made by the whistleblowers (the anonymous Group of concerned Staff Members) in their complaints and the response of the President have found their way into the public domain. This is unfortunate. Under the Whistle Blowing and Complaints Handling Policy of the Bank, public disclosure of fraud, corruption or misconduct is prohibited prior to use of the procedures set out in the policy (see Section 6). It is notable that the whistle-blowers were themselves careful to protect their anonymity. The Ethics Committee carefully maintained the confidentiality of their procedures.

 The Panel has already considered each of the sixteen complaints of the whistle-blowers in detail in the first part of this Report. At this point, it is required to consider the response of the President, which does not require it to engage in a corresponding case-by-case analysis. For ease of reading and interpretation, the Panel groups together complaints which share common elements.

 Complaint No 1: The first complaint is a general and sweeping allegation that the President regards human resource matters as his personal fiefdom, inserts himself in shortlisting processes, is actively involved in recruitment and implies that the delays, vacancies and lack of succession planning may be part of a strategy to reward countries for the support to the Presidents reelection.

The President does not directly deal with this allegation. As noted earlier it is not supported by specific examples. The thrust of the Presidents response throughout his submission, though, is that he has always acted in accordance with his powers as President of the Bank, in its best interest, that human resource management is conducted in an orderly fashion, employing standard recruitment practice and that some of the decisions complained of are taken under delegated authority.

Article 37 of the Agreement empowers the President as the chief of the staff of the Bank,

responsible for the organization of its officers and staff, and requires him/her to secure the highest levels of efficiency, technical competence and integrity, in appointing officers and staff.

 Furthermore, as was determined by the Ethics Committee in its Report, Staff Rule 33.00

confers authority upon the President in respect of all staff. Staff Regulation 6.1 gives him powers of appointment and promotion of staff. The Committee expressly found, correctly, in the view of the Panel that Rule 62.01 on staff appointments and promotions clearly implies that all structures of the Bank on appointment and promotion are advisory to the President.

 Complaints Numbers 4,9,10 and 16: We here group together the Presidents explanations

about non-staff related matters and distinguish them from other claims regarding personnel actions. As regards a decision by Bank management, (which included a Board discussion), to honour a contract under the TAAT program (complaint number 4), and the Presidents directives to pay a global supplier who delivered seed-coated technology used in the SADC region to prevent spread and infestation of Fall Army worms, he explained that he acted within the confines of the Banks articles of agreement, in the best interests of the Bank, and that there was nothing irregular about its handling. He did this to ward off a possible civil suit against the Bank for violating contractual obligations, and to protect its reputation, privileges, and immunities. The Panel considers the Presidents account of his actions to be reasonable.

In respect of complaint number 9, it should fall within the knowledge of the Board of Directors and the Board of Governors who initiated, updated, and approved the Banks organizational structure when the country office was established. It is alleged that the President promoted Nigeria to a fully-fledged region, giving preferential treatment to its nationals. In response to the allegation that this was done at his behest, the President replies that these decisions were made under his predecessors watch. He protests that these are frivolous charges, as he could not have violated the Code of Ethics by a Board decision taken before he assumed office. On that basis, he is clearly correct.

In respect of complaint number 10, the President goes on to declare that he donated the

two cash awards he received for the World Food Prize and the Sunhak Peace prize (for a lifetime of accomplishments) in 2017 and 2019 respectively, to the World Hunger Fighters Foundation, in order to support young African Agribusiness innovators. He explains that these facts were disclosed at the award ceremonies which were held in Iowa and Seoul, which are mentioned in complaint Number 10, as well as to the Banks Board. He says that the allegation that there was any impropriety smacks of false accusations maliciously made. He concludes by arguing that the attempt to portray the World Food Prize event as being for his personal benefit, is ill-founded and that Bank staff who attended it, went there to launch properly authorized TAAT initiatives. The complainants did not, of course have access to the Presidents responses. However, their complaints, as advanced, contain

nothing to counter these points. In response to the allegation of political lobbying of heads of State, (number 16) ostensibly to support his candidature in his re-election bid shortly after he gave a speech at its meeting, the President says that it implies that he basically bribed and corrupted 16 African Heads of State. He professes that theses fanciful and baseless allegations impugn the integrity of those persons. In all the circumstances, the Panel accepts the responses of the President.

 Complaints Numbers 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15: These cover a range of human

resource administration breaches, alleged preferential treatment being the most common thread. They contain accusations of questionable and rushed promotions, irregular contracting of consultants, biased confirmation of probationary periods, irregular settlements for staff separations, and disregard of rules regarding senior management travel and leave of absence. The Panel has already considered Number 8 and found it to be entirely lacking in substance. The danger with this type of accusation is that it later appears to be based on lopsided reasoning. The President says that he performed his role in the ordinary course of duties (i.e. confirming staff appraisals in each case), that he did not know the staff member in question, was entirely unaware of the alleged disqualification, and that the whistle blowers got the chronology wrong.

All of this stands uncontradicted. The Complaints appear to be no more than conjecture. There also appears to be little merit in the allegation (7) of impropriety in the Presidents granting of a waiver for the short-term recruitment of a retired Director-General who led the work, to support him in his capacity as Chairman of the Multi-Lateral Development Banks.

 Complaint Numbers 2, 3, 5 and 6: These relate to senior appointments, as (i) the senior

director of the Africa Investment Forum, (ii) director of Agriculture; (iii) director of the Cabinet Office; and (iv) the director of Communications. Except for (iii), the President states that all these were global recruitments handled by a renowned HR firm based in London, underpinned by a transparent, competitive process, international advertisement, rigorous shortlisting, an independent panel review, objective interview processes, and effective personnel vetting. The Presidents role was to give a final stamp of approval. He executed this fairly and equitably, informed by the fact that all these candidates came with excellent credentials and were highly recommended by the sitting interview panels. The President has denied a familial relationship with one candidate as alleged, denied that one was redeployed to take care of his spouse, falsely alleged to be receiving medical treatment in South Africa, and that responsibilities and decisions were attributed to him, that ignored completely the Banks delegation of authority matrix, and or that were just devoid of truth. In the absence of supporting material, these allegations are simply not substantiated.

 The President says that there is a standing and accepted practice in the Bank that an

incoming president can bring along his or her own Chief of Staff. The Panel is unable to pass judgment on this and has to accept that this is what was conveyed to, or understood by the President, during the transition and while he was taking up his duties. Equally, he rejects the insinuation that a friendship per se amounts to a conflict of interest when it comes to recruitment.

The second leg of complaint number 6 implies that the President inserted himself in a direct contracting and sole source procurement that has given rise to suspicion on the part of the complainants. He counters however, that the decision in question was that of the relevant Vice-President. Therefore, the insinuation is based entirely on speculation. An example of his account of events that presently stands uncontested based on the papers is that an audit of the engagement of the relevant communications consultant to steer the Banks communications plan through the Annual Meetings in India, was conducted by the Auditor General and given a clean bill of health. This, in addition to the fact that the decision was not his, and was resorted to, to avert a crisis.

 Complaints Numbers 11, 12 and 13: There appears to be either a disconnect, a

misunderstanding, or mischief in the conflicting averments about staff separations. The President contends that anyone is entitled to leave at any time and is entitled to full emoluments. This is an accepted practice under the HR rules and dispute resolution mechanisms of international organizations. As regards count 11 he points to what he regards as the utter illogic of the whistleblowers for blaming him for not acting on an investigation that was only initiated after the relevant staff member had left the Bank, the outcome of which was only reported to him (the President) 4 months ago, and was in any event found to be without substance. Similarly, he lays the blame for disinformation with the whistle blowers in what is advocated in count 12. He says this was not a case of dismissal of staff and that there was absolutely no improper payment involved. All that happened was that the relevant Vice-President departed with his entitlements (separation benefits) intact.

With regard to complaint number 13, the President convincingly states that, while he does not run country offices, he took action to protect the Bank and reverse decisions improperly arrived at. There is no counterargument on record.

 Complaints Numbers 14 and 15: The whistle-blowers describe Number 14 as a perplexing case of impunity. Complaint Number 15 questions the economic use of resources through unregulated travel and absences by senior staff of the Bank. On Number 14, the President explains why he took up the cudgels and intervened to stop an ongoing ostracization of a man who has long suffered through the vagaries of a flawed investigation, which was probably characterized by malicious intent. While he does not know the staff member in question and holds no brief for him, after a comprehensive review off the files, he engaged with the former head of PIAC and the General Counsel. He was unpersuaded about the merits of the case, an instinct that was borne out by the result in a Sanctions hearing against the company allegedly involved in the collusive scheme. (It is not clear what he means when he says the Bank had to pay a huge penalty.) He felt so strongly that the had twice briefed the Board about the matter, inviting them to come to his office to review the files. Suffice to say that zeal is not equal to dishonesty. As a practical matter, the Bank should provide strong support around its president to avoid this type of scenario. As regards Number 15, the President explains that he does not monitor or manage time off for staff, as that is done by HR and in the one instance the Health Department. There are private medical reasons that he respects.

On the second averment he counters that he does not sign travel authorizations of the directors and managers; and repudiates the version of the whistle-blowers, which, he says, was borne out of malice and was demonstrably false.

Concluding Observations of the Panel on the Presidents Response The Panel is mindful of the fact that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. At the same time, it appears to us to be an undue burden to expect a holder of high office in an international organization, to prove a negative, in the absence of sufficient grounds. An attorney writing on behalf of the President, also argues quite correctly in our view, that a distinction should be drawn between alleged institutional failure at the Bank and the conduct of the president. We have not attached any value to the Dissociation Note in our deliberations. The President has also as part of his detailed submission enclosed 18 annexes, which he believed might be relevant and necessary to make his case and assert his right to due process.

The Panel explained at the outset that it was dividing its Report into two parts. In the first part, it considered the complaints provided to the Ethics Committee by the whistle-blowers and found that they had been properly considered and dismissed by the Committee. In its second part, it considered, in the interests of due process, the responses of the President. While the Committee was not required to consider and did not, in fact consider, the Presidents responses, it was in the interests of fairness and of due process that the Panel be required to do so. As it has explained, the Panel has not passed judgment on the Presidents evidence. It has also borne in mind that the whistle-blowers complaints were wrongly publicized and that fairness required that the President be heard. It has considered the Presidents submissions on their face and finds them consistent with

his innocence and to be persuasive.
Bengaluru, July 28 : A city-based private hospital has been forced to return lakhs of rupees of advance money it had collected from Covid patients referred to it by the government for treatment, which should have been free as the cost is borne by the state, an official said on Tuesday.

"The hospital is refunding lakhs of (rupees) of advance taken from the Covid patients. The bill is charged on the government (SAST - Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust); thanks to the hospital for compliance," said senior IPS officer D. Roopa.

She said her team members ensured that the excess money was refunded, the patients were provided free treatment, and the bill was sent to the government.

Reportedly, 22 patients are being refunded a total sum of Rs 24 lakh.

"The government of Karnataka has fixed limits of rates for charging Covid patients by the hospitals. To ensure this, I along with my team visited a hospital and spoke to the admitted patients and found discrepancies. The hospital has agreed to refund the excess amount charged," said Roopa.

IAS officer Harsh Gupta and others are part of the team led by Roopa, which is entrusted with overseeing three hospitals.

"My team has ensured that such things don't happen in the three hospitals under our supervision. The other teams are also doing a great job," she said.

On July 19, Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar had tasked seven teams of senior officers to micro-manage 31 private hospitals to streamline them for government referrals.

The three hospitals entrusted with Roopa's team are BGS Global Institute of Medical Science and Hospital in Kengeri, Rajarajeshwari Medical College and Hospital in Kambipura Mysuru Road and SSNMC Super Specialty Hospital in Rajarajeshwari Nagar.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 09:21:22|Editor: huaxia

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A man walks on Times Square in New York, the United States, July 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

- Trump's approval for COVID-19 handling drops to new low: poll

- Singapore reports 469 new cases

- UK reports 1st confirmed case in a pet cat

- Somalia secures 25 mln USD grant to fight COVID-19

- WHO warns of increase in COVID-19 infections in Iraq during Eid al-Adha holiday

BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

- - - -

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has further disappointed the U.S. public, recording a new low in a recent poll, with an overwhelming majority of those surveyed believing the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Trump's approval rating for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic sank to 32 percent, a record low, according to a new poll co-conducted by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago.

Furthermore, a striking majority of 80 percent said the country "is heading in the wrong direction," according to the poll, the highest since Trump's presidency, casting a shadow over his reelection campaign.

- - - -

WASHINGTON -- Robert O'Brien, national security advisor for U.S. President Donald Trump, has reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.

O'Brien has been out of the office since late last week, Bloomberg's news outlet reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the situation.

- - - -

Photo shows new cordon tape preventing people from entry or loitering amid COVID-19 pandemic in parts of Singapore's Merlion Park on May 27, 2020. (Photo by Then Chih Wey/Xinhua)

SINGAPORE -- Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 469 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 50,838.

Of the new cases, 15 are imported, two are community cases and the rest are linked with the dormitories of foreign workers.

Of the new cases, 99 percent are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

- - - -

A cat rests at the windowsill of a housing property in London, Britain on April 11, 2020. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

LONDON -- Britain's Chief Veterinary Officer Christine Middlemiss confirmed Monday that the virus responsible for COVID-19 has been detected in a pet cat in the country.

This is the first confirmed case of an animal infection with the coronavirus strain in Britain, and the infection was confirmed following tests at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) laboratory in Weybridge on July 22.

However, there is "no evidence to suggest that pets directly transmit the virus to humans. We will continue to monitor this situation closely and will update our guidance to pet owners should the situation change," said Middlemiss.

- - - -

MAPUTO -- The first marine conservation area in Mozambique, Bazaruto Archipelago National Park (BANP), has been registering major financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said the local authorities on Monday.

The administrator of the touristic spot, Armando Ngoenha, told Radio Mozambique that in the first half year of 2020, the park collected only 110,000 U.S. dollars, way below the expectation of about 400,000 U.S. dollars.

The administrator said that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the closure of many touristic resorts and the cancellation of some 10,000 hotel reservations in the region.

- - - -

A medical worker takes a swab sample from a man for COVID-19 testing in Lod, Israel, on July 9, 2020. (Photo by Gil Cohen Magen/Xinhua)

JERUSALEM -- Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection (MoEP) has published a report on Monday, citing direct link between exposure to air pollution and coronavirus morbidity and mortality.

The report was authored for the ministry by Hagai Levine, an epidemiologist and public health physician at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

According to the report, air pollution can cause comorbidities including respiratory and cardiovascular disease, which pose a risk of serious morbidity and mortality from COVID-19.

The report also addresses the importance of reducing air pollution as a means of alleviating the burdens that impair the efficiency of the health system.

- - - -

A passenger wearing a face mask is seen at the Tegel Airport in Berlin, capital of Germany, May 20, 2020. (Photo by Binh Truong/Xinhua)

BERLIN -- Bavaria's Minister-President Markus Soeder on Monday called for mandatory and free of charge COVID-19 tests at German airports.

The southern German state Bavaria would also set up voluntary COVID-19 test facilities at several motorway border crossings as well as at the main railway stations in Munich and Nuremberg, according to Soeder.

Soeder said he was "very worried" about travelers returning from holidays. The summer holidays in Bavaria are just beginning this week.

- - - -

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) attend an awareness training in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, March 21, 2020. (Xinhua/Hassan Bashi)

MOGADISHU -- The African Development Bank said Monday it has approved grants worth about 25.1 million U.S. dollars to Somalia to shore up government efforts to mitigate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The lender said the government will use the funds to carry out three interlinked responses to the pandemic that will enhance the health system, safeguard livelihoods and social protection, and support labor force productivity and economic activity.

The Horn of Africa nation has so far confirmed 3,178 COVID-19 cases, 1,521 recoveries and 93 deaths as of Sunday.

- - - -

A boy hugs a sheep for sale at a livestock market ahead of Eid al-Adha festival in Baghdad, Iraq, Aug. 9, 2019. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

BAGHDAD -- The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday warned of an increase in COVID-19 infections during Eid al-Adha holiday in Iraq, while the Health Ministry reported 2,553 new COVID-19 cases in the country.

"Iraq is not yet out of the danger phase, and a wave of high infections is inevitable unless there is a commitment to preventive health measures and social distancing to limit the spread of the virus," Wael Hatahit, head of the WHO's emergency team in Iraq, said in an interview with the official al-Sabah newspaper.

- - - -

Visitors take photos of Hong Kong Island in south China's Hong Kong, July 14, 2020. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaochu)

BEIJING -- China's central government will provide all necessary support for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to fight the COVID-19 epidemic, a spokesperson said Monday.

The central government pays high attention to the recent resurgence of COVID-19 cases in HKSAR and is highly concerned about the health and safety of Hong Kong residents, said a spokesperson for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council.

The central government will continue to fully support the HKSAR in the fight against COVID-19, particularly in improving the nucleic acid testing capability and speeding up the construction of temporary centers for quarantine and medical treatment, so as to help it control the epidemic as soon as possible, the spokesperson said.

- - - -

GENEVA -- Governments should react quickly and communicate transparently to ensure small numbers of COVID-19 cases and clusters don't "reignite sustained and efficient community transmission", said a senior expert of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday.

Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, made the appeal when talking about the recent resurgence of COVID-19 cases worldwide.

- - - -

A man works at a restaurant on Santorini island, Greece, June 13, 2020. (Photo by Lefteris Partsalis/Xinhua)

ATHENS -- Greece and Bulgaria discussed on Monday a series of common challenges including the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the latest developments in the Eastern Mediterranean and the European perspective of the Western Balkans.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zakharieva paid a one-day working visit to Greece to discuss with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and other Greek officials issues concerning bilateral relations and European affairs, according to the Greek foreign ministry. 
Students in grades 5 and 8 who fail the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR test, in the 2020-21 school year will not be held back, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday.

Typically, students in those grades who do not pass the test are sent before a promotion committee, which determines whether they can move on to the next grade level the following school year.

In a statement, Abbott said while the testing data will be important for parents and educators to gauge how much students learned, there is no benefit in holding students back because of a test administered during such a tumultuous time as the the current coronavirus pandemic.

This will be a uniquely challenging school year, therefore, this year is about providing students every opportunity to overcome the disruptions caused by COVID-19, Abbott said. By waiving these promotion requirements, we are providing greater flexibility for students and teachers, while at the same time ensuring that Texas students continue to receive a great education  which we will continue to measure with high quality assessments.

Southeast Texas school districts, including Beaumont and Nederland ISDs both passed resolutions in recent weeks calling for the test and accountability standards to be waived completely for the upcoming year given the negative impacts school closures will have on academics.

Abbotts announcement comes as a growing chorus of school leaders and politicians call on the governor and the Texas Education Agency to cancel the standardized test altogether, citing ongoing learning deficits caused by COVID-19-related school closures. The tests were canceled this past spring after campuses across the state closed to help slow the spread of the new coronavirus, making it impossible to compare student performance on any potential tests this school year with that of the previous year.

Only students in grades 5 and 8 can be held back due to poor marks on the STAAR exams. TEA officials said that Abbotts decision will not affect high school students, who still must pass a certain number of standardized end-of-course exams in order to graduate.

The STAAR tests also are used by the TEA to assign A-through-F accountability ratings to campuses and school districts. Campuses and districts that do not meet the states academic standards can be sanctioned. Houston ISD, for example, is fighting a state takeover of its school board triggered by one campus that received seven consecutive failing grades.

Shortly after Abbotts announcement, Texas State Teachers Association President Ovidia Molina released a statement saying that waiving the promotion requirements didnt go far enough. She called on Abbott and state education leaders to also suspend the A-through-F accountability system and teacher appraisal system, which is also heavily tied to STAAR scores.

And while he is at it, he should just suspend STAAR testing for 2020-21, period, Molina wrote. It is a distraction that students and teachers dont need while they learn a new education. delivery system, and it is an expense that taxpayers can ill-afford.

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD Superintendent Mark Henry also said at a board meeting last week that judging campuses and districts by students test scores during a global pandemic would be unfair.

I just cant believe our state leaders are that blind to think that, in a year like this, to do the STAAR test, Henry said. I think cooler heads will prevail and we wont take those, or at least they wont have an effect.

Conroe ISD trustees voted unanimously last week on a resolution asking the state to cancel the STAAR test again. In an interview before the vote, Trustee Scott Moore, who wrote the resolution, said that any accountability rating released based on the test will be unreliable because the accountability grading formula relies heavily on comparing students academic progress from one year to the next. Along with that, he said, students will likely spend much of the year catching up and will have less time to learn new material than they have in previous years.

However, Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, State Rep. Dan Huberty and Sen. Larry Taylor said in statements Monday that while students should be shown some grace, schools must remain accountable for student performance.

Not only will this approach do a great deal to reduce the high-stakes burden of testing in a school year already complicated by this pandemic, it will hold schools accountable for providing a high quality education while equipping teachers and parents with the information they need to make certain students are learning and remain on the path to educational success, Speaker Bonnen said.

shelby.webb@chron.com
The Wines of South Africa by Jim Clarke Im excited to share my passion for South African wine in my new book, and am honored to be part of the Classic Wine Library series of authors. - Jim Clarke, Marketing Manager, Wines of South Africa USA

Wines of South Africa (WOSA) USA, the industry association that promotes the exports of South African wine, is proud to announce that Marketing Manager Jim Clarkes new book, The Wines of South Africa, has just been released. Published by Infinite Ideas, it is the newest addition to its well-respected Classic Wine Library series of wine books.

Im excited to share my passion for South African wine in my new book, and am honored to be part of the Classic Wine Library series of authors, Clarke notes. The wine regions of South Africa are stunning, and producers are making world-class wines that deserve more attention. I hope that my in-depth research of this interesting, complex wine region will be seen as an important reference point for those to take a deeper dive into the South African wine industry.

Pulling from his fifteen years of traveling to and working with the South African wine industry, in this project independent from his work at WOSA, Clarke covers the history of South African wine, the industry as it stands today, challenges facing winemaking in the region, as well as an overview of the major growing areas.

Today South Africa is revealing its potential ever more rapidly. Since around 2008, more and more producers have been using the countrys terroir to represent itself unmasked and without affectationThe peaks of South African wine are higher, and the clumsy wines of the past are bygones writes Clarke in the books Introduction. Today one can taste through the wines of South Africa and experience the expansive range of expression the Capes many terroirs are capable of  the industry is at a point where its right to a seat at the table is undisputed by anyone who has taken the time to taste. South Africa is making great wines.

The book begins with the history of the Dutch bringing wine to South Africa, the establishment of Cape Town, and its rise to eminence as a wine producer. As it entered the modern era of its wine industry post-apartheid, there was recognition for the need of quality, terroir-driven wines as well as acknowledging the social context of wine production in South Africa. Clarke discusses the efforts being made by the wine business to address the issue of racial inequality, with education programs, worker empowerment initiatives, and land restitution all being employed to create opportunity and redress the balance. Additionally, there has been an increase in the variety of plantings in South Africas vineyards, reflecting the diverse terroir and climate that create the top- end wines of quality and character.

Finally, the wine regions are explored in detail, with references to the key producers as well as typical varietals and styles of wine to the area. The Wine of Origin system of Regions, Districts and Wards is also discussed. This is a must read for anyone that has an interest in modern South African wine.

The Wines of South Africa joins other prominent books on wine regions around the world in the Classic Wine Library. The series stretches back over fifty years, and has been published by Infinite Ideas since 2013. The books are written by experts on the topics, and serve as invaluable resources for students, sommeliers and others who work in the wine industry.

Jim Clarkes book is easily the most important work on South African wine to be published in recent years and a very welcome addition to our Classic Wine Library, states Richard Burton, Publisher.

Clarke became interested in wine after moving to New York City in 2001 and taking a job waiting tables, training as a sommelier on the job and through classes with the American Sommelier Association. A writing competition led to an introduction to South African wine and the start of Clarkes journalistic career. He has written for the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, World of Fine Wine, Beverage Media, and Fortune, among others. In 2013, Clarke took a position as Wines of South Africas U.S. Marketing Manager. He remains active as a freelance writer, covering wine, sake, and related subjects. He speaks regularly at a number of wine events and judges in several international wine competitions.

The Wines of South Africa was released on July 20th, 2020 as a 322-page paperback book, and retails in the United States for $39.95. It is available online, including at Amazon Books and Barnes & Noble.

About Wines of South Africa

Wines of South Africa (WOSA) is the organization representing all South African producers of wine who export their products. WOSA, which was established in its current form in 1999, has over 500 exporters on its database, comprising all the major South African wine exporters. It is constituted as a not-for-profit company and is totally independent of any producer, wholesaling company or government department but is recognized by the South African Export Council. WOSA's mandate is to promote the export of all South African wines in key international markets including the United States.
LOS ANGELES, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mercury Insurance (NYSE: MCY) has been named to Forbes magazine's "America's Best Employers for Women 2020" list, which consists of 300 companies selected based on recommendations from employees who rated a number of criteria, including atmosphere and development, wages, diversity, parental leave, family support and flexibility.

"Mercury strongly values diversity in the workplace and we believe we've created an environment where everyone feels empowered to excel professionally," said Heidi Sullivan, Mercury Insurance Vice President, Chief Human Capital Officer. "We're proud to say nearly half of our leadership roles are filled by women. It's an honor that the women on our team see Mercury as a place where they want to work, build their careers, and even recommend to their friends and family to come work, too."

Forbes partnered with market research company Statista to conduct the annual study, where responses were submitted anonymously. Statista surveyed more than 75,000 U.S. employees  including more than 45,000 women  working at companies of at least 1,000 employees. Companies were evaluated on four criteria:

Direct recommendations in terms of general work topics (atmosphere and development, image, working conditions, salary wage, workplace, diversity, likelihood of recommendation);

Direct recommendations for topics considered relevant for women in particular (parental leave, family support, flexibility, discrimination, representation and career, pay equity); and

Indirect recommendations such as evaluations of other employers in that respective industry.

The final list of 300 companies receiving the highest total scores were awarded Best Employers for Women 2020.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, Mercury Insurance provides auto, homeowners and business insurance through more than 4,400 employees and a network of more than 6,500 independent agents in 11 states. Mercury has previously been included on Forbes' list of "America's Best Mid-size Employers" for three straight years (2017, 2018 and 2019).

About Mercury Insurance

Mercury Insurance (MCY) is a multiple-line insurance organization predominantly offering personal automobile, homeowners and business insurance through a network of independent agents in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia. Since 1962, Mercury has specialized in offering quality insurance at affordable prices. For more information, visit www.mercuryinsurance.com or Facebook and follow the company on Twitter.

SOURCE Mercury Insurance

Related Links

http://www.mercuryinsurance.com


New Delhi:

Malayalam actor Mohanlal's latest blog on demonetisation is making headlines after he has made a comparison between queues outside the ATM and liquor outlets.



Mohanlal in his blog said "I realise that the ban of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 is for a good virtuous country and so I give a big salute for it".

While applauding the decision of PM Modi, Mohanlal adds "People stand in queue in front of cinema theaters, liquor outlets and also in places of worship without any complaint, so there is nothing wrong in standing in queues for a good is my opinion."

Also Read: Bypoll results thumbs up to PM Modi's demonetisation move? BJP pushes CPM to third place in West Bengal, gains massive vote share in Tripura

"I understand that above all the immediate inconveniences, it is for a good cause".

The actor said his views should not be seen as that of an economic expert, but the opinion of a common man without any prejudice.

However, the actor was lampooned in the social media for his comment in favour of demonetisation and on people standing in queues. The actor tweeted

My Latest Blog: " A Big Salute to Virtuous India "https://t.co/WWuSNN4tKt  Mohanlal (@Mohanlal) November 21, 2016

Since post Monday, critics have started a hashtag campaign called The Complete Disaster.

Kerala PCC vice-president V D Satheesan criticised Mohanlal on the same basis.

He should have understood that people are standing in queue at banks and ATMs not to buy liquor but to collect their money. He has insulted the poor people who have collapsed to death while standing in queue to get their hard-earned money for treatment or marriage, Satheesan said.

Satheesan, the Congress leader, accused Mohanlal of a zeal to become a Narendra Modi fan. The BJP rallied behind the actor. Former state BJP president V Muraleedharan said it was undemocratic to attack Mohanlal for having express his opinion. Anyone can object to his opinion. But that should not come to making abuses, he said.

BJP National Executive member V Muraleedharan defended the actor's remark and said personal attacks against him cannot be justified.

"Some people were using the remark as a weapon to attack the actor personally and it cannot be justified at any cost,"he said.







For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
San Antonio police are searching to two men accused of stealing a motorcycle from a downtown street.

Police said on Tuesday, July 21, two unknown males took a yellow 2013 Suzuki Hayabusa between the hours of 7 and 11:30 a.m. from the 200 block of Center Street.

FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox

The two were driving a 2015 red Ford F-150 truck, according to police.

Anyone with information is asked to call SAPD's Vehicle Crimes Unit at 210-207-7345 and reference case number SAPD20136507.

Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for MySA.com | taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
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Contract disputes do arise from time to time. Whether the issue is early termination, delay of deliverables, breach of performance, or the like, it is best to plan for the worst and hope for the best.

When there is a dispute, whether the contract contemplates this or not, either party should consider a legal process called mediation to avoid the time and cost of fighting in court (litigation) or in arbitration, both of which are the subject of Part 6 of the series, so we will keep those topics to a minimum here.

What is Mediation?

Mediation is a process where parties to a dispute meet face-to-face (these days, on Zoom) along with a neutral third party  called a Mediator  to try to resolve the dispute on their own and avoid prolonged and costly litigation or arbitration.

The mediation process varies around the U.S., but generally the Mediator and the parties work together to figure ways to end the dispute by reaching a written settlement agreement.

As a general rule and by state laws, the Mediator is not allowed to testify in court or at an arbitration about the mediation since everything related to the mediation process is confidential, unless the parties agree otherwise.

Often times the Mediator will have private telephone conversations with the parties and their attorneys to discuss the details of the dispute, which generally leads to a face-to-face or Zoom mediation conference.

However, before there is a face-to-face mediation conference the parties and their lawyers often submit confidential mediation statements (that is, position papers), or exchange non-confidential mediation statements so that they tell the opposing party what they think.

When the parties and their lawyers attend the mediation conference, they generally they are separated in different rooms (or Zoom rooms) to avoid conflict and encourage the parties to share the confidential details about the dispute with the mediator. In these separate meetings, referred to as caucuses, the Mediator discusses the issues in dispute with the intention of being honest and candid about the issues.

Also, the Mediator also discusses the likelihood of success in litigation or arbitration since if there is no settlement, the parties may end up spend lots of money and time fighting in litigation or arbitration.

What if the Contract Requires Mediation?

If the parties agree by contract to a mediation, most courts and arbitrators will require that the parties actually complete a mediation before moving forward to litigation or arbitration.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Regardless, the parties can always agree to mediate if a conflict develops even if there is no contractual requirement. Sometimes contracts require the use of third party services such as the American Arbitration Association (AAA) or JAMS shall manage the mediation as part of the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services.

Notwithstanding the AAA and JAMS, there are thousands of professional mediators around the U.S. who make themselves available to help resolve disputes, so you should be able to find a mediator in your location.

How is a Mediator Selected?

Mediations tend to be more successful if the parties and their lawyers have trust and confidence in the mediator.

Normally there is a vetting process where the AAA or JAMS recommends a list of local mediators and then the parties conduct their own research to find the right person to serve as the mediator.

Part of the vetting process is to make sure that the mediator is not biased one way or the other, so it is important to ask the right questions find the right mediator.

Notwithstanding anything else about the mediation process, if a party and their lawyer make settlement offers during the mediation process that does not mean that the offers can be used as evidence in a subsequent lawsuit or arbitration because of Rule 408 of the Rules of Evidence:

Rule 408. Compromise Offers and Negotiations

(a) Prohibited Uses. Evidence of the following is not admissible  on behalf of any party  either to prove or disprove the validity or amount of a disputed claim or to impeach by a prior inconsistent statement or a contradiction:

(1)furnishing, promising, or offering  or accepting, promising to accept, or offering to accept  a valuable consideration in compromising or attempting to compromise the claim; and

(2) conduct or a statement made during compromise negotiations about the claim  except when offered in a criminal case and when the negotiations related to a claim by a public office in the exercise of its regulatory, investigative, or enforcement authority.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

(b) Exceptions. The court may admit this evidence for another purpose, such as proving a witnesss bias or prejudice, negating a contention of undue delay, or proving an effort to obstruct a criminal investigation or prosecution.

Rule 408 encourages parties to make settlement offers since those offers cannot be used in litigation or arbitration, so it is essential that lawyers clearly mark all settlement offers under Rule 408 to protect the offer.

Conclusion

If the parties can resolve their disputes in a mediation and avoid the cost and time in litigation or arbitration, that can be a win-win, not to mention to allow the parties to get on with business.

The next part in this series which will describe litigation and arbitration if the mediation is not part of the contract, or the parties are unable to settle their disputes in the mediation.

Read Part 6: Lawsuit or Arbitration?
PHOTO: Getty Images

SINGAPORE  Singapores birth and death rates grew slightly in 2019, maintaining a trend which the government says indicates that Singaporeans continue to value forming families.

In a media release on Tuesday (28 July), Singapores National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) noted that the annual average number of live births between 2015 and 2019 (40,274) was comparable to the annual average for the preceding five-year period between 2010 and 2014 (40,447).

Also, according to latest figures from the Department of Statistics, the annual average number of marriages registered in the last five years (27,389) was higher than the annual average registered between 2010 and 2014 (26,844).

The longer-term marriage and birth trends remain positive; and indicate that Singaporeans continue to value settling down and forming families, the media release said.

We will continue to work closely with employers and the community to build a Singapore society that is Made For Families.

Malays register highest birth rate among ethnicities

In 2019, there were 39,279 occurred live births, while 21,446 deaths and 73 still births were registered. When compared to 2018, there was an increase of 0.6 per cent in live births and 0.8 per cent in deaths registered.

INFOGRAPHIC: Immigration and Checkpoints Authority

Among the newborns, 23,305 (59.3 per cent) were Chinese, 7,615 (19.4 per cent) Malays, 4,210 (10.7 per cent) Indians and 4,149 (10.6 per cent) of newborns were of other races.

Malays registered the highest birth rate of 14.0 per 1,000 residents in 2019, followed by Indians at 8.7 per 1,000 residents. Chinese registered the lowest rate of 7.6 per 1,000 residents.

There were 280 live births born to teenagers aged 19 and below in 2019, a drop of 3.1 per cent as compared to 2018 (289). By proportion, 27.9 per cent of teenage births were born to Chinese, 59.3 per cent to Malays, 9.6 per cent to Indians and 3.2 per cent to other ethnic groups.

Based on the resident birth order figures, Singaporean women seem to have been delaying the birth of children till a later age.

Story continues

In 2010, the average age of women giving birth to their firstborn children was 29.8 years; in 2019 the average age is 30.8 years. The average ages have similarly rose for women giving birth to second-born (32.4 to 33.1) and third-born children (33.9 to 34.3).

Among first-time mothers in 2019, 60.1 per cent had university degrees while 39.9 per cent had A Level or lower qualifications.

Median age at death continues to rise

In 2019, a total of 21,446 deaths were registered, an increase of 164 as compared with 21,282 deaths registered in 2018.

The median age at death was 77.4 years in 2019, continuing the gradual rise over the years from 74.4 years in 2010 and 75.5 in 2014.

Not including other natural causes, the increase in median age was most conspicuous among those with diabetes mellitus (71.7 year in 2010 to 77.4 years in 2019) and those with kidney disorders and disorders of urinary system (79.0 years in 2010 to 82.3 years in 2019).

Females lived longer than their male counterparts. The median age at death was 73.7 years for males compared to 80.7 years for females, a difference of seven years.

INFOGRAPHIC: Immigration and Checkpoints Authority

The two most common causes of death in Singapore in 2019 were malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumours) and heart and hypertensive diseases. Together they accounted for more than half (51.8 per cent) of total deaths.

Lung and respiratory system diseases and cerebrovascular diseases were another two prevalent causes, responsible for 23.1 per cent and 5.8 per cent of death cases respectively.

Unnatural causes such as accidents, suicides and other external causes made up 4.0 per cent of the deaths.

Deceased persons aged 60 years and over accounted for 83.9 per cent of the total deaths, while infant deaths (age less than one year old) accounted for 0.3 per cent.

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David Harewood claimed he moved to the United States because as a black man he struggled to land roles in the UK's film industry.

The Homeland star, 54, spoke candidly on Joe Wicks' podcast on Monday about his decision to head across the Atlantic for work, as he detailed his struggle with racism in the UK.

Admitting he felt it was necessary to move to the US, the actor, who is also known for his role as J'onn J'onzz in Supergirl, said: 'I always knew I had talent. I was always convinced that it wasn't necessarily me, it was the industry.'

'There just isn't the industry to support us': David Harewood claimed on Wednesday that he left the UK to pursue acting roles in the United States because of racism

'I turn my TV on in America and there's a range of shows with black leading actors and actresses, Netflix has got lots of shows with leading black casts,'

'That's why the major black actors in the U.K. leave, there just isn't the industry to support us.'

David went on to claim it was a 'different struggle' dealing with racism in the UK compared to the United States, as he felt it is 'difficult' to get people to realise there is still a problem in Britain.

Honest: Admitting he felt it necessary to move to the US to get work, David (pictured in Homeland) said: 'I was always convinced that it wasn't necessarily me, it was the industry'

'It very difficult to get people to acknowledge that there is a specificity to racism and how it affects people of colour in this country,' he explained.

'Racism and its effects still isn't really understood here, and because our system is essentially a class-based system it gets swallowed up in that paradigm, as the working class will say, "Well, join the queue."'

The actor was the son of two Bajan immigrants and grew up in Birmingham before his agent advised he move to the States.

David currently resides in Streatham, London with long-term girlfriend Kirsty Handy and their two daughters.

David, who is also known for his role as J'onn J'onzz in Supergirl (pictured), said he felt it was 'difficult' to get people to realise racism is still a problem in the UK

Earlier this month David detailed his struggle to find work prior to landing the role as CIA Counterterrorism Director David Estes in Homeland, admitting he only had 80 to his name before taking the part.

Speaking to Sue Perkins on her podcast 'An hour or so with...', he said: 'When I was a father, [there was] a whole new situation where I had to make some money, put some food on the table.

'I went through a period of playing just s**t stuff because I just needed the money. The weekend before I left for Homeland and for America, I had 80 in the bank - I was done, my career was done.

'I remember sitting in bed, looking up at the ceiling, thinking "I'm done". I thought "should I go work in the post office, should I drive a bus".

'When Homeland came in and I got it, it was just a miracle.'
THE new 60-bed unit at University Hospital Limerick is on course to be completed later this year. Fianna Fail Minister and TD for Limerick Niall Collins has welcomed the news saying the new modular unit will help deal with capacity issues in the region.

Acknowledgement by the HSE that this project is due to be completed in Q4 later this year is very positive news for the region as the University Hospital Limerick has been struggling for some time with capacity issues, said Minister Collins.

This new 60-bed modular unit will play a vital role in the functioning of the hospital and hopefully reduce the numbers of patients waiting on beds as we approach the winter season.

In an interview with the Limerick Leader in May, the chief executive officer of UL Hospitals Group, Colette Cowan said construction workers are on site and the plan for handover is November.

Units for the modular build landed at University Hospital Limerick in early February.

Since December 2017, an additional 25 beds have opened in University Hospital Limerick. A capital budget of 19.5million has been approved for the provision of this 60-bed modular inpatient ward block at the hospital, with funding of 10 million allocated in 2019.

I am very pleased that the HSE has confirmed that enabling works on this unit are now complete and the main contractor is now on site. The unit is on course to be finished later this year, continued Minister Collins.

The units were installed on site in February by a mobile crane. The ward block will provide an additional 60 beds for the hospital, all single patient rooms with ensuites. The additional single rooms will help to improve patient comfort, safety, privacy and dignity and assist with the management of infection control in the hospital.

While Ms Cowan said that the extra beds on the UHL site will assist in the capacity challenges that we have, there is no doubt that we will be, as always, challenged to deal with the footfall of patients that come into the only Model 4 hospital that we have in the Limerick region.

Latest figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation show there were 33 people on trolleys at University Hospital Limerick on Friday morning  the largest figure for a hospital in the country. There were 27 on trolleys in the hospitals emergency department and six in wards elsewhere in the hospital.
Sandi Kleinz lives at Spring Creek Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Dauphin County, where 42 people have died of COVID-19. At one point the National Guard helped battle the plague of infections. The administrator called in grief counselors for staff.

Im wearing a mask 24-7, keeping the door closed, says Kleinz, 66.

Kleinz came to Spring Creek in February after a series of falls. It was right before COVID-19 surged, eventually infecting 224 residents and 35 employees at Spring Creek.

Since this broke out, Im a nervous wreck, Kleinz says.

She worried after six people from California hovered over their loved one while not wearing masks during a courtyard visit on July 7. Kleinz confronted them, with one telling her COVID wasnt a problem in California. California, in fact, has one of the nations worst outbreaks.

She worries because of times when staff was short on equipment to protect against catching and spreading COVID. Now, with reports of supply-sucking outbreaks happening all over the country, Kleinz worries about a repeat.

She worries because of fellow residents who wont or cant wear masks, among other things.

Beyond fraying her nerves, COVID breaks her heart.

Kleinz hasnt had face-to-face visits with her daughters and seven grandchildren since early March. Nor has she seen her pug, Mocha, who she used to walk multiple times daily and whose scratching on the door drew help after Kleinz fell.

I miss the hugs and kisses, the physical contact, she says. And I miss my dog so much.

Kleinz, one of 335 Spring Creek residents, describes a woman in a nearby room whose husband stands outside her window and writes on a tablet he holds up for her to see. I think its so cute. But its sad he cant come in and see her, she says.

That underlines another terrible toll of COVID-19, one thats invisible amid the daily infection and death figures: isolation and the resulting despair and depression.

Unspeakably tragic

Pennsylvania closed long-term care facilities to visitors in early March. The only visits taking place are those warranted by extreme situations, such as the resident being near death. Group activities and meals also ceased because of the highly-contagious disease.

Research has shown contact with loved ones is critical to the well-being of long-term care residents, helping them ward off ailments including depression.

Adam Marles, the CEO of LeadingAgePA, which represents non-profit long-term care providers, calls the situation unspeakably tragic.

Our societys elders who have built everything we are lucky enough to stand on are spending what could be their final days without access to the people who are most important to them, he says.

It ripples outward  COVID is robbing countless people of the chance to be an intimate part of their loved ones final months.

Spring Creek Rehabilitation and Nursing Center near Harrisburg, Pa., July 24, 2020. Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com

I know my rights

Kleinz lived in Hershey before ending up at Spring Creek. She plans to eventually go home  provided she evades COVID, which is most deadly among older people who, like her, have chronic illnesses such as heart disease. In Pennsylvania, it has killed more than 4,800 people in nursing, assisted living and personal care facilities  nearly 70% of the states death toll.

After working for years in semi-conductor manufacturing, Kleinz became a certified nursing assistant in a skilled nursing facility, eventually rising to director of medical records. Fear of COVID keeps her on constant lookout for lapses in infection control. She knows where to look. Shes not afraid to speak up. I know my rights and I know what is right and what is wrong, she says.

She has complained to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, exchanges emails with Dauphin Countys long-term care ombudsman and takes her concerns to Mary Ann Chaklos, the administrator of Spring Creek.

Shes critical of certain staffers and incidents. But overall, she credits Spring Creek caregivers and managers for going to great lengths to keep residents healthy and safe. As with most facilities, Spring Creek struggles with a labor shortage and the caregivers are putting in major overtime.

The staff is staying upbeat because of us and they are doing all the overtime because of us, she says.

The atmosphere was bleak inside Spring Creek during the height of the infections and deaths. Kleinz had nightmares about getting COVID and nightmares about retaliation for speaking out. The toll on staff was obvious to her.

She tells of encountering a 12-year Spring Creek caregiver right after a long-time resident died and seeing the grief and tears on her face.

Its hard for people outside to comprehend the emotion and the humanity going on in here, she says.

Kleinz credits Spring Creek staff with raising her spirits and calming her nerves. Theyve talked me down quite a few times when I get really stressed out, she says.

Zero infections

Kleinz recently received news that lowered her stress: Spring Creek has been free of COVID-19 infections since July 12.

Chaklos, the administrator, attributes it to things including aggressive testing, continued use of N-95 masks and specialized gowns even after infections became scarce, and really, just not losing sight of how quickly COVID can spread.

Now, the burning question is whether Spring Creek and hundreds of similar facilities around Pennsylvania can keep out COVID as it surges again in the communities outside their doors.

Unfortunately, various factors that contributed to the wave of death are visible on the horizon.

Perfect storm coming in fall?

The long-term care industry expected a summer lull in COVID infections, according to Zach Shamberg, CEO of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, which represents long-term care providers. It would give time to fill various holes in policies, government response and protective equipment supplies, all of which helped fuel the spring surge of infections and deaths. Then they would be ready for fall, when another COVID surge is expected  this one overlapping with regular flu season, which begins in late October.

But the lull didnt come. Instead, COVID surged this summer, with major hotspots flaring up in multiple southern states. Those flareups, combined with interstate travel, are blamed for the resurgence in Pennsylvania.

On top of that, the surges in those states are putting new strain on supplies of things including protective equipment and COVID-19 tests. Its beginning to be felt in Pennsylvania, according to Shamberg.

Shamberg further describes growing delays in receiving test results, which could, among other things, interfere with meeting the health departments requirements for resuming visitation.

Unfortunately, were seeing some of the same challenges with protective equipment we saw in March, April and May, he says. This could be a perfect storm this fall.

An infection prevention advocate

Kleinz was especially troubled by the incident with the non-mask-wearing California family. She says a Spring Creek employee who was present declined to intervene and she couldnt get others to immediately address it.

Chaklos, the administrator, says she didnt learn of the situation until only one member of the family remained. It was unfortunate. It has been addressed and it wont happen again, she says.

Kleinz continues to worry about the fact that some residents dont wear masks while outside their rooms. Spring Creeks policy is for all residents to wear face masks, according to Chaklos. But its complicated, she explains, by medical conditions that prevent some from wearing a mask, or cognitive issues that interfere with the willingness of some to wear a mask or keep it on.

Kleinz also describes staffing shortages, detailing a weekend incident where she says there were 47 residents in her unit, with three more expected, with a staff of three nurses and two aides. She further contends agency staffers dont adhere to the same protective equipment and infection control standards as do Spring Creek employees.

Chaklos says she wasnt aware of the weekend staffing level described by Kleinz. She doesnt dispute the account, but points out it can be hard for one person to know the full situation on a floor. If it were to happen, she says, the supervisor, the director of nursing and the scheduler would work the phones until staffing was adequate, she says. Chaklos acknowledges staffing can be a problem, especially on weekends, when its hard to find replacements when people call off.

She disagrees with Kleinz about agency nurses not upholding the same standards as Spring Creek staff. They wear the same protective equipment and must follow the same policies, according to Chaklos. In situations where an agency staffer repeatedly falls short, Chaklos says she contacts their agency and requests the person to no longer be sent to Spring Creek. She says agencies are staffed well enough to accommodate.

Kleinz also says Spring Creek didnt immediately notify her it had received her $1,200 government stimulus payment. She says she had to ask about, was questioned on why she wanted it, and it took two weeks for Spring Creek to cut a check. The government has told long-term care residents, This money belongs to you, not the nursing facility and is the residents money to spend on their wants and needs.

She complained to the Pennsylvania Department of Health about the check and several other things related to infection control, including the visitors who didnt wear masks. The department investigated, saying it determined Spring Creek had notified residents of their stimulus payments by letter on May 28 and the department found no fault. The department further said it found no evidence of any violations related to infection control, while noting it must rely on the observations and examination of documentation available to use at the time of our review. Kleinz says inspectors never spoke to her.

Kleinz credits Chaklos, who has worked in long term care for 36 years and has been at Spring Creek since April, for being accessible and quickly and effectively addressing her concerns. She has no complaints and only praise for Chaklos.

Chaklos, who says she gives her cell number to residents, families and staff, calls Kleinz an advocate who will help me as an administrator improve areas that need improvement.

Testing could spur staffing problems

Pennsylvanias long-term care industry faced a staffing crisis before COVID struck. Much of it is blamed on low wages and the physically and emotionally demanding work, which has become even more so because of COVID.

In Pennsylvania, some long-term care workers walked off the job in the midst of the crisis, according to Shamberg. Many got sick or tested positive and were unavailable to work for two weeks or more. Some needed time away to recuperate from the stress. There have been news reports of staff who tested positive being required to return to work.

Pennsylvania recently began requiring testing of all residents and staff at long-term care facilities. Its part of the effort to prevent another wave of infections and deaths and to eventually allow visitors. One purpose is to find employees who are infected but dont know theyre sick and would otherwise carry the infection into facilities. At the same time, facilities also recognize it will result in more staffers testing positive and required to quarantine and be off work for 14 days. So they must brace for still more strain on their workforce.

Isolation may be worse than COVID, advocate says

Meanwhile, one of the gravest ongoing issues involves the social isolation resulting from the effort to prevent spread of COVID.

Long-term care facilities, often with help from outside organizations, have acquired iPads so residents can have virtual visits with loved ones.

Still, Diane Menio, executive director of the Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly in Philadelphia, argues facilities have had enough time to put the needed protections in place. Given the harms of isolation, she questions whether a continuing ban on visitation is justified.

Early on, the federal government told facilities there should be exceptions to the no-visitation rule. But that was widely interpreted as meaning end-of-life visits, according to Menio. She tells of a family who was told to come in for such a visit and while driving there received word their loved one had died. Moreover, its been up to individual facilities to set the terms of such visits, she says.

Menio tells of a couple married 67 years who wound up in separate parts of a facility because of COVID. The woman said she would rather die than be separated from her husband.

Basically, the residents have been stripped of most of their rights and thats kind of scary, she says. People deserve to die with dignity and thats not happening right now.

And there are more COVID ills and consequences, Menio says.

Normal health department inspections of facilities were suspended during much of the pandemic. Visits by ombudsmen, who help protect the right of long term care residents, are also limited. Moreover, family members often provide care which helps offset the consequences of thin staffing. Their presence can make a difference in things such as whether the resident finishes meals and maintains a healthy weight, according to Menio. Residents have lived without that since early March.

Game-changer need to open up visitation

The state health department recently laid out a plan for resuming visitation. It has many moving parts and is contingent on facilities testing all residents and staff and going two weeks with zero infections. The testing deadline for skilled nursing facilities was July 24, but personal care and assisted living facilities have until the end of August to complete this baseline testing. Then, provided a facility has sufficient protective equipment and related resources, it can allow visits by appointment and with various restrictions. However, a single infection can halt visitation for four weeks.

When pressed, long-term care officials say they have little idea when something resembling normal visitation will resume.

I truly believe that until theres a vaccine, things will not be normal in long-term care and they may never be normal again, Shamberg says.

Chaklos stresses that the level of infection in the local community dictates the risk within facilities, with infections typically carried in by employees who feel no symptoms. If COVID is widespread in the community, it will be hard if not impossible to freely allow outsiders, she says.

The game changer in visitation, Marles says, would be a test that can be given on the spot and return results within minutes. Unfortunately, such tests have proven unreliable, and it could take months until an adequate version is widely available.

Marles and Shamberg, the spokesmen for the industry, say the key to preventing a repeat of the earlier wave of long-term care deaths is to give long term-care facilities highest priority -- the same that has been given to hospitals -- in receiving protective and testing supplies and whatever resources the situation demands. Meanwhile, individuals must do what it takes to hold down infections in the community that will otherwise spread into long term care facilities.

Its going to take sacrifice and everyone pulling together. Your parents and grandparents are depending on everyone acting in a way that will keep them safe, Marles says.

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SRINAGAR: Pakistan's Senate on Monday evening unanimously passed a resolution recommending that Kashmirs separatist patriarch Syed Ali Shah Geelani be conferred the countrys highest civilian award Nishan-e-Pakistan' in recognition of his relentless struggle for freedom.

As the 91-year-old ailing leader is all set to receive the neighbouring countrys highest civilian honour, his supporters back home welcomed the passing of the resolution and said it was long-overdue. Corroborating the view, Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a former professor of law and international relations at the University of Kashmir, said Syed Geelani has all along been in favour of Kashmirs accession to Pakistan and has led the resistance movement back home on those lines only. I think it is in recognition of his services that he is being conferred Nishan-e-Pakistan. If you ask me he deserves more than that. It should not surprise anyone nor should it be objected to.

He pointed out that in 1990, former Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai was conferred with this honour for his friendly overtures to Pakistan so much so that he had turned down the suggestion from the erstwhile Soviet Union to attack Pakistan after its invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

Syed Geelani quit as chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference last month and many analysts and sections of the Indian media had seen it and his strongly worded letter to his colleagues in the amalgam faction as an indirect rebuff to Pakistan and its clique in the Kashmiri separatist politics. While some people have termed the resolution passed by Pakistan Parliaments Upper House as an effort to contain the fallout, Syed Geelanis supporters said it is a befitting reply to those trying to create a wedge between the two sides.

However, BJP J-K unit chief, Ravindra Raina, criticised the move and alleged that Pakistan is conferring the national award on its puppet and paid agent. He said, Geelani has along with Pakistan in the last over three decades played a noxious game in Jammu and Kashmir. It is now beyond any doubt that he is a Pakistani agent who with the ilk received money and weapons from its successive governments, the army and the ISI to kill innocent people in J&K. He is a murderer.

Several people took to social media platforms to criticise the move. One of them, Pratiba Kaul, a Kashmiri Pandit, tweeted, Pakistans rogue government conferred Nishan-e-Pakistan to Geelani for uprooting and killing Kashmiri Pandits, our valiant armed forces and thousands of innocent lives. Shame on Pakistan who supports terrorism without any regret.

An Army veteran Brigadier (retired) R.S. Pathania asked whether the Indian government would still appease the separatist leader by issuing him travel documents to visit Pakistan to receive the honour for fomenting terrorism in J-K or we are going to send him there permanently.

Another netizen Dr. Kapil Sharma tweeted, #Lahore Pak senate asking Nishan-e- Pakistan to Geelani. In that scenario the best candidate for Bharat Ratna should be Nawab Akbar Bugti, the Balochistan freedom fighter martyred in 2006. Gen. Musharraf is still under trial for his murder. Think over it.

Though the sexagenarian separatist leader has yet to react to him being recommended for Nishan-e-Pakistan, one of his aides said, Geelani Sahibs stature is above all worldly recognitions. Nevertheless, it is a welcome decision and those who are criticizing it are only venting their frustration.
The woman shot to death in north Alabama this morning was scheduled to testify in court today against the Tennessee man now accused of killing her, the authorities said.

Melanie Payne was to be a witness against Samuel Hoback at a bond revocation hearing in Giles County, Tennessee. Instead, she was found shot to death in a home about 20 miles south in Limestone County, Alabama.

Hoback was arrested and booked into the Limestone County jail on charges of murder, meth possession and violating probation, according to the Limestone County Sheriffs Office.

Payne, a 50-year-old from Prospect, a community in Giles County, recently moved in temporarily with friends just south of the state line in Alabama, said Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely. Payne was scared of Hoback, a 21-year-old from Prospect, because he had threatened her and recently fired a gun during a drive-by at her Tennessee home, Blakely said.

Sheriffs deputies are still investigating the motive for this mornings deadly shooting, the sheriff said.

We do know that she was supposed to be a witness against him, Blakely told reporters at an afternoon news conference. That within itself I guess could be a motivating factor.

Brent Cooper, the district attorney in Giles County, said Payne was a potential witness in a burglary case against Hoback in Tennessee. After Hoback was charged with burglary, the prosecutor sought to have his bond revoked on an earlier charge of attempted murder.

Hoback was released from jail in Tennessee on Monday after posting bail on the burglary charge, said Giles County Sheriff Kyle Horton.

Horton said his office was also investigating Hobacks involvement in the recent drive-by shooting at Paynes home, though no charges have been filed.

Neither the nature nor extent of the connection between Hoback and Payne is fully clear.

Blakely said the investigation is continuing, and deputies were searching Hobacks parents home in Tennessee.

Payne was found shot to death at her friends home on the 19000 block of Cave Branch Road in Limestone County around 4 a.m.

Investigators believe that after the shooting Hoback drove to his parents home just across the state line and switched vehicles. Hoback was taken into custody around 10 a.m. at Robinson Hollow, about three miles south of the shooting scene.

This story was updated at 4:42 p.m. with new information throughout.
A protest against Beijings proposed National Security Law on Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong on May 24, 2020. (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images)

UK Will Watch Hong Kong Elections Closely: Foreign Secretary

Britain will be closely watching the Hong Kong Legislative Council elections in September, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Tuesday.

Raab made the remarks in a phone conversation with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, a UK Foreign Office spokesperson said.

The elections for members of the Legislative Council (LegCo), Hong Kongs local legislature, are currently scheduled for Sept. 6, when all 70 seats are up for election.

Secretary of State for Foreign affairs Dominic Raab leaves 10 Downing Street, London, Britain, on April 9, 2020. (Henry Nicholls/Reuters)

After its disastrous showing in the district elections in November 2019, during which the pro-democracy camp won a landslide, the pro-Beijing camp is no longer confident that it will be able to retain its majority in LegCo.

Its widely believed that the Chinese regimes imposition of the National Security Law on Hong Kong was a desperate move to prevent the pro-democracy camp from taking over the legislature.

In a further show of strength, over 600,000 Hong Kong citizens cast ballots on July 11 and 12 in an unofficial primary election to choose the best pro-democracy candidates to contest the election.

A woman (center L) uses her phone while waiting to vote during primary elections in Hong Kong on July 12, 2020. (Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images)

The turnout was much higher than the organizers had originally predicted, sending shockwaves through the pro-Beijing establishment.

Beijing and the Hong Kong government called the ballot illegal, and claimed the opposition camp may have violated the national security law, which came into effect on June 30.

Hong Kong-based writer and lawyer Antony Dapiran warned that Beijing might disqualify all candidates selected through the primary process.

Benny Tai, manager for the primary elections and an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, asked freedom-loving Hongkongers to be mentally prepared for possible fierce pushback and a settling of scores from the authorities.

Occupy Central leader Benny Tai, center, is accompanied by a supporter who raises an umbrella as he leaves High Court in Hong Kong on Aug. 15, 2019. (Vincent Yu/AP)

Tai, who was jailed for his role in Hong Kongs 2014 Umbrella Movement, was sacked from his tenured position at the University of Hong Kong on July 28.

Raabs remarks on Tuesday follow a string of measures taken by the British government in response to the worsening situation in Hong Kong.

After the national security law came into effect, the UK announced it will extend immigration rights for an estimated 3 million Hong Kong residents who hold British National (Overseas) status.

Two protesters are arrested by the police in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, on July 1, 2020. (Song Bilung/The Epoch Times)

On July 20, the government suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong, saying the security law had significantly changed key assumptions underpinning Britains extradition arrangements with the former crown colony.

During Tuesdays phone call, Raab also urged the Chinese regime to uphold its international human rights obligations in Xinjiang in the face of credible evidence of egregious human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims.

Raab said on July 19 the UK must call out the Chinese regime over its human rights abuses against Uyghurs, calling it deeply, deeply troubling.

Frank Fang contributed to this report.
Consider someone who screams, "Hitler should have finished you off," for example, while committing a crime against a Jew. Or a person who uses the N-word while assaulting a black person. Or an evildoer who adds insult to injury by using the C-word on his victim while raping her. Should these criminals pay a more severe penalty than other thugs who used the same degree of violence but said nothing?

Yes, if there are hate crimes on the books; no, if a person should be punished only for crimes, but not for his speech.

Then there is that matter of hateful thoughts, or hate speech unconnected with any crime whatsoever. The way charges in this matter are bruited about, this means, simply, saying anything, or, indeed, thinking something, with which the progressive, liberal leftist disagrees. Thus, it is hateful, deserving of dire if not criminal punishment, to discuss the benefits of I.Q. tests, to deny that the minimum wage needs to be increased, to oppose labor unions, to excuse the male-female wage gap, etc. Where is John Stuart Mill of "On Liberty" when we need him? He was once a hero of the left, but, sadly, no more. That was during the era when the free speech rights of the Hollywood left were under threat. I suppose it all depends on whose ox is being gored.

Suppose there were a machine that could discern racist, sexist, or anti-Semitic loathing. We come across someone who seethes with indignation against Jews, blacks, or females, but he has never so much as lifted a finger against anyone. Stipulate that he will never engage in any such action, whether from cowardice or an ethic that forbids the initiation of violence against anyone, even targets of his detestation. According to the "hate is a crime doctrine," such a person ought to be imprisoned forthwith. This seems highly unjust, however.

There was an infamous march of Nazis in Skokie, Illinois in 1978. No magic mechanism was needed to establish that the participants were a hateful group of people. Should they have been punished for their mere thoughts? It is difficult to make that case. It is the same for people who refuse to declare the "Black Lives Matter" slogan and insist, instead, that "All Lives Matter."

All of us, with the exception of a few saints, have had hateful thoughts wash over them from time to time. Were we to extrapolate from this fact, and couple it with the logic of hate crimes, pretty much all of us would now be in jail.

Yes, by all means, punish, and punish severely, those who engage in assault and battery against others or rape, or murder, or kidnapping, or theft or carjacking or any other of the hundreds of other crimes that humans commit against one another. But ignore completely whether they do this hatefully or not. At least in the Mafia movies, perpetrators of crimes are often heard to say, as they commit mayhem, "This is just business." In other words, they have no hate whatsoever as they do their dirty deeds. Should this let them off with lesser penalties when caught? Yes, according to the hate thought doctrine. But not on the basis of elemental notions of justice.
John Lund | Getty Images

Although states like California and New York get the most attention for being incubators of top startups, the reality is that every state in the U.S. is home to successful businesses. Also in every state? Successful female founders.

Using Crunchbase data, Business Financing pulled together a list of the top female founders by funding in all 50 states (plus Washington, D.C.). Despite data that shows female founders outperform male founders, they face heightened scrutiny when it comes to raising money  which is why these 50 women should be celebrated.
(Natural News) We detailed earlier that a number of US universities will enforce mandatory COVID-19 tests for all students wishing to return to campus through the Fall semester  with some lately announcing that this will be at a rate of two nasal swabs per week  which is a policy, no doubt uncomfortable for those having to endure such routine swabs, also appearing among companies for on-site personnel.

(Article by Tyler Durden republished from ZeroHedge.com)

And in many parts of the country, cities and counties currently have mask laws requiring them in all public spaces. Given that over the past months the race has been on to develop and fast-track a coronavirus vaccine, the logical next step will be that students and employees provide proof theyve received the vaccine before returning to work or school. Naturally, the idea of fast-tracking this process also amid a deeply politically charged climate has people concerned. And they should be, if Bill Gates latest appearance on CBS is any indicator of where things stand.

British veteran journalist Neil Clark had this reaction to the Bill Gates interview, which came days ago: When anyone tries to gaslight you by calling you a crank , a tin-foil hat conspiracy theorist or Flat Earther for having perfectly legitimate & sensible concerns over a rushed through Coronavirus vaccine & its side effects, just send them this.

Even CBS pressures Bill Gates on the topic that almost everyone had side effects. He doesnt seem to care.

pic.twitter.com/2SiBmowJo3  An0maly (@LegendaryEnergy) July 26, 2020

Even the mainstream media correspondent giving the interview appeared momentarily exasperated and incredulous that Bill Gates shrugged off credible reports of side effects as ultimately no big deal. When the anchor pressed him again on the safety of the vaccine, his answer appeared to be simply, trust us. Gates was asked:

Side effects from the Moderna vaccine sound concerning we looked. After the second dose at least 80% of participants experienced a systemic side effect, ranging from severe chills to fevers. So are these vaccines safe?

The FDA, not being pressured, will look hard at that, Gates said, addressing the issue of possible side effects. The FDA is the gold standard of regulators, and their current guidance on this  if they stick with that  is very very appropriate.

Gates even goes on to candidly acknowledge the likelihood of side effects from the vaccine, which he admitted would improve over time. Does this sound comforting? Add to this that as part of his explanation he argues that for a vaccine to be effective it would have to be administered to the population on a mass scale, and globally:

If what youre trying to do is block all the transmission, then you need to get 70-80% coverage on a global basis. So its unbelievably big numbers, he said. Gates, who has been warning about the threat of a global pandemic since 2015, admitted that there will be a lot of uncertainty about the efficacy of any vaccine, but stressed that its a solution that will improve over time.

When anyone tries to gaslight you by calling you a crank , a tin-foil hat conspiracy theorist or Flat Earther for having perfectly legitimate & sensible concerns over a rushed through Coronavirus vaccine & its side effects, just send them this. https://t.co/ghw3DVqc4T  Neil Clark (@NeilClark66) July 27, 2020

Thus governments especially in the West and also private institutions will be under pressure to mandate it by law.

Perhaps the most alarming moment in the CBS interview came when Gates bluntly admitted that current testing of the most promising high dosage vaccines are resulting in side effects:

Meanwhile, CNN reports Monday morning that the first Phase 3 clinical trial of a US developed coronavirus vaccine has begun. The investigational vaccine was developed by the biotechnology company Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. The trial is to be conducted at nearly 100 US research sites, according to Moderna. The first patient was dosed at a site in Savannah, Georgia, CNN writes.

Via FOX Business/Moderna

The trial is expected to enroll about 30,000 adult volunteers and evaluates the safety of the Moderna/NIH vaccine and whether it can prevent symptomatic Covid-19 after two doses, among other outcomes, the report continues.

The rush for the rapid roll out of a vaccine has been driving headlines since March, and will continue, given that currently the United States leads the world in confirmed coronavirus cases at 4.2 million, including over 146,935 who have died of COVID-19.

Read more at: ZeroHedge.com
A farmer and his wife have been spared the prospect of bankruptcy and the loss of their family farm after a court ruled they could avail of personal insolvency arrangements to restructure more than 500,000 in debts.

The decision is significant as it signals a new pathway for heavily indebted farmers to deal with creditors without being forced to sell their land.

Until recently, personal insolvency arrangements (PIAs) have been associated with saving family homes, rather than property.

But the Circuit Court decision is the second in eight months where both a residence and a family farm have been saved through a PIA. It is the first time such an arrangement has been approved in the face of creditor opposition.

Danske Bank had presented a bankruptcy petition against the couple, both in their early 60s, and wanted the sale of their 112-acre Co Roscommon farm after they defaulted on loans of 434,000. The bank also appointed a receiver over their single-farm payment, an EU agricultural subsidy.

However, Judge Mary Enright approved PIAs that will restructure their total debts of 522,000. Under the arrangement, they will get 20 years to repay Danske. The couple will be in their 80s by the time the debts are cleared.

While there was no debt write-off involved, it means they will be able to keep their house and family farm.

The PIAs were devised by personal insolvency practitioner Gary Digney and brought before the court by barrister Keith Farry, instructed by Elizabeth Howard & Co solicitors.

Danske Bank held the mortgage security over the farmlands, which were valued at 600,000. It argued these could be sold and that the farmer could clear all his debts, keeping the family home but not the farm.

In legal filings, the bank claimed it would be unfairly prejudiced by having to wait 20 years for repayment. It said the debtors defaulted nine years ago and had made only one repayment since then. It also claimed the arrangement was unworkable as the bank closed its personal and business banking operations in the Republic of Ireland in 2013.

These arguments were rejected by Judge Enright.

In a virtual court ruling last Wednesday, she said she could not condone the behaviour of the debtors, which may have partly been due to bad advice.

However, she said the court could not come to a decision to refuse the arrangement.

"I find no unfair prejudice. All creditors are being paid in full," Judge Enright said.

The judge noted the single-farm payment would be able to cover all Danske Bank repayments under the PIA and that the bank would receive an additional 90,000 in interest.

The couple's financial difficulties began with an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis, which meant their cattle herd had to be destroyed in 2009. They got compensation for only a third of the value of the cattle.

After rebuilding the herd, there was further misfortune two years later when calves contracted a disease caused by a lack of iodine. This led to one-third of the herd being lost, without compensation.

These events left them unable to service bank loans under existing terms.

Mr Digney, of PKF-FPM Accountants, said investment funds that had bought up farm debt from the banks were pursuing short-term strategies to recover the borrowings.

As a result, long-term restructuring was not being offered by such entities.

However, he said this case had shown this could be achieved under a PIA.

"The process guarantees engagement with decision makers and the court can overturn unreasonable refusals and approve the proposals," said Mr Digney.

"If a farmer can pay his debts in full over time, surely they should be allowed to do it.

"This judgment shows that there is a way of allowing that to happen."
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) have funded six new research projects which will examine the link between coronavirus and ethnicity.

Emerging evidence suggests BAME people are nearly twice as likely to die of Covid-19 than those who are white, after taking into account the age of the individuals and other sociodemographic factors.

One of the projects will explore the impact of Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, specifically on migrant and refugee groups, while another will look for ways to create targeted, digital health messages with help from key voices within BAME communities.



Our study is the first to be conducted on a large scale, investigating why BAME healthcare workers could be at greater risk

Meanwhile, the 2.1 million UK-Reach project, which received the largest proportion of the fund, will calculate the risk of contracting and dying from Covid-19 for ethnic minority healthcare workers.

Led by Dr Manish Pareek, an honorary consultant at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, the project will also follow a group of these healthcare workers over the next 12 months to assess their physical and mental health.

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Dr Pareek said: Globally, we have evidence that people from BAME backgrounds have a higher chance of going to intensive care and dying from Covid-19  this may also be the case for healthcare staff.

Our study is the first to be conducted on a large scale, investigating why BAME healthcare workers could be at greater risk.

A recent PHE (Public Health England) report highlighted how 63% of healthcare workers that died from Covid-19 were from a BAME background.

We want this research to improve the lives of healthcare staff  to this end, we have a stakeholder group of major national organisations to research and publicise our findings.

One of the research projects will also seek to determine the risk of infection and death from Covid-19 in individual ethnicity groups, combining more than 40 million patient GP records in England to create one of the largest Covid-19 cohorts in the UK.



With evidence showing that people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds are more severely affected by Covid-19, it is critical that we understand what factors are driving this risk to address them effectively

Another project will use data from the UK Biobank, which contains biomedical information of 500,000 individuals, to examine whether the increased risk of developing severe Covid-19 in minority ethnic groups can be explained by differences in health status, lifestyle behaviours such as physical activity, and environmental factors such as social inequality.

And the final research project, led by Professor Shaun Treweek from the University of Aberdeen, aims to help enable the designers of clinical trials to consider the factors that may reduce the inclusion of BAME participants, such as culture, or trial information and procedures.

Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England and head of the NIHR, said: With evidence showing that people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds are more severely affected by Covid-19, it is critical that we understand what factors are driving this risk to address them effectively.

The diverse range of projects funded by the NIHR and UKRI will help examine this association in detail, so that new treatments and approaches to care can be developed to target the ethnicities most at risk.

This research will have embedded patient and public involvement with black, Asian and minority ethnic groups at all stages of the research.

Gill Walton, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, which is supporting the UK-Reach study, urged action to tackle to issue immediately.

She said: It cannot be right that black, Asian and minority ethnic health workers are not properly protected or are disadvantaged simply because of their race or ethnicity. Yet the anecdotal evidence of Covid-19 suggests just that. It is critical that we find out quickly why this virus so adversely affected our black and Asian colleagues, so that measures can be put in place to ensure their safety.
Edo Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has explained why Adams Oshiomhole, former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), despises him.

A statement by his spokesman, Crusoe Osagie, said Oshiomole was frustrated and desperate to save his political career.

The reaction followed Oshiomholes comment that he made a mistake in 2016 when he supported Obaseki to become governor.

Obaseki declared that Oshiomhole was making all manner of claims because he could not hijack the current administration.

The governor accused Oshiomhole of awarding a contract at the Edo Specialist Hospital to an associate who failed to execute the project.

Osagie noted that his predecessor was clutching at straws in desperate effort to save his drowning political career. The childish Mercedes and Toyota analogy goes to show that Oshiomhole has run out of lies to tell.

The aide said Oshiomhole keeps trying to turn the story of the hospital on its head.

He has failed to answer a simple question which is; why did heavily guarded trucks come in the dead of the night to remove the equipment in the hospital which President Buhari had commissioned just one day after the commissioning?

Why was the hospital not opened to the public for the remaining days of his tenure after the hospital had been commissioned? He quipped.

He stated that Oshiomhole told the hospital equipment supplier in Lagos to loan him some equipment just for the commissioning and the equipment was returned to the owner after the commissioning ceremony.

Osagie insisted that Oshiomholes problem stemmed from his Obasekis refusal to allow him use the government for the satisfaction of his warlords and thugs who are now fighting for him and causing crisis in Edo state ahead of the election.

Obaseki of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will slug it out with Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on September 19.

Interestingly, the duo were candidates of the opposing parties in the 2016 governorship election.

Obasaki contested under the APC, while Ize-Iyamu was the PDP flagbearer.
A young, fit and healthy nurse has revealed she suffered from an unusual symptom before testing positive for COVID-19.

Emily Morris, who works in the emergency department at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, said she felt a strange pain in her lower legs a week and a half ago.

Despite working on her feet for hours on end, the 32-year-old told ABC's 7.30 Report the aching was different to what she's ever experienced.

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Emily Morris, who works as a nurse in the emergency department at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, has described the unusual symptom she suffered before she tested positive for COVID-19 as she urged Victorians to wear a face mask in public

'I was at work when I developed some aching to my lower legs and I spoke to my manager and she got me tested straight away,' she said.

Common symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, dry cough and tiredness while aches and pains are less common, in which Ms Morris experienced in her case.

Ms Morris said she self-isolated herself until she got her result 24 hours later, which confirmed she had coronavirus.

'I was absolutely devastated. I think that as a health care worker, there is a little bit of shame and stigma around being diagnosed as COVID positive,' she said.

'I'm young, I'm fit, I'm healthy. I was doing the right things and I got coronavirus.'

Ms Morris is among more than 700 frontline workers in Victoria who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite working on her feet for hours on end, the 32-year-old health care worker told ABC's 7.30 Report the aching in her lower legs was different to what she's ever experienced. Just 24 hours after getting tested, her result confirmed she had contracted coronavirus

She is now isolating in a government apartment so she doesn't risk exposing herself to her housemates.

'I feel terrible. I haven't felt like eating and have difficulty keeping down fluids,' she said.

The nurse - who worked directly with COVID-positive patients - said she suspects she contracted the virus in the community.

'I work in the respiratory emergency department, which means that I wear an N95 mask. Then on top of that, I wear a face shield, hair coverings as well as a full length gown,' she said.

'Considering the high quality of the PPE that we have and the procedures that we have in place, I am very certain that this was a community acquired transmission.'

The nurse - who worked directly with COVID-positive patients - said she suspects she contracted the virus in the community. At work she wears an N95 mask, a face shield on top, hair coverings and a full-length gown (pictured in her work uniform)

By sharing her story, she wanted to urge Australians to follow social distancing measures, wash hands regularly and wear a mask in public to minimise the spread of COVID-19, especially in light of the recent surge in cases in Victoria.

The discomfort that you think you feel wearing a mask does not compare to the discomfort that you will experience if you test COVID-positive

'The discomfort that you think you feel wearing [a mask] does not compare to the discomfort that you will experience if you test COVID-positive,' Ms Morris warned in a video posted on social media.

'[To] become short of breath that even walking from the couch to the toilet is a mammoth effort.

'Wear a mask, wash your hands, engage in social distancing. There is nothing more inconvenient and uncomfortable than catching corona.

'I can tell you. I know from experience.'
945A Handheld Temperature Calibrator One of the significant changes was the increased resolution of temperature instruments. It is now required that instruments measure to 0.1 of resolution throughout their entire range. This limits the choices as many digital thermometers only register 0.1 up to 999.9.

TEGAM, Inc., the recent release of SAE AMS2750F Pyrometry has impacted the Metal Heat Treating Industry by requiring upgrades to their temperature measurement and calibration instruments. The TEGAM Model 945A meets the requirements in one convenient and portable instrument.

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The 945A Thermocouple Calibrator is the ideal tool for heat treaters. It is a field-portable instrument that meets the accuracy and resolution requirements of a Secondary Standard Test Instrument. It serves both as a thermocouple simulator and a reference thermometer for 14 types of thermocouple and mV. You may calibrate control and recording devices as well as perform Temperature Uniformity Surveys (TUS) and System Accuracy Tests (SAT) with one instrument. Now you may service your entire operations with one 945A instead of maintaining multiple instruments. The 945A also has 10X the battery life of any portable calibrator and the simplest controls. You wont be reaching for new batteries or the manual every time you use it.

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In the movie Chef, John Favreau plays Carl Casper, worn down by restaurant owner Dustin Hoffman's insistence that he stick to the same tried and tested dishes rather than give free rein to his culinary creativity. After a bad review and a social media rant against the offending critic goes viral, Casper quits the restaurant, opens a food truck serving authentic Cuban dishes and rediscovers his passion for cooking.

Customers line up down the street; the truck is a huge hit. Six months later, he has opened a new restaurant where his uncompromising food garners glowing reviews.

There can be few chefs working in stressful restaurant kitchens who haven't fantasised about something similar. And now, with restaurants, particularly in our city centres, struggling to attract customers and a reluctance on the part of many to eat indoors, it seems this might be the year that food trucks finally come into their own in Ireland.

Expand Close A taco from La Cocina Cuevas. Picture Credit: Frank McGrath / Facebook

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The movement began in LA with the Mexican food trucks that drove to construction sites to feed the workers. It's now an intrinsic part of that city's food identity. But aside from festivals and some farmers' markets, we don't have much of a culture of street food in Ireland. The reluctance of local authorities to allow food trucks to use the public realm is largely to blame.

Now, with street food yards such as EatYard in Dublin and Phoenix in Waterford, and experiments around pedestrianisation being rolled out up and down the country, there is a glimmer of hope that this could result in a more flexible approach.

Jeremy Cuevas sorted the problem of finding somewhere to park up by positioning his La Cocina Cuevas Mexican food truck outside his home, an old dairy farm in The Naul in North County Dublin. Business has boomed during lockdown, with customers turning up at pre-booked drive-through collection times every 10 minutes each weekend.

"I grew up in Lodi, California, where my grandmother, Elodia, ran a restaurant called La Cocina Cuevas," he says. "She and her husband came to America from Guadalajara in the 60s on the Bracero programme for migrant labour. She gave me a great foundation in cooking and I went on to study food history in college and then attended culinary school in the UK."

But after a decade spent working in restaurants in London, including the Michelin-starred Trinity in Clapham, Cuevas had enough.

"I was sick of fine dining and wanted to do something more casual. My partner - and business partner - Laura Duffy is from Co Meath and we decided to move to Ireland and open a food truck. The idea was to start small and build the business. We kicked off a year and a half ago doing festivals, and we've been in EatYard in Drumcondra since the end of last year.

Expand Close Jacob Long and Jack Brennan in their food truck Griolladh / Facebook

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"When lockdown happened, we realised that where we live has two gates and is a perfect U shape for drive-through, so we decided to park the truck there. We've been very busy and very fortunate - Covid has doubled our business. We might add more trucks and expand into a restaurant in the future, but we want to take it slowly for now and be sure that we maintain quality."

In Malahide, the Griolladh food truck has been another lockdown hit, serving up grilled cheese sandwiches, baked goods and Imbibe coffee opposite the entrance to the car park at Malahide beach.

"My business partner, Jack [Brennan] and I grew up together in Malahide and worked in hospitality, managing bars and restaurants, most recently Xico and The Well," says Jacob Long. "When lockdown happened, we couldn't see how our jobs were going to come back any time soon and we wanted something to keep us occupied. We used to run events together and we had a bit of money left from that, so we thought we'd have a go at a food truck. There were plenty that would usually have been going around to festivals available to rent, so we were able to get started with almost zero risk. We thought that Malahide was a safe bet, that there was a want for coffee and food there.

"We googled 'grill' in Irish and came up with the name Griolladh. We serve just a few things - a simple grilled cheese sandwich, a version with ham called the Hambo and specials featuring ingredients such as Gubbeen salami, plus some dips and sides. Our aim is to make the best version of a grilled cheese sandwich there can be, so we use Tartine sourdough, a three-cheese blend to get the right mix of tangy, melty and richness, and we butter everything with a paintbrush before sprinkling it with Maldon salt for that restaurant touch.

"Two months in, it's much busier than we imagined it would be and it's given us something to do. We're looking at expanding it into bars to help meet the 9 food requirement."





Six great food trucks to check out

Jack Rabbit @jackrabbiteats

Youll find Ian Marconi and his delicious food outside Churchtown Stores @churchtownstores in Dublin 14 from Wednesday to Sunday. This is a cut above in terms of street food, with dishes including pan-fried red-tailed wild shrimp with cauliflower cream, pine nuts, shallots, raisins and lemon rice, and sweetfire chicken marinated in buttermilk alongside beef keema and coconut butter curry.

The Salty Buoy @saltybuoytruck

Niall Sabongis new fishy food truck will be in business from August 1  youll find it at Avon Ri in Blessington on Saturdays and Sundays, and at Baste on Clanbrassil Street in Dublin 8 on Wednesdays. Sabongi was finalising the menu at the time of writing, but if youve visited Klaw, his Temple Bar restaurant, you know the food will be super tasty.

Julias Lobster Truck @juliaslobstertruck

Barbecued lobster, lobster rolls, fish and chips and a veggie option are all on the menu at Julias Lobster Truck, which youll find at Moher Cottage at the Cliffs of Moher on Thursdays and outside Dalys Bar in Bellharbour on Fridays and Saturdays. Pre-order via text 0876167277 to avoid disappointment.

La Cocina Cuevas @lacocinacuevas

Head out to Eircode K32K797 in North County Dublin at the weekend for a weekly changing menu of tacos and burritos. Last weeks menu included pork carnitas and Baja-style fish tacos. Youll also find Jeremy Cuevass food at Eatyard in Drumcondra.

Griolladh @griolladh

If youre in the mood for grilled cheese, Griolladh will sort you out with a monster sandwich and coffee. Find the truck opposite the car park for Malahide beach seven days a week.

Misunderstood Heron @misunderstood_heron

Named by Lonely Planet as one of the 10 coolest food trucks in the world, this trailer on the shores of Killary Fjord offers an ever-changing menu that always includes the signature pasties  one meat and one vegetarian  and a great range of both sweet and savoury options. Wednesday to Sunday.
Joe Biden has said hell pick a running mate as early as Saturday, and two Californians  Sen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Karen Bass  are on his short list. If he chooses either one, it will be the first time a California Democrat has been on the partys national ticket.

But it wont just be Harris or Bass there. California will be on the ballot, too, with all the stereotypes about the state  some truer than others  on display for the next three months.

California is a code word, said Ken Goldstein, a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco who has analyzed political advertising for more than two decades. California becomes a coded way for Republicans to attack Democrats.

Democrats have a positive story they can tell about California  one that emphasizes its vibrant economy, diversity and groundbreaking approach to countering climate change.

But for Republicans, California will become code for homeless crisis and sanctuary cities and the radical left, analysts said  a straw state for President Trump to invoke as he campaigns as the president of law and order.

The attacks are likely to be especially pointed if Biden picks Harris. Choosing San Franciscos former district attorney will encourage Republicans to dust off the epithet San Francisco liberal and repeat it throughout the fall.

California politicians have racked up massive budget deficits, ignored federal immigration laws and regulated their workers out of jobs, said Andres Malave, a regional spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

San Diego County Republican Party chairman Tony Krvaric said it would be great if Biden picks Harris or Bass, D-Los Angeles, because whats going on in California is a red-flag warning to every other state.

Most vice presidential picks are all but forgotten within days after their nomination unless, like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in 2008, they raise questions about their ability to handle the top job.

But Bidens VP pick is going to come under more scrutiny than a typical VP pick because of his age, said Ben Tulchin, who was Sen. Bernie Sanders presidential campaign pollster. If a Californian gets picked, theyd better be prepared to advocate for their state.

Drew Angerer / Getty Images

Manuel Pastor, a University of Southern California sociology professor, said, It will be interesting to see whether either of these Californians will be bold enough to tell Californias story.

Here are some themes likely to arise if a Californian is on the ticket:

Attacking San Francisco: Conservatives have been mocking San Francisco liberals since the city hosted the Democratic National Convention in 1984. The phrase was long a favorite of former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich. When The Chronicle asked him in 2012 what he meant when he invoked San Francisco values, Gingrich replied, Its Nancy Pelosi.

The GOP playbook has changed little since then. House Speaker Pelosi was mentioned in 1 of every 3 GOP ads during the 2018 midterms, usually as an avatar of San Francisco liberalism. The strategy failed; Democrats retook the House.

Thats not something I worry about, said Amy Levin, a Democratic political consultant based in Santa Monica. Pelosi ads didnt seem to work for them in 2018.

Nevertheless, the GOP will likely resurrect the strategy if Harris is the nominee, in part by attacking her first first major decision as San Franciscos district attorney: deciding not to seek the death penalty for a gang member who fatally shot police Officer Isaac Espinoza in 2004. Sen. Dianne Feinstein was among those who criticized the decision.

Shortly after Harris launched her presidential campaign in January 2019, she told MSNBC that she would welcome a debate about the death penalty.

It is a system where it has been fundamentally proven to be applied to African American and Latino men and poor men disproportionately for the same kind of crime, Harris said.

Public opinion has shifted Harris way in recent years, bolstered by more than 2,000 demonstrations nationally in support of racial justice since the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody in May. A Washington Post-ABC News survey this month found that 69% of respondents said the criminal justice system does not treat Black and white people equally.

On the other hand, California voters themselves were given the choice in 2016 of abolishing the death penalty or strengthening it. They chose the latter.

Although the death penalty is not a top issue for many voters, University of San Franciscos Goldstein said an ad using imagery of a gang member killing a cop could play well in (battleground states) like Pennsylvania or Wisconsin.

Greenhouse politics: Trump could well attack California as the home of anti-fossil-fuel zealots who would love nothing better than to throw coal miners and oil workers out of their jobs. He used the same attack on Hillary Clinton in 2016. But a Californian on the ticket could point to the state in arguing that fighting climate change doesnt have to kill the economy.

Tulchin, the former Sanders pollster, said Harris or Bass could proudly promote Californias law requiring the state to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. Creating those standards didnt slow its economy. When the pandemic struck, the state unemployment rate was a record low 3.9%.

Talking about climate change will appeal to the suburban women who are leaving Trump in droves, Tulchin said.

Sanctuary cities back in play: Look for the GOP to invoke the 2015 killing of Kate Steinle as an indictment of Californias sanctuary cities policy. An oft-deported undocumented immigrant was charged with the killing but was acquitted.

Trump won in 2016 in part by promising to build a wall on the nations southern border and clamp down on immigration. That appeal might not extend beyond his base this year. A Gallup survey last month found that 34% of respondents backed increasing immigration, while 27% opposed it. It was the highest percentage of Americans favoring increased immigration since 1965 and the first time, according to the polling company, that more people wanted to increase immigration than restrict it.

Stoking racial fears isnt working for Trump now, said Pastor, the USC sociology professor and author of State of Resistance.

On the street: Nearly 1 in 4 homeless Americans lives in California, an outsize proportion considering that 1 in 9 Americans lives in the state. If Harris or Bass is on the ticket, look for Republican commercials featuring homeless encampments in the Tenderloin or on Los Angeles Skid Row.

It will also be hard for a Californian to escape the fact that 1 in 5 children in the state lives in poverty.

Once you fall through the safety net, its a real dark underbelly, said Krvaric, the San Diego Republican. If youre struggling in California, you can be on the street in a hurry.

Democrats might try to blunt that attack by arguing that the federal government has done little to support the construction of affordable housing or alleviate homelessness. It will also be an opportunity to talk about how Trumps 2017 tax cuts mainly benefited corporations and wealthier individuals, Pastor said.

If Republicans truly have a problem with a Californian on the national ticket, they should look to the top Republican in the House, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, said Danny Weiss, Pelosis former chief of staff and now a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank.

If California is a problem, Weiss said, you wouldnt know it by the two leaders in the House right now.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
DUBLIN, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Face Mask Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global face mask market by unit shipment is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 5% during the period 2019-2025.



In-depth Analysis and Data-driven Insights on the Impact of COVID-19 Included in this Global Face Mask Market Report



The study considers the present scenario of the face mask 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.



Key Questions Answered



1. What is the face mask market size and growth rate during the forecast period?

2. What are the factors impacting the growth of the face mask market shares?

3. Which product type/end-users/region is generating the largest revenue in the North America region?

4. Who are the leading vendors in face mask market, and what are their market shares?

5. How masks are effective against the coronavirus disease and what is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the face mask market analysis?



Market Insights



The global face mask market is expected to register phenomenal growth by the end of 2020. The outbreak of respiratory infectious pandemic diseases such as H1N1 and COVID-19 fuels the demand for face masks among frontline health workers and in the general population.



N95 respirator masks are finding considerable use to protect healthcare workers against job-related exposure to infectious viruses and micro-organisms. The growing adoption of these products as a precautionary among healthcare personnel at workplaces and in the general public as a result of virus outbreaks is expected to continue during the forecast period, thereby driving the growth of the global disposable face mask market.



Like the medical mask market, the rise in air pollution, vehicle engine and industrial facility emissions, and dust and related allergies and effects is expected to continue to support market growth to significant extent over the forecast period.



The following factors are likely to contribute to the growth of the face mask market during the forecast period:

Increasing Consumption of Face Masks for Personal Use

New Product Launches in Personal Protective Equipment

Spread of Infectious Diseases

Increasing Investments in the Healthcare Sector

Market Segmentation



The global face mask market research report includes a detailed segmentation by product, nature, end-users, distribution, and geography.



The global outbreak of coronavirus has become one of the major drivers for the exceptional growth of N95 respirator masks in 2020. N95 manufacturers have witnessed a rapid growth in the sale of respiratory protective products. Although healthcare regulatory authorities across the globe have recommended the use of N95 respirators should be limited to healthcare workers, many individuals purchase these products to mitigate the risk of acquiring COVID-19 infection. The outbreak of pandemic has led to the growth of N95, KN95, FFP2 & FFP3, P95 & R95 masks.



The demand for surgical aids and equipment has increased with the adoption of new surgical practices in the medical field. The presence of dedicated surgical centers in healthcare centers has also given an impetus to the growth. Also, surgical masks are witnessing significant growth demand majorly because of their affordability and availability in the market. The surgical segment is further categorized into 3-ply, 4-ply, and 5-ply, which are witnessing high adoption on account of the awareness in standard hygiene and safety measures and the growth of airborne infections.



The increasing awareness of personal protective equipment among people on account of the growing healthcare sector is expected to drive the disposable face mask market. The use of disposable ones helps to protect the wearer from viruses and pathogens that can cause infections. The function is to reduce or eliminate the chance of being affected by potential environmental contaminants. These are highly worn by the hospital staff and employees working in medical healthcare institutions. Moreover, the increasing product penetration in developing countries via e-commerce sale channels is positively influencing the disposable face mask market size.



The penetration of protective equipment in hospitals is estimated to witness growth considering the prevalence of hospital-acquired infections globally. Several health authorities are making compulsory to wear face masks in hospitals, especially after the outbreak of Coronavirus as healthcare facilities come under high risk zones. The emergence of improved and effective surgical masks and respirators with superior safety and efficacy serves as healthy market opportunities for hospitals as the demand for modern treatment procedures is increasing, especially in developed countries.



Similar to the facial mask market, retail stores are the major revenue contributors to the global face mask market shares. Retail channels include supermarkets, hypermarkets, drug stores, and department stores. Before the COVD-19 crisis, these stocks were majorly sold through retail channels including drug stores and hypermarkets. The retail segment currently accounts for the highest revenue share, and this is expected to continue over the forecast period.



Insights by Geography



In terms of volume, North America is expected to lead the market, reaching unit shipment of over 3.4 billion by 2025. The growth in the region is mainly attributed to the increasing incidence of several acute and chronic diseases such as CVDs, cancer, diabetes, and pneumonia. The surge in surgeries, the availability of advanced healthcare infrastructure, and increasing concerns of safety and hygiene practices are the major factors contributing to the market growth.



Vendors are focusing on developing innovative and advanced products that will offer effective results. Surgeons are adopting less invasive procedures to avoid infections and additional complications and simultaneously using disposable surgical face masks to reduce HAI risks. Therefore, the safety and effectiveness of these products to reduce the adverse effects during surgical procedures for heart, respiratory, cancer and other diseases also are influencing the medical face mask market in North America.



Insights by Vendors



The global market is highly competitive and dynamic characterized by the presence of several global, regional, and local vendors, offering a diverse range of surgical and respirator face masks to end-users. There are approximately 400 vendors offering a wide array of face masks worldwide. With the outbreak of COVID-19, the number of companies manufacturing COVID-19 face masks has increased exponentially, especially in China, over the last two decades. China has become the manufacturing hub and around 50% of the global production is from China alone.



Prominent Vendors

The 3M Company

Company Cardinal Health

Honeywell International

Kimberly-Clark

Mlnlycke Health Care

Owens & Minor

Prestige Ameritech

Other Prominent Vendors

AERO PRO

Alpha Pro Tech

Ansell

ASID BONZ

BERNER International

ClearMask

COMED

Crosstex International

DACH Schutzbekleidung

Dynarex

ERENLER MEDKAL

HONG KONG MEDI

MEDI Intco Medical

Kowa Company

Medibase

Makrite

Med-Con

Medi Dent Disposable International

Moldex

Medicom

Medline Industries

Mexpo International

Narang Medical

Neomedic

RAYS

Safe'N'Clear

TROGE MEDICAL

Trimpeks

Wujiang Evergreen EX/IM

Yeakn Protecting Products

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Infiniti Research is the world's leading independent provider of strategic market intelligence solutions. Our market intelligence services are designed to connect your organization's goals with global opportunities. Infiniti has recently announced a limited period FREE access to their exclusive market insights US Precision Medicine Market: Market Assessment and Regulatory Landscape Study for a Biospecimen Exporter.

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Market Assessment of the US Precision Medicine Market (Graphic: Business Wire)

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The Knesset Christian Allies Caucus is set to relaunch this week at the 23rd Knesset at the Friends of Zion Ambassador Institute in Jerusalem.

According to CBN News, the KCAC works as a link between pro-Israel Christian leaders and Israels Knesset, or parliament.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Friends of Zion International Chairman Dr. Mike Evans, Speaker of the Knesset Yariv Levin, US Ambassador David Friedman, and KCAC Director Josh Reinstein are expected to speak at the launch event.

Our launch events are typically held in the Knesset with local Christian leaders in attendance. The coronavirus restrictions have actually given us a new opportunity to restructure this program and allow for a wider audience, spanning 42 countries and participation from world leaders and our international Israel Allies Caucus Chairman.

This will bring home the message that faith-based diplomacy is the strongest weapon we have in the arsenal of international Israel advocacy Reinstein said.

Israeli parliament member Sharren Haskel will deliver the keynote address. Haskel is serving as the Chairperson of the KCAC.

This virtual event is a perfect example of efforts that can be extended even during these times of closed borders in order to reach out to our international base of supporters and encourage them to keep up their efforts in support for Israel, Haskel said.

My participation over the years as a member of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus has highlighted for me how Christian parliamentarians around the world have a commitment to Israel which lies in their hearts. Being unified under this network of the Israel Allies Foundation, gives these politicians the ability to unite and feel inspired to bring this commitment to life, bringing their beliefs into their political activity.

The event will be streamed live on the Jerusalem Prayer Team Facebook page at 6 p.m. Israel time.

We have 73 million followers just on Facebook, said Friends of Zion International Chairman Dr. Mike Evans.This event will be the social media event of the year in Israel

Photo courtesy: Pixabay

Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.
U.S. warns against planting unsolicited seeds from China Packages of unidentified seeds which appear to have been mailed from China to U.S. postal addresses are seen at the WSDA in Olympia

By Tom Polansek

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture is warning Americans not to plant unsolicited packages of seeds that appear to be arriving from China.

States stretching from Washington to Virginia have also told residents not to put the seeds in the ground, after they arrived in the mailboxes of people who did not order them. Officials said the seeds could grow invasive species that threaten crops or livestock.

The USDA said on Tuesday it was collecting the seeds and would test them to determine if they were a concern to agriculture or the environment. The agency is working with states and the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection to investigate the packages, according to a statement.

The USDA said it had no evidence the shipments are something other than a "brushing scam," in which people receive unsolicited items from a seller who then posts false customer reviews to boost sales.

The packages "appear to be coming from China," according to the USDA. On Monday, the agency said it was "aware that people across the country have received unsolicited packages of seed from China."

Relations between Washington and Beijing have deteriorated this year to what experts say is their lowest level in decades over issues ranging from trade and technology to the coronavirus pandemic.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday China's postal service strictly abides by restrictions on sending seeds.

Records on the packages appear to have been falsified, according to checks by China's postal service, which has asked for them to be sent to China for investigation, he said at a daily news briefing.

U.S. states, including Washington and Alabama, labeled the shipments as "agricultural smuggling." Photos distributed by state agriculture departments show seeds of different sizes, shapes and colors in white or yellow envelopes.

State officials said some packages were labeled as jewelry and may have contained Chinese writing. They asked recipients to keep the seeds in sealed plastic bags until authorities collect them.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Dan Grebler and Bernadette Baum)
Artificial intelligence (AI) could help to diagnose Alzheimer's faster and improve patient prognosis, a new study from the University of Sheffield has revealed.

The new research from the University of Sheffield's Neuroscience Institute examines how the routine use of AI in healthcare could help to relieve the time and economic impact that common neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, put on the NHS.

The main risk factor for many neurological disorders is age, and with populations worldwide living longer than ever before, the number of people with a neurodegenerative disease is expected to hit unprecedented levels. The number of people living with Alzheimer's alone is predicted to treble to 115 million by 2050, posing a real challenge for the health system.

The new study, published in the journal Nature Reviews Neurology, highlights how AI technologies, such as machine learning algorithms, can detect neurodegenerative disorders - which cause part of the brain to die - before progressive symptoms worsen. This can improve patients' chances of benefitting from successful disease-modifying treatment.

Lead author of the study, Dr Laura Ferraiuolo from the University of Sheffield, said: "Most neurodegenerative diseases still do not have a cure and in many cases are diagnosed late due to their molecular complexity.

"Widespread implementation of AI technologies can help, for example, predict which patients showing mild cognitive impairment will go on to develop Alzheimer's disease, or how severely their motor skills will decline over time.

"AI-powered technologies can also be used to help patients communicate their symptoms remotely and in the privacy of their own homes, which will be an enormous benefit to patients with mobility issues."

Machine learning algorithms can be trained to recognise changes caused by diseases in medical images, patient movement information, speech recordings or footage showing patient behaviour, making the AI a valuable diagnostic aid.

For example, it can be used by trained professionals in radiology departments to analyse images more quickly and highlight critical results for an immediate follow-up.

Algorithms can also listen to patients' speech and analyse their vocabulary and other semantic features to assess their cognitive function. Machine learning can also use information contained within electronic health records or genetic profiles to suggest the best treatments for individual patients.

The study is the result of a long-term close collaboration between the biotech company BenevolentAI and a team of researchers at the University of Sheffield's Neuroscience Institute, Monika Myszczynska, Dr Richard Mead and Dr Guillaume Hautbergue.

First author of the paper, Monika Myszczynska from the University of Sheffield, said: "Using AI in clinical settings can lead to savings in the NHS by reducing the necessity of patients affected by debilitating diseases, like MND, to travel to clinic - which is very relevant during the current pandemic - and the time patients and physicians spend in clinic.

"It is too early to talk about outcomes in terms of treatments but, in this study, we examined how machine learning methods can be used to identify the best course of treatment for patients based on their disease progression or how it could be used to identify new therapeutic targets and drugs.

"Further research will now focus on the improvement of current diagnostic technologies, as well as a generation of new algorithms to make the use of AI in prognosis prediction and drug discovery a reality. AI feeds on data, therefore generation of international consortia and collaborations are the key to these future endeavours."

The research forms part of the work of the University of Sheffield's Neuroscience Institute, which aims to bring academics and scientists together from across varied specialties to translate scientific discoveries from the lab into pioneering treatments that will benefit patients living with neurodegenerative disorders.

###

For more information about the Neuroscience Institute at the University of Sheffield, please visit: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/neuroscience-institute

Media contact:

Amy Huxtable, Media Relations Officer, University of Sheffield, 0114 222 9859 or 07568116781, a.l.huxtable@sheffield.ac.uk

Additional information

The University of Sheffield

With almost 29,000 of the brightest students from over 140 countries, learning alongside over 1,200 of the best academics from across the globe, the University of Sheffield is one of the world's leading universities.

A member of the UK's prestigious Russell Group of leading research-led institutions, Sheffield offers world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines.

Unified by the power of discovery and understanding, staff and students at the university are committed to finding new ways to transform the world we live in.

Sheffield is the only university to feature in The Sunday Times 100 Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For 2018 and for the last eight years has been ranked in the top five UK universities for Student Satisfaction by Times Higher Education.

Sheffield has six Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and its alumni go on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence all over the world, making significant contributions in their chosen fields.

Global research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Unilever, AstraZeneca, Glaxo SmithKline, Siemens and Airbus, as well as many UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Republic of Peru Martin Vizcarra Cornejo.

Dear Mr President, it is on the occasion of the national holiday of your country  Independence Day that on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan I wish to cordially congratulate you and the people of Peru, the letter said.

There are opportunities for further development of friendly ties between Azerbaijan and Peru, both bilaterally and across the multilateral platforms, the letter said. On this notable day, I wish strong health and success to you, and everlasting prosperity to your people.
WASHINGTON - The Senates top Republican said Tuesday that he opposes a push by President Donald Trump to include nearly $1.8 billion in a new coronavirus aid package to rebuild the FBI headquarters on its current site in downtown Washington.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters he opposes inclusion of the FBI money and all other measures not related to the governments response to the virus.

When we get to the end of the process, I would hope all of the non-COVID-related measures are out, McConnell said. No matter what bills they were in at the start.

McConnells comments came after Democrats accused Trump of self-dealing with his push on the FBI building, which sits across the street from a downtown hotel that Trump owns on Pennsylvania Avenue, blocks from the White House. The Trump International Hotel could face competition if the FBI moves from the site and another hotel is developed on the property.

Before running for office, Trump expressed interest in redeveloping the FBI property himself, and he has taken a strong personal interest in the effort to rebuild the headquarters.

They dont have money for food stamps, but they have money for an FBI building just so that they can diminish competition for the presidents hotel, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday night.

More than 150,000 Americans have died from coronavirus, millions are unemployed ... and Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump are more concerned about protecting Trump Hotel. That is shameful, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., also said Monday.

The White House defended the spending request. As President Trump has said, the FBI desperately needs a new building and this measure provides critical funding for this project that would keep the building responsibly near the Department of Justice, spokesperson Judd Deere said Tuesday.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Richard Shelby said the administration requested money for the FBI building, adding: The reason is, it is needed.

Shelby, an Alabama Republican, acknowledged that the plan might have trouble getting through Congress. Some of the Virginia people want to build in Virginia and Maryland Democrats want the new FBI building built there, he said Tuesday before McConnell spoke, citing an earlier, failed proposal to move the FBI building from downtown Washington.

Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he did not know why money for the FBI building was included in the virus relief bill. That makes no sense to me, Graham told reporters Tuesday. Id be fine, okay with stripping it out of the bill.

Asked why the administration asked for the FBI money in the virus aid bill, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said, Well, its just a pressing need, so whether its this bill or (another spending bill) later, its just a pressing need.

The current J. Edgar Hoover building, built in 1974, is crumbling badly. The space is not big enough to consolidate all FBI personnel, and advocates of a suburban location say it would be less expensive and more efficient to rebuild outside the city.

The Justice Departments inspector general is investigating the cancellation of the original plan. That investigation remains ongoing more than a year later.

Democrats said they only found out about the FBI plan after the GOP bill was released.

They managed to have enough money for $2 billion for the FBI headquarters that benefits Trump hotel, and they say they have no money for food assistance. What the heck is going on? said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

Trump said last week that a new FBI building is needed and that it should be near the Justice Department headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The site they have now is better than any alternative, Trump said Thursday. Sites in Maryland or Virginia wouldve been too far away, he said.

The government faces a choice, Trump said: You can renovate the existing building  but its not a good building  or you could take it down and build a great building for the FBI for 100 years and have it be incredible.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said lawmakers agree with Trump that the FBI needs a new headquarters, but to suddenly slip this ill-suited and unworkable downtown proposal as part of a COVID-19 relief package is the height of absurdity.
Teachers may be the next biggest clients of Ghanas local automotive industry as the National Association of Graduate Teachers has begun considering plans to enter arrangements to purchase locally assembled vehicles for their members.

This will be a major boost to the fledgeling industry with a huge membership and guaranteed incomes on the teacher front.

The Ashanti Regional Chairman of NAGRAT Francis Yaw Owusu made the disclosures when the Union gave out 55 vehicles on a five year credit scheme for teachers in Kumasi.

He explained: We know VW has begun production and other plants are also coming and we have the intention of sitting with them to see if they can produce cars to suit our situation so that we can spread payments and if a bank can also come in to finance it for us.

Pointing to the vehicles on display Mr Yaw Owusu indicated, These are used cars even though they are in good condition but they can never be compared with a brand new one so if we are able to secure brand new ones for teachers, I think it will be better.

The vehicles that were given out to the teachers included Toyota Yaris, Corolla, RAV 4 SUVs and Honda CRVs.

Government in the early 2000s introduced a number of incentives including waving import duties on vehicles for Teachers, Nurses and other government officials returning from special foreign missions to allow them own vehicles with engines not exceeding 2000 cubic capacities

This was scrapped in the year 2014 but the teacher Unions want such wavers restored and their teacher maintenance allowances paid religiously to encourage them to patronize vehicles to support their work.

Some of the teachers who spoke to reporter Ivan Heathcote  Fumador reiterated the need for such interventions that will enhance the essential work of teachers while appreciating commercial value for the economy.

We are paying high for these cars so I will wish that the government also comes to our aid and bring back the waver so that at least we can have moderate prices and moderate cars to buy, A teacher Kwabena Nketia beckoned .

A circuit supervisor with the Asokwa Municipal Education office, told Ultimate Business, Most teachers dont stay near where they teach so getting a car helps in our movement and government should support us with the vehicle allowances 

Ghanas Automotive Drive

Ghanas ambitious drive to be a local vehicle assembling hub on the continent saw is bright sails when Volkswagen released its first six brands of vehicles assembled in the country.

Toyota and Nissan are also working on a tight schedule to unveil vehicles from their local plants before the end of this year.

Government has already ordered that state institutions purchase their fleet from these local manufacturers as part of Ghanas auto manufacturing development policy.

Teacher Unions Niche

Teacher Unions are gradually carving a niche in the economy considering their huge numbers, guarantee of payments and upfront deductions from the Controller and Accountant Generals Department.

NAGRAT will by the end of this year enter into real estate to provide housing for teachers desirous of investing into landed assets.
Dr. David P. Bingaman Appointed as Vice President, Global Clinical Development

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, July 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oculis S.A., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative topical (eye drop) ophthalmic treatments using its innovative formulation technologies to improve the sight and lives of patients, today announced that it has successfully completed an End-of-Phase 2 meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for OCS-01 in two indications: for the treatment of inflammation and pain following cataract surgery and for the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME). As a result, the Company is currently planning the Phase 3 trials for both indications, which are expected to begin in the first half of 2021.



We are very pleased with the guidance received from FDA on key elements of the Phase 3 programs that will support the submission of a New Drug Application (NDA) in both of our targeted indications, said Riad Sherif, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Oculis. We look forward to further demonstrating, in our Phase 3 programs, the potential of OCS-01 as a transformative topical treatment for DME and as potentially the first once a day steroid for the treatment of inflammation and pain following cataract surgery.



Oculis is also pleased to announce the appointment of David P. Bingaman, D.V.M., Ph.D., D. ACVO, as Vice President, Global Clinical Development to further strengthen the Companys development capabilities. Dr. Bingaman brings more than 20 years of pharmaceutical experience in discovery research and clinical development in the ophthalmology area.



In this new position at Oculis, he will play a key leadership role in all clinical development programs to advance the Companys pipeline of novel therapeutic candidates, including OCS-01 and OCS-02. A priority for Dr. Bingaman and Oculis in the coming months will be the planning and implementation of the Phase 3 trials. The design of the Phase 3 programs in both indications will be based on the positive Phase 2 trials with OCS-01 in each indication reported earlier in 2020 and feedback recently received from the FDA at End-of-Phase 2 meeting and scientific advice from the European Medicines Agency.



I am delighted to welcome David to the Oculis team, commented Dr. Sherif. David brings therapeutic expertise as well as in-depth clinical development experience that will be very valuable to the Company as we advance our novel topical anti-inflammatory treatments OCS-01 and OCS-02 through late-stage clinical development. David will be based in the U.S., where we are currently establishing our operations.



David Bingaman added: The potential of Oculis pipeline candidates is very exciting. I am convinced that if the advanced product candidates, as well as the topical formulation technologies, come to market, they will have a positive impact on the vision and quality of life of millions of people worldwide. Results from two Phase 2 clinical trials reported earlier this year highlighted OCS-01s ability to provide anti-inflammatory activity following topical ocular dosing in both front- and back-of-the-eye diseases. Not only could OCS-01 be a once-daily steroid for front-of-the-eye inflammation following cataract surgery, it also may be transformational for patients with sight-threatening DME for whom current approved treatments are invasive intra-ocular injections or implants. OCS-02 is another exciting prospect, as it could become the worlds first topical ocular biologic to address other common inflammatory eye conditions, such as uveitis or offer a personalized treatment for severe dry eye patients. Oculis is at a pivotal time in its development and I am very much looking forward to joining the team to advance these innovative candidates towards patients in need.



Dr. Bingaman joins Oculis from Panoptica where he was Senior Director and Head of Retina Development since 2011, overseeing all development functions and the execution of multiple trials in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy using a topical ocular anti-VEGF candidate. Prior to Panoptica, he held several leadership roles with Alcon Research, the former eye-care division of Novartis, moving from Discovery to Development as his teams programs were elevated into first-in-man trials.



About Oculis

Story continues

Oculis S.A. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative topical ophthalmic treatments using its innovative formulation technologies to improve the sight and lives of patients.



Oculis novel topical (eye drop) treatments are non-invasive and represent an unprecedented technical advance for patients with retinal and front-of-the-eye diseases.



The Companys leading clinical candidates include OCS-01 and OCS-02:

OCS-01 is a novel, high concentration, preservative free, topical formulation of dexamethasone using Oculis proprietary Solubilizing Nanoparticle (SNP) technology. It has successfully completed two Phase 2 clinical trials: in Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) and for treating inflammation and pain following cataract surgery. OCS-01 has the potential to provide the first non-invasive topical treatment option for DME patients and the first once a day, preservative free steroid for inflammation and pain following ocular surgery.





OCS-02 is a novel topical anti-TNF alpha antibody and was in-licensed from Novartis. It has successfully completed two Phase 2 clinical trials in Acute Anterior Uveitis and in Dry Eye Disease.

In addition, Oculis formulation discovery focus and capabilities are enabling the development of a pipeline of topical drugs targeting sight-threatening eye diseases that affect both the anterior and posterior segments of the eye.



Oculis has an experienced management team from global ophthalmic companies and is supported by leading international life science investors. Oculis is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, with research operations in Iceland and France.



To learn more, visit www.oculis.com

Contacts

Oculis

Dr. Riad Sherif, CEO

riad.sherif@oculis.com

Louie-Anne Gauthier, VP, Strategic Marketing and BD&L

louie-anne.gauthier@oculis.com

Investor Relations

Burns McClellan

John Grimaldi

+1 212-213-0006 x362

jgrimaldi@burnsmc.com

Media Relations

Citigate Dewe Rogerson

Mark Swallow / Sylvie Berrebi

oculis@citigatedewerogerson.com

+44 7903 737703 / +44 7714 306525




Greencore has sold its molasses business for 15.6m (17m) to United Molasses Marketing.

The division is involved in importing and distributing animal feed across Ireland.

Proceeds from the sale will be used to further strengthen the group's balance sheet.

The Patrick Coveney-headed group reported a 36pc fall in group revenue on a pro forma basis to 240.6m for the three months to June 26, according to a trading update.

Its food-to-go business was particularly hard hit, down 52.5pc to 123.8m in the three month period, as large numbers of people worked from home due to Covid-19, leading to a change in eating habits.

Revenues have recovered progressively in this division, as restrictions on population movements have eased, Greencore said.

The company said Covid-19 has had a dramatic and volatile impact on UK food consumption patterns in the period.

Revenue in the group's other convenience food categories totalled 116.8m in quarter three, an increase of 1.8pc on a pro forma basis.

Despite the dramatic fall in revenue in its food-to-go business, Greencore said it delivered positive adjusted earnings for the quarter.

In the year to date, the group's reported revenue was 953.3m, a decrease of 12.4pc on the same period last year.

Commenting on the performance, Patrick Coveney, CEO of Greencore, said: Our group has traded resiliently, with our deep customer relationships strengthened further, and we are encouraged to see a sustained improvement in demand and category mix.

We remain confident in the relevance and attractiveness of the food to go channels and categories that we serve. In addition, we are well positioned for new business opportunities and a return to growth as the pandemic subsides."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 16:36:56|Editor: huaxia

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SHANGHAI, July 28 (Xinhua) -- When Fang Zeyu, a Chinese science fiction writer, looked up yet again at the red planet, a different emotion transpired within him.

As China's first Mars mission, Tianwen-1 (meaning Questions to Heaven), blasted off to success on July 23, marking the country's first step in planetary exploration of the solar system, it has induced inspiration for Chinese sci-fi writers and artists.

Yu Jun, an astrophotographer and astronomy blogger, said he has been following the human explorations of Mars extensively.

"It is these explorations that have brought us psychologically closer to Mars. Now we talk about things on Mars as if we were talking about a neighboring village," said Yu.

The exploration could help improve human ability to go deeper into space and provide first-hand data for significant scientific research such as the origin and evolution of the solar system and life.

Last month, Fang completed the first draft of a short story about Mars, but he is yet to revise it, as he thinks the draft lacks novel elements. He believes the successful launch of Tianwen-1 may elicit new materials and help yield different perspectives for his work.

"The advancement of science and technology can further broaden our horizons, and I'm looking forward to it. It is a brand-new start," Fang said.

The prospect of upcoming works inspired by the Mars mission has thrilled many Chinese sci-fi fans.

Yang Chenxi, 27, who has loved science fiction since childhood, thought the mission would increase public interest in Mars, leading to a surge in the creation of Mars-themed sci-fi works.

"I look forward to reading a story someday that the astronauts on Mars found key resources to save Earth when our planet is in danger," Yang said.

Unlike other planets in the universe, the environment of Mars has the closest resemblance to Earth in the solar system. Thus, the exploration of Mars emanates a sense of mission and responsibility in terms of finding a new home for future generations.

Due to this goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind, Chinese sci-fi writers and scholars believe that the implication of China's first journey to Mars will go beyond science itself.

Through the eyes of Zhang Xiaobei, director and screenwriter, many leaders in the commercial space industry, such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, spent their childhoods under the influence of the Apollo program, which made them set foot in the journey to space after growing up.

"I believe that the future of mankind would be in the space, and I hope our future generations could look up at the starry sky from their childhood," said Zhang. "These are the sparks. One day, maybe a few of these little sparks will have a chance to put a shine on human civilization."

Li Zhaoxin, a sci-fi critic and partner of the Future Affairs Administration, an incubator for sci-fi writers, said that stepping out of Earth and onto other planets is a crucial realistic topic for humankind.

"Everyone should be aware that we live in a fragile ecosystem. The more people realize it, and the more we understand it, the better the world will be," said Li.

As the world is facing unique challenges this year, the Mars mission reminds people that some major undertakings require the cooperation of all mankind.

Zheng Yongchun, a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, emphasized that no matter what the international situation may be, people should never give up international cooperation in space exploration, which is the hope of humanity.

"China's Mars exploration will also become a part of human space exploration. I hope that a new Cold War in any form doesn't dim the brilliance of the career," said Wu Yan, a sci-fi writer and professor with the Southern University of Science and Technology. Enditem
Expert members of a National Green Tribunal (NGT) committee constituted to prepare the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zones zonal master plan (ZMP) disagreed with its final draft finalised by the Uttarakhand government, citing concerns over issues such as cutting into the slopes for roads and change in land-use norms. The concerns have been highlighted in the annexures to ZMP published on the Union environment ministrys website. A separate scrutiny committee constituted by the Union water resources ministry following a 2018 Supreme Court order also did not approve ZMP, the committee members noted.

The eco-sensitive zone stretches from Gaumukh to Uttarkashi and covers an area of 4179.56 sq km across 88 villages.

Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar on July 17 said his ministry has approved ZMP, which will help expedite the Chaar Dhaam road project for four pilgrimage sites in Uttarakhand.

ZMP allows for land-use change for civic amenities and other infrastructure development in larger public interest and national security paving the way for the road project.

In a statement on July 17, the environment ministry said ZMP emphasises governance in the areas of forest and wildlife, watershed management, irrigation, energy, tourism, public health and sanitation, road infrastructure, etc. It added ZMPs approval will boost conservation, the ecology of the area, and permitted developmental activities.

Activists and experts have said the approval of ZMP could make the entire Bhagirathi region vulnerable to natural disasters.

Professor Vinod Tare, an Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur professor who has been member of both committees, said no meeting was ever called of the NGT panel members. We were asked to give our comments over email. When meetings were called, they were with Uttarakhand government officials, who were focused on presenting government schemes and projects. So, it is obvious that our comments have not been incorporated.

NGT constituted the committee in 2017 following activist Keshar Singh Panwars petition against a ZMP drafted for the eco-sensitive zone in 2016 because it was lax on protecting the region. The panel included geologists, engineers, hydrologists, and environmental experts, who were asked to prepare a fresh ZMP.

As per the minutes of the NGT committee meetings, the members highlighted slope cutting as inappropriate as this could trigger landslides, soil erosion, and generate debris. They also cited a lack of clarity on initiatives like Winter Chaar Dham for winter tourism and noted road widening could lead to loss of deodar trees and a lack of livelihood opportunities for the local people.

Ravi Chopra, an NGT committee member, in his submission on June 11, 2018, called the final ZMP draft a missed opportunity. the final draft thus deviates substantially from the letter and spirit of the guidelines given in the December 2012 Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone Gazette Notification (and amended in April 2018). It remains largely faithful to the rejected ZMP of October 2016. Based on the foregoing, it is not possible to accept the draft ZMP...

In 2018, Tare wrote to the Uttarakhand government, saying the most important suggestions could not be seriously considered. much of the committee time was used for the presentation of material prepared by various departments I once again request that a meeting of only committee members be arranged and the present version of ZMP be reviewed and modified. Otherwise, it is not in order to state that the ZMP is endorsed by the committee, Tare wrote, as per the annexures.

A final view on the draft ZMP was taken by the Uttarakhand government after seeking comments of the NGT committee. It was only then that the ZMP was forwarded to MoEFCC for approval, said Arvind Singh Hyanki, who as secretary forests, Uttarakhand, sent the draft ZMP to the Union environment ministry for its approval in September 2018. Hyanki is presently Kumaons commissioner.

Panwar moved the Supreme Court in 2017 asking that the NGT committee be changed because it is headed by the additional chief secretary, Uttarakhand, who has been involved in granting clearances to hydroelectric projects. Responding to the appeal, the court in July 2018 directed the Union water resources ministry to get the ZMP scrutinised by an 11-member independent committee before approving it.

But there is no mention of the water resources ministrys committee in the ZMP approved by the environment ministry. We had shared the draft ZMP with all 11 expert members and received their comments on email. The summary of these comments [is] with the environment ministry but I am not sure if they have been incorporated. We did not participate in the meeting where the ZMP was approved, said U P Singh, secretary, water resources.

RP Singh, secretary, environment ministry, said the water ministrys comments were also considered while approving ZMP.

The water ministry had mailed me ZMP and sought my comments. ZMP is a very good idea. It should be implemented for the entire Himalayas not just Bhagirathi. I sent the water ministry a number of comments on issues I had noticed because the zone is geologically very sensitive. But I was never communicated what happened to those comments, and how they are being used, said Navin Juyal, a geologist at CSIRs National Physical Laboratory.

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This article is part of the Free Speech Project , a collaboration between Future Tense and the Tech, Law, & Security Program at American University Washington College of Law that examines the ways technology is influencing how we think about speech.

This article is adapted from Dare to Speak by Suzanne Nossel. Copyright  2020 by Suzanne Nossel. Used with permission by Dey Street, an imprint of HarperCollins. All rights reserved.

At a time when misinformation and disinformation are running rampant, hateful speech pollutes social media platforms, and the drive to eradicate racial symbols and slurs has accelerated, the notion that government ought to be doing more to curb nefarious speech seems almost obvious. Why wouldnt we want the government banning the spread of crackpot coronavirus cures or false information about the security of mail-in ballots?

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Well, thats just it. Both those examples of false information have been purveyed by none other than President Donald Trump, from the White House lectern or the digital equivalent in the form of his Twitter account. Although it is unprecedented, and we may fervently hope that no future president will traffic in falsehoods to the degree Trump has, his penchant for lying, misleading, menacing critics, and gilding facts to burnish his own reputation offer a powerful illustration of why the Constitutions Framers and subsequent courts in the U.S. have sharply restricted the power of our elected leaders to ban and punish speech. Those advocating more aggressive government policing of online hate, racial slurs, and speech that evinces bias put enormous trust in officials to draw boundaries around permissible speech. If Trump were not constrained by the First Amendment, it is pretty clear he would have barred the publication of critical books, denied press passes to journalists he considered unfriendly, punished media outlets viewed as hostile, and cracked down harshly on street protests; he tried to do all these things andin some instanceshas been successful up to a point until other officials or courts have stepped in to stop him.

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Both our own history and the experience of countries around the world illustrates that, on balance, when afforded leeway to oversee speech, authorities will use that power to serve their own ends, stifling dissent and silencing those who challenge them. While the U.S. allows the regulation of speech in a defined set of categoriesincluding things like defamation, libel, harassment, threats, and false advertisingbeyond these finite exceptions to the First Amendment, we approach other forms of mendacious speech through measures that do not involve government crackdowns. The system is far from perfect, but a closer look at the approaches taken in the rest of the world reveals that there is no ideal paradigm for government regulation of speech and that before we call upon Congress or the courts to exercise wider discretion over what the citizenry can or cannot say, we need to think hard about the power we are affording them, and about who may be empowered to useor misuseit.

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There is a wide distance between the harsh repressiveness in countries like China and constitutionally enshrined free speech in the United States. As critics of U.S. permissiveness toward speech like to point out, virtually every other democracy in the worldincluding the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, and elsewhereallows greater government restraints on speech than does our First Amendment. These countries generally hold themselves to international law as codified in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, or ICCPR, adopted in 1966. Article 19 of the ICCPR says, Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers. It permits legal restrictions on speech as necessary for respect of the rights or reputations of others, for the protection of national security, public order, or public health or morals. Article 20 prohibits propaganda for war and says, Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.

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As interpreted by the U.N.s Human Rights Committee, to pass muster under Article 19, speech bans must:

1. Be provided by law (excluding laws that are too vague).

2. Be necessary (which means they must be the least intrusive means to achieve the desired ends).

3. Achieve an enumerated legitimate public interest.

The language of Article 19 is far-reaching and prescient, insofar as it encompasses all media regardless of frontiers, a phrase that has become the predicate for insisting that international free speech protections are as robust online as off. The concerns raging now in the U.S. over hateful speech and bigotry are not unlike those that informed the treaty, which was drafted in 1954, in the aftermath of the Holocaust. The United States signed that treaty but entered a reservation to Article 20, meaning that it committed to implementing Article 20 only insofar as it is consistent with the First Amendment. This departure encapsulates one key difference between the American approach to hateful speech and that of much of the rest of the free worldthe U.S. bans only incitement to imminent violence and not incitement to discrimination, hostility, or even violence in general.

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Theres a strong case to be made that the U.S. system is superior. The constitutions of many European countries, including Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Poland, guarantee freedom of expression but permit considerable restrictions. The U.K. lacks a written constitution but has a Human Rights Act that seeks to balance freedom of expression and equality. Provisions aimed to curtail forms of hateful speech exist in a wide range of European national laws and regulations. These include certain criminal law provisions, administrative restrictions that can sanction and fine errant speech, and civil law remedies that allow hate speech victims to seek compensation through the courts. One of the most evident problems in the European approach is that the application of anti-hate laws is discretionary, which can mean that they are used selectively to target speech that is unpopular or considered unfriendly by the government. The results are frequent charges of double standards, politicization, and the abuse of the law to suppress unwelcome viewpoints.

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In France, the former head of ACT UP, the HIV/AIDS activism group, was fined in 2016 for using the word homophobic. In 2019, the head of the French #MeToo movement (known by the hashtag #balancetonporc or #exposeyourpig) was found guilty of defamation for publicizing comments that her harasser did not deny making. In another instance, activists were fined for wearing T-shirts advocating a boycott of Israel. Moreover, speech-suppressive laws may succeed in banning words and phrases, but not sentiments. In Germany, prohibitions on Nazi nomenclature have led to the emergence of a subversive lexicon of terms (such as 88, named after H, the eighth letter of the alphabet, to allude to Heil Hitler) meant to evoke bigotry to those in the know.

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A variety of European restrictions on speech, including genocide denial laws, blasphemy laws, laws that protect royalty from criticism, and criminal defamation laws, lead to contentious results that call into question adherence to Article 19. During a debate over proposals to ban the so-called defamation of religion at the United Nations during the first term of the Obama administration, when the U.S. delegation argued that such a prohibition would violate international free speech safeguards, diplomats from the Islamic Conference countered that many European countries ban Holocaust denial. They argued that there was a double standard in prohibiting speech offensive and potentially harmful to Jews while objectionable speech related to Muslims was permitted. While the two examples are far from identical, the discrepancy nonetheless fed into their sense of vulnerability and victimization, since they didnt believe the law was being applied fairly.

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As deputy assistant secretary of state for international organizations, I was part of the U.S.

delegation. Our credibility in these discussions was enhanced by being able to say that Holocaust denial laws would be every bit as unconstitutional in the United States as would prohibitions on depicting Muhammad. The minute we begin delineating new categories of hateful speech that are beyond First Amendment protection, we will open the door to charges of unfairness and double standards. On the flip side, if we were to vow to fully protect all groups that feel victimized by denigrating speech, the quantum of prohibited expression could be boundless.

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Journalist Glenn Greenwald has cataloged cases that he believes represent politically motivated efforts by democratic governments to target and punish left-wing activists.

Greenwald points to a trend of using such laws to punish critiques of Israel, a sensitive subject given Europes history of anti-Semitism and a recent spike in anti-Semitic sentiment and activity. Greenwald cites the conviction, upheld by Frances highest court, of 12 pro-Palestinian activists who wore shirts advocating a boycott of Israel, on the grounds that they violated a ban on provoking discrimination or hatred based on national origin or religion. Nadine Strossen has collected similar cases, such as the 2014 arrest of a British political candidate for quoting a passage from a book by Winston Churchill criticizing the treatment of women in Islam. As Strossen writes, hate speech laws in these countries uniformly vest enforcing officials with enormous discretionary power, and consistently have been enforced to suppress unpopular views and speakers, including political dissent and minority speakers.

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Another worry is that such laws, by suppressing speech, lead to malign views being spread surreptitiously through coded language and underground web platforms. Such surreptitious dissemination of noxious ideas is arguably more dangerous because it spreads mainly to those who are susceptible to it and is shielded from rebuttal or counterspeech. Pushing noxious speech into encrypted channels makes it more difficult for law enforcement to track the spread of extremist ideologies. When bigoted sentiments are out in the open, you can trace who is expressing them, dispute them, and protect against attempts to act on them.

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That government regulation of speech can go badly wrong does not mean we should foreclose discussion of how the law might need to evolve. The less absolutist free speech regimes in place in Europe have allowed some important trials in the regulation of hateful speech online. For example, in June 2017, Germany implemented something called the Network Enforcement Law, which requires social media companies to remove content that violates the countrys laws against hate speech and defamation. The law depends heavily on the tech platforms for enforcement, pressing them into service as content regulators charged with implementing government mandates. The law imposes stringent deadlines (24 hours for the removal of manifestly unlawful content) and stiff penalties (up to $56 million) for violations. Critics worry that as companies step into the role of regulating the legal perimeters of speech, they may err on the side of removing all potentially offensive speech to avoid risk. Others object that the enforcement of the law against far-right politicians, such as leaders of Germanys right-wing Alternative fur Deutschland party, has allowed these polarizing figures to cast themselves as martyrs.

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About 18 months into the application of the Network Enforcement Law, it appears to have prompted significantly more muscular enforcement of the platforms own community standards, resulting in the removal of substantial amounts of content. While its too soon to judge the laws effects, the prospect of Americans from every political and ideological stripe filing reports to complain about one anothers speech with the specter of hefty fines under a similar law here (somehow assuming away the First Amendment) is cautionary at best.

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Similar concerns have been voiced regarding the Christchurch Call, an agreement drafted after the terrorist attack on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 51 Muslim worshippers in March 2019. The nonbinding pact among 17 governments and eight leading platforms, including Google, Facebook, and Amazon, invited social media companies to pledge to do more to eradicate violent and extremist content from their platforms. The Trump administration declined to sign on, a decision one commentator defended because of the agreements deliberate, strategic vagueness about what would be regarded as legitimate free expression under its terms.

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Regulations of so-called fake news have also prompted free speech concerns, as in the case of Singapores anti-misinformation law, which grants the government sweeping powers to suppress and censor unfavorable coverage. The countrys Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act criminalizes the spread of false statements of fact that compromise security, public tranquility, public safety, or foreign relations. The law imposes harsh sanctions of up to $37,000 or five years in prison for simply sharing false information and $740,000 and 10 years in prison for tech platforms that fail to remove such content. Advocates decry the law as yet another tool in the governments hands to suppress anything that challenges state-mandated narratives.

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There is no sign that Europes or other nations tougher approach to hateful rhetoric is tamping down noxious sentiments or acts of bigotry. In the year since the adoption of Germanys Network Enforcement Law in late 2017, anti-Semitic crime and crimes targeting foreigners spiked by nearly 20 percent, a rate of increase slightly above the 17 percent year-on-year jump most recently recorded in the U.S. Anti-Semitic attacks are also trending sharply upward in France, the U.K., and Canada. To insist that tough measures be adopted to tamp down hateful speech without any evidence that such regulations mitigate hateful sentiment or actions runs the risk of further politicizing free speech and playing into the hands of those who rally followers by claiming that their speech rights are being trammeled.

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Most critics of these measures agree that the potential harms of speech on the Internetthe dissemination of hateful views, the spread of misinformationare all too real. What concerns them are the risks that have historically accompanied government restrictions on speech: overenforcement, arbitrary enforcement, selective enforcement to protect those currently in power, and the misplaced faith that banning hateful ideas is a substitute for the hard work of addressing them at their roots.

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In contrast, some narrowly drawn forms of viewpoint-neutral government content regulation might well pass constitutional muster. The Honest Ads Act, sponsored by Sens. Mark Warner, Amy Klobuchar, and Lindsey Graham, would impose disclosure and reporting requirements for online political campaign ads; the provisions closely resemble those that have long applied in the offline world for television commercials, print ads, and billboards. The purpose of the act would be to inform Americans about who is paying for the ads they view online, which would help defend against the kind of foreign election interference that occurred in 2016. Critics of the act fear that it would impair political trench warfare that depends on the ability to obscure the movers and motives behind messages. A blanket refusal to entertain digital-content-regulation proposalsor even the mere extension of offline obligations to the digital realmis spurious. First Amendment jurisprudence has always evolved, taking account of new threats to speech and new harms that may derive from expression.

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Perhaps the best argument against progressives seeking new restrictions on speech is a simple reminder of who, as of this writing, would have the power to enforce them. Were it not for the First Amendment, its easy to imagine that Trumps attacks on journalists and media outlets would become politically motivated prosecutions, or that his loathing of political antagonists would land those critics in jail. Proponents of greater government curbs on speech seem to envisage a Congress and Justice Department that would share their own outlook on the harms of hateful speech and the need to shelter its victims. But experience suggests that, in practice, governments empowered with the ability to restrict speech use that power not to protect the vulnerable but to preserve their own prerogatives.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: Mizorams lone Lok Sabha member C Lalrosanga has petitioned Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking restrictions on the movement of troops of paramilitary forces in the state given the spike in Covid-19 cases.

He has also raised the issue with top officials of the paramilitary forces deployed to the state.

I had written to Amit Shah sometime back on the issue of the movement of troops of Assam Rifles, Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force and National Disaster Response Force in Mizoram. I said their movement should be restricted and minimised to the extent possible to avoid infection, the MP told this newspaper on Tuesday.

He said the number of cases in Mizoram had gone up after a lot of them were reported from the paramilitary forces. Over the past 24 hours, 22 Assam Rifles personnel tested positive, he said.

We feel their standard (vis-a-vis adherence to Covid-19 protocols) is not up to the mark. They should take more care. The number of cases in our state was very low until a lot of personnel of paramilitary forces tested positive, Lalrosanga said.

He said he had written to the BSFs Director-General on the issue of the movement of troops in and out of Mizoram. He had insisted it abides by the standard operating procedure issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and not move the troops unnecessarily.

I also spoke to the BSFs IG and DIG. I said they should take care of quarantine facilities and isolate the suspected cases so that they cannot mix with other troops and civilians. I said they should take utmost care in containing the spread of the disease, Lalrosanga said.

He said panic had set in among locals as a number of jawans had tested positive.

There is a lot of apprehension among locals as due to contagion from other states and the troops, we are having an increase in our numbers. We are containing well inside Mizoram, he added.

Of the 361 cases in Mizoram so far, 153 were reported from paramilitary forces. There are now 168 active cases.
By Ayya Lmahamad

President Ilham Aliyev has congratulated Azerbaijanis on Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha (Qurban bayram) celebrated by Muslims across the world.

This year, the holiday in Azerbaijan will begin in the evening of July 30 and end on August 1.

The president said that Eid al-Adha, a symbol of solidarity and brotherhood, humanism and compassion among people, is one of the main holidays of Islam. On this remarkable day, Muslims experience the joy of closeness to God through sacrifices in the name of the Almighty and demonstrate their willingness to make all kinds of sacrifices for good deeds.

For hundreds of years, Islam has played an exceptional role in creating an exemplary environment of coexistence based on mutual respect and trust and the preservation of ethnic and cultural diversity in Azerbaijan, where people of different nations and religions live as a loving family, Aliyev said.

The president stressed that although this years Eid al-Adha will be held amidst challenges worldwide, Azerbaijani believers fulfill their moral duties and with their noble deeds strengthen the spirit of unity and equality in the society.

The president also said: I commemorate with gratitude the memory of our martyrs who gave their lives for Azerbaijans independence and territorial integrity and wish patience to their relatives and to our nation.

Every year Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Adha, which marks the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca known as Hajj.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Psychologist Tom Stafford has said that repetition makes a fact seem more true, regardless of whether it is or not. In psychology, this is known as the illusion of truth effect. Nazi information minister Joseph Goebbels made the effect his propaganda law and said, Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth. The US and some of its Western allies have been applying this propaganda law against its opponents around the world for a long time. As the US-led war on terror has faded away under the changing circumstances, the country has started suffering from pending replacement anxiety about China.

The diplomatic envoys talk with a student in the vocational training center in Kashi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on Dec. 29, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

As a result, the US-led alliance has replaced Islamic terrorism with China as its number one potential threat to its global dominance. The alliance has targeted the Chinese counter-terrorism measures in Xinjiang to defame China. When the alliance was fully engaged in the war on terror, they had nothing but praise for the Chinese measures. But the Western powers are now singing another tune and labeling Xinjiang terrorists as freedom fighters. They have become critics of the Chinese moves to the extent that whenever China arrests terrorists, they falsely label it as targeting innocent civilians.

Following their governments' lines, many Western media are also spinning yarns about so-called Muslim oppression in Xinjiang. They have long been cooking up stories of concentration camps, forced labor, demolition of mosques, barring Muslims from practicing their religion, sinicization of Islam, mass surveillance, human rights violations, and curbing Uyghur births.

As a journalist, I feel the need to let the world know the reality about the fake and fabricated stories of Muslim oppression in Xinjiang. In doing so, I have traced the origin of the much-circulated stories of concentration camps and detentions of over one million Muslims, and curbing Uyghur births.

I have found the name of a German researcher, Adrian Zenz, linked to these stories. He is a commonly cited source for the number of detainees and the camps. The Grayzone, an independent news outlet, published some findings on Zenz, stating that he is a senior fellow at the Washington-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, an anti-communist organization founded by the US government in 1994.

Zenz claims there are over a million Uyghurs in the camps. He ridiculously bases his claims on a single report from Istiqlal TV, a channel that advances a pro-Xinjiang separatist agenda. This background can easily help anyone understand that he is sponsored by the US government and that the authenticity of his claims are doubtful at best. But Western media have given the claim uncritical coverage.

Recently, Western media published another report on birth controls in Xinjiang, again referring to the same German researcher in their report. In the findings of his research, Zenz, who has never been to Xinjiang, accused the Chinese government of using sterilization, IUDs, and mandatory birth control measures to suppress Uyghur birth rates.

Many experts are of the view that the research is full of flaws, citing various inconsistencies in its data analysis. I have also found some reasons to consider it untrustworthy. One important reason is that the German researcher interviewed only eight women in his research, all of whom live in the US and are supporters of the Xinjiang separatist movement. The number of interviewees seems to be too few to reach any conclusion based on their opinions about the entire population of Xinjiang. I think that in this case too, Western media have compromised their reputation by giving wide coverage to the research findings without questioning it.

To my eyes, the anatomy of the much-circulated stories about so-called concentration camps, detentions of over one million Muslims and curbing Uyghur births can help people understand the authenticity of many more fake stories about Xinjiang. But it would not be strange to ask: why do Western media disseminate such untrustworthy stories about Xinjiang?

In reply, I have identified three major reasons - the rise of China, its deep ties with Muslims around the world, and the geo-political-economic importance of Xinjiang, as the US seems determined to contain the rise of China by any means. For this purpose, the US may want to make around two billion Muslims stand up against China by using fake and fabricated stories of so-called Muslim oppression in Xinjiang. If the US can succeed in making Muslims hostile to China, the worlds second-largest economy may lose the huge markets of Muslim countries, resulting in massive economic losses.

Moreover, since time immemorial, Xinjiang has geo-strategically and economically been an important region. The most well-known route of the historical Silk Road ran through the territory from the east to its northwestern border. The recent discovery of abundant oil and mineral reserves in Xinjiang has made it the largest natural gas-producing region in China. The China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has also added more economic value to Xinjiang. The ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor, a collection of infrastructure projects under the BRI cooperation in Pakistan valued at $62 billion as of 2017, runs through Xinjiang.

The KazakhstanChina oil pipeline, which allows China to import oil from Central Asia, runs from Kazakhstan to Xinjiang, while the Central AsiaChina gas pipeline has also connected Turkmenistan to Xinjiang, allowing China to import gas. These two pipelines have made the region economically more lucrative.

In a geostrategic context, Xinjiang is of crucial significance to influencing political developments in South, Southeast and Central Asia, as Xinjiang borders Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. The rugged Karakoram, Kunlun and Tianshan mountain ranges also occupy much of the borders and Western and Southern regions of Xinjiang. It also borders the Tibet Autonomous Region and the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai in China.

Given this analysis, it can easily be concluded that all allegations of Muslim oppression in Xinjiang are unreliable. Some Western media have long been running such untrustworthy stories to contain the rise of China. They have made Xinjiang the target of their smear campaigns against China because of its geo-political-economic importance, and because of its Muslim populace. They thus want to isolate China from the rest of the world, and in particular, the Muslim community. However, no matter how much it is criticized, China cannot give up its sovereignty over Xinjiang, just as no country can surrender any of its parts to terrorists and separatists.

The author is the China Correspondent of the Bangladesh Post.
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 9:30 p.m.  Hologram begins

George Floyd's family held a preview last night at the Jefferson Davis memorial on Monument Ave., where the statue to the former president of the Confederacy had been removed by protestors in June.

Since the death of my brother George, his face has been seen all over the world, Rodney Floyd, brother of George Floyd, said in the release. Now by partnering with Change.org, the hologram will allow my brother's face to be seen as a symbol for change in places where change is needed most.

The hologram features a myriad of fireflies that form into a 3-D image of George Floyd, with his name depicted in graffiti.

"In collaboration with the family of George Floyd and the George Floyd Foundation, this project aims to reflect the power and beauty of those millions of voices standing up for change," Sylvia Rolle, senior campaigner at Change.org, said in the statement.
General Auditor of the State Audit Office of Vietnam Ho Duc Phoc (centre) chairs the online 55th meeting of the ASOSAI Governing Board on July 27 (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi  Measures to support members of the Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) in COVID-19 response were discussed aside from specialised issues at the online 55th meeting of the ASOSAI Governing Board on July 27.

In its report, the State Audit Office of Vietnam (SAV), Chair of ASOSAI for 2018-2021, said the world has been undergoing an unprecedented crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The role of supreme audit institutions in assisting authorities, businesses and people to cope with the COVID-19 crisis is now more important than ever, the SAV noted, adding that depending on the situation in each country, supreme audit institutions will proactively devise suitable solutions to ensure timely response to the pandemic that remains complex at present and is forecast to linger on.

The SAV cited a recent report on the website of the 23th International Congress of Supreme Audit Institutions (INCOSAI) as saying that supreme audit agencies worldwide have been auditing public spending on the implementation of anti-coronavirus measures and the procurement of food and essential goods for social activities. They have also been assessing fiscal stimulus mechanisms and policies.

Though it takes some time to make qualitative assessment on the effectiveness and efficiency of governments public policies, many supreme audit agencies have obtained initial encouraging results, the SAV noted.

The office said facing complex developments of COVID-19, the SAV has made timely decisions to ensure its normal operations so as to fulfil this years plan, including reducing face-to-face audits and further applying technology to auditing activities.

In particular, it noted, it has proposed the National Assembly and the Government build an audit plan for this year that matches the current context and supports ministries, sectors, localities and businesses to overcome the crisis.

The SAV has focused on assessing the governance of the State budget for 2020 and the measures to support affected people and businesses like promoting public investment disbursement, extending land tax and land use fee payment deadlines, and reducing corporate income tax for small firms. It has also stepped up auditing the aid packages targeting affected groups, along with the procurement of medical supplies for COVID-19 prevention and control.

The SAV suggested ASOSAI organise a workshop to share experiences, good practices and effective solutions that global supreme audit institutions have been implementing so as to further clarify their role in responding to COVID-19, as well as urgent issues of countries and regions.
On Tuesday, Cairo, Addis Ababa and Khartoum announced that the talks on the GERDs filling and operation policies would be resumed

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry spoke by phone with UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Sunday to discuss the latest developments concerning the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam crisis, the British embassy in Cairo said.

On Tuesday, Cairo, Addis Ababa and Khartoum announced that the talks on the GERDs filling and operation policies would be resumed.

Later that day, Ethiopia announced it had completed the filling of the mega-dams reservoir scheduled for the first year.

Both Egypt and Sudan have repeatedly warned against any unilateral actions by Ethiopia, calling for a binding legal agreement on the dams filling and operation policies.

According to the brief statement on Sunday by the British embassy, the ministers also discussed developments in Libya, as well as the peace process in the Middle East.

The recent weeks witnessed an extensive collaboration between the two countries on certain issues, including regional security, commerce and joint efforts against the coronavirus pandemic, the UK statement read.

In the past few days Shoukry has spoken to a number of European officials about Libya, reasserting Egypts call for a comprehensive political settlement that would halt foreign intervention in the country, especially the transfer of foreign fighters.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 21:35:40|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on July 28, 2020 shows Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Berlin, capital of Germany. The rapid rise in Germany's COVID-19 cases is very worrying, the country's public health agency Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said on Tuesday. (Photo by Binh Truong/Xinhua)

BERLIN, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The rapid rise in Germany's COVID-19 cases is very worrying, the country's public health agency Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said on Tuesday.

"We had all managed to keep the number of cases stable over several weeks" in Germany, said RKI President Lothar Wieler during a press conference in Berlin. Around four weeks ago, only 300 to 500 new cases had been recorded by the RKI daily. At some point, the figures had been even lower.

This development was a "great success" which showed "that we can contain the virus," said Wieler.

Last Friday, however, the RKI warned that the number of new daily COVID-19 cases in Germany was "significantly higher than in the previous weeks."

The number of COVID-19 cases in Germany increased by 633 within one day to 206,242 on Tuesday, according to the RKI. A total of 9,122 people had died from the new coronavirus in Germany.

Wieler criticized those who were not taking the pandemic seriously, taking aim at partygoers whom he called "reckless," German news agency dpa reported.

Holidaymakers were also urged to stick to the rules while abroad. Wieler said it was too early to say whether this was the beginning of a second wave of infections, but he did not rule it out, dpa said.

Many scattered COVID-19 outbreaks had been reported across Germany, according to the RKI daily situation report from Monday. Among them was a COVID-19 outbreak among harvest workers of an agricultural company in Bavaria.

At the agricultural company, more than 170 harvest workers had tested positive for the coronavirus and almost 500 people were under quarantine.

As a consequence, Bavaria's Minister-President Markus Soeder announced on Monday that a fine of 25,000 euros (29,327 U.S. dollars) instead of the previous 5,000 euros would be imposed for violations of hygiene regulations. Enditem
A teacher's aide who repeatedly sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy has been jailed for more than four years after a judge rejected her claim that the acts were consensual.

In 2016 Nicole Woods was 51 and the mother of two teenage sons when she abused the boy as many as 25 times at a school in Melton. Over five months the pair regularly met at lunchtimes or after school in a small office space behind a classroom.

Nicole Woods. Credit:Nine News

Woods also groomed the student in Facebook messages including one where she sent him naked photographs of herself. Her offending came at a time she was spending $1000 a week on alcohol, the drug ice and cannabis.

Now 55 and estranged from all members of her family bar an older sister, Woods was on Tuesday jailed for four years and two months and ordered to serve 2 years before she is eligible for parole.
President Donald Trump walks toward Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on July 24, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Trump Files New Challenge Seeking to Block Manhattan DA From Accessing His Tax Returns

President Donald Trump on Monday filed a new challenge against the Manhattan District Attorney in an effort to block the prosecutor from accessing his tax records.

The challenge filed at a New York federal court comes weeks after the Supreme Court ruled in a 7-2 ruling that Trump was not immune from having to comply with subpoenas as part of state criminal probes.

In a second amended complaint, Trumps lawyers argued that the subpoena issued to Mazars USA, Trumps accounting firm, by District Attorney of New York County Cyrus Vance for tax records relating to Trump and his businesses was a form of harassment against the president as the subpoena was widely overbroad and issued in bad faith.

Vance is investigating hush money allegedly paid to two women during the 2016 presidential campaign: adult film performer Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in connection with the two women.

Trump has been fighting Vances subpoena since September 2019, arguing that the president enjoys absolute immunity from state criminal process under the Constitution. The district court denied Trumps application for an injunction over the subpoena and dismissed the case in October 2019. The 2nd Circuit also denied the presidents request for relief.

President Donald Trump speaks to the press before departing from the White House in Washington on July 27, 2020, (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

Trumps lawyer argued in the Supreme Court that a sitting president has absolute immunity from state criminal subpoenas because compliance with them would impair the performance of his presidential duties. The federal government, which was also involved in the case, argued that a state grand jury subpoena for personal records of a sitting president should meet a higher standard of need.

The Supreme Court on July 9 pushed back (pdf) on both arguments and said no citizen, not even the President, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding. However, the top court left the door open for the president to seek recourse, suggesting that Trump could still challenge the subpoena on other grounds.

Trumps lawyers argued in their Monday filing that the scope of the subpoena was overbroad as it requested for voluminous documents beyond the District Attorneys limited jurisdiction under New York law and was not properly tailored for Trumps records. They argued this was because Vance had copied the wording of subpoenas issued by House Committees also seeking the presidents financial records.

Vance had defended his decision to copy the wording of those subpoenas on efficiency grounds, saying that mirror those subpoenas would make it easier for Mazars to produce the documents that had already been collected. But Trump lawyers argued that the district attorneys jurisdiction is limited and had requested documents that were irrelevant to the grand jurys work.

It is inconceivable to think that a subpoena designed for the purpose of achieving the Committees explicitly national and international goals and structured around a particular action by the federal government that took place in Washington D.C. is properly tailored to the New York grand jurys state-law investigation, the lawyers wrote (pdf).

They also alleged that the district attorney knew when he issued the subpoena that it was not designed to meet the needs of the grand jury as the wording he took from the congressional subpoenas was for the purpose to investigate issues of national concern.

In other words, the District Attorney issued a grand-jury subpoena he knew was overbroad and sought irrelevant records. That the District Attorney dubiously claims he did this for efficiency reasons does not save the subpoena from invalidation. It confirms that he lacked a good faith basis and that the subpoena amounts to harassment of the President, the lawyers wrote.
From May onwards, IndiGo had implemented pay cuts of up to 25 per cent for its senior employees

IndiGo announces 'deeper' pay cuts of up to 35 per cent for senior employees. (AFP Photo)

New Delhi: IndiGo on Monday said it is implementing "deeper" pay cuts of up to 35 per cent for its senior employees in order to reduce its cash outflow amid the coronavirus pandemic.

From May onwards, IndiGo had implemented pay cuts of up to 25 per cent for its senior employees.

The "deeper" pay cuts came after the airline's announcement on July 20 that it would lay off 10 per cent of its workforce due to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.

In an e-mail on Monday, IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta told employees, "I will increase my personal pay cut percentage to 35 per cent. I am asking all senior vice presidents and above to take a 30 per cent pay cut, all pilots will see their pay cut percentages increased to 28 per cent, all vice presidents will take a 25 per cent pay cut and associate vice presidents will take a 15 per cent pay cut."

These increased pay cuts will come into effect from September 1, he added.

The aviation sector has been significantly impacted due to the travel restrictions imposed in India and other countries in view of the coronavirus pandemic. All airlines in India have taken cost-cutting measures such as pay cuts, leave-without-pay and lay-offs in order to conserve cash.

Before Monday's announcement, IndiGo CEO Dutta took a 25 per cent cut in salaries. For senior vice presidents the pay cut was 20 per cent, for vice presidents it was 15 per cent and for associate vice presidents it was 10 per cent.

In May, IndiGo had also cut the salaries of Band D employees and cabin crew members by 10 per cent, and of Band C employees by 5 per cent.

Salaries of employees in Band B and Band A were not touched. Majority of the employees of the airline are in Band B and Band A.

Dutta's Monday announcement does not affect the cuts instituted in the salaries of Band D employees, Band C employees and cabin crew members in May. Moreover, no cuts were announced on Monday for Band B and Band A employees.

IndiGo in May had also implemented a compulsory leave without pay (LWP) scheme for its employees for up to five days per month. In August it was increased to 10.5 days per month.

Dutta said on Monday, "We are not making any changes for August LWP and from September each department will decide on the LWP for each month based on workloads and staffing levels."

"You can expect a direct communication from your department head on LWP each month. It is my earnest hope that the environment is conducive enough for us to add capacity back quickly and reduce LWP to zero," he added.

India resumed domestic passenger flights from May 25 after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the airlines have been allowed to operate only a maximum of 45 per cent of their pre-COVID domestic flights.

Occupancy rate in Indian domestic flights has been around just 50-60 per cent since May 25.

Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remain suspended in India since March 23.
Worcester Regional Airport is receiving a $5 million grant to rehabilitate a runway, part of $273 million in grants issued to 184 airports across the country on Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The administration of President Donald Trump is awarding the $273 million in airport safety and infrastructure grants through the FAA. Airports in 41 states and the District of Columbia, American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau, and Puerto Rico are receiving funding, the FAA said.

This $273 million federal investment in our nations airports will strengthen safety, improve travel, generate jobs, and benefit local communities, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.

The grants will be used for projects including purchasing aircraft rescue and firefighting equipment, constructing runways and taxiways, repairing runways and taxiways, installing aircraft lighting and signage, conducting airport master plan studies and installing airport perimeter fencing, according to the FAA.

Of the $273 million, $242 million is from the Airport Improvement Program and $31 million is from Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act grants. The Airport Improvement Program grants are in addition to the $10 billion in grants the department awarded to airports to help during the coronavirus pandemic, the FAA said.

The safety of our nations airports is of paramount importance to the FAA, said FAA Administrator Stephen M. Dickson. These grants will allow these necessary projects to continue.

Worcester Regional Airport was once eyed for closure. Massport acquired the airport in 2010. Since 2013, the airport has added daily JetBlue flights to Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and New York; American Airlines flights to Philadelphia; and Delta flights to Detroit.

Earlier in the pandemic, the Department of Transportation denied a request from JetBlue to suspend all service from Worcester Regional Airport into June. In denying the request, the department cited relief awarded through the CARES Act.

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Two men have been arrested in separate incidents of child abuse in Tuscaloosa in which one toddler girl died and another is clinging to life.

The Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit on Tuesday announced a capital murder charge against 31-year-old John Thompson. He is charged in the Monday death of a 1-year-old girl whose name has not been released.

Authorities responded Monday to a home in the 15000 block of Savannah Drive in Coker. The call originally came in as a medical issue, said Capt. Jack Kennedy. The girl was taken to DCH Regional Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.

Because of the age of the 19-month-old, Kennedy said, the investigation was launched. Thompson, the boyfriend of the girls mother, had been taking care of the child while the mother was working. He told authorities he found the child breathing irregularly and summoned help.

A preliminary autopsy report on Tuesday indicated the death was not due to natural causes. Kennedy said the report indicated severe abuse, assault or trauma.

Thompson was booked into the Tuscaloosa County Jail on Tuesday.

In an unrelated case, 28-year-old Felix Tabb is charged with first-degree assault in a weekend incident that critically injured another little girl who is also 19 months old. Kennedy said investigators on Saturday responded to DCH on a report of a child with significant head trauma.

The girl was airlifted to Childrens of Alabama in Birmingham where she is currently on life-support, Kennedy said.

The investigation showed the mother left her child alone with a Tabb, a male acquaintance, for several hours in the 3700 block of Third Avenue East. Physical evidence was found at the residence that showed the girl was injured while under the mans care.

Kennedy said the charges against Tabb could be updated if the girl does not survive.

Although both these tragedies occurred within a few days, and seem similar, they are not connected in anyway,' Kennedy said.
I talked to Howard Szigeti, who is the promoter, Ive done several tours with him, and while we were chatting this idea evolved: Well, why not try streaming it? Cleese said. So were going to do it in a small theater in the UK and were going to have maybe 40 people there, carefully socially distanced, so that I can do the speech to them so that they might giggle now and then to encourage me. And then they will be able to ask questions, which will be much more spontaneous than if we had people write questions and send them in.
A shark that killed a woman in a rare attack off the coast of Maine was a great white, officials have revealed.

New Yorker Julie Dimperio Holowach, 63, was killed fatally bitten by a shark off Bailey Island on Monday, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said.

Scientists were able to later identify the shark as a great white using a tooth fragment, state officials said.

Great whites are not common in Maine, which is the northern tip of their range.

Bailey Island: The state Marine Patrol says a woman has been killed in an apparent shark attack off the coast of Maine / AP

However, recent summers have brought reports of sightings of the giant fish.

The Maine Marine Patrol said a witness saw Ms Holowach swimming off the shore of Bailey Island when she was bitten.

Two kayakers helped her get to shore and an ambulance provided further assistance, but she was pronounced dead at the scene, the marine patrol said.

There had previously only been one recorded unprovoked shark attack in Maine, and it was 10 years ago off Eastport, Maine Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher said. He said that bite involved a different species of shark.

A member of a TV crew adjusts their camera while filming near the shore of Bailey Island, Maine, where a woman swimming off the coast was killed in an apparent shark attack / AP

He described the Monday attack as highly unusual, but added it is cause for vigilance among beachgoers.

The rarity of this event does not mean its not going to happen again, Mr Keliher said.

The attack happened about 30 to 40 feet offshore, and the rescuers were a man and woman in a rented tandem kayak, said Jeff Cooper, co-owner H2Outfitters on the island, which offers instruction, rentals and sales of kayaks.

The kayakers were on the shore when one of them saw something breach, and realised something was wrong, Mr Cooper said.

They happened to be right there at the scene. They were courageous enough to jump in and retrieve the victim, Mr Cooper said.

One of the kayakers grabbed Ms Holowach, and the other paddled to get her back to shore, said Cathy Piffath, the other co-owner. The kayakers asked not to be identified.

Ms Holowach and her family own property in the area and are well known in the community, which is shaken by her death, said Rob Beal, major of the Maine Marine Patrol.

The Marine Patrol has urged swimmers and boaters to use caution near Bailey Island and to avoid swimming near schooling fish or seals.

Large sharks like great whites prey on seals, which are common off Maine. Two coastal state parks, Popham and Reid, are not allowing swimmers beyond waist deep water, state officials said.

Bailey Island is part of the town of Harpswell, about 40 miles up the Maine coast from Portland.

Harpswell is a town of about 4,700 that is popular with holidaymakers and second homeowners for its coast, beaches and sweeping views of Casco Bay.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28)  Senators approved on third and final reading of the "Bayanihan II" bill on Tuesday, a day after President Rodrigo Duterte sought its speedy passage in his State of the Nation Address.

Voting 22-1 votes, senators passed Senate Bill 1564 or the "Bayanihan to Recover as One Act", the second version of the Bayanihan Law which will aid the government in addressing the coronavirus pandemic.

Bayanihan II focuses on COVID-19 recovery interventions and response to the health crisis, and establishes a 140-billion standby fund for socioeconomic and health programs.

The measure provides emergency subsidy for low-income households, assistance to affected teachers and students, among others.

It removes the provision from the first Bayanihan Law allowing the President to take over hospitals and private facilities during the crisis.

Senator Francis Pangilinan was the lone lawmaker who voted against the measure, citing that the incompetence of the Health Secretary Francisco Duque III does not deserve an additional funding to address the crisis.

We vote no to additional funding specified in the Bayanihan 2 because we believe that Sec. Duque ought to be fired before billions more are allowed to be released to the DoH, said Pangilinan during the plenary session.

He added, Without an effective management of the spread of the disease, Mr. President, we will be unable to reopen the economy and in failing to reopen the economy due to the failure of the DOH to bring COVID to manageable levels, then our economic recovery will be elusive and widespread hunger and joblessness will persist.

Meanwhile, Senator Richard Gordon said that priorities must be clear in the implementation of the measure once enacted into law.

We must make sure that the priorities are clear, he said. I think we did a good job here, the bill has been approved. The next step now is to make sure our oversight covers the efficiency, the economies of making sure that we are able to do this right.

The "Bayanihan to Heal as One Act" or Bayanihan I, which lapsed on June 24, granted Duterte additional powers to reallocate portions of the 2019 and 2020 funds amounting to 275 billion for the government's COVID-19 response.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said that senators would have wanted a larger amount than the provided 140-billion standby fund in the second version of Bayanihan Law, however, officials from the Department of Finance (DOF) , National Economic and Development Authority, and Department of Budget set a cap.

Their answer was they didnt have the money and they dont want to spend on anything or allocate anything by law that they dont have, Zubiri told CNN Philippines. There was threat to veto any measure that was over the cap.

Zubiri added that lawmakers will try to raise to DOF the amount needed for the measure during the bicameral conference committee meeting.

READ: Duterte asks Congress to pass Bayanihan 2

In his SONA on Monday, Duterte appealed to lawmakers to give Bayanihan II the same treatment and priority.

"This health emergency stretched the government's resources to its limits. I hope they can [give] the same treatment of clarity, purpose, and fastness to support the passage of the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act," Duterte said.

Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III earlier said the Senate is keen on passing the second Bayanihan Law even without certification from Malacanang, since the bill was already passed on second reading before Congress adjourned sine die last month.

Malacanang had earlier refused to certify the measure as urgent due to financial issues.

Once both chambers of Congress pass Bayanihan II, there will be a bicameral conference committee meeting, together with the executive department, to harmonize conflicting provisions in the measure.

Aside from Zubiri, Senators Sonny Angara, Pia Cayetano, Ralph Recto, Imee Marcos, Grace Poe, and Franklin Drilon were designated members of the bicameral conference committee for the Senate Bill 1564 or Bayanihan II.

READ: Senate to prioritize Bayanihan 2, COVID-19 response bills when session reopens

House Committee on Ways and Means chair Rep. Joey Salceda recommended Tuesday that the lower chamber just adopt the Senate version of the bill to get on with other stimulus measures intended to address the crisis.

The House Defeat COVID-19 Ad-Hoc Committee on the same day passed the Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery or GUIDE bill. The measure seeks to provide P55 billion to the Land Bank of the Philippines, the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Philippine Guarantee Corporation so they can expand loans for micro, small, and medium enterprises. The bill is now up for approval at the plenary.

Deputy Speaker Luis Ray "LRay" Villafuerte said the House will likely pass the bill within two weeks.

Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez said deliberation of priority measures may coincide with discussions on the General Appropriations bill for 2021.

Bayanihan II was among measures Duterte mentioned in his congressional wish list during his SONA. He also called for approval of other stimulus bills, creation of new government agencies, and a revival of the death penalty, among others.

READ: LIST: Stimulus bills, new departments top Duterte's Congress wish list
Against the backdrop of New Delhis fresh ban on 47 clones of prohibited Chinese apps, Beijing said on Tuesday that it will take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.

Indias June 29 ban on 59 mobile apps with Chinese background, including WeChat, severely damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies, Chinese embassy spokesperson Ji Rong said in a statement.

The Indian government has the responsibility to protect the legitimate rights and interests of international investors in India, including Chinese businesses, in accordance with market principles, she added.

The Chinese side has lodged solemn representation to the Indian side and asked the Indian side to correct its wrongdoings, Ji said, responding to a media query on whether WeChat was asked to stop providing services to its Indian users.

The ban orders for the Chinese apps and their clones are among a string of economic measures unveiled by the Indian government in the wake of the months-old border standoff between the two countries.

There was no immediate reaction by Indian officials to the Chinese spokespersons comments.

Following the death of 20 Indian soldiers in a brutal clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), there were demands from the public and political parties for restrictions on trade ties with China.

Spokesperson Ji said the Chinese government consistently asks Chinese enterprises to abide by international rules and local laws and regulations when conducting external cooperation.

She added, Practical cooperation between China and India is mutually beneficial. Deliberate interference in such cooperation will not serve the interests of the Indian side. China will also take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.

Despite the June 29 ban, Indian users of WeChat were able to use the communication app till the weekend. When users sought to use the app this week, they received a message saying services were not available due to local restrictions.

On Monday, Indias information and technology ministry announced the fresh ban on 47 apps, most of them clones and variants of the apps banned in June. The total number of Chinese-origin mobile applications blocked is 106.

The government is also examining other Chinese apps for violating user privacy and national security.

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CHICAGO, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Enova International (NYSE: ENVA), a leading financial technology and analytics company offering consumer and small business loans and financing, today announced financial results for the second quarter ending June 30, 2020.

"We are pleased with our second quarter results, which came in above the range that we previewed in mid-June," said David Fisher, Enova's CEO. "Our direct online-only business model, world class analytics and technology and deep organizational preparedness for a challenging economy have allowed us to react quickly to the uncertain economic environment facing our country. While COVID-19 has created uncertainty in the short term, we believe the long-term fundamentals of our business remain strong and that we are well positioned to navigate through the downturn and swiftly resume lending efforts once the economy begins to stabilize."

Enova also announced separately today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire all outstanding shares of On Deck Capital, Inc. in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $90 million. Further details on the transaction are included in a joint press release that was issued today.

Second Quarter 2020 Summary

Total revenue of $253 million in the second quarter of 2020 decreased 2.5% from $259 million in the second quarter of 2019.

Net revenue margin was flat at 52% in the second quarter of 2020 compared to gross profit margin in the second quarter of 2019.

Net income from continuing operations of $48 million, or $1.58 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2020, compared to $31 million , or $0.89 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2019.

, or $0.89 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2019. Second quarter 2020 adjusted EBITDA of $94 million, a non-GAAP measure, compared to $65 million in the second quarter of 2019.

Adjusted earnings of $51 million, or $1.68 per diluted share, a non-GAAP measure, in the second quarter of 2020, compared to adjusted earnings of $33 million, or $0.97 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2019.

"Our financial results this quarter reflect the outstanding work our team has done to stabilize portfolio credit risk while supporting our customers as well as our deep organizational operating and cost discipline," said Steve Cunningham, CFO of Enova. "We remain focused on prudently resuming growth by leveraging our world-class analytics and technology, proven approach to unit economics and solid balance sheet and are well positioned to generate long-term profitable growth as the economy stabilizes and loan demand recovers."

Outlook

Enova is monitoring and adapting quickly to changes in the current environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the ongoing uncertainties related to virus resurgences, changes in governmental restrictions, potential economic stimulus, employment stabilization, and business reopenings, the Company is not providing guidance for the third quarter or full year 2020.

For information regarding the non-GAAP financial measures discussed in this release, please see "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" and "Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below.

Conference Call

Enova will host a conference call to discuss its second quarter results as well as the acquisition of On Deck Capital, Inc. at 4 p.m. Central Time / 5 p.m. Eastern Time today, Tuesday, July 28th. The live webcast of the call can be accessed at the Enova Investor Relations website at http://ir.enova.com, along with the company's earnings press release and supplemental financial information. The U.S. dial-in for the call is 1-855-560-2575 (1-412-542-4161 for non-U.S. callers). Please ask to join the Enova International call. A replay of the conference call will be available until August 4, 2020, at 10:59 p.m. Central Time / 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, while an archived version of the webcast will be available on the Enova International Investor Relations website for 90 days. The U.S. dial-in for the conference call replay is 1-877-344-7529 (1-412-317-0088). The replay access code is 10146419.

About Enova

Enova International (NYSE: ENVA) is a leading provider of online financial services to non-prime consumers and small businesses, providing access to credit powered by its advanced analytics, innovative technology, and world-class online platform and services. Enova has provided more than 6 million customers around the globe with access to more than $20 billion in loans and financing. The financial technology company has a portfolio of trusted brands serving consumers, including CashNetUSA, NetCredit and Simplic; two brands serving small businesses, Headway Capital and The Business Backer; and offers online lending platform services to lenders. Through its Enova Decisions brand, it also delivers on-demand decision-making technology and real-time predictive analytics services to clients. You can learn more about the company and its brands at www.enova.com.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 about the business, financial condition and prospects of Enova. These forward-looking statements give current expectations or forecasts of future events and reflect the views and assumptions of Enova's senior management with respect to the business, financial condition and prospects of Enova as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. The actual results of Enova could differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements because of various risks and uncertainties applicable to Enova's business, including, without limitation, those risks and uncertainties indicated in Enova's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Forms 10-Q and current reports on Forms 8-K. These risks and uncertainties are beyond the ability of Enova to control, and, in many cases, Enova cannot predict all of the risks and uncertainties that could cause its actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements. When used in this release, the words "believes," "estimates," "plans," "expects," "anticipates" and similar expressions or variations as they relate to Enova or its management are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Enova cautions you not to put undue reliance on these statements. Enova disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to the financial information prepared in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, Enova provides historical non-GAAP financial information. Management believes that presentation of non-GAAP financial information is meaningful and useful in understanding the activities and business metrics of Enova's operations. Management believes that these non-GAAP financial measures reflect an additional way of viewing aspects of Enova's business that, when viewed with its GAAP results, provide a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting its business.

Management provides non-GAAP financial information for informational purposes and to enhance understanding of Enova's GAAP consolidated financial statements. Readers should consider the information in addition to, but not instead of or superior to, Enova's financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. This non-GAAP financial information may be determined or calculated differently by other companies, limiting the usefulness of those measures for comparative purposes.

Combined Loans and Finance Receivables

The combined loans and finance receivables measures are non-GAAP measures that include loans and finance receivables that Enova owns or has purchased and loans that Enova guarantees. Management believes these non-GAAP measures provide investors with important information needed to evaluate the magnitude of potential receivable losses and the opportunity for revenue performance of the loans and finance receivable portfolio on an aggregate basis. Management also believes that the comparison of the aggregate amounts from period to period is more meaningful than comparing only the amounts reflected on Enova's consolidated balance sheet since revenue is impacted by the aggregate amount of receivables owned by Enova and those guaranteed by Enova as reflected in its consolidated financial statements.

Adjusted Earnings Measures

In addition to reporting financial results in accordance with GAAP, Enova has provided adjusted earnings and adjusted earnings per share, or, collectively, the Adjusted Earnings Measures, which are non-GAAP measures. Management believes that the presentation of these measures provides investors with greater transparency and facilitates comparison of operating results across a broad spectrum of companies with varying capital structures, compensation strategies, derivative instruments and amortization methods, which provides a more complete understanding of Enova's financial performance, competitive position and prospects for the future. Management also believes that investors regularly rely on non-GAAP financial measures, such as the Adjusted Earnings Measures, to assess operating performance and that such measures may highlight trends in Enova's business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying on financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. In addition, management believes that the adjustments shown below are useful to investors in order to allow them to compare Enova's financial results during the periods shown without the effect of each of these expense items.

Adjusted EBITDA Measures

In addition to reporting financial results in accordance with GAAP, Enova has provided Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin, or, collectively, the Adjusted EBITDA measures, which are non-GAAP measures. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure that Enova defines as earnings excluding depreciation, amortization, interest, foreign currency transaction gains or losses, taxes and stock-based compensation. In addition, management believes that the adjustments for lease termination and cease-use costs and losses on early extinguishment of debt shown below are useful to investors in order to allow them to compare our financial results during the periods shown without the effect of the expense items. Adjusted EBITDA margin is a non-GAAP measure that Enova defines as Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of total revenue. Management believes Adjusted EBITDA Measures are used by investors to analyze operating performance and evaluate Enova's ability to incur and service debt and Enova's capacity for making capital expenditures. Adjusted EBITDA Measures are also useful to investors to help assess Enova's estimated enterprise value.

ENOVA INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (dollars in thousands, except per share data) (Unaudited)













June 30,



December 31,





2020



2019



2019

Assets























Cash and cash equivalents(1)

$ 321,472



$ 33,849



$ 35,895

Restricted cash(1)



43,547





20,796





45,069

Loans and finance receivables at fair value(1)



799,662













Loans and finance receivables at amortized cost, net(1)









829,458





1,062,650

Income taxes receivable



10,510





9,101





32,859

Other receivables and prepaid expenses(1)



28,541





33,355





31,643

Property and equipment, net



60,030





48,985





54,540

Operating lease right-of-use assets



20,302





20,490





19,586

Goodwill



267,868





267,013





267,013

Intangible assets, net



1,650





2,720





2,185

Other assets(1)



25,391





11,761





22,912

Assets from discontinued operations









112,771







Total assets

$ 1,578,973



$ 1,390,299



$ 1,574,352

Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity























Accounts payable and accrued expenses(1)

$ 87,691



$ 107,765



$ 122,163

Operating lease liabilities



35,605





37,403





35,712

Deferred tax liabilities, net



72,869





42,451





48,683

Long-term debt(1)



906,588





785,504





991,181

Liabilities from discontinued operations









10,723







Total liabilities



1,102,753





983,846





1,197,739

Commitments and contingencies























Stockholders' equity:























Common stock, $0.00001 par value, 250,000,000

shares authorized, 36,179,966, 35,671,114 and

35,764,943 shares issued and 30,101,689, 33,989,158

and 32,974,714 outstanding as of June 30, 2020 and

2019 and December 31, 2019, respectively

















Preferred stock, $0.00001 par value, 25,000,000

shares authorized, no shares issued and outstanding

















Additional paid in capital



71,100





56,910





63,791

Retained earnings



525,108





396,149





372,681

Accumulated other comprehensive loss



(8,599)





(14,774)





(3,066)

Treasury stock, at cost (6,078,277, 1,681,956 and 2,790,229 shares as of June 30, 2020 and 2019 and December 31, 2019, respectively)



(111,389)





(31,832)





(56,793)

Total stockholders' equity



476,220





406,453





376,613

Total liabilities and stockholders' equity

$ 1,578,973



$ 1,390,299



$ 1,574,352



















(1) Includes amounts in wholly owned, bankruptcy-remote special purpose subsidiaries ("VIEs") presented separately in the table below.

ENOVA INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (dollars in thousands, except per share data) (Unaudited)





The following table presents the aggregated assets and liabilities of consolidated VIEs, which are included in the Consolidated Balance Sheets above. The assets in the table below may only be used to settle obligations of consolidated VIEs and are in excess of those obligations.









June 30,



December 31,





2020



2019



2019

Assets of consolidated VIEs, included in total assets above























Cash and cash equivalents

$ 525



$ 420



$ 420

Restricted cash



41,235





20,796





42,354

Loans and finance receivables at fair value



404,734













Loans and finance receivables at amortized cost, net (includes

allowance for losses of $31,522 and $38,540 as of June 30, 2019

and December 31, 2019, respectively)









306,322





420,690

Other receivables and prepaid expenses



4,893





6,671





9

Other assets



2,102





2,530





2,161

Total assets

$ 453,489



$ 336,739



$ 465,634

Liabilities of consolidated VIEs, included in total liabilities above























Accounts payable and accrued expenses

$ 2,180



$ 2,410



$ 3,171

Long-term debt



290,993





171,931





304,598

Total liabilities

$ 293,173



$ 174,341



$ 307,769



ENOVA INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME (in thousands, except per share data) (Unaudited)







Three Months Ended



Six Months Ended





June 30,



June 30,





2020



2019



2020



2019

Revenue

$ 253,061



$ 259,445



$ 615,313



$ 523,883

Change in Fair Value



(120,672)











(356,391)







Cost of Revenue









(123,433)











(242,291)

Net Revenue/Gross Profit



132,389





136,012





258,922





281,592

Expenses































Marketing



2,988





25,861





37,546





44,922

Operations and technology



16,504





20,057





47,770





40,636

General and administrative



22,336





28,244





50,287





57,295

Depreciation and amortization



4,004





3,681





7,674





7,615

Total Expenses



45,832





77,843





143,277





150,468

Income from Operations



86,557





58,169





115,645





131,124

Interest expense, net



(20,372)





(18,116)





(40,753)





(37,618)

Foreign currency transaction (loss) gain



(18)





(35)





23





(178)

Loss on early extinguishment of debt





















(2,321)

Income before Income Taxes



66,167





40,018





74,915





91,007

Provision for income taxes



18,141





9,392





21,141





21,402

Net income from continuing operations



48,026





30,626





53,774





69,605

Net loss from discontinued operations









(5,563)





(288)





(9,525)

Net Income

$ 48,026



$ 25,063



$ 53,486



$ 60,080

Earnings Per Share:































Earnings per common share  basic:































Continuing operations

$ 1.59



$ 0.91



$ 1.72



$ 2.07

Discontinued operations









(0.17)





(0.01)





(0.29)

Earnings per common share  basic

$ 1.59



$ 0.74



$ 1.71



$ 1.78

Earnings per common share  diluted:































Continuing operations

$ 1.58



$ 0.89



$ 1.70



$ 2.02

Discontinued operations









(0.16)





(0.01)





(0.28)

Earnings per common share  diluted

$ 1.58



$ 0.73



$ 1.69



$ 1.74

Weighted average common shares outstanding:































Basic



30,203





33,826





31,270





33,660

Diluted



30,352





34,469





31,592





34,451



ENOVA INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOW (dollars in thousands) (Unaudited)







Six Months Ended June 30,





2020



2019

Cash flows provided by operating activities















Cash flows from operating activities - continuing operations

$ 483,734



$ 386,061

Cash flows from operating activities - discontinued operations



(288)





28,698

Total Cash flows provided by operating activities



483,446





414,759

Cash flows used in investing activities















Loans and finance receivables



(41,092)





(286,915)

Acquisitions



(3,597)







Purchases of property and equipment



(12,716)





(9,994)

Other investing activities



57





2

Cash flows from investing activities - continuing operations



(57,348)





(296,907)

Cash flows from investing activities - discontinued operations









(22,229)

Total cash flows used in investing activities



(57,348)





(319,136)

Cash flows used in financing activities



(141,892)





(83,826)

Effect of exchange rates on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash



(151)





(591)

Net increase in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash



284,055





11,206

Less: increase in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash from discontinued operations









(6,844)

Change in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash from continuing operations



284,055





4,362

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at beginning of year



80,964





50,283

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at end of period

$ 365,019



$ 54,645



ENOVA INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES LOANS AND FINANCE RECEIVABLES FINANCIAL AND OPERATING DATA (dollars in thousands)

The following table shows loans and finance receivables and related fair value/loan loss activity, which is based on loan and finance receivable balances, for continuing operations for the three months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019.

Three Months Ended June 30,

2020



2019



Change

Ending combined loan and finance receivable principal balance:























Company owned

$ 767,604



$ 878,576



$ (110,972)

Guaranteed by the Company(a)



5,195





21,372





(16,177)

Total combined loan and finance receivable principal balance(b)

$ 772,799



$ 899,948



$ (127,149)

Ending combined loan and finance receivable fair value balance:























Company owned

$ 799,662





N/A





N/A

Guaranteed by the Company(a)



6,614





N/A





N/A

Ending combined loan and finance receivable fair value balance(b)

$ 806,276





N/A





N/A

Fair value as a % of principal(c)



104.3 %















Ending combined loan and finance receivable balance, including principal

and accrued fees/interest outstanding:























Company owned

$ 816,905



$ 945,881



$ (128,976)

Guaranteed by the Company(a)



6,054





21,463





(15,409)

Ending combined loan and finance receivable balance(b)

$ 822,959



$ 967,344



$ (144,385)

Ending allowance for loan losses (prior to FVO adoption)



N/A



$ 51,419





N/A

Allowance for losses as a % of combined loan and finance receivable balance(c)



N/A





5.3 %



N/A

Average combined loan and finance receivable balance, including

principal and accrued fees/interest outstanding:























Company owned(d)

$ 972,181



$ 893,181



$ 79,000

Guaranteed by the Company(a)(d)



7,553





21,486





(13,933)

Average combined loan and finance receivable balance(b)(d)

$ 979,734



$ 914,667



$ 65,067



























Revenue

$ 251,702



$ 259,201



$ (7,499)

Change in fair value/cost of revenue



(120,672)





(123,433)





2,761

Net revenue/gross profit



131,030





135,768





(4,738)

Net revenue margin/gross profit margin



52.1 %



52.4 %



(0.3) % Change in fair value/cost of revenue as a % of average loan and finance

receivable balance(d)



12.3 %



13.5 %



(1.2) %

























Delinquencies:























>30 days delinquent

$ 36,797



$ 49,974



$ (13,177)

>30 days delinquent as a % of loan and finance receivable balance(c)



4.5 %



5.2 %



(0.7) %

























Charge-offs:























Charge-offs (net of recoveries)

$ 155,975



$ 108,254



$ 47,721

Charge-offs (net of recoveries) as a % of average loan and finance receivable balance(d)



15.9 %



11.8 %



4.1 %

















(a) Represents loans originated by third-party lenders through the CSO programs, which are not included in our consolidated balance sheets. (b) Non-GAAP measure. (c) Determined using period-end balances. (d) The average combined loan and finance receivable balance is the average of the month-end balances during the period.

ENOVA INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES (dollars in thousands, except per share data)





Adjusted Earnings Measures









Three Months Ended



Six Months Ended





June 30,



June 30,





2020



2019



2020



2019

Net income from continuing operations

$ 48,026



$ 30,626



$ 53,774



$ 69,605

Adjustments:































Lease termination and cease-use costs(a)





















726

Loss on early extinguishment of debt(b)





















2,321

Intangible asset amortization



268





267





535





535

Stock-based compensation expense



3,660





3,323





7,120





6,397

Foreign currency transaction loss (gain)



18





35





(23)





178

Cumulative tax effect of adjustments



(929)





(843)





(1,797)





(2,362)

Discrete tax adjustments(c)





















(141)



































Adjusted earnings

$ 51,043



$ 33,408



$ 59,609



$ 77,259



































Diluted earnings per share

$ 1.58



$ 0.89



$ 1.70



$ 2.02



































Adjusted earnings per share

$ 1.68



$ 0.97



$ 1.89



$ 2.24



Adjusted EBITDA





Three Months Ended



Six Months Ended





June 30,



June 30,





2020



2019



2020



2019

Net income from continuing operations

$ 48,026



$ 30,626



$ 53,774



$ 69,605

Depreciation and amortization expenses



4,004





3,681





7,674





7,615

Interest expense, net



20,372





18,116





40,753





37,618

Foreign currency transaction loss (gain)



18





35





(23)





178

Provision for income taxes



18,141





9,392





21,141





21,402

Stock-based compensation expense



3,660





3,323





7,120





6,397

Adjustments:































Lease termination and cease-use costs(a)





















370

Loss on early extinguishment of debt(b)





















2,321



































Adjusted EBITDA

$ 94,221



$ 65,173



$ 130,439



$ 145,506



































Adjusted EBITDA margin calculated as follows:































Total Revenue

$ 253,061



$ 259,445



$ 615,313



$ 523,883

Adjusted EBITDA



94,221





65,173





130,439





145,506

Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of total revenue



37.2 %



25.1 %



21.2 %



27.8 %

















(a) In the first quarter of 2019, the Company recorded impairment charges of $0.4 million ($0.3 million net of tax) to operating right-of-use lease assets and $0.3 million ($0.3 million net of tax) to leasehold improvement assets related to its decision to cease use and sublease a portion of a leased office space. (b) In the first quarter of 2019, the Company recorded a loss on early extinguishment of debt of $2.3 million ($1.8 million net of tax) related to the repurchase of $44.1 million principal amount of securitization notes. (c) In the first quarter of 2019, the Company recognized $0.1 million of interest income on a tax refund received as a result of the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

SOURCE Enova International, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.enova.com


Popular Kollywood actor Shaam has been arrested by Chennai police along with 12 people for alleged gambling activity at his apartment, near the upscale Nungambakkam area of the city. As per investigating officers, tokens used for gambling have been recovered from the flat owned by Shaam, where many people including other famous Tamil actors, have been doing the illegal activity late at night amid the lockdown. However, it's not clear yet if any other actors have been arrested.

As per a report published in NDTV, Chennai cops were tipped off by a popular actor who allegedly lost a big amount while gambling there. A senior police officer told NDTV, "Actor Shaam has been arrested along with 11 others. We are investigating the modus operandi over the use of tokens."

Notably, a day ago, a final-year undergraduate student killed himself after losing a lot of money in an online game. While elaborating about the case, the officer said, "The young man had lost Rs 20,000 he had taken from his workplace and appears to have become depressed and killed himself."

Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently highlighted the need for legislation to regulate and control online gaming. The bench cited that online gaming or gambling addiction among the youngsters was leaving families in a big financial crisis.

Also Read : WOW! Shaam To Make His Mollywood Debut With The Great Father!

Justice Pugalendhi had listed online games such as RummyPassion, Nazara, LeoVegas, Spartan Poker, Ace2Three, PokerDangal, Pocket52, My11Circke and Genesis Casino, to underscore the need of legislation in Tamil Nadu.

Also Read : Shaam Plays An Important Role In Yash & Radhika's Next!

Talking about Shaam, the actor was last seen in 2019 film Kaaviyyan.
Present-day robots are made for the purpose of repeating several tasks thousands of times. To make robots more widely applicable, future robots need to be able to do thousands of tasks just a few times. Programming a robot to solve just one complex motor task has remained a challenging, costly and time-consuming task - artificial intelligence is rarely employed. In fact, manual programming has become the key bottleneck in robot use. Empowering robots with an artificially intelligence approach to autonomously learn such tasks is at the center of the new ERC Proof of Concept project "AssemblySkills", which aims to validate that an autonomous, intelligent skill learning system can enable robots to acquire and improve a rich set of motor skills for specific applications.

The ERC Proof of Concept project "AssemblySkills" builds on the artificial intelligence methods developed within the ERC Starting Grant "SKILLS4ROBOTS - Policy Learning of Motor Skills for Humanoid Robots". The latter has yielded a structured, modular control architecture that has the potential to scale robot learning to more complex real-world tasks. In this modular control architecture, elemental building blocks - called movement primitives, are being adapted, sequenced or co-activated simultaneously to fulfill the robot's tasks. Within the Proof of Concept project "AssemblySkills", the goal is to group these modules into a complete software package that can enable application-driven robots to learn new skills - particularly in assembly tasks. The value proposition of the project now funded by the ERC Proof of Concept grant is a cost-effective, novel machine learning system that can unlock the potential of manufacturing robots by enabling them to learn to select, adapt and sequence parametrized building blocks such as movement primitives. The approach of Professor Jan Peters' research team is unique in the sense that it can acquire more than just a single desired trajectory as done in competing approaches, capable of save policy adaptation, requires only little data and can explain the solution to the robot operator.

Proof of Concept Grant

Proof of Concept is a supplementary grant to the research grants of the ERC. It is aimed exclusively at scientists who already hold an ERC grant and who want to pre-commercialise a research result from a current or completed project. This is the first step towards a technology transfer. The aim of a Proof of Concept project is to check the market potential of such an idea. So rather than funding research activities with it, the ERC finances measures for further development with a view to the maturity of application, commercialisation or marketing of the idea. In the most recent funding round, 55 researchers from 11 countries were awarded an ERC Proof of Concept grant. The grants are part of the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

Vita: Professor Jan Peters, Ph.D.

Jan Peters has been Professor for Intelligent Autonomous Systems at the Department of Computer Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt since 2011. He is one of the leading experts on artificial intelligence in robotics in Europe and has been awarded numerous important "Early Career" prizes. In 2015, he won an ERC Starting Grant for his project SKILLS4ROBOTS, on which the Proof of Concept Grant is now based. Peters studied computer science, electrical and mechanical engineering in Munich, Japan, Singapore and Los Angeles. He received his doctorate in computer science from the University of Southern California (USC). After graduating from USC, Jan Peters became a full-time Senior Research Scientist and Robot Learning Group Leader in the Department of Empirical Inference at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems.

###

About TU Darmstadt

The Technische Universitat (TU) Darmstadt is one of Germany's leading technical universities. TU Darmstadt incorporates diverse science cultures to create its characteristic profile. The focus is set on engineering and natural sciences, which cooperate closely with outstanding humanities and social sciences. We are enjoying a worldwide reputation for excellent research in our highly-relevant, focused profile areas: cybersecurity, internet and digitalisation, nuclear physics, fluid dynamics and heat- and mass transfer, energy systems and new materials for product innovation. We dynamically develop our portfolio of research and teaching, innovation and transfer, in order to continue opening up important opportunities for the future of society. Our 308 professors, 4,500 scientific and administrative employees and close to 25,200 students devote their talents and best efforts to this goal. Together with Goethe University Frankfurt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, TU Darmstadt has formed the strategic Rhine-Main Universities alliance.

http://www.tu-darmstadt.de

MI-Nr. 44e/2020, sip
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The State Bank of India (SBI) has called for online applications from qualified and experienced Indian citizens for filling 3,850 vacancies to the post of Circle Based Officers (CBO) through direct recruitment on a fulltime basis to be posted at SBI circles in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Maharashtra across various states of India comprising Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Goa. The application-cum-registration process towards the same started on July 27, 2020 and closes on August 16, 2020.

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Circle Based Officer (CBO) Jobs Organisation State Bank of India (SBI) Educational Qualification Graduation (any discipline) or equivalent Experience Two years as an officer in any scheduled commercial bank or any regional rural bank Job Responsibilities null Skills Required Desirable Job Location Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Maharashtra Salary Scale Rs. 23,700 to Rs. 42,020 per month Industry Banking Application Start Date July 27, 2020 Application End Date August 16, 2020

Age Criteria And Fees

Candidates interested in applying for Circle Based Officers (CBO) jobs through SBI Recruitment 2020 Notification must not have exceeded 30 years of age as on August 1, 2020 with relaxation (upper age limit) up to 3 years (OBC-NCL), 5 years (SC/ST) and 10 years (PWD) respectively as per the Govt. of India guidelines.

Candidates must pay a prescribed amount of Rs. 750 (GEN/OBC/EWS) as application processing fee through online (net-banking/debit/credit, etc.) mode only. However, SC/ST and PWD candidates are exempted from paying the application fee.

7th Pay Commission: Good News For Central Government Employees As Centre Tweaks Salary Structure

SBI CBO Vacancy Details

Educational Criteria And Experience

Desirous candidates applying for Circle Based Officers (CBO) jobs through SBI Recruitment 2020 Notification must possess a Graduation (any discipline) or equivalent from a recognised University/Institution as detailed in the notification with minimum two years' experience (as on 01.08.2020) as an officer in any Scheduled Commercial Bank or any Regional Rural Bank as detailed in the SBI Recruitment 2020 Notification.

Selection And Pay Scale

The selection of candidates as Circle Based Officers (CBO) through SBI Recruitment 2020 Notification will be done through Shortlisting, Written Examination/Interview and Document Verification.

Candidates selected as Circle Based Officers (CBO) through SBI Recruitment 2020 Notification will be paid emolument in the scale of Rs. 23,700 to Rs. 42,020 per month.

WBHRB Recruitment 2020 For 105 Assistant Superintendent Posts, Apply Online Before July 30

How To Apply

Candidates applying for Circle Based Officers (CBO) jobs through SBI Recruitment 2020 Notification must register online on the official SBI website at https://recruitment.bank.sbi/crpd-cbo-2020-21-20/apply and submit their applications on or before August 16, 2020 at https://sbi.co.in/web/careers#lattest

Read the detailed advertisement about SBI Recruitment 2020 Notification for Circle Based Officers (CBO) jobs here
Enforced changes in work patterns and the shifts to remote working imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic on large sections of the global economy has accelerated the pace of digital transformation that was already underway.

Despite the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, service providers continued to switch on 5G. Commercial 5G deployments with leading service providers took place during 2019 and 5G subscriptions have already passed 500,000, mainly in the Gulf countries, according to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report.

Trends in e-health and telemedicine, pervasive video communications, e-learning, video streaming, gaming and online collaboration have seen providers of these applications and services, and the underpinning infrastructure providers enjoying a boon in demand and a rising tide of investor confidence

.

While the hunt for a vaccine has naturally bolstered investor confidence in Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals, the tech sector has emerged as one of the beneficiaries of the lockdown and an even more dominant player in the global S&P 500.

Social distancing and the pervasive use of online tools from video conferencing today, to augmented and virtual reality tools in the future, will transform many workplaces, including factories and offices. The introduction of 5G technologies prior to the global pandemic offered manufacturers and telecom operators the chance to build smart factories and truly take advantage of technologies such as autonomous collaborative robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality for troubleshooting, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

As consumer needs, from cars to clothing and detergents to drinks, have become personalised, manufacturers are reconfiguring their aged-old factories designed for mass production, with new, wireless-enabled and sensor-driven plant and machinery to facilitate the mass customisation the world now demands. In the process, manufacturers are ripping out cables for greater versatility on the factory floor and to maximise the efficient use of space and increase productivity.

For operators, 5Gs promise of accelerating the digitalisation of enterprises opens up new revenue streams with high growth from traditional consumer connectivity and voice businesses well behind us. Alongside energy and utility, manufacturing represents one of the most significant sectors for new revenue potential for operators addressing industry digitalisation with 5G technologies. 5G commercial IoT connections in automotive, augmented and virtual reality, smart cities, smart homes, and digital health wearables will amount to more than $8 billion in billed operator revenues.

The next generation of manufacturing

5G technologies provide the network characteristics essential for manufacturing. Low latency and high reliability are needed to support critical applications. High bandwidth and connection density secure ubiquitous connectivity. These are requirements that manufacturers currently rely on fixed-line networks. The mobile 5G technology will allow for higher flexibility, lower cost, and shorter lead times for factory floor production reconfiguration, layout changes, and alterations.

Ericssons market research identifies most crucial manufacturing use case categories that 5G will enable operators to address, including:

1. Industrial control and automation systems: Automation and control of robots and factories and smart logistics systems. Industrial automation is one of the industry verticals that can benefit substantially from 5G, including, for example, increased flexibility, the reduction of cables and support of new use cases. Mercedes-Benz has teamed up with Telefonica Deutschland, and Ericsson to build the world's first 5G mobile network for automobile production at its "Factory 56" in Sindelfingen, Germany. All production systems and machines in the factory 6 will be connected and operated via secure 5G with gigabit data rates and almost real-time latency times affording Mercedes-Benz greater flexibility on the factory floor and increase production precision and efficiency.

2. Planning and design systems: Simulation of factory process and training support. Augmented Reality (AR) for troubleshooting to help mitigate the cost of breakdowns  extra components, material, labor, and buffers  and reduce production downtime. Here, Ericsson is leveraging 5G technologies to automate its own manufacturing plant in Tallin, Estonia along with Nordic-based service provider Telia. The solutions deployed include AR troubleshooting, for the quality control and testing of electronics components. By using AR glasses or terminals, the troubleshooter gets an overlay with all manuals, instructions and collective knowledge of other troubleshooters, allowing them to quickly identify potential problems. Field tests have shown a 50 percent reduction in time spent on troubleshooting circuit boards when using AR.

3. Field devices: Applications to gather and monitor data. Enhancing connectivity and keeping workers continuously in the loop will enable manufacturers to acquire and access much larger amounts of data  at far greater speeds  more efficiently than ever before. The German electric microcar company e.GO Mobile AG, Ericsson and Vodafone Germany are enabling automotive 5G manufacturing at the plant in Aachen, with 5G delivering secure and near real-time data networking across the production chain, as each vehicle goes through the assembly process without human intervention. In the future, autonomous forklift trucks and small trains will also be used to transport material between warehouses and the production floor.

Opportunities for Service Providers

In a constantly changing environment, telecom operators require the best technologies to support their business needs. The onset of 5G will enhance many existing use cases as well as create new use ones that cannot be fulfilled by current technologies. This, in turn, requires evolving the network to deliver low latency and high reliability that are key to addressing manufacturing use cases.

By using 5G to meet key challenges in digitalisation for industries such as manufacturing, telecom operators can act as more than network developers, addressing new revenue streams by becoming service enablers and even service creators. Digitalisation of industry-specific business processes creates a vast opportunity for telecom operators to offer their customers not only ICT services but also a new strategic direction using 5G technologies to enhance efficiency and competitiveness  laying the foundation for growth.

But this cannot be treated like the commoditised business of consumer voice and broadband connectivity and requires new business models if operators are to compete in the upper layers of the value chain. Success will depend on deeper and closer partnerships along with significant investments in understanding the needs of enterprises and working in close collaboration with an ecosystem of device, platform and solution vendors.

The time to act is now. Theres no need to wait to start testing new business models, capture emerging opportunities such as IoT, and create additional revenue streams. By experimenting and rethinking what role to take, operators will be able to secure the benefits of 5G. Understanding your customers and different value chains in 5G will be imperative for building your future business.

About the author

Ekow Nelson is the Vice president of Ericsson Middle East and Africa
Korea Investment & Securities Vice President Yoo Sang-ho, center, holds a "Stay Strong" poster as the brokerage house joins the campaign in Seoul, Tuesday. "Stay Strong" is a social media campaign supporting the global fight against COVID-19. / Courtesy of Korea Investment & Securities
BERLIN - The bullet hole-ridden door of a German synagogue that held firm in a botched far-right attack on Yom Kippur last year was being replaced on Tuesday, a week after the suspect went on trial. It is slated to become part of a memorial.

The suspect, Stephan Balliet, is alleged to have posted an anti-Semitic screed before carrying out the Oct. 9 attack in the eastern city of Halle. He broadcast the shooting live on a popular gaming site.

Prosecutors say he repeatedly tried, but failed, to force his way into the synagogue with 52 worshippers inside, before shooting and killing a woman in the street outside and a man at a nearby kebab shop.

The damaged door, pockmarked with bullet holes, became a symbol of concern about rising anti-Semitism in Germany.

On Tuesday, a carpenter removed the door, news agency dpa reported. A new one was being installed in its place.

The head of Halles Jewish community, Max Privorozki, said that a memorial will be built and the old door will be a central part of it. We plan to have everything ready for Oct. 9, the anniversary of the attack, he said.

Balliets trial on charges including murder, attempted murder, bodily harm and incitement opened a week ago in nearby Magdeburg. The suspect told the court that he saw Jews as a threat to the white race.
Capt Amarinder Singh

Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday directed his Chief Principal Secretary, Suresh Kumar, to designate an officer to provide regular inputs to the Youth Congress on Government achievements and other critical issues, such as the Bargari case investigation, to enable them to check the spread of misinformation among the people.

Capt Amarinder Singhs and SSPs to interact regularly with the district presidents of the Punjab Youth Congress (PYC) to resolve their issues, and any other concerns they might have with regard to the states youth in particular.

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The Bargari case is getting delayed due to the CBIs refusal to hand over the investigations and return the case file, the Chief Minister said during a Video Conference with the PYC president Birender Dhillon and his team.

The false propaganda being spread by the Opposition on the issue needed to be countered effective, he stressed, urging the youth leadership to take this and other matters of importance to the government to the people at the grassroots.

The state government had fulfilled 435 of the 562 promises listed in the Congress 2017 poll manifesto, and was well on track to implement the rest in the current term, Captain Amarinder pointed out, adding that such government achievements needed to be effectively communicated to the people and the officer to be designated for this purpose would serve as a one-point source of information for PYC.

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Responding to the concern expressed by the youth Congress representatives on delay in fulfilment of the Smart Phones promise, the Chief Minister said the first batch of 50000 smart phones had arrived from the company, which had now clarified that it had no connection with China.

These would be distributed first among girl students of government schools of Class XI and XII, with priority to those who do not have smart phones so that their online learning can be facilitated amid the Covid crisis.

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On his attention being drawn to complaints of rampant corruption at the lower levels of the government, the Chief Minister assured an immediate probe and suitable action by the Vigilance Bureau.

Captain Amarinder also assured the youth leaders that student elections to public universities in the first phase will be held as soon as the Covid situation improves, with the private institutions to follow at a later stage.

Capt Amarinder SinghThe Chief Minister informed the meeting that his government was preparing to launch several schemes soon for promoting women empowerment.

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Captain Amarinder underlined the need for all party leaders and workers to work together in the interest of Punjab and its people.
Vice President Mike Pence visited Florida to hold a round table with University of Miami researchers to speak about the final-stage testing of the experimental COVID-19 vaccine.

Pence said the government would not rush the process to approve a vaccine. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said the timeline for the vaccine trials had been compressed, and the agency was conducting real-time review of the data.

We want to ensure we move at a safe and effective pace. I want to assure the people of Florida and people all across this country that we will cut no corners in the development of this or any vaccine, Pence told reporters after the round table on Monday.

In Miami, 500 volunteers would be receiving a real shot and 500 others a dummy without being told which. Thousand other participants are receiving the shots in other sites around the country.

It is remarkable to think 30,000 Americans are willing to step forward to participate in this phase 3 clinical trial, Pence said. They are doing more than their fair share to help our nation through these challenging times. Pence said he believed people at high-risk would be prioritised, while maintaining that tens of millions of doses would be available in the US.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 20:09:41|Editor: huaxia

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HANOI, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam reported seven new cases of COVID-19 infection on Tuesday, all of which are in the community, bringing its total confirmed cases to 438, according to its Ministry of Health.

The seven new cases, aged from 29 to 71, are local residents of central Da Nang city and Quang Nam province, said the ministry.

Meanwhile, four people have been recovered, raising the total cured cases in the country to 369 as of Tuesday, said the ministry.

Vietnam has recorded no deaths of COVID-19 so far while there are over 15,000 people being quarantined and monitored in the country, Vietnam News Agency reported. Enditem
A terrified mother and her children returned home to find four black bears in their house - after they left the backdoor open.

Stunning video shows three cubs rolling around the family's kitchen and eating out of the trash can before one clambers into the sink and two others dash to a closed glass door.

The cubs try to climb up the glass at the home in Anchorage, Alaska, to escape before one manages to push the door ajar.

The mother bear - who was waiting outside - had also been in the house, but she fled via the front door.

This is the astonishing moment a family comes home to find three black bears inside their house in Anchorage, Alaska. Two bears were by the door (right)

The nail-biting clip reveals the cub in the sink knocking over cutlery before it runs to join its siblings at the backdoor.

When they manage to open it they dash onto some wooden decking and scramble over the railings to their mother, before dashing back into the undergrowth.

A woman, who is thought to have been taking the footage, can be heard shouting at the animals as they run for cover.

The family's mother had closed the backdoor when she came in, unwittingly trapping the bears.

'As soon as she went into the kitchen, she spotted three other black cubs digging out stuff from our trash cans and sink area,' said the recorder.

'My mom immediately ran downstairs and left through our front door.

The two bears by the door were eventually joined by the one in the sink. Their mother had darted out of the house when she heard the humans, leaving her babies behind

After scrambling around the three cubs managed to push a door open and run outside. Their mother had been waiting for them next to the wooden decking

'Eventually, the cubs found a way to re-open our sliding door and re-unite with their Mama Bear.'

The Alaskan government advises residents not to approach or crowd bears and respect their 'personal space'.

It also recommends keeping food, garbage and other attractants out of reach of bears. In cases where someone comes into contact, however, they say the person should remain calm, stand their ground and ready their deterrent.

The clip was filmed on 23 July.
DENVER, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EnerCom, Inc. is pleased to announce the initial lineup for the 25th Anniversary of The Oil and Gas Conference. EnerCom will continue to announce more companies as they are added to their lineup. You can check the most up-to-date agenda by clicking here.

Register now to secure your virtual attendance: www.theoilandgasconference.com

The initial company lineup for The Oil & Gas Conference, taking place August 17th to the 19th includes:

Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd.

AEGIS Energy Risk

Ajax Analytics

Apache Corporation

Barclays

Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss, LLC

Baytex Energy Corporation

BTU Analytics

CAC Specialty

Canacol Energy Ltd.

Comstock Resources

Core Laboratories

Data Gumbo

DistributionNOW (DNOW)

Earthstone Energy

Eni SpA

Enverus

GeoPark

Goodrich Petroleum

Great Western Petroleum

Haynes and Boone

Infrastructure Networks Inc. (INET)

Locus Bio-Energy Solutions

Lonestar Resources

MKM Partners

Noble Royalties

Northern Oil and Gas, Inc.

Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc.

NuVista Energy Ltd.

Penn Virginia Corporation

Port of Corpus Christi

Preng & Associates

ResFrac Corporation

Ring Energy

Rystad Energy

SCFCan, Inc.

Seven Generations Energy Ltd

SM Energy

Spartan Delta Corp.

Steel Reef Infrastructure Corp.

Sundance Energy

Tamarack Valley Energy Ltd

U.S. Energy

Ubiterra

University of Denver

Vaquero Midstream

Health and Safety: EnerCom remains focused on the health and safety of our attendees, presenters, sponsors and staff. As such, this year's conference will be held primarily in a digital format which will ensure the safety of everyone involved in the event.

Conference Details: The Oil & Gas Conference 25 offers investment professionals the opportunity to listen to senior management teams in the oil and gas industry present operational and financial strategies and to gain exposure to important energy topics affecting the global oil and gas industry.



Public and Private Company Presenters: The 2020 edition of EnerCom's The Oil & Gas Conference will feature public and private oil and gas companies with operations around the world including the U.S. shale basins, the Gulf of Mexico and Canada. A list of presenting companies will be provided on the conference website at a future date and updated periodically.



Additional Speakers: Global energy industry leaders, economists, market strategists, government officials and other energy experts will provide their insights on global commodities markets, ESG policy and reporting, exports of crude oil and natural gas, frac sand supply and logistics, and capital sources for energy development.



Who Attends the Conference: More than 2,000 institutional, private equity and hedge fund investors, energy research analysts, retail brokers, trust officers, high net worth investors, investment bankers and energy industry professionals gather for the conference.



One-on-One Meetings: EnerCom works in advance with presenting company management teams to arrange one-on-one meetings with the attending institutional investors and research analysts at the conference venue. Traditionally, EnerCom arranged and managed more than 2,000 one-on-one meeting requests. Registered buy- and sell-side attendees will be able to schedule meetings with presenting management teams in-person and online as appropriate.



How to Register: Investment professionals and oil and gas companies can register for the event through the conference website.



EnerCom History and Sponsors: EnerCom ( Ener gy Com munications) has a rich history of working with clients to differentiate and deliver targeted messages to investors. EnerCom, Inc. founded The Oil & Gas Conference in 1996 with this goal in mind.



Global sponsors of EnerCom's conferences are Netherland, Sewell & Associates; and Moss Adams, LLP. Additional sponsors of The Oil & Gas Conference 25 include Enverus; CAC Specialty; Haynes and Boone, LLP; PNC; and Bank of America.

About EnerCom, Inc.

Since 1994 EnerCom, Inc. has developed into a nationally recognized management consultancy advising oil and gas industry clients on corporate strategy, asset valuations, investor relations, media relations, external communications and visual communications design.



EnerCom produces and publishes numerous data products and external communications tools for public energy companies and oil and gas investors including:

ESG consulting and reporting

peer group company valuations that are specific to the oil and gas industry;

corporate annual reports, oil and gas company websites, custom stratigraphic and subsurface illustrations;

company investor presentations; and

Oil & Gas 360 - an online daily industry news portal.

Headquartered in Denver, with senior consultants in Texas, EnerCom uses the team approach for delivering its wide range of services to public and private companies, large and small, operating in the global exploration and production, OilService, capital markets, and associated advanced-technology industries. EnerCom's professionals have more than 170 years of industry and business experience and a proven track record of success.

For more information about EnerCom and its services, please visit http://www.enercominc.com/ or call +1 303-296-8834.

About Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc.



Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. (NSAI) was founded in 1961 to provide the highest quality engineering and geological consulting to the petroleum industry. Today they are recognized as the worldwide leader of petroleum property analysis to industry and financial organizations and government agencies. With offices in Dallas and Houston, NSAI provides a complete range of geological, geophysical, petrophysical, and engineering services and has the technical experience and ability to perform these services in any of the onshore and offshore oil and gas producing areas of the world. They provide reserves reports and audits, acquisition and divestiture evaluations, simulation studies, exploration resources assessments, equity determinations, and management and advisory services. For a complete list of services or to learn more about Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. please visit www.netherlandsewell.com



For more information about NSAI, call C.H. (Scott) Rees, Chief Executive Officer, at 214-969-5401 or send an email to [email protected].

About Moss Adams LLP

Moss Adams is a fully integrated professional services firm dedicated to assisting clients with growing, managing, and protecting prosperity.

With more than 3,200 professionals and staff across more than 25 locations in the West and beyond, we work with many of the world's most innovative companies and leaders. Our strength in the middle market enables us to advise clients at all intervals of developmentfrom start-up, to rapid growth and expansion, to transition.

For more information, please contact Joe Blice, Partner, National Practice Leader, Oil & Gas, CPA.

[email protected], 972.687.7818.

Moss Adams LLP provides details at mossadams.com/industries/oil-and-gas

About Enverus



In 1999, Enverus was founded as Drillinginfo, a groundbreaking provider of reliable oil & gas data, when the industry was on the brink of a digital revolutiona revolution that we would eventually fuel. Over the years, we grew exponentially through product innovation, market expansion, and acquisitions. Today, we are the energy industry's leading data, insights, and software company, helping customers outpace their competition and influence their respective industries.



For more information, visit https://www.enverus.com

About CAC Specialty



CAC Specialty is an employee owned risk solutions company of seasoned and proactive industry leaders, operating as a nimble and collaborative partner who puts you and your business first. With a knowledge-driven approach informed by industry data and decades of honed instinct, CAC brings an innovative vision to insurance broking and merchant banking by providing solutions to solve your risk challenges  from the simple to the previously unsolvable. Backed by a $40B AUM asset manager and not constrained by traditional risk transfer thinking, CAC can expand the range of risk transfer through access to private debt and alternative pools of risk capital.



Read CAC's most recent insights here, and for more information contact Brad Elliott, Senior Vice President and Team Lead.

About Haynes and Boone

Haynes and Boone, LLP is an energy focused corporate law firm that provides a full spectrum of legal services and solutions to clients across the oil and gas industry, including the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors. Our team of more than 100 energy lawyers and landmen has been helping operators, lenders and private equity firms complete some of the largest financings and M&A transactions in recent years. With more than 575 lawyers in offices in Texas, New York, California, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Washington, D.C., London, Mexico City and Shanghai, Haynes and Boone is ranked among the nation's most recommended law firms by general counsel for client service according to BTI Consulting Group's "Most Recommended Law Firms 2019" report.



For more information, please visit www.haynesboone.com.



About PNC

For more than 160 years, we have been committed to providing our clients with great service and powerful financial expertise to help them meet their financial goals. We are proud of our longstanding history of supporting not only our customers but also our communities, employees and shareholders.



For more information, please visit www.pnc.com.

Bank of America



Whether expanding a local business in the US, raising capital in Singapore or hedging currencies in Frankfurt, Bank of America Merrill Lynch understands the challenges our clients face in the US and around the world. We use the full resources of our company to help them achieve their goals. Our solutions span the complete range of advisory, capital raising, banking, treasury, as well as liquidity, sales and trading, and research capabilities.



Our Global Banking & Markets division serves mid- to large-sized companies, corporations and institutions. It comprises Business Banking, Global Commercial Banking, Global Corporate & Investment Banking and Global Markets. Aligned with these client-facing groups are Global Capital Markets, Global Research, Global Transaction Services and Wholesale Credit.



For more information, please visit www.bankofamerica.com.

Rystad Energy

Rystad Energy is an independent energy research and business intelligence company providing data, tools, analytics and consultancy services to the global energy industry. Our products and services cover energy fundamentals and the global and regional upstream, oilfield services and renewable energy industries, tailored to analysts, managers and executives alike. We are headquartered in Oslo, Norway with offices across the globe.

For more information, please visit www.rystadenergy.com.

SOURCE EnerCom, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.enercominc.com


MI6 admits to interfering in judicial matters

Iran Press TV

Monday, 27 July 2020 5:27 PM

The Secret Intelligence Service (better known as MI6) has been forced to apologize after it was established the agency had tried to interfere in judicial matters.

According to legal papers, officers from the UK's foreign intelligence service had tried to prevent sensitive documents reaching one of the country's top judges.

MI6 had tried to interfere in the work of the semi-secret Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) into criminal activity by intelligence agents.

On March 05, 2019, two MI6 officers made contact with the secretary of the IPT, Susan Cobb, and falsely informed her that the Tribunal should not have been provided with copies of secret documents which were potentially relevant to the case.

The officers specifically told Cobb the documents should not be passed to Lord Justice Singh, other members of the tribunal or the senior lawyer advising them.

Cobb wrote back to MI6 complaining that the phone conversations amounted to "inappropriate interference".

"It was inappropriate for your staff to seek to intervene in ongoing legal proceedings in the way that they sought to do  The Tribunal is an independent judicial body", Cobb wrote to MI6.

Subsequently, a senior MI6 manager replied to Cobb admitting to the wrongdoing.

"Please accept my apologies for any misunderstanding that may have arisen as a result of the approach made to the Tribunal", the MI6 manager wrote back to Cobb.

However, MI6's admission of wrongdoing hasn't assuaged stakeholders in the original IPT case who are now calling on the tribunal to investigate broader interference in judicial proceedings by the intelligence services.

The call for a wider investigation has been made by lawyers for the campaign groups involved in the case, including Reprieve, Privacy International and the Pat Finucane Centre.

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New Zealand says it can no longer trust Hong Kongs legal system because of the imposition of a new security law.

New Zealand has suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong in protest against a deeply concerning national security law that China imposed on the semiautonomous city.

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said on Tuesday that New Zealand can no longer trust that Hong Kongs criminal justice system is sufficiently independent from China.

If China in future shows adherence to the one country, two systems framework then we could reconsider this decision, he said in a statement.

New Zealand is the latest member to take action among the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance. Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom have already suspended their extradition treaties and the United States has signalled it is preparing to do the same.

US President Donald Trump has ended preferential economic treatment for Hong Kong and signed a law penalising banks doing business with Chinese officials who enact the draconian national security law in the city.

The legislation  which came into effect ahead of July 1, the anniversary of Hong Kongs handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997  punishes what Beijing terms secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference with up to life in prison.





China says the legislation is needed to restore order after months of sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong last year.

Under review

Critics describe the law  which allows mainland jurisdiction in some cases  as an assault on Hong Kongs autonomy, freedoms and judicial independence. But China has condemned the censure as gross interference in its internal affairs and vowed to take retaliatory action over the suspension of extradition treaties and other punishing measures.

New Zealand said a review of its overall relationship with Hong Kong was ongoing and Peters said the country will treat military and dual-use goods and technology exports to Hong Kong in the same way as it treats such exports to China.

He added that travel advice has been updated to alert New Zealanders to the risks presented by the new security law.

Chinas embassy in Wellington said it was preparing a response to the announcement. Earlier this month, as New Zealand considered such a move, the embassy put out a statement urging the nation to stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and Chinas internal affairs, and refrain from going any further down the wrong path.

China is New Zealands largest trading partner with annual two-way trade recently exceeding 32 billion New Zealand dollars ($21bn). Ties between the two nations have frayed recently after New Zealand backed Taiwans participation at the World Health Organization (WHO).
ATLANTA  Senator David Perdue of Georgias re-election campaign was assailed on Monday for a Facebook advertisement that enlarged the nose of his Democratic opponent, Jon Ossoff, who is Jewish, in a portrayal that critics immediately denounced as anti-Semitic.

The Republican senators fund-raising ad, which surfaced after The Forward published an article about it on Monday, included grainy photographs of Mr. Ossoff and the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, who is also Jewish. Democrats are trying to buy Georgia! the ad said, adding that Mr. Schumer had poured millions of dollars into the race.

Mr. Perdues campaign said on Monday that the ad had been taken down and that the alteration had been an outside vendors error.

But critics said that it reflected something more insidious, arguing that the campaign had employed imagery long used to malign Jews at a time when a rising tide of anti-Semitism in the country has seeped into politics. In a post on Twitter, the political advocacy arm of Bend the Arc, a progressive Jewish organization, called it blatant: Its not an accident.
CAIRO  Egypt agreed to conduct clinical trials to help find a treatment for COVID-19 back in March.

However, several family members of patients infected with the novel coronavirus told Al-Monitor over the phone that they were not directly and expressly notified that the treatment was part of a clinical trial.

Hasna Abdul Rahman, the daughter of a patient in Assiut governorate, told Al-Monitor that her father showed symptoms at the end of May, and he had a fever and dry cough for two days before he decided to consult the doctor at the hospital.

She added, When we headed to the hospital, they at first refused to take a swab to detect the virus. But with the quick escalation of symptoms, they finally agreed and the result came back positive. We were notified that he would be admitted to one of the quarantine hospitals because of his old age and serious condition. We left the hospital and were forbidden any contact with him.

Six days later, we received a call from the hospital administration telling us about his deteriorating situation. He lost consciousness and was put on a ventilator. We had to rush to the hospital to sign a form, Abdul Rahman recounted. The nature of the required form was not disclosed at that point to the family.

She added, As soon as we reached the hospital, they asked us to sign a waiver on the hospitals liability for the health of my father because they were using a new drug. When we objected, they threatened to take him off the ventilator to give other patients a chance, which would lead to his death. We relented under pressure.

Egypt still does not have a law regulating clinical trials. In May 2018, the parliament sent a bill to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to sign, but the president returned it with remarks to reconsider. The law has not been discussed since.

According to parliamentary spokesperson Salah Hasaballah, The approval of the clinical trial law in Egypt has been delayed because the parliament has yet to examine the president's remarks and is preoccupied with other laws.

Hasaballah told Al-Monitor that the law will be passed soon, before the term of the current parliament ends. He did not specify a date.

On May 18, presidential spokesperson Bassam Radi said that Sisi has called for expanding clinical trials on coronavirus patients, announcing in a statement, Sisi called for more support for clinical trials related to coronavirus, considering the regional and international distinction of the research conducted by Egyptian research centers and universities.

A young man whose father died from the virus accused the Ministry of Health of tricking him and forcing him to sign a form he did not read. He told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity for fear of persecution, We went to the hospital on June 13 after my fathers condition deteriorated. He was immediately isolated after his blood oxygen level dropped to less than 80%, according to the doctor. He was placed in intensive care. The doctors said his condition was deteriorating, but that they would do all they could.

On the fourth day, I went to the hospital with my younger brother to check on our father. The doctor wanted to see me immediately and he said my fathers condition was bad and that a new treatment had been introduced in Egypt. Due to its scarcity, not all patients are allowed to take it, except after signing a routine form.

He said, I first refused, but due to pressure from the doctor, I agreed. Six days later, the hospital called to tell us my father passed away. I went to the doctor who claimed the treatment would help my father, but he refused to take responsibility. He said I knew it was part of clinical trials for a new medication and that I agreed.

The young man added, But I had no idea these were clinical trials. I feel the doctor duped us to get the agreement. I am very angry because my father died without our knowledge that the treatment was only a trial.  I want to sue the hospital and the doctor but I do not know where to start.

Mahmoud Fouad is the director of the Egyptian Center for the Right to Medicine, which advocates for patients' rights to health and medical care. He told Al-Monitor, The Egyptian government has been stalling on approving the clinical trials law, which is sorely needed.
Amitabh Bachchan has reacted sharply to trolls in an open letter he wrote from the Covid-19 ward in a Mumbai hospital. He penned the note to anonymous trolls who have been wishing his death due to the novel coronavirus. "They write to tell me... 'I hope you die with this Covid,'" the megastar began his blog, and ended with, "All I shall say to them is... 'thok do saale ko'."

Read: Amitabh Bachchan To Troll Saying 'Hope You Die With Covid': 'Thok Do S**** Ko'

Bihar Police has stepped into the Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case to start a separate enquiry independent of Mumbai police. A separate FIR has been lodged with Patna Police and a four member team has reached Mumbai for further investigation in this case. An FIR has also been registered against actress Rhea Chakraborty under various sections, including abetment to suicide, on the complaint of Sushant's father.

Read: Sushant Singh Rajput's Father Lodges FIR Against Rhea Chakraborty in Patna

On Kriti Sanon's 30th birthday, Kartik Aaryan wished his Luka Chuppi co-actor with a hilarious poster. The actor posted a parody poster of his film Pati Patni Aur Woh. He made a collage of a still from their film Luka Chuppi and a still of Bhumi Pednekar from Saand Ki Aankh.

Read: Kartik Aaryan Presents Hilarious Poster of Pati Patni Aur Woh Sequel to Wish Kriti Sanon on Birthday

Yesteryear actress Kumkum passed away on Tuesday. She was 86. She acted in more than 100 films and hailed from Hussainabad in Sheikhpura district, Bihar. Kumkum, whose real name was Zaibunnissa, died at around 11.30 am at her Bandra residence due to age-related issues.

Read: Veteran Actress Kumkum Passes Away at 86

Ever since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in India actor Sonu Sood has been working towards providing help to those adversely affected by the pandemic. Once again, Sonu has managed to win the hearts on people on social media by helping a Hyderabad techie to find a job. She lost her job during COVID-19 crisis.

Read: Sonu Sood Wins Internet Yet Again, This Time by Helping a Hyderabad Techie Find Job
The commerce ministry has blocked the online system for exporters to apply for availing tax incentives under the MEIS scheme from July 23 as the department of revenue (DoR) decided to limit the benefits under the scheme at Rs 9,000 crore for April-December 2020. According to an office memorandum of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), the Department of Revenue in May had conveyed that it may not be feasible to exceed MEIS (merchandise export from India scheme) allocation beyond Rs 9,000 crore for 2020-21 (up to December 2020).

It has also been suggested to review MEIS and coverage so that the benefit outgo remains within the allocation of Rs 9,000 crore in this period. The commerce department has requested its revenue counterpart to reconsider its decision, and a communication has also been sent by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 21.

In the meanwhile, according to the office memorandum, the database for MEIS scrip issuance has been checked and it has been found that as on July 20, the scrips of value Rs 422.4 crore have already been issued to exporters for shipping bills with Let Export Order (LEO) since April 1 onwards.

"Since allocated funds at this stage for MEIS for 202-21 stand at Rs 9,000 crore and any additional allocation has not been conveyed by the department of revenue, the online MEIS module has been blocked on July 23 from accepting new application for shipping bills with LEO date April 1 onwards to limit the issuance of any more scrips," the memorandum dated July 27 said.

"DoR/CBIC (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs) may take steps in such a situation and ask customs ports/field formations to stop registration of MEIS scrips with shipping bills with LEO date of April 1 and beyond," a deputy DGFT said in the memorandum. Commenting on the development, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President S K Saraf said the government's intervention has been sought to resolve the issue as MEIS benefits are already factored by exporters in the prices and help in easing the liquidity of exporters which is severely impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the MEIS, the government provides duty benefits depending on product and country. Rewards under the scheme are payable as percentage of realised free-on-board value and MEIS duty credit scrip can be transferred or used for payment of a number of duties including the basic customs duty.

The government has already announced a scheme for Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Product (RoDTEP) to replace MEIS.

Also read: US-China rift over Hong Kong suits India's gems and jewellery sector; exports to see rise
New York, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Ammunition Handling System Market Research Report by Feeding Mechanism, by Platform, by Mode of Operation, by Weapon Type, by Component - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913170/?utm_source=GNW



On the basis of Feeding Mechanism, the Ammunition Handling System Market is studied across Linked and Linkless.



On the basis of Platform, the Ammunition Handling System Market is studied across Airborne, Land, and Naval. The Airborne further studied across Combat Support Aircraft, Fighter Aircraft, Helicopters, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVS). The Land further studied across Artillery, Infantry, Air Defense Platforms, Handheld, and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVS). The Naval further studied across Carrier Battle Group (CVBG) Ships and Coastal/Littoral Ships.



On the basis of Mode of Operation, the Ammunition Handling System Market is studied across Automatic and Semi-Automatic.



On the basis of Weapon Type, the Ammunition Handling System Market is studied across Cannons, Gatling Guns, Launchers, Machine Guns, and Main Guns.



On the basis of Component, the Ammunition Handling System Market is studied across Ammunition Storage Units, Auxiliary Power Units (APU), Drive Assembly, and Loading Systems. The Loading Systems further studied across Ammunition Hoist and Feeder.



On the basis of Geography, the Ammunition Handling System 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 Ammunition Handling System Market including BAE Systems, Calzoni, Curtiss-Wright, Dillon Aero, General Dynamics, GSI International, Mcnally Industries, Meggitt, Moog, Nobles Worldwide, Standard Armament, and Thales Group.



FPNV Positioning Matrix:

The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Ammunition Handling System 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 Ammunition Handling System Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Ammunition Handling System Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Ammunition Handling System Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Ammunition Handling System Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Ammunition Handling System Market?

6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Ammunition Handling System Market?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913170/?utm_source=GNW



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Quantum computers have enormous potential for calculations using novel algorithms and involving amounts of data far beyond the capacity of todays supercomputers. While such computers have been built, they are still in their infancy and have limited applicability for solving complex problems in materials science and chemistry. For example, they only permit the simulation of the properties of a few atoms for materials research.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago (UChicago) have developed a method paving the way to using quantum computers to simulate realistic molecules and complex materials, whose description requires hundreds of atoms.

Ours is a powerful forward-looking strategy in computational materials science with the potential of predicting the properties of complex materials more accurately than the most advanced current methods can do at present.  Marco Govoni, assistant scientist in the Materials Science division and Center for Molecular Engineering at Argonne

The research team is led by Giulia Galli, director of the Midwest Integrated Center for Computational Materials (MICCoM), a group leader in Argonnes Materials Science division and a member of the Center for Molecular Engineering at Argonne. Galli is also the Liew Family Professor of Electronic Structure and Simulations in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and a Professor of Chemistry at UChicago. She worked on this project with assistant scientist Marco Govoni and graduate student He Ma, both part of Argonnes Materials Science division and UChicago.

Our newly developed calculational method, Galli said, greatly improves on the accuracy attainable with existing quantum mechanical methods regarding calculations for specific defects in crystalline materials, and we have implemented it on a quantum computer.

In the last three decades, quantum mechanical theoretical approaches have played an important role in predicting the properties of materials relevant to quantum information science and functional materials for energy applications, encompassing catalysts and energy storage systems. However, these approaches are computationally demanding, and it is still challenging to apply them to complex, heterogeneous materials.

In our research we developed a quantum embedding theory that permitted the simulation of spin defects in solids by coupling quantum and classical computing hardware, Govoni said. These types of defects in solids have applicability to the development of materials for quantum information processing and nanoscale sensing applications far beyond current capabilities.

Ours is a powerful forward-looking strategy in computational materials science with the potential of predicting the properties of complex materials more accurately than the most advanced current methods can do at present, Govoni added.

The team first tested the quantum embedding method on a classical computer, applying it to the calculations of the properties of spin defects in diamond and silicon carbide. Past researchers have extensively studied defects in both diamond and silicon carbide, so we had abundant experimental data to compare with our methods predictions, said Ma. The good agreement between theory and experiment gave the team confidence in their methods reliability.

The team then moved on to test the same calculations on a quantum simulator and finally on the IBM Q5 Yorktown quantum computer. The results confirmed the high accuracy and effectiveness of their quantum embedding method, establishing a stepping stone to solving many different kinds of materials science problems on a quantum computer.

Galli noted that, With the inevitable maturity of quantum computers, we expect our approach will be applicable to the simulation of regions of interest in molecules and materials for the understanding and discovery of catalysts and new drugs, as well as aqueous solutions containing complex dissolved species.

Gallis team is part of MICCoM, headquartered at Argonne; the Chicago Quantum Exchange, headquartered at UChicago; and the QISpin project funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Their research leveraged the WEST software developed within MICCoM and made use of several computing resources besides the publicly available IBM quantum computer: the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, both DOE Office of Science User Facilities; and the University of Chicago Research Computing Center.

The teams work is presented in an article entitled Quantum Simulations of Materials on Near-term Quantum Computer that appears in the July 2020 issue of npj Computational Materials. The research received support from the DOE Office of Science and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

###

The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility provides supercomputing capabilities to the scientific and engineering community to advance fundamental discovery and understanding in a broad range of disciplines. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energys (DOEs) Office of Science, Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, the ALCF is one of two DOE Leadership Computing Facilities in the nation dedicated to open science.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nations first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance Americas scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.
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This is a dangerous time for our 244-year-old republic. The choices we make Nov. 3 will send us down one of two dramatically different paths, and the wrong decision will be catastrophic.

Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, said recently that the next election will be themost significant since the Civil WarIn 1864  and hes right.

In 1864, America faced the choice of either reelecting Abraham Lincoln or selecting Maj. Gen. George McClellan. Lincoln pledged to finish the war and preserve the Union. McClellan claimed he would bring peacebut at what cost? He wanted to end the war, but to do it, he was willing to allow the South to establish a government built on slavery.

It was a battle for the very soul of America.

At one point, Lincoln was convinced he would lose. The war was going badly, and his prospects looked bleak.

Thank God, things changed! The war began to turn, and the Democrat party began to battle itself. Ultimately, Lincoln won reelection in a landslide. How differently our country might look today had he failed

Why am I sharing this with you?

I hope to remind you that elections matter, and some have jaw-dropping consequences.

With so much at stake, it is imperative that Christians show up on Election Day. You have the opportunity  and the responsibility  to help set the course for our nation in a manner that uplifts our biblically-held convictions.

I wont tell you who to vote for. You havent asked me toand you can figure it out for yourself. But I will mention some of the more critical issues that are at stake.

1. The Fate of the Next Generation

There is a battle waging in the classrooms and our communities for the hearts and souls of our children and grandchildren. Our young ones are being force-fed a radical agenda that is godless, anti-American and sexually perverted. Make no mistake, the left and secular culture want your sons and daughters as their own. As parents, our childrens spiritual formation is job No. 1, and we need to be extremely careful to whom we give the power to shape our children.

2. Capitalism versus Socialism

Our nation is built upon a system of free enterprise; socialism limits enterprise and creates undue reliance on the state. Yet this is not simply an economic issue; it is a spiritual matter. Socialism, at its core, is a secular framework that installs government as god. It has no use for faith, freedom, or the will of the people.

3. Religious Freedom

This liberty is foundational to a free society, and its protection is enshrined in the First Amendment. But as our nation falls away from its Judeo-Christian roots, this freedom has come under great attack, and now, your right to live out your faith is in jeopardy. Whether a Christian cake artist or a pastor preaching from the pulpit, left-leaning politicians have made it abundantly clear that they will look to silence people of faith that uplift and live by the word of God.

4. The Sanctity of Human Life

All life is a sacred gift from Almighty God, but too many in our society no longer acknowledge this truth. As a nation, we have murdered more than 60 million babies through abortion and have ended countless other lives by euthanasia, we compel our health care professionals to participate in the taking of human life, and we fail to pass laws offering even the most basic of protections for human life. Horrifically, this past year, democrats in some states have passed laws that effectively allow infanticide. God help us if we fail to take a stand against such wickedness.

5. Marriage and the Family

The family was Gods original building block for society, and countless studies have shown that children flourish with a married mother and father. And yet radical LGBTQ forces and our culture have sought to deconstruct families and marriage, through the media, through an ever-evolving sexual revolution, and by way of law and policy. The latter effort was most recently aided by five justices on the Supreme Court. If we lose this cornerstone of our society, we will lose our nation.

6. The Judicial System

Given recent rulings, we all know that this is a culture gamechanger. Judges are constitutionally charged to interpret the law, not make law. But again and again, our judges have acted outside their authority, bringing us atrocities such as abortion on demand, same-sex marriage and the so-called separation of church and state. Most recently, they crafted a complete redefinition of sex within the interpretation of the law. This horrendous decision will haunt us for as long as this nation endures.

I could go on, but youve heard enough to understand that the future of our nation hangs in the balance. Nov. 3 is drawing near. Inform yourselves, pray about this mighty responsibility, and then cast your vote.

For forty-plus years in ministry, my love for God and the love of my family has compelled me to be a voice in our culture and nation. We owe it to our children and future generations to choose our leaders wisely and set an example. So please, steward your vote, and dont sit on the sidelines this election.

Dr. James Dobson is a celebrated psychologist, Christian leader, and Founder and President of Family Talk, a nonprofit organization that produces his radio program, Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk. He is the author of more than 30 books. Dr. Dobson served as an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Southern California School of Medicine for 14 years and on the attending staff of Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles for 17 years. He has been active in governmental affairs and has advised three U.S. presidents on family matters. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in the field of child development. He holds 17 honorary doctoral degrees, and was inducted in 2008 into The National Radio Hall of Fame.
Rajesh Kumar Thakur By

Express News Service

PATNA: Amid mounting pressure from ministers and state's doctors association,the Bihar government on Monday removed Health Secretary Uday Singh Kumawat from the post besides transferring seven other IAS officers to different posts.

Kumawat has been replaced by a 1991-batch IAS Pratyay Amrit, who is known as a tough task master and turnaround man of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. Prior to his new posting, Amrit has been heading the disaster management department in the same capacity.

He was awarded the PM Excellence Award in Public Administration in 2011 over his extraordinary performances in public administration. He is also credited with bringing in a sea change to the state electricity department by achieving the target of rural electrification.

Amrit has also revived the building and bridge construction departments as CMD in previous postings. He was also the first DM to implement the private public partnership in hospital management in Katihar district.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, he said that he would prioritise the works in order to tackle immediate challenges and requirements amid the COVID crisis.

A couple of days ago, the Bihar chapter of IMA has requested Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to remove Uday Singh Kumawat because of his indifferent attitude towards doctors of state, who are fighting against COVID-19.

Health minister Mangal Panday had also complained against Kumawat's arbitrary functioning in the department to CM. The CM has asked him to work properly or leave the post.
ARCHIVED - Covid spirals in Spain; 6,391 new cases since Friday



855 new cases in the last 24 hours

The complicated reporting system of the Spanish Ministry of Health has resulted in an adjustment across the weekend, during which time there has been no publication of any daily figures, the result being that the Monday figures now show a total of 278,782 total cases in Spain, a rise of 6,391 since Friday, although the Ministry of Health is only reporting 855 new cases for the last 24 hours.

In addition, the report this Monday shows two more deaths since Friday, making a total of 28,434. In the last seven days, six people with COVID-19 have died in Spain.

Click for full original data



Fernando Simon has returned to work following a few days of vacation, and stated the obvious saying that "the number of suspected outbreaks is increasing, compared to last week."

He noted that around 100 imported cases are being detected weekly, ranging from irregular immigration to international flights. "Most of the flights have brought just one case, but others have brought a few more." "This means that the virus is circulating."



There are currently 27 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, however this average cannot be applied because, according to Simon, no region comes anywhere close to the average. "They are all either well above or well below."

He said that the number of outbreaks in Spain has increased to 361 active outbreaks, with 4,100 cases, but refused to be drawn by journalists as to whether this constitutes the start of a second wave, limiting himself to saying that this would "have to be studied".

"We are detecting many more cases and thanks to that we can understand that the virus is continuing to circulate", although highlighting that he didnt believe the situation to be out of control.



Andalusia 14,607 (+31; 572 in the last 7 days)

Aragon 11,010 (+474; 2472 in the last 7 days)

Asturias 2,465 (+5; 20 in the last 7 days)

Balearic Islands 2,376 (+4; 58 in the last 7 days)

Canary Islands 2608 (+2; 57 in the last 7 days)

Cantabria 2436 (+5; 33 in the last 7 days)

Castilla-La Mancha 18,611 (+1; 140 in the last 7 days)

Castilla y Leon 20,055 (+0; 125 in the last 7 days)

Catalonia 75613 (71; 5585 in the last 7 days)

Ceuta 164

Valencian Community 12,773 (+20; 573 in the last 7 days)

Extremadura 3,316 ( 3; 53 in the last 7 days)

Galicia 9,635 (9; 118 in the last 7 days)

Madrid 74,700 ( +53; 1278 in the last 7 days)

Melilla 129

Murcia 2091 (7; 241 in the last 7 days)

Navarra 6,484 (94; 609 in the last 7 days)

Basque Country, 15,524 (76; 831 in the last 7 days)

La Rioja 4185 (+0 ; 63 in the last 7 days).


Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he will not pass a coronavirus relief bill in the Senate which does not include liability shields. "We're not negotiating over liability protection," he told CNBC's Kayla Tausche as Congress looks to craft a pandemic rescue agreement. He noted, however, that the GOP is open to compromise on other issues. Senate Republicans released their coronavirus aid proposal on Monday. It includes a cut to the enhanced $600 per week federal unemployment benefit, another round of direct payments to Americans, liability protections for businesses and doctors, and more funding for Paycheck Protection Program small business loans. Democrats have generally opposed the legal shield because it could take away a recourse for workers who return to an unsafe workplace as the pandemic spreads around the country. McConnell contended "there's no chance of the country getting back to normal without it."

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks to reporters. Tom Brenner | Reuters

Asked about a CNBC/Change Research poll that found a majority of voters in six swing states oppose shielding corporations from lawsuits, McConnell said, "this is not just liability protection for businesses, although they are included like everyone else." He noted that it would also cover doctors, universities and K-12 schools, who could not get sued unless they were "grossly negligent or caused intentional harm." McConnell spoke shortly before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., planned to meet with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows for the second straight day. The group will try to hash out differences between Republicans and Democrats on how best to boost an economy and health-care system ravaged by the coronavirus. Congress faces pressure to quickly approve new relief, as states stopped paying out the extra federal unemployment benefit last week. Roughly 30 million people are still receiving some form of unemployment insurance as U.S. coronavirus cases surge above 4.3 million. A federal moratorium on evictions also expired last week. In a joint statement Tuesday, Pelosi and Schumer said that "catastrophe is looming, and until Senate Republicans get serious, they must answer to every hungry child, every family that cannot make rent, every worker being denied their UI for their delays." "Democrats remain ready to work with Republicans on real solutions to bring immediate relief and save lives and livelihoods," they said.
Ted Hazelton, a Winona mayoral candidate, has shared public social media posts that differ from his claims of wanting equality during a League of Women Voters forum last week.

Hazelton said during the public forum in response to possible racism in the Winona community, People really need to take a deep look at themselves before they criticize others. I believe in equity. I feel that Winonans should feel safe, appreciated and valued, no matter what their background is, where they come from. And this needs to stop.

He said that he has seen and heard about examples of racism in Winona and that he would like to continue to listen to Winonans about their experiences.

The candidate, though, is an active public social media user, making his views on politics clear on his Facebook page.

One post, dating back to December 5, included him sharing his views about it being time to boycott the Hallmark Channel, after the channels CEO expressed a willingness to include LGBTQ couples in its holiday movies.

Additionally, Hazelton expressed on March 11 that public schools are going to hell after a Minnesota middle school decided to hang a LGBTQ flag in their cafeteria, while not allowing a flag that represents a traditional family.

On January 21, Hazelton posted on Facebook his desire for Winona County officials to say no to allowing refugees to settle in the county. With that, he shared an article titled Minneapolis: Somali Gangs Are Claiming Territory and Killing to Defend It by conservative outlet The Washington Standard.

The publications article, posted on Oct. 26, started with, Weve brought you several stories of the Muslim colonization of America from Florida to Maine to Michigan and Minnesota. Many of those settling into Islamic communities in America have anything in mind but assimilation. The latest evidence of this comes from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Somali gangs are now claiming territory and a young Somali has now gunned down another young man.

As for people who identify as Democrats, Hazelton posted publicly on his Facebook June 13 that Democrats talk without a brain.

About the current coronavirus pandemic, Hazelton posted on his Facebook page March 16 that, This whole coronavirus thing is getting out of control. Everyone is overreacting.

He shared an image March 6 claiming that what makes the pandemic scary is media outlets.

About climate change, Hazelton shared an article headlined Dozens of Failed Climate Predictions Stretch 80 Years Back on Dec. 9, captioning the post that the climate change hoax goes back multiple decades.

On Jan. 27, Hazelton called for the assassination of Missouri Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, who had openly hoped for the assassination of Donald Trump in a social media post now deleted, according to a Washington Post article in August 2017. Chappelle-Nadal was later censored by her colleagues.

Hazelton told the Winona Daily News, in response to a request for comment, that the posts are from at least four years ago, even though they are dated as posted in 2019 and 2020.

He said that whenever someone comments, shares or interacts with the posts in any way, then the date on a Facebook post changes.

The Facebook software does not, in fact, change the time stamp on posts when they are interacted with by people.

Hazelton went on to say that he does not use Facebook very often because he does not have internet access at home. He said he is unable to use it unless with his son because the public library is closed due to COVID-19.

Hazelton has posted on Facebook eight times during July.

Hazelton said in a voicemail later Monday, The one thing I would say is if people are upset or offended or felt that that was inappropriate, well then I would offer a public apology.

As I mentioned before, I am not racist. I am not any of these things that people throw out there these days as a label. I believe that people should be treated with respect, he said.

He said that a key point of his campaign platform is to work to create an atmosphere where citizens feel safe, valued and respected.

Hazelton said he has posted his platform goals on his Facebook.

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Readers may still see these writers on the front page or in other sections from time to time, if they write a story or a profile that is not about politics or that does not convey their personal points of view. But Tribune Voices will be their home most of the time. And Tribune Voices is where we will publish other Tribune news staffers when they write commentary or first-person pieces.
Most Canadians are beginning to regain confidence in their finances after the initial toll of COVID-19, despite the demographic of 18 to 34 year olds hit hard by job loss, a new national survey has found.

IG Wealth Management released a mid-year update to its annual Financial Confidence Index in partnership with Ipsos Canada, which conducted the survey to see how Canadians were faring amid a global pandemic.

The survey was conducted in mid-May after the initial job losses and financial hits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and after government programs including the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) had been rolled out, while provincial economies across the country were starting to reopen.

A total of 2,605 Canadians across the country participated in the survey.

A previous national survey in April by Research Co. found that Canadians were more concerned about their financial situations, especially savings, than they were during the peak of the 2008 financial crisis.

But now, according to the Ipsos survey, Canadians reported feeling more confident in their financial futures and about meeting their financial goals, resulting in the Financial Confidence Index rising four points (from 56 to 60) since November 2019.

Brent Allen, senior vice-president of distribution operations at IG Wealth Management, said the survey results came as a surprise, but they show Canadians are preparing for the worst while remaining optimistic.

People are taking control of their personal situation where they can, he said.

Canadians between 18 and 34 years old reported being hit hard by job loss. This age group was disproportionately affected by the pandemic, with 27 per cent reporting their jobs had been lost and 29 per cent having their work hours cut.

This is likely because younger Canadians may be graduating, looking for summer jobs, in the early years of their careers or perhaps in an industry hit hard by the pandemic, such as the service industry, Allen said.

The service industry is certainly a big part of what (younger Canadians) do to earn income for schooling and starting out, and so I think those factors certainly impacted the younger demographic, he said.

Canadians sense of control over their personal finances has dropped since 2019, according to the survey. Allen said thats because while Canadians might feel more confident in their own abilities to financially weather a second wave, theyre not able to control outside influences and have to prepare for the worst.

I think that people actually are ... planning for the worst, and the longer term, he said.

He said now is the time for Canadians to consider their emergency funds, whether its a pre-existing savings account or a line of credit.

Its also important to budget more stringently than before, Allen said, suggesting cutting down on extra costs such as monthly subscriptions or a second car.

To put one of your cars up on layup for a short period of time can save you hundreds of dollars a month in insurance, he said.

He also suggested people look into payment deferral for mortgages or other debt, and that they consult a financial professional. The survey found that Canadians with financial advisers were significantly more confident than those without.

The Financial Confidence Index is usually released annually in November. Allen said the results of the November survey will depend on certain factors, such as whether there is a significant second wave of the virus, but regardless he expects Canadians financial confidence to more or less remain the same as they continue to prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.
As he seeks to unite and energize his party around his candidacy, he has sought input from a broad range of experts and officials, including from a series of task forces assembled with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, his liberal primary rival.

But Mr. Biden, the former vice president, continues to confront a lack of enthusiasm from some progressive voters, and while he won the primary with strong support from African-American voters  in particular, older ones  he faces challenges generating excitement among some younger voters of color. In the primary campaign, he was not the choice of many liberal activists of color, and he still faces skepticism from some of them about whether he can sufficiently address their concerns.

Mr. Trump, for his part, has sought to portray Mr. Biden as hostage to an extreme left wing of the Democratic Party, whose extravagant spending would wreck the nations economy.

The plan Mr. Biden unveiled touched on a wide range of economic issues. It emphasizes support for small-business owners of color, promising that he will leverage more than $150 billion in new capital and opportunities for small businesses that have been structurally excluded for generations, including by increasing access to venture capital and low-interest business loans.

Mr. Biden, who has long faced anger from some voters over his leading role in the 1994 crime bill, which many experts link to mass incarceration, also addressed some criminal justice matters in the plan. He would aim to help states improve their criminal justice data infrastructure so they can automatically seal criminal records for certain nonviolent offenders.

The plan also said that he would try to amend the Federal Reserve Act to require the Fed to regularly report on current data and trends in racial economic gaps  and what actions the Fed is taking through its monetary and regulatory policies to close these gaps.

The Fed, which influences the speed of economic growth and the unemployment rate with its interest rate policies, already regularly discusses racial and ethnic economic outcomes in its reports and testimonies. It has shied away from targeting any specific groups unemployment rate when setting monetary policy, despite a growing chorus suggesting that it ought to consider targeting the Black jobless rate, which has historically remained higher for longer.
BIG RAPIDS  As some begin to plan events for the end of summer and fall, the Big Rapids Department of Public Safety is reminding everyone to stay safe and follow state guidelines.

April Decator, administrative assistant for BRDPS, said the department recently posted a reminder on its Facebook page to the public about how to safely host events during the coronavirus pandemic.

"People have been calling in regard to having different events and asking if they can still host them," she said.

The post states since Big Rapids currently falls within Phase 4 of Michigan's Safe Start Plan, indoor social gatherings and events of more than 10 people are prohibited.

However, outdoor social gatherings and events are permitted as long as people maintain six feet of distance from one another and the event consists of no more than 100 people.

Additionally, crowded outdoor areas require a mask be worn at all times.

Phase 4 of the Michigan Safe Start Plan is the "Improving" stage, and states cases, hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 are declining, but continued distancing, face coverings and safe workplace practices are required.

Along with the gathering guidelines in this stage of the plan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has issued several other executive orders in reference to preventing the further spread of the coronavirus, including requiring all businesses to refuse entry or service to people who are not wearing a face mask, with limited exceptions.

While area residents concerned about violations of the face mask and other executive orders can contact several state departments, Big Rapids community members can also call a hotline through the BRDPS.

Decator explained if people call the department's main line, they will be prompted to select an option specifically geared toward reporting concerns or violations of the state guidelines and executive orders.

She said several people have reached out to the department with concerns online or and through Facebook, but she said calling would be the best option.

"We don't have anything for reporting online because it is not monitored 24/7." Decator said.

For more information, call the BRDPS at 231-527-0005.
HERNDON, Va., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP National Security Services, Inc. (SAP NS2), a U.S. based independent subsidiary of SAP, today announced the news of its rebranding on the FedRAMP Marketplace to SAP NS2 Cloud Intelligent Enterprise, which also includes a new JAB approved service called SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC).

FedRAMP is a government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. Using a "do once, use many times" framework, FedRAMP saves time and costs by enabling rapid procurement of information systems and services, eliminates duplicate assessment efforts and ensures consistent application of information security standards across all government organizations.

"As part of the rebranding of our market-leading solutions, we have available a new solution to help with decision making, called SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC)," said Harish Luthra, President of NS2 Cloud. "With SAC's machine learning technology and embedded artificial intelligence, customers can discover, analyze, plan, and predict in one experience across all devices. Government agencies need a simple way to access critical information to make informed decisions."

SAP NS2 Cloud Intelligent Enterprise includes a suite of intelligent applications and experience management tools for managing operational transactions, HR and people management, analytics and other innovative capabilities. The applications are integration-ready, include embedded intelligence, and offer a consistent and intuitive user interface.

The solutions include SuccessFactors, Employee Central Payroll and the newly approved service, SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC). More information on the solutions can be found below:

SuccessFactors is an enterprise HR and People management Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that delivers business results by driving business alignment, optimizing people performance and building a competitive advantage through people.

is an enterprise HR and People management Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that delivers business results by driving business alignment, optimizing people performance and building a competitive advantage through people. Employee Central Payroll is a secure, industry-based payroll engine that is seamlessly integrated to the core HR system. In addition, SAP NS2 offers customers with the enhanced availability, compliance and customer support to deliver that mission critical edge.

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Actor and former beauty queen Sushmita Sen has shared a special social media post, marking her two-year anniversary with boyfriend Rohman Shawl. Sushmita took to Instagram to share a picture with Rohman, a model who slid into her DMs as a fan.

In her caption, she wrote, When Sush met her Rooh. Happy Anniversary jaan @rohmanshawl. Heres to our 2 years of togetherness & counting my blessings!! Babies & I love you infinity!!! The picture shows the couple of one of their recent holidays.

In an interview to journalist Rajeev Masand, Sushmita recalled the story of how she met Rohman. Its a very beautiful serendipitous story. He sent me a direct message (on Instagram). I felt that if I check it you are allowing people to communicate with you. So I had many direct messages and I had not opened any, she said. Touch screen phone ki jai ho because I was just checking what all had come and this boy broke something in the room. So I was talking to him and I came back and it so happened that I had opened one of the DMs and it was a message from him.

She continued, The first thing I did was read the message and it was from a compassionate warm person. So I go look at this account and I look at the person and say aah the face matches the voice. I wrote back saying Thank you so much. Your message made my day. I wish you all the happiness in the world.

Also read: Sushmita Sen says boyfriend Rohman Shawl initially hid he was 15 years younger to her: It was destined

Sushmita and Rohman have a 15-year age gap, about which he is conscious, she told journalist Anupama Chopra. She said, Initially, he kept hiding his age for some reason. I would keep asking him, So, how old are you? You look so young. And he would be like, You guess! Later, once I realised how young he was, as to why he didnt want that to get in the way of this conversation. So yeah, we did not really choose this, it was chosen for us. It was destined.

Sushmita recently made her acting comeback with the Disney+ Hotstar drama Aarya, which has received positive reviews.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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With the Aug. 4 primary elections drawing near, local candidates are making last-minute pushes for their respective campaigns in hopes of making it to the general election on Nov. 3.

More than a dozen Republican candidates in Grosse Ile Township are vying for seven different township office positions, each of which would hold a four-year term.

Among those races on the island are the four township trustee offices. There will be at least two new trustees moving forward and two of the current seat holders, Jim Budny and Thomas Malvesto, are running for township supervisor and clerk, respectively.

The remaining two incumbents, Carl Bloetscher III and Jim Nelson, are each looking to make it a second term after both were elected to their current positions back in 2016. Bloetscher and Nelson are among a total of eight candidates vying for the four trustee seats.

Four of the eight candidates  Michael Jurecki, Mark Mills, Joseph Porcarelli, and Jamison Yager  are all part of a seven-man campaign push dubbed Grosse Ile 2020.

Jurecki is a former senior executive for Ford Motor Credit Company and is currently a consultant for private entities dealing with financial technology. The latter three all have extensive backgrounds in law enforcement; Mills with the Westland Police Department, Porcarelli with the Grosse Ile Police Department, and Yager with the National Guard, and as a fireman and EMT.

Also among the group of trustee candidates include Chad Novak Linn and Linda Stanko. Linn is a resident of nearly 50 years who has served as chairman for the islands Events and Recreation Commissions, as well as its IslandFest event.

Stanko has been a resident of Grosse Ile for more than 20 years and is a secretary for the American Legion Auxiliary Unit No. 217 in Wyandotte. Her husband, Jim, is a Vietnam War veteran and a trustee for VFW Post No. 7310 in Grosse Ile.

All eight trustee candidates were recently asked to participate in a brief questionnaire put together by The News-Herald. The candidates were provided with two questions in an effort for residents to get a better feel of what each individual would bring to the table.

Mills, Nelson, and Porcarelli all did not respond to our multiple requests for participation. The rest of the pack, however, did and here is what each had to say.

Some answers provided by the candidates were condensed for spacing considerations.

N-H: What specifically makes you the best choice for this position?

Bloetscher: Results. Some candidates have promised outstanding public safety, to protect and preserve the natural character of the Island and responsible budgets. When I was elected four years ago the township had a string of budget deficits. Since I was elected, there have been three consecutive balanced or surplus budgets. Similarly, Grosse lle has been the safest community of 10,000 or more in Michigan nine of the last 12 years. I led the purchase of 30 acres adjacent to Manchester Woods and the property to reconnect the Ferry and Gage trails with existing funds. I helped organize COVID-19 testing for 2,750 participants.

Jurecki: Throughout my career, Ive always prided myself on building great cultures based on strong values in all the businesses and operations Ive run. In turn, they generated phenomenal customer service, employee satisfaction and outstanding operational results. I would very much like to repeat that outcome for Grosse Ile Township.

Linn: One of my great passions is serving the great community of Grosse Ile, the residents and businesses. I genuinely enjoy serving my community and strive to make Grosse Ile the best place that it can be. I have been a resident on this island for the past 45 years and a very dedicated, committed and community-oriented person. I plan to help strengthen, develop, and grow with our island residents. I plan to bring fresh new ideas that will benefit all islanders young and old.

Stanko: I decided to run for trustee so that I could be more involved in my community. I have no agenda other than hoping to keep our small-town atmosphere safe and maintain the quality of life that we are blessed to have living on this Island. I do not look for change only to preserve and maintain what we have. I think the current board has done a fine job and I would be honored to be part of it.

Yager: Im the best choice because Im new, part of a younger generation, Im ethical, and Im motivated. I can bring new perspectives, new ideas, and new processes to Township Hall. At 34, Im 17 years younger than the next youngest candidate. Our family-aged, middle class residents are way under represented. Finally, Im motivated and ethical. Ive served my nation for 17 years as a soldier, Ive made tough decisions, and Ive always made them by trying to do what was right, not what was easy, convenient, or glamorous. Ive learned the meaning of hardwork and discipline first hand.

N-H: Whats the most pressing issue facing Grosse Ile and what specifically will you do to address it?

Bloetscher: Finances. COVID has caused a terrible disruption to the current and future budgets. I requested the police chief to look for budget cuts, the Recreation director has cut programs and staff, construction of a much-needed but not critical Public Safety storage garage has been delayed, and there has been a merger of jobs with the deputy clerk assuming the work previously performed by a cable administrator. Many thousands of dollars in costs have been saved.

Jurecki: In my opinion, the number one issue facing the township right now is its leadership and the culture they have created. On the Township Board, there are five members (Loftus, Bloetscher, OConnor, Van Os, and Nelson) who often vote in unison and make decisions that are not in the long-term best interest of the community. Under this Township Board, complacency is often rewarded, multi-year financial plans are nonexistent, and serious business acumen is lacking.

Linn: Currently the most pressing issue facing Grosse Ile is our infrastructure, specifically our aging and deteriorating roads and bridges. It is important that we work more diligently with Wayne County to build stronger relationships, providing transparency to the Grosse Ile Township residents and being fiscally responsible. I am a problem solver by nature and strive to quickly identify an issue and do my due diligence to find the most appropriate solution. I am eager to work collectively with the elected Township Board for the continued safety, security, and well-being of all our Grosse Ile residents.

Stanko: That would be the roads. Grosse Ile has a relationship with Wayne County, but we are not a priority since they have so many major roads in which they are responsible for. The bridge is the major project right now and I would like to see Meridian be the next road to tackle. I have spoken to members of the Department of Public Services and this is something they have been working on, negotiating with Wayne County.

Yager: Theres a lot of issues; budgets, shipping ports, deer herd size, but infrastructure is what residents keep saying to me, and I will represent their wants. To address all this, we need to make a plan, make it transparent and understandable, and share it with residents, we need to engage with the county often and aggressively, to really press them on our road and bridge repairs, we need to seek funding from the state, the federal government, and we need to conduct independent inspections of our infrastructure to hold Wayne County accountable.
Congressman Ted Budd must be wearing his mask over his eyes and ears.

Some questions come to mind regarding his letter (News & Record, July 24).

President Trump is leading the Great American Comeback? He is excited to see our economy roar back to historic heights?

Where has he been living since February 2020?

Due to Trumps nonhandling of the coronavirus pandemic, this country may be headed into another depression.

Due to Trumps perceived racist and militaristic views, there is enormous unrest all over our country.

Due to Trumps authoritarian and underhanded ways of handling crises, he has done enormous harm to our democratic way of life.

And  you are excited in a good way?

Rep. Budd probably has the skill to get on his computer and look up statistical (non-alternative) facts related to the issues above. Its also assumed that he has the mental facility to understand the seriousness of those statistics.
File Photo

Chandigarh: Witnessing the 93 percent cure rate of Hepatitis treatment in the State, Punjab Government has decided to dedicate 35 additional treatment centres for Hepatitis C.

This program started with 25 treatment centres, and now in 2020, Punjab State has increased the treatment sites to 60.

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Punjab governmentIt was disclosed by the Health & Family Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on the occasion of World Hepatitis Day.

The Minister said that Punjab was the first state in India to start Hepatitis C treatment and since then, we have tested more than 1.63 lakh persons.

Out of which 85,000 people were put over on treatment of Hepatitis C. All the services are available free of cost in Govt Hospitals.

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Sidhu further said that last year, on World Hepatitis Day, the Captain Amarinder Singh led Punjab Government started the free treatment services of Hepatitis C in jails where screening of inmates is done inside prisons and treatment of Hepatitis C is provided in the jails.

Balbir Sidhu

He said that Punjabs pioneering work is paving the way for generating evidence to inform global and national policymakers.

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This year, special drive would be conducted to screen all pregnant women for Hepatitis B and children for Hepatitis B Immunoglobulin (HBIG) born to the hepatitis B infected mothers adding that he said Punjab became also, the first state to initiate Hepatitis C testing and treatment of people living with HIV under the Unitaid-supported HEAD-Start program in partnership with FIND and CHAI.

Under this campaign, testing of around 80 percent of people living with HIV has been completed.

The Health Minister divulged that SDH (Sub-District Hospital) Batala would be the first Sub-Divisional Hospital to provide testing and treatment of hepatitis C.

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With this initiative, Testing and treatment of Hepatitis C would make closer to people and moving further towards decentralization of hepatitis C services.

The Cabinet Minister applauded that all of this could be possible only because of our highly motivated healthcare workers backed by the strong political will to combat viral hepatitis.

Capt Amarinder Singh

He said that today, the whole world is fighting with Covid-19 and it has taught us the importance of a robust public health system.

There is a need to bridge the gap between multiple programs through collaborative efforts, partnerships, and integration within the existing healthcare system.

Sidhu stated that the State Government is also going to start a research project, in collaboration with PGI and CHAI, to understand the underlying risk factors associated with hepatitis C in Punjab.

In the next 18 months, experts will present their findings so that it can take a focused approach to curtail the risk factors. It will help us to move faster towards the elimination of hepatitis C from the state of Punjab.

The Government of Punjab is fully committed to work together towards a Hepatitis-Free future.

On this occasion, 4 year journey of Punjab for Hepatitis and IEC material for Hepatitis released on World Hepatitis Day released by Health Minister Punjab and ACS Health Anurag Agarwal.

MD NHM, Kumar Rahul MD PHSC, Tanu Kashyap DHS Dr. Avneet Kaur, State Programme Officer Dr. Gagandeep Singh Grover and other senior officers were also present.
Vitamin D is recognized as an important co-factor in several physiological processes linked with bone and calcium metabolism, and also in diverse non-skeletal outcomes, including autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, obesity and cognitive decline, and infections. In particular, the pronounced impact of vitamin D metabolites on the immune system response, and on the development of COVID-19 infection by the novel SARS CoV-2 virus, has been previously described in a few studies worldwide.

The collaborative group of scientists from the Leumit Health Services (LHS) and the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University aimed to determine associations of low plasma 25(OH)D with the risk of COVID-19 infection and hospitalization. Using the real-world data and Israeli cohort of 782 COVID-19 positive patients and 7,025 COVID-19 negative patients, the groups identified that low plasma vitamin D level appears to be an independent risk factor for COVID-19 infection and hospitalization. The research was just published in The FEBS Journal.

"The main finding of our study was the significant association of low plasma vitamin D level with the likelihood of COVID-19 infection among patients who were tested for COVID-19, even after adjustment for age, gender, socio-economic status and chronic, mental and physical disorders," said Dr. Eugene Merzon, Head of the Department of Managed Care and leading researcher of the LHS group. "Furthermore, low vitamin D level was associated with the risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19 infection, although this association wasn't significant after adjustment for other confounders," he added. "Our finding is in agreement with the results of previous studies in the field. Reduced risk of acute respiratory tract infection following vitamin D supplementation has been reported," said Dr. Ilan Green, Head of the LHS Research Institute.

"According to our analysis, persons that were COVID-19 positive were older than non-infected persons. Interestingly, the two-peak distributions for age groups were demonstrated to confer increased risk for COVID-19: around ages 25 and 50 years old," said Dr. Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern, the leader of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine research group. "The first peak may be explained by high social gathering habits at the young age. The peak at age 50 years may be explained by continued social habits, in conjunction with various chronic diseases," Dr. Frenkel-Morgenstern continued.

Surprisingly, chronic medical conditions, like dementia, cardiovascular disease, and chronic lung disease that were considered to be very risky in previous studies, were not found as increasing the rate of infection in our study. However, this finding is highly biased by the severe social contacts restrictions that were imposed on all the population during the COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, we assume that following the Israeli Ministry of Health instructions, patients with chronic medical conditions significantly reduced their social contacts. This might indeed minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection in that group of patients." Prof. Shlomo Vinker, LHS Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Dmitry Tworowski and Dr. Alessandro Gorohovski. from the Frenkel-Morgenstern laboratory at Bar-Ilan University's Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, suggest that the study will have a very significant impact. "The main strength of our study is its being large, real-world, and population-based," they explained. Now researchers are planning to evaluate factors associated with mortality due to COVID-19 in Israel. "We are willing to find associations to the COVID-19 clinical outcomes (for example, pre-infection glycemic control of COVID-19 patients) to make the assessment of mortality risk due to COVID-19 infection in Israel," said Dr. Eugene Merzon.
Our first priority remains the safety and security of the universitys students, faculty and staff  and we recognize also an obligation to the welfare of the extended AU family, Sherrick said in the statement. While we had originally hoped to bring most students back to campus, we now realize that a resurgence of the virus likely would outpace AUs ability to sustain a safe campus environment, and we will now turn our full attention to ensuring that all students will have an excellent remote learning experience this fall.
Rating Action: Moody's assigns Baa3 to TML Holdings' new proposed notes supported by Bank of Baroda

Global Credit Research - 27 Jul 2020

Singapore, July 27, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service has assigned a Baa3 senior unsecured rating to the proposed notes to be issued by TML Holdings Pte Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Motors Limited (B1 negative). The assigned Baa3 rating is under review for downgrade.

The notes are supported by an irrevocable standby letter of credit (SBLC) from Bank of Baroda, London Branch (the LC Bank). Moody's has a Baa3(cr) long-term Counterparty Risk (CR) Assessment on Bank of Baroda (Baa3, rating under review for downgrade).

Issuer: TML Holdings Pte Limited

- GBP98 million 4.0 percent credit enhanced notes due 2023, assigned Baa3, placed on review for downgrade

RATINGS RATIONALE

The notes' Baa3 rating is based on Bank of Baroda's CR Assessment, with the review for downgrade reflecting the review for downgrade on Bank of Baroda's ratings. The notes are fully supported by an irrevocable British pound-denominated SBLC, which is an unsecured and unsubordinated obligation of the LC bank.

The payment obligations of the LC bank under the SBLC will at all times rank pari passu with all of its other present and future unsecured and unsubordinated obligations.

Moody's notes that the SBLC covers up to GBP100 million, which is comprised of the face value of the proposed notes (GBP98 million) and interest payments up to 186 days. As such, any demand against the SBLC can be raised for an amount that is the lower of: (1) GBP100 million; or (2) the total outstanding principal amount plus any interest to be accrued and other unpaid fees.

The absence of an interest reserve account and the limited cushion in the SBLC face value (namely, GBP2 million which is the difference between the SBLC face value and the face value of the proposed notes) expose noteholders to potential recovery risks in the event of a default triggered by non-payment of interest.

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The issuer may from time to time create and issue further notes provided that certain conditions have been met, including ensuring that such notes are supported by an irrevocable letter of credit issued by the LC bank. The terms of the irrevocable letter of credit of the new notes have to be substantially similar to those of the SBLC.

Moody's analysis of the transaction is based primarily on the assessment of Bank of Baroda's unsecured and unsubordinated obligations and its ability to support the payment of the notes through the SBLC from the LC bank.

Citicorp International Limited is the trustee, Citibank N.A. (London branch) is the principal paying and transfer agent, and Citigroup Global Markets Europe AG is the registrar.

Bank of Baroda is a public-sector commercial bank that provides retail, corporate and wholesale banking services, as well as treasury facilities to individuals, medium-sized and large companies, institutions, provident fund trusts, and central and state governments. Operating mainly in India, the bank serves around 131 million customers. The Government of India (Baa3 negative) owns a 71.6% stake in Bank of Baroda.

Following its merger with Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank on 1 April 2019, Bank of Baroda had a deposit market share of 6.8% as of 31 December 2019. After the merger, the bank had a combined network of 9,470 domestic branches and a global presence across 100 overseas offices spanning 21 countries, including one International Banking Unit at GIFT City (SEZ) in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, as of the end of December 2019.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATING

Any change to the long-term CR Assessment of Bank of Baroda could lead to a corresponding change in the rating of the notes.

The principal methodology used in this rating was Rating Transactions Based on the Credit Substitution Approach: Letter of Credit-backed, Insured and Guaranteed Debts published in May 2017 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1068154. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.

For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action, and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action, the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity. Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures, if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.

The rating has been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent (s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.

This rating is solicited. Please refer to Moody's Policy for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on its website www.moodys.com.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.

The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph 3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies. Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's office that issued the credit rating is available on www.moodys.com.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.

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This is an opinion column.

A lot of people seemed surprised by all that state Rep. Will Dismukes did this week, but they shouldnt be. To know who Dismukes is, you dont even have to get out of your car. Heck, you dont even have to drive the speed limit.

By the interstate north of Montgomery flies a Confederate battle flag. If youve driven by it, youve seen it. Im awful at estimating spaces and sizes, especially at a distance, but Id guess its slightly more square feet than my first apartment and somewhat smaller than the house I live in now. As flags go, its big. And its a defiant middle finger to anyone hoping to make Alabama better.

That flag sends a message to any tourist on their way to the beach: This state is unreconstructed, and if you dont like it, then keep moving. It says to business developers, we can find warm bodies for your new factory but if youre looking for a new corporate headquarters, you might want to look someplace else. That flag sends the same message its always sent: We dont give a flip for people who arent like us and us means white.

It was hoisted there, on a pole tall enough to see a mile or more away, by the Sons of Confederate Veterans  a group to which Dismukes proudly and openly belongs.

This was not a secret when the GOP let him on their ticket. He didnt hide it when voters chose him to represent them in the Alabama House. Dismukes has put all this stuff on his Facebook page. In TV interviews, hes eschewed the customary American flag lapel pin for a Confederate one. On Confederate Flag Day, he dressed up in what a Boy Scout uniform might have looked like had the South won the war. He can repeat the lies of the Lost Cause chapter and verse  because hes a Southern Baptist minister, too, and also his SCV chapters chaplain.

But most Alabamians understand that flag is only a part of this states story. And few Alabamians have epitomized the other half better than John Lewis, the civil rights legend whom the state honored this past week after his passing. It was when these two men got juxtaposed in the news that it became undeniable just how awful Dismukes has been.

As Rep. John Lewis casket moved about the state from one memorial service to another, Dismukes attended another sort of event near Selma at a place called Fort Dixie. There, he and others celebrated the life of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a slave trader, a brutal Confederate general, and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

I guess having official state holidays for Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis wasnt good enough.

Fort Dixie is not an actual military fort, but the property of Butch and Pat Godwin. Pat Godwin is a longtime Confederate apologist whos had some interesting things to say about her home city and the march that happened there in 1965.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Godwin has called Selma Zimbabwe on de Alabamy. She has fought to prevent the Alabama Historical Commission acknowledging the 1965 voting rights march, which she has called a drunken Mother of all Orgies. And in emails, she has referred to herself as Wizardess.

Godwin has also fought, unsuccessfully, to display a large bust of Forrest on public property, and once a year, Godwin hosts a birthday celebration remembering Forrest. At the event according to announcements, her organization, Friends of Forrest, gives away a small cast bust of the KKK founder as a door prize and has offered, among other food options, a Pickaninny Freeze Watermelon Stand.

I had to Google that last thing to understand how racist it was.

That is where, on Saturday  while mourners held services in Lewis hometown of Troy  Dismukes gave a prayer and a speech.

And on Facebook Sunday  as the caisson carried Lewiss body one last time across the Edmund Pettus Bridge  Dismukes posted pictures of his appearance at the other event, speaking at a podium in front of a portrait of Forrest and behind the four flags of the Confederacy.

As Alabama honored the late Rep. John Lewis, state Rep. Will Dismukes attended a birthday party for the founder of the KKK.

Had a great time at Fort Dixie speaking and giving the invocation for the Nathan Bedford Forrest annual birthday celebration, Dismukes said. Always a great time and some sure enough good eating!!

At least four GOP state lawmakers publicly chastised Dismukes after Dismukes failed to show adequate contrition in a statement Monday morning. Alabama Republican Chairwoman Terry Lathan rebuked him further and invited his constituents to decide his future.

It is one thing to honor ones Southern heritage, however, it is completely another issue to specifically commemorate the leader of an organization with an indisputable history of unconscionable actions and atrocities toward African-Americans, Lathan said.

Likewise, Alabama House Speaker Mac McCutcheon said Dismukes constituents would have to decide what to do with them.

Goodness knows what an Alabama Republican has to do to get kicked out of the House caucus. Or the party. Whatever that takes, we havent seen it yet, and weve seen a lot.

At least the very least, Dismukes career is likely stunted. Earlier this year, he explored running for Congress, to replace Rep. Martha Roby, before endorsing another candidate. He had higher ambitions. But now his career likely ends here.

Heres the thing of which I feel certain: Lewis would have us feel pity or even love for Dismukes. A lifelong believer in nonviolence and redemptive suffering, Lewis believed racists were victims of their racism, too.

Im trying to see it. Im trying to feel it. But Im struggling.

Theres a joke I first heard told by the novelist David Foster Wallace, about two young fish swimming through the ocean. As they swim, they pass a much larger, older fish.

Morning, boys! Hows the water? the big fish says.

The two young fish keep swimming. And after theyve put some distance between themselves and the big fish, one turns to the other nervously and asks 

What the hell is water?

One of the peculiar traits of racists is how rarely they understand their racism, or how incapable they are to understand that racism is even real.

Dismukes still doesnt.

We no longer drink from separate water fountains, and we no longer have segregated schools, Dismukes told WSFA Monday. You know theres abundant work opportunities for all colors, theres abundant scholarship opportunities for all colors. So what are you asking that needs to be racially reconciled?

Even now, Dismukes cant see it because hes been surrounded by it all his life.

Racism is the water he swims in.

And its in that water hell drown.

And there, by the shore, will fly that damned flag marking the end of another Lost Cause.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb. And on Twitter. And on Instagram.

More columns by Kyle Whitmire

Alabama AG cries ambush over totally predictable DOJ prison report

How do we honor John Lewis legacy in a police state?

There is no plan

Adios, Jeff Sessions

Alabama Senate leaders coronavirus plan: Get sick, try not to die

Do your job, Kay Ivey

Trump ignored facts so he could blame the Black guy.

Good luck, America! Alabamas given up.

Alabamafication unmasked

NASCAR and the GOP have the same problem. Only one is trying to do something about it.

Kay Ivey is not your Mee-Maw: What the governor needs to tell Alabama about COVID-19

Alabama monuments law affects more than Confederate monuments

Black Lives Matter and COVID-19 arent competing stories. Theyre the same story.

Dont be fooled. Huntsvilles Confederate monument isnt going anywhere.

Alabama monument law turns AG into stone

If Alabama has a coronavirus plan for nursing homes, its hiding it
Reopening schools in September so that children can attend all day, every day, in a way thats safe for everyone is going to be expensive. This much we know.

We also know that all-day, in-class learning is the ambition of Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce and some of the provinces school boards. It is also the desperate need of millions of Ontario parents and their school-age children.

Finally, we know that Ford and Lecce have promised to unveil their return-to-school plan this week, six weeks before school is to resume on Sept. 8.

Just over a month ago, on June 19, they proposed three potential options: online only, full-time in-school with smaller classes and strict hygiene protocols, or a mix of the two, also known as the hybrid model. Any decision would rely on the advice of local medical officers of health.

For the past month, the hybrid model has been looking like the inevitable option, mainly because no price tag has been put on all-day, in-class learning and theres been no commitment from the government to foot the bill, regardless of cost.

Now were starting to get a better idea of how much it will take to reopen schools. All signs are the bill will indeed be big, but its important that the government make it clear that its prepared to find the money. Theres no point in producing a back-to-school plan that isnt backed with sufficient cash to make it work.

Getting kids back into school is perhaps the single most important thing that must be done if were going to get back to something close to normal this fall. Its vital for both the kids and for their parents, especially working women who are already losing ground in the workforce because of the pandemic.

As the Stars Kristin Rushowy reports, both the Ontario Liberal Party and the Canadian Union of Public Employees have released estimates of what it will cost to hire more teachers, teaching assistants and custodians; to buy more PPEs and cleaning supplies; and to secure more classroom space.

The Liberals list includes $1.3 billion for 15,000 elementary teachers to reduce class sizes to 15 and $170 million for secondary teachers. They say the government should plan on spending another $200 million for 14,000 new classrooms in locations like community centres and arenas, plus $500 million for 10,000 caretakers and $120 million for cleaning supplies and equipment.

The total cost, they say, will be a daunting $3.2 billion.

Meanwhile, CUPE, which represents 55,000 school support staff, estimates it will cost about $1.49 per student per day, or nearly $590 million, just to pay for basics like hand sanitizer, personal protective equipment, extra custodians and opening up unused rooms in schools to accommodate smaller classes.

The union recommends Ontario increase education spending a minimum of 2.1 per cent to pay for COVID-19-related expenses. And that doesnt include additional teachers.

Lecce has said that after the province reveals its preferred model this week, school boards will have until Aug. 4 to submit their plans. Thats only a week away.

We dont know if the cost estimates from the Liberals and CUPE will turn out to be accurate. So much is unknown that its hard to say how big the bill will be.

But whatever the exact amount, it will be money well spent. As a society, we have to figure out a way to make the return to school both successful and safe.

When the province unveils its back-to-school plan this week, it should also provide its own estimate of the cost  and assure Ontarians that it will find the money. Students, parents and educators deserve no less.
Tommy Robinson says he has left the UK and is seeking to permanently relocate abroad as he believes his family is no longer safe at home.

In a video posted to his followers on social media, Robinson said he had left the country with his wife and children and was looking to relocate permanently after what he alleged was an arson attack against his family home.

"I had a problem quite a few weeks ago with an arson," he claimed in the video. "It was targeted against my property ... my wife's property. At that point we left the country straight away."

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, claimed to have footage of the arson, though no video has emerged.

Bedfordshire Police said it did not have a record of house arson linked to Robinson's family, but had received a report of a car being set on fire in June, without providing further details.

Recommended How jihadi used Tommy Robinson book to justify terror attack plot

Robinson did not mention where he planned to relocate his family to, nor where they were currently staying.

Someone gave us somewhere to stay so we left the country, Robinson said in the video.

He did however note that he would not be returning to the UK as planned due to a change in quarantine rules for those arriving from foreign countries.

I was due to be flying back [to the UK] for a demonstration. Obviously now with this 14-day quarantine, if I fly back I probably wont get back out.

This comment led many to presume he was in Spain, due to the recently imposed travel quarantine rules affecting that country.

Back in the UK, the anti-Islam activist faces a defamation trial over remarks made about a Syrian refugee boy who made headlines when he was filmed being attacked at his school in Huddersfield.

The family of 17-year-old Jamal Hijazi are seeking 100,000 in damages in the case which could go to trial if not settled outside of court.

Representatives for the teenager allege that claims made about him by Robinson on social media made him the focus of countless messages of hate and threats from the extreme right wing.

Robinson claimed the alleged arson was not related to his anti-Islam campaigning.

He said the attack took place after the [Black Lives Matter] stuff and that he believed he knew who was responsible.

During the early days of the Black Lives Matter protests in London, Robinson incited his followers in strong terms to attend a protest in Parliament Square sparked by fears that the statue of Winston Churchill was under threat from anti-racism protesters.

He later announced that he did not attend the protest himself, claiming: I dont want to be responsible for more racial division.

The alleged arson is not the first incident to lead Robinson to allegedly seek refuge abroad. When facing jail time last year over contempt of court, he pleaded with Donald Trump to be granted political asylum in the United States.

His request was not met and he later served two months in HMP Belmarsh.
In response to questions about what would happen to facilities that do not have the funds, Mike Ricci, a spokesman for Gov. Larry Hogan (R), said: We expect the vast majority of facilities to have plans in place, but theres a range of options depending on the situation. He said the state will continue paying for testing for residents at facilities where there are coronavirus outbreaks.
A wrongful death civil suit can proceed against state police in the 2016 fatal shooting of Oregon refuge occupation spokesman Robert LaVoy Finicum, but allegations against the FBI, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the governor and Harney County should be thrown out, a federal judge has recommended.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Sullivan made the findings in a 73-page ruling that now goes before a district judge, who can accept the findings, reject them or issue a separate decision.

Jeanette Finicum filed the lawsuit against the FBI, Oregon State Police, the Bureau of Land Management and others in the fatal shooting of her 54-old husband, a rancher from Arizona who became the spokesman for the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon.

He was shot Jan. 26, 2016, by two state police officers after he fled a police stop and emerged from his truck at a roadblock. The FBI and state police initiated the stop to arrest organizers of the refuge occupation. Police said Finicum reached inside his jacket for a gun when he was shot. Police later said they recovered a loaded 9mm handgun, according to the investigation.

The suit alleges that Finicum, 54, was shot assassination style'' by one or more militarized officers of the Oregon State Police and/or FBI'' as he was trying to drive across the county border'' to seek the protection of Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer.

The suit contends police and the FBI set up a "Deadman's roadblock'' on rural U.S. 395 where Finicum was shot and killed. It accused the FBI, Oregon State Police and Bureau of Land Management of negligence and failing to properly train and supervise its officers.

The suit followed an indictment against FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita, who Oregon investigators alleged lied about firing twice at Finicum's truck. Astarita's bullets didn't hit Finicum, investigators said. They concluded that one of Astarita's shots hit the roof of Finicum's truck and that the second shot missed.

Seconds later, state troopers shot Finicum three times after he walked away from his pickup and reached for his inner jacket pocket, where police said he had the handgun, according to the investigation.

Finicum was shot in the left upper back, left shoulder and right lower back. A bullet pierced his heart, an autopsy found.

An investigation by local law enforcement authorities found the state police shots that killed Finicum were justified.

Astarita was acquitted of all charges after a jury trial.

The magistrate judge threw out allegations that Gov. Kate Brown was in any way liable for Finicums death, finding that the governor did not participate in the encounter at the roadblock or the shooting.

The suit alleged that the governor was the proximate cause of the allegedly excessive use of force because she disseminated information about Finicum in an effort to control the narrative and authorized the January 26 stop and the state police participation.

But Sullivan found that wasnt sufficient, finding no integral participation'' to hold Brown liable for an alleged excessive force claim.

The judge dismissed other defendants named because of the plaintiffs failure to properly serve them with a summons.

Lawyers for Jeanette Finicum have two weeks to object to the findings before a district judge makes a final ruling.

-- 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.
The billionaire chief executive of Boots owner Walgreens Boots Alliance will step aside after a five-year stint in charge that saw the pharmacy group lose more than half its value.

Italian-born Stefano Pessina built the 26billion empire through a series of deals over four decades, and took the top job in 2015 shortly after the merger of Walgreens and Alliance Boots.

But the 79-year-old, who owns a 16 per cent stake in the global giant, will take a less hands-on role, becoming executive chairman once a replacement is found.

Quitting: Italian-born Stefano Pessina built the 26billion empire through a series of deals over four decades

Pessina said 'now is the right time' to hand over to a successor.

Walgreens Boots Alliance, which employs 440,000 people and generated 106billion in revenues last year, has suffered a difficult period. Boots  the UK pharmacy chain  has been struggling amid competition from Amazon and the supermarkets.

The Covid-19 pandemic has plunged the High Street deeper into crisis and earlier this month Boots axed 4,000 jobs and shut 48 opticians having already announced plans to close 200 stores. Revenues in its stores have halved during lockdown.

Although sales of paracetamol and hand sanitiser were strong, beauty and hair products sold poorly due to low footfall.

Pessina said: 'I look forward to continuing to serve the company as executive chairman, and to helping to ensure the success of the new chief executive officer in every way possible.' Walgreen's shares fell below $40 last night having been trading at a peak of over $95 in the summer of 2015.

Analyst Elizabeth Anderson said: 'We believe the company should cast a wide net to bring in fresh perspectives.'

Pessina built his pharmacy empire in a series of deals in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, creating what became Alliance Sante. He entered Britain in 1997 through a merger with Unichem before a further merger with Boots in 2006. He took the combined Alliance Boots group private in 2007 and then sold it to US giant Walgreens, becoming chief executive in the process.

Other brands in the group include US drugstore chain Duane Reade and the Alliance Healthcare wholesale and distribution operation in Europe.
(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.s newest services have yet to generate meaningful revenue, making it harder for the largest technology company to expand beyond the iPhone and other hardware.

Last year, the Cupertino, California-based company launched four new services: TV+, Arcade, News+ and the Apple Card. After a few quarters on the market, the offerings havent contributed much to Apples top line.

When Apple reports results on July 30, investors will be looking for updates on these offerings. Services growth has been a bright spot in recent years as iPhone sales have slowed. For the fiscal third quarter, analysts forecast $13.1 billion in revenue from services, up 15% from a year earlier. Most of those gains will come from existing services, such as the App Store and licensing deals, rather than the new offerings.

The TV+ video-streaming service, which launched last November, has had no blockbusters yet, though some shows and movies have been well-received. Apple offered a one-year free trial with the purchase of a new iPhone or other hardware. Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimated earlier this year that fewer than 15% of eligible customers had signed up.

Read more: The Early Winners and Losers of the Streaming Wars

During a keynote presentation at last months WWDC conference, Apple said little about the streaming service, according to Sacconaghi. He said theres potential need for a strategic reevaluation of TV+ and suggested the company should consider spending more on original content.

Apple introduced its Arcade mobile game subscription last September with 100 titles and praise from reviewers. However, the company recently shifted strategy, canceling contracts for some games in development while seeking other titles that it believes will better retain subscribers. Some developers said that suggests subscriber growth has been weaker than expected so far.

Read more: Apple Cancels Arcade Games in Strategy Shift To Keep Subscribers

Story continues

The Apple Card came out in the U.S. last August. It has no annual fee, but the company likely takes a cut of the interest charged by partner Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The bank accumulated about $2 billion in credit lines since launch, a fraction of other co-branded cards, according to a February update by the Nilson Report.

The News+ subscription offering may be the least successful so far. When it launched in March 2019, the highest-profile U.S. newspapers -- the New York Times and the Washington Post -- didnt take part. Since then, several publishers have complained about lower-than-expected income from the app. The head of business for Apple News stepped down, Bloomberg reported earlier this year.

These new services may grow more later. For now, the company is relying a lot on its App Store and third-party developers to spur revenue growth beyond hardware. Thats been going well lately, leaving the company on track to exceed $50 billion in annual Services revenue soon.

The App Store generated $32.8 billion in the first half of 2020 for developers, up more than 20% from a year earlier, according to Sensor Tower estimates. Paid subscriptions topped 515 million in the fiscal second quarter.

Apple takes a cut of 30% from all paid apps downloaded from the App Store as well as purchases made inside of apps. It also takes 30% from in-app subscriptions, or 15% after the first year. Apple requires billing to be done through its system, but it makes exemptions for apps offering music and video streaming, books, and some cloud services where a user may have already bought a subscription from the developer directly.

Ride-sharing and food delivery apps also arent required to use Apples payment network. And some social-media apps like Snapchat and Instagram make money from advertising, which prevents Apple from taking a cut.

When Apple App Store executives meet with high-profile developers, they sometimes encourage them to implement in-app purchases and subscriptions. The message is interpreted by some this way: Your app has enjoyed the benefits of the App Store without contributing to its financial success, according to a person familiar with the meetings.

That idea was echoed in June when an update to the email app Hey was barred from the App Store because the developer refused to implement a way to sign up in the app, which would give Apple up to a 30% cut of revenue.

We understand that Basecamp has developed a number of apps and many subsequent versions for the App Store for many years, and that the App Store has distributed millions of these apps to iOS users, Apple told Heys developer. These apps do not offer in-app purchase  and, consequently, have not contributed any revenue to the App Store over the last eight years.

After the developer complained publicly, Apple said the app can stay as long as it follows the app review guidelines, regardless of implementing in-app purchases or subscriptions.

Just the Numbers

3Q GAAP EPS estimate $2.06 (range $1.80 to $2.47)3Q revenue estimate $52.2 billion (range $49.25 billion to $55.84 billion)Bloomberg Consensus estimatesiPhone units 30.9 millioniPhone ASP $690.15Services revenue $13.12 billionWearables, home & accessories revenue $6.09 billion3Q gross margin estimate 38%4Q GAAP EPS estimate $2.804Q revenue estimate $62.06 billion4Q gross margin estimate 38.2%

Data

29 buys, 10 holds, 5 sellsAverage price target $371 (1.2% downside from current price)Implied 1-day share move following earnings: 4.3%GAAP EPS beat estimates in 12 of past 12 quarters

Timing

Earnings release expected July 30 after market closeConference call website

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 03:32:27|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Monday highlighted the devastation caused by monsoon rains in Bangladesh, saying nearly a quarter of the country is flooded, affecting at least 3.3 million people, 40 percent of them children.

Humanitarian partners are responding, in coordination with the government, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Nearly half of the 93 people who have died in about a month of flooding are children, OCHA said, citing an assessment just completed by the government and aid partners.

The latest reports from OCHA's humanitarian partners and authorities described 732,000 people as "waterlogged" across 21 of the 64 districts in Bangladesh. And more rain has been forecast.

Flooding damaged housing and infrastructure, including dams, water wells, hygiene facilities and more than 1,900 schools. Health care services in many areas have been disrupted.

"Livelihoods, local markets, crops, livestock and fisheries have also been severely affected, which our humanitarian colleagues warn could also lead to increased food insecurity," OCHA said. Enditem
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With the news that nearly 6 million Americans have lost their employer-sponsored health due to COVID, it is finally time to ask ourselves: is the American Model of health care working?

The American Model is a system of fragmentation: one in which changing jobs can mean lapses in insurance, moving to a new state can mean losing Medicaid eligibility, and getting a raise can mean financial ruin when you no longer qualify for subsidies. It is a system of waste: waste in administrative costs, waste in doctors time spent battling with insurers, and waste in the inability and unwillingness of insurers and hospitals to negotiate fair prices for their patients. And finally, it is a system that creates insecurity: insecurity in that a sudden illness or a surprise bill or a global pandemic has the potential to sideline a loved one, a family, or even the entire economy of a nation.

Even prior to the pandemic, the average American family spent nearly 1/6th of their income on health care, and medical debt was the number one cause of bankruptcy. This is not the prescription for a healthy economy; it is a risk factor for total collapse. And now we are seeing how vulnerable our economy is in the face of COVID; at a time when we must rely on our health care system to conquer a global health threat, that same system is becoming our biggest economic liability.

How can we ensure that our health care system endures the pandemic? And how do we guarantee that we emerge from this pandemic stronger and healthier than before? The answer is quite simple: through universal, publicly-funded health care for all. We need a system that administers health care equitably and cost-effectively to every citizen who needs it. And the private insurance industry is incapable of rising to the task.

The most obvious shortcoming of the private insurance industry is that it leaves millions of Americans uninsured. And too often, those who are insured are left with high deductibles and exorbitant costs in drug prices, co-pays, and other out-of-pocket expenses. And when COVID hits, individuals who are under- and uninsured delay seeking care, have higher rates of transmission, worse outcomes, and, of course, more expensive medical bills.

Furthermore, cost-sharing between private insurers, employers, and employees is unsustainable at a time when the economy is maximally strained. When purse strings are tight, many businesses choose to stop offering health benefits to their employees, while others are forced to let employees go. And in the aftermath, private insurers can inflate premiums in an effort to make up for loss of revenue, creating additional barriers to economic recovery.

Eventually, if and when the economy begins to recover, there will be huge swathes of people competing for a relatively small number of jobs. Prospective employees will have less bargaining power over health benefits, creating an even larger pool of individuals left out of the employer-based health care system.

Single payer is the solution. And the time for it is now.

A single-payer system would guarantee health care coverage immediately to every American. So whether a loved one gets sick from COVID, has a heart attack, or gets in a car accident, she will receive the care she needs without it causing financial hardship.

A single-payer system will eliminate employer health insurance contributions. This will provide huge relief to hundreds of thousands of struggling small businesses across the country. The money saved can go towards paying their employees a living wage or hiring new workers, which will help get our economy back on track.

A single-payer system will relieve the burden of finding health insurance from individuals. Freelancers and gig, self-employed, and per diem workers can pursue employment without having to worry about providing health coverage for their families. And with families relieved of the insecurities created by surprise medical bills and massive out-of-pocket costs, they will be more likely to contribute to our consumer-driven economy.

COVID has absolutely quelled consumerism; single payer can help to bring it back.

Still not convinced? Why dont we turn to those that know the system best? An overwhelming majority of doctors, nurses, and hospital administrators support single-payer health care. Maybe its time we started listening. The very future of our country may hang in the balance.

Toby Terwilliger is an internal medicine-pediatric resident.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
The 24-year-old defector is believed to have fled to the North while he was under police investigation over suspicions of raping a female defector last month, reports Yonhap News Agency.

Seoul, July 27 (IANS) Eleven North Korean defectors returned to their homeland from South Korea in the past five years, the Unification Ministry here said Monday, after Pyongyang claimed that a defector suspected of having COVID-19 symptoms recently crossed the demarcation line.

His return came to light after the North said Sunday that a "runaway" came back home with coronavirus symptoms.

On Monday, the South Korea's Unification Ministry said a total of 11 defectors have gone back to the North since 2015.

"There were three defectors who crossed back to the North in 2015, four in 2016 and another four in 2017, bringing the total number to 11, based on data, including North Korea media reports," Yoh Sang-key, the Ministry's spokesperson, told the media here.

The total figure does not include the latest case, he added.

Yoh also stressed the difficulty in tallying the exact number of North Korean defectors who crossed back home.

"When defectors come to South Korea they have no obligation to file a report when going abroad, just like any other South Korean, so it is difficult to track the exact whereabouts of the defectors," Yonhap News Agency quoted the spokesperson as saying.

On Sunday, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that leader Kim Jong-un convened an emergency politburo meeting of the ruling Workers' Party and adopted the "maximum emergency system" against the coronavirus after a defector returned home with suspected COVID-19 symptoms.

--IANS

ksk/




THE Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development has condemned the state of Vehicle Inspection Department (VID) depots countrywide and said it will recommend an investigation of a company that was contracted to upgrade the facilities.





Government reportedly contracted a local company Badon Enterprises and paid it US$6.5 million to upgrade hill-start ramps and tar the surface around the countrys depots.





The Committee noted that no work had been done at some of the depots during a countrywide tour of projects funded by Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) last week.





In an interview in Victoria Falls on Saturday, Vungu MP Cde Omega Sibanda who is a member of the Portfolio Committee said the general state of some VID depots is poor.





We are very worried about VID depots where a company called Badon Enterprises was given a job but didnt do it.





The company was paid a lot of money, about $6.5 million to do work countrywide and we are worried about it.





We went to the Victoria Falls depot, there is no tarred surface inside and the hill-start ramp is not okay.





The depot is poorly done and we need to recommend to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development that it be redone.





As we go forward as a committee, we are going to make sure that a proper report is prepared and sent to Parliament because it is worrying that no job was done especially at VID Victoria Falls.





The general state is poor because of poor workmanship, said Cde Sibanda.





VID depots conduct driver training and weighbridge facilities for cargo trucks among other duties.





Such derelict facilities at VID depots could open way for unroadworthy vehicles and incompetent drivers flooding the countrys roads as the department will be incapacitated to provide proper testing.





In Victoria Falls, learner drivers do hill-start on Courtney Selous Road behind Rainbow Hotel, which also leaves room for corruption.





The committee tour which ended on Sunday, was aimed at assessing state of projects funded by Zinara countrywide.

In Victoria Falls the committee commended the Municipality for resealing a total of 13.3km road network using funds received from Zinara.





The committee also visited Kazungula Bridge across Zambezi River to appreciate construction work on the project which is a joint venture between Botswana and Zambia.





Zimbabwe joined the project soon after the coming in of the Second Republic.





The bridge, now at 98 percent complete, is expected to ease trade by significantly reducing time in transit across borders and expand access through most land-linked Sadc member states.





Cde Sibanda said the Portfolio Committee will engage the Ministry of Transport on the project.





Zinara board chair Engineer Michael Madanha said most weighbridges and VID depots need to be reworked on.





We visited VID depots to see weighbridges and MPs were concerned particularly with VID depots which are not yet complete for various reasons. Some are old and need re-servicing and proper pavements.





As an oversight committee they wanted to know how the money was used and all that was explained to them, said Eng Madanha.




A 37-year-old man was arrested Tuesday in connection with the execution-style shooting and killing of a woman, who he believed was involved in his sister's fatal overdose, according to an arrest affidavit.

On July 5, a man called San Antonio police to the 7700 block of Blue Gulf drive on the Southeast Side to report that he witnessed Rogelio Sanchez and an unidentified man shoot and kill Christina Delacruz, 37, the affidavit said.

According to the affidavit, the man said Sanchez and a second suspect kidnapped him, Delacruz and another male friend from a residence near the 100 block of Omaha Street, just east of downtown, and demanded they get into a vehicle.

Sanchez and the second suspect questioned the three about his sister's drug overdose, which took place at the Omaha Street residence a few days prior, the affidavit said. The man who called authorities later told police Sanchez believed there was foul play involved in his sister's death.

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Sanchez then drove the three to a secluded area where he demanded the unidentified man to get out of the vehicle. The man who called police said he then heard a single gunshot before Sanchez took him and Delacruz to an area near the 9200 block of WW White Road and demanded that both of them get out of the car and lie on the ground with their faces down, according to the affidavit.

The second suspect with Sanchez then shot Delacruz once in the back of the head and attempted to fire at the man but the gun malfunctioned and he was able to run to a nearby neighborhood to call for help, the affidavit said.

The man was unable to tell police where Delacruz's body was, but SAPD's EAGLE helicopter located her a short time later. It is unclear what happened to the unidentified male friend who was asked to get out of the car alone.

According to police, this wasn't the first time the family of the woman who overdosed have kidnapped someone. An unidentified man previously reported to police that another member of the family abducted and assaulted him the day of the overdose.

Though Sanchez isn't suspected of firing the weapon, Texas law says anyone involved in the execution of a crime will be charged. Police said Sanchez was the driver and and was armed during the incident. Police have not identified the shooter.

Sanchez was charged with murder and is being held on a $700,000 bond.

Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for MySA.com | taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
Cemex Latam Holdings sales decline 36% in 2Q20

28 July 2020

Cemex Latam Holdings, SA announced that in a quarter marked by significant disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic, sales declined by 36 per cent in 2Q20, while EBITDA fell by 32 per cent, in local-currency terms, YoY.



Cemexs consolidated cement volumes declined by 33 per cent during the second quarter YoY. However, volumes recovered significantly in June, doubling the volumes sold during April. Quarterly consolidated prices for cement improved by four per cent YoY and remained stable sequentially, in local-currency terms. Cement pricing resilience in all our markets despite lower volumes.



Cemex generated US$11m in net income during the quarter, compared with a US$4m loss during the same period of last year.



Jesus Gonzalez, CEO of CLH, said: Despite that our volumes were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 containment measures, we reacted quickly and obtained significant achievements during the second quarter.



Geographical markets 2Q20

Operating EBITDA in Colombia reached US$12m, 32 per cent lower in US dollar terms or 23 per cent lower in local-currency terms, compared with that of the second quarter of 2019. Net sales decreased by 45 per cent in US dollar terms or by 36 per cent in local-currency terms YoY, to US$67m.



In Panama operating EBITDA was negative US$3m during the quarter. Net sales reached US$7m during the second quarter. This was 86 per cent lower compared with those of the same period of 2019.



In Costa Rica operating EBITDA reached US$7m during the quarter, 27 per cent lower in US dollar terms or 29 per cent lower in local-currency terms, on a YoY basis. Net sales reached US$20m, a decline of 26 per cent in US dollar terms or of 28 per cent in local-currency terms, compared with those of the second quarter of 2019.



In the rest of the world of Cemex Latam Holdings operating EBITDA increased by 29 per cent in US-dollar terms or by 31 per cent in local-currency terms, to US$20m during the quarter. Quarterly net sales reached US$56m, up one per cent.

Published under
The title look of upcoming Tamil film Karnan was released on actor Dhanushs birthday on Tuesday. The film has been directed by Mari Selvaraj.

The poster features many hands coming together to raise a sword. In January, a picture from the sets of Karnan was leaked. The picture saw Dhanush standing at the edge of a hill and holding a sword in his right hand with the sun shining bright.

Being bankrolled by Kalaipuli S Thanu, the film also stars Malayalam actor Rajisha Vijayan as the leading lady while Yogi Babu will be seen in a key role.

Recently, reports emerged that Karnan is based on a caste riot that took place in Kodiyankulam in 1991.

Talking about the project, the director was quoted in a report by Cinema Express: Dhanush gave me the chance to work with him after watching Pariyerum Perumal. Just like my first film, this one will also address an important issue.

The project went on the floors in January. When the project was announced nearly six months ago, Dhanush said hes so excited to work with a talent like Mari.

Meanwhile, Dhanush recently wrapped up shooting for Karthik Subbaraj directed upcoming Tamil action-thriller Jagame Thanthiran.

Karthiks film sees Dhanush play a gangster. Recently, pictures of Dhanush with handlebar moustache from the sets of the film went viral on social media. It is rumoured that Dhanush will be seen in this look in the flashback portion of the movie.

Also read: Amitabh Bachchan says Aaradhya asked him not to cry and said youll be home soon, pens an open letter to haters

The project, which marks the maiden collaboration of Dhanush and Karthik, has been predominantly shot in London apart from a few other places in the UK.

In November 2019, the team returned to India after shooting in London non-stop for 64 days.

The film features Aishwarya Lekshmi as the leading lady. In October, the makers announced that theyve roped in Games of Thrones and Braveheart fame actor James Cosmo for a pivotal role in the film.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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Germany has revealed plans for compulsory and free coronavirus tests for holidaymakers coming back from high-risk countries during the pandemic.

The announcement came on the same day the Angela Merkels chief of staff said an increase in infections over recent days had given cause for concern.

Germany announced the testing plan on Monday in a bid to slow the spread of infections as the holiday season kicked into high gear.

We have to stop returnees from unwittingly infecting others and sparking new chains of infection, Jens Spahn, the health minister, tweeted.

The announcement followed an abrupt decision by the UK to reimpose a quarantine requirement for travellers from Spain, which has thrown Europes vaunted summer holiday-season reopening into disarray.

With infection numbers ticking up as travel resumes after long months of lockdown, concern at the possibility of a second wave of coronavirus infections overrode German scruples about the ethics of forcing people to undergo tests.

Germany has designated 130 countries as high-risk, including Turkey, Egypt and the US.

However, the health minister told ARD televisions Tagesthemen programme that the list would be reviewed daily, adding that he was worried about the uptick in Spain since so many Germans holidayed there.

Ms Merkels chief of staff had earlier said it would be harder to make up lost ground later.

All the indications we have are that it is easier to keep infection numbers down in summer than it is autumn or winter, Helge Braun said.

The move is a victory for Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder, who had warned that returning travellers could cause many mini-Ischgls  a reference to the Austrian ski resort that was the source of some of Germanys first cases.

Mr Soeder, seen as a candidate to succeed Ms Merkel as chancellor, had said Bavaria was ready to start airport testing as soon as the national government provided the legal basis.

Anything that adds to the barriers facing holidaymakers could come as a blow to Frankfurt Airport, airline Lufthansa and Deutsche Bahn, all of which have been banking on a resumption of tourism to help fuel a recovery.

On Friday, Germany reported 815 new coronavirus cases  a two-month high.

More than 205,590 people have tested positive for the virus in the country as of Monday, while the death toll stood at around 9,000.

Additional reporting by Reuters
Cortney Fletcher draws upon years of ecommerce experience to equip women with the tools and systems to effectively build, market and scale a massively successful ecommerce business.

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / Cortney Fletcher knew she wanted to lead a passionate, impactful life from a very young age. Originally from Boston, MA, Cortney grew up doing volunteer work that left her feeling inspired and fulfilled. She attended Phillips Exeter Academy all through highschool, an experience that not only challenged her academically but also exposed her to influential non-profits like Headstart, a coat drive dedicated to keeping children and families warm during harsh Boston winters. Volunteering with such charities furthered Cortney's desire to build meaningful wealth in order to be able to give back to her community. Cortney went on to take the path that many of her classmates and peers were following, and enrolled in the University of Delaware to study Occupational Therapy. Cortney soon realized that this was not a career field she was passionate about and instead found herself simply going through the motions; uninspired and unmotivated, she turned to drinking and partying in times of boredom.

Mid-way through her college years, Cortney was exposed to network marketing for the first time. It was then that she realized that money is power and that she actually had the ability to create wealth for herself. This proved to be an awakening for her and she again felt the flutters of excitement and inspiration she'd experienced while volunteering in highschool. Deciding to take the leap and follow her instincts, Cortney dropped out of university, much to her family and friend's dismay. Cortney found herself surrounded by disappointed people, with only a few dollars in her bank account, and desperate for a fresh start. She opened a credit card and bought a flight to California with her remaining dollars, determined to pursue the passion she felt stirring within.

However, the road to success was not easy, and Cortney would go on to spend the next 3-4 years working odd jobs, barely scraping by until she discovered the power and potential of ecommerce. Within a few short months of starting her ecommerce store, Cortney had dramatically increased her income and was able to quit all of her odd jobs to pursue ecommerce full time. Not long after, Cortney founded eCom Babes, the product of her desire to equip other women with the same skills that had granted her profit, freedom and the capacity to give back to the community.

Today, Cortney lives in Philadelphia and has helped over 1,000 women start and grow their own ecommerce stores with her powerful program. Ecommerce is only in its infancy, with infinite room to grow as the world becomes even more digital. Although Cortney's own first ecommerce store was based upon selling jewelry, she is quick to advise her students that the product they sell is not nearly as important as how they put the pieces of the puzzle together. This understanding is the foundation of what she teaches in her course. She begins by helping students pick a niche and the product that they are going to sell. From there, it's time to put the store together, she teaches all her students how to build a site on Shopify, the leading platform for online selling. Once a seller has their product and store established, their next step is to begin marketing to bring in customers. When starting out, the quickest way to bring in new customers is through Connective Ecommerce, a term Cortney has coined that entails utilizing social media and organic traffic to drive sales. After a student has experienced some success with connective ecommerce and began to prove out their product, they are ready to dive into the world of Facebook ads. Facebook adversisting can be time consuming and costly, so Cortney spends an entire week in her course just educating students on how to set up their ads for optimal success.

The program is a proven method, and she's seen students scale from earning $2,000 dollars a month to bringing in $20,000 each month in just a few weeks.

Another student, Katherine, has been a part of eCom babes for one year. In April, amidst a pandemic, she had her most successful month, grossing over 100k in sales.

Cortney is adamant that eCom Babes is more than just a course, rather, it is a lifestyle. When a new student joins the course, they are opting in for much more than 6 weeks of training, instead they are entering into a community of like-minded, high achieving women from all walks of life, that are all striving for the same thing: success.

Furthermore, the course was created for all ages, and all experience levels. Corntey's students range from absolute beginners with zero experience, to successful entrepreneurs who are looking to take their business to the next level. Ultimately, Cortney loves to see her students succeed and make incredible profits, but her real fulfilment comes from seeing what her students go on to do with their wealth and freedom. She loves connecting with women that are big thinkers and dreamers, determined to use their wealth to make a powerful impact on their communities. Cortney isn't just in the business of equipping others to make money, rather, she's here to build a movement of women who will change the world.

Get access to the simple 3 step process of getting started with Ecommerce with Cortney's Free Training.

Contact Name: Cortney Fletcher

Business Name: eCom Babes

Website Link: https://www.ecombabes.com/

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SOURCE: Cortney Fletcher

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/598759/Cortney-Fletcher-Founder-Of-eCom-Babes-Is-Teaching-Women-How-To-Start-And-Grow-An-Online-Ecommerce-Business-Of-Their-Own
"Harry Potter" series author J.K. Rowling is back with more controversial remarks, claiming that there is an impending "medical scandal."

The once-revered writer was recently involved in a dispute over her anti-transgender remarks.

She has tweeted articles regarding the transgender debate and cautioned that the scandal she predicted could impact young people.

The 54-year-old has been embroiled in a row about transgender rights and was alleged of being transphobic which she vehemently denies, reported This is Money.

She wrote on Twitter, "Since speaking up about gender identity theory, I've received thousands of emails - more than I've ever had on a single subject."

"The bleak truth is that if and when the scandal does erupt, nobody currently cheering this movement on will be able to credibly claim 'we couldn't have known'."

Previously, Rowling stated in an essay on her website that she was partly prompted to become vocal regarding the issue due to her past abuse and sexual assault encounter, reported Irish News.

In her series of tweets on Saturday, Rowling indicated that numerous healthcare professionals reached out to her in support of her latest remarks.

She caught the ire of netizens when she stated that transgender people "erased the concept of sex" in a series of tweets.

Rowling has suggested the supposed medical scandal through sharing articles regarding gender identity to her 14.3 million followers.

She sparked the aforementioned fury last month after problematizing a headline on an article mentioning "people who menstruate."

Also Read: J.K. Rowling Under Fire for Transphobia Again Over Comment About Menstruation

On the senders of e-mails, she stated, "Many have come from professionals working in medicine, education and social work." They were alarmed regarding the impact on young people.

She linked one source when she wrote, "The writers of this letter are just two of a growing number of whistleblowers.

Her previous contentious tweets were regarding gender identities invalidating biological sex.

She earlier wrote, "If sex isn't real, there's no same-sex attraction. If sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn't hate to speak the truth."

Rowling shared an article by psychoanalyst Marcus Evans entitled "Freedom To Think: The Need For Thorough Assessment And Treatment Of Gender Dysphoric Children" with millions of her followers.

Gender dysphoria is caused by a mismatch of the gender assigned at birth and an individual's gender identity.

Numerous actors who starred in the "Harry Potter" series films have been outspoken in stating their support for the transgender community after Rowling's previous anti-trans remarks.

Among the actors are Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, who played as lead characters for the said movies. Others are Bonnie Wright, Eddie Redmayne, Miriam Margolyes, and Katie Leung.

Rowling penned a series of tweets and a lengthy blog post denoting that if sex is not real the "lived reality of women is erased" before her tweets regarding the impending medical scandal.

Two of the biggest "Harry Potter" fandoms also rejected Rowling's beliefs.

Related Article: 'Harry Potter' Theme Park to Replace Tokyo's Toshimaen, May Open 2023

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A BUSINESS group leader saw nothing wrong in President Rodrigo Dutertes threat to shut down two telecommunication giants in the country if they fail to improve their services to support the National Governments move in boosting digital learning platforms by the end of the year.

It is good to pressure them, Mandaue Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) president Steven Yu said on Tuesday, July 28, 2020.

He said the Presidents warning to Pangilinan-led Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and the Ayalas Globe Telecom Inc. will promote competition.

The President attacked PLDT and Globe during his fifth State of the Nation Address last Monday, July 27.

Globe Telecom stated in a press release that it heeds the Presidents call to improve its services.

Although we have seen marked improvements, the industry is not without its challenges. The long-drawn permitting process across LGUs (local government units), HOAs (homeowners associations) and national agencies including the DOH (Department of Health) and CAAP (Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines) have hampered cell site builds and laying down of fiber to homes.

It added: We express our optimism that the recently signed Joint Memorandum Circular 01s.2020 spearheaded by the DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology) with other national agencies to fast track builds of telco towers will finally lead the way to a more robust connectivity in the country and provide internet services to every Filipino.

PLDT has yet to issue a statement on the Presidents threat.

Shares

On July 28, the shares of Globe Telecom and PLDT fell over three percent. The shares of the new telecommunication player owned by Filipino-Chinese businessman Dennis Uy, who is close to Duterte, jumped nearly 11 percent, Reuters reported.

Uy contributed millions to the presidential campaign of Duterte, who won in 2016. The President has been attacking Pangilinan, Ayalas and Lopezes of ABS-CBN for being oligarchs.

Story continues

Good for consumers

Improving the internet connection in the country is good for the consumers , Yu said.

The MCCI leader said he is optimistic PLDT and Globe Telecom will deliver improved services.

Relief for MSMEs

Yu, on another hand, was pleased after the President mandated the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to provide regulatory relief for MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), and allow loan payment extension without incurring penalties and charges.

Tourism

Yu said it is good that the President knows tourism is one of the revenue-generating industries in the country, as the latter urged Filipinos to travel locally. Cebu, he said, is also reliant on tourism.

Death penalty

In his Sona, the President urged Congress to reinstitute death penalty as the capital punishment for persons involved in drug trafficking.

The President has a supporter in Police Regional Office 7 Director Albert Ignatius Ferro, who believes that the illegal drug trade will subside if there is death penalty.

He said there are convicted drug traffickers who continue their illegal activities behind bars by contacting their underlings.

Remember that those being imprisoned with finality of their conviction are in the Bureau of Correction (in Metro Manila). Unfortunately, because there is no death penalty, they are still managing their illegal drugs activity. Even if we seized tons of shabu, there is still a proliferation of shabu because they are really not afraid, Ferro said. (KFD, AYB / KAL)
Middle Eastern airlines traffic collapsed 96.1 per cent for June against June 2019, compared with a 97.7 per cent demand drop in May, said a report which forecast that global passenger traffic will not return to pre-Covid-19 levels until 2024.

According to figures released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), capacity contracted 91.1 per cent, and load factor crumbled to 33.3 per cent, down 43.1 per cent percentage points compared to a year ago.

International traffic for the month of June shrank by 96.8 per cent compared to June 2019, only slightly improved over a 98.3 per cent decline in May, year-over-year. Capacity fell 93.2 per cent and load factor contracted 44.7 percentage points to 38.9 per cent. African airlines and North American airlines recorded the steepest traffic declines, -98.1 per cent and -97.2 per cent, respectively.

Domestic traffic demand also fell 67.6 per cent in June, improved from a 78.4 per cent decline in May. Capacity fell 55.9 per cent and load factor dropped 22.8 percentage points to 62.9 per cent.

Global passenger traffic data for June showed that the recovery in traffic has been slower than had been expected. In the base case scenario:

Global passenger traffic (revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) will not return to pre-Covid-19 levels until 2024, a year later than previously projected.

 The recovery in short haul travel is still expected to happen faster than for long haul travel. As a result, passenger numbers will recover faster than traffic measured in RPKs. Recovery to pre-Covid-19 levels, however, will also slide by a year from 2022 to 2023. For 2020, global passenger numbers (enplanements) are expected to decline by 55 per cent compared to 2019, worsened from the April forecast of 46 per cent.

June 2020 passenger traffic foreshadowed the slower-than-expected recovery. Traffic, measures in RPK, fell 86.5 per cent compared to the year-ago period. That is only slightly improved from a 91.0 per cent contraction in May. This was driven by rising demand in domestic markets, particularly China. The June load factor set an all-time low for the month at 57.6 per cent.

The more pessimistic recovery outlook is based on a number of recent trends:

 Slow virus containment in the US and developing economies: Although developed economies outside of the US have been largely successful in containing the spread of the virus, renewed outbreaks have occurred in these economies, and in China. Furthermore there is little sign of virus containment in many important emerging economies, which in combination with the US, represent around 40 per cent of global air travel markets. Their continued closure, particularly to international travel, is a significant drag on recovery.

 Reduced corporate travel: Corporate travel budgets are expected to be very constrained as companies continue to be under financial pressure even as the economy improves. In addition, while historically GDP growth and air travel have been highly correlated, surveys suggest this link has weakened, particularly with regard to business travel, as video conferencing appears to have made significant inroads as a substitute for in-person meetings.

 Weak consumer confidence: While pent-up demand exists for VFR (visiting friends and relatives) and leisure travel, consumer confidence is weak in the face of concerns over job security and rising unemployment, as well as risks of catching Covid-19. Some 55 per cent of respondents to IATAs June passenger survey dont plan to travel in 2020.

Owing to these factors, IATAs revised baseline forecast is for global enplanements to fall 55 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019 (the April forecast was for a 46 per cent decline). Passenger numbers are expected to rise 62 per cent in 2021 off the depressed 2020 base, but still will be down almost 30 per cent compared to 2019. A full recovery to 2019 levels is not expected until 2023, one year later than previously forecast.

Meanwhile, since domestic markets are opening ahead of international markets, and because passengers appear to prefer short haul travel in the current environment, RPKs will recover more slowly, with passenger traffic expected to return to 2019 levels in 2024, one year later than previously forecast. Scientific advances in fighting Covid-19 including development of a successful vaccine, could allow a faster recovery. However, at present there appears to be more downside risk than upside to the baseline forecast.

Passenger traffic hit bottom in April, but the strength of the upturn has been very weak. What improvement we have seen has been domestic flying. International markets remain largely closed. Consumer confidence is depressed and not helped by the UKs weekend decision to impose a blanket quarantine on all travelers returning from Spain. And in many parts of the world infections are still rising. All of this points to a longer recovery period and more pain for the industry and the global economy, said Alexandre de Juniac, IATAs Director General and CEO.

For airlines, this is bad news that points to the need for governments to continue with relief measuresfinancial and otherwise. A full Northern Winter season waiver on the 80-20 use-it-or-lose it slot rule, for example, would provide critical relief to airlines in planning schedules amid unpredictable demand patterns. Airlines are planning their schedules. They need to keep sharply focused on meeting demand and not meeting slot rules that were never meant to accommodate the sharp fluctuations of a crisis. The earlier we know the slot rules the better, but we are still waiting for governments in key markets to confirm a waiver, said de Juniac. - TradeArabia News Service
When Professor Dietmar W. Hutmacher first started his career as a biomedical engineer, those already established in the field were making bold claims of being able to regrow entire limbs in the next 20 years.

Now, two decades later, Professor Hutmacher has helped to regrow leg bones, fix badly damaged skulls and correct congenital deformities. Not quite what was promised, but not a bad start.

QUT Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation biofabrication research leader Dietmar W. Hutmacher.

"I had senior colleagues promise that by 2020 we could regrow hearts or kidneys, and I was always sceptical," he said.

"But what we have done is translate this scaffold-guided regeneration technology into a clinical setting where it can have an impact for people."
Mumbai, July 28 : For the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, Covid-19 continued a downward trend in Maharashtra with an added bonus in the form of the highest recoveries till date, health officials said.

The state notched 7,717 new Covid cases, the lowest in a fortnight and down from the highest tally of 10,576 on July 22, though fresh cases continue to soar in the 7,000-plus levels in the second half of July.

The number of deaths continued in the 200-plus range with 282 fatalities on Tuesday - but still lower than the single highest toll of 298 on July 23.

With the fresh fatalities, the death toll went up to 14,165, while the total cases rose to 391,440 - both highest in the country.

According to Tuesday's figures, there was one death roughly every 5 minutes and a staggering 322 new cases every hour.

The state recovery rate increased for the third day, jumping from 57.84 per cent to 59.34 per cent on Tuesday, while the current mortality rate stood at 3.62 per cent.

The Health Department said that of the total cases till date, 144,694 are active.

On the positive side, 10,333 recovered patients returned home on Tuesday - the highest till date - taking the total number of discharged patients to 232,277.

Of the nw fatalities, Mumbai again reigned with the highest 55 deaths, taking the toll in the country's commercial capital up to 6,187 and the number of corona cases increased by 700 - the lowest ever in three months - to touch 110,882 now.

Spelling glad tidings with the current status, a pleased Health Minister Rajesh Tope has claimed that Maharashtra has achieved the Covid peak now and the cases will start declining from August 15 onwards.

Tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray heartily patted the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for the lowest 700 new cases in Mumbai in the past three months while notching the highest testing of 8,776 on Tuesday.

Though terming it as "a major relief", he also warned people not to "let your mask down", but help get the numbers down instead.

There were also 47 deaths in Pune, 45 in Thane, 25 in Solapur, 19 in Raigad, 18 in Nagpur, 13 in Jalgaon, 11 in Nashik, eight in Satara, six each in Kolhapur and Aurangabad, five each in Sangli and Latur, four in Osmanabad, three in Ahmednagar, two each in Palghar and Amravati, and one each in Dhule, Nandurbar, Sindhudurg, Jalna, Parbhani, Akola, Yavatmal and Buldhana.

The MMR (Thane division) remains on the edge with the current toll increasing by 121 to touch 9,275 and a staggering 2,223 new cases, pushing up the number to 229,599 now.

Thane has 88,859 cases with 2,431 fatalities to emerge as the second worst-hit district after Mumbai in the state.

Pune district continues to race ahead by notching 80,325 cases, with the death toll increasing to 1,885 on Tuesday.

With 47 more deaths, the Pune division death toll has reached 2,477 and the case tally 91,977.

Nashik division has recorded 1,111 fatalities and 29,987 cases, followed by Aurangabad division with 554 deaths and 15,637 cases, Akola division with 232 fatalities and 6,644 cases, Kolhapur division with 206 deaths and 7,675 cases, Latur division with 190 fatalities and 4,433 cases, and Nagpur division 73 deaths and 5,136 cases.

Continuing the trend for the second week, all the eight divisions recorded fatalities on Tuesday, while Chandrapur still remains a zero Covid death district.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine decreased sharply to 885,545 now, while those in institutional quarantine went down to 42,733.
Burma Thousands of Villagers in Myanmars Karen State Protest Army Killings of Civilians

Villagers in Papun district, Karen State march on July 28, 2020 to demand justice for civilians killed by the military. / Karen Peace Support Network

More than 4,600 villagers in Bu Tho and Dweh Lo townships in Papun district of Karen State marched in parallel columns to Papun Town and Kamamung Town on Tuesday morning to demand justice and an end to military killings of civilians in their areas.

4,650 local villagers from 114 villages marched to Papun and Kamamaung towns calling out slogans.

The protest is the second in a week. Over 1,500 residents of 35 villages staged a protest outside Myanmar military posts in the area last Wednesday.

The protesters gathered to object to the killing of a Karen woman, Naw Mu Naw, in Po Lo Hta Village on July 16 by two soldiers of Myanmar military Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 409.

Residents said the incident in which two privates shot Naw Mu Naw and took her gold jewelry was the latest in a string of brutal cases facing their communities.

They called for the withdrawal of four military outposts from their region.

They shouted slogans in the Karen language meaning, We cannot accept the killing of our people, We cannot accept the oppression of our village, Lets work together with unity for our security, and Our birthplace and heritage belong to us.

The demonstrators also raised the killings of five civilians by five different infantry battalions of the Myanmar military during the period of Jan. 2 to July 16 in Wah Thoe Kho, Wah Thoe Hta and Po Lo Hta villages.

The protesters said, We cannot accept those killings and artillery shelling into villages, and demanded justice in those cases.

Since 2018, the Myanmar militarys reconstruction of a road in Papun has sparked tensions between the military and the Karen National Union (KNU). The area is under the control of KNU Brigade 5 and now sees regular military tensions.

The KNU signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement in 2015 but the military and KNU troops still come into conflict over territorial disputes.

The military arrested the two soldiers who killed the Karen woman on July 17 and the Tatmadaw True News Information Team said the military would take harsh action against them. Further investigation by a military court is ongoing and action will be taken effectively and transparently, it said.

However, Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN) spokesperson Naw Wahkushee said the military needs to show transparency in its actions on the Naw Mu Naw killing.

There is no transparency. They [the military] said they would investigate, but nothing has been heard about the previous cases, she said, citing cases of civilian shooting deaths caused by military troops.

According to the KPSNs documentation, soldiers from IB No. 405, under Military Operations Command No. 8, shot and killed a Wah Thoe Hta villager on June 2.

On May 9, soldiers from IB No. 410 shot and killed a villager from Kuseik Village, and soldiers from the same battalion also shelled Wah Thoe Kho Village on May 7. Wah Thoe Kho residents were shot and killed by soldiers from IB No. 408 in early January. On March 5, a forest worker was shot dead by soldiers of IB No. 338 on Mae Wai Road.

We hear that Naw Mu Naws husband [Saw Pu Aye] was questioned by the military and forced to sign a document. But we dont know the details yet, she said.

She added, There were many cases that happened before, and there has still been no action taken in cases of civilians being killed from January to June.

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Bode George, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to reopen investigation into the de...

Bode George, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to reopen investigation into the death of Funsho Williams.





Williams, a gubernatorial candidate in Lagos, was murdered under controversial circumstances on July 27, 2006.





He was governorship candidate of the PDP in 2003 and was warming up for the 2007 gubernatorial election when he was murdered.





In an statement, George said it has been 14 years since the incident occurred, wondering why the killers of Williams are yet to be brought to justice.





He said the death of the former gubernatorial aspirant dashed the hopes of several Lagosians and crumbled a great dream.





George said Williams, whom he described as his friend, was reserved and humble, adding that he had no bad intentions for others.





He was gentle but reflective with sharp analytical convictions. There was always certain piety about him, an effective calibration in self-effacing innocence. He meant no harm to anyone. But he was firm, resolved, dedicated to the righteous path, he said.





The PDP chieftain said Buhari has done the right thing by reopening investigation into the death of Bola Ige, former minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation.





He urged the president to do the same by ordering an investigation into Williams death.





It has been 14 years now when a terrible dark cloud fell upon the Lagosian entity and upon all lovers of freedom. It was really a very sad day on that horrific July 27, 2006, as the blood-soaked body of Engineer Funsho Williams was discovered in his Dolphin residence in Ikoyi, the statement read.





With the murder of Funsho Williams, who stood at the threshold of triumphing at the general election, a great dream was shattered. The hopes of millions of Lagosians who were hearkening to be rescued from what was then building up as a gradual servitude of the Lagosian natives was dashed.





I am particularly passionate about Funsho who many of his acolytes adorably called captain. Funsho was my junior at the University of Lagos. We were both Engineering students but sprung from different departments. While he was in Civil Engineering, I was in the Electrical Engineering Department.





Those who killed Funsho Williams might have killed a man but not his dream of rescuing and salvaging our society. We continue where he stopped.





We appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to re-open the investigation of the brutal murder of Funsho Williams. The President has done the right thing by re-opening the investigation of the murder of Chief Bola Ige.





He will be greatly enhanced in historical reckoning and signification if his administration is attested as being the one that finally nailed the evil characters hiding in plain sight who murdered Funsho Williams.





In 2014, a Lagos high court discharged and acquitted six persons arrested and prosecuted for the murder of Williams.




An armed Jersey City man who was described as emotionally disturbed and high on drugs barricaded himself in a Wade Street home for an hour before surrendering to police.

The 36-year-old man was charged with aggravated assault by knowingly pointing firearm, unlawful possession of a weapon and multiple other weapons offenses Sunday at 3 p.m., Jersey City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said.

Police responded to the home on a report of a man high on drugs and found that the man had barricaded inside a bedroom with a handgun, Wallace-Scalcione said. Police officers negotiated with the man for nearly an hour before he left the bedroom safely and was arrested.

A defaced handgun was recovered by police from inside the room.
Global Action for Women Empowerment (GLOWA), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), has called on the Police to arrest and prosecute persons involved in the murder of the 90-year-old woman at Kafaba in East Gonja District of the Savannah Region.



In a release signed by Nana Kugbeadzor Bakateyi II, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and copied to the Ghana News Agency, described the incident as cruel, barbaric, shameful, condemnable and a slap in the face of rule of law and a clear violation of human rights of women.



It said GLOWA, in solidarity with other Civil Society Organizations and Gender activists, was making a clarion call to the authorities to rise to the occasion and be swift in bringing justice to the deceased.



GLOWA does not want this barbaric act to be handled with a pinch of salt, it said in the statement.



It said it was incredible that the lynching of the innocent old lady was done in daylight in the presence of a whole community upon unfounded allegations of her being a witch.



The release said it was very surprising and scandalous that such an inane and callous thinking still existed in this part of the world, especially in this 21st century.



It noted that old age must be seen as a blessing, not a curse and grey hair should not be linked to witchcraft and stressed the need to eschew these heinous crimes.



This is heartbreaking! This helpless old-aged woman just as others served her community when she was young with sincerity, truth and hard work under difficult conditions but became vulnerable before her untimely death.



"If we cannot reward such people by taking good care of them in their old age, it is not justified in any way to add pain to their already disorganized world in the name of witchcraft. If we cannot protect the generation that suffered harsher conditions for us to get this far, then our generation is indeed a failure," added.



The statement said the act confirmed the assertion that the country had good systems and laws but weak in implementation and enforcement.



It said Ghana was among the 189 states that ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), an international treaty adopted in 1979 by United Nations General Assembly.



It said justice must be served to the poor old woman even in her grave.

Source: GNA









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"The moment I saw Neya, it was love at first sight and I couldn't resist taking her home," said Melton. "Shelters are full of pets who have been lost or abandoned, and I'm delighted to partner with Purina ONE to raise awareness of pets, like Neya, who had lived in three different homes with several different owners before finding her forever home with me at 12 weeks old."

As a lifelong dog lover, but first-time pet parent, Melton and his newly adopted Husky, Neya, have experienced firsthand the rewarding impact and special bond that happens when you bring a shelter pet into your home. The two built an unbreakable bond during road trips, camping trips and at-home quality time together.

Purina ONE is dedicated to the lifelong potential of pets and that's why for more than 15 years it has played a major role in the Purina Shelter Champions program. This includes Purina ONE's donation of nearly 6.5 million pounds of dog and cat food, worth more than $10 million, to shelters across the country. Purina ONE is glad to support newly adopted pets, as well as those in shelters waiting patiently for their forever home, with nutrition that can lead to visible differences in health.

"Providing a shelter pet a forever home is a life-changing experience for both the pet and their human. It's important your adopted pet feels safe, supported and loved during their acclimation period, which Charles has clearly done with his new pup, Neya," said Dr. Sandra Lyn, Manager, Global Pet Behavior & Welfare expert at Purina. "It will take patience, and a lot of one-on-one time, but as the dog adjusts to her new surroundings a strong bond will emerge."

Purina ONE is committed to supporting animal shelters, providing optimal nutrition to shelter pets, and spreading awareness of the importance of pet adoption. Melton shares the same passion as Purina ONE and proudly shares his journey with Neya in hopes it encourages others to adopt a dog or cat from a shelter.

"I'm excited to partner with Purina ONE to support shelter pets  something I'm very passionate about. I think it's important to bring visibility to all the pets who deserve a home. Neya has changed my life for the better," said Melton.

To find out more about pets at a nearby animal shelter and adopt a furry friend in need of a forever home, please visit PurinaONE.com/shelterpets.

About Purina ONE and Nestle Purina PetCare

Purina ONE helps support your dog's whole-body health every day and throughout his lifetime, with formulas that address his changing needs at each life stage. Purina ONE nutrition is veterinarian recommended and proudly crafted at Purina-owned U.S. facilities.

Nestle Purina PetCare promotes responsible pet care, community involvement and the positive bond between people and their pets. A premiere global manufacturer of pet products, Nestle Purina PetCare is part of Swiss-based Nestle S.A., a global leader in nutrition, health and wellness.

SOURCE Purina ONE
As people across the globe are reeling under Covid-19 global health crisis, theres only one thing that everyone is eagerly waiting for - the vaccine!

And finally heres some respite. The human trial process of the Covid-19 vaccine, that Bharat Biotech has developed, formally began at a private hospital in Uttar Pradeshs Kanpur. Out of all the participants, the first set of people, who have cleared the screening process, will be vaccinated on Thursday or Friday under medical supervision, HT reported.

Prakhar Hospital is one of the two facilities chosen for testing the Covid-19 vaccine in UP and has 36 volunteers between the age group of 18 and 55 years. Out of which five of the volunteers are women and two are 20-year-olds.

Interestingly, since people belong to diverse backgrounds, the volunteers also include sportspersons. They are mostly from middle class background and all of them registered on their own volition as they want to contribute to the experiment that can help mankind in these trying hours, HT quoted Dr JS Kushwaha, chairman of the hospital.

On Monday, as per the report, all 36 volunteers underwent a comprehensive process of determining their health status, which needs to fit in the parameters the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has defined. Their blood samples and swabs were taken and sent to the ICMR certified laboratory for RT-PCR and antibody test.

On the basis of these reports, the vaccine will be given to them at the hospital positively by Thursday or Friday, said Kushwaha. Furthermore, the hospital will conduct the human trials in two phases on 100 volunteers.

Kushwaha added, People are regularly calling us and seek details of the process they will have to follow. Even today we got four calls from people, two of them women, and they wanted to be part of this trial.

Most importantly, before the vaccine is given, the hospital will insure the volunteers meet all the specified conditions. A team of specialists, led by a doctor from AIIMS, will administer the vaccine and monitor the health parameters for a period of two hours at the hospital before the volunteers are allowed to leave.

 Reuters

Subsequently, the team will collect the blood samples on the 14th day and then on 28th day, these samples would be sent to the ICMR certified laboratory for the test. Kushwaha further said the hospital is well-equipped for such trials and has conducted similar trials for Rotavirus and Pentavalent vaccines in the past.



The hospital has received the go-ahead from the Data and Safety Monitoring Board and Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation to commence the trial. The doctor appealed to the people that they should come forward and get involved in the trial.

Well, this is surely a great news that has brought us a new ray of hope!
AI (artificial intelligence) security cameras using facial recognition technology are displayed at the 14th China International Exhibition on Public Safety and Security at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing, China, on Oct. 24, 2018. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images)

China Has the Most Surveilled Population in the World, UK Study Says

Big brother is watching the Chinese a lot more than the other nations, with a recent analysis showing that Chinese cities account for 18 of the 20 most-surveilled cities in the world.

British tech comparison company Comparitech compiled the numbers of public CCTV cameras in the 150 most-populated cities in the world based on government reports, police websites, and news articles, and ranked them by number of cameras per 1,000 people.

Based on available data, 18 of the 20 most-surveilled cities are in China, the other two being London and the Indian city of Hyderabad.

The northern Chinese city of Taiyuan has 119.57 cameras per 1,000 people, the highest ratio in the world and more than twice Beijings number, which has 56.2 cameras per 1,000 people. Beijing ranked fifth in the world.

Britains capital London has 67.47 cameras per 1,000 people, ranking at number three. However, figures obtained from London may include private CCTV, such as those in hotels.

Among the 50 most-surveilled cities, 34 are from Mainland China. Hong Kong has 6.62 cameras per 1,000 people, ranking 43rd in the world.

Meanwhile, Tokyo, the most populated city in the world, has only 1.06 public CCTV cameras per 1,ooo people.

Data from 26 cities are incomplete or unavailable, including four from China, four from Nigeria, three from India, and Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.

China is the largest video surveillance market by some distance; it is also rapidly transitioning to cloud video surveillance architecture, a 2019 report (pdf) by IHS Markit stated.

IHSs report last year showed that China accounted for 54 percent of the surveillance cameras in the world. By 2021, there will be 1.107 billion cameras around the world, with 567 million in China.

One of the benefits of public surveillance, many would argue, is the prevention of crime. However, Comparitech found that a higher number of cameras just barely correlates with a lower crime index.

Paul Bischoff, tech writer, privacy advocate, and VPN expert at Comparitech, concluded, Broadly speaking, more cameras doesnt necessarily reduce crime rates.

Digital Prison

In September 2017, the state-run Chinese Central Television (CCTV) program Glorious China boasted how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had built the worlds largest surveillance network with millions of cameras in a system with interconnected artificial intelligence (AI) and big data.

The BBCs John Sudworth got a demonstration of how this Skynet Project works. Police took a picture of Sudworth in a control room in the southern city of Guiyang. He then drove to another location to see how long it would take for the police to find him. The experiment only took 7 minutes.

Yin Jun from Dahua Technology, which sold millions of facial recognition cameras, told the BBC: We can match every face with an ID card, and trace all your movements back one week in time. We can match your face with your car, match you with your relatives and the people youre in touch with. With enough cameras, we can know who you frequently meet.

Pippa Malmgren, a U.S. policy analyst, described in a 2018 YouTube interview how the CCP could use the facial recognition technology developed by companies such as SenseTime to trap people in digital prisons.

If you jaywalk, it clocks that youve done it because the cameras are ubiquitous now. So the facial recognition is incredibly strong.  Next thing you know, you pick your mobile phone up and the fine for having jaywalked is already in your text messages, if not already deducted from your bank account. And your name and/or your government number is already broadcast on the OLED screen thats above the intersection, the nearest intersection.

Malmgren said that if you are associated with someone who, for instance, Google stuff that they dont want you looking at, your social credit score will also go down.

Because Mao always said that the best eyes and watchers is not the government, its to get everybody to report on each other.  The Stasi would love this system, Malmgren said.

Citing the example of how a dissenters wife couldnt go beyond a few blocks from her home without the police showing up, Malmgren said, They are putting you into digital prisons.

He Jian contributed to this report.
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Published July 28, 2020

The Dental Hygiene program at the University of Louisiana Monroe will purchase additional personal protective equipment  commonly known as PPE  thanks to a $20,000 grant from Delta Dental Community Care Foundation.

Jordan Anderson, Associate Professor of Dental Hygiene in the School of Allied Health, College of Health Sciences, secured the relief grant, which provides unrestricted funds to organizations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

PHOTO: Jordan Anderson, left, University of Louisiana Monroe Associate Professor in the Dental Hygiene program, works with Georgeanna Cook, a senior from Crossett, Ark., in the Dental Hygiene Clinic. Anderson secured a relief grant from Delta Dental Community Care Foundation for $20,000 to purchase PPE and other safety equipment for the program.

Sid Gaulee/ULM Photo Services

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an obvious infection control issue for those in the dental field and healthcare setting, said Anderson, who has a B.S. in Dental Hygiene from ULM and an M.A. in Dental Hygiene from the University of Tennessee in Memphis.

Anderson said the PPE would provide additional protection for students, faculty, and patients in the dental hygiene clinics, and help the program comply with new guidelines established for the pandemic by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and American Dental Association, as well as state regulations.

The Delta Dental Community Foundation $20,000 grant will purchase PPE such as N95 masks, ASTM Level 3 masks, face shields, disposable gowns, goggles, plexiglass panels, disinfectants, sterilizers, thermometers, and disinfecting treatments for water lines for the ULM Dental Hygiene Program.

These funds can secure personal protective equipment such as N95 (respirator) masks, ASTM Level 3 (high barrier) masks, face shields, disposable gowns, goggles, plexiglass panels, disinfectants, sterilizers, thermometers, and disinfecting treatments for water lines, she said.

Some of the grant funds may be used for air purifiers and new technology to maintain social distancing mandates.

With these funds, we can sustain and improve infection control procedures in our ULM Dental Hygiene Program clinics. These funds will also be utilized to improve technology capabilities in our clinic and classroom to comply with state regulations due to COVID 19, Anderson said.

Anderson said that with 30 juniors and 29 seniors enrolled in the program for Fall 2020, every available protective precaution is being taken.

As a university and a professional healthcare program, it is our duty to protect our students, faculty, and patients, she said.

The program has received two previous grants from the Delta Dental Community Care Foundation. In 2018, a grant funded radiology equipment, including digital sensors, phosphor plates, and scanners. A 2019 grant purchased patient treatment equipment, patient education supplies, and iPads and computer equipment for the campus clinic. With this grant, the total grant funding from Delta Dental is $60,000.
Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

ALBANY  A track worker who admitted he sold crystal methamphetamine while he worked at Saratoga Race Course last year was sentenced to more than five years in prison, the U.S. Attorney's office announced.

Francisco Alarcon Bandillo, a 29-year-old from Mexico, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court.
Colaba police have launched a manhunt for a Sudanese national who fled from a Colaba hotel after he tested positive for Covid-19. Police have also booked the owner of a hotel who had organised tests for 59 foreign nationals but kept the civic authority in the dark about the escape of the Covid-positive patient.

Police on Monday registered a first information report (FIR) based on the complaint of Dharamprakash Satish Kumar Kori, 31, a civic doctor from Tardeo.

According to Koris complaint, on July 23, Rahim Turk, owner of Hotel Aga Begh in Apollo Port, called 59 foreign nationals to his hotel. The foreigners wanted to get themselves tested, and Turk helped them by calling the staff from a private lab to the hotel to conduct the tests.

The report of one Sudanese national Ahmed Hamid Ahmed Almeen, who was staying at Colabas Kishan Hotel, came positive following which he fled from the hotel, said an officer from Colaba police station.

Turk called a large number of people together for the tests without getting the requisite permission. He also did not inform the municipal office about the escape of the Covid-positive foreigner. When civic officials learnt about the incident on Monday, they approached Colaba police and an FIR was registered against Turk and Almeen under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Epidemic Act.

Sangramsinh Nishandar, deputy commissioner of police, zone 1 confirmed the development and said, Our men are looking for the Covid-19 positive Sudanese national.
The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)s prompt move to set up a Covid-19 support fund for its members is an example of the Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) power of action, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday.

Xi said the AIIB, coalition in which India is a co-founder, moved promptly to set up a Covid-19 Crisis Recovery Facility (CRF) to support its members in containing the virus and reviving their economies. This is a typical example of the AIIBs power of action.

The Chinese President was speaking at the fifth annual meeting of the Beijing-based bank, proposed by him in late 2013, and launched in January 2016.

Since its launch, India has emerged as the overall top borrower  $4.5 billion  from the Beijing-based bank, and also the top beneficiary of Covid-19-related relief fund. As the largest borrower, India has almost 25 percent of all approved AIIB loans channelled to it.

India remains the top virus relief fund borrowers as of now with $500 million and $750 million in its lending history, followed by $750 million each for Indonesia and the Philippines, $500 million for Pakistan and $250 million for Bangladesh.

Besides the $4.5 billion, India is set to get over $1 billion for building mass transport systems, including the Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Rail Project costing $500 million, Mumbai Metro line-5 costing $350 million and Chennai Metro Corridor-4 costing $350 million.

All the three projects are in advanced stages of approval and are likely to receive a nod in six-to-nine months.

It has got off to a good start. From the 57 founding members to todays membership of 102 spanning the six continents of Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, South America and Oceania, the AIIB has grown from strength to strength and provided nearly US$20 billion in infrastructure investment to its members, Xi said at the online meeting. AIIB, Xi said, has established itself in the world as a new type of professional, efficient and clean multilateral development bank.

The initiative is designed to develop infrastructure and connectivity in Asia and deepen regional cooperation for shared development, Xi said.

At least nine of the 17 loans approved for India through the AIIB since 2017 are standalone loans from the bank while the remaining loans have been co-financed with other MDBs including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

The AIIB has loaned India some $1.25 billion for fighting the Covid-19 pandemic in two tranches in May and June  the second part of $750 million approved on June 17, two days after the deadly Galwan Valley clash at the line of actual control (LAC) between Indian and Chinese border troops.

Soon after the loans were sanctioned, and though the AIIB is an MDB with New Delhi as a founding member, the Chinese state media made it a point to say that it showed that Sino-India economic ties should not be hampered by the tension at the border.

China apparently does not want the border tensions to extend to the economic field, Long Xingchun with the Academy of Regional and Global Governance at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told state media.

The AIIB loans to India have been given to states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, and West Bengal.

Some projects it has financed or partly funded include Bangalore Metro Rail Project and Mumbai Urban Transport Project.
A truck was nearly swallowed by a sinkhole which opened up when a water main burst in one of Sydney's most exclusive suburbs.

The truck fell through the road after a pipe collapsed on Bay Street in Double Bay on Tuesday morning, following days of unrelenting rain.

Images showed the front two tyres of the truck submerged in water as workers attempted to remove the vehicle.

The puddle covered the entire intersection.

The truck fell through the road (pictured) after the pipe collapsed on Day Street in Double Bay on Tuesday morning following days of rain

Images showed the front two tyres of the truck (pictured) submerged in water as workers attempted to remove the vehicle

No one was harmed when the main burst and the road collapsed, swallowing the truck.

Woollahra Council have organised a diversion and no major roads have been blocked.

The truck was removed before 10.30am.

Residents told the Sydney Morning Herald they were without water - and were told it could be up to two days before it returned.

A Sydney Water spokesman told Daily Mail Australia: 'The burst main occurred around 3.30am today. Our crews responded quickly to isolate the break and start urgent repairs.

'As part of the repairs, around 6am the truck of a Sydney Water contractor was delivering an excavator and its front wheels fell into the roadway, which appears to have been undermined by the burst main. Tow trucks have safely removed the vehicle. Nobody was injured during the incident.

'Sydney Water Customer Advocates are on site to assist affected customers. A tanker is also supplying water critical customers.

'Its too early to determine the cause of the water main break.'

No one was harmed when the main burst and the road collapsed, swallowing the truck (pictured)

Sydney Water will collaborate with Woollahra Council to repair the road once the main has been fixed.

'Sydney Water sincerely apologises to affected customers and motorists,' the spokesman said.

'Sydney Waters emergency response crews work quickly, safely and efficiently to maintain services to customers. The teams include both technical and customer service experts, all focussed on minimising the impacts of emergency response.'

Towns in New South Wales have been battered by another night of wild weather, with up to 180mm of rain dumped in some areas overnight as winds reached 120km/h.

Residents told the Sydney Morning Herald they were without water - and were told it could be up to two days before it returned (pictured, the truck on Tuesday morning)

More than 14,000 homes and businesses were plunged into darkness as power lines went down, with some residents told to flee their homes on the south coast.

Three motorists and six cows had to be rescued overnight as damaging winds and flash flooding wreak havoc on the coastal communities.

Residents of Sussex Inlet, 155km south of Sydney, were urged to leave their homes immediately late on Monday evening as torrential rain paved the way for flooding.

Emergency crews have also been working around the clock to restore power to 14,500 Shoalhaven homes and businesses which were affected by the storm.

Endeavour Energy said more than 200 electrical hazards were reported on its network in the region on Monday.

The aggressive low pressure system will ease by Tuesday afternoon as it slowly makes its way off shore, but not before wind gusts reach upwards of 120km/h.
LOS ANGELES, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Perri Pierre tackles Cinema and Television as a filmmaker and a scholar standpoint in his Podcast, Perri Pierre Podcast.

Produced by his media company, Perri Pierre Media, Perri Pierre Podcast features Pierre and a celebrity guest discussing Cinema, Television, and more. It's available on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, and more. Some of the guests have been Denise Boutte, Javicia Leslie, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Peter Ellinas, Tosin Morohunfola, and Bill Duke.

Perri Pierre Podcast Tackles Cinema and Television From Both a Practical and Theoretical Standpoint

Perri Pierre Podcast is a young voice that is completely immersed in Cinema, energized, and motivated to keep standards high. Pierre has celebrated all of the recent passionate feedback that has recognized the podcast as something not to miss. "I am beyond excited about my podcast's ongoing success," commented Perri. "As more people learn about it, more subscribe."

Pierre himself is an award-winning filmmaker and actor. Two of Perri's most notable works are the films J-12 and Addiction. In J-12, he plays the role of Vladimir Jean, a young Haitian immigrant residing in New York City who struggles to make ends meet. J-12 won Favorite Short Film at the 2014 Nollywood and African People's Choice Awards (NAFCA). Addiction tells the story of a young man who battles between his addiction to drugs and alcohol and his quest to love. It played in selected theaters in New York City and Los Angeles. And it's been selected by numerous film festivals and won numerous accolades, including a Black Reel Award. Perri has also starred or appeared in many other films across multiple genres showing diversity in his ability.

The actor/filmmaker has a Master of Fine Arts in Cinematic Media Production from Pepperdine University and a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and Theatre from Queens College. Ethnically he is Haitian-American and is active in his community.

For more information, be sure to visit http://www.perripierre.com.

Media Contact:

Perri Pierre Media

[email protected]

Related Links

Apple Podcasts

Google Podcasts

SOURCE Perri Pierre Media
This is the moment thieves drove up behind a car waiting in traffic, snatched a bag from the passenger seat and made their getaway along a London street.

Another driver's dashcam shows a silver car pull across the back of the victim's small red car, giving the thieves enough room to do a swift U-turn.

A man, who appears to be wearing a mask and gloves, leaps out of the back of the silver car and runs to the red car.

This is the moment a bag is stolen from a car as it waits in traffic on Lea Bridge Road in Walthamstow, east London

A man in a yellow t-shirt jumped out of the car and gave chase but quickly gave up

He opens their unlocked car door, grabs what appears to be a black bag, and gets back into the silver car.

His driver swings round and makes a quick getaway in the opposite direction.

A man wearing a yellow t-shirt jumps out of the red car and tries to run after the car, but it's too late.

The driver who recorded the incident gave chase for about a minute as the thieves sped away from Lea Bridge Road in Walthamstow, east London, on Sunday.

They said: 'I would have followed but I had my family in the car.

'I doubt anyone can recognise the suspects, but just a reminder to all residents, lock your doors as you drive.'

Met Police said they have no record of the incident.
PM Phuc (middle) at the online talks with his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern, Photo: Thong Nhat/ VNA

Despite COVID-19, New Zealands Sequal Holdings Ltd. is seeking partners in Vietnam where it can provide high-quality wood products for making furniture. Currently, the firm is supplying Radiata pine wood for Vietnams VinaFor Saigon through a distribution agreement inked last October. Radiata pine wood is a sustainable plantation timber. It is versatile and used across a range of applications from paper, construction, panelling, and flooring to timber frames for furniture.

Were committed to providing our partners in Vietnam with high-quality pine that meets their needs for quality, sustainability, and value. This agreement represents an important milestone by providing 100-per-cent Forest Sustainability Council certified wood to help our partners grow their business sustainably, Rhys Arrowsmith, the groups head of sales and marketing in Asia, told VIR.

The co-operation between Sequal Holdings and VinaFor Saigon is contributing to Vietnam and New Zealands dream to increase bilateral trade turnover to $1.7 billion this year, from $1.1 billion last year.

According to Vietnams Ministry of Planning and Investment, as of June 20, New Zealand had 42 valid investment projects in Vietnam, registered at $209.5 million. In the first half of 2020, Vietnam wooed only two projects from New Zealand, registered with merely $90,000. Currently Vietnam has 10 projects in New Zealand, with the total registered capital of $32.7 million, focused on the sectors of manufacturing and processing, retail and wholesale, and repair of cars and motorbikes.

However, it is expected that both nations trade and investment relationship will further take off thanks to a bilateral strategic partnership forged last week by Vietnams Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern during online bilateral talks, which also marked the first time that Vietnam launched such an important partnership with a foreign partner online.

We highlight trade and investment co-operation as a key component of the strategic partnership, for the direct benefit of our people and businesses. Bilateral trade in goods and services reached a new record of $1.3 billion for the year ending March 2020, stated the joint statement on the strategic partnership. To that end, we commit to individual and joint actions to open markets and reduce barriers to bilateral trade, especially for agricultural, seafood, and timber products through enhancing market access, trade facilitation, information exchange, and collaboration between our customs, and agriculture, food safety, and animal health agencies. In order to also promote investment in both directions and encourage inclusive growth, we will also foster co-operation in the development of micro, small and medium enterprises, indigenous or ethnic minorities businesses, women entrepreneurs and other important areas.

New Zealand is also an official development assistance (ODA) donor for Vietnam, with the amount of this capital rising annually, from just $2.3 million in 2003-2004 to $7.4 million in 2012-2013, and $18.6 million in 2015-2018.

Recently, the parliament of New Zealand also passed an ODA sum of $18.6 million for the 2018-2021 period.

New Zealands ODA has been funnelled through bilateral and multilateral channels, focusing on such areas as human resource development, education and training, sustainable agriculture, and rural development.

Both countries have also been cementing bilateral co-operation in defence and security, education and training, labour, transport, tourism, and agriculture.

New Zealand is supporting Vietnam in growing its agriculture sector, developing a more highly-skilled and educated workforce, and building resilience to disasters.

New Zealand Ambassador in Vietnam Wendy Mathews said that the two countries agricultural sectors are reciprocal. New Zealand has allowed the importation of Vietnamese mango, dragon fruit, and rambutan. In turn, Vietnam has opened its doors to New Zealands potatoes, frozen beef, kiwi fruit, and apples.

They supported each other and coordinated closely in the negotiations over and signing of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and are now pushing ahead with talks on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement.

As a member of the ASEAN, Vietnam is included in the NZ Inc ASEAN strategy. NZ Inc is the New Zealand governments plan to strengthen this nations economic, political, and security relationships with key international partners.
The first batch of Rafale fighter jets entered the Indian airspace today around 14:00 hrs. The Arrow formation (Rafales) was given ceremonial welcome by two SU-30MKIs. Ministry of Defence took to Twitter to officially released the pictures. The first batch of Rafale aircraft took off from France on July 27 and arrived in India on July 29 and will be officially inducted to the Indian Air Force fleet at Ambala airbase in Haryana. (Image: IAF)
The standing committee of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Tuesday approved a proposal to hire students from various medical colleges in their final year to work at Covid-19 care centres.

The PMC has been facing a shortage of manpower within their health infrastructure to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic and had sought help from private doctors on a contract basis. However, the civic body received a poor response from private doctors and hence, municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar floated the proposal in front of the standing committee.

The standing committee approved the proposal to hire medical college students and interns at the Covid-19 care centres and fixed payments for them.

Kumar in his proposal stated that the PMC tried to appoint doctors for a six-month contract, twice, and even issued appointment letters to these doctors, but very few of them joined duty. As the Covid-19 cases are increasing in the city and the medical infrastructure is also improving, we are hiring more medical staff. Recently guardian minister Ajit Pawar asked us to appoint final-year medical students or who are doing internship, at Covid centres. As decided in the meeting, PMC is appointing medical students from various colleges.

Standing committee chairman Hemant Rasne, said, We have given a nod to the administrations proposal to appoint students from medical colleges. PMC standing committee approved the stipend as suggested by the administration.

These students have already completed their medical education and are either practising or completing their internship. Some of them are also volunteers at the PMC and government hospitals, claimed officials from the administration.

Payment plan

Standing committee of the Pune Municipal Corporation approved the following stipend for medical college students who will work with the civic body:

MBBS student- Rs30,000 per month

BAMS student- Rs25,000 per month

BHMS student- 20,000 per month

MBBS student in any year rather than final year - Rs500 per day

Nursing college student - Rs400 per day

Student for swab test- Rs100 per day
A charity has warned of a possible set-back for the conservation of rare livestock if animal registrations are overlooked this year as a result of the pandemic.

Concerns have been raised that some keepers will overlook registrations as shows and events continue to be cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis.

Summer is usually a popular time for registering native animals with breed societies, as some breeds need to be registered to qualify for livestock showing classes.

According to the charity Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST), registration of animals was 'crucial' for rare breed conservation.

RBST chief executive, Christopher Price said: "Every registration helps to give us a more accurate picture of the status of each rare breed, allowing us to analyse trends such as increases or decreases in numbers, and geographic distribution.

"These analyses inform our conservation objectives, decisions on the capture of genetic material, programmes to prevent inbreeding, and support for keepers commercial avenues."

Mr Price said some breeds must be registered within a certain timeframe so a delay can mean missing the boat.

Registered animals are recorded in the relevant flock book, herd book or stud book, and some receive certificates.

Progeny of unregistered animals cannot be registered, so one missed registration can interrupt a bloodline that has survived for generations.

Mr Price said: For everyone involved with rare breeds, a longer term ambition should be that consumers come to value the proof of authenticity of buying produce from registered rare breed animals.

"Now that more and more producers are selling meat and wool directly to consumers, we have an opportunity to highlight that registration demonstrates an animal truly has the breeds unique qualities.

Many breeds allow online registration through the Grassroots system, and once registered those animals can be flagged as available for sale. Paper application can also be sent direct to the relevant breed society.

Grassroots is soon to launch a new-look online registry and a linked mobile app for both Apple and Android phones to make it easier to manage pedigree records, from grazing groups and birth information to shearing dates and applying for registration.

Other breeds allow online registration through the Cloudlines platform, which allows for the recording of pedigree data from all breeds of livestock, including poultry.

The platform has additional capabilities including interactive pedigree maps, the generation of genetic information regarding breed populations, stud-selector tool and automated exports of data to population analysis platforms.

Marcus Bates, chief executive of the British Pig Association said Herdbook registration and pedigree breeding were the 'foundations' of rare breed conservation.

"Without pedigree breeders diligently registering their pigs many of our native breeds would now be extinct."

He noted that the Lincolnshire Curly Coat was the last British pig breed to be lost in the 1970s.

"Since then a small group of dedicated breeders have ensured that no more of our wonderful native pig breeds have been lost," Mr Bates added.

"When you herdbook register your pigs you are joining one of the longest running and most successful conservation projects and ensuring that our native breeds are passed on to the next generation.
A Madhya Pradesh (MP) government-run Bhopal-based medical colleges head of the forensic medicine department was arrested by a team of special police establishment (SPE) of Lokayukta on Monday on charges of accepting a bribe of Rs 40,000 from a postgraduate (PG) final year student and coercing him to make him pay up the sum with an explicit threat that a non-payment would lead to his failure in the examination, the Lokayuktas office said.

The complainant Dr. Yashpal Singh, a resident of Narwar town in MPs Shivpuri district, in his complaint to Lokayukta has alleged that the head of the forensic medicine department of Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal, Dr. Murali Lalwani, had demanded Rs 1.5 lakh from him. This money was earned by Dr. Singh from the state governments home department for performing post-mortem examinations, but Dr. Lalwani asked the complainant to give the amount to him, claiming that he had performed them (the examinations) on his behalf, stated the release.

Dr Lalwani threatened the complainant that if he didnt give the amount to him he would fail him in his examination. Dr. Lalwani had made a similar demand to two more PG students, Dr. Ashok Yadav and Dr. Sanjay Jain, it added.

A team from the Lokayukta organisation, led by superintendent of police (SP), arrested the head of the forensic medicine department, Dr. Murali Lalwani, while he was accepting Rs 40,000 from the complainant in his office at Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal, on Monday, the release further stated.

Manu Vyas, SP, SPE, Lokayukta, said, The legal proceedings are on. Dr. Lalwani has been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

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The family of a man who was killed after being caught in a wood chipper in a Russell County workplace accident in May has filed suit against the lumber company where he was employed.

The family of Brandon Lee VanDyke is suing MDLG, Inc., doing business as Phenix Lumber Co., seeking damages. The lawsuit states that there has been no workers compensation settlement for the family.

The suit also seeks to hold the machines manufacturer responsible for the design that attorney Kendall Dunston said created an unreasonable risk of injury and death to the intended users.

Vandyke, 34, was a worker at Phenix Lumber Co. on Cutrate Road in Phenix City. On the morning of May 20, he went to service a wood chipper that had become jammed after an alarm sounded. He then became entangled in the machine. First responders discovered his partial remains at the scene.

The lawsuit also alleges negligence regarding the equipment and maintenance and lack of adequate training in the company.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited MDLG in September 2010 for 53 safety and health violations following the death of one worker and the critical injury of a second.

According to OSHA, inspectors were in the midst of a review when one worker was killed after his head was crushed between a motor being hoisted with a forklift and other equipment. Another worker was seriously injured after he fell approximately 10 feet, breaking his neck, while doing daily maintenance on the debarker in the saw mill. A year later, OSHA slapped a $1.9 million fine on the company.

A representative of Phenix Lumber Co. reached by telephone said he was not aware of the lawsuit.

Dunston, a lawyer for the family, cited Phenix Lumbers record.

The defendant is a repeat offender with safety violations that risked the safety of employees countless times before Mr. VanDykes tragic death, Dunson said. Mr. VanDyke was at least the second fatal victim at the defendants mill in the last decade and despite numerous citations and hefty fines by federal regulators, Phenix Lumber continues putting workers at risk. Mr. VanDykes family has enlisted our firm to help them hold Phenix Lumber accountable.
Portland officials have called for a ceasefire and demanded a removal of heightened federal forces from the city as Donald Trump was planning to send more units amid a crackdown on protests across the country.

Mayor Ted Wheeler released a joint statement with commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty calling on top officials from the Department of Homeland Security to an immediate meeting about the violent confrontations between officers and demonstrators in recent weeks.

Today, mayor Ted Wheeler and commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty are calling for an immediate meeting with Department of Homeland Security leadership on the ground in Portland, the statement read, naming Acting Secretary Chad Wolf as one of the department officials they were seeking a meeting with, to discuss a cease-fire and removal of heightened federal forces from Portland.

The local officials also decried the Trump administrations federal occupation of their city.

Black Lives Matter protests  sparked earlier this year following the death of George Floyd  have led to occasionally violent scenes in several cities, with activists holding massive demonstrations outside of the Mark O Hatfield courthouse in Portland and clashing with local police and federal officers in recent nights.

Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Show all 13 1 /13 Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Portland activists gather People gather in a protest camp near the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse as the city prepares for another night of unrest on July 27, 2020 in Portland, Oregon. For over 57 straight nights, protesters have faced off in often violent clashes with the Portland Police Bureau and, more recently, federal officers. Getty Images Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Portland Moms join the protests The demonstrations began to honor the life of George Floyd and other black Americans killed by law enforcement and have intensified as the Trump administration called in the federal officers. Getty Images Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Federal officers detain activists Federal police make an arrest as they confront protesters in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland as the city experiences another night of unrest. Getty Images Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Demonstrators continue protesting at courthouse The federal government has meanwhile announced plans to send additional federal agents to the scene. Getty Images Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Portland protests continue A demonstrator holds his arms up in the air as federal officers launch tear gas during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. AP Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Federal officers deploy tear gas Federal officers deploy tear gas and crowd control munitions at demonstrators during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. AP Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Federal officers advance on demonstrators Federal officers advance of demonstrators during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. AP Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Military veterans participate in a Black Lives Matter protest Military veterans participate in a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. AP Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Federal police face off with protesters The officers once again clashed with protestors amid weeks of tense confrontations. Getty Images Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Protestors gather at courthouse People gather to protest in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland as the city experiences another night of unrest on July 27, 2020 in Portland, Oregon. Getty Images Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Protestors continue gathering The protests have continued for 57 days. Getty Images Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' A demonstrator holds a sign in front of a fire A demonstrator holds a sign in front of a fire during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. AP Portland unrest continues as officials call for federal 'ceasefire' Demonstrators shield themselves from advancing federal officers Demonstrators shield themselves from advancing federal officers during a Black Lives Matter protest. AP

Agents have been accused of detaining citizens unlawfully in unmarked vehicles, causing the hashtag #PortlandKidnappings to trend nationwide.

The violence has been met with widespread backlash from activists and Democrats alike, as lawmakers demand the Trump administration withdraw federal agents from Oregon and discontinue plans to send the officers to other cities facing major protests, like Chicago.

Meanwhile, the White House was reportedly planning on sending at least 100 additional officers to Portland, as reporting from inside the citys protests revealed violent scenes in which officers were tear gassing demonstrators on a near-nightly basis.

The mayor has decried the presence of federal agents in his city as a direct threat against democracy and joined protestors in calling for their removal during a demonstration last week.

Not all Portland officials have condemned the federal governments presence in the city amid protests: Billy Williams, US attorney for Oregon, decried a decision by the mayor to ban city police from working with federal law enforcement as nonsensical, political theatre in an interview with The Oregonian.

He added: Anyone who thinks were just going to give up the courthouse, Hatfield, Pioneer (Courthouse) or any other federal facility downtown, thats not going to happen.
Dramatic video shows the moment good Samaritans rescued an unconscious driver from his smoking vehicle just moment before it burst into flames outside of New Jersey gas station over the weekend.

According to the Burlington Township Police, officers responded to the area of Sunset Road and Salem Road on Sunday after receiving reports about a vehicle accident.

Just as officers arrived to the scene, good Samaritans, Larry Scott and Domenique Golden, jumped into action to pull the unconscious driver from the smoking vehicle.

Dramatic video shows the moment good Samaritans rescued an unconscious driver from his smoking vehicle just moment before it burst into flames outside of New Jersey gas station over the weekend

The footage shows the men opening the victim's car door and pulling him out.

They then drag the man by his arms away from the vehicle and onto a patch of grass outside a Shell gas station as the department's first officer arrived on the scene to help.

The officer then instructs the two men to pick the driver up and carry him further away from the smoking vehicle.

Moments later, the vehicle burst into flames. The flames continued to consume the car as police officers blocked off the roadway.

Following the rescue, the police department saluted both men 'for their heroism'.

Police have not released details about the cause of the crash and no other details were available about the victim's condition.

Moments later, the vehicle burst into flames. The flames continued to consume the car as police officers blocked off the roadway

Police have not released details about the cause of the crash and no other details were available about the victim's condition

The incident occurred outside a Shell gas station in Burlington Township on Sunday
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 00:29:37|Editor: huaxia

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LANZHOU, July 27 (Xinhua) -- More than 90 percent of poor villages in China have set up farmers' cooperatives, which play an important role in the country's poverty alleviation efforts.

A total of some 682,000 such cooperatives have been established in 832 poverty-stricken counties, which have helped nearly 22 million people shake off poverty, according to a national conference on poverty alleviation via developing industries held Monday in the city of Longnan, northwest China's Gansu Province.

The number of rural poor people under China's current poverty line dropped from 98.99 million at the end of 2012 to 5.51 million by the end of 2019.

"Industrial poverty alleviation has played a key role in the process," said Liu Yongfu, director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, at the conference.

According to the statistics by Liu's office, 92 percent of the country's poor population have participated in industrial poverty alleviation. Among those who have been lifted out of poverty, 72 percent have received support from industrial poverty alleviation.

The office asked to aid the poor affected by the current floods with industrial support to minimize the impact on poverty alleviation.

The Chinese government has set the end of 2020 as its target for eradicating absolute poverty, known as one of the "three tough battles" that the country must win to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020. Enditem
Six protesters have been arrested at the Black Lives Matter rally in Sydney.

Among those arrested at Tuesday morning's illegal rally were event organiser Paddy Gibson.

He was filmed being forcibly removed from The Domain by officers and dragged into a police car.

'Leave now, don't come near me, don't come near me,' Mr Gibson is heard yelling in footage shot by Nine News.

'Tell the people to cancel the rally, leave the Domain, don't come near me.'

He was detained and fined before he was later seen heading into nearby NSW state parliament.

Protest organiser Paddy Gibson is pictured being dragged away by police on Tuesday

Protester Nessa Turnbull-Roberts (pictured) was also arrested and later released by police

Three men, aged 40, 37 and 22, and two women aged 50 and 23, were arrested at the Domain

Each were issued with $1000 fines for breaching public health orders, before being issued move-on directions.

A third woman, aged 25, was arrested and issued a Criminal Infringement Notice for offensive language.

The protest was due to start at midday Tuesday, despite being declared illegal by the NSW Supreme Court, which later dismissed an appeal by Mr Gibson.

Up to 5,000 protesters had registered on Facebook to attend the rally but was shut down by police before shortly before it was due to start.

This middle-aged protester was among six attendees arrested and issued with $1000 fines

A male protester detained in The Domain was removed from the rally and into a police van

The NSW Supreme Court ruled on Sunday it was too risky for the protest to go ahead due to a fresh outbreak of coronavirus cases across Sydney, with 14 new infections detected on Tuesday.

'The NSW Police Force is reminding the community that a number of ministerial directions remain in place covering returned overseas travellers, diagnosed persons, mass gatherings and movement, spitting and coughing, residential aged care facilities, border control measures and compliance requirements for NSW businesses, funerals, places of worship, weddings and corporate events,' a police statement released on Tuesday states.

Activist Nessa Turnbull-Roberts was among the six protesters arrested by police.

'I have been released and it is all on footage me complying with Covid-19 and police abusing their powers once again.The last time I was handled by police with hands put behind my back was the night they removed me. The police did not comply with 1.5 metre Covid-19 restrictions,' she later tweeted.

'The police are traumatic. The other people arrested have also been released. Thank you to mob and family for keeping us safe and ensuring our whereabouts. There is no justice until collective justice is served on the lives murdered by the state. Enough is enough.'

Black Lives Matter protest organiser Paddy Gibson was dragged into a NSW Police van

A female protester holding a megaphone and wearing a face mask bearing the Aboriginal flag were among those detained by police at the illegal rally in Sydney

A small group of protesters who remained in The Domain were ordered by the heavy presence of police officers to leave the area or risk being arrested.

A number of $1000 fines were also issued by police.

The protest was organised for the family of Aboriginal man David Dungay Junior, who died in Long Bay Jail in December 2015.

Mr Dungay's family were among the attendees at Tuesday's rally.

'We're still going to rally and were going to rally until we get charges. I will rest after that,' his mother Leetona Dungay said on Monday.

'I'm going to walk strong and tall until the day I get justice.'
Hard-up savers withdrew almost 2million in three months from a tax-free government savings scheme aimed at helping those on low incomes build a rainy-day fund, official figures show.

Some 12,260 requests to withdraw money from Help to Save accounts, which pay a 50 per cent top-up of up to 1,200 over a period of four years, were made between the start of March and 5 June, with savers withdrawing an average of 155 each.

The figures came from a Freedom of Information request made to HMRC by the insurer Royal London.

Millions of pounds has been withdrawn from the government-backed Help to Save accounts since March, official figures from HMRC revealed

There were 175,000 accounts opened by the end of March with a total of 55million deposited.

It would indicate that around 7 per cent of all savers in the scheme may have tapped into the money to get by.

'The stats aren't a surprise although, if you'd asked me to guess, I'd have gone for a figure higher than 7 per cent of accounts being accessed', James Blower, industry expert and founder of The Savings Guru, said.

He adds: 'The bad thing is that I expect that it's probably more like 5 per cent of accounts accessed with most simply taking it all out to cope with the situation.

'I suspect that, if we did a similar request in three months' time, the stats will be worse.'

The withdrawal figures are a blow given the scheme is designed to incentivise people to build up substantial savings by paying out a government bonus after two and then four years, but also demonstrate the impact the coronavirus crisis has had on the lives of those on lower incomes.

While Britain as a whole has been saving record sums over the last few months, close to 30 per cent of those 20,000 or less have seen their income reduced, according to the Office for National Statistics.

At the same time only around a third of those people believed they would be able to save money over the next year, the ONS found in June.

Those on lower incomes are likelier to have seen their income reduced due to the coronavirus and are less likely to be able to save over the next 12 months

And research from the think tank the Resolution Foundation found 32 per cent of the second poorest fifth of households were saving less than usual during the crisis and a quarter had turned to borrowing to get by.

While the think tank's George Bangham said Britain's 'wealth divides have been exposed by the crisis', the lack of a safety net among those on lower incomes long predates the coronavirus.

Research from the Resolution Foundation found those on lower incomes were saving less during lockdown, while richer households saving more has contributed to record deposits

Launched in September 2018, Help to Save was one attempting at solving the endemic problem.

It is open to those on Working Tax Credit or Universal Credit, provided they earned 604.56 from paid work in the month since they made a claim, and allows savers to put away up to 50 a month into a government account.

After two years the government pays out a 50 per cent bonus on the maximum amount saved over the period, up to 600.

And after two more years, provided savers continue to add to their balance, they will receive another bonus of up to 600.

These rules mean those who withdrew money because they needed it in the short-term will see their bonus fall, as savers will not be able to put away more than 50 in the future to compensate for withdrawing money now.

Royal London's Rebecca O'Connor said: 'The proportion and size of withdrawals from Help to Save accounts indicates the extent that some low income earners have had to call on all available resources to get through the last few months.

'Those who had managed to scrape together deposits in these accounts are no doubt disappointed they've had to raid them to get by during lockdown, as this money was probably earmarked for something else'.
Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

SRINAGAR: With National Conference president and former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah spelling out partys policy of fighting Article 370 revocation in court and pressing for restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, party's chief spokesman and three-time former legislator Aga Ruhullah said, "What happened on August 5, 2019 is beyond statehood" and restoration of statehood should be the last demand.

Talking to this newspaper, Ruhullah, who is still under house arrest, said that Omar in an article has spelled out that Article 370 would be fought in court and restoration of statehood would be demanded. Omar has announced that he would not contest Assembly elections till statehood of Jammu & Kashmir is restored.

On August 5 last year, centre scrapped Articles 370 and 35A, which granted special status and special privileges to Jammu & Kashmir residents, and also split it into two Union Territories (UTs)  Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Ruhullah, who is an influential Shia leader and also a former minister, said what happened on August 5, 2019 is beyond statehood. "The restoration of statehood should be the least of the demands. It should be the last demand. Our main demand should be restoration of special status," he said.

Omar in an interview has categorically ruled out agitating over restoration of Article 370 and 35A. "Now if you are asking me whether the NC will take this battle to the streets, I think the time for that has passed. When in the immediate aftermath of what happened on August 5, the battle didnt go out into the streets, why would it go down to the streets one year later. So we will fight it politically, legally," Omar said.

Ruhullah said the party vice president has spoken out and it is now the official line. "This should be the policy towards which NC will now move".

Asked whether Omar's policy is more of reconciliation towards Delhi, Ruhullah said, "If partys central working committee endorses the same pattern, then it should be reconciliation. I hope the working committee strikes down any reconciliation. However, if the working committee endorses the same policy to move ahead, then it is a reconciliation unfortunately to which I personally may not subscribe to"

The union territory's BJP unit, J&K Apni Party of Altaf Bukhari and Congress have also been demanding restoration of statehood to J&K.

Ruhullah had earlier told this newspaper that "what happened on August 5 was a coup on the population of J&K. The entire population was treated like slaves and a coup was mounted on J&K people and every right of theirs was snatched. We have been left with nothing. We were left naked on August 5".

He had said political leaders must keep aside aspirations of power and chair and start struggling and fighting for what has been snatched from us.

"The politicians should talk and fight for restoration of rights snatched from J&K people on August 5. Even if we are jailed or put in prisons for talking about it, we should not be worried and afraid. Instead we should be ready for it," added Ruhullah.
Despite protests, the removal of two murals designed by Pablo Picasso began on Monday from an Oslo government building damaged in right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik's 2011 attack, a project manager said.

The "Y Block", a government building complex named for its shape, is scheduled to be demolished to make way for a new government complex buliding.

The building suffered external damage from explosives that Breivik set before going on a shooting rampage, killing a combined 77 people.

On its grey cement walls are two drawings by Picasso that were sandblasted by Norwegian artist Carl Nesjar, who collaborated with the Spanish master painter.

On the facade facing the street, "The Fishermen" depicts three men hauling their oversized catch onto their boat. In the lobby, "The Seagull" shows the bird, its wings spread wide, devouring a fish.

On Monday, the works, weighing 250 and 60 tonnes respectively, were enclosed in massive metal supports to be transported away and stored nearby, according to Statsbygg, the public agency in charge of overseeing the demolition.

"The operation is very slow" and should be completed by Thursday or Friday, site manager Pal Weiby told AFP.

The plan is to integrate the works into a new government building scheduled for completion in 2025.

Opponents of the project, both in Norway and abroad, have been mobilising in recent years to save the building, calling for it to be renovated and preserved as has been planned for its neighbour, "Block H".

"Block H" was home to the prime minister's offices until Breivik blew up a van loaded with 950 kilogrammes (2,100 pounds) of explosives at its base, before he went on to carry out a mass shooting on the island of Utoya.

Kjersti Hembre, an architect who was one of founders of the Save The Y-Block protests, told AFP that one of the main points of contention was that the decision was made without there ever being a serious investigation into whether it could be integrated in the new governmental quarter.

According to Hembre, the fact that the murals would be incorporated into the new structure demonstrated a "lack of understanding" of the works which not only adorne the building but are part of its load-bearing structure.

"It's a violation of the works that are integrated into the building architecture in an inseparable way" Hembre told AFP.
Pakistani Christian family beaten for saving 13-y-o daughter from kidnapping by Muslim extremists

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A young Pakistani Christian girl was nearly abducted from her home earlier this month when a radical group of Muslim men attacked her entire family, according to a U.S.-based Christian persecution watchdog.

International Christian Concern reported the near abduction of the 13-year-old daughter of Aslam Masih and Noreen Bibi in the Christian-majority neighborhood of Sadigabad in Pakistan's Punjab province on July 12.

Masih and his family were violently attacked by a mob of 12 men who broke into their home and tried to kidnap his daughter, Noor, and force her into a marriage. In Pakistan, it's estimated that hundreds of women and girls are kidnapped, forced into marriage and forcibly converted to Islam each year.

According to ICC, a man named Muhammad Irfan led the group of armed men. Bibi told the organization that Ifran would often express sexual interest in her young daughter.

He [Irfan] often teased and disturbed my daughter in the streets, but we always ignored, Bibi recalled. Finally, Irfan forcibly entered into my house and intended to kidnap my daughter. However, we resisted. In response, he attacked and beat my entire family who got multiple injuries.

According to Bibi, her husband was injured in the attack and hasn't received medical care to treat his wounds.

[P]olice have not registered the case against Irfan and medical staff have not provided medical aid to the injured, Bibi was quoted as saying.

Irfan's threats have also continued despite the familys resistance. Bibi also said that Irfans supporters have threatened to burn down their home and cause further harm if the family pursues legal action.

Despite the immense number of crimes committed against Christians in Pakistan, those facing persecution rarely see justice in the legal system, according to ICC Advocacy Director Matias Perttula.

In Pakistan, a Muslim-majority country, courts are consistently pressured by mobs of civil unrest to make decisions based on Islamic law instead of government code, he told The Christian Post.

Even though extremists are a minority in terms of population, they still wield major political power in the country, Perttula said. If the judge rules in favor of a Christian woman, these people will incite mob violence on the Christian community and attack the Christians there. Theyll show up at the courthouse to intimidate the judge.

Perttula cited an abduction case involving 14-year-old Huma Younus, who was taken from her home last October, to describe how kidnapping, rape and forced conversions are handled to provide perspective on Pakistani justice issues.

Younus was kidnapped at gunpoint by a man she worked for and was subsequently raped, forcefully converted to Islam, forced into marriage, and impregnated by her kidnapper.

According to state law, Younus was not of age to consent to marriage or sexual relations, thus making the forced marriage illegal. However, the Sindh High Court in Karachi earlier this year ruled in favor of the kidnapper and reasoned that since Younus had already experienced her first period, she was of legal age.

I met with Humas parents. Legal documents were provided proving she was 14, Perttula said. The courts still sided with the kidnapper. Because of her period, she was fit. They completely ignored the consent law.

Perttula also said that Younus case, and more recently Masihs daughter, are like one example of a sea of hundreds of these stories that happen.

Estimates cited by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in its annual report suggest that as many as 1,000 women and girls are forcibly converted to Islam each year in Pakistan, many of whom are kidnapped, forced into marriage and raped.

Injustice and intimidation tactics do not begin with court decisions though, and oftentimes never reach a court. The biggest danger Christians, Hindus, and all minorities face in Pakistan is an accusation of blasphemy, Perttula said.

Pakistani life is largely influenced by honor culture. If a person is accused of blasphemy, even if the claim is proven false, honor is lost for the individual and family, which can cause hardship in both personal and professional ways.

As Pakistans blasphemy laws are often abused by some Muslims to settle personal disputes with religious minorities, dozens of people are jailed for blasphemy in Pakistan. Some have even been sentenced to the death penalty.

The lives of young women who are victims of rape, kidnapping and other traumas face harsh aftermath as well. Due to the honor culture, women are seen as unclean or damaged due to no fault of their own.

It makes a womans prospect for marriage difficult. Most of the time they are welcomed back by their family but with an element of shame, which is heartbreaking, Perttula said. The mere accusation of this or blasphemy has tainted your life for life, essentially, and the community may not welcome you back.

Earlier this month, ICC also reported on a video posted to YouTube showing an extremist Pakistani Muslim cleric declaring that Christians have no right to live in this Islamic country.

I want to let you know that these people [Christians] are the worst infidels of the universe, the Muslim cleric was quoted as saying.

Religious minorities, especially individuals facing blasphemy threats, also face difficult working conditions and unfair job opportunities, Perttula stressed.

Many of these people work in sanitation services and are not provided with proper equipment or clothing to perform jobs involving sewage.

The U.S. State Department has designated Pakistan as a country of particular concern for engaging in or tolerating egregious and systemic abuses of religious freedom. Pakistan has also been ranked as the fifth-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution on Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List.
Amid the ongoing political tussle in Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot cabinet started a meeting at around 10 AM on Tuesday (July 28) to hold discussions over the conditions laid down by Governor Kalraj Mishra on convening the assembly session as demanded by the chief minister.

Governor Mishra on Monday gave his nod to the Assembly session after showing much reluctance but he laid down some conditions to be satisfied by Rajasthan CM in order to convene the Assembly. Sources said that during the Cabinet meeting, the ministers would approve the proposal which would be sent to Governor Mishra seeking his nod for Assembly Session.

Talking to Zee News, Revenue Minister Harish Chaudhary said that during the meeting the Cabinet will hold discussions over the letter sent to CM Gehlot by Governor Mishra. Chaudhary added that it is Governor's right to seek answers from the government and CM Gehlot will answer all his queries.

Raj Bhawan sources said that Governor Mishra will summon assembly session if Ashok Gehlot-led government agrees on giving 21-day notice amid coronavirus pandemic situation.

Gehlot sent a revised proposal to the Governor on Monday but it also failed to impress him. "The Raj Bhavan (Governor) has no intention of not calling the assembly session," Governor said in a statement adding "it would be difficult to call all MLAs at short notice during the pandemic."

"Can you consider giving 21 days' notice to the MLAs?," the Governor's note said, asking how will the social distancing be maintained during the assembly session. Kalraj Mishra also wrote that the state government should undertake to broadcast live the proceedings of a floor test if it takes place.
The body of a Dalit woman was taken off a funeral pyre in Uttar Pradesh by a group of upper-caste men who said she could not be cremated on communal land, police said on Tuesday, a case that prompted angry calls for an end to caste discrimination.

The funeral was being held last week when about 200 men stopped the cremation going ahead, saying the site was not meant for lower-caste villagers, police and the womans husband said.

My family and I begged them to let us perform the last rites but no one listened to us. The police were also called but nothing was done, said Rahul Bajaniya, the womans husband.

We had to take the body to a different cremation ground, which is about four kilometres (2.5 miles) away, and perform the last rites there, he said from Kakarpura village, which lies close to the Taj Mahal.

Bajaniya said caste discrimination in the village was so entrenched that people from higher castes even object to us when we fetch water from the (community) hand-pump.

An online video showing men removing firewood from the pyre as a body lay on the ground had been viewed nearly 2,00,000 times by Tuesday.

The incident sparked anger on social media, with politicians and campaigners demanding justice for the womans family.

Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati described the case as most shameful and most condemnable in a tweet.

In this casteist and most disgusting incident, a high-level inquiry should be done by the government and the culprits should be given harshest punishment so that such an incident is not repeated in the state, she said.

BS Veer Kumar, the local deputy police superintendent, said his team could not take any action unless the womans family filed an official complaint.

The family has raised their demand for a separate cremation ground and that is being looked into, he said.

Bajaniya said he had decided not to file a police complaint because he wanted to live peacefully in the village where he often got part-time jobs from upper-caste residents.

Discrimination on the basis of caste  a system that divided Hindus into groups based on occupations  was banned in 1955. But centuries-old biases against lower-caste groups persist, making it harder for them to access education, jobs and homes.

A growing population and rising pressure on land to build homes, highways and industry is triggering conflicts, with lower-caste Indians often facing eviction, particularly in rural areas where discrimination is strongest, campaigners say.

Their traditional burial and cremation grounds are also targeted, with Dalits sometimes forced to keep relatives bodies for days until they can find a place to bury or cremate them.

More than half of Indias lower-caste population is landless, according to census data. Several states have laws aimed at giving land to Dalits but few have produced results, according to Dalit activists and leaders.

SR Darapuri, a Dalit rights activist based in Lucknow, demanded the government do more to meet the needs of poor minorities.

This is not a new case or a new thing as it keeps on happening in India, he said.

The only solution to end this caste discrimination is making separate community centres in every village for lower-caste people where they can go and talk about their problems and requirements.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
In a very rare incident, a goose waddled back to its owners' home after being snatched away by a fox in Saskatchewan, Canada. According to the reports, the Shymko family had given up all their hopes after Steve (the goose) was carried away by a fox. Simultaneously, the family members thought that they will never see their beloved pet again. But to their utter surprise, the bird managed to return back home. Steve and his sister Lulu were adopted in the Shymko family nearly nine years ago. Carla Shymko, the wife reportedly said that both the birds were very close to each other and slept next to family dogs.

READ: Research Reveals The Reason Behind Why We Still Get Goosebumps

A family from Saskatchewan woke up to the sound of pecking at their back door. They were surprised to find Steve, their pet goose who went missing recently - Carla Shymko #Canada #Saskatchewan #Sask #Saskatchewan #MooseJaw pic.twitter.com/x8sxYytm79  Freshdaily (@freshdaily) June 17, 2020

Family taken aback

Carla noticed that Steve was missing when she went out of the house to check on something one morning. As per reports, she was very afraid and noticed a pile of white feathers lying on the ground. But Carla and family did not give up and they posted the incident on local Facebook group and received a lot of replies from other users. One neighbour reportedly said that he saw a fox walking down the road with a goose in its mouth the morning Steve disappeared.

READ: Video: Goose Battles Mischievous Baby Elephant, Calf's Reaction Wins Internet

At that point, the family members felt sad thinking Steve was badly hurt and probably killed. But the next morning, the goose showed up on the front door and the family was taken aback to see him. According to the reports, the bird was a little weak and weary but made a full recovery soon.

READ: Video: Goose Stands 'fearless' As cows charge At It, Netizens Laud 'brave Bird'

READ: Dwarf Mongoose Plays Dead Around Yellow-billed Hornbill Bird In A Hilarious Video; Watch

Image: Carla Shymko/Twitter
Russias deposit insurer seeks collection of $90.5 mln from Yugra bank ex-managers

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

10:57 28/07/2020

MOSCOW, July 28 (RAPSI)  The Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) has filed two more claims seeking to collect over 6.5 billion rubles ($90.5 million) in damages from ex-owner of Bank Yugra Alexey Khotin, ex-board chairman Dmitry Shilyayev and several other individuals and legal entities, according to the Moscow Commercial Courts records.

Earlier, the court seized over 21.5 billion rubles (about $300 million) belonging to Khotin, Shilyayev and others. A relevant injunctive remedies petition has been filed by the DIA as part of its claim to collect this amount from the former bank managers.

In June, the court attached their assets in the total amount of more than 77 billion rubles (over $1 billion).

Previously, the same court ruled in favor of the DIA as to attachment of cash assets and other properties of former Bank Yugra managers worth several dozens of billions.

At that time, DIA petitioned the court to grant it interim relief by seizing the aforesaid property in the framework of a claim by which it sought to hold the defendants civilly liable and recover from them the damages.

In the period from April 9 through April 16, the court ruled in favor of DIA as to the recovery of about 8 billion rubles (about $113 million at the current exchange rate) from the defendants, holding them civilly liable, and the seizure of their assets.

This February, the court dismissed a request of Yugra bank acting on behalf of Shilyayev to review the ruling, by which the banks license had been revoked in 2017, basing upon new evidence.

An earlier petition to review the order of Russias Central Bank of 2017 revoking Yugra license was dismissed in cassation in September 2019.

In July 2017, Russia's Central Bank said withdrew the license of Yugra bank, one of the top 30 banks. It imposed temporary administration represented by the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) in the bank. The DIA was ordered to conduct Yugras status inquiry.

In October 2018, the Moscow Commercial Court declared Yugra bankrupt.

This April, the Moscow City Court extended house arrest of the majority stockholder of Yugra bank Alexey Khotin charged with embezzling 7.5 billion rubles from the credit organization until July 18. Other defendants in the embezzlement case, ex-bank board chairman Dmitry Shilyayev and ex-president of the bank Alexey Nefedov, will also stay under house arrest until mid-July.

Investigators believe that banker Khotin and his alleged accomplices have been involved in stealing the money from Yugra. The fact of the embezzlement is confirmed by the documents of Russias Central Bank, Deposit Insurance Agency and other evidence, according to the investigation.




Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday said the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank should promote more infrastructure development across the world with its number of members increasing from 57 to 102, spanning across continents.

The Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), launched in 2016, is a multilateral development bank that aims to support building of infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region.

China is the largest shareholder of the bank with 26.06 per cent voting rights. India is the second-largest shareholder with 7.5 per cent followed by Russia at 5.93 per cent and Germany at 4.5 per cent.

"Let us aim at development for all and make the AIIB a new type of multilateral development bank that promotes development across the world," Xi said in his address.

"For countries to develop together, infrastructure connectivity serves as an important physical foundation. The AIIB should commit itself to serving the development needs of all its members and providing more high-quality, low-cost and sustainable investment for both traditional and new types of infrastructure. This will give renewed impetus to economic and social development in Asia and beyond," he said.

"The (AIIB) initiative is designed to develop infrastructure and connectivity in Asia and deepen regional cooperation for shared development," Xi said.

He said the bank got off to a good start. From the 57 founding members to today''s membership of 102 (countries) spanning the six continents of Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, South America and Oceania, the AIIB has grown from strength to strength and provided nearly USD 20 billion in infrastructure investment to its members, he said.

The AIIB, which has Indian DJ Pandian as its vice president, last month approved a USD 750-million loan to India to assist the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Co-financed with the Asian Development Bank, the budgetary support will go towards 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, a press release from the bank said.

The AIIB's total sovereign loans to India that have already been approved amounts to USD 3.06 billion, the release added.
UP Election 2022: BJP announces first list of candidates, Yogi Adityanath to contest from Gorakhpur

Fix deteriorating law and order in the state: Priyanka Gandhi to UP CM Yogi Adityanath

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

Lucknow, July 28: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday urged Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to fix the law and order in the state, adding that it is the responsibility of police and administration to take action in the wake of rising incidents of kidnapping.

In a letter to CM Yogi Adityanath, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra raised the matter of Vikram Tyagi, a businessman from Ghaziabad who has been missing for almost a month.

The Congress leader also said that Tyagi's family suspects he has been kidnapped.

Coronavirus: India records 47,703 new COVID-19 cases, 654 deaths in 24 hours

She also alleged that even after repeated requests, no concrete action has been taken by the police or administration.

"Two days ago, a delegation of our party met the family. They are very worried and upset. They have written in a letter seeking help and strict directive to the police officers to fully assist them," she said.

Priyanka Gandhi calls for rethink on B Ed entrance exam amid rapid spread of COVID-19

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

Priyanka Gandhi said in the letter that kidnapping incidents are increasing rapidly in Uttar Pradesh. "Law and order is deteriorating. At this time, it is the responsibility of the police and administration to take action in such matters with promptness and efficiency," she asserted.

Priyanka Gandhi has been attacking the Uttar Pradesh government over law and order and has slammed the state dispensation over the Vikas Dubey incident as well as the killing of Ghaziabad-based journalist Vikram Joshi, who was shot in the head by some assailants.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 28, 2020, 14:39 [IST]
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 20:13:18|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia will send at least 14 chartered flights in August to evacuate nationals stranded abroad due to COVID-19, the country's foreign ministry said Tuesday.

"Our country is planning to send at least 14 special flights to COVID-19-hit countries such as South Korea, the Unites States, India, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Australia next month to repatriate more than 3,400 nationals," Lkhanaajav Munkhtushig, director general of the consular department of the ministry, told a news conference.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, Mongolia has evacuated more than 14,700 nationals by chartered flights, buses or trains from different parts of the world.

The Asian country has confirmed 289 coronavirus cases so far, with no local transmissions or deaths. Enditem
Dan Oates Speaks Out

The onetime AAPD chief on why it's so hard to fire bad cops.

by James Leonard

From the July, 2020 issue

"Reform advocates are starting to focus on police unions' immense power to block the discipline of bad cops. Where have they been? Police chiefs have been fighting this lonely battle for years."



That was how Dan Oates began a June Washington Post opinion column. Recently retired as chief in Miami Beach, Florida, Oates previously ran departments in Aurora, Colorado, and Ann Arbor, where he was chief from 2001 to 2005.



He continued:



"There cannot be true reform unless Americans elect politicians willing to take on obstructionist labor leaders. In Minneapolis, Police Chief Medaria Arradondo quickly fired the officers involved in the death of George Floyd. But very few chiefs have this ability. In my time as a chief in Michigan, Colorado and Florida, I never did, thanks to a combination of state and local laws, union contracts, and past labor precedents."



Oates praised the vast majority of cops as "heroes who sacrifice every day to protect you, me and the next George Floyd." But he also described his struggles to discipline officers in Florida and Colorado.



James Leonard spoke to him by phone a few days after the column appeared, and asked him about his experience in Ann Arbor.



Observer: What did you think of the Ann Arbor Police Department?



Oates: I always felt that the cops individually were great. They were capable of doing great police work. But the collective consciousness as represented by the union was horrible.



Michigan had a really, really onerous arbitration statute [for labor disputes involving police officers]. If you wanted to make a policy change that impacted "working conditions" the union could grieve you and then take it to arbitration.



"Arbitrations suck the life out of a police chief," he wrote in the Post. "Instead of fighting crime or building community trust, you're huddled with lawyers, practicing testimony, memorizing evidence ... Too often, arbitrators feel the pressure to "split the baby" in their decisions. Perhaps the cop [the chief fired] is docked pay ...continued below...

or demoted; otherwise, he's back on patrol."That was number one. And number two, city leaders over the years had given away additional rights to the union--the most significant of which was the right of assignment. Basically, cops in Ann Arbor when I was there had a property interest in their assignment--which is absurd.Can you give an example?Fairly early on [I decided] that the lieutenant in charge of investigations in Ann Arbor doesn't belong in charge of investigations. ... I need to move him, but I can't. Once you're assigned, you have a property interest in it and you can't be moved.What did you do?[He] screwed up in a major way. And I disciplined him with a suspension, and he was so angry at me that we cut a deal: he retired and I was able to replace [him. After that,] I had a very, very high performing detective unit.Do you have advice for Ann Arbor?Insist that in the next contract that the right of assignment returns to the chief and just not agree to sign a contract unless that clause is removed ... That requires the courage to stand up to the union, but there's probably never been a better time for elected officials. Look what's happened: Colorado passed a sweeping reform bill.---[Originally published in July, 2020.]
A small explosion in a parcel from Amritsar in Punjab caused panic at Pradhan Nagar post office in north Bengals Siliguri town on Tuesday morning with staff and customers running for cover as sparks and smoke came out of the parcel around 11.30 am when a postman was handling it.

The bomb squad soon reached the spot with sniffer dogs followed by a criminal investigation department (CID) team. Police have started an investigation.

The parcel was booked through EMS Speed Post by a man named Anirudh Bhardawaj who deals in air guns in Amritsar, police said. The parcel, which was shipped on July 10, was meant for Anuj Tamang, a local resident. Tamang is being questioned.

Kunwar Bhusan Singh, deputy commissioner of police, Siliguri (Zone 2), said, The investigation has so far revealed that the parcel contained inflammatory substance used as cartridge in air guns.

Also Read: 2 killed as heavy rains lash north Bengal, thunderstorm forecast for Kolkata

Archana Dey, the postmaster of Pradhan Nagar post office said, The parcel reached the post office in the morning.

A senior police officer told HT that inflammatory substances cannot be shipped through post offices and it is being probed how the parcel was sent from Amritsar.

It may be recalled that in June 2011, a female school teacher was killed by a parcel bomb sent to her home in the English Bazar area of Malda district in north Bengal.

ends

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PARIS (Reuters) - Orange, France's biggest telecoms company, and Google on Tuesday announced a strategic partnership covering data, artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing services.

Google will provide its expertise in cloud technologies, analytics and artificial intelligence tools, while Orange plans to build a next-generation data analytics and machine-learning platform with the Google technologies.

"Google has been a long-term partner of Orange and, as Google is eager to invest in Europe - and especially in France - to develop new data centres, this is the perfect time to work on new services and opportunities in French and European markets," Orange chairman and CEO Stephane Richard said in a statement.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Jason Neely)
Federal security forces during a demonstration in Portland: REUTERS

Portland officials have called for a ceasefire and demanded a removal of heightened federal forces from the city as Donald Trump was planning to send more units amid a crackdown on protests across the country.

Mayor Ted Wheeler released a joint statement with commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty calling on top officials from the Department of Homeland Security to an immediate meeting about the violent confrontations between officers and demonstrators in recent weeks.

Today, mayor Ted Wheeler and commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty are calling for an immediate meeting with Department of Homeland Security leadership on the ground in Portland, the statement read, naming Acting Secretary Chad Wolf as one of the department officials they were seeking a meeting with, to discuss a cease-fire and removal of heightened federal forces from Portland.

The local officials also decried the Trump administrations federal occupation of their city.

Black Lives Matter protests  sparked earlier this year following the death of George Floyd  have led to occasionally violent scenes in several cities, with activists holding massive demonstrations outside of the Mark O Hatfield courthouse in Portland and clashing with local police and federal officers in recent nights.

Agents have been accused of detaining citizens unlawfully in unmarked vehicles, causing the hashtag #PortlandKidnappings to trend nationwide.

The violence has been met with widespread backlash from activists and Democrats alike, as lawmakers demand the Trump administration withdraw federal agents from Oregon and discontinue plans to send the officers to other cities facing major protests, like Chicago.

Meanwhile, the White House was reportedly planning on sending at least 100 additional officers to Portland, as reporting from inside the citys protests revealed violent scenes in which officers were tear gassing demonstrators on a near-nightly basis.

The mayor has decried the presence of federal agents in his city as a direct threat against democracy and joined protestors in calling for their removal during a demonstration last week.

Not all Portland officials have condemned the federal governments presence in the city amid protests: Billy Williams, US attorney for Oregon, decried a decision by the mayor to ban city police from working with federal law enforcement as nonsensical, political theatre in an interview with The Oregonian.

He added: Anyone who thinks were just going to give up the courthouse, Hatfield, Pioneer (Courthouse) or any other federal facility downtown, thats not going to happen.
Digital-only non-life insurer Acko General Insurance, which recently tied up with Amazon Pay to offer car and bike insurance to the latters customers, wants to stick to its original premise of being a retail insurer.

In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Varun Dua, CEO, Acko Insurance, said that while it is easy to build volumes in segments such as engineering, fire and crop, that is not the strategy for Acko.

We will continue to remain a retail player in the foreseeable future. We want to build a consumer internet digital play. We dont want to behave like a traditional insurance company trying to write multiple businesses. Volumes are high in these segments but so are the loss ratios. My vision for Acko is to write a stable book and focus on the retail consumer, he added.

Digital-only focus

In a departure from the traditional way of doing business, Acko does business only through the digital medium. This includes direct selling online as well as partnering with online commerce platforms such as Amazon to develop appropriate products for their customers.

With the Acko partnership, customers can buy car or bike insurance on Amazon Pay with zero paperwork. The policy can be purchased within a few minutes and also has a one-hour pick up and three-day assured claims servicing for vehicles.

Acko is the only insurance company in the country that does not have large corporate groups or conglomerates as its promoters.

NAVI General Insurance is another such insurer. Now, promoted by Sachin Bansal, it was originally owned by DHFL (Wadhwan Global Capital), which sold the business to Bansal in January 2020.

Also Read: Acko in talks with Amazon for product development

Investors have also taken notice. The two-year-old Acko has about $130 million in funding so far from investors such as Accel, Binny Bansal and SAIF Partners. Sources said that the company is also looking to close $60-70 million in funding, with investors such as Munich Re Ventures. Dua did not comment on this funding round.

Marching to a different beat

Dua believes the traditional models of doing business in the insurance sector may not work over the next 10 years. If you look at online insurer Lemonade, which went public in the United States, it is outstanding. That is the future of insurance and that is what investors are also looking for. Acko wants to build solutions for the future and will stick to its technology-led model, added Dua.

US-based Lemonade, which Dua is referring to, is a mobile-based insurance product company. Lemonade was declared the best initial public offering (IPO) debut of 2020 when it listed on the NYSE at a 139 percent hike in its stock price on debut, at $69.41.

Acko is Duas second venture in the insurance segment. He had set up insurance aggregation firm Coverfox in 2013 and was part of it till 2016. Once he had worked extensively in the insurance sector, Dua decided to formally enter the business through products aimed at meeting the basic needs of customers through analytics, after measuring customer behaviour.

Disruption due to COVID-19

Despite being fully digital, the Coronavirus outbreak has impacted Ackos business. For the June quarter (Q1), its gross written premium declined 16 percent year-on-year to Rs 56.2 crore.

Dua explained that while growth has been patchy due to Covid-19, the company has been able to recover through segments such as health.

Acko has entered corporate health and will also be venturing into retail health insurance in due course. Dua said that the company is building a 50-100 member team for health insurance and is in the hiring phase.

The general insurance industry saw a sudden slump of 23.6 percent YoY in the motor business (as of Q1) due to a pause in sales of new vehicles. But Acko hasnt seen a major impact, with only a 4.8 percent decline.

For Acko, motor vehicles sales were never a big problem. We operate digitally and those being insured were older cars, he added.

However, Dua explained that where the company has seen an adverse impact is in its partnership with Ola, redBus and MakeMyTrip to offer small-ticket products in the travel and mobility space.

Getting foreign investors

Dua said that once FDI limits in the insurance sector are increased, it would be prove to be advantageous for the sector and for companies like his.

Currently, the foreign direct investment (FDI) cap in the insurance sector is set at 49 percent, with an Indian management control clause. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had indicated in her 2019 budget speech that the government is looking at easing FDI limits.

We are keenly waiting for the FDI restrictions to be removed. That will open up a lot of opportunities in the sector and for players like us. FDI restriction is a small impediment and once it is opened up we will be able to access a much larger capital pool. The domestic capital pool is very small and most of the large groups are already in insurance, he added.

Moneycontrol had reported earlier that the government is looking to allow up to 74 percent FDI in the insurance sector. Insurance intermediaries, including brokers and web aggregators, are allowed to have up to 100 percent investment through FDI.
President Donald Trump accused the pharmaceutical industry of running ads that lied about his new executive order to lower prescription drug costs - an accusation that came after industry execs refused to attend a meeting with the president at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the matter.

'Big Pharma is taking television ads trying to make the case that I am raising prescription drug prices on seniors. The ad is a lie! What I have done will lead to a 50% REDUCTION in prices, at least, & Big Pharma is not happy about it,' Trump wrote on Twitter after reports he was snubbed by the industry.

'No other President would be able to produce what I have. So when you see those nasty ads from Big Pharma remember, the only reason they are going all out is the massive PRICE REDUCTIONS you are getting - not good for them. Plus, I was only President in 51 years that got a Prescription D reduction!,' he added.

Tuesday's sit-down between the president and the billion-dollar prescription drug industry was to discuss an executive order Trump signed last week on drug prices, which would require Big Pharma to match the lowest drug prices offered in other countries.

But the executives canceled because they refused to send any representatives to meet with the president, Politico reported. Trump's public schedule has no meetings on it for Tuesday but not all the president's activities are listed on that document.

Top pharmaceutical executives refused to attend a White House meeting with President Trump

The executive order would require health companies to follow a provision on drug pricing known as the most-favored-nations rule. The rule requires Medicare to tie the prices it pays for drugs to those paid by other countries. Specifically, it would only pay a price for a drug that matches the lowest price paid among foreign governments

But drug companies and some patient groups criticized the rule, saying it would reduce innovation and access to certain medications.

A pharmaceutical industry source told The Hill newspaper that 'there was concern that this would not have been a productive meeting.'

When he signed the order, Trump said drug companies would have a month to present him with a better option. He also said he'd meet with the companies on Tuesday.

'We're going to see them on Tuesday,' Trump said last week. 'We'll see if we can do something here.'

At the White House ceremony last Friday, Trump signed four executive orders. One was about importation. The others would direct drugmaker rebates straight to patients, provide insulin and EpiPens at steep discounts to low-income people, and use lower international prices to pay for some Medicare drugs.

'Nothing like this has ever been done before because Big Pharma, with its vast power, would not let it happen. Expensive Insulin went from big dollars to virtual pennies,' Trump bragged on Twitter on Saturday after he signed the order.

'Epi-pens went from their incredibly high, jacked up prices, to lower than their original give away bargains. Biggest price reductions in history, by far!'

Trump cast his directives as far-reaching, but they mostly update earlier administration ideas that have not yet gone into effect.

'I'm unrigging the system that is many decades old,' he declared at Friday's ceremony, promising 'massive' savings.

President Donald J. Trump signs an executive order on lowering drug prices during a ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC on Friday

Trump cast his directives as far-reaching, but they mostly update earlier administration ideas that have not yet gone into effect

Consumers may not notice immediate changes, since the orders must be carried out by the federal bureaucracy and could face court challenges.

Democrats, meanwhile, are eager to draw a contrast between Trump and their own sweeping plans to authorize Medicare to negotiate lower prices with pharmaceutical companies, an idea the president had backed as a candidate.

A bill by Speaker Nancy Pelosi already passed the House and aligns with presidential candidate Joe Biden's approach.

Friday's event was definitely not the bill-signing the White House had once hoped for. Trump came into office complaining that pharmaceutical companies were 'getting away with murder' and promising to bring them under control. Nearly four years later, things are much the same despite some recent moderation in price increases.

Trump pulled his punches, Pelosi said in a statement. 'After promising that he would 'negotiate like crazy' for lower prescription drug prices, it is clear that President Trump meant not negotiate at all,' she said, adding that if Trump is serious about lowering prices he should tell Senate Republicans to pass her bill.

A bill by Speaker Nancy Pelosi already passed the House and aligns with presidential candidate Joe Biden's approach, but failed to pass the Senate

Consumers may not notice immediate changes after Trump's orders, since the orders must be carried out by the federal bureaucracy and could face court challenges

A drive to enact major legislation this year stalled in Congress. Although Trump told Republican senators that lowering prescription prices is 'something you have to do,' many remain reluctant to use federal authority to force drugmakers to charge less.

Meanwhile, congressional Democrats calculate that the election will strengthen their hand, and they'll finally be able to enact a law that authorizes Medicare to negotiate prices directly. Neither side in Congress has had an incentive to deal, and the White House has been unable to work Trump's will.

Last year the House did pass Pelosi's Medicare negotiations bill, which would have capped out-of-pocket drug costs for older people and expanded program benefits as well. It had no path forward in the Republican Senate, and the White House calls it unworkable.

But there was an alternative. A bipartisan Senate bill backed by Trump stopped short of giving Medicare bargaining power, but would have limited annual price increases and capped costs for older people. The bill passed out of a Senate committee but was never brought to the full body.

'Its not clear why the administration hasn't made a bigger push to line up votes to get a bill through the Senate and a deal with Congress, given strong public support to lower drug costs,' said Tricia Neuman, a Medicare expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

Anti-diabetic medication is seen in a file photo. Americans are worried about the high cost of prescription drugs, which Trump attempted to address with his orders

Americans remain worried about drug costs, with nearly 9 in 10 saying in a recent Gallup-West Health poll that they're concerned the pharmaceutical industry will take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to raise prices.

Another Gallup-West Health survey found 65 percent saying the Trump administration had made little or no progress limiting increases in prescription drug costs.

It's a particularly important issue for older people, who rely on medications to manage the medical problems associated with advancing age. Trump's support has eroded among the elderly during the haphazard federal response to COVID-19.

Drugmakers remain adamantly opposed to government efforts to curb prices.

Trump's administration 'has decided to pursue a radical and dangerous policy to set prices based on rates paid in countries that he has labeled as socialist, which will harm patients today and into the future,' Stephen Ubl, head of the pharmaceutical lobby, said in a statement.

Trump delayed the effective date of the international pricing order for a month, to see if he can get a deal with industry.

The four orders would:

- Allow states, wholesalers and pharmacies to import FDA-approved drugs from foreign countries and sell them in the U.S. Trump has long complained that countries where the government sets the price of drugs are taking advantage of American consumers. The order includes a special provision to allow wholesalers and pharmacies to re-import insulin and biological drugs.

- Use the lowest price among other economically advanced countries to set what Medicare pays for certain drugs administered in a doctor's office, including many cancer medications. This would apply to the most expensive medications covered by Medicare's 'Part B,' which pays for outpatient care. Drugmakers are particularly leery of the approach, since Democrats want to use it more broadly to allow Medicare to directly negotiate prices.

- Direct federally funded community health centers to pass discounts they now get for insulin and EpiPens directly to low-income patients.

- Ensure that rebates drugmakers now pay to benefit managers and insurers get passed directly to patients when they buy a medication. The White House last year withdrew an earlier version of the proposal, after the Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cost taxpayers $177 billion over 10 years.
NDC flagbearer and former President, John Mahama's Running Mate, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has condemned the violence at some registration centers across the country.



Delivering a speech at her outdooring ceremony organized by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and held at the University of Professional Studies, Accra on Monday, July 27, 2020; Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang wondered how a simple registration exercise could suddenly turn violent.



''...the level of violence, brute force, blood-letting and sheer breakdown of law and order in an otherwise straightforward act of registering to vote is unbefitting of this nation that was until recently, a fulcrum of democracy in our region.''



In what appeared to be a jab at the Minister of Special Initiatives Development and Awutu Senya East MP, Hawa Koomson who recently fired gunshots at a registration center in her constituency, the NDC Running Mate asked; ''How did we descend into this situation?''



To her, ''when there appears to be selective justice; when some offenders are not even placed on the hook but are hailed and promoted for being nasty and violent, the logical outcome is what we see. This situation of people dying, being harassed, because they have decided to register to vote, is not a story we can tell any child in the future, especially when the curriculum is hinged on tolerance''.



''What will be our response if they pose their favorite question: Why or if they add a few words and ask the storyteller: So what did you do? Or,  and what did you say to that?'' she further questioned.



Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang therefore gave Ghanaians two options of which they have to make the right choice saying ''we need to show up and vote come December 7th. Each one of us must jealously guard our sacred right to vote and reject the attempts by some to disenfranchise millions of voters. We are all Ghanaians, and we love this country deeply. Do not let anyone make you feel otherwise. The choice we have in this election is clear: we can either build a Ghana where every citizen regardless of background is afforded equal opportunity to become their best selves. Or we can continue on a path where a few people attempt to control and dictate the destiny of the people who have given them the privilege to govern.



''Let our politics deviate from this unproductive path of injustice and non-peace. Ghana does not belong to any select few. We The People, all of us, are the protectors and owners of this country for our collective good and for that of generations unborn''.

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.

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The Saudi foreign minister said during the meeting that his country holds the same stance as that of Egypt with regards to political settlements being the solution to the regions crises

Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi discussed on Monday the latest developments in Yemen, Libya, Syria and Iraq with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in Cairo, the Egyptian presidency said.

During the meeting, President El-Sisi stressed that political solutions are the basis for solving all the crises in the regions conflict-stricken countries.

El-Sisi also said that Egypts consistent position on Libya calls for an end to the foreign interventions in the country and for fighting radical and terrorist groups in order to restore security and stability.

The president added that Libya should not be allowed to turn into a base for extremist and terrorist groups, which would threaten security in the region and in Africa.

El-Sisi also stressed that Arab solidarity, unity and a consistency in positions are the most effective ways to combat external risks that face the Arab world.

The Saudi foreign minister said during the meeting that his country holds the same stance as that of Egypt with regards to political settlements being the solution to the regions crises, and that the two countries shared a joint national security.

He also expressed Saudi Arabias appreciation for Egypt's strategic and pivotal role in defending Arab national security under the guidance of President El-Sisi.

Bin Farhan praised Egypt's continuous efforts to ensure security, stability and development on the regional and international levels.

The meeting was also attended by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and the Saudi Ambassador to Cairo.

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Singapores sovereign wealth fund GIC has seen a bleak year due to the pandemic

Earlier in 2019, VIR reported that GIC completed purchasing 94.4 milion new shares and now owns a 2.55 per cent stake in Vietcombank  one of Vietnams largest state-owned lenders, while Japanese financial corporation Mizuho maintained a 15 per cent stake in the bank.

Last year, the firm also committed to propose investment deals of $100 million to catapult VNLIFE  the parent firm of VNPAY  into the league of unicorn startups.

GIC had diversified its investments in Vietnam, with its prominent portfolio including FPT, Vinhomes, and Masan, among others.

Specifically, GIC recorded its return in two decades of 2.7 per cent  down from 3.4 per cent compared to its last year performance, and also the worst result since 2009 when it lost over one-fifth of its value in one year. According to Bloomberg, the fund blamed this on the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, which felt out of its rolling 20 years investment window caused most of the decline, rather than COVID-19 turmoil.

The timing and shape of the recovery is highly unclear, partly because of the infection rate. The economy continues to face a lot of headwinds, said GIC chief executive officer Lim Chow Kiat.

He also added that the slowdown of globalisation and impact from government stimulus measures were all complicating factors.

GICs nominal annualised return over a five-year period also fell to 3.9 per cent, versus 4.9 per cent last year.

Turbulences in global markets stemmed from the public health challenges are forcing the Singapore sovereign wealth fund to re-evaluate its portfolios.

Notably, GIC appears to be one of the worlds largest property investors, and real estate is the most crucial element of its investment focus. While logistics and data centres remain solid prospects, group chief investment officer Jeffrey Jaensubhakij said GIC is reviewing the long-term fortunes of more vulnerable segments, according to Bloomberg.

Established in 1981 to manage Singapores foreign reserves, GIC is a global long-term investor with well over $100 billion in assets in over 40 countries worldwide, including Vietnam.
A Perth woman is using her own disappointing home building experience to ensure others dont suffer the same turmoil, as state and federal grants cause a surge of interest in new home builds.

For two years Deborah Camilleri has been compiling the lessons she learnt during her build and educated herself to the point where she has now launched her own new home building education program.

Ms Camilleri quit her job as a teachers assistant and set up Perth Building Shelter to help steer confused new home builders in the right direction while attempting to "fix" the industry in the process, which she said still had major underlying problems.

When my story became public there were hundreds of people that reached out, she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 10:13:07|Editor: huaxia

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HARARE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party on Monday warned U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe Brian Nichols to stop underhand destabilization activities against the country or risk being sent back home.

The U.S.-Zimbabwe relations have been strained for almost two decades, stemming mainly from Harare's land reform program which Washington strongly opposed, accusing Harare of committing human rights abuses during the program, a charge Zimbabwe denies.

Since the United States imposed sanctions on the country in 2003, relations between the two nations have remained strained, with Harare now accusing Washington of funding political opponents to unconstitutionally remove the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa from power.

The warning by the party came as opposition groups are planning to hold an anti-government protest on Friday, despite the COVID-19 lockdown currently in place.

The Zimbabwe government has accused the United States and other detractors of the country of being behind the planned protests.

"He (Nichols) continues to engage in acts of undermining this Republic and if he continues mobilizing and funding disturbances, coordinating violence and training insurgence, our leadership will not hesitate to give him marching orders," ZANU-PF acting secretary for information Patrick Chinamasa told a press briefing.

Chinamasa said Nichols was behaving in an undiplomatic manner, regarding himself as a "super diplomat in this country."

Chinamasa, however, said the party's rebuke of the U.S. diplomat was not an affront to re-engagement efforts currently being undertaken by the government.

"We will continue to re-engage and engage, even with the enemy, more so with the enemy than with our friends because you want the enemy to see that what they are doing is not right," Chinamasa said. Enditem
By Bob Van Voris, Bloomberg News (TNS)

New York  President Donald Trump renewed his fight to prevent a New York grand jury from reviewing his tax filings, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled he doesnt have absolute immunity from state criminal investigations.

Lawyers for Trump filed a new complaint on Monday raising objections to a subpoena sent by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to the presidents accounting firm Mazars USA. Vance is investigating hush-money payments made before the 2016 presidential election to Stormy Daniels, a porn actress who claims she had an affair with Trump.

The Mazars subpoena is wildly overbroad and is not remotely confined to the grand jury investigation that began in 2018, the president said in the court filing. He said Vances request was made in bad faith because it sought irrelevant records with a subpoena that amounts to harassment of the president.

Vances office didnt immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The case is back before U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero, whose October ruling was upheld on appeal, though the Supreme Court said Trump could make objections like anyone else who challenges a subpoena for records.

Trump may have difficulty convincing Marrero that the subpoena is too burdensome, as it requires that his accounting firm, Mazars USA, rather than the president, produce the documents.

The president told Marrero in a July 15 court filing that he may want to litigate numerous issues, including why the state wants the information; why and how much the state needs the information, including whether the State could obtain the information elsewhere; and whether compliance with the subpoena would unduly burden or interfere with a presidents official duties. Trump wants to be able to explore facts that will reveal Vances motives.

Vance is calling on the court to move quickly, arguing that the Supreme Court ruling means that Trump stands in nearly the same situation as any other individual confronting a prosecutors subpoena.

The litigation may add weeks or months of delay to when Vance will receive Trumps tax filings, possibly until after the November election. His office is barred by grand jury secrecy laws from making the information public.
Promenade on the Kowloon side of Victoria Harbour, which faces the skyline of Hong Kong Island,13 July, 2020. (PHOTO: ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images)

By Vinicy Chan, Fion Li and Alfred Liu

(Bloomberg) -- After several years weighing the pros and cons of leaving Hong Kong, Ms Lee is taking the plunge and moving to Canada. Though she has no job lined up, faces higher taxes and will have to endure harsh winters for the first time, shes willing to risk it.

Am I worried about my job prospects in Canada? Of course Im worried, said the compliance officer at a major global financial firm who asked that her first name not be used. The economy isnt great and firms are freezing headcount. I can say this is probably the worst time to migrate.

As China strengthens its hold on Hong Kong with a new security law, residents considering an escape are coming to grips with the sacrifices theyll face. With the global economy enmeshed in the worst recession in almost a century, jobs are hard to find and countries are tightening borders. Hard-earned skills, languages and contacts that helped them thrive in the Asian finance hub wont all travel. And preferred destinations like Canada, Australia and the U.K. impose taxes that are three times higher.

Just because you were successful in Hong Kong doing a certain job doesnt mean that theres going to be an appetite for your skill set or experience in another country, said John Mullally, regional director at Robert Walters Plc, who handles financial sector recruitment for Southern China and Hong Kong. Its probably one of the worst times in our living history to be rocking up in a new country and expecting to land a job.

The challenges arent deterring people like Lee. Shes already bought a house in Toronto and plans to move in October, forgoing a job paying more than HK$1 million (US$130,000) a year. Lee, in her 30s, and her husband first applied for a visa in 2014 as a back-up plan in case things got worse. In her view it has, with the security law becoming the last straw.

Lost Optimism

We have lost any optimism toward the Hong Kong government, she said, convinced that the finance hub will become just another Chinese city with curbs on free speech and censored television. We dont want to stay here any longer.

Story continues

Even with the risks that come with relocation -- especially in the middle of a global pandemic -- recruiters are seeing an uptick in demand. Two years ago, about 80% of job hunters who came to see Mullally were looking for work in Hong Kong. Now about half of them are seeking work abroad, driven by the security measures along with dwindling job prospects in a city embroiled in a deep recession of its own.

The message they gave me is they just dont feel that Hong Kong for them is long-term the best option from a career and earnings perspective, Mullally said.

While Hong Kong doesnt publish immigration statistics, applications for good citizenship cards -- which certify a person doesnt have a criminal record -- serve as a proxy because theyre often needed to apply for foreign visas. The monthly number of applications averaged 2,935 from June 2019 to April 2020, a 50% jump versus 2018.

Yet with unemployment rate in Canada at double digits and Australia close to that, emigres like Sam recognise the job search wont be easy. The senior investment banker at a global firm is moving with his wife and two kids to Australia in three months.

Sam spent his teens in Australia, but has been in Hong Kong for 20 years, developing contacts that launched his banking career. He declined to reveal his salary, though investment bankers in Hong Kong are typically awarded bonuses that are 50% higher than in Sydney, Mullally said.

Senior private bankers meanwhile earn about 30% more in Hong Kong than in Australia, said Rick Chung, a Hong Kong-based recruiter for banking and finance at Randstad NV who is seeing about 10 to 15 finance people a week looking for jobs abroad.

Sam, 43, will have to start from scratch in Australia, and may have to switch careers. With the top marginal income tax rate of about 45% -- versus 15% in Hong Kong -- hell also have less money to spend.

I left Australia many, many years ago and I dont have any corporate contacts there so itd be hard for me to stay in investment banking, said Sam, who didnt want his last name published. Taxes are so much higher in Australia so I dont think I will be able to earn as much.

A mid-level mergers and acquisitions banker named Leung is also considering a move -- to London. Leung, 38, worked there for five years before coming back to Hong Kong a decade ago. Like Sam, hes looking for a better place to raise his three-year-old son. Leung doesnt hold U.K. citizenship but has a British National Overseas passport granted to Hong Kong residents before the colony was handed back to China in 1997.

Leung has no job lined up in London, where bankers typically earn about 15% more than in Hong Kong, but also pay triple the taxes. While housing in Hong Kong is among the most expensive in the world, London isnt far behind.

I dont mind giving up what we have in Hong Kong to trade for a better future for my son, said Leung, adding the hardest part will be leaving his parents behind. I dont mind starting all over again.

Staying Put

Another investment banker at a U.S. firm named Tang spent his teen years in Canada and has a passport allowing him to eventually retire there. For now, the 50-year-old prefers to stay put with his three kids for another few years.

I have to say Hong Kong is still the financial centre where bankers make the most take-home salary, Tang said.

Lee meanwhile, is getting ready to head to Toronto in a few weeks, after winning a bidding war to buy a house in the citys west end. Many friends may follow suit she says, while another colleague at her firm just quit to decamp to the U.K.

Edward Zhang, an agent with Dracco Pacific Realty in Vancouver, which markets high-end homes, said a friend just referred six friends from Hong Kong seeking properties in the Canadian city.

So many around me are plotting to leave Hong Kong, Lee said. Honestly, who isnt?

(Adds comment from Vancouver agent at end)

 2020 Bloomberg L.P.
New Delhi: The man who designed patches for pilots, who will fly the Rafale fighter jets, wanted to be an Indian Air force (IAF) pilot but could not because of medical reasons. Today, the patches designed by him, mostly worn on the flying overalls, make him proud as they are worn by his "heroes".

Speaking on this, Saurav Chordia said, "I always wanted to join airforce but could not due to medical reason. But I do this as a hobby and was passionate about the airforce. It gives me immense pleasure when I see them being worn by the heroes and motivates me to do more. Patches play a significant role in infusing morale. They may look simple but they contain things like aircraft type and some time unit name and motto."

Most of these patches are approved in the unit level. Explaining the design of the patch, he said, "Golden Arrows patch has got the motto written on the outer ring of the patch which means Arise Ever."

"Arise Ever" is written in Sanskrit. The patch was visible on the flying overalls worn by Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in 2019 during his sortie and the Indian pilots who left France on Monday on the five Rafales which are coming to India.
Fusion: Future source of carbon-free, abundant, safe and economic energy; Leaders of EU, France, China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia & US make announcement together

French President Emmanuel Macron and leaders from the European Union, China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States declare the start of a new energy era today with the official start of the assembly of the world's largest fusion device at ITER in Southern France.

The ITER machine, the world's largest science project, is being assembled to replicate the fusion power of the Sun that provides light and warmth and enables life on Earth.

The launch of ITER assembly phase is made possible by the arrival of components from all over the world (video: https://bit.ly/2BtoA9m) in recent months. It demonstrates the willingness of the 35 partner countries of the ITER international research project to join together in an enduring way in their common fight against climate change.

"I heartily congratulate the ITER Project," says Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan. "I believe disruptive innovation will play a key role in addressing global issues including climate change and realizing a sustainable carbon-free society."

Fusion provides clean, reliable energy without carbon emissions. Fusion is safe, with minute amounts of fuel and no physical possibility of a run-away accident with meltdown.

The fuel for fusion is found in seawater and lithium. It is abundant enough to supply humanity for millions of years. A pineapple-sized amount of this fuel is the equivalent of 10,000 tons of coal.

The cost of building and operating a fusion plant is expected to be similar to the cost of a nuclear fission plant, but without the large costs and long-term legacy of waste disposal.

When ITER is finished, it is expected that it will demonstrate that fusion power can be generated sustainably on a commercial scale.

The Promise

It is because of the remarkable promise of fusion that the ITER project was born: The 35 partner countries are the EU (plus the United Kingdom and Switzerland), China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States.

These nations, representing more than 50 percent of the world population and more than 80 percent of the global gross domestic product, have pooled their vast expertise and resources to build the first industrial-scale research fusion device.

France is the host country. The European Union with the United Kingdom and Switzerland is the host member, funding 45 percent of the cost of ITER. Each of the other members, U.S. China, Japan, Russia, India and Korea funds 9 percent.

About 90 percent of ITER Member contributions are made in-kind, adding international complexity to an already multifaceted machine, called a Tokamak (video: https://bit.ly/2ZUSNr7) for "magnetic Torus." When finished, the Tokamak will be made up of more than 1 million components.

Since the 1950s, when the concept of a Tokamak--magnetic confinement fusion--was first developed in the Soviet Union, fusion energy research has been an area of broad international collaboration.

In recent months, in preparation for the machine assembly, gigantic first-of-a-kind components have begun to arrive in France --in many cases weighing several hundred tons each and more than 15 meters long. The parts are the culmination of more than 5 years of fabrication in factories, universities and national laboratories all over the world.

The Tokamak components must meet very strict specifications. They must arrive in France on time, according to an intricate schedule.

"Constructing the machine piece by piece will be like assembling a 3-dimensional puzzle on an intricate timeline," says Dr. Bigot.

"Every aspect of project management, systems engineering, risk management, and logistics of the machine assembly must perform together with the precision of a Swiss watch," says Dr. Bigot. "We have a complicated script to follow over the next few years."

At end of this period, in December 2025, ITER scientists and engineers will launch "First Plasma," the initial event demonstrating machine functionality.

How much power will the ITER Tokamak provide?

The plant at ITER will produce about 500 megawatts of thermal power. If operated continuously and connected to the electric grid, that would translate to about 200 megawatts of electric power, enough for about 200,000 homes.

A commercial fusion plant will be designed with a slightly larger plasma chamber, for 10-15 times more electrical power. A 2,000 megawatt fusion power plant, for example, would supply electricity for 2 million homes.

Would fusion make a difference in the amount of CO 2 going into the atmosphere?

Fusion power plants are carbon-free; they release no CO 2 . But the benefit of fusion for the fight against climate change depends on how quickly these fusion plants are installed.

More than 70 percent of carbon emissions come from energy use; and more than 80 percent of energy consumption comes from fossil fuels.

"If fusion power becomes universal in complement to renewable energies, the use of electricity could be expanded greatly, to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, buildings and industry," predicts Dr. Bigot. "Enabling the exclusive use of clean energy will be a miracle for our planet."

Fusion: how it works

1. A few grams of deuterium and tritium (hydrogen) gas are injected into a huge, donut-shaped chamber, called a Tokamak.

2. The hydrogen is heated until it becomes a cloud-like ionized plasma (video: https://bit.ly/2WNjRa4).

3. The ionized plasma is shaped and controlled by 10,000 tons of superconducting magnets.

4. Fusion occurs when the plasma reaches 150 million degrees Celsius--ten times hotter than the core of the Sun.

5. In the fusion reaction, a tiny amount of mass is converted to a huge amount of energy.

6. The ultra-high-energy neutrons from fusion escape the magnetic cage and transmit energy as heat.

7. Water circulating in the walls of the Tokamak absorbs the escaped heat and makes steam. In a commercial plant, a steam turbine will generate electricity.

8. Hundreds of Tokamaks have been built; but ITER will be the first to achieve a "burning" or self-heating plasma.

The Start of Assembly

Cryostat

Manufactured by India, the Cryostat is the "thermos" that surrounds the Tokamak Vacuum Vessel and superconducting magnets which confine the super hot plasma.

It is 30 meters (98.5') high and 30 meters (98.5') in diameter. It is the largest stainless steel vacuum chamber ever built.

It has four main pieces: the base, lower cylinder, upper cylinder, and top lid.

The lower cylinder is roughly the same dimensions as Stonehenge.

The Cryosat base section (video: https://bit.ly/3hsKPeS) weighs 1,250 tons. It is the heaviest ITER component. It was the first major piece to be inserted into the Tokamak Pit, in May. It was settled into position with an accuracy of under 3 millimeters.

ITER's magnets

ITER uses three closely integrated types of magnets to contain, control, shape, and pulse the 150 million degrees Celsius plasma.

In order to be superconducting, the magnets are cooled internally with -269 degrees Celsius liquid helium, the temperature of interstellar space.

Toroidal Field (TF) Coils

Manufactured by Japan and Europe with components coming from China, Korea and Russia, more than 40 companies are involved in the manufacture of the 18 Toroidal Field (TF) Coils (video: https://bit.ly/2OSWZ4m).

The function of the TF coils is to confine the ionized plasma particles. Each magnet is the height of a four-story building and weighs 360 tons.

The first two TF coils arrived at the ITER site in April from Japan and Italy.

Poloidal Field (PF) coils

Manufactured by China, Europe and Russia, these magnets are ring-shaped and will be situated outside the TF coil system. The PF coils shape the plasma and hold it away from the walls.

There are six PF coils, ranging in diameter from 10 to 24 meters (33' to 79') and weighing up to 400 tons.

The first PF coil arrived at ITER in May from China. The second, made by Europe, was manufactured onsite.

Central Solenoid (CS)

Manufactured by the United States, this is the most powerful of ITER's magnets. It is sometimes called the "beating heart" of ITER because it will initiate a powerful current in the plasma in long pulses.

The Central Solenoid (video: https://bit.ly/39lWkSu) is being fabricated in six modules. When combined, it will be 13 meters (43') tall or 18 meters (59') with the support structure and will weigh one thousand tons.

It will have the magnetic power to lift an aircraft carrier.

The independently operating CS coil packs will create massive electromagnetic forces that pull in different directions. The support structures will have to withstand forces equal to twice the thrust of a Space Shuttle lift-off.

The first CS module will arrive at ITER in Fall 2020.

Vacuum Vessel

Manufactured by Korea (four sectors) and Europe (five) sectors, with the protruding port stubs supplied by Russia, the Vacuum Vessel (video: https://bit.ly/2CJSKWl) is a hermetically sealed, donut-shaped stainless steel chamber. Inside, the plasma particles spiral around continuously without touching the walls.

Forty-four openings or ports in the vacuum vessel provide access for remote handling operations, diagnostics, heating, and vacuum systems.

The blanket modules lining the inner surfaces of the vessel will provide shielding from the high-energy neutrons produced by the fusion reactions.

The volume of the plasma contained in the center of the ITER vacuum vessel (840 m) is ten times larger than any previous tokamak.

The first vacuum vessel sector arrived in France on July 21, enabling the start of machine assembly.

Buildings and civil works across the ITER worksite, constructed by Europe, are about 75 percent complete. Here are three examples.

The Tokamak Building and Assembly Hall have been completed, joined by a 170-meter overhead crane rail supporting two 750-ton cranes that will transport and position components.

The cryogenics facility, the largest centralized cryoplant in the world, is 60 percent completed. It provides the liquid helium for the extremely low temperatures for the superconducting magnets to work. The equipment comes from China, India, Sweden, Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Japan, and France. The cryolines are primarily from India.

The magnet conversion buildings supplying power at precisely the right voltage and amperage to ITER's magnets, are using specially designed equipment from China, India, Korea and Russia.

Assembling ITER, integrating the components delivered from around the world, is the responsibility of the central ITER Organization. This includes the assembly of the Tokamak itself as well as parallel installation of support systems such as radio frequency heating, fuel cycle, cryogenics, cooling water, vacuum, control, and high voltage electrical systems.

Principal assembly activities will take place in the Tokamak Building, where the ITER device will be installed in a partially embedded concrete bioshield. For the assembly phase, this building will operate as a clean area, and be maintained at a constant temperature to avoid the slightest distortion in the largest components.

More than 150 specialized tools, some weighing up to 800 tons, will be used to assemble, support, and position the Tokamak components.

The circular Tokamak will be pre-assembled in nine sub-assemblies in the adjacent Assembly Hall. Each 40-degree section will integrate a vacuum vessel sector, a protective silver-coated thermal shield and two toroidal field coils.

The size and weight of major Tokamak components, the tiny tolerances, the diversity of manufacturers and the tight schedule combine to make ITER an enormous engineering and logistics challenge.

Assembling the ITER machine will take 4.5 years.

###
Thousands of workers at Castorama, a DIY and home improvement tool and supply retail chain in France, have been engaged in work stoppages for the past week to oppose the companys refusal to pay thousands of euros in bonuses from the coronavirus pandemic.

Workers at approximately two-thirds of the 100 stores in France took part in work stoppages or protests actions throughout last week. The number of employees involved has not been reported, but the company itself admits that at least 20 percent of staff participated. Castorama employs 11,000 people across France. It is wholly owned by the British group Kingfisher, which also operates stores in Poland and Russia.

The company is using the agreement it signed with the trade unions last year to slash bonuses paid to employees. Previously the bonus was capped according to a workers salary over the course of a year, but Castorama is applying it based on the last trimester, during which it was partly closed due to the pandemic. According to the unions, this works out to a cut from 3,600 to 900 for an employee earning just above minimum wage at 1,500 gross per month.

The claim by the French Democratic Labor Federation (CFDT) and the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) unions that they are shocked that Castorama is applying the most recent agreement they signed, rather than the meaning as intended, is absurd. Workers are familiar with such clauses being routinely inserted into agreements behind their backs by unions and companies in backroom negotiations, allowing them to secretly cut workers wages and benefits.

The fact that the company has been able to continue operations at all but one store despite mass opposition among staff to its wage-cutting shows that there is little confidence among workers in the unions, which are nothing more than labor-management partners of the corporations. The union has largely concentrated on holding demoralizing stunts, posting photos of workers holding up signs at stores that remain open.

Castorama is slashing benefits amid record sales since the end of the lock-down. It is using the threat of mass unemployment as a battering ram to cut wages while layoffs and closures spread across the retail sector.

Dozens of retailers have been placed in liquidation. Fashion retailer Camaieu is in liquidation and may close, threatening 3,900 jobs. The potential buyers have said they would keep at most two thirds of the jobs.

Workers at home furniture supplier Alinea outlet in Le Mans held a strike on Saturday against the planned closure of the store. The company is in liquidation, and potential buyers due to take control of the company on August 31 are reportedly planning to keep open at most 9 of 28 stores. None of the workers who took strike action belonged to a union, and the action included all the cashiers at the retailer, so that customers could enter the store but not buy anything.

The unions central concern is to prevent a movement of the entire working class in France and across Europe against the wave of layoffs and austerity being pursued by the European ruling class. In France, the Macron administration has installed a new government headed by Prime Minister Jean Castex with the task of accelerating the austerity program that it has pursued since coming into office in 2017.

Castex has ruled out any return to a lock-down, regardless of the spread of the virus that has already killed over 30,000 people in France. With daily cases reaching over 1,100 in France last week, compared to a few dozen shortly after the deconfinement on May 11, it is clear that there is a resurgence of the virus. Castex declared on Saturday that a confinement stops the spread of the virus, of course, but from an economic and social standpoint its a disaster.

In other words, the potential deaths of tens of hundreds of thousands of people cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the profit-making of French corporations.

The Macron government is preparing a 100 billion economic stimulus package to be announced next month that will funnel more wealth into the bank accounts and stock portfolios of the super-rich. Sweeping cuts to pension, unemployment and other social programs are being prepared to fund the corporate handouts. All throughout, Castex is meeting continuously with the unions to organize this assault and attempt to suppress broad opposition to this policy in the working class.

On July 17, the government announced that it was postponing negotiations on its pension reforms with the trade unions until next year, and that it would delay the imposition of cuts to unemployment benefits until next year as well.

This has nothing to do with a change in policy. Castex and Macron have repeatedly stated that they are determined to push through unpopular cuts to the pension system, including the introduction of a points-based pension entitlement that can be used to continually decrease entitlements in line with budgetary requirements.

Castex stated that the postponing of the reforms was necessary because they were particularly divisive. The pension reforms triggered mass strikes of railway and other public sector workers at the end of last year. The government is biding its time until it has pushed through more corporate bailouts, and potentially change the form of its budget-cutting.

The unions are hailing the Castex government, fraudulently claiming that it is turning away from austerity, to hide from workers the attacks that Macron and the unions are preparing.

CFDT head Laurent Berger responded to Castexs July 17 announcement by tweeting that the CFDT leaves this meeting [with the government] with the conviction that there is a true sincerity on the part of the Prime Minister in his wishes for social dialogue.

Philippe Martinez, the head of the CGT, stated on France Inter on July 18 that Castex was direct, and that is good when we have things to tell each other to not beat around the bush.  [Castex] knows the trade unions well, and he has a past that speaks in his favour.

Castexs past includes overseeing the restructuring of the public healthcare system as an advisor to the right-wing Sarkozy government from 2005 to 2007. He introduced the Pricing-per-action model, providing funding to hospitals based on the number of operations performed, which had a devastating impact on the health care system. However, he is known to have favoured pursuing these pro-business policies in close collaboration with the trade unions, which is the union bureaucracys central demand.
Press Release

July 28, 2020 Transcript of Interview with Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon

CNN Philippine's The Source with Ms. Pinky Webb Q: I want to get your overall assessment of the 5thSONA? SFMD: I have been hearing SONA for the last several years. This is the first SONA where I was the introduction and I was the conclusion. The President said that I am a defender of the oligarchs and particularly of the Lopezes because of the position that I took on the ABS-CBN franchise. I took a position that we should renew the franchise because the issue was freedom of the press. The Lopezes were not the issue and if they are, it's only incidental. I admit the Lopezes are familiar to me because we came from the same province. But I have not asked any favor from them, which can be cited as the reason why I favored the renewal of the franchise of ABS-CBN. It was because of my view that a free press is critical to the strengthening our democracy. For that reason I took the position that ABS-CBN should be allowed to continue to broadcast, especially at this time when our people would need information insofar as the COVID-19 pandemic is concerned. Admittedly, ABS-CBN has a wide reach in our country and the people needed information. Finally, we had 11,000 employees in ABS-CBN. To close the ABS-CBN at this time of pandemic is, for me, not correct. Q: For the record, there were a number of you in the Senate who expressed support for the renewal of franchise of ABS-CBN. SFMD: Marami po kami. Sa katunayan, may 13 senador na pumirma ng resolution na nananawagan na dapat i-renew ang franchise ng ABS-CBN. Q: Nagulat po ba kayo na within the first three minutes of the SONA, your name was already mentioned? SFMD: I was surprised. I did not expect it. But I stand for what I believe is necessary. I believe that the franchise should not have been terminated and ABS-CBN should have been allowed to continue broadcasting especially at this time of pandemic. There were precedents in the past that we allowed a franchise to continue while it was being heard in Congress. Q: Basically you are saying that you were not defending the Lopezes and you are defending press freedom SFMD: Yes, that's correct. The Lopezes are incidental to the bigger issue of press freedom. ABS-CBN was not given a similar treatment as on the other franchises that came before us for renewal. Q: At the last part, towards the end, he said, "were you part of ACCRA when the water concession was being drafted?" For the record, what was your position in ACCRA and when did you retire? SFMD: First of all, on the grave of my parents, I swear that I had nothing to do with that contract - not even a period or a comma. Up to this point when I am talking to you, I have not seen a copy of that contract. It was signed by the government during the time of President Ramos. I think I was already in the Senate when that was signed. I had nothing to do whatsoever with that contract. I had no participation whatsoever - not a single comma, not a single period. Q: If I am not mistaken, this deal was inked sometime in 1997. You were a senator in 1995, I believe. SFMD: That's correct. In 1997 I was already in the Senate. I long retired from ACCRA by that time. Q: When did you retire from ACCRA? SFMD: When I joined the Cory Aquino government in 1986, August. I left the firm and had not gone back there except when I was not in the Senate for three years from 2007 to 2010. Q: Would you know who in ACCRA was part of this deal? I wouldn't know. I don't even know. Well I was informed that ACCRA was not a lawyer for any of the concessioners - neither the Manila Water nor the Maynilad. But ACCRA was the adviser of the World Bank, not the water concessionaires. I repeat, I don't know the terms of the agreement and I had not thing to do with it. Q: Have you filed an anti-political dynasty law? SFMD: What I can tell is I was already voting for the anti-political dynasty bills which were presented before and the last bill I filled on this is in July 2016 during the 17thCongress which prohibited political dynasties. (Note: Senator Drilon also filed Senate Bill No. 11 in July 2019, which seeks to prohibit spouse or relatives of an incumbent elective official seeking re-election to hold or run for any elective office in the same province in the same election.) I was asked in the media if I was referring to the President's children? I said no. The President, in my mind, has enough reason to rise above all of these. He is the President and he has the capacity to rise above all of these issues and push for the constitutional mandate that Congress should pass an anti-political dynasty law. For the record, I do not have a single relative in politics, even in Iloilo. Q: Why do you think you were singled out? SFMD: I don't know why. Probably the President erroneously thought that I was after his family and that is because of my position on political dynasty. But that position that I have on political dynasty was already there even before he became President. That is because I believe that indeed, dynasty would not be god for our system of democracy. Q: Were you after the President's children? SFMD: No, not at all. As I said, I have filed the anti-political dynasty bill even before the children got elected in public office. Q: Let's talk about COVID-19. Did you hear a comprehensive plan from the President? SFMD: One of the plans I would have wanted to hear is how to strengthen our health system. Today we have almost 85,000 cases. We have nearly 2,000 deaths. It is quite obvious that our health system was not prepared for this pandemic. How do we strengthen our health system? How do we fund the UHC? How do we strengthen PhilHealth with what we hear of corruption taking place there. In other words, I would not expect that this is the last pandemic that we would go through. This is our opportunity to strengthen our health system so that we can better respond to it in the future. Number two, these lockdowns really caused problems. We have the longest and most stringent lockdowns in the entire world and it has caused a lot of difficulties to our people. Of course it is a debate between the health and the economy. But four months into this, I had wished that we should be able to come up with a more definite plan on the matter of the lockdowns in order to minimize its adverse effects on our economy. That was what we were looking for and I expressed this view two weeks before the SONA and I said that I would like to hear a comprehensive plan, because we will support insofar as this is concerned. Like today I will vote on third reading as I voted on second reading on the Bayanihan 2. Although I feel that P140 billion is not enough since P45 billion will go to the distressed industries and less than P100 billion will go for SAP. Nevertheless I will support this Bayanihan 2 although I find it inadequate. I wished that the President laid before us a more comprehensive plan on where we will be in the next six months. Q: I want to talk about short term. You said it seems kulang ito? Hindi na ba pwedeng taasan ito? And the, my follow up question, must the government borrow more money? SFMD: Yes, the government must borrow some more, because we will put these into good use. Can we afford to pay? Yes, we can afford to pay these if the funds are dedicated to right projects. For example, one of the things we can do is to ramp up the infrastructure projects because it can provide employment. We must borrow some more. We are not alone in this situation. We should take this into account when making a decision. To me, P140-B is not enough. I may have my reservations but I will vote for it. Q: You said the IAFT failed. How can we move forward so that the IATF won't be a failure? SFMD: One, the health secretary must be able to influence better the decisions of the IATF. Second, The economic sector should have a strong voice. This problem involves two basic sectors: health and economy. The secretaries of the DOH and DOF should lead the recovery program. Unfortunately there are so many issues raised against our secretary of health that his effectiveness to influence health policies is open to question and is questionable. Honestly, I don't see the hand of Sec. Dominguez. I know his position about continued lockdowns, being harmful to the economy. Unfortunately I don't hear his voice very often insofar as the IATF decisions are concerned. Q: Palagay po po ninyo on July 31, kailangan na maghigpit ulit in terms of quarantine protocols? SFMD: I am no health expert. I am no expert on this. But I wished there were more inputs from those who understand these things and from our economic sector, because it involves all of us. Q: On telcos if whether they should improve their services SFMD: Yes, I agree with the President. We must improve the services of these two telcos. Even in the Senate sometimes we have a teleconference talking about telcos and we could not hear each other, because the signals are very poor. I think there is no dispute that we need an improvement insofar as telco is concerned. Q: What were your thoughts when you heard the President talking about China and the Philippines, saying that China has the arms and we don't, we cannot afford a war, etc... SFMD: I would like to think that a country like Vietnam whose state of development is similar to ours is able to assert their rights over the disputed South China Sea effectively without resorting to arms. I'd like to think that given the geo-political situations, presenting our case before world opinion is something that we can do. Yes, we cannot confront them militarily and I am not in favor of that. But there are other ways of espousing for the cause of a country without resorting to arms. The other countries are able to do it.
CALGARY, ALBERTA / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / BluEarth Renewables ("BluEarth") and Bullfrog Power, a Spark Power company ("Bullfrog") are pleased to announce the signing of a power purchase agreement (PPA) to directly support the construction of BluEarth's new utility-scale solar project. BluEarth will begin construction of its 39 MWAC Burdett and Yellow Lake Solar Project ("the Project") in August 2020. The Project is located in Alberta, southwest of Medicine Hat, in the County of Forty Mile. Commercial operations are expected to commence in April 2021.

BluEarth has signed power purchase agreements with Bullfrog Power, Canada's leading provider of green energy and PPA solutions, and the Royal Bank of Canada ("RBC"). Bullfrog and RBC will purchase the majority of the Project's environmental attributes. The advancement of this Project demonstrates that renewable energy can be cost-competitive in an open market and that PPAs can facilitate green investment in the Alberta economy.

A rendering of the upcoming Yellow Lake solar farm

Project Highlights

Injects over $70 million of capital investment into the Alberta economy

Creates over 300 jobs during construction

Contributes significant and stable long-term property tax revenue to the local economy

Satisfies the local electricity load requirement, avoiding potentially capital intensive upgrades to the transmission infrastructure

Produces enough renewable energy to power approximately 6,400 homes annually

Supports the grid requirements during high demand/peak hours

"We are very pleased to be investing in Alberta and positioned to break ground on the Burdett and Yellow Lake Solar Project in the coming months," commented Grant Arnold, President and Chief Executive Officer of BluEarth Renewables. "This Project became a reality as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, and credit is due to the initiative, perseverance and support of RBC, Bullfrog Power and our local stakeholders."

Alberta has some of the best solar and wind resource in Canada and cost trendlines for these technologies continue to decline. Alberta's deregulated electricity market provides corporations the ability to select and procure energy products that meet their needs directly from generators, making Alberta an excellent jurisdiction for renewable energy investment and growth.

"Power purchase agreements like the ones Bullfrog Power and RBC have signed with BluEarth are the most effective way to expand renewable energy in Canada," said Sean Drygas, President of Bullfrog Power. "We're excited to secure a predictable, economic supply of renewable energy attributes from the Burdett and Yellow Lake Solar Project. As we continue to advise our clients on signing their own PPAs, nothing shows our belief in their value more than signing our own."

"BluEarth is a great home-grown Alberta success story, and I am thrilled they are once again making a major investment here in their own backyard and in my riding," commented Honourable Grant Hunter, MLA for Taber-Warner.

"We're proud to be the first Canadian bank to sign a long-term renewable energy Power Purchase Agreement, demonstrating our commitment to clean, sustainable power," said Scott Foster, SVP, Global Head of Corporate Real Estate at RBC. "This agreement, and our partnership with Bullfrog Power and BluEarth Renewables, will help support our clients and communities in the areas where we live and work with the low-carbon transition, while accelerating clean economic growth. We are excited to be taking a leadership position in this sector and continue our support of environment-focused innovation."

For more information about BluEarth's Burdett and Yellow Lake Solar Project, please visit our website.

To learn more about Bullfrog Power's PPA solutions, please click here.

About BluEarth Renewables

BluEarth Renewables brings together extraordinary people with the power to change the future by delivering renewable energy to the power grid every day. We are a leading, independent, power producer that acquires, develops, builds, owns and operates wind, hydro and solar facilities across North America. Our portfolio includes 333 MW net (405 MW gross) of nameplate capacity in operation and under construction and over 2,000 MW under development. For more information, visit bluearthrenewables.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

For further information:

Dorreen Miller

Director, Communications

BluEarth Renewables

(587) 324-4238

media@bluearth.ca

About Bullfrog Power, a Spark Power company

Bullfrog Power, part of Spark Power Group Inc (TSX:SPG), is Canada's leading green energy provider. Bullfrog offers renewable energy solutions that enable individuals and businesses to reduce their environmental impact, support the development of green energy projects in Canada, and help create a cleaner, healthier world. As a Certified B Corporation, Bullfrog Power meets higher standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Thousands of individuals and businesses in Canada are doing their part to addressclimate change and air pollution by choosing green energy with Bullfrog Power. Sign up easily, quickly and affordably at bullfrogpower.com. Join the bullfrogpowered community online on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

For further information:

Suha Jethalal, Head of Marketing

Bullfrog Power

(416) 360-3464, ext 0240

Suha.jethalal@bullfrogpower.com

SOURCE: Spark Power Group Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/599096/BluEarth-Renewables-Signs-Power-Purchase-Agreements-with-Bullfrog-Power-and-RBC-39-MW-Solar-Project-to-be-Built-in-Southern-Alberta




Five South Korean nationals who were kidnapped by an unidentified armed group in waters off the western African country of Benin have been released, the foreign ministry said Saturday.







The South Koreans were released from southern Nigeria, Friday (local time), about a month after being abducted in waters 111 kilometers south of Cotonou Port in Benin, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.







On June 24, the armed group attacked the 994-ton fishing vessel, the Ghanaian-flagged Panofi Frontier, and kidnapped six of the 30-man crew.







The ministry said the released South Koreans were in good health and are currently in a safe location prepared by its embassy in Nigeria.







The other abductee, a Ghanaian national, was also safely moved to the Ghanaian Embassy in the country.







The South Koreans will be transported to Ghana if they desire, as soon as a flight becomes available, it added. (Yonhap)


Daniel Park, Penn graduate student, does a western blot analysis to compare different versions of the Coronavirus vaccine at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia in February. Read more

Whenever a vaccine for the coronavirus becomes available, one thing is virtually certain: There wont be enough to go around. That means there will be rationing.

Someone will have to decide which of the worlds 7.8 billion people gets first crack at returning to a more normal life. Infectious disease experts and medical ethicists say this exceptionally complex decision must weigh not only who is most at risk from the virus and who is most likely to spread it, but also who is most important for maintaining the medical and financial health of a nation as well as its safety.

This pandemic has also added a new quandary: how to address the fact that people of color have suffered higher rates of serious illness and death than white people.

Its going to be very, very hard, Harald Schmidt, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist, said of the priority-setting process. There will likely be more than one type of vaccine. One may work better in certain groups, say, older adults, than another.

We dont only have to make this decision once, but multiple times for multiple vaccines, Schmidt said. They wont all be there at the same time, and they will have different profiles.

Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University, said the rush to bring vaccines to market likely will leave many questions unanswered at first about how well they work in different groups. He sees the first public doses as an extension of clinical trials. That will require careful tracking of recipients. We keep acting as if the race to get FDA approval is the end of things, he said. I would say its just the start.

Vaccine development has been moving at lightning speed, and a handful of candidates have had promising results. Experts say the best-case scenario is that a vaccine could be available to the public by the first quarter of 2021.

 READ MORE: Coronavirus could be the turning point for a vaccine technology 30 years in the making

Who will decide?

Traditionally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends who should get vaccines, and it has been discussing since April how to divvy up a new coronavirus shot. It is unclear whether officials from the Trump administrations Operation Warp Speed on vaccine development will want in on the decision as well. Its a black box, said Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. He thinks Warp Speed will probably focus on distribution. The National Academy of Medicine, at the behest of the National Institutes of Health, has also created an expert panel to study the issue.

At the panels first meeting on Friday, Victor Dzau, the academys president, said he expected final recommendations by late September to early October. CDC Director Robert Redfield stressed that it was important for Americans to see vaccine allocation as equitable, fair, and transparent.

National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, who has faced some criticism for potentially adding to decision-making confusion, said this issue is so thorny, we can benefit from extra deep thinkers.

This is going to be controversial, he said. Not everybody is going to like the answer.

Caplan favors an independent commission that includes both scientists and representatives of affected communities, such as people with disabilities and children. Whoever makes the decisions, he said, its got to be trustworthy.

Eddy Bresnitz, a former deputy commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health who is now advising the department on coronavirus response, said he expects that the White House Coronavirus Task Force will also weigh in, but that the ultimate decision will rest with officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The federal government is purchasing vaccines and will allocate them to states, said Bresnitz. States usually have some flexibility in interpreting federal guidance. New Jersey already is planning how the vaccine will be distributed, but that will depend on how many doses are available and characteristics of the vaccine itself.

Nate Wardle, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, said the commonwealth is preparing to give vaccines to the public and high-risk groups in a variety of settings, including doctors offices, pharmacies, and other community distribution points that will ensure the entire population gets the coronavirus vaccination.

Who goes first?

Priorities need to consider the multiple public health roles vaccines can play, said William Schaffner, an infectious diseases specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Typically, younger people mount the strongest immune response, said Schaffner, who represents the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases as a liaison to ACIP. They are currently catching COVID-19 at higher rates and spreading it to other, more vulnerable populations. Vaccinating them could weaken the chain of transmission.

Older people and those with chronic health problems are clearly getting sickest, but vaccines tend to be less effective in these groups. A third group are the people in society that are responsible for its most essential functions, Schaffner said: medical workers, police and firefighters, those who make, sell and distribute food.

Schaffner said its important not to create such narrow categories that vaccine sits unused in refrigerators. Vaccine does not prevent disease, he said. Immunization prevents disease.

During the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009, ACIP developed a five-tiered priority list for vaccine distribution that frames the current discussion. First came critical health care and public health personnel, pharmacists, emergency responders, police and firefighters, along with deployed personnel. The second tier included essential military support, the National Guard, intelligence services and other national security personnel as well as mortuary workers, and those in communications, IT and utilities. High-risk adults were in the fourth tier and healthy adults, aged 19 to 64 were in the last group.

Children were a high priority in that plan, because H1N1 hit them harder. They will be a lower priority this time, Schaffner said, because they are not involved in current vaccine trials. In addition, young children seem to be less likely to spread the virus than older children or adults. Older children rarely develop serious complications. Pregnant women, however, could remain a high-priority group.

In its June meeting, ACIP held preliminary discussions about what new tiers might look like, Schaffner said, keeping in mind that officials will need to know how many doses are available and who responds well to the vaccine. Among those considered for the top tier were high-risk medical, national security and essential workers. Below that might be other health care and essential workers along with people age 65 and older, those who live in long-term care settings and those at high medical risk for severe COVID-19. Those groups include 122 million people.

Future discussions will likely focus on how to slice the various categories.

John Zurlo, an infectious diseases doctor at Jefferson Health, said he would prioritize health care workers most likely to have direct contact with COVID-19 patients and people who live in settings like nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. Low-wage workers with a lot of exposure to the public would also be high on his list, as well as those with conditions like obesity, diabetes and heart disease that raise the risk of hospitalization from COVID-19. The elderly would get priority over the young.

 READ MORE: COVID-19 is more likely to hospitalize and even kill people with these preexisting conditions

Caplans list is similar to Zurlos, with a priority tier that includes first responders, health-care workers and nursing home staff and residents, but he would also add representatives of groups that were not well studied in clinical trials. Then hed start looking at hot spots. Maybe Houston will need the vaccine more than Boise. Hed want to make sure that key foreign locations are under control so travelers dont reintroduce the virus.

What about race?

Because Black and Latino people have been more likely to become seriously ill with COVID-19 and to die of it, members of ACIP have discussed whether some racial groups should get preference for the vaccine.

Schmidt says race must be considered. Minority groups are at higher risk in part because they have higher rates of chronic medical problems, but socioeconomic conditions like crowded homes, low-wage jobs without sick leave and the need to take public transportation make things worse. Black and brown workers also often toil in essential businesses like hospitals, nursing homes and grocery stores.

 READ MORE: Coronavirus has exposed deep race inequity in health care. Can Philadelphia change the trend?

We have to understand that social justice will loom large in allocating vaccine, the Penn bioethicist said. While legally, governments could not prioritize by race, they could by social deprivation, a measure that combines income, education, employment, and housing-quality data to rank neighborhoods.

Its clear, he said, that the vaccine should not be dispensed on a first-come-first-served basis. That would help the well connected and better off.

Schaffner thinks that prioritizing essential workers and those with risk factors will benefit nonwhite Americans. I dont like vaccine allocation by race, he said. I think doing it by risk is much the better method.

 READ MORE: Breaking down the toll of Philly's coronavirus hospitlaizations by race, age and neighborhood

Should political leaders jump the line? Bresnitz thinks that should be on the table. We dont want our leadership to be decimated, he said. One could make a case, he said, that career government workers may sometimes be more important than elected officials.

Caplan said we can assume that not everyone will follow the rules. There will inevitably be a black market. There will be people buying access, he said. This is America.

Its a safe bet that no one, save possibly those critical health care workers, will be completely satisfied with the eventual rationing scheme.

Bresnitz tells friends and family not to think a vaccine will change everything  it will be a while before their effectiveness is proven. Whatever vaccines we have, he said, it is not going to obviate the need for continuing to practice social distancing and hygiene and even mask wearing.
Two men were killed in overnight shootings in Birmingham, one on the citys east side and the other in Ensley.

The Jefferson County Coroners Office identified the victims as Dexter Dewayne Speight, 31, and Joe Albert Foster IV, 21.

The first homicide happened at 9:13 p.m. Monday in the 700 block of Springville Road. Birmingham police East Precinct officers responded to a report of gunfire at Twin Gates apartments, and found Speight wounded. He was taken to UAB Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 9:51 p.m.

The second happened in Ensley early Tuesday. Birminghams West Precinct officers responded shortly before 12:20 a.m. to a report of shots fired in the 2300 block of Court R at Villas at Westridge apartment complex, said Sgt. Rod Mauldin. Once at the complex, a resident told them gunfire had been heard inside an adjacent unit.

Birminghams West Precinct officers responded shortly before 12:20 a.m. Tuesday, July 28, 2020, to a deadly shooting in the 2300 block of Court R at Villas at Westridge apartment complex. (Birmingham Police Department)

Mauldin said officers looked through a window and saw a person on the floor. They gained entry to the apartment and found Foster unresponsive. He was pronounced dead on the scene by Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service at 12:45 a.m.

No additional details have been released in either case, and no arrests have yet been announced.

The deadly shootings are Birminghams 66th and 67th homicides this year. Of those, eight have been ruled justifiable and one accidental and therefore are not deemed criminal. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 96 homicides, including the 67 in Birmingham.

Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
Dhaka, Jul 28 (UNI) Bangladesh Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader today said Bangladesh and India are now maintaining stronger friendly, warm and development-oriented relations than ever before.

If relations with neighboring countries become friendly and strong, it will be easier to make mutual progress and resolve unsettled bilateral issues, he said after Indian High Commissioner to

Bangladesh Riva Ganguly Das paid a courtesy call on him at his secretariat office.

Quader, also Awami League general secretary, said Bangladesh-India relations are tied with the bloodstained 1971 Liberation War and the neighboring countries are tested friends.

He said the relationship bridge between the two countries are advancing towards newer dimensions with the course of time. During the meeting, they discussed the progress of the under-implementation projects in road infrastructural development and public transport in Bangladesh under the

Indian. The minister extended his thanks to the High Commissioner for her cooperation in taking ahead the road infrastructural development projects in Bangladesh.

UNI MAZ GK 2048
My husbands grandfather came here from Poland in the early 1900s and worked in the mines until he saved enough money to buy land. He had farmed in the old country and wanted to do the same in America. Like the other farmers around, he had a few cows, chickens, pigs, eggs and produce that he sold in town.

His son, my husbands father, took over the farm in the 1950s and built up the dairy herd because it was the best way to make a living on a farm. He worked hard and milk prices were good enough for him to raise a family and meet all of their needs. He saved his money, bought his machinery with cash and never went into debt.

He passed his way of doing things on to his son, my husband, who took over the farm in the 1980s. Unfortunately in 1983 an arsonist completely destroyed our barn, but we did not lose any milking cows. At that point, the hard work of this family was already being undermined by the federal government. In the 1970s the Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz said to farmers, Get big or get out.

This animosity toward family-scale farms has continued to undermine farmers through the pricing of milk. The message of the current Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to farmers is In America, the big get bigger and the small go out. This is not just a prediction, it is a plan and a policy. Milk pricing by the federal government is designed to benefit factory farms and the producers and to drive small, family operations out of business.

Farms are apparently not one of the small businesses that every administration says they want to support. Should the public care? Only if they are concerned about getting real milk instead of reconstituted milk, if they are concerned about diseases and viruses that are rampant in factory farms and if they understand that our food security is at risk when we depend on imports and big business.

If were going to maintain our family farms and price the milk correctly to them, we must get behind the Federal Milk Marketing Act (Specter-Casey bill). We urge everyone to contact our U.S. Senators and members of Congress and urge them to reintroduce this bill while we still have some family farms.

Annette Kuzma, Tunkhannock, Pa.
In these strange pandemic days, crippled businesses around the country have been clamouring for government assistance. Among them is the film and TV industry, which has been severely affected with numerous productions either shut down indefinitely or cancelled. Their casts and crews, many of whom are self-employed, have been out of work and ineligible for benefits.

In recent weeks, the federal government has responded to pleas for support by pledging $400 million to attract big-budget international film productions to Australia. And rather than offering additional support to our national broadcaster, the ABC, its donated $10 million to Foxtel to help it showcase womens, niche and under-represented sports. In 2018, Foxtel was gifted $30 million as part of the same initiative.

Wentworth is among Australia's most successful shows. Foxtel is required to spend on local productions but new streaming services aren't. Credit:Joe Armao

Our film and TV industry isnt a homogenous entity. It incorporates a range of members  producers, writers, actors, TV networks, pay-TV operators and the newer players, the SVOD (streaming video on demand) services  and they have differing priorities. So, understandably, there is a range of views on the way government has to date chosen to allocate funds to the embattled sector. For one astute perspective on why the decision to support foreign productions rather than local creatives might not be wise or well-judged, see producer Nick Murrays opinion piece for The Age and The Herald (July 20).

As the debate continues about the best ways to assist the industry, and in the midst of a government review that could reduce the amount of local drama and childrens content that appears on our screens, its worth noting that there is a way for the government to support the industry and generate much-needed investment without having to spend a cent. It involves legislative controls.
South Africa: North West mourns death of four health practitioners

[Read] Two people, one a current Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa employee and another, a former employee of the agency, have been arrested for allegedly being in possession of stolen assets, worth almost R2 million in value, belonging to PRASA tinyurl.com/y4wrkbc6

This story has been published on: 2020-07-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Perhaps my sense of humor does fire a degree or two off top dead center, and my sense of irony may be slightly overdeveloped, but some things just make me laugh.

One that does is nearly 78-year old former Vice-President Joe Biden, currently the Democrats presumptive 2020 nominee. A 48-year embodiment of Washingtons status quo, Joe now hilariously claims to have the answers to every national problem to which he was party, often central.

Forget answers, though. Joe cant remember the questions.

Biden has been a nearly invisible candidate only-peripherally involved in historys strangest presidential campaign. Joe doesnt do face time with donors, the press or the larger American public, because his keepers have sequestered him in his Delaware basement.

Biden seldom emerges, and, when he does, so far, its been primarily by automobile to friendly nearby, sparsely-attended events where he awkwardly reads brief staff-prepared statements, before vanishing without taking questions. Recent examples include a largely-redundant July 21 addendum to Bidens previously-announced, massively-expensive July 9 and July 14 encyclopedic spending and special interest giveaways carrying new costs over ten years ranging from $8 trillion to $10 trillion.

Featuring lots of folksy, substance-free Biden-isms, together, Joe billed them as an economic recovery plan, even though the funds would necessarily be extracted from a financially-stressed middle class and a COVID-damaged national economy through increased and new taxes, including one on real estate.

Bidens sequestration is a practical matter. Joes highly-entertaining fabrications, boasts, gaffes, threats, slurring, confusion, embarrassing blank outs and memory lapses are legion  and legendary.

Everyone remembers Bidens Corn Pop fantasy, his incomprehensible lying dog-faced pony soldier insult, his Im an Obiden-Bama Democrat howler, and his presumptuous If you have a problem figuring out whether youre for me or Trump, you aint black belittlement, among many others.

But not everything Biden says is funny.

In June, Biden foolishly claimed that 10 to 15 percent of Americans are just not very good people  deplorables, no doubt. Joe clearly didnt mean the looters and rioters torching Democrat-run cities. In fact, in July, Biden answered a web interview question by agreeing that police forces can/should be defunded.

Also in July, Biden, whose son Hunter harvested $1.5 billion in Chinese government-related funding while Joe was vice-president, gratuitously labeled Americans racists when he was captured on video saying that its wrong to hold China accountable for coronavirus because Americans cant distinguish between a South Korean and someone from Beijing.

But, although ugly, those gaffes arent Bidens most worrisome by far.

Although people who have heard Biden speak recently laughed, understandably, it was decidedly unfunny when, in another web interview, moments after confessing he hasnt been tested for coronavirus because he has no symptoms, Joe volunteered hes being constantly tested for cognitive decline.

Then, Biden continued, injudiciously, I can hardly wait to compare my cognitive capability to the cognitive capability of the man Im running against.

In 2018, President Donald Trump took the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test as part of his annual medical examination, and aced it. The results were made public, a fact the New York Times reluctantly reported. Unlike Biden, the president routinely appears in public and takes hostile press questions.

The Biden campaign must come clean, too.

Bidens admission raises some important questions: If Joe has not been tested for coronavirus because hes symptom-free, what symptoms worried his keepers enough to test him for cognitive decline?

Furthermore, who administers Bidens constant cognitive tests  and where? How frequently is Joe tested? And why havent his results been made public?

Shouldnt Americans know them before making Biden leader of the free world?

Lets be honest, shall we? Democrats know theyre running a man whos incapable of serving, but theyre doing it anyway. After failing to field a more electable candidate, hard-left Democrats expect that, if elected, Joe would be an easily-controlled transitional president. In fact, his campaign has already aligned with self-identified socialists such as Bernie Sanders and others to formulate Joes energy, climate justice, immigration, social and tax planning policies.

So, if you think things are bad now, wait and see what happens if Biden wins.

He may be a barrel of laughs, but, considering the office he seeks, Joe Bidens mental state is no laughing matter.

Contact columnist Jerry Shenk at jshenk2010@gmail.com
Oldham today became the latest place to introduce tighter coronavirus restrictions after a 240 per cent surge in cases in the past week.

Official NHS statistics show 119 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in the Greater Manchester town in the week up to July 25.

This equates to a rate of 50.5 cases per 100,000 people  the third highest rate in the country, behind only Blackburn with Darwen and Leicester.

Council bosses have now urged all of the borough's 235,000 residents to not let any visitors into their home for at least two weeks.

They are keen 'to prevent a strict local lockdown being put in place' like that seen in Leicester, which has yet to be freed from the draconian restrictions.

It puts Oldham at odds with the rest of England, after lockdown rules were relaxed earlier this month to let people to stay overnight with loved ones.

Everyone living in the Greater Manchester borough has also been asked to keep two metres apart from friends and family when seeing them outside.

Current government advice for the rest of the nation recommends a one metre-plus rule  but people should keep two metres apart where possible.

Oldham has today become the latest place to introduce tighter coronavirus restrictions after a 240 per cent surge in cases. Pictured is the town and nearby Blackburn with Darwen, which is also facing tougher rules

Some 119 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in the Oldham, Greater Manchester, in the week up to July 25. Pictured, the town on March 26

Leicester remains the only city in the UK to have had a local lockdown. Officials may announce the lifting of its coronavirus-fighting measures this weekend.

Other areas of England have also imposed restrictions to contain the virus, including Blackburn with Darwen and Luton.

Arooj Shah, deputy leader of Oldham Council, said: 'We're urging residents to take the risk of coronavirus seriously and to stick to the guidelines.

THE 10 PLACES WITH THE HIGHEST INFECTION RATE IN ENGLAND Blackburn with Darwen: 77.2 Leicester: 56 Oldham: 50.5 Bradford: 43.9 Trafford: 33.8 Rochdale: 33.2 Sandwell: 28.7 Calderdale: 24.3 Manchester: 21.4 Luton: 18.7 NHS figures up to July 25 Advertisement

'We know people across Oldham desperately want to see their friends and family, and get back to normal.

'But these restrictions are essential if we are to stop the spread of coronavirus and prevent a strict local lockdown being put in place, as we have seen elsewhere in the country.'

The local council said a significant proportion of recent cases involve multiple individuals testing positive within a household.

Around 20 per cent of the borough's population are from Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage, compared to the 2.8 per cent average in England and Wales.

It is known people of an ethnic minority background are at a higher risk of catching Covid-19.

Some reasons for this may include that they are more likely to live in poverty, have lower-paid jobs, and live in densely-populated areas of cities and towns, all of which raise the risk of coming into contact with other people who may carry the disease.

Along with other towns with a large Asian population suffering elevated infection rates, public officials and local politicians say large families, often living in small terraced houses and looking after elderly relatives at home, explain the ethnic population's vulnerability to the disease.

There is also concern the way public health messaging is being communicated to areas where English may not be the first language.

Blackburn with Darwen, which is also under tighter coronavirus restrictions to prevent a local lockdown, has also seen the majority of new cases in ethnic minorities.

The day after the council announced new rules, on July 14, a local health chief revealed a staggering 85 per cent of the new Covid-19 infections were among the South Asian population.

Council bosses have now urged the borough's 235,000 residents to not let any visitors into their home for at least two weeks. It has not closed the hospitality sector, pictured opening on July 4

Oldham's councillor Ms Shah stressed the best way to avoid infection was to limit contact with others as much as possible.

Non-essential shops, pubs, restaurants, cafes and hairdressers are still open, however.

People are still allowed to meet in groups of six as long as everyone is socially distanced and outdoors - which are current national guidelines.

And gatherings larger than six 'should only take place if everyone is exclusively from two households or support bubbles,' Ms Shah has reminded Oldham residents.

She advised to avoid taking part in gatherings of more than 30 people, which is currently prohibited across England.

Ms Shah asked people to 'please wear a mask where you cannot keep at least two metres from others, particularly in indoor public spaces when you are around people you do not usually meet'.

'Stay home wherever you can, including working from home limit contact with other people and respect social distancing where you do go out; keeping at least two metres from those not in your household and avoid shaking hands or hugging,' she said.

Katrina Stephens, director of public health for Oldham, urged anyone with symptoms of the coronavirus - namely a fever, persistent cough or loss of taste and smell - to get a test.

She added: 'If we all do our bit and stick to the restrictions now, we can help stop the spread of coronavirus, and protect ourselves and our loved ones.'

Health chiefs at Public Health England have listed a handful of authorities as an 'area of intervention' because there has been a spike in Covid-19 cases.

An area of intervention is one 'where there is divergence from the measures in place in the rest of England because of the significance of the spread'.

Leicester, Oadby and Wigston, Blackburn and Darwen, and Luton are all currently areas of intervention.

A range of measures might be introduced in an area of intervention if officials think it is necessary.

They could close outdoor public places, restrict travel for anyone other than key workers, and close businesses including shops.

An 'area of concern' is the lowest level on the watchlist. It includes Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Northampton, Peterborough, Rochdale, Rotherham and Wakefield.

The government had dropped Oldham from its watch list of areas of concern due to a fall in the infection rate in previous weeks. Data shows the town's cases have fluctuated during July.
The Deputy General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Obiri Boahen says he is ready to take his own life should his party fail to win the 2020 general elections.



To him, nobody and nothing can prevent his decision to commit suicide should President Nana Addo not be retained.



I mean it, I swear, I will kill myself if we [NPP] lose the election. I wasn't joking and not joking, he empathically said in an interview with Neat FMs morning show Ghana Montie.



Known for his outspokenness, Nana Obiri Boahene strongly held that with the massive transformational initiatives rolled out by the current administration, a second term for Akufo-Addo is a foregone conclusion, adding that no mortal being can prevent it.











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.

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Women in Law and Development Africa (WiLDAF Ghana Network) has condemned the cruel murder of the 90-year old woman, Akua Danteh, in Kafaba near Salaga, describing the act as criminal.



It said such incidents brought to the fore the reality of the persistence of violence against women, the aged and other forms of sexual and gender based violence.



A statement issued in Accra by Ms Melody Darkey, the National Programmes Coordinator of the Network, copied to the Ghana News Agency, said the video, which exposed the offence, made it clear how people accepted that culture by looking on whiles the old woman was murdered.



It said Article 13 of the 1992 Constitution guaranteed the right to life by every Ghanaian and prohibited anyone from taking another persons life.



Article 15 also guarantees that the dignity of all (Ghanaians) shall be inviolable and prohibits anyone arrested, restricted, or retained from being subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.



Article 19 also guarantees the right to a fair trial for any accused person. All of these rights appeared to have been denied the late Akua Denteh as she was subjected to a Trial by Ordeal, resulting in her untimely demise, the statement said.



It reminded the public that in addition to the murder, the violence perpetrated against the old woman, particularly as it emanated from a harmful and dehumanising traditional practice of Trial by Ordeal, was criminal.



It said the Criminal and Other Offences Act, as amended at sections 315 and 316, prohibited such practices.



Again, section 1(b) I and 1(d) of the Domestic Violence Act, 2007, as amended, also criminalised such acts while sections 20 and 23 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act prohibited abetment of crime and conspiracy to commit crime, it said.

With the above constitutional and statutory references in mind, we commend the police for dispatching homicide experts to hunt for the alleged murderers.



The statement urged the police not to only arrest perpetrators but also expand the net of culpability to include those who abetted the crime, including those who stood by, watched and did nothing whiles the woman was murdered.



We also commend the Gonja Traditional Council for denouncing such acts and urge them to support the police in their hunt for the perpetrators of such heinous crime, it said.



It urged the Regional and National house of chiefs to deploy their own structures to support the immediate arrest of perpetrators of such crimes, their promoters and supporters.

Source: GNA









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Linkedin Steve Holland (Reuters) Washington, United States  Tue, July 28, 2020 06:44 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669b8b4c 2 World Donald-Trump,security,adviser Free

US national security adviser Robert O'Brien has become the highest ranking official in President Donald Trump's inner circle to test positive for the coronavirus.

Announcing the infection on Monday, the White House said in a statement there was no risk of exposure to Trump or Vice President Mike Pence.

The announcement caught some White House staff off guard, as there had not been an internal memo about it, one source said. Because of the regular testing regimen, White House officials do not reliably wear masks while working in the West Wing.

An administration official said O'Brien had not had contact with the president in several days. The National Security Council did not immediately respond to questions about O'Brien, who was working from home.

The White House statement said: "He (O'Brien) has mild symptoms and has been self-isolating and working from a secure location off site. There is no risk of exposure to the president or the vice president. The work of the National Security Council continues uninterrupted."

O'Brien, who took over as national security adviser from John Bolton last September, had traveled to Paris in mid-July to represent the United States at Bastille Day ceremonies. He met French President Emmanuel Macron while there.

"I spoke to him late last week," Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters at the White House. "I wish him well, I hope he's OK. Apparently, it's a light case. I believe his daughter had caught it before him."

The virus has been disruptive for Trump, who last week was forced to cancel plans for the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Florida, where he was to be formally nominated for a second term.

A US military member who works at the White House as a valet tested positive for coronavirus in May as did Pence's press secretary.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan who counts the campaign against India over Jammu and Kashmir as his governments key achievement has roped in the Inter Services Intelligence, or ISI, in its 18-point plan to commemorate the Aug 5 anniversary of India scrapping Article 370 that extended special status to the valley, people familiar with the development said. The ISI is Pakistans notorious spy agency accused of nurturing terror groups, mostly directed at India and Afghanistan.

The 18-point programme includes a visit by Imran Khan to occupied Kashmir where he is tentatively scheduled to address the assembly, a speech that is going to be beamed live. Before he reaches Muzaffarabad, Khans government intends a field trip for foreign journalists to the occupied territory. Like in the past, the terror training camps funded by the ISI would be off-limits for the journalists.

India had tabled the law in Rajya Sabha to strip the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir of its special status under the constitution and turn the state into two union territories - Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh - on August 5. It was passed by the Rajya Sabha the same day, the Lok Sabha the next and received the presidential assent on 9 August.

Also Watch | Pakistan, China plan dam in PoK; India slams attempts at material change

Also Read: Article 370: Going back 72 years in history

The introduction of the law was preceded by a security and communication lockdown in Jammu and Kashmir and detention of its top political leaders. Most of them have since then been released; PDPs Mehbooba Mufti is among the exceptions.

Pakistan, which like much of the country, was taken by surprise by New Delhis move had soon launched an international campaign against the nullification of Article 370. Imran Khan was the face of this pitch on and off Twitter. Khan even focused his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, or UNGA, last September on Kashmir, warned a blood bath in Kashmir when the curfew is lifted, prophesied a genocide on the streets of the valley and frequently referred to Paks nuke weapons to blackmail the world to intervene.

Only two other countries spoke of Kashmir at the UNGA: Recep Tayyip Erdogans Turkey and Malaysia, then led by Mahathir Mohamad.

China also did issue two statements on the scrapping of Article 370. One asked India and Pakistan to work together on the Kashmir issue. But its primary concern was over the change of Ladakhs status to a federally-administered territory. China is always opposed to Indias inclusion of the Chinese territory in the western sector of the China-India boundary into its administrative jurisdiction, Chinas foreign ministry had said.

India had then ticked off Beijing, underlining that changing the status of an Indian territory was an internal matter.

For Imran Khans elaborate plan for August 5, Islamabad has reached out to Kuala Lumpur, Ankara and Beijing to issue statements to commemorate the first anniversary of Jammu and Kashmirs new status. Or at least tweet.

Turkeys Erdogan is expected to oblige but New Delhi is watching how Malaysia plays. Kuala Lumpur has a new prime minister in Muhyiddin Yassin who took over as prime minister on 1 March. A statement from China, a government official said, didnt matter given how it had attempted to expand its territory that led to the standoff and the bloody Galwan clash in east Ladakh, and the first casualties on both sides along the Line of Actual Control in 40 years.

The foreign ministry has been told to work closely with spy agency ISI on its diplomatic outreach to Organisation of Islamic Cooperation member countries and international human rights groups, organising commemorative events - even rallies - at missions abroad and drafting a fresh memorandum to be handed over to the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan headquartered in Islamabad.

Also Read: Pak military retains dominant influence during Imran Khans tenure, says US report

Counter terror officials in New Delhi told Hindustan Times that the campaign had been drawn up by the military for Imran Khan, right from documentaries, pamphlets and newspaper supplements that would be put out to the tweets that would be put out. But Imran Khan will front the campaign.

Quite like the ISI had created the The Resistance Front after August 5, a terror group without the religious label that could be used by Pakistans propaganda machine to claim that terror was homebred in Kashmir due to Article 370.

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Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could rise 61 points at the opening bell.

Market regulator Sebi on Monday extended relaxation in procedural requirements for listed entities with respect to open and buyback offers till December 31 amid coronavirus pandemic. The regulator, in May, had granted one-time relaxations from strict enforcement of SAST (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations and norms for buyback of securities through open and buyback tender offers opening till July 31.

Overseas, Asian stocks were higher in Tuesday as investors continued to monitor developments on the coronavirus front.

In US, major stock indexes finished higher Monday, as investors watched lawmakers haggle over a coronavirus rescue program and braced for the busiest week of earnings season. Gains across the major tech names lifted the broader market as traders braced for the busiest week of the earnings season.

Amazon gained 1.54% after several analysts hiked their 12-month price targets on the e-commerce giants. Apple also rose 2.37% and was among the best-performing Dow stocks. Facebook, Netflix, Alphabet and Microsoft ended the day higher as well.

The Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting kicks off on Tuesday. Investors generally don't expect the central bank to make any major announcements, but are looking for Chairman Jerome Powell to maintain a dovish tone.

Earnings season continues apace this week, including results from a host of tech heavyweights. Google parent Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com, Apple Inc., and Facebook Inc. are due to report Wednesday and Thursday.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday unveiled the Republican coronavirus relief plan, which would include relief for jobless Americans, among other provisions.

U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and German biotech firm BioNTech said they began their late-stage human trial for a potential coronavirus vaccine on Monday. That announcement by the firms came the same day biotech firm Moderna, also developing a leading vaccine candidate, said it began its late-stage coronavirus vaccine trial.

Back home, key benchmarks ended lower on Monday amid mixed global cues. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex dropped 194.17 points or 0.51% at 37,934.73. The Nifty 50 index fell 62.35 points or 0.56% at 11,131.80.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 453.31 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 977.88 crore in the Indian equity market on 27 July, provisional data showed.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia has urged members to unite and rally behind the leadership of the NDC to ensure victory in the 2020 elections.



Speaking at the official ceremony to introduce the NDC's presidential running mate, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, on Monday night, Mr Asiedu Nketia said the NDC will only be able to secure victory if they close their ranks and forge forward in unity.



He said all members of the party must commit themselves to work hard towards the partys return to power.



If we are united and determined to make a change in our circumstances, it shall be. But we cannot win an election with a divided front. Ill like to urge everybody who wants to see a change to let us close our ranks, he advised.



Mr Asiedu Nketia said while there may be some persons who will not agree with some decisions taken by the party in recent times, it will be important to still rally behind the partys efforts.



It is our duty to close our ranks, rally around our leadership and make sure that the mission of rescuing Ghana is accomplished. This is the time for party members to collectively take ownership of the future John Mahama government, he added.









Source: Graphic.com.gh









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Catherine O'Hara as Moira Rose in "Schitt's Creek." ( Steve Wilkie / CBC)

Why is this Emmy nominations morning different from all other Emmy nominations mornings? It's the last chance for "Schitt's Creek," which ended its run earlier this year, to get in that game. And it has, with something of a grand slam: nominations for the series itself, for lead actor Eugene Levy, supporting actor Dan Levy (also nominated for directing and writing) and supporting actress Annie Murphy, several craft categories and  as the world waited breathlessly  for lead actress Catherine O'Hara. Her Moira Rose  the self-dramatizing, language-massaging, ultimately touching mother in a family that lost all their money, moved into a small-town motel and, over the course of six seasons, found one another  is a brilliant creation and the series' unlikely heart.

This is O'Hara's sixth Emmy nomination, including one last year for comedy actress for "Schitt's Creek" and one in 2010 for the HBO miniseries biopic "Temple Grandin." Her only win was in 1981, as part of the writing staff of "SCTV," an award she shared with her "Schitt's Creek" costar Eugene Levy, among others.

"Our show is a bit of a late bloomer," O'Hara told me last year, two days before production wrapped on the series finale, "and I'm grateful for that. Who wants to peak early?" It's as true of her career as it is of the show, which had lived for a few seasons on PopTV before reruns on Netflix awakened the wider world. O'Hara has always worked, but in Moira Rose she's created a cultural touchstone. Moira's is the face (and voice) that launched a thousand memes; she's the subject of fan art and fan crafts. There are Moira mugs and socks, face masks and votive candles, earrings and paintings waiting for you on Etsy. O'Hara is posing in glamour photos for Vanity Fair  although she wields a leaf blower in one.

Awards are nice, of course, though they are in no sense a necessary seal of approval. The reward is in the work. It's an honor just to be nominated, they say, and it's good to be seen, but talent needs no stinking badges, no golden trophies. As a fan of "SCTV" in its original, late-night, almost sub rosa run, I have been in love with O'Hara's work for a long time now. I didn't need the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, or the Motion Picture Academy, for that matter, to tell me she's great.

Story continues

Catherine O'Hara peers out of a doorway between takes on the set of "Schitt's Creek." (Cole Burston / For The Times)

She has been a public figure for more than four decades, though often hidden in cult series and films, ensemble pieces or small parts, or as a voice behind a cartoon character or animated puppet (she was the rag doll heroine in Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas"). In person, she has what can seem, to an American, a particularly Canadian quality of presenting herself as nothing special, as nearly dull. She is the polar opposite of Moira in that respect, though by the end of "Schitt's Creek," having learned a thing or two about family, community and love  literally a couple of things, but enough  Moira is that much closer to the woman who plays her.

Her film career includes mainstream and art house comedies, with some dramas mixed in for good measure, though much of her comedy is fundamentally dramatic, and, at its most absurd, never less than real. On the popular front you find, most famously, "Home Alone" and "Home Alone 2," films to which she "never felt attached," but which certainly had something to do with her hosting "Saturday Night Live" in 1991 and 1992 and which were, until "Schitt's"  and maybe even now  the source of her widest fame. Moving further afield, there were Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice," Martin Scorsese's outlier comedy "After Hours," and the four semi-improvisational comedies Levy co-wrote with Christopher Guest  "Waiting for Guffman," "Best in Show," "For Your Consideration," in which she plays an actress hoping for an Oscar nomination, and "A Mighty Wind," in which she and Levy play a reuniting folk duo, managing a difficult past. It is a remarkably tender performance, one that never tries for laughs.

On television, there have been many guest shots, including "The Larry Sanders Show," "Six Feet Under," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and "Modern Family." In 2018, O'Hara played the villainous optometrist Dr. Georgina Orwell, in the Netflix adaptation of "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," in two episodes directed by her husband, Bo Welch (also the series' production designer). Coming out of improv and sketch comedy  and on "SCTV," unlike "SNL," the bits could fly by  O'Hara learned how to communicate a lot about a character in a short time. (There are levels even to her Brooke Shields imitation.) But "Schitt's Creek" was the first time since "SCTV" that she starred in a series, and the first time she's played a single person over such a long period of time. It's given her the opportunity to dig deep, to find the subtleties in a seemingly outrageous character.

It's no knock against a brilliant ensemble  also including Eugene's son and series co-creator Dan Levy, Annie Murphy, Emily Hampshire, Noah Reid, Chris Elliott and Jennifer Robertson  to say that Moira was the series' breakout character, a fantastic creature no more likely for having been caught on film, and yet never less than human. Moira has her own way of speaking, of dressing, of processing information, defining her place in the community by overestimating her importance to it  which signifies, conversely, that the community matters to her. She is capable of kindness, even if it does grow from a misplaced sense of pity.

Annie Murphy flips her wrists for character Alexis Rose as Catherine O'Hara watches during "Schitt's Creek Live" in 2018 at the Ace Hotel. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)

You can play a premise like this without heart: Look at the rich people squirm. In less ambitious hands, in a less ambitious time, the Roses might have been the Howells, stuck on "Gilligan's Island," merely an occasion for jokes about money and the clueless uselessness of the privileged. (I'm not saying they weren't funny). From the beginning, O'Hara spoke of their "suffering."

The first time we talked, back in 2015, before the show had even aired in the U.S., O'Hara said that in playing Moira she wanted to avoid doing "snooty rich lady." "I'd rather do someone who thinks that she's of this world and hip and avant-garde and has been everywhere and is cultured. And who knows about her past?  I like to think she's really threatened by this small town life  because she's been there, you know? And I like to think of her as more vulnerable than just snobby or superior. I think it's way more insecure."

That's to say that the Moira we know is a character Moira herself has been performing for so long that she has vanished into it. With her wall of wigs, her couture carapace, she's a restrained variation on Lola Heatherton, her "SCTV" satire of over-the-top showbiz enthusiasm. ("I want to have your baby!" was Lola's trademark expression of approval, followed by a giant cackle.) She is a heroine who doesn't understand the nature of heroism; she thinks her journey is to revive her acting career and get out of "Schitt's Creek," when it is really to become a loving mother. (She is always a loving wife; the show is old-fashioned in that respect.)

Beautiful without seeming to be, O'Hara can come across as glamorous, eccentric or average as the occasion demands. What looks like quirkiness is really an expression of her intelligence, and an actor's delight in playing in rough waters; she is unafraid to embarrass herself, happy to look difficult. But her creations are always human, and like the show itself , they can can go from ridiculous to heartbreaking in a breath.

"It's lovely isn't it?" she said last year, as the show wound down. "It's not like you stop laughing so you can cry, you stop crying so you can laugh  it's all mixed in. It's cliched to say, but it is like life."
Trending in China: Domestic Violence Victim Left Paralyzed After Flight Attempt Makes Second Try at Divorce

Yilin Chen / Jul 28, 2020 07:16 PM / Trending Stories

Whats trending?

In August 2019, a woman in Henan surnamed Liu jumped from a second-story window to allegedly escape domestic violence, becoming paralyzed in the act but still stuck in her relationship after a local court denied her divorce petition. Now she is trying for a second time to leave her husband. The case has drawn the attention of media and millions of people seeking to pressure the court to grant the divorce this time.

Whats the story?

In an interview with the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald, Liu detailed her husbands history of alleged abuse that began with disputes about his gambling. Last summer, she said the violence escalated to a point where the husband beat her and took her phone. Seeking to get away, she leapt from the window to escape. During Lius hospitalization, she said her husband sent death threats to her family to deter her from notifying the police.

The court denied Lius petition for divorce due to her husbands unwillingness, and because the claims of domestic violence could not be verified without a criminal complaint. Local police decided not to file such a complaint after determining that Lius injuries were the result of an attempted suicide and not her husbands beatings.

Lius story is touching a national nerve as she files for divorce a second time. Her story, as well as footage of a man abusing a woman, labeled online as Liu and her husband, as well as her jump, garnered over 1 billion views on Weibo. Targeted by public outcry, the local prosecutor has now charged the husband with assault.

Chinas divorce rate rose to 3.2 for every 1,000 people in 2018, while the marriage rate has fallen, according to Caijing. However, getting a divorce continues to be difficult in some regions as local courts are reluctant to approve divorce petitions, citing traditional family values. In May, the national legislature passed the nations first civil code, effective from next year. A mandatory month-long cooling-off period for divorce filings, aimed at discouraging impulsive decisions, has been criticized for prolonging the suffering of those in failed marriages, especially victims of domestic violence whose safety is at risk.

What are people saying online?

Some people questioned the legal process that divorce petitions have to undergo. Its pathetic that divorce can only be attained after a social media backlash and extreme methods such as jumping out of a window, one user wrote. Who do our marriage laws really protect?

Still others say that the cooling-off period, soon to go into effect, will only exacerbate the problem. The new requirement aims to address Chinas soaring divorce rate, but it will only discourage more people from getting married, one person wrote.

Contact editor Heather Mowbray (heathermowbray@caixin.com)
Universities have designated residence halls for students who show symptoms or test positive for the novel coronavirus while on campus, but their reopening plans did not include separate guidance for students traveling from states where the virus is raging. National trends  an emerging epicenter for the virus in South Florida and an outburst of new cases in Mississippi  have demonstrated the need to require students moving from certain areas to isolate themselves from the rest of the community, the D.C. Office of Planning said in a letter to university leaders.
- A young Black lady, Jackie Smith, has recently graduated from the United States Naval Academy

- Jackie's academic achievement was shared on social media along with stunning photos of her donned in her uniform

- The young Black woman has been celebrated for making herself and loved ones proud

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Young Black women such as Jackie Smith reflect a shimmer of brilliance with their academic achievements.

Smith just completed her years of training at the United States Naval Academy and is ready to be commissioned to serve her country as she makes her mark in history.

The young womans recent feat certainly mirrors her hard work and character. Her motivating story also affirms how far the world has come regarding the integration of women in careers that were once considered to be male-dominated.

READ ALSO: Mama Esther: Meet the expectant woman who works as auto repair and spraying technician (video)

Jackie Smith Photo credit: Instagram

Source: Facebook

In a post on social media, Smith has been highly esteemed for chalking this educational achievement as she prepares to step into the world in anticipation of a bright future.

The post read:

CONGRATULATIONS: come on everyone lets wish Jackie Smith, graduating at The United States Naval Academy, much future success. You did it! #classof2020.

As more women continue to join the navy, military, and other male-dominated fields, they become the forces that shape narratives and paradigms regarding the capabilities of women.

Smith just joined the ranks of these women and her powerful inspirational story has already erupted with dozens of pleasant commentaries on social media beneath the post.

READ ALSO: Young Black CEO of multiple businesses celebrates as he graduates with degree; set to pursue master's

YEN.com.gh recently reported that determination coupled with resilience triumphs over even the toughest obstacles and young Ghanaian creative, Nii Djormor Sackey, embodies these traits.

Sackey beat major odds and is finally living a thriving life with his dreams in sight. He received his early education as a teenager at Accra Academy where he studied Visual Arts.

He later moved to China to pursue a degree programme in Petroleum Engineering Oil and Gas at Liaoning Shihua University where he graduated with a GPA of 3.54.

In another story, as the world continues to grapple with the novel coronavirus pandemic some schools remain closed which has prevented the usual celebration of graduations.

Dr Earl Campbell is among thousands whose graduation ceremonies have been greatly affected by the current state of the world due to the global pandemic.

In a post on social media, Dr Campbell announced he has successfully graduated from his Advanced Interventional Endoscopy fellowship at Yale University.

Faces of Ghana: 2 brothers paving roads in Ghana with granite and cobblestones:

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Source: YEN.com.gh
As Israeli delegation left for India to test the four coronavirus diagnosis solutions with AIIMS, Israel envoy for Asia-Pacific Gilad Cohen reportedly said that both the countries have successfully transformed the global pandemic into an opportunity to assist one another and further enhance their relations. The delegation led by Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D) in Israeli Ministry of Defense, as well as Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Health, will complete a series of tests to determine the effectiveness of several Israeli technologies developed for the rapid diagnosis of COVID-19.

As both the countries continue to fight the deadly coronavirus pandemic, Cohen, in an opinion article in an Israeli media outlet, said Israel went out of its way to approve the export and transfer of the ventilators to India. He added that Israels gesture was a welcome thank you to India, which sent medicines and other essential diagnostic equipment in severe global shortage.

Further, Cohen said, In this way, Israel and India successfully transformed this unprecedented global pandemic into an opportunity to assist one another and further enhance their relations.

READ: Israeli Delegation Enroute India With 4 Cutting-edge Covid Solutions; Will Test Them Out

One of Israels significant friend

In the article, Cohen noted that the scope of mutual trade between the two countries has grown from approximately 200 million USD in 1992 to nearly four billion USD in 2018. He even said that India has become one of Israels significant friendships in the Asian region. Further, Cohen recalled Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahus 2018 visit to India.

Cohen said, In his last visit to India in January 2018, Prime Minister Netanyahu escorted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his home state of Gujarat. In an exceptionally moving moment, hundreds of farmers rushed to meet them and share their personal stories. One after another, they told of how their fields' crop yields had improved by hundreds of per cent following their training at Israel's Excellence Centers.

He added, "Under the leadership of Narendra Modi, India is assuming its role as a regional and world power, and our diplomacy has succeeded in showing India the many advantages that can come from strengthening its ties with Israel.

READ: Israeli Research Delegation Leaves For India, Will Work On COVID-19 Testing Technologies

Rapid diagnosis tech

Meanwhile, the special team of Israeli scientists will be conducting the final stages of testing of advanced technologies for the rapid diagnosis of the new coronavirus disease with their Indian counterparts. Israeli and Indian teams will collect tens of thousands of samples in just ten days, and analyze them using computer systems based on artificial intelligence. All tests will be validated using the confirmatory RT PCR tests. For this purpose, the Centre has designated a team of around 100 professionals, as well as a team dedicated to the construction of testing sites that will be operated jointly by the Israeli and Indian delegations.

(Image: @HananyaNaftali/Twitter)

(With ANI inputs)

READ: India-Israel Partnership Currently Focussed On Combating COVID-19: EAM Jaishankar

READ: Defence Min Rajnath Singh Dials Israeli Counterpart; Discuss COVID, FDI In Manufacturing


President Donald Trump's executive orders aimed at lowering U.S. prescription drug costs will cause "enormous destruction" as the pharmaceutical industry races to develop vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told investors Tuesday.

Trump on Friday signed four executive orders designed to bring U.S. drug prices at least on par with their costs overseas.

"Overall, I'm disappointed with this executive order," Bourla said during a conference call discussing the company's second-quarter earnings. "They pose enormous destruction in a time when the industry needs to be completely focused on developing a potential Covid-19 vaccine or treatment."

Company spokeswoman Amy Rose later emailed CNBC to clarify that Bourla actually said the orders were an "enormous distraction" for drugmakers working on coronavirus vaccines and that several services "mis-transcribed" the word as "destruction." A transcript service from data provider FactSet provided a third interpretation of his comments. FactSet quoted Bourla, who is Greek and speaks with an accent, as saying the new orders would create "enormous disruption" in the industry. CNBC stands by the original quote.

Trump has made lowering drug costs one of his key health-care issues early in his term. But drug pricing has taken a backseat over the last year as the Trump administration has shifted its focus to other priorities such as the teen vaping epidemic and now the coronavirus. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America called the executive orders a "reckless distraction."
Kuchma for the second time became Ukraine's representative to the TCG at the Minsk talks on Donbas on June 3, 2019.

Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has concluded his mission as Ukraine's representative to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) at the Minsk talks on Donbas.

"Leonid Kuchma's work in the Minsk process was extremely important and difficult at the same time," the press service quoted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as saying.

Read alsoPresidential Chief of Staff Yermak: Ukraine unhappy with slow Minsk talks

"Thank you for all the efforts you have made to unblock the Minsk process to achieve peace. Your experience was very important and very useful. I am always ready to hear your advice in the future," Zelensky said during a meeting with Kuchma on July 28.

Kuchma, in turn, said: "The TCG's work has been restored and significantly advanced over the past year, as well as a number of important steps have been taken and important agreements have been reached."

The President's Office recalled Kuchma for the second time became Ukraine's representative to the TCG at the Minsk talks on Donbas on June 3, 2019.
It has emerged that Samuel Adam Foster, aka Samuel Adam Mahama, brother of former President John Dramani Mahama, who was expected in the country yesterday to face the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) headed by Martin Amidu in the raging four million Euros Airbus SE scandal, could not make the trip.

The Special Prosecutor (SP) had reportedly sent a ticket through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Adam Mahama to voluntarily join the stranded Ghanaians who were returning home yesterday on a chartered flight by government, but he was not on board.

It is still unclear why Adam Mahama, who is being sought alongside three other foreigners through an International Police Organization (Interpol) Red Notice, could not honour the invitation, but DAILY GUIDE is reliably informed that the ticket which was bought by Mr. Amidu's office was delivered to the London home of the suspect on Saturday.

Information gathered indicated that the stranded Ghanaians went through Amstardam, Holland en route to Accra, but Adam Mahama was reportedly not part of the group that touched down at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).

The SP was expecting the former President's brother to voluntarily join a flight from London arranged by government for stranded Ghanaians in the UK due to the Covid-19 restrictions worldwide.

'Unveiling' Mahama

Last Friday, the SP 'unveiled' former President Mahama as the Government Official 1 or Individual 1 that both the United Kingdom and United States investigators referred to in the Airbus SE scandal.

Mr. Amidu's office has been pursuing the former President's brother, Adam Mahama, particularly described as Intermediary 5 in the investigations, and three other foreigners, who have been mentioned as individuals who collected or were paid around four million Euros in bribes on behalf Ghanaian top officials for the supply of aircraft to the Ghana Armed Forces during Mr. Mahama's tenure as Vice-President and later President.

Fresh Letter

He had said in a fresh statement last Friday that he had written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to give Adam Mahama the chance to voluntarily join an emergency flight for Ghanaians stranded in the United Kingdom to return to Ghana on Monday, July 27, to face prosecution over the alleged Airbus bribery case.

The SP said he was being attacked by persons close to Mr. Mahama who he said were saying that he (Mr. Amidu) is tainting his (Mahama) image when, in fact, he said he wanted to pursue the case devoid of politicization.

Mr. Amidu's letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had the title: The Special Prosecutor's urgent request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to facilitate the possibility of Samuel Adam Foster (Samuel Adam Mahama) voluntarily offering to be assisted to come to Ghana on the evacuation flight from London to Accra for Ghanaians on July 27, 2020.

This office has today written a letter with reference number OSP/SCR/2D/34/20 dated July 24, 2020 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration to offer Samuel Adam Foster also known as Samuel Adam Mahama the opportunity to accept to voluntarily evacuate on the evacuation flight for Ghanaian citizens stranded in the United Kingdom to return to Ghana through a scheduled flight on July 27, 2020.

Blood Brother

According to Mr. Amidu, This office's letter states, amongst other reasons for the letter to the said ministry, that Mr. Mahama's elder brother of full blood, who without doubt and the evidence available to this office answers to the description of the elected Government Official I allegedly granted a denial interview to the Daily Graphic which published same on June 20, 2020, fortunately containing suspected admissions that he was the elected Government Official I referred to in the UK judgement.

He said that serving appointees of this government have been unable to obtain the voice recording of the interview to enable this office to confront the former President with his own admissions in the interview as answering to the description of the brother of Samuel Mahama as the Intermediary 5.

Personal Attacks

Mr. Amidu said that, nonetheless, this office and the person of the Special Prosecutor continue to be attacked as 'a bitter old man' settling scores with Samuel Adam Mahama and his accomplices who the Special Prosecutor does not know and has never met.

No Politics

The SP said he explained in the letter to the ministry on the need that the case should not be politicized and must be treated purely as a criminal matter.

The letter also argues that it is very important for the depoliticization of this case; therefore, for this office to request the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ask the High Commission in the UK to urgently facilitate the voluntary evacuation of Samuel Adama Mahama to Ghana in order to assuage not only his own image but also that of his brother, the former President, who accuses this office of tainting his image by the investigation of the suspected allegations.

This is because until Samuel Mahama answers in court for the suspected allegations discovered by the investigation of this office against him as a Ghanaian citizen, the unwarranted politicization of this simple corruption crime by his family and supporters will continue, he added.

Voluntary Acceptance

He said his letter concluded that Samuel Adam Mahama must be given the opportunity to voluntarily accept to return to Ghana and put himself upon the Republic of Ghana to vindicate himself and save this country of the millions of foreign exchange from the public purse that must be expended to extradite him to Ghana from the UK or any other country in execution of the Interpol Red Notice issued against him as a fugitive wanted for prosecution as published on July 10, 2020.

The fight against the Airbus SE (Ghana) corruption, everybody agrees, is not a political matter. Consequently, every patriotic Ghanaian who believes in the anti-corruption fight must support and encourage this office to impartially get to the root of this allegation of corruption against the public purse and urge Samuel Adam Mahama to accept the opportunity to voluntarily evacuate to Ghana as a patriotic citizen of Ghana to vindicate his image and that of his family, Mr. Amidu added.

---Daily Guide
COVID-19 may have long-term effects on heart health, even for relatively young people who experienced only a mild illness.

That's the finding from a new study that looked at 100 recovered COVID-19 patients, most of whom had not suffered a severe case of the disease.

What is COVID-19 doing to the blood - and the heart? Credit:AP

About 60 per cent of those who took part displayed evidence of heart inflammation, despite being months into their recovery.

While the paper cannot definitively show the virus caused the inflammation, experts said it added to worrying evidence of COVID-19's effect on the heart.
Lawyers for Huawei's Meng demand full release of spy agency docs linked to her arrest

Photo taken on Jan. 28, 2020 shows the Huawei 5G Innovation and Experience Center in London, Britain. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

The lawyers for Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Chinese telecom giant Huawei, on Monday demanded the release of redacted documents prepared by the Canadian spy agency relating to her December 2018 arrest.

During a videoconference hearing before a federal court in Ottawa, Meng's lawyers demanded full publication of several documents that had been redacted before and after arrest, saying the documents would reveal a plot between the FBI and Canada to "trick" their client.

The lawyers said national security should not limit the release of the documents. Parts of the documents were made public during ongoing court proceedings over whether Meng should be extradited, court documents showed.

Meng was arrested in December 2018 at the Vancouver International Airport on a warrant from the United States.

She is accused by the U.S. authorities of bank fraud for misleading HSBC about Huawei's relationship with a company operating in Iran, putting HSBC at risk of fines and penalties for breaking U.S. sanctions on Tehran. Both Meng and Huawei have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who responded angrily to Britain ratcheting up its travel ban to Spain to include popular holiday islands, now faces the prospect of losing German tourists in the busiest summer month as well.

In an interview with local broadcaster Telecinco, the Spanish leader called the U.K. decision "unbalanced" and said there were more case of the virus in Britain than in the Balearic and Canary Islands. On Tuesday, the U.K. defended its decision not to distinguish between the different regions of Spain.

With its tourism-reliant economy on its knees, Spain is desperate to convince the U.K. to reconsider as stranded Britons, prospective travelers and airlines all complained.

To make matters worse, Germany on Tuesday recommended avoiding nonessential travel to the regions of Catalonia, Navarra and Aragon, citing concerns over hire coronavirus case numbers and local lockdowns. Germans are the main tourist group to Spain, behind Britons.

For Europe, the biggest question is whether it can save its summer for consumers and businesses alike. Countries like Spain and Italy not only suffered some of the highest deaths tolls from the virus but are paying the highest price economically. For governments, the need to keep people safe while trying to resume life as normal is a hard balancing act.

The moves followed a steady rise in new coronavirus infections in Spain last week and led other European countries, including France and Belgium, to begin advising against trips to some parts of Spain. It's also created friction.

"We respectfully disagree with the Spanish government," Local Government Minister Simon Clarke told the BBC. "You do have to make decisions on a countrywide basis. There is going to be internal transfer within Spain."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has already ordered everyone returning home from Spain to be quarantined for 14 days and his top diplomat told Sky News on Sunday "we cannot make apologies for doing so."

"We have considered the overall situation for British nationals traveling to and from the Balearic and Canary Islands, including the impact of the requirement to self-isolate on return to the U.K., and concluded that we should advise British nationals against all nonessential travel to the whole of Spain," the Foreign Office said in a statement.

The Telegraph newspaper reported the quarantine measures may be shaved to 10 days, to try to save something of the holiday season.

The European Union is set to keep its external borders shut to many countries including the U.S and is leaning toward shortening a list of 13 states -- Canada, China, Japan and South Korea among them -- whose residents have the green light to visit the bloc, according to officials.

Before Monday's announcement, the tourism industry had hoped the islands would be exempted from the U.K.'s quarantine requirement. Instead, the official advice was extended to include the popular summer destinations.

On Monday, James Slack, Johnson's official spokesman, said travelers should be aware the advice could change for other destinations if they see a spike in coronavirus cases.

"No travel is risk-free and disruption is possible," Slack told reporters on a conference call. "Anyone traveling abroad should be aware that our travel advice and exemption list are under constant review as we monitor the international situation."

That will be of little comfort to Spain. The U.K. is critical to its economy -- many of its pensioners have retired along the country's Mediterranean coast, and British sun-seekers account for 20% of Spain's overall visitors.

For Sanchez, the U.K.'s actions are not just disproportionate, they are flawed. He urged the U.K. to find the correct balance based on the data.

New infections in Spain rose last week to the highest since early May, but the government's top epidemiologist explained the situation is very different now because the number of intensive care patients and deaths isn't increasing, signaling that cases are being detected early on as medical testing has improved.
Even though New York has managed to get the coronavirus outbreak under control, a return to any sense of normalcy still seems a long way off. The financial hardships facing the nearly 1.5 million unemployed New Yorkers will continue, as many of the people who lost their jobs or a portion of their income due to the pandemic havent recovered yet. Across the state, people are still struggling to pay rent and may have additional fears about becoming homeless because it would likely put them at greater risk of contracting the virus.

Various protections are in place to prevent people from getting evicted, but the patchwork of legislation, executive orders and court decisions can be confusing and are far from all-encompassing. And while many tenants are protected from eviction for now, those are stopgap measures that continue to delay the problems to a later date. But understanding the protections available is an important first step to figuring out broader solutions for renters.

The earliest eviction safeguards date back to March 16, when housing court eviction proceedings were suspended due to the pandemic. Four days later, on March 20, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order that created a blanket eviction moratorium for 90 days  until June 20. That meant that until at least June 20, no landlord in the state could evict a tenant for any reason, and Cuomos order expanded protections to prevent landlords from filing new eviction cases as well, although those cases would have been paused right after filing.

As June 20 drew closer and the pandemic was far from over, Cuomo extended his moratorium until Aug. 20, but with a caveat. With the renewal, only those who suffered financial hardship caused by the pandemic or qualified for unemployment benefits were protected from eviction for nonpayment of rent. The order caused confusion among landlords and tenants alike about who the executive order applied to and what constituted a financial hardship. It also gives renters a defense against an eviction that they have to prove, rather than putting the burden of proof on the landlords.

Since the order only protects against eviction for nonpayment of rent, those facing eviction for any other reason could still end up homeless during the pandemic. Cuomos moratorium renewal excluded many people originally covered by the original order.

Despite the change, guidance from the court system has still prevented any evictions from taking place. Although the New York Citys housing courts partially reopened at the end of June, they have continued a pause on evictions through at least Aug. 5. While Cuomos executive order no longer offers blanket protections, renters still have a few more days at least before the courts begin to move forward with eviction cases. Until then, landlords have no legal authority to force anyone out of their homes, although they can  and many have been  file new evictions cases that will begin after Aug. 5.

Some courts in New York City may soon begin moving forward with in-person trials for pending cases that were filed before March 16, the date the original rules went into effect. Brooklyn Housing Court, for example, was set to resume in-person appearances on Monday. However, courts still cannot issue eviction orders, meaning that landlords still cannot legally evict any tenants yet.

Although Cuomos moratorium was set to last until Aug. 20, he rescinded the executive order soon after he signed the Tenant Safe Harbor Act on June 30, effectively replacing his own moratorium with guidance from the new law. Under it, no tenant  who can prove they faced a financial hardship during the pandemic  can ever be evicted for nonpayment of any rent accrued from March 7 effectively until all pandemic-related government restrictions are lifted in a given county. The new law offers tenants a defense, but they still must make their case before a judge if their landlord tries to evict them for not paying rent. It does not apply to those who have not suffered financial hardships, face eviction for reasons other than nonpayment of rent and anyone facing eviction for missed payments prior to March 7.

Importantly, the Tenant Safe Harbor Act does not cancel rent, so tenants are still responsible for paying it back at some point. And although tenants are protected from eviction and thus capable of remaining housed, judges can still impose a money judgement on tenants for the rent payments they missed. The law falls well short of the blanket cancellation of rent that many housing advocates have called for, which would forgive any rent payment accrued during the pandemic. Although lawmakers have introduced legislation that would enact something closer to what advocates want, those bills didnt pass during the normally scheduled session or during any of the times the state Legislature sporadically met during the summer.

Anything to the scale that housing and tenant activists want would require an incredible influx of money to recoup the losses that landlords would accrue for months of missed rent payments. Mass rent relief would necessitate additional federal aid to supplement whatever the state would pay, or federal action for a nationwide program, but as Congress and the White House negotiate on the next stimulus package, neither appears to be in the cards.

In the meantime, the state is accepting applications to a much more scaled back rent relief program until July 30, ending a two-week window that began July 16. The COVID Rent Relief Program, run by New York state Homes and Community Renewal, offers a one-time rent voucher paid directly to the landlords of qualified applicants. The program was created by legislation Cuomo signed in June that set aside $100 million of federal coronavirus funds to pay the rent of New Yorkers facing hardships due to the pandemic. In order to qualify, the household income of an applicant must have been no higher than 80% of the area median income both before March 1 and at the time of applying, must be paying more than 30% of their income in rent at both times or prove they had less monthly income between April and July than before March 1 as a result of the pandemic. Although many tenants facing financial hardships are protected against losing their homes, the COVID Rent Relief Program will help lessen the burden that will come when accrued rent payments must eventually be paid.

Despite the protections in place, many still face the prospect of homelessness during a pandemic because they dont fit into the protected categories. For example, those who are unable to show they lost income as a result of the pandemic, including those receiving disability benefits and gig workers whose income may often be in flux, may face eviction in the coming weeks. And the pandemic is still far from over. Undocumented immigrants, who are ineligible for unemployment benefits and other federal aid from the coronavirus relief packages, are also at increased risk of eviction because in fighting to prove that the eviction protections apply to them, they may need to disclose their immigration status.

Those who remain in their homes but are hit with money judgements will also face lasting financial damage. To pay off the debt, landlords can use a variety of collection methods, including garnishing wages. And while they may not be homeless, getting sued over nonpayment of rent can ruin someones credit, making major financial transactions much more difficult or nearly impossible. Although Cuomo declared in March that he took care of the rent issue, a point he has reiterated multiple times with promises of revisiting it in the future if it got worse, preventing evictions  for those who qualify  is far from a cure-all for the hardships that many tenants are facing during the pandemic. The issue of rent  and mortgage payments for that matter  will surely be a hot topic once again when the state Legislature begins anew in January, or even sooner if it reconvenes before the end of the year.
Visitors to countries outside the UK can travel but will run the risk of needing to quarantine upon return, a minister has said. (Europa Press via Getty Images)

Britons are free to travel abroad but they will run the risk of having to quarantine upon return, a minister has said.

Holidaymakers who went to Spain will need to self isolate for two weeks when they touch down in the UK after the government suddenly announced the country would be removed from the no-quarantine list.

It followed a spike in coronavirus cases and fears that the popular destination is facing a second wave of COVID-19.

Local government minister Simon Clarke said all tourists should be aware that if they travel, they may face isolating after their return.

In Scotland, first minister Nicola Sturgeon said she wouldnt be booking a holiday as she warned Europe faces a coronavirus resurgence.

I remain highly concerned, possibly increasingly concerned again, about the COVID risk, she said on Tuesday.

We are currently seeing a worrying resurgence of COVID cases, not just in far away parts of the world, but also in several countries across Europe right now.

If you are asking me, I would not be booking a foreign holiday right now because of these reasons.

Speaking to the BBC, Clarke said: All holidays have to be taken understanding that foreign travel in the middle of a global pandemic which has caused devastation across the world has to be conducted against the backdrop of the governments right to take steps to protect the UK.

Weve made enormous strides in this country over the last few weeks and we have now got the situation very largely under control.

We cannot jeopardise that, we cannot render all the sacrifices that weve made redundant by failing to intervene to stop risk from being re-imported from abroad.

By all means go on holiday, but understand that there is a chance that you might be asked to self-isolate on your return.

The announcement caused anger and concern among tourists, with some wondering if they would get paid by their work if they had to isolate for two weeks.

Clarke said that travellers heading abroad will have to accept a degree of uncertainty and that he hoped employers would be supportive to people who have to isolate.

Story continues

He added that the government can provide support to those in a genuine crisis.

Meanwhile, Spains prime minister Pedro Sanchez said the UK had miscalculated the rise in COVID-19 cases and brandished the imposition of a quarantine as unjust.

Coronavirus: what happened today

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In a massive boost for Indian Air Force, five Rafale fighter aircraft took off from France's Istres airbase on Monday (July 27) for India. These fighter jets are scheduled to land at Ambala Air Force Station on Wednesday (July 29) after covering a distance of almost 7,364 kilometres.

The five Rafale are the first batch of the 36 supersonic omnirole combat aircraft that India is buying from France. The aircraft is capable of carrying a range of potent weapons. European missile maker MBDA's Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile and SCALP air-to-ground cruise missile will be the mainstay of the weapons package of the Rafale jets.

At present, the Russian Sukhoi Su-30MKIs form the backbone of IAF fighter fleet and the force flies 272 of the twin-seater, twin-engine multirole combat aircraft. There are 272 Su-30MKIs in service and some of them have been modified to carry the supersonic BrahMos air-launched cruise missiles.

Here are the salient features of Rafale and Sukhoi Su-30MKIs jets and why the combination of these two fighter jets will prove to be a game changer for Indian armed forces.

Rafale fighter aircraft

-The Rafale can fly at speeds of 1.8 mach (2,222.6km per hour) and it has a range of 3,700 km

- It has multi-directional radar which can detect 40 targets at the same time in a range of over 100 kms.

- It has Spectra, an integrated defence aid system which can jam or counter-jam enemy radar signals.

- It can carry six AASM missiles at a time

- In a dogfight between Rafale and F-16, Rafale has an edge since it can load more weapons than F-16s.

- The Rafale will not have to cross the Indian airspace to hit a target that is about 600 km in enemy territory.

- It can carry 9,500kg of bombs and munitions. This is more than the Sukhoi 30 MK1, which can carry loads of up to 8,000kg.

- The Rafale can carry the Meteor missile, a next-gen beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile capable of hitting targets that are even 100km away with pinpoint accuracy.

- It can also carry the SCALP missile, a subsonic air-to-surface missile that can strike stationary assets.

- The aircraft has a cannon that can fire 2,500 rounds per minute.

Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighter jet

- The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is the most advanced fighter jet in operation with the Indian Air Force and is the primary air to air and air to ground strike machine.

- Su-30 MKI is built in India by HAL under license agreement with Russias Sukhoi.

- The Sukhoi Su-30MKI has a top speed of Mach 2 (2120 kmph) and has a maximum takeoff weight of 38,800 kg.

- The jet can carry a wide range of equipment from radars to missiles, bombs and event rockets.

- Twin seater twin engine multirole fighter of Russian origin which carries One X 30mm GSH gun along with 8000 kg external armament.

- Weapon carrying capacity: It is capable of carrying a variety of medium-range guided air to air missiles with active or semi-active radar or Infrared homing close range missiles.

- It can be used in carrying out nuclear strikes.

- The Su-30 MKI aircraft is capable of being refuelled by an Air to Air refuelling aircraft or by another Su-30 MKI aircraft carrying a buddy refuelling strap on pod.

- It has feature of super-maneuverability, meaning that the airplane can aim at any direction within seconds to fire an air-to-air missile without changing its bearing. Super-maneuverability can be used in many situations during a mission.

- The aircraft features a Russian radar and optic locator, French navigation and heads-up display systems, Israeli EW and weapon-guidance systems, and Indian computers.

- India's Su-30MKI multi-role fighter-bomber is one of the best 4 generation aircraft currently available.

- Its extended range capability along with its payload capacity are important assets for India to perform deep strike attacks in Pakistan and China.



Why Rafale and Sukhoi 30 will be a game changer for India

Rafale is categorised as a 4.5 generation aircraft for its radar-evading stealth profile, while Indias Mirage 2000 and the Su-30 MkI are classified as either third or fourth-generation fighters.

Notably, Pakistan has the multi-role F-16 in its inventory which is comparable to Mirage 2000, so we will have better technology than Pakistan plus the numbers will be much more. Pakistan has 32 F-16 and India is acquiring 36 Rafale in fly away condition.

Rafale will have the ability to take off from high altitude airbases like Leh on a 'cold start' - for quick reaction deployment. Rafale is going to boost the IAF's capabilities as it comes loaded with with 13 India specific enhancements

Rafale will need only around 8 minutes to reach Lahore from Ambala at top speed and 3 minutes from Hasimara Air Force Station in West Bengal to China border.

So, the combination of Rafale and Su-30 MKI along with the BrahMos will be a gamechanger as these fighter jets will extensively enhance the attacking capabilities of the IAF.
Farming businesses in Scotland will benefit from a funding package worth more than 2.1m to support their economic development following the Covid-19 crisis.

The South of Scotland Economic Partnership (SOSEP) funding has been awarded to 28 projects, all located in Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders.

The money will be used to support the regions economic recovery from the pandemic and help generate future job opportunities.

Among those to receive funding is a project to develop livestock holding facilities enabling farmers to collaborate to reduce transportation costs.

Minister for rural affairs, Mairi Gougeon said the investments would help create jobs, support businesses, develop skills and boost tourism.

"Many of the projects will help key industries in the region which have been hit hard by the pandemic as they work to recover and grow.

"Others will develop local supply chains, skills and employment opportunities to help drive local and regional economies forward."

Which farming projects will receive the fund?

The projects listed below are the penultimate batch of projects approved for Scottish government support through the partnership. Further support will be announced later this year:

 Livestock Holding Facilities (59,600) to establish a livestock holding facility that will allow a range of local farmers to house their beasts, prior to transportation and processing. Aims to encourage co-operation to reduce costs.

 Feasibility Study  Farm Innovation Cows & Co (20,000) consideration of a waste to energy power plant in a quarry environment to reduce energy costs for farmers and generate innovative business diversification activities.

 Feasibility Study  Alternative Land Use (20,000) analysis of whether it is possible to grow a range of alternative crops including energy, pharmaceutical, forestry and industrial crops, as well as field scale vegetables and salad crops, in the South, which is currently dominated by traditional farming and forestry.

 Feasibility Study  Littleton Farm AD Plant (20,000) to consider the creation of an on-farm industrial estate (agri-park), powered by a commercial scale anaerobic digestion plant, converting farm waste into energy.

 Feasibility Study  Border Union Agricultural Society (20,000) to consider the development of the Border Unions Springwood Park into a new weather-proof Border Events Centre and capture new income streams.

 Feasibility Study  Winkston Hill Farm (20,000) to consider the creation of an on-farm education and activity centre to educate teachers and parents about farming, whilst providing unique experiences to children. Not a standard farm park, but a real life taste of a working farm over the working year.
Arrivals into the UK from Spain now need to quarantine themselves for two weeks

The UK has said it will not hesitate to require more people arriving from countries with steeply rising coronavirus rates to quarantine, after it imposed restrictions on those coming from Spain.

But what about other European holiday destinations? The data show that coronavirus infection rates are currently rising in many European countries.

While case rates in many countries are low, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) figures show the numbers testing positive in many of them are going up.

While we don't know exactly what threshold the government required in order to impose its quarantine measures, the picture in Spain shows why they had to act.

Spain has a relatively high rate at present - one of the highest in Europe, with 39.4 cases per 100,000 population occurring in the last fortnight.

But the number of people testing positive has also rocketed, with the rate of infection rising from 11/100,000 in the two weeks to 12 July.

That has meant 260% more people have tested positive in the last fortnight compared with the previous two weeks.

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Currently, none of the major holiday destinations are experiencing similar rises in rates.

But there are places in Europe, including those which have had travel restrictions removed by the Foreign Office (FCO), which are seeing rapidly rising rates.

Most notable is Luxembourg - a country that sits in between its much bigger neighbours France , Germany and Belgium , but has a relatively small population. Yet, it is exempt from the FCO advice to avoid all but essential travel.

Luxembourg has seen the rates of infection increase from an already high 101/100,000 to 219/100,000 - a rate that puts it close to the two-week rate for the US or Brazil .

The Balkans are also seeing rates surge, with Montenegro particularly hard hit - but the FCO currently advises against all but essential travel to the Adriatic coast country.

Story continues

Other Balkan countries, most of which are not exempt from the advice on all but essential travel, also have high rates.

There is always the fear that these high rates of infection will cross borders to places that are popular with holidaymakers, like Greece or Croatia .

The FCO still advises against all but essential travel to Sweden and mainland Portugal , because of their previously high rates.

But what the ECDC figures also show, is that rates vary sharply within each country - as they do in the UK.

Even in Spain, many parts have a case rate of lower than 20/100,000, which is lower than the rate in Birmingham or Swindon. It is the Spanish region of Aragon, where rates are now higher than 230/100,000, and to a lesser extent Navarra and Catalonia, that are skewing the national picture of Spain as a whole.

ECDC figures show that there are parts of Hungary, Italy and Norway where no cases have been reported in the last two weeks.

The situation in the 10 most-visited EU/EFTA countries by UK residents, according to the Office for National Statistics, with the change in the two-week case numbers based on a comparison of the number of cases between 29 June and 12 July with the number of cases between 13 July and 26 July, is as follows:

1. Spain

Annual UK visitors: 18.1 million

Two-week infection rate: 39.4/100,000

Change in numbers from the previous fortnight: 260%

The foreign secretary said on Sky News on Sunday the government received data on Friday that showed a "big jump" in COVID-19 cases across Spain, prompting it to require all arrivals to the UK to quarantine for two weeks. It changed travel advice for mainland Spain but is yet to do so for the Balearics and the Canaries, both of which have lower levels of infection.

2. France

Annual UK visitors: 10.3 million

Two-week infection rate: 14.6/100,000

Change in numbers from the previous fortnight: 25%

The UK is said to be looking at France but, so far, the rise in infections has been significantly lower than in Spain, with no regions of the country, according to the ECDC, seeing rates of more than 20/100,000. The two-week rate is exactly the same as the UK's - 14.6/100,000.

3. Italy

Annual UK visitors: 5.1 million

Two-week infection rate: 5/100,000

Change in numbers from the previous fortnight: 12%

Rates in Italy had fallen to their lowest levels since the pandemic took off until recently, despite having been the original epicentre of Europe. Italy has taken extra measures to keep infection rates down, including banning people from 16 hard-hit countries.

4. Republic of Ireland

Annual UK visitors: 4.7 million

Two-week infection rate: 5.3/100,000

Change in numbers from the previous fortnight: 48%

Ireland has one of the lowest rates of infection in Europe and recently lifted its 14-day quarantine requirement for people coming from 15 European countries. The rate appears to have increased sharply in the last fortnight, but the low number of cases may skew the figure.

5. Netherlands

Annual UK visitors: 3.5 million

Two-week infection rate: 10.5/100,000

Change in numbers from the previous fortnight: 113%

The Netherlands is seeing rising numbers of infections, but from a fairly low level. The government has also advised its residents against travel to certain parts of Spain, but is yet to require a quarantine for nationwide arrivals.

6. Greece

Annual UK visitors: 3.4 million

Two-week infection rate: 3.7/100,000

Change in numbers from the previous fortnight: -3%

Greece has continued to see low rates of infection, which are also falling, despite countries on its northern borders seeing cases spiral.

7. Germany

Annual UK visitors: 3.3 million

Two-week infection rate: 7.8/100,000

Change in numbers from the previous fortnight: 21%

Germany, like France, is said to be among the countries the UK government is looking at, but - apart from isolated outbreaks and steadily rising rates from a lowish base - the country currently shows no sign of seeing rapidly rising infections.

8. Portugal

Annual UK visitors: 3.3 million

Two-week infection rate: 36.3/100,000

Change in numbers from the previous fortnight: -25%

Portugal, which is visited by millions of Britons every year, is the only popular European destination that is currently not exempted from FCO advice against all but essential travel. It has had high rates of infection (in comparison with other European countries) for several months but is seeing infection rates steadily fall. If the direction of travel remains the same, the FCO may include it among those countries exempt from advice against all but essential travel.

9. Poland

Annual UK visitors: 3.3 million

Two-week infection rate: 13.4/100,000

Change in numbers from the previous fortnight: 34%

Like many of its central and northeastern European neighbours, Poland was exempted from the FCO's blanket advice against all but essential travel as it has seen infection rates stay relatively low. But, on Monday, its health ministry said it expects to see a resurgence in the number of new infections in the southern region of Silesia due to outbreaks in mining areas.

10. Turkey

Annual UK visitors: 2.3 million

Two-week infection rate: 16.1/100,000

Change in numbers from the previous fortnight: -18%

Turkey too has recovered after being quite badly hit early on. It now has relatively low rates, with stringent measures applied by the government appearing to have worked, and rates are continuing to fall.
After 134 years standing guard on the front lawn of St. Catharines city hall, Pte. Alexander Watsons tour of duty may soon be over.

The statue commemorating a soldier who fought in the North-West Rebellion may soon have a new home and purpose.

It might instead be used to educate people about a conflict that was fought in support of a racist political program rather than honouring a soldier who fought in the Battle of Batoche in Saskatchewan in 1885.

After about two hours of discussion, councillors voted unanimously Monday night for city staff to consult with several Indigenous, military and heritage groups to explore options for the possible relocation of the statue, moving it to a setting where the full context of the statue and the battle it represents can be explained.

City staff are also being asked to report back to council with a relocation strategy, including options and costs.

Trust and reconciliation shouldnt be easy, said St. Patricks Ward Coun. Karrie Porter. If it feels easy and were not having difficult conversations, then I dont think were doing it correctly.

Said Merriton Ward Coun. Greg Miller, I think we need to have the courage to say the North-West Rebellion, colonization, the treatment of Metis and Indigenous people in this country was and continues to be horrific. When we venerate something like this, were saying to those people  our neighbours that live in this community  that were OK with that.

It is incumbent on us, at some point, to step up and say the right thing to do is to remove the statue to honour truth and reconciliation, to finally start to do right by the Indigenous and other marginalized people in our community, he added.

St. Catharines resident Gavin Fearon, who created an online petition calling for the removal of the statue, also urged councillors to remove the statue.

Ive had some feedback suggesting that the Watson monument has some educational value. Then I think it belongs in a museum which is equipped to actively support delivery of that learning, he said.

And Ive heard from people that this statue should remain in place because it honours a certain history. But that same history desecrates the memories of a much greater number of people. If you feel more concern over the removal of this statue than you have respect for the persons that live here now, then you are on the wrong side of this moment.

Although Fearon said the petition he developed does not meet requirements to be considered a legal petition, he said it has garnered 846 signatures since June 17 from people all over the world.

If nothing else, this demonstrates a broad awareness of the issues raised in the petition statement, he said.

He said any decision to keep the Watson monument is a renewal of a decidedly racist set of values, ideals and laws which we call white supremacy and is well documented as a fact.

The Watson monument needs to go, Fearon said.

Brock University professors Michael Ripmeester and Russell Johnston put the monument and the North-West Rebellion into context for councillors during the meeting, explaining the horrific treatment of Metis and First Nations people at the hands of a federal government working to expand its jurisdiction west.

Despite the dubious nature of the conflict, Johnston said the statue itself is a historic artifact that honours a commoner.

The Watson monument  is the first erected to an individual soldier serving in the Canadian military, he said.

RELATED STORIES Niagara Region Watson statue may be removed from front of St. Catharines city hall

Unfortunately, the military campaign that initially inspired that monument supported a racist political program  designed only to suppress if not eradicate the First Nations and Metis communities on the prairies to the benefit of white settlers and the expansion of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Ripmeester said the statue, which does not depict Watson despite bearing his name, is also badly deteriorated.

I think it has strong educative value, it has strong truth and reconciliation value. For me, it would be worth the effort to try and find funding to preserve it someway. And if that meant moving it to an indoor location where it could be preserved from falling apart entirely, fantastic, Ripmeester said.

St. Catharines resident Bergen Steiger argued against moving the statue.

Although he called the North-West Rebellion an unmitigated tragedy in Canadian history, he said the statues place at city hall is well deserved, well earned and I think it should stay there.

Councillors approved on a long list of organizations that will be contacted for consultation regarding the future of the statue, including the citys heritage, public art and anti-racism advisory committees, the descendants of Watsons family, Niagara Metis Council, Metis National Council, Niagara Regional Native Centre, Historical Society of St. Catharines, Royal Canadian Legion Branch 24, MPP Jennie Stevens, MP Chris Bittle, Lincoln and Welland Regiment Association, and Veterans Affairs Canadas National Inventory of Canadian Military Monuments.
The length of the hearing may also be prolonged since the antitrust issues facing Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon are complex and vastly different.

Amazon is accused of abusing its role as both a retailer and a platform hosting third-party sellers on its marketplace. Apple has been accused of unfairly using its clout over its App Store to block rivals and to force apps to pay high commissions. Rivals have said Facebook has a monopoly in social networking. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is dealing with multiple antitrust allegations because of Googles dominance in online advertising, search and smartphone software.

Democrats may also veer off the topic of antitrust and bring up concerns about misinformation on social media. Some Republicans are expected to sidetrack discussion with their concerns of liberal bias at the Silicon Valley companies and accusations that conservative voices are censored.

There was an attitude these were great American companies that created jobs and that we should have a hands-off approach and let them flourish, Mr. Cicilline said in an interview. But there are a lot of serious issues we have uncovered over the course of the investigation that werent apparent when we first began investigating.

Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple declined to comment.

For the chief executives, the hearing will be a test of how they perform under fire. Mr. Bezos, 56, has not previously testified to Congress, while Mr. Cook, 59, and Mr. Pichai, 48, have both testified once before. Mr. Zuckerberg, 36, the youngest of the group, has the distinction of being the veteran: He has answered questions at three congressional hearings in the past two years as Facebook has dealt with issues such as election interference and privacy violations.

But none are taking any chances for the event to go awry. Mr. Zuckerberg, who had been at his 750-acre estate on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, has been preparing for his testimony with the law firm WilmerHale, according to people with knowledge of the matter. And a small team is working with Mr. Bezos for his testimony in Seattle, said people with knowledge of the matter.

For weeks, the tech giants have also waged a lobbying battle to soften any blows. All four chief executives planned to call lawmakers on the House subcommittee in the days before the hearing, said three people with knowledge of the preparations who were not authorized to speak publicly.
The World-Heralds Statehouse reporters round up news highlights from the Legislature and state government into the Capitol Digest  a daily briefing for the political newshound with a busy schedule.

Legislative quarantine

State Sen. Julie Slama of Peru spent Monday quarantined in the east balcony of the legislative chamber after being exposed to the coronavirus.

Speaker of the Legislature Jim Scheer of Norfolk announced early in the day that members of her family had tested positive for the coronavirus. He said Slama tested negative, but, out of an abundance of caution, he had asked her to stay away from her colleagues until she can be retested midweek. The second test should pick up any infection that the first test might have been too early to catch.

The Legislatures coronavirus plan included setting aside the east balcony for any lawmakers who might test positive but want to continue to participate. Slama is the first to use it so far.

Horse racing claims

Nebraska lawmakers voted Monday to have the State Racing Commission pay $50,000 in attorney fees out of its own cash fund rather than tap the state general fund.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

In its recent comments, the Armenian Foreign Ministry assessed the military exercises which are conducted by Azerbaijan jointly with Turkey as a provocation aimed at increasing tension in the region, Spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva said.

As the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry stressed, the joint military exercises of Azerbaijan and Turkey are conducted in accordance with the agreement on military cooperation between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Turkey, in accordance with the annual plan, spokesperson added.

"These exercises serve to strengthen coordination and exchange of best practice between the armed forces of the two countries and contribute to the strengthening of regional peace and security," Abdullayeva said.
China announced the suspension Tuesday of Hong Kong's extradition treaties with Canada, Australia and Britain in a tit-for-tat move following similar decisions by those countries over a controversial new security law. Western nations have angered Beijing over their responses to the law imposed on Hong Kong which they see as an erosion of the civil liberties and human rights the city has enjoyed since its handover from Britain in 1997. The United States has decided to rescind Hong Kong's special trading privileges while Washington's "Five Eyes" intelligence partners have suspended their extradition treaties with the city, with New Zealand on Tuesday joining Canada, Britain and Australia. The United States has signalled it was preparing to do the same. China has accused the countries of interfering in its internal affairs and defended the security law as crucial to restore order in Hong Kong following a wave of pro-democracy protests marred by violence. "The wrong action of Canada, Australia and the UK in politicising judicial cooperation with Hong Kong has seriously hurt the basis of judicial cooperation," said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at a regular press briefing. "China has decided to suspend extradition treaties between Hong Kong and Canada, Australia and UK, as well as criminal justice cooperation agreements." Wang accused the countries of having used the national security law as "an excuse to unilaterally announce the suspension of extradition treaties" with Hong Kong. - Divisions - Britain suspended its extradition treaty last week, following moves by Australia and Canada, saying the security law had "significantly changed key assumptions" including a provision to try certain cases in mainland China. London and Canberra have also angered Beijing by offering pathways to citizenship or residency to Hong Kongers looking to leave because of the new law. New Zealand's updated travel advice said the security law had led to an increased risk of arrest for activities such as protests, with the possibility of being removed to mainland China to face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Wang warned on Tuesday that China reserved the right to respond after New Zealand suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong. "Any schemes to suppress China will never prevail," Wang said. "China urges New Zealand to immediately redress its mistake, and stop all forms of interference in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs, to avoid harming China-New Zealand relations."
Rescued migrants are seen on an Armed Forces of Malta's vessel after arriving in Senglea, in Valletta's Grand Harbor, Malt, on July 27, 2020. (Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)

Malta Rescues 95 Migrants From Sinking Dinghy

VALLETTAMaltas armed forces have rescued a group of 95 migrants found in distress on a dinghy north of Libya and brought them ashore at a military base near the capital Valletta, authorities said on Monday.

A volunteer organization, Alarm Phone, on Sunday morning said the dinghy was overcrowded and taking in water. It said the boat was located within Maltas search-and-rescue region.

Rescued migrants disembark during their arrival in Senglea, in Vallettas Grand Harbor, Malta, on July 27, 2020. (Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)

A Maltese patrol boat rescued another group of 63 migrants and brought them to Malta on July 17. One of those migrants later tested positive to COVID-19 and the medical authorities put the whole group in quarantine.

By Christopher Scicluna
A model classroom at Lanesborough Elementary School set up to maximize the number of pupil desks.

Mount Greylock Elementary Schools Have Capacity for Full Classrooms

Update: At 9:15 on Monday evening, Interim Superintendent Robert Putnam sent an email to the district's families inviting them to view one of two presentations he will give on Tuesday, July 28, about the re-opening plans he will be submitting to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Those presentations will be aired virtually at noon and 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  The Mount Greylock Regional School District has room to welcome all its students back to its two elementary schools with six feet between desks, the district's interim superintendent said on Thursday.

Addressing the School Committee's Education Subcommittee, Robert Putnam said the schools' classrooms have capacity for up to 16 student desks plus a teacher's desk while maintaining that social distancing standard.

Putnam expressed confidence about the ability of the elementary schools to absorb a full complement of students but indicated contingency planning still continues at the middle-high school.

"As you can see, there's a lot of room in these classrooms," Putnam said as the subcommittee reviewed photos of rooms set up to hold 16 students. "The administrative team has created maps to look at every option we've got. Both elementary schools  we can fit, with some modifications. In essence, there are some classes that are above the number we like.

"For example, the fourth grades in Lanesborough are 17 and 18 [pupils], so we'd have to deal with that. And the potential numbers in Williamstown, while the fifth-grade classes are at 17, all the other classes, fourth-grade down to pre-school, are all below 16. The sixth grade, there are three sixth-grade classes of 19, 20 and 20.  If we were going to put all students in school, we would most likely have to add a fourth sixth-grade classroom to maintain 6-foot distancing."

District staff this summer has been breaking down and reconfiguring classrooms to maximize the potential for social distancing.

Their efforts paid off at the two elementary schools, but results have been mixed at the middle-high school, Putnam and first-year Principal Jacob Schutz told the subcommittee.

"At Greylock, it's more doable for the middle school, based off of their schedule and the middle school model where they can move in a cohort," Schutz said. "But the movement of the high school students would severely restrict our ability to fit everyone in there.

"If you were just looking at square feet and how many desks fit in the rooms, we can fit about 16 seats in rooms, considering placing them 6 feet apart. But that doesn't take into consideration when students get up and walk down the aisle to use the bathroom or to leave or the sharpen a pencil.

"For the high school, it's looking like it would be very difficult to fit all students back into the building."

Schutz said he is waiting for the recommendation of the instructional working group to decide the implications of challenging high school infrastructure. The instructional group is one of a half-dozen task groups that include faculty, administrators, staff and community members.

"We're looking at what it would like remotely," Schutz said. "Like [Putnam] said, no matter what, there are going to be some people working remotely all the time. It doesn't look like fitting everyone in there is feasible, although physically possible. So we're looking at a variety of hybrid options. I really don't want to point any out yet because we have another meeting [Friday], and that group is looking to consolidate our analysis and thoughts to make one recommendation.

"I don't want to misrepresent or get any mixed messages out at this point."

The new principal at Williamstown Elementary School interrupted Thursday's discussion to note that the ability to squeeze all the children into the preK-6 school does not automatically signal that the district ought to go in that direction.

"Though it is physically possible for us to get all of the children into elementary schools, there are other considerations we need to make as far as the type of instruction that is being delivered for the students and the kind of staffing and scheduling that needs to be in place, especially at WES," Kristen Thompson said. "I think there needs to be a lot more consideration, especially when it comes to instruction and how we're delivering instruction.

"That may not be in a situation where we can have 100 percent of students back in class. Physically, can we do it? Absolutely. We've shown that we can. But should we do it is another question, especially when it comes to delivering instruction and the needs of students."

Thursday's Education Subcommittee was the latest opportunity for Putnam to give an interim report on the back-to-school plans being developed in the district in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This Wednesday, Putnam is scheduled to share with the full School Committee what he is characterizing as a "feasibility study in regard to the requirement by the department of education to say whether we can get all students back in the building." Districts are required to submit those reports to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on Friday.

Two members of the community Thursday provided the subcommittee with differing perspectives on the risk-benefit analysis that school districts across the country are facing this summer.

Luana Maroja, an associate professor of biology at Williams College and parent in the district, argued that studies show transmission rates of the novel coronavirus are low among school-aged children and the outcomes of this spring's foray into remote learning models were disastrous for students in the commonwealth, particularly for under-achieving students and students from lower-income families.

Maroja said her top priority is the safety of students and teachers, and said that priority would be met by 3 feet of social distancing while allowing schools to provide proper, in-person instruction.

"I'm going to argue our risk is extremely low  because we live in an area that currently has incredibly low infection rates," Maorja said. "Massachusetts already is a place with low infection rates, and our county is particularly low. We are also very compliant in face mask using.

"We do have data from all over the world, and the data shows that schools are reopening with 1 meter distance, some of them 1 meter [about 3 feet] distance and no mask. Despite all of that, there hasn't been school outbreaks. It has been safe in Europe and Asia to open schools with 1 meter and no face mask."

Maroja cited high dropout rates in Boston that accompanied the closure of schools to in-person instruction in March and negative social impacts of children isolated in their homes. Maroja said there has been a "huge increase in depression rates and abuse in the household," and without in-person contact between students and school staff, the abuse is more likely to go undetected.

"I think a hybrid [instruction] system is way more dangerous than a system in which we physically distance students as much as possible with a minimum of 1 meter or 3 feet," Maroja said.

On the other hand, Williams psychology professor Amie Hane, another parent in the district, said that while she agreed with Maroja that in-person instruction is preferred, the jury is out on whether transmission rates are lower in the younger population.

"When it comes to transmission, we can't ignore that we finally have an epicenter that is testing a pediatric population, and that's Florida," Hane said. "New York did not. At that point for Wuhan [China], and for Italy and for New York City, children were sheltered in place and largely under-tested. We now have an epicenter where children are being tested, and children are pulling 30 percent on that test. That's children to the age of 18.

"The [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] provides evidence that the rate of transmission  is on par with adult rates."

Toward the end of Thursday's meeting, in the chat section of the Zoom videoconference, Christina Conry, a member of the Education Subcommittee, posted a link to an article citing a South Korean study that found, "kids going to high school and middle school are likely to pass the virus amongst each other and then bring it home, even if they do not have any symptoms."
Millie Mackintosh uploaded a sweet snap of herself breastfeeding her daughter Sienna during the two-month-old's first flight onto Instagram on Tuesday.

The former Made In Chelsea star, 31, her husband Hugo Taylor, 34, and their baby girl have jetted off on their first holiday abroad as a family-of-three.

Proving safety comes first, the blogger sported a protective face mask as she thanked British Airways staff for their help during their 'smooth' journey.

At peace: Millie Mackintosh uploaded a sweet snap of herself breastfeeding her daughter Sienna during the two-month-old's first flight onto Instagram on Tuesday

The media personality, who has been vocal about urging others to 'normalise breastfeeding', appeared in great spirits as she nursed her little one.

Sharing her delight at her relaxing trip from London Heathrow Airport, the TV star said: 'Our first experience @heathrow_airport with Sienna went really smoothly, everyone had masks on and kept their distance.

'Planning on feeding at take off and landing to help with her ears.' (sic)

Once landed in the destination - which she has yet to disclose - Millie sported Prive Revaux shades as she posted another photo of herself cuddling up to the sunglasses entrepreneur and their bundle of joy and revealed her newborn slept throughout the flight.

The blonde beauty said: 'We made it! No tears on the flight she mainly slept and @british_airways staff were really helpful.' (sic)

Family fun: The former Made In Chelsea star, 31, her husband Hugo Taylor, 34, and their baby girl have jetted off on their first holiday abroad as a family-of-three

Tender moments: Once landed in the destination - which she has yet to disclose - the blogger sported Prive Revaux shades as she posted another photo of herself holding Sienna

Radiant: Millie was a vision in a billowing cream maxi dress with bardot sleeves as she posed for snaps on her family holiday

On 4 July, travel advice in the UK changed, with exemptions for going on holiday to certain countries and territories that no longer pose a high risk for British travellers.

Earlier this month, Millie said she is coming to terms with the physical changes to her body since giving birth.

Speaking to Glamour, the socialite insisted the contrast between her pre and post pregnancy appearance is akin to looking at two completely different people.

'Ive started walking every day, Ive started doing a bit of strength training again and it's nice to feel like I'm just getting stronger,' she said of her post-partum exercise routine.

Honest: Earlier this month, the blonde beauty said she is coming to terms with the physical changes to her body since giving birth

'I just don't like the term, "getting my body back," because I think its a new body, it's different, you've given birth. So, it's not your old body anymore.'

While she's fully embraced parenthood in the weeks following Sienna's birth, Millie admitted the coronavirus pandemic prompted inevitable uncertainty regarding what would happen when she finally went into labour.

Reflecting on the anxious build up to her daughter's arrival, the mother-of-one revealed there was uncertainty regarding whether or not Hugo would even be allowed into the hospital.

'That was one of the ways it did really affect me - just not knowing would Hugo be able to be there for the birth or not,' she explained.

'I was so glad that Hugo was there, and it was the most incredible moment of my life. I'm really lucky that during coronavirus I gave birth and still managed for it to be a really positive experience.'

Millie is now looking ahead to raising Sienna, and freely admits her daughter has given her a new lease of life.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 13:24:44|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Senate Republicans released their 1-trillion-dollar COVID-19 relief proposal Monday afternoon, which includes a reduction in federal unemployment benefits, another round of 1,200-dollar direct payments to individuals, and liability protection for businesses and schools.

As part of the 2.2-trillion-dollar coronavirus relief bill passed in late March, Congress agreed to provide extra 600-dollar unemployment benefits per week, which are set to expire at the end of this month.

The Senate Republicans' plan would slash extra weekly unemployment benefits from 600 dollars to 200 dollars, which could be a key sticking point in negotiations with Democrats, who have wanted to maintain the level of benefits through January.

The White House and Republicans have contended that the 600-dollar benefits have created a financial disincentive for people to return to work, an argument refuted by some economists, who believe employers were not hiring because businesses were closed by stay-at-home orders or because they lacked demand from customers, and many people are ready to work regardless of how generous unemployment insurance is.

"Americans need to buy food & pay rent. Republicans shouldn't be quibbling over $600 for workers on unemployment," House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said on Twitter.

The Democrat-controlled House passed a 3-trillion-dollar coronavirus relief package in May, but didn't gain approval from Republican-held Senate. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have been blaming the Republicans for delays in rolling out their proposal.

U.S. lawmakers are under immense pressure to craft a new fiscal package as a resurgence of COVID-19 cases across the country threatens to derail the nascent economic recovery.

"Republicans have created a serious framework. The question is whether Democrats will come to the table in good faith," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on Twitter. Enditem
Michael O'Higgins SC for Aaron Brady told the jury of six men and seven women that the background to Daniel Cahill giving evidence was "shrouded in mystery" and that he may have been subjected to threats or inducement by Homeland Security before speaking to gardai. Mr Cahill has told the trial that he heard Mr Brady admit to killing a garda on three occasions. Mr Cahill also revealed that he spoke to gardai in New York after Homeland Security agents came to his home in circumstances where he had overstayed his 90-day visa waiver by several years.

In his closing speech to the jury Mr O'Higgins also criticized the garda investigation, accusing investigators of closing their eyes to evidence and burying their heads in the sand over evidence that his client was laundering diesel at the time Det Gda Donohoe was shot.

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Aaron Brady (29) from New Road, Crossmaglen, Co Armagh has pleaded not guilty to the capital murder of Det Gda Adrian Donohoe who was then a member of An Garda Siochana on active duty on January 25th, 2013 at Lordship Credit Union, Bellurgan, Co Louth. Mr Brady has also pleaded not guilty to a charge of robbing approximately e7,000 in cash and assorted cheques on the same date and at the same location.

Mr O'Higgins said he wanted to start with Mr Cahill's evidence, which he said was the "most significant evidence in the case".

Alleged confessions

Counsel asked the jury to consider why, five years after Mr Cahill first claimed to have heard a confession from Aaron Brady, he "falls out of the sky with this evidence" on July 25th, 2019 when he gave his first statement to gardai.

Mr O'Higgins reminded the jury that Mr Cahill told them that he gave evidence because he wanted justice for Detective Garda Donohoe, his family and for the Irish justice system. Counsel said: "The first thing I want to do is stress test that claim."

Mr O'Higgins said the witness had claimed to know nothing of the murder of Det Gda Donohoe even after he heard Mr Brady make his alleged confessions. Counsel said: "Maybe it's possible to ignore it the first time and not take it seriously, put it down to drunken rambling, but then there's the second time. In the internet age would you be mildly curious enough to even google the event. Daniel Cahill didn't. Didn't do it after the third or the fourth time. Does that sound to you like someone with a burning desire to do justice?"

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Mr O'Higgins questioned why the witness didn't tell any of his friends in the New York police, who he practiced jiu jitsu with every week, his wife or anyone else.

In his testimony Mr Cahill said that he met a number of gardai on St Patrick's Day 2017 who were talking about Det Gda Donohoe and Aaron Brady. Mr Cahill said that he told the gardai present that Aaron Brady had admitted to him that he killed a garda. Mr O'Higgins suggested this was a lie told by Mr Cahill because he needed to explain why he hadn't spoken about the alleged confession for so many years.

Had the conversation taken place, counsel said, the gardai who heard it would have taken Mr Cahill's details, passed the information up the line until it got to the investigation team and a detective would have taken the next flight to New York to speak to Mr Cahill. "None of that happened," counsel said, "and it didn't happen because the conversation was completely invented."

Homeland Security

Mr O'Higgins said the catalyst for Mr Cahill coming forward was "an early morning knock on the door" from eight or nine members of Homeland Security, including an enforcement and removal officer. When this happened, counsel said, Mr Cahill "had an unusual reaction. He took himself off to the attic, naked, and stayed there for a number of hours." Homeland Security found Mr Cahill and in their search discovered a cannabis plant and steroids. Mr O'Higgins questioned how, in those circumstances, no charges were brought against Mr Cahill in relation to the cannabis and steroids and, despite being a visa overstayer who had not filled out the paperwork to apply for status to remain, Mr Cahill was released. He reminded them of the evidence of Kerry Bretz, who said that in his 30 years as an immigration lawyer in the US he had never seen that happen. Mr O'Higgins suggested that Mr Cahill "might have had a lot of motives to make things up".

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Counsel further asked the jury to consider if it is normal that during the trial Homeland Security refused to answer questions about Mr Cahill's immigration status or what was said to him when he was detained.

Counsel reminded the jury that Special Agent Mary Ann Wade would not answer questions about Mr Cahill's immigration status or whether he was arrested. He questioned why the Director of Public Prosecutions allowed the witness to dictate what questions she would answer and asked the jury to imagine the gardai in similar circumstances, refusing to say if Mr Cahill was arrested and refusing to answer questions about his detention.

Mr O'Higgins suggested Mr Cahill was subjected to "inducement, and its Siamese twin, threat."

He added: "You have a situation which is unprecedented that witnesses will come in here and say, heres whats on and off the agenda." He said such an approach rewrites the rules of a criminal trial in a "radical and unprecedented" way and would be something you might expect to see in a "tinpot dictatorship".

'Community sponsored walk'

He also asked the jury whether Mr Cahill was credible in his description of a walk he went on with members of the 32-County Sovereignty Committee during which he posed for a photo unfurling a banner with Vincent Ryan, a dissident republican who was shot dead in 2018. Mr Cahill described it as a community sponsored walk. Counsel asked the jury if, having heard that story, they would buy a used car from Mr Cahill. If they wouldn't, he asked: "How could you rely on him for something that is 1.000 times more important?"

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Mr O'Higgins also reminded the jury that Mr Cahill was pictured with Dean Evans 16 days after Det Gda Donohoe was shot dead and 24 days before Mr Evans murdered Peter Butterly outside the Huntsman Inn in Gormanston, Co Meath. He said the photograph was introduced by the defence not to visit Dean Evans's bad character on Mr Cahill, but to call into question his claim that he did not follow the news and did not hear of the shooting of Det Gda Donohoe until years later. He said: "If you are hanging around that milieu of people committing those types of crimes, often in the name of Republican activities, the fact that a garda gets shot is a talking point."

Mr O'Higgins further questioned where Mr Cahill learned his court etiquette, asking: "Did it cross your mind that this was a witness who had been prepared? Who was well aware there would be questions about unfurling banners with the 32 County Sovereignty Committee." He asked whether Mr Cahill's statement that he was there for justice was a "prepared answer, a soundbite that would inhibit further cross examination." He urged the jury not to rely on Mr Cahill's evidence unless they are satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that he is telling the truth.

Diesel waste

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Molly Staunton told the trial that she was in Mr Brady's New York apartment where she heard him say he had "shot a cop" in Ireland and was one of the most feared men in Ireland.

Mr O'Higgins reminded the jury that under cross examination Ms Staunton gave a different account, saying that Mr Brady was upset that he was being linked with the shooting but not that he had carried it out. When prosecution counsel Brendan Grehan showed her a video of her statement to gardai, she went back to her original position, counsel said. Mr O'Higgins described Ms Staunton as a witness "who is swinging right to left to right" and said her testimony was unreliable.

Dealing with the defence case, Mr O'Higgins said there is evidence that his client was laundering diesel on the night Det Gda Donohoe was shot. Mr Brady had described his activities in text messages to his then girlfriend Jessica King and there was evidence that a trailer was brought from Dublin that day to Concession Road to be loaded with cubes of diesel waste. He also pointed to phone contacts between Mr Brady and two known fuel launderers and contacts those men had with two other known fuel launderers. He said it was a "no brainer" and a "self evident exercise" to investigate those links to fuel laundering and added: "Yet the State, for some reason or another, will not look, did not look, did not examine."

Counsel also questioned a prosecution suggestion that Mr Brady is a "psychopath", asking the jury to look at his text exchanges with Ms King. A psychopath, counsel said, is someone with no feelings, no moral qualms and who will do whatever they want. In that context he said the jury should look at how he interacted with his girlfriend. He also reminded the jury that Ms King and her family met Mr Brady in the hours after the shooting and said he seemed his normal self, cheerful, cheeky, "not a bother on him".

Mr O'Higgins accepted that his client had told lies and that lies can count against an accused person. But he also told them that people lie for different reasons and in this case, it was to hide his connection to diesel laundering. He asked the jury to consider that if Mr Brady was part of an organised gang who had committed this robbery, why his first false account to gardai the day after the shooting was so easily pulled apart and contradicted by one of his alleged accomplices. Counsel said an organised gang would have prepared a story before passing through the garda cordon within a short distance of where the robbery had taken place.

He asked the jury to consider Mr Brady's lies in the context of the "ambiance and atmosphere" of south Armagh and diesel laundering. He added: "It's against that background that those lies are told."

Counsel questioned the value of CCTV footage which the prosecution says shows a suspect for the robbery traveling to Clogherhead three nights earlier to steal a Volkswagen Passat that was used as the getaway vehicle. Mr O'Higgins said the CCTV is grainy and the times don't match up to the prosecution's claims.

He described as "flawed" the prosecution's suggestion that the fact phones belonging to Mr Brady and two suspects in the case went dead around the time of the robbery. Criticising the gardai investigation, Mr O'Higgins said gardai should have investigated his client's links to diesel laundering in 2013. They had, counsel said, evidence from Jessica King's phone that he was laundering diesel at the time, they had records that he was in touch with known fuel launderers and they had evidence elsewhere that the yard he mentioned in his statement was being used for diesel laundering.

Counsel accused gardai of closing their eyes to the evidence and putting their heads in the sand in relation to the site at Concession Road.

Mr O'Higgins will continue his closing speech to the jury on Tuesday.
For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  July 28, 2020  Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: D.R. Horton Inc. DHI, Armstrong World Industries Inc. AWI, United Rentals Inc. URI, Patrick Industries Inc. PATK and Masco Corp. MAS.

Here are highlights from Mondays Analyst Blog:

Top 5 Construction Stocks to Buy Ahead of Q2 Earnings This Week

Second-quarter earnings estimates are rather disappointing at a glance. The pathetic performance can be blamed solely on the global outbreak of coronavirus and the consequent lockdowns. However, defying coronavirus-induced woes, five construction stocks with a favorable Zacks Rank are set to beat earnings estimates this week.

Pathetic Second-Quarter Earnings So Far

As of Jul 24, 128 S&P 500 members reported second-quarter 2020 earnings results. Total earnings of these companies are down 41.9% from the same period last year on 7.1% lower revenues. Of the total, 74.2% surpassed EPS estimates and 64.1% outpaced revenue estimates.

Overall, second-quarter earnings for the S&P 500 Index are projected to be down 42.9% year over year on 9.6% lower revenues. Notably, first-quarter earnings of companies on the S&P 500 Index were down 13.5% on 1.4% higher revenues. (Read More: The Technology Sector Shows its Earnings Power Amid Coronavirus)

Construction Sector in Q2

The construction sector had a mixed last quarter. The sector suffered a setback in the first two months of the last quarter. However, situation took a positive turn in June as the U.S. economy started reopening from last week of May.

Strong pent-up demand and record-low mortgage rate resulted a jump in housing starts, building permits and demand for new and existing home sales. Consequently, for the construction sector, second-quarter earnings are expected to be down only 14.9% year over year on 5.1% lower revenues.

Story continues

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) plunged to 30 in April, the lowest since June 2012. Thereafter, it increased steadily to 37 in May and 58 in June. Notably, any reading above 50 is considered positive and signals improvement in builder's confidence. Moreover, ramp-up in projects related to 5G  the next generation of wireless connectivity  has benefitted the heavy construction in industry.

Our Top Picks

We have narrowed down our search to five construction stocks slated to release earnings results this week. Each of these stocks carries either a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) and has a positive Earnings ESP. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Our research shows that for stocks with the combination of a Zacks Rank #3 or better and a positive Earnings ESP, the chance of an earnings beat is as high as 70%. These stocks are expected to soar after earnings release. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

D.R. Horton Inc. operates as a homebuilding company in East, Midwest, Southeast, South Central, Southwest, and West regions in the United States. It constructs and sells single-family detached homes, and attached homes, such as townhomes, duplexes and triplexes. The company has an Earnings ESP of +4.33% for the third quarter of fiscal 2020 (ended June 2020).

The Zacks Rank #1 company has an expected earnings growth rate of 14.5% for the current year (ending September 2020). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has improved by 3.6% over the last 30 days. It has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 12.6%, on average. The company is set to release earnings results on Jul 28, before the opening bell.

Armstrong World Industries Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells ceiling systems primarily for use in the construction and renovation of residential and commercial buildings in the United States, Canada and Latin America. It operates through Mineral Fiber and Architectural Specialties segments. The company has an Earnings ESP of +13.97%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Armstrong World's current-year earnings has improved 4.5% over the last 30 days. It has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 10.2%, on average. The Zacks Rank #2 company is set to release earnings results on Jul 28, before the opening bell.

United Rentals Inc. operates as a rent equipment company to a diverse customer base including construction and industrial companies, manufacturers, utilities, municipalities, homeowners and government entities in the United States and Canada. The company has an Earnings ESP of +20.51%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for United Rentals' current-year earnings has improved 1.3% over the last 30 days. It has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 15.5%, on average. The Zacks Rank #2 company is set to release earnings results on Jul 29, after the closing bell.

Patrick Industries Inc. manufactures and distributes building products and materials for the recreational vehicle, marine, manufactured housing, and industrial markets in the United States and Canada. The company has an Earnings ESP of +12.50%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Patrick Industries' current-year earnings has improved 9.5% over the last 30 days. The Zacks Rank #1 company is set to release earnings results on Jul 30, before the opening bell.

Masco Corp. designs, manufactures, and distributes home improvement and building products in North America, Europe, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Plumbing Products and Decorative Architectural Products. The company has an Earnings ESP of +0.24%.

The Zacks Rank #1 company has an expected earnings growth rate of 6.2% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has improved by 0.8% over the last 7 days. It has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 8.9%, on average. The company is set to release earnings results on Jul 30, before the opening bell.

Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2020

In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-hold tickers for the entirety of 2020?

Last year's 2019 Zacks Top 10 Stocks portfolio returned gains as high as +102.7%. Now a brand-new portfolio has been handpicked from over 4,000 companies covered by the Zacks Rank. Dont miss your chance to get in on these long-term buys.

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.



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Ex-Supreme Court judge Lord Jonathan Sumption today called on Britain to learn to live alongside Covid-19 because 'there have been far worse diseases'.

Lord Jonathan, who is also a medieval historian, praised Sweden's approach to the pandemic, after the nation bucked the global trend and opted against a lockdown.

In his piece for The Telegraph, he said Sweden had a 'substantially lower' death rate than Britain  but admitted it was 'fashionable' to rubbish its approach.

Official figures show Sweden has suffered 564.4 coronavirus deaths for every million people. In comparison, the rate in the UK is 674.06.

He wrote: 'Their hospitals were never overwhelmed. They never closed their schools. The predicted damage to their economy is about half of ours.'

Writing that 'we cannot keep running away', he added: 'Our ancestors lived with far worse epidemic diseases without rushing to put their heads in a bag.'

Lord Jonathan Sumption (pictured), an ex-Supreme Court judge has said 'there have been far worse diseases' than coronavirus and that Britain needs to learn to live alongside Covid-19

He thinks Sweden's approach to coronavirus may have been a wiser one, considering their reported deaths per million are more than 100 lower than the UK's

Lord Sumption added that if the Government is correct in that belief then we could have gone straight to social distancing in March rather than a lockdown - like Sweden

What other diseases have plagued the world in the past? Black Death How many died? Roughly 25million people in Europe died from the Black Death, or a third of the continent's population at the time. When did it happen? 1346-1353 What caused it? The Black Death was caused by the plague and was likely transmitted from rodents to humans by the bite of infected fleas. Spanish flu How many died? Some 228,000 in Britain died from the Spanish flu. Worldwide, it is thought to have killed at least 50million people. When did it happen? 1918-1920 What caused it? The 1918 flu crisis was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. There is not yet a universal consensus regarding where the virus originated. Descendants of the virus are still in circulation today. Smallpox How many died? An estimated 300million people in the world died from smallpox in the 20th century alone. When did it happen? Smallpox has existed for at least 3,000 years. It was officially eradicated in 1979. What caused it? Smallpox is caused by infection with the variola virus. It killed around 30 per cent of infected people, it is estimated. Plague of Justinian How many died? Roughly 50million people worldwide were killed. When did it happen? 541549 What caused it? In 2013, researchers confirmed earlier speculation that the cause was Yersinia pestis, the same bacterium responsible for the Black Death. Cholera How many died? It is estimated that 120,000 people die of cholera each year. When did it happen? The first cholera outbreak emerged out of the Ganges Delta with an outbreak in Jessore, India, in 1817 stemming from contaminated rice. What caused it? A bacterium called vibrio cholerae causes cholera infection. The deadly effects of the disease are the result of a toxin the bacteria produces in the small intestine. Advertisement

Lord Sumption discussed how the Government was forced into lockdown on March 23 by a report from former government adviser Neil Ferguson.

The epidemiologist was nicknamed 'Professor Lockdown' for his grim modelling that predicted 510,000 coronavirus deaths in the 'worst-case scenario'.

Professor Ferguson quit his role on SAGE in May after admitting to breaking his own lockdown rules to allow his mistress to stay at his home.

His Imperial College London team's report added that a lockdown would only work if it was kept in place until there was a vaccine, Lord Sumption noted.

Otherwise the coronavirus  scientifically known as SARS-CoV-2  would inevitably return, most likely even stronger than before.

Lord Sumption added the report noted aggressive isolation policies 'merely push all transmission to the period after they are lifted'.

This has been seen in countries which have recently lifted lockdowns, with a spike in cases seen in nations such as Spain, Germany, Japan and Hong Kong.

Lord Sumption, last year's BBC Reith Lecturer, believes there were only three options the Government could have taken in terms of lockdown.

These were: No lockdown, indefinite lockdown or lockdown for long enough for NHS intensive care capacity to catch up.

He added that intensive care units seemed to catch up with capacity within a month so the Government's decision to lift lockdown in June was 'six to eight weeks after it had lost any justification even by its own logic'.

And he went on to say that he believes the Government seems to be suggesting that the 'R-number' can be kept below one with social distancing alone, rather than a lockdown.

The R number, or reproduction number, refers to how many people an infectious person spreads the virus to. If it is higher than one, then the number of cases increases exponentially.

Lord Sumption added that if the Government is correct in that belief then the nation could have stuck with strict social distancing measures in March, rather than opting for a lockdown.

He went on to discuss how the UK should go about leaving lockdown and how social distancing should continue indefinitely until a vaccine has been created.

He wrote: 'Our whole transport infrastructure, the buildings in which we work, play and eat out, depend on our being close together.

'We have surrendered our liberty to the virus. Are we to surrender our humanity as well?'

He believes that the only reason the UK and Europe were hit so hard by coronavirus is because of a 'false sense of security'.

While diseases such as Mers, Sars, Ebola, Zika, Asian flu, Hong Kong flu, H1N1 and HIV, all happened in the last 20 years, they barely touched Europe.

He adds that a major UK pandemic was at the top of the National Risk Register since it was published in 2008.

It estimated that a new strain of flu could cause between 50,000 and 750,000 deaths in the UK.

While Lord Sumption admits that Covid-19 is a serious disease, he puts it 'at the bottom end of the scale' when it comes to historical diseases.

He wrote: 'For some people, social distancing will remain a sensible precaution. The rest of us should respect their choice but drop it and get on with out lives.

'We cannot keep running away.'
DOYLESTOWN >> A man and woman will face decades in state prison for the repeated sexual assault of three children under the age of 13, abuse that they also filmed in more than 40 videos of child pornography. Leonard F. Hewitt Sr. 51, and Krystyn Anne Smock, 40, both of Bristol Township, committed the acts for more than four years...
Proposals to expand bias training and increase minority hiring within police departments were approved by New Jersey lawmakers with bipartisan support, with some lamenting that it took the death of George Floyd and other Black Americans to advance ideas introduced years ago.

The state Senate Law and Public Safety Committee also voted Tuesday for a bill criminalizing calling 911 in order to harass somebody because of their race, a response to a recent high-profile incident in Central Park when a white woman falsely claimed a Black bird watcher was threatening her.

The time is right to do bills like this, state Sen. Linda Greenstein, D-Middlesex, said during the hearing.

The time was right back then, countered state Sen. Ronald Rice, D-Essex, after speaking about the civil rights movement. Im tired of fighting the same battles over and over.

Other bills would better track the race of people being arrested and allow former prisoners who completed their sentences to receive more help after their release. Each proposal, including some already approved by the state Assembly, move to the full Senate after receiving support from both Republicans and Democrats.

Both chambers must approve a bill before it can head to the governor.

One proposal (S401) would require departments create a minority recruitment and selection program to hire more women and people of color. Currently, many agencies employ a larger share of white people than live in their communities, but a lack of data makes it difficult to know how diverse many departments are.

Fewer than 4,000 of the states more than 36,000 full-time officers were women in 2016, according to the State Police.

However, the bill does not set specific goals or detail what would happen if a department failed to diversify, and lawmakers discussed amendments to tighten requirements. Legislative researchers concluded any change would require local governments spend more money, but they said an exact cost was unknown.

Other proposals (S2689 and S419) would require police receive implicit bias and cultural diversity training and require departments reach out to the cultural, religious, and civic organizations around them. Similar training is already mandated by the state attorney general, but lawmakers noted requirements can change with a new administration unless the law is re-written.

Although filing a false police report is already a crime, two bills (S2635 and S2578) would increase penalties for anyone who called 911 in order to threaten somebody because of their race, religion or sexual orientation, among other categories. Anyone found guilty could face prison time and thousands of dollars in fines.

Another proposal (S2638) would beef up data collection, by requiring New Jersey to publicly report more information about the race and age of those arrested, and how charges and pleas for one group compare to others.

This will help us to identify any problem areas and develop appropriate solutions, state Sen. Tom Kean, R-Union, and one of the bills sponsors, said in a statement.

One bill (S415) would allow people who finished a prison sentence to enroll in drug treatment programs, receive housing help and other services from the state parole board. Currently, former inmates who max out do not have access to that state assistance, which lawmakers said increases the probability they will commit more crimes.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Blake Nelson can be reached at bnelson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BCunninghamN.

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Bihar Police has stepped into the Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case to start a separate enquiry independent of Mumbai police. A separate FIR has been lodged with Patna Police and a four member team has reached Mumbai for further investigation in this case.

An FIR has also been registered against actress Rhea Chakraborty under various sections, including abetment to suicide, on the complaint of Sushant's father.

The FIR has been lodged by the actor's father Krishna Kumar Singh, after the intervention of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. IPC sections 341, 342, 380, 406, 420, 306 have been imposed by Patna police.

FIR registered against actor Rhea Chakraborty under various sections, including abetment of suicide, on the complaint of #SushantSinghRajput's father: Sanjay Singh, Inspector General, Patna Central Zone  ANI (@ANI) July 28, 2020

Chakraborty had admitted to being the late actor's girlfriend in an open letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah pleading for a CBI probe in the matter.

Rajiv Nagar police station in-charge Yogendra Ravidas on Tuesday said Sushant Singh Rajput's father K.K. Singh has accused six people, including Chakraborty for abetment to suicide in his complaint (FIR number 241/20). The police is investigating the case." Sushant was found hanging at his Mumbai home on June 14. The Mumbai Police have been investigating professional rivalry as one of the probable reasons behind his alleged suicide. Several film personalities have been questioned in this regard.

The Patna FIR against #RheaChakraborty alleges 15 Cr transferred from Sushants bank account in 1yr Sushants credit cards,bank accounts run by Rhea &family On June 8th,Rhea left with Sushants cash,jewellery Rhea had his medical records& threatened to make it public.  Marya Shakil (@maryashakil) July 28, 2020

There have also been demands of CBI investigation into the matter. Union Cabinet Minister Subramanian Swamy, who had earlier called for a CBI investigation, reiterated his point with reference to the Bihar Police launching a fresh inquiry.

"If Bihar Police is serious about having a say in the investigation into the unnatural death of Sushant Singh Rajput then there is no alternative to a CBI probe since Police of two States cannot separately investigate the same crime," he tweeted.

If Bihar Police is serious about having a say in the investigation into the unnatural death of Sushant Singh Rajput then there is no alternative to a CBI probe since Police of two States cannot separately investigate the same crime.  Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) July 28, 2020

Filmmaker Karan Johar has been summoned by the Mumbai Police and his statement will be recorded this week in the Sushant Singh Rajput case. Johar was at the centre of criticism ever since the nepotism debate reignited in the wake of Sushant's death.

Mumbai Police has so far recorded statements of around 40 people in connection with the alleged suicide of the actor, including filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. They have also issued summon to actress Kangana Ranaut.
Schools are in a race against time to acquire 1,000 extra teaching staff and put all the necessary measures in place before one million students can safely return at the end of August.

Concerns have been raised about a backlog in Garda vetting for new staff after Education Minister Norma Foley revealed that staff rooms would be bolstered by teachers from abroad and retired teachers  hundreds of whom will never have been vetted.

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The Government announced a bumper 375m package to help schools get back up and running next month.

This will include more than 1,000 extra post-primary teaching posts, enhanced cleaning and hand hygiene supports and classroom bubbles for primary schools.

Some schools will need to undergo building works to ensure one-metre physical distancing and it has also been revealed that PE halls and GP rooms may be used as classrooms.

Minister Foley said she does not anticipate any delays and believes the safe and timely opening of 4,000 schools will go ahead in five weeks time.

The roadmap also outlined how students using public transport will be assigned the same seat every day.

Primary school children below third class will not be required to social distance.

A huge tranche of school funding was announced for minor capital works to enable classes to operate in a time of Covid.

School buses will be treated as virtual bubbles, with pupils encouraged to sit together with siblings, or other members of their class - because there aren't enough vehicles to go around and seat closures won't be possible.

Only when the bus arrives at school will the one-metre rule come into play - and then disappear again when they take the school bus home again.

Students over the age of 13 will be required to wear face masks on buses, but they will not be obligatory in school, except in cases where physical distancing isn't possible.

A total of 52m will be made available to put in place enhanced cleaning and hygiene measures and 4.2m will be provided to employ people to change classroom layouts and move furniture.

The roadmap states there will be no significant curriculum change to take into account the loss of class time at the end of the 2019/2020 school year.

A number of schools were due to introduce new optional subjects from September 2020, including Leaving Certificate computer science, physical education, and the languages Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Lithuanian and Portuguese. These schools will now be provided with the option to defer implementation until September 2021.

The Department of Education is also looking at assessment changes for incoming third-year and sixth-year students.

Ms Foley outlined that bigger classes may be moved to bigger rooms, including general purpose rooms and school halls.

She also said no insurance problems were envisaged, despite the fact that some schools may have to take classes off campus to parish halls and other places, and relied on the fact that no issues had been raised by insurance companies themselves. When the Irish Independent asked about familiar long delays on Garda vetting in normal times - with a new "Ireland's call" going out for extra teachers with just a month to go - the minister said: "The students are at the heart of everything we do.

"Nobody will be on campus unless they are Garda vetted."

On whether vetting would then be superficial and rushed to cope with the new influx, or whether delays would cause an inability of teachers to be deployed, the minister insisted many retired teachers had already been vetted.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said 80pc of Garda vetting applications are turned around in five days. "I think it's manageable," he said.

Ms Foley then repeated that there was "very fast turnaround of Garda vetting," adding that clearance would be pre-required for any staff teacher or substitute entering an Irish classroom.

TD Gary Gannon, the Social Democrats spokesperson on Education, has expressed concern there may not be enough substitute post-primary school teachers available in the event of a second wave of Covid-19.

Mr Gannon said: "While there are positive elements in the plan, I fear that the lateness of the decision will mean that schools will be in a race against the clock to put all the necessary measures in place before students can safely return to school."

The plan also emphasised no student or teacher should attend school if they or anyone in their household are displaying Covid-19 symptoms.

If a suspected case is identified in a school, the Department of Education has advised that an isolation area be set up.

The student should be provided with a face mask to reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus.

Any student in a class with a suspected case may be asked to self-isolate.

The plan states pods and class bubbles were introduced to prevent the need to close schools if a case is confirmed as they will limit the spread of the virus should someone contract it.

PE will be able to continue for all students and more information on this will be released in the coming weeks.

All school staff will undergo mandatory Covid-19 training before returning to work.

"I am delighted we have been able to secure such a comprehensive package, and at the end of August we will once again hear the joy and laughter of children and young people in our schools," Ms Foley said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 23:05:30|Editor: huaxia

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BANGKOK, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The Thai government said on Tuesday that two more Thai soldiers had infected with COVID-19 after returning from a military exercise in Hawaii.

The Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) said both men, aged 22 and 25 years, had been in quarantine since their arrival back from the U.S. state of Hawaii on July 22.

The two new cases were in addition to last week's discovery of six cases, bringing the number of infected from Hawaii to eight.

The CCSA said 150 Thai soldiers participated in the military operation called "Lightning Forge 2020" since July 1.

The country has reported 3,297 infections, with 3,111 recoveries and 58 deaths, and 128 others are still in the hospital. There has not been any case of locally acquired infection reported in Thailand for 64 consecutive days.

Meanwhile, the CCSA urged all Thais in the United States to stay vigilant and return to Thailand if possible.

The CCSA quoted the Thai Consular Office in Los Angeles that three monks there had contracted COVID-19, with two being hospitalized and the other in quarantine at a temple. Enditem
(Natural News) Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her husband made a tidy profit on Amazon stock that they purchased right around the same time that Congress was conducting closed-door meetings on coronavirus.

Paul Pelosi bought the shares on January 17 at $1600 per share, according to financial disclosure filings. As of Friday morning, the share price of Amazon had risen to $3000. In addition, he held 40 call options on Amazon stock that he also sold on the same day, earning between 500,000 and $1 million.

Call options are contracts that let investors buy certain stocks at a particular price up to a certain date. He made a purchase a day before his options were set to expire. Shares of Amazon generally moved in the same direction as the overall stock market in the months that followed, dropping as low as $1626.03 on March 16 when pandemic-related shutdowns hurt the stock market significantly. However, by the end of June, shares were trading at almost $2800 per share, seriously outpacing the market as a whole.

The move conveniently came right before the nation was locked down and many in-person retailers were forced to close, prompting people to make their purchases online on sites like Amazon in droves.

Paul Pelosi is no stranger to controversy. The businessman and venture capitalist was also involved in a scandal when he bought 5000 shares of Visa stock during the credit card companys initial public offering in 2008. Two days after the IPO, the stock price rose by 45 percent as Congress mulled new credit card regulations.

Just five months later, Congress passed a bipartisan act known as the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK, act. It prevents lawmakers from using insider knowledge to trade stocks. A provision commonly referred to as The Pelosi Provision was added to stop government officials from getting special access to IPOs.

Although Pelosis camp claims that she wasnt briefed on coronavirus until January 29, it was already becoming clear where the virus was headed. Theyve also said that Nancy Pelosi does not personally own any stock in the company. Nevertheless, she is required by law to disclose her husbands transactions. According to her disclosure, he spent $4.8 million on 3000 shares at $1600.

FBI insiders told the Thomas Paine podcast that the FBI had been interested in looking into the move, but they werent given the go-ahead by Attorney General William Barr.

Senator Burr sold hotel stocks shortly before coronavirus shutdowns

One lawmaker who is under investigation for similar behavior, however, is Senator Richard Burr (R-NC). Senator Burr sold off up to $1.72 million in holdings in 33 different transactions on February 13.

Burr is the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which gives him access to classified information about potential threats to the nation. Just before selling his stocks, he and his committee were getting daily briefings about the coronavirus outbreak. A week after the sale, the stock market started a decline that has led to the biggest losses seen since the market crashed in 1987.

Some of the stocks he sold were from companies that were highly vulnerable to outbreak-related shutdowns, like Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, whose stock lost two thirds of its value in the outbreak. He also sold shares of Extended Stay America, whose shares have dropped by half. Its interesting to note that Burr was one of just three senators who opposed the STOCK Act in 2012.

In the Pelosi case, although there are some questions about the timing of the sale and how much she might have known at the time, its understandable that a lot of people are viewing the move with a skeptical eye considering that her and her husbands behavior actually prompted a provision to an insider trading bill. This is something that absolutely should be investigated, and they both need to be held accountable if they used non-public information to profit privately.

Sources for this article include:

TruePundit.com

NaturalNews.com

BusinessInsider
By ANI

JAIPUR: Rajasthan Congress in-charge Avinash Pande on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on Governor Kalraj Mishra over the proposal of the convening Assembly session.

In a series of seven tweets (in Hindi), Pande attacked Mishra using the hashtag -- #GetWellSoonGovernor.

"Shri Kalraj Mishraji, identified as a skilled administrator and a mature leader who respects political integrity, sits in the dignified post of his excellency, the Rajasthan Governor. His image has always been that of an idealistic, religious leader. #GetWellSoonGovernor," Pande said in a series of tweets.

In the second tweet, Pande alleged that Mishra is violating constitutional rules.

"But in the context of the crisis that has arisen in Rajasthan, Shri Kalraj Mishra ji is adopting an approach to fulfill the interests of a particular party, which is the common violation of the rules mentioned in our Constitution. #GetWellSoonGovernor," he tweeted.

"From this, it seems that the democracy of India is no longer governed by the provisions of rules and laws, but it is left to a special party. It is invalid to sit in constitutional institutions and politicize a particular idea," he added.

Pande further said that the Governor should give priority to the Rajasthan Cabinet's issues.

"The country is fighting against the coronavirus pandemic. Rajasthan lacks financial support from the Centre. Rainfall was not enough. The swarms of locusts have attacked nine times in a month. His excellency, the Governor should give priority to the Rajasthan Cabinet's issues and not to any particular party," he said.

Pande alleged that the Governor is biased towards BJP.

"The political developments in Rajasthan are such that our Governor is also affected by the oppressive thinking of the BJP, and he does not seem healthy with his biased thinking," he said.

Pande appealed the Governor to convene an immediate assembly session.

"My appeal is to wish the Governor to recover from the unilateral thinking of the transition so that he can give his consent to convene an immediate Assembly session to protect the Constitution and democracy in a fair manner, which protects the provisions contained in the Constitution.#GetWellSoonGovernor," he said in the tweet.

In the last tweet, he urged everyone to send opinions by using hashtag #GetWellSoonGovernor via social media.

"I appeal to all of you, please send your opinion on #GetWellSoonGovernor more and more from your social media. May righteousness prevails, and iniquity perish. Satyameva Jayate. #GetWellSoonGovernor," he tweeted.

Meanwhile, the state government has sent the proposal to Governor Mishra seeking to convene Assembly session from July 31.

Mishra on Monday had said that Raj Bhavan never had an intention "not to call" the assembly session and has asked the Ashok Gehlot government to deliberate on three points including 21-day notice period for convening session and maintaining social distancing norms.
By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea and the United States have agreed to revise their joint missile guidelines to facilitate South Korea's plans to build a spy satellite by easing rules on rocket propellants, Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Hyun-chong said on Tuesday.

Under the current guidelines, last amended in 2017, South Korea cannot build rockets using solid-fuel engines, posing a setback for its plans to develop a military spy satellite by the late 2020s.

The change in the propellant rules took effect on Tuesday, Kim said at a briefing in Seoul.

"This revision would allow us to have an unblinking eye that monitors the Korean peninsula 24/7," he said.

"If we fire low-altitude launch vehicles based on our own solid fuel propellant as planned, it would dramatically improve our military's reconnaissance capabilities."

South Korea had initially sought to produce five of its own reconnaissance satellites this year to better monitor North Korea's activities but the project has been repeatedly delayed largely because of technological difficulties and government changes.

South Korea operates several earth-imaging satellites but has relied heavily on U.S. intelligence to monitor North Korea's military movements.

Last week, South Korea became the 10th country to launch a military communications satellite but it was conducted by U.S. private operator SpaceX.

Kim also said Seoul is also ready to discuss another revision to raise the range of its missiles which are currently capped at 800 km (497 miles).

In 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to scrap a 500 kg (1,102 pounds) warhead weight limit on South Korea's missiles.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Additional reporting by Sangmi Cha; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
If you could recreate the Opera House, what would it look like? Each year, this question is asked to five young almost architects, engineers and designers as part of MADE by the Opera House, or Multidisciplinary Australian Danish Exchange - a program offered to students in Australia and Denmark that celebrates the connection between heritage and future renewal.

In 1957, Jrn Utzons mesmerizing design won the world wide competition to be built as the national opera house at Bennelong Point. From the complex textures and slick structures to the delicate tile work on the sails, his masterpiece takes you on a journey. The young Utzon was a traveller, and many of his designs paid homage to the cultures and natural environments he was exposed to overseas. MADE provides students with the chance to explore new lands in search of artistic inspiration that they can use to create new innovative designs at the Opera House.

On the six week program, a cross-disciplinary team of students collaborate on a creative brief to propose a solution that enhances, enriches and enlivens the iconic Australian building, using Jrn Utzon's design principles. During the program, the students are hosted by a top architecture firm and learn from technical experts including Arup, Steensen Varming and the Sydney Opera House. They also undertake master classes by leading built environment professionals before presenting their innovative solutions.

By our 50th Anniversary in 2023, we hope to have an alumnus group of 100 students continuing the international and interdisciplinary links first forged by Jrn Utzon's masterpiece.

You can join us, applications for the 2021 intake close on Monday 10th August at 10am, here are some of the solutions past students have created:


The memoir published Tuesday, Still Standing, introduces Hogan to national readers with revelations that will also be new to many longtime watchers. It covers his childhood as the son of a congressman who both stood up to his party and had an affair with an aide that devastated the Hogan family, sending teenage Hogan to Florida to finish high school. Hogan writes of early political defeats and a painful bankruptcy that erased millions of dollars in personal wealth. He says his cancer fight once left him weeping and terrified, among other vulnerable moments he casts as defining struggles in his life.
One of the men involved in the death of Ricky Wang, whose remains were found near the Desert Rd in the central North Island, has been jailed.

Yanlong Piao, 37, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact of Wangs murder sometime in August 2017. He enabled police to find the human remains in March.

On Tuesday at the High Court at Auckland, Piao was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment by Justice Pheroze Jagose.

Piao is already serving a jail sentence for previous drug offending, is set to be released in July 2023, and his recent sentence is to be served cumulatively.

Wangs ex-wife told the court through a victim impact statement read by Crown Prosecutor David Johnstone, her and her children are still suffering after his death.

Police officers found Wangs remains after a search at Rangipo Intake Rd, off the Desert Road in the central North Island in March.

Wang's whereabouts had been unknown since 2017 until Piao provided the police material to locate Wangs body.

The court heard how Piao was summoned to an address by an offender with a pistol, where Wangs body was.

When he arrived at that address, he walked into a scene which was to Mr Piao, cognitively overwhelming in relation to his friend, defence lawyer Scott McColgan said.

Piao was in fear for his own life and his family, but he was prepared to forgo his own life as long as they left his family alone, that fear has continued.

On August 22, Piao and associates drove to an isolated road off Desert Rd and disposed of Wangs body and suppressed evidence of the associates' involvement of the death, Justice Jagose said.

Piao drove the van from Auckland with Wangs body in the back.

Once they arrived at the location, a shallow grave was dug in wasteland before Wangs body was placed in the grave and concrete poured over it.

In Wangs ex-wifes statement, she said his life was full of kindness and love.

He was a good husband and gave our family a lot of love and care ... he used to be our guardian, when the children ask about their father I find it hard to explain," she said.

The pair's son left a voice message to Wang in 2018 saying hed never forgotten about his father.

She said Wangs murder had been a huge blow, and she has lost hope for the future.

I cannot imagine such a brutal person would kill him and the brutal death he will endure.

Now we have lost a deeply loved person in our lives, and we are all suffering from the immense pain.

Johnstone said Piao agreed to take part in a far more effective disposal of Wang's body.

He said there was planning and Piao callously told Wangs family he'd gone overseas.

Scott McColgan said his client did what he was told because he feared for himself and his family.

He was not a willing partner.

Piao fell on his sword in an attempt to try and put it right as Wangs friend, McColgan said.

Without his approach to law enforcement, we would probably not be here, McColgan said.

Justice Jagose said Piao played an active role in the callous disposal of Wangs body.

However, the judge gave discounts for Piaos cooperation with the police.

The two men charged with the murder have pleaded not guilty and are set to go to trial in July 2021.

A 29-year-old man also charged with being an accessory to murder will stand trial in March 2021 and a 23-year-old man facing the same charge will appear in court later this month.

-Stuff/Catrin Owen.
In this article RAD

A Rite Aid store is shown in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S., October 16, 2019.Picture taken October 16, 2019. Mike Blake | Reuters

Over about eight years, the American drugstore chain Rite Aid quietly added facial recognition systems to 200 stores across the United States, in one of the largest rollouts of such technology among retailers in the country, a Reuters investigation found. In the hearts of New York and metro Los Angeles, Rite Aid deployed the technology in largely lower-income, non-white neighborhoods, according to a Reuters analysis. And for more than a year, the retailer used state-of-the-art facial recognition technology from a company with links to China and its authoritarian government. In telephone and email exchanges with Reuters since February, Rite Aid confirmed the existence and breadth of its facial recognition program. The retailer defended the technology's use, saying it had nothing to do with race and was intended to deter theft and protect staff and customers from violence. Reuters found no evidence that Rite Aid's data was sent to China. Last week, however, after Reuters sent its findings to the retailer, Rite Aid said it had quit using its facial recognition software. It later said all the cameras had been turned off. "This decision was in part based on a larger industry conversation," the company told Reuters in a statement, adding that "other large technology companies seem to be scaling back or rethinking their efforts around facial recognition given increasing uncertainty around the technology's utility." Reuters pieced together how the company's initiative evolved, how the software has been used and how a recent vendor was linked to China, drawing on thousands of pages of internal documents from Rite Aid and its suppliers, as well as direct observations during store visits by Reuters journalists and interviews with more than 40 people familiar with the systems' deployment. Most current and former employees spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they feared jeopardizing their careers. While Rite Aid declined to disclose which locations used the technology, Reuters found facial recognition cameras at 33 of the 75 Rite Aid shops in Manhattan and the central Los Angeles metropolitan area during one or more visits from October through July. The cameras were easily recognizable, hanging from the ceiling on poles near store entrances and in cosmetics aisles. Most were about half a foot long, rectangular and labeled either by their model, "iHD23," or by a serial number including the vendor's initials, "DC." In a few stores, security personnel  known as loss prevention or asset protection agents  showed Reuters how they worked. The cameras matched facial images of customers entering a store to those of people Rite Aid previously observed engaging in potential criminal activity, causing an alert to be sent to security agents' smartphones. Agents then reviewed the match for accuracy and could tell the customer to leave. Rite Aid told Reuters in a February statement that customers had been apprised of the technology through "signage" at the shops, as well as in a written policy posted this year on its website. Reporters found no notice of the surveillance in more than a third of the stores it visited with the facial recognition cameras. Among the 75 stores Reuters visited, those in areas that were poorer or less white were much more likely to have the equipment, the news agency's statistical analysis found. Stores in more impoverished areas were nearly three times as likely as those in richer areas to have facial recognition cameras. Seventeen of 25 stores in poorer areas had the systems. In wealthier areas, it was 10 of 40. (Ten of the stores were in areas whose wealth status was not clear. Six of those stores had the equipment.) In areas where people of color, including Black or Latino residents, made up the largest racial or ethnic group, Reuters found that stores were more than three times as likely to have the technology. The Reuters findings illustrate "the dire need for a national conversation about privacy, consumer education, transparency, and the need to safeguard the Constitutional rights of Americans," said Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic chairwoman of the House oversight committee, which has held hearings on the use of facial recognition technology. Rite Aid said the rollout was "data-driven," based on stores' theft histories, local and national crime data and site infrastructure. Cathy Langley, Rite Aid's vice president of asset protection, said earlier this year that facial recognition  which she referred to as "feature matching"  resulted in less violence and organized crime in the company's stores. Last week, however, Rite Aid said its new leadership team was reviewing practices across the company, and "this was one of a number of programs that was terminated."

Facial recognition technology has become highly controversial in the United States as its use has expanded in both the public and private sectors, including by law enforcement and retailers. Civil liberties advocates warn it can lead to harassment of innocent individuals, arbitrary and discriminatory arrests, infringements of privacy rights and chilled personal expression. Adding to these concerns, recent research by a U.S. government institute showed that algorithms that underpin the technology erred more often when subjects had darker skin tones. Facial recognition systems are largely unregulated in the United States, despite disclosure or consent requirements, or limits on government use, in several states, including California, Washington, Texas and Illinois. Some cities, including San Francisco, ban municipal officials from using them. In general, the technology makes photos and videos more readily searchable, allowing retailers almost instantaneous facial comparisons within and across stores. Among the systems used by Rite Aid was one from DeepCam, which worked with a firm in China whose largest outside investor is a Chinese government fund. Some security experts said any program with connections to China was troubling because it could open the door to aggressive surveillance in the United States more typical of an autocratic state. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican and acting chair of the U.S. Senate's intelligence committee, told Reuters in a statement that the Rite Aid system's potential link to China was "outrageous." "The Chinese Communist Party's buildup of its Orwellian surveillance state is alarming, and China's efforts to export its surveillance state to collect data in America would be an unacceptable, serious threat," he said. The security specialists expressed concern that information gathered by a China-linked company could ultimately land in that government's hands, helping Beijing refine its facial recognition technology globally and monitor people in ways that violate American standards of privacy. "If it goes back to China, there are no rules," said James Lewis, the Technology Policy Program director at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked for comment, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: "These are unfounded smears and rumors."

'A promising new tool'

Rite Aid, afflicted with financial losses in recent years, is not the only retailer to adopt or explore facial recognition technology. Two years ago, the Loss Prevention Research Council, a coalition founded by retailers to test anti-crime techniques, called facial recognition "a promising new tool" worthy of evaluation. "There are a handful of retailers that have made the decision, 'Look, we need to leverage tech to sell more and lose less," said council director Read Hayes. Rite Aid's program was one of the largest, if not the largest, in retail, Hayes said. The Camp Hill, Pennsylvania-based company operates about 2,400 stores around the country. Home Depot said it had been testing facial recognition to reduce shoplifting in at least one of its stores but stopped the trial this year. A smaller rival, Menards, piloted systems in at least 10 locations as of early 2019, a person familiar with that effort said. Walmart has also tried out facial recognition in a handful of stores, said two sources with knowledge of the tests. Walmart and Menards had no comment. Using facial recognition to approach people who previously have committed "dishonest acts" in a store before they do so again is less dangerous for staff, said Rite Aid's former vice president of asset protection, Bob Oberosler, who made the decision to deploy an early facial recognition system at Rite Aid. That way, "there was significantly less need for law enforcement involvement," he said.

'Tougher' neighborhoods

In interviews, 10 current and former Rite Aid loss prevention agents told Reuters that the system they initially used in stores was from a company called FaceFirst, which has been backed by U.S. investment firms. It regularly misidentified people, all 10 of them said. "It doesn't pick up Black people well," one loss prevention staffer said last year while using FaceFirst at a Rite Aid in an African-American neighborhood of Detroit. "If your eyes are the same way, or if you're wearing your headband like another person is wearing a headband, you're going to get a hit." FaceFirst's chief executive, Peter Trepp, said facial recognition generally works well irrespective of skin tone, an issue he said the industry addressed years ago. He declined to talk about Rite Aid, saying he would not discuss any possible clients. Rite Aid originally piloted FaceFirst at its store on West 3rd Street and South Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles, a largely Asian and Latino neighborhood, around 2012. Of the 65 stores the retailer targeted in its first big rollout, 52 were in areas where the largest group was Black or Latino, according to Reuters' analysis of a Rite Aid planning document from 2013 that was read aloud to a reporter by someone with access to it. Reuters confirmed that some of these stores later deployed the technology but did not confirm its presence at every location on the list. Separately, two former Rite Aid managers and a third source familiar with the FaceFirst rollout said the systems were concentrated, respectively, in the "tougher," "toughest" or "worst" areas. Reuters reviewed a 2016 spreadsheet from the company's asset protection unit in which Rite Aid rated 20 higher-earning Manhattan stores as having equal risk of loss  labeled "MedHigh." Two of 10 stores where whites were the largest racial group had facial recognition technology when Reuters visited this year, whereas eight of the 10 in non-white areas had the systems. One spot ranked "MedHigh" was a store at 741 Columbus Avenue in New York's whiter, wealthier Upper West Side. Another was the pharmacy's West 125th Street store in nearby Harlem, a majority African-American neighborhood. The Harlem store got facial recognition technology; the Upper West Side one did not, as of July 9.

'Looks nothing like me'

Starting in 2013, as Rite Aid deployed FaceFirst's technology in Philadelphia, Baltimore and beyond, some serious drawbacks emerged, current and former security agents and managers told Reuters. For instance, the system would "generate 500 hits in an hour all across the United States" when photos in the system were blurry or taken at an odd angle, one of the people familiar with FaceFirst's operations said. FaceFirst's Trepp said the company has high accuracy rates while running "over 12 trillion comparisons per day without any known complaints to date." During that earlier period, Tristan Jackson-Stankunas said Rite Aid wrongly fingered him as a shoplifter in a Los Angeles store based on someone else's photo. While Reuters could not confirm the method Rite Aid used to identify him, the store had FaceFirst technology by that time, according to a Rite Aid security agent and a Foursquare review photo showing the camera. According to a complaint Jackson-Stankunas filed with the California Department of Consumer Affairs a week after the incident, he was looking for air freshener in September 2016 when a manager ordered him to leave the store. The manager said he had received a security image of Jackson-Stankunas taken at another Rite Aid in 2013 from which he allegedly had stolen goods, according to the complaint. When Jackson-Stankunas viewed the photo on the manager's phone, he told Reuters, he saw nothing in common with the person except their race: Both are Black. "The guy looks nothing like me," said Jackson-Stankunas, 34, who ultimately was allowed to make his purchase and leave the store. Rite Aid "only identified me because I was a person of color. That's it." The California department told him his complaint fell outside its purview, directing him to another state office, email records show. Instead, he said he decided to write the store a bad review on Yelp. Rite Aid and the manager who allegedly was involved declined to comment on Jackson-Stankunas' account. At one store Reuters visited, a security agent scrolled through FaceFirst "alerts" showing a number of cases in which faces were obviously mismatched, including a Black man mixed up with someone who was Asian. Reuters could not determine whether the incorrect matches resulted in confrontations with customers. FaceFirst CEO Trepp said that his company takes racial bias seriously and would not work with any business that disregarded civil rights. "We cannot stand for racial injustice of any kind, including in our technology," he said. Generally, Trepp said, Reuters' findings about his company contained "extensive factual inaccuracies" and are "not based upon information from credible sources."

A new system

Early in 2018, Rite Aid began installing technology from DeepCam, ultimately phasing out FaceFirst in stores around the country, interviews with Rite Aid loss prevention agents and internal vendor documents indicate. Six security staffers who used both systems said DeepCam's matches were more accurate  sometimes to a fault. The technology picked up faces from ads on buses or pictures on T-shirts, three said. One famous face captured in DeepCam was Marilyn Monroe's, one of the agents said. At least until 2017, FaceFirst had employed an older method of biometric identification that compared maps of subjects' faces, two people familiar with its system said. Only later did it move over to software based on "artificial intelligence" like DeepCam's. Though the data and algorithms differ by brand, these systems draw upon potentially millions of samples to "learn" how to match faces. DeepCam cameras photographed and took live video of every person entering a Rite Aid store, aiming to create a unique facial profile, Rite Aid agents said. If the customer walked in front of another DeepCam facial recognition camera at a Rite Aid shop, new images were added to the person's existing profile. Two agents said they lost access to the images after 10 days unless the person landed on a watch list based on their behavior in stores. When agents saw someone commit a crime  or just do something suspicious, one said  they scrolled through profiles on their smartphone to search for the individual, only adding the person to the watch list with a manager's approval. The next time the shopper walked into a Rite Aid that had the technology, agents received a phone alert and checked the match for accuracy. Then they could order the person to leave, agents told Reuters. Rite Aid said adding customers to the watch list was based on "multiple layers of meaningful human review." The company told Reuters its procedures ensured customers were not confronted unnecessarily. If a person was found to be engaging in criminal behavior, Rite Aid said, "we retain the data as a matter of policy to cooperate in pending or potential criminal investigations." Other U.S. retail stores have tried DeepCam. Independent 7-Eleven franchise owners in Virginia told Reuters they conducted trials of the software starting in 2018 and later dropped it. They said they largely found the system accurate but not user friendly and too expensive to maintain. The system was advertised online as costing $99 a month. 7-Eleven Inc did not answer requests for comment.

The China connection

The two founding owners of U.S.-based DeepCam were Don Knasel and Jingfeng Liu, who set up the firm in Longmont, Colorado, in 2017, state records show. Liu's residential address in Longmont was listed as its headquarters. A Chinese native with U.S. citizenship and a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University, Liu had the skills to do business in both the United States and China. According to China's official business registration records, he is chairman of another facial recognition firm in China called Shenzhen Shenmu Information Technology Co Ltd, whose website is DeepCam.com. For a time, the U.S.-based DeepCam and Shenzhen Shenmu were closely connected: In addition to Liu's role in both companies, they shared the same website and email accounts, according to internal records seen by Reuters. Internal correspondence reviewed by Reuters suggests that DeepCam reached a deal with Rite Aid by March 2018, when a colleague emailed Knasel to congratulate him. Internal records also indicated that China-based Shenzhen Shenmu helped its American counterpart with product development and that Liu was expected to pay at least some of the bills. That same month, a U.S. executive wrote: "Hi Jingfeng- Thanks for the credit card. Here is the receipt for the Indianapolis Trade Show." In an interview, Liu confirmed the financing, saying of Knasel: "Whenever he needed money, I give him some money." Liu said Knasel told him about the Rite Aid project but left him in the dark about the business. Knasel "never let data cross between the two countries," Liu said. As the Rite Aid rollout proceeded in 2018, correspondence among DeepCam staff, seen by Reuters, expressed concerns about publicly revealing any links to China, as well as using the term "facial recognition" in the U.S. market for fear of attracting the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union. Days after the ACLU wrote a March 2018 blog post critical of retailers' suspected use of the technology, including Rite Aid's, Knasel emailed staff: "It looks like the ACLU may be starting to stick its head up.We need to tone down facial recognition, which I have tried to do.If they come after us, we are dead.so we have to avoid." The punctuation in the message is Knasel's. Today, both Liu and Knasel say no ties exist between the U.S. and Chinese businesses. "We never do any business in USA," Liu wrote in a brief email to Reuters in March. "We focus in China market." More recently, in an interview and an email, Liu said he had not spoken with Knasel for more than a year and, to his disappointment, had not benefited from the U.S. venture. In a statement to Reuters, Knasel sought to distance himself from Liu, Shenzhen Shenmu and DeepCam. He did not address questions about DeepCam's deal with Rite Aid. DeepCam, he said, is "winding up" its operations and now has no assets. He added that DeepCam never supplied China-based Shenzhen Shenmu with any data. In February, Rite Aid told Reuters that DeepCam had been "re-branded" as pdActive. PdActive is a facial recognition company run by Knasel, who said it is not a rebranding of DeepCam but a different company that has no owners who are Chinese citizens. Knasel remained connected to DeepCam through another company he runs, dcAnalytics, which Knasel said licensed DeepCam's technology until November 2019. Since then, Knasel said, U.S.-based dcAnalytics has been using "proprietary" technology, as well as facial recognition cameras purchased from DeepCam. Knasel said dcAnalytics is "committed to upholding the highest standards possible to make sure facial recognition technology is used fairly, properly and responsibly."

Sensitive questions
Sir Alex Ferguson said Liverpools Jurgen Klopp thoroughly deserved his success this season and was even willing to forgive the German for waking him up in the early hours of the morning to announce his league triumph.

Klopp was presented with the Alex Ferguson Trophy on Monday after being named League Managers Association (LMA) manager of the year for guiding the Merseyside club to their first top-flight title in 30 years.

The title was sealed when Chelsea beat Manchester City 2-1 on a Thursday night in late June, but Klopp clearly waited a few hours before getting in touch with the sometimes gruff Scot.

You thoroughly deserved it, he said. The performance level of your team was outstanding. Your personality runs right throughout the whole club. It was a marvellous performance.

Ill forgive you for waking me up at 3.30am to tell me you have won the league! Thank you, but anyway, you thoroughly deserved it. Well done.

Recommended Liverpool boss Klopp named LMA Manager of the Year

Ferguson, who made good his pledge to knock Liverpool off their perch by leading United to 13 titles from 1993 to 2013, enjoys a good relationship with Klopp and once sounded out the German about succeeding him at Old Trafford.

Klopp declared himself absolutely delighted to get the award, which he dedicated to his staff.

And the 53-year-old said he was honoured to be handed a trophy named in honour of Ferguson.

I know its not 100 per cent appropriate as a Liverpool manager but I admire him, he said. I remember he was the first British manager I met.

We had breakfast. Im not sure how much he remembers but I remember because for me this moment was like meeting the Pope. It was absolutely great and from that first season we clicked.

I didnt think at this moment I would have a trophy in my hands named after him.
WASHINGTON, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Fragrance Creators Association has welcomed Veronique Scailteur, Director External Relations, Perfumes, at CHANEL, back to its Board of Directors. Scailteur, who previously served on the Board from 2018 to 2019, oversees CHANEL's public affairs efforts on perfumes, working closely with its laboratory of fragrance creation and development. With decades of experience leading fragrance-related technical issues and government affairs, she brings to the Board an expertise in the intersection of perfume safety and policy.

Fragrance Creators Association

Prior to joining CHANEL, Scailteur served as an independent consultant with the Brunswick Group, a global advisory firm in public affairs. Until mid-2015, she was head of Procter & Gamble's European government relations and public policy office. During her tenure, she held various global roles and responsibilities for product safety, environment, and regulatory affairs. She earned a Pharmacy Degree from Universite Catholique de Louvain and a Ph.D. in Toxicology. She has served on a number of industry Boards and chaired many working groups, both in the U.S. and in Europe, engaging on topics of chemicals, cosmetics, detergents, brands, and more. In addition to her work with the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC), Scailteur serves on the Board of Directors of the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM).

"I'm grateful to return to the Fragrance Creators Board of Directors, especially at such a pivotal time for the organization and our industry," said Scailteur. "I share the association's deep respect for the artistry of fragrance and am confident in the association's technical and policy prowess as we move forwardtogetherto represent the fragrance value chain."

"We are thrilled to welcome Veronique back to the Board," said Farah K. Ahmed, President & CEO of Fragrance Creators. "Her experience, perspective, and passion for fragrance make her a meaningful addition to our leadership as we continue to drive positive impacts for people, perfume, and the planet."

Fragrance Creators Association is the principal trade association representing the fragrance industry. The organization's member companies create and manufacture fragrances and scents for home care, personal care, home design, fine fragrance, and industrial and institutional products. Fragrance Creators also represents companies that market finished products containing fragrance as well as those that supply fragrance ingredients, including natural extracts and other raw materials that are used in perfumery and fragrance mixtures. Fragrance Creators produces Fragrance Notes, the publication of record for the fragrance industry, available in print and online at fragrancenotes.org. Learn more about Fragrance Creators at fragrancecreators.org.

CONTACT:

Lia Dangelico

[email protected]

571-317-1504

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Peugeot maker PSA upbeat on strong rebound FILE PHOTO: An assembly line is seen after PSA Peugeot Citroen shut down last month due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Trnava

By Gilles Guillaume and Sarah White

PARIS (Reuters) - Peugeot maker PSA Group <PEUP.PA> delivered a profit in the first half of the year even as the COVID-19 pandemic hit revenue, and said a strong sales rebound in June in its core European markets had extended into July.

The French carmaker, which suffered like rivals as dealerships closed and which halted production as the outbreak spread from China to Europe and the United States, also said on Tuesday it was sticking with its mid-term profit margin target.

"June has been a very strong rebound in sales and July is seeing a similar trend," Financial Chief Philippe de Rovira told reporters.

Chief Executive Carlos Tavares added order books were "excellent" at the end of the first half, boosted by pent-up demand for new versions of its Peugeot 208 model and Opel's Corsa after coronavirus lockdowns eased.

PSA shares were up more than 4% in early trading.

Data on Tuesday showed a surge in export expectations among German automakers, adding to signs of a strong sector recovery. However, troubled Japanese manufacturer Nissan <7201.T> forecast a record annual operating loss.

PSA is in the middle of working through a merger agreement with Italy's Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) <FCHA.MI>, which will open it up further to other markets like the United States.

The French group reiterated a goal for average margins of over 4.5% in its automotive unit for 2019-2021, even though these were down to 3.7% in the first half from 8.5% at the end of 2019.

PSA's profitability has eclipsed that of some rivals including France's Renault <RENA.PA> in recent quarters, helped by a focus on pricier models like SUVs.

Under Tavares, PSA has kept a lid on production costs, and executives said on Tuesday the operational breakeven point - which had reached 53%, meaning the firm could still generate cash with half its usual car volume - would be even lower in 2020.

Story continues

The group's net profit for the first half of 2020 also stayed in positive territory, at 595 million euros ($697 million), down from 1.83 billion euros a year ago.

Revenues, meanwhile, fell 34.5% to 25.12 billion euros.

PSA said it was experimenting with more online sales, including with its own employees in France and across Europe, and expected this to become a growing part of its business.

STELLANTIS ON TRACK

Tavares told analysts the merger with FCA - set to create the world's fourth largest carmaker under the name "Stellantis" - was still on course to close in the first quarter of 2021.

Earlier this month, European Union antitrust regulators suspended their investigation into the proposed merger while waiting for data.

Asked about possible concessions to get the deal over the line, Tavares said if anything needed to be done, it would be, adding PSA would not be "picky" and it was keeping an open mind in its discussions with the European Commission.

Competition authorities have been examining FCA and PSA's combined market share in vans in particular.

(Reporting by Sarah White and Gilles Guillaume; Editing by Kim Coghill and Mark Potter)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov made a speech at a webinar on "Using the Pandemic Effect for Regional Cooperation in Asia", Trend reports on July 28.

Bayramov opened his speech with expressing condolences to the Turkish side in connection with the death of soldiers as a result of a road accident in the Mersin province.

Further, the minister thanked Turkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu for the invitation, as well as Turkish Anatolian Diplomatic Forum and Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University for hosting the webinar.

"The COVID-19 pandemic brought a number of unparalleled challenges and disruptions that require a worldwide effort in protecting public health. Countries have taken reinforcement measures on containment, prevention, and response to the spread of the pandemic under the leadership of their respective heads of state and government.

"Azerbaijan plays an active role in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic both at the domestic and multilateral levels. So far Azerbaijan provided voluntary financial assistance to the World Health Organization. These funds are intended for those most in need of assistance from the regional groups of Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Azerbaijan also provided assistance in the form of medical supplies and equipment to individual countries.

"I would also like to mention the steps taken by Azerbaijan at the domestic level. In February, an operational headquarters was created under the Cabinet of Ministers to prevent the spread of new coronavirus infection in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

"Since early March, education in all institutions was suspended. All mass events were postponed or canceled. Since the end of March, a quarantine regime has been in effect. It includes a series of measures of social isolation and restrictions. The evacuation of our citizens from abroad has been one of the priorities during the pandemic period.

"I would especially like to emphasize Azerbaijans active role in the framework of the Turkic Council. Azerbaijan assumed the Chairmanship of the Turkic Council on 15 October 2019, during the 7th Summit held in Baku, with the aim of further strengthening cooperation and concerted efforts in attaining the goals and objectives of the Turkic Speaking World.

"Taking into account the global uncertainty caused by the pandemic as well as its repercussions, the Member States and Hungary, as the observer state, have sought a unified action in overcoming the challenges and stressed cooperation in the framework of the Turkic Council.

"The Extraordinary Summit of the Turkic Council was held through a videoconference on 10 April 2020, on the theme of Solidarity and Cooperation in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic with the initiative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, H.E. Mr. Ilham Aliyev. I should stress that the Summit is the first to be held on the level of the Heads of State in tackling the pandemic.

"During the Extraordinary Summit, the Heads of State emphasized their determination to expand the cooperation in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as demonstrating a firm stance in seeking solidarity for the sake of common well-being, exchange of experience and uniting their efforts by fully mobilizing scientific, innovative, technological and medical potential.

"The Heads of State of the Turkic Council agreed to establish a consultation and cooperation mechanism among their respective national crisis centers, which includes the close interaction among the ministries of health of the Member States, with the aim of sharing best practices, assisting each other on substantive aspects regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Following the instructions of the Heads of States during the Extraordinary Summit Azerbaijan - as the Chairman-in-Office of the Turkic Council - successfully organized the videoconferences of the Ministers of Health, Ministers of Transport, Ministers of Economy and Heads of Customs Administrations, Heads of the Migration Services, Health Coordination Committee, Ministers in Charge of Tourism and Health Scientific Group. These conferences proved to be instrumental consultation mechanisms on finding the remedies, mobilizing efforts, and exploring the socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as diagnosis and treatment of dangerous infections.

"I believe the continuation of Azerbaijans efforts on the multinational level is worthy of mention. One such instance is the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in the format of Contact Group which was held on 4 May 2020 with the initiative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, H.E. Mr. Ilham Aliyev.

"President Aliyev, in his capacity as the Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement, proposed to convene a special session of the United Nations General Assembly in response to COVID-19, via videoconference, at the level of the Heads of State and Government, which received absolute majority support from the Member States.

"I should underline that this proposal is also significant as it highlights the central position of the United Nations system, as well as the role of the General Assembly, as the chief deliberative, policymaking and representative organ in mobilizing urgent actions to effectively fight the pandemic and address its socio-economic impacts.

"Azerbaijan continues to suffer from the aggression by the Republic of Armenia, as a result of which approximately 20 percent of the Azerbaijani territories are occupied by Armenia. More than a million Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their historical lands and became refugees or internally displaced persons. The four UN Security Council resolutions demanded an immediate, unconditional, and full withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. However, Armenia continues to disregard these resolutions and other documents of international organizations demanding to cease its occupation and aggression.

"While the entire world is mobilized to fight COVID-19 pandemic, Armenia resorts to provocation and diversion attempts to escalate tension. On July 12, 2020, the armed forces of Armenia flagrantly violated the ceasefire and used artillery to fire on the positions of Azerbaijans armed forces in the Tovuz district, along the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. As a result of the attacks 12 servicemen, including one major general, of the Azerbaijani armed forces and 1 civilian have been martyred.

"Such military recklessness on the part of Armenia pursues an objective of undermining the peace talks and continuing the occupation and aggression against Azerbaijan. By doing so, Armenia's leadership aims to escalate the situation, against the backdrop of socio-economic problems deteriorated further by the widespread of COVID-19 pandemic in Armenia, caused by its incompetent performance, and distract attention from the domestic problems in the country.

"The international response toward the provocation has also been overwhelming. Leading international organizations such as the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States and Organization of Islamic Cooperation released statements while the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement, with the support of its 120 Member States, adopted a communique strongly condemning the attack by the armed forces of Armenia. We would like to express our immense gratitude to brotherly Turkey for demonstrating resolute solidarity in this time of need," said the minister.
The unseemly power struggle in Rajasthan is both curious and disturbing. Curious, because the people or institutions which are not supposed to be part of it play a major role in it.

Disturbing, because all the players together undermine the very idea of democracy.

The rebellion led by Sachin Pilot, then state head of the Congress and deputy chief minister, indeed precipitated a crisis for the Ashok Gehlot-led ministry in the state when he demanded a leadership change.

Mr Pilots statement that the ministry was reduced to a minority warranted a show of strength by Mr Gehlot.

The Constitution, the law and the rulings of the Supreme Court have laid down the rules to solve the issue easily, by testing the majority on the floor of the house. But that has not happened yet.

As per the anti-defection law, the 18-member group led by Mr Pilot could attract action by the Speaker. The Congress, which originally had 107 members, has formally complained to the Speaker for their disqualification.

However, the Speaker, on whom the law bestows the power to decide the case, has not been able to exercise his power.

The simple solutions which are mandated by the law to end the stalemate have not been initiated yet. For, one, the governor has refused to call the session of the assembly and two, the Rajasthan High Court has barred the Speaker from deciding the case.

The court has even gone on to question the very premise of the anti-defection law, instead of allowing the process to complete and then deciding the merit of the Speakers decision.

At a time when the entire state machinery must be fighting the pandemic Covid-19, the Chief Minister was seen last week organising a protest in front of the Raj Bhavan demanding that the Governor respect his constitutional responsibilities.

After getting no positive response, Mr Gehlot now threatens that he will take his protest to the residence of the Prime Minister in the national capital. He also plans to meet the President.

The Bharatiya Janata Party which has successfully toppled ministries in many states, including in Madhya Pradesh, has been active in Rajasthan, too, but not in the same brazen manner in which it has acted in others.

A party delegation last week met the governor and complained to him about the anarchy prevailing in the state. The party seems to have decided to keep the pot boiling.

The people of Rajasthan deserve better.

The President, who has sworn to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, must ensure that his representative in Jaipur follows the democratic practices and allow the ministry to have its say in calling the session of the legislature.

The Supreme Court, which is set to resume the hearing in the petition moved by the Speaker on Monday, must let the law take its course instead of lecturing the nation on peoples right to dissent even as it goes on to prosecute people who raise legitimate questions on the conduct of the institution. The two offices must let democracy function.
One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021




Chief Representative of Indonesia to ASEAN Ade Padmo Sarwono (centre) (Photo courtesy of the diplomat)

In an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency, he said that ASEAN Chair is not only to further the interests of the member states in particular, but also to advance and promote the ideals of ASEAN in general to make the region more prosperous for its members and continue to maintain peace and stability.

He spoke highly of Vietnams achievements since becoming a full member of ASEAN on July 28th, 1995, with a rapid economic development.

Its impressive economic growth is testament to its vigorous drive towards economic reform, he underlined.

He believed that Vietnams contribution will pay the way for further welfare in the region and the country is a strong advocate to advance cooperation with ASEANs external partners.

He went on to say that as ASEAN Chair this year, Vietnam should continue to strengthen development in ASEAN, which also includes incorporating elements that are relevant to the operationalisation of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), as a reaffirmation of ASEANs centrality and the significance of ASEANs community-building process within the Indo-Pacific region.

"The country must also ensure the relevance of ASEANs centrality in the region", he noted, adding that the theme of Vietnams Chairmanship, namely cohesive and responsive ASEAN is very precise.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), sustainable development, regional connectivity, and enhancing intra-ASEAN trade are some important matters that ASEAN must address jointly to make ASEAN Community stronger and solid, he added.

Ade said that ASEAN must focus on fighting COVID-19 and addressing its economic and social impacts to the ASEAN people, stressing that Vietnam is able to manage it and introduce ideas for mitigating the pandemic./.
New Delhi, July 28 : Calling hepatitis a serious challenge, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, here on Tuesday, urged members of Parliament to spread awareness about the liver disease amid Covid-19 pandemic.

Observing that the care of liver during the difficult times of Covid-19 is important, Birla said it was the lawmakers' duty to sensitise people and make the fight against the pandemic a mass movement.

"Hepatitis is a serious challenge that can be overcome only with collective effort and resolve. For this, the role of public representatives, especially MPs, becomes crucial," Birla said on the occasion of World Hepatitis Day.

He was chairing the 'Empathy Conclave 2020', organised by the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at the Parliament House.

The theme of this year's event was 'Keep your liver safe in times of Covid-19.' The Speaker said 2030 deadline had been set for eradication of hepatitis and hoped India would be able to meet this objective.

Birla commended the role played by ILBS in the fight against hepatitis B and C, and thanked Dr S.K. Sarin, ILBS Director, for his dedication to the cause of eradication of the liver diseases in India.

Birla said the government had taken comprehensive steps to lower the Covid-19 pandemic's impact and the results were encouraging. He hoped a vaccine for it would be discovered soon.

While Birla and Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan attended the event physically from the Speaker's Chamber, Minister of Law and Justice, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad, other MPs and dignitaries, through video link.

Vardhan thanked Birla for providing such a platform for eradication of hepatitis and for his wholehearted support to this cause. He said the government had announced a Rs 15,000 crore package to deal with the coronavirus crisis.

The Finance Commission had agreed to include a special chapter related to health financing in its report, he added.

Earlier, Dr Sarin welcomed the participants and gave a short presentation on the importance of liver health and the scale of hepatitis infections in India. The health of liver, he said was directly linked to many diseases, like diabetes, hypertension and heart ailments, thus it was extremely important to take care of the liver.
In a tweet on Sunday, Austin Mayor Steve Adler said there are "too many guns" in the city and that he is "heartbroken" after a shooting during a local Black Lives Matter protest left one dead on Saturday.

In a video posted Sunday on Facebook, the Austin Police Department said a demonstrator identified as 28-year-old Garrett Foster was shot as he walked toward a car while carrying an AK-47 assault riffle.

Police said witnesses told them the disturbance began when a vehicle started honking its horn as it turned onto Congress Avenue in downtown Austin just before 10 p.m. Saturday. A crowd of people surrounded the vehicle and began striking it.

The driver then opened fire from inside the car as Foster approached, according to police. Another person in the crowd pulled out a handgun and shot at the vehicle as it sped away, police said.

Foster was rushed to a local hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

READ ALSO: Mosquitoes in Austin test positive for West Nile virus

The driver, who called 911 after the shooting, said he shot Foster because he pointed his rifle directly at him, police said.

Both the driver and the person who fired at the vehicle as it sped away were questioned and released. Both had state-issued handgun licenses, police said.

"In a split moment, three guns were drawn, eight shots were fired, and a protester was tragically killed," Adler wrote in his tweet. "This is horrible as is all gun violence. Our city is shaken and, like so many in our community, Im heartbroken and stunned."

As the investigation continues, police are asking the community to provide any photos or videos they may have from the shooting by calling 512-974-TIPS or 512-472-8477.

See the full Facebook video from the APD below:

APD Chief of Police Brian Manley provides media briefing in regards to Homicide #28 that occurred Saturday night. Posted by Austin Police Department on Sunday, July 26, 2020

Priscilla Aguirre is a general assignment reporter for MySA.com | priscilla.aguirre@express-news.net | @CillaAguirre
N icola Sturgeon has said she would not book a holiday abroad at the moment as mixed messaging over travelling abroad continues.

The Scottish First Minister said at her daily coronavirus briefing that she does not want to raise expectations over a possible compensation scheme for those forced to self-isolate after returning from Spain.

It comes after guidance for travelling to country were changed as reported coronavirus cases continued to grow.

This means holidaymakers will have to spend 14 days in isolation on their return from holidaying anywhere in Spain.

Ministers have been told to get a grip on the summer holiday "confusion" after the Balearic and Canary islands were added to the list of places where only essential travel is advised .

This morning, local government minister Simon Clarke prompted more travel uncertainty after saying he "wouldn't say don't go abroad".

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wears a face mask during her visit to the field hospital the NHS Louisa Jordan / POOL/AFP via Getty Images

But now Ms Sturgeon said she would opt to take a holiday at home, warning that quarantine restrictions could be reimposed at short notice.

The First Minister said: Right now, be very, very cautious about booking foreign travel that is not essential because you dont know that when youre in a country they may change their regulations and so you might find yourself restricted in that country and when you go to come home you might find that the quarantine rules have changed here.

People gather in Barcelona, Spain as Brits have been warned not to travel to the country / Getty Images

I wouldnt, if you were asking me, be booking a foreign holiday right now because of these reasons.

I would be choosing, if I had the time to go on holiday, to spend it here in Scotland.

Passengers arriving at Birmingham Airport as many people arrive into England from holidays in Spain / PA

Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie has pushed for a Government scheme to be set up to support those facing quarantine and thereby not able to work, but the First Minister appeared to reject the calls.

She said: Its not something to give people an expectation around.

I usually say, and will continue to say, we consider all suggestions that are made to us but I dont want to raise peoples expectations.

She added: I know this is really tough. These decisions are not easy and I know the people who bear the consequences of these decisions find it really difficult as well.

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The First Minister said there is an inherent uncertainty in the response to coronavirus, meaning the situation can change rapidly.
SANTA CRUZ, Calif., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE: PLT) ("Poly" or the "Company") today announced first quarter results for the period ending June 27, 2020. Preliminary highlights of the first quarter include the following:

($ Millions, except percent and per-share data)1 Q1 FY21

Q1 FY20

GAAP Revenue $356

$448

GAAP Gross Margin 43.9 % 47.5 % GAAP Operating Loss ($57)

($29)

GAAP Diluted EPS ($1.85)

($1.14)

Cash Flow from Operations $42

$8







Non-GAAP Revenue $361

$460

Non-GAAP Gross Margin 50.0 % 55.8 % Non-GAAP Operating Income $37

$86

Non-GAAP Diluted EPS $0.33

$1.32

Adjusted EBITDA $48

$98





















1 For further information on supplemental non-GAAP metrics refer to the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information and Unaudited Reconciliations of GAAP Measures to Non-GAAP Measures sections below.

"We are working aggressively to fulfill elevated headset demand driven by the hybrid working trend as we navigate product shifts and supply chain challenges," said Robert Hagerty, Chairman of the Poly Board of Directors and Interim Chief Executive Officer. "We continue to make progress on the transformation necessary to achieve the objectives of the integrated company and return to profitable growth."

Results Compared to May 27, 2020 Guidance







Q1 FY21 Results Q1 FY21 Guidance Range2 GAAP Net Revenue $356M $330M - $365M Non-GAAP Net Revenue $361M $335M - $370M Adjusted EBITDA $48M $25M - $45M Non-GAAP Diluted EPS $0.33 $(0.18) - $0.22





2 The non-GAAP revenue guidance range shown here excludes the $5.1 million impact of purchase accounting related to recording deferred revenue at fair value at the time of the acquisition.

"In light of the current macroeconomic uncertainty, we have been accumulating cash to maximize financial flexibility and liquidity," said Charles Boynton, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. "As our business and the economy stabilize, our capital allocation strategy will focus on reducing leverage while maintaining appropriate liquidity."

Highlights for the First Quarter 2021

Headsets demand remained elevated and voice solutions challenged as customers continue to work from home. Backlog at quarter-end was approximately five weeks.

The Company's in-house manufacturing site in Tijuana, Mexico resumed production in early May after reconfiguring to implement specific safety protocols. The factory is capable of running at full capacity, but supply constraints continue to affect production.

resumed production in early May after reconfiguring to implement specific safety protocols. The factory is capable of running at full capacity, but supply constraints continue to affect production. Poly announced a new family of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) solutions and completed the Teams certification of the Studio X30 and X50 video bars. Poly also received Teams re-certification on six headsets for a total of 16 certified Teams headsets, and now offers the largest number of Teams certified endpoints in the market.

Poly's next-gen video solutions, including the Studio X30, Studio X50, and G7500 became the first certified Zoom appliances in the market. In addition, the company announced participation in Zoom's Hardware-as-a-Service offering featuring Poly video bars and phones.

LogMeIn announced that the Poly Studio X30 and X50 video bars are now available in bundled solutions for GoToRoom.

The Company resolved several longstanding litigation matters, which will reduce Legal expenses going forward.

The Company ended fiscal Q1 with $263 million in cash and short-term investments.

Dividend Suspended

On April 9, 2020, the Poly Board of Directors suspended the quarterly cash dividend.

Business Outlook

The following statements are based on the Company's current expectations, and many of these statements are forward-looking. Actual results are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and may differ materially from the Company's expectations. Please refer to the Forward Looking Statements Safe Harbor section of this press release below.

The following represents the expected range of financial results for the second quarter 2021 (all amounts assume currency rates remain stable):



Q2 FY21 Guidance GAAP Net Revenue $346M - $386M Non-GAAP Revenue $350M - $390M Adjusted EBITDA1 $45M - $65M Non-GAAP Diluted EPS1,2 $0.25 - $0.65





1 Q2 Adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP diluted EPS guidance excludes estimated intangibles amortization expense of $31.4 million. With respect to adjusted EBITDA and diluted EPS guidance, the Company has determined that it is unable to provide quantitative reconciliations of these forward-looking non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable forward-looking GAAP measures with a reasonable degree of confidence in their accuracy without unreasonable effort, as items including stock based compensation, litigation gains and losses, and impacts from discrete tax adjustments and tax laws are inherently uncertain and depend on various factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. 2 EPS guidance assumes approximately 41 million diluted average weighted shares and a non-GAAP effective tax rate of 15% to 17%.

Conference Call and Earnings Presentation

Poly is providing an earnings presentation in combination with this press release. The presentation is offered to provide shareholders and analysts with additional detail for analyzing results. The presentation will be available in the Investor Relations section of our corporate website at investor.poly.com along with this press release. A reconciliation of our GAAP to non-GAAP results is provided at the end of this press release.

We have scheduled a webcast to discuss first quarter fiscal year 2021 financial results. The webcast will take place today, July 28, 2020, at 2:00 PM (Pacific Time). All interested investors and potential investors in Poly stock are invited to join. To listen to the webcast, please access the webcast link from our Investor Relations website at investor.poly.com .

A replay of the webcast will be available shortly after its conclusion and can be accessed from our Investor Relations website at investor.poly.com .

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information

To supplement our condensed consolidated financial statements presented on a GAAP basis, we use non-GAAP measures of operating results, including non-GAAP net revenues, non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP operating expenses, non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP net income, adjusted EBITDA, and non-GAAP diluted EPS. These non-GAAP measures are adjusted from the most directly comparable GAAP measures to exclude, or include where applicable, the effect of purchase accounting on deferred revenue, charges associated with the optimization of our Consumer product line, stock-based compensation, acquisition related expenses, purchase accounting amortization and adjustments, restructuring and other related charges and credits, impairment charges, rebranding costs, other unusual and/or non-cash charges and credits, and the impact of participating securities, all net of any associated tax impact. We also exclude tax benefits from the release of tax reserves, discrete tax adjustments including transfer pricing, tax deduction and tax credit adjustments, and the impact of tax law changes. We adjust these amounts from our non-GAAP measures primarily because management does not believe they are consistent with the development of our target operating model. We believe that the use of non-GAAP financial measures provides meaningful supplemental information regarding our performance and liquidity and helps investors compare actual results with our historical and long-term target operating model goals as well as our performance as a combined company. We believe presenting non-GAAP net revenue provides meaningful supplemental information regarding how management views the performance of the business and underlying performance of our individual product categories. We believe that both management and investors benefit from referring to these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing our performance and when planning, forecasting and analyzing future periods; however, non-GAAP financial measures are not meant to be considered in isolation of, or as a substitute for, or superior to, net revenues, gross margin, operating expenses, operating income, operating margin, net income or EPS prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Forward Looking Statements Safe Harbor

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements relating to our intentions, beliefs, projections, outlook, analyses or current expectations that are subject to many risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements and the associated risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: (i) our beliefs with respect to the length and severity of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak, and its impact across our businesses, our operations and global supply chain, including (a) our inability to source component parts from key suppliers in sufficient quantities necessary to meet the high demand for certain product lines, including our Enterprise Headsets, which negatively impacted our sales during the quarter; and continued uncertainty and potential impact on future quarters if these sourcing constraints continue and/or price volatility occurs, which could continue to negatively affect our profitability and/or market share, (b) our expectations that the virus has caused and will continue to cause, an increase in customer and partner demand, including increased demand in collaboration endpoints due to a global, work from home workforce, (c) expectations related to our voice product lines, as well as our services attachment rate for such products, which have been, and may continue to be, negatively impacted as companies have delayed returning their workforces to offices in many countries due to uncertainties related to the continued impact of COVID-19; (d) expectations related to our ability to fulfill the backlog generated by supply constraints during the quarter, to timely supply the number of products to fulfill current and future customer demand, including expectations that our manufacturing facility in Tijuana, Mexico will continue production at the capacity necessary to meet such demand, (e) the impact of the virus on our distribution partners, resellers, end-user customers and our production facilities, including our ability to obtain alternative sources of supply if our production facility or other suppliers are impacted by future shut downs, (f) the impact if global or regional economic conditions deteriorate further, on our customers and/or partners, including increased demand for pricing accommodations, delayed payments, delayed deployment plans, insolvency or other issues which may increase credit losses, and (g) risks related to restrictions or delays in global return to worksites as a result of COVID-19, which continues to impact our employees worldwide and our customers, which has negatively impacted our voice product lines for the quarter, and restricted customer engagement; and (h) the complexity of the forecast analysis and the design and operation of internal controls; and (ii) our belief that we can manufacture or supply products in a timely manner to satisfy perishable demand; (iii) expectations related to our customers' purchasing decisions and our ability to match product production to demand, particularly given long lead times and the difficulty of forecasting unit volumes and acquiring the component parts and materials to meet demand without having excess inventory or incurring cancellation charges; (iv) risks associated with significant and abrupt changes in product demand which increases the complexity of management's evaluation of potential excess or obsolete inventory; (v) risks associated with the bankruptcy or financial weakness of distributors or key customers, or the bankruptcy of or reduction in capacity of our key suppliers; (vi) risks associated with the potential interruption in the supply of sole-sourced critical components, our ability to move to a dual-source model, and the continuity of component supply at costs consistent with our plans, which has negatively impacted in the quarter and may continue to impact our ability to timely supply product to meet our customer demand; (vii) expectations related to our services segment revenues, particularly as we introduce new generation, less complex, product solutions, or as companies shift from on premises to work from home options for their workforce, which may result in decreased demand for our professional, installation and/or managed service offerings; (viii) expectations that our current cash on hand, additional cash generated from operations, together with sources of cash through our credit facility, either alone or in combination with our election to suspend our dividend payments, will meet our liquidity needs during and following the unknown duration and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; (ix) expectations relating to our ability to generate sufficient cash flow from operations to meet our debt covenants and timely repay all principal and interest amounts drawn under our credit facility as they become due; (x) risks associated with our channel partners' sales reporting, product inventories and product sell through since we sell a significant amount of products to channel partners who maintain their own inventory of our products; (xi) our efforts to execute to drive sales and sustainable profitable revenue growth; (xii) our expectations for new products launches, the timing of their releases and their expected impact on future growth and on our existing products; (xiii) our belief that our new Partner Program will drive growth and profitability for both us and our partners through the sale of our product, services and solutions; (xiv) risks associated with forecasting sales and procurement demands, which are inherently difficult, particularly with continuing uncertainty in regional and global economic conditions; (xv) uncertainties attributable to currency fluctuations, including fluctuations in foreign exchange rates and/or new or greater tariffs on our products; (xvi) our expectations regarding our ability to control costs, streamline operations and successfully implement our various cost-reduction activities and realize anticipated cost savings under such cost-reduction initiatives; (xvii) expectations relating to our quarterly and annual earnings guidance, particularly as economic uncertainty, including, without limitation, uncertainty related to the continued impact of COVID-19, the macro-economic and political climate and other external factors, puts further pressure on management judgments used to develop forward looking financial guidance and other prospective financial information; (xviii) expectations related to GAAP and non-GAAP financial results for the first quarter and full Fiscal Year 2021, including net revenues, adjusted EBITDA, tax rates, intangibles amortization, diluted weighted average shares outstanding and diluted EPS; (xix) our expectations of the impact of the acquisition of Polycom as it relates to our strategic vision and additional market and strategic partnership opportunities for our combined hardware, software and services offerings; (xx) our beliefs regarding the UC&C market, market dynamics and opportunities, and customer and partner behavior as well as our position in the market, including risks associated with the potential failure of our UC&C solutions to be adopted with the breadth and speed we anticipate; (xxi) our belief that the increased adoption of certain technologies and our open architecture approach has and will continue to increase demand for our solutions; (xxii) expectations related to the micro and macro-economic conditions in our domestic and international markets and their impact on our future business; (xxiii) our forecast and estimates with respect to tax matters, including expectations with respect to utilizing our deferred tax assets; (xxiv) our expectations related to building strategic alliances and key partnerships with providers of collaboration tools and platforms to drive revenue growth and market share; and (xxv) our expectations regarding pending and potential future litigation, in addition to other matters discussed in this press release that are not purely historical data. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements.

We do not assume any obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements, whether as the result of new developments or otherwise.

For more information concerning these and other possible risks, please refer to our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 8, 2020 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as recent press releases.

Financial Summaries

The following related charts are provided:

Summary Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

Unaudited Reconciliations of GAAP Measures to Non-GAAP Measures

About Poly

Poly is a global communications company that powers meaningful human connection and collaboration. Poly combines legendary audio expertise and powerful video and conferencing capabilities to overcome the distractions, complexity and distance that make communication in and out of the workplace challenging. Poly believes in solutions that make life easier when they work together and with our partner's services. Our headsets, software, desk phones, audio and video conferencing, analytics and services are used worldwide and are a leading choice for every kind of workspace. For more information, please visit: www.poly.com.

Poly and the propeller design are trademarks of Plantronics, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

INVESTOR CONTACT: Mike Iburg Vice President, Investor Relations (831) 458-7533

MEDIA CONTACT:

Edie Kissko

Senior Director and Head of Corporate Communications

(213) 369-3719

PLANTRONICS, INC. SUMMARY CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

($ in thousands, except per share data)





UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS















Three Months Ended





June 27,

June 29,





2020

2019

Net revenues:









Net product revenues

$ 291,458



$ 382,745



Net services revenues

64,262



65,022



Total net revenues

355,720



447,767



Cost of revenues:









Cost of product revenues

176,615



208,616



Cost of service revenues

22,773



26,505



Total cost of revenues

199,388



235,121



Gross profit

156,332



212,646



Gross profit %

43.9 %

47.5 %

Operating expenses:









Research, development, and engineering

50,029



59,524



Selling, general, and administrative

116,644



163,608



Impairment of goodwill and long-lived assets









(Gain) loss, net from litigation settlements

17,561



(1,162)



Restructuring and other related charges

29,330



19,525



Total operating expenses

213,564



241,495



Operating loss

(57,232)



(28,849)



Operating loss %

(16.1) %

(6.4) %













Interest expense

(21,184)



(23,932)



Other non-operating income, net

224



333



Income before income taxes

(78,192)



(52,448)



Income tax benefit

(3,177)



(7,577)



Net loss

$ (75,015)



$ (44,871)















% of net revenues

(21.1) %

(10.0) %













Loss per common share:









Basic

$ (1.85)



$ (1.14)



Diluted

$ (1.85)



$ (1.14)















Shares used in computing earnings per common share:









Basic

40,460



39,239



Diluted

40,460



39,239















Effective tax rate

4.1 %

14.4 %



PLANTRONICS, INC. SUMMARY CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ($ in thousands)

UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS



June 27,

March 28,





2020

2020

ASSETS









Cash and cash equivalents

$ 249,766



$ 213,879



Short-term investments

13,166



11,841



Total cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments

262,932



225,720



Accounts receivable, net

208,688



246,835



Inventory, net

177,633



164,527



Other current assets

46,145



47,946



Total current assets

695,398



685,028



Property, plant, and equipment, net

159,539



165,858



Purchased intangibles, net

434,481



466,915



Goodwill

796,216



796,216



Deferred tax and other assets

143,248



143,157



Total assets

$ 2,228,882



$ 2,257,174



LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY









Accounts payable

$ 115,166



$ 102,159



Accrued liabilities

396,745



373,666



Total current liabilities

511,911



475,825



Long-term debt, net of issuance costs

1,623,034



1,621,694



Long-term income taxes payable

98,949



98,319



Other long-term liabilities

144,699



144,152



Total liabilities

2,378,593



2,339,990



Stockholders' equity

(149,711)



(82,816)



Total liabilities and stockholders' equity

$ 2,228,882



$ 2,257,174

















PLANTRONICS, INC.

SUMMARY CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

($ in thousands, except per share data)





UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS















Three Months Ended





June 27,

June 29,





2020

2019

Cash flows from operating activities









Net Loss

$ (75,015)



$ (44,871)



Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:









Depreciation and amortization

43,400



57,698



Amortization of debt issuance cost

1,340



1,361



Stock-based compensation

9,355



12,904



Impairment of goodwill and long-lived assets









Deferred income taxes

(7,169)



(29,410)



Provision for excess and obsolete inventories

6,082



2,769



Restructuring charges

29,330



19,525



Cash payments for restructuring charges

(13,085)



(17,658)



Other operating activities

(1,851)



1,965



Changes in assets and liabilities:









Accounts receivable, net

37,914



21,445



Inventory, net

(16,008)



(42,309)



Current and other assets

3,483



15,498



Accounts payable

12,321



36,392



Accrued liabilities

11,236



(44,793)



Income taxes

389



17,833



Cash provided by operating activities

$ 41,722



$ 8,349















Cash flows from investing activities









Proceeds from sale of investments





170



Purchase of investments

(108)



(651)



Capital expenditures

(5,437)



(4,507)



Proceeds from sale of property, plant, and equipment and assets held for sale

1,900







Cash used for investing activities

$ (3,645)



$ (4,988)















Cash flows from financing activities









Employees' tax withheld and paid for restricted stock and restricted stock units

(2,739)



(8,621)



Proceeds from issuances under stock-based compensation plans

5



589



Proceeds from revolving line of credit

50,000







Repayments of revolving line of credit

(50,000)







Payment of cash dividends





(5,940)



Cash used for financing activities

$ (2,734)



$ (13,972)



Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents

544



6



Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents

35,887



(10,605)



Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period

213,879



202,509



Cash and cash equivalents at end of period

$ 249,766



$ 191,904

















PLANTRONICS, INC.

UNAUDITED RECONCILIATIONS OF GAAP MEASURES TO NON-GAAP MEASURES ($ in thousands, except per share data)

UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS DATA













Three Months Ended



June 27,

June 29,



2020

2019











GAAP Net revenues $ 355,720



$ 447,767



Deferred revenue purchase accounting1 5,082



12,159



Non-GAAP Net revenues $ 360,802



$ 459,926













GAAP Gross profit $ 156,332



$ 212,646



Purchase accounting amortization2 18,238



30,000



Deferred revenue purchase accounting1 5,082



12,159



Integration and Rebranding costs 



958



Stock-based compensation 833



978



Non-GAAP Gross profit $ 180,485



$ 256,741



Non-GAAP Gross profit % 50.0 %

55.8 %











GAAP Research, development, and engineering $ 50,029



$ 59,524



Stock-based compensation (3,231)



(3,719)



Integration and Rebranding costs (194)



(1,341)



Non-GAAP Research, development, and engineering $ 46,604



$ 54,464













GAAP Selling, general, and administrative $ 116,644



$ 163,608



Integration and Rebranding costs 6



(23,591)



Purchase accounting amortization2 (14,195)



(15,278)



Stock-based compensation (5,296)



(8,207)



Non-GAAP Selling, general, and administrative $ 97,159



$ 116,532















1

Deferred revenue purchase accounting: Represents the impact of fair value purchase accounting adjustments related to deferred revenue recorded in connection with the acquisition of Polycom on July 2, 2018. The Company's deferred revenue primarily relates to Service revenue associated with non-cancelable maintenance support on hardware devices which are typically billed in advance and recognized ratably over the contract term as those services are delivered. This adjustment represents the amount of additional revenue that would have been recognized during the period absent the write-down to fair value required under purchase accounting guidelines. 2

Purchase accounting amortization: Represents the amortization of purchased intangible assets recorded in connection with the acquisition of Polycom on July 2, 2018.

PLANTRONICS, INC. UNAUDITED RECONCILIATIONS OF GAAP MEASURES TO NON-GAAP MEASURES ($ in thousands, except per share data)

UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS DATA (CONTINUED)











Three Months Ended



June 27,

June 29,



2020

2019











GAAP Operating expenses $ 213,564



$ 241,495



Integration and Rebranding costs (188)



(24,932)



Purchase accounting amortization2 (14,195)



(15,278)



Stock-based compensation (8,527)



(11,926)



Restructuring and other related charges (29,330)



(19,525)



Gain (loss), net from litigation settlements (17,561)



1,162



Non-GAAP Operating expenses $ 143,763



$ 170,996













GAAP Operating loss $ (57,232)



$ (28,849)



Purchase accounting amortization2 32,433



45,278



Deferred revenue purchase accounting1 5,082



12,159



Integration and Rebranding costs 188



25,890



Stock-based compensation 9,360



12,904



Restructuring and other related charges 29,330



19,525



(Gain) loss, net from litigation settlements 17,561



(1,162)



Non-GAAP Operating income $ 36,722



$ 85,745















1 Deferred revenue purchase accounting: Represents the impact of fair value purchase accounting adjustments related to deferred revenue recorded in connection with the acquisition of Polycom on July 2, 2018. The Company's deferred revenue primarily relates to Service revenue associated with non-cancelable maintenance support on hardware devices which are typically billed in advance and recognized ratably over the contract term as those services are delivered. This adjustment represents the amount of additional revenue that would have been recognized during the period absent the write-down to fair value required under purchase accounting guidelines. 2 Purchase accounting amortization: Represents the amortization of purchased intangible assets recorded in connection with the acquisition of Polycom on July 2, 2018.

PLANTRONICS, INC. UNAUDITED RECONCILIATIONS OF GAAP MEASURES TO NON-GAAP MEASURES ($ in thousands, except per share data)

UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS DATA (CONTINUED)











Three Months Ended



June 27,

June 29,



2020

2019

GAAP Net loss $ (75,015)



$ (44,871)



Purchase accounting amortization2 32,433



45,278



Deferred revenue purchase accounting1 5,082



12,159



Integration and Rebranding costs 196



25,890



Stock-based compensation 9,360



12,904



Restructuring and other related charges 29,330



19,525



(Gain) loss, net from litigation settlements 17,561



(1,162)



Income tax effect of above items (13,347)



(15,483)



Income tax effect of unusual tax items 7,728

3 (2,017)



Non-GAAP Net income $ 13,328



$ 52,223













GAAP Diluted earnings per common share $ (1.85)



$ (1.14)



Purchase accounting amortization2 0.80



1.15



Deferred revenue purchase accounting1 0.13



0.31



Stock-based compensation 0.23



0.33



Integration and Rebranding costs 



0.66



Restructuring and other related charges 0.72



0.49



(Gain) loss, net from litigation settlements 0.43



(0.03)



Income tax effect (0.13)



(0.46)



Effect of anti-dilutive securities 



0.01



Non-GAAP Diluted earnings per common share $ 0.33



$ 1.32













Shares used in diluted earnings per common share calculation:







GAAP 40,460



39,239



Non-GAAP 40,620



39,523





1 Deferred revenue purchase accounting: Represents the impact of fair value purchase accounting adjustments related to deferred revenue recorded in connection with the acquisition of Polycom on July 2, 2018. The Company's deferred revenue primarily relates to Service revenue associated with non-cancelable maintenance support on hardware devices which are typically billed in advance and recognized ratably over the contract term as those services are delivered. This adjustment represents the amount of additional revenue that would have been recognized during the period absent the write-down to fair value required under purchase accounting guidelines. 2 Purchase accounting amortization: Represents the amortization of purchased intangible assets recorded in connection with the acquisition of Polycom on July 2, 2018. 3 Excluded amounts represent amortization of intellectual property, impact of valuation allowance, and the release of tax reserves.

PLANTRONICS, INC. UNAUDITED RECONCILIATIONS OF GAAP MEASURES TO NON-GAAP MEASURES ($ in thousands)

UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS DATA

























Three Months Ended

Twelve Months Ended





June 29,

September 28,

December 28,

March 28,

June 27,

June 27,





2019

2019

2019

2020

2020

2020

GAAP Net loss

$ (44,871)



$ (25,910)



$ (78,483)



$ (662,820)



$ (75,015)



$ (842,228)



Tax provision

(7,576)



(4,122)



(19,708)



(37,995)



(3,177)



(65,002)



Interest Expense

23,932



23,797



22,533



22,378



21,184



89,892



Other Income and Expense

(333)



625



(967)



562



(224)



(4)



Deferred revenue purchase accounting1

12,159



8,524



7,131



6,138



5,082



26,875



Consumer optimization3









10,415











10,415



Integration and Rebranding costs

25,890



11,329



8,677



2,321



197



22,524



Stock-based compensation

12,904



14,693



13,902



15,596



9,360



53,551



Restructuring and other related charges

19,525



5,847



21,724



7,080



29,330



63,981



Impairment charges













648,231







648,231



(Gain) loss, net from litigation settlements

(1,162)











419



17,561



17,980



Other adjustments2





542















542



Depreciation and amortization

57,698



57,376



57,556



57,632



43,400



215,964



Adjusted EBITDA

$ 98,166



$ 92,701



$ 42,780



$ 59,542



$ 47,698



$ 242,721

































1 Deferred revenue purchase accounting: Represents the impact of fair value purchase accounting adjustments related to deferred revenue recorded in connection with the acquisition of Polycom on July 2, 2018. The Company's deferred revenue primarily relates to Service revenue associated with non-cancelable maintenance support on hardware devices which are typically billed in advance and recognized ratably over the contract term as those services are delivered. This adjustment represents the amount of additional revenue that would have been recognized during the period absent the write-down to fair value required under purchase accounting guidelines. 2 Other adjustments: Excluded amounts represent immaterial executive transition costs. 3 Consumer Optimization: Excluded amounts represent inventory related reserves associated with optimizing the consumer product portfolio.

SOURCE Plantronics, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.polycom.com


Raven Bs: Enhancing force protection mission capabilities for AUAB

U.S. Central Command

By Senior Airman Ashley Perdue 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

QATAR, July 27, 2020 -- Security Forces is the largest career field in the U.S. Air Force and debatably one of the most diverse. Members are specifically trained on security, defense, law enforcement, combat arms and military working dogs. For some defenders, they are presented the opportunity to expand even further into one of these specialized jobs they may not have known were possible for them.

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jordan Rutherford, 379th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron non-commissioned officer in charge of Raven B operations, has witnessed this first hand after being tasked to operate the RQ-11B, or Raven B as it's commonly known, Small Unmanned Aircraft System (SUAS).

"I wasn't aware that Security Forces had a hand in drone operations until I was tasked for this deployment," said Rutherford. "I always assumed that drone operations were handled solely by a separate career field, so coming to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, and perfoming drone operations was a completely new frontier to me."

The Raven B team is attached to the security forces flight at AUAB, meaning operators continue their typical duties along with their new, SUAS responsibilities.

"We fly multiple flights during our flying days, which allows us to constantly stay prepared," added Airman 1st Class Tucker Pfeiffer, a 379th ESFS SUAS operator. "Weather changes and time of day all are variables in our flight and we try to get as much experience with these conditions, while also maintaining our daily tasks in SFS."

SUAS, such as the Raven B, are used by militaries worldwide to conduct low-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

At AUAB, the primary mission for the team is force protection, however, the drone has been flown for real-world missions to include conducting airfield assessments and post-storm damage analysis.

"Our primary job is to augment the 379th ESFS force protection mission, but we have also been used to conduct sandstorm damage assessments across the airfield and to capture images in response to increased Force Protection Conditions," said Rutherford.

The drone and all of its equipment is broken down into what Rutherford calls, 'go bags' to ensure rapid response should the need arise.

"By continuously training with the system and having our equipment ready to go, we are able to have a Raven in the air within 30 minutes of receiving a call, retrieving equipment, driving to our launch site and assembling the drone," Rutherford said.

A Raven can be hand launched nearly anywhere on base at any time of day while weighing less than five pounds. Flying manually or autonomously, providing real-time video and having a gimbal camera system with day time/night time capabilities are only a few benefits offered by the Raven B.

According to Rutherford, being an operator has its challenges, but it also has its rewards.

"The opportunity to experience a completely new facet of the [SF] career field by operating reconnaissance drones has be very rewarding to me," said Rutherford.

Pfeiffer also added this deployment has given him an amazing opportunity to utilize and familiarize himself with the equipment especially since a lot of security forces squadrons are adapting the program.

By having and utilizing the Raven B and other SUAS like it, military forces are equipped with capabilities allowing above ground points of view, high-definition day time and night time vision observed through multiple zoom lens and thermal imagery while also charging security forces members out of their comfort zone to learn a new level of force protection.

"Security Forces is an amazing career field," stated Pfeiffer. "The Raven B is one of the many useful tools that allow us to perform flawlessly while allowing us as operators to see things from overhead and make safe decisions for those on the ground."

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By PTI

PUNE: A 100-year-old woman has recovered from COVID-19 disease and discharged from a facility here in Maharashtra, civic officials said on Tuesday.

The woman and four other members of her family were admitted in the COVID facility in Vimannagar area on July 20 after they tested positive for the infection.

""When brought to the facility, the woman did not have any symptoms and her oxygen saturation was also normal.

But after a couple of days, her oxygen level dropped and doctors decided to shift her to a bigger hospital.

"However, due to some reasons, the said hospital did not get her admitted. She was brought back to the CCC (COVID Care Centre) facility, where she received required treatment and her condition stabilised," said Dr Ramchandra Hankare, Chief Health Officer, PMC (Pune Municipal Corporation).

Her condition became critical at one point of time, but doctors constantly kept her under observation and provided all the required treatment.

The centenarian woman was discharged earlier in the day along with four members of her family, including her son-in-law, said Madhav Jagtap, deputy commissioner, PMC.

An official said no repeat test was conducted of the woman.
The Lakewood school board has approved a reopening plan in which students will attend classes five days per week and regular coronavirus tests will be offered upon request to teachers and students - and possibly family members, according to the boards attorney.

Families may opt for all-remote learning, a statewide option outlined last week by Gov. Phil Murphy, but all students will transition to in-person instruction following winter break in January unless there is a health related school closure at that time, Superintendent Laura Winters wrote in a letter to parents Monday provided to NJ Advance Media.

The federally-funded, optional coronavirus tests are already being offered to the approximately 700 students enrolled in the Lakewood districts in-person summer programs, and will be made available every other week in September to both and public and private schools free of charge, board attorney Michael Inzelbuch said.

We have, as a courtesy, arranged for that, because its not costing the taxpayers anything, he said on extending the testing to private schools.

Lakewood has about 6,200 public school students. An additional 37,000 students in the township are enrolled in private schools.

We all live together, so we might as well keep everyone healthy, Inzelbuch said.

Districts across the state are tasked with coming up with their own coronavirus re-opening safety plans, although the state Department of Education has provided criteria they must meet, including social distancing and mask-wearing. All districts must have some form of in-person education and can offer fully remote learning plans to students who choose to stay home.

Murphy discussed the process during a Monday afternoon coronavirus briefing.

Our goal is to provide as much flexibility as possible to local school districts to implement plans that best fit their communities. Safety and education have to go hand in hand, Murphy said.

But we also must acknowledge that every education expert weve spoken to over the past few months has confirmed that in-person education is critical and that remote learning is only an acceptable substitute when absolutely necessary, Murphy said.

Inzelbuch said no one has tested positive for the coronavirus in Lakewood schools since in-person, summer instruction resumed in July. About 500 children are attending special education classes or programs, with 200 students in grades K-5 are attending regular education classes, he said.

Were the only district in Ocean and Monmouth counties, and one of the few in the state, who has actually opened up for the summer, Inzelbuch said, adding, We have the benefit of seeing how its actually working.

The teachers union, the Lakewood Education Association, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lakewood was one of the last New Jersey school districts to close in March in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus, citing a lack of home computers amongst public school families. A July survey sent out to parents showed that most supported a return to school, the district said.

The adopted reopening plan spells out the safety requirements, including: school bus drivers will take students temperatures and deny boarding to any student with a temperature over 100.3, and before entering buildings, staff and students will be required daily to certify they dont have any coronavirus symptoms and have not been to a state on New Jerseys quarantine list.

What will we do if theres another outbreak? Obviously, well do what the governor says, Inzelbuch said.

Social distancing requirements mean students will spend most of the day with the same group of children, moving in cohorts, the school district said. Middle and high school students will be kept in the same classroom with their cohorts for as much of the day as possible, and teachers will switch from room to room.

In elementary school, that means staggering recess times to avoid different classes mixing together. In all grade levels, breakfast and lunch will be eaten inside classrooms.

All staff are required to wear masks and face shields, and an update to the dress code makes masks required for students as well. Plexiglass shields may be added around individual desks.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com.

Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com.
SHENZHEN, CHINA / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2020 / Electric Vehicles (EVs) are a promising technology for reducing the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and other environmental impacts of road transport. Then, a number of businesses have developed to support the expanding use of EVs and to deliver them with the power they need to operate. Business models range from those which strictly manufacture charging stations to businesses that manufacture as well as operate the charging stations. Embracing the trend, ZHAOWEI gives an impetus to the market by introducing a micro-drive system for EV charging stations .

Public EV chargers can be found at service stations, car parks, supermarkets, cinemas, even just at the side of the road. Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Market- Global Forecast to 2027 indicates that the electric vehicle charging stations market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 39.8% from 2020 to reach $29.7 billion by 2027. In terms of volume, this market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 31.8% from 2020 to reach 15,025.5 thousand units by 2027. A significant growth witnesses a great market opportunity so that the players should keep pace with the development by upgrading the EV charging stations. Hence, by rolling out a micro drive system consisting of the powerful motor and high-precision planetary gearheads, ZHAOWEI marches towards intelligence together with related partners.

At present, public concerns raise as problems such as "difficult charging process", "time-consuming maintenance" and "nonstandard billing" occur to the electric vehicles charging stations. ZHAOWEI has been changing the landscape to make charging stations easy-to-use, reliable and durable. Micro-transmission technology is adopted to optimize the gearbox structure of the locking device in charging stations.

" ZHAOWEI m icro -d rive s ystem s implifies the EV charging process. "

When the charging pile is moving forward, the micro gearbox with the lead screw will keep the charging plug stable in the socket or the fastener of the fixed base. The locking performance is achieved. Once the charging process is finished (when moving backward), the plug will be separated from the socket or the fastener of the fixed base. The unlocking function is enabled. Moreover, this solution has passed the test of insertion and pull-out force of the plug-socket connector and presents to be suitable for the locking device between the plug and socket of the new-energy charging vehicles. All these simplify the charging process and greatly improve safety.

" ZHAOWEI m icro -d rive s ystem take s the hassle out of billing. "

Equipped with the intelligent locking device, the fee will be recorded once the electric lock locks. No longer need to worry about the situation that the charging connection fails, but the fee continues to be recorded. After locking, it is unnecessary to manually support the charging pile and the electric lock can be regarded as the "contact point" to record the fee. Once the electric lock is unlocked, the billing will stop and the power will be disconnected. Also, the disconnection of the electronic lock with precise induction for vehicle systems means the completion of charging, thus avoiding an electric shock. It contributes to the automatic charging operation after swiping the card while professional personnel is not required. Therefore, this micro-drive system for EV charging stations takes the hassle out of billing.

"Maintenance is less frequent and less expensive."

Usability is an important aspect of any motion control solution in any device. Beyond specifying the correct motors and drives, users want a solution that will be easy to implement, run reliably for long periods and require minimal maintenance. Based on professional analysis and design of the micro drive system, ZHAOWEI adjusts the gear modulus and torque of gearbox locking mechanism to improve the overall motion accuracy, reliability and environmental adaptability of the charging station, so as to prolong its service life. Besides, its design for smooth meshing without interfering helps to limit the increased noise emission due to wear.

To make the most of its service life, the gear motor selected should also match the application for suitable operation. In order to be compatible with various charging stations and new energy technology, ZHAOWEI produces different specifications of micro gear motors as well as proudly renders customization services for charging station manufacturers.

The network of public EV chargers will definitely continue to grow at an incredible rate. Countries realize the need for cleaner, stronger and more resilient economies. Many are waking up to electric vehicle charging stations as a tool in furthering all of those goals. People are diving into this new future and conspicuously, intelligence is penetrating into different sectors in series. For the players in this line, there are huge opportunities to change the landscape.

"It is an exciting innovation and a new milestone for ZHAOWEI. We are always sensitive to the market and give the response to our customers," said the Product Manager of ZHAOWEI. "Our team is always on hand to work together with you to ensure that your electric vehicle charging experience runs smoothly from start to finish. The upgrades in our micro-drive system effectively address public concerns related to charging stations and facilitate an intelligent life."

Media Contact

Company: Shenzhen Zhaowei Machinery & Electronics Co. Ltd.

Contact Person: Zhaowei

Tel: +86-755-27322645

Email: sales@zwgearbox.com

City: Shenzhen

Country: China

Website: https://www.zwgearbox.com/markets/electricvehiclecharging.html

SOURCE: Shenzhen Zhaowei Machinery & Electronics Co. Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/599162/Marching-Towards-Intelligence-Micro-Drive-System-for-EV-Charging-Stations-Addresses-Public-Concerns
NASA and SpaceX are looking to finish up the final demonstration mission of SpaceX's Crew Dragon astronaut spacecraft at the end of this week, but it's already looking ahead to Crew-2 -- the second operational flight of Crew Dragon, currently set for sometime next spring. The agency revealed the four people that will fly aboard that launch, including two NASA astronauts, as well as one from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and one from the European Space Agency (ESA).

NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough will join JAXA's Akihiko Hoshide and ESA's Thomas Pesquet on that flight, which will follow Crew-1, currently scheduled for sometime in late September after Demo-2 concludes. This is a regular mission, meaning the crew will be staffing the International Space Station for an extended period -- six months for this stretch, sharing the orbital research platform with three astronauts who will be using a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to make the trip.

That means there will be seven total crew members sharing the Station at once, which is an increase of its usual full complement of six. It sounds like that's going to become the new normal according to NASA, with the extra person meaning that the crew can "effectively double the amount of science that can be conducted in space."

If it doesn't sound like the math works out on that, consider that ISS crew members spend a lot of their time on routine maintenance and operational tasks. A seventh person on board helping with those everyday activities should indeed free up a lot of additional time for people to conduct experiments and do research, as it means less time split for needed, but unscientific, activities involved in keeping the orbital platform operating well.

All members of this crew have previously spent time in space, but this will be McArthurs' first trip to the International Space Station. Her last trip to space was aboard the Space Shuttle in 2009, when she participated in the final servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope. McArthur is also the wife of fellow astronaut Bob Behnken, who is currently at the ISS having launched on Crew Dragon for its first-ever human spaceflight.
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has justified governments decision to extend water and electricity reliefs and other tax reliefs to Ghanaians despite the countrys revenue shortfalls.

In an interview on Citi TVs The Point of View program, Mr. Ofori-Atta debunked suggestions that government is patronizing Ghanaians with the reliefs in an attempt to win votes in the 2020 General elections.

Mr. Ofori-Atta explained that the governments decision to go ahead with the electricity reliefs for life-line consumers and water and other tax reliefs was to ease the burden of Ghanaians amid a devastating pandemic.

According to him, the Government cannot afford to kill the spirit of the people despite the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic hence the need for these social interventions, adding that it was his and governments responsibility to cushion Ghanaians.

There are two things, that you will need given the mandate, first of all, you cant be complaining about the problems, because you were voted to solve that, secondly, you cant kill the spirit of the people because that is so fundamental.

My responsibility is to find ways to which I can cushion this, there is some real poverty going on, in a land where some of 90% work in the informal sector, I need to intervene, I need to save lives and that builds trust and gets everybody in the same boat to move forward

The issues of lives and the dignity of the person and livelihood trumps a lot things. The Minister added.

Ghanaians are to enjoy another three months of free water supply and electricity relief as part of efforts to cushion Ghanaians against the hardship brought on by the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta announced while presenting the 2020 mid-year budget review in Parliament.

He said the government decided to extend the utility reliefs because we put the concerns and aspirations of the ordinary Ghanaian first.

Ghanaians enjoyed free water services and slashed electricity tariffs for April, May and June 2020.

The government took care of the water bills for all Ghanaians for those three months to cushion Ghanaians when restrictions on public gatherings were instituted and the subsequent partial lockdown of Accra, Kasoa, Kumasi and Tema.

---citinewsroom
When close to half the companies in Canada have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 14x, you may consider BQE Water Inc. (CVE:BQE) as a stock to avoid entirely with its 34.5x P/E ratio. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's so lofty.

BQE Water has been doing a good job lately as it's been growing earnings at a solid pace. One possibility is that the P/E is high because investors think this respectable earnings growth will be enough to outperform the broader market in the near future. If not, then existing shareholders may be a little nervous about the viability of the share price.

View our latest analysis for BQE Water

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We don't have analyst forecasts, but you can see how recent trends are setting up the company for the future by checking out our free report on BQE Water's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What Are Growth Metrics Telling Us About The High P/E?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should far outperform the market for P/E ratios like BQE Water's to be considered reasonable.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a decent 9.3% gain to the company's bottom line. Although, the latest three year period in total hasn't been as good as it didn't manage to provide any growth at all. So it appears to us that the company has had a mixed result in terms of growing earnings over that time.

Comparing that to the market, which is predicted to shrink 6.8% in the next 12 months, the company's positive momentum based on recent medium-term earnings results is a bright spot for the moment.

In light of this, it's understandable that BQE Water's P/E sits above the majority of other companies. Presumably shareholders aren't keen to offload something they believe will continue to outmanoeuvre the bourse. Nonetheless, with most other businesses facing an uphill battle, staying on its current earnings path is no certainty.

Story continues

The Final Word

The price-to-earnings ratio's power isn't primarily as a valuation instrument but rather to gauge current investor sentiment and future expectations.

As we suspected, our examination of BQE Water revealed its growing earnings over the medium-term are contributing to its high P/E, given the market is set to shrink. Right now shareholders are comfortable with the P/E as they are quite confident earnings aren't under threat. We still remain cautious about the company's ability to stay its recent course and swim against the current of the broader market turmoil. Otherwise, it's hard to see the share price falling strongly in the near future if its earnings performance persists.

Before you take the next step, you should know about the 2 warning signs for BQE Water that we have uncovered.

You might be able to find a better investment than BQE Water. If you want a selection of possible candidates, check out this free list of interesting companies that trade on a P/E below 20x (but have proven they can grow earnings).

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.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
A 40-year-old man from Delhi hacked the email account of a retired senior diplomat and used it to dupe his contacts by sending them requests for financial help, said the police on Tuesday after arresting the man and uncovering an elaborate fraud in which he had allegedly made more than 1 crore.

The suspect, Akram Ali, had also used a similar modus operandi to pose as an income tax and excise department officer to blackmail and extort other people for money, said Atul Kumar Thakur, the deputy commissioner of police (south).

The police said Ali, who lives in south Delhis Shaheen Bagh, has only studied till Class 10 but allegedly came up with an idea that involved hacking the email accounts of prominent people and then either emotionally blackmailing their contacts into transferring money as financial help or extorting them for money. He used to work for a newspaper agency as part of the distribution team.

The cyber team of the south Delhi district police were alerted of this modus operandi when the consulate general of a Latin American country approached the police with a complaint late last month.

The diplomats email contacts had received requests for financial help from his email ID. Two of his contacts had even helped with contributions of about 1.4 lakh. When he later interacted with one of them, he found that his email account was used fraudulently to send those requests, said the DCP.

When the police began probing the alleged fraud, they traced the IP addresses and the bank accounts in which the money had been deposited. But we found that the accounts had been created using Aadhaar cards that had addresses in which the account holders did not live currently, and SIM cards using the same fake addresses, said the DCP.

The police connected one of the Aadhaar numbers to a labourer in Delhi. They said the labourer was living in a new place.

When the labourer allegedly identified Ali as the man who had got his address on the Aadhaar card changed, arranged for his stay in a rented home and opened multiple bank accounts in his name, the police realised they had stumbled upon a well-planned fraud.

To receive the extortion money in bank accounts without being traced, Ali had approached about a dozen labourers who had Aadhaar cards, but they couldnt be traced back to the address recorded on them, said the DCP.

The process would begin with Ali promising 10,000-20,000 to the labourers if they did as he said.

Ali would first rent rooms for these labourers. He would then change their addresses in the Aadhaar cards. Using the new address, he would open four-five bank accounts in each of their names. He would also procure SIM cards in their names and keep them, said the DCP.

Ali would then allegedly guide his potential victims to a web link which could be used to make the payments  which would land in the bank accounts of the labourers. Ali would then withdraw the money from ATMs.

The police said that after Ali was arrested from his home on Sunday, he confessed to cheating many more people using similar techniques. But it is unlikely that this man is operating alone. It required multiple skills and he could be working with more people. He has named one other person and we are ascertaining that persons involvement and trying to nab him, said another police officer.
The Federal Government has declared Thursday 30 and Friday 31 July, 2020 as public holidays to mark this years Eid-el-Kabir Celebration.

Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola , Minister of Interior, while making the declaration on behalf of the Federal Government, congratulated Muslim faithful and all Nigerians both at home and abroad on the occasion.

He called on the Muslims to continue to imbibe the spirit of love, peace, kindness and sacrifice, as exemplified by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) and to also use the period to pray for peace, unity, prosperity and the stability of the country especially as the world is witnessing global health challenges caused by Covid-19 pandemic.

Aregbosola who assured that the administration of President Buhari is fully committed to battling the scourge with the cooperation of all Nigerians, emphasized that the government would continue to foster peaceful coexistence, national cohesion, and stability in its march towards actualizing the full potentials of the country.

He called on all Nigerians to join hands with the administration of President Buhari in its avowed determination to build a peaceful, harmonious, and prosperous country, where the rights of every citizen, are protected and guaranteed, as enshrined in the Constitution of the FRN.

The Minister advised Nigerians to take responsibility against the spread of the COVID-19 virus and also to stay safe by observing physical and social distancing, personal and respiratory hygiene, as well as other regulations issued by relevant authorities.
Ghaziabad SSP on Monday (July 27) announced a reward of Rs 25,000 on providing the information about the whereabouts of Akash Bihari, who is wanted in connection with the murder of journalist Vikram Joshi.

Akash Bihari is accused of committing recce before the murder of Joshi on July 20. It may be recalled that Joshi was murdered in Ghazibad's Uttar Pradesh in front of his daughters. Besides the reward, Ghaziabad police has also obtained a non-bailable warrant from the court against the accused after which the police has intensified the hunt to nab Bihari.

Notably, the police has already arrested nine people, including main accused Ravi and Chhotu, for their alleged involvement in Joshi's murder. Vijayanagar SHO and Pratap Vihar Outpost Incharge have also been suspended for dereliction of duty.

Joshi died on July 22 after he was shot at by miscreants on July 21. Joshi had suffered bullet injuries in head and was admitted to Yashoda Hospital in Ghaziabad. The attack on Joshi took place at Mata Colony in Ghaziabad's Pratap Vihar. According to doctor, the veins in Joshi's head had got badly damaged due to the bullet injury.

Joshi worked at a local newspaper. According to family members of the victims, some boys have misbehaved with Joshi's niece 4-5 days ago. A complaint in this regard was also filed at Vijay Nagar police station but the police did not take any action against the accused boys. Joshi's family members claimed that it is likely that the same boys would have attacked him.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy tours an emergency field hospital being prepared at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, N.J., on April 2, 2020. (Michael Mancuso/Getty Images)

NJ Gym Owners who Defied COVID-19 Restrictions Arrested for Contempt

Two New Jersey gym owners were arrested and charged on July 27 after they refused to comply with Gov. Phil Murphys CCP virus restrictions.

The owners of Atilis gymIan Smith, 33, and Frank Trumbetti, 51were charged Monday after disobeying a judges orders on Friday to cease operations and vacate the premises in Bellmawr, New Jersey, said acting Camden County Prosecutor Jill Mayer.

The pair were charged with one count of fourth-degree contempt, one count of obstruction, and one count of violation of a disaster control act, Mayer said. If found guilty of contempt, they each face a prison sentence of up to 18 months.

Delanco Township resident Smith and Trumbetti, of Williamstown, were taken to the Bellmawr Police Department at around 5:30 a.m. Monday where they were charged and later released.

From July 24 through July 27, a number of individuals were observed entered and using the gym, a direct violation of the court order, Mayer said. Police said both owners refused to leave the gym when asked, leading to the charges.

CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus restrictions on gyms have not been eased in the state, which is one of the hardest hit by the outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Gyms and other businesses were order to close on March 21, however some businesses have since been able to resume operations.

News of the pairs arrest comes after Smith over the weekend said that there is no reason for Murphy to keep gyms closed in the state.

We can operate our business safely, responsibly, Smith told Fox & Friends on Saturday. We have shown that to be true. We havent had a single case of COVID reported and we have everybodys records here.

So, were not backing down from this one.

Smiths defense lawyer, James Mermigis, has argued that the Democratic governor is overreaching.

I do believe this has gone too far, Mermigis told the Newark-based Star-Ledger.

New Jersey has issued an incoming travel advisory that all individuals entering from states with a significant spread of COVID-19 should quarantine for 14 days after leaving that state.

Under the 14-day quarantine travel advisory announced by the governors of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, individuals traveling to or returning to New Jersey from statescurrently 31with increasing rates of COVID-19 are advised to self-quarantine for 14 days. This includes travel by train, bus, car, plane, and any other method of transportation.

According to the states department of health, as of Tuesday morning, more than 179,812 people in New Jersey have been infected with COVID-19, and at least 13,884 people have died.
By Laman Ismayilvoa

With his rich legacy, Nizami Ganjavi influenced the development of poetry in many other countries of Western and Central Asia.

One of the most prominent figures of medieval Azerbaijani philosophical poetry takes a special place in the country's literature. His five poems, collectively known as the Khamsa (Quintet), are considered the treasury of Azerbaijani poetry.

For many years, the poet's legacy has been actively promoted by the center named after him.

Nizami Ganjavi International Center is a cultural, non-profit, non-political organization that includes a number of highly respected and recognized international figures.

The Center was founded in 2012 under the decree of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

In his interview with Azernews, Secretary General of Nizami Ganjavi International Center Rovshan Muradov provided insight into the Center's activities, its mission and future goals.

"The Nizami Ganjavi International Center was founded in 2012 under the decree of President Ilham Aliyev. There was a celebration timed to the anniversary of Nizami Ganjavi. Together with the co-chairs of the Center, former president of Latvia Vaira Vike-Freiberga, director Library of Alexandria Ismail Serageldin and former president Kyrgyzstan Roza Otunbayeva we joined celebrations of Nizami's anniversary in Ganja. Furthermore, we held first discussions on the revival of Nizami's legacy with the Mayor Office. As you know, Nizami Ganjavi's legacy is widely spread from East to West. In many countries he is known as a Shakespeare of the East. With the support of the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev we established an institution to salute and honor the legacy of Nizami Ganjavi as well as to promote tolerance, dialogue, understanding and learning," said Muradov.

Speaking about the Center's activities, Rovshan Muradov stressed that the institution is working in two areas, one of which is dedicated to major international events like the Global Baku Forum, which was hosted under the auspices of President Ilham Aliyev last March.

"It is a massive event which is growing year by year. We also have regional level meetings. These meetings are mainly focused on discussing world crises like coronavirus pandemic, humanitarian and refugee crises and so on. Not so long ago Nizami Ganjavi Center addressed such issues as Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Sustainable Development Goals, Women's rights and called for support of the people of Yemen. It turned out to be a global platform which gives stage for the word-leaders. The Center touches upon the most challenging issues of humanity. The center's second field is linked with a research of Nizamin Ganjavi legacy. For instance, co-chair of Nizami Ganjavi International Center, Dr. Ismail Serageldim prepared special publications on the poet's legacy. The Center is also engaged in the research of Nizami's works stored in libraries.

In addition, the Center started collecting some manuscripts and digital copies of Nizami's works. Moreover, the Center also publishes articles on revival of Nizami's legacy," he said.

The Center's recent events include the celebration of UN's 75-year milestone anniversary of founding Charter with Marianna Vardinoyannis Foundation, the 65th Anniversary of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, the 30th anniversary of Nelson Mandelas prison release, a joint project with World Academy of Art and Science and a number of large-scale online conferences.

Secretary General of Nizami Ganjavi International Center Rovshan Muradov also shared the Center's future plans.

"So far, the upcoming events will be mainly conferences. We are also planning to hold a major virtual event during the UN general assembly with participation of all our members. The Center will also join a number of conferences that touch upon such issues as peace, security of children and much more. I would like to note that one of the Center's major goals is linked with the strengthening of partnership with China. A number of conferences have been already successfully organized in China. The next conference "Role of China in international relations: prospects of one belt, one road initiative" will discuss the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the world," said Muradov.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
TA Associates, a leading global growth private equity firm, and Francisco Partners, a leading global technology-focused private equity firm, today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to make a significant growth investment in Edifecs, Inc., a global health information technology solutions company. Financial terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020, were not disclosed.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005292/en/

Founded by Gurpreet (Sunny) Singh in 1996, Edifecs is a premier technology company in the U.S. healthcare market with solutions focused on interoperability, workflows, value-based care payments and analytics. Since its inception, Edifecs has provided a full range of capabilities to support most healthcare entities (i.e., payers, providers, employers, third-party administrators and government agencies). With innovative technology and solutions, the company helps its customers by optimizing the secure exchange and processing of administrative and clinical data, reducing the cost of meeting various regulations and automating workflows involved in multiple core processes within the healthcare ecosystem. Edifecs is a frontrunner in bringing new technology for B2B data exchange in healthcare, streamlining business processes from "card to care" and reducing the industry burden associated with data provisioning at the points of enrollment, care, payment and reporting. With the advent of FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) and new regulatory guidance from HHS (U.S. Department of Health Human Services), Edifecs has emerged as a leader in easing the effort associated with achieving compliance with new federal rules and in making the healthcare consumer the primary stakeholder. The company has more than 600 employees and is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, with additional offices in Atlanta, Georgia and Mohali, India, and an engineering center in Moldova.

"Today's healthcare industry is in a transformation, and technology companies play a key role in helping the industry navigate this change at an accelerated pace. The investment from TA Associates and Francisco Partners will help Edifecs catalyze this transformation, innovate faster and bring technology to market quicker to meet the demands of our customers," said Sunny Singh, founder and CEO of Edifecs. "We are pleased to welcome TA Associates and Francisco Partners as investors in Edifecs. Together, they bring more than 60 years of experience in the healthcare and technology industries, and both have demonstrated a strong record of helping thriving companies such as ours accelerate growth. I am confident that TA and Francisco Partners will be valuable partners during this journey."

"TA is excited to invest in Edifecs, which has established an enviable position in the healthcare industry with its innovative and flexible technology solutions," said Ashutosh Agrawal, a managing director at TA Associates who will join the Edifecs Board of Directors. "As stakeholders in the U.S. healthcare market shift from fee-for-service models to value-based care arrangements, the interoperability of healthcare data that Edifecs enables will become increasingly vital. We believe that Edifecs is well-positioned to capitalize on this trend, and we look forward to partnering with Sunny, the Edifecs team and Francisco Partners as Edifecs enters its next phase of growth."

"As an innovator in the healthcare technology space, with a leadership position in many of the segments in which it operates, as well as its long track record of profitable growth, Edifecs is a perfect investment fit for Francisco Partners," said Ezra Perlman, co-president of Francisco Partners who will join the Edifecs Board of Directors. "We are thrilled to partner with Edifecs and TA, and we look forward to adding value as Edifecs continues to expand its product offerings to better serve the evolving needs of its customers."

In addition to Mr. Agrawal and Mr. Perlman, Jennifer Mulloy, a managing director at TA Associates, and Ali Evans, a vice president at Francisco Partners, will join the Edifecs Board of Directors.

DLA Piper and Karr Tuttle Campbell provided legal counsel and TripleTree served as financial advisor to Edifecs. Kirkland Ellis provided legal counsel and Deutsche Bank served as financial advisor to TA Associates and Francisco Partners.

About Edifecs, Inc.

Edifecs develops innovative, cost-cutting information technology solutions to transform the global healthcare marketplace. Since 1996, Edifecs technology has helped healthcare providers, insurers, pharmacy benefit management companies and other trading partners trim waste, reduce costs and increase revenues. More than 350 healthcare customers today use Edifecs solutions to simplify and unify financial and clinical transactions. In addition, Edifecs develops transaction interoperability and standards compliance solutions for worldwide customers in non-healthcare industry segments. Edifecs is based in Bellevue, WA, with operations internationally. For more information, please visit www.edifecs.com.

About TA Associates

TA Associates is a leading global growth private equity firm. Focused on targeted sectors within five industries technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer and business services TA invests in profitable, growing companies with opportunities for sustained growth, and has invested in more than 500 companies around the world. Investing as either a majority or minority investor, TA employs a long-term approach, utilizing its strategic resources to help management teams build lasting value in high quality growth companies. TA has raised $33.5 billion in capital since its founding in 1968 and is committing to new investments at the pace of over $2 billion per year. The firm's more than 85 investment professionals are based in Boston, Menlo Park, London, Mumbai and Hong Kong. More information about TA Associates can be found at www.ta.com.

About Francisco Partners

Francisco Partners is a leading global private equity firm that specializes in investments in technology and technology-enabled businesses. Since its launch 20 years ago, Francisco Partners has raised more than $24 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 300 technology companies, making it one of the most active and long-standing investors in the technology industry. The firm invests in opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge and operational expertise can help companies realize their full potential. For more information on Francisco Partners, please visit www.franciscopartners.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005292/en/

Contacts:

Media Contacts:

For Edifecs

Janet Hohmann

Edifecs

415-240-6904

janet.hohmann@edifecs.com

For TA Associates

Marcia O'Carroll

TA Associates

617-574-6796

mocarroll@ta.com

Philip Nunes

BackBay Communications

617-391-0792

phil.nunes@backbaycommunications.com

Stephen Fishleigh

BackBay Communications

+44 203-475-7552

stephen.fishleigh@backbaycommunications.com

For Francisco Partners

Steve Eisner

Francisco Partners

415-418-2997

eisner@franciscopartners.com

John Moore

Zeno Group

john.moore@zenogroup.com
Senior Special Assistant to former President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe has said that government can create five million more jobs for Nigerians if they stop banks from selling recharge cards.

Doyin in a tweet on Tuesday said allowing these banks to sell airtime to their customers will only increase the rate of unemployment in the country as small scale retailers under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs will be out of business.

According to him the entire recharge cards transactions for a day in Nigeria is worth about N10 billion which is enough to provide jobs for five million Nigerians.

He said Banks should not be in the retail business where they strangulate small individual traders, government must protect MSMEs.

Government still has the responsibility to protect the weak in the society against the strong and mighty.

Secondly the banking licence does not cover Retail business. Any society that is not regulated is close to a jungle which is undesirable.

And advice that seem to play down the development of Technology that is currently rulling todays world.

With banks as airtime vendors a good number of Nigerians dont have to go too far to purchase airtime from street vendors as they stay in the comfort of the homes and still get to top up airtime whenever they have the need to.

Also following the Central Bank of Nigeria policy on a cashless society this is one way to help reduce the the amount of money people have to keep at home for daily expenses.

Addressing this, Doyin said, We are a developing nation, we must encourage technologies that does not marginalize the weak amongst us.

Technology is also available to make young people sell air time via telephones and internet. You dont need to hawk on d road. But in rural communities direct sales still effective.
MIDDLETOWN  Safety, health and academics during the pandemic are of utmost priority when the public schools year begins in a month, according to the superintendent of schools.

The plan is a dense document and features six domains, schools chief Michael Conner said.

Local plans include creating a successful environment for teaching and learning, guidelines for mask wearing, and disinfection and social distancing, according to Conner. Students will also be grouped in cohorts, staying together throughout the day.

Contract tracing, hand washing and temperature checks are also integral to returning to school full-time, especially for the youngest students, Conner said.

His 5-year-old son will enter kindergarten in Middletown this fall. He and his wife began teaching the boy proper mask wearing, making sure his habits include not touching his face. Hes a hugger, and so affectionate, Conner said, which makes it somewhat harder for his son.

We are in the height of the pandemic. We still have to be smart, giving gentle reminders about how important these measures are, said Conner, who recommends parents begin stressing safety measures now, especially for young ones.

The districts plan also covers mechanisms for social-emotional learning and equity. We know that as students transition back into the brick and mortar, theres going to be a level of trauma, the superintendent said.

Addressing racial inequities also will be an important facet of the plan.

Some teachers across have expressed concern about returning to educational facilities during the coronavirus.

To some extent, thats true in Middletown. There is still a lot of wariness about going all the way back in  a lot of uncertainty about what next week is going to look like, let alone a couple months from now, Mayor Ben Florsheim said.

It will require a great deal of flexibility among educators, he said.

We have been asking a lot out of them... It is a different learning environment when you are teaching through a screen, the mayor said.

Municipalities statewide submitted three plans to state leaders Friday: a hybrid model, in-person classes, and distance learning, all intended to cover various circumstances presented due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Conner said reopening will require the creation of strategies and methods of support for teachers as well as administrators. Blended learning will require teachers to be prepared for a hybrid or all-remote plan for families who prefer those options.

We were in a lucky spot when we had to go remote in the first place last academic year, because our district has been so proactive, Florsheim said.

Parents again opting for their children to work at home will be faced with hard decisions about returning to their jobs.

We have to make sure students are provided with the highest quality of instruction without compromising their experience, Conner said. Were ready, based off the structure and content within the plan, although there will always be a component of uncertainty and apprehension.

For information, visit middletownschools.org.
Every expert worth his name in a TV studio or on a webinar will tell you about the Art of War, an ancient Chinese military treatise written by Sun Tzu, a Chinese general and military strategist in 5th century BC.

It teaches you all aspects of warfare, specially how to win a war without fighting it.

Mao Zedong himself was said to be inspired by the treatise, but today it seems President Xi Jinping hasnt really read the book properly.

Its not that the new Great Helmsman hasnt received military training. From 1979 to 1982, Xi served as secretary for his fathers number two, Gen. Geng Biao, then secretary-general of the Central Military Commission. The CMCs present chief should have learnt better how to deal with enemies.

When one looks at the past few months, one seriously doubts his tactics will lead China to victories without fighting for one simple reason: he has taken on too many enemies in one go.

His predecessor Deng Xiaoping thought the best way for China to rise was: Hide your strength, bide your time, never take the lead. Xi, however, decided to pick quarrels with most nations on the planet at the same time (of course with the exception of all-weather friend Pakistan, and Nepal, now under the charm of a beautiful lady ambassador).

This wasnt mentioned in the Art of War.

Whether its the United States, Japan, Australia, Canada, Vietnam, the Philippines, the European Union the list is long. This is without counting Hong Kong, Taiwan, or autonomous Tibet and Xinjiang.

In May, India was added. Xi decided to fight a war in the high Himalayas. Whats the purpose of this new belligerence?

Only a couple of fingers, or a few hundred meters, in inhospitable terrain? Was it really smart to start this at the time of the pandemic? Did Sun Tzu ever teach this? Not to my knowledge.

What will Xi win? It appears a lose-lose venture for him.

Realising this, Xis clever special representative Wang Yi, also the foreign minister, had a long phone chat with his Indian counterpart, NSA Ajit Doval. An external affairs ministry communique said:

The two special representatives had a frank and in-depth exchange of views on the recent developments in the western sector of India-China border areas. It said the SRs agreed maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas was essential and [the] two sides should not allow differences to become disputes. But it is Xi who created the differences.

The SRs spoke of the need to ensure at the earliest complete disengagement of troops along the LAC and de-escalation from India-China border areas.

As usual, the Chinese statement differed from the one in Delhi; it should allow Beijing to play with words in future.

Ambitious generals in Chengdus Western Theatre Commands sold the idea to Xi to teach a lesson to Indians and to place the PLA troops on the LAC in far better position to destroy, if necessary, the new infrastructure built by India in East Ladakh. Gen. Zhao Zongqi thought it would be easy if he took the Indians by surprise.

Unfortunately, the Leh-based 14 Corps reacted faster than expected by Gen. Zhao, and thereafter nothing went according to plan, particularly on June 15 (Emperor Xis birthday) when between 45-60 Chinese soldiers lost their lives in a deadly clash with Indian troops in Galwan Valley.

Of course, the totalitarian Middle Kingdom can hide the truth from their masses, while stressing that only India lost many soldiers.

But how long can the Chinese State keep this secret in an era when the social media is all-pervasive?

For now, Beijing still controls the information domestically.

On July 6, two TV panellists discussed the third round of military talks in Chushul. They argued that Chinas sovereignty over Galwan was a fact and Indian troops illegally crossed into Chinese territory.

The experts further argued that Galwan was not disputed till India illegally moved into the area; Chinese viewers were repeatedly told blatant lies such as three years after Doklam, Indian troops crossed again the line and started provocations.

They said Prime Minister Narendra Modis Ladakh visit was a provocation, like India banning 59 Chinese apps.

How long can the Chinese government bluff its own public and change into black what is clearly white?

Chinas top leadership knows Xi Jinping has taken a too big a bite and he doesnt have the capacity to digest it. It wasnt a smart move. Therefore, the leadership has started questioning the Peoples Leader, especially when the pandemic isnt yet over.

A temporary disengagement may give Xi some breathing space and help him save face in the short term; all the more reason for India to stay awake and not be fooled by Chinese propaganda.

One shouldnt forget that early next month, the annual secret CCP conclave will be held in the seaside resort of Beidaihe; it will give space to the partys elders to review Xis leadership.

The agenda will be tough for Xi: on top of the usual issues, he has to answer for the catastrophic economic situation and an unnecessary war with India.

A party publication, Qushi, recently published what is seen as Xis Little Red Book: the gist of it being Party, government, military and civilian studies, East, West, South, and North, the Party is the leader. And Xi is the Partys core! These gimmicks dont augur well for the Middle Kingdom.
PUBG Mobile Royale Pass Season 14 comes with new skins, rewards and a new subscription as well.

PUBG Mobile rolled out Royale Pass: Season 14 earlier this month. Like every new season in PUBG Mobile, this one too brings new rewards and skins. PUBG Mobile has also partnered with Google Play for a new premium subscription. Heres a look at everything thats new with Royale Pass: Season 14.

The theme of PUBG Mobile Season 14 is Spark the Flame which brings flame and fire inspired in-game items. Theres a new Commander Set, Rose Unicorn Helmet and the Avian Tyrant set. PUBG Mobile has also brought back the Roaring Dragon sets and Dragon Hunter-themed rewards from Season 5 to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of Royale Pass.

Heres a complete list of free and paid Royale Pass rewards -

Night Commander Set & Butcher of Stalber -S1897: Unlocks at RP 1

Night Commander Headgear: Unlocks at RP 5

Like Emoji (Cheer Park Only) & Speed Demon Ornament: Unlocks at RP 10

Provoke Emote (Cheer Park Only): Unlocks at RP 15

The PUBG Life Emote & Rose Unicorn Helmet: Unlocks at RP 20

Drop the Base - Pan & Adore Emoji: Unlocks at RP 25

Fatal Cry Parachute & Iron Rose Set: Unlocks at RP 30

Iron Rose Headgear: Unlocks at RP 35

Blazing Dawn Plane Finish: Unlocks at RP 40

Royale Pass Avatar (Season 14): Unlocks at RP 45

Sharktooth - M16A4 & Drop the Bass Grenade: Unlocks at RP 50

Black Commander Set: Unlocks at RP 60

Black Commander Headgear: Unlocks at RP 65

Firefighter Backpack: Unlocks at RP 70

Avian Tyrant Avatar (Season 14): Unlocks at RP 75

Avian Tyrant - M416: Unlocks at RP 80

Avian Tyrant Set Exclusive Emote: Unlocks at RP 85

Avian Tyrant Headgear: Unlocks at RP 90

Avian Tyrant Mask: Unlocks at RP 95

Avian Tyrant Set: Unlocks at RP 100

Players can upgrade to the Elite Royale Pass by spending UC. (PUBG Mobile)

Royale Pass Prime subscription

Android users can access the new Royale Pass Prime subscription service and avail exclusive benefits. Theres Prime and Prime Plus with monthly, quarterly and yearly subscription options. Those who subscribe will get 300 or 900 Royale Pass vouchers every month. Theres access to Airplane Ranking display perks and other discounts as well. PUBG Mobile is planning a similar collaboration with Apple for its iOS users.
JOHANNESBURG - The U.S. military on Tuesday acknowledged killing a civilian and wounding three others with an airstrike in Somalia earlier this year.

This is the second in a new series of quarterly reports the U.S. Africa Command issues on airstrikes in Somalia and allegations of civilian deaths after coming under pressure from Somalis and human rights groups.

The new report substantiates allegations around a Feb. 2. airstrike. At the time, the U.S. said one member of the al-Shabab extremist group was killed in the vicinity of Jilib.

This admission is the third case they have substantiated in 13 years of airstrikes in the country, Brian Castner, Amnesty Internationals senior crisis adviser for arms and military operations, said in a statement. Now that there has been an acknowledgment of their actions, there must be accountability and reparations for the victims and their families.

While the U.S. statement didnt give details about the civilian killed, the Amnesty statement said the airstrike killed a woman and wounded three of her relatives.

The human rights group last year released an investigation into U.S. airstrikes in Somalia that led to the U.S. acknowledging killing five civilians and wounding six others in three separate airstrikes.

The Trump administration has dramatically increased the number of airstrikes carried out in the Horn of Africa nation against the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group and, to a lesser extent, a small number of fighters linked to the Islamic State group in northern Somalia.

The U.S. carried out at least 63 airstrikes in Somalia last year, most of them against al-Shabab, which often carries out deadly attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and controls large parts of central and southern Somalia.

The new U.S. statement said it had received 12 new allegations this quarter around four incidents. It said four incidents remain under review, three of them from its previous report.

The U.S. Africa Command said those who wish to make allegations can submit them in their native language on its website.
San Francisco officials provided a glimpse into the citys intentions for improving the lives of its Black residents on Monday by using money taken from the Police Departments budget, as Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton have pledged to do.

The report by the citys Human Rights Commission offers little in the way of specifics. Key details  like which organizations or initiatives would be funded or how the money might be divvied up  are largely absent.

But it does offer an instructive, if incomplete, picture of broad categories where members of San Franciscos Black community want to see greater investments. Among them: work-based learning programs to increase job readiness, scholarships and educational opportunities like after-school programs focused on Black children, expanded mental health services and subsidies to grow the dwindling rate of Black home ownership.

Back in June, Breed and Walton announced their intention to redirect a portion of the Police Departments budget to the citys Black community in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and as reparations for decades of policy choices that have hurt Black people.

Floyds death has amplified calls for city officials across the country to defund police departments and reinvest in initiatives that raise peoples socioeconomic conditions.

If we truly believe that Black lives matter, then we need to listen to Black voices, not tell Black people in this city and this country what is best for them, Breed said in a statement. That includes listening to those who have long lost faith in City Hall to actually deliver on promises that are so often made, but not kept.

This is only the first step in a long process to bring resources and accountability to our community that has for decades been underserved, underrepresented and ignored, she said.

The amount of money that will be redirected from the Police Department is to be revealed later this week. Breed must submit a balanced budget proposal to the Board of Supervisors by Saturday.

Breed has also unveiled a long-term vision for reforming policing in San Francisco, anchored by shifting police away from noncriminal calls involving the citys homeless or people with mental illness and replacing officers with social workers and other specialists.

Police Chief Bill Scott has signaled support for the concept of redirecting a portion of the departments budget for the Black community.

Scott said that while the department is bracing for the budget cuts, he believes redirecting the funds to underserved communities would pay off over time and ultimately lighten the workload for police.

This is a situation where we have to look at the long-range vision, and thats going to take some short-term sacrifice and quite frankly some pain, Scott told The Chronicle Monday. Its uncomfortable losing funding, but I think if we look at the bigger picture and envision what this is designed to do  if successful, were going to be better off.

The Human Rights Commission distilled the results of hundreds of survey responses, about 80% of them filled out by people who identified as Black or African American, along with 13 virtual meetings held between June 23 and July 16.

While the report lacks precision around where the redirected money would be spent, it outlines the inequities facing Black people in San Francisco  issues the money is supposed to help with  in stark relief.

Funds redirected from the Police Department may get shifted to city departments tasked with carrying out services that serve the Black community or doled out as grants to organizations outside of city government.

Black people make up around 5% of the citys overall population, but comprise nearly 40% of the citys homeless. They are the only racial group in San Francisco to consistently decline in population in every census count since 1970, according to the report.

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.

Black people have the highest mortality rate for nine of the top-10 causes of death in San Francisco. Median household income for Black families is $31,000, compared with $116,000 for white families. Thirty percent of the Black population lives below the poverty level in San Francisco, and Black children are disproportionately subjected to suspensions in both middle and high school.

In 2019, roughly 45% of police use-of-force incidents in San Francisco involved African Americans, though not every incident involved a city resident.

The report also highlights deep frustrations and mistrust felt by San Franciscos Black community over the citys broken past promises to address systemic racism.

Many community-based organizations felt strongly City and County of San Francisco agencies under fund African American organizations, undervalue their contributions and set programs up for failure by policies out of touch with community needs, the report said, highlighting the importance of accountability in ensuring the city follows through with its promises.

Having Black voices take the lead on the process for reinvestment in our community, is key to developing strategies that lead to tangible outcomes, said Walton, the citys only Black supervisor. Im excited to share what the Black community has identified as priorities, so that we as policymakers can make the resources available to achieve tangible results.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Megan Cassidy contributed to this report.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DominicFracassa
CALHOUN, Ga., July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As previously disclosed on June 29, 2020, the Company received an amended complaint related to the stockholder litigation that was previously filed on January 5, 2020. The Company's independent audit committee authorized both outside legal counsel and forensic accountants to conduct an investigation of the allegations. To allow the investigation to progress, the Company is rescheduling its earnings call to August 7, 2020 at 11:00 AM ET following the expected filing of its Form 10-Q on August 6, 2020.

Live over the Internet: www.mohawkind.com (http://www.mohawkind.com), select investor information Live Conference Call: Dial 1-800-603-9255 (US/Canada) Dial 1-706-634-2294 (Int'l) Dial 1-253-237-1879 (Int'l) Conference ID: 8039409

Mohawk Industries is the leading global flooring manufacturer that creates products to enhance residential and commercial spaces around the world. Mohawk's vertically integrated manufacturing and distribution processes provide competitive advantages in the production of carpet, rugs, ceramic tile, laminate, wood, stone and vinyl flooring. Our industry-leading innovation has yielded products and technologies that differentiate our brands in the marketplace and satisfy all remodeling and new construction requirements. Our brands are among the most recognized in the industry and include American Olean, Daltile, Durkan, Karastan, IVC, Marazzi, Mohawk, Pergo, Quick-Step and Unilin. During the past decade, Mohawk has transformed its business from an American carpet manufacturer into the world's largest flooring company with operations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Europe, India, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia and the United States.

For those unable to listen at the designated time, the call will remain available for replay over Mohawk Industries, Inc. investor relations website through September 4, 2020 or by dialing 1-855-859-2056 (US/Canada) or 1-404-537-3406 (Int'l/Local) and entering Conference ID # 8039409.

Contact:

Mohawk Industries, Inc.

Frank Boykin, Chief Financial Officer

706-624-2695
Can RAM recover? Image: Royal Air Maroc

As part of its recovery plan, RAM has reportedly decided to sell some of its fleet, in addition to eliminating several air routes and stopovers.

Most of RAMs fleet have been on hold for more than two months after the Morocco government closed the countrys borders to contain the spread of Covid-19, which has resulted in a loss of 5million a day for the airline.

RAM CEO Abdelhamid Addou said the loss is the worst the airline has ever faced.
Sympathy for former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot within the Congress appears to be waning as he continues to lead the rebellion against chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

Soon after Pilot rushed to Delhi along with 18 other legislators on July 11, a host of Congress leaders, including Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tankha, expressed concern over the developments in the grand old party.

Worried for our party. Will we wake up only after the horses have bolted from our stables? Sibal tweeted on July 12.

His views were echoed by Tankha. Kapil ji your worry is every party members concern. Its time to strengthen the party to fight forces, who have only 1 agenda -- weaken Congress and our democratic values and institutions, he responded on Twitter.

The sympathy factor increased after Pilot was removed as Rajasthans deputy chief minister and the state Congress chief for twice skipping the legislature party meetings in Jaipur with several party leaders calling it unfortunate and sad.

Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, senior spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, former union minister Salman Khurshid, Shashi Tharoor Jitin Prasada and Priya Dutt, all hoped that the situation would be salvaged and that a reconciliation was possible.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra spoke to Pilot as did former union finance minister P Chidambaram who advised Pilot to seize the opportunity and meet the party leadership to discuss and resolve all the issues.

Both Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former party chief Rahul Gandhi were also keen to see an immediate end to the impasse and deputed some senior leaders to hold discussions with Pilot.

All that happened before July 14.

Hours before the Rajasthan Congress Legislature Party (CLP) met on July 14 morning, the emissaries reached out to Pilot to resolve the crisis.

Prasada and Dinesh Gundu Rao apparently told Pilot that if he did not want to attend the CLP meeting, he should at least address the media in Delhi and clarify that he was a loyal solder of the Congress and would not do anything to bring down the state government.

But Pilot turned the offer and insisted on his demand for immediate removal of Gehlot as the chief minister. For his part, Gehlot also hardened his stance. The same day, Pilot was sacked as the deputy chief minister and the head of the state unit. On July 15, the speaker of the Rajasthan assembly sent a disqualification notice to Pilot and the 18 MLAs loyal to him. On July 16, Pilot and the dissident lawmakers challenged this notice in the Rajasthan High Court. Around the same time an audio tape surfaced, allegedly referring to a plot to overthrow the state government.

All of this seem to have made it difficult for the Congress to attempt a reconciliation with Pilot. On July 20, much to the party central leaderships discomfiture according to people familiar with the matter, Gehlot lashed out at Pilot, calling him useless and worthless.

As the legal battle continued, Sibal, representing the Congress in it, seemed to suggest that Pilot was being over ambitious.

I want to know from my good friend, what is it you want now? You cant be a chief minister with 20-25 people, in any case you cant become chief minister. If there is any other grievance, let us know, at least tell the people of this country. What is this dissent that you are talking about, dissent about what? And if you are not happy with the way of functioning of a particular person, you should tell us, we will talk about it, and then why are you put up in another state, which does not belong to you or which you are not a member of the legislative assembly or why have you taken people there, whoever is supporting you? he said while addressing a virtual press conference on July 24.

Is it just flexing muscles, what is it? You say, you dont want to join BJP and we believe you. If that is the case and you are still a Congressman as you say then why dont you attend Congress meetings and express your view, whatever you want to add or is it that you have already made up your mind and already have a deal with somebody on this. , I dont know, but, at least you should make it open as I am asking these questions openly from you, nothing against you. As a person I am a little intrigued, and the party is a little intrigued at your acts, he added.

On Monday, Chidambaram questioned Pilots position and his silence.

I spoke to him many many days ago. I have not spoken to him in the last 10 days or so, he has not called me either. It seems to me that he is embracing the BJP. In fact, he should be the first to stand up and say, `Pplease call the assembly session and then we will know which party he belongs to and what he will do, he said.

He also questioned Pilots silence on calling the assembly session.

Mr Pilot has maintained that he belongs to the Congress party. He also maintains that Mr Gehlot has lost his majority. The BJPs position is that it is not an occasion to call a session. Now, where is Mr Pilots stand? And why is Mr Pilot silent on calling a session? I think, the question should be put to Mr Pilot? It will be very useful to know what his answer is, Chidambaram added.

A Congress leader involved in attempts to manage the crisis said Rahul Gandhi was initially keen on doing whatever it took to retain Pilot but that this sympathy too seems to be waning now.

While Pilot could not be reached for comments, his supporters said the Congress lawyers who represent Gehlot in courts will speak the chief ministers tune. One one hand, the Congress is saying doors are open for Pilot and on the other the chief minister hurls abuses on him and he is not even reprimanded. Isnt this double speak? a leader close to Pilot said.

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SAN DIEGO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / Nascent Biotech, Inc. (OTCQB:NBIO), announced today it has entered into a research collaboration with Syracuse University to further the development of Pritumumab, a unique monoclonal antibody that binds to cell-surface vimentin, for potential use in COVID-19 treatment.

Alison Patteson, an assistant professor of physics at Syracuse University, will test to see if Pritumumab has the potential to block SARS-CoV-2 (SARS2), the virus responsible for COVID-19, from entering cells. According to Patteson, research shows that SARS2 may be traveling into cells by way of a receptor known as cell-surface vimentin (CSV). This ia a protein found on the cell surface, similar to vimentin, which is a key internal structural protein present in many cell types. Vimentin is known for its cage-like structure which protects the cell against damage.

"Our hope is that when we treat cells with Pritumumab, it will bind to CSV, and effectively block the SARS2 virus from entering the cell," says Patteson. "An antibody that could block the entry of SARS2 into the cell could be a monumental step in the fight against COVID-19."

Patteson will test the hypothesis on mouse embryo fibroblast cells and lung airway epithelial cells to determine if the antibody will block the uptake of SARS2. Using a cell in which vimentin has been knocked out, the results will provide an important control of Pritumumab effects.

Nascent Biotech Chief Medical Officer over Viral Research, Dr. Navpaul Singh said, "This collaboration will determine if Pritumumab can effectively block SARS2 in an animal mouse model. It will also gauge Pritumumab's ability to bind vimentin in a live model."

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.

For further information, please contact:

Sean Carrick

President |CEO

Nascent Biotech, Inc

6330 Nancy Ridge Dr

Suite 105

San Diego CA 92121

(612) 961-5656

Sean.carrick@nascentbiotech.com

SOURCE: Nascent Biotech Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/598481/Nascent-Biotech-Announces-Collaboration-with-Syracuse-University--Advancing-COVID-19-Research
The new restrictions have left businesses  especially restaurants and retail  reeling, dashing hopes that strong local demand might help them through the summer after more than a year of disruptions that began when political unrest flared last June. According to OpenRice, an online restaurant guide in Hong Kong, 1,200 restaurants closed between January and May. Many restaurant staff members had been forced to take unpaid leave, even before the latest severe restrictions related to the coronavirus and the disease it causes, covid-19.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 07/27/2020



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

couple Kevin Wendt and Astrid Loch have announced their decision to push their wedding back until 2021, although their relationship is still going strong."Well y'all, time to give you guys a wedding update. We've decided to postpone to November 2021 & weirdly enough we're actually okay with it," Astrid recently wrote."With everything going on in the world, uncertainty ahead, and so many changes happening in our lives (more on that soon) we realized it was time to take a step back and reevaluate our priorities.""And as much as I was disappointed at first (mostly bc now we won't get married on Friday the 13th) it's been a great reminder of why we're getting married in the first place," she added.But it appears Astrid and Kevin are still in love and can't wait for what's to come in their future together."I wouldn't want to tackle 2020 & the rest of life with anyone else by my side. 2021 is our year @kevin.c.wendt. To all the 2020 brides, keep your head up. Now you have more time to grow your hair out," Astrid wrote, before giving a shoutout to her wedding planner."You're the real MVP. Thank you for keeping me sane throughout it all," Astrid concluded.And Kevin shared a similar message to fans on his Instagram account on July 22 by posting a photo of Astrid and himself riding bikes on a beach."My fiancee and I going to just keep moving. I've had a bit of a social media break lately with lots going on in our lives.. sometimes it's needed to recharge. I'm sad to announce we have officially moved the wedding date from November," Kevin shared."We held on to hope as long as we could. With 70+ of our guests set to fly from Canada to Florida for the celebration, it's without saying the right and responsible decision.""It's sad but I'm staying positive as we are very lucky people," he continued, "and know it's a small problem compared to what some people are facing through this crazy year. Keep your head up everyone and let's get through this together."Kevin wrapped his post by writing, "I'll wait a bit longer to see @astridloch in that beautiful dress. It will be well worth the wait... I guess the 'move the date' invite is big business this year eh!?)"Kevin and Astrid, who met and fell in love on 's fifth season in Summer 2018, took their relationship to the next level when Kevin proposed marriage on August 28, 2019 on Toronto Island in Canada during a sunset picnic.Kevin almost popped the question in Cancun, Mexico, during The Bachelorette couple Rachel Lindsay and Bryan Abasolo 's wedding weekend, but there was apparently a good reason why it didn't happen then."I thought maybe Sunday would be a good day to take a walk on the beach and propose. And we ended up eating the Mexican food, and Astrid spent most of the time on the toilet," Kevin recalled to People in early September 2019."She was in the bathroom every three minutes for the whole day. So I thought, maybe I'll wait until I get home."And both Astrid and Kevin were apparently glad he waited a bit longer."We're not vacation people, we're very much homebodies. Two hours after we were engaged, we were watching Big Brother, eating ice cream sandwiches. That's our favorite kind of night," Kevin shared.Astrid and Kevin were a solid couple on in 2018, but Kevin blindsided and dumped Astrid before the Fantasy Suite dates and ended up trying to win her back during the live reunion show.Kevin explained on the reunion special of 's fifth season he had a lot of fears and insecurities he had to deal with via therapy regarding his previous romances before being able to commit to a woman wholeheartedly and settle down.One of Kevin's exes is Ashley Iaconetti , whom he met on The Bachelor Winter Games but split from in March 2018."I will never forget when I left the show, going to my best friends and being like, 'I know we technically broke up on the show, but I'm pretty sure this is the person I'm going to marry,'" Astrid previously told People."I feel like I knew right away how well he fit into my life."Once Astrid gave Kevin a second chance, they seemingly became inseparable Back in November 2018, Astrid and Kevin's families reportedly met each other at an event in Toronto, and then the following month, Astrid -- who worked as a plastic surgery office manager in Tampa, FL -- moved in with Kevin in his hometown of Toronto.While Astrid and Kevin couldn't detail what they envisioned for their wedding after getting engaged, the pair confirmed they wouldn't want their big day televised for a The Bachelor special on ABC.Prior to appearing on Paradise two years ago, Astrid competed to win Nick Viall 's heart on The Bachelor's 21st season, and Kevin found fame when he won the first season of The Bachelorette Canada.Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
The "Building Main Street, not Wall Street" column rarely ventures into the political arena; however, I feel compelled to bring this to your attention as this impacts every local community in such a dramatic fashion. Additionally, this will provide an opportunity for you to make a significant impact in your community in a very simple and yes, a patriotic way.

I am reminded of a quote by Thomas Paine, "These are the times that try men's souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman." One might rightfully ask, how does this famous quote by a Founding Father relate to myself and our community today? Let me explain.

It is no secret that local media is a tough business, in fact, since the outbreak of COVID-19 earlier this year, most local media companies have lost a significant portion of their revenue and many are nearing a breaking point. Hundreds of communities around the country have already lost their local media voice. When a community loses their media voice, they lose a valuable local information conduit for the community. Additionally, they also lose the messenger that spreads local information to the outside world. This is the same local voice our Founding Fathers referred to when considering the value and importance of assuring freedom of the press in maintaining our Democratic-Republic.

In response to the current pandemic and crisis in local media, Francis Wick, one of the brightest young minds in the news-media industry and CEO of Wick Communications, worked with his local congressional representatives in Arizona to create what has become known as the "Local Journalism Sustainability Act". This powerful bipartisan piece of legislation is actually simple. This legislation empowers local communities to stand-up and provide support to their local media companies in a community-wide way saving them money at the same time. Without boring you with extensive detail, let me summarize this legislation.

1. It provides tax credits (much better than a deduction) to local media supporters for simply supporting their local media company by subscribing to their service. This now makes supporting the local media financially appealing for subscribers.

2. It provides small local businesses tax credits for advertising in their local media. Many small businesses have very tight budgets. Due to this, advertising, marketing and branding are difficult without those deep pockets of financial resources. This legislation provides a shot in the arm to any local business with fewer than 1000 employees. This will be a huge benefit for local businesses and thus the community.

3. It provides tax credits for your local media companies to employ local journalists in their markets. In order to provide accurate and timely news, it takes a dedicated staff. This legislation allows local media companies to invest in the communities in which they serve.

Often, we ask ourselves, how can I make a difference? I am only one person and one person really hasn't much of a voice in government. Nothing could be further from the truth. When a local media company folds, studies have shown the cost of local government increases 30% within 4-5 years, civic pride diminishes, voting numbers drop, economic vitality declines and volunteering fades away. This is a unique opportunity that allows just a few voices to make a dramatic impact in the future of your local community.

What can I do now? That is very simple, reach out by phone to your Federal House and Senate representatives and ask them to support this critical piece of legislation. Follow that up with a letter. Let them know how important local media is to your community. Then share this column with your family, friends and neighbors, your city leaders, your Chamber and/or Main Street organizations and encourage them to do the same.

Time is of the essence, the economic pressures on local communities are mounting. As pressure increases, so will the pressure on your local media company. Now is not the time to be the summer soldier or sunshine patriot that Thomas Paine mentioned.

Now is the time to move quickly and take action that can be the difference between your community losing the freedom of the press or maintaining it. Being a patriot doesn't always mean fighting a war or placing yourself in harm's way, it can also be the little, yet powerful efforts of the hidden few that save a community - now is one of those moments. Your community awaits your efforts!

John A. Newby, author of "Building Main Street, Not Wall Street " a National column dedicated to helping communities combine synergies with local media allowing them to not just survive, but thrive in a world where Truly Local is lost to Amazon and Wall Street chains. His email is: john@360MediaAlliance.net
28.07.2020 LISTEN

Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman says Ghana can not be owned by few tribes who feel superior to other tribes whose ancestors also contributed greatly to the attainment of Ghana.

She noted that under no circumstance should one's nationality be questioned.

Speaking at her official inauguration as running mate to Mr John Mahama on Monday, 27 July, she stated, Let our politics deviate from this unproductive path of injustice and non-peace. Ghana does not belong to any select few. We, the people, all of us, are the protectors and owners of this country for our collective good and for that of generations unborn.

She added What makes Ghana so special is that  despite our various ethnic groups, religions, and diverse backgrounds  we all come together as one people under one flag, inspired by the sacrifices of our ancestors to create a great country. And everyones ancestor has been a worthy contributor to this space now called Ghana, whose artificial borders, sadly, we seek to make even more artificial, as if our continent has not suffered enough from the initial assault. Everyone matters. We have come too far as a nation to still cling to our primordial tribal bigotries.

Prof Jane Naana stressed, Whether you are Ga, Mfantse, Sisali, Ewe, Gonja, Asante, Nzema, Mamprusi, or any other ethnic group, you are valued as a Ghanaian. You have every right to walk with confidence, with a high resolve to make huge contributions to this nation. Let nobody, let no-one question your identity or patriotism. It is time to put all these needless, unproductive and backward distractions behind us and get on with the serious business of nation building. The time is now.

She has also observed that Ghana has come far to allow tribal bigotry to hinder the progress of this country.

She intimated, the choice we have in this election is clear: we can either build a Ghana where every citizen regardless of background is afforded equal opportunity to become their best selves. Or we can continue on a path where a few people attempt to control and dictate the destiny of the people who have given them the privilege to govern.

According to her, the 21st century is nearly 20% over. We shouldnt be here, as a country, living with inexcusable insanitary conditions, with our babies still dying of malaria; our women delivering on the bare floor, our youth bewildered and unable to see their way ahead, parents confused about the future their children face and the quality of education they are getting. If we choose to be anywhere as a country, the destination should not include a place where a 90-year-old woman, Akua Denteh, is stoned to death because someone has decided that she is a witch. I call on our security agencies to convince us that she has not died in vain.

... The very foundations of our democracy is so threatened by unimaginable levels of arrogance, intolerance and violence; humans playing God; our economy is struggling; our tongues tied to the roof of our mouths; our citizens feeling unsafe; our farmers unsure of when to plant crops due to climate change; our environments under severe threats; our youth perishing on their way to find better lives; our institutions to which we should run for succor rapidly losing credibility; children who should be in school becoming unwitting brides, when we all know that marriage is not a childs business, she bemoaned.
The Egyptian Doctors Syndicate has mourned the death of Dr. Mohamed Mashali, 76, widely known as the doctor of the poor due to his work in impoverished communities.

Mashali died on Monday in the city of Tanta, having suffered from circulatory collapse.

Born in 1944 in Beheira, Mashali graduated from Cairo Universitys medical school in 1967, specialising in internal medicine, paediatrics and fever.

He went on to work in a number of rural health centres and medical facilities affiliated with the health ministry and in 1975 he opened his own clinic in Tanta.

Over the years he became famous for his focus on providing health care to the residents of nearby poor villages. He charged EGP 5 ($0.30) for a check-up  later raised to EGP 10  although he often waived fees for those who could not afford them, even buying poorer patients their medications.

A street in Tanta is named after him.

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STURTEVANT  Kwik Trip gas stations are continuing to pop up around the area and Sturtevant is next in line for one.

The gas station/convenience store at 10500 Durand Ave. (Highway 11) on the northwest corner of Highway H is on track for an anticipated opening in late 2020 or early 2021, Sturtevant Trustee Jerrold Klinkosh said at a recent Village Board meeting in an update to fellow board members.

In another update, plans for the Amazon distribution center in Renaissance Business Park are moving forward and a certificate of occupancy has been issued.

Amazon is slated to be the tenant in the 438,309-square-foot Ashley Capital Building IV at 11201 Enterprise Drive.

The facility is a last mile distribution center.

According to the written narrative submitted to the village earlier this year, Amazon Logistics specializes in last mile delivery to customers from delivery stations such as the one planned for the village. Packages are shipped to delivery stations from fulfillment and sorting centers, such as the ones located at I-94 and Highway S in Kenosha. Village Administrator Gerald Nellessen also reported to the board regarding the status of the proposed 369,713-square-foot speculative Ashley Building III cross-dock industrial building development at 11101 Enterprise Drive.

We had a pre-construction meeting out their (on July 15), he said. Theyre already underway. Theyre already putting footings in out there and theyre expecting to start putting up some precasted steel in August, so theyre anticipating theyll be under-roof before the first of the year. They have an end of January, early February turnover date, so its a pretty fast project.

In regard to residential development, Nellessen said four permits have been issued to date in 2020 for the construction of new homes, with the issuance of a fifth permit expected shortly.

Seitz honored

In a short ceremony at the July 21 board meeting, Village President Jayme Hoffman honored outgoing Village Engineer and Department of Public Works Director Jeffrey Seitz, who retired earlier this month. Hired by the village in February 2015, Seitz had previously served, since 1987, as Sturtevants longtime consulting engineer in the employ of Mount Pleasant-based Crispell Snyder, Inc.

I was completely amazed with the knowledge he had; he could tell you what was going on from off the top of his head, Hoffman said of Seitz, also praising him for the money he saved the village on DPW costs, his work on the Sturtevant-Mount Pleasant Foxconn project, and the better than surrounding communities quality of Sturtevants roads.

He completely blew me away with the amount of knowledge in his head, Hoffman continued. He was on top of the game  it was amazing. He knew what he was talking out Its a huge loss to see you going into retirement, but I get it, I understand. Congratulations and I wish you nothing but the best for you and your family in retirement.

Said Seitz: The Village of Sturtevant was great to me, great for me. I hope I leave the village in a better place  good luck to the Village of Sturtevant. Best wishes to all of you.

Hoffman presented Seitz with an engraved wood plaque honoring him for the dedication, commitment and hard work he exhibited in his longtime service to the village.

Other news

Also at the July 21 meeting, the Village Board approved:

Changing the designation of 90th Street to a Class B truck route to lighten the load on the road, lowering weight limits from 80,000 pounds to 48,000 pounds on certain sections of 90th Street from Braun Road to Durand Avenue, Durand to the Canadian Pacific railroad crossing, and from Putzmeister America, Inc., 1733 90th St., to the village limits at Washington Avenue (Highway 20).

Giving the village clerk the ability to approve liquor operators licenses if the applicant passes all the required background checks. Previously, operators license applications required Village Board approval. The move was spurred by recent legislative changes to Wisconsin state statutes.

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LAPEER, MI  Nurses employed by McLaren Lapeer Region hospital donned red T-shirts, face masks and held signs on Monday, July 27, to call attention to their demands ahead of a new contract.

Nurses employed by McLaren Lapeer say they want better pay and benefits, and measures they say will improve patient safety.

McLaren for too long has made staffing very short at this hospital and were trying to advocate for our patients safety and advocate for more staffing, said Tom Hall, emergency department nurse and president of the Lapeer Registered Nurses Association.

Hall said the union feels the hospital has a high turnover rate due to other area hospitals offering better benefits and pay.

We have a need to keep our nurses here for our community, Hall said as drivers honked their horns in support of the picket, which took place Monday on the sidewalk outside of the McLaren Lapeer facility.

In May, the unions 3-year contract expired, which opened the door for negotiations, Hall said. The union represents about 230 nurses at the hospital.

Chief Nursing Officer for McLaren Lapeer Region Sheri Testani said the informational demonstration is a distraction.

We are committed to working with the union to reach a fair and competitive contract for our nurses at our hospital, said Testani. The unions informational demonstration is a distraction from good faith negotiations, and does nothing to help reach an agreement on a new contract.

We began negotiations on a new contract at the end of January and held only 16 sessions due to a pause in negotiations based on the COVID-19 pandemic. We have reached agreement on quite a few items with the nurses already.

Hall said issues like staffing have been a long time problem at McLaren Lapeer, but COVID-19 exacerbated the problem.

Chuck Johnson, a 30-year registered nurse, said some of the masks nurses were given were meant to be used for simulation purposes.

Its not right, he said.

In April, nurses from McLaren Lapeer and two other McLaren hospitals pushed for policies that included paid time off for nurses exposed to COVID-19 at work, protections so vulnerable nurses do not have to treat COVID-19 patients, and more. The nurses also asked for cross-training or other efforts to put laid-off nurses to work in other areas of the hospital.

Anna Taylor has been a registered nurse at McLaren Lapeer for 11 years. Taylor said during her time at the hospital adequate staffing has not been consistent.

Well get a bunch of new people, which is great and we love training them and stuff like that but then they leave for better opportunities, Taylor said.

Negotiations for the contract are scheduled for sometime next week, according to Hall.

When we get back to the table, there might be other things we have to do in the future but for right now, were hoping this moves the management, and gets us in the right direction, Hall said.

McLaren Lapeer Region is operating normally during the union activity; there is no impact on emergency care or scheduled appointments. Information and assistance is available on site so patients, visitors and employees can easily park and access all hospital facilities, according to McLaren Lapeer officials.

Our hospitals priority is to deliver safe, quality care to our patients, said Chris Candela, president and CEO of McLaren Lapeer Region. We will continue to work with the unions that represent our employees to meet our communitys healthcare needs.

Related news:

Police called to picket lines as UAW strikers and drivers clash

Flint, Genesee healthcare workers awarded $160,000 in grants

Mid-Michigan nurses union pushes McLaren Health Care for coronavirus protections
Bristol-based anonymous street artist, Banksy has donated a triptych (an artwork which is divided in three sections) to auction company Sothebys, and the proceeds from the sale of the artwork will go to a hospital in Bethlehem in the West Bank. The triptych, Mediterranean Sea View 2017, will showcase at Sothebys Rembrandt to Richter auction on Tuesday, and is expected to bring between $1 million - $1.5 million. According to Sothebys, this money will help fund the construction of a new acute stroke unit, and the purchasing of childrens rehabilitation equipment for the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation.

The painting was originally installed in the lobby of Banksys Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem. The artwork is a reference to the European migrant crisis and is painted over used canvases in the style of the 19th century seascape while referencing to one of the 21st centurys biggest issues. The painting shows crashing waves washing abandoned lifejackets, oars and buoys washing ashore, a sight referring to all the lives lost at sea during the migrant crisis.

Sothebys head of contemporary art for Europe, Alex Branczik, said in a press release, In Mediterranean sea view 2017, Banksy corrupts three found oil paintings with his own witty reworkings to create something that, while posing as a 19th-century seascape, spotlights one of the burning issues of the 21st century. In Rembrandt to Richter, this triptych hangs in Sothebys galleries alongside works by some of historys greatest landscape painters, including Bellotto, Van Goyen and Turner. Banksys work, however, stands alone for its potent political message.

If it sells for its high estimate, Mediterranean Sea View 2017 will become the fourth-biggest auction result for a work by Banksy. The last artwork of Banksys that was sold at Sothebys, Devolved Parliament (2009), auctioned for $12.1 million, which was about five times its high estimate. And if Mediterranean Sea View 2017 also sells for its high estimate, it will become Banksys fourth biggest auction result. The Sotheybys auction will feature artworks across five centuries of art history, including Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro and Banksy.

Since the coronavirus lockdown, Banksy has been creating several pandemic-related artwork, the latest being a spray-painted call to action in the London Underground which advised people to mask up, however, it was promptly removed by the cleaning crews of Transport for London. In April, Banksy showcased his bathroom artwork which showed several rats, his signature symbol, frantically rushing about.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alfea Jamal 'Ask no questions, hear no lies.' Alfea Jamal is a fashion, culture, travel and food writer. She also dabbles in video journalism, multimedia production, the culinary arts, design and is modestly decent with canvas. ...view detail
Taking their cue from President Donald Trumps fact-challenged assault on absentee voting, Iowa Republicans tried to scuttle the secretary of states voter outreach effort, then put it on pause, affirmed their opposition, but finally restored it.

A wake-up call about political ramifications prompted the reversal.

Secretary of State Paul Pate, also a Republican, had anticipated voters and elections workers would be reluctant to show up at polls for the June primary amid the coronavirus when he mailed out en masse absentee ballot request forms.

His initiative was an overwhelming success. More than 530,000 votes were cast  420,000 absentee. That obliterated the 450,000 primary turnout set in 1994. In Polk County alone, 256 poll workers stayed home

Pate wrote in the Des Moines Register, Iowans are amazing. The level of civic engagement among our citizens is unrivaled.

But fellow Republicans sought to curb his adventure in democracy, starting in the Iowa Senate with legislation citing unsubstantiated security risks.

This legislation does not ban or limit voters to cast an absentee ballot, said Sen. Roby Smith, R-Davenport. This bill is about security. This bill is to make sure someones vote is not erased by someone that is not legally allowed to vote. More people will vote under this bill.

In the House, a successful amendment by Reps. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, and Bruce Hunter, D-Des Moines, shifted responsibility to the Iowa Legislative Council to act on any plan by the secretary of state, propose an alternative or decline to take action.

Otherwise, absentee ballot requests remained in the domain of county auditors.

The Republicans were taking their cue from Trumps tirades that he lost the 2016 popular vote by 3 million because of irregularities ranging from immigrants fraudulently casting ballots to absentee shenanigans.

He appointed a commission led by then-Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Vice President Mike Pence that quickly disbanded. Kobachs claims of 1,000 convictions for voter fraud since 2000 and 8,400 instances of double voting in 2016 were refuted by a commission report of 1,000 convictions for misconduct since 1948.

Trump told Fox and Friends this spring that a Democratic proposal for mail-in ballots during the pandemic would result in levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, youd never have a Republican elected in this country again.

He castigated Michigan for sending out illegal absentee ballot applications when they were pursuant to a 2018 constitutional amendment expanding access to absentee voting. He criticized Nevada for emphasizing mailed ballots promoted by its Republican secretary of state.

The Republicans on the Iowa Legislative Council had a sudden change of heart. It seems Democratic auditors in urban counties were leaving their conflicted rural Republican counterparts in the dust regarding sending absentee ballot requests.

The Register reported Scott County Auditor Roxanna Moritz, a Democrat and president of the Iowa State Association of County Auditors, thought 18 counties  Black Hawk, Polk, Linn, Johnson and Scott among them  were preparing to send ballot request forms to voters.

Consequently, Pates request was unanimously approved.

But political differences remained. Linn and Johnson auditors will mail absentee ballot request forms with personal information numbers from state databases. Pate will send out blank forms.

Republicans had passed legislation denying use of the states voter registration database to fill in missing information on request forms, including a missing name, address, drivers license number or a voters PIN.

Any auditor who sends out a pre-populated form with the voter ID PIN is ignoring the law. Auditors and voters should be on notice that this action shows clear disregard for the law and could easily lead to election fraud, said Sen. Jack Whitver, R-Ankeny.

The county auditors office also must call, email or mail a voter about incomplete or incorrect information on a submitted request rather than relying on the voter database

Left-leaning groups are suing over the law, but face an uphill battle.

In 2019, Judge Joseph Seidlin upheld provisions of the 2017 voter reform law that the verification of a voters identity is necessary before a voter is permitted to receive and cast a ballot.

Republicans rightly rejected a Democratic request to extend the early voting from 29 to 40 days. Given last-minute campaign revelations, casting a ballot more than a month before an election could produce voters remorse.

Republican concerns about absentee voting are ironic considering the GOP began the push for its widespread use in the South to assist elderly voters  among its base constituencies.

Mail-in voting has displaced polling places in Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Hawaii with numerous safeguards, including bar codes.Conservative Utah is nearly there.

Whatever its motivation, the Iowa Legislative Council finally made the right call.
TOKYO, July 28, 2020 - (JCN Newswire) - The Fujitsu Group recently announced its guiding set of principles under the banner of a newly-established corporate Purpose - "to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation."(1) While reaffirming and strengthening its commitment to corporate responsibility and the resolution of social and environmental challenges, Fujitsu also continues to embrace its new identity as a DX Company that contributes to its customers' digital transformations(2) as a leading player in this rapidly growing domain. To this end, Fujitsu has established a medium-term management goal of achieving revenue of 3.5 trillion and an operating profit margin of 10% in fiscal 2022, taking into account "Technology Solutions," which composes its core business, along with "Others/Eliminations/Corporate".Fujitsu has decided to make some segment changes in order to more clearly demonstrate its progress toward the achievement of its medium-term goals and to more closely reflect the perspective of the management approach that corresponds to the organizational structure with the segment for disclosure.As of the announcement of the first quarter results for fiscal 2020 (Scheduled for July 30, 2020), segment information will be disclosed under these new segments, including for prior years.Key Changes to Segments1. Revise segments (Transfer "Others/Eliminations/Corporate" into "Technology Solutions")For "Others/Eliminations/Corporate," company-wide common expenses were separated into the "Technology Solutions (Common)" subsegment and elimination of inter-segment sales was separated into the new "Inter-segment Elimination" segment. As a result, the Company will henceforth be divided into three segments, "Technology Solutions," "Ubiquitous Solutions," and "Device Solutions," as well as "Inter-segment Elimination," which will consist of elimination of inter-segment sales only. In addition, in order to clarify the responsibility for investment recovery, Fujitsu changed the attribution of common company-wide expenses, such as upfront investment expenses, which had been collected in "Others/Eliminations/Corporate," to include them in each sub-segment of "Technology Solutions."2. Establishment of the "International Regions Excluding Japan" SubsegmentThe international businesses included in "Services" and "System Platforms" under "Technology Solutions" have been separated and integrated into the newly-established "International Regions Excluding Japan" subsegment. At the same time, the name of the "Services" subsegment has been changed to "Solutions/Services."3. Segment changes such as organizational changesCertain segments were reclassified in accordance with organizational changes and changes in the management structure of subsidiaries.(1) Purpose The company's raison d'etre and role to play. The company defines its PURPOSE as "Fujitsu's purpose is to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation."(2) DX Abbreviation of Digital Transformation. The use of digital technology and data to transform business through innovative services and processesFor the full release, visit https://bit.ly/3jQQsFUAbout Fujitsu LtdFujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company offering a full range of technology products, solutions and services. Approximately 130,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 3.9 trillion yen (US$35 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020. For more information, please see www.fujitsu.com.Source: Fujitsu LtdCopyright 2020 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 646,000 people worldwide.

Over 16 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their nations' outbreaks.

The United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 4.2 million diagnosed cases and at least 146,788 deaths.

PHOTO: Chris Cdebaca of Oxnard, Calif. and his wife Avonna Ramsey await the start of Third Eye Blind's performance at Concerts in your Car at the Ventura County Fairgrounds on Saturday, July 25, 2020, in Ventura, Calif. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Sunday's headlines:

Teen girl is El Pasos youngest virus victim in region's deadliest week Total number of COVID-19 cases worldwide tops 16 million Spain removed from UK's travel corridors exemption list

Here is how the news developed on Sunday. All times Eastern.

5:42 p.m.: Duke will only allow freshmen, sophomores in campus housing

To reduce its residential population, Duke University will only allow freshmen and sophomores to live in on-campus housing this fall.

In a message sent to faculty, staff and students on Sunday, Duke President Vincent E. Price said the decision was based on the spread of COVID-19 both in North Carolina and nationally.

"It is sadly clear that the persistence and spread of COVID-19 are trending in the wrong direction nationally, in North Carolina, and in Durham; and based on the latest guidance from Duke medical experts and public officials, we anticipate that matters may worsen in the weeks ahead," Price said. "In light of these worrisome conditions and to address the increased prevalence of the coronavirus, we must further reduce the density of our campus residential population."

The move will decrease Duke's residential population by about 30%, Price said. In addition to freshmen and sophomores, students who have specific needs for campus housing due to personal or academic reasons may also be eligible for on-campus housing.

Story continues

Juniors and seniors will have first priority for campus housing in the spring, Price said. In the meantime, they can live in the Durham area or do remote learning. All students, regardless of where they will live, will do most of their course work remotely, Price said.

North Carolina has 112,713 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to state data. As of Saturday, the testing positivity rate was 9%.

1:15 p.m.: Mexican state health secretary has died after contracting virus

The health secretary of a Mexican border state who tested positive for COVID-19 has died, the governor of Chihuahua confirmed in a statement.

Dr. Jesus Enrique Grajeda Herrera died Sunday morning at a Mexican hospital after suffering cardiac failure, Gov. Javier Corral said in a Facebook post. Corral did not definitively say Grajeda Herrera died of COVID-19.

The health secretary contracted the virus on July 2 after traveling to the state of Tamaulipas to meet with officials there, including Gov. Javier Garcia Cabeza de Vaca, who hours later tested positive for the coronavirus.

Grajeda Herrera was admitted to a Chihuahua hospital on July 5 and had been showing signs of improvement.

10:55 a.m.: Florida sees another 9,000-plus cases in last 24 hours

The state of Florida has seen an increase of 9,344 cases and 78 new deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Florida Department of Health.

Florida now has 423,855 total cases and 5,972 deaths since the coronavirus pandemic began.

The state currently has an overall positivity rate of 11.06%, officials said.

An additional 334 people were hospitalized on Saturday for COVID-19, bringing the statewide total of active hospitalizations to 8,925. In total, 24,064 people have been hospitalized in the state because of the coronavirus.

3:58 a.m.: Teen girl is El Pasos youngest virus victim, among 3 new deaths to close out deadliest recorded week

A teenage girl, El Paso's youngest victim of the coronavirus, was among three new deaths reported Saturday morning by health officials to close out the deadliest recorded week of the entire pandemic for the region.

The number of fatalities for the week reached 42, which not only set a record for El Paso but also surpassed the weekly death in neighboring Ciudad Juarez for the first time since the outbreak began.

El Paso's Mexican sister city tallied just over half of the Sun City's weekly death toll at 26, which was its lowest count in months.

It was not immediately known if the teenage victim noted in Saturday's health department death report was 19-year-old Dariana Rubio, who died earlier this week from what her family believed was the virus.

The other two latest deaths were a man in his 60s and a woman in her 70s, both with underlying health conditions.

The health department also reported 221 newly confirmed virus cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of infections to 12,971.

Of those, officials indicated 3,402 were active cases -- while 9,348 El Pasoans were listed as having recovered. Research shows some recovered persons can still have long-term health issues stemming from the virus.

For the week, there were 1,839 new virus cases recorded, which was down from the 2,033 infections occurring last week.

On Saturday morning, 310 people were hospitalized, which was a drop by seven patients from Friday. Of those in the hospital, 97 were listed in intensive care Saturday, marking the first time in ten days that the ICU count dropped below 100. Ventilators are currently required by 49 of the hospitalized patients.

3:35 a.m.: Total number of COVID-19 cases worldwide now more than 16 million

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide has now passed 16 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The total number of global confirmed cases now stands at 16,048,100 while the total number of deaths globally stands at 644,556.

The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their nations' outbreaks.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world topped the benchmark of 15 million only four days ago on July 22.

What to know about coronavirus:

How it started and how to protect yourself: Coronavirus explained

What to do if you have symptoms: Coronavirus symptoms

Tracking the spread in the U.S. and worldwide: Coronavirus map

1:34 a.m.: Spain removed from UK's travel corridors exemption list, travelers now required to self-isolate

Spain is no longer on the U.K.'s travel corridor list and people arriving into England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland from Spain will be required to self-isolate.

The British government has said that those already in Spain can stay for the remainder of their vacation and will have to self-isolate upon return.

The Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) is now advising against all but essential travel to mainland Spain which does not cover the Canary Islands or the Balearic Islands because travel advice is based on the risk to the individual traveler and COVID-19 infection rates are lower there than mainland Spain.

"Protecting public health is our absolute priority and we have taken this decision to limit any potential spread to the U.K.," a government spokesperson said in a statement released to the media. "Weve always been clear that we would act immediately to remove a country where necessary. Both our list of quarantine exemptions and the FCO travel advice are being updated to reflect these latest risk assessments."

ABC News' Jim Parker, Scott Withers, Joshua Hoyos and Alexandra Faul contributed to this report.

Global COVID-19 cases top 16 million, was 15 million only 4 days ago originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
1. Attorney General William Barr forcefully defended the federal response to long-running protests in Portland, Ore., telling lawmakers that city streets were under attack by violent groups.

The federal intervention has been condemned by state and city officials, but in a combative congressional hearing, Mr. Barr told the House Judiciary Committee it was necessary to prevent violence from spreading to other American cities. We fact-checked his claims.

Democrats immediately accused Mr. Barr of making political decisions to help President Trump. You have aided and abetted the worst failings of the president, said Representative Jerrold Nadler, the committee chairman.
WASHINGTON  The Trump administration announced Tuesday it is rejecting all new applications from would-be Dreamers as it considers trying again to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, just weeks after the Supreme Court blocked Trumps last attempt to kill it.

Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad F. Wolf said the administration is working to thoughtfully consider the future of the DACA policy, including whether to fully rescind the program.

Officials said the comprehensive review will take time, but would not say how long  leaving it unclear whether the administration would take more steps to end the program ahead of the November elections.

In the meantime, DHS will reject all new DACA applications and will only grant renewals for one year, as opposed to the usual two.

HELD HOSTAGE: Would-be Dreamers sue as Trump freezes out 86,000 Texans eligible for DACA

President Donald Trumps new rules come less than two weeks after a federal judge in Maryland ordered the administration to begin accepting new DACA applications because of the Supreme Court decision. And it comes as dozens of Houston-area immigrants are suing to force the White House to take their applications.

They vowed to keep pressing in the courts, despite the administrations announcement.

This move is utterly irrational because there is a court order in place that mandates the program to be open, said Cesar Espinosa, executive director of FIEL, an immigrant-run advocacy group in Houston that is leading the lawsuit. We will fight this in the courts. We have not given up. We will not give up. We will keep fighting. "

The DACA program protects from deportation people brought as children to the U.S. by their families without legal authorization. Many of the so-called Dreamers have known no other home than the U.S.

By at least one estimate, some 86,000 Texans are eligible for the program, in addition to the 106,000 Dreamers in Texas who have already enrolled. The backlog has grown over the past four years, as more of the children have graduated from high school but were not allowed to apply.

While the Trump administration conducts its review, it is renewing its call for Congress to take up the programs future. In the past, DACA has been wrapped into broader immigration battles, including being tied to funding for Trumps border wall.

As the Department continues looking at the policy and considers future action, the fact remains that Congress should act on this matter, Wolf said in a statement. There are important policy reasons that may warrant the full rescission of the DACA policy.

Democrats condemned the move.

Trump, so desperate to be seen as a law and order president, should finally follow the law and stop defying the courts clear orders, said U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of San Antonio. His continued, cruel attack on tens of thousands of young Texans eligible for DACA harms us all.

In recent weeks, Trump has said repeatedly that hes gearing up to issue a very major immigration order of his own, claiming the Supreme Courts ruling that blocked him from ending DACA last month also gives him the power to try again. Trump said during a Fox News Sunday interview this month that he would replace DACA with something much better.

Nationally, more than 640,000 immigrants are protected by the program. The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., estimates as many as 682,000 more could qualify.

TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

The Supreme Court last month blocked Trumps 2017 order to end the popular program, which was created by former President Barack Obama. The Trump administration had called Obamas executive order arbitrary and capricious, alleging that it violated the Administrative Procedure Act.

The high courts ruling kicked off a round of calls for Congress to protect Dreamers, a group seen as sympathetic by both Democrats and Republicans. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said in a speech on the Senate floor the day of the ruling that it has thrust upon us a unique moment and an opportunity.

Congress, however, has done little since.

The Democratic-led U.S. House last year passed a bill that would offer the Dreamers a path to citizenship. But when Senate Democrats attempted to bring it up for a vote earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz blocked it, calling it an attempt at offering amnesty to those who entered the country illegally.

ben.wermund@chron.com
A car accident involving Jerry Nadler, Democratic chairman of the House judiciary committee, has delayed the start of testimony by William Barr, Donald Trump's attorney general.

A spokesman for the senior Democrat said he was not injured in the accident. The hearing was put back by 45 minutes to 10.45am. No details of the accident were immediately available.

Mr Barr faces questions on some of the most pressing and controversial issues of Mr Trump's presidency.

He will be asked about the often violent crackdown on racial justice protests, including the clearance of Lafayette Park in Washington DC ahead of the president's photo opportunity at a nearby church, and the escalation of militarised federal agents to crush demonstrations in Portland, Oregon.

Mr Barr also faces questions over allegations that he has used his office to protect friends of the president who have been convicted or or admitted to criminal offences linked to the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The attorney general dropped a case against Michael Flynn, Mr Trump's first national security adviser, who admitted lying to the FBI over his contacts with then then-Russian ambassador to the US.

He also argued for a shorter sentence than that recommended by prosecutors for Roger Stone, a longtime friend and adviser to the president, who had been convicted of obstruction, obstruction of justice and witness tampering. Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison but the president commuted the sentence.

Mr Barr also faces questions over the as-yet unexplained firing of Geoffrey Berman as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan following a stand-off during which the attorney general falsely claimed that the prosecutor had resigned. Mr Berman was said to be investigating Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trump's personal lawyer, and was leading the case against Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime acquaintance of the president whom he "wished well" when asked about the charges against her, which include involving minors in illegal sex acts.

Democrats will challenge him on his handling of the Mueller Report into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin during the 2016 election. Mr Barr has been accused of issuing a misleading summary of the report before it came out to try to set the narrative in a way that was more positive towards the president.

Questions over Mr Trump's repeated claims that mail-in voting will lead to widespread electoral fraud, and the spread of coronavirus in prisons, are also likely.

As one of the leaders of the impeachment probe against the president over his efforts to involve Ukraine in the 2020 election, Mr Nadler has become a regular target for Republicans.
Sushant Singh Rajputs father, KK Singh, has filed an FIR with the Patna Police, against the late actors girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty. Sanjay Singh, Inspector General of Patna Central Zone, told ANI that the FIR was registered under various sections, including abetment of suicide.

A four-member team has been sent to Mumbai. The team will collect case diary and other important documents from Mumbai Police, Singh added. The case has been lodged under various sections of IPC including 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 380 (theft in dwelling house), 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 306 (abetment of suicide), PTI reports.

Sushant died by suicide on June 14. The Mumbai Police are investigating the case and have already recorded Rheas statement last month. Her brother, Showik Chakraborty, was also interrogated by the police in connection with the case. At least 40 people have been questioned so far, including Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Aditya Chopra and Dharma Productions CEO Apoorva Mehta.

Also read: Sushant Singh Rajputs sister Shweta Singh Kirti reveals why family has not demanded CBI probe

Rhea has been at the receiving end of trolling and abuse ever since Sushant died. Earlier this month, she took to Instagram to share a screenshot of a rape and death threat. I was called a gold digger...I kept quiet. I was called a murderer ....I kept quiet. I was slut shamed ....I kept quiet. But how does my silence give you the right to tell me that you will get me RAPED and MURDERED if I dont commit suicide @mannu_raaut ? she wrote, urging the cyber crime cell to look into the matter and take action against the user.

Meanwhile, Rhea has also requested the home ministry to transfer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation. Respected @amitshahofficial sir , Im sushant Singh Rajputs girlfriend Rhea chakraborty, it is now over a month since his sudden demise . I have complete faith in the government , however in the interest of justice , I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry into this matter . I only want to understand what pressures prompted Sushant to take this step. Yours sincerely, Rhea Chakraborty, she wrote on Instagram.

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

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DOYLESTOWN, PA  The Children of America daycare facility in Doylestown abruptly closed this week, following a dispute with the landlord regarding rent.

The Ferry Road facility was unable to reach an agreement with the landlord regarding rent that accumulated over the preceding months, Desiree Bonkoski, the company's executive director in Pennsylvania, told Patch.

"Unfortunately, COVID -19s impact on enrollment was a big contributor to being able to reach an arrangement that was satisfactory with the landlord. Each school, although operated by Children of America, is its own entity and operates as such," Bonkoski said.

The other Children of America facilities in the area remain open, she confirmed.

Families were notified Sunday evening that the facility would close at the end of the day Monday.



The business is offering impacted families two free weeks of daycare at other Children of America locations. The business said it will also work with staff members who want to transfer to another location.

There are Children of America schools in Ivyland, New Britain, Southampton, Warrington, and Warminster.

This article originally appeared on the Doylestown Patch
Twenty-two Assam Rifles personnel are among 23 more people testing positive for COVID-19 in Mizoram, officials said on Tuesday.

The fresh infections have taken the northeastern state's caseload to 384, they said.

Twenty-two Assam Rifles personnel posted at Zokhawsanga near Aizawl and a civilian who had recently returned from Nepal have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Zoram Medical College on Monday night, a statement issued by the State Information and Public Relation Department said.

Of the 384 cases, 191 are active while 193 people have recovered, officials said, adding the recovery rate of patients in the state stands at 50.26 per cent.

Aizawl district has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 205, followed by Lunglei (71), Siaha (26) and Lawngtlai and Mamit (21 each), they said.

As of now, Hnahthial, Saitual and Khawzawl districts are coronavirus-free, the officials said.

Mizoram has tested 20,053 samples for COVID-19 till Monday, they added.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 00:23:28|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia's confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 15,200 after 653 new COVID-19 positive cases were confirmed on Tuesday, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health said.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Health in a statement issued on Tuesday said 6,526 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 have so far recovered, including 170 in the last 24 hours period.

A total of 14 more patients succumbed to the COVID-19, bringing the death toll of COVID-19 to 239 so far, according to the ministry.

The ministry further said a total of 8,433 COVID-19 patients are still undergoing medical treatment, out of which 66 are in severe condition.

Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation with about 107 million people, confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 13.

The East African country had so far conducted some 395,851 COVID-19 medical tests, according to the ministry. Enditem
Northrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/28/2020 -- According to the new market research report "Power Tools Market with COVID-19 impact Analysis by Mode (Electric (Corded & Cordless), Pneumatic), Tool Type (Drilling & Fastening, Sawing, Demolition, Material Removal), Application (Industrial (Construction, Automotive, Aerospace, Energy), DIY) - Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Power Tools Market is projected to grow from USD 29.5 billion in 2020 to USD 36.9 billion by 2025; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.6% from 2020 to 2025. The key factors fueling the growth of the market growing adoption of cordless power tools, rising demand for fastening tools in industrial environments, and growing construction industry in emerging economies are the key factors driving the growth of the power tools market. The power tools market offers several opportunities for manufacturers to focus smart connectivity for power tools.



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Drilling and fastening tools to lead power tools market during forecasted period



Currently, drilling and fastening tools hold the largest market share among all other tool types in the power tools market, and a similar trend is likely to continue during the forecast period. Drills or impact drills are used for drilling and screw driving applications. Electric drilling and fastening tools are used by professionals and DIY consumers, while most pneumatic drilling and fastening tools are used in industrial environments such as automotive and aerospace manufacturing plants. However, several industrial units across the world have suspended their operations owing to the outbreak of the COVID-19. This is expected to create a temporary slag in the growth of the power tools market in 2020.



Market for electric power tools to grow at fastest CAGR from 2020 to 2025



Electric power tools are operated either through battery, based on application, or through corded power supply. Corded electric tools are plug-n-play tools, whereas cordless tools are easy to operate, efficient, and handy in nature. Due to their ergonomic advantages, end users prefer cordless tools over conventional tools. The European Union has already banned the use of nickelcadmium (Ni-Cd) for power tool batteries due to the toxic properties of cadmium. Majority of manufacturers are focusing more on launching cordless tools powered by lithium-ion batteries. As a result, the demand for cordless electric power tools with lithium-ion batteries is likely to increase during the forecast period.



Industrial application to hold larger market share for power tools in 2020



Power tools are used in several industries, such as construction, automotive, aerospace, energy, and shipbuilding. The construction industry is at the leading position in the power tools market as these tools are used in a majority of construction projects. Energy sector is likely to have high growth opportunities in the near future owing to increasing installation of renewable power plants across the world. Fastening power tools have major applications in automotive, aerospace, and energy industries. However, during the period of economic depression due to COVID-19 pandemic, the difficulties that power tool manufacturers and their customers face in accessing credits strongly affect the sector as credits are critical for investments.



Browse in-depth TOC on " Power Tools Market"



130  Tables

43  Figures

190  Pages



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North America to be largest market for power tools during forecast period



North America is expected to dominate the global power tools market during the forecast period. In North America, power tools are extensively used for both industrial and residential/DIY applications. The DIY trend is already prevalent among consumers in this region and is likely to continue to drive the demand for power tools, especially for cordless tools. The US is expected to hold the largest share of the North American power tools market. Manufacturing companies based in the US are expected to drive the demand for power tools. The construction industry is expected to witness significant demand in the near future, which will drive the demand for power tools.



Major players in the power tools market are Stanley Black & Decker (US), Techtronic Industries (Hong Kong), Robert Bosch (Germany), Makita Corporation (Japan), Hilti Corporation (Liechtenstein), Atlas Copco (Sweden), Apex Tool Group (US), Ingersoll-Rand (Ireland), KOKI Holdings (Japan), and Snap-on Incorporated (US).



Related Reports:



Outdoor Power Equipment Market by Equipment Type (Lawn Mower (Lawn Tractor, Zero-turn, Walk-behind, Robotic), Chain Saw, Trimmer & edger), Application (Commercial, Residential), Power Source (Fuel, Electric), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2024



DC Torque Tool Market by Type (Handheld and Fixtured Tools), Power Source (Corded and Cordless), Control System (Transducer and Current), Industry (Automotive, Aerospace, and Energy), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2023



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Regulatory News:

Total (Paris:FP) (LSE:TTA) (NYSE:TOT), bp and Eni (as the Operator) have made a gas discovery with the Bashrush well on the North El Hammad license, located eleven kilometers off the Egyptian coast.

The well encountered 102 meters net gas pay in high quality sandstones of the Abu Madi formation. A production test was conducted with flow rates of up to 32 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (MMscf/d), limited by testing facilities. It is estimated that future deliverability per well will be up to 100 MMscf/d, along with up to 800 barrels of condensate per day. Future plans foresee development through tie-in to nearby existing infrastructures.

"We are very pleased to announce this discovery in Egypt. These results support our strategy to allocate a significant share of our exploration budget to the search of hydrocarbons in the vicinity of existing infrastructures," said Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice President Exploration at Total. "These resources have low development costs since they can rapidly be tie-in and put into production."

Total holds a working interest of 25% in the North El Hammad license, alongside operator ENI (37.5%) and BP (37.5%).

About Total

Total is a broad energy company that produces and markets fuels, natural gas and low-carbon electricity. Our 100,000 employees are committed to better energy that is safer, more affordable, cleaner and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, our ambition is to become the responsible energy major.

Cautionary Note

This press release, from which no legal consequences may be drawn, is for information purposes only. The entities in which TOTAL SE directly or indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. TOTAL SE has no liability for their acts or omissions. In this document, the terms "Total", "Total Group" and Group are sometimes used for convenience. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" may also be used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them.

This document may contain forward-looking information and statements that are based on a number of economic data and assumptions made in a given economic, competitive and regulatory environment. They may prove to be inaccurate in the future and are subject to a number of risk factors. Neither TOTAL SE nor any of its subsidiaries assumes any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information or statement, objectives or trends contained in this document whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005462/en/

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Quantum computers have enormous potential for calculations using novel algorithms and involving amounts of data far beyond the capacity of today's supercomputers. While such computers have been built, they are still in their infancy and have limited applicability for solving complex problems in materials science and chemistry. For example, they only permit the simulation of the properties of a few atoms for materials research.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago (UChicago) have developed a method paving the way to using quantum computers to simulate realistic molecules and complex materials, whose description requires hundreds of atoms.

The research team is led by Giulia Galli, director of the Midwest Integrated Center for Computational Materials (MICCoM), a group leader in Argonne's Materials Science division and a member of the Center for Molecular Engineering at Argonne. Galli is also the Liew Family Professor of Electronic Structure and Simulations in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and a Professor of Chemistry at UChicago. She worked on this project with assistant scientist Marco Govoni and graduate student He Ma, both part of Argonne's Materials Science division and UChicago.

"Our newly developed calculational method," Galli said, "greatly improves on the accuracy attainable with existing quantum mechanical methods regarding calculations for specific defects in crystalline materials, and we have implemented it on a quantum computer."

In the last three decades, quantum mechanical theoretical approaches have played an important role in predicting the properties of materials relevant to quantum information science and functional materials for energy applications, encompassing catalysts and energy storage systems. However, these approaches are computationally demanding, and it is still challenging to apply them to complex, heterogeneous materials.

"In our research we developed a quantum embedding theory that permitted the simulation of 'spin defects' in solids by coupling quantum and classical computing hardware," Govoni said. These types of defects in solids have applicability to the development of materials for quantum information processing and nanoscale sensing applications far beyond current capabilities.

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"Ours is a powerful forward-looking strategy in computational materials science with the potential of predicting the properties of complex materials more accurately than the most advanced current methods can do at present," Govoni added.

The team first tested the quantum embedding method on a classical computer, applying it to the calculations of the properties of spin defects in diamond and silicon carbide. "Past researchers have extensively studied defects in both diamond and silicon carbide, so we had abundant experimental data to compare with our method's predictions," said Ma. The good agreement between theory and experiment gave the team confidence in their method's reliability.

The team then moved on to test the same calculations on a quantum simulator and finally on the IBM Q5 Yorktown quantum computer. The results confirmed the high accuracy and effectiveness of their quantum embedding method, establishing a stepping stone to solving many different kinds of materials science problems on a quantum computer.

Galli noted that, "With the inevitable maturity of quantum computers, we expect our approach will be applicable to the simulation of regions of interest in molecules and materials for the understanding and discovery of catalysts and new drugs, as well as aqueous solutions containing complex dissolved species."

Galli's team is part of MICCoM, headquartered at Argonne; the Chicago Quantum Exchange, headquartered at UChicago; and the QISpin project funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Their research leveraged the WEST software developed within MICCoM and made use of several computing resources besides the publicly available IBM quantum computer: the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, both DOE Office of Science User Facilities; and the University of Chicago Research Computing Center.

The team's work is presented in an article entitled "Quantum Simulations of Materials on Near-term Quantum Computer" that appears in the July 2020 issue of npj Computational Materials. The research received support from the DOE Office of Science and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
BANGALORE, India, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A virtual power plant is a cloud-based distributed power system that aggregates the capacity of heterogeneous distributed energy resources, such as wind farms, solar parks, and combined heat and power (CHP) units. The Virtual Power Plant is used to relieve the load on the grid by smartly distributing the power generated by each unit during peak load periods. The combined power generation and power consumption of the networked units in the Virtual Power Plant shall also be traded on the energy exchange.

The global virtual power plant (vpp) market size was valued at USD 1.3 Billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 5.9 Billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 21.3% from 2020 to 2027.

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TRENDS INFLUENCING THE VIRTUAL POWER PLANT MARKET SIZE

Growing penetration for renewable energy in the power generation sector, coupled with changes in power grid dynamics from centralized to distributed, is expected to drive the growth of the virtual power plant market size.

Furthermore, the decreases in energy prices and quick access to energy storage are expected to fuel the growth of the virtual power plant market size.

The virtual Power plant is more effective and versatile in delivering peak load electricity in a short notice time compared to a traditional power plant set-up. Flexibility in trading with virtual power plants attracted several new participants due to market volatility. On the exchange market, consumers can sell excess energy as well as buy energy at a lower price. These features are, in turn, expected to fuel up the demand for virtual power plant market size during the forecast period.

Strict government regulations on environmentally friendly power generation would further boost the renewable energy sector, thereby increasing the growth of the virtual power plant market size.

High frequency of electromagnetic and radio waves contributes to health problems in infants and the elderly, which could hamper this development.

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VIRTUAL POWER PLANT MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS

The Industrial segments are expected to hold the largest Virtual Power Plant Market share in terms of revenue. The growing use of small and medium-sized Virtual Power Plants in industrial sectors would drive the growth of Virtual Power plant market size.

Based on region, Europe accounted for the largest Virtual Power Plant Market share due to the involvement of a large number of industry players and new government programs in different European countries with 100 percent renewable energy.

Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness the highest growth rates during the forecast period. This is due to the growing demand for energy in fast industrializing countries such as China and India.

The US is expected to lead the North American market and bear witness to the high demand for virtual power plants due to the rising demand for renewable energies.

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TOP COMPANIES IN THE VIRTUAL POWER PLANT MARKET

As compared with fossil fuel-based power generation, renewable energy is more costly. Countries across the globe are veering towards sustainable sources of power generation due to environmental conservation and increased awareness.

Though the market is distributed with many regional companies, major players dominate the Virtual Power Plant Market. Major players have adopted product launch, company expansion to maintain intense competition in the industry.

The top companies in the Virtual Power Plant Market include ABB Ltd., AGL Energy, AutoGrid Systems, Inc., Enbala Power Networks, Enel X Inc., General Electric Company, Siemens AG, Schneider Electric SE, Limejump Ltd., and others.

VIRTUAL POWER PLANT MARKET BY TECHNOLOGY

Distribution Generation

Demand Response

Mixed Asset

VIRTUAL POWER PLANT MARKET BY END-USER

Commercial

Industrial

Residential

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SIMILAR REPORTS :

Distributed Generation Market Report

The global Distributed Generation market size is projected to reach USD 62970 Million by 2026, from USD 58830 Million in 2020.

The growth of Distributed Generation Market size is attributed to the growing global demand for energy, reducing solar power costs, and increasing efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

The Distributed Generation Market report analyzes the market strategically with respect to individual growth patterns, future prospects, and each segment 's contribution to the market.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-24B1752/global-distributed-generation

Smart Demand Response Market Report

The global Smart Demand Response market size is projected to reach USD 23390 Million by 2026, from USD 19690 Million in 2020.

Advances in technology in the utilities vertical combined with the implementation of regulatory structures are expected to increase the growth of Smart Demand Response Market size.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-1Z323/smart-demand-response

Microgrid Market Report

In 2018, the global Microgrid market size was USD 11401.55 Million, and it is expected to reach USD 30049.32 Million by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of 14.75% between 2019 and 2025.

The major drivers for the growth of Microgrid Market size are growing demand for renewable energy, increasing instances of cyberattacks on energy infrastructure, increasing demand for reliable and stable global power supply, and increasing global microgrid deployment for rural electrification.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-19135/global-microgrid

Smart Grid Market Report

The smart grid market size was valued at USD 66.96 Billion in 2017 and is projected to reach USD 169.18 Billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 12.4% from 2018 to 2025.

Growing environmental issues and increasing the implementation of smart grid technology to boost energy conservation and usage efficiency are the main factors that drive the growth of the smart grid market size. Additionally, promoting government policies & legislation to use smart meters and increasing investments in digital electricity infrastructure are key factors driving market development.

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Smart Electric Meters Market Report

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Battery Energy Storage Systems Market Report

This report focuses on Battery Energy Storage Systems volume and value at the global, regional, and company levels. From a global perspective, this report represents the overall Battery Energy Storage Systems market size by analyzing historical data and future prospects.

Regionally, this report focuses on several key regions: North America, Europe, Japan, China, Southeast Asia, India, etc.

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Demand Response Management System (DRMS) Market Report

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To determine the states with the most endangered species, Stacker consulted the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS)s Endangered Species database. States are ranked by the number of endangered species; one featured species is described on each slide.
Freddy David swindled nearly 15million from investors

A disgraced financier and former Tory councillor's husband, who swindled nearly 15million from investors, has been ordered to pay back 1.3m or face another eight years in jail.

Freddy David, who is married to two-time MP hopeful, Hannah David, used his good reputation within the Jewish community as managing director of HBFS Wealth Management to sell non-existent opportunities to his clients, a court was told.

The 51-year-old, from Hertfordshire, stole 14,545,594 from a total of 55 clients over ten years and was jailed for six years for fraud in July 2018.

He used part of an 80,000 investment from one victim to feed his gambling addiction and pay his children's private school fees, while he also set up a restaurant called Let's Meat and enjoyed trips to Greece and Israel.

David returned to Southwark Crown Court today for a confiscation hearing in which the prosecution probed his assets in a bid to claw back the missing millions.

The total loss to victims was 6,998,942.17 but the sum David was ordered to pay back had to be 'realistic.'

Judge Deborah Taylor expressed concern over the issue of dividing mortgages and the court heard Hannah David, who is now divorcing him, had no knowledge of his wrongdoing.

Judge Taylor said: 'I'm concerned with how to deal with the issue of dividing mortgages, bearing in mind their increase in value since they were bought.'

The judge ruled today the fraudster must return 1,340,111 over a period of three months or serve eight years imprisonment in default.

She added: 'The free property identified as tainted gifts falls to be included in the available amount. The total available amount is 1,340,111.

'A confiscation order in the sum of 1,340,111 will be made to be paid within three months.

'The application is for compensation in the sum of 6,998,942.17 in favour of victims of this fraud representing the loss to them.

Boris Johnson on the campaign stump with Hannah David, who the court heard had no knowledge of her husband's wrongdoing

'However, a compensation order may only be made in a sum that is realistic. I therefore make a compensation order in the sum of 1,340,111 to be paid to the investor's pro rata.'

Hannah David, 50, was a Conservative councillor in Hertsmere but stood down from the council to run as the party's Parliamentary candidate for Harrow West in 2015 and 2017.

Giving evidence during the confiscation hearing she insisted she had 'virtually zero' knowledge of financial matters.

'Since we've been together my view was he had more experience with finance and banking. I didn't.

'I dealt with the family, home and looking after the children, et cetera.'

Asked if she had any questions about what her husband was doing to raise money she replied: 'None at all.'

Ms David stood for the Conservative Party in Harrow West in 2015 but narrowly lost to Labour's incumbent Gareth Thomas.

She ran again in 2017, securing 34.4% of votes.

David, formerly of Hartfield Avenue, Borehamwood, admitted one count of fraud by abuse of position and one count of obtaining a money transfer by deception.

He was ordered to pay 1,340,111 in compensation or serve eight years in default.
Gaza, July 28 : A top official of the Islamic Hamas Movement said that it rejected $15 billion for dismantling arms, according to a news report.

"Hamas rejected a proposal of carrying out several economic projects, including an airport and a seaport in Gaza for dismantling the arms of the movement and changing its strategies towards Israel," Ismail Haniyeh said on Monday.

Haniyeh, who had left the Gaza Strip 10 months ago and is currently in Doha, made his remarks to the Qatari news website Lusail.

The top Hamas leader said that the US made the offer through a third mediator that he didn't name, adding that the proposal was part of the President Donald Trump's Mideast peace plan.

"The American plan is aiming at establishing an isolated Palestinian entity in the Gaza Strip," Haniyeh said, adding that a third party "came to us and made the offer, but we rejected it".

Hamas had seized control of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007 following weeks of internal fighting with the security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

All mediations made between the Islamic movement and the Fatah movement of President Abbas to end more than 13 years of internal division have so far failed.

In March 2018, then Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah survived an explosion when his convoy entered Gaza, an incident that Abbas blamed on Hamas.

"Hamas will not give up the land of Palestine and will never hand over its arms or stop the resistance or abandon the right of return," said Haniyeh, adding that it will never sell Jerusalem for money.

In the interview, Haniyeh said that more than 13 years of an Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip caused more than 45 per cent of unemployed and high rates of poverty.
A medical worker swabs the throat of a citizen for a nucleic acid testing during the COVID-19 epidemic on July 19, 2020 in Urumqi - China News Service/China News Service

China is fighting its most aggressive return of coronavirus in months, including infections in Xinjiang, the far western region where as many as three million people are believed to have been detained in vast internment camps.

On Tuesday, the national health commission announced 57 new cases in Xinjiang, bringing the total in the region to 235 cases since the first infection was reported mid-July.

Officials have not disclosed how the initial infection was contracted by a 24-year-old woman who worked in a mall in the regions capital, Urumqi. State media have said the strain is similar to one found in Beijing, which experienced a cluster outbreak early summer.

Until now, Xinjiang was largely unaffected by the spread of coronavirus, linked to tight surveillance and security already in place as part of a wider campaign to bring under control the sometimes restive region, home to Uighurs, Kazakhs and other primarily Muslim ethnic groups of Turkic origin.

But fears are rising that the latest cluster outbreak could spiral out of control if it reaches Chinas secretive internment camps, where former detainees have recounted squalid conditions.

The camps have been described by the Chinese government as 're-education' facilities for Uighur Muslims - GREG BAKER/AFP

As many as 20 are crammed into a cell with bathroom access severely restricted, former detainees have told the Telegraph. Inside, they were subjected to extreme physical torture and political indoctrination, including being electrocuted by cattle prods and subjected to body cavity searches.

The poor treatment and torture they endure make detainees very vulnerable and susceptible to the virus, said Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, an advocacy group based in Germany.

Many Uighurs have already died from medical neglect in the camps, said Mr Isa, demanding China to shutter the facilities. It will be a humanitarian disaster if the virus spreads in the camps...if it has not happened already.

Detainees  who disappear into the camps for praying, fasting, growing a beard, wearing a headscarf, or even traveling abroad  would be at risk if security guards contracted the virus and infected those locked inside.

Story continues

China, however, has claimed the camps are necessary to rehabilitate would-be terrorists.

There are also concerns that Chinese officials may not divulge the full scale of infections.

When the outbreak first happened, the Chinese Communist Party increased its already overbearing control and censorship on information coming from East Turkestan, said Mr Isa, a term that refers to Xinjiang.

At least 435 Uighur intellectuals have been imprisoned or forcibly disappeared since April 2017, according to the Uighur Human Rights Project - FREDERIC J. BROWN /AFP

Some Uighurs reject the name Xinjiang, meaning new frontier in Mandarin, as it presents a Chinese perspective on the region rather than reference its Turkic roots.

The Chinese governments response to the pandemic has consistently not been transparent and the CCP puts its reputation over the lives and well-being of those under its control, he said.

A separate cluster outbreak has also sprung up in the northeast of China, centred around a seafood processing plant in Dalian, a major port city.

Chinese officials have again declared a wartime mode to contain the new outbreaks in China, instituting strict lockdowns and enforcing mass testing.

The governments pledge to get to zero cases have thus far been continually thwarted by repeated resurgence of the virus in different pockets across the country.
A middle school in central China has sparked outrage online after it allegedly promoted chastity to its pupils by displaying puritanical posts on the campus.

Pictures emerged online show a huge signboard at the schools playground with messages claiming that chaste women have smarter children and people who masturbate are poor and cheap.

Other posts warned students to refrain themselves from having sex before marriage and encouraged girls to wear modest clothing.

The picture shows a huge signboard at the schools playground with messages claiming that chaste women have smarter children and people who masturbate are poor and cheap

A middle school in central China's Henan province has sparked outrage online after it allegedly promoted chastity to its pupils by displaying puritanical posts on the campus. This file picture taken on July 10 shows students studying in a classroom at a high school in Wuhan city

Tens of thousands of Chinese web users were angered by the schools message board, slamming the institution as ignorant and backward.

The Zhipu Middle School in Henan province came under heavy criticism after images of the puritanical posts recently emerged on Chinese social media.

According to scientific research, chaste women have smarter children. If a woman does not cheat (on her spouse), her children born during the marriage will usually have an IQ that is over 20 points higher than hers, while the offspring of promiscuous people will have very low IQs, one of the signs read.

Another paragraph warned: If you cant stop masturbating completely, you will never become successful and bring honour to your ancestors.

Many of those displayed statements claimed to have been supported scientific research but without actually citing any sources.

The posts have sparked outrage on Chinese social media, with many netizens blasting the school ignorant and backward.

The Zhipu Middle School (pictured) in Henan province came under heavy criticism after images of the school's signboard with puritanical posts emerged on Chinese social media

The posts being displayed at the school's playground in Henan have sparked outrage on Chinese social media, with many netizens blasting the school ignorant and backward

One commenter wrote: How is this still happening in 2020? Wake up, we are not in the Qing dynasty anymore.

Another one replied: This is so ignorant and backward. They dont deserve to educate children!

A third web user said: This is disgusting. The school needs to be investigated.

The local government said that the controversial posts had been removed from Zhipu Middle School in a statement issued today.

The local government said that the controversial posts had been removed from Zhipu Middle School in a statement issued today. This file picture taken on July 11 shows students wearing face masks with blessing messages during a graduation ceremony at a school in Nanjing

The authorities claimed that the signboard had been put up by a local resident without permission.

The notice said: The school playground is accessible to the school and the public. It is usually used by the school during school hours, and the passage to the playground is closed after school and during holidays.

[After school], residents carry out fitness and cultural activities there. The signboard at the south-western corner of the playground was recently installed by a local villager, Xing, without permission, the officials said.
This week, Bloomberg reported that members of Joe Bidens presidential campaign were instructed to delete the social media app TikTok from their phones. The wildly popular video app has now been the subject of bipartisan censure. On July 6, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the administration was looking at an outright ban of the app, and days later White House adviser Peter Navarro said the Trump administration will take strong action against it and WeChat for engaging in information warfare against the US.

As analysts have pointed out, banning TikTok lies beyond the realm of possibility for the current US government, but the saber-rattling against the soft power of software accountable to the Chinese government is likely to get louder.

The growth of the Chinese tech sector, and its reach and influence in the US, will be key talking points for Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg when he appears (virtually) in congressional hearings tomorrow to defend the size and power of large American technology companies.

The rise of TikTok has also recently kicked off a debate among journalists and publishers about the safety and ethics of using and promoting the platform without giving adequate weight to the myriad of ways it might ultimately be compromised.

Although more heinous data breaches have occurred recently at Twitter, and the consensus is that Facebook is at least as leaky with personal data, TikToks status as a Chinese-owned company puts use of the appand attendant risks and ethical concernsin a different category. TikToks parent company, the Chinese internet giant ByteDance, is based in Beijing; under Chinas 2015 National Security Law, the Chinese government can compel ByteDance to share user data that is deemed relevant to perceived national security threats. To avoid the appearance of being compromised, TikTok was separated from ByteDances Chinese version of the app, Douyin, which exclusively operates in China. TikTok stores data in the US and Singapore, so theoretically it doesnt have to comply with Chinese law. However, there is no way of knowing whether data might in the future be passed to servers in China, or how robust ByteDance would be in response to domestic government pressure.

In comparison to other social platforms, journalists and news outlets rarely use TikTok as a way of reaching audiences of their own. Two notable exceptions, each with hundreds of thousands of followers, are Taylor Lorenz, the New York Times technology reporter, and the Washington Post, whose official TikTok account is run by Dave Jorgensen. It is hard to imagine how anyone could maintain a job as a technology or culture reporter at the moment without spending at least some time on an app that has been downloaded two billion times and is growing far faster in popularity with US teens than any other platform.

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Francesco Zaffarano, senior social media editor at the UKs Telegraph newspaper, curates a list of publishers and journalists who have created a presence on the platform, and says that such growth on the platform has been sporadic and slow. Over direct message, Zaffarano told me he thinks the slow uptake on TikTok owes to a number of factorsnot least that it is hard to make an app primarily known for singing and dancing a core part of a newsroom strategy. While the Chinese ownership of the app is definitely a concern for publishers, he says, the lack of an obvious business strategy attached to the app is more pressing.

This might be a stretch, Zaffarano says. But I am not sure that publishers are happy to dive into a platform that requires you to produce video you cannot easily use for other purposes.

With the Trump administration in full-throated pursuit of Chinese trade on a number of fronts, it is tempting to write off the social media aspect of this as a xenophobic and partisan witch hunt. But this would be just as simplistic as assuming that US companies are accountable and transparent in their own practices by default. I asked David Kaye, the outgoing UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, how he viewed the arguments that place TikTok in the same category as Facebook. I think both kinds of companies raise serious concerns, he said, but they are different ones. While our sharing with Facebook, and its mining of our data, ultimately seems inconsistent with the publics interest in regulating these kinds of activities (and involves a lot of personal and social compromises), TikTok introduces the problem of governmental surveillance and data sharing. I have to say that I do not know how much access the Chinese government enjoys. So thats a big empirical question. But assuming government access as with other companies, it is a serious security concern.

Kaye notes that those at risk are not necessarily those outside China (with important exceptions), but journalists should still make special considerations when using the platform. Can my kids be on the platform and make goofy videos without worrying about Chinas access to their data? Sure. Can a journalist covering China or things of interest to Beijing? Thats harder to say. I think we, or at least I, dont know enough about TikToks relationship with the government to know. But I would be cautious and, as a journalist, do my own analysis of the potential concerns Id have. In some ways thats not all that different than considerations regarding Facebook. Make your decisions according to your own threat concerns.

One of the beneficial aspects of the current political arguments over social media is that they force more newsrooms to confront what, in the long term, corporate relationships with third-party platforms might entail. Only a small handful of newsrooms to datemost notably, the recent startup The Markuphave made ethical and privacy concerns regarding the use of technology central to how to design and run their operations. The TikTok debate within newsrooms might have a generational aspect to it, but it also forces more important conversations about what relationship journalism should adopt with technology platforms. And that concern is universal.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Emily Bell is a frequent CJR contributor and the director of Columbias Tow Center for Digital Journalism. Previously, she oversaw digital publishing at The Guardian.
Task Force Koa Moana 20 deploys to strengthen relationships in Indo-Pacific

US Marine Corps News

27 Jul 2020 | 1st Lt. Oscar Castro I Marine Expeditionary Force

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Task Force Koa Moana 20, comprised of U.S. Marines and Sailors from I Marine Expeditionary Force, deployed to the Indo-Pacific to conduct theater security cooperation activities in the Republic of Palau from July to September 2020.

Task Force Koa Moana 20 is embarked aboard the expeditionary fast ship United States Naval Ship City of Bismarck (EPF 9), composed of approximately 100 U.S. Marines and Sailors from 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Logistics Group, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, and I MEF Information Group. The Task Force is task-organized into multiple detachments with expertise in medical, engineering, law enforcement, and explosives ordnance disposal.

Koa Moana 20 provides a unique opportunity to enhance relationships with the Republic of Palau. The Task Force is prepared to conduct projects and exchanges on the island of Peleliu and the capitol island, Koror, in order to affirm the U.S. commitment to the Compact of Free Association and to enhance interoperability when responding to Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief operations. Additionally, the Task Force stands ready to conduct key leader engagements and provide subject matter expert exchanges as required.

Koa Moana, which means "Ocean Warrior," is designed to strengthen and enhance relationships between the U.S. and partner nations in the Indo-Pacific region, improve interoperability with local security establishments, and serve as a Humanitarian Assistance Survey Team afloat in support of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command strategic and operational objectives.

Task Force Koa Moana 20 diligently planned and adhered to strict COVID-19 mitigation measures to include pre-deployment quarantine, screening, and testing. On June 23, before embarkation, all Marines and Sailors tested negative for COVID-19. During the transit, the Task Force implemented strict mitigation measures as well. Upon arrival to Palau, Task Force personnel were retested by the Ministry of Health. All Marines and Sailors tested negative for COVID-19. Task Force Koa Moana 20 extends their gratitude to the Palau Ministry of Health for their professionalism and service in this joint effort to keep Palau healthy.

As an extra precaution, the Task Force will work on Peleliu to repair the airfield for 14 days and will have no close contact with residents. This will serve as a quarantine period, and at the conclusion of the 14-day period the Task Force will be retested for a third time before having contact with Palau's residents. Additionally, the Task Force will continuously monitor the health of all assigned service members throughout the deployment. The health and safety of U.S. service members and Palauan citizens is our priority.

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Amazon CEO will testify before a congressional antitrust committee for the first time on Wednesday, alongside Sundar Pichai, Tim Cook, and Mark Zuckerberg.

While experts told Business Insider they expect the questioning to mostly pertain to matters of competition, Bezos will likely be grilled on everything from how Amazon treats third-party sellers to the company's approach to acquisitions.

The hearing may come at a challenging time for Bezos, who recently added $13 billion to his net worth in a single day as the coronavirus still surges in parts of the US, contributing to widespread job losses.

Bezos will need to downplay Amazon's size and power in favor of highlighting the benefit the company provides to small businesses and the communities it operates in.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

He's appeared in a Star Trek movie, built a $42 million, 10,000-year clock in the desert, and survived a helicopter crash. But on Wednesday, Jeff Bezos will do something he's never done before: testify before Congress.

Amazon's 56-year-old founder and CEO has been called to testify before the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, which has spent the past year examining the business practices and market power of the nation's largest tech firms.

Though Bezos will likely testify virtually, via videoconference, he will be flanked  in a manner of speaking  by his peers: Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Bezos' fellow CEOs have all previously appeared before Congress in some capacity. More than 25 years after founding Amazon however, Bezos has somehow avoided a congressional hearing  until now.

His debut appearance is sure to draw a wide range of questions from lawmakers eager to drill into the company's vast business empire, explore its dominance of ecommerce, and to put a spotlight on Bezos' power and influence.

Story continues

Whether Bezos appears on Capitol Hill in person or on a video screen, the one thing that's practically certain is that he will be on the hot seat.

Here are some of the main topics and issues to watch for when Bezos testifies, beginning at Noon Eastern Time on Wednesday July 29:

Questioning Amazon's dominance

Amazon Seattle headquarters

John Moore/Getty Images

While members of the committee will likely ask questions that apply to all of the disparate businesses represented by the four CEOs, Bezos should expect Amazon to be singled out for some tough lines of questioning.

Avery Gardiner, general counsel and senior fellow for competition, data, and power at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit that works to shape tech policy, told Business Insider she expects Bezos will, first and foremost, have to supply answers to inquiries relating to Amazon's private-label business.

A Wall Street Journal report from April found that Amazon was using trend data gleaned from third-party sellers in order to develop its own private-label products. While offering private-label products in stores is nothing new, the committee is likely to explore whether Amazon wields more power as a digital marketplace than a brick-and-mortar store would.

By extension, Bezos will likely be asked who he sees as Amazon's most robust competitors  in that case, Gardiner said, we're likely to hear a lot about how Amazon competes with Walmart.

Gardiner said she also expects to see Bezos, Zuckerberg, Cook, and Pichai questioned about their companies' acquisition strategies, given that CEOs are typically heavily involved in M&A activity. It's a timely line of questioning given that the Wall Street Journal reported last week that Amazon has implemented a strategy of meeting with and investing in startups, only to later make products that directly compete with them.

"There has been concern that the tech giants are using acquisitions to take out small competitors, so that's an area that the members of Congress could ask CEOs about that they will actually have the right, relevant people to give the answer," Gardiner said.

Workers prepare orders for customers at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Tracy, California, November 29, 2015.

Reuters/Fred Greaves

Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and an outspoken critic of Amazon's effect on small businesses, told Business Insider that she expects Bezos to face a tough cross-examination from the committee. Looking at the antitrust hearing last summer as an example, in which lawmakers grilled high-level executives from all four companies, Mitchell noted that they devoted a significant amount of questions and aggressive follow-ups to Amazon  she expects Bezos to receive the same treatment.

Amazon's shipping business will be in the spotlight

Mitchell told Business Insider she predicts Bezos will be questioned about Amazon's logistics and shipping business, pointing to Fulfillment by Amazon, a service where sellers ship their products to a fulfillment center to be packed and shipped, as a way that Amazon wields power over vendors. A March report from Recode's Jason Del Rey found that Amazon was hiding products from sellers that offered faster shipping but didn't use Amazon's FBA service, which the company said was unintentional.

"The algorithm that controls who gets the 'Buy Box,' who is chosen as the default seller for a particular product, appears to include a couple of components that make it essential, really, to use Fulfillment by Amazon," Mitchell said. "That is a way that it has effectively leveraged its monopoly power as an online marketplace to build a dominant business in a completely different industry."

Mitchell also predicts Bezos will be grilled about counterfeit goods on Amazon's site, the tactics it uses to encourage sellers to offer lower prices on Amazon over other platforms, and whether it's using sponsored ads to squeeze more money out of vendors.

What we shouldn't expect, however, is wild grandstanding from public officials. In past hearings, lawmakers have appeared to use the opportunity question CEOs like Zuckerberg or Pichai on issues unrelated to the matter at hand. But the antitrust hearing will be different, Mitchell believes, because it's the culmination of a year-long investigation into these companies.

"What I'm assuming is on the committee's mind is getting to the bottom of questions that Amazon has dodged answering so far," Mitchell said. "I anticipate that the lawmakers are not going to be necessarily focusing on the most headline-y types of questions because they want to put Jeff Bezos under oath in order to compel him to actually answer a set of questions that they have as part of this investigation."

'It's all interconnected'

Amazon workers protesting the company's policies during the coronavirus pandemic on May 1 in Hawthorne, California.

Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images

Bezos' testimony is coming at what could be a challenging moment for the CEO. Earlier this month, Bezos added $13 billion to his fortune in a single day, his highest-ever one-day increase. With a net worth nearing $190 billion, he remains on track to becoming the first trillionaire by 2026.

While Mitchell said it's unlikely Bezos will face direct questioning about his wealth, it's becoming more difficult to separate his wealth and Amazon's power.

"He's built basically a big toll booth, or several big toll booths across several streams of commerce. It's a very remarkable and incredibly powerful place to be," Mitchell said. "There is this relationship, I think, between Amazon's gatekeeper power as core infrastructure for the economy and the company's ability to levy those tolls, and thus, Bezos' wealth. I think it's all interconnected."

The issue becomes thornier given the continuing financial impacts of the coronavirus crisis, which resulted in nearly 53 million unemployment claims filed over the past few months, more than during the Great Recession. While Amazon expanded hiring and increased pay early on in the pandemic, it has also fired workers after they spoke out about working conditions in the company's facilities during the outbreak. And it's not the first time Amazon has been criticized for worker treatment  warehouse workers and delivery drivers have long complained of the grueling cost of working for the company.

Bezos' personal wealth may make him a target, but he could flip the script and cast himself as a small business savior

Though not necessarily issues of antitrust, it's possible Bezos will be unable to avoid the juxtaposition of his wealth with the humans who power Amazon.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speaks during an address to attendees at Access Intelligence's SATELLITE 2017 conference in Washington, U.S., March 7, 2017.

REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

While Bezos will be in the hot seat, however, we can also expect him to come prepared to push back on some of the issues at question. In the past, Bezos hasn't backed down from his goal to keep expanding Amazon's business, and has touted the ability of big business to revolutionize products and industries in a way that benefits consumers. While he's receptive to scrutiny of Amazon's business, he's said, Bezos has also argued that politicians and lawmakers shouldn't "vilify" large companies either.

"All big institutions of any kind will be and should be scrutinized. It's not personal. It's kind of what we want to have as a society happen," Bezos said during an interview at the Economic Club in Washington, D.C. in 2018. "There are certain things that only big companies can do. Nobody in their garage is going to build an all-fiber fuel-efficient Boeing 787."

Gardiner predicted that Bezos will downplay Amazon's size and power in favor of talking up the benefit the company provides to its vendors and the communities it operates in.

"I'm expecting that we'll hear a lot about empowering small businesses to get a broader reach for their products," Gardiner said. "I think we'll hear about efforts around COVID to stop the pandemic and donations they've made in their local communities. I'm expecting we'll hear a lot from Amazon about the benefits of free shipping and the ability to shop from home being important, particularly in a pandemic."

And given the high-profile nature of the hearing and the current cultural moment, it's likely that more people will be paying attention. Particularly given Bezos' customer-obsessed mantra, it's likely his answers won't be just for the benefit of the congressmen and women present, but for Amazon's customers too.

"They do have an opportunity here to stand up and say what they do that they think benefits Americans," Gardiner said. "I think [he] will be very good at finding the opportunities to say all the things they do that they want Americans to hear about."

Read the original article on Business Insider
 Flash

China, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal on Monday agreed to work together to fight COVID-19 and resume economy.

The agreement came when Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted a conference of foreign ministers of the four countries via video link.

Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan Mohammed Haneef Atmar, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistani Minister for Economic Affairs Khusro Bakhtyar and Nepali Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali attended the video conference.

Wang said that as a neighbor and partner, China stands ready to continue to work with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal to overcome difficulties, safeguard people's health, promote the resumption of work and production and enhance people's livelihood until final victory over COVID-19.

Wang proposed that the four countries consolidate consensus of solidarity against COVID-19, carry out joint cooperation mechanism on COVID-19 response in the region, enhance cooperation in the fight against the pandemic and in vaccine, and accelerate economic recovery and development after the pandemic.

Ministers from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal said the three sides are willing to deepen cooperation with China to fight COVID-19, ensure the flow of trade and transport corridors, facilitate people-to-people and trade connection, build a "silk road of health" and community of a shared future for humanity.
OTTAWAAs the clock ticks down to September, a new poll suggests many Canadian parents are on the fence about whether to send their kids to school if and when classrooms are reopened.

The poll by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies comes as provincial governments are working on how to get students back into classrooms, most of which have been shuttered since mid-March due to COVID-19.

Fifty-nine per cent of respondents with children said they would send their kids to school if there is some type of classroom instruction at least a few days a week. But 18 per cent said they would keep children at home while the remaining 23 per cent said they didnt know.

The Leger online poll of 1,517 Canadians over age 18  of which 391 were parents with children in their households  took place July 24 to 26. The poll cannot be given a margin of error because it is not a random sample.

Were five weeks away from whats a normal back-to-school time and still a quarter of parents dont know what theyll do, Leger vice-president Christian Bourque said, adding: A lot of it is still up in the air because provinces have really not made all their decisions.

Many provinces have yet to decide whether to reopen schools and, if so, whether to do so full-time or with some type of hybrid model involving some in-class instruction possibly bolstered by online courses.

Parents in Quebec were most likely to say they planned to send their children back to school. The province reopened schools outside Montreal in the spring, with voluntary attendance. Parents in Alberta were most likely to keep their kids home while those in B.C. were most likely to be undecided.

Parents were more united on implementing safeguards to prevent students and teachers from contracting COVID-19, including mandatory temperature checks for children (82 per cent support), protective masks for school staff (81 per cent) and screening questionnaires (77 per cent).

Two-thirds were also supportive of students having to wear masks. Support for the measure was strongest in Ontario, which has seen a resurgence in COVID-19 cases in the past week, and weakest in Atlantic Canada, which has seen far fewer cases.

All of this in terms of trying to protect staff and children seems to be making sense to parents, Bourque said. People still feel the importance of safety first, protection first, over the fun of being in school.

Respondents were also asked how they would respond to a student or teacher in their childs class testing positive for COVID-19. Forty-five per cent said they would respond by following the schools advice, while half said they would keep them home for at least two weeks (30 per cent) or indefinitely (20 per cent).

And while many parents had plans for juggling some type of school schedule or model that will see students stay at home at least part of the time, 13 per cent said they did not know what they would do and 16 per cent said they would alternate going into work with a spouse.

This will require a lot of flexibility from employers in the fall because most people expect that we will be confronted with some type of hybrid model of how our children go back to school, Bourque said.

Forty-one per cent of all respondents said they would be more worried about personally contracting COVID-19 if schools reopen while 48 per cent said it did not change their fears either way. Bourque suggested that was a reflection of already-high concerns about the illness.

Fifty-seven per cent of respondents said they were somewhat or very afraid of getting COVID-19 versus 41 per cent who were not.
Rating Action: Moody's assigns Ba3 rating to Leviathan Bond's senior secured notes, outlook stable

Global Credit Research - 27 Jul 2020

First-time Rating

London, 27 July 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has today assigned a Ba3 rating to $2.25 billion proposed senior secured notes to be issued by Leviathan Bond Ltd. (Leviathan Bond). The outlook on the rating is stable. This is the first time Moody's has assigned a rating to Leviathan Bond.

Leviathan Bond is a special purpose vehicle and the notes are secured on Delek Drilling Limited Partnership's (Delek Drilling) 45.34% working interest in the Leviathan gas project in Israeli waters and associated assets.

RATINGS RATIONALE

The Ba3 rating reflects, as positives, the substantial gas reserves in the Leviathan gas reservoir, which had 1P proved reserves of 322.4 billion cubic meters as of 30 June 2020, and the minimal anticipated ongoing maintenance capital requirements to maintain stable production. It is the largest gas reserve in Israel (Government of Israel, A1 stable) and an important contributor to the country's energy security. Based on forecast production, the sponsor expects the field to have an operating life of over 30 years.

The rating further benefits from long-term offtake agreements covering a substantial share of production until 2030, including minimum take-or-pay quantities and floor prices that mitigate exposure to weak Brent oil prices. However, the value of these agreements is limited by the weak credit quality of the offtakers, the largest of which are the National Electric Power Company, owned by the Government of Jordan (B1 stable) and Dolphinus Holdings, a new entity formed to import gas to Egypt (Government of Egypt, B2 stable).

The Leviathan field faces intense competition from other Israeli gas suppliers, including the Tamar field, which creates risk of oversupply in the regional market despite growing demand in Israel as electricity generation transitions from coal to gas. If offtakers exercise volume reduction options included in these agreements, volumes and/or achieved prices may decline below levels Moody's currently anticipates.

Story continues

The rating is also constrained by Leviathan Bond's significant and frequent refinancing requirements. Debt Reserve and Principal Reserve Funds are small relative to the outstanding debt and, in the case of the Principal Reserve Fund, unfunded until twelve months before each bond maturity. Moody's expects that Leviathan Bond will need to refinance a significant share of each maturity, and notes that management has significant discretion to maintain or increase leverage, subject to certain covenants and a cap of $2.5 billion. The proposed financing terms include fewer creditor protections than many other rated project financing transactions. Specifically, there are limited creditor step in and remedy rights and a single financial ratio covenant that relies on a third-party consultant's estimate of future profits.

The rating also takes into consideration the reservoir's location in a region and country exhibiting significant geopolitical risk, and operational problems in the first seven months of production, although Moody's expects these to be manageable and notes that they have not resulted in any major outages to date. Delek Drilling and the operator, Noble Energy Mediterranean Ltd, a subsidiary of Noble Energy, Inc. (Baa3 RUR-UPG), have a strong track record at the neighbouring Tamar field (22% owned by Delek Drilling and financed through Delek & Avner (Tamar Bond) Ltd., Baa3 negative) and the former Mari B field.

Although the project's long production life is a credit positive, debt may decline slowly if management chooses to prioritise distributions, and leverage may remain high into the late 2030s, when uncertainty over global gas demand will increase.

RATIONALE FOR STABLE OUTLOOK

The stable outlook reflects Moody's expectation that Leviathan Bond will achieve improving financial metrics, in particular the ratio of Funds From Operations (FFO) to debt, based on Delek Drilling's share of the Leviathan project's cash flow, supported by a successful ramp-up to full production and progressive deleveraging.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

The ratings could be upgraded if Leviathan Bond achieved FFO/debt sustainably above 25%, or if the Leviathan partners entered into material new take-or-pay gas sale and purchase agreements with high-quality offtakers that improved cash flow visibility.

The ratings could be downgraded if FFO/debt appeared likely to fall below the mid-teens in percentage terms, if cash flow visibility deteriorated, if targeted production levels were not achieved or subsequently disrupted, or if appears that Leviathan Bond will be unable to refinance maturities in a timely fashion.

The principal methodology used in these ratings was Generic Project Finance Methodology published in November 2019 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1194215. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

The Leviathan gas field is an operating deepwater field in the Eastern Mediterranean off the coast of Israel. In February 2014, the Leviathan partners were granted a production lease for a term of 30 years with a 20-year extension option. At 30 June 2020, the field had 322 billion cubic metres of proven (1P) gas reserves.

Leviathan Bond Ltd. is a special purpose vehicle established to issue bonds secured by a first priority fixed pledge of Delek Drilling's 45.34% working interest in the Leviathan gas project as well as certain associated assets. Recourse against Delek Drilling is limited to the collateral pledged by the sponsor.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.

For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action, and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action, the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity. Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures, if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.

The ratings have been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent(s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.

These ratings are solicited. Please refer to Moody's Policy for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on its website www.moodys.com.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.

At least one ESG consideration was material to the credit rating action(s) announced and described above.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.

Graham Taylor VP - Senior Credit Officer Infrastructure Finance Group Moody's Investors Service Ltd. One Canada Square Canary Wharf London E14 5FA United Kingdom JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456 Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454 Neil Griffiths-Lambeth Associate Managing Director Infrastructure Finance Group JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456 Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service Ltd. One Canada Square Canary Wharf London E14 5FA United Kingdom JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456 Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454

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Increasingly reported cases of illegal entry along Vietnams northern border with China have complicated the countrys efforts to prevent a second wave of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as its 99-day streak of no local transmission was broken over the weekend.

Many people have been caught entering Vietnam against the law on land as well as at sea over the past months.

An official from the Coc Nam Border Guard Office in northern Lang Son Province told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Sunday that supervision and management along the local border have remained tightened since the epidemic broke out in early 2020.

A total of 16 checkpoints have been established to prevent illegal entry and other crimes in the border area.

However, smugglers have been blazing dozens of new trails from China into the Vietnamese province, making the job of thinly stretched border guard officers much more difficult.

The Coc Nam Border Guard Office has detected two cases of illegal entry since the beginning of July and made arrests of five Chinese suspects. All of them have been handed over to authorities in China.

According to another border guard official in Lang Son, suspects in both China and Vietnam have been colluding to arrange for people to enter the Southeast Asian country unlawfully.

Meanwhile, the Tra Co Border Guard Office in the northern province of Quang Ninh reported they had busted five cases of illegal border crossing involving five Vietnamese and 12 Chinese nationals since June.

Authorities in Hai Ha District and Mong Cai City in Quang Ninh have also recorded hundreds of similar cases.

Most of the people crossing the border were Vietnamese citizens who had been working illegally in China or been married to Chinese husbands, while the rest were Chinese nationals.

Since the beginning of this month, Quang Ninh authorities have discovered ten separate cases where 127 people attempted to cross the China-Vietnam border illegally.

Many Chinese suspects claimed they had planned to sneak into the Vietnamese province to organize gambling at local hotels.

Without undergoing mandatory COVID-19 quarantine as per Vietnams regulations, such illegal aliens pose a risk of spreading the coronavirus into Vietnam while those detected place pressure on the capacity of local isolation facilities.

The Quang Ninh Peoples Committee has ordered relevant agencies to tighten management along the border as one of the important tasks in COVID-19 prevention and control efforts.

Vietnam recorded its first local transmission of COVID-19 after 99 days on Saturday, a Da Nang resident who had not traveled outside of the central city in a month.

Fourteen more cases have since been confirmed in Da Nang and the central province of Quang Ngai, including 11 announced on Monday who were all linked to Da Nang Hospital where the initial patient had visited this month.

Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said Monday the virus strain detected in the new wave of patients is not among the five strains of the novel coronavirus previously identified in Vietnam.

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Victorian contact tracers are still failing to notify people exposed to COVID-19 as the state's outbreak grows and Melburnians who want to be tested are turned away.

A doctor employed at a state Health Department testing site said parents at the Gladstone Park Secondary College - which recorded a positive case on July 14 - had only been notified on Monday that their children were close contacts and should be tested.

Contact tracers are struggling to keep up with COVID-19 cases in Melbourne. Credit:Getty

"The Department of Health and Human Services have told the school to do their own contact tracing because they are too busy," the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

But restrictions on asymptomatic testing brought in last week mean that Victorians alerted by their school or workplace of an outbreak are not able to access a COVID-19 test unless they have symptoms.
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On Monday, July 27 at 12.30pm, Flac will officially launch Irelands only dedicated Traveller Legal Service.

Supported by The Community Foundation for Ireland and in cooperation with a Steering Group made up of representation from the national Traveller organisations, it aims to empower Travellers and Traveller groups to engage with the law as a means of combating discrimination and advancing the rights of Travellers in Irish Society.

Travellers experience poor life outcomes across a range of indicators and experience one of the highest levels of discrimination in Irish society.

CFI had been working with a steering group made up of Traveller organisations on the establishment of a dedicated legal Traveller service. FLAC worked with the Traveller Steering Group on the design of the service and The Community Foundation for Ireland has agreed to fund this initiative which comprises a full-time solicitor, Christopher McCann for three years. Referrals to the Service will come through national and local Traveller organisations.

Maria Joyce, National Traveller Womens Forum Co-ordinator stated: The legal system plays a key role in the promotion and protection of equality and human rights for all. However, given the levels of racism, discrimination and inequality experienced by Travellers full enjoyment of these rights often requires that they are enforced and clarified by the Courts to ensure they are effective. I welcome the development of this service which we hope will lead to increased access to legal Justice for Travellers.

Eilis Barry, FLAC CE stated: "FLAC is delighted to work with the Steering group on the establishment of this much needed dedicated legal service for the Traveller Community. The project recognises that the law can be a tool to protect and enforce rights, access to justice should result in better life outcomes in terms of accommodation, and better educational and health outcomes.

It is anticipated that the major issues that the service will deal with will be about access to housing, access to emergency housing and discrimination claims. With limited resources available, there will be an emphasis on taking cases that will have impact - e.g. Failure of local authorities to draw down funding for accommodation and implement Traveller Accommodation programmes, access to emergency accommodation. There is good protective legislation there and we will be trying to enforce that. However, legislation can also be used oppressively to deny rights and the legislation on evictions and criminal trespass will also be a focus of the service.

Martin Collins from Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre said: The legal system is an essential part of an overall strategy in the promotion and protection of a Travellers equality and human rights."

The project will have an educational and advocacy role as well, with solicitor Christopher McCann preparing educational materials for the Traveller groups and advocating with the legal aid board to provide representation to Travellers.

"Flac are very grateful to the Community Foundation of Ireland for their support for this initiative. The long-term aim of the project is to persuade the State to provide such a service. The Legal Aid Board need to be resourced so it can take on housing and discrimination claims," Eilis Barry, CE, FLAC said.
Daily wagers and migrant workers were among the most vulnerable and the worst affected after the coronavirus pandemic crisis hit the country. Left jobless and saving dried up, they were forced to leave cities and get back to their hometowns.

However, even after facing such acute adversities, many migrant labourers are still doing the most they can to help in the fight against COVID-19.

Fifty six-year-old Kapil Singh lost his job when in the textile market pushing him into abject poverty and was later infected by the virus. However, his spirit was not shaken.

However, Singh, a migrant labour from Bihar who is living in Surat, recovered and even during his struggle, he helped others fighting COVID by donating plasma.

AFP

A doctor at IHBT, SMIMER told TOI that Singh did not have any money to pay for a rickshaw ride and the hospital bore the costs.

Singh is just one among the many jobless and penniless migrant workers in Surat who have become the icons of humanity through their deeds.

Doctors said they have received plasma from migrant workers, daily wagers, security guards, ambulance drivers, among many others earning paltry salaries but rich in gratitude.

I was working as a labourer in a textile market, but lost my job. I am fortunate to have recovered from COVID, so I thought the least I could do is to donate plasma for others, Singh told TOI.

Doctors were overwhelmed when a 52-year-old power-loom worker from Odisha, Bipin Mahapatra, too walked in to donate his plasma.

REUTERS

His wife encouraged him to donate plasma. She wanted to donate as well but she is a mother of a young child and as per the guidelines, she can't donate.

State governments across the country are encouraging people to donate plasma.



Convalescent plasma therapy involves transfusion of specific components from the blood of people recovered from COVID-19 -- at least 14 days after their complete recovery -- into those who have contracted the disease virus or are in the high-risk category.

Plasma is the almost-clear liquid left behind after red and white blood cells and platelets are removed from the blood.
* Graphic: World FX rates http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh * Graphic: Foreign flows into Asian stocks https://tmsnrt.rs/3f2vwbA * S. Korean stocks enjoy best day since June 16 * Indonesia stocks lag peers * Thailand markets shut for holiday By Shashwat Awasthi July 28 (Reuters) - Stock markets gained across Asia on Tuesday as hopes for a dovish message from the U.S. Federal Reserve this week outweighed growing concerns about how the Philippines and other regional economies are dealing with renewed coronavirus outbreaks. In a morning session which saw some recovery for the U.S. dollar after days of concern over events in the United States and a diplomatic spat with China, currencies across the region's emerging markets were mixed and even the bigger moves limited to 0.1-0.2% shifts. Stock markets in India, Malaysia and South Korea all saw strong gains, however, and the Philippines recovered from an initial crash following President Rodrigo Duterte's State of the Nation speech to rise almost 1%. Jeffrey Halley, market analyst at trading platform OANDA, said Asian stocks would remain supported ahead of the Fed's meeting on Wednesday. "Equity markets should continue to perform well with only headline risk, and not data risk, to cause a sudden change in the narrative," he said. In the address on Monday night, Duterte defended his approach to fighting the pandemic even as new cases continue to climb, while threatening to close or have the government take over telecom firms that he accused of "lousy" services. The peso, which has overlooked rising local infections and fresh U.S.-China tensions and strengthened for the last six weeks, eased as much as 0.3% before steadying. "Amidst the uncertainties brought about by the rising (virus) cases, the government has yet to provide sufficient details on the fiscal stimulus and recovery roadmap," said Jennifer Mae V. Lomboy, a fund manager at First Metro Asset Management, predicting more losses as corporate earnings flow in. Second-quarter gross domestic product data due next week is also expected to show a steep fall. Indonesian stocks underperformed, however, edging 0.2% lower as the country's total number of coronavirus cases topped 100,000. Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0706 GMT COUNTRY FX RIC FX DAILY % FX YTD % INDEX STOCKS DAILY % STOCKS YTD % Japan -0.12 +2.95 -0.26 -4.22 China -0.02 -0.52 0.54 5.65 India +0.12 -4.50 0.92 -7.68 Indonesia +0.07 -4.14 -0.24 -18.97 Malaysia +0.06 -3.73 0.71 0.88 Philippines -0.12 +2.99 1.13 -24.16 S.Korea -0.07 -3.38 1.76 2.70 Singapore -0.01 -2.49 0.36 -19.79 Taiwan +0.81 +2.86 -0.01 4.91 Thailand 0.00 -5.59 0.00 -15.12 (Reporting by Shashwat Awasthi and A K Pranav in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
Ensure EV subsidy policy supports domestic car manufacturers



Tesla Motors, which drastically expanded its share of Korea's electric vehicle market in the first half of the year, is expected to account for half of the government-issued EV subsidies. According to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, the U.S. carmaker sold 7,080 EVs in Korea in the first six months, pushed its market share up to 43 percent, and took 90 billion won ($75 million),  nearly half of the total 200 billion won  in subsidies from the central and local governments.



The comparable market share for Tesla's Korean competitors  Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors  stood at 29 percent and 14 percent, respectively. While the domestic automakers faltered because of the delayed release of new models and other reasons, their foreign rivals increased their market share. It is not necessarily wrong for foreign carmakers to take the lion's share of subsidies. Korea should not set up discriminatory barriers running counter to global standards. However, at stake is how to upgrade the quality of local electric vehicles to be chosen by consumers in competition against imported products.



That said, the government needs to weigh its subsidy policy carefully. Policymakers should check whether the system is attaining the original goal of popularizing environment-friendly cars and creating harmony with the domestic industrial ecosystem. For example, some EV models of Tesla, Mercedes Benz, Audi and Jaguar are priced at 100 million won or more. It is questionable as to whether the government should be offering subsidies for such expensive cars. Officials should consider limiting them to mid- or low-priced models and inducing consumers to buy homemade EVs.



China, Germany and France are implementing their subsidy system in ways to benefit models made by their domestic companies. This year, the central and local governments will spend 1.2 trillion on subsidies for environmentally-friendlier cars. The government should operate the system more flexibly to promote the domestic industry and advance the popularity of environmental vehicles. Officials should ensure that massive amounts of taxpayers' money do not end up fattening only the pockets of foreign companies instead of creating jobs and promoting the industry.






A person walks past the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in San Francisco on July 23, 2020. (PHILIP PACHECO/AFP via Getty Images)

How Chinese Diplomatic Missions Covertly Work to Subvert the United States

Chinese diplomatic missions are a hotbed of spying and malign activity aimed at subverting the United States, experts warn, after the United States recently took unprecedented action in ordering the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston.

The consulate shut its doors last Friday after the administration accused it of being a hub of spying and intellectual property theft.

U.S. officials said during a July 24 press briefing that the Houston consulate was particularly aggressive and particularly successful in the theft of American research and technology. A senior state department official linked espionage activity from the consulate to the regimes pursuit of research into a vaccine for COVID-19. Houston is a hub for various high-tech fields including biomedical research.

According to a senior intelligence official, in the past 10 years, there were over 50 cases of Houston consular staff promoting and doing recruitment for Chinese state-backed talent plansespecially targeting research centers in the area. These talent programs, which aim to attract foreign experts to work in China, have been criticized for facilitating the transfer of research and know-how to benefit Beijing.

In one case, consular officials communicated with scientists at a Texas research institute, guiding them on what information to collect, a senior justice department official said.

David R. Stilwell, the State Departments head for East Asia and the Pacific, told The New York Times that the Houston consul-general and two other diplomats were caught on May 31 using false IDs to escort Chinese travelers onto a charter flight at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas.

A former Chinese diplomat and experts told The Epoch Times that such attempts to steal technology extend to all Chinese diplomatic missions around the world.

Chinese embassies and consulates are a focal point for [the regimes] espionage activities globally, said Nicholas Eftimiades, a former U.S. senior intelligence official and author of the book, Chinese Intelligence Operations.

He described the outposts as a hub for extending Chinese interestslegally and illegally.

While it is generally understood that every nations diplomatic missions conduct a certain level of spying in their host countries, the actions by Chinese embassy and consulate officials cross the line in their maliciousness and harm to U.S. national security, said James Carafano, vice president of the Heritage Foundations institute for national security and foreign policy.

Its completely disproportionate to what were doing, Carafano said, adding that at this point, it doesnt make any sense for us to ignore this.

The illegal activities carried out covertly from Chinese diplomatic missions are not just limited to economic and military espionage, experts noted. Chinese consulates and embassies are also command centers for the regimes vast influence operations abroad. Using techniques ranging from financial inducements to threats, the Chinese regime attempts to sway public opinion and coerce local elites to act in ways favorable to Beijing.

At the same time, diplomatic outposts work to suppress overseas dissidents and silence speech critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) across government, business, and academia. They coordinate united front groupssuch as overseas Chinese community, professional, and student bodiesto carry out Beijings operations.

Espionage

Chen Yonglin, a former senior diplomat at the Chinese consulate in Sydney, Australia who defected in 2005, told The Epoch Times that the Houston consulate was of high strategic importance to Beijing because of the high-tech sectors that are based in the Houston region, including the aeronautical, biomedical, and petroleum industries. Describing the CCP as a parasite, Chen said the Party relies on stealing American technology in these advanced fields to fuel its technological and economic growth.

FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) Director Christopher Wray recently said the agency has more than 2,000 investigations across the country linking to China. More than 80 percent of all economic espionage charges brought by federal prosecutors since 2012 implicated China, according to the Justice Department.

Eftimiades said that every consulate has oversight of and supports the regimes espionage activities in the host country. While there may be some acts of economic espionage they dont know about, they would be aware of most of them, he noted.

Consulates are supporting a network of undercover Chinese military officers studying at U.S. universities across 25 cities by giving them guidance on how to evade and obstruct law enforcement, a senior justice department official said in the press briefing. Recently, the FBI has made a string of arrests of Chinese students charged with visa fraud, for allegedly concealing their status as personnel from the regimes Peoples Liberation Army in their visa applications.

In a court document filed on July 20, prosecutors said that there exists evidence in at least one of these cases of a military scientist copying or stealing information from American institutions at the direction of military superiors in China.

They added that there was also evidence of the regime instructing these students to destroy evidence and coordinate efforts to evacuate them from the United States, particularly after June 7, when one Chinese national, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport while attempting to board a flight to China.

One of those charged was Tang Juan, a researcher at the University of California Davis, who fled to the Chinese consulate in San Francisco after being questioned by FBI agents on June 20. She was eventually taken into custody on July 23.

Another student charged was Song Chen, a visiting neurology researcher at Stanford University. According to court documents, the FBI recovered a deleted document from Songs hard drive that was a letter to the education section of the Chinese consulate in New York. In that letter, she explains that she planned to extend her studies in the United States for a year and that her listed employer, Beijings Xi Diaoyutai Hospital, was a front. She said she received an approval letter from the PLA Air Force, which was classified, so she couldnt send it online.

Besides playing a supporting role, Chinese officials have been implicated in more active collection efforts, particularly in recruitment drives.

Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai and a top Chinese diplomat in New York facilitated the covert recruitment of U.S. scientists to work in China, according to court documents unsealed in April.

In 2019, Liu Zhongsan, a Chinese national, was charged in relation to a scheme to fraudulently obtain U.S. research visas for Chinese government employees whose actual purpose was to allegedly recruit U.S. experts to work in China. Liu regularly coordinated his talent-recruitment activities with officials at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the Chinese consulate in New York, prosecutors said.

In September 2019, the United States expelled two Chinese Embassy officials who had driven onto a sensitive military base in Virginia. The officials reportedly had their wives with them as they drove through an entry checkpoint on the military base despite being denied permission, and evaded the military personnel who pursued them.

The Chinese consulate in San Francisco was also implicated in the case of Chung Dongfan, a former Boeing engineer who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing space shuttle secrets for Beijing in 2010. The consulate helped Chung send engineering manuals about the design of the B-1 bomber to China using a diplomatic pouch, prosecutors alleged.

Chinas permanent mission to the United Nations and the Chinese consulate in New York also paid Lin Ying, a manager at Chinese state-owned airline Air China, to smuggle luggage onboard flights for Chinese military officers assigned to the regimes mission at the United Nations. Lin, a U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty to acting as an agent for the regime in April 2019.

Malign Influence

Chinese consulates and embassies are key nodes in the regimes United Front network. The CCPs United Front Work Department, which is responsible for pushing the regimes agenda abroad, coordinates, through diplomatic outposts, thousands of groups around the world to carry out political influence operations, suppress dissident movements, and gather intelligence, according to a June report by think tank Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

They control Chinese Student and Scholars Associations (CSSA), Chinese student groups on U.S. college campuses and around the world. Many CSSAs openly say they are directed by or financed by local Chinese consulates. They have a long history of aggressively protesting events on campus that showcase views critical of Beijing, which raises concerns about their threats to academic freedom.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in a 2018 speech said CSSAs also alert Chinese consulates and embassies when Chinese students, and American schools, stray from the Communist Party line.

The education section at Chinese missions also oversee Confucius Institutes, state-backed language and cultural centers, established at dozens of American universities. The institutes have come under heavy criticism for spreading Beijing propaganda and stifling free speech.

Chinese diplomats themselves also attempt to pressure American policymakers to adopt pro-Beijing stances, using methods including bribery, blackmail, and covert deals, FBI Director Wray said.

Chinese diplomats also use both open, naked economic pressure and seemingly independent middlemen to push Chinas preferences on American officials, Wray said.

The director said they identify those closest to the targeted official, such as relatives and business associates, and attempt to influence the policymaker through them.

These intermediaries, of course, arent telling the American official that theyre Chinese Communist Party pawnsand worse still, some of these intermediaries may not even realize theyre being used as pawns, because they, too, have been deceived, he said.

Suppressing Dissent

As part of the CCPs efforts to silence and demonize its critics abroad, Chinese diplomats have aggressively targeted dissident groups, pressuring local politicians to distance themselves from these groups and orchestrating attacks.

Chen, who used to head the political affairs section of the Chinese consulate in Sydney, revealed in 2005 that one of the main tasks of consular staff was to monitor and suppress local practitioners of the persecuted spiritual group Falun Gong.

The war on Falun Gong constitutes more than half the total work of the typical Chinese mission, Chen said at the time, adding that its the top priority of Chinese embassies and consulates.

According to Chen, every Chinese embassy and consulate has at least one diplomat whose primary job is to implement the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

He said the consulate had compiled a blacklist with the names of around 800 local Falun Gong practitioners, for the purpose of denying them entry into China should they apply for visas. The list fed into a global list maintained by Chinese security agencies, he added.

The Epoch Times reported in 2008 that then-New York Consul General Peng Keyu admitted, in an undercover phone call, to instigating groups to launch a series of assaults on Falun Gong practitioners in Flushing, New York City.

Meanwhile, consulates and embassies around the world have for years attempted to block performances by the New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts, a Chinese classical dance company, whose program depicts the regimes human rights abuses against Falun Gong practitioners onstage. They have piled pressure on theaters and governments to pull the show, and have occasionally succeeded.

U.S. officials have also warned that consulates serve as bases for Beijings Fox Hunt operationsa campaign to repatriate fugitives targeted by the CCP, including dissidents and officials whove fallen out of favor with the Party.

Wray described one of the coercive methods used on Fox Hunt targets: The Chinese government sent an emissary to visit the targets family here in the United States. The message they said to pass on? The target had two options: Return to China promptly, or commit suicide, he said.
If Simileoluwa Adebajo had not slept in a few extra minutes on Tuesday morning, she said she would have been in the kitchen of her new San Francisco commissary kitchen space the moment it was engulfed in flames.

The blaze, which broke out around 6:30 a.m near Central Freeway according to officials, and quickly sprinted through multiple buildings in the city, also damaged the new work space on 14th Street for Adebajos Eko Kitchen, which is San Franciscos only Nigerian restaurant.

I was already running late for my (food) pickup, and I get there and my building is burning to the ground, literally, said Adebajo, who also posted an image of the burning building on Twitter.

Adebajo said she will continue to operate out of her original location at Joint Venture Kitchen, which is also a commissary kitchen space at 11th and Howard streets. But shes going to have to nix plans she had to eventually move her entire operation to the 14th Street location.

The building was also being used by several other food businesses, including an Indonesian venture called ChiliCali, which posted about the blaze on Instagram, and a catering outfit called Crepe-Madame, Adebajo said.

San Francisco Fire Department spokesman Lt. Jonathan Baxter told The Chronicle that the fire likely affected six commercial structures within the area of South Van Ness, Folsom, Erie and 14th streets, as of 11 a.m. on Tuesday. A firefighter was injured in the blaze.

Adebajo shot to fame in 2019 when she announced on Twitter that she was quitting her job as a financial analyst to open a Nigerian restaurant in San Francisco. Since her debut, and before the pandemic, her business was building a cult following behind homespun Nigerian comfort foods like pepper soups made with goat meat or catfish.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Once the pandemic hit, Adebajo focused her operation more on takeout orders. She also partnered with SF New Deal, a nonprofit that works with restaurants to feed the citys most vulnerable populations. As such, Adebajo said the 14th Street space was where she was cooking hundreds of meals per week for both the nonprofit and her restaurant. She described the fire as a substantial setback for her business.

A lot of our pots and pans and appliances, and a lot of the items I have to import from Nigeria like palm oil and yams, were all there, Adebajo said. Im going to have to buy it all back. Maybe I can start a GoFundMe or something, but this is definitely going to have to make me restructure things to move forward.

Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @JustMrPhillips
Moscow:

A military newspaper says that Moscow has deployed new anti-ship missiles on Pacific islands that are controlled by Russia but also claimed by Japan.

The Boyevaya Vakhta (Combat Duty) newspaper of Russias Pacific Fleet reported yesterday that Bal and Bastion missile systems have been stationed on the islands, called the southern Kurils by Russia and the Northern Territories by Japan.

The disagreement over the islands, seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II, has kept the two countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their wartime hostilities.

The move comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit Japan next month. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been pushing for progress in the territorial dispute.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
After more than three decades in legacy Hornet jets, the Blue Angels got a big upgrade this week.

The Navy's elite demonstration squadron received its first F/A-18 Super Hornet on Monday. Capt. Eric Doyle, director of the Blue Angels Super Hornet transition team, flew the squadron's first Super Hornet about 350 miles across the state of Florida on Monday, from Boeing Cecil Field to Naval Air Station Pensacola.

The Blue Angels are replacing their aging F/A-18C/D aircraft with 11 new Super Hornets by 2021, in time for the demonstration team's 75th anniversary. The squadron has been flying Hornets for 34 years.

Read next: Marines to Test Exoskeleton Suit That Can Do the Work of Up to 10 Troops

"Acquiring our first Super Hornet is a momentous step in our inevitable transition, scheduled for later this year, and it required a Herculean effort to get these fleet jets ready for our team," Cmdr. Brian Kesselring, the Blue Angels' commanding officer and flight leader, said in a statement.

The Navy awarded Boeing Co. a $17 million contract in 2018 to convert nine F/A-18Es and two F/A-18Fs into Blue Angels-configured jets. That not only includes the famous blue and gold paint job, but also the removal of some items, such as the nose-mounted cannon used in Super Hornet strike operations. The contract also called for installing items not standard on other Super Hornets, like the air show smoke system that helps onlookers spot the jets during performances, The Drive reported.

Super Hornets are bigger than the legacy models. The new aircraft are 4 feet longer, almost a foot taller, and have a wingspan of about 45 feet, compared to the roughly 40-foot span on the legacy jets.

They're also more powerful and can stay in the air longer than Hornets.

All of that will give spectators a better show, Cmdr. Frank Weisser, a former Blue Angels member who helped oversee the switch to Super Hornets, told the Pensacola News Journal last year.

"[We] believe that our maneuvering will be more visible to the crowd and more impressive overall," Weisser said. "That increased performance will also allow us to alter some maneuvers to better showcase the aircraft's very unique capabilities."

-- Oriana Pawlyk contributed to this report.

-- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins.

Related: Boeing Gets Contract to Upgrade Navy's Blue Angels to Super Hornets
India: Woman brutally murdered by Hindu radicals for converting to Christianity

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A woman in India who had recently converted to Christianity was brutally murdered by four youths associated with a Hindu fanatic group, marking the fifth religiously motivated killing of a Christian in the country in less than two months.

UCA News reports that four youths were arrested in connection with the murder of a Christian woman, Suman Munda, 25, killed in Redhadi, a village in Khunti district, on July 19.

A local pastor who requested anonymity told International Christian Concern that Munda converted to Christianity six years ago. After learning of her conversion, radical Hindu nationalists started harassing her.

When relatives visited Mundas house they could not find her, they later discovered her body at a deserted place near her home.

I suspect that it is the handiwork of a Hindu fanatic group. Christians here have been facing a serious threat from it. The fanatic group is asking us to go back to Hinduism. We are scared and our people are shattered, Bishop Binay Kandulna of Khunti told UCA News.

Last month, Ramji Munda, 27, was murdered in the same district. Villagers believe the Christian man was killed by an anti-Pathalgadi group that safeguards tribal peoples rights.

It is a matter of serious concern because the state witnessed a Christian man killed only last month in the same district. The administration as well as leaders should take note of it and take appropriate steps, Kandulna said.

Persons of any faith are a creation of God and we have to respect all, but some vested interest groups are trying to target minorities in the state to spread hatred among various faiths who are otherwise peace-loving people.

We condemn the killing and appeal to the administration to take strict action against the culprits. It is very unfortunate that we have lost a precious life.

Munda was the fourth Christian to be murdered in India in the last two months. Previous killings included a woman, a teenager, and a pastor  all targeted for their faith.

On May 25, Bijaya Mandavi, 38, was found dead in the jungle near Baddi village in Kondagaon district of Chhattisgarh. Her body was partially decomposed and reportedly surrounded by street dogs when police discovered it.

In June, Sombura Madkami, a 14-year-old Christian boy from Kenduguda village, located in the Malkangiri district of Indias Odisha state, was brutally murdered by fanatics who've harassed Christians of Kenduguda village for years.

On July 10, a Maoist group in the Gadchiroli district of Indias Maharashtra state shot and killed Munshi Dev Tado, a 28-year-old Christian convert and father of four children, ages 6, 5, 4 and 1. The pastor and his family began to suffer persecution after leaving the Maoist Naxalite movement and converting to Christianity several years ago.

Additionally, numerous reports have emerged of Indian Christians facing various forms of harassment for their faith amid the coronavirus pandemic.

One report documented how Christians and other non-Hindus in India are being denied government-issued food rations amid the coronavirus pandemic unless they renounce their faith.

India is ranked No. 10 on Open Doors 2020 World Watch List of the countries where it's most difficult to be a Christian. The watchdog notes that persecution against Christians has worsened since Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014.

Persecution Relief, which tracks anti-Christian persecution and harassment in India, reported 293 cases of Christian persecution in the first half of 2020. In 2019, it recorded 527 cases compared to 447 in 2018.

Additionally, a report from the Delhi-based Evangelical Fellowship of India documented 135 cases of persecution that occurred across India in the first half of 2020.

The report notes that in recent years, the lack of police action in response to such attacks has emboldened Hindu extremists to persecute Christians without fear of any consequence.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on April 28 urged the U.S. State Department to add India as a Country of Particular Concern to its list of countries that engage in or tolerate egregious violations of religious freedom.
Hopes are rising that a breakthrough coronavirus drug will save lives by halting the immune system 'storm' that has killed thousands of people.

Results of a major trial of anti-inflammatory treatment tocilizumab are expected to be published this week.

Doctors are confident the drug, which was originally developed as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, will stop the hyperinflammatory storm that happens when the immune system starts attacking the body.

If this process can be halted it could dramatically reduce coronavirus deaths, many of which are caused by this aggressive immune response rather than the virus itself.

If successful it would be only the second drug to be proven to save lives from coronavirus  so far the only treatment shown to work is steroid dexamethasone.

Doctors say anti-inflammatory treatment tocilizumab could save lives by halting the immune system 'storm' that has killed thousands of virus patients (file photo)

Researchers believe a wide variety of Covid treatments are needed to make the biggest difference, allowing doctors to target drugs against specific problems.

The trial  which has involved 450 Covid-19 patients in 60 hospitals around the world  was completed and the results sealed on July 22, according to investigators.

Swiss drugs giant Roche  which makes the treatment  is expected to announce the findings to the stock market in the coming days.

Doctors have not yet seen the results but are hopeful of a positive outcome.

Dr Taryn Youngstein, an inflammation specialist at Imperial College London who worked on the trial, said: 'The data gets cleaned up and then they'll have to read out, which usually takes about a week.

'It's very clear that the major form of Covid that kills people is related to the host response - the body's response to the virus - rather than the virus itself.

'We need to think about how we can suppress this response and the way we do that is to use cytokine inhibition.'

Tocilizumab has been used for years to dampen the immune response in rheumatoid arthritis.

But it has come into its own more recently for cancer patients undergoing risky but extremely effective CAR-T therapy.

These patients often suffer a cytokine storm as a side effect of CAR-T, and tocilizumab has been effective at minimising the danger when this happens.

Dr Youngstein added: 'We are very familiar with the drug - we use it all the time.

'We know it's very safe and very well tolerated.

The treatment could dramatically reduce coronavirus deaths  many of which are caused by the aggressive immune response rather than the virus itself (file photo)

'The question is whether it work in Covid-19. But I don't see a reason why it wouldn't, because it works in these other situations.'

Hopes that tocilizumab will work was boosted by an Italian study, published last month, which suggested it might slash deaths by 39 per cent.

But that study was a retrospective analysis of patients who had already been treated. Patients were not randomly assigned to receive the drug and there was no placebo arm, so the results were inconclusive.

The new study will address these issues  it is a gold standard randomised control trial, with patients given the drug at different stages of their disease progression to see who is most likely to benefit.

Dr Youngstein added: 'The crucial thing is how we identify the type of patient that could respond to this treatment.

'Because it won't be everyone.'

Dr Nichola Cooper of Imperial's department of immunology and inflammation, who also worked on the trial, believes there is a 'window of opportunity' in which tocilizumab will have the greatest effect.

She said: 'When patients require oxygen but they're not yet needing intensive care - actually preventing that progression and stopping people going onto ventilation  feels like the right time to treat.

'But we need to see if the study shows that is correct.'
Ever wondered why in the middle of a devastating climate emergency, despite flying being one of the most destructive climate actions people might take in any given year, aviation fuel is totally tax free?

The answer is partly an obscure treaty, signed in 1944, at the height of the Second World War. The Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation banned domestic taxes on international aviation fuels that were on board planes arriving in other states. This ban was then expanded by the thousands of bilateral aviation agreements between states across the world, to apply to all fuels taken on board for international flights.

Not only is it tax free but the industry also gets a shocking free ride when it comes to carbon emissions. Inexplicably, international flight emissions are legally excluded from being counted in countries official carbon emission totals. For example, international flights emit 93 per cent of all UK flight emissions but all of these are excluded from the governments 2050 zero carbon target. Domestic flights, which are included, make up only a tiny 4 per cent of the total.

This makes a mockery of the enormous investment to reduce domestic aviation emissions being made by the HS2 high-speed railway line, which is estimated to cost as much as 110bn.

That money could more than pay for the insulation upgrade needed by the UKs social housing and would eliminate fuel poverty within a generation, reducing far more carbon emissions.

Total UK aviation emissions in 2018 were 39.3 million tons. This is up 129 per cent since 1990, during the time we were supposed to be cutting our national emissions. International flights emitted 36.7 million tons of these, and domestic flights 1.5 million. The UK military air force emits 1.1 million tons annually, which equates to more than two-thirds of all domestic flight emissions.

But it gets worse. As planes fly at high altitudes, their emissions have a greater global warming impact than if emitted at ground level. Some estimates by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) put this radiative forcing  the difference between sunlight absorbed by the Earth and energy radiated back to space  as high as two to four times that of just the carbon emissions alone. For the UK, this would mean that the carbon equivalent of international aviation emissions could be as high as 146 million tons. This would equate to nearly a third of all annual UK domestic carbon emissions, which are 451 million tons.

More Britons fly abroad than any other nationality. We take over 8 per cent of all global flights despite being less than 1 per cent of the global population. A staggering 292 million UK flights are taken each year, and shockingly just 1 per cent of English residents are responsible for nearly a fifth of all flights abroad.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

If we could just ensure that the top 1 per cent took just one flight per year, we would, at a stroke, remove the need to waste billions on the current UK-wide programme of climatically suicidal airport expansions.

We need to do three things. We need to drastically reduce unnecessary flights and really speed up research into zero carbon flights. One way of doing this would be to amend the Chicago Convention and introduce an international aviation fuel tax. The UK government sits on the board of the ICOA, the UN body that oversees the implementation of the Chicago Convention. Its assembly next meets in 2022.

The UK should propose at that assembly the introduction of an international tax on aviation fuel, which could fund an ICOA-led global research effort into zero-carbon flying and help fund the huge investments needed by developing countries to protect their populations from the increasingly lethal impacts of the climate crisis.

The tax would also encourage the reduction in unnecessary flights. The next ICOA assembly also needs to agree to a moratorium on the expansion of any airports in the developed world, until we manage to develop truly sustainable zero-carbon aviation technology.

In the UK the fairest way to reduce our enormous international flight emissions would be the introduction of an aviation carbon credit card. Each year, every person in the UK would be allocated a ration of carbon for personal flights, based on the required phased reduction of total UK international flight emissions over five years.

Those who do not want to use their rations could sell them to those who would need to take long-haul flights, with their extra-large emissions, or who need them for urgent visits to family members abroad.

The Chicago Convention was created in the middle of the Second World War. The climate emergency is a greater threat than that posed by fascism. We, therefore, need to act accordingly and urgently update the wartime convention internationally and introduce flight carbon rationing domestically.
STORY LINK Pound to Norwegian Krone (GBP/NOK) Exchange Rate Rises as UK Retail Sales Stabilise in July

GBP/NOK Exchange Rate Edges Higher Despite Fears of a Simultaneous Shock to the British Economy

Norwegian Krone (NOK) Struggles as US-China Trade Tensions Weigh on Oil Prices

GBP/NOK Outlook: Could a Post-Brexit UK-EU Consensus Buoy Sterling?

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The Pound to Norwegian Krone (GBP/NOK) exchange rate rose today, with the pairing currently fluctuating around 11.77kr.Sterling benefited from a stronger-than-expected UK CBI Distributive Trades Survey for July, which rose from -37% to 4%. As a result, GBP investors have become more optimistic about the UKs retail sector.Nonetheless, some analysts remained downbeat. The CBIs Chief Economist, Rain Newton-Smith, said that the picture remains bleak for some retailers.Newton Smith added:Its great to see retail sales stabilise this month, but this doesnt tell the whole story. This crisis has created winners and losers within the retail sector.Meanwhile, GBP investors have also remained cautious after the London School of Economics (LSE) warned that the UK was headed for a simultaneous shock to the economy from both Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic.Swati Dhingra, an economics professor at LSE, said:Our analysis shows that the sectors that will be affected by Brexit and those that are suffering from the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown are generally different from each other.The Norwegian Krone (NOK) has continued to suffer this week after reports that Nordic countries could be facing a quagmire owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.Robert Bergqvist, chief economist at SEB bank, said that 2021 was now surrounded by great uncertainty, adding:How Europe, the U.S and Asia recover is very important for the Nordics, as the region is dependent on the global economy.In Norwegian economic news, today saw the release of the latest retail sales figures for June, which rose from 2.8% to 5.7%.However, NOK has mainly suffered from rising US-China trade tensions which have curtailed the price of oil, one of Norways largest exports. Consequently, this has clipped appeal of the Norwegian Krone.Fears of a second-wave of the coronavirus has also weighed on risk sentiment and oil prices today. As a result, investors are steering clear of oil-driven currencies like the Norwegian Krone (NOK).The Norwegian Krone (NOK) will continue to be driven by global risk sentiment this week. Any signs of US-China trade tensions escalating would weigh on oil prices and the NOK/GBP exchange rate.Pound (GBP) traders will be awaiting tomorrows release of the latest UK Mortgage Approvals figure for June. If this improves, then we could see the GBP/NOK exchange rate edge higher.The GBP/NOK exchange rate will remain sensitive to Brexit developments this week. Any signs of a compromise on a possible post-Brexit trade deal between the UK and the EU would prove GBP-positive.

International Money Transfer? Ask our resident FX expert a money transfer question or try John's new, free, no-obligation personal service! ,where he helps every step of the way, ensuring you get the best exchange rates on your currency requirements.

TAGS: Norwegian Krone Forecasts Pound Norwegian Krone Forecasts
Anyone who's lived or worked in old buildings knows that their heating and cooling systems can't compare to the efficiency, insulation and consistency of those in new buildings. But the quirks of old buildings' climate control systems aren't just seasonal annoyances--they could shape the future of cities' energy use in a warming climate.

With warmer temperatures in both the summer and winter, we'll need less natural gas to heat buildings and more electricity to cool them--but what's the balance between those two effects? University of Utah researchers including Daniel Mendoza, a research assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and a visiting assistant professor in the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning, used hyper-localized climate models and building projections to find out. The answer, they write, is that buildings' energy use in the future varies wildly, depending on the climate scenario, and that local building policy now could have a big impact on energy use in the future.

The results are published in World.

Modeling the future

Climate models come in various scales, from global to hyper-local. For the purposes of this study, Mendoza and his colleagues chose a hyper-local model focused on Salt Lake County, which includes Salt Lake City and its suburbs.

"Using localized climate model output results is critical because climatic conditions are a very important input variable in building energy models," Mendoza says. "These conditions dictate how much energy will be required for heating and cooling which are a large component of a building's energy budget."

Next, the team built a model of how changes in air temperature would affect the energy usage of buildings. They included the five commercial building types most common in the county: large office buildings, small office buildings, primary schools, full-service restaurants and high-rise multi-family apartment buildings. Some buildings proved more challenging to model than others.

"It was after realizing that restaurants are really complicated conditioning environments, that is, you have a fridge/freezer right next to an oven, when we understood how challenging it is to model HVAC demands for these buildings," Mendoza says.

They also looked at building energy standards, which are determined largely by the age of the building. Then, they put in the possible composition of building types that might be present in Salt Lake County by 2040, based on projections by the Wasatch Front Regional Council.

"We expect multi-family apartment buildings to be the fastest-growing building type to accommodate our growing population," Mendoza says. The projections show apartment buildings growing from just under 20% of commercial square footage in 2012 to almost 40% by 2040.

Less heating, more cooling

It's not surprising that, with annual average temperatures in Salt Lake County expected to rise between 1.6 and 4.3 F (0.9 and 2.3 C) by 2040, less natural gas will be needed for heating in the winter and more electricity will be needed for cooling in summer.

But the researchers found substantial variability in energy use according to building type. Small and large office buildings saw reduced natural gas usage of up to 75% and 30%, respectively, in the 2040 projection. Those types of buildings are projected to comprise a quarter of Salt Lake County's commercial buildings, so the reduction is substantial.

But it is offset by the increased demand for cooling--up to 30% more electricity needed by schools and restaurants and 20% more by high-rise apartments and office buildings, which together comprise more than half of all commercial buildings.

Still a chance to choose

Mendoza acknowledges that projections of building types aren't set in stone. "Accelerated population growth could modify building type distribution," he says. "Faster than expected warming could also change predictions considerably." Given the anticipated demand for cooling electricity, Mendoza says, Salt Lake County could choose to generate that electricity through renewable sources, reducing the fossil fuel emissions that underlie the anticipated warming.

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Find the full study here.
11:08 (ist)

UK Board 10th, 12th result 2020 LATEST Updates

Steps to check UK Board Class 10th and Class 12th result 2020:

Once declared, students can check the results on UBSE's official website - http://uaresults.nic.in/. The evaluation of answer sheets had concluded by 15 July.

Step 1: Go to the official website - ubse.uk.gov.in

Step 2: On the homepage, click on the result tab

Step 3: You will be redirected to a new page, where you will have to choose UBSE 10th Result 2020 or UBSE 12th Result 2020

Step 4: Enter your roll number and other login credentials and press Submit

Step 5: Your result will be displayed on the screen. Download and take a printout for future reference.
The Jacksonville District 117 school board is scheduled to meet in special session at 5:30 p.m. today in the auditorium of Jacksonville Middle School, 664 Lincoln Ave.

The meeting is to consider starting the school year with remote learning.
Navy tows boat of 8 back to Cozumel after engine fails

Cozumel, Q.R.  Eight people have been rescued from a drifting vessel in waters off Cozumel. The vessel and its crew were pulled to shore by elements of the Mexican Navey after receiveing a distress call for help.

In a statement, the Secretary of the Navy of Mexico reported the rescue in a channel between Isla Cozumel and Playa del Carmen, saying that engine failure was the cause of the drifting vessel. Once they received the call for help, elements set out in search of Captain Leo and its crew of eight, including one minor.

The drifting boat was located with all its crew on board and successfully towed to the vicinity of the Marina Banco Playa in Cozumel.
Kim Jong Un Claims North Koreas Nuclear Weapons Will Guarantee Security

North Korean despot Kim Jong Un asserted that there will be no more war because the communist countrys nuclear weapons guarantee its safety, according to state-run media.

Now we have become able to reliably defend ourselves against any form of high-intensity pressure and military threat, Kim said, adding, Thanks to our reliable and effective self-defense nuclear deterrence, the word war [sic] would no longer exist on this land, and the security and future of our state will be guaranteed forever.

Kim again claimed that the nuclear programs are primarily defensive in nature and show Pyongyangs absolute strength, according to the state-run KNCA. But he warned that North Korea will force others who look down upon us to pay dearly.

The speech came in the midst of stalled talks intended to dismantle Pyongyangs nuclear and missile programs in exchange for sanctions relief from the United States.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his sister Kim Yo Jong attend a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the Peace House at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, South Korea, on April 27, 2018. (Korea Summit Press Pool/Pool via Reuters)

North Korea has long claimed that its nuclear weapons are defensive, but officials with the United States and United Nations have said it would allow Pyongyang to adopt more hostile, threatening tactics in the Asia-Pacific region.

In 2018, Kim and President Donald Trump met for the first time in Singapore, raising the hopes that the country could be open to ending its nuclear threats. A second meeting in 2019 in Vietnam between the two fell apart before talks stalled.

Last month, the regime blew up an inter-liaison office along its border with South Korea, while Kims sister, Kim Yo Jong, issued threats to Seoul about leaflets being dropped.

His sister also announced in July that the United States will have to adopt a new negotiating strategy. In the same statement, she also requested DVDs of the U.S. Fourth of July celebrations.

It is still my personal opinion, however, I doubt that things like the DPRK-U.S. summit talks would happen this year, she said, referring to North Koreas official name. But Im still questioning it. Thats because a surprise thing may still happen, depending upon the judgement and decision between the two top leaders, according to the agency.

Last but not the least (sic), I would like to give my impression on the celebrations for the U.S. Independence Day that Ive seen on TV a few days ago, she added. I have got the permission from Comrade Chairman to personally obtain, for sure, the DVD of the celebrations for the Independence Day in the future, if possible.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 27)  President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday tasked several Cabinet officials to ensure the government can freely use untapped television frequencies.

In his fifth State of the Nation Address, the President said this will give the government a wider reach in its efforts to carry out online learning as he reiterated that no face-to-face classes will be held without an available COVID-19 vaccine.

"TV frequencies reverted back to government for whatever cause or reason shall not be used exclusively to the exclusion of other persons or dummies to cope up with the demand of the next normal," he said.

He ordered the Secretaries of Communication and Information, Science and Technology, Education, Finance, and Budget and Management to ensure this will be completed as soon as possible.

"It shall be the government who should be given the first option to utilize them. Ang sobra sa kanila (The remaining frequencies will be theirs)," the President added.

Earlier this month, a lawmaker said the government should use the former television and radio frequencies of ABS-CBN.

RELATED: Solon who voted against ABS-CBN franchise bid wants gov't to use the network's TV, radio frequencies

Deputy Speaker Luis Raymond "LRay" Villafuerte Jr, who admitted he was one of the 70 lawmakers who voted to deny the media giant's franchise bid, filed a resolution for the government's temporary "use of untapped television and radio frequencies as those vacated by ABS-CBN."

Villafuerte did not explain how the government can use the frequencies  whether it will install transmitters nationwide or pay ABS-CBN for use of its transmitters.

The House Committee on Legislative Franchises on July 10 junked the media giant's license application after its franchise expired on May 4, which forced it to go off air for the second time since martial law in 1972.

Duterte, who has continuously lashed out at the network and urged the Lopez family to sell ABS-CBN, has insisted his neutrality on the death of the media giant's franchise.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- As the summer heat continues into the start of the school year, it may be uncomfortable for students to wear a face-covering or mask for the duration of the school day  and could border on excruciating if their classroom doesnt have air conditioning.

So will students need to wear a face mask during the entire school day -- even during high temperatures in classrooms without air conditioning -- amid the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic? Yes.
Q: Even if my sons school reopens, is it safe to send him?

A: Possibly. Some families who have children or other family members who are at high risk of serious COVID-19 infection may decide to pursue online school for the near future. Some families cannot accommodate having their kids at home for online school due to work or child care needs.

Interestingly, according to current studies, it is thought kids are less likely to become infected and to infect others, and children who become infected are more likely to have picked it up from a household member than to have been the one who introduced it to the household.

While there are different plans being discussed on how to get our kids back on the path to learning, there is a common desired endpoint  to do what is best for kids in a manner that is safest for kids, families, teachers and school staff.

Clearly, online learning is not the ideal for most students and their families. While some students prefer this modality, many had difficulties with achieving meaningful learning, access to a reliable computer and internet connectivity, and accountability in attending online classes. Families struggled with accommodations for technology and space to provide a supportive learning environment, often while trying to work from home themselves.

Suboptimal access to education and supports contributes to widening the gap between where some students are currently performing regarding education and where they need to be. This is especially true for minority children.

In-person schooling provides much more than a meaningful educational environment, especially for kids who have any special needs. Some families rely on their children receiving the mainstay of their meals at school. Services such as speech, physical and occupational therapy are delivered in the school settings, and these services have not been reliably delivered since schools closed.

Additionally, access to mental health supports offered through schools has been put on hold. There are increasing rates of anxiety, depression and feelings of social isolation among school-age kids and teens. Also of great concern is the fact that teachers are often the first to observe and raise concerns over childhood neglect and abuse, and are instrumental in identifying when families may need more supports.

In order for students, teachers and staff to safely return to in-person learning, there are important safety measures based on science and data that must be considered.

Teachers, staff and most students should wear masks, although some younger children and those with developmental or medical issues may not be able to safely wear masks. Encourage frequent and effective handwashing, have alcohol-based hand sanitizer readily available, and try to avoid touching of the face. For some younger kids, wearing a mask may encourage them to touch their faces more, so they may be safer to not wear masks. Distance desks six feet apart, if possible. Try to have smaller class sizes and keep kids in the same groups. Considering that New Mexico has such phenomenal weather, outdoor spaces should be strongly considered as potential spaces for learning. Regardless of how schools address creating a safe learning environment, two things are critical in ensuring success.

First, schools must be nimble and flexible as plans may have to change quickly based upon the COVID-19 prevalence in communities. And second, the federal government must provide funding for schools so they are able to implement physical plant changes, provide adequate staffing, and pay our teachers and school staff more to cover the extra work that will be needed to accomplish safe and effective learning.

Ziad K. Abdelnour, an often-quoted and successful businessman, said, If a problem can be solved by writing a check, its not a problem, its an expense. We must prioritize our kids and their education. Safety and well-being are a worthy expense. Please consider calling on our members of Congress to implore them to approve $200 billion to enable our schools to reopen safely.

There are many steps we can take to help our kids to have as positive an educational experience as possible during these challenging times and circumstances.

On another note, make sure your kids and teens are up-to-date on their immunizations. Some families were not able to bring their kids in for their routine check-ups during the quarantine.

If your child needs any immunizations, special immunization clinics will be held through Aug. 15 for all children 18 years old and younger as part of the Got Shots? immunization campaign. Check hsc.unm.edu/programs/nmimmunization/gotshot.html for a location near you.

Additionally, vaxviewnm.org enables individuals, parents and guardians to access, save and/or print official immunization records.

Melissa Mason is a general pediatrician with Journey Pediatrics in Albuquerque. Please send your questions to her at melissaemason@gmail.com.
Air traffic for long-haul flights to and from Paris could take up to seven years to recover from the crisis provoked by the coronavirus pandemic, according to the CEO of Paris Airport.

Augustin de Romanet, head of airport operator ADP (Aeroports de Paris), said in a statement that the coronavirus had inflicted the worst downturn on the air traffic "in 50 years" and that a recovery to pre-Covid-19 levels would be very progressive.

"A return to the traffic level of 2019 in Paris is expected between 2024 and 2027," he said.

The traffic should be back in 2021 for local flights and 2022 at the latest for the Schengen zone.

International airline travel is just one of the many industries across the globe to be severely hit by the Covid-19 crisis, with many companies, such as Air France having to rely on government bailouts or close down.

543 million loss

The forecast came alongside ADP results which showed a net loss of 543 million euros for the first half of the year, against a 250-million-euro net profit a year earlier.

Paris airport traffic dived by more than 62 percent in that period.

There was practically no traffic at all in April and May, and while June and July saw a recovery it was "slow", de Romanet said, describing the period which included the lockdown in France which began in March.

In an interview with Radio Classique on Tuesday, Romanet added that: "It is very difficult to know when you go from one country to another what the demands of the country of arrival are."

Starting 1 August, travellers from 16 countries deemed "at risk" (outside Europe) will have to undergo a PCR Covid-19 test directly upon arrival at French airports.

As the borders with these countries are already closed, these measures "concern (only) French citizens who reside in these countries or citizens of these countries who have a stable residence in France," Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Friday during a visit to Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport.

"Today there is no predictability," said Romanet, adding that "in the morning you can go to Australia and the next day you're not allowed to go to Denmark."
The world is watching with bated breath as the top coronavirus vaccine contenders race towards the finish line. Moderna, Oxford University-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech that are spearheading the search for a COVID-19 vaccine have advanced to the final stages of the trial. India, which is one of the vital pieces of this puzzle, has also identified five sites for the trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

Speaking about the Moderna vaccine, infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said that Moderna's progression into the final states is one of the country's best efforts. He added that data from the final stages would emerge in November-December and said that despite the speed of the development, there would be no compromise at all regarding the safety of the COVID vaccine. Moderna is part of the US' Operation Warp Speed that is aiming to speed up the vaccine process. The other three are Oxford-AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax.

The World Health Organisation said that coronavirus is the worst health emergency the organisation has seen since its regulations came into force in 2005. "This Thursday marks six months since WHO declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern. This is the sixth time a global health emergency has been declared under the International Health Regulations, but it is easily the most severe," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press conference.

Here are the latest coronavirus vaccine developments from India and other countries:

Oxford University-AstraZeneca: Phase 3 trials of the COVID vaccine candidate have already begun in Brazil. Now the government has chosen five sites in India for the third and final phase of trials of the candidate. The details of the sites have not been disclosed. The Oxford vaccine is being manufactured by Serum Institute of India. The manufacturer had earlier sought permission for the first two phases of trials in the country from DCGI. The third phase of trials would be conducted in India including 10,000 volunteers.

Secretary of Department of Biotechnology (DBT) said that the trials are significant as it would show findings from within the country. SII CEO Adar Poonawalla had earlier stated that the company would reserve 50 per cent of the vaccine doses for use in India.

Moderna: The company has launched a 30,000-subject trial for regulatory approval and widespread use by the end of the year. The first large study of a coronavirus vaccine began on Monday morning in Savannah. The volunteers have been picked from diverse backgrounds. The COVID vaccine is backed by a $955 million government funding and would be tested at 89 US sites. If the trial is successful, the company would release 500 million doses by 2021. The early results of the trials would be available in November-December. The Moderna coronavirus vaccine is being developed with National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Pfizer-BioNTech: US drugmaker Pfizer and German company BioNTech have said that they have begun their late-stage human trials for their coronavirus vaccine. Like Oxford-AstraZeneca, the COVID-19 vaccine trials would include 30,000 subjects globally. The trials would be conducted across 120 sites globally including 39 US states. If approved the vaccine would be forwarded for regulatory review as early as October. The makers plan to supply up to 100 million doses by end of 2020 and 1.3 billion doses by end of 2021.

Bharat Biotech: The coronavirus vaccine trial for the company's candidate COVAXIN has started in Odisha's Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS) and SUM Hospital. The selected volunteers will be given two doses within a gap of 14 days. The volunteers need to be healthy and disease-free and can screen themselves through a simple questionnaire available at the website. The trials for COVAXIN are also underway in AIIMS Delhi, Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Rohtak, Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad, SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre in Kancheepuram and two private hospitals in Uttar Pradesh - Prakhar Hospital in Kanpur and Rana Hospital and Trauma Centre in Gorakhpur.

Also read: Coronavirus vaccine: COVAXIN Phase 1 trials at AIIMS to begin, results in 2-3 month

Also read: Coronavirus vaccine news update: Human trials underway for Indian vaccines in 6 cities
A paedophile, who began abusing his nieces when they were six or seven years old, has had his jail time reduced after the Court of Appeal backdated his sentence to when he went into custody.

The 48-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the anonymity of his victims, was convicted in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in 2018 of 25 counts of sexual assault against the young sisters.

The court heard that he was their aunts partner and that one of the girls was sent to stay with them three or four times a week. He began abusing her on these overnight stays when she was about six and continued to do so until she was about 12. He also abused the other child when she stayed in his home.

Judge Martina Baxter imposed an eight-year sentence and suspended the final year.

The father-of-two lost an appeal against his conviction earlier this year, and today (Tuesday) appealed the severity of his sentence to the Court of Appeal.

His barrister, Paul Carroll SC, submitted a number of grounds of appeal, including that the sentencing judge had not given him credit for the amount of time he had spent in custody by the date of his sentence.

He said that, when the issue of backdating the sentence was raised, the judge replied that she was utilizing her discretion. However, Mr Carroll said that gave no explanation of why she was exercising this discretion.

Court President Justice George Birmingham, presiding with Justice Patrick McCarthy and Justice Isobel Kennedy, returned with an extempore judgment.

Justice Kennedy noted that the abuse had been prolonged. She said that what he had done was serious in nature and that children are entitled to feel safe with their extended family.

However, she said that there must be good reason for not backdating a sentence to take account of time already spent in custody. The judge in this case had not explained her reasons.

The court, therefore, adjusted the sentence by backdating it to when he had gone into custody following his conviction five months before he was sentenced.
- The increasing research in protein engineering and rising government funding for new drug discovery are expected to be some major drivers for the market

- Market Size - USD 1.86 Billion in 2019, Market Growth - CAGR of 12.3%, Market Trends- The growing research institutions across developing economies is expected to fuel the market in the forecast period

NEW YORK, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the current analysis of Reports and Data, the Protein Engineering market was valued at USD 1.86 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 4.77 billion by the year 2027, at a CAGR of 12.3%. Protein engineering is the process of conception and production of unnatural polypeptides, which is achieved through the modification of different amino acid sequences that are found in nature. With the wide application of protein engineering, various synthetic protein structures and functions can now be designed completely using a computer and produced in the laboratory using various methods.

With the advent of technology, the rising demand is expected to provide traction to the market. For instance, computational protein design holds a potential promise to revolutionize protein engineering. Protein engineering is significantly in demand as it can develop useful or valuable proteins. It is known to be an emerging research field that helps researchers in understanding protein folding and recognition used for protein design principles. Protein engineering market is spurred by various reasons such as availability of immense information regarding 3D protein structure, advancement in structural bioinformatics, novel protein design algorithms, and other factors that have made it possible to use computational approaches for research and development in protein engineering. Strategic utilization of approaches that have been discovered with research has enabled better stability and increased catalytic activity of the protein. Moreover, it has increased its applicability in various fields that will further expand the market. Protein engineering has also evolved to become a potent tool contributing considerably to the developments in both synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. The rising funding for synthetic biology by governments and other healthcare institutions may drive the industry extensively in the future. Furthermore, substantial ongoing research in the drug discovery process is expected to fuel the market during the forecast period. Growing technological advancements and innovative instruments useful for protein engineering may drive the market extensively in the future. The emergence of new diseases due to microorganisms may also trigger market growth.

Request free sample of this research report at: https://www.reportsanddata.com/sample-enquiry-form/3369

However, factors such as high cost of instrumentation and lack of skill professional may hamper the protein engineering industry in the forecast period.

COVID-19 Impact:

WHO is focused on the latest scientific findings and knowledge on COVID-19. Various researchers and scientists are discovering new ways to tackle COVID-19 infection. Furthermore, the market of protein engineering is also going to get significantly affected due to the multiple kinds of research which are being carried out in this field. With the advent of technology, improving protein stability is an essential goal for clinical and industrial applications, however no commonly accepted and widely used strategy for efficient engineering is known. Furthermore, during the COVID-19 outbreak, protein engineering market is significantly impacted because many of the procedures involve lab automation. Market players are focusing on a research-based approach that will provide traction to the market. For instance, Vir Biotech identified two antibodies that could be effective in preventing and treating COVID-19. However, the high requirement of funds is expected to hamper the market during this period.

To identify the key trends in the industry, click on the link below: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/protein-engineering-market

Further key findings from the report suggest

Innovations in the protein engineering industry has contributed to the high growth of the industry. For instance, in March 2020 , scientists from the Unites States and Taiwan introduced a new protein based on the sonification which was made using machine learning technique.

, scientists from the Unites States and introduced a new protein based on the sonification which was made using machine learning technique. In 2019, Creative Biolabs launched a new product into the industry known as cd25 monoclonal antibody. The antibody can be widely used in conditions like organ rejection by the body after organ transplantation, especially kidney transplants.

Various collaborations are expected to fuel the industry growth. For instance, in 2019, Agilent Technologies acquired BioTek Instruments. The merger allowed Agilent to establish itself in the immunotherapy and immune-oncology segments and strengthen its position.

In March 2020 , Gilead announced its acquisition of Forty-Seven for around USD 4.9 billion . The acquisition would particularly help Gilead to expand itself in the immuno-oncology department.

, Gilead announced its acquisition of Forty-Seven for around . The acquisition would particularly help Gilead to expand itself in the immuno-oncology department. Regionally, the North American segment occupied the largest share in the industry owing to factors including increasing research and development expenditure and the presence of highly advanced instruments and equipment for drug discovery. The Asia Pacific region is expected to be the fastest growing segment owing to the rising government initiatives and funding for protein-based drug discovery and increasing technological advancements.

region is expected to be the fastest growing segment owing to the rising government initiatives and funding for protein-based drug discovery and increasing technological advancements. Key participants in the market include Thermo Fisher Scientific, Danaher Corporation, Agilent Technologies, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Bruker Corporation, GE Healthcare, Waters Corporation, Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, Genscripts USA , Inc. and Perkinelmer, Inc.

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For the purpose of this report, Reports and Data has segmented the Protein Engineering market on the basis of product, type, technology, end use and region:

By Product Outlook (Revenue in Million USD; 2017-2027)

Instruments

Consumables

Software & Services

By Type Outlook (Revenue in Million USD; 2017-2027)

Monoclonal Antibodies

Erythropoietin

Interferons

Vaccines

Colony-stimulating Factors

Growth Hormones

Coagulation Factors

Others

By Technology Outlook (Revenue in Million USD; 2017-2027)

Rational Protein Design

Irrational Protein Design

By End Use Outlook (Revenue in Million USD; 2017-2027)

Biopharmaceutical Companies

Contract Research Organizations

Academic Research Institutes

Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion; 2017-2027)

North America

U.S



Canada

Europe

UK



France



Spain



Rest of the Europe

Asia Pacific

China



India



Japan

MEA

Latin America

Brazil

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https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/biological-safety-testing-market Bioinformatics Market: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/bioinformatics-market





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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 15:25 540 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669f0650 1 National rape,rape-victim,rape-culture,Surabaya-Police,West-Kalimantan,sex-assault,Sexual-assault Free

The Surabaya Police in East Java and the Bengkayang Police in West Kalimantan have arrested two suspects in two separate rape cases allegedly involving their own sisters.

ND, 15, was detained after his mother DSN, 35, reported him to the police for allegedly raping his own 13-year-old sister multiple times over the course of two years until she became pregnant.

The girl gave birth earlier this month, said Surabaya Police women and child services head First. Insp. Fauzy Pratama.

ND has been named a suspect in the case and charged under the 2014 Child Protection Law. If found guilty, he faces a maximum of 15 years in prison.

In Bengkayang regency, another 13-year-old reportedly became pregnant after being raped by her 20-year-old brother, AN.

The victim miscarried when she was four months pregnant, according to the Bengkayang Police.

AN has been arrested and also charged under the 2014 law on child protection. (syk)
Aussie Police Enforce Mandatory Mask Rule, Amid Some Dissent State Leader Says Its Not About Human Rights

Victoria police have fined and arrested people for refusing to wear a face mask in the first week that the mandatory rule has been in place as a measure by authorities against the spread of the CCP virus.

Wearing a mask became mandatory on July 23 as COVID-19 cases and deaths in Victoria continued to swell despite the government putting Greater Melbourne and Mitchell Shire on lockdown on July 6.

A spokesperson for Victoria police said on July 26, discretion will be used for the first seven days, however, officers will not hesitate to issue fines to those obviously and blatantly showing a disregard for community safety by failing to wear a mask.

Since July 25, Victoria police have issued 20 fines at $200 (US$140) to people refusing to comply, and 126 people have received a caution.

Bunnings stock photo (Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)

Bunnings, along with several Australian retailers with stores in Metro Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, updated their entry conditions policy to align with the Victorian governments new legislation on wearing a mask.

Since then there have been some incidents of customers refusing to comply with the mandate and filming their exchanges with the retailers employees in videos that have since gone viral.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews wears a face mask as he walks in to the daily briefing in Melbourne, Australia on July 19, 2020. (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

This Is Not About Human Rights: Daniel Andrews

The states leader, Premier Daniel Andrews, called those dissenting over the mandatory rule selfish during a press conference on July 26.

If you are just making a selfish choice that your alleged personal liberty, quoting something youve read on some websitethis is not about human rights, Andrews said.

There are ten families that are going to be burying someone in the next few days.

There are ten families who are currently planning funerals. The youngest among them is in their 40s. Please wear a mask, he urged.

Andrews said the behaviour of dissenters was unacceptable and unnecessary.

Victoria recorded 532 virus cases for July 27, breaking the record again in a second wave that has produced triple-digit cases for two weeks running.

Deaths due to the CCP virus have also increased, with most cases appearing in aged care homes.
New Delhi, July 28 : Bolstering bilateral ties with Mauritius, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Mauritius counterpart Pravind Jugnauth will jointly inaugurate the new Supreme Court building of the island nation on Thursday, which was constructed with Indian grant assistance.

The event will be held via video conferencing in the presence of senior members of the judiciary from Mauritius and dignitaries from both sides. The new SC building is the first India assisted infrastructure project within the capital city of Port Louis.

"The new Supreme Court building project is one of the five projects being implemented under the Special Economic Package of $353 million extended by the Government of India to Mauritius in 2016. The project has been completed within schedule and below the expected costs," said an Indian government statement.

The new building will bring all divisions and offices of the Supreme Court of Mauritius into a single building, thereby improving its efficiency.

Spread over an area of more than 4,700 sqm with over 10 floors and a built up area of around 25,000 sqm, the building flaunts a modern design and green features with focus on thermal and sound insulation and high energy efficiency.

In October last year, Modi and Jugnauth had jointly inaugurated the Phase I of the Metro Express Project and the new ENT Hospital project in Mauritius, also built under the Special Economic Package.

Under Phase I of the Metro Express project, construction of 12 km of metro line was completed in September last year, while work on its Phase 2 envisaging 14 km of metro line is in progress. Through the ENT Hospital project, India assisted in the construction of a 100-bed state-of-the-art ENT hospital in Mauritius.
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Bill Barr and House Democrats engaged in an all-out battle Tuesday as the Attorney General appeared in front of the Judiciary Committee for five hours - clashing bitterly and repeatedly over his response to Black Lives Matter protests and his handling of the Roger Stone case and others which touch President Donald Trump.

By the end of the hearing there was open warfare between Barr and the Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler as Barr snapped 'you're a real class act,' when Nadler refused to allow him a five-minute break just before the last two questioners. Nadler had arrived more than hour later after being caught in a minor car accident.

The ill-tempered hearing, marked by Democrats tearing into Barr and charging him with treating minority Americans and allies of the president differently, while Republicans highlighted violent protests and mocked their political rivals, produced little in way of new insight but huge amounts of vitriol.

Nadler opened by accusing Barr of having federal officers use 'pepper spray and truncheons' against protesters to create footage to aid Trump with his 'law and order'-themed re-election campaign.

'We are, as a nation, witnessing the federal government turn violently on its own people,' Nadler said as he opened the hearing more than an hour late after he was involved in a minor car accident.

'And although responsibility for the government's failure to protect the health, safety, and Constitutional rights of the American people belongs squarely to President Trump,' the New York Democrat said.

'He needed help,' Nadler said, pointing to Barr.

'The president wants footage for his campaign ads, and you appear to be serving it up to him as ordered,' Nadler said. 'The protesters aren't mobs, they're mothers, they're veterans and mayors.'

Nadler charged Barr with escalating tensions between police and protesters to achieve 'obvious political objectives.' 'Shame on you Mr. Barr,' Nadler said.

But Barr hit back at Nadler and the Democrats hard, saying: 'Since when is it OK to burn down a federal courthouse?'

Barr defended the use of federal law enforcement to quell the protests in Portland, Oregon where some protesters have thrown objects at the courthouse.

'What unfolds nightly around the courthouse cannot reasonably be called a protest; it is, by any objective measure, an assault on the government of the United States,' Barr said.

He was aided by Congressional Republicans, who opened their minority statement with a compilation video of violent disorder in the wake of George Floyd's death, after ranking Republican Jim Jordan accused Democrats of attacking Barr for his willingness to back Trump's claims the Obama administration spied on him.

That set the tone for the hearing, with Democratic members making lengthy statements and trying to tie Barr down to short answers. He was often interrupted by Democrats, a tactic that annoyed the GOP.

Republicans praised him and lashed out at protesters who they said were 'Antifa.'

Attorney General William Barr testified before the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee Tuesday morning

Attorney General Bill Barr is sworn in Tuesday as he appears before the House Judiciary Committee

The hearing began about an hour late because Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler was in a minor car accident Tuesday morning. Nadler went after Barr in his opening statement

Fiery example: House Republicans played a lengthy compilation of footage from news reports of violence associated with protests in the wake of George Floyd's death

Barrage of support: Republicans' compilation video of violent protests was intended to buttress Barr's position that the federal response us not heavy-handed or intended to assist Donald Trump's re-election campaign

They chided Nadler for making previous statements suggesting Antifa was a 'myth.'

Barr told members the violence taking place in Portland and other cities is disconnected from Floyd's killing, which he called a 'horrible' event that prompted a necessary national reckoning on the relationship between the black community and law enforcement.

'Largely absent from these scenes of destruction are even superficial attempts by the rioters to connect their actions to George Floyd's death or any legitimate call for reform,' Barr said of the Portland protests.

But under questioning by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat who is black, Barr also downplayed accusations of widespread racial discrimination in policing across the country.

'You indicated that the killing of George Floyd was shocking. I disagree,' Jackson Lee said. 'You seem to have a difficult time understanding systemic racism and institutional racism that has plagued so many.'

Barr replied: 'I don't agree that there's systemic racism in police departments.'

Barr's allies on the Republican side defended him furiously.

'Wow. I'm beginning to believe that you're the cause of the common cold, and possibly even the COVID-19 because everything's being thrown at you,' remarked Rep. Doug Collins, a Republican from Georgia who's seeking a Senate seat.

Jordan, an Ohio Republican who serves as the committee's ranking member, gave a visual presentation as part of his opening statement - showing scene after scene of anti-police disorder to serve as a prebuttal to assist Barr, under fire for the federal handling of the 'Black Lives Matter' protests.

'Well, I hope that Mr. Jordan will never complain about the length of my opening statement,' Nadler said after the short film aired, adding that the Republicans didn't abide by the audio-visual guidelines and give the committee 48 hours notice before showing a video.

The video showed a number of journalists talking about 'peaceful protests' and then cut to a press conference featuring the grieving wife of David Dorn, a retired police officer who was shot in St. Louis on June 2 in the aftermath of Floyd's Memorial Day death.

It then showed imagery of protesters setting fires, throwing fireworks at police, trying to knock down fencing around federal property and general unrest.

Nadler to Barr as hearing opens: 'Shame on you'

Nadler opened the hearing by reading off a laundry list of Barr's perceived transgressions.

Nadler said the Trump administration had 'twisted the Department of Justice into a shadow of its former self,' serving the powerful before average Americans. He said the committee has a responsibility to protect Americans 'from that kind of corruption.'

'Your tenure is marked by a persistent war against the department's professional core in an apparent effort to secure favors for the president,' Nadler said.

Nadler placed the most blame on Trump. 'He could not have done this alone.'

'And after he finished utterly humiliating his first attorney general, he found you,' Nadler said, addressing the witness.

'In your time at the department you have aided and abetted the worst failings of the president,' Nadler continued.

He accused the attorney general of downplaying systemic racism and said he showed 'open hostility to the Black Lives Matter movement.'

Nadler also said Barr spread 'disinformation about voter fraud,' said the AG tried to change the census laws to aid Trump and Republicans and misrepresented the findings of the Mueller Report, which chronicled Russian election interference and connections between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign.

'Again and again you personally have interfered with ongoing criminal investigations to protect the president and his allies from the consequences of their actions,' Nadler also said.

Prior to showing the video, Jordan used his opening remarks to suggest Barr was being picked on by Democrats because he had testified that President Obama's administration 'spied' on the Trump campaign.

Barr opened up by paying his respects to the late civil rights icon, Rep. John Lewis, who is lying in state on Capitol Hill.

Jordan then played a video with violent imagery showing the demonstrations that followed the Memorial Day death of George Floyd

He said he believed the Black Lives Matter protesters 'concerns are legitimate.'

'At the same time I think it would be an oversimplification to treat the problem as rooted in some deep-seated racism generally infecting our police departments,' Barr said. 'It seems far more likely that the problem stems from a complex mix of factors that can be addressed with focused attention over time.'

Barr pointed out that several more white Americans than black Americans had been killed by officers this year.

He also pointed out the number of black Americans killed by gun violence by other black Americans.

'Each of those lives matter,' Barr testified.

Barr said that federal forces have gone into cities like Portland to defend federal property from being burned down. And he reported to lawmakers that the protests have been 'hijacked by violent instigators.'

'The rioters come equipped for fighting,' Barr said, adding that they 'cannot reasonably be called protests.'

Barr: 'violent rioters and anarchists are hijacking George Floyd protests'

Barr defended the aggressive federal law enforcement response to civil unrest in America, saying 'violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests' sparked by Floyd's death.

'As elected officials of the federal government, every member of this committee - regardless of your political views or your feelings about the Trump Administration - should condemn violence against federal officers and destruction of federal property,' Barr said.

'So should state and local leaders who have a responsibility to keep their communities safe. To tacitly condone destruction and anarchy is to abandon the basic rule-of-law principles that should unite us even in a politically divisive time.'

Civil unrest escalated in Portland after federal agents were accused of whisking people away in unmarked cars without probable cause; they were detained and later released.

And in Washington, D.C., peaceful protesters were violently cleared from the streets by federal officers using smoke bombs and pepper balls ahead of a photo-op by Trump in front of St. John's chruch, where Barr had accompanied him.

Barr described the run-up to Trump's June 1 photo-op in front of St. John's church, explaining the violence in the days before was 'so bad that, as it's been reported, Secret Service recommended the president go down to the shelter.'

'We had a breach of the Treasury Department,' he continued, which sits next to the White House. 'The historical building Lafayette park war burned won, the lodge, St. John's was set on fire. Bricks were thrown at the police repeatedly. They took crow bars and pried up the pavers on Lafayette Park and threw those at the police. Balloons of caustic liquid were thrown on the police.'

Infamous moment: Bill Barr defended the clearing of protesters from outside the White House before he took part in a walk to St. John's Church with Donald Trump

Not related: Barr claimed the decision to clear out the area around the White House was not to allow the infamous Trump Bible photo opportunity

Barr testified when got to the White House Monday, June 1, there was a 'total concensus that we could not allow that to happen so close to the White House, that kind of rioting.'

A decision was made to move the perimeter one block north.

'During Monday, the factors that led to the timing of it were that that movement was going to be made as soon as there were enough units in place to actually perform it,' Barr explained. 'Units were very slow in getting into place throughout the day, much to my frustration, because I wanted it moved before there was a big build-up of demonstrators.'

Protesters were teargassed and cleared from H Street as Trump was holding a Rose Garden press conference.

Several moments later, the president emerged from the White House, walked across Lafayette park and hoisted up a Bible in front of St. John's church.

'I would say the crowd was very unruly,' Barr said, despite footage from the incident showing people standing around and then getting assaulted.

He again denied the clearing had anything to do with Trump's photo-op.

And he said 'teargas' wasn't used, despite media crews finding cannisters that contained the compound commonly referred to as teargas.

'I think it's a very important non-lethal option. For rioters,' Barr answered later in the hearing. 'When people resist law enforcement, they're not peaceful.'

Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, asked Barr if the point of the teargas was to secure St. John's church.

'No I didn't say that,' Barr said. 'I made very clear that the purpose was to move the perimeter to I Street.'

Dems: Why protect Portland's courthouse and not Michigan's governor?

Raskin and then later Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat, questioned why Barr sent federal forces to deal with Black Lives Matter protesters, but not to Michigan when Trump-aligned demonstrators showed up at the state capitol with guns to object to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's COVID-19 stay-at-home order.

'You are aware of certain kinds of protesters, but in Michigan when protesters carry guns and Confederate flags and Swastikas and call for the governor of Michigan to be beheaded and shot and lynched somehow you're not aware of that, somehow you didn't know about it so you didn't send federal agents in to do to the president's supporters what you did to the president's protesters,' Jayapal told Barr.

Jayapal pointed out that 'there is a real discrepency in how you react as the attorney general ... when white men with Swastikas storm a government building with guns, there is no need for the president to activate you because they're getting the president's personal agenda done.'

Federal officers who are protecting Portland's courthouse under the orders of the Trump administration have revealed that they 'fear for their lives' after 61 nights of protests in the city, but demonstrators say they are fighting back to protect themselves from the agents

'But when black people and people of color protest police brutality, systemic racism and the president's very own lack of response to those critical issues then you forcibly remove them with armed federal officers, pepper bombs because they are considered terrorists by the president,' Jayapal said, accusing Barr.

Barr answered by explaining Michigan, at its state capitol, could defend itself, while the federal forces in Portland and Washington, D.C. were defending federal property.

At another moment, when Arizona Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko referenced Jayapal as she questioned Barr about Seattle's Capitol Hill Organized Protest, Jayapal went after the Republican lawmaker too, for mispronouncing her name.

'If you're going to say my name, please say it right,' Jayapal said confronting Lesko.

Lesko had asked Barr to explain why the so-call autonomous zones represented a threat.

'It's quite an outrage that people would use force to take over an area,' Barr said.

But then he went further, pointing out, 'the leaders of one of our great two political parties, the Democratic Party, are not coming out and condemning mob violence and the attack on federal courts.'

'Why can't we just say violence against federal courts has to stop. Can we hear something like that?' Barr said, being met with silence.

Four hours in and a clash over masks

As the hearing pressed on into a fourth hour, tensions continued to be high between members of the two parties.

Nadler called out his Republican colleagues for not putting back on their masks after they spoke. The current policy on Capitol Hill calls for masks to be worn in the hearing rooms unless a member is speaking. Nadler said drinking coffee didn't count.

Jordan called attention to the Democrats interrupting the attorney general before he could answer their questions.

Nadler responded by saying, 'The gentleman's rudeness is not recognized.'

Then, when Barr asked for a five-minute break, Nadler first said no.

'You're a real class act,' Barr muttered.

Barr pointed out that he had waited nearly an hour for the New York Democrat to arrive on Capitol Hill after his a.m. car accident.

With that, Nadler allowed the five minute break to occur.

As the hearing sped toward conclusion Jordan interrupted several times to point out that Democrats had suggested Barr was responsible for killing Americans, floated by Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Texas, and refusing to uphold his oath to the Constitution, a comment made by Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Texas Democrat.

Garcia had shamed Barr for letting Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort out of prison due to the threat of COVID-19 spread but not 'vulnerable Americans.'

She brought up the case of one woman who had to give birth on a ventilator in prison and then later died.

Angry: Ranking Republican member Jim Jordan called attention to the Democrats interrupting the attorney general before he could answer their questions

'Sir you could be saving lives by reducing the prison population, yet you have blatantly abandoned your duty to these women, you have shamelessly abandoned your oath of office to protect all Americans impartially, because you have prioritized by giving special favors to the president's friends,' Garcia said. 'This is not equal justice under the law,' she added.

Escobar, the last lawmaker to question Barr, slammed the DOJ under his leadership of becoming too politicized. 'There's nothing more dangerous to our republic than an attorney general who refuses to uphold his oath, refuses to uphold and defend the Constitution and swears allegiance to just one person, Donald Trump.'

'My loyalty is to the Constitution, that's why I came into government,' Barr responded.

'The lady just accused him of not adhering to his oath of office, let him talk - holy - she just accused the attorney general of the United States of not adhering to his oath, let him speak,' Jordan yelled.

'Even worse,' Barr said.

And with several bangs of the gavel, and several more outbursts, Nadler called the hearing adjourned.

AG Bill Barr : I'll leave office after election 'if the results were clear' but Trump refuses to go

Barr was asked Tuesday how he would react if Trump lost the election in November, but refused to leave office.

'If the results are clear, I would leave office,' Barr replied.

He testified that he wasn't aware of statements made by Trump suggesting the president could question the results of the election.

'I really am not familiar with these comments or the contexts they occurred,' Barr said.

The president was non-committal to 'Fox News Sunday' host Chris Wallace when asked if he'd accept the results of the election.

'I have to see ... No, I'm not going to just say yes. I'm not going to say no, I didn't last time either,' Trump said.

During the 2016 cycle - and again in 2020 - Trump suggested the election could be 'rigged.'

Barr split from the president on that assessment Tuesday.

'I have no reason to think it will be,' he told lawmakers.

He did, however, continue to float that massive mail-in voting would be problematic and could lead to tampering and fraud.

'I think there's a high risk that it will,' Barr said. 'If you have wholesale mail-in voting, it increases the risk of fraud.'

Barr said he wasn't against absentee voting, which is also the president's position as Trump votes by mail as a Florida resident. Barr has also voted by mail in the past.

'I'm not talking about accommodations to people who have to be out of the state or have some particular need not to - inability to go and vote, what I'm talking about the wholesale conversion of election to mail-in voting,' Barr said.

He worried ballots could be counterfeited.

When asked to cite evidence that this could occur, Barr couldn't provide an example.

'No, it's obvious,' he answered.

Barr wasn't sure if Trump could move the date of the election, something accidentally floated by Jared Kushner, who gave a non-committal answer about having the election in November due to the coronavirus pandemic.

'Actually I haven't looked into that question under the Constitution,' Barr answered when asked if the president had the power to make a date change. 'I've never been asked the question before, I've never looked into it.'

Democrats have pushed for all-mail voting as a way to combat the spread of COVID-19 on election day.

Also during the hearing, Barr agreed that Russia had interfered in the U.S. election in 2016.

'I think we have to assume that they are,' he replied when asked if Russia was meddling in this year's election as well.

He was asked by Rep. David Cicilline, a New Jersey Democrat, if foreign assistance in an election is ever appropriate.

'It depends on what kind of assistance,' Barr first answered, before modifying his language in response to an incredulous Cicilline. 'No it's not appropriate,' Barr said.

'Sorry you had to struggle with that one Mr. Attorney General,' Cicilline said.

Barr: Prosecutors were trying to treat Roger Stone and Mike Flynn 'more harshly' because they were 'friends of the president'

Barr asserted Roger Stone and Michael Flynn were not treated fairly by prosecutors claiming Justice Department individuals were trying to levy harsher sentences because of their relationships with President Donald Trump.

'I agree the president's friends do not deserve special breaks, but they also don't deserve to be treated more harshly than other people,' the attorney general said.

'The cases that are cited, the Stone case and the Flynn case  both cases where I determined that some intervention was necessary to rectify the rule of law to make sure people are treated the same,' he continued during Republican Representative Mike Jonhson's questioning.

Roger Stone (left) and Michael Flynn (right) were both prosecuted as relating to their ties to Trump and communications with Russia. Stone's five-nine-year sentence was commuted by Trump and Flynn's charges were dropped by Barr's DOJ

Barr acknowledged that it's difficult for the Justice Department to treat everyone fairly 'especially when you know you will be castigated' for decisions and outcomes.

'But that is what the rule of law is and that's what fairness to the individual ultimately comes to  being willing to do what's right for the individual,' he assured.

Johnson replied to Barr's response with an 'Amen.'

Stone served as an adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign and General Flynn served as the president's national security adviser for only one month in the beginning of his presidency.

Both men faced lawsuits involving their time with Trump and their communications with Russia  as related to the investigation into the Kremlin interfering in the 2016 presidential election.

A court in Washington D.C. recommended Stone serve between seven and nine years for lying to Congress.

Trump and senior administration officials decried the decision as a 'miscarriage of justice,' prompting speculation that there was political interference, with critics claiming the sentencing should have actually been more harsh.

'Stone was prosecuted under me, and I said all along I thought that was a righteous prosecution,' Barr told House lawmakers during the oversight hearing Tuesday. 'I thought he should go to jail, and I thought the judge's sentence was correct.'

'But the lying prosecutors were trying to advocate for a sentence that was more than twice what anyone else in a similar position had ever served,' he claimed.

'And this is a 67-year-old man, first-time offender, no violence,' the Attorney General said of Stone. 'And they were trying to put him in jail for seven to nine years. And I wasn't going to advocate that, because that is not the rule of law.'

On July 10, 2020, Trump commuted his former campaign aide's sentence  just days before he was set to report to prison.

Flynn was also charged during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, but he agreed to a plea bargain in a D.C. court.

As part of the agreement, and in a show of cooperation with Mueller's investigation, the three-star retired general pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations with Russia's ambassador.

Trump publicly called for the charged against his former adviser to be dropped.

Flynn was never officially sentenced, with his hearing being indefinitely postponed just one day before the scheduled date amid appeals and developing information  including his claim that his previous lawyers violated his constitutional rights by providing inadequate legal counsel.

Barr declared in February of this year that Flynn's case would be reviewed by a Trump-appointed prosecutor, who ultimately recommended in the spring that Barr drop the charges .

The U.S. attorney general took that recommendation.

'We didn't clear the park for a photo-op.' Police chief denies clearing protesters outside White House for infamous Trump Bible picture

The head of U.S. Park Police insisted Tuesday that the forceful routing of protesters from the square in front of the White House last month had 'zero correlation' with President Donald Trump's staged photo event minutes later.

But he was unable to point to any immediate threat that justified his officers' sudden, violent drive against the hundreds gathered there.

Gregory T. Monahan's testimony before the House Natural Resources Committee was his first extended accounting of the Park Police's offensive against protesters and journalists June 1 in Lafayette Square.

Attorney General William Barr, testifying separately on Trump's deployment of hundreds of federal officers and agents against nationwide protests this spring and summer, also distanced Trump's photo event from the decision to drive demonstrators from Lafayette Square that night.

'This was something conceived of long before and didn't turn on the nature of the crowd,' Barr said.

But appearing at the same hearing as Monahan, Maj. Adam DeMarco of the Army National Guard told lawmakers of his surprise when Park Police officers suddenly and rapidly mobilized to drive the hundreds of then-peaceful demonstrators from the square, clubbing people with their shields and batons and unleashing chemical irritants.

It appeared 'an unnecessary escalation of the use of force,' DeMarco said. He said it ran counter to his training on military guidelines on the use of force against civilians and his experience with managing crowds as a combat veteran in Iraq.

The June 1 demonstrations outside the White House came at the height of this year's nationwide protests over the killing of Black people at the hands of police, and has been a flashpoint in growing debate over Trump's ongoing use of heavily militarized federal forces against the street protests.

Hundreds of federal agency employees are now mobilized against a mix of peaceful and unruly protesters in Portland, Oregon.

Democrats charged that the action at Lafayette Square, long one of the nation's most prominent venues for demonstrations, was a 'test run' for the ongoing deployment of uniformed federal agency forces against protesters nationally.

DeMarco disputed Monahan's testimony that Park Police warned the crowd in advance over special sound equipment audible for hundreds of feet.

He said the only notice to the milling crowds came in garbled words over an officer's hand-held megaphone that he could barely hear standing about 20 yards away. 'I could just make out every other word,' he said.

The events in Lafayette Square played out in just over an hour -- between about 6 p.m. and 7:05 p.m., according to testimony - and were watched closely by Americans on news and cellphone videos.

Barr, accompanied by Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, paid an unannounced visit to the square within that hour and was recorded consulting with a senior Park Police officer at the scene.

Park Police suddenly started moving against protesters shortly after Barr and Milley departed. The officers clubbed protesters with their batons and their riot shields and fired pepper balls, a chemical irritant, as demonstrators stumbled or ran away, some with their hands up.

DeMarco and others have said they believed the Park Police also fired tear gas. Monahan denies that.

About a half-hour later, Trump moved through the area on his way to a church that had been attacked by demonstrators a previous night. Standing briefly before news cameras as he held a Bible in the air, he then returned to the White House complex.

'We did not clear that park for a photo op,' Monahan said under questioning. 'There is 100%, zero correlation between our operation and the president's visit.'

Monahan also denied that either the White House, Barr or Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who oversees the Park Police, gave the order to drive protesters and news crews from Lafayette Square, by the surprise use of force.

Testifying separately before the House Judiciary Committee at the same time Tuesday, Barr faced Democratic lawmakers' questions about the aggressive federal response to protesters nationally, including that evening in Lafayette Square.

Barr has said the plan to move the protesters from Lafayette Square was solidified during an afternoon meeting with multiple agencies and was supposed to be put in place by early afternoon on June 1.

'I wanted it moved before there was a big buildup of demonstrators,' Barr testified Tuesday.

Officials had to wait for additional law enforcement and National Guard personnel to come in to provide support before the perimeter could be moved, Barr said. After those officials were all in place, they moved forward with pushing out the perimeter, he said.

Democrats at the House Natural Resources Committee hearing focused on what Rep. Alan Lowenthal of California called the 'amazing coincidence' of federal forces clearing the square just before Trump moved through, and on the sudden use of violent against the crowd.

Monahan, the Park Police acting chief, cited protesters' throwing of bricks, rocks and other projectiles in the days before June 1. But Monahan disclosed that the only injury to Park Police that day came as phalanxes of officers were driving out the protesters, and someone punched an officer in the face.

'Your decision process should have been based by what was' happening in the square at the time, said Rep. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat and former Marine.

'No one was injured, by the way, until you all advanced,' Gallego told Monahan. 'If I had acted that way when I was in the Marine Corps, I probably would have been busted down a couple of' ranks.

Rep. Jody Hice, a Georgia Republican, called the committee's probe of the clearing of the square 'an act of political theater' by Democrats.

The contention 'that somehow the U.S. Park Police attacked peaceful protesters is ludicrous,' Hice said.
ATLANTA, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Georgia Power's Smart Neighborhood Initiative has been recognized by the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) as part of its annual awards that celebrate innovation and collaboration of utilities, industry players and individuals shaping the future of energy. The initiative was included in Southern Company's designation as a 2020 SEPA Utility Business Models Power Player of the Year.

"We are proud to be recognized as the 2020 SEPA Utility Business Models Power Player of the Year," said Nicole Faulk, senior vice president of Corporate and Customer Services for Georgia Power. "This award recognizes our commitment to innovation, research and development. It is a testament to all of the employees involved in our Smart Neighborhood initiative as well as our continued focus on meeting customers' current and future energy needs through cutting-edge research and technology."

The 2020 SEPA Utility Business Models Power Player of the Year award recognizes unique innovation and leadership in efforts to create new utility business models that advance the adoption of clean energy resources and help to achieve carbon reduction and clean energy goals.

Georgia Power has been a leader in Smart Home innovation, helping bring new technologies to homebuilding in the state. The company's Smart Neighborhood initiative provides customers with state-of-the-art home construction, distributed energy resources including solar, battery energy storage and smart home appliances and technologies. Southern Company was recognized by SEPA for its Smart Neighborhood initiatives. Georgia Power is a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company.

Georgia Power's Smart Neighborhood

Georgia's first-of-a-kind Smart Neighborhood, located in Atlanta, includes 46 technology-enhanced townhomes in the Georgia Power Smart Neighborhood developed at Altus at the Quarter. Each home is served by Georgia Power and supplemented by rooftop solar installations and in-home battery energy storage.

Homeowners in these innovative homes will see improved reliability, increased use of distributed energy resources and lower costs. These homes are also equipped with the latest energy technologies such as optimal insulation for maximum efficiency, advanced heating and cooling systems and LED lighting. They feature home automation, including smart thermostats, smart locks and voice control.

The Smart Neighborhood is a real-world research and development (R&D) project, including a supporting partnership with the Southern Company Energy Innovation Center. The company collaborated with U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Electric Power Research Institute on the initiatives. The information and data collected from the distributed energy resources will provide researchers valuable operational experience as the company continues to evaluate microgrids along with residential battery storage and rooftop solar. Information from the HVAC systems, heat pump water heaters and other technologies will help inform new programs and services for customers.

To learn more about the Georgia Power Smart Neighborhood, visit www.georgiapower.com/smartneighborhood. To learn more about SEPA, visit www.sepapower.org. To watch the 2020 SEPA Utility Business Models Power Player of the Year Video, visit https://youtu.be/AR0Rj3Nvna4,

Georgia Power also offers a full suite of smart-home options, which includes easy access to products and services to help make customers' homes more energy efficient and connected. The company brings together popular products in the Smart Neighborhood, including the latest in smart thermostats and smart home products such as smart filters, lighting, door locks, light switches, vents, smoke alarms and doorbells, to a single convenient online portal on Georgia Power Marketplace.

Georgia Power's Smart Initiatives

In addition to smart neighborhoods, Georgia Power's smart initiatives include electric vehicle charging infrastructure to make electric transportation use in cars and buses convenient, battery energy storage that maximizes the value of renewable energy, digital security technologies to help make communities safer, microgrids that leverage smart energy management systems, and smart meters that provide greater insight to customers' real time use, help reduce outage times and more.

Georgia Power's state-of-the-art automation solutions are also featured in the Curiosity Lab in Peachtree Corners, Georgia. The new living laboratory, a 1.5-mile intelligent mobility and smart city laboratory, is the first of its kind in the country. The one-of-a-kind facility will offer a unique opportunity for testing to be done in a 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) environment that includes interaction with real-world vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The Curiosity Lab reinforces the company's commitment to research and development and provides another way to continue growing smart solutions that benefit customers across the state.

About Georgia Power

Georgia Power is the largest electric subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), America's premier energy company. Value, Reliability, Customer Service and Stewardship are the cornerstones of the company's promise to 2.6 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties. Committed to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy at rates below the national average, Georgia Power maintains a diverse, innovative generation mix that includes nuclear, coal and natural gas, as well as renewables such as solar, hydroelectric and wind. Georgia Power focuses on delivering world-class service to its customers every day and the company is consistently recognized by J.D. Power and Associates as an industry leader in customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.GeorgiaPower.com and connect with the company on Facebook (Facebook.com/GeorgiaPower), Twitter (Twitter.com/GeorgiaPower) and Instagram (Instagram.com/ga_power).

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Attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwellwho sits in jail awaiting trial on charges that she assisted convicted sex offender and super-rich financial advisor Jeffrey Epstein in abusing teenage girlshave filed a motion to stop court records from another case from being made public.

In their proposed protective order, Maxwells lawyers requested on Monday that the discovery materials from a 2015 defamation case brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre be filed under seal in a Manhattan federal court.

The attorneys state that the discovery documents are highly confidential and contain nude, partially-nude, or otherwise sexualized images, videos, or other depictions of individuals that should not be disseminated, transmitted, or otherwise copied.

Maxwells lawyers have been working closely with prosecutors to review the trove of confidential documents from the 2015 Roberts Giuffre case which were unsealed last week by Senior District Judge Loretta Preska at the request of the Miami Herald and others on freedom of information grounds.

Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein in 2005 [Photo Credit: US Justice Department]

Giuffre sued for defamation in September 2015 after Maxwell publicly stated that the woman had made up the sexual abuse allegations against her and Epstein. After legal wrangling, the case was settled under seal in June 2017 with Maxwell reportedly paying Giuffre millions.

Aside from the potential damage to Maxwells current case, there is another fact of relevance to the strenuous effort being made by her attorneys to block the release of the discovery documents while she sits in a New York City lockup. Approximately 2,000 pages of documents from this case were unsealed on August 9, 2019, and, one day later, Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in the Manhattan Correctional Center, which was determined by authorities to be a suicidal hanging.

It was similar detailed information that was released in connection with a 2014 Florida filing in which Giuffre revealed that she had been trafficked by Maxwell and Epstein to Prince Andrew, Duke of York, on at least three separate occasions when she was 17 years old in 2001. A photo that shows Giuffre, Prince Andrew and Maxwell in Ghislaines London apartment has been circulated since 2011.

Other important details of the relationship between the two have established that Maxwell recruited Giuffre while she was a spa assistant at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, owned by now-President Donald Trump, and groomed her for abuse by Epstein and his elite associates.

Judge Preska decided last Thursday to release the documentswhich include the transcripts of the depositions of both Giuffre and Maxwellon the grounds that the public interest in the matter outweighs any claims that the documents related to the Epstein sex trafficking ring would prove to be embarrassing or interfere with ongoing legal cases.

While Judge Preskas decision opens the door to the unsealing of hundreds of documents that have been under seal since the 2015 defamation case, she also quickly granted Maxwells legal team a stay on the release pending their appeal. Judge Preska gave Maxwell attorney Lauren Menninger one week to file an emergency motion with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Preska told both sides that they should proceed as though the documents will be made public within a week.

Maxwell was arrested at her mansion on a 156-acre secluded property in Bradford, New Hampshire, on July 2. She has been charged with six counts of transporting a minor for the purposes of criminal sexual activity, conspiring to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts between 1994 and 1997 and perjury related to testimony she gave before the US District Court for the Southern District in New York in 2016.

Maxwell, 58, is being held at the Brooklyn Detention center where, according to authorities, she is considered a suicide risk. She was denied bail on July 14 by Judge Alison J. Nathan of Federal District Court in Manhattan on the grounds that she was a significant flight risk. Maxwell had proposed to be held under house arrest wearing an electronic tether and that she put up collateral to back $5 million bail.

After denying the bail, Judge Nathan said it was practically impossible to set conditions that would ensure Maxwellwith her wealth and international connectionswould return to court to face the charges against her. Judge Nathan also set the date for trial on July 12, 2021.

President Donald Trump was asked about Maxwells case at a press briefing last week. Indicating concerns in high places over the revelations to come, he replied: I just wish her well. Ive met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach and I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well, whatever it is.

When questioned two days later about the presidents well-wishes to Epsteins alleged madam, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump was attempting to see justice served. What the president was noting is that the last person who was charged in [Epsteins] case ended up dead in a jail cell, and the president wants justice to be served for the victims in this case, and he prefers this to play out in a courtroom, McEnany said.

There are numerous photographs of Trump with both Epstein and Maxwell as well as statements from the future president praising Epstein as a terrific guy. While Trump switched his affiliation from the Republican to the Democratic Party during the years he was known to have had a relationship with Epstein and Maxwell, there are individuals from both political parties and among the elite in American society who also do not wish to have their relationship with Epstein made public or explored.

Ex-Trump advisor Anthony Scaramucciwho no doubt has first-hand knowledge of the filthy and criminal operations of the US ruling elitehad a plausible explanation for Trumps friendly comment to the jailed Maxwell through the media. Scaramucci tweeted last Wednesday, She has the goods on him. He is signaling please dont talk.
Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has conducted phone calls with a number of US congressmen recently to discuss the latest developments in the dispute between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), as well as the crisis in Libya, according to a statement by the foreign ministry on Tuesday.

The calls come within the framework of the continuing communication with the US side at all levels of the decision-making circle, ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said, and included both Republican and Democratic members of Congress.

Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia are engaged in talks on the GERD that are mediated by the African Union (AU) in an attempt to solve the decade-long dispute over the mega-dam. The US, along with the EU and South Africa, the current president of the AU, are observing the ongoing talks.

The AU talks come months after the breakdown of US-sponsored meetings in Washington in February, when Addis Ababa pulled out of the last meeting.

In the calls, Shoukry reviewed the Egyptian vision of addressing the different challenges facing the Middle East and Egypt's role to enhance stability and reach political solutions on all regional issues, as well as countering the negative role of some countries in destabilising the region, the statement added.

Egypt announced last month an initiative dubbed the Cairo Declaration which aim to solve the Libyan crisis. The initiative mandates an intra-Libyan resolution as a basis for resolving the conflict, following resolutions by the UN and the conclusion of the Berlin conference.

The phone calls touched upon other international and regional issues, including the crisis in Syria and the Palestinian cause, Hafez said.

The discussions also dealt with aspects of strategic relations between the two countries in the political, economic, and security fields, as well as the ways for the US Congress to support the strategic partnership between Egypt and the US.

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MANILA, Philippines (AP)  Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte warned would-be criminals on Monday that bodies will pile up" if they turn to robberies and other crimes during the coronavirus pandemic and urged that the death penalty be restored for illegal drugs.

Duterte touched on a wide range of issues in his annual state of the nation address before Congress, at times turning combative. He threatened two leading telecommunication companies with closure for what he said was their spotty cellphone service but expressed helplessness in response to China's seizure of Philippine-claimed territories in the South China Sea.

Duterte acknowledged that his governments handling of the coronavirus pandemic was far from perfect and but gave assurances that we will not stop until we get things right and better for you.

He sought congressional passage of a bill that will again grant him emergency powers to realign government budgets for use in the continuing health crisis.

There have been widespread complaints about the government's response to the outbreak, including long delays in the delivery of cash and food aid to millions of poor families and the inability to reach a targeted number of daily virus tests.

The Philippines remains a Southeast Asian hot spot for the virus, with more than 80,000 confirmed cases, including nearly 2,000 deaths.

Duterte said people were worried not only about the virus but also about safety and public mobility during the pandemic. He said crimes may increase but pledged that he wouldn't permit them to spiral out of control in any city.

Addressing would-be criminals, Duterte warned, you know what will happen to you.

You commit holdups, you commit rape, you commit all sorts of things and you harm the public, then Ill be your enemy, said Duterte, who built a political name with his extra-tough approach to crime as a mayor. If you return to the old ways, there will be piles of bodies again and I will surely hunt you down.

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He urged lawmakers to swiftly pass legislation reimposing the death penalty for illegal drugs, saying the drug menace has destroyed families and the youth.

Dutertes bloody anti-drug crackdown, which he launched after taking office in mid-2016, has left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead and alarmed human rights groups and Western governments. He and law enforcers have denied committing extrajudicial killings, although he has openly threatened drug dealers with death.

Hundreds of protesters defied police threats of arrests and rallied at the University of the Philippines on Monday to condemn the drug campaign killings and a new anti-terror law they say could muzzle legitimate dissent.

They also protested the closure of the countrys largest TV network after a committee of the House of Representatives, dominated by Dutertes allies, rejected a new 25-year franchise for ABS-CBN Inc., which Duterte has repeatedly threatened with closure over critical reporting.

At least 34 suspected protesters were taken into police custody in three areas, police said. Public gatherings of more than 10 people are prohibited under coronavirus regulations but protesters accused the government of using the health crisis to mute complaints over the governments handling of the pandemic and other issues.

___

Associated Press journalists Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila contributed to this report.
They have the largest economies in the world. They spend more than anyone else on their militaries. From high-tech chips to control of the high seas, their interests are closely intertwined.

The ongoing sharp deterioration in US-China ties poses risks to both countries and the rest of the world. In the latest escalation, a US consulate in Chengdu in southwestern China shuttered Monday, ordered by China to close in retaliation for the US shutting down its consulate in Houston last week.

With the US presidential campaign heating up, all bets are that relations with China will only get worse. A look at what's at stake: TRADE

Both countries already have suffered heavy losses in a tariff war that erupted in 2018 over Beijing's technology ambitions and trade surplus. If talks on ending the dispute fail, the world could face downward pressure on trade at a time when the global economy is already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

The United States is China's biggest single-country export market, even after President Donald Trump imposed punitive tariffs on Chinese goods. And China is the No. 3 market for American exporters, as well as a huge market for goods and services produced in China by US companies ranging from General Motors Co. to Burger King.

Chinese purchases of American farm goods, semiconductors and other goods declined 11.4% last year but still exceeded dollar 100 billion. Exports to China support just under 1 million American jobs, according to the US-China Business Council, though that was down 10% from 2017's peak.

China is the biggest export market for Iowa and other American farm states, which were slammed when Beijing suspended imports of soybeans and raised tariffs on pork and other goods.

That briefly boosted sales for soybean exporters in Brazil and Argentina, though China resumed buying lower-priced American beans under the Phase 1 trade truce signed in January.

But if the two can't resolve broader differences on trade, it will be a blow not only to their exporters but also to other Asian economies that supply China's factories with raw materials and components.

US and Chinese producers of telecom, computer, medical and other technology and their markets are tightly interwoven. Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and others rely on Chinese factories to assemble most of their smartphones, computers and other consumer electronics.

Those factories need processor chips and other components from the United States, Japan, Taiwan and Europe.

The disruption caused by moves including the Trump administration's curbs on Chinese tech giant Huawei's access to US components and technology threatens to disrupt those flows and cost suppliers, including Silicon Valley companies, billions of dollars in lost revenue.

China is also a top market for Apple and other US tech brands, and is increasingly becoming a technology competitor with its own brands in smartphones, medical equipment and other fields.

The United States often is the top market for China's highest-value-added goods. Beijing has been urging exporters to find other markets, but many say Asian and even European markets won't buy such high-value goods.

While the US has long been the predominant military power in the Pacific, China now has two operational aircraft carriers and an arsenal of missiles seen as a threat to US vessels and bases in the region.

Military tensions have largely focused on the South China Sea, a crucial waterway that is the subject of overlapping territorial claims by China and several smaller Asian nations.

In 2018, a Chinese destroyer came perilously close to colliding with a U.S. destroyer, the USS Decatur, while executing what the Navy called an unsafe and unprofessional maneuver in the South China Sea.

A Chinese fighter jet collided with a US Navy surveillance plane in international airspace over the South China Sea in 2001, leading to major diplomatic incident after the US plane made an emergency landing on a Chinese island.

Taiwan is another potential flashpoint. China claims the self-governing island as its territory, to be taken by force if necessary. The US is bound by its own law to ensure the island has a credible defense and has approved military sales to Taiwan under Trump.

Taiwan's foreign minister said last week that Chinese military flights near the island have been taking place on a near-daily basis, more frequently than previously reported.

Washington upped the ante earlier this month by declaring that it did not recogniwe most of China's maritime claims in the South China Sea, a break with its previous policy of not taking a stance on the sovereignty disputes.
Biotech firms and drugmakers across the globe are pumping in billions of dollars to develop a vaccine as the only resort to wipe out the deadly coronavirus but there is no sign of it yet.

However, a few companies have made substantial progress in the race to develop a vaccine. On Jul 27, Moderna, Inc. MRNA launched the phase 3 trial of its vaccine candidate on thousands of volunteers. Separately, Pfizer, Inc. PFE also advanced into its final-stage trials. This has once again raised hopes of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this year, which even some drugmakers consider possible.

Vaccine Hopes Rise Again

Moderna and Pfizer launched two 30,000-subject trials of COVID-19 vaccines that could clear the way for regulatory approval and widespread use by the end of this year, the companies said on Jul 27. The trials, both announced on Monday, are the first late-stage studies supported by the Trump administrations effort to ramp up development of a coronavirus vaccine.

Modernas randomized, placebo-controlled trial is expected to include approximately 30,000 participants in the United States, testing an mRNA-1273 dosage of 100 g. The primary endpoint will be the prevention of symptomatic COVID-19 disease. Moderna is working closely with BARDA and the NIH, including NIAIDs COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN), to conduct the phase 3 COVE study under the auspices of Operation Warp Speed.

The Pfizer vaccine study is being conducted in the United States and elsewhere. Like Moderna, Pfizer also aims to recruit 30,000 volunteers for the trial. Pfizer already has an agreement to sell 100 million doses of its vaccine to the U.S. government and give it the option to buy 500 million more.

Vaccine Race Heats Up

Although treatment for COVID-19 is yet to be found, a large number of drugmakers and biotech companies have made remarkable progress in developing a vaccine over the past couple of months. Also, some have started ramping up production of their vaccine candidates, anticipating huge demand if they prove successful.

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Earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci, United States leading infectious diseases doctor, said on Jul 6 that the nation will get to know by the end of this year whether a coronavirus vaccine is safe and effective. He had also assured that a vaccine will be available as soon as the clinical trials are complete, giving a boost to the confidence of millions.

Stocks in Focus

Moderna has been one of the frontrunners in the COVID-19 vaccine race. The companys vaccine candidate mRNA-1273 is a molecule that genetically encodes a set of instructions based on which cells make proteins and send them to various parts of the body. Modernas vaccine for COVID-19 showed it was safe and triggered immune responses in all 45 healthy volunteers in the early-stage study. Its shares have gained 30.4% in the past 30 days. Moderna has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Pfizer joined forces with German biotech giant BioNTech BNTX to develop a vaccine for coronavirus. The 360 patients in the United States trial started to receive the first doses of the four vaccine candidates included in the study as of May 5. Dosing in 200 participants in the German trial began on Apr 23. The company has now entered its phase 2/3 safety and efficacy clinical study on 30,000 subjects. The candidate so far has shown promise and the U.S. government has also placed an initial order of 100 million doses for $1.95 billion to secure 500 million additional doses of the vaccine. Pfizers shares have advanced 17.2% in the past month. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 0.7% over the past 60 days. Pfizer carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Gilead Sciences, Inc. GILD in May received an emergency-use authorization from the FDA based on preliminary results from two clinical trials: one conducted by the NIAID and the other by Gilead. The companys expected earnings growth rate for next year is 4.2%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 3.9% over the past 30 days. Shares of the company have gained 14.7% year to date. Gilead has a Zacks Rank #3.

Amgen, Inc. AMGN, one of the biggest biotech companies in the world, collaborated with Adaptive, Inc. (ADPT) in April to work on antibodies that can be used to prevent or treat COVID-19. Amgen also plans to test Otezla as a COVID-19 therapy treating respiratory distress in late-stage patients in the coming days.

Amgens expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 5.2%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 0.2% over the past 60 days.

Dynavax Technologies Corporation DVAX is developing a vaccine candidate SCB-2019 with GlaxoSmithKline plc GSK which is in its phase 1 clinical trials. The vaccine is made up of S-Trimer protein that resembles the coronavirus spike protein and hence triggers the immune system to produce antibodies. Last week, Dynavax partnered with Taiwan-based Medigen Vaccine Biologics to develop an adjuvanted Covid-19 vaccine candidate.

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Nasser al-Mefleh, a pediatric surgeon in Idlib province, knows the risks that come with working as a health care provider in northwest Syria where hospitals like his are favorite targets of the regimes warplanes. COVID-19, he says, is just the latest hazard.

Mefleh tested positive for the coronavirus July 10 after several days of flu-like symptoms. He believes he contracted the virus during his shift at Bab al-Hawa hospital near the border with Turkey in northern Syria.

Days before, at the same hospital, northwest Syria recorded its first confirmed case: a 39-year-old neurosurgeon who had recently returned from Gaziantep, Turkey, and traveled to Idlib from northern Aleppo.

We as medical staff are more exposed, Mefleh told Al-Monitor via WhatsApp. Personal protection methods are limited, and there is no way to protect 100%.

At least 12 Idlib-based doctors and nurses have tested positive for the virus this month, said Omar al-Hiraki, an orthopedic and trauma surgeon at Bab al-Hawa hospital. His now-empty facility is currently being sterilized while the infected doctors isolate at home.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded 29 total cases in the region, but limiting testing means the real case count is almost certainly higher. Syria has entered the stage of the pandemic that the United States lived through in April, said Zaher Sahloul, president of Chicago-based nonprofit MedGlobal. By his count, more than 50 physicians across Syria are infected with the coronavirus.

Any physician who is out of service because of COVID or who dies because of COVID will not be replaced, said Sahloul. In northwest Syria, theres a huge shortage  and huge is an understatement  compared to the rest of Syria."

Nearly a decade of war created a mass exodus of health care professionals. A further 900 have died in attacks carried out by the Syrian government and its allies, according to the New York-based Physicians for Human Rights.

Based on MedGlobals research, northwest Syria is left with an average of 1.4 physicians per 10,000 people. The US average, for comparison, is 25 physicians per 10,000 people.

Months before Syria reported its first case of COVID-19, Idlib suffered through a deadly air campaign and ground offensive waged by the regime and its Russian backers. The Syrian governments warplanes pummeled the region from December to early March, forcing up to 1 million people to flee their homes and destroying or damaging over 80 hospitals and medical facilities.

Those hospitals still functioning face a crippling lack of resources. Idlib has fewer than 300 intensive care unit beds and a limited number of ventilators, most of which are currently in use, according to the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations.

Hospitals must also contend with a dangerous shortage of oxygen concentrators and cylinders. Sahloul warns the supplies will be consumed quickly should a hospital have even a few cases.

Idlib, with a population of nearly 4.2 million, has just one laboratory equipped with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing machine. At most, the lab can run 100 tests per day, says Hiraki, the surgeon.

Thats unreasonable, said Hiraki. How can I perform surgery for patients without being sure that they are COVID negative?

Testing is more widely available in government-held areas, with Damascus having received five PCR machines from the WHO. As of Friday, the Ministry of Health confirmed 608 infections, including 44 among health care workers. The Kurdish-controlled northeast region has reported a handful of cases.

Just miles from the Bab al-Hawa hospital, more than a million displaced Syrians live in crowded camps along the Turkish border, where social distancing and proper hygiene is virtually impossible. Malnutrition and poor health care have comprised their immune systems, and a recent Russian-forced UN Security Council vote to slash cross-border deliveries could further reduce what little aid they receive.

[The government] knows how to kill people, but not how to protect people, said Hiraki. If COVID-19 kills 1,000, 2,000, 5,000,000  it is nothing. We are just numbers for the Assad regime.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 21:43:23|Editor: huaxia

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KUWAIT CITY, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait is to start its shrimp season on Aug. 1 after a ban on shrimp fishing which has been in place for seven months, the Kuwait Fishermen's Union announced Tuesday.

Zahir Al-Suwayyan, the union's president, said in a statement that the shrimp fishing season will start on Aug. 1, while expressing hope that this season will witness abundant fishing.

Fishing is one of the difficult professions, but it has a great impact on food security, he said, stressing the need to maintain price stability in the markets.

He called on all fishermen to adhere to the local fishing laws and regulations on protecting fish resources.

Last December, Kuwait's Public Authority for Agriculture and Fish Resources issued a decision prohibiting Kuwaiti fishing vessels from going out to catch shrimp for seven months, from January to July in 2020. Enditem
There is more to whiskey than corn and rye, Heavens Door Master Blender Ryan Perry reminds us.

Chances are if youre a whisky/whiskey fan, you know a decent amount about Scotch. But if youre primarily an American whiskey drinker, nows a good time to reacquaint yourself with Scotlands finest export, which offers multiple flavors and styles, along with its own set of rules (aging minimum in oak casks for 3+ years, malted barley as the core ingredient, etc.).

Reminder: most Scotch isnt peaty, and the spirits less-restrictive rules around what those oak barrels can contain (sherry, port, etc.) means you can find an abundance of flavors that, say, a bourbon cant recreate. Plus, blending is far more prevalent as a skill in Scotland than with American whiskies, which adds in its own unique component to the final product.

Ryan Perry, Master Blender at Heavens Door and avowed Scotch fan Heavens Door

To bridge the gap between our two worlds  and to celebrate the oddly timed National Scotch Day, which is this week (July 27th)  we asked some pros at a few up-and-coming American whiskey brands to tell us what they love about their Scottish peers. Beelow, Greg Metze (Master Distiller, Old Elk), Christian Krogstad (Master Distiller, Westward Whiskey), Ryan Perry (Master Blender, Heavens Door) and Sean Josephs (Owner/Master Taster, Pinhook) tell us about their favorite cross-pond tipples.

InsideHook: What do you appreciate about Scotch?



Greg Metze: Ive always had a deep respect for the traits of heritage, tradition and craftsmanship that Scotch distillers evoke in their passion to produce world class spirits. These values have always been part of my training and career as a Master Distiller. There is simply no room for short cuts or sacrificing product integrity for cost.

Christian Krogstad: I really appreciate the sense of tradition and heritage found in their distilleries.

Ryan Perry: Too many to pick, but the two that jump out to me are the art of blending and distinction of taste by region. With so many unique distilling styles, barrel types and climate variances, the ability of Scotch blenders to create uniformity over decades of a products life is truly amazing. And I cant appreciate the commitment of their craft more than when you can raise a glass and immediately know the heavy peat came from Islay (which is my daughters namesake) or the grit of the Highlands.

Sean Josephs: Theres such tremendous variety in Scotch between single malts, vatted malts, blends and the like. Between that and the regional differences, the multitude of finishes, and, of course, peat, there is endless exploration.

Talisker, a single malt from the Isle of Skye Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Whats something American whiskey producers could learn from their Scotch counterparts?



Greg Metze: High-malt-content mash bills intrigue me. At Old Elk, we actually took a page from the Scotch makers playbook with our 34% malted barley bourbon whiskey. Lowering the corn content and raising the malted barley content in a bourbon mash bill unmask smooth and delicate congeners that are hidden behind those attributed to high-corn content recipes.

Christian Krogstad: American distillers can learn a lot from the subtlety and diverse flavors that you can get from a single malt.

Ryan Perry: There is more to whiskey than corn and rye. The American single malt category already has a few winners, but there is a long road ahead which I couldnt be more excited about.

Sean Josephs: When I first opened my American Whiskey bar, Char No. 4 in 2008 (New York), the bourbon category was very narrow and we also carried a good number of Scotches as well. While the bourbon industry has evolved a lot since then, at the time I felt that bourbon needed to take a page out of Scotchs book and experiment with a variety of elements to create the breadth and depth of Scotch in order to move American whiskey forward and bring in a new audience.

The Whisky Exchange

Whats your go-to Scotch, and why?



Greg Metze: I really like 12-year-old Bunnahabhain. Its a moderately peated single malt Scotch Whisky that was produced by Burn Stewart Distillery and Master Distiller Ian MacMillan, who were former work affiliates of mine several years ago.

Christian Krogstad: My go-to Scotch is Talisker: Its balanced, rich and packed with great flavor.

Ryan Perry: Right now, The Glenrothes Whiskey Makers Cut. Its a no-age statement (NAS) Scotch, which is untraditional to the brand, but it doesnt need to be since it is aged in first-fill Sherry casks. Its fruit forward and bordering on a Sherry bomb, but so damn good!

Sean Josephs: I will never forget the first time I drank Lagavulin 16 over 20 years ago. I love sitting by a campfire and the whiskey made me feel like I was both next to a fire and drinking in the woodsy smoke. Its one of my favorite taste memories and I will always have a soft spot for it.

The post The Best Bottles of Scotch, According to American Whiskey Producers appeared first on InsideHook.
She was in full coronavirus lockdown in Italy for weeks and now Aussie radio host Kate Langebroek has slammed Victorians who are refusing to wear face masks.

The 54-year-old appeared on The Project on Monday night, where she warned people who were against wearing masks what life could be like if they failed to follow the rules.

Kate Langebroek has given a warning to Aussies who aren't wearing face masks. Photo: Channel 10

I don't understand why you would argue with wearing a mask. If you think it is an incursion into your freedoms, wait until you're in hard lockdown and you can't go outside to walk your dog for four months and then see if wearing a mask is such a big deal, Kate said.

I find the thinking behind it strange. I think that If you think you've had your freedoms denied you, the hill that you're choosing to die on is refusing to wear a mask is an odd hill because there are so many freedoms that we have learned the hard way in Italy that can be denied.

So wearing a mask, it seems like a courtesy for people who have to work in shops all the time, who have to deal with strangers, they don't know what precautions we have taken or how healthy we are or where we have been. It just seems like politeness, courtesy and practicality to me.

Kate was in hard lockdown in Italy for weeks. Photo: Instagram/Kate Langebroek

Kate went on to say that its so relaxed in Puglia now, like COVID never happened.

Most people have abandoned themselves unto the summer, I think in anticipation of maybe an Autumn lockdown coming and making the most of it while they can, she said.

The former Hiit network presenter, her husband Peter and their four children, moved from Melbourne to Bologna in Italy at the beginning of 2019.

RELATED:

Kate documented her whole Italian lockdown for The Project, regularly appearing on the Channel 10 show to give updates on the strict coronavirus measures the country introduced.

She revealed back in April that her husband was being sued by the City of Bologna for flouting lockdown rules after going out for a bike ride and then Kate herself had a run-in with police.

Story continues

Speaking to hosts Dave Hughes and Ed Kavalee on FOX FM, Kate said she had a bit of a brush with the law on Good Friday, when she went shopping to get her children some Easter eggs.

Kate and her husband were stopped by police, who told them they werent supposed to be outside their home together.

Kate said it's courtesy and polite to wear a mask when you're out in public. Photo: Instagram/Kate Langebroek

The former radio host and her family could only leave the house to go to the shop. Photo: Instagram/Kate Langebroek

Italians have that knack. They can look at us and know we are not Italian, she started.

I was so annoyed. I hate the one-size-fits-all rule. I said, Ive got four children at home, thats a lot of food, thats a lot of carrying on my own.

They were a bit surprised by how aggressive I was.

They respect that attitude because its the attitude of an Italian woman. Theyre quite forthright.

Thats my new strategy. Im going to be aggressive.

At the beginning of April, Kate detailed how her husband got stopped on the street while he was out enjoying a morning bike ride.

She urged Aussies to wear a face mask out in public. Photo: Instagram/Kate Langebroek

Initially you were allowed to go out to exercise, which I would never do, Kate joked when she called in to Triple M Sydneys Moonman in the Morning.

Peter, my husband, actually got stopped by the police three weeks ago at like seven o'clock in the morning on a Sunday and they changed the rules the night before, she continued.

It was pretty intense, hes being sued by the City of Bologna and they said to him: have you got a lawyer and he was like wow this is not just like a fine.

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The Congress on Tuesday asked the government why a Chinese company with links to the PLA has been allowed into the strategic power sector in Jammu and Srinagar.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said at a briefing that the company named Dongfang was even banned by the World Bank.

This company named Dongfang is active in many countries. It has a special relationship with Pakistan. It is not only under the direct control of Chinese government and army, but the World Bank also imposed a ban on it last year due to allegations of corruption, Khera said.

We want to know from the Prime Minister why a controversial Chinese company is being allowed to come up in the border states that too in a strategically important area like energy?

Khera claimed that Dongfang has been given a contract for two lakh smart meters and warned that because it involves radio technology there is a danger of the two cities facing blackout or even data theft.

The company which got this contract subcontracted to Dongfang the remote communication technology component. In any smart meter the radio frequency system is a very critical component. If a company has the RF technology of a smart meter, that company can access the data of the consumer that company can ensure a blackout in that area within minutes, he said.

Khera said while the government was right in banning Chinese mobile phone apps, it made no sense to allow a Chinese company to allow a foothold into a vital sector in strategic locations like Jammu and Srinagar.

On the one hand, apps related to China are being banned, on the other hand, why is important data of the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir being given to a Chinese company?

He said although trade is important, it should not compromise strategic interests.

Along with diplomacy, trade is also an important factor for the relationship between two countries. But no country does trade while risking its strategic interests, Khera said.
Dubai Business Events (DBE), the citys official convention bureau, has signed eight memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with entities across the public and private sector, formalising and reinforcing collaborations that are set to attract more conferences, congresses and meetings to Dubai and ensure that, while business events globally may have been impacted by Covid-19, in the longer term they will continue to be strong drivers of tourism and economic development for the city, as well as critical pillars for knowledge and scientific advancements.

The MoUs will further strengthen DBEs Al Safeer Congress Ambassador Programme, which has grown to become a strong network of over 350 members and continues to play a vital role in elevating Dubais status as a knowledge hub in key sectors and industries.

With the presence and involvement of locally based experts and key opinion leaders being critical to bidding for and winning international conferences, DBE will work with teams at the partnering organisations to identify events that could be brought to Dubai and to collaborate with them on the bidding process and ultimately provide assistance in hosting them and ensuring they leave lasting legacies for all involved parties.

The entities to have signed the MoUs are Dubai Customs, Arab Association of Petroleum Professionals, Emirates Nursing Association and Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Science. Meanwhile, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers  UAE Section, Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government and RIT University in Dubai have all renewed their MoUs with Dubai Business Events.

Issam Kazim, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said: While the global Covid-19 pandemic may have impacted international visitation and business events, DBE and the rest of Dubai Tourism has been working tirelessly to ensure that the city is able to recapture its momentum as the world adapts to the new normal and travel resumes. A core part of our success as a destination in recent years has been the steady growth in business events, and these MoUs between DBE and entities across Dubai underline our commitment to bidding for and winning events from a wide range of sectors and industries."

Our Al Safeer Congress Ambassador Programme has made great strides in recent years in building a community of likeminded individuals and organisations, and we look forward to developing our relationships with these new partner entities  and build on the achievements with existing ones  as we collectively work together to develop Dubais knowledge economy and bring more events that contribute to its growth.

Established in 2010, the Al Safeer Congress Ambassador Programme is a DBE initiative that aims to tap into the expertise and network of UAE-based scientists, academics, industry leaders and government representatives to help attract international business events to Dubai. The MoUs signed through the Al Safeer Congress Ambassadors Programme fall in line with DBEs overall commitment to elevate local entities and help enhance their global networks. These partnerships also serve as a mutually-beneficial relationship to DBE and member partners, offering knowledge sharing and networking opportunities, in addition to driving new event bids and attracting international business events to the city.

Issam Kazim, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, added: While we have already created a broad network spanning across the city and multiple sectors to build a strong community of advocates, we are eager to welcome more entities and individuals into the Al Safeer Congress Ambassador Programme. More than ever before, as associations around the world emerge from a challenging period, they will be looking for compelling propositions from host cities for their business events, not only through their destination offerings and infrastructure, but through demonstrable commitment to the development of their respective professions and sectors."

Moaza Al Marri, Executive Director, Office of the Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), said: We are pleased to renew our partnership with the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and to enhance our cooperation framework in attracting business activities and international conventions to Dubai. We believe there are considerable potentials for us to boost the ability of Dubai in hosting global events. Through its existing partnership with DTCM, RTA will lend support to activities relating to convention ambassadors, thanks to its extensive experience and strategic links with global partners in the roads and transport industry, be it public or private entities.

Professor Zaid Hani Baqain, Deputy Vice Chancellor for International Relations at MBRU and Dean and Professor in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Hamdan bin Mohammed College of Dental Medicine said: "We're very excited to partner with Dubai Tourism to attract scientists and healthcare professionals from around the world to attend conferences and congresses on our premise. Our strategic collaboration will support in developing, attracting, and organising international meetings and conferences in Dubai."

"At MBRU our mission is to advance health in the UAE and the region through an innovative and integrated academic health system, that's nationally responsive and globally connected. Dubai Tourism shares a very similar mission of building a world leading destination, and together we will push Dubai to new frontiers when it comes to scientific congresses. We're excited to host future congresses and we look forward to this collaboration with Dubai Tourism."

Rayed Alarashi, AAPP Board Director, said: We are very happy to sign this important MoU with Dubai Business Events to strengthen our relationship with them and support efforts to bring more international conferences to the city and in turn contribute to economic and knowledge growth. This is especially significant as collaborations with international professional bodies to co-host activities in the UAE will be our focus in the coming years."

Waleed Refaay, AAPP Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, added: As a young association it is vital to continue with strategic partnerships with such great organisations, and this will help AAPP to grow and continue its mission of connecting members and the industry to network and share knowledge to solve our industry challenges. - TradeArabia News Service
Patrick McMullan/Getty

Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell are trying to stop her accusers from posting evidence online ahead of her trail, according to a proposed protective order submitted to a judge on Monday.

The British socialites legal team wants to prevent prosecutors working for women who claim she recruited them for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from releasing any information, including nude, partially nude or otherwise sexualised images, videos or other depictions of individuals.

Ms Maxwells lawyers say her accusers should be subject to the same secrecy rules as prosecutors and defence lawyers before the trial, which is scheduled in Manhattan federal court for July 2021.

The joint protective order is routine in sex abuse cases, but the lawyers said in a letter to a judge that prosecutors have refused to agree that witnesses and their lawyers should be subject to the restrictions.

Ms Maxwells lawyers said the release of any evidence could also boost pending civil lawsuits between her and many of the governments potential witnesses.

The socialites attorneys said several potential witnesses and their lawyers have already publicly commented on the case.

There is a substantial concern that these individuals will seek to use discovery materials to support their civil cases and future public statements, the lawyers wrote.

Prosecutors said they will respond on Tuesday.

Ms Maxwell, 58, who has been held without bail since her arrest on 2 July, has pleaded not guilty to charges that she recruited and aided the abuse of three girls by Epstein in the 1990s.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

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The Edo State Government has finally reacted to the recent resignation of some top aides of the Governor, Godwin Obaseki over his defect...

The Edo State Government has finally reacted to the recent resignation of some top aides of the Governor, Godwin Obaseki over his defection to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.





The State Government, in a statement on Monday by Cruso Osagie, the Special Adviser to Edo State Governor on Media and Communication Strategy, said that the aides who resigned are members of the Edo State Oil and Gas Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC Board.





According to Osagie, the aides are not cabinet officials of the government.





This is to clarify that the resigned Board members of the Edo State Oil and Gas Producing Areas Development Commission (EDSOGPADEC) are not members of the Edo State Cabinet, the statement read.

This clarification has become necessary, in order to correct the erroneous impression in the public domain that members of DESOPADEC (an agency of government) Board are civil commissioners of the Edo State Government. Media houses, including TVC, should take note of this clarification.




The halting of unemployment payments to welfare recipients caught going on holiday abroad has prompted claims they are being unfairly discriminated against, as well as raising data protection concerns.

The Government policy has attracted heavy criticism from opposition politicians and raised serious questions from TDs on its own benches.

It comes after the practice of stopping payments for Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) recipients found to be travelling abroad for non-essential reasons was revealed at the weekend.

The Government last night denied claims that welfare recipients were being discriminated against.

Rise TD Paul Murphy accused the Government of "scandalous discrimination against PUP recipients".

Fianna Fail's former social protection spokesman Willie O'Dea also claimed welfare recipients had been "singled out for punishment" and asked "why should one particular category be penalised for it when everybody else can do it scot-free?"

He told RTE Radio he would be raising the issue with Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys in the Dail and asking the Government to withdraw the campaign.

Labour TD Sean Sherlock demanded that Ms Humphreys provide a full explanation on how the data was collected at Dublin Airport.

Sinn Fein's Louise O'Reilly said she had written to Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon asking for her view on the legality of the collection and processing of passenger data at airports and seaports.

Dublin Airport has denied involvement in the practice after facing queries on social media.

Separately, Sinn Fein TD Claire Kerrane criticised comments by Tanaiste Leo Varadkar on Sunday. He said it was his understanding that recipients must "genuinely be seeking work" and be ordinarily resident in Ireland to get the PUP and it could be stopped if they were not.

There were online claims that the eligibility criteria was updated on the Department of Social Protection's website yesterday after Mr Varadkar's remarks.

Ms Kerrane said she was "shocked" by such reports and claimed it would be an "insult" to welfare recipients who have lost jobs in the pandemic.

Government sources strenuously denied claims that the requirement for PUP recipients to be seeking work was published to back up Mr Varadkar's comments.

A Department of Social Protection statement said its website was updated regularly and was earlier this week "to provide clarity surrounding the issue of the PUP". It said this "should not be perceived as a change in policy".

Ms Humphreys told RTE that the public health advice was clear and people should not travel abroad except for essential reasons.

She responded to the suggestion that PUP recipients were being penalised, saying that 340,000 public servants would not be paid during the two-week quarantine period if they travelled abroad.

Ms Humphreys said that private-sector companies have told their staff the same thing.

"We're not trying to pick on anybody here.

"We are doing what is right by the country to protect our people," Ms Humphreys added.

Her department later responded to questions raised about data protection, insisting that since 2012 social welfare inspectors have had legal power to carry out checks at ports and airports since 2012.

It said the department did not have access to travel data.

The department also said: "The vast majority of PUP cases stopped as a result of the compliance checks relate to individuals leaving the country permanently.

The statement added: "If a person returns to Ireland, it is open to them to re-apply for the PUP."
More than $30,000 has been fundraised to bring Marcus DiFonzo, 33, home

Studio 10 host Sarah Harris has held back tears as a grieving mother emotionally questioned why she has still not been reunited with her son more than two weeks after he was killed by a drunk driver in the US.

Queensland mother Ellen Smail has spent the past 18 days desperately trying to get to her son Marcus DiFonzo, 33, after he died in a road incident in the state of Michigan on July 11.

More than $30,000 has been raised to help fund his repatriation or to fly Ms Smail over to the US, but neither has been possible so far because of space limits on planes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Harris and her Studio 10 co-hosts Joe Hildebrand and Angela Bishop were reduced to tears as the Gladstone mother begged authorities to fly her son home.

Studio 10 host Sarah Harris wept as a mother emotionally pleaded with authorities to be reunited with her son who was killed by a drunk driver in the US

'I just beg, I am begging, please, he is not cargo, he is my son, a brother, uncle and a grandson,' she said.

'We're so sorry, that's horrible news,' Harris responded through tears. 'We would love to help you bring your boy home.'

Ms Smail said she had clung to hope after securing a flight booking - only to learn it had been denied at midnight on Monday night.

Marcus DiFonzo, 33, (right) died on July 11 but his mother has so far been unable to fly to him or to have his body repatriated

'The roadblocks are due to COVID. Everyone has been absolutely outstanding - the embassy in Australia and the funeral homes,' she said.

'The red tape is the flight to get him home. Money is not the issue.'

'I just need Marcus to be able to be at rest. I don't care, whether I go there or whether they bring him home.'

Ms Smail said she last saw her 'beautiful, strong and vivacious' son - who has been living in the US for two years - 18 months ago.

The mother and her friends have raised $34,734 to get Mr DiFonzo home through a GoFundMe fundraising page set up two weeks ago.

Ms Smail last saw her son - who has been living in the US for two years - 18 months ago

In an emotional ending to the segment, Hildebrand hit out at the 'clinical, bureaucratic' processes preventing Ms Smail from seeing her son.

'There is no point in containing this disease if we kill off what makes us human in the process,' he said.

The number of flights arriving into Australia was cut even further this month following the announcement international arrivals in Sydney would be limited to 350 people per day from July 20.
U.S. sends envoy to push for peace talks in Afghanistan

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 08:36, July 27, 2020

A U.S. special envoy has departed Friday for a trip aimed at bringing the Afghan government and the Taliban to the negotiation table, the U.S. State Department said Saturday.

U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad is scheduled to travel to Doha, Islamabad, Kabul, Oslo and Sofia, the State Department said in a statement.

"In Doha and Kabul, Ambassador Khalilzad will press for resolution of the remaining issues ahead of intra-Afghan negotiations, specifically final prisoner exchanges and reduced violence," said the statement.

During his five-stop trip, the diplomat will also seek Pakistani support to advance the intra-Afghan negotiations and inform the United States' North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies of the Afghan peace process.

"The parties are closer than ever to the start of Intra-Afghan Negotiations, the key next step to ending Afghanistan's 40-year long war," read the statement.

Khalilzad's trip came at a time when the process of prisoner exchanges between the Afghan government and the Taliban has reached an impasse and the country has seen growing violence recently.

Under the Taliban-U.S. agreement signed on Feb. 29, the Afghan government would release 5,000 Taliban prisoners and the Taliban would free 1,000 prisoners of the government.

However, the slow pace of the release of prisoners has delayed the intra-Afghan dialogue, which was scheduled to start on March 10.

Moreover, in early July, the Afghan government reportedly suspended the release of the last batch of Taliban inmates over their involvement in serious crimes, which had widened the two side's split.

"The Afghan government once again stated its firm stance of not releasing nearly 600 Taliban prisoners who are reportedly guilty of serious crimes beyond membership in the Taliban," local Tolo News TV reported on July 7.

Taliban's Doha office spokesman Suhail Shaheen tweeted on Thursday that the Taliban is "likely" ready to begin intra-Afghan negotiations immediately after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha at the end of July in case the prisoner exchange is completed.

Shaheen also accused the government of recapturing previously released Taliban prisoners, who, he said, had adhered to the government's instructions to stay at home and not return to the battlefields.

However, the Afghan government refuted the accusation, saying a number of released prisoners have in fact returned to the battlefields.

One of Khalilzad's main tasks is to press for a deal between the two sides on this tricky problem, which serves as a precondition for starting the peace talks.

"Although significant progress has been made on prisoner exchanges, the issue requires additional effort to fully resolve," the State Department said in its statement.

The soaring violence across the country and the intensified attacks from both sides have complicated the situation.

Two Afghan national security force members and 45 Taliban militants were killed during separate clashes on Friday night.

On Wednesday, government warplanes killed dozens of Taliban militants in Adraskan district of the western province of Herat.

However, the Taliban and some locals have disputed the claim, saying the majority of the killed were civilians.

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The Road to 270 is a weekly column leading up to the presidential election. Each installment is dedicated to understanding one states political landscape and how that might influence which party will win its electoral votes in 2020. Well do these roughly in order of expected competitiveness, moving toward the most intensely contested battlegrounds as election day nears.

The Road to 270 will be published every Monday. The column is written by Drew Savicki, a 270toWin elections and politics contributor. Contact Drew via email or on Twitter @DrewSav.

Admitted to the Union in 1876, Colorados vast deposits of natural resources attracted a diverse settlement from all corners of the country. Today, Colorado retains that industry-based economy, while the booming Denver metro area is home to the largest city in the Interior West.

Politically, its partisan registration numbers suggest a state thats split cleanly three ways: 40% of its active voters are unaffiliated, while Democrats and Republicans split the balance about evenly. Though this large independent swath produced some volatile elections earlier this century, Colorado is looking more loyally blue today.

Congressional Politics

At the House level, Colorado has been fairly boring in recent years. During the Obama era, former Rep. Mike Coffman (R) was a perpetual Democratic target -- in his suburban Denver-area 6th District, he survived a string of three competitive races from 2012 to 2016. But Coffmans luck ran out in the Trump era, at least at the congressional level (hes now mayor of Aurora). In 2018, Jason Crow (D) defeated Coffman by 11%, becoming the first Democrat to represent CO-6 since its creation (Colorado was awarded a sixth seat in Congress after the 1980 census). There's no reason to think this Obama/Clinton district will revert to red.

If Coffmans suburban CO-6 eluded Democrats earlier this decade, CO-3 -- which encompasses the Western Slope, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains -- has eluded them into the Trump era. But in June, the congressional scene in that district took an unexpected twist. Rep. Scott Tipton (R), a generic backbencher, lost renomination to conservative firebrand Lauren Boebert. Tipton had the endorsement of President Trump but did not take his primary seriously -- he didn't even air any television ads. Seemingly asleep at the wheel, Tipton was ripe for a primary defeat. Boeberts anti-establishment profile simply resonated with GOP primary voters. A gun-toting restaurant owner, Boebert is a lightning rod for controversy, especially considering that she expressed some support for the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory. Democrats have long eyed 3rd District after losing it in 2010. It's a fascinating mixture of working class Hispanic voters in places like Pueblo County, conservative rural whites, and ultra-liberal ski towns.

On primary night, Boeberts win prompted Sabatos Crystal Ball to move its rating for the race from Likely Republican to the more competitive Leans Republican. Democrats nominated former State Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush, who held Tipton to an eight point win in 2018. Over the past decades, the 3rd District has been open to supporting moderate Democrats. From 1987 to 1993, it had Ben Nighthorse Campbell -- a judo champion, he was a member of the North Cheyenne tribe, and was known for wearing scarves, instead of ties, on the House floor. Independent-minded, he would criticize the Denver liberals in his party. Campbell was elected to the Senate in 1992 as a Democrat but joined the GOP in 1995, though his overall record remained relatively centrist. From 2005 to 2011, Democrat John Salazar, who was a supporter of gun rights, held the seat.

The 3rd District has proven elusive for Democrats, even when they're winning the state by a decent margin. The high point for a recent statewide Democrat was 2008 when Barack Obama received 48% of the vote in this district. Getting those last extra few points has proven difficult for Democrats and Diane Mitsch Busch has her work cut out for her, open seat or not.

Up the ticket, Colorado has a Senate race, featuring its junior Senator, Cory Gardner. Originally from the states High Plains, along the Kansas border, he was elected to Congress in 2010 to represent the 4th District. Gardner earned a promotion to the Senate in 2014, when he defeated Democratic Sen. Mark Udall, a former Congressman himself. Udall ran a campaign that, at times, seemed entirely focused on abortion rights -- with the pervading anti-Obama tone of the year, that just wasnt enough. Gardner, by contrast, ran an upbeat campaign and simply outpaced Udall as a retail politician.

Colorado has steadily trended leftward since Gardner took office and, as Mike Coffman can attest, suburban voters there seem less willing to make distinctions between politicians of the same party these days. In the Senate, Gardner has had a largely conservative record and has tied himself closely to the President. The problem for Gardner is Joe Biden is very likely to carry the state -- perhaps by double-digits, if his current national lead endures -- and there arent many split ticket voters left in Colorado these days. For example, in 2016, Colorado reelected its other senator, Michael Bennet (D), by 5.6% -- two years later, now-Gov. Jared Polis (D) nearly doubled Bennets margin but carried the exact same number of State House districts.

The Democratic nominee is former Gov. John Hickenlooper. He initially mounted a quixotic 2020 bid for President, but dropped out. Several Democrats were eyeing the Senate contest earlier this cycle, but when Hickenlooper pivoted to the race, he largely cleared the field. Some Republicans maintain that Hickenlooper has come to see the Senate seat as a consolation prize -- in fact, that was the theme of a Gardner ad. But theres no guarantee voters will agree with that reasoning. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio initially sought the GOP nomination for President in 2016 -- after he dropped out, he repeatedly denied that he was considering running for reelection the Senate, but reversed course anyway. That didnt hurt him with voters, and he was reelected easily.

Gardner is in for the race of his life and its not clear theres any way for him to turn things around, given how college educated whites are shifting -- and Hickenlooper perhaps not a great candidate, but a still sufficient one. Unless Trump can pull up his numbers nationally and in Colorado, Gardner is in trouble. Currently, forecasters like Sabatos Crystal Ball and Inside Elections have Democrats as modest favorites to flip the seat but it seems possible those ratings will get pushed further towards Democrats by election day.

Colorados senior Senator is Michael Bennet. A former Superintendent of Denver Public Schools, Bennet was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2009 by then-Gov. Bill Ritter. Senator Ken Salazar (D) resigned to join the cabinet of President Obama as his first Secretary of the Interior. Bennet narrowly won a full term in 2010 against Tea Party Republican Ken Buck. Then District Attorney for Weld County, Buck was considered a poor candidate given the national environment that was extremely favorable to Republicans -- Buck now represents CO-4 in Congress and chairs the state party. At the time, Colorado was still distinctly a purple state, so Bennet was a top target for the GOP.

Bennets 2016 reelection showed that Colorado voters were beginning to split their tickets less often. Despite sporting clear leads in public polls, Bennet only narrowly outpaced Clinton statewide, though with a somewhat different coalition. While Hillary Clinton dominated in the Denver metro area, Bennet was much stronger in outstate Colorado. Bennet was reelected by about 6% vs Clintons 5% win statewide. Though that 6% margin for Bennet seemed underwhelming, its not a great sign for Gardner, either: Colorado has only gotten bluer since then though and Gardners fate is hitched to Trumps.

In the Senate, Bennet has cast himself as one of the more moderate Democrats, occasionally raising the ire of progressive groups over his many votes for President Trumps judicial nominees. Along with Hickenlooper, Bennet also ran for President in 2020, though with little success. Bennet struggled to rise above a crowded field of candidates and rarely registered in polls, though he did get the endorsement of Democratic strategist James Carville, who engineered Bill Clintons 1992 campaign.

As Colorado is increasingly moving off the competitive list for Republicans, Bennets real threat in 2022 may come from a primary challenge to his left. As electability may become a less pressing concern in primaries for Democratic partisans, Bennets moderation may cost him some support among base voters. Given his background as Denvers Superintendent, Bennet has received some speculation as a potential Education Secretary under a President Biden but the former VP has pledged to choose a public school teacher, should he be elected. If Hickenlooper is elected to the Senate, Colorado will have an unusual Senate delegation, in that its senior Senator would have once served as his junior colleagues subordinate. Before he was elected Governor, Hickenlooper served as Mayor of Denver and for the first two years of his term, Bennet served as Chief of Staff.

State politics

In 2018, Colorado really made the transition from purple to blue. Democrats picked up three statewide offices and cemented their control of the legislature. Perhaps the biggest indicator of the states changing partisanship was that Secretary of State Wayne Williams (R) lost reelection, and by 8 percentage points. A noncontroversial moderate Republican with bipartisan appeal, Williamss loss to former Obama admin official Jenna Griswold (D) was a shock. Looking to the 2020 cycle, Griswold briefly formed an exploratory committee to run for the U.S. Senate against Gardner but ended her exploratory phase soon before Hickenlooper got in the race. Still in her mid-30s, Griswold seems likely to have a bright future in state politics. Colorado has never sent a woman to the U.S. Senate and, given her documented interest in the Senate, one cant rule out the possibility that she runs sometime in the future.

In the 2018 gubernatorial race, then-Rep. Jared Polis (D) defeated State Treasurer Walker Stapleton (R) by 11%, easily holding the governorship for Democrats. In the House, Polis was known as a libertarian Democrat -- notably, he was the only Democratic member of the House Liberty Caucus. Polis election came with some milestones: hes the first openly gay governor (of any state) and is also Colorados first Jewish chief executive.

Succeeding Polis in the House was Democrat Joe Neguse -- their district, CO-2, includes Boulder, plus some Denver suburbs. In 2008, Polis himself succeeded then-Rep. Mark Udall, who successfully ran for the U.S. Senate that year. As both Udall and Polis used the 2nd District as a statewide launching pad, it seems that Neguse may have similar potential down the line. Until then, as a 36 year-old Black congressman from a white-majority district, Neguse has an uncommon perspective in the House.

Given how Denver-centric Colorado politics is, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock seems likely to have a future in state politics, whether it be a bid for Congress or Governor down the line.

In 2018, Colorado voters approved an independent redistricting commission to redraw Congressional and legislative districts after the next Census. With the state projected to gain another seat, it will be worth watching where that seat falls exactly.

Presidential politics

Colorado's emergence as a swing state really started with the 2004 cycle. Aside from Bill Clinton's narrow win in the state in 1992, Colorado largely voted Republican throughout the 20th Century. Both campaigns made numerous appearances throughout the state -- it received special attention from Kerrys campaign because it was the state of his birth. Despite the national swing towards Bush, Kerry lost the state by about 4%, a big improvement over Gore's nine point loss four years earlier -- to be fair, Gores showing was undoubtedly hampered by Ralph Naders 5% share there in 2000. Colorado split its ticket that year though, electing Democratic state Attorney General Ken Salazar to the Senate.

In 2008, Barack Obama carried the state by a comfortable 54%-45%, and it has stayed in the blue column since. In their post-election book How Obama Won, Chuck Todd and Sheldon Gawiser pointed out an ominous sign for the Colorado GOP: while Bush carried white college graduates there by almost 30% in 2004, Obama won that group 56%-42%. Obamas coattails boosted down-ballot Democrats: they netted a House seat, by handily defeating the controversial Rep. Marilyn Musgrave in the 4th District, and flipped an open Senate seat, with Udall.

In 2012, Obama held the Centennial State -- though he took its nine electoral votes by a reduced margin that year, he actually flipped a county that McCain carried, Chaffee. For 2016, Hillary Clinton won the state 48%-43%. Clinton saw considerable slippage in the rural and more working class parts of the state while making some gains in the suburbs. Given the electorates relatively high educational attainment, Joe Biden seems likely to improve upon Clintons margin by quite a bit. All the statewide Democrats in 2018 outpaced Clintons five point win, suggesting theres room for Biden to grow. With Trump struggling to lock down states that he carried in 2016 -- such as Michigan and Arizona -- it seems unlikely he can afford to prioritize flipping Clinton states.

Next Week: Maine

Going forward, we will use the model powering the 2020 presidential election simulator to determine the following week's state. Specifically, we will look at the 'Battleground 270' results of 25,000 simulations run late Sunday afternoon. Of the states remaining, the next to be covered will be that with the highest likelihood of a Trump or Biden win as of that date. View the current state-by-state probabilities in the table at the bottom of the Battleground 270 page.
No one wants to get back to in-person learning more than our educators, but right now we have to do whats safest for our students, our staff and our community, Bullock said. We look forward to collaborating with administration and the board so that we can get back to in-person learning as soon as its safe for us to do so.
The first thing to great consumers upon opening up the Vivo X50 Pro, recently sent to Android Headlines for review, is the smartphone and a tagline reading Photography. Redefined. Thats not entirely surprising either. The phone was initially billed as being a flagship-like mid-ranger thats great at snapping images. But it also sets up an expectation for something new and unexpected. Its an expectation that this phone more than matches.

Not only does this phone snap photographs that should easily place it among the top devices on the market today. Vivo also tucks in a wide assortment of camera features that all but ignore those found in other smartphones. AR stickers, AI-driven adjustments, and the like are present. But Vivo X50 Pro is also loaded with a ton of software features that are wholly unexpected and that arguably step the device away from the competition.

And snapping photos is absolutely not the only thing this phone is great at. A powerful processor under the hood, optimized software, and good battery life make this a great phone for gaming. And for day-to-day use.

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There are, of course, a few caveats at least. Those arise from audio, design, and bloatware, for the most part. But this is a phone that sets out to prove that digital photography with a smartphone can be a great experience. Thats without cluttering up the UI, even with extra features and adjustments available. And on that front, it easily meets its goal.

Vivo may not be the most well-known company around  at least in the west. But the Vivo X50 Pro, this review proves beyond doubt, is a smartphone that should not be overlooked.

Vivo X50 Pro hardware and design left me with mixed feelings

In terms of design, the Vivo X50 Pro proves to be an exception to the rules about more budget-friendly devices  or at least that was my experience during the review.

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The phone is available in two colors, light or dark blue. Vivo sent out the lighter hue for testing, which features an almost silvery sheen. So it looks more like metal, as opposed to the appearance of the bright, gaudy tones found on some other gadgets. The side edges are almost completely symmetrical and round while the top and bottom edges are flat, giving the phone a great curve as well as a balanced feel in-hand.

Likewise, the slim profile and moderately heavy weight make this phone feel like a premium device. As do the smoothed-over edges, ports, and speaker grilles. A punch-hole front camera, the already-mentioned but barely perceptible earpiece speaker grille, combines seamlessly with the curved edge glass and almost-identically-symmetrical bottom and top bezel to drive that premium look and feel home.

There wont be too many heads turned by the design since it is more refined than some other smartphones. But theres also no mistaking that Vivo put quite a lot of effort into ensuring a better design than many competitors offer.

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Like the design aesthetics and in-hand feel, the build-quality here seems to be top-notch. Everything is metal, with the exception of the glass front and back.

The power button is slightly textured. Just enough to make it easier to differentiate from the volume rocker. And those buttons, like all of the ports, snap into place with a click when used. Theres no jostle in either component either. So it feels extremely well made on almost all fronts. And it definitely doesnt feel like a phone priced at under $1000.

Its not until I first put this phone down that I realized there were some minor problems with its build and design. And that comes back to the camera hardware. As well cover later on, this phone has one of the most advanced camera arrays to be found on any smartphone. That hardware, of course, needs to go somewhere. And on this phone, thats an oversized, rectangular camera bump.

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The bump here is different from many others in that it is dual-leveled. That means that a portion of it pokes out just slightly further than the rest of the camera bump. Aside from making the phone sit unevenly, wobbling from side to side when placed down face-up, that makes the camera array feel particularly exposed. So, although this is among the most well-balanced phones, in-hand, it does seem like those cameras could get damaged more easily than many others.

The included case goes a long way toward rectifying that. But this phone also isnt IP-rated for water and dust ingress. So the protrusion seems as though itd be a weak point on that front too, offering somewhere for water that might get splashed and intrude to pool. I didnt test this phone for water protection due to the lack of a rating. But those two points are well-worth noting on the design front before this phone is purchased.

This bright, vibrant 90Hz display panel easily holds to the flagship standard

Vivo topped it X50 Pro hardware with a Full HD+ AMOLED display panel with a 90Hz refresh rate and HDR 10+ compatibility. The 1080 x 2376 resolution, while lower than some flagships, looks great and doesnt generally show any pixels. But that, of course, doesnt tell the whole story about the Vivo X50 Pro screen quite as a review does.

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Not only did Vivo incorporate the display complete with color options to better suit users. That includes a vibrant mode, standard mode, and normal mode  the latter of which cuts out some of the blue light. It also allows switching to a more mid-range standard 60Hz refresh rate. Or, as is set by default, users can use an automatic switching mode. And, unlike some other flagships that will go unnamed, that actually seems to work smoothly here.

In terms of real-world experience, that display is still very punchy, even in standard mode. It also manages to do that without over-saturating everything.

Inputs are responsive and fluid too. So interactions, with the odd exception well discuss in a bit, are lag- and latency-free. That, coupled with the screens comfortable shape and Gorilla Glass coating, makes for a decidedly premium experience. Better still, the under-display front-facing camera doesnt take up much room at all. Its not noticeably larger than the notification bar, allowing users to see just about all content in most instances.

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The one exception to that is in video playback. Unfortunately, the disparity among display ratios across the worlds devices means that media does need to be pinched in to zoom when watching videos. For instance, on YouTube. That cuts off some of the content at the top and bottom. And its obvious that it does. But thats found in nearly every modern smartphone too, so its hard to fault Vivo for the issue.

The in-screen fingerprint reader, on the other hand, is as snappy as any flagship Ive tested.

Gaming with Vivo X50 Pro is a secondary, but still viable use case mostly

Of course, because this phone is using a near-top-end chipset, the Snapdragon 765G, it is definitely a performer. The chipset is backed by no less than 8GB RAM and up to 256GB storage. So theres plenty of resources there to enable the Vivo X50 Pro to work as a budget-friendly gaming phone. But this phone performs nearly as well as a flagship in day-to-day use.

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In system apps and standard third-party applications from the Google Play Store, this phone just doesnt lag. It isnt going to load up a big video or photo editing application quite as quickly as a full-blown flagship. But thats going to be something that only the most tech-savvy users even notice. Its not going to struggle to run those applications either.

For gaming, the performance is helped along by a dedicated Game Center for downloading apps and seeing what resources those use. Thats useful because it helps to better determine when games are misbehaving. This is, in itself, helpful because the associated Game Assistant is not well optimized for every app.

When playing a game such as Call of Duty: Mobile, Angry Birds 2, or Smash Hit, the optimization software in Game Assistant Optimizes RAM, CPU and GPU utilization, Networking, and even touch interactions. Thats setting aside thermal management, which keeps this phone running cool under even long, online game sessions. It can also be customized to block calls, notifications, lock screen brightness, enhance visuals, allow off-screen autoplay, and take screenshots or screen-capture videos.

Accessed via the Ultra Game Mode in the system settings, the feature does even more. Theres an Esports Mode to better optimize everything, sound and visual enhancements, gaming picture-in-picture mode, and even a 4D Game Vibration setting that works with select games. All of that greatly enhances the experience. But in some titles, that can result in a complete freeze-up of the app.

That eventually causes the app to effectively restart or force close. So there are definitely some optimizations still needed.

I didnt notice the issue in any major titles. And it doesnt seem to impact titles based on how resource-intensive they are. Call of Duty ran just fine with no hiccups. And it looked great, even compared to more expensive phones. But Flippy Knife  a much less intensive app  had serious issues. That game hiccuped and froze after under an hour or so of gameplay, even when that time wasnt consecutive.

The Vivo X50 Pro throughout this review delivered an incredibly enjoyable experience in both games and day-to-day use. Even with those caveats. Since titles can be removed via the Ultra Game Mode and that seemed to fix the problems, those caveats are in no way a dealbreaker either.

This is the camera you want, you can stop looking now

The photos I took with the Vivo X50 Pro under review speak undoubtedly speak for themselves. But a great camera experience isnt just about the resulting captures. Its also about the software itself and whats included on this Vivo handset is intuitive, easy-to-find, and extensive.

We could discuss at length Vivos decision to utilize a 48-megapixel primary snapper  with PDAF and gimbal-based OIS. Or how well its wide-angle f/1.6 aperture lens should theoretically work. The same holds for the periscope-enhanced telephoto 8-megapixel lens with 5-times optical zoom and 60-times digital. Or the 13-megapixel PDAF, 2x optical zoom, portrait-specific lens. Or the 8-megapixel ultrawide 120-degree lens. Thats capable of up to 4K video at 30 frames-per-second with gyro-assisted EIS.

A lot could be said about the 32-megapixel front-facing HDR-compatible snapper or its ability to shoot at 1080p at 30 frames-per-second too.

None of that would betray just how good this camera is. That is, of course, with the exception of zoom beyond 10-times zoom. Those shots are unfortunately not great.

Typically, Id discuss how great color accuracy is or how detailed shots are in this segment of a review. Those things are true of this camera and it may even be good enough to rival the top flagship performers at a lower cost on those fronts. But those things do actually pale in comparison to the other ways this phone sets itself apart.

First and foremost, while there is a RAW-recording Pro Mode with all of the bells and whistles, I didnt feel the need to use it. Instead, I just let the built-in AI do all the work. That provides scene management as well as suggestions for lens switching and more. All of which are displayed seamlessly and unobtrusively on-screen. Lens selection itself, in addition to camera-mode-specific enhancements, is displayed right at the forefront too. And each has a UI that makes it effortless to use.

Some lenses, such as the Super Macro Lens are autoselected by the AI algorithm when needed. So the feel of using this camera seems comprehensive and automatic as well as adaptable, as needed. Thats further backed up by deeper software settings, beyond the standards such as slow-motion, panoramic, Vivos Jovi AI camera, and others.

For instance, users can access a dedicated Starry Night mode and a dedicated Moon mode, in addition to Night Mode. Each of those automatically detects when a tripod is being used and adjusts shutter time accordingly.

That means that they can have even better detail and realistic shadowing. Regardless, shots didnt turn out blurry and details werent lacking despite that I dont have the steadiest hands. For the sample gallery linked a few paragraphs down, I took one shot with and one without a tripod, in succession. When night mode shots are being captured, a timer counts down the remaining seconds. And users are presented with real-world representative image changes to show exactly what the camera is capturing.

For this review, all of my captures were taken with quite a lot of surrounding light pollution, showcasing just how well this camera takes night shots.

For everything shots, the dedicated gimbal that works exceedingly well, keeping everything smooth and blur-free. This is, summarily, a very advanced camera and its shots prove as much.

Now, one of the other great things about this camera is the way it handles filters.

In our sample gallery via Flickr, thats highlighted in four different shots that were taken in Night Mode indoors. The shots are identical but use different styles. And the results are unlike those produced by the overwhelming majority of phone cameras. Typically, filtered photos look obviously fake and somewhat unprofessional. Even where the filtering works properly, the results can be somewhat cheesy.

With Vivo X50 Pro, even in low-light in this review, the results are definitely altered but somehow appear more natural than I would expect.

Thats setting aside the fact that, unless under extreme low-light conditions, this camera captures photos in great detail at night. By extreme low-light, of course, I mean photos taken under conditions where the human eye cant discern outlines, let alone details. As shown in the above-mentioned gallery, that shot definitely had some artifacts. But the artifacts are offset by an impressive level of detail.

And all of that is setting aside what the above-mentioned Super Moon mode does for shots of our nearest neighbor in the solar system  as shown in the gallery.

Audio is respectable but doesnt begin to approach greatness

To say that audio from built-in speakers in smartphones has improved over the years would be an understatement. But it is equally true to point out how big of a disappointment those tend to be. And thats going to, unfortunately, remain the case with the single bottom-firing speaker on the Vivo X50 Pro, my review revealed.

Now, there are custom sound settings based on age in settings. And the company includes Hi-Fi support there too for headphone-based listening. Thats also controllable on a per-app basis. So this phone isnt going to disappoint for those who use a USB-C to 3.5mm audio jack adapter. Or for those who use Bluetooth headphones. On those fronts, the Vivo X50 Pro is flagship material. Albeit without the benefit of an equalizer, as is often found in flagships.

But the speakers themselves, while not necessarily tinny or lacking in bass representation, lack punch. And they definitely highlight mids and highs more than bass tones. The result is similar to sounding tinny in that everything sounds like its at a higher register. But theres none of the other effects often associated with tinny audio. So, bearing in mind that most smartphone speakers dont sound any better, its difficult to say these are bad.

The speaker here is just far and away from what could be called impressive.

Audio quality in calls was great though. And Vivo does offer some visual candy for those who love listening to music on their phones. The latter feature takes the form of a Music light effect found under Ambient lighting settings in the Settings app. That takes advantage of the displays curved edge to show lighting along those edges when the screen is off. As might be expected, the lighting shifts and changes based on the rhythm of the music.

Its a novel feature with four options in terms of effect. But its still nice to have, highlighting just how many features Vivo has managed to squeeze into this device.

Vivo X50 Pro software is bloated

Weve already covered quite a few of the features included on the software side for this smartphone. And there is plenty more to discover from theming and organization to built-in smart assistants. But what struck me most when I first booted my Vivo X50 Pro review unit up is just how bloated the firmware is.

Thats going to mark out software as one of the few areas where Vivo could really be doing better.

To begin with, both the Google Play Store and Vivos dedicated V-Appstore are installed. That creates a disparity when it comes to updates. The system, as often as not, attempts to update via the store that apps were not downloaded from. Since there are regional differences, with the V-Appstore aimed at international audiences rather than being as well localized, that presents problems. Those issues can be overcome by simply avoiding the V-Appstore entirely but it isnt ideal.

Vivo also pre-installs a number of self-branded apps such as an AOSP-based music app, messaging, email, video, clock, and those types of apps. It also includes a lot of Googles apps from the search giants Gmail app to its News and Files apps. Facebook is pre-installed too.

But that stacks atop a third-party tap-to-pay app, two extra browsers  one from Vivo and one from Opera, in addition to Chrome  and more. For example, Vivo includes two folders for Hot Apps and Hot Games. Those are pure bloatware. They include icons pulled from the cloud for their respective categories. And tapping any of those installs them.

Its simply not a great look to have so many duplicate apps already installed when a less bloated ecosystem presents more users with more choice. Thankfully, the few of those that arent Vivo services or AOSP can be uninstalled. But that leaves quite a few apps still installed that users might not ever use.

Otherwise, the software here is easy to navigate, with special features clearly marked and functionality very similar to stock Android.

The battery life with Vivo X50 is on-par with current standards

Battery life is among the most important aspects of any smartphone. And thats only likely to be amplified as tech continues improving at a more rapid clip than either charging or cell capacity. So, it might be expected that a top-performance phone thats great in terms of both the display and the camera falls behind a bit. But thats not quite how things went.

Thanks in part to rapid charging at 33W and a 4,315mAh battery the Vivo X50 Pro performed like a champ under the battery test segment of my review.

On the charging front, Vivo claims its 33W charging can take users to 57-percent battery capacity in around a half-hour. My experience matched up almost identically with that. And 15-minutes filled up just a bit over 25-percent of the capacity too. Meanwhile, a full charge from completely dead took right around an hour and five minutes.

Thats not the most impressive charging around but its also nowhere near the long wait users can expect from many smartphones in the same price bracket.

With that said, the battery drain isnt exactly amazing. At least not when it comes to stand-by mode. Letting the phone put itself to sleep for a full 6-hours still resulted in around 3-percent of the battery being drained. Comparatively speaking, Ive seen other, similarly-specced handsets go that same length without losing a single percent. So it does seem like this phone, with stock, out-of-the-box settings arent quite as well-optimized as others.

That sentiment didnt hold through the rest of the battery test though, with only around 18-hours and 11-minutes spent on standby overall.

Three hours and 22-minutes of usage  with the screen brightness maxed, volume at about half, and no battery-saving features turned on  was spent in calls, messaging, and web browsing. That was mostly comprised of the latter activity. I spent three hours 19-minutes streaming video and music at the maximum resolution. In both cases that happened with the screen on and around two hours of that was listening via Bluetooth. I played video games, conversely, for two minutes over two hours.

The total screen-on time from my battery test was around 8-hours and 43-minutes. While not mind-bogglingly good, thats at or better than what some smartphones offer in the same price bracket. And the gaming here included advanced game-enhancements too as well as online gaming. So this wasnt exactly the weakest or least battery-intensive test. This phone should easily last just about anybody all day long.

Connections here arent going to be bleeding-edge and thats really okay

Taking a closer look at how this device functions as a phone is revealing. As with storage, Vivo didnt opt for the latest-gen tech with its X50 Pro and it shows under a thorough review. But thats not going to be a dealbreaker since this isnt a flagship. What is included is more than capable of matching and, in many cases, surpassing the competition.

For instance, Vivo opted to go with Bluetooth 5.1 in this handset rather than Bluetooth 5.2. But the differences there are minimal. This phone still provides nearly lossless audio over Bluetooth. And it does that at theoretical, line-of-sight ranges that are almost unreasonably vast.

NFC and no fewer than four GPS protocols are in place and supported too. As is USB OTG via the Type-C 1.0 connector. Of course, Wi-Fi 5 is supported but not the latest Wi-Fi 6 protocol. And because theres no headphone jack, theres no FM radio to be found here. Regardless, all of the features found here worked beautifully, presenting no indication that they will fail to perform as expected.

All of that works as expected so the only question that remains is how Vivo X50 Pro worked as a standard cellphone under review. The answer to that is, as might be expected, it works. And thats true even in the US.

I tested this smartphone utilizing Google Fi, which utilizes T-Mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular towers. So this phone should be compatible with 4G, at the very least, on those networks. Its not immediately clear whether it will work with 5G in the US once thats more widely available. But if the bands line up, it almost certainly will.

Now, thats not a dealbreaker either way since this phone isnt even intended for the US  although it can be shipped there. But SMS, chat, and other messages went through without a hitch while phone calls came through loud and clear. Thats on both ends too, with friends and family on the receiving end of calls reporting no problems whatsoever. Data connections were strong as well.

Dont overlook this phone if you want solid performance and a brilliant camera

In wrapping up this Vivo X50 Pro review, it immediately became apparent that this is going to be one of the best mid-range smartphones around  at least where its available for purchase and it works with carriers. While there are issues with software redundancy and bloatware, as well as performance optimizations in games, there are key areas where this phone truly outshines its competition.

On cameras, the Vivo X50 Pro isnt just a brilliant smartphone. It readily lives up to the Photography. Redefined. tagline thats been assigned to it. The Vivo X50 Pro doesnt just redefine great mobile photography. It redefines the questions about what it takes to create a truly great mobile photography experience. And it questions whether or not campy AR features and unnatural-looking filters are really an answer to that question.

Instead, Vivo presents users with a professional-feeling camera. And that includes the filters and effects that are packed in. It offers a camera that can snap clearer pictures of the moon and nighttime sky. And it does that without compromising on any of the features users have come to expect in modern flagships.

For performance, the Vivo X50 Pro stands up proudly alongside its flagship betters and proclaims that high price tags are wholly unnecessary. And it again manages that without compromising on battery life or display quality. There may not be a headphone jack and the speakers are far from the best around. But thats hardly going to matter. Especially since Bluetooth continues to improve, prices on great headsets keep falling, and USB-C audio offers great alternatives to that with this device.

Summarily, the Vivo X50 Pro is an exceptional offering that is well-deserving of its place among the best devices around. And, especially for mobile photographers, ignoring this phone would be a serious mistake.
Dr Jonathan Reiner speaking to CNN about President Trump's national security adviser testing positive for Covid-19: (CNN)

A leading medical expert has claimed that stronger coronavirus measures need to be taken at the White House to prevent president Donald Trump from contracting Covid-19.

The presidents national security adviser Robert OBrien tested positive for coronavirus on Monday, just weeks after vice president Mike Pences press secretary Katie Miller announced she had contracted Covid-19.

After Mr OBrien tested positive for the virus, Mr Trump downplayed the seriousness of the situation and a White House statement added: There is no risk of exposure to the president or the vice president.

Speaking about the White Houses coronavirus protocols following the latest positive test of a staffer, Dr Jonathan Reiner, the professor of medicine at The George Washington University Medical Centre, told CNN: What theyre not using at the White House is a strategy of massive mask-wearing for everyone.

He added: In photo ops and, you know, apparently in the hallways, its not common to see staff, senior staff members, wearing masks. I would do that immediately. You need concentric rings of protection around the president and vice president.

White House staff members are tested regularly even if they are not showing symptoms and the details of anyone who comes into contact with the president are taken in order to make sure they are tested for Covid-19, according to CNN.

However, Dr Reiner said that if mandatory mask wearing is not introduced in the White House, then a very senior member, even higher in the government than the national security adviser will contract this virus.

Dr Reiner also suggested that because of his age, the president should be concerned about the effects of coronavirus on his overall health, according to Raw Story.

I want to remind people that Herman Cain, whos exactly the same age as the president of the United States, has been in the hospital for a month after contracting the virus, he said.

This president is 74 years old. He is at great risk of a tragic outcome should he acquire this, Dr Reiner added.

Story continues

The World Health Organisation has outlined that Covid-19 is often more severe in people who are older than 60 years, and advised people in that age group to limit visitors to only those who are essential.

Mr OBrien is the most senior member of Mr Trumps staff to have contracted Covid-19 and has an office that is situated close to the president in the Oval Office.

Mr Trump visited Miami, Florida, with Mr OBrien just two weeks ago, but a high ranking official in the White House told the BBC that the president had not been in close contact with him for several days.

The White House statement added that Mr OBrien has mild symptoms and has been self-isolating, and the work of the National Security Council continues uninterrupted.

The White Houses deputy press secretary Judd Deere told The Independent that the presidents physician and White House Operations work closely to incorporate current CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) guidance and best practices to ensure every precaution is taken to keep the president, first family and the entire White House complex safe and healthy at all times.

In addition to social distancing, readily available hand sanitiser, regular deep cleaning of all work spaces, and facial coverings, those in close proximity to the president continue to be tested for Covid-19 to ensure exposure is limited to the greatest extent possible.

Read more

Trumps national security adviser tests positive for coronavirus
More than any other institution, KIT supports young scientists by funding their doctorate. 83% of the PhD students hold at least half a position. This is the result of a survey made by the Karlsruhe House of Young Scientists (KHYS), the central coordination and communication platform for young scientists, among the PhD students. They were found to be highly satisfied with the rooms, access to the laboratories, technical equipment, and the team atmosphere.

At KIT, PhD students conduct research autonomously and in an interdisciplinary manner in graduate schools and research groups at a very early time already. At KIT, doctorates are conferred in five disciplines: Natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, humanities, and social sciences.
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Market Segmentation:

Global Industrial Films Market Analysis is segmented into Product Type and End User Industry.

On the Basis of the Product Type, the market is segregated into linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polyethylene terephthalate/bi-axially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate (PET/BOPET), polypropylene/bi-axially oriented polypropylene (PP/BOPP), cast polypropylene (CPP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyamide/bi-axially oriented polyamide (BOPA), and others.

The market by the End-User Industry is further categorized into transportation, construction, industrial packaging, agriculture, medical, and others.

Market Overview:

Industrial Films are used in various end user industries such as building and construction, automobile, agriculture, and packaging among others. The growing demand from the developing region across the globe are the major factors driving the global market of Industrial Films. The growing government investments in the infrastructural development coupled with the augmenting demand from the automobile sector are other factors contributing to the growth of the market. Among the various end-user industry agriculture, the dominant segment and expected to show the same trend during the forecast years. The properties such as improving crop quality, higher yield, and reduction of soil erosion has increased the demand for Industrial Films in the agricultural industry.

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Competitive Analysis:

Some of the prominent players operating in the Global Industrial Films Market are DuPont Teijin Films (U.S.), SKC Co., Ltd. (South Korea), 3M (U.S.), Toray Industries Inc. (Japan), Berry Global Inc. (U.S.), Saint-Gobain (France), Eastman Chemical Company (U.S), Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (Japan), and RKW SE (Germany) among others.

Regional Analysis:

Global Industrial Films Market is spanned across five key regions: Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. Among these, Asia Pacific holds a major portion of the global market and is anticipated to continue its dominance during the forecast period. The developing end user industries in the region such as construction and automotive is expected to fuel the market growth. Moreover, the favorable government regulation has resulted in the shifting of manufacturing base in the Asia Pacific which has further propelled the market growth. The major counties attributing to growth of Industrial Films in this region are India, China and Japan. North America is the dominant region for the market Industrial Films. The developed end user industries coupled with the growing adoption of Industrial Films are the major factor contributing to the growth of the market. The major countries attributing to this growth are the U.S. and Canada. The European market of industrial films is mainly driven by the developed automobile and medical industry. Moreover, the growing use of Industrial Films in agriculture is further adding to the market growth.

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Photo: The Canadian Press Protesters gather in Halifax's Victoria Park to demand a public inquiry into the deadly mass shootings that claimed 22 lives in Nova Scotia last April, on Monday, July 27, 2020. The federal and provincial governments have announced a review of the massacre that will not be able to compel witnesses or testimony, no power to subpoena evidence and won't be able to make binding recommendations to the government. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Protesters gathered at two Nova Scotia locations Monday as family members of mass shooting victims vowed to maintain pressure on Ottawa and the province to hold a full public inquiry into the rampage.

About 100 people gathered in Bridgewater, N.S., for a march to the office of the province's justice minister, while a similar number gathered for a rally organized by women's centres and feminist groups at a Halifax park.

The protests followed last week's announcement by the provincial and federal governments of an independent review, which has been criticized by relatives of the 22 victims as lacking transparency and legal heft.

Emily Stewart, executive director of Third Place Transition House  a women's shelter that serves several counties where killings occurred on April 18 and 19  told the Halifax gathering that a public inquiry could reveal the role that domestic violence played in the mass shooting.

She said there were many signs of the 51-year-old gunman's potential for violence that an open inquiry could explore.

"There were too many red flags," she said during her address.

She cited past reports to police of death threats made by the gunman, his coercion and control of his common law spouse and his possession of illegal weapons.

These are all well-known signals of potential violence against women that the public should hear about through testimony in a public setting, Stewart said. The gunman was killed by police on April 19.

Meanwhile, in Bridgewater, N.S., co-organizer Desiree Gordon estimated about 100 people marched to the riding office of Justice Minister Mark Furey, joined by the provincial Progressive Conservative and NDP leaders.

She said 22 people and a child lay down during the protest to symbolize the lost lives.

Harry Bond, whose parents Peter and Joy Bond were killed in the mass shooting, drove to the Bridgewater event, and he says he will continue attending such events until a public inquiry is announced.

"I don't plan on stopping," he said during a telephone interview.

"It's not something we want to do, but with them wanting to do a review instead of a public inquiry, it's something we're forced to do."

Bond and his brother attended a march last Wednesday of close to 300 relatives of victims and their supporters in Bible Hill, N.S., and they will attend a family march planned for Wednesday morning in front of the legislature.

He said he's encouraged to see citizens who have no direct connection to the tragedy marching alongside family groups.

"We have a new family ... They have our back, plain and simple. Probably 80 per cent of the people there this morning, I don't know who they are," he said.

Activists, lawyers, Nova Scotia opposition parties and senators from across Canada have joined the call for an inquiry in recent months, expressing disappointment in the governments' chosen format.

The federal and Nova Scotia governments said last week that a three-person panel would be established to review the killings and the police response.

That review body will be led by Michael MacDonald, a former chief justice of Nova Scotia, and includes former federal Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan, and Leanne Fitch, the former chief of police in Fredericton.

The terms of reference announced last week say "all documents and information collected" by the review panel during its work or in preparation of its report "shall be kept confidential."

The review panel is to complete an interim report by Feb. 28, 2021 and a final report by Aug. 31, 2021.
Amber Heard has said it has been incredibly painful reliving the break-up of her relationship with her former husband Johnny Depp as part of the actors libel action against The Sun newspaper.

Ms Heard made a statement on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice in London as the trial was drawing to a close on Tuesday afternoon.

After obtaining a restraining order in 2016 and finalising my divorce, I just wanted to move on with my life, the actress said.

I did not file this lawsuit and, despite its significance, I would have preferred not to be here in court.

She added: It has been incredibly painful to relive the break-up of my relationship, have my motives and my truth questioned, and the most traumatic and intimate details of my life with Johnny shared in court and broadcast around the world.

Ms Heard also thanked her legal team, court staff and those who had supported her during the libel case.

Boos could be heard from a small number of onlookers outside the court, with one woman shouting justice for Johnny, as Ms Heard finished her statement and returned inside the building.

The high-profile trial, which has exposed intimate details of Mr Depp and Ms Heards volatile relationship, was brought about by Mr Depps decision to sue The Suns publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its executive editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 article which described him as a wife beater.

David Sherborne, Mr Depps lawyer, said on Tuesday that the actor strongly denied the reputation-destroying, career-ending allegation made against him.

The actor has denied he assaulted Ms Heard on 14 occasions and alleged he was the victim of abuse.

NGN has argued that the article was accurate, with lawyer Sasha Wass saying there was no doubt Mr Depp regularly and systematically abused his wife.

For the defence of truth to be substantiated, the defendants need to prove on a balance of probabilities that Mr Depp assaulted Ms Heard on at least one occasion, Ms Wass told the court on Monday.

During the last two weeks, the defendants have established that many more than one incident of wife-beating took place over the course of the relationship between the claimant [Mr Depp] and Amber Heard.

Additional reporting by PA
Massachusetts health officials reported another 14 coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, bringing the statewide death count to 8,331.

Officials also confirmed another 178 cases of the virus, bringing the total number of statewide cases to at least 108,740. Thats based on 9,881 new molecular tests reported on Tuesday, according to the Department of Public Health.

There are currently 364 people hospitalized with COVID-19.

Officials also reported 78 new probable cases, bringing the statewide total of probable cases to 7,442.

A new MassINC poll found that an overwhelming majority of Massachusetts residents approve of Gov. Charlie Bakers response to the public health crisis. Of registered voters polled, roughly 81% approved of Bakers response to the pandemic locally, which includes 47% who strongly approve. About 77% said they hold favorable view of Baker.

The latest numbers come amid a small uptick in new infections, which officials believe is the result of several small clusters of cases linked to recent gatherings, Baker said on Monday. The rate of positive tests has increased from about 1.7% to roughly 2%, Baker said.

Baystate Health on Monday reported an outbreak of new infections at Baystate Medical Center affecting 23 employees and 13 patients. Baystate Healths president and CEO Dr. Mark Keroack said the outbreak may be traced back to a single employee, who returned to work after visiting a state identified as a new virus hotspot.

There was also an outbreak in the Cape Cod town of Chatham after at least 10 people who attended a house party on July 12 tested positive for coronavirus. Cape officials announced on Sunday that they will offer pop-testing for anyone who attended the party, or is a close contact of someone who was there.

On Tuesday, the Holyoke Soldiers Home, which was the site of one of the deadliest coronavirus outbreaks since the pandemic began, said it will be suspending visits after a resident of the facility who recovered from COVID-19 again tested positive for the virus.

Baker also on Monday announced that the state is expanding its free coronavirus testing program to eight more communities with slightly higher rates of infections. Those communities include Agawam, Brockton, Methuen, Randolph, Revere, Springfield, Taunton and Worcester.

Coronavirus in Mass.: See cases, maps, charts and resources

Here are the cases listed by county:

Barnstable County: 1,718

Berkshire County: 647

Bristol County: 8,932

Dukes County: 65

Essex County: 17,033

Franklin County: 398

Hampden County: 7,326

Hampshire County: 1,095

Middlesex County: 25,429

Nantucket County: 34

Norfolk County: 10,034

Plymouth County: 9,018

Suffolk County: 20,960

Worcester County: 13,166

Unknown location: 327

Related Content:
Comprehensive, stand-alone new solution with fast deployment model gives organizations the tools they need to manage real-time COVID-19 response

CHICAGO, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enablon, a Wolters Kluwer business and global leader in Integrated Risk, Operational Risk and Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Management software, today announces the launch of its COVID-19 Protect & Respond solution.



Protect & Respond is an off-the-shelf product for all large enterprises seeking an agile, all-encompassing tool to manage the new processes that ongoing COVID-19 management demands. This new solution, the most comprehensive on the market today, was created specifically to enable organizations to protect their workforce and their business, giving them the power to effectively and quickly respond to changes and cases in a pandemic era.

Enablon COVID-19 Protect & Respond spans multiple key processes and procedures across health, safety, risk and compliance. It is a centralized system that can respond to quickly changing COVID-19 requirements and is accessible to an organization's entire workforce through mobile apps. Designed for fast deployment, it can be fully live with minimal setup on the customer's part in as quickly as two to three weeks, significantly reducing the typical IT deployment process length. Key to this efficiency is the embedded content, which is designed to bring a standardized set of targeted processes to any site with minimal set-up.

Features include:

Standard out-of-the-box content built based on OSHA, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) guidance

Incident form templates that can be easily adapted if needed

Employee self-assessment and online COVID-19 case reporting, offering constant monitoring of overall workforce health

Advanced mobile functionality allowing users to carry out behavior-based safety observations to ensure adoption of controls and capture non-conformances

Policy management together with compliance tasking, mobile audits and inspections

Global action plans to manage any ad-hoc issues as well as corrective and preventative actions

At-a-glance status dashboards that display insights in real-time along with critical trends and data

Manage private and sensitive data securely

"There is no organization operating today that hasn't felt the impact of COVID-19," said Noelle Harvey, Senior Director of Product at Enablon. "Human Resources, EHS, Risk Management and General Counsel leaders newly tasked with collaboration while controlling the spread of infection need expertise they can trust. When creating this COVID-19 solution, we worked diligently to build the most comprehensive offering on the market, so that customers are fully prepared to face the many safety and risk challenges the pandemic brings. We are confident that Enablon COVID-19 Protect & Respond will address these current obstacles, and also the customer as their needs for future use cases evolve."

The Protect & Respond product is available now. For more information about Protect & Respond, visit https://enablon.com/solutions/covid-19-protect-respond (https://enablon.com/solutions/covid-19-protect-respond).

Protect & Respond is the second COVID-specific solution released by Enablon to help organizations respond to the crisis. In March, Enablon launched a bundle of free COVID-19 offerings (https://enablon.com/newsroom/wolters-kluwers-enablon-and-cge-launch-new-ehs-and-risk-solutions-to-support-community-in-managing-covid-19/) integrated within the software for existing customers.

About Wolters Kluwer

Enablon, a Wolters Kluwer business, is the world's leading provider of Integrated Risk, Operational Risk and EHS Management Software. Hundreds of global companies and millions of users rely on Enablon software solutions to manage their environmental and social performance, minimize risks and improve profitability. Enablon offers the most comprehensive platform in the industry and is consistently recognized as a global leader and visionary. For more information about Enablon: www.enablon.com (http://www.enablon.com/).

Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized 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 shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. Wolters Kluwer has a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program. The ADRs are traded on the over-the-counter market in the U.S. (WTKWY).
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Thousands of people take part in protests in the Far East, the north, Arkhangelsk, as well as Moscow, where 20 people were arrested. Putinism and the Soviet model that still dominate society are the targets.

Moscow (AsiaNews)  Protests have not stopped after the arrest of Khabarovsk Governor Sergei Furgal who was forcibly replaced by fellow (liberal-nationalist) party member Mikhail Degtyaryov (pictured), considered more loyal to President Putin.

Criticising Russia's "colonial" centralism, several thousands of protesters took to the streets in the Far East, the far north (Arkhangelsk), and the capital itself, where 20 protestors were arrested.

The "Khabarovsk uprising" is now a national affair, and is likely to become the most important event in the country's political life in 2020. Up to now, 2020 was the year of the pandemic that shows no signs of going away (yesterday 6,000 more positive cases with almost 100 dead).

Degtyaryovs appointment  while the investigation into the offences attributed to Furgal is still ongoing  is to many Khabarovsk residents a real provocation. A populist who showed interest in people's problems was replaced by a grey official "bound" to the central government, seen moreover as a "traitor" to his own partner.

The reasons for the protests highlight the fragility of Russias economy and social cohesion, based on the Soviet style division of resources.

During the Brezhnev era, planning was based on the fake data provided by the bureaucracy, while in fact it was the Communist Party with its corrupt officials that decided what would happen locally.

Out of 89 federal subjects in the Russian Federation, only 13 have a surplus (they were 35 in 1993, and 25 in 2001). The remaining regions live on transfer payments from Moscow.

Khabarovsk, for example, covers an area almost the size of Turkey, much larger than France, despite having only 1.3 million inhabitants. It must live with an annual allocation of about 6.5 billion rubles (US$ 89 million). Yakutia, another eastern region as large as India known for its gold and diamonds that fill the state coffers, receives 52 billion for a population that is smaller than Khabarovsks.

The people of Khabarovsk are standing up for the controversial Furgal precisely because he tried to keep resources for the local population, calling into question the entire system of state transfers and central control of the economy.

The growth of the protests is extremely dangerous for the future of Putinism. The president thought he was safe with constitutional reforms and church construction celebrating Russias victories.

Putin seems to be in denial, unwilling to understand economic problems and regional discontent. He recently presented a ten-year plan with nation-wide projects to be implemented by 2030, in which he talks about capacities of "self-realisation", the country's positive energies, "successful entrepreneurship", while Russian markets seem to be facing an unprecedented catastrophe after months of pandemic.

Behind the "25 million entrepreneurs" praised by the president, Russians see the usual caste of oligarchs who are selling off Russia to the highest bidder, from the East or the West.

It must be said that Russia is still deeply Soviet, and does not guarantee active citizen participation in politics and the economy.

The justice system also appears to be subservient to the interests of the central leadership, and elections are but a joke, with a new proposed law that would see elections held over an extended period of several days like in last months farcical constitutional referendum.

The protests, this time, could instead lead to something much more serious.
T he public is sceptical about the Government's safety claims when it comes to reopening the economy following the lockdown, a new poll has found.

More people think the Covid-19 crisis has been handled badly than well in the UK, with the Government receiving most of the blame, according to the same study.

The King's College London and Ipsos MORI research showed that 52 per cent of the public does not trust the Government's advice on when it is safe to start to return to work, school or leisure activities.

That is compared with 45 per cent of people who do.

By 42 per cent to 36 per cent, the public is more likely to think the pandemic has been handled badly than well.

There is a split along party lines when it comes to the Government's role, with 2019 Labour voters (60 per cent) three times more likely than 2019 Conservative voters (21 per cent) to say it has been mismanaged.

According to those who think the crisis has been handled badly, 70 per cent blame the Government, 65 per cent think the Prime Minister is responsible and 55 per cent believe it is down to members of the public not following the rules.

The study is based on 2,237 interviews with people aged 16-75, and was carried out online between July 17 and 20.

Professor Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at King's College London, said Boris Johnson and his Government "are the focus of blame".

He added: "People see the UK public as a key reason it's gone well - and a key reason it's gone badly, showing how varied an image we have of how different people have followed the guidelines, or not."

Kelly Beaver, managing director of public affairs at Ipsos MORI, said party loyalty seemed to play a role in how people think the Government has performed.

She added: "It's very much back to politics as usual when it comes to how Britons feel Covid-19 has been handled, with those who voted Labour in 2019 far likelier to say that the Government or the Conservative Party are at fault than those who voted Conservative in 2019."
Unemployed workers may be facing a big cut in benefits.

The $600 expanded unemployment benefit, provided by the coronavirus relief bill known as the CARES Act, was a lifeline for millions of people who lost their jobs during the pandemic.

Two months ago, the House of Representatives passed a $3 trillion package that included a continuation of the $600 payments through January, but some Republicans said the benefit was may have encouraged people to stay home rather than get back to work.

On Monday, Senate Republicans released their own plan.

They are proposing a temporary extra $200 per week payment instead of the larger benefit.

Starting in October, this payment would be replaced with a payment (up to $500) that, when combined with the state UI payment, would replace 70 percent of lost wages  either via a formula specified in the bill or by a state proposing an alternative method and receiving approval from the Secretary, according to a memo by the Senate Finance Committee.

It said states that cannot provide payments tied to lost wages by Oct. 5 could apply for a waiver from the Department of Labor to continue paying a fixed dollar amount for up to two months.

But officials realize that it may be hard for some states computer systems to be updated to handle the payouts.

The Senate bill would give $2 billion to help states upgrade their computer systems.

While some states may have modern computer systems to handle unemployment claims, New Jerseys is 40 years old.

In New Jersey, youre talking about a mainframe system where anything that involves significant change using a structure that didnt exist before, it will require substantial work and time, said Joseph Steinberg, a technology consultant.

He said the switch from a $600 payment to a $200 payment shouldnt be terribly difficult because its not a structural change.

But, he said, moving to a wage-based payment system is another challenge entirely, especially when it comes to benefits for gig workers and the self-employed.

New Jersey never had to deal with this because they dont normally calculate benefits for the self-employed, Steinberg said. It all of a sudden there is a new requirement, I dont know how theyre going to get there in New Jersey.

Many gig workers are still only receiving the minimum $231 weekly benefit as they want for an agent to review their proof of higher wages.

Asked Monday if the states computer system is ready for a massive change in how benefits will be paid, Gov. Phil Murphy criticized the Senate Republican plan, saying more help was needed, not less.

To leave individuals hanging out there who are unemployed is probably the last thing we should be doing, Murphy said. These are peoples lives.

The Labor Department said it does not comment on pending legislation.

However, it is fair to say Labor Departments around the country are very concerned for the unemployed and underemployed workers in their respective states, as federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation benefits expire, said Labor spokeswoman Angela Delli-Santi.

If Congress makes major changes to the $600 weekly supplement, by continuing the benefit but requiring it to be calculated as a maximum percentage of a workers weekly wages, for example, workers across the country could be waiting months for the programming to be available to administer that new benefit at the state level, she said.

While Senate Republicans delayed their rollout for days because of disagreements amongst themselves and with President Donald Trump, the legislation they came up is likely not the last word on the subject since it doesnt have the support needed to pass the Senate, let alone the House.

It now will be up to Trump administration officials and congressional leaders of both parties to come up with legislation that can clear Congress and be signed into law.

NJ Advance Media Staff Writer Jonathan D. Salant contributed to this report.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Sirsa said, "We have taken up the issue of repartition of Hindu and Sikh families from Afghanistan and the ministry has assured us that 600 persons will be given visas within a week."

New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) A delegation of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) led by Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Monday met J.P. Singh, in-charge of Afghanistan and Pakistan desk at the Ministry of External Affairs.

Sirsa said that those who are left out can apply for visa and will get the same as soon as they apply, and the ministry has assured to issue long-term visas.

"We will ensure that Hindu and Sikh families stranded in Afghanistan are brought back to India," Sirsa said, as he thanked the Indian government and Union Cabinet Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal in particular.

The delegation also took up the issue of the conversion of Shaheedi Asthan of Bhai Taru Singh Ji in Lahore which is a gurdwara turned into a mosque. He said the ministry has assured to take up the matter with the Pakistan government at the earliest and ensure that the pious place remains a gurudwara.

Sirsa said that he was also assured that no damage will be allowed to the structure and action will be taken keeping in mind the sentiments of the Sikh community worldwide.

He said the ministry also assured that it will ask the Pakistan government to ensure that no damage is caused to any other religious place of the Sikhs in future.

--IANS

rak/miz/arm
The project is in part based on the book 'Stories of the Land and its Children' by Mohamed Nabil, which recounts many heroic stories

Egypt's culture ministry has announced the launch of a project titled 'Heroes of Our Country,' which aims to relay the stories of the countrys national heroes through theatre plays.

According to Culture Minister Ines Abdel-Dayem, the project will immortalise the important Egyptian figures who have served the country throughout its history. She added that "it is important to introduce the many great deeds and sacrifices that those brave men and women made for their country."

The project is in part based on the book 'Stories of the Land and its Children' by Mohamed Nabil, which recounts many heroic stories.

Theatre plays prepared as part of the project will tour Egypt and will be performed on the many stages operating under the General Organisation for Cultural Palaces, headed by Ahmed Awwad.

In the first stage of the project, six Egyptian cities are targeted for the plays: Port Said, Giza, Assiut, Daqahliya, Gharbiya and Aswan.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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Fully-Funded 15,000m Drill Program to Focus on Paloma and Hurancarama Breccia Pipes

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 28, 2020) - Chakana Copper Corp. (TSXV: PERU) (OTCQB: CHKKF) (FSE: 1ZX) (the "Company" or "Chakana"), is pleased to announce that it is expected to commence its fully-funded 15,000m drill program at the expanded Soledad Project (Fig. 1) on August 15, 2020. The company has a drill rig on site and initial drilling will focus on the Paloma East and Paloma West breccia pipes before proceeding to the Huancarama Breccia Complex (Fig. 2) and may include other high-priority drill-ready targets.

"Our team is very excited to restart drilling at Soledad where surface and trench samples in this newly permitted area have given us several very impressive gold-rich targets. The work program will also include surface channel sampling of multiple breccia pipes that are expected to be included in an initial resource estimate. We will provide further detailed information on targets once the field program and drilling are underway. As we commence this phase of field work, we would like to reassure all stakeholders that we have a full COVID-19 protocol in place and are working with the local authorities to ensure that all of our employees and communities are safe," stated David Kelley, President and CEO.

About Chakana Copper

Chakana Copper Corp is a Canadian based minerals exploration company that is currently advancing the expanded Soledad copper-gold-silver project in the Ancash region of the highly prolific Miocene mineral belt of Peru. The Soledad Project consists of high-grade copper-gold-silver mineralization hosted in tourmaline breccia pipes. A total of 30,273m of drilling has been completed to-date, testing seven of twenty-three confirmed breccia pipes. For more information on the Soledad project, please visit the website at www.chakanacopper.com.

Qualified Person

David Kelley, an officer and a director of Chakana, and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, reviewed and approved the technical information in this news release.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

(signed) "David Kelley"

David Kelley

President and CEO

For further information contact:

Joanne Jobin, Investor Relations Officer

Phone: 647 964 0292

Email: jjobin@chakanacopper.com

Neither 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.

Forward-looking Statement Advisory: This release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of Chakana to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements or information relates to, among other things, the interpretation of the nature of the mineralization at the Soledad copper-gold-silver project (the "Project"), the potential to expand the mineralization, and to develop and grow a resource within the Project, the planning for further exploration work, the ability to de-risk the potential exploration targets, and our belief in the potential for mineralization within unexplored parts of the Project. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs but given the uncertainties, assumptions and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward- looking statements or information. The Company disclaims any obligation to update, or to publicly announce, any such statements, events or developments except as required by law.





Figure 1: Map showing land position, breccia pipes (circles), and occurrences (stars). Previously drilled breccia pipes shown in green and yellow. Untested breccia pipes and targets shown in red.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2172/60620_12bed9ee7429a95c_001full.jpg





Figure 2: View looking north at north-half of the project area showing drilled breccia pipes (red), untested targets (gold), and targets to be tested in the next drill program (Paloma East, Paloma West, Huancarama Breccia Complex). Additional targets on the south-half of the project not shown.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2172/60620_12bed9ee7429a95c_002full.jpg

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/60620
The Congress on Tuesday started an online campaign #GetWellSoonGovernor as the party urged Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra to come out of his "oppressive thinking" and call the state assembly session without any delay. AICC general secretary Avinash Pande, in a series of tweets, accused the Governor of "bias" and "oppressive thinking" and wished that he recovers from it soon.

"The political developments in Rajasthan reflect that our Governor is also influenced by the oppressive thinking of the BJP, and he does not seem healthy with his biased thinking," he tweeted in Hindi with #GetWellSoonGovernor hashtag. In another tweet, Pande said, "It is my appeal that the Governor may recover from the infection of biased thinking so that he can give his consent to convene an immediate assembly session to protect the Constitution and democracy without any partiality."

This is the second online campaign started by the Congress amid the political crisis in Rajasthan. The party had on Sunday carried out the "Speak Up For Democracy" campaign that sought to "expose" what it called the the saffron party's "designs" to topple the Ashok Gehlot dispensation in Rajasthan and other state governments run by non-BJP parties.

The Rajasthan government on Tuesday sent a revised proposal for an assembly session to the Governor, sticking to its demand that the sitting should begin on July 31 and refusing to mention if it would seek a trust vote. Amid nationwide protests by Congress workers over the Governor's apparent reluctance to call a session, Mishra had on Monday said he had no such intention.

But he sought a redrafted proposal, the second time in the past few days, including three points  a 21-day notice for calling a session, live broadcast of the proceedings if there is a trust vote, and social distancing. In addition, the Governor had written that a session can be called at a short notice if the government says in its new proposal that it planned to seek a vote of confidence.

Pande also said that the country is battling the coronavirus pandemic and Rajasthan lacked financial support from the Centre. He said the Governor should give first priority to the issues of the Rajasthan Cabinet and not to any particular party, as the state is facing scarce rains and multiple locust attacks.

The Congress general secretary in-charge of Rajasthan also questioned the Governor for not calling the state assembly session. "Kalraj Mishra is identified as a skilled administrator and a seasoned leader who respects political integrity, and holds a dignified post of the Governor of Rajasthan. His image has always been that of an idealistic leader," he tweeted. "But in the context of the crisis in Rajasthan, the Governor of Rajasthan is adopting a biased approach to fulfil the interests of a particular party, which is violation of the rules mentioned in our Constitution," he added.
Derbyshire Constabulary's Deputy Chief Constable Rachel Swann, who previously endured online abuse, is to become chief constable of the force. (PA)

A senior police officer who endured sexist and homophobic abuse as she responded to a potential dam collapse last year is set to be made chief constable.

Rachel Swann, Derbyshire Constabularys deputy chief constable, led the emergency reaction to the Toddbrook Reservoir incident in August.

She made TV appearances as nearby Whaley Bridge was evacuated as a precaution and efforts were made to stop water from streaming past the damaged dam.

However, Deputy Chief Swann was subjected to online abuse over her hairstyle and told BBC News last year she was forced to quit social media.

Deputy chief constable Swann led Derbyshire Constabulary's response to the Whaley Bridge flooding last year. (PA)

The bit that astounded me was I could not believe that my mere existence could cause such a depth of feeling, she said.

I can take a bit of banter but then it became sexist and homophobic, and really, really insulting.

The bit that really hurt was when people said I had no standards and I was letting policing down.

Some of the comments were misogynistic and homophobic and the abuse I received has been recorded as a hate incident, in the same way it would be for the public or my officers and staff, she added.

Rachel Swann is set to be confirmed as Derbyshire Constabulary's chief. (Derbyshire Constabulary)

Emergency services and the RAF managed to prevent the dam from collapsing and residents were allowed to return to their homes.

Derbyshire Police said Deputy Chief Swann led the Toddbrook Reservoir multi-agency emergency response.

Now, she is set to become Derbyshires police chief, subject to confirmation by a police and crime panel.

Im absolutely delighted and feel extremely privileged to be the preferred candidate (for) the post of chief constable, she said.

Derbyshire Constabulary is a really good force with great people working in it and I look forward to working with the PCC (Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner Hardyal Dhindsa) to deliver a good level of service to our communities.

Deputy Chief Swann will take over from Chief Constable Peter Goodman, who steps down after a 32-year career in policing.

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Phyllis Naa Koryoo Okunor, a Kasoa (Awutu Senya East) native and one of the rising stars in Ghanaian politics has made a bold and ambitious policy statement that if implemented by the incoming NDC government under President John Mahama and Vice-President Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman, would transform vocational training and education in Ghana.

Naa Koryoo, who grew up in Kasoa and been involved in local politics since her student days, in an interview with this writer in her constituency office in Kasoa said, Vocational Training and Education department would be set up in all the 10 Technical Universities across the country to educate Ghanaian youth to acquire the need skills for work.

Naa Koryoos constituency of Awutu Senya East (Kasoa) is one of the constituencies in the country with huge youth unemployment and single young mothers. She said as a native and youth activist growing up in her hometown of Kasoa and the constituency she hopes to represent in the Ghanaian Parliament, has witnessed many lives lost to unemployment and lack of opportunities, that if policies are not put in place fast to train and offer opportunities and skills to the youth, a whole generation of young peoples lives would be blighted and lost forever.

Naa Koryoo said although Ghana discovered oil and gas over a decade ago, over 90 percent of Ghanaians do not have a stake in the proceeds of the oil wealth, because it is being looted by the political elite. She said a fund would be set aside to train young entrepreneurs who would go on to set up businesses and employ more Ghanaian youth.

Naa Koryoo said the Vocational Training and Education would be targeted at the unemployed youth such as the numerous hawkers across the length and breadth of the country, the Kaya girls, and those who dropped out of school due to poor academic results or poverty.

She said every Ghanaian would be given a stake in Ghanas oil and gas wealth. Naa Koryoo said those who are managing the countrys wealth are being put on notice that every cedi would be accounted for. Naa Koryoo rhetorically ask, how can the NPP government spend over $9.5 million USD to feed 450,000 in Accra for 2 weeks during the COVID19 locked down without being about to account for the money spent? and said they will account for every cent.

She said the vocational education would provide job-specific programs focused on providing students with hands-on instruction and would lead to a diploma or certificate, thus forgoing traditional academics for those who wish to pursue trade programs while there would be an academic component for those who would wish to continue to full time higher education programs.

Naa Koryoo said for the first time in her countrys history, higher education would be open to all Ghanaians, poor or rich, young or old, male or female including disabled. These Vocational Training and Education would be structured as a standalone faculty of the Technical Universities where grandaunts would be awarded their Certificates and Diplomas on graduation day OUR DAY alongside with those graduating with higher qualifications.

According to Naa Koryoo, some of the programs would be a continuation from the vocational courses taught at Junior and High schools and variety of courses and work experiences which would be designed to introduce students to different types of trade, including apprenticeship programs such as Dressmaking, Carpentry, Bricklaying, Electrical apprenticeship, Car Mechanic, Baking, Brickmaking/Masonry, Agriculture, Building Construction etc.

Naa Koryoo said most of the programs would be training off-site under the supervision of professionals and would be assessed at where they are trained. Naa Koryoo said these skills gained would prepare students for work in specific trades, thus helping in the industrialisation of Ghana.

Naa Koryoo said countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam, and others all have such programs in place to mop up those who dropped out of formal education to acquire skills and contribute their quota to the nations development.

She said under the scheme which would be youth-led would ensure hawking and kaya girls would be a thing of the past. Naa Koryoo, like the incoming Vice-President Naana Jane, is an anti-corruption crusader. She said under the NDC administration of President John Mahama and Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman, no Ghanaian child would be left behind.

Naa Koryoo said during her interactions with some of the market women at her hometown of Kasoa, many expressed the wish to go back to school and learn how to read and write.

Naa Koryoo was visibly upset when she narrated the story of one of her constituents, Aunty Akosua. Like Naa Koryoo, Aunty Akosua was born and raised in Kasoa, the only girl of 5 siblings. Because of poverty, she was not able to continue her education after primary 6. Now Aunty Akosua, a successful market trader, confided in Naa Koryoo, that her only wish is to learn how to read and write.

Naa Koryoo said because of women such as Aunty Akosua and other mothers like her that she has dedicated her whole life to public service, to help eradicate illiteracy and poverty in her Hometown of Kasoa. She said, Peter, this is my calling, to dedicate myself to the service of my constituents and my country, Ghana.

"Serving ones country does not mean firing gunshots at registration centres to frightened innocent citizens registering to vote, or to flaunt looted state money and using thugs to intimate them, she said that is thuggery and such people must be jailed.
Muslim pilgrims have started arriving in Mecca for a drastically scaled-down hajj as Saudi authorities balance the kingdoms oversight of one of Islams key pillars and the safety of visitors in the face of a global pandemic.

The hajj, which begins on Wednesday, normally draws around 2.5 million people for five intense days of worship in one of the worlds largest gatherings of people from around the world.

This year, Saudi Arabias Hajj Ministry has said between 1,000 and 10,000 people already residing in the kingdom will be allowed to perform the pilgrimage.

Two-thirds of those pilgrims will be from among foreign residents in Saudi Arabia and one-third will be Saudi citizens.

The kingdom has one of the Mideasts largest outbreaks of the coronavirus, with more than 266,000 reported infections, including 2,733 deaths.

The luggage of pilgrims is sanitised in a hotel lobby in Mecca (Ministry of Media/AP)

Fatin Daud, a 25-year-old Malaysian studying Arabic in Saudi Arabia, was among the select few whose application for hajj was approved.

After her selection, Saudi Health Ministry officials came to her home and tested her for the Covid-19 virus.

She was then given an electronic bracelet that monitors her movement and told to quarantine for several days at home.

After that, Ms Daud was moved to a hotel in Mecca, where she remains in self-isolation, still wearing the electronic wristband.

A large box of food is delivered to her hotel room three times a day as she prepares to begin the hajj.

The Black Stone located on the Kaabas eastern corner is prepared before pilgrims start their circumambulation of the the square structure (Ministry of Media/AP)

It was unbelievable. It felt surreal because I was not expecting to get it, she said of her excitement when she found out she was selected.

Ms Daud said she is praying for the end of Covid-19 and for unity among Muslims around the world.

I am confident that safety measures are being taken and that the only thing that we need to do as pilgrims is follow instructions, and try our best to support each other, she said.

While self-isolating has been emotionally challenging, Ms Daud said she is part of a group of about 10 Malaysian and Singaporean pilgrims connecting online and sharing tips and religious exercises to keep busy.

The Saudi government is covering the expenses of all pilgrims this year, providing them with meals, hotel accommodation, transportation and health care.

Normally, the hajj can cost thousands of dollars for pilgrims who save a lifetime for the journey. It also generates billions of dollars in revenue each year for Saudi Arabia.

Saudi kings have for generations assumed titles as custodians of Islams holiest sites, and their oversight of the hajj is a source of prestige and influence among Muslims globally.

Pilgrims at the King Abdulaziz Airport (AP)

Saudi Arabia has never cancelled the hajj in the nearly 90 years since the country was founded.

For the first time in Saudi history, no pilgrims from abroad were permitted to take part in the hajj due to concerns about the coronavirus and overcrowding.

It is a stark departure from previous years, when some two million pilgrims from more than 160 countries flocked to Mecca for the spiritual rituals, mostly from across Asia and Africa.

Although the hajj often draws all age groups, pilgrims this year were required to be between the ages of 20 and 50, and in good health.

The physically demanding rituals of the hajj offer a profound experience for Muslims, with the faithful often weeping, their palms stretched toward the sky, in prayer and repentance.

The hajj is required of all able-bodied Muslims once in a lifetime.

This year, pilgrims must wear face masks and will only be able to drink holy water from the Zamzam well in Mecca that has been prepackaged in plastic bottles.

Pebbles for casting away evil that are usually picked up by pilgrims along hajj routes will be sterilised and bagged before being distributed to the pilgrims.

Pilgrims are also bringing their own prayer rugs and will be required to pray at a distance from one another, rather than packed shoulder-to-shoulder.
A man in Florida who received nearly $4 million in federal loans intended to help struggling businesses  and spent the money on a new Lamborghini Huracan sports car and other fraudulent purchases  was arrested and charged with three felonies, officials said Monday.

David T. Hines, 29, of Miami, was charged with bank fraud, making a false statement to a lending institution and engaging in transactions in unlawful proceeds, according to prosecutors in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. If convicted on all charges, he could face up to 70 years in prison, an official in the prosecutors office said.

In April, Hines joined scores of other business owners who are seeking financial help from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, a loan program created to help businesses keep their employees during the coronavirus pandemic.

On his applications, Hines said he operated four businesses with 70 employees and had $4 million in monthly expenses.

By the next month, Hines started receiving money from the loan program. He received three payments totaling $3,984,557, according to the authorities. As that money came in, Hines continued submitting requests for more funds. Eventually, his requests totaled $13,542,741, officials said.

What came next, based on a review of Hines financial records, was a spending spree that included luxury jewelry, expensive clothes, visits to resorts in Miami Beach and expenses on dating websites, officials said.

There does not appear to be any business purpose for most, if not all, of these expenses, Bryan Masmela, a U.S. postal inspector, wrote in an affidavit outlining more than a dozen of Hines payments from May to June.

Hines lawyer, Chad Piotrowski, said in a statement that his client was a legitimate business owner who, like millions of Americans, suffered financially during the pandemic and is anxious to tell his side of the story when the time comes.

Telephone messages left for Hines were not immediately returned as of Monday night.

Hines made two payments in May totaling $30,000 to a person listed as Mom, officials said. The same month, he paid more than $4,000 to Saks Fifth Avenue. In June, Hines paid more than $7,000 to the Setai Hotel in Miami Beach, and $8,500 to the jewelry company Graff.

The biggest purchase appears to have been made May 18, when Hines bought a blue Lamborghini for $318,497 in North Miami Beach, officials said. He registered the vehicle under his name and that of one of his businesses.

Monthly expenses for Hines companies averaged around $200,000, far below what he claimed on his federal loan applications, the postal inspector said.

In fact, there was no record of Hines businesses  Unified Relocation Solutions LLC, Promaster Movers Inc., Cash In Holdings LLC and We-Pack Moving LLC  having any operating websites, according to the affidavit from the postal inspector.

Two of his businesses did have a history of complaints.

On the Better Business Bureau website, customers complained that two of Hines businesses conducted bait-and-switch practices and other deceitful activities, according to the affidavit. Both businesses are F-rated businesses on the site.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
North Koreas leader Kim Jong-un has boasted that his country will no longer need to fight wars because its nuclear weapons programme guarantees its security, state media has reported.

In a speech on Monday, Mr Kim said his country had tried to become a nuclear state to prevent another war and had now built such a deterrent, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Now, we've changed to a country which can defend itself reliably and unwaveringly against high-intensity pressures and military threats and blackmailing by imperialistic reactionaries and hostile forces, the North Korean leader said, as reported by KCNA.

There won't be any war on this land again and our national security and future will be guaranteed firmly and permanently because of our reliable, effective self-defensive nuclear deterrent.

Mr Kims comments came at an event for war veterans to mark the 67th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War and indicated he has no intention of abandoning the countrys nuclear arsenal amid stalling diplomacy with the US.

Although North Korea has previously used fiery rhetoric or conducted weapons tests to force concessions in negotiations, some experts have argued Pyongyang will likely avoid serious talks ahead of the presidential election in November and a possible change in leadership.

The speech followed recent remarks by both North Korean and US officials suggesting a new round of talks on the Norths nuclear programme were unlikely in the near future.

Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, has said Donald Trump will only engage with Mr Kim if there is a real prospect of progress, while Kim Yo-jong, Mr Kims sister and a senior ruling party official, has said a new summit would be unpractical for North Korea.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries have largely stalled since Mr Kim and Mr Trumps second meeting in Vietnam last year collapsed without reaching an agreement.

The North Korean leader entered this year vowing to bolster his countrys nuclear programme, with a threat to unveil a new strategic weapon.

Mr Kim also said he would no longer be bound by a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests.

In recent months, North Korea has faced difficulties due to the coronavirus pandemic, which led the country to seal its border with China, its biggest trading partner and economic pipeline, in January.

Mr Kim order a total lockdown of the city of Kaesong near the border with South Korea on Friday after a person there was found to have suspected Covid-19 symptoms.

Despite scepticism from outside experts, North Korea claims there have been no patients with the virus in its territory so far.

There are concerns that widespread infections in North Korea would have devastating consequences due to its weak healthcare system and a lack of medical supplies.

Additional reporting by AP
California's outpatient health care practices largely shrugged off two recessions, adding more than 400,000 jobs during a two-decade climb from the start of 2000 to early 2020. It was an enviable growth rate of 85% and a trend largely mirrored on the national level.

Then came COVID-19.

Anecdotal stories abound about the crushing impact the pandemic has had on a range of outpatient medical services, from pediatric and family medical practices to dental offices, medical labs and home health care. In California, as in many other states, thousands of doctors, dentists and other health care providers temporarily closed offices this spring as state health officials directed them to suspend non-urgent visits. Many others sat open but largely idle because patients were too scared to visit the doctor given the risk of running into someone with COVID-19 in the waiting room.

As the economy has reopened, so have many medical offices. But the latest state and federal employment data underscores the lingering toll the pandemic has taken on the health care sector.

In California, employment in medical offices providing an array of outpatient care fell by 159,300 jobs, or 18%, from February to April, according to California's Employment Development Department. The sector has recovered some, but job totals in June remained 7% below pre-crisis levels, the latest figures show. Data is not yet available for July, when COVID-19 cases in California again began to rise sharply and communities across much of the state reverted to partial shutdowns.

Nationwide, employment in outpatient care fell by about 1.3 million jobs, or 17%, from February to April, and in June also remained 7% below pre-crisis levels.

Doctors' offices typically rely on patient volume for revenue. Without it, they can't make payroll. Many small medical clinics weren't flush with cash before the crisis, making COVID-19 an existential threat.

"Never in our history have we had more than a months cash on hand," said Dr. Sumana Reddy, owner of the Acacia Family Medical Group in Monterey County. "Think of it that way."

Reddy operates two clinics, one in Salinas and the other in the town of Prunedale. Many of her clients come from rural areas where poverty is common. When COVID-19 hit and stay-at-home orders took effect, the number of patients coming to the practice fell by about 50%, Reddy said. To keep her patients safe and her business afloat, Reddy largely shifted to telehealth so she could provide care online.

She also turned to federal aid. "I took the stimulus money," she said. "I asked for advances from anywhere I could get that. So, now Im tapped out. Ive done every single thing that I can think of to do. And theres nothing more to do."

By late June, patient volume at Reddy's practice stood at roughly 70% of the level seen before the crisis.

Many dental offices have been hit even harder. From February to April, the number of dental office employees in California fell by 85,000, or 60%, a rate of decline that outpaced even job losses in the state's restaurant industry. Nationwide, dental employment fell by about 546,000 from February to April, a 56% decline.

"March, April, mid-May  we were pretty much closed except for emergency care," said Dr. Natasha Lee, who owns Better Living Through Dentistry, a practice in San Francisco's Inner Sunset neighborhood. "While dental offices were considered essential, most were closed due to guidance from health departments and the CDC to postpone routine and preventative medical and dental care and just to limit things to emergency."

Lee has reopened her clinic but is doing less business. She and her staff need extra time to clean tools and change their personal protective equipment.

"With the social distancing, the limiting [of] patients in the office at a time and the slowdown weve had, were probably seeing about, Id say, two-thirds of our normal capacity in our practice," she said in late June.

As for employment, California hospitals have fared better than outpatient medical offices. Hospitals shed about 2% of jobs from February to June.

"They have more capacity in a large organization to withstand the same shock," said John Romley, a professor and economist at the University of Southern California's Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics.

Romley said he is optimistic the health care sector overall will recover faster than some other sectors of the economy, since health care remains a necessity.

Still, red flags abound. The recent spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths in many parts of the nation raises the specter of future shutdowns and, with them, additional health care layoffs. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently ordered a second shutdown for dine-in restaurants, movie theaters and bars statewide, as well as churches, gyms and barbershops in much of the state. For now, dental and doctors' offices can continue operating.

But it's uncertain when patients will feel comfortable returning to the doctor for routine and preventive care. A series of Census Bureau surveys conducted between June 11 and July 7 found that 42% of Californians who responded had put off medical care in the previous four weeks because of the pandemic. About 33% said they needed medical care for something unrelated to COVID-19 but did not get it.

"Ive been telling my staff and patients that we should prepare for things to stay not too different for six months to a year," Reddy said, "which is pretty depressing for most people to think about."

Phillip Reese is a data reporting specialist and an assistant professor of journalism at California State University-Sacramento.

This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.
Cheers echoed around the Royal Courts of Justice as Johnny Depp arrived at the famous London building for the final day of his libel trial against The Sun newspaper.

Lawyers for the Hollywood A-lister are making final submissions on Tuesday as the biggest English libel trial of the 21st century draws to a close.

Mr Depp is suing the tabloids publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN) and its executive editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 article which alleged he was violent towards his ex-wife, Amber Heard, 34, and labelled him a wife beater.

David Sherborne, representing Mr Depp, 57, told the court the action has been brought because the newspaper and Mr Wootton chose to publish this extremely serious allegation which Mr Depp has always maintained is completely untrue.

Screams from around 30 Johnny Depp fans echoed around the high-vaulted main hall of the law courts on Tuesday morning as the actor entered the building to hear his lawyers close the case.

The group of fans stood at the bottom of one of the staircases off the main hall and were prevented from getting upstairs to Court 13, where the trial is taking place.

At the start of the hearing, Mr Sherborne began by telling Mr Justice Nicol: It would be easy to lose focus on precisely why we are all here  why the claimant has subjected himself to days of cross-examination.

He said: On April 27 2018, The Sun published an article under the headline How can JK Rowling be genuinely happy casting wife beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?

The newspaper and its executive editor and author Dan Wootton  whose name has for some reason been as absent from these proceedings as Mr Wootton himself  brands Mr Depp as a wife beater.

The barrister told the court the article referred to overwhelming evidence that Mr Depp was violent towards Ms Heard.

He said: So serious is the charge that is made against Mr Depp that Mr Wootton calls on (JK Rowling) to recast someone else in the role.

Mr Sherborne added: That is one of the great ironies in this case: there is no charge ever filed against Mr Depp.

Expand Close Amber Heard has been attending the libel trial in London (Yui Mok/PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Amber Heard has been attending the libel trial in London (Yui Mok/PA)

Mr Sherborne said The Sun and Mr Wootton were acting as both judge and jury, and the defendants plainly and squarely state that Mr Depp is guilty (of a) series of serious and violent criminal offences.

He told Mr Justice Nicol that the first issue he will have to decide is the meaning of The Suns article, saying it is Mr Depps case that it meant he was guilty, on overwhelming evidence, of serious domestic violence against his then wife, causing significant injury and leading to her fearing for her life, for which (he) was constrained to pay no less than GBP5 million to compensate her  and for that reason is not fit to work in the film industry.

He told the court: Mr Depp, as we say, was tried, convicted and sentenced  that is what the article suggests.

So  we are all here because the newspaper and Mr Wootton chose to publish this extremely serious allegation, an allegation which Mr Depp says  and has always said  is completely untrue.

Mr Sherborne said Mr Depp knows the allegation is untrue, as do all the friends and others who have come to give evidence during the three-week trial.

The barrister added: Why else would Mr Depp, this private man as he explained, expose all the most intimate details of his personal life?

On Monday, lawyers for NGN made their closing submissions, with barrister Sasha Wass QC telling the court that the defence to the article complained about by Mr Depp is one of truth, namely that Mr Depp did indeed beat his wife.

She said: For the defence of truth to be substantiated, the defendants need to prove on a balance of probabilities that Mr Depp assaulted Ms Heard on at least one occasion.

During the last two weeks, the defendants have established that many more than one incident of wife-beating took place over the course of the relationship between the claimant (Mr Depp) and Amber Heard.

Mr Justice Nicol has said that his judgment will be reserved.
Parents know. Tantrums over wearing a mask in public. Complaints of masks being too itchy or too tight.

It begs the question: How will young children learn to keep the mask on for long periods of time?

As the world enters a new normal, children must also become used to wearing face coverings in public, whether its to the grocery store or playdates. With school reopening plans taking shape and many preschools and daycares reopening, parents are concerned about their young children keeping their masks on for full school days.

In Florida, the childrens positivity rate for COVID-19 started a conversation about children as carriers, even as Gov. Ron Desantis pushes for schools to reopen.

We dont really know how long were going to have to be facing this virus, said Maribel Del Rio-Roberts, an associate professor at Nova Southeastern University focusing on autism and developmental disabilities. I think its very important for children to wear masks if theyre going to be in any capacity around any children or adults.

For special needs children, it can be even more difficult to encourage mask-wearing. We spoke to experts at Nova Southeastern University and NSUs Mailman Segal Center for Human Development for tips on how to encourage long-term mask wearing among all children.

1. Let children ask questions

Lorraine Breffni, the executive director of early childhood at Nova Southeastern Universitys University School Mailman Segal Center, said that all ages of children will have questions about face coverings. She said its important to get their co-operation with wearing masks.

The younger they are, the more basic the answers should be.

Parents should say its to help them keep from getting themselves and getting other people sick, said Breffni.

There are also social stories, learning tools for people with autism spectrum disorders, available online to introduce mask-wearing to children.

Start to process with the child ahead of time before the expectation that theyre supposed to be in school for an extended period of time, said Del Rio-Roberts.

2. Give time to transition

The first time a child wears a mask for an extended period of time should not be the first day of school. Parents should practise mask-wearing at home and make it a fun activity for the children by adding it to their places of play.

For children in special education, Del Rio-Roberts suggests slowly exposing them for 15 minutes at a time and increasing from there. Positive reinforcement  like a snack or extra playtime  is important, even if the child doesnt reach the goal.

Start early and start incrementally, said Del Rio-Roberts.

3. Customize masks

Just as adults have preferences for the type of mask they wear, children do as well. Adults should be flexible and allow children to experiment with what kind of mask they wear, whether medical, cloth or other types.

This also allows the tone of the mask to change. Children can personalize their masks with their favourite animals or cartoon characters.

4. Turn it into a routine

Breffni said its important that parents de-stress and make mask wearing an everyday task, just like brushing teeth.

Both experts advised against using punitive measures if children have difficulty keeping their masks on. For special needs children, Del Rio-Roberts said to redirect their attention.

If theyre trying to grab it, move their hand or shift their attention to another task, said Del Rio-Roberts.

5. Learn by example

Children will notice and emulate adults complaining about wearing a mask every day.

If we make it an everyday practice and dont push our own fears, they can take it very matter-of-factly, said Breffni.

There is also more to preventative measures than wearing masks, and adults should use positive reinforcement to encourage good hygiene in all aspect of their lives.
TAIPEI, Taiwan, July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Foresee Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. (6576.TWO) ("Foresee"), announced today that it has submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration a 505(b)(2) New Drug Application for Camcevi 42mg (FP-001 LMIS 50mg), a ready-to-use 6-month depot formulation of leuprolide mesylate. The application seeks approval for the use of this product for the palliative treatment of advanced prostate cancer.

This NDA submission is supported by a previously communicated successful Phase 3 study in 137 Advanced Prostate Carcinoma patients, where treatment with LMIS 50 mg injection every 6 months was demonstrated to be effective, safe and well tolerated.

"In the NDA submission in 2019, FDA suggested that additional device design verification data on the combination product be provided. Since then, with tireless efforts and commitment from the Foresee team and collaborators, as well as continued support of our investors, we have undertaken diligent preparation for the requested information," said Dr. Ben Chien, Founder and Chairman of Foresee. "We are confident in the resubmission of the NDA."

"Next step for the FP-001 franchise will be to establish a strong commercial partnership in the US and to prepare for the NDA submission of the 3-month depot of Camcevi. We look forward to the successful launch of the FP-001 franchise, providing patients with its differentiated ready-to-use profile." said Dr. Ben Chien.

About Foresee Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd.

Foresee is a Taiwan and US-based biopharmaceutical company listed on the Taipei Exchange. Foresee's R&D efforts are focused in two key areas, namely its unique stabilized injectable formulation (SIF) depot delivery technology with derived drug products targeting specialty markets, secondly its transformative preclinical and clinical first-in-class NCE programs targeting disease areas with high unmet needs.

Foresee's product portfolio includes late stage and early stage programs such as FP-001, 6-month and 3-month, stable, ready-to-use versions of leuprolide mesylate for injection, for which regulatory submissions are planned since 2020; FP-025, a highly selective oral MMP-12 inhibitor targeting inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, currently in a Phase 2 proof-of-concept study, and target to initiate Phase 2 study for COVID-19 virus induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS); FP-045, a highly selective oral small molecule allosteric activator of ALDH2, a mitochondrial enzyme, for which a Phase 1b/2 study is currently planned for Fanconi Anemia, a mitochondrial-mediated disease; and FP-004, a novel, subcutaneously injectable product in development for the treatment of opioid use disorder and pain.

www.foreseepharma.com

SOURCE Foresee Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press briefing in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

A longtime China hawk, Pompeo is infamous for incendiary and baseless conspiracy theory. His credibility is so diminished that any statements he makes are met with skepticism.

BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's recent speech on China is full of political lies as well as ideological prejudices that will only backfire and devastate his own credibility as well as that of the U.S. government.

Speaking at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, Pompeo harshly attacked the Communist Party of China (CPC) and China's social system, once again demonstrating Washington's obsolete cold-war mentality.

Pompeo's lies are almost everywhere. According to U.S. mainstream media, during his two-year tenure as U.S. secretary of state, by fabricating vicious charges, Pompeo bombarded countries including China, Russia, and Iran as well as international organizations and agencies such as the United Nations, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Monetary Fund.

Pompeo's lies are self-contradictory. Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pompeo has been sparing no effort to stigmatize China by referring to the novel coronavirus as the "Chinese virus" and "Wuhan virus."

In April, in a phone conversation with the Chinese side, Pompeo said that the COVID-19 outbreak is a common challenge for the international community, and the U.S. side is ready to work with China to strengthen bilateral cooperation in battling the outbreak. However, only days after, he wrongly accused China of failing to report its outbreak in a timely manner.

In February, Pompeo announced that the United States stands ready to spend up to 100 million U.S. dollars to assist China and other countries impacted by the coronavirus. The fact is that there is still no sign of this committed assistance to China, and moreover, the United States has decided to freeze its funding to the WHO, the world-leading health agency that most developing and less developed countries count on.

Pompeo's lies are ingrained in his personality. This former director of the Central Intelligence Agency once admitted: "We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment."

In Pompeo's point of view, as long as it is beneficial to his personal interests, facts and truths can be distorted. Amid the global COVID-19 fight, smearing China is his powerful weapon to cater to the current U.S. administration and secure his position in the White House.

The Emancipation Memorial is seen behind a fence and concrete blocks at Lincoln Park in Washington, D.C., the United States, on June 25, 2020.

His anti-China rhetoric and fallacies are only for shifting blame on China to cover the U.S. government's poor response to the COVID-19 outbreak and misleading the world community into containing China.

Yet the truth speaks for itself. China's social system and development path have won whole-hearted support from its people over the past 70-plus years, and will never change according to Washington's wishes.

Under the CPC's leadership, China has made remarkable achievements of worldwide acclaim in the political, economic, social and many other areas, and has greatly improved people's livelihoods, lifting hundreds of millions of Chinese out of extreme poverty.

Meanwhile, China has been maintaining world peace, contributing to global development, and safeguarding the rules-based international order.

Beijing has been widely recognized for following a path of peaceful development, and actively promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Also, it always advocates and has practiced the notion that all nations are equal and have the right to choose a development model that suits their own conditions, and it never tries to seek hegemony or expansion.

Choosing Nixon's presidential library to give a highly provocative China-smearing speech, Pompeo has not only deliberately distorted facts on China's development and maliciously slandered its domestic and foreign policy, but also intentionally gainsaid the historic moment of U.S.-China reengagement and defied a stable and sound bilateral relationship in the past decades, only to divert the public's attention from Washington's own flaws over the years.

Photo taken on July 7, 2020 shows the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

However, his attempt to demonize China for cheap political gains is self-defeating, as the past and reality have proven that the two countries stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation.

Pompeo's dream of winning political points by inciting ideological opposition and sowing discord between China and other countries is also self-deceiving, as such groundless anti-China theories fool neither Americans nor the international community.

"His credibility is so diminished, any statements he makes are met with skepticism," read an article published on May 6 by Vanity Fair, describing Pompeo as "a longtime China hawk" infamous for "incendiary and baseless conspiracy theory."

Lying backfires. It is time for Pompeo to wake up to this fact, cure his China-bashing addiction as soon as possible, and start to spend more energy on fixing Washington's own problems.
Treats: Kantar retail analyst Emer Healy says spending still up

Retail sales rebounded strongly in June following "the sharpest decline in living memory", according to industry group Retail Excellence.

Its report - based on data from 4,500 shops in 19 retail sectors - said like-for-like sales slumped 47pc in April, 36pc in May but just 0.03pc in June.

Those figures combined the massive losses experienced at closed shops with the surging demand at supermarkets and online retailers, who saw sales leap by 200.7pc in the quarter.

Duncan Graham, managing director of Retail Excellence, said most retailers had just weathered "the sharpest decline in sales in living memory with all non-essential retail closed across the State for nearly three months".

But he said the crisis would "accelerate and cement" shoppers' use of online stores.

Meanwhile, the latest data on supermarkets confirmed they have experienced sales nearly a quarter higher than normal.

A survey of 5,000 households by Kantar found that shoppers spent an extra 578m in the 12 weeks to July 12 versus the same period a year ago.

Much of that 23pc extra spending went on exceptional volumes of alcoholic drinks, sweets and savoury snacks.

"Shoppers are treating themselves at home," said Kantar retail analyst Emer Healy.

Sales of savoury snacks and confectionery were 45pc and 35pc higher, respectively, than in the same stretch of 2019.

Supermarket sales of alcoholic drinks surged by 76pc.

"Although people are free to visit pubs and restaurants with the easing of restrictions, limitations on group size and time allowed at the table are potentially contributing to the continued boost in take-home alcohol sales," Ms Healy said.

Sales of deodorant have fallen by 15pc as people work from home and "attend fewer social gatherings", she said.

Sun cream sales are 66pc lower as we holiday at home.

SuperValu remained the top-selling grocer for the fourth month running with a 22.4pc market share.

Kantar said SuperValu was the only supermarket chain to grow footfall in the past month. This helped to raise its sales by 30.9pc from a year ago.

Tesco had a 21.1pc share.

Dunnes Stores, third with a 20.3pc share, saw its sales grow the least among supermarket brands over the past year by just 14.3pc.

Lidl reached 12.7pc, its highest-ever slice of the Irish market. Aldi, ahead of its German discount rival here a year ago, retained a 12.3pc share.

Others, including Centra, M&S, Spar, Boots, butchers and greengrocers, combined for an 11.1pc market share.

Average grocery prices are 2.8pc higher than a year ago, according to Kantar's monitoring of 30,000 products.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell one basis point to 0.59% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond traded 2 basis points lower at 1.22%. Yields have an inverse relationship to prices.

The Fed is set to announce its latest interest rate decision on Wednesday. The FOMC kept its key interest rate unchanged at near zero at its last meeting in June as it continued to deal with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the U.S. economy.

"Fed officials have indicated that rates will be held low for a long period of time. Forward guidance is its game plan for conducting policy amid low rates," Stephen Gallagher, Societe Generale chief U.S. economist, said in a note. "We expect more communication, but strong commitments may need to wait."

The central bank said Tuesday it is extending its lending programs to businesses, governments and individuals to the end of 2020. It was previously set to expire Sept. 30.

On the data front, the U.S. consumer confidence index fell to 92.6 in July, down from a revised 98.3 in June, according to the Conference Board. The decline came as cases of Covid-19 continued to climb across the country.

Meanwhile, the Treasury will auction $24 billion in two-year floating rate notes and $44 billion in seven-year notes.

 CNBC's Silvia Amaro contributed reporting.
Strengthening the existing ties in scientific research cooperation, the United Kingdom has announced a scientific research collaboration with India on five new projects worth eight million pounds to tackle anti-microbial resistance (AMR) that could lead to important breakthroughs in the global fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria and genes.

The announcement was made by Lord Tariq Ahmed of Wimbledon, Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth, ahead of his visit to India on July 28, the British High Commission in Delhi said in a statement.

India is a major producer of antimicrobials in global supply chain of the pharmaceutical industry worldwide. The research projects aim to develop a better understanding of how waste from antimicrobial manufacturing could be inadvertently fuelling AMR.

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'UK is India's second-biggest research partner'

Subject to clearances, the five projects are planned for September this year. The UK is contributing four million pounds from the UK Research and Innovation Fund for International Collaboration, and India is matching this with its own resources. In total, eight million pounds will be used to fund the research, said the statement.

Ahmad said, "The UK has already partnered with India's Serum Institute to manufacture the vaccine for COVID-19, if clinical trials are successful, with plans to distribute to a billion people across the developing world. But there is more we can do together to tackle urgent global health issues in the world. Our thriving research and innovation partnerships will benefit people in the UK and India, and beyond."

Sir Philip Barton, High Commissioner to India, said, "The UK is India's second-biggest research partner, with joint research expected to be worth 400 million pounds by next year. This huge investment enables us to work closely together on global health challenges such as the search for a COVID-19 vaccine."

"Today's announcement is another demonstration of our excellent research relationship and will strengthen the important fight against anti-microbial resistance," he added.

The statement says Ahmad will chair a virtual roundtable with senior Indian and UK-based stakeholders on cold-chain technologies that are critical for the effective transport of vaccines, ensuring they successfully reach their final destination.

Apart from that, the UK minister is scheduled for a meeting with Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs, V Muraleedharan, to discuss a number of subjects including multilateral cooperation. He will also have a virtual meeting with Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani for regional developments and opportunities in wind power. A virtual tour of a solar project in Rajasthan will also be held, as the project was funded by the UK.

(With ANI inputs)

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Another poll of Pennsylvania voters finds Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump in the critical battleground state, the latest in a string of surveys that show the former vice president with a substantial lead.

Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, has support from 50% of likely Pennsylvania voters, compared with 42% who back Trump, according to a Morning Consult Political Intelligence poll released Tuesday.

The results broadly align with numerous public surveys that show Biden with a sizable lead in a state that is usually closely divided.

Other recent Pennsylvania polls by Fox News, CNBC/Change Research, and Monmouth University found Biden leading by 11 points, 8, and 13 percentage points respectively. Slightly more than three months remain until Election Day.

The Morning Consult poll finds a potentially significant shift among independents, who favored Biden by 12 percentage points, 46% to 34%. Trump won independents in Pennsylvania by 7 percentage points in 2016, according to exit polls.

That change, if it holds, could prove significant in a state decided by less than one percentage point in 2016, when Trumps surprise victory helped secure his national win.

Pennsylvania is again seen as one of the most important swing states in the country, with both parties pouring money, time, and staff into the Keystone State. Jill Biden, Joe Bidens wife, and Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) are holding a virtual event on school re-openings Tuesday in Pittsburgh, and Vice President Mike Pence is set to visit Westmoreland County on Thursday for a Cops for Trump event, his second visit to the state this month.

Biden has also held a series of events in the state over the past two months.

Trump seemed to be railing against the recent polling Sunday when he tweeted, There is NO WAY a place like Pennsylvania can vote for the Radical Left and their puppet, Joe Biden.

But the presidents support has appeared to drop nationally and in Pennsylvania as he has confronted the coronavirus, an economic collapse, and protests against systemic racism and police brutality.

The Morning Consult poll found that Democrats in Pennsylvania back Biden over Trump 89% to 9%. Among Republicans, 84% support Trump and 9% back Biden. The survey of 2,100 likely Pennsylvania voters was conducted from July 17 to 26 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

The poll, like others, is a snapshot in time, and the race could change. Republicans argue that polls cant be trusted, pointing to Trumps defiance of expectations in 2016, and say Biden will stumble as voters get a closer look at him and his policies. They also argue that an economic revival, which Trump has promised, could lift the president.

Democrats, for their part, are cautiously optimistic about recent polling, but are still stung by 2016 and warning supporters not to take anything for granted. Members of both parties predict the race is likely to tighten as the election nears.
With most cities in either a partial or full lockdown due to coronavirus, new launches dipped by 81 percent and housing sales by 79 percent in the second quarter this calendar. Only 19,038 units were sold during April-June this year compared to 92,764 units in Q2 2019, according to PropTiger.

Affordable housing continued to dominate the real estate sector accounting for a 44 percent share of all sales, PropTiger said in its report Real Insight Residential Q2 2020.

Sales share of branded developers increased, as per the report.

New launches also decreased significantly during this period as developers remained cautious with commercial activity across sectors slowing down. Launches decreased 81 percent during the quarter ending June 30 to 12,564 units from 65,240 units last year. The first half of this calendar year showed a similar decline with a 65 percent dip in new launches.

Bengaluru witnessed the maximum supply of new launches in this quarter, the report stated.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

New launches in Mumbai were down by 91 percent from 21,250 in Q2 2019 to 1,820 this year. New launches in Delhi-NCR decreased by 75 percent to 2,010 this year from 7,920 in 2019. New launches in Bengaluru were down 52 percent to 3,270 this year from 6,840 last year.

At least 61 percent new launches were in the less than Rs 75 lakh category, as per the report.

Inventory declines; overhang increases

When compared to the levels seen during the same quarter last year, the unsold stock also declined 13 percent in the eight cities, primarily on account of a fall in new launches. As on June 30, 2020, developers had an inventory of 738,335 units across these markets. At the end of Q2 2019, the unsold stock stood at 846,460 units.

At 56 percent, the Mumbai and Pune markets together contributed the highest share to this stock of unsold homes, followed by NCR (15 percent) and Bengaluru (10 percent).

Inventory overhang, however, increased to 35 months as against 28 months last year. Inventory overhang is the time developers take to sell off the unsold stock keeping in view the current sales velocity. At 53 months, the inventory overhang was the highest in the NCR market.

PropTiger also pointed out that nearly 20 percent of the unsold inventory is in the ready-to-move-in category.

Prices remain stagnant

Due to the strain from the demand side, price growth in Indias prime residential markets remained largely muted, with the majority of cities showing an annual growth between 1-3 percent in the past year.

Housing markets of Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, however, showed comparatively stronger growth, primarily on account of end-user demand in specific locations. When compared to the level seen in Q2 2019, weighted average price increased by 7 percent and 6 percent in Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, respectively.

Launches declined significantly across cities, especially in Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai.

The current pandemic is an unprecedented Black Swan event that is expected to contract growth in the global economy, including that of India. As anticipated, demand was adversely impacted due to economic uncertainty combined with growing unemployment; in fact, our recent Housing-NAREDCO buyer survey indicated buyers have pushed back their purchasing decision up to a year, said Mani Rangarajan, Group COO, Housing.com, Makaan.com & PropTiger.com.

While, developers are increasingly offering schemes such as flexible payment plans, selective discounts and price protection plans to attract buyers, developers are understandably cautious and are focused on completing existing projects, he said.

Delivery of existing projects may also get pushed back depending on how quickly supply-chain, labour availability and liquidity inflows are restored. We are unlikely to see new launches increase significantly for the next few quarters, he said.

More than 90 percent of all real estate search and discovery has moved online, he added.
WASHINGTON  Senate Democrats unveiled a report Tuesday highly critical of Secretary of State Mike Pompeos management of the State Department, two days before he is set to testify on Capitol Hill.

The 46-page report, produced by Democratic staff members on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says Mr. Pompeos department is rife with what it describes as troubling issues: vacant key department posts, a culture of disrespect toward career staff members and an atmosphere of political retaliation.

Democrats say this has hampered the agencys effectiveness in pursuing diplomatic relationships abroad or responding to crises like the coronavirus pandemic.

President Trump and Secretary Pompeo have left the department decimated and demoralized, said Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the committees top Democrat. This is not a bureaucratic or inside-the-Beltway issue. There are real consequences for the United States and our national security.
HALIFAX - Bowing to public pressure, the federal and Nova Scotia governments agreed Tuesday to scuttle their plans for a joint review into the April mass shooting that claimed 22 lives and instead establish a more rigorous and transparent public inquiry.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/7/2020 (540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Workers with the medical examiner's office remove a body from a gas bar in Enfield, N.S. on April 19, 2020. Three Liberal MPs from Nova Scotia have come forward to challenge a decision by Ottawa and the province to conduct a joint review into the mass shootings in April that claimed 22 lives. Darren Fisher, the MP for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour, issued a statement today saying the gravity of the tragedy demands an independent public inquiry, which would have more authority than a joint review. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

HALIFAX - Bowing to public pressure, the federal and Nova Scotia governments agreed Tuesday to scuttle their plans for a joint review into the April mass shooting that claimed 22 lives and instead establish a more rigorous and transparent public inquiry.

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair made the announcement late in the day after five Liberal MPs from Nova Scotia broke ranks and openly challenged their own government's decision, which was announced only last week.

"The tragedy that took place in Nova Scotia on April 18 and 19 devastated families, friends and communities," Blair said in a statement.

"This situation requires that our governments work diligently with all those affected ... to bring forward the critical answers, and to ensure an event such as this will never happen again. We have heard calls from families, survivors, advocates and Nova Scotia members of Parliament for more transparency."

Earlier in the day, Nova Scotia Justice Minister Mark Furey forced Blair's hand by issuing a statement saying he would support a more comprehensive federal-provincial public inquiry if Ottawa agreed to go along.

"I've heard from family members and many Nova Scotians who were opposed to a review," Furey said in a statement issued after Blair changed course. "It's critical that people have confidence in the process."

Nick Beaton, whose pregnant wife was murdered by the gunman on April 19 while on her way to work, said widespread public pressure was behind the reversal.

"I'm just over-the-top excited," he said in an interview.

"I'm not saying thank you, because it's something we should have had all along. But I'm happy .... This is what we've been asking for: transparency and truth .... We want to know everything, so we can finally start to grieve."

Beaton helped organize a protest march last Wednesday in Bible Hill, N.S., that he said attracted 300 people  among them were relatives of 21 of the 22 victims, all of them demanding a public inquiry.

After the governments' abrupt reversal, Nova Scotia Liberal MP Lenore Zann said she and some caucus colleagues had recently made presentations to the Prime Minister's Office asking for a public inquiry.

Zann's constituency includes many of the communities where the lone gunman, dressed as an RCMP officer and driving a look-alike police cruiser, killed 22 people over a 13-hour period.

"I'm extremely relieved and glad that (Blair) and the prime minister have been listening ... to my constituents and the families of the victims here in Cumberland-Colchester," Zann said in an interview.

"From Day 1, there were questions that weren't being answered in a timely fashion from the RCMP. That has led to much speculation, rumour and gossip. So we really want to get to the bottom of exactly what happened and why it happened."

Darren Fisher, the Liberal MP for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour, issued a statement earlier in the day saying he, too, had been pushing for a public inquiry, a process that provides more authority, openness and accountability than a joint review.

"I believe the decision to move forward with a joint review was made with good intentions; however, the gravity of this tragedy demands a greater response," he said. "I've made my voice heard on this issue to our government's decision-makers on this file."

The other Liberals who openly urged Blair to change his mind were Halifax MP Andy Fillmore, Central Nova MP Sean Fraser and Cape Breton MP Mike Kelloway.

There had been a growing chorus of complaints about the joint review, which was to be led by a three-member panel.

Scores of academics, women's groups, opposition politicians and more than 30 senators came forward to complain about a lack of transparency and legal clout, despite terms of reference that were lauded for being comprehensive.

Two other protests were held Monday in Nova Scotia and a third was planned for Wednesday in Halifax.

Legal experts have said little, if any, of the review would have been conducted during open hearings. As well, they said the panel did not have the power to compel witnesses to speak under oath or produce documents, and any information collected would have been kept confidential until a report was issued.

By contrast, the public inquiry must hold open hearings and will be given authority under the federal Inquiries Act to summon witnesses and order the production of documents.

Meanwhile, Nova Scotia will use its Public Inquiries Act to offer the same level of scrutiny and openness for provincial matters.

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The victims' families have said they wanted a system that can compel testimony about the RCMP's response during the shootings in northern and central Nova Scotia, as well as its prior knowledge of the gunman's alleged criminal behaviour.

Feminist groups have called for an investigation into the issue of domestic abuse, noting the killer had abused his common-law partner.

Blair confirmed the three original panel members had agreed to serve as commissioners to guide the inquiry.

They are Michael MacDonald, a former chief justice of Nova Scotia, Anne McLellan, a former federal Liberal cabinet minister, and Leanne Fitch, the former chief of police in Fredericton.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2020.

 With files from Michael Tutton
President Trump has 84 million Twitter followers

President Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to complain about the social media platform and suggest that the website's trending topics section is 'illegal'.

According to Trump, his main beef with the platform is that the topics and content that regularly appears in that particular section make him look bad.

'So disgusting to watch Twitter's so-called 'Trending', where sooo many trends are about me, and never a good one. They look for anything they can find, make it as bad as possible, and blow it up, trying to make it trend. Really ridiculous, illegal, and, of course, very unfair!' Trump tweeted.

President Donald Trump wrote a tweet complaining about the fact that his name often trends on Twitter but that it is often in relation to negative stories

Trump did not mention a specific moment in time when he felt that Twitter was deliberately listing trends against him nor did he state which laws he believes the company has breached.

Twitter's website clearly explains, 'trends are determined by an algorithm and, by default, are tailored for you based on who you follow, your interests, and your location.'

The president has frequently accused Twitter of being biased against his political stance but has failed to provide any evidence.

Twitter's trending section on Monday night saw #TrumpleThinSkin as a Trump-related hashtag

With more than 84 million followers, Trump has the seventh-largest audience of any user on Twitter.

He is is the second most followed politician with former President Barack Obama having considerably more at almost 121 million followers.

Trump's criticism of Twitter has grown recently as the site attempts to take action against those spewing hate speech, misinformation or violence-inducing rhetoric.

In May, Twitter added fact-checking links to his false tweets about voting by mail after he falsely claimed mail-in voting increases voter fraud and that California was sending mail-in ballots to 'anyone' regardless of residency,

In May, Twitter posted a blue exclamation mark alert underneath two of Trump's tweets about potential for fraud with mail-in voting, prompting users to 'get the facts about mail-in ballots'

Trump then fired back accusing the tech giant of 'stifling free speech' in a fiery rant

It came after the president's claims were 'fact-checked'. Users who clicked on the blue exclamation marks were sent to a page that explained why the claim was unsubstantiated, including that there was 'no evidence' that vote-by-mail was linked to voter fraud

Twitter tagged Trump's tweets with the message: 'Get the facts about mail-in ballots.' The message linked to pages debunking his false claims.

It was first time Twitter had ever marked any of Trump's tweets as misleading.

The action drew Trump's ire who tweeted in response: 'Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!'

In May, Twitter added its second warning to a Donald Trump tweet by covering the president's message about the Minneapolis riots with an advisory that it 'glorifies violence'

Shortly after complaining about Twitter putting a warning label over his tweet, the White House's official Twitter account reposted the message verbatim

He then threatened to 'strongly regulate' or shut down social media platforms who tried to silence the speech of conservative users.

In another instance, it stuck a 'glorifying violence' label to his tweet that threatened protesters with being shot following George Floyd's death with being shot.

Shortly after, Trump issued an executive order targeting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a law that protects social media companies from being sued for content posted by users on their platforms, specifically calling out Twitter. Legal and tech policy experts have expressed skepticism that the order would hold up in court.
Nearly 200 people are scheduled to attend the bhoomi pujan (laying of foundation stone) for the Ram temple in Ayodhya by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 5. Is it necessary to have a physical bhoomi pujan amid the Covid-19 pandemic? No doubt the feelings of many are attached to this ceremony now that it is happening after a long legal fight.

But we are seeing a day to day rise in the number of Covid-19 cases. On on July 26, the Prime Minister said that Covid-19 was as fatal today as it was in the beginning. As an Indian citizen, I would like to suggest to the government that ...
KHABAROVSK, Russia  Valentin Kvashnikov, a construction worker and recovering heroin addict, lives near the railway depot in a wooden shack, with a plastic trash can in the corner that serves as his toilet.

But he has risen from obscurity into a celebrity in far eastern Russia by helping to energize the antigovernment demonstrations that have gotten bigger and bolder in the past three weeks.

Its him! a passing woman, Natasha Gordiyenko, said after she spotted Mr. Kvashnikov outside his house on Sunday, before unleashing a tirade of profanity against Russian officialdom.

The protests in Khabarovsk reached well into the tens of thousands over the weekend, establishing this distant city  some 4,000 miles from Moscow  as the site of the biggest popular challenge to President Vladimir V. Putins authority that a city in Russias far-flung regions has produced in his 20 years in power.
Facebook has now reportedly filed multiple lawsuits against the EU antitrust regulator, essentially suing the Commission for requesting too much data. Thats based on statements made by the company, alleging that the requests for data go beyond whats necessary. No fewer than three suits have been filed in the matter. That includes two against the European Commission and another in Luxembourgs General Court.

The social media giant is requesting, in each case, that requests for data be reviewed by EU Courts and judges before being sent to Facebook.

Why is Facebook suing over data requests now?

According to a statement attributed to Facebook associate general counsel Tim Lamb, Facebooks concern comes down to the broad nature of the requests in question. The data thats being requested, the company says, goes well beyond ongoing EU investigations into the company. In some cases, it asserts, the requests are themselves effectively a violation of data protection.

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Thats because, Facebook says, the resulting documents sent to the Commission contain highly sensitive personal information. And that includes information about employees, ranging from medical information to financial documents. Private information about family members of employees has reportedly been handed over as well.

In total, Facebook has sent EU regulators over 315,000 documents  more than 1.7-million pages. And the researchers are said to be sifting through those looking for keywords and phrases. Some of those, Facebook argues, show up in documents pertaining to employee health information, for example.

What are the investigations about?

Facebook has not been a paragon of data privacy and protection over the past several years. Aside from selling out user data, the company has also been remarkably consistent when it comes to data breaches.

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Both of those transgressions are a big deal. Especially for a company thats behind some of the most popular apps and services on the web or on mobile. But the investigations in question appear to stem from two separate inquiries. The first is an investigation into the amount of data collected and stored by Facebook. The second pertains more directly to Facebooks marketplace for selling and buying items.

What, exactly the EU is looking for has reportedly been outlined by a source said to be close to the matter. Specifically, EU regulators are looking for documents containing any of around 2,500 phrases. That includes phrases such as big question, shut down, and not good for us, among others.

Its not immediately clear when the proceedings will take place or how long they may run. In the interim, the EU Commission has said that it will defend its case in court.
Researchers have developed a system that predicts students' HSC marks with more than 90 per cent accuracy using information such as their year 9 NAPLAN results, their HSC subject choice and their year 11 attendance.

The University of Newcastle academics say their findings raise questions about whether the final two years of school that are now devoted to HSC courses and exams with predictable results could be better spent on deeper learning and more focused career preparation.

Professor Fischetti argued the approach to the final two years of high school could be changed, to give students greater depth in their learning.

But critics argue using NAPLAN to determine students' future would just shift Higher School Certificate stress from year 12 to year 9, and say the HSC is not just about ranking and testing students, but also giving them a strong education regardless of their social background.

A team led by Professor John Fischetti, pro vice-chancellor of the university's faculty of education, developed a system that analyses information about students, such as NAPLAN results, family background, aspiration and attendance, to estimate how they would fare in their HSC.


June 2020 Quarterly Report

Melbourne, July 28, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Cohiba Minerals Limited ( ASX:CHK ) provides below an update in relation to the exploration activities carried out during the June 2020 quarter.- Cohiba Minerals met milestone target in gaining 51% of Olympic Domain tenements under Farm-In Agreement with the drilling programs expected to achieve the 80% ownership target.- 3D inversion modelling of the magnetotelluric (MT) data acquired from the Horse Well confirms IOCG potential and presence of the proposed "feeder" zone.- Assays from Pernatty C soil survey returned multiple anomalous results for copper, lead, zinc, and cobalt.- Resistivity and Induced Polarisation (IP) geophysical surveys at Pernatty C showed significant structural control and potential for "Mt Gunson" / "Zambian Copper Belt" style mineralisation.- Exploration Program for Environment Protection and Rehabilitation (PEPR) for Horse Well and Pernatty C drilling programs submitted to Department for Energy and Mining (SA).- The Heritage Survey for the drilling programs at Horse Well and Pernatty C was coordinated with with the Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation (KAC) and subject matter experts for early July.- All tenements within the Horse Well, Pernatty C (Mt Gunson) and Lake Torrens areas were maintained in good standing.- All tenements in Queensland (Wee MacGregor, Mt Gordon, Success and Mt Cobalt) were maintained in good standing.- Mining Proposal, Mining Lease application and Mine Closure Plan for the Pyramid Lake (WA) gypsum project progressed via specialist consulting group Groundwork Plus.To view the quarterly report, please visit: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.
Eleven young people will represent the next generation of farmers after they were selected as the NFU's new Student & Young Farmer Ambassadors.

The 11 ambassadors were chosen from a pool of more than 130 applicants and represent every region of England and Wales.

The NFU Student & Young Farmer Ambassador Programme gives the industry fresh new voices to help back British farming and share their concerns for the future.

The new ambassadors will begin their tenure with a two-day induction and training session, however this will happen via video link from their homes due to Covid-19.

NFU president Minette Batters said the new group would be representing British farming at a 'unique and critical point in time' for the industry.

"Those taking part played a vital role in helping us tell the incredible story of British farming at public events, in magazines and across national, regional and trade media and on social media.

"From the start of 2021, UK agriculture is going to be finding its feet in a new world outside of the EU and we will need this next generation of farmers to be advocates."

Mrs Batters said it was 'great' to see young people making their mark in the farming industry and reaching out to different audiences.

"The programme aims to give them a fantastic opportunity to amplify their voice and I cant wait to start working with them, she added.

The programme gives young people between the ages of 18 and 26 years the chance to become a leading voice for farming in Britain.

Over the course of one year, ambassadors will have the chance to undertake numerous initiatives, such as attending the NFU Conference and Lord Mayor's Show.

Who are the NFU's new ambassadors?

The NFUs Student & Young Farmer Ambassadors for 2020/2021 are:

 Matthew Rollason, North West  beef farmer and British Farming Awards winner

 Joe Bramall, North West  dairy farmer, YouTuber and Harper Adams student

 Cameron Knee, North East  agri-consultant and agronomist

 Josie Troop, East Midlands  NFYFC member and agri-education advocate

 Katie Smith, West Midlands  new entrant farmer and Harper Adams student

 Harriet Bartlett, East Anglia  University of Cambridge PhD student

 Eveey Hunter, East Anglia  arable farmer with a passion for education

 Zoe Legg, South West  young farmer and social media campaigner

 Karl Franklin, South East  former chef and new entrant sheep farmer

 Nia Borsey, Wales  rural planner and newspaper columnist

 Lauren David, Wales  livestock farmer and University of Reading student
Attorney General William Barr appears before the House Judiciary Committee on 28 July, 2020: Getty Images

House Democrats have been waiting for nearly 18 months to bring William Barr in for testimony since he took over as attorney general for Donald Trump in February 2019.

They did not hold back on Tuesday, grilling Mr Barr for nearly six hours about the state of policing in the US amid the recent wave of anti-police brutality protests; his decision to deploy federal law enforcement agents to cities such as Portland, Oregon, where they have been accused of using excessive force on protesters and violating the Fourth Amendment; and his intervening actions in the prosecutions of two of the presidents political allies, Roger Stone and Michael Flynn.

Several Democrats on the Judiciary panel that hosted Mr Barr on Tuesday have pushed for his impeachment on charges of corruption and abuse of power.

The committees chairman, New York Congressman Jerry Nadler, has not gone quite that far.

But he did tell Mr Barr to his face on Tuesday that his tenure has been marked by a persistent war against the Departments professional core in an apparent effort to secure favours for the president.

Mr Nadler, whose car crashed on the way to the hearing, delaying it by an hour, added: The message these actions send is clear: In this Justice Department, the presidents enemies will be punished and his friends will be protected, no matter the cost.

Mr Barr, for his part, sought to defend his actions under Mr Trump as the chief executor of criminal and civil law in the US  from his handling of the special counsel report of Robert Mueller on 2016 Russian election interference, to his perceived antagonism of federal prosecutorial offices such as the Southern District of New York thought to be investigating some of Mr Trumps allies, to his dispersal of peaceful protesters near the White House last month to clear the path for Mr Trumps photo op at nearby St Johns Episcopal Church.

He had no relationship with the president before accepting his nomination to be attorney general, and had been more than prepared to slip happily into retirement, he said at the outset of the hearing.

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Im telling my story  thats what Im here to do, Mr Barr later said amid a testy exchange with Georgia Republican Congressman Hank Johnson, one of several Democrats who repeatedly interrupted Mr Barr to reclaim their time after asking him questions so they could move onto another.

Portland protests and policing

Democratic lawmakers hammered Mr Barr for sending federal law enforcement units to US cities, where independent journalists and others have accused them on social media of driving unmarked cars and seizing people from the street without explanation in recent days.

Footage released on social media and other platforms has also shown agents using excessive force against people ostensibly demonstrating against the deaths in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, and others.

Under your leadership, the Department has endangered Americans and violated their constitutional rights by flooding federal law enforcement into the streets of American cities, against the wishes of the state and local leaders of those cities, to forcefully and unconstitutionally suppress dissent, Mr Nadler said.

Mr Barr denied Mr Nadlers characterisation that federal agents are flooding into cities, or that they are targeting peaceful protesters  a denial that runs counter to the first-hand accounts of many people on the ground in Portland who have said theyve been tear-gassed by the feds despite demonstrating peacefully.

We are on the defence [in Portland]. Were not out looking for trouble, Mr Barr testified on Tuesday.

If the state and the city would provide the law enforcement services that other jurisdictions do, we would have no need to have additional marshals in the courthouse, Mr Barr said, arguing that, for weeks, violent protesters have attempted to besiege the federal US courthouse in Portland.

The fact of the matter is if you take Portland, the courthouse is under attack. The federal resources are inside the perimeter around the courthouse defending it from almost two months of daily attacks where people march to the court, try to gain entrance and have set fires, thrown things, used explosives, and injured police, he said.

Republican lawmakers on the panel largely deferred to Mr Barrs characterisation of events in Portland and the DOJs actions. The ranking member on the committee, Jim Jordan, played a video montage on the committee rooms monitor of recent footage of riots in US cities, including instances where protesters have assaulted and harassed police officers.

When confronted by Democrats with individual examples of federal agents using excessive force on protesters, Mr Barr deferred to an internal DOJ investigation into the feds tactics that the departments inspector general, Michael Horowitz, launched earlier this week.

Democratic Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of California pushed back on Mr Barr and Republicans characterisation of the scene in Portland, saying most of [the protesters] are nonviolent and that the presence of the federal troops has precipitated even more violence.

The reaction has actually been in reverse proportion  people are showing up because the troops are there, Ms Lofgren said.

Ms Lofgren and other Democrats on the Judiciary panel accused Mr Barr of deploying federal units to Portland to distract public attention away from Mr Trumps handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his freefall in polls against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, a consideration Mr Barr and Republicans dismissed.

All the presidents men

Mr Barr also faced a grilling over his recent decisions to intervene in the separate DOJ prosecutions of Mr Stone and Mr Flynn, two former aides to Mr Trump and his 2016 campaign.

His decisions to intervene on behalf of the presidents political allies were predicated purely on a sense of fairness and adherence to DOJ protocol, he said.

The presidents friends dont deserve special breaks. But they also dont deserve to be treated more harshly than other people, Mr Barr testified on Tuesday.

Mr Flynn, Mr Trumps erstwhile national security adviser, twice pleaded guilty in recent years to lying to the FBI about his conversations in 2016 and 2017 with former Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak, before revoking that guilty plea earlier this year.

Earlier this year, Mr Barr instructed prosecutors on Mr Flynns case to drop it, arguing in a court memorandum that it was untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBIs counterintelligence investigation into Mr Flynn and that it was conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.

Mr Stone was convicted earlier this year of lying to Congress during the House Intelligence Committees investigation into Russian election interference in 2016. Mr Trump commuted his prison sentence earlier this month.

Mr Barr had personally stepped in on the Stone case to ask the judge for a shorter sentence for the convicted felon than the lower-level DOJ prosecutors who had worked the case for years had asked for.

Sometimes thats a difficult decision to make, especially when you know youre going to be castigated for it, Mr Barr said.

But that is what the rule of law is, and thats what fairness to the individual ultimately comes to, he said.

The DOJs initial sentencing request of seven to nine years in prison was too extreme for an elderly, non-violent criminal with no previous convictions, he indicated.

Let me ask you: Do you think it is fair for a 67-year-old man to be sent to prison for seven to nine years? Mr Barr said during another exchange with Mr Johnson, the Georgia Democrat.

A New York prosecutors fate

Democratic Congresswoman Val Demings, one of Mr Bidens potential vice presidential running mates, used her five minutes to question Mr Barr about the controversial ouster of former federal district attorney Geoffrey Berman of the Southern District of New York (SDNY), whose office was believed to be investigating offshoot threads of inquiry from Mr Muellers report involving Mr Trump and his inner circle.

In June, Mr Barr announced Mr Berman would be stepping down from his post.

That came as news to Mr Berman, who had never told his superiors at the DOJ he was resigning.

The district attorney initially refused Mr Barrs request to step down, setting up a showdown between the two men.

[Mr Berman] maybe didnt know it, but he was being forced to step down, Mr Barr testified on Tuesday.

He later corrected that statement: He was removed, Mr Barr said.

No systemic racism?

Perhaps most central to the disconnect between Mr Barr and House Democrats at the hearing on Tuesday is their fundamental disagreement about the role of police departments in society and how much racism still affects  or doesnt  those local institutions.

I dont agree that theres systemic racism in police departments generally in this country, Mr Barr testified on Tuesday, echoing statements from other Trump administration officials in response to the protests against Mr Floyds death.

To fix law enforcement, Barr must recognise that institutional racism does exist, said Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.

Until we accept that, we will not finish our job and reach the goals and aspiration of our late iconic John Lewis to reform policing in the US and root out its racist elements, she said.

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What enemies have I indicted? Four takeaways as Barr spars with Dems
The coronavirus pandemic has forced countless tough decisions for Bay Area residents. Weve weighed medical, financial and personal risks against needs and benefits. Experts say these calculations are not always easy under the best of circumstances, and especially difficult in periods of high stress and strong emotion.

Here are the stories of four people in the Bay Area and how they approached difficult choices that seemed to have no clear answer.

MARIA TAYLOR, 27, Concord

Risk decision: Should I isolate my newborn from the rest of my family?

For most of the pandemic, Maria Taylor has been figuring out how to navigate risk  the risk to herself, her parents, her fiance and her newborn daughter.

Right before everything started, she had been feeling like she and her fiance were on stable footing: She had a full-time job as a nanny, and his job allowed them some flexibility, as well. Their first child was on the way, and they were looking forward to the pregnancy  to a baby shower with everyone they loved, to having help after the birth from their parents, who live nearby.

Her fiance had worked for a printing company in San Francisco for four years but was laid off the day shelter-in-place began, she said.

Suddenly, they were both out of jobs. She was nearing her due date and stressed about finances, calling the state Employment Development Department every day. Unemployment didnt kick in until the end of April.

Their biggest worry, though, has been what to do since the birth of their baby girl.

Sarahbeth Maney / The Chronicle

Taylor and her fiance decided they would keep her (and themselves) away from their family for at least the first month of her life, and likely the foreseeable future. Neither can afford to get sick. Her fiances work troubles have also cemented the reality that Taylor may be the one going back to work once things open up.

Telling their parents was heartbreaking, Taylor said.

Its hard to explain that this is not what we want, either, Taylor said. It feels like we went through the pregnancy alone.

When the baby is a month old, Taylor says she might let the family meet her, socially distanced, if everyone gets tested beforehand. And although they have tried not to worry about the worst-case scenario  if she or her fiance gets sick  they have a plan.

He would live in his car, probably, she said.

Sarahbeth Maney / The Chronicle

ELISA CECACI-GILLIAM, 47, Oakland

Risk decision: Should I let my high-risk son move out?

About a month into the Bay Areas shelter-in-place, Elisa Cecaci-Gilliams 20-year-old son informed her of his decision: He was going to leave. He couldnt live under the familys rules anymore.

The house had been kept hermetically sealed. Cecaci-Gilliams husband, who is a truck driver, was the only one who had been leaving the house. Cecaci-Gilliam, 47, a career nanny and mother of four, had been taking care of three of her sons, ages 6, 18 and 20  as well as her 72-year-old mother-in-law. She hadnt even gone to the grocery store, and had barely seen friends socially distanced.

She and her husband had decided to take these extreme measures because they knew their own risks. Their 18-year-old son has Type 1 diabetes, she said, and if her husband got sick the family would lose their health insurance, and potentially their house. If Cecaci-Gilliam got sick, there would be no one to take care of the family.

Sarahbeth Maney / The Chronicle

She was doubly worried because her husband, a Black man, was at a higher risk of severity if he got COVID-19. Their ZIP code in East Oakland was among the hardest hit. She was also worried about her neighbors, especially the unhoused ones.

Even though she had control, it felt like a sad control, she said, knowing that tension had been building between her and her older sons. Then it cracked.

When her 20-year-old announced he was leaving to live with friends in Turlock, she said she almost fell over. I gave him some masks and Lysol and was like, I love you, be safe, knowing there was a chance that could be the last time I physically saw him, Cecaci-Gilliam said.

The rules were laid out: If he wanted to come back, hed have to sleep in the backyard for two weeks and get a negative coronavirus test.

The decision was painful, but for Cecaci-Gilliam, it felt like her only choice. Then, her 18-year-old announced he wanted to go too, and the lump in her throat deepened.

She told him all the reasons it wasnt wise, considering how high-risk he was. But he told her he couldnt stay there anymore, living in the fear that she had. In the days after, she said, she secretly ordered a care package of glucose tabs.

He ended up not going, she said. But the tension is still there. Its excruciating, thats the word that just keeps coming up for me, she said. Her brain feels like its always on the spin cycle of a washing machine  churning questions of risk, grieving the things she used to do that shes lost, worrying about her family and the homeless population she used to serve with the East Oakland Collective.

Some days are better than others, though, and their small backyard has become her galaxy  where she watches her 6-year-old play with his only playmate, their dog. The other day, they were watching the fireworks, and he started listing off all the Black people in his life that he loved. And for a moment, she said, it brought her some peace.

Courtesy of Vishwaa Sofat

VISHWAA SOFAT, 18, New York City

Risk decision: Should I move from New York to the Bay Area for college?

The fall was supposed to be a new start for Vishwaa Sofat. It would be the New York City natives first time living away from home, as he entered his freshman year at UC Berkeley.

But in the last couple of months, he had to really think about whether it was worth trekking more than 3,000 miles from his family to shelter in place in a tiny dorm room with a roommate he barely knew.

Hed felt a lot of anxiety about deciding to move to California even after UC Berkeley announced it would adopt a digital learning environment. On the one hand, he wanted to move  hed even gotten into the residence hall hed requested. But at the same time, the restrictions of an only-online freshman year and the task of moving in the middle of a pandemic seemed unimaginable.

If I would be flying out, Id be exposing myself far more than Ive let myself be exposed in the last four months, said Sofat, who lives with his parents in downtown Manhattan.

Now Playing: Residents of San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood share how COVID-19 has impacted their lives. Video: Manjula Varghese

After weighing the costs and benefits of moving out, Sofat said he decided to stay with his family in New York.

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 a way, its kind of sad, just thinking about how Ill spend my freshman year just in my house, taking my classes, Sofat said. But I think its also OK with me if thats the reality. The reality of moving away from my parents was a bittersweet reality, and now I can stick around with them for longer.

He expects to keep up his mostly quarantined lifestyle. He and his family have rarely left their apartment, largely because his father is a cardiac patient and immunocompromised, he said. Some of his friends in New York have tested positive, and family members have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Some family friends have died from the disease.

I think Ive gotten to see that ugly side and it makes it more real  when people around you get it, Sofat said. And I think Ive seen enough disease and sadness for a lifetime. So Id rather see everyone I care about be safe and happy.

Sofat says hes joined a legion of other UC Berkeley students, many international or out of state, who have opted to stay in place instead of moving onto campus. Meanwhile, many of his New York friends will soon be moving to the campuses of East Coast colleges with hybrid instruction models.

He said some other friends, whose parents are more flexible, have been seeing each other and hanging out, too.

Sometimes you have FOMO (fear of missing out) but  my simple way of not dwelling on it has been very much just knowing, I cant go out. And thats OK, Sofat said. We all have to make some sacrifices in our life and I guess this is one of those for me.

Sarahbeth Maney / The Chronicle

LAURA GRIFFITH, 41, Clayton

Risk decision: How do I manage my serious new diagnosis?

Laura Griffith said she was shocked when a mutual friend texted her the picture of the familys au pair, at an indoor party drinking without a mask.

The au pair was supposed to stay with the family through August  which would have been a big help to Griffith, a full-time nurse who commutes to UCSF from Clayton, and her husband, who also works. But they had to let her go, Griffith said, knowing theyd be scrambling to figure out child care.

But it was their only option: Griffith cant afford to get sick. Last spring, she said, she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Her hands and wrists had been aching for a year, and some days she couldnt open bottles or doors. As a nurse, she was noticing that her hands had stopped doing what they were supposed to do.

Her rheumatologist told her she had arthritis in every joint of her body, and put her on five immunosuppressants. Shes still working in the oncology department. I feel a little bit of survivor's guilt, Griffith said. I used to be an ICU nurse. I like the action. I want to feel like Im helping people.

Sarahbeth Maney / The Chronicle

Pairing that sense of obligation with the stage of her own health has been challenging, because as a nurse to people who are immunocompromised, she knows the normal signs of infection are blunted.

Beyond her new diagnosis, Griffith also has chronic bronchitis and was born with a heart disease. Her son, 7, has asthma. Theyve had to make calculated decisions about what he cant and can do  recently they put him into swimming camp with the consideration that it was relatively low risk.

Another major challenge has been the realization that they may have to stay away from their parents for a long time. Griffiths parents live in Arcata, and her father has health issues that put him at high risk. Griffiths mother had helped tremendously with child care, but now thats out of the question, she said.

The family had planned to go to Illinois to see her husbands family, whom they havent seen in two years. Griffith said she has come to accept thats off the table indefinitely.

Annie Vainshtein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avainshtein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annievain
Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Da Nang - The central city of Da Nang will introduce social distancing measures in accordance with Directive No 19/CT-TTg dated April 24 as from 0:00 hour on July 28 for at least 14 days, as directed by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Chairing a meeting in Hanoi on July 27 between permanent Government members and the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control, the PM highlighted the need to fully undertake counter-measures at the Da Nang C Hospital, the Hospital for Orthopaedics and Trauma, and the Da Nang General Hospital, as well as the districts of Lien Chieu, Ngu Hanh Son, and Hai Chau.

Those places are where the new COVID-19 patients found in community had visited and are living in.

He ordered all possible measures be taken to prevent the SARS-CoV-2 from spreading in Da Nang and to nearby localities, including conducting mass testing for the virus, while determining scenarios in response to the pandemic and preventing any serious public concern.

Persons traveling from Da Nang to Hanoi, HCM City, and elsewhere must be tested and quarantined if necessary. Those showing symptoms of flu, fever, and coughing must visit medical establishments immediately.

Da Nang must suspend all public transport and other activities involving large numbers of people.

The PM directed that the Health Ministry boost resources to help Da Nang with testing and treatment, while the Ministry of Information and Communications is to help trace those with close contact with patients.

He demanded that people organising illegal entry into Vietnam be seriously punished, and the sufficient supply of daily necessities be ensured and capacity in mask production be enhanced.

The PM urged local authorities to continue working for the dual goals of socio-economic development and pandemic prevention and control.

The Government remains determined to control the pandemic on a national scale, he said, urging investors and the public to trust in the Governments leadership.

The health sector was also asked to offer testing to all foreigners that recently entered Vietnam.

Ministries and concerned agencies will arrange more flights to bring Vietnamese citizens home, including those in Equatorial Guinea.

At the meeting, acting Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said the new cases of community transmission - patients 416, 418, 419, and 420 - are likely to have contracted the virus from different sources in the community.

They were infected with a new strain of SARS-CoV-2 that is common in several regional countries. Epidemiological analysis revealed that the outbreak could have started in Da Nang in early July, and there may be other cases of infection.
COHOES, N.Y.  The New York State Police in conjunction with the New York State Park Police, continue to investigate a suspected drowning that took place at Peebles Island State Park in Cohoes.

At approximately 3 p.m. on July 26, New York State Park Police responded to Peebles Island State Park for a possible drowning.

Upon arrival, troopers found a woman floating face down in the water by two passing hikers. The hikers entered the water and attempted lifesaving measures, they were assisted by a man who had come to the area to swim with the victim.

State Police identified the victim as Kyle Reddington, 26, of Troy. Reddington was transported via ambulance to Samaritan Hospital where she was pronounced deceased.

The incident remains under investigation.
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The global cellular concrete market is anticipated to garner a CAGR of 5.5% during the forecast period (2017-2023), Market Research Future (MRFR) reveals in a detailed report. Cellular concrete is rapidly replacing traditional concrete materials in the construction sector due to several benefits it provides. It is a lightweight constriction material, which is made of water, Portland cement, compressed air, and foaming agent, and is also termed as aerated concrete.

Market Potential and Pitfalls

The soaring demand for lightweight and strong materials in the construction industry is driving the cellular concrete market across the globe. The surging preference for eco-friendly and cost-effective constructions is fueling the market growth during the assessment period. The production of conventional concrete involves the use of coal to make clinkers, which produces unwanted greenhouse gases. Cellular concrete, on the other hand, is considered an eco-friendly product, which is produced using fly-ash, at lower time and cost than conventional cement. Such benefits are likely to create huge demand from the cellular concrete market. Cellular concrete offers high-fluidity, fire resistivity, high strength, increased durability, mold resistance, and is economical. These properties enable it to offer cost-effective construction and better performance than conventional materials.

On the contrary, foam liquid concentrates used to produce cellular cement may vary from poor to exceptional. This can raise concerns regarding the quality of the product. Moreover, several foam liquid concentrates promoted in the market are not designed for the production of cellular concrete. Such factors are estimated to restrict the market growth in the foreseeable future.

Global Cellular Concrete Market: Segmental Analysis

The global cellular concrete market has been segmented on the basis of application and end user.

By application, the cellular concrete market is segmented into road sub-bases, building material, roof insulation, concrete pipes, bridge abutment, and others. Of these, the building material segment is likely to command the largest market share. The segment will retain its position in the coming years due to its low cost, less labor, and less building time.

By end user, the cellular concrete market is segmented into residential and non-residential. Of these, the non-residential segment is likely to dominate the market as governments of developing as well as developed countries are emphasizing on the development of public infrastructure. This will further accelerate the demand for cellular concrete in the non-residential segment.

Regional Frontiers

Geographically, the global cellular concrete market spans across the Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and the Rest-of-the-World (RoW).

Considering the global scenario, Europe commanded the largest market share in 2016. Growth in restructuring and remodeling of homes fuel the market growth in the region. Europe is considered the hub of autoclaved aerated concrete blocks manufacturers. This further has a positive impact on the growth of the cellular concrete market in the region.

Asia Pacific is estimated to register the highest CAGR, mainly due to the recent boom in construction activities. India, China, Singapore, and Japan are some of the major countries in the region, contributing to the market growth. Economic growth in APAC has allowed for a greater requirement of commercial and institutional infrastructure spaces. Major players across the world are shifting their production facilities to cater to potential markets in the APAC, due to the availability of ample raw materials and low-cost labor. This has further influenced the growth of the market in the region. Moreover, the Chinese government has issued favorable policies to reduce the proportion of down payment for second house loans and to exempt of sales tax for ordinary housing, which has encouraged the market growth in the region.

North America is considered a prominent market for the cellular concrete market due to increasing residential and non-residential construction activities in the region.

Industry Updates

July 2019: CEMATRIX Corporation has recently announced that the companys wholly-owned operating subsidiaries MixOnSite USA Inc. and CEMATRIX (Canada) Inc. have secured around $1.1 million in U.S. and new Canadian infrastructure contracts.

Competitive Dashboard

The players operating in the global cellular concrete market include Xella Group (Germany), Saint Gobain (France), Cematrix (Canada), Cellucrete (U.S.), Laston Italiana S.P.A (Italy), Litebuilt (Australia), Aerix Industries (U.S.), Cellular Concrete Technologies (U.S.), B. G. Shirke Construction Technology Pvt. Ltd (India), ACICO (Kuwait), Conco (U.S.), Broco Industries (Indonesia), CellFill, LLC (U.S.), JK Lakshmi Cement Ltd (India), and Aircrete Europe (Netherlands).

Note: The COVID-19 pandemic disruption is estimated to transform the XX market in the years to come drastically, and its after-effects will be persistently seen in the years ahead. The MRFR report on the XX market meticulously tracks the COVID-19 pandemic effect for the years ahead. Moreover, the precise analysis of drivers and restraints in a post-COVID-19 market offers a coherent understanding of future growth cues.

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Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who has been tested positive for coronavirus, held a virtual cabinet meeting from the hospital on Tuesday. In the virtual meeting, Chouhan shared his experience with his ministerial colleagues saying that he was doing his own laundry and preparing tea.

"In the hospital, I make my own tea and wash clothes because one cannot give clothes for laundry when they are COVID-19 positive," The 61-year-old BJP leader said.

He added, "Washing clothes has benefited me in another way. Even after several physiotherapy sessions, I wasn't able to clench my fist as my hand was recently operated, but now it is perfectly fine".

Chouhan told his ministers that there was no need to panic about coronavirus. He said, if a person develops any symptom of the disease, then he or she should immediately consult a doctor.

He said if the coronavirus infection gets detected early then it become curable. Coronavirus is like any other cold, cough and fever, CM Chouhan says.

On Saturday, Chouhan was shifted to a private hospital in Bhopal after he showed coronavirus symptoms. Since the CM is in hospital, he has been reviewing the status of COVID-19 situation in the state and holding other departmental meetings every day through video conferencing.

Also read: Govt tweaks FDI rules; NRIs can now acquire up to 100% stake in Air India

Also read: Microsoft India most attractive employer; Samsung, Amazon bag second, third spots
The Federal Government on Monday said only schools designated as centres for the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations and in respect of the exiting classes would re-open.

The Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, said this at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing in Abuja.

All primary schools and all other classes were excluded, he said.

Nwajiuba said the West African Examinations Council had agreed that only exams peculiar to Nigeria would be taken from September 5 to 14, while exams common to all West African countries would proceed from September 17.

He said Nigeria would domesticate its own timetable for the exams, while revision classes would start from today.

Nwajiuba also said a report on states preparedness was expected on July 31, which would inform which centres would open and how they would open and to address all gaps.

He noted that all state Governors, Commissioners for Education and all other stakeholders had given their commitments to provide teachers, while WAEC would provide invigilators to ensure seamless conduct at the centres.
A petition demanding the use of British wool products to be mandatory in the new home insulation scheme has gained nearly 15,000 signatures.

Sheep producers are calling for the government to choose wool to insulate homes as many face rock-bottom prices as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Under the Green Homes Grant, two-thirds of the cost of home improvements that save energy in homes, such as improving insulation, will be paid by the government.

Farmers are now urging for a 'once valuable resource' to be used as part of the scheme, which will commence in England from September.

A viral online petition says wool is 'sustainable, fire-retardant, bio-degradable, and the most efficient form of insulation'.

"Sheep farmers receive less for their wool than the cost of shearing the sheep," the petition's campaigners said.

"Last year David Jones received 28p a fleece and paid the shearer 1. This year the value it set to drop by at least half.

"He and many other farmer's across the country, decision to plough their wool into the fields as fertiliser."

Farmers have also raised concerns that following the Brexit transition period, producers may be further affected by possible new tariffs on sheep meat of at least 40%.

Currently over half of the UK's sheep exports go to the EU, but producers fear they will never be substituted by trade deals with the USA or Japan, for example.

"Sheep farmers' incomes are being squeezed at every point," campaigners explained.

The petition, which has reached 14,930 signatures as of Monday (27 July), will eventually be delivered to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Defra Secretary George Eustice.
28.07.2020 LISTEN

Over 8000 cocoa farmers in the Asunafo North Municipal in Ahafo Region have eulogised government for helping boost production over the years but still have some challenges to be addressed.

This was revealed at the 8th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Asunafo North Municipal Cocoa Farmers Cooperative Union at the Assembly Hall of Catholic Pastoral Centre in Goaso, capital of the Region where close to 100 society executives, banking partners of the Union among others were in attendance.

Speaking on behalf of the members of the Union, the President, Daniel Amponsah Gyinayeh popularly called Agya Dan stated that this year the government has supplied 86,000 bags of fertilizers and distributed to the members at the price of Ghc80 per bag with two years payment plan which has uplifted their production as compared to some years back even when fertilizers were for free.

He mentioned that the performance of the people hired by the government to undertake the pollination exercise in the Municipality where the members of the Union reside was excellent as all expect.

He added that the hired persons were always on time to execute their mandate irrespective of what happens indicatin that the rapport between them and their employer was the best.

"We do hear them say government owe them but still they were at post working for us," the Union's President stated.

According to Gyinayeh, the Union was supplied with 2000 devices for pruning, weeding, pollination among others of the farms to make work more easier. He stressed that because the device were in abundance, the Union also hired some people with Ghc550 per head to help government's policy to thrive.

"With all these, we can confidently say with evidence that the government has been good to us," he intimated.

Highlighting the challenges that need to be addressed by the government despite increment in production, the Union's Manager, Patrick Owusu explained persons who destroy the forests in the region must be dealt with since their actions affect the production of cocoa.

In his explanation, targets set by the government on cocoa production always fail because of how forests are been destroyed.

He appealed to government to reconsider the initial agreed payment plan on the fertilizers due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

He mentioned that the novel coronavirus has directly affected their sources of income especially when some parts of the country were partially locked down.

Per records, the Union has given Ghc300.00 each to 435 tertiary students from the municipality, 70,000 exercise books distributed among school pupils, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to fight COVID-19 have been supplied to communities among several others.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 03:07:50|Editor: huaxia

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BRUSSELS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) on Monday expressed its concerns over the additional obstacles facing migrants and asylum seekers when they are trying to enter the EU and the increase in allegations of pushbacks at borders.

Among the restrictions which migrants and asylum seekers were worried about is the requirement by some EU member states for all foreign arrivals to self-quarantine or provide a negative COVID-19 test, which "many people seeking safety in the EU cannot fulfil."

The latest FRA quarterly bulletin on migration said the coronavirus containment measures led to a 90-percent decrease in asylum applications in April 2020, the lowest rate since 2008.

Commenting on the situation at reception centers across Europe, the agency said the restrictions and quarantines in reception centers are often stricter than those for the general population. Many new arrivals are not registered at all or with a delay while access to legal help is limited.

It noted, while many countries allowed people who were supposed to leave the reception centers to stay until the pandemic is over, unsuccessful asylum applicants or even recognized refugees often became homeless in others.

The agency, which has been collecting data on migration since 2015, also expressed its apprehension that, due to the pandemic, many asylum-seeking children cannot access education. Many centers lack online learning tools or stable Wi-Fi connection. Enditem
Recently, Global News and Ipsos did a poll on Canadians attitudes toward the CERB. According to the poll, 63% of respondents agreed that the CERB was being misused, and 85% supported fines for those who abused the program. These figures are surprising given the large number of Canadians who are receiving the CERB. With 8.4 million applications having been received, approximately 22% of Canadas population has applied for the CERB.

The Ipsos poll came after a fiscal snapshot that showed an unprecedentedly large deficit for 2020. The federal government projected that Canada would incur a $343 billion deficit in 2020  not including provincial deficits. A great deal of that projection came from the money budgeted for the CERB, CESB, and CEWS. In light of this, CERB fraud could be a major cost to the country.

What is CERB fraud?

According to Justice.gc.ca, fraud involves depriving people of property or money by deceitful means. Deceit seems to be the key term here. Merely filling out a form incorrectly wouldnt be fraud; lying on a form could be. The federal government doesnt have a specific resource on CERB fraud yet. However, on the related topic of EI fraud, the government states, If you knowingly withhold information or misrepresent the facts to make a false claim, you are committing fraud.

In light of this, it would seem that CERB fraud would require that you knowingly misrepresent your financial situation to get the benefit. However, questions remain. A big one pertains to people who received the CERB after applying for EI.

For the past few months, EI claims have automatically been treated as CERB claims by Service Canada. That raises the question of whether a person is automatically eligible for CERB if they make a legitimate EI claim. Canada.ca does state that old EI claims are automatically assessed as CERB claims but doesnt state whether people applying through EI have different eligibility standards.

Going by anecdotal evidence, it appears that people who qualify for EI will receive the CERB. The question is whether EI applicants will be caught in the dragnet of CERB fraud investigations later on. For the answer, well just have to wait and see.

Story continues

How to stay safe

If youre wary of being fined for CERB fraud, you have every right to be. Not only is the government considering fines, but theyll apparently have the support of most Canadians should they choose to do so.

For this reason, you might want to simply not apply for CERB if you can afford to do without it. If you have significant savings, there are other ways of establishing passive income.

For example, if you have over $100,000 saved, you can earn over $3,000 a year by investing it in an ETF like the iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index Fund (TSX:XIU). XIU is a dividend ETF that holds the 60 largest publicly traded companies in Canada.

According to Blackrock  the company that sponsors the fund  it has a 3.4% dividend yield. That means youll get $3,400 a year in dividends from XIU if you invest $100,000 up front (assuming the dividends stay the same). Of course, dividend payouts dont always stay the same. They can be increased, decreased, or eliminated altogether. Over the long term, however, dividends tend to rise.

So, if you invest in a fund like XIU today, youll likely have an even high yield on cost in the future.

The post POLL: 85% of Canadians Support Fines for CERB Fraud! appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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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
All individuals and organizations private or public, corporations, for-profit, and nonprofits, Large, medium, and small, associations, vendors and government organizations worldwide are eligible to enter. Entry details are available at https://goldenbridgeawards.com/about/

The Golden Bridge Awards are worlds premier business awards program honoring achievements in every industry around the world.

Recognitions are especially meaningful during the current business environment and times. The Golden Bridge Awards has issued the call for 2020 entries in all the categories for this year which include:

People | Innovator, Lifetime Achievement, Maverick, and Women Awards Categories Group

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Company | Innovative Company of the Year Awards Categories Group

Company | Best Company Awards Categories Group

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Corporate Communications and PR | People Awards Categories Group

Corporate Communications and PR | Campaign, Outstanding Achievement, Project or Initiative, and Team-Department Awards Categories Group

Creative | App & Mobile Website Awards Categories

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Creative | Video, Commercial, Advertising, and Film Awards Categories

Creative | Web, Social Media, and Online Presence Awards Categories

Creative | Campaign, Outstanding Achievement, Project or Initiative, and Team-Department Awards Categories Group

Customer Service & Support | People Awards Categories Group

Customer Service & Support | Campaign, Outstanding Achievement, Project or Initiative, and Team-Department Awards Categories Group

Customer Success of the Year Awards Categories Group

Human Resources | People Awards Categories Group

Human Resources | Campaign, Outstanding Achievement, Project or Initiative, and Team-Department Awards Categories Group

Information Technology Users | People Awards Categories Group

Information Technology Users | Campaign, Outstanding Achievement, Project or Initiative, and Team-Department Awards Categories Group

Marketing | People Awards Categories Group

Marketing | Campaign, Outstanding Achievement, Project or Initiative, and Team-Department Awards Categories Group

Milestone of the Year Awards Categories Group

COVID-19 Business Response Awards Categories Group

Its time to recognize and honor the worlds best in organizational performance, products and services, innovations, individual executives, professionals, and management teams, women in business and the professions, case studies and successful deployments, public relations, communications, and marketing initiatives and campaigns, product management, websites, blogs, white-papers, videos, advertisements, creativity, partner programs, and customer satisfaction programs in every industry all over the world.

All individuals and organizations private or public, corporations, for-profit, and nonprofits, Large, medium, and small, associations, vendors and government organizations worldwide are eligible to enter. Entry details are available at https://goldenbridgeawards.com/about/

A worldwide judging panel of executives and professionals representing a wide-spectrum of industries will determine the winners. Winners will be presented and honored in a virtual ceremony attended by the finalists, winners, judges and industry peers from all over the world. Industry experts and end-users or consumers of product and services can participate in the judging process. More details to register as an industry expert and help as a judge are available at https://goldenbridgeawards.com/judges/

A Startups of the Year category group will include the achievements of new startups formed since 2016 in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Business Products, Business Services, Consumer Products, Consumer Services, IT Cloud/SaaS, IT Hardware, IT Hybrid, IT Services, IT Software, Security Cloud/SaaS, Security Hardware, Security Hybrid, Security Services, Security Software, Telecommunications, and others. Read more at https://goldenbridgeawards.com/about/#C3.-Company-|-Startup-Awards

About the Golden Bridge Awards

The coveted annual Golden Bridge Awards program recognizes and honors the worlds best in organizational performance, products and services, innovations, executives and management teams, women in business and the professions, case studies and successful deployments, public relations and marketing campaigns, product management, websites, blogs, white-papers, videos, advertisements, creativity, partner programs, and customer satisfaction programs from every major industry in the world. Learn more about the Golden Bridge Awards at https://goldenbridgeawards.com

About the SVUS Awards

SVUS Awards are conferred in eleven programs: the CEO World Awards, the Consumer World Awards, The Customer Sales & Service World Awards, The Globee Awards, the Golden Bridge Awards, the Info Security Products Guides Global Excellence Awards and Security World Awards, the Network Products Guides IT World Awards, One Planet American + World Business Awards, the Pillar World Awards, the PR World Awards for Public Relations and Communications, and the Women World Awards. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the SVUS Awards recognize outstanding achievements and performances in businesses worldwide. Learn more about the SVUS Awards at https://svusawards.com
WASHINGTON, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- McWilliams|Ballard is proud to partner again with United Investments on another community, The Drew. Located in the vibrant Columbia Heights neighborhood of Northwest Washington, The Drew hosts three multi-level three-bedroom condominiums priced from the $700s.



Homes feature oversized living spaces and floor to ceiling windows on the front and back, flooding the homes with light. Each of the residences is replete with sleek modern finishes that highlight custom European cabinetry, Quartz countertops, Bosch appliances and stunning floating staircases with solid oak treads and glass railings. Homeowners will enjoy easy access to DC USA Shopping Center, the U Street and 14th Street Corridors restaurants, shops, and nightlife. DCs newest Whole Foods is just a few short blocks away.

The Drew was developed by United Investments, a real estate development founded in Washington, DC in 2007 by the Tesfaye Brothers  Henok, Yared, and Ben  each of whom brings with him more than 15 years of experience in real estate development, management, and sales. The firm is the fourth addition to the familys ever-growing portfolio of companies and has a strong reputation for quality craftsmanship throughout each innovative community.

McWilliams|Ballard, based in Alexandria, Virginia, is the leading real estate sales and marketing firm specializing in the sales and marketing of new condominiums, apartment, townhomes and mixed-use communities. During its 24-year history, McWilliams|Ballard has worked in 13 states nationwide, creating partnerships with developers and builders to provide sales and marketing solutions from project inception to the final closed sale. In addition, the firm also provides consultation and market research used by some of the most renowned developers and investment groups in the country.



Media Contact:

Derek Friday

703.535.5550

dfriday@mcwb.com




The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will organise a protest outside the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office on Wednesday against the decision of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) to levy a professional tax on self-employed persons, hike tax on transfer of property, and almost double the taxes on rented commercial properties.

All three municipal corporations in Delhi are ruled by the BJP.The SDMC House on Monday passed the proposal to levy a professional tax on self-employed persons and professionals working in companies  a first in Delhi  and doubled the tax on rented commercial properties. The civic body also approved a 1% hike in tax on transfer of property, with an aim to ramp up revenue collection which has been hit by the national lockdown to contain spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

The AAPs political affairs committee member and in-charge of municipal corporation affairs Durgesh Pathak on Tuesday also criticised the Congress and said its councillors did not oppose the move in the SDMC House when it was passed on Monday.

The BJP should be ashamed of implementing these taxes at a time when people are struggling because of the Covid-19 pandemic We shall be protesting against the move outside the BJP office tomorrow (Wednesday) While the BJP is the party behind the taxes, the Congress worked in connivance with it by remaining silent in the House while the taxes were passed. Also, since 2017, when the BJP came to power in the three municipal corporations, Congress has not organised a single protest against the irregularities in the civic bodies. Is it because they are participants in the same corruption? Pathak said during a press conference on Tuesday.

Delhi Congress chief Chaudhary Anil Kumar said, Congress councillors in the House had openly and vehemently opposed the passing of the new taxes, which at a time like this is inhuman and an additional burden on the common man. Both the AAP and the BJP are fooling people the same way. Even the AAP government had hiked the VAT on diesel and petrol, which is not warranted at this time. The Congress is also going to hold a press meet on the issue tomorrow (Wednesday).

In response to AAPs allegations, BJP leader and SDMC mayor Anamika Mithilesh said due to the pandemic, the income of the civic body has been hit and its financial condition has worsened, leaving them with no option but to levy taxes.

In the past, we refrained from imposing any new tax or increasing rates of existing taxes but the Covid-19 has changed the scenario. As per the recommendations of the Fifth Finance Commission, Delhi government has to give us 1,300 crore but it is yet to do so. Hence, we had to levy taxes. We have designed tax slabs in such a way that it does not impact the common man, she said.

For self-employed professionals such as doctors, lawyers, chartered accountants and architects, etc.,earning between 50,000-75,000 per month, the professional tax will be 100 per month. For those earning between 75,000-1 lakh, it will be 150 a month, while it will be 200 a month for those earning above 1 lakh. Those earning less than 50,000 a month wont be taxed.

The SDMC House also doubled the tax on rented commercial property. The tax amount will depend on the location of the property. Under the SDMC jurisdiction, there are around 9,000 to 10,000 commercial properties. So we hope to generate an additional revenue of 90-100 crore per annum. The move will not impact residential and commercial properties that are being run by the owners, said Narendra Chawla, leader of the House, SDMC.

For instance, the current commercial tax payable by a 83.6-square metre shop in a locality such as Defence Colony or South Extension is 25,333 per annum. But if the shop is a rented property, then the owner will now have to pay 50,666 as tax.
HONG KONG  The University of Hong Kongs governing body voted on Tuesday to fire an associate law professor who was convicted last year of charges related to his leading role in the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests and has remained a key figure in the citys pro-democracy movement.

The legal scholar, Benny Tai, was convicted of public nuisance charges last year and sentenced to 16 months in prison, but he was released and remains on bail while his case is under appeal.

The university had faced widespread calls from members of the pro-Beijing establishment to dismiss Mr. Tai. But his supporters argued that dismissing him would undermine academic freedom that has already been imperiled by a new national security law imposed by Beijing.

The decision marks the end of academic freedom in Hong Kong, Mr. Tai said in a Facebook post. Academic staff in education institutions in Hong Kong are no longer free to make controversial statements to the general public about politically or socially controversial matters.
Buildings connect communities to the past  to their heritage. Its fitting that the National Register of Historic Places now includes one of Omahas most culturally rich neighborhoods: Little Bohemia, for generations the vibrant center of Czech life in our city.

The Czech experience in Omaha extends back to our citys earliest decades, and Czech life in South Omahas Little Bohemia neighborhood gathered particular momentum in the late 1880s. Today, the neighborhood is notable for the large number of existing structures dating from 1885 to 1900.

A standout is the Prague Hotel, a three-story Renaissance Revival structure built in 1898 and in use in our era as apartments. In the early 20th century, the hotel was well known throughout Czech circles worldwide; it hosted many prominent travelers including the foreign minister of Czechoslovakia.

Before long, the hotel became became the epicenter of a thriving Czech community. Local businesses included Kalciks tailor shop, Kuncls meat market, Polans hardware store, Nemecs shoe store, Maseks bakery, Michkas eatery and Stenickas hat shop.
SAGINAW, MI - Paul PJ Barrera Jr. isnt a stranger to the restaurant business. While hes worked in the industry for 14 years, opening Liquid Lounge was his chance to make a restaurant place his own way.

My family business has been in bars and restaurants for generations, he said. This is more led by me, though. Were trying to make a place that is fun and irreverent. Were not trying to be stiff or too serious.

PJs father, Paul Barrera Sr., owns Jakes Old City Grill, 100 S. Hamilton Street. While PJ Barrera is still involved in the family business, Liquid Lounge, 18 N. Michigan Ave., offers a distinct atmosphere and menu. For him, food and cocktails are at the center of what we do at Liquid Lounge.

Were the only one that does what we do, Barrera said. Our entire menu is based on the slider. Weve got 40 sliders but only one bun. The selection the type of sliders offered is unique from traditional bar food.

That bun is the brioche, which he chose because it paired well with both traditional and non-traditional sliders, he said. Some of their more distinct sliders include Canadian bacon, Spam and turkey. They also have dessert sliders that incorporate the brioche bun in unique ways.

Some of them are traditional desserts. We have Bitties, Smore and Cinna Bon, he said. For the Bitties, we take a bun, cube it up and flash fry it with cinnamon and sugar with marshmallow cream sauce, so it tastes like a donut.

Smore is a brioche bun served with Nutella, and the Cinna Bon is the lounges take on a cinnamon roll. Its served with a cinnamon and sugar filling with a glaze on top. Many of the lounges less traditional dishes started off as McGuffins, Barrera added.

We call our special a McGuffin, and those are how we try things out, he said. A lot of past McGuffins have become permanent menu items. We currently have two - Cowabunga, a pizza, and a Fungus Amongus with mushroom burger and French onion mayo.

Besides unique sliders, Liquid Lounge is known for the coldest beer in town, according to PJ. Liquid Lounge has the best you can get in beer tap systems, and the technology they use is made in Saginaw.

Its at at 34 degrees because beer is only going to get warmer with time, he said. We have our own beer gas that makes it less foamy, too, so you can really taste the beer opposed to the CO2.

Liquid Lounge is open Monday through Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 4 p.m. to midnight.

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Male: The State Bank of India (SBI) is providing liquidity support of USD 16.20 million for local businesses and deferred loan repayment for over 200 retail accounts, the Indian High Commission in the Maldives said on Monday.

"SBI's COVID-relief for Maldives -- supporting economic relief measures of Government of Maldives, State Bank of India, largest public sector bank, provides liquidity support of USD 16.20 million for local businesses and defers loan repayment for over 200 retail accounts," the High Commission tweeted.

On the occasion of Independence Day of the Maldives on July 26, Indian High Commissioner Sunjay Sudhir said, "Assistance of USD 400 million through an extended currency swap arrangement has been made available already to tide over liquidity shortage. India will soon announce another substantial financial assistance package to support the Maldivian economy and assist in economic recovery post-COVID-19."

"Ours is an all-weather friendship steeped in history and with a glorious future. 'India First' policy of Maldives and 'Neighbourhood First' policy of India has set the foundation of the growing relationship," he added.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.

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Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust General Secrerary Champat Rai on Tuesday (July 29) rejected media reports that a time capsule, enlisting the history and facts related to the Ram Janmabhoomi, will be placed below the Ram temple in Ayodhya to ensure that there are no disputes in the future.

In an interview to Zee News, Rai said that these reports are false and people should only trust the announcements made by official spokesperson of Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.

"The struggle for Ram Janmabhoomi, including the long-drawn case in the Supreme Court, has given a lesson for the current and upcoming generations. A time capsule will be placed about 2,000 feet down in ground at Ram Temple construction site. So, that in future anyone who wishes to study about the history of the temple, he'll get the facts related to Ram Janmabhoomi, so that no new controversy can arise," ANI had quoted Chaupal as saying.

It was also reported by some media channels that the time capsule will be placed inside a Tamra Patra (copper plate) before being placed below the site.

Kameshwar Chaupal, who is the lone Dalit member of the Trust, had also said that soil from various teerths (pilgrimages) across the country and water from the sacred rivers is being brought to Ayodhya for ''Abhisheka'' during the ''bhoomi-pujan'' which is scheduled to be conducted on August 5 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Water from sacred rivers and soil from teerths, where Lord Ram visited, will be used during the ''abhisheka'' in ''bhoomi pujan''. Our volunteers have been sending them from across the country to Ayodhya," he said.

According to sources, the ''bhoomi poojan'' of the temple is to be celebrated on the lines of the festival of light - Diwali - with all temples and houses across the country to be lit up with diyas and candles.

The Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, set up in accordance with the Supreme Court verdict, held its second meeting last week.

In March this year, the ''Ram Lalla'' idol was shifted to a temporary structure.

The Supreme Court on November 9 last year had directed the central government to hand over the site at Ayodhya for the construction of a Ram temple.

(with ANI inputs)
WOODBURY, N.Y., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Impact-focused Investment Firm, Vanderbilt Financial Group, boasts increased recruitment and business growth in the first half of 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Staff at the Long Island Headquarters of Vanderbilt Financial Group. Photo by Michael Rolston.

"2020 will be a banner year for growth for Vanderbilt. While other firms have been paralyzed by the effects of the pandemic, we've continued to operate, process and expand our business across the U.S. without a hiccup. Recruitment has been at a record high with many Financial Advisors lined up to join the firm in the coming months," stated Joseph Trifiletti, President of Vanderbilt Financial Group.

Over the past few years, Vanderbilt has steadily increased their investment in the technology offered to their staff and Advisors in an effort to increase more instantaneous electronic business processing, reduce the negative environmental effects that come with physical paperwork processing, and increase the value of an Advisor's practice by being at the forefront of technology.

Stephen Distante, Vanderbilt Financial Group Founder and Chairman, explains that building out the infrastructure of the Firm's technology led to the growth seen this year so far. "Our commitment to technology has evolved out of our commitment to sustainability. Creating a technology stack and having it seamlessly integrate our back office and the financial professionals out in the field serving clients has allowed us to process business faster and more efficiently while increasingly reducing our carbon footprint. Because of this, the pandemic was business as usual  and that was our greatest recruitment tool."

Vanderbilt's explosive 2020 growth strategy includes recruiting individual Financial Advisors as well as the acquisition and expansion of Registered Investment Advisory ("RIA") firms, the fastest-growing segment of the wealth management sector according to a recent joint study by the Investment Adviser Association and National Regulatory Services. Vanderbilt recently acquired a $200M Long-Island based RIA firm that opens up new strategic relationships with Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade available exclusively through the new entity.

Below are a few of the entrepreneurial leaders who have joined the team as Financial Professionals in the first half of 2020:

William Adamski is the latest Investment Advisor to join Vanderbilt. His practice is located in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, with a focus on fee-based and retirement planning. William brings 20 years of experience in Financial Services.

Joseph Grimaldi transitioned to Vanderbilt this Spring as an Investment Professional based in Saint James, NY, on Long Island. He joins Vanderbilt from Regulus Advisors with six years of experience working directly with clients in their desire to achieve their financial goals. "In order to give my clients the best, I need to work with the best. Vanderbilt gives me the opportunity to serve my clients to the fullest."

Neil Gronowetter is the Founder and CEO of Emerald Tide Financial located in Wilton, CT. He joined Vanderbilt as a Financial Professional looking for a well-equipped Broker-Dealer to help him scale his world-class services and technology offerings.

Husband and Wife team Tom and Lynn Kachel bring to Vanderbilt a unique dynamic: Tom is a Financial Advisor and Lynn practices corporate and business law. Their practice is located in Rockville, VA and they have over 25 years of experience in Financial Services.

Milan and Vimal Madhani are a team of brothers joining us from the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. Their firm, Sentigent Financial, aims to become leading-edge Financial and Tax Advisors, customizing financial plans for retirement while focusing on identifying their deemed eight specialized wealth management needs for working families.

Jay Schurz of Kingdom Plan Financial Group joins Vanderbilt bringing over 24 years of experience. His unique practice takes a faith-based approach to Financial Planning  aligning a person's beliefs with their investments. Jay is a Pastor, Certified Kingdom Advisor, Certified Stewardship Instructor, and host of the podcast "Revolutionary Stewardship".

David Stewart is one of the most recent Investment Advisors to join us from the Northeast  his practice is located in Darien, Connecticut, where he serves clients across the Tri-state area. David's areas of focus include specifically employing a Multi-Asset Strategy which utilizes a research-driven process rooted in strategic asset allocation with the goal of preserving capital first and striving for return second.

Daniel Ward is the first Financial Advisor to join all the way from Honolulu, Hawaii. With the addition of the Hawaiian Islands, Vanderbilt Financial Group now has Advisors in 24 states throughout the U.S.

About Vanderbilt Financial Group: Vanderbilt Financial Group is an investment firm disrupting traditional finance by focusing on socially and environmentally responsible, ethical, and impactful investments. Vanderbilt is known as "The Sustainable Wealth Management Firm" for their commitment to providing Financial Advisors and their clients with access to values-aligned investments. Headquartered in a LEED-certified Platinum building, Vanderbilt's commitment to changing the world begins at home in our office and within our culture. Under the leadership of the impactful husband and wife team, Steve and Heidi Distante, Vanderbilt's culture has garnered awards such as being named one of the Best Places to Work on Long Island for 2018 and 2019, the Future50 and Corporate Culture Awards from SmartCEO, as well as being recognized as one of the finest run companies by the Management Action Plan (M.A.P.) organization.

For more information on Vanderbilt Financial Group, please visit www.joinvanderbilt.com.

Media Contact: Jeso O'Neill, Chief Marketing Officer, [email protected], 631-845-5100.

Vanderbilt Financial Group is the marketing name for Vanderbilt Securities, LLC and its affiliates. Securities offered through Vanderbilt Securities, LLC  Member: FINRA, SIPC  Registered with MSRB. Advisory Services offered through Vanderbilt Advisory Services  Clearing Agent: Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions

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Vanderbilt Financial Group

Staff at the Long Island Headquarters of Vanderbilt Financial Group. Photo by Michael Rolston.

SOURCE Vanderbilt Financial Group

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(Bloomberg) -- Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is gaining share in the lucrative market for server chips, the latest sign its benefiting from close ties to a major Taiwanese factory partner to win orders from larger rival Intel Corp. Shares surged in late trading.

Strides in server chips will help propel third-quarter revenue to about $2.55 billion, Santa Clara, California-based AMD said Tuesday, topping analysts average prediction for $2.3 billion. The company also raised full-year sales forecasts, and second-quarter results beat Wall Street expectations. AMD stock climbed as much as 11% in extended trading after closing at $67.61 in New York.

After decades of lagging behind Intel, AMD has been catching up in recent years, helped by advances at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which makes chips on its behalf. Intel, by contrast, has suffered a series of manufacturing setbacks, last week saying its fallen behind in a new method for cutting-edge semiconductors and that its considering scrapping a decades-old strategy of making chips in-house.

The admissions sparked a selloff in Intel stock and underscored the ways Intel is being surpassed by TSMC, which in turn helps TSMCs partners.

AMD Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su said her bullish outlook is based on expectations that her company will keep adding share as new products gain wider adoption at computer makers. She said AMD has passed 10% share of the profitable server chip market and that while supply of leading-edge chips is tight, the company is confident it can meet increasing demand.

AMD is also growing quickly in notebooks, she said. Demand for personal computers hasnt been hurt by the Covid-19 pandemic as much as the company initially feared, she said on a conference call with analysts.

We delivered our highest client (PC) processor revenue in more than twelve years, she said. We believe our growth was largely driven by our eleventh straight quarter of market share gains.

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Demand for chips for notebooks and servers will increase in the second half, Su said.

Despite the optimism, Su reminded analysts that AMD is in the early innnings of its journey to where it expects to be.

Intels announcement of further delays in improving its production does not change what AMD has to do, she said.

The most important thing for us is to execute to our commitments to our customers, she said. Basically what were asking is for people to trust us with their most important workloads.

Under Su, AMD has revamped its products and come surging back from what analysts had said was the brink of insolvency. Investors now want the company to justify its soaring valuation by growing to become more than just an afterthought to computer makers. The stock has almost doubled over the past year.

On Tuesday, AMD said it sees 2020 revenue rising about 32%, driven by strength in PC, gaming and data center products. Wall Street expected the companys sales to climb 25% this year to $8.4 billion. Either way, that is still about half what Intel books in one quarter.

AMDs achievement of its more than 10% interim server market target still puts it a long way from the more than 20% it achieved about 15 years ago. But it is up from less than 1% before introducing new products in 2017. Server computers are the backbone of corporate networks and the data centers that run the internet. Server chips can sell for thousands of dollars each.

AMD reported second-quarter net income of $157 million, or 13 cents a share, compared with $35 million, or 3 cents, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 26% to $1.93 billion. Profit, excluding certain items, was 18 cents. Analysts estimated profit of 16 cents on sales of $1.86 billion.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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DALLAS and ATLANTA, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Witherite Law Group, a personal injury law firm specializing in truck and motor vehicle collisions, announced today the launching of the Witherite Law Group Fellowship for Personal Injury Law.

The fellowship will provide recent African-American graduates of a Dallas-Fort Worth law school hands-on experience, training and expertise in the field of personal injury law. The nine-month fellowship will launch this year, with the first fellow being hired by September 1, 2020.

The impetus to start the fellowship came from Attorney Adewale Odetunde who wanted to create change that could address the under-representation of African-American attorneys in Texas.

The fellowship aligns with the firm's vision of improving the life of each person they serve. Amy Witherite, Founding Partner and Lead Accident Attorney, stated, "In healthcare, fellowship training is an integral part of a physician's education. It's time for someone to step forward and lead a movement to provide similar opportunities in our industry, especially to groups who are under-represented."

Witherite added, "Our main focus has always been helping those in underserved communities. We initially focused on African-American law school graduates who may be marginalized and struggling against racial inequality and injustice in our industry. We're trying to do our part with this fellowship to address and eliminate that injustice."

In 2020, Witherite Law Group has invested over $250,000 to help under-served communities, including $70,000 in college scholarships for African-American and other minority high school seniors in DFW and Atlanta. Additionally, the firm made significant donations to Dallas-based Minnie's Food Pantry and Women Called Moses, an organization who supports those impacted by domestic violence.

As Witherite said, "We do our best to spread good year after year. Our society has now presented us with an issue to create more good. Launching this fellowship enables us to take a leadership role in impacting an important issue in both society and our industry."

The firm has plans to expand the fellowship program to include additional graduates and other under-served groups across its Dallas, Fort Worth and Atlanta offices. It also hopes other firms in those markets will join them and create a similar fellowship program.

Candidates interested in the fellowship should send a cover letter and resume no later than August 15, 2020 to [email protected].

SOURCE Witherite Law Group
Tech companies can really be the worst kind of people sometimes.

Here we are in the middle of a global pandemic and theyre snipping at each other.

Microsoft told antitrust committee that Apples App Store is anticompetitive.

Which is funny to those familiar with pots and kettles because Internet Explorer. But you dont need to go back to the Bush administration to find antitrust complaints about Microsoft.

You just need to go back to Wednesday.

Slack files competition complaint against Microsoft in the EU.

While Slack has long claimed that Microsoft Teams isnt one of its competitors, it now says:

Microsoft is reverting to past behavior, claims David Schellhase, general counsel at Slack. They created a weak, copycat product and tied it to their dominant Office product, force installing it and blocking its removal

That certainly sounds like Microsoft but, as Ben Thompson points out (subscription), Slack is better at chat and Teams is better at integration (albeit integrating with Microsoft stuff). So theyre kinda both wrong.

The Macalope recently praised Microsoft for not trying to copy Apple and recognizing that it didnt need to be in retail anymore. Then last week, just hours after Apple announced it would be carbon-neutral by 2030, Microsoft rushed to announce that it would be carbon-negative by 2030. So, there. And, also, its Canadian girlfriend who you havent met but totally exists, said it was the best kisser ever, better than Apple.

The Macalope gives it a day before Google says its going to be carbon impossible by 2030.

Now, nobody likes a snitch, but the Macalope actually thinks Microsoft is more right about Apple and the App Store than it is wrong.

Apple, doth protesting too much, hired some economists to say the App Store isnt anti-competitive. Thats always a good sign, right? When you hire some economists? The Macalope cant get through a Tuesday without hiring four or five economists just to validate that everything is going super great.

Say, friends, would you be surprised to learn that consignment stores often charge between 50 and 75 percent?! Thats significantly more than the App Store charges and is a real thing thats mentioned in the paper produced by Apples hired economic guns. The Macalope thinks maybe they left something on the table by not mentioning the rates charged by mob-backed loan sharks. Thats gotta make the App Store seem good.

For some reason all this made the horny one think of other things Apple has published. Back in 2007, Steve Jobs wrote Thoughts on Music, in which he defended Apples refusal to license FairPlay to other companies but also said:

Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.

While others did not, the Macalope believed him and it turned out to be true. Apple did ditch DRM for purchased songs. And then, of course, the whole argument was obviated when we all went back to DRM so we could just stream everything.

Humans! So dumb.

But the point is, Jobs wanted to do what was obviously the right thing. Apple should be leading like this again instead of defending the status quo. As the richest company in forever, it can afford to be just slightly less the richest.
Indians in China say life was peaceful in China until Indian's ban of WeChat

A plate of "Wechat Pay". (Xinhua/Li Mangmang)

Many Indian people in China said that their life in China was calm even during the border clash in May, but a ban on Chinese mobile apps, especially on WeChat, which is the latest to cease providing service in India, has severely affected their lives and businesses.

The Indian government has been targeting Chinese apps and the country reportedly banned 47 more Chinese apps on Monday, following its ban on 59 Chinese apps on June 29, including hit short video app Tik Tok. On the same day, a report by the Economic Times said that India is planning to investigate 275 Chinese apps for violation of national security and user privacy.

WeChat has been out of service among its Indian users since Saturday after its company Tencent sending a notification to its users, according to Indian media Entrackr. In the notification, Tencent explained they are "engaging with relevant authorities and hope to be able to resume service in the future."

Interrupted connection

Imran Brown, a tourism practitioner who is studying Chinese language at Shenyang Normal University in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, told the Global Times his business plan has been ruined by the Indian government's ban on Chinese apps, especially on WeChat.

"Closing WeChat is a mistake. People are in panic, which will make our life more difficult," Brown told the Global Times, adding that "WeChat is a very important platform for Indian people who have business interaction with Chinese."

Brown worked in a travel agency when he was in India. He found the income of his Indian colleagues who speak Chinese and receive Chinese tourists is much higher than those who only receive Indian tourists.

So, 38-year-old Brown decided to come to China to study Chinese in a two and half year language program to boost his income.

He is supposed to return to Bombay this month, but he never expected the coronavirus to severely affect global tourism. Moreover, banning WeChat makes other Chinese-related business ideas impossible.

"I shared my life here in China with my friends in India. They were all interested in visiting China," said Brown. In the last two years, he received some of his friends in China and traveled to many cities together with them, and many of them started considering doing business with Chinese. "Now the connection is going to be interrupted," he said.

Disappointed toward Indian media

Shamim Zakaria, who has been working in China for three years, told the Global Times he has not experienced any hostility or antagonism from Chinese people because of his nationality.

Shamim also expressed disappointment towards some Indian media which contain "really vile coverage" that "incites hatred mongering war" which Shamim called a "wrong way to provide coverage."

"I feel nationalism is not about war-mongering. Some Indian politicians and also news channels are using nationalism to incite violence and hatred against other countries. But that's not what nationalism is," he said.

He suggested Chinese media coverage of the clashes has been fair since Chinese media reports are based on authentic sources coming from official Chinese government sources.

Shamim pointed out some Indian netizens who hold anti-China attitudes might be pedaling hatred or vile language against Chinese people on social media, but they are not representative of the majority of Indians who want peace with their regional neighbors.

Many anti-China tags proliferating across social media are actually part of orchestrated campaigns run by the BJP, India's ruling party, to stoke hatred of China, he added.

"I have observed that most of the Indian people learn China from a Western perspective. That's really not fair."

Still in China, still patriotic

Dev Raturi, a Chinese-speaking Indian actor and entrepreneur who has been living in China for 15 years, told the Global Times that since Saturday, his connection with his family in India has been cut off, and some of his Indian friends who teach Chinese yoga online had to stop working.

Raturi said despite the fact the two countries are at a tense moment, neither his life nor business in China faced any disturbance until the Indian government's ban of WeChat.

"I believe Chinese people and Chinese media are very mature and progressive," he said. He told the Global Times he has not faced any antagonism due to this conflict nor he has heard about Indians in China facing any challenges. "This really shows the kind of respect and maturity people [in China] have," he said.

He said working in China doesn't make him unpatriotic. "I love China and grateful to this nation for their support and love at every step, and choosing to stay in China with my family doesn't mean that I don't love my country or makes me unpatriotic," he said.

Raturi is planning to promote Chinese culture in India. His Chinese culture-themed restaurant was supposed to open in Delhi in May, but has been postponed for a year.
A look at the shareholders of KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) can tell us which group is most powerful. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies. We also tend to see lower insider ownership in companies that were previously publicly owned.

KeyCorp is a pretty big company. It has a market capitalization of US$12b. Normally institutions would own a significant portion of a company this size. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions own shares in the company. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about KeyCorp.

View our latest analysis for KeyCorp

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About KeyCorp?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

KeyCorp already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of KeyCorp, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Hedge funds don't have many shares in KeyCorp. Our data shows that The Vanguard Group, Inc. is the largest shareholder with 12% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 8.4% and 4.9%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

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Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 51% of the ownership is controlled by the top 19 shareholders, meaning that no one shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of KeyCorp

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our information suggests that KeyCorp insiders own under 1% of the company. It is a very large company, so it would be surprising to see insiders own a large proportion of the company. Though their holding amounts to less than 1%, we can see that board members collectively own US$64m worth of shares (at current prices). In this sort of situation, it can be more interesting to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public holds a 18% stake in KEY. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for KeyCorp that you should be aware of before investing here.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

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.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee rejected suggestions from Dr. Deborah Birx to close bars, limit capacity in restaurants and enforce the wearing of face masks as measures to reverse a coronavirus outbreak.

Lee, a Republican, met with Birx, one of the top doctors advising the White House on the pandemic, on Monday but quickly rejected her suggestions.

Instead, Lee said he would allow county mayors to make the decisions on dining and masks at a local level.

'Beyond the regions that currently have restrictions, that's not a plan for us now,' Lee said in response to Birx's remarks. 'I've said from the very beginning of this pandemic that there's nothing off the table. I've also said that we are not going to close the economy back down, and we are not going to. But I appreciate their recommendations and we take them seriously.'

Dr Deborah Birx, pictured, head of the White House task force, was in Tennessee on Monday and made a recommendation to shut down bars and limit indoor dining during a press conference

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) immediately shot down Birx's recommendations to close bars and limit indoor seating at restaurants saying he would leave any actions to county mayors instead of a statewide mandate

Birx had already spoken with Lee and other local officials before the press conference in Nashville took place.

The disease expert who had traveled from Washington D.C. made a point of traveling to the state after Tennessee was designated a 'red zone' for virus growth with Nashville in particular identified as 'an alarming hot spot', according to The Tennessean.

'It is at this very moment where we could change the trajectory of the epidemic before it goes into full ... of what we call logarithmic spread, as we've seen across the South,' Birx said.

Birx's concern is that the virus now appears to be spreading among younger people who are often asymptomatic, and also into rural areas where the virus could reach new levels of infection.

She suggested that all residents in the state wear masks while bars should be shut with limited indoor dining, believing that such measures could have 'as big an impact on decreasing new cases as what we had from shelter-in-place.'

Birx, pictured, warned that Tennessee was on the verge of rapid COVID-19 spread and needed to have people wear masks

Governor Lee, pictured, also believes that Tennessee residents are more likely to listen to individual county mayors over mask requirements instead of a statewide mandate.

''If every rural mayor could mandate mask wearing  the virus is there,' Birx said. 'You may not see it today because it may still be in young people. But it is spreading, and it will hit your nursing homes and it will hit those that have serious consequences from this virus.'

Birx cited evidence that such a strategy was a sensible one noting that such policies were enacted in Arizona which saw the spread of the virus slow considerably.

'They closed the bars, restricted indoor dining, 100% of the population in masks in all public spaces, decreased social gathering,' Birx said. 'Even though that state was in a difficult place, with extraordinarily high test positivity, they've been able to turn that around in the past four weeks.'

Within minutes of Birx speaking, Lee was on the same platform, without a mask of his own unlike the doctor, to openly state how he would not be following Birx's recommendations on bars.

Lee stressed that he believes Tennessee residents are more likely to listen to individual county mayors over mask requirements instead of being instructed to do via a statewide mandate.

'People wear masks because they believe there is a reason to do so,' he said. 'And I believe they will increasingly understand that as their local officials advocate for that.'

Elsewhere, new COVID-19 cases have hitting record highs in more than a dozen states while Texas, Florida, Arizona and California show signs of a plateau.

There has now been almost 4.3 million infections recorded across the United States and 148,201 Americans have died from COVID-19.

The number of cases in the current hard-hit states of Texas, California, Arizona and Florida are now showing signs of plateauing after a month of record surges, according to Birx.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says the leveling off of cases in the hotspot states is because people are social distancing and wearing masks but warned the US wasn't 'out of the woods yet'.

As cases appear to plateau in those hard-hit states, the number of infections are now spiking, based on a seven-day average, in more than a dozen states, including Oklahoma, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii and Wyoming.

Nevada, Texas and South Carolina have seen record highs in the number of deaths based on a seven-day average.

Birx, who is the head of the White House COVID-19 taskforce, said the surge in cases that has plagued Sunbelt states since Memorial Day is now being seen elsewhere, which is a sign that the virus is now spreading North.

MISSOURI: There are currently 41,927 cases in Missouri and 1,197 deaths. Cases have been steadily increasing across the state since mid-June but deaths have not yet spiked

MISSISSIPPI: Cases have been rising steadily in Mississippi with the state now having 52,304 cases. There have been 1,495 deaths and the fatality rate is now showing signs of an uptick

OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma currently has 31,285 cases and 496 deaths. Both cases and deaths have been surging this month

The states with rising cases should be closing bars, cutting back on indoor restaurant capacity and limiting social gatherings to 10 people, Birx warned.

She also said all Americans should be wearing masks when out in public or around other people.

'We can see what is happening in the South moving North,' Birx said. 'We do believe there are states that do need to close their bars.'

Oklahoma hit a record for new cases five times throughout July, with 1,204 new infections on Sunday, bringing the state's total to 31,285, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project.

In Missouri, infections surged to record daily highs on Saturday with 1,652 new cases. Infections across the state, which now has 41,927 cases, have been on an upward trajectory since late June.

Mississippi's cases have been spiking to near record highs in recent days with 1,610 infections reported on Friday, down from the record 1,904 on July 4. Infections have surged this month with the total now at 52,304.

Meanwhile, the number of new infections in Florida, Arizona and Texas now appear to be trending downwards for the first time since late May or early June.

Deaths, however, are still rising in both Florida and Texas. While deaths have seen single daily highs in Arizona in the past week, average fatalities appear to show a leveling out.

Despite the downward trajectory, Florida on Sunday became the second state after California to overtake New York, the original epicenter of the US outbreak.

WISCONSIN: Cases in Wisconsin surged to a single-day high of 1,161 on July 21. Cases across the state, which now total 52,680, have been trending upwards since mid-June. There has also been an uptick of deaths in the state with the death toll now at 899

NEW MEXICO: New Mexico had a record 335 cases on Friday with the state's total now at 18,788. Deaths are also on a slight upward trend with the death toll now at 607

LOUISIANA: New cases surge in the southern state to record high of 3,840 on Sunday, bringing the state's total to 107,574. Cases have been trending upwards since late June. Deaths started trending upwards last week after initially declining in May

Total COVID-19 cases in Florida rose by 9,300 to 423,855 on Sunday, just one place behind California, which now leads the country with 448,497 cases. New York is in third place with 415,827 cases.

After New York, Texas has the most total coronavirus cases at 391,000. Arizona has 162,014 coronavirus cases.

Dr Birx, who is the head of the White House COVID-19 taskforce, said the surge in cases that has plagued Sunbelt states since Memorial Day is now being seen elsewhere, which is a sign that the virus is now spreading North

Still, New York has recorded the most deaths of any US state at more than 32,000 with Florida in eighth place with nearly 6,000 deaths.

On average, Florida has added more than 10,000 cases a day in July while California has been adding 8,300 cases a day and New York has been adding 700 cases.

Birx said last week that there were signs cases in Florida, Texas, Arizona and California were now plateauing.

'We're already starting to see some plateauing in these critically four states that have really suffered under the last four weeks,' Birx told NBC's Today.

'This first wave that we see now across Florida, Texas, California and Arizona began with under 30 years olds - many of those who were asymptomatic.

'It's very serious and it's very real.'

She also warned last week that 11 major cities needed to take 'aggressive' steps to mitigate COVID-19 outbreaks.

The 11 cities she mentioned include: Baltimore, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and St Louis.

'Until you can see that explosion, it's hard for people to understand how deeply you have to clamp down,' Dr Birx said.

'That's why we called out the next set of cities where we see early-warning signs, because if you make changes now, you won't become a Phoenix.'

The number of new infections in Florida, Arizona and Texas now appear to be trending downwards for the first time since late May or early June. Deaths, however, are still rising in both Florida and Texas. While deaths have seen single daily highs in Arizona in the past week, average fatalities appear to show a leveling out

California recorded a single daily high of 12,807 new cases on July 21. The state's total number of cases now tops 453,659 and is the highest toll in the United States

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said people 'stepping up to the plate' is the reason for some of the 'plateauing' in coronavirus cases being seen in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas.

In an interview Monday on Fox News' Fox and Friends, Azar said officials think 'it's due to the fact that people are actually wearing their masks.'

He said they're also social distancing and practicing good hygiene, and he complimented governors for closing bars, where it's difficult to be socially distant and wear a mask.

'So people are stepping up to the plate and doing what we're asking and what the governors are asking and we see it has an impact,' Azar said.

'While Dr Birx says we're seeing signs of plateauing, we're not out of the woods yet,' he said, adding that next few months would be crucial.

As the pandemic has spread from the early epicenter of New York to the South and West, federal, state and local officials have clashed over how to ease lockdowns imposed to curb the infection rate, including in some states whether to rollback reopenings.

The ordering of face coverings, a common practice around the world and recommended by the federal government's own health experts, has also become highly politicized, with some Republican governors particularly resistant.

Hostility to the idea now appears to be dwindling, including from the Republican administration of President Donald Trump, who once dismissed mask-wearing as an effort to be politically correct.

Trump, who faces falling poll numbers over his handling of the health crisis ahead of the November election, has long refused to wear a mask in public but last week encouraged Americans to do so.
The Department of Homeland Security operates under a bit of a shadow, which makes talking about the recent violence in Portland, Oregon, difficult. The tactics the government has been using in this second wave of violence against anti-racist, antipolice brutality protesters have employed overwhelming force. Theyve also been obfuscatory: The officers, reportedly from DHS, are nameless and faceless, retreating and reappearing inside a kind of mist. Some journalists have called them agents or officers. Others call them troops, raising this question of whether were at war, and if so, with whom. DHS was ostensibly built to protect the country from terrorists. But its mission was always expansive. And its bringing the war home.

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On Tuesdays episode of What Next, I spoke with Jonathan Blitzer, who covers homeland security for the New Yorker, about the sad inevitability of whats happening in Portland. As he told me, I dont think its an exaggeration to refer to some of these groups as paramilitary forces. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Mary Harris: You say that whats happening now is kind of written into the DNA of the Department of Homeland Security. What do you mean by that?

Jonathan Blitzer: The thing that the Department of Homeland Security did that was so novel and so dangerous was combining all of the resources of immigration enforcement. It expanded them. It beefed them up and broadened the authority of the government to do this enforcement, all under the pretense of national security. And so you had the marriage of immigration enforcement and national security. With the rhetoric around national security that grew out of 9/11, that was a time that really empowered law enforcement to take liberties that I think we can all agree now were quite problematic. At the time, given what the apparent threat seemed to be to the country, that was a pretext that neither Democrats nor Republicans felt comfortable questioning. Now, over the years, what you see is every year the Department of Homeland Securitys budget getting bigger.

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One of the most striking things to see was how in the early days of the creation of the department, the agencies tasked with enforcing immigration lawImmigration and Customs Enforcement, Border PatrolCustoms and Border Protectionevery year asked for more money and were given a lot more money. A kind of weird feedback loop started to take root in which it didnt matter how much these agencies did in the course of their workthere was always more to be done. And Congress is always only too eager to give them the resources to do it.

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When you say they kept getting more money, how much? Compared with the budget of, like, the FBI?

The three agencies inside DHS that take up 40 percent of its budget are ICE, CBP, and this esoteric-sounding organization that basically supplies biometric information to the two other agencies as part of its enforcement remit. Youre looking at $26 billion a year, and that is a larger sum than every other federal law enforcement body in the United States combined. Thats bigger than the FBI budget, the U.S. Marshals budget, the DEA budget, the ATF budget. All of those rolled up together, the cost is still smaller than that of three agencies that make up a fraction of DHS.

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I think one reason why, on the whole, smart people who were following the news didnt see this coming or developing over the years is because for the most part, these agencies under DHS are policing and cracking down on immigrants and generally people at the border. So its not something that is in plain view for most Americans. One of the reasons why I say what were seeing now on the streets of Portland is written into the DNA of the department is that a lot of the tactics that are so shocking to us to see so clearly on the streets of American citiesthis is how DHS has operated on the margins when policing immigrants and the border for decades. And because there has been so little oversight and accountability, theres really never been a broad reckoning with what DHS does.

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In the early days of the creation of DHS. There were teams at ICE that were created and tasked with arresting undocumented immigrants. And those teams were literally called fugitive operations, or Fug Ops, which already has a certain military ring to it. And the initial idea of fugitive operations was that they were going to go after people living in the U.S. who were undocumented but who had committed criminal offenses.

In the early years of the creation of DHS, you had the majority of arrests made by fugitive operations be of people who fit that criteria. But over time, as these fugitive operations teams got more and more money from Congress, leaders at the department realized, The only way we can justify to Congress asking for and getting more money is to give them further proof of all it is that were doing. What starts to happen in like 2006, 2007, is that these fugitive operations teams are tasked with making a certain number of arrests each year, quotas that have to fulfill. And now that they have to make this number of arrests to justify continued funding from Congress, the proportion of people theyre arresting who have committed crimes in the past starts to go down. And increasingly, what you see over this time is fugitive operations arresting people who dont have criminal records. Its that kind of mission creep that you can certainly see coming but was smothered in the politics of the moment. Fast forward a couple decades and youre seeing it nakedly on the streets of an American city.

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Youve done some reporting on how we got to where we are right now with these DHS folks on the ground in Portland. Can you reconstruct that a little bit for me?

The officials Ive spoken to over the years all expected the president to ramp up DHS activity in the lead-up to the elections, but I didnt expect it to be this egregious this soon. What were seeing now arguably was only a matter of time.

The story of DHS over the past four years is a story of a relatively young department with massive and unprecedented resources increasingly coming under the thumb of the presidents political agenda. What the Trump administration has been all about from Day One is forcing the department to do exactly what the president wants from a political perspective, and that goes from demonizing immigrants to enforcing immigration laws in needlessly aggressive ways to doing increasingly inhumane things: separating families, wholesale policing of American cities. And I think for the most part, there has been some measure of pushback from inside the department against these over-the-top partisan directives from the White House. But over time, the people who have pushed back have either been forced out or resigned, theyve been fired. And what you have now reallyI cant overstate thisyou have the dregs.

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The idea that DHS would go into Portland in the way that it has in the midst of an unprecedented national conversation about the need to reevaluate police force really makes you think that to a certain degree, whether consciously or unconsciously, it really seems like DHS wants to be a part of the conversation in which Americans are questioning police force and the need to fund police .

I really think at a certain point we just call it like it is. The current acting head of the department, Chad Wolf, first of all, technically isnt even authorized to be exercising his authority right now because hes only acting in the role, meaning he hasnt been confirmed by the Senate. Theres a law on the books that basically says someone can only serve in an acting role in government for 210 days.

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How long has he been serving?

He took over in November of 2019, so were well north of 210 days. Some of his top deputies are also unconfirmed. All of the leadership of the department right now consists of unconfirmed political appointees who have sworn fealty to the White House. So you have no one at really any position in leadership inside the department whos exercising independence when it comes time to carry out these directives from the White House.

Listen to the full episode using the player below, or subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.
John MacArthur, the pastor of Grace Community Church in California declared to keep his church open for in-person services despite the coronavirus ban.

"Compliance would be disobedience to our Lord's clear commands," MacArthur said.

Pastor John MacArthur referred to the bible to support his decision, "Christ is Lord of all. He is the true head of the church (Ephesians 1:11; 5:23; Colossians 1:18)

"Insofar as government authorities do not attempt to assert ecclesiastical authority or issue orders that forbid our obedience to God's law, their authority is to be obeyed whether we agree with their rulings or not. In other words, Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 still bind the consciences of individual Christians. We are to obey our civil authorities as powers that God Himself has ordained," MacArthur wrote.

MacArthur claimed the government officials have no right to interfere in religious matters "in a way that undermines or disregards the God-given authority of pastors and elders."

MacArthur implies that he holds "God-given" authority as a pastor and argues, "God has not granted civic ruler authority over the doctrine, practice, or polity of the church. The biblical framework limits the authority of each institution to its specific jurisdiction."

MacArthur added that he would like to complain to the civic leaders that they have "exceeded their legitimate jurisdiction" and that his "faithfulness to Christ" keeps him from abiding by the coronavirus restrictions.

On July 13, Gov. Newsom ordered churches, fitness centers, and various businesses across 30 California counties to close with leaving exceptions of outside activities with open ventilation or pick-up services.
The New Jersey Department of Agriculture has issued a warning about residents receiving mystery seeds from China that could be harmful to the environment.

The seeds are sent in packages usually stating that the contents are jewelry. Unsolicited seeds could be invasive (and) introduce diseases to local plants or be harmful to livestock, officials with the United States Department of Agriculture said in a statement that was re-posted by New Jersey officials on Facebook.

Officials say the mailings are known as agricultural smuggling and should be reported to the USDA and kept until the federal agency offers further instructions on what to do with the packages and seeds.

They may be needed as evidence, the USDAs statement said. New Jersey officials have alerted farming and agriculture boards and agencies throughout the state about the seeds.

There were no reported mailings reported in New Jersey, but people in several other states had reported receiving packages, state officials said.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Alexander Lukashenko made the announcement at a meeting with security officials, the state news agency Belta reported. He had previously referred to concerns about coronavirus as psychosis.

He said: Today you are meeting with a person who managed to survive the coronavirus on his feet. Doctors made such a conclusion yesterday: asymptomatic.

Belarus took no comprehensive measures against coronavirus such as lockdowns or ordering social distancing.

The country has about 67,000 confirmed cases of infection and 543 reported deaths.
(Photo : Dimitri Houtteman/Unsplash) Would You Trust Moderna Who Has Never Gotten a Vaccine Approved to Solve The Pandemic? (Photo : REUTERS/Brian Snyde) A sign marks the headquarters of Moderna Inc, which is developing a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., May 18, 2020.

Moderna has begun testing 30,000 volunteers for phase 3 clinical trial of its coronavirus vaccine on Monday, July 27, but questions on whether the company can be trusted have clouded the trial.

Moderna's trial is the first COVID-19 vaccine phase 3 trial in the United States. It joins other pharmaceutical companies, which are already testing the efficacy of their vaccines outside of the U.S. such as the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford candidate vaccine, which is currently being tested in Brazil and South Africa.

Currently, Moderna has 87 testing sites across the U.S. for phase 3 trials test the vaccine's safety and efficacy on a large number of people in different locations. This is the final stage before the vaccine gets approval and reaches the market.

Moderna Chief Executive Stephane Bancel told Business Insider the company aims to bring results by Thanksgiving. The FDA might quickly approve the vaccine for emergency use among high-risk people if those findings are good.

Moderna's phase 2 testing is still ongoing, but its phase 1 results showed the vaccine was overall safe and triggered immune responses among volunteers.

For the final stage, participants are divided into two groups: half will receive the vaccine while the other half will get a placebo. The vaccine will undergo a double-blind trial, so both researchers and volunteers would not know who get a placebo or vaccine. Each participant will receive two shots 28 days apart.

Never got a vaccine approval

Massachusetts-based Moderna has partnered with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to come up with the vaccine as of Operation Warp Speed, which aims to produce 300 million vaccine doses by January 2021. The project also includes partnerships between Pfizer and BioNTech as well as that between the AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

Started in 2010, Moderna has since focused on using synthetic mRNA to develop immune responses while other companies find it risky as mRNA delivery systems may generate adverse effects. In its initial public offering in 2018, Moderna raised over $600 million, which is the biggest in biotech IPO history.

An editorial published in the journal Nature in 2016 accused Moderna for choosing "stealth over disclosure of data" for not divulging its methods. However, Moderna has recently published its coronavirus vaccine findings in the New England Journal of Medicine.

STAT News' Damian Garde clarified that Moderna is different from the failed biotech company Theranos. Garde said that a lot of Moderna employees he spoke with confirmed that "there is some real science" in the company.

If this vaccine is approved, it would be the first vaccine approved by the company.

The mRNA vaccine: Pros and Cons

Moderna is currently racing against three other vaccine candidates, which are already also on their phase 3 trials, which include candidate vaccines from Sinopharm, Sinovac, and the collaboration between the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.

Moderna used technology, which is different from existing vaccines. The vaccine, called mRNA-1273, uses the messenger RNA technology to create a vaccine from a virus' genetic code.

According to The Verge, the mRNA provides tools to the body to "make their own medicine," instead of merely providing bits of virus to the immune system for target practice.

While it is a relevantly new technology, RNA makes vaccine development faster. This is the reason Moderna was the first to reach the final stage. These vaccines are also easy to manufacture, and if proven effective, companies could produce millions of doses fast.

the mere drawback of this technology, despite its simplicity and decades of work, is that it is still largely experimental that has never been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Like Moderna's vaccine, Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine candidates also use the same technology. If any of them gets approval, it would be the first mRNA vaccine in the market.

After getting receiving the vaccine, volunteers' cells will then build the proteins while their immune systems would learn to mount a defense after being confronted with the spike protein.

"I believe it is a historic day: the first phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine being run in the U.S.," Moderna CEO Bancel told the Washington Post. She also noted Moderna's is the world's first phase 3 of a messenger RNA medicine.

Moderna vows to deliver 500 million vaccine doses a year, although it may rack up to produce 1 billion doses in 2021. Recently, Tech Times learned the U.S. government has doubled its investment in Moderna's vaccine candidate and committed $472 million in support of the large trial.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Robert O'Brien, President Donald Trump's national security adviser, has tested positive for COVID-19. The statement about O'Brien's condition was released by a White House official.

COVID-19 positive official

O'Brien is now the highest-ranking Trump administration official that has tested positive for the coronavirus. It is not clear when he last met the president. The last public appearance of Trump and O'Brien together was two weeks ago, on July 10, during their visit to the US Southern Command in Miami.

According to an unnamed statement to the press, O'Brien is experiencing mild symptoms of COVID-19 and is now self-isolating. He is still working but is now in a secure location, according to CNN.

The statement confirmed the test results of O'Brien to the White House reporters, and his staff was not even told about his current condition. Several National Security Council staffers said that they did not know that O'Brien was positive for COVID-19 and they only knew about it after the media reported his condition.

Also Read: COVID-19 Causing a Beer Shortage in America

O'Brien is known as one of President Trump's aides. He has just returned from his trip from Europe where he met with officials from numerous countries such as Italy, France, Germany, and the UK/

Since last week, O'Brien has been working from home and a source that is familiar with him said that he was last in the office on July 23. The statement from the White House said that there is no risk of exposure to the President or the Vice President.

Larry Kudlow, the White House chief economic adviser, said that one of O'Brien's daughters has tested positive for COVID-19. They believe that was how he got infected.

Multiple pictures that were released from O'Brien's trip to Europe showed him not wearing a mask nor practicing social distancing. Foreign officials stated that officials from France are now scrambling after they found out that O'Brien tested positive for the virus.

The President's take on the pandemic

As the pandemic continues to spread in the United States, President Trump has defended not social distancing or wearing a mask. Many of his top officials and staffers are also not wearing masks and are not social distancing because they believe it is not necessary since they are tested every day.

Last week, the officials were alerted after an employee at the cafeteria in the White House had tested positive for COVID-19. Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.'s girlfriend, and campaign fundraising official, tested positive for the virus before she went on a trip to Mt. Rushmore.

Numerous Secret Service agents and campaign staffers also tested positive of the virus after they were infected while preparing for President Trump's Tulsa campaign rally, according to CNN.

Katie Miller, the communications director of Vice President Mike Pence also tested positive for COVID-19 back in May. O'Brien is Trump's fourth national security adviser. He had been out of sight since the coronavirus pandemic began.

It was reported by CNN that O'Brien did not help lead the response of the Trump administration to fight the current pandemic. O'Brien has also passed his responsibilities to other top aides and he also bypassed COVID-19 task force meetings.

Related Article: Here's How Home Buyers and Sellers Can Stay Positive And Prep Themselves for a Post-COVID-19 World

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Priyanka, who was asked to vacate the Lodhi Road bungalow earlier in July, had invited the BJP MP, the next occupant, to tea on Sunday

New Delhi: BJP MP Anil Baluni has invited Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and her family for an 'Uttarakhand meal' once he shifts into his new house, which was occupied by the Congress leader till recently, sources said on Monday.

Baluni has been allocated the 35, Lodhi Estate house in Delhi's Lutyens' zone.

According to sources, the BJP MP invited Priyanka for a meal comprising cuisines of Uttarakhand like Manduwe ki roti, Jhangore ki kheer, Pahadi raita and Bhatt ki churkani.

The Congress leader had invited Baluni for tea after he was allocated the bungalow.

Sources said the BJP MP, in a letter, thanked the Congress leader for the invite.

He, however, expressed his inability to move out as he had recently returned home after being treated for cancer. He said doctors have advised him to stay in isolation at home, they said.

The BJP MP from Uttarakhand was diagnosed with cancer in 2019 and had undergone treatment in Mumbai for several months.

Baluni, BJP's national media in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP, has been staying in a government bungalow at Gurudwara Rakabganj Road.
BENGALURU, India, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Prakash Gupta, Co-Founder and COO of 42Gears, a leading unified endpoint management solution provider, has been accepted into Forbes Technology Council, an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs, and technology executives.

Prakash Gupta was vetted and selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of his experience. Criteria for acceptance include a track record of successfully impacting business growth metrics, as well as personal and professional achievements and honors.

"We are honored to welcome Prakash Gupta into the community," said Scott Gerber, founder of Forbes Councils, the collective that includes Forbes Technology Council. "Our mission with Forbes Councils is to bring together proven leaders from every industry, creating a curated, social capital-driven network that helps every member grow professionally and make an even greater impact on the business world."

As an accepted member of the Council, Prakash has access to a variety of exclusive opportunities designed to help him reach peak professional influence. He will connect and collaborate with other respected local leaders in a private forum. Prakash will also be invited to work with a professional editorial team to share his expert insights in original business articles on Forbes.com, and to contribute to published Q&A panels alongside other experts.

Finally, Prakash Gupta will benefit from exclusive access to vetted business service partners, membership-branded marketing collateral, and the high-touch support of the Forbes Councils member concierge team.

"I closely follow the topics the Forbes Council discusses and find them of great value. I am truly excited to be a part of this community and hope that the conversations I initiate will be equally insightful to the IT fraternity," noted Prakash.

About Forbes Councils

Forbes Councils is a collective of invitation-only communities created in partnership with Forbes and the expert community builders who founded Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC). In Forbes Councils, exceptional business owners and leaders come together with the people and resources that can help them thrive.

For more information about Forbes Technology Council, visit forbestechcouncil.com . To learn more about Forbes Councils, visit forbescouncils.com .

About 42Gears

42Gears is a leading Unified Endpoint Management solution provider, named a Visionary in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Unified Endpoint Management tools two years in a row offering SaaS and on-premise solutions to secure, monitor and manage all business endpoints, such as tablets, phones, desktops, and wearables. 42Gears products support company-owned as well as employee-owned devices built on Android, iOS, iPadOS, Windows, macOS, Wear OS, VR, and Linux platforms. 42Gears products are used in various industries, such as healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, education, and retail. 42Gears products are trusted by over 10,000 customers in more than 115 countries. For more information, please visit https://www.42gears.com .

SOURCE 42Gears Mobility Systems
PM Conte orders extension until October 15 after Italy records over 246,500 cases and 35,000 deaths from COVID-19.

Italys upper house of parliament has approved a request by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to extend a state of emergency until October 15.

Lebanon has agreed to reinforce a nationwide lockdown from July 30 until August 3 after a spike in new cases threatens to overwhelm its healthcare system.

Germany s foreign ministry has advised holidaymakers not to travel to several Spanish regions  including Catalonia, home to Barcelona  that have seen coronavirus infection rates rise.

More than 16.5 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. Some 9.6 million patients have recovered, and more than 655,000 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Here are the latest updates:

Tuesday, July 28

20:45 GMT  US teachers union backs strikes to ensure schools reopen safely

One of the largest United States teachers union is authorising its members to strike if their schools plan to reopen without proper safety measures in the middle of the global pandemic.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which represents 1.7 million school employees, issued a resolution on Tuesday saying it will support any local chapter that decides to strike over reopening plans.

The group says school buildings should open only in areas where coronavirus infections are low enough and if schools enact certain safety measures.

Read more here.

A high school teacher holding a sign during a protest calling for schools to enforce mask-wearing and to implement other safety measures in advance of schools reopening in Salt Lake City, Utah [AP Photo/Rick Bowmer]

20:15 GMT  Donald Trump Jrs Twitter account locked over COVID-19 video

Twitter Inc has said that it has reined in access to Donald Trump Jr s account for 12 hours because a tweet he had posted violated the social media sites misinformation policy on COVID-19.

The eldest son of US President Donald Trump had posted a video on Monday of doctors talking about the drug hydroxychloroquine, and the video was removed by Twitter.

The video was also taken down by Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc-owned YouTube after racking up millions of views, removed for breaking their rules on COVID-19 misinformation.

Read more here.

Twitter suspended the account of Donald Trump Jr for 12 hours because of violations to the platforms misinformation policy [File: Carlos Barria/Reuters]

19:32 GMT  Major League Baseball postpones Marlins games through Sunday

Major League Baseball (MLB) has postponed all Miami Marlins games through Sunday due to a COVID-19 outbreak within the team, it has said in a statement.

Seventeen members of the organisation have tested positive over the last five days, according to multiple reports.

Given the current circumstances, MLB believes that it is most prudent to allow the Marlins time to focus on providing care for their players and planning their Baseball Operations for a resumption early next week, the league said in a statement.

19:15 GMT  Italian PM Conte wins backing to extend emergency period

Italys upper house of parliament has approved a request by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to extend until October 15 a state of emergency, expanding his governments powers.

Opposition parties had objected, accusing Conte of trying to keep too much power in his own hands despite a dramatic fall in the rate of contagion. However, the upper house Senate passed the measure by 157 votes to 125 in the 319-seat chamber.

19:00 GMT  Florida deaths surpass 6,000 with single-day record

Florida has reported 191 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours, the highest single-day rise since the start of the epidemic, the state health department has said.

Floridas total death toll has now surpassed 6,000. The United States third most populous state is now second only to California in its total number of COVID-19 cases, with 441,997, an increase of 9,230 from the day before.





18:28 GMT  Ecuador opens mobile testing centres as hospitals fill up

Authorities in Ecuador are deploying new sanitary mobile centres to ramp up testing and ease pressure on the health system.

Quito has become Ecuadors COVID-19 hot spot, with total cases recently overtaking those in Guayaquil, the countrys second-largest city, which in March and April suffered one of Latin Americas worst outbreaks.

Quito now has 12,747 cases, with Ecuadors total case count exceeding 82,000, according to figures released by the Health Ministry on Tuesday. Some 600 people have died in the capital, out of 5,584 deaths across the Andean nation.

18:15 GMT  NYs Cuomo to investigate crowded Chainsmokers concert

New York states governor says he is appalled by videos showing crowds standing close together at a Hamptons concert featuring United States electronic music duo The Chainsmokers over the weekend.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said the states department of health will investigate egregious social distancing violations.

Read more here.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo plans to investigate whether the concert caused illegal reckless endangerment of public health [File: Mike Segar/Reuters]

17:45 GMT  Portugals popular Madeira makes masks compulsory in public

Wearing masks in public will be compulsory at all times on the popular Portuguese island of Madeira from August 1, the local government has announced on Tuesday, making it the first region in the country to adopt such a measure.

Madeira, popular for its wine and its green landscape, has managed to keep its tally of coronavirus cases low since the pandemic started. It has reported 105 infections, with no new cases since Saturday.

The use of the mask is exactly to show those who visit us the reason why we have these results, said the regions general health secretary, Pedro Ramos.

The use of masks in closed spaces and public transport is already compulsory in Madeira, but now those on the streets must wear masks, too.

A woman walks through Comercio square in Lisbon, Portugal [File: Rafael Marchante/Reuters]

17:19 GMT  France reports 14 more deaths, raising total to 30,223

French health authorities have reported 14 new coronavirus deaths, taking the total to 30,223, a figure twice as high as the daily average increase of seven seen over the last week.

In a statement, authorities said the number of people in hospital for COVID-19 went down again, pursuing a two-month downward trend.

17:03 GMT  Georgia governor withdraws emergency request to stop Atlanta mask mandate

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has withdrawn his emergency request for a court to stop enforcement of Atlantas requirement that faces masks be worn in all public places, while mediation over the states legal effort to block the mandate proceeds.

Kemp sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and the city two weeks ago to stop enforcement of the local mandate, aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus. The governor argued that the city lacks the authority to override his order encouraging but not requiring face coverings.

16:50 GMT  Italian PM seeks to extend emergency period

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has asked parliament to extend a state of emergency, which expands his governments powers.

Opposition parties objected that Conte was trying to keep too much power in his own hands despite a dramatic fall in the rate of contagion.

The virus continues to evolve and has not run its course. It would be incongruous to abruptly suspend such an effective measure, Conte told the upper house, the Senate.

However, he drew back from requesting an extension until the end of the year, saying he only wanted a renewal until October.

16:46 GMT  Malta says 65 rescued migrants test positive

Sixty-five migrants who were in a group of 94 people rescued at sea and brought to Malta on Monday have tested positive for COVID-19, Maltas health ministry has said.

It was the single largest cluster of positive cases detected on the Mediterranean island since the first case came to light in the country on March 7.

The health ministry said 85 of the migrants had been tested so far, with a further nine still awaiting a test.





16:44 GMT  Pfizer CEO says negotiating with EU on contract for vaccine: interview

Drugmaker Pfizer Inc is in concurrent talks with the European Union as well as several of its member states to sell them the COVID-19 vaccine candidate it is developing, Chief Executive Albert Bourla has said in an interview.

We are negotiating with the EU because that would be much easier. But also we are having extensive discussions with several member states, just in case we cant find agreement with the EU, Bourla said.

16:33 GMT  Trump pushes anti-malaria drug, Fauci checks him

A week after appearing to project a more serious tone about the coronavirus, United States President Donald Trump is back to pushing unproven claims that an anti-malaria drug is an effective treatment and challenging the credibility of the nations leading infectious disease expert.

Dr Anthony Fauci pushed back Tuesday, saying he will keep doing his job.

Read more here.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, disagrees with the US president on the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine [File: Leah Millis/Reuters]

15:12 GMT  Belarus president says he had asymptomatic coronavirus

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said he has had the coronavirus without any symptoms and had already recovered from it, the BelTA news agency has quoted him as saying.

Today, you are meeting a man who managed to survive the coronavirus on his feet. Doctors came to such a conclusion yesterday. Asymptomatic, Lukashenko said during a meeting with the military.

The 65-year-old leader has resisted calls to impose lockdown measures or close the borders to contain the spread of the pandemic in the eastern European country.

14:38 GMT  Lebanon reinstates lockdown measures after virus rebound

Lebanon has agreed to reinforce nationwide lockdown measures after a spike in new cases threatens to overwhelm its healthcare system.

On Saturday, Lebanon recorded 175 new cases, its highest daily number of infections.

To stem a larger outbreak, the government ordered a lockdown from July 30 until August 3, Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad said after a cabinet meeting.

The lockdown will be suspended from August 3 until August 6, with restaurants and cafes allowed to reopen at 50 percent capacity while nightclubs, bars, indoor pools and public parks remain closed.

Lebanon, a country of some six million people, has recorded a total of 3,879 cases of COVID-19, including 51 deaths.





14:28 GMT  Fauci: Marlins outbreak endangers 2020 season

Dr Anthony Fauci fears the growing outbreak of the coronavirus within the Miami Marlins could threaten the 2020 baseball season.

Fauci said on ABCs Good Morning America programme that Major League Baseball still has time to curb the spread of the pandemic.

This could put it in danger, said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

I dont believe they need to stop, but we just need to follow this and see what happens with other teams on a day-by-day basis.

The Marlins completed a three-game series in Philadelphia on Sunday but opted not to fly back to Miami after more than a dozen cases of COVID-19 were confirmed by positive tests.

14:24 GMT  Phillies baseball game postponed as players await COVID-19 test results

The Philadelphia Phillies game against the visiting New York Yankees on Tuesday has been postponed as some members of the home team await COVID-19 test results following their weekend series versus the Miami Marlins, a source has told Reuters.

The decision to postpone the second Phillies game in as many days follows their three-game season-opening series versus Miami, who have had a number of players test positive for the coronavirus.

14:08 GMT  Spain safe for tourists despite virus spike: government

Spain remains a safe destination for tourists despite a rise in coronavirus infections in some parts of the country, the government has insisted.

The remarks came after the UK reimposed a 14-day quarantine on anyone arriving from Spain, and France and Germany warned against travel to certain parts of the country following a spike in cases.

We want to send a clear message of confidence in our country, said government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero after the weekly cabinet meeting.

We are a secure destination that has made preparations and strengthened itself to deal with the virus and any outbreaks.





14:03 GMT  Turkey plans to reopen all schools as long as virus keeps receding

Turkey plans to reopen schools nationwide on August 31, to get students back into classrooms and free up working parents, assuming a recent stabilisation in coronavirus cases holds.

Teachers and administrators are preparing on-site health precautions, but two government sources told Reuters that the daily infection rate may need to dip below the more than 900 seen recently to allow them to execute what they called Plan A.

Schools shifted to distance education in March, when Turkey identified its first case and began restricting movement.

13:50 GMT  Global air traffic wont return to pre-crisis level before 2024: IATA

World air traffic will not return to levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic until at least 2024, the International Air Transport Association has said.

Uncertainty about the timing of border reopenings is the main factor weighing on international traffic, IATAs finance chief Brian Pearce told a news conference.

13:46 GMT  Spain approves new funding lines for companies, first tranche of 8 billion euros

The Spanish government has approved a new set of state-backed credit lines of up to 40 billion euros ($46.9bn) to help mitigate the effects of the coronavirus, Spains economy minister, Nadia Calvino, has said.

Speaking after the weekly cabinet meeting, Calvino said that the first tranche of this new aid package would amount to around eight billion euros, of which five billion euros would go mainly to small and mid-sized companies.

13:40

Hello, this is Mersiha Gadzo in Toronto, Canada taking over the live updates from my colleague Elizabeth Melimopoulos in Doha, Qatar.

12:30 GMT  Real Madrids Diaz tests positive

Real Madrid forward Mariano Diaz has tested positive for COVID-19, the Spanish champions said, casting doubt on his participation in their Champions League tie at Manchester City next week.

Real said tests were conducted on the squad on Monday and that although Diaz was in perfect health, he would be self-isolating at home.

12:00 GMT  Coronavirus sharpening hunger in southern Africa, says bloc

Nearly 45 million people in 13 countries in southern Africa are food-insecure as a result of drought and flood and the impact of coronavirus, the regions bloc has said.

The tally has risen almost 10 percent over last year, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) said in a report.

Common climate-induced shocks  economic challenges and poverty have been further exacerbated by the devastating impact of COVID-19 on communities, it said. Coronavirus restrictions have badly affected business activity, jobs and remittances.

11:45 GMT  Madrid tightens coronavirus restrictions

The Madrid regional government is making the wearing of face masks mandatory in all public areas, limiting how many people can gather in one place and targeting young people in a drive to stamp out new outbreaks of the coronavirus.

Regional government head Isabel Diaz Ayuso announced that no more than 10 people can be present at private gatherings.

Ayuso also said an information campaign will focus on young people, who are largely blamed for spreading the coronavirus through their social lives. She said young people have it in their hands to reverse the trend.





11:30 GMT  Greece to open ports to cruise ships on Saturday

Greece has announced it will open six of its big ports to tourist cruise ships starting on Saturday, after they were banned because of the coronavirus pandemic.

All cruisers are welcome in Greece, Tourism Minister Haris Theocharis said on Tuesday. The country is to open the ports in Athens, Rhodes, Heraklion on Crete, Volos, Corfu and Katakolon, he added.

11:15 GMT  No indication new coronavirus is seasonal: WHO

The spread of the novel coronavirus does not appear to be impacted by seasonality, the World Health Organization has said, warning against false beliefs that summer is safer.

Season does not seem to be affecting the transmission of this virus, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told reporters in a virtual briefing.

She pointed out that some of the hardest-hit countries are currently in the middle of different seasons.





11:00 GMT  Barcelonas soaring COVID-19 cases cause concern

Infection rates have been soaring in Spain with more than one thousand new cases reported on a daily basis in Catalonia.

It is feared the regional capital, Barcelona, will become the epicentre of the virus.

Al Jazeeras Marta Herrero reports from Barcelona:





10:45 GMT  South Asian animal sellers go online for Eid al-Adha

Millions of goats, sheep and cattle are slaughtered annually during Eid al-Adha  the festival of sacrifice  one of two major holy days observed by Muslims across the world, including some 600 million in South Asia.

The pandemic has, however, badly hit India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, which have shut or heavily restricted major markets, while fears of catching the virus are keeping customers away ahead of the main festival on Saturday.

Faced with deserted markets, livestock breeders and traders have turned to websites, apps and social media to showcase their animals.

Read more here.

Muhammad Naeem uploads a picture of goats on his website ahead of Eid al-Adha in Islamabad, Pakistan [Aamir Qureshi/AFP]

10:30 GMT  Iran registers a record 235 coronavirus deaths in 24-hour period

Iran has reported 235 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, a record toll for a single day in the Middle Easts hardest-hit country.

We have lost 235 of our compatriots due to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the overall toll to 16,147, said health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari.

10:15 GMT  PM Khan warns of possible Eid al-Adha coronavirus spike

Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan has warned citizens to continue to strictly follow government guidelines on limiting interactions, warning of a possible new surge in cases after the Islamic holy day of Eid al-Adha later this week.

Khans warning came as the country registered its lowest single-day rise in cases in almost three months, according to the latest government data.

Read more here.

People wear protective masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus at a cattle market set up for Eid al-Adha in Peshawar, Pakistan [Muhammad Sajjad/AP]

10:00 GMT  Australia sends medical team to Papua New Guinea as cases rise

Australia said it was sending a medical team to help Papua New Guinea fight an outbreak of coronavirus after the neighbouring country experienced a rise in infections.

The Pacific nation, which had escaped the infection levels of its neighbours since the crisis escalated in March, has recorded an increase in new cases in the past week, according to data analysis firm Worldometer.

There were 62 confirmed virus cases as of late Tuesday, up from just eight infections 11 days ago.

09:30 GMT  Spain lockdown leaves one million jobless

The coronavirus epidemic has destroyed the jobs of over a million Spaniards, but with lockdowns preventing them from looking for work, they were excluded from the unemployment count, data showed.

Figures published by the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed the number of unemployed rose by only 55,000 between April and June to 3.4 million.

That pushed the unemployment rate to 15.3 percent from 14.4 percent in the first quarter.

The number of unemployed rose by only 55,000 between April and June to 3.4 million [File: Reuters]

09:15 GMT  IMF approves $4.3bn emergency loan to South Africa

The International Monetary Fund has approved a $4.3bn emergency loan to South Africa as it reels under the coronavirus pandemic.

The country has the worlds fifth-largest virus caseload, and confirmed cases are approaching half a million.

The IMF said South Africa was seeing a sharp economic contraction, though authorities responded swiftly to this latest crisis. The government weeks ago announced an historic $26bn economic relief package.

09:00 GMT  Rise in German virus numbers of great concern: health agency

The rapid rise in Germanys coronavirus numbers is very worrying, the countrys Robert Koch Institute for disease control said on Tuesday, urging citizens to keep their distance and wear face masks.

We must prevent that the virus once again spreads rapidly and uncontrollably, RKI head Lothar Wieler told reporters.

The latest developments in the number of COVID-19 cases is of great concern to me and all of us at the RKI, he said.

Separately, Germanys foreign ministry updated its travel advisory, recommending against travel to three regions in northern Spain grappling with renewed outbreaks.

The head of Germanys Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler, addresses a news conference on the countrys situation amid the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, in Berlin.[AFP]

08:45 GMT  Kenya extends coronavirus curfew, restricts alcohol sales

Kenyas President Uhuru Kenyatta has extended a nightly curfew and banned alcohol sales in restaurants as part of a bid to halt a steep rise in coronavirus cases.

In a stern televised address to the nation on Monday, Kenyatta said a countrywide curfew from 9pm to 4am will remain in place for another 30 days and that there shall be no sale of alcoholic beverages or drinks in eateries and restaurants over the same period.

Read more here.

Kenyatta asked police to enforce the curfew rule regardless of who was found breaking it [Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters]

08:30 GMT  Nissan forecasts $6.4bn annual net loss as virus bites

Crisis-hit Japanese automaker Nissan has warned of a massive $6.4bn net loss for the current fiscal year as it reels from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nissan, which had delayed an annual forecast because of ongoing uncertainty, issued the warning as it reported a first-quarter net loss of 285.6 billion yen ($2.7bn) on plunging sales.





08:15 GMT  Indonesia reports 1,748 new infections

Indonesia has reported 1,748 new coronavirus infections, bringing its tally to 102,051 confirmed cases overall, health ministry data showed.

The number of deaths in the Southeast Asian nation related to COVID-19 rose by 63, bringing the total to 4,901.





08:00 GMT  Taiwan probes possible first local virus case in one month as imported cases rise

Taiwan is investigating its first possible local coronavirus infection in more than a month, a Thai man who tested positive last week, as the island also faces a rise in cases brought from overseas.

Taiwans early response was effective in keeping the pandemic at bay, with just 467 infections and seven deaths. Most of the cases have been imported and have recovered.

Until the Thai mans positive test, the island had not seen a local case of coronavirus infection since June 24.

07:45 GMT  Pakistans daily COVID-19 infections drop below 1,000

The number of infections has dropped below 1,000 for the first time in three months in Pakistan.

The country counted 936 new cases reported in the last 24 hours throughout the country of 220 million people.

Dr Zafar Mirza, special assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan, tweeted praise for Khan, urging Pakistanis to wear masks as the most effective practice to reduce the transmission of the disease.

<351> Rise & fall in daily COVID-19 cases in Pakistan: on 14 June we had a peak of 6825 cases & in the last 24 hrs we had 936 cases in country  a decline of 86%. Last time we saw daily cases in three digits was almost 3 months ago, on 3 May. No place for any complacency please! pic.twitter.com/t8HzbDgLr0  Zafar Mirza (@zfrmrza) July 28, 2020

07:30 GMT  Russias coronavirus cases surpass 820,000

Russia has reported 5,395 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing its nationwide tally to 823,515, the fourth largest in the world.

Russias coronavirus taskforce said 150 people had died over the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll in the country of around 145 million people to 13,504.





07:15 GMT  South Africa nearing half-million virus cases

South Africa is closing in on a half-million confirmed coronavirus cases as the country posted nearly 300 deaths in a single day.

South Africa now has 452,529 cases and 7,067 deaths, making up more than half the reported cases on the African continent. It has the fifth-highest caseload in the world.

Like many others, the country has struggled with trying to ease lockdown restrictions and then seeing cases rise. But businesses have expressed frustration as unemployment is now above 30 percent and likely to keep increasing.

07:00 GMT  France to reconsider plans to build fourth terminal at Paris airport

The French government will reconsider plans to build a fourth terminal at the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport because of the impact of the coronavirus crisis, Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari has said.

The project to receive 40 million more passengers by 2030 is probably no longer justified as it was planned, Djebbari said on Europe 1 radio.

He said French airports would still need investment for upgrades and would have to make sure that new types of planes, such as hydrogen-powered planes, can land.





06:45 GMT  Police arrest leader of Sydney protests against racism

Police officers in Sydney have arrested a leader of an anti-racism protest and shut down the demonstration before it started after courts ruled the gathering in the city centre was illegal due to the coronavirus pandemic threat.

Organiser Paddy Gibson was among six people arrested in a park known as The Domain before the rally was due to start at noon. Two police officers were photographed leading a defiant Gibson away.

Police outnumbered protesters. Officers told demonstrators to move on as they arrived and the area was cleared 15 minutes before the scheduled start.

06:30 GMT  Vietnam locks down its 3rd-largest city as virus cases grow

Vietnam has locked down its third-largest city for two weeks after 15 cases of COVID-19 were found in a hospital, the government said.

Public transport into and out of the central city of Da Nang was cancelled. Over the weekend, thousands of mostly Vietnamese tourists had to end their summer holidays in the popular beach destination. The lockdown has dealt a hard blow to the tourism industry, which was just being revived after earlier coronavirus cases mostly subsided at the end of April.





Hi, this is Elizabeth Melimopoulos in Doha taking over the live updates from my colleague Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.

05:15 GMT  Najib crowd raises concerns about social distancing in Malaysia

Hundreds of people turned out at the Kuala Lumpur court on Tuesday, as a judge prepared to deliver his verdict in the 1MDB-corruption case involving former prime minister Najib Razak.

While many were wearing masks, not all were, and there was no physical distancing despite police announcements urging people to keep their distance.

What are we doing?

Behaviour of total denial in a major lethal Pandemic.

Why did we not stop this?

Where are the authorities? https://t.co/ZxHFxbse7E  Amar-Singh HSS (@DrAmarMOH) July 28, 2020

05:00 GMT  Red Cross urges vigilance in the Philippines

The Red Cross in the Philippines is urging people to be more vigilant as COVID-19 cases in the country jump by more than a thousand each day, and an increasing number of hospitals are reporting they can no longer accommodate more patients

More than 80,000 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19, with more than 42,000 cases confirmed in July.

The biggest threat is complacency as we are far from being out of the woods, Philippine Red Chairman Richard Gordon said in a statement. We need to act like we already have the virus and keep wearing face masks and practising proper handwashing and physical distancing.

MEDIA RELEASE: Red Cross is urging everyone in the #Philippines to be even more vigilant as #COVID19 cases continue to jump by more than a thousand each day following the easing of quarantine restrictions: https://t.co/jAYiZToq69 pic.twitter.com/PT5EsfT6qy  IFRC Asia Pacific (@IFRCAsiaPacific) July 28, 2020

04:10 GMT  Japan ignores ridicule to press ahead with Abenomask

They might have been widely ridiculed as ineffective and a waste of money when first announced, but Japan is pushing ahead with plans to give 80 million Abenomasks to nursing homes and daycare centres.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters: The masks are relatively low cost and help curb demand.

Commercially-made masks are now readily available, even as cases climb, in Japan.

02:50 GMT  Australias Morrison cuts short interstate tour because of coronavirus

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has cut short an interstate tour because of what he says is a very complex outbreak of coronavirus in nursing homes in the southern city of Melbourne, likely transmitted to them through the people working in the facilities.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews has said 769 cases have been linked to nursing homes.

I cannot stand here and tell you that I have confidence that staff and management across a number of private-sector aged care facilities are able to provide the care that is appropriate to keep their residents safe, Andrews told reporters.

02:30 GMT  Vietnam suspends Danang flights

Vietnam has suspended all flights in and out of the central city of Danang after a sudden spike in coronavirus cases there, the first community infections since April.

Flights will be suspended for 15 days, and train services have also been halted.

An evacuation plan for local visitors to the popular tourist destination was announced yesterday.

Last month, Vietnam detected its first locally transmitted infections in more than three months [Hoang Khanh/AFP]

02:15 GMT  China reports 68 new cases, all but four locally transmitted

Mainland China has reported 68 new cases of coronavirus, 64 of them locally transmitted.

Fifty-seven of the local cases were diagnosed in the far western region of Xinjiang, according to state media.

No deaths from COVID-19 were reported anywhere in the country.

Chinese mainland reported 68 new confirmed COVID-19 cases Monday, including four imported cases and 64 locally-transmitted ones https://t.co/nDvUWWbLkb pic.twitter.com/tfARS8Ott7  China Xinhua News (@XHNews) July 28, 2020

02:05 GMT  Australias Victoria reports 384 new cases

The Australian state of Victoria has reported 384 new cases of coronavirus and six deaths in the past 24 hours.

On Monday, the state reported a record 532 cases.

00:30 GMT  Peru says more than 900 women, girls feared dead

Peru says more than 900 girls and women are feared to have died as a result of domestic violence during the countrys extended coronavirus lockdown; some 70 percent of those missing were under the age of 18.

During the quarantine from March 16 to June 30, 915 women in Peru were reported missing, and feared dead, Elionar Revollar, the head of the womens rights office of the National Ombudsman was quoted as saying by AFP.

The number of women reported missing each day has risen to eight compared with five before the pandemic.

00:15 GMT  UN warns on wasting, stunting

The UN says nearly seven million more children will suffer stunting as a result of the coronavirus pandemic affecting food supplies.

Writing in The Lancet, a team of experts modelled the impact on 118 poor and middle-income countries and found the prevalence of moderate or severe wasting among children under five would increase by 14.3 percent, or an extra 6.7 million cases.

Wasting occurs when the body is so malnourished that muscles and fat begin to disappear.

-

Hello and welcome to Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Im Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.

Read all the updates from yesterday (July 27) here.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo has launched an investigation into an illegal and reckless concert hosted by electronic duo The Chainsmokers during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Closer musicians headlined a drive-in concert in the Hamptons on Saturday (25 July), but faced backlash after it became clear that fans did not remain in their cars during the performance.

In footage that appeared to have been filmed by the band themselves on social media, hundreds of fans were shown standing in close proximity to each other.

On Monday (27 July), Cuomo shared the clip to his Twitter in condemnation, revealing that the states health department would be launching an investigation into the event.

Videos from a concert held in Southampton on Saturday show egregious social distancing violations. I am appalled, he tweeted.

The Department of Health will conduct an investigation. We have no tolerance for the illegal & reckless endangerment of public health.

The Independent has contacted The Chainsmokers representatives for comment.

Hosted in the wealthy Hamptons area of New York, the concert was intended to raise money for a number of charities, with tickets reportedly ranging between $1,250 (970) to $25,000 (19,400).

Attendance required guests to fill an online Covid-19 questionnaire, wear a mask they were given upon arrival, and have their temperatures checked by staff.

The show was opened by DJ D-Sol, the onstage alter-ego of Goldman Sachs SEO David Solomon.
A viral video shows a very frail-looking Rep. Jerry Nadler (D. NY) insisting that there is no Antifa violence happening in Portland. Instead, he claims, nothing is happening there. Thats a myth thats being spread only in Washington, D.C., he says.

Its obvious that Nadler is watching only the lovingly curated footage that the media and the left (but I repeat myself) release. Meanwhile, the internet is awash in images of fiery, violent, brutal protests in Portland, something the media refuse to show.

Here's the Nadler footage (which came originally from Essential Fleccas) contrasted with some footage of the violence hes denying:

Can someone please explain to me how this works? We are willing to spend all credibility to defend what can be INSTANTLY invalidated. Who came up with this policy, why does it exist, and how is anyone able to maintain it without deviating from the script?pic.twitter.com/K4RFozkQde  Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) July 27, 2020

Derek Hunter, in one of his podcasts, said that what were seeing is the difference between daytime and nighttime reporting. When the media go out in the day, they film images of people behaving with moderate civility. At night, they capture only carefully stage-managed protests.

Its this carefully limited range of images that explains how leftists can insist that the only violence in Portland emanated from the fascist federal law enforcement officers that Trump unleashed on the city in early July. Media viewers remain in blissful ignorance of the fact that every night the peaceful protesters (aka, useful idiots) go home and the Antifa anarchists come out to make war.

The New York Timess Nicholas Kristoff added another layer to this artificial divide by insisting that the city is peaceful except for the two blocks beside the federal courthouse:

To watch Fox News is to learn from Sean Hannity that the Rose City of Portland is like a war zone that has been, in Tucker Carlsons words, destroyed by the mob. So I invite Hannity and Carlson to escape their bubbles and visit Portland, stroll along the Willamette River and enjoy a glass of local pinot noir. Theyll be safe  unless they venture at night into the two blocks beside the federal courthouse. Citizens need to be vigilant there, for armed groups periodically storm the streets to attack peaceful visitors. Im talking, of course, about the uninvited federal forces.

In those two paragraphs alone, Kristoff has told two lies. First, its no small thing when two blocks in the heart of the city are given over to destructive nightly violence.

Second  and this is the big lie -- the violence did not start with the federal police. The federal police came in response to violence directed at federal property. In a July 16 letter explaining why federal troops had to go to Portland, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf included a long list detailing how the peaceful protesters were destroying federal property and attacking local police before federal law enforcement came on the scene in early July. The following is just a small part of that list:

05/29/2020 Violent anarchists broke a front window at the Hatfield Courthouse.

Violent anarchists graffitied the Hatfield Courthouse.

Overall, the cost of damages on federal property done by the violent mob this first night was estimated at $5,000. 05/30/2020 Violent anarchists graffitied the BPA Building.

Violent anarchists graffitied the Hatfield Courthouse.

Violent anarchists graffitied the Edith Green-Wenell Wyatt Building.

Violent anarchists graffitied the Terry Schrunk Plaza.

Violent anarchists graffitied the 911 Federal Building.

Violent anarchists graffitied the Pioneer Courthouse.

Violent anarchists graffitied the Gus J. Solomon Courthouse. [snip] 06/07/2020 Violent anarchists damaged and breached the fence around the Hatfield Courthouse.

Portland Police were forced to deploy crowd control spray to disperse a crowd that was throwing animal seed at officers. [snip] 06/20/2020 Among a group of over 400 protesters marching in front of the Pioneer Courthouse, violent anarchists attempted to cause eye damage to officers with commercial grade lasers. [snip] 7/01/2020 Violent anarchists graffitied new plywood covering the windows at the Hatfield Courthouse and ripped down plywood on the other side of the building.

A group of over 200 violent anarchists blocked access to the building and proceeded to launch aerial fireworks at federal property. 07/02/2020 Violent anarchists broke a front window to the Hatfield Courthouse and attempted to enter the building.

Violent anarchists refused orders to vacate the Hatfield Courthouse area, and instead launched fireworks and threw objects at officers, while attempting to cause eye damage with lasers. One explosive firework was shot into the courthouse.

FPS law enforcement officers were forced to utilized crowd control measures for safety.

Bottom line: The law enforcement officers did not cause violence. Instead, the violent anarchists escalated their violence after the officers appeared on the scene.

So that you can fully understand the two narratives that are shaping political opinion in America, the following is a small collection of videos about Portland that the mainstream media are promulgating. They either show protesters acting peacefully or law enforcement officers acting cruelly.

Regarding this first video, any person stupid enough to try to engage [law enforcement officers] in a civil conversation in the midst of violent riot is either painfully stupid or courting injury for propaganda purposes.

Navy veteran Chris David was beaten and doused with pepper spray by federal authorities dispatched to the protests in Portland, Oregon.



"I was standing there peacefully and then they beat me," he tells @brikeilarcnn. https://t.co/9Cx9MuPW5h pic.twitter.com/OXaZIIp4W0  CNN (@CNN) July 20, 2020

In this next video, note how cleverly MSNBC skips magically from protesters peacefully walking in the daytime to a violent nighttime conflict, implying that the federal police descended on a peaceful march, rather than responding to a later, violent attack on the courthouse:

Wall of Moms organizer Bev Barnum in Portland, Oregon, speaks out after she was teargassed by federal agents.



I feel that they deploy that [tear gas] so the cameras cant really see whats happening. And then they unlawfully arrest moms. Four of my moms were arrested. pic.twitter.com/jU0sHS1ZkM  MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 23, 2020

And of course, theres the now-famous ABC headline about a peaceful protest in California that magically intensified:

Protesters in California set fire to a courthouse, damaged a police station and assaulted officers after a peaceful demonstration intensified. https://t.co/fUZTABUM21  ABC News (@ABC) July 26, 2020

This second collection shows the anarchists (some of whom were posing as moms hours earlier) going to war against both the police and the federal courthouse:

There were 20 injuries to federal officers in one weekend in Portland. Antifa rioters throw projectiles like canned food and rocks at officers. They blind them with lasers and then throw explosive fireworks at their feet. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/mLH5h5uDVs  Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) July 28, 2020

These are the weapons antifa bring to the "protest" every night in Portland. And this is only what the Justice Department was able to find. I've seen people carrying knives, machetes, guns, IEDs, etc. It's a surprise to me that suspects aren't being charged w/terrorism offenses. https://t.co/yXvLW4B6q5  Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) July 28, 2020

Rioters hiding behind shields shine powerful lasers at federal officers to blind them. Antifa are organized into many units who carry out specific tasks. Those who arent fighting act as barriers, cop watchers, resuppliers & medics. This was recorded 25 July. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/L9bqyIEoyB  Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) July 27, 2020

(Regarding the lasers, the officers now have protective goggles but, before that equipment arrived, three officers had their vision permanently damaged.)

After dumping all the @RiotRibs trash at the Portland federal courthouse, they set it on fire. Video by @ShelbyTalcott. #antifa pic.twitter.com/lrM6LPZklu  Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) July 27, 2020

Antifa rioters are throwing Molotov cocktails toward federal officers at the courthouse. Earlier in the day, police found a cache of ready-made incendiary devices and fully loaded magazines. Video by @livesmattershow. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/KFPyahZ8Er  Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) July 27, 2020

Nadlers denial about violence in Portland could be because hes a lying partisan hack. However, given that the Portland agitators are cleverly deploying two different narratives, and that the media are complicit in this tactic, he really may be that ignorant about whats going in Americas leftist-run cities.

The Trump team is trying to help Americans understand that the media and the Democrats are lying to them by omission. This excellent campaign ad is a good start:

Far-left fascists have turned Portland into a violent hellscape.



Joe Biden is siding with the mob, defending them as peaceful protesters.



Do they look peaceful to you? pic.twitter.com/ssEawCpFL9  Trump War Room - Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) July 22, 2020

Image: YouTube screengrab
The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards nominations were announced on Tuesday, and delivered the usual mix of snubs and surprises.

The BBCs adaptation of Sally Rooneys novel Normal People proved hugely popular on both sides of the Atlantic when it arrived in April, however fans may be disappointed to see the show failed to score a nomination for outstanding limited series.

Expand Close Actress Zendaya was a surprise inclusion during this years Emmy nominations (Ian West/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Actress Zendaya was a surprise inclusion during this years Emmy nominations (Ian West/PA)

And one of its stars, Daisy Edgar-Jones, also missed out in the acting category. That can perhaps be explained by the sky-high standard of the competition, with three Oscar winners in the form of Cate Blanchett, Octavia Spencer and Regina King all earning nods.

However, having an Academy Award was no guarantee of a nomination.

Best actress winner Reese Witherspoon did not hear her name called during the virtual ceremony, despite being eligible for starring in three different shows  Big Little Lies, Little Fires Everywhere and The Morning Show.

Another British star who may feel hard done by is Tobias Menzies. His portrayal of the Duke Of Edinburgh in season three of The Crown was widely acclaimed, but it was not enough to score him a nomination.

The Handmaids Tale star Elisabeth Moss, a previous winner of the leading actress Emmy, was snubbed as was Big Little Lies Nicole Kidman.

Before the announcement ceremony, fans were perhaps being hopeful to expect Sir Patrick Stewart to earn a nomination for Star Trek: Picard, but he missed out, as did his fellow Hollywood great Al Pacino, who many believed was in contention for Amazon Prime Video drama Hunters.

There were surprises thrown up during the announcement.

Video of the Day

Few had predicted Disney+ Star Wars series The Mandalorian to score a nomination, but it found itself in fine company in the best drama category.

And Zendaya, the 23-year-old star of HBOs Euphoria, earned her first Primetime Emmy nomination.
Summer is here, school is out and swimming is in! Oceans and pools are a great way to beat the heat, but its important to keep water safety in the forefront. This is especially true as coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions keeps children closer to home - and the backyard pools of families and neighbors.

Safety precautions vary for pool and ocean use, but caregiver supervision remains a constant. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drowning is the leading cause of accidental death for children ages 1 to 4, with unattended swimming pools accounting for most cases of drowning in this age group. For ages 5 to 9, drowning is also the second-leading cause of death. Near drowning incidents are even higher.

Recognizing the real signs of drowning are vital to prevention, as a rescuer has only 20 seconds to one minute to save someone. When drowning, most people are unable to call for help as they struggle to breathe and can slip silently below the water without flailing or making a sound. Signs of drowning may include a tilted-back head with an open mouth, glassy or closed eyes, and inability to move his or her legs, hyperventilating or gasping sounds and purposeless movement of the arms.

If a child appears to be drowning, immediately remove them from the water, and if they are not breathing, turn them onto their back and begin rescue breathing. Continue performing CPR until medical help arrives.

Pool Safety

A designated adult should always be available to supervise children in or near water. Unsafe distractions include consuming alcohol, speaking on a phone, texting, emailing, reading or engaging in prolonged conversations.

Teach children how to swim, or sign them up for swim lessons. Adults should learn how to swim, too.

Pools should be fully enclosed by a four-sided fence with a self-closing, self-latching gate. In New York state, pool enclosure requirements must:

Be at least four feet high

Completely surround the swimming pool and obstruct any access

Additionally, the opening between the bottom of the fence cannot be greater than two inches and any openings within the barrier cannot exceed four inches.

Dont leave any items or equipment close to the pool fence that would allow your child to climb up and over the fence.

Do not allow rough play or diving, especially running and diving. Many backyard pools do not have a deep end and are not safe for diving. The American Red Cross recommends a minimum of nine feet of water depth for head-first dives, including dives from pool decks. Shallow-water dives can lead to devastating injuries and 90% of these incidents occur in water depths of less than six feet.

Adults should take a CPR class and know how to perform child and adult CPR.

Children should be taught to stay away from pool drains, pipes and suction outlets, especially in shallow pools. A childs limbs, hair or jewelry may become entrapped. Replace any broken, cracked or missing drain covers and make sure they comply with federal safety standards.

Dont leave any floating toys in the pool, or your child may try to reach for them.

Empty wading pools and turn them over immediately after use.

At the Beach

Supervise children at all times, whether on the sand or in the water. A lifeguard is not a babysitter.

Do not swim in areas where lifeguards are not present or when they have gone off-duty. Swim only in daylight hours. NYC lifeguards are on duty from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Be aware that waves are under constant change by weather and wind, which can influence water depth and rip currents.

Teach your child what to do if they find themselves in trouble: Remain calm, float and raise an arm to signal for help form a lifeguard.

Resources

The American Red Cross offers a free online course, Water Safety for Parents and Caregivers, which focuses on drowning awareness risks and strategies, especially for young children.

It also offers an Adult, Child and Baby First Aid/CPR/AED online course that prepares adults to recognize and treat a variety of first aid, breathing and cardiac emergencies involving adults, children and infants.

Pool Safely is a national public education campaign that works with partners around the country to reduce child drownings and entrapments in swimming pools and spas.

(Julia R. Glauboch, a registered nurse, is the trauma prevention coordinator for the Department of Surgery, Division of Trauma, at Staten Island University Hospital.)
Press Release

July 28, 2020 As PRRD highlights recovery efforts in SONA, Bong Go urges gov't to prioritize measures to help vulnerable sectors, displaced workers and returning OFWs overcome COVID-19 In light of President Rodrigo Duterte's recent State of the Nation Address, Senator Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go expressed his support to the administration's initiatives to boost its efforts in assisting key sectors most affected by the ongoing crisis so they can recover swiftly from the adverse effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. "Susuportahan po natin ang adhikain ng Pangulo na bigyang prayoridad ang mga programang makakatulong sa pinaka-nangangailangan. Buhay at interes ng ordinaryong Pilipino, lalo na 'yung mga nasa pinakamababang sektor ng lipunan, ang ating uunahin," Go said. President Duterte, during his SONA, stressed the need to ramp up government support for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), displaced workers, overseas Filipinos, and other vulnerable sectors so they can cope and quickly recover from the pandemic. The President particularly asked banks and financial institutions in the country to provide regulatory relief for MSMEs and allow loan payment extension without penalties and charges. Duterte also mentioned the Small Business Corporation's COVID Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) program which offers loans to MSMEs. "As the President said, we must intensify efforts to help MSMEs by providing responsive government assistance and services, capitalization and business operations support as we adapt to the next normal," Go emphasized. "Sa panahon ngayon, bigyan rin muna natin ng palugit sa mga bayarin ang taumbayan habang tinutulungan rin natin ang mga negosyante at yung mga gusto magnegosyo na magkaroon ng puhunan para makapagsimula muli," Go commented further. Previously, Go appealed for the grant of a subsidy program to provide assistance to MSMEs and their employees, and also called the attention of the national government to provide more support for displaced workers, particularly returning OFWs. "Bigyan muna natin ang mga Pilipino, lalo na ang mga low to middle class, ng palugit. Mahihirapan po silang magbayad sa ngayon dahil walang trabaho, walang negosyo. Mahirap kumita sa panahong ito," he added. The President, in his SONA, directed the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to provide sufficient and relevant skills training for those who lost jobs, particularly returning overseas Filipino workers. He also called on the Commission on Higher Education for scholarship programs for qualified dependents of OFWs. Duterte also asked the Land Bank of the Philippines and other government financial institutions to continue providing low interest loans to OFWs. President Duterte, then, highlighted government efforts in infrastructure investment that aim to create jobs, spur growth, and promote financial inclusiveness for Filipinos. According to him, "infrastructure projects under Build, Build, Build program are not mere springboard for the country's swift recovery, they are also economic benefits to be distributed to all corners of the country." Go, for his part, asked the Department of Labor and Employment as well as other concerned agencies to strengthen its livelihood development efforts and job creation and placement initiatives on top of the assistance being given to displaced workers. He mentioned that promoting agri-business and entrepreneurship in the countryside will provide Filipinos new hope of a better future and a better life in the provinces after the pandemic. "Sa susunod na mga buwan, dapat lang na mas palakasin ang mga programang naglalayong mabigyan ng kabuhayan ang mga nawalan ng trabaho. Kasama na dyan ang skills training, promotion of agri-businesses, lalo na sa mga probinsya, at pagbigay ng puhunan sa mga gustong magnegosyo," Go explained. "Malaking bagay din po ang commitment ng Pangulo na ipagpatuloy ang infrastructure program ng bansa upang makalikha ito ng marami pang trabaho at ma-sustain ang ating economic growth," he added. President Duterte also mentioned in his SONA the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa Program, which Go earlier suggested to the Executive branch. "I issued AO 18 directing concerned agencies to strengthen the development of special economic zones in areas outside Metro Manila. I also issued EO 114 to institutionalize the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-Asa program," Duterte said. The President also stressed the need for the creation of an executive department that will focus on matters concerning overseas Filipinos. Go, in response, has expressed his gratitude to the President for the support for his Senate Bill No. 202 seeking the creation of the Department of Overseas Filipinos. He reiterated that this measure is needed now more than ever given the impact of the crisis on the lives of millions of OFWs. "Importante dito ay may nakatutok sa kanilang pangangailangan. May isang departamento na may klarong mandato para alagaan ang 10% ng population natin na overseas Filipinos. Hirap na hirap na sila, mas pinalala pa ng pandemya," Go said. "Kaya huwag na natin silang mas pahirapan pa. Bigyan natin ng pansin ang kanilang hinaing at padaliin natin ang serbisyong dapat nilang makuha mula sa gobyerno," he added. Go stressed that reintegration efforts for returning overseas Filipinos must be prioritized and he hopes that the creation of a department solely for overseas Filipinos' concerns will ease the burden and make government service delivery be more responsive to their needs.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 11:01 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669d5150 1 Lifestyle Dior,UNESCO,Women,student Free

French luxury goods company Dior has joined hands with UNESCO to help provide education opportunities for 100 "most disadvantaged female students".

According to a statement, Dior's support for UNESCO's Global Education Coalition is the first time ever for a couture house.

Talent is universal, but opportunity is not, especially for a generation of young women whose education has been severely affected by the pandemic. By joining the Global Coalition with an initiative that empowers and carries promise for the future, the Dior couture house is sending a strong message of commitment and confidence, giving young women from disadvantaged backgrounds the chance to fulfill their dreams, Stefania Giannini, UNESCO assistant director-general for education said in the statement.

Read also: Dior temporarily shuts Plaza Senayan store after confirmed COVID-19 case

As part of the collaboration, the 100 selected students from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Jamaica, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka will be mentored by a Dior employee and join the company's 10-month online Women@Dior mentoring program launched last June.

Out of education comes freedom. For me, it seems essential to help young girls develop their self-confidence: the confidence to dare, to be independent and to do things. This initiative is more essential than ever in order to create the world of tomorrow, said Maria Grazia Chiuri, creative director of Dior womens collections. (car/kes)

Topics : Dior UNESCO Women student
The American car company Ford has introduced two new employees to the team  four-legged robot dogs named Fluffy and Spot.

The firm announced the addition of Boston Dynamics' machines at its Michigan manufacturing plant to assist human employees with a number of tasks.

The duo will be used to scan the plant with lasers and high-definition cameras to collect data on how to retool Ford's facilities.

A complete documentation of one plant can take up to two weeks, but using the bots will cut the time by half and at a fraction of the cost, according to Ford.

The American car company Ford has introduced two new employees to the team  four-legged robot dogs named Fluffy and Spot

Boston Dynamics' Spot officially went on sale for commercial and industrial use last month with a price tag of $74,500 and it appears Ford quickly jumped at the offer.

Fluffy, the name given by the robot's handler Paula Wiebelhaus, is one of the two models Ford is leasing from the robotics firm, along with another that kept the original name Spot.

Ford is unleashing the duo at its Van Dyke Transmission Plant to scan the plant floor and assist engineers in updating the original Computer Aided Design which is utilized when we're getting ready to retool our plants.

Mark Goderis, Ford's digital engineering manager, said: 'We design and build the plant. After that, over the years, changes are made that rarely get documented.'

The duo will be used to scan the plant with lasers and high-definition cameras to collect data on how to retool Ford's facilities. A complete documentation of one plant can take up to two weeks, but using the bots will cut the time by half and at a fraction of the cost, according to Ford

'By having the robots scan our facility, we can see what it actually looks like now and build a new engineering model.'

'That digital model is then used when we need to retool the plant for new products.'

Goderis explained that prior to the pilot program, employees used a tripod to scan the facility and would have to stop at each location for a few minutes in order to collect data of the area.

'Scanning one plant could take two weeks. With Fluffy's help, we are able to do it in half the time,' he said.

The previous protocol also cost about $300,000, but using Fluffy and Spot to scan Ford's plants will be a fraction of the cost.

In time, Goderis says, the intent is to be able to operate the robots remotely, programming them for plant missions and receiving reports immediately from anywhere in the country.

The previous protocol also cost about $300,000, but using Fluffy and Spot to scan Ford's plants will be a fraction of the cost

Currently, the duo is designed to follow a specific path through plants while a human employee trails behind with a tablet

Wiebelhaus said: 'There are areas in the plant that you might not want to walk into because they might be tough to maneuver.' 'It's easier and safer to send Fluffy back there'

Currently, the duo is designed to follow a specific path through plants while a human employee trails behind with a tablet.

Wiebelhaus said: 'There are areas in the plant that you might not want to walk into because they might be tough to maneuver.'

'It's easier and safer to send Fluffy back there.'

'Fluffy is an amazing manufacturing tool'

'Yes, it's interesting and new, but Fluffy should really be valued for his work and tenacity. He can do so much more than dance and roll over.

'We want to push him to the limits in the manufacturing plant and see what value he has for the company.'
Five of the 10 Chinese nationals arrested in Lao Cai Province for entering Vietnam illegally, July 27, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Tuan.

10 Chinese citizens who entered Vietnam illegally were detained Monday along with four Vietnamese accomplices.

Five of them were discovered by police in Lao Cai Province bordering China at 1 a.m. Monday while they were in a car. Two Vietnamese citizens, Duong Dinh Quyen and Nguyen Thanh Cuong, took turns to drive the car.

At the police station, Quyen and Cuong said they were hired in Nha Trang in the central province of Khanh Hoa to travel more than 1,500 km to Lao Cai, pick up the five Chinese citizens and bring them to Nha Trang.

Based on their statements, Lao Cai police informed the traffic police tasked with overseeing the Noi Bai - Lao Cai highway connecting the two cities to find a car that was driving five other Chinese citizens the same day with a driver and an assistant from Nha Trang.

The Chinese group had hired Vietnamese citizens for around VND500,000 ($21.66) to help them cross the Nanxi River, a tributary of the Red River in China's Yunnan Province, and enter Muong Khuong District in Lao Cai.

The foreigners had come to Vietnam to work at factories in Nha Trang and Da Nang, police said, without giving further details.

Earlier this month, a criminal probe was launched into three Vietnamese brokering illegal entry to Vietnam after they helped four Chinese nationals cross the border into Lao Cai Province.

On Saturday, Vietnamese police arrested a Chinese man involved in a ring bringing Chinese nationals into Da Nang and the neighboring Quang Nam Province illegally.

The country has banned entry by foreign nationals since March 22 with exceptions and conditions, including 14-day quarantining on arrival.
Aggrieved customers of collapsed savings and loans companies have welcomed former President John Mahamas promise to pay all customers their locked-up funds within one year in office.

Ezekiel Annor Akagbo, Secretary and spokesperson for the group, on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 Fm, emphasised that voting in John Mahama to fulfill his promises within a year is to a large extent meaningful rather than waiting for five years to be paid their full deposits under the Akufo-Addo regime.

The Flagbearer of the main opposition NDC, John Dramani Mahama has promised to pay within one year, the locked-up funds of all customers of the collapsed financial firms in the banking sector cleanup undertaken by the NPP government.

This came up at the outdooring of Mahamas running mate, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang in the capital, Accra.

The former President while addressing the gathering said his administration will not put together any long plan that will delay the payment.

We will Within one year of being in office pay customers of the collapsed financial institutions all funds locked up, he stated.

In a reaction to the development, Annor said his members had a sigh of relief following the former leaders promises last night.

Infact my members are very happy and they have faith in Mahama that hell do a full-scale payment of our deposits. Its even more refreshing that he has said that within one year hell pay all the 3.3 million customers within a year. The namby-pamdy approach by this government has not helped matters and so we wont risk it anymore.

---kasapafmonline
IOM said local authorities started shooting when the migrants attempted to escape from the disembarkation point.

Libyan authorities have shot dead three Sudanese migrants who tried to escape after they were intercepted by the coastguard in the Mediterranean Sea and returned to the North African country, the United Nations said.

The three were among the 73 Europe-bound migrants, mostly from Sudan, who were returned late on Monday to the western coastal town of Khoms, said Safa Msehli, spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), on Tuesday.

Khoms is about 120km (75 miles) east of Tripoli.

The IOM said local authorities started shooting when the migrants attempted to escape from the disembarkation point.

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Two migrants died on site and a third died of his wounds while being transported to a hospital, Msehli told Al Jazeera.

Two other migrants were wounded and were taken to local hospitals while survivors were moved to detention centres, the IOM added.

This is not the first time people are subjected to this senseless violence and confirms yet again that no one should be returned to Libya, Msehli said.

There was no immediate comment from the UN-recognised government in the capital, Tripoli.

Violence, human rights abuses, disappearances and deaths  that is how the situation on the Mediterranean is being described as with migrants and refugees, who flee Libya hoping to reach Europe, losing their lives at sea and also in Libya.

Since 2014, more than 20,000 migrants and refugees have died at sea while trying to reach Europe from Africa.

UN figures show that at least 36,000 people have been intercepted by the Libyan coastguard and returned to the North African country since February 2017.

An Associated Press investigation revealed the European Union sent more than 327.9 million euros ($373.8m) to Libya, largely channelled through UN agencies.

The EU has also reportedly spent more than 90 million euros ($100m) in funding and training the Libyan coastguard to stop the crossings.

Disembarking survivors in #Libya is a violation of maritime law. As people continue to flee war & abuse via the #CentralMed, civil rescue assets are prevented from saving lives at sea & State-led rescue capacity is lacking. The #EU must take action now to prevent further deaths  SOS MEDITERRANEE (@SOSMedIntl) July 28, 2020

Libya acts as a significant gateway for African migrants hoping to reach Europe. A 2018 UN report highlighted that migrants are subjected to unimaginable horrors from the time they enter Libya, during their stay and in their attempts to cross the Mediterranean, if they make it that far.

The suffering of migrants in Libya is intolerable, said IOM Libya Chief of Mission Federico Soda.

The use of excessive violence results yet again in the senseless loss of life, amid a lack of action to change a system that often fails to provide any degree of protection.

Last week, an Eritrean migrant died after arriving at the UN refugee centre in Tripoli from a trafficking centre in Bani Walid in the northwest, UNHCR said.

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In May, the family of a slain Libyan human trafficker attacked a group of migrants in a smuggling warehouse in the desert town of Mizdah, killing at least 26 Bangladeshi and four African migrants.

This incident underlines starkly that Libya is not a safe port for disembarkation, said UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Situation Vincent Cochetel.

There is a need for increased search-and-rescue capacity on the Mediterranean, including NGO vessels, in order to increase the likelihood of rescue operations leading to disembarkations in safe ports outside of Libya. There is also a need for more solidarity between Mediterranean coastal states.

Libya, a large oil producer, has been engulfed in chaos since 2011 when longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed in an uprising.

It is now split between two rival administrations: the internationally backed Government of National Accord led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, and the House of Representatives allied to renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar and his self-styled Libyan National Army.
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The Lagos Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission( EFCC) on Monday, July 27, 2020 arraigned a property company, Renoccon Properties Development Limited and its Managing Director, Babatunde Morakinyo for allegedly laundering the sum of $1.29million and N46million respectively.

The property firm and its managing director were docked before Justice Rilwan Alkawa of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on a six-count charge bordering on money laundering. The defendants allegedly received the sum of $1.29million and N46million without notifying the EFCC ,as required under Section 5(1)(a) and 10(1)b) of the Money Laundering Act.

EFCC counsel, Ebuka Okongwu told the court that Morakinyo and his firm failed to notify the Commission in writing when four transactions: $1million, $290,703, N16million and N30million were made into the accounts of Renocoon Properties Development Limited. The transactions were allegedly made between 2013 and 2015 in violation of the provisions of the Money Laundering Act 2011. Morakinyo and his firm pleaded not guilty to the charges when read to them.

Defence counsel, Okechukwu Edeze sought a short adjournment to file for bail for his clients. Justice Alkawa granted his prayers and adjourned hearing for bail till Tuesday, July 28, 2020 and trial October 15, 2020.
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece is open to a dialogue with Turkey but not under threats, Greece's foreign minister, Nikos Dendias, said on Tuesday.

"I want to repeat that Greece is always open to a dialogue with Turkey, but a dialogue not under the regime of threats, insults or attempts to create a fait accompli," Dendias said after a meeting with his Spanish counterpart, Arancha Gonzalez Laya.

(Reporting By Renee Maltezou; writing by Michele Kambas)
It appears San Francisco officials wont take further action against the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco following revelations that Saints Peter and Paul Church in North Beach hosted a wedding in early July, after which at least 10 attendees tested positive for the coronavirus, including the newlywed couple, two guests said.

The wedding came just days after City Attorney Dennis Herrera sent the archdiocese a cease-and-desist letter ordering church officials to stop holding large, indoor services, which churches had been conducting in violation of the citys pandemic health orders.

Herreras office sent a deputy city attorney to the iconic church at 666 Filbert St. after learning the wedding was taking place. The attorney, Peter Keith, shut down the ceremony and ordered church officials to move the event outdoors, which they did, the city said.

Most of the guests  nearly 100 invited to assemble in the church  observed the exchange of vows over a video call from their cars. Photos of the wedding posted online and viewed by The Chronicle showed more than 12 people gathered to watch the outdoor proceeding, which appeared to also be a violation of the health order.

A rehearsal dinner and a reception were held in other Bay Area locations.

John Cote, a spokesman for the City Attorneys Office, said the agency doesnt comment on potential enforcement actions in advance. But in an email to The Chronicle, Herrera said his office had followed up with the archdiocese to ensure a similar event would not occur.

Indoor gatherings are not allowed, for good reason, Herrera said. The reported COVID-19 outbreak that resulted from the archdioceses failures has hopefully shocked its leadership into taking responsibility for the life and death consequences of what is happening in its churches.

Enforcing the citys health orders is largely in the hands of the San Francisco Police Department, which can issue citations that could become misdemeanors punishable by fines or imprisonment. Police Chief Bill Scott has said repeatedly that officers would resort to citations only as a last resort.

Police issued 123 admonishments  requests to alter behavior  between March 17 and Sunday, according to SFPD data. Officers wrote just 26 citations over that same period of time, more than half of them against businesses.

The wedding appeared to violate the health order and Herreras cease-and-desist letter, which threatened a temporary restraining order if the Catholic churches continued to hold large, indoor gatherings, but city officials appear reticent about bringing punitive actions against the church.

Throughout this pandemic, the citys enforcement focus has been on education and compliance. But we have not hesitated to use stricter enforcement tools if and when we determine those are appropriate, Herrera said.

A report from the City Attorneys Office indicated that the churchs leadership helped organize the wedding ceremony. Part of the accommodations for the event including having guests park in an underground garage and enter the church through a back door that led to the church interior.

Saints Peter and Paul Pastor Gael Sullivan said the parking and entry arrangements were not meant to conceal the wedding, but to prevent tourists or other onlookers from entering during the ceremony.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

That seems to conflict with an email the brides father sent to guests the day before the ceremony saying the parking arrangements were necessary due to concerns with the visibility to the public of the wedding.

Mike Brown, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said archdiocese officials cannot monitor activity at all of its 89 churches, which are spread across San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties.

The Catholic church is not a top-down organization. Brown said. Its decentralized. Those pastors, theyre in charge of day-to-day operations like liturgies, funerals, weddings, whatever.

Brown said Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone has been in regular contact with priests, reminding them to follow local health orders.

One such email to priests was sent out the day after Herreras cease-and-desist letter, re-emphasizing the importance of following local health orders, Brown said.

Little else has changed since then, Brown added, though the archdiocese is aware of the heightened scrutiny its now facing.

Theres a bit of a magnifying glass turned toward the Catholic church, he said.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
Rotimi Akeredolu, governor of Ondo, says defeating Eyitayo Jegede, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the October 10 go...

Rotimi Akeredolu, governor of Ondo, says defeating Eyitayo Jegede, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the October 10 governorship election may not be easy.





Akeredolu had defeated Jegede, who was also PDPs candidate in the 2016 governorship election.





Speaking with journalists at the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) after appearing before the APC primary election appeal committee in Abuja, Akeredolu, who described Jegede as a friend, said he hopes that their campaigns would be issue-based and without violence.





Jegede is my friend. We are colleagues and both members of the inner bar, Akeredolu said.





I dont have anything against him and I just pray that our campaign should be issue-based without violence. I am sure that he knows that it will not be easy for him.





Yes, it may not be easy for me to win, but by His grace, I am going to win. I can assure that as it was in the beginning, so it shall be now and forevermore. We will win this election by the grace of God.





Asked if the defection of Agboola Ajayi, his deputy, to the PDP can affect his votes during the election, Akeredolu replied that Ajayi has no political influence and that he will even defeat him in his local government area.





Ajayi had defected to the PDP in June and had contested for the position of the flagbearer of the party but lost to Jegede.





Akeredolu described Ajayis exit from the ruling party as good riddance to bad rubbish.





He said the APC had thought they could accommodate the deputy governor but he decided to return to where he truly belongs.





He said as a big brother, he would advise Ajayi to give all his support to Jegede since the former had boasted that he helped him (Akeredolu) to become governor in 2016.





For me, the deputy leaving the APC to return to the PDP is good radiance to bad rubbish, Akeredolu said.





We thought we could accommodate him at the APC but since he returned to where he truly belongs, it is all well and good. I always wish people the best I can.





From what I have been told, he has lost the ticket and I pray he wont jump to another place but if he does, all well and good.





However, for his own sake and as a big brother, I will advise him to stay with Jegede, support him very well.




WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil futures settled lower on Tuesday amid concerns about the outlook for near term energy demand due to the surge in coronavirus cases and fears of fresh lockdown measures. Traders were also looking ahead to the weekly oil reports from the American Petroleum Institute (API) and Energy Information Administration (EIA). While API's inventory report is due out later today, the EIA is scheduled to come out with its data Wednesday morning. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down $0.56 or about 1.4% at $41.04 a barrel. Brent crude futures slid $0.19 or more than 0.4% to $43.22 a barrel. Investors also kept a watch on U.S. stimulus talks and the Federal Reserve's policy meeting. The Fed will release its monetary policy statement Wednesday afternoon. U.S. Senate Republicans on Monday proposed a $1 trillion coronavirus aid package that slashes unemployment benefits from the current $600 per week to $200, generating swift backlash from Democrats. The proposal extends the paycheck protection program, which is scheduled to expire on August 8. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged Democrats to compromise with Republicans on the plan, as unemployment benefits will expire at the end of this week. In news about coronavirus, a report from World Health Organization (WHO) says global Covid-19 cases doubled over the past six weeks. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he would resume the Emergency Committee on Thursday to re-evaluate the Covid-19 pandemic. 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.
Economic recovery

The UK is experiencing a K-shaped recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, economists have warned, with the employed continuing to see their fortunes rise as the recently unemployed are plunged into financial hardship.

As the Treasury and Bank of England attempt to stimulate a rapid V-shaped bounceback over a more painful and prolonged L-shaped recovery, elsewhere, fears are mounting over the widening gulf between the haves and have nots.

With experts warning that UK unemployment could hit 10 percent by the end of the year once the furlough scheme ends, blue-collar workers and small business owners are likely to be plunged into a downward trajectory.

However, white-collar employees, who have been mostly insulated from redundancies and able to adapt to home working during lockdown, will benefit from reduced expenditure and higher levels of saving.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, Paul Dales, the chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said that the concept of a K-shape recovery was certainly visible when looking at Britons income.

The upward leg is the 'haves' who have kept their jobs and the downward leg represents the 'have nots" who have lost theirs, he added.

I can't quite think of any recession which has had such a big difference on people's incomes.

Some people are sitting there with piles of cash in the bank and others will be wondering how they are going to buy food. The aggregate picture disguises a massive difference."

The two parallel realities have also been identified in the US, where more than 30 million Americans are now collecting unemployment benefits at the same time that middle classes have been widely shielded thanks to a multi-trillion dollar rescue package.

According to Axios, a $3 trillion bond buying spree by the Federal Reserve and more than $2 trillion in relief spending from Congress has helped to protect asset holders, as has the soaring US housing market.

Story continues

Writing for the Financial Times last month, Professor Peter Atwater, a lecturer at the College of William and Mary, a public university in Virginia, argued that the pandemic represented only an inconvenience for the wealthy and those able to work from home.

However, while they have adapted to new technologies and new routines, Prof Atwater said that this had not been the case for those outside the work-from-home bubble.

Service workers have been laid off en masse, while many essential workers have had little choice but to work even as their employers have awkwardly and inconsistently adapted workplaces to a pandemic environment, he continued.

Put simply, the haves are largely back to where they were before the outbreak, while, despite unprecedented fiscal and monetary policy action, the have-nots have even less.
Qatar Airways to fly to Cebu. Image: Qatar Airways.

The national carrier will also resume its first China flights, with a once weekly Guangzhou service.

Qatar Airways Group chief executive, Akbar Al Baker said: We are delighted to be launching a new direct service to Cebu, offering our passengers another gateway into the Philippines. Being the airline that has never stopped flying since COVID-19 hit, it has been Qatar Airways mission to take people home safely during the pandemic, and we have helped more than two million people get home to their loved ones since February.

The resumption of Guangzhou passenger services is one of the significant steps taken by Qatar Airways to demonstrate our confidence in the gradual recovery of the regional travel market and global connectivity. Since the COVID-19 crisis started, we have challenged ourselves to be at the forefront and combat the effects of this global pandemic, by volunteering our services to deliver worldwide medical supplies coordinated by Chinese Embassies and Consulates. With over 40 onward available connections to Africa, Europe and the Middle East, passengers from Cebu and Guangzhou will be able to enjoy the Best Airline in the World and the Worlds Best Business Class Seat while also having access to the largest and broadest network in the region via Hamad International Airport, the Best Airport in the Middle East.

In addition to scheduled freighter services, we have also operated a large number of charters and freight-only passenger aircraft to meet Chinas surging demand for imports and exports. With the resumption of passenger flights, we will have 49 flights in total, comprising of passenger freighters, belly-hold cargo flights and freighters in and out of Mainland China each week, providing more than 2,500 tonnes of weekly cargo capacity each way."
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - German stocks edged higher on Tuesday as investors kept a close watch on U.S. stimulus talks and awaited clues from a Federal Reserve meeting. The U.S. Fed kicks off its two-day meeting later in the day, although no change in policy is expected. Investors will focus on a press conference by Chairman Jerome Powell for more indications about the policy outlook. The benchmark DAX rose 48 points, or 0.38 percent, to 12,887 after finishing marginally higher in the previous session. Fuchs Petrolub AG shares fell over 2 percent. The company engaged in the lubricant business said it expects a drop in earnings in the range of 25 percent for the financial year 2020. In economic releases, German manufacturers' export expectations strengthened in July, survey data from the ifo institute showed today. The ifo export expectations index for manufacturing rose to plus 6.9 points in July from minus 2.2 points in June. Cautious optimism is spreading among German exporters, Clemens Fuest, ifo President said. 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.
Press Release

July 28, 2020 Bong Go commends PRRD for inspiring SONA; says gov't must now deliver on commitments to give Filipinos hope of a better future amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis Senator Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go commended President Rodrigo Duterte for an inspiring State of the Nation Address that articulated the government's plans, goals and vision for a better future for Filipinos despite the challenges the country is facing brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Go, "the President was able to clearly lay down measures in his speech that will strengthen the fight against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, address the immediate needs of the people to overcome the hardships, and sustain the gains of the administration in fulfilling its promise of a comfortable life for all." "Most of all, the speech emphasized how important it is for Filipinos to stay united in the spirit of 'bayanihan' and 'malasakit sa kapwa tao' in order for us to achieve our goals and lead our country towards a 'better normal' and better quality of life despite the challenges that we are currently facing," Go said. Go is also hopeful that once a vaccine is made available to counter the COVID-19 disease, the government shall ensure that this will be made accessible to Filipinos who need it most. "Paghandaan natin at pagplanuhan na para masigurong mabibigyan lahat ng Pilipinong mangangailangan nito, hindi lang ang mga may kaya sa buhay. Unahin po natin ang kapakanan ng mga mahihirap," he stressed. Go commended the President's efforts disclosed in his fifth SONA given on July 27, that there are ongoing discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping to guarantee the country's early access to the COVID-19 vaccine once it is available. President Duterte mentioned in his SONA that days ago, he discussed with Republic of China President Xi Jinping the possibility of China providing assistance to the Philippines in accessing the vaccine once it is made available in order for the country to "normalize as fast as possible." To support these ongoing efforts, the Senator, who serves as Chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography and Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, pledged to fight for the needed budget for the procurement and subsequent production of the vaccine once it is available. "Ang buong mundo po ay naghihintay sa bakuna laban sa COVID-19 upang bumalik sa normal ang kanilang mga pamumuhay. Sa panahon na matuklasan na ito, dapat po ay handa tayo," he added. In an interview at the Senate earlier in the day, Go repeated his call for the equitable access to the vaccine once it is available. He shared that the government had allocated PhP 1.5 billion as the country prepares to participate in the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility, an international initiative to fast track the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee their availability especially to poorer countries. Meanwhile, Go also lauded the decision of the President to not yet allow face-to-face classes until a vaccine for COVID-19 is available and until all risks of exposure to sickness are eliminated. The Senator stressed that the government must first and foremost protect human life above all else. He expressed concern that many Filipino children in poor and isolated communities still lack access to basic health services and remain highly vulnerable to preventable diseases. "Sa anumang desisyong gagawin ng gobyerno, buhay muna bago lahat ang uunahin natin," said Go. Moreover, Go urged the Department of Information and Communications Technology to accelerate efforts to provide universal and affordable internet access which would benefit the transition to E-governance, E-commerce and E-learning of various sectors. Go added that expanding the availability of the internet and increasing digital opportunities will contribute to continuous learning and development especially for the youth. Earlier in the day, Go filed a measure institutionalizing the transition of the government to e-governance in the digital age amid the current challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Senate Bill No. 1738, or the E-Governance Act of 2020, mandates the government to establish an integrated, interconnected, and interoperable information and resource-sharing and communications network spanning the entirety of the national and local government, an internal records management information system, an information database, and digital portals for the delivery of public services.
The Venice Film Festival will put the accent on homegrown Italian cinema in September among its eclectic offering of international films, as the prestigious festival in its 77th year faces unprecedented challenges in the time of coronavirus. In a chaotic year that has seen the cancellation of rival competitions, shuttered film production and closed movie theatres across the globe, the festival in Italy's beloved canal city will proceed from September 2 to 12 with 18 films vying for the top award, the Golden Lion. Auteurs with films in the main competition hail from Mexico, Azerbaijan, Israel, Russia, Iran, Japan, and India, among other countries, organisers said on Tuesday. "Cinema has not been overwhelmed by the tsunami of the pandemic but retains an enviable vitality," said festival director Alberto Barbera. At the same time, he warned that some "spectacular titles" would be missing, still blocked by ongoing lockdowns around the world. Even so, "the heart of the festival is saved," Barbera said. - Paparazzi-free? - Four of the main competition films are Italian -- "Le Sorella Macaluso," from director Emma Dante, who made her Venice debut in 2012; Claudio Noce's "Padrenostro" about Italy's wave of terrorism in the 1970s seen through children's eyes; "Notturno" by 2013 Golden Lion winner Gianfranco Rosi, which was shot over two years in Syria, and "Miss Marx" by Susanna Nicchiarelli about Karl Marx's youngest daughter. The highest profile film in competition, which has already got some Oscar buzz, is US director Chloe Zhao's "Nomadland," starring two-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand and Academy Award "Best Actor" nominee David Strathairn. Opening the festival, but out of competition, will be Daniele Luchetti's "Lacci" (The Ties), a feature set in Naples about a marriage threatened by infidelity, the first time in over a decade that Venice's opening film has been Italian. The Biennale di Venezia, as it is called in Italian, has taken on outsized importance this year as film festivals across have the globe have been cancelled, including Venice's main competitor, the glamourous Cannes Film Festival on the Cote d'Azur, originally planned for May. Although familiar scenes of throngs of paparazzi snapping photographs of A-listers on the red carpet and screaming fans behind barricades hoping for autographs from their favourite stars may be unlikely, this year's festival promises to offer a wide range of film styles, including auteur, horror and gangster films, documentaries as well as comedies. - 'Sign of recovery' - Fifty countries are represented in the festival, and within the main competition eight out of the 18 films were directed by women, a figure Barbera called "extremely significant." The festival's president, Roberto Cicutto, told reporters that the 2020 offering "has not renounced quantity nor the number of movies in the official selection." "This is a sign of recovery... It's like a laboratory, a test of how such an important event can be organised," he said, adding that safety measures would include empty seats between moviegoers, temperatures taken at entrances and online-only tickets. Other festivals cancelled this year include the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, New York's Tribeca Film Festival and South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Cannes, the highest profile festival to cancel, will bestow a "Cannes 2020" label on selected films that would have been shown on the Croisette in May but which will now premiere at other festivals. At this year's Venice Film Festival, there will be 18 films competing for the top award, the Golden Lion
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

The violence carried out against Azerbaijanis by the radical groups of the Armenian diaspora against diplomatic missions and members of Azerbaijani communities in various countries have been highlighted in the Italian media, the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Italy told Trend.

Articles published in Kmetro0, Gironale Diplomatico, Agenzia Nova said that radical groups of the Armenian Diaspora wearing T-shirts with the logos of the internationally recognized terrorist organization (ASALA), as well as the extremely extremist Armenian Dashnaktsutyun party, having organized extremely aggressive attacks in front of the diplomatic missions of Azerbaijan in Belgium, the US, France, the UK, Sweden, Poland, Australia, the Netherlands and other countries of the world, committed acts of vandalism in recent days against the buildings of diplomatic missions, diplomatic staff, members of Azerbaijani communities and their property, and promoted these acts of vandalism on their social media pages.

Following several days of intense armed clashes, after Armenia made a gross ceasefire violation and launched attacks in the direction of Azerbaijan's Tovuz district on July 12, Azerbaijanis living abroad started staging peaceful protests, calling to put an end to Armenia's aggressive occupation policy.

The rallies were met with harsh response from the Armenian diaspora members.

According to publications by Italian media, about 3,000 extremist members of the Armenian community in California, in an attempt to hold a protest in front of the Azerbaijani Consulate General in Los Angeles, ignoring the legal demands of the local police, deliberately attacked 40 members of the Azerbaijani community who were there. As a result of the attack, seven members of the Azerbaijani community, including a woman, were seriously injured, four of whom were hospitalized.

Extremist Armenian groups, which organized a protest in front of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Belgium, attacked the embassys employees, as well as members of the Azerbaijani community, and also using stones, sharp cutting tools and explosives, resulting in a total of six people injured, including the European correspondent of the Azerbaijani REAL TV channel and the embassys staff," said the message.

This vandalism by radical Armenian forces is not new either for Azerbaijan or for other countries that have faced Armenian terrorism. In 1970-1980, the ASALA and other Armenian terrorist organizations killed more than 70 people and carried out more than 235 terrorist attacks in 22 countries, during which 24 Turkish diplomats were killed, said the embassy's statement.

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.
A weather forecast in Tajikistan by the Moscow-based Mir TV channel warning of a coming heatwave has irked Ashgabat because it mentions Turkmenistan, which feels it implied the coronavirus would be carried into its neighbor by the weather system.

The Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a statement on July 28 that it had "deep concerns" over the weather forecast, saying it was "politically incorrect" to mention Turkmenistan, the only country in Central Asia that has not officially registered a single coronavirus case within its borders, at a time of heightened fears over how the coronavirus and other infections spread by air.

"We believe that any mention of the specific name of a country in the context of the movement of air masses from or through its territory may raise suspicions of the transfer of dangerous infections to other countries," the Foreign Ministry said.

"Therefore, the Turkmen side, noting the political shortsightedness of the correspondent who prepared and disseminated the information in question, stresses that violations of the norms of political ethics established in international affairs are unacceptable," it added.

Neither Tajik officials, nor Mir TV, have commented on the Turkmen statement.

Although Turkmenistan has not officially registered any coronavirus cases, RFE/RL correspondents have reported that local hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients with pneumonia symptoms, some of whom, including medical personnel, have died.

In some parts of the country, so-called quarantine zones have been established and some industrial facilities are being shut down.

In recent days, the Turkmen authorities ordered people to stay home during one of the most important Islamic holidays, Eid al-Adha, which is marked on August 1-2 this year, "to avoid the dangerous effects of dust."

Earlier this month, the Health Ministry urged people to wear medical masks outdoors and maintain social distance due to the "high dust content in the air."



In the local media, "harmful dust" has turned into a euphemism for COVID-19.

The leader of a World Health Organization mission, Catherine Smallwood, told a press conference in Ashgabat on July 15 that the mission had concerns about reports of pneumonia in the tightly controlled energy-rich country.

Smallwood advised the Turkmen government to activate "critical public-health measures in Turkmenistan, as if COVID-19 was circulating."
Google Pixel 4a launch date has become one of the top mysteries in the tech world. It is imminent but no one officially knows when the affordable version of Pixel 4 will see the light of day. Now, in an attempt to put an end to the speculations, a tipster claims to know the final launch date of the Pixel 4a. Jon Prosser has said Google Pixel 4a and Pixel 4a XL will launch on August 3 in the US. He earlier predicted the launch to take place on July 13 but it got postponed, said Prosser. Google Pixel 4a could finally be a reality on August 3.

Prosser took to Twitter to divulge the information on when Pixel 4a and Pixel 4a XL can be expected. Basis the Pixel 4a embargo letters and review units Google has sent to the local media; Prosser is dead sure the launch date is August 3. However, Google has not said anything on the matter so far. It did, however, briefly list the Pixel 4a on its online store in Canada without any concrete details, which led to people believing the launch is finally nigh.

If the August 3 launch of the Pixel 4a materialises, it will be the third postponed date. Previously, Google was expected to launch the Pixel 4a series at the Android 11 launch event on June 3. It did not happen due to the coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement rife in the US and got delayed. Later, Prosser said the Pixel 4a will debut on July 13 but that did not happen too. Meanwhile, Google's rival Apple outed its long-awaited iPhone SE 2020 as the affordable iPhone model for this year and maybe beyond.

For its specifications, the Google Pixel 4a is said to be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 SoC paired with 6GB of RAM and up to 128GB of storage. There will likely be a 5.8-inch LCD display with a punch-hole for the first time on a Pixel phone. Obviously, the Pixel 4a and Pixel 4a XL will run on Android 10 and they should soon be receiving the Android 11 update. The Google Pixel 4a will have a single rear camera in the same squarish module at the back. The Google Pixel 4a is also expected to come with 18W fast charging.

The leaks have also suggested the Pixel 4a price in the US. The 64GB version is said to cost $299 (roughly Rs 22,500) while the 128GB version will reportedly be priced at $349 (roughly Rs 26,000).
During the coronavirus edition of the hajj, which begins today, the Black Stone is off limits. The authorities in Saudi Arabia are issuing bottled water instead of letting pilgrims drink from the source. A special package for hajjis includes sterilized pebbles to hurl at the devil and personal prayer rugs.

Its another example of a major gathering that has been drastically scaled back to ensure safety and prevent contagion during the pandemic. Across the Middle East, celebrations for Eid al-Adha, the festival that marks the end of the hajj this weekend, will likewise be toned down.

Numbers: Last year, 2.5 million Muslims went on the hajj. This year, Saudi Arabia said it would allow only 1,000 pilgrims from within the kingdom.

Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.

In other developments:
Search2

There is a seemingly endless number of business and technical cases which underline the need for identity governance  from employee onboarding/offboarding to third-party access, and more.

However, organizations often struggle to understand where they should focus their identity governance strategy. In this brief video, observe an overview of SailPoints Identity Now hub  which highlights how to search and track access.
A plumber has died after being 'beaten then run over by a van driver' after two men were stabbed in a pub fight.

Frank Bulbrook was killed near the Gordon Arms in Chislehurst, Bromley, south east London, at around 9pm on Friday.

The 34-year-old was believed to have been running away from the attackers when a blue Transit van allegedly mowed him down in front of his mother and drove off.

Relatives paid tribute to Mr Bulbrook, who had a 'heart of gold' and was 'well mannered and respectful'.

The horrific killing came after a fight broke out at the pub, where two men, 30 and 26, were stabbed at around 8.50pm.

They were both taken to hospital but were later charged with murder. A 20-year-old man was also charged with murder.

Frank Bulbrook (pictured) was killed near the Gordon Arms in Chislehurst, Bromley, south east London, at around 9pm on Friday

The 34-year-old was believed to have been running away from the attackers when a blue Transit van allegedly mowed him down in front of his mother and drove off (pictured, the pub)

Police were also called to the hit and run involving the van and Mr Bulbrook half a mile away. The van was found abandoned nearby.

Mr Bulbrook's mother Sarah - who he had been living with after a break up - is understood to have witnessed the collision and was left 'hysterically screaming'.

A family friend told the Sun: 'I can see his beautiful blue eyes now. He was so handsome and very popular with the ladies.

'Frank was such a gentleman and very well mannered and respectful.

'He's going to be missed an awful lot. We will see that at his huge funeral which will be attended by hundreds of people, I'm sure. Everybody loved Frank.'

The victim's brothers were seen in tears outside the family home this morning and were too devastated to talk about his death.

A bouquet of flowers at the scene of the crash had a note which read: 'Frankie Bulbrook.

'To me always a laugh, you would help anyone out. Absolute pleasure knowing you. Sleep tight Frank. RIP Brother.'

The horrific killing came as a fight broke out at the pub, where two men, 30 and 26, were stabbed at around 8.50pm

A neighbour added the plumber had a 'heart of gold', would work hard and always helped others.

Forensic police were working outside the Gordon Arms on Friday night and had a cordon in place.

A woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said: 'My mum's mate ran over and gave him CPR as she's first aid trained but sadly she couldn't save him. She's in shock as it was so traumatic.

'The victim's mum came down with other family and was screaming hysterically when they told her he had died. They were shouting his name Frank.'

Met Police continued to search the area for evidence on Friday night as a cordon was put in place

Investigators in blue overalls set up a forensics tent on the grass near the scene of the collision and were seen working through the night on Friday

Her friend added: 'It seemed like a gang fight. We saw it break out and then watched it carry on from the house.

'I was just trying to make sure my mum and sister were all right. I saw the van go onto the green and then I heard someone go ''oh they've hit him''.

Met Police said the van did not stop following the collision, and was found abandoned nearby.

A spokesman said the two incidents are currently being treated as linked, while extensive cordons and road closures were in place.

Investigators in blue overalls set up a forensics tent on grass near to the scene of the collision and were seen working through the night.

Detective Chief Inspector Richard Leonard added: 'All three men sustained their injuries in a small area close to the Gordon Arms pub.

'I believe that there are people who may have witnessed the fight, and one of the victims being struck by a van, who are yet to speak with us. I would urge them to come forward.

'I would also like to hear from anyone who captured any images on their mobile phones. This could play an important part in our investigation.'
By PTI

KOLKATA: In a surprise move, the ruling TMC in West Bengal on Tuesday named former MP and Saradha scam-accused Kunal Ghosh as one of the party's 34 spokespersons for both national and state level.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has named 12 of its leaders as national spokespersons and 22 as state level spokespersons, according to a statement issued by the party.

Senior TMC leaders such as Derek O' Brien, West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra, party MP Sougata Roy, and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grandnephew and former party MP Sugato Bose are among those named as national spokespersons, while Ghosh along with actor-MP Nusrat Jahan Ruhi, Omprakash Mishra, and Subrata Mukherjee figure in the state-level list.

Ghosh was the CEO of Saradha Media, an arm of the Saradha Group which was busted in 2013 for its illegal operations.

He was arrested on November 23, 2013, by the Bidhannagar Police for alleged involvement in a ponzi scam.

The TMC had reportedly suspended him from the party just two months before his arrest on the charge of anti-party activities.

Ghosh had claimed that several TMC leaders were also involved in the scam.

Sources in the party, however, said the leadership did not send him any official suspension notice, and Ghosh, too, never claimed to have received one.

The former Rajya Sabha MP, who was in jail till October 2016, is currently out on bail.

"I had read in the newspapers that the party had suspended me. But I have never received any communication from the party in this regard. I was always in touch with the party. I am thankful to our leader Mamata Banerjee for allowing me to serve as spokesperson," Ghosh told PTI.

Over the past three years, he was seen attending various TMC programmes and had even shared the dais with party supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during the July 21 Martyrs day rally from 2017-19.

He had also conducted a press conference, as a part of a TMC sympathizers' group, and spoke in favour of the party and the state government during the 2018 panchayat polls.

Last week, the TMC supremo had effected a major reshuffle in the organisation, inducting several new faces and axing some old guards, with a thrust on strengthening the party in areas where it has yielded ground to challenger BJP.

The rejig in the party was expected, given the growing challenge from the BJP, which emerged as the main opposition party by winning 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state last year, bringing down the TMC tally to 22 from 34.

West Bengal is scheduled to go to polls in April-May next year with Banerjee completing a decade in office.
While Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has expressed doubt that a statewide mask mandate would hold up in court, momentum continues to build among state Democrats for a face-covering requirement in Wisconsin.

On Tuesday, state Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, said a petition supporting a statewide mask mandate amassed more than 8,000 signatures from hundreds of municipalities in less than a day.

More than 30 states across the nation have implemented statewide mask orders in efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The tremendous support we have received for a statewide mask mandate has been overwhelming, Larson said in a statement. What some might think is the absolute least we can do is also the simplest, most effective way for us to control the spread of COVID-19 and give us a fighting chance to open schools safely this academic year.

While Evers has said a statewide mask mandate would be unlikely, he said last week the surge in positive cases of COVID-19 had accelerated his consideration of such an order.

Evers also reiterated on a Thursday call with reporters that his authority to impose a statewide order to limit the spread of COVID-19  which has killed 906 Wisconsinites as of Tuesday  is likely limited by the state Supreme Courts decision to toss out his stay-at-home order in May.

Jeffrey Mandell, a liberal Madison attorney who has worked for Evers, said its important to note the the Supreme Court ruling focused on the authority of Department of Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm, not Evers gubernatorial powers.

As a legal matter, it does not directly prohibit the governor from acting, Mandell said. I think it would be overly simplistic for anyone to say, Legislature v. Palm entirely decided the authority that Gov. Evers has with respect to COVID-19, thats over and done with.

The courts ruling focused on Palms extension of the Evers administrations safer at home order, which closed nonessential businesses and limited services at others. The court ruled Palm exceeded the authority granted to her by state law when she extended the rule without legislative oversight.

Ultimately, the court struck down the order on a 4-3 vote, with conservative-backed Justice Brian Hagedorn joining the courts two liberal-backed members in support of the order.

While the court found Palm erred in not involving the Legislature, it left untouched the state law allowing her to issue orders to address outbreaks of communicable diseases, leaving some to believe a mask mandate could still be passed in Wisconsin.

Earlier this month, Patrick Remington, a UW-Madison emeritus professor and former chief medical officer for Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention in the state Division of Health, said the legal question behind a statewide mask mandate would come down to the courts interpretation of reasonable and necessary.

Evers has said he would not hesitate to pass a mask mandate if he knew the matter wouldnt face a legal challenge.

On Aug. 1, liberal-backed Justice Jill Karofsky joins the seven-member state Supreme Court  following her April victory over current conservative-backed Justice Daniel Kelly. With Karofsky on the court, a statewide mask order could face better odds of withstanding a legal challenge.

Expired May 11

Mandell said another question is whether Evers administration has the authority to declare a new public health emergency. The states original order expired May 11.

I dont think it forecloses the notion that the governor has legal authority to issue a statewide public health order under certain circumstances, Mandell said. So the question then becomes, what kind of health order and what kind of circumstances?

Evers issued a mandate earlier this month for state executive branch employees to wear masks while working in state buildings.

Several state GOP leaders, who also could pass a Wisconsin mask order through legislation, have said they oppose a statewide rule but would support local requirements.

Cities join in

Last week, Racine, Green Bay, Whitewater and Superior joined Madison and Milwaukee as Wisconsin cities to pass mandates requiring people to wear masks in certain public settings. Additional cities have considered their own local requirements, which could add to the patchwork of mask requirements across the state.

Earlier this month, the UW Board of Regents unanimously passed a mask mandate, a few weeks after the UW System issued guidelines recommending masks but not requiring them.

Both state and global health experts have said wearing masks is one of the most effective ways to slow the spread of the virus. Despite not wearing a face mask in public for months, President Donald Trump last week encouraged face-coverings. He recently tweeted that its patriotic to wear a mask.

COVID-19 in photos: How Wisconsin is managing the pandemic

On Aug. 1, liberal-backed Justice Jill Karofsky joins the seven-member state Supreme Court.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell revealed on Monday the Senate's Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools, or HEALS, Act, a $1 trillion package proposal for the next round of coronavirus relief.

The proposal outlines a second round of $1,200 economic impact payments; legislation to shield entities such as businesses, doctors and schools from certain lawsuits; and funding to Paycheck Protection Program loans, schools, coronavirus testing and vaccine development efforts.

One major section of the HEALS Act proposes a drop in enhanced unemployment benefits from the current $600 per week to a new $200 weekly boost, on top of state-administered aid, until the end of September.

According to a CNBC analysis of Labor Department data, this would cut the average worker's unemployment benefit by 43% to about $521 in total benefits per week, accounting for both state and federal aid.

That amount could range widely depending on the state; with the $200 weekly boost, new benefits under the proposal could reach an average high of $697 per week in Washington or as low as $244 per week in Oklahoma.

By October, the federal boost will be replaced with a payment that, when combined with regular state benefits, will recover 70% of the worker's previous wages. The replacement rate will be calculated either by a formula specified in the bill or by a state proposing an alternative method and receiving approval from the Secretary of Labor, meaning the method of calculation could vary by state. Boosts will be capped at $500 per week.

The 70% replacement calculation has raised concerns among Democratic leaders and policy experts who believe state unemployment systems will be unable to handle making such targeted payments to such a large volume of recipients. Roughly 32 million Americans are currently receiving jobless benefits  about five times the level of the Great Recession.

"Measuring 70% [wage replacement] will present quite serious administrative challenges for states, since in many cases they don't have a good measure of a person's average earnings based on the previous year," Wayne Vroman, a labor economist with the Urban Institute, tells CNBC Make It.

"We're not the IRS. We don't have your taxes. We don't know what you made last year," said Mark Butler, Georgia's publicly elected labor commissioner, on a recent conference call with state unemployment insurance officials, as reported by Bloomberg Law. "Our stuff is based on you getting laid off by a particular employer and them reporting to us about what the wages are."

Currently, applicants must report their average wages from the previous four quarters, then have it verified by previous employers, to calculate their benefit. This information isn't always readily available, especially for people previously ineligible to receive benefits (like the self-employed, gig workers or people who earned too little to qualify) who may not have an officially documented earning history but now qualify for federal assistance under the CARES Act passed in March.

"I would guess states will have to go through hoops to get information on that," Vroman says.

Many Americans will remember the crush of applying for unemployment in recent months and delays caused by inundated, outdated state unemployment systems. The previous $600 weekly boost approved in March was determined as the 100% replacement wage for the average worker. It was applied broadly to help expedite the claim approval and administration process as the pandemic caused sweeping job loss starting in March.

If states are unable to program systems to provide this 70% replacement wage to workers by October 5, they can apply for a waiver from the Department of Labor to continue paying a "fixed dollar amount" for up to two months.

To aid state unemployment offices now, the HEALS Act will provide $2 billion to states to upgrade their unemployment insurance systems to be better able to handle a surge in claims, adjust wage replacement levels and automate a number of processes currently done manually.

The bill also requires state offices to notify unemployment recipients and employers about state law regarding return to work requirements, an individual's rights to refuse unsuitable work and how an individual can contest the denial of a claim as a result of these requirements.

The Senate HEALS proposal now moves to the House, which passed its own $3 trillion HEROES Act in May that extended the $600 boosted unemployment through the end of the year and phased down enhancements as unemployment rates fall. Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress responded to the Senate proposal Monday saying it doesn't do enough to include hazard pay for essential workers, does not adequately address the eviction crisis and does not provide additional funding for food stamps, among other issues.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will resume negotiations today and have not given a firm deadline of when they will agree to and pass legislation.

"Unfortunately, we're pretty far apart right now, although I'm optimistic we could have a good solution at the end," Schumer said on "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday. He said he's hopeful both sides could reach a deal before the end of the week.

Republican Senator Pat Toomey, meanwhile, told CNBC Tuesday, "I imagine it's probably another week or two" before Congress reaches an agreement.

With Congress still negotiating the next round of pandemic relief, unemployed Americans are receiving what's likely to be their final $600 boosted payment this week as the CARES legislation expires July 31.

Additional enhancements to unemployment under the CARES Act, including extending benefits to previously ineligible workers and providing an additional 13 weeks on top of regular state aid, expire December 31, 2020.

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BATON ROUGE, La.  The State Library of Louisiana announces the end of the 2020 statewide summer reading program, Imagine Your Story, which followed the general theme of fairytales, folktales, and mythology. Louisiana libraries continued to combat summer learning loss by offering dynamic, entertaining, and educational programs for children, teens, and adults across the state.

Summer reading is critical for students to retain knowledge learned in the previous school year, said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser. Students who dont read throughout the summer are at risk of falling behind, and, by the end of sixth grade, children who consistently lose reading skills over the summer will be two years behind their classmates. This is why the State Librarys Summer Reading Program is so important.

Studies show youth who read during the summer months return to school in the fall at or above their spring reading levels. Children participated in the summer reading program by reading books throughout the summer, engaging with library programs, and accessing digital library resources.

Since March, the State Library has regularly convened with childrens librarians across the state to identify the best online resources for parents and to plan creative and educational programming to keep young people engaged while home over the extended summer break, said State Librarian Rebecca Hamilton. Their dedication in these unprecedented times will ensure the summer reading program will continue to be as successful as it has been for the last thirty-seven years.

This summer, Louisiana libraries offered new ways to engage families in summer reading amid the pandemic. Imagine Your Story proved to be a most appropriate theme, as it took a lot of imagination to reformat programs and create digital content in lieu of original plans. Library staff created take-and-make crafts for curbside pickup, hosted online book clubs, took their patrons on virtual tours, and even continued storytime online after many publishers adjusted their copyright permissions.

The State Library belongs to the Collaborative Summer Library Program, a national cooperative to encourage reading throughout the summer. Those registered with the State Librarys Talking Books and Braille Library were participants, as well. For more information on the Summer Reading Program and other State Library programs, visit www.state.lib.la.us.
Vietnam dispatched officers to Laos on Monday evening to help put out a raging fire that broke out at a market in Savannakhet Province, where many Vietnamese merchants operated.

The fire started at Karol Market, located in Se Pon District in the Laotian province of Savannakhet, due to an unknown cause, Hoang Huu Thien, head of the Border Guard Office at the Lao Bao International Border Gate in north-central Quang Tri Province, confirmed to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on the same night.

Witnesses, who are owners of stores at the market, said the fire began at twilight the same day and got worse as night descended.

The border guard unit of Quang Tri deployed two fire engines to support the neighboring province of Laos immediately after being alerted of the fire.

Karol Market is located about 1.5 kilometers away from Vietnams Lao Bao International Border Gate, Thien said.

Many Vietnamese traders have been doing business at the market for many decades.

The market was still on fire at around 9:00 pm with dozens of kiosks engulfed in the blaze. Big blasts were heard as the flames reached stores selling firecrackers.

The locals, including many Vietnamese, also rushed to help extinguish the fire with rudimentary tools.

Local authorities will consider plans to compensate the store owners for their losses, according to Thien.

Firecrackers blast off during a fire at Karol Market in Se Pon District, Savannakhet Province, Laos on July 27, 2020. Photo: H.T. / Tuoi Tre

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AG600 seaplane's test flight marks milestone

PLA Daily

Source: China Daily

Editor: Chen Zhuo

2020-07-27 08:15:57

China's AG600 seaplane conducted its first sea-based test flight on Sunday morning, marking a new milestone in the program.

The AG600 prototype used for the test flight, operated by four crew members, took off at 9:28 am from Shanzihe Airport in Rizhao, Shandong province, and landed at 10:14 am on a designated area of the Yellow Sea off the neighboring city of Qingdao after a 46-minute flight.

The amphibious aircraft sailed on the waters and then took off at 10:18 am to fly back to Shanzihe Airport. It completed a number of test assignments during the operation, according to Aviation Industry Corp of China, the State-owned conglomerate that designed and built the seaplane.

The AG600 is China's second amphibious aircraft, after the SH-5, which was developed in the 1970s for military purposes and has been retired for a long time. With a length of 37 meters and a wingspan of 38.8 meters, the AG600 is roughly the size of a Boeing 737.

Powered by four domestically designed WJ-6 turboprop engines, it has a maximum takeoff weight of 53.5 metric tons. These specifications make it the world's biggest amphibious aircraft, surpassing Japan's ShinMaywa US-2 and Russia's Beriev Be-200.

Once in service, it will put an end to the absence of a large rescue aircraft in China and will be very useful in the national emergency rescue and disaster relief systems, said Chen Yuanxian, deputy general manager of AVIC.

The amphibious plane is one of three large-size aircraft to emerge from the nation's efforts to become a top-tier player in the global aviation sector, joining the Y-20 strategic transport planedelivery of which began in July 2016 to the Chinese Air Forceand the C919 narrow-body jetliner, which is being flight-tested.

Development of the AG600 was approved by the central government in June 2009 and began in September that year. Tens of thousands of researchers and engineers from more than 160 domestic institutes, enterprises and universities took part in the program. Construction of the first prototype began in March 2014 and was completed in July 2016.

The seaplane made its maiden flight in December 2017 in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, taking off and landing at a local airport. Ten months later, it carried out its first takeoff and landing on water at Zhanghe Reservoir in Jingmen, Hubei province.

President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said after the October 2018 water-based test that it was a major achievement in the innovation efforts of the country's aviation industry. He said the seaplane will help improve the emergency rescue and disaster response systems, and encouraged those involved in the AG600 program to continue striving for its success.

The AG600 will mainly be tasked with aerial firefighting and maritime search and rescue. It also can be refitted to conduct marine environmental inspections and marine resource surveys, as well as personnel and supply transportation, according to AVIC.

The aircraft is designed for land and water takeoffs and landings and has an operational range of more than 4,000 kilometers. It can rescue up to 50 people during a maritime search and rescue mission.

For forest fire-fighting, it can collect 12 tons of water from a lake or sea in 20 seconds and use it to douse blazes over an area of about 4,000 square meters, the company said.

Compared with other rescue platforms such as helicopters and ships, the AG600 is faster and has a longer range and greater flexibility. These advantages are very useful when it comes to rapid maritime search and rescue, said Chen from AVIC.

Currently, there are two AG600 prototypes under testingone in flight tests and the other in ground-based static tests. AVIC plans to manufacture four additional prototypes for testing, designers have said.

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A far-right extremist convicted of plotting to bomb Trades Hall in Melbourne and other leftist venues yelled at a Supreme Court judge in an angry rant on Tuesday.

Phillip Galea, who appeared in court via video link, shouted as prosecutor Richard Maidment, QC, was reading his pre-sentencing submission to Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth.

Phillip Galea appears at the Supreme Court in October 2019. Credit:Eddie Jim

"This fraud is lying," he yelled, referring to Mr Maidment.

During his brief rant, Galea told Justice Hollingworth the trial was not being held in "objective reality". She told him to be quiet, to which he responded "I'll go quietly, I'll take notes."
Aer Lingus chief Sean Doyle has said Ireland stands alone in Europe when it comes to its travel restrictions imposed because of coronavirus.

Mr Doyle said the pandemic has had a catastrophic effect on the airline industry and Ireland has been effectively closed off to business.

The Government published a green list of countries and areas last week that are safe to travel to and from but people are still being told to avoid non-essential travel.

The list excludes mainland UK, the US, and popular holiday destinations for Irish holidaymakers such as Spain.

The 15 approved areas are Malta, Finland, Norway, Italy, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Slovakia, Greece, Greenland, Gibraltar, Monaco and San Marino.

CEO of Aer Lingus Sean Doyle has told the Dail Covid-19 committee Ireland's travel restrictions are more restrictive than any other country in Europe.



"Ireland now stands alone in applying a policy while the rest of Europe has opened up for travel."  Aine McMahon (@AineMcMahon) July 28, 2020

Mr Doyle told the Dail Covid-19 committee that the pandemic has been catastrophic for the airline industry.

The chief executive said: There is not a clear understanding of the scale of the crisis or indeed its significance for the Irish economy and its future recovery.

Irelands travel restrictions are more restrictive than any other country in Europe, and Ireland now stands alone in applying a policy, while the rest of Europe has opened up for travel.

The criteria being used for Ireland is even more restrictive than what the EU uses for passengers from third countries entering the EU.

The green list published last week means Ireland is effectively closed for business and this will have profoundly negative effect on the Irish economy and for aviation and tourism sector jobs.

I started off by saying the Covid-19 crisis had brought about the greatest crisis of global aviation the industry has ever experienced. The situation in the Irish sector is even worse.



Sean Doyle (Brian Lawless/PA)

Ryanair chief executive Eddie Wilson said aviation in Ireland supports 40,000 direct jobs and more than 100,000 indirect jobs.

Tourism overall supports 325,000 jobs, which is more than US multinationals  if we dont have a functioning industry, all of these jobs are in danger, he said.

Mr Wilson said Ireland risks being left behind unless travel restrictions are eased.

We are on the periphery of Europe, and shutting down connectivity will lead to stagnation, and massive job losses in Ireland. That is a certainty and we should wake up to it, he said.

Miriam Ryan, head of strategy with Dublin Airport Authority, told the committee that testing arriving passengers for Covid-19 would be challenging.

She said: It presents challenges when it comes to space for holding passengers and where you keep them while they are being tested, and the availability of reagents when it comes to testing, and the availability of suitability qualified staff to undertake that testing.

Ms Ryan suggested that passengers should be tested for Covid-19 when they leave the country of departure.

There are a lot of challenges when it comes to testing passengers on arrival, so we have already mentioned the opportunity to test the passenger before they leave their country so that the first line of defence will be testing on exit so that passengers arrive here that have already been tested.

They can show to the airline that they have been tested and a certificate to say they have been tested, and can show it to the border management unit in airports and ports.

Ms Ryan has said testing passengers before they leave a country has been trialled in Austria and some US states such as Hawaii and Alaska.

Ray Gray, Dublin Airport Authoritys chief financial officer, told the committee there needs to be a sustainable regime for safe travel in the future.

There has to be confidence for the travelling public, he said.

Asked about Irelands travel restrictions, he said: Statistically, there is no doubt that there is less travel coming into Ireland compared to our European counterparts, and that is because of the calls that have been made for understandable public health reasons.

We are going to have to live with this virus into the future and therefore we have to learn how to operate in a risk-managed environment. We need to find measures to co-exist in the future when it comes to health and travel.
The $3 trillion federal CARES Act stimulus package also extends state benefits by up to 13 weeks for most claimants once they exhaust their initial 12 weeks of regular state benefits.

The first round of extended benefits comes from the pandemic emergency unemployment compensation (PEUC) package.

Even though the 13 weeks are paid by the federal government, the weekly amount adheres to state benefit guidelines of a $350 maximum.

The extension is not automatic. According to the U.S. Labor Department, claimants need to apply for them at each extended benefit step, which could delay payments.

Proposals in Congress

The $600 weekly benefit supplement was passed  barely  in Congress as a national-level benefit to get the payments out quickly rather than determine payments by individual states.

There were 32 million Americans considered as unemployed as of July 18, whether they were furloughed, laid off or their jobs were eliminated.

The Democratic-controlled U.S. House passed a $3 trillion stimulus bill that would offer a new round of federal UI benefits.
Small businesses remain the hardest hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Restrictions implemented to contain the spread of the disease conspired to reduce patronage of these enterprises and wilted their income streams.

Though we have seen a gradual lifting of these restrictions, it will take time for things to return to pre-pandemic levels. The President on Sunday, July 26, in what he referred to as phase two of easing restrictions, said some drinking spots, eateries and tourist centres could return to full capacity.

While this offers some relief for the affected businesses, many others remain unsure what the latest update from the president means for their livelihoods.

At the Stanford Bridge Pub in Teshie, only one foundation remains for Gibson Yeboah, its owner  hope. His roadside spot, once vibrant, giving life and colour to the small suburb, has been closed since March. The villain sitting on his happiness, of course, the novel coronavirus.

In the wake of the pandemic, social distancing has saved lives. The lack of it has undoubtedly led to needless deaths. It will take many months for us to really gauge the cost of our actions and inactions as a collective.

But whilst the idea of social distancing has a net positive effect on all of society, it has become a tight rope for many small business owners, especially those whose bread and butter rely on gregarious intimacy in relatively confined spaces.

Ghana has gone through various phases since the virus touched base in March. First, there was a ban on gatherings of all kinds. Then a lockdown of major economic hubs; Accra, Tema and Kumasi (along with Kasoa) followed. Restrictions were subsequently eased gradually. As phase two of easing the restrictions kicks in, quite alarmingly, the new normal looks eerily similar to the pre-pandemic one.

Probe further though and you find that various cash registers have seen fewer cedi notes since the virus started.

For Gibson, his spot has seen close to zero activity since a ban on gatherings in pubs generally remains active. And whilst this ban is being flouted by many business owners, Gibson wishes to remain law-abiding.

We don't want to open because It brings so many challenges. You can see some other spots. They have opened backdoor and are operating. If we try to do the same, immediately the police will come around.

Some other businesses have been able to open but to minimal effect. Consider the Tusker grooming saloon at Adabraka. Before the virus, clients who stepped into the shop were greeted with the cool welcome of airconditioned air. Tony Commey, who has been working as a barber for almost six years, now seemingly has to watch his expenditure.

But it is not like there will be that many customers complaining. The threat of the virus has seen to that. Things have been very difficult for him but he is managing small, small.

Before the lockdown had come into effect, the worst had started manifesting for Tony.

People were afraid to come around and so on, he recalled. He eventually had to close shop during the three-week lockdown of Accra. The preceding lifting of restrictions brought little respite.

It is a similar story for Paa Kwesi Ahenkorah Ofori, who has been running the Sesnas eatery since February 2019. He was gearing up for his first-anniversary celebration in March; just when things took a turn for the worse in Ghana and the first local cases were reported.

Just before they got reported, sales drastically dropped. People stopped coming out, he recalled.

At that point, he was fearing the worst for his young business. We even had to shut down before the President's directive.

To continue operations, especially with a module that relied on fresh ingredients from farms and the like for freshly baked treats, would be unsustainable.

Slow business days are more regular for Tony Commeys barbering saloon

Unsustainable is probably the word going through Tony's head at the moment. His fortunes have dwindled drastically and he hopes some semblance of normalcy returns by the end of 2020.

Before the virus hit, on the average Monday, I could cut seven people a day, Tony noted. He charges at least GHS20 per haircut for adults.

But as we went on the lockdown and came back, in a day, I am not cutting more than one person or two.

On the Monday he is speaking, Tony says he had cut just one person's hair after starting work at 9 am.

Businesses' demand and supply chains have been greatly affected by the pandemic. Back at Teshie, Gibson admits that he still makes some sales to loyal customers as long as they are able to provide a bottle.

His customers are always asking: When are we going to get them bubra to drink? The problem is his bestseller, Bubra, ie Club Beer, is no longer being, supplied to them.

With the pub, one of the biggest-selling products is Bubra and with this lockdown, we don't get the supply anymore.

Gibson's luck may be that his business, managed by his wife, isn't his only source of income. He has a job at the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority. That doesn't mean he doesn't wish for life to return to his business.

And he is ready to observe all protocols unlike other sections of society that have reopened with a brazen disregard for any protocols.

We feel we are not being treated fairly because if you have given others the chance to observe social distancing and go about their business, why can we also do it? he asks.

An educational poster greets persons who got Gibson Yeboahs pub

Tony has no other substantial income source to cushion him. He had even not heard about government interventions for small businesses.

This has meant some compromise on his part.

Despite face masks being mandatory and a no face mask, no entry sign at his entrance, turning away what little business he gets really isn't an option.

Because work is slow, if the person is not wearing a face mask, you can't sack the person because you need the person to give you that money.

But he points to his veronica bucket and sanitiser supply as a reasonable safeguard.

I am not putting myself at risk but because of the measures we have put over here. I will allow the person to wash their hands when they enter.

There is no word like compromise in the lexicon of Sesnas and its operations. The eatery returned to operations on June 1 with a trimmed down menu, lighter working hours and relatively aggressive enforcement of safety protocols.

For example, parties of more than three persons have to eat outside. This is in addition to some of the basic public advisories. No precaution is too cumbersome given the circumstances. It is a matter of safety, Paa Kwesi stresses.

Sesnas has undergone some modifications to account for the new threat

And like many businesses around the globe, he has had to deal with persons who come in without face masks. The first thing he does is prompt the individual throwing caution to the wind. If unsuccessful, Paa Kwesi says he and his staff just refuse to offer any service.

If you still walk to me [without a mask] I won't mind you. I won't talk to you. That is what we are doing here. We are not focusing on the money but safety precautions.

Paa Kwesis sense of optimism is admirable. There may be more empty glasses in his eatery but the glasses in his world view are at least half full.

This is perhaps because he feels lucky to still be running a business after the devastating economic slowdown.

In a way, it [business] has been okay. I wouldn't say it is bad because we were expecting it to go down the drain because of our location.

His clientele consists of mostly middle-class workers who had stopped going to work or were working from home.

Sesnas took to the challenge of the virus by adapting a little; opting for more deliveries and developing ready to bake pastries for people to bake at home. The eatery even provided snacks for security personnel at barriers during the lockdown of Accra.

It remains unclear if their application for government support will bear any fruit. Paa Kwesi says there has been no feedback from the state.

With no vaccine for the virus in sight, planning for the new normal seems like the best bet, Paa Kwesi advises.

It has come to stay. All we have to do is put in measures to try and avoid it.
* Discount for cash over 3-month zinc contracts widen

* CRU estimates unreported zinc stocks at 1 million tonnes

By Pratima Desai

LONDON, July 28 (Reuters) - Deliveries of zinc to London Metal Exchange registered warehouses in places such as Port Klang, Malaysia and Singapore, not typical destinations, suggest an unusually large surplus of the metal used to galvanise steel.

Overall stocks of zinc in LME warehouses at 173,000 tonnes are more than three times the levels seen in early February and at their highest since October 2018.

In Singapore, inventories have surged to 50,675 tonnes from 16,875 tonnes at the end of March and in Port Klang the number stands at 20,700 tonnes from zero.

"The overflow going to non-traditional locations gives you a sense of just how big the glut is," said Citi analyst Oliver Nugent. Citi expects a 501,000 tonne surplus this year, about 3.6% of total supply.

"(But) the zinc price will probably hold up, it's trading just below costs of production."

Zinc prices at around $2,250 have climbed more than 30% since hitting four-year lows below $1,700 in the middle of March when growth stalled and demand for industrial metals collapsed due to COVID-19 lockdowns.

However, the discount for the cash over the three-month LME zinc contract <CMZN0-3> has widened to $10 a tonne from a small premium on June 19 due to rising stocks and oversupply.

CRU analyst Helen O'Cleary expects refined zinc surpluses of 485,000 tonnes this year and about 300,000 tonnes next year.

"We estimate global unreported stocks -- those not in exchange warehouses or reported by ILZSG (International Lead and Zinc Study Group) -- stood at one million tonnes at the end of June," O,Cleary said.

"We expect refined zinc demand will continue to recover in the second half of the year, although downside risks remain in the world outside China."

Chinese demand for zinc has recovered alongside steel production and can be seen in stocks in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange, which at 89,188 tonnes have dropped nearly 50% since March 13.

(Reporting by Pratima Desai; editing by David Evans)
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Plucky, beautiful and declining in numbers at about a 2% annual rate, the rufous hummingbird makes its long annual migration in different timing and route patterns based the birds' age and sex, new research by Oregon State University shows.

The findings, published in the journal Avian Conservation & Ecology, are important because the more that is known about how rufous hummingbirds migrate, the more that can be done to ensure birds of different ages and sexes have the resources they need each year on their journey up and down the western part of North America.

"Different age-sex categories of rufous hummingbirds use alternative routes and differ in migration cycles and distributions," said the study's corresponding author, Jose?e Rousseau, a Ph.D. candidate in the OSU College of Forestry. "Our results seem to indicate that the age-sex categories could be affected in different ways by things like habitat loss and climate during migration. If we keep that in mind, we can make conservation efforts that help these amazingly feisty little creatures - and I describe them that way with the utmost respect - have the resources they need during their migration across the landscape."

With a reputation as one of the continent's most determined and assertive birds, the rufous hummingbird, scientifically known as Selasphorus rufus, weighs less than a nickel and tops out at about 3 inches long. Based on its body length, its migratory journey is one of the world's longest - the hummingbirds that travel the full extent of the range, from Alaska to Mexico, migrate almost 80 million body lengths, or 3,900 miles.

By comparison, an arctic tern covers about 51 million body lengths on the 13-inch bird's one-way flight of 11,000 miles.

Rufous hummingbirds live in open woodlands, nest in trees and eat nectar. A common visitor to bird feeders, the extremely territorial rufous hummingbird will chase away much larger species of hummingbirds, and they'll even drive squirrels away from their nesting areas.

Equipped with excellent memories, rufous hummingbirds will visit the same feeders over multiple years, even looking for food at former locations of feeders that have been moved.

The study by scientists in the Oregon State University College of Forestry and at the Klamath Bird Observatory in Ashland looked at 15 years' worth of fall migration banding data involving nearly 30,000 hummingbird captures at more than 450 locations.

The research showed that adult females tended to have a southbound migration route that was parallel to and between those of young and adult males, Rousseau said.

"Also, a greater number of young birds migrated south through California in comparison to adult females and adult males," she said. "Our results suggest that the migration of each age-sex category is separated by about two weeks, with adult males migrating first, followed by adult females, and then the young of both sexes. Interestingly, though, migration speed was not statistically different among the categories."

The adult males were captured within a smaller geographic distribution during any given week of migration compared with adult females and young birds, she added.

###

Collaborating with Rousseau on the study were Matt Betts of the OSU College of Forestry and John Alexander of the Klamath Bird Observatory.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the National Science Foundation, the Western Hummingbird Partnership, the U.S. Forest Service and the OSU Richardson Family Graduate Fellowship supported the research.
A Boston activist group joined the ranks of several organizations this week in suing the Trump administration over a memorandum the president issued earlier this month excluding undocumented immigrants from being counted in the 2020 census.

Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston, a nonprofit group that provides legal aid across Massachusetts, filed the federal lawsuit late Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, arguing that Republican President Donald Trumps memorandum is a violation of longstanding constitutional law.

The 52-page suit was submitted on behalf of the Brazilian Worker Center, the Chelsea Collaborative, Centro Presente and Haitian-Americans United, four immigrants rights groups that give much-needed community services to undocumented people and their families, according to LCR Boston.

Undocumented immigrants are now and have always been persons as a matter of fact, law and basic human decency. Nevertheless, the Trump administration has continued to weaponize the census, the organization said in a statement.

Three lawsuits have already been filed against the White House. The first was launched in the U.S. District court for the District of Columbia. Filed by multiple organizations, the suit was spearheaded by the government watchdog group Common Cause.

The state of New York - with the backing of more than a dozen other cities and states, including Massachusetts - also sued the president over his memorandum.

Another suit has been filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of multiple immigrants rights groups.

Each suit argued Trumps memorandum is unprecedented, unconstitutional and violates the rights of those residing in the country.

The presidents July 21 memorandum, which Lawyers for Civil Rights also called racist, announced that people who do not have lawful immigration status under the Immigration and Nationality Act will not be included in the apportionment base in this years census.

The national census, conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce every 10 years, counts every person living in the country in order to allocate federal funds to communities and redraw both state and national legislative districts.

The population count [is] used to determine the number of representatives allocated to each state, LCR Boston said in its statement. That number is also used to determine the allocation of approximately $1.5 trillion to the states in federal funding for over 100 census-linked programs, supporting everything from low-income energy assistance and Medicaid to highway planning and construction and crime victim assistance.

In its suit, the advocacy organization argued the presidents memorandum is an act of breathtaking unconstitutionality that seeks to undo more than 200 years of legal precedent in declaring that undocumented immigrants are not persons as defined by law.

Since the United States census was established in 1790, LCR Boston noted, it has always included U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike, regardless of immigration status, in the decennial population counts.

In additions to claims about the memos unconstitutionality, LCR Boston accused the president of instilling fear in immigrant communities with his order, threatening to discourage households from completing their censuses and being motivated by a racially discriminatory scheme to reduce political representation for communities of color and increase the overrepresentation of white voters.

Several activists and politicians in Massachusetts have already blasted the White House memo. Among them was Massachusetts Secretary of State William, who called the presidents memorandum an almost unprecedented effort to politicize the Census.

The order, LCR Boston added, also violates the fourth sentence of Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution, which makes clear that congressional representatives are to be apportioned among the states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State.

The July 21 memorandum is patently illegal. The fourth sentence of the Constitution makes clear that the decennial census is intended to count and include all persons, not just all citizens, said Lauren Sampson, a staff Attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights. We call upon the federal court to act immediately to enjoin the memorandum and prevent any compliance thereto by this administration.

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The federal government says it has so far spent N15.8 billion on hazard allowances in its teaching hospitals and medical centres across the country.

Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, disclosed this while addressing journalists at a meeting with the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) leadership on Monday in Abuja.

The meeting was held to assess the level of implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) entered by both parties and to avert strike threat by health workers.

Mr Ngige said a resolution has been reached and all disputes resolved, assuring that the federal government was committed to health workers safety and welfare.

The federal government has so far spent N15.8 billion naira for hazard allowances in its teaching hospitals, medical centres and some other non- COVID-19 facilities where doctors have also been treating virus cases.

Government has cleared the April and May special allowances which is no doubt a big feat, knowing that this is for special allowances only, and at a time its earning has fallen short of the expected earning.

The affected medical personnel will also draw their normal salaries and other allowances, he said.

The minister further said that the June allowances were still outstanding because the budget has been affected by developments not originally captured, such as pay for house officers, interns, NYSC doctors and volunteers.

He, however, added that government was already liaising with the Presidential Taskforce to sort out especially for volunteers.

Mr Ngige also said that the 20 per cent top-up for all health personnel inside the COVID-19 wards and isolation centres of the hospitals should be effected as quickly as possible.

He noted that hence, a directive was given to the Ministry of Health and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to reconcile all matters relating to the issue by August 4, to enable urgent payment.

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He also said the issue of Residency Training Fund was captured in the 2020 budget.

We noticed that the subhead captured in the service-wide vote will need some amendment by the Budget Office in liaison with the National Assembly to handle the problem, so that implementation can start as soon as possible, Ngige said.

He also said the government has paid all the premium for Group Life Insurance spanning between April 17, 2020 and April 16, 2021 for all federal civil servants except those in the revenue generating agencies such as customs, FIRS and NNPC who could afford their own insurance.

The minister added that agreement has been reached to forward the nominal roll of the Health Ministry workers and its parastatals to the six handling insurance companies latest next week.

He added that problems arising from the consequential adjustment of the minimum wage in the health ministry, especially those on GIFMIS, non-regular staff such as interns and NYSC members, would be resolved as soon as NARD submitted the list of affected workers.

He further said that government would continue to appreciate the untiring efforts of all health workers.

President Muhammadu Buhari at every time, remembers and thanks you for the immense sacrifice you make for the nation and firmly believes that nothing is too much to do for you to show appreciation.

Government will do more to protect the health of our people, Mr Ngige said.

He advised trade unions to always follow due process in seeking redress for disputes, arguing that first in line was negotiation with the parent ministry who was their primary employer.

Aliyu Sokomba, NARD President, commended the government for its commitment and expressed optimism that progress would be made by the time the meeting reconvenes.

The meeting will reconvene on August 6 to take stock of the implementation of the agreement reached.

It also set up a committee to resolve the lingering problem between management of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and NARD.

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The meeting was attended by the Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo, Minister of State for Health, Sen. Olorunimbe Mamora, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment.

(NAN)
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- PowerChord , a leading SaaS solution company connecting brands to local customers, today announces William "Bill" Volmuth's promotion from president to CEO. Volmuth joined PowerChord as president in July 2019 and has propelled the company's vision and mission forward over the last year, most recently leading a company-wide rebrand.

Volmuth is a veteran business and technology expert with more than 25 years of experience driving growth at software, engineering, and cybersecurity organizations across North America, Europe and Asia. As CEO, he will continue to focus on advancing PowerChord's forward momentum in driving local lead generation for global brands via the company's proprietary SaaS platform, coupled with digital marketing services to drive lead generation and content distribution.

"Leading PowerChord's innovative and driven team for the last year has been one of the greatest privileges of my career. Together, we've taken the company's platform and services to the next level, both by further optimizing local lead generation for our customers, and enhancing our platform reporting and visibility. I'm humbled and excited to take on the role of CEO and continue the momentum we have built together," said Volmuth.

Earlier this month, PowerChord announced updates to its SaaS platform including the pilot of new visualization for the Command Center, availability in five languages: English, Spanish, German, French and Italian, a new library of website design components optimized for lead generation, and an integration with Zapier to open the door to thousands of third-party software integrations a customer might need, such as integrating the platform with a brand's CRM.

"As President, Bill has been instrumental in aligning the strategic and operational needs for our future growth. His ability to build teams and empower them to collaborate and innovate at a high level is evidenced in the strong momentum seen within our PowerChord Platform. Decisiveness, empowerment and vision are critical in today's marketing and technology space and with Bill taking on the new role of CEO, he brings a refreshing mix of all these attributes and more to PowerChord's future," said Patrick Schunk, PowerChord's Founder and Chairman of the Board.

"We are thrilled at Bill's promotion from President to CEO of PowerChord," commented Ballast Point Ventures' Robert Faber. Faber continued, "We have admired Bill's technology and management acumen for a number of years, and we are excited that he will be leading one of Tampa Bay's most promising technology companies."

PowerChord currently has several positions open in St. Petersburg. For more information about the company and joining the team, visit www.powerchord.com .

About PowerChord:

PowerChord makes it easy for brands distributing high-consideration products through independent dealers to remain competitive in an evolving digital landscape through local lead generation campaigns that are scalable and consistent across the brand. PowerChord's proven SaaS platform and omnichannel digital marketing solutions help brands and local retailers reach more people online and follow the sales journey to convert them into customers. Analytics and insights provide transparency brands have never had before to increase local sales opportunities online through local dealer networks.

Founded in 2001, PowerChord's customers and campaigns span 28 countries and the platform powers more than 15,000 local retailer website experiences worldwide. For more information, visit www.powerchord.com .

SOURCE PowerChord, Inc.

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The mayors of Portland, Oregon, and five other major US cities have appealed to Congress to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarised agents to cities that do not want them.

This administrations egregious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities should never happen, the mayors of Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Washington wrote to leaders of the US House and Senate.

Portland mayor Ted Wheeler and city commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty called for a meeting with acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf to discuss a ceasefire and removal of heightened federal forces from Portland.

Expand Close Military veterans participate in a Black Lives Matter protest in Portland (AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Military veterans participate in a Black Lives Matter protest in Portland (AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Earlier in the day, a US official said militarised officers would remain in Portland until attacks on a federal courthouse cease  and more officers may soon be on the way.

US attorney for Oregon, Billy Williams, said: It is not a solution to tell federal officers to leave when there continues to be attacks on federal property and personnel. We are not leaving the building unprotected to be destroyed by people intent on doing so.

Local and state officials said the federal officers are unwelcome.

The city has had nightly protests for two months since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. US President Donald Trump said he sent federal agents to Portland to halt the unrest, but state and local officials said they are making the situation worse.

Mr Trumps deployment of the federal officers over the July 4 weekend stoked the Black Lives Matter movement. The number of nightly protesters had dwindled to less than 100 right before the deployment, and has now swelled to thousands.

Expand Close A bloodied demonstrator is arrested by federal police (AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez) / Facebook

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Whatsapp A bloodied demonstrator is arrested by federal police (AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Early on Monday, US agents repeatedly fired tear gas and pepper balls at protesters outside the federal courthouse in Portland. Some protesters had climbed over the fence surrounding the courthouse, while others shot fireworks, banged on the fence and projected lights on the building.

Mr Trump said on Twitter that federal properties in Portland wouldnt last a day without the presence of the federal agents.

The majority of people participating in the daily demonstrations have been peaceful. But a few have been pelting officers with objects and trying to tear down fencing protecting the Mark O Hatfield United States Courthouse.

Mr Williams, whose office is inside the courthouse, called on peaceful protesters, community and business leaders and people of faith to not allow violence to occur in their presence and to leave the city centre before violence starts. He said federal agents have made 83 arrests.

Demonstrations in support of racial justice and police reform in other cities around the US were marred by violence over the weekend. Protesters set fire to an Oakland, California, courthouse; vehicles were set ablaze in Richmond, Virginia; an armed protester was shot and killed in Austin, Texas; and two people were shot and wounded in Aurora, Colorado, after a car drove through a protest.
Rating Action: Moody's confirms Vedanta's ratings; outlook negative

Global Credit Research - 28 Jul 2020

Singapore, July 28, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service (" Moody's ") has confirmed Vedanta Resources Limited's B1 corporate family rating (CFR) and the B3 rating on the company's senior unsecured bonds.

Moody's has also confirmed the B3 rating on the senior unsecured bonds issued by the company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Vedanta Resources Finance II Plc, and guaranteed by Vedanta.

The outlook on all ratings has been changed to negative from ratings under review.

This concludes the rating review initiated on 24 March 2020.

"The confirmation of all ratings recognizes that while Vedanta's credit profile will remain stretched, reflecting the challenges brought on by the pandemic, we believe that the company's financial metrics will likely recover to levels appropriate for its current ratings in the fiscal year ending March 2022 (fiscal 2022)," says Kaustubh Chaubal, a Moody's Vice President and Senior Credit Officer. "That said, the negative outlook reflects the company's weak liquidity and sizeable upcoming refinancing needs under extremely challenging market conditions."

RATINGS RATIONALE

The ratings confirmation reflects Moody's expectation that Vedanta's leverage, as measured by adjusted debt/EBITDA, will improve to 3.5x-4.0x during fiscal 2022 after remaining about 5.0x -- 6.0x in fiscal 2021. Aside from refinancing risk, the negative outlook also indicates the risk of a downgrade if the coronavirus-driven downturn causes the volatile commodity prices to drop further, thereby posing downside risks to Moody's current expectations.

These leverage estimates are based on Moody's price-sensitivity analysis and expectation that Vedanta will reduce debt and deleverage following the privatization of Vedanta Limited. Vedanta is in the process of fully privatizing Vedanta Limited by increasing its stake to 100% from 50.1%. The transaction, which has been approved by both companies' shareholders, is now pending price discovery. At the closing price of INR112.05 per share on 27 July, the additional 49.9% stake in Vedanta Limited was valued at $2.7 billion. Vedanta plans to fund the transaction by raising new debt.

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As a result, pro forma, Moody's expects that the company's consolidated leverage will rise to 6.0x in March 2020, up from 5.0x before the transaction. However, immediately following the privatization, Moody's expects the company to reduce its debt by at least $2.0 billion, keeping its consolidated leverage around the 5.0x mark.

Moody's views the privatization as credit positive and a major step in the simplification of the company's complex group structure with less than 100% ownership in operating subsidiaries, which has historically hindered its credit profile. The privatization will provide Vedanta with better access to future cash surpluses and cash of around $1.7 billion held at Vedanta Limited and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Cairn India Holdings Limited, in addition to improving its cash access and ability to allocate assets and liabilities across the group.

Vedanta's US dollar bonds, issued by/guaranteed by the holding company are rated two notches lower than the corporate family rating, reflecting the complex group structure with less than 100% shareholding in key operating companies and the bondholders' legal and structural subordination to operating company claims. The proposed privatization will not completely alleviate the risk for holding company creditors, who remain legally and structurally subordinated to claims at the operating companies.

ESG Considerations

In terms of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, the CFR reflects elevated environmental risk and moderate social risk associated with the company's mining and oil and gas production activities that require government approval and licenses, and historical instances of discontinued operations following alleged noncompliance with environmental regulations. Moody's also views the coronavirus pandemic as a social risk given its substantial implications for public health and safety and the subsequent impact on the company's operations.

Vedanta's concentrated ownership by Volcan Investments, its sole shareholder, raises the potential for related-party transactions that are not in the best interests of creditors. In this regard, Vedanta's related-party investment in Volcan's structured product in 2019 - although subsequently unwound - and the additional support in fiscal 2020 to repay the shareholder's scheduled debt maturity, are viewed negatively by Moody's. Moody's assessment is premised on the two transactions' materiality to the holding company.

Vedanta's planned privatization of Vedanta Limited and its subsequent delisting expose creditors to the risk of a change in disclosure practices because the requirements of publicly listed companies are different from private companies. But, given its substantial access to international capital markets, Moody's expects Vedanta will maintain good disclosures even after Vedanta Limited becomes a private entity, in adherence with the requirements outlined in its debt agreements. That said, the timing requirements with respect to these disclosures as per the debt agreements are likely to remain more relaxed in comparison with the statutory requirements for listed companies. In addition to Vedanta Resources being privatized in 2018, now Vedanta Limited will also be private, unlisted and not be under the scrutiny of minority shareholders and equity analysts.

LIQUIDITY

Vedanta's liquidity is weak. Vedanta's cash needs for the period April 2020 through September 2021 include: (1) $2.0 billion of debt maturities, including the $670 million bond due in June 2021; (2) Volcan's entire $425 million privatization debt; and (3) interest expenses of $700 million and regular dividend payments. These cash needs do not consider the acquisition finance debt Vedanta will raise to privatize Vedanta Limited. As a pure holding company with no operations of its own, Moody's believes that the holding company will raise new debt to meet its cash needs if there is a shortfall in the management fees and dividends it receives from its operating subsidiaries.

Liquidity at Vedanta's operating subsidiaries will remain weak as well, because of debt maturities aggregating $2.5 billion from April 2020 through September 2021. Moreover, Moody's expects the company to deliver on its accelerated debt reduction plan following the privatization of Vedanta Limited that would further weaken liquidity at its key subsidiaries. Owing to their operating statuses however, the operating subsidiaries should be able to continue to raise new financing thanks to their ability to offer assets as security and their proximity to operating cash flow.

OUTLOOK

The negative outlook reflects Moody's view that Vedanta's operating and financial metrics will remain sensitive to movements in commodity prices that are exposed to further downside risk. The negative outlook also reflects the acute refinancing risk associated with the company's large debt maturities.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

From an operations perspective, rating upgrade momentum could build if commodity prices improve and support an expansion in Vedanta's earnings and free cash flow generation, thereby helping the company reduce debt and strengthen its credit metrics. Absolute debt reduction, especially at the holding company will also be key.

Financial metrics indicative of an upgrade include adjusted debt/EBITDA leverage below 4.0x and EBIT/interest coverage of at least 1.5x; both on a sustained basis.

Adherence to good and timely disclosures, even as its key subsidiary Vedanta Limited operates as a private unlisted company will be a prerequisite for a rating upgrade to Ba3.

Moody's could downgrade the CFR if commodity prices slide or if Vedanta is unable to sustain and improve its cost reduction initiatives, such that its profitability weakens, with consolidated EBIT margin falling below 12% on a sustained basis.

Leverage remaining in excess of 4.5x or EBIT/interest coverage remaining below 1.25x, both on a sustained basis, will be leading indicators for a downgrade of the CFR.

Moody's could also downgrade the CFR if: (1) Vedanta fails to refinance its debt in a timely manner; (2) there is additional exposure of Vedanta to Volcan in the form of additional dividends or upstreaming, other than towards servicing the balance of the privatization loan, which Moody's now includes for Vedanta's leverage calculations; (3) Vedanta undertakes large debt-financed acquisitions that materially skew its financial profile; or (4) there is any adverse ruling with respect to Cairn India Limited's disputed tax liability.

Reduced levels of disclosure or transparency for bond holders or increased incidence of related party transactions, or both, could also put pressure on the company's ratings.

The principal methodology used in these ratings was Mining published in September 2018 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1089739. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

Vedanta Resources Limited, headquartered in London, is a diversified resources company with interests mainly in India. Its main operations are held by Vedanta Ltd, a 50.1%-owned subsidiary. Through Vedanta Resources' various operating subsidiaries, the group produces oil and gas, zinc, lead, silver, aluminum, iron ore and power.

Delisted from the London Stock Exchange in October 2018, Vedanta Resources is now wholly owned by Volcan Investments Ltd. Founder chairman of Vedanta Resources, Anil Agarwal, and his family, are the key shareholders of Volcan.

For the 12 months to 31 March 2020, Vedanta Resources generated estimated revenues of $11.8 billion and estinated adjusted EBITDA of $3.4 billion.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.

For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action, and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action, the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity. Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures, if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.

The ratings have been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent(s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.

These ratings are solicited. Please refer to Moody's Policy for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on its website www.moodys.com.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.

The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph 3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies. Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's office that issued the credit rating is available on www.moodys.com.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.

Kaustubh Chaubal VP - Senior Credit Officer Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service Singapore Pte. Ltd. 50 Raffles Place #23-06 Singapore Land Tower Singapore 48623 Singapore JOURNALISTS: 852 3758 1350 Client Service: 852 3551 3077 Ian Lewis Associate Managing Director Corporate Finance Group JOURNALISTS: 852 3758 1350 Client Service: 852 3551 3077 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service Singapore Pte. Ltd. 50 Raffles Place #23-06 Singapore Land Tower Singapore 48623 Singapore JOURNALISTS: 852 3758 1350 Client Service: 852 3551 3077

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If youre launching a new social media platform, it isnt enough to have unique features that empower folks to be creative. You also need a bundle of cash, not just to advertise, but to poach high-profile stars from your soon-to-be-rival platforms. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Facebook is opening up a small cabinet inside its war chest in order to recruit some of TikToks most famous stars. According to the report, team Zuckerberg has made lucrative offers to notable TikTok-ers in order to get them to make the switch.

Reels is a new Instagram feature that has, uh, drawn inspiration from TikTok in the same way that Facebook and Instagrams ephemeral stories drew inspiration from Snapchat. Reels, which has been soft launched in Brazil, France and Germany, is expected to make a glitzy debut in the US in the coming weeks. If Facebook can launch and say that itll be the exclusive home of a star, itll do a lot to encourage sign-ups in the platforms all-important early stages of life.

It seems like this is what prompted TikTok to announce that it would launch a $200 million fund to help people stay on the service. Unfortunately, the fund has conditions, like a minimum age of 18, and you need to meet a set of conditions for acceptance, including how frequently you post. Depending on how Facebook, which has money to burn, makes its pitch, TikToks offer may seem miserly by comparison.

In its pitch to creators, Facebook is likely to leverage the fact that its in a stronger position politically than its Chinese-owned rival. TikTok has been caught up in the same wave of anti-Asian sentiment that has seen the US crack down on Huawei and other Chinese firms. A number of US companies have banned their employees from having the app on their corporate phones, and a ban may still happen. Eight of the top 10 creators on TikTok are based in the US, with substantial followings on other platforms, another plus for Facebook.

In the early days of social media, the power was with the platform, and the stars who went viral had to work hard to find ways to make money from their success. These days, the tables have turned, and theres a lot of cash to be made by a handful of creators who have demonstrated an ability to build a big audience. Tyler Blevins, the streamer better known as Ninja, had built an audience of nearly 15 million people on Twitch. Microsoft, looking to burnish its rival platform Mixer, reportedly paid Blevins up to $30 million a year to switch platforms.

Most companies pay a fee to hook a customer into their world, either through advertising, giveaways or by signing an attention-grabbing star. This Customer Acquisition Cost shouldnt be more than $10 per person, but if youre looking for scale, it can be worth a fortune. If Ninjas eye-catching deal with Mixer had attracted around five million people to sign up to the rival platform, then it was money well spent. Of course, given Mixers untimely demise, well never know if the deal would have paid off in the long run.

According to the WSJ report, Facebook/Instagram wants either exclusivity, or for Reels to be the first place new social clips are posted. It has also apparently offered to bankroll the production of these clips, which could be a substantial sum if its recruiting lots of creators. But, then again, if that sort of cash is less than the customer acquisition cost Facebook would have to pay otherwise, it may all be worth it.
Three food suppliers in Los Angeles, including McDonald's biggest provider, have been ordered to shut down due to large-scale COVID-19 outbreaks that have seen more than 140 workers test positive.

The businesses forced to close include McDonald's supplier Golden State Foods Corp in Industry, S&S Foods in Azusa and a Mission Foods facility in Commerce.

The closures were announced on Monday by Los Angeles County health director Barbara Ferrer who said the suppliers failed to comply with operating protocols amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Ferrer said the businesses had more than 40 cases each but did not report the outbreaks to health officials like they are required to.

McDonald's supplier Golden State Foods Corp in Industry (above) was among the three forced to shut down. The business had 43 coronavirus cases linked to its facility

Los Angeles County reported 2,039 new cases on Monday, bringing its total number of infections to 176,028. Meanwhile, 17 new deaths were reported Monday, bringing the county's death toll to 4,375

Golden State Foods, which is one of the largest suppliers to McDonald's, had 43 cases linked to its facility.

Mission Foods, one of the most popular US tortilla makers, had 40 workers test positive.

S&S Foods, a restaurant meat provider, has 58 confirmed cases.

'They have significant outbreaks among their employees. We were not notified, as we're required to be notified, once they had their three cases,' Ferrer said.

'Our inspector asked them to make some modifications to really enhance their infection control protocols at all three sites'

The 141 cases will be added to the list of workplaces that have had more than three confirmed cases.

There are currently 245 businesses on the list with 3108 employees testing positive.

It comes after about 375 employees at Los Angeles Apparel's garment manufacturing facilities tested positive for COVID-19.

Mission Foods, one of the most popular US tortilla makers, had 40 workers test positive

S&S Foods, a restaurant meat provider, has 58 confirmed cases

Four of those employees have since died.

The facility was forced to shut down on June 27 but was given permission to reopen last week.

Los Angeles County reported 2,039 new cases on Monday, bringing its total number of infections to 176,028.

Meanwhile, 17 new deaths were reported Monday, bringing the county's death toll to 4,375.

'It has been 145 days since the COVID-19 public health emergency was declared in Los Angeles County. These past 145 days have given us time to learn a lot more about COVID-19 - how to coexist with it as we await development of treatments and vaccines, and how to slow the spread to give our health system a fighting chance of treating those who fall seriously ill,' Ferrer said.

'We must drive compliance, containment, and collaboration efforts that will move with us into the long-term recovery that we all want to see happen as soon as possible.

'There is mounting evidence that these strategies work. The task in front of us is to be able to thread the needle so that we continue with our recovery journey while protecting the health and well-being of our residents, our workforce and our community. We have to do both.'
RICHMOND, Va., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Genworth Financial, Inc. (NYSE: GNW) today announced that Kelly L. Groh has decided to leave Genworth, and will resign as executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) upon completion of the company's second quarter financial close process and related Form 10-Q filing, which is expected to occur in early August. Following her resignation, Dan Sheehan, Genworth executive vice president and chief investment officer (CIO), will succeed Groh as CFO. Groh will remain with Genworth in an advisory role for a period of time to ensure a smooth transition.

"The Board and I would like to thank Kelly for her many outstanding contributions to Genworth over the course of her 24-year career," said Tom McInerney, president and chief executive officer of Genworth. "Kelly's exceptional financial and leadership capabilities have strengthened Genworth's ability to navigate complex challenges. In her five years as CFO, Kelly's guidance has been critical as we worked to improve our liquidity and overcome hurdles throughout the China Oceanwide transaction process. Kelly expressed a desire to step away from the company to be closer to her family on the west coast, and we have a transition plan in place that we believe creates a strong foundation for Genworth's future. I wish her all the best in the next chapter of her life."

"I deeply appreciate and value the opportunities I have had at Genworth and its predecessor companies over the last 24 years," Groh remarked. "I'm confident that Dan's background and experience will provide continuity and leadership to Genworth's strong and tenured finance team."

Sheehan will retain his role as CIO upon assuming the CFO role. He has been with Genworth and its predecessor company for 22 years, serving in leadership roles of increasing responsibility and building a proven track record of execution for the investments and risk teams. He assumed the CIO role in April 2012 and is responsible for managing Genworth's $73 billion investment portfolio. Sheehan is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University and an MBA in Finance from Babson College.

"I am pleased that Dan, who has deep and extensive experience leading financial operations at Genworth, will assume the CFO role at this critical time for our company," McInerney continued. "In my experience, aligning investment operations under the CFO role is very effective, as it brings both sides of the balance sheet together under one comprehensive point of view. I am confident Dan will seamlessly assume these responsibilities, with the support of our outstanding finance and investments teams, as we seek to execute near-term actions to support Genworth's liquidity and continue to pursue the transaction with China Oceanwide."

In addition, Genworth will appoint Brian Haendiges as executive vice president and chief risk officer (CRO), effective September 8, 2020. He will assume the CRO responsibilities from Groh, who has served as interim CRO since January 2020.

Haendiges has extensive experience across the financial services, retirement and insurance industries. Most recently, he was senior vice president of U.S. pricing and product management at MassMutual, where he was responsible for pricing and profitability for MassMutual's U.S. portfolio, including life insurance, disability, long term care, annuity and retirement. Prior to his nine years at MassMutual, Haendiges held leadership roles at ING and Aetna. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and holds a B.S. in Actuarial Science from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

"I am also pleased that Brian Haendiges will join Genworth's leadership team to oversee our risk management operations," concluded McInerney. "Brian and I have worked together over the course of our careers, and I look forward to working with him again during this critical time for Genworth."

Genworth will be hosting its second quarter 2020 earnings conference call on July 30, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. (ET). Genworth's dial-in information for the earnings call is available through the company's website, http://investor.genworth.com.

Biographies

Dan Sheehan

Dan Sheehan is Executive Vice President, Chief Investment Officer of Genworth. He assumed his role in April 2012 and has the responsibility for managing Genworth's $73 billion investment portfolio.

Dan has been with Genworth / General Electric for the last 22 years. He started as Vice President, Risk Manager for Investments Real Estate (1997-2002). His responsibilities included leadership of the real estate risk team, review and/or approval of $4B+ of transactions, and portfolio oversight responsibilities. In 2002, he joined the Investments Risk team as Risk Manager, Insurance Portfolios, with responsibility for risk management oversight of the insurance investment portfolios. In 2004, Dan assumed management responsibilities for the Investments Real Estate team as a Senior Vice President. In early 2008, Dan's role broadened to include direct management responsibility of the Portfolio Management team, which included fixed-income trading. From September 2009 to April 2012, Dan was SVP of Genworth's Asset Management. He had responsibility for the overall performance of Genworth's insurance investment portfolios (Corporates, Structureds, Real Estate, Private Placements, and Trading).

Prior to joining Genworth / General Electric, Dan worked with Sun Life of Canada (1993-1997) in Wellesley Hills, MA as a Property Investment Officer in the Real Estate Investments group. From 1987-1993, he worked for the Massachusetts Laborers Benefit Fund as an auditor and auditing supervisor.

Dan, who is a CFA charter holder, graduated from Harvard University with a BA in Economics and later received an MBA in Finance from Babson College.

Brian Haendiges

Brian Haendiges has a wide range of experience across pricing, risk, operational and actuarial roles. Most recently, Brian served as President and Owner of HAE Consulting, a firm he established at the request of a national insurer to expand its institutional investment products business and advise on retirement blocks.

Prior to establishing HAE Consulting, Brian had a nine year career at MassMutual, where he most recently served as Senior VP and Head of US Pricing and Product Management between 2016  2019, during which time he led a team of actuarial and quantitative professionals to establish pricing and profitability for MassMutual's US business portfolio, including life insurance, disability, long term care, annuity, retirement, and new initiatives. Previously, Brian served as Senior VP and Head of Retirement Services Investments between 2014  2016 and Head of Strategic Market Development of Investments between 2010  2014.

Prior to MassMutual, Brian served as EVP and Head of Defined Benefit Administration between 2009  2010 at ING (now Voya), Vice President and Executive Director of ING Center for Savings Innovation between 2008  2009, and Vice President and Head of ING's Institutional Business Group between 2000  2007.

Prior to 2000, Brian served in various roles of increasing responsibility at Aetna and Unum, where he managed Governmental and stable value business lines. Brian, who is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA), received a Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, graduating summa cum laude.

About Genworth Financial

Genworth Financial, Inc. (NYSE: GNW) is a Fortune 500 insurance holding company committed to helping families achieve the dream of homeownership and address the financial challenges of aging through its leadership positions in mortgage insurance and long term care insurance. Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, Genworth traces its roots back to 1871 and became a public company in 2004. For more information, visit genworth.com.

From time to time, Genworth releases important information via postings on its corporate website. Accordingly, investors and other interested parties are encouraged to enroll to receive automatic email alerts and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds regarding new postings. Enrollment information is found under the "Investors" section of genworth.com. From time to time, Genworth's publicly traded subsidiary, Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia Limited, separately releases financial and other information about their operations. This information can be found at http://www.genworth.com.au.

SOURCE Genworth Financial, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.genworth.com


Georgia's governor said he's withdrawing a request for an emergency hearing in a lawsuit that aims to block the state's largest city from ordering people to wear masks in public or imposing other restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gov. Brian Kemp earlier this month sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and the City Council, but a spokesman announced late Monday that the governor wanted 'to continue productive, good faith negotiations.' As a result, the governor decided to withdraw the request for a hearing that was scheduled for Tuesday morning, spokesman Cody Hall said.

The move doesn't withdraw the underlying lawsuit, but it means a judge won't immediately weigh in on whether Kemp or Bottoms is right in a dispute about the extent of Kemp's powers under Georgia's public health state of emergency. The Republican governor argues local leaders cannot impose measures that are more or less restrictive than those in his executive orders.

A spokesman for Gov. Brian Kemp announced on Monday that he wanted to 'continue productive, good faith negotiations,' dropping his request for an emergency hearing in his lawsuit against Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms

Atlanta is one of more than a dozen local jurisdictions in the state that has ordered people to wear face coverings in some public places in a bid to stop COVID-19 (Atlanta on July 10)

Hall claimed a partial victory Monday as part of the justification for standing down from the emergency hearing, saying Bottoms had clarified previous confusing statements.

'The mayor retreated from misleading claims that the city was reverting to phase one by shuttering specific businesses and penalizing law-abiding business owners,' Hall said in a statement. 'From the beginning, this overstep by the mayor was our foremost concern and the primary impetus behind the litigation, give the threat of economic harm and immediate backlash from Atlanta's business community.'

Bottoms has said those statements are recommendations, not legal orders, and that Kemp didn't understand what she was doing.

Bottoms' office did not immediately have a comment late Monday night on the withdrawal of the request for a hearing.

Kemp argues local leaders cannot impose measures that are more or less restrictive than those in his executive orders

Atlanta is one of more than a dozen local jurisdictions in the state that has ordered people to wear face coverings in some public places in an effort to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

According to the state's Department of Public Health, there were 175,052 cases of COVID-19 in the state as of Tuesday. The death toll increased to 3,563.

In an executive order earlier this month, Kemp strongly encouraged people to wear face coverings to stem the spread of the coronavirus, but he didn't mandate the wearing of masks. The order also suspends any local laws or rules that are more restrictive than his order, including local rules or ordinances requiring people to wear masks, even on public property or in public buildings.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jane Barwick last week ordered the two sides to attend mediation overseen by Senior Judge Cynthia Wright to try to resolve the issues in the case before Tuesday's hearing.

The lawsuit filed July 16 asks the judge to overturn Bottoms' orders that are more restrictive than Kemp's, block her from issuing any more such orders, instruct the City Council not to ratify Bottoms actions or adopt any ordinances inconsistent with Kemp's orders, to prohibit Bottoms from making public statements asserting she has authority that exceeds Kemp's, and to require city officials to enforce 'all provisions' of Kemp's existing orders.

The governor filed a motion for emergency interlocutory injunction the following day, essentially asking the judge to order that all those requests take immediate effect while the lawsuit is pending. Tuesday's hearing was scheduled for her to hear arguments on that motion.

In a court filing Monday, lawyers for the city argued that the lawsuit is barred by sovereign immunity, which says state and local governments can't be sued without their consent. The city has the right to take action to protect the public, and its mask mandate is not inconsistent with or preempted by the governor's order, the city's filing argues.

'In the absence of state leadership on this issue, local governments have stepped in to protect their citizens,' the city's filing says.

The Georgia Municipal Association, which represents municipal governments throughout the state, as well as Democratic state lawmakers and several labor unions have filed briefs saying the governor has overstepped his authority by trying to limit additional measures taken by local governments to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
NEW YORK, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- While data and news reports show that Black and Hispanic communities are disproportionately affected by the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the role that neighborhood income plays in COVID-19 deaths is less clear. New analyses by a team of researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine examine the interplay between race/ethnicity and income on COVID-19 cases and related deaths in 10 major U.S. cities. The researchers found that non-white counties had higher cumulative incidences and deaths compared to predominantly white countiesand this was true for both low-income and high-income communities.

The findings  recently published online in JAMA Network Open  suggest that racial disparities in COVID-19 cases and deaths exist beyond what can be explained by differences in poverty rates. The researchers found that even among communities with higher median income, predominantly non-white communities still bore a greater burden of the virus  almost three times the incidence and deaths  compared to neighborhoods that identified as majority white. Yet income also plays an important contributing role. Indeed, the starkest racial/ethnic contrast between majority non-white and predominantly white counties was found when restricted to low-income counties only, where residents from predominantly non-white communities died from COVID-19 at nine times the rate as those living in predominantly white counties.

"While we expected to see greater numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths in predominantly non-white, low-income communities, we were surprised that this relationship still held even after we accounted for poverty rates," said Samrachana Adhikari, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and lead author of the study. "Given our findings, we believe that structural racism may explain these racial disparities in number of cases and deaths noted in Black counties."

How the Study was Conducted

Using publicly available data from the 2018 U.S. Census Small Areas Income and Poverty Estimates program, the Centers for Disease Control, and state health departments, the researchers examined cumulative COVID-19 cases and deaths per 100,000 across 158 urban counties (accounting for 64 percent of confirmed COVID-19 cases) spanning 10 large U.S. cities: New York City, Boston, New Orleans, Detroit, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Seattle. Using the census data, the team linked median income and proportion of non-white residents in each county and used statistical analysis to identify differences in cumulative incidents and death, and their association with neighborhood race/ethnicity and poverty levels. All data analyzed included COVID-19 cases and deaths observed through May 10, 2020.

"We have known for decades that racism kills. Racism is a public health issue which has been implicated in the racial gap in mortality and in health outcomes," says Gbenga Ogedegbe, MD, MPH, professor of Population Health and Medicine at NYU Langone and one of the study's co-authors.

"Because the differences in COVID-19 cases and mortality cannot be explained by poverty alone, our findings give credence to our hypothesis that structural racism underlies the disproportionately higher rates of COVID-19 infections and alarmingly high rates of deaths in predominantly Black communities. The fact that non-white residents died from the virus at higher rates than white residents in both wealthier and poorer communities should be a major alarm bell to policymakers at the national and local government levels, academic medical centers, and the country at large," says Ogedegbe.

One of the study's limitations, according to Adhikari, is that it covers only large metropolitan areas and that the data analyzed are aggregated at the county level. More granular data at the individual level, as well as a breakdown of residents by race and ethnicity, would provide greater insight into the drivers of this troubling association, as well as expose most affected neighborhoods in need of more robust public health interventions, says Adhikari.

In addition to Adhikari and Ogedegbe, additional co-authors from NYU Langone Health are senior author Andrea Troxel, ScD; Lorna Thorpe, PhD, MPH; Justin Feldman, ScD; and Nicholas Pantaleo. Dr. Adhikari is funded by National Institute of Health and Johnson & Johnson.

Media Inquiries:

Sasha Walek

646-501-3873

[email protected]

SOURCE NYU Langone Health

Related Links

http://www.med.nyu.edu


People visit the Penn Museum in Philadelphia on Nov. 16, 2019, when it reopened after a major renovation. Read more

The Penn Museum is relocating part of the Morton Collection of skulls from a classroom used for study in its Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials to closed storage, acceding to demands by student and community activists.

First reported by the Hyperallergic online art news site, the move, which a museum spokesperson said would be completed before the end of the month, comes as the museum prepares to reopen to the public Tuesday.

In a statement on its website, the museum said it is actively working towards repatriation or reburial of the crania of enslaved individuals within this collection.

The collection of about 1,000 skulls was amassed by Samuel George Morton, a 19th century physician who gained celebrity for gathering the collection, but was widely considered a second-class scholar. Nevertheless, according to the museum website, Mortons research was taken as proof that Europeans, especially those of German and English ancestry, were intellectually, morally, and physically superior to all other races. Mortons own views were broadly white supremacist.

The collection first was housed at the Academy of Natural Sciences, where Morton conducted research into paleontology and human skulls. In 1966, it came to the Penn Museum.

A group of Penn students presented a study last year that the collection contained the crania of 53 enslaved individuals from Cuba and two from the United States.

Given that not much is known about these individuals other than that they came to Morton from Cuba, we are committed to working through this important process with heritage community stakeholders in an ethical and respectful manner, the museum said.

Among other things, activists from the PoliceFreePenn coalition has been calling for the removal and repatriation of the Morton skulls. In a position statement the group argues that in order to begin any process of redress or the harm done by the Morton Collection, the museum must deaccession and, where possible, repatriate the entire collection.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 05:27:06|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on July 28, 2020 shows taxis running in a street in Kuwait City, Kuwait. Kuwait will start the third phase plan of restoring normal life on July 28, Tareq Al-Mezrem, government spokesman, said on July 23. Taxis will be allowed to operate with only one passenger, he noted. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua)

CAIRO, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Tuesday recorded 2,667 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total infections to 296,273. Meanwhile, Kuwait entered the third phase of its plan to restore normal life.

Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said that the death toll from the coronavirus in Iran rose to 16,147 after 235 new deaths were added.

Iran, the hardest-hit country in the Middle East, has so far recorded 257,019 recoveries, while 3,902 patients remain in critical condition.

Kuwait entered the third phase of its plan to restore normal life on Tuesday, though it reported 770 new COVID-19 cases and four more deaths, raising the total infections to 65,149 and the death toll to 442.

During the third phase, the labor capacity will increase to no more than 50 percent, visits to social care homes will be allowed, and hotels and resorts will reopen.

Saudi Arabia, the worst-hit Arab country, announced 1,897 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total infections in the kingdom to 270,831.

This is lowest daily hike in infections in the country since June 2, and it is also the third consecutive day that Saudi Arabia's daily count of new infections fell below 2,000.

The Saudi Health Ministry also reported 29 new deaths and 2,688 more recoveries, raising the death toll to 2,789 and the total recoveries to 225,624.

Turkey confirmed 963 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, raising the total infections to 227,982, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

Meanwhile, 15 people died from the virus, taking the death toll to 5,645, while 1,092 more patients recovered, raising the total recoveries to 211,561, he said.

In Iraq, the Health Ministry reported 2,747 COVID-19 cases and 77 more deaths, bringing the total infections to 115,332 and the death toll to 4,535.

Riyadh Abdul-Amir, head of the Health Ministry's Public Health Department, predicted that a partial curfew would return after the full curfew imposed during the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday, in order to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

He stressed that the committee will oppose any recommendations to fully lift the curfew due to the risk of spreading the coronavirus infections by social gatherings and the public's non-compliance with the ministry's health restrictions.

Israel recorded the highest daily hike in COVID-19 infections with 2,308 new cases confirmed on Tuesday, taking the total confirmed cases to 66,293. The death toll in Israel rose to 486 after 12 new fatalities were added.

Oman reported 1,067 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, raising the tally of infections to 74,858, including 371 deaths.

In Morocco, the tally of COVID-19 cases surged to 21,387 with 500 new infections recorded in the past 24 hours, while the death toll rose to 327 after 11 new fatalities were added.

Palestine announced 481 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 13,938, including 82 deaths and 5,518 recoveries.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday announced 369 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 59,546.

The death toll from the virus rose to 347 in UAE after two more patients died, and the total number of recoveries increased to 52,905 after 395 more patients recovered.

Qatar's Health Ministry announced 283 new COVID-19 cases, increasing the total confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 109,880, including 106,603 recoveries and 167 deaths.

The National Center for Disease Control of Libya on Tuesday announced 190 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily infections, as the total infections climbed to 3,017.

The center said that the tally of cases includes 579 recoveries and 67 deaths so far.

Lebanon's total number of COVID-19 infections increased on Tuesday by 141 cases to 4,023, while the death toll went up by three to 54.

The Lebanese cabinet agreed on Tuesday to adopt a new period of general mobilization against the pandemic from Aug. 3 to Aug. 30, in a bid to prevent further spread of the coronavirus. Enditem
French Prime Minister Jean Castex and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin have expressed their support for ruling party MP Sira Sylla, following an anti-immigration protest linked to her proposal to reduce tax on the transfer of money to Africa.

Sylla tweeted a photo of 5 protesters from the far-right anti-immigrant group Generation Identitaire, demonstrating in front of her constituency office at the weekend with signs saying, Help French people, not Africans and Think about our jobs, not about the African diaspora.

She replied: You will never hurt me. I am proud of the work I have been doing with conviction over the past three years as an MP for the French Republic, particularly for my constituency and for the relationship between Africa and France. More determined than ever."

In July, Sylla proposed a bill in parliament allowing temporary tax relief on the commission paid on money transfers to African countries, in a bid to help with the economic consequences on the continent of Covid-19.

Condemnation of 'shameful attacks'

Prime Minister Jean Castex criticised the shameful attacks on Sylla, saying such demonstrations deserve unanimous and unambiguous condemnation.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin also condemned the protests, expressing his total support for the MP. The Republic will never give in to the hate ideology of these extremist groups, he affirmed.

Since the beginning of the Covid epidemic Africans living in France have been earning less money and so sending less to family members in Africa.

Transfers of money from individuals living in France to family members in Africa are estimated to be three times the sum paid from the French public purse to these countries.

Sylla noted in an interview with RFI in May that the money transfers are a direct, concrete way of helping people in these countries. We know where the money goes, she said, hinting that it does not disappear through corruption or bureaucracy but reaches those in need.

At the moment, a commission of between 8-10 percent has to be paid by the sender.

Sylla wants that commission to be deducted from annual revenue when the sender fills in his or her yearly tax returns, so that no tax is paid on it.

The measure would be in place only temporarily, as a response to the Covid-19 crisis.

Sylla is president of the French parliament's France-Rwanda-Burundi friendship group.
Weve worked hard to distinguish ourselves from other estate planning attorneys through our expertise in effectively integrating clients estate and tax planning into their overall financial strategy.

Morgan and DiSalvo, P.C., is pleased to announce that firm partners Richard M. Morgan and Loraine M. DiSalvo have each received the 2020 Five Star Investment Professional Award. Both are recognized for the ninth year in a row for this national accolade.

The Five Star Investment Professional award recognizes financial service providers who demonstrate excellence in the area of outstanding service. Winners are evaluated based on ten criteria including a commitment to clients, strong industry credentials, and the quality of his or her practice.

We are honored to be recognized as Five Star Investment Professionals once again this year, said Morgan. Weve worked hard to distinguish ourselves from other estate planning attorneys through our expertise in effectively integrating clients estate and tax planning into their overall financial strategy.

For more than 25 years, the firm has maintained a deep passion for working with clients to implement their estate planning needs and wishes. Morgan and DiSalvos commitment to excellence and the highest standards in the estate planning field has garnered many accolades.

Our success is due to the strong relationships weve built with our clients and the talented team weve assembled, so its terrific when those efforts are acknowledged through awards like this one, said DiSalvo.

Attorneys do not pay a fee to be considered or awarded. For more information, visit http://www.fivestarprofessional.com.

About Morgan and DiSalvo, P.C.

Morgan and DiSalvo, P.C. consists of attorneys Richard Morgan and Loraine DiSalvo, of counsel attorney, Diane Weinberg, and their team. Their reputation for personal service and compassion, combined with their expertise in estate planning, tax law, elder and disability law, and dispute resolution, has earned Morgan and DiSalvo the highest ratings from multiple attorney rating agencies, including the well-respected Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating, every year since the firms inception in 1995. Additionally, the firm is recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the few select firms in Georgia to achieve its premier Metro Tier 1 rating in the area of Trust and Estate Law. For more information visit http://www.morgandisalvo.com


Murmu jumps the gun At a time when political parties and observers are keenly watching whether the Election Commission (EC) postpones the Bihar polls or not, the EC on Tuesday ticked off Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor G C Murmu.

It disapproved of Murmus repeated statements that seemed to indicate elections to the newly carved out Union Territory would be held after the completion of the delimitation exercise. The EC said it takes an exception to a barrage of such statements and would like to remind the LG that in the constitutional scheme of things, the timings, ...
A resident of the eastern Chinese province of Shandong who was being pressured by the authorities to join a controversial resettlement plan was sent to hospital after attempting suicide by drinking pesticide at the weekend, RFA has learned.



The resident of Shandong's Lanling county, who was identified only by his nickname Lao Li, drank the pesticide on the evening of July 25 outside the headquarters of the Lanling county police department after being placed under intolerable pressure by police over his refusal to sign up for the plan, fellow residents told RFA on Monday.



"They are driving people to take their own lives," one resident said. "[One guy] was driven to drink pesticide outside the county police department."



Provincial authorities suspended a mass rural resettlement program at the end of June after it was criticized by the ruling Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper, the People's Daily, in the face of growing public anger.



While government land grabs in rural areas have sparked mass unrest and, rarely, organized resistance across China for decades, the Shandong program of "village mergers" was far more ambitious in scope, and had been packaged as a bid to improve the lives of farming communities in a total revamp of rural areas.



But local residents told RFA that the program had left them homeless and with no income, compensation, or social security assistance.



Three separate sources in Lanling county confirmed Lao Li's suicide bid, although they declined to be named for fear of reprisals.



Lao Li had been accused of "illegal mining operations" by police, which fellow residents said was a form of official retaliation to be dropped if he complied with the resettlement plan.



"Plainclothes [state security] police are guarding him in the ward and are putting him under all kinds of pressure to say that his suicide attempt was for personal reasons and nothing to do with the demolition program," a second Lanling resident told RFA.



Staff at the local hospital confirmed to RFA that Lao Li was still receiving treatment there on Monday after ingesting pesticide.



But a member of staff who answered the phone at the Lanling county police department on Monday denied that anyone had ingested pesticide outside the building, saying there was nothing in the official record to show that this had happened.



Sources said Lao Li had been threatened with charges by police relating to a business he ran 20 years ago only after he refused to sign up for the resettlement plan. He is currently out on bail pending trial for the charges.



Anxious, angry, helpless



Fellow residents said they felt anxious, angry, and helpless over Lao Li's desperate action, which came after the Shandong authorities ordered the resettlement plan suspended following a public outcry over the widespread abuse and coercion of local residents.



Rights lawyer Chen Jiangang said it is very common for police in China to use coercion, harassment, and intimidation to deal with holdouts to government-imposed development plans.



"They are basically using coercion to compel obedience," Chen said. "There is nothing to be done about it because all the lawyers with any courage to speak for them are currently [also] being persecuted and jailed."



U.S.-based legal scholar Chen Guangcheng said he also recognized the behavior from his time as a rights activist and legal advocate for rural communities in Shandong, an activity that earned him a four-year jail term for "damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic" in 2006.



"[When I read about this] I immediately remembered how they persecuted people back then," Chen said of his life in Shandong's Linyi county. "Their tactics haven't changed one bit."



"They find an excuse to arrest you, and if you confess to the charges you can go home, but if not, they put you in a tiger chair, and deny you food and water," he said, in reference to a chair with restraints for hands and feet.



"Reason is useless when you are dealing with an authoritarian system with no shame and no moral compass," he said.



But he said bad publicity could still affect government policy.



"If you demolish a village or a family home, and nobody says anything, then dozens of counties and villages will continue to suffer," Chen said. "The [Chinese Communist Party] keeps doing these things, and we have to keep on exposing them."



He estimated that his campaigns against forced abortions and sterilizations in Linyi in the early 2000s had resulted in an extra 90,000 births in the region.



"90,000 lives came out of that struggle," he said.



Reported by Jane Tang for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Peskov said there were reasons why Russian officers had stopped participating in the JCCC and had been recalled.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov says the issue of the return of Russian officers to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) of the ceasefire and stabilization along the contact line in Donbas requires consideration and guarantees from Ukraine of their equal participation.

"No one refuses to discuss this issue, but first it must be discussed and worked out together," he told journalists, answering a question from an UNIAN correspondent in Russia under what conditions Russian officers may return to the JCCC.

Peskov said there were reasons why Russian officers had stopped participating in the JCCC and had been recalled.

Read alsoRussia systematically supplies personnel, weapons, military equipment to occupied Donbas  Ukraine in JCCC

"After this issue is worked out to determine the modality of their participation, certain guarantees of their equal participation, it will be possible to think about this. So far, it is difficult to talk about any specific conditions," Peskov added.

According to him, if to look back at the situation that preceded the withdrawal of Russian officers from this group, it will be clear "what prevented the continuation of this practice."

On July 27, Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksiy Reznikov said Kyiv wants Russian military officers to return to the JCCC. This will help to achieve a permanent ceasefire in the east of Ukraine.

UNIAN memo. The JCCC began work in Donbas in September 2014. It consisted of 75 Ukrainian and Russian officers in rotation every three months.

Russian representatives in the JCCC left the territory of Ukraine and returned to Russia on December 20, 2017.

Russia said the reason for such a step was the fact that since January 1, 2018, Russians wishing to visit Ukraine had to present biometric passports and provide their personal data.

According to Moscow, the new rule contradicts the Russian-Ukrainian agreement on visa-free travel of citizens.

The Russian side refused to comply with that law.
Officials in at least 28 states are urging residents to report any unsolicited packages of seeds that appear to have been sent from China because they could be harmful.

The agricultural departments in those states released statements in recent days saying residents had reported receiving packages of seeds in the mail that they had not ordered.

"Based on information provided by constituents, the packages were sent by mail and may have Chinese writing on them," the Delaware Department of Agriculture said in a statement Monday. "All contained some sort of seed packet either alone, with jewelry, or another inexpensive item."

The Delaware Department of Agriculture is advising residents not to plant unsolicited seeds purportedly sent from China. (Delaware Dept. of Agriculture)

Public notices about unsolicited shipments of seeds from China were also issued by agriculture officials in Alabama, Colorado,Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington state, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Some of the seeds have been mailed in white packages displaying Chinese lettering and the words "China Post." Others, such as those mailed to people in Ohio, have been sent in yellow envelopes.

The U.S. Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and state departments of agriculture to investigate.

The USDA said in a statement it did not have any evidence that this was something other than a "brushing scam," where people receive unsolicited items from a seller who then posts false customer reviews to boost sales.

"USDA is currently collecting seed packages from recipients and will test their contents and determine if they contain anything that could be of concern to U.S. agriculture or the environment," the statement said.

The USDA urged anyone who received the seeds in the mail to contact state plant regulatory officials or Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service officials in their state.

Story continues

Officials warned people not to plant the seeds.

"If you receive seeds from China, DO NOT PLANT THEM. And dont throw them in the trash," Mississippi Agriculture and Commerce Commissioner Andy Gipson said in a statement on his Facebook page.

The Montana Department of Agriculture said in a statement Monday that the seeds have not yet been identified.

"They could be invasive, meaning they may have the potential to introduce diseases to local plants, or could be harmful to livestock," the statement said.

Steve Cole, director of Clemson University's Regulatory Services unit in South Carolina, said: "If these seeds should bear invasive species, they may be a threat to our environment and agriculture. We don't want unknown species planted or thrown out where they may wind up sprouting in a landfill."
In early April, most Americans  and nearly as many Germans and Swedes  thought the coronavirus pandemic would be behind them by the time summer was out.

Why it matters: Like swimming against the tide, the longer countries are stuck in the pandemic, the farther it seems to stretch out in front of them.

Consider this: 42% of Germans once expected the effects of the pandemic to end this summer.

Now, 66% expect it to carry on through next summer  one year from now  according to polling from strategic consulting firm Kekst CNC, shared with Axios.

Brits have long been most prepared for the long haul. 53% expect the country to be grappling with the pandemic two years from now, compared to 35% in Japan.

That view is less common in France (28%), Germany (21%), Sweden (24%) and the U.S. (25%).

Concerns about the pandemic's impacts on household finances and job security have fallen significantly since the spring, particularly in the U.S., indicating government rescue packages have had their intended effects.

With spending likely to be dialed back, worries are starting to tick back up in the U.K. and Japan, though Swedes and Germans remain the least concerned.

Japanese people are easily most likely to believe they will lose their job (38% vs. 20% in the U.S.), though relatively few say they already have (9% Japan, 16% U.S., 16% Sweden, 15% France, 10% Germany, 6% U.K.).

Japanese people are also by far the most critical of the support their government is offering businesses.

Go deeper: Approval soars for Merkel, slumps for Trump and Abe
PARIS -- France plans to ban heaters used by restaurants and cafes on outdoor terraces from early next year, as it accelerates a shift to a low-carbon economy, the government said.

Because the ban could impact a sector hard-hit by the coronavirus crisis, it will not come into force until after the end of the coming winter to give business time to adapt.

Whats at stake is ending ecologically aberrant practices that lead to totally unjustified energy consumption, Environment Minister Barbara Pompili said on French TV.

On Jan. 1, Rennes became the first French city to ban heated terraces. Environmental NGOs estimate that France has least 12,500 heated terraces.

This is a courageous decision, said Thierry Salomon of energy conservation group NegaWatt, adding that in northern European countries with far colder climates, restaurants typically provide terrace clients with plaids.

He said that as some restaurants introduced terrace heating, others were forced to follow in order not to lose customers.

Negawatt estimates a 75 m2 terrace, heated with gas November to March, emits as much CO2 as a car circling the earth three times.

Restaurants say the ban will add to their worries.

The timing is very bad, in the middle of the coronavirus crisis, 80% of our turnover comes from terraces now, said restaurant owner Aurore Begue.

One Parisian enjoying a sunny terrace was less worried.

When heaters came, it was progress, but really, we do not need them. We can put on a coat or sweater, said Marie-Laure Bonnot, 77.

Some restaurant owners too were philosophical.

This is a measure that could be expected, and, given the climate situation, it is hard to oppose it, said Stephane Malchow of brasserie Mollard.

Paris hotel and restaurant trade group GNIs Romain Vidal said the industry would find better ways to heat terraces, using efficient heaters, certified renewable energy and wind shields to reduce heat loss.

France created the terrace culture. We need to continue that culture without damaging the planet, he said.
MADISON COUNTY  The Illinois Department of Transportation recently unveiled its five-year proposed highway improvement plan.

District 8, which covers Madison County, has 1,803 miles of highways and 1,013 bridges, which support 16.6 million miles of travel daily. IDOT has allocated an average of $3.54 billion annually for the 2021-2026 fiscal years. Under the 2021-2026 IDOT plan, in collaboration with Gov. J.B. Pritzker, about $1.82 billion would go toward work on state highways during this period.

Interstate, state and local roads are among the projects that are scheduled to take place in 2021. Projects include:

Madison County

 Drivers and others hoping for major work to start on the Chain of Rocks Bridge next year will have to be patient. All IDOT has programmed for 2021 is engineering for contract plans, which will cost $500,000. Contract plans, land acquisition, utility adjustments and construction engineering are programmed into the five-year plan at $233.1 million

 IDOT provided more details on the Route 3 interchange at Interstate 270 revamp. From the river to west of Route 203, there will be additional lanes in each direction and resurfacing for 2.3 miles, engineering for contract plans, bridge deck sealing, a railroad flagger, bridge superstructure work, land acquisition, utility adjustments and interchange reconstruction planed for $92.3 million. For 2021, engineering contract plans and the RR flagger are programmed for $1.6 million

 One interchange that will go under the knife next year is the Route 111 interchange at I-270. It will become a diverging diamond interchange for $19 million. In a diverging diamond, drivers briefly swap sides of the road. It will permit north and southbound drivers to have direct access to entrance and exit ramps without left turn lanes and signal arrows and should enhance the transportation logistics for the Gateway Commerce Center, the truck stop and Pontoon Beachs new warehouse district. In Missouri, examples of this type of interchange exist at Dorsett Road and I-270 in St. Louis County and Mid-Rivers Mall Drive and Interstate 70 in St. Peters

 On a project that Glen Carbon would like to see completed is the relocation of the Route 162 & Route 157 junction. For 2021, engineering for contract plans are programmed for $2 million. Work will include intersection reconstruction, a new bridge, land acquisition, utility adjustments, engineering for contract plans, bridge replacement and construction engineering for $23.6 million

 Almost seven miles of new pavement will go down next year on Interstate 55/70 from just east of Route 159 to just north of 270/70 at a cost of $3 million

 Next year, Interstate 70 from I-55 to a point 2.5 miles east of the 55/70/270 interchange will get a new pavement overlay, ramp repairs, bridge deck repairs, bridge repairs, scour mitigation and more for $18 million

 US 40 from east of Formosa Road to Bethany Drive in Troy will receive additional lanes, intersection reconstruction and a bi-directional left turn lane for $25 million. Phase I of the work will start next year for $3 million

 Route 3 at West Delmar and Pierce near Alton, there will be intersection reconstruction for $8 million with other, assorted improvements. Standard overlay patching and miscellaneous improvements are scheduled for 2021

 Land acquisition and utility adjustments will happen next year on Route 3 at 20th Street in Granite City in advance of intersection reconstruction in future years

 Route 111 at Chain of Rocks Road near Mitchell, second phase of work will take place next year with a $2 million price tag

 Route 111 at the Cahokia Diversion Canal, three miles north of I-270 there will be a new bridge deck overlay and bridge joint replacement/repair for $1.2 million in 2021

 Route 140 from Monument Avenue to Annex Street in Alton will undergo reconstruction, starting with phase one work next year, totaling $2.5 million

 Route 157 from just north of Chain of Rocks Road in Edwardsville to Route 162 just north of Horseshoe Lake Road in Granite City, both roads will receive new overlay pavements in 2021 at $4.8 million

 Route 159 from Kinloch Avenue to Clay Street in Collinsville for crack and joint sealing next year for $50,000

 Route 255 at the Cahokia Diversion Canal for bridge joint repair and replacement and a bridge deck overlay costing $2.4 million next year

 Albers Lane at Rocky Branch Creek in Bethalto, there will be a bridge replacement in 2021 for $900,000

 North Buchanan Street in Edwardsville from East Union Street to Hillsboro Avenue will get a new pavement overlay for $547,000 next year

 St. Louis Street from North Main to West Vandalia in Edwardsville will get a new pavement overlay for $337,000 in 2021

 Sugarloaf Road at Route 157 in Collinsville will undergo intersection reconstruction next year for $345,000

St. Clair County

 Next year, IDOT has major upgrades planned for the Interstate 55/Interstate 64 at the Poplar Street Bridge to Trendley Avenue. Work will include bridge substructure rehabilitation, a new bridge deck, bridge painting, a bridge deck overlay, bridge joint replacement/repair and bridge repairs at a cost of $35.4 million

Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at (618) 659-5735.
METTAWA, Ill., July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC) has been named by Forbes and Statista to the 2020 list of Americas Best Employers for Women. From the thousands of companies that were considered for this honor, only 300 made the final list. Brunswick is ranked No. 108 overall, second in the Engineering and Manufacturing category and fourth in the state of Illinois.



Companies designated as Americas Best Employers for Women are chosen based on an independent survey from a sample of 75,000 U.S. employees working for companies employing at least 1,000 people in their U.S. operations.

We are honored to be named to the list of Americas Best Employers for Women as this is an award voted on by our employees, said Brenna Preisser, Brunswick Corporation Chief Human Resources Officer. This award reinforces our dedication and commitment to equal opportunity, inclusion and diversity across our entire global workforce. We will continue to prioritize thoughtful actions to accelerate our progress.

In addition to direct and indirect recommendations by employees, the award also looks at diversity in top executive positions. Earlier this year, Brunswick was named by Forbes and Statista to its list of the Best Employers for Diversity . In 2019, Brunswick was honored as Corporate Champion by the Womens Forum of New York for accelerating gender parity in the boardroom with 30% or more board seats held by women.

We are committed to creating a workforce that values a diverse background and has a positive impact on our employees, our stakeholders and the communities in which we live and work, said Preisser. We have a responsibility as the leader in the marine industry to set a standard where we create an authentic work environment that promotes opportunities for women and diversity in our workforce and across the industry.

In 2019, for the second consecutive year, Forbes Magazine named Brunswick Corporation among Americas Best Employers . That award, also employee driven, is determined by an anonymous survey of employees and identifies companies that employees like to work for and would recommend to others. Brunswick also recently had two women honored with a Women Making Waves Award from Boating Industry Magazine and have had a recipient of the Women in Manufacturing STEP Ahead Award for four consecutive years.

The entire list of The Best Employers for Women can be found here: https://www.forbes.com/best-employers-women/#301d94d7de9c

About Brunswick

Headquartered in Mettawa, Ill., Brunswick Corporations leading consumer brands include Mercury Marine outboard engines; Mercury MerCruiser sterndrive and inboard packages; Mercury global parts and accessories including propellers and SmartCraft electronics; Power Products Integrated Solutions; MotorGuide trolling motors; Attwood, Garelick, and Whale marine parts; Land N Sea, BLA, Paynes Marine, Kellogg Marine, and Lankhorst Taselaar marine parts distribution; Mercury and Quicksilver parts and oils; Bayliner, Boston Whaler, Crestliner, Cypress Cay, Harris, Lowe, Lund, Princecraft, Quicksilver, Rayglass, Sea Ray, Thunder Jet and Uttern boats; Boating Services Network, Freedom Boat Club, NAUTIC-ON. For more information, visit https://www.brunswick.com .




Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 22:07:44|Editor: huaxia

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ANKARA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Tuesday decided to pause its planned research in the eastern Mediterranean as a goodwill gesture for the ongoing negotiations with Greece.

"Our president said that we will keep waiting as the negotiations with Greece continue," Turkey's presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin said Tuesday in a televised interview with CNNTurk.

Turkey issued a NAVTEX (Navigational Telex) last week as Ankara planned seismic research of potential hydrocarbon exploration within the eastern Mediterranean, according to Kalin.

Mentioning the ongoing talks with Greece mediated by Germany, the spokesperson noted that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had a "constructive approach" to the issue and proposed confidence-building measures aiming to eliminate any possible tension in the Mediterranean between Ankara and Athens.

Tensions in the eastern Mediterranean have escalated in recent days amid Greece's concerns over Turkey's decision to launch seismic research, for which Turkish warships were deployed to the area. Greece claimed that the Turkish NAVTEX covers a part of the Greek continental shelf.

Turkey and Greece already have a series of ongoing disagreements due to their respective continental shelves in the Aegean Sea, as well as the militarization of certain Aegean islands and Cyprus. Enditem
New Delhi: When most of Sushant Singh Rajput's fans, friends and colleagues have demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into his death, the actor's family hasn't spoken about it yet. Recently, his sister Shweta Singh Kirti revealed why the family has not yet demanded a CBI inquiry. In her reply to a fan of Sushant who urged her to ask for a CBI probe to "fight for truth" and "fight for your brother", Shweta said that they are waiting for the Mumbai Police to finish the investigation.

"We were waiting for Mumbai Police to finish the investigation and come up with their reports," read Shweta's reply to the fan.

Sushant's sudden death by suicide on June 14 has sent shockwaves across the country. He was said to be under stress and depression.

Mumbai Police is currently investigating Sushant's death case. As of now, 39 people have been interrogated by the cops. Dharma Productions CEO Apoorva Mehta recorded his statement on Tuesday and yesterday, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt was called for questioning.

The final postmortem report confirmed that Sushant died by asphyxia due to hanging, adding that no foul play was found in the case. However, his fans are demanding a CBI probe into his death to ensure a fair investigation.
Photo credit: Kristen Buras, 2007

To inspire support for public health directives, many warn COVID-19 does not discriminateeveryones susceptible. The reality is more complicated. We are not all in this together. Racism ensures this, and New Orleans experience following Hurricane Katrina illustrates one way that racial inequities play out in times of crisis.

In a report released today by the National Education Policy Center, From Katrina To Covid-19: How Disaster, Federal Neglect, and the Market Compound Racial Inequities, professor Kristen Buras of Georgia State University draws on history, storytelling, and political analysis to describe how the government neglect that disproportionately affected communities of color during Katrina is again evident during the COVID-19 crisis, with similar devastating results.

On August 29, 2005, Katrina struck New Orleans with disastrous effects. Yet while Katrina is regarded as one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, Buras argues that government neglect and market-driven public policy generated the worst effects, especially for communities of color. Despite forecasts that Katrina could kill tens of thousands, federal, state, and local governments did little to protect those in geographically vulnerable neighborhoods or evacuate those without cars. In New Orleans, African Americans were left to drown in floodwaters and dehydrate on rooftops, disproportionately suffering an array of harms.

But the harms did not end there. As floodwaters receded, policies aimed at privatizing assets in African American neighborhoods, including public schools, were enacted, compounding racial inequities wrought by a history of white supremacy.

Almost 15 years later, on January 20, 2020, the first U.S. case of COVID-19 was detected. Despite warnings that a pandemic could wreak physical and economic havoc, the federal government failed to take preventative action. As a result, communities of color are again suffering disproportionately, with African Americans and other racially marginalized groups overrepresented among those who have died from the virus. Yet states have been slow to produce racially disaggregated data or provide racially targeted healthcare and other support. Instead of coordinating a federal response to the crisis and corresponding disparities, policymakers have advocated free market solutions, leaving states to compete for lifesaving medical supplies. The CARES Act, ostensibly passed to assist vulnerable communities, has been used to consolidate the wealth of corporate elites.

Katrina and COVID-19 have been framed as natural disastersone ecological and the other biologicalbut Buras contends that government inaction and racism have been most responsible for the disproportionate harms experienced by communities of color. With COVID-19, African Americans and other marginalized communities risk infection as low-paid workers, struggle to access food and healthcare, worry about rent and eviction, confront a digital divide amid shuttered schools, and die at higher rates.

The experience of Katrina, then, has policy implications for the current moment, including concerns over profiteering and who will have a voice in rebuilding communities disproportionately affected by economic shutdowns and school closures.

Professor Buras ends her report with race-conscious, equity-focused policy recommendations spanning health, education, housing, labor, and democratic governance. These are necessary, she concludes, to realize an equitable future and hold accountable those whose negligence has inflicted and compounded harm for communities facing the crisis of not only COVID-19, but racism.

In sum, Professor Buras report critically analyzes the following:



Reliving Katrina

The Effects of Disaster Are Not Natural: Federal Neglect KillsAnd Kills Unequally

Crisis Reveals Preexisting Inequities and Exposes Tolerance for Racism

Profiteering and Privatization Dispossess Communities of Color

The Question of Who Has a Voice in Rebuilding the Economy Is Critical

Negligence Is Racist and Criminal

Toward an Equitable Policy Future

Find From Katrina To Covid-19: How Disaster, Federal Neglect, and the Market Compound Racial Inequities, by Kristen L. Buras, at:

http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/katrina-covid

The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), a university research center housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, produces and disseminates high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. Visit us at: https://nepc.colorado.edu
AN extension to the Luas tram network is to bring an extra 30,000 people within one kilometre of a stop and take 10,000 cars off the road in Dublin.

The four kilometre line through Finglas in the north of the city is targeted for completion by 2030, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan said.

Mr Ryan this morning opened a public consultation on the route of the line which has been chosen from almost 30 options that were whittled down to a short list of four.

It links Charlestown close to the M50 with the existing Broombridge station in Cabra, a journey that will take just 13 minutes, and it promises to enable passengers get the whole way to Trinity College in the city centre in just 30 minutes.

Read More

It will provide four new stops along the way but it will also run through three public parks and Finglas village with opposition expected over the impact on any or all of these areas.

No price has been put on the project, with the National Transport Authority insisting it was impossible to cost until the route had been pinned down, but it is expected to run to hundreds of millions of euro.

The preferred route requires two bridges, one at Broombridge station and one over the River Tolka, which will add to costs, although trying to find alternatives could be even more expensive.

Luas Finglas will differ from the existing 40 kilometres of track in that it will be constructed mostly in grass track and cycle and pedestrian paths will be laid along much of the line.

A 600-space park and ride facility will be built at the Charlestown end. A website, www.luasfinglas.ie, went live this morning where full details and drawings of the proposed route can be viewed.

Members of the public, community and interest groups will have until mid-September to submit their observations.

Previous consultations have involved public meetings and exhibitions but this approach has been ruled out because of Covid-19 restrictions.

Announcing the proposed route, Mr Ryan said it was the right time to invest in the project as more public transport was badly needed.

He said it would also allow for the planning of housing developments where they would be best served by public transport and allow people to begin choosing where they want to live in the future.

Its going to improve the quality of life of tens of thousands of people. Its the best way of making the city work, he said.

If the project proceeds without delays, the consultation, design and licencing could be completed in 2023, followed by a one year tender process and then a four-year construction phase.

Anne Graham, CEO of the National Transport Authority, urged the public to get involved in the project.

We are anxious to get feedback on this proposal so I encourage members of the local community to engage with this consultation process and let us know what you think.

The NTA has also put into service its first new extra-length Luas. A further seven of the 55m trams, which are 11m longer than the standard model, will be delivered in the next few months.

Each one will carry around 100 more passengers than the existing models. Work is also continuing on converting 26 existing trams into 55m versions.
Nearly nine out of 10 of American voters, 86%, support creating a $50 billion bailout for the child-care industry, according to a poll commissioned by the First Five Years Fund and the Center for American Progress in mid July. But lawmakers seem unwilling to meet that funding level, with the latest Republican stimulus package allocating $15 billion for the hard-hit industry.

Republicans rolled out the HEALS Act on Monday night, which provides $5 billion to child-care providers through the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). This fund is typically used to funnel federal funding into child-care subsidies for low-income families with children under the age of 13. However, under the new legislation, child-care providers can apply for emergency assistance in the case of decreased enrollment or closures related to coronavirus and to ensure they are able to remain open or reopen.

The new legislation also earmarked $10 billion to fund "back to work child-care grants," aimed at helping qualified child-care providers pay for increased costs and operating expenses associated with re-enrolling children amid the coronavirus pandemic. The bill notes that these grants are only available through the end of September and are meant to be used to help child-care providers transition their businesses over a period of nine months.

The measures are set up to provide direct support for child-care facilities to help ensure working parents have access to child care so they can work or return to work.

"The pressures of working full-time and educating multiple kids at home all at once are simply unsustainable over the long term. We need to step it up for them," Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said in a statement.

Monday's Republican relief plan builds on the $3.5 billion in emergency funding Congress allocated to the CCDBG in the first coronavirus stimulus package passed in late March. That funding was not only earmarked to help support providers that may be struggling with low enrollment or closures related to the coronavirus, the legislation stipulated that it could be used to help emergency responders and other essential workers pay for child care.

It's also more than the $7 billion total Democrats initially allocated in the HEROES Act, which passed the House of Representatives in May but has been stalled in the Senate.
The University of Virginias Crystal Ball recently moved seven traditional Republican strongholds  Alaska, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina and Utah  into the slate of potentially competitive presidential races. Last week, Cook moved Florida, traditionally the countrys largest battleground prize, from a tossup to favoring Mr. Biden.

OK, Id be remiss if I left out the very obvious caveat to all this forecasting. Of course, the election is far from over. And of course, the dynamics could change. (In The Atlantic, Peter Nicholas does a good job at laying out some of the factors that could cut in Mr. Trumps favor. The problems with voting are certainly worth watching.)

It does not, however, seem as if Mr. Trumps advisers have some grand plan to shift the current trajectory. In this moment of peril, his campaign is turning to a rationale long invoked by anxious Democrats: But 2016!

In a briefing with reporters on Friday, Mr. Trumps campaign manager, Bill Stepien, argued that much of the polling data was flawed, displaying slide after slide of surveys from four years ago predicting Hillary Clinton would win.

These trends are going to go unnoticed until election night, when were right and theyre wrong, Mr. Stepien said.

Other Republicans believe they can still turn the race around. Theyre cheered by the presidents more sober tone last week and the decision to cancel the Republican National Convention in Florida, an event that would have certainly led to weeks of negative media coverage and possibly another wave of infections in one of the states hit hardest by the pandemic.

Theres a long way to go. Trumps numbers are obviously down, but they are going to come back, said Scott Reed, the chief strategist for the United States Chamber of Commerce and a longtime G.O.P. strategist. This will be a tight race at the end of the day.
SYDNEY, Australia - Police arrested a leader of an anti-racism protest and shut down the demonstration before it started Tuesday after courts ruled the gathering in downtown Sydney was illegal due to the coronavirus pandemic threat.

Organizer Paddy Gibson was among six people arrested in a park known as The Domain before the rally was due to start at noon. Two police officers were photographed leading a defiant Gibson away.

Police outnumbered protesters. Officers told demonstrators to move on as they arrived and the area was cleared 15 minutes before the scheduled start.

New South Wales state Assistant Police Commissioner Mick Willing said five protesters were issued 1,000 Australian dollar ($710) fines for breaching pandemic crowd restrictions. Another protester was charged with using offensive language.

We are not anti-the-right-to-protest. This is about public safety, Willing said.

We understand that the issues that are in question here are significant and are sensitive to a lot of people. However, we must do what we can to ensure that the public in general are safe at this time, he added.

The rally attracted far fewer than the 5,000 who had registered online to attend. Willing estimated that a few hundred demonstrators had attended.

Gibson told Nine Network television hours earlier, We all must be COVID-safe, but we need to stand together to ... say that Black lives matter in Australia.

Outdoor gatherings are limited to 20 people in New South Wales due to the pandemic. Gibson had organized the demonstration with the family of David Dungay, an Indigenous man who died in 2015 while being restrained in a Sydney prison after repeatedly saying, I cant breathe.

The demonstrators have gathered more than 100,000 signatures on a petition calling for his prison guards to be charged.

Dungays mother, Leetona Dungay, attended the rally but avoided being arrested or fined. She delivered the petition to a minor Greens party lawmaker at state parliament after the rally failed.

It was a bit scary, but weve succeeded, she said of the police confrontation. We showed them a sign that we werent going to give up.

A New South Wales Supreme Court judge on Sunday accepted a police submission that the possibility of community transmission of COVID-19 made the demonstration too risky to proceed.

An appeals court on Monday dismissed the protesters challenge which contended the judge did not have the authority to prohibit the rally.

The court rulings increase the legal powers available to police to use against protesters.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned that Sydney was at a critical point of the pandemic in which authorities were battling to contain several infection clusters through contact-tracing and testing.

Were appealing to peoples consciences to say now the law says you shouldnt be out there, the pandemic and I think the ethical standards say you shouldnt be out there, please think of a different way to express your views, Berejiklian said before the rally was due to begin.
DU cut off: 52k students have secured admission so far

DU asks 12 college principals for details of communication with Director of Higher Education

Delhi HC declines plea for dance courses in Delhi University

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 28: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday declined to entertain a plea seeking directions to the Centre and DU to introduce in the varsity courses and further studies in the subject of dance.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan said it cannot issue any such direction as it cannot tell a university which courses it should teach.

The court also said starting of any new course would involve drafting of a syllabus, engagement of faculty and various other steps which a varsity is best qualified to decide and not courts.

Nitrogen dioxide levels fell by more than 70% during COVID-19 lockdown in New Delhi: UN

The bench further said that there must be institutions in the country which teach dance courses and the petitioner should go there.

"Why do you want to have everything in Delhi. You do not want to move left or right," the court said.

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

It told the petitioner to withdraw the matter or it would be dismissed with costs and subsequently, the plea was withdrawn.

The petitioner had contended that since the Delhi University (DU) offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in vocal music and instrumental music, dance should also be taught at the varsity.

The petitioner contended that not teaching dance at the varsity amounts to discrimination against students who majored in dance in school.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, July 28, 2020, 13:56 [IST]
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

#COVID19

At reader request, Ive added this daily chart. The data is the Johns Hopkins CSSE data. Here is the site. This is the next tranche of five problem states: Tennesse, Louisiana, North Carolina, Alabama, and South Carolina, with Georgia and Arizona for comparison:

This chart includes new cases and positivtity (because deaths scrunch together at the bottom of the chart and I dont trust that data anyhow; excess deaths would be nice). In terms of undercounting as measured by positivity (higher is bad), the order from worst to best would be AZ, FL, TX, GA, CA, and CA, at 7.42%, is still too high by WHO standards (they want 5%).

Politics

But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? James Madison, Federalist 51

They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery. Frank Herbert, Dune

They had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord

The electoral map. July 17: Georgia, Ohio, ME-2 move from Leans Republican to Toss-up. Continued yikes. On July 7, the tossup were 86. Only July 17, they were 56. Now they are 91. This puts Biden at 278, i.e. over 270.



Click the map to create your own at 270toWin.com

So, taking the consensus as a given, 270 (total)  204 (Trumps) = 66. Trump must win 66 from the states in play: AZ (11), FL (29), MI (16), NC (15), PA (20), and WI (10) plus 1 to win not tie = 102. 102  66 = 36. So if Trump wins FL, MI, NC, and PA (29 + 16 + 15 + 20 = 80), he wins. Thats a heavy lift. I think Ive got the math right this time!

2020

Biden (D)(1): Our Foreign Policy Nightmare: Vice President Susan Rice [The American Conservative]. Susan Rice is right in the middle of the road, when you think about foreign policy hands in DC, said John Glaser, director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, in an interview with The American Conservative. She has a lot of high level experience in foreign policy, but Ive never been able to detect a way she stands out as a unique thinker, in that she had something to say about the way shed prefer the U.S. to go. She says things that are plastic, packaged to be right in the center of the foreign policy consensus in D.C. Thats how I see her: run of the mill, not an extraordinary pick  If she were VP, our foreign policy would not be different than what weve seen the past 30 years.'  Well, well have the Bush Republicans to counter-balance her and serve as a check. Oh, wait Biden (D)(2): Will the Left Get a Say in the Biden Doctrine? [David Klion, The Nation].  I dont even have to invoke Betteridges Law for this one. Biden (D)(3): Dont Count Trump Out [The Atlantic]. Nina Turner, a co-chair of the Sanders campaign, told me she has no appetite for the choice she faces: Its like saying to somebody, You have a bowl of shit in front of you, and all youve got to do is eat half of it instead of the whole thing. Its still shit.'  Had to pull that quote out and file it under Biden, despite the headline. Sanders (D)(1): Bernie Sanders introduces bill to provide Masks for all' [CNN]. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will introduce a bill on Tuesday that would provide high quality, reusable masks to every American. The legislation, which was written before this latest outburst from Trump, has support across the Democratic congressional caucus ideological lines, from Alabama Sen. Doug Jones to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the cosponsors on the House side. It also has the support of an assortment of unions and progressive groups. The bill calls on the United States Postal Service to deliver the masks, which would also be made available at pick-up sites around the country, including schools and pharmacies, and provided  all free of charge  to the homeless, patients in assisted living facilities, people in prison and college students in their dorms. Health care workers, who have struggled to maintain stocks of personal protective equipment, would be given surgical masks and N-95 respirators. The Defense Production Act, invoked but rarely used by Trump, would be counted on to aid in what would be a massive manufacturing project. Trump (R)(1): Dont Count Trump Out [The Atlantic]. He could win. He might win. Here are six reasons why. 1. The economy could come back just enough. 2. Polling could be wrong (again) 3. Trump can campaign all day long. 4. Bidens got his own problems.. 5. Biden voters might not get to vote. 6. What if theres an October surprise?  On #2, I look at the polls  very sadly  as openly political players at the tactical level, like the Beltway press. Its not a matter of the house effect, sadly. Its like every poll is a push poll. I attempt to compensate for that by aggregating pundits with 270toWin, but who knows? Of course, we have the exit polls to serve as check on the opinion polls. Oh, wait MA: Send Ed Markey back to the Senate [The Boston Globe]. In this moment, the country and the Commonwealth need leaders who wont settle for incremental progress, who recognize the profound underlying conditions of inequality and racial injustice that exacerbate our problems, and who notice that the table is set for transformational change and can help carry it out with legislative proposals.  The Gods are good. MA: Rep. Joe Kennedy calls out Sen. Ed Markey for ignoring Massachusetts towns that dont even exist [The Week]. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is facing a tough primary challenge from Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.), and has tried to highlight what hes done for every Massachusetts municipality with a map on his campaign website. But that map seemingly had some omissions, Kennedys campaign noted in a weekend press release, saying the towns/cities of Stoughton, Blackstone, Dana, Dudley, Enfield, and Prescott do not exist in Markeys Massachusetts. Theres just one problem, The Boston Globe notes. The towns of Dana, Enfield, and Prescott dont exist in anyones Massachusetts. Those three western Massachusetts communities actually havent been around for a century, as they were all unincorporated and flooded in the 1930s to create whats now the Quabbin Reservoir.  The Gods are good * * * The Party decides: Legalize Marijuana DNC Platform

vote: 106n, 50y, 3a

% support: 31/67 (-36)  Polling  Pew 11/19

Public: 67/32 (+35)

Dems: 78/20 (+58)  Medicare for All DNC Platform

vote: 36y, 125n, 3a

% support: 22/76 (-54)  Polling  KFF 5/20

Public: 57/40 (+17)

Dems: 78/19 (+59) 

 austerity is theft (@wideofthepost) July 28, 2020 Useful information on the DNC: We obtained a copy of the full 447 voting DNC members, who make up the majority of 771 superdelegates, and got their committee affiliations. We've been working our way through DNC committees: Exec, Rules, Budget, Resolutions, and coming next, Credentials:https://t.co/gcyIzUPz2B

 David Moore (@ppolitics) July 28, 2020 I wish Mark Ames could learn to be more direct about his feelings: Democratic Party isnt just moving rightwardtheyre making a big show of stomping hard on whatever was dear to the Bernie insurgency. Theyre dragging his political corpse behind their DNC Tesla and gloating all the way. Rotten country, ruled by suicidal maniacs

 Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) July 28, 2020 Sids owner: Harm reduction means canvassing for the moderate republican the Democrats run against Tucker Carlson in 2024. Mutual aid is when you shop at local businesses. Police Abolition means the cops are now called Big Badge Friends and each department does a dance meme tiktok once a week

 10,000 Motivated Rats (@bombsfall) July 28, 2020

Health Care

AOC 2024 and dont @ me: "Why on Earth would anyone want to go back to the broken,janky,system of health ins that we have had in the USA after this?This should be a lesson.Can some Dem who believes in for-profit insurance explain to me why we should not work to open Medicare to every single person?" @AOC pic.twitter.com/BA2VyaztfS

 People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) July 28, 2020 At one point, AOC asks her viewers what COBRA means to them. I thought the best answer was a car note, meaning that you had to go into debt to make the COBRA payments. (Hilariously, Biden wants the government to cover COBRA, but only during the Covid crisis, like working class America doesnt suffer a daily crisis, Covid or not.) Congresss Steadfast and Stupefying Refusal to End Surprise Billing [The New Republic]. For years, media outlets have covered the most unfortunate of these casualties of the American health care system, skimming off the most shocking examples of surprise hospital bills from among thousands of unlucky patients who wont get articles written about them, and nothing has been done. Responsibility for this failure can be largely laid at the feet of Representative Richard Neal, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. In December, Neal reportedly killed the compromise bill, in favor of one that was more friendly to doctors and hospitals (and lighter on details). Neal took $54,000 from lobbyists who represented groups and companies that opposed the surprise billing legislation and $29,000 from Blackstone, the private equity firm that partially bankrolled a $53 million ad campaign to defeat the legislation. Blackstone owns TeamHealth, one of the bigger purveyors of the surprise bill scam. Chuck Schumer is also famously close with the Greater New York Hospital Association, which donates millions to Senate Majority PAC.  Ka-ching. ($54,000 + $29,000 is not a lot of money. As the joke goes: Why are politicians bought so cheap? Why not? Its like selling your neighbors car for twenty bucks!)

Realignment and Legitimacy

SCOOP: Senate GOP Copied & Pasted Cuomos Corporate Immunity Law Word-For-Word [David Sirota, Too Much Information]. The background: TMI previously reported that in April, Cuomo worked with a major health care industry lobby group to slip language into his states budget designed to block lawsuits against hospitals and nursing homes during the pandemic, as the casualty count exploded in New York. The provisions did not just cover frontline health care workers  it included language extending that protection to any health care facility administrator, executive, supervisor, board member, trustee, or other corporate manager. Cuomo pushed the provision after his political machine received more than $1 million from the Greater New York Hospital Association.  Ka-ching. More: Senate Republicans copied key parts of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomos controversial corporate immunity law and pasted it word-for-word into their new coronavirus relief proposal released on Monday. The provision could shield health care industry CEOs, executives and corporate board members from COVID-related lawsuits in the event that their business decisions.  The first parallel (an image) is deady taken in combination with the second one (scroll down). Always good to see Democrats and Republicans extend the right hand of good fellowship across the aisle. The Great Assimilation: Revenge of the Never Trumpers: Meet the Republican Dissidents Fighting to Push Donald Trump Out of Office [Time]. A good round-up: A group of more than 70 former national-security officials from GOP administrations, led by John Bellinger, the senior National Security Council and State Department lawyer under George W. Bush, and Ken Wainstein, Bushs Homeland Security Adviser, plans to endorse Biden and publish a mission statement describing the damage they say Trump has done to Americas national security and global reputation. They will also fund-raise for the former Vice President and do media appearances in battleground states when the group launches later this summer. Some of the same people wrote an open letter denouncing Trump in 2016. But, says Wainstein, our effort this time is going to have some staying power throughout the campaign.'  Bushs Homeland Security Adviser. Jobs for the boys? * * * 100 days out, parties fear chaotic election [The Hill]. A little more than three months before Novembers election, partisans who back both President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are growing anxious over what they see as the mounting potential for a chaotic contest marred by disenfranchised voters, administration errors and mountains of litigation. The new anxiety comes on top of the typical nerves that plague campaign operatives. We wont have an Election Night this year. Every important race is going to take days or weeks to decide. Its going to have people on edge and its going to be a complete mess, said Sean Noble, a Republican strategist in Arizona. County recorders are going to be under a microscope and almost none of them are prepared for that kind of scrutiny.'  At some point, an electoral system that both parties want to fix was going to hit the wall. Perhaps 2020 will be the year. UPDATE Hand Counts Vs. Machine Counts in the 2020 Democratic primaries [Dale Tavris, Medium]. If the exit poll discrepancies from official election results that Soares has identified are indeed the result of election rigging, then it would be highly likely that Sanders would have performed better in hand counted than in machine counted voting jurisdictions, because vote counts produced by machines are far more susceptible to vote rigging than hand counting. Hand counting is susceptible to small errors, but not errors large enough to result in statistically significant exit poll discrepancies from official results. The main result in all three states [New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts], depicted in the Table below, was that Sanders performed substantially better in his total hand-counted vote percentage compared to his machine-counted vote percentage, whereas his nearest competitor (Buttigieg in New Hampshire, Biden in Vermont and Massachusetts) performed worse in in the hand counted townships. It seems to me that a country that calls itself a democracy should be willing and eager to recount paper ballots by hand in elections that are highly suspicious and important.  Soares regularly compares exit polls to election results, finding statistically significant discrepancies. But hes the only one doing it. So its significant to me that a second figure, however obscure, built on Soaress results. Can any statistics mavens in teh commentariat take a look at this potentially important post?

Stats Watch

At reader request, I added some business stats back in. Please give Econintersect click-throughs; theyre a good, old-school blog that covers more than stats. If anybody knows of other aggregators, please contact me at the email address below.

Manufacturing: July 2020 Richmond Fed Manufacturing Survey Improves [Econintersect]. Of the five regional Federal Reserve manufacturing surveys released to date, all are in expansion. The important Richmond Fed subcategories (new orders and unfilled orders) improved. This survey was better than last month.

Consumer Confidence: July 2020 Conference Board Consumer Confidence Decreases [Econintersect]. A quote from the Conference Board: Looking ahead, consumers have grown less optimistic about the short-term outlook for the economy and labor market and remain subdued about their financial prospects. Consumer confidence had been steady for the previous two years  but the coronavirus killed the upswing.

Leading Indicators: 28 July 2020 New York Fed Weekly Economic Index (WEI): Index Again Declined and Remains At Recession Levels [Econintersect]. The New York Feds Weekly Leading Index (WLI) declined and continues to show an economy that is significantly worse than seen during the Great Recession. However, this index remains on a recovery trend.

Housing: S and P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20 City Home Price Index May 2020 Year-over-Year Growth Slows [Econintersect]. All home price indices are now showing home price growth is slowing year-over-year. Most of the blame for this should be laid at the feet of the pandemic which has altered daily lives.

* * *

Retail: Toy makers are getting an expensive lesson in inventory management under the pandemic. Retail sales at Hasbro Inc. and Mattel Inc. soared in the second quarter as parents stocked up to entertain homebound children but overall revenue actually declined because wholesale business lagged as retailers remained cautious on replenishing inventories [Wall Street Journal]. The wide split between point-of-sale trends, which toy makers say reflects underlying demand, and financial performance reflects the tumultuous retailing conditions in recent months. The toy makers say orders are weak as retailers remain wary of overstocking in an uncertain environment. Sales have moved online, but the toy makers are finding that digital sellers dont require as much inventory on hand to stock shelves. Manufacturers still have high hopes for the critical holiday season, however, and they dont expect parents to get conservative with the kids still at home.  So toymakers are long Covid

The Bezzle: Waymo: Human factor key to unlocking AV safety, public trust [Freight Waves].

Asked by moderator Chrris Gerdes, director of Stanfords Center for Automotive Research, how the company builds trust while protecting intellectual property, Schwall responded: Fundamentally, in order to really convince the public and be compelling, what we need is to be simple. And the simpler it is, the less IP is an issue. For example, to instill confidence among first responders, Waymo has implemented a toll-free number dedicated to that group and created a video explaining how the technology works. In California, where the company runs tests on public roads and Arizona, Waymo brings the vehicles to police and fire stations directly to train workers on the technology. While no intellectual property is revealed during these trainings, Waymo does open the trunk of the vehicles to first responders, a view not available to the broader public.

They open the trunk.

The Bezzle: NJ police charge three after 700-person party at Airbnb rental [The Hill]. Capt. Steven Laskiewicz said in a statement posted on Facebook that the party attracted more than 700 people with more than 100 vehicles parked in the area, violating statewide coronavirus restrictions. The Ocean County Prosecutors Office was contacted to pursue charges against Weiss and the party organizers for violating the governors executive order on gatherings. New Jersey currently mandates that all outdoor gatherings be less than 500 people and indoor gatherings have fewer than 100 people.  Turns out the sharing economy means sharing the virus. Also, can we please not be stupid?

Manufacturing: Kodak aims to be one of greatest second acts in American industry, add 300-plus jobs [Democrat & Chronicle]. Eastman Kodak Co. will receive a $765 million government loan to help expedite the domestic production of drugs to treat a variety of medical conditions and loosen the countrys reliance on foreign sources, officials said Tuesday. The move is expected to create at least 350 new jobs, launching a new business unit for the Rochester-based company that  when at peak production in four to five years  is expected to produce 25% of the active ingredients for non-biologic, non-antibacterial, generic pharmaceuticals. The loan from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation is the first of its kind under the Defense Production Act, officials said. Kodak is gearing up to produce ingredients for drugs including the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which President Donald Trump has supported in treatment for COVID-19, according to the Journal.  Great for Kodak, for whom I am happy, but hoo boy.

Supply Chain: General Mills Inc. is reaching deeper into the food manufacturing business to help match its supply chain to heightened demand. With its own factories already operating at capacity, the company is turning to more third-party manufacturers. a sign of the continuing struggle by packaged-food companies to keep grocery shelves stocked as consumers load up during the coronavirus pandemic [Wall Street Journal]. General Mills will boost the number of suppliers by as much as 20% on top of the 200 it had before the pandemic, and expects these third parties to supply products until at least next summer. The outsourcing will be costly but the company says its needed for an expected longer period of sustained higher demand.

* * *

Todays Fear & Greed Index: 65 Greed (previous close: 65 Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 65 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jul 28 at 11:59am. Solid greed.

The Biosphere

A Front-Row Seat for the Arctics Final Summers With Ice [Bloomberg]. Scientists are certain that the Arctic ice is disappearing. The shrinking ice cap accelerates warming globally. As Greenland and other Arctic glaciers lose ice, they help raise sea levels, potentially exposing millions of people to flooding. Nearly every dramatic, headline-grabbing effect of climate change, from alarming coastal erosion to intense and frequent fires, is already happening in the Arctic, at a fast pace and at a giant magnitude. These individual things are part of a very complex system thats changing dramatically, says Guido Grosse, head of the permafrost research unit at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Institute for Polar and Sea Research, or AWI. Because it is very remote people have a hard time understanding how it might affect our life in more temperate regions. But it will.'

Health Care

Alert readers MV sends a link to vaccines.gov, commenting Quick, before they change it:

The same process concerns were raised on the issue of changing the Covid dataflow endpoint from CDC to HHS proper. I understand them, and obviously the thalidomide tragedy, after which the FDA was given the power to regulate drugs, argues strongly for those concerns. But the risk of not CRUSHING Covid is ruin, and a process that doesnt account for those risks is problematic too.

This seaweed extract outperforms COVID-19 drug remdesivir in the lab [Fast Company] (original). In cell tests in the lab, RPI-27 was nearly 10 times as active as remdesivir at blocking infection, meaning a much smaller dose was needed to inhibit infection. Heparin was slightly less active than remdesivir but could also be used in treatment. Separate tests showed that the compounds worked without causing any damage to the cells. The researchers are now beginning the next step of animal trials.  Fauci ramping Gilead like a penny stock over remdesivir might also be considered a process issue. However, I think the cases are different. Fauci degraded trust (as he also did with his Noble Lie on masks) which makes the entire system dysfunctional.

Class Warfare

UPDATE How Larry Hogan Kept Blacks in Baltimore Segregated and Poor [Politico]. For Black Baltimoreans and allies watching, the pattern of investing public funds in white areas and disinvesting from Black neighborhoods could not have been more obvious.  This is just awful. And Hogan is supposed to be one of the good Republicans, apparently.

UPDATE Single Mothers and Their Children Are Taking Over Abandoned Public Buildings [In These Times (dcblogger)]. In Philadelphia, single mothers and their children have moved into abandoned, publicly owned buildings, in the most significant housing take over in the countryat a time when millions have lost their jobs and the country is on the brink of another housing crisis. In recent years, the housing authoritys projects have included more market-rate housing, which is unaffordable for those eligible for public housing, and potentially takes housing from those who really need it. And while thousands of Philadelphians languish for years on the waitlist, PHA sells lots and structures to private developers who build market-rate housing, and let other houses sit empty and decay.

News of the Wired

I dont follow skateboarding, though naturally as a former resident of Philly I support it, so I cant rank this video, but it does look pretty cool:

Today I discovered Japanese skateboarder Isamu Yamamoto. Just when you think hes done the video gets better and better. pic.twitter.com/MrQFPBf3ee

 Kelvin Liu (@getakliu) July 27, 2020

Restoring my faith in humanity:

We have just had our patio done and my 6yo has loved going out and helping the builder, so it made his day to receive this. What an example of kindness  pic.twitter.com/Wq39TU4uwL

 Steph Kemp (@steph_heathcote) July 27, 2020

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Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, (c) how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal, and (d) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Todays plant (J-LS):

J-LS: Moms tomatoes! (Im letting this one jump the queue, because tomatoes.)

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President Donald Trump speaks to the press before departing from the White House in Washington on July 27, 2020. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump Touts Once-in-a-Generation Effort to Develop COVID-19 Vaccine

President Donald Trump hailed his administrations effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine as a once-in-a-generation push that would achieve a victory over the virus by unleashing Americas scientific genius in record time.

Trump said during a visit to Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies in Morrisville, North Carolina, on July 27 that the joint public-private program to develop a vaccine, dubbed Operation Warp Speed, has shaved years off the time it typically takes to develop one, while maintaining the FDA gold standard for safety.

This is the fastest a vaccine for a novel pathogen has ever gone, Trump said, referring to the CCP virus, the novel coronavirus that emerged from China last year and spread into a global pandemic that has paralyzed nations and thrown economies into lockdown.

Operation Warp Speed is a novel approach to the development, testing, manufacturing, and delivery of a vaccine, under a paradigm that involves overlapping phases of vaccine development that shortens the time-to-market for a viable candidate.

Instead of the usual sequence of vaccine development, testing, and trials, followed by production, our strategy is to conduct these phases simultaneously, Trump said.

Dubbed the pandemic paradigm of vaccine production, the process was described in detail in a scientific paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine by researchers at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI), an international nongovernmental organization.

Because of the cost and high failure rates, vaccine developers typically follow a linear sequence, pausing many times to analyze data and check their manufacturing processes. While that saves money by preventing misinvestment in non-viable vaccines, it drags out the development process.

Everything goes at one time. Were not waiting and waiting and waiting, Trump said. Were mass producing all of the most promising vaccine candidates in advance so that on day one that its approved, itll be available to the American people immediately.

And well probably have a lot for a lot of other people throughout the world, the president added.

The Moderna vaccine has entered phase three of clinical trials, the final stage before approval, Trump noted, adding that a second vaccine would likely enter phase three in a matter of days.

Operation Warp Speed has provided funding to multiple promising vaccine candidates, including via a $1.6 billion investment in Novavax, a $483 million contract with Moderna, a $1.2 billion contract with AstraZeneca, a $465 million contract with Janssen, and a $1.95 billion agreement with Pfizer.

Tremendous progress is being made with all of those great companies, Trump said, adding that the contract with Pfizer includes a guarantee to deliver 100 million doses almost immediately after the vaccine is approved, with an option to buy another 500 million doses.

Not only is Operation Warp Speed accelerating the development of a vaccine, were also directing a colossal industrial mobilization to ensure its rapid delivery. Nothing has happened like this since the end of World War Two, Trump said.

Besides vaccines, the program also involves COVID-19 therapeutics, with Trump saying that over 140 clinical trials were now underway in this regard.

The president said the medical advances around vaccine and therapeutic development have provided insight into how the virus operates, contributing to a drop in COVID-19 related mortality.

In the middle of April, more than 22 percent of all deaths in the United States were attributable to the China virus. As the last week, that number has dropped downas of last week, its dropped down to under 7 percent, Trump said.

A key objective of Operation Warp Speed is to deliver 300 million doses of a safe, effective vaccine for COVID-19 by January 2021.

While the number of new daily recorded COVID-19 cases has accelerated in the United States since the end of June, Worldometers data shows, the count of new daily deaths has dropped since its April peak of around 2,500 per day to less than 1,000 per day, on average, in recent weeks.

The number of new daily COVID-19 deaths on July 27, according to figures compiled by Worldometers, was highest in Texas (97), California (92), Florida (78), Ohio (33), and Louisiana (23).
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Thursday with a mission to seek signs of ancient life and collect rock and soil samples for possible return to Earth.

The live launch broadcast is expected to begin at 7 a.m. on Thursday -- with the first launch opportunity of the rover expected at 7:50 a.m. Eastern.

A post-launch news conference is expected at 11:30 a.m.

You can watch the broadcast and conference on NASA TV, which can be streamed through a variety of platforms to televisions, computers, and mobile devices. You can watch on NASA Live and NASAs YouTube channel.

Over the last two decades, missions flown by NASAs Mars Exploration Program have shown us that Mars was once different from the cold, dry planet it is today. Evidence discovered by landed and orbital missions point to wet conditions billions of years ago, according to NASA, which lasted long enough to potentially support the development of microbial life.

Now the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover is designed to better understand the geology of Mars and seek signs of ancient life, collecting and storing a set of rock and soil samples that could be returned to Earth in the future. It will also test new technology to benefit future robotic and human exploration of Mars, according to NASA.

The rover is expected to land on the Jezero Crater by Feb. 18, 2021. The mission will last at least one Mars year, or two Earth years.

Perseverance has a new set of science instruments and the ability to self-drive on the Martian surface. It will also carry a separate technology experiment to the surface of Mars -- a helicopter named Ingenuity, the first aircraft to fly in a controlled way on another planet.

The rover is part of a larger exploration program that includes missions to the moon to prepare for human missions to Mars. Charged with returning astronauts to the moon by 2024, NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the moon by 2028 through NASAs Artemis program.

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In holidaymaking terms, Andalusia and Catalonia are most noted for the Costas Sol and Brava. On the Costa del Sol, historical lack of harmony in relations between the two regions is now being aired. The president of Costa del Sol tourism and of the provincial deputation has laid the blame for the UKs quarantine firmly at the doors of the Catalan government.

Francisco Salado believes that there is a tremendous injustice because the whole country is having to pay for the lousy management of the pandemic by the Catalan government. They spend their time talking about self-government but are then unable to manage their responsibilities and stop the disease.

The Andalusia government, it should be noted, comprises parties dead against Catalan self-government. This needs to be taken into account when considering Salados criticisms. But he isnt the only one to have made this type of observation. A curious thing is that the Catalan government had wanted an even harsher lockdown regime than that which the Spanish government imposed. But when it came to de-escalation, there was relaxation that took time (too much time) in addressing, e.g. the opening of clubs, which have now been closed again. This contrasted with, for instance, the tougher stance towards clubs adopted by the Balearic government.

There are politics at work in the blame being heaped on the Catalan government; theres no doubt about that. But whether the blame is fair or not, the injustice for other regions of Spain is unquestionable.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 28, 2020 - 17:30 | All, Japan

Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will head to the International Space Station next spring aboard a spacecraft developed by U.S. aerospace manufacturer SpaceX and become the second Japanese to serve as a commander of the ISS, the Japanese space agency said Tuesday.

Hoshide, 51, will make his third trip to the ISS aboard Space Exploration Technologies Corp.'s Crew Dragon spacecraft following his stays at the station in 2008 and 2012. He will follow in the footsteps of Koichi Wakata, 56, who served as the first Japanese ISS commander in 2014, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said.

Related coverage:

SpaceX's capsule targeting return to Earth in early Aug.: NASA

Hayabusa2 to fly on to another asteroid after current mission

UAE's Mars orbiter successfully launched by Mitsubishi rocket

Initially, Hoshide was planned to stay at the ISS from May this year but a delay in the development of the new spacecraft by Space X founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk saw his dispatch pushed back.

Fellow Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, 55, is scheduled to return to the ISS as early as September aboard Crew Dragon, which became the first commercial spacecraft to carry humans to the station in May. Noguchi previously resided on the ISS for 161 days from December 2009.

"I've been training for a long ISS stay and I'm honored to board a new spacecraft after astronaut Noguchi," Hoshide said in a statement.

"I've been on the U.S. Space Shuttle and Russian Soyuz, both historic and proven spacecraft. This time I'm looking forward to boarding a private spacecraft developed with a new technology and concept that make me feel the arrival of a new era," he said.
Shilajit Mitra By

Express News Service

On June 14, soon after the news of Sushant Singh Rajputs suicide broke, Dil Bechara director Mukesh Chhabra was flooded with calls. In a firmly-worded tweet, he urged the media to let him be, adding that the loss had left him numb and distraught. Mind is a tyrant, he tweeted a day later. Its been over a month since Sushants passing. In the interim, Mukesh returned to promote his debut directorial, which premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on July 24. An adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars, Dil Bechara marks Sushants final release, a bittersweet tale of love and loss tinged by the actors untimely demise at 34.

In this interview, Mukesh speaks about preserving Sushants legacy, his memories of working with him over the years, the Dil Bechara soundtrack composed by AR Rahman and the need to prioritise mental health in turbulent times.

Excerpts from the interview:

Sushants suicide has left everyone shaken. What is your state of mind right now?

Im doing okay. Things are still sinking in. Its been a two-year-long journey with the film and I dont know which side to lean on. He was like my brother and always supported and helped me. Weve always been there for each other. Dil Bechara was a dream that we envisioned together.

How did this project start?

Id known Sushant since Kai Po Che! He was always aware I wanted to direct my own film. In 2017, he encouraged me to make the jump and promised to work with me. I got the script of Dil Bechara from Rucha Pathak at Fox Star Studios. When I told Sushant this is the film I wanted to make, he immediately said yes without even reading it.

I was the casting director on his first film and ended up directing him on his last one. When I see the film now, its meaning for me has completely changed. With every film, he always gave a beautiful message. With Dil Bechara, too, hed want people to enjoy every moment of life.

The films album has been widely appreciated, including the title track video featuring Sushant.

As a first-time filmmaker, I was extremely lucky to have Rahman sir on board. I went to Chennai and narrated the story to him. For the title track, I wanted a simple song in the college campus setting that people could hum. Like magic, he went to his room and created the tune. And then Amitabh (Bhattacharya) wrote the lyrics.

When it came to shoot, Sushant always wanted a single-shot song. Hed seen Gallan Goodiyaan from Dil Dhadakne Do (2015) and wanted to do something similar. Finally, (choreographer) Farah (Khan) designed the song and didnt charge any money for the film. We prepped for two days and Sushant nailed it in one take.

What is your fondest memory of the actor?

I will deeply miss his charm. He was an intelligent, supportive, fun-loving person. Hed always be smiling and indulging you in a conversation. We shot the film in Jamshedpur and Paris. During breaks, we used to go around town and ride bikes. We never realised when we completed the film, it was such a fun journey throughout.

Theres been a lot of debate and name-calling after his suicide. Whats your perspective on all this?

Honestly, I have stayed away from social media all this while. I dont want to think about it right now. My responsibility right now is to complete the film and make it reach his fans. Having said that, I feel discussions on mental health are important. Not just actors, but everyone should take care of their mental well-being. Even in my workshops, I tell people to learn to control their mind. In todays world, almost everyone is going through some kind of mental-illness. Its imperative that we prioritise mental health in all aspects of life.

The film also stars Sanjana Sanghi as the female lead. How did you choose her?

Ive known Sanjana since she was 13. Id seen her in a few ads and later in Rockstar (2014). I wanted Kizie to be a fresh face and felt she was correct for the film. It was important the audience felt an instant connection with her character. Sanjana is an amazing actor. She has done a wonderful job in a difficult part.
(Natural News) Antifa and Black Lives Matter (BLM) are reportedly in the process of trying to retake the Seattle CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone), as well as occupy new autonomous zones across the United States. And aiding them in this insurrection is none other than Facebook, which is now openly facilitating domestic terrorism while actively censoring conservatives who have had enough of all the violence and chaos.

In a recent Facebook call to action, a Portland-based domestic terrorism group known as the Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front (PNWYLF) called on its comrades to take up arms against the federal government, which it claims has waged war against Portland.

While Facebook has removed other pages and even entire groups for far less, PNWYLFs post calling for radicals throughout Portland to become more powerful than federal officers is still publicly visible as of this writing. It calls on anarchists everywhere to get tactical and mask up, which is basically an open declaration of war against the state.

This same Facebook announcement also calls on other anarchist chapters across the country, including several in Tennessee, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia, to engage in similar violent and chaotic behavior. The goal is to create as much mayhem as possible in order to destabilize the system and bring about change.

Stand in solidarity with Portland & against the federal invasion, reads a corresponding announcement that was published to Twitter, and also not taken down for violating any of the social media platforms community standards, which only seem to apply to conservatives.

Blowing up businesses is love, but calling for a stronger border wall is hate

As you may recall, the far-left actually called for an advertiser boycott against Facebook over the platforms refusal to censor posts by President Donald Trump, which it says constitute hate. But far-leftists calling for a violent revolution against American cities is just love and tolerance.

This is the double standard that we continue to see within the realm of social media. Calling for stricter border control and demanding accountability in government, which are among the posts by Trump that the left says constitute hate, is not permitted. But saying f*** Trump and blowing up businesses are warm and squishy things that Big Tech has no problem with allowing and supporting, even when innocent lives end up in the fray.

The situation is becoming so dire that various heavily-armed militia groups are now having encounters in the middle of American streets, with one side trying to abolish the police and the other trying to protect American businesses against destruction.

The so-called Not F***ing Around Coalition, a 300-member black militia group based out of Atlanta, reportedly marched to Louisville, Kentucky the other day to demand justice for 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, one of the black lives that the news continues to talk about that was taken by police officers.

Everywhere you look, in other words, from East Coast to West Coast, violence and chaos is erupting in city centers. And rather than clamp down on the groups organizing it, Facebook, Twitter and the other Big Tech companies are encouraging it, even as they silence conservative voices for often no stated reason at all.

Its a sad day when American cities are being overrun by purple-haired Karens, skinny jeans fairies, and obese transvestites, wrote one Zero Hedge commenter. Its about time Americans stood up and put down this insurrection.

But these same Feds and cops will be coming for you if you dont get multiple injections of RNA/DNA treatments, which are not vaccinations, warned another, offering a different perspective for those who say they support law enforcement.

For more related news about America in 2020, be sure to check out CivilWar.news.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

NaturalNews.com
WE Charity began working on Ottawas student volunteer grant program weeks before the federal cabinet approved the deal, newly released documents reveal.

A copy of the contribution agreement between the government and the charity showed that WE officially began working on the Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG) on May 5.

Federal cabinet met to discuss the program  and ultimately approve WE Charity  on May 22.

WE told the Star Monday that the charity made the decision to begin the work immediately due to the tight time frame to launch the program by the beginning of summer.

The decision was made with the full knowledge and co-operation of (Employment Social Development Canada) and WE Charity, and further the agreement by WE Charity that any costs incurred would be the sole responsibility of WE Charity if the program was not formally approved, the charity wrote in a statement.

The deal, which would have given young Canadians grants of between $1,000 and $5,000 for volunteering during the COVID crisis, has become a headache for the Liberal government after Trudeaus family ties to WE Charity led to questions about possible political favouritism. Finance Minister Bill Morneau, whose family also has ties to the charity, now face ethics investigations for approving the deal.

The document  combined with what is publicly known about the timeline leading up to WEs involvement with the program  indicates the charity was already well into the work before Trudeau was formally briefed about the $912 million grant program on May 21, one day before the cabinet meeting.

Thats unusual, according to former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page. However, Page said the decision to begin work on the program before cabinet signed off might be justified as an emergency measure  the decision was made at the height of pandemic fears.

Could the decision and the process to make the decision (including questions about conflict of interest have been) strengthened by a cabinet discussion and approval? Yes, Page said.

WE confirmed Monday afternoon that it had begun incurring eligible expenses for running the program on May 5, weeks before Trudeaus chief of staff, Katie Telford, stressed the need for due diligence on the partnership to senior public servants.

The deal with WE was finalized on June 23 followed by a government announcement on June 25. WE would have been paid up to $43.5 million.

But after the deal fell through in the face of public scrutiny on July 3, WE said it would return any public funds it had accepted to run the grant program.

The contribution agreement was one of a batch of documents released to the House of Commons Finance Committee, which is probing the governments now-reversed decision to partner with WE on the student volunteering grant program.

Trudeau and Telford are scheduled to testify before the committee on Thursday.

Included in the documents is an April 22 email from WE co-founder Craig Kielburger to Rachel Wernick, a senior public servant at Employment and Social Development Canada responsible for the CSSG program. Wernick had reached out to Kielburger three days before to gauge WEs interest in running the program.

In the email, Kielburger said that WE could have the program up and running and accepting students by late May.

I appreciate your outreach to inquire about my thoughts and whether we would be interested to be involved in such a national youth service program, Kielburger wrote.

Allow me to share with you a proposal informed by our conversation together, which seeks to address some of the concerns that we both share, and outlines a viable solution that can reach 20,000 young Canadians with opportunities for summer service and to earn income for post-secondary studies.

Kielburger went on to outline his proposal: a three-month program serving 20,000 Canadians aged 16 to 30 with digital service opportunities, training and support, and a system of tracking and reporting the volunteers accomplishments.

Kielburger also proposed a digital national celebration of service showcasing the accomplishments of young people  something akin to the organizations WE Day events retailored to the COVID-19 era.

WEs pitch was roughly in line with what became the CSSG program, and what has now become a significant political headache for Trudeau and the Liberals.

Trudeau now faces an ethics probe over his participation in that cabinet debate, despite his familys ties to the organization and his past participation at WE-hosted events. Morneau, whose family donated at least $100,000 to the charity since 2018 and has accepted free trips from WE, faces a similar probe.

The documents show that the government contacted or considered 20 other groups  including the United Way, Volunteer Canada, and the YMCA  before deciding that WE was the best and only organization capable of running the CSSG program.

The House of Commons finance committee will resume its investigation into the WE deal on Tuesday when the charitys co-founders, Craig and Marc Kielburger, are scheduled to testify.
TORONTO, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Denison Mines Corp. ("Denison" or the "Company") (TSX: DML) (NYSE American: DNN) is pleased to announce the successful completion of an internal conceptual mining study (the "Concept Study") examining the potential future development of the J Zone uranium deposit ("J Zone") using the In-Situ Recovery ("ISR") mining method. Based on the results from the Concept Study, the Company has decided to initiate the preparation of a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA"), which is expected to be completed during the second half of 2020. View PDF

The Concept Study was prepared by Denison's in-house project development team under the oversight of David Bronkhorst, P.Eng., the Company's Vice President, Operations, and was reviewed and approved by the Technical Committee of the Company's Board of Directors.

The J Zone deposit is located on the Company's Waterbury Lake property ("Waterbury"), which is owned by Denison (66.71%) and Korea Waterbury Lake Uranium Limited Partnership ("KWULP") (33.29%), which is comprised of a consortium of investors, in which Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power ("KHNP") holds a majority position. KHNP is also a significant shareholder in Denison.

David Cates, Denison's President & CEO, commented, "We are encouraged by the results of the J Zone Concept Study, and we are pleased to advance to a PEA. The ability to complete the J Zone Concept Study with our internal project development team showcases the depth of talent that Denison has recruited since the completion of the Wheeler River Pre-Feasibility Study in 2018  which study was highlighted by the selection of the ISR mining method for the Phoenix deposit. While investing in advancing our understanding of the potential applicability of the ISR mining method at Phoenix, we also invested in our team  bringing on key project development staff with expertise in hydrogeology, mine engineering, environmental permitting, and corporate social responsibility. This approach allows us to internalize critical technical project knowledge related to Phoenix, and facilitates opportunities to apply this knowledge to the Company's other potentially ISR amenable uranium deposits  like J Zone. Having the benefit of completing a first-of-its-kind ISR field test at Phoenix in 2019, our team was well positioned to carry out the J Zone Concept Study and is expected to play an important role in facilitating future studies."

Property Location

Waterbury Lake is located within the eastern portion of the Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan. The property can be accessed year-round by provincial highway or by air to Points North Landing, a privately owned service centre with accommodations and airfield, which is located near the eastern edge of the property. The J Zone deposit is located on the eastern portion of the property approximately 15 km from Denison's 22.5% owned McClean Lake uranium mill (See Figure 1).

Estimated Mineral Resources

J Zone is estimated to contain Indicated mineral resources totaling 12,810,000 lbs U 3 O 8 , based on 291,000 tonnes at an average grade of 2.00% U 3 O 8 . The deposit is defined by 268 drill holes intersecting uranium mineralization over a combined east-west strike length of up to 700 metres and a maximum north-south lateral width of 70 metres. Uranium mineralization is generally found within several metres of the unconformity at depth ranges of 195 to 230 metres below surface, with vertical thicknesses ranging from tens of centimeters to over 19.5 metres.

The mineral resource estimate for the J Zone deposit (and the technical information described herein) is described in an independent technical report, prepared in accordance with NI 43-101, titled "Technical Report with an Updated Mineral Resource Estimate for the Waterbury Lake Property, Northern Saskatchewan, Canada", dated December 21, 2018, by SRK Consulting. .

Concept Study

The Concept Study evaluated the potential use of the ISR mining method for the J Zone deposit. In an ISR uranium mining operation, a mining solution (lixiviant) is injected into the ore zone through a series of drill holes known as injection wells. The lixiviant leaches the uranium as it travels through the ore zone and is then recovered as a uranium bearing solution ("UBS"), which is pumped back to surface via a series of recovery wells. Once on surface, the UBS is sent to a surface processing plant for the chemical separation of the uranium. Following the uranium removal, the lixiviant is reconditioned and returned to the wellfield for further production. The ISR mining method accounts for a significant portion of uranium mine production globally and is generally considered the lowest cost uranium mining method in the world  owing to the fact that the method eliminates the surface disturbances and costs associated with physically removing ore and waste from the ground, as well as the tailings treatment and storage, that are normally associated with underground or open pit mining operations.

J Zone shares many geological characteristics with the high-grade Phoenix deposit, which is part of the Company's 90% owned Wheeler River Uranium Project ("Wheeler River"). J Zone is situated at the unconformity contact, between the overlying sandstone and underlying basement rocks, the mineralization is characterized as variably fractured, broken and desilicified with zones of strong clay and high-grade uranium metals. For these reasons, the mineralization is largely believed to be highly permeable with the ability to increase areas of lower permeability with the use of permeability enhancement techniques. Additionally, J Zone is similar to Phoenix in that it is underlain by relatively impermeable basement rocks providing the natural underlying aquitard necessary for the containment of lixiviant within the overlying sandstone units.

The internal studies undertaken by the Company on J Zone are preliminary in nature and there is significant uncertainty with respect to the potential for, and the economic and technical risks associated with, advancing to a PEA for J Zone, and such further studies may not be undertaken or completed if the preliminary results of internal studies are not maintained after further testing and/or analysis.

About Denison

Denison is a uranium exploration and development company with interests focused in the Athabasca Basin region of northern Saskatchewan, Canada. The Company's flagship project is the 90% owned Wheeler River Uranium Project, which is the largest undeveloped uranium project in the infrastructure rich eastern portion of the Athabasca Basin region of northern Saskatchewan. Denison's interests in Saskatchewan also include a 22.5% ownership interest in the McClean Lake Joint Venture ('MLJV'), which includes several uranium deposits and the McClean Lake uranium mill, which is contracted to process the ore from the Cigar Lake mine under a toll milling agreement, plus a 25.17% interest in the Midwest deposits and a 66.71% interest in the J Zone and Huskie deposits on the Waterbury Lake property. The Midwest, J Zone and Huskie deposits are located within 20 kilometres of the McClean Lake mill. In addition, Denison has an extensive portfolio of exploration projects in the Athabasca Basin region.

Denison is engaged in mine decommissioning and environmental services through its Closed Mines group, which manages Denison's Elliot Lake reclamation projects and provides post-closure mine and maintenance services to industry and government clients.

Denison is also the manager of Uranium Participation Corporation, a publicly traded company listed on the TSX under the symbol 'U', which invests in uranium oxide in concentrates and uranium hexafluoride.

Qualified Persons

The technical information contained in this release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. David Bronkhorst, P.Eng, Denison's Vice President, Operations, who is a Qualified Person in accordance with the requirements of NI 43-101.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this news release constitutes 'forward-looking information', within the meaning of the applicable United States and Canadian legislation concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of Denison.

Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as 'plans', 'expects', 'budget', 'scheduled', 'estimates', 'forecasts', 'intends', 'anticipates', or 'believes', or the negatives and/or variations of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results 'may', 'could', 'would', 'might' or 'will be taken', 'occur', 'be achieved' or 'has the potential to'. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking information pertaining to the following: the mineral resource estimate for J Zone and Concept Study as well as their underlying assumptions and interpretations; the expectations for further evaluation activities including a PEA; and expectations regarding its joint venture ownership interests and the continuity of its agreements with its partners.

Forward looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made, and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Denison to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. For example, further studies, including a PEA, may not be undertaken if the results of the Concept Study are not maintained after further testing; Denison may decide or otherwise be required to discontinue the related work if it is unable to maintain or otherwise secure the necessary resources (such as testing facilities, capital funding, regulatory approvals, etc.) or operations are otherwise affected by COVID-19 and its potentially far-reaching impacts. Denison believes that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be accurate and results may differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information. For a discussion in respect of risks and other factors that could influence forward-looking events, please refer to the factors discussed in Denison's Annual Information Form dated March 13, 2020 or subsequent quarterly financial reports under the heading 'Risk Factors'. These factors are not, and should not be construed as being exhaustive.

Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Any forward-looking information and the assumptions made with respect thereto speaks only as of the date of this news release. Denison does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information after the date of this news release to conform such information to actual results or to changes in Denison's expectations except as otherwise required by applicable legislation.

Cautionary Note to United States Investors Concerning Estimates of Measured, Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources and Probable Mineral Reserves: This press release may use the terms 'measured', 'indicated' and 'inferred' mineral resources. United States investors are advised that while such terms have been prepared in accordance with the definition standards on mineral reserves of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum referred to in Canadian National Instrument 43-101 Mineral Disclosure Standards ('NI 43-101') and are recognized and required by Canadian regulations, these terms are not defined under Industry Guide 7 under the United States Securities Act and, until recently, have not been permitted to be used in reports and registration statements filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC'). 'Inferred mineral resources' have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies. United States investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of measured or indicated mineral resources will ever be converted into mineral reserves. United States investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource exists, or is economically or legally mineable. In addition, the terms "mineral reserve", "proven mineral reserve" and "probable mineral reserve" for the purposes of NI 43-101 differ from the definitions and allowable usage in Industry Guide 7. Effective February 2019, the SEC adopted amendments to its disclosure rules to modernize the mineral property disclosure requirements for issuers whose securities are registered with the SEC under the Exchange Act and as a result, the SEC now recognizes estimates of "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" and "inferred mineral resources". In addition, the SEC has amended its definitions of "proven mineral reserves" and "probable mineral reserves" to be "substantially similar" to the corresponding definitions under the CIM Standards, as required under NI 43-101. However, information regarding mineral resources or mineral reserves in Denison's disclosure may not be comparable to similar information made public by United States companies.

Figure 1: Waterbury Lake Project  Location of J Zone Relative to McClean Lake Mill

SOURCE Denison Mines Corp.

Related Links

http://denisonmines.com/s/Home.asp


VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / Experion Holdings Ltd. (the "Company" or "Experion") (TSXV:EXP)(OTCQB:EXPFF)(FRANKFURT:MB31) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Sean MacNeil as Chairman of the Board.

Mr. MacNeil commented, "I would like to thank our shareholders and the board for giving me this opportunity to lead Experion.

In 2013 Bob Howard and I proudly founded Experion and since that time the cannabis industry has seen incredible changes. And Experion has been there through it all. There have been many obstacles for everyone in our sector over the past few years, and for each of us that managed to overcome them and survive, the foundation for success is built.

I won't sugar coat the fact that Experion has had its share of those challenges. Like the gold rushes of the past, the green rush attracted con men and self-anointed experts. But they are leaving, realizing that now is the time to actually perform, the time to provide what consumers have always expected, the time when smoke and mirrors won't get the job done.

The next phase will see which of the old guard in this new industry will be around in five years and the challenges will be new and many. Experion has a dedicated team of young leaders and the Canadian favorite Citizen Stash brand of products to meet those challenges head on. Experion has a great future.

The cannabis industry is something that I am passionate about, that I understand and have great respect for. Experion will move forward with vigour and I will put my full effort into making it one of Canada's most respected cannabis companies."

About Experion Holdings Ltd.

Experion Holdings Ltd. is the parent company of Experion Biotechnologies Inc., a Health Canada licensed cultivator and processor of Cannabis, based in Mission, BC.

Experion Holdings Ltd. is invested in a portfolio of products to address a wide spectrum of consumer needs' including Adult-use, Wellness and Therapeutic, and Medical products.

Experion trades on the TSX Venture Exchange as a Tier 1 issuer under the symbol "EXP" on the OTCQB Venture under the symbol "EXPFF" and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "MB31"

For further information, please visit the Company's website www.experionwellness.com or contact Investor Relations, Email: IR@experionwellness.com

Disclosure

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Although the Company believes that such information is reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.

Forward looking information is typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, forecast, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking information as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to: the state of the financial markets for the Company's equity securities; recent market volatility; the Company's ability to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies; the risks identified in the Filing Statement, and other risks and factors that the Company is unaware of at this time. The reader is referred to the Filing Statement dated September 25, 2017 and/or the most recent annual and interim Management's Discussion and Analysis for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects, copies of which may be accessed through the Company page on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies ofthe TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Experion Holdings Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/599168/Experion-Holdings-Announces-New-Chairman-of-the-Board
P eople quarantining for two weeks after returning to the UK are not entitled to statutory sick pay, the government has said.

All Brits returning from Spain must now quarantine for 14 days after the Government scrapped the country's 'air bridge'.

The strict new rule was suddenly re-imposed on Saturday after a rapid increase in coronavirus cases across the top holiday destination.

But those already in Spain will also have to quarantine upon their return - meaning many will not be able to work. Here's what it means for sick pay:

Getty

Can I claim statutory sick pay when I self-isolate after returning from Spain?

It has been revealed that people who are unable to work from home will not receive statutory sick pay [SSP] if they are self-isolating after a foreign trip with no other reasons.

The government said in guidance on its website: You cannot get SSP if youre self-isolating after entering or returning to the UK and do not need to self-isolate for any other reason.

From midnight on Saturday, people who arrive in the UK from Spain risk a 1,000 fine if they fail to self-isolate for two weeks.

However, you could claim statutory sick pay if you or someone you live with has symptoms of Covid-19, or if youve been notified by a public health authority that you have been in contact with someone infected by coronavirus.

People are also entitled to statutory sick pay  which is 95.85 and is paid by employers for up to 28 weeks  if they are shielding due to being at a high risk of severe illness from coronavirus.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab yesterday urged employers to be understanding to staff forced to quarantine after a trip abroad, telling Sophy Ridge: We are changing the rules  the law is changed in relation to holidaymakers and travellers  and of course we expect employers to show those employees who will have to quarantine because of the law the flexibility they need.

If someone is following the law in relation to quarantine and self-isolating the way they should, they cant have penalties taken against them.Labour criticised the Governments handling of the decision as frankly shambolic. Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the u-turn over Spain quarantine rules had left travellers confused and distressed. He called for financial support for people now being made to quarantine upon their return home.

He told Sophy Ridge: The way in which this decision has been communicated is obviously causing anxiety.

TODO: define component type apester

"There are a whole raft of people who cannot afford to isolate because of the circumstances of their employment and if it comes to a choice between putting food on your table and feeding your family or losing your job, you're going to put food on your table aren't you?

"Even if that means you're spreading the virus."

Am I eligible for Universal Credit or employment allowance support if I'm in quarantine?

Despite not being eligible for SSP, Downing Street said holidaymakers who miss out on work because of the quarantine period may be eligible for Universal Credit or employment support allowance.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman reiterated that the Government expects employers to be flexible in allowing staff to work from home while self-isolating.

Where this isnt possible we would expect that many employers would have their own policies in place for quarantine and we know that some continue to offer full pay for all or some of the isolation period, he added.

But if there are people who need urgent support then they may be entitled to the new-style employment support allowance or Universal Credit.

What can you do if you lose your job due to quarantining after returning from Spain?

Downing Street said workers who lose their jobs because they are quarantining after returning from Spain could appeal to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas).

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said: There are existing systems in place should a dispute occur between an employer and employee and that is the employee can take that dispute to Acas for settlement.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 29 2020

The Jakarta administration has called on all Muslims living in Jakartas red zones not to attend mass prayers during Idul Adha (Day of Sacrifice), which is expected to fall on Friday, to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

This strengthens previous statements from the Religious Affairs Ministry and Muslim group Muhammadiyah, which are reinforcing such a restriction nationally.

The Jakarta Bureau of Mental and Spiritual Education (Dikmental) warned of massive spread of the coronavirus if worshipers ignored the call as they would potentially be in close contact with virus carriers.

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The Netherlands - AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM)

Media/Public Contact: pm-cpa@state.gov

Transmittal No: 20-33

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2020 -- The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of the Netherlands of sixteen (16) AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) and related equipment for an estimated cost of $39 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale today.

The Government of the Netherlands has requested to buy sixteen (16) AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM). Also included are containers, weapon systems support and support equipment, spare and repair parts, publications and technical documentation, U.S. Government and contractor engineering, logistics, and technical support services, and other related elements of logistics and program support. The total estimated program cost is $39 million.

This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve security of a NATO ally which is an important force for political stability and economic progress in Northern Europe.

The proposed sale will improve the Netherlands' capability to meet current and future threats by deterring regional threats, strengthen its homeland defense, and enable interoperability and standardization between the armed forces of the Netherlands and the United States. The Netherlands, which already maintains AMRAAM missiles, will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment and support into its armed forces.

The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.

The principal contractor will be Raytheon Missiles & Defense, Tucson, AZ. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.

Implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of any additional U.S. Government or contractor representatives to the Netherlands.

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-

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The appropriate decision will be made following an NSDC meeting.

The ceasefire in Donbas is one of the five scenarios that the Ukrainian government had on the table ahead of last December's Normandy Four summit where the leaders of Ukraine, Germany, France, and Russia discussed ways to achieve settlement in eastern Ukraine, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said.

Achieving a sustainable ceasefire was the objective of President Volodymyr Zelensky's plan for this year, approved on the eve of the Normandy summit on December 9, Danilov told Ukraine 24 TV channel.

Danilov recalled that five scenarios were being considered on December 5 at an NSDC meeting behind closed doors.

"He [Zelensky] was going [to the Normandy Four summit], with the decision of the National Security and Defense Council already approved. It's still valid," he said, adding that back then, Zelensky said he was taking a year to address the situation.

Read alsoUkraine Vice PM slams Putin's spox over ceasefire statement

"The year term will complete on December 9. After December 9, we will see what to do next. We gave a chance to our adversary once again to withdraw from our country in a peaceful manner," the NSDC secretary emphasized.

When asked what the authorities will do after December 9 if this summer's scenario doesn't work out, Danilov replied that the NSDC will convene another meeting, following which an appropriate decision will be made.

As UNIAN reported earlier, since midnight on July 27, a full and comprehensive ceasefire has been in place along the contact line in the zone of the Joint Forces Operation in Donbas.

The ceasefire agreement was sealed by participants in the Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine, Russia, and OSCE) on the Donbas settlement on July 22.
As China blatantly continues to commit crimes against the Uyghurs in the name of homogenisation, the global community has only now realised the way Beijing used the global war on terror post 9/11 attacks as a pretext to carry out the elimination of the ethnic clan.

The irony is not lost on the Uyghur community that the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and all Muslim-majority countries, in particular, are displaying absolutely no interest in the welfare of the Uyghur Muslims, as they are also victims of Chinas massive campaign of lies. It is essential that Islamic countries, and our Muslim brothers and sisters, wake up and stand with us before they also become enslaved as our people are. Uyghurs today are a picture of what could be the future for them as China is waging war on Islam and announcing to the world that they are re-writing the Holy Quran.

The Campaign For Uyghurs compiled a report last week named Chinas Genocide in East Turkistan - referred to as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region by the Chinese government. This report lays out how each condition of genocide as defined by the United Nations is being met by the Chinese regimes actions towards the Uyghurs. There must be greater recognition of the need to label these atrocities as what they are: Genocide.

The report includes numerous case studies of Uyghurs being forced out of their homes and thrown into concentration camps. Women and children are special targets of the Chinese officials as they attempt to bring down the Uyghur population. Women are subjected to forced sterilisations. According to the news reports, Communist Party cadres are appointed to live inside of the Uyghur homes under a pair up family program to supervise the family. For most women, whose husbands are in the concentration camps or prisons, making them subject to sexual abuse, as many of these Chinese men have been photographed and filmed sharing their beds. There are also reports that more than 500,000 Uyghur children are sent to state-run orphanages. There they are made to forget their habits and religion, their identities, and their language. The homes vacated by the Uyghurs are given to Han Chinese from other parts of China who migrate to our homeland. They are given jobs, money and other preferential treatment in order to change the demographics while the Uyghurs are transferring out to be used as slave labour across China in the excuse of unemployment.

The United Nations should set up an independent commission, preferably in consultation with the International Court of Justice, to physically probe the atrocities against Uyghurs.

There are many necessary actions to be taken, and we must remember that this is not just the calamity of the Uyghurs, it is a test for humanity. As China continues to push the limits of what atrocities it can get away with, the civilized nations of the world must defeat a common enemy, which is in this case, the worldview of the Chinese regime that justifies the use of concentration camps and slavery, making this acceptable, and even rewarded behaviour in the modern age, by hosting the 2022 Olympic Winter games.

We must no longer perpetuate the belief that decoupling from China is costly. What is the cost of human life? What is the cost of an entire ethnicity, my people? On the contrary, it is too costly to continue to have any cordial relationship with China! 13 tons of hair, perhaps but a portion of what is being taken from prisoners, seized recently, a product of this genocide. How can this image not pierce our conscience? Is this the hair of my sister? Who is benefiting from my sisters forced labour? We know what this hair represents, a very physical representation of never again happening again. We must act now before the only voice left to speak is one of regret.

My sister Dr Gulshan Abbas was taken as a victim for my activism in the US, and her daughters, American citizens, havent had any information on her whereabouts since September 2018. Yet, I am the one repeatedly smeared by Chinas state media.

China may buy the corrupt hearts of men. They may threaten, they may punish, they may smear our names and remove earthly possessions, but they will never succeed in silencing us. Will you hear us?

(The author of this Opinion article is Rushan Abbas, an Uyghur activist.)
By Azernews





By Ayya Lmahamad

President Ilham Aliyev has congratulated Azerbaijanis on Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha (Qurban bayram) celebrated by Muslims across the world.

This year, the holiday in Azerbaijan will begin in the evening of July 30 and end on August 1.

The president said that Eid al-Adha, a symbol of solidarity and brotherhood, humanism and compassion among people, is one of the main holidays of Islam. On this remarkable day, Muslims experience the joy of closeness to God through sacrifices in the name of the Almighty and demonstrate their willingness to make all kinds of sacrifices for good deeds.

For hundreds of years, Islam has played an exceptional role in creating an exemplary environment of coexistence based on mutual respect and trust and the preservation of ethnic and cultural diversity in Azerbaijan, where people of different nations and religions live as a loving family, Aliyev said.

The president stressed that although this years Eid al-Adha will be held amidst challenges worldwide, Azerbaijani believers fulfill their moral duties and with their noble deeds strengthen the spirit of unity and equality in the society.

The president also said: I commemorate with gratitude the memory of our martyrs who gave their lives for Azerbaijans independence and territorial integrity and wish patience to their relatives and to our nation.

Every year Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Adha, which marks the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca known as Hajj.
A case has been registered against a provincial minister in Pakistan and his two guards for the alleged murder of a social media activist, according to media reports.

The Levies Force on Sunday registered the case against Balochistan Minister for Food and Population Welfare Sardar Abdul Rehman Khan Khetiran and his two guards Adam Khan and Nadir Khan on the complaint of the deceaseds brother, the Dawn reported.

Anwar was murdered on July 23 by some armed men in Naharkot, in Balochistans Barkhan district, when he was on his way home on a motorbike.

Anwars brother Ghulam Sarwar alleged that the guards killed him at the behest of the minister.

According to the complaint, Anwar had been writing on social media about problems in his area, atrocities and alleged corruption by the minister.

According to a report in Pakistan Today, Sarwar alleged that the ministers men had threatened his brother over the telephone for writing against the minister on social media.

The minister has, however, denied his involvement in the murder and also said that the two other people mentioned in the FIR were not his gunmen, the report said.

I have nothing to do with the murder of Anwar Jan, he was quoted as saying by the Dawn.

I have no enmity with Anwar Jan Khetirans family, he added.

However, some journalists in Barkhan said Anwar was not a member of the local press club but he posted comments on social media platforms.

He was affiliated to the National Party, the report said.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-29 04:12:45|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, July 28 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Tuesday asked for an end to hostilities and for a political settlement of the Yemeni issue.

The current situation in Yemen is not favorable. The international community must step up its efforts to push for an early breakthrough in the political settlement of the Yemeni issue, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations.

China supports the search for a solution to the Yemeni problem from the three aspects of a nationwide cease-fire, economic and humanitarian measures, and comprehensive political negotiations, he told the Security Council.

Parties to the conflict should stop violence and improve the security situation on the ground. The international community must remain committed to a political settlement and continue to promote good offices and mediation. The humanitarian situation in Yemen should be improved and humanitarian access guaranteed, he said.

The issue of the Safer oil tanker, spills from which may cause disasters, should be given great attention. All parties concerned should maintain dialogue to ensure that a UN technical team can conduct safety assessments and do repairs as soon as possible, said Zhang. Enditem
Former prime minister Tony Abbott has warned China's threat to economically bully Australia could succeed in the longer term

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has warned China's threat to economically bully Australia could succeed in the longer term.

Communist China is a major buyer of iron ore, the commodity used to make steel.

Australia's biggest trading partner last year bought $65billion worth of iron ore.

The commodity, mined in Western Australia, is by far the biggest chunk of Australia's $150billion worth of goods and services exported to China every year.

Mr Abbott, however, said Australia would be particularly vulnerable if China was able to instead source all of its iron ore from west Africa.

'It's when it no longer needs our commodities because it has established mines and farms in much more amenable places that we really will be vulnerable,' he said in an opinion piece for The Australian.

'Even more serious, though, for our long-term economic security, are China's efforts to redirect its resource-buying away from countries like us.'

Mining giant Rio Tinto, a major exporter of iron ore to China, also jointly owns a 45 per cent stake in the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea.

Chinese aluminium company Chinalco has another 40 per cent share with the Guinea government owning the remaining 15 per cent stake.

A 2016 deal for Chinalco to buy all of Rio Tinto's stake in Simandou lapsed in 2018 however, Mr Abbott said China would have 'far less need for Australian iron ore' should Rio Tinto divest its interest in the African iron ore deposit.

The former Liberal leader noted Western companies in Africa 'are finding it hard to compete because they can't manage local politics as readily as Chinese-led consortiums'.

China is a major buyer of iron ore, the commodity used to make steel. Australia's biggest trading partner last year bought $65billion worth of iron ore. The commodity, mined in Western Australia, is by far the biggest chunk of Australia's $150billion worth of goods and services exported to China every year. Pictured are Fortescue Metals dump trucks 280km south-east of Port Hedland in Western Australia's Pilbara region

Mr Abbott, however, said Australia would be particularly vulnerable if China was able to instead source all of its iron ore from west Africa. Pictured is the Simandou iron ore deposit in Guinea, which Rio Tinto has a 45 per cent stake in

The Chinese government is keen to develop the world's biggest untapped source of iron ore.

Australia's key exports to China in 2019 IRON ORE: $65billion LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS: $18billion AGRICULTURE, SEAFOOD: $13.5 billion EDUCATION: $12billion METALLURGICAL COAL: $10billion THERMAL COAL: $7billion GOLD: $5billion TOURISM: $4.7billion COPPER: $4billion ZINC, LEAD NICKEL, LITHIUM: $5billion TOTAL: $150billion Source: A Westpac analysis of 2019 Australian Bureau of Statistics, Reserve Bank of Australia and Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences data Advertisement

Mr Abbott said Chinese-run mines in Africa often used prison and even child labour and were able to get away with it 'because they can bribe local officials and eliminate local troublemakers'.

Until African mines negated the need for Australian iron ore, Mr Abbott said China's 80 per cent tariffs on barley and its threats to encourage Chinese consumers to boycott Australia tourism, education, wine and beef would be unlikely to succeed in the short-term.

'Right now, our immediate worry is China temporarily stopping our coal, or barley, or wine exports to coerce our foreign policy by threatening our business interests,' he said.

'Still, as long as China relies on our commodities, this will hurt China more than it hurts us.'

China's ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye in April threatened a trade boycott after Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an independent inquiry into the origins of COVID-19.

Diplomatic tensions heightened again this week after Foreign Minister Marise Payne described as illegal China's aggressive activities in the South China Sea, after previously calling for it to resolve its disputes with Vietnam and the Philippines.

Senator Payne and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds have both arrived in Washington for face-to-face talks with their American counterparts Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is hawkish on China, and Defence Secretary Mark Esper.

The AUSMIN talks are mark the first time an Australian minister has been to the US since Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton contracted coronavirus there in March after meeting Ivanka Trump.
OTTAWAThe former chair of WE Charitys board of directors says she was asked to resign after pushing for financial details from founders Craig and Marc Kielburger.

Michelle Douglas, a human-rights activist and former public servant who worked with WE Charity for 14 years, told the House of Commons finance committee Tuesday that the charity was scrambling during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it laid off hundreds of employees.

Douglas said she pushed the Kielburgers for financial records to justify the drastic cuts, leading to a tense conversation with Marc Kielburger. On March 25, Douglas said Craig Kielburger asked for her resignation.

She stepped down on March 27, just days before WE Charity started pitching federal cabinet ministers on a plan to provide COVID-19 supports and programming for young people.

It was our view that you dont fire hundreds of people without very strong demonstrable evidence, and even then should explore mitigation measures to save jobs, Douglas told the committee.

Instead, the executive team were dismissing employees with great speed and in large numbers.

Marc Kielburger later disputed Douglass claim that a tense standoff led to her resignation, and NDP MP Charlie Anguss characterization of Kielberger hanging up on Douglas during a phone call about the financial situation.

I dont feel thats a proper characterization of the series of events, Kielburger told the committee in an appearance following Douglass. We were providing nearly daily briefings to members of the board, but under the circumstances we had to make very quick decisions as many Canadian organizations and non-profits (had to).

Douglas resigned before the federal government selected WE Charity to administer a $543-million program aimed at encouraging young Canadians to volunteer during the pandemic. Under the deal, WE Charity would have been able to bill the federal government for the cost of running the program.

Two sources have told the Star that the Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG) program was seen within the organization as a way to keep the lights on during the pandemic.

After WE began work on the CSSG on May 5, it hired 465 people  including some former staff members who had been recently laid off  to deliver the program.

WE Charity confirmed to the Star earlier this month that 450 of those hires were laid off after the charity withdrew from the agreement to deliver the CSSG program.

Questions were immediately raised about the organizations connections to the Trudeau family when the government announced on June 25 that WE Charity would administer the program. The contract was cancelled days later.

In response to significant scrutiny and internal criticism, WE Charity has hired outside consultants to conduct a formal review of its operations, and has promised a workplace review.

The fallout for the Liberal government has also been significant, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau facing separate ethics investigations for having participated in the cabinets decision to hire WE Charity.

The House of Commons finance committee is also investigating that decision, and Trudeau is scheduled to testify at the committee on Thursday.

Douglas testified Tuesday that the Kielburgers and WE Charitys management team justified the initial round of layoffs as a necessary measure to deal with the economic fallout of the pandemic.

They were certainly seized of issues surrounding the impact from the virus. The organization was being impacted significantly, Douglas said.

For example, schools were closing, WE Days had to cease, and the ME to WE entity could no longer run trips or have retail operations, so there were significant implications for the organization, she said. Essentially, that was a reduced essence of why people were being laid off.

A charitys board of directors has a fiduciary duty both to the organization and to the general public to oversee the organizations operations, according to Lex Klombies, a charity and non-profit lawyer with Drache Aptowitzer LLP.

In a dispute between the charitys management and its board over financial records, Klombies said, board members have only a few options: continue to insist on the documents, replace the charitys management if possible, or  as Douglas did  resign.

Theres something to be said for insisting or perseverance, but at some point, if you cant access the information and you have a duty to be managing the affairs of the corporation, what do you do? Klombies said.

Douglass testimony also shed some light on the WEs complex organizational structure, which includes charitable organizations as well as a for-profit social enterprise company, ME to WE.

Douglas said the board members were interested in getting as much information as we could about transfers between WE Charity and ME to WE, and had asked for an annual reconciliation report detailing funding and in-kind transfers between them.

Charity Intelligence, a non-profit charity watchdog, has raised concerns about those transfers, noting in a report there is donor concern about the blurred lines between the two entities.

WE has disputed that characterization, claiming that auditors have confirmed that over the past five years that ME to WE Social Enterprise has given, on average, over 90 per cent of its profits to WE Charity. Any remaining profits have been reinvested back to help scale the social enterprise.
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday one civilian was killed and three were injured in a U.S. air strike in Somalia in February, the second such admission since it launched quarterly reports on civilian casualties in its Africa operations.

In a report, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said a verification of the facts and circumstances about a Feb. 2 air strike triggered by allegations of civilian deaths established one civilian had been killed while three were injured.

"Unfortunately, we believe our operations caused the inadvertent death of one person and injury to three others who we did not intend to target," AFRICOM's commander, Gen. Stephen Townsend was quoted as saying.

"We work hard to prevent civilians from getting hurt or killed during these operations designed to bring increased security and stability to Somalia."

The air strike, AFRICOM said, took place in the vicinity of Jilib, an area about 380 km (236 miles) south of Somalia's capital Mogadishu.

AFRICOM's civilian casualty assessment reports cover its operations in Somalia, Libya and other African countries. The initial report published in April said two civilians were killed and three injured in an air strike in Somalia in early 2019. [nL5N2CF66L]

The United States has been conducting air strikes in Somalia for years to help defeat the Islamist group al Shabaab.

Al Shabaab seeks to topple Somalia's Western-backed central government and set up its own rule based on its strict interpretation of Islamic sharia.

Rights activists have long accused the United States of shrouding its Somalia operations in secrecy, potentially undermining accountability for incidents involving civilian deaths.

(Writing by Elias Biryabarema; editing by William Maclean)
Banks in the euro area could soon face difficulties if the current crisis deepens and erodes their capital positions, Andrea Enria, chair of the European Central Bank's supervisory board, told CNBC in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.

The financial system has so far weathered the economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus, with academics and policymakers arguing that, in contrast to the global financial crisis, lenders are part of the solution to the ongoing shock.

"The banking sector (in the euro area) is in a very strong position to withstand an unprecedented shock," Enria told CNBC's Annette Weisbach.

However, he warned that if the crisis deteriorates then some banks "would face difficulties in maintaining their compliance with the minimum (capital) requirements."

His comments came shortly after the ECB published an assessment of 86 banks in the euro area, which showed that they can cope with the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic. However, if the economic crisis persists the depletion of bank capital could be "material."

The banks were stress-tested under two scenarios: one based on the central bank's baseline forecast for a contraction of gross domestic product of 8.7% in 2020; and a more severe situation, which estimated a drop of 12.6% of GDP in 2020. Under the first scenario, the banks' common equity tier 1 ratio  a measure of bank solvency  decreased by 1.9 percentage points. However, under scenario two, the CET1 ratio dropped by 5.7 percentage points.

"In this scenario, several banks would need to take action to maintain compliance with their minimum capital requirements, but the overall shortfall would remain contained," the central bank said in a statement.

Euro zone banks are often assessed based on their geographical position, with lenders in southern nations seen as a higher risk than those in less indebted northern economies. However, Enria told CNBC that the tests carried out were not "focused on individual banks or individual countries."

"The peculiarity of this crisis is that sometimes the concentration of exposure to certain sectors of the economy, for instance, is more important than other dimensions," he said.
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Moderna, Inc. MRNA is scheduled to report second-quarter 2020 results on Aug 5, before market open. In the last reported quarter, the company delivered an earnings surprise of 5.41%.

The companys earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters with the average surprise being 8.92%.

Modernas share price has surged 308.5% so far this year compared with the industrys increase of 5%.

Lets see how things have shaped up for this announcement.

Factors to Note

Moderna has no marketed products in its portfolio. On the second-quarter earnings call, investor focus will likely remain on the progress of Modernas pipeline candidate, especially coronavirus vaccine candidate.

The company has been actively engaged in developing its coronavirus vaccine  mRNA-1273. It is one of the leading players in this field with phase III study initiated earlier this week. The company is conducting the study in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Interim data from a phase I study evaluating mRNA-1273 had shown rapid and strong immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 in all patients.

Moreover, Moderna has also been focusing on building manufacturing capacity for mRNA-1273 through collaborations. Last month, the company signed a manufacturing agreement with drug delivery specialist, Catalent, Inc. CTLT and Spain-based Laboratorios Farmaceuticos Rovi for the same. It had earlier stated that it is on track to deliver 500 million doses of 100 g dosage of mRNA-1273 per year, which can possibly increase up to 1 billion doses per year, beginning 2021.

Moreover, the company has received commitment for funding of approximately $955 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to support development of the vaccine.

Investors will likely ask questions related to the progress of the phase II study on mRNA-1273 and try to gain an early insight into the phase III study on the second-quarter earnings call.

Story continues

Apart from mRNA-1273, Moderna is developing several other mRNA-based products targeting different indications including cancer. The company also has collaborations under which its partners use its mRNA technology for development of therapies targeting different indications. The partners pay milestone payments to Moderna, which comprise its total revenues. These revenues can vary every quarter. In the past few quarters, revenues have declined year over year due to lower collaboration revenues across its strategic alliances, particularly with AstraZeneca AZN and Merck. We do not expect second-quarter results to reflect any improvement.

In March, Moderna provided an update on the impact of coronavirus pandemic on its ongoing clinical studies evaluating its pipeline candidates. The company had paused enrollment in studies evaluating its rare disease candidates and respiratory vaccine candidate. We expect it to provide an update on the future path of these clinical studies on the call.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Moderna this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. But thats not the case here. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Earnings ESP: Modernas Earnings ESP is -0.93%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at a loss of 36 cents.

Zacks Rank: Moderna currently has a Zacks Rank #2.

Moderna, Inc. Price and Consensus

Moderna, Inc. Price and Consensus

Moderna, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Moderna, Inc. Quote

A Stock That Warrants a Look

Here is a biotech stock that you may want to consider, as our model shows that it has the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat in its upcoming release.

Incyte Corporation INCY has an Earnings ESP of +4.62% and a Zacks Rank #3.

These Stocks Are Poised to Soar Past the Pandemic

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Our research shows that 5 cutting-edge stocks could skyrocket from the exponential increase in demand for stay at home technologies. This could be one of the biggest buying opportunities of this decade, especially for those who get in early.

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COLUMBIA, Mo.  Kansas City is considering joining the St. Louis area in imposing new restrictions designed to stem the spread of the coronavirus in the absence of statewide restrictions.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said in a tweet that he participated in a call Monday with Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and several Midwestern mayors who are seeing reported cases rise, fueled in part by an increase in cases among young adults.

Lucas said recommendations that were suggested include reducing indoor dining seating capacity and reducing bar hours. Those are among the restrictions that St. Louis County announced it is enacting starting at 5 p.m. Friday.

Mayor Lucas and local health officials take seriously the advice of Dr. Birx and will continue discussions over the next several days about the next steps in Kansas Citys COVID response efforts," Lucas' spokeswoman Morgan Said said Tuesday.

Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Parson has repeatedly refused to enact a statewide order requiring masks, citing relatively few cases in most of the state compared to hot spots in bigger cities. He hasnt wavered on his decision to reopen Missouri, even as the number of confirmed cases has spiked in the past several weeks. The state health department director attributes the recent hike in cases spread among people in the 20s. The college town of Columbia also put curfews on bars and required face masks in public places.

Even as cases rose, mask use was limited as Missouri lawmakers gathered in the Capitol on Monday to launch a special session on crime. Parson is pushing for several changes, including creating a witness protection fund to keep witnesses and their families safe before trial, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

Summer Ballentine in Columbia, Mo., contributed to this report.
Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

Democrats clashed angrily with Donald Trumps attorney general on Tuesday, over the aggressive deployment of federal agents to US cities three months before a presidential election.

William Barr faced a difficult grilling during a hearing in Congress that proved combative, contentious, and indicative of Washingtons bitter divide.

Related: Barr: 'I dont agree there is systemic racism in police departments'  live

Democrats on the House judiciary committee pointed to the use of federal law enforcement to clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square, Washington, last month so Trump could stage a photo op, and a harsh crackdown on protests in Portland, Oregon.

The president wants footage for his campaign ads, and you appear to be serving it up to him as ordered, Jerry Nadler, the committee chairman, told Barr.

You use pepper spray and truncheons on American citizens. You did it here in Washington. You did it in Lafayette Square. You expanded to Portland. Now you are projecting fear and violence nationwide in pursuit of obvious political objectives. Shame on you, Mr Barr. Shame on you.

The attorney general denied the interventions were motivated by Trumps re-election.

I just reject the idea that the department has flooded anywhere and attempted to suppress demonstrators, he said. The fact of the matter is, if you take Portland, the courthouse is under attack.

The federal resources are inside the perimeter, around the courthouse defending it from almost two months of daily attacks where people march to the court, try to gain entrance and have set fires, thrown things, used explosives and injured police, including just this past weekend, perhaps permanently blinding three federal officers with lasers.

Barr added: We are on the defence. Were not out looking for trouble.

Like so many other hearings of the Trump era, the session highlighted Americas debilitating polarisation. Barr sat expressionless as Nadler delivered a scathing opening statement.

Story continues

Your tenure is marked by a persistent war against the departments professional core in an apparent effort to secure favours for the president, the Democrat said. In your time at the department, you have aided and abetted the worst failings of this president.

Barrs justice department, Nadler continued, has violated constitutional rights, downplayed the effects of systemic racism, expressed open hostility to the Black Lives Matter movement, spread disinformation about voter fraud and failed to enforce voting rights laws, amplified the presidents conspiracy theories about the special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation and interfered with criminal investigations to protect the president and his allies.

The message these actions send is clear: in this justice department, the presidents enemies will be punished and his friends will be protected, no matter the cost, said Nadler, whose involvement in a minor car accident had caused a delay.

Jim Jordan, a close Trump ally and the top Republican on the committee, gave a radically different account.

Spying. That one word. Thats why theyre after you, Mr Attorney General.

Jordan said Barr has spoken the truth that Barack Obamas administration spied on the Trump campaign, a claim that has repeatedly been debunked.

He then proceeded to play a selectively edited video for nearly eight minutes which showed TV hosts and Obama saying the words peaceful protests, then cut to the grieving family of David Dorn, an African American retired police captain killed last month in St Louis, Missouri, then to undated, un-located footage of people jumping on cars, buildings ablaze, an injured officer, a looted shop and people yanking and chainsawing a fence.

The clips echoed talking points by Trump and conservative media.

In his own opening statement, Barr acknowledged that the horrible killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis jarred the whole country but insisted police forces were more diverse than ever before.

According to statistics compiled by the Washington Post, the number of unarmed black men killed by police so far this year is eight. The number of unarmed white men killed by police over the same time period is 11  And the overall number of police shootings has been decreasing.

Trump has quoted similar statistics, which fail to acknowledge that black people, who make up about 13% of the US population, are disproportionately affected by deadly police violence.

Jerry Nadler, the House judiciary committee chair. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Barr added: Unfortunately, some have chosen to respond to George Floyds death in a far less productive way  by demonising the police  and making grossly irresponsible proposals to defund the police  Violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests to wreak senseless havoc and destruction on innocent victims.

Pressed by Nadler, Barr acknowledged that Trumps re-election comes up at cabinet meetings but denied he had discussed it in connection with operations in Portland, Chicago and elsewhere.

I would like to pick the cities based on law and enforcement need, he argued.

Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas questioned Barr on whether he considered the killing of Floyd to be indicative of a systemic problem in policing. He said: I dont agree there is systemic racism in police departments generally in this country.

The attorney general faced hard-hitting questions for pushing for a more lenient prison sentence for Trumps ally Roger Stone, convicted of witness tampering and making false statements, a move which prompted the entire trial teams departure. Trump eventually commuted Stones sentence, sparing him prison.

Related: 'Beyond the pale': antics of Trump ambassadors highlight crisis in US diplomacy

Barr said: Stone was prosecuted under me. I said all along I thought that was a righteous prosecution. I thought he should go to jail.

But prosecutors were advocating for a sentence twice as long as justice department policy would recommend, he contended.

I agree that the presidents friends dont deserve special breaks but they also dont deserve to be treated more harshly than other people and sometimes thats a difficult decision to make, especially when you know youre going to be castigated for it.

The DoJs internal watchdog launched investigations last week into federal involvement in the Portland and Washington DC protests.
MBABANE - Four people died yesterday in two separate accidents. In the first accident, two male emaSwati tragically lost their lives after their car crashed head-on into an oncoming bakkie whose two occupants also died.

The spine-chilling accident occurred on the N2 in KwaZulu-Natal yesterday at around 8:30am near Mandeni on the north coast.



The deceased, who were travelling in an Audi that was stashed with dagga, were reportedly from Nhlangano and one of the deceaseds family members confirmed the ordeal when contacted yesterday.

South Africas TimesLive reported that four people died in a horrific crash after their vehicles, one which was laden with cannabis and cigarettes, collided with an oncoming bakkie.

It is alleged that the driver of the Audi, which was ferrying the cannabis and cigarettes, lost control of the vehicle and collided with the oncoming bakkie, which was driven by an off-duty road traffic inspectorate officer.

Police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala was quoted by the SA publication saying all four people died at the scene.



The estimated street value of the dagga and cigarettes is R500 000. A case of culpable homicide is being investigated by Newark SAPS, said Gwala.

A police officer at Mandeni, who requested to remain anonymous, confirmed that the driver and the passenger of the Audi were Eswatini citizens when the Mandeni Police Station was contacted yesterday. He said it was not yet known where they were taking the consignment, but it was obvious that it was destined for the province.



I am not authorised to speak on the matter but I can confirm that the two are from Eswatini at a place called Mhlanga. However, the car they were travelling in had a South African registration and it was from Gauteng. I am not sure of the value of the dagga yet, but it looked to be multiple kilogrammes as the backseats were bent over and the whole area was stashed with the herb, he said.



The news of the death of the duo and the pictures of the accident scene were trending on social media yesterday with many sending their condolences while others were only expressing concern about the dagga.

This is so sad. May their souls rest in peace, one Facebook user said while another said: So much dagga gone to waste, what a tragedy.



The two deceased acquaintances were said to be from Mkhitsini and Madulini, which are chiefdoms in Shiselweni II Constituency under Member of Parliament Strydom Mpanza.

Ndo Maseko of Mkhitsini, a relative to one of the deceased, confirmed that the two emaSwati lost their lives in a car accident in South Africa.

Maseko said they had received calls informing them of the tragedy that had befallen one of their own.



We have an idea how the accident came about but we do not have the full details yet, as communication rates outside the country are not cost-effective, said Maseko.

He said they were yet to get more information.

Mkhitsini Bucopho Samkelo Nzima said he had been informed about the accident. I do not have the details yet, he said. IPSS Medical Rescue, as reported in TimesLive, said in a statement that paramedics who arrived on the scene found the Audi engulfed in flames with two people trapped inside.



A second vehicle also had two occupants within.

The passenger of the second vehicle was severely trapped and showed no signs of life and was declared dead.
WASHINGTON  Former Vice President Joe Biden unveiled a roadmap of policy proposals Tuesday that are aimed at narrowing the generational wealth gap that persists between White Americans and their Black, Latino, Asian and Native American neighbors.

Biden's racial economic equity plan is the fourth plank in the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's "Build Back Better" economic platform. Biden announced the plan at a speech in Wilmington, Delaware.

There, Biden drew a sharp contrast between his view of the national reckoning underway on racial justice and the ongoing protests in major cities, and the views of his opponent, President Donald Trump.

"Every instinct Trump has is to add fuel to the fire," said Biden. "It's the last thing we need. We need leadership that will calm the waters and lower the temperature. That's how to restore peace in the streets."

Biden's economic equity plan is largely a repackaging of dozens of his existing proposals from across the campaign's platforms, such as his plan to offer a one-time student debt reduction of $10,000 per student and his call for a $15 hourly minimum wage.

It also contains a separate section focused on criminal justice reform, which includes Biden's plan to eliminate cash bail and to guarantee that formerly incarcerated people are provided temporary housing upon release from prison.

It will take all of these policies working together, he said, to begin to achieve economic equality for people of color.

"How do we break the cycle? In good times, communities of color still lag. In bad times, they get hit first and the hardest. And in recovery, they take the longest to bounce back. This is about justice ... it's also about jobs, good-paying jobs. And financial stability, building wealth for families of color and passing it down to their kids."

Here are some of the key proposals in Biden's economic equity plank:

Create a new Small Business Opportunity Fund and seed it with $30 billion of Biden's proposed $300 billion domestic innovation funding.

Expand the New Markets Tax Credit to $5 billion yearly and make it permanent.

Pass legislation to require the Federal Reserve to report data and trends on racial economic gaps and commit the Fed to a "real-time" payment system aimed at eliminating the time it takes for checks to clear.

The New Markets Tax Credit program awards tax credits to investors who provide capital for community development entities, which finance projects in qualified low-income communities. Created by Congress in 2000, the NMTC has supported more than 5,300 projects in the past two decades, but it is scheduled to expire at the end of this year.

Unlike the previous three planks in Biden's economic platform, the racial equity plan does not initially include demands for more federal spending. Instead, it is centered on the ways that funding Biden has already proposed in his first three planks is allocated.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday morning, senior Biden campaign advisors said more details about the costs and the funding of these proposals are forthcoming, although they did not specify when to expect the numbers.

One thing the plan does not contain is any reference to the word "reparations," despite a growing movement on the left in recent years to quantify and compensate Black Americans for centuries of slave labor and for the subsequent Jim Crow laws that denied them access to the same opportunities to build wealth that White families were given.

Grouping all of these policy proposals together under the umbrella of racial economic equity is one way for Biden's campaign to codify the former vice president's commitment to addressing the deep-seated racial injustice that has sparked massive civil unrest across the country this summer.

Biden said his plan is "about rising to this moment of crisis. Understanding people's struggles, and building a future worthy of their courage and their ambition to overcome."

Read the entire plan below.
The president of Congress Jammu unit Ghulam Ahmed Mir on Monday staged a vociferous protest against what he claimed was the BJPs arm-twisting tactics in Rajasthan during the coronavirus pandemic.

We are protesting to save democracy in this country. The BJP has been constantly been resorting to undemocratic and unconstitutional means. First Goa, then Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and now Rajasthan, the BJP has been resorting to unconstitutional and undemocratic means to topple democratically elected governments, said Mir.

He said when people have the right to choose the government of their choice, then one with a full majority should be given full five-year tenure.

But the BJP is resorting to unfair means and is using governors rule to their advantage. The BJP getting its unfair practices implemented via Raj Bhavans. For instance in Rajasthan, the governor there has raised illogical queries on assembly session proposed by the Rajasthan CM via his cabinet, he added.

The governor is asking Rajasthan CM unnecessary queries of why and whats the agenda, which is undemocratic and unconstitutional on the part of the governor, he added.

Meanwhile, three Congress leaders wrote to Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra on Monday, asking him to convene an assembly session as per the advice of the state cabinet which, they claimed, would be the correct course of action as per the legal principles laid down by the Supreme Court.

Salman Khurshid, Ashwani Kumar, and Kapil Sibal, who are also senior advocates at the SC, said that the apex court judgments in Shamsher Singh v. Union of India (1974) and Nabam Rebia v. Deputy Speaker (2016) limits the powers of Governor, who is obliged to defer to the wisdom of an elected government.

Any deviation from the established constitutional position would be an avoidable negation of your oath of office and create a constitutional crisis, the former Union law ministers, said.

The Congress party, which is confident of its numbers in the Rajasthan assembly, is pushing for a floor test in the House in the wake of a power tussle between chiffons minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot.

The Congress accuses the governor of delaying the session due to pressure from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government. Mishra has denied the charge.
Spanish authorities are investigating whether Juan Carlos - the former King of Spain - received a secret commission for helping to win a 5.5 billion Saudi rail deal, after his former mistress made the allegations privately.

German Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein has been placed under investigation in relation to audio recordings of a meeting between herself and retired Spanish police commissioner Jose Manuel Villarejo at her London home in 2015.

The investigation into the conversation was initially closed in 2018, but it was reopened yesterday after new evidence emerged, The Times reported, with police discovering other copies of the conversation.

Investigators first shelved the case two years ago because the allegations against Juan Carlos pertain to before his abdication in 2014, when he still held immunity from prosecution.

Investigating judge Manuel Garcia Castellon is now looking into whether Sayn-Wittgenstein commissioned Villarejo - then a serving police officer - to gain information about a Spanish citizen.

Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, pictured above in 2019, the former mistress of Spain's Juan Carlos, has been placed under investigation in Spain in relation to an audio recording of a 2015 conversation she had in London with former Spanish police commissioner Jose Manuel Villarejo

Court documents stated that there was now sufficient grounds to examine whether a crime has been committed, with the judge saying investigators would gather evidence 'without prejudice to the fact that this could lead us to other types of infractions'.

The conversation was recorded at Sayn-Wittgenstein's London home in 2015 after Villarejo asked for a meeting under the pretense that Spain's intelligence services were plotting to implicate her in criminal activity.

Villarejo went on to leak the tapes of their conversation to the media.

The former police commissioner is currently being held in pretrial custody and is himself facing as many as ten investigations - suspected of running an illicit side-business as a secret fixer for the Spanish elite.

He is facing charges of money laundering, criminal association and bribery of public officials.

Juan Carlos - who is the father of Spain's current King Felipe VI, is said to have been in a relationship with Sayn-Wittgenstein - a German businesswoman and philanthropist - between 2004 and 2008.

Juan Carlos, pictured left in 2006, is the father of Spain's current King Felipe VI, and is said to have been in a relationship with Sayn-Wittgenstein, pictured right, between 2004 and 2008

Pictured: Former Spanish police commissioner Jose Manuel Villarejo arriving at a court in Madrid. The former police commissioner is currently being held in pretrial custody and is suspected of running an illicit side-business as a secret fixer for the Spanish elite

Juan Carlos and his former lover are already facing other legal trouble in Switzerland, where an inquiry is investigating secret offshore accounts linked to the pair.

Swiss prosecutors are examining a 65 million (59 million) payment the former King made to Sayn-Wittgenstein in 2012 under suspicion of money laundering.

An alleged $100 million donation in 2008 - then worth 65 million - to Juan Carlos from the then-King of Saudi Arabia, is also being looked at by Yves Bertossa, a Swiss prosecutor.

Bertossa is investigating whether the donation and the subsequent payment to Sayn-Wittgenstein were connected to the payment of illegal commissions for the construction of a railway in Saudi Arabia.

The railway was constructed by a Spanish consortium in 2011.

Ms Sayn-Wittgenstein's legal defence deny the payment was linked with illegal commissions, instead claiming that it was a gift.

Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, pictured centre meeting Prince Charles in 2014, is also under investigation in Switzerland under suspicion of money laundering in relation to a 65 million payment payment she received from Juan Carlos in 2012

The payment from Juan Carlos, pictured right meeting Saudi Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2018, is being investigated in relation to the payment of illegal commissions for the construction of a railway in Saudi Arabia

Spanish prosecutors are now assessing whether there is sufficient evidence to begin legal proceedings for money laundering and tax crimes against Juan Carlos over the alleged ties and related kickbacks.

A lawyer for Ms Sayn-Wittgenstein, Robin Rathmell, said: 'Corinna never hired or discussed hiring Villarejo and therefore never paid him for anything,' according to The Times. 'Our client will robustly defend her rights against these baseless accusations.'

Sayn-Wittgenstein has previously claimed that the former head of the country's National Intelligence Centre, General Felix Sanz Roldan, carried out an intimidation and harassment campaign against her under the orders of Juan Carlos after she fell out of favour with the former King.

After she joined him on a controversial hunting trip to Botswana she claims that she received a text message from a security company who said her 'friends in Spain' asked them to take care of her and had put French Foreign Legionnaires at her Monaco flat.

In her affidavit, seen by the Sunday Telegraph in March, she said she believes that the company was hired by Roldan as a cover to search her flat for anything that could be embarrassing to the King.

She says that after she refused them entry, she received messages which she believed to be threatening.
WASHINGTON  Toronto Blue Jays closer and Albuquerque native Ken Giles went on the 10-day injured list before Mondays series opener at the Washington Nationals with a strained right forearm, a day after leaving a game with what the team said was a sore right elbow.

The Blue Jays lost another player about 15 minutes before first pitch on Monday when Bo Bichette  who was supposed to play shortstop and lead off  was scratched because of a tight left hamstring.

Giles had an MRI on Monday. The right-hander entered in the ninth inning of Torontos game at the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday to try to get a save, but the reliever gave up a two-out double and a pair of walks that loaded the bases. Giles then went to a 3-1 count on the next batter before he was removed. The Blue Jays wound up losing 6-5 in 10 innings.

Anthony Bass is expected to fill the closer role for the Blue Jays while Giles is out.

In other moves Monday, Toronto activated right-hander Wilmer Font from the IL, recalled lefty Ryan Borucki from the taxi squad, added outfielder Billy McKinney to the taxi squad and placed infielder Travis Shaw on family medical leave.

Manager Charlie Montoyo also said Randal Grichuk is day-to-day with back tightness.

___

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
By PTI

AMBALA: Authorities tightened security and imposed prohibitory orders near the Ambala Air Force Station in Haryana on Tuesday ahead of the arrival of five Rafale jets from France, banning shooting of videos and photography.

The Ambala district administration also prohibited people from flying private drones within the three-km radius of the air base, an official said.

Deputy Commissioner Ashok Sharma said in an order that Section 144, which prohibits assembly of four or more people, has been imposed in the villages adjoining the air base, including Dhulkot, Baldev Nagar, Garnala and Panjkhora.

The jets took off from France on Monday and will arrive at the Air Force station on Wednesday, after covering a distance of 7,000 km with air-to-air refuelling and a single stop in the United Arab Emirates.

The fleet comprises three single-seater and two twin-seater aircraft, according to an IAF official.

The Ambala deputy commissioner said shooting of videos or taking photographs of the boundary wall of the air base and its adjoining areas will remain strictly prohibited during the imposition of the prohibitory orders.

Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij said Ambala police have taken the necessary measures.

The BJP leader and six-term MLA from Ambala Cantt said the people of Ambala are very enthusiastic and thousands would have come out on the streets to welcome the fighter jets before the touch down had there not been a pandemic.

BJP's Ambala City MLA Aseem Goyal urged to people to light candles in their homes between 7-7:30 pm on Wednesday to welcome the Rafale jets.

Nearly four years ago, India signed an inter-governmental agreement with France for 36 Rafale jets under a Rs 59,000-crore deal to boost the IAF's combat capabilities.

The first squadron of the Rafale jets will be stationed at the Ambala air base.

The five Rafales are scheduled to be inducted into the IAF on Wednesday, though a formal induction ceremony would be held later.

No 17 Squadron, the 'Golden Arrows', has been resurrected at the Ambala base to operate the Rafale aircraft.

The resurrection ceremony in September 2019 was presided over by then Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa, who had commanded the 17 Squadron during the Kargil conflict in 1999.

The IAF has undertaken major infrastructure upgrades at the Ambala base for the deployment of the first Rafale squadron.

Built in 1948, the air base is located on the east side of Ambala in Haryana and is used for military and government flights.

The air base has two squadrons of the Jaguar combat aircraft and one squadron of the MIG-21 Bison.

Air Force Marshal Arjan Singh was the first commander of the base.

The Mirage fighters that were used for the air strike in Balakot in Pakistan in February 2019 after the Pulwama terror attack had taken off from here.

On their way to India from France, five Rafale jets were refulled mid-air from a French tanker at a height of 30,000 feet, according to photos released on Tuesday by the Indian Embassy in France.

"Indian Air Force appreciates the support provided by French Air Force for our Rafale journey back home," the IAF tweeted On Monday evening, the Rafales landed at Al Dhafra airbase in the UAE after flying for over seven hours, officials said adding it was the only stopover by the jets while flying from France to India.

"Few shots from 30,000 feet! Mid air refuelling of #RafaleJets on their way to #India," the Indian Embassy in France tweeted along with a number of pictures of the jets being refuelled mid-air.

The aircraft are expected to significantly boost the IAF's combat capabilities at a time when India is locked in a tense border row with China in eastern Ladakh.

The IAF has already deployed all its frontline fighter jets in key airbases along the Line of Actual Control, the de-faco border between India and China.

India had inked a Rs 59,000 crore deal on September 23, 2016 to procure 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation.

The first Rafale jet was handed over to the IAF in October last year during a visit to France by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

European missile maker MBDA's Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile and Scalp cruise missile will be the mainstay of the weapons package of the Rafale jets Meteor is the next generation of BVR air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) designed to revolutionise air-to-air combat.

The weapon has been developed by MBDA to combat common threats facing the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Sweden.

The Meteor is powered by a unique rocket-ramjet motor that gives it far more engine power for much longer than any other missile, said an official.

The second squadron of Rafale will be stationed at Hasimara base in West Bengal.

The IAF spent around Rs 400 crore to develop required infrastructure like shelters, hangars and maintenance facilities at the two bases Out of 36 Rafale jets, 30 will be fighter jets and six will be trainers.

The trainer jets will be twin-seater and they will have almost all the features of the fighter jets.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp returns to his office after giving a coronavirus briefing at the Capitol in Atlanta, Ga., on July 17, 2020. (John Bazemore/ File/AP Photo)

Georgia Governor Backs Out of Hearing on Atlanta Mask Order

ATLANTAGeorgias governor has withdrawn a request for an emergency hearing in a lawsuit that aims to block the states largest city from ordering people to wear masks in public or imposing other restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gov. Brian Kemp earlier this month sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and the City Council. The Republican governor argues local leaders cannot impose measures that are more or less restrictive than those in his executive orders.

The two sides met for court-ordered mediation Monday. Kemp spokesman Cody Hall announced Monday night that the governor wanted to continue productive, good faith negotiations. In a court filing Tuesday morning, lawyers for the state withdrew the request for an emergency order that was to be the subject of a hearing that day.

In response, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jane Barwick canceled the hearing but ordered the two sides to continue mediation.

Hall claimed a partial victory Monday as part of the justification for standing down from the emergency hearing, saying Bottoms had clarified previous confusing statements.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms speaks in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Jan. 10, 2020. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette via AP/ File)

The mayor retreated from misleading claims that the city was reverting to phase one by shuttering specific businesses and penalizing law-abiding business owners, Hall said in a statement. From the beginning, this overstep by the mayor was our foremost concern and the primary impetus behind the litigation, given the threat of economic harm and immediate backlash from Atlantas business community.

Bottoms, a Democrat, has said those statements are recommendations, not legal orders, and that Kemp did not understand what she was doing.

Bottoms office did not comment on the governors plan to withdraw the request for a hearing.

Atlanta is one of more than a dozen local jurisdictions in the state that has ordered people to wear face coverings in some public places in an effort to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

In an executive order earlier this month, Kemp strongly encouraged people to wear face coverings to stem the spread of the coronavirus, but he did not mandate the wearing of masks. The order also suspends any local laws or rules that are more restrictive than his order, including local rules or ordinances requiring people to wear masks, even on public property or in public buildings.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks to the media during a press conference at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, Ga., on April 27, 2020. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Barwick last week ordered the two sides to attend mediation overseen by Senior Judge Cynthia Wright to try to resolve the issues in the case before the hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday.

The lawsuit filed July 16 asks the judge to overturn Bottoms orders that are more restrictive than Kemps, block her from issuing any more such orders, instruct the City Council not to ratify Bottoms actions or adopt any ordinances inconsistent with Kemps orders, to prohibit Bottoms from making public statements asserting she has authority that exceeds Kemps, and to require city officials to enforce all provisions of Kemps existing orders.

The governor filed a motion for emergency interlocutory injunction the following day, essentially asking the judge to order that all those requests take immediate effect while the lawsuit is pending. Tuesdays hearing was scheduled for her to hear arguments on that motion.

In a court filing Monday, lawyers for the city argued that the lawsuit is barred by sovereign immunity, which says state and local governments cant be sued without their consent. The city has the right to take action to protect the public, and its mask mandate is not inconsistent with or preempted by the governors order, the citys filing argues.

In the absence of state leadership on this issue, local governments have stepped in to protect their citizens, the citys filing says.

The Georgia Municipal Association, which represents municipal governments throughout the state, as well as Democratic state lawmakers and several labor unions have filed briefs saying the governor has overstepped his authority by trying to limit additional measures taken by local governments to fight the spread of the coronavirus.

By Kate Brumback and Jeff Amy
Providence Strategic Growth ("PSG"), the growth equity affiliate of premier asset management firm Providence Equity Partners ("Providence"), and Verdane, the specialist Northern European growth equity investor, today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for an investment in Hornetsecurity Group ("Hornetsecurity"), a leading European provider of cloud-based email security and data protection, whereby affiliates of PSG become new shareholders in the Company whereas Verdane re-invests.

Hornetsecurity provides a range of best-in-class products designed to protect businesses against the latest and most sophisticated cyber threats including malware and spear phishing. Its flagship offering, 365 Total Protection Suite, is specially developed for Microsoft 365 and can be seamlessly integrated into businesses' existing email platforms. Hornetsecurity serves both small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs) and larger enterprises, with differentiated product ranges tailored to a range of security needs and team sizes. Since its launch in 2007, Hornetsecurity has sustained strong growth momentum and now employs 200 people serving over 40,000 customers, and has offices in Germany, Spain, Argentina, the US, and the UK.

Daniel Hofmann, Founder and CEO of Hornetsecurity, said, "Today's transaction represents a strong vote of confidence in our team, product offering, and business model. We have built a solid technological platform since launching in 2007, expanding our geographic footprint and winning significant customers along the way. With the support of PSG and Verdane, we are now well-positioned to accelerate our growth and enhance our technology. We look forward to working together to deliver even greater value to our customers, partners, employees, and the communities in which we do business."

Dany Rammal, Managing Director at Providence Strategic Growth, said, "Hornetsecurity bears all the hallmarks of PSG investments: it is a cutting-edge technology service built and led by strong talent, with a compelling value proposition to blue chip customers, and market leadership in the DACH region. We are pleased to be partnering with Verdane, the founder and the management team on this transaction and look forward to working together to scale up the business organically and through strategic M&A."

Emanuel Johnsson, Partner at Verdane, said, "It has been a true pleasure working with the team at Hornetsecurity since our initial investment in 2016, having successfully completed four bolt-on acquisitions and expanded operations internationally. We are now pleased to re-invest and, together with PSG, support the management team in the next phase of growth."

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

About Hornetsecurity Group

Hornetsecurity is a leading German email cloud security provider in Europe, which protects the IT infrastructure, digital communication, and data of companies and organisations of all sizes. The security specialist from Hanover provides its services worldwide via 9 secure datacentres. The product portfolio covers all important areas of email security, including spam and virus filters, legally compliant archiving, and encryption, as well as defence against advanced threats like CEO fraud and ransomware. With around 200 employees, Hornetsecurity is represented globally at 11 locations and operates in more than 30 countries through its international distribution network. The premium services are used by approximately 40,000 customers including Swisscom, Telefonica, KONICA MINOLTA, LVM Versicherung, DEKRA and Claas.

About Providence Strategic Growth

Providence Strategic Growth ("PSG") is an affiliate of Providence Equity Partners ("Providence"). Established in 2014, PSG focuses on growth equity investments in lower middle market software and technology-enabled service companies. Providence is a premier global asset management firm that pioneered a sector-focused approach to private equity investing with the vision that a dedicated team of industry experts could build exceptional companies of enduring value. Since the firm's inception in 1989, Providence has invested in more than 200 companies and is a leading equity investment firm focused on the media, communications, education and information industries. PSG is headquartered in Boston, MA, with offices in London and Kansas City. For more information on PSG, please visit https://www.provequity.com/private-equity/psg, and for more information on Providence, please visit https://www.provequity.com.

About Verdane

Verdane is a specialist growth equity investment firm that partners with ambitious Northern European tech-enabled businesses to help them reach the next stage of international growth. Verdane pioneered portfolio acquisitions in Northern Europe in 2003, and announced a complementary fund strategy entirely dedicated to direct investments in 2018. Verdane's eight funds hold 2bn in total commitments and have made over 120 thematic investments into category leaders within in digital consumer, energy resource efficiency and the software industry. Verdane's team of 55, based in Berlin, Copenhagen, Helsinki, London, Oslo and Stockholm, is dedicated to being the preferred growth partner in Northern Europe. www.verdane.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005152/en/

Contacts:

Media



Hornetsecurity

Micha Beyersdorf

+49 511 515 464-117

contact@hornetsecurity.com



Providence

Sard Verbinnen Co.

Conrad Harrington/ Giles Bethule

+44 7912 647 473/ +44 7761 385 365

Prov-SVC@sardverb.com



Verdane

Jonathan Bui

+46 76 272 81 00

jonathan.bui@verdane.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 17:23:02|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Livestock farmers wait for customers at a makeshift market in Hayran district ahead of the Eid al-Adha festival, in Hajjah province, Yemen, on July 26, 2020. (Photo by Mohammed ALwafi/Xinhua)

HAJJAH, Yemen, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Livestock farmers and traders in the war-torn Yemen are struggling with a slash in demand of meat amid rising fears of famine.

In Midi district of the country's northwestern province of Hajjah, livestock farmer Ali Ahmed Al-Jeaidi could not find a buyer in weeks. He said he is eager to sell some sheep to buy food and new clothes for his big family at the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha, or the feast of sacrifice.

"The country was once stable, there was no war, and our markets were open, the Haradh market, the Al-Rabu market and the Al-Khamis market. Now, because of the war, we have absolutely no livestock markets here," al-Jeaidi told Xinhua in front of his farm in the village of al-Jada.

"I had 400 sheep, but 300 of them were killed by the war and landmine explosions," he lamented.

According to the residents of Midi, the landmines and explosive war remnants had also killed and wounded dozens of farmers and children during the five years of war.

The war destroyed all markets in the border district of Midi, and there is only one market left in the neighboring district of Hayran, about tens of miles away towards the southeast.

In this market, however, many say there was little demand for the sacrificial animals despite the holiday season.

"The situation has further worsened in this year...Before the war, we were selling our livestock in the big markets in the cities, but today we are no longer able to travel there because of the battles, the blockade and the severe fuel shortage," Ali bin Ali Rabei, one of the livestock traders in Hayran market told Xinhua.

"Today I have only sold one sheep since early morning," he added.

Abdo Jaidi, another livestock trader in the market, attributed the soaring prices of livestock and slashing demand to several reasons.

"The reasons include the deterioration of the Yemeni riyal against foreign currencies, the soaring prices of the cattle feed and the acute fuel crisis, as well as the inability of traveling to the markets in the other cities due to the cutoff of roads and battles between the government forces and the Houthis," Jaidi told Xinhua.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi group seized control of much of the country's north and forced the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced over 3 million and pushed some 20 million to the brink of famine.

The UN aid agencies describe the situation in Yemen as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. The UNICEF has estimated that the number of malnourished under-fives could rise by 20 percent to 2.4 million by the end of this year on funding shortfalls.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) says Yemen's conflict has left the country on the brink of famine, estimating that some 20 million Yemenis are food insecure.

"If we wait for famine to be declared, it will already be too late as people will already be dying," WFP spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs said in a recent statement, appealing to donors.
The main partner in Spains Socialist Party-led minority government, the left populist Podemos, has endorsed the EU Summits bailout last week funneling 750 billion to the banks and corporations. The package imposes austerity across Europe, while laying down the axes on which the European imperialist powers will pursue militarist and economic policies targeting China and the United States.

On Facebook, Podemos leader and Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias celebrated that the Spanish bourgeoisie will receive nearly 140 billion over the next six years from the 750 billion fund. The amount allocated is the equivalent of 11.2 percent of the countrys gross national product in 2019, making Spain the second-biggest recipient after Italy.

As COVID-19 spreads rapidly due to premature back-to-work policies in Spain, making it once again the epicenter in Western Europe, Iglesias said: This agreement is a good agreement for the European Union (EU) and for Spain, and it is a breath of fresh air for the European project. He was echoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez who declared after negotiating the deal: There is no doubt that today, one of the most brilliant pages in EU history has been written.

Iglesias continued by referring to EU bailouts of Greece after the 2008 crash: We all remember the response given by the European institutions to the financial crisis 10 years ago: austerity, men in black and demands for social cuts that caused the suffocation of the countries of the south and a serious crisis to the European project. He added, For the first time in the history of the EU, a package of subsidies financed with joint debt is being proposed. Eurobonds, which seemed unfeasible a few years ago, are now a reality and will serve to face this crisis in a different way, without social cuts.

This is a flat-out political lie. The Spanish bourgeoisie is virtually unanimous in hailing the deal because it means savage austerity for workers. Unsurprisingly, Sanchez has said nothing about the conditions to which Madrid committed in order to obtain EU funding. However, he insisted that the agenda of the Spanish government is aligned with that of the European Commission.

The following day, the Spanish parliament voted for a number of documents related to the bailout including EU, healthcare, economic reform and social policies. The parliament approved all of them, except the one regarding social measures, which included policies on rents and the minimum wage.

The PSOE-Podemos government is now working on a national budget. Since 2018, it has relied on the austerity budget passed by the previous right-wing Popular Party (PP) government. It is widely expected that one of the main targets will be pensions. Last year, the PSOE committed Spain to cut pensions and increase the retirement age. Another target is the labour market. The EU, big business groups and Spains Central Bank are calling to slash wages and make it easier to sack employees.

The EU bailout Iglesias calls a breath of fresh air is in fact the roll-out of the Greek model across Europe to repay the trillions of euros handed out to the rich. The remarks of Iglesias are an urgent warning that workers opposed to EU austerity and attacks on public health that are undermining the struggle against the pandemic must seek to mobilize workers in Spain and across Europe independently of and against Podemos and similar left populist parties.

Germany, France, and the so-called Frugal Four (Austria, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands) did agree to distribute grants and loans without needing what Iglesias called men in blackthat is, EU bureaucrats sent to take over the finance ministries of bailed-out countries like Greece after 2008. However, it is not because a fit of kindness has overtaken the EU. The left populist men have spent a decade reassuring the banks that they will do in the 2020s what the men in black did in the 2010s.

In January 2015, Podemos left populist ally, Syriza (the Coalition of the Radical Left), came to power in Greece. Hailed by Podemos and its political allies across Europe, Syriza imposed draconian austerity measures, implemented EU anti-refugee policiesincluding the use of concentration camps and police violenceand sold weapons and bombs to the Saudis for their genocidal NATO-backed war in Yemen. Last year, amid mass abstention, impoverished Greek voters threw Syriza out of power.

During the pandemic, Podemos championed back-to-work and deconfinement policies. It had been the chief architect of a Socialist Party (PSOE) minority government in June 2018, entering into a coalition government with the PSOE in January 2020. These governments have all continued the austerity policies of its right-wing Popular Party (PP) predecessor, while showering the army with billions of euros. The destruction of Spains healthcare system is one of the leading causes of the deaths of nearly 50,000 people due to COVID-19.

The EU agreed to a large bailout because, for now, the European bourgeoisie has decided it doesnt need men in black because it has the left populists. Bailed-out countries like Spain still have to send the EU detailed plans on how funds will be spent. The daily El Pais acknowledged that the EU would continue austerity, stating sources in Brussels said that it makes no sense to go back on reforms that are working. The European Commission could put the brakes on initiatives [involving increased public spending] when Spains plans come up for periodic review.

Iglesias concluded by saying that the EU seems to have learned the lessons after the previous crisis, this time we will not have austerity, but an ambitious plan of fiscal stimuli. This is a fraud.

In the past three decades since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the EU has completed its evolution as a military and police alliance waging imperialist war abroad and class war at home. It has backed such attacks on democratic rights as the show trials of Catalan nationalist political prisoners and the violent police repression of mass protests last year against their imprisonment. The EU also let the pandemic rage across Europe, infecting millions and killing tens of thousands, while its member states refused to share badly-needed respirators, masks and other PPE and closed their internal borders.

Now, Spain, under the PSOE-Podemos government, is ready to stand with Berlin and Paris in their formulation of austerity policies and also Berlins re-militarization of its foreign policy, launched at the time of the 2014 NATO-backed coup in Ukraine. Significantly, in an interview with the French daily Le Monde repeating many of the points made in his Facebook post, Iglesias also hailed Berlins new leadership over the EU.

Iglesias said, Merkel represents a Germany which leads Europe with responsibility, differently from what she did in the past. It even seems that she behaved more responsibly than certain European leaders of the social-democratic political family. France as well as Germany and also Italy played key roles.

Podemos is hailing Berlins leadership of an aggressive EU foreign policy, aggressively asserting European imperialist interests and financing its operations by vicious austerity at home. As he told a conference in the El Escorial summer course organized by Podemos, the EU agreement will redefine the world, specifically the role of Europe in the world and the role of Spain in Europe. He hailed the opportunity to be part of the government whose turn it is to lead in this reconstruction.
SAN FRANCISCO - A Chinese scientist charged with visa fraud after authorities said she concealed her military ties to China in order to work in the U.S. made her first appearance Monday in federal court by video.

Juan Tang, 37, was appointed a federal public defender and U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Barnes ordered Tang to remain in custody, saying she is a flight risk, while her attorney prepares an argument to allow her release on bail.

The Justice Department last week announced charges against Tang and three other scientists living in the U.S., saying they lied about their status as members of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army. All were charged with visa fraud.

Prosecutors said Tang lied about her military ties in a visa application last October as she prepared to work at the University of California, Davis and again during an FBI interview in June. Agents found photos of Tang dressed in military uniform and reviewed articles in China identifying her military affiliation, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Tang sought refuge at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco after speaking with agents in June. U.S. marshals arrested her Friday and booked her into Sacramento County Jail, where she remains.

Heather Williams, a federal defender, said its common practice for people to seek help from their consulate when dealing with law enforcement abroad, and doing so did not make Tang guilty of anything, she said..

Williams added that U.S. agents took Tangs passport, forcing her young daughter to travel to China alone.

Its too soon to know what the photos of Tang mean, and she might have made a mistake on the visa application, the lawyer said.

We do know that our government seems to be increasingly hostile to China and we hope Dr. Tang isnt paying the price for that hostility, she said.

The University of California, Davis said Tang left her job in June as a visiting researcher in the Department of Radiation Oncology.

The arrests come as tensions rise between China and the U.S.
Jane Seymour is currently Down Under to shoot the Australian drama, Ruby's Choice.

And on Tuesday, the British actress was spotted looking remarkably different than her usual glamorous self as she got into character on the Sydney set of the film.

While the 69-year-old is usually known for her age-defying appearance, her character was styled in a mature grey wig and a drab cardigan.

Is it you? Jane Seymour looked unrecognisable as she was pictured in character on the set of her new film Ruby's Choice in Sydney, Australia on Tuesday

Despite being dressed down for the role, Jane's luminous beauty was still undeniable.

Her smooth skin still maintained a youthful glow and she still managed to make her casual outfit look flattering.

Jane plays the titular character in Ruby's Choice, which is about a loving grandmother who is suffering from dementia.

Glamorous: The 69-year-old is usually known for her age-defying beauty. (Pictured in February)

The Hollywood legend opened up about the role in an interview with Channel Seven's The Morning Show last week.

'It's about a woman with dementia, and about family, and how they deal with it,' she explained.

'It's three generations having to help her, trying to live with her and her circumstances and making choices for her.

From fab to drab! While the 69-year-old is usually known for her age-defying appearance, her character was styled in a mature grey wig and a drab cardigan

Glowing: Her smooth skin still maintained a youthful glow and she still managed to make her casual outfit look flattering

'And basically, in her dementia, she ends up solving their issues and their problems, and all the elephants in their room, as it were,' she continued.

'I think it's also really important because dementia and Alzheimer's are the number one cause of death for Australian women. I didn't know that.

'A lot of people don't know how to deal with people who have dementia and Alzheimer's. It shows you from the inside what that's about.'

Character: Jane plays the titular character in Ruby's Choice, which is about a loving grandmother who is suffering from dementia

All smiles: The British actress shared a wry smile as she waited around on set

Safety first: Jane wore a mask to ensure the safety of herself and the other actors and crew members

During the interview, she also revealed that the cast and crew have been conforming to all the COVID-19 restrictions to ensure a safe set.

Jane has admitted to dabbling in Botox in the past to stay young, but she prefers to steer clear of it now and to embrace ageing naturally instead.

She told Platinum magazine in January: 'I tried it in the past and just looked in the mirror and thought, "You know, this is not going to work for me."

'As an actor, you need to move your face as well as your body, so why would you paralyse it?'

Natural: Jane has admitted to dabbling in Botox in the past to stay young, but she prefers to steer clear of it now and to embrace ageing naturally instead
AMRITSAR: Sikhs in Pakistan want the Imran Khan government to deal with those staking claim over the historical Gurdwara Shaheedi Asthan in Lahore at its own level and restore confidence among minorities.

Days after a video clip showing two local men laying claim to the gurdwara and threatening to convert it into a mosque, the Sikh community in the neighbouring country said the Pakistan Government should act against the culprits at its own level.

Gurdwara Shahidi Asthan is a historical gurdwara where Bhai Taru Ji made the supreme sacrifice in 1745.

Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) president Satwant Singh said, Sikhs across the world are sad to hear the news about Gurdwara Shaheed Bhai Taru Singh. The vision of the Pakistan government, especially Prime Minister Imran Khan, is to promote peace and brotherhood. The incident that happened at Shaheedi Asthan is the act of an individual. There is a plot behind the gurdwara, which is a property of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETBP). They plan to grab that plot. This is wrong and cant be tolerated.

If we take action, it will damage the brotherhood of Sikhs and Muslims. Nor will it be a solution to the problem. I have raised this issue with the ETPB and other government departments. We want the government to tackle such issues at its level, Satwant Singh said.

COMPLAINT LODGED WITH POLICE

Meanwhile, the ETPB, a Pakistan government body under which the PSGPC works, has lodged a complaint against Suhail Butt Attari, who is seen intimidating the Sikh community in Pakistan.

In his complaint to the deputy inspector general (operation) of Lahore, ETBP secretary Sanullah Khan, said, On July 25, Suhail Butt Attari, s/o Salah ud Din Butt, a local resident from Darbar Hazrat Shah Kaku Chisti in Lahore, tried to defame Pakistan by uploading a baseless propaganda video against Sikhs in Pakistan, the PSGPC and ETPB, and the Government of Pakistan. The DVD of the footage is enclosed.

VIDEO CLIP DAMAGING PAKISTANS IMAGE

The PSGPC is the only official representative regulatory body of the Pakistan Sikh community and is playing a vital role in the image building of Pakistan as a minority-loving country. After the success of the Kartarpur Corridor project and appreciation of Pakistan at the international level, multiple conspiracies of anti-state elements are being hatched to malign the country, the complaint said.

The ETBP said that Suhail Butt and his associates Raza Butt, Umair and others are conspiring to provoke people against Gurdwara Taru Singh and trying to occupy the adjoining vacant plot in Landa Bazaar, Lahore. To project his immoral acts, he is damaging the image of Pakistan at the international level. Strict disciplinary action should be taken.

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Photo: Glen Korstrom B.C. wines have been exempt from federal excise tax for more than a dozen years

The Canadian government plans to phase out a tax exemption for Canadian wine that is likely to hike the price of a 750-millilitre bottle of wine by about $0.50.

The move is set to come within the next two years, and it is part of a partial settlement of a trade dispute with Australia at the World Trade Organization.

In that dispute, Australia alleged that Canada and its provinces have various policies and practices that discriminate against Australian wines, and violate the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) rules.

Australia sells about $176 million worth of wine in Canada annually.

Were disappointed but not surprised, British Columbia Wine Institute CEO Miles Prodan told BIV.

He explained that the Canadian government implemented relief from the excise tax in its 2006 budget, after lobbying from the wine industry.

At the time it was felt that, as Canadian companies, we already pay tax  we pay income tax, we pay business tax, we pay property tax. We pay our fair share of taxes so having relief from the excise tax made sense, and government granted us that, he said.

Weve been living with, and building our businesses and planning our businesses since that time without having to pay excise tax.

Canadas excise tax rate on wine is $0.665 per litre and it is charged on all wine that has as little as 1% of its juice from grapes grown outside Canada.

If the wine is 99% Canadian and 1% imported, then the tax applies, wine lawyer Mark Hicken told BIV.

He expects Canadian wine producers to lobby the federal government to put in place a new program that is compliant with trade agreements but supports the industry.

If the government came up with a marketing-support program, or something, then that would be like what is done in Europe, he said. The European Union provides money to their wineries to help them with marketing.



The federal lobby group for wineries, Wine Growers Canada, said in a July 27 statement that it will continue to work with federal Finance Minister [Bill] Morneau, and federal Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister [Marie-Claude] Bibeau, to develop and implement a permanent, trade-legal replacement program in the next federal budget to remove uncertainty and stimulate investment.

While Canadas agreement to end its tax exemption for Canadian wines resolves part of the dispute, a WTO panel is expected to issue a final report on other parts of the dispute in mid-August.

When Australia launched its complaint at the WTO in January 2018, part of its beef with Canada was that B.C. had a policy to limit licensed grocers to exclusively sell B.C. wines on store shelves.

The B.C. government announced in October, 2018, that it would change that policy by November 2019, and Hicken said that he thought the policy officially changed in July 2019.

B.C.s licensed grocers, however, remain free to sell exclusively B.C. wines, and that tends to be what they do.

Ontario similarly had rules around selling wine in grocery stores that Australia deemed to be unfair. Hicken said those rules were a bit more complicated than those in B.C., as Ontario had certain standards that wines needed to meet in order to be allowed to be sold in grocery stores, and Australia claimed that those rules were designed so that only Ontario wines could qualify.

Nova Scotia has also agreed to eliminate its preferential liquor mark-up policies for local wines, Hicken said.
How to Be Supportive If Your Partner Is a Sexual Assault Survivor

Dating Someone Who Has Dealt With Sexual Assault? Here's What to Know

Did you know that someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted every 92 seconds? That eye-opening statistic, which comes from the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), demonstrates just how prevalent sexual violence is today. While sexual assault can happen to anyone  regardless of age, race, religion or orientation  one thing that applies across nearly all cases is that it can have lasting effects on a survivors mental and emotional health, as well as their relationships. Thats why if your partner has experienced this kind of trauma, its crucial to educate yourself on how to be supportive.

Everyone deals with the trauma in their own unique way. That said, a 2018 report published by Samuel Merritt University revealed that there are some common things many survivors struggle with: feelings of shame, guilt, denial, isolation, and difficulty trusting others and setting boundaries. Additionally, they may experience physical symptoms, such as insomnia or eating disturbances, and psychological symptoms, ranging from flashbacks, phobias and depression to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

RELATED: How to Support Sexual Assault Survivors

Building a healthy, happy relationship with a survivor depends on your ability to show up for them in the way they need you to the most.

Your survivor doesnt need saving  they already saved themselves, says Amanda Kay Price, a sexual assault survivor and television producer known for her work on Little Fires Everywhere, Hulus Emmy-nominated limited series.What they need is for their partners and loved ones to listen when they speak, hear what they are saying, and be there when they ask.

To dig in a little deeper, here's what two trauma experts and real-life survivors suggest in order to make sure your partner feels safe, heard and loved.

Let Them Take the Lead in Sharing

No matter how curious or concerned you are, sexual assault survivors agree that pressuring someone to talk about their assault before theyre ready could hinder the healing process.

The most important step for our healing is that we need to be able to have control over how we respond, and that includes when and how we share, says Abby Honold, a survivor, advocate and activist who introduced a federal bill to better train law enforcement in trauma-informed handling of sexual assault cases.

Erinn Robinson, press secretary for RAINN, adds that survivors should also get to decide how much detail is shared.

"The feeling of being pressured and not being in control of your own story can bring back the feeling of loss of control over your body during sexual assault, Robinson tells AskMen. Many survivors talk about how losing control of their story after assault can feel like a second traumatic event.

Licensed clinical social worker Melanie Shapiro agrees that its critical to be patient with your partner, and to provide a safe space so that they feel comfortable revealing information.

Avoid taking it personally if your partner doesnt want to share, or needs space or time alone to process, she adds.

According to Honold, many survivors often fear that their partner might judge them or change their opinion of them when they share their experience. Thats why she recommends saying something along the lines of, I won't see you any differently, but knowing what happened can help me be a better partner for you if you want to establish a safe space that inspires them to open up.

Just Listen

Once your partner is comfortable talking to you about their assault, the best thing you can do is to listen with an open mind.

Remove yourself from your partners narrative and let them lead, notes Price. By doing this you are reaffirming to the survivor that they have power again and that their story matters.

While it may be tempting to ask lots of questions about the events to gain a deeper understanding of them, doing so could be unintentionally detrimental.

Often, these questions will make it sound like theyre blaming the survivor for what happened, or suggesting that the survivor could have avoided the attack by doing something different, explains Robinson. Let the survivor take the lead.

Honold specifically advises avoiding any questions that could be perceived as judgements  like those that start with Why did/didnt you [XYZ]?  as these can contribute to survivors guilt and shame.

We've asked ourselves those questions many times, and plenty of victims of sexual violence don't even know why we responded the way we did, she explains. Instead, remind us that we took care of ourselves in the best way we knew how.

As it can be difficult to know what to say when your partner begins letting you in on their experience, start by reassuring them that youre there for whatever they might need. As Honold points out, there are many ways to be supportive without even verbally responding to your partner  making eye contact, showing them youre engaged by nodding, or gently putting your hand on theirs.

However, its important to ask if its OK before using any kind of comforting touch while someone is disclosing their experience, as physical contact can potentially be triggering to some.

Set Clear Boundaries in the Bedroom

It should go without saying that youll need to be extra careful about how you navigate intimacy if your significant other has experienced sexual assault. Shapiro suggests launching a conversation in which you encourage your partner to be transparent about their likes and dislikes, or even discussing possible ground rules that might make them feel more secure.

Would it be helpful for them if you ask for consent when having sex? Would they prefer to be the one to initiate intimacy? What are their personal triggers? Are there any words you should avoid?

It avoids confusion or miscommunication and can make intimacy feel safer, explains Shapiro. It can offer your partner the option to decide what does and does not feel safe. And having that control can be supportive and empowering for a survivor.

Your partner will likely need to rebuild a sense of trust where sex is concerned, all while rediscovering whats pleasurable to them after their traumatic experience. Because of this, its imperative to let them get comfortable with communicating their needs and exploring intimacy at their own pace. Once youve established some ground rules, you can demonstrate that you respect them by simply asking, Does this feel OK? as a way of doing so.

If the only form of intimacy your partner is able to give you is to reach out to you and hold your hand, cherish that intimacy," states Price. "And I beg you, please do not take it for granted. Were doing the best we can.

Suggest Other Sources of Support

While there are a multitude of useful resources available for sexual assault survivors, you should tread carefully in how you bring them up to your partner. Robinson notes that only survivors should be making those choices on their own timelines, which is why you should never pressure them into seeking help or make them feel bad about their choice not to do so.

Some of most beneficial resources she suggests include the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE) and RAINNs 24/7 Online Hotline. Calling such numbers can help survivors connect with someone at their local rape crisis center. The online chat service also offers a way for survivors to receive support, advice or practical information from one of RAINNs trained professionals. Note that these resources are also available for any loved ones who have been impacted by the assault, so you may want to take advantage of them, too.

Honold recommends doing some research on your partners specific behavioral responses to the trauma, whether theyre experiencing nightmares, hypervigilance, or depression.

There are always small ways that you can learn how to be supportive for specific symptoms or problems we're experiencing, she explains. If your partner is having trouble sleeping, for example, learning about things that can help with sleep is a way to be useful without being pushy or taking on the role of a therapist. One of the best things my husband did was that he took it upon himself to learn about grounding exercises back when I used to have horrible flashbacks. I didn't even need to tell him what was going on  he took the time to research it himself, and he started learning how to help ground me when I was triggered into a flashback.

Offer Up Help Without Pushing Them

In the aftermath of the assault, your partner may be forced to confront their trauma head on, such as if they plan to report the assault or seek medical attention. Offer to be there without pushing them to invite you along or take it personally if theyd rather go it alone.

Also, if your partner opts to seek therapy, you might want to volunteer to accompany them for a session  but again, you need to respect their choice if they dont want you to be there.

It can be painful to disclose details of the assault, and some survivors may even feel like it causes them to relive it. As much as you may suspect that therapy could help your partner to facilitate the healing process, allow them to decide when theyre ready to go that route.

It can be really tempting to see a path forward for someone that seems obvious, but going to the cops or seeing a therapist are decisions that we need to arrive at on our own, explains Honold. That doesn't mean that your partner won't want to talk through decisions with you, but it's really important that the survivor is the one driving the decisions about how they're moving forward.

Your partner may decide they want to seek individual counseling before you go to therapy together. However, you can let them know that the option for couples counseling is on the table if they feel that might be helpful. Shapiro notes that attending therapy sessions with your partner can provide unbiased professional insight into how the trauma may be affecting your relationship (and how to handle it).

Above all, its imperative to understand that every individuals recovery happens at their own individual pace. All you can do is keep reminding your partner that you care, listening to them when theyre ready to talk, researching and suggesting helpful resources, and showing up when they need you.

There is no one-size-fits-all that applies to survivors  each persons story and healing journey are unique, explains Robinson.

And when you feel unsure of how to be supportive, dont underestimate the impact of a simple question: How can I help? After all, there are a multitude of ways to show support, and what works for one person may not for another.

The response might be, I dont know what you can do, and listen to that, advises Price. What your partner is asking you to do is do nothing  sometimes, doing nothing is the most powerful thing a partner can do to show support.

Remember that helping your partner to heal requires making them feel as empowered as possible, and that means allowing them to take the lead when it comes to sharing information, re-building a healthy sense of intimacy and taking charge of their own unique process.

Loving a survivor is complex, contradictory and will not be easy, explains Price. But when a survivor trusts you, that trust will be one of the most beautiful things this world has to offer. Do not break that.

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The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court (HC) last week observed that no other amount, except for statutory dues, are allowed to be deducted while computing amount of compensation to be paid in motor accident claims.

It is well settled that except for the statutory deduction to be made towards income tax, professional tax, no other deduction is permissible under law, said justice VL Achliya.

The deduction from the salary of the deceased towards insurance, pension benefits, gratuity or grant of employment to the kin of the deceased is not permissible.

The court was hearing an appeal filed by a resident of Maharashtras Ahmednagar district challenging an order passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Ahmednagar, in December 2011, granting compensation of Rs. 9 lakh to her and her ageing in-laws against a claim of Rs 15.5 lakh following the death of her husband in a road accident in 2007.

The appellant claimed that the accident took place on June 2, 2007, barely three months after her marriage. She and her husband were going from Pune towards Ahmednagar on a two-wheeler. Her husband, a sepoy in the Indian Army, was driving the bike and she was riding pillion.

She had complained that when they reached near Kamar Gaon, a Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC)-run bus hit the two-wheeler and the vehicle was thrown off the road.

Her husband died due to severe head injury and the appellant survived even though she, too, was critically injured.

Later, she filed a motor accident claim, claiming compensation of Rs. 15.5 lakh from MSRTC.

In 2012, she moved HC seeking enhancement in compensation after the tribunal awarded her Rs 9 lakh.

Justice Achliya accepted the argument put forth by the appellants counsel and found the assessment of compensation made by the tribunal was against the settled position in law.

The court held that she was entitled to Rs. 23.52 lakh as compensation.

It also ordered that 23.52 lakh is equitably paid to the appellant and her in-laws.
Pandemic badly hits India, Bangladesh and Pakistan markets as fears about catching the virus keep customers away.

Prancing in front of a camera with its blond mane blowing in the wind, 007 is one of the thousands of goats being sold online as Muslims prepare for a key religious festival shaken this year by the coronavirus pandemic.

Millions of goats, sheep and cattle are slaughtered annually during Eid al-Adha  the festival of sacrifice  one of two major holy days observed by Muslims across the world, including some 600 million in South Asia.

The pandemic has, however, badly hit India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, which have shut or heavily restricted major markets, while fears of catching the virus are keeping customers away ahead of the main festival on Saturday.

We were traumatised by the loss of two of my uncles to COVID-19 and didnt want to sacrifice an animal, Saddid Hossain told AFP news agency in Bangladeshs capital Dhaka.

But we have to stay within our religious tradition, so wed rather buy from an online cow seller.

A livestock vendor waits for customers along a street in the old quarters of New Delhi ahead of Eid al-Adha [Jewel Samad/AFP]

Faced with deserted markets, livestock breeders and traders have turned to websites, apps and social media to showcase their animals.

Fahad Zariwala promotes goats like 007 from farms across India on his YouTube channel, which has more than 800,000 followers.

I shoot a slow-motion video with beautiful music, and I make them [goats] popular, said Zariwala, who is based in Mumbai.

They have a personality and are mostly named after Bollywood movies and trending characters in Bollywood, he told AFP.

Zariwala has seen a huge increase in viewers from Australia, Britain, the United States and the Middle East, which all have large South Asian diasporas.

One farm he promotes runs online beauty contests to tempt potential customers, who might buy the goats for their families in India, home to 200 million Muslims.

PashuBajaar, which sells thousands of goats for Indian farmers, said online sales had jumped from a few dozen last year to more than 2,500 in the past three months.

Weve even received online orders for thousands for next year, Chief Executive Sanjeev Kumar told AFP.

The animals are delivered to buyers in trucks that can carry 10 to 15 at a time.

Usually packed, animal markets across South Asia are deserted due to the coronavirus pandemic [Sanjay Kanojia/AFP]

In Muslim-majority Pakistan, home to 215 million people, dozens of apps and websites have sprung up.

Buyers can select an animal and have it delivered to their doorstep, slaughtered or donated to a charity.

Qurbani App chief executive Muhammad Ali Chaudhry said: Orders have gone through the roof.

Islamabad goat farmer Muhammad Naeem, meanwhile, said his digital transactions had jumped from 20 percent of sales to almost half.

But the rise in online sales has been accompanied by plunging prices.

Mumbai seller Walid Dawood Jat, who sold six goats online during Indias lockdown, said they fetched just half their usual prices.

We used to sell goats at 500-600 rupees [$6.70-$8.00] per kilo, he said, adding the price had fallen by half.

Buyers haggle with us. They say they dont have money, their income is down.

In Dhakas biggest cattle market, livestock sales are down from 400,000 a week in previous years to 30,000.

Last year many people came. We were very busy, said trader Kalu Bepari, who travelled 245km (150 miles) to the market with 13 bulls, but has only sold two for a very cheap price.

This year, there is barely anyone due to coronavirus fears. Nobody even asks the price.
The Government has cut pandemic unemployment payments to more than 100 people who travelled abroad following checks at airports.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin has said people on the payment should be seeking work and Government advice states people should avoid non-essential travel abroad.

The issue of passenger information and who has access to it was raised multiple times during a hearing of the Dails Covid-19 committee.



Dublin Airport and Cork Airport are not involved in the collection of any information in relation to people's PPS numbers or anything in relation to the pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) or any similar information

Ray Gray, chief financial officer at DAA, told the committee that he personally was not aware of Department of Social Protection officials or welfare inspectors questioning passengers at Dublin Airport.

He said: My awareness is from things that I have heard in the media in the last number of days. I have no personal or professional information regarding that.

Dublin Airport and Cork Airport are not involved in the collection of any information in relation to peoples PPS numbers or anything in relation to the pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) or any similar information.

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That information might be obtained at the airport by other authorities.

He said there are various state agencies, including customs and Garda officers, at the airport and the DAA has no oversight of their activities.

Mr Gray said: I have no personal or professional information regarding who collects this data on passengers.

Asked if he knew when passengers were checked at airports to see if they are on the PUP, he said: Regrettably deputy, I am unable to assist you with your inquiry in this regard  if there is information that is being collected then those parties that are collecting the information, be it through the state or other parties that operate at airports.

Mr Gray was pressed by a number of TDs about the practice.

He said the DAA does not police the collection of data by other organisations.

Mr Gray added: The information that is being collected at airports, I have said categorically, is not being collected by the DAA. There are a series of stage agencies operating at airports.

They operate under their mandate and arrangements and do not require specific permission from us to operate nor indeed do they have to inform us of their activities and that is regrettably why I am unable to be more helpful to the committee this morning.

Committee chairman Michael McNamara called on the DAA to clarify whether it was aware that Department of Social Protection officials were operating in the companys airports within the next 48 hours.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to meet heads of Banks and other financial institutions on Wednesday (July 29) to discuss the health of Indian financial sector in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The meeting will be held via video conferencing and top bureaucrats as well as chiefs of NBFCs will also participate in the meeting. Modi will take stock of the financial situation of the banks, the liquidity situation of the banking sector, highly placed sources told Zee Media.

The Prime Minister will also review the Credit Line Guarantee Scheme that the government had announced under the Atmanirbhar Bharat package. The PM had on May 5 announced a cumulative package of Rs 20 lakh crore (nearly 10 per cent of GDP) to provide relief to various segments of the economy. An additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore to MSMEs and interested MUDRA borrowers by way of "Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme" was announced under this. Under the Scheme, 100 percent guarantee coverage will be provided by National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Limited (NCGTC) for additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore in the form of a Guaranteed Emergency Credit Line (GECL) facility.

The meeting also assumes significance on the backdrop of demands by several banks to discontinue with the loan moratorium, the second round of which will expire on August 31.

On March 27 the had RBI permitted all commercial banks (including regional rural banks, small finance banks and local area banks), co-operative banks, all-India Financial Institutions, and NBFCs (including housing finance companies and micro-finance institutions) (referred to hereafter as lending institutions) to allow a moratorium of three months on payment of instalments in respect of all term loans outstanding as on March 1, 2020.

Later, on May 22, RBI announced extension of loan moratorium by 3 more months to August 31.
Titan Protect USA NIOSH-Certified N95 Respirator Mask "We believe protection for frontline and healthcare workers is not just a principle, its everyones responsibility to themselves, their families, and to those who help save the lives of others."Daniel SooferianFounder, TitanProtectUSA

Today, Titan Protect USA, a venture of Titan West Trading, LLC, announced a program to stimulate and enable individuals and businesses to secure NIOSH certified N95 masks and other critical PPE supplies and to gift these supplies to frontline and essential medical and healthcare providers and first responders. In addition to selling integrity-priced PPE for individuals and businesses, Titan Protect USA has committed to helping everyone contribute to providing PPE to those who are helping to treat and protect others and who cannot afford or do not have access to the PPE they need.

Due to the extreme rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, Titan Protect USA created an online portal where individuals and businesses can acquire these critically-needed supplies for essential frontline providers who are facing shortages of supplies and are unable to afford the personal protective equipment they need.

The Gift PPE program is available at the Titan Protect USA website, and allows those who wish to make a contribution to local and national efforts to combat the pandemic as safely as possible, to select various PPE supplies, including N95 particulate respirator masks which are reserved for sale only to essential and frontline entities, and to direct these supplies to a frontline entity of their choosing.

The Company has listed nearly 4,000 entities, as well as providing the capability for giftors to enter an essential facility as their intended recipient. Frontline and essential providers and entities can also request to be added as recipients of PPE by contacting Titan Protect USA. Titan Protect USA handles all aspects of shipping and handling to the gifted recipient.

Daniel Sooferian, founder of Titan Protect USA, said: With millions of units currently in stock in the US, we are able to quickly facilitate delivery of these essential PPE supplies to those who need it most, and need it right now. We encourage everyone to pitch in and help protect the lives of those who are helping to save the lives of others. If we all do our part, even a little, we can get through this more quickly.

The Gift PPE Program is intended to facilitate access to PPE supplies for hospitals, medical offices, nursing homes, clinics, dental facilities, first responders and others. The Company promises that all supplies will be shipped immediately from Camarillo, CA to the selected recipients.

Sooferian added: We need every available healthcare and medical worker, essential services provider and frontline facility working at full capacity to handle the spike in infections and hospitalizations we are seeing. By providing PPE to these facilities and professionals at no cost to them we believe we can make a difference. The PPE supplies and equipment we provide are fairly priced, and we stand against price gouging in any form.

According to the latest information available, as of the date of this writing, there are over 4 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, and nearly 150,000 deaths in the United States alone. Several health experts are predicting the potential to reach 1 million new cases a day.
The first batch of five Rafale fighter aircrafts will reach India today evening, after covering 7000-km long journey from France, the home country of Dassault Aviation, maker of Rafale jets. The five jets comprising of 3-single seater and 2-double seater configuration landed safely in Al Dhafra airbase in the UAE yesterday after a 7-hour sortie from France.

The jets will today reach Indian airspace and will be formally inducted in the Indian Air Force on July 29 at the Ambala Airbase, strategically located near the LoC to avert any misadventure from across the border.

The first 5 #IAF #Rafales have taken off from Dassault Aviation Facility, Merignac, #France today morning. These 5 include 3 single-seater and 2 twin-seater aircraft. The ferry is planned in two stages & is being undertaken by IAF pilots. 1/2#RafaleJet pic.twitter.com/0TWU5zlgvQ  Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) July 27, 2020

The fighter jets, manufactured by France-based Dassault Aviation, are twin-engine multi-role fighter aircraft. These are nuclear capable and can engage in both air-to-air and air-to-ground attacks. With the arrival of the Rafale, the IAF's firepower is set to increase multifold.

Heres a list of all the active fighter jets used by the Indian Air Force, from Sukhoi Su-30MKI to the Tejas LCA and now, the Rafale.

Dassault Rafale (Image: Dassault Aviation)

Rafale

India had signed an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore. The aircraft is capable of carrying a range of potent weapons and missiles and the first squadron of the aircraft will be deployed at Ambala air force station, considered one of the most strategically located bases of the IAF. The Indo-Pak border is around 220 km from there. The second squadron of Rafale will be stationed at Hasimara base in West Bengal. The Rafale is a modern fighter jet known for its agility, speed, weapon holding capacity and attack capability. The Dassault Rafale has a delta wing design and is capable of g-forces as high as 11g (in case of emergency). The Rafale is available in both single and dual seating cabin (India ordered 28 single and 8 dual seater Rafale).

Mirage 2000. (Image: IAF)

Mirage-2000

The Mirage-2000 is undoubtedly one of the Indian Air Force's (IAF) most versatile and deadliest aircraft and it was first commissioned in 1985. Soon after inducting the Mirage, IAF gave it the name  Vajra  meaning lightning thunderbolt in Sanskrit. The Mirage-2000 is developed by Dassault Aviation and took its first flight in 1978 and was inducted in the French Air Force in 1984. India placed an initial order of 36 single-seater Mirage-2000 and 4 twin-seater Mirage 2000 in 1982 as an answer to Pakistan buying the US-made F-16 fighter jets by Lockheed Martin. The Mirage-2000 played a decisive role in the 1999 war of Kargil and seeing the success of the jets, the government in India placed an additional order of 10 Mirage-2000 planes in 2004, taking the total tally to 50 jets.

Light Combat Aircraft Tejas. (Picture courtesy: Official Website of Tejas)

HAL Tejas LCA

India has long borrowed its fighter jets from countries like Russia, France and Britain under a license agreement to manufacture it locally by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. However, back in the 1980s the HAL started the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme to replace the ageing Soviet sourced MiG-21. With Indias former Prime Minister giving the LCA its name  Tejas  the 1st indigenously built fighter aircraft was inducted in the Indian Air Force with the IAF placing a 20 jet order initially and the 1st Tejas Squadron was formed in 2016 called the Flying Daggers. Till now IAF has placed an order of 40 Tejas Mk 1, including 32 single-seat aircraft and eight twin-seat trainers. IAF has also initiated procurement of a further 73 single-seat fighters in Mk 1A configuration.

MiG 21. (Image: IAF)

Mikoyan MiG-21

The first supersonic jet aircraft in aviation history, the MiG 21 is one of the most known fighter jets on Earth. Having served 60 countries over a course of 60 years, the MiG 21 is still in service in many countries, including India. In 1961, IAF opted for the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau made MiG 21 and since then has bought more than 250 estimated units of this incredibly competent planes. While the 21s played a pivotal role in the 1971 India Pakistan War, they are currently being used only as Interceptors with a limited role as fighter jets and IAF will soon replace the remaining units of the MiG21 Bison with the Tejas LCA. The MiG 21 has a single-seater cockpit with a maximum speed of 1.05 mach (1300 kmph).

IAF's Sukhoi-30 MKI plane, carrying Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, takes off for a sortie, in Jodhpur. (Image: PTI)

Sukhoi Su-30MKI

The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is the most advanced fighter jet in operation with the Indian Air Force and is the primary air to air and air to ground strike machine. Also known as Flanker (NATO), the Su-30 MKI is built in India by HAL under a license agreement with Russias Sukhoi. The Su-30MKI is exclusively used by India and theres an estimate that IAF has 290 operational units of 30MKI till now. The first unit was inducted in 2002. The Sukhoi Su-30MKI has a top speed of Mach 2 (2120 kmph) and has a maximum takeoff weight of 38,800 kg. The jet can carry a wide range of equipment from radars to missiles, bombs and event rockets.

MiG 27. (Image: IAF)

Mikoyan MiG-27

The MiG 27 is again Soviet sourced ground-attack aircraft designed by Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau from the Soviet Union and manufactured by HAL under a license agreement. The MiG27 is known as Bahadur (meaning Valiant in English) in India and the IAF retired the last 27 ML squadron in 2017. India is only among a handful of countries who still operates the updated MiG-27 UPG ground attack aircraft. The 27s are based on the MiG23 with a redesigned nose and flies low altitude.

SEPECAT Jaguar. (Image IAF)

SEPECAT Jaguar

The SEPECAT Jaguar is a fighter jet developed together by British Royal Air Force and French Air Force. Only the Indian Air Force is currently using the upgraded Jaguar in active duty. The SEPECAT Jaguar is known as Shamsher and serves IAF as primary ground attack aircraft. Indian Jaguar is quite different from the RAFs Jaguar and are built locally by HAL under a license agreement. IAF recently upgraded its entire fleet of Jaguars by adding Avionics support. The only problem with the Jaguar is its inability to fly high altitude with heavy load on board.

MiG 29. (Image: IAF)

Mikoyan MiG-29

Last on our list is another Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau produced MiG called the MiG 29. Introduced in the 1970s to counter U.S. F-Series planes like F-15 and F-16 the MiG29 is known as Baaz (Hindi for Hawk) and forms the second line of defence after the Sukhoi Su-30MKI. The MiG-29 is exported to more than 30 nations, India being the first and one of the largest exporters of this jet. The IAF currently uses the upgraded MiG-29 UPG, the most advanced MiG-29 variant ever. The MiG29 were used extensively during the Kargil War by the Indian Air Force to provide escort for Mirage-2000 attacking targets with laser-guided bombs.
FULL IMPACT OF COVID-19 IN Q2 2020.

LAUNCH OF "REBOOT CONNECT", AN ADAPTATION AND TRANSFORMATION PLAN WITH SHORT TERM (2020) AND MID-TERM (2021-2023) HORIZONS

Regulatory News:

Europcar Mobility Group (Paris:EUCAR):

Q2 2020 HIGHLIGHTS

Q2 results reflecting full impact of lockdowns and confinements on business, with revenue down -69% vs LY

Launch of "Reboot Connect", an adaptation and transformation plan with short-term (2020) and mid-term (2021-2023) horizons: "Reboot" 2020: adapt products services, streamline cost base, preserve cash "Connect" 2021-2023: accelerate transformation, reshaping the Group around customers' needs and expectations, with 4 enabling pillars: fleet network IT organization



H1 2020: KEY FINANCIALS1

Revenue: on a proforma basis 2 , -43% to 815m (-38% variation on a reported basis) with Q2 2020 down -69%, reflecting the full impact of the lockdowns for Cars and Low-Cost Business Units

, -43% to 815m (-38% variation on a reported basis) with Q2 2020 down -69%, reflecting the full impact of the lockdowns for Cars and Low-Cost Business Units Corporate EBITDA (IFRS 16): -209m in H1 2020 vs 82m in H1 2019

Group Net Income of -286m

Corporate Operating Cash Flow at -296m

Corporate Net Debt at 1,251m as at June 30th, 2020

H2 2020 OUTLOOK

A cautious view on Q3 2020, with revenue limited to Leisure domestic markets

Positive, low Corporate EBITDA in H2 2020

Intensification of cost saving efforts, to achieve circa 890m by year-end 2020, above initial 850m planned, i.e. a circa 30% reduction versus pre Covid-19 scenario

The Covid-19 crisis has strongly hit the Travel Leisure market environment during the first semester of 2020 and is anticipated to continue to impact Group's revenues in the months to come. All the assumptions, based on the information currently available, that support our expectations may vary in the coming months with a sensitive scale that could negatively affect the group. In this context of strong uncertainties, the Company's current capital structure weighs on its ability to ensure a proper path to recovery. The Company is therefore evaluating its short and long-term alternatives to address its capital structure and liquidity constraints, with a view to providing sufficient financial resources to adapt the Group to the new environment. In the meantime, the Company remains fully focused on strict cost and cash management. In that current context, we entertain contacts, with no certainties about the different associated options.

Caroline Parot, CEO of Europcar Mobility Group, declared:

"Like all players of the Travel Leisure industry, Europcar Mobility Group was severely hit by the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, with H1 2020 results reflecting the impact of lockdown and confinement measures on our activity level, which reached an all-time low in April and May.

With "Reboot Connect", we open a new chapter in the history of the Group's development: "Reboot" has already allowed us to adapt to a new business environment, as local economies are progressively restarting, thanks to strong cost-savings and cash preservation measures, as well as the launch of tactical services and offers. "Connect", based on the crisis aftermath, will help us accelerate our transformation and reshape our Group around customers' needs and expectations."

____________________________

1 After IFRS 16 application, excluding non-fleet liabilities related to leases

2 Proforma basis i.e. including acquisitions of Fox consolidated in November 2019 and franchisees in Finland and Norway in July 2019

Europcar Mobility Group invites you to its H1 2020 Results Conference Call on: Tuesday, July 28th, at 6:00pm CET

Dial-in Access telephone numbers:

France: +33 (0)1 76 77 22 57

Germany: +49 (0)89 2030 35526

UK: +44 (0)330 336 9411

USA: +1 929-477-0324

Confirmation Code: 1932986

Webcast: https://globalmeet.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1332602&tp_key=0e6f03e8cf

Slides related to the results of the first semester 2020 are available on the Group's website https://investors.europcar-group.com/results-center in the section titled "Financial document".

Q2 2020 financial results

All data in m, except if mentioned Q2 2020 Q2 2019 % Change % Change at constant perimeter and currency Number of rental days (million) 9.4 22.9 -59.1% -61.7% Average Fleet (thousand) 252.2 326.6 -22.8% -27.8% Financial Utilization rate 40.8% 77.1% Total revenues 258 753 -65.8% -68.5% Adjusted Corporate EBITDA (IFRS 16) (144) 96 Adjusted Corporate EBITDA Margin 12.7% Operating Income (179) 60 Net profit/loss (181) (2) Corporate Free Cash Flow (161) 121 Corporate Net Debt at end of the period 1 251 937

Change in perimeter: acquisitions of Fox Rent A Car consolidated in November 2019 and franchisees in Norway and Finland in July 2019 are included in H1 2019 for the calculation of the "% change at constant perimeter and currency".

Management Account presentation:

H1 2019 and H1 2020 figures include Urban Mobility Corporate EBITDA performance

H1 2019 and H1 2020 accounts are presented under IFRS 16, unless explicitly mentioned

H1 2020 financial results

All data in m, except if mentioned H1 2020 H1 2019 % Change % Change at constant perimeter and currency Number of rental days (million) 26.7 40.4 -33.8% -38.5% Average Fleet (thousand) 269.7 295.5 -8.7% -15.2% Financial Utilization rate 54.5% 75.5% Total revenues 815 1 306 -37.6% -43.4% Adjusted Corporate EBITDA (IFRS 16) (209) 82 Adjusted Corporate EBITDA Margin 6.3% Operating Income (268) 14 Net profit/loss (286) (69) Corporate Free Cash Flow (296) 42 Corporate Net Debt at end of the period 1 251 937

COVID-19 OUTBREAK, A SYSTEMIC SHOCK: TRAVEL LEISURE INDUSTRY SEVERELY HIT IN Q2 2020

The Covid-19 outbreak has created a systemic shock on all fronts, with an unprecedented impact on the Travel Leisure industry.

April recorded as the lowest month ever in the sector, due to lockdowns imposed across the world. May started to recover extremely slowly given limited movements in most countries and June has shown the same pattern as May, with progressive borders re-opening and still very limited international traffic.

The stiff drop in the number of travellers, tourists inbound in particular, had thus major and severe consequences on the Car rental industry in Q2 2020 and thereafter. Individuals and professionals are changing behaviours with a growing need for domestic services and an increased awareness of environmental and social responsibility.

July is the first month showing signs of activity restart, yet slow and progressive.

In this context, Europcar Mobility Group has launched "Reboot Connect", an adaptation and transformation plan with both short-term (2020) and mid-term (2021-2023) horizons (Cf Reboot and Connect section, page 6).

2020 OUTLOOK

In the light of Q2 2020, the Group:

Is taking a cautious view on Q3 2020, with revenue mostly limited to Leisure domestic markets

Expects positive, low Corporate EBITDA in H2 2020

Will intensify its cost saving efforts, to achieve circa 890m by year-end 2020, above initial 850m planned, i.e. a circa -30% cost base reduction on pre Covid-19 scenario

PRESERVE CASH AND SECURE LIQUIDITY

In the current exceptional crisis context, the Group has implemented a large cost reduction plan in order to preserve cash and secure liquidity.

Preserve cash

The Group is monitoring strictly all expenses, limiting them to its essential needs for 2020:

Capital expenditure: in the range of 30-35m versus 75m in 2019, limited to essential IT projects designed to the Commercial website infrastructure and some specific Group's projects;

Non-recurring items: to be spent according to the pace of the cost adaptation plan (increased level vs prior announcement in Q1 2020)

Strict management of non-fleet working capital with a strong focus on collection and implementation of all measures posted by the States to postpone or spread tax or social charges payments;

Cancellation of the dividend initially proposed (13m), as communicated on March 23 rd

Voluntary reduction of the Management Board base compensation (-25%3) and the Group's top managers4

__________________________

3 From April 1 to December 31, 2020

4 A 10% to 25% reduction for a minimum of 3 months

Secure liquidity

In parallel, the Group has completed a financing scheme, for a total of 341m, aiming at securing its liquidity to face the COVID-19 crisis and meeting anticipated fleet and corporate financing needs to swiftly restart operations.

A 220m term loan, signed with the Group's main French and international banks, benefiting from a 90% guarantee from the French State via Bpifrance (" Pret Garanti par l'Etat "). This facility will have an initial maturity of 1 year, with an up to 5-year extension option decided by the company (up to May 2026), subject to customary mandatory repayment provisions. Differed amortization for 1 year with a contemplated progressive amortization thereafter. Condition: no dividend payments in 2020 and 2021 and subject to a x3 net corporate leverage thereafter.

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New financing facilities for the Group's Spanish subsidiaries (Europcar Spain and Goldcar Spain), totalling 101m, benefiting from a 70% guarantee from the Spanish State. These new facilities will have a 3-year maturity and proceeds are assigned to fund both fleet corporate needs.

A 20m Incremental RCF tranche (to increase the facility from 650m to 670m) provided by French banks which have obtained a guarantee from Eurazeo through a sub-risk participation.

The Group remains in negotiation in other corporate countries on potential State Guarantee loans to reinforce its liquidity.

"REBOOT CONNECT": AN ADAPTATION AND TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM, WITH SHORT-TERM (2020) AND MID-TERM (2021-2023) HORIZONS

The Travel Leisure industry will gradually recover, initially from domestic markets and then international markets, but it will take time: duration of restrictions remains determinant in the recovery while safety concerns lead to new customers' behaviours and needs. The European Travel Commission forecast European inbound travel should recover its 2019 levels by 2023.

In response to this challenging and evolving environment, the Group has reacted swiftly with the implementation of a two-phase program, run by dedicated teams and empowered by the Management Board, so as to restart the business in 2020 (Reboot) and, from 2021 to 2023 (Connect), rethink it alongside the whole organization.

REBOOT RESTARTING THE BUSINESS IN 2020

Leveraging Group's assets (domestic network, fleet based on buy-back programs, strong know-how of Group's teams), the Reboot action plan is twofold, targeting both revenue generation and cost reduction cash preservation, with tactical plays by market, priority given to quick and high return actions and a strong prioritization on resources allocation.

Revenue generation

General objective is to adapt products and services to new customers' needs, focusing on domestic demand, in order to seize sales opportunities and generate revenue. In that perspective, the Group launched in its different markets tactical offers including more flexibility (cancellation policies, last minute booking), promoted longer rental duration, increased the digitalization of the customer journey (deskless, contactless), developed partnerships to improve customer experience,

In addition to these tactical offers, mostly B2C, the Group also adapted its solutions for B2B customers, accelerating mid-term offers, leveraging its V&T platforms, and promoting fleet services.

All of this while keeping safety of all employees and customers as a key priority. For customers, the Group ensures stringent cleaning standards of vehicles between each rental, with systematic use of disinfection agents, and a "zero contact" process between customers and employees. Protocols have been developed in partnership with Bureau Veritas.

Cost reduction and cash preservation plan

Europcar Mobility Group launched as early as March a vigorous cost reduction plan with the objective to reduce both variable and fixed costs. The Group has intensified its cost savings efforts, to achieve c.890m by year-end 2020, above initial 850m planned, representing a c.30% cost base reduction on pre Covid-19 scenario. Cost savings split into 65% for variable costs and 35% for semi-fixed and fixed costs.

In parallel, all measures have been taken to preserve cash: e.g. strict control of Capex investments (limited to essential IT projects), close monitoring of cash collection and rigorous management of payables, proposed dividend cancellation to further protect liquidity, voluntary reduction of the Management Board and the Group's top managers base compensation.

Part of this vigorous cost reduction and cash preservation plan, the Group also secured 341m additional new financing facilities of which 321m guaranteed by the French Spanish states (3 May 2020 announcement).

CONNECT PROFOUNDLY RESHAPING THE GROUP WITH A VISION FOR 2021-2023

"Connect" has been designed to reshape the Group, around customers' new needs and expectations: reinforced digital habits, new safety and contactless standards, need for flexible services and new travel patterns.

This will result in an acceleration of Group's transformation plan, relying on:

Group's purpose "Offering attractive alternatives to vehicle ownership, in a responsible and sustainable way"

A reshaped network model and footprint, to gain productivity and increase interplay with local eco-systems

A new technology platform, to gain agility and digitize customer experience at scale.

The Group has identified four enabling pillars:

Fleet (e.g: simplification of the fleet mix and categories, 100 connected fleet in 2023, 100 direct access to cars in airports in 2023)

(e.g: simplification of the fleet mix and categories, 100 connected fleet in 2023, 100 direct access to cars in airports in 2023) Network (e.g: new organization based on use cases operating models: Airports, Hubs in cities, regions, allowing

(e.g: new organization based on use cases operating models: Airports, Hubs in cities, regions, allowing Technology (e.g: one common customer database, extension of direct access to car, connected fleet platform)

(e.g: one common customer database, extension of direct access to car, connected fleet platform) Organization, Talents Culture (e.g: renewed set up for Group's Executive Committee, simplification of the organisation centralization while delayering, strong rationalization of HQs framework)

As a matter of simplification and close "connection" to the customers' needs and expectations, the Group's new organization will be structured around 3 business lines, addressing mobility use cases: Leisure, Professional and Proximity.

Leisure: Planned, occasional mobility Driven by price Low stickiness, high churn.

Planned, occasional mobility Driven by price Low stickiness, high churn. Professional: Planned, contracted mobility Price and reliability driven Long cycles, high stickiness.

Planned, contracted mobility Price and reliability driven Long cycles, high stickiness. Proximity: On demand, pay per use mobility Accessibility and flexibility driven High frequency, mid stickiness

PROFIT LOSS IN THE FIRST HALF 2020

The loss in earnings in H1 2020 reflects the full impact of the Covid-19 outbreak that materialized in Q2 2020.

The Group generated a 370m cost base reduction in H1 2020, as part of the vigorous cost adaptation plan launched to mitigate the impact of the crisis, reducing both variable and fixed costs.

The following analysis of the Profit Loss is at constant perimeter and exchange rates, with Fox consolidated in the Low-Cost BU and franchisees in Finland and Norway in the Cars BU and Vans Trucks.

1. Revenue in Q2 2020 and H1 2020

Revenue in Q2 2020

On a reported basis, total revenue decreased by -66% to 258m in Q2 2020.

At constant perimeter and exchange rates (i.e. proforma basis), revenue was down -69%, splitting into -74% in April, -69% in May and -63% in June, with rental days down 62% and a utilization rate that halved to 40.8% compared to the same period last year.

All data in m Q2 2020 Q2 2019 % Change % Change at constant perimeter and currency BU Cars 157.8 542.8 (70.9)% (71.3)% BU Vans Trucks 66.8 88.3 (24.3)% (25.4)% BU Low Cost 23.0 101.2 (77.3)% (85.5)% BU Urban Mobility 7.5 12.0 (37.3)% (36.9)% BU International Coverage 2.7 9.1 (70.2)% (70.2)% TOTAL REVENUE 257.9 753.4 (65.8)% (68.5)%

In Q2 2020, Cars and Low Cost were the most severely impacted BUs (Business Units) due to their exposure to the Leisure market and for the Low Cost in particular, to airports and international travel tourism (inbound tourism): revenue were down -71% to 158m and -86% to 23m respectively for the 2 BUs. As borders were closed in April and since then have only progressively re-opened, business in the quarter was limited to domestic markets. Fox Rent A Car, which serves value-for-money customers only at US airports, recorded a -66% decline of its revenue.

The BU Vans Trucks registered a better performance revenue down -25% to 67m driven by large Corporates and SMEs as well as demand for home delivery services. This validates the Group's successful strategy implemented in recent years to address more Corporates with an enlarged range of flexible services.

Urban Mobility, a complement solution to public transportation and micro mobility, recorded a -37% drop of its revenue to 7m. Yet this performance hides disparities as the BU recorded revenue growth of +18% in June for Car sharing, its main business, following 2 months of activities shutdown. This performance was driven by longer duration and increased pricing, reflecting the appetite from customers for this urban flexible service solution.

Revenue in H1 2020

On a reported basis, total revenue decreased by -38% to 815m in H1 2020 and -43% at constant perimeter and exchange rates (i.e. proforma basis) with rental days down -38.5%.

The Group recorded a -10% decline in proforma revenue in Q1 2020 and -69% in Q2 2020. While all segments were severely impacted by the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Group recorded a better resilience in domestic markets and Vans Trucks.

All data in m H1 2020 H1 2019 % Change % Change at constant perimeter and currency BU Cars 523.6 952.8 (45.0)% (46.0)% BU Vans Trucks 147.5 166.9 (11.6)% (13.0)% BU Low Cost 110.5 146.3 (24.5)% (57.4)% BU Urban Mobility 20.6 21.8 (5.6)% (5.5)% BU International Coverage 12.6 18.8 (32.8)% (32.8)% TOTAL REVENUE 814.8 1 306.5 (37.6)% (43.4)%

2. From Margin after variable costs (MAVC) to Corporate EBITDA in Q2 2020 and H1 2020

All data in m Q2 2020 Q2 2019 % Change % Change at constant perimeter and currency Total revenue 257.9 753.4 (65.8%) (68.5%) Average fleet size ('000) 252.2 326.6 (22.8%) (27.8%) Rental days volume (in Million) 9.4 22.9 (59.1%) (61.7%) Utilization rate 40.8% 77.1% Fleet holding costs (149.4) (184.5) 19.0% 25.7% Fleet operating and variable costs (110.8) (246.1) 55.0% 59.5% Total fleet costs variable costs (260.2) (430.6) 39.6% 45.2% Margin after variable costs (2) 323 In of revenue 42.8% Network (70) (139) 49.4% 48.1% HQ Costs (44) (59) 25.2% 48.0% Fleet financing costs (28) (29) 5.0% 18.7% Adjusted Corporate EBITDA (IFRS 16) (144) 96 In of revenue 12.7% IFRS 16 impact on premises and parking (19.5) (17.5) IFRS 16 impact on the fleet cost variable costs (6.3) (8.0) Adjusted Corporate EBITDA excl. IFRS-16 (170.3) 70.0 Margin 9.3%

All data in m H1 2020 H1 2019 % Change % Change at constant perimeter and currency Total revenue 814.8 1 306.5 (37.6%) (43.4%) Average fleet size ('000) 269.7 295.5 (8.7%) (15.2%) Rental days volume (in Million) 26.7 40.4 (33.8%) (38.5%) Utilization rate 54.5% 75.5% Fleet holding costs (334.2) (343.8) 2.8% 11.7% Fleet operating and variable costs (322.3) (443.2) 27.3% 34.7% Total fleet costs variable costs (656.5) (787.0) 16.6% 24.7% Margin after variable costs 158 519 -69.5% -72.1% In of revenue 19.4% 39.8% Network (172) (209) 17.7% 27.7% HQ Costs (137) (172) 20.0% 26.3% Fleet financing costs (57) (57) -1.0% 13.7% Adjusted Corporate EBITDA (IFRS 16) (209) 82 In of revenue 6.3% IFRS 16 impact on premises and parking (39.8) (36.8) IFRS 16 impact on the fleet cost variable costs (13.0) (13.6) Adjusted Corporate EBITDA excl. IFRS-16 (261.4) 31.5 Margin 2.4%

MAVC in Q2 2020 and H1 2020

Margin after variable costs fell to -2m in Q2 2020 from 323m in Q2 2019, as a direct consequence of the lockdowns and confinement.

The Group has promptly reacted to the crisis by adjusting its fleet to the reduced demand thanks to its flexible model of buy-back programs and long-term relationships with OEMs. Yet the adjustment takes few weeks to materialize. De-fleeting was also constrained by logistics as lockdowns prevent from returning physically vehicles to car manufacturers.

The Group reduced drastically its fleet by -37% YoY at the end of June 2020 to 225,000 vehicles. Hence, fleet holding costs decreased by -26% to 149m in Q2 2020. The other operating variable costs fleet operating, rental and revenue related costs variable costs decreased much faster as they are more dependent on revenue and fleet that is actually used: -60% to 111m. Overall, total fleet costs and other operating variable costs were down 45%.

Margin after variable costs fell to 158m in H1 2020 from 519m in H1 2019, as a direct consequence of the lockdowns and confinement.

Adjusted Corporate EBITDA in Q2 2020 and H1 2020

Adjusted Corporate EBITDA came at -209m in H1 2020 (82m in H1 2019), including a loss of -144m in Q2 2020 compared to 96m in Q2 2019.

The vigorous cost adaptation plan generated 370m cost savings in H1 2020. Overall, it accounts for 42% of the objective planned for the full year:

A 280m cost reduction from all the measures and initiatives launched to reduce the fleet

A ~90m reduction in semi-fixed and fixed costs through network and HQs: 1) Network: 80% of employees were under partial unemployment in all countries and up to 88% of stations were closed or with limited hours, depending on countries; 2) HQ costs: negotiation with headquarters landlords, minimum IT investment and first benefits from the HQ 2020 program. The Group also used partial unemployment in all countries and Top managers cut their base compensation.

3. From Corporate EBITDA to Group net income

Financial results: net financing costs not related to the fleet decreased to -57m in H1 2020 from -74m in H1 2019, thanks to the 2019 Corporate bond refinancing.

Non-recurring expenses amounted to -20m in H1 2020, a reduction from -26m in H1 2019 as the Group has put on hold its programs since the Covid-19 pandemic to preserve cash. They mainly relate to the HQ 2020 program.

Net income: the Group posted a net loss of -286m in H1 2020 compared to -69m in the same period last year.

All data in m H1 2020 H1 2019 % Change Adjusted Corporate EBITDA incl. IFRS 16 (208.6) 81.8 Margin 6.3% Depreciation excluding vehicle fleet (77.1) (73.3) (5.1%) Non-recurring income and expense (20.4) (26.0) 21.6% Other financing income and expense not related to the fleet (57.3) (74.0) 22.6% Profit/loss before tax (363.4) (91.5) Income tax 77.2 22.8 Share of profit/(loss) of associates (0.1) Net profit/(loss) incl. IFRS 16 (286.2) (68.9)

CORPORATE FREE CASH FLOW CORPORATE NET DEBT IN H1 2020

1. Corporate Operating Cash Flow in H1 2020

Corporate Operating Cash Flow came in at -296m in H1 2020.

This reflects Adjusted Corporate EBITDA of -209m, non-fleet capex of -25m (-41m in H1 2019), -21m of non-recurring expenses, 21m for the change in working capital, a negative -14m change in provisions, +4m income tax and -53m lease liability cash out under IFRS 16 application on network, airport and HQ lease contracts.

2. Corporate Net debt5 at June 30, 2020

Corporate net debt reached 1,251m as at June 30th, 2020 versus 880m at December 31st, 2019. It includes 25m cash interest on corporate net debt, 36m of fleet financing timing impact, 5m investing activities and 20m of transaction costs, non-fleet financing and forex costs.

____________________________

5 Excluding liabilities related to leases

Investor Calendar

Q3 2020 results 5 November 2020

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).

Forward-looking statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements based on current beliefs and expectations about future events. Such forward-looking statements may include projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives, intentions and/or expectations with respect to future financial results, events, operations and services and product development, as well as statements, regarding performance or events. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "plans", "projects", "may", "would", "should" or the negative of these terms and similar expressions. Forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to inherent risks, uncertainties and assumptions about Europcar Mobility Group and its subsidiaries and investments, trends in their business, future capital expenditures and acquisitions, developments in respect of contingent liabilities, changes in economic conditions globally or in Europcar Mobility Group's principal markets, competitive conditions in the market and regulatory factors. Those events are uncertain; their outcome may differ from current expectations which may in turn materially affect expected results. Actual results may differ materially from those projected or implied in these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement contained in this press release is made as of the date of this press release. Other than as required by applicable law, Europcar Mobility Group does not undertake to revise or update any forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. The results and the Group's performance may also be affected by various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, risks identified in the "Risk factors" of the Annual Registration Document registered by the Autorite des marches financiers on May 6, 2020 and also available on the Group's website: www.europcar-mobility-group.com. This press release does not contain or constitute an offer or invitation to purchase any securities in France, the United States or any other jurisdiction.

Further details on our website:

https://investors.europcar-group.com/results-center

www.europcar-mobility-group.com

Regulated information related to this press release is available on the website https://investors.europcar-group.com/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728006027/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations

Caroline Cohen caroline.cohen@europcar.com

Press Relations

Valerie Sauteret valerie.sauteret@europcar.com

Vincent Vevaud vincent.vevaud@europcar.com

Publicis Consultants

Camille Madec camille.madec@publicisconsultants.com
PHILADELPHIA  A Sharon Hill man was sentenced to 151 months in federal prison Monday and ordered to pay $43,632 in restitution for robbing nine banks in Montgomery and Delaware counties between April and December 2018, according to a release from U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain.

David Charles Hayes, 33, pleaded guilty to all nine robberies in November. He typically entered the bank with his face covered, usually with a bandana, hat and sunglasses, then approached tellers and demanded that they hand over money, according to the release.

Hayes threatened the tellers with harm if they did not comply, saying things like, Dont do anything goofy or I will hurt you, and If you want to make it home to your kids, dont push any buttons or try anything, according to the release.

But one teller was able to slip a dye pack into the bag with the stolen money, which started smoking and released a colored dye when it was removed from the bank. Hayes discarded the dye pack and the gloves he was wearing, which detectives used to identify Hayes as a suspect through DNA evidence.

Hayes was taken into custody at Sugar House Casino, where he admitted to gambling with his robbery proceeds.

Michael J. Driscoll, Special Agent in Charge of the FBIs Philadelphia Division, called Hayes a prolific robber in the release, noting he hit nine banks in as many months across multiple jurisdictions.

The FBI and our law enforcement partners were determined to put a stop to his one-man spree, said Driscoll. Working together, we were able to take him off the street and see him brought to justice.

The case was investigated by the FBI, with assistance from the Ridley Township, Glenolden, Sharon Hill, Radnor and Lower Merion police departments, as well as Pennsylvania State Police. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda R. Reinitz prosecuted.
Four United Nations experts have written a joint letter to Cambodias Foreign Minister expressing concerns over the public intimidation early this year of a local rights group official after he spoke out against the arrests of activists who criticized the governments coronavirus response.

The U.N. letter in response to arrests in March was released as the wives and family members of jailed activists from Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) continue to stage weekly protests for their freedomnearly three years after the government launched a crackdown the led to a ban on the opposition party.

On March 31, Prime Minister Hun Sen said at a press conference that Am Sam Ath, the deputy director of Licadho, had criticized the government for arresting people selling fake tests and medicine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. He alleged that Am Sam Aths comments made him criminally liable as an accomplice to the sellers and warned him that he could face arrest.

Hun Sens threats came three days after Am Sam Ath said in an interview with RFAs Khmer Service that several arrests of people who have questioned the governments response to the outbreak were politically motivated, based on pre-existing cases against CNRP members. He also noted that many of the arrests were allegedly carried out without warrants and suggested they were violations of the right to freedom of expression.

In a letter dated May 29, and made public by the U.N. Human Rights Office in Cambodia on Tuesday, four U.N. Special Rapporteurs expressed concerns to Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn that the public condemnation of and threat to arrest Mr. Am Sam Ath appear directly linked to his work in defense of human rights, and designed to curb the exercise of his right to freedom of expression and his right to defend human rights.

The Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor; the situation of human rights in Cambodia, Rhona Smith; the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye; and on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, also noted the alleged spreading of false information in regard to comments attributed to him.

We are also concerned that such public threats against a human rights defender can have a chilling effect on freedom of expression, freedom of opinion, and space for civil society and media to publicly report information and conduct awareness raising activities during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the letter said.

We are further concerned that the alleged threat to Mr. Sam Ath may be contributing to an environment of self-censorship among human rights defenders, for fear of being misinterpreted and facing criminal action for the spreading of false information.

The U.N. experts called on Prak Sokhonn to respond with details on what measures have been taken to ensure that Am Sam Ath and other human rights campaigners in Cambodia are able to carry out their work, free from fear of threats and harassment.

They also requested information on what measures have been taken so that media and civil society organizations (CSOs) can assist with disseminating information about the coronavirus outbreak and the national response, without facing repercussions.

In a response dated July 14 and also released by the U.N. Human Rights Office in Cambodia on Tuesday, Cambodias Permanent Mission to the U.N. at Geneva cited the Ministry of Interior as saying that any CSO officers, who perform their duties in accordance with the law, including Mr. Am Sam Ath  are accorded with protection against any alleged intimidation, provided they file an official complaint.

With regard to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Ministry of Interior called on all stakeholders, including media, to observe steps taken by the government, especially health measures, while refraining from engag[ing] in dissemination and exaggeration of any unverified information, which instills fears into the people and results in social unrest and instability.

Seeking intervention

In the meantime, Am Sam Ath has continued to speak out against what he views as official abuses, including to RFA on July 24 after authorities violently dispersed the wives and family members of the 17 detained CNRP activists he mentioned in his March 31 interview, as they held a protest in of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court calling for the immediate and unconditional release of their loved ones.

The 17 activists have been held in pretrial detention at Prey Sar Prison on charges of incitement to commit a felony since early this year after voicing views critical of Hun Sens leadershipaccusations rights groups say represent restrictions on their freedom of expression.

Last weeks rally marked the sixth protest organized by the family membersthe previous five of which featured police officers confiscating or destroying banners and ordering the crowd to disband.

But Prumh Chantha, the wife of one of the activists, said that this time around 30 of the courts security guards aggressively dragged the protesters away from the building on the ground, leaving at least five of them injured with cuts and bruises.

On Tuesday, the wives and relatives told RFA they are now seeking assistance from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to file a complaint on their behalf with the international community and to issue a condemnation of the government over the assault.

The NGOs asked me why I didnt file a complaint with the court, said Sok Polyma, the wife of Khem Pheana, former CNRP commune councilor in the capital Phnom Penh.

I told them that I have lost confidence in the court system. It is very unjust because our husbands are innocent and did not commit crimes as alleged.

Sok Polyma said that as a representative of the wives and relatives of the detainees, she filed a complaint on Tuesday with both Licadho and another local rights group, Adhoc. She said she also spoke with the groups to obtain advice on how to hold a legal protest and to ask that they monitor future demonstrations, including one planned for Friday.

Ministry of Justice spokesman Chhin Malin told RFA that the guards didnt prevent the CNRP family members from protesting but said the wives and other relatives had violated the law by abusing the guards security protocol.

People have the right to protest but they cannot interfere with the court system, he said.

[They can protest] as long as it will not affect public order and violate the rights of other people.

Adhoc spokesman Soeung Sen Karona, who monitored last weeks protest, said the family members had protested peacefully and according to the law. He added that the protests will grow if the court does not resolve the issue.

The court must quickly intervene and release [the CNRP activists] to they can be free to reunite with their families, he said. These cases are not criminal; they are purely political motivated.

Sanctions loom

CNRP leader Kem Sokha was arrested in September 2017 over an alleged plot to overthrow the government with the help of the U.S. government and the Supreme Court banned his party in November that year for its supposed role in the scheme.

The move to dissolve the CNRP was part of a wider crackdown by Prime Minister Hun Sen on the political opposition, NGOs, and the independent media that paved the way for his ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) to win all 125 seats in parliament in the countrys July 2018 general election.

The EU in mid-February announced plans to suspend tariff-free access to its market under the Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme for around one-fifth of Cambodias exports, citing rollbacks on democracy and human rightsa move that would reinstate tariffs on garments and footwear beginning Aug. 12, unless it is overturned by the blocs governments or its parliament.

Hun Sen has said that EU demands to maintain the EBA, which include dropping charges of treason against Kem Soka and reinstating the CNRP, are unreasonable and an encroachment on Cambodias internal affairs.

Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
COLOGNE, Germany, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- 4Stop ("FourStop GmbH") a leading global provider for KYB, KYC, compliance and fraud prevention technology announces today the active integration of their anti-fraud transaction monitoring technology with Paytah by Monetum. They bring innovation to the Fintech market to enable cross-border transactions and IBAN accounts conveniently and reliably from anywhere in the world.

FourStop GmbH

The coronavirus is leading more significant technological advancements and online engagement, since January 2018, one million new internet users onboard every day worldwide. As a result of the pandemic, internet users have further increased by 22 per cent from Year-over-Year (YoY) and according to an Adobe report released on June 21, total online spending in May hit $82.5 US billion, up 77 per cent Year-over-Year.

This increase in online users and engagement has many online businesses in a whirlwind to implement additional risk mitigation protocols to manage KYC and anti-fraud in a frictionless and timely manner. However, setting up other data services and transactional security measures with dynamic decision-making intelligence can take many months to integrate. Leaving a vulnerability to cybercriminals as they exploit this new surge of internet usage. Back in 2016, businesses fell victim to fraud every 40 seconds; that timespan will be every 11 seconds by 2021. Online entities need to move quickly and adapt their mantras to facilitate their services best while managing regulatory obligations and fraud defence.

Paytah by Monetum recognised the benefits of working with advanced data and anti-fraud orchestration hub to circumvent their transactional security measure concerns and efficiently manage the rapid increase in engagement. Through a single API into 4Stop, Paytah by Monetum receives leading anti-fraud services that encompass dynamic decision-making technology, customised workflows, cascading transactional rules logic, real-time risk analysis and intelligent transactional monitoring. Allowing Paytah by Monetum to quickly navigate their transactional risk queue, process more positive transactional flow and accelerate their performance. They obtain a heightened level of confidence in every transaction while building enhanced trust in their brand with their customers.

Through Paytah by Monetum's integration, they also instantly obtained access to 4Stop's complete suite of services to support their entire customer journey. From hundreds of premium global KYB and KYC data services readily available on-demand with real-time activation, through advanced compliance and AML workflows, and data science. Paytah by Monetum obtains a competitive edge towards cybersecurity and data management in a fail-safe, future-proofed and modern manner.

"At Paytah by Monetum, we comply with the highest industry standards and regulations while providing quality service and value to all of our clients and stakeholders. We are excited to partner with 4Stop to continue strengthening our KYC/AML processes and systems. We are confident that our journey to better banking, better payments and better IBAN is more dynamic and robust with 4Stop," states Marco Lavanna, Founder, Paytah by Monetum Payment Solutions.

To learn more about Paytah by Monetum's services, visit https://paytah.com. To learn more about 4Stop's services, visit https://4stop.com

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Paytah Integrates 4Stop's Anti-Fraud and Transactional Monitoring Technology

Related Links

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SOURCE FourStop GmbH

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TEANECK (dpa-AFX) - Cognizant (CTSH) said that it agreed to acquire New Signature, an independent Microsoft public cloud transformation specialist. Financial details were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020, subject to regulatory clearance and other closing conditions. New Signature is exclusively focused on Microsoft technologies, with an integrated offering across all three of Microsoft's business clouds: Azure, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365. Upon the close of the acquisition, New Signature's more than 500 cloud experts, based primarily in the U.S., U.K., and Canada, will join Cognizant's newly-formed Microsoft Business Group, Cognizant said. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has signed a Currency Swap Agreement with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka under the SAARC Currency Swap Framework 2019-22. Under the agreement, Central Bank of Sri Lanka can make drawals of US Dollar, Euro or Indian Rupee in multiple tranches up to a maximum of US$ 400 million or its equivalent. The agreement would be valid till November 13, 2022. The SAARC Currency Swap Framework came into operation on November 15, 2012 to provide a backstop line of funding for short term foreign exchange liquidity requirements or short-term balance of payments stress till longer term arrangements are made.

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Amid calls by some Nigerians for tax palliatives to be granted to them to cushion the impact of the coronavirus, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said on Tuesday some Nigerians are already enjoying such palliatives.

Following the upward review of the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate early this year and the recent approval of the payment of stamp duty for rents and leases, Nigerians have continued to demand some palliatives to relieve the burden of taxation.

But, speaking as a guest of a radio programme, The Midday Dialogue on Nigeria Info FM monitored in Abuja, the FIRS Chairman, Mohammad Nami, said a section of the population has already be granted some form of tax palliatives under the Finance Act.

The Finance Act 2019 has exempted 60 per cent of taxpayers, including Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) from paying tax as only companies which make up to N25 million turnover now pay tax or collect Value Added Tax (VAT).

This has therefore relieved millions of Nigerians and SMES, including many businesses impacted by COVID-19, of their tax obligations to the government, which is a form of long-term tax palliative to them even before the pandemic, Mr Nami said.

The FIRS chairman said the global economic downturn occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic has made it necessary for the three tiers of government to close tax loopholes in the country in order to fund the budget and provide needed public infrastructure.

Stamp duty

On the stamp duty payable on tenancy and lease agreement by tenants in the country, Mr Nami warned landlords that its should not be a basis to increase the rent of their tenants.

He also clarified that tenants, not landlords, should pay the applicable stamp duty by themselves at any commercial bank of their choice, and not to any landlord.

Mr Nami who spoke as part of his ongoing national public enlightenment campaign on the Stamp Duty Act, said since the responsibility of stamp duty payment was not that of the landlord, there was no justifiable reason for any landlord to increase rent.

The stamp duty, he said, is chargeable on the instrument of the transaction, that is, the tenancy or lease agreement or receipt exchanged between the landlords and the tenant, and not the actual rent fee the landlord is collecting from tenants.

The stamp duty is charged at graduated rates. Stamp duty on rent or lease from one year to less than seven years is 0.78%. If your rent is N100,000, stamp duty due on it is N780.

Your stamp duty could be as low as N200 or N300 if you live in a room and parlour, or in the village where rent is low.

If you can afford to pay your rent between seven to 21 years, your stamp duty is 3 per cent on the rent.

If you can afford to pay rent at once from 21 years and above the stamp duty due is 6 per cent, which is very rare, but we created room for it because some renters prefer long leases, the FIRS chief said.

He said once a tenant has reached an agreement with his/her landlord on the amount to pay for rent of less than 7 years, you should calculate 0.78% of the amount.

That amount of money, he said, should be taken to the nearest bank and deposited in FIRS stamp duty account, after which a teller would be collected and tendered to the landlord to legalise the transaction.

It is the responsibility of the landlord before he or she issues a receipt, or sign a rent or lease agreement with a tenant to make sure that the tenant presents evidence of stamp duty payment.

A landlord that does not insist on evidence of stamp duty payment will bear the cost of the stamp duty if the FIRS eventually finds out.

You do not pay stamp duty on your own residential accommodation if you are the owner of the property even if you live in a 10-ten storey building, Mr Nami said.
Sudan, on Monday, exported two tonnes of gold in a bid to provide foreign currencies for the Central Bank of Sudan and improve the status of local currency.

We have general economic plans based on improvement of the economy and provision of decent livelihood for the citizen,'' Sudan's Acting Minister of Finance and National Economy, Hiba Mohamed Ali, said at a ceremony in Khartoum.

Last week, Sudan exported two tons of gold to the United Arab Emirates worth $120 million.

Sudan is planning to export two tons of gold each week to provide foreign currencies for the central bank of Sudan after the reforms made by the higher committee for health emergencies on gold exports and prevention of monopoly.

After losing around 75 per cent of its oil resources due to separation of South Sudan in 2011, Sudan started to focus on gold production to compensate for the loss of oil revenues. (Xinhua/NAN)


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'Governors of many states are defying the Constitution at the behest of ruling party at the Centre without worrying about the dignity'

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday said he has spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apprise him of the political situation in the state and he has promised him to get the matter seen.

Gehlot said he also wrote to the prime minister a few days back over the issue, even as the Congress Legislature Party on Monday sent a memorandum to President Ram Nath Kovind, seeking his intervention to facilitate an assembly session in the state. Apprising a CLP meeting of his talks with the Prime Minister, Gehlot said, I told him that I had written a letter to you and this is the situation. Governor behaved like this with us.

The PM said that he will get the matter seen as if he did not know anything. The Chief Minister said he also tweeted his letter to the PM to him so that when he meets him at any function, he does not say he did not know about it. CLP members, meanwhile, claimed in the memorandum to President Kovind that the horse-trading of MLAs was on in Rajasthan to topple an elected government.

Governors of many states are "defying" the Constitution at the behest of the ruling party at the Centre without worrying about the dignity of their posts, they alleged in the memorandum.

A Congress leader apprised reporters of the Gehlot talks to the PM after a meeting at a hotel here where MLAs are holed up following rebellion by Sachin Pilot against the Gehlot government. Pilot has since been ousted as deputy chief minister and Rajasthan Congress chief.

The chief minister addressed the MLAs at the meeting after a Prarthna Sabha and it was attended by senior Congress leaders. The Congress leader said a retired secretary general of Lok Sabha observed that it is for the first time in 70 years that the Governor has returned the Cabinet's decision to convene an assembly session. 

Previously, sessions have been called on short notices. Making seating arrangements is a tension of the Assembly and the Speaker and not of the Governor. You can understand why questions are being asked, a government statement said later quoting the chief minister. What Governor wants is to delay as he cannot refuse. The more delay is done, it will be easier to break and take them in their camp through horse-trading. They do not have any other aim, the Chief Minister was quoted as saying. The aim is to reduce the majority that we have today. He will call the session immediately after it reduces, he added.

As per the official statement, Gehlot said the 19 dissident MLAs know that they will have to vote in favour of the Congress once the Assembly session is convened and a whip is issued. If they vote against the whip, their membership will be terminated, he pointed out. It is in the hands of the Speaker. It is a right. To avoid action, the entire game is being played in the supervision of Delhi's sultanate.

So, they are delaying. How much they will be able to delay, it will be known soon, the chief minister said. In the memorandum to President Kovind, the CLP members demanded his intervention and permit the state government to call an assembly session. India is battling the COVID-19 pandemic and the Rajasthan government wants to call the assembly session to discuss with all members the economic problems facing the state along with the coronavirus situation so that people get relief. But the state government is not being allowed to call the session, they said in the memorandum.

Without taking names, the CLP members said despite a prima facie evidence of horse-trading and corrupt practices by Union ministers, not removing them from the cabinet is a "blot" on democracy. With a feeling of political vendetta, the use of investigative agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax Department to weaken and intimidate democratically elected governments and public representatives is highly condemnable, the CLP members said.

Recently the ED had raided Ashok Gehlot's elder brother Agrasen Gehlot's house in Jodhpur in a fertilizer scam case. In the memorandum, the CLP members urged the President to intervene in Rajasthan and wherever efforts are being made to undermine democracy through undemocratic methods and corrupt practices.



Frontline health workers contracted COVID infection due to reuse of PPE kits

A total of 14 percent of healthcare workers in Kerala contracted coronavirus due to shortage, reuse or improper usage of PPE (personal protective equipment) kit. According to a study conducted among the infected healthcare workers by the State Department of Health and Family Welfare, around 14 percent of the health workers gave history of absence of adequate PPE while at work. Shortage and reuse of the kits also have been mentioned by few healthcare workers.

Nearly eight percent of healthcare workers cited having food together in groups, without proper protection/ PPE as the reason for virus contraction. Improper handling of throat swab samples and fomites also has been identified as reason by few others.

More than 70 percent of the positive health worker had an identifiable positive person as contact (a patient, colleague or relative). Around 14 percent of health workers detected their disease status through the sentinel surveillance.

A total of 267 healthcare workers including nurses, nursing assistants, doctors, housekeeping staff, clerks, ambulance drivers, health inspectors, physiotherapists, lab technicians and ASHA workers contracted the virus till July 20. Among the positive cases, 41 per cent are doctors and nurses. As many as 60 nurses contracted the virus while on duty (23 per cent) while 47 doctors also got infected (18 per cent). Twenty seven nursing assistants or attenders, 31 other paramedical staff, 38 office staff, 28 field staff and 34 ASHA workers also got infected.

Highest number of positive cases among health workers was reported in Thiruvananthapuram district.

The Health department through district surveillance units is constantly monitoring the rate of virus spread among health care workers both in government and private sectors. Based on the study the probable reasons for the breach of protection can be identified. The study report will help the healthcare workers, institutions and the capacity building divisions in government and private sector Hospitals to build strong system. The resource persons have been instructed to give thrust on capacity building and ensure follow up of protective measures at individual and institutional level, said Dr. Rajan Khobragade, principal secretary, Health and Family Welfare.
Restaurant owner Nalin Jayaweera is seen at his restaurant Shavans Pinewood on March 23, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

A Number of Sydney Restaurants Voluntarily Shut Over COVID-19 Concern

A number of restaurants in Sydneys Potts Point have voluntarily shut their businesses until the end of the week amid concerns the inner eastern suburb could be the next New South Wales (NSW) COVID-19 hotspot.

Residents were advised of two more positive cases in the suburb involving staff members from The Apollo and Thai Rock restaurants on July 27.

The cases come after another case was discovered over the weekenda diner who attended Thai Rock.

Anyone who attended The Apollo between July 23 and July 25, or Thai Rock between July 15 and July 25 are being asked to get tested and quarantine for 14 days.

NSW Health is also asking anyone who lives in, or has visited the Potts Point area in the past two weeks to get tested if they have respiratory symptoms.

In the wake of the three recent cases in the area, a number of high-profile restaurants in the district have voluntarily closed their venues. Some have reverted to selling takeaway food only.

As a precaution and for the safety of yourselves and our staff we have chosen to close until July 30 for a deep clean of the venue and for all of our staff to be tested, the operators of The Roosevelt posted on Instagram.

Meanwhile, a person who visited two pubs in Sydneys southwest while infectious has now tested positive.

NSW Health is urging staff and patrons who went to Mounties in Mount Pritchard on July 24 and 25 and the nearby Pritchards Hotel on July 23 to isolate for 14 days and get tested if they have symptoms.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says the coming weeks will be critical for managing the recent and renewed spread of the virus, which has been linked to a second wave outbreak in Victoria.

She said NSW authorities remain on high alert.

Theres a lot of things going right but theres a lot of things we cant control. It only takes one or two cases for there to be a ripple effect, Berejiklian told the Nine Network on July 28.

Seventeen new COVID-19 cases were confirmed across NSW on July 27, bringing the total in the state to 3496.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 19:06:36|Editor: huaxia

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BERLIN, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The ifo export expectations for German manufacturers rose from minus 2.2 points to plus 6.9 points in July as "cautious optimism is spreading," the ifo Institute announced on Tuesday.

"German exports are benefiting from the economic recovery in many countries," said Clemens Fuest, president of the Munich-based ifo Institute.

For the first time since January, ifo export expectations for manufacturing returned to "positive territory," according to the German research institution. In April, the ifo export index plummeted to minus 50.3 points and hit the lowest value ever measured as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

Germany's car industry was "one of the biggest winners," Fuest noted, adding that after a few very difficult months, it was now likely that the export business of German car manufacturers would pick up again.

Confidence had also returned to the electronics industry in Germany, according to the ifo business survey for July.

However, the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (ZVEI) announced last week that exports to industrialized countries fell by more than 10 percent to 51.7 billion euros (60.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the first five months of this year.

According to the ifo Institute, pessimism in the mechanical engineering sector had also decreased noticeably, "but sales are not yet expected to rise."

"The next few months will be particularly important for the European economies to lastingly recover and regain their strength," said Peter Altmaier, Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, two weeks ago when presenting the priorities of Germany's Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Enditem
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) New Delhi  Tue, July 28, 2020 10:33 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669d276f 2 Science & Tech India,China,mobile-application Free

India has banned 47 more Chinese apps just weeks after blocking the highly popular video-sharing platform TikTok and 58 others over national security and privacy concerns, an information ministry official and media reports said Monday.

Tensions between the world's two most-populous nations soared last month after a Himalayan border clash that left 20 Indian troops dead and an unknown number of Chinese casualties.

"We have banned 47 mobile apps from China in this ongoing exercise which highlights the government's seriousness about data privacy and security," the official, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP.

Read also: Over 2,500 games removed from Apple's China App Store after loophole shuts: Data firm

"The order was issued on Friday. Most of these 47 apps are banned for the same reasons as the earlier 59, and many were lite versions or variants of the earlier banned applications."

There has been no official statement or order released by the government about the ban but it has been widely reported across major Indian media.

Anti-China sentiment has soared since the deadly fight in mid-June, which sparked street protests and calls for Chinese products to be banned in the nation of 1.3 billion people.

Local media on Monday said 275 other Chinese apps could also be on the chopping block over similar concerns, including the hugely popular "PUBG Mobile" game owned by tech giant Tencent.

From toys, cosmetics and handbags to home appliances, pharma, auto components, and steel, China exports more than 3,000 products to India.
MEXICO CITY Prosecutors in western Mexico said Tuesday that three people still appeared to be missing after a gang kidnapped some members of a group of over a dozen visitors to the Pacific resort of Puerto Vallarta earlier this month.

Jalisco state prosecutor Gerardo Octavio Solis said one member of the group of men visiting the resort from the neighboring state of Guanajuato escaped the July 18 attack, in which one of the visitors was killed by a gunshot.

The survivor said many of the abducted men had been taken to a house in Puerto Vallarta, held there and most were later released. The survivor said it appeared three of the kidnapped men could still be in the custody of their captors.

Solis said the mass kidnapping was an attack directed at three or four people in the group, who had been touring the area in ATVs and SUVs.

Apparently tourists, there had been no previous explanation why the gunmen might attack the group. Local media have widely pinned the attack on the Jalisco New General Cartel, which is active in Puerto Vallarta.

Solis seemed to suggest, without stating it, that the attack may have involved gang rivalries, though the victims have largely been described as businessmen.

He said the man who was killed once had registered addresses in the Guanajuato hamlet of Santa Rosa de Lima, the home turf of a gang of the same name. The Jalisco cartel and the Santa Rosa de Lima gang have been fighting a bloody turf battle for control of Guanajuato that has made it the deadliest state in Mexico.

Solis said some of the dead mans relatives had criminal backgrounds.

The Puerto Vallarta attack initially recalled memories of the 2011 kidnapping of 20 vacationing men from Michoacan state in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco. Authorities believed those tourists were mistaken by drug traffickers for members of the Michoacan-based La Familia cartel. Some of the mens decomposed bodies were later found in a mass grave.

On Saturday, Solis had said 13 or 14 people from Guanajuato had been confronted in a residential area of Puerto Vallarta..

There was a series of shots, Solis said. One person was left (mortally) wounded at the place, others managed to flee some on foot, others in vehicles.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- European regulators and policy makers have moved quickly during the pandemic to loosen banks capital rules to keep the lending taps open. The latest wheeze is to make it easier for lenders to buy insurance against the risk of their borrowers defaulting. The danger with this fix is that the industry gets hooked on an unproven piece of financial engineering that adds even more complexity to the banking system.

It isnt surprising that the European Commission, which is pushing for the change, is eager to help the lenders. Unlike in the U.S., the continents companies rely on bank lending for most of their borrowing. Whats more, the European Central Bank delivered grim news on Tuesday: Some banks might not have enough capital to meet minimum requirements by 2022 in the event of a severe economic downturn.

Traditionally, banks have securitized their loans by packaging them together themselves and selling the exposure to other parties. But the Commission is proposing that they should be allowed to do synthetic securitizations too, where lenders buy a guarantee against potential loan losses  typically in the form of a derivative  from a hedge fund or insurer. The difference with this approach is that the assets being insured remain on the banks balance sheets, meaning they could now free up capital.

These so-called capital-relief trades were seen as toxic in the aftermath of the financial crisis, when they were used for nefarious purposes, and Europe has taken years to find ways to make them less open to abuse.

Regulators have found ways to reduce some of the risk: Under the Commissions proposal, those providing the credit protection will probably have to post collateral against the transactions, shielding the bank from the danger of a counterparty not meeting its promise to cover losses. But not everyone will be reassured. As Ive argued before, moving risk outside the regulated banking industry could do more harm than good without adequate protective measures.

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And this could be a big market, even with the collateral requirement. Yield-starved investors have been knocking on banks doors, eager to offer guarantees on anything from U.S. corporate loans to pools of loans to small and medium-sized companies.

Hard numbers are hard to come by because most deals tend to be bilateral transactions with little disclosure, but data compiled by the European Banking Authority show synthetic deals are already more popular than traditional securitizations. They had a total value of about 126 billion euros ($148 billion) as of last year. These deals tend to be most popular among the larger banks and attract a narrow group of buyers, according to the EBA. Deutsche Bank AG reportedly cut its risk to the now bankrupt Wirecard AG with one such transaction.

Regulators also hope that letting banks treat synthetics like actual securitizations will bring more transparency to the market and make it clearer where risk has shifted.

Nevertheless, bank leaders shouldnt over-rely on the appetite for risk from investors that could just as easily vanish. A rise in company defaults  an inevitability when governments eventually halt their pandemic spending  could dampen demand. Best for Europes lenders to focus on how they can help themselves.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Elisa Martinuzzi is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering finance. She is a former managing editor for European finance at Bloomberg News.

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.
(TNS)  A team of University of Nebraska-Lincoln and City of Lincoln, Neb., researchers and technical experts is one of two finalists to lead a National Science Foundation research program studying novel ways to deliver broadband to rural communities.The Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research program currently has tests underway in three cities.If awarded, the Nebraska Experimental Testbed of Things, known as NEXTT, would test models in Lincoln. Iowa State University is the other finalist.The NEXTT team's goal is to develop advancements in rural wireless-broadband connectivity, focusing on technologies and support of configurations for last-mile and backhaul network architecture. Those advancements could reduce costs for providers and improve the quality of connectivity for residents.Rural, low-income areas throughout the U.S. still lag in the number of residents who subscribe to broadband internet, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That issue is attributed to lack of broadband infrastructure, both wired and wireless, which is costly for companies to provide in less-densely populated areas.Students need it to learn," UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green said in a news release. Many workers depend upon it to maintain their livelihoods. Businesses large and small, urban and rural, require it to remain competitive. This research testbed, if chosen for funding, would be an important component of the universitys commitment to meeting the needs of Nebraskans and, indeed, all rural Americans, in this crucial area.Lincoln, part of the U.S. Ignite-funded Smart Gigabit Communities network, is a national leader in developing state-of-the-art gigabit infrastructure that supports wireless needs for both homes and businesses.In addition, Clay Center is partnering with the research team to provide feedback on how wireless technologies perform in rural areas. Several NU and U.S. Department of Agriculture research facilities are located near the town of 760 in south-central Nebraska.
A charity concert Saturday night in the Hamptons featuring performances from the chief executive of Goldman Sachs and the DJ duo the Chainsmokers drew widespread outrage and a state investigation after video footage showed attendees appearing to ignore public health precautions.

The concert, called Safe & Sound, was billed by organizers as a drive-in music experience in the famous summer hot spot, the Hamptons. Guests would be able to sit outside near their parked vehicles in spaced-out areas to watch the performances, including one from the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, David M. Solomon, also known as DJ D-Sol, and another from Jay Schneiderman, supervisor of the town of Southampton, where the concert was held.

Tickets cost up to $25,000, according to Billboard.

Safe & Sound will set the bar for a new era of immersive experiences, the organizers said. This will be a safe and controlled environment, setting the bar for all events to come.

But the event instead has generated angry social media posts, and Monday it drew the ire of state officials.

In a blistering letter addressed to Schneiderman, New Yorks health commissioner, Howard A. Zucker, wrote that he was greatly disturbed by reports that showed thousands of people standing close together and generally not adhering to social-distancing guidance.

I am at a loss as to how the Town of Southampton could have issued a permit for such an event, how they believed it was legal and not an obvious public health threat, Zucker wrote in the letter.

At a news conference in Southampton on Tuesday, Schneiderman said that when his band was performing, nobody was crowded in front of the stage. But he said people were allowed to gather there later, which violated the permit for the event.

It violated the social distancing regulations, he said. Theyve been cited by the town. Theres likely to be more following an investigation were doing.

The events organizers, In The Know Experiences and Invisible Noise, said in an emailed statement Monday night that they had followed all proper and current protocols, noting that guests were repeatedly told that they could not leave their designated areas, spaced at least 6 feet apart, unless they needed to use the bathroom. Guests temperatures were checked and security guards regularly patrolled the area to encourage mask wearing and promote social-distancing guidelines, the organizers said.

The organizers did not answer questions about whether they knew that people were breaking the rules.

Several people who went to the concert told BuzzFeed News that they felt safe and that people were social distancing.

The fierce criticism of the concert came as news reports and posts on social media have highlighted a number of parties and concerts being held in the New York City area where guests have seemingly ignored social-distancing rules. Concerts across the country have been canceled for fear of endangering public health.

Many criticized the concert in the Hamptons on Saturday night as being representative of a disregard among wealthy New Yorkers, many of whom vacation in the Hamptons, to the dangers of the coronavirus, which has disproportionately hurt low-income populations.

The Department of Health will conduct an investigation, Gov Andrew Cuomo said in a tweet. We have no tolerance for the illegal & reckless endangerment of public health.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Ghanaian movie star, Abraham who currently based in America is making another giant move in his career.



Spirit Award-winner Abraham Attah, whose credits include Netflix film Beasts of No Nation and Sonys Spider-Man: Homecoming, will star in Tasmanian Devil, a feature debut from writer/director Solomon Onita, Jr. Adepero Oduye (Central Park Five and Pariah), Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (The Chi, Queen of Katwe), and Kwesi Boakye (Claws, Flight) will also co-star in the coming of age tale, which will shoot sometime this year in Dallas, Texas.



The timely story follows a 19-year-old Nigerian immigrant (Attah) who, after moving to the US, struggles to bond with his estranged father (Mwine) who abandoned him and his mother (Oduye), in Nigeria, to chase his own calling of becoming a missionary. When he finds acceptance in his process of joining a college fraternity, its challenged by his strict and religious father, leaving him searching for his own moral ground.



Tricia Woodgett of TigerEye Films is producing the project, while Benny Boom (All Eyez On Me) and Gerald Rawles (Next Day Air) will serve as exec producers.



Watch the trailer below:





Source: Eugene Osafo-Nkansah/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.

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A 21-year-old woman was fatally shot at a housing complex in Newark late Sunday, according to authorities.

Rashidah Y. Sutton-Bryant died at an area hospital a short time after the city resident was shot around 10:20 p.m. at the Bradley Court public housing complex on North Munn Avenue, the Essex County Prosecutors Office said in a statement.

There were no arrests and authorities did not provide more details on the shooting.

Anyone with information can call the prosecutors office tip line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC or 1-877-847-7432.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com.
Crucially, a contested outcome lasting beyond Jan. 20 would force the military to make an implicit decision about who is commander in chief. According to the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, Trump would cease to be president on noon of Jan. 20 if Congress does not certify him as the winner, passing his authority as commander in chief of the military to the acting president, the speaker of the House of Representatives.

This is where the Constitutions procedure would matter, said Stephen Vladeck, a professor and constitutional expert at the University of Texas School of Law.
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LONDON  University of the Arts London, which comprises a series of fashion, photography and fine arts institutions, will unveil the work of thousands of final-year students on a shared online platform on July 28.

The platform is the first shared showcase for UALs six colleges: Central Saint Martins, London College of Fashion, London College of Communication and the Chelsea, Camberwell and Wimbledon Colleges of Art.

The UAL Graduate Showcase web site, operated by IBM, has been designed to provide members of the public with the same sort of interaction that a physical event would offer.

There will be student presentations, social media handles, photos and immersive videos by students from courses ranging from a bachelors program in architecture to a masters program in photography.

The aim is to ensure that students can still present their work to the public  and to potential employers and partners  despite canceled school terms and social distancing.

The students projects were managed and delivered by a project board, team and working group, and professionals can buy directly from the web site. Viewers can search by themes such as Black Lives Matter, the coronavirus and climate change.

UAL Chancellor Grayson Perry, a ceramicist, artist and broadcaster, said he was excited to be forging my own adventure on the UAL Graduate Showcase, and experiencing the collision of disciplines all under one roof.

The platform will host public events, including panel discussions, screenings and workshops until August 7.

Earlier this month, Royal College of Art in London created an online platform for its M.A. students work across a variety of disciplines, with detailed search functions and open access to the industry and the wider public.

Each graduate has been given the opportunity to share five pages of work, such as photos, videos, or a mix of both, and to discuss their creative process.

Story continues

It gives the work more context. Were relating to the work in a very different way, a more human way, said David Kappo, fashion graduate diploma course leader and B.A. fashion senior tutor at CSM. The reason behind what they do is [made] available to us.

The showcase will give fashion students the chance to show their work despite not being able to stage a live runway show due to the impact of COVID-19. Some B.A. fashion students chose to create a physical collection while in isolation, while others reduced months of work into a handful of visuals.

Our students are resilient and smart, so they were able to translate their work and concepts, said Hywel Davies, fashion program director at CSM.

Some projects turned out to be difficult to translate into a digital format. B.A. fashion communication student Isobel Van Dyke has been working on an LGBTQ magazine, which was originally conceived as a print publication but is now digital. Im desperate to hold my magazine rather than scroll through it, she said.

Bradley Sharpe, a B.A. fashion design womens wear student, confirmed that its been difficult, especially because CSM has always encouraged physical, hand worked projects.

Tutors and course leaders who supported the graduates throughout their projects said they admired the students creativity and resilience. Sarah Gresty, B.A. fashion course leader at CSM, thought the outcome was unexpected  and incredibly  creatively exciting, while Kappo argued that the students voices have been coming through with so much more impact with the digital presentations.

All of the students who presented their final collection on the UAL Graduate Showcase platform had to complete it during lockdown, preventing them from accessing all the resources that would usually have been available to them, pre-COVID-19.

Many students admit they struggled to work on their projects without being on campus. Van Dyke, from B.A. fashion communication, said she was locked down with three of her course mates, and it forced them to be inventive. The four of us have each created our own magazine and, simultaneously, have all been one anothers editors, interns, art directors and models, she said.

For designers, creating garments without having access to studios and professional help proved to be difficult. I worked in isolation with my floor becoming the pattern cutting table, and my domestic sewing machine on its last legs, struggling to deal with fabric it didnt like, said Aaron Esh, a B.A. fashion mens wear graduate from London College of Fashion, who did his fittings on Facetime.

Students said fittings were the toughest part. Womens wear student Sharpe created a collection using unwanted tent poles, making fittings in his flat impossible. That frustration led him to think quickly and to develop other skills.

Weve had to totally reform the way we have been educated these past five years, he said. Weve had to learn how to become videographers, video editors, photographers, in the space of a month. He added, Its been really hard to learn all these new skills so last minute, especially when our main focus has always been to design and make a collection.

B.A. ceramic design graduate Sara Howard used her time at home to develop her book and launch her web site. This time was surprisingly beneficial, as I began to develop my digital skills and think about the future, she said.

Sirui Ning, a B.A. jewelry design student, may have struggled with securing beads, but managed to develop her collection without being at school. With what I had got, I could work from home as I didnt need any college workshop facility for this project, she said.

Kappo said he had seen some much more interesting, inventive, experimental work coming out of those courses, because the students werent just working on autopilot towards that show at the end.

The limitations of lockdown have fired up many of this years graduates, including London College of Fashions B.A. fashion mens wear student Linnea Nordquist, who wants to be a part of this big change that needs to happen now. Womens wear designer Sharpe said he feels more confident with making quick decisions about his work.

Many students are already working on upcoming projects. Ceramic design graduate Howard is planning to move to Sri Lanka to work for a ceramic mass manufacturer while fashion graduate diploma student Li-Shiuan Chen aims to open his own studio.

Others, like mens wear student Esh, plans to continue his studies, despite the uncertainty. He has just enrolled in the M.A. fashion course at CSM, which will start in October. Im really looking forward to being part of the first class, reflecting and reacting to the huge changes in our society, he said.

The UAL Graduate Showcase will exhibit the students projects for a year, adding more work from other courses throughout the 12-month period. UAL has decided to use the platform annually from now on, to enable graduates to have wider exposure, regardless of whether they stage live shows or presentations.

While the web site will be the norm for future graduates, the class of 2020 will always be one-of-a-kind. These guys are part of history, said Kappo. Fashion course leader Gresty concluded, We are extremely proud of our 2020 graduates. They will never be forgotten.

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Google Photos is one of the best ways to sync and store the picture you take on your phone, but getting them out of your library is another storyespecially if you want to keep your metadata (date, time, caption, etc.). Since Photos no longer includes an option to sync with Google Drive, keeping a rolling backup of your photos is going to take some work.

Here and your options are for creating a backup that keeps your photos and metadata intact:

Google Drive

Storage

Like before, Google will store high-quality photos and videos in Photos for free, so they wont affect the space in your Google Drive. If you opt for Original Quality, however, Google Photos will use some of the space in your Google Drive to store your library, even though you wont be able to see or access the photos. Any photo or video that resides in both places will take up twice the space.

IDG The photos in your Google Photos folder in Google Drive wont be deleted, but new ones wont be added anymore.

Photos folder

If you used Google photos before last July, any photos that were synced until the minute Google turned off the functionality will remain in your folder. You can do whatever youd like with them, but photos deleted from Google Drive will no longer be removed from Photos.

Upload from Drive

Google has added a new feature to Google Photos called Upload from Drive. Similar to the Upload button and the drag-and-drop method, it will let you select photos and videos directly from your Google Drive and import them into Photos. Once something is uploaded to Google Photos, it will live in two places and take up twice the storage. And if you delete a photo from one place, the other will remain.

Backup and Sync

For years, Google has offered a Backup and Sync app for Macs and PCs that lets you easily sync photos and videos from your desktop to your Google Drive or Google Photos. Its not a two-way street like the current Google Photos-Google Drive integrationmeaning youll need to upload photos and videos to both placesbut you can pick individual folders to automatically sync as soon as you fire up your PC. Any new images and videos on your PC will be available through Google Drive.

Download a photo archive

If you want to make sure you have a backup of your photos in addition to the one on Google Photos, you can still download a complete copy of your Google Photos archive though the Google Takeout service. Its not quite as quick or seamless as the Google Drive sync, but itll do the trick.

IDG To back upo your full Google Photos library, youre going to need to download an archive first.

To get started, head over to the Data & Personalization tab in your Google Account, scroll down and select Download your Data. There are quite a few categories to choose from, but youll want to deselect them all and look for Google Photos. Click the checkbox and then scroll down to Next step. On the next screen, youll be able to choose the delivery method, file type, and archive size, as well as how often you want to receive a copy of your archive. Then select Create archive to generate your library.

It might take a while to deliver depending on the size of your library, and then even longer to download once its ready. But your photos will be neatly arranged in folders by date, so they can then be uploaded to Google Drive or stored on an external drive, whichever you prefer.

However, the metadata for the photos themselves will be stripped away upon export. If you want to keep that, you have a few options, none of which will be quite as easy:

1) Manually export photos from Google Photos on the web. This is a very tedious process that requires you to select photos 500 at a time and export them to a folder. Theyll then need to be manually sorted into folders so you can find them when you need them.

2) Share individual photos or albums via email or cloud storage on your mobile device. This is even more painstaking, but you can select photos or albums on your phone, share them via Dropbox or Google Drive or email, and then move them to another location until everythings been exported.

3) Try a third-party app or tool. Depending on how much information you want to retain from your photos, there are numerous free and paid tools that claim to preserve your data files. For example, PhotoMove 2.5 ($9) will sort the photos by date and will then move or copy them to folders that are named by year, month and date. Or you could try a 30-day trial of SyncBackPro ($55), which will organize your photos by date and keep the metadata attached to them. Or if youre handy with the macOS Terminal or Windows command-line, you could try the free ExifTool.

Of course, since these are third-party solutions, theyre not guaranteed to work flawlessly, but unless you want to manually sort thousands of photos in your free time, theyre worth a shot.
Emmanuel Omale, a Nigerian cleric, made good a threat he issued through his counsel few days ago by serving court processes on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and a reporter with the agency, Isamalia Chafe for an alleged defamatory report claiming he bought a landed property worth N573 million in Dubai on behalf of the suspended EFCC boss, Ibrahim Magu.

In a Writs of Summons seen by this newspaper, the claimant, Emmanuel Omale, said he has been damnified and claims jointly and severally against the Defendants as follows: The sum of N1, 000,000,000.00 (One Billion Naira) being exemplary, aggravated, special and general damages for libel contained in the publication with the caption  HOW MAGU USED PASTOR TO LAUNDER RE-LOOTED FUNDS ABROAD  REPORT which publication was posted on the 1st Defendants website  www.nannews.ng by the 2nd Defendant on the 11th day of July 2020 which was falsely and maliciously published by the Defendants of the Claimant in the way of his public and private life.

He also prayed that the court issue an An Order compelling the Defendants to publish a public apology specifically and wholly retracting the said libellous article in any 3 (three) daily Newspapers having nation-wide circulation in Nigeria and accessible to the public on the internet.

An Order of Injunction restraining the Defendants, their servants or agents from further publishing or causing to be published the said words complained of or any other words, having such defamatory effect on the Claimant.

The claimant also said the defendants ( News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and a reporter with the agency, Isamalia Chafe) knew as a fact that the statement they made of and concerning the Claimant is false and bereft of any iota of truth.

There is no Report whatsoever linking or indicting the Claimant of the crime of money laundering, aiding or abetting Mr. Ibrahim Magu or any other person whatsoever with money laundering or the commission of any crime whatsoever.

There are no petitions in which the name of the Claimant were referred to with respect to any allegations of criminality against Mr. Ibrahim Magu, or at all.

NAN had published a presidential committee report that audited the EFCC between 2015 and 2020 stating that Mr Omale was used as an instrument for the embattled EFCC boss to launder money.

Mr Omale, who is the General Overseer of Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministries International, Abuja, requested the government-owned newspaper to retract the publication which had severely injured his reputation, character and calling.

The cleric, however, said that he does not own a foreign bank account as indicated in the report. He is, therefore, seeking N1 billion in damages adding that he only visited Mr. Ibrahim Magu in a hospital in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, sometime in March 2020.

Mr Magu is currently being interrogated by a panel headed by Ayo Salami, former president of the appeal court over allegations of corruption and insubordination levelled against him. The allegations were made by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.
Advertising has a perception problem. Most people cant wait to skip or block ads on their web browsers. It is not perceived as something that fundamentally adds value into the consumers lives. This view is diametrically opposed to the ethos of marketing succinctly put by Marketoonist Founder Tom Fishburne, who says, The best marketing doesnt feel like marketing. In his podcast, called Advertising is Dead, host Varun Duggirala posits that this is a period of extreme change in the world of advertising, fuelled by the large amount of flux in the media and content industries.

Also read: Making India a global content powerhouse  how to tap the audience?

On July 25, 2020, Adgully brought together a group of leading marketers from diverse backgrounds to understand how marketing strategies have evolved to go beyond mainline advertising and how brand conversations have evolved beyond products and services to talk about something which everyone cares about, that is, ideas.

The Zoom webinar was joined by the speakers:

Karthik Nagarajan , Chief Content Officer, Wavemaker India (Moderator)

, Chief Content Officer, Wavemaker India (Moderator) Aashish Chopra , VP - Content Marketing, ixigo

, VP - Content Marketing, ixigo Karan Shroff , Vice President - Marketing, Unacademy

, Vice President - Marketing, Unacademy Jatin Chhikara , Lead - Digital Strategy (Global Brand), Royal Enfield

, Lead - Digital Strategy (Global Brand), Royal Enfield Arvind R P , Director, Marketing and Communications, McDonalds (West and South)

, Director, Marketing and Communications, McDonalds (West and South) Shailja Joshi , Category Lead, Potato Chips, PepsiCo India

, Category Lead, Potato Chips, PepsiCo India Sameer Saxena, Director of Marketing & Strategy, Legrand India

The kind of work done by the agencies and clients in the panel in the marketing space is pioneering. Karan Shroff, who leads all marketing activities for the ed-tech platform Unacademy, is one of the biggest proponents of content marketing. While many are aware of Unacademys Lets Crack It campaign and association with TVF for the web series Kota Factory, they raised the bar for branded content with their IP  Legends of Unacademy.

As moderator Karthik Nagarajan puts it, The platform not only let Unacademy talk about their products and services, but also own learning as a concept.

Speaking about the concept, Shroff says, When the Lockdown began, we figured that this is going to be a challenging period for students, who face daily hardships like rejection. We had the opportunity to do something that would nurture them in the right direction. The pandemic is a great leveller and affects every living soul on the planet. We created the Legends of Unacademy platform and brought together icons like Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, Mary Kom Sudha Murthy, Kevin Oleary, and Jimmy Wales to share their wisdom. Failure and rejection are a common strain in their careers, which they had to overcome. The platform allowed students to interact with these legends. Of course, the product experience and the live classes element played very well with the campaign concept.

Few brands have actually looked at this pandemic as an opportunity, says Nagarajan. On being asked how companies can cultivate organisational agility to respond to a crisis, PepsiCos Shailja Joshi responds, In tough times, organisational agility is a virtue that none of the brands can ignore. At PepsiCo, we embrace agility in two ways. Firstly, we are pushed to evolve our thinking, campaigns and strategy to suit the evolving consumer trends. Secondly, we are continuously listening to our consumer.

She illustrates how these two organisational values have helped PepsiCo deliver two outstanding campaigns. She says, During the Lockdown, everyone was showing gratitude to the frontline workers. We designed the Lays Heartwork campaign before the Lockdown came into force, but adapted it quickly to show gratitude to the workers in our supply chain. The marketing initiative was intended as a digital campaign, but seeing the feedback and appreciation from customers, we quickly took a 360-degree approach. The biggest leg of the campaign was when we thanked the Heartworkers of big and small brands alike. We also created special Lays packs for influencers that depicted how each Lays pack reaches the customer via the heartwork of farmers and truck drivers. Till date, the campaign has garnered 70 million impressions, over 27 million views, and 99.7% positive sentiment.

Heres how PepsiCo leveraged listening to accrue some brand love. Joshi says, Our media team picked up that Sonam Kapoor had put up a post on Instagram that she was craving Uncle Chipps. We ensured that within the day a carton of Uncle Chipps was sent to her. This generated a lot of love for the brand. These are small things but, in these times, they are important things to do.

Nagarajan then addresses ixigos Aashish Chopra, author of Fast, Cheap and Viral, a book on viral video marketing. He asks, What sort of investments do you need to make in content for it to go viral?

Chopra explains, Viral is an outcome and, therefore, is not in our hands. In my book, I tried to understand the equation which drives a lot of shares and engagements. The book is a manual for viral marketing and theres no gyaan, brain farts, or tips from the Internet, but rather actionable insights which are validated. The Lockdown was traumatic for everybody as flights were shut, offices were closed and salaries were cut. I never thought work from home would work in the creative collaboration space, because brainstorming is so essential for the creative process. Yet, we were able to deliver killer campaigns during work from home.

Adding further, he says, All business operations were shut and all we had left with were our users. I believe that today every company is not just a product and services company, but also a media company. For ixigo, there are millions of customers and users on social media who interact with us regularly. To engage these customers, we focus on creating content without spending too much money. We shot a compilation video, titled Sounds we miss, that went viral and was famously plagiarised. We learned that when times are tough, hope is not a strategy, you need something that delivers results.

Legrands Sameer Saxena spoke about the role of content in solving business problems. He says, For a brand to be successful, it has to break into a culture. To do that, we need to develop techniques that can help us break into that culture. In the last decade, social media has given rise to a crowd culture. Breaking into this culture is becoming very difficult for brands. I dont see this is a marketing problem, but rather a business challenge. The question is, how do you address this crowd culture with your business proposition? At Legrand, we look at content from the perspective that it can give us ownership of an idea. Then your commitment to the story and editorial integrity can make or break your idea.

Adding further, he says, Legrand launched a new product, IoT switches, and the complexity was that there were two stakeholders for the product. One on the B2B side, and the other on the B2C side. For the B2C business, we launched a web series targeted at a young target audience who could use the product and that was quite successful. This content also became a reference for the B2B side on how IoT switches would function in a commercial space like a retail showroom or a residential area and created a functional experience.

After many experiments with branded content, McDonalds Arvind RP arrived at a toolkit for creating successful content pieces. He says, For a brand like McDonalds, the ever-present challenge is to be relevant to the consumer and weave the brand into their daily conversations. While advertising has a role to play, you need to supplement it with branded content to create a habit.

An insight was to create content around a unified theme. Arvind RP remarks that the approach for the McCafe sub-brand would be very different from the main brand McDonalds. For a niche brand like McCafe, that is all about conversations over coffee, we chose Slam Poetry. To create branded content, you need to find emerging interest areas. One example is stand-up comedy, but it has been done to death and, therefore, is quite cluttered. We wanted to pick something that is unique, ownable and curiosity provoking. He recalls, When my team brought the idea to me, my first reaction was what is Slam Poetry. I believe curiosity inducing ideas work brilliantly on the digital platform.

McDonalds started small by first rolling out the initiative in Mumbai. The campaign met with success and gave the team at McDonalds the confidence to roll out in other cities.

Another piece of content that we did was for the McDonalds parent brand, he adds. We wanted to position the brand as an adda. We collaborated with specialist content houses and looked at content that already exists. Then we tweaked the next piece of content and wove in the brand seamless so that the branding would be really subtle.

Usually, most brands go about creating brand love via such initiatives, but Royal Enfield is a unique brand where the customers are really flagbearers for the brand. One of the few Indian brands that is exported abroad, Jatin Chhikara, who leads digital strategy for the brand across the globe, speaks about their strategy.

He says, Royal Enfield is an aspirational brand, where customers can easily join and live the brand experience. As Shailja pointed out, listening should be at the center of everything that you do and thats exactly what we do. In the last few years, creating content has become really accessible because of tools like Go Pro, which are flooding the market. We noticed that there were close to 700-800 pieces of content being uploaded almost on a daily basis by our community in the form of pictures or video. We thought, why dont we leverage this?

Adding further, he says, People within the company said that this content would not pass the brand filters because the brand Royal Enfield represents many other things like safe riding. When it comes to user generated content (UGC), you really have to be cautious of the pieces that you pick. To our surprise, we were able to curate a lot of UGC, which accomplished two things for us. It helped us celebrate the community that was engaged with the brand. We were able to tell the stories of their journeys to remote locations, which drove the aspirational quotient of the brand.

He observes, In a lot of categories, you have to place your brand within the context of the popular culture or counter culture, however, Royal Enfield as a motorcycle brand is uniquely placed, where conversations are told around it. While branded content works great at the top of the funnel, it also helps with consideration building. We want to introduce the brand not just as a motorcycle brand, but as a lifestyle. The events, customised motorcycles and UGC stories all flow into that strategy.

Watch the full session below.
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(Kitco News) - Copper giant Rio Tinto has announced a maiden resource and new gold discovery for its Winu copper-gold project in Western Australia.

In a press release Tuesday, the company said that at a 0.2% copper equivalent cutoff, is 503Mt at 0.45% copper equivalent.

Study work to date suggests the copper mineralisation supports the development of a relatively shallow open-pit mine, combined with industry-standard processing technology that is used at other Rio Tinto sites, the company said. We are targeting first production from Winu in 2023, subject to securing all necessary approvals.

Looking at the new gold zone, the company said that there is the potential to create a large-scale regional operation.

Were taking a more agile and innovative approach at Winu, and are working on the studies for a small-scale, start-up operation focused on Winus higher-grade core as we take another step towards commercialising this deposit. We are also assessing options for future expansion in the Paterson region given the extent of mineralisation identified to date and our large land package, said Stephen McIntosh, Rio Tinto group executive of Growth & Innovation and Health, Safety & Environment, in the press release. Weve so far carried out exploration activity in just 2% of our tenements in the region and were building on this discovery at Winu with further encouraging results.

Analysts at BMO said that although the maiden resource at Winu is modest in size, there is strong potential for future growth.
The two star Michelin chefs Eduard Xatruch and Oriol Castro, both wearing protective masks, work in the preparation of dishes. The sector is one of the hardest hit by the pandemic. Xavi Torrent | Getty Images News | Getty Images

"I just took a massive hit, my money just went from making a really, really decent salary to basically zero." Mo Boudreaux, a chef based in London, has been working in the restaurant business for over a decade, but the coronavirus pandemic has left him without a job. The large catering events he worked for were put on hold, and all restaurants had to close their doors. "The overriding sentiment is fear," Boudreaux told CNBC about his colleagues, who are anxious the industry will not fully reopen, which could in turn lead to additional layoffs. Boudreaux trained as a chef and worked in different restaurants in London and Dubai before becoming self-employed a few years ago to work at private events. He is among those that are under significant pressure because of the economic crisis brought on by the virus. Those who are self-employed are seen as vulnerable as they tend to receive less government support than other sections of the workforce. The U.K. government would also class a chef as being a low-skilled job, despite criticism, and would therefore be part of a group that is unlikely to be able to work from home. As the situation deteriorates for these two groups of workers, international organizations expect income inequality  the gap between the wealthiest households and the poorest  to get worse in 2020 due to the crisis.

"The pandemic and these (containment) measures have affected the lower-skilled workers to a greater extent than higher-skilled workers, and essentially this is because lower skilled workers often don't have the option of teleworking or videoconferencing," Malhar Nabar, division chief at the IMF's research department, told CNBC. "In that context we worry that the labor market outcomes, the employment prospects, the wage distribution that we see, all of that is going to be more skewed towards the high skilled workers," Nabar said. In addition, he noted that in emerging markets and developing economies, the crisis has heavily impacted migrant workers too, "who often work far away from their support networks (and) who don't often have large pools of savings." The International Monetary Fund warned back in April that inequality was likely to rise during the pandemic. Gita Gopinath, the Fund's chief economist, told CNBC at the time that "when you have a deep recession of this kind, there is always unfortunately tremendous loss of income for people at the lower end of the income scale." The institution expects the world economy to contract by 4.9% in 2020, with some nations in both developed and emerging worlds seeing gross domestic product (GDP) drops above 10%. Data available prior to the pandemic showed us that South Africa, Brazil, Zambia and Colombia were among the most unequal societies worldwide in terms of income. Meanwhile, between 1990 and 2015, Guinea-Bissau, Costa Rica, China and the United States actually saw income inequality getting worse.

If these (fiscal) measures are removed too soon, then some of the problems that they have been minimizing in the first phase will become much more evident. Stefano Scarpetta director at the OECD

There isn't yet any data available to show the full impact of the pandemic, but with unemployment levels going up and poverty rates increasing, the expectation is that the gap between the richest and the poorest will widen in many parts of the world. The World Bank has already said that poverty rates are going up for the first time since 1998, due to the coronavirus crisis. Under estimates made in June, it showed that Covid-19 could push 71 million people into extreme poverty. This means that these people will be living with or less than $1.90 per day. Under its worst-case scenario, Covid-19 and the associated lockdowns could send as much as 100 million into extreme poverty.

What to do about it?

Most governments have embarked on large fiscal stimulus to deal with the crisis. However, there are concerns these measures are not broad enough to support the most vulnerable. "Because I have been self-employed for at least three years, I haven't had any support from the government whatsoever," Boudreaux told CNBC. In the U.K., the government has been criticized for not supporting self-employed workers as much as those in full-employment and for taking too long to come up with benefits for this group of workers. Those who are self-employed in the U.K. have been able to apply for a three-month lump sum in July and a second and final payment will be available for application in August. However, the U.K. Treasury has signaled that, unlike those in full-time jobs, self-employed people are more likely to still be able to work. According to the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), governments should not remove these benefits too quickly. "If these measures are removed too soon, then some of the problems that they have been minimizing in the first phase will become much more evident. If they are kept for too long and for everyone then of course there would be much more disincentive for workers or companies to regain full activity," Stefano Scarpetta, director of employment, labour and social affairs at the OECD, told CNBC.

In addition, Scarpetta believes that as economies relax some of their health measures, they need to support the most-impacted sectors, such as restaurants and tourism. Within the various sectors, governments also need to identify the most vulnerable groups, which "is not easy," he said. This is particularly the case in countries with weak infrastructure. As a result, the IMF suggested that governments develop the necessary networks to reach their population. "In some countries you already have well existing infrastructure through well-established taxpayer ID registries through most people having bank accounts so relief can be distributed through those channels. But there are other economies where a lot of people may not have a formal presence on the tax registry, they don't have these IDs, they don't have bank accounts and that's a big challenge," Nabar from the IMF, said. Finally, governments will also need to retrain workers, so they are more easily employable by surviving and new businesses. It "will be important to have in place retraining and reskilling programs to facilitate workers' acquisition on new skills so they can get employment in different sectors," Nabar said.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- Food Dance, the farm-to-table staple that has been serving downtown Kalamazoo for 25 years, is back open for dine-in service and will soon offer outdoor seating.

With the restaurants 11,000 square feet of space, founder and executive chef Julie Stanley said she felt comfortable welcoming the community back in.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer banned dine-in service at bars and restaurants in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. The order was lifted June 8 with restrictions, including a requirement the businesses reopen at 50% capacity and maintain social distancing with at least 6 feet of separation between people.

Even with the 50% capacity limit, Food Dance can still serve 110 customers, Stanley said.

The joy of seeing our guests is amazing, she said. Its hard with masks, but its still really great.

The restaurant, located at 401 E Michigan Ave., has joined the more than 300 bar and restaurant owners in signing the MI Restaurant Promise, an agreement between restaurants and customers pledging to keep each other safe while dining.

Food Dance will soon offer outdoor dining to make customers feel more comfortable. Stanley said they sold off a piece of equipment to purchase a tent so that outdoor dining could be set up in the parking lot.

There will be three parking spots designated for those ordering carry-out from the restaurant.

Food Dance continues to work to serve their customers in the safest way possible, the owner said.

Now that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has allowed to-go cocktails, the restaurant is packaging its signature mimosas and Bloody Marys for brunch lovers to enjoy in the comfort of their own home.

The to-go cocktail kits and new vegan menu items are a bright spot in what has been a hard adjustment period for the business, Stanley said.

It is apparent that diners are still nervous about resuming their usual lunch meetings and date nights, Stanley said. Compared to this time last year, she said, the restaurant is pulling in about 40% of its usual sales.

Food Dances farm-to-table style puts it at the center of a local business ecosystem, so when the restaurant takes a hit so do the farms that supply it, Stanley said.

Thats why its so important for people support local restaurants, she said. [Its not] just about the money staying local and youre supporting the people that live in this town, but its a bigger community than that with all the farms and suppliers and purveyors, all the different people that we work with.

The restaurant is still buying all of its eggs and chickens from Carlson Farms in Lawton. The silver lining in buying smaller quantities is that owners can now buy beef from the farm as well, which Stanley describes as healthy and happy meat.

The key, farm-fresh philosophy wont change, as its the backbone for Food Dances success. The menu will still rotate with what is in season, Stanley said. Vegan and vegetarian options are also expanding.

People always said, Why did you decide to do a farm-to-table restaurant? I said, I didnt, I just, thats how I eat, Stanley said. I was always buying from farms and I would want to know where my food came from, and was always looking for the cleanest option.

The process behind serving such fresh products can be cumbersome, she said. For example, the bread and pastries are all made from scratch so time needs to be built in for the two-day process of letting the yeast rise slowly.

Some of her staff have been with the restaurant for a decade. Stanley said returning to work with only 30 of the usual 75 staff members was difficult. Sustaining that has been even harder.

At the beginning of the pandemic, she said, customers were generously tipping above 20%, but that has tapered off.

Most of the restaurant industry is based on gratuity, so to not have that in the volume that theyre used to, or that that provides them with a living wage, is really hard, Stanley said.

She said wages for both the front and the back of the restaurant were increased in response to the pandemic.

Servers now earn double their previous base wage. Additionally, almost $5,000 was raised through a GoFundMe as a relief fund for the staff when the restaurant closed in March.

Stanley described the restaurant reopening as a machine restarting. As the business celebrates its 25th anniversary, she said its exciting to see the wheels still turning despite all of the uncertainty.

Its like a big machine, so to see it kind of come back up it is very fun and exciting, she said. We just would like more people here.

Carry-out orders can be placed online or by calling 269-743-2261. Restaurant hours have changed to 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. A breakfast only menu is offered 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Read more on MLive:

Local Eats: Blue Dolphin owner thankful for Kalamazoo communitys support during pandemic

Local Eats: ZooCity Beastro opening soon in Kalamazoo

Local Eats: Black-owned restaurants offer community favorites in Kalamazoo
The ricochet of gunfire that led to the death of a 23-year-old man in downtown Winnipeg last November rang out for months through tensions between a pair of rival gangs, resulting in 11 arrests and the eventual seizure of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine, among other contraband.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/7/2020 (540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The ricochet of gunfire that led to the death of a 23-year-old man in downtown Winnipeg last November rang out for months through tensions between a pair of rival gangs, resulting in 11 arrests and the eventual seizure of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine, among other contraband.

For months after Jamshaid Wahabi was killed at Citizen Nightclub, and after 20-year-old Rig Moulebou was killed apparently in retaliation, Winnipeg Police Service Insp. Shawn Pike said officers were probing the groups, culminating in a trio of search warrants at homes in the Southdale neighbourhood in April.

TWITTER Rig Debak Moulebou

Pike said some followup work remains, however, the majority of the investigation into the gangs is complete after nine months. He wouldnt specify the names of the organizations, nor how long theyd been present in the city.

Asked what might have sparked the initial dispute that led to Wahabis death, Pike didnt say much, only saying that it was related to "the drug subculture."

The investigation began Nov. 2, when Wahabi, a former refugee from Afghanistan, was shot inside the downtown nightclub and the groups began shooting at one another outside the establishment. The club was subsequently shut down.

YOUTUBE In a 2012 hip-hop video, Jamshaid Wahabi was in his element, rapping with other newcomer kids about finding their way in a new country after fleeing a war zone.

Two days later, Moulebou was shot and killed in an apparent act of retaliation. Months later, three men  Abdullahi Abdulrehman Mohamed, Manuchehr Haroon and Arnold Mbaka Nduta  were arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Court documents show charges against Nduta were stayed in June. In April, Wahabis brother, Javaid, was arrested and also charged with first-degree murder in connection to Moulebous death.

After Wahabis funeral on Nov. 7, a 25-year-old named Rami Hagos was stopped by officers and found with a .50-calibre handgun which was later found to have been trafficked; Hagos was charged with over a dozen weapons-related offences as well as attempted murder.

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The next day, a search warrant at a home on Marine Drive led to the seizure of 22 firearms, and police say the gun Hagos allegedly carried came from the collection. Shane Kulathungam, 41, was charged with firearm offences following the warrant.

DANIEL CRUMP / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Wahabi was killed at Citizen Nightclub in the Exchange. Moulebou was killed two days later.

Pike said the investigation next led to the execution of three search warrants in the Southdale area in connection with suspected drug trafficking. Five kilograms of cocaine, worth an estimated $450,000 on the street, were seized, along with 2.5 kilograms of a cutting agent and $190,000 in cash and other paraphernalia police say is connected to the drug trade, like cellphones and gold jewelry.

Seven people were taken into custody and charged following that sting, including 26-year-old Haben Nipsey Weldekidan, 22-year-old Mohammad Moradi, 21-year-old Charles Kiniki, 25-year-old Stefany Dayana Castro Alvarez, and Zuhair (25), Zuhur (28) and Zubair (29) Mohammad-Zarif.

Though the most recent arrests occurred in April, Pike said the reason police were only now releasing information to the public is because certain charges needed to be authorized, and police were waiting for "that paperwork to be finalized."

 with files from Dean Pritchard and Ryan Thorpe

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca
'Global body of Christ' raises nearly $300K for family of pastor killed while helping others

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A GoFundMe page created for the family of a church planter and pastor who was killed in a highway accident as he was helping a driver who had stopped in the traffic lanes has raised nearly $300,000.

The account, set up for the family John Powell, senior pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in New Caney, Texas, stood at $284,365 Friday afternoon from donations of over 2,700 people.

On Twitter, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Andrew Walker, a family friend who set up the account, expressed his astonishment at the outpouring of support, adding that the global body of Christ is a living portrait of Romans 12:15: Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Powell was accidentally killed on July 18 in Sherman, Texas, after he pulled over to assist individuals who had been involved in a crash. The 38-year-old pastor was struck by a passing semi-truck and died at the scene of the accident. He left behind his wife, Katherine, and four children  Gunner, Bennett, Ada Kate, and Reese.

The GoFundMe page characterizes Powell as a servant and gentle leader we all knew and love [who] gave his life so that others may live.

His life embodies what his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, said, Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13), it reads. We are asking for friends and family to help care for the Powell family as they deal with unspeakable tragedy and grief. As they have shown all of their family and friends love in times past, let us now, as the body of Christ, show them love and care.

Donors include friends, acquaintances, and even individuals who didnt personally know the pastor.

A donor who manages the local coffee shop Powell often frequented said it was evident the pastor "wholeheartedly loved Christ and people.

He would typically come in to work on his sermons or bring his little girls in for a lunch date. Always wearing a plaid shirt and a bright smile," she recalled. "Compassionate, genuine, and kind, that was John. Its clear that he left a legacy. Prayers for The Fathers embrace and comfort to be upon his family and church body during this tragic time. You are in our hearts.

Powells death sparked an outpouring of tributes on social media from prominent pastors and Christian leaders.

Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Conventions Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, remembered Powell as sweet-tempered, humble, absolutely devoted to his wife, Katherine, and their four young children. He was everything I would want any of my sons to be when they grow up, in a lengthy post shared on social media.

It is impossible to imagine the heartbreak of this young family in the death of their husband & father & of this church in losing their pastor, wrote Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. But John Powell loved Christ, preached Christ, trusted Christ. Our hearts break for them. This is why we sing that all we have is Christ.

A memorial service for Powell was held on July 23 at Emmanuel Baptist Church.
Negreanu Twitch Ban Overshadows his Superb WSOP.com Showing

July 27, 2020

Six-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu enjoyed a superb WSOP Online 2020 but his antics on Twitch, including receiving a ban from the streaming platform, have overshadowed what are a fantastic set of results.

The GGPoker ambassador is better known for his live poker prowess where he has won more than $42 million during a long and illustrious career. Only Justin Bonomo and fellow GGPoker ambassador Bryn Kenney have won more from live poker tournaments.

Negreanu was determined to get his hands on his seventh WSOP bracelet by grinding the full WSOP Online 2020 festival on WSOP.com. While the Canadian superstar failed in that particular quest, he performed exceptionally well and racked up a list of cashes as long as his arm.

Follow all the latest from the WSOP - LIVE! The cards are in the air in the WSOP.com portion of the event. The PokerNews live reporting team is on top of all things WSOP. Don't miss a beat! FOLLOW HERE

We only had to wait until the second bracelet-awarding event, the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem 8-Handed Deepstack, to see Negreanus DNegs alias displayed in the payouts. Negreanu navigated his way to 18th place from 919-entrants and collected $5,849.

His largest score of the series came in Event #13: $1,500 No-Limit Holdem High Roller Freezeout where he crashed out in 27th place for a $6,381 addition to his bankroll.

Negreanu embarked on an amazing run during the latter stages of the festival, finishing in-the-money in his last seven events from Event #20 to #26. By the time the dust had settled, Negreanu had cashed in 15 of the 26 scheduled events and won $36,732.

Daniel Negreanus 2020 WSOP.com Results

Event Place Prize Event #2: $1,000 No-Limit Holdem 8-Handed Deepstack 18 $5,849 Event #3: $400 No-Limit Holdem 210 $677 Event #6: $600 PLO8 6-Handed 59 $1,304 Event #9: $1,000 No-Limit Holdem 6-Max 94 $1,851 Event #12: $500 The BIG 500 No-Limit Holdem 205 $1,092 Event #13: $1,500 No-Limit Holdem High Roller Freezeout 27 $6,381 Event #16: $500 No-Limit Holdem Turbo 86 $1,169 Event #17: $777 No-Limit Holdem 123 $1,354 Event #20: $500 PLO 6-Handed 25 $2,814 Event #21: $777 No-Limit Holdem 6-Handed 30 $5,145 Event #22: $500 No-Limit Holdem Turbo Deepstack 32 $2,913 Event #23: $500 No-Limit Holdem Knockout 25 $2,770 Event #24: $400 No-Limit Holdem 8-Handed 193 $867 Event #25: $500 No-Limit Holdem Summer Saver 183 $970 Event #26: $500 No-Limit Holdem Grand Finale 92 $1,576

A Brace Of Twitch Outbursts; One Results in a Ban

Were used to seeing Negreanu on our screens in the biggest televised events. Hes usually calm, collected and laid back, but he lost his composure twice during the WSOP online events.

Negreanu temporarily disconnected during Event #10: $600 Monster Stack. He disconnected as soon as the flop landed on the table and he serious lost his temper, thumping his fist on his desk, shaking his laptop and letting out some expletives.

A clip of the Negreanu blow up quickly circulated around social media with the majority of people reacting in a joking manner because weve all been on the receiving end of an untimely disconnection.

Watch Negreanu's reaction to disconnecting during a WSOP event

Threats of Violence to Viewer Who Insulted Negreanus Wife

Negreanus second outburst hasnt been received in a positive light at all. In fact, its seen a backlash from some prominent members of the poker community, and has resulted in a ban from streaming on Twitch.

Someone called Tom Estrada was watching Negreanus play in the Event #24: $400 No-Limit Holdem 8-Handed event and posted an insulting comment aimed at Negreanu's wife, Amanda. To say Negreanu didnt take too kindly to the comment is one of the understatements of the year.

Negreanu then went on an expletive-filled tirade which prompted a number of prominent poker players took to Twitter to air their disapproval at Negreanus comments. Jamie Kerstetter said he was enjoying Matt Berkeys stream especially the lack of violent threats and homophobia.

Enjoying @berkey11s stream, especially the lack of violent threats and homophobia  Jamie Kerstetter (@JamieKerstetter)

Doug Polk joined in with a trademark sarcastic tweet, simply stating A masterclass in discipline

The Deeb vs. Negreanu Twitter feud grows personal

Shaun Deeb and Negreanu have clashed several times over the years; theres no love lost between these two stars. Deeb stated his hoped Twitch looked into the clip and banned Negreanu before claiming the WSOP wouldnt do anything about Negreanus tirade.

I mean as much as I hate the guy in this clip thats just not the way to represent yourself Or our industry hope https://t.co/UavncKtJgv  shaun deeb (@shaundeeb)

Twitch Comes Down With The Ban Hammer

The WSOP has remained quiet on the issue but Twitch did indeed ban Negreanu from the popular streaming platform. Attempting to visit Negreanus Twitch channel brings up a holding page stating Sorry. Unless youve got a time machine, that content is unavailable."

Theres been no official word from Twitch in regards to the length of the ban but the former GGPoker Team pro Scrimitzu tweeted he believes theres a 90% chance the ban is for 24-hours and a very slim chance the ban extends to 3-7 days.

From my Twitch experience it's a tempban. 90% it's a 24hr very slim chance it extends for 3-7 days. https://t.co/voZC7CvsJJ  Scrimitzu (@scrimitzu)

Bracelet Quest Turns To GGPoker

Negreanu will be hoping to put this episode behind him and allow his poker do the talking when he resumed his bracelet hunt online at GGPoker. Hes said previously he plans to head to Mexico so he can play on GGPoker and try secure what would be his seventh WSOP bracelet. Whether he streams his action once his ban is over remains to be seen.

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The bonus releases into your account in $10 increments each time you earn 6,000 Fish Buffet Points, which is the equivalent of $60 in rake or tournament fees.
Every time we go out into this, we get better at it, said Gregory McKelvey, 27, a community organizer in Portland. When a flash bang first goes off in front of you, you run. But when you realize that one went off right in front of you and nothing happened to you, youre less likely to run the next time. It makes people band together and say, No, were not backing down. 
The Bachelorette 2020 has been announced - and it's not one woman, but two.

There's another shock twist: the pair are sisters, Becky Miles and Elly Miles, who will look for love by taking their pick from a number of suitors, side by side.

Elly, 25, was a popular contestant on Matt Agnew's season of The Bachelor last year; however, Becky, 30, is new to television.

Incoming! The Bachelorette 2020 has been announced - and it's not one woman, but two. There's another shock twist: the pair are sisters, Becky Miles (right) and Elly Miles (left)

While The Bachelorette New Zealand had two women searching for love earlier this year, two sisters is a world first for the franchise.

The sisters are reportedly in lockdown ahead of filming, which is said to begin shortly.

Elly, who works as a nurse, said on Tuesday: 'I'm looking for a man that is keen to keep up with my adventurous lifestyle.

'I'd love to find a best mate who has a positive attitude, kind nature and who is motivated to be the best person they can be.'

Remember her? Elly, 25, was a popular contestant on Matt Agnew's season of The Bachelor last year; however, Becky, 30, is new to television

Exciting: Elly (pictured) said on Tuesday, 'I'd love to find a best mate who has a positive attitude, kind nature... Someone who is always up for a laugh'

Precedent: While The Bachelorette New Zealand had two women searching for love earlier this year, two sisters is a world first for the franchise. Pictured: Bachelorette NZ's Dr Lesina Nakhid-Schuster (left) and Lily McManus (right)

The bubbly blonde, who was a fan favourite on Matt's season of The Bachelor, added that she would like 'someone who is always up for a laugh'.

For Becky, a defence contracting specialist, it was her sister who encouraged her to try the reality TV route to dating.

'I never thought I'd do anything like this, but Elly's always pushed me outside of my comfort zone so with my sister by my side - I thought why not, let's give it a crack at finding love,' she said.

Love match: Becky (pictured), a defence contracting specialist, said that it was her sister who encouraged her to try the reality TV route to dating

Ready for love: 'I never thought I'd do anything like this, but Elly's always pushed me outside of my comfort zone so with my sister by my side - I thought why not, let's give it a crack at finding love,' Becky said

Trying again: Becky, who has recently suffered a heartbreak, is looking for someone honest and loyal, and who has good 'banter'

Becky, who has recently suffered a heartbreak, is looking for someone honest and loyal, and who has good 'banter'.

Failing to find love with astrophysicist Matt, Elly placed fifth on the 2019 season of The Bachelor.

She was subsequently linked to Love Island star Adam Farrugia, whom she stepped out with at a fashion show in Brisbane.

Too bad! Failing to find love with astrophysicist Matt Agnew (right), Elly placed fifth on the 2019 season of The Bachelor

Talk: She was then linked to Love Island's Adam Farrugia (right), whom she stepped out with at a fashion show in Brisbane. However, they said at the time that they were 'just mates'

However, they said at the time that they were 'just mates'.

Late last year, Elly was back on the market, having been spotted on the dating app Bumble.

After she left The Bachelor, Elly was reportedly among five former contestants in the running to be the next Bachelorette.
Fairport Harbor Village voters might get the chance to decide the fate of three levy renewals in the Nov. 3 general election.

Village Council recently passed three separate resolutions expressing its desire to place renewal levies on the ballot for police and fire department operations, and for construction and repairs of streets, roads and bridges in the community.

Fairport Harbor voters last approved all three of these five-year issues in the November 2016 election.

The police, fire and road levies are all renewal levies  no additional money is being requested, village Mayor Timothy Manross said. We are very fortunate that Village Council, the administration, and our staff continue to work together to find ways to save, and stretch, every dollar, in order to offer the best services to our residents.

Village Council, during its July 21 meeting held remotely by video conference, voted unanimously to submit the levy resolutions to the Lake County Elections Board.

Local questions and issues for the Nov. 3 election must be submitted to the Elections Board by 4 p.m., Aug. 5. Its anticipated that the panel will hold a meeting by Aug. 21 to certify or reject questions and issues, as well as candidates, for the November ballot.

If the Elections Board gives its authorization, Fairport Harbor voters will decide these three five-year levy renewals on Nov. 3:

* A 3.9-mill police levy renewal.

Renewal of the police levy would cost taxpayers $119.63 for each $100,000 of property valuation, and raise $195,772 per year, according to the Lake County Auditors Office.

The Fairport Harbor Police Department has worked diligently to provide safety services to the Fairport Harbor community with a minimal level of staffing, Police Chief J.P. Leonard said. The support of the police levy will help us to maintain our equipment, support our officers and ensure public safety. We are truly grateful for the communitys continued support as we navigate these challenging times.

* A 2.5-mill fire levy renewal.

Renewal of the fire levy would cost taxpayers $76.69 for each $100,000 of property valuation, and raise $125,495 per year, according to the Lake County Auditors Office.

The levy is critical to the Fairport Harbor Fire Department to enable us to continue to provide quality, efficient services to the community, Fire Chief Bob Lloyd said. We thank the residents for the passage of the previous levy and appreciate the support.

Lloyd said revenue from the fire levy is used for equipment only.

No salaries can be paid from it, he said.

Revenue generated by the current five-year levy was used to replace a 1992 fire engine and a 2006 rescue squad, Lloyd said.

Other equipment purchased with levy funding included new fire hose and nozzles, several sets of turnout gear and several helmets.

In addition, Lloyd said levy revenue paid the departments share of a Regional Assistance to Firefighters Grant that purchased 14 self contained breathing apparatuses.

If the renewal fire levy is approved, funding will be allocated to purchase a new rescue squad, replacing a 17-year-old model; and continue efforts to replace firefighting turnout gear and equipment, the chief said.

Any resident with questions (about the fire levy) can email or call me to have them answered, Lloyd said.

* A 1.9-mill road levy renewal.

If the road levy is renewed, it would cost taxpayers $58.28 for each $100,000 of property valuation, and raise $95,337 per year, according to the Lake County Auditors Office.

The resolution approved by council states that this levy will provide funds for the purpose of the general construction, reconstruction, resurfacing, and repair of streets, roads and bridges in the village.

As of July 27, there were 2,147 registered voters in Fairport Harbor who would be eligible to vote on the levies in November.
Rome, July 29 : Italy will extend its coronavirus state of emergency until October 15, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced in the Italian Senate on Tuesday.

The current state of emergency is set to expire on Friday.

"Although the curve of the contagion and the impact (of the coronavirus) on the national health service has reduced significantly, something that encourages us, the data tell us that the virus continues to circulate in our country," Conte said, Xinhua reported.

The state of emergency gives government officials temporary power to act quickly to tamp down new coronavirus outbreaks and allocate funding, all through the use of emergency decrees. It also includes specific travel restrictions, and requirements for social distancing and mask-wearing.

Conte said the extension will assure that the government can "remain on guard and ready to intervene quickly if the situation worsens".

But the extension of the state of emergency does not necessarily mean the specific rules of the current state of emergency will be extended. The terms for the new period will be negotiated by members of the Council of Ministers.

Italy was the first European country hit hard by the coronavirus. Though infection rates and the death toll have improved dramatically in recent weeks, Italy has suffered more than 35,000 deaths, while official figures show nearly 250,000 people have been infected by the outbreak, with nearly 200,000 of them recovered.
(In United States dollars, except where noted otherwise)



TORONTO, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Quantum Minerals Ltd. ("First Quantum" or the "Company") (TSX:FM) today reported results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020. The Company reported, for the three months ended June 30, 2020 ("Q2"), a comparative loss1 of $84 million ($0.12 loss per share1), net loss attributable to shareholders of the Company1 of $156 million ($0.23 loss per share1) and cash flows from operating activities of $155 million ($0.23 per share1).

"Although the second quarter of 2020 has brought unprecedented challenges around the globe, the Company has shown resilience and performed very well financially and operationally. Copper production from our Zambian operations, in particular, was strong and Sentinel achieved record low unit costs for the quarter. Our organization has had to change and adapt in order to protect the health and welfare of our workforce and communities, while ensuring the continuation of the business in these uncertain times. With this in mind, we've been proactive in taking steps to provide stability to future cashflows with the expansion of our sales hedge program in July, as copper prices continue to rise significantly from low prices experienced for much of the quarter," commented Philip Pascall, Chairman and CEO. "We are indebted to our workforce at the front line in our mines, many of whom have been unable to return to their family and homes for long periods as a result of quarantine requirements, rotation timings and travel restrictions. I would like to thank all of our people who have made these personal sacrifices and recognize the significant contribution they continue to make to the success of the business. I would also like to express our sincere condolences to those who have been ill and especially to the families and colleagues of the five employees and contractors who very sadly died in Panama."

SECOND QUARTER SUMMARY:

Operational Highlights: 169,059 tonnes of total copper production 2 in Q2, comparable to the same period of 2019, including 21,733 tonnes of copper production from Cobre Panama while on preservation and safe maintenance. Q2 cost of copper production 3 : all-in sustaining cost ("AISC") of $1.62 per lb and cash cost ("C1") of $1.20 per lb, 8% and 9% lower, respectively, than the comparable period in 2019; total unit costs, C1 and AISC are at the lowest level achieved in three years. 54,651 ounces of total gold production in Q2, an 8% decrease from the comparable period of 2019. 1,979 tonnes of total nickel production 2 in Q2 as Ravensthorpe continued to ramp up production. The first shipment of nickel occurred in May with a successive shipment in June and monthly shipments are expected for the remainder of the year. Ravensthorpe is expected to continue ramping up through the third quarter. Sentinel performed exceptionally in the quarter, with its highest production since 2018 of 60,761 tonnes, and record low costs for the operation, C1 costs for the quarter of $1.36 per lb. Throughput increased significantly resulting in an 11% increase in copper production, while lower fuel prices and currency depreciation, coupled with increased production, improved costs. Kansanshi delivered another robust performance with higher throughput and recoveries on the sulphide and mixed ore circuits ensuring overall production was in line with the same quarter in 2019. Guelb Moghrein delivered production consistent with same period in 2019 with significantly lower costs. C1 costs of $0.48 per lb were 47% lower than the same period in 2019 driven by lower mining and fuel costs and the lowest in a decade. AISC of $0.87 per lb was 27% lower than the same period in 2019 and the lowest ever reported. Las Cruces production was higher than the same period in 2019 as a result of operating at normal throughput levels compared to the second quarter of 2019, which was impacted by a land slippage. Cobre Panama's production was significantly impacted in the quarter as a result of being placed on preservation and safe maintenance on April 7, 2020 following suspension of labour activities due to COVID-19. During this suspension, the port and power plant continued operations in order to supply essential electrical power into the Panama national grid, and to sustain the preservation and safe maintenance activities. On July 3, 2020 the temporary suspension orders at Cobre Panama were lifted and on July 7, 2020, the Company announced the resumption of normal operations and the commencement of the reopening plan for the ramp up of operations, full production levels are expected to be reached by mid-August. Kansanshi smelter processed 273,673 dry metric tonnes of copper concentrate, produced 66,905 tonnes of copper anode and 264,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid, lower than the comparable period in 2019 as a result of lower throughput due to a planned maintenance shutdown in the quarter.



Three months ended Six months ended June 30 June 30 (U.S. dollars where applicable) 2020 2019 2020 2019 COPPER - Production2 (tonnes) 169,059 168,399 364,344 305,368 - Sales4 (tonnes) 159,944 149,333 349,897 279,595 - Cost of production3: o AISC (per lb) $1.62 $1.77 $1.63 $1.77 o C1 (per lb) $1.20 $1.32 $1.25 $1.33 o C3 (per lb) $2.08 $2.17 $2.14 $2.19 - Realized price (per lb) $2.60 $2.80 $2.58 $2.80 GOLD - Production (ounces) 54,651 59,647 123,439 109,004 - Sales (ounces)5 54,591 56,922 128,373 103,712

Financial Highlights Sales revenues for the quarter of $1,014 million, an increase of 8% from the comparable period of 2019 primarily driven by copper and gold sales from Cobre Panama and higher sales from Las Cruces offset by lower realized copper prices and the timing of sales at Sentinel delayed by an outage at a third party smelter. $155 million of cash flows from operating activities ($0.23 per share 1 ) generated during the quarter was slightly lower than the same period in 2019 as a result of a $26 million increase in taxes paid. Gross profit of $141 million for the quarter compared to $196 million for the same period in 2019. Comparative EBITDA 1 of $352 million for the quarter compared to $376 million for the same period in 2019. Realized price for copper of $2.60 per lb for the quarter was 7% lower than the same period in 2019. This compares to a decrease of 12% in the London Metal Exchange ("LME") average copper price, to $2.43 per lb, for the same period. The Company's copper sales hedge program contributed $77 million ($0.22 per lb) to sales revenues in the quarter, compared to a $19 million sales hedge gain ($0.06 per lb) in the same quarter of 2019. The Company's nickel sales hedge program contributed $9 million to sales revenues in the quarter. Subsequent to the end of the quarter, as a result of increased copper prices and given uncertainty around the impact of COVID-19, the Company has taken the opportunity to extend its copper sales hedge program to mitigate any future price risk. At July 28, 2020, the Company had hedge positions for 416,200 tonnes of copper using unmargined copper forward and zero cost collar sales contract with an average floor price of $2.70 per lb. This represents approximately half of the Company's expected sales for the next 12 months. Ended the quarter with $882 million in net unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, current working capital of $1,078 million and is in full compliance with all financial covenants.



Three months ended

June 30 Six months ended

June 30 (U.S. dollars millions, except where noted otherwise) 2020 2019 2020 2019 Sales revenues 1,014 939 2,196 1,796 Gross profit 141 196 288 381 Net earnings (loss) attributable to shareholders of the Company Company (156) 78 (218) 131 Basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share

($0.23) $0.11 ($0.32) $0.19 Comparative EBITDA1,6

352 376 786 744 Comparative earnings (loss)1

(84) 87 (163) 182 Comparative earnings (loss) per share1

($0.12) $0.13 ($0.24) $0.26 Cash flow from operating activities

155 179 628 338 Cash flow from operating activities per share1 $0.23 $0.26 $0.91 $0.49

1 Net earnings (loss) attributable to shareholders of the Company has been adjusted to exclude items which are not reflective of underlying performance to arrive at comparative earnings (loss). Comparative earnings (loss), comparative earnings (loss) per share, comparative EBITDA and cash flows per share are not measures recognized under IFRS and do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. The Company has disclosed these measures to assist with the understanding of results and to provide further financial information about the results to investors. Refer to the "Regulatory Disclosures" section in the MD&A for the period ended June 30, 2020 for further information.

2 Production is presented on a contained basis and is presented prior to processing through the Kansanshi smelter.

3 AISC, C1 and C3 costs per pound are not recognized under IFRS. Refer to the "Regulatory Disclosures" section in the MD&A for the period ended June 30, 2020 for further information. C1, C3 and AISC costs exclude third-party concentrate purchased at Kansanshi.

4 Copper sales exclude the sale of copper anode produced from third-party concentrate purchased at Kansanshi. Sales of copper anode attributable to third-party concentrate purchases were nil for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 (nil and 1,182 tonnes for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020, respectively).

5 Excludes refinery-backed gold credits purchased and delivered under the precious metal streaming arrangement.

6 Adjustments to comparative EBITDA in the second quarter of 2020 relate principally to foreign exchange (foreign exchange and write-off of assets and costs associated with the land slippage at Las Cruces in the second quarter of 2019).

COVID-19 impacts

The Company continues to focus on measures to prevent and manage the transmission of COVID-19 amongst the workforce and the wider community. When COVID-19 was declared an international public health emergency by the World Health Organization in late January, the Company moved quickly to introduce health and sanitation protocols across all of its sites in compliance with both local and international guidelines. These health protocols continue to be reviewed and adjusted as needed. In Panama, the Company is supporting the wider community with donations of medical equipment and supplies, as well as responding to the Panamanian Government's request to support families in need with food and supplies. In Zambia, the Company has pledged financial support for the provision of medical logistics support in the Solwezi and Kalumbila districts of North-Western Zambia. In addition to increased medical facility resilience initiatives at the mine clinics in Mauritania, Zambia and Panama, COVID-19 protective measures to minimize person-to-person transmission in the work place and protect business continuity have been implemented across all operations.

Tragically, five employees/contractors from Cobre Panama succumbed to symptoms associated with COVID-19 in April and May. The Company extends its deepest sympathies to their families and colleagues and is grateful to the dedicated health professionals in Panama who treated them in hospital and those who have been working to resolve the wider pandemic in the country. Cobre Panama has undertaken a deep disinfection program and has developed heightened health protocols at the highest international standards and which are regularly inspected by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Panama ("MINSA"). These strict protocols and sanitary vigilance remain in place as a "new normal" way of working. During preservation and safe maintenance there were approximately 800 personnel onsite, which will be gradually increased in compliance with Cobre Panama's reopening plan and in line with MINSA guidelines as the operation ramps up to full production, expected by mid-August. There are approximately 1,450 personnel currently onsite.

The Company's other operations have not been significantly impacted by restrictions arising from COVID-19, with the exception of Las Cruces, which recommenced mining activities on April 13, 2020, after a two-week suspension to mining activities, during which the operation continued to process stockpiles.

Production guidance for Cobre Panama for 2020 has been revised to 180,000 to 200,000 tonnes of copper and 70,000 to 80,000 ounces of gold. Guidance for production at all other copper operations remains unchanged from previously disclosed.

2020 GUIDANCE REVISIONS

Production guidance has been reduced for copper by 30,000 tonnes at the bottom end of the range previously given and 35,000 tonnes at the top end to 725,000 - 770,000 tonnes and gold by 20,000 ounces to 230,000 - 250,000 ounces to reflect current assumptions at Cobre Panama following the lifting of temporary suspension orders on July 3, 2020. Guidance on Ravensthorpe production has been narrowed to 15,000 to 17,000 tonnes of nickel.

C1 and AISC cost guidance remains unchanged.

Guidance for total capital expenditure is unchanged at $675 million but with a change in mix between capitalized stripping and other capital expenditure. The reduction in capitalized stripping to $175 million, reflects latest mine plans and reduced activity at Cobre Panama during the second quarter. The increase in sustaining capital and other projects to $500 million, reflects essential expenditure on mining fleet and equipment as well as latest phasing of capital expenditure.

Guidance for the Company's sustaining capital and other projects includes expenditure relating to Cobre Panama for construction work for the tailings management facility and development work associated with the expansion to 100 mtpa capacity. Other projects in 2020 include the Shoemaker Levy deposit at Ravensthorpe, and some spend on the fourth crusher at Sentinel. Underlying sustaining capital expenditure is expected to be approximately $220 million in 2020.

Guidance on 2020 interest expense of between $770 and $810 million, and effective tax rate of 30%, remain unchanged from previously disclosed. Depreciation for the full year 2020 is now expected to be approximately $1,250 million, a reduction of $50 million to reflect lower production at Cobre Panama.

Production Guidance

000's 2020 Copper (tonnes) 725 - 770 Gold (ounces) 230 - 250

Nickel (tonnes) 15 - 17

Cash Cost and All-In Sustaining Cost

Copper ($/ lb) 2020 C1 1.20 - 1.35 AISC 1.65 - 1.80

Capital Expenditure

$ million 2020 Capitalized stripping 175 Sustaining capital and other projects 500 Total capital expenditure 675

Guidance provided is based on a number of assumptions and estimates as of June 30, 2020, including among other things, assumptions about metal prices and anticipated costs and expenditures. The unprecedented challenges presented by COVID-19 pose some additional risk to the accuracy of forward looking information. Production guidance and cost guidance includes current assumptions on the impact of COVID-19 on operations. Guidance involves estimates of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results to be materially different. (Please see the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis for the period ending June 30, 2020 for additional detail.)

CONFERENCE CALL & WEBCAST

Conference call and webcast details are as follows:

Date: July 29, 2020 Time: 9:00 am (EDT); 2:00 pm (BST); 6:00 am (PDT) Webcast: www.first-quantum.com Dial in: North America (toll free): (877) 291-4570 North America and international: (647) 788-4919 Replay: Available from noon (EDT) on July 29, 2020 until 11:59 pm (EDT) on August 12, 2020 North America (toll free): (800) 585-8367 North America and international: (416) 621-4642 Passcode: 1388802

COMPLETE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

The complete Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the period ended June 30, 2020 are available at www.first-quantum.com (http://www.first-quantum.com) and should be read in conjunction with this news release.

For further information visit our website at www.first-quantum.com (http://www.first-quantum.com)

North American contact: Lisa Doddridge, Director, Investor Relations

Tel: (416) 361-6400 Toll-free: 1 (888) 688-6577



United Kingdom contact: Clive Newall, President

Tel: +44 7802 721663

E-Mail: info@fqml.com

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements include estimates, forecasts and statements as to the Company's expectations of production and sales volumes, and expected timing of completion of project development at Enterprise and post-completion construction activity at Cobre Panama and are subject to the impact of ore grades on future production, the potential of production disruptions, potential production, operational, labour or marketing disruptions as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic (including but not limited to the temporary suspension of labour activities at Cobre Panama implemented in April 2020), capital expenditure and mine production costs, the outcome of mine permitting, other required permitting, the outcome of legal proceedings which involve the Company, information with respect to the future price of copper, gold, silver, nickel, zinc, pyrite, cobalt, iron and sulphuric acid, estimated mineral reserves and mineral resources, First Quantum's exploration and development program, estimated future expenses, exploration and development capital requirements, the Company's hedging policy, and goals and strategies. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved.

With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, the Company has made numerous assumptions including among other things, assumptions about continuing production at all operating facilities, the price of copper, gold, silver, nickel, zinc, pyrite, cobalt, iron and sulphuric acid, anticipated costs and expenditures and the ability to achieve the Company's goals. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These factors include, but are not limited to, future production volumes and costs, the temporary or permanent closure of uneconomic operations, costs for inputs such as oil, power and sulphur, political stability in Zambia, Peru, Mauritania, Finland, Spain, Turkey, Panama, Argentina and Australia, adverse weather conditions in Zambia, Finland, Spain, Turkey, Mauritania, Australia and Panama, labour disruptions, potential social and environmental challenges (including the impact of climate change), power supply, mechanical failures, water supply, procurement and delivery of parts and supplies to the operations, the production of off-spec material and events generally impacting global economic, political and social stability.

See the Company's Annual Information Form for additional information on risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to the forward-looking statements and information. Although the Company has attempted to identify factors that would cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those disclosed in the forward-looking statements or information, there may be other factors that cause actual results, performances, achievements or events not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. Also, many of these factors are beyond First Quantum's control. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Company undertakes no obligation to reissue or update forward-looking statements or information as a result of new information or events after the date hereof except as may be required by law. All forward-looking statements and information made herein are qualified by this cautionary statement.




Iran will pursue peaceful nuclear program with IAEA, deputy FM says

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, July 27, IRNA -- Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that Iran will continue peaceful nuclear activities with the International Atomic Energy Agency according to the regulations agreed with the IAEA.

In an article published in a special issue of Polish Magazine 'Politika Polska' on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of JCPOA, he added that whenever Iran's interests are served under the deal, the country is ready to return to its commitments.

Iran has always been seeking to exploit nuclear knowledge to meet its development needs, both in the years before the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and in the years after, he said.

Criticizing deal-bashing policies of the western states, Araghchi said that it seems that their general perception was that with the departure of technical experts and investments made, Iran's nuclear activities in line with development of the country would stop.

Araghchi also slammed monopolistic policies of the owners of nuclear technologies, saying that they have adopted contractionary policy against any request.

Referring to Iran's continuous adherence to cooperation with IAEA, he said that despite political propaganda by elements affiliated to the Western and Israeli security services, Iran has never cut off cooperation and dialogue with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

As a responsible and accountable country to the international community, Iran responded to all ambiguities and misinformation about its peaceful nuclear activities and made it fully transparent to the competent international body, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the senior diplomat said.

Finally, the massive news propaganda against Iran's peaceful nuclear program was thwarted by providing information, conducting numerous inspections, installing cameras, and presence of IAEA inspectors at all nuclear sites and related activities, he said.

The use of peaceful energy is an inalienable right of the Iranian people, and Iran will not surrender this right to the US bullying, he said.

8072**2050

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China on Tuesday once again lashed out at India on last months banning of 59 Chinese mobile apps including WeChat (the Chinese equivalent of WhatsApp) and asked it to avoid correct its wrongdoing, warning that China will also take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.

China said that India by its deliberate interference had severely damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.

The apps had been banned last month by India on grounds of national security and was seen by observers as a measure by New Delhi to impose economic costs on Beijing for its aggression along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Ladakh sector.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Chinese Embassy said, On June 29, the Indian government banned 59 mobile apps with Chinese background including WeChat, which severely damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies. The Chinese side has lodged solemn representation to the Indian side and asked the Indian side to correct its wrongdoings. Beijing further said it wants to reiterate that the Chinese government consistently asks Chinese enterprises to abide by international rules and local laws and regulations when conducting external cooperation.

The Chinese Embassy added, The Indian government has the responsibility to protect the legitimate rights and interests of international investors in India, including Chinese businesses, in accordance with market principles. Practical cooperation between China and India is mutually beneficial. Deliberate interference in such cooperation will not serve the interests of the Indian side. China will also take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.

This is the second time in the past four weeks that the Chinese Embassy has hit out at Indias move. On June 30, it had expressed serious concern over Indias decision to ban the 59 Chinese Apps including the very popular Tik Tok on national security grounds, and asked New Delhi to stop the discrimination.

The Chinese Embassy had then said it suspects the Indian move violates World Trade Organisation (WTO) guidelines, abuses exceptions in Indian law for national security, adding that New Delhi made the decision on ambiguous and far-fetched grounds. Beijing had also then claimed the ban would affect employment and livelihoods of local Indian workers, creators and entrepreneurs associated with these apps and also the interests of Indian users.
Doosan Heavy Industry & Construction built Korea's first offshore wind power facilities adjacent to Jeju Island in 2017. / Courtesy of Doosan Heavy Industry & Construction



By Kim Jae-heun



The government's Green New Deal initiative is picking up steam, with over 70 trillion won to be invested to nurture eco-friendly new growth engines and provide local companies more business opportunities in the renewable energy sector.



However, there is growing cause for concern as local firms are fairly new to the eco-friendly market and they will need to compete with global powerhouses in the bidding for government contracts. Foreign companies have for decades been developing state-of-the-art eco-friendly technologies, differentiating their products in addition to the massive leverage in price competitiveness.



Industry watchers believe that in a fair competition setting, foreign companies will have a massive advantage over local companies and could win most government-led projects in the coming years.



Recently, the government revealed a plan to invest 25 billion won ($20.85 million) in offshore wind farms as part of its effort to foster the renewable energy industry here. It expects to increase the scale of such facilities by a factor of 100 by 2030 to increase electrical generation capacity to 12 gigawatts.



However, domestic firms do not own technology of a level equal to that of global companies. That of local companies is said to barely approach 80 percent of the capability offered by foreign competitors. Moreover, building offshore wind facilities requires scores of imported materials.



Turbines made in Korea are on average 38 percent more expensive than those made outside the country, and the windmill blades are 14 percent pricier.



Thus, there are arguments that the government should amend the support and bidding systems in favor of domestic firms. However, this too can cause international trade disputes and the government is concerned about foreign governments retaliating against Korean firms when conducting bidding in their countries.



The United States and China are likely to retaliate against Korea.



"The U.S. can impose a tariff on Korean export goods under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act and China already gave Korean firms a hard time in 2016 when the previous administration deployed a U.S. THAAD defense missile system," a government official said. "Local companies are afraid of trade retaliation and they ask us to avoid the risk of fixing the system to be favorable to them."



Experts say domestic companies have to swiftly develop their technical skills in order to survive in the market and not get beaten out by foreign rivals.



The story is the same in the electric vehicle (EV) market.



In the first half of this year, EV sales increased by 2.7 percent year-on-year. However, sales of EVs made by Korean firms plunged by 43.1 percent. Meanwhile, U.S. company Tesla sold 7,080 EVs here, which is 17 times more than in 2019.



Tesla's significant sales growth is reportedly affected by the government and local governments' policies to subsidize eco-friendly cars. The U.S. carmaker took nearly 90 billion won of the total 209.2 billion won benefits given out for EV purchases.



Domestic carmakers lost their position in the market as the government did not discriminate in providing subsidies for foreign or Korean firms.



Chinese companies did well in the electric bus sector here. Their market share in the first half of this year rose by 7.8 percent points to show 38.7 percent. Chinese electric buses are about 100 million won cheaper than Korean ones. The government, again, paid subsidies to companies regardless of country, and Chinese firms received 5.9 billion won, which comprised 35.1 percent of the total paid.


The notable results of Amber Turner's impressive body transformation were once again on display as she took to Instagram on Monday evening.

The TV personality, 27, has lost one stone and five pounds (8 kg) after embarking on her new fitness plan, Active With Amber.

And the impact of her lifestyle overhaul was evident as she stripped down to a blue lace bra and matching underwear for her latest social media update.

Looking good: The notable results of Amber Turner's impressive body transformation were once again on display as she took to Instagram on Monday evening

Looking toned and trim, the TOWIE cast-member shows off her slender physique while modelling the two-piece lingerie set for online retailer boohoo.

Earlier that day Amber revealed her body transformation in a series of before and after snaps, once again shared with her Instagram followers.

The blogger - who has always boasted a slender figure - stripped down to grey underwear by Calvin Klein to showcase her more toned and ripped frame as she enthused she feels 'better than ever'.

Toned and trim: Earlier that day Amber revealed her body transformation in a series of before and after snaps, once again shared with her Instagram followers

Going make-up free in the throwback picture, the blonde beauty still looked slim as she posed against a white wall.

The media personality placed the flashback images alongside recent shots of herself to highlight her sculpted abs and perkier bottom.

Detailing her lifestyle overhaul, Amber captioned the images: 'Girls its here! My Brand new @activewithamber_ : THE TONED BODY PLAN, is now LIVE.

'Whether you did the first plan or this is your first one, you are going to love it! It changed my body so much and I feel the best Ive ever felt!

Slimmed down: The TOWIE star has managed to lose one stone and five pounds (8 kg) by following her new fitness plan Active With Amber

Incredible: The blogger stripped down to grey underwear by Calvin Klein to showcase her more toned and ripped frame as she enthused she feels 'better than ever'

'Ive felt so self conscious & really didnt want to post my before pics because i was very unhappy with my body, but wanted to show you guys the power of my plan!' (sic)

Revealing she lost weight without the help of a personal gym, the girlfriend of TOWIE co-star Dan Edgar added: 'Its b****y amazing, i did it in my own home, no gym, no PT - Just a set of 4KG adjustable dumbbells! Ive lost 1 stone 5 pounds!

'So in my new plan youll find 10 brand new workouts and new styles of training. Brand new healthy recipes, Plus my 5k Kickstart...4 mp3 workouts that you can download to your phone and listen to while youre running.

A couple that stay fit together... Amber had been using her time in lockdown to engage in a series of home workouts with her partner Dan Edgar (L)

'Ill be in your ears, alongside some motivating music, guiding you through interval training sessions....and you get all of this for just a one-off payment.

'Whether youre a beginner or a total fitness enthusiast you can do this plan and get so much out of it. Click the link in my bio to get yours!' (sic)

The online influencer had been using her time in lockdown to engage in a series of home workouts with her partner Dan, 30.

The former electrician celebrated his girlfriend's birthday in style by treating her to a trip to Paris earlier this month.
Much of the money raised was allegedly embezzled. The U.S. Justice Department says more than $4.5 billion flowed from the fund through fraudulent shell companies to corrupt officials and their associates. According to the U.S. indictment, a small coterie of Malaysians, led by businessman Low Taek Jho (known as Jho Low), diverted money from 1MDB into personal accounts disguised to look like legitimate businesses, and kicked back some of those funds to officials. There were questions about a $681 million payment that landed in Najibs personal bank account (he has said most of the money was returned). Malaysias then-attorney general cleared Najib of wrongdoing in 2016. But after losing office, Najib was charged with corruption, breach of trust and money laundering. The first trial involved $10 million deposited in his personal accounts from a former 1MDB unit. He was found guilty July 28 on all seven counts and sentenced to 12 years; his lawyer promised to appeal. Jho Low, a fugitive, has also denied any wrongdoing.
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Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 09:58 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669cd024 1 National school-reopening,COVID-19,coronavirus,Nadiem-Makarim,Education-and-Culture-Ministry Free

The majority of Indonesians want the government to reopen schools and colleges, a recent poll by Cyrus Network has suggested, despite the COVID-19 pandemic showing no signs of letting up anytime soon.

According to the survey, published on Monday, 80.2 percent of 1,230 respondents polled from July 16 to 20 were in favor or reopening schools, while 19.8 percent were opposed to it.

Cyrus Network CEO Eko Dafid Afianto said the average public approval score for the reopening of schools was 7.44, below the 7.89 average approval for government service offices reopening, the latter of which topped the list.

The education and culture minister could take this into consideration. Eighty percent of the public 'strongly agree' or 'agree' to schools reopening," Eko said in a virtual press conference on Monday.

Furthermore, 78.7 percent of respondents said they supported the reopening of universities, with the average approval score being 7.37.

Although most schools in Indonesia are still running online lessons, students in some parts of the archipelago returned to physical classroom learning on July 13 as Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim has allowed the gradual reopening of schools in COVID-19 low-risk areas, or green zones, having issued a joint ministerial decree that was signed by him and the religious affairs minister, the home minister and the health minister.

Read also: Indonesia's COVID-19 cases top 100,000 as Jakarta logs new daily record

According to the decree, schools that have reopened can be closed again if there is any COVID-19 transmission in the area or if the risk status of the area changes to yellow, orange or red.

Schools are required to have clean toilets, hand-washing facilities, disinfectants, thermo guns and access to health facilities to be eligible for reopening. Schools are also expected to designate areas where wearing a face mask is mandatory.

All students have to adhere to physical distancing measures and wear masks. Schools are required to limit the number of students per classroom to 18, roughly 50 percent of the previous capacity.

During the initial stage, the government is only allowing senior and junior high schools to reopen. Elementary schools will be allowed to follow suit two months after, while kindergartens will be allowed to reopen four months after, the decree stipulates.

However, the risk of transmission remains even at schools located in green zones. For instance, all schools in Pariaman, West Sumatra, were forced to close their doors for the second time and return to online classes on July 20 after two staff members of a school in the city tested positive for COVID-19. Schools in the city had reopened on July 13, which marked the start of the school year.

Indonesia's COVID-19 cases have also continued to rise as some regions started relaxing previous restrictions. As of Monday, the country's official COVID-19 tally stood at 100,303 cases.
Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site.

When the CEOs of the nations four biggest tech firms appear before lawmakers on Wednesday to defend their business practices, the fallout is likely to stretch well beyond Silicon Valley. In fact, it may affect your digital future.

Amazons Jeff Bezos, Apples Tim Cook, Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg, and Googles Sundar Pichai will field questions raised by a yearlong federal investigation into the tech industry, testifying under oath about decisions that affect consumer choice. The hearing was organized by the antitrust subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee.

Based on their answers, regulators will determine whether perhaps the companies have stifled innovation and impeded competition in online marketplaces, app stores, social media platforms, and search results.

Well learn something by what they tell us or what they refuse to tell us, says Jonathan Schwantes, senior policy counsel at Consumer Reports.

Lawmakers will have access to more than a million pages of documents collected during the investigation, says Michael Kades, director of markets and competition policy for the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a nonprofit organization. So theyll have a sense of whether the CEOs public statements are honest."

The Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, and state attorneys general have launched investigations of their own into Big Tech companies.

Consumer Reports contacted the four companies involved in the congressional hearing to request on-the-record interviews, and all four declined or failed to reply.

The hearing begins at noon EST on Wednesday. A report with the subcommittees findings is expected to be delivered this fall.

Experts foresee two potential outcomes from these proceedings. The subcommittees findings could lead to an antitrust enforcement action against one or more of the companies. That might result in demands for changes to their business models or maybe even a forced breakup in which, for example, Google might have to spin off YouTube.

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Antitrust cases are hard to win, says Kades, adding that the process is likely to play out differently for each of the four companies.

The other option is legislation designed to rein in the companies, strengthening antitrust statutes, creating a new agency, or expanding the scope of, say, the FTC to more closely monitor the tech industry.

What will legislatorsand consumerswant to hear about from each CEO on Wednesday? Heres a platform-by-platform breakdown of the most important antitrust issues facing Big Tech.

Amazon

Whos testifying: Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.

The big issue: With Amazon, the questioning is likely to center around the practice of selling its own products in in the marketplace it created.

Amazon collects a wealth of data on not only the products sold by third-party vendors but also the things consumers are searching for. Collectively, that information could help Amazon anticipate trends in a way that benefits its rapidly expanding private label business.

In an earlier hearing, an Amazon representative told the committee the company doesnt use data in this way. But a subsequent Wall Street Journal report revealed that Amazons programming algorithms boost the companys own products, making it much more likely for consumers to see them.

Amazon sells more than 7,200 products under 140 private labels. Some, such as AmazonBasics, are easily identifiable; others, like Moon and Back baby clothing, Revly vitamins, and Obsidian sunglasses, are less obvious. According to projections by SunTrust bank, Amazons private label business could reach $25 billion annually by 2022, potentially making up 10 percent of the companys bottom line.

Why you should care: According to Kades of Equitable Growth, Amazons unique and powerful position in the marketplace does benefit consumers at times, but it may do more harm in the long run.

Most of the companys private label clothing and household goods are inexpensive, selling for $50 or less. But over time, Amazons behavior could suppress competition and innovation, persuading smaller companies not to launch products that Amazon could knock off.

Alex Harman, competition policy advocate for the group Public Citizen, says that if the subcommittee takes Amazon to task for creating a platform and then selling its own products on it, it could have ripple effects for the other three tech giants because they engage in similar practices to varying degrees.

All these companies would have to change their business models, he says.

Apple

Whos testifying: Apple CEO Tim Cook.

The big issue: Apples App Store is the central marketplace for consumers to download apps on iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. To sell a product in the store, an app developer must follow provisions that, some experts say, restrict competition.

For example, Apple charges a commission of up to 30 percent on third-party apps. The company has also mandated that app developers use in-app purchases as the only way to unlock new features or functionality, which allows Apple to collect fees on the transaction.

Why you should care: Some competitors argue that Apples practices have resulted in higher prices and less choice for consumers. The music streaming platform Spotify has complained to European antitrust regulators that App Store fees constitute a tax, which Spotify had to pass on to users by raising its monthly fee.

Spotify added that some companies, like Uber, which dont compete with Apple, dont have to pay a fee to Apple when processing charges through the companys platform.

When you treat the companies that you compete with worse than those you dont compete with, it rubs people the wrong way, Kades says.

(In advance of the hearings, Apple pointed to a report by economists that contends the App Stores fee structure is similar to that of other platforms, such as the Google Play store.)



Facebook

Whos testifying: Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The big issue: While Facebook faces a variety of complex antitrust issues, the key issue, and the easiest to understand, is that the company bought Instagram and WhatsApp when they emerged as potential rivals.

Theres a huge focus on whether these acquisitions were anti-competitive, Kades says.

Some antitrust experts have called for unwinding those mergers, but thats not as easy as it sounds, given the way Facebook has integrated the companies in its business model.

Theres a saying in antitrust, You cant unscramble the eggs, says George Slover, antitrust expert and senior policy counsel for Consumer Reports. Thats why you need to nip these anti-competitive mergers in the bud.

Why you should care: While antitrust cases often focus on price increases in a competition-free market, the issue with Facebook is the way that consumers pay for free use of platform.



The real cost of Facebook is the data theyre collecting from you, says Charlotte Slaiman, competition policy director at Public Knowledge, a public interest group focusing on technology and based in Washington, D.C.



Facebook uses consumer data from its platform, Instagram, WhatsApp, and outside sources to target ads to customers.



The only way to fully opt out of the data collection is to not use Facebooks services, cutting yourself off from access to friends, business associates, and members of your local community.

Last month, a high court in Germany ruled that Facebooks collection and use of consumer data violated the countrys antitrust laws.

Google

Whos testifying: Sundar Pichai, recently appointed CEO of Alphabet.

The big issue: Under the umbrella of parent company Alphabet, Google is involved in a dizzying array of ventures, but the one thats likely to draw the most questions is Googles dominant position in the advertising business.

That one has far-reaching impacts on customer search, smartphone use, and Googles suite of office productivity products.

In 2019, 82 percent of Googles $160 billion in revenue came from advertising. And, as Kades says, Googles ad-serving toolsAd Exchange and Ad Managergive the company a hand in buying and selling ad space across the internet.

Google is on both sides of the transaction, he says. We have rules on stock exchanges against this type of conduct.

Google also insists that companies use its tools to buy and sell ads on YouTube, which effectively shuts out potential competitors.

A demand-side platform, which advertisers use to buy ad space, will have difficulty appealing to clients who want to advertise on video if that rival platform doesnt have access to YouTube, Kades says.

Why you should care: Google rivals such as Yelp argue that anti-competitive practices in the ad business hurt consumers.



For example, when you search for hotel rooms in New York City, Kades says, the results page is dominated by paid ads from companies like Booking.com, Priceline, and Tripadvisor. The top organic results (which are not paid for) feature those same companies. That means that out-of-the-way boutique hotels and other alternatives get buried.



On a mobile device I see the same content for pages and pages, Kades says. The prominence of promoted results can reduce the quality of the search engine because it can make it harder for users to find what they want.

Google has cemented the dominance of its search engine on mobile devices by paying Apple more than $7 billion annually to be the default search engine on iOS devices, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a Barrons interview. Its estimated that Google takes in about $25 billion per year in ad revenue from searches on iPhones, iPads, and Macs.





More from Consumer Reports:

Top pick tires for 2016

Best used cars for $25,000 and less

7 best mattresses for couples





Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright  2020, Consumer Reports, Inc.
North Korean women face widespread sexual violations by state security and police officials if they are forcibly returned after a failed attempt to flee, the UN's rights body said Tuesday.

Pyongyang imposes tight restrictions on freedom of movement for its citizens and those caught for illegal border crossing are subject to detention and prosecution.

But before the North locked down its borders to try to prevent a coronavirus outbreak, many travelled back and forth across the porous 1,400 kilometre (880 mile) border with China to engage in trade or to relocate.

The vast majority of border-crossers are female as women have more freedom of movement than men, who are all allocated state jobs in a traditionally patriarchal society.

The UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner interviewed more than 100 North Korean escapees who said they suffered sexual violence including rape, forced nudity and abortion after fleeing, being caught and subsequently being repatriated.

Back in the North, ministry of state security officials often carried out "invasive searches" at detention centres, said Daniel Collinge, the primary author of the report.

"They were subjected to body searches which required them to strip naked and then to squat and jump repeatedly to check for hidden items in their body cavities," Collinge told reporters in Seoul.

The women's rights to sexual reproduction were also violated, he added, with forced abortions rampant at detention centres.

Several interviewees detailed instances where abortions were performed medically or induced through severe beatings.

"There were two pregnant women, three months and five months pregnant, who were kicked very badly so that they would have lost their baby by the time they left the facility," one woman recounted.

Rape by guards was widespread, the report said, but few talked about it as it would often lead to further punishment including starvation.

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All the women were interviewed in the South, having reached the country after fleeing the North again after their unsuccessful attempts.

The nuclear-armed North already stands accused by the UN of "systematic, widespread and gross" human rights violations that range from torture, extrajudicial killings to running prison camps.

Pyongyang maintains that it protects and promotes "genuine human rights" and calls accusations of rights abuses by the international community anti-regime propaganda.
Many of these additional requirements in New Hampshire are somewhat subjective in implementation, such as the requirement to promote mask wearing or the recommendation that places of worship have more services to reduce attendance at any one service.

But this is no reason for concern. After all, who cares more for the parishioners, the states governor or the pastor?

Skeptics might dismiss the return to church as an unnecessary ritual that can be set aside for a few months longer, but already, these restrictions have resulted in some of the cruelest human outcomes.

The same lockdown measures meant to curb the spread of the disease also forced us to leave loved ones to die alone in hospitals and, when the time came to mourn their loss, families had to choose who could attend the services lest they run afoul of occupancy or crowd-size regulations.

This is not hypothetical.

Restrictions implemented in the name of disease prevention may at times be deemed necessary; however, lawmakers must never forget that the parts of our lives that make us feel normal are not mere luxuries but are the very things that make us human.
Gov. Tom Wolf called on White House and Congressional negotiators Tuesday to do better than the $200 weekly supplement to unemployment compensation benefits that U.S. Senate Republicans have put on the table as part of a new coronavirus economic rescue package.

The Senate Republicans proposal would replace the just-expired $600 weekly supplement to traditional income-based jobless benefits paid to laid-off workers that is expiring this week. Some fiscal conservatives and business leaders have been critical of that original program, arguing that it upends the economy by discouraging some people in lower-wage jobs from returning to work.

Wolf, taking questions after an appearance at a state CareerLink office in York County, said that points to a broader problem with wage inequities.

The point is... that its a good time to think about what a family-sustaining wage is, and what a good job is, Wolf said, adding that in his opinion the Republicans starting offer on the pandemic assistance is insufficient.

There are just too many jobs that arent paying enough. And maybe when we started hearing complaints from some folks that six hundred dollars a week was actually encouraging people to stay on unemployment compensation and not go back to work, that should have sent a signal, a message, that maybe we ought to pay more.

The $200-per-week supplement, Wolf continued, is better than nothing. But in my opinion its not enough.

The proposal is part of a $1 trillion opening bid from the majority Senate Republicans that still has to be negotiated out would have to be with the Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, who are pushing a recovery package that would spend three times as much and extend the $600 per week in extra unemployment aid through the end of the year.

Many economists say that the bonus money - originally designed to keep most Americans being suddenly laid off for the first time in their careers - at something close to full income has provided a crucial economic buffer for the unemployed, and that lowering the payments now could exacerbate the COVID-19-fueled recession.

The new Republican plan has two steps, according to national reports.

It would first cut the $600 weekly check to $200. That reduced benefit would flow for two months, allowing state governments time to transition their unemployment systems in order to replace flat-rate federal unemployment supplements with a new enhanced benefit calibrated to give an unemployed worker 70 percent of the wages she or he was making before losing a job.

The Democrats are expected to insist on more.

There is data that indicates $600 a week in extra benefits has pushed wage replacement rates above 100 percent in much of the country, including in Pennsylvania. Many progressive economists, however, have argued that the additional assistance has bolstered a safety net that was already too stingy, and has played a vital role in shoring up the consumer spending.

Wolf on Tuesday also reiterated a call he first made earlier this month for the Congress to pass a separate bill that would provide $120 billion to federal funds to help independent restaurants cope with the economic challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The governor said thats a better way to help restaurants rather than an unfettered reopening that could undermine the fight against the virus.

This is a targeted effort to shut the virus down, and it makes sense to do it this way, Wolf said of the statewide bar and restaurant restrictions imposed July 16.

It makes sense also then to say if were going to ask you - this sector of the economy- to bear a bigger portion of the burden then its our responsibility to make sure that we do something about that. Both for the employer and for the employees.
The Kano State Fire Service has confirmed one person killed in a fire incident involving a petrol tanker at Kofar Ruwa area of Kano metropolis.

The spokesman of the Service, Saidu Mohammed, confirmed the incident in a statement on Tuesday in Kano.PRE

Mr Mohammed said the incident occurred on Monday night at Audu Manager fuel servicing station on Kofar Ruwa Road in Dala Local Government Area of the state.

We received a distress call from one Bello Musa at about 10:31 p.m. that a petrol tanker was gutted by fire at a fuel station on Kofar Ruwa Road.

On receiving the information, we quickly dispatched our personnel and vehicle to the scene of the incident to rescue the victims.

A 25-year old man, Adamu Salisu lost his life in the fire and the corpse was conveyed to the Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital.

The cause of the fire and property loss is still under investigations, he said, adding that the vehicles plate number could not be identified as it was ravaged in the inferno. (NAN)
NEW YORK  President Donald Trumps lawyers filed fresh arguments Monday to try to block a criminal subpoena for his tax records, calling it a harassment of the president.

Lawyers filed a rewritten lawsuit in Manhattan federal court to challenge the subpoena by Manhattan's state prosecutor on grounds they believe conform with how the U.S. Supreme Court said the subpoena can be contested.

They asked a judge to declare it invalid and unenforceable.

The high court ruled earlier this month that a Manhattan prosecutor could subpoena tax records from Trumps accountant over his objections.

But the court said he could challenge the subpoena as improper just as anyone else can.

Trumps lawyers had argued that the president could not be criminally investigated while he was in office.

In their new court papers, Trumps lawyers said the subpoena of his tax records was wildly overbroad and amounts to harassment of the President.

They said the subpoena seeks detailed information about all of Trump's assets in the U.S. and abroad for a 10-year period.

Simply put, it asks for everything, the lawyers wrote.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. sought the tax records in part for a probe of how Trumps then-personal lawyer arranged during the 2016 presidential race to keep the porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal from airing claims of extramarital affairs with Trump. Trump has denied the affairs.

Vance, a Democrat, has requested eight years of the Republican presidents personal and corporate tax records.

The Supreme Court returned the case to a federal judge in Manhattan who has arranged for both sides to finish filing their legal arguments over challenges to the subpoena by mid-August.

Last year, the same judge ruled against Trump in a written opinion that was upheld by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.

In their new court filing, Trumps lawyers said the tax subpoena demands voluminous documents related to every facet of the business and financial affairs of the President and numerous associated entities  from the banal to the complex, from drafts and memoranda to formal records, from source documents to summaries.

They said it was wrong for Vance to seek records dating to 2011 when he was primarily investigating events that took place in 2016.

The lawsuit said the subpoena concerns entities in California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. It said other affected entities are located outside the U.S., including in Canada, the Dominican Republic, Dubai, India, Indonesia, Ireland, the Philippines, Scotland, and Turkey.

Taken together, the subpoena demands an accounting and analysis of every single asset and liability of the President, including each one of the listed entities, the lawyers wrote, calling the request an overreaching demand designed to pick apart the President.

A message seeking comment from Vance was left with his press office.
This article will reflect on the compensation paid to Jeff Mezger who has served as CEO of KB Home (NYSE:KBH) since 2006. This analysis will also look to assess whether the CEO is appropriately paid, considering recent earnings growth and investor returns for KB Home.

View our latest analysis for KB Home

How Does Total Compensation For Jeff Mezger Compare With Other Companies In The Industry?

Our data indicates that KB Home has a market capitalization of US$3.1b, and total annual CEO compensation was reported as US$13m for the year to November 2019. We note that's an increase of 12% above last year. While we always look at total compensation first, our analysis shows that the salary component is less, at US$1.2m.

For comparison, other companies in the same industry with market capitalizations ranging between US$2.0b and US$6.4b had a median total CEO compensation of US$9.2m. Hence, we can conclude that Jeff Mezger is remunerated higher than the industry median. Furthermore, Jeff Mezger directly owns US$34m worth of shares in the company, implying that they are deeply invested in the company's success.

Component 2019 2018 Proportion (2019) Salary US$1.2m US$1.2m 9% Other US$12m US$11m 91% Total Compensation US$13m US$12m 100%

Speaking on an industry level, nearly 27% of total compensation represents salary, while the remainder of 73% is other remuneration. KB Home sets aside a smaller share of compensation for salary, in comparison to the overall industry. It's important to note that a slant towards non-salary compensation suggests that total pay is tied to the company's performance.

A Look at KB Home's Growth Numbers

KB Home's earnings per share (EPS) grew 33% per year over the last three years. In the last year, its revenue is up 6.9%.

Shareholders would be glad to know that the company has improved itself over the last few years. It's also good to see modest revenue growth, suggesting the underlying business is healthy. Historical performance can sometimes be a good indicator on what's coming up next but if you want to peer into the company's future you might be interested in this free visualization of analyst forecasts.

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Has KB Home Been A Good Investment?

Boasting a total shareholder return of 54% over three years, KB Home has done well by shareholders. This strong performance might mean some shareholders don't mind if the CEO were to be paid more than is normal for a company of its size.

In Summary...

As previously discussed, Jeff is compensated more than what is normal for CEOs of companies of similar size, and which belong to the same industry. However, KB Home has produced strong earnings growth and shareholder returns over the last three years. Considering such exceptional results for the company, we'd venture to say CEO compensation is fair. The pleasing shareholder returns are the cherry on top. We wouldn't be wrong in saying that shareholders feel that Jeff's performance creates value for the company.

CEO compensation is a crucial aspect to keep your eyes on but investors also need to keep their eyes open for other issues related to business performance. We did our research and spotted 4 warning signs for KB Home that investors should look into moving forward.

Arguably, business quality is much more important than CEO compensation levels. So check out this free list of interesting companies that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

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.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
Rating Action: Moody's affirms BrightSphere's Baa2 senior debt rating, outlook stable

Global Credit Research - 28 Jul 2020

New York, July 28, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") has today affirmed BrightSphere Investment Group Inc's ("BSIG") Baa2 long-term issuer and senior debt ratings following the company's announcement on July 26 that it intends to sell its equity interests in two of its investment affiliates. The outlook on the ratings is stable.

BSIG plans to sell its 75.1% ownership interest in its value equity affiliate Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney and Strauss ("Barrow Hanley") to Perpetual Ltd. (not rated), a publicly traded financial services firm in Australia for $319 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2020, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Separately, BSIG announced that it plans to sell its ownership interest in its small cap equity affiliate Copper Rock Capital Partners, LLC ("Copper Rock") to Spouting Rock Asset Management LLC (not rated) and Copper Rock management for a total after-tax consideration of approximately $15 million.

The following rating actions were taken:

Issuer Rating, affirmed at Baa2

Senior Unsecured, affirmed at Baa2

Outlook, maintained at stable.

RATINGS RATIONALE

"The sale of Barrow Hanley, a traditional active equity focused manager that has been experiencing net outflows for a number of years, will allow management to focus more attention and capital resources on BSIG's growing Alternatives and Quant & Solutions businesses, leading to more consistent net flow generation and earnings growth in the future," said Stefan Kahandaliyanage, Moody's Assistant Vice President.

BSIG expects the use of after-tax proceeds to be balanced between creditor and shareholder interests: paying down the remaining balance on the revolving credit facility of $130 million, supporting affiliate growth through seed capital investments, maintaining balance sheet liquidity, and returning capital to shareholders through share repurchases. Upon pay down of the revolver, there are no near term debt maturities until 2026 and 2031.

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The rating affirmation reflects our expectation that the company's leverage metric will benefit from this transaction because the debt paydown, funded by after-tax proceeds, will more than offset the loss of EBITDA from the asset sales. Further, the assets being sold are two of BSIG's weaker performing investment affiliates and, as a result, the remaining investment affiliates will represent a higher quality portfolio of businesses.

Balancing these strengths, EBITDA will be concentrated among a smaller number of businesses. Post-transaction, BSIG's Alternatives (primarily Landmark Partners) and Quant & Solutions (Acadian Asset Management) segments are expected to generate 88% of EBITDA, up from 73% pre-transaction. Although not expected, this could lead to vulnerability if market demand for alternatives declines, performance lags, or business interruption occurs due to exogenous or cyclical factors.

Revenue and earnings from Copper Rock are di minimis compared to Barrow Hanley. We expect the use of after-tax proceeds from the sale of Copper Rock to also balance creditor and shareholder interests.

The stable outlook reflects our view that pro-forma leverage is expected to be about 2.0x debt-to-EBITDA, down from 2.4x as of Q1 2020. Debt-to-EBITDA in the low 2x range is in line with our long-term expectations for the current rating level.

BSIG has gone through a number of significant ownership, management, and strategic changes since its separation from former parent Old Mutual plc. Over the coming years, we are looking for consistent execution of BSIG's go forward strategy based on growing its current portfolio of asset management businesses. Although not expected, should BSIG pursue a divestiture of a core strategic asset such as Landmark Partners or Acadian Asset Management, negative ratings action would most likely ensue due to a material decline in business diversification.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

Moody's said factors that could cause upward pressure on BSIG's ratings include: 1) leverage sustained below 1.5x on a consistent basis; 2) progress in growing the company's higher fee rate businesses; and 3) steady growth in revenue scale and business diversification.

Conversely, the ratings could face downward pressure if: 1) leverage is sustained above 2.5x; 2) there is a decline in revenue scale due to market events, performance weakness or AUM instability; and 3) if BSIG pursues a divestiture of a core strategic asset or makes an acquisition that adversely impacts the company's credit profile.

The principal methodology used in these ratings was Asset Managers Methodology published in November 2019 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1186105. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

BrightSphere Investment Group Inc is organized as a multi-boutique asset manager with $161.8 billion of assets under management (AUM) as of March 30, 2020. The company offers various US and international equity, alternative, and fixed income strategies primarily to institutional investors. Barrow Hanley accounted for $39.8 billion of BSIG's total AUM as of March 30, 2020, while Copper Rock accounted for $2.2 billion.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.

For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

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Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.

The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph 3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies. Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's office that issued the credit rating is available on www.moodys.com.

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Stefan Kahandaliyanage, CFA Asst Vice President - Analyst Financial Institutions Group Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A. JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Robert M. Callagy Associate Managing Director Financial Institutions Group JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A. JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653

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Outside of the San Francisco police union headquarters Monday, a coalition of about 25 workers and labor leaders gathered to denounce incidents of racism and brutality in policing and call on the union representing the citys officers to stand down in attempting to block reform efforts.

The protest  led by the labor alliance group Jobs with Justice San Francisco  united five local labor groups against the citys Police Officers Association, a union that protesters said has amassed disproportionate power compared to other city unions and shielded officers from accountability for racism and violence on the job.

Unions are here to support their members, said Michelle Cody, a Bayview middle school teacher representing United Educators of San Francisco. Unions are not here to make sure their members can commit crimes and not be held accountable.

In recent weeks, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and other elected officials have committed to slashing law enforcements budget, investing that money into the citys Black community and revising use-of-force policies following the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. On Monday, Breed outlined preliminary plans to redirect police funds to programs serving Black communities, including after-school programs, mental health services and home subsidies.

But as contractual obligations with police unions stymie swifter change in cities in the East Bay and nationwide, the group of self-identifying essential workers that gathered Monday called on San Franciscos police union not to stand in the way of more drastic reforms.

Mondays speakers included food service workers, pharmacy technicians, airport workers and college professors. They criticized the police union for propping up what they described as a racist culture predicated on spreading fear throughout the city, while also calling attention to a lack of investment in schools, hospitals and other public services.

Many spoke about their own harrowing experiences with police.

Ericha Wright, a food service worker representing AFSCME 3299, described an incident in which she said the police were called to resolve a school fight involving her 9-year-old son. She said that the police confronted her son and read him his rights before the issue was resolved.

He lost his trust in anybody in a police officers uniform, Wright said. Im concerned about his safety every time he walks out the door.

So far, San Francisco police have issued statements of support for the citys reform plan. In June, Police Officers Association President Tony Montoya and Police Chief Bill Scott both endorsed Mayor Breeds proposal to redirect some of the departments $740 million budget to social services.

The department also recently unveiled plans to create a bias-free policing policy and stopped releasing mug shots to curb racial stereotyping.

However, this month the union sued the citys civilian-led Police Commission for changing use-of-force policies without going through the contractually obligated meet-and-confer process.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

On July 2, the commission voted to prevent officers from subduing people by placing a knee on a suspects neck after a June video taken in Hunters Point captured a San Francisco police officer kneeling on a teenagers neck, similar to the maneuver that caused Floyds death in Minneapolis.

Non-violent individuals peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights, no matter how misguided or inaccurate they are, is a cornerstone of democracy, Montoya said about Mondays protest. Reducing police officers in San Francisco will create more victims and make neighborhoods less safe.

Standing in front of the group, City College of San Francisco instructor Beatriz Herrera spoke about her student Sean Monterrosa, a 22-year-old San Francisco man killed by Vallejo police during a night of Black Lives Matter protests, as well as looting, in that city on June 2.

At Herreras cue, the protesters took a knee in honor of Monterrosa.

We live in an unfair world where the brunt of social inequality, including police violence, falls on communities of color to resolve, Herrera said. If schools were funded like the Police Officers Association has been for decades, perhaps Sean would be here today.

Brett Simpson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: brett.simpson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @brettvsimpson
Todd White repents of failing to preach 'the whole Gospel,' calls out American Church

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Lifestyle Christianity leader Todd White has publicly repented for failing to preach the whole Gospel and criticized the American Church for refusing to address sin and repentance to a watching world.

In an emotional message delivered Sunday, White, a former drug addict turned evangelist, revealed he recently underwent a season of painful pruning where God impressed upon him the importance of preaching on the topic of sin and the need for a Savior.

If people dont know theyre sinners, they wont see their need for a Savior, the Watauga, Texas-based pastor said. This is hard for people. This is hard for me, because I feel like I haven't preached the whole Gospel. And I repent. I repent. You have no idea. I will not be responsible. I believe that when I preach that the blood of people is on my hands.

Im convicted. I am not perfect but I am strongly convicted. I feel like I just met Jesus again. There's just this rekindled thing inside of me. This has been the hardest season of my life. I'm like, Lord, what are you doing? He said I'm pruning every branch that you have. I'm like, It's not OK. It hurts. And He said, If you were dead, it wouldn't hurt. There are parts of you that need to die, so Im going to kill them.

The pastor has previously been criticized for promoting the prosperity gospel, which teaches in part that believers have a right to the blessings of health and wealth. Such blessings can be obtained through positive confessions of faith and the "sowing of seeds" through the faithful payments of tithes and offerings.

Costi Hinn, nephew of Benny Hinn, denounced White as one of the most famous next generation versions of his uncle and others.

White was also featured alongside other prosperity teachers, including Hinn and Joel Osteen, in the Netflix film "American Gospel," which examines how the prosperity gospel ... has distorted the Gospel message, and how this theology is being exported.

After viewing "American Gospel," White condemned the film as demonically inspired."

But in his sermon Sunday, the evangelist said he believes God is correcting him for failing to preach the whole Gospel in the past.

Nevertheless, Lord, your grace is sufficient for me, he said.

White revealed that the writings of famed theologian Charles Spurgeon and evangelist Ray Comfort have been rocking him. He referenced Comforts parachute illustration, which explains the dangers of embracing Christianity in hopes of achieving a better life.

When you come into the Gospel because you come in for a better life, youve come in for the wrong Gospel, he stressed. When you come to Jesus because Hes going to give you this and give you this, you really didnt surrender.

The Bible says we are dead in our sin, White said. We have to somehow get to people and not just promise them a better flight. Am I the only one thats convicted to the core? This isnt legalism, its the truth. There is a day of wrath coming. Its no joke.

We have to know that weve sinned against God. I saw this when I got saved. And for some reason, it's taken me 16 years to explain it. And I feel like I've just seen something completely brand new. What I won't ever do is take the miraculous out of the Gospel. It's a miracle that I can come to Jesus through all my junk and all my sin and Him say, Not guilty. That's a miracle.

The Church in the U.S. has largely overlooked the reality of sin and the need for a savior, White said.

The Gospel brings conviction, he said. Righteousness is the answer. I want to be convicted of sin, leave my sin, leave that, and enter into being convicted of righteousness. Thats the goal of the Gospel.

What is the sign of repentance? That you hate sin. Your goal as a Christian is to be conformed into His image, is to be transformed into His image, into His likeness, and to actually walk like Christ walked. Jesus didnt despise sinners, but He hated sin and He addressed it all the time. He said words like sinners to people that were in sin. Yet He loved them and everybody followed Him. What has flip-flopped in the Church today?

White warned that one day, every human will face the Lord,.

I've been going through it, buddy. I've been in a new place to bring the reality of the law into a witness, to show a person their need for grace," he said. "How can you want to be found if you don't know you're lost? How can you want to see if you don't know you're blind? How can you want to live if you don't know that you're dead?

White said he believes theres a movement on the earth of twisted demonic stuff, adding, We do not have a license to live however we want. Thats not true. Thats not the Gospel. We live like Christ, we be imitators of God.

If we dont see that we sinned against a holy God, there really cant be repentance, and thats it. Totally different. Who is this Todd guy? This Todd guy got hammered by the Lord. Hes still doing. Its a hammering and pruning and its a good thing. He loves me. Were about to step into something beautiful and wonderful.

He concluded: We have to get it right, our foundation has to be completely solid, and there cant be any holes. This is the Gospel.

Watch White's full message below.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West havent been seen together ever since some time before the Yeezy designers headline-making campaign rally. But on Monday, July 27, the pair reunited at their second residence in Cody, Wyoming. Neither of them has said anything about the trip, but it appeared to be an emotional reunion in photos obtained by multiple media outlets.

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West in February 2017 | Marc Piasecki/GC Images

The past few days have reportedly been tough on Kim Kardashian and Kanye West

The drama started on July 19 when West held his first rally for his 2020 presidential campaign. Throughout the event, he made several stunning comments, including that he and Kardashian West considered aborting their eldest daughter, North, 7. (The couple also share three other children: Saint, 4, Chicago, 2, and Psalm, 1.)

As more and more news outlets began to report on the rally, West went on a Twitter tirade in which he blasted his wife and Kris Jenner and accused them of trying to lock [him] up. He continued to vent about the pair in the days that followed and even said he had been trying for years to divorce Kardashian West, whom he married in June 2014 following a two-year relationship.

The reality star kept quiet for days before sharing a letter on Instagram in which she said West had been struggling with bipolar disorder and asked for compassion. He did not confirm or deny her claims. However, he later offered an apology to her on Twitter.

RELATED: Fans Are Confused By the Bizarre Game Kanye West Makes the Kardashians Play

Kim Kardashian Wests trip to Wyoming

After days of reportedly being blocked from visiting, Kardashian West reunited with her husband on July 27. The Daily Mail published photos showing the two riding in a car together and talking upon her arrival. The reality star appeared to be distressed and crying in several photos as she and West presumably hashed out the latest drama.

As soon as Kim got to the ranch, she and Kanye came out together in his car, a source told People of the trip. [Kim] is very emotional about everything and also exhausted. She feels very hurt by Kanye. She has tried to reach him multiple times and he just ignores her.

So she decided to fly to Cody to speak to him in person, according to the source. She doesnt want to be ignored anymore  Its all a bad situation.

RELATED: Kanye West and Kim Kardashian Have a Strange Marriage  Here Are the Weirdest Bits

The status of Kim Kardashian and Kanye Wests marriage

Its unclear if West is actively seeking a divorce as he said in his tweets. But a source told Us Weekly in a report published on July 28 that the topic had definitely come up in the past.

Kim is not leaving the relationship because of this current situation, but before this situation, over the last three months or so, they had been talking about divorce, the source claimed. Kim has wanted to make this marriage work and so has Kanye. They both still love each other and there is still some interest in making this marriage work but in recent months it has looked way less likely.

But at the same time, the source noted: There is no conversation about divorce until hes able to be in a better mental space. Really, theres little to no contact between Kim and Kanye right now.

TMZ reported on July 25 that West went to see a doctor for anxiety but left due to overcrowding. Later in the day, he reportedly had an ambulance come to his home and was told by EMTs he was not in danger.

RELATED: Kim Kardashian West Gives 1 Reason Why She and Kanye West Are Still Together
A new piece in Family Practice, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that tracking symptoms affiliated with the novel coronavirus through an app may not be a good predictor of the spread of the disease.

Over the course of 2020, as the novel coronavirus has spread across the globe causing extensive illness and economic havoc to communities everywhere, health care providers and the general public have been eager to find a way to identify the illness.

In the absence of readily available tests, scientists have worked to identify clues to detect those who might have the illness as a way to combat the spread of the virus.

A recent study, "Real-time tracking of self-reported symptoms to predict potential COVID-19," published in Nature Medicine, suggested that a prediction score combining loss of smell and taste, fatigue, cough, and loss of appetite - collected through an app - was able to prospectively identify people at risk of COVID-19.

Researchers here compared the main features of the population involved in the Nature Medicine study, and the performance of their score, with data from a cross-sectional study conducted between March 24th and April 29th 2020, and applied the Nature Medicine model to these data.

Applying the probability threshold in the Nature Medicine study to these data indicated that 41% of positive tests were false positives, while 17% of negative tests were false negatives.

In the Family Practice piece, general practitioners referred most patients because they were complaining of COVID-like symptoms. It is likely that this population was symptomatic due to the triage performed by general practitioners prior to testing.

Indeed, nearly half the patients in the sample reported fever (45.4%), reflecting the common reason for doctors to refer patients to testing at the time these data were collected.

Fever was registered in the app in the Nature Medicine study by only one-third of patients.

In conclusion, while real-time symptom collection through an app seems to be an attractive method to screen for potential infections, and the Nature Medicine study confirms the crucial value of specific symptoms such as loss of smell and taste, the score proposed in the study does not appear to perform well in a primary care population.

These results confirm the crucial role of laboratory testing in COVID-19 and the need to support research on COVID-19 in primary care populations." Benoit Tudrej, Study Lead Author, Oxford University Press

The letter, "Is a COVID-19 prediction model based on symptom tracking through an app applicable in primary care?" is available to the public on July 28th.
Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae speaks during a session of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee at the National Assembly in Seoul, Monday. / Korea Times file



By Kang Seung-woo



The main opposition party is accusing Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae of "insolence" toward the National Assembly.



Due to a series of clashes with them, opposition lawmakers say that Choo, a former five-term lawmaker, goes over the top whenever she addresses the Assembly.



During Monday's session of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, Choo clashed with lawmakers of the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) over her son's alleged special treatment in the military.



Rep. Yoon Han-hong of the UFP questioned Vice Justice Minister Koh Ki-young whether his abrupt appointment had to do with a prosecution investigation of Choo's son, who allegedly went AWOL in 2017 after not returning from official leave. However, her son was later granted extended leave for a knee problem after Choo, then-chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Korea, allegedly contacted military officials regarding her son's condition.



Yoon's speculation is based on the fact that Koh, who became the head of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office in January under Choo's direction, was promoted to the deputy minister job only three months later. In January, the office was investigating the allegation involving Choo's son.



In response, Choo immediately struck back at Yoon, saying, "You are making up a story  please ask a reasonable question."



Choo's belligerent response led to bipartisan bickering, which resulted in a 40-minute adjournment.



After the break, Choo once again ruffled opposition lawmakers' feathers, saying, "A lawmaker's immunity is not a privilege that should be abused by making false claims against others. If you really are confident in your claims, make them without seeking immunity."



Following the session that failed to discuss pending issues, including the reform of the prosecution, UFP lawmakers belonging to the legislation committee held a press conference in which they criticized the justice minister's comments.



"I thought that Choo would make an apology for her contemptuous remarks, but she refused to do so and tried to lay blame with the opposition lawmakers, which was completely absurd," Rep. Kim Do-eup of the UFP said.



Chang Je-won, a fellow UFP lawmaker, slammed Choo, saying, "Whenever the justice minister visits the Assembly, it turns into a mess." He said Choo's comments and behavior were insults to the people, as a lawmaker's role is to ask Cabinet members questions on behalf of the people.



It was not the first time that the justice minister locked horns with the official opposition.



On July 22, she exchanged words with Rep. Kim Tae-heum of the UFP over an alleged leak of the justice ministry's internal discussion about its response to the top prosecutor's suggestion regarding a blackmail investigation, which involved a former journalist and a ranking prosecutor. Upon Kim's questions over the alleged leak, Choo raised her voice and said, "So what do you want me to do?"



In addition, two days later, Choo confronted Rep. Kwak Sang-do of the UFP during an interpellation session over former Justice Minister Cho Kuk's wife who reportedly said her goal was to purchase a building in Seoul's affluent Gangnam area. Cho was President Moon Jae-in's close aide, who had only a brief tenure as justice minister due to corruption scandals surrounding him and his family members.



Citing a local broadcaster report, Kwak attacked Cho's wife, but Choo responded, saying, "Do you believe everything the media reports? There is a slew of fake news."



As a result, the UFP's 58 first-term lawmakers issued a letter of protest to Assembly Speaker Rep. Park Byeong-seug and Deputy Speaker Rep. Kim Sang-hee, Monday, saying the two failed to give warnings to the minister regarding her "arrogance."


A newly-released postcode checker shows which pubs and restaurants are offering up to 10 off meals in August under Rishi Sunak's new scheme.

Diners will receive a 50 per cent discount, up to a maximum of 10 per head, on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the month of August under the 'Eat Out to Help Out' programme.

The diner discount, which will only apply to participating business, was announced earlier in the month by the chancellor to boost spending on Britain's ailing High Streets.

It is set to launch next week just days after the government launched an new anti-obesity strategy, spelling the end of confectionery displays at store checkouts and deals such as 'buy one get one free' on unhealthy foods'.

Yesterday, experts warned the Chancellor's 50% discount which applies to fast food restaurants such as KFC and McDonald's risks undermining the health initiative.

To use the postcode checker which reveals participating restaurants within two miles of where you live visit this website.

The government has launched an Eat Out to Help Out postcode checker that enables you to find out which restaurants are participating near where you live

What deals at popular chains can you get? Nando's: Quarter Peri Peri chicken and two sides- 3.38 instead of 7.75 Costa : Sausage bap: 1.29 instead of 2.95 Wetherspoon: Traditional breakfast 1.75 instead of 3.49 Pizza Express: American Hot pizza 7.25 instead of 14.50 KFC: Bargain Bucket (6 piece) 6.95 instead of 13.99 McDonald's: Big Mac Meal 2.45 instead of 4.89 Advertisement

Amelia Lake, a professor in public health nutrition at Teesside University told The Guardian: 'Offering subsidies on food which is particularly associated with being less healthy completely contradicts the other message around reducing obesity.

'On one hand we are hearing that tackling obesity is an urgent public health challenge, but on the other we are seeing actions that we know do not help us reduce obesity. There needs to be clear messaging and joined up action.'

Boris Johnson was pictured walking his dog Dilyn yesterday and said his own personal weight loss journey had seem his lose more than a stone so far.

The Prime Minister said that since his recovery from coronavirus he has focused on getting fitter by going on morning runs with his dog.

He urged the nation to follow his lead, insisting the Government's 'better health strategy' will help people to 'bring their weight down' and better protect the NHS.

However Dr Duane Mellor said the approach prioritises meals high in fat and salt.

Dr Mellor told the Guardian: 'Instead of choosing to bring the British farming sector closer to the public, after a year where much fresh produce has been wasted, what we seem to have is something that supports half-price meals high in fat and sugar and low in nutrient density.

Diners will receive a 50 per cent discount, up to a maximum of 10 per head, on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the month of August, under Rishi Sunak's (pictured) 'Eat Out to Help Out' scheme

'Worse still, through the inclusion of soft drinks, it appears to subsidise drinks whose consumption has been drastically cut through the highly successful sugar tax.'

What is in Boris Johnson's new anti-obesity strategy? - Shops Stores will be barred from pushing 'buy one, get one free' promotions on unhealthy products as the Government looks to reduce the temptation to snack. Supermarket managers will also be banned from placing confectionery in tempting locations, such as store entrances and beside checkouts, and will instead be encouraged to offer more discounts on fruit and vegetables. - Advertising The Prime Minister's strategy will put an end to junk food adverts on television and online before the 9pm watershed in a bid to shield youngsters at a time when their food preferences are being set. The Government will also hold a consultation into whether the planned internet advertising restrictions could be wider reaching, with a total ban on advertising food high in fat, sugar or salt an option under consideration. - Calorie counting Ministers will introduce new legislation forcing restaurants and takeaways with more than 250 employees to add calorie labels to their menus to assist diners in making more informed choices. The Department of Health said a consultation would follow before the end of the year to help decide whether the same type of calorie labelling on alcohol should be required. - Health service interventions To help people lose the pounds, NHS weight management services will be expanding, with more smartphone apps rolled out with the purpose of improving lifestyle and overall health. The NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme will also see improvements. GPs will be encouraged to prescribe exercise and other social activities to help people keep fit, with cycling pilots in the poorest areas set to provide bikes to entice people into upping their activity levels. - Food packet labelling A consultation - the third associated with the strategy - will gather evidence on how the current 'traffic light' labelling system on food packets is being used by consumers and industry, while comparing it to other international examples. Advertisement

But the government's strategy was welcomed by TV chef Jamie Oliver who has campaigned to tackle child obesity for 20 years. He said the measures were a 'huge step in the right direction' but the 'devil will be in the detail'.

When it comes to calorie labelling, new laws will require large restaurants, cafes and takeaways with more than 250 employees to add calorie labels to the food they sell.

A new campaign to help people lose weight, get active and eat better after Covid-19 is also being pushed out as a 'wake-up call' to the nation.

This will include more self-care apps and online tools and accelerating the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme.

From next year, doctors will be offered financial incentives to ensure those who are obese are supported to lose weight, such as prescriptions for exercise and bike rides.

GP practice staff will also have the opportunity to become 'healthy weight coaches' though training delivered by Public Health England.

The highly interventionist approach marks a U-turn for Mr Johnson, who until recently has been a vocal opponent of 'sin taxes' and perceived 'nannying' by the state.

As well as fast food chains, the cut price meals will be available at a number of popular restaurants such as Nando's and Pizza Hut, along with thousands of independent eateries.

The discount applies to meals where you sit in the restaurant and includes everything available on the menu, barring alcoholic drinks. The hefty price reduction will then be applied when you get your bill.

With the Eat Out to Help Out deal, businesses will claim the money back from the Treasury, which is expected to spend 500million on the scheme.

The government has already published 59 chains that are taking part in the scheme, including Five Guys, Wetherspoons, Pizza Express and Wasabi.

They have also launched a postcode checker that lets you search for participating restaurants within two miles of where you live.

A number of chains have already passed on the saving's from Mr Sunak cutting VAT from 20 per cent to 5 per cent, so prices are set to be considerably cheaper for consumers combined with the new scheme.

The new scheme will allow consumers to make huge savings a popular restaurants located all over the country.

Customers hoping to sit-in and order a cheeky Nando's will be able to get a quarter Peri Peri chicken and two sides for 3.38 instead of the usual 7.75.

Caffeine- addicts can get hold of a sausage bap for 1.29 instead of the usual 2.95.

This is more than a half-price discount as the coffee-chain is adding the VAT cut to items making them even cheaper.

Pub-chain Wetherspoon was quick to release a new cheaper menu on July 15 when the VAT cuts kicked in, and the new scheme means you can get the popular traditional breakfast for 1.75.

Fans of Italian eatery Pizza Express can get an America Hot pizza for half-price at 7.25.

And fans of fried chicken can get hold of a six-piece bargain bucket for 6.95 instead of the usual 13.99.

The Prime Minister said morning runs with his dog Dilyn had helped him to lose weight and improve his fitness

And a medium Big Mac meal with fries and a drink will cost you 2.45

The discounts are only available if you sit-in and eat. They are not available for drive-thrus and takeaways.

The idea behind the policy launched chancellor is that people sit in and spend money on the High Street.

Mr Sunak said earlier this month the move will help protect 1.8million jobs.

'To encourage people to safely return to eating out at restaurants, the Government's new eat out to help out discount scheme will provide a 50% reduction for sit-down meals from Monday to Wednesday every week throughout August 2020,' he said.

Eat Out to Help Out: How the scheme works and the best way to use 'stacking' with other discounts to increase your saving

On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the month of August, Britons can eat out for a discount price.

At businesses participating in the scheme, diners will receive a 50 per cent discount, up to a maximum of 10 per head.

So if a meal costs 20, the diner will get 10 off, but if a meal costs 30, the diner will still only get 10 off.

Businesses will claim the money back from the Treasury, which is expected to spend 500million on the scheme.

Restaurants and pubs are expected to announce their involvement over the coming weeks.

The discount covers non-alcoholic drinks, but not booze.

Can you use OTHER discounts too?

Yes - you can 'stack' the discount on top of other offers to earn yourself increased savings.

The Government stipulates that outlets that sign up to the scheme must apply the 50% discount across the whole menu AND on top of any meal deals or vouchers on offer that day.

That means the only way a participating restaurant can avoid a double saving for diners is to axe their own discounts.

Chains including Wetherspoon and Pizza Express have all said they have no plans to change their existing offers.

Discount schemes such as the Tastecard will run throughout August too.

Money Saving Expert says this should mean you can stack the usual discount that comes with the car with the 50% off offer.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/7/2020 (540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GRAND FORKS, N. D.  Allyson Bento is two hours from home.

As a graduate student attending University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, the Winnipegger could cross the border and visit her family and friends, but shes hesitant.

What happens if the Canada-U.S. border closes down completely while shes home? Is it even worth it when theres a two-week quarantine period on either side?

"I think I have more of a fear of not being able to come back into the (United States)," said Bento, who is pursuing a post-graduate degree in communications. "From my experience, I always want to be very, very safe. I dont want to end up in a situation where I cant get back into the United States. Because now, not only are all my belongings here, my schooling is here, but I have animals like I have my therapy dog and a cat and a boyfriend."

"It wouldnt just be something that I would have to consider myself but for the people that I live with and care for," she said.

Bento hasnt been home since March. Its the longest shes been away from home and her mother  whom she says is her best friend.

"So, its tough."

Bento is one of hundreds of Canadian students at UND and one of thousands across the country who are studying in the United States and weighing their options in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S.-Canada border has been closed to non-essential travel since March 18 as the first wave of the global pandemic began to hit Canada and the United States. Since then, the closure has been extended twice. It is now closed until at least Aug. 21  just days before college students across the U.S. are set to start classes.

"Were going to keep working closely with our American neighbours to keep people safe on both sides of the border," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier this month when the border closure extension was announced.

While education is considered essential travel, Amy Senger, assistant director of UNDs International Center, said some students enrolled in the summer semester, which was only offered online at UND, had some trouble trying to cross the border. She noted that there were "several denials" for students.

That likely shouldnt be a problem in the fall, though, Senger noted, as UND will have some in-person classes.

While students will be able to cross the border to attend classes, their parents will not be able to come with them, as that would be considered visitor travel.

And when students do cross the border, they are required to quarantine for two weeks, which means Canadian students will have to plan ahead for when they want to arrive in Grand Forks.

If the closure continues, that means family members wont be able to help students move in and get settled in their new homes or be able to hop in the car and visit Grand Forks for the day.

Bento was able to see her mother briefly in March when the two were able to meet at the border so Bento could pick up her dog, Milo, who had been staying with her mother while she was on a trip before COVID-19 struck.

"It was probably the most emotional moment of my life," she said. Bento and her mother were able to talk to security, who allowed the two to exchange a brief hug before her mother had to go back to the other side of the border.

It was a relief to have her dog back, Bento said as he helps her through anxiety and was especially helpful during the initial quarantine.

Bento knows its to keep people safe though.

"Everyone, hopefully is doing it for the safety of their loved ones," she said.

In Manitoba, there have been fewer cases in comparison to North Dakota. As of Monday, there were 74 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 319 individuals have recovered from the virus. Seven have died. Manitoba, which has a population of about 1.3 million people, has performed more than 84,967 tests since early February.

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.

As of Monday, North Dakota had more than 1,000 active cases. Of the 5,986 total positive cases since mid-March, 4,829 individuals have recovered. The state has reported 99 deaths.

Beyond direct concerns about the border and COVID-19, there are also other stressors for international students, like Bento.

A recently reversed immigration ruling that would have forced international students on certain visas to return to their home countries if classes went entirely online this fall was also a spot of concern for Bento. While shes trying to remain optimistic, she knows the possibility of a change is always there.

 Grand Forks Herald
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Linkedin Ivany Atina Arbi, Evi Mariani and Dwi Atmanta (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 28, 2020 09:19 541 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40669c8fc4 2 National Catholic-church,sexual-abuse-in-Catholic-Church,kekerasan-seksual-di-gereja,sexual-abuse-Catholic-church-Indonesia,Ignatius-Cardinal-Suharyo,ignatius-suharyo,safeguarding-protocol-Catholic-Church,#catholicsexabuse Free

Twenty-seven years ago, an 11-year-old girl knelt beside a priest in a mandatory confession organized by her Catholic school in Jakarta. She told the priest her sin: disobeying her parents. As he spoke the absolution, the girl felt his hands touching her body.

The confession lasted five minutes and did not take place in a traditional partitioned confessional. Twice a year, the school arranged the event, usually before Christmas and Easter, and brought dozens of school children to a special confession space in a chapel, where there was no partition to separate the child and the priest.

I felt uneasy and knew something was wrong, but I couldnt tell what was off, said the former student of Sang Timur Catholic elementary school, which is located next to the the Maria Bunda Karmel (MBK) Church.

Sisca, who has chosen to take an alias to protect her privacy, said the same priest groped her again a few times during subsequent mandatory confessions. Not until she was a teenager did she realize that she was a victim of sexual abuse.

I told my mom, who eventually reported it to the church, but I didnt see any changes. The priest still served in the church. He even serves now, she told The Jakarta Post in February. Sisca did not know how or to whom her mother had reported the incident.

I didnt want to get bad grades

Ellen, another student at Sang Timur, who has also chosen to use an alias, said the same priest had abused her. The first incident occurred in his office after she interviewed him for a school project in junior high school. She thought it was an accident that the priest's lips had brushed her cheek and the corner of her lips.

Read also: Justice delayed, denied for victims of sexual abuse in Catholic Church

The priest, a Carmelite, was then moved to another location for reasons Ellen did not know. But while Ellen was in high school at the same institution, the priest returned. At that time, I liked to pray in the church in the morning before school, even though I was a Protestant, said Ellen.

The priest usually blessed the students after the prayer, and sometimes he kissed their foreheads. But when it was my turn, he kissed my lips, Ellen said. This time, I was sure it was not an accident.

Ellen told her friends what had happened. She said one of her friends told the story to a nun at the school.

But instead of getting a response from the church or the school, Ellen received a phone call at home. It was the priest. She thought he would ask for forgiveness, but instead, he acted as if nothing had happened and said, Hello, what are you doing?

I told him right away to leave me alone, said Ellen, who is now 37 years old.

Both Sisca and Ellen thought it was unacceptable that the priest was still a member of the parish and school, but neither lodged an official complaint. They did, however, share their experience with certain members of the church community. Ellen said she did not officially report her experience because she did not want to get bad grades.

We never received victims reports

Father Andreas Yudhi Wiyadi, who was the head of the parish in February when Tirto.id interviewed him, said he had never heard any reports about the priest. I swear I dont know about [the alleged abuse]. Besides, the chapel was never used for confessions, Yudhi said.

Read also: Broken trust: Catholic Church and sexual abuse

When she was told of this, Sisca said Father Yudhi perhaps did not know about the confessional arrangements and the compound layout 27 years ago.

Father Budiono, the head of the Indonesian Carmelite order or called the Provincial, said he had never received reports of sexual abuse directly from victims in the MBK Church. "If we had received such reports, we would have definitely done something about it," he said.

He said the Carmelites had a set of regulations, outlined in a 2017 book called Norms of Behavior, to handle allegations against clergymen.

"According to the book, we need reports from victims in order to further investigate [the alleged assault], as well as medical or psychological evaluations of the victim and [alleged] perpetrator," Budiono said. When asked whether an incident from 27 years ago could still be reported to the order, Budiono said the book did not specify a procedure for such a situation. "Wed have to consult with our legal advisor first."

He died as a brother

The allegations in the MBK Church are not the only ones to have clung to the Indonesian Catholic Church while the alleged perpetrators remain in positions of authority.

One victim said he had been sexually abused by a church brother  a title for a layman who has made a religious oath, usually of poverty, chastity and obedience  while he was attending a Catholic junior high school in Yogyakarta in the late 1980s. His school was managed by a community of brothers and three to four of them lived in a building on campus. Agustinus, who requested a pseudonym to protect his privacy, said he and his friends sometimes went to the brothers living area to do their homework until the evening.

Sexual abuse in church (JP/Sandy Riady)

One of the brothers asked him to spend the night there, but when Agustinus said he wanted to sleep in another room, the brother insisted that they share a bed. I didnt think anything would happen because we were both male, Agustinus said in February.

In bed, he said, the brother touched him inappropriately. The teenager felt it was not right but did not know it was abuse. He said it happened several times until he decided he had to stop it. He kept his distance despite the brothers protests. Later, some of his friends told him that the same brother had abused them.

While attending a seminary high school, Agustinus came to realize that he was sexually abused. He also learned about the vow of chastity and the brothers violation of it. But he never made an official report to anyone. I heard he died last year, and to my knowledge, he died as a brother, Agustinus said.

The Post and Tirto.id have been investigating allegations of sexual abuse in the Indonesian Catholic Church since January of this year. Journalists interviewed four childhood victims, including one who said he was abused in the St. Herkulanus Church community in Depok, West Java.

Of the four, three had never filed an official complaint. The other, the victim from St. Herkulanus, spoke about the incident 20 years later, after the parents of one of the alleged abusers other victims reported the case to the police.

For the minors, speaking up was not easy. The victims of alleged sexual violence at St. Herkulanus Church in Depok, West Java, stayed silent for years. The suspect, Syahril Parlindungan, confessed in a handwritten note obtained by the Post that he had sexually assaulted 13 boys since the year 2000.

The case became public after the parents of a victim reported the case to the police in May. They said their son had been regularly molested by the 42-year-old from January to March of this year. The investigation revealed decades of assault, and more victims spoke up to the police.

Pope Francis, in an apostolic letter titled Vos Estis Lux Mundi from May 2019, instructed all Catholic dioceses and orders to establish protocols to safeguard minors and vulnerable adults by June 2020. These protocols were to include a sexual abuse reporting and investigation mechanism.

Protocols in the making

In an interview on July 23, Father Sunu Hardiyanta, who was instructed by Father Ignatius Cardinal Suharyo to represent him in an interview with the Post and Tirto.id, said that all dioceses and orders in Indonesia were in the process of creating protocols but that none had yet created a system up to the Vaticans standards. Father Sunu said a team had been working for years to establish the protocols.

Read also: Depok Catholic Church molester launched 'systematic' assault for years, lawyer says

On July 23, Father Joseph Kristanto, who is on the protocol team with Father Sunu, said he had prepared two new books. One was called the green book and the other was the yellow book, referring to the color of their covers.

The green book was published in January of this year and focuses on prevention, Father Kristanto said. The second one is in the final stages of publication and will be dedicated to handling allegations of child sexual abuse.

What are the victims afraid of in the Catholic Church? Victims who report their cases will be protected, Kristanto said.

Father Sunu said he understood why victims were reluctant to report. He cited the social stigma and culture of victim blaming. We need a team that constantly works to help the victims. We have people who have been willing to do that, he said. In his own order, the Society of Jesus, a special team to handle reports was in the making, he added.

An official book published in 2017 requires the Catholic Church to process a sexual abuse or harassment report even if it is lodged anonymously or if it concerns events that happened decades ago.

Sisca said she would like to report the case under the new rules "even though the perpetrator has become very old", to make people aware of the danger of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. "I never made an official report about the assault because I didn't know the procedure," she said.
Anna Johnson, ARS Cares Healthcare Heroes Program Winner for Allgood Our community healthcare workers have been working tirelessly to ensure our safety and recognizing their efforts by installing a new HVAC system was an easy way we could ensure they have a comfortable and safe environment to return home to, said Craig Marin, General Manager of Allgood.

ALLGOOD PLUMBING, ELECTRIC, HEATING & COOLING, a local HVAC, Plumbing and Electrical provider and part of the American Residential Services (ARS) Network of Brands, is providing a new HVAC unit to Anna Johnson, a deserving Nurse as part of the ARS Cares Healthcare Heroes program. The program is an extension of the year-round, company-wide ARS Cares initiative, and is rewarding more than 50 free home services makeovers to healthcare professionals across the country during the current COVID-19 crisis.

Our community healthcare workers have been working tirelessly to ensure our safety and recognizing their efforts by installing a new HVAC system was an easy way we could ensure they have a comfortable and safe environment to return home to, said Craig Marin, General Manager of ALLGOOD PLUMBING, ELECTRIC, HEATING & COOLING.

Anna was nominated by her co-workers and patients to win the new HVAC system. Anna is the leader of her team, she teaches professional development classes to her peers, and volunteers to participate in research/surveys for hospital equipment related to her job. Anna is dedicated to her patients and staff and is fully devoted to medicine and helping everyone she can. Years ago she donated bone marrow to save the life of a stranger and most recently, she signed up to donate plasma to help Covid 19 patients. She is a breast cancer survivor who continued to work tirelessly as a nurse between her chemo and radiation treatments. The installation of Johnsons new HVAC unit was completed on June 17th.

Following the announcement of the ARS Cares Healthcare Heroes program on May 13, family, friends, and co-workers were invited to share stories of why a Atlanta frontline worker was deserving of home improvements that would deliver relief and relaxation. ARS received more than 400 nominations.

The ARS Cares initiative was launched in 2016 to cultivate positive relationships with communities where we live, work, and play. Since that time, more than 90 home services makeovers have been completed, donating more than $500,000 of HVAC systems and water heaters to deserving recipients. To learn more about ARS Cares and view official Terms & Conditions, visit ars.com/ars-cares.

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Based in Memphis, Tenn., privately-owned ARS operates a network of more than 70 locally-managed service centers in 24 states, with approximately 7,000 employees. The ARS Network features industry-leading brands including, 4 Eco Services, A.J. Perri, Aksarben ARS, Allgood, Andy's Statewide, ARS, Aspen Air Conditioning, Atlas Trillo, Beutler, Blue Apple Electric, Blue Dot, Blue Flame, Bob Hamilton, Brothers, Columbus Worthington Air, Comfort Heating & Air, Conway Services, DM Select, Florida Home Air Conditioning, Green Star Home Services, Hauser Heating & Air Conditioning, McCarthy Services, Rescue Rooter / Jack Howk, Rescue Rooter, RighTime Home Services, RS Andrews, TempRite Air Conditioning and Heating, Unique Services, "Will" Fix It, and Yes! Air Conditioning and Plumbing. As an Exceptional Service Provider, the ARS Network serves both residential and light commercial customers by providing heating, cooling, indoor air quality, plumbing, drain cleaning, sewer line, radiant barrier, insulation, and ventilation services. Each location has a knowledgeable team of trained specialists. ARS requires background checks and drug tests on all employees. We hire professionals with the highest level of integrity. Providing exceptional service and ensuring the highest standards of quality, ARS has the experience to do any job right  the first time, with all work fully guaranteed. ARS: "Making it work. Making it right."

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Aaron Brady's defence counsel has told the Adrian Donohoe murder trial that the lies told by his client do not make him guilty.

Yesterday Michael O'Higgins SC was giving his closing speech on behalf of Mr Brady, who denies capital murder and robbery at Lordship Credit Union on January 25, 2013.

He addressed the jury on a number of issues, including the evidence given by two American witnesses, the prosecution case, the defence case and the lies told by Mr Brady.

Mr O'Higgins said that his client had lied on important matters to gardai in the days after the murder, but added that just because a person tells lies doesn't mean they are guilty.

Shame

The court was told that people do not tell the truth for all sorts of reasons - out of shame, embarrassment and to avoid getting into trouble.

Mr O'Higgins said lies were told because his client was involved in diesel laundering and was apprehensive about gardai knowing about this.

Earlier, counsel spent much of the morning addressing the jury on evidence given by Daniel Cahill via video link from New York.

Mr Cahill, who is originally from Dublin, previously told the court of three interactions he had with Mr Brady in which the accused admitted shooting a garda.

Mr O'Higgins said that in his evidence Mr Cahill came forward because he wanted to see justice for the murder of Detective Garda Donohoe.

However, he said the witness did not come forward after any of the alleged interactions with his client, asking the jury: "Does this sound like someone with a burning desire to do justice?"

Mr Brady's senior counsel added: "If we were waiting for Daniel Cahill to volunteer this information I suggest to you we would still be waiting."

The trial has heard that Mr Cahill gave a statement to gardai having been detained at his apartment in the Bronx after it was searched by Homeland Security agents and the Yonkers Police Department on July 25, 2019.

Suspected cannabis plants and an unidentified quantity of steroids were found at the property but he was never charged in relation to these matters.

He said that Mr Cahill was not as he appears and that he was a person with a lot to gain.

Mr O'Higgins also described Special Agent Mary Ann Wade, who was involved in the operation at Mr Cahill's apartment, as an "extremely difficult" and "evasive" witness.

Agent Wade had told the court she could not answer questions on the immigration status of witnesses, citing a letter of scope from her employer limiting her testimony.

Mr O'Higgins said this was an "unprecedented situation" where a witness came to court and said "here's what's on the agenda, here's what's off the agenda".

He said it rewrote the rules of a criminal trial and that it could not cause the jury anything but deep concern.

Addressing the jury on the evidence given by Molly Staunton, he said it changed "like a pendulum" and that she was not someone whose testimony could be relied upon.

In evidence Ms Staunton gave different accounts of overhearing what Mr Brady said while she was in a New York apartment with him in the summer of 2016 before saying Mr Brady said he had shot a cop in Ireland.

Mr O'Higgins will continue his closing speech to the jury today.

Mr Brady has pleaded not guilty to the capital murder of Det Gda Donohoe (41), who was then a member of An Garda Siochana acting in the course of his duty at Lordship Credit Union in Bellurgan, Dundalk, Co Louth, on January 25, 2013.

The accused, of New Road in Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, also denies robbery of around 7,000 in cash and assorted cheques from Pat Bellew at the same location on the same date.
Germany has increased pressure on the UK over its imposition of a blanket quarantine on travellers returning from Spain, by issuing advice to its nationals only to avoid areas of the country currently experiencing coronavirus spikes.

Crucially, the advice from Berlin does not restrict travel to the Balearic and Canary Islands, where infection rates are lower than in either Britain or Germany.

Spains prime minister Pedro Sanchez has denounced the UKs action  which includes Foreign Office advice against all but essential travel to the popular holiday islands as well as to the mainland  as unjust and is seeking a rethink from London.

But local government minister Simon Clarke this morning said the UK respectfully disagrees with Mr Sanchezs position that it was an error to treat the whole of Spain in the same way, despite widely varying infection rates between hotspots like Barcelona and the low-risk Balearics  Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca  and Canaries.

Health minister Lord Bethell told the House of Lords on Monday that it was impossible for the UK to operate varying quarantine regimes for people visiting different parts of Spain.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 18 January 2022 Surfers enter the sea as the sun rises over Tynemouth on the North East coast PA UK news in pictures 17 January 2022 Bonhams Danny McIlwraith holds a Nigerian polycrome carved wood mask during a photocall for the sale of the Jim Lennon Collection at Bonhams in Edinburgh PA UK news in pictures 16 January 2022 The moon rises above the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, Hampshire PA UK news in pictures 15 January 2022 Demonstrators outside Downing Street during a Kill The Bill protest against The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill in London PA UK news in pictures 14 January 2022 Ecologist Emma Smart (left) and retired GP Dr Diana Warner outside HMP Bronzefield, in Surrey, following their release from the prison where Emma undertook a 26-day hunger strike during her incarceration. Ms Smart was sentenced in November, along with other members of Insulate Britain, to serve four months for breaking a High Court injunction by taking part in a blockade at junction 25 of the M25 motorway during the morning rush hour on 8 October last year PA UK news in pictures 13 January 2022 A TV presenter holds a copy of a newspaper outside 10 Downing Streetafter the Prime Minister apologised for attending a gathering of colleagues in the Number Ten garden in May 2020, while the UK was in strict lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic Getty UK news in pictures 12 January 2022 Fitness guru Derrick Evans after receiving an MBE during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 11 January 2022 A couple walk underneath an umbrella during wet weather on Westminster Bridge in central London PA UK news in pictures 10 January 2022 A jogger passes the Covid Memorial Wall in London AP UK news in pictures 9 January 2021 The sun rises over horses at Seaton Sluice in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 8 January 2022 Riders compete during the Veterans Men's race at the UK Cyclo-Cross National Championships 2022 in Ardingly, south of London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 7 January 2022 A dog looks out of a car window at the wintry conditions in Killeshin, Co. Laois PA UK news in pictures 6 January 2022 People walk through frost and mist alongside a frozen lake during sunrise in Bushy Park, London REUTERS UK news in pictures 5 January 2022 A skier jumps on the slopes at Allenheads in the Pennines to the north of Weardale in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 4 January 2022 Freshly-fallen snow covers houses in Corbridge, near Hexham in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 3 January 2022 Dean Morrison, 13, receives his Covid-19 vaccine from student nurse Anthony McLaughlin during a vaccination clinic at the Glasgow Central Mosque PA UK news in pictures 2 January 2022 Konastantinos Tsimikas of Liverpool with Chelseas Mason Mount during the Premier League match at Stamfrod Bridge Liverpool FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 January 2022 New Years Eve Lasers, drones and fireworks illuminate the sky in front of the Royal Naval College in Greenwich shortly after midnight in London EPA UK news in pictures 31 December 2021 Competitors in fancy dress run across the Pennine tops near Haworth, West Yorkshire, in the annual Auld Lang Syne Fell race which attracts hundreds of runners every year PA UK news in pictures 30 December 2021 Sunrise at Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 29 December 2021 The Very Revd Dr Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, looks at Becket, a six month old red-billed chough as he visits Wildwood Wildlife Park in Kent on the anniversary of the murder of Thomas Becket PA UK news in pictures 28 December 2021 Troops of the Household Cavalry are seen reflected in a puddle during the changing of the Queens Life Guard, on Horse Guards Parade, in central London PA UK news in pictures 27 December 2021 A pedestrian walks past a winter sale sign outside a John Lewis store on Oxford street in London Getty UK news in pictures 26 December 2021 Riders take their bikes through the snow near Castleside, County Durham PA UK news in pictures 25 December 2021 Patrick Corkery wears a santa hat and beard as waves crash over him at Forty Foot near Dublin during a Christmas Day dip PA UK news in pictures 24 December 2021 People stand inside Kings Cross Station on Christmas Eve in London Reuters UK news in pictures 23 December 2021 Christmas shoppers fill the car park at Fosse Shopping Park in Leicester PA UK news in pictures 22 December 2021 The sun rises behind the stones as people gather for the winter solstice at Stonehenge. Getty UK news in pictures 21 December 2021 People take part in a winter solstice swim at Portobello Beach in Edinburgh to mark the solstice and to witness the dawn after the longest night of the year PA UK news in pictures 20 December 2021 An auction employee displays poultry to buyers and sellers attending the Christmas Poultry Sale at York Auction Centre in Murton PA UK news in pictures 19 December 2021 Joao Moutinho of Wolverhampton Wanderers looks on during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chelsea at Molineux Getty Images UK news in pictures 18 December 2021 Freight lorries queuing at the port of Dover in Kent PA UK news in pictures 17 December 2021 Newly elected Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, bursts 'Boris' bubble' held by colleague Tim Farron, as she celebrates following her victory in the North Shropshire by-election PA UK news in pictures 16 December 2021 Brussels sprouts are harvested by workers as they prepare for the busy Christmas period near Boston in Lincolnshire PA UK news in pictures 15 December 2021 Lewis Hamilton is made a Knight Bachelor by the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 14 December 2021 The Royal Liver Buildings surrounded by early morning fog in Liverpool PA UK news in pictures 13 December 2021 People queue outside a walk-in Covid-19 vaccination centre at St Thomas's Hospital in Westminster Getty Images UK news in pictures 12 December 2021 People take part in the Big Leeds Santa Dash in Roundhay Park, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 11 December 2021 People arrive at a Covid-19 vaccination centre at Elland Road in Leeds, PA UK news in pictures 10 December 2021 Stella Moris speaks to the media after the US Government won its High Court bid to overturn a judges decision not to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange PA UK news in pictures 9 December 2021 Camels are lead around Salisbury Cathedral during a rehearsal for the Christmas Eve Service PA UK news in pictures 8 December 2021 Margaret Keenan and Nurse May Parsons, a year after Margaret was the first person in the UK to receive the Pfizer vaccine PA UK news in pictures 7 December 2021 Snowfall in Leadhills, South Lanarkshire as Storm Barra hits the UK with disruptive winds, heavy rain and snow PA UK news in pictures 6 December 2021 A person tries to avoid sea spray on New Brighton promenade in Wallasey as the UK readies for the arrival of Storm Barra Getty UK news in pictures 5 December 2021 People release balloons during a tribute to six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes outside Emma Tustin's former address in Solihull, West Midlands, where he was murdered by his stepmother PA UK news in pictures 4 December 2021 People walk through a Christmas market in Trafalgar Square Reuters UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 2 December 2021 Duchess of Cambridge inspects a Faberge egg at the Victoria and Albert Museum Getty UK news in pictures 1 December 2021 Meerkats at London Zoo with an advent calendar PA UK news in pictures 30 November 2021 Workers put the finishing touches to the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree ahead of the lighting ceremony later in the week PA

He appeared to reveal as he did so that his own holiday plans had been disrupted by Saturdays announcement of a 14-day self-isolation period for those returning from Spain, which has already forced transport secretary Grant Shapps to cut short his break.

Within individual countries, there is no way for us to control intra-country transport, Lord Bethell told peers.

It is therefore very difficult and challenging to have a regional exemption list. That is why we have not been able to give exemptions to the Balearics, and I say that with a personal interest in the matter.

However, Germanys advice, issued today, draws a clear distinction between the areas of Catalonia, Navarre and Aragon, where case numbers ballooned last week, and the rest of Spain.

We currently advise against unnecessary tourist trips to the autonomous communities of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre due to high infection numbers and local lockdowns, the ministry said on its website.

The announcement  coupled with similar advice from Belgium  was denounced as discriminatory by a senior minister in the Aragon regional government, Mayte Perez, who urged the Spanish foreign ministry to make a formal complaint.

Ms Perez said the Covid-19 pandemic was under control in most parts of her region and that tourism operators had made huge efforts to guarantee health safety.

Catalonias government said it regretted the German action, adding in a statement: We do not get into evaluating the decisions by other countries but we obviously dont share it.

Mr Clarke said the UK government disagrees with Mr Sanchezs assessment that imposing a quarantine on travellers from Spain was disproportionate.

Obviously we continue to work very closely with the Spanish authorities and wish them every success in getting this situation under control as quickly as possible, said the minister.

Spains rise in Covid-19 cases has prompted most regions to impose rules for masks to be worn everywhere and in several areas, including Barcelona, calls for people to stay at home.

Meanwhile, the head of a German research body warned that negligence had led to a steady rise of new infections in the country and warned that it was unclear if a second wave was under way.

The new developments in Germany make me very worried, said Lothar Wieler of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases.

The rise has to do with the fact that we have become negligent.

The number of daily new cases almost doubled on Tuesday to 633, and the RKI, which is Germanys most closely followed compiler of Covid-19 data, linked that to increased contact at parties and the workplace.

Mr Wieler said that social-distancing rules should be observed as strictly during holiday breaks as at home or in the workplace.

It is irrelevant if you are on holiday or at home, he said. The holiday is as much a part of the precautions against the spread of Covid-19 as your work and home life. The setting is irrelevant.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said the government is making efforts to attract FDI in infrastructure sector to address liquidity crunch faced by the Covid-19-hit economy.

The Road Transport, Highways and MSME minister also said that talks are on with various pension funds, insurance funds and financial institutions.

Infrastructure is the most economically viable industry. The internal rate of return of projects is very good.

We are trying to get FDI (foreign direct investment) in Infrastructure as it is 100 per cent allowed. We are trying to bring Insurance Fund, Pension Fund etc, while talks are on with the World Bank, ADB... We are moving fast in that direction, Gadkari said, addressing a webinar on Road Development in India.

Urging private players to join hands with the government, he said the economy - hit by coronavirus - is passing through a crucial phase and requires liquidity.

At the same, Covid-19 crisis should be turned into an opportunity as the world is now recognising India as a good place for investment, he said, adding the government has taken a policy decision to offer projects only after 90 per cent land acquisition and regulatory clearances like forest and environment.

In infrastructure, we are trying as to how we can get maximum investment. Today, there are huge opportunities in highways, power, transport, water, communciation and other sectors, he said, adding industrial development and job creation was not possible without propelling infrastructure.

Gadkari also stressed the need to bring down logistics costs and said that Rs 1 lakh crore Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will result in reducing the travel time between the two metropolises to barely 28 hours resulting in lesser logistics cost by way of enhanced cargo movement in lesser time.

There is huge potential in alternative fuel and electricity. I have just purchased an electric SUV. Our petrol expenditure which was Rs 12-13,000 per month has now slashed to Rs 600-Rs 800 per month, while charging can easily be done, the minister said.

He said the government is promoting LNG for long distance vehicles like trucks and buses which will be much cheaper as compared to diesel vehicles while focus is also on ethanol and methanol.

An electric highway pilot project is also on anvil on the upcoming Delhi-Mumbai expressway project.

About highway projects, he said currently the government is encouraging projects on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), hybrid annuity and other modes as the present condition of Indian contractors is not comfortable for BOT (build, operate and transfer) projects.

Gadkari said the government has identified a list of 15-20 project totalling 3,000 km on BOT and will see the response on the basis of one or two projects.

The minister also said the target was to build highways worth Rs 15 lakh crore in two years.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (center) is pictured next to the leaders of Thailand and Vietnam at a summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Bangkok, Thailand, in November 2019.

Singapores leader on Tuesday appealed for stability in the increasingly tense relationship between the United States and China, expressing concern that either the two world powers could clash, or that the U.S. could turn its back on the region.

Meanwhile, the top diplomats and defense officials of allies U.S. and Australia met for annual talks in Washington, and were unsparing in their criticism of China, voicing serious concerns over recent coercive and destabilizing actions across the Indo-Pacific in a joint statement.

Australia, which last week took a new tough diplomatic stance rejecting Chinas sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea, said its ships would continue to transit those disputed waters, but stopped short of publicly committing to conducting freedom of navigation operations in what China considers its territorial waters.

The U.S. and China have held dueling military exercises in the South China Sea in recent weeks, raising the risk of escalation as more warships operate closely in the disputed waters, where several of Singapores Southeast Asian neighbors have territorial claims. The U.S. has accused China of bullying other South China Sea claimants, while China on Tuesday repeated its charge that the U.S. is militarizing and stoking tensions in the area.

We worry about two things. One, that you (the United States) may collide with the Chinese in Asia, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said at a talk hosted by the Washington-based Atlantic Council, and on the other hand you may decide that you have no stake in the region and leave us to our own defenses.

The city state of Singapore is Southeast Asias most prosperous nation, and has historically retained cordial ties with both powers, notwithstanding its close defense partnership with the U.S., which rotates littoral combat ships that often patrol the South China Sea through Singapore.

Lee stressed that Singapore wanted to maintain good relations with China and very deep relations with the U.S. We depend on stable U.S.-China relations in order for us to have a secure, predictable environment in which we can make a living and live our lives, he said.

The U.S.-China relationship has deteriorated sharply on multiple fronts. In addition to tensions in the South China Sea, the U.S. has taken China to task over security legislation in Hong Kong and its treatment of Uyghur Muslims. Most recently, there have been tit-for-tat closures of consulates amid accusations of spying and intellectual property theft.

Lee asked for stability and predictability in the U.S. approach to Asia based on a bipartisan consensus in Washington, so that the policy would endure between administrations, and people can plan on it and can depend on it.

One stakeholder counting on a stable U.S. presence in the region is Australia, a key U.S. ally whose foreign and defense ministers were in Washington this week for the 30th annual Australia-US Ministerial Consultations, or AUSMIN.

Australia, along with Japan, has taken part in trilateral military exercises in the South China Sea, including when the U.S. sent two aircraft carrier groups on maneuvers there earlier this month.

China, in response, started a live-fire exercise off the province of Guangdong this week, practicing anti-ship attack drills with its air force, according to state media.

At a news conference Tuesday after AUSMIN, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne confirmed that participants discussed with the U.S. conducting Freedom of Navigation Operations, or FONOPs, but she did not definitively say Australia would start to perform them.

FONOPs challenge Chinas maritime claims in the South China Sea, by sending warships through waters that China claims nearly in their entirety. The U.S. has frequently sent warships within 12 nautical miles of land features China claims.

Payne said her nation has a long history of transiting through the region unilaterally, bilaterally with regional friends, and multilaterally.

Our approach remains consistent. We will continue to transit through the region in accordance with international law, she said.

Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listen while U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Department of State following bilateral talks in Washington, July 28, 2020. (Reuters) Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listen while U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Department of State following bilateral talks in Washington, July 28, 2020. (Reuters)

Ashley Townshend, the director for Foreign Policy and Defense at the University of Sydneys United States Studies Centre, told Radio Free Asia that Australia has been hesitant to conduct FONOPs, owing to concerns about Chinese retaliation, uncertainty about Americas capacity to protect Australian ships, and uneasiness about taking actions in support of maritime rights that Southeast Asian claimants themselves have not undertaken.

But Townshend said Canberra and Washington were increasingly concerned by Beijings persistent use of coercion, intimidation and, in some cases, outright aggression against regional countries in the South China Sea.

In their joint statement Tuesday, the U.S. and Australia reiterated their closely aligned diplomatic positions that China cannot assert maritime claims in the South China Sea based on the nine-dash line, historic rights, or entire South China Sea island groups, which are incompatible with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the news conference that the U.S. would keep working with Australia to reassert the rule of law in the South China Sea.

On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin rejected Australias recent declaration that Chinas South China Sea maritime claims were illegal. China firmly opposes the Australian side's comments, which run counter to facts, international law and basic norms governing international relations, Wang told a news conference in Beijing.

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, have tried to hash out their differences in the South China Sea through a negotiated Code of Conduct agreement that would govern behavior in the region, as Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia all have claims or maritime territory in the South China Sea that compete or conflict with that of China.

China and ASEAN agreed to resume talks on the Code of Conduct after they were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic a month ago, and Singapores Lee was upbeat about the negotiations but hesitant to say the code would be complete by 2021 as planned.

I think it's far better that we are talking about a Code of Conduct and trying to work it out rather than having face-offs at sea, at close-quarters, at risk of collision and escalations, he said.
France plans to ban heaters used by restaurants and cafes on outdoor terraces from early next year, as it accelerates a shift to a low-carbon economy, the government said.

Because the ban could impact a sector hard-hit by the coronavirus crisis, it will not come into force until after the end of the coming winter to give business time to adapt.

Whats at stake is ending ecologically aberrant practices that lead to totally unjustified energy consumption, Environment Minister Barbara Pompili said on French TV.

On Jan. 1, Rennes became the first French city to ban heated terraces. Environmental NGOs estimate that France has least 12,500 heated terraces.

This is a courageous decision, said Thierry Salomon of energy conservation group NegaWatt, adding that in northern European countries with far colder climates, restaurants typically provide terrace clients with plaids.

He said that as some restaurants introduced terrace heating, others were forced to follow in order not to lose customers.

Negawatt estimates a 75 m2 terrace, heated with gas November to March, emits as much CO2 as a car circling the earth three times.

Restaurants say the ban will add to their worries.

The timing is very bad, in the middle of the coronavirus crisis, 80% of our turnover comes from terraces now, said restaurant owner Aurore Begue.

One Parisian enjoying a sunny terrace was less worried.

When heaters came, it was progress, but really, we do not need them. We can put on a coat or sweater, said Marie-Laure Bonnot, 77.

Some restaurant owners too were philosophical.

This is a measure that could be expected, and, given the climate situation, it is hard to oppose it, said Stephane Malchow of brasserie Mollard.

Paris hotel and restaurant trade group GNIs Romain Vidal said the industry would find better ways to heat terraces, using efficient heaters, certified renewable energy and wind shields to reduce heat loss.

France created the terrace culture. We need to continue that culture without damaging the planet, he said.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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Global airlines cut their coronavirus recovery forecast on Tuesday, saying it would take until 2024 - a year longer than previously expected - for passenger traffic to return to pre-crisis levels.

In an update on the crisis which has led to a collapse in travel demand, the International Air Transport Association cited slow virus containment in the United States and developing countries, and a weaker outlook for corporate travel outlook.

Lingering travel barriers and new restrictions in some markets are also weighing on nearer-term prospects, IATA said, cutting its 2020 passenger numbers forecast to a 55 percent decline - sharper than the 46 percent drop predicted in April.

"The second half of this year will see a slower recovery than we'd hoped," IATA Chief Economist Brian Pearce said. June passenger numbers were down 86.5 percent year-on-year, the organisation said, after a 91% contraction in May.

A surprise move by Britain to quarantine arrivals from Spain has created lot of uncertainty, Pearce said. "That is clearly going to be an issue with the recovery."

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

Recovery prospects are weakened by the spread of COVID-19 in the United States and developing countries together representing 40 percent of global air travel, IATA said.

Business travel may also face a sustained slump, threatening the profitability of long-haul airlines and routes as corporate clients rein in spending and make greater use of video-conferences that have become the norm during lockdowns.

"It will remain to be seen whether we see a recovery to pre-crisis business travel patterns," Pearce said. "Our concern is that we won't."

Long-haul carriers may need to rely more heavily on cargo to maintain the viability of some routes because of lower business demand, he said.

"For many network airlines, the premium-paying passengers were essentially the ones who drove the profitability."

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
Ameya Dalvi

A lot of people these days seek our opinion regarding personal technology products they can buy, but from non-Chinese brands. While the options are quite limited when it comes to smartphones, thats not the case with the smart TV category. The obvious brands that come to mind are Samsung, LG, and Sony, but if you are looking for a large screen TV on a modest budget, those three wont be of much assistance. But worry not, there are still a lot of good brands that arent based within the borders of our north-eastern neighbour that you can consider. Here are the best 55-inch Smart TVs with Ultra HD (4K) panels from non-Chinese manufacturers that you can buy under Rs 40,000 in India currently.

Best 55-inch Smart TVs from Non-Chinese brands under Rs 40,000

Note: Some of the models listed below may not be in stock at certain pin codes from time to time when trying to buy them online. In that case, you may want to try checking with your local electronics stores for their availability. The prices mentioned in this article are their online prices at the time of writing.

Vu 55PM Premium 4K/ 55UT Ultra 4K (Price: Rs 33,999)

The Vu 55PM and 55UT models from their Premium 4K and Ultra 4K series are pretty much the same TVs. The only difference being, the former is available on Flipkart and the latter on Amazon India. They are certified Android TVs that run Android Pie 9.0 for TV and have Chromecast built-in. You get a fairly bright 55-inch VA panel with a rated brightness of 400 nits that supports HDR 10 and Dolby Vision. The TV is powered by a quad-core chip with four A55 cores and Mali-470 MP GPU. It comes bundled with 2 GB RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. All this leads to a stutter-free viewing experience with very good colours and contrast.

(Also Read: Vu 55PM premium android TV review: Budget 55-inch smart TV that offers great value for money)

The 30 Watts sound output here is quite impressive too for a flat panel display. In the connectivity department, you get three HDMI ports  one of which supports ARC, two USB 2.0 ports, optical audio, headphone out, LAN port and AV inputs. You also have Bluetooth 5.0 to connect wireless speakers or headphones with the TV. A special mention for the wireless remote here that supports voice commands and has hotkeys for Netflix, Prime Video, Hotstar, YouTube, Google Play Store, along with navigation keys, input key, volume control, mute button, settings and a D-pad. Basically, all the necessary keys that you need without creating a clutter. You can read our full review of the Vu PM55 here.

Kodak 55CA0909 (Price: Rs 30,999)

An American brand better known for its photography products has fast gained popularity for its budget TVs in India. The company launched its first certified Android TVs earlier this year, and the 55CA0909 is the 55-inch variant from that series. It is easily the best Kodak TV we have come across to date, with excellent picture quality in this segment and much-improved sound too. Staying true to the current design trends, this model is almost bezel-less on three sides and looks a lot more premium than what its selling price would suggest.

It has a bright IPS panel with support for 10-bit colour and a rated brightness of 550 nits. The colour reproduction and contrast are among the best we have seen in this budget range, and 4K content looks really vibrant on this screen. You get support for HDR standards like HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Vision, but you will have to deal with the occasional stutter till the company releases a software update to fix it. A pair of bottom-firing speakers rated at 30 Watts RMS do a good job of delivering Dolby certified audio.

The hardware specs are modest with a quad-core processor with ARM Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1 GHz each and Mali-450 MP GPU. You get 1.75 GB RAM (1.5 GB detectable) and 8 GB internal storage. Connectivity options include three HDMI ports  one of which supports ARC, two USB ports (one 2.0, one 3.0), Optical audio out, A/V input, and a LAN port. One notable absentee here is a connector for analog audio out  no headphone jack or A/V out, but the TV does support Bluetooth 5.1 to connect your wireless speakers or headphones. And of course, there is Chromecast too. You may read the review of its 50-inch variant here.

Thomson 55 OATHPRO 0101 (Price: Rs 32,999)

Just like Kodak, the French brand, Thomson has been plying its trade in India for their past few years through Super Plastronics Pvt. Ltd. Their latest offering  55 OATHPRO 0101 brings several enhancements over its predecessor, especially in terms of picture quality. Its features and specifications are almost identical to the Kodak model listed above, and so is the performance. The design is slightly different and you can choose one depending on your taste, availability and brand preference.

Sanyo Kaizen XT-55A082U (Price: Rs 34,999)

This 55-inch variant from Sanyo (the renowned Japanese brand now owned by Panasonic) too is a certified Android TV that runs Android Pie 9 for TV, and comes with a voice-enabled Bluetooth remote and Chromecast built-in. It has 3x HDMI ports, 2x USB ports and supports all major streaming services. This TV is powered by a Mediatek quad-core SoC and has 1.75 GB RAM and 8 GB internal storage. Sound output is rated at 20 Watts RMS and supports DTS True Surround.

What goes in favour of the Sanyo Kaizen XT-55A082U, other than its Japanese legacy, is the presence of a 4K IPS panel with support for over a billion colours and impressive design with extremely slim side bezels. You also get Bluetooth 5.0 and Chromecast built in along with other standard input/output options.

Philips 55PUT6103S/94 (Price: Rs 35,990)

This 55-inch model from the Dutch consumer electronics giant is the only non-Android TV in the list. It runs on Philips in-house Saphi OS which is easy to use but not as feature-rich as official Android for TV. You also miss out on apps for some popular OTT platforms like Disney+ Hotstar, Sony LIV etc., and you will need to plug in something like an Amazon Fire TV stick to access those platforms, unless you are ok with mirroring them from your phone. On the bright side, the UI is smooth and pretty much lag-free, and the TV takes just 5 to 7 seconds to boot, which is quite remarkable given that the fastest Android TV takes in excess of half a minute to start.

Connectivity options are good with 2x USB ports, 3x HDMI ports  one of which supports ARC, optical audio output, coaxial A/V inputs, a headphone out and a LAN port. The audio output is rated at 20 Watts RMS but sounds way better than a lot of TVs that flaunt that figure. Since this isnt an official Android TV, it does not have Chromecast but lets you mirror content from your phone or tablet using Miracast. In terms of picture and sound quality, the Philips 50PUT6103S/94 is noticeably better than most of the competition in this segment and provides ample adjustments to tweak the picture and audio further. You may read the review of its 50-inch variant here.

Thats it for now. If you are on a tighter budget or looking for smaller screens due to space constraints, we will soon provide you with options for that too. Stay tuned.
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Anne Applebaums new book, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism, begins cinematically, with a party she threw at a Polish manor house to mark the dawn of the new millennium.

Applebaums husband was then the deputy foreign minister in Polands center-right government; she was a right-leaning journalist who would go on to write a Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the Soviet gulag. Many of the guests came from the cosmopolitan anti-Communist intelligentsia. About half of them, she writes, no longer speak to the other half.

In Twilight of Democracy, Applebaum tries to understand why so many of her old friends  conservatives who once fancied themselves champions of democracy and classical liberalism  have become paranoid right-wing populists. Were some of our friends always closet authoritarians? she asks. Or have the people with whom we clinked glasses in the first minutes of the new millennium somehow changed over the subsequent two decades?

To Applebaum, todays right, in both America and Europe, has little in common with most of the political movements that have been so described since the Second World War. Until recently, she writes, the right was dedicated not just to representative democracy, but to religious tolerance, independent judiciaries, free press and speech, economic integration, international institutions, the trans-Atlantic alliance and a political idea of the West. What happened?
With this increasing polarization, containing within it the potential to develop into a full-blown Cold War- nations will be forced sometime sooner than later to choose a winner





by Yasmeen Aftab Ali





The U.S. China ping pong started from way back in 1949 since Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong created the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing after having defeated Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek.In the more current scenario where economics drives politics, the Ping-Pong between U.S and China has become more sharply defined. The stakes are high. Who will be the next world leader for coming decades? With Chinese policy becoming more assertive, the US is deeply concerned about an economic surge by China, leading to it becoming a world leader.













In 2013 China launched the Belt and Road initiative (BRI) a project that aims to build physical infrastructures across roughly 65 countries including Africa, Asia and Europe. Pledging $900 billion in the project, China is poised to pump in $150 billion in these projects every year.It is an extremely ambitious project that aims to involve many countries to invest and derive benefits from a well-planned and a well laid out transit line.





The project is a huge outreach by China to the world, seeking international markets for export of goods and technology to boost their economy at the same time offering benefits to linking nations as well. Charles Parton, a former EU diplomat in China who has researched the initiative states that the project is, ultimately a domestic policy with geostrategic consequences rather than a foreign policy.





The confrontational politics between U.S and China, has begun earlier than expected. The reason may have to do not so much with the inevitability of the outcome of the relationship but the quickened pace can be logically attributed to the bull in the China shop attitude of President Trump.





George W. Bush had supported the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) and Obama had given final touches to the plan to lay out rules for doing trade and investing in the Asia-Pacific region. Unfortunately, Trump pulled out of TPP on his very first day in office. By staying in TPP, the US would have been in a position to help countries wanting to be a part of BRI while minimizing economic risks. Another advantage the US lost is the leverage to offer good terms of trade with the US market to countries where China is the main exporter. It can no longer offer a competitive investment plan to nations as opposed to BRI or TPP. In 2017 China launched the petro-Yuan. This allows crude oil futures contract to be priced in Yuan convertible in gold. Not only does it allow trading countries to avoid US sanctions to trade oil in Yuan, it also does not need conversion into US dollars or investing money in Chinese assets.





What the US is left with is a fear of Chinas outreach. Leaving TPP  the pragmatic path of molding the economic game to its advantage, the US is playing the small game by joining hands with India to create unwarranted issues in the region.





Fast forward to the present: President Trump and Chinese vice Premier Liu He in 2020 signed a Phase One agreement. U.S allowed some softening on Chinese imports with China buying some $200 billion worth of American goods. This was a big breakthrough for both the countries. However, the deal had the gray areas that rose questions later: of long term subsidies enjoyed by China that were to be addressed in a future deal; as per Trump.





When Covid-19 broke out, all non-Americans were denied entry into U.S who had visited the mainland China in recent time. President Trump nicked the virus as Chinese virus, reportedly using it more than 20 times from March 16th till March 30th. Accusing WHO for being biased towards China, U.S under Trump stopped the funding to the organization.





As the Ping-Pong gained intensity, roughly thirteen journalists from three U.S newspapers were faced with expulsion whose credentials were to expire. The statement of Chinese Foreign Ministry was this this decision was a response to the U.S government earlier in the year to reduce Chinese journalists in U.S as well as designate those media outlets as foreign missions.





The U.S has raised a cry against Chinese treatment against Uyghur Muslims, responding; Chinas Foreign Ministry rubbished the claim and told the U.S in no uncertain terms to stay out of Hong Kong affair. It is interesting to note the timing of Chinese-Indian spat earlier this year near Galwan River and subsequent standoff between both.





If one closely examines the facts of the tumultuous relationship, the cause seems to be two-pronged. With the U.S under Trump playing her cards badly, the handing over of the mantle seem to be messier and may get messier yet. Secondly, the clash comes with the entirely different natures of both in terms of governance structures. China may be seen as a threat because of her authoritarian structure, as against a more open and democratic one supporting free-market economics. These two reasons, are primarily responsible for the deteriorating relationship. The second was always present, the base that has always caused the friction. The increasing slide by U.S urged on by policies of the present government has increased U.S distrust of China, yet not wanting another; least of all China to take the central seat, has led to the stepping up of rivalry pushing back a certain degree of strategic cooperation both the countries had.





With this increasing polarization, containing within it the potential to develop into a full-blown Cold War- nations will be forced sometime sooner than later to choose a winner. There is no doubt that in the New World Order unfolding China has clearly substituted Russia. The Indo-Pacific will be the gravity of this rivalry not Europe. In a speech Tillersonhad stated that the Indo-Pacific  including the entire Indian Ocean, the Western Pacific, and the nations that surround them  will be the most consequential part of the globe in the 21st century and that the greatest challenge to a stable, rules-based Indo-Pacific is a China that has taken to reworking the international system to its own benefit. (Oct 21, 2017).





The coming times may be fraught with tension, but promise to be interesting!





The writer is a lawyer, academic and political analyst




Working on intelligence inputs, the security apparatuses apprehend attack on embassies, temples, airports, Shia-Ahmadiya shrines, mosques, churches, pagodas and other religious institutions and the police establishments by terrorists to announce launch of a new group 'Bengal Ulayat' by the Bangladesh wing of ISIS.

Members of neo JMB, an ultra-radical offshoot of the banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), who follow the Islamic State (IS) ideology, could try to carry out attacks, sources said.

Citing attacks on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August (On August 21, 2004, she was attacked with grenade), a top police official, on the condition of anonymity, told IANS, "It's August again. We have stepped up security. We have adopted the policy of 'zero tolerance against militancy' as per the Prime Minister's directives."

Father of the Nation Bangabondhu Sheikh Mujibor Rahman was also assassinated in August.

"The special units, including the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC), Anti-Terrorism (ATU) and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have been asked to be on alert," the official said.

The police have been asked to beef up all-round security, collect data on new tenants in cities, check identity of visitors to police installations, boost security in the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) diplomatic division, keep vigil on religious and police units, and not to leave any police vehicles unattended.

Security arrangements had been strengthened in and around embassies and different areas of Dhaka, the police official said and added, check-posts had been set up at various points.

According to the police headquarters (PHQ) sources, intelligence suggested that IS had decided to declare a new wing 'Bengal Ulayat' ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha and August.

Members of neo JMB, Allahr Dol (Party of Allah) and the local IS followers could carry out subversive activities, including assassinations and bombings, sources said.

At the end of June, the IS in Iraq and Syria had urged its followers all over the world to gather ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.

On July 25 night, a fake grenade was found in a bag hanging from a motorcycle of a traffic cop, who had left it behind in Gulistan of the capital. "It's like an alert message to us," the official said.

The PHQ has instructed its units to increase surveillance of extremists, their groups, and school and college students and maintain personal security all the time.

Meanwhile, five members of the banned militant outfit Ansar Al Islam were arrested on July 26 night from the Dhulivita area of Dhamrai, about 40 km north-west of Dhaka. The arrested militants are Mizanur Rahman Palash, 35, one of the coordinators of Ansar Al Islam, Durul Huda (44), Abdur Rashid (21), Russell (38) and Abdul Hai (40).

From Palash, a businessman, and four others incriminating books, leaflets, digital content and mobiles were recovered, an RAB official told IANS. They all belonged to the Chapainawabganj district of the Rajshahi Division, he added.

Huda, a teacher by profession played motivator to new recruits and provided them videos, books, mobile apps of Ansar Al-Islam. Rashid is mason by profession and Russell a workshop mechanic. They collected donations on behalf of Ansar Al-Islam. Hai is a quack (medical impostor).

According to the RAB, 8-10 of them regularly visited different areas for meetings with other militants and to recruit new members. They had planned to meet at Dhamrai, well-known for pottery and annual Jagannath Rath Jatra.

--IANS

sumi/pcj
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Bharat Book Bureau Provides the Trending Market Research Report on Global Water Based Inks Market Size study with COVID Impact, by Process (Gravure, Flexographic, others) by Resin Type (Acrylic, Maleic, Shellac, and others) by Application (Corrugated Cardboards, Flexible Packaging, Tags & Labels Folding Cartons and others) and Regional Forecasts 2020-2027 under Chemical & Materials Category. The report offers a collection of superior market research, market analysis, competitive intelligence and Market reports.

Global Water Based Inks Market is valued approximately USD XX billion in 2019 and is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than XX% over the forecast period 2020-2027. Water-based ink may be defined as an ink that contains both pigment as well as dyes in a colloidal suspension with water as a solvent. Even though water is the main solvent used in the water-based ink production process, the inks might still contain other co-solvents to reduce the time as well as heat needed to cure the ink film on the fabric. 3D technology will be the driving force behind the printing ink market.

With an increase in global interest in 3D printing technology from consumers, researchers and industry, the demand for 3D printing inks is expected to be high. In contrast to 2D inks intended for the manufacture of flat surfaces, 3D inks are the inks that are intended for the manufacture of volumetric structures and devices. In April 2018, researchers at Dartmouth College developed a smart ink which transforms 3D-printed structures into objects that can help to change shape and color.

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Dic Corporation

Sakata Inx

Siegwerk

Color Resolution International

Toyo Ink

Nazdar Ink Company

T&K Toka

Huber Group

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Maleic

Shellac

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By Joan Faus and Belen Carreno MADRID (Reuters) - Britain made a mistake when it decided at the weekend to slap a quarantine on people travelling from Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday, saying most of the Mediterranean country had a lower coronavirus infection rate than the UK. Sanchez was speaking just after Britain dealt a new blow to any hopes of reviving Spain's tourism by extending guidance advising against all non-essential travel, which already applied to mainland Spain, to include the Balearic and Canary Islands.

By Joan Faus and Belen Carreno

MADRID (Reuters) - Britain made a mistake when it decided at the weekend to slap a quarantine on people travelling from Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday, saying most of the Mediterranean country had a lower coronavirus infection rate than the UK.

Sanchez was speaking just after Britain dealt a new blow to any hopes of reviving Spain's tourism by extending guidance advising against all non-essential travel, which already applied to mainland Spain, to include the Balearic and Canary Islands.

"The error is to have looked at the incidence (of the virus) in the country as a whole," Sanchez said in an interview with Telecinco television.

The rebound in cases is focused in two regions, Catalonia and Aragon, while "in the rest of the territories, the incidence is much lower, (lower) even than that of the United Kingdom," he said.

Last year, Britons made up over a fifth of foreign visitors to Spain, which relies heavily on tourism.

The Socialist prime minister said the British government had given Spain no heads up about the quarantine move.

Nevertheless, both teams are in touch and Madrid is trying to persuade British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government to change its mind, Sanchez said, adding that the two governments were "friends".

But the latest British move, announced shortly before Sanchez's evening interview, did not bode well for Spain's chances of getting the British government to change tack any time soon.

While Madrid was focusing its efforts on getting the Balearic and Canary Islands, which have a low coronavirus rate, off the quarantine list, London instead decided to add them to its guidance advising against all non-essential travel.

Earlier on Monday, Spain's hard-hit hotels had offered to pay for foreign tourists to take coronavirus tests, in an effort to lure back visitors worried by a fresh wave of cases and put off by Britain's sudden imposition of a two-week quarantine.

Since ending its nationwide lockdown a month ago, Spain has been grappling with a rapid proliferation of new cases.

The Health Ministry reported 6,361 new cases over the weekend and said it was monitoring 361 clusters around the country.

With most new infections concentrated in Catalonia and Aragon and with several other regions having a lower infection ratio than Britain, the blanket quarantine has been criticised by tourism groups as disproportionate and impulsive.

Britain's transport minister cut short his own holiday in Spain to return home to handle the fallout.

"The sooner I get back from Spain myself, the sooner I can get through quarantine," Grant Shapps said on Monday.

(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, Nathan Allen, Belen Carreno and Joan Faus; Additional reporting by Inti Landauro, Paola Luelmo, Costas Pitas; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Gareth Jones and Peter Cooney)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
China on Tuesday said that both Chinese and Indian troops have completely disengaged on most locations of the disputed border between the two nations. The situation is now heading towards easing and cooling down, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

"The frontline border troops of the two countries have already completed disengagement at most places," he told reporters in Beijing. Wang said the two sides were preparing for a fifth round of talks between military commanders at an unspecified date.

"We hope that the Indian side and China will meet each other halfway, implement the consensus reached by both sides, and jointly maintain peace and tranquility in the border area," he told reporters.

The Indian and Chinese armies have been locked in a bitter standoff in multiple locations in eastern Ladakh for over seven weeks, and the tension escalated manifold after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a violent clash in Galwan Valley on June 15.

Meanwhile, India recently banned around 59 popular Chinese apps, including TikTok on June 29, saying they were prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity, and security of the country. The decision to ban Chinese apps came as a part of India's economic offensive against China after the death of its 20 soldiers at LAC in Ladakh's Galwan valley.

Also read: Mukesh Ambani-led RIL may acquire Future Group's retail business for Rs 27,000 crore

Also read: 'Telcos not out of woods; govt needs to close legal disputes,' says Sunil Bharti Mittal
The Federal Government has declared Thursday 30th and Friday 31st July, 2020 as Public Holidays to mark this years Eid el-Kabir Celeb...





The Federal Government has declared Thursday 30th and Friday 31st July, 2020 as Public Holidays to mark this years Eid el-Kabir Celebration.





This was conveyed in a statement signed by the Ministry of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola on Tuesday.





He congratulated Muslim faithful and all Nigerians both at home and abroad on the occasion.





He called on the Muslims to continue to imbibe the spirit of love, peace, kindness and sacrifice, as exemplified by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) and to also use the period to pray for peace, unity, prosperity and the stability of the country especially as the world is witnessing global health challenges caused by Covid-19 pandemic.





The Minister, who assured that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is fully committed to battling the scourge with the cooperation of all Nigerians, emphasized that government would continue to foster peaceful coexistence, national cohesion and stability in its march towards actualizing the full potentials of the country.





He, therefore, called on all Nigerians to join hands with the Administration of Pres. @MBuhari in its avowed determination to build a peaceful, harmonious and prosperous country, where the rights of every citizen, are protected and guaranteed, as enshrined in the Constitution of the FRN.




WASHINGTON  As the 2020 census struggles to find its footing amid the coronavirus outbreak and public reluctance to give the government personal data, officials have a new worry: The Trump administration and Senate Republicans appear to be signaling that they want the census finished well ahead of schedule, pandemic or not.

With almost 40 percent of the nations households still uncounted, including the hardest-to-reach populations that are disproportionately poor, people of color and young, the Trump administration took the Census Bureau by surprise last week. It asked the Senate Appropriations Committee to set aside $448 million in the next coronavirus relief package for a timely completion of the census.

The request did not define what timely meant, and legislation released on Monday said only that the money would be used for nationwide census operations and data processing. But it comes as census workers and former officials say the White House and the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, are asking how the bureau can compress its schedule to wrap up the count of households earlier than expected  perhaps by the end of September. The aim, they say, may be to speed up the delivery of key data for political reapportionment to the president by the end of December.

The administration has yet to announce a compressed schedule and may not find a way to do so. But the prospect already has alarmed an array of experts, who warned in recent days that an expedited census risks a deeply flawed count of the nations population. The census is constitutionally required to count all residents of the country every 10 years.
A private school near Brisbane has been shut down after a female employee tested positive to coronavirus.

Parklands Christian College in Park Ridge will be closed for cleaning on Wednesday after the staff member returned a positive test on Tuesday afternoon.

It's understood the employee returned from travelling interstate last week and is currently in isolation.

'The school will temporarily close until further notification to allow for cleaning and work will commence on contact tracing,' a Queensland Health statement read.

A testing clinic will be set up at Parkland Christian College (pictured) after a female staff member tested positive to coronavirus on Tuesday

'Queensland Health is working to determine where the virus may have been acquired, including working with the woman to gather necessary information about places she may have visited whilst infectious.'

'As always, we strongly recommend everyone with symptoms to immediately get tested. Vigilance is key to keeping community transmission out of Queensland.'

The school advised parents on Tuesday night.

'Queensland Health is currently working closely with the College to assess the situation,' a letter obtained by Seven News states.

'If you/your child or any family member is unwell, isolate immediately, and avoid contact with others.'

Principal Gary Cully said the school has worked with Queensland Health to identify a number of other staff members who need to isolate as a precaution.

'We believe that the person in question has had limited contact with students and the wider college community,' his statement said.

'Our children and staff are like family, and we are doing everything possible to keep them safe now and in the future; that includes fully co-operating with (the) Metro South Public Health Unit.'

The school will be closed for deep cleaning and contract tracing on Wednesday

A testing clinic is being set up at the school attended by more than 650 students attend the private school from prep through to year 12.

There are currently six active cases of the deadly virus in Queensland.

The state recorded no new cases in the 24 hours up until 8pm Monday.

The new case brings the Queensland COVID-19 total to 1077.
Syracuse, N.Y.  One of two men shot and killed this weekend has been identified as a 42-year-old hard-working father who regularly attended church.

Erskine Dodson Jr. (pronounced Er-skin) was shot Sunday night and later died at Upstate University Hospital, according to the Rev. Milton Kornegay, the pastor of his church.

As his pastor, the news this morning, it totally shocked me, said Kornegay, pastor of Central Baptist Church in Syracuse. Hes a faithful member; quiet, but very observant and a good listener. Hes very well liked.

Dodson often brought his young son, E.J., to the churchs childrens program.

He was very committed to raising his son, Kornegay said. He was just one of those guys you could depend on. You seldom saw him involve himself in nonsense. He kind of gravitated toward things that had purpose and meaning, and very easy to talk to. He had a lot of friends.

Dodson had so many friends in the community, in part, because he ran a private business fixing and selling used cars, Kornegay said. Dodson also worked full-time at Eatons Crouse-Hinds since 2013, the pastor said.

He was well loved at his job, he said. People there are crushed today.

Syracuse police have said they do not know where Dodson was or what he was doing when someone shot him in the mid-section Sunday night. His pastor also did not know, but said some people in the community have said it may been a case of mistaken identity.

There were 13 confirmed reports of gunfire from Friday to early Monday, with Dodson and another man killed and seven people wounded.

A 24-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was killed by gunfire around 6 p.m. Sunday on Park Street near Washington Square Park.

After Dodson was shot later Sunday night, someone drove him to Upstate University Hospital in a private vehicle; police then responded to the hospital at 11:47 p.m. after they learned he had been shot. Dodson later died at the hospital.

News of Dodsons death spread quickly in the community on Monday. After Kornegay spoke with Dodsons father, he asked everyone on the Central Baptist Church Family Facebook page to pray for the family.

Beloved: With a heavy heart, I share with you that Erskine Dodson, Jr. was shot and killed last night/early morning, Kornegay wrote. Please pray for his family as they grieve the loss of their loved one. Ive talked with his father  who is seeking to trust the Lord in this  yet his pain and agony is great.

Dodsons parents, Phyllis and Erskine Dodson Sr., live in Indianapolis, Indiana; he also has two sisters, one in Indianapolis and another in North Carolina, Kornegay said.

Dodson grew up in Syracuse, surrounded by a faithful family. He was a child when his father, Erskine Dodson Sr.  now a pastor in Indianapolis who also does missionary work in Africa  founded Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Syracuse with 13 charter members in February 1983.

The ministry moved from the community centers to the living room of the Dodsons house, then to their garage, into the Syracuse Hill Apartments community center and finally to PEACEs Eastside Center, according to the church website.

Dodson and his family celebrated the ground breaking of the new Sovereign Grace Baptist Church building on Syracuses East Side on Easter Sunday morning in 1988, and then the first worship service there on Christmas Day the same year.

His parents left Syracuse in 1999 when his father accepted a teaching position at a bible college in Indianapolis, but the younger Dodson stayed in Syracuse. He eventually got married and divorced, but remained committed to raising his son and being a good dad, Kornegay said.

Dodson has been a member of Central Baptist for the last 10 years, the pastor said.

He loved his family, Kornegay said. He loved his Lord, Jesus Christ. And he loved the church.

His funeral will be held at Central Baptist Church, but details are still being planned through Garland Brothers Funeral Home.

While his family and church community continue to ask for prayers, Syracuse police ask anyone with information about the shooting that killed Dodson to call them at (315) 442-5222.

Have a tip or a story idea? Contact Catie OToole: cotoole@syracuse.com | text/call 315-470-2134 | Twitter | Facebook
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Authentic Brands Group could be throwing its hat in the ring for the recently bankrupted Ascena Retail Group.

The brand management company is among the parties said to be considering a buyout of the Ann Taylor, Loft and Lane Bryant parent, which filed for Chapter 11 protection on Thursday. According to Bloomberg, ABG would make the investment alongside frequent buying partners Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Partners. Private equity firm Sycamore Partners is also reportedly mulling the purchase.

More from Footwear News

Over the past couple months, ABG has emerged as a big player in retail mergers and acquisitions as the coronavirus pandemic accelerates brick-and-mortars challenges and drives consumers online.

On Friday, bankrupt Brooks Brothers announced that SPARC Group LLC  a venture created by the ABG and Simon  made a stalking-horse bid of $305 million to snap up its global business operations as a going concern. The group also plans to preserve at least 125 of its stores.

ABG and Simon had previously joined forces  along with mall owner General Growth Properties, now owned by Brookfield  to save Aeropostale from liquidation in 2016. The two, plus Brookfield, also became the new owners of teen mall staple Forever 21 in February.

Whats more, rumors surfaced last month surrounding ABGs potential acquisition of JCPenney, which went bankrupt in mid-May: Days after news emerged that Sycamore was debating buying the department store chain, a Bloomberg report suggested that ABG could join forces once again with Simon and Brookfield to pull JCPenney out of bankruptcy. The beleaguered retailer is currently undergoing reorganization and expects to close 242 doors, or about 29% of its fleet, by February 2021.

In its bankruptcy filing, Ascena  which also owns the Lou & Grey and Justice brands  wrote that it reached a restructuring agreement with 68% of its secured term lenders and received $150 million in new funds from its existing lenders. It intends to eliminate about $1 billion of its roughly $12.5 billion debt load.

As part of the restructuring, the conglomerate plans to shutter all stores in Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico, as well as all units under its Catherines banner. The group said it plans to sell Catherines intellectual property and e-commerce business to a City Chic subsidiary. In addition, it will shut down a significant number of Justice locations and a select number of Ann Taylor, Loft, Lane Bryant and Lou & Grey outposts.
Para-Medical School, July 27, 2020 (SPS)  The head of the Secretariat of Political Organization, of the Frente POLISARIO, Jatri Aduh, oversaw Monday the closing of Martyr Hmeti Nagih Summer University of Sahrawi Youth and Students, held July 22-27, under the theme  Sahrawi Students loyalty and commitment to the Martyrs .

At the beginning of his speech, Jatri Aduh expressed his pride and gratitude for the efforts exerted by the youth and students as well as partner institution that contributed in the success of the programme of the Summer University of Youth and Students for this year.

He has also stressed the importance of volunteerism and the initiative to engage in the military institution, which he described as primary guarantee for the return of the Saharawi people to its occupied country the by force, noting the importance of providing it with the educated elites in order to keep it ready for any eventuality.

He also praised the steadfastness and sacrifices of the youth and students in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and all Sahrawi people struggling under the oppression of Moroccan occupation. SPS

125/090/TRA
New Delhi, July 28 : Disappointed over continuous delay in the release of salaries to the staff of Delhi University colleges fully funded by the Delhi government, the aggrieved teachers hit the streets here on Monday.

Under the banner of Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA), dozens of teachers from different colleges gathered outside the Delhi Assembly and protested against the state government on the issue.

Despite restrictions on public gatherings in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the teachers rallied outside the Assembly and blamed the Delhi government for this "medically unwise" step.

"We have been forced to stage this protest despite the risk of corona infections and police action. The Delhi government is continuously delaying the release of grants to 12 colleges of the university. The inadequate funds are leading to delay in release of salaries of these colleges' staff," said DUTA President Rajib Ray.

Ray said that the association has already informed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal about the protest.

"We had hoped he would address the matter, but we did not receive any reply from him. So if any mishap occurs, the onus would be on the Kejriwal government," he remarked.

The Delhi government grants funds to 28 colleges of the University of Delhi. While 12 of these colleges are 100% funded, 16 are partially funded by the Delhi government.

The protesting teachers complained that the Delhi Government had been "very irregular with the release of grants" to the 12 colleges for more than a year now, resulting in break in salary disbursement to employees since April.

"Since these 12 colleges are 100% funded by the Delhi Government, the employees can be paid salaries only if it releases adequate grant-in-aid in time. However, not only has the Delhi Government been irregular with the release of grants, but even the release of sporadic grants are utterly inadequate. So much so that in some colleges, employees have been paid only part of their salaries since April," Ray alleged.

Apart from their salaries, the teachers also complained that their employment benefits are also pending.

"It is important to note that the grants are the only source of funding for these 12 colleges. Thus, not only salaries but even crucial reimbursements like medical bills will not be taken up till adequate funding arrives. The arrears of the 7th Central Pay Commission and vacation salaries of ad-hoc teachers for 2019 remain unpaid," the DUTA leader explained.

"Amid the pandemic, the Delhi government's apathy is forcing us to undergo tremendous financial hardships," a teacher from Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College rued.

Besides, the teachers also complained that Infrastructural development and maintenance have gone for a complete toss in the absence of adequate funding.

"There has been creation of no new posts or courses in the last few years because of the shortage of funding," another teacher from Maharaja Agrasen College said.

The DUTA threatened to intensify the protest in the coming days if the Delhi government kept lingering on their demand for immediate release of grants to the 12 colleges.
28.07.2020 LISTEN

We live in a society where wealth has become synonymous to nobility. The question is not how you become rich overnight, rather celebrated as a hero and honoured for accruing wealth. Children now expect adult men to bow before them because they are driving the latest SUV salon cars. Old women and grandmothers are often left to feed on their own. Most of them die from hunger and some become homeless.

The death of oldest people attracts high funeral and merry-making. Majority are just always pretending to show love, rather happy such innocent old women are gone. They never feel the love in their advanced age. The nicest coffin in bought for their burial, the renowned scholars in society officiate their funerals and sometimes the beautiful posters are designed to celebrate them in the face of the humanity of the number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren they have left behind. She suddenly is the queen mother in death. This is the true state of our older generation in Northern Ghana. We must rewrite our story and stop sending most of our old women in particular to their early graves based on act of wickedness.

The wicked murder of our grandmother in the Kafaba community is just one of the many stories, some are left to suffer and die in silence. Most sons and daughters desert their families and run to the south have been allegedly told that their grandmother is a witch; this might be the case why old age in Northern Ghana has become a curse.

If she was a grandmother of wealthy politician this won't have been her faith.

If she is a granny to a successful businessman she would have been celebrated on her ninety birthday.

If she was educated enough the cameras will have been interviewing her as a successful grandmother.

If she had someone to stand for her, she could have at least had little hope of defending herself.

If she had energy, she could have fought back.

Her only crime was born in a wicked world where lives don't matter anymore.

I lost my grandmother in 2019 and still feel the pains of losing her. She died at the age of 117 years, haven blessed me for granting her wish of giving her a great-grandchild. I could not grant her final wish of been the one to lower her in the grave. I live far land from her. We got separated by school and job. I have always loved my grandmother and still honouring her for been my guardian angel. I visit her regularly and feel happy anytime I see her in my dream, even after death.

How will people deny others the love of a grandmother? What a wicked world we live in to have women leading the charge to humiliate and to murdering a grandmother like that? I have never killed, for my faith detest that, and the sin of killing could lead you to hellfire. But for the love of my grandmother of blessed memory, l can wipe a whole community if at her advanced age of 117 she was associated with the accusation of witchcraft to my hearing, let alone a gruesome murder.

Disheartening is the accusation that the lynched grandmother of Kafaba was the cause of the community not experiencing rain. This is silly and barbaric. The soothsayer should have the power to command rain and defeat her spirituality.

More annoying is all those idiots who stand aloof and watch a grandmother murdered, will never right in any documentation that, he or she is a traditionalist, rather Christian or Muslim, yet you believe in divination.

We claim as a country, to have transformed the ministry of Women and Children Affairs to Gender, Children, and Social Protection, yet we still have a lot of witches camps dotted all over Ghana?

What of those who physically murder people for rituals, they are not witches?

What of those fraudsters who claimed to have the power to transform anything into the money they are not witches?

What of those who have the courage to murder the grandmother, they are not witches?

Unless of course, we want to continue to been hypocritical our country is in a state of lawlessness. From the Makola killings in the 90s to the murder of major Maxwell Mahama; from the killing of Adam Manama to the murder of innocent Zongo men by security forces in Kumasi; from the murder of nurses to now our grandmother in Kabafa, we have not demonstrated courage to applying the law. Mob justice, rape and state of lawlessness has further exposed our society that, life doesn't matter and so people are increasingly becoming the law.

This is the danger of the Ghanaian society; we are under international pressure to repeal the death penalty, of what use is the death penalty in Ghana, if people who are supposed to be executed and their bodies thrown in the forest are walking freely in our society or enjoying life in prison and now pretending to be so-called Men of God, it means there is nothing to be proud of as a Ghana.

I am grieving because am a Ghanaian; am grieving as a young man who knows the value of grannies; am I grieving as a young man who may one day grow to become a granny.

We need to begin to do the right things as a country, these vampires that ended the life of the grandmother must be made to face the death penalty, it is the only consolations we could be happy with as well-meaning Ghanaians.

Political leadership, is to advance social and economic agenda, including security, social justice, accountability, and social protection. We must bow down in shame as a country, the mob justice, lawlessness, and acts of impunity is now what Ghana has become.

As for the Kafaba community, we won't only allow you to Allah, we will add our prayers for generational curse's as you murdered an innocent grandmother for been too superstitious.

It is a pity that poverty that is created as a result of Ghana's failure to lay down sound economic foundations that will propel trickle-down effects, now see poverty as a curse and the tagged an impoverished old woman as witches.

I called on the ministry of gender, children and social protection and the government to demonstrate leadership and fast forward get justice for our grandmother.

The CSO, religious groups and political parties and government must not only be vocal in condemning the gruesome murder of the 90-year-old woman rather lead a campaign to seeking justice for her. Let me advice the good people of Ghana, dont support evil because it has not affected you, one day it could be your turn.

#Justice4GrandMother

Tahiru Lukman

Youth Activist, Development Consultant & Pan African Author

Tel: 0209154057

Email: [email protected]
My Mother, the Universe

After we moved to America from Bahrain, my mother would take my sister and me to a pond to watch ducks. We were always alone. At 5, I asked her, Are you Allah? She seemed to know everything. Little did either of us know that we were driving three towns over for these ducks, passing dozens of parks (with ducks) along the way. Now, Im 26. Because of the coronavirus, our annual 200-person Eid party is back to just us, like the days at the pond when I looked up at her beaming face and saw a universe looking back.  Daanish Jamal
Increased risks of financial crime and cyber-attacks are being felt by nearly nine in every 10 Irish businesses as they adapt to new remote working practices.

In a survey of 600 members, most of which are organisations operating within the financial services sector, the Association of Compliance Officers Ireland (ACOI) asked whether their businesses were experiencing more threats and challenges as a result of employees working remotely. While most (60%) of respondents say these threats have increased a little, a further 27% believe they have increased considerably. In addition, 77% of firms say that new compliance issues have arisen because of a remote workforce. The majority (68%) of these, however, say these issues can be easily managed.

Commenting on the findings, ACOI CEO Michael Kavanagh said: Approximately 86% of the businesses we surveyed currently have 50% or more of their workforce at home, while 27% have their entire team working remotely. In March of this year businesses had a very rapid transition to reimagining their normal business processes and procedures within a very short time, as thousands of workers were redeployed to work from home. It seems to be that remote working, in some form or another, is here to stay and as we emerge from lockdown and plan for the future, now is the time to take stock and formalise what might have originally been an ad hoc approach to having a team of staff work from multiple locations across a county, and in some cases, throughout the country.

The ACOI survey asked 3 questions:

1. Has financial crime and the risk of attack become a greater consideration since some of your workforce have been redeployed to work at home?

Absolutely, it has increased the risks considerably 27%

Yes, it has increased the risks a little 60%

Not at all 13%

The feedback we received reveals a palpable concern amongst our members. A recently launched international report on Cyber Readiness found that 41% of firms in Ireland have reported at least one cyber security event in 2020. Incidences of ransomware attacks on organisations are on the up, there is greater risk of security incursions on communication networks such as Zoom and Skype. The increased sharing of work information and files on mobiles devices and platforms, rather than across secure office intra-nets, also presents new and evolving security challenges.

2. Has having the organisations employees work remotely presented new compliance issues?

Yes definitely  it has become very challenging 9%

Some new issues but nothing that cannot easily be managed 68%

No 23%

Mr. Kavanagh commented: The level of risk varies according to sector. It is widely accepted among the financial services sector that Covid-19 has led to heightened risks in relation to money laundering and terrorist financing. A recent ACOI webinar highlighted the extent to which financial crime is on the rise around the world  all the usual range of criminal activity is there, but with a Covid-19 twist.

The ACOI say that criminals are taking advantage of the digital adaptations that organisations have needed to make and are devising innovative ways of accessing private information.

This is an evolving story and the financial crime compliance community are having to adapt accordingly. Given the pace of work-practice change and the uncertainty within the macro-economic climate, organisational vulnerability is unavoidable in certain instances. In response, regulators around the world have been developing, issuing, and updating guidance to firms," Mr. Kavanagh said.

"Some of the risks were hearing a lot about include issues around fake documentation, the reliability of information sources, and data privacy and protection.

3. Approximately what percentage of your organisations staff are now working remotely?

100% staff 27%

Between 50  75% 46%

50% 13%

Between 25%-50% 5%

Less than 25% 9%

Detect and Protect

How can compliance professionals work to detect and mitigate the risks that we are seeing in the business world due to the prevalence of cyber threats? Mr. Kavanagh explained: "While the challenges and changes can seem sweeping, there are small steps a business can take to begin with that will help, from keeping up with best practice regarding regular software updates and effective system maintenance, to good password control, to introducing process such as two-step authentication.

"Larger companies might have the resources to bring in biometrics and facial recognition technology to help with secure identification, and there is also protection available at a financial level by ensuring you have a robust cyber-security insurance policy in place. A combination of technology and human resources will always be the best approach to creating and maintaining cyber-safe and secure working practices and operational environments.
Portlaoise in Laois has been chosen as the first European base of a Canadian pharma company and the ribbon has been cut to officially open it.

Greenfield Global Inc is a global market leader in the production of ethanol, high-purity speciality alcohols, and solvents.

It has today Tuesday July 28 announced that it will start the commissioning phase of its new EU Manufacturing Headquarters in Portlaoise, Ireland, with Laois Minister of State Sean Fleming doing the honours of cutting the ribbon.

The company says that 75 jobs will be created over the next five years at the 3,800 sq. metre factory built in IDA Irelands Business and Technology Park in Portlaoise. There were 170 construction jobs created during the build and fit-out phase of the project.

It will produce Pharmco branded products serving Life Science customers globally.

It is the company's first facility outside North America.

Below: Minister of State Sean Fleming officially opens Greenfield Globals 3,800sq metre facility at Portlaoise Business & Technology Park, with Laois County Council CEO John Mulholland and Cathaoirleach Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald.

The Portlaoise facility is one of the first NZEB (near zero energy buildings) to be completed under the new European standards. Project financing is provided by Allied Irish Banks and is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland.

Greenfield Global, which has its headquarters in Toronto, Canada, has operations in 12 locations across North America, manufacturing and distributing a wide range of products to customers in over 50 countries.

Greenfield Global President and CEO is Howard Field.

Greenfield Global has been supplying Pharmco branded mission-critical alcohols, solvents and bio-processing materials to Life Science companies across the globe for more than two decades. Until now, those products have been produced, packaged and delivered from our distilleries and manufacturing facilities in North America. Today, I am very excited to announce that our Portlaoise Ireland plant construction is essentially completed and we are excited to enter the commissioning phase of the facility in preparation to commence the validation program.

The Managing Director of Greenfield Global Ireland is Ken Finegan.

This achievement for Greenfield erecting a complex facility with an aggressive timeline in normal settings are something to celebrate and be proud of. The fact that our onsite team, DPS Engineering and all of our contractors had to very quickly change protocol to account for COVID-19, launch and manage a new set of health and safety standards, while still moving this project forward is a feat. All while maintaining Greenfields standards of excellence. We are encouraged to move this project to the next phase and will soon be able to service our existing and new customers with Pharmco branded products, including pharmaceutical companies, from Europe and beyond. Greenfields manufacturing headquarters in Portlaoise will become a critical part of the Life Science ecosystem in Europe and beyond, especially considering the improvements we can make to globally damaged supply chains caused by COVID-19.

Laois TD Sean Fleming is Minister of State at the Department of Finance with responsibility for Financial Services, Credit Unions and Insurance.

This investment is a very positive development for the Midlands region and is further evidence of the benefits of locating in the regions outside Dublin where there is access to talent, lower operating costs, and higher staff retention rates. Greenfield Globals decision to locate their new EU manufacturing headquarters here is not only a sign of the capacity and capabilities that the Midlands provides, but also a sign of Irelands expertise and our strong and growing life sciences ecosystem. I would like to welcome Greenfield Global to the area and I look forward to working with them over the coming years.

The CEO of IDA Ireland Martin Shanahan wishes them well.

I wish to congratulate Greenfield Global on reaching this milestone  the establishment of its EU Manufacturing Headquarters in Portlaoise - which is also Greenfield Globals first facility outside of North America. Greenfield Globals presence in the Midlands is of considerable benefit to the economy of the region and enhances Irelands vibrant EIT sector. I wish the team here and in North America continued success with the ongoing support of IDA Ireland.

Greenfield is commencing with its validation program and customer audits starting August 2020 which can be scheduled by contacting Ken Finegan, Managing Director at Ken.Finegan@greenfield.com
Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) - The report of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CEP), formed last January to investigate "decades of bad governance by the former Mauritanian head of state, Mohamed Abdel Aziz (2008/2019)," says it discovered several anomalies and dysfunctions of the administration apparatus"
The future has already arrived. (Partially) autonomous cars are already on our roads today with automated systems such as braking or lane departure warning systems. As a central vehicle component, the software of these systems must continuously and reliably meet high quality criteria. Franz Wotawa from the Institute of Software Technology at TU Graz and his team in close collaboration with the cyber-physical system testing team of AVL are dedicated to the great challenges of this future technology: the guarantee of safety through the automatic generation of extensive test scenarios for simulations and system-internal error compensation by means of an adaptive control method.

Ontologies instead of test kilometers

Test drives alone do not provide sufficient evidence for the accident safety of autonomous driving systems, explains Franz Wotawa: "Autonomous vehicles would have to be driven around 200 million kilometers to prove their reliability - especially for accident scenarios. That is 10,000 times more test kilometers than are required for conventional cars." However, critical test scenarios with danger to life and limb cannot be reproduced in real test drives. Autonomous driving systems must therefore be tested for their safety in simulations. "Although the tests so far cover many scenarios, the question always remains whether this is sufficient and whether all possible accident scenarios have been considered," says Wotawa. Mihai Nica from the AVL underlines this statement: "in order to test highly autonomous system, it is required to re-think how the automotive industry must validate and certify Advanced Driver Assistance Systes (ADAS) and Autonomous Driving (AD) systems. Therefore, AVL participates with TU Graz to develop a unique and highly efficient method and workflow based on simulation and test case generation for prove fulfillment of Safety Of The Intended Functionality (SOTIF), quality and system integrity requirements of the autonomous systems".

Together the project team is working on innovative methods with which far more test scenarios can be simulated than before. The researchers' approach is as follows: instead of driving millions of kilometers, they use ontologies to describe the environment of autonomous vehicles. Ontologies are knowledge bases for the exchange of relevant information within a machine system. For example, interfaces, behavior and relationships of individual system units can communicate with each other. In the case of autonomous driving systems, these would be "decision making", "traffic description" or "autopilot". The Graz researchers worked with basic detailed information about environments in driving scenarios and fed the knowledge bases with details about the construction of roads, intersections and the like, which AVL provided. From this, driving scenarios can be derived, by using AVL's world leading test case generation algorithm, that test the behavior of the automated driving systems in simulations.

Additional weaknesses uncovered

As part of the EU AutoDrive project, researchers have used two algorithms to convert these ontologies into input models for combinatorial testing that can subsequently be executed using simulation environments. "In initial experimental tests we have discovered serious weaknesses in automated driving functions. Without these automatically generated test scenarios, the vulnerabilities would not have been detected so quickly: nine out of 319 test cases investigated have led to accidents." For example, in one test scenario, a brake assistance system failed to detect two people coming from different directions at the same time and one of them was badly hit due to the initiated braking maneuver. "This means that with our method, you can find test scenarios that are difficult to test in reality and that you might not even be able to focus on," says Wotawa.

This work by Franz Wotawa et al was also presented in the journal "Information and Software Technology" at the beginning of 2020 and overlaps with the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Methods for Quality Assurance of Cyber-Physical Systems". The CD lab is led by Franz Wotawa, and AVL is a corporate partner. Das Christian Doppler Labor (CD-Labor) wird von Franz Wotawa geleitet, die AVL ist Unternehmenspartnerin.

Adaptive compensation of internal errors

Autonomous systems and in particular autonomous driving systems must be able to correct themselves in the event of malfunctions or changed environmental conditions and reliably reach given target states at all times. "When we look at semi-automated systems already in use today, such as cruise control, it quickly becomes clear that in the case of errors, the driver can and will always intervene. With fully autonomous vehicles, this is no longer an option, so the system itself must be able to act accordingly," explains Franz Wotawa.

In a new publication for the Software Quality Journal, Franz Wotawa and his PhD student Martin Zimmermann present a control method that can adaptively compensate for internal errors in the software system. The presented method selects alternative actions in such a way that predetermined target states can be achieved, while providing a certain degree of redundancy. Action selection is based on weighting models that are adjusted over time and measure the success rate of specific actions already performed. In addition to the method, the researchers also present a Java implementation and its validation using two case studies motivated by the requirements of the autonomous driving range.

The project "AutoDrive" is funded under the EU Horizon2020 programme and will end in October 2020. The project is coordinated by Infineon Germany. In addition to TU Graz, the following Austrian organisations AVL List GmbH, Infineon Technologies Austria AG, TTTECH COMPUTERTECHNIK AG, TTTECH AUTO AG, the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and the Virtual Vehicle Competence Center are also on board. More Information can be found on the project website.

This research is anchored in the Fields of Expertise "Mobility & Productions" and "Information, Communication and Computing", two of the five strategic research core areas of TU Graz.

###
When Evers Beck was 10 years old, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and qualified for a wish through Make-A-Wish Greater Virginia.

Two years later, in 2017, he took a break from his chemotherapy treatments and boarded a plane to Japan.

I didnt really know much about Make-A-Wish other than what youd see on the news, said his mother, Joey Beck of Roanoke. So I was like, my sons not dying, were not applying.

But eventually the Beck family was persuaded. Beck said her son loves Pokemon, sushi and anime, so Japan was the perfect trip.

Evers is 15 now, and although the tumor is still there and is being monitored, he has been off of treatment for three years.

He had a huge boost and it was a nice break for us, for the whole family, his mother said.

But his wish trip wouldnt be possible today.

Make-A-Wish Greater Virginia has paused travel wishes, and anything else that involves a social gathering due to COVID-19 health concerns. The nonprofit organization, which serves critically ill children throughout the state except for counties and cities surrounding Washington, normally sees that about 80% of its wishes involve travel every year, said CEO Sheri Lambert.

Right now, none of those are being granted. Lambert said that families planning to go on trips have been asked to re-imagine their wishes.

Were still granting wishes, Lambert said, as long as its done safely and with social distancing.

This means a lot of wishes are more unique and are often gift-based this year, Lambert said. She recalled some recent wishes: a puppy, gaming computers and even a home recording studio. Some teenagers heading off to college were able to get school computers and supplies through their wishes.

The vast majority of kids and families are certainly understanding, Lambert said. Some are even relieved.

The organization was monitoring COVID-19 as early as January because some wishes involve international travel and many wish kids are higher risk. Lambert said it is following CDC, WHO and State Department guidelines to grant wishes.

She said travel wishes will resume at some point, but she doesnt know when that will be.

The new protocols suited some families just fine.

Abby Alvey, a Richmond 5-year-old, was recently granted her pandemic-appropriate wish. She lives with Niemann-Pick disease, an extremely rare genetic medical condition that usually begins in early childhood.

Garland Alvey, her father, described the disease as similar to Alzheimers, but in a pediatric population, with memory and energy issues. He said Abbys first few weeks of life were totally normal, with no sign of the disease.

But now Abby flies to Chicago every two weeks to receive an injection into her spine to try to slow down the diseases progression. She has even been able to do this during the pandemic, since most planes are empty.

Most cases of Neimann-Pick involve severe complications before the age of 15, Alvey said, which can become life-threatening by the second or third decade of life.

Even with this medication, we dont know at any time when shell get worse.  These could be the best years of her life, Alvey said. My first thought  what can we do to brighten her life a little bit? And of course, everyone thinks of Make-A-Wish.

The Alvey family received a backyard playground, Abbys original wish, which happened to align perfectly with pandemic guidelines. Her father said this was an even better option than a trip.

We would really love that, but at the same time I cant imagine her enjoying it as much as a regular child, Alvey said. And with the memory issues, we have it in our memory, but is she always going to be able to recall that?

But the playground is now a permanent part of her life.

It was super safe for her because shes also like a lot of Make-A-Wish kids, shes higher risk, her dad said. She has a much higher risk of mortality from respiratory illnesses.

An unforeseen benefit of the playground, Alvey said, is the bond it has created between Abby and her sister, Claire, 9. Because the playground is right in their backyard, its convenient for them to spend a lot of time there together without worrying about health risks that come with public playgrounds.

Normally [Claire] just sees Abby disappearing, going for doctors treatments all the time, Alvey said. But the two of them are out there spending time, being creative and using their imaginations and strengthening their bond.

While Abby was able to get her wish granted in the midst of the pandemic, there are still 30 children in Make-A-Wish Greater Virginias coverage area who are waiting for wishes, and 287 in the state. All they need is the money to have their wishes granted, usually about $10,000.

This is where Beck comes back in, with the rest of the W.I.S.H. Circle honorees. W.I.S.H stands for Women Inspiring Strength and Hope and is an affiliate group of the organization made up of women, honored for their efforts in the community and their passion for the Make-A-Wish foundation. Each honoree is asked to raise enough money to cover one wish.

Beck, who became an honoree because of her previous experience with Make-A-Wish, raised more than $12,000 during her recent personal campaign. As the honoree who raised the most money, she was crowned fairy godmother at a recent virtual luncheon. Evers was the Wish Ambassador and shared his experience with Make-A-Wish. He said his family got to visit Mount Fuji, take sushi-making classes and travel on the worlds fastest high-speed train.

Taking my Make-A-Wish trip helped me and my family have a break from all my chemo treatments, MRIs and bloodwork. It was a life-changing trip and I will never forget it, Evers said during the virtual meeting. Thank you for raising money so we can grant more wishes for kids like me.

Beck said she wanted to continue her involvement with the organization because of her familys tie to it.

Ive seen how it helps children, and I wanted to give back and do our part, she said. There are children waiting for their wishes and some of them may not make it to have their wish, and it all boils down to money.

This was the second year the W.I.S.H. Circle has existed in the Blue Ridge area, and the six honorees have raised more than $53,000 total.

The money was raised primarily by donations this year, whereas last year saw fundraising at restaurants and sporting events. Beck said she had been skeptical about raising money during the pandemic.

I was the first one to be like, are you sure this is the best time to be doing this? she said. I cant really be asking people for money because were trying to fight for our lives.

But she said she was pleasantly surprised with how well the fundraising went and with the amount of money that was raised, with lots of small donations adding up.

COVID is not stopping kids from being diagnosed with cancer, she said, adding that this is a crucial time to spread hope.

Lambert agreed, emphasizing the mission of Make-A-Wish and the power it can have for children and their families.

Hope is a dose of medicine that they need to help them get through these very difficult medical conditions, Lambert said. Thats really why weve had to transition so rapidly to make sure were still bringing that hope to these kids.

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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced Tuesday the state of Tennessees recommendations to reopen schools for the 2020-2021 school year, saying the emphasis is on in-person learning.

Providing parents a choice in their childrens education is incredibly important, said Governor Lee. In-person learning is the medically sound, preferred option. Our state is doing everything we can to work with local school districts and ensure that in-person learning is made available in a way that protects the health and safety of our students and educators, and this plan helps us accomplish that goal.

Leading health organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Academy of Pediatrics, and National Academies of Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering, have all stressed the importance of in-person learning for students, said Tennessee Commissioner of Health Dr. Lisa Piercey. The Department of Health has worked with Department of Education to establish a protocol to keep school buildings open safely and cause minimal disruption when positive cases occur.

Tennessee is prioritizing health and safety of our school communities, said Tennessee Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn. Ensuring schools, teachers, families, and students have the critical resources and supports they need to start the new school year strong is paramount, and I am thankful to Governor Lee for continuing to support education in Tennessee as schools reopen across the state.

The recommendations from the Department of Health and the Department of Education are:

Health

When to Test & Quarantine

10-Day Sick Window

Anyone testing positive for COVID-19 must isolate themselves at home for 10 days from the onset of their symptoms or 10 days from the date their test was done if they never developed symptoms. Fever must be gone and they must be feeling better for at least 24 hours.

14-Day Quarantine

Anyone who has been within 6 feet of someone who has COVID-19 for 10 minutes or more must quarantine themselves at home for 14 days from the last time they were with that person. These time periods do not change with a doctors note or with a negative test.

Contact Tracing

Keeping schools open for in-person instruction depends upon our ability to quickly isolate people who are sick and quarantine their close contacts.

If a child is ill, parents should not send them to school where they could infect others. If a child is diagnosed with COVID-19, parents are asked to assist the Department of Health by contacting the childs close contacts so those individuals can quarantine at home.

If a parent is notified that their child has been in close contact of someone with COVID-19, please follow the guidelines and quarantine them at home for 14 days.

Texting Platform

Schools may be able to assist with notifying families of the need to quarantine through text messaging services. If parents receive a message from their childs school informing you that your child needs to stay at home for 14 days, please follow those instructions.

Immunizations

School entry immunizations have not changed. Even if students are learning online, they still need the required immunizations to register for school. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on immunization rates: 43 percent fewer immunizations were reported during April 2020 compared to April 2019.

It is critical that children receive regular check-ups and have their immunizations up to date. Immunizations mitigate outbreaks of preventable diseases, such as the measles and whooping cough.

Supporting Child Wellbeing

In response to the pandemics long-term effects on Tennessees school districts and students, Governor Lee charged Commissioner Schwinn with convening the 38-member COVID-19 Child Wellbeing Task Force. The findings of the taskforces Initial COVID-19 Impact Summary include:

Reports of suspected child abuse dropped by 27 percent during peak stay-at-home orders in Tennessee;

75 percent of students nationally receive mental health care in a school setting;

In 2019, approx. 45,000 school-aged children were served for mental health through the community-based system;

Approximately half of districts were able to address or check on wellness and safety of students during spring closures;

Nearly 14 million students across the country go hungry when school is not in session, so resumption of in-person learning is critical to ensure access to nutrition.



Academics

Empowering Parents

Whether it be in-person or virtual, we want parents to have a choice in their childs education. For those who choose the virtual option, the State will provide free resources to supplement their districts school-based services. The resources include:

Early Literacy Resource: A free resource for students pre-K through 2nd grade to build foundational skills and support early literacy;

PBS Learning Series: Complete lessons for 1st- 9th grade students in both math and ELA taught by Tennessee teachers;

STE(A)M Resource Hub: Three challenges per week to spark creative thinking, design, and career exploration from the home;

Start of the Year Checkpoint: A free and optional assessment to measure student performance at the beginning of the year and help inform educators about student readiness for the year ahead;

Advocating for Students

Technology and Continuity of Operations

Devices and connectivity will be critical resources to ensure quality remote learning this school year. The $50 million grant initiative to support district technology purchases is now available and is intended to increase student access to one-to-one instructional devices such as laptops or tablets.

The Department of Education is supporting districts, schools and teachers through additional WiFi and technology supports, including 250,000 devices.

Meal Supports & Food Accessibility

The school meal finder will continue to be provided to ensure parents know where to go for school meal programs should a school building be closed.

Financial assistance is available for families who qualify for free or reduced school lunches, through the Department of Human Services Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program.

Supporting Teachers

Safety Equipment for Teachers

The State is providing no-cost PPE, including face masks for any school stakeholder who wants or needs one, thermometers for every school, and face shields for every staff member. This includes 298,000 cloth reusable masks for teachers, and 27 million disposable masks for students distributed by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

Every classroom teacher will have a full-year classroom disinfecting kit to use so no teacher pays for these materials out of their own pockets. The kits include hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, gloves and masks.



School nurses will be provided with surgical masks, gloves, protective gowns, and face shields.

Professional Development Resources

The Department of Education will offer free professional development classes on remote teaching that will cover relationship-building, using instructional materials, and system set-up. These resources have extended through Aug. 31.

Principals and assistant principals will have access to remote education professional development through UT-Knoxville, and teachers have access through Trevecca Nazarene University.

The Department also announced the Special Education Additional Endorsement Grant, which will enable every public school district to provide at least one teacher with a special education endorsement for free. Eight SPED Additional Endorsement Grants, totaling $1 million, have been awarded to Educator Preparation Programs to deliver courses in a virtual environment.

Assisting Districts

Decision-Making Protocol

The Department of Education will provide district leaders with a decision-tree that includes recommendations on how to keep school buildings open safely when a case or cases are confirmed among students or staff, developed in collaboration with the Department of Health and School & District Action Teams.

Recruiting Additional Personnel

A job board for educators and substitute teachers has been created so districts can use remote resources to ensure they are staffed for the start of the year and can fill vacancies more quickly. More than 1,000 educators have already utilized the job board, showing the strong teaching workforce present in Tennessee.

Funding

Ensuring districts have the resources they need to implement remote learning with fidelity is paramount. The $11 million grant program to bolster programmatic supports and implementation will be released to districts soon.

The Department of Education is establishing a criteria list for potential district partners to ensure supports are well-versed in the academic programming needs to successfully implement district Continuous Learning Plans.



As districts finalize their CLPs and build team capacity to effectively implement them, this grant program will provide funding for supports such as:

Training educators on effective instructional practices in virtual classroom environments;

Integrating the use of high-quality instructional materials in virtual instruction;

Supporting operational aspects of virtual instruction, including IT support for students, families, and staff.

Tennessee will continue to ensure parents, teachers, and school leaders are equipped with the appropriate information to provide a high-quality education for all students.

Contact Sports

Governor Lee will issue Executive Order No. 55 to allow for contact sports to resume, provided they follow the requirements of TSSAA. Non-TSSAA schools must follow equivalent guidelines, and non-school-sponsored athletics should follow the Tennessee Pledge guidelines. An update to the Pledge guidelines will be forthcoming.




Dileep V Kumar By

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As Kerala's fight against COVID-19 enters a critical phase, disaster mitigation agencies have warned the state of an impending economic crisis.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) -- an international forum launched by India -- have come together to forecast that the state will face serious challenges in reviving the economy.

For recovery, Kerala can consider reopening the tourism sector partially by exploring the concept of 'travel bubble', the two agencies suggested in the report 'Response to COVID-19 - Kerala'. However, health and finance experts differed on the suggestion to reopen tourism, terming it both 'suicidal' and 'unrealistic'.

According to the report, though the state's handling of the coronavirus crisis is commendable, an economic crisis looms large over the state. "Around 20 per cent of Kerala's population resides abroad and with the ongoing crisis, a large number of expats have been returning to Kerala. This puts Kerala in a uniquely vulnerable position due to an increased risk of the virus and a fall in foreign remittances," the report said.

The report added that with foreign remittances accounting for one-third of the state's economy and with remittances predicted to fall by 15 to 20 per cent this year, the state will face serious challenges.

One solution suggested -- exploring the 'travel bubble' to reopen tourism -- is a concept which countries like Australia, New Zealand and Fiji are considering, wherein borders will be opened to international tourists from nations free of coronavirus.

"Tourism is one of the major contributors to the economy of the state. It accounts for 10 per cent of the state GDP. For economic recovery, Kerala can consider partially opening limited tourist locations, for instance, the backwaters or the hill stations," the report highlighted.

'State cannot decide on its own'

D Narayana, honourary professor, Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation (GIFT), said the Union government has to make a decision to that effect before the state can reopen its tourism sector. The Centre will also have to make clarifications on the quantum of flight and train services and on how to handle foreign tourists.

"Reviving the tourism sector is a must. But the sector needs the handholding of the government for revival as it has been stagnant for the past six months. It seems the state can no longer rely on international tourists. It should focus on domestic tourists. But it is also going to be difficult as the situation is worsening by the day," Narayana said.

But health experts are not amused by the suggestion to reopen tourism in the NDMA-CDRI report. "Reopening the tourism sector now will only help increase the infection rate," said an officer with the Directorate of Health Services.

In a report submitted earlier to the government, GIFT had said the pandemic, with its severe impact, is likely to drive the state finances to a precarious and unprecedented condition.
New Delhi:

The Opposition parties on Wednesday staged a combined protest against the government over demonetisation drive by forming a giant human chain outside the Parliament raising slogans and carrying placards demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modis presence in the House.

The chain began from the entrance of the Parliament near the media stand and stretched across the Mahatma Gandhi statue. Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek OBrien, Janata Dal (United)s Sharad Yadav, and the DMKs Kanimozhi were among the almost 200 Opposition MPs gathered in Parliament premises.

Live Updates:

#This is feudal landlord system brought by this government, where poor are snatched off their earnings, says Mamata Banerjee

#Government has lost all the credibility, and if credentials are lost everything is lost, says Mamata Banerjee

#I challenge BJP that this time nobody will support their party, even their own workers will abandon them, says Mamata Banerjee

#When our country's economy was moving at a steady rate, govt brought in Demonitization that really shuffled our country

#Most of industries are on standstill, labour & working class is not getting their daily wages and not able to eat anything

#This protest is not about election, govt should understand that whatever they did is affecting normal people

#Opposition parties will launch country wide protest (Aakrosh Diwas) on 28th November over demonetisation move

# TMC stages protest against Government's demonetisation move at Jantar Mantar.

#Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi speaking to reporters outside the Parliament said The Speaker is refusing to give us a debate under an adjournment motion. Question is not whether PM sits there, question is, are we being allowed to speak".

#CPI(M)s Sitaram Yechury in the Rajya Sabha said Government answerable to the House and Parliament is answerable to the people. Modi is violating the very constitution he took an oath on. He has to come and answer,

#The nation is standing in line and we are doing just that here, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said.

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LONDON : India and the UK will be enhancing their science and research collaboration with five new projects worth 8 million pounds to tackle anti-microbial resistance, which could lead to important advances in the global fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria and genes.

The UK will contribute 4 million pounds from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Fund for International Collaboration, which India will match with its own resources  resulting in the total funding of 8 million pounds.

The new tie-up was announced on Tuesday as Tariq Ahmad, UK Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth, as he conducted a so-called virtual visit" to India.

The UK has already partnered with Indias Serum Institute to manufacture the vaccine for COVID-19, if clinical trials are successful, with plans to distribute to a billion people across the developing world," said Ahmad.

But there is more we can do together to tackle urgent global health issues in the world. Our thriving research and innovation partnerships will benefit people in the UK and India, and beyond," he said.

India is a major producer of antimicrobials in the pharmaceutical industry global supply chain, and the research projects aim to develop a better understanding of how waste from antimicrobial manufacturing could be inadvertently fuelling anti-microbial resistance (AMR).

The five projects backed by the new funding are planned for September, subject to clearances.

Sir Philip Barton, UK High Commissioner to India, said: The UK is Indias second-biggest research partner, with joint research expected to be worth 400 million pounds by next year. This huge investment enables us to work closely together on global health challenges such as the search for a COVID-19 vaccine."

Todays announcement is another demonstration of our excellent research relationship and will strengthen the important fight against anti-microbial resistance."

During the virtual India tour, Ahmad chaired a roundtable with senior Indian and UK-based stakeholders on cold-chain technologies that are critical for the effective transport of vaccines, ensuring they successfully reach their final destination.

Other elements of the ministerial engagement included meetings with Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs, V Muraleedharan, to discuss a number of subjects including multilateral cooperation.

It also included a meeting with Gujarati chief minister Vijay Rupani; discussions with regional governments and others on opportunities in wind power; and a virtual tour of a UK-funded solar plant in Rajasthan.

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Sadly, what it has shown since the middle of June is that the case numbers have been getting higher and higher. Loading But the seven-day average can also be a bit of a rollercoaster, just one that doesn't cause quite as much whiplash. That line on the graph that seemed to be climbing higher and higher this month has wobbled slightly a couple of times in the past week, but its too early to gauge whether weve reached the peak.

One way of making sense of the daily increases is to look at what is called the basic reproduction value, which gives a sense of how much the virus is spreading. This is a graph from Deakin University epidemiology chair Catherine Bennett that compares the number of new infections on a given day with new infection numbers five days ago. Five days was chosen as the reference window, Professor Bennett said, because that is the average incubation period for coronavirus. The resulting value gives us a sense of how much people with coronavirus are spreading the infection to others. When it is at two, it suggests that people with coronavirus are infecting two other people on average, which would cause numbers to start doubling in a matter of days. When it is below one, people are not infecting others, and daily case numbers should start to decline. Here is what the value looks like over the past month:

There is some day-to-day variation, but the line on the graph has been dipping. As of Tuesday, the value is sitting at 0.95. "It really started to come down and settle after we went into lockdown - which is what you want to see," Professor Bennett said. But there are a couple of things to keep in mind when looking at the chart. "Just like the raw numbers themselves, it is a bit problematic because you are comparing fluctuating numbers now with fluctuating numbers five days ago, she said.

And Professor Bennett added the daily numbers show when the case was reported to the health department, not necessarily the day the person was infected. Loading But she said her calculations corresponded with the state governments own internal modelling on infection rates and were the best estimate possible from publicly available data. The state health department has its own modelling using additional information including social distancing surveys and the details of each case  along with movement data from Facebook, Apple and Google. However, this information is not made publicly available. When asked about the current reproduction value (or R number) in Tuesdays daily coronavirus press conference, Professor Sutton said this number would be "very close to one, if not below one".

"There should be downward pressure on transmission in the community, but whenever you have settings that allow significant outbreaks to occur, that can drive the R number up," he said. "We have to get on top of the outbreaks, we have to make sure they are not getting seeded by community members." He said the states daily numbers were currently being driven by outbreaks, but it was necessary to stay on top of community transmission. The age breakdown of infections Victorias coronavirus cases in this second peak during June and July have differed from the first in March and April in several ways.

For a start, almost all of the transmission has been taking place locally rather the virus being detected largely in overseas travellers in hotel quarantine: The age breakdown of those infected has also shifted. In this second peak, there has been a higher proportion of younger people infected than in the first. People under the age of 40 made up 42 per cent of infections during the first peak, while in the second peak they made up 59 per cent. That may be a sign of transmission through family gatherings or through essential workplaces.

But once you take into account the age distribution of the states population, those in their late 80s or older have the highest infection rate among all Victorians in the second wave. People older than 85 made up 0.6 per cent of cases in the first wave, but during the second they have made up 4.4 per cent. As of the 2016 census, about 2.2 per cent of the states population were in this age range. Clusters being confirmed in aged care homes in recent days are making up a sizeable proportion of each days new cases. On Monday there were 532 new coronavirus cases confirmed in Victoria - the states highest single-day tally since the start of the pandemic - and of these 93 were people aged in their 80s or older.

Of these 93 people, 57 were women over the age of 85. To put that number in perspective, a total of 226 women in this age group have tested positive for coronavirus since the start of the outbreak, meaning one-quarter of the state's total cases among women in this age group were confirmed in a single day. As of Tuesday, 769 active coronavirus cases statewide had been linked to aged care facilities, with either staff members or residents testing positive for COVID-19. Because a growing proportion of new coronavirus cases in Victoria are being tied to outbreaks at places such as aged care centres and abattoirs, it can have an outsized impact on cases in particular local government areas, particularly if you regularly use this graph to gauge the trends where you live: For example, Colac Otway, in the states east, went from having zero active cases on Friday, July 17, to 54 active cases on Tuesday. Thats more cases than any other regional/rural municipality in Victoria and enough to give the area one of the states highest infection rates.

At this stage, most of those cases are due to the cluster at the Australian Lamb Company in Colac, which is associated with 50 cases in total. And in the Yarra Ranges, in Melbournes east, case numbers rose from 37 on Sunday to 80 on Monday. That may be largely due to a cluster at the Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes aged care facility in Kilsyth, which was linked with 76 cases on Tuesday, up from 19 on Sunday. If you see a sizeable and uncharacteristic rise in your local government area over the next few days, it may be from a cluster that has been discovered and where targeted testing has been carried out to determine the extent of it. If you notice the numbers start to come down, that should mean that more people are recovering from COVID-19 in an area than there are new people testing positive to the virus. The number of cases under investigation

Coronavirus cases involving community transmission are among the most worrying to the health department. When there is community transmission that means that a persons infection cannot be traced back to an existing case or outbreak, which suggests they contracted the virus somewhere unknown. We used to show this graph of the running total of cases in which community transmission was suspected quite regularly, but have stopped doing so recently: Thats because the states surge in cases in recent days has led to a backlog of infections still being investigated, for which the health department has not yet been able to determine how the person contracted the virus. As of Tuesday there were 3350 cases under investigation. Thats about 37 per cent of the cases that have been confirmed statewide since the start of the pandemic. Most of them are people who have tested positive in recent days.

When daily case numbers were lower, it would typically take the health department several days to clear an investigation into the infection source. But as of Tuesday evening, the infection source of more than half of the cases confirmed 10 days ago is yet to be determined. At the moment there have been 1363 cases tied to community transmission, but the true number is likely much higher because of all the infections still being investigated. This is what the graph looks like once you include other infection sources. As you can see, the number of cases under investigation have grown the most lately.

Whenever there is a daily increase in the community transmission tally, what that effectively tells us is that the health department has found that the source of the infection of people who tested positive about a week ago cant be traced to a known case or cluster. It probably is also a measure of their current capacity to carry out these investigations. It doesnt, however, tell us much about the level of community transmission right at the moment. As I mentioned above, once we progress past July 15 the bulk of cases are still being investigated. There are some promising signs in the data up until this point - community transmission peaks at 129 cases among those who tested positive on July 10, the day after the second lockdown commenced in Melbourne, but starts to trail off in the four days that followed. It remains to be seen what the data has in store after that.
Horrifying images show a sword twitching up and down in a bull's back as its dying body convulsed at Spain's first bullfight since lockdown.

The gruesome spectacle was filmed in Avila, 55 miles west of the Spanish capital, Madrid.

It has unleashed a fresh storm of outrage at the bloodsport, with campaigners demanding an end to bullfighting amid a surge of coronavirus cases in the country.

Carmen Ibarlucea, from animal rights group La Tortura No Es Cultura (Torture Is Not Culture), said: 'Have we not already had an overdose of death and pain in these past months?'

The gruesome spectacle was filed in Avila, 55 miles west of the Spanish capital, Madrid. Pictured, moments before the sword was impaled in the bull's back

The barbaric scene was recorded by activists from Torture Is Not Culture and Animal Guardians.

It shows blood pouring out of the dying animal's mouth as the matador continued to bait it.

A sword was impaled in the bull's back, with blood spurting out as the blade rose and lowered with each pulse.

The matador stood back and watched as the animal suffered a slow and excruciating death in front of him.

Footage shows blood pouring out of the dying animal's mouth as the matador continued to bait it with a purple and yellow cape

Its hoof is cut off as a keepsake, a tradition if the crowd is happy with the matador. The bull's ears and tail or a hoof may be cut off and presented as a gift

Blood shot out of the bull's nose and it staggered around the arena as its wounds slowly killed it.

Making its way to the edge of the ring, the bull collapsed to the ground, causing a cheer in the audience.

One of the matadors had half his trousers, known as taleguilla, ripped off as he impaled the animal with a sword.

The footage also revealed the bullring was less than half full, with large parts of the terraces holding only a handful of spectators and the upper tiers abandoned on all sides.

An official stands inside the arena wearing a blue facemask while he holds the hoof that was freshly cut off the dying bull

Blood shot out of the bull's nose and it staggered around the arena as its wounds slowly killed it

The matador gave a final blow with a small knife to the bull's head, but the animal continued to writhe as it slowly died.

Its hoof was then cut off as a keepsake - a tradition if the crowd is happy with the matador. The bull's ears or tail may also cut off and presented as a gift.

A few moments later another bull is let into the ring for another fight.

Marta Esteban Minano, from Animal Guardians, said the small crowd proved bullfighting needs to go.

She said: 'The bullfighting lobby has been clamouring for months, asking for public money and demanding to be able to hold a bullfight.

'And what happened? It has been a total failure, the alleged fans have not responded.'

The footage also revealed the bullring was less than half full, with large parts of the terraces holding only a handful of spectators and the upper tiers abandoned on all sides

Spectators wore masks as they watched the animals being goaded with a coloured cape before swords were impaled in their backs

Marta Esteban Minano, from Animal Guardians, said the small crowd proved bullfighting needs to go. Pictured, spectators wearing masks

Lockdown has hit bullfighting hard and the bloodsport's bosses have been vocal about the need for government subsidies if it is to survive.

But the practice already receives public money from both national and local governments, while farms raising animals for the bullring have been shown to receive EU cash.

Mrs Esteban continued: 'How can this cruel bankrupt business continue to be subsidised with public funds?

'This is a waste of Spanish and Europeans taxes at a time of great need.'

Carmen Ibarlucea added: 'The numbers speak for themselves: in Spain, those of us who reject bullfighting are a large majority.

The bull lay dying at the edge of the arena as the matador dealt the final blow and stabbed it in the head with a small knife

Mexican bullfighter Ernest Javier 'Calita', and Spanish bullfighters Lopez Simon and Finito de Cordoba, observe a minute of silence as a tribute to coronavirus victims prior to the bullfight held in Avila

'England in 2005 banned fox hunting. China just barely a month ago banned breeding dogs for human consumption. Traditions are not immovable.'

The incidence of virus cases in Spain has tripled over the past two weeks, from 8.8 cases per 100,000 on July 3 to 27.4 per 100,000.

It has led the UK government to reimpose mandatory quarantine for everyone arriving from Spain, forcing British holidaymakers to self-isolate for 14 days on their return home.

Spain receives more tourists from the UK than from any other country, and tourism accounts for 11 per cent of the country's GDP, so the return of quarantine comes as another blow to its economy.
W&M ranked in top 10 public universities that pay off the most in U.S.

William & Mary is among the top public universities in the nation that give students the greatest return on investment, according to a new ranking from CNBC Make It.

The Alma Mater of the Nation is the highest-ranked Virginia public university on its list of top 50 U.S. Colleges that Pay Off the Most in 2020. According to a CNBC article, the list includes schools that provide graduates "the highest salaries for their tuition dollars.

The top 50 is divided into two groups: private and public institutions. W&M is ranked ninth overall on the list of top public schools across the country. The University of Virginia was also included in the list at 24th overall. Washington & Lee ranked 13th on list of top private colleges and universities. Tuition-free institutions, including military academies, were excluded from the list.

The ranking is based on the average net cost of each school for American students  including tuition, fees, books, supplies and scholarships  divided by the average earnings of alumni 10 years after graduation. CNBC Make It used data from The Hechinger Reports Tuition Tracker and PayScales College Salary Report.

According to the ranking, the average annual net cost for in-state students with household incomes of $48,001-$75,000 at W&M is $12,794, and the median salary for alumni 10 years out is $108,900.

Stanford University is the top private institution in the CNBC Make It report, and the University of Washington-Bothell tops the list of public universities.
Almost 1 million people have personally felt the Popes deep affection and solidarity through the Pope for Ukraine project launched in June 2016.

By Gabriella Ceraso and Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp

Prayer and charity: these are the two arms Pope Francis has repeatedly extended from the beginning of his Pontificate to the dear Ukrainian people, especially to those afflicted by a 6-year war on the eastern border of the nation. On numerous occasions, Pope Francis has brought them to the worlds attention. The last time was at the end of last Sunday's Angelus prayer. In that appeal, Pope Francis begged that a ceasefire implemented on Monday be respected so the Ukrainian people can enjoy a long-awaited peace.



His appeal comes just as the Pope for Ukraine project draws to a close. Pope Francis launched the Pope for Ukraine project in June 2016. The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has been supervising it. Just two years after the project launched, 16 million euros had been collected from all of Europes dioceses in addition to a personal donation from Pope Francis.

1 million people aided

As of November 2018, thanks to the Popes project, almost 1 million people had been helped: heaters had been installed in family homes, children suffering from PTSD received services and cardiological exams at the Kramatorsk City Hospital, poverty-stricken people and the homeless could take refuge in a social centre created at a Church in Kharkiv and single mothers had been given a home in Korotych.

Through this project, Pope Francis wished to show deep affection and solidarity with all Ukrainian people, and with those who suffer as a result of the protracted dramatic conditions caused by the war, without any distinction on the basis of religion, confession or ethnicity. Thus, the project leaves behind a luminous trail of ecumenical cooperation and charity that will continue to aid people due to the concrete things that have been done.

Project completed

In an interview with Vatican News, Bishop Eduard Kava, Auxiliary Bishop of Leopolis spoke with Gabriella Ceraso about the Popes benevolence to Ukraine and its people.

To date, Bishop Kava said that all the projects initiated through the Pope for Ukraine project have been completed. The only work that remains is that of supplying machinery for a hospital dedicated to children". It is the children, he said, who have paid the highest price in a conflict that continues to fester.

Reconstruction has also been one of the projects goals. Bishop Kava says that we have also done a lot in the reconstruction of houses to give people a semblance of normality. He says that the situation is not as tragic as it was 4-5 years ago. But it is clear that, for example, families with many children and elderly people who receive small pensions still need help the Churchs help.

A sign of ecumenism

The Pope for Ukraine project had been implemented through the collaboration of the Apostolic Nunciature to Ukraine, and Technical Committees located in Zhaporizhia and Kyiv, as well as charitable organizations under the auspices of both the Roman Catholic and Greek-Catholic churches, and other Christian and international organizations. It has been "a beautiful sign of ecumenism", remarks Bishop Kava, who describes how the work was done truly together.

In this project, we all worked together. We collaborated with the Protestants and with many international organizations. This was a sign of good ecumenism for us. You could say that this initiative of the Holy See was the only one where we all really worked together to help the population.

The project endures

Franciss words, appeals and gestures of tenderness concretized through the Pope for Ukraine project are of great help, Bishop Kava emphasizes. Furthermore, the whole process of solidarity" it initiated and the completed individual projects will continue to serve everyone.

Even if the Pope's project ends, the Church will in fact continue to give its help and stay close to the people, either through Caritas or through our parishes or through our volunteer organizations. There is not a lot of money but we are present and close.
Reg Hankey became the CEO of Pittards plc (LON:PTD) in 2007, and we think it's a good time to look at the executive's compensation against the backdrop of overall company performance. This analysis will also evaluate the appropriateness of CEO compensation when taking into account the earnings and shareholder returns of the company.

See our latest analysis for Pittards

How Does Total Compensation For Reg Hankey Compare With Other Companies In The Industry?

According to our data, Pittards plc has a market capitalization of UK5.5m, and paid its CEO total annual compensation worth UK220k over the year to December 2019. This means that the compensation hasn't changed much from last year. We note that the salary portion, which stands at UK208.0k constitutes the majority of total compensation received by the CEO.

For comparison, other companies in the industry with market capitalizations below UK155m, reported a median total CEO compensation of UK227k. So it looks like Pittards compensates Reg Hankey in line with the median for the industry. Moreover, Reg Hankey also holds UK98k worth of Pittards stock directly under their own name.

Component 2019 2018 Proportion (2019) Salary UK208k UK205k 95% Other UK12k UK15k 5% Total Compensation UK220k UK220k 100%

On an industry level, roughly 69% of total compensation represents salary and 31% is other remuneration. Pittards is paying a higher share of its remuneration through a salary in comparison to the overall industry. If salary is the major component in total compensation, it suggests that the CEO receives a higher fixed proportion of the total compensation, regardless of performance.

A Look at Pittards plc's Growth Numbers

Over the past three years, Pittards plc has seen its earnings per share (EPS) grow by 58% per year. Its revenue is down 22% over the previous year.

Shareholders would be glad to know that the company has improved itself over the last few years. It's always a tough situation when revenues are not growing, but ultimately profits are more important. Moving away from current form for a second, it could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future.

Story continues

Has Pittards plc Been A Good Investment?

Since shareholders would have lost about 55% over three years, some Pittards plc investors would surely be feeling negative emotions. So shareholders would probably want the company to be lessto generous with CEO compensation.

To Conclude...

As we touched on above, Pittards plc is currently paying a compensation that's close to the median pay for CEOs of companies belonging to the same industry and with similar market capitalizations. On the other hand, the company has logged negative shareholder returns over the previous three years. But on the bright side, earnings growth is positive over the same period. Overall, we wouldn't say Reg is paid an unjustified compensation, but shareholders might not favor a raise before shareholder returns show a positive trend.

While it is important to pay attention to CEO remuneration, investors should also consider other elements of the business. That's why we did some digging and identified 2 warning signs for Pittards that you should be aware of before investing.

Arguably, business quality is much more important than CEO compensation levels. So check out this free list of interesting companies that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

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.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
HALIFAX - Newly released court documents say witnesses told the RCMP that the gunman who carried out the April mass shooting in Nova Scotia smuggled drugs and guns from Maine for years and had secret compartments inside several of his properties.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/7/2020 (541 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Newly released court documents say witnesses told the RCMP the man who carried out the mass shooting in Nova Scotia allegedly smuggled drugs and guns from Maine for years and had hiding spaces in several of his residences. A fire-destroyed property registered to Gabriel Wortman at 200 Portapique Beach Road is seen in Portapique, N.S., Friday, May 8, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

HALIFAX - Newly released court documents say witnesses told the RCMP that the gunman who carried out the April mass shooting in Nova Scotia smuggled drugs and guns from Maine for years and had secret compartments inside several of his properties.

The gunman took 22 lives during his April 18-19 shooting and burning rampage before police killed him at a service station in Enfield, N.S.

The documents that a media consortium, including The Canadian Press, went before a provincial court judge to obtain reveal a stark picture of the killer's alleged criminal activities prior to the shootings.

Previously blacked-out details from police applications for search warrants, unsealed Monday by Judge Laurel Halfpenny MacQuarrie, quote a witness telling investigators that Gabriel Wortman had smuggled guns and drugs from Maine for years and "had a bag of 10,000 OxyContin and 15,000 Dilaudid from a reservation in New Brunswick."

Another witness told police that neighbours spoke of concealed spaces on Wortman's properties in Portapique, N.S., and in Dartmouth, N.S.

That included a "secret room" in his Dartmouth denturist clinic, a false wall at his property on Portland Street in Dartmouth and "secret hiding spots" at his warehouse property in Portapique.

Prior releases from a witness who'd known Wortman since 2011 had stated the witness believed the killer had a stockpile of guns and a safe in his garage and "was controlling and paranoid."

The newly revealed portion further describes Wortman as a man who "builds fires and burns bodies, is a sexual predator and supplies drugs in Portapique and Economy, Nova Scotia."

The same witness told police, "Gabriel Wortman would tell ... different ways to get rid of a body and had lime and muriatic acid on the property. The barrels for these would be underneath the deck."

The warrants say police were looking for firearms, ammunition, explosives, chemicals, surveillance systems, computers, electronic devices, police-related clothing, human remains and "documents related to planning mass murder events'' and the acquisition of weapons.

Investigators obtained warrants to search properties owned by the killer  three of them in the northern Nova Scotia village of Portapique, where the 51-year-old started his murderous rampage.

The warrants provide information on other areas, such as how police finally killed Wortman at a service station.

In previously released documents, a paragraph describing how the gunman was shot dead on April 19 was blacked out.

A newly released section suggests a chance encounter led to his death.

Information provided by an RCMP investigator says that when Wortman pulled up to the Irving Big Stop in Enfield, "a peace officer and member of the RCMP was also at the gas pump and recognized Gabriel Wortman ... Gabriel Wortman ... died."

One witness told Halifax police that Wortman has an uncle who was in the RCMP and the witness believed Wortman had one of the uncle's uniforms, "but it didn't fit." The gunman began his rampage wearing an authentic RCMP shirt and pants, police have said.

Another person told Halifax police officers they had seen a compartment in Wortman's garage where he kept a high-powered rifle.

"The compartment was hidden underneath the workbench," the documents say.

In addition, a previously blacked-out portion of a text exchange between Wortman and another individual on April 14 and 15 "with respect to some potential business" has been released.

It says, "I am currently residing at my cottage in Portapique. I am enjoying this prelude to retirement, unfortunately not able to get to Maine."

Previously released documents have detailed warning signals of paranoid behaviour and unusual purchases of gasoline by the gunman before his killings.

Large portions of the documents remain blacked-out, and the judge wrote Monday that those redactions are necessary "because of the significant ongoing investigation."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2020.
Tashan Daniel, 20, was on way to a game when he was stabbed to death on the platform of Hillingdon station in west London

A knifeman who stabbed an Arsenal fan to death at a Tube station has claimed he accidentally killed the victim with a blade which had been used as a prop in the latest Fast & Furious film.

Tashan Daniel, 20, was on way to a game when he was knifed on the platform of Hillingdon station in west London last September, the Old Bailey heard.

Mr Daniel, a photographer and talented 200 metre sprinter, was just about to get on the train with his friend Treyone Campbell when he was attacked.

He had been given tickets to watch the Gunners play Nottingham Forest on September 24 two days earlier as a 20th birthday present.

Alex Lanning, 23, admits stabbing Mr Daniel but denies intending to kill him.

He claims he had a friend in the film industry who paid him to supply weapons for action and martial arts movies.

When asked by his lawyer John Femi-Ola QC why he had the knife with him, Lanning said he'd been working on Fast & Furious 9 by Warner Bros.

The knifeman said he had not removed the blade, a 200 German-made Aviator 1 knife designed for NATO military aircraft rescues, from his bag after finishing work on the American action film several weeks earlier.

Giving evidence, Lanning said: 'Mr Campbell was looking at me while taking a sip of his drink bottle. I was gesturing to him if everything was all right.

Mr Daniel was just about to get on the train with his friend Treyone Campbell when he was attacked. He had been given tickets to watch the Gunners play Nottingham Forest on September 24 as a 20th birthday present (pictured, hundreds of people pay their respects at a vigil outside Hillingdon station two days after the stabbing, September 2019)

Alex Lanning, 23, admits stabbing Mr Daniel but denies intending to kill him. He claims he had a friend in the film industry who paid him to supply weapons for action and martial arts movies. When asked why he had the knife with him, Lanning said he'd been working on Fast & Furious 9

'He swore at me, he called me a 'd***head'. I was asking him what that was about. My initial focus was on Mr Campbell.

'He made a gesture which I thought meant come over. I was putting my hands by my side saying: 'What is going on? What is the problem?'

'I was not showing any kind of aggression. I was not in a state of shock but more confusion. I went up the stairs about two steps at a time.'

The prosecution claim Lanning was joined in the attack by Jonathan Camille, 19, who denies murder and manslaughter.

But Lanning said: 'I did not invite him along with me.

'I approached Mr Campbell and Jonathan was on my left. I think I may have said: 'What was that all about?' Mr Campbell said: 'What you going to do?'

'I hit Mr Campbell. After he pushed my friend Jonathan he had his hands clenched in a ball. I instantly made a rash decision grabbing the knife from my bag.

Jonathan Rees QC said: 'It is not disputed that the person who fatally stabbed Tashan Daniel (pictured) was Alex Lanning. The prosecution say this was a completely senseless killing'

'I was waving it about in front of me. I had it in my right hand, upright at an angle. I had him in a bear hug but the knife was facing away.

'I could not get a grip and he span around. We fell on the floor.

'I never saw and never felt any wept substance or blood or any sort of liquid until we hit the floor and I looked at me hand and it was covered in blood.'

Asked if Camille knew about his temporary work on the film Lanning replied: 'No.'

Previously, Jonathan Rees QC, prosecuting, said: 'It is not disputed that the person who fatally stabbed Tashan Daniel was the first defendant, Alex Lanning.

'Neither is it disputed that he used a knife he was carrying on his person in order to do so. The prosecution say this was a completely senseless killing.'

Witnesses said it took five seconds of fighting for Lanning to 'brandish' the blade and 'thrust the unsheathed knife into' Mr Daniel's chest, Mr Rees told jurors.

The prosecution said that the defendants ran away from the scene of the stabbing as Mr Daniel staggered on to the train where he collapsed.

Friends left bouquets of flowers with cards at the station entrance on September 25, 2019. One read: 'Our thoughts are with your family at this tragic time. Such a waste'

One passenger said Lanning was 'laughing under his breath', Mr Rees said.

Mr Daniel's father, mother and sister arrived at the station to watch paramedics pronounce Mr Daniel dead on the train 25 minutes after he arrived at the station.

The prosecutor told the court Lanning hid the sheathed knife under a paving slab and the pair discarded their clothes on the Auriol Drive estate.

Lanning then sold his iPhone for 390 three days after the stabing and a police investigation of the estate found the knife and the discarded clothing.

The defendants were arrested on October 4.

Lanning, of Cowdray Road, Uxbridge, has admitted manslaughter and possession of a knife but denies murder.

Camille, of Fulham Road, Kensington, denied manslaughter and murder.

The trial continues.
Racquel Vasquez is the new mayor of Lemon Grove, replacing Mary Sessom, who led the city of about 25,000 for the past 20 years.

Vasquez, 47, is San Diego Countys first female African-American mayor.

She started as a Planning Commissioner in Lemon Grove in 2007 and was elected to the City Council in 2012. In last months election, she beat fellow City Councilman George Gastil and medical credentialing specialist Teresa Rosiak.

Vasquez is originally from Los Angeles and attended Cal State Northridge. She moved to Lemon Grove in 2001. She has been married for 23 years and has two children.

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Racquel Vasquez

A public information officer for the city of San Diego for nearly 17 years, she took time to answer some questions from the Union-Tribune.

Q. What are some of your goals and your hopes for the future of Lemon Grove?

A. My vision is to make Lemon Grove a thriving, safe and business-friendly city, offering arts, culture and recreational opportunities for everyone to enjoy, which is what I heard from residents and business owners. I will protect community services, eliminate government waste, support economic growth and neighborhood improvements for the city.

Q. You are San Diego Countys first elected female African-American mayor. What does that mean to you?

A. I am grateful to everyone who supported my campaign for mayor of Lemon Grove and the residents who voted for me in this election. It will be an honor to serve as a role model for future leaders.

Q. Who are some of your biggest influences?

A. Women take a particularly notable and honorable role in our society, and there is no description broad or deep enough to describe the details of their daily contributions. Women are mothers, doctors, educators, scientists, celebrities, sisters, human rights activists and politicians. My mother, Lottie Rose, is my biggest influence and my inspiration. She is courageous, resilient, smart, honest, beautiful and my best friend. I feel fortunate to have her in my life.

Q. What is Lemon Grove doing well that you want to see continue?

A. Lemon Grove strives to balance the publics interests, city operational needs along with its resources. As a result, we have maintained operating efficiency and developed plans to improve our streets, infrastructure and overall quality of life.

Q. What does Lemon Grove need to do better?

A. For the past decade, residents have endured drastic cuts to community services as well as park and recreation programs. We have unfunded infrastructure needs from aging buildings, roads and street lights to long-deferred maintenance projects. If we want to see better improvements, we need to make a significant investment in the upkeep of our city.

While Lemon Groves economy is improving, there is more we can do to expand economic development and job growth within the city. As mayor, I will prioritize economic development in our city so we can generate the revenue we need to keep up with the expense of running our city. I will foster a proactive approach to business expansion, attraction and retention efforts, and serve as an advocate for federal, state and local grant funding opportunities.
And some of those who are not engaged in the more aggressive tactics being employed find themselves sympathetic to those who are; the federal government, they say, is repeatedly shooting at protesters with tear gas, pepper balls and other exploding devices, tactics that have sent demonstrators to hospitals.

There may be people throwing water bottles at officers. Im not going to do that because I dont see the point, said Jennifer Kristiansen, a family-law attorney who joined the Wall of Moms last week and was later arrested by federal agents. But if people want to express their frustration in that way, Im not going to stop them.

There is room for chanting and dancing and joyful noises and there is also room for rage. We make that space for each other, she said.

That sentiment has been echoed by some of those in other cities who joined weekend protests that also opposed the deployment of federal agents in Portland.

Cat Brooks, a racial justice organizer in Oakland and the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project, said Black Lives Matter protests and the movement to oust federal forces from cities were one connected struggle.

The debate among organizers, she said, is the tactics that protesters should use. Her own view is that protesters cannot be blamed for responding forcefully when confronted with rubber bullets and pepper spray, as they have been in Portland.

I dont consider property destruction violence, she said. Violence is when you attack a person or another living, breathing creature on this planet. Windows dont cry and they cant die.
Mr Kim said in his speech on Monday his country has tried to become a nuclear state with an absolute might to prevent another war and that it has now built such a deterrent, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

Now, weve changed to a country which can defend itself reliably and unwaveringly against high-intensity pressures and military threats and blackmailing by imperialistic reactionaries and hostile forces, he said.

There wont be any war on this land again and our national security and future will be guaranteed firmly and permanently because of our reliable, effective self-defensive nuclear deterrent.



There wont be any war on this land again

His speech followed recent remarks by both North Korean and US officials suggesting they were reluctant to engage in a new round of diplomacy on the Norths nuclear program anytime soon.

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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said President Donald Trump would only want to engage with Mr Kim if there were real prospects of progress.

Mr Kims sister and senior ruling party official, Kim Yo Jong, said a new summit would be unpractical for North Korea and that Pyongyang will not gift Mr Trump a high-level meeting that he can boast as a foreign policy achievement.

Kim Jong Un and Mr Trump met three times since Mr Kim in 2018 abruptly reached out to Washington and Seoul for talks after expressing his intent to deal away his advancing nuclear arsenals.

Many experts were sceptical of Mr Kims disarmament commitment and said he only aimed to weaken US-led sanctions and perfect his nuclear program.

The nuclear diplomacy remains largely stalled since a second meeting in February 2019 in Vietnam collapsed without reaching any agreement because Mr Trump rejected Mr Kims proposal to get extensive sanctions relief in return for a limited denuclearisation step.

Mr Kim entered this year with a vow to bolster his nuclear program and threatened to unveil a new strategic weapon.

He also said he would no longer be bound by a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests.

Mr Kim has not performed such high-profile weapons tests, which some analysts say could completely derail diplomacy with the US.
Rinsing dishes before stacking them in the dishwasher is likely to leave them dirtier than loading them straight from the table, an Australian cleaning expert has claimed.

Ashley Iredale, a consultant with consumer advocacy group CHOICE, told the ABC there is 'absolutely no need to pre-rinse' plates and encouraged people to skip the widely practiced step if they want to avoid deeply ingrained food stains.

That's because most dishwashers have built-in sensors which detect how dirty items are so they can blast them with an appropriate strength of water and detergent.

All you need to do is scrape solid food into the bin before stacking plates on the bottom shelf of the dishwasher, he said.

Mr Iredale's claim is supported by cleaning experts from lifestyle website Bon Appetit, who called the concept of pre-rinsing an 'urban myth' earlier this month.

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Cleaning experts claim pre-rinsing dishes before loading them into the dishwasher will actually leave them dirtier, (stock image)

Contrary to popular belief, experts said there's no benefit to pre-rinsing which only wastes time and water.

Pre-rinsing should only be considered if dirty dishes have been sitting for a prolonged period before being loaded into the dishwasher.

Poll Do you rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher? Yes No Depends how dirty they are Do you rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher? Yes 892 votes

No 253 votes

Depends how dirty they are 280 votes Now share your opinion





In these cases a quick wash can 'work wonders' to remove tough stains, Melbourne facilities management director Bridget Gardner told the ABC.

The revelation divided Australians, with many arguing that chunks of food clog the dishwasher filters if they're not rinsed off.

'If you don't remove scraps from plates before stacking them in a device with filters, where do you imagine those scraps end up?' one man asked.

Another said: 'If you see how thin the drain hose is on a dishwasher then you'd understand why you need to rinse. It only takes a couple of peas or corn kernels to block the pipe and then you're pulling the whole thing apart.'

CHOICE consultant Ashley Iredale (pictured) is a critic of pre-rinsing dishes

One woman agreed with the pre-rinse ban, saying: 'It wastes water. The dishwasher is supposed to be more water efficient than a sink - but not if you rinse!'

'Scrape, stack and run. Rinsing will block the sink anyway, scraping is good for the compost bin - if you have to throw away food.'

Others said they prefer to wash plates by hand because loading the dishwasher is too much hassle to begin with.

'I've never understood this, if you're going to rinse it anyway then why not just take the extra 5 seconds to wipe the cutlery fully with dish washing liquid? What is the point of the dishwasher then? asked one man.

A woman said: 'I find it easier to do dishes by hand then to put them in a dishwasher...things often don't wash properly and then need hand washing anyway.'

Top tips for packing a dishwasher 1. Mix up forks, knives and spoons in the one basket to avoid 'nesting' - so the detergent and water an circulate better. 2. Do not put chef's knives and wooden spoons in the dishwasher ever. 3. Put your bigger utensils in the top dish rack, like long knives and chopsticks. Make sure they don't interfere with the machine's cleaning arm. Source: CHOICE Advertisement

Earlier this month, Bon Appetit experts told Australians that dishwashers should be filled from back to front to maximise space, with cutlery pointing downwards to reduce risk of injury and the chance of smudging freshly cleaned stainless steel.

Sharp kitchen knives, wooden boards and pans should never be machine washed, according to experts who say it will damage the finish of the items as well as the inside of the dishwasher.

They also recommend placing bowls and cups face down or at an angle to prevent water from accumulating, and stacking plates on the bottom shelf where the spray from the jets is strongest.
Pakistan: Balochistan to introduce vessel monitoring system

July 28,2020 | Source: Dawn

The Balochistan government has decided to introduce a vessel monitoring system in the province to ensure safety of marine life, fisheries and fishermen in a fixed amount. Officials said that for the first time in Pakistan the Balochistan government had decided to implement the international policy of monitoring fishing boats having the size larger than 15 metres in the province and install vessel monitoring systems in such boats.



Fishing boats will be helped to comply with environmental and fishing laws as well as promote conservation of rare marine life under a modern monitoring system at a command and control centre in Gwadar. Construction will be carried out to monitor boats as well as help fishermen to stay within legal limits and not to cross the country marine borders. The Command and Control Centre will be set up in case of any emergency or accident under the automated system.
Former PM becomes first leader to be convicted of a crime in decision likely to have a major political impact.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been found guilty of corruption in the first of several cases linked to the alleged theft of billions of dollars from state fund 1MDB, becoming the first Malaysian leader to be convicted of graft.

The verdict on Tuesday relates to Najibs role in diverting an estimated 42 million ringgit ($9.88m) from SRC International, a unit of 1MDB, into his personal bank accounts.

I find that the prosecution has successfully proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. I therefore find the accused guilty and convict the accused on all seven charges, Judge Mohamad Nazlan Ghazali said, referring to the allegations of abuse of power, several counts of money laundering and criminal breach of trust filed against Najib.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court is expected to deliver a sentence later on Tuesday.

Najib faces decades in jail, as well as hefty fines, following his conviction. Although the charges also carry a sentence of whipping, the former prime minister, who is 67 years old, is likely to be spared the cane given his age.





Reading the verdict, Judge Nazlan said Najib, who also held the post of finance minister, acted outside the limits of the permissible conduct in the approval of loans, which later became a source of funds transferred to his account.

He said Najib benefitted from the approval of the loans, and that the defence had failed to raise reasonable doubt over the offence of abuse of power  the first of the seven charges.

The convictions come just six days after the high court ordered Najib to pay the government as much as 1.69 billion ringgit ($400m) in unpaid taxes and penalties, covering the years from 2011 to 2017.

Political vengeance

Ahead of Tuesdays verdict, hundreds of Najibs supporters gathered outside the court to show their backing for the embattled politician, who was once considered the countrys most powerful man.

As news of the convictions rippled through the crowd, they condemned the judges verdict as political vengeance.

Several of his supporters waiting outside shouted, Long live my boss, as some of them openly cried upon hearing the outcome.

The conviction was quickly trending across social media, where many welcomed the judges decision.

Tony Pua, an opposition legislator who played a key role in exposing the scandal at 1MDB, welcomed the decision on SRC.

After months of depressing news when the mandate of the people in 2018 was robbed by those who betrayed their trust, today, Malaysians look to celebrate as the judiciary demonstrates its teeth and impartiality, Pua told Al Jazeera.

Its not over yet, but its a big, big step in the right direction.

Political analyst Bridget Welsh said that, for many, the verdict represented a New Malaysia day where calls against abuses of power had been heard, and while there was likely to be a long process of appeals, the ruling closes the door on Najibs comeback.

In court, as the judge said he wanted to proceed with sentencing, the defence team pushed for a delay until Monday.

When court resumed in the afternoon, Datuk V Sithambaram, the lead prosecutor in the case, called for a sentence that serves as a precedent for all in public office that no one is above the law.

Najib took the dock to defend himself, insisting that he was not aware of the SRC payment into his bank accounts.

I did not demand the 42 million nor was it offered to me. There is no witness who can say so, he said.

Sprawling investigation

The United States Department of Justice alleges $4.5bn in government money had been drained from 1MDB during Najibs time as prime minister.

Prosecutors say Najib played a direct role and gave instructions to deposit money into his bank accounts, which was later used for political funding, the purchase of luxury goods and renovations on his property.

The crowd outside Kuala Lumpur's High Court following the arrival of #Malaysia ex-PM Najib ahead of his graft verdict on Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/njmnZa7kV4  Ted Regencia  (@tedregencia) July 28, 2020

Sokongan padu ahli UMNO dan rakyat kpd DS @NajibRazak dari seluruh negara. pic.twitter.com/EARsgJsxpj  Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (@DrZahidHamidi) July 28, 2020

Najib pleaded not guilty to the charges at the start of the trial in April 2019. In December, he took the witness stand to defend himself  a first for a former leader of the country.

The former prime ministers lead defence lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, had argued that Najib was not part of the conspiracy to the defraud the government, laying the blame on party-loving fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low.

On Monday night, Najib wrote on Facebook that he would appeal any guilty conviction. Appeals can go as high as the countrys top court.

So far, Najib has faced three separate trials concerning 1MDB.

The second and biggest case covers several charges, including 21 counts of money laundering involving $550m directly from 1MDB, while the third case, which started on November 18, relates to an alleged abuse of power and the cover-up of an audit report at 1MDB. Two more trials are pending.

The scandal at 1MDB fuelled mass protests and led to the downfall of Najibs government in May 2018.

Najib has remained free on bail despite the charges against him, criticising the policies of his former mentor, Mahathir Mohamad and the coalition that replaced him.

Mahathir himself was forced to leave the job in March this year, after a group of disgruntled former members of his coalition, backed by Najibs party, UMNO, pledged their support for the current Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
Hotels and restaurants in popular European holiday destinations are braced for bleak balance sheets this year as tourists remain squeamish about travelling abroad.

One mayor of a village on the Amalfi coast usually brimming with summer tourists said that businesses would be happy to claw in just a third of normal earnings.

Michele De Lucia, mayor of Positano, told La Stampa newspaper: 'If takings from tourism reach 35 per cent compared with normal, we will consider that a success. Without foreign tourists, it's really tough.'

His gloomy outlook reflects the wider situation across the continent, with typically thriving coastal resorts in Spain, Italy and Greece starved of bookings during the crisis.

Eerily quiet beaches and promenades in San Antonio on Ibiza, usually flooded with tourists in summer

The gradual easing of national lockdowns offered a glimmer of hope that their holiday season could be salvaged.

But an unshakable reluctance of many to fly overseas has left beaches eerily quiet and hotel rooms empty.

Italy's tourist footfall has nosedived almost 80 per cent, sending alarm bells ringing in the country which credits tourism for 13 per cent of its GDP.

The tourism drought is partially being offset by a surge in Italians looking closer to home for summer holidays.

Yet there is still a gulf in typical business takings as Italians tend not to spend as much as overseas visitors.

'The problem is that Italians do not have the same spending habits as foreigners,' said one industry representative.

British citizens arrive at the Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport after the UK imposed a quarantine on all travellers from Spain

Spain's tourism sector is also reeling from the decision by the UK government to impose quarantine on all arrivals returning to Britain.

Ministers revoked the air corridor with Spain after growing increasingly concerned at the country's resurgence in coronavirus cases, meaning travellers will have to self-isolate for 14 days upon landing in the UK.

Toni Mayor, president of the Benidorm and Costa Blanca hotel association Hosbec, described the shock UK move as a 'hammer blow.'

He said: 'It couldn't have come at a worse time. It was looking pretty good from August 1.

'Bookings were up including family bookings and around 85 per cent of our hotels were going to be open and we were looking forward to having at least something of a normal summer.

'This announcement is going to bring everything crashing down.'

MailOnline understands there is a 'live discussion' to cut this period to 10 days to persuade nervous holidaymakers to press ahead with their bookings and not cancel.

The economic shocks of the pandemic continue to tremor across the mainland, with Portugal's tourism industry also on the brink.

The Algarve, the jewel of the country's coastline that usually attracts two million British holidaymakers, has this year only seen 91,000 UK tourists, according to the Daily Telegraph.

And even Greece, which has largely stamped out Covid-19, has been shunned by tourists is only pulling in a quarter of its average summer footfall.
As Australias surge in coronavirus deaths and infections continues, opposition from the working-class is emerging to the subordination of health and safety to the profit demands of the corporate elite.

This morning, 45 workers held an impromptu meeting outside the JBS meatworks in Brooklyn, a working class suburb in Melbournes west. They resolved that they would not return to the job until their safety concerns were addressed.

The meat works cold-store operations had been set to resume today, following two weeks of reduced production. The company had been forced to temporarily scale back its operations, after a cluster of infections at the facility resulted in some 71 confirmed cases.

The courageous walkout by the workers is a blow to the attempt to force them back into the plant. Social distancing and other basic precautions are difficult to impossible throughout the meat production industry. The stoppage also threatens to disrupt JBS plans to push another cohort of employees back on the job this Wednesday.

The workers have set an example that will undoubtedly be followed with keen interest by their colleagues at abattoirs across Victoria and nationally. In Melbourne, at least three meat works have been the scene of mass infections, while outbreaks have occurred at Victorian regional facilities in Colac near Geelong, and in Castlemaine.

Meat workers at an Australian plant (Credit: Australian Beef Association submission to the 2015 Senate Inquiry)

In an indication of broader opposition to the criminally-negligent official response to the pandemic, the Australian Principals Federation issued a demand yesterday for an immediate end to classroom teaching and a return to online learning for all students in metro Melbourne and Mitchell Shire.

The call was made after another ten schools were forced to close in Melbourne on Monday, following the detection of COVID-19 cases among students and educators. At least 58 schools have been shuttered in the week-and-a-half since the Victorian state Labor government imposed a return to in-person teaching at the beginning of Term Three.

The closures have exposed the lying claims by governments across the country that the dangers posed by the coronavirus stopped at the school gate. In reality, medical experts are now virtually unanimous that the older cohort of students that have returned to Victorian schools are as likely to contract and transmit the disease as any other demographic.

Julie Podbury, president of the Australian Principals Federation, told the Age that the response of the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services to the wave of school infections had been staggeringly poor. Her members had been left waiting for days for information about contact-tracing and closures after cases were confirmed.

The Principals Federation statement is all the more striking, given that the organisation has previously done nothing to oppose the dangerous school reopenings. Like the Australian Education Union, it has collaborated closely with the government and has opposed any mobilisation of educators in defence of their basic rights, including to health and safety.

That the federation has now spoken out expresses the scale of the crisis in schools and a groundswell of anger among rank-and-file teachers, principals and parents.

The developing opposition is an indictment of the state and federal authorities that have created the conditions for the resurgence of COVID-19 by prematurely lifting restrictions at the behest of the corporate and financial elite.

In Victoria, it is two-and-a-half weeks since the Labor government introduced a limited lockdown across Melbourne, as transmission was already spiraling out of control. After more than 14 days, the estimated timeframe for COVID-19 incubation, it is clear that the restrictions have failed to halt the rise in case numbers.

As the actions of the JBS meat workers and the anger among teachers make clear, the lockdown is a sham. It restricts individual movements and social gatherings, violations of which are punishable by hefty fines, but does not affect the operations of most large businesses and schools.

Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews responded to the principals demands with barely-concealed contempt. The closure of schools would not be a proportionate response to dozens of minors and teachers contracting a potentially deadly disease, Andrews said.

Teachers were doing a magnificent job, the premier declared, and the focus needed to be on deep cleaning schools where cases emerge. In other words, the Labor government is decreeing that educators, parents and children will continue to be infected.

As industry professionals have noted, moreover, deep cleaning, while conjuring up images of hazmat suits and equipment worthy of a Crime Scene Investigation episode, is a mythical concept when it comes to schools. On the ground, cleaners are low-paid casuals who have complained throughout the pandemic that they are not given the time to clean properly, nor do they have appropriate cleaning products or enough gloves, sanitiser and other basic hygiene products.

The governments determination for the schools to remain open, in defiance of science and public health, flows from the same corporate considerations that underpin the entire reopening of the economy. Having students in classrooms is viewed as a crucial precondition for forcing their parents back to their places of employment, so that profits can be pumped out of their labour.

For the same reason, workplace closures are not even up for discussion, despite the fact that they account for 80 percent of infections since May.

Instead, ordinary people are being blamed. Without presenting a shred of evidence, Andrews has asserted that the spread is the result of workers going to their jobs when they have mild symptoms. As even he has been compelled to acknowledge, to the extent that this is taking place it is the outcome of the casualisation of the workforce and the fact that most people cannot afford to miss even a single shift.

The official response has created a catastrophe. Everyday there are warnings that Victorias hospitals could be overwhelmed, with hundreds of doctors and nurses already infected. There are more than 81 aged-care facilities in the state with confirmed cases, meaning that the death toll will rise rapidly over the coming days.

The scale of the crisis was underscored by the announcement yesterday of 532 Victorian infections, the largest number since the pandemic began. Six more deaths were reported, following ten on Sunday.

Andrews and Victorian health authorities nevertheless proclaimed that they were cautiously confident that the height of infections had been reached. Todays tally of 384 cases was welcomed as a reduction on yesterdays figure.

This continues a pantomime that has played out over the past month. Record daily increases have repeatedly been described as peaks, only to be surpassed days later, while marginally lower tallies are declared to be evidence of progress.

For weeks, the authorities have been suggesting that the reproduction rate of the virus is stable or declining, even though the number of infections is increasing. No serious effort has been made to explain this arithmetical anomaly.

The Panglossian optimism is an exercise in public deception. Every day, the majority of cases are reported as being under investigation, meaning that the authorities have no idea about the source of infection. Testing is again being restricted for those without symptoms, and six months into the crisis, the state is short of hundreds of required contact tracers.

The real situation was indicated by public health expert Dr. Norman Swan. On the Australian Broadcasting Corporations 7:30 program last night, he reviewed international research showing that for every confirmed case, there were often between five and ten that went undetected. In other words, it is possible that thousands of people are contracting the virus in Victoria every day.

The official stance is aimed at staving off calls for more stringent lockdown measures that would impact on business.

This morning, Associate Professor Julian Rait, president of the Victorian branch of the Australian Medical Association, disputed claims that the existing lockdown had flattened the curve. He advocated a new model that would involve the closure of pretty much all businesses other than pharmacies, medical clinics, grocery stores, petrol stations and the curtailment of retail shopping.

Rait called for an effort to eradicate community transmission, a strategy that has been rejected by all governments because its cost would be too great. In New South Wales, where daily infections are consistently in the double digits, after local transmission of the virus was all but eliminated last month, the Liberal government has ruled out even limited lockdown measures.

The experiences of the past six months demonstrate that implementing the measures demanded by science and medical experts requires the political mobilisation of the working class. This can only go forward through a rebellion against the unions, which function as an industrial police force of the corporations and governments.

Meat workers should establish rank-and-file committees, completely independent of the unions. These would be tasked with enforcing safety measures, breaking the isolation imposed by the unions and turning out to other sections of the working class.

Above all, the crisis has demonstrated that the defence of the social rights of the workers is incompatible with private ownership of societys resources. The meat works, along with the banks and major corporations, must be placed under public ownership and democratic workers control. That means the fight for a workers government and socialism.
Another $15 million is being added to a grant fund that has been overwhelmed by small businesses crushed by the coronavirus pandemic seeking help to remain afloat, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Tuesday.

COVID-19 is first and foremost a health crisis, but also a severe economic crisis, and nowhere is that more evident than in the states small business community, Murphy said during a press conference outside a hair salon in North Brunswick, where he announced 565 new coronavirus cases, the highest one-day total this month.

New Jersey also expanded its coronavirus quarantine travel advisory on Tuesday to include 34 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. Thats up from 31 states last week.

The grant money will be doled out by the states Economic Development Authority, which Murphy said has already committed $100 million to help more than 20,000 small businesses.

The EDA isnt taking new applications for the funds, however. Rather, the $15 million will go to businesses that already applied.

This money will go fast, Tim Sullivan, the CEO of the EDA said, referring to the demand among small businesses in the state for relief.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

Small businesses seeking loans and grants have overwhelmed the EDA  which has already provided tens of millions of dollars of relief.

More than 10,000 businesses applied for $5 million in small business grants a little more than an hour after the EDA opened up applications for the grants in early April. Within a week, another 22,000 submitted applications for grants ranging from $1,000 to $5,000.

Last month, the EDA was again flooded with 19,500 applications within hours of accepting requests for a $45 million grant program for small businesses hurt by the pandemic.

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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has congratulated the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of Eid al-Adha.

"Dear compatriots! I sincerely congratulate you and all our compatriots living in different parts of the world on the occasion of Eid al-Adha and wish you all the best," Azerbaijani president said.

"Eid al-Adha, a symbol of solidarity and brotherhood, humanism and compassion amongst people, is one of the main holidays of Islam. On this auspicious day, Muslims experience the joy of closeness to God through sacrifices in the name of the Almighty and demonstrate their readiness to display heroism for the sake of benevolent deeds," the head of state said.

"For hundreds of years, Islam has played an exceptional role in the formation of an exemplary environment of coexistence based on mutual respect, trust and the preservation of ethnic and cultural diversity in Azerbaijan, where people of different nations and religions live as a loving family. The religious holidays held in our country every year become a celebration of progressive national and spiritual values, social assistance and display of kindness. Although this year's Eid al-Adha occurs at a difficult time facing the world, our devout citizens are fulfilling their moral duties in the way of God and religion and strengthening the spirit of unity and equality in our society by their noble deeds," Azerbaijani president said.

"Dear sisters and brothers! During these holidays, I remember with gratitude the immortal memory of our martyrs who died for the independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and wish patience to their relatives and all our people. I do hope that your prayers and wishes for the prosperity and well-being of our people, the prosperity and progress of our Motherland will be materialized," the head of state said.

"I once again convey my sincere holiday congratulations to each of you, wish your families good health, happiness and abundance to your homes. Happy Eid al-Adha!" Azerbaijani president said.
Guests attend the launching ceremony of a global naming campaign for the country's Mars rover in Wenchang, south China's Hainan Province, July 24, 2020. China launched Mars mission Tianwen-1 on Thursday. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Friday announced the launch of a global naming campaign for the country's Mars rover. According to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the CNSA, the naming activity will be carried out in four stages, including name submission, top 10 proposed names selected by judges, top three names selected by public voting and the final selection. From now until midnight on Aug. 12, participants can submit their proposed names through the Baidu mobile app, the official submission channel or to the office of the global naming campaign in a paper form. (Xinhua/Cai Yang)

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Friday announced the launch of a global naming campaign for the country's Mars rover.

According to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the CNSA, the naming activity will be carried out in four stages, including name submission, top 10 proposed names selected by judges, top three names selected by public voting and the final selection.

From now until midnight on Aug. 12, participants can submit their proposed names through the Baidu mobile app, the official submission channel or to the office of the global naming campaign in a paper form.

The CNSA said the campaign is expected to promote the popularization of space knowledge and attract the public's attention to the space industry.

China launched Mars mission Tianwen-1 on Thursday, aiming to complete orbiting, landing and roving in one mission, and taking the first step in its planetary exploration of the solar system.

Tianwen-1 is expected to reach Mars around February 2021. After it enters Mars' orbit, it will spend two to three months surveying potential landing sites using a high-resolution camera to prepare for the landing in May.

After landing, a rover will be released to conduct scientific exploration with an expected lifespan of at least 90 Martian days (about three months on Earth), and the orbiter, with a design life of one Martian year (about 687 days on Earth), will relay communications for the rover while conducting its own scientific detection.
The evidence so far in the country does not support the risk of transfer of COVID-19 in cars like other diseases, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said.



Our advice to allow all form of transportation services to resume full operation is that based on our experiences and contact tracing activities we have had cases all over but we have not found anyone who traced the infection through transport, he said.



Speaking at a media briefing to give updates, Dr Kuma-Aboagye stated that activities in cars were not like other places because the passenger is supposed to wear a nose mask, which limited the spread of the virus.



He said the virus spread through contacts and droplets from an infected person through speaking, singing, coughing and sneezing.



Dr Kuma-Aboagye said although in theory when more people were allowed out the risk was likely to go up and lead to spikes, adherence to the safety protocols would enhance safety.



He said it was observed that people were increasingly adapting to the COVID-19 safety protocols and that was the reason why the government was easing the restrictions.



Also since we have to live with the disease, it is important everyone adheres to the protocols religiously. That is the key solution because I know someone who has been with infected persons for some time now but the fellow has not contracted the virus, he said.



The GHS and stakeholders had intensified their education on COVID-19 and urged the media to support the cause.

Source: GNA









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CUMMING, Ga., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Agency Ten22, an award-winning healthcare public relations and digital marketing services company, announces the addition of Vispa to their healthcare IT customer roster. Vispa is a web-based revenue cycle software company that helps hospitals and health systems boost revenue faster, simpler and more efficiently than traditional healthcare revenue cycle platforms.

In the first 30 days of working together, Agency Ten22 secured six media placements for Vispa with respected trade outlets including HealthLeaders and HFMA. Vispa was also promptly featured in HIMSS Healthcare IT News due to Ten22's earned media efforts.

"Our firm is honored to be selected by Vispa to raise brand awareness, establish thought leadership and position the new company as an innovator in the healthcare revenue cycle," says Beth Friedman, Agency Ten22 Founder and CEO. "To achieve and exceed public relations goals in such a short time is a testament to the quality work Ten22 delivers and the strength of our healthcare media relationships."

Geneva Schlabach, Co-Founder and CEO at Vispa adds, "It has been such a pleasure working with Ten22 and it confirms the great things we heard about them in the healthcare industry. Within a few short weeks of our partnership, they secured a pipeline of placements for us and our clients. It's exactly the exposure we were looking for as a new company."

As a newcomer to the revenue cycle space, Vispa signed with Agency Ten22 for media relations, public relations, press releases, articles and blog services.

About Vispa

Vispa is a web-based software that helps hospitals and health systems boost revenue faster, simpler and more efficiently than traditional revenue cycle platforms. The software features a quick implementation and moment-by-moment metrics that give hospitals insights into staff performance. Visit https://vispaflow.com

About Agency Ten22

Agency Ten22 is a public relations, content management, social media and digital marketing firm focused exclusively on the healthcare and technology industries. Ten22's proven techniques deliver compelling messages, maximize exposure and strengthen market share for healthcare IT and service vendors. Founded in 2005, Agency Ten22 is the most respected media relations agency for small to medium-sized healthcare companies. Visit https://ten22pr.com/ or join us on Twitter and LinkedIn .

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Cavanaughs term continues through 2022.

Thorburn told the Hub on Monday that the rules violation is resolved, but board members wanted to make it clear to Cavanaugh and the public that they expect directors to set a positive example for the NRDs constituents.

After the sanctions were tabled July 14, Tri-Basin General Manager John Thorburn had said they would not affect Cavanaughs right to cast votes at meetings.

When contacted by the Hub at that time, Cavanaugh declined to comment.

Circumstances leading to the letter of reprimand were described by Thorburn ahead of the July 14 meeting.

The focus was a conditional replacement well permit Cavanaugh was issued in 2009 that requires irrigators with surface water delivery service from Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District retain that service.

Prior to installation of the supplemental well, CNPPID water was the only source of irrigation on an 80-acre field northwest of Minden farmed by Cavanaugh.
Washington D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - July 28, 2020) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Houston-based VALIC Financial Advisors Inc. (VFA) in a pair of actions for failing to disclose to teachers and other investors practices that generated millions of dollars in fees and other financial benefits for VFA.

In the first action, the SEC found that VFA failed to disclose that its parent company paid a for-profit entity owned by Florida K-12 teachers' unions to promote VFA and its parent company services to teachers.

In the second action, the SEC found that VFA failed to disclose conflicts of interest regarding its receipt of millions of dollars of financial benefits that directly resulted from advisory client mutual fund investments that were generally more expensive for clients than other mutual fund investment options available to clients.

VFA agreed to pay approximately $40 million to settle the charges in these two actions. In the first action, VFA agreed to cap advisory fees for all Florida K-12 teachers who currently participate (and, in some cases, those who prospectively participate) in its advisory product in Florida's 403(b) and 457(b) retirement programs. This will result in significant savings for thousands of teachers.

VFA Failed to Disclose Payments Made in Exchange for Referral of Teachers

VFA is a financial services vendor in nearly every school district in Florida. According to the SEC's order, VFA's parent company, The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company (VALIC), for 13 years made payments to an entity owned by the Florida teachers' unions in exchange for that entity's exclusive endorsement of VFA as its preferred financial services partner and the entity's agreement to not promote or endorse VFA's competitors. VALIC also provided the entity owned by the teachers' unions three full-time employees to serve as "member benefit coordinators." These coordinators - who deceptively presented themselves as employees of the entity owned by the teachers unions - promoted VALIC and VFA to Florida K-12 teachers, including at benefits fairs and financial planning seminars, and referred teachers to VFA for investment recommendations. The order finds that the member benefit coordinators increased VFA's access to K-12 teachers in Florida, and that VFA did not disclose that the for-profit entity was paid to make VFA its preferred financial services provider.

VFA (together with VALIC) earned more than $30 million on the products it sold to Florida K-12 teachers during the period covered by the SEC's order.

"Teachers need and deserve our attention, and we are dedicated to ensuring they receive all of the information they are entitled to when making decisions about their financial futures," said Chairman Jay Clayton. "Too often educators are targeted with misconduct related to their investments. Our nation's educators, and our Main Street investors more generally, are entitled to full and accurate information about the incentives and conflicts affecting their financial advisors."

"By failing to disclose to teachers that it was making payments to and providing employees for the union-owned entity in exchange for that entity referring teachers to VFA, VFA took advantage of the trust teachers placed in that entity," said Stephanie Avakian, Co-Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. "Like all investors, teachers need full and fair disclosure."

"Financial relationships and affiliations in the K-12 teachers' retirement sector can impact teachers' financial interests," added Steven Peikin, Co-Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. "It is critical that teachers get the information they need to make informed decisions about their retirement options."

The SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy today issued an Investor Bulletin with tips to help teachers make informed investment decisions, including about retirement plans. The agency offers resources for teachers and investing and provides outreach and education to teachers through its Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, Retail Strategy Task Force, and its San Francisco Regional Office.

VFA Failed to Disclose Millions of Dollars in Financial Benefits It Received for Investing Clients in Certain Funds

The SEC separately charged VFA for making false and misleading statements about, and otherwise failing to disclose, conflicts related to its receipt of millions of dollars of financial benefits from client mutual fund investments.

According to the SEC's order, VFA's wrap agreements with its clients provided that the advisory fee the client paid to VFA included the costs to execute securities transactions. The order finds that VFA either directly invested or instructed its primary sub-adviser to select new mutual fund investments for clients that were part of VFA's clearing broker's no-transaction fee program (NTF Program), and thus would not incur a transaction fee VFA would be responsible for paying. The NTF Program mutual funds were generally more expensive than other mutual funds available to VFA clients, including instances when a less expensive mutual fund share class for the same fund was available outside the NTF Program.

The order finds that VFA's participation in the NTF Program generated three key financial benefits to VFA, and that VFA not only failed to provide disclosures regarding these conflicts, but also provided false and misleading disclosures concerning the conflicts. The order sets forth that VFA received both 12b-1 fees and revenue sharing from the clearing broker for client investment in mutual funds within the NTF Program. In addition, according to the order, for clients with wrap agreements in which VFA was responsible for client execution costs, VFA financially benefited by not having to pay any transaction fees for mutual funds in the NTF Program. Despite being eligible to do so, VFA did not self report its receipt of undisclosed 12b-1 fees as part of the Division of Enforcement's Share Class Selection Disclosure Initiative announced in February 2018.

"Investment advisers must disclose conflicts between their financial interests and those of their clients," said Mr. Peikin. "Here, VFA for years reaped million in benefits at its clients' expenses while not only failing to disclose the conflicts, but while providing false and misleading information."

"VFA misled clients by telling them that their advisory fee would cover execution costs without also telling them that VFA would put them in more expensive mutual fund share classes and thus avoid paying those costs." Ms. Avakian added. "By not disclosing these practices as well as the other financial benefits VFA received, the firm deprived its clients of essential information about their relationship with their adviser and violated core fiduciary obligations."

Investors can find additional information about how fees and expenses may impact their portfolios at Investor.gov.

Summary of Settlement Terms

The SEC's order concerning Florida teachers finds that VFA willfully violated Sections 206(2) and 206(4) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and Rules 206(4)-3 and 206(4)-7 thereunder. Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, VFA has consented to a cease-and desist order, a censure, and a civil penalty of $20 million. VFA has also agreed to set advisory fees for all Florida K-12 teachers who currently participate in its advisory product in Florida's 403(b) and 457(b) retirement programs, or who currently or may within the next five years own certain other VALIC Financial Advisors products, at its most favorable rates in the Florida K-12 market.

The SEC's investigation leading to this order was conducted by Heather E. Marlow and supervised by Jeremy Pendrey, both of the Asset Management Unit and the San Francisco Regional Office, and supervised by Monique C. Winkler, Associate Regional Director, and Erin Schneider, Director, of the San Francisco Regional Office and C. Dabney O'Riordan, Co-Chief of the Asset Management Unit. The investigative team appreciates the assistance of Jill Persson of the San Francisco Regional Office Teacher Investment Outreach Team and Charu Chandrasekhar, Chief of the SEC's Retail Strategy Task Force.

The SEC's order concerning VFA's mutual fund fee disclosure practices finds that VFA violated Sections 206(2) and 206(4) of the Investment Advisers Act and Rule 206(4)-7 thereunder. Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, VFA has consented to a cease-and desist order, a censure, disgorgement and prejudgment interest of over $15.4 million, and a civil penalty of $4.5 million. The over $19.9 million in monetary relief will be placed into a fund for distribution to investors affected by this conduct.

The SEC's investigation leading to this second order was also conducted by the Asset Management Unit, including industry expert John Farinacci, senior counsel Frank Goodrich and senior trial counsel Jennifer Reece of the Fort Worth Regional Office, and supervised by Barbara Gunn and Ms. O'Riordan.
About one in 60 residents of Hidalgo County is known to have had the virus, and about one of every 2,000 people has died from the virus, a New York Times database shows. Hidalgo County now has one of the highest per capita death rates in the state.

At the start of July, fewer than 50 deaths in Hidalgo County had been attributed to the virus, according to the database. By Monday, there had been almost 470.

Its like a bad dream, said Linda Ceballos, a co-director of Ceballos Funeral Home in McAllen. You want to wake up, but you cant.

The death toll is forcing funeral directors to bypass traditional services such as velorios, viewings that sometimes last for days and are filled with prayers, hugs and sorrowful Spanish-language songs. Instead, many funeral homes now are shortening viewing times and limiting attendance. Some have ordered large refrigerator trucks to store bodies until they can get to them.

The viruss spread seemed relatively under control in the area until the state reopened the economy in time for Memorial Day, local health officials said. Richard Cortez, the Hidalgo County judge, said the virus soon was wreaking damage through the region, where chronic disease and widespread poverty were already significant problems. More than 14,000 people have contracted the virus in El Valle, as the area is known to its mostly Latino residents.
Jammu:

Army launched a counter offensive against Pakistan along the LoC on Wednesday, three days after Indian soldiers were killed, with body of one of them being mutilated in a cross-LoC attack.

According to a report published in Dawn, nine people were killed and 11 others were injured in heavy shelling carried out by the Indian army along the LoC.

Down's report said that the casualties were reported in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) on Wednesday.

The offensive comes hours after the Indian Army vowed heavy retribution to the attack on its soldiers.

Brigadier, Northern Command, S Gotra said India Army launched a counter offensive along the LoC in retaliation to yesterdays offensive in Machhil sector of Kashmir.

Indian Army posts are responding strongly and giving a befitting reply, Defence PRO Manish Mehta said.

Pakistan Army also fired at Indian posts along the LoC in Bhimber Gali, Krishna Ghati and Nowshera sectors.

In the cross-LoC attack by suspected Pakistani terrorists, three Indian soldiers were yesterday killed, with body of one of them being mutilated.

The ambush on the army patrol took place in Machhil sector of Kashmir, following which the Indian Army vowed heavy retribution.

The Northern Command spokesman had yesterday tweeted, 3 soldiers killed in action on LC (Line of Control) in Machhal. Body of one soldier mutilated. He said the retribution will be heavy for this cowardly act.

This is the second such incident of mutilation of the body of an Indian soldier in the same sector since October 28.

On that day, terrorists, aided by the cover fire by Pakistani Army, had crossed the Line of Control and killed an Indian army jawan and mutilated his body in Macchil sector. One attacker was killed in that incident.

Also read: India should give a befitting reply to Pakistan, says father of mutilated soldier Prabhu Singh

Watch video | Three Indian soldiers killed in cross-LoC attack, body of one jawan mutilated; Army vows revenge



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New Delhi, July 28 : The Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that it will verify reported statements made by BJP leader Ram Madhav and Jammu and Kashmir's Lt Gov G.C. Murmu in connection with restoration of 4G internet services in the Union Territory.

A bench comprising Justices V. Ramana, R. Subhash Reddy and B.R. Gavai then adjourned, to August 7, the hearing on the contempt plea filed by NGO Foundation for Media Professionals. The Centre had sought time to file a reply to the rejoinder affidavit of the NGO.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the J&K administration, told the bench that he has received the rejoinder on the Centre's counter-affidavit, where it said the special committee has decided that there will be no 4G internet in the region for now and the situation will be reviewed after two months.

Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, representing the NGO, did not oppose Mehta's submission seeking time to file a reply.

The petitioner's counsel contended before the bench that there is a media statement by the Lt Gov regarding restoration of 4G Internet services.

After the Centre revoked Constitution's Article 370 last year, high-speed Internet service in the region was also suspended.

Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, representing the Centre, contended before the bench that the statements would have to be verified.

As the bench listed the matter on August 5, Mehta urged it to list the matter on some other date as the internet restrictions were imposed on August 5. The bench accepted Mehta's request and posted the matter for further hearing on August 7.

The NGO has moved the apex court seeking initiation on contempt proceedings against the Union Home Secretary and Chief Secretary of J&K for not complying with the top court order on May 11.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had informed the Supreme Court that the special committee constituted to look into the issue of restoring 4G internet in Jammu and Kashmir decided against resuming the services.

In an affidavit filed last week, in response to contempt petition against the Jammu and Kashmir administration, it said: "Based on a considered and wide-ranging assessment of the prevailing situation in this sensitive region, the committee arrived at a decision that no further relaxation of restrictions on internet services, including 4G services, could be carried out at present." The MHA said the next review by the special panel will be carried out after two months. The affidavit, however, said that the situation will be regularly reviewed by other competent authorities, and if there is an improvement in the security situation, appropriate action will be taken accordingly.

On July 16, a bench headed by Justice Ramana directed the Jammu and Kashmir administration and the Centre to respond on the allegations of contempt raised against it in a petition by the NGO.

The petitioner moved the apex court seeking action against officials for allegedly defying the court's order on the constitution of a special committee to review the internet restrictions. The bench had noted the decision on the services should have been put in the public domain.
The farm at the centre of a horrific goat cruelty scandal revealed by The Independent may have to be shut down, its owner has said.

Animals were secretly filmed being punched, kicked and slammed on their back at Far Marsh Farm, near Hull in East Yorkshire.

Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsburys and Marks and Spencer all said they would immediately drop St Helens Farm dairy products  which are made using milk produced at Far Marsh  after being alerted to the brutality on Monday. On Tuesday, Ocado did likewise.

Now, Angus Wielkopolski, founder of Yorkshire Dairy Goats which owns the farm, has told The Independent he is disgusted by what he saw in the video and says he is facing having to close the 4,000-animal site if he cannot salvage its reputation.

Three out of its 10 staff have already been dismissed for gross misconduct while a fourth has been placed on an immediate final written warning. On Tuesday morning, just hours after the abuse was revealed, CCTV was being installed across the plant so its general manager  who says he was unaware of the abuse  could monitor animal treatment by workers.

We are totally shocked and disgusted by what we have seen on that video, Mr Wielkopolski said. We are horrified. We had no idea this was going on. If we had known, we would have stopped it instantly. We have always made animal welfare a top priority

Its a big farm which runs 18 hours a day, seven days a week and the manager cant supervise everything. We trusted our people. We cannot believe that they have done this. I have to believe it because I have seen the footage but if you had told me two days ago this was happening, I wouldnt have believed it.

Asked what the revelation might do to business, the 65-year-old said: I dont want to speculate at the moment but whether the farm continues, we will have to see. You cannot run a dairy farm if you cannot sell the milk. It is not possible.

Mr Wielkopolski and wife Kathleen have run Yorkshire Dairy Goats and sister business A&K Wielkopolski for 35 years. They own a second farm, also in East Yorkshire, with another 4,000 goats.

He said milk produced across the two sites had helped popularise the product in a period when increasing numbers of people have sought alternatives to cows milk. But he added: We have worked hard for 35 years and that could all get destroyed overnight.

Ed Winters, co-founder and director of Surge, the animal rights group which first exposed the footage, said: Goats are sensitive, curious and gentle animals, but the animal-farming industries treat them as commodities they can exploit for profit.

St Helens say on their website the milk is a reward for looking after the goats and that their staff have a genuine interest and love for the animals. But it is obvious that the opposite is true at one of their supplying farms.

About an hours worth of video was passed to the group.

In it, goats at Far Marsh  which is between the villages of Keyingham and Ottringham  were seen being kicked and punched, beaten with a pole, held by the throat and having their tails twisted.

In one clip, goats were slammed onto their backs on a conveyor belt before their hooves were roughly trimmed. In another, an animal was seen being dragged by one leg along the ground while struggling.

All of Britains leading supermarket chains said on Monday they would remove the St Helens Farm range from their shelves pending further investigation after being shown the footage by The Independent.

But Tesco, Sainsburys and Waitrose were continuing to sell the brands milk, cheese and butter in three south London supermarkets visited by The Independent on Tuesday.

Waitrose and Tesco both said they had stopped new orders of the products but would sell remaining stock already in stores.

We take animal welfare very seriously and have suspended all new orders from this company yesterday while we investigate. So what you see on our shelves will have been received before this date, a Waitrose spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Sainsburys insisted all products are being removed from sale.

Tesco and other supermarkets were still selling St Helens Farm produce after footage of goats being abuse emerged (The Independent)

St Helens Farm  which also uses goats milk from several other farms  has already ceased buying produce from Yorkshire Dairy Goats.

Speaking after the initial revelations on Monday, a company spokesperson said: Today we have been made aware of allegations that one farm has infringed animal welfare standards, which we would find totally unacceptable if true.

We have immediately ceased all milk supply from this farm and launched a full investigation to determine the facts of this matter.

The Animal Welfare Act 2006 states animals, including farm animals, must be protected from pain, injury, suffering and disease.
MONTREAL, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- McGill Engine , the Faculty of Engineering's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre at McGill University, in partnership with the Montreal General Hospital Foundation , today joined forces with HeroX , the leading crowdsourcing platform for global problem-solving, to launch the " Made for All " challenge. This is phase two of the Code Life Ventilator Challenge , which invited thousands of innovators to design an affordable ventilator. Now, the race is on to bring these ventilators to broad use as soon as possible so that developing countries have access to them before the second wave of COVID-19 hits.

Made for All is phase two of the Code Life Ventilator Challenge to design an affordable ventilator

"We had a tremendous response from our initial Code Life Ventilator Challenge, and we are eager to see the next phase unfold," said Dr. Reza Farivar, Canada Research Chair in Integrative Neuroscience at McGill University. "It's been inspiring to see how many people from all over the globe have wanted to contribute during this unprecedented moment in history.

"COVID-19 has shown us the importance of mobilizing solvers from around the world," said Christian Cotichini, CEO, HeroX. "Crowdsourcing allows us to aggregate top talent pretty quickly, and the need for cost-efficient ventilators remains absolutely urgent."

Ventilators are costly to develop, and currently, the cheapest on the market range from $5000-$10,000 per unit. These prices are cost-prohibitive in many developing countries, so the Made for All Challenge is urgently seeking the optimization of the innovative Finalist designs from the Code Life Ventilator Challenge. Backed by the power of HeroX's crowdsourcing platform, the Made for All Challenge will yield approved, low-cost manufacturing packages of the Code Life Ventilator Challenge Finalists, that will then be shared with producers worldwide to manufacture these innovative designs.

The Challenge: The Made for All Challenge will run in two phases: Team Formation and The Sprint. In the Team Formation phase, manufacturing and compliance experts will recruit (at a minimum) an industrial engineer, design engineer, medical device expert, technical writer, and a clinical respiratory expert to form a team. The Candidate team then will make their pitch to the Finalists of the Code Life Ventilator Challenge . They have to convince the Finalist team that they are best placed, most experienced, and most resourceful to be the Made for All team on their design. Each Finalist can only pick one Made for All Team. Once a Finalist has selected a partner team, they must race to be the first to obtain regulatory approval for their device, and make a final manufacturing package for the ventilator that would cost less than $1000 CAD per unit.

The Prize: McGill Engine, in collaboration with the Montreal General Hospital Foundation, is sponsoring the Made for All Challenge and will offer a single prize of up to $300,000 to the winner in exchange for the final manufacturing package and license to share it worldwide with competent manufacturers.

How to Become a Solver: To accept the challenge, visit www.herox.com/MadeforAll

ABOUT HEROX

HeroX is a social network for crowdsourcing innovation and human ingenuity, co-founded in 2013 by serial entrepreneur, Christian Cotichini, and XPRIZE Founder and Futurist, Peter Diamandis. HeroX offers a turnkey, easy-to-use platform that supports anyone, anywhere, to solve everyday business and world challenges using the power of the crowd.

Explore the latest challenges at www.herox.com

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Mauritanian MPs late Monday voted to re-establish a high court with jurisdiction to hear cases of "high treason" against former heads of state and government ministers

Nouakchott, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Jul, 2020 ) :Mauritanian MPs late Monday voted to re-establish a high court with jurisdiction to hear cases of "high treason" against former heads of state and government ministers.

The move comes after the West African state's former president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz this month refused a summons from a parliamentary inquiry into state-related business affairs during his time in office.

Issues included the management of oil revenues, the sale of state-owned property in the capital Nouakchott and the liquidation of a state-owned food company.

On Monday evening, MPs voted to adopt a legal amendment that would reinstate a high court that existed in Mauritania before the largely desert nation of some 4.

5 million people reformed its constitution in 2017.

If Mauritania's current president and its Supreme Court sign off on the reinstatement, the court would sit in October, a parliamentary official told AFP.

The official, who declined to be named, said that the court "is not directed against anyone".

However, MPs will next vote on whether to drop the inquiry into Abdel Aziz or proceed to a legal case against him -- which would be heard by the reinstated high court.

Abdel Aziz is a former general who first came to power in a coup in Mauritania in 2008. He was elected president the next year, then re-elected in 2014.

He did not seek re-election last year, when his former political ally, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, won the presidency.
For children who participate in five days of remote learning, the instruction will be aligned with the online learning that occurs during the hybrid model and include a mix of live interaction with teachers, self-guided lessons and offline activities, the plan said. The curriculum will be the same as in-person, classroom instruction, according to the district, and days will be structured with attendance requirements, assessments of student learning and report cards, according to the plan.
The Labour Court has found supermarket chain Dunnes Stores was justified in dismissing a cafe restaurant manager alleged to have consumed food with a combined cost of 29 without paying for it.

In the case, Dunnes sacked Karen Walsh in July 2017 concerning four separate alleged incidents at a restaurant at a Dublin Dunnes Stores outlet.

Dunnes alleged that on May 26, 2017, Ms Walsh selected food valued at 5 and ate it without paying.

Dunnes alleged Ms Walsh on June 15, 2017, prepared food for herself valued at 5 and went to the staff canteen where she ate the unpaid-for item.

On June 16, 2017, the company alleged Ms Walsh - who began working for Dunnes Stores in 1996 - prepared food, valued at 5, for herself and didn't pay for it.

On June 18, 2017, Dunnes Stores alleged that Ms Walsh prepared food valued at 14 and ate it at the staff canteen without paying for it.

In its findings, the Labour Court said the allegations underlying the dismissal were uncontested.

Dunnes Stores submitted that the incidents were reported to management by various members of staff.

In the Labour Court's findings, chairman Kevin Foley said the court was satisfied the conduct of Ms Walsh "could be regarded as sufficiently grave to give rise to serious disciplinary sanction".

Mr Foley said Dunnes had substantial grounds to justify the dismissal of Ms Walsh.

Ms Walsh claimed she was unfairly dismissed and challenged the dismissal on procedural grounds. She was appealing a Workplace Relations Commission finding.
The commerce ministry has blocked the online system for exporters to apply for availing tax incentives under the MEIS scheme from July 23 as the department of revenue (DoR) decided to limit the benefits under the scheme at Rs 9,000 crore for April-December 2020.

According to an office memorandum of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), the Department of Revenue in May had conveyed that it may not be feasible to exceed MEIS (merchandise export from India scheme) allocation beyond Rs 9,000 crore for 2020-21 (up to December 2020).

It has also been suggested to review MEIS and coverage so that the benefit outgo remains within the allocation of Rs 9,000 crore in this period.

The commerce department has requested its revenue counterpart to reconsider its decision, and a communication has also been sent by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 21.

In the meanwhile, according to the office memorandum, the database for MEIS scrip issuance has been checked and it has been found that as on July 20, the scrips of value Rs 422.4 crore have already been issued to exporters for shipping bills with Let Export Order (LEO) since April 1 onwards.

"Since allocated funds at this stage for MEIS for 202-21 stand at Rs 9,000 crore and any additional allocation has not been conveyed by the department of revenue, the online MEIS module has been blocked on July 23 from accepting new application for shipping bills with LEO date April 1 onwards to limit the issuance of any more scrips," the memorandum dated July 27 said.

"DoR/CBIC (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs) may take steps in such a situation and ask customs ports/field formations to stop registration of MEIS scrips with shipping bills with LEO date of April 1 and beyond," a deputy DGFT said in the memorandum.

Commenting on the development, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President S K Saraf said the government's intervention has been sought to resolve the issue as MEIS benefits are already factored by exporters in the prices and help in easing the liquidity of exporters which is severely impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the MEIS, the government provides duty benefits depending on product and country.

Rewards under the scheme are payable as percentage of realised free-on-board value and MEIS duty credit scrip can be transferred or used for payment of a number of duties including the basic customs duty.

The government has already announced a scheme for Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Product (RoDTEP) to replace MEIS.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on New Mexico students, and school districts have already begun the difficult task of submitting reentry plans that maintain student and teacher safety.

But serving 120 deaf and hard-of-hearing students who live all across the state presents its own unique challenges during the pandemic, whether instruction happens in person or online.

The Board of Regents for the New Mexico School for the Deaf on Friday approved the schools reentry plan, which states classrooms will remain virtual until at least Sept. 8, in compliance with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams orders.

Educators in various school districts have voiced concerns about the difficulties of online learning, many of which NMSD shares, including short attention spans and technological issues.

In addition, NMSD officials say the immersive environment of the school, which can help students better learn American Sign Language, could also be impacted.

Its not as constant as when theyre on campus, NMSD Superintendent Rosemary Gallegos sad. Thats a drawback with distance learning.

Many students, Gallegos said, are not fluent in ASL when they arrive at the school, but constantly communicating with peers and teachers in ASL can increase comprehension over time.

Board President Nathan Gomme, who is also executive director of the New Mexico Commission for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, said he attended a school for deaf children and the immersive environment can be critical to a childs understanding.

My involvement in that school was at a later age and if I didnt have that support from the group of students, its very possible I wouldve lost out on the access and a lot of the understanding of the language, Gomme said.

Like many other schools, NMSD also has a plan for a possible hybrid class model.

Under that plan, as early as Sept. 8, students would have the option to attend in-person classes at the schools Santa Fe campus. Those living within a 60-mile radius could be transported by the school to the campus each day or their families would be reimbursed for driving.

For students living farther away, NMSD has discussed sending staff members to cities around the state to run learning hubs that students can go to.

All students have the option of staying online. Student dorms, where out-of-town students usually live, will not be open.

However, in-person classes raise another potential issue: masks and other face-coverings.

ASL relies heavily on facial expressions in its grammar, which can indicate someones intent, such as telling a joke or asking a question. Many deaf and hard of hearing people also rely on reading lips for context clues when communicating. Wearing a mask can complicate all of that.

NMSD Elementary Principal Scott Mohan, speaking through an interpreter, said ASL with masks is especially hard for those learning the language.

As a native speaker of American Sign Language, there are times when a person is wearing a mask and I can follow along pretty well, he said. People who arent native users of the language may struggle more.

In response, NMSD has purchased clear masks, face shields and plexiglass for teachers to stand behind, so that a persons mouth can remain visible. Gallegos said masks cant be worn when communicating on Zoom, because it can make it even harder to understand.

While acknowledging the challenges, Gallegos said she believes NMSD will still be ready to serve families and provide essential learning to students.

Its not the best, but everyone has to give a little bit during this time, Gallegos said.
I came to feel that the speech argument was often wielded by people who worried that their points may be weak. Ive felt that way about its use on the left, too. Think about its equivalent, rhetorically, in a marital fight: I cant believe youre upset about this. Such a statement positions the speaker as the rational one and burdens the other party to hedge himself so as not to sound hysterical. It also deflects the argument from its true subject to a dispute over its form  the other persons way of presenting their complaint. In the Harpers letter, and in other recent exhortations to the left to protect free speech, theres a striking absence of any ideas. What propositions do these writers wish they were able to offer? But naming those ideas would open them up again to scrutiny and discussion.
HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2020 / ??Memgen, Inc., a private biotechnology company developing innovative immune-based drugs for the control of infectious diseases and cancer, announced today that Dr. Thomas Monath, a world-renowned virologist and vaccinologist, has joined the Company's Scientific Advisory Board. The addition of Dr. Monath highlights the potential of the Company's vaccine program as it advances its COVID-19 vaccine candidate to the clinic.

Dr. Monath, Managing Partner and Chief Scientific Officer of Crozet Biopharma, has worked in leadership positions in US government agencies and in the biotechnology sector, and had primary responsibility for bringing multiple innovative vaccines into clinical development, including Ebola Zaire, cell-based smallpox, dengue, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile, cytomegalovirus, influenza, live and inactivated yellow fever, Helicobacter pylori, and Clostridium difficile, four of which are now licensed and commercialized.

In addition to Memgen, Tom serves on the boards of Juvaris Inc., Sentinext Plc, and US Biologic Inc. and on the Scientific Advisory Boards of RapidMicro Biosystems, GeoVax and SutroVax. Between 2006-2012, Dr. Monath was a Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a leading venture capital firm where he oversaw investments in the vaccine space. Before joining the industry, Dr. Monath served in the uniformed services of US Public Health Service and the US Army, retiring as a Colonel. During that time, he was Director, Division of Vector-Borne Viral Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Chief, Virology Division at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID).

Tom received his AB degree from Harvard College and his MD from Harvard Medical School and is board-certified in internal medicine. He has received many prestigious awards, including the Nathanial A. Young Award, the Richard M. Taylor Award, the Walter Reed Medal and the James H. Steele Award. He has served on numerous government and international committees on infectious diseases, biosecurity, WHO expert committees and the National Vaccines Advisory Committee (USA), and is Past-President of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and an elected Fellow of the Society. He has published over 425 scientific papers and 6 books on virology and vaccine development and has 35 patents.

Dr. Monath noted, "I am pleased and excited to join the Scientific Advisory Board of Memgen. The Company's novel CD40 ligand technology offers differentiated potential as an immune stimulant and vaccine adjuvant, and I look forward to working with the company to develop products that will address COVID-19."

Dr. Gregory Brown, Memgen's CEO, stated, "We are honored and thrilled to have a professional of Dr. Monath's stature join our Scientific Advisory Board, and to welcome him to the Memgen SAB. His expertise and insight into vaccine development will be a powerful addition to the team as we advance our COVID-19 vaccine candidates into the clinic."

About Memgen



Memgen is developing new therapies to harness the power of the immune system to protect people from COVID-19 and other diseases, and to cure the most difficult cancers. The Company's pipeline products all utilize its proprietary CD40 ligand technology, MEM40, which has already been tested in people and has demonstrated the ability to elicit powerful, antigen-specific anti-tumor immune responses, while doing so safely.

Memgen's COVID-19 vaccine, MemVax, is designed to be used alone or in combination with other COVID-19 vaccines to generate a strong, durable immune response. MemVax is a highly specific immune stimulant that can work with COVID-19 antigens across a range of delivery approaches. Memgen has over 100,000 doses of MemVax ready to go into clinical trials, and an active file with the US FDA. Memgen plans to soon begin clinical trials of MemVax alone and in collaboration with other companies developing complementary COVID-19 vaccines.

The Company's lead cancer immunotherapy, MEM-288, was developed in collaboration with Moffitt Cancer Center. It is an oncolytic virus engineered to selectively target cancer cells and to supercharge the immune system through expression of two unique and powerful immune modulators: MEM40 and the powerful cytokine interferon beta. MEM-288 generates a strong systemic anti-tumor immune response following intra-tumoral vaccination in multiple tumors. Memgen expects to begin clinical testing with MEM-288 in advanced cancers this year.

In this press release, unless the context requires otherwise, "Memgen", the "Company," "Companies," "we," "our," and "us" refers to Memgen, Inc.

Investor Contact:



Gregory B. Brown, M.D.

(203) 940-3742

gbrown@memgenbio.com

For Memgen: Gregory B. Brown, M.D.

(203) 940-3742

gbrown@memgenbio.com

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SOURCE: Memgen

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/598887/Memgen-Announces-Addition-of-Leading-Vaccine-Expert-to-Scientific-Advisory-Board
Iran's navy fired a missile from a helicopter at a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday  a fake one, which Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard had towed into the strategic waterway as part of war games and military drills that illustrate the persistent threat of conflict between Tehran and Washington.

Footage broadcast on Iranian state TV showed the replica vessel being struck by the projectile as part of an exercise Iran called "Great Prophet 14." Iranian commandos subsequently fast-roped down from the helicopter onto the mock Nimitz-class carrier resembling a ship the U.S. Navy routinely sails into the Persian Gulf  as other Iranian navy vessels encircle the vessel, likely a barge, kicking up white waves in their wake.

Iran claims revenge for Qasem Soleimani's killing: The US Navy is still a target

Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain, said in an emailed statement that the Navy was aware of the Iranian military exercise that involved attacking a mock-up of a vessel similar to a motionless aircraft carrier.

"This exercise has not disrupted coalition operations in the area nor had any impacts to the free flow of commerce in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters," she said.

Still, Al Udeid Air Base and Al Dhafra Air Base military bases in the United Arab Emirates housing American troops and aircraft went on high alert when Iran sent several missiles to the southern Arabian Gulf as part of military exercises.

"The safety and resilience of our service members and coalition partners is a top priority," said Navy Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for Central Command, the Defense Department unit that oversees the Middle East. "The United States condemns these irresponsible missile launches in the vicinity of a congested maritime shipping lane.

In a similar exercise in 2015, Iran's navy sank a replica U.S. aircraft carrier.

Story continues

About 20% of the world's oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, the entry point to the Persian Gulf. On Wednesday, Iran also claimed to have launched additional missiles from camouflaged underground positions as part of ongoing military exercises. And state media published a graphic that photoshopped the image of a U.S. carrier into the shape of a casket, with a caption quoting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pledging to seek revenge for a U.S. drone strike that killed a top Iranian general.

Tensions between Iran and the U.S. have sharply escalated since 2018, when President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers and reimposed sanctions that have restricted Tehran's oil exports and brought its economy to a standstill. Last summer, Washington blamed Tehran for a series of mysterious incidents targeting the region's oil tankers, and the two nations appeared to be on the brink of war in January after the U.S. drone strike killed Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles targeting U.S. forces in Iraq.

While the coronavirus pandemic has effectively distracted both nations for months, there have been signs of a renewed potential for outright confrontation as the U.S. has pushed to extend a United Nations weapons embargo on Tehran. It expires in October.

Inside Iran: Americas history in Iran leads to mix of anger, wonderment and weariness

Last week, Iran reacted angrily after a U.S. F-15 fighter jet conducted what the Pentagoncalled a "standard visual inspection" of an Iranian commercial airliner as it flew over Syria. Iranian state media alleged that the U.S. fighter jet undertook "dangerous" maneuvers close to an Iranian passenger plane and released videos showing apparently shaken and injured passengers. The Pentagon said it believed the aircraft had strayed from an established commercial air corridor.

In recent weeks, there have also been a series of unexplained fires and explosions in Iran at key military, security and industrial sites, including at Iran's major nuclear facility at Natanz. The authorities have in some cases blamed accidents or human error, but the number of incidents and their locations have also prompted speculation that sabotage by an external power  Israel, for example  or a dissident group could be a factor.

"We have a long-term policy over the course of many administrations not to allow Iran to have nuclear abilities," Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said this month, adding to the conjecture. "We take actions that are better left unsaid."

Who's going to derail the U.S. election?: The culprit may be close to home

Contributing: Tom Vanden Brook

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Iran fires at fake US aircraft carrier in Strait of Hormuz war games
More women are seeking help from domestic abuse charities as lockdown restrictions ease. (Getty Images)

The number of women seeking support for domestic abuse has continued to rise as coronavirus lockdown restrictions ease, a charity has found.

Refuge, a UK provider of specialist domestic abuse support, has received more than 40,000 calls and contacts since the start of lockdown.

We anticipated lockdown being a very challenging time for women living with abusive partners, explained Jane Keeper, director of operations at Refuge.

Over the last four months Refuge has seen huge spikes in the number of women who have needed our support during lockdown, and, as restrictions start to ease we are seeing demand rise yet more.

Huge spikes in women needing support during lockdown, says Refuge

The charitys telephone helpline, which ordinarily logs around 270 calls and contacts from women, friends and family members needing support every day, saw an increase of 77% during June.

As lockdown restrictions have begun to ease, the charity has also seen a surge in the number of women seeking refuge space (emergency accommodation) to escape their abusers.

The first week in July saw a 54% rise in women needing refuge space compared with the last week in June  the highest number of women needing emergency accommodation during the lockdown period.

During the month of June, Refuges National Domestic Abuse Helpline website also saw an increase of more than 800% compared to pre-lockdown statistics.

Read more: Mum launches domestic abuse awareness programme after escaping violent ex-boyfriend

Campaigners have voiced concern that strict lockdown measures, introduced to help halt the spread of coronavirus, could have heightened domestic tensions and cut off escape routes.

This meant charities had to react to ensure that those in need of support, were still able to access it.

The window to call for help when living with an abusive partner is very limited, even under ordinary circumstances, but becomes increasingly narrow when isolated with a perpetrator.

Story continues

So Refuge identified a need to provide people experiencing domestic abuse with new silent methods of accessing support.

In May we launched our live chat, providing expert support to survivors needing real time support. Find out more about how weve been working to ensure every woman experiencing #DomesticAbuse can access the support she needs: https://t.co/qJw0dZzbcJ pic.twitter.com/SQTg978bYM  Refuge (@RefugeCharity) July 23, 2020

This includes Refuges new live chat function, which enables support workers to communicate with women over an online chat function even while perpetrators are in the house.

The chat function also has a quick exit button, which means that if they need to, women can leave the chat safely and swiftly.

With almost one in four women in the UK experiencing domestic abuse at some point in their lifetime, and two women a week being killed by a current or former partner in England and Wales, finding new ways to communicate with those who needed support during lockdown, and now as restrictions ease, was vital, the charity said.

To help, Refuge has released an online guide for survivors during these uncertain times.

Whats fuelling the post-lockdown rise in calls for domestic abuse support?

Keeper suspects that the easing of lockdown restrictions could be enabling some women to be able to seek support they need or that concerned friends and family are getting in touch on their behalf.

While we cannot draw immediate conclusions from this, what it does tell us is that women have remained with their perpetrators during lockdown, which may explain why weve seen an increase in the numbers of concerned third parties who have contacted us to seek support, she said.

We want women to know that Refuges services remain open, our Helpline operates 24x7 and they are not alone  if women need us we are there to support them.

Read more: What to do if you cant speak to 999 but need help

Lucy Hadley, campaign and policy manager at Womens Aid, said their service providers have also been preparing for a rise in requests for support post-lockdown.

Womens Aid has continued to warn that COVID-19 would severely impact women and children experiencing domestic abuse, she told Yahoo UK.

Survivors have told us that abuse is escalating and that perpetrators are using the pandemic to exert new ways to control and abuse.

Refuge has reported a post-lockdown rise in women accessing their support services. (Getty Images)

Meanwhile, our member services have anticipated that demand for help would rise as lockdown measures ease. Responding to a Womens Aid survey of service providers in April 2020, 66.7% stated they were concerned about future increases in demand.

Now that women can reach out for help more easily  including as schools, health services and other parts of the public sector open up  we are not surprised that demand for support is rising.

Womens Aid is now warning of a funding crisis, which began before lockdown, but has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and which could affect their ability to meet the rise in demand for help.

Charity warns of funding crisis for domestic abuse support services

The charity is calling on the government to provide a long-term funding solution so they can continue providing their services.

Womens Aid estimates that 393 million is needed annually for a safe and sustainable national network of specialist domestic abuse services, including 173 million for refuges, Hadley explained.

We are calling for the chancellor to deliver this investment in the upcoming comprehensive spending review.

Refuge's 'live chat' function enables women to contact support workers while their abuser is in the home. (PA)

Claire*, a woman who accessed support from Refuge by using the live chat function during lockdown, also hints at how adaptions made by the charities to find new ways to support women during and after lockdown may have allowed more women to seek support at this time.

Refuge has been a huge support to me, she says. The police suggested I contact their Helpline - but I just couldnt imagine being able to pick up the phone and talk about what I was experiencing - it felt too raw and too risky.

Being able to access support via live chat, knowing there was a quick exit button I could use if I needed to, helped me enormously and meant I could type out my words rather than speaking them, which took such an emotional burden off me. I feel like I can now talk about my experiences without fear - I know I am not alone.

*Claires name has been changed to protect her identity.

Read more: How to manage lockdown in an abusive relationship

Where to get help

Anyone experiencing abuse should call the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge, on 0808 2000 247.

If you are unable to call, then you can visit www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk and fill in an online form, requesting a safe time to be called back.

You can also receive automated guidance via a tech abuse chatbot on how to secure your devices.

The Respect phoneline is an anonymous and confidential helpline for men and women who are worried they may harm their partners and families. It can be contacted on 0808 8024040 or online.

The government website also has a list of support and help available for those facing domestic abuse during the coronavirus outbreak.

If you are in immediate danger

Always call 999 in an emergency; if you are unable to speak on the phone, there are systems in place to connect you to the right service:

If you are calling from a mobile phone, you can use the Silent Solution system. Press 55 and the operator will transfer the call to the relevant police force as an emergency. The police call handler will then ask you a series of simple yes/no questions. If youre still not able to speak, listen to the instructions you are given so the handler can assess your call and send help. Please note that calling from a mobile does not allow the police to track your location.

If you are calling from a landline, pressing 55 will not work. If you cant speak you should stay on the line and the operator will connect you to a police call handler. If you need to put the phone down, the line will stay open for 45 seconds. If you pick it up again during this time and the operator is concerned for your safety, they will put you through to a police call handler. Calling 999 from a landline means the police may be able to retrieve information on your location to send help.
ITHACA, N.Y. - To remove carbon dioxide from the Earth's atmosphere in an effort to slow climate change, scientists must get their hands dirty and peek underground.

In an article published July 27 in Nature Geoscience, Cornell University's Johannes Lehmann and others wrote that scientists should develop new models that more accurately reflect the carbon-storage processes beneath our feet, in order to effectively draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Carbon's journey into the soil is akin to a busy New York City rush hour. "Everything in the soil is bustling and changing all the time on a daily or hourly basis," said Lehmann, professor of soil biogeochemistry and the lead author on the piece.

"Microorganisms are on the street, but carbon quickly disappears around the corner or hides in nooks and crannies," he said. "Microorganisms in the soils that consume carbon can never be sure what tomorrow looks like."

Think of it this way: Sometimes soil microorganisms see a lot of carbon but still cannot devour it.

Lehmann and an international, interdisciplinary group of scientists propose the creation of new soil carbon-persistence models through the lens of "functional complexity" - the interplay between time and space in soil carbon's changing molecular structure.

Functional complexity drives carbon sequestration, and scientists must know specifically how carbon stays in the ground, according to Lehmann.

"Even if soil microorganisms have a full smorgasbord in front of them, they don't know what to eat if there is very little of each kind of carbon," said Lehmann, a fellow at Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. "Although there is plenty of carbon, microorganisms starve, especially if they have to adjust to ever-changing conditions in a crazy maze."

With new models, scientists believe they can find out exactly how sequestration works. It could then be properly reflected in the next assessment of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - which likely will address drawing down atmospheric carbon.

Lehmann said that with modeling techniques gleaned from the field of engineering, for example, soil scientists can find better management methods to reduce atmospheric carbon.

"Collaboration in a stellar group of thinkers from diverse disciplines was key for us to come up with a new view on this old conundrum," he said. "We seem to be building climate models based on an erroneous understanding of why organic carbon stays in soil and how microbes are eating it. We need a new thinking to incorporate the best models for IPCC and other climate prediction efforts."

###

Along with Cornell, the other institutions on this project are: Technical University Munich, Germany, which organized a workshop on this topic; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts; University of Vienna, Austria; Oregon State University; Stanford University; Stockholm University, Sweden; Sorbonne Universite, Paris; Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Germany; the University of California, Santa Barbara; Berkeley Lab, California; the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado; and the University of Colorado.

Support for this work was provided by the German Excellence Initiative and the European Union Seventh Framework Programme; the Technical University Munich and the Hans-Fischer-Senior Program; the U.S. Department of Energy; and the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.
A woman, recovering from coronavirus COVID-19, was allegedly molested by a doctor at Jaypee Hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Noida on Monday (July 27).

The woman is a student of Delhi University and in her complaint she has accused a 35-year-old doctor of molesting her. It is learnt that the doctor is also a COVID-19 patient and was admitted in the same isolation ward in which the woman was admitted on July 20.

Based on woman's complaint, Noida police has registered a case against the doctor at the Expressway police station under section 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code.

The doctor identified as Amrit Goyal was admitted to the hospital on July 23. Since Goyal is also a COVID-19 patient, the police has not arrested him so far. Police sources told Zee News that action will taken against the accused once he tests coronavirus negative.

The hospital administration has shifted the doctor to a different ward after they were informed about woman's complaint by the police.

It may be recalled that similar cases were reported few days ago from Aligarh and Delhi too.
DANBURY  Inmates and FCI Danbury have reached a settlement in a class action federal lawsuit that claimed the facility had failed to protect the prisoners from the coronavirus.

The settlement reached Monday builds upon a judges previous order that the prison identify inmates at the prison with health conditions that may put them at risk for the virus.

The key parts of the settlement are Bureau of Prisons promise to continue to identify people who are medically vulnerable and a speedy consideration of release to those individuals who are medically vulnerable, said Marisol Orihuela, clinical associate professor of law at Yale Law School, who was among the attorneys representing the inmates.

The lawsuit, filed at the end of April by attorneys from Yale Law School, a Stamford law firm and Quinnipiac University School of Law, had described poor conditions at the low-security prison off of Pembroke Road

U.S. Attorney John H. Durham, whose office represented the prison, said FCI has done a good job stopping the spread of the virus.

I commend the Bureau of Prisons and FCI Danbury personnel in working extremely hard to ensure the safety of both inmates and BOP personnel safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said in a statement. Due to their efforts, FCI Danbury has managed to contain the spread of COVID-19 at the Institution and maintained a zero infection rate over the last month.

The number of cases in the prison has dropped sharply to just one. In early May, more than 60 inmates and over 50 staff members had tested positive for the virus, with one inmate dying, U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy have said.

The latest confirmed case stems from a newly admitted inmate who tested positive while in quarantine, Durham said.

This quarantine and testing is mandatory for all inmates, whether they are new or just returning from the community, to protect the general population, he said. The settlement agreement reached in this litigation preserves these best practices already being employed at FCI Danbury and guarantees that the home confinement review process established by the BOP and the Attorney General continues.

Orihuela said she is glad the rate of infection at the prison has slowed. But she is concerned about a second wave.

Even without a tragic situation at the facility, it is simply not safe in congregate settings, such as prisons, to have people who are at high risk for severe illness or death from COVID, she said.

The prison must conduct mass testing and contract tracing, as well as provide hygienic materials to guards and inmates, Orihuela said.

Durham promised in a letter to the attorneys that the prison would take various precautions, including daily temperature checks of inmates and daily wellness checks in quarantine and isolation spaces. Inmates with symptoms will be tested and seen by a doctor or nurse on the same day the symptoms are reported, he said.

Attorneys are aware of one round of mass testing that the prison has conducted, but more are needed, Orihuela said.

We need more vigilance than that to contain the virus, she said.

On the orders of U.S. Judge Michael Shea in May, the prison has created two lists of 439 inmates who could be potentially medically vulnerable to the virus. There are 810 total inmates in the FCI system, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

Of the first list of 314 inmates, 119 people have been released to home confinement or a halfway house, Orihuela said.

We are thrilled with that number, she said. We hope that continues for other individuals.

The bureau is reviewing the second list of 125 inmates, so she did not know how many of that group has been released.

The next step is finding individuals who have not yet been identified, Orihuela said. The attorneys will go through medical records and advocate for the release of inmates. The court must ensure the bureau complies with the terms of the agreement, she said.

The court, as well as the hundreds of medically vulnerable inmates the case affects, must approve the settlement. The agreement is in effect until Oct. 31, 2021.

Orihuela said she is not sure how long it will take for the settlement to be approved. A similar case took about six weeks, she said.

This may be able to move a little quicker than that, possibly a month, she said.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  Vice President Mike Pence will make another law-and-order-themed pitch in the presidential battleground of Pennsylvania, as former Vice President Joe Bidens campaign brings its own school-themed event to the state.

On Thursday, Pence will address a cops for Trump campaign event at Greensburg Police Department, in Westmoreland County, where President Donald Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton two-to-one in 2016s election.

After that, Pence will speak at the headquarters of a maker of industrial sealants and adhesives in nearby Somerset, another Republican stronghold in a region that once supported conservative Democrats.

The event, focused on economic recovery from the pandemic, is organized by America First Policies, a pro-Trump nonprofit started in 2017 by Trump loyalists and associated with the America First Action super PAC supporting Trumps reelection.

On Tuesday, Jill Biden will join U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Nina Esposito-Vigitis, president of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, for an online discussion on how to safely reopen schools amid the pandemic.

Their discussion comes as the Pittsburgh School District  Pennsylvania's second-largest after Philadelphia  considers a proposal to postpone in-class instruction for the first nine-weeks of school. The Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, which has endorsed Biden for president.

Jill Biden, wife of Democratic presidential candidate, is shown visiting Flint, Mich., in this March 10, 2020 photo. She is expected to take part in a discussion Tuesday with U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and the president of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers on how to safely reopen schools. (Jake May | MLive.com)The Flint Journal, MLive.com

Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by less than 1 percentage point. His shocking victory in the state helped pave his way to the White House, and shifted Pennsylvania's electoral votes to the Republican column for the first time since 1988.

No Democrat has won the presidency without winning Pennsylvania since Harry S. Truman in 1948.

Pence appeared earlier this month at an event with Philadelphia police, as Trump tries to win over suburbanitesby promising to protect their neighborhoods from the racial unrest that has gripped some U.S. cities this summer.

In the police event, the Trump campaign says Pence will reaffirm the Trump administrations commitment to always back the blue and condemn Joe Biden for his embrace of the far-left defund the police movement.

However, that claim is not accurate. Biden has not joined the call of protesters who demanded defund the police after George Floyds killing in Minneapolis. Rather, he has proposed more money for police, conditioned to improvements in their practices.

Specifically, he is calling for a $300 million infusion into existing federal community policing grant programs, adding up to more money for police.

In a statement, the state Democratic Party accused Pence of returning to Pennsylvania because the Trump administration is desperate to distract from its failed COVID-19 response and said Trumps loyalists should get to work helping the sick and jobless.

We dont need any more photo ops, we need the White House to stop ignoring public health experts, undermining testing, and pushing schools to reopen before its safe to do so, the party said.
NIA told the court it has ample evidence to show that Bharadwaj had 'participated in anti-national activities', and, thus, does not deserve to be let out on bail

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) told Bombay High Court on Tuesday it "strongly opposed" the plea filed by activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj seeking interim bail on health grounds. Bharadwaj is an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Koregaon Bhima case and has been lodged in Byculla women's prison since September 2018.

Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, who appeared for NIA, told a bench led by Justice RD Dhanuka that the agency has ample evidence Bharadwaj had "participated in anti-national activities", and, thus, does not deserve to be let out on bail.

Bharadwaj approached HC seeking bail on health grounds after a special court in the city rejected the same on 29 May. She had applied for bail after a Byculla women's prison inmate tested positive for coronavirus earlier this year.

Last month, the NIA filed an affidavit in HC opposing her bail plea saying Bharadwaj (58) was taking "undue advantage" of the pandemic and her pleadings on her having comorbidities and, therefore, being a high risk candidate for COVID-19 were a mere "ruse" to seek bail.

On Tuesday, Bharadwaj's counsel Ragini Ahuja told the court Bharadwaj, a former professor of law, had been in jail for almost two years and she suffered from diabetes that put her at a higher risk for contracting COVID-19.

ASG Singh, however, said, "As far as her apprehensions on getting COVID-19 in jail are concerned, today any person can get infected with COVID-19 anywhere. One can get infected with COVID even without going out, or while in office, at home, or going anywhere else."

In fact in jail, the authorities are taking all safety precautions and implementing ICMR guidelines on COVID-19 prevention and treatment, he said. Singh said the state government had, earlier this month, submitted details of precautions and ICMR guidelines being implemented in prisons before a bench led by Chief Justice Dipankar Datta.

Besides, Bharadwaj would be provided adequate medical treatment in jail as and when required, Singh told HC. Last week, in compliance with a previous order of the court, Byculla prison authorities had submitted a report in HC saying that while Bharadwaj was diabetic and suffers from ischemic disease, a heart condition, her "vital parameters" were "normal".

The HC has now directed NIA to submit an additional affidavit detailing its contentions opposing Bharadwaj's bail plea.

The same bench also heard a plea filed by activists Vernon Gonsalves and Anand Teltumbde, Bharadwaj's co-accused in the case, seeking coronavirus tests as the two had been in close contact with another co-accused, poet-activist Varavara Rao, in Taloja prison.

Rao tested positive for coronavirus on 16 July and is admitted in Nanavati Hospital in the city. The petitioner's counsel, Mihir Desai, told the bench while some news reports said Gonsalves had tested negative for coronavirus, he had been unable to confirm the same.

Desai said Gonsalves' wife had been trying to contact him since 13 July but prison authorities were not permitting any telephone calls between her and her husband.

The state's counsel, Deepak Thakare, however, told the court Gonsalves had undergone a swab test in jail and had tested negative for coronavirus. Thakare also said he will ask Taloja jail authorities to permit Gonsalves to contact his wife through video-conferencing.

He said he will inform the court of Teltumbde's health by 31 July, the next date of hearing. Bharadwaj's bail plea will be heard on 4 August.
PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 22, 2020, The Hispanic Vote of Palm Beach County announced that it is endorsing David Irving Shiner for Palm Beach County Commissioner, District 5.

David I. Shiner for Palm Beach County Commissioner, District 5.

The Hispanic Vote of Palm Beach County made its decision after conducting interviews and stated that it selected the person who it believes is "the most qualified candidate for the position." The Hispanic Vote of Palm Beach County also stated that "Mr. Shiner demonstrated that he is supportive of the Hispanic community" and that it supports David Irving Shiner's "campaign for Palm Beach County Commissioner in 2020."

Mr. Shiner responded to this noteworthy endorsement by saying, "I am thrilled, proud, and honored to receive this very important endorsement from the Hispanic community and promise that, when elected, I will continue to fight to ensure that the Hispanic community throughout Palm Beach County receives the best representation."

About The Hispanic Vote of Palm Beach County

The Hispanic Vote of Palm Beach County is a non-partisan political action committee that is focused on informing and engaging the Hispanic community on voting and the local political process. Its mission is to "inform and engage the community on the issues and policymakers that have an impact on our daily lives."

About David Irving Shiner

David Irving Shiner is a local attorney based out of Boca Raton, who maintains a long history of advocacy for individuals, businesses, and the community. Mr. Shiner owns his own law firm, which services the South Florida community, and has excelled, not only as a successful businessman and advocate for others but as an effective leader both in the courtroom and in the community.

Today, Shiner, his wife, and their two sons, Lucas and Benjamin, proudly call Delray Beach their home.

Mr. Shiner's priorities for the local Palm Beach County community center on preservation of the environment, ensuring public safety while maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship between law enforcement and the community, advocating for sound and environmentally friendly zoning decisions, infrastructure that minimally impacts the environment which is focused on long-term objectives, and efficient and responsible use of tax dollars. Mr. Shiner has stated, "I will always strive to do what is right and what is good as Palm Beach County's next Commissioner."

If you want more information about David Irving Shiner's candidacy, please contact the David Shiner for Palm Beach County Commissioner, District 5 Campaign at (561) 279-5733 or email [email protected] .

To make a contribution to the David Shiner for Palm Beach County Commissioner, District 5 Campaign, click here , or visit VoteDavidShiner.com for more information.

Paid for by David Irving Shiner, Rep. for Palm Beach County Commission, District 5.

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China on Monday rebuffed U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's slanderous remarks on the Communist Party of China (CPC), saying his sensational and irresponsible claims were criticized and condemned by people who pursue peace and justice, including Americans with a broader vision.

Richard Haass, president of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, recently cited his article in Washington Post titled "What Mike Pompeo doesn't understand about China, Richard Nixon and U.S. foreign policy" on Twitter to criticize Pompeo's speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. In his words, "Pompeo's China speech Thursday not only misrepresented history but advocated a policy for the most important relationship of this era that is neither viable nor coherent. That he delivered it at the Nixon Library only added insult to injury."

When asked to comment on that, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at regular press conference that Pompeo negated every aspect of China-U.S. relations over the past 40 years, flagrantly attacked the CPC and called on countries to gang up on China.

"His outrageously deranged words have been criticized and condemned by all people who love peace and have a sense of justice, including those in the United States," Wang said.

"Pompeo's accusation of 'CPC's designs for hegemony' is out of not only ignorance but also bias," the spokesperson said.

Wang said that the CPC started with only dozens of members, and today it has grown into a major party with over 91 million members and has long been the ruling party in the world's most populous country. The reason for it, which Pompeo is ignorant of, is that the CPC always puts people's interests as the first priority, and always sticks together with the people through thick and thin. As revealed in a research recently published by the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University, under the leadership of the CPC, the Chinese people's overall support and satisfaction toward the central government exceeds 93 percent. According to a research result released by Edelman, 95 percent of the Chinese people trust the Chinese government, ranking the top of all countries surveyed, while the United States is the second to last with trust from only 48 percent citizens. The CPC's goal is to realize the great renewal of the Chinese nation, not replacing the United States. In the end, the international status of the United States depends on itself, not others. The CPC is a political party that strives for the well-being of the Chinese people as well as the progress of mankind. China champions and practices the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. China is the largest contributor of peacekeepers among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and has been contributing to the peaceful settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, the Iranian nuclear issue and other regional and international hotspots, as well as the response to climate change and other global challenges. In recent years China has contributed over 30 percent to the world economic growth, and has helped a lot in the international response to the financial crisis in Asia and the global financial crisis.

"These are all facts witnessed by the whole world, which cannot be erased by Pompeo," Wang said.

"Pompeo was calling for an anti-China coalition in his speech, but he seems to have forgotten that in the 21st century, instigation of hatred and confrontation runs counter to the trend of the times. The United States gains no support in trying to reverse the wheel of history," Wang said.

"Pompeo talks all about safeguarding democracy and freedom, but he doesn't represent democracy and freedom at all. He serves the U.S. hegemony and the interest groups behind him. But long gone are the days of ideological confrontation. The world today is on an unstoppable trend toward multi-polarity," he said.

"It has been almost half a century since President Nixon's visit to China. The development of China-U.S. relationship over this period of time taught us that a steady and sound bilateral relationship grows only when there's equality and mutual respect," the spokesperson said.

"China doesn't intend to change the United States, and the United States surely cannot alter China. We would like to develop China-U.S. relations featuring coordination, cooperation and stability, but we reject any bullying and injustice," Wang said.

"The Chinese people are not weak-kneed, and the world are not easily deceived. We urge a few U.S. politicians to stop slandering the CPC and the Chinese people and undercutting China-U.S. exchange and cooperation," he said.

"We call on all peace-loving countries and people to step forward and say no to the insanity of Pompeo and his like that jeopardizes world peace," he added.
By Express News Service

MADURAI: In a setback to the inquiry into the Sathankulam custodial deaths, two more accused tested positive for COVID-19 in Madurai on Tuesday. With this, three accused and six CBI officials have so far tested positive.

The latest victims of the infection were two head constables (Muthuraja and Murugan). They were immediately shifted to Government Rajaji Hospital for treatment from Madurai Central Jail. One another accused in the case had tested positive on July 24.

The state government transferred the custodial deaths case to the CBI and an eight-member CBI team from New Delhi arrived at Madurai International Airport for the inquiry. Initially, the CBI team took custody of the first batch of five policemen for inquiry. Later, they took custody of a second batch of policemen but the policemen were produced back in court before the end of the stipulated custody time as two officials tested positive.

In the CBI team, except two inspectors and an ADSP, the others have tested positive for the infection. Those who tested positive include an inspector, two SIs, two constables and a stenographer. All the six CBI officials are now undergoing treatment in the Railway Hospital. As the officials tested positive for the infection, there has been a delay in submitting the interim report.
Following months of stay-at-home orders and business shutdowns due to the novel coronavirus, various regions in the United States on May 1 began the first phase of reopening. By May 20, restrictions had begun to lift in all states. But just a month later, Texas and Florida reversed course on their reopenings as COVID-19 cases skyrocketed. July 19 represented the fifth consecutive day that Florida reported more than 10,000 new COVID-19 cases daily. Amid these bleak numbers, many businesses and governing bodies across the U.S. are reconsidering rules for safe reopening.

At the center of this controversy is a debate over whether to mandate face coverings. The CDC recommends the use of face masks or cloth coverings in public places in order to help slow the spread of COVID-19; and a Texas A&M University study released June 12 found that not wearing a face mask dramatically increased the odds of spreading COVID-19. Despite these findings, a nationwide decision has not been made and rule-setting has been left up to individual states, counties, or cities.

As states progress through reopening phases, many have instituted mandatory face mask requirements. Do you know the face mask rules in your state?
BAMAKO (Reuters) - West Africa's regional body on Monday proposed a four-point plan to resolve Mali's political crisis that it says should be implemented within 10 days, and recommended sanctions against anyone standing in the way.

The proposals by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are similar to those previously made by ECOWAS missions to Mali since the crisis began in early June that have been flatly rejected by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's opponents, who insist that he resign.

The M5-RFP opposition coalition that has spearheaded anti-Keita protests was unimpressed by the ECOWAS proposals.

"We take note, but we really believe that this is not the will of the people, it is not what we expect," said coalition spokesman Nouhoum Togo, who said it was in the process of reviewing the recommendations.

Tens of thousands of protesters have answered opposition calls to take to the streets in recent weeks, raising concerns the unrest could derail the fight against Islamist extremists in the region.

The demonstrations, caused by contested local elections and perceived government corruption and incompetence, turned into a full-blown crisis this month when police killed protesters. At least 14 people have died in clashes, according to the United Nations.

West African heads of state met via video link on Monday following a visit to the country last week initiated after a previous ECOWAS mission was unable to appease M5-RFP.

"The Heads of State ... express deep concerns on this situation likely to increase instability in Mali, and in the sub-region," ECOWAS said in a statement after the meeting.

Their plan recommended that 31 members of parliament whose elections were contested step down and that by-elections be held. It also called for the creation of a government of national unity that would include members of M5-RFP and said there should be an inquiry on the deaths earlier this month.

Following ECOWAS suggestions, the presidency announced some key initial posts late on Monday that would form the heart of a government of national unity, including the ministers of defence, finance and territorial administration.

(Reporting By Edward McAllister; additional reporting by Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako; Editing by Aaron Ross, Philippa Fletcher, Dan Grebler and Richard Chang)
(@FahadShabbir)

The Senate on Monday witnessed introduction of four private members' bills which were referred to their relevant committees after their introduction in the House

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Jul, 2020 ) :The Senate on Monday witnessed introduction of four private members' bills which were referred to their relevant committees after their introduction in the House.

Senator Faisal Javed introduced the bill, the National Commission on Rights of Child (Amendment) Bill, 2020, while Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi introduced the Islamabad High Court (Amendment) Bill, 2020. Senator Kauda Babar introduced the Federal board of Revenue (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and PPPP parliamentary Leader moved the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill, 2020.

Chairman Standing Committee on Power Fida Muhammad moved a motion under sub-rule (1) of Rule 194 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate, 2012, that the time for presentation of Report of the Standing Committee on a Point of Public Importance regarding exact figures of circular debt, may be extended for a period of sixty working days with effect from July 31, 2020. It was passed by the House after voice voting.

Chairperson Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges Ayesha Raza Farooq presented report of the Committee on Privilege Motion moved by Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan against the Ambassadors and other concerned officers posted in Pakistan Missions at Doha and Paris.

She also presented another report of the Committee on a Privilege Motion moved by Senator Lt. Gen. (R) Salahuddin Tirmizi against the Secretary Ministry of Communications for not following the recommendations of the Senate Committee on Communication regarding the payment to the land owners whose land was acquired for the construction of road from Kaghan to Babusar Top.

On behalf of Chairman Standing Committee on Interior, a member of the Committee Javed Abbassi presented reports of the Committee on the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and on a point of public importance regarding relief package for business especially hotels and restaurants.

Chairman Standing Committee on Commerce Mirza Muhammad Afridi presented report of the Committee on the subject matter of starred questions regarding the Names and designations of the officers of the Ministry of Commerce who went abroad on official visits since July, 2015 and on a point of public importance regarding performance of Commercial Counsellors posted in Embassies.

Chairman Standing Committee on Law and Justice Muhammad Javed Abbasi presented reports of the Committee on the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2020] (Amendment of Articles 213 and 215) and the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2020] (Amendment of Article 213).
Neil Churman We believe that Neil will play an integral role in the growth of TRC said Chris Vincze, CEO of TRC. We look forward to leveraging his experience and deep understanding of opportunities in the current marketplace to further support our strategic growth.

TRC Companies welcomes Neil Churman as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development. TRC, a leading consulting, engineering, construction management, and technology services firm, brings on Churman as a strategic step in advancing the growth of the Company.

We believe that Neil will play an integral role in the growth of TRC, said Chris Vincze, CEO of TRC. We look forward to leveraging his experience and deep understanding of opportunities in the current marketplace to further support our strategic growth.

Based in Houston, Texas, Churman will be leading TRCs efforts in Mergers & Acquisitions. Formerly a Director at boutique investment bank, 7 Mile Advisors, Churmans background is in the energy, infrastructure, environmental, and technology industries. Churman brings with him more than ten years of focused industry experience, including roles with Michael Baker International, and industry consultant and M&A advisory firm, Morrissey Goodale. He will report directly to Vincze.

I am excited to join a company with such an outstanding reputation in the industry, said Churman. I look forward to working with our strong operational and corporate teams to execute and integrate additional strategic transactions. In the last year, TRC has made two notable acquisitions, the acquisition of Lockheed Martin Distributed Energy Solutions and Environmental Partners, Inc. TRC will continue to make strategic acquisitions that advance our business objectives and create win-win situations for TRC and our partners.

Churman received his Bachelor of Science in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University.

About TRC Companies

A pioneer in groundbreaking scientific and engineering developments since the 1960s, TRC is a leading consulting, engineering and construction management firm that provides technology-enabled solutions to the power, infrastructure, environmental and energy markets. We serve a broad range of public and private clients, steering complex projects from concept to completion to help solve the toughest challenges. TRC is ranked #20 on ENRs list of the Top 500 Design Firms in the United States. Learn more at TRCcompanies.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

# # #

Communications Contact:

Dora Rosiclair

prosiclair@trccompanies.com
South African car insurance companies spend billions in advertising each year to encourage clients to get a quote from them to reduce their car insurance.

Companies like OUTsurance even offer people between R500 and R1,500 if they cannot beat a persons current car insurance.

Many insurance companies also have a no claim bonus, where people who have not made an insurance claim for a period of time can get money back.

While these offers can put extra money into consumers pockets, most people are only interested in paying as little as possible to have their car insured.

It is therefore not surprising that car insurance advertisements often focus on saving consumers money.

This raises the question of which insurance companies offer the best value-for-money for basic car insurance.

To find the answer, MyBroadband asked for quotes from most of South Africas prominent car insurance companies.

MyBroadband used online portals to get quotes for insuring a second-hand vehicle worth around R350,000.

It quickly became clear that there was a big difference in the monthly instalments charged by the countrys top insurance providers.

The quotes ranged between R1,116 and R1,834 per month, with Naked Insurance and King Price offering the best rates.

The service received from Naked Insurance and King Price were also superior to that of their competitors.

The staff member who performed this research moved his car insurance from his period provider to Naked Insurance.

Car insurance quotes compared

The table below provides an overview of the car insurance quotes from prominent providers in South Africa.

It should be noted that the insurance excess  the first amount payable by you if you are in an accident  varies significantly between these different offers.

For King Price, for example, the excess is R12,000, while Budget and Iwyzes excess is only R4,500. Naked Insurances excess is R4,750.
Community, Charity & Cause, Health & Wellness

By Ls Cohen Published: July 28 2020

Volunteers to provide COVID-19 testing at Houston area churches.

Northwell Health nurses deploy to two COVID-19 testing sites in Houston, part of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's call for help. Credit Northwell Health.

Northwell Health said that five of their nurses have answered the call from Governor Andrew Cuomo to help out in other states as they battle COVID-19. Four of the nurses are from North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset and one is from Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park.

The five nurses who volunteered to travel to Houston are, Kristine Chan, RN, from North Shore University Hospital, Lauren Ann Henry, RN, from Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Anjanette Rosario, RN, from North Shore University Hospital, Shiney Paul, RN, from North Shore University Hospital, and Timothy Verhey, RN, from North Shore University Hospital.

The volunteers will be setting up satellite testing sites in underserved communities. They will be performing swabs and registering those who come to the site.

Most importantly, they are providing education about the importance of wearing masks, quarantining if symptomatic or testing positive, proper hand hygiene and maintaining social distancing, said Andrew Roberts, project manager for emergency deployment at Northwell. These five people left their homes, their families, and their friendswe are so grateful to them and so proud.

The nurses said they felt the need to give back after New York was hit especially hard by the pandemic.

We came down here together as a team, said Shiney Paul, the RN from North Shore University Hospital. We felt it was our time to give back to the communities that are going through this now. Its been an honor to work with Governor Cuomos team and my co-workers.

You can watch a video below where the nurses speak about their volunteer efforts.
The Enforcement Directorate has directed Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's elder brother, Agrasain Gehlot, to appear before it on Wednesday in a case of alleged money laundering linked to exporting fertiliser, officials said on Tuesday.

Agrasain Gehlot has been asked to depose before the investigating officer on Wednesday in Delhi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.

On July 22, the central agency raided Agrasain Gehlot's premises in Jodhpur and a few other places in connection with the case filed under the criminal charges of PMLA.

Officials said the agency seized a number of documents during the raids and Agrasain Gehlot will be confronted with these during his questioning. Some other people involved in the case are also understood to have been summoned by the probe agency.

The raids happened after the agency filed an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED equivalent of a police FIR, in the 2007-09 Customs department case registered for alleged irregularities in the procurement and export of subsidised Muriate of Potash (MOP) meant for farmers and investigation in this case was finalised in 2013.

The ED took cognisance of the Customs FIR and a July 13 charge sheet to press money-laundering charges to probe a "smuggling syndicate" allegedly run by Agrasain Gehlot, his firm Anupam Krishi and others, officials said.

The agency said the case pertains to fraudulent export of MOP in the guise of industrial salts to buyers based in Malaysia and Taiwan. The MOP is a restricted commodity for exports so that it is easily available to farmers in the country.

The raids happened at a time when a political slugfest was on between CM Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot.

Pilot, a former Union minister, was recently sacked as Rajasthan deputy chief minister and PCC chief.

Agency sources had said Agrasain Gehlot and his firm were slapped with over Rs 60 crore penalty by the Customs department for these alleged export irregularities in 2013. It is alleged that Gehlot's company "diverted" 35,000 metric tonnes of MOP that had a value of Rs 130 crore in the international market.

The ED alleged Agrasain Gehlot, in his capacity as a dealer, was the custodian of the MOP and was "solely responsible" for its proper distribution to farmers, and his alleged connivance with the company Saraf Impex Pvt Ltd and others resulted in the diversion of MOP that was imported by Indian Potash Limited at a concessional rate of duty.

(With inputs from PTI)
A woman has died after a collision between a car and truck at a notorious bayside intersection on Tuesday afternoon.

Emergency services were called to the intersection of Serpentine Creek Road and Cleveland Redland Bay Road in Redland Bay just before 4pm.

Critical care paramedics provided emergency treatment to the woman at the scene, with police urging motorists to avoid the area as a result of the "serious crash".

But the 69-year-old Wynnum West woman, who was the driver and sole occupant of the car, died shortly after, a police spokesman said. Nobody else was physically injured in the incident.
Wedding officiant sues Ohio county over law forcing ministers to officiate same-sex weddings

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An ordained minister in Ohio has filed a federal lawsuit against Cuyahoga County, challenging a law that would require her to officiate same-sex marriage ceremonies or face a fine of $5,000.

Kristi Stokes, an evangelical Christian and the owner of Covenant Weddings, filed the lawsuit this week at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

The county recently passed a law that forbids businesses from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, says the Christian legal firm Alliance Defending Freedom, which filed the suit on behalf of Stokes.

The law applies to any place for the sale of merchandise to the public, or any other place of public accommodation or amusement where the accommodation advantages, facilities, or privileges thereof are available to the public.

Like other ministers, Kristi chooses which weddings to officiate and write about based on her faith, the lawsuit says. While Kristi works with and tries to convey Gods love to everyone no matter who they are, she can only celebrate weddings consistent with her beliefs.

Since a young age, Ive dedicated my life to ministry, and today I love serving my community by officiating and writing for weddings, Stokes said. My religious beliefs influence every aspect of my life, and I cant simply put my religious identity into separate personal and professional boxes. If youre looking for someone to officiate your wedding, and youre hoping to incorporate a cannabis theme or write prayers to celebrate an open marriage, Im not your girl.

The lawsuit says,  Because Kristi offers wedding services that celebrate marriage between one biological man and one biological woman, the County says she must also provide the same services for weddings that contradict her beliefs or Kristi commits illegal discrimination.

This, in turn, means that Stokes must officiate same-sex weddings, pray over same-sex marriages, write vows calling biological men women, write homilies using incorrect or gender-neutral pronouns (like Per, Xe, and Ze) or face heavy fines, attorney fees, and injunctions, the suit adds.

The law also forbids Stokes from explaining on her companys website or social media that she can only provide wedding services consistent with her religious views on marriage and gender.

No one should be forced to officiate ceremonies that conflict with their religious beliefs, said ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson. Because of Cuyahoga Countys law, Kristi faces an impossible choice: disobey the law, defy her own faith, or ditch her business. Many different religions and countless people of goodwill believe that weddings are sacred ceremonies between one man and one woman.

Anderson explained that its not just about ones views on marriage, we all lose when bureaucrats can force citizens to participate in religious ceremonies they oppose, speak messages they disagree with and stay silent about beliefs they hold dear.

Stokes said Northeast Ohio is home to many diverse viewpoints, and Im simply asking that my county also respect me, my business, and my freedoms as an American citizen instead of forcing me to write or speak messages that contradict my beliefs.
Governor Tom Wolf announced that the Nestle Purina pet care company would be expanding operations in Cumberland County.

The new move would bring 94 employees to the companys Mechanicsburg location, as Nestle Purina adds processing and packaging lines over the next three years. The company is the largest dry dog and cat food producer in the United States, and currently employs 320 people at the Mechanicsburg location, with a total of nearly 800 employees throughout Pennsylvania.

The move by Purina will invest more than $167 million into the project, though the company received a proposal from the Department of Community and Economic Development for $282,000 in Job Creation Tax Credits and $188,000 in funding for workforce development training for the expansion.

Purina has had a long history in Cumberland County as a valued employer, and CAEDC is proud to partner with them on this project as they continue to provide vital jobs to our local community through this expansion, said Laura Potthoff, Director of Business and Workforce Development at the Cumberland Area Economic Development Corporation, in a press release.

For nearly 25 years, Purina has provided premium jobs for residents of Mechanicsburg and surrounding communities, said Mike OBrien, Purina Mechanicsburg Factory Manager. Were proud to be making great foods that pets love while expanding the operations and providing even more jobs for the region.

For more information about jobs at Purinas Mechanicsburg location, visit purinajobs.com/joinMCB.
Education boosts earning potential & is a direct path out of poverty. HAI Group is known for pioneering public & affordable housing insurance programs, but were also a passionate advocate for low-income families. Funding this scholarship every year is one important way we can help people thrive.

HAI Group, a family of insurance companies that serves the public and affordable housing industries, has awarded 20 low-income students $6,000 each in college and other higher-education scholarships.

This years 2020 HAI Group Resident Scholarship recipients hail from 12 states. The 20 recipients are majoring in various areas of study from dental hygiene and biology to agriculture, criminal justice, accounting, and more, and are working toward certificates and degrees from Rutgers University, the University of New Hampshire, Virginia State University, Northeastern University, California State University, and Gene Juarez Academy-Federal Way, to name a few.

Established in 2003, the HAI Group Resident Scholarship Program helps low-income students pay for higher education. To qualify for a scholarship, students must live on a property that is insured by HAI Group and be enrolled in an accredited and/or licensed technical school or accredited two- or four-year college or university in the United States. Recipients are randomly selected after participation criteria are met.

This scholarship will allow me to take additional courses per semester to reach my goal of obtaining my bachelors degree faster, [and] allow me to focus more on my studies without worrying about struggling to pay for school, said Natasha Cross, an individualized studies major at George Mason University and a 2020 HAI Group Resident Scholarship recipient. Receiving this scholarship is truly a blessing."

Education boosts earning potential and is a direct path out of poverty, said Ed Malaspina, HAI Groups president and chief executive officer. HAI Group is known for pioneering public and affordable housing insurance programs, but were also a passionate advocate for low-income families. Funding this scholarship every year is one important way we can help people thrive.

To date, HAI Group has awarded more than $1.2 million in higher-education scholarships to 450 students.

View the complete list of 2020 HAI Group scholarship recipients.

About HAI Group

HAI Group is the marketing name for a family of companies founded by and dedicated to housing. Headquartered in Cheshire, Connecticut, the company offers insurance products and services to the affordable housing industry, along with development capital, advocacy support, and professional development training. Visit http://www.housingcenter.com for more information.
As Joe Bidens lead in the polls continues to expand both nationally and in battleground states, a new explanation for his surge is taking hold, especially among President Trumps staunchest supporters. The theory holds that there is a large reserve army of secret Trump voters who are afraid, in this time of cancel culture, to state their preference, and thats why the polls are so lopsided.

The theory is partly a hangover from 2016. Its true that pollsters undercounted Trump voters in that election. But its a huge jump to think it was because SMAGA (Secret Make America Great Again) voters were refusing to state their preference. A postmortem by the polling industry went looking for significant numbers of SMAGAs and came up empty.

If people were afraid to tell the truth to pollsters, there should have been a gap between results from polls conducted by humans and machines. There wasnt.

Interviewer-administered polls did not underestimate Trumps support more than self-administered [automated] and online surveys, according to the Pew Research Center. Pew even tested the theory by dividing interviews between live interviewers and automated ones, finding no significant difference by mode of interview on any of four questions asking directly about Trump.

There were real polling failures in 2016, particularly at the state level, but the polls werent that wrong. An average of the final national polls indicated a Hillary Clinton victory margin of 3.3 percent. She won the popular vote by 2.1 percent  well within the margin of error. Pollsters called 47 out of 50 states correctly, and they werent that far off in the ones they got wrong. Remember, Trump won thanks to 80,000 votes in three states.

Perhaps the biggest mistakes pollsters made  or at least the ones most responsible for failing to predict Trumps narrow Electoral College win  were undercounting less-educated voters and failing to catch a late shift among undecideds toward Trump (that shift no doubt fueled in part by FBI Director James Comeys October surprise press conference on Clintons handling of classified information). In key battleground states, late deciders went heavily for Trump.

Sure, some undecideds could be considered secret voters, but only if they were lying about being undecided, and theres little evidence of that. Moreover, common sense suggests that social desirability bias  the driver for secret or shy voting theories  would be strongest in blue states, where Trump will lose no matter what.

Many of the anecdotes about secret voters come from Republicans who live in places like New York and California. In states where the race is close  the only states that really matter in this election  close to half the voters support Trump, so why would anyone be afraid to say theyre voting for him?

Worse for the SMAGA thesis: There are a lot fewer undecided voters in 2020 than there were in 2016, and undecided voters typically break against the incumbent. In 2016, one driver of high levels of voter indecision was that both candidates were intensely disliked. Those voters broke decisively for Trump. Right now, Biden leads heavily among voters who dislike both candidates.

So why the sudden re-emergence of the SMAGA talking point? The most obvious answer is fear. Biden supporters are terrified well see 2016 all over again. And with increasingly grim polling news, the Trump campaign doesnt have much of an alternative to declaring the polls fake and betting it all on the turnout of a silent majority.

Some peddlers of the silent-Trumper theory cite a recent survey from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, which found that 62 percent of Americans say the political climate these days prevents them from saying things they believe because others might find them offensive. Conservatives and centrist liberals  the theoretical feedstock of the SMAGA reserve army  were the most likely to say they self-censor.

Its a disturbing finding, but its a heavy lift to infer direct relevance for polling, unless you want to believe the president is actually doing well. And theres no shortage of those who do.

When asked on Fox and Friends if the Cato poll supports the secret-Trump-voter thesis, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy didnt hesitate: When I look at the underlying polls, I know there is a silent majority out there that believes in the cornerstone and the foundation of security and safety.  And I know those people are going to support the Trump administration, because hes willing to stand up for you, the American public, and not afraid to tell you his beliefs.

Maybe McCarthy is right. Or maybe, for the president and his allies, believing in a mythical league of frightened Trumpers is better than facing reality.

Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.
CLEVELAND, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc. (NYSE:HY) will release 2020 Second Quarter financial results and will file its 2020 Second Quarter 10-Q after the close of the market on Tuesday, August 4, 2020.

In conjunction with this release, the Company will host a conference call at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, August 5, 2020 to discuss its results for the 2020 second quarter.

To register for this conference call, please use the following link: http://www.directeventreg.com/registration/event/8996564. After registering, a confirmation will be sent via email, including dial-in details and unique conference call access codes required for call entry. Registration is open throughout the live call. To ensure you are connected prior to the beginning of the call, the Company suggests registering a day in advance or a minimum of 15 minutes before the start of the call.

The call will also be webcast live on Hyster-Yale's Investor Relations website at https://www.hyster-yale.com/investors. For those not planning to ask a question of management, the Company recommends listening via the webcast. Please allow 15 minutes to register, download and install any necessary software.

Following the conference call, a replay will be available at (800) 585-8367 (Toll Free) or (416) 621-4642 (International). The replay passcode is 8996564. An archive of the webcast will also be available on the Company's website two hours after the live call ends.

Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc., headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, offers a broad array of solutions to meet the specific materials handling needs of customers' applications. The Company's wholly owned operating subsidiary, Hyster-Yale Group, Inc., designs, engineers, manufactures, sells and services a comprehensive line of lift trucks, attachments and aftermarket parts marketed globally primarily under the Hyster and Yale brand names. Subsidiaries of Hyster-Yale Group include Nuvera Fuel Cells, LLC, an alternative-power technology company focused on fuel cell stacks and engines, and Bolzoni S.p.A., a leading worldwide producer of attachments, forks and lift tables marketed under the Bolzoni, Auramo and Meyer brand names. Hyster-Yale Group also has significant joint ventures in Japan (Sumitomo NACCO) and in China (Hyster-Yale Maximal). For more information about Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc. and its subsidiaries, visit the Company's website at www.hyster-yale.com .

***

SOURCE Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc.

Related Links

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Well probably never know exactly what sorts of documents were incinerated at the Chinese Consulate in Houston in the days before the United States forced it to close Friday, after accusing it of being a hub of espionage.

We may also never know what caused this months catastrophic fire aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard, a massive amphibious assault ship that was being fitted out to double as a small aircraft carrier, in the port of San Diego.

What we should know is that the two fires are actually one. We are racing toward a conflict with China we may be ill-prepared to wage.

The closure of the consulate comes on the heels of a quad of bellicose speeches from top administration officials, collectively amounting to a declaration of Cold War against China. Robert OBrien, the national security adviser, painted Chinas leadership as unreconstructed Marxist-Leninists. FBI Director Christopher Wray spoke of Chinas practice in the art of malign foreign influence. Attorney General Bill Barr accused China of economic blitzkrieg. And Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hinted the free world may need a new version of NATO, this one aimed at Beijing instead of Moscow.

Given that the source is Team Trump and the timing is an election year, its tempting to dismiss the speeches warnings as cynical, hypocritical, political  and therefore wrong. Why complain about civil liberties in Hong Kong when we have goon squads in Portland? Why accuse China of trashing global norms when thats been Donald Trumps ambition from the beginning? Why characterize Chinese President Xi Jinping as a linear ideological descendant of Josef Stalin when, as we know from John Bolton, Trump was fulsomely praising him and soliciting his help for his re-election bid?

And why all of this now, when Trump needs enemies both foreign and domestic to rescue his flagging re-election bid?

But the problem with these questions is that  however on point as criticisms of Trump  they obscure two hard facts a Biden administration will also confront. The first is that, under Xi, China has become drastically more repressive at home, more aggressive abroad and more shameless about both than at nearly any point since the death of Mao.

This is not a matter of Beijing reacting badly to Trump (as the early Obama administration erroneously supposed that bad relations with Russia were a matter of Moscow reacting badly to George W. Bush). Some of Chinas biggest digital heists date to the Obama years  including the 2015 hack of the Office of Personnel Management, which gave Beijing the background security files for nearly 22 million current or former U.S. government employees and their family members. Chinas outrageous and illegal claims to most of the South China Sea also predate Trump and will fester long after hes gone.

What stands out now is just how brazen Beijing has become. Take one detail from Wrays speech: We have now reached the point where the FBI is opening a new China-related counterintelligence case about every 10 hours, he said. In one case, a single scientist, Hongjin Tan, pleaded guilty to stealing an estimated $1 billion in trade secrets from an Oklahoma-based energy company.

Multiply that hundreds, if not thousands, of times over, and what you have is the largest single theft of foreign property since Germany looted Europe in World War II. Whatever else one might say against the Trump administration, it isnt lying about China.

But this brings us to the second blunt fact. U.S. power in East Asia is waning. Trumps decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership  the single best hedge the U.S. had against Chinese economic dominance of the region  may, in hindsight, prove to be his single worst policy mistake. He has tried to shake down both South Korea and Japan to pay more for basing U.S. forces: penny-ante politics that only raise doubts about Americas reliability as an ally.

And then theres the degraded state of the U.S. Navy, epitomized by the fire on the Bonhomme Richard (itself the latest in a string of corruption, leadership, cost overrun and competency scandals to bedevil the service). Trump came to office with grand plans to build a 355-ship Navy, up from the current 300. The Pentagon all but admits it has no hope of reaching that goal. Meanwhile, the Chinese navy  which isnt stretched around the world  has 335 ships, a 55 percent increase in 15 years.

If the U.S. and the Peoples Republic were to come to blows after some incident in the South China Sea, are we confident wed prevail?

When (fingers crossed) Joe Biden is president, he neednt ask his Cabinet members to deliver philippics against Beijing. But, as George Kennan once wrote about another regime, he must be prepared to confront China with unalterable counter force at every point where they show signs of encroaching upon the interests of a peaceful and stable world.
Eight debut novelists came up against veterans Hilary Mantel and Tsitsi Dangarembga when Britain unveiled a US-dominated longlist of finalists Tuesday for its revered Booker Prize. One of the world's most celebrated literary competitions tore up the rule book last year by splitting the fiction award between Canada's Margaret Atwood and Anglo-Nigerian author Bernardine Evaristo. It courted controversy on this occasion by pitting nine Americans or dual-US citizens against just three Britons and Zimbabwe's Dangarembga. "There are voices from minorities often unheard, stories that are fresh, bold and absorbing," judges' panel chair Margaret Busby said. "Unplanned, our final selection encompasses both seasoned favourites and debut talents -- a truly satisfying outcome." - 'Year of seismic change' - The title of best work of English-language fiction published in the United Kingdom and Ireland has launched careers and caused countless arguments since its creation in 1969. Past laureates have ranged from contemporary giants such as Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes to Kazuo Ishiguro and Roddy Doyle. This year's 13-title longlist -- to be whittled down to a shortlist of six on September 15 before the winner is unveiled in November -- features nine female authors. "In this year of seismic change, visibility for new books published in the UK has been drastically low," the Booker Prize Foundation's literary director Gaby Wood said. "So, however unintended the ratio, it?s especially heartening to know that some authors who have launched their careers in the midst of COVID-19 may now have a chance to reach the readers they deserve.? The five-judge panel picked through 162 novels either published or scheduled for release in the 12 months ending on September 30. Britain was represented by Mantel -- nominated for "The Mirror & The Light" -- and debutants Sophie Ward and Gabriel Krauze. Mantel won the Booker in 2009 for "Wolf Hall" and in 2012 for "Bring Up the Bodies". The panel said her latest entry "completes a tragic arc in which Thomas Cromwell is finally brought down by the police state he designed". Mantel's "masterful exhibition of sly dialogue and exquisite description brings the Tudor world alive," the panel of judges said. - 'Sweep of history' - Irish-American US National Book Award winner Colum McCann was nominated for "Apeirogon" about two Israeli and Palestinian fathers coming together over shared grief at losing their sons. He was longlisted for "TransAtlantic" in 2013. The panel called "Apeirogon" "a moving reflection on what it might mean to make peace between two warring sides." Dangarembga's nomination for "This Mournable Body" is her first in a distinguished career that has spanned four decades and featured plays and films. Her new book "drew an immediate reaction like a sharp intake of breath from all of us on the panel," the judges said. "The breakdown of the protagonist and the breakdown of a country are inextricably linked in this arresting novel from a mercurial writer." Panel chair Busby said the longlist features "novels carried by the sweep of history". The works "represent a moment of cultural change, or the pressures an individual faces in pre- and post-dystopian society," she said. Organisers said the 2020 winner will receive 50,000 ($64,000 / 55,000 euros) "and can expect international recognition". There are nine female authors, including Hilary Mantel, among the13 finalists for the Booker Prize. Colum McCann made it to the longlist for a second time for his book 'Apeirogon'. Dangarembga's latest drew 'a sharp intake of breath' from judges.
Millions of renters could soon lose the roof over their heads in the midst of a deadly pandemic, now that the clock has run out on a federal rule shielding them.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act moratorium on evictions, which protected about 1 in 4 renters, expired last week, prompting fears that a tsunami of evictions may not be far behind. Landlords had previously been prohibited from evicting tenants from homes with federally backed mortgages.

The prospect of back rent coming due is happening against a backdrop of an economy battered by new rounds of business closures, as coronavirus cases pile up throughout the country resulting in the highest unemployment since the Great Depression. It's also occurring in tandem with local eviction bans and the extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits running out. (Senate Republicans on Monday appeared to favor extending the eviction ban, but it's unclear if that will make it into the final version of the bill.)

"We're talking about millions of households who are in this deep, deep hole, who are therefore at increased risk of evictions," says Aaron Shroyer, a policy associate at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research group based in Washington, DC. "This extra $600 has been a lifeline. Without that, renters who have lost their jobs could be staring down the beginnings of mass evictions."

Even before the pandemic, many tenants were struggling to get by as home and rental prices have soared in recent years. About 1 million renters were considered severely rent burdened, where they paid at least half of their incomeor moreon housing. That doesn't leave much left over for other essentials, such as food, transportation, or medications, let alone emergencies.

(Renters typically earn less than homeowners. They brought in a median $40,500 in 2018almost half of the $78,000 for homeowner households, according to 2018 U.S. Census Bureau data.)

At the height of the coronavirus crisis, about 8.9 million renter households had at least one person out of work, according to the Urban Institute. That's fallen to 6 million households in June.

Unsurprisingly, this led to about 1 in 3 renters not making a full rent payment in July, according to a recent report from Apartment List, a rental website. About 19% made no payment, while 13% made only partial payment.

Without additional assistance, such as the extra $600 a week in unemployment payments, it could become even harder for many renters to muster up the money to pay their landlords. Congress is still working on a new coronavirus stimulus plan, but President Donald Trump has supported replacing the $600 boost with unemployment benefits totaling 70% of a worker's former wages.

The nation could experience a 40% to 45% surge in homelessness compared with last year, according to an analysis by Columbia University economics professor Brendan O'Flaherty. That translates to about 250,000 people losing their homes. (The analysis was based on unemployment rates and a similar federal government response to the Great Recession. During this crisis, the government has provided more assistance.)

It isn't likely to get that badnot every landlord will be rushing to housing court. Many will recognize the pool of potential renters with good jobs has shrunk.

"Landlords are not going to evict if they don't think they're going to get another tenant," says O'Flaherty.

In June, the federal government extended mortgage forbearance for landlords for an additional three monthsas long as they don't kick out tenants affected by the coronavirus crisis during that time. But that applies to only about 1 in 10 renters, according to the Urban Institute. Only landlords with federally backed mortgages for multifamily properties with five or more units are eligible for the program.

Prominent Democrats recently unveiled legislation that would extend the eviction bans.

Former presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren's bill would add eight more months to the eviction moratorium on properties with federally backed mortgages and prohibit landlords from charging fees for missed payments.

Sen. Kamala Harris, who had also launched a presidential bid, would ban both evictions and foreclosures for a year.

"Experts are predicting an avalanche of evictions if we don't institute new protections. We are already seeing a rise in evictions in cities where local eviction bans have lapsed," Warren said at a press conference last week. "Failing to put a safeguard in place to keep people in their homes is most likely to harm the most vulnerable Americans, and to harm communities of color."

That legislation has yet to be passed. But there is a patchwork of protections in cities and states across the country. They're on hold in the state of Illinois until Aug. 22, while most San Francisco evictions are banned until Jan. 31, 2021.

In a typical year, about 3.7 million evictions are filedroughly one every seven minutes, Matthew Desmond, author of "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City," told National Public Radio.

Roughly 1 in 20 renters faces eviction each year, he said. That rate is nearly double for Black tenants, at 1 in 11.

Throw in a pandemic, recession, and what could be multiple rounds of business closures, and "there's going to be a very large number of renters at risk," says Samantha Batko, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute.

The post Millions of Americans Could Soon Become Homeless as Protections Expire appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
Life After Lockdown in Mexico City

Life appears to be returning to normal on the streets here, but doctors worry there could be another surge of coronavirus cases. Heres a look at where Mexico has been hit the hardest.
Anupam Was Undergoing Dialysis

As per India TV news report, the actor's brother Anurag said that Anupam was undergoing dialysis at Apex Kidney Care in the north Mumbai suburb of Malad. The 62-year-old actor was shifted to Lifeline Hospital in Goregaon on Monday, after he collapsed during dialysis. Anurag told PTI, "Since we couldn't admit him there, we rushed him to Lifeline Hospital immediately. He is currently in ICU." The family has reached out to the actor's friends for financial assistance.

Manoj Bajpayee Has Said Hell Look Into The Matter

Anurag told the leading daily that since the actor could not get good treatment due to financial crisis, he has informed his friends about his health and has also reached out to Salman Khan's charity Being Human Foundation through their website. He also revealed that he got a call from Manoj Bajpayee, who said he will look into the matter.

Actor Has Not Been Keeping Well Since Last Six Months

Anurag told Spotboye, "He has been keeping unwell for the last six months now. He has an infection in his kidney due to which we had admitted him to Hinduja Hospital back then and got him treated for almost one and half month. That time his health got fine but he was suggested dialysis, from time to time. But he decided to go for ayurvedic treatment as dialysis costs a lot. That didn't help. He got breathless recently because of not doing dialysis. His chest was filled with water, so we again started his dialysis and he started getting relief."

Anupams Brother Seeks Financial Help

He further added, "I was getting his dialysis done in a Malad hospital but yesterday after his dialysis he collapsed and they suggested we take him to some other hospital which has an ICU. So I got him admitted to this hospital but it is expensive and we don't have money for the treatment. All of what he has earned has already been spent on his medication. We are really in need of money. I request you all to spread the word in his fraternity so that someone can come ahead and help us."

Worried Netizens Wish The Actor A Speedy Recovery

A user wrote about the same and asked help from Aamir Khan and Sonu Sood on Twitter. Netizens got worried and took to comments section to wish the actor a speedy recovery.

Not just television shows, Anupam has been a part of several popular Bollywood films too, like Zakhm, Golmaal, Slumdog Millionaire, Wanted and many more.
Varavara Rao's poetry, which evolved over six decades, reflects and critiques modern social history, balancing it with a consistent and hopeful quest for freedom.

In this series, The Telugu Archive founder Sai Priya Kodidala traces Telugu socio-political history through literature and art. Read more from the series here.

***

 

   

 

  !

When crime becomes authority

And hunts down people branding them criminals

Everyone with a voice who keeps silent

Becomes a criminal.

Whose side are you on?

*

A group of radical students stormed the 60th birthday celebrations of the celebrated Telugu poet Sri Sri in Visakhapatnam in 1970. The influence of the Naxalbari movement in Bengal crossed the Eastern Ghats and reached Srikakulam in northern Andhra. With agrarian struggles at its center, the Srikakulam Peasant Struggle was born as an opposition to feudal and economic oppression, particularly in the tribal belt across the Eastern Ghats. Rural mobilisation gained momentum as mass organisations, agricultural labour associations and youth fronts cropped up, debating land and water rights.

The Andhra Pradesh state (bifurcated into Telangana and Andhra Pradesh today), however, matched this development with its attempts to repress the movement. The State declared tribal regions from Srikakulam to Adilabad as disturbed areas and increased discretionary powers of the police forces, including the power to shoot at sight. The brutality of the police force and encounters were to later become synonymous of state policy towards rights movements.

Whose side are you on?

Revolution was around the corner and Telugu progressive writers decided to lend their voices to the peoples movement. By then, in Warangal, poet and Telugu lecturer Varavara Rao established Srjana, a literary and cultural magazine and Tiragabadu Kavulu (Rebel Poets), a collective of poets inspired by peasant struggles in Telangana. Writers who till then associated themselves under similar progressive literary groups including Digambara Kavulu (Naked Poets) came together and formed the Revolutionary Writers Association, also known as Virasam (Vipalava Rachayitala Sangham).

Virasam formed in 1970 with Sri Sri as its founding president, illustrious writers Kutumba Rao and Raavi Sastry, and younger poets like Varavara Rao, Cherabanda Raju, Nikhileswar, Jwalakmukhi, within its executive committee.

Whose side are you on?

For Virasam, the answer was clear: A poet (kavi) is one who stands on each side of the one who toils/      (The letters ka and vi are on either side of the word kashtajeevi, meaning toiler.)

They redefined the role of the poet and the purpose of poetry. The personal, the social and the political became the essence of poetry. When two leaders from the Srikakulam peasant movement were sentenced to death, Virasam went a step ahead to advocate for civil liberties. Deeply critical of the government, themes of police brutality, caste based oppression, anti-establishment and influences of Marxism pervaded their poetry.

Coinciding with the Emergency, this marked the beginning of the relentless persecution of dissent and the evolution of a police State. Members of Virasam were labelled literary Naxalites even though the organisation repeatedly declared that it had no links to any political party (particularly Maoist groups) but was an independent literary organisation with its own vision and constitution. Their work, meetings and words were met with various levels of persecution. Chief Minister NT Rama Rao declared: Aata, maata, paata bandh! (Cultural performances, speeches and songs no more!) signalling the active repression of the revolutionary literary movement that followed in Andhra Pradesh.

*

The Poet and The State

  

   

  

   

  

     

Watch carefully,

Poetry burns quickly

Spreading like a forest fire.

Watch more carefully,

Poetry can stir people.

Fling your deadly bait

And wait and see

Before your very eyes

It will swim

The river of consciousness.

Varavara Rao remains one of the most persecuted poets in modern Indian history with more than half a dozen cases filed against him by successive governments during the past half century. The octogenarian poet, Telugu lecturer, public intellectual, critic, orator and translator gave his voice to ordinary people from all walks of life. His poetry, which evolved over six decades, reflects and critiques modern social history, balancing it with a consistent and hopeful quest for freedom.

Even as a political prisoner, Varavara Rao never let the weight of state repression affect his hope for freedom, which he once described as an eternal flame of hope flickering constantly in the winds of liberty and yet never for a moment ceasing its vigil. Class struggles and rights of peasants, tribals and the working class remain significant themes in his poetry. Inspired by Marxist ideology and peoples movements even as a child (his elder brother participated in the peasant struggle against the Nizam), Rao has 15 poetry anthologies to his credit apart from actively nurturing cultural and literary activities.

It was only in 1973 that Varavara Rao was first arrested, but his subjection to suppression started much earlier. In 1966, along with a group called Sahiti Mitrulu (friends of literature) in Warangal, Varavara Rao had founded Srjana, a progressive literary and cultural magazine. Srjana was a space for intellectual debates, socio-literary criticism and experimentation. It later became the unofficial platform for Virasam. It carried stories of public struggles, middle class lives, government restraint.

While inspired by the Srikakulam tribal movement, Srjana evolved during the peasant struggles based out of Karimnagar and Adilabad in Telangana. The magazine brought together a creative collective of writers, poets, critics, intellectuals and artists. It also attracted extreme resentment and restrictions imposed by the government. When a senior advocate from Hyderabad was found in Hanumakonda (in Warangal) with a copy of Srjana in his hand, he was taken into police custody for a day under the pretext of assaulting a policeman. Literary freedom of both the writer and reader were challenged.

When forces opposing the peoples movements waited outside his house, armed, Varavara Rao wondered, I am but a poet, a writer who believes in class struggle and spreading revolutionary ideas. Why am I being mistaken for someone involved in the functioning of a particular political movement and targeted?

His turmoil  both individual and social  is reflected in Samudram, an epic poem in five parts:

 

 

   .

I am a drop of water

Seeking liberty

In the liberty of the sea

In the liberty that is real and true

However, following the murder of a close friend, Varavara Rao left his beloved Warangal fearing for his life and his familys safety. Even after he moved to Hyderabad, Warangal remained his Premnagar which saw his growth as a poet and laid the foundation for his literary growth. He dedicated his poetry collection Aa Rojulu/ Those Days to Warangal.

*

The Poet and the Prison

When Varavara Rao was arrested during the Emergency, or later in connection with the Secunderabad Conspiracy Case, his writings were deemed the culprits. But the consistent persecution by the State could not stop the literary production of Rao, who believed that poetry, love and revolution will lead the fight against institutional inequalities.

During the Secunderabad Conspiracy Case, he was arrested along with other Virasam members like Cherabanda Raju, Jwalamukhi, and Nikhileswar. His poetry collection Bhavishyat Chitrapatam (Picture Frame of the Future) was banned by the Andhra Pradesh government in January 1987. His poetry deals with the themes of police brutality with equal amounts of outrage and sensitivity. An attempt to discredit him as a poet was taken up while simultaneously banning his poetry, as K Balagopal, intellectual and civil liberties activist, observed. Ironically, however, this banned poetry appeared in various forms and manners across literary magazines, newspapers and became part of public debates. Just like Varavara Raos major inspirations  Sri Sri, Chalam and Kaloji  his words too reached the masses, even if occasionally as torn and forbidden papers. In Raos own words, True history is written in the hearts of the people. [It is] stirring and never erodes.

Varavara Rao spent 39 months in prison (famously referred to as 1,000 days in jail) under the Secunderabad Conspiracy Case (of which he would be acquitted  just like in every other case against him). During this time, isolated from the outer world and deprived of control over his own self, Rao wrote a series of presumably self-censored articles for Andhra Prabha and Indian Express between 1988 and 1989. Under the vast sky, escaping the confines of prison and the occasional moon stuck between barbed wires, he mulled about plants, trees, birds, letters, freedom, and hopes. The prison reflected the captivity of the world where sweat continues to be transformed into tears, freedom will remain an alien concept. His abstract musings, prose which easily transcends to lyrical poetry, were later shaped into his prison diary Sahacharulu (Captive Imagination, in English).

Like the blood which journeys from the heart back to the heart, all my words flow back into my silence. There, they sustain and nourish the health of my body. But that happens only when the body, the mind and the heart are set to work. Now and then, I fear that I might forget words. I wonder if words have grown as dear as gold!

In his forced silence in jail, where words are limited to daily necessities, Rao longed to recover from what he felt was like suspended breath and speech.

  

   

   

  

    

 

 

   -

   

Like the forgetful sky

Learning afresh the meaning of rain,

I long to be drenched

In a sound-filled universe.

Sprouting again from the earth,

I want to learn words

Once more,

To pick words

From schools

From crowds

From children,

Each single furrow of history.

*

The Poet and His Politics

Land to the tiller/Dunne vaaride bhoomi became the universal slogan of peasant struggles in the Telugu states, wherever and whenever the revolution sowed its seeds into the soil. Though the peasant struggle in Srikakulam initiated Varavara Raos deep engagement with movements, closer home he was surrounded by multiple stages of the Telangana Peasant Struggle. In Telangana, the peasant struggle during the 40s mobilised poor and landless peasants against the doras, feudal landlords, jagirdars and deshmukhs characteristic of the region, and the system of vetti, unpaid extraction of labour and services. When the revolution sprang up again in the 70s, the fight against feudal lords extended to become a fight against residual feudal practices.

When met with frequent encounters by the State, the peasant movement in its later stages forcibly shifted towards an armed rebellion, a major shift away from its strategy of popular mobilisation. It also came to be known as the Maoist movement, Peoples War, and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). Violence and counter-violence became the only language that both groups spoke. As the situation worsened, Varavara Rao along with Gaddar played an emissary in the peace talks between the State and the Maoists  an association multiple outlets have used to target him repeatedly.

It may not be surprising that his poetry, particularly post-Virasam, carried ideas of revolution, class struggles and peasant rights and a critique of the state and its forces. The voices and stories of the people at the forefront of class struggle linger in the imagery he paints. What remains consistent is the sensitivity and warmth brimming over his outrage, across his poetry. When dealing with the grim realities surrounding him, he is a poet waiting for another sunrise even within a dark prison cell. Unlike many poets preceding him or his contemporaries, Raos poetry carries a delicate lyrical quality, of soft alliterations instead of the thunderings characteristic of Telugu revolutionary poetry. One could argue that writing for his people in a language which freely flows on the streets is among the most dangerous elements of Raos poetry for the insecure and paranoid forces in power that feature in his portrayals.

 

   

  

  

  

  

  

 

  

 

 

  

  

Heaping threats upon threats

Spreading fear upon fear

He himself got scared

He got scared of habitations

He got scared of water

He got scared of schools

He got scared of shadows

He shackled liberty

But when the hand-cuffs moved

He got scared at the sound.

At 80, Varavara Rao is in his ninth year in police custody under a case without a charge, trial or bail; concerns around his health mount. For five decades, he has been the target of repression with at least 25 cases filed against him, in all of which he was either acquitted or discharged, or the case itself was withdrawn. While his perspectives have attracted polar views from sections of intellectual society, his persecution brings to the fore the role of dissent in a democracy and the many questions that surround it.

As Justice Madhav Reddy noted in the first-ever case against Varavara Rao, Every idea is an incitement and the propagation of every such idea cannot, in my opinion, be termed seditious.

*

References 

Sahacharulu/ Captive Imagination by Varavara Rao

Samudram by Varavara Rao

Varavara Rao Kavitvam (1957-2017)

Rupam and Saaram: Sahityam Pai Balagopal

Wages of Impunity by KG Kannabiran

Varavara Rao Interview with TV10, TV9 and others

Srjana magazine, 1966-68

Virasam, 1971-73

Prison Writing in India by CN Srinath
Like pretty much every other airline, Alaska Air (NYSE:ALK) has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic this year. Last Thursday, the company reported a substantial revenue decline and a big loss for the second quarter of 2020.

However, the Alaska Airlines parent did an exceptionally good job of minimizing cash burn under the circumstances. Meanwhile, the company has been aggressively bolstering its liquidity with new borrowings. As a result, Alaska Air is positioned to survive the pandemic without compromising its long-term growth potential.

Another airline earnings report, another hefty loss

Alaska Airlines slashed its capacity nearly 75% year over year last quarter, as the pandemic caused air travel demand to virtually disappear in April. Revenue plunged by 81.6% to $421 million. This was actually a better result than what most other airlines have reported. However, given that Alaska could only reduce its adjusted operating expenses by 47%, the company still reported a big loss for the quarter.

On a pre-tax basis, Alaska Air lost $589 million excluding special items. Its adjusted net loss totaled $439 million. Under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), Alaska reported a smaller net loss of $214 million ($1.73 per share) last quarter, reflecting the benefit of payroll grants the company received under the CARES Act. For comparison, GAAP net income was $262 million, or $2.11 per share, in the second quarter of 2019.

Cash is king

In the current environment, airlines must focus first on survival. As a result, the most important business metrics right now are those related to cash. Alaska Airlines is in very good shape in that respect compared to most of its peers.

At the peak of the pandemic, Alaska was burning cash at a rate of $400 million per month. However, cash burn improved to $165 million in May and just $120 million in June, easily surpassing management's initial projections. That said, management did warn that cash burn would likely tick up to around $200 million in July. Some of that relates to timing factors, but airlines have also experienced a slowdown in bookings this month, due to rising COVID-19 case numbers in many parts of the U.S.

Even at a $200 million monthly cash burn rate, Alaska Air has plenty of cash for the next few quarters. As of last week, it had $3.7 billion of cash and investments on hand. Furthermore, the company has until the end of September to decide whether to tap a subsidized government loan of approximately $1.1 billion.

In any case, management is determined to reduce the cash burn rate further in the months ahead. On Alaska's recent earnings call, executives discussed a variety of efforts to cut costs, including eliminating 300 management positions as of Oct. 1, offering buyouts and voluntary leaves for frontline workers, and reducing structural costs by $250 million annually. Alaska Airlines executives also expect demand to continue recovering, albeit at a bumpy pace.

Setting the stage for a profit rebound

While the next few quarters will be rough for Alaska Airlines, the company is using this crisis as an opportunity to accelerate initiatives that should boost its long-term profitability. On the cost side, aside from the efforts mentioned above, it has removed some of the least efficient aircraft in its fleet from service. With the leases for most of its Airbus planes expiring over the next five years, there's a good chance that Alaska will revert to an all-Boeing 737 mainline fleet in the years ahead to maximize productivity.

On the revenue side, Alaska Airlines has eliminated routes where it was struggling to make money before the pandemic. Meanwhile, it is adding more service from California to markets in the Pacific Northwest where it has a strong presence, such as Spokane. Alaska also received a formal invitation to join the oneworld global airline alliance last week. This will help it attract more customers with global travel needs while supplying connecting traffic at Alaska's West Coast hubs.

It will probably take two or three years for Alaska Airlines to get back to normal business conditions. However, patient investors are likely to be well rewarded as this recovery plays out.
Nano-X Imaging LTD, a Neve Ilan, Israel  based innovative medical imaging technology company, secured a $110m equity funding.

The round represents a global mix of strategic, institutional and private investors including SK Telecom, Industrial Alliance, Foxconn, Yozma Korea, and others.

The company intends to use the funds to support the rollout of the Nanox.ARC deployments worldwide.

Led by Ran Poliakine, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Nanox is developing a commercial-grade digital X-ray source designed to be used in real-world medical imaging applications. The company has signed agreements for the deployment of its innovative medical imaging system and diagnostics services in 13 countries across 5 continents.

FinSMEs

28/07/2020
About 1.8 billion Muslims celebrate Eid amid a pandemic that has so far infected more than 16 million people.

Muslims worldwide will celebrate Eid al-Adha, also known as the Festival of Sacrifice, amid a coronavirus pandemic that has so far infected more than 16 million people worldwide.

Like the Islamic holiday Eid al-Fitr in May that followed the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims are being encouraged to take precautions and alter the way they observe as a result of COVID-19 between July 30 and August 4.

In normal circumstances, Eid day starts by gathering at a mosque in the morning to take part in prayers.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has published recommendations on its website promoting outdoor prayers and if not, for multiple staggered prayer times indoors.

Enough time should be arranged between congregations and khutbahs, or sermons, and they should be kept short, the MCB advised. It added Eid greetings should be given without hugging or shaking hands.

Much of Eid observances consist of getting together with family and friends and sharing meals, but the MCB advised it is best to keep numbers to a minimum and to meet outdoors.

Some mosques in Canada are following similar guidelines, with Torontos Jame Masjid encouraging Muslims to reserve a spot for prayer ahead of time on one of the eight different time slots on its SMART Jamaat app.

Crimean Tatar Muslims pray in the Great Khan Mosque on the first day of the Eid al-Adha (Kurban Bayram) in the city of Bakhchisaray in this file photo from 2014 [Max Vetrov/AFP]

For those who are unable to reserve a time, the Bosnian Islamic Association (BIA) in Toronto said Muslims can still perform Eid prayers at home instead.

BIA advised Muslims to continue following the sunnah (practices of the Prophet Muhammad) by dressing in ones best clothes and reciting takbirs (Islamic phrases in Arabic exalting God) as much as one can from Fajr (early morning prayer before sunrise) until the Eid prayer.

After having mosques closed for more than two months, including during Eid al-Fitr in May, Saudi Arabia announced that Eid prayers will take place inside mosques and not outside.

Its Ministry of Islamic Affairs recommended adhering to the usual precautionary measures such as keeping two metres (six feet) of social distancing and bringing ones own prayer rug.

For your safety when you go to the mosque, please adhere to these Precautionary measures. pic.twitter.com/9osPi15hg8  Ministry of Islamic Affairs  (@Saudi_MoiaEN) May 27, 2020

Much of the world has implemented social distancing as a basic measure, but in the besieged Gaza Strip, Palestinians say they will be gathering with family and celebrating Eid as usual as there have been few cases.

According to Gazas health ministry, as of Monday there were only five people infected with the coronavirus who were all in quarantine at the hospital. Seventy people have so far recovered from coronavirus since the outbreak.

So far we have zero cases of coronavirus in Gaza [outside of the hospital]. Thats why this wont affect how we celebrate; it will be the same, Karama Fadel, 31, an Arabic-language teacher from Gaza City, told Al Jazeera.

She added her siblings living in Turkey, Belgium and Morocco will not be able to celebrate as usual under coronavirus measures.

Here in Gaza we can celebrate, but unfortunately our families outside of Gaza cannot celebrate like us and cant be with us, Fadel said.

A Palestinian boy carries a goat in a farm where livestock is sold for the upcoming Eid al-Adha sacrifice in the northern Gaza Strip [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]

Distributing meat to the poor

A major part of Eid al-Adha is the Qurbani (or Udhiya), which means sacrifice. Livestock  goats, sheep, cows or camels  are sacrificed reflecting on Prophet Ibrahims (Abraham for Christians and Jews) willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail (Isaac) for the sake of God.

The meat is then donated to the poor as well as neighbours and family. Every Muslim who has the financial means should give his share to the poor.

Many donate money to their local mosque or organisation, who in turn buy the livestock and distribute the meat to millions of people in need worldwide. All livestock must be hygienically and ethically treated.

The MCB advises that if sharing Udhiya locally, to make contactless drop-offs.

Indonesia, which has the highest rate of coronavirus cases in Southeast Asia, issued a notice last month that prayers in congregation and the slaughter of sacrifical animals are allowed in areas at low risk of coronavirus transmission.

A worker feeds animals with hay at a cattle yard as the coronavirus pandemic continues in Depok, on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia [Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters]

Other countries are also taking special precautions. In Hyderabad, India, a mufti issued a fatwa (legal opinion given by a qualified religious scholar) that Muslims can donate an equal amount of money to the poor instead of sacrificing an animal if they are unable to do so because of the pandemic.

The fatwa comes as some fear coronavirus may spread if people visit markets to buy livestock or if people visit others when distributing the meat.

Pakistani authorities have banned setting up small makeshift meat markets within cities and have prohibited the slaughter of animals in open spaces.

I appeal to the citizens to avoid visiting cattle markets, and opt for online booking of sacrificial animals this year, Zafar Mirza, Pakistans top health official, said on Sunday.

Asad Umar, Pakistans planning minister and head of a coronavirus task force, said in a tweet over the past few days more than 500 illegal cattle markets had been shut across Pakistan.

The World Health Organization published a list of guidelines this week including nominating one household in an area to perform the sacrifice, whose members adhere to physical distancing throughout the process.
A former UDR member who survived three attempts on his life has been left despondent after his impassioned plea over the failure to implement a victims' pension was ignored.

John Barton (90), who lives in Kesh, Co Fermanagh, said he had only received one response - from First Minister Arlene Foster - to a letter he also sent to Secretary of State Brandon Lewis, Victims' Commissioner Judith Thompson and Prime Minister Boris Johnson more than six weeks ago.

MPs passed legislation last year to establish the payment scheme for people injured in the Troubles, but it has been stalled over disputes. It had been due to open in May.

There is disagreement over whether Westminster or Stormont should fund it, a failure to designate a department to administer it, and a lack of consensus over who should receive the payments.

After serving in the Ulster Special Constabulary in the 1960s, Mr Burton joined the UDR as a part-time member when it was formed as the Troubles escalated.

"I was the only son of five children and carried the responsibility to manage my family farm," he said.

"In 1970 I joined the UDR. On February 2, 1972 I was ambushed by the Provisional IRA in the farmyard. I was shot and seriously wounded but recovered and returned to my farm and continued as a part-time soldier."

A year later he survived a second IRA attempt on his life.

"I was less seriously injured but the gunmen turned their weapons on my family home. My father had been in hospital and when he heard of the attempt to murder me and my family, the shock killed him," he said.

"The reaction from the Government was to have my commanding officer summon me to a meeting where he told me I would be provided with protection only if I agreed to move out of my home. I was forced to decide to leave a farm which had been in my family for many generations so I could do what the Government refused to do, protect my family."

He said the effects of that decision still haunt his family.

"Two of my sons have since taken out loans to buy land as they were deprived of the opportunity to farm my land," he said.

"I know I can never get this back now, but it is a regret I will take with me to my grave.

"For being shot and seriously injured in 1972 I received 400 compensation. For being shot and injured in 1973 I received 700. For being forced to leave my home I received nothing.

"I was offered a full-time position in the UDR, and lacking alternative options, I accepted. Whilst on duty in Enniskillen on November 8, 1987, delivering to our UDR representatives a wreath to be laid at the war memorial, I was caught up in the bomb the Provisional IRA exploded at the cenotaph. I didn't even bother with a compensation claim.

"My wife and I are conscious that our days are limited. I may not live long enough to see if my country will fail me again."

A UK Government spokesperson said it will "respond soon" to Mr Barton.

"The Government has been clear that it will bring forward legislation to address the legacy of the Troubles which focuses on reconciliation, delivers for victims, and ensures that Northern Ireland veterans are treated as fairly as those who served overseas. We are committed to making progress on this as quickly as possible."

Expand Close Alex Bunting; shadow secretary of state Louise Haigh; Jennifer McNern; Alan McBride, Paul Gallagher and Sandra Peake, chief executive officer at Wave Trauma Centre PA / Facebook

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Meanwhile, shadow secretary of state Louise Haigh has met victims at the Wave Trauma Centre in Belfast on her first visit to Northern Ireland. She called on Mr Lewis and the Executive to end the "shameful delay" in the delivery of the pension.

"There is simply no excuse for this scheme not to be in operation," she said. "Another insulting delay in their long, brave battle for support is completely unacceptable."

Ms Haigh also met with Victims' Commissioner Ms Thompson, who voiced her own frustration with the delays to the pension.

"We will not falter in our efforts to make that final leap and we would ask our politicians to recognise that this is the last step in finally delivering tangible and meaningful truth, acknowledgement, justice and reparations for victims and survivors, allowing us to move forward to build a better future," she said.
Most older Chattanoogans know the story of Chattanoogas Mayor Ralph Kelley and Police Commissioner James E. Bookie Turners commandeering the State of Georgias Civil War locomotive the General as it was being returned from the L&N Railroad's maintenance shop in Kentucky on its way to Kennesaw, Georgia, in 1961.

For many years the famed engine had been stored at the Union Station at the railroad terminal on the south side of 9th Street (Martin Luther King Boulevard) on property now occupied by the Tallan and Krystal Buildings across the street from the Read House hotel. It had become an integral part of the history of Chattanooga including its image on the municipality's official seal, stationery, cuff links, tie clips, etc.

After much publicity and a federal court case, the historical icon was ordered to be returned to its rightful owner, the State of Georgia, and Kelley's Raiders eventually suffered a defeat and the locomotive was returned to Kennesaw. Though spectacular, it was not the first time that Chattanooga and the State of Georgia and the railroad had become entangled over property in our town that belonged to Georgians.

In the early days of Chattanooga, the City Fathers had wanted the railroad to come to our city to connect railway traffic to the city of Atlanta. They had been very generous in giving the railroad a lot of land at very cheap prices that is located between Broad and Market Streets and extends south from 9th Street across 10th and 11th Streets to the L&N Railroad tracks. The property also included the site of the Edney Building at 11th and Market Street and formerly included the Hotel Plaza property at the intersection of Market and Georgia Avenue.

The first raider against the L&N Railroad was Mayor Edward David Bass (1873-1960). Bass became an orphan at age 11 and he left school to work on the production line at D.M. Steward Manufacturing Plant. Through hard work, he saved enough money to open a grocery store at the corner of Main Street and Central Avenue. In 1906, he ran and won a seat on the Hamilton County Court which began his career as a lifelong politician.

After winning the race, he sold his grocery store and began his political mission. In 1911, Bass ran for the state Senate and was elected. As a senator he passed legislation that allowed Chattanooga to change its government to a commission format. After serving a term in Nashville, he returned to Chattanooga and served as Commissioner of Streets and Sewers for three terms. It was during Bass last term as commissioner that he performed the act that earned him the title stated above.

In 1926 Broad Street ended at 9th Street (MLK Boulevard) where a row of brick warehouses owned by the State of Georgia sat empty. The city wanted to extend Broad Street and for years Bass had unsuccessfully tried to purchase the buildings to be razed and open up Broad Street as it exists today.

On Friday night, May 6, 1926, Commissioner Bass, without consulting the Mayor, city attorney or other commissioners, decided to open up Broad Street on his own. Assembling a large crew of street department workers, they descended on the empty buildings and tore them down. Their work started around 6:00 and by midnight the buildings were razed. A large crowd that had gathered to watch the destruction spectacle cheered Bass and his men on as they completed their task and the commissioner drove the first car through the opened buildings. For some unexplained reason, the Elks Club Band just happened to be at the scene and played the song Marching Through Georgia.

The work continued over the weekend until the length of Broad Street was extended and opened to Lookout Mountain. The State of Georgia did not take kindly to Commissioner Basss actions on behalf of the City of Chattanooga and filed suit but the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that a states sovereignty ended at the state line. With this judicial approval Bass and his band of raiders tore down the buildings that blocked Broad Street at 11th Street. This allowed Broad Street to be linked with Whiteside Street that ran from Lookout Mountain to 12th Street and today is known as South Broad Street.

In 1927, the City of Chattanooga elected Bass as mayor and he would serve five terms as the longest office holder as Mayor in the history of the city. Ironically Bass had been rebuffed in 1923 when Mayor Alexander Chambliss had resigned to fill a seat on the Tennessee Supreme Court. Tennessee Governor Austin Peay had been pressured by the statewide Ku Klux Klan not to appoint Chambliss if it meant Bass would become mayor of Chattanooga. Governor Peay then asked Bass to promise that, if elected, he would not serve.

Bass agreed but in 1927 he ran and was elected beginning his 20-year tenure as Mayor. He accomplished several goals as mayor including the annexation which doubled the size of the city by adding St. Elmo, Missionary Ridge, Alton Park, North Chattanooga, Brainerd and Riverview. Bass took great pride in the fact that during the Great Depression Chattanooga was one of the few cities able to pay its debts without raising taxes and to maintain full employment with its employees.

Bass had intended to serve out his last term of office but because of health problems had to resign three months before his term expired. He moved to Florida and lived to the age of 87, dying on March 12, 1960.

* * *

Jerry Summers



(If you have additional information about one of Mr. Summers' articles or have suggestions or ideas about a future Chattanooga area historical piece, please contact Mr. Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- HUGS Wellness is now available on The CBD Store , the world's first online CBD store. HUGS has experience selling their CBD infused wellness products online through their website since their inception. Their CBD-infused beauty products have garnered industry buzz, as the company continues to innovate with natural, botanical formulas.

HUGS says their mission is to bring transparency to the CBD industry, too often known for the hit or miss nature of some CBD products. This is because since the boom in the popularity of CBD products, many companies have rushed to the market without providing adequate testing for the potency of their CBD. This inconsistency can make customers feel disillusioned with the whole experience, especially with the exceptionally high price point attached to some CBD products.

HUGS's ethical business practices may be a big part of what got them to where they are today. Not only does HUGS provide reliable products, with rigorous standards for potency testing, but they have also built caring into the structure of their company by donating a portion of all of their proceeds to 10,000 Beds.

10,000 Beds is a nonprofit that helps match people who are looking for help with addiction recovery with treatment centers who have empty beds, providing scholarship funds to make treatment accessible to everyone. Cost can be a major hurdle for many people struggling with addiction, and by removing the barrier of financial burden, 10,000 Beds helps provide more people with an opportunity for healing.

HUGS likes to say that "recovery" is a theme throughout their company. Recovery through the naturally calming wellness products they create, recovery through their charitable donations, and recovery built into the structure of how HUGS thinks about employee wellness. HUGS has come a long way by listening to the needs and input of their employees, implementing a shorter, more productive work week and work at home options, long before the necessity of social distancing.

Today, selling online is an important component of any company's success, and HUGS has been selling products through their website since they first began. Now as they expand to sites like The CBD Store, their customer reach will continue to grow.

In 2018 alone, sales of CBD and hemp oil products rose by more than 57%, reaching over $230 million in revenue, and the growing trend towards online buying is having a major impact on the market as a whole. With more customers ordering from home, the CBD market is experiencing a boom in online ordering, which is projected to continue over the next five years: by the year 2024, CBD is expected to grow at a rate of more than 30%.

HUGS stands out in the CBD market for their beautifully crafted, care-focused products that combine botanical benefits with scientifically tested, high-quality CBD.

Find their products through their website, and now, for the first time, on The CBD Store, buycbd.co.

Please direct inquiries to:

Dominica Birne

(954) 679-2238

[email protected]

SOURCE HUGS Wellness
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  A man who got out of his car after a crash on U.S. 131 was critically injured Tuesday, July 28, when another vehicle crashed into his car, which then hit him, state police said.

A good Samaritan pulled the injured man out of a northbound lane.

The injured man, a 44-year-old Grand Rapids resident, was listed in critical condition at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital, police said.

The incident began just after 4:30 a.m. when the now-injured man, going north on U.S. 131 near Wealthy Street, lost control of his car and it struck the median wall. The driver got out and stood near his car.

Police think that the car was partially in the far-left lane when it was struck by a passing vehicle, driven by a 48-year-old Wyoming man. The collision pushed the Grand Rapids mans car into him and threw him into northbound U.S. 131 with serious injuries.

The other driver was not seriously injured.

Moments later, another driver swerved to avoid hitting the man in the road and struck another northbound vehicle. Neither driver was hurt. A good Samaritan pulled the injured Grand Rapids man to the side of the road before emergency crews reached the scene.

The freeway was closed until just after 8 a.m.

State police continue to investigate what led to the initial crash.

Read more:

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Coronavirus antibody testing expands in Kalamazoo but health officials say it has low utility
FILE  In this May 14, 2019, file photo, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro speaks during a news conference in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) Read more

Pennsylvanias attorney general has won a key interim legal victory in a long-running lawsuit against Navient, which alleges that the giant student-loan servicer routinely misled students about ways to repay college loans.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that states and individual borrowers can sue Navient and other such loan servicers, rejecting Navients claim that federal law barred such so-called parallel claims. A federal consumer protection agency previously brought a suit against Navient.

The ruling is a total win on two grounds, Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in an interview.

It rejects all those claims that a state AG or actor has no right to bring suit. Two, it allows our case to go forward against a massive wrongdoing to the tune of billions of dollars taken out of the pockets of students by Navient.

The ruling hinged on a technical phrase  that Navient had committed affirmative misrepresentations, misleading students by, for instance, steering them into forbearance programs where their payments are paused, but interest continues to accumulate.

Shapiros suit maintains that Navient kept students in the dark about better options, such as cutting monthly payments based on income.

The commonwealth cannot fault Navient for failing to provide consumers with more information about [loan payment options], but it can fault Navient for providing misinformation, wrote Judge Thomas Ambro, the author of the 3-0 opinion.

These were very costly vehicles. The state has a legal right to hold Navient accountable for an estimated $4 billion in interest and over-payments, Shapiro said. The company is accused of deceptive lending practices and steering borrowers into more expensive repayment plans.

The ruling permits Pennsylvania to continue legal claims against Navient under the states Consumer Financial Protection Act. Shapiro filed his suit after a federal action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The federal Education Act also doesnt prevent Pennsylvanias claims, the ruling said.

Seth Frotman, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center in Washington, praised the opinion and criticized the Trump administration regarding student loans.

This ruling is a big win for borrowers seeking to protect their rights against predatory student loan servicing companies and an administration that puts the needs of corporations over consumers, he said.

Pennsylvania claimed Navient, headquartered in Delaware, but with a call center in Wilkes-Barre, deceptively originated risky student loans, and then pushed borrowers into forbearance plans.

Shapiro said that the ball is in Navients court now.

The federal government does not directly administer student loan servicing programs. Rather, the Department of Education hired firms such as Navient, FedLoan, NelNet and others to administer and service loans and imposes rules that govern what servicers may do.

Navient issued a statement following the Third Circuit ruling, saying it properly informed students of their options. The firm said it had consistently met and surpassed its requirements regarding disclosure.

Navient may ask that the case be remanded to a lower court, a spokesman said. It is possible that on remand, the spokesman said, if Navient again moves for dismissal, the District Court may need to conduct a closer, allegation-by-allegation assessment of which claims in the commonwealths complaint are based on affirmative misrepresentations and which are possibly based on failures of disclosure.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has said that information President Donald Trump receives in coronavirus briefings does not match some of the facts on the ground.

Fauci, speaking with ABC News for a 20/20 primetime special set to air on Tuesday night, was asked why some parts of the country are still struggling to get adequate testing and personal protective equipment.

'We keep hearing when we go to these task force meetings that these [issues] are being corrected,' Fauci said, according to a preview of the interview from Good Morning America. 'But yet when you go into the trenches, you still hear about that.'

Fauci said he does not have a 'good answer' and 'cannot explain' the discrepancy, but that part of the problem stems from the fact that 'many of the things that we needed were not produced in the United States.'

Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has said that information Trump receives in coronavirus briefings does not match some of the facts on the ground

'We keep hearing when we go to these task force meetings that these [issues] are being corrected,' Fauci said. 'But yet when you go into the trenches, you still hear about that.'

Though areas that saw an early surge in coronavirus cases, such as New York, now have more testing capacity than is used on a daily basis, other areas, such as Texas and Arizona, saw long lines and inadequate testing capacity as cases soared there in June and early July.

When Fauci was pressed about any missteps he may have made himself, such as initially telling the public that masks were not helpful for the general public, he said such decisions were 'based on the information at the moment.'

'As a scientist, the thing you must always do is to be humble enough to know that when you get additional information, even information that might conflict what was felt earlier on, you then change your viewpoint and you change your recommendations based on the data,' he said. 'That's what science is all about. Science is a learning process.'

Fauci also expressed concern about an 'explosion' of cases in several southern states in the past month, which he said is being fueled by 'a surge of community spread.'

He urged Americans across the country to follow 'some fundamental principles.'

'The fundamentals are not rocket science,' he said. 'It's universal wearing of masks, avoiding crowds, close the bars, [maintain] physical distance [and] personal hygiene, washing your hands.  No doubt you're going to be able to turn these things around with some things as simple as that.'

In separate remarks, Fauci said that as the U.S. tops 4.2 million positive test results and 148,000 deaths, thousands more will die unless strong measures are taken to contain the virus.

'If you look at the deaths as they're occurring right now -- about 1,000 per day -- unless we get our arms around this and get it suppressed, we are going to have further suffering and further death,' said Fauci, according to CNN.

'That's the reason why, as I've often said many, many times, there are things that we can do right now in the absence of a vaccine that can turn us around,' he added.

With several companies racing to create a safe and reliable vaccine, Moderna on Monday announced the start of a 30,000-subject phase three trial.

Fauci on Tuesday morning dismissed Trump's Monday night Twitter rant accusing him of 'misleading' Americans regarding antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine.

'I don't know how to address that,' the nation's top immunologist told Good Morning America regarding the president's tweet storm. 'I'm just going to, certainly, continue doing my job.'

'I, you know, I don't tweet, I don't  I don't even read them,' Fauci, 79, told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos. 'So I don't really want to go there.'

Trump went on a Twitter frenzy Monday night, including retweets of posts claiming Fauci lied to the country regarding hydroxychloroquine, which the president revealed he has taken as a preventative measure to stop him from contracting coronavirus.

'I, you know, I don't tweet, I don't  I don't even read them,' Fauci, 79, told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos (left) Tuesday morning. 'So I don't really want to go there,' he continued, adding he doesn't know 'how to address' the president's tweets

Fauci, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, pushed back Tuesday morning: 'I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances.'

The president's Twitter storm included reposts of videos of a doctor who claimed the anti-Malaria drug is a 'cure' for COVID-19.

Several of the tweets he shared with his 84 million followers, however, were taken down by Twitter citing misinformation regulations.

Facebook and YouTube also removed video of Dr. Stella Immanuel's speech outside the Supreme Court, which, before it was taken down, garnered tens of millions of views Monday on Facebook alone.

The president's insistence that the drug does work come as the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for controlling and regulating all prescription and over-the-counter medications, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, said hydroxychloroquine is 'unlikely to be effective' in treating the virus.

'I just will continue to do my job no matter what comes out because I think it's very important,' Fauci said Tuesday. 'We're in the middle of a crisis with regard to an epidemic  a pandemic. This is what I do, this is what I've been trained for my entire professional life and I'll continue to do it.'

Fauci has advised six presidents since joining the National Institute of Health in 1984.

The full interview with Dr. Fauci will air on ABC on Tuesday at 9pm ET as part of the 20/20 special report "American Catastrophe: How Did We Get Here?"
Lebanese Hezbollah fighters carry out op against Israel in response to Syria aggression

Iran Press TV

Monday, 27 July 2020 1:11 PM

Israeli military says it has ordered residents along Lebanese border to remain indoors after explosions and exchange of fire were reported between Israeli soldiers and Lebanese forces along Lebanon's southern border.

The Israeli army is also closing major roads and has asked residents to avoid unnecessary trips, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Jerusalem al-Quds that the Tel Aviv regime is "in the midst of a complicated event."

Meanwhile, Reuters news agency quoted an unnamed Lebanese source as saying on Monday that Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement has carried out an operation against Israeli army in Shebaa farms area in response to Israeli attack in Syria in which a Hezbollah member was killed last week.

According to the Lebanese source, Hezbollah has fired a guided missile at an Israeli military vehicle in its operation, inflicting casualties on Israeli troops.

A reporter for the local Arabic-language al-Manar television network reported that Israeli forces were shelling an area of Kfarchouba village in the southern Lebanese province of Nabatieh as Israeli fighter jets flew over occupied Shebaa farms.

Later in the day, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, called for "maximum restraint," adding that the firing had stopped.

"Major General (Stefano) Del Col has been in contact with both parties to assess the situation and decrease tension while urging maximum restraint," UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said, adding, "The firing has now stopped."

Last Monday, Syrian media reported a new Israeli aggression in which Israeli forces fired missiles from the Syrian Golan Heights, killing a member of the Hezbollah movement.

The Israeli missiles flew over the Syrian Golan Heights where they conducted raids around the capital, according to a Syrian military spokesman, and that the Syrian air defenses thwarted most of the missiles before reaching their targets and inflicted only "material losses."

Hezbollah said in a statement on Tuesday that one of its members, Ali Kamel Mohsen, had been killed the night before during an Israeli attack near the Syrian capital of Damascus.

Hezbollah had vowed in the past to retaliate for any of its members that were killed by Israeli forces in Syria. The resistance group fired a barrage of anti-tank missiles into the occupied territories in September last year after two of its members were martyred in an Israeli aggression near Damascus.

"The war between us and this enemy [Israel] will continue and this path that the martyrs have taken with their blood will continue," Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese legislator Sheikh Hassan Ezzedine said during Mohsen's funeral.

Terrified of Hezbollah's retaliation, Israel sent a message to the Lebanese resistance movement saying that it didn't intend to kill Ali Kamel Mohsen in its aggression on Damascus.

In the message, which has been sent to the Lebanese group through the United Nations, Israel has told Hezbollah that it was unaware that its fighters were in the area, the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen channel reported Saturday night.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 17:30:03|Editor: huaxia

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JAKARTA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia and the Philippines have been jointly rescuing dozens of endangered species from international wildlife trafficking and sending them back into their habitats in Indonesia.

As many as 91 endangered animals which have been smuggled to the Philippines have been sent back to Indonesia, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

Among the animals were cockatoos, cassowaries and scores of mammals and reptiles, the ministry said in a statement.

The shipment of the animals commenced on Monday from Davao city in the Philippines and was expected to arrive at the Bitung seaport in Indonesia's North Sulawesi province days later.

In Indonesia, the species would undergo rehabilitation at the Rescue and Rehabilitation Center before being released to their habitats.

Most of the species are endemic to the eastern parts of the vast archipelagic nation Indonesia.

The return of the animals was supported by the Combating Illegal Wildlife Trade (CIWT) Project.

Indonesia and the Philippines are members of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Indonesia is known as one of the most species-rich nations as its large area of rainforests is home to numerous floral and animal species spreading over 17,500 islands. Enditem
TDT | Manama

Health Minister Faeqa bint Saeed Al Saleh has called on the public to continue with determination to adhere to precautionary and preventive measures during Eid Al Adha to limit the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). The Health Ministry, in coordination and cooperation with all concerned parties, is continuing its efforts to confront the virus, which will contribute to preserving the health and safety of citizens and residents in Bahrain, she said.

Eid Al Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, will be marked over several days starting Friday. It traditionally involves the exchange of visits between families and friends and holding large gatherings. However, authorities have been urging citizens and residents to change their Eid habits exceptionally this year and exercise the highest levels of caution through social distancing and wearing face masks to help in the national fight to mitigate and confront COVID-19.

The Health Minister extended her best wishes to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, His Royal Highness the Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, Bahrain and all Arab and Islamic nations on Eid Al Adha.

She stressed that national efforts led by HRH the Crown Prince are moving forward in a manner that preserves the health and safety of all citizens and residents. Everyones commitment to responsible behavior and approaches is an important pillar for the success of all plans, as it complements efforts, decisions and recommendations and contributes to achieving the set goals, she added.

The Health Minister stressed that the responsible commitment to precautionary and preventive measures is a national duty for every individual, in order to protect themselves, their families and their community, and to maintain public safety. It also reflects conscious societal behaviour in fighting the virus, she said.

The Health Minister called for suspending some customs and traditions associated with Eid Al Adha, especially family gatherings, to avoid the spike in contact cases that occurred during and after Eid Al Fitr in May.

Social visits and gatherings are deep rooted in Bahrains customs and traditions, but as exceptional circumstances call for exceptional measures, they should be avoided this year as they currently pose risks to public health and may significantly cause the transmission and spread of the virus, she said.

The Health Minister stressed the importance of wearing masks, social distancing and regular sanitisation to protect community members, especially the elderly and those who suffer from underlying health diseases.

Bahrains experience in responding to the pandemic and the large preparations it made have been of the highest standards and have been highly efficient, which contributed to making the Kingdom an outstanding model for enhancing health and safety. The community must preserve such achievements through active partnership for the sake of addressing the pandemic, she said.
Executives and guests of Sogou, Inc. (NYSE:SOGO) visit the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to celebrate their IPO. To mark the occasion Chief Executive Officer, Xiaochuan Wang, alongside Chairman and CEO of Sohu, Charles Zhang and Tom Farley, President, NYSE, ring The Opening Bell.

It's been seven years since Tencent picked up a 36.5% stake in Sogou to fend off rival Baidu in the online search market. The social and gaming giant is now offering to buy out and take private its longtime ally.

NYSE-listed Sogou said this week it has received a preliminary non-binding proposal from Tencent to acquire its remaining shares for $9 each American depositary share (ADS) it doesn't already own. That means Sohu, a leading web portal in the Chinese desktop era and the controlling shareholder in Sogou, will no longer hold an interest in the search firm.

Sohu's board of directors has not yet had an opportunity to review the proposal or determine whether or not to take the offer, the company stated. Sogou's shares leaped 48% on the news, to $8.51 on Monday, yet still far below its all-time high at $13.85 at the time of its initial public offering.

Founded in 2005, Sogou went public in late 2017, billing itself as a challenger to China's biggest search service, Baidu, though it has long been a distant second. The company also operates the top Chinese input software, which is used by 482 million people every day to type and convert voice to text, according to its Q1 earnings report.

Ever since the strategic partnership with Tencent kicked off, Sogou, which means "Search Dog" in Chinese, has been the default search engine for WeChat and benefited immensely from the giant's traffic, though WeChat has also developed its own search feature.

The potential buyout will add Sogou to a list of Chinese companies to delist from the U.S. as tensions between the countries heighten. It will also allay concerns amongst investors who worry WeChat Search would make Sogou redundant. So far, WeChat's proprietary search function appears to be gleaning data mainly within the app's enclave, from users' news feed, user-generated articles, e-commerce stores, through to lite apps integrated into WeChat.

Story continues

That's a whole lot of content and services targeted at WeChat's 1.2 billion active users. Many people need not look beyond the chat app to consumer news, order food, play games or purchase groceries. But there remains information outside the enormous ecosystem, and that's Sogou's turf -- to bring what's available on the open web (of course, subject to government censorship like all Chinese services) to WeChat users.

The arrangement reflects an endemic practice on the Chinese internet -- giants blocking each other or making it hard for rivals to access their content. The goal is to lock in traffic and user insights. For instance, articles published on WeChat can't be searched on Baidu . Consumers can't open Alibaba shopping links without leaving WeChat.

Sogou is hardly WeChat's sole search ally. To capture a full range of information needs, the messenger has also struck deals to co-opt into its search pool fellow microblogging platform Weibo, Quora-like Zhihu and social commerce service Xiaohongshu .
Sciumeca and his sister decided to sell their family house, off Niagara Falls Boulevard, after their father went into assisted living last year. The 1,800-square-foot house was already in Sciumecas name and he had been living there to take care of his father, although he had already purchased his own house last summer.

The house had been remodeled and expanded in the distant past  with a raised roof, a new family room and foyer, and an extra bathroom  but it was in serious need of updating, so they priced it low, Sciumeca said.

Century 21's Thompson listed it March 10, just before 3 p.m. It was right before the state shut down virtually all activity to fight the spread of coronavirus, so there was already a sense of urgency. Within 15 minutes, the first showings had been scheduled, and the parade never stopped, as Sciumeca got text alerts for every showing.

He couldn't even get in to clean the house between showings. "There were people basically there from 9 in the morning to 9 at night," he said. "There was not an hour I could find to go there other than the middle of the night."
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- City Council will reconvene during its August recess to continue discussions on filling the seat that by then will have been vacant for five months.

Councilwoman Melissa Yasinow announced her resignation, effective immediately, back on March 2, a little past the midway point of her second four-year term.

And while the seven-member, at-large legislative body has drawn criticism in the past over its appointment process for council vacancies, the lack of any successor this time around has provided further cause for concern.

We will hold a committee-of-the-whole meeting in August to continue to discuss the vacant council seat, Mayor Jason Stein said on July 20.

After extending the council application process until April 6 due to the ongoing coronavirus public health emergency that shut down City Hall, and receiving 22 responses, online interviews were conducted by the city and the local chapter of the League of Women Voters.

On May 21, the four finalists were announced:

-- Craig Cobb, Berkshire Road, a 28-year Coventry Village resident, attorney and branch manager for the Farmers Insurance Exchange, as well as a former Cleveland municipal judge. Appointed last year to the Cheryl Stephens' vacancy when she won the District 10 seat on Cuyahoga County Council, Cobb then lost to Davida Russell in the November election. He has also served on the city's Charter Review and Planning commissions.

-- Tony Cuda, Fenley Road, a 35-year resident, government teacher, musician and organizer of Citizens for an Elected Mayor, which ran last years successful campaign to switch from the city manager-council structure in place for nearly a century to a popularly elected mayor, with the first election to be held in November 2021.

-- Robert Koonce, Edgehill Road, a 30-year resident and newly appointed chief development officer with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio. Koonce, who had considered a separate council run in recent years, also serves as the board chairman for the Home Repair Resource Center and as the immediate past chair on the Lake Erie Ink Board of Directors.

-- Anthony Mattox Jr., Scarborough Road, a 38-year resident and founder, senior pastor and CEO of The Empowerment Church in East Cleveland. A five-year member of the Cleveland Heights Planning Commission, he grew up in the Noble neighborhood and pulled in more than 4,200 votes in the November general election for City Council.

Further interviews were conducted, and the remaining six council members continued to meet in executive session to discuss the appointment of a public official.

But Stein also said on May 18 that theres nothing in the City Charter that says a choice has to be made by the remaining council members in filling a vacancy.

The lack of any time limit on filling council vacancies was an issue the city-appointed Charter Review Commission attempted to address in the long list of proposed amendments that were turned over to council last year.

The Charter Review panel recommended a 90-day time limit to make an appointment, although council pushed that proposal back to 150 days before tabling the proposed charter amendments indefinitely.

Amid rumors that council might not make any appointment and will wait to let the public decide on Yasinows successor in the next election, Councilwoman Melody Joy Hart has offered a possible solution.

In an article posted last week on the Heights Observer website, Hart said she only voted for the August recess upon agreement that council would meet during that time to further discuss the vacancy.

"I believe it is our job to overcome an impasse," Hart stated. "We need to come to a resolution and should not end the meeting until we have fulfilled our duty."

To accomplish that, Hart has also suggested narrowing the field of four finalists down to two candidates, then coming out of executive session for a public vote. With only six members, it would take four votes to make the new council member official.

If any one of us doesnt get our preferred candidate, the outcome would still be good, given the excellent applicants, Hart said, noting that she had received a letter from 14 respected citizens regarding council having a duty to appoint a seventh council member. I agree with them.

Since 2011, there have been five council members appointed through the application process:

-- Stein replaced Mark Tumeo, who moved away in 2011

-- Janine Boyd replaced Phyllis Evans, who became ill in 2012

-- Current Vice Mayor Kahlil Seren replaced Boyd when she was elected to the state legislature in 2015

-- Councilman Mike Ungar replaced Jeff Coryell, who moved away in 2016

-- Cobb replaced Stephens last year up until the November general election

Stein also noted July 20 that the regular council meetings would be suspended in August to free up time for outgoing City Manager Tanisha Briley and her staff to work on the transition with Susanna Niermann O'Neil.

The longtime vice city manager will serve in an interim capacity after Briley leaves for her new job as the city manager of Gaithersburg, Md. ONeil will continue to oversee the 16-month transition period before the city switches over in 2022 to a strong mayor form of government.

Bulk trash pickup resumes

One municipal service missing in action during the pandemic has been the citys bulk trash pickup program, which will resume in limited form on Aug. 1.

Bulk items will be picked up once per month during the first full week of each month on your regular trash day, city officials announced. Bulk will be limited to four items per pickup.

Acceptable items for curbside pickup include appliances, furniture, household items and toilets, to name a few.

Some unacceptable items include construction and demolition materials, household hazardous waste (including oil-based paints), bricks, rocks, computers and electronics.

If you have more than four items or you need bulk pickup on a day that is not your regularly scheduled day, you can call to schedule a special pickup for a fee, the citys July 24 update stated. Call 216-691-7300 to arrange your special pickup.

See more Sun Press news here.
Police have obtained a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against an absconding suspect involved in the murder of journalist Vikram Joshi (35) and have also announced a reward of Rs 25,000 for his whereabouts.

The police said that the suspect, Akash Bihari, was part of the group of assailants, who were present at the scene of the crime, when Joshi was shot at.

The incident had occurred at Mata Colony in Ghaziabads Vijay Nagar late at night on July 20, while Joshi was going back home on his two-wheeler with his two minor daughters riding pillion.

Both the accused and the victim are residents of Vijay Nagar.

Joshi, a journalist with a local Hindi newspaper, succumbed to his critical gunshot head injuries a day later and nine people were arrested in connection with his murder.

Preliminary investigation had revealed that suspects had a fight with Joshis family on July 16.

Later, though Joshis family members had wanted to file a complaint against the men for allegedly harassing his nice, the Pratap Vihar police post in-charge, Raghvendra Kumar, had allegedly refused to act on it.

Akash Bihari, the 10th suspect in the murder case, is absconding. We have obtained an NBW against him and a reward of Rs 25,000 has also been announced for his whereabouts. He is absconding since the shooting incident and several teams are trying to trace him. He was also present with the other accused at the scene of the crime on July 20, said Manish Mishra, superintendent of police (SP), Ghaziabad city.

An inquiry is on about the polices alleged laxity in the case, he added.

One of the accused, Shahnoor alias Chotu, had allegedly shot at Joshi from a point-blank range. He had sustained critical bullet injuries in his head that led to his death around 4 am on July 21.

The police filed a first information report (FIR) on the day Joshi died for harassing his niece and named two persons among the alleged assailants as accused along with two other unidentified persons.

Kumar has been suspended for not acting on the complaint that Joshis family had wanted to file on July 16.

The station house officer (SHO) of Vijay Nagar police station was also packed off to police lines for his alleged lack of supervision in the case that led to Joshis murder.

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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi held the Modi government responsible for the resignation of Urjit Patel, former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, saying efforts to clean the banking system in the country cost him his job.

Gandhi also said the RBI governor resigned in just over two years as Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn't want him to go after wilful defaulters.

"Efforts to clean the banking system cost him his job. Why? PM didn't want him to go after wilful defaulters," Gandhi tweeted.

Gandhi was referring to Patel's recently launched book, 'Overdraft: Saving The Indian Saver,' in which he says the RBI's decision to dilute the bankruptcy law caused rift between the central bank and the Modi government.

The rift centred around a February 2018 circular by the RBI that forced banks to classify borrowers as defaulters if they delayed payments. The circular also barred founders of defaulting companies from buying back their firms during insolvency auctions.

Patel in his book said the government seemed to lose enthusiasm for the legislation mid-way and appeared to go easy. Patel said till then the Finance Minister (late BJP leader Arun Jaitley) and he were on the same page.

"Instead of buttressing and future-proofing the gains thus far, an atmosphere to go easy on the pedal ensued...until then, for the most part, the finance minister and I were on the same page, with frequent conversations on enhancing the landmark legislation's operational efficiency," Patel wrote in his book.

He added that there were calls to roll back the circular. There was also misinformation floating that aimed to "discredit the rules" with incorrect suggestions such as how the rules would disproportionately impact small businesses.

Under Patel, the decision to relax the PCA framework for some weak banks was referred to the board for Financial Supervision. The RBI was not comfortable in relaxing the PCA guidelines without any capital infusion from the government.

Patel, who left in December 2018, writes that the PCA norms were relaxed to 'graduate' five loss-making banks out of the PCA in early 2019. "Recapitalisation of these PCA banks helped them meet the criterion on net NPAs. Hardly anyone disagreed that this was to facilitate higher credit growth," writes Patel who was handpicked by the BJP-led NDA government after former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan completed his three-year tenure.

Later, the Supreme Court struck down RBI's February circular. The decision "made the insolvency regime vulnerable, possibly brittle", Patel wrote.

RBI Governor Urjit Patel resigned on December 10, 2018, from the governor's post, citing "personal reasons," but

his resignation followed a spat between the RBI and the Finance Ministry over autonomy and governance issues.

After his resignation, new Governor Shaktikanta Das amended the rules, giving lenders 30 days to review a defaulting account and another 180 days to implement a resolution plan. It also lifted the deadline to push defaulters into bankruptcy.

Also read: Urjit Patel reveals what led to rift between former RBI Governor and Centre
Paleobotanist Aviwe Matiwane on site (Onder Karoo,[-] South Africa), finding fossil plants. ROSE PREVEC

Andrew Wight, Australian Science Journalist.

Paleobotanist Aviwe Matiwane is working in her native South Africa to find and catalog fossils of a plant that can provide us with a glimpse back in time to the climate and even food chains of a time before the dinosaurs.

Matiwane, who is a PhD researcher at Rhodes University and Albany Museum in South Africa, says that Glossopteris has no living relatives, but was an early example of a gymnosperm, that is, a plant that uses an exposed seed to reproduce, rather than a fruit.

This fossil plant was around during the Permian, a period 252-299 million years ago, and in addition to now forming the oldest coal deposits in South Africa, the plants have been used to solve a wide-range of scientific mysteries.

Glossopteris can tell us so much about the past: For example in some cases stomatal studies have been used to model Carbon Dioxide (CO2) changes during the Permian and these are used to inform researchers about the climate conditions during that time period, she said, Glossopteris can also be a link to prehistoric food chains, as feeding patterns preserved on the fossil impressions together with the fossil insects found can help researchers link animal-plant interactions.

Matiwane says fossils of the plant also support the concept of continental drift  the now-accepted theory that the continents once formed one massive landmass and have drifted apart over time  because the fossils have now been found in all the southern continents: Australia, Antarctica, India, South Africa, and South America.

My work involves finding the best descriptive features to identify and name Glossopteris leaves because taxonomic approaches used to differentiate these leaves vary, most descriptions of these fossil plants rely on visual estimations of relatively few characteristics. she said, adding that species identification has proven to be subjective, inconsistent and extremely challenging.

Matiwane says that the most important part of her study is to solve the 200-year-old problem of how to classify and organise Glossopteris leaves.

My work considers new approaches involving morphometric and ecological techniques with the aim of establishing a standardized methodology for the leaf taxonomy of this group, she said, I am also developing a national and international online leaf description database which will be used by researchers across the world.

Matiwane says her work is important because she is describing the first conclusive middle Permian flora in South Africa.

The study site is in Ouberg Pass (near Sutherland) this will contribute towards the greater goal of establishing a reliable biostratigraphic framework for Glossopteris floras of the Permian of the Karoo Basin, she said.

Matiwane says growing up in a small village in South Africas Eastern Cape Province, she always loved plants and that walks with her grandfather as a formative moment.

My grandfather is a self-taught botanist and he used to take me on walks in the forest and show me the different types of plants and some of their uses, she said, I was always intrigued about the evolution of plants but having grown up in a rural village I never knew there was such a field as botany.

She eventually obtained both an Honours and Master of Science degrees at Rhodes University in South Africa, looking at the plant biodiversity of the Southern Mistbelt Forests of the Eastern Cape.

Matiwane says there is not much known about the broader fields of palaeoscience among the South African public even though fossils are part of the countrys national heritage.

The public may know about dinosaurs however, not about the fossil plants she said, adding that one of the biggest challenges is getting people to appreciate our wonderful fossil heritage.

Also dealing with discrimination and racism as a Black woman in the field has been tough, she said.

Matiwane says one of the biggest opportunities so far has been to the National Museum of Natural History, Paris, where she got to work on some of the original Glossopteris specimens,

But most importantly, I get to show kids that scientists come in different shapes, sizes, and form, she said, I am not the generalized/typical lab coat scientist you see in your Google searches.

Matiwane is one of a new generation of female paleontologists in the developing world. Another is Catalina Suarez, a Colombian geologist and paleontologist, who studies fossils of ancient mammals, their paleobiology and paleoecology, searching for clues to understand how climate change affects diversification and extinction rates in mammals.

Source: https://www.forbes.com

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Joe Biden on Tuesday said he would be name his female running mate next week.

The presumptive Democratic nominee joked he would have to escape the TV camera crews that are parked outside of his Wilmington, Delaware, home so he could meet his pick without being caught.

'I'm going to try to figure out how to trick you all so we can meet in person. I've got crews outside my house. I don't think it matters actually. What I said is I'm going to have a choice in the first week in August, and I promise I'll let you know when I do,' he said.

He gave no hint to who he might name but has previously said he would pick a woman. Biden is under pressure from different sectors of the party to pick either a black woman or a liberal.

Joe Biden said he will announce his running mate next week; he has previously vowed to pick a woman to run on the ticket with him

Joe Biden accused Donald Trump of 'intentionally' stoking the fires of racism

He wouldn't say if he would interview the finalists in person and wear a mask while doing so.

'Well, we'll see,' he said.

Contenders include Senators Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Tammy Duckworth; former national security adviser Susan Rice; Congresswomen Karen Bass and Val Demings; and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

During a short press conference, Biden also vowed to be one of the 'most progressive presidents' in history if elected as he accused Donald Trump of 'intentionally' stoking the fires of racism.

The presumptive Democratic nominee also predicted his party will win back control of the Senate this fall - a bold statement. If Democrats take the Senate while keeping the House and Trump wins re-election, Democrats would be able to block any legislation agenda out of the White House, leaving the country in gridlock.

Democrats would need to pick up three seats to control the Senate if Biden takes the White House - otherwise they would need to pick up four.

The party is feeling good about their chances in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and North Carolina where the Republican incumbents are seen as in trouble and struggling.

'I think we are going to take back the United States Senate,' Biden said.

Biden, who is known for his moderate political record, appealed to the party's left flank with a vow to enact liberal policies should he win the White House.

'If I'm elected, I'm going to be good to go down as one of the most progressive presidents in American history,' he said.

But first he must win the White House. He leads President Trump by 9 points in the RealClearPolitics average of polls on the race. Several battleground states show him leading in the polls and Biden is making gains in traditionally red states like Texas, Arizona and Georgia.

During his remarks, Biden attacked Trump's economic record, his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and slammed him for 'stoking' race relations.

'He can't turn the economy around and get America back to work. And he is horrifyingly and - not surprisingly - intentionally stoking the flames of division and racism in this country,' Biden said of Trump.

He went on to attack Trump's tough talk on protesters. Trump has said he will be a 'law and order' president and he has sent in federal troops to cities like Portland and Seattle to deal with the protests that have swelled up in support of the Black Lives Matters movement in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

Trump has said he is sending in the troops to protect federal property. And he has denounced protesters who have torn down statues of figures tied to the Confederacy or to slavery.

Biden denounced violent protesters but said peaceful ones must be allowed to continue.

'I said from the outset, of the recent protest, there is no place for violence in destruction of property. Peaceful protesters should be protected and arsonists and anarchists should be prosecuted,' he said.

'But that wouldn't help Trump's political interest,' he continued. 'He's determined to stoke division and chaos. It is not good for country. But Donald Trump doesn't care. His campaign is failing and he's looking for a political lifeline. This isn't about law and order, it is about a political strategy to revive a failing campaign. Every instinct Trump has is to add fuel to the fire. It is the last thing, the last thing we need. We need leadership, to calm the waters and lower the temperature. That is how to restore peace in the streets.'

Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, and wife Jill Biden, pay respect to the flag-draped casket of the late Rep. John Lewis as he lies in state at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC

Joe Biden said he talked to John Lewis, the longtime Democratic congressman and civil rights activists, before he died

Biden also said he spoke to John Lewis, the longtime Democratic congressman and civil rights activists, before he died. Biden and Jill Biden paid their respects to Lewis at the U.S. Capitol on Monday. Lewis died last week of pancreatic cancer.

'I spoke to John just before he died,' Biden said.

'He wanted to talk. Instead of answering my concerns for him, he asked about me. He asked about us. He asked that we stay focused on the work left undone to heal this nation. To remain undaunted by the public health crisis and economic crisis, taking the blinders off in this crisis of -- and show the systemic racism for what it is that plagues this nation,' he said.

Trump and Lewis clashed during Lewis' life time. Lewis refused to attend Trump's January 2017 inauguration and said his presidency was not legitimate. Trump said he would not go to Capitol Hill to visit Lewis' remains, where he is lying in state in the rotunda.
Last March, pointing to the fact that many sentenced to death in America have later been found innocent, Gov. Gavin Newsom suspended all executions in California, calling the death penalty unfair and a failure. But at the end of May, a series of fatal errors by state and federal officials unleashed the virus in San Quentin, Californias oldest prison, and contagion soon spread from one unit to another, ultimately reaching the cells of Death Row and killing several inhabitants. Of the 19 people who have died of COVID-19 during the prison's nightmarish outbreak, 10 were serving time on the Row.

Areas of the prison that house condemned inmates are usually more isolated than others, making it hard even in normal times to know whats happening there, and recently the state corrections department shut off phone access at San Quentin, temporarily preventing incarcerated people from talking to their families or to journalists. (The state said it was a public health measure to prevent communal phone stations from spreading the virus, though many in custody and their advocates are skeptical of that explanation.) But on July 24, soon after the prison restored some phone access, Jarvis Masters spoke to Chronicle reporter Jason Fagone from a phone station in San Quentins East Block, which holds hundreds of Death Row residents.
Germanys grand coalition government plans to introduce a new voluntary military service from next April. The announcement was made by Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) at a press conference last Thursday at the Bendlerblock, one of the Defence Ministrys official sites.

Kramp-Karrenbauer, who appeared alongside the deputy inspector general of the army, Markus Laubenthal, and Peter Tauber (CDU), the state secretary in the Defence Ministry, left no doubt about the fact that the new military service was part of a comprehensive militarisation of society. It has two key goals: a major deployment of the army domestically, and the recruitment of new soldiers for external wars.

The new military service with the slogan Your year for Germany is an option for men and women, whether they be young or old, who want to become engaged for Germany, asserted Kramp-Karrenbauer. It takes up the issues weve been thinking about for some time, specifically building a strong bridge between the concept of protection on the home front and the concept of the military reserve.

Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Chancellor Angela Merkel at a swearing in ceremony for new soldiers in Berlin (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

In a programme lasting seven months, an initial contingent of 1,000 recruits will be trained. During this time, they will make initial contact with their future unit, the so-called RSU companies, the regional security and support units for homeland protection. This will be followed by a six-year long service as a reservist in an area close to home, which will in practice be the RSU closest to their home.

In other words: the regional security and support units, which have been part of the territorial reserves since 2012 and are commanded by the state military command structures in each German state, will be significantly strengthened and transformed into rapid and permanently deployable fighting units. This has nothing to do with disaster response or providing a helping hand during the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the goal is the defence of the capitalist state and its institutions.

Its about protecting critical infrastructure, not just in the army, but other things too, said Tauber. It provides the opportunity to train young people specifically for security tasks for six years, and not just in the general reserves, but to solidly anchor them in a company, in their state or region.

The military advantage is that in an operational situation you dont have to start with a general call to the reserves...to engage. Instead, we have appropriate companies ready to deploy, he continued.

In the context of current developments in the US, where Trump is mobilising paramilitary units against protesters, and of German history, this must be taken as a serious warning. Among the victims of the German militarys terrorism were revolutionary workers and their leaders, including Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, who were murdered by far-right Freikorps forces in January 1919.

Today, the German military is seething with right-wing extremist networks plotting a violent putsch and the murder of political opponents. In a noteworthy development, a Defence Ministry employee responsible for social media was removed from the social media team on the same day as the announcement of the new military service programme because of his right-wing extremist views.

This did not produce any change in course from the Defence Ministry. On the contrary, the armys recruitment campaigns are directed towards right-wing elements. The new homeland protection is a tremendous opportunity for young people who feel obliged to serve their army and their country, and bound to their homeland, and who want to fill an important gap in the armed forces, said Tauber.

Among right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis, the phrase homeland protection is a code word. For example, the National Socialist Underground (NSU), which was responsible for the deaths of nine immigrants, recruited its members from the so-called Thuringia Homeland Protection force.

A major consideration in the creation of homeland protection units domestically is the preparation of soldiers for external wars. The young people who enter the service will receive military training and participate in exercises with the reserves, added Tauber.

The main task is to recruit for the wide variety of tasks the army has, on the basis of the strategy of the reserves, the doctrine of the army, and its capacity profile. For that, we need men and women. Active serving soldiers cant manage it alone.

An examination of the strategic papers referred to by Tauber gives a sense of the wide-ranging plans for militarisation being prepared behind the backs of the population. The doctrine openly declares that after its horrific crimes in two world wars, the German military is preparing for another major war.

The main purpose of the German armys new policy doctrine adopted in 2018 was to prepare all military and civilian structures for war. Plans must be made for rapid strike and follow-up capabilities for a very large operation, stated the doctrine. They must be effectual in a hybrid conflict as it develops and escalates across the full spectrum of its effects, in all its dimensions, in a joint, multi-national armed force, and in all types of operations. At the beginning of a very large, high-intensity operation, a huge deployment of readily available forces and equipment is necessary. Provisions to regenerate the personnel and material will be required.

The new military service is a component of this mad drive towards rearmament and war. All six areas of military organisation are currently working together on strengthening the territorial structures, Gen. Laubenthal told the press conference.

With the implementation of its strategy, the army assumes that the reinforcements will also have a quantitative impact. He pointed to synergy benefits in other areas, in the air force, navy and army, where they want similar training programmes. However, all of this is merely the beginning.

Kramp-Karrenbauer made clear towards the end of the press conference that she would like to follow up the voluntary military service with the reintroduction of compulsory military service. It is well known that she is a supporter of compulsory military service, she said. It is now time to have a political debate about that.

She not only enjoys the backing of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) for this strategy, but also the Social Democratic Party (SPD) parliamentary military commissioner, Eva Hogl. Earlier this month, Hogl described the ending of compulsory military service in 2011 as a huge mistake.
Law practices need inspired marketing in order to thrive in todays crowded marketplace. We are honored to be ranked among the top five attorney marketing agencies in the nation by UpCity. -Marc Silverstein, Founder of On The Marc Media

Big honors: On The Marc Media is named one of UpCitys Top Attorney Marketing Agencies in the country. The Maryland-based communications firm ranks within the top 5 out of 43 competitive agencies on the UpCity list. The agency is praised for its high quality, values, creative insights, strategic discipline and proven track record of success.

Law is a time-honored profession, but a law practice is a business that needs inspired marketing in order to thrive in todays crowded marketplace. We are honored to be ranked among the top five attorney marketing agencies in the nation by UpCity and even more excited to deliver profitable results for our law-firm clients, said Marc Silverstein, Founder of On The Marc Media.

UpCity thoroughly evaluates national legal marketing agencies that specialize in law firms and legal practices to create the most qualified and competitive list. On The Marc Media was chosen based on UpCitys eight-factor Recommendability Rating and Methodology:



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On The Marc Media was founded by Emmy-Award winning television news reporter and former Food Network and Discovery Channel host Marc Silverstein. With knowledge and experience on all sides of the camera, On The Marc Media specializes in public relations, content marketing, social media, video production and more. Plus, the agency has a proven record of turning legal professionals into nationally recognized thought leaders.

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About On The Marc Media

On The Marc Media is a multimedia communications company specializing in public relations, social media, marketing, video production and much more. We integrate cutting-edge technology to promote and communicate focused messages for businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals.
A 55-year-old man riddled with bullets in the latest gangland murder may have been targeted by a notorious local criminal who feared he was going to be attacked by the victim first.

Thomas McCarthy was shot at least eight times when he opened the door of his mother's home to a gunman at 11am yesterday at Croftwood Park, Ballyfermot, Dublin.

Gardai are investigating whether McCarthy travelled back to the capital from his home in England to "seek retribution" after a 25-year-old local criminal brutally assaulted a woman who was well known to the victim.

"If the theory proves correct, then the 25-year-old got to Mr McCarthy first and brutally murdered him at his mother's home," a source said last night.

The 25-year-old criminal has numerous previous convictions, including for knife crimes and reckless driving offences, has served a number of jail terms and has also been homeless on occasion.

Separately, officers are investigating whether McCarthy was the victim of mistaken identity.

Senior sources said last night McCarthy was not known to gardai for involvement in organised crime, but a man well known to him has connections to the gang led by notorious criminal Derek 'Dee Dee' O'Driscoll.

"The deceased man was living in England and he had only been back in the country for just over a week," a senior source said.

"While he is not known to gardai for involvement in organised crime and his motivations for being back here are being examined, he is also close to a Ballyfermot man who has connections to the O'Driscoll crew who have been involved in organised crime for decades.

"Another theory is that it was this individual who was the target and the gunman just let loose on whoever answered the door.

"This was relatively well planned, even down to a lack of CCTV in the area where the cars were burnt out, so there is definite local knowledge in whatever theory proves to be true."

Four shots were discharged at the victim when he answered the door of the property and another four were fired at him inside the house as he attempted to move away from the lone gunman, who wore a face mask.

McCarthy is understood to have children and a partner living in England.

Gardai yesterday appealed for information and Superintendent Tony Twomey led a briefing at Ballyfermot garda station where he said gardai were interested in finding a blue Ford Fiesta which was burned out at Le Fanu Drive nearby and a silver Skoda Octavia, which officers believe drove to Monksfield Walk in Clondalkin and travelled through Park West or the New Nangor Road.

It's believed the gunman drove the Fiesta to the shooting and then burnt it out before getting into the Octavia to flee.

"A male abandoned the car in Monksfield Walk and left the area towards a green area adjacent. We have no further information of travel after that location," Supt Twomey said.

"We are appealing to motorists and pedestrians who may have been in any of those locations between 10.30am and 11.30am and who may have seen anything unusual.

"We are also appealing for anyone with dashcam [or] phone footage."

Supt Twomey said that though it was early in the investigation it seemed the two vehicles were used by the gunman.

"The [victim] had recently returned to Ireland and we are still trying to establish a motive," he said.

"It's the early stages so there's a lot of information to gather. We are really interested in seeing what the public have seen. There were other people in the house."

The garda confirmed they were members of the man's family.

The area of Croftwood Park where McCarthy was killed is a quiet cul-de-sac in Cherry Orchard, with a large green area in front of the house.

It means the killer could only get in and out of the estate on the same road.

The house was sealed off yesterday morning as shocked neighbours gathered at their gates.

Outside the house a child's scooter lay against the wall.

Neighbours said they heard shots yesterday morning but did not immediately know where they were coming from.
MediaVillage logo "Business growth today requires a strong foundation of new majority talent; integration of diverse talent across capabilities and responsibilities; and dedicated commitment to easily accessible and user-friendly learning tools," said Jack Myers

After more than a decade of research to identify key drivers of sustained growth of advertising-supported media, and presentations to more than 1,000 industry leaders, MediaVillage and AdvancingDiversity.org are announcing today a $100 million 10-year investment goal to expand the industrys activation of diversity and educational programs. The $100 million goal represents a commitment to generate, by 2030, 50% growth in advertising revenues and to achieve 50% industry-wide diversity representation.

Based on data from its research on the impact of cultural shifts on business growth, MediaVillage developed and launched diversity and equality initiatives in 2011 as Women in Media Mentoring Initiative and, with industry funding, has since implemented diversity programs focused on gender equality (WomenAdvancing.org) in 2013, diverse employee retention (1stFive.org) in 2014, masculinity management (The Future of Men) in 2016, ageism (The Age of Aging) in 2018, and the Advancing Diversity Council Hall of Honors in 2017.

Last January, based on MediaVillage research, the Advancing Diversity Council was formed to Advance Diversity from Advocacy to Activism through funding of several proven industry initiatives and programs. These programs were recently announced in conjunction with the creation of the Media and Advertising Industry Advancing Diversity Fund.

MediaVillage research has identified educational programs as a key contributor to diversity advancements. MediaVillage founder Jack Myers reports: Business growth today requires a strong foundation of new majority talent; integration of diverse talent across capabilities and responsibilities; and dedicated commitment to easily accessible and user-friendly learning tools. Myers adds, The advertising and media industry under performs in each of these essential resources vs. most major industry categories, and it has failed to effectively and collectively activate, expand and communicate the successes.

Myers, the nations leading practicing Media Ecologist, has been on a mission for more than a decade to advance the media and advertising communitys investments in diversity and education. Our funding commitment reflects the communitys decade-long recognition that there are institutional and systemic failures in advancing diversity to which the industry has clearly not sufficiently responded. But the corporate community has not stood still. Thanks to a decade of industry investment and development, MediaVillage has in place the strategies, market intelligence, relationships, resources, communications tools, capabilities, team and credibility to profoundly move the needle measurably and quickly forward, Myers noted. With billions invested in technology advances, its finally hitting home that media and advertising growth will lag without meaningful investments in diversity and education.

Whats Next for Advancing Diversity and Education Initiatives at MediaVillage

Over the past two years, Myers has been pounding on the message of diversity and education, generating funding support, and ramping up capabilities at his MediaVillage home base. More than 150 media industry companies, agencies, organizations, educational leaders, journalists, and subject matter experts currently contribute to MediaVillage educational content and Advancing Diversity initiatives. Myers often uses the MediaVillage subscriber base of 20,000 influencers to advance activist positions on diversity issues. MediaVillage hosts several well-known columnists who write on a spectrum of issues impacting the industry and an educational archive of more than 14,000 original, exclusive and continually updated articles, podcasts, videos and reports. MediaVillage is underwritten by membership fees.

U.S. advertising investments by marketers, excluding investments with Google, Facebook and Amazon, have declined steadily for two-decades and are forecast to decline an average 1.5% annually to 2025 (impacted by Covid-19). An AdvancingDiversity.org industry diversity census published earlier this year established media industry ethnic diversity at 14% among senior-level professionals and 24% among junior-level team members. Black professionals represent 6.5% of industry employees, with Black males representing only 1.6%

MediaVillage was founded in 2009 by Myers, a long-time industry consultant and executive at Metromedia Outdoor, ABC Radio and CBS-TV, with original funding from 12 media companies and agencies. Notes Myers: MediaVillage is the only organization that represents all industry constituencies and is dedicated solely to industry growth in a rising tide model.

Among MediaVillages newest initiatives:



As part of Myers series of Leadership Conversations, the MediaVillage Media Education Summit will take place on August 13 at 1:00pm ET. The webinars theme, The Future of Media, Marketing, Advertising & Journalism Education  for Industry Professionals, Educators, Students & Job Seekers, will feature Dean Mark Lodato, S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University; Dean Gracie Lawson-Borders, Howard University, Cathy Hughes School of Communications; Andrea Press, Media Studies Department Head, University of Virginia; plus a special keynote address.

As part of the organizations 10-year $100 million investment goal, it has launched an AI-based search tool at MeetingPrep.com to serve the knowledge needs of educators, job seekers, brand managers, and professionals across the media and advertising ecosystem.

MediaVillages new Watch, Listen and Learn platform provides member companies with audio and visual learning tools and resources for the creation and delivery of educational content to multiple under-served communities including brand executives, educators and students.

Currently, MediaVillage is home to more than 100 independent educational and diversity focused websites, many underwritten by leading companies and organizations, including the Ad Council, Association of National Advertisers, A+E Television Networks, a4/Altice, Active International, Ampersand, AT&T Media, Cadent, Comcast, Crown Media, Discovery Communications, DISH Media, Female Quotient, IPG, NBCU, National Public Media/NPR, Nielsen, NY Interconnect, Outfront, Pandora, Publicis Media, She Runs It, Spectrum Reach, Standard Media Index, UPtv/Aspire, Verizon, Vevo, ViacomCBS, Walt Disney Company, and The Weather Channel.

For more information, visit https://www.mediavillage.com/about-us/

For interviews with Jack Myers, or a copy of a White Paper on The Case for Education & Diversity as Tools for Business Growth on Marketing & Media, please contact Diane Stefani at diane.stefani19@gmail.com.

About MediaVillage:

MediaVillage is the media and advertising communitys leading education and diversity activist. Through our collective impact approach, we implement effective and cost efficient B2B growth solutions. For the past decade, MediaVillage, in collaboration with partners across the marketing ecosystem, has been developing innovative strategies for generating growth through education and diversity programs. Today, more than 150 companies, organizations and industry leaders are MediaVillage members. Follow @mediavillagecom (Twitter) @MediaVillageCom (Facebook) @advdiversity

About Jack Myers:

Jack Myers is founder of MediaVillage and is the nations leading Media Ecologist, a practice founded by Marshall McLuhan and advanced by his mentee, and Jacks mentor, Dr. Neil Postman. For more than 40 years, Jack has been singularly dedicated to identifying, developing, and introducing solutions to the challenges confronting media companies. Hes a noted expert on generational and gender shifts, the impact of technological advances on business economics, and the dynamics of business growth and decline. His background includes executive roles at CBS Television, ABC Radio, Metromedia Outdoor, Television Production Partners, and UTV Cable Network. Follow @jackmyersbiz
For President Trump and his campaign, the Portland protests and similar eruptions elsewhere are a dream come true. This is a president who, quite literally, has nothing to run on  no positive achievements to show. His only chance is that his adversaries will create opportunities for him. Lets be honest: The television footage of police ducking rocks, bottles and other debris plays directly into Trumps hands. A country that looks like its coming apart  American carnage, as Trump cynically called it during his 2017 inaugural speech  is the ruined turf on which he would like to fight for reelection in November.
MELBOURNE, Australia  When Victor Liong reopened his restaurant on AC/DC Lane in Melbournes city center in June, after months of a coronavirus shutdown order, he carefully considered his options.

Since its opening in 2013, Lee Ho Fook had been a restaurant that could cater to just about any occasion. You could stop in at the small bar tucked into the ground floor for chicken cracklings and a cocktail. Or you could head upstairs to the dining room, where your options ran from modern Chinese small plates to a grand feast of a whole roast duck served with a star anise and cinnamon sauce.

But with government distancing restrictions and a precarious financial situation, the calculation of doing business was not the same as it had been before the pandemic. In fact, the closing compelled Mr. Liong to reassess everything.
A Lamborghini Huracan.

Lamborghini

David T. Hines, of Miami, Florida, was charged in federal court on Monday with fraudulently obtaining $3.9 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans.

A criminal complaint accuses him of using the money to buy himself a $318,000 Lamborghini Huracan.

He also apparently went on a "spending spree" and bought "luxury jewelry" and "expensive clothes," The New York Times reported, citing officials.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

David T. Hines, a 29-year-old man in Miami, Florida, was charged in federal court with fraudulently obtaining $3.9 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans and then using the money to buy himself a 2020 Lamborghini Huracan, among other things.

Hines was charged with "one count of bank fraud, one count of making false statements to a financial institution and one count of engaging in transactions in unlawful proceeds," the US Department of Justice announced on Monday.

A complaint alleges that through applying from different companies, Hines tried to secure about $13.5 million in PPP loans. It accuses Hines of submitting loan applications with misleading and false statements about those companies' payroll expenses.

The aim of the program, part of the federal CARES Act enacted on March 29, is to give emergency financial help to Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the program, qualifying small businesses can apply for forgivable loans to cover expenses like job retention, payroll costs, mortgage interest, rent, and utilities.

Hines said in his PPP loan applications that he had four businesses with 70 employees and $4 million in monthly expenses, The New York Times reported. But an affidavit said that in reality, his monthly expenses totaled about $200,000.

The Justice Department said the complaint alleges that "within days of receiving the PPP funds," Hines went and bought a 2020 Lamborghini Huracan that cost about $318,000, "registered jointly in his name and the name of one of his companies."

Story continues

After he received the funds, Hines didn't make the payroll payments he said he would on his loan applications, the complaint alleges. Instead, he apparently went on a "spending spree" involving "luxury jewelry, expensive clothes, visits to resorts in Miami Beach and expenses on dating websites," The Times reported, citing officials.

Per the Times story:

Mr. Hines made two payments in May totaling $30,000 to a person listed as "Mom," officials said. The same month, he paid more than $4,000 to Saks Fifth Avenue. In June, Mr. Hines paid more than $7,000 to the Setai Hotel in Miami Beach, and $8,500 to the jewelry company Graff.

Hines faces up to 70 years in prison if he's convicted on all charges, an official told The Times.

An affidavit from a postal inspector said Hines' four businesses didn't have "any operating websites," the Times report said. The affidavit goes on to say that customers had complained that two other businesses of his conducted "bait-and-switch practices and other deceitful activities."

"Both businesses are F-rated businesses" on the Better Business Bureau's site, the affidavit says.

Hines' lawyer, Chad Piotrowski, said in a statement to The Times that Hines was "a legitimate business owner who, like millions of Americans, suffered financially during the pandemic" and was "anxious to tell his side of the story when the time comes."

The Justice Department said it had seized the Lamborghini and $3.4 million from bank accounts when Hines was arrested.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 22:31:04|Editor: huaxia

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TAIPEI, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Five people tested positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan on Tuesday, raising the island's total number of COVID-19 cases to 467, the local epidemic monitoring agency said.

Four of the new patients had boarded the same flight from the Philippines to Taiwan on July 26, while the other one had returned from Hong Kong on the same day, the agency said in a press release.

They were all tested for COVID-19 at the airport because of having suspicious symptoms before their trips to Taiwan, the statement said.

The agency also said that it has identified a total of 189 people who had contact with the Thai citizen who tested positive for COVID-19 on July 25 after returning from Taiwan to Thailand on July 21.

Only one of these people had suspicious symptoms and stayed in the hospital, though their COVID-19 test results have yet to be confirmed, it added. Enditem
Jordan Kazlow joined John Lewis' 2008 congressional campaign at 17, before she was old enough to cast a ballot.

That gave her something in common with her boss, who began his work toward becoming a civil rights icon around the same age.

"It was really meaningful to talk to him about him fighting for the vote before he was even old enough to vote," said Kazlow, 29, a lawyer in Dallas. "But that kind of commitment was inspiring. And the whole experience showed how important it was to him to get young people involved. His entire staff was under 25, and most between 16 and 20 years old."

For all the achievements of his 67 years of service, Lewis' commitment to inspiring the next generation of leaders and activists may be his most significant and lasting contribution.

As an activist fighting for racial equality, Lewis, at 23, was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Two years later, he put his body on the line for voting rights on "Bloody Sunday" on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, thinking he might be killed at 25.

Even before his work on the national stage, Lewis was a young preacher in his teens, and he led other students in anti-segregation work. But as he grew into an elder statesman of the civil rights movement, Lewis actively looked to young people, like Kazlow and others who worked in his office, to continue his work.

IMAGE: Rachelle O'Neil and John Lewis (Courtesy Rachelle O'Neil)

"We are the legacy of Congressman Lewis," said Rachelle O'Neil, who joined Lewis' staff as a constituent services representative when she was 32 and worked with him for 18 years. "He was committed to young people. The beautiful thing is that he started as a teenager. He believed in the young stepping up, taking action, making noise, fighting for what's right  that they have a moral responsibility to take stock in what their future is like. There are hundreds of us around the country who have been impacted by him."

Story continues

As the nation mourns Lewis' death from pancreatic cancer this month at age 80, with services throughout his home state of Alabama, as well as in Georgia, which he served in Congress since 1987, and in Washington, D.C., his countless proteges take it all in with admiration and gratitude.

"With Congressman Lewis, young people of all ages could come and work at the feet of a civil rights icon," O'Neil said. "At [Lewis] 65th birthday party, Harry Belafonte said they did not do enough to pass the baton to younger people to carry on the work. Congressman Lewis heard that and increased his efforts. You'd see him in May speaking at colleges and talking to students at schools, trying to bridge the gap from the civil rights movement to today's generation. He loved young people."

IMAGE: Jamesia James and John Lewis (Courtesy Jamesia James)

Jamesia James, 37, is running in a special election for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia. She said her campaign was directly influenced by her two years working on Lewis' staff.

"I was inspired by his dedication to people," James said. "I wasn't aware politicians could be so committed. I looked around at the photos on various walls in his office and saw over the years, all the work he had done.

"It made me feel I wasn't doing enough. He always talked about us young people picking up the torch, that we needed to be more involved, that it was on our shoulders. He was adamant about young people being committed. But it wasn't like he was a politician. It was like being around your grandfather. He spoke as if I had a job to do."

More than 20 years ago, Earle Burke, a lawyer in Atlanta, met Lewis at an event. They quickly formed a friendship. "Every opportunity I spent with the congressman I got a history lesson about laws I am fighting to enforce as a lawyer," Burke said. "He was truly a warrior for justice. He's been very helpful in guiding me and helping me to understand the workings of Congress.

"And if he could have hired every young person interested in politics and have them spend time with him in Congress, he would have."

IMAGE: Earle Burke and John Lewis (Coyrtesy Earle Burke)

Lewis often spoke of the importance of young people's role in fighting for justice. He once said: "I want to see young people in America feel the spirit of the 1960s and find a way to get in the way. To find a way to get into trouble. Good trouble. Necessary trouble."

His commitment to youth extended to the John Lewis Fellowship, which supports young grassroots activists in dismantling inequality, and his internship program for high school and college students. J.L. Invictus Academy is a middle school in Atlanta built and named after Lewis in 2017 with the ideals matching its namesake's of "persistence, self-mastery, and an unconquerable spirit."

Kazlow, who was in high school when she worked for Lewis, witnessed that spirit in his office.

"There was a parade we walked with Congressman Lewis," she said. "It was incredible. We had to pull him along to keep up with the parade. He stopped constantly, talking to people, shaking hands, taking pictures. It was a two-hour walk in miserable heat, and he spent most of that time stopping and talking to people, never complaining. And it wasn't a show. It was who he was."

Lewis served the 5th Congressional District of Georgia for more than three decades. He was a shoo-in every election cycle and ultimately did not have to expend much energy campaigning.

"And yet there he was, campaigning hard," Kazlow said. "He was up early in the morning, meeting people, handing out information. He was there at the phone banks. He showed us how important it is to show up, to not rest on your laurels."

IMAGE: March for Our Lives (Prince Williams / WireImage file)

Outside politics, Lewis was just as committed to the young people in his life. Burke said Lewis not only attended one of his birthday parties, but also spoke to Burke's daughter's middle school class and had her work as an intern in his office.

"He's getting pulled from all directions," Burke said, "but he took time to do those things, and I cherish that about him."

James said, "He was one of those people you didn't have to be around a lot to like and appreciate. When we were told he'd be in the office the next day, there was excitement. There was something to look forward to, because he always made time to spend quality time with everyone."

His mission was accomplished.

Related: Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon and fierce advocate of voting rights for African Americans, died on July 17 at the age of 80.

"Congressman Lewis allowed my level of fearlessness to grow," O'Neil said. "He was like a bonus dad to me. It was a blessing to work for a living, breathing icon. He taught me so much, including how to love the hell out of people. ...

"He was glad to see the new generation is taking the blueprint he and his cohorts established in the '60s. Black Lives Matter supporters are protesting in 50 states and 23 countries, willing to go to jail and willing to die. They learned that from the civil rights movement. And Congressman Lewis' message was: keep going."
ActionAid Nigeria (AAN), an international not-for-profit outfit, has expressed concerns over the spate of allegations of corruption in recent weeks rocking many Nigerian institutions saddled with the responsibility of addressing the poverty problems in the country.

The group, in a report entitled ActionAid Nigerias Position on Taming the Gale of Corruption in Nigeria seen by PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday, said the current trend of indictment corroborates its previous study that corruption contributes to the excruciating scourge of poverty in Nigeria.

We are really worried about the allegations and counter-allegations of corruption and the indictment of institutions and individuals saddled with the responsibilities of addressing the excruciating poverty problems in the Niger Delta regions as well as other parts of the country.

This current gale of accusations and indictments being experienced in the past one week further corroborates a study carried out by ActionAid Nigeria in 2015 revealing the strong correlation between corruption and poverty in Nigeria, ActionAid said.

In recent weeks, allegations of corruption had rocked the anti-corruption agency, EFCC, Niger Delta Development Commission (NCDC), and the Nigeria Social Investment Trust Fund (NSITF).

For instance, the House of Representatives NDDC committee last week interrogated the acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC, Kemebradikumo Pondei, and the Niger Delta minister, Godswill Akpabio, over alleged financial recklessness and extrabudgetary spending at the commission.

Also in the EFCC, the acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu, who was recently suspended, is currently being investigated by a panel headed by Ayo Salami, former president of the appeal court, over allegations of graft and insubordination levelled against him by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami. Mr Magu was detained for 10 days before his release.

After his arrest, allegations that he diverted billions of naira of recovered funds as well as the interests accruing from the funds circulated in the media. Mr Magu has repeatedly described the allegations as baseless.

There was also an allegation of misappropriation of N48 billion in the NSITF. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, made the allegations while appearing at an investigative hearing of the House of Representatives over the suspension of the management of the agency.

2030 SDGs Target a Threat

This development, the civic right group said, may stop Nigeria from achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goal is the centerpiece of the current global development agenda for a world free of poverty and deprivation and where the fundamental conditions for human survival are safeguarded.

The SDGs have 17 goals and 169 targets, that include no poverty, no hunger, good health, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, renewable energy, good jobs and economic growth, innovation, and infrastructure.

ANN added that Nigerias leadership crises may also unleash a new marque of militancy, economic downturn, trust deficits in governments as well as heighten poverty, and exacerbate inequality gap.

It appears corruption has taken a deeper root now manifesting

strongly in prebendalism, cronyism, contract splitting, diversion of funds, mismanagement, and misappropriation of scarce resources.

Recommendations

ActionAid Nigeria said corruption should be perceived and addressed as an anti-development issue in the country.

Governments at all levels should pay significant attention to social provisioning as a way of serving as disincentives for citizens to engage in corrupt behaviours.

The Federal Government should implement all aspects of the Procurement Act, including constituting and inaugurating the National Procurement Council. State

governments should also enact similar laws, where they do not exist, and ensure effective implementation.

The Office of the Attorney General should enforce compliance with the Freedom of Information Act across all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.

The Federal Government should ensure that all anti-corruption agencies are autonomous with functional boards for effective oversights and given all the powers and resources needed to discharge their mandates of fighting corruption.
A rupture in a pipeline in southwest Bulgaria on Monday halted the transit of Russian natural gas through Bulgaria to Greece, chief executive of state gas company Bulgartransgaz Vladimir Malinov said.



The accident did not pose a risk to the security of gas supplies in Greece, as the country continued to receive gas from a pipeline link with Turkey and its liquefied natural gas reserves were high, the Greek energy ministry said.



Malinov said there were no casualties in the accident, which damaged part of the pipeline close to the border with Greece but did not cause a fire. He said the company was already working to repair it.



"There was a rupture in the pipeline that was transporting gas under high pressure. The damaged section was automatically sealed off after a drop in pressure was registered," Reuters cited him as saying.



The reasons for the accident are yet to be fully investigated, but he said a technical problem was the most likely reason. In a separate statement, prosecutors said an initial survey at the site of did not show signs of human interference.
She became like mama, said Terence Gray, the churchs pastor who also served as a police chaplain. She could go into some communities, especially on Mercy Drive, that was filled with nothing but crime, where people got shot over there something like every other day. She went over there and took all of us as her supporters and had conversations with people and acted like mama. She was like You all know you can do better than this. 
Victorias health minister choked up as she revealed she was very distressed by the number of coronavirus outbreaks in aged care homes in the state and the rising number of fatalities.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Jenny Mikakos paused as she was delivering a coronavirus update when her voice began to break and quiver.

I personally have found the last week very distressing, she said.

I want to acknowledge the grief of all of those families who have lost a loved one, a very much loved member of their family in recent days.

Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos chokes up during a media briefing about the coronavirus. Source: Nine News

Ms Mikakos added the rising numbers largely in private aged care had been very, very concerning, with 86 cases linked to the St Basils Homes for the Aged in Fawkner in Melbournes north.

As of Tuesday there were a total of 769 coronavirus cases in aged care facilities. Of the six new deaths announced on Tuesday, four were connected to aged care homes.

From last week we have had a distressing situation at St Basils ... this is a facility that is very close of course to many members of the Greek community and I know they have been particularly distressed to see the rising toll of deaths as that facility, she said.

Ms Mikakos then took a moment to recompose herself as she looked down and cleared her throat.

Her voice quivered as she apologised to reporters and reached into her pocket  clearly emotional as she slightly sobbed into the microphones resting on the lectern in front of her.

She then took another pause and deeply exhaled before she continued her briefing.

384 new cases announced in Victoria

The emotional press conference comes as Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed 384 new cases and a further six deaths.

The deaths mean the state has recorded 38 fatalities from the virus in just six days and takes the states death toll to 83  almost half of Australias 167 COVID-19 deaths.

Mr Andrews on Tuesday said the new deaths were two people in their 90s, three aged in their 80s and one person in their 70s. Four of the six are linked to aged care facilities.

Story continues

Mr Andrews announced that all non-urgent category two elective surgery will be suspended in metropolitan Melbourne to free up hospital space and staff for at-risk aged care residents.

"I cannot stand here and tell you that I have confidence that staff and management across a number of private sector aged care facilities are able to provide the care that is appropriate to keep their residents safe," he told reporters.

Health Minister Jenny Mikakos says she is distressed by the number of cases linked to aged care facilities. Source: Nine News

Premier wouldnt want mum in aged care home

When asked if he would be comfortable putting his mother into a private aged care home, Mr Andrews said he would not.

Some of these stories I have heard are unacceptable and I wouldnt want my mum in any of these places, I just wouldnt, he said.

There are 80 outbreaks and 769 active cases of the virus in private aged care residences.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said there were 88 cases now at Estia Health Aged Care in Ardeer, 86 cases linked to St Basil's Homes for the Aged in Fawkner and 82 cases associated with Epping Gardens.

Seventy-six have been linked to Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes in Kilsyth, 62 cases linked to Menarock Life in Essendon and 53 connected to Glendale Aged Care in Werribee.

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.
New Delhi, July 28 : The Narendra Modi-led government has devised an overhaul of its advertising policy, whereby approximately 80 per cent of its newspaper advertising space will be given to dailies printed in Indian languages, keeping the remaining 20 per cent for English newspapers. This has been proposed in the Print Media Advertisement Policy of the Government of India.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said, "The above norms are indicative and should be adhered to in the overall media strategy of the Ministries/Departments to ensure maximum coverage at optimum cost." However, a window of "deviation" is kept open for government ministries, but they have to give a "detailed justification" for the same.

The I&B Ministry has articulated the policy through which 15 per cent of its newspaper advertising space can be given to smaller newspapers, 35 per cent to medium dailies and the rest 50 per cent to bigger newspapers. This, the ministry says, will ensure "balance".

The policy also defined which are the small, medium and big publications. Publications with a circulation of up to 25,000 copies per publishing day are considered "small". Publications with circulation between 25,001 and 75,000 copies per publishing day are considered "medium", while publications with circulation of above 75,000 copies per publishing day are considered "big".

Great considerations took place to give reprieve and level-playing field to the under-represented languages like Bodo, Dogri and Garhwali, among others.

While a publication "must be uninterruptedly and regularly under publication for a period of not less than 36 months" for it to be eligible to be considered for empanelment, it may be relaxed to six months for under-represented languages like Bodo, Dogri, Garhwali, Kashmiri, Khasi, Konkani and Maithili, among others.

Sources said this was driven by the government's desire to give adequate representation and a level playing field to regional and tribal language publications in a world of cut-throat competition.

Newspapers and periodicals published from the border areas like Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, among others, will also enjoy this benefit, the policy said.

In another significant move, the policy makes the Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC), which was set up on December 8, 2017 by integrating different departments, very powerful.

"The BOC would maintain a list of approved publications for release of advertisements by empanelling acceptable publications. The BOC would empanel only such publications which are found suitable for issuing advertisements of the Government of India," the ministry asserted.

The policy guideline also makes it clear that "government advertisements are not intended to be financial assistance to the publications".

The BOC is the nodal organisation for paid outreach campaigns through print media, electronic media, outdoor media, social media, websites etc. on behalf of client Ministries or Departments and organisations of the Government of India.

(Anindya Banerjee can be contacted at anindya.b@ians.in)
New Delhi: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who got all emotional after daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and granddaughter Aaradhya were discharged from Nanavati hospital recently penned his thoughts.

He wrote in his blog how his haters are sending inappropriate messages. Bachchan senior wrote: Hey Mr Anonymous .. you do not even write your Fathers name ,.. because you do not know who Fathered you .. there are only two things that can happen .. either I shall die or either I shall live .. if I die you wont get to write your diatribe anymore, by weathering your remark on a celebrity name .. pity .. for, the reason of your writing to be noticed was, because you took a swipe at Amitabh Bachchan .. that shall no longer exist .. !!

.. if by Gods grace I live and survive you shall have to be weathering the swipe storm , not just from me , but on a very conservative level, from 90+ million followers .. I have yet to tell them to .. but if I survive I shall .. and let me tell you they are a force incensed .. they traverse the entire World .. from the West to the East from the North to the South .. and they are not just the Ef of this page .. that extended family shall in the flash of an eye become extermination family .. !!!!

.. all I shall say to them is ..     

Read his full blog here:

Big B and son Abhishek Bachchan were hospitalised on July 11.

After their coronavirus tests, Bachchan residence 'Jalsa' was also declared a containment zone. However, over the weekend, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) removed the poster that declared Jalsa as a COVID-19 containment zone.
A woman who was arrested by police for failing to wear a face mask in Melbourne has returned to the police station to demand officers remove her name from their files.

Chantal, who is asthmatic, the latest in a series of anti-COVID-19 lockdown 'Karens' to emerge in Melbourne, claimed she was arrested by police on Friday because she was not wearing a face mask.

Everyone in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire is required to wear a face mask when leaving their homes since July 23 as Victoria battles to contain a rampant second wave of coronavirus infections. Those who don't without a lawful excuse can be fined $200.

Victoria recorded 384 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday and another six deaths - with the state now having had 84 deaths with 4,774 active cases.

'I was arrested for not wearing a mask,' Chantal told a Facebook livestream on Monday.

'I was handcuffed and taken down to a holding area where they searched my bag, went through all my belongings until they found my identification.

Chantal (pictured), who is asthmatic, said she was arrested by police on Friday because she was not wearing a face mask

'They took my identification without my consent, so I am about to serve them some paperwork.'

Chantal was joined by 'pandemic' lawyer Peter Little as she presented documents at Dandenong Police Station, in Melbourne's south-east, on Monday.

Mr Little wore a balaclava while Chantal used an animal print scarf to occasionally cover her mouth as she spoke.

'I'm serving them with a statutory declaration on my chronological order of the events of the 45 minutes of where it all took place, followed up by a notice of prohibition,' she said before entering the station.

'I'm hoping to just get my name off their records, that's the outcome I want today. I'm not interested in suing at this stage but maybe we can look at that later.'

In the 40-minute long livestream, Chantal is seen waiting inside the police station before speaking with an officer.

Pictured: Chantal speaks to a police officer at Dandenong Police Station on Monday

Chantal was joined by 'pandemic' lawyer Peter Little as she presented documents at Dandenong Police Station, in Melbourne's south-east, on Monday

She told viewers that she had a medical certificate for her asthma but it was not connected to her inability to wear a face mask.

'I have a black mold issue in my apartment and to get out of my lease I needed to go get a certificate from my GP to say that I have asthma,' she said.

'I had that documentation in my phone and it was not accepted because on the certificate it did not state that it was going to affect my ability to wear a mask.'

Chantal said the police officer questioned the severity of her asthma.

'He has no right to dictate what my medical condition is and what it allows me to do,' she said.

Mr Little filmed Chantal as she spoke to a police officer about filing her paperwork.

'There was a couple of things that happened that I wasn't very happy with, one being that I was detained under no law. I was detained because I did not provide my personal details,' she said.

'Which under this, I will read this out to you, is unlawful.'

Chantal said she was serving police a 'statutory declaration on my chronological order of the events of the 45 minutes'

Chantal then referred to a ruling from Justice Stephen Kaye in the Melbourne Supreme Court in November 2011.

He said it was an 'ancient principle of common law' that a person under arrest has no obligation to stop for police or answer their questions.

'I just wanted to read that out to you because I want to make sure my records are removed,' she said.

'I want to hand that over and make sure that my name is removed from your records.'

Chantal said she was 'shaking' as she spoke to the officer but she felt 'empowered' afterwards.

Residents in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire have been required to wear face masks when outside since Thursday July 23.
A patient receives a shot in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of a potential vaccine for COVID-19.

Associated Press

A comprehensive new study spanning 20 years and including 57 vaccines found they're "remarkably safe," especially compared to pharmaceuticals and other medical devices.

The study found safety-related labeling changes were largely minor, such as to note people with allergies to the vaccine should steer clear.

The results may comfort those worried about a coronavirus vaccine that the people responsible for making sure vaccines are safe and effective are competent.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A comprehensive new study spanning 20 years and 57 vaccines finds vaccines are "remarkably safe"  safer, in fact, than "almost any other modern medical intervention," lead author Dr. Daniel Shepshelovich told Business Insider.

For the study, he and other researchers at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center looked at the labels, including safety-related changes, of 57 vaccines that became FDA-approved between the beginning of 1996 and end of 2015.

They found there have been 58 label modifications among 25 vaccines due to minor safety issues. The most common reasons a label was updated, for example, were to indicate it shouldn't be used in certain populations (like pre-term infants) or to note people with an allergy to the vaccine should steer clear.

Only one vaccine was withdrawn for potential safety issues nine months after its approval.

The results demonstrate "the quality and thoroughness" of the FDA-approval and post-marketing surveillance processes, Shepshelovich said.

When similarly studying prescription drugs and medical devices, he and colleagues "came to expect an efficacy vs. risk tradeoff: a drug can help people and save lives, but at a cost of potential side effects," Shepshelovich said. "With vaccines, almost no significant side effects were identified, which I think is remarkable."

Story continues

The study also showed how effective the FDA's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System is

Most of the studied vaccines, all against infectious diseases, were approved after being shown safe and effective in randomized controlled trials, the "gold standard" of research methods. The median number of participants in those trials was 4,161, making them fairly large, boosting their credibility.

The research team also looked at hundreds of thousands of reports from the FDA's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a database of negative responses following vaccines, to see how well vaccines are continuously monitored even after they're shown to be safe and effective.

Of the 58 label modifications tracked over the 20-year-period, 95% were to include additional safety information, like to warn patients it's possible to faint after getting a shot.

Only one vaccine (a 1998 rotavirus vaccine) was withdrawn due to a rare (affecting somewhere between 1 in 5,000 to 1 in 10,000 infants) but potentially dangerous effect. The VAERS system helped flag it and have it removed from the market within a year.

Because the surveillance system is what tended to prompt the updated labels too, the researchers say their study shows it works, and works very well.

medical coronavirus flu virus covid19 hospital doctor nurse tools stethoscope blood pressure pills vitamins medicine pharmacy pharmaceutical lab vaccine cox 24

Crystal Cox/Business Insider

Jennifer Reich, a University of Colorado Denver sociology professor who studies vaccine-hesitant parents, told Business Insider VAERS is among several "rigorous" systems that monitor vaccines' safety and efficacy.

"Some allow for voluntary reporting and others electronic health record and billing data to examine more subtle things, like an increase in emergency room or doctor visits after vaccination that could signal a pattern or adverse reaction," she said.

"It is a shame that so few people know about these systems and understand how well vaccine safety continues to be monitored long after a vaccine is licensed."

Americans are increasingly vaccine-hesitant

Vaccine hesitancy has been on the rise in the US in recent years.

That's tragic, Shepshelovich said, because "vaccines are one of the greatest achievements of modern public health, saving countless lives and all but eliminating once prevalent diseases such as mumps, measles, and poliomyelitis."

"The current COVID-19 pandemic is a frightening reminder of life with contagious infectious diseases without an effective vaccine," he added.

But rather than drawing more to the pro-vaccine camp, the pandemic has turned up even more skeptics. A May poll, for one, found that only about half of Americans would get a coronavirus vaccine, should one become available, while 31% were unsure.

Shepshelovich said he doesn't expect his study, which included all pre-coronavirus data, to change all vaccine skeptics' minds. But he hopes it may influence some who are looking to legitimate evidence to develop their stance.

"I would tell vaccine-hesitant people that the science and the evidence are clearer on vaccine safety than on almost any other modern medical intervention. The benefits are huge. And the risk is very very small," Shepshelovich said.

He also said his study underscores the competence of teams responsible for making sure vaccines are safe and effective before making it to market and beyond.

"We showed that the people in charge of approving, regulating, and following vaccines have proved that they can be trusted with this responsibility," Shepshelovich said. "They have done this many times before."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Jayesh Patel said farmers from south Gujarat wanted him to join the BJP so that he can serve the people in a better way.

Ahmedabad: Gujarat farmer leader Jayesh Patel, who has been at the forefront of protests against the upcoming Bullet Train project, on Monday joined the BJP.

Patel said affected farmers had never been against development and he realised that dialogue with the government is a better way to resolve issues.

He was welcomed in the party at its headquarters in Gandhinagar by state unit chief CR Paatil and minister Ganpat Vasava.

Surat-based Patel, a prominent name in the cooperative sector in south Gujarat, heads Dakshin Gujarat Khedut Samaaj.

Several protests were held by farmers under Patel in Surat, Navsari and Valsad districts demanding better compensation for their land being acquired for the ambitious project that aims to connect Mumbai with Ahmedabad.

Farmers had also filed petitions in the Gujarat High Court against land acquisition.

These petitions were, however, discarded by the HC last year.

"I realised that instead of agitation, farmers'' issues can be resolved in a much better way by holding talks with the government. I am confident that my step to join the BJP will eventually benefit farmers," Patel told reporters.

He said farmers had been mainly demanding higher compensation for their land and had never been against development per se.

Patel claimed farmers in Olpad taluka in Surat received a higher compensation after he held talks with Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Revenue Minister Kaushik Patel.

"We will now try to resolve issues faced by farmers in Navsari and Valsad district through a dialogue with the government. Farmers are ready to cooperate," he added.

Meanwhile, Patil said farmers from south Gujarat wanted Patel to join the BJP so that "he can serve the people in a better way".

Of the 508.17-km-long bullet train corridor, 155.76 km will be in Maharashtra, 348.04 km in Gujarat and 4.3 km in Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
OPINION: "Despite what all Arizonans desperately want, we cant have in-person schooling this fall. Unless, of course, were willing to think outside the box. Or in this case, outside the building," writes our local columnist Renee Schafer Horton.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- PathogenDx, Inc., an Arizona based technology company which has developed an ultra-accurate DNA-based customized pathogen testing platform for the food, agricultural and health sectors, announced today that the company has been awarded a federal grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under their Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostic (RADx) program. The resources will be used to increase the testing capacity of PathogenDx's DetectX-Rv Microarray Assay for COVID-19 testing to a national level.

The NIH launched the RADx initiative with the mission to make millions of tests available to Americans, especially those most vulnerable and disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, by late summer of this year. It was established to propel innovation in the development, commercialization and implementation of technologies for COVID-19 testing. The RADx program funds projects working on new applications of existing technologies that make tests easier to use, easier to access and more accurate.

"We are honored to receive a federal grant from the NIH under their RADx program. The infusion of capital will help bring our microarray tests to the broader population during a time when we need it most," said Milan Patel, CEO of PathogenDx. "The NIH and UMass Medical School partnership is an incredibly synergistic collaboration working to develop innovative testing technologies to address not just the COVID-19 testing challenge, but also to prepare for the next wave. Technologies like our DetectX-Rv microarray will be critical when facing the predicted uptick in the fall in addition to the extra challenge of distinguishing different symptoms such as the flu and common cold, in addition to COVID-19."

PathogenDx's DetectX-Rv Microarray Assay for COVID-19 testing is a multiplex viral diagnostic assay for the detection of SARS-CoV-2, and is currently in the process of receiving FDA authorization. The test delivers better sensitivity and specificity than current qRT-PCR FDA-authorized COVID-19 tests while also detecting COVID-like-viruses and subsequent mutations from SARS-CoV-2, making it one of the most extensive tests in the industry. With a multiplex system, thousands of samples can be tested each day, the level necessary and needed in terms of population-level testing, as well as opening up the economy in a risk-mitigated fashion.

This project is supported by the NIH Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) program and has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Grant No. 3U54HL143541-02S1.

About PathogenDx

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, PathogenDx's mission is to become the new standard in DNA-based testing through widespread adoption of its advanced micro array testing platform for the agriculture, food and health diagnostics industries. PathogenDx's technology can rapidly identify and detect up to multiple pathogens all in a single test, in 6 hours providing triplicate data per analyte for certainty in results with a simple and easy process. The company's DNA-testing products  DetectX, QuantX, and EnviroX are disrupting the century-old practice of petri-dish testing and qRT-PCR molecular platform to identify, detect and quantify pathogens. This technology will help growing businesses deliver safer products to the market, and ensure healthier lives by identifying infections earlier, ultimately saving millions of dollars to the industries it serves.

PathogenDx Media Contact:

MATTIO Communications

[email protected]

SOURCE PathogenDx

Related Links

https://pathogendx.com


SUSTAINABILITY

Trump Stands in Way of Protecting our Planet. It's up to the next President.

July 23, 2020













By S. David Freeman, Former Chairman of Tennessee Valley Authority and John J. Berger, Sustain Europe U.S. Correspondent

Former President Barack Obama and Former Vice President Joe Biden during a campaign event at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois IMAGE: Daniel Schwen

The epic ongoing infernos in Australia and the Amazon along with so many other telltale signs of climate disruption are but a few of Mother Natures ever-more-urgent wake-up calls. Her message is now unmistakable: We need to phase out fossil fuels on a rapid timetable, starting now. The UN has reported that if we continue with business as usual, we can expect an intolerable global heating of 5 degrees Celsius by 2100. So finally, we are out of time. In the U.S., however, a huge obstacle stands in the way. President Donald Trump is not going to sign any meaningful climate legislation. The nation therefore needs to look beyond the current administrations climate obstructionism. We must start considering laws now that ultimately outlaw fossil fuels. Otherwise, America will be unprepared to take bold meaningful climate action in 2021. Yes, the Democratic candidates for president are promising an end to fossil fuels by 2050 or sooner. But none is proposing specific legislation that will get us started toward that goal in 2021. Proposing to end climate pollution decades from now is not a profile in courage. Our emissions of fossil-fuelled greenhouse gases are continuing to increase.

Air Tanker 76 out of the Hemet Ryan Air Attack Base drops fire retardent on the 2017 Opera Fire in Riverside, Southern California IMAGE: Dave Toussaint

Scientists today are warning that we must begin slashing emissions now and get it done in a decade or so. The proposed Green New Deal points in the right direction. But to realize the massive shift to renewable energy at the heart of it, we urgently need powerful federal action. We urge that the candidates for President debate and support  and the next Congress enact  the following new federal mandates: First, require all new power plants to use zero-emission renewable energy technologies and all utilities to reduce all existing carbon pollution from power plants by 8.5% of 2020 emissions per year so as to reach zero in 12 years. Second, require that all new buildings must be powered entirely by renewable energy by 2022. All existing buildings should, by law, be required to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5% of 2020 emissions per year.

The 550 MW 9 million-panel Topaz Solar farm in California IMAGE: Michael Layefsky

A third law would address transportation pollution. Just as in Norway and the Netherlands, all new cars, trucks or buses sold in the U.S. must by law be zero-emission by 2030. Starting in 2021, at least 10% of each auto manufacturers vehicles sold should be zero-emission, increasing 10% a year to 100% in 2030. For the next five years, a $10,000 federal tax credit or prorated subsidy would be provided for EV vehicles of $40,000 or less. A steadily increasing federal surcharge of $1,000 each year increasing to a maximum of $10,000 should be added to the price of new fossil-fuelled vehicles. Cash payments should be paid to hasten the scrapping of gasoline vehicles. Fourth, a Federal Railroad Electrification Authority should be enacted with the duty to finance and build an all-electric rail system connecting the major U.S. cities.

A Tesla Model 3 in action IMAGE: Thomas Hawk

Fifth, by Jan. 1, 2025, airlines should be required to reduce their fleet GHG emissions by 5% of 2020 emissions each year until they reach zero through the use of greater efficiency, renewable fuels, and hybrid or electric propulsion if available. Sixth, a national Green Bank should be created to provide loans to finance the investments needed to implement all of the various mandates we propose, including low-to-zero interest loans to cement, steel, and other industries to modernize and decarbonize their production. These federal investments would more than pay for themselves over time by making these industries more efficient and competitive. Seventh, because a great deal of CO2 persists in the atmosphere long after it is discharged, just zeroing out annual carbon emissions will not immediately stop the ongoing heating of the planet. We therefore also propose a national carbon credit plan for farmers, ranchers, foresters, other resource managers and private investors to be eligible for tax credits or payments of up to $100 for each properly certified ton of carbon removed from the atmosphere.

Former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as Martin Luther King Jr., and others look on IMAGE: Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum
The Republican-led Senate unveiled its nearly $1 trillion coronavirus relief plan Monday, more than two months after the Democrat-majority House introduced a $3 trillion stimulus package, and an online calculator has been made available so people can see how much money they may be able to get.

The Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act was announced by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday and differs from the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act proposed by House Democrats in mid-May in the amount of aid it is expected to provide.

Like the HEROES Act and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that was signed into law in late March, the HEALS Act is expected to provide $1,200 relief checks to single taxpayers who make up to $75,000 annually.

Married taxpayers who file jointly and make up to $150,000 will also get $2,400 from the new stimulus package, with Americans incomes being determined by their 2019 or 2018 returns.

One difference from the COVID-19 relief bill from March is that the HEALS Act will provide $500 to taxpayers for each dependent, regardless of whether they are an adult or a child. The CARES Act previously only allowed the additional funds for dependents 17 years old and younger.

The new definition of dependents was used in the HEROES Act introduced by the House and may expand the number of eligible dependents by at least 26 million people, according to the American Enterprise Institute.

Differing from the HEROES Act, which proposed extending the soon-expiring $600 weekly unemployment insurance to the end of the year, the Republican-backed HEALS Act introduced a $200 weekly federal benefit.

Many members of the GOP argued the $600 Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation benefit was too much aid and caused a disincentive for people without jobs to to head back to work. Democrats are still holding out hope for the full $600, though.

The HEALS Act is expected to go through one more round of negotiations in Congress before it hits Republican President Donald Trumps desk for final approval.

In the mean time, a new calculator posted online by the startup company Omni Calculator allows individuals to see how much aid they qualify for under the new HEALS Act.

The company noted Congress has only until Aug. 7 to agree on a final bill, as the Senate is scheduled to go on its roughly month-long summer recess after that date.

You might be asking yourself: will I be eligible for the new stimulus check?, Omni Calculators website says. Theres no need to leaf through the new bill - all you have to do is use our calculator, and youll see how much you can receive!

Use the calculator below:

Second Stimulus Check Calculator (HEALS Act)

Related Content:

Coronavirus stimulus proposed by Senate Republicans reduces weekly unemployment boost from $600 to $200

Time is running out on coronavirus stimulus, says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, pressing Republicans for negotiations

Republican senators to introduce coronavirus stimulus package, including $1,200 checks, on Monday

Second stimulus checks of $1,200, reduced unemployment aid in latest Republican coronavirus aid package

Second stimulus check confirmed, Treasury says payments will be the same as the first
DAVIS, Calif., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Evolve BioSystems announced today that Dr. Minhthy Nguyen, PhD, has joined the company as Senior Vice President, Research & Development. Dr. Nguyen joins the company in anticipation of the pending announcement of positive results from several large clinical studies, positioning the company for a material leap forward in the infant health space.

Dr. Nguyen is a veteran of the infant nutrition industry with an extensive background that includes leadership positions at Abbott Nutrition and Dupont Nutrition & Health. Since 2016, he has served as Vice President, Global Innovation & Scientific Affairs, and The Americas R&D at Mead Johnson Nutrition (now Reckitt Benckiser). Dr. Nguyen is a graduate of University of California, Davis, where he earned a BS in Biochemistry, as well as The Ohio State University where he earned his doctorate in Food Science and Nutrition.

"I am thrilled to join Evolve on three fronts. First, the scope and magnitude of our organization's potential to impact global infant health is both inspiring and humbling. Second, the strength of our breakthrough science via research collaborations with world-renowned institutions and investigators is unrivaled and more importantly, unique in elucidating the critical role of activated B. infantis EVC001 (Evivo ). Finally, the opportunity to be a member of the Evolve team, one that continues to pioneer the betterment of infant health through resolving infant gut dysbiosis, is not only a privilege but also an honor," says Dr. Nguyen.

Tim Brown, Evolve BioSystems's CEO, states, "It has been a great pleasure building this company from early launch of our first infant products to where we are today, now with millions of feedings of Evivo to newborns. Having Minhthy bring his deep expertise in infant nutrition research and product development at this inflection point of our company significantly bolsters our ability to improve the lifetime health trajectory of babies worldwide."

About Evolve BioSystems, Inc.

Evolve BioSystems, Inc. is a privately held microbiome company dedicated to researching solutions to establish, restore, and maintain a healthy gut microbiome. Evolve is a portfolio company of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Horizons Ventures, the venture division of the Li Ka Shing Foundation. Evolve is a spin-off from the Foods for Health Institute (FFHI) at the University of California, Davis and builds on more than a decade of research into understanding the unique partnership of the infant gut microbiome and breast milk components.

SOURCE Evolve BioSystems
The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Hon Cynthia Mamle Morrison, has condemned in no uncertain terms, the gruesome murder of a 90-year old woman whose name has been given as Dente Akua, who was lynched at Kafaba, a village in the East Gonja Municipality on suspicion of witchcraft.



According to the Minister, her outfit received the video showing the gruesome lynching of the old woman which was making rounds on social media with grave shock and revulsion. She described the incident as barbaric and said, it shook the very foundation of human sensibility.



In a statement issued by the Gender Ministry on Saturday, May 25, 2020, and signed by Hon Cynthia Mamle Morrison, the Ministry is calling for immediate investigations and prosecution of all the perpetrators of the gruesome murder.



The Ministry, on behalf of the Government and People of Ghana, unreservedly condemns this barbaric act, and calls for immediate investigations and prosecution of all the perpetrators of this gruesome murder in accordance with our laws, the statement said in parts.



READ THE FULL STATEMENT BELOW:



GENDER MINISTRY CONDEMNS THE GRUESOME LYNCHING OF AN OLD WOMAN AND CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION



The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has noted with grave shock and incalculable revulsion, a video making rounds on social media showing a 90-year old woman being lynched on suspicion of witchcraft leading to her unfortunate death.



This unfortunate incident, which is said to have occurred at a village called Kafaba in the East Gonja Municipality of the Savannah Region, has, rightly so, shaken the very foundation of our sensibility as humans.



The Ministry, on behalf of the Government and People of Ghana, unreservedly condemns this barbaric act, and calls for immediate investigations and prosecution of all the perpetrators of this gruesome murder in accordance with our laws.



It certainly cannot be said that such antiquated mentality could still be with us in this 21st century where the world and Ghana in particular has made significant strides in upholding the rights and dignity of women.



...Signed...



Hon Cynthia Mamle Morrison (Mrs)

Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection (MP)







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.

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A woman checks for hidden cameras in a restroom at a community center in Yongsan, Seoul, in this March 8, 2017 photo. Korea Times photo by Hong In-ki



By Bahk Eun-ji



Concerns are rising over regional education offices' alleged negligence in identifying the possible existence of hidden cameras in elementary, middle and high schools nationwide, according to data submitted to Rep. Bae Jun-young of the main opposition United Future Party by the Ministry of Education, Tuesday.



According to the data submitted, 170 cases of illegal recording using hidden cameras have been reported in schools across the country since 2017. Among them, five cases were reported between January and July this year, 65 in 2019, 55 in 2018 and 53 in 2017.



By region, 88 cases were reported in Seoul, 26 in Busan, 22 in North Gyeongsang Province, 15 in South Jeolla, 13 in Incheon, 10 in South Chungcheong, and two in Gwangju and South Gyeongsang Province, respectively.



Recently, the education ministry said it had begun to conduct a "full-scale" inspection of elementary, middle and high schools across the country, in cooperation with 17 regional education offices, after two teachers in Gimhae and Changnyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, were found to have installed hidden cameras in bathrooms of the schools they worked at.



The MOE plans to draw up comprehensive measures based on the inspection results, but many educators as well as parents voiced concerns that a one-off inspection would not be enough to determine the scale of the problem nor prevent such crimes being committed against school children.



Many regional education offices were found not to have maintained records of hidden camera cases, meaning the actual number of crimes could be much higher.



In the case of Incheon Metropolitan City Office of Education, it was confirmed that the office didn't have data related to the cases for 2019 and this year. In addition, other educational offices including Gyeonggi, Gangwon and Daejeon were not even included in the statistics as they didn't have data of any crimes after 2017.



However, according to the data released by the National Police Agency, 173 cases of hidden cameras found in schools were reported in 2018 alone, with 115 reported in 2017. The education ministry can hardly avoid criticism over their negligence toward the illegal filming crimes so far, according to observers.



The education ministry asked the regional education offices to conduct inspections with the assistance of the police, but suggested teachers should take the lead in the inspections.



Some pointed out that teachers may not be able to detect hidden cameras without related expertise, and the inspections will end up wasting tax payers' money.



"As far as we know, teachers are still conducting inspections at least in schools in Gyeonggi Province. The MOE ordered the inspection due to the crimes committed by teachers in schools they worked at, and yet they made teachers do this work," said Yang Min-ju, a chairman of the female committee of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union.



"Considering that, we cannot be sure that the education ministry truly wishes to root out such crimes in schools," Yang said.



An education ministry official said, "We will check the results of the ongoing inspection into illegal filming crimes next month, and based on the results, we will come up with measures focusing on establishing a system of both regular and random inspections."



He said once the education ministry creates an inspection system, it will be able to manage the regional office educations' performance of the inspection. The Ministry of Education recently asked 17 regional education offices across the country to conduct full-scale inspections by the end of this month.


TDT | Manama

Shura Council chairman Ali bin Saleh Al Saleh said that the Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa Award for outstanding Bahraini doctors in medical and treatment research reflects the support and care for medical staff in Bahrain in the prosperous reign of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

The Shura chairman noted the allocation by His Royal Highness the Prime Minister of $200,000 for the award and the celebration of Bahraini Doctors Day in November. He pointed out that the awards two categories will contribute to innovation and creativity in therapeutic, clinical and medical research and to the development of medical research for the improvement of the quality of health services.

The chairman added that Bahraini doctors are a source of pride to the society, thanks to their great efforts and sacrifices made for the country, particularly in such times when the world is suffering from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. He also stressed that the Bahraini Doctors Day will motivate medical staff to exert greater efforts to improve the health sector in the Kingdom.
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A detailed analysis report of the Global Car Rental 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.

Car rental implies to cars taken on rent for some hours or days for travelling purposes. Tourism is an essential part of life for the modern society. Rental cars allow tourists or local people to easily get to their destination in their desired way and time. Rental cars provide facilities according to the needs and desires of consumers and the vendors of this business are continuously trying better ways to serve their customers. Rental car vendors in order to increase their market provide attractive services to their customers like pre-booking of cars, easy payment methods and easy cancellation without any charge.

Geographically global car rental market is segmented as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America and Middle East and Africa. North America due to its developed market is the most prominent region for global car rental market. U S is the major region responsible for its growth. Asia Pacific is the most rapidly growing developing economy for the global car rental market. Historical places and beautiful monuments regions like India and China attract a lot of tourists around the world and in turn fuels the growth of this market. Europe is also a developed market showing consistent and rapid growth. Latin America and MEA are newer regions in this market and are expected to show steady growth for the forecast.

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Key players in the global car rental market are:

Eco Rent A Car

Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Avis Budget Group

Carzonrent

Six Rent A Car

Hertz Corporation

SEGMENTATIONS IN REPORT:

Car Rental By Vehicle Type

Luxury Cars

Executive Cars

Economy Cars

SUVs

MUVs

Car Rental Market By Application

Local Usage

Air Transport

Outstation

Others

Car Rental Market By Geography

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East And Africa

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Chapter 4 Car Rental Market Value Chain Analysis

Chapter 5 Car Rental Market Analysis By Vehicle Type

Chapter 6 Car Rental Market Analysis By Application

Chapter 7 Car Rental Market Analysis By Geography

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has appeared in public only four times since his heart surgery in April. Meanwhile his younger (31-year-old) sister Kim Yo Jong has received several promotions and is portrayed as a senior official who is making a lot of decisions. There is much to do and more of those problems are showing up in the capital, which is no longer isolated from all the miseries common in the rest of the country.

The key problem is the declining economy caused by sanctions and made worse by border restrictions in response to the covid19 threat. The shortages are so severe that even the capital is visibly suffering from it. In addition, over a decade of deferred infrastructure maintenance has led to problems with utilities (water, sanitation, power and building repairs). The capital was always the one place where these problems did not exist. Ever since Kim Jong Un took power there was more emphasis on mobilizing all resources to build a growing number of prestige projects, including a ski resort. This led to less maintenance of less visible systems, like public utilities. That eventually catches up with you and in North Korea it is catchup time and even needed prestige projects, like a new hospital in the capital, cannot be built on time because there is not enough of too many essential items.

Recession

A few months ago, it appeared that the South Korean GDP would shrink less than two percent in 2020 and there would be robust normal growth in 2021. The economic data for the first six months of 2020 now indicate otherwise. During the first three months GDP was down 1.2 percent compared to first quarter 2019. The second quarter was worse, down 3.3 percent compared to 2019. The economy is now in recession and the 16.6 drop in exports in the second quarter is serious because exports are crucial to economic growth and export customers are not increasing orders. Currently it looks like GDP will decline more than two percent for the year and 2021 may not be the boom year it was earlier expected to be.

North Korean economic problems are much worse and continue to multiply with covid19 adding to the sanctions related problems. North Korea is going through the worst economic crises since the famine years of the 1990s. GDP is expected to shrink by at least seven percent in 2020. What little cash available is going to food imports. In April North Korea brought in five times as much Russian grain as it did in April 2019. There is growing hunger in North Korea and it is visible. Chatter, video and photos still get out of the country and documents the growing lack of food. Foreign analysts estimate that at least 40 percent of North Koreans are going hungry. The government is trying to provide large scale deaths from starvation and so far, has succeeded.

July 25, 2020: For the first time North Korea (as in Kim Jong Un) admitted it had someone in the country with covid19. The patient was described as a South Korean who was actually a North Korean that had been in South Korea for three years and got homesick. He allegedly sneaked across the DMZ (the most heavily guarded border on the planet) and turned himself in to North Korean police on July 19th. South Korea is investigating the veracity of this incident and why it occurred now. The North Korean man was soon identified as a 24-year-old from Kaesong City (near the DMZ) who got to South Korea in 2017 but had problems adjusting to life in the south. He appears to have got back to North Korea by swimming up the east coast. He may have been spotted and picked up by a North Korean patrol boat. The announcement of this first case was followed by additional travel restrictions in towns and cities near the South Korean border, starting with Kaesong City.

This announcement is seen as a North Korean call for offers of foreign aid to deal with their current crises and their first case of covid19. The reality is that North Korea has had cases of covid19 since at least February. Back then there was an incident in the northwest (North Pyongan Province) where a man died from what officials described a pneumonia. Others involved identified the man as a successful smuggler who often travelled to China and back legally and illegally. He was widely believed to have died of covid19. This would not be unusual because North Pyongan Province contains 12 percent of the national population, and an even larger portion of GDP. It is the site of most trade with China, and most smuggling as well. Several days later the government basically put the provincial capital (Sinuiju) on lockdown with few people allowed to enter or leave the city. Sinuiju is on the Yalu River across from the Chinese city of Dandong. At that point at least seven cases of covid19 had been identified in Dandong, the city though which passes over 60 percent of the legal trade between China and North Korea. There have been other cases of covid19 accidentally imported from China since then but North Korea prevented the virus from spreading. The lockdown measures weakened an already crippled economy and increased poverty, hunger and cases of poor health brought on by so many shortages. Despite North Korean insistence that they were virus free most North Koreans wore face masks and the street chatter seemed to take it for granted that covid19 was in North Korea, but had not yet spread far.

July 23, 2020: Covid19 is considered such a major threat that the Central Committee of the Workers (communist) Party did something unprecedented by sending a letter to all officials in the provinces bordering China, including commanders of border guard and other military and police units. The letter pleaded with these officials to do more about the smuggling and the risk of bringing covid19 into North Korea. These officials had already received, several times, more strongly worded messages to do more about the smuggling but that has not eliminated the problem. The letter asks border officials to think of the welfare of the entire country and not just themselves. Normally the Central Committee, which contains 235 senior officials of the North Korean government, issues orders, not requests.

There is apparently panic in the Central Committee about the resurgence of the covid19 threat across the northern border in China. North Korea has already taken extraordinary efforts to halt smuggling this year, mainly because there were several instances of covid19 infected smugglers getting into North Korea with the potential for spreading the disease. Apparently, most of those smugglers with covid19 were discovered and promptly executed. While covid19 is basically another influenza type disease with a higher death rate (about 0.6 percent versus 0.1 or 0.2 percent for the annual flu) there is not enough modern medical care in North Korea to deal with a major outbreak of covid19. When covid19 shows up about ten percent of the infected population actually show symptoms, feels very sick and those who are already suffering from an illness (including old age) are the most likely to die. This has the few thousand senior officials, and their families, terrified. The officials dont want to die and their families know they lose their privileged lifestyle because of such deaths. This has motivated the military, secret police and border guards in general to be more effective (and less willing to take a bribe) at the border.

To encourage that trend punishments are more frequent and more severe for those caught or even suspected or bad behavior. Border security personnel are being fired (discharged from the secret police or senior jobs) and units disbanded if there are signs of slack behavior (taking bribes from smugglers). Border security has never been so tight, at least not in living memory. You can sometimes hear this, as North Korea border guards are now more frequently opening fire on those (Chinese or North Korean) suspected of engaging in smuggling. This has led to some diplomatic problems with China as several recent gunshot victims, including one fatality, were Chinese.

Despite all these measures it is still possible to bribe your way across the border. The bribes are larger and it takes a little longer to find someone willing to take the bribe and look the other way.

Chronic shortages of food and medicine have led to more of the general population being susceptible to a fatal case of covid19. This has led to more general fear of covid19 than in China or South Korea. The greatly reduced flow of smuggled goods is notable in the markets where Chinese and South Korean consumer goods are much more expensive because of the shortages. Many items, like Chinese cell phones, have doubled in price. The Chinese cell phones have also received more attention as the government increased efforts to catch and punish people found using those phones near the border to make illegal calls to the outside world. Those calls are still being made but there are fewer of them and they are often very brief. In many cases texting has replaced voice calls, even though voice is preferred because of its importance in maintaining personal relationships across the border. The news is still getting out, and in, just more slowly and with fewer details.

July 22, 2020: Trade between North Korea and China declined 70 percent during the first five months of 2020. This is according to official data. There has been some smuggling, which China does not disrupt as in the past. But on the North Korean side of the border there have been seriously effective efforts to reduce smuggling, mainly because of the risk of bringing in covid19. The reduction in legal and illegal trade had reduced North Korean cash reserves and caused unprecedented shortages throughout the country.

July 16, 2020: American media revealed that two years ago the U.S. president had secretly given the CIA permission to take more aggressive action against hacker groups that have been responsible for attacks on the United States. This seems to explain a number of unexplained incidents were hacker groups had identities of members revealed or their operations sabotaged or disrupted. The CIA, NSA and Department of Defense had long been asking for this authority. Granting it to the CIA allowed the CIA to bring in NSA and Department of Defense experts for joint operations. Russian hackers have been responsible for a lot of the successful hacking operations inside the United States. Chinese, North Korean and Iranian hackers have also been active and they are also on the CIA target list.

July 10, 2020: No more disarmament negotiations. Kim Yo Jong made it official by announcing any more negotiations with the United States over disarmament, including meetings with the American president would be impractical as long as the U.S. supported economic sanctions on North Korea because of the missiles and nuclear weapons programs.

July 2, 2020: Kim Yo Jong was made a full member of the politburo (a committee of senior officials that, technically, runs North Korea). This comes three months after Kim Yo Jong was made an alternate (candidate) member of the politburo. That occurred when it apparently became clear that supreme leader Kim Jong Un was in declining or precarious health. His younger sister had been quietly groomed for these senior jobs since 2012 when, at the request (or order) of her older brother she agreed to get serious about the family business (ruling North Korea) because with the ascent of Kim Jong Un to power she was the heir apparent, successor or crown princess and the job was hers to lose. The sister has turned out to be as determined and ruthless as her brother, father and grandfather, or at least enough to satisfy most of the senior leadership.

July 1, 2020: In North Korea all school buildings were officially sealed, after two days of disinfecting, for an early vacation starting today. Special trains were arranged to take all university students home. This is part of an effort to halt the spread of covid19, which has broken out again across the border in northeast China.
The entire population of a Spanish village with just 200 residents has been put into quarantine today after a 12-year-old girl tested positive for coronavirus.

The mayor of Sotillo de las Palomas says most of its residents are elderly and fall into the high-risk category, meaning he cannot take any chances with their health.

He has asked everyone to stay at home for at least ten days after one of the few young residents, a 12-year-old girl, developed Covid-19.

It is not known how the girl contracted the virus but tests are being carried out on other children she has been in contact with.

The entire population of Sotillo de las Palomas (pictured), a Spanish hamlet with just 200 residents, has been put into quarantine after a 12-year-old girl tested positive for coronavirus

Mayor Fernando Resino Carrillo says the vast majority of the 200 residents fall into the risk category because of their age and he is worried that the virus might spread.

The girl, who is isolated at home, has not needed hospital treatment while the relatives in her household have not shown symptoms but are awaiting test results.

The Ministry of Health of Castilla-La Mancha has also started tracking people who may have been in contact with this family in recent days.

In the decree issued by the mayor, he asks residents to 'voluntarily confine themselves for at least ten days, limiting daily activities [such as going to the shop or the pharmacy] to one person in the home.'

The mayor says not to go out unless it is for an urgent reason and to take extreme health precautions, especially in homes with children.

Anyone with coronavirus symptoms is also being asked to tell the health authority. Residents have also been urged to avoid social gatherings, stick to social distancing and wear masks.

Spain saw a jump of 6,361 new cases over the weekend, compared to weekend increases of 4,581 announced last Monday and 2,045 the week before

The streets of Sotillo de las Palomas are already reported to be empty as residents heed the advice.

At the last count, the hamlet had 201 residents. In the 1950s, Sotillo de las Palomas had close to 700 residents but less than a third remain because people have moved on to new homes elsewhere in Spain or abroad.

Spain as a whole is facing new travel restrictions imposed by Britain and Germany among others after a new spike in cases in the country.

Germany today told its citizens not to go on holiday in Catalonia, Aragon or Navarre in northern Spain, while Britain has declared the whole country off-limits.

Britain's travel warning was extended to the Balearic and Canary Islands yesterday after initially applying only to the mainland.

Spanish figures released on Monday showed 6,361 new cases since Friday, compared to a weekend jump of 4,581 last week and 2,045 the week before.

The country has recorded 278,782 deaths and 28,434 deaths in total.
Telstra has accused rival Singtel Optus of misleading customers over the size and quality of its mobile network in a new court case that re-ignites a long-standing dispute between the telco carriers.

Last week, Telstra launched legal action against Optus over a series of advertisements that focus on improvements to national and state coverage which have the tagline "covering more of Australia than ever before". Telstra is alleging that the ads - which include video clips of people at locations such as the beach, a farm and a vineyard - suggest that Optus' network covers more of Australia than all other providers.

Telstra and Optus are back in court over which has the more extensive mobile network Credit:Glenn Campbell

Telstra runs the country's largest mobile network, which reaches 99.5 per cent of the Australian population according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data. By comparison, Optus' mobile coverage reaches 98.5 per cent. But Telstra is alleging that the national and state coverage claims made in the ads, which have been running since last August, mislead customers into thinking that Optus has a larger and more superior network.

Telstra is requesting an injunction to prevent Optus from making the assertions, has asked for the removal of the ads and a corrective notice to be issued on its website.
WASHINGTON, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Corsha (https://corsha.com), a leading API cybersecurity company, announces it has been awarded a $1.5 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract for an initiative with the U.S. Air Force's Digital Engineering Enterprise Office (DEEO). Awarded through the AFWERX program, Corsha is partnering with the DEEO to deploy its cloud-native, scalable API Security Platform to secure mission-critical data in motion across Air Force platforms.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the SBIR process in an attempt to speed up the experience, broaden the pool of potential applicants and decrease bureaucratic overhead.

"Through this SBIR contract, we are excited to partner with the Digital Engineering Enterprise Office to provide a solution that meets their cybersecurity needs to secure, manage, and control their data in motion," said Chris Simkins, CEO of Corsha. "Our API Security Platform is well-positioned to empower Air Force and DEEO to securely share information across multiple platforms connecting legacy systems and cloud environments."

Corsha is pioneering a new approach to API security that provides the security, visibility, and control necessary to defend against emerging API attacks. It offers the first and only dynamic, fully automated multi-factor authentication (MFA) for APIs, using the same principles for API security that have successfully protected systems from human username and password cyberattacks.

About AFWERX

AFWERX is an innovation arm of the U.S. Air Force established in 2017. Its focus is to provide non-traditional innovators the opportunity to solve challenges and increase effectiveness within the Air Force. AFWERX has accelerated timelines and processes to quickly scale innovation within the DoD. For more information, visit https://www.afwerx.af.mil/.

About Corsha

Corsha is a leading cybersecurity company that is defining the landscape of API security. Its game changing API Security Platform solves the broadening security concerns that enterprises are facing because of the increasing reliance on APIs and machine-to-machine connections. Its platform empowers CTOs, CISOs, and other security professionals to protect their data and applications as they traverse hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Corsha has developed the first and only multi-factor authentication for APIs. Its platform cryptographically defines the network so that only authorized endpoints can connect to applications and data, providing the same security guarantees for machines that have been proven successful with human users  i.e. dynamic, out-of-band multi-factor authentication. The result is a dynamic identity for every deployed machine, enabling API activity to be controlled from a central management and full visibility into API activity across cloud and enterprise networks.

Corsha's API Security Platform, which can be deployed as Corsha Cloud (SaaS) or Corsha Enterprise (self-hosted), is fully automated, cloud-native, highly scalable, and platform agnostic.

Corsha's D.C. location is at 8618 Westwood Center Drive, Suite 310, Tysons Corner, Virginia, 22182.

For more information, visit: https://corsha.com, (571) 748-5010

For media inquiries, please contact: Bonnie Manousos, [email protected], (571) 213-5626

SOURCE Corsha

Related Links

http://www.corsha.com


California Governor Gavin Newsom said a $52 million funding is eyed for Latinos in the Central Valley area as they have been disproportionately harmed by the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Newsom said "strike teams" will be sent to eight counties in Central Valley later this week as the government approves the coronavirus funding for testing, tracing and isolation protocols, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The eight counties targeted, according to Newsom, were San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare, and Kern. Coronavirus deaths and infections among Latinos in Central Valley showed wide gaps since Latinos make up a high percentage of residents.

California's Latino Community Hit Hard

"This disease continues to grow in the state of California, it continues to spread, but not evenly," Newsom said. He noted that certain communities and parts of the state are getting stronger impacts of the virus.

Latinos are three times more likely to test positive of the virus more than white people. Thirty-nine percent of the state's population comprised of Latinos, but they make up for 56 percent of all confirmed COVID-19 cases. Nearly 46 percent of the deaths in the state are of Latinos, reported the KTLA 5.

With the coming funding, people can look forward to better testing efforts, better worker safety, support for the local health care systems and giving isolation and quarantine resources to those who test positive of the virus and can't stay at home, detailed the Desert Sun.

Newsom said the funds will come from a grant worth $499 million from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the ABC 7 reported.

The surge in coronavirus cases has hit farmworkers in those most affected areas. This is because they often live in close quarters and transport together to work. They also have little access to healthcare.

Central Valley itself records higher positive COVID-19 tests at 17.7 percent, while the state average is only 7.5 percent.

Hospitals Overwhelmed

Hospitals in the region are filled nearly to capacity at present and intensive care units are mostly holding COVID-19 patients, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, California's health and human services secretary.

Officials said the region still needs more resources even it received five of eight U.S. Department of Defense teams for ICU staffing, the report from Desert Sun said.

The valley has 45 hospitals and 64 percent of them said they are in need of more health care workers to work in all licensed ICU beds and demand a more flexible set of requirements for staffing.

Newsom knew of this demand and said the proposed amount will be helpful to the Central Valley.

The state's local government returned to work Monday after delays in its return from the summer recess due to the coronavirus spread at the start of the month. Newsom is hopeful that the funds they are looking for will be approved soon.

More safeguards to essential workers, who are also mostly made up of Latinos, were also promised by Newsom at a COVID-19 briefing on Friday. He said he will work with California lawmakers on the new legislation.

Newsom admitted that the state did not prepare businesses enough to have safe a reopening and hoped that the new efforts they will put in place can help make up for it.

He said their essential workforce has to be safe for their efforts in fighting COVID-19 to be effective.

Want to read more? Check these out!

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In the fight for Black liberation, African-American photographer, filmmaker, author and composer Gordon Parks (1912-2006) transformed storytelling into activism. Finally, after a long search to find weapons to fight off the oppression of my adolescence, I found two powerful ones, the camera and the pen, Parks wrote in 1997s Half Past Autumn: A Retrospective. He avowed, Racism is still around, but I am not about to let it destroy me.

This was a lesson in survival gleaned in his youth. Born on Fort Scott, Kans., Parks weathered a childhood marked by abject poverty during one of the most violent eras of homegrown terrorism: Between 1877 and 1950, more than 4,440 lynchings occurred in the United States. At 11, Parks nearly met the same fate when three white boys threw him into the Marmaton River knowing he could not swim.

Parks rarely shared his harrowing history with those closest to him; instead he channeled his experiences into his artincluding work that examined the role of the criminal-justice system in Black American life.

Interior of Gordon Parks: The Atmosphere of Crime showing the original layouts as it appeared in LIFE magazine. |  Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation/Steidl

Interior view of Gordon Parks: The Atmosphere of Crime. |  Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation/Steidl

Uncle Gordon wrote about his childhood in The Learning Tree, which became the movie that made him the first Black director in Hollywood, says Robin Hickman-Winfield, Parks great-niece and founder of the Gordon Parks Legacy Educational Experience at Gordon Parks High School in St. Paul, Minn. While he wasnt on the picket lines, he shared it in his work so we would know our story. Black lives mattered to him.

After his mother died, Parks, then 14, moved to St. Paul to live with his sisterbut ended up on the streets where he learned to fend for himself. At 25, Parks discovered photography, getting his start at local Black-owned newspapers and the Farm Security Administration before becoming the first Black photographer to shoot for Vogue. In 1948, Parks pitched a story on Leonard Red Jackson, the teen leader of a Harlem gang, to LIFE magazine, creating a tender portrait of race, poverty and crime that won him a staff job.

Story continues

By the 1950s, as white America embraced rock n roll and the rebel without a cause attitude of disaffected youth, the mainstream media seized upon many white readers fears of a coming wave of crime. LIFE magazine was on the case, announcing a major six-part series on crime in the U.S., which would explore the police, criminals, courts, punishments, prisons and parole, along with a psychological profile of crime itself.

Untitled, Chicago, Illinois, 1957 |  Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation

Untitled, New York, New York, 1957 |  Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation

For the first installment, in the Sept. 9, 1957 issue of LIFE, Gordon Parks and reporter Henry Suydam collaborated on The Atmosphere of Crime, an eight-page photo essay documenting the police and prison systems in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The new book, Gordon Parks: The Atmosphere of Crime, 1957 (STEIDL/The Gordon Parks Foundation in collaboration with MoMA), provides an in-depth study of this historic body of work.

Robert Wallace, a senior staff writer who had previously written about Parks 1956 story on segregation in the South, wrote the text that accompanied the Atmosphere of Crime story, setting an foreboding tone in the opening sentences: The nation in the fall of 1957 appears to be threatened by a catastrophic wave of crime. From almost every major city in the past year have come frightening reports showing not merely an increase in the number of crimes but a dreadful shift, it seems, in their nature.

Raiding Detectives, Chicago, Illinois, 1957 |  Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation

Untitled, Chicago, Illinois, 1957 |  Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation

Crime Suspect with Gun, Chicago, Illinois, 1957 |  Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation

Drug search, Chicago, Illinois, 1957 |  Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation

Adopting the framework of politicians, law-enforcement officials and criminologists, Wallaces perspective was bleak, steeped in a vocabulary of menace and threat, citing reports that claimed Negroes and juvenile delinquents were responsible for the majority of crimes committedbut never investigating the system itself. While Wallace argued that the higher percentage of Black crime was a result of racism, he failed to explore the role of criminal justice in these systems of power.

Parks photographs told a different story, one that examined the underlying suffering, despair and fear of marginalized groups further exacerbated by police and prisons.

Parks trained his lens on law enforcement, documenting officers on patrol, interrogating suspects, kicking down doors, knocking people down and searching for needle marks on addicts arms. Though the suspects Parks photographed came from different racial backgrounds, one constant remains: the law enforcement agents were predominantly white.

Untitled, San Quentin, California, 1957 |  Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation

Fingerprinting Addicts for Forging Prescriptions, Chicago, Illinois, 1957 |  Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation

Forgoing the dazzling aesthetics of film noir, which he had often turned to for other stories, Parks shot this series in color, in somber muted tones that prefigure the gritty mood of 1970s films like his blockbuster Shaft. In place of sharp crisp edges and sharply defined black and white, everything in Parks photos is met with blur and haze, suggesting an air of ambiguity and doubt. In 1990s Voices in the Mirror: An Autobiography, Parks wrote, With the publication of that essay came invitations to speak before groups concerned with the problems of crime and ways to fight them. Against a mature judgment I accepted a few. But I had no reassuring answers; I too was begging the questions, eating the same despair.

Parks found other ways to reckon with the issues he confronted in his work. In the 1970s, he accompanied his nephew, Robert Bobby Hickman, to Minnesotas Stillwater Correctional Facility to visit inmates. Uncle Gordon served as a vision of possibilities and hope. He wanted those brothers to see him as a vision of possibility, telling them, You brothers can write, write about your experience, says Parks great-niece Hickman-Winfield, who launched the CHOICE of Weapons Fellowship at the Redwing Juvenile State Correctional Facility in 2004. I remember seeing Uncle Gordon standing in his kitchen, crying as he read a letter from a young Black man who was not wasting his time while doing time, she says of one their final visits before his death in 2006.

Hickman-Winfield fights back tears as she speaks, just hours after Gordon Parks High School hosted its graduation ceremony in the parking lot due to COVID-19 on June 5. Although they werent able to have their prom, students were able to celebrate earlier this year at the opening of Choice of Weapons: Honor and Dignity, The Visions of Gordon Parks and Jamel Shabazz, curated by Hickman-Winfield at the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Were in a Black moment right now, she says. I can hear Uncle Gordon say Lets do it, baby!

Untitled, Illinois, 1957 |  Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation

Correction, July 29The original version of this story misstated the name of the museum where A Choice of Weapons: Honor and Dignity was held. It was the Minnesota Museum of American Art, not the Minneapolis Museum of American Art.
A second sign states: "We will not compromise on the security of our employees and other customers."

We dont like the mandate. But the main thing is the signage was not political at all, Maurer said.

He said the sign was posted on the door shortly after the attempted robbery  and long before the mandate went into effect.

Very specific to this industry, weve got people walking in, carrying firearms they are licensed to carry, and its a super security risk if someone is able to conceal their identity, Maurer said.

The Times inquired with the store owners Tuesday shortly after learning about the stores mask ban from an anonymous tip. Hours later, the signs were taken down.

The signs are down now, Maurer said.

Prior to the signs going away, customers left negative reviews on the business Google page. Maurer's store isn't alone  months ago, Google went so far as to temporarily ban business reviews due to coronavirus-related shutdowns. In recent months, the option to leave reviews has been reinstated.
(Newser)  The University of Michigan did it last month, and now Notre Dame has decided it won't host the presidential debate scheduled for its campus. "The necessary health precautions would have greatly diminished the educational value of hosting the debate on our campus," the university's president said in a statement, NBC reports. The decision was made after health officials and Notre Dame trustees were consulted, the Rev. John Jenkins said. Because of pandemic restrictions, he said, fewer students would have been able to watch President Trump and former vice president Joe Biden debate in person, and related events would have had to be scaled back.

story continues below

Instead of South Bend, Indiana, the debate will be held in Cleveland, per the Hill, hosted by Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic. The hosts haven't decided whether an audience will be present for the Sept. 29 event at Samson Pavilion. The pandemic makes the Health Education Campus a relevant location, leaders of the two institutions said. "To have the presidential candidates discuss these issues in our innovative learning space represents a tremendous opportunity for both institutions," they said in a statement. The second debate, scheduled for Oct. 15, has been moved from Michigan to Miami. The final debate remains planned for Oct. 22 at Belmont University in Nashville. (Read more presidential debate stories.)
Pa. Health Secretary Rachel Levine will provide an update on COVID-19 in Pa. and universal testing in nursing homes across the state.

Levine will speak during a press conference at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday. You can watch the broadcast live here.

July 28 COVID-19 Update Join us as we provide an update on COVID-19 in Pennsylvania. Posted by Pennsylvania Department of Health on Tuesday, July 28, 2020

In June, Gov. Tom Wolf and his administration issued a universal testing order requiring that all residents and staff at nursing homes be tested for the coronavirus at least once before July 24. Levine is expected to share updates from those testings.

On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 1,120 new coronavirus cases, bringing the statewide total to 109,384. Along with Mondays new cases, 24 new deaths were reported in Pennsylvania today, bringing the number of statewide coronavirus fatalities to 7,146.

In nursing and personal care homes, there are 19,225 resident cases of COVID-19, and 3,868 cases among employees, for a total of 23,093 at 835 distinct facilities in61 counties. Out of our total deaths, 4,857 have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities.

The health department estimates 75% of those in Pennsylvania who have been infected have recovered. The department considers individuals to have recovered when they are 30 days beyond the date of infection or the onset of symptoms.

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.
More than 65 years after Richard Liebeskind opened the first Ann Taylor store in New Haven, the chains bankrupt parent company will not be reopening its Chapel Street store, amid closures of multiple stores in Connecticut and nationally.

Ascena Retail Group filed for bankruptcy protection this month, nearly five years after it spent more than $2.1 billion to acquire Ann Taylor and its womens apparel affiliate Loft.
When the Postal Employees Credit Union building opened its Southeast Portland doors in 1962, looky-loos showed up to walk under a swooping ceiling and stare at blocks of bright red, blue and purple glass windows.

They checked out the aluminum shade screens, explored the H-shaped floor plan designed to draw in natural light from multiple directions and took note of other captivating trademarks of International style and Modernism architecture.

Unlike traditional banks adorned with formal flourishes, this simplified structure, decorated inside with a palette of tangerine, soft creams and browns, represented a swank new way to house money.

At the time, financial institution executives embraced cutting-edge modern design to send a message of openness, transparency and friendly convenience.

Supportive concrete pillars were installed on the sloping site to elevate the single-story credit union and make it appear lightweight and floating, and to allow for parking underneath and drive-up services.

The new structure, on a corner lot in the Buckman neighborhood, stood out from the surrounding post World War II automotive shops and industrial buildings.

By 2000, however, the forlorn, white-painted mass at 421 S.E. 10th Ave. was easy to ignore. Multnomah County used it as an office for its corrections department. Razor wire on top of old cyclone fencing and other distracting barriers concealed the sites faded cool factor.

In 2018, new owners, including Jenelle Isaacson, founder of Living Room Realty, stepped in and spent more than a year executing a thoughtful rehabilitation of the building.

Now the headquarters for Living Room Realty, the former credit union has been deemed by architectural experts as an excellent example of a well-restored midcentury modern bank and has been approved to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The interior showcases the best of the Northwest Regional style popularized by Portlands most respected modern architects John Yeon and Pietro Belluschi.

As visitors did a half century ago, eyes follow the exposed, wave-like glulam beams and unpainted wood ceiling in the vast banking room. They notice the concrete staircases, inquire about the gumwood doors and wood wall paneling, and appreciate the large windows overlooking the landscaped courtyard area.

Despite some modifications, the building retains the vast majority of the character-defining features that were present at its construction in 1962, according to documents submitted to the National Register.

The building was designed by the firm Reese and Blachly. Architects John W. Reese and Frank E. Blachly were part of Portlands so-called 14th Street Gang of young modernists, along with Saul Zaik and William Fletcher.

Barnard & Kinney Contractors of Beaverton oversaw construction of the wood-framed building, which cost more than $200,000, according to an Oregonian story published after the ground breaking in December 1961.

The story stated that the building had space dedicated to store repossessed furniture and cars plus an auditorium, kitchen and Kiddy Room for entertaining children while adults secure loans.

Isaacson said in a news release that restoring the building is part of her companys mission to build vibrant communities and preserving some of our citys historic architecture is an important part of that.

She said the office space will host community events such as art shows and educational workshops when its safe for people to gather after the coronavirus pandemic.

Living Room broker and designer Shannon Baird of S. Baird Design oversaw the renovation. Baird, who has been honored by Oregons Preservation Office for her historic preservation projects, and designer Anna Carmel wanted the updates to reflect the buildings original integrity.

The building was structurally remade to match Reese and Blachlys plan. The curved wood ceiling, wood doors, aluminum accents and other surviving elements were restored.

SUM Design Studio + Architecture completed the floor plans for office placement in the northwest wing, remodeled three restrooms and created an IT room layout prior to Baird joining the project.

The remodeling work was led by the general construction team at Deform NW.

They were open to collaboration and were willing to go out of their way to tend to the finer details that were so nuanced and essential for the historic work in the building, said Carmel.

Baird and Carmel selected the finishes, designed the lighting and kitchen, and reconfigured a dividing wall to the training room, among other work.

Their biggest challenge was to erase the sterile, depressed, cold, institutional feeling of the former correctional facility, said Baird.

The appearance and texture of the furnishings, fixtures, tile and carpet were guided by the original stained glass colors as well as the 1960s modernist era, and were updated to reflect a more inspirational environment.

Baird said people who once thought the space was intimidating now experience a welcoming and comforting feel.

Visual softness was achieved with curved lines, midcentury wall units and sofas, and cashmere and other comfortable fabrics.

Walking inside for the first time, we saw how light moved through the space and how the volume really mattered, said Baird. We could easily envision what used to be a well-designed and functioning credit union and what it could become while keeping the original intent. We knew that we could take that feeling and embody it into a fresh modern office for Living Room Realty while nodding to the past.

 Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072

jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories
Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust General Secretary, Champat Rai, has denied reports on a time capsule to be placed beneath the grand Ram Temple, rubbished claims after Trust President, other members came on record on Monday promising the arrangement to ensure "there are no disputes in future".

Reports circulating in the media about a time capsule being placed beneath the site of the Ram temple, Ayodhya are baseless, said General Secretary, Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, Champat Rai on Tuesday.

All reports about placing of a time capsule under the ground at Ram Temple construction site on August 5 are false. Do not believe in any such rumour, Rai said.

His statement, however, comes after the trust president, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, on Monday had said that it is true and it will be done. But, he also said that he does not have much information about the time capsule.

It is 100 per cent correct that a time capsule, enlisting the history and facts related to the Ram Janmabhoomi, will be placed thousands of feet below the construction site. It will be done in order to ensure that there are no disputes in the future. A grand Ram Temple will be built here and all arrangements are in place for Bhoomi Pujan, he said.

Also read: Mayawati on Rajasthan crisis: Waited for right time to teach Gehlot a lesson

Also read: India opposes Pakistans attempt to convert gurdwara into mosque in Lahore

I do not have much information about time capsule, but it will be placed below the construction site, he added.

This comes after Trust member Kameshwar Chaupal on Sunday said that a time capsule, enlisting the history and facts related to the Ram Janmabhoomi, will be placed thousands of feet below the construction site to ensure that there are no disputes in the future.

Chaupal, who is the lone Dalit member of the Trust, also said that soil from various teerths (pilgrimages) across the country and water from the sacred rivers is being brought to Ayodhya for Abhisheka during the bhoomi-pujan which is scheduled to be conducted on August 5 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

PM Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on August 5, according to Mahant Nritya Gopal Das.

The construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya will begin after the ceremony to lay the foundation stone (bhoomi poojan) in which chief ministers of many states, ministers from the union cabinet and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat are also likely to participate.

According to sources, the bhoomi poojan of the temple is to be celebrated on the lines of the festival of light  Diwali  with all temples and houses across the country to be lit up with diyas and candles.

The Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, set up in accordance with the Supreme Court verdict, held its second meeting last week.

In March this year, the Ram Lalla idol was shifted to a temporary structure.

The SC on November 9 last year had directed the central government to hand over the site at Ayodhya for the construction of a Ram temple.

Also read: Prakash Javadekar releases Tiger Census report on Global Tiger Day eve

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The main goal is to learn how coronavirus affects at-risk training environments such as basic training

The US Navy has been studying young Marine Corps recruits to determine how the novel coronavirus pandemic is affecting the armed forces.

The COVID-19 Health Action Response for Marines (CHARM) study has been looking at Marine newcomers between ages 18 and 19 since May 4.

Scientists at the Naval Medical Research Center say the primary focus is to learn how the virus affects at-risk training environments, such as basic training, so recruits can meet graduation standards and requirements.

Additionally, they hope to shed some slight on questions not fully understood about the virus including why some young people have vastly different symptoms and whether or not they can be re-infected.

So far, 2,000 recruits have been tested but the team hopes to test 3,500 before the study is over.

The US Navy is looking to recruit 3,500 18- and 19-year-old Marine recruits for its COVID-19 Health Action Response for Marines study. Pictured: A poolee is medically screened at The Citadel in Charleston, South Caroline, May 4,

Researchers also want to learn why some young people show few to no symptoms but others have more severe cases. Pictured: Marine Corps instructors stand while recruits receive their issued gear at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on April 13 in San Diego, California

'There really isn't another cohort out there that is looking at young healthy Americans that have been brought around from all over the United States,' lead s author Cmdr Andrew Letizia, an infectious disease physician with the US Navy, told ABC News.

Recruits quarantine for 14 days in the Atlanta area before arriving for six week of basic training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in South Carolina.

During their first week, they receive a blood, nasal and saliva test to determine if they are positive for COVID-19.

According to ABC News, they get similar tests the following week and are then tested every two weeks.

Researchers hope to identify anyone who is infected with the virus, even if they have few to no symptoms, and to measure weekly antibody production among those with more severe cases.

According to a press release, this will help the Navy learn how to immediately put in place safety measures to prevent an outbreak.

The team also hopes to learn why some immune system response vary so that some young people get very sick and others don't even know they're sick.

Lastly, the study aims to identify a quantifiable measure that will allow recovered recruits to return to work, even at the risk of possible re-exposure.

'We know that COVID-19 seems to not be as severe in these young healthy Americans, and the question is: "Why?"' Letizia told ABC News.

'What is it about their immune system that is slightly different and allows them to have - if they do get infected - maybe no symptoms at all, or maybe fewer slight symptoms that they're able to quickly overcome.'

He added that the study could help universities and colleges determine how and when to bring students back to campus because the recruits are all college-age kids.

Letizia told ABC News that he described the antibodies to Marines as 'the bombs and the missiles and the tanks' needed to fight the disease.

However, he added that it is just as important to see how the equipment is produced in 'a factory' (in this case, the human body) and why.

'Well, the factory needs to receive an order from somewhere, telling it 'Hey, you need to make more of these things,'' Letizia said.

This marks the second large scale COVID-19 study conducted among military members with the first looking at sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

At least, 5,793 sailors have been infected with the virus since the start of the pandemic and one has died, according to the Navy's blog, Navy Live.
ABC/Randy Holmes(LOS ANGELES) -- WarnerMedia will be launching an investigation into The Ellen DeGeneres Show following a Buzzfeed report that contained statements from staffers that allegedly exposed ongoing misconduct and racial prejudice on set.

Staffers claimed the show bred a toxic work environment and fostered a "culture of fear."

The Hollywood Reporter says sources confirmed the newly launched investigation despite no official word from Warner Bros. or Telepictures.

The Buzzfeed report was comprised of several accounts from former and current staffers, who recounted being on the receiving end of microaggressions to full blown retaliation.

Employees claimed that they were retaliated against by senior producers and other higher-ranking staffers when seeking sick days or time off to attend funerals, along with being on the receiving end of racist insults and unequal treatment compared to their white counterparts.

Some employees alleged that, in conjunction to racism behind the scenes, there were cases of unfair termination and other consequences for sounding off against the abuse they allegedly endured on the job.

Shortly after the Buzzfeed article was published, Ellen executive producers Ed Glavin, Mary Connelly and Andy Lassner issued a joint statement that claimed, "Over the course of nearly two decades, 3,000 episodes, and employing over 1,000 staff members, we have strived to create an open, safe, and inclusive work environment. We are truly heartbroken and sorry to learn that even one person in our production family has had a negative experience. It's not who we are and not who we strive to be, and not the mission Ellen has set for us."

The Ellen DeGeneres Show first went on the air in 2003 and was nominated for Emmy awards throughout its 17-season run -- of which it won 61.

It's estimated that 2.5 million viewers tune in every day to watch the daytime talk show.
Lebanon's premier condemned Tuesday a "dangerous military escalation" by Israel after a security incident at the border led the Jewish state to fire artillery across the frontier. "Israel has once again violated Lebanon's sovereignty... in a dangerous military escalation," Hassan Diab said on Twitter, in his government's first official response to Monday's shelling. "I call for caution in the coming days because I fear that things will get worse in light of severe tension at the border," he added. The Israeli army had said a group of three to five men armed with rifles crossed the UN-demarcated Blue Line in the disputed Mount Dov area, claimed by Lebanon, Syria and Israel. It said the "terrorists" had fled back to Lebanon after an exchange of gunfire and that Israeli forces had fired artillery into Lebanon "for defensive purposes". Israel blamed the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah for the infiltration attempt and on Tuesday its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said it had been acting on behalf of Iran. "Everything happening now is the result of the effort by Iran and its Lebanese proxies to entrench militarily in our region," he said during a visit to the Israeli army's northern command headquarters. "We will continue to take action to thwart Iran's military entrenchment in our region," he added. "We will do whatever is necessary to defend ourselves and I suggest that Hezbollah consider this simple fact. Israel is ready for any scenario." But Hezbollah, which has a presence in the area where Monday's incident occurred, denied any involvement. It said that reports of Israel thwarting an infiltration from Lebanon are "completely false." - UN peacekeeping mandate - United Nations peacekeeping force UNIFIL said it had opened an investigation into the incident. Diab on Tuesday accused Israel of trying to "change the rules of engagement," that have existed between the two countries since the end of a month-long 2006 war -- the last direct conflict between the two states. He also said that Lebanon rejects a push by Israel to alter the mandate of UNIFIL before it expires late next month. "There is an attempt to pressure Lebanon by threatening to reduce the number of UNIFIL forces if the mission's mandate is not changed," Diab said. "Lebanon refuses to amend the tasks of UNIFIL." In early May, the US ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, called on the world body to "pursue serious change to empower UNIFIL or realign its staffing and resources," because the mission was being "prevented from fulfilling its mandate." Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah swiftly rejected the proposal which he said was an Israeli demand. Commenting on Monday's events, President Michel Aoun said it threatened stability in south Lebanon weeks ahead of UNIFIL's mandate renewal. The latest border incident follows a July 20 Israeli missile attack on Syrian government and allied positions south of Damascus that killed five people. Hezbollah, whose fighters back Damascus in the nine-year-old Syrian civil war, said one of its own was among the dead. Since 2011, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria, targeting government troops and allied Iranian and Hezbollah forces with the stated aim of ending Iran's military presence in Syria. Israeli has deployed more armoured vehicles and artillery to the Lebanese border prompting Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab to accuse it of a "dangerous" escalation Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab accused Israel of seeking to alter the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force that has been monitored the border since 1978 before it expires late next month
The victims of virtual kidnappings we have engaged are traumatized by what has occurred, believing they have placed themselves, and their loved ones, in real danger, said Peter Thurtell, the assistant commissioner of the New South Wales police force.

The recent spree points to the evolution of a crime that exploits oversharing and fear for a distant loved one with digital savvy and old-fashioned coercion by con artists. Since at least the 1990s, criminal gangs from Taiwan and China to Mexico and Cuba have been persuading families to pay ransom for simulated kidnappings, often with personal information provided intentionally or unintentionally by the victims.

Last year, extortionists called hotel rooms on the American side of the U.S.-Mexico border and convinced guests that armed enforcers were nearby, and that they needed to drive across the border and switch to a Mexican hotel, where they had to take a screenshot of themselves that the criminals then used to persuade loved ones to pay a ransom.

In the Sydney form of the scam, which the authorities said they first started seeing a few years ago, robocalls deliver messages to thousands of random phones purporting to be from a messenger service. It says a package needs to be delivered. Those who continue on the call are greeted by someone speaking Mandarin who asks for basic identity information  name, address, phone number, anything else of import  and promises to call back.

For the Chinese students in Australia  whose ranks have swelled in recent years, with 212,000 enrolled last year  the return calls have come from someone who claims to be from the Chinese government, bearing bad news: The supposed package to be delivered holds illegal contents or is somehow connected to a larger crime that could get that person deported or imprisoned, or get one of their relatives hurt. To be safe, the caller tells the mark, the person must check into a hotel and turn off the phone. And, oh, dont tell anyone or else whats already bad will become downright horrific.
A transgender woman has revealed her incredible transformation photos after undergoing 14 months of hormone replacement therapy and facial feminization surgery.

Natalie Zamani, 28, from San Francisco, took to Reddit last week to share images of herself before and after her transition, writing: 'So its kinda been a wild 14 months!' The senior engineer has known she was trans since she was a teen, but kept her gender identity hidden until last year.

'I was 27, I had a great job in tech, a lovely relationship, and had built up confidence in my life. Life was good, but yet I was still not at home in my body,' she told Bored Panda. 'I realized I couldn't outrun my identity and expect to live a full life.'

Amazing: Natalie Zamani, a transgender woman, shared photos of her transformation on Reddit 14 months after she started hormone replacement therapy

Hard to handle: The 28-year-old from San Francisco was assigned male at birth and 'learned early on' to suppress her feelings about her gender identity

Her 'before' photo shows her sporting short hair and a neatly-trimmed beard. In her 'after' pictured, she has smooth cheeks, shoulder-length curly hair, and a bright smile.

Zamani, who was assigned male at birth, said that growing up she 'learned early on' that she had to suppress her feelings about her gender identity, but her 'girly tendencies' would still come out.

When she started to go through puberty in her early teens, she was 'disgusted' with the changes to her body and 'miserable' that she couldn't do anything about it.

'I did research and found that there were other people like me, who had chosen to do something about it. That it was possible to transition,' she said of learning what it was to be transgender.

Difficult: When she started to go through puberty in her early teens, she was 'disgusted' with the changes to her body. It was then that she learned what it was to be transgender

Painful choice: Zamani feared she would have to live in the margins of society if she came out and made the difficult decision to keep her gender identity hidden

Making a choice: The senior engineer started hormone replacement therapy last year after realizing she needed to embrace her gender identity to live a full life

'But what I found in all but a few cases was that people who had transitioned lived difficult lives on the margins of society, unless they were lucky and strong enough to live in "stealth" and had that privilege by virtue of being able to just blend in and hide.'

The idea of 'going stealth' and starting a new life far away from her loved ones seemed 'both incredibly lonely and difficult' to her.

Zamani made the difficult decision to keep her gender identity hidden while living as happily as she could, but she realized last year that she would never be fulfilled if she continued to hide who she was.

'The acceptance of trans people had totally shifted during my lifetime, and I didn't face life at the margins purely for being openly trans,' she explained. 'I had to start living my life. I drove to Planned Parenthood a few days after that realization and started hormones.'

Changes: Zamani officially started living as Natalie in April amid the pandemic, and a few months later, she underwent facial feminization surgery

Happy: 'This is the most like me Ive ever felt,' she wrote on Instagram after the surgery

She officially started living her life as Natalie in April amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In June, she had facial feminization surgery, which refers to a broad range of procedures to modify and soften masculine facial features to make them more feminine.

Zamani shared a smiling photo of herself on Instagram two weeks after the surgery to say that even though her face was still swollen and bruised, she is so happy with her appearance.

'This is the most like me Ive ever felt,' she wrote. 'And I cant overstate how good it feels to be me right now. Im immensely privileged that I get to have this necessary, but incredibly expensive procedure, and that I get to feel this way.

Support system: Zamani is grateful to have the support of her family, friends, and 'amazing partner,' saying none of this would have been possible without them

All smiles: Zamani said her journey has been incredibly difficult, but it has also helped her grow into the person she was meant to be

'But Im so thankful I held out long enough to get to this place of enormous comfort and happiness, and that I had the support network to do so too.'

Zamani told Bored Panda that her journey has been incredibly difficult, but it has also helped her grow into the person she was meant to be.

She is grateful to have the support of her family, friends, and 'amazing partner,' saying none of this would have been possible without them.

'Over the past 14 months, I've grown into the person I truly am and started to find an inner love that was never there before,' she said. 'I've only been out and presenting as me for a few months now, and didn't start doing so until the pandemic had fully hit, so I'm very excited for what my life has in store once I can start experiencing all that life has to offer out in the world as the real me.

'I'm so happy I held out through all of the pain and difficulty for this moment.'
Exporters have alleged that the authorities are harassing some of their colleagues after 1,500 were found to have claimed bogus goods and services tax (GST) refunds. Around 5,500 exporters have been identified as risky and are bearing the brunt of physical checks of their consignment.

They have been told to submit volumes of documents besides facing blockage of IGST credits. Exporters have alleged that the authorities are asking for over 1,000 documents, in some case, for verification, arguing that the default is mainly on the side of suppliers rather than ...
New Jerseys coronavirus quarantine states grew Tuesday for the fifth straight week and now stands at 34 states, in addition to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, considered COVID-19 hot spots.

As the outbreak continues to rage elsewhere, it begs the question: Which states arent on New Jersey travel advisory that asks people to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. Well give you a couple hints.

Head north and youre good shape, and Pennsylvania remains okay too. But if you leave New Jersey through the Delaware Memorial Bridge, you can drive to Florida and California without passing through any states not on the list.

The quarantine applies to any state with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents or a state with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average. People arriving from those states, including New Jersey residents, are asked to voluntarily self-quarantine and to seek a coronavirus test in an effort to prevent a resurgence in New Jersey, which was among the hardest-hit states at the onset of the U.S. outbreak in March and April.

Here are the 15 states not on the quarantine list:

Colorado

Connecticut

Hawaii

Maine

Massachusetts

Michigan

New Hampshire

New York

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Dakota

Vermont

West Virginia

Wyoming

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

New Jersey has the fifth most total positive tests after New York, California, Florida and Texas, and the second most deaths. But the number of new cases, deaths, and hospitalizations in New Jersey remains relatively stable in recent weeks after falling significantly from the outbreak peak in April.

New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York jointly announced the quarantine plan last month.

Unlike in New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said first-time offenders face big fines, Gov. Phil Murphy said New Jersey is taking more of a public awareness approach, but the execution is up to us in the state.

People flying into New Jersey are now being asked to fill out an electronic survey that asks travelers for their hometown, where they traveled from and their destination. The information is sent to county health departments, who will then call the traveler to request them to self-quarantine and explain where they can be tested for COVID-19.

Travelers can access the survey by texting NJ Travel to 898211, visiting covid19.nj.gov/njtravel, or scanning a QR code on posters at airports.

The three states added Tuesday are Illinois, Kentucky and Minnesota, though Minnesota had previously been on the list and was dropped before returning this week.

The full that requires people to quarantine includes:

Alabama (added 6/24/20)

Alaska ( added 7/21/20 )

Arkansas (added 6/24/20)

Arizona (added 6/24/20)

California (added 6/30/20)

Delaware ( re-added 7/21/20 )

District of Columbia (added 7/28/20)

Florida (added 6/24/20)

Georgia (added 6/30/20)

Iowa (added 6/30/20)

Idaho (added 6/30/20)

Illinois (added 7/28/20)

Indiana (added 7/21/20)

Kansas (added 7/7/20)

Kentucky (added 7/28/20)

Louisiana (added 6/30/20)

Maryland (added 7/21/20)

Minnesota (re-added 7/28/20)

Mississippi (added 6/30/20)

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numbers in the face of rising Corona-Infection in Germany, the Robert-Koch-Institute (RKI) alerted. "The latest development of the case numbers makes me and all at the Robert Koch Institute of great concern," said RKI President Lothar Wieler in Berlin on Tuesday in front of journalists. "We are in the midst of a rapidly developing pandemic," he warned. "We must prevent the Virus from spreading rapidly and uncontrollably."

In Germany, had been reported by the health authorities in the past seven days, 3611 infections, alone on Monday, there were 633. At the beginning of July, the daily numbers of cases reported have been between 300 and 500. These Figures showed that the Virus could be contained. "But the AHA must be rules adhered to," said Wieler several times. AHA stands for "spacing, Hygiene, and everyday life masks". This should keep for months, the same is true for concepts in companies.

As Ute Rexroth reported by the RKI may be the risk of contagion to places "really everywhere". Reported would celebrate of infections in family, weddings, Meetings with friends, but there were also outbreaks in the workplace, in the community accommodation and care facilities. Even trip, the returnees were affected, the majority have been infected in Germany. A rise could be quick, warned Rexroth. "Prevention is better than reaction. At Covid-19 are in the outbreaks. You can't catch all cases, so eager you are.

Wieler: "Are careless"

Whether the increase in the number of cases in the last few days of the beginning of a possible second wave is not, it is to be said Wieler. "He can be, of course." The increase in show, "that we have become sloppy."

with respect to the planned return to the regular operation of schools after the summer holidays, said Wieler, the Opening of the schools was important, however, subject to certain rules. "We expect certain epidemiological concepts." For example, should not confuse the students in the breaks and on the way to school too much, instead you need to make up "units" and predictable measures such as rapid test in case of suspicion before the start of School to implement.

the World had been reported since the beginning of the pandemic 16.2 million cases and 650,000 deaths, said RKI President Wieler. The daily numbers of newly reported cases to take "strong". More than half of the reports about new infections in the past seven days came from North and South America, in Europe mainly from the Balkans. Wieler noted that some of the countries in which the pandemic seemed to be already overcome, also reported numbers on the rise again in the case. As a reason, the RKI President called that individual protection measures would be followed as well. In the result, would the world adopt increasingly local restrictions. As examples, he cited a tightening of the mask mandatory in Austria.

Updated Date: 28 July 2020, 05:20
The running mate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has reiterated her call for police to take action after the lynching of a 90-year-old woman in Kafaba in the Savannah Region.

She called on the security agencies to convince us that she has not died in vain.

If we choose to be anywhere as a country, the destination should not include a place where a 90-year-old woman, Akua Denteh, is stoned to death because someone has decided that she is a witch, she said.

Akua Denteh had been accused of witchcraft by a soothsayer who is wanted by police, alongside two others.

Experts from the National Police headquarters have been deployed to the Savannah Region to hunt down the perpetrators of the incident.

A team of crime experts from the National Police headquarters has been deployed to the Savannah Region town of Kafaba to hunt down the perpetrators involved in the gruesome killing of a 90-year-old woman.

The police have placed a bounty of GHS2,000 on the perpetrators.

The incident was captured on camera and went viral. A group of women were seen leading the lynching of the elderly woman after the soothsayers claims.

In her initial comments, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said the barbaric act had left her like many I can imagine, deeply sad, indeed.

She stressed that old age cannot be synonymous to witchcraft.

The elderly in our society rather deserve our love and protection, not this level of unspeakable cruelty, she added.

The issue of witchcraft claims, especially against the elderly, has been described as a human rights concern in Ghana.

---citinewsroom
THE PUBLIC debt stock in Ghana increased to GH258.0 billion as at the end of June 2020.



This was made known by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) yesterday by Dr. Ernest Addison, Governor of the BoG, when he virtually addressed the media during the 95th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) press conference.



He said Ghanas elevated fiscal deficit path had impacted the stock of public debt which rose to 67.0 per cent of GDP (GH258.0 billion) at the end of June 2020 compared with 62.4 per cent of GDP (GH218.2 billion) at the end of December 2019.



He noted that of the total debt stock, domestic debt was GH122.1 billion (31.7 per cent of GDP) while external debt was GH136.3 billion (35.4 per cent of GDP).



According to him, the execution of the budget for the first half of the year has been adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic through a combination of revenue underperformance and fast-paced spending.



He stated that half-year results indicated an overall budget deficit of 6.3 per cent of GDP, against a target of 3.0 per cent of GDP.



Revenue sources such as, taxes on income and property, taxes on goods and services, international trade taxes and non-tax revenue all underperformed, according to him.



On the expenditure side, he said, employee compensation, and other Covid-19 related expenditures had been the main sources of pressure.



The mid-year budget review has therefore revised upwards the overall budget deficit target to 11.4 per cent of GDP by end of year, from the earlier target of 4.7 per cent of GDP, reflecting an additional 6.7 per cent of GDP attributable to both direct and indirect Covid-19 impact, the governor said.



This means that total revenue and grants for the year 2020 have been revised downward to GH53.7 billion (13.9 per cent of GDP) from the initial target of GH67.1 billion (16.9 per cent of GDP) while expenditure and arrears clearance is projected to rise to GH97.7 billion (25.4 per cent of GDP) from the earlier target of GH86.0 billion (21.6 per cent of GDP).



The primary balance was also projected at a deficit of 4.6 per cent of GDP from the initial target of a surplus of 0.7 per cent of GDP, he said.







By Melvin Tarlue

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.

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A breakfast radio veteran who lost her first husband to suicide and second to cancer has shared a heartfelt message to her 30-year-old self.

Robin Bailey's second husband, Sean Pickwell, died of cancer last September - five years after the father of her children, Tony Smart, killed himself following a long battle with depression.

The now 50-year-old, from Brisbane, offered a words of hope and encouragement to her 30-year-old self, despite enduring 'absolute devastation' in recent years.

'I'd tell Robin that she would have three incredible sons whose unique personalities would both challenge and excite her,' Bailey told The Courier Mail.

Sean Pickwell (pictured with wife Robin Bailey) was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2017, and proposed to Bailey just days after finding out his liver cancer had spread to his bones, blood and other organs. Pickwell died in September last year

Robin Bailey jetted off to India with her three sons (pictured) to 'reconnect as a family of four again' after the death of her second husband, Sean Pickwell, in September

'I'd tell her that everything she hoped for them would be marred by tragedy in their short lives but that they will be more than OK... And finally I'd tell her that her life will be blessed and she will feel unbelievable love and absolute devastation.'

Bailey added she would 'survive' the devastation, which would make her more grateful for her closest friends and family in the years to come.

Bailey only returned to the airwaves in January, joining the Australian Radio Network's (ARN) 97.3 FM's breakfast show.

It is the first she has worked since resigning from Triple M Brisbane in September to spend more time with her dying spouse.

Robin Bailey and Sean Pickwell (pictured with Bailey's three sons family) made a conscious decision to make as many memories together as they can before Pickwell's imminent passing

Bailey was was given free reign over music choices in an emotional final program.

She played hits including 'Eye of the Tiger' by Survivor, and choked back tears throughout the bulletin.

'Leaving this show is the first time I have walked of my own accord,' Bailey said during the broadcast.

'I don't think anyone thought it was going to work. It did  we found a way of respecting each other.'

Fast-forward to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bailey said she was taking time to reflect on the past 12 months and was grateful for her job as a broadcaster.

'Every day I have moments of not wanting to face the world but so what, that's called life. No one can make my life better except me so I am bloody grateful for this job, that it is with people I respect, doing something I love and hopefully making a difference to people who need it,' she said.

Pictured: Robin Bailey with her first husband, who took his own life after a battle with depression

Pictured: Radio host Robin Bailey farewells her husband who died of cancer only a few years after her first partner took his own life in an emotional funeral service

Bailey shared the news of her second husband's passing on her Facebook page on September 26.

'What can I say ... my big beautiful panda has gone. He died as he lived ... his way ... at home with us holding him ... early this morning,' she wrote.

'In this moment there are no words or feelings that can truly express the love and gratitude I have for my husband Sean Pickwell.

'He came into our lives and healed us. He loved me so hard and taught me so much and now whatever life throws at us we will be stronger, wiser and more fierce because of him.

'He was my absolute soul mate, the true love of my life and whatever I do from now on he will be in my heart and in my corner cheering me on.'

Following the tragedy, Bailey sold her $500,000 home and embarked on a soul-searching trip to India with her three sons.

She regularly posted pictures of the family as she worked on reminding the boys 'how lucky they are'.

While in India, Ms Bailey uploaded regularly as she worked on reconnecting and reminding the boys 'how lucky they are'

Ms Bailey visited temples and mosques to enrich herself in the religions of India

'I want us to taste, smell, touch and feel things that challenge us,' she wrote on the day they set off to India.

The family visited temples and mosques to experience the different cultures in India.

On the second day, they visited a Sikh temple which helps feed 70,000 people, a market with cheap fake designer products, and then a lunchtime chat about the Indian caste system.

It was then she realised she was missing her husband, but was going to continue pushing through.

'Im missing Sean desperately,' she captioned the photo.

'We used to have our travelling routine down pat but Im pushing the boys to take some control as God knows I dont know how to do it all and we are working it out.'

For confidential support call the Lifeline 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636
WATERLOO REGION  Farmers in Waterloo Region and the rest of the province are busy harvesting their wheat, but a new poll shows the majority cant compete with subsidies south of the border and are worried they wont be able to cover their costs this year.

The survey of more than 1,000 farmers was released by the Grain Farmers of Ontario last week and showed 76 per cent cant compete with U.S. farmers, while 55 per cent said they might not be able to cover expenses due to lower commodity prices.

Reduced economic activity due to the pandemic is also taking a toll, and about a third of farmers are experiencing cash-flow problems this year.

I know how they feel, said Kevin Armstrong, district director for Grain Farmers of Ontario in Waterloo Region and Oxford County.

He has about 800 acres of wheat, corn and soybeans on the family farm near Woodstock, and the way were looking at it right now, we feel we will be lucky to break even this year, he said, despite a fairly average wheat yield so far.

The Grain Farmers of Ontario represents Ontarios 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean, and wheat farmers in the province.

In recent years, the United States government has provided American farmers with nearly $30 billion in subsidies as part of its ongoing trade dispute with China. The decision to prop up farmers has had a knock-on effect here in Canada, farmers say, since their American counterparts can afford to sell their grain at a lower price on the global market.

The U.S. sells at a lower price but can stay in business because of those subsidies, said Armstrong.

Those subsidies are driving down global grain prices, creating an uneven playing field for Ontario grain farmers, added Markus Haerle, chair of Grain Farmers of Ontario.

About 61 per cent of farmers surveyed said theyre concerned their business may not survive COVID-19.

Ontario farmers are looking for improvements to existing support programs that were cut under the previous federal Conservative government, Armstrong said.

One is AgriStability, which protects farmers from steep declines in farming income due to production losses, increased costs, and market conditions.

The federal government provides relief funding if a farmers margins fall by more than 30 per cent in one year. Prior to 2012 the threshold for help was a 15 per cent drop and Armstrong said returning to that level would be a big boost for farmers.

They also want to see changes to the federal AgriInvest savings program, which allows farmers to deposit net sales into a savings account and receive a one per cent matching contribution from the federal government.

That money can then be used to cover input costs or other farm expenses, and Armstrong said they want to see the government contribution boosted to five per cent.

In May, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced $252 million in COVID-19 support for farmers, but grain farmers say none of that funding was earmarked for them.

Ontario grain farmers grow about six million acres of crops and generate more than $4.1 billion in production, resulting in more than $18 billion in economic output and about 75,000 jobs, according to the Grain Farmers of Ontario.
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From Ali Galadima, Bauchi

In spite of the abundant arable landmass and human resources in Jigawa State, poverty has remained pervasive, multifaceted and chronic.

According to the 2017 report of the National Bureau of Statistics on Nigerian poverty assessment, poverty is widespread in Jigawa State with absolute poverty incidence reported being more than 74.1%. Although this percentage was an improvement on the 2007 statistics which was 90.9%, it is still alarming because it is higher than the national average of about 61%. The report went further to show the different ranks of poor people in the state. There were the core poor, 35.6%, very poor, 5% and moderately poor, 56%. It was reported too that the majority of the poor were in rural areas.

Jigawa State has a population of about 3.6 million people and life expectancy as of 2001 was 52 years with the Total Fertility Rate of 6.2 children per woman of childbearing age, which is a little above the national average.

The 2002 Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire Survey (CWIQ) indicates that 45.2% of the population of Jigawa at that time were young people below the age of 15, 49% between the ages of 15 and 59, while 5.8% were people aged 60 and above.

Despite its relatively young population, Jigawa has the worst nutrition indices in the country. This low nutrition indices have led to the prevalence of stunting and underweight, estimated to be between 63.4% and 40.6% respectively, among children.

Statistics obtained from UNICEF shows that the problem of malnutrition is grave in Jigawa State. Statistics In 2016 indicated that 600,000 children were malnourished out of 1, 100,000 children in the state. While 165,000 children between the ages of 59 months to 5 years were severely malnourished and 32,000 of the number would likely die if they did not receive help.

Available information shows that 102,000 children from zero to six months in Jigawa State are not exclusive breast-feeders. Exclusive breastfeeding is known to be the most effective preventive measure against malnutrition because it provides infants the right combination of nutrients they need and prevents infection from food and water. However, it is detrimental when mothers do not exclusively breastfeed their babies as it is one of the major causes of malnutrition and stunted growth among infants and children.

A lack of essential vitamins is another cause of malnutrition among children. In Jigawa, 650,000 children from six months to five years did not receive vitamin A supplements. Also, pregnant women did not get the vitamin supplements they needed for the proper growth of their unborn children. For example, reports show that 117,000 of the 205,000 pregnant women in the state did not take iron supplements for the prevention of anaemia during pregnancy.

The almost hopeless situation of malnourished children is beginning to look less hopeless through the tireless effort of UNICEF. UNICEF and its various partners have been feeding many of these children and giving them medical treatment. Over 40,000 of these malnourished children have benefited from such interventions.

In an interview with Mrs. Hassana Abdullahi, a mother of a malnourished child in Jigawa State, she said life has been hard for her with caring for a malnourished son and going to the farm to eke out a living. All we need is an assistant from anyone willing to help us so that we can fight poverty and have healthy children like other people in society, she said.

She further lamented that the poor often cannot afford to grow or buy food and the resources needed to get access to food are inequitably distributed.

Because of the challenges facing the poor, she resolved to fight scarcity of food, a problem plaguing the poor. In line with this, she is working hard on her farm to provide adequate and nutritious food for her children.

247urporets learnt that poor nutrition accounted for a large proportion of the deaths of children under the age of five. A low literacy rate and high poverty among women were other factors.

It was also observed that a lack of conducive environment for effective policy, planning and coordination of nutritional activities across sectors, government agencies and levels of government were seen as a significant contributing factor for the deaths of many children.

Like other NGOs and donor agencies, UNICEF has been providing preventive and curative nutrition services to address the multi-factorial causes of malnutrition. The services include promoting optimal maternal, infant and children feeding practices, integrating healthy nutrition, providing potable water and enforcing sanitation regulations.

The World Health Organization too has stepped in to curb malnutrition. In 2018 alone, it screened more than one million children for malnutrition including nearly 10,000 severely acute malnourished and 40,000 moderately acute malnourished children.

From January 2018 to date, WHO has provided 127 Severe Acute Malnutrition kits to 30 stabilization centres in the North including Jigawa and 8,000 children were treated for medical complications.

WHO mobile health teams and community resource persons have provided more than 750,000 mothers and caregivers with lifesaving health messages on the feeding of infants and young children and key household practices for childhood survival in the North.

Moreover, WHO has trained over 300 health professionals through its intensive six-day training course on inpatient management of severe acute malnutrition (SAM).

However, more work needs to be done by all partners to fully address the situation. It has, therefore, become essential for NGOs and Government at all levels to review its strategies and activities to ascertain what has worked, what didnt work and how to restrategize for the challenges ahead.

There is a need for all partners to mobilize and continue the efforts to provide urgently needed relief to affected children currently suffering or who are malnourished.

There is also a need for the federal and state governments and NGOs to put in place nutrition coordinators and planning mechanisms as intervention measures to curb malnutrition and save children lives in Jigawa State.

To achieve the goal of attaining a maximum nutritional status by the year 2021, Jigawa State Government needs to improve food security in the community and households to reduce undernutrition among infants, children, adolescents and women of reproductive age.

A total reform in the health sector to improve services, counselling and support for pregnant and lactating women at the community and health facility levels in line with the structures of the states primary health care development agency would help in reducing malnutrition in rural areas where the majority of malnourished children live.

Finally, there is a need for the government at all levels and NGOs to promote social behavioural change communication for better understanding of food and nutrition security problems for improved food and nutrition practices.
No ceasefire violation along LoC in Kashmir since February agreement

Pakistan uses fake Islam is in danger narrative as main theme of its terror indoctrination

How Pakistan used almonds to fund terror and back-stab Indias good-will on LoC trade

Why has this satellite caused panic in Poonch

Extending BSF jurisdiction for effective control at borders: Intent not to run parallel force

Pak resorts to heavy firing along LoC

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Jammu, July 28: The Pakistan army resorted to heavy firing and mortar shelling in forward areas along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, prompting Indian troops to retaliate effectively, officials said on Tuesday.

The ceasefire was violated by Pakistan for the eighth consecutive day on Tuesday, officials said, adding that there have been more than 20 incidents of ceasefire violation by Pakistan troops in the last more than a week.

"At about 1000 (10 am) hours today (Tuesday), Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and intense shelling with mortars along LoC in Degwar and Qasba sectors of district Poonch," a defence spokesperson said.

Ceasefire violations: Indian diplomat summoned by Pakistan

The Indian Army is retaliating befittingly, he added.

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

Pakistan troops had shelled forward areas of Mankote and Mendhar sectors of Poonch district and resorted to firing along the International Border (IB) in Hirangar sector of Kathua district on Monday resulting in injuries to an animal and damage to a house, they said.

Pakistani troops had shelled areas along the LoC in Rajouri and Poonch districts on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday last week as well as on Monday in Balakote, Subderbani, Nowshera, Qasba, Kirni, Mendhar, Mankote, Degwar, Krishnagati and Hiranagar sector of Kathua district.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 28, 2020, 13:48 [IST]
It was hardly surprising the Winnipeg Airports Authority announced Monday it would require all passengers, visitors and employees at Richardson International Airport to wear non-medical face coverings starting Wednesday. The real surprise is why it didn't happen sooner and why we aren't invoking similar requirements in a broader array of indoor spaces.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/7/2020 (541 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was hardly surprising the Winnipeg Airports Authority announced Monday it would require all passengers, visitors and employees at Richardson International Airport to wear non-medical face coverings starting Wednesday. The real surprise is why it didn't happen sooner and why we aren't invoking similar requirements in a broader array of indoor spaces.

Masks are now firmly part of the prescribed safeguards necessary to contain COVID-19, right up there with social distancing, hand washing and remaining at home if you are sick. Even so, many places including Manitoba have stopped short of making them mandatory.

Manitobans' fall fashion likely will include masks for indoor public spaces Click to Expand Health Minister Cameron Friesen, who joined Roussin at the news conference, announced that Manitoba COVID-19 press briefings will now be reduced to once a week starting this week. Posted: 7:00 PM Jul. 27, 2020 The province's chief public health officer says he can envision recommending the wearing of masks in all indoor public places as early as fall to help guard against the spread of the novel coronavirus. "I would foresee, when respiratory virus season comes, it's very likely that we'll be recommending that Manitobans wear masks in public indoor places," Dr. Brent Roussin told a news conference on Monday. Read Full Story

In the Phase 4 re-opening plan announced last week by Premier Brian Pallister, there was no mention of masks at all in either the draft or final version. Manitoba is hardly alone in ignoring the potential benefits of mandating non-medical masks. But it could soon find itself behind the curve unless steps are taken to make masks part of our daily pandemic routine.

That is certainly what is happening in other parts of the country.

Earlier this month, Quebec announced mandatory mask requirements for all indoor spaces and this week will impose a similar measure on anyone riding public transit. Ontario has not issued a province-wide order, but cities like Toronto did in early July, making a mask mandatory in indoor spaces and transit.

What prompted Ontario and Quebec to jump on the mandatory mask bandwagon? This is where science begins to flex its muscle.

Different viruses have different capacities to remain airborne. HIV, for example, can only be transmitted via bodily fluid. Measles, on the other hand, can linger in the air for up to two hours.

COVID-19? Ever since it arrived, there has been no consensus around where it should be placed on the airborne-transmission spectrum. That debate was settled to a large extent in early July, when 239 infectious disease experts publicly challenged the World Health Organization to acknowledge that COVID-19 represents a potent airborne threat.

That was a seminal moment in our understanding of COVID-19. And yet, we're still slow to respond now that the case for masks is stronger than ever. If you scan the science, it seems incomprehensible that we would be so laggard in adopting mandatory mask orders. Lamentably, our inability to assess scientific discoveries and then act decisively has been a hallmark of the global pandemic response.

COVID-19 may ultimately go down in history as the "if only" pandemic. As in, if only China had acknowledged the virus earlier. If only there had been a global cessation of air travel in January. If only social and economic distancing had been invoked earlier.

The next big " if only" moment could come if we don't move quickly to enforce mask use indoors. Of course, there are other perils that could arise if masks become mandatory.

In case you've been in a news bubble, masks have become a political and legal flashpoint in the global pandemic response. In some countries, the population has willingly embraced masks; in other places, mandatory mask use has prompted everything from outright skepticism to violence at any insistence a mask be worn.

In the United States, the mandatory mask has been at the centre of one of the most perverted debates ever by the citizens of a democratic country on the whole concept of civil liberties. A significant number of Americans will argue  and a small but annoying number of Canadians  that they have a "right" to refuse a mask even if it puts them and others in jeopardy. That has led to dramatic, even violent confrontations when mandatory mask orders have been enforced.

Masks have become a political and legal flashpoint in the global pandemic response. In some countries, the population has willingly embraced masks; in other places, mandatory mask use has prompted everything from outright skepticism to violence at any insistence a mask be worn. (Eric Albrecht/Canadian Press files)

There is no civil right in the U.S., or any other democracy, that permits citizens to do anything they want, anytime they want, without regard to the health and safety of others. Masks do make us safer and that alone should be enough to convince us to embrace the idea of making them mandatory indoors. Particularly as governments attempt to formulate some sort of plan to get students back in school this fall.

Dan Lett | Not for Attribution A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world that is sent every Tuesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

This week, Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen is expected to announce whether students will have any in-person access to schools once the school year starts. The stakes in this decision are huge.

Virtual learning proved to be an enormous challenge for many students who struggled to remain focused on their work outside the structure and socialization that comes with a school environment. The continued closure of schools will also have economic consequences for working parents of younger children who may not have adequate child care options if remote learning is still the order of the day.

As we approach a school year where we don't know exactly how or where children will be educated, we should be able to agree that non-medical masks offer us the greatest chance to resume some measure of in-person education and still hold the virus at bay. And they must be made mandatory to ensure consistent use.

Manitoba public health officials have, to date, seemed ambivalent about the idea of mandatory mask orders. And Premier Brian Pallister recently said although he does not like the idea of mandating mask use, he would yield to whatever advice he gets from his pandemic team.

Both Pallister and his public health officials should consider making mask use, particularly indoors, mandatory. That will give us the best chance to avoid having to start any future comment about the pandemic in Manitoba with the words, "if only."

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
Tall people could face a greater risk of getting Covid-19, according to research that adds weight to the theory the disease is airborne.

Data from 2,000 people in the UK and US showed that in the UK men above 6ft were twice as likely to be diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Women also had higher odds if they were over 6ft tall. But there were so few in the study, the results are not reliable.

The researchers said the findings do not necessarily mean tall people are somehow genetically more vulnerable to the infection.

Instead, the team believe the results indicate Covid-19 spreads through tiny particles called aerosols that linger in the air after being exhaled.

Scientists said taller people would be at no more risk if the virus was mainly spread through sneezing or coughing, which produce larger droplets that fall to the ground quickly.

Health officials have so far ruled out that Covid-19 is airborne. But admitted recently they are reviewing 'emerging evidence' that it is.

A survey of 2,000 people in the UK and US found the risk of Covid-19 double for people over six feet

The average man in England was 5ft 9" (175.3cm) and the average woman was 5ft 3" (161.6cm) in 2010, according to official data.

The survey results were analysed by a team of data scientists in the UK, Norway and the US, led by experts at the University of Oxford.

The study looked at a range of personal and work-related factors that may affect the risk of infection with SARS-Cov-2, the virus which causes Covid-19.

Respondents were asked about their employment status, income, how they travel to work, if they live with other people and if they socialised a lot among other factors.

Of the 2,000 people surveyed  including 1,000 in the UK and 1,000 in the US, 339 people were over six feet tall.

Analysis that has yet to be scrutinised by fellow scientists showed taller people were more likely to be diagnosed with Covid-19.

In the UK, men and women faced more than double the risk of Covid-19 compared to those under six feet.

The odds were slightly lower in the US for men but extremely high for women  who were more than nine times more likely to get the virus.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION ADMITS COVID-19 COULD BE AIRBORNE World Health Organization scientists recently admitted there is 'evidence emerging' that the coronavirus can be spread through the air. The UN agency previously said the virus spreads primarily through droplets expelled from the nose and mouth of an infected person. These quickly sink to the ground but can land in the nose or mouth of other people close by. They also land on surfaces, where the virus can be picked up. But there have been calls for the WHO to update its guidance to warn the infection can linger in the air and be inhaled by others. Airborne transmission means that a virus can be spread in droplets so small that they can float in the air and do not fall after being propelled by a cough or sneeze. Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead for Covid-19 at the WHO, confirmed on July 7 that the agency was looking at the theory the bug could be spread via the air. She said: 'We have been talking about the possibility of airborne transmission and aerosol transmission as one of the modes of transmission of COVID-19.' Speaking at Tuesday's briefing in Geneva, Benedetta Allegranzi, the WHO's technical lead for infection prevention and control, said there was evidence emerging of airborne transmission of the coronavirus, but that it was not definitive. 'The possibility of airborne transmission in public settings - especially in very specific conditions, crowded, closed, poorly ventilated settings that have been described, cannot be ruled out,' she said. 'However, the evidence needs to be gathered and interpreted, and we continue to support this.' The WHO's consideration follows 239 scientists in 32 countries writing to the UN agency asking it to acknowledge the growing evidence the virus is airborne. One professor who signed the paper said there will be concern to label the virus airborne because it may cause panic. Advertisement

But because there were such a tiny proportion of women over six feet in the data, the researchers did not say the finding was significant.

The link between height and Covid-19 was only seen in the UK, and the researchers did not offer an explanation for this.

It may be explained by other factors such as larger men working in construction, where they may be at greater risk.

Height has previously been linked to the development of diseases such as dementia and an irregular heart beat, which scientists believe could be due to genetic variants or growth hormones.

But in this study, the researchers did not suggest tall people were more at risk of Covid-19 due to their biology.

The findings support the theory that tiny coronavirus particles emitted through exhaling and speaking may linger in the air for hours.

World Health Organization scientists earlier this month admitted there is 'evidence emerging' that the coronavirus can be spread through the air.

The UN agency previously said the virus spreads primarily through droplets expelled from the nose and mouth of an infected person.

These quickly sink to the ground but can land in the nose or mouth of other people close by. They also land on surfaces, where the virus can be picked up.

But there have been calls for the WHO to update its guidance to warn the infection can linger in the air and be inhaled by others.

Airborne transmission means a virus can be spread in aerosols  droplets so small that they can float in the air after being exhaled.

Experts said taller people wouldn't be at any higher risk if transmission was mainly through droplets  but because they are taller they may be exposed to more of the particles, the team hypothesized.

The paper  which has not yet been published in a medical journal  said: 'If large downward falling droplets were more significant, then taller people might be expected to be less at risk.'

The one to two metre social distancing rule is based on the fact droplets do not carry through the air.

But if SARS-Cov-2 does indeed spread via aerosols, as growing evidence suggests, it would have huge implications for controlling the disease.

It could mean mask wearing is even more important than thought, according to Professor Evan Kontopantelis, from the University of Manchester.

Discussing the findings, he said: 'The results of this survey... suggest... aerosol transmission is possible.

'This has been suggested by other studies but our method of confirmation is novel.

'Though social distancing is still important because transmission by droplets is still likely to occur, it does suggest that mask wearing may be just as if not more effective in prevention.

'But also, air purification in interior spaces should be further explored.'

Professor Paul Anand, a research director at the Open University said: 'Much scientific research has focussed on patterns of spread and underlying mechanisms of transmission.

'But as economies and societies reopen, it is important to know more about the role personal factors as predictors of transmission.

'Though both are market economies, the US and UK differ in the extent and manner in they provide access to health care and welfare support  and that to some extent is demonstrated by the associations shown by the data.'

The study also found people were more likely to get coronavirus if they needed to travel to work using public transport.

Though the paper has yet to be peer reviewed, the authors wanted to reveal their findings amid the debate over aerosol transmission.

Commenting on the findings, Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said: 'In my view this preprint should be interpreted with caution.

'The authors analysed a substantial number of possible predictors for a range of outcome measures.

'One of the biggest mistakes that people make with epidemiological surveys is multiple hypothesis testing. The more hypothesis tests you do the more likely you are to flag up associations that have only arisen by chance.

'In my view this analysis does not even provide convincing evidence that tall people are protected from the infection never mind whether this means that there is aerosol transmission.'
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday said that her comments against the Bharatiya Janata Party allegedly trying to topple democratically-elected governments, during a pandemic, were lost in translation.

Participating in her partys #SpeakUpForDemocracy campaign on social media on Sunday, Priyanka Gandhi had said, Leadership is recognised in times of crisis. During coronavirus pandemic, the country needs a leadership that works in the public interest. But the BJP-led central government has made its intention clear by trying to topple the governments elected by the people. The public will answer.

However, National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday, took to Twitter to counter her remarks. He even shared a news report  BJP Trying To Topple Governments Amid Pandemic.

I dont get the whole during pandemic argument. As though somehow toppling an elected government would be less reprehensible if we werent battling a health crisis. IMHO its wrong regardless of COVID, he tweeted.

Clarifying her tweet, Priyanka Gandhi said, Youre absolutely right @omarabdullah. What I actually said was that leadership becomes evident during a crisis, and while the pandemic is on, the nation needs a leadership that works in the interest of its people.

However, the BJP government has been busy trying to topple democratically elected governments, revealing its true mindset and character. It seems my point got lost in translation, Priyanka Gandhi said in another tweet.

The Congress has launched a nationwide campaign in protest against the alleged attempts by the BJP to topple the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan.

Congress leaders and workers are also holding demonstrations in front of Raj Bhawans across the country except in Jaipur to protest against Rajasthan governor Kalraj Mishras allegedly delaying tactics in convening the assembly session to enable Gehlot to prove his majority in the House after his former deputy Sachin Pilot and 18 other legislators rebelled against the party.
DECATUR  Macon County and Decatur officials on Monday urged residents wear masks and take other precautions after a spike in COVID cases.

"We're seeing concerning increases in our numbers," said Public Health Administrator Brandi Binkley during a Joint Crisis Communication Team press conference at the Macon County Office Building.

Decatur Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe asked people to wear masks.

"These numbers are obviously going in the wrong direction," she said.

She asked business owners to require masks and that residents wear them.

"I do not want us to become the mask patrol, but I'm telling you right now we need to get this under control," she said.

Moore Wolfe said she is issuing an emergency order this week that would allow the city to revoke liquor licenses.

"We are at the point where people are not taking this seriously," she said.

State officials earlier Monday reported 1,231 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease, as well as 18 deaths.

The state in late June lifted restrictions put in place to limit the spread of COVID. Gatherings of up to 50 people are allowed and some recreational opportunities were restored.

The "Restore Illinois" plan also allows for the governor to restrict access again if numbers get worse.

The governor has also said he intends to keep the state in phase four until there is a COVID-19 vaccine, an effective and widely available treatment or new cases cease over a sustained period of time.

On Friday, Pritzker said four of Illinois 102 counties had reached warning level status for increased numbers of confirmed cases.

State officials said Adams, LaSalle, Peoria and Randolph counties saw outbreaks due to various risk factors, including numerous bars failing to comply with social distancing and mask requirements and large gatherings.

8 details announced in Decatur schools plan

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ALBANY  Seven Capital Region bars and restaurants are among the 443 businesses statewide that have been cited by the State Liquor Authority since mid-March for not following regulations instituted as part of the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Charges against all seven were leveled in April and May for allegedly violating the state's mandate at the time that bars and restaurants offer only takeout and delivery of alcohol. In the Capital Region, outdoor dining didn't resume until early June, with service in dining rooms and at bars being allowed later in the month. Earlier this month, in response to crowds of alcohol drinkers in front of bars, mostly in New York City, Cuomo instituted a statewide edict that food be ordered with all initial alcohol purchases at bars and restaurants, and that their patrons be seated when consuming alcohol.

The cited businesses are Arsenal City Tavern in Watervliet, Dee Dees Tavern in Latham, Dozers Bar and Grill in Ballston Spa, Greenbush Inn in East Greenbush, Jonathans Pizza & Italian Cuisine in Duanesburg, Marios Restaurant & Pizzeria in Niskayuna and River Road House Bar & Grill in Rotterdam Junction.

The charges against the local establishments don't give details of the individual alleged offenses. Each of the charges for violating Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive order temporarily banning on-premises consumption of alcohol, in effect in the Capital Region from March 16 through June 4, was accompanied by a second charge for what the SLA calls failure to supervise the conduct of the licensed business. The charges have a maximum penalty of the loss of a liquor license, though that rarely happens for initial offenses unless the alleged incidents are judged egregious. Penalties more typically are fines and/or a short suspension of a liquor license.

The state's enforcement of coronavirus-related regulations for alcohol sales has ramped up recently, with a new task force conducting nearly 1,100 compliance checks in three days last week. Those visits resulted in 84 citations being issued and the SLA suspending the liquor licenses of 10 New York City and Long Island bars and restaurants, according to the governor's office. SLA Chairman Vincent Bradley personally conducted three of the inspections last week that led to license suspensions, the governor's office said. The SLA board met Monday to issue more suspensions, a spokesman said, who said details of the suspensions will be released later Tuesday. None of the suspensions are for businesses in the Capital Region, according to the spokesman.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

"We're watching the bar and restaurant violations and the congregations in front of these establishments, as we believe it's connected to the increased infection rate with young people," Cuomo said in a statement. "We've tasked the State Liquor Authority and the State Police to help local governments more aggressively enforce the law, and they are doing just that."

The SLA and State Police are leading the task force, with assistance from local authorities and investigators from the state departments of health, financial services, motor vehicles, taxation and finance, agriculture and markets and the New York State Insurance Fund, the governor's office said.

In the greater Capital Region, three businesses have had their liquor licenses suspended for coronavirus-related offenses. The SLA pre-emptively suspended the licenses of Liberty Ridge Farm in Schaghticoke and Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon after they refused to modify plans for Fourth of July events that did not comply with restrictions on capacity and social distancing, according to the SLA. The agency spokesman said the suspensions were lifted afterward and no charges were filed. In June, Loopies Pub in Tribes Hill, between Amsterdam and Johnstown, paid a $10,000 fine to get back a liquor license suspended in May, according to SLA records.
Eighty-three persons infected with Covid-19 at the Pwalugu Police Training School, in the Upper East Region, have recovered, Interior Minister Ambrose Dery, told Parliament in Accra on Monday.



The Minister said when the first case was detected, contract-tracing led to a total number of 83 who were isolated at the time, checked and declared recovered.



Thats why they have gone back to training, Mr Dery added.



The Minister announced the recovery of the Covid-19 patients, in response to an urgent question in the House, asked by Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, MP for Wa West, on behalf of Mr Benson Tongo Baba, MP for Talensi, the host constituency of Pwalugu Training Institution.



Mr Baba said: Right Honourable Speaker, I rise to ask the Minister for the Interior what measures the Ministry has put in place to stem the spread of Covid-19 at the various training centres of the security agencies under the Ministry in the light of the outbreak of the virus at the Pwalugu Police Training School."



Following the report of the infection, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Region asked for an immediate suspension of police training activities of the Police Training School.



The Minister listed some of the measures taken to stem the spread of the disease as education of trainees to observe social distancing, establishment of isolation centres, and the division of the trainees into smaller groups to ensure social distancing.



Other measures were the continuous monitoring of the trainees to ensure that the protocols are observed, regular fumigation, and adequate provision of face masks and personal protection equipment, for their use.



According to Mr Dery, as at 24th July 2020, the Region had zero record of Covid-19.

Source: GNA









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A Phase 3 clinical trial designed to evaluate if an investigational vaccine can prevent COVID-19 in adults has begun in the United States, said a release of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Monday.

The vaccine, known as mRNA-1273, was co-developed by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company Moderna, Inc., and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH.

The trial, which will be conducted at U.S. clinical research sites, is expected to enroll approximately 30,000 adult volunteers who do not have COVID-19, according to the release.

"Although face coverings, physical distancing and proper isolation and quarantine of infected individuals and contacts can help us mitigate SARS-CoV-2 spread, we urgently need a safe and effective preventive vaccine to ultimately control this pandemic," said NIAID Director Anthony Fauci.

"Results from early-stage clinical testing indicate the investigational mRNA-1273 vaccine is safe and immunogenic, supporting the initiation of a Phase 3 clinical trial. This scientifically rigorous, randomized, placebo-controlled trial is designed to determine if the vaccine can prevent COVID-19 and for how long such protection may last," he said.

Moderna is leading the trial as the regulatory sponsor and is providing the investigational vaccine for the trial. The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and NIAID are providing funding support for the trial, according to the release.

"Having a safe and effective vaccine distributed by the end of 2020 is a stretch goal, but it's the right goal for the American people," said NIH Director Francis Collins.

"The launch of this Phase 3 trial in record time while maintaining the most stringent safety measures demonstrates American ingenuity at its best and what can be done when stakeholders come together with unassailable objectivity toward a common goal," he said.

The mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate will be tested at approximately 89 clinical research sites in the United States. Investigators will use public health data and incidence trajectory modeling to identify sustained high-incidence areas and emerging hot zones, so sites near these locations can be prioritized for enrollment.

NIAID scientists developed the stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike immunogen (S-2P). Moderna's mRNA-1273 uses the mRNA (messenger RNA) delivery platform to encode for an S-2P immunogen.

The investigational vaccine directs the body's cells to express the spike protein to elicit a broad immune response, according to the release.

A Phase 1 clinical trial found the candidate vaccine to be safe, generally well-tolerated and able to induce antibodies with high levels of virus-neutralizing activity, said NIH. Moderna initiated Phase 2 testing of the vaccine in May 2020.

According to Fauci, the U.S. government will fund and conduct key studies on three experimental coronavirus vaccines. Besides the Phase 3 trial by Moderna in July, one for an Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine will begin in August and one by Johnson & Johnson in September.
Coronavirus deaths in the United States surged to their highest level in months on Wednesday as Muslim pilgrims began a pandemic-curtailed version of their sacred hajj. The human toll of the disease in the US hit a magnitude not seen since mid-May with nearly 1,600 deaths recorded in 24 hours for the world's hardest-hit country, Johns Hopkins University reported Tuesday. Meanwhile China, where the deadly pathogen was first detected late last year, reported its highest single-day case total in three months. Residents in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong were adjusting to their strictest social-distancing measures yet over fears a "large-scale" outbreak could overwhelm hospitals. COVID-19 has claimed 660,000 lives and infected more than 16.7 million people across the globe, according to an AFP tally of official figures, although experts believe the true infection rate could be wildly higher. A second startling study from India in under a week, based on blood tests from almost 7,000 people, revealed more than half those living in the slums of Mumbai have had the coronavirus. - Clusters and lockdowns - Case numbers have been rising across the US for weeks, leaving health authorities and leaders to watch nervously for a feared spike in fatalities. President Donald Trump's push for re-election in November has been dogged by the virus crisis that has already killed nearly 150,000 Americans and wrought havoc on the world's biggest economy. In a fresh blow to the president, Twitter removed a video that Trump retweeted in which doctors made allegedly false claims about the pandemic, saying it broke its "COVID-19 misinformation policy". China, which Trump has often criticised for its initial handling of the pandemic, reported a three-month high of 101 new virus cases Wednesday as sporadic regional outbreaks illustrated the mammoth task of keeping contagion at bay. Authorities have concentrated their attention on a cluster that emerged last week in the northeastern port city of Dalian, where officials said workers handled contaminated packaging of imported seafood. More than three million people have been tested there and enclosed public venues including libraries, gyms and restaurants will be closed. Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam warned the financial hub was "on the verge of a large-scale community outbreak, which may lead to a collapse of our hospital system and cost lives, especially of the elderly". From Wednesday all residents in the densely packed city of 7.5 million must wear masks when they leave their homes, while restaurants can only serve takeaway meals, in a blow for diners during the city's hot and humid summer. "It's so hot outside now," a construction worker, who gave his surname as Chow, told AFP as he tucked into a pork chop in an alcove outside a department store. "Ten minutes after I start work, my shirt is all sweaty," he said, adding that he missed the air-conditioning of restaurants. And there were distressing scenes in Australia, where a care home resident who had died of the virus was seen being wheeled away in a body bag, while other residents waited for transport to hospital. Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned of a "critical" situation at more than a dozen care homes in Melbourne, where disaster-relief teams have been deployed to overwhelmed nursing facilities. - Hampered hajj - Resurgent outbreaks have forced nations to step up measures against the virus, leaving tourism and event calendars in tatters. The annual hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia's Mecca drew 2.5 million Muslims last year, but in 2020 just 10,000 already living in the kingdom will be allowed in. The chosen ones were subject to electronic tagging, temperature checks and quarantine as they began trickling into Mecca over the weekend. In addition to being a spiritual rite for faithful Muslims, the pilgrimage normally provides a boost to the local economy that will be sorely missed this year. In Europe, swelling caseloads are blasting a similar hole in local hopes for a financial windfall in summer holiday hotspots. Spain, one of the countries hit hardest by the pandemic, insists it is a safe destination despite dealing with 361 active outbreaks and more than 4,000 new cases. Several countries have nonetheless imposed quarantines on people returning from Spain, including its biggest tourist market, Britain. Spain's strict lockdown destroyed more than a million jobs during the second quarter of the year, the National Statistics Institute reported -- mainly in tourism. burs-je/leg/kaf Saudi Arabia is preparing for a dramatically scaled down hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to holy sites such as the Kaaba at the grand Mosque in Mecca Selected countries and territories that have recently adopted new measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, as of July 28. A vendor arranges facemasks to sell on a roadside in Hyderabad, India Care home residents who had died of the virus were seen being wheeled away in body bags in Melbourne The owner of this barber shop in Santa Monica, California has been hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic Spain is battling to save its summer tourism season
Photo: The Canadian Press An environmental law group wants a court to suspend the Alberta government's inquiry into oil and gas industry critics until there's a decision on whether it's legal. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Minister of Energy Sonya Savage respond to the federal approval of the Trans Mountain Pipeline in Edmonton, Tuesday, June 18, 2019.

An environmental law group wants a court to suspend the Alberta government's inquiry into oil and gas industry critics until there's a decision on whether it's legal.

The United Conservative government contends foreign interests are bankrolling environmental opposition to Canadian fossil-fuel projects.

In June 2019, It appointed forensic accountant Steve Allan to head a public inquiry.

Ecojustice filed a lawsuit last November that alleged the inquiry is politically motivated, biased and outside provincial jurisdiction.

A hearing that had been scheduled for April was delayed indefinitely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the meantime, the group is seeking an injunction in Court of Queen's Bench that would force Allan to halt his work until there is a ruling in the lawsuit.

Allan's report was due July 2, but the government recently extended his deadline by four months and added $1 million to the inquiry's $2.5-million budget.

"They're running this process in secret. They've added another million dollars. We believe it's for a predetermined outcome," Ecojustice executive director Devon Page said in an interview Monday.

"We really were left with no choice, particularly given the court delays as a result of COVID, but to bring an injunction application."

He said the inquiry has already done harm to environmental charities by distracting them from their missions and forcing them to direct resources toward defending themselves.

"What they want to do is kind of tar and feather the environmental charities," Page said of the United Conservative government.

"Environmental charities in Canada make their revenue from donations, the vast majority of which come from Canadians. So if Kenney could blacken their reputations, he could harm their ability to do what they do."

Kavi Bal, a spokesman for Energy Minister Sonya Savage, said: "Ecojustice has made it clear that they oppose an inquiry into well-funded foreign campaigns that seek to discredit Alberta and its energy sector."

The Alberta government is "committed to protecting Canadas largest economic subsector from attack by foreign opposition, and we will see this inquiry through to its completion," he added.

Page said despite pandemic-related delays in the courts, he's hopeful the injunction request will be considered "in a matter of weeks."
IAF's Rafale fleet to have first woman pilot soon

IAF: India's oldest fighter pilot turns 100

India

oi-Briti Roy Barman

New Delhi, July 28: Dalip Singh Majithia, who holds the distinction of being the oldest living IAF fighter pilot, turned 100 on Monday.

Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria extended his greetings to the centenarian who had retired in August 1947 when India achieved Independence.

"IAF extends its best wishes to Sqn Ldr Dalip Singh Majithia (retd) on his 100th birthday today. He retired in Aug 1947 & holds the distinction of being the 'oldest' IAF fighter pilot now," the IAF tweeted.

Need to further enhance our operational capabilities, says IAF chief amid rising border tension

Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria conveyed warm greetings and heartiest congratulations to Majithia on behalf of all air warriors, the IAF said.

On August 5, 1940, Majithia, the young Sikh pilot took off on his first training flight in a Tiger Moth aircraft from the Walton airfield in Lahore with his two British instructors.

17 days later, Dalip Singh Majithia, 20, flew his first solo flight that that paved the way for a lifetime in aviation.

Covid-19: 1st case of vertical transmission in India & more news | Oneindia News

"I still feel that I'm in it, when I meet [Indian Air Force] officers," says Squadron Leader Majithia (retd.). "My batch people aren't there anymore, we used to have our meetings on the first of August every year for some time."

With the surrender of the Japanese and the Second World War winding down, Dalip Singh Majithia was selected to be a part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces and moved to BCOF Headquarters in Melbourne, where he met Joan Sanders (whose father was with the British Indian Army).

On 18 February, 1947, he married Joan at his family home in Gorakhpur where the family had considerable land holdings and business interests.
Writings on the Wall

As a part of my academic field, I do a lot of trend spotting and basic estimates of what could happen in the future. Here are a few examples. Read more
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 13:11:56|Editor: huaxia

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KABUL, July 28 (Xinhua) -- One policeman was killed and two people were injured as a blast struck a police van in Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday, police spokesman Ferdaus Faramarz said.

According to the official, the device was a sticky bomb which went off at 07:15 a.m. local time in Badam Bagh area at PD 4, killing one policeman on the spot and wounding two others.

Without providing more details, the official said that an investigation had been initiated into the incident. Enditem
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler on Tuesday accused Attorney General William Barr of deploying federal agents to cities wracked by violence as a prop to further President Trumps reelection campaign.

Barr testified during a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, the first time the attorney general has appeared before the committee, and was accused of a long list of transgressions by the committees Democratic majority, who have suggested he could be impeached.

Understandably, Americans are very suspicious of your motives here. There are those who believe you are sending federal law enforcement into these cities not to combat violent crime but to help with the presidents reelection efforts, Nadler told Barr during the hearing.

Can you commit today that the department will not use federal law enforcement as a prop in the presidents reelection campaign? the Democratic chairman asked moments later.

The president wants footage for his campaign ads, and you appear to be serving it up to him as ordered, Nadler continued, claiming that in most of the cities experiencing violence, the rioting had begun to wind down before federal agents confronted demonstrators, who he said arent mobs.

The Trump administration deployed federal law enforcement agents to Portland after weeks of nightly violence continued to rock the city, where demonstrations have been nearly constant since the police custody death of George Floyd in May. While some protests have been peaceful, demonstrators who remain on the streets after dark have engaged in property destruction, throwing rocks and other projectiles at police, marking buildings with graffiti, and setting fires, especially around two federal courthouses downtown.

Last week, more than 1,000 protesters congregated near the Justice Center and Federal Courthouse downtown and threw incendiary devices over the fence around the federal courthouse, which resulted in a large fire. Federal agents have responded with tear gas and rubber bullets and arrested more than a dozen people over the past week in relation to the protests.

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You are projecting fear and violence nationwide in pursuit of obvious political objectives. Shame on you, Mr. Barr. Shame on you, Nadler said.

Barr responded that the Democratic chairman has conflated two different things, namely the way federal law enforcement handles predatory violence and the federal response to demonstrations.

I just reject the idea that the department has flooded anywhere and attempted to suppress demonstrators, Barr said. Portland, the courthouse is under attack. The federal resources are inside the perimeter around the courthouse defending it from almost two months of daily attacks.

Three federal officers may have been permanently blinded by lasers that demonstrators pointed at their faces, Barr added.

We are on the defense. Were not out looking for trouble, Barr said, adding that if Oregon and Portland provided adequate law enforcement, federal agents would not be necessary in Portlands downtown area.

Later in the hearing, Representative Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, said that the presence of federal law enforcement has caused more protesters to show up rather than dissipated the demonstrations.

The reaction has actually been in reverse proportion. People are showing up because the troops are there, she said, adding that most of them are nonviolent.

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Attorney General William Barr takes the oath before he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing in the Congressional Auditorium at the US Capitol Visitors Center July 28, 2020, in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/AFP via Getty Images)

Barr Defends Justice Departments Response to Riots in Contentious Hearing

Attorney General William Barr defended the actions of federal law enforcement and some of his own decisions as he faced hours of questions, criticism, and accusations from Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee on July 28.

In Barrs first appearance before the panel since President Donald Trump appointed him to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Democrats focused significant attention on the role of federal agents in quelling riots that have plagued Portland, Oregon, and other cities. They also questioned Barrs decisions in prosecutions involving former Trump advisers Michael Flynn and Roger Stone.

The Democrats frequently interrupted Barrs responses to their questions and accusations, as Republicans yielded some of their own time to allow the attorney general to respond. Barr raised his voice on a few occasions to attempt to get a word in, but remained composed and calm as Democrats lobbed insults and what appeared to be poorly substantiated insinuations.

In the hands of President Trump, a Department of Justice that adopts a dangerously expansive view of executive power and demonstrates a willingness to shield him from accountability represents a direct threat to the country, committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) alleged in his opening statement.

This administration has twisted the Department of Justice into a shadow of its former self, capable of serving most Americans only after it has served those in power.

Attorney General William Barr appears before the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 28, 2020. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Barr devoted roughly half of his opening statement to addressing the national conversation about the police-custody death of George Floyd. The attorney general stressed that defunding the police is a poor approach to solving the problem.

The threat to black lives posed by crime on the streets is massively greater than any threat posed by police misconduct, Barr said. The leading cause of death for young black males is homicide. Every year, approximately 7,500 black Americans are victims of homicide, and the vast majority of themaround 90 percentare killed by other blacks, mainly by gunfire. Each of those lives matter.

Barr noted that the demonization of law enforcement has led to risk avoidance by police officers, which has, in turn, triggered a spike in crime in cities across the nation. The DOJ has deployed investigators, firearms and ballistics analysts, and other experts to these hotspots to counter the surge, he said.

And it is not just that crime snuffs out lives. Crime snuffs out opportunity, Barr said. Children cannot thrive in playgrounds and schools dominated by gangs and drug pushers. Businesses do not locate in unsafe neighborhoods. When the police are attacked, when they are defunded, when they are driven out of urban communities, it is black lives that will suffer most from their absence.

The killing of George Floyd triggered a wave of violent riots across the nation, and Democratic committee members repeatedly conflated the federal response to the violence from agitators as being targeted at peaceful protests. Barr vehemently defended the conduct of the federal agents and drew a distinction between the peaceful protesters, whom he supports, and the violent radicals.

Even as the wave of riots across the nation has subsided, Portland has remained plagued by a nightly cycle of violence. The DOJ said that 22 people were arrested over the weekend, including 16 who face charges of assaulting federal agents. The rioters have focused their attention on a federal courthouse, forcing the federal agents tasked with protecting the facility to respond.

What unfolds nightly around the courthouse cannot reasonably be called a protest; it is, by any objective measure, an assault on the government of the United States, Barr said. A number of federal officers have been injured, including one severely burned by a mortar-style firework and three who have suffered serious eye injuries and may be permanently blind.

Barr also defended his handling of the case against Stone, in which he personally intervened to propose a more lenient sentence. The sentencing was brought to his attention because the four line prosecutors threatened to resign if they werent allowed to suggest a tougher sentence to the court, which Barr did not agree with. The judge in the case ultimately sided with Barrs pleading.

The attorney general also explained the DOJ motion to dismiss the case against Flynn, telling lawmakers that the FBI had no basis to investigate the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
I dont think we should be here, Charlie says, glancing nervously at the monstrous brick buildings looming in front of us. Their shadows, cast by the weak yellow light of flickering street lamps, span across the cobblestone footpaths in front of us.

I understand his hesitation. This place, especially under the black night sky, looks the stuff of nightmares.

We are inside of the Testaccio Slaughterhouse, or Ex Mattatoio, as it is known to locals. Unbeknownst to tourists and international students, this retired industrial empire is a shortcut for getting back and forth between Testaccio and Trastevere, two of the Romes trendiest neighborhoods. We are on our way to dinner in Testaccio, the neighborhood famous for its award-winning restaurants and charcuteries.

Its fine, I say, hoping my confidence will calm his uneasiness.

The only ghosts here are those of pigs and cows, and this is no Pet Sematary[1].

The first time I found this place, however, following my GPS to work, I was afraid I had stepped foot onto the set of a horror film.

Also read:

In stark contrast to the hustle and bustle of Trastevere, inside the rusted gates of the Ex Mattaoio, one finds themselves in a preserved bubble of history: a secret, abandoned world of identical tan buildings, connected by an extensive network of rusting, metal transportation beams.

In its glory days, the site was the source of cherished prosciutto, salami, speck, and any pork, sheep, or cow meat product that now stands as a staple of Roman cuisine. The district was a proud one, surviving on the scraps of their labors and creating from them their own working mans cuisine.

The Tiber river, which conveniently runs just behind the slaughterhouse, was used to transport processed meat to wealthier areas of the city. With the utilization of new production and transportation methods came the fall of the Mattatoio, which became the Ex Mattatoio in 1975.

Charlie and I make our way through the narrow pathways, careful not to trip on loose cobblestones. As we walk, I point out the metal meat hooks above us. Once this place and its history are understood, its easy to imagine slabs of pork and veal hanging from them like decorations, swinging above busy workers in sterile white coats chopping and slicing with the organized exactitude of machine parts.

Also read:

Depending on which side of the Ex Mattatoio one enters, his or her first impression will vary drastically. The rear end of the slaughterhouse, where Charlie and I entered, remains abandoned. Each brick building has a handful of square, doorless entryways lining its face like blackened teeth. If one listens carefully, the sorrowful moans of a cello can often be heard.

The front entrance of Rome's ex Mattatoio. Ph: rarrarorro / Shutterstock.com

The front entrance, however, stands proudly in Piazza Orazio Giustiniani, grabbing the attention of any passersby.

Its monotonous tan visage is uplifted by the busy packs of students coming and going from the music school inside. Just inside, the slaughterhouse appears as an active, exclusive city: its retired buildings given new life in the form of classrooms and performance halls. Classical music echoes through the cobblestone pathways.

We stop briefly outside of a classroom to appreciate a lone violinist practicing a melody. The music school fits naturally into the former meat packing buildings, harmoniously blending the proud history of the past with the passion of the present.

Despite Testaccios fall as an industrial empire, the spirit of the slaughterhouse has never faltered. The thick scent of cured pork lingers in the air, ghostly reminiscent of its former glory. This is no illusion--meat remains an integral, almost intrinsic aspect of Testaccian values.

Former meatpacking buildings along the brick roads skirting the slaughterhouse have been converted to Testaccian trattorias, like the one we are headed towards. Their tall ceilings, seemingly decorated with retired meat hooks and transportation beams, pay homage to their roots.

Where in America, we would have bulldozed history in the name of renovation, the Ex Mattatoio holds tightly to its former self, standing as a testament to the Italian truth that the old can indeed live in harmony with the new.

Top photo: rarrarorro / Shutterstock.com
An Taoiseach Micheal Martin TD, Minister for Education Norma Foley TD and Minister for Special Education and Inclusion Josepha Madigan TD today, Monday 27 July, announced the publication of Reopening Our Schools: The Roadmap for The Full Return to School, along with details of a financial package of over 375 million to support its implementation, following approval by Government.

The roadmap outlines a comprehensive range of measures being provided to support the full reopening of schools in time for the start of the new school year in late August.

The roadmap was developed following intensive engagement with stakeholders from the education sector, including teachers unions, representatives of principals and deputy principals, school management bodies, representatives of parents and post-primary students and support staff.

The roadmap and the funding package recognise the challenges faced by schools in ensuring the safe return of over one million students and approximately 100,000 staff in 4,000 schools in the context of COVID-19. It sets out clear plans and practical guidance on the measures schools will need to take to operate safely and minimise the risk of the introduction, or spread, of infection in schools.

The financial package approved by Government to support schools recognises that COVID-19 poses significant challenges with regard to staffing, particularly in regard to replacement of staff, substitution, supervision and the need for wellbeing supports.

The package of 376 million includes:

1. Plans for an additional 1,080 teaching posts at post-primary level at a cost of 53 million, to include the following measures:

120 guidance posts will be provided to support student wellbeing

An initial allocation of over 600 posts to be made available to post-primary schools

Remaining posts will be used to support those post-primary schools. experiencing particular difficulties to reopen fully and adhere to physical distancing and class sizes.

2. Additional funding, estimated at 84.7 million, so that schools can employ replacement teaching staff, SNA and administrative staff. This can occur where staff members who are identified in line with HSE guidance as at very high risk of Covid-19 are advised to cocoon.

3. Additional funding of 41.2 million, to provide primary schools with substitute staff. This will provide more certainty on the availability of substitutes for primary schools and cover substitutions that are not covered by existing schemes, as well as where staff members who display symptoms cannot come to work in the school, in line with public health advice.

4. An estimated additional cost of 40m to provide post-primary schools with additional supervision of students. This will be a key control measure to support schools to minimising interaction of students from different classes, in line with public health advice.

5. An additional 52 million for schools to put in place enhanced cleaning and hygiene measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission in schools. This is being provided on a per-pupil basis and is intended to allow an additional four to six hours cleaning per day in schools.

6. Provide all teaching principals at primary level with a minimum of one release day per week to relieve the administrative burden arising from the changes and the impacts of Covid-19 and a new measure to provide deputy principals with some release days, ranging from 5 days to 16 days depending on the school size, to support administrative principals.

7. A 75 million capital allocation to support schools to prepare their buildings and classrooms for reopening including an uplift for schools with SEN pupils.

8. 4.2 million to enable schools to employ an aide to implement the logistical changes needed in schools  moving furniture, changing classroom layouts, set up hand sanitising stations, signage etc.

9. 3.8m to provide release time for each school to have a lead worker representative, whose role is to support the school to manage the risk of COVID-19 infections.

The plan and its accompanying documentation provides schools with guidance on training, checklists for schools on preparing for reopening and guidance for operating the school safely in a Covid-context. It advises on areas across logistics, curriculum, teaching, managing school activities, supporting pupils with additional needs, administration and wellbeing.

Minister Foley said: This is a comprehensive plan that will support our schools to reopen for the new school year.

We have worked extremely hard to develop plans that not only provide certainty to schools as to what they need to do, but that are meaningful, practical, and realistic. These have been informed by the expertise and collaboration of the stakeholders, and truly take account of how schools operate on a day-to-day basis. I want to thank everyone involved for the huge commitment in bringing this vast amount of work together.

There is a strong emphasis in the roadmap on safety, and on practical arrangements, but also on ensuring the wellbeing of the students and of the entire staff community.

I am deeply conscious that children and young people have had their learning disrupted due to the global pandemic. So many of our teachers, our school staff and our parents and students went far beyond their normal roles to keep teaching and to provide learning experiences to students. It was an enormously challenging time.

Our schools now face another challenge, to support our students to return to and stay in school safely, to re-engage them and support them to settle in, and progress in their learning.

I know well the calibre of the teachers and the staff teams in the schools across the country. I am confident that the measures we have put in place will equip those teams with the additional knowledge, practical supports and resources that they will need to do that.

I have today written to all members of school staff and to parents, thanking them for the roles they are playing and will continue to play as we return at the end of August. We will continue to communicate with schools and through them with parents and students, as schools return, and keep a close eye to ensure that the supports are working as they should.

I am delighted we have been able to secure such a comprehensive package of support, which will ensure that at the end of August we will once again hear the joy and laughter of children and young people in our schools.

Roadmap emphasis on safety and wellbeing

The Department of Education has prepared a suite of support materials for schools, including guidance on curriculum, wellbeing of students, wellbeing of staff as well as protocols for minimising the risk of spread of infection in schools.

Online Return to Work training will be provided for all members of school staff, with separate components for teaching staff, SNAs, administrative and cleaning staff.

In addition to the guidance on supporting wellbeing in schools on returning, a suite of supports for school staff will also be provided to schools by the National Educational Psychological Service in conjunction with the Departments support services[1] and with the HSE and Tusla Education Support Service.

Measures supporting special schools and classes for children with special educational needs

The Department of Education is also making additional provision for special schools and special classes, in recognition of the particular challenges that these schools and classes will face dealing with children with complex medical and care needs.

Minister Madigan said: This plan provides great certainty on how schools will be able to operate to support students with special educational needs. Parents, teachers and SNAs can be assured that all appropriate measures will be taken to secure the safety and wellbeing of the children, while ensuring their education can continue.

We know that these pupils have been impacted greatly by not being in a regular routine of school, and that they will need particular support at the time of transition back to school.

I am pleased to have secured a dedicated suite of actions in the area of special education, recognising the additional needs and vulnerabilities that children face. There will be additional funds for Special Schools and mainstream schools with special classes to support them in re-opening fully. This includes making sure that all SNA absences are fully covered so that children with complex needs receive the support that they require. There will also be funding for enhanced cleaning and additional support staff in schools.

I am also particularly pleased that the government has supported the introduction of 1,200 guidance posts into our schools, to support the wellbeing of all students, particularly those with additional needs.

The expansion of the National Educational Psychological Service to include 17 new psychologist posts is another immensely positive step and will be of enormous benefit to students with additional needs.

Ive seen at first hand the benefits of the summer provision programme for students, and the students. This package is immensely practical, it has workable solutions that have been worked out by those who know the systems best, and will support schools to make that transition back for every child.

As Minister with responsibility for special education, I will continue to advocate for the needs of children and their families. I am very conscious of the needs of children at very high risk and will work with colleagues across the system to ensure that they can continue to make progress, though they may not be able to return to school in the same way as others.

The specific measures include:

The Minor Works Grant at primary and post-primary level will include enhanced rates for students in special classes and schools. This will support schools to undertake works that are needed to facilitate reopening.

Additional per capita funding being provided for pupils in special schools and special classes recognises the additional needs that these pupils have and the additional measures that schools may be required to take to support them.

Special schools will receive funding equivalent to 10 days, for the purposes of employing an aide to assist with the logistics for preparing for reopening.

Schools with special classes where there is a teaching principal will now receive a minimum of one release day per week. Those schools with administrative deputy principals will be provided with 16 release days to support the principal.

All special schools will benefit from the replacement of all absences of SNAs in school settings.

Enhanced COVID-19 rates are payable in respect of students attending special schools and special classes attached to mainstream schools to assist with the extra costs associated with the cleaning of classrooms in these settings.

Additional funding will be provided to cater for costs related to hand hygiene measures and PPE requirements.

The plan recognises that some children who have complex medical or special educational needs may not be able to return to school at the end of August because the relevant public health guidelines indicate they are at very high risk.

Schools will have discretion to manage and redistribute their teaching support resources in order to best meet the learning needs of these students.

Curriculum Guidance:

The Department has worked closely with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), the State Examinations Commission (SEC) and the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) on supporting schools in mediating the curriculum for the new school year and has produced a number of guidance documents to support schools at both primary and post-primary.

At primary level the purpose of the guidance documents is to ensure that pupils/students can settle back into school, that all of the school community can stay safe and well and pupils/students can pick up and progress their learning, experiencing as full and enjoyable a curriculum as possible. The guidance also outlines the learning approaches which schools should take and the need to allow for revisiting and revising of areas of the curriculum to reinforce and consolidate learning.

It is recognized that pupils with SEN will require particular support at the time of transition back to school including supporting their wellbeing, reducing potential anxiety and planning learning experiences that take account of the effect of school closures on their progress.

A number of document and supports have also been produced to support post primary school with specific focus on transition to post-primary, students facing assessment in 2021, Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) and Transition Year (TY).

Additional funding through the Hand Sanitiser and PPE Grant

The financial package does not include grants that will be provided to schools to fund any hand sanitiser and personal protective equipment as a public procurement process has not yet been finalised. When the procurement process is complete, and the drawdown framework is in place in early August, the additional funding to schools to obtain hand sanitiser and other PPE to support reopening and the 2020/21 school year will be advised directly to schools. Accompanying guidelines to schools on accessing the drawdown framework will also issue in early August.

School Transport

School Transport Scheme services operated by Bus Eireann on behalf of the Department will fully operate as normal, in line with public health advice, when schools re-open for the 2020/2021 school year.

In planning for normal resumption of school transport services consideration has been taken of the fact that school transport somewhat differs to public transport in that:

School transport services are controlled environments.

Each transport service carries the same children on a daily basis to their school of attendance.

It is a restricted group of transport users which will facilitate contact tracing if required.

Observing hygiene requirements will be a key priority and clear communication to all parents of children or to older students using school transport services will set out the following requirements for those travelling on school transport:

Not to use school transport if they are displaying symptoms.

To maintain physical distancing while waiting for transport.

To always sit in pre-assigned seating and next to a sibling or child from their class group (this should be the same child at all times).

To use hand sanitiser on boarding the bus.

To observe respiratory etiquette at all times while waiting for and on-board transport services.

To disembark the bus one by one in an orderly fashion; and

With the exception of those children who for medical or special educational needs reasons are not in a position to wear a facemask or face covering, all other students travelling on the post-primary scheme are required to wear facemasks while waiting for and on-board transport services.

Additional funding of 11.3 million has been provided as part of the package today to support hygiene, PPE and cleaning requirements.

Other items

The Department of Education has published a range of documents today as part of the overall suite, including Returning to School guidance on learning and school programmes for both primary and post-primary school leaders and teachers, a Circular on funding and staffing arrangements to apply in schools for the 2020/21 school year and specific guidance for schools in relation to Transition Year and Leaving Cert Applied programmes.

The Department is putting in place a dedicated team to support schools in applying the new arrangements in relation to Minor Works Grants, additional staffing, replacement staffing, and substitution.

A helpline number and email is being provided directly to school principals to address queries and to support schools in their planning for reopening.
CreatorIQ, a Los Angeles, CA  based proven software platform to unify and power advanced influencer marketing, raised $24M in Series C funding.

The round was led by Kayne Partners Fund, the growth private equity group of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., with participation from TVC Capital and Unilever Ventures.

Led by Igor Vaks, Founder & CEO, CreatorIQ provides a software platform to unify and power advanced influencer marketing. Its Intelligence Cloud enables data science-enabled creator discovery, streamlines end-to-end workflow, ensures brand safety, and drives meaningful measurement. CVS, Disney, H&M, Mattel, Salesforce, Sephora, and Unilever utilize its platform to drive real business results across their influencer marketing ecosystems.

The company, which has offices in New York, Chicago, and London, is focusing its Series C on five strategic areas including an all-new customer experience, data science, paid media & advanced measurement, global expansion, as well as strategic alliances & partnerships. Its plans for partnerships are already underway with the recently announced CreatorIQ Certified Partner Program launching with five inaugural partners including Collectively, Digital Brand Architects, Everywhere Agency, ShopStyle Collective, and Sway Group.

FinSMEs

27/07/2020
BANK of Ireland has been fined by the regulator over failings that led to a client losing money and because it failed to inform the Central Bank about the incident.

BANK of Ireland has been fined by the regulator over failings that led to a client losing money and because it failed to inform the Central Bank about the incident.

The bank was also found to have failed to notify the Gardai until the Central Bank discovered what had happened.

It was fined 1.7m.

Regulators said Bank of Irelands failure to be open and transparent had the effect of misleading the Central Bank.

The Central Banks investigation arose from a cyber-fraud incident that occurred in September 2014.

A fraudster impersonated a client and Bank of Ireland Private Banking responded by making two payments to a third party account totalling 106,430.

One payment was from a clients personal current account, the other from the private banks own funds.

According to the regulator, Bank of Ireland Private Banking immediately reimbursed the client.

During a risk Assessment of the private bank in 2015, the Central Bank discovered a reference to the incident in an operational incident log.

The bank had not been reported the cyber-fraud to An Garda Siochana, and only did so at the request of the Central Bank over one year after the incident.

The probe found serious deficiencies in respect of third party payments, a Central Bank statement said.

These included inadequate systems and controls to minimise the risk of loss from fraud, inadequate governance, oversight and ongoing review of the systems and control environment, and a lack of staff training.

Also found was a culture in which fulfilling clients instructions was given primacy over security and regulatory requirements, the Central Bank said.

Bank of Ireland Private Bank displayed a lack of compliance monitoring.

The Central Bank has determined the appropriate fine to be 2.3m, which has been reduced by 30pc in accordance with the settlement discount scheme provided for in the Central Banks Administrative Sanctions Procedure.

Central Bank director of Enforcement and anti-money laundering Seana Cunningham said Bank of Ireland Private Bankings failure to be open and transparent had the effect of misleading the Central Bank in the course of the investigation.

Bank of Ireland said it regrets the circumstances of this incident and the weaknesses in internal controls and procedures that it highlighted. As soon as the Bank became aware of the issue we ensured that the customer involved was fully reimbursed.




Press Release

July 28, 2020 PRRD said some good things in his 5th SONA, but did not give a comprehensive master plan vs covid - Gordon Senator Richard J. Gordon pointed out that while President Rodrigo R. Duterte tackled some good plans in connection with education and healthcare in his 5th State of the Nation Address on Monday, he did not present a comprehensive master plan for the country's fight against the Coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic. "He (PRRD) did say some good things. You know on education, distance learning that is something we should do very fast, on the accessibility of nurses and of course there are a lot of things... He did say a lot of good things. But I think overall, I think he should've stuck to the message... He didn't give a comprehensive master plan (against COVID) as I was hoping but I guess it would be the Bayanihan Law that will be the template for implementing it," he said. Duterte said his administration plans to increase the number of schools with information and communications technology equipment to support blended learning. Government assets such as television frequencies will be utilized in distance learning to provide quality education to children. The President also promised that before he steps down in 2022, the country will have a public education network which will connect schools and offices of the Department of Education nationwide. Gordon said the President must be more firm in implementing a policy to ensure victory over COVID. "He's got to be seen more firmly and he's got to be seen making orders and making sure that everybody is moving together in the same direction. Are we going to have, for example, rules involving the wearing of masks in public? Local governments are doing it independently. How about the LSIs (locally stranded individuals)? A lot of LSIs have been tested but when they go to the LGUs (local government units), or go home to their provinces they can't get in and they are being retested over and over again. There's an awful lot on confusion in the policy implementation," he said.
UAE money destroying Yemen's Ta'izz: Pro-Hadi commander

Iran Press TV

Monday, 27 July 2020 10:31 AM

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is destroying the Yemeni city of Ta'izz, a source says, after clashes erupted between the Emirati-sponsored Tareq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh's forces and the self-proclaimed Riyadh-backed government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Clashes erupted last weekend in Ta'izz between the two sides after the Saudi-backed militants tried to impose restrictions on the UAE-sponsored mercenaries in the southwestern city.

The Middle East Eye said in a report on Sunday that impoverished Yemenis in Ta'izz are joining the ranks of Tareq - the nephew of the late Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh who is accused of leading a deadly crackdown on 2011 protests against his uncle - "for one reason: Emirati money".

He established the National Resistance Forces (NRF), which is primarily made up of former members of the Yemeni Republican Guard, at the western coast around the port city of Mocha.

According to the report, the group has expanded to Ta'izz, recruiting new mercenaries every day due to the high salaries it offers.

The prospect of higher salaries has prompted thousands of pro-Hadi militants to join the NRF. Most of them now live in the town of al-Turbah which lies on the strategic main road between the Ta'izz and the port city of Aden.

Violent protests

In response, the so-called military police in Ta'izz, which are loyal to the Islah party that represents the Hadi's self-proclaimed government in the city, deployed reinforcements to impose restrictions on the movement of Tareq's militants in al-Turbah.

As a result, the NRF and their supporters staged protests in al-Turbah last weekend, demanding the withdrawal of the new military camps, most of which are linked to Islah forces, in the area.

Clashes between NRF supporters and the Islah-backed forces stopped on Sunday, but sporadic fighting broke out again.

Ahmed, a military police member, told MEE that not only Tareq's supporters, but all the UAE-backed sides, took part in the recent protest and clashes in al-Turbah.

"It is the UAE's money that is destroying Ta'izz and the whole country. The UAE succeeded in dividing Ta'izz's army by its money. Nowadays, we can see new brigades supporting the UAE."

He noted that the UAE-backed armed groups "exploited the poverty of Yemenis, and some needy people join UAE-backed forces for the sake of money".

Ahmed further said that many residents of Ta'izz oppose the presence of NRF fighters in their villages, but are afraid to speak out.

Both the UAE-sponsored mercenaries and the Saudi-backed militants loyal to Hadi serve the Riyadh-led military coalition and have been engaged, since March 2015, in a bloody war on Yemeni people, with the aim of bringing the government of Hadi back to power and crushing Ansarullah movement.

The UAE has been accused of attempting to occupy Yemen's strategic Socotra Island to secure what it perceives to be its geopolitical interests in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis.

The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country's infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.

A number of Western countries, the US and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.

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Nurse Jeanette Pimentel checks on COVID-19 patient Pedro Luera, 68, who was airlifted from El Centro Regional Medical Center to Paradise Valley Hospital in National City, Calif. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

In all of their 47 years of marriage, Pedro and Patricia Luera had never been apart. Even now, in sickness, they were together.

The couple had tested positive for COVID-19. They were feverish, weak and struggling to breathe.

On July 2, a day after his wife had been admitted, 68-year-old Pedro Luera walked into the emergency room of El Centro Regional Medical Center, one of two hospitals serving Imperial County, a rural and impoverished region of about 180,000 people.

A surge in COVID-19 cases had put a strain on the hospital. It was running out of ventilators and intensive care unit beds almost every day, forcing it to send patients to other hospitals.

Soon, the Lueras would be at Paradise Valley Hospital in San Diego County, hooked up to breathing machines.

Before his father was sedated and intubated, Luera's son, Pedro Jr., exhorted his father to hang tough.

Youre strong. Theres still a lot of things you need to do, he told him. Youre going to come out of this. Be strong.

His father croaked out: Im going to fight.

Pedro Luera Jr., right, is shown with his family at his El Centro residence. Both of his parents were hospitalized after contracting COVID-19. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

The pandemic has brought an unprecedented level of hardship for residents in a county where the coronavirus hardly feels like an abstraction. The high infection rates can make it feel like nearly everyone knows or knows of somebody who has contracted COVID-19 or died from it.

As most of California begins a second shutdown over the pandemic, no place has been hit as hard as Imperial County.

In the last two weeks, the county has averaged 688.1 infections per 100,000 people, compared with Los Angeles Countys 400.3. Its mortality rate is the highest in the state, averaging 25.5 deaths per 100,000 people  four times greater than L.A. County's.

Imperial County was already at a disadvantage when the pandemic hit.

For years, the county led the state with the highest rates of diabetes, heart disease, asthma hospitalizations and obesity , high-risk factors that make people susceptible to catching COVID-19 and become severely ill or die.

Story continues

When you have a population with those preexisting conditions and you throw COVID-19 on top of it, you have a problem," said Thomas Henderson, executive director of the Imperial County Medical Society.

Health experts say other factors contributed to the spread of the disease. The county lacked contact tracers. COVID-19 stigma led some residents not to alert others of their infection. Gatherings were also problematic as were residents traveling to and from neighboring counties, including those in Arizona.

The countys two hospitals  El Centro Regional Medical Center and Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District  became so overwhelmed by the surge of cases that they were forced to move more than 500 patients to other California hospitals.

Two weeks ago, when El Centro Regional Medical Center ran out of ICU beds, Chief Executive Adolphe Edward said: "It's horrible. I feel helpless."

The pandemic also hit a region that was still struggling to recover from the last economic downturn . Even with a pandemic affecting many counties, its unemployment rate remains the highest in the state, according to the Employment Development Department.

Its no secret that prior to this pandemic the county was in dire need for resources. COVID-19 just came along to aggravate its situation.

Janette Angulo, director of the Imperial County Public Health Department

Manuel Espinoso, 65, waits for a job while sitting outside a doughnut shop on Pauline Avenue in Calexico. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Early in July, on a hot morning in Calexico, Manuel Espinoso, 65, waited for work near a doughnut shop. The irrigation installer, who lives in Mexicali, Mexico, had gone a week without work. Agricultural jobs were drying up in the area because of the pandemic, he said.

In a good week, he could earn about $300 to help take care of his family. But lately, he hasnt found any work, even as some job seekers in Mexico refuse to cross the border because they are afraid of becoming infected.

Espinoso has every reason to worry himself. In June, his 42-year-old daughter, the oldest of three, and her husband fell ill with COVID-19. She died.

"There wasn't much I could do," Espinoso said. "I worry more now about my other two daughters, and my wife. ... I don't want to infect her."

Even if he finds a much-needed job, he said the risks are high. Workers are often crammed together into vehicles as they go from one field to another. The situation isn't any better in Mexico, he said.

"There's a lot of infections over there," Espinoso said.

But he said he has no choice: He has to work.

"You got to work until you can't. You have to keep working," Espinoso said. "What can you do when you're doing it out of necessity?"

Nearby, Rudy Kim, 60, had just opened his discount store, Mi Manera.

He used a leaf blower to clean the sidewalk and turned on the radio to loudly play Spanish music for his mostly Latino clientele. A sign near the front read No Mask, No Service.

Kim said he has lost a lot of business because of the pandemic. With a new shutdown bearing down, he feared he might need to shut his store for good.

Its a ghost town, he said. Some days Im only open for four hours.

A street scene in Calexico. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Kim had to lay off about 12 employees. He lost about $5,000 in April when he couldnt open and sell Easter merchandise, which now sits in storage. But bad business or not, he still has to pay about $8,000 a month in rent.

Im very frustrated, he said. I cannot afford this anymore.

Amelia Gurrero stands in line for more than an hour to use a Bank of America ATM in Calexico. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Nearby, more than 100 people were standing in line, waiting to pull out money from the ATM because there were few banks around. Many had filed for unemployment and were withdrawing money for rent.

A block away at Selecto Services, a line formed for a host of services, including unemployment and tax preparation.

Fernando Fausto, 59, a Mexicali resident with a green card who worked in the U.S., said he was there to file for unemployment but needed to prove he had paid taxes.

He said the company he worked for shut down in March. The field worker had been unable to find work.

I need to pay bills and rent, he said.

Fernando Fausto, 59, a resident of Mexicali, waits at a private service agency to file for unemployment in Calexico. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Bordered by Arizona to the east, Riverside County to the north, San Diego to the west and Mexico to the south, Imperial County is besieged by agricultural burning, toxic dust from the Salton Sea and fumes from the dozens of factories operating in Mexico.

Theres also the pollution from thousands of cars and commercial trucks idling at the border.

Emmanuel Vazquez, right, makes sure everyone entering a private service agency in Calexico is wearing a mask and that their hands are sanitized. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

The Calexico West Port of Entry  one of two in the county  is the third-busiest land port in the state, processing about 20,000 northbound vehicles and 12,500 pedestrian crossings per day, according to the California Air Resources Board.

The region has high levels of air pollution that lead to or exacerbate respiratory conditions such as asthma, bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. All of those are risk factors for a disease that can leave people feeling like they're drowning in the worst cases.

We got people that are poor, unemployed, people who arent able to get fresh fruits and veggies, and so theyre eating a lot of stuff thats making them obese and diabetic, said Edward, the hospital executive. When you add all that together, the bodys ability to fight an infection decreases.

Addressing lawmakers during a hearing in June, Janette Angulo, director of the Imperial County Public Health Department, said that if there was a painful silver lining, it was that the pandemic was drawing attention to the regions problems.

Imperial County is a chronically disadvantaged, underserved and underfunded community, she said. Its no secret that prior to this pandemic, the county was in dire need for resources. COVID-19 just came along to aggravate its situation.

Two women wearing masks enter the United States from Mexicali at the border crossing in Calexico. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

That much was visible in May when COVID-19 cases began to climb. Health experts say social gatherings had led to a surge. Late that month, Mexicali hospitals began to turn COVID-19 patients away, forcing U.S. citizens and green card holders to cross the border into Imperial County.

The influx began to overwhelm hospitals, forcing them to stabilize and transport COVID-19 patients out of the region. More than 40 of them were sent to Paradise Valley Hospital in National City.

It used to be that your spouse went into the hospital and you could go visit. Now, all of that is gone.

Jennifer Saunders, director of emergency services at Paradise Valley Hospital

Tents have been erected at El Centro Regional Medical Center to serve coronavirus patients. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

In a span of three days in mid-May, the hospital received about 20 patients from Imperial County. Many of them were critically ill and would require up to two months of care.

It was like watching a storm coming in, said Patricia Dobbs, a charge nurse at Paradise Valley.

The floodgate had opened, added Jennifer Saunders, director of emergency services at the hospital. Everyone was very scared.

The hospital was so busy with patient transfers that at times one ambulance helicopter would be circling above, in a holding pattern, while another was dropping off a patient.

Every two hours, state officials were calling for transfers and making sure medical charts had been received. Even residents were calling, asking why there were so many helicopter landings.

An ambulance helicopter lands at El Centro Regional Medical Center to pick up a patient. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Saunders said because hospital visitations were not allowed, they used tablets to let families FaceTime each other.

Its heart-wrenching to know that a family member can go to the hospital and say goodbye to their family and not see them again for a month, she said.

On the Fourth of July, Saunders got another call for help from El Centro Regional Medical Center. The Imperial County hospital needed to transfer patients. That included a married couple  the Lueras.

Saunders had already seen COVID-19's ability to separate families; one man had family scattered in hospitals across California. Even hospital staff had been away from their own families.

It used to be that your spouse went into the hospital and you could go visit, she said. Now, all of that is gone.

If the hospital could keep the Lueras together, they would jump at the chance.

Nurse Kyah Paschall checks on coronavirus patient Patricia Luera, 64, who was connected to a ventilator at Paradise Valley Hospital in National City. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

On July 5, the Lueras arrived by helicopters. They were placed in the ICU, just a room apart from one another, sedated and hooked up to ventilators.

Pedro Jr. counted himself lucky. In early June, the 37-year-old restaurant owner in El Centro said he had been infected with COVID-19.

He quarantined himself in a guest room at home for almost a month. He also told his parents not to visit. He said he got tested six times until one showed he had the infectious disease.

His wife, Aracely, 37, got tested on June 22. It took about 16 days for her to get her results: positive. Their 8- and 7-year-old sons and 4-month-old daughter have not shown symptoms of being infected.

Pedro Jr. said he'd rather have his mother and father healthy and at home. But knowing that his parents were together at least brought some peace of mind.

On July 17, his mother was moved out of the ICU. His father remains on a ventilator.

It was a bittersweet moment for Pedro Jr. Although his mother was doing better, there were other health complications she now had to take care of. And his father was still sick.

Still, he said, he remained hopeful that they would both make a full recovery: "I'm praying for that."
Representative Image

Rakesh Neelakandan

The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that when nations are strong they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are often no longer strong: Sir Winston Churchill

The United States, Donald Trump notwithstanding, is still the pre-eminent power in the world order of things. It is still the worlds biggest economy, the oldest democratic country, both protected by the mightiest military to-date. However, its moral failings propelled by realpolitik cannot be overlooked.

The point in question is the significance and salience of the potent but yet-to-be-finalised Iran-China strategic partnership. A little bit of history can put things in context.

With the US administration exiting the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action)  popularly known as the Iran nuclear deal, which involved all the UN Security Council members plus Germany (P5+1) as well as Iran  and re-imposing a bevy of sanctions, on May 8, 2018; the Iranian economy was badly disrupted.

The COVID-19 pandemic added to the woes of Iran and obviously so. Thus, Iran, as a matter of necessity rather than choice, has more or less decided to embrace the dragon of the east, China. As per the Iran-China comprehensive cooperation document, two ancient Asian cultures...will consider one another strategic partners.

This means, China will invest $400 billion over the course of next 25 years in Iran in multiple sectors such as agriculture, energy, transportation and communication, defence and a host of other domains. Reports suggest that China will also be active in some strategic Iranian ports and will undertake railway development in areas from Pakistan to Lebanon. In return, China will receive discounted Iranian oil over the next many years.

Ironically, the most important aspect of the deal is that it has not been finalised. The deal has been negotiated primarily because Irans status as a pariah state was amicably and virtually altered upon its signing of nuclear deal with the P5+1 powers, and its subsequent compliance to exacting terms verified by several UN bodies. The then US President, Barack Obama, thus in a way, justified the Nobel Peace Prize he had received a priori.

Trump, however, in his typical fashion decried the deal, a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made, and relegated it to the recycle bin of history. Before that happened Chinese President Xi Jinping, on his visit to Iran in 2016, offered this deal to Iran. The Persian Gulf power, in a sense, did not warm up to this offer until the sanctions were re-imposed by the US withdrawing from the JCPOA.

Now it is contemplating a tango with the dragon. Only that the duo has not yet hit the dance floor. So, why this delay?

This partnership is going to act as a bargaining chip for Iran as it will, irrespective of the next occupant in the White House, provide Iran with some much-needed wiggle room and breathing space. If the US does not revive the JCPOA, Iran will finalise the deal with China in the terms as dictated by Beijing. If the US does restore the agreement to status-quo ante, no doubt, the strategic leverage of Iran will only increase and may get to bag a better deal from China, which would be finalised. Either way, Iran benefits but by different degrees. China too.

In the words of Bilgehan Alagoz, international relations lecturer at Marmara University, Istanbul, apart from being a projection of power by both potential partners, the agreement seeks to balance the other relations Iran have or may have in the future with Russia and the European Union.

As for China, this partnership, long been under discussion, is a part of its global strategy, and is aimed at securing its vital energy sources in the Persian Gulf. It is interesting to note that Chinas main rival, the US, is seeking to contain China on every possible front by utilising its leverage in the Persian Gulf. Invariably, the strategic partnership is a political hedge for China vis-a-vis the threat posed by the US.

To conclude, it is the moral failing on the part of the US and other members of the UN Security Council that has led to this unfavourable situation for the strategic designs of the supreme global power.
NORRISTOWN  A Cheltenham man was sent to jail on charges he retaliated against another man who testified against his son in a recent court case.

Augustus William Xibos, 39, of the 400 block of West Glenside Avenue, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 6 to 23 months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of retaliation against a witness in connection with an April 2019 incident that occurred just blocks from his home.

Judge Wendy G. Rothstein, who accepted a sentencing agreement reached between prosecutors and the defense, also ordered Xibos to complete two years probation following parole, meaning Xibos will be under court supervision for about four years. The judge said Xibos is eligible for the jails work release program.

The judge ordered Xibos to have no contact with the victim in the case.

Other charges of simple assault, intimidation of a witness and harassment were dismissed against Xibos.

The investigation began about 4 p.m. April 5, 2019, when Cheltenham police responded to a report of an alleged assault in the 1600 block of West Glenside Avenue. The victim told police he was walking to a nearby convenience store when Xibos stopped his vehicle, got out and yelled at the victim, forcefully grabbed his arm and tried to pull him toward the curb, according to the criminal complaint filed by Cheltenham Police Officer Kevin ODonnell.

The victim was able to free himself from Xibos grip however, Xibos lunged at the victim and punched him, striking the left side of his neck, ODonnell alleged in the arrest affidavit.

The victim continued to walk to try to get to a more public area and Xibos got back into his vehicle and drove past the victim again and allegedly shouted threats, according to the criminal complaint.

(The victim) feared those words were a threat against his life and is fearful of what actions might be taken against him by Xibos and possibly additional acquaintances of Xibos, ODonnell alleged in the arrest affidavit.

Xibos was taken into custody at his nearby residence a short time after the incident.

Court papers indicate the victim previously testified against Xibos son, Eric, in a court case in Philadelphia.

The victim believed Xibos actions are the direct result of him testifying against his son, ODonnell wrote in the arrest affidavit.

Xibos also pleaded guilty to a separate charge of driving under the influence of alcohol in connection with a Nov. 30, 2019, traffic stop in Horsham during which police alleged he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.159 percent, nearly two times the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Rothstein sentenced Xibos to an additional 30 days to 6 months in jail on the DUI charge and that sentence will run consecutively to the sentence he received for the retaliation incident. Xibos also must undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation, the judge said.
The MedShift team is made up of highly successful and innovative leadership, and I am very excited they are offering me the opportunity to be a true financial partner with the Executive team." -Patrick Adams, Vice President of Finance, MedShift

MedShift has appointed Patrick Adams as its new Vice President of Finance. Adams is the first to hold this new position at MedShift, previously it was handled by an outside firm, but as the company continues to expand, MedShift saw an opportunity to bring this position in-house, and Adams was an excellent choice. As the Vice President of Finance, Adams will be responsible for leading the MedShift financial team, as well as structuring new programs to further grow MedShifts innovative, international business model.

With over 12 years of professional accounting and financial experience, Adams honed his experience in corporate income tax and later made the change to finance operations to achieve his desire to work closely with business operations and finance advising.

We expect Patricks experience and leadership to lead the team to new growth, as well as aid in MedShifts continued year of growth, said Brian Phillips, MedShift CEO. Adams brings with him a plethora of experience. After exploring many venues during his career, he is excited about the new possibilities MedShift offers. Adams is excited for the partnership with this up-and-coming company, stating that, The MedShift team is made up of highly successful and innovative leadership, and I am very excited they are offering me the opportunity to be a true financial partner with the Executive team. I am also excited to be working with a company that straddles two of the fastest-growing industries, medical and technology, and assisting in its success.

Adams doubled majored at Elon, receiving his B.S. in Accounting and a second major in Economics. He began his professional career with Cherry Bekaert LLP, as a Tax Associate. He has spent the last four years as a corporate controller overseeing all finance functions, as well as HR, focusing on industrial supplies and automotive industries within the retail/wholesale sector. Adams and his wife reside in Indian Land, South Carolina and have recently welcomed their first son into the world.

About MedShift

MedShift, founded in 2015 in Charlotte, NC delivers a platform as a service to both medical device manufacturers as well as individual medical practices. Foundationally MedShift enables access to the latest devices and technology to remain competitive and attract new business. MedShift has partnered with over 250 providers in North America, Australia, and New Zealand to give practices the latest in cutting-edge treatment modalities, services, and systems.

MedShift is disrupting the traditional aesthetic device market by offering permanent placement, holistic subscription services for surgeons, physicians and their business. MedShifts broad portfolio of services for practices includes a portfolio of 24 leading aesthetic medical devices from nine manufacturers, an aesthetic eCommerce and subscription platform, in-house communications and marketing services, and inbound lead generation. For manufacturers Medshift delivers a highly secure IoT platform consisting of both hardware and software assets allowing for real time visibility, remote management, and big data modeling of entire medical device lineups. MedShift adds value across the manufacturer and provider spectrum and continues to empower robust integration with the leading brands and doctors in the industry.
Series of wreath laying ceremonies were held in Accra yesterday to mark this years Emancipation Day aimed at rekindling unity among people of black descent across the globe.



This years commemoration on the theme: Our heritage, our strength; Leveraging our resilience, Black Lives Matters seeks to rally Africans to speak against injustices and marshal efforts at eliminating all forms of cruelty meted against the black race.



Led by the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mrs Barbara Oteng Gyasi, a delegation comprising government officials, traditional rulers and members from the Diaspora laid wreaths at the grave site of Pan-Africanists; W.E Dubois, George Padmore and Dr Kwame Nkrumah.



The heroes were eulogised for championing the African cause and promoting an agenda to ensure that the rights and dignity of Africans were respected.



Mrs Oteng-Gyasi, in her brief remark, deplored issues of division that often cropped up amongst Africans, urging that such energies are re-directed to promoting a united continent.



Our forebears championed the common good of all Africans instead of petty fights that further divide us, and we must use this day to reflect on their works and strive to honour their memory.



Making specific reference to Ghana, the Minister urged that citizens do all within their power to guard the peace and stability currently being enjoyed in the country before and after the December 7 elections.



We must make sure we bequeath a peaceful nation to the younger generation, so that they can be able to realise their full potentials to the benefit and development of the country, she advised.



Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Mr Akwasi Agyeman was confident Ghana will not give up remembering the struggle of our ancestors who stood for us having been the first country on the African continent to mark the day.



He urged Africans to embrace their culture and heritage, highlighting the inter-connectedness of the African struggle on the continent, Europe and the Americas.



Recounting the recent killing of George Floyd, an African American in the United States, Mr Agyeman urged that we remain resilient in keeping up the struggle against crime, injustice, economic underperformance and all forms of social vices.



Acting Director of the W.E.B Dubois Memorial Centre, Reverend Reuben Kwasi Kwadzofio, speaking on behalf of his colleagues pointed out that the emancipation project is not over until black lives and dignity are respected and considered as sacrosanct by all races of the world.



He urged that Africans take inspiration from the pool of African history to drive the present life, noting that Emancipation Day has not only become an institution in Africa but a very useful tool for the mobilisation of African people to bring finality to the African struggle.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-28 17:29:21|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday launched a large-scale military exercise in southern Iran, Tasnim news agency reported.

The war game, codenamed Payambar-e Azam 14 (The Great Prophet 14), was conducted in the southern province of Hormozgan, western parts of the Strait of Hormuz, and the Gulf, the IRGC statement was cited as reading.

In the drills, the IRGC's Navy and Aerospace Forces carry out joint operations in which vessels, drones, missile and radar units are involved.

The servicemen attending the war game exercise offensive mine-laying operations and tactics to cut off naval connections of the hypothetical enemy. They also practice missile combat operations using helicopters, and launch of coast-to-sea missiles.

According to the report, images from Iran's Noor (light) satellite are used to evaluate the situation in the war game zone. Enditem
Chinas latest move to build a four-nation coalition with Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan has set the alarm bells ringing in India.

The move to build the coalition was initiated when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a video conference with his counterparts in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal on Monday. Though the video conference was held to discuss cooperation among the four countries to deal with the Covid-19 crisis, New Delhi anticipates that Beijing might try to turn it into a loose coalition of the four nations and use it beyond its professed objective of responding to the pandemic  in order to spread its tentacles in the northern and western neighbourhood of India.

Chinas latest move came amid aggressive expansionist moves by its Peoples Liberation Army along its disputed boundary with India.

Wang and his counterparts  Shah Mahmood Qureshi of Pakistan, Haneef Atmar of Afghanistan and Pradeep Gyawali of Nepal  agreed to work together to fight the Covid-19 and resume economy, according to a report by the state-owned Xinhua News Agency of China. The Chinese Foreign Minister proposed that the four countries should consolidate consensus of solidarity against the pandemic as well as step up cooperation to speed up economic recovery and development in the post-Covid-19 era.

The foreign ministers of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal expressed willingness to deepen cooperation with China to fight Covid-19, ensure the flow of trade and transport corridors, facilitate people-to-people and trade connection, build a silk road of health and community of a shared future for humanity, reported Xinhua.

The video conference came amid a renewed attempt by China to expand its geo-strategic influence in the neighbourhood of India  be it in Sri Lanka and Maldives in south, Bangladesh and Myanmar in east and Nepal in north.

Beijing already nudged Prime Minister K P Sharma Olis Government in Kathmandu to sour its relations with New Delhi by ratcheting up Nepal-India boundary dispute. Even as its PLA is engaged in a military stand-off with the Indian Army in eastern Ladakh, Chinas iron brother Pakistans border guards have been flouting ceasefires along its Line of Control with India in Jammu and Kashmir.

Islamabad also sought to block New Delhis bid to breathe fresh life into the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and mobilize a regional response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Beijing has of late stepped up its outreach to yet another friendly neighbour of India  Afghanistan, where it is keen to take advantage of the imminent exit of the United States. It wants to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)  a flagship project of Chinese President Xi Jinpings controversial cross-continental Belt and Road Initiative  to Afghanistan and Iran.

New Delhi has been opposing Chinas BRI, primarily because the CPEC runs through the Jammu and Kashmir areas India accuses Pakistan of illegally occupying.

India is also cautious about Chinas proposed deal with Iran for a whopping $400 billion investment in the Islamic republic in West Asia over the next 25 years.
Samsung is gearing up to unveil its latest flagship devices on August 5 at the Galaxy Unpacked event. The South Korean tech giant is revealing several products during the event, although the star of the show will undoubtedly be the Galaxy Note 20 series.

In a recent teaser video, Samsung has confirmed all the five devices launching at the Galaxy Unpacked event. Apart from the Galaxy Note 20 series, the video suggests that we will also Galaxy Z Fold 2 (Successor to the Galaxy Fold), Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Tab S7 series, and the Galaxy Watch 3.

Samsungs latest video starts by showing off with the new Mystic Bronze colour for the Galaxy Note 20 series. The video then showcases what appears to be a disassembled Galaxy Z Fold 2 and then transitions to a test of the S Pen stylus for the Note 20. You also see a fast-paced shot of various design sketches, parts, and the retail box for the Note 20. The video ends with the silhouettes of all five products.

The first virtual-only Galaxy Unpacked event will be held at Samsungs Digital City campus located in Suwon, South Korea. Samsung is also bringing Exclusive Access to Untold Stories from its developers, designers, and innovators, which are likely to be related to the latest hardware.

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra entire camera specs leaked ahead of launch

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 leaked display specs reveal 6.2" cover screen, 120Hz foldable display
TEWKSBURY, Mass., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- New trends in the manufacture and distribution of illicit narcotics to include low, distributed concentrations to offset high chemical potency has created challenges in substance identification for customs, border protection, law enforcement, public safety officials and military personnel. The Thermo Scientific Gemini Analyzer, now with LowDoseID, specifically addresses the rising trend of low concentration amounts of illicit substances.

The analyzer combines Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) into one device to facilitate comprehensive and confirmatory chemical identification for substances with a concentration between one and 10 percent. The ability to detect small amounts of substances significantly enhances accuracy and efficiency for first responders, particularly when identifying the presence of Fentanyl, heroin and cocaine.

"There is more pressure for law enforcement and military personnel to stay ahead of trends in illegal drug manufacturing and smuggling, and that includes the changing concentration of substances," said Erica Hirsch, vice president and general manager of Thermo Fisher Scientific's field and safety instruments business. "The Gemini Analyzer with LowDoseID meets an immediate need by increasing the accuracy of drug identification in low dose situations while keeping safety, reliability and ease of use top of mind."

In addition to new functionality through the introduction of LowDoseID, the Thermo Scientific Gemini Analyzer has also undergone a software update. The version 1.8 software enhances ease of use with on-screen color-coded alerts based on analysis results and an expanded factory chemical library, which allows for increased identification capacity relative to prior software versions, as well as smoother operation. The Gemini Analyzer was originally created for military and hazmat situations where ruggedization is a priority, which means Gemini instruments are designed to work reliably even in the harshest environments.

For more information on the Thermo Fisher Gemini Analyzer with LowDoseID, please visit thermofisher.com/gemini.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue exceeding $25 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving patient diagnostics and therapies or increasing productivity in their laboratories, we are here to support them. Our global team of more than 75,000 colleagues delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services and Patheon. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com.

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Press Release

July 28, 2020 Gatchalian on the penultimate SONA of President Rodrigo Duterte Senator Win Gatchalian welcomes President Rodrigo Duterte's directives on various measures to push forward the economic recovery cited on Monday's State of the Nation Address (SONA), amid the country's battle against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). For Gatchalian, the economic agenda set by the President is quite comprehensive. It is embodied in the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2) which is supported and certified as urgent by the President. The Bayanihan 2 will supplement funds for recovery and response against the impact of the CoViD-19 pandemic. This includes emergency subsidy to workers, cash-for-work programs, prevention and control of other diseases, and support programs for impacted sectors. It will also give the President the mandate to realign funds within the General Appropriations Act so that he can immediately respond to the changing social landscape brought about by the pandemic. The vice-chairman of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs accedes to the President's key economic legislative measures: one is the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises or CREATE Act, which cuts the corporate income tax to 25 percent from the current 30 percent; and two, the Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer or FIST Act that will assist banks and other financial institutions in managing their non-performing assets (NPAs). Gatchalian also commends the President's support for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) by providing capitalization for their business operations, and for providing loans and assisting displaced Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in entrepreneurship projects. The President laid out a series of policy support for MSMEs such as reprieve from rent and regulatory relief from banks and other financial institutions through the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). "The real challenge, however, is operationalizing these plans. Putting all of these into action at the least possible time is the most essential objective that we need to accomplish now. The people need to see these implemented as fast as the government can," said Gatchalian. Given a growing digital market as the country adapts to the new normal, Gatchalian asks the Duterte government to make true on its promise to lead the way in the country's transition to online systems; all government agencies should make all possible services available online, adopt a paper-less type business, and finally get rid of long queues in government offices. The President has also outlined in detail his administration's policy for online consumer protection and the government's own transition to full digitalization. Gatchalian said these are critical components for our country to undertake to move to a digitalized new normal world. "The pandemic has opened the doors for both businesses and the government to utilize technology as the new way of transacting and communicating with their respective stakeholders. This utilization of technology can eventually lead to a much-desired efficiency and will eliminate corruption," Gatchalian said. With COVID-19 infecting more than 80,000 Filipinos now, Gatchalian emphasizes that this is the best opportune time for everyone to set aside political differences and work towards a common goal which is beneficial to all Filipinos.
The Commander of Operation Safe Haven, Chukwuemeka Okonkwo, has described the killings in Southern Kaduna as the activities of criminal elements on both sides and not ethnic cleansing as it is being claimed.

Mr Okonkwo, an army major-general, who briefed journalists after the high level security meeting which held at the council chambers of Government House Kaduna on Tuesday, said what we have were attacks on some communities and reprisal attacks.

According to him, both sides of the conflict have been attacking each other but the reports are not balanced. Perhaps, most of the media houses dont know, both sides are actually involved.

You have Kataf youths, Fulani militias and the criminal elements of both sides. Some people are also leveraging on the security situation to perpetuate their criminal activities, aside communities involved in the crisis, Mr Okonkwo added.

The commander said that any incident is enough to spark off crisis in that area, there have been lingering disputes and animosities, banditry and cattle rustling there.

The commander promised that the military and other security agents will re-strategise and we will deploy as much as possible to shorten our response time.

Mr Okonkwo assured that there is going to be improvement because we have reviewed our operations. We are going to close ranks. We are going to be more robust in the days to come.

Contrary to the allegations that the military and other security agents were not doing enough to contain the attacks, he said if one or two attacks took place, three were prevented.

The commander said that although there have been some gaps in their operations, he listed the difficulty of the terrain and limited manpower as constraints, adding that in spite of those challenges, they are committed to bringing peace to the area.

If you know the area very well, the communities are far and dispersed, they are several kilometres apart from each other. The terrain is difficult to access with vehicles. And we have limitations of manpower but of course you know that we are committed.

But be that as it may, we are going to get more troops. We are strategising, we will deploy as much as possible to shorten our response time. Perhaps, we used to respond a bit late but if we had not responded, we could have had more casualties, he explained.

Mr Okonkwo said that there is need for the communities to embrace peace, adding that we will create the conducive environment for them to meet, dialogue and resolve issues so that they can continue to live together as they have been living together.

The commander promised that community leaders and other stakeholders will be carried along in the search for lasting peace because it is not entirely a military issue.

The leaders have to embrace peace and we will give them the conducive environment to have peace parleys, meetings and mediations, to bring the crisis to an end, he added.

The general said that the military and all the security forces were working closely with the state government, adding that Governor Nasir El Rufai has pledged to support us.

We re committed to peace in southern KadunaEl Rufai

Governor El Rufai said that his administration has done everything within its constitutional powers to bring peace in Southern Kaduna and all parts of the state for over five years.

In a welcome address to the high-level security meeting, the governor was specific to the peace-building efforts in Southern Kaduna.

We answered the decades old demand for a permanent military base by working with the Federal Government to deploy a forward operating base of the Nigerian Army in Kafanchan.

Our government purchased an estate to provide accommodation for a permanent mobile police squadron in the area. Also, deployed in the area are troops from Operation Safe Haven and Nigerian Army Special Forces, complemented by two mobile police squadrons, he added.

The governor however said that in spite of these measures, the best guarantee of peace is the willingness of communities to live in peace and harmony, and a resolve to settle differences through exclusively lawful means.

Mr El Rufai recalled that his government established the Kaduna State Peace Commission to engage communities and nudge them towards accord and conciliation as a better alternative to the breaking of bones and the shattering of lives.

According to him, the current crisis is as a result of the tragic aftermath of events of June 5 when youths from two communities clashed over farmlands in Zangon-Kataf and the upsurge of violence in the same area that started on June 11.

Like an unwanted virus, the violence has spread to and has necessitated extraordinary measures in four local government areas in southern Kaduna, he added.

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The governor said he called the security meeting  to hear from you the leaders of the security agencies deployed in the area what further measures can be taken to end the agony.

On our part, we continue to support the efforts of the security agencies as best as we can, he added.

Mr El Rufai promised that his government will also continue to invest effort in the urgent necessity to create and sustain a constituency for peace by persuading elected officials, traditional rulers and community leaders in the affected areas to live up to their responsibilities, respect diversity and the rule of law.

We have nudged stakeholders in Kauru and Zangon-Kataf LGAs on this path and will continue to do so. We have also resolved to address lingering issues from the 1992 crisis in Zangon-Kataf by producing a White Paper on the recommendations made by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry and the Reconciliation Committee, he added.

The governor lamented that so much unhelpful narrative is being spun, but the priority is to stop the bleeding and encourage communities to live in peace.

The governor warned that no one should be allowed to get away with crime just because they can hide it under an ethno-religious veneer.Respect for the rule of law compels us to prosecute anyone indicted for involvement in the wanton violence.
Rafale to S-400 air defence systems all set to add more firepower to Indian Air Force

IAF Chief Bhadauria to receive 5 Rafale jets today; Section 144 imposed around Ambala airbase

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, July 28: Security has been tightened around the Ambala Air Force Station, Haryana a day ahead of the much-anticipated arrival of the first batch of five Rafale jets, banning shooting of videos and photography.

Rafale jets delivered to India| 5 facts about the Rafale jets | Oneindia News

The Ambala district administration also prohibited people from flying private drones within the three-km radius of the air base, an official said.

Specifications and performance data of Rafale fighter jets

Deputy Commissioner Ashok Sharma said in an order that Section 144, which prohibits assembly of four or more people, has been imposed in the villages adjoining the air base, including Dhulkot, Baldev Nagar, Garnala and Panjkhora.

The jets took off from France on Monday and will arrive at the Air Force station on Wednesday, after covering a distance of 7,000 km with air-to-air refuelling and a single stop in the United Arab Emirates. The fleet comprises three single-seater and two twin-seater aircraft, according to an IAF official.

The Ambala deputy commissioner said shooting of videos or taking photographs of the boundary wall of the air base and its adjoining areas will remain strictly prohibited during the imposition of the prohibitory orders.

Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij said Ambala police have taken the necessary measures. The BJP leader and six-term MLA from Ambala Cantt said the people of Ambala are very enthusiastic and thousands would have come out on the streets to welcome the fighter jets before the touch down had there not been a pandemic.

BJP's Ambala City MLA Aseem Goyal urged to people to light candles in their homes between 7-7:30 pm on Wednesday to welcome the Rafale jets.

Nearly four years ago, India signed an inter-governmental agreement with France for 36 Rafale jets under a Rs 59,000-crore deal to boost the IAF's combat capabilities.

The first squadron of the Rafale jets will be stationed at the Ambala air base. The five Rafales are scheduled to be inducted into the IAF on Wednesday, though a formal induction ceremony would be held later.

No 17 Squadron, the "Golden Arrows", has been resurrected at the Ambala base to operate the Rafale aircraft. The resurrection ceremony in September 2019 was presided over by then Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa, who had commanded the 17 Squadron during the Kargil conflict in 1999.

The IAF has undertaken major infrastructure upgrades at the Ambala base for the deployment of the first Rafale squadron. Built in 1948, the air base is located on the east side of Ambala in Haryana and is used for military and government flights.

The air base has two squadrons of the Jaguar combat aircraft and one squadron of the MIG-21 Bison. Air Force Marshal Arjan Singh was the first commander of the base.

The Mirage fighters that were used for the air strike in Balakot in Pakistan in February 2019 after the Pulwama terror attack had taken off from here.